How the heck did you land here? :)

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Dreamt of a strange thing last night

Man! I had one of the weirdest dreams last night. Can't recollect much of it, but here are some of the most interesting or memorable part/s
The situation: I was getting married.
No, not to one woman but to three women. And it had to be finished within a day. :p
As I was through with the ceremonies of the first wedding, which happened on the third floor of our house in Rohini, I descended the flight of steps and notice that there was a Bar cum Restaurant on the ground floor. It was quite similar to Rodeo's and I take her to the restarant and the feasts begin.
Oh! she looked beautiful. God only knows why she was wearing a bright red saree when the wedding ceremonies were conducted in christian fashion.
Can't remember much of what happened after that.
Suddenly, the dream transported me to another place. A place as surreal as Dali's paintings. Here I have my second wedding. Can't recollect the face of that woman, but I do remember her bright skin and big blue eyes. Oh, i forgot, she was wearing a burqa and she was very similar to that lady in Lucky Ali's video-can't recollect the song as of now.
As I try to lift her burqa and caress her hair, I have an itch in my neck and "Whoa! wake up Jimmy, you were dreaming." I wake up slowly, and wearily reach for my mobile and notice that it's only three in the morning.
"Some dream that was...", I thought with a smile.
I thought of firing up a cigarette and recollect the wonderful and surreal dream. But then, reality reminded me something.
"There's a client call tomorrow. Try to get some more sleep, you have to reach the office at eight."

Monday, May 15, 2006

Loneliness

Loneliness: a disposition toward being alone. One of the main reasons I left Poona was because the city was killing me. Everyday, I would come back from office, and then a question would hit my head-what next? Wash my clothes? nope, i had a dhobi at hand. Cook? No, I didn't have a kitchen. So what was the easiest way to kill time? "Booze Jimmy, go get a booze" I could hear the little devil on my left shoulder tell me that.

It was so easy to just go out to a cheap pub, pick up a drink and get sloshed out. Or at times, pick up alcohol and when the sense of loneliness hit me, I would end up calling up friends at home, or brothers, and at times calling up my online friends who hardly even knew me. What would I talk about? nothing important, just nonsensical blabber.

Now that I'm in Chandigarh, Delhi is just a 5-hour drive away and with a senior from college being a localite here, it has never been better. A few days back, Cecci was giong back to the US and we had a small discussion on loneliness and how it had it all of us. Cecci started the talk with his 2-year experience in Cyprus. He would talk about how his drinking habit almost killed him and about the time-pass escorts from Morocco and Lebanon. Captain talked about his 1 year stint in Paris where everyone would talk in French and how his french colleagues would suddenly change their posture when he joined them for a cup of coffee.


Could be continued... :D

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

The Govt. Contract

A, B, and C finally get a break. After building contacts and through the influence of some people, they are awarded a govt contract.
But there's a catch.
ABC's firm-let us now call them govt contractors-will finish the work in 6 months and will give 1/6th of the "govt-sanctioned" money to X, a govt officer, who will then award the contract to A, B, and C's firm.
Work starts and 6 months later, some progress is made.
So, ABC request the govt that a part of the payment be released as some progress has been made and there are salaries and bills to pay.
After a number of visits to X's office and some chit chats over a cup of "Sarkari office" tea, X-the govt officer- finally agrees to release 2/6th of the payment.
One year into the project, ABC's firm is still not paid any extra penny. The firm isn't going anywhere and 'A' decides to pick up a 9 to 5 job, leaves the firm, and tells B and C that he can't go on.
Some 8 months later, A and B meet each other at a friend's wedding.
To his surprise, B tells A that there were no other payments made.
"A, you don't know the number of visits C and I made to X's office. All I can tell you is that X and his secretary took the rest of the unbilled amount, theives!"
Because A and his friends were part of a corrupt deal, they knew they couldn't do anything about it.
So here are some questions:
  • Should A, B, and C have agreed to do the project at all?
  • Was B right in calling the officer a theif?