While My Guitar Gently Smiles... ♫♫

Every time I surrendered to the anomy,

You decorated the silence for me..

And when I needed that missing hue,

You helped me find it within you..

Droned by tedium,when the mind became cloudy,

You allowed me a refuge in your melody..

Gone are the days when I sang blurred,

You made my empty songs sweetly colored..

Because of you,the music happened to me,

You bonded with me and me with thee..

elated I am,as I hold you gently,

You will,as always,serve me dearly..

PS: (For those who are interested) There is something interesting about this poem.Try to find it out. :)

Something experimental.....

Dear You,

You took a stab at breaking my spirit.You tried your best to drown me into the infinite oblivion of negativity.

You tried your best to push me into the abyss.But I held on to the very cliff till my nails bleeded.

When you left thinking that you undid me,laughing maniacally and hysterically,I was smiling at you.When you left and announced to the world that you had me done,I was already preparing my triumph speech.

Though you took away my speech,my sight,my hearing,you couldnt take my soul.Each and every cell of mine was warning you that I will be healed,I will be back,I will be paying back with interest,My time will come....

My time has come....

Ive learned to put a smile to my pain.Ive learned to draw silver linings around my sorrows.Ive taught my will to live.When I smile now,its as pure as a baby's conscience.I don't feel a need to contort my face lines to hide the toil and turmoil that once my life had become.I can build the temples of serenity and peace within my mind at my will.I've learned to paint my dreams with a colorful gamut of hope and happiness.

The canvas of my mind is fresh and clean all over again.The colors of spite,sorrow,hate,malice doesn't even stay on it.

I smile at you now.I laugh at you now.I pity you now.I condescend you now.

In fact I am so strong that I forgive you.I leave you to live the life of eternal debt of pardon from me.Its more painful than anything you would have ever experienced.You will realise in due time.

Go now.Go till you couldnt distinguish between your blood and your sweat.Move till the line separating sanity and insanity disappear completely.Wade till your mind becomes a blank slate.A blank unwritable dastardly slate.

Sincerely,

Me.

Bombay to Goa...

Hi

I actually wanted to write a sequel to Pingology.But thought of pre-empting it with something that is much more relevant and much less a balderdash.This is something I have been planning to write since I arrived in Goa for a sabbatical after resigning from my job in Mumbai.

This post is somewhat about what Mumbai meant to me in my 3 years of stay.

Let me begin.

I wont sugarcoat my opinions.To be frank I did not really fall for Mumbai.I couldn't really come to peace with this city even after 3 years of my stay.For someone who has stayed all his life in Goa, it's hard to accept the city life.More so when that city is Mumbai.The more you observe the more you tend to see how diametrically opposite Goa and Mumbai are on every level.

While living in Mumbai many times I used to have this mental image about it depicting a room whose walls are obliquely swelling outwards having reached the threshold of its capacity to hold matter inside.("where 2/3rd of the population lives on 1/3rd of the land"..from some book).Its almost like having a free empty space (be it for a ground or garden or whatever) is a crime.There is an inherent tendency to stuff/fill an empty space,based on its size, with a mall,a building,a shop,a vehicle or a person.Of course a native Mumbaikar who has seen all this while growing up will find this a routine and a matter unworthy of any fuss.

A Goan wont.

Let me describe the yardstick against which I compared Mumbai.

I was born and brought up in Goa which is known for its sushegad (come on..you must know the meaning of that term by now) lifestyle,laid back culture,no worries,no tensions,the pace adjusted to a very comfortable speed as per everyone's needs,the relative indifference to the terms like hectic busy rush etc etc,the smooth shiny roads between lots of greenery and trees just optimally filled with traffic in the office times and occupied more by the occasional stray dogs or cattle than vehicles in the quieter quarters of the day,the serenity that is omnipresent though the people,through the clean pollution-free air that surrounds,the blurred boundaries separating a neat village from a city,the ever so beautiful capital city,the pleasant climate,the rainy season that turns everything that is green into greener and did I almost wrote a paragraph about Goa without the word beaches....(no pun intended) and best of all,the genial people...

To be frank,and ask any Goan for that matter,a shift from Goa to Mumbai is not much different from speeding up a car from 0-100 Kmph.

The drastic movement does affect you at first.It did to me as well.

Ill be upfront about things I did not like about Mumbai("hated" would be too strong a term).

The insane travel times owing to the zombie traffic,which can be desettled with as little as one light rain shower,the robust and efficient local train network which is always defeated by the ever bulging population,the noise pollution,air pollution,lack of greenery and trees,senseless number of malls everywhere,a continuously growing thick jungle of concrete etc etc pushed me to the wits end when I was on the receiving side of it and made me run as far as possible from it.

But over the time I acclimatized myself to all this(although not completely).I learned to live with them.

Now let me face up the other side of the coin.Let me tell you what Mumbai meant to me.

This city brought me in the broad day light of reality from the Comfortable cocoon I had been into whole my life.

A bird cannot fly living its whole life in the nest.It has to jump into open air.Mumbai was that uncharted open air.I don't know whether I've learnt flying but I at least realised that I have wings.

New people,new environments new rules etc. brought about a lot of change in me.The decision making ability,the maturity,a broad mindedness,the perspective everything was positively affected by a significant extent.

The rat race is closely associated with the lifestyle over here.But I find that term pejorative.It's more of a race.Whether you run it as a rat or a cat chasing the rat or just like that roadrunner who doesn't care where he reaches,its your choice.

Its meaning is open for any number of interepretations.

I look at it this way.It gives you a sense of competition.A desire to prove yourself.A desire to rise above and break the stereotypes,a desire to make your mark,to be heard,to be known...

And frankly whatever little success I had in achieving all this would not have been possible had I been in Goa.

There is an insatiable zest for life here.The city literally lives through its people.

It was for the first time that I was in a same city of terror strikes(26/11).And I will never forget that.

The life was back to normal within hrs.The terror was failed miserably and shamefully in the hands and minds of the Mumbaian.

He showed that it would take something more than cowardly terrorist attacks to break its soul.The unshakeable spirit of the people really dazzled me.It really was awe inspiring phenomenon for me.There is simply no place for past-tense in a Mumbaikar's life.

Legend has it that the Phoenix bird routinely burns itself to ashes and reborn and rises again.

The proverbial phoenix of Mumbai doesnt have that much time.It just keeps rising.Taking all the blows and burns, healing itself on its way up without halt for a respite. :)

Summing it up,I am glad that Mumbai "happened" to me for many reasons.Wanted to write even more.But some other time may be.

May be I was a tad critical.May be my view towards Mumbai appear as a narrow minded one to my mumbai friends.But then we all tend to have a soft spot for our home land. :)

Having said that every place has its unique signature which sets it apart from others.Its not about how beautiful the signature looks but how unique it makes the signee that is important.And i totally respect that.

So please do not misconstrue my comparative opinions as condescension.

Love you Mumbai..but just as a good friend :)

The ping'ology.

Some observations of popular net-slangs,chat replies etc over the time....

Lol/LOL/lolz/lolllll11111!!

This ping will win the award for the most popular and hackeneyed reply on chat any day any time.Once upon a time it used to denote "Laughing out Loud".Now it can serve as a reply to almost anything.Half the people don't even know the full form of Lol...They think it's an alternative to "ok".(so dont get surprised if you get a "lol" for "Damn man..I had a terrible day today").Blame it on their ignorance.

Another less common version is ROTFL (which is again a truncated version of ROTFLMAO-Rolling on the floor laughing my ass out).Because it's longer than a tiny lol(and bit hard to get the abbreviation correct in one go) it is safe to assume that when people type this,you have cracked something that actually made them laugh.(though it's just an assumption :D)

Hmmm/hmm/hmmmmmmmmmmmmm..(to infinity)

Now apparently self explanatory,this is becoming a more and more confusing reply.It can mean an affirmative reply ("Yes" or "Ok"),or it can be a gap filler (in case the receipint does not not what to reply),or more commonly a contemplation.

This ping always makes the other person a bit uneasy especially if you have said something that you wish you hadn't and the other person replies with a thoughtful Hmm.I remember there was a nice and apt smiley for this on Yahoo messenger.

Sup/wazzp/wassssssssssssp

The only thing that is up after seeing this ping is the annoyment.Agreed it is a globally accepted icebreaker or a conversation starter.But now it has become a commonplace.People who are or were,or will never be interested in what is going up in your life will ping this just almost instinctively after the casual hi.

Observe the following template..I am sure you will get a mini-Deja vu....

P1:Hey dud

P2:Hi

P1:sup/wasssp/wazzp

P2:nm.u say.

P1:*damn!!!...what do I say now*

P2:*yaaaawn*

P1:Hwz life

P2:goin good.

P1:*arrrghhh...why did I pinged him in the first place*

P1:brb ("I am never coming back...")

p2:k ("Oh...you were still here")

Thats how sad it looks.Yet we do it.Again and again :)

Anyway a good substitution which is yet to become an irritant is "Howdy".Although not for long.

k/kk

Another irritating reply.How big a word is "ok" to shorten it even more.The ease of typing it;1 keystroke (anything more and you might just run outta breath grrrh).Imagine a scenario.Your friend asks you the regular "wasssp".Fortunately you have had a great day full of happenings.You take pains to type all that without looking up what your friend has to say over that.Once you finish the marathon ping all you see is those little tiny irritating "k"s in between your generous verbiage-laden paras.

It should be banned.People,agreed its an sms lingo,but atleast have courtsey to type freaking 'O' and a 'K' possibly along with a happy smiley no matter how boring the ping is to you.(For that purpose,why to even ask what is up).

Fraaaaaandship/freindshps/frandssssss

Now this deserves a special mention.The context is the tons of friend requests girls get everyday (checked for 2 of my cousin sisters and a friend) by the newbies-wannabies-MetooWannaOrkutFacebookers.

Once joined a social network their main goal in life zeroes down to having 4287346287346827346 friends in their list ASAP.The priority is of course 'gaaals'.So a girl in a display pic(even if the profile belonged to a guy) or a "female" in the profile description is more than enough criteria for them to add such.

And this is generally they send with the friend request to add a personal touch.

"Heyyy,u lukk very butiful..wannna have fraaandship wimmme.plss"

Or if he is slightly more well versed in English then

"Hey beautiful....can we be friends forever"

Yes I have seen this on my sister's profile.The page is generally full of friend requests from random people..

Arent we Indians despos....lolllzzzz

Brb

Be right back.This is an official timeout in the chat conversation.Also people tend to reply brb and never return to avoid answering uneasy questions :p

This is an effective tool against someone who is chat-badgering you.It's a real piss-off when you are on the receiving side of it though. :)

Huh

There are 2 forms of Huh..

If followed by a question mark refers to the unclear reception of the message...(as in "huh?? what did you say??")

If not then it means a displeasure or a mock anger shown at your ping.(as in "why did you say what you said...huh..)

Again,there was a very fitting emoticon to represent this reply on yahoo mesenger.

I love this ping specially for its second interpretation.It's even more sweet when someone pings it to you :p

Nm

Nevermind.Or Nothing much.(generally followed by nm..u say)Both serves as a fitting reply to the ever vexing "wassssp".It's an indication from the recipient that I am not interested in chitchating about what is up in my life..come to the point please.(thusly passing the ball in wasssp'ers court)

Besides this,NM to write about this one.. :D

Dude/dud/dood

Ok a little trivia about this platitudinal address first.

Dude

-An informal form of address for a man

-A man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance

Dud

-Someone who is unsuccessful

To be frank I didn't know the distiction for quite long..Until I addressed one of our senior project member who apparently is well versed with English by Dud.Never again I address anyone by Dud again.(Not "unintentionally"....come on there are always some unsuspecting targets("duds") who would never have a clue about it :p).And Dood is not even a word.It just a lazily metamorphised version of dude.Relatively uncommon address to a girl is Dudette.Mostly it's gal,babe,babezzz,dear etc.

A nice change from the regular dude/gal/dud etc would be using exotic addresses like senorita(for girl),senor(Guy),comrade,paisan(godfather fame :D ).They sound lot less like a thud.

More to follow soon....(Yes you guess right.I don't have anything better to do right now) :)

Peace..

From Accenture, towards the Future. :) (My goodbye mail)

Hello Dear Comrades.

The best part of any long and arduos journey is the feeling that you get when you look back at the distance you covered upon reaching the destination,while the breeze quietly cools off your sweat. :)

After completing around 3 years in Accenture I kinda feel the same in the hindsight.It seems almost yesterday that I arrived here in Mumbai after bidding a teary goodbye to my parents...The time flew like anything and here I am writing my goodbye letter on my last day in Accenture.

These ~3 years have been a great learning experience for me on each and every level.

The lessons that were learnt were very valuable and gonna stay with me for long.

The project deserves special mention as this was my first and last project in Accenture.

I am thankful to my project for incepting and providing a fostering enviornment for a dream that eventually came true.

Also the realization of the dream wouldn't have been complete without the active/passive participation of all the actors besides the dreamer himself.

Without taking any names I would like to express my gratitude towards all of them :)

Before I forget I would like to thank my collegues and testing batch buddies who made me feel home (a recluse Goan amongst a whole lot of smart Mumbaiyans in the big big city) and the awesome time we had on bench and foundation training.Gonna miss playing the counter strike,fifa etc on multiplayer LAN infront of the faculty :)

The 3 years were so full of diverse memories.

I still remember the day we joined the project,when a nervous bunch of us freshly hired from the bench,waiting eagerly outside the bay 34.

The seniors in this project were always helpful and approachable no matter how trifling my doubts and queries were.

Also the leads were quite supportive most of the times.I was lucky to have cool seniors and even cooler juniors.

And how can I forget the ever rocking PDT team and all the fun we had...we were the name of the ERA for last 4 months.I dont know when the birds of the feather will be flocked together again like they did this time around.

Anyway..I wont deny having a share of scratchy moments,the times when I felt like I had enough,that I cant take this any more,times that saw me reach the upperbound of frustration etc..But that's part of life(and every project).

All's awesome that ends awesome.When you are so full with the good memories,you neither have time nor space to contemplate over the bad/ugly ones (though there werent many).I am leaving with a big ear to ear smile of satisfaction and without any grievance or complaints. :)

The end of journey only marks the beginning of the other.I hope I find friends like you all on my way there.Wish me luck for making it to the other end. :)

Thanks again all of you the wonderful greeting card and even more wonderful memories.(Also to those whom I might have missed out) :)

Wish you all the best for the future and the present.May you end up in a place that you truely deserve.I am gonna miss you all.

PS: The letter would have been ridiculously long had I written about each one of you.So please forgive me for that :).I am very bad at summarizing.

PS2:You can add me up on

1)tanmay112@aol.com

2)tanmay.thakur@hotmail.com

Adieu amigos.

Signing off from the Acceture.

Yours Sincerely

Tanmay

(A fallen Tester :) )

What's in the name(s)...Lots!!!

Hey Guys,

Something different this time.

The following list of names is a direct result of our exasperation,frustration,anger,irritation towards this certain gentleman who leads our testing team.

The captains who can sail their ship successfully even in the storm are old news now.It's cliche. It's stale.

Its this new breed that's carving itself a niche,they have the ability to have their ship in doldrums even in the calmest of the oceans and with the bestest of the crew.

They drown,and take everyone with them.They may be humble,mild,meek,poor along with being dumb.But those virtues are too few and non-cogent to prevent us, the minions of anti-christ, from attacking them with our devilious creativity.

To a layman this is just a plethora of negative adjectives.For us however,it's the "Poopist Chronicles".

(Apologies for the long size of the post.I could attach the excel file so had to Copy paste the entire list)

• Agent of Nihility
• Messiah of Idiocy
• Beacon of Exasperation
• A cornucopia of fatigue
• Prophet of Imbecility
• Valedictorian of nincompoopery
• Harbinger of great suffering and agony
• The Fuhrer of Wreckage
• The Jesus of Disturbia
• The Virtuoso of Sluggishness
• Diffident Dastard
• The Dabbling Dorkmoron
• Peabrained gargoyle
• The Unblinkable Starrer
• The Advocate of ignominy
• Constipationer
• The last king of Dyslexialand
• The crusader of Timidity
• Testing Dumbdroid
• The Minion of Torpidity
• The Obnoxious Obliviator
• The Deity of Obtuseness
• The Lingering Laggard
• Gandalf the Gullible
• The fugitive of Cuckoo's Nest
• Torchbearer of the Inexplicability
• The champion of the Retardation
• The Gamut of the Gibberish
• Blabloid / Babbloid / Blahbloid / Blahbot
• Professor MumbleBore
• Mr Crappathetic of Pathosland
• The propagator of pandemonium
• The ominous obliterator of intelligence
• The no sense noob
• The rumbling rambler
• Jack the Dripper
• The epitome of fatuousness
• The frontrunner of the Dystopia
• The paradigm of frivolity
• The headless harlequin
• Verbal Anti-diarrhetic
• The Living Limbo
• The Jejune Comatose
• The measly mannequin
• The Blabbliophile's Bible
• The stuporous stupid
• The Souvenir of Cataclysm
• The Cranky Conglomerate
• The Maestro of the Oblivion
• The Abbot of the Abyss
• The Crooked Crappabel
• The Pope of Perjury
• The lobotomised laxative
• The eluding exacerbater
• The rollicking retard
• Dumbsel in Distress
• The Demented Dumbtard
• The Deranged solicitor
• The Haphazard Colonel
• The Dormant Dumbinator
• Evangelical Guardian of the Void
• Floptimus Drone
• Captain Dubious
• Babblebard of Bastardonia
• The Dumbards Speech
• The Devious Doofus
• The Confucius of Disorder
• The Incorrigible Diphtherian
• The Erratic Heretic
• The flabbergasted fanatic
• The Messenger of Misadventure
• The Dreary Demagog
• The Duke of Drudgery
• The Zenith of Ennui
• The Ubermensch from The Crapton
• The Silly Samaritan
• The Grovelling Gremlin
• The Gawking Go-downer
• The Simpleton Simian
• The Neanderthal Neophyte
• The Petty Poltergeist
• The Fallen Charlatan
• The Ruminating Rasputin
• The Insidious Imp
• The Pharaoh of balderdash
• The Caricature of Buffoonery
• The Whimpering Whiner
• Doodledude of Dunce-u-topia
• The Nadir of Sanity
• The titillator of tedium
• The asphyxiator of fauna
• The nonsensical nitwit
• The Zeitgeist of misfortune
• The Whipped Wiener
• The Nimbus of Dumbness
• The Stupefied Sapien
• The Mortified Mongrel
• The Petrified Pimp
• The Amoral Albino
• The Dispensable Dodo
• The Poignant Plebeian
• The Abominable Lull

...............................Bwahahahahhahahah........................

Contributers : Ashwin,myself and Rohit.

Special thanks to Ashwin,it was his brainchild to make this list.

PS: Even if our protagonist stumbles across this one,I bet he wouldn't have a clue what this is all about. :p

C ya

The comrades and the camaraderie...

I had planned this post sometime back.But the content changed due to some ad hoc circumstances :p

I just felt I should share this instead of elaborating much on what I had planned to write(which Ill do in some other post)

(Afterall isn't this a blog for penning down things I feel strongly about:D )

So I put in my papers today,after having converted the prestigious NMIMS call.

After being in this dastardly and dried place for over 2 years,I finally did what I had planned to do exactly one year back.

I resigned.It was freedom.A redemption.Literally.

SO here was I...supposedly on the seventh heaven...After witnessing an entire life cycle of my dream coming true I was supposed to be on cloud nine..But somehow something was aching.I tinge of sadness.A tinge of gloom.

It was the feeling that Ill be gone from this place in few weeks.May be it would have felt this strongly some 4-5 months back when I was desperately trying everything I could just to run far far away from here.

But this time it was different.

It's my buddies in the project(The new joinees and all juniors) and the connection we had in this short 3 months,that was making it so difficult.

Being mostly a reserved guy and an introvert,I never had lots of friends nor did I had a group as such,in school,college or even in engineering.It always used to be some 2-3 friends with whom the friendship mostly pertained to classroom or occasional hangouts.

I never feel sad while leaving my school or college or engineering.May be it was because I didn't have or rather I didn't make many close friends.

But this people were something different.I could connect well with every one of them.And they liked me too.(Presuming :p)

The hangouts at almost every weekends(water kingdom latest),the leg pulling at the lunch and breakfast,the laughs,the conference chats,the blabbering philosophies etc etc....it was too much fun and happening for such a short time of 3 months.The work was as pathetic as ever but I never enjoyed going to office as much as I did since I joined back from the LOA.

The moment I told them about my selection in NMIMS,they were just exhilarated.It was one of those times when you realize what is meant by "happiness doubles when shared".I could see the cheer on each one of their faces.

Ofcourse I have to entertain the immediate order for the celebration at the CCD.(Which cost me a bomb of 500 bucks :p)

Umpteenth times they told me how happy they were for me(and they looked like).

Somehow it was like an overdose of good feeling.Like eating too much sugar..especially when you are not used to such feeling. :)

I always used to think that friends and friendship are kinda overrated topics.May be because I never had such a kewl friend group.

Now I wonder which friends are better.Those who are there just for the formality sake,whose absence or presence makes hardly any difference to your life and vice versa,making you realise painfully how insignificant you are to them,or those with whom you connect so easily and well,who love you,who miss you when you aren't there,that it becomes even more harder when bidding them Adieu.I myself had never really experienced the later type.

I consider myself emotionally strong who generally dont lose it.I dont even remember the last time I cried.But today even I kinda felt my throat choked for a jiffy.It was unexpected.We are so used to life throwing lemons at us that when it actually throws sugar candies(and lots of them), we just don't know what to do :)

Anyway the last day is still 1.5 months away.Till then I can safely forget about its existence and have fun :)

You guys rock.\m/

PS:I will write about all of them in detail in my farewell mail.:)