Troublesome and Torturous Thursdays !!!

Well, what can I say, and what can I expect more that it was a perfectly fine Thursday morning yesterday. Last week, Thursday turned out to be a goof up from my side, with me ending up visiting my friend's place for his birthday celebrations, completely overlooking the exact schedule, and what happened next most of you know from my last post.

Well, come this Thursday, I thought maybe last week was just my own fault, but then what happened yesterday was even more frustrating, agonizing and worth posting here. Now, the background was, that since I am getting married (can't still get out of that weird feeling), my parents sent me a parcel full of invitation cards (kankotris), which were supposed to be distributed to my friends, family members and dad's friends here in the US.

The FedEx website, where I was tracking my package for the past couple of days, finally showed "Delivered" and I was more than happy to breathe in relief that finally it was here. As it happened, I went to check my mail box (on a lovely Thursday evening), only to find no FedEx cards/notices/tags indicating that the package has been delivered. Initially nothing struck me, as I simply walked up to the leasing office, and informed them about this package in my name which could have been delivered to the "Office" as it mentioned on the FedEx website.

As fate would be, it was not found at the leasing office. So I went back to my apartment, opened up the #%*%% FedEx website, only to be struck with horror that somehow, someone named "FriedLand" had signed for that package. I eventually called up the Customer Rep at Fedex, who nicely mentioned that, Dear Sir, I appreciate your #%#%#& business with FedEx, and our records show that the package was delivered to you in M-208 !!!

M-208 ? WTF !!! I live in an entirely different unit you moron ! The FedEx Rep then scheduled for a retrieval of the pacakge, and get it delivered to me. Well as I am writing this blog, that has not yet happened and is still in the #%^&@ FedEx system.

But the more frustrating part is what happened next. I thought let me give it a shot and try going to the M-208 unit and request the tenant to just hand me over the parcel. I take this long walk across the community, walk up to the front door, see a broken Key Hole, peep inside it to see some lights on, and I knock. A couple of knocks later, and a painful wait of 15 minutes, the lights just went off !!! I was like WTF again and #%&*# just stood there cursing everything and everyone that I can think of, in my mind.

Then I thougt of playing the role of a detective as I knocked on the door for the last time, and moved away from the door in a jiffy and laid flat against the wall. After counting 5 mentally, I just popped up outside the door right in front of the keyhole, but just to see no action from the other side of the door. Plan B had failed !!!

Delta Bravo, switch to Plan C !!! Let's go let's go !!! So I knocked on the door twice again, and went off casually, acting as if I am leaving. I parked my car in front of the apartment, and sat inside, for another 15 minutes or so, to expect someone coming out of that damn door, and I would plan to catch him/her by surprise. Nothing happened. Yet another failure.

Now my final Plan D was just to bang on the door until it breaks apart and just barge in the apartment and snatch my parcel. So I climbed the stairs again, with my temper up on the 7th heaven, and my nostrils flaring, I went and was just about to hit the door with my 2.5 Kg Sunny Deol type fist, that I saw someone moving in the apartment from the broken key hole. So I gulped down my anger, and sweetly knocked the door with gentle touches.

Knock ! Knock Knock !! I could see that person moving in the apartment, walking up to the keyhole, as I flashed a sweet smile, and then the person just walked away from the %^&*# hole !!! F***** Weirdo !!! I was like Hello !! The creep just did not open the door. I was standing their, my mouth wide open, my eyes rolling and cursing the damn FedEx guy who screwed up in the first place.

So controlling my anger, I went to the leasing office and told them this entire story (only to find that agent yawning at 9 in the morning in my face), and the answer I got was - "That is a corporate housing apartment, and so they don't expect someone to come and meet them at their front door. As they don't know you, they would definitely not open the door".

Are you F****** kidding me ? Do I look like some one who has come to rob in broad daylight the first thing in the morning ? So as per the leasing agent's suggestion, I went and posted a note on that M-208 f*****d up door, that PLEASE SEND THE PARCEL TO EITHER THE LEASING OFFICE or PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR FOR THE FEDEX GUY WHEN HE COMES IN TO RETRIEVE THE PACKAGE !!!

Oh God Almighty !!! Please don't send these kind of people to Earth, and if you do, please make them understand that no one dressed up in a jacket and jeans, with a nice clean shaved beard, would come up to their front door at 8.30 in the morning on the most happiest day of the week - A Friday, just to bombard them with some kind of C-4 explosives or some kind of Fucked Up promotional material !!!

There you go, I finally posted my first blog post with the first ever curse without any symbols !!! But only I and only I know the frustration that I have gone through for the past 24 hours, all because of a stupid mistake the FedEx person did and all for the most important Kankotris (Wedding Invites) that are inside that package.

Well now that it's a great Friday evening, I eventually tried one more time walking to the M208 door, and found that my note was still stuck there, so I ripped it apart, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door, and mind you the apartment was full of lights. As I saw someone approach the key hole, I gave the best of my smiles, and held up the note that I had with the words FedEx highlighted in RED !!!

I was literally standing there with that note in my hand, smiling to that door, wondering what someone might think of if they see me like that, as if I am some poor chap asking for donations or selling some books. And Click !! I finally heard that sound which I so much wanted hear and the door opened up. Now I had never expected what I saw at the door.

A gorgeous, spotless, speck less, charming, beautiful, adorable cute Russian chick opened the door, and I just stood there staring at her blankly. I had to run for some words, as I finally managed to convince her that she might have one of my packages which is quite important and FINALLY ! With God's blessings I got that package and I just hold on to it for 2 minutes hugging it tightly.

Well painful as it was, the wait was worth it as I now stood holding my own Wedding Invitation card !

Cheers
Samy

Lost and Absentminded - A Goof Up !!!

This blog post comes as just a 2 minute write up of what happened about an hour ago just now, and how I messed up, completely dumbfounded at my own negligence.

There could have been numerous occasions when one could have found himself/herself having overlooked something, or forgotten a date or an important event, or maybe just simply absentminded about some birthdays and anniversaries.

But what I did, was quite dumb to be honest, but then thinking carefully, it seems I am so much lost and sad in Dipali's absence that I completely overlooked and my mind lost in her thoughts that I goofed up for a friend's birthday today. So the entire blame of this funny episode goes to Dipali, with she not being here and me missing her too much (lol)...

What happened was truly hilarious to an extent that it could have been a big surprise for my friends who were celebrating their 27th birthday seeing me standing at their front door. Ths situation was this - two of my friends have back to back birthdays and co-incidentally they are married to each other (happily and lovingly). Now the male friend of mine sends out an invite with crystal clear words describing where and more importantly "WHEN", the celebration and cake cutting would be.

Now today on a fine Thursday evening, I finished my dinner, watched some sports videos online, and washed my face, combed my hair, sat in the car and drove like 15 miles to his apartment, taking pains of doing the parallel parking (which is quite hard to find outside their apartment), and finally walked up the stairs to see the lights out in their apartment.

Checking twice as to whether or not I was standing at the correct apartment, I banged the door 2-3 times, rang the door bell as if it was a buzzer of some game show, and finally decided to give him a call. As soon as he picked up the phone, I was like, $%^&$ where are you? He is like, Outside ! I am like, #@$@$% you said 9.30, and I am here 9.35 sharp, and you tell me you are outside !!!

What came next, was a very dreadful laughter and I was like what the heck happened ? He is like, Dude, the invitation was for tomorrow, the 13th, Friday and not today !!!!!

Oh Man !!! I was standing there outside his apartment, laughing at my own ass. Well I could just imagine, just in case if they were at home, and found me standing outside at 9.30 today, what would have been his reaction !!

Well funny or not, I found it quite amusing, that Dipali's absence has made my mind go ballistic, being so absentminded and goofing up at the odd hour. I must have surely woken up at the wrong side of the bed today I guess ...

Well having said that, I wish that couple a very happy birthday, and hopefully I get treated to 3-4 pieces of extra cake tomorrow during the "REAL" celebration, for this extra effort that I went through...

(PS: The names have not been revealed for the sake of being anonymous about them)

This I think has been the fastest blog post that I have ever posted lol ... And further, this goof up really speaks for how much I miss either Dipali or some really good liquor to get my mind on track (Belvedere, Long Islands ???) Lol (Wink, I know she never reads my blog)

Cheers
Samy

Too Much Yet Too Less !!!

I have not been keeping up with my personal blog, whereas on the other hand I have been writing all over other places on different topics altogether. There has been so much to update on my blog and I decided not to do so in different blog posts and keep it to a simple and short one (will try), right here.

The month of October was quite eventful for me in all aspects and in multidimensional ways. To start with a festive mood, my team The Immortals were playing the Finals of the Gold Cup in the Cricbay League and were facing an opponent against whom we had lost on all 3 meeting prior to the finals. With the hunger to win when it mattered the most, no one had expected the game to be so close and tensed that by the end of the game most of us had no nails left in their hands. To check out the complete coverage visit my other blog : The Immortals Cricket Club !

Then came the festival of lights, joy and happiness - Diwali. But for me along with that also came a feeling of sadness that Dipali was leaving San Jose to go back to her home in Los Angeles and then to fly to India in the third week of October to start preparing for our marriage. There was quite a mixture of joy, yet the feeling of missing her on Diwali, a feeling of being a Bachelor back again crept up slowly into me with utmost happiness, but then a feeling of being all by myself and not seeing Dipali and not being in the company of a talkative person also brought a feeling of loneliness in me.

Diwali meant fun, good, no awesome food, nice clothes, meeting friends and having a gala time. We did something similar to that, as approximately 30 of us got together at my current apartment and had a Diwali Get-together Luncheon on Saturday. The food was ordered from Dee Dee's, which turned out to be simply fantabulous. We had Khaman, Kesar Pista Shrikhand, Rotis, Undhiyu, Mutter Paneer, Raitu, Gujarati Daal, Peas Pulav etc. On the whole everyone seemed to relish each morsel of food that they had as at the end there was hardly anything left except for 1-2 people.

Further down the road, another important but tiring event that happened was to shift into my new apartment where I and Dipali would be starting a new life ahead. That also meant moving a little more closer to my job which is now only 3 miles away. A new beginning, brings not only happiness and the feeling of being ecstatic but also brings in a feeling of having something of our own. Of-course the feeling of renting an apartment is much different than staying in one's self built home, but this is as far as some of could manage in the US, I guess.

While I am writing this blog, I am still in the middle of the week, living virtually amongst boxes, duct tape and markers, doing a daily tiring job of packing plenty of stuff for my move in. Along with the apartment move, one more truly sad move comes on the job front where in I have to part ways with my lovely near the window cube with complete privacy and awesoem greenery to stare at, as the elements of cement and steel would take over my place as they build new offices destructing the cubicles. To add to it, I have been given a cube which is not that bad, but a move is a move, and after being so much comfortable in my current cubicle let's see how this new 6x6 space turns out to be.

Other than my personal rejoices and agonies, there was too much of pending work on other domains. Speaking about which the new story is out on Project Pulse's Event - Tathastu. This second story is written by me and is a fable about a passionate dancer who wanted to make it big, but could not get the right platform initially due to his background. For more details check out the blog : Project Pulse!

Switching gears to some substantial work covered under Point10, the team is highly active and busy keeping up with a lot of work in promoting the flagship and also hiring interns, attending seminars and bringing people up to speed with their mission. There have been numerous posts which are still pending from my side which I need to put up on the official blog, but there have been some constructive progress in terms of reaching out to people near and far, organizations, industrialists and most important of all making visits to certain colleges and institutions to spread the ideology. A Point10 Summit is on its way and the agenda is being worked upon right now. For more updates on recent news check out their blog : Point10 - Revitalizing the Education Ecosystem!

Finishing this blog post on a relaxed Sunday night, after spending virtually every hour, minute and second of my this weekend behind packing, unpacking, organizing the new apartment, and I hope, just pray, that Dipali likes the way I have not messed up the Pantry or the Wardrobe looking to the way I have organized and placed everything. I mean come on, how much knowledge a male would have as to which utensil and which spices should go in which drawer. You see an empty drawer you just put stuff there, who cares if it's aligned correctly, utensils drawers on one side, and spices on the other lol !!! I did my best that I could do :)

So this was the journey so far for me in the month of october, and with Dipali enjoying her shopping and marriage preparations in India, it's time not to worry about having your clothes lying around on your bed and having someone watching you to get your stuff right, it's time to eat those Maggis and Frozen Food, it's time to just lie down lazily on a saturday or sunday afternoon in front of the TV and not worrying about how to pay those long shopping bills, and maybe just maybe, it's time to enjoy some liquor too (assuming Dipali does not read this blog post lol) !!! 3 Cheers to Bachelor Life !!!

It's back to being a full-time bachelor once again with only 46 days to go from tomorrow, until I climb the horse, and ride into the official married life with whole new set of responsibilities and fun moments. Till then, just party, relax and enjoy life as much as I can, while I can, the best I can !!!

It was just too much and yet too less the entire October.

Cheers
Samy
(PS: Miss You Dipali Lol !!!)

Project Pulse - Tathastu !!!

For the past couple of weeks, I have been involved (from the outside) with a group of people who righteously are on a path of defining how music, dance and souls can come together to put up a spectacular show. This group called "Project Pulse" comprises of a bunch of feet tapping enthusiastic people who have come together with one common liking - Dance !

Project Pulse founded in 2006 is a young and dynamic dance and drama company who creates shows and portray various forms of dance in a unique fashion. Classes are conducted to impart training in Hip-Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, Break Dance and various other types of dance and at the end of the training period, the choreographers and students come together with a theme and give out their performance live to an audience.

This group is based locally out of Bay Area conducting classes and sessions in and around the Silicon Valley for the past 3 years and have already finished 3 productions to a sell out audience. Their 4th showcase is coming up in November 2009 and the preparations have already begun to put up a spectacular show.

This event is named "Tathastu" and is based primarily on dancers and performers enacting stories based on 4 elements: Inspiration, Passion, Togetherness and The Inevitable. It would not be just another dance show, but a portrayal of various forms of music and dance blended together and enacted as a drama.

Speaking about my role in this group, I am not into dancing and stuff, but only reaching out to people to bring forward this concept, basically have the audience build up some background for Tathastu and thus blog about it on the official Project Pulse Blog.

More details could be found in the below links:

Project Pulse Website: Click Here

Project Pulse Blog: Click Here (This is where I play my little role ;-) )

Follow us on Facebook : Click Here

Tathastu Details (As Below)

Tathastu - Granted Wishes Project Pulse & Vibha present a fantastic portrayal of dance and drama presenting stories of Passion, Togetherness, Inspiration and The Inevitable. A common thread of the act of Tathastu binds all the stories. The storytelling is done through various forms of dancing such as Hip Hop, Jazz, Contemporary, Bollywood, Popping, Locking, Break Dancing and Classical styles. Enjoy the scintillating fusion of live vocals on the stage with dancing and acting. CHOREOGRAPHERS Smita Basak, Manisha Parekh, Swapnil Mehta, Meet Aghera, Khyati Sheth, Nihal Sequeira and Sudeep Kumar - Read More DATES & TIMES Saturday, November 7th - 6:30pm - 8pm, Fall Showcase 5:30pm Sunday, November 8th - 6:30pm - 8pm, Fall Showcase 5:30pm Project Pulse Fall Showcase is the performance of all the dance class students. Come support the talented dance class students including kids, as they light up the stage! VENUE Smithwick Theater, Foothill College 12345 El Monte Rd. Los Altos, CA 94022 ADMISSION All Ages welcome No Video Cameras No Flash Photography TICKETS & SEATING Price: $18, General Admission First Come, First Serve seating Doors open at 6:15 pm (5:15pm for Fall Showcase) Seating Chart NOTE: Ticket price includes entry to Project Pulse Fall showcase that starts at 5:30 PM. BE A SPONSOR Project Pulse needs your support! If you wish to be a sponsor for Tathastu, please view our package which specifies the different levels of sponsorship. Download Sponsorship Package PART OF THE PROCEEDS BENEFIT VIBHA - www.vibha.org Vibha's mission is to educate, empower and enable every individual who wishes to make a positive difference in the life of the underprivileged child. PURCHASE TICKETS NOW BECOME A FAN on facebook Join Our Mailing List! Project Pulse 2005 Mary Helen Lane San Jose, California 95136

So stay tuned to PP's blog and drive yourself into an imaginative journey of music, dance and drama as the upcoming weeks unveil the suspense behind the 4 stories of Tathastu.

Cheers
Samy

Vote for Point10 !

This is a small post with a simple message out to the blogging community and to those who follow me and my blog.

As most of you might now be well aware of Point10Solutions and its various portals of which I am a part of playing my little role in keeping things going and making sure Point10 takes one step at a time in achieving the motto of revitalizing the ecosystem.

There have been many updates for the past month or so and the activities inside and outside the group has picked up a fast rate. With lots of things happening this post comes out to you to request your help with just a click of your mouse.

Basically, Point10 (Jatin / Hiren) has been nominated for the "Most Popular Entrepreneur" competition held on YourStory.in portal. You can click the following links to follow what exactly is this event and get more insight into the workings of Point10. Put it in short, we need your votes and comments to be on the top to win this important event which will play a major role in taking Point10 miles down the road towards establishing a platform which they have dreamt of.

Click Here for details about Point10
Click Here for casting your vote/comments for Point10


The criteria to win this event is Number of Votes, Number of Comments and Unique IP Address Clicks. You can check out the details about this at: Click Here

A click from you can keep Point10 clicking towards success. The entire team of Point10 would be grateful if you can vote for us and maybe put a small comment too as per your convenience. We appreciate your time and energy to do this :)

(PS: I know there are a lot of silent followers and readers who more or less refrain from commenting but this would really help a lot and mean a lot if you can spend just minutes to vote for Point10)


Cheers
Samy

Married But Available - Book Review !!!

The title itself attracts people like me who are on the verge of getting married, or the recently married or those who have already lived past the worst stage of their life after marriage lol. Well this book is nowhere near to explaining how one can remain a bachelor all their life even after getting married and more importantly be available for some exciting things in life other than taking their better halves to dinner and shopping sprees.

Married But Available - A book from Abhijit Bhaduri is more or less a follower of one of his other book - Mediocre But Arrogant. Of-course as speculated this is now going to be kept alive by one of his another books which would be called - Middle-aged But Active. The common notion of all these titles being the three letter word - MBA !

Somehow I started reading his first book Mediocre But Arrogant, and one of my friends borrowed it for a while. And then I could not resist the second one and so just read that instead. Overall the book is quite light on heavy dosage of words, notions or theories, but very light in humor material, easily catchable jokes and overall a perfect off-the-shelf book to read in one's spare time. With no philosophical takeaways, no lessons for life, the book speaks about Abbey the main character and his typical life as an MBA (which during his time in the 80s was considered to be a God's blessing to possess such a degree).

The variations and transitions that Abbey goes through while pursuing his job as an MBA are something new to read other than the monotonous life about MBAs in IIMs and the life of techies in IITs which some of the other books portray. The situations, the events as described in this book are more realistic and one can even imagine themselves to be in that place and have a perspective about how things go.

Click Here to know more about the author Abhijit Bhaduri and follow him.
Click Here to read the synopsis and reviews about Married But Available.

Overall a nice book to read and finish in 3-4 days with some cups of coffee on your patio. A typical leisure book. Now I cannot wait to get my hands back on the first novel of Abhijit - Mediocre But Arrogant as I need to remind my friend to hand it back for me to read. Stay tuned for the review of that one too.

My Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Cheers
Samy

Tagglacious !!!

As I was Tagged by my blogosphere friend Valerine here is my set of answers for the quiz that she posted on her blog ...

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4…
A: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can & catch air?
A: My Iphone Data Cable ...

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
A: College Football :) (Oregon Ducks losing to Boise State Broncos)

4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
A: 12:15 pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
A: 12:20 pm

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
A: Jao Na from What's Your Rashee ...

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
A: Drove my car to job with a broad smile on my face thinking about the long weekend trip to Vegas :)

8. Before you started this Q&As, what did you look at?
A: My Tasks list for Friday about everything other than the job related duties ... Long list to complete on Fridays...

9. What are you wearing?
A: Jeans and a T-shirt ...

10. When did you last laugh?
A: Yesterday while watching this hilarious video for Fight For Kisses (FFK): Click Here

11. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A: All Blank !!! Am sitting in a cube at my office for God's sake ... What more can you expect lol !!

12. Seen anything weird lately?
A: My mirror is broken lately ... ;-)

13. What do you think of this quiz?
A: Not boring, Not too Great !!!

14. What is the last film you saw?
A: Kaminey (Bollywood) and G.I.Joe (Hollywood) ...

15. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A: I would spend about 1 % of it to buy lottery tickets to increase my worth with some luck ... The rest of the 99 % - Well have a long bucket list ...

16. Tell me something about you that I dunno!
A: I am afraid of God's revenge for my wrong doings :)

17. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
A: I would like to curb all the selfishness in the world ... It takes one no where and spoils the entire environment ...

18. Do you like to Dance?
A: Only when I have 4 pegs of Long Island or 8 shots of Tequilla to make me groove ...

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
A: Jhamkudi ...

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
A: Jhamburiyo ...

21. Would you ever consider living abroad?
A: I am as of now ... But might not do so permanently ... Nothing like our own India !!!

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
A: Son, you were simply awesome and beyond my expectations donw there... We need people like you so I am sending you back dude...
!!! LOL LOL LOL !!!


I further Tag : Soham, Neha, and Shachi ...

Cheers
Samy