thank you

As this day makes its way into the history pages of my life, it surely does deserve some space on my blog too.

For some reason my last few b'day eves have always been days when I ve always been in a real bad mood. This b'day eve was no different. I was sure in a real bad mood whole day, thanks to a few events which have been transpiring over the last few weeks.
The good/bad thing about me, when I am really upset I don't really speak to anyone. I try to dig it deep within myself. And yesterday as I was trying to run away from my stream of thoughts which have been eating away into all my brain time, I hit bed early last nite to make sure I don’t over clock my system. I was not at all curios or looking forward to attend any mid night bday calls. So as I was tossing and turning around in my bed, my mobile beeped at sharp 00:00hrs and my room lit up bright with my mobile’s display.

I reached out to read the message………………
It was a cute message, an elephant walking right out of the display towards me.. An elephant who had traveled all the distance to wish me.

This post is to thank my most dear and near friend, “an elephant” whom I lost in this cruel journey called “Life”. Hoping someday we ll meet again…. You simply made my day.

And hey, I got the gift you sent me too… :) My most cherished collection… “Armani”….

A really Bumpy Drive

It was a bumpy ride back home today...

No, it was not that the roads were bumpy, for a change people in Bangalore were bumpy, and everyone was interested in kissing my bike at the rear..
And call it coincidence or pure luck... This is what happened today...

I was driving back home from office and was jus' coming to a halt at one of the traffic signals, when a bike guy came and bumped into my bike from behind. Thankfully I was driving at almost zero and I was able to steer clear from falling. I jus turned back to scream at that person and right away he lifted his hand up in the air(as if sayin’ I lay down my Arms) and said sorry!!!

Huh!!! So much for my humility I jus gave him a stare and said nothing. Anyways there was no damage to my bike.

Jus a km away and I was stuck in this leisurely moving traffic. I was jus' waiting for the traffic to clear and there I felt a strong jerk...

Huh!!! Not Again, All fuming I turn back with my helmet still on.. And what do I see??? A FEMALE rider, driving her Honda Activa. She too jus like that biker guy, instantly laid her arms and looked apologetic (I hope that's what she meant, she had her helmet on)... I jus ignored...

And jus when there was some room for me to move a little ahead. This lady from no where tried to squeeze her bike and there she goes again... She HAD to brush against my bike.

Bangalore roads in general drive me nuts, and motorists like her, make me even MAD. I took off my helmet trying to vent out my frustration... As I was jus beginning to phrase my sentence (Yes, I had to think what I was about to speak as it was a lady on the other side, and for fear that if things go outta control I know I ll be singled out in the crowd), for a split second I was left flabbergasted when the lady took off her helmet.

It took a piercing honk from someone behind to bring me back to my senses. I slowly pulled my bike to the side and so did the lady sensing I had something serious to say to her.....

I got down from my bike, walked up to her.. And.. and.. and... I jus' said "Sorry"....
(YES!!! That's exactly what I said!!!! )

The lady bursts out laughing and says "What re you sorry for??? It's my fault FAZAL! I should be sorry"!!! (YES!!! She called me by MY name!!!)

And that's when I said "I didn't know that it was you, that's why sorry..."

And she "I too didn't know it was you, else I would have made sure you fell from your bike"...

Me, “Ya Rite, and you ll come to the hospital everyday to visit me with flowers”
And then the conversation jus' went on...

It is a wonderful feeling to meet those good friends who many a times get lost in the walk of life... And what better way to meet.... Looks like a scene rite out of a 70MM screen...

This sure was one bump, that I loved ;)

Happy Birthday to fazal......

I used to often tell a friend of mine that the two of us speak to each other only on two occasions in a year. That’s when we call each other to wish each other Happy birthday. And so today was one such day when I flooded with calls, with everyone calling to wish "Happy Birthday Fazal.."

Yes, Today "April 18th" happens to be the day I celebrate my birthday every year. And so that answers why April happens to be my “The most favorite month of the year”...

As I was home alone for a second consecutive birthday, this time around a few good friends of mine decided to celebrate my birthday, and thanks to "Robin" who arranged a full birthday party at short notice for me at his place, this birthday was my first ever birthday when I cut a cake at the stroke of mid night... Sorry, I cut two cakes... hehe..

Thanks all you guys for having made my day special.... In the absence of family it's only friends like these who bring relief to your life.

This blog is solely dedicated only to "fazal"....
So here is wishing myself "Happy Birthday......."
For those of you who missed my birthday cake, here, you can catch a glimpse of it...
But Don't try count the candles on them..

Blogger thanks giving...

After having completed 3 yrs at work, after having posted 50 blog posts, today is the day my blog turns 3 years old.

April is in many ways my "The most favourite month" of the year. I am sure most people who know things about me will already know why. But for the others, don’t worry, you are at the rite place to find answers. Keep watching this space and you ll know why I love the month "April" so much.

So as I complete 3 years of blogging, I ll would love to share with all how and when all this started and the one person behind fazal and his blog...

I was very new to the world of blogging 3 years back. Infact I didn even know that we could blog and there was a site called blogger.com.
It was on this fateful day 3 years back that "Sumi" introduced me to the world of blogging, and it was she who created my blog name and signed up for me. And in many ways April 15th is or rather was synonymous to our existence. It was on the same fateful day that we gotta know each other a few more years back then..

She is the one who taught me the basics of blogging, the how to... And if there is somethin that i look upto it is her style of bloggin...
She is also the one who taught me to blog and compose messages with lesser spellin mistakes. (Ya, I was very bad at spelling, a little better now though, thanks to all the spell checks). I can go on and on about her. In many ways all that what you see and what you read is all thanks to her.

Was it not for her, I sometimes wonder what I would have been... And since the time I have lost my this "Kismat Connection" my life has never been the same again...

My majority of the posts are always dedicated to her though I don’t directly credit them to her.. But this one is especially for her.

Sometimes I really wish I could trace back the moments of my life and correct certain things....

So now that leaves me with no more room for dedications. But that does not leave me short of people to thank them...

I have had quite a few avid followers of my blogger, or that’s how I would like to believe... The truth is I force them to read.. And so here is a hearfelt sympathy to my friends "Ashwin", "Chandan" and "Nandini"....
Guys... They say good times come after bad times.. See now you guys are all famous.. See its paid off to read my blog... So anyone who feels their names have not pictured in this blog, you know what you need to do...
Btw.. Forgot.. a special thanks to "snow queen" and "Shub"... It's nice at times to know that there are actually two people who read my blog without me forcing them to read...

So here's celebrating 3 years of successful blogging.............

Getting married? Read on....

A good friend of mine and I were out for dinner the other day and as usual we always have loads to speak about. And as were speaking, he put forth his apprehensions about marriage. Ya, he is getting married sometime late next month.
Having just come out of a relationship, he was worried how he needs to take things going forward. Because he said there were lot many things about his previous relationship which he could simply not let go. Yet, he was completely aware of the fact of what was staring him in the eye, the fact that he will very soon have to accept someone unknown to him as his wife and she has all hopes pinned on him.

Not sure how many of you have already been through this phase, or are going through this phase, or are yet to step into this phase :)
Now don't ask me into which of the above said categories does fazal's life fit into? :) Not to dis-appoint you, i ll answer it partially, definitely not the first category.

There is always the serious side to this matter, but in this blog of mine, I would not like to touch on that aspect. Guess this blog is more to all those friends of mine, esp the male friends who are getting married. Having known most of my friends, these are things which you ought to do, if you are planning to have a happy married life ;)
I am going to make this blog a 5 point blog :D
Point1:
-> Most of my friends/family who are married, have this habit of sharing their personal email id's and chat id's along with passwords to their better halves. I honestly don't understand the funda behind this, but this is one big move about which can spell doom in your life if you are not a clean guy like me with no past ;)
I agree it's a great degree of honestly and a nice way to show your love, but make sure if you are planning to share your passwords, to run through your Inbox and also Sent Items once.
And in some cases I would suggest you to delete your email account rather than having just a welcome message in your inbox left after having cleaned up your inbox :D
Oh yes, not to forget all the social networking sites....
I would say, trust your other half with your internet banking password, but not with your personal email/chat passwords. (I am sure some girls might feel offended thinking this sentence was targeting them. But no, it was not intentional ;) )

Point2:
-> I am not sure how many of you are aware that Gtalk/gchat stores all your chat history. Many a times you would have cleared your chat history, and one fine day you must be chatting with a good friend of yours and these are friends who take up the wrong topics at the wrong time, and there everything is being logged in the background. And for all you know for the first fault of yours (Point1), you ll start paying a big price :)
Make sure you always disable your chat logs in Gtalk/gchat. There is an option in settings. Note by default the setting is on.
Also make sure you have not turned on archiving on yahoo messenger.

Point3:
-> Everyone who has been into love during college life, would have spent most his time sending/receiving messages, and therefore the person's Inbox will be filled with all memories from past. And as a friend of mine was telling me sometime back, it's hard to let go those messages, cos sometimes when you feel lonely it really feels nice to read them again.
Here again its a choice between whether you wanna live all your life on those past memories alone or do you wanna create new memories going forward with your other half. Don’t expect to have both :D

Point4:
-> You might have a college or office album where in at the first glance itself it becomes obvious to any person viewing your snaps, that your camera lens is always more focused on one person in particular.
Again there are multiple options here, either shuffle your photos in such a random manner, that you yourself forget whom were you trying to photograph, or you better be prepared to say, that you are a person who does not know how to operate a camera, and so you were not the person behind the camera, blame it on your friend who mis-used your camera(Have a friend's name ready), also if you are using the previous excuse be ready to explain as to why you re missing from most of the snaps in that case :D
Or best, just format your system or keep all the photos in a bank locker and throw away the key :D

Point5:
-> If you have again been in love during college days esp,you are sure to have tons of personal greetings with personal messages in them, and sometimes those special letters :). And ya how can i forget the gifts. But gifts generally don’t mean harm, in many cases they are very abstract and mean different thinks to different people.
But card and letters, they convey things outright and are always spot on in expressing what is intended :)
So make sure you stack them up all in a gunny bag and burn them, or if you have the habit of eating paper, your life becomes all the more easier.

Okay, I have thrown light into some off the aspects which people generally tend to overlook and later on repent when confronted with un-deniable evidence :D
So make sure you have tampered with all your evidences enough before you are getting married. :D But it's true no matter how much you attempt to erase things, something’s will always remain and might come up. So better have answers ready and get your life insured at the same time keep you will ready. :)

All said, On a serious note..
Be honest to your other half, you might have had a past which for some reason might not have worked for you. But don't hold that against the person who is stepping afresh into your life for in many ways for that person entering your life you might mean the world. And it's a lot of dreams which are at stake....
Marriage is a one time event... Make it memorable and everlasting...
It's a matter of personal choice whether you want to tell about your past relationships to your wife/husband. And to what extent you want to reveal. But at the same time something’s are better left unsaid. And please never attempt to dig into someone's past...
Trust is the key, to unlock the lock called marriage.

A note :
As I say all this, if by any means my future other half is reading this, this is for you
" All that what I have said in this blog, is not from experience.. These are bits and pieces of information collected from here and there mostly from friends who are married and their experiences. You ll notice once I share you my email/chat id's that I still have my chat logs enabled and there are chat logs in it, and there are mails in my inbox and sent items... And I ll sure show you many of my photos. But what you can sure expect is me not sharing my bank account details.. For in many ways, money is something that has played games with me all my life" :D

Wedding Season Sets In...

It is that time of life/year, where in most of my friends, not just friends, my classmates, my colleagues, relatives and the way to my love, all are scampering to lose their status in life :D

Don't be confused, I know you all must have heard of people working towards gaining status, now what is this working towards losing one's status!
It's nothing, it's my style of looking at marriage :)

Lose your status of being single....
For all those men, it's a time to accept the fact that there is going to be someone who is going to keep a tab on all that what you say and do outside home. Don't worry about all the girls that you are gonna miss out on, I am still single... :D

And for all those women, it's having to let go your surname and add your husbands name/surname to your name. Its time to learn to live in a new environment. It's time to start a new Saga of "Tu Tu Mein Mein" with your MIL...
In many ways, You hold the future of many people in your hands :)

What makes me write this blog, is purely because of the number of people known to me who are getting married this year. "Fazal's believe it or not", If i take the average of number of wedding invitations I ve got so far and the weddings lined up, its like one wedding on an average of every 2 weeks this year :D
phew... Surely one more industry which is not hit by recession!!!!

While most people whom i know are busy getting married, I am busy running pillar to post to get maximum airtime/coverage at everyone's wedding :)
No No.. It's not what you think... That's again my style of saying, I hate disappointing my friends, and therefore am busy wishing my friends with my presence..

It's going to a busy year for me, attending all the weddings, and its going to be a tough on my digestive system to digest all the yummy food. The best part I like about some of the marraiges..

What all this also means is, I am gonna miss out on many of my friends, for in many ways most of them are not gonna remain the same anymore... :(

So this blog is dedicated to all dear and near ones, who are entering a new phase of their lives along with new hopes and new dreams...
Wish and pray all your dreams come true...
And honestly,
Consider yourself lucky/blessed for having found someone who is willing to accept you the way you are...

To all my friends.....

It was Nov3rd and I called to greet a good friend of mine, "A Very Happy Birthday"... As we were speaking, she bought out an interesting observation. That through the entire year, there are only two days in a year when we speak/call each other :o!!!
And what are those two days? One, my birthday when she calls to wish me and the other, her birthday when i call to wish her.......
Now when I come to think of it, it's not just her , I guess Fazal calls all his friends (rather at least some of his friends) just once a year. That's on their birthday. Provided that I remember that it's their birthday or someone reminds me. Not my fault you see, I am growing old, so friends who are reading this blog and if I have not called to greet you this year on your birthday, I am sorry, I had lost my phone and so I had lost all your numbers, please mail me your contact number and your DOB so that I don't miss it at least the coming year....
I was wondering, why then do I need a cell phone? When I never call anyone though I have almost 200 plus contacts in my address book. Weird. I too have no answer to this question :)
But may be that's the way I am. Someone who does not socialize much, someone who keeps more to himself. Someone who is LAZY to make calls :) hehe

So this blog is to reach out to all those friends of mine, "Fazal will hardly ever call you, that does not mean he does not like you or he has forgotten you. Its just that Fazal is forgotten that he is a social being." So please feel free to call me when even you think of me :)
For you are the only assets in my life whose value only keeps appreciating with time unlike all the stocks and the other plans where i have invested my money in :)