mid night thought

some thing which is "under-construction" cannot be said to be broken any time. life and dreams are always "under-construction". just get the art of moulding it the right way round.

rainbow before rain

saw a rainbow even before it rained.. no i am not talking about the one u thinking of.. it was not in the sky.. its not a happy ending and a obstruction diverted.. its the different colours of a person in the shortest period of time ever.. do not wish to see any thing more.. want to keep colours at their brightest in my eyes .. before I go colour blind .... again.

randomness

Last night remembered a random incident.. I was in middle of writting up my assignments.. dealing with RNA DNA.. a tonne load of molecualr techniques.. and then I recalled walking under the river thames.. being at the royal observatory .. all at Greenwich.. nearly two years ago that too in month of december.. had an urge to thank the person who accompanied me there.. i wonder what triggered it in my mind.. such a randomness.. i surprise myself.

i wonder..

just got down the bus. the day was unusual.. its was dusshera, it was the day i was moving into my hostel, but still felt something different that day. as an when i was on the streets of the city center.. was admist the busyness of the world around.. i had loads of time in my hand before i needed to make my move towards the university from there. saw old couple rushing across the street, many getting into shops for their quick early morning shopping and then i saw this pair of boys who just ran across the road in rush to catch their connecting bus .. one of them fat,  the other one slim.. a pair which can get any ones attention and followed up a thought in my mind - this busyness gonna come to hault very soon... with out thinking much, i went ahead with my plan..


went to a supermarket, did my mini shopping of the daily essentials as i was starting my stay in hostel.. so thinking what all i would need the very first instance.. took my own time in the busy world around. came back to the street to catch the bus.. not to my surprise, whole of the area had come to an hault.. area surrounded by multiple police cars, as well a ambulance leaving the scene... i wonder what had happened and i even further wonder.. how and why did i had that kind of thought before going for shopping.. pondering over it for quite a while but no clue till now


have u faced any similar situations.. do share it below..

Flight

Flight
Originally uploaded by mihirmumbai

Freedom to fly.. destination undecided, but confident that the flight would be taking to the better place. what ever the world may say.. self confidence persistent.. unshaken.. standing strong.. flying high.. mid air.. may be against the wind.. but who can see the wind.. just can be felt.. just fly the way dreamt of...in hope of .. more colours next time...

Brighter side of darkness

Brighter side of darkness
Originally uploaded by mihirmumbai

heard that every cloud has a silver lining... may not be always silver but now can see the brighter side admist the darkness...

de-coding

in search of my identity with the code contained within me

the brighter side

the brighter side
Originally uploaded by mihirmumbai

there is a "dark" side and a "brighter" side. ever wondered that we can see only half of the brighter side!

my Brighter sparks for today -

• Elected as representative for the course in the student teacher committee. 
• Got to taste new flavour in juice -Pineapple and coconut. Have you heard it any time.. if not then here u hearing it.. give it a try
• Got one of my fav fruit juice - Lychee
• Moroccan style houmous - got it for a trial and it passed out with a big YES. just climed up my fav list in the first bite. 
• Experiments went really well. m glad with today!  

Still Remembered?

Still Remembered?
Originally uploaded by mihirmumbai

though alive .. why feels like being dead? only thing i can think of.. being alive for new friends when was not able to manage the old ones.. raises eyebrows.. is it worth living? just because old friends kind of consider you are dead and a question lingers upon this mind .. m i still remembered?? dunno.

the whisper

world is full of weired and wonderful people. retail world can provides a deeper insight ..  mainly the weired side.. wonderful ones are rarely to be seen. last weekend one of my colleagues sister was finishing her shift in one of the supermarkets locally, all she wanted was a bag of tea before she was back home. while waiting for to pay for  tea bags ,  she heard

"oh look, theres one shopping!"

 he had bent down to whsiper it to his 8 year old son and pointing towards her.

What you love?

Some times one failes to see what costs others might be incurring. We were having a general chat and one of the friend pulled up a big form crying over it that its big. Instantly I pulled up mine , a VISA application form total of 55 pages.. whoop! silence prevails for a min or two.

Discussion moves on towards cost incurred as a international student in UK - £12,000 pounds for fees, £400 for VISA application or £600 for VISA application in person, £1200 as maintenance funds in UK bank account.. and i was not done yet listing the expenses and my British colleague goes - What you love - Food or Weather? (even she knows both are pathetic; but she has to live in UK and i had choosen to live UK- for education)

changing times blues.

"See ya guys" he declared jumping off his seat ...
He walked out of his office by 3.30pm.  Quite early for him to say that when he had just arrived at work at 10am. He choose to take bus instead of his normal walk to the city center. Many million thoughts going through his tired brain. It was not work, nor studies nor family his concerns. Walked out of the bus only to find a heavy rain spread throughout the city center. 

He loved rain, strong, poweful , windy and drenching every one, only when he was in India. Since the day he landed in the wet country of UK, it was not his taste. For some weired reason, today was not the case, he just admired the rain. Had a umbrella at his disposal. He was tempted to not to use it, but something in him stopped him from do so and he opened his umbrella. May be just because it was helping him not to be seen by the people around and he could make his way in his own way. Admist rain, he walked at his own pace and made his way to the local gorcery shop to get some food. He had been surviving on 2 bananas since morning, but nothing was tempting to his eyes or tounge. With a small bag of crisp he was back in rain and made his way towards the bus stop. Sat quitely throughout the journey , avoiding direct eye contact with fellow passangers.

Even before 4.30pm he was back home and the rain had stopped completely. Creeped into his room avoiding being noticed by other house occupants. A bit unusual, but he wanted to sleep. Even with sunny weather outside , it was not tempting enough today to get his camera out and get clicking. He had clocked up more than 5500 pics on his new camera since he bought it last year, but today was not the day for him. He had not switched on his laptop and instead switched off his mobile.His mind trying to detach from whole of the world around and take him to unnamed destination. He was not sure why he wanted to do that, he just wanted to detach and resorted doing so. Cozying up in his bed he was deep asleep within minutes. No one dared to wake him up any time and today was no different situation.

Being a nature lover, he loved nights brightened up by moon lights. It was even more exciting for him when the moonlight enters his room through the windows with no curtains on them. Usually he would take out his camera and capture his precious moment. Today the lunar light irritated him. He went upto window and stared at the moon, as if moon would go away by his staring. Irritated by his failed attempt he logged onto his computer without bothering to swtich on the lights of his room. He probably would have thought of watching a movie or something in lines of comedy which would have helped him in relax. Instead he just left the laptop on and bounced back on his bed. There was something in him which he wanted to set it free and be expressed but at the same time he wanted to be aloof, away and detached from whole world around him. He was not sure what exactly it was and it was creeping all over him. Wanted to scream, jump, run all at the same time without world around him noticing him. He could hear giggles and laughters from the room next door, but wanted himself to be un-noticed. As if he was not there or rather never existed.

In an attempt to exhibit his power and force, he tried to deleted the sent and received messages on his mobile, proved to be a futile attempt. did not help him. though not sleepy any more, sleep was the only option he could think before turning complete lunatic.

I think this is his way of learning to adopt for the change he is going to face in few weeks time. I know his pulse and have been with him for over a decade. Ticking my way and guiding him through changing times. I am proud to be his wrist watch and just wish he wakes up to see tomorrow.

Welwyn Garden City '08

Welwyn Garden City '08
Originally uploaded by mihirmumbai

Was a bank holiday weekend , a loong weekend to enjoy , relish and relax. What i missed this bank holiday weekend is the bbq party! Recalling memoreis of the earlier bbq parties, i stumbled upon the pics i took last year when had been to my supervisors place for a bbq. My being a vegeterian tounge, he took utmost care to include enough vegeterian dishes specially for me. A full fun filled day and many great pics.. one of them is attached here.

only if i had, but not today.

With summer time going on and summer vacations on the roll, its time to enjoy and have fun. Though with British weather, Sun is the only thing not guaranteed in Summer here. Eight of us, fresh graduates choose to be selected for the summer job, amending the course material for a degree of iScience.

One of the female working with us had a really good at quite a few things. Good organisational skills, good by nature and even good etiquette's. One such etiquette is when ever she leaves in middle of day to either get a lunch or snack, she would ask out loud to every one if they wanted anything.
To day was no different occasion. Today she got up and said " I am going to get some money out and some food from student union shop, Can i get you something?"

Without missing out on opportunity, I had to reply "How much money you getting me ??"

She just wizzed out of the room, still with a smile and saying "only if i had , but not today"

Quater Life Crisis

Quarter Life Crisis. You want to do something in life. you try doing something. you earn money. you do something. you want to do something more, you want more money. to want more money. you want more money and cannot wait. easy solution - apply for loan. you spending BIG money to get loan sorted. just because you want to do something so critically. think over every stage carefully. plan to fit the right pieces at right place and in right time. end up running behind time. time ticks, you want to run ahead of it. sometimes you cannot run any faster. you need to stop , and look at time just running by...

DAY 1
15:25
East Midlands - UK
Shipment picked up

21:11
Arrived at Sort Facility East Midlands - UK

21:54
Processed at East Midlands - UK

22:30
Departed Facility in East Midlands – UK

DAY 2
05:27
Arrived at Sort Facility London-Heathrow – UK

08:57
Processed at London-Heathrow – UK

09:35
Departed Facility in London-Heathrow - UK

DAY 3
03:35
Arrived at Sort Facility Mumbai (Bombay) – India

05:27
Processed at Mumbai (Bombay) - India

06:55
Departed Facility in Mumbai (Bombay) - India

13:24
Arrived at Delivery Facility in Ahmedabad - India

14:38
With delivery courier


Watching time running by and waiting for the courier to reach. nothing that i can do. just conserving energy for the run after courier arrives. huffffffff

One Liner (again)

life is prohibitively expensive. no way out. need to live way it is

one liner

some say looks can be deceptive, i reiterate - looks are for deception.

somethings are forever

shared all the gifts with her. had to play "ghar-ghar" with her, even when she never played "car-car" with me. Though being allotted individual beds and study tables, we managed to find some or the other reason and argue over it. as she was elder to me, had to use her text books throughout my school life. When parents were out of station, i was being pushed out atleast once to go to market and get her a Rs 5-10 dairy milk. Though I learned cycling first, i got bicycle only when she did not need it. She went on her scooty since 11th standard, while I was still on bicycle post 12th standard and hardly got an permanent upgrade to scooty. but when scooty goes faulty , i was the one who needs to go and get it fixed and even get her home all the way from c.g.road on my cycle (doubles) . shared the room with her ,untill i moved out for further studies. Now even when she is married, she got to live more years in the house with parents then I do. She get to visit parents more often then I do. when ever any relatives takes our name, her name comes first, and some even do not know that I do exist. and the list goes on....




most of the things have changed now and many even do not exist. one thing that has been constant throughout is - i get to flaunt my "rakhee" every year and convey the world that how proud i am being a brother and of course my sister is proud of me.

door to heaven

she looked the most beautiful female on board. the only seat empty was next to her. black leggings failing to stop the glow of skin underneath. plunging neckline made her looks irresistible to all members of male community. modest make up and music overflowing through her iPod gave additional reasons to occupy the last seat; may be the door to heaven.

he lured the beauty throughout the journey. near to the destination , she pulled out a box of off her coat pocket. his imagination plunged into instant death and sight of cigarette killed him.

to hell wrapped in door of heaven apparently

red rain

he walked along the daily route through market , drenched in rain and no umbrella to help.

typical tapping of high heel ladies shoes was quite loud today. it seemed to increase with every step of his and very back of him

he stopped and turned back.

market witnessed red rain followed by long silence. high heels had made its way out breaking the silence

one liner

"priority - challenge - demise" life cycle of Needs

journey continues...

took a deep breath. dreams had stopped coming to him. he knew soon he had to get off . bus stopped and he managed to pull himself out on a derserted street with no address known to him. all he knew , it was the last stop before the bus is out of service for the .

all he needs to do now is wander around on feet under the twinkling stars and moon light. walking was the only transport when every one sleeps the night. off to the destination ; which even he has not thought of. may be some village or city tomorrow or colud be completely different continent. journey continues...

Lost!

they are lost
in what world calls
change with time

the eyes the ears
the mouth and hands

souls called friends!

HABITS DO NOT CHANGE EASILY...(2)

New day ! new adventure ! new experience! Recently i have been into very different and changing environment. I am not talking about global warming and ice melting and blah blah. This change in evnironment is the change in circumstances. With lectures and exams finished few weeks ago I had been clinging to my computing habits. With plethora of computing habits, many a times one does not realise what habit they possess untill there is a change in it. One such computing habit was exposed to my concious mind was "reviewing of chat log"

In bigger picture, with advent of electricity, computer, internet and google chat (not to forget google "save chat" log facility), communications between family and friends has been to a completely different level. A great extent of communication is chat (text) based, hence providing a kind of written record. In times when i am not chatting , but thinking about the conversation had over the chat, chat log tends to be a very usefull in recalling the moment on chat and re-living the moments.

Last weekend been to a friends birthday party, had fun, clicked photos and enjoyed a lot. Photos were uploaded on Facebook today. Picture speaks a 1000 words, re-lived many of the moments, but abruptly remembered a conversation i was having during the party. Not very clearly embedded into my mind. Made a futile effort to go back in time and remember the conversation! For a split second had a thought to go back and read the chat, but only to realise, its not the chat world i was thinking of, it was a real world (without option of saved chat log or reversal of time).

Wish there was a something similar to chat log in real world for every moments we live.

"donot make ne international calls to me plzz" she pleaded
He had no sense of whats going on. Rather he should be happy that his one of the monthly expense which he has been incuring for past couple of months was to end. He can save that money towards his other daily expenses. It was second day he was spending without having lunch, he could have got himself a treat for the amount he used to spend. None of the thoughts took birth in his mind. Instead it went blank, not because she was leaving him, she was there only and was going to stay there. Things were going to remain the same , rather she offered up to make international call which would have been more costly.

The logic did not fit his mind and became a black hole. She kept on messaging him for next hour or so, but not a single reply from him. He was staring at the screen, reading every word she was typing, but just could not speak anything. She made her last requests to hear something and just feared if he has just gone away.

It was this fear of loosing each other empowering them every time they met online. Its the geographical distance between them which was the biggest barrier and also the reason for them to meet. Though distance was a trouble and had hardly met. Mostly met online , but both of them tried to understand each other and express themselves in best possible manner and they thought they did their best.

Before you conclude that they were in relationship, it was not the case. They were just best friends. Its the logic they understand and act upon. They argued, clarified on chats and made long international calls just to clarify again that they did not like each other.

Bird Watching

Summers out there, so bird watching climbs the priority list. Here is a glimpse of it which i enjoyed from my room today afternoon.

Welcome to the World of YouTube

Caught by this advert. Seen many advert on youtube, but never had seen a "YouTube" advert any time. As of now , it has been watched only 9,821 times. I doubt if you have seen it. Have a 'dekho'

Sunday Song - Gori Teri Ankhen kahe

Been a busy day , so sitting by my window this evening to rewind and rejuvenate for the the week to come. Had a drizzle outside, but sun is out again.

Suddenly there has been a rising feel as if its going to be end of an era and new life awaits and so the new era with couple of weeks to go. It has been a critical year and the week coming by is the most critical out of all. Its show time and the show must go on.

With a plethora of thoughts flowing through this mind, this soothing song some how fits bill. Cherish the moment.

If it walks like duck and Quacks like a duck, it is a Duck

Story Coming Soon...Watch this Space

Web Clipping

Image from Times of India providing a interesting co-incidental picture of current world concerns.

Question Time

Question : When do you know that you are addicted to watch songs on youtube to satisfy your musical needs??


Answer :
When u sit in front of television and

1. You feel too far away from screen
2. You lack the control on which song comes next in play list
3. You gaze at bottom of the screen to determine how much time left for the song to end and if its streaming well.

Habits do not change easily...

Habits may not prevail since birth, but once cultivated, they tend to stick to ones character and hard to get rid of them. In other words, the things have changed and the mind is still living in past. A simple incident so happened that while studying I tend to listen to songs, and as most of the studies are on computer these days, online radio or song collections on the laptop are the handy resource. Tucking away headphones into ears, the glory hours go by and never realised how addicted to that I was. I have a peculiar habit of listening to different songs at different volume intensities, driving my hand towards the left hand corner of the key board to regulate volume with each change of the song. Today it so happened that I was sitting in library to study and had forgot to get my headphones. No worries, I have a plan B, play music on mobile ( technology moves on) and had got mobile head phones. YaY.


Completely unaware that the things going to change now. With every change of song , my hand still drives towards the left hand corner of key board, just to realise the volume is no longer controlled in the same manner it used to ..

Raty incident

It so happened that during of summer 1999, we had just moved to the city of Ahmedabad. So in a very obvious assumption, that we were new to all the people in neighbourhood. Though we looked a bit alien in eyes of neighbours, we were well versed with the area. The only reason it point downs to is my mothers eldest sister had been living in that locality for more than 30 years and it was one of the vacation destination before we moved to the city.
The house we moved in was our own house. Till that date we had just lived in company bungalows, which were big and great and with gardens, but own house feeling is way above all. Moving in from a big bungalow to a flat which had just one small bed room, one drawing room and a kitchen and no garden in near vicinity. It had obvious logistic problems - Furniture. We had massive furniture, 2 show case, 2 cupboards, 2 simple single beds, 2 single beds with storage area below them, 2 study tables, 1 double bed with storage area below it, swing with iron stand, dinning table (thank god no chairs at that time), just to name a few and the size was so big that each furniture is nick named as "haathi". To our rescue was the house owned by my aunt and which happened to share a wall with our house. As my aunt lived in another house near by, this flat of her provided an easy solution; which was to create a door in a manner that both the flats are linked and provide with enough space to move around with all the furniture around.

After settling with this problem, the initial process to know the neighbours in detail was on its way. On one side used to live a family in the flats across a door with a small wall between the flats. One fine afternoon, they encountered a rat in their house. there was a quite a noise at their end in order to catch it or kill it. You know, rats and females does not go hand in hand most times. Sounded that they managed to kill it. Though it was a hot afternoon, myself and my younger brother were just playing in our house and were witness to the things going with doors closed. Just after few minutes end of the chase rat capture, there was a thug of our door followed by whisper and giggling sound. It was the females giggling, and by females, i mean all grown up and house wife types. To my ears it sounded something not right. After the sound of closing of the door was heard, i just opened the internal door to check the situation and found as expected. The dead rat was thrown at our door step. There was no turning back from this point. A plan was under way to tackle this out. Ordered few stuff to be prepared to my brother and we closed the door.

It was 4 pm now , with more than 2-3 hours of the earlier incident to happen and the mouse still at out door step. We were ready with our weapon- a simple thread with a loop at one of the end. Loop in a manner it would hold something when tighten. Mom had just got up from her afternoon sleep and asked me to get few things from shop near by for evening snack. This was the moment. I obediently took the cloth bag and money to go to the shop. On my way picked up the thread i had prepared. Stepped out of the house , went to shop, and came back as a good boy.

It was just nearing 5 pm, with we were enjoying our evening snacks and eagerly waiting for some response from the neighbourhood to come through. I was nearly last bites of my snack and heard the most awaited words. They had just opened their doors after their after noon nap and just heard the neighbours discussing " How did a rat end up hanging by its tail on a tree in their compound?" I wonder what happened to that dead rat, but i am sure they knew the answer how it happened, but just could not express anything.

Drinks!!!

A simple word... with a simpler meaning as well, may be used in different context to express different things, but never realised it can be topic and turning point for rest of the evening.

It so happened that, with failing of the every plans we made, we decided to meet up casually by the Victoria park and just have a bit of chitchat. No big plans as all the plans which were made were crashed down. With the clock ticking 6pm, met at the garden, walked around for not even a minute and then decided to walk towards city centre so that I could catch the bus to my home and she could be walking back to her home. She had been on a trip to Europe. Though they call it whole trip to europe, its just a bare bones of europe, literally few cities here and there and name it trip to Europe. With obvious reasons we happen to discuss the Europe tour experience with shifting topic to personal likes and dislikes in matter of food, place to visit just a name a few. With not even half way towards the city centre, the topic had completely faded and silence was filling in the gaps prominently .

It so happened for me to be a step ahead of her, I was in my own thinking in lines of what should we talk.. though we see each other at work place literally every week end, but there is nothing as such going on between both of us. This was the first time ever I met her outside the work place. As far as I remember, I do not recall meeting any of my female friends in a one to one situation where do not know her for at least a year if not more. We hardly knew each other for 6-7 odd months where mostly meet on our week end part time job running between customers on our job as Customer Advisors.Suddenly she spoke- Drinks!! shall we go for drinks? With the fastest reflex reaction i remember, i turned round and only one word came out of my mouth .... WHAT?... She knew that I do not drink alcohol and even I was very sure that she never drinks. In that situation, such a question from her was just completely out of blue . With such a reflex from me did scare her for a fraction of second, and trying to hold her self she just spoke out, soft drinks, coffeee.. thats all i mean...

Still we ended up pulling each other on to going in for a alcoholic drink though neither of us wanted to have one... Towards the end of the walk to city center, we ended up having a Coffee and a cake at a cafe with no other minute filled with silence.

Drinks! worked out to be a very good ice breaker, try out some times irrespective of u drink or not.. worth trying..

Good Friday!!!

Some memories strongly associate with few words. Though they sound to be a common word in usage but many a times when strongly associated with an event ; it leaves a ever lasting impact on our minds. One such word for me is "Good Friday"

Memory goes back to the pre-teen years, may be 8-9years old kid. Typically at maternal grandparents place over the summer vacation to enjoy the luxuries of the world and to be pampered upon. On one such trip at my maternal native of Mithapur, as a obedient kid, i had my shower in morning and was waiting for my breakfast to arrive. In the mean time my grandpa had his shower and arrived with just towel around his waist to perform puja. It was interesting to observe puja done by him, done in a completely dedicated manner. Would do some 3-4 rounds by standing at same place and would come go out side to pour water to one of the plants (Tulsi ; i guess) and come back to the puja place. That day he performed the same ritual, but at the end i just had look at the calender and declared that it was a "Good Friday". I was in complete excitement and confusion. Excited as was expecting the day to do in a very grand manner would get all good things. On other hand was confused about how did grand dad predicted that. Certainly this clearly exhibits i had no clue that its a "holiday" and has relevance in few cultures as that time was over shadowed by post final exam vacation periods.

I have no clear memory of when i learnt the real significance behind Good Friday , just remains a ever lasting imprint of the time when it was introduced to me. This hits my mind more strongly this year as i had one of the not so good "Good Friday" and awaits a real good "Good Friday".