Heartless in Delhi

A recent outing with a bunch of friends to a classy G.K.- 1 M-block restaurant was where I crossed the threshold and finally got down to writing this post.

A dear friend’s wife was back in town, owing to the end of her first MBA term, and it was decided to have a get together. Interestingly, unwinding, get together, catching-up, going out, having fun, are all synonymous with heading somewhere where alcohol is served. Don’t quite understand the charade. I don’t drink and maybe, that is why I fail to see the people’s fascination with the drinking binge. Our outing was no different. I digress. I’ll save this topic for another day.

So, it was around 11 when we called for cheque. While we were headed out, the crowd was just trickling in. For most, the night had just begun. Aunties, PYTs, everyone, with the skimpiest of clothes were still roaming the market. While we were saying our good-byes, an Audi pulled over with a driver and 3 entire make-up kits with girls on them – and each one dumb as a dodo. First, they couldn’t open the door lock (or maybe it really is rocket science built into the German automobile). Then, they tried getting down when the car was on the move. They didn’t look Indian as was rightly pointed out by one friend. But, I digress again.

So, we got into our car and were looping the market just when I saw a lump of something move in front of one of the closed shop shutters. It was a frail, old woman trying to use the same dari she was laying on also to cover herself. The glaring spectacle was right there for all to see - swanky cars, decked-up shops and the poor woman amidst all of it. A misfit. It was a testament to the undeniable economic divide, the obvious indifference to the poor’s existence, the devalued human life in saadi dilli – for there lay a dog a few feet from her who had exactly the same things going for him.

I’m sure we’ve all had our share of encounters with the begging kind on Delhi streets and traffic signals where we look away or fold our hands and gesture to them to move on to other cars. It’s not that we don’t want to give but we are too afraid to roll down the window for the Delhi heat might spoil the rich air-conditioned atmosphere we have inside.

This was different. She hadn’t come to us with a half-naked child with a running nose in her hand or with a disfigured limb or any other thing which might disgust anyone. She was just lying there- wriggly and fidgety; too hard not to notice but we still managed to look away. It was probably the mind playing the devil’s advocate – “We work our asses off. We deserve to have fun. We pay our taxes. It’s the government’s job to take care of the downtrodden. We can’t be made to feel nauseous like that.”

But each one of us had just spent a day’s earning for the pretentious food and drinks we had had. The same amount would probably have gotten her through a week if not a month. I was ashamed at how indifferent we have become. The city has robbed us of our blood pumping organ. Heartless, we’ve all become.

L.A.D.A.K.H - Leg 3 (Tso Moriri-Tso Kar-Sarchu-Manali-Delhi)

Day 9, 05-07-2010 (Tso Moriri-Pang-Sarchu)

It was going to be a tough couple of days from now on. We had huge distances to cover. All the three knew that.

We started from Tso Moriri after a quick breakfast. Drove past Tso Kar (another lake; ‘Tso’ infact means a lake). It was all frozen up.

This was a new route for all of us. All we knew was that this would join the Manali-Leh highway somewhere where we needed to take a left. A right would have taken us back to Leh. We somehow missed that turn and started moving back towards Leh. It was only when we begun climbing a slope that it occurred to us that something was not right. We turned back and cursed a lot at the turn that we missed.

We could barely recognize Moore plains which looked destroyed due to loads of construction activity. When we reached Pang, the light drizzle turned into rain. We drove up and down through the 2 passes – Lachulungla and Nakeela. And by the time we got to Sarchu, the rain had turned into a downpour. We camped inside a tent and spent the night there.

Day 10, 06-07-2010 (Sarchu-Sarchu-Sarchu-Pagal Nallah-Barlachala-Keylong-Gramphu)

No. It’s not a typo. I’ll explain.

We got up early so as to cross Pagal Nallah and get to Barlachala on time. It had been raining in Sarchu but it was snowing up there in Barlachala. We had originally planned to get to Manali by day end. And we had more than a good chance of getting into trouble if we were not punctual.

But like Murphy’s Law puts it: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". A slice of bread will always fall with the buttered side facing down.

The day didn’t start right at the very outset. In the rush of things, Paggi left the car keys inside the car and I slammed the door shut. Somehow, we got hold of a huge plastic board and slid it down along the side window pane. Pop. The door lock opened and we were in. We had travelled about 7 kms when Paggi realized he had left one of his bags in the tent itself. We turned around, went back, got the bag and were on our way again.

We reached Pagal Nallah. It brought back all the horrifying memories from Day 2. The stream was flowing fast but it probably didn’t have much water. Just then Abhay noticed that one of our tyres was punctured. We decided to cross the stream with the flat itself. Once crossed, we got down to changing the flat. It was raining. We were short on time. We were feeling breathless at that high altitude. Jacking up never felt that tough. After we put the new one, we realized that the new one was punctured too and was in a worse state than the tyre we had just put back in the trunk.

Jacked up the car again, replaced the new with the older one, and turned around to go back to Sarchu. It seemed Sarchu wasn’t quite done with us yet and didn’t want us to leave. We had driven just a few kms with the punctured one when we heard metal on road. The car’s axle was screeching along the road. We stopped immediately, jacked up again, removed the tyre and waited for someone to carry us back to Sarchu where there was a mechanic.

Paggi and I waited in the rain while Abhay went and came back from Sarchu with both the tyres fixed. We put one of them and got back on track towards Barlachala.

A huge traffic snarl greeted us at Zing Zing Bar. Barlachala was blocked due to incessant snowing and cleaning up was in progress.

Soon, the road opened and we limped through Barlachala. We reached Keylong around 4 P.M. and learned that another Nallah had gone Pagal up ahead and we would need to take a diversion to reach Rohtang.

We started moving again. Just before the diversion our car got stuck in slush. The tyres were rotating vehemently but the car wasn’t moving ahead. Abhay and I got down to push the car but neither did us nor did the tyres find any grip in that slush. Then a messiah appeared out of nowhere. A Pajero, which needed us out of its way, pushed our car ahead and out of the slush. It was the most dramatic thing I had ever seen. Our Santro still has some red paint as souvenir against its rear bumper.

Later we took the diversion through a couple of villages to reach the other side of the latest pagal nallah and started the climb up to Rohtang around 7 in the evening. At the very outset, it seemed like an outlandish, if not suicidal, idea. As it is, it is tough to cross Rohtang but with rain and without light it will be impossible. Add to the fact that ‘Rohtang’ means ‘the valley of the dead’.

Logic, reason or our senses, none were working at that time. We had never wanted to get to Manali so desperately. Ever. We just wanted the day to end. But, like a higher power was playing with us, not wanting us to get to Manali. When we were just a few kms from Rohtang top, we learned that there had been a landslide up ahead and there was no chance of it getting cleaned up before next day’s morning. We felt hapless and helpless at nature’s tricks and tyranny.

But on the up side, it was only then that a better sense prevailed and we figured resistance was futile. We turned around to look for the first available shelter where we could spend the night. In Gramphu, we found a stone hut with a wood-cum-plastic sheet roof aka ‘Jhopdi’ colloquially. We spent the night there inside our sleeping bags with the sound of rain on the roof and a chilly breeze blowing right in.

Day 11, 06-07-2010 (Gramphu-Rohtang-Manali)

Paggi woke us up early the next morning. It had been 3 days and it was still raining. We were told that the landslide still hasn’t been cleared. We waited, we ate, we played cards. But the time just wouldn’t pass. Around 11, we decided to head to the point where the landslide had happened and wait there instead.

There was a long queue of cars waiting to cross to the other side. The only good thing was the authorities were not allowing traffic from Manali to come up. A crane was busy doing the work at the site. The incessant rain had loosened the soil and had caused huge boulders to fall off from mountains.

After waiting there for 2 hours, at around 3 in the afternoon, the area was partially cleared and cars were being let through while still small pieces of rubble kept tumbling down from the cliff. A guy in an Alto crossed the landslide area when even SUVs were having trouble. This pepped us up. It was our turn. Abhay and I had again stepped out of the car. And it was left to Paggi to take it across.

We watched from one end when our car after much bouncing and bumping on the slushy-rocky road made it to the other side. Just when Abhay and I ran across to our car, a huge boulder fell down the cliff. And the road got blocked again. We were happy that we got through but felt sad for the people who were still stuck on the other side.

We reached Manali at around 5 in the evening and checked into a hotel to get ourselves cleaned up. Soon, we found out that rain had caused floods in Punjab and the Chd-Delhi highway was blocked. I somehow convinced these guys that it would be wise if we left for Delhi the next morning instead so that we could locate and take a detour from Chandigarh and avoid Ambala.

We had dinner and spent the night in Manali.

Day 12, 07-07-2010 (Manali-Chandigarh-fields-Delhi)

We started at around 6 in the morning wondering what would we be greeted with on reaching Chandigarh. Never in our lives had we imagined not being able to go to Delhi from Chandigarh.

We reached Chandigarh and found the detour that we needed to take. It took us through numerous fields and finally brought us back to GT-K road. We were elated and celebrated by having a sumptuous meal at Haweli, Karnal.

We hit the road again. 12 days and 3000 kms later we were back in ‘Saadi dilli’.

It was a memorable trip. A dream lived. A wish fulfilled.

L.A.D.A.K.H - Leg 1 (Delhi-Manali-Sarchu-Leh)

None of us knew if all our plans would eventually fall right into place and we would be sitting in our beloved Santro and heading towards Ladakh.

Day 1, 27/06/2010 (Delhi-Manali-Rohtang-Keylong)

Abhay, Paggi and I started from Delhi around 1 A.M. so as to avoid the heavy traffic on the Delhi-Chd highway and reach Manali somewhere in the afternoon where we intended to shop for food, sunscreen (spf-60 or more), a petrol canister, daaru, etc.

On reaching Manali we found out that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi was slated to come the next day for the inauguration of the work on the Rohtang tunnel. And because of this, Rohtang pass was scheduled to be out-of-bounds for tourists for about two days starting later that evening. So, we had the option of waiting for a couple of days in Manali or crossing Rohtang that evening itself. Yeah, I know. They weren’t really options. So, we started climbing up to Rohtang in the evening itself.

It was misty and raining off and on. The visibility was extremely poor. There were hardly any cars going up in the same direction. We had already realized that ours’ wasn’t a wise choice to drive up that slope. I didn’t know if I was getting to Ladakh alive.

Slowly and steadily we reached the top and man, it was worth the torture. Surprisingly, the light had gotten better. The peaks were snow-covered and two yaks were watching us curiously. We clicked the customary 3-4 photographs and started to climb down.

Almost, half our way down from Rohtang top there’s a place by name Gramphu. It’s got a couple of small huts that serve food and is a regular stop for people heading towards Sarchu. But the significance of this place doesn’t end there. It’s also the place where the road from Kaza joins the Manali-Leh highway. Though a good 2 extra days long, people tend to use the Shimla-Kaza route when Rohtang is closed.

We continued our journey after a quick bite at Gramphu. It was getting dark and the road was new to us – really good patches were all of a sudden followed by huge streams of water. I think we crossed a good 3 to 4 of those streams before reaching Keylong at 11 in the night. We hit the bed after a quick dinner. The arduous 22 hour long drive had come to an end but the trip had begun.

Day 2, 28/06/2010 (Keylong-Barlachala-Pagal Nallah)

You would be wondering who/what Pagal Nallah is. How can it be a destination point? Read on.

We got our car fixed (Yup, some car part had already given up last night.). Got the petrol canister and the car tank full (Some 5kms before Keylong is the last petrol pump for the next 360kms). And we were on our way by 11 A.M. after a nice sumptuous breakfast.

The plan was to get to Sarchu where we would have bunked in tents inside sleeping bags. The road was good (in patches again). Two of us would get down at every pool of water just so the car crosses easily and doesn’t get stuck. Ours’ wasn’t an SUV. We wiped our feet dry only to wet them again at the next water stream. It was a futile but necessary measure cuz the water was icy-cold already and it would have been a disaster if we would have taken ill at just the start of the trip.

We reached Barlachala Pass. And this was the first high-point for all three of us. It looked amazing – with snow anywhere your eyes could see and the frozen Suraj Taal. We got down, put on our caps and jackets and shades and clicked a whole lot of photographs. Passing truckers would wave at us. It felt nice.

Since we had driven for 22 hours the previous day we had the cushion of time. We were taking things lightly. But luck ran out soon and there we were faced with a huge flowing stream of water (fondly and deservedly called Pagal Nallah). Two trucks and a tempo were already stuck right in the middle. Bystanders were prompt to tell us not to even try to venture into the stream with “our Santro”. They were probably right too. It was evening and the stream was in full flow. The ice that had melted all through the day, under the sun, was now flowing right in front of us.

We were told to try our luck after a couple hours if and when the flow reduces. We waited for 2 hours. And then, 2 more. It was around 8ish in the evening when we decided to stay the night in the car itself and not head back to Zing-zing bar (about 10-odd kms back up from that place). “Not-wise-decision” number 2. As we soon found out that in spite of having all the windows rolled-up, it was hard not to feel the outside chill in that “all 4 sides open” place. All three of us got inside our sleeping bags and tried to think of the days ahead if we survived the cold that night.

Day 3, 29/06/2010 (Pagal Nallah-Sarchu-Moore Plains-Taglangla Pass-Leh)

After 2 days and 2 near death experiences we crossed the Nallah to reach Sarchu at 7 in the morning. Cuz of the dinner skipped last night, we all were a bit altitude sick and wonky. We got better after “i-don’t-want-to-mention”. We had breakfast at Sarchu. Got one of our flats fixed at the mechanic. Incidentally, this is the last mechanic you would find before Leh.

We had driven just a few kilometres when we came across a road sign that read “You are in Paradise now”. We were ecstatic. We were in Kashmir. We had entered Ladakh. You would notice the change in the landscape as soon as you enter Ladakh. And it keeps changing quite frequently – green mountains, red mountains, brown mountains and a silvery river flowing right through. It was just too beautiful. We knew this was the day that people who choose to drive to Leh (instead of flying) treasure after their trips.

We crossed Nakeela Pass, Lachulungla Pass and there we were at Pang. We had a nice dal-chawal meal in one of the huts. Dunno why we picked the hut we picked. Was it because it was the first one in the row of huts or was the girl working there had extremely sharp and beautiful features? Anyway, after having to our heart’s content we started driving again. Soon we reached Moore plains. And it was the most amazing place I had ever seen. A huge desert plain at such high altitude covered on all four sides by mountains, each with a different terrain and look. It looked like a decorated set from an expensive film. Point your camera in any direction, click and rest assured, the picture that comes out would be worth 2 thousand words if not more. Maybe, that’s the reason why a lot of advertisements on TV have been shot there.

We were too engrossed and captivated by the beauty of Moore plains to realize that we had already started climbing up to the 2^nd highest pass of the world – Taglangla Pass. The road was steep and you could almost instantly notice the drop in oxygen levels when nearing the top.

Once atop we clicked a few pictures and were all set to head to Leh. There were no more passes on our way now. And the road was pretty decent too. We reached Leh sometime in the evening. It was a small town with loads of people – tourists, natives. Surprisingly, it had a huge and buzzing market place and I think you would get almost anything and everything that you would in any metro.

We checked into the forest department guesthouse and spent the night on a bed, finally.

L.A.D.A.K.H - Leg 2 (Leh-Nubra-Pangong-Tso Moriri)

Day 4, 30-06-2010 (Leh-Khardungla-Nubra Valley)

All the pain and agony we had gone through now suddenly seemed well worth it. We were in Leh. We were in Ladakh. It was an amazing feeling that couldn’t be put in words. You would know what I am talking (or actually not talking) about if you have been there. For those who haven’t, you would get to know once you get there.

Sunshine and we were up. By the time we got ourselves the permit (that all non-resident Kashmiris need for travelling in Ladakh), it was 11ish. Soon we were ready to go and we got down to doing what we do best – Driving (always wanted to use that in a sentence).

We were climbing up to Khardungla Pass, the home to the world’s highest motorable road. Don’t know if it was our mood or were the roads really good and the weather pleasant that time flew pretty quickly and we were there standing atop Khardungla in a couple of hours. Once there, all of us drove the customary bit - just to add ‘motored at the highest motorable road’ to our checklist (or CVs, like we like to call it amongst ourselves).

Soon we started descending the slope on the other side, heading towards the famed Nubra Valley. Barren mountains. Green valley. Ancient silk route from China to Central Asia. Double humped camels.

In spite of knowing what we would be presented with when we entered it, the Nubra Valley just blew our minds away. I had never seen, and probably never will, nature this creative.

Reddish-brownish barren mountains were hiding the valley within themselves. And huge green patches were only adding to its mysticism. The road bisected the sandy valley perfectly. The silvery river that we had seen from afar so far was now flowing right next to us. The strong wind that was blowing was creating magical sand dunes at more than 10,000 feet above the sea level. Was I dreaming? There was just too much detail. All in one canvas. No camera in the world could ever capture that.

After silently adulating and soaking in all the nature’s antics, we headed to a small village called Hunder and checked into a plush Forest Department Guesthouse. And like all good anticlimactic endings, watched ‘Haseena Maan Jayegi’ on TV while having dinner. And finally, fell asleep singing ‘Cheenti pahad chhade’ and ‘Kundi khol’. We love Govinda.

Day 5, 01-07-2010 (Nubra Valley –Leh)

After a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, we set out to ride the most famous animal in Nubra – the double humped camel. These camels were the mode of transport for the silk traders back in the old days. A few got left behind and were now numbered in a few hundreds; and were now mostly being used as a means to entertain tourists. I was riding the ‘ship of the desert’ in a ‘cold desert’.

After the ride, we started to head back to Leh. We met another group of 3 (on two bikes – an Enfield and a Pulsar) who were coming from Mumbai. On bikes. They were already in their 8^th day of trip and looked exhausted. I felt sad for the guy who had been riding pillion.

We reached North Pullu and found ourselves in the middle of a huge traffic jam. We learned that the movement of traffic is restricted from North to South Pullu every TTS and vice versa on every MWF. Since, it was a Thursday that day, it was our turn to wait for the traffic to be allowed from North to South.

It started to snow. Then after about an hour we were let through. It took us quite a while to climb to Khardung with all the snow and rain. The visibility had gotten poor. But the sky cleared up once we reached atop. After that it was a pretty smooth and uneventful ride up to Leh. We listened to the legendary ‘Ooh la laa’ on our way down. (‘Ooh la laa’ is the best available collection of the raunchiest bollywood numbers on Earth. Compiled by Parag Taneja himself. Let me know if you would like a copy for yourself.)

Once in Leh, we checked into a hotel and watched FIFA live on a big screen in one of the garden restaurants whose name I forgot.

Day 6, 02-07-2010 (Leh-Pangong Tso-Leh)

We started very early the next day. Parag was surprised that Abhay and I were all set and in the car at 6 in the morning. The climb up to Chang La, the third highest pass of the world, was very steep but the road was nice. We left soon after having a free black tea at Chang La top.

Further down the other side, we found the valley getting greener and greener as we drove further towards Pangong Tso. On our way, we saw horses, yaks. And a cute little squirrel-like thing called Marmot.

The view of the lake from the ‘first-view vantage point’ was magical. It was even more so once we got to the lake. To our surprise, there was a huge crowd at the lake. About 20 odd tourist cars. Paggi told that there was just one other car when he had come there 3 years back. 3 idiots had had such an effect on the audiences that almost everyone fantasized about standing at the same place Aamir was standing towards the climax of the film. Thankfully, all the touristy-crowd there with us at that time wanted to be at that exact same place. And that allowed us to find a suitable secluded place where we could park right next to the lake and have good time.

After spending a good one hour at the lake, we headed to the cluster of small huts serving food. These huts, no matter wherever you find them, have pretty much the same menu. We got our MTR readymade food made. And am pretty sure there were a few tourists who turned envious seeing us have those awesome chhole masala and palak paneer.

After lunch, we tried to shop from the souvenir shop there. There was nothing good. So, we started to head back to Chang La and then, Leh where another non-descript evening (read dinner with FIFA on the big screen) waited for us.

Day 7, 03-07-2010 (Leh)

Paggi wouldn’t like me mentioning this day. We had had a change in our itinerary and were left with one entire day with nothing to do. So we spent the entire day in Leh town. Lazing around. Shopping. Getting the customary t-shirts made. A FIFA match, now a regular feature in our evenings, marked the day’s end.

Day 8, 04-07-2010 (Leh-Tso Moriri)

Tso Moriri, a brackish and also the largest among all the high altitude lakes in the Himalayan region. Not many know and not many go. And that’s why we wanted to go there.

We started early again and took a diversion from Upshi for Tso Moriri. It was a beautiful road with mountains on one side and a river flowing all along on the other side. Clear blue skies with patches of white clouds. And no traffic. Literally. Ours’ was the only car for most part of the journey.

On our way, we came across a hot water spring and got our fingers burnt in the boiling water. Another item on the checklist now checked.

After driving off-road for about 20 odd kms, not by choice, we got a glimpse of Tso Moriri from a distance. If there were many awesome moments, this was the awesome-est of all. We were speechless at the sight of the lake. If Pangong Tso was blue under clear skies, Tso Moriri looked silvery-gray under overcast conditions. If Pangong Tso was still water, Tso Moriri had ripples in it. If Pangong Tso had a huge crowd, Tso Moriri was quiet interrupted by only the sound of ripples or flutter of birds. Migratory birds.

It was the migratory season and numerous birds had come there from different parts of the world. Tso Moriri is a part of a bird conservatory reserve and therefore, legitimate camping is only limited to inside the Kurzok village. And that’s where we camped that night.

Our tents were pretty luxurious. They had amazing beds and blankets. Also, had an attached wash-cum-loo. There was also a common dining area where we were served a nice buffet for dinner.

The tents’ manager, a lively guy named Gitso Kurzok, had quite a few stories to tell. Right from how originally ‘3 idiots’ was being shot at Tso Moriri but the film crew had to shift base to Pangong Tso after the weather got really bad to how he had scolded the careless film crew when they were littering around the lake. And many more such that couldn’t be disclosed here.

We descended to our plush tents after dinner and slept well. We were to begin our journey back home the next day.

Drive through Barlachala

Can't think of a smart title

It’s not every day that I am in a foul mood so I’ll try and make the most of it. Not really sure what the reason is but I suspect it’s got to do something with me not getting good aloo paranthas. Therefore, I would like to crib, criticize left, right and center, be judgmental and everything else that one’s not supposed to be.
Since, I started with this post just because I couldn’t find anything that could keep me occupied, I would like to begin by venting my wrath at the Indian media and the content they carry.

There’s this channel that claims to voice the voice of Youngistan. I’d like to ask. “Who are these effing youngistanis the channel claims to voice the voice of?”  Are these the same people on their show who don’t know how many states does “Hindustan” have? Or are they those who think that the Taj Mahal is in Delhi? Cuz that’s exactly what their version of youngistanis think/not think. Their (both the channel and their ‘youngistan’) version of reality is as different and removed from ‘the real reality’ as twitter is from blogger. I don’t expect them to know or talk about the Naxal menace or Telangana or terrorism or Pak getting another bunch of F-16s from the US or any other socially-relevant issue but I am surprised and disgusted at the sheer lack of awareness amongst them.

Youngistan? Novel idea but poor execution. It seems it was just a marketing gimmick for a Bollywood film which “woke up” to a good response courtesy this. Even a cola brand now has a slick looking commercial where Youngistan exclaims “WOW”. To this, I have just one question. “HOW?” “Please MAT PAKAO. GHAR JAO. SO JAO...just so you actually ‘wake up’ some day”.

Then, I feel anyone and everyone who has a handy-cam out there is out making a reality show these days. Sample this - a TV show, another ‘scripted’ reality, has a bunch of good for nothing vella people who happen to have cameras and that’s why are out to test loyalty between partners by performing a sting operation on one partner at the request of another. Invariably, it’s the guy who gets ‘stung’ and, more often than not, comes out looking like a sleaze-ball at the end of the episode. More than the ‘disloyal’ partner, I personally feel it’s the perverted mind of the show producer who’s at it here- what with all the sleazy footage being shown in the disguise of a sting (Why did they ban FTV again?). Am not sure how legal is it to film private lives of people (even if they have permission from one of the partners) and air it on national TV for commercial purposes. Maybe the couple knows everything beforehand and is also actually getting a percentage of the profit from the TV channel/show. It’s a sicko show and tells a lot about our ‘voyeuristic’ tendencies. And possibly also about how these same tendencies are getting exploited by such clever and targeted marketing.

Marketing, marketing everywhere. But nothing worth buying.
IPL. And more IPL on news channels. It’s hardly about cricket it seems and more about entertainment and marketing. I am not against the entertainment part. I love the cheerleading. Infact, cheerleaders should be there during test matches too. It’s the marketing aspect I am perplexed about with it becoming even more irritating (and honestly, novel too). I used to get irritated when the advertisements aired between overs would run long and they ended up consuming a ball or two from the next over. But now they have a gone a step further in the IPL. There are commercial breaks between deliveries now. It seems like a bad joke that has been taken too literally. Let alone the cricket action, even the commentary has become a medium to market. Even the illiterate who cannot speak much English have learnt that there’s an ‘MRF blimp’ floating around on top of the cricket field. GG and RS are ‘brand ambassadors’ for MRF. And, a catch just caught is a ‘Karbonn Kamal Katch’. And, as if all this time to air commercials still wasn’t enough, there are two 2.5 minute dedicated ‘Maxx mobile timeouts’.

Amidst all the IPL action, people seem to have forgotten that there’s a T20 World Cup starting at the end of this month. I sincerely hope that all the dollars earned will help our cricketers to be in good shape for the world cup. On the flipside, maybe, it did come as a blessing in disguise for Pakistani cricketers to not get a chance to play in the IPL (HAHA!!!). Who knows, they might end up defending their title.
Anyway, I feel I have dissipated a lot of negative energy around that I have none left to blabber more. I feel sleepy.

If I had a time-machine...

1.  Would I want to go back and kick the ass of that ‘ass’ who kicked mine in school?
2.  Would I want to go back and tell her ‘No.’ the first time itself she asks and not let the question float around for months like before?
3.  Would I want to go back to 1^st of August 2006 and live the 4 wonderful years of my college life all over again?
4.  Would I want to go back to the end of my second year in college, not fight over that petty issue with one of my closest of buddies and spend the entire 3^rd year ‘talking’ to her this time?
5.  Would I want to go back and try explaining my other best bud why things are the way they are?
6.  Would I want to go back to my college placements season’s Conexant’s entrance test, not accidentally lift my answer sheet over my shoulder just to get a better view of the question paper and not get disqualified for ‘cheating’?
7.  Would I want to go back to the day I decided to pick McAfee over Flextronics and choose otherwise just so I can stay in Delhi (and not Bangalore) this time?
8.  Would I want to go back and not tell the pretty co-passenger (who turns out to be an air-hostess later) how to use the air-duct above her seat?
9.  Would I want to go back to the day we stared at each other for more than 10 seconds and actually say a ‘Hi’ this time?
10. Would I want to go back to 31^st December 2009, our New Year Eve’s party at Cafe Morrison and pay heed to the attention I am getting from someone?
11.  Would I want to go back to the time I started with this strange blog-post and spend my time wisely this time - maybe at building a time-machine?

Do I have answers to these questions? I do (at least I think I do) and strangely, I don’t think I would want to go back and undo anything I had done (or not done for that matter). Naah. I am not watching ‘Butterfly Effect’ right now. I just feel I have committed mistakes (and blunders, which I didn’t mention in there) and taken some smart decisions too and all this has contributed in making me who I am (pardon the cliché!!!). I haven’t had regrets before and I won’t have them now. Life’s much easier if you don’t have regrets and I like it that way.