Confused Soul

Yeah, I’m eagerly waiting for next 3 days to finish ASAP and the live event of assembling world’s largest jigsaw to start. Yes, I will be there and that too not as a participant but as an honoured guest :) The marketing agency Ogilvy, creator of stay-sharp campaign, invited our group to help the participants of the winners of online competition. Also we will meet Royce, the creator of that master piece LIFE. For the uninitiated, we (a group of 18 members) carry a world record of being the first group to assemble world’s largest jigsaw puzzle without break. This achievement is recognized by ‘Limca Book of Records’ and will be publish in this year’s record book. We were also the first group to solve that puzzle in India and first group to complete all the five related puzzles. For a detailed story, pleases refer here and here.

So when Ogilvy thought of this campaign, it contacted us and asked us if we are available to help the contestants. The puzzle hungry people of this group are always ready so they accepted the offer unanimously. Now the online stuff is finished, 10 jigsaw masters have been recognised, and the only thing left is to wait for 3rd july to kick-start the event. Though this puzzle is not as difficult as we did earlier for the world record but still it’s a great challenge to solve that in a public area under a lot of chaos.

I am very excited to meet Royce and the 10 puzzle masters at the moment. Hope the wait to be over soon.

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Finally, I watched this long awaited flick Tahaan. I wanted to watch this long back but couldn’t find it anywhere. Last week when Shagun was in Noida, I grabbed its CD from Planet-M and all set to watch this long-awaited-item-on-must watch-list.

This is the story of a kid named Tahaan (means Raham-Dil) and his friend Birbal. At least you find it like this in first half. Did I mention that Birbal is a Donkey; Tahaan’s father brought it for Tahaan. The story starts when Tahaan’s family had to sell Birbal to a Delivery man in order to pay debts. But Tahaan wasn’t ready to leave Birbal this easily, so he went to the delivery man and start working for him. The tale progresses as Tahaan always looks for a way to take Birbal back with him. Purav Bhandare did a good job in Tahaan’s role and Anupam Kher is as good as always in the role of delivery man.

But, the story takes a turn when Tahaan lost all hopes to get Birbal back and was moving back to his house. A guy met him on the way and told him that he could get Birbal back but he had to do some work for him in return. Since Tahaan was ready to get his friend back on any cost, he admitted. Tahaan was given a bomb to deliver from one place to another. Not knowing that it was a bomb, innocent boy hid that among apples and passed all the check-posts. But finally, when he was told to throw the bomb in a crowded place, he realized the fact. This scene has been shot beautifully and clearly shows the tides in the ocean of his mind.

Finally, you heart starts pounding when you imagine the result. Watch the movie to find out what he did. Apart from normal story telling, tis movie shows the friendship between human and animals, this shows the innocence of a child, this shows how small kids are misguided and turned in terrorists, this shows the great scenery of Kashmir, this shows how a miser delivery man cares for a kid (who want to take his donkey back) and this shows why people prefer to live in isolation over refuse camps.

Ultimately this movie is virtue and one shouldn’t miss it.

“No dad, don’t leave it”, I screamed... “I won’t son; you look in the front and pedal properly”. I concentrated to the front while asking dad continuously not to leave the seat... I pedalled, pedalled, and came forward a long way and when I turned back; I saw dad smiling, standing way behind... He left the seat and that was how I learnt bicycle.

Hey guys,

let me tell you a story today, are you ready??? Hmm, so you are... enjoy...

Hey, what??? didn't like it? But believe me that it's a story...you just need to decode it and Mr. Rives is here to help you...



So, now you liked the story? I find it as one of the most amazing way of telling a story. Story telling is an art and not everybody can do it. If you write a good story but can't present it, it's nothing... But if you write an average story and present them in some out-of-the-box way, they rock. Find below a presentation on art of story telling:

I found below video at TED site on how to grow fresh air in your home and work area. The practical has been done and is proven to give adequate results. Also, you don't have to do much for living in an oxygen rich environment but to grow some very common plants inside your home/office building.


Actually, we have money plant at our home but that is outside the walls, so I will see how I can shift that in the house and take advantage.

PS: The unfortunate news is that we used to have all the three mentioned plants at our old house but left them there when we shifted in this new place :(

So guys, get them and Go Green...

Last week, I attended the marriage of one of my dearest school friend, Alok. It feels really good to see your friends grow older and ready to take responsibility. And seeing your dear ones to step in a happy-to-go-life is always a nice experience. Alok and Shweta really make a happy couple and I wish all the happiness for them forever. Among his friends, Deepak and I stayed overnight and shared some light-funny-serious moments. Even Nitin was there but he left at 2:30 am as he needed to drop someone to station. Another good thing about friend’s marriages is that you can meet most of your old friends, whom you meet once in a while (especially when you work in a different city), at one place. And these are almost the only occasions to cherish old memories.

So, all was going well in the marriage and they were almost ready to take bride at groom’s place (Vidaai ceremony), when I and Deepak shocked to see one of the ceremonies. Though I’m not able to recall the name of that but it went something like this – just before the vidaai, groom’s father was banged with HALDI filled hands from bride’s side ladies. Then he received a make-up from those all over his face. His face was looking like dipped in a pool of red lipstick. And this wasn’t enough so he was wrapped in a yellow saari and then a DHOL was given in his hands. He was supposed to beat that DHOL and to dance on its tune. He did the same with a smile on his face. But, what we were thinking was if it was a genuine smile in the joy if his son’s marriage or he was not left with any other option but to wear a smile.

This ceremony was supposed to cut distances between groom’s father and bride’s mother and what a shameful way it was to narrow the gap. This event gave me some food for thought and I was forced to think if we are supposed to continue with the ages old rituals on the cost of self-respect or we should do only what is acceptable to the society.

PS: Another ceremony, which Deepak explained me, is GHOORA-POOJAN, in which people are supposed to worship the junk (Specifically KOODA).

Today morning, we (Akash-Gaurav-Verma-Bhaia) were discussing about how someone's tax liability is calculated when IT dept raids somewhere. For uninitiated, let me tell you that Guarav is astt. commissioner of Income Tax (direct taxes) and currently he is under training. He was sharing with us the real life experiences, his seniors discussed with him while training. So he told us that it depends for person to person, for example books are assets for a sportsman but they are a tool for an engineer or technician. So these things have a lot of consideration while calculating someone's net worth for calculating his/her tax liability. We discussed different aspects of it over a cup of morning tea.

After we were done with our breakfast, his girl friend called him and asked him to meet at a certain point in five minutes. Since we were not ready and Gaurav doesn't know the routes in Noida, we were ordered to get ready in 2 mins and take him there. Finally, we were able to drop them at a restaurant and came back. After sometime, he called again and asked us to pick him from there. So once again, we were all set to go out of our comfort zone (our house in this scorching heat of Delhi) and once again were following orders. But meanwhile this exercise, we came to know that who is an asset and who is a tool.

So for a man, his girl friend is an asset and his friends are tools. Now, how will you calculate the net value Mr. Astt Commissioner?