The first rays of the sun. There was a huge uproar as soon at it started rising.

The sun finally showing up.

And all this while I was wearing

2 youngsters, in their late 40s, walk into the control room.

Youngster 1: Dude, will Air India fly today? How will they convince the air hostesses that their make-up won’t fade away because of the drizzle and moisture?

Youngster 2: No idea. I suppose they will wait till the drizzle has completely stopped and the humidity level has reached 60%. It’s 95% now.

The big humidity meter, hung on the central wall, was slowly showing signs of a decrease.

Youngster 2: Dude, what time is it?

Youngster 1: Wait, let me ask the Jet Airways gals. We don’t even have watches..hehe

Meanwhile in the Air India air hostess’s (AH) dressing room

AH 1: We just have 1 hour to get our make-ups on. Why can’t they recruit younger air hostesses? I am fed with this long exercise of applying lotions, powders and all this after an hour long facial.

AH 2: And what will you do? Clean plates or replace those dudes at the information desk in the waiting lounge who cannot even afford a wrist watch!

“How long will aunties take to dress up! We have been waiting for more than 3 hours now. This kind of negligence will push us to shun Air India. Even the low cost airlines are punctual about the timings!”

A faint voice from the corridor, just outside the room labelled ‘Girl’s Room (GR)’.

AH 3: Gals. Any idea about the meter reading? I am afraid I have to leave immediately or else the angry crowd will enter our GR and take us away on the flight.

AH 2: Oh my God! It must be terrible for you then. We cannot even venture out of our safe heaven to the control room. These rowdy passengers! I head someone calling us aunty!! It seems like the kingfisher gals have raised the expectation of these passengers.

The loudspeaker at the GR comes to life.

“Ladies be ready for AI 535 departure. We are extremely pressed for its departure and this means you have to venture out at humidity level of 87%. We have taken care of your transit to the plane through the escape route. Please don’t even think of taking the main door.”

Meanwhile at the control room

Youngster 1: Dude. Lets go to the washroom. Do you have a pencil?

Youngster 2: Why?

Youngster 1: Do you have it or not?

The Manager walks in.

Manager: Dudes! What are you doing here! You should be at the information desk in the waiting lounge. Now rush. It’s never too late.

The 2 youngsters leave the control room. Youngster 1 goes to the washroom on the way. The door of the washroom looks something like this-

Few contents have been erased because of the obvious reasons.

And this story repeats each day.

PS- This is just a fictional story based on my ordeal at the Chennai airport. AI staff, please don’t feel offended…we need to laugh to suppress our anger.

This was just waiting to happen. And it was just a matter of time before terror would have shown its ugly face in the national capital. The blasts in Connaught place, Greater Kailash- I, Karol Bagh and Barakhamba road have so far claimed 18 lives and I can only hope that it stays 18. These places have been the heart of Delhi. As a matter of fact my ideal weekend would start in Karol Bagh, afternoon at the M Block market in GK and then evening at CP. Most Delhite would be either of the 3 places on a weekend. And particularly when Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore have been hit, these three places where just waiting for their share.

Even though these places have been so critical from security point of view, the security arrangements at these places have been pathetic. The M block market had no security check points, few shops in CP had their own security guard, Karol bagh never cared about bombs and the Barakhamba road too had no preventive measures at place. The whole demographics of Delhi is such that implementing security at these places is next to impossible. The point is that most blasts took place on the roads, how do you secure your roads in a jam packed market? The high population density makes the task further difficult. As a matter of fact these low density blasts are nearly impossible to control in any place. How on earth do you keep track of all the dust bins and the cars commuting?

Update: Another live bomb has been recovered at the India Gate.
Photo from TOI

Before I forget, one incident i would always remember all my life. I was new to driving, it has been just a week into it. Me and my friend decided to go for a ride. Even though I was comfortable with all the gears, starting was a serious issue for me- I would always leave the clutch quickly and the car would stop. So we started with hiccups. We had to stop at the round-about because of the cross traffic. As soon as the traffic stopped, everyone was eager to get past the round-about before the traffic builds up again. I was ahead on everyone and my car wont start. Start….1st gear….leave clutch and stop!! We were stuck for long enough to infuriate the rest of the cars behind me. My friend got so impatient that he suggested-

“Abe uttar jaate hai. Car ko dhakka maar kar side kar lenge. Phir to guest house phone kar ke kisi aise ko bula lena, jisko driving aate ho” (Lets get down here and push the car to the side. We can then call someone to drive the car back)

And I did consider that option! Suddenly the car started moving and I was quick to press the accelerator peddle and race ahead. The cross traffic had to suddenly stop because of seeing my car racing so fast. I didn’t even look back but I am sure there must have been few minor accidents because of my maneuver.

Thankfully I have now learned to start.

Traffic in Gurgaon is exact the opposite. There are no traffic lights even on highways. Everyone is at the mercy of rowdy taxi, truck, tractor, bullock cart, bullocks, cows, auto and tempo wallahs. It’s a complete mayhem.No one follows lane discipline, changing lane on the expressway at will and without signals. The taxi walahs are the biggest culprit-they park and drive at will. And it’s mostly they who are responsible for accidents. But the issues in the city geography has forced the corporates to be slaves of the whims and fancies of these taxi walahs. I hope the metro comes soon and eases life out here. The government here has completely failed, the city is devoid of basic amenities like roads, water and electricity. It’s the private builders who are making money, completely oblivion to the problems being faced by dwellers in their day-to-day traveling.

Moving into an independent flat, arranging for food everyday and having to worry about gas,electricity and telephone bill has been painful for me. Even though I have finally settled, the transition has been extremely difficult. Thankfully I had the cash power or else I would returned to studies once again.

The GPS application of mapmyindia.com has been a great help to me. It has saved me long hours of wandering without directions. It is perhaps my most worthy investment into a software! I would suggest this to anyone who is new in a city and particularly a city as magnificent as Delhi.

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I have never played tennis in my entire life so far and the very idea of playing on a clay court made be feel like what Nadal would have felt seeing clay for the first time in his life. I had this strange feeling that I can excel in tennis and its just a matter of chance/opportunity.

 My friend’s friend had the other racquet so we planned to play cricket while waiting for him as we had the (tennis) balls. His friend came soon and thus moment finally came, the moment which would have given this world a new Sania Mirza. The court was a mitti (also known as ‘clay’ in English) court. I used my racquet to hit the ball on ground a few time and then I finally tossed it up ( Few must have casted eager glances on the way I was warming up for the serve). As I wanted an ace on the very first serve of my life, I hit the ball with all the energy I could gather. The ball fell on the ground, missing the swing of the racquet completely.

“Its the damn spects! My eyes just lost sight of the ball”. I remove my glasses.

The second swing of the racquet did hit the ball. I then focus my attention on my opponents for the return but they, including few onlookers, were looking to my left. Actually the ball flew to my left and landed in the swimming pool. I then decided to only ’square cut’ and ’straight hit’ the ball, instead of cuts and hooks. My heart was broken. I was finding it difficult to keep the ball on ground. All my shots were flying past spectators like a bullet. I was loosing all hopes of becoming a pro. I was losing my confidence. Perhaps my age is the only factor on my side, I can still practice and become proficient with the game. I then heard a faint voice-

“Uncle. Ball please”. I kept concentrating on my play. The voice grew louder.

“The ball is on your right, uncle”. To my utter surprise, the voice was referring to me! When did I graduate to this ‘uncle’ thingie??!! With heavy heart, I returned the ball. Interestingly the voice was of a girl who was attracting everyone’s attention on the mitti court. I then decided to leave for home as there was no point in trying to make fool of oneself in every possible way.

I think i have grown old now.

BTW, I am SERIOUSLY missing the right click on my new MacBook. 

These coal carriers carry coal, on their bicycles, up the hill to sell. This meager income doesn’t justify the effort required in this physically exhausting task. They operate in the areas near to the coal mines of Dhanbad, they are mostly stolen or collected coal. Poverty forces these men to take up this daunting task of carrying the coal sacks on their bicycles. A sack of coal would typically sell for Rs. 200 so this means a maximum income of 1000 per trip ( you expect more than 5 sacks, huh?), which is very lucrative considering the level of poverty in Jharkhand!

Sorry for the poor quality of the video. I didn’t stop and shoot because I think it would have been contemptuous and disparaging for the hard workers so I tried to shoot without making it obvious, after all its a profession and you need to respect someone’s profession.

I had issues with setting up wordpress on bluehost because I was not accustomed to cpanel. The .htaccess file was making all the php files non-executable, they were being downloaded. I finally figured out the problem and fixed the issue. Hopefully bluehost will my final home.