Lost!!


Recently I had set my onliner status as "Lost and frightened as a kid". It generated some speculation and curiosity. It was only suppose to be "Lost" but somehow the Lost word reminded me how as a kid I use to get frightened the moment my parents went out of sight even for a minuscule amount of time.

I remember very well my parents teaching me, my way back home if any day I got lost...they used to make me remember the house address. And one day just to check how I react to such a situation Papa just hid himself from me at a market place. And I as a kid not seeing him around simply broke down in tears, standing alone at a corner without even remembering what they had taught me.

As a kid we have always found so much of protection with our parents. Its in them that we used to confide. Its with them that we were most safe. Nature at its amazing best with this relationship and feeling.

Looking forward

These 3 months have passed in a flash and its time to go back or rather start a fresh new journey.
Though I haven't really been missing anything or anybody out here (that surprised a lot many people but I wasn't surprised, they were carrying a wrong impression) but still I am looking forward to go back. I am a bit apprehensive though as I know lot would have changed back home specially at work front. Its a fresh start that I got to make like a new job.

But the looking forward list is also long. Looking forward to....

-to the journey from here to back home.

-to attend the last 2 days of Durga Pujo.

-to see my parents delighted for seeing me after such a long time...i am not missing them but I know that they are missing me.

-to get cozy in my room.

-to catch with all the latest movies in theatre...though I am upto date with all the latest hindi movies...thanks to their pathetic quality pirated versions available on the net.

-to conclude Namesake which I have left incomplete...I have left Gogol at the University start, need to take him ahead in his life. Read some where that Namesake has been adapted into a movie with Tabu playing Ashima Ganguly's character...so am also looking forward to catch with this movie...can't really picture Tabu playing a Bengali house wife's character.

-to go to crossword and get all the history books whose list I have made in these days.

-to get back to Sitar, I hope my fingers wont freeze over it with these 3 months gap.

-to that clear blue sky with flocks of whitest clouds floating around lazily...ideally so should be the weather back home at this part of the year...the weather which I relate to Durga Pujo and Diwali...the weather which gives lots of positive vibes.

-to driving all the more...and also to possessing my own car(now thats more of a wish, which I am not very sure of coming true...thanks to my lil' modest salary...do I hear someone saying something :)).

-to see more people react to me having changed as a person...I too can feel this change.

The list of looking forwards is really long. Does that mean I am missing a lot many things...God knows, confused as usual :).

But at the end looking forward to go back to come back again.

Visit to the sinking city.

When Mr. Aiello first asked me of how was my trip to Venezia (Venice), my reply to him so that he understands me perfectly was Bellissimo!! (extremily beautiful, magnificient).

Before leaving for Venice Sylvia asked me what was I expecting from Venezia. My answer to her was, “I don’t really want to imagine or expect anything about the city, people had already hyped a lot about the city to me….and I don’t want to expect too much…what if the expectation are not met…then my trip would be a dissatisfaction.”
But how much ever said I had created a picture of this place in my mind…a picture which showed it to be architecturally splendid, canals, over looking the Adriatic, crowded with tourist etc.

I was visiting Venezia with Sylvia over the weekend and we were to stay at one of Sylvia’s friend Sophia's place, who would be guiding us in the city. And what guide we got, she is just 16 by age but has the detail knowledge of each and every place, lane and also its history. I was completely awe-struck by her knowledge and interest, though language was a barrier between us but then Sylvia was there to do the translation job.

So finally after an hour and a half train journey we reached Venice. The first thing that I noticed was the crowd and then the artistic work that was present all over. Right in front of the station was placed a replication of one of Michelangelo’s sculpture which was actually protesting the U.S. war against terrorism…I mean a protest was also so beautifully shown in the form of a sculpture.

Our walk through the city to reach Sophia’s place, itself gave me the feel of the city. A city of paved slab roads, narrow lanes, city of masks, road side restaurants, each and every building/house was architecturally and artistically awesome. I knew that this city was filled with canals but what I didn’t know was canals are the only mode of transportation (boats/ Gondola) in the city or else you got your legs to walk. Yes this place doesn’t have any vehicle on the roads not even bicycles. I mean it does not really have roads they are only paved slab lanes and sometimes narrow enough with no space for two people to walk parallely. But then the old city is quite small so can be walked through, but of course you would be easily lost in the lanes and that makes the walk longer.

Staying at Sophia’s place was an antique pleasure in itself. Thanks to her and her family I got to feel Venice in its true form…and not only the touristic view. Yes, we did visit the major touristic spots but what the true Venetian culture was seen in that house and in their way of living.


The night life of the city was like a dream. It was truly very romantic, with live music being played at most of the restaurants and St. Marca’s square at night was a pleasure to the eyes.



My final treasured memory of this trip would be our boat ride over the Grand Canal from Sophia’s house to the railway station. Sophia’s father decided to drop us to the station on the boat as we were already very late to walk our way back. And this half an hour trip was mesmerizing…got to see the other view of the city.

In all, the two days now feels like a dream and it was complete to my expectation and even more.

No words to express

Have to give an acknowledgement to this post:

A letter from Andaman Cellular jail

Some Random Clicks!!!

I was suppose to read the design documents but just didnt feel like. Didnt even feel like going of to sleep...it was just 11.00 pm. Nobody was even coming nline to chat with...started thinking is it holiday today in U.S. or my nocturnal friends back home have decided to follow a more human trait. So with Gulzar songs running on the background...I started with some regular browsing. But even that was least interesting today(other than Rajdeep Sardesi interviewing Ganguly).

And then did something worth doing...I have done it many times( proves I got lots of time to waste or may be its the effect of staying online for nearly 16 hours a day).

Just type in some random words onto a search engine and see what it comes up with.

And so I typed in adrija over the search.blogger. It came up with 5 pages of links. Out of those one link was obviously pointing out here.

But out of the many links I found two very interesting links....links posting two very memorable experiences of my life.

icfp 2005 and The Sinhagad Xperience !

It was rejoicing to read back some fond memories from somebody else's perspective.
Its a nice feeling to see how people relate to the same things that you relate to.

May be non sense

No particular reason to write...just a satisfying day, which is on its way to be recorded...so this post might be non sense for many.

The day started pretty well...but slowly started getting to the state from which i am trying to run or may be end these days.

But I dont really know how to do that. Some good read really helps, talking to friends help, hearing statements which speak ur mind helps. Statements which make you feel, oh that person has so precisely put down what was always your thought or believe.

And thankfully since today evening I have come across many such affirmations. Thankfully because these things have made the day end with a positive note.

CNN is going very boring these days, it might be news for most people but as over here CNN is the only channel I got, I have started feeling sick of it. Never before have I been so very well up to date with the world news as I am these days. But I am not enjoying it at all, violence and war news everywhere Israel, Lebanon, UK, Iran,Iraq, Congo,Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India...i no more can take it...but still its become a habit to return to that channel.

So returning back to where I was...thus with reluctance I switched on the channel after going through the similar headlines, Richard Quest's, Quest started and had a lovely one hour...this months quest was about family. Richard so very well portrayed the value of family...the feeling of belonging was what he indirectly put down. And at the end the way he traced down his origin and ancestors, I have always wished to do the same...so again somebody did something which was always in mind...and instead of feeling hey that was my idea...i felt atleast there are people around who feel or think the same way as I do....a satisfaction.

After that cheerful one hour, and as CNN returned to world news again which I was least interested in watching...I returned to the net.

With a few histoy brush ups and blog browsing, I landed up with Shekar Gupta's Talk the walk, with Paulo Coelho...back home also I have been a regular follower of talk the walk. And this one after long time made me read back Paulo Coelho's famous inspiring line "If you really want something, the whole universe is going to conspire to help you."

So at the end some good journalism by two well known journalist made my day.

Memories


aandhiyon se jhagad rahi hai lau meri
abh mashalon si badh rahi hai lau meri

I just love the song, Roobaroo and specially the above 2 lines. These two lines in itself are filled with so much of strength.

But there are more reasons for me being attached to this song. Whenever I listen to it, I get into a retrospective mood. Memories attached to this song are still very strong and clear. But when the current memory had just newly become a memory, I used to sometimes avoid this song. As the memories had some sour episodes and tough struggles.

The days when this song was newly being aired, are slowly turning into a turning point of my life. Many incidents occuring those days have acted as a catalyst to what and where I am now. I know this is an universal truth, our past has been the catalyst for our present, and so would the present add up to the past to become a catalyst for the future.

So here I am listening to this song again and again just to make myself strong and turn those not so good memories into the most precious memories of my life. I can't run away from things, right.

Winter season, fresh mornings, getting addicted to car driving, late nights, planet millenium, new friends, new feelings, Innowaze.....memories!!!

No title


Somebody once said it always starts from one side and the other side just responds back. But what if the first side stops taking the initiative, will the other side also stop responding. Doesnt any of the previous initiatives taken hold any value now...havent they left any mark...or will the interaction stop for ever?

I wish I get enough maturity to understand the situation.

Mrs. English!!



Saturday 8.30 pm. Grado, Italy.

We were for dinner at a very rustic kind of restaurant but very classy in itself, very much typically the old European style, along with a beautiful sun setting its way over the bay at the back drop. The dinner was being organized by Mr. L.M and his wife, at whose house I was staying for the weekend. I was their guest for that day so extra care was being taken.

Before leaving for the dinner I over heard Sylvia and Martha saying something about somebody called Mrs. English and then giggling, but then I was too busy dressing up for the dinner that I didn’t pay much attention to their conversation.

Ok, enough of scene setting…so here I was with Mr. L.M and his wife at the restaurant waiting for their other friend couples to come over. Mr. L.M knows english quite well but is a bit slow as has to recollect words and his wife hardly knows a few words. Within few minutes the first couple had arrived(say Mr & Mrs. First). Now that I am writing this after nearly 3 weeks of the actual day, I don’t really recollect much about the Mr. First (its strange how some people go completely unnoticed, in another few days I might totally forget him) but yes Mrs. First looked to be a very sober and gentle lady, seeing whom you get an elderly kind of respect. But even they just knew a bit of English, so till then hardly any conversation had taken place for me. And thus I started wishing that Sylvia and Martha had come along.

Then in short time came the other couple (I would have named them Mr. & Mrs. Second, but I would specially like to name Mrs. Second as Mrs. English). Mrs. English, an English school teacher, must be in her late 50s. After the initial formal introduction, I was so happy and relieved that finally there is someone to talk to and she seemed very interesting to me (and she did turn out to be very interesting).

The conversation started pretty well, but within few minutes it was clear that here I am with someone who is going to go on and on and on….but still it was nice, after all at last there was someone to hear too. And I also realized that here I was with a very pretentious lady, her pretentiousness was all because she knew English and the other 2 ladies didn’t know it. Though she was showing contempt for the British, but she her self was trying to present herself like this sophisticated English lady. A lady whose speeches contained more of Oh My God, Oh My Gosh, Oh dear, Oh it is so Hot,…and with all the other set of Ohhhs (also please imagine the artificial facial expressions along with these exclamations).

Our discussions revolved more around India and Europe. She had visited India sometime back, and her impression about the country was that, she was completely shocked and had been completely confused with the religions and rituals. Which for me is completely true when you think in terms of a non Indian, but again as this was Mrs. English I was feeling that she was over exaggerating. But any ways…we talked about the Pope, christainity, her experience at the Cambridge University, the youth these days in Italy and Italian men. It was from her that I got to know that Italian men are suppose to be the best lovers in world, she was surprised that I hadn’t heard abt it before...how do I tell her that I am such a dumb head when it comes to information regarding these things. She hung over this topic for long, god knows where was she trying to lead :).

But anyways she helped me with the menu, though with a very fake care. I had a tough time with the spaghetti, it was too very slipper...but what food it was, its taste is still lingering in my mouth. And then came the fried fish, and there started Mrs. English with her lessons of how to eat a fish. As previously she had seen me being cautious on what non veg food would be there on my plate, she thought this girl has never had a fish. But little did she know that she was teaching a Bengali to eat a fish, but any ways she was trying to be caring and so I let her continue.

With her non stop talks, she made other 5 people completely out of scene. But she was some character that I think I will never forget in my life. We might never meet again, but she indeed made the evening very interesting and energetic. She left giving me some interesting information of Europe and also the one that I mentioned above ;). She showed me the Italian (or may be the European...I have no idea) sign for the F**k word, and that was the funniest part of the evening...I think she was over drunk by then, and on this her husband (and also the others)started losing their patience, I guess he and so did others knew this lady well. And thanks to her insistence, for the first time I tasted wine :).

Later that night at the disc, where I was to join Sylvia and Martha:
Sylvia: "So how did you find Mrs. Englsih"
Me: "She was nice....it was good that she knew english"
Martha: "That’s it..."
Me: "yea...she was a bit over dramatic"
Silence for a few seconds....and then 3 of us bursted out into laughter :) :) :))

Restless Cognition

Its kind of weird...everything around...everything that I am experiencing, everything that I am feeling. I am not saying that whats weird is for good or bad.

I always believed that everything happens for a reason and purpose, but the way things are going with me I am not able to see the reason. And that's making me restless..as if I want to travel in the future understand the purpose of the present and then come back and enjoy the present. I am really surprised at my myself for thinking this way...this thinking was never my belief.

For the part that is good, I am doubtful of why are things suddenly good to me, I guess thats the height of being a pessimist. And for the part thats bad, I feel what did I do wrong to go through this, I just didnt deserve it. But yes in both the cases I am still not able to believe that it is all happening to me, it feels as if its just a dream and once I wake up things will get back to normal, just the way it was few months back. But may be this dream is the best thing happening to me.

In these months I have changed drastically, and so more drastically in this one month. Again for the good or bad I dont know. Why am I writing all these things even thats not known, why are things so very unclear these days.

But to speak the truth somewhere inside I know the reason for all thats happening, but....!!!

I am trying to be positive, and patiently wait for the reason to come up more clearly. Let see, what comes up.....

A Special Bond with the Adriatic

My First Posting


Creating my own blog was going on since long but the motivation hadn't reach the level which would compel me to finally create one...but yesterday I wanted to put some comments onto a friends blog...all these while whenever I had to put some comments I used to do it anonymously but his blog didn't let me do so without an account...so finally here I am with my own blog account.

The next step in the process was giving a name to my blog...I have seen a lot of impressive blog names some very philosophical ones, some very aptly reflecting the person...but I couldn't decide on any...and being like others was just not what I wanted to do.

No other name was coming to my mind...then the thought that my blog name has to reflect me so what else could reflect me better than my name itself.....ADRIJA....so thats it I decided...I don't know whether the decision was a short cut taken by me on deciding the name...but so let it be.

Whats the meaning of ur name is the most common question of my life...but that doesn't mean that its annoying...rather I proudly with full enthu explain its meaning to whoever asked. ADRIJA is goddess Durga's name...my grandma named me so...Adri means mountains but as here it is in context of Durga it means The Himalayas and Ja is a girl.

So the himalaya's which has always fascinated me so very much is a part of my name in itself is a big reason to love my name. And with that ended the naming ceremony.