For a Friend's Life

Just finished watching a movie "Return to Paradise" (1998) on Zee studio , that left me in a maze of thoughts..  

Its about 3 friends- Lewis, Tony and Sheriff, who go on a vacation to Malaysia , and are involved in drugs. Two of them, Tony and Sheriff come back to New York.. while Lewis stays back, and gets arrested. He is scheduled to be hanged within 8 days, lest his other 2 friends come back. If only one returns, each one will have to serve six years in prison. If both return, all three will have to serve 3 years each in prison. If none return, he'll be hanged. 

Tony and Sheriff are in a dilemma. Tony is about to tie the knot with his fiancee and has a bright future ahead of him, and Sheriff does some soul searching..and decides its not within him to go, but eventually his conscience pricks him and he ends up going to Malaysia and so does Tony.

Tony comes back soon after he sees the conditions Lewis lives in, but Sheriff sticks around for saving his friend's life...

At the end, they still hang Lewis cuz some American journalist criticises the Malaysian rules of justice, which offends the Malaysian judiciary.  :(

This movie leaves you thinking what would you do had u been in Tony's or Sherff's shoes..

The right thing to do would be to go back to Malaysia, because you're responsible too. But that also means wasting 3/6 years of your life in a prison where each one has a separate cell, there's no proper food, and you're made to slog..

Sheriff does say.. "Its really difficult to give an honest answer unless you're in the situation yourself.." 

 

But.. i think if I were in their situation, I'd have first thought how much that friend means to me .. and if he/she would have done the same for me.. and would have then gone ahead wid my decision..

I'd like to know your take on this.. what would you have done ??

Tag time !!! Love is all around ...

Was Tagged by Sakhi to do this .. sorry I'm late, was a lil caught up !! :)

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by, cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by, and must continue this game by sending it to other people.

So here goes!

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?

If he's my lover, he would know better not to betray me... orrrrr elssss..... he just wont be my lover anymore !!! 

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?

Hmmm.... would want to be peaceful for once !!! 

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?   

Mr. RAJ THACKERAY !! :D  

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?

Shop till i drop .. and yeah give SOME share of it as charity too.. !! 

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?

I HAD fallen in love with my best friend !

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

Both are blessed , but they have to co-exist !!

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?

I've waited almost 7 years and won't repeat dat mistake..!!! 

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

Has happened.. and I still loved him like an idiot.. !! In future, I would just move on..!

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?

Hmm it wud be my bf , cuz i won't be comfy wid someone i don't know personally ..! 

10. What takes you down the fastest?

Depression , anxiety 

11. How would you see yourself in ten years’ time?

Working in a multinational IT company, filthy rich with an M.S. degree !

12. What’s your fear?

I'll change into a bad, rather selfish person considering what I've been going thru for da past coupla months.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

A  genuinely sweet, calm and sensible person, who writes wonderful stories and gives good advice 

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?

Hmm.. if i fall in love and end up gettin married happily, i dun mind being poor.. but if i'm single all my life i want to be rich !!!

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

Think of goin back to sleep again ... !! 

16.“Would you give all in a relationship?

Yes. 100%.

17.If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

Two people? Simultaneously? :O not possible !!! 

18. Would you forgive and forget, no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

I might forgive but I'd never forget .. 

19. If you get to go back in time and fall in love all over again, would it still be with the same person?

Definitely NOT.     

20. List 6 people to tag:

Well I don't have six people who haven't done this already.. so .. I'll tag

Aravind, Mystique Dew, Nissim

Aargghhh... !!!

I am so irritated today, and I'm taking it out on everyone that I'm coming across..!!

I was informed yesterday that the 7 am System Software lecture is cancelled cuz Pinky Ma'am is not going to come, so dat meant I had only HTML at 8.40 today.. 

I got up at 7.30, mom tells me she had been waking me up since 7.. !!! 

I couldn't even open my eyes wide open at 7.30, i forced myself to stand up at 7.45, and ran to the bathroom, bathed, dressed up, poured hot coffee down my throat..!! And then rushed to the bus-stop at 8.35 hoping the bus would arrive in another 5 minutes, i'd just be 5-10 minutes late then..!! 

That's when I took my cellphone out to listen to music as usual, and I saw this yellow envelope on my screen, there was a msg, thought it must be some dumb msg from Vodafone as usual asking me if I wanted to know what my stars have to say today, or if I wanted to make a new "friend" at Rs.6/min!! (Who says money can't buy everything :D ) .. Unfortunately it wasn't, it was a classmate : "Harpreet sir is also not coming today, please pass on this msg to everyone!" It was HIS lecture at 8.40 , so dat meant no college at all today !!!! 
I cursed myself for not reading the msg as soon as I got up, atleast I could have gone back to sleep again.. 
I went back home, and somehow now I cant even sleep properly, my head is starting to pain now.. and the smallest of things is irritating me.. :-(

The Great "Bombay" Divide

Of late, all I hear of is .. a shop being demolished.. a man being beaten up .. for no fault of his, on 

the mere accusation that he's spoiling the "culture" .. Does our culture include beating up people, destroying valuable property, enforcing illogical rules on others without having the right to do so? 

The recent occurences by the MNS activists has developed great dismay amongst all 

Bombay (I prefer calling it that!) citizens.. 

Maybe, Mr. Raj Thackeray is doing this for getting the Marathi votebank, but little does he realise, this is making him lose his self respect in the society.. if he had any! 

The activists started with beating up immigrants from UP.

Then it was with cinemas showing only Hindi and English movies.. He made it compulsory for 

every theatre across the street to screen a Marathi movie. If that wasn't enough, he forced people to change their company/restaurant's names from Bombay to Mumbai.. Its so ridiculous changing names like Bombay Blues , Bombay Dyeing, Bombay Scottish .. to Mumbai Blues and the like. Its not even his right to do that.. No one even bothered to take action against this. 

And then he came up with what he calls "the Marathi revolution" .. He forced shop owners to 

change their hoardings from English to Marathi, with the Marathi font larger than the English one. It was a rule by the BMC, agreed. But who gives this party a right to take it in its hands? A 

deadline was given, and after this deadline, the BMC took action, fair enough. Was the drama 

created by these MNS activists necessary ? 

And then again, at the music release of the Bacchan movie "Drona" , Jaya Bacchan chose to

 speak in her own mother tongue offering sincere apologies to Marathi folks asking them not to 

feel bad. This was interpreted as an insult by the MNS activists.. How can they even think of 

something like that? Moreover, he banned Bacchan movies being shown in theatres.. If this wasnt enough, he went ahead and asked everyone to stop using products which the Bacchans endorsed..  All this... and the government is doing nothing but look!!

When the Mumbai commissioner rightly said that Mumbai does not belong to anyone in 

particular, but to anyone who resides in here , he passed a harsh comment against this 

commissioner too !!

He's really a hypocrite.. he had himself taken up German in college, and he chants Marathi slogans while he sends his son to Bombay Scottish!

They'll soon ban English too! All in the name of statehood..!!

I say, he should be arrested for provoking communal violence. 

Why cant they do something constructive instead of all this ???

Recently with the Ganpati celebrations going on, in VileParle, a man requested for the volume of 

the Bhajans to be turned down since his dad just had a heart operation.. He was beaten up by the Shivsena activists of his society! 

This is not even humane..!! 

I am very passionate about Bombay, and I love this city for the freedom it offers, for

 the way 

people of different communities live together in harmony, celebrate festivals together

 irrespective of what religion they belong to..  

Even during the 11/7 blasts and the 26/7 floods, no injured Maharastrian asked for a helping hand from another Maharashtrian... we left it all behind cuz when it comes to humanity, nothing else matters!

My college group consists of Punjabis, Gujaratis, Muslims, South-Indians me being one myself,  

Maharashtrians, North-Indians, and I love it when we all have our dabbas together during breaks.. I love it when I'm never asked for my last name, and when I'm asked where I'm from, I proudly say Bombay!

But with the current scenario, I wont be surprised if all of us would be kicked out of here soon.. i 

already don't like the look of it anymore.. its really sad..

Speechless Beauty ..

He tugged at my dupatta as i stood before the Ganesh idol .. 

I looked down where he sat, and smiled. 

He tugged at it yet again gesturing me to sit next to him.. 

He clapped cheerfully as I sat ..

He pointed at the Ganesh idol , and clapped again .. gesturing that its beautiful ..

I kept staring at him , as all others around me did... with pitiful eyes..

He was the most innocent 8 yr old kid, sweet and playful,

mentally challenged and devoid of speech... 

CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES MUST BE BANNED: Genetic defects cause a lot of ill-effects in resulting offsprings.

Of Displays and Drivers ..

I was fidgeting with my remote ,  flipping through the channels .. nothing really was worth watching on television.. rather, I had no idea what was being aired and on which channel.. i don't watch tv dat often but dat day I didn't have a choice.. after half an hour of switching 999 channels (Tata Sky and my life is NOT AT ALL "jhinga-la-la", and FYI they dont give u all the 999 channels, a lot of them are paid channels and a lot are empty..), I shut it down .. err.. turned it off.. and then once more, I turned to look at my empty cabinet and sulked (cabinet here means my PC case)..  I had nothing to do .. I had finished reading all of Indian Express and Hindustan Times in the morning.. Yes, the sports section as well !!!  I dozed off to sleep , got up in an hour .. switched through the channels, looked at my cabinet again..sighed.. called up a couple of friends, who only made me feel worse by sayin they were all conferencing on Gtalk lab ed... went back to sleeeep...!! 

I had never imagined a single day in my life without my PC .. It has been my constant companion since I was 5 .. The last couple of weeks really put me to test !!! 

My monitor was giving me problems.. (actually, it was my Motherboard but i figured dat out later! :D) .. The monitor would just go off when i was in the middle of something... I could hear songs playing, and XP start-up and shut-down sounds.. just couldn't see anything on screen.. so I assumed something must be wrong with my monitor.. I got my neighbour's monitor to test, and it worked.. The next day my neighbour's monitor also went off in a while .. so then I assumed it must be the data cable .. so I tried switching the data cables.. it still wouldn't work ..!!! 

Then one of my techie-friends said there must be something wrong with the on-board display on the motherboard.. I was hoping that should be it, atleast I'd know what the problem was !!! And then another one said it could be the drivers.. I borrowed my friend's graphic card for a coupla days, the display didnt go off even once with the graphic card inserted, so I either had to buy a new GC or a new motherboard.. The next 2 days, I was searching for my

 motherboard box and saw it was under warranty.. I rushed to the Gigabyte service centre (takes an hour by train + auto :-( ).. They were pretty fast (took 5 days), I got back my motherboard , assembled everything.. it started.. the display hasn't gone off even once since then :-) 

I experienced what it was like without my comp .. It has become such a big part of my life, a basic necessity !! All I would do is watch television (rather, switch channels till my fingers got bored), read books, and sleeep.. It did bring me some peace for a change.. sometimes I'd feel restless especially when my friends were conferencing on chat and I couldn't join them :-( , i couldn't even work on my projects, do my practical homework,  surf blogs, write a post, check my scraps, listen to my favourite songs or watch movies .. but couldn't help it. They always say you should never be so dependant on something so much that it affects ur living.. all good that came out of this is I survived through it all and feel pride in it :D .. 

P.S: Feels great to be back !!! :)

Embarrassing Escapades

The other day I was hangin out in McDonalds with a friend, and I called up another friend of mine who was also supposed to join us, to find out how long he'll take.. I dialled his number, and was waiting for it to ring.. and after about a minute, I looked at the cellphone..the line had got
disconnected by itself, and all i could see was the wallpaper ... I was wondering what would hav
happened if I were to get a call in dat time.. I'd attract so many stares from people around who
would think I was showin off ..!! :D

There are many such incidents that have occured over the past few weeks..

Like on the day of the school re-union, my friend and I were speedin up to school.. and just then,
a cab stopped right in front of us, and this girl called me by my name and asked me if I wanted a
lift , as she was going for the re-union too..!! I couldn't recollect her name or anything about her..
all I knew was I was in a hurry and a lift would surely hav helped !! The whole cab journey, I had my fingers crossed hoping she wouldn't make conversation ! :D

The worst of the lot was when I was trying to imitate my favourite Chandler laugh when he's
upto some prank ... was looking into the mirror trying to get it right.. when my neighbour who had recently moved in.. walked in and burst out laughing... she was lookin at me since the past 5
minutes from another mirror that reflects the image .. I couldnt do much but laugh with her.. !! :D

All of us have been into such situations one time or the other ... and all we can do is blush with embarrassment or laugh at ourselves and get away with it ..!! I tag everyone to share their such stories as comments/posts .. :)

Confusions of a Dangerous Mind

It was 7.15 a.m. and I was running up the staircase, struggling to make it for the 7 a.m. Networking lecture...

Me (*panting*): Ma'am , may I come in please?
Sushmitha Ma'am: No

Me : Will you allow me in for the next lecture?

Susmitha Ma'am: No

And I went back .. crying.... terrribly... Now, Sushmitha Ma'am is very particular about punctuality, and it's usual for her to say NO to people who are even a minute late. I was wondering what is it that made me sob so bad.. for 30 mins after she said NO .. !!

Since the last 3 weeks, I'm unable to explain things that I do, the way I think... and its scaring me all the more. People tell me I have changed, in a way that I didn't realise on my own.. They say I don't take anyone close now, I keep all of my friends at some distance, and treat them equally.. And nothing affects me so much.. And yes, they were true about that.. I don't know why ... Maybe its cuz I've been hurt so much in the past that I've decided I wont let things affect me the way they used to, and avoid getting hurt.. But it didnt work the way I wanted it to... My behaviour is affecting people around me, and its hurting them , which is inturn making me feel bad about myself..

I don't feel the urge to call my dear ones and meet them every time I get a tea break or a free lecture.. I don't feel the urge to talk to loved ones in my vella time.. I just go with the flow. I talk to people around me, listen to music when I'm alone, sleep or surf the net at home, but don't take any extra efforts to talk to people, meet them... Its not that I don't care, its just that I don't feel the same anymore.. I don't know if its a problem.. Some say its for the best, cuz I was a person who wouldn't stay a second without someone special around me , I hardly ever gave time to myself... I would do all I could for people so it also led to people taking advantage of this.. Maybe it is for the good, but I don't want to hurt anyone .. Especially my close ones.. :(

I feel scared of myself thinking I'm turning into a bad person.. I keep hoping its just a passing
phase.

And maybe there was so much within me that the little thing that happened in class (getting kicked out for coming late) was like pulling the trigger finally .. I did feel better after venting it all out.. but that was just temporary..

I can't explain that fear within me .. I keep feeling guilty .. like I'm not being true to people.. its the worst feeling one can ever have..

Feeling better having written this down..
I couldn't have put this into words any better than this..

*Please don't feel offended cuz of my behaviour in case it turns bad.. I apologise to all those I may have hurt in the past few weeks.. it was purely unintentional..*

"I HEAR dead people"

I am normally not one of those people to believe in ghosts, evil spirits, werewolves, vampires and the like! I do get scared after watching a horror movie... I also get scared of the dark at times... But I never believed in those unnatural beings..

until Saturday night.

I had been to a friend's place to vashi on Saturday, for the weekend.. I always go there, the last
time I went there her dog Simba bit me.. I still dared to go there this time when she forcefully
asked me to come, but told her I wanted her dog leashed till the time I'm there, she agreed. :)And when I got there, they told me another incident that has been happening since a few months now.. Had they told me before I could go there, I don't think I would have gone !!

So, here's the story ...

Her dad keeps goin on business trips every now and then.. sometimes to Bangalore, sometimes
Delhi..What she and her younger sister told me is.. Whenever their dad goes outdoors, exactly at 2.30 a.m. at night their balcony latch starts making noise as if someone is fiddling with it
continuously.. Moreover, they can hear a lady making a weird noise, and sometimes crying
outside their bedroom door. They sleep in the bedroom with the door locked.. They had even
tried opening the door but they never saw anyone, they could only hear noises. And Simba starts sniffing the bedroom door and starts barking .. the same way that he does when someone comes to their place..

Now , if you think I bought that in one go, you're wrong..I thought they must be bluffing to scare me off , so I asked Aunty (their mom) if this was true..
She said she too didnt believe them at first but once when she herself heard the latch making so
much noise, she froze in fear !! I asked them if they did anything about it, and she said she did
perfom some ritual ("Havan" for those who understand) to drive away that spirit, but it didn't
work. Sometimes it also happens when their dad is not outdoors, but her dad hasn't experienced
anything of that sorts till date. Aunty says its maybe cuz uncle is a heavy sleeper, but its really
strange that he didnt experience it even ONCE.

Now they are so used to it that once my friend was sitting outside the bedroom, in the hall area, watching TV and talking on the phone ... she had worn this gold chain with a holy pendant .. and was taking rounds while talking... and when the clock struck 2.30, the latch started making noise, and she could hear some sobbing noise outside the bedroom, and her chain snapped off, the pendant went rolling over till the edge of the sofa, she ran to the bedroom, locked herself inside and went to sleep. Next day she saw the chain wasnt broken, it had been unlocked out of the S-shaped loop and its not very easy to take it out of the loop..I asked her why all of this is happening, and she told me that there used to live a mad lady in their
building, on the 6th floor (they live on the 2nd floor), and would take rounds on the terrace. The
children troubled her a lot cuz she was eccentric. She used to murmur stuff like ... "dekh lungi
sabko..." She died recently and hers wasnt a natural death. She was crossing the tracks and a train hit her, it was fatal.People in their society say they too have had experiences of her....

After they told me the whole thing, we made light jokes out of it, and kept pulling each others
legs, planning stuff on how we'll scare off the ghost away.. !! but when we went to sleep that night they made me wear that chain and kept the bedroom door locked (though her dad was at
home,why take chances!).. I also had my earphones ON and was listening to music on my phone
at the loudest volume so that I don't get to hear anything else !!! Thankfully nothing happened.

When I came back the next day, I told this to all of my friends, and also to my parents which led to a big discussion on spirits and how they come back if they have a wish that's unfulfilled.. It gave me creeps .. I tried sleeping on Sunday night, I had the bedsheet all over me , I hugged my mom and went to sleep.. To add to my fear, the next morning she asked me if someone rang the doorbell at 2 in the night, she wasnt sure if it was a dream or if it really happened...!!! Nothing really happened after that but every night I keep gettin scared every now and then ..

If you still think I'm stupid , then well, maybe I am .. but after that day I dont think I'll get up for a nature call post midnight !! :D

BTW: "Simba was extra sweet to me the next morning (Sunday morning)... I'm no longer scared of him :)"

Nostalgia .. Creepin within..

Went through my friend Aditi's album the other day (night actually)..

She had uploaded all of our best pics, mostly of us as a group chilling at Koolars (Irani) , on coll fests, bdays, treks,picnics, in class, everywhere ..!!

And I don't know why.. I could feel this chill down my spine looking at all these times we shared.. n at da same time i shuddered at the thought of never gettin these times back again, dis being the last year.. N i keep thinkin what would happen 2 yrs down the line ....

Would we while away time in the canteen ?

Would we hang around at koolars havin bun-maska, maggi n chaai ?

Would abdul chacha still recognise us ?

Would we have our dabba in da middle of da lecture and finish it all ?

Would we run to have ragdaa puri at Pritam?

Would we celebrate b'days together?

Would we go for outings?

Would Nimit (Bhangi) still get a CentreFresh for me everyday?

Would we still laugh at SJ's ? (Sanket's Jokes) ..

Will there be any SJ's at all ?

Would Amit still act like SRK ?

Would we meet on friendship day?

Would we all be together again.. the same way ??

Would we...

Nothing lasts forever ... I wish it did ....

"As we go on, we remember

All the times we had together

And as our lives change, come whatever

We will still be, friends forever"

- Vitamin C : Graduation (friends forever)

*suited dis post*