Roohafza tea

Had come back from jogging in the morning and a little later Saurabh (my house matie) also woke up and started making tea. As always, he asked me if I would have tea too. And suddenly I saw roohafza bottle on the fridge and an idea struck me. Why not mix some roohafza in my tea instead of sugar ;) Obviously Saurabh wasn't game for anything like this. But anyway, since I take tea without sugar, Saurabh poured some tea in my cup before mixing sugar for himself. And I poured a teaspoon of roohafza in my tea. And I must say the risk was worth taking. :) lol. It tasted good. Or rather let me rephrase my sentence. It wasn't bad enough to have not drunk the roohafza tea at all. Though I must confess I can't have my tea that way always.

Another of my weird experiments with food accomplished :) And the only person I know who can appreciate these things is my very dear friend and a true saggi, AC. He has already done a phd in these kinds of experiments. And obviously, some experiments work, while others don't. But that has never stopped us from trying different things from time to time.

I remember one of my experiments which was really pathetic. I had mixed hajmola tablet in my tea once expecting it to become something like ayurvedic/masala tea. But it was horrible ;) Though at the time I did this act, I pretended that it tasted awesome. ;) Obviously I did not want my colleagues to know at that point of time since they were already frowning at what I was doing with my tea. So I just wanted to prove them wrong :P

Movie Review : RACE

Value for money ! It had been a long time since I saw any movie in a cinema hall. But finally it was worth going. RACE has a lot of style, too many twists and turns (in fact so many twists that after a point you don't feel surprised at all). Saif, Akshay, Anil Kapoor and Bipasa Basu have given good performances. Katrina was cute as usual. Sameera Reddy was there for god knows what reason ? May be just a show piece in the movie. I still remember that innocent Sameera Reddy making a rangoli outside her house in the music video of "Aur Ahista Keejiye Baatein" by Pankaj Udhaas. But bollywood has eaten up her innocence (and her clothes too) i guess. Music is good too but most of the songs do not fit into the movie anywhere. Its more like the songs have been randomly embedded into the movie at different places so that the viewers get some time to relax amidst all the suspense and drama and some food for the eye from time to time(you know what i mean). Definitely NOT a movie to watch with your parents. Go with your friends and you'll really enjoy the movie. If you are one of those viewers who prefer meaningful cinema, then probably this one is not your types.

Rating: 4/5

Sleeper bus...

I had never traveled in a sleeper bus before though had heard about it a many times. Since the time I got my return ticket to New Delhi booked in a sleeper bus I was in a constant tension as to what are these sleeper buses like ? Did a little searching on google and found an article in some blog where the guy had a terrible experience in these kind of buses and he actually ended up in a bleeding nose. Whoa !! Now that was a little scary. Moreover, how would I fit in the sleeper berth ? Are they the same as in trains or something different ?

Anyway, all my apprehensions and fears were gone when I actually boarded the bus. I loved the arrangement altogether. The interior was divided into two columns, each column further divided into an upper half and a lower half. The upper half had sleeper berths while the lower half had seats. One column had single sleeper berths while the other column had double berths. And beneath each berth were two seats. Each berth had a fan attached at one corner and since my bus was non-ac, the windows could be opened at your will. And for my height of 5ft 8in, I think it was comfortable enough to have a sound sleep. Though sometimes you were tossed like a salad whenever there were rough roads.

On the whole, I would give sleeper buses a THUMBS UP. The ticket for a non-ac sleeper bus from Lucknow to New Delhi cost me Rs. 370. And the journey time was also perfect. If took off from lucknow at 7:30 pm and dropped me at Noida at 8:00 am.

Holi Surprise ..

Took an Auto Rickshaw from alambagh bus stand and proceeded for home. All the way I kept planning how to surprise everyone at home. I just love giving surprises to my friends and family. Its an amazing feeling to see that delight on their face, that expression of unexpected joy.

I got down from the auto much before my house. Then called up mummy and started talking generally about what's it gonna be for lunch and that how much I was missing being at home ;) Mummy said that I should come by Bus in that case. Then she said but it would be very tiring to come by Bus :( Her tone had that genuine feeling of concern. I told her that everyone in my office had already gone home and I was feeling very bad and that I so much wanted to come to Lucknow. Mummy said, "To bhaag ke aa jao yahaan" (Then just run and come home quickly). And I asked her should I do that ? And she said yes !! And by now I had reached the gate of my house. I simply told her, "In that case just come to the gate and you'll find me" ;) And for a moment mummy couldn't get what I was talking. And the next moment she could see me standing at the door still holding the receiver of the telephone in her hand. And she shouted on the phone itself, "Tujhe to main maar lagaungi, badmaash" (I am gonna beat you naughty fellow). And then she came running towards the gate and ahhhhh, that expression on her face was out of the world. I could have travelled any distance to see her jump in such joy. Simply amazing. Mummy couldn't stop smiling for the next 10 minutes. We hugged each other and mummy whispered to me, "Papa ko nahin bataayenge" (We will not tell papa). Dadaji was equally surprised to see me. He was watching television in his room when he heard our noise. And then when I entered his room, he too almost jumped out of his bed in excitement. I was really glad and too happy.

Had lunch and then I slept for good 3 hours. Papa came from office around 6:30 pm. I was surfing the net then. Quickly switched off the lights in the room and waited for papa to come inside. When papa entered the lane to the living room, I came out of the living room and Papa just had a quick glance at me and then walked past me another 2-3 steps. And it was then that he realized that what he had seen a couple of seconds ago was his son standing before him. And he simply shouted and turned back and then we kept hugging each other for the next one minute. And papa kept shouting, "hello", "what a nice surprise". Wow. It was great. Just awesome !! Its always great to be home. And if the visits are something special like this one, then its all the more memorable and exciting.

Thanks to GP too for bringing me to Lucknow and then giving me the idea to surprise everyone at home rather than informing them before hand. My day was made :) Gonna have great fun for the coming couple of days !

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holi and a Happy Easter too !

Enjoy the weekend.

My first bus journey to Lucknow

Yesterday I had left KSS and was on my way to KSPL in the evening when GP told me that he was leaving for Lucknow that very night itself and if I also wanted to come or not. Since the morning I was seeing everyone at office leave for their homes and was already feeling bad that I did not book my tickets in advance and now everything was waitlist. But when I talked to GP, I instantly decided to leave for Lucknow with him in the Bus. At that time I had no thought whatsoever about how will I return from Lucknow to Delhi, about the tiring 14hour journey in the Bus, etc etc. Spoke to my boss and the PL and was really glad that they allowed me a leave for thursday at such a short notice.

Reaching Bus stand was also a kind of a struggle. Left home at 8pm but caught in a heavy traffic jam somewhere near the EDM mall, Ghaziabad. Finally we decided to walk till the AnandVihar Bus stand since the traffic did not seem to get any better soon. Walked for more than a kilometer to the bus stand only to find that the last deluxe bus for lucknow was full. I was a little disappointed to hear that but now that I had made my mind to go home, I was ready to travel in an ordinary bus even if it meant a 14hour exercise. But out of nowhere, another guy who was to go to lucknow just like us, came to our rescue (sort of ;)). He told us that he had seen another deluxe bus standing at a distant corner of the stand but he wasn't sure if that bus would go at all or not. So we (6 guys in total) proceeded in search of that bus and within 5 minutes we did find that bus to my great relief :)

The only problem with that bus was that it was an AC coach with AC NOT working ;) And since the windows were fixed, it had soon become very hot inside the bus. The conductor opened one roof top window for some fresh air. Also, there were small fans located at every alternate row. Conductor promised us that as soon as the bus starts, hw would switch on the fans. He also told us that out of all the fans 2-3 fans did not work. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that the fan just over me should not be among the non working lot. The ticket cost was Rs. 280. The bus finally started at 10:30pm. And as was expected (i dunno why though), the fan over me was among the faulty ones ;) Hehe. Anyway, it wasn't much of a problem. Since it was night time, the atmosphere was cool. And then GP and I chatted all along the journey, even watched a movie in between to pass time when we were tired of chatting :)

Finally, reached Alambagh bus stand, Lucknow at 11:30am today. And it felt great to be home without any planning and so suddenly when just a day ago I was thinking of sleeping whole day on Holi in Noida. And now the next thing on my mind was to surprise everyone at home ....

google search ...

Wow. Just realized that if one searched for "GIMP transparent object" right now on google, my tutorial on Creating transparent images in GIMP would be shown as the top result. :)