BBY – Lagori

BBY is Bhooli Bisari Yaadein (Long forgotten memories). Here I bring you with the most exciting and enticing journey to Bhooli Bisari Yaadein, which given an option we would want to live again. Most of the games that I write about are local region specific games. I am pretty sure everybody of my generation might have played these games sometime as a kid, though with slight variation or under different name tag. This time the game I will be writing about is called

Lagori (Lag lag lagori)

In simple words if I have to define this game, “Lagori is a game consisting of two teams, where in one team tries to break the Lagori (i.e. tower of 7 small tile slabs) by hitting it from a distance with the a rubber ball (size of cricket ball) and after breaking it, attempts to restore the tower while other team is trying to get them out by either catching the ball during the breaking attempt or after the break hitting opposite team member with the ball before they restore the Lagori.”

Lagori is a simple game played between two teams, where one team tries to break and restore the Lagori and another tries to get the first team out. When you have two teams there is always commotion of deciding the team members as every body wants to be with the best player’s team. Being kids even if you apply some kind of ISO standard to teaming process, I don’t think it is going to be honored or followed. Ironically, the whole process of choosing the team member starts with choosing the person who will be responsible of choosing the team member by all the players. Based on some ad-hoc preferences two team leaders are unanimously decided. Now the whole responsibility of selecting team members relies upon able capable shoulder of the chosen team leads. Selection process of team members is not trivial enough, team leads have to alternately call the name of person they want in their team. With every selected member, next member is selected with majority of selected members. Complex… huh!!!

After the team is decided; we need 7 tile pieces of any shape (preferably circular of 2 inch to 4 inch radius) to build a Lagori and a rubber ball. India being cricket fanatic country rubber ball is not difficult to find. Finding 7 tiles with the above mentioned specification is difficult. Once we have 7 tiles, Lagori is built by keeping each tile one above another in the sequence of their sizes starting from biggest at the bottom to smallest at the top.

I am trying to document the undocumented so forgive me if I miss something.

Rules of the game:

1. Out of the two teams, one is attacking the Lagori and other one is defending the Lagori.
2. Teams stand on the opposite side of the Lagori at certain distance from it, say 10 feet distance.
3. Team attacking tries to hit the Lagori with every member getting turn to attack before other team gets their chance. Every member getting 3 hits during his turn.
4. Ball should either hit directly the Lagori or after one bounce.
5. Team defending can catch the ball thrown by the attacking team to get the throwing member out.
6. Legal catch to take a member out should be made only after one bounce. If ball bounces more than once, throwing player continues to finish his attempts.
7. After every player from attacking team is done with their attempts, team defending gets the chance to attack.
8. If attacking team player successfully hits the Lagori, attacking team members have to restore the Lagori before getting hit by ball thrown by the defending team player
9. If attacking team successfully restores the Lagori and circles Lagori three times by calling out “Lag Lag Lagori” with each circular movement they score a point over defending team and get the opportunity to attack again.
10. If attacking team is not able to successfully restore the Lagori, defending team scores a point and gets to attack next.
11. Play continues till players get tired and at the end of the session which ever team has more point wins.

Every game has its positives and Lagori has its own, my attempt to summarize some of the benefits:

1. First and foremost, it is fun game to play.
2. It is a team game, teaches one to be a team player
3. It is a strategy game; one has to plan and carry out the restoration and simultaneously dodge the hit. Pretty much real life situation.
4. It makes your aim pretty sharp.
5. As its field game it keeps you fit and agile.

IT: In the community

Very interesting thing happened today. I got an email from my company’s website designer about building “In the community” webpage on our company website. The whole initiative was driven by intention to propagate the company’s contribution to the community and explore the charitable activities done by company employees.

Given the opportunity I did not want to miss the chance to list out my contribution towards the community. Here I was doing my part and believing that company must be doing its part. Friends please find the list of charity done by me:

1. Working at lower pay then the market standard. Difference in amount is given back to the community.
2. Working off office hours for no extra pay. Extra pay for this is given back to the charity.
3. Working for tasks not mentioned in SOW (Statement of Work), for no extra pay. Extra pay for these tasks is given back to the community.
4. Working alone for 2-3 resources work. Extra pay for other resources is given back to the community.
5. After doing all the above community service, I have started to believe that I am working for a charitable organization.

If I have missed anything, please add to the list.

BBY – Aaba Dubi

Here I am back with another BBY, this should be quick one. This time the game is called

Aaba Dubi

Hey hey!!! Wait… don’t rub your shoulders or arms or legs imagining something just hit you.

I don’t know how to describe this game; what adjective to use for this game. Game is pretty simple, no complex rules either. You just need a ball to play this game and mostly the ball that we used to play with was made of plastic. Just one objective, if you have the ball in hand (not the one in pool) hit other guy with the ball, and hit hard… really hard.

If you have not played this game or never heard of this game, then you might be thinking what’s the big deal about getting hit by a plastic ball? This ball was not just any plastic ball; it used to be “Sun ka ball”. Too many unknown parameters, now what is this “Sun ka ball”. It doesn’t really mean anything, there used to be this brand called Sun, which used to make hard plastic ball. Right, as you understand it is as simple as plastic ball made by Sun. How hard can the ball be? Really hard, one can stand on the ball and still nothing happens to it. Not sure though, if it will withstand my weight now. You must be thinking how nobody used to get hurt after getting hit? Obviously people used to get hurt and hurt real bad. The place where ball used to hit the body, it will become black and blue. It will pain real bad, we used to rub the spot to get rid of the pain. It used to burn even with the touch of the shirt.

Aaba Dubi game was very popular in my school, bachcha bachcha janta tha Aaba Dubi ke baare mein. We used to play this game in school during game period or recess time. Game of Aaba Dubi is played in open ground; we played it in school play ground. Game starts with one of us having the ball (Sun ka ball) and everybody else will running away from this guy. Once everybody has reached their position and comfortable, action starts. As there is one and only one rule “hit other person with ball”, guy with the ball tries to hit the nearest guy with the ball. Whoever gets the ball in hand next, tries to hit other guy and game continues.

Let me get to some detailing of hitting someone with the ball. Hitting someone is not as simple as said. When I am hitting other guy with the ball, obviously he is not standing and waiting for me to hit him. He is running his ass off across the ground, and I now have to hit the moving target. We being masters of the game; we used to hit guys 50 meter apart, taking care of the ball trajectory, wind speed and the swing of the ball and obviously moving target. With all these factors and no knowledge of physics involved, we used to successfully hit the target.

Funniest part used to be, when somebody is aiming to hit you and you will be running across the ground. You are successfully hit by the ball. You try to pick up the ball and return the favor. Top your disappointment, at the same time other guy picks the ball. You find yourself at the tip of the fully loaded gun and no sign of mercy in the guy’s eyes. To your surprise everybody else finds this situation extremely funny and they start laughing crazily. Poor you, it’s you whose ass is at stake and you have to somehow get out of this situation. Only option then remains is to say to plead to that guy and say “Sardar meine tumhara namak khaya hai”, guy obviously like gabber says “To ab goli kha”. Other option is to hug that guy so that he cannot hit you. But most of the times you can only bargain for 2-3 seconds, to run away from that guy and pray to god that he misses. All you get is Param Veer Chakara for bravely facing your nemesis, big dark blue mark of the size of the ball.

Aaba Dubi was (should be “is” though, I am saying “was” because I don't see kids playing this game nowdays) very simple and easy to play game. We used to have real fun. It really Bhooli Bisari Yaaden, I don’t even see kids nowdays playing Aaba Dubi. Probably it’s just left in blogs.

BBY – Dabba Express

It’s been long time since I wrote something. Lately I have been into discussions with friends about all the different kind of games that we used to play as kids. I bet everyone would have got into similar discussion once in a while. Whenever I get into such discussions, I sort of WARP (star trek warp) my self to those good olden days. It’s like wanting to play those games again. I still remember all the different games that we played; undocumented rules and obviously, fights over those controversial rules.

Here I bring you with the most exciting and enticing journey of (BBY) Bhooli Bisari Yaadein, I will be writing one blog per game or similar kind of games… so kindly bear with me and enjoy the journey back to past.

Dabba Express or Dabba ISpy or Dabba aais-pais

I will go with Dabba Express, origin of this name being confidential; I would not want to disclose that. Crux of this game is "karvanti". I hope everybody have atleast heard of it. Let me define it for you, “karvanti” is semicircular half of coconut hard shell left after coconut is scrapped from it. A game of Dabba Express typically consist of 10-12 guys, more the better. We used to be around 10-12 guys everytime we played.

Rules of the Game:

1. Of all kids participating in the game, one kid has to take raj i.e. Den, decided by complex process mentioned below.
2. Rest of the kids hide themselves into pre-decided, agreed upon, restricted area only.
3. During the raj, karvanti will be placed in a small ring and the kid taking raj has to protect the KARVANTI while trying to spot other hiding kids.
4. As soon as any of the hidden kid is spotted, he will step on karvanti and shout the name of the kid he spotted. Let’s say if I was hiding, then on spotting me the kid taking den will shout “Abhinay ka Dabba Express” and thereafter I am out of the game.
5. Kid getting caught first will take the raj for next round of game.
6. In rule 3 I said guy taking raj is protecting karvanti, but from what? During the raj all other kids except the kid taking raj will be trying to get the karvanti out of the ring before the kid taking raj spots them and performs the ritual mentioned in rule 4.
7. Anytime during the game is on, if anyone from the hidden kids is able to get the karvanti out of the ring, game is over and kid taking raj has to take raj again.

Every time we used to play the big question used to be, “raj kaun lega”, but then obviously there were different methodologies of figuring that out. Let me describe couple of methods that we used. I am pretty sure there might be other different ways of doing this.

Ways of deciding RAJ 1: Make everybody stand in circle. Start counting 10, 20, 30…100 and with every number start tapping one kid at a time. The kid with 100 was taken out of the circle i.e. relieved of taking raj. This used to continue this till one person is remaining, heir to throne i.e. the guy who would take the first raj of the game.

Ways of deciding RAJ 2: Majority-Minority method. In this 3 kids would come together and put their one palm out on top of each others. On call of 1, 2, 3 each kid has to turn his/her had either palm facing up or down. As this is Majority-Minority and minority always suffers, 2 kids with same hand position are relieved of taking raj and 3^rd kid is joined by other 2 kids. This process is continued till there is one kid left at the end.

So far so good, but actual fun starts now, mind you all this is happening outdoors during late evenings when it’s dark outside and not easy to spot someone in dark.

Game begins. Strategy is simple, don’t be the first to get caught. As the area for hiding was already defined, it was pretty safe to assume that the kid taking raj will not come looking for us outside agreed upon area boundary. Even for a kid it was no brainer to and hide outside area, but everything comes at a cost. If caught outside decided boundary then corporal punishment, new game starts immediately with this kid taking raj. Once outside decided boundary, sit and chill around. Kid taking the raj continues his search; obviously he cannot leave karvanti lavaris, as someone can come and kick his dear karvanti only to end this game make him take the raj again. I have been in this situation so I know how frustrating it is to just go around looking for someone who is just sitting somewhere and not bothered at all.

Another trick that we used to do was, 2 of the kids will exchange their shirts and simply show the shirt to the kid taking raj. Now kid taking raj obviously would mistake the kid for other kid. And as soon as kid taking raj shouts wrong kid’s name, every kid in the hiding comes out shouting “aatli baatli futli”. I really appreciate the guy who came up with such a catchy phrase. Its jalsa time for kids, they come running from everywhere to kick the hell out of karvanti. Poor kid, his misery continues and has to take the raj again.

I am sure you people would have something to add to these, but those were the golden times which probably will never come back.

IT: Layoffs

Every day, a small Ant arrives at work very early and starts work immediately, no browsing, no checking cricket scores, no tea break even before starting the day. Ant used to work with 100% efficiency and was happy with the work. Lion, the CEO of the company was surprised to see Ant working without supervision. Lion thought if the Ant can produce so much without supervision, will it not produce even more with proper supervision.

So Lion recruited a Cockroach with extensive experience as supervisor and was famous for producing excellent reports. The Cockroach’s first decision was to set up a clocking in attendance system. As expected Cockroach was not going to do work by itself, so recruited Spider as secretary to attend phone calls, help write reports and manage archives. The Lion was delighted with the Cockroach's reports and asked for graphs to describe production rates and to analyse trends for presentations at Board‘s meetings.

So the Cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer. Again Cockroach was not going to do all this building of graphs and reports by itself, so recruited a Fly as its assistant to manage computer, build reports, print the presentations, organize them for board etc. The Ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time.

The Lion came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the ant worked. The position was given to the Worm, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. The Worm also needed a computer and a personal assistant; so worm got someone from its previous department as assistant to help prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan.

The Department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore, nobody enjoys their work, lack of motivation and productivity was to the lowest. It was at this time that the Worm convinced the boss, the Lion, of the absolute necessity to start a climatic study of the environment. Having reviewed the charges for running the Ant’s department, the Lion found out that the production was much less than before.

In order to fin d the cause of reduction of production, Lion recruited the Owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The Owl spent three months in the department and came up with an enormous report, in several volumes that concluded:

"The department is overstaffed, need immediate reduction of staff"

You don’t need to be genius to know who the Lion fires first. The Ant, of course, because Ant showed lack of motivation, increased frustration and had a negative attitude towards whole work environment.


Source: Mail forward

IT: World of logic, hard to find

My liking for software (IT) goes long back to my childhood. Probably then I did not know what’s waiting for me in future (Sitting in a cubicle like a moron working day in day out for peanuts). During my early school days I wasn’t great at math. Then one day Great Bhattacharya (My Dad) had enough of me and took me under his chatra chaya, where I was beaten to hell. I still remember those days. Everybody saw classic turnaround in me and now math was my favorite subject and it better be; who wants to get subjected to thrashing otherwise. When today I look back and think of those days, I am thankful to Great Bhattacharya, as with math I also got analytical thinking and logical analysis capabilities.

In India education has it own meaning. You get to learn the things that you might never use in life. I did my major in Electrical and here I am writing programs, fixing issues, fighting for optimization. Only thing Electrical left in my life is the electrical signals flowing in mother boards when my program is turned in assembly language codes and those are used to fire semiconductors and transistors. I am sure, like me there are many more software professions who have their major in some other faculty but landed up in IT.

In IT I am not sure how many people understand the meaning of logic. What this term really means?
Definition: The science or art of exact reasoning, or of pure and formal thought, or of the laws according to which the processes of pure thinking should be conducted.

As said by Einstein "Logic will take you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere". Also meaning of logic is relative to everyone, because what can seem logical to one person is illogical to another person. I never understood this, how can logical way of getting from A to B be different from person to person.

Only after coming to software and now being here for a while I have realized in this field where logic seems logical, it’s so difficult to find people thinking logically. In this world you miss logic at every level starting from junior developer (probably due to innocence) to upper management (due to save my ass attitude).

This is the person who works almost 18 hours, takes all the blame, even after maximum efforts gets minimum credit and gets laid off before anyone else, illogical isn’t it? Meet the Chindi Coder (Developer)

This is the person who is supposed to be the most knowledgeable, functionally and technically and is often found begging to Chindi Coder for solutions and resolution, illogical isn’t it? Meet the Mistry (Project Lead)

This is the person who is face of the project for client and client hates to see this face, illogical isn’t it? Meet the Mukadam (Project Manager)

This is the person who keeps asking for everybody to deliver irrespective of the work load and number of people working on the project, only comes into picture when the things are screwed up and after all this who takes successful delivery as his success, illogical isn’t it? Meet the Daakia (Delivery Manager).

This is the person who is always covering his ass and illogical things happening are no more illogical to this person, illogical isn’t it? Meet the Sutradhaar (Director).

Exceptions are always there, so you might want to analyze yourself, if you fall in anyone of above mentioned position. If not it is always nice to meet a person on my side of world.

How it changed?

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed from a maverick collage life to strict professional life…...

How tiny pocket money changed to huge monthly paychecks
but then why it gives lesss happiness….

How a few local denim jeans changed to new branded wardrobe
but then why there are less people to use them

How a single plate of samosa changed to a full Pizza or burger
But then why there is less hunger…..

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…..

How a bike always in reserve changed to bike always on
but then why there are less places to go on……

How a small coffee shop changed to cafe coffee day
but then why its feels like shop is far away…..

How a limited prepaid card changed to postpaid package
but then why there are less calls & more messages……

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed…...

How a general class journey changed to Flight journey
But then why there are less vacations for enjoyment….

How a old assembled desktop changed to new branded laptop
but then why there is less time to put it on……….

How a small bunch of friends changed to office mate
But then why we always feel lonely n miss those college frnz.….

Here i am sitting in my office @ night…
Thinking hard about life
How it changed….. How it changed……..

IT: Game of Credit

If we consider IT was a game, then I am still a starter in this game. Every person has his own way of playing this game i.e. different strategy and this blog is about one such strategy of taking Credit for work. I learnt this game hard way. 

I still recall my earlier days, when I was started fresh. My first job was not very exciting and interesting. I joined this company for a break, when IT industry was still recovering from 2001 recession after effects. I came onboard for Java, but due to lack of project I was put on Delphi project. Being starter and new in the game, I worked sincerely and gave more than 100% to learn and understand the technology. I was working on this module which involved both design and development. At the end though this module was my baby, team lead took it to management and took complete credit. I came to know about this only after my co-lead told me about it. I was new in the game then, it did not bother me a lot. I felt this is how things work. This was my first encounter with game of credit. Within 4 months I left that job, not because of the Credit Theft, but because of future prospects (that’s what I said in my exit interview). 

I had similar experience in my 2^nd. This company was slightly bigger than previous and I hoped for better professional environment. As I was just 4 months old in industry, I was still fresher. I had to prove myself again. I worked selflessly and hard enough to stand out from the bunch of trainees. We had project based performance bonus. After my first project, performance bonus was distributed and I was given any bonus. Now the game of credit begins. Starting from Resource planner, Project Manager and Project leader started giving excuses and blaming someone else. Allocated bonus was distributed and what I got was verbal diarrhea of appreciation. I did not fight for the bonus then, but learnt my lessons. There are always people to take what you deserve; so identify them and be careful with such people. 

My 3^rd job till date is the best I have had. In this job I realized that there are good people in industry. Bollywood dialogue “Agar meine yeh job nahi kiya hota, to mera is industry pe se vishwaas udgaya hota.” 

My 4^th and current job taught me lot about this game and I would say I am still learning. Probably now I understand the game better. I joined this company as a reference of my ex team lead. I started working in his team. As I had already worked under this guy before, I sort of trusted him blindly. When project pressure started building up, I got to see real colors of this guy. All good work is mine and bad or shoddy work is yours, was the attitude. Being team lead, he was interacting with client and in the process he was taking complete credit of others work. I knew this game and before it was too late, I started interacting with client directly. Now my work had more visibility and recognition. I learnt very important lesson, trust has its own boundaries. When things are at stake, everyone changes colors. 

To summarize the game of credit:

1. This game is always played one sided. Person lower down the ladder is always the underdog and in this game underdog never wins.
2. You always don’t get what you deserve. Sometimes you have to fight for that.
3. Trust has its boundaries. Depend on nobody. This is not team game but single player game.

India 2.0: Identity Crisis

I heard of this term Identity crisis, from one of my desi friend in office. He used to tell us hilarious incidents of his kid. He can perform a stand up comedy with all his incidents. One day he told me about his kid facing Identity crisis. Identity crisis here is about not knowing ones family language, cultural/ethnic/family values. I would not have thought of a kid learning his/her mother tongue in some coaching class rather than at home. I saw this in US. My friend used to get involved in all those so called cultural activities in community, which given an option he would not have. Think of biggest of all festivals in India ‘Diwali; for kids brought up abroad this is just another festival. After some time in US, I observed that this whole Identity Crisis thing was quite normal for Indian families settled in US or anywhere abroad. 

Not just cultural and family values, but think of all those fun that we had when we were kids. I still remember those road side games that we used to play. Pakkda Pakdi, Langdi, Kho Kho, Goti (Marbles), Chor Police, GIlli Danda, Bhawra (Top), Vish Amrut, Son sakhli etc. It was so fun. Even today with friends, we discuss all these games and memories are as fresh as it has happened just yesterday. Kids brought up abroad probably will not even hear about all these fun, forget about playing. 

This weekend I was back in bay area after my official trip to Charlotte and over the weekend had nothing much to do, other than visiting friends, watching movies, cooking and relaxing. On my visit to one of my friends, one of our other Colleague/Friend joined us for dinner with his family i.e. his wife and 2 kids (both ABCD). After some chatting we all got into cooking mode and guys thought of giving girls a break from kitchen. And then what followed with the kid’s, motivated me to write this blog. 

Kids brought up in US speak English with US accent, which amuses me a lot. Not just this, kids find themselves more comfortable expressing themselves in English rather than in their mother tongue. Now my friend’s elder daughter started communicating in English and my friend asked her to talk in Marathi, which she obviously did not like. This is when the conversation took ugly turn and out of nowhere she started asking Marathi translations for all the objects she could possibly see around her. It was like in war, enemy across border is firing bullets, throwing grenades, firing missiles and we were running helter skelter for cover. We so called Marathi by birth or up bringing, were simply taken down by her questions. We only managed to answer 5 out of 20 questions. We also gave answers like this word came from Marathi, hence no translation. 

Let me give you feel of the situation, I will put some of the translations asked by 5 yr old kid, though I do not remember all of those, try translating it in your mother tongue.

1. Table
   
2. Sofa
3. TV
4. Phone
5. Fan
6. Light

Though we did not show any sign of guilt, probably we do not realize now. I felt we faced bigger identity crisis then kids born or brought up in US. Though born and brought up in India (between our culture and people), I bet not many of us can talk in our mother tongue without using English? How many of us remember or understand all of our cultural festivals/rituals? At my home mom and dad perform puja when ever we have any festivals and till day I or brother/sister in all these years did not take much effort to learn. I won’t be surprised if in years to come these small or big festivals/rituals will be lost with time. Even today I can see the diminishing enthusiasm for the festivals like Gopala (Dahi Handi), Holi, Sankrant (Kite flying). I am sure there are many more festivals which I would have celebrated, but do not remember them now.

I do not want to make any statement by writing this blog; this is just a thought.

Namesake

Last weekend I saw Namesake, Mira Nair movie. Namesake was on my long pending list of movies for quite sometime now. I got warning from my friend about not watching this movie on Saturday evening, nothing like movie being bad or worthless, but due to its depressing nature. My friend said quote unquote “you should not see this movie after coming to US from INDIA, but to watch this before going to INDIA from US”. This kind of statement would certainly make you to reconsider your decision to watch this movie on Saturday evening. So basically 2 reasons to see this movie even after so many warnings (1) We had got this DVD from Sunnyvale library and we had to return this next day and (2) Want to finish this movie from my long pending list. 

I was little delighted to see Kal Penn in the movie because of the kind of movies that I have seen of him (Harold and Kumar) and also he remind me of one of my Good friend/colleague (Those knowing me and my office circle would know who this person is J). 

Movie started with Ashok’s (Irfan Khan) Train journey, which obviously reminded me about the wonderful experiences that every Train journey brings with it. Ashok is shown reading a novel by author called Nikhlai Gogol, and inspired by him Ashok names his kid Kal Penn, Gogol Ganguly. Instead he should have carried the name which the hospital guy suggested to put on birth certificate “Babyboy Ganguly” J. Kal Penn carries Gogol as his name till younger days only having him to blame, during his school days he had opted to be called Gogol rather than Nikhil. 

Till this point movie was quite entertaining and I was starting to wonder what depressing can happen hereafter. Till this point only daily life in New Jersey during Snow looked depressing to me. Somehow I don’t enjoy snow around me in my day to day life. I feel snow is good for a change or for vacation where you can play in snow, got out for some kind of snow activities. 

Gogol potrays perfect ABCD i.e. American born CONFUSED desi and I mean it CONFUSED DESI. Ashok and Ashima’s (Tabu) both kids move out with their separate lives. As movie progresses, Gogol is shown moved out of house, on his own with job and his American girlfriend Maxi. He starts avoiding his parents while he is involved in relationship. When Ashok dies, his wife Ashima is left alone, this sort of reunites the family and brings all of them together. Gogol returns home to support his mother and completes all the necessary rituals. 

After sometime in movie Gogol is pushed into relationship with a Bengali girl and then they get married only to find her cheating on Gogol. Meanwhile Ashima’s has decided to move on with her life and her daughter Sonia is doing well with an American guy in her life. 

At the end Sonia is shown happy with an American guy and Gogol with broken marriage. One would think, what if Gogol would have continued with his American girl friend? Ofcourse story would not have moved as it did. I am not sure if movie wants to pass this message “ABCD should marry only Americans”, just a thought but how do I care. 

I was glad to see that after Ashok’s death, Ashima carried herself well even after being miles away in different world and culture. She was not shown slipping into depression and was able to get her family back together. Overall a good movie and must watch, at least once.

Trip to Six Flags, Vallejo

Probably Six Flags, Vallejo would not bring chill of ice down one's spine (exceptions are always there), but to a person who have been anxious to even get on to the only roller coaster in Essel World, Mumbai, was obviously scary. Though while visiting Essel World I always knew about other scary and crazy rides in the world, but was never sure about me riding one of those. Now after riding craziest of rides of Six Flags, I can say things can be different or ones approach can be different when viewed from different perspective. I would say so because, if you were to visit one of these parks with a guy who is scared to death by stupidest of the rides, then you are sure to get scared and obviously miss the fun. In effect if you were to visit one of these parks with guys with lion hearts and then you can feel courage of Baajirao oozing out (though this doesn't holds true for all those fattu people).

This time I did exactly what is needed to go on and enjoy these rides. I went with my friends we call crazy/psycho because for whom enjoyment is totally proportional to the craziness, height, width and duration of the ride. By doing this I made sure that I am going to make most of every penny I have spent (though got tickets at 50% discount and even when I am writing this blog, I haven’t yet paid my contribution of the trip)

It all started with Jan 2^nd 2009; what a way to start New Year... with a bang. As we Indians always do, start anything and everything with Bhagwaan ka Aashirwad (Blessings of GOD), we all went to Sunnyvale Temple (I obviously prayed for some courage) and after an auspicious darshan headed straight to Vallejo. One could not miss the view of those huge structures as you enter the city of Vallejo, though I was expecting more spectacular view. As we kept nearing Six flags, I was getting butterflies in stomach.

My formula to successfully finish all the rides was “DO IT BEFORE LUNCH”, if you don’t want to feel dizzy and nauseatic. As we entered Six flags, we first got hold of the Map with all the various rides and their location in the park and spotted all the rides that we would ride before lunch. We kind of rated all the rides and agreed on the sequence to ride, starting with most thrilling.

Off all the rides, I found Medusa the scariest of the rides. Being still early in the day and rare view of no queue for ride, after about 10 mins wait in line we got chance. Ride starts with 65 degrees drop and a immediate round about, which scares the hell out of you. We sat in 1^st row with our feet hanging; Medusa started its way up to the top. When on top it took speed and went down 65 degree drop and an immediate round about. At this time probably you can feel the effect of drop, it was like nothing I have felt before. Everything next just followed and everybody was almost shouting at the top of their voice for next 1 min. No sooner you felt comfortable ride is over and you are left wanting for more. Same happened to us and with not much queue for the ride; we came back for the ride. This time I was really anxious to go on the ride. I had this kid sitting beside me with no sign of fear and me sitting beside him scared to hell. After first ride I knew the only scariest part was the first 65 degrees drop and rest will just follow. This time I was more balanced and composed, during the ride I was also searching for camera to pose for.

Then on our list was next best to Medusa, Kong. After 5 mins in line we were told of technical fault and had to leave without even getting on the ride. But as it came as blessing in disguise, we rushed for the Bird show which otherwise we would have missed. It was good to see how these Owls, Eagles or Vultures act on the commad of their masters but certainly was below our expectation. After bird show we just strolled around and then came across another thrill ride or I can say puke ride for me. Tazmanian devil, it swings 170 degrees horizontally and even rotates 360 degree when swinging. You can say perfect reciepe for me to throw up and as you can expect I did not ride that. But you bet, as I already mentioned, my crazy set of friends enjoyed it so much that they rode it twice.

Our next destination was Kong, which we were not able to ride earlier due to technical difficulties. Difference between Medusa and Kong is that, in Medusa you sit on the ride and in Kong you hang from ride. Kong was good but not as thrilling as Medusa. Probably by riding Medusa first we killed the thrill that other rides had.

Now our next stop was Roar, a wooden roller coaster making roaring noise due to its wooden structure and hence the name. We had to wait 30 mins in queue, due to which we decided to skip the Roar and went to next ride Big Spin. Big Spin was kind of new kind of ride to all of us. This ride was a roller coaster with you seated in a carriage which keeps spinning 360 degree the whole time. While waiting in line we were sort of observing what makes the carriage spin the most. Big Spin did not have many twists and turn and obviously after Medusa it did not seem that thrilling to all of us. Our chance came, 4 of us sat in one carriage (one of our friend opted to keep out of this and hence designated photographer) and it started climbing. When on top, it started with a drop and while dropping down our carriage started spinning. I would tell you, this ride though not as scary as Medusa; this for sure has its own excitement and is one of must ride.

With Big Spin we finished all the thrill rides and thought of having lunch. For those who have visited Six Flags, Vallejo might be thinking about other 2 other rides that I did not mention. You may say that it was my bad luck or whatever but yeah V2 Vertical Velocity and Boomrang both were closed. . Also we did not try Sky coaster, probably due to time and the extra charges.

After lunch it was time for Dolphin and Whale show. I was amazed to see the crowd that had gathered to see the show. This was my first Dolphin and Whale show and I was very much excited to see them in action. Training imparted to the dolphins and whale and the way they put the show amazes me. Without doubt it was worth watching. After both these show it was time for Christmas tree to light and Santa parade. Also we did not miss the shopping part in various shops.

By this time we were all exhausted and time to go back, but would you leave without another Medusa. NO WAY!!!

On our way to Medusa, we came across Cobra, which was meant for kids we suppose. One of us wanted to ride that as well so we went for it. It was so small that only one of us was able to sit in a car, in process we almost took 50% of the available cars. I would not say that this ride did not had any thrill, but for sure Medusa can make any other ride in Six flags, Vallejo, look dwarf .

After Cobra we all rushed to Medusa and to my surprise there were people still waiting in line to get on Medusa. It was 6:30 in the evening and another 30 mins for park to close, almost chilling weather and people waiting for their turn. We got on Medusa after 5 mins wait in queue. Don’t know why, but I had first time feeling. Medusa started and then followed the drop, round about, twists and turns and obviously screams. This time I did not miss the cameras and gave a photo finish. Guess what!!! We wanted more (as we would say in India KHATAM NAHI HUA HAI *******) and we ran for another chance and found standing in queue for next one. We took the ride one more time with the same thrill and excitement and another photo finish. YEH DIL MANGE MORE and we did it again; this time we did not even went around getting in queue for our turn. We got up and then sat again for our next ride. MAN!!! I couldn’t believe I did 3 in a row, WOW!!! After 3 times we were almost frozen and even hot water had no effect on our hands. We finished our day with a BANG… MEDUSA 3 in a row. Hoooo!!! Hoooo!!!! Hoooo!!!!! Yaaahhhooooooo!!!!!

This is journey of me from chicken heart to lion heart. It was obviously most thrilling day for me by far.