Diary Sept 19 09

Been long since I wrote anything random. It has always been issue based. Of course my life is not interesting as Amitabh Bachchan or Shilpa Shetty that I can simply blog about what I ate in the day or whom did I meet. Who will even remmotely find that interesting apart from who know me. Well, on the other hand it's only the people who know me generally read this blog.

After a long time I had a good Saturday. I neither worked nor go to any place and got myself unnecessarily tired. Most important thing for me on weekends is getting up early (but little later than regular days) to maximize the day. I am a person who gets lazy by night.

I finished my intersting pattern of browsing which starts with Gmail, then orkut, then rediff.com followed by ibnlive and timesofindia. At this point, fed up, I switch to news.google adn read up all the headlines of India, US, Boston and Indian Entertainment. I ofcourse get most interested in teh entertainment section. At this point, I will search Bipasha on google news. MOst of the time I am up to date and find the news being already late. Then if I will serach some other random names depending on mood which can vary from Aishwarya Rai to atal Behari Vajpayee. Some common search terms are Varun Gandhi, NITK, Surathkal, Kolkata etc.

After this I had to drop my friend to car mechanic shop and from there we went for a morning walk near a lake. It was hilarious to see an old couple paying 5$ parking fees inside the state park and simply parking their car next to the lake and reading newspaper inside.

Then we went to Starbucks or rather Starsucks (atleast in terms of regular coffee), barnes and nobles and back home by 9:30 am. at this point my calls started starting with bro and bhabhi and moving on to other friends from grad school etc.

Went to a nice place for lunch called Kabab Factory in Boston. Still in the "no meat" mode, I just ate grilled veggies, fruit chat and shrimp masala. Came back and saw Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire on DVD. I had just finished the book and though very different from the book, the movie was pretty engaging.

After this went to temple as navaratri starts today and came back, made a few more phone calls and little more Harry Potter revision. Now it's 10:42 and will go back to revising HP and sleeping off.

This blog can't be as boring as my attempt to fiction :P

Dilemmas regarding Baba Ramdev cleared

I have been wanting to write on this topic for a long time but many thoughts prevented me. I wanted to have a solid reasoning before I published my thoughts and finally I have found one.

So here is the dilemma. My mom wants me to do the yoga taught by Ramdev baba and frankly, my mom has been a direct beneficiary. But I always found the exercises too boring for my taste. Then comes Ramdev Baba with his statement that being gay is a disease which can be cured by yoga. Now this was a fact that like most of the "learned" people did not go well with me. So then I thought because I do not agree with his views, I am perfectly alright by not following his yoga techniques. But there was always this nagging thought which can infact broken down to three:

1) Ramdev baba did not invent yoga. So why stop something which is an established science just because of one person's personal views.
2) Every person has the right to have an opinion. What is wrong if Ramdev baba has one and he is voicing it.
3) What if being gay is really a disease and/or something which can be cured.

Finally I have found my answers to all these three nagging questions. Let me go bottom up.

Counterargument to point 3) Though studies prove it as well that it is not a disease, and it may very well be a habit which is cured, but who cares. According to Indian culture/ movies, we consider love as a disease (sardi, khasi na maleria hua, main gaya yaaron mujhko, love, love love loveria hua). Can love be cured? Probably yes, probably not but who cares. It has all the symptoms of a disease if taken in a different light. At young age, it may ruin your career. Loving a wrong person may ruin your finances, your trust, your very existence in this world. Being gay may have similar consequences. But as we do not mind love being a disease, this one should also not a big deal.

Counterargument to point 2) I have been reading a lot about this issue. A blog from my friend Lalit, Gay Ho, and subsequent comments on it helped me better regarding this. Finally I read an argument as a comment on this article which is as follows:

Ramdev baba has said that being gay is a disease and he has challenged Delhi high court's judgment which says that gay sex should be decriminalized. I add these two statements. What does this imply? That Baba Ramdev thinks that all diseased people should go to jail. Is it human to put say all AIDS patients, cancer patients and the numerous millions of people in the jail just because they have a disease? This is against humanity. You may find this argument ridiculous and may say that this is putting words in somebody's mouth but then a public person should think twice before what he speaks. Like in this case his own statements lead to the conclusion that he wants diseased people to be criminalized.

Counterargument to point 1) If not already, after reading this reasoning, you might think that Sandipan is losing it by putting baseless reasons but then counterargument to 1 is the one which really has motivated me the most. I will not follow Ramdev baba's yoga but Shilpa Shetty's yoga. Two main reasons for that. Firstly, biggest motivation to do yoga for me was to reduce tummy. Ramdev baba being such a proponent of yoga, still has a tinge of tummy which I see no chance of going. Shilpa on the other hand is on diametrically opposite side of the spectrum. She has got the best abs in India. I know, abs is probably the last thing that comes to somebody's mind when someone thinks of a beautiful girl, but I find Shilpa's abs to be her best asset. Second reason is that the most irritating part for me in Ramdev baba's yoga is Kapaalbhati. Apparently, you have to do minimum of 5 minutes (300 times) going up to 15 minutes. On the other hand Shilpa suggests begin with 1-5 with no more than 3x10. You should totally see Shilpa's yoga. Search these keywords "shilpa shetty yoga" on youtube and you will get many relevant results. Even the idea of breathing-in n Kerala and breathing-out in Himalayas as her videos suggest should be enough to motivate anyone.


So this is the final conclusion and end to my dilemmas. I will do yoga but not the Ramdev Baba way, but the Shilpa way.

[Picture courtesy Bollywoodnet.blogspot.com and Rediff]

Was detention of Shahrukh Khan right thing?

Ok, I am a big time Shahrukh fan. I got up at 3:30 am tonight after having a nightmare as aftereffects of the movie 'Kaminey'. I browse as usual and go through the news that Shahrukh was detained at Newark Airport. I was terribly upset and shaken. I could not sleep after that.

Now after almost 16 hours after the story, having read a few 'counter' stories, I am at peace. So here is what I would have done if I were the person in charge of taking Shahrukh Khan to the detention room. Ok let's generalize this. Because even Shahrukh says he does not feel bad because of just himself but the room full of people who were mostly from a particular community. Here we go: (My monologue, thoughts in brackets)

Hello Sir, we have to hold you off for additional checks. Please do not panic sir, we will make sure you will be able to get to your connecting flight if any. We would like you to enjoy your stay in this country and make it as comfortable as we can.

Let me be frank, yes sir, as you might be thinking right now, you are being held because of your name. As you know Sir, we are a bit panicky country (tell exact reasons why you are doing even if it shows you in a slightly weaker position. Nobody becomes small by bowing before others). We took strong actions an entire nation because they destroyed our own WTC. But there is a good side to it as well Sir, as you can see, nobody has even dared a second attack. (On the other hand, there are some countries which encounter repeated terrorism, still get used to it, have such nice culture of equality which an outsider doesn't even realize). This is because of our security system sir, I hope and I know, you will understand as you come from such an educated nation.

(Saying this, take him to a room which should put the Lake palace Udaipur's presidential suite to shame, escort him to a seat, serve him snacks and drinks). Sir, to make this check shorter, can you just name somebody whom you are coming to in US so that we can call them and confirm? Here, take this i-phone. (A person comes to any other country for 2 reasons, he knows someone and has some purpose of visit, in which case he should have a contact address, or he is a tourist, in which case one can show their whole itinerary of stay or atleast the initial hotel. If found suspicious, one can always spy him)( So, now Shahrukh/any person makes the call, connect me and that person and we do a basic check. )

Thank you sir, I really appreciate your patience personally and on the behalf of my country. I hope you enjoy your stay in this country. Also, here is a feedback form and if you have any concerns and how we can improve this process, please let us know.

(Note that this entire process should take a max of 10-15 minutes per person with a staff size big enough to handle each and every person separately so that no one has to wait more than 30 seconds. After all, this is also an opportunity for job creation.)

This day that year

Today is 11th of August 2009. I can really go back to any year, say 2005, when I first entered this country or 1975, I was not even born but mom and dad got married. But let’s just go by 10 years. I will recollect what a typical day would have been back then.


11th August 1999, I was in 12th Standard: very important year for anyone. By this time, as it was August, I assume all the tuition classes would have been over, except Chemistry which the teacher (Kakulididi) insisted that she would not rush through.

I was a fairly early riser. So I would have got up at 6 sharp. Morning 6-8 was School study time, as the other time, I would supposedly prepare for IIT entrance. Not sure now why I did that so much. I never liked cracking all those uselessly difficult problems, but still had to do it. So I found the non IIT morning time more enjoyable. I studied Physics or Chemistry for the first hour and probably Biology from 7 to 8. Next I will iron my school uniform, go for a bath and get ready for school. Then, switch on Sony TV from 8:30 to 9 and would have breakfast and watch one of those dubbed English kids serials like Different strokes or Dennis the Menace.

Though my house was hardly 50 yards away from the school, I would still reach school 5 minutes before start. As I was the captain of my house “Nirbhik”, I would have to go through the checklist for morning assembly if it’s my house on duty. Somebody is saying the pledge- check, news –check! Oops we forgot the “though for the day”. Hurriedly, we would find some nice thought in some newspaper, attribute it to either Gandhiji or Plato or Martin Luther King and give it to any random person to deliver. I liked being backstage.

Let’s skip to the classes. Period no. 2 teacher is absent, so both classes will be done by Radha madam for physics. As soon as she leaves after grueling 1 hour 10 minutes, we will swarm on tiffin boxes. First to be opened was always Anuradha’s tiffin box. She would always bring something with potato and thus getting the nickname Aaloo herself. Next would probably be mine, or Sumit’s or Aprajita’s tiffin. By the time we (here, we = 30+ people) reach 5th or 6th tiffin, Maths teacher Ajay Pandya sir will come over. It was always fun as it was a refresher to whatever we already learnt in the coaching class but Pandya sir always had something new to add to our knowledge. Like this, 2 more classes would go one after the other until it is lunch time. This was the time we did dadagiri on the entire school being the seniormost. We would roam around the entire school, listen to complaints like “Bhaiya bhaiya, they took our wickets away”, or the 1st and 2nd grade ones will say “ Bhaiya, he ate 3 pieces of apple from my tiffin box.” Soon after, we will resume classes or some lab. Labs were fun too.

By default, one of the classes would be off that day. This time was spent in variety of activities. Either go out and play, or play indoor round robin table tennis with a normal ball on teacher’s table or sometimes, just play Antakshari (Again 30 people divided into groups of 15). Finally classes will get over at 3:30, but it would be another 15-30 minutes to reach home as we would chat all the time.

Eat food at home, do the tuition and school homework till 5. Oh yes, MTV will start from 4 with some show with VJ Nikhil Chinappa. Strange, Nikhil still is the VJ for MTV, and we thought MTV was always youth. At 5, I would just close all the books to watch “MTV most wanted” by VJ Shehnaz. This was my favorite time of the day. It will be the same usual songs –“My heart will go on”, “Am a Barbie girl” or “Show me the meaning of being lonely” or sometimes a bit different “Animal Song”. Anyway, 45 minutes to the show, I would leave for Chemistry Tuition. The class was long, 1 hr 45 minutes with a 10 minute break. But no doubt it was fun. Again, another half an hour gone after the tuition in chatting.

Come back at around 8:15, only to study for another continuous 2 hours. Dinner was usually served at 10:15. This time was reserved for the “IIT Exam” studies, hence most grueling and least attractive. At 10:15 sharp, me, mom and dad will have dinner together and it was always so nice. Little did I know then that in a year’s time I would stop eating mom cooked food? It was only in May 09 that she came here and I could again eat what she cooked.


Ok back to Dinner table of 99. Would finish the food in 10 minutes to go and start the TV again. This time, the Bengali channel DD7. It was movie time. Ideally I am supposed to resume my studies but then the movie would be one of the Bengali classics which mom and dad would not want me to miss and I would leave menial studies for better knowledge of my cultural roots.


Things have changed now. Probably for better. Wish I continue to blog even in 2019. And I will write about this day. A day spent in work, high school musical 1, iss jungle se mujhe bachao and writing a blog.

Deepika Padukone’s accent

I saw Love Aajkal yesterday. It is a good one time watch. But the thing I got hooked to is Deepika’s accent. It’s not rare for me to get hooked to some weird characteristics of leading ladies though. I like Bipasha’s slight squint, Rani’s husky voice, Katrina’s faulty hindi, Shilpa Shetty’s abs.

But Deepika’s accent is very mysterious. I still don’t understand which part is it from? My initial hunch and Nikhil confirms that it is the Hindi spoken in Marathi cities, but not Nagpur Pune or Mumbai. But then she was brought up in Bangalore and her origins are from Mangalore. She doesn’t have the typical south Indian accent also. The other strange thing is, it is such a slight accent as it cannot be categorized, it cannot be corrected or somebody can point out the mistakes. It is very subtle. I googled it and thought that it will lead me to something, but I found no such article. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. One cannot even copy and make fun of the accent. I wish I could.

Whatever is the case, Deepika is surely the kind who is horse of long race “lambi race ka ghoda”. She is here to stay and not vanish like the zillions of newcomers. Whenever I think of her, a funny incident comes to my mind:

Me, and my 19 year old cousin, 14 year old and 7 year old nephews were playing 20 questions or what is also known as Tom Dick and Harry where you have to identify the name of a person asking only 20 yes no questions. We all knew about the limited knowledge of the 7 year old. After all, you really do not expect much from him. So his turn was after me and hence he used to think in the same lines as I do. My first character was J.K Rowling. My little friends made to it after almost 25-30 questions but that is fine. Next, is this nephew’s turn. Now we all know he knows only 1 litterateur. So the first question we ask him is “Rabindranath Tagore”? And he says yes . Next I choose a bit less complicated and I choose Madhuri Dixit. So when it’s his turn, we directly tell him, “ Is it Deepika Padukone?” He just knows only one actress :D

Another proof is my friend’s quote: All kingfisher air hostesses are like Deepika Padukone. It’s like she has become the epitome of beauty. These just prove Deepika’s growing fan following. A sex symbol can never be the most popular actor; they do not become popular amongst kids. True popularity comes if someone is acceptable to all generations. So, Deepika! way to go.

Security at Indian Airports

The security at Indian airports is under a renewed limelight after the Kalam fiasco. We will come to that later, but here are a few facts that I have observed at Kolkata/Bangalore/Nagpur/ Bhubaneswar airports.

They do not let anybody other than passengers inside the airport gates. Thus the entire episode of seeing off somebody from the airport becomes a very nasty affair where you just park you car, with all your relatives in it, get off and go inside the airport with no chance of looking back. It’s inside an opaque glass building. (Another question, why make it glass if it is opaque). This is so not the Indian culture where this will be an entire one week worth of Soap opera material. On the other hand, you can really hold hands till the train leaves the platform, may be even run besides the tracks for a while at any Indian Railways platform. No wonder, movies never show "bidai" from an airport.

I don’t know who decides these policies and are probably happy that this is so strict. Apparently this action was taken keeping into view the security threats. But now read on to see how you have to go inside the airport. Show a stupid printout of any ticket with your name and date on it (even a standard 4 student can take an e-ticket, paste it in MS Word, replace the name and get a printout). With this, they watch your ID. Sounds good, but they even accept voters ID. Haha, even I cannot recognize my face in my Voters ID and I showed my voters ID which is in Kannada at Kolkata, Nagpur and Bhubaneswar airports. We have to agree that our airport security people are really smart.

Even if we assume that it was an ok check, listen to this. I had my friend with me. Seeing that she is a girl, and that she was with me and had some printout in her hand, they let her in without any check. "Naari ka samman karo" I guess.

Inside is even funnier. You do not remove anything from your body, not even the metallic belt or the wallet full of coins. The super intelligent gate is probably filtering this out from other metallic objects which you may carry. All you take out is your mobile. Looks like bombs can only be in mobiles. Then they do an embarrassing check with that detector like thing in their hand. (You keep your wallet out at this point, so effectively never checking it). And whoa you are secure.

Let’s concentrate on the women’s line. They do not even take of their handbags (and we all know that there is nothing in the world that is not there in the handbag of a woman) and calmly walk through a curtained alley with no checks. Doesn’t matter how much jewelleries one is wearing, it never beeps. Frisking a woman or asking her to take off her jewels is against the culture probably.

I sincerely hope that this is just the eyewash and may be unnoticeable to us, they are actually monitoring us, with x-ray cameras etc. Atleast I would like to believe so. Otherwise what this means is that our security guards are the smartest people on earth who can identify people from their faces and actions and take suitable action. I can even imagine a conversation amongst fellow security men:
“You know, that guy is a great security guard, he could look at that person from a distance and guess what kind of man he is. I once remember he caught a man randomly and got 4 kilos of marijuana from him. He should get Padmashri”

Come on, typecasting people has always been a practice in India, either it be w.r.t. the clothes they are wearing, the caste they belong and even the shade of brown they are (I practice the last one myself), but security should not be typecasting.

So now, coming to the issue of Kalam, with the above argument, it should follow that Frisking of Kalam should not be a big issue. If everybody has to do that, he can also do it. Moreover, if he really did not want it, he could have chosen national carrier rather than a US private company aircraft. May be Kalam does not even want this to be an issue. May be he finds this media hype unnecessary.

But there is another side. If there is a law of land, it has to be abided. You can protest against it in court, in peaceful marches but certainly not go against it. If it is a law that ex presidents should not be checked at airports, everybody should abide it. Even though this law includes a man called Robert Vadra whose only qualification is Husband of daughter of a dead ex-prime-minister. We can discuss about changing the law, but certainly not take it for granted that for greater good of humanity, we will let a corporation tamper with the law of land.

For the same reasons, I like the fact that internet will be banned (or rather some part) in China and corporations have to abide by it. It is a blatant violation of human rights. I will be the first in any procession against it, but if China has passed it as a law, corporations should adhere to it. Google or Continental can never be bigger than China or India or for that matter even the poorest country in the world.

Company taking on policies of a country is a dangerous trend and should be avoided at all costs.

Some really useless news items

On the same day I came across three very funny articles. They really define the present day Indian media. The worst part is the source of the articles. As I go through each of them, I will elaborate how I came across them.

1) An exclusive account of what happened at Karan Johar birthday bash : Just look at the way they present the article. It is as if some red carpet is going on at Kodak Theater. But definitely the best line goes to:

"The awesome foursome, AbhiAsh and SRK-Gauri left in one car with K Jo. Gauri was seen sitting on Chota B's lap. So sad the photogs didn't capture this classic moment on cameras."

To be honest, I was the one who googled Karan Johar birthday but the intent was just to bug my friends with some gossip page 3 news.

2) Varun, Rahul greet their aunts: This is another useless article. Who really cares about who Rahul and Varun say hello to in the Parliament. And isn't it natural for everybody to greet people next to Prime minister and leader of opposition. The best line here:

"Priyanka and Robert Vadra left the gallery after Varun and Rahul took oath."

Now apparently Rahul was the last to take oath. Isn't it quite natural that the sister will wait for her brother's oath. How does Varun even come to the picture. A news like this coming from Hindu is really disappointing. Even worse is how I came across it. It was the top story of Google News India.

3) Sachin's 'embarrassing moments' not caught on camera: atleast no surprises here. The news comes from the news creator channel CNN-IBN. But the point is the relevance of the article. Who is really interested in a topless Sachin Tendulkar? We could have bought the argument that the target audience is college girls if it were Yuvraaj Singh, Dhoni or Ishaant Sharma. But Sachin? I would even compare it to M.F Hussain's Saraswati picture as Sachin is literally the GOD for most of Indians. Come-on, atleast leave this guy with 2 kids in peace. And the article has no concrete theme. Sachin siiting in kolkata musing about some dressing room at a foreign location and concluding that he likes Kolkata very much. BS.

Now honestly tell me, though none of the articles were relevant, you have to agree at least the first one was humorous and there is so much left for speculation. With Amar Singh sitting in front seat with driver, there were 5 people in backseat. Gauri with Abhi, leaves us with really hilarious combos.

Say no to Air France

This is the second incident now. Continuing my theory of there can be no smoke without fire, this is purely unacceptable. And so, as I do not buy Tommy Hilfiger garments after reading the e-mail chain, I will no longer travel by Air France.

Frankly speaking, though the Tommy Hilfiger story may even seem to be unreal, this Air France story is pretty real. I have seen a certain apathy of the European staff for the Indian customers in the flight. I have seen this in Lufthansa as well but as it was an all Indian flight, I would like to give them the advantage of "curt by nature/birth" and not due to any racism.

People may argue I have no right to be angry against racist as I myself care for fair skin. But I would like to remind that I differentiate only Indians with skin color as skin color in India can be changed by exposure to sun, makeup materials and general skin care habits unlike the rest of the world and so I think being fair in India is more a matter of self care than a genetic property. There are also a lot of gorgeous dark skin people including the great Biapsha Basu, Madhu Sapre, Kajol to name a few.

Short Note on India Elections 09

Election 09 for me was only two people. Varun Gandhi and his mom Maneka Gandhi. In 80's Rekha had shown us Biwi ho to aisi and in 2009, Maneka shows Maa ho to aisi. BJP had almost disowned him, Congress was against him but one person who was always wit him was his mom, she visited him every day when he was wrongly put in the jail. She tried so hard for him that she had almost lost in her own constituency. But all's well that ends well. Both mother and son duo has won. I do not care if they are with BJP or any other party of their choice but the sweetness of their victory can not be ignored. Imagine Varun and Maneka sitting together at one end and Rahul and Sonia on the other. Both the mothers beaming at their son as they speak and as soon as they finish, hurry up to give them a warm glass of milk, that too malai marke.

BTW, I had pulled off the post below but now re-posting it. Originally posted even before Varun was caught under NSA.

My Views on Varun Gandhi

There are 2 ways you can really have strong views about a person. When you have done all your research and when you haven’t done any. For me, the analysis below is mainly because I did not read much about it and I think I just read the facts. I do not want to read what each and every person is saying to form an opinion. But yes, this is not a hard and fast opinion (With more proofs, things may change, and come on, he’s just 29)

I feel Varun Gandhi is just a puppet in a big game that is being played by BJP or even the sinister BJP-Congress alliance which I have a feeling is always cooking under the hood. Ok, not to sound too absurd with my argument made above, but even if it is anybody’s plan, it is certainly not Varun’s own. Hate speeches like these are being made every day by RSS workers and have been made in the past by all the BJP stalwarts except perhaps Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Sikander Bakht. To make this a political issue is a part of a bigger conspiracy which I am really eager to find out. It might even be political ambitions of the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt etc.

Second startling fact is the comparative low tone of condemnation by Priyanka and Rahul. As star people of opposite parties I had expected harsher criticisms but their statements are more like “We are ashamed of our little brother but after all he is still a kid, he will learn”. Whether these things point to the BJP-Congress under the hood pact that I speculated earlier or a case where blood is more important than political rivalry, both are good for the country as a whole. We need sensible next gen leaders who are not like present Advaniji’s BJP which had decided to oppose each and every word that Congress says in the parliament and vice versa. By showing their solidarity, Priyanka and Rahul prove that even if the become political opponents, they won’t be as insensitive as the 80+ lots.

Third reason I would like to defend Varun is his mom. She is an outcast of the great Gandhi family but she still managed to stay in picture. There are numerous people who are now nameless because of their non allegiance to Gandhi Family. But she still survives. Also, for a politician, she looks really cool( much better than Mayawati, Mamata, Jayalalitha and even Jaya Bachchan. She is in the league of Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje who themselves are collectively below the league of Jayaprada, Smriti Irani, Hema Malini). Thirdly she does this really hep and cool green and animal care thing. I do feel with most of her issues like keeping birds in cages and killing stray dogs and all such animal right things. I even try very hard to get out of Non Veg, but I promise Ms Gandhi, that the day the taste ratio of Non veg to veg based on availability even falls below 200%, I will turn a vegetarian (right now, from what I cook and what I get in restaurants, the ratio is far more than even 500%). So, I think the son of such a great mother does deserve a bit more respect and probably forgiveness because I would like to believe that he at least didn’t mean the words that we think he said.

A bedtime Story

There was a little boy who lived in a big house in the suburbs of a very small metropolis. The house had a wonderful view of mountains on one side and the sea on the other side. One day, the little boy decided that he will make a lighthouse. The lighthouse will be so beautiful that when people see it, they will feel so much peace at heart that the little boy will eventually get the Nobel Peace Prize.

The little boy sets out to find the right material for the lighthouse. As soon as he gets out of the house, his friend Artim asks him, “Dood, where are you going so early in the morning?” The little boy replies-“Hey dood, I want to build a lighthouse. I am off to get the material for the base.” Artim says that he wishes to join him and the little boy readily agrees. Artim asks: “Where do we go?” The little boy says “Let’s make this out of marble stone. Let’s go to India and get the marbles from Bheda Ghat”. They fly in Air India and reach New Delhi. From New Delhi they take the train to Jabalpur. On the way they see the Taj Mahal and its Minarets. Artim asks, “Do you want your lighthouse like those Minarets?” The little boy replies, “No, much more beautiful.” Finally they reach Jabalpur and then they take the ferry to Bheda Ghat. After 7 days of intense search, they find the right marble and then make arrangements to send it to home. They take the Air India flight where they were served wonderful Kaju Barfis for dinner and come back. The little boy says, “Artim, tomorrow I am going to select the colors tomorrow. Will you come with me?” Artim replies “No dood, I have had enough fun here and have to play cricket tomorrow.” Artim thanks him for coming and goes back to his magnificent house with sea on one side and mountains on the other.

Next day the little boy sets of again for the colors. This time he meets his friend Idnas. Idnas asks: “Dude, where do you go?” The little boy replies “ Hi dudette, I am making a Lighthouse. I am going to find the colors today. Will you come with me?” Idnas shakes her head vigorously and says “Yes, I would love to but do you have any color in mind?” The little boy says “Yes dudette, I want to get the red with white polka dots just like the Mushroom on which Caterpillar was sitting when Alice met him. I need to get his copyright permissions. I think we have to go to Amazon.” Dumb as she is, Idnas says “Wow, I would love to go to Seattle” to which the little boy replies “Dumbo dudette, it’s not Amazon.com headquarters but the jungles of Amazon”. So they fly to Rio de Janeiro in TAM airlines. On reaching Rio, they saw everybody was playing soccer. Lazy as she was, Idnas found a red and white football and told the little boy “Hey, why don’t we get permission from Pele and use this pattern?” The little boy said “Oh lazy dudette, it’s not half as good as the mushroom. We have to go to Amazon forests.” They set off on a boat to the deep jungles of Amazon. After encountering the great anacondas and the piranhas, they finally reach near the gates of El-dorado. And guess what, the gate keeper was the old caterpillar himself. The little boy asked his permission and the caterpillar was glad to oblige and also accepted the invite to the opening of the lighthouse. Happily Idnas and the little boy come back home in TAM airlines eating Banana fritas. The little boy asks Idnas “Hi dudette, tomorrow I am going in search for a reflector for my lighthouse. Will you come with me?” Idnas says “Hey dude, thanks for the trip, it was really awesome but I have to do my MBA preparations tomorrow”. The little boy thanks her for coming and goes to his big house in the small metropolis.

The little boy wakes up early morning at six fifty the next day and sets of in search for the reflector. He meets the rowdy neighborhood boy Blutu. Blutu asks “Hey Dyude, ‘ssup! so early on a Saturday morning, I haven’t even slept yet . Where are you going?” The little boy replies “Hi, I am going to get some reflectors for my Lighthouse. Do you want to join?” Blutu tags along. The little boy tells him that he plans to go to Buckingham palace to ask for some diamonds. They fly in British airways and reach Heathrow airport right on time. Restless as he is, Blutu immediately wanted to go to rest of Europe especially Amsterdam. The queen had given them appointment after a few days so they set up for a Euro Trip. The little boy wanted to go to the ongoing Cannes Film festival and from there, they sailed to Amsterdam. On the way back, in Belgium, Blutu suggested getting some glass from there for the reflector but the Little boy never changes his mind and they went to the Queen. The queen, Her Majesty Hermione I, was very nice to them and showed them all her diamond collections including the Cullinan diamond and the Kohinoor. Then she offered her own selection of diamonds to the little boy for the reflector and promised to come for the opening bash. They came back in British Airways flight with Blutu enjoying his Tandoori chicken but the little boy stuck to the very English Fish n chips with Tea and muffins. After coming back, the little boy asked Blutu if he wanted to accompany him next day in search of the foghorn. Blutu replied, “Dyude, I wish I could, but you know, I have to see this girl tomorrow who is going to be my prospective wife. So, I better be there.” The little boy wished him all the best and went back to his big house with a Bonsai mango tree in the patio.

The little boy woke up a little late at seven thirty and got ready. Just when he was about to get out, Dnohs came asking for some cereal for breakfast. On seeing the little boy all dressed up, Dnohs said, “Magaa, where are you going, da?” The little boy said, “Magane, I am going to Africa to ask the Lion king for copyrights for his roar for the foghorn of my lighthouse.” Dnohs immediately came along, even without brushing his teeth. They flew in Air Tanzania. But as luck would have it, the plane did a ccrash landing in Alexandria. It was a blessing in disguise as neither Dnohs nor the little boy had visited Egypt before. They had fun roaming around Giza and Alexandria. Dnohs was a sharp buy, To reduce travel, he told the little boy, pointing towards the Spinx, “Magaa, this looks like a lion, and you will probably never see this big a lion. Why don’t you ask this one for permissions?”. But adamant and quality conscious as he is, the little boy ruled out the idea though secretly appreciated Dnohs’s idea in one of his blogs. They set off for Tanzania first on camels and then on elephants. Finally, at the edge of a cliff, with setting sun in the background, they found Simba. Simba said “Whroaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam, I will be pleased to give you the necessary rights, just bring my pen so that I can sign it.” After getting the signature and his consent to come for the opening ceremony they came back home in Air Tanzania eating Ugali. The little boy asked Dnohs if he is available tomorrow but Dnohs said, “Magaa, I have to finish my project 15 days before the deadline you see. It’s recession time.” Little boy just smiled and came back to his big house in the small state.


Now, the little boy had all the necessary things and just had to build the lighthouse. As this did not involve any fun travel, nobody was willing to accompany the little boy on his venture and hence he started building on his own. As soon as he put the first stone in place, a hand came and helped him place the next one. He turned around to see a beautiful little girl. He asked her, “Miss, what’s your name?” She said, “Hello my friend, I am Alimru. I live in the house on the hill. I saw you working alone and came along. Do you need some help?”. The little boy thanked her and both of them started working. With such a great company, they never realized when it was dark and then Alimru said, “It was nice working with you and I will come again tomorrow. I might be a bit late as I have my MBA prep classes at 6 and we then have practice for our softball finals, but I will join you by 9 for sure”. The little boy was fumbling for words and went back home. Soon this became a routine and Alimru came every day to help little boy realize his dream. Meanwhile, Alirmu scored an 800 in GMAT and her team won the softball. The little boy was cheering her from the first row. One late evening, they finally finished and Alirmu said, “Dear, what do we do for the light?” Both of them giggled and went zooming into the sky, beyond Milky Way and plucked one of the brightest stars. They came back and placed the star on the light house. It was looking fabulous and they decided to go for a walk along the beach. The phosphorescence of the water and the lighthouse beams created a mystic surrounding. Suddenly, the beam stopped right on them and both just stopped where they were.

They celebrated the opening day under the starry sky on the beach with cool breeze blowing. The menu was selected by the little boy. They had Palak Paneer, Crunchy Salmon sushi, broccoli and asparagus salad, Mapo Tofu, Coconut Shimp and many more with Chocolate Mousse and Rasgullas for dessert. The caterpillar, Her Majesty Hermione I, Simba, Artim, Idnas, Blutu, Dnohs everybody had come down for the occasion. But of course nobody could take their eyes off Alimru!!