Nickname!

Over the course of my lifetime , i had the privilege of gathering many names. Sometimes the names have come out of adulation from friends, sometimes by chance, sometimes by sheer frustration and disgust of my friends who have had to put up with me. Here is a list of my nick names.

Anu (अनु) - This is what i have been known by in my home. short and sweet. As a kid, i have been teased by my brothers & sisters that this is more of girl's name (remember anu agarwal?? ). But i like the name. And i love when people call me anu.

Jaali (जाली ) urf JJ
I dont know how this name came into being but one fine day, my college friend Venky started calling me by this name. Its his copyright , and i dont hear many people except him calling me Jaali. There was a twist to this name recently and he calls me JJ now. Thats Jaali Jaipurkar. The name JJ, he says, invokes an image of a six feet tall, hefty, muscular man. Quite opposite to what i am. But i must say the name is cool.

Ani (अनि)
The simplest way to form a nickname. Cut the original name and use the first half. Some college friends did use to call me ani. It felt nice.

Ajnabee
There was a phase when i used to sing the 'ajnabee shehar' song from the movie Janemaan. Constantly. There lies the birth of the name. Gone are those days. And i havent heard the song since ages.

Iceman
This name i borrowed for myself. From Steve Waugh. He was called iceman for the way he guided Australia to Cricket world cup win in 1999. Then i came to know that Kimi raikkonen, the Finnish Formula One race car driver is nicknamed iceman. Great people. I thought i could also use some borrowed greatness. Unfortunately, whats in a name ?

Don / Physco
My roomies in Hyderabad used to call me Don. Me being the (only) SRK fan in our apartment. We were a group of superstars. With Munnabhai, Krishh, Don all staying together in a rented place. My roomie Ashish, used to call me Phsyco. I used to wonder why. Maybe i behaved like one. Those where THE phsyco days.

AJ
This is what i got in my job in Bangalore. Animesh is a nice name [:)], but there was already another team member who had the same name. So AJ stuck to me. I didnt mind.

chotu/chotiya (छोटू / छोटिया)
My roomies in bangalore gave this name to me. For i am the youngest of all of us. There have been constant tweaking done to the name like Chotiya, lotiya and so on. And theres more to come.

Ninad
Nobody knows about this. And before it goes out of my memory also, i better put it down. My parents had thought about naming me this. I dont know what exactly transpired, but my name in school was going to be this. It never happened. Maybe i was born to be Animesh. On second thoughts, maybe Ninad is not such a bad option!

A meeting with college friend

Its almost four years since we graduated and nearly eight years since we know each other. so many things we planned, we did, we enjoyed. Filling each day with fun , happiness, humor, fights. It was beautiful to be in college. In spite of all the constraints and restrictions, it was complete fun.

So many things we had envisioned. We had so many dreams. We were sure of how our life would turn out to be. There were many discussions , many differences. We lived in world of our own. Finding happiness in each other.

Looking back, nothing has turned out to be as planned. Its feels funny today when we think of those days. Everything has changed: People, Way of thinking, We. Everybody has moved on. Theres hardly any time to think about old days. Theres no point in thinking about it. We have become selfish. We have lost the last of our innocence.

The road ahead seems to take us further away. Life has become monotonous. There is no desire, no passion. Its all about running the rat race. Don't know what we are running for.

Lighting up your life ji...

I agree that i am a Sharukh fan. But i had to think not twice, but many times before i ventured to see Rab ne bana di jodi. The reasons being : The movie ticket costs a whooping 250 bucks. Thats something in this recession era.And i didnt hear good reviews about the movie.

Reading Rajeev Masand's review was heart break. He was critical about the movie and gave it a thumbs down. One of my acquaintance who watched the movie said it was good. That he liked the movie was an indicator to me that movie is not good. Finally on sunday evening, I along with my friends decided to watch the movie.

And Sharukh did not disappoint. His portrayal of the simpleton Suri is great. But dont miss out his over the top snazzy act as Raj. He shifts characters effortlessly. Thankfully, the climax is not overdrawn and not too emotional. It saves the audience a lot of melodrama. The humor keeps trickling down till the very end and viewer goes home smiling.

My friends who are not too pro-saaruk, also liked the movie. And that is good news! Meanwhile i am waiting to see the movie again sometime later. Any takers!?

Bangalore to Pune 7 Dec 2008

There is a heightened security at the Bangalore railway station. As i enter platform, i can see various police personnels: the railway police, the CRPF, the civil poilice. I am frisked for any bombs and guns. My luggage goes for the same treatment. It doesnt look as suspicious, so it is spared the necessity of being opened up. As i walk around, i can hear announcements being made for passengers to be alert and report any suspicious items on the station.

Unfortunately, the Lokmanya Tilak express is late by 1 hour, so i have full one and half hour to spend. The platform is crowded, and there isn't any place left to sit. I search for a 'safe' place to stand; So that i can mitigate any damage in case of any untoward incident. Watching people on railway station can be fun. Trying to guess where they come from, their age, the language they speak can be a good timepass. Suddenly i am jolted by a policeman asking his sniffer dog to inspect my baggage. The dog is least bit interested [Seems no one is interested in their jobs these days :) ], but takes a quick sniff and leaves.

The wait is finally over. I board my coach, hoping that my RAC gets converted to a confirmed berth. The guy with whom i share a seat turns out be from nagpur. He's visting his friends in Bangalore & Mumbai. Quite a coincidence. Soon i get a confirmed berth and move to another coach. Here i am greeted by a 3 year old, always asking "kyun?" boy who shouts wildly if things dont go his way. All Children are kind of this only. So that makes me thinking how difficult it must be bringing up children. Probably the second most difficult job, the first one being handling your spouse.

I have a hearty indian railway's dinner. After all, everything tastes good when one is starved. I doze off, hoping that morning would come soon. The breakfast dosa isnt half as good as the dinner. But time flies away quickly and i reach Pune by 11 AM.

I am greeted by the overcrowded PMC buses, autorickshaws and sound of marathi language. Feels good to be here. And theres lot to conquer...