(Not really) Love Story 2001

She was 16 and he was 17. As a Marathi song goes, “Solava varees dhokyacha…”, same was the situation with the girl. She dreamt that her prince on a white horse will come and take her away. So did the guy dream of his Dream Girl.

One fine day, they finally saw each other. At the first sight she liked him and he fell in love with her. He knew it was love but she was apprehensive. She found him cute but didn’t know whether this was called love. They often crossed paths with each other- at shops, bus stops, Ganpati celebrations and Dahi Handi utsavs, but didn’t have the guts to speak with each other.

One day, they got introduced to each other through common friends. Their first meeting was very filmy. They met in a bus that was due to leave in 10 minutes. The bus was packed and there were many people around. They shook hands with great nervousness and discomfort. They sat but said nothing.

Later, he tried to meet her or go to her home to visit by finding any possible bahanas. Sometimes, with friends to wish Happy Diwali, sometimes he visited her college ‘just like that’ and sometimes to collect some stuff for his sister. Then there were telephonic conversations, even when he went to his home that was far away from here, where he stayed with his uncle and aunt.

Common friends were more than happy to organise trips and make them meet, as he wished to meet her every now and then. But by now, she had become a little sceptical of his motives and started avoiding him. But he was determined to ask her out…

One fine day, he sent a note to her through a friend saying, “I am going back to my hometown and I will really miss you. Will you be my best friend?” she didn’t reply and saw that he had left his email id in the note. Many days passed by and she thought that she should mail him as a long time had passed. They started conversing through mails now and he tried to give her hints that he loved her. But she was not interested.

He sent her a mail… “I ---- you.” She understood what he meant and called him. She fired him for being insensitive and taking the wrong meaning of their friendship. It all ended that day. He left the city and went to his hometown down south.

After five long years, when they had almost forgotten their teen love, they met again. This time, they spoke to each other and became friends. She had a boyfriend and he had a girlfriend. He had come out of her love. Both laughed when they remembered their funny meetings at bhaaji markets and bus stops. They met at his hometown, when she went there as a tourist and did sight seeing together.

They now keep in touch through mails and phone calls. So much change in a relationship after so many years. Time is truly, the real healer.

(This story is entirely based on facts and real incidents. The characters are real and are living entities :)

Puneri lingo

You must have read about the Western lingo that college and school kids are adapting in their day to day language, but do you know anything about the Puneri lingo. If no, worry not, mi aahe na (Im always there). Some of these have been invented by me and my Madern (pronunciation for my college Modern College) friends.

So let’s start with the basic terminologies of a typical college going Puneri kid.

Katta- A place, generally in or around the college, where (idle) students sit and discuss either intellectual shit or gossip with each other. A cup of tea is an essential part of the katta. A tree nearby is also a must-have.

Eg. Lets go to the katta and chat.

Bha Po (acronym for bhavana pohochlya)- This literally means emotions received. If a friend of yours is giving you a very senti talk, to make him shut up you just need to say Bha Po mitra, aata gap bas.

Eg. Kiti badbad kartos BhaPo zala majha. (How much do you blabber. Now keep quiet, I understood what you said.)

ABCD- This is an adults’ acronym (children under 18 don’t read this ;). The full form is Aga Baee Chaddi Distey. This is generally used for the low waist jeans wearing firang or wannabe firang crowds.

Eg. Hey someone tell that girl ‘ABCD’.

Tappe takne- If you like a guy or a girl…you obviously check her/him out when he/she is around. That’s called tappe takne. Eg. Rahul la Smita avadte, to tichyawar kiti tappe takto. (Rahul likes Smita, I guess, coz he keeps on checking her out.)

Mitra and boss- Mitra or boss are used to address any and every other person. It could be your chaiwala or your rickshaw wala also.

Eg. E mitra/ boss, jara lavkar chal na ushir hotoy. (Boss, please hurry, I’m getting late.)

Mama- this terminology is fast catching up in other cities too. Mama refers to a police wala. Traffic police are the main victims of this phrase.

Eg. E tikde mama aahe, ikdunach U turn maruyat. (Hey, there’s a policeman there, lets take a U-turn from here itself.)

Bird watching- hahaha…this term reminds me of college. Whenever we would get bored, we would stand in the corridors checking out guys (there were very few worth checking out in my college though) and say lets go bird watching!

Eg. Chayla, aaj ekhi pakshi chhan navta. Bird watching madhe majaa nahi aali. (There wasn’t a single good looking guy around. No fun in bird watching.)

Fishing- Bird watching is checking out guys, so fishing is checking out girls!

Vaalit/ ghaanit takne- This being ignored by a person or a group. If someone doesn’t talk to you purposely (many a times this is done as a prank), you can safely say, “Mala vaalit/ ghaanit ka taklay tumhi?” (Why are you’ll ignoring me?)

Mandaa- In Marathi, manda means a dunce. Mandaa is actually a name, but we call dunce girls Mandaa.

Eg. Ti agdi Mandaa aahe. Tila kahich kalat nahi. (She is a dunce. She doesn’t understand anything.)

Haldi kunku- This comes from an incident that happened in my college. As you’ll know, haldi and kum kum are yellow and red in colour, respectively. Two girls Sakhu and Paru (names changed without any request) in my class had wore a yellow and red dress respectively, and they were like, “We are haldi-kunku.” We couldn’t help but fall down laughing at the dehati joke.

Khadki Dapodi- No offence to people staying in these areas, but if someone wears a gaudy outfit or accessories they are called ‘Khadki-Dapodi’.

Eg. Kiti Khadki Dapodi dress aahe ticha. (Her dress is so gaudy.)

So these are some of the great Puneri terminologies. Start using them today itself. Chala aata, kadekadene ghari ja. I will be adding new terms, as and when invented or discovered ;).

Some additions made by my dear friend Avinash Sadaphule:

TTMM - Tujhe Tu Majhe Me or Tu Tera Main Mera: which means you must contribute for whatever you ate or bought...going dutch...in short

SPDP- Shev Puri Dahi Puri

Saheee/ Ek /Kalla / Takatak/ Jabbari - Damn good

Padik- Doing Nothing/wasting time having nothing to do

Vaeet- means bad, but used as good (opposite)..eg: kai vaaeeet picchar hota to..meaning it was an awesome movie!

Dada/ Baapmanus -some1 great (often used sarcastically)

chavva/ chavvi - BF/GF

Family and friends rock!

Hey friends…I know I have become very lazy and haven’t written a blog for a very long time now. But nothing very great happened in my life in the last month, except a few great moments.

Great moment no1: My parents’ 26^th anniversary

This was much anticipated (from the last year…when they celebrated their 25^th anniversary), but we couldn’t celebrate it as I lost my granddad. But this year, I thought of having a small celebration inviting only close friends. I had already gifted my parents a microwave oven :). The celebrations took place on August 9 (the anniversary was on July 30). My mother looked gorgeous in a navwari sadi and my dad wore a normal shirt pant (you know how dads are). They both looked really good together. We had a yadnya puja, which was like marrying them again with all the rituals including the saptapadi (its like saat pheras, but only the bride walks on the seven mounds of rice and her groom holds her hand) and they also exchanged garlands. The highlight of the evening was the ukhanas (husband’s name taken in a poetic form…gosh these translations!) taken by my aai and her friends. The traditional Brahmin food consisting of lip smacking puran poli, katachi aamti and aloochi bhaji was also a hit!

Great moment no2: Ganesh Chaturthi

After many years, I got to see the bringing of Lord Ganesha and participated in the aarti. Our Avachat family Ganpati is brought and worshipped at my eldest uncle’s place in Dombivali. And believe it or not, our Ganpati resides in our house for 21 days! The visarjan happens after 21 days. Long time I must say in the era of didh diwasacha Ganpati (Ganpati which is worshipped for one and a half days). The miravnuk (procession) of my uncle’s society’s Ganpati was really very nice. It had all the traditional elements including dhol-tashe, lezim and human pyramids. The most interesting thing was the food and the modaks- lots of them! I had a great time with my brother Viraj, my mother, friend Joanna and my two cute nieces- Varada and Anushree. We played games together, went to see other Ganpatis of the area and for a long drive too. Majja aali!

Great moment no3: Sleepover with friends, movie with my mom

After a long time I got a 4 day holiday…a long enough time duration to catch up with family and friends. I met my Japanese friends and had a great time with them over a cuppa of chai at the Ranade Institute, my alma mater. Next up was a sleepover at my friend Pradnya’s place. She is getting married next month, so we all wanted to revive the old moments of meeting and staying at each other’s places before she got married. She had made pav bhaji for us and we tried to help her! We yapped in the loudest possible noise level and laughed loudly for no reason, like the way we used to do earlier. We exchanged gifts, talked and gossiped till late and also had a pillow fight. How much I miss those days.

Next up was a Yoville moment with my bro. I spent a considerable amount of time playing Yoville on Facebook with my bro. we threw soap balloons on each other, told jokes, I even kissed him to embarrass him on Yoville. He also flirted with other girls online, that too, for the first time and in front of me! Uski yeh majaal ;).

On Saturday, I saw Kaminey with friends. We had a great time (as usual) with each other. Sunday, was my favourite day as I saw a movie with my mom after ages- a very nice Marathi film called Rita. We enjoyed a lot.

Every moment of my trip was memorable. Looking forward to many such pleasant moments in my life.

Thank you all- my family and friends. :)

Its tee time :)

Hi guys,

U can now shop for some cool tees on the following link. It has a collection selected by me from their website. Happy shopping!

http://www.inkfruit.com/mysales.php?location=10204

The star shines on DNA

My moment of fame with the tennis star Leander Paes. He had come to our office as a guest sports editor. We shook hands with him. It was great fun....he is really handsome! :) :) :)

Trek to Malavli…

I love the rains…but not in the cities where the rainwater gets mixed with garbage and muck! That’s why I wanted to venture out in the nature to celebrate monsoons. My idea of a day in the rains is going to a picturesque place- may be a hill or a forest and enjoying the cool breeze with a group of crazy friends and chatting over a hot cup of tea :) .

That’s why I decided to visit Malavli, Lohgad for that matter. Malavli is a place near Lonavla. The two forts- Lohgad and Visapur are situated here. Lohgad is a comparatively easy fort to climb but is really far from Malavli station. After two weeks of persuasion, 8 of my friends agreed to join me. Two of us came from Mumbai and the others from Pune. The walk to the fort is always the most interesting part of the trip.

With beautiful waterfalls on the way, what else can you ask for? But it is a pity to see people ruining the nature’s beauty by throwing garbage around and drinking alcohol in the waterfall and misbehaving. Anyways, we ignored all these facts, and walked past the waterfalls in the rain, teasing and pulling each others’ leg. All my friends- Rohit, Rohan, Sanket, Parag, Supriya, Rujuta, Amey and Joanna are crazy souls.

After a long and tiring walk, we decided to have lunch at a small tapri which had a hilarious name- Nature’s Miracle or something! It took those guys 2 hours to prepare anda curry for us! And we had to wait there calculating the time left with us for climbing the fort and reaching the station on time to catch the local train. We discussed history of the forts and assigned one of us as the raja and others as the mavlas and senapatis. The raja assigned constituencies to his sena. I got the Mumbai constituency (Bandra to be specific ;). After the stupid discussion, the food came and we hogged on it.



The climb to the fort was easy and we reached in half an hour. The view from the top was breathtaking. There was a lot of fog and nothing could be seen from the top. There was wind flowing in great speed plus the rains and the visibility was very less. We couldn’t see anything ahead of us and were actually freezing. We couldn’t wait there for more than 20 minutes and had to leave.

We climbed down and had a cup of tea- our saviour from the cold. The walk to the station was very unwelcome as we wanted to remain there and continue enjoying the beautiful sceneries.

We reached the station and with a heavy heart bid au revoir to our friends. That was a day to remember.

Back to school…

‘Those were the best days of my life…’ goes a Bryan Adams song. And this exactly what I felt when we had our school reunion on 5^th of July. It was like reinventing the good old school days.

All this happened thanks to my good friend Rajeev, who with the help of other good friends organised the whole plan. I could only help in the brainstorming sessions, contacting people and making charts, as I was here in Mumbai.

We got the school hall after my friends persuaded the principal for it. They had to convince her for more than an hour! And on the D-Day another sister came to ‘supervise’ ‘what we are doing’ and gave us instructions like don’t paste the charts on the walls etc etc. we somehow managed to get rid of her ;)

We all were looking forward to this day and were nervous that very few people may turn up. But on the D-day 60 people attended the function, making all the organisers happy. All were in for a surprise as the gang had collected school photographs from all possible school friends and made a movie out of it called ‘Flashback’. It was indeed very nostalgic watching the movie and the moments we all had shared together.

The coolest part of the reunion was meeting friends after years and being surprised when some friends turned up with their wives and when we came to know some girl-friends have become proud mothers! Some friends had gained weight (including me) and some were ‘jaise the’. The first words from any friend I met… “Kitni moti ho gayi hai!”

Even though we all met after many years, the rapport we shared was still the same. Everybody remembered each others’ school pet names and were called by the same name! Chats about trips and picnics we had, whom we would tease with whom were- were the highlights of the day.

We played games like musical chairs, bombing the city and dumb charades to revive the annual days and Christmas celebrations in the school. People were even cheating, as they would in school. Then there was this embarrassing ramp walk for the must wanted (?) crown of Miss Stella Maris and Mr Stella Maris. The girls had to judge the guys and vice versa. The guys obviously had loads of fun judging the ‘new-found’ beauties and showed their appreciation in form of claps, cheers and whistles!

The photo sessions were never ending as all wanted to capture these memories in a frame. It seemed that posing with all possible friends was everyone’s only aim! The day ended too soon for all of us. Everyone enjoyed every bit of the day and went home happily with the memories of the day.

Now, we are planning for a 2012 reunion and wondering whether 100% people will come with their spouses! ;) Three cheers to our school days…hip hip hurray!