Tagged Again!!

I've been tagged by whatsinaname to list one fact related to my life for every letter of my middle name. I don't have a middle name, so I will take on the tag with my blogging name Timepass since I relate to it quite well.

The three rules to be followed are:
a) The rules must be mentioned in the beginning of the tag.
b) You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
c) At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

T- is for Talkative – I talk and laugh a lot. But I do take time to settle down with new acquaintances.

I- is for Innocent – No, I am not saying this myself. I get this title even now from many people..Along with innocent I also get this remark “Poor thing/Bechari/Paavam”
Dunno why??

M- is for Moody- At times, I do get moody and withdraw to my own shell. But, once I get over it, am back to normal.

E- is for Elephantine Memory- My family would be ready to vouch for that, am sure…If I visit a place once, its stored forever in my memory…grandma’s genes I suppose!!! (Family are u reading this, waiting for your comment)

P- is for Pacifier- Friends pour out their sob stories to me and get pacified by me..I am surprised though that I am able to do this job well.

A- is for Adaptability/Adjusting Nature - Proof of this lies in the “N” number of change of residences across different cities since my birth.

S- is for Sensitive- I am highly sensitive, sometimes a small talk can shatter me but sometimes even the biggest of issues will not bother me much…

S- is for Systematic- I HAVE to pay all the fixed monthly payments like Building Maintenance, Phone and Electricity Bills and taxes right on the first day else my head would explode….I hate to take loans from people but in the rare case of doing so, I HAVE to return it to get a peaceful night’s sleep. I hate it if fans/lights are running unused and hate it when water is wasted (people brushing your teeth with the tap left open, here I come!!)

I now pass on this tag to dame's diary,Dotmom, justlikethat, mnamma, Parul,pixie,Poppins and trishna.

Hawa Mein Udta Jaaye...

I happened to notice one girl driving a two-wheeler at a signal. Hmm she was dressed smart and Chic..She seemed to be well off and had fully equipped herself with safety equipments. She was wearing a helmet, white gloves upto her elbows, a big bandana around her head etc etc. But I just could not help noticing that her dupatta was royally flying in the air. The girl had not noticed this. What is the use of wearing gloves and helmets when the flying dupatta is very likely to get caught in the wheel of another vehicle and drag you??? I have noticed this even in the case of pillion riders on bikes. I request all two-wheeler lady drivers to kindly tie back the dupatta/saree pallu and ensure that it is not flying in the air..Who knows, it might save your life one day... We will compliment you for your dress even if it is not displayed in flying mode...

Why Me??? (All the time)

I was going on a small evening walk. At a distance, I noticed one beggar begging for alms. He seemed to be middle aged but was seriously handicapped and immobile. I could see that his legs were badly twisted and so was one hand. I started hunting for change to give that man. As I was walking towards him with the change in my hand, suddenly from nowhere, the man took a puff from a fat beedi in the only one limb (his hand) which seemed to be working for him. I was taken aback..and shocked. And then all I did was to put back the change in my purse and just ignore him and walk ahead. At some distance a very old lady was begging, I gave her the change that I was almost giving to this man. But as she did not smoke in front of me, I am not aware if she too is a smoker or not.. Who knows, everything is possible in this world!!!

Dear God, this is to remind you that I go for walks for fresh air and fresh and positive thoughts and not to become a passive smoker....

Root-Level Corruption

I noticed that some people were digging a ditch outside my main gate. On enquiry, I came to know that it is for putting some cables, which would be done tomorrow. I could see one worker digging deeper and I told him to leave some space untouched for our car to pass through and enter the parking area of the building. The guy had already dug up the area in front of the gate, so he initially said it is not possible to do what I asked for. I requested him to leave some space atleast since otherwise the car would have to be parked on the road itself. I then came back home.

After a few minutes, the doorbell rang and it was one of his co-workers (a lady). The lady said " Seems you have a car and have asked to fill the ditch in some areas so that your car can enter the parking area. We are three workers, we will do the job, but please pay us some money for tea" I was okay with it till I heard " Give us Rs 50 for tea, we will ensure that the work is done"

My first reaction was " What, Rs 50 for tea???" . But then i took two factors into account..
1. These are poor labourers toiling in the hot sun, what is the harm if they ask money for a small task which is for my own benefit.
2.When so many big level scams are being conducted successfully, what's wrong if these labourers ask for a small sum of money. They do not have any assets to fall back on in case of adverse times.

Finally, I agreed to pay them Rs 20 since they had to put some amount of sand back in to fill the ditches. I could have certainly afforded to pay the money she asked, but I did not want to comply with her demand since it will encourage her to ask some other thing after some time. Guess what, the lady agreed instantly. Maybe the amount is more than what she expected? She must have asked for 50 rs hoping that she would get atleast half of it..Good logic..

After some time, I noticed that the pit was still not filled up. So I went up to that lady and asked her to fill up the pit. She sent a man to do the job. He promptly did the job and guess what he asked "Madam, give me some money for tea"...

I could not help thinking about how we people look to earn money from all possible modes...A similar incident.. A temple watchman was collecting donation, I paid XX amount and got the receipt. Since I wanted to give X1 Rs and I did not have a 1 re coin, I gave a five rupee coin to get back the change. The watchman promptly said, "Madam, I shall take the remaining four rupees as my bakshish since I am the watchman here".. Is it his birthright to do this?? My dear man, Bakhsish is not asked or demanded, it is given happily by the person who wants to give it. Else, it is not a Bakhsish, its hafta (mamool). Way to go, India..

Sincere Request

Request to a co-passenger (a girl in her 20s) in a bus..

You have been blessed with lovely straight hair which I have always longed for. I agree you look fab when you let down your hair but not in a crowded bus.. as the bus picked up speed, your hair started flying not just eastwards and westwards but northwards and southwards too. For a second I thought I am in a film shoot. Your hair went into my nostrils and poked me..I'm okay with sneezing but why should your lovely hair get dirty??(Cause its the hair I never had) Not just that, your hair was poking others too..

Finally you get a seat to sit and I am most relieved. But your lovely bandhani dupatta attracts me to you because it is simply lying on the dirty bus floor and you are so engrossed in conversation with your friend in the next seat that you did not notice this. I am pained to see that lovely dupatta getting stamped by shoes but you are still busy conversing. And last of all, you get down in the very next stop after getting a seat. When you know you are getting down at the next stop, you could have surely had the strength to stand till your destination comes and offer the seat to the old lady standing in the bus..As a youngster, you must definitely be having more strength than that old lady dear.

Sincerely Yours,
Timepass

A Good Start....

It was a cool morning, the previous night had nice showers that resulted in a cool and pleasant morning. I was sitting on the steps of a temple and here's what I saw.. Lots and lots of cute pigeons hovering around for someone to feed them.. A cute kid had come with her parents and her father was carrying her and asking her to feed the pigeons like how he was doing. The kid took the food in her hand but instead of feeding the pigeons, she put it in her own mouth.. Child like innocence..Hmmm There were three calves nearby. An old man had got a bag full of very very ripe bananas. He started feeding the calves and it was a lovely sight to see the three calves pushing and nudging each other to get more bananas. Not many people will think of feeding bananas to the cow/calves, they prefer to put it in the dustbin instead due to lack of time. I appreciate the man's efforts to come to this place and feed the calves. A good start to the day indeed...

If wishes were horses

If wishes were horses, then

I would love to take my blog friends to a beach
I would love to take them on a horse ride
I would love to watch the sunset with them
I would love to share snacks and juice with them
I would love to give them gifts before saying bye to them





P.S: My blog welcomed the 2000th visitor today. I wish to celebrate this occasion with my friends from the blogging world, please do indulge yourselves.

Epitomes of Courtesy

Scene I

House Owner on the Phone with the Tenant, the tenant is late in paying rent most of the time.

Owner : Hi (Tenant)
Tenant: Hi
Owner: Looks like you have not paid the rent this month.
Tenant: Oh is it, today’s ….th (date) right
Oh I forgot…
I shall pay by tomorrow.

Forgot, kya word hai..Atleast when you leave or enter the house, you must realize that its a rented place...


Scene II

Hospital room of a patient who’s baby died in-utero at 5 months
Entry of a new trainee nurse. She has the patient's case history in hand but has not bothered to go through it.

Nurse: So, you had an abortion right?
Patient: Yes
Nurse: Why did u get this done?? U did not want the baby is it??

Oh, so this is what people say " Adding salt and chilli to a fresh wound".

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to all..

Lalbaug cha raja, will miss seeing you. Have to find solace in seeing you here.

Taking up the Tag

I have been tagged by Swati to blog about my dreams.Hmmm where do I start?? I have always been a big dreamer and most of dreams end up being dreams. Sometimes, I forget what I dreamt the last night. By the way, I day dream a lot too.

I often get dreams of leaving things incomplete and then struggling to get them done while facing different obstacles. My favourite dreams are those of my school life where I see the bench where I used to sit on in 10th class and chat with my friends. My late maternal grandpa regularly comes in my dream. So many times, I have woken up not to find him by my side and am utterly disappointed when I realise its a dream. I sometimes dream of getting stuck up in traffic too.

Since blogging happened to me, my dreams are also related to blogging. Just yesterday night, I dreamt that i got a dozen comments for my latest post. Needless to say, as soon as I woke up, I logged on to blogger but only found just a single comment..Pooh.. (I found solace in thinking that atleast in my dream, my blog is popular).

All readers of this post are welcome to take the tag...pls do let me know so that I can have a peek at ur dreams too..

On (Off)Line

When I login into Yahoo messenger, my friends who are online get a message saying "Timepass is online now". But, not everyone initiates a chat with me. Okay, I understand many people are busy at work while they are shown as online, so they might not have noticed me online. I generally assume this is the case and ping online friends thus initiating contact from my side.

But there is a second category here my friend. Some contacts reply back immediately when I initiate contact..The person must have minimised the chat window or not have been in front of the computer and did not see me online before, so on seeing my message, has replied to me. This is a genuine case happening with everyone. The second type is that the person would have noticed me online but not bothered to ping me, but on seeing my message sends me a hi immediately and before I ask anything else tells me "Long time no see, how are u?? Guess what I was thinking of mailing u today and here u are online...blah blah blah" Half of this is what I wanted to ask this person i.e. how r u, hope doing well etc.

So many times it has happened that I login but hardly get Hi messages first from the opposite side. But the moment I initiated a conversation, the other side is very involved in the chat and behaves so well that I start blinking my eyes to believe is it the same person who did not initiate the conversation. I took all this in my stride knowing very well that I cannot change others, I just need to change my view of things.

The same goes for mails as well. Mails initiated by me are sometimes not replied at all..But I do get the acknowledgement that the receiver has read the mail... Come on when u have the time to read a mail, just click on the reply button and say ok, it hardly takes 10 seconds..My dozens of mails are not replied to, but your one mail if replied late is equal to a big crime committed by me, is it??

One particular incident I remember, I wished someone Happy Birthday through email. I got a reply from the person thanking me and adding that nowadays no one remembers his birthdays, he is happy that atleast I BOTHERED to wish him. Hey, is this the reply I deserve for being among the select few to wish him..He never reciprocated the wishes though. Hardly a few people possess the courtesy and etiquette to wish a person back on his birthday especially if the person has wished for yours. I know, everyone is busy and has no time for replying to mails, but when you have the time to chat for hours on the mobile phone, book movie tickets on the internet and go for team lunches running into hours, you definitely have a minute to reply back to someone who remembers your birthday after all these years.

Timepass

I noticed that many visitors to my site came by googling for "timepass". Out of curiosity, I too decided to try out the same. Wow, my blog was featured on the first page itself as the tenth result..I am overwhelmed.. Thanks readers, I will try to work on making my blog the first result when "timepass" is typed on google.

This or That....

If he eats a dish and says " Hmmmm Good "the very next moment, it is a signal that the dish has turned out well...
If he eats a dish and says " Hmmmm Good " only when asked his opinion about the dish, the meaning is quite obvious...
What say folks??

In the Name of Chaat….

All I get to eat is big chunks of onions, carrots and an overdose of curd, sweet and spicy chutneys..Not to forget the big chunks of raw mangoes…

God, please guide me to a good chaat shop where I will relish lip-smacking chaat

Such People Still Exist….

It was peak rush hour in the morning. I was walking along the road when I saw all traffic come to a standstill on a busy road. I was wondering as to why is the traffic still when there is no signal at that junction at all. On coming closer towards the junction, what do I see? A traffic policeman is holding the hand of an old lady and helping her cross the road. Wow, I thought. So there is still some humanity left in people. I appreciate the traffic policeman for this, it is not something which we get to see daily.

I know many people will say why to stop the traffic and get so many people late for work at the cost of one person crossing the road. But wait, it takes hardly 30 secs to cross an empty road and if an old lady is taking just 30 secs of your time, whats wrong in it? When we can afford to waste time on petty activities, why not spare 30 secs in helping someone out.

I hope to come across more PEOPLE such as the traffic policeman. This episode made my day today, I must say.

Comparisons..

We are always compared with others since birth. Society derives pleasure from adding salt and chilly powder on one’s wounds. There are hardly a handful of people out here who do not ask annoying personal questions to others which simply cannot be answered as the topic concerned is personal only and not for public disclosure.

Anyways, coming to comparisons, when a baby is born, it is compared with parents and relatives as to whom does it look like, what colour is it etc.. Comparing dresses and toys is to follow soon… then people compare the schools to which kids go followed by colleges… in between comparisons for dresses and coaching classes and two wheelers gifted by parents are also seen..then comes the comparison of who is in which college and who gets placed in which company. Comparisons are again made while finalising an alliance and later regarding the marriage hall where the wedding is conducted.. The cycle continues again with literally everything from purchasing a house, investing in shares/gold, foreign trip, promotion, pay package and what not.. Some people have everything on earth but still jealousy is their best friend.

The one thing people have not compared as of now is DEATH..Of course people do discuss a death and talk details about it as if the same has happened in their backyard. I am sure the day when we face questions such as “ ABC died like this at this age, what is your plan??” and “ In your family everyone lives for XXX years, how long are u going to live?” is not far off..

GRRR again....

This episode is fresh from the oven.. it happened yesterday evening.. As I got out of the car, a lad aged about 12-14 yrs started pestering me to buy flowers and make “boni” a.k.a. first sale for him. Taking pity on him, I bought flowers for 10 Rs and before I could make my way to where I was going, the boy asked me to give me more money as he had to buy a science book for school. Good marketing technique I thought. Now, I am unaware if he is really going to buy the book if I give the money or use it for another genuine household expense or just have fun with the money. Whatever, this technique of demanding money irritates me.. He could have straightaway come to the point instead of waiting for me to buy his wares…Another reason for me to say GRRRR.