When I was a kid I had a silky mane, the beautician used to tell my Mom her hair’s are too good.
 
** I used to imagine one day she will tell me to sell them the way it happened in one of those ultra-romantic story**
 
I used to love long hair and used to fight with my mom to grow them who insisted on keeping them short as according to her short hair cut suits my small face.
 
This was the only thing on which I have ever fought with Ma. And when we used to go for a hair cut she used to tell me ki we will just get your hair trimmed but to the beautician she used to signal “chota kar do”. Oh how I used to hate her after that.
 
As I grew I was allowed to have long hair but on one condition, I was supposed to braid them myself and I used to take hours to do them, even getting late for school but neither me nor ma used to budge.
 
But with time & practice I became an expert in braiding and life moved on from school-college-hostel life- job. I started staying alone & in the rush of work my hair was neglected.
 
This and other reasons like hair fall due to health problem & ex-boyfriend used to love my long hair resulted in me getting them cut to shoulder length & then one fine day to a boy cut.
 
What a shock my office people had & I enjoyed the attention & for 1st time I agreed with my Ma ki yes short hair suits me. (BTW she was very happy with my decision).
 
Till last week I was very happy with my smart & short cut ;-) and then apni kewldebs came up with her review on hair care.
 
Debs you are a sweetheart & have inspired me to grow my hair again and see I have now acquired a choti si Choti.

From the moment I have acquired this choti si choti I have been opening the clip flicking my hair, gathering them back & putting the clip again. The whole experience is bliss &  I promise am not gonna cut my hair for at least next one month.
 
And you all guys enough of appreciating my choti si choti, now go n rate the same photo in my album, isn’t this better then bulletin ;-) you came here by your own choice ;-)

It was an impromptu meet….Shanti wished to shop & with my boss out I too wished what Shanti wished so after a bit of planning here and there we decided to attack Fab-India at Mulund.
 
With Mulund being the destination we thought we can also meet Aditya. And lo-behold he agreed to spare time for us ladies :- ) & eventually my focus shifted from shopping to eating. I was behind Aditya’s life “where will we eat”…..mind you I had never met him before but I haggled him like anything :-)
 
I was to meet Shanti at her office and thus left at One, paid the autowallah “96/-“bucks and met Shanti. It took us 15 mins to reach Mulund and there was Aditya standing in front of Mc Donald’s, no amount of convincing could make him enter Fab-India and thus we decided to eat first.
 
And I should thank Aditya for choosing a thali joint for us, guess my review had some effect on someone ;-) the food & ambience of the place was OK but one thing was perfect i.e. my company. I was sitting with two of the heavy weights (literally & actually) Mouthshut & for a change my Mouth was Shut as was busy listening to them.
 
He ate we talked…oh sorry we ate & we talked…it was great fun.
 
Some heavy food, some small talks, some paan, some books & some CD’s later we parted our ways & then it looked like the time spent was less…..
 
I felt we should have spent more time talking but then this is life in Bombay. Am glad that we managed to sneak out some time to meet, nahin to we just end up planning.
 
I would summaries the meet as
 
- I ended up spending Rs. 167/- on a mere auto
- At the end of the meet I found my juti’s met an untimely death
- Shanti is the way she is…:-O
- Aditya is as lively as he sounds & apni tuning jamegi :-)
- & these two fellows very smartly posed to get theirs snaps clicked but didn’t return the favor on me. Poor Chintu...

I wish these meets keep happening frequently & I also know that some flying animals are mighty jealous but with a plane with them they could have easliy flown down ;-)

PS The post was written in a great hurry due to some unavoidable reasons...please bear with all mistakes, grammatical or otherwise...

It was after ages that I was leaving office early, early bole to at 6:10....wondered where to to go. Had few options...

- Could go to my tailor & the books shop at the corner, as i usually do
- Could go to home, do the cleaning, be online etc etc

But being me, I left the decision till I went down...thought will go where ever my Zing takes me....

Since it was after ages that my Zing was out in evening...she whispered to me hey girl, its been ages that you took me for drive, please lets go to another world, lets explore the area....

I took the cue & decided to explore the area, ah! it was ages that my Zing flew...we went into lanes, the by lanes, we explore the short-cuts...The feel of wind in my hair was ah! bliss....I realised what I was missing...

I was missing the freedom, the freedom to explore, I was missing the fun...all in my rush to finish my work....

The exploration led me in to an old area....a subzi mandi it was and there were so many people around. I realised it was Mangal Bazaar for them...It reminded me of old times and bigger bazaar's

I parked the zing & went in, there were ladies in saree's, suits, nigties all haggling for with the vendors.

There were vegetable vendors, vendors selling plastic ka stuff, vendors selling home made pickle, home made snacks- chakli-fryms (spelling ok?) etc etc...Then there were ladies selling bangles, clothes....

How was this market different from others? Ah! people were busy shouting, not saying sorry when pushing around to reach first, putting there foot on the foot of others,they were carrying their own bags (BTW I wasn't and the lady from whom I had bought bhindi glared at me :D)...the prices were still within our reach...

But the most glaring fact was
 
It was a real world out there. It made me realise that there is a world much beyond AC Malls...there is fun in going to a normal bazaar because they are more human...you meet people, you observe people & there is fun in haggling for price, fun in just exploring places...

Sometimes there is fun in letting yourself loose...fun in moving with time and letting time decide your action...I had a fun time today....never felt more free & refeshed in recent times....and I know my Zing too was happy as she flew like never before...and when I parked her she had twinkle in her eyes & I know tomorrow she will start with just one kick :D

This one is for Zulu....I tried my hands in poem Just for you....Hope u hate it...

Aaj subah-2
Bole to early morning….
Main der se uthi….
Aankh khuli to saw…
The sun was raw….
I wanted to yawn but….
People call it rog so I stifled the yawn…
I saw birds flying in the open sky…
But there was a dove inside my kitchen…
People say dove is good for good luck….
That reminds me, our dove is still missing….
Haan to,
There was dove in my kitchen….
I said go away bird….
Go home…
Go for work…
Do whatever you do but shoo from here…
The bird gave me an eyeful…
Ate my bhel…
And flew away….
And Zulu I can not write more than this…
Main shayar to nahin…
Magar aapke liye itna likha diya… 

The best part about diaries, you can not rate them even if they are crap...It is called poetic licence  ;-)  so feel free to give equally crappy poems & comments

My mornings start with news papers but I usually start my day with Bombay Times & Mumbai Mirror, the former a magazine & later a poor cousin of an already poor newspaper i.e. Times of India, Hindi main bole to a Tabloid.
Despite the fact that the news was not related to Mumbai I was expecting the Gujarat Bus Tragedy to be on the main page but lo-behold I had  “Malaika Arora & Arbaaz Khan” staring at me. I thought now what have they done to deserve the main page? My first reaction was may be Malaika has appeared in some function fully cothed :-D
 
But I was wrong, apparently the steadiest couple were splitting & their bus of matrimony too was falling down & Arbaaz Khan reportedly was re-marrying and this made Mumbai Mirror think as an important piece of news.
 
My, reaction to the news?
- What the heck? Are they that important?
-  The news is fake, I mean the reporter is a rookie & can’t make out but why did they publish it.
- My instincts were shouting loud ki in a day or two there will be an announcement that the girl he is re-marrying is his wife ;-)
 
Anyways as the news wasn’t important so I chugged it off.
 
But I was not that lucky ki could forget it because today they were there on the main page yet again and for a change it was Media who crying hoarse…apparently this was a publicity stunt for some cosmetic advertisement and the girl Arbaaz was re-marrying was no one but Malaika herself.
The excerpt from today’s article
“There were many reasons why we thought the story deserved front-page treatment: Malaika Arora is a huge pin-up star and Arbaaz is a celebrity in his own right, and comes from one of film industry's most-respected families. In an environment where celebrity unions crumble faster than cookies the two, who have been married for 10 years and are parents of a five-year-old boy, offered a great example of a happy family unit in the face of relentless public scrutiny.”
 
My first reaction to this news was “I actually laughed out loud”
I mean the buggers the media is they lap at any & every news and in a bid to be first never try to validate the news. The result is in front of them.
They think that any news can be made news & people are starving to read about Bollywood personalities.
Now once they have been fooled they expect sympathies from the readers.
Do I feel sympathetic towards them?
Do I feel appalled by Malaika & Arbaaz ka stunt?
 
Not at all, I felt happy…as God says each and every action has an equal & opposite reaction. If you fool people, people can fool you.
 
I think it is high time that media in any form be it a Tabloid, a news paper or a news channel realizes that
- Not all news is good news
- Not all news is true
- We as readers have no option to validate the news before it is reported but they as a reporter have an option to either validate first or fall prey to false news
 
And till the time this happens Rakhi’s, Malaika’s of this world can have the world at their tips because whatever crosses their lips is news & our media is a fool to read their lips
:-D 

And though we as readers are a looser but still we can have a last laugh when the culprit becomes the victim ;-)

And on a serious note I'll like to conclude that Media has become a tool in the hands of people because nobody is bothered to report right, they are bothered to report first & in the hurry to sell most the media forgets to differentiate between REAL News & Made up news...
And its time that we get to read what is important not what has been made important...

It’s been one of those long & hectic days which do start but have no end….
 
- The maid decides to come late the day I have to go early
- Boss was out for 2 weeks & comes back asks for all the old files: X
- He wants me to complete new files also & says I look over-worked :-O
- Then we have appraisals going on…my colleague wants me to finish mine soon but am in no mood because I know its sham. Ratings are already decided & the money is equivalent to peanuts…sigh!!!!
- Am yet to read so many reviews
- Am yet to reply to comments in mine
- Have to buy vegetables before I go home
- Have to cook :-(
- BTW its my Mom’s birthday :D
- I have frenz who keep reminding me that they have a three day weekend, yet again :-(
 
And amongst all this chaos I have found my long lost friend….
 
No prizes for guessing…I have found back my Yawn!!!!
 
And guess what…I met another doctor and he says Yawning is not a rog, it shows comes to all & in brief he told me few things about it…
 
- It shows you are overworked
- It comes to all & sundry
- It gives your mouth an exercise
- It’s a way to breathe-in fresh air
- It’s a common man’s tool ;-)
- It’s a signal to your boss “bas aaj bahut kaam ho gaya”
- This is signal to ypur Chipkoo fren ki bas aur nahin
 
In few words

Jab tak Suraj Chand Rahega Yawning ka existence rahega…..
 
***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** ***Yawn*** 
  
Janm Janm ka saath hai Humara & Yawning ka ;-)

(Am holding back my yawns!!!) Better part of last week went off working like a donkey & yawning like a human being & though I wasn’t looking forward to Sunday but still was hoping ki may be I’ll snatch out time to relax… (Am still holding back my yawns!!!)

But Sunday came & off in a whiff….Ashtami celebration, making the prashad, finding nine kanya’s, cleaning the home, washing the clothes… (Am still holding back my yawns!!!)

People look forward to relax on Sundays & some people like me work more on Sunday’s. Even our companies are not sympathetic enough to give us a Saturday off. Sigghhh!!! (Am still holding back my yawns!!!)

So as was saying Sunday went like an invisible day which did come but it also went off with the same speed…..the only time I thought to doze off, electricity decided to go out for a walk….. (Am still holding back my yawns!!!)

Sigghhh!!! Here I am in office now (Am still holding back my yawns!!!) when I know my dad has an off, when I know that in my business the Northern region is closed & here I am working like a donkey & to top it all, had to come in early to finish off some work which is like never ending… (Am still holding back my yawns!!!)

And I feel like chugging the work & go home to relax… (Am still holding back my yawns!!!) which is like a dream….
 
I have never faced anything like Monday blues then why am I feeling like this?
- Am I overworked?
- Or am I just throwing a tantrum?
- Or am in a denial mode that Sunday has come & gone its time to work
 
Whatever it is….I can not hold any further
 
***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn*** 
 
Please don’t hit me for putting up Yawning part II the way I have been working u can surely see a series of diaries from me….

I know Yawning is contagious & I also know many of you are gonna curse me...kya karen I do feel like....
 
***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn***  ***yawn*** 

But I also know many of you are facing Monday blue....What do you say Monday should be thrown away from the Calendar na???

Or we should stop working, our companies should start paying us because we have decided to join them & not anyother company...hai na??

PS am mighty jealous of all those souls who had a saturday off & have an off today too.....

 Had a not so heavy lunch but still feeling so sleepy ki can’t be described.
 
To cure **yawn** myself have  **yawn** already **yawn**
 
- Taken out everything from my purse, as if am cleaning it but due to laziness its all displayed on my desk & am in no mood of keeping the stuff back ***yaaawwwwnnn***
- Had double dose of lemon tea **yawn**
- Called my old friends, spoken to them got bored  **yawn**
- In fact one sympathetic friend suggested me to get a pillow & go off to sleep :p **yawn**
- Checked out some old reviews on MS but there is nothing interesting here **yawn**
- Worked on some stupid excel sheets but kaash numbers become Salman Khan & till then each number symbolizes sleep for me **yawn**
- Have tried plugging in some music in my ears but the damn ear plugs hurt & the music disturbs the sleep **yawn**
- Dreamt of golgappe’s & chaat’s but since they are in my dreams feel like going back to my dreams **yawn**
- Even my stock of perk  is finished nahin to could have munched away to glory **yawn**
- Have typed this stupid diary also but still feeling sleepy…. **yawn**
- Have actually taken off my specs & manually tried opening my eyes but that too was unsuccessful **yawn**
 
The only thought motivating me right now is the thought of 6 O’ Clock and my plans to shop **yawn** after that.

But till then pal pal hai bhaari.....

Main aur golgappe aksar yeh baatein karte hain...
Main Na hoti to tu na hota aur tu na hota to main na hoti....
Kaun tumhain har ek second main gap se khata....
Kaise main tumhare bina aasoo bahati...
Tere bina golgappe....zindagi zindagi nahin....

Gol Gappe/ Phuchke/ Paani Poori/ Gup Chup/ Water Balls, different names of one thing and uttering these words has only one effect on me…..My mouth waters…
 
Being a North Indian I have always been very fond “Chaats” which includes gol gappe’s, Aloo Tikki, Aloo Tikki Chat, Raj Kachori, Dahi Bhalle etc.
 
But Gol Gappe has been one thing which takes the cake away….nothing else in food tempts me the way gol gappa’s do…I have to cross a thela and my mouth water’s…
When I was in Roorkee there was a chaat wala called “Shiv Chaat Bhandar” we used to go there in a group 5-6 people all having a competition of who eats the maximum GG’s. The guy used to serve to-die for Gol Gappa’s and in all varities, aate ka, suzi ka, mix. After we were through with a plate of GG’s he used to give one free masala GG & we girls used to “Bhaiya ek aur dena” lol we used to eat more free GG’s than the paid ones.
 
Over the years have tasted GG of various places, somewhere it is served with aloo, at other places with Chana and then boondi…but for me Aloo is the best combo…
 
For me eating Gol Gappa’s is incomplete if…
- It isn’t ultra spicy. Itna spicy that even your eyes water ;-)
- The gol gappe wala doesn’t have long nails and
- The gol gappe wala wears gloves on his hands
- A naali isn’t flowing behind the thela
- The gol gappe wala doesn’t wash the utensil in an already dirty water (I remember my mamiji used to carry her own bartan to the gol gappe wala, I still think that was the reason that I didn’t like the GG’s their ;-) ) 

To heck with the fact that they are healthy or not, I love them....Though am not fond of eating alone, for GG's am all game akele, dukele, with strangers anyways....just give me GG's ;-)
  
 Tell me how do you like your gol gappa's to be served? No, its not a competition ;-) but yes I hope the Post does waters and you crave for GG's....       

Today, Bombay is observing a No-Honking day… this endeavor is an initiative of Mumbai Traffic Police...

The campaign aims at creating awareness of the social and medical ill effects of honking and noise pollution.

RJ Jituraj at Radio Mirchi has been promoting the event since ages but when it came to me I had never though that I’ll be following the no honking principle…

Wondering why?

Well I had thought how will I manage amongst the…

- Auto Walla’s who come out of any nook or corner & who leave nothing upturned for overtaking.
- Cycle Walla’s who have a habit of driving on the side until they suddenly decide to take a sudden right turn…
- Big vehicle walla’s who think that the road is their & will honk you till you are dead…I mean I always want to honk them back :-) that’s the naughty me ;-)
- Flood of people coming out of the railway station, who never bother to look left, right or center, they just move ahead….
- People near my office, walking down on the already half dug roads
- Kids from the school in the neighborhood, who have a habit of springing surprise on us…
- Youngsters driving away to glory as if there is no tomorrow & the road is all theirs.
 
Was it difficult? Did I manage my way to office without honking? If yes, what drove me & if no, did I feel guilty?
 
Well, to cut the matter short I managed to honk once, remembered I am not supposed to & then drove slowly towards my office, cursing people under my breath, tempted to press the tempting switch…but survived….what drove me?

To be frank I would love to say that the drive to conserve nature etc etc but I know it will be a lie. But then what made me follow the rule? May be I wanted to test myself that can I follow the rules for once, may be I wanted to support a cause which benefits me at the end….whatever the reason might be but it felt great to drive without honking. I felt that may be I have contributed a bit for a cause…a cause for our benefit…. 
 
Though, I realized one thing, may be it was easy for me as distance was short but then we can at least give it a try, in Bombay or out of it, what say?

~mbf~ does this post fall in category of energy conservation? Please say yes & redeem me of my sins…..