Mom oh Mom ....

We humans at times can exhibit a charmingly strange behavior. And I prefer to call such human beings as "Characters".  And among those species one of the most common people who show such character are Mothers.

 

Yes no doubt they are quite charming and innocent when do such antiques.

 

When I was a kid , like most of the kids in India and probably across the world, I used to carry my lunch from home and being the naughty kid that I was , most often when my Mom used to keep the packed lunch on the desk from where I was supposed to take it, I used to forget taking it  and have to have Dad drop it at school :). And needless in the evening it would have resulted in heavy scolding from both of them.

 

That happened countless times in my childhood and biggest concern of my Mom everyday , apart from ensuring that I don't spill milk on my shirt, was to ensure that I have taken it from the desk.

 

And now if we fast forward to the present , there were times when I used to carry breakfast from home to office and during those time when I could have missed the box at home and still could have eaten a sumptous breakfast at office, she used to put it herself in my bag.

 

I mean when in childhood if she had put that in my bag then it would have saved both of us from the pain, her mental and mine physical .

 

When I mentioned this to her that why during school times you used to keep it at desk for me to pick and pack and now when I am grown up you yourself ensure that its going to office with me ? She had no answer, she just said she does not know why she used to do that.

 

The answer I could think of is that she wanted me to be responsible at that age and now she is just concerned of my well being and no longer needs to teach me anything :)

 

My Adorable Mom

 

This picture was taken at a bus stop in Seoul, South Korea, during our visit last year. This is so typical of the adorable character she is :), wearing those Goggles from 70's and wearing a customary scarf so characteristic of a Bengali in a cold place, all wrapped up. Love you so much Mom :)

Happiest Day of my life...

Finally the day came for which I was eagerly waiting since so long, the happiest moment of my life. I bought my first DSLR yesterday :)

I wanted to share with you all on the day I ordered my Nikon D7000 but the first order got cancelled and I thought I should not jinx it :)

I can't tell you guys how much happy I am . Not only this is my first DSLR, its something for which I was waiting since last many years and something which will give the much needed purpose to my life.

Before I write further , I will like to thank my sister and parents for letting me buy such an expensive equipment. Especially my sister, if my parent brought me to this world, you have given me my life Didibhai. 

Upgrading from a Point & Shoot to a DSLR in itself should be a major improvement and that being D7000 itself takes me to a different world. (Its a mid level DSLR costing round 62K with lens)

I ordered it on Wednesday and was supposed to pick it by Saturday but could not stop myself and went there Thursday itself :) 

Just sharing some initial thoughts. I am yet to take it out in daylight as I picked it at around 7:30 in the evening yesterday . But I already took 300 shots while travelling back from store to my home(around one n half hour trip).

So since I have only shot at night and that too from a moving car with my less than novice technique, I din't have much keepers out of those 300. 

I bought it with 18-55 kit lens as any other lens was out of my budget and anyways the reviews of this kit lens were quite good. 

1. The first shot that I took after the shopkeeper handed me the cam was the below potrait of my dad and now when I checked on my laptop ,its something I could never take with my P&S, a potrait with just the person and rest all blurred.  (The below photo is the cropped version of that.)

2. After that I shot while travelling and that too in low light condition. Since I have never used a cam that could give me any kind of control on Aperture or Shutter , I shot first in Auto mode, which popped out the flash the moment I tried to click. 

Don't take it as a negative comment but I found it hunting a lot with me missing some shots. Actually the P&S would have clicked those irrespective of whether it could lock focus properly or not. I am not comparing the quality here, I am just saying that since it has way more IQ then a P&S, it is more choosy :). 

P&S would have clicked it irrespective of whether anything is in focus or anything is sharp or not. But the few keepers I had itself gave me the idea that if I had played around with the camera or had been stationary, it would have locked many more shots in near perfect way. 

3. Then I switched to Aperture mode and owing to lack of knowledge when I reduced the aperture to say till f22 it increased the shutter speed by quite a few seconds and owing to my constant motion and novice techniques all of them had blurred (although I could still see some interesting light patterns due to its long exposure :)) 

4. So next I moved to Shutter priority, and again due to my stupidity , I clicked it at fastest possible speed initially and as expected they all were blacked out. Then I reduced the speed and I clicked a series of photos where I can see the scene illuminating as I slowed the shutter. 

5. The Viewfinder is AWESOME. Man I din't even checked the live view till I reviewd my shutter priority mode photos and found them blacked out. The Viewfinder is something to die for and I don't think I am going to use live view ever when I have such an amazing view finder. 

6. The Camera is heavy but I found it quite sturdy and grip was amazing. 

7. Coming from a Canon P&S and with Canon being quite user friendly as far as button layouts is concerned, I found the buttons quite easy to use. And there are so many buttons at the back that I was just wondering if I am ever going to use them :-D 

8. Then I shot in without flash mode and man I was hugely impressed. The shots have come too good at times without flash in low light. By good I don't mean keepers but in that low light I never expected it to lock and capture so well and once my technique improves I think there will be many keepers. 

 

Below is my first attempt at Bokeh (about which I will definitely write a post once I get more hang of it)

If I have to summarize in one line then it will definitely be I'm Loving It :)

Since my Di is not here so the only muses that I have at present are my helpless Mom and Dad , who are going to be most frequent subject of my photography.

 

I just loved the above pic that I took of my Dad.


So guys be ready to start this new journey with me :)

Dad...the first SuperHero of our life :)

Tomorrow is Father's day and I have been planning to share a small memory that my dad shared with me a while ago when we two were watching French Open's semifinal between Nadal and Soderling. 

But being the lazy guy I am, I never did.

But today I received a mailer from ICICI Bank , wishing us on Father's day.

The sentence written in that Ad is as follows:

"He is a mentor, guardian, friend, role model and much more. ICICI Bank joins you in wishing the first ever SUPERHERO in your life."

More than anything it was the last line that touched me most.

Yes , he is indeed the first Superhero of our life. He is the first person who could do anything that was possible in this world. He could make us giggle or laugh by tickling us when we were sad that our toy is broken. We don't have to bother if we get tired while walking in the market because no matter how loaded he is , he will always find hands to carry us on his shoulders. We don't have to be scared of falling because we knew before we touch the ground his hand will hold us. In fact sometimes the falling was intentional just to get the caring and pampering after that.

Not only he could never do anything wrong but even if we did a grave mistake we always knew he could mend it and make it like before. No matter how much he scolds you or how much you are scared of him, he was the one guy in whose arms you had the best sleep you ever had.

Yes he is my first Idol and like everyone who wishes to be like their dad I too always wanted to be like him when I grow up. He has taught me a lot of things in life but the foremost thing I have learned from him , the conversation that I still remember little foggily was when he told me that "Nothing is impossible". I don't remember why he said that or for what context but that is one thing that has always given me the courage to do anything , to take initiatives and be confident that yes I can do it.

So coming to the memory that he shared that day. I came back from office and as always I was sitting with my Mom n Dad and watching whatever they were watching on television. And during the commercial I just surfed to the sports channel as I knew Nadal vs Soderling was being aired at that time. After checking the score I just changed back the channel but my dad changed back to the sports channel and started watching, I was surprised because although we two have always passionately watched Cricket and Hockey together and I had also forced him to see ManU's soccer matches at times but I never thought he will show any interest in any other sport. Soon he started commenting passionately about that sport and then he shared that while in college he had at times worked as a ball boy at tennis stadium. In fact he told me that he has seen Ramesh Krishnan, Joy Mukherjee etc who have been stalwarts of Indian tennis in 70's from close as he had served as the ball boy in the games they played at the tennis academy. I felt quite proud and happy to know about it.

I love him a lot. And wish him the best of health , happiness and everything :)

PS: I know the photo is not good :( . I clicked it just today and was hoping it to come good and right now this is the only pic which matches what I want to add to this post.

Papa main papa ban gaya....

Nowadays not only people who are part of my life are taking the plunge towards the next phase of their life by getting married , there are some too who are going one step further.

Firstly it was Sud (RJ on Radio Mirchi Delhi), who in his signature style "unknowingly" told all his listeners that his wife Monali is pregnant. Like always the innocent antiques that he did on air were really hilarious. The excitement in his voice while disclosingly hiding the same was so amusing to hear about. The way he said " Main na aap log se na ek baat chupa raha hun bahut dino se ...maine aap logo ko pata bhi nai lagne diya (this was after he gave all open hints about it on air everytime since last week).... actually ghar walo ne kaha hai ki itni jaldi sabko nahi batate...but how can I hide from u ppl...Maine naaa papa banne wala hun... Ohhh My God."

And then recently, few weeks back, my immediate boss , who is btw French and works at our France office, became a father. And he shared it somewhat like this in our weekly call...

"I have a news to share.. ,..its.. personal.., yesterday.. my.. baby.. arrived , both the mother.. and ..boy.. are doing.. good...( the "..." are the pauses he took between every word...and after an awkwardly long silence he said) And So...I .. am ...Happy "

And this happened in the next 4 calls that we attended that week with various customers :)

I know this is arguably the greatest day in everyone's life and the excitement these people showed in sharing the news made me appreciate it the more.

PS: These episodes reminded me of the song from Anil Kapoor - Kajol starrer film (I forgot the name of the film) ..Papa mein papa ban gaya...thats why this title :)

Great sporting day :)

One of the great sporting day. First Sania Mirza enters semi final of tennis singles event at Asian Games. Then India beats Pakistan in Hockey. Then most of Indian Boxers make it to semi final of their perspective events in Asian Games. Indian cricket team reduces New Zealand to 127/7. Then in the evening first Tottenham Hotspurs comes from behind to defeat Arsenal in Premier League , then ManU defeats Wigan with Rooney back on field and at the end the icing on the cake, Chelsea loses enabling ManU equal them on points and be at top of the table. All in all a nice day for me to relax after almost two hectic weeks at office. Tomorrow will go to watch a movie with Mom n Dad :)

Whistling :-)

I just put a status on Facebook that I want to whistle along with the song I am listening but couldn't because of my surroundings.

So it just reminds me of an incident which I wanted to share since long.

One day I was driving and my mom n dad were there with me and some song was playing on radio so I started whistling along with it. Although I thought that when I was kid and used to do something similar my dad always used to scold me but now I thought it should be fine as I am an adult now :-). So I continued whistling. I don't remember whether it was the next day or some days later but we three were watching some Bengali sitcom and in one of the scene the guy, around my age, came to the room in which his dad was sitting and started whistling and suddenly my Mom commented something "Nejer babar samne whistling korche" meaning "How can he whistle in front of his dad?". And the previous days incident came to my mind and I felt so embarrassed. Although its another matter that I have still not stopped doing it :-)

For one more day....

Image taken from coverbrowser.com

Another best seller from Mitch Albom after Five people you meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. 

For one more day is a story of an ex baseball player who tries to commit suicide after he fails completely in his life.He was a phenomenal player in college but despite being drafted in the major league he couldn't last more than a year and despite all his father's pushing he never makes it back. He has lost his job, his wife has left him long time back, he spends most of his time drinking and doesn't have anyone who cares for him. And when even his only daughter whom he loved so much doesn't want him around and don't even call him for her wedding,he decides to end his life. So when he goes to his native place to kill himself there he find his Mom who has already died and this book captures that one day he spends with his mother and when he goes through all the things that has happened in his life. How he always loved his father the most and how his father left them one day and he blamed his mother for that. In that one day he came to know about the real reasons , the hardships his mother has taken for him.

Since this book talks a lot about a mother it itself becomes quite a touching story.

So here are the statements that I liked a lot from this book and as always my comment on the same.

Mothers support certain illusions about their children and one of my illusions was that I liked who I was, because she did.

Ha ha ha . So true. I always feel that a guy is very lucky at times as he always has two ladies who will always adore him and love him. One his mother and the other his sister. For these two ladies he is always the best. 

What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked its hard to believe you ever were a child?

Absolutely sometimes I feel I am the child who used to be so naughty and fun loving when he was a kid and sometimes I can't even imagine that I was that child. 

I can say I adored my mother in the way that boys adore their mothers while taking them for granted.

Hmmm , we guys always know that there is one person who will do everything possible for us like no need to care about whether our clothes are clean and pressed, what we will eat etc, whether we will get up on time for school or college or office etc and sometimes we do take her for granted. 

Her only flaw was that she didn't make me work for it.

A mother never makes a child long for her love or affection, she will never say do this then only you will get this. She will always give you that without making you toil for that. 

Kids chase the love that eludes them . 

And we guys always run for the love of our Dad. I still remember when I was recovering from food poisoning for which I was hospitalized and I went to a doctor for a checkup along with my Mother and my Dad was not in town and I know only how my mother managed everything. So the doctor asked me whom do you love more, Dad or Mom and I said without thinking Dad.

A mountaineer on being asked which is more difficult , Ascending or Descending ? Answered without a doubt descending because ascending you were so focussed on reaching the top you avoided mistakes.

So true.

A New Year ...

That day of the year when you get to change the digits of the yy field in the date although unlike school or college we no longer have to write the complete date everyday on the top of the class book but still for certain things we do need to put it in the year. So the way this new year day started or went I feel the year will be quite interesting. 

In the morning I was quite irritated but nevertheless was happy to be out of love (most of the time when I say love it means romantic love ) or feelings related to it. Don't know but don't have those feelings for anyone any more. Then took a bath quickly because of two reasons. Didibhai reminded me that its essential to take bath on the first day of the year otherwise you won't take regular baths throughout the year. Although I told her that I don't think I took a bath on the first day last year but still I was more than regular throughout the year. Nevertheless the second reason was that I had to go outside to buy a sketch book for a friend who has of late started sketching and she has already done some wonderful work. I have also decided to start learning the same. Actually one of my other friend once told me that one way to pass time is to make or buy gifts for your friends so thought I can atleast pass time buying things for my friend. Also I had to watch Avtar. 

So I went to watch Avtar. It was an ok movie. With the amount of money used to make it, it could have been much better. But nevertheless must appreciate the effects. They gave the movie a mixture of real and animated appearance. Then bought the sketch book and some drawing pencils. 

Had a long discussion about the investment and loans with Mom n Dad and it seems this year is gonna be an interesting one for our family possessions too. Well overall an interesting day. 

Although the new year has started and I am almost finished with my previous years but still need to share my experience about my trip to Bengal and Bhubaneshwar. Anyways I know I will need to do a lot of sharing this year so wishing a Very Happy N Prosperous new year to my blog. We will rock :-). 

Well will definitely update about the whackiest list that I made for last year and will also come up with the one for this year. So till then enjoy ...

Sweets and Misthi Doi. Day 3

Sorry for not writing yesterday. Was busy reading and solving puzzles and also watching India win. 

Well it wasn't much eventful yesterday. Well we couldn't get tickets for the Alka Yagnik show :-( so had to sit most of the day at home. Although I drove dad around the town in my Jethu's scooty. It was quite fun driving it. 

Went to a sweet shop and had few rasogolas by myself :-). Also had misthi doi. 

In the evening I went and bought Mughlai and egg roll and some sweets. The best part about these places is that you get to walk a lot. I can definitely do with some walking owing to the amount of sweets and oil I am consuming daily. 

So overall a nice relaxing day. Will keep writing till then chao.

Games we are playing...

Games bug is what has bitten my family. My mom has by chance found two decks of cards in the drawer and ever since then we three play cards in the evening.

So nowadays after reaching home I watch as usual friends from 7.30 parallely playing cards with my parents. Not only cards, my mom also found ludo, carrom and also chess. So we play carrom too although the board is quite small. I also brought a print out of snakes and ladder and now we just need to paste it on a card board.

So we have found a nice past time for the evening :-)

Alphabetically Me .. :)

Although I have been planning and writing a Rendezvous with myself but nevertheless saw this list on someone's blog and felt it would be real fun to fill one for myself.

A – Available/Single? - Someone asked isn't it the same ? But I guess it depends on the answer that you give. Mine is I am Single :)

B – Best friend? - Me, Myself n I.

C – Cool or Hot? - Cool when its too hot to handle and hot when it requires to chill.

D – Drink of choice? - Water. Nothing else can match it.

E – Essential item you use every day? Toothbrush.

F – Favorite colour? Sometimes I like green, love black and at times blue.

G – Girls or Guys? Hope its a "straight" question. Guys for crying and Girls for laughing.

H – Hometown? Interesting. I have been living in Faridabad since last 15 odd years.

I – Indulgence? Day Dreaming.

J – January or February? December.

K – Kids & their names? 2 , Narendra and Minoti. Dad is 60 now and Mom is 50 plus so they are like kids to me now.

L – Life is incomplete without? Family.

M – Marriage date? 11/12/13 (dd/mm/yy) . He he he...

N – Number of siblings? 2, one little sis and one elder sister (all in my Didibhai)

O – Oranges or Apples? Mangoes

P – Phobias/Fears? Fear of losing my family members.

Q – Quote for today? Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.

R – Reason to smile? Nowadays I smile a lot thinking about the crazy things I did.

S – Season? I love Winter.

T – Truth? Believe in what is said in Bhagwad Gita. "Agar Ek Jhoot se kisi ka Bhala hota hai (aur kisi ka nuksaan na ho), to wo Sau Sach ke Barabar hai"

U – Unknown fact about me?  Over possessive about people and relations.

V – Vegetable you don’t like? Arbi. Can eat humans but Arbi, never.

W – Worst habit? Dwell a lot about so called small things.

X – X-rays you’ve had? None :(

Y – Your favorite food? Fish curry that my Mom cooks.

Z – Zodiac sign? Sagittarius.

Dad turn sixty

My dad turns sixty today. I feel like asking him Has he achieved what all he wanted to by this time ? Like we nowadays think that after 10 years I should be here or at 30 I should have done this so in the same way he too must had some dreams. I want to ask him all those so if not already  fulfilled, may be I can help him in doing those. 

But may be like they say that a son is more close to his mom then father I also feel that a father n son have that kind of apprehensions in talking with each other. There conversations are mainly short and have subject. 

I still remember when I started going to office three years back I used to come back everyday and tell my mom everything that happened that day , both personal and professional, while standing in kitchen without even taking my shoes off, which I still do. So my dad complained to my sister that I only talk to mom and don't talk with him. I was so surprised to know that. After that I made sure to strike conversation with him after I am back from office. 

But dad is always DAD. He is still the same guy hearing whose jeep's noise I used to leave everything and run for my books. On result days in order to save myself from his scoldings I used to hide in toilets or underneath the bed. 

Ever since I am using a cell phone he calls me on phone when I am late from college or now from office. At those times I find in his voice not that authority of a father but instead its sounds more that of a friendly father. When I am late at night,hanging out with friends, he always used to call asking Are you going to come today? When I was in college this question was more sarcastic but nowadays its more to know if the front door should be kept unlocked. Sometimes he doesn't call, may be thinking that I have grown up now and should be given some freedom but I miss his calls a lot at those times. 

I know he has struggled a lot in his life and he is still struggling. 

One thing I feel bad about him is that he doesn't have any close friend and that scares me a lot. The same with my mom and may be with both of me and my sister. May be Jana's don't have that.  :)


I really want to fulfil all his dreams like Anupam kher says to Sharukh in DDLJ that if you think you are done with enjoying your life then go and enjoy mine. Its just that its the other way around here. I want to tell him that tell me what you want I will do that for you. What all you dreamt as a youngster as a grown up, I will help you fulfil those. Its not that late. 

One thing  I know for sure that he wants to own a luxury car and me and my sister are going to present him one soon. May be we missed the sixtieth birthday deadline but its better late then never. 

May god bless him with the best of health, happiness and everything.

Boys do cry......

Well this was my Gtalk status for today and it got few comments from people on my contact list and some of them do wanted to know what happened? why this status?

I really thought a lot about writing this post in a way that I won't have to touch what happened but after thinking a lot the voice within me told me that you need not hide it from your blog.

So , yes I cried today in the morning(ok it wasn't like tears were flowing from my eyes just that my eyes got wet and its not that a rare phenomenon since last year) while sitting in the office bus (I generally sit alone so don't worry I din't embarass myself and generally people hardly notice me :) ) but why ? thats all together a different post. And seeing the urge to write (this happens to be the 6th post and the 4th published post I am writing today. and I skipped my guitar class to write this) I might write that too.

Ok coming to that status. Generally my morning happens this way. Sitting in the bus , when the bus hits the expressway, I close the book I am reading and close my eyes and then start dreaming (I try hard to sleep but due to some apparent reasons I can't, so its generally day dreaming). And then the thoughts I am pondering upon lead to some statement or quote and that becomes my status for the day.

So today as my eyes were wet , a statement which till last few years used to bother me because of my lack of crying, sprang into my mind "Boys don't cry" and immediately another voice rebelled saying "Boys do cry" and a series of incidents flashed into my mind.

Ok one sign that I generally associate with maturity is not being able to shed tears(I mean constant flow of tears from your eyes) and this has disturbed me a lot in past and I somehow accepted it as an ill effect of "getting mature" but ever since my Masi died and tears rolled down my eyes I somehow thought that its not that true.

So coming to the statement and incidents , yes we boys do cry. One of my contact commented that "Yes boys cry ..in loneliness" but I said "Not only then, I have seen people(I mean boys) cry even in front of their friends".

So the incidents that flashed in my mind starts from way back when I was in school. One of my friend who was quite Macho in his attitude cried in front of us on hearing that one of our close friend's father had died. I was sad and I cried too at home but I still remember the image of my that other friend(the macho one) crying while discussing it with us. I know it was indeed a very sad incident but I just couldn't imagine him at that time crying in front of everyone.

The next incident was that of Veeru Dada , who happens to be quite an emotional guy . He cried twice,many times more, but these two were significant. First one was when he cried while talking to one of our friend(girl and she was just friend and married now :) ) and I don't remember why but he told me later that he did and then again when we cancelled a party at his house after he had already arranged everything . Ok it wasn't a childish cry of why you guys cancelled it, it was more out of the circumstances in which it was cancelled. And after that many times in private either just in front of me or our close friends.

Then came an incident when I cried while still being in college, owing to a comment made by one of my friends about me and another friend and when all the involved people came to know that it made me cry , they all cried. :)

Then on the last day of our college , Mr Chocolaty cried and since that was the life-changing day of my life(the day after which my life changed for both good and bad), I couldn't sympathise with him and I just laughed. But had it been one of my normal day I would have cried too.

Next was when Mr NRI cried in the SRS parking lot(forgive me if I goofed up the order), he just got so frustrated with the way everything was going on in his life and he just couldn't hold back his tears. We all hugged him and consoled him.

Another incident was when we went to our village as my grand mother has died (One more of an incident which strengthen my then believe of boys don't cry as tears din't flow) and sitting there while my Dad was talking to my Pishi (Father's sister), I for the first time saw my Dad cry. Again I used to think when I was a kid that My Dad don't cry because he is mature. But that day I saw him cry for his mother.

All these incidents strengthens the fact that boys do cry and its definitely good to cry at times and as Dev says that it helps to clean your eyes too :)

I can see myself and my friends crying on a very emotional occasion, both happy and sad and I don't think anyone of us will try to hold our tears back then. And believe me crying do help a lot :)

PS: I am fine now so no need to worry :)

Dad

For every question or thing that we want to know about, there is one person whom we always go first to ask, and that person is our Dad.

Somehow we are always quite sure that no matter anyone else knows about it or not, he will definitely know or at least can give us a pointer to something from where we can find it out. For most of the essential things we take his opinion and knowledge for granted. I have seen almost everyone ringing up their father for any general thing they need to find out related to money matters, asking routes, knowing about some place etc etc and the list is quite long.

And as we grow up , we see him asking (sometimes innocently) few things, respecting us for our experience and affinity to newer things. That sometimes makes us wonder, WOW! Daddy asking us this? Make us feel proud.