Life!

The last prayer call of the day voiced over the loudspeakers jolts me from my day-dreaming; its been almost 6 months in this country and atlast i get to go home. Life is very weird; especially for the travelling kind. U never know where your next assignment will be, all u think about during the projects is home, friends, family, your bike/car/cat/dog/girlfriend (they can be reagrranged in any order ;) ).

I've lived outside India for a while now; 4 yrs is kinda long enuf to make judgemental statements. India for all its flaws is still a magnet, everytime i cant wait to catch the flight home to experience the untold hasseling, pollution, traffic jams, honkings, stupid-pedestrians, superemely arrognat driver in a Benz, super egoist ticket counter person aka govt servant...the list can go on. But tats the way the country is and i love it ;)

Think it will be while before i write an other post, i've promised to myself to not touch the computer during my holiday......but..........its just a promise, can always break it.

To all the brave men!

India was attacked yet again and yet again it was the brave men in the uniforms who so valiantly defended Mumbai. Today i will forget abt the tainted policemen and military personnel. Im gonna salute the police officers and miliary personnel who took the fight to the enemy and won.

They put their lives at risk to save ours, a truly supreme sacrifice. How many of us would be willing to die for somebody not even remotely related to their life??.....none!

Case in point, were the fuck are the brave men, son of the soil of Maharashtra?? MSN and Bal Thackrey and RSS are probably hiding behind their women crying and clinging on to their dear life at the sound of bombs and gun shots. Be a man and face an armed enemy of the country rather than being wimpey women and harassing unarmed casual civilians. Shame on you.

The officers and armed personnel who defended your Mumbai where not son of soil but they laid down their lives for you. MSN and similar like minded idiots should now slap themselves in their face. Shame on you.

Jai Hind!!

Of temples and mosques

Its easy not to be overwhelmed by the beauracracy in Saudi Arabia, sometimes i feel its worse than India. Not that i dont love my country but considering the 'favours' u gotta do to people to get things done in India, id rather be a country hater.

Indians are hospitable, modest, brainy, innocent, god fearing...blah, blah.........yeah yeah i've heard that before. In many ways Saudi Arabia is similar to India, in India you can be the most hated, criminal, pimp arse monie laundering politician yet if you construct a temple all ur sins are washed away. Same concept here, do wat you want, but pray 5 times a day.

Everybody lives in a world of make believe...next time you donate to a temple, think of the malnutritioned street kid who so enviably watches your own son or daughter drive to school. Think stupid.....frikkin think....God can wait, not the hungry kid.

Of sin rooms and submissions

So im in Saudi....its weird how things work. The other day im sittin in my house jobless talkin to mom, now im here. Its not even a year since i left UK for India but now im in Saudi. So why am i writing all this....im fuckin bored. I've got 5 document submissions and my proponents have decided to mind fuck me for the rest of this project. All my documents have gone thro' 4 versions and they still keep calling my submissions as drafts......when on earth will they stop callin my document a draft and accept it for submission......God im pissed!! Sorry abt the rambling, needed an outlet.
To make things worse, its Ramadan month so no eating, drinking in public. All canteens are closed in the office and my team has to literally tip toe to one of the 'Sin-rooms' made available to us sinners for having our lunch and coffee. Is'nt my life great!!
Further ramblings are inspired by the regular bomb blasts i see in the news, wer the this all heading to? Innocent lives are lost on a daily basis and these pimps(read politicians) dont seem to fucking care, all they do is read out prepared text in front of the press. Hello.... is anybody actually doin something??
More inspiration comes from our Prime Minister who seems to be hell bent on the Nuke Deal? Agreed it wud supply the much needed energy but is congress actually interested in beefing up security, naah not their personal black cats, but for the common man on the street.
Sorry abt the rambling......had to let go of the steam.

Realizations!!

There are somethings which you realize as you grow up although most of the time u live in a state of denial. I've actually realized the following things today:

• i dont know to say 'No'
• i really need to control my weight, its no longer easy to stay in shape after ur 25
• drinking is only for fun and should not be done religiously
• learn to control your tongue when your drunk
• not all beautiful girls are girlfriend material
• speeding is fun but an arm and a leg is a little too much to loose
• your dad is always right (well almost alwayz)
• your mom still thinks your 16 yrs old and treats you like one
• your girlfriend(s) are not the end of the world
• you really need to start saving monie
• your relatives dont need you
• most of your friends dont need you
• respect your parents and buy them gifts
• your mobile is an extention of your body
• cartoons are boring
• world news actually matters
• tv serials are the worst things happening to women at home
• politicians suck big time, they can wipea@#$ instead of laundering monie
• there are genuine good people in this world
• never judge people likewise never confide in people
• cricket is the most overhyped sport in India....Dhoni prbly contributes to more than half of the GDP of Jharkkhand
• did i mention politicians are bigots, thiefs, criminals, pimps and they happen to decide the fate of our country.
• tamil is an incredibly amazing language and has to be preserved

Compulsive confessor

The compulsive confessor, google it guyz and im sure you will not be disappointed. Came across this personal blog and now im hooked, here is this young chic from delhi rambling sweet nothingsss and i cant stop reading her posts. Ya know wat is addictive abt her blog? its the way she writes about personal stuff......well everybody likes a bit of voyeurism. Hey shez releasing a book now!!! But her writing is awesome, very bold and very well written.

Culture, Urs and mine

The word is isssssssssssh!! Saudi's have a tradition of not talking about the obvious. Every word you say, before it leaves your mouth has to be censored. I share my office cabin in Aramco with my saudi college, a junior yet to graduate....a great guy to spend the boring afternoon hours. We simply talk, its actually an enriching experience to sit with somebody who belongs to a totally different way of life and talk about common things...generic issues like USA, Religion, Cars, Customs...lots of things.
Religion is a defacto topic of discussion between us, he wouldnt believe that i dont pray and im not religious although im a default hindu. He talks about life, death, afterlife, afterdeath.......the fact that i dont believe in all this totally beats him. His system simply does not accept that somebody without religion can actually live. Although Ahmed(the chaps name) tried to hide his dispeasure about me not accepting his argument i could sense it. Well he is not wrong and i am right so its a stalemate.
I like Ahmed for his wayz, the guy is young, very matured and staunchly defends his religion which i think is very fair. He convinced me how Saudi Arabia 'the land of the pure' is different from other Arab nations. We in India have our own religious places with absurd and weird customs to suit traditions. Saudi Arabia is one such country where traditions far outweigh the religion.
We talk about girls, here you cannot find youngsters hanging out, well they do but guys seperately and girls with their husbands or fathers. You have sprawling malls all over the country but you dont find the vibrancy of youngsters talking, laughing, lovers walking hand in hand. Here the malls are quiet, eerily quiet where you want something to happen to break the ice.
Oh i nearly forgot, 'Rajnikaaaaaaant'. After my daily meeting with the proponents of the project we had an 'off-the-topic' discussion with the guys (all saudi's) the topic of discussion: Movies and obvious i had to justify the dance-around-the-tree routine of our illustrious actors, then out of no where i heard the name 'Rajnikaaaaaaant'....i didn believe it at first but double checked it with the guy who mentioned it and yes he is an avid fan of 'Rajinikanth'.......tell me abt it! In a country where movies are banned (no theaters in Saudi Arabia) and television and internet are highly censored...Rajinikanth is famous!!
If you think this post is highly unorganized, let me clarify that im somehow managing to blog inspite of certain restrictions and this one particular post was composed in 4 days of 2 different weeks.
Will try to keep posting...but now gotta run home....taxi waiting ;)