Me Microblogging

Have you heard about Twitter, Plurk or Jaiku? Some of you must have heard about at least one of them. Everyone is aware of blogs. Everyone has a blog these days… no matter how lazy or  moody (like me) they are.

Well Microblog is a just like your normal blog but the length of the messages posted on microblog is limited to 140 characters. Yup just 140 characters thats even less than a SMS you send out on your cell phone. Twitter, Plurk and Jaiku are providers for microblogs. Microblogs are used to usually give status updates like “Out for a coffee” or if you find an interesting article on the net just post it on your microblog or just friendly banter.

You can create a group and send out post to everyone in the group akin to a group sms. So the next time you need to plan that weekend party or outing trying using Twitter. In fact many companies use Twitter for means of Internal Communications. Go thru this article from Apple on Twitter.

The most widely used microblogging service is Twitter. A post on Twitter is called a Tweet – reminds of the Tweety bird . And users are known as Twitterers. I am a twitterer too.. you can follow my tweets here http://twitter.com/aadilkhan

Though I am not very much active on Twitter… but I do Tweet as n when possible or in a mood to. Like I’ll tweet about this blog.

P.S: Its funny… On my Blog I am writing about Microblog and on my Microblog I’ll post about my Blog…

Follow me on Twitter:http://twitter.com/aadilkhan

Extreme Socializing

Who does not want to catch up with freinds. With such erratic work hours I find it difficult to pick a call from a friend or reply to an sms that one of my friends. Some times its only while I am in the bus on my way back from office that I see all the missed calls and sms received.

Weekends… I look forward to catch up with pals for some time and sleep my ass off the rest of the time. But the past couple of weekends have been very very hectic for me. Hectic not work wise tough. I was so busy socializing with all my dear friends that I did not have time to take care of my own little things that I had been pushing for the weekend.

From meeting up a friend whose back from the US to celebrating a another’s birthday to meeting a newly married couple-friend to shopping for a friend.

Last weekend I met a friend whose back from the US after 2 and 1/2 years. He’s a college time close pal of mine. I met him over the lunch. Next I celebrated a friend’s birthday. He once told me that he has never cut a cake in his life. I said to myself… chalo lets make his day. So off I went along with my room-mate… half way around Bangalore to celebrate his Birthday. The celebrations went on till 11 pm. It was close to mid-nite that I could come n rest. Whole of the day I was driving my bike in the sultry Bangalore heat. This was on a Saturday.

The next day, a friend who had just got married calls up and invites us (a few of common friends) over for lunch. So I was there and the gathering went on till late evening.

This weekend I was looking forward to a relatively quite one. But again it was not to be.. Saturday started off on a very disappointing note tough. I was supposed to meet a very very close friend of mine who was leaving for Australia. But we were not destined to meet. Well anyways All The Very Best, my best wishes are always with you dear friend.

Next I was supposed to check out a few electronic stores for a Microwave. A group of us is giving the newly wed couple (the one who called me for lunch last sunday) a Microwave as a wedding gift. Again the Bangalore heat got to me. After resting for  a while I was off again. This time to meet a pal whose back from Germany. So group of us were sitting in a pub, listening to very loud music (which I found tasteless), watching IPL T20 matches (which dont interest me) and drinking cola while watching others get drunk. I had a severe head ache that nite.

Sunday was reserved for a friend from Belgaum. I was supposed to meet his and his better half on Sunday. But Sunday began with a hangover. The loud music previous nite had taken its toll. But after fixing up a meeting time and place I was off on my bike again in the head to meet him. After having lunches at Empire and KFC (hmmm…) we parted ways. Next we headed to the marriage of another friend. We timed our arrival such that we could miss lunch. But to our surprise the groom was just about to go for lunch as we arrived. So there I was, having my 3rd lunch in 2 hours. Its was a grand meal…nearly about 12 courses… Which I had to swallow forcefully. As I left the convention hall another friend calls me up and asks me to come along for shopping.

So here I go again. Driving around Bangalore I reach to his place and from there we are off to Shoppers Stop. Spending 5 hours and shopping for clothes worth thousands I am back at my room at 10:45 and have dinner.

What a day… tiring… total atyachar… physical, mental, intestinal atyachar… my body is cursing me as I write this post. Its been a few weekends of kuch zyada sociallizing… or as I’d put it extreme socializing.

But when I remember the valueable time spent with all my dear friends, listening to their banter, pulling anothers leg, the smile on their faces… its an over whelming feeling. A refreshing feeling which re-vitalizes my body and I say to myself, “Damn, why are there only 24 hours in a day? Why does a weekend have to get over so soon?? Why?”

Listen To The Rhythm of The Falling Rain…

All drenched in rain

Its been raining here in Bangalore for past few days now. Everytime I see the rain coming down from the heavens above I feel like getting all wet in it. But everytime I am held back. Held back from getting wet just because now I have a hundered and one things to take care of before I get wet.

Every time I have to think, “My leather shoes would get soggy in the rain”.   “What about the money wallet I am carry or my mobile phone”. Every thing would be rendered useless once I get wet. More over I’ll have to go to office, how can I sit in the office with all my clothes wet. All this khich-khich, always changes my mind.

I’m surprised when I see my self in flash back. Just 3-4 years ago,  I would have not given getting wet another thought. If it rained I’d have to get wet. Then it did not matter if I was walking, I was on a bike, I was going to college, coming from college… did not make a difference.

Well that is what they call change I suppose, but I dont want to change… I still want to be that stubborn little kid that I’ve always been.

But tonite when it rained in Bangalore while I was on my way back from dinner… I just could not help my self. I kept the wallet n mobile phone, pens etc in a plastic bag n started walking… geting drenched in the heavenly shower.. enjoying every drop landing on my body.

A happy little grown up child.

Ah.. It felt great to be a child again.. Automatically my mind started reciting the following lines from the poem “Mera Naya Bachpan” by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

बार-बार आती है मुझको मधुर याद बचपन तेरी।
गया ले गया तू जीवन की सबसे मस्त खुशी मेरी॥

चिंता-रहित खेलना-खाना वह फिरना निर्भय स्वच्छंद।
कैसे भूला जा सकता है बचपन का अतुलित आनंद?

ऊँच-नीच का ज्ञान नहीं था छुआछूत किसने जानी?
बनी हुई थी वहाँ झोंपड़ी और चीथड़ों में रानी॥

Aadil’s Bloggin REDUX

I am back.. back at another attempt of Blogging.. Starting a blog is the easiest thing to do.. but constantly updating is very difficult.. At least I find it to be. When I am in the right mood, I write.. else for months (like the last few month) I just don’t feel like writing..
So here’s to another begining… phir se.. Hello World..
Cheerz.

Diwali Dhamaka – Surprising Mysore Trip

I was supposed to be in belgaum since I had 4 days off. But the trip had to be cancelled at the nth moment. All my plans went down the drain. I would have been visiting belguam after about an year, I would have met my friends, catch up with them. But no. As they say, “Plans never work out”.. so very true.

But they also say, “Everything that happens, happens for the good”. So instead of going to Belgaum I decided to go to Mysore, may be for a day or two. Its been more than 10 years since I have visited Mysore. So late nite I called up Muzaffar and asked him would he be willing to tag along, for which he readily agreed.

So we were off to Mysore at 7 am in the morning. Reached Srirangapatnam by 11 am. After visiting all the historical places in Srirangapatnam we left for Myore. By 4:30 we were in Mysore. On the way I was telling Muzaffar how I was planning to meet up with Aadil Bandukwala, as it has been ages since we have cought up. But now I was in Mysore. I dont know when I will meet Aadil.

After reaching Mysore we headed straight to Mysore Palace, took an express tour of the grand palace (yeah.. we finished roaming around the huge place in 45 mins flat). Our plan was to head back to Bangalore by 8:30 pm. As we were having dinner, I picked up my mobile and called Aadil. I said to Aadil, “We are having dinner in your sasural(in-laws place)”. Yes she is from Mysore.

Surprise!! Surprise!!! Aadil Bandukwala too was in Mysore. And I do not need to elaborate as to why he was in Mysore (pssst.. becoz of her). All through the day Muzaffar n myself have been mentioning about Aadil at some point or the other.. and now he was in Mysore and we were in Mysore.

So without wasting much time, we packed the dinner we ordered and headed straight to the hotel where Aadil had checked in. Phir kya tha!!! The three of us met after a gap of more than a year so we had a lot of things to catch up on.

Had second round of dinner, Aadil’s favourite Butter chicken, Hot Chocolate Fudge at Corner House. We sat chatting till 2:30 am. Had the packed dinner at midnight since both Aadil n me were hungry and talked, talked and talked.

It was too good to be true.. time and again Muzaffar and me were telling how we almost called the Mysore trip off, how we almost left without calling Aadil and how we had never imagined to meet Aadil in Mysore. And to top it all off, we did get to meet Saniya, which was icing on the cake.

In the end, what was supposed to be a boring and extremely long weeked turned out be the one of the most adventurous one and filled with surprises. As I said earlier, plans never workout and yet everything that happens, happens for the good.

Check out snaps of our trip here

I’m Back

Well here I am. Back to Blogging. This will be my third attempt. The previous two were a no go. Hope I update this one often

First Flight

After 24 years, I had the previledge of travelling on board an aircraft. Untill that Sunday afternoon I had just heard about or seen on TV about the experience of flying. I always looked skywards at a plane and wondered when was I bound to fly, well July 29, 2007 was my lucky day.

Prior to this I did plan an airtravel but had to call it off due to reasons I would not mention here. But this time I was hell-bent on flying from Mumbai to Bangalore. So I went ahead and booked the air ticket. Cost me 2000 bucks but no issues. It was a GoAir flight G8/162 from Mumbai to Bangalore to Kochi. And luckily I got a window seat, 14F.

But it was not that simple for me personally for travelling by air for the first time. Not that I have any sort of phobia nor am I afraid of flying. It was just that it was the first time I was going to an Airport – untill then I had just heard about Airports from my family and friends.

I had no idea about the various steps involved before boarding a plane. There is the baggage scanning and checking first, then Check-in where you get the boarding pass and the luggage is sent, then finally the security check-in before actually boarding the plane.

It was my elder brother, who sat with me the previous nite and explained to me the various steps involved in flying. If it had not been for him, I would have been certainly lost.

It was breath-taking, just to go thru the gates of the airport, the luggage checking, do the check in, then the security check in, it was an experience. And to be frank I was nervous as hell. But I had by brother constantly calling me and getting an update from me.

In the nervousness, I went thru the security check in even before it was announced. But I was lost for words after that. Seeing the planes landing and taking off, planes at Gates, luggage cart moving around. Till that moment I had only seen the scene on Discovery or National Geographic. It was wonderful. I wanted to capture the moment on my N70 but was not sure whether photography is allowed in the aerodrome. Hence I just kept quite.

Then the time came when the plane was at the Gate and we were in line to board it. Those were exciting moments. My very first steps in an Airplane Airbus A320, searching for seat 14F, placing the bag in the over head compartment and finally taking a seat at the window seat. I will never forget those moments.

Then after some time the plane taxied and stopped just short of Runway 27 at the Chatrapati Shivaji Airport, I had the grin on my face similar to that of a todler. I was enjoying each and every moment of this journey coz I dont know when will I be flying again.

And then the moment came when it was time to lift off, It was like sitting in a joy ride. The force of the sudden accelerationo hitting you, one moment you are on the ground and the very next you are flying high above the highest sky scrapper in town…. Ah! It was magic.

More of my First flight experiences in the blogs to come…..

A shot of Mumbai

Mumbai: The city of dreams and of course RAINS.

If you wanna know how does it rain cats and dogs, be in Mumbai during the Monsoon. For many its just facinating how can Mumbaikars live in such diludge, for a Mumbaikar its a part of life. They are so much used to the rains that if for some reason it does not rain so heavily, many may start to wonder whether something is missing.

While I was in Mumbai, there were 3 days of continuous rains. With water filling into the streets, trains stopping at stations, vechicles stuck in the knee deep water, what make you wonder is, ask any one and they’ll say, “Arre, yeh to har saal ka lafda hai”. They are just not bothered about it anymore. More over they are prepared for the heavy rains.

On one weekend my family decided to go for a long drive, to may be Alibaug or Kashid. But as we drove out of the parking lot, it began to pour. I was on the from seat of the car. And I was not able to see what lies 50 mts ahead. It was raining and raining hard.

After Kharghar near to Panvel there is a diversion to JNPT and New Panvel, we took the wrong turn and were on our way to JNPT, but took a U-Turn and were back on our way to New Panvel. Just a few minutes after this we got stuck in a massive traffic jam. We were just standing in one place for like 30 minutes. At this moment we decided its not worth the drive and had to turn back. So my outing with the family ended there.