I am on Top Gear !

I am 24 years old now. Its been 2 years I am working for a software company. After so much of work experience, people look forward for marriage, a new flat, at least a bike. I am not interested in marriage so early, i cant afford a new flat, But I can surely buy a bike, (I have assumed that i will get a 2 wheeler loan). My friends have already bought bikes, have fancy mobiles, and enjoy all other stuff that an ideal software engineer should. Even I feel like doing all these. But before thinking of anything I wish I had right now, I first think of the things which I wished I had in childhood.

Flashback :
10 June 1998

In My school days, One of my cousin had lots of small Hot Wheels cars. We both played together. He had all types of cars. Sedan, SUV, Trailer, Trucks etc. Even I dreamt of having such a collection. But My parents didn't allow me to buy them, just because they were expensive. I had a choice to buy the local made cars, but I always insisted on having the hot wheels brand. Days passed and as a grown up, I was not supposed to play with those small Hot wheels cars anymore.
My father had bought me a Hercules captain bicycle when I was in 4Th standard. I used it for 5 years. In the mean time, Father brought my elder brother a Hero Ranger MTB bicycle. I used my Hercules Captain till 9Th Standard. Until Hercules launched its latest bike : Hercules Top Gear. It was the first bike I saw with gears. It had 5 speed adjustments, and one of my friend had already bought one. in 10Th, we both went to a coaching class. Me on my Captain, and he was on his Top Gear. One day I told My father, I want Hercules Top Gear. He asked me, How much it costs ? I said 3000 rs. He straight away rejected the proposal. He said, We already have 2 bicycles. Why do we need the third one ? Practically speaking, My father was right. But I was very disappointed and angry on him. I told to myself, "Itka kay vichar karaychay tyat? 3000 rs chach tar prashna ahe, tyasathi pan baba nahi ka mhanale ? " (" Whats there to think about it so much ? Its a question of just 3000 rs. and for that why did my father say no ?" ) I had a sleepless night. I watched kids riding the Top Gear, shifting gears. My head turned whenever I saw someone riding that bike.Everyday, I used to ask my friend to give me his bike for the ride to the class and he was kind enough to lend me. Before giving me the bike, he always warned me not to shift gears unnecessarily. I was very much impressed with the gears stuff, and I would do anything for it. Even my father came to know that I was disappointed with his decision of not buying me the bicycle. So he promised me to get customised gears fitted to my elder brother's bicycle IF i scored more than 80% in the 10Th standard exam. And ultimately I did score 80.4%. My father also was happy and he promised me to get those gears fitted to my brother's bicycle. It took him 2 months to give me the money but he kept his promise. The gears cost him 750 rs. I went to a famous bicycle shop and surrendered my bicycle to him to get the gears fitted. (By now my elder brother was doing engineering and no longer used his bicycle, so I will assume that his bike is now mine. And my Hercules captain is taken by my grandfather, and he paid me 500 rs for it !) I stood there all day long watching the mechanic dismantle my bicycle and making space to get the gears fitted. During that course of time, I saw kids entering the shop with their parents and buying the bicycle of their choice, a couple of them bought Hercules Top Gear, while most of them even after liking top gear, were forced to buy a different orthodox bicycle. At the end of the day, the gears were in place, and I went home happily changing gears. I used the Bike for 4 more years till the 3rd year of my engineering. I took utmost care of that bicycle.

Back to the Present :
8 June 2007

Its almost 9 years now After I cried for the Hercules Top Gear. One day I had a thought, I can afford a new bicycle. Why not buy a new one ? My room mates straightaway laughed at me. I told my mom, I am buying a new Bicycle. She thought for a while, but said yes. And above that, she said, Buy a nice one.
I was very happy. I checked my bank account, and was happy that I could afford a bicycle straight away. I went to the bicycle shop. And told me to show me bicycles with gears. He showed me Hercules Top Gear, and many other Bicycles. in 9 years, there were many models to choose from. He also showed me a full Aluminium body bicycle. It cost 7500 rs. I had the capacity to buy it but, I still felt it was too costly. I had a second thought on my statement made 9 years ago " Its a question of just 3000 rs" Now I realised, My father was absolutely right. And 3000 rs was not JUST 3000 rs. And why it took him 2 months to gather 750 rs just for my silly promise. Finally I selected a good looking 18 speed Aluminium Wheels, Alloy Body bicycle : Hercules Omega. I was Happy, My room mates still couldn't believe I am buying a bicycle worth 4000 rs.
I did the payments, and drove back home on my new Bicycle. When I reached home, kids in the neighbourhood gathered around me and started staring at the new bicycle. 9 years ago I was one of such kids staring at someone Else's Hercules Top Gear. Maybe the Bike I just bought is the dream bike of every kid of this generation. I proudly parked the Bike and went inside my house. Within few minutes, the kids came to me and started asking for a ride. This time I gave them the keys and told, " Don't Shift gears unnecessarily "
No doubt, it took me 9 years to fulfill my unforgotten 9 year old dream, but it has also made me a proud owner of the dream bicycle of every kid in the block today.I called up mom and told her about my purchase. She was very happy. But still she said," Why didn't you buy the 7500 rs bike ? " I told her 3500 rs is too much to add to my 4000 rs bicycle. I wish I could tell my father about the lessons I learnt today and thank him for all the things he did for me. Now since I own a bicycle, with its regular use, I will be helping the environment by saving some flue gasses which would have been emitted if I had bought a motorbike. I will be saving some amount of money which I spent on auto rickshaw. I will be benefiting myself by having a exercise. And hopefully I will be an inspiration for the people who loved their childhood bicycles more than their present motorbikes.

My new Hercules Omega

P.S. I still keep buying Hot Wheels cars too !

A tale of every restaurant.

Recently I noticed something strange through which I go almost everytime I visit a restaurant. And now I have started to hate it. I have noticed this when I go with my college friends, Team mates, or even relatives. I am sure even you have gone through this, but have never noticed, or have simply ignored the fact. What I am talking about is a regular day when you go out for lunch / Dinner, just because you are "bored" of homely food and want a change.
I will take the blame on myself and become the person who delivers the regular dialogues and continue with the tale, you can link it with your experiences in a restaurant. I will keep the conversation limited to two people, so that it becomes easier for me to write the tale. And I will mention only the vegetarian dishes which are served in every hotel.

The decision :
Amar : Khana khane kahan jaana hai be ? (Where to go for lunch?)
Nishad : Kahin bhi, tu bata. (Anywhere, you tell.)
Amar : Best foods ?
Nishad : Nahi yaar, wahan ki roti achhi nahi hoti. (No yaar, their rotis are not good )
Amar : To bata na kahan jaana hai ! ( Then tell naa where to go ? )
Nishad : kahin bhi, but not Best foods. (Anywhere but no best foods.)
Amar : Kya khana hai ? (What do you want to eat ? )
Nishad : Kuch bhi. (Anything.)
Amar : Chal Shiv Sagar chalte hain. ( Lets go to Shiv Sagar )
Nishad : Ok.
And rest of the friends also agree to the decision. Frankly, almost everybody have no problems with which hotel we go in but still someone argues about the hotel when given an option, as someone rightly said, Opinions are like A**holes, Everybody has one.

So we go to Shivsagar.
The Menucard is placed.

Starters : Amar : Kya order karna hai ? (What to order ? )
Nishad : Kuch bhi. (Anything )
Amar : Soup peena hai ? (anybody wants soup ? )
Nishad : Nahi yaar. (No please ) (Others also say no to Soup)
Amar : Main ek Veg Manchow soup loonga. ( I will have one Manchow soup)
Nishad : One by two karna. (Make it one by two.) (And the rest also order soup)

Everybodyb wants to have soup / starters, but they simply wait for someone to take initiative, till then, they keep saying NO.
In every restaurant visit, When it comes to placing an order, only 1 or two people take the responsibility of ordering food. Nobody is firm on what to order except for one or two.The rest are, "Kuch bhi"
First they say no to soup / Starters, and when one of them takes, the rest follows.
The only orders : Veg Manchow Soup / Tomato Soup
or Gobi Manchurian / Veg Manchurian for starters.
Even though the menu card shows a veriety of other dishes.

The soup is served, everybody is happily drinking the soup, spoon by spoon.
someone raises a point in between,
"Abe main course order karte hain. " (Lets order the main course)
In between, the main course is ordered.
Amar : Kaunsi sabzi maangani hai ? (Which curry to order ? )
Nishad : Kya kya milta hai ? (What's served here ? )
Actually, everybody is aware of what is served and what is not in every hotel, except for some special dishes. But still, " Kya kya milta hai yahan ? "
Nishad glances through the menu card, and says, " Paneer Butter Masala ? "
One of us says Ok.
Another says, " Abe panner nahi be. Hamesha paneer hi khate hain " (No Paneer please, we eat it everytime. )
"To kya ? " (Then what ? )
"Dusra kuch bhi." (Anything other than that.)
"Ek sweet aur ek Spicy sabzi maangate hain" (we will order one sweet and one spicy curry)
After a lot of opinion mismatches, we order :
" Ek Paneer Butter Masala , Ek Veg kadhai, Ek dal fry"

Every order contains only:
Paneer Butter Masala / Paneer Tikka Masala
Veg Hyderabadi / Veg Kadhai / Veg Handi and a Dal Fry is a Must.

I haven't seen anybody order Aloo gobi, or Baingan ka bharta in a hotel.
While ordering rotis, nobody has a single opinion on whether to order a roti / naan / Kulcha .
out of 4 people,
First : Plain Roti
Second : Butter Kulcha
Third : Main bhi Plan Roti.
Fourth : Butter Naan.

This is enough for the waiter to get confused what to get for whom.

The soup is finished and everyone is waiting for the main course. And 6 times out of 10, everybody feels that the waiter is taking a lot of time to serve.
Finally the food arrives. The waiter serves the food in everybody's plate.
everybody gets their roti/kulcha/naan.

When the roti is about to finish,
Amar : Kisi ko ek aur roti chahiye ? (Anybody wants extra roti ? )
Nishad : Muzhe ek.
Amar : Aadhi aadhi lenge kya ? (Shall we take half each ? )

While ordering the next roti, there is always a Yes/no- Yes/No. Finally everybody order roti / naan.
Every roti orderd the second time, always takes 10-15 minutes.
By that time, everybody keeps playing with the curry in the plate, or with the onion salad which we get as a compliment.
Nishad : Kya yaar, kitna late kar raha hai. (What the hell, how much time he is taking )
Amar : Wohi to. Khana thanda ho raha hai. (Even the food is getting cold )

Actually, The food gets cold in the 5th minute from when it is served. But still, for the sake of saying , "Khana thanda ho raha hai"

Roti Arrives, everybody finishes it. Always some curry is left.
Amar : Rice order karna hai kya ? (Shall we order rice ? )
Nishad : Nahi yaar, pet bhar gaya. (No , stomach is full)
Amar : muzhe khana hai, Kisi aur ko chahiye ? (I want to eat, anybody else ? )

The third and 4th also agree. and finally we order
"2 Veg Fried rice"
There are at least 10 vareties of rice available, but still we order :
Veg Fried rice / Ghee rice / Jeera Rice.

Rice arrives,
It is served to everyone (Including Nishad) Saying my stomach is full is just for the sake of saying something. Everybody finishes their rice.
And finally if you observe everybody's plate, you will notice that, for someone, the curry served was insufficient. Someone has a lot of leftover in his plate. Someone has carefully seperated the chillies and capsicum from the curries.
The bill is paid, and at least 10-15 rs of Tip is given to the waiter.
Everybody exits the hotel, and say " Khana sahi tha !"

The dialogues mentioned in the above story are exactly the same whenever I go out with my friends. The same incidents occur everytime, regardless of the people accompanying me. I am tired of this stuff. I am no more ordering the same things again in any hotel.

Dumbstruck !!

Last week, my company threw a grand party at a grand hotel. There were almost 2000 employees enjoying the party. Big food stalls, DJ, Whiskey, Wine, and everything which an employee would like which if served for FREE. I reached the venue a bit late just to find out that most of my friends had already finished 2 pegs and some starters. I quietly took a glass of sprite and stood with them. Within 5 minutes, we all decided to hit the dance floor. Of course people like dancing when they are drunk. We danced till we were soaked with sweat. Fearing that the food will get over, we quickly went to the buffet stall. I had just finished my diet plans and had lost 4 kg in 4 days. The hardest 4 days of my life. And today, I was pretty sure that I will finish a whole chicken today. But donno why, I couldn't eat more than 2 chicken pieces that day. Maybe, I had really lost the taste of chicken after eating watermelon, tomatoes, bananas for the whole week.
After dinner I was chatting with one of my friend, and suddenly a girl past me. I just glanced at her, But she was continuously looking at me. She took me by surprise, Even I stared at her wondering why she was looking at me like that. She was walking forward but was looking behind at me, and was smiling. On her way she dashed someone, but still she continued looking at me. In the mean time, I tried to recollect whether I knew her or not. Many thoughts raced through my mind.
1. Did we both joined the company together ? No.
2. Is she from my college ? No.
3. Am I looking so funny in this dress ? Maybe.
4. Is there some object sticking to my face and I am unaware ? No.
5. Did someone mix Vodka in my Sprite ? No.
6. Is she drunk ? Cant tell.
7. Is this Love at first sight ? Never happened to me till now.

By now even I was staring badly at her, I don't know what she was thinking about me, but in my whole life no girl had ever stared at me for so long.

Finally she broke the silence. She said, " Areee wisarlas kai ? Jaadu ? "(Hey, u forgot ? Magic ?)
Suddenly the thoughts broke down. Now I remembered who she was. One day my room mate had invited his friends to our house. Since my roomie is also greatly impressed by my magic tricks, He had requested me to perform in front of his friends, and she was one of them. I had performed one of the greatest tricks I knew on her. I remembered her face, but today, She was looking different. More charming than the day when I performed the tricks. I laughed at myself and my stupid thoughts. (especially Thought #6 and #7) Anyways, Felt great knowing that I have a fan following too :-)