So , yours truly had quite a hectic and eventful morning, 8am cab to office and then off to MG road at 11 for an appointment with the CA to collect my IT returns receipt , listen to some gyan from the dude regarding smart mutual funds that made so little sense to someone like me who is so investment-market-wise challenged. And then a phone call from a friend in distress , and I had to don my cupid avatar for a while .. and so on. Finally I got into the shuttle heading for the EGL office . Was on the front seat and 2 of my colleagues (I do not know them by name or face) , were behind. By then my migraine had started showing up a bit and the ac in the vechicle wasnt helping at all , and to add to it , the 2 buddies behind decided to talk about SRK !! !! !!

"He does not know acting"
"Before Rab ne was released , he declared on some interview that he was a Pakistani which is why no one went to watch the movie"
"South Indians will never watch any movie of his"
"The media has glorified him , other wise he is all dumb and useless"

Now this was utter blasphemy to my ears , okay okay let me state that I am a total die hard fan of SRK. Cummon , he is witty , he has attitude and style and he knows how to entertain the public !!
Listening to all this certainly ensured my migraine levels reached new records ! I was in a good mind to turn back and reply to some of their comments but sigh , the migraine did not let me do that. Also I had no idea who those 2 souls were , and didn't want to get into the conversation.
Anyways , outcome of the morning was me with a bad headache for the next few hours.And when i got all fine , the only thing I wanted to do was scream 'SRK rocks' in front of my shuttle friends !!

Wonder how sometimes life cheers up at the the tiniest and most unexpected and remotest things ! How spirits get lifted up just by listening to a certain song , by chance. Happened today , while on the way back home from the lunch get-together . all I needed was to listen to the 'mera maula' song from Dostana :)
It was an instant change in mood , from a lil sulky to a rocking freshness :)

It is purely amazing actually how each day brings along so much anticipation and twists , so much that whatever it was on mind the previous day fades into oblivion . Nothing hovers over thoughts for a longer period , as it is certainly taken over by yet another of those things. At times there is uncertainty , feeling of a light rift from normal endeavors and the next minute it vanishes at the realization of newer prospects...
Been postponing making calls to some close friends , long pending lunch/coffee catch up sessions...
Wondering if the state of 'too much to think about and plan' , has taken over my sanity ;)

So it is over finally, or is it ?

60 hours of fear , uncertainty and anger blended with hope for the survivors , faith on the armed forces and a strong gush of unity that extended beyond Mumbai and marked the sentiments of the entire nation. It has been a weird calm since yesterday , out TV isn't bubbling with reports of more grenade blasts and hostage killing anymore , but for the first time in our history of terror strikes this one has brought out feelings of 'we need to do something desperately ' amongst everyone. While life in Mumbai limps back to normal and not bounces back like earlier as this time the city witnessed something so petrifying like never before.
Yes , Leopold's is open again while at the Taj and Oberoi empolyees have series of meetings to discuss what to do now. CST must be crowded as well as people get back to work , to their routine life.I do not think it is the just the spirit of people of Mumbai, it is more of necessity. I can see in Bangalore , the security at places enhanced so much since Friday , esp in my campus where we are checked atleast thrice before entering.But this time I am not complaining, neither are the others. This I guess is the minimum bit we can do to stay safe. Of course the debate of lets all vote continues , I think a lot of us will enroll ourselves this time, Ankit already has :)
Resignations do not matter , while I am dumbstruck at the statements made by some so called leaders. What matters is being equipped to deal with such situations , whether a regular security chap or the police constable . It is scary to think that some of the terrorists might still be free on the streets of Mumbai or anywhere with their stock of explosives just waiting to rewind the terror on a certain black Wednesday night in Nov.
Taking a moment to think about those that lost a family member , a friend or a colleague in those 60 hours ... a special dinner at Taj on Wednesday turned into the worst possible nightmare. Also taking a moment to salute those slain policemen, commandos and hotel staff who put others before them, salute those 250 firemen who risked their lives hanging from ladders to rescue people all night , the marcos and other commandos who killed those cowards while still managing to rescue those trapped inside.
This for me defines what my country is at the moment , and I feel tremendously proud of just this one fact.

As I write this post , it has been over 36 hours since terror gripped Mumbai and the war is still on. Latest reports being that they are killing hostages !Anyways , not going into the other details that the new channels are anyways doing a fantastic job of , let me say what really got me worked up is when I head our PM's speech last night. I don't know if someone forced him to speak like that or if he really was that unconcerned and indifferent as he sounded ! That was hardly motivating and definitely not assuring the country anything.
I would much prefer to hear the defence heads speak as they carry out the real action , their guys risking their lives for all those trapped . Am hoping we do not get to see any other politician making ridiculous speeches in an attempt to glorify himself on tv, we have had enough of it.

It is possibly the worst possible terror strike as far as I remember .The all night gun battle in the top hotels of the city or the visuals of fire emerging from the central dome of the Taj Hotel , reports on so many security folks killed not to mention the 100 odd innocent lives that have been lost so far ... It is like a never ending nightmare. I watched the news coverage late last night and crashed in some time assuming everything would be fine by morning as there were no reports on casualties or hostage like situation yet. But this is turning to be very very ghastly, with so many people still trapped in the fire and held hostage by a handful of terrorists. As the news flashes in of more police men killed including the ATS chief ,my heart goes out for their families. Here we are watching the coverage on tv and then heading off to bed for our peaceful sleep while those guys fight it out all night and not just for them.Makes me realise suddenly , they are the real fighters while we are probably just a bunch that is contented in passing occasional comments and whining when such incidents occur . Sincerely salute them all and my prayers are with their families.
A strange disturbing feeling this is , as though we are not safe anywhere, expect anyone to start shooting anywhere. The threat looms all over even while we are on with our routine chores. And another question pops up as well , whats happening to our country, what went so wrong ?
I am at work now , but somehow still shocked , yet to absorb the fact that such a security breach can happen. Terrorists loaded with AK-47s and other ammunition in 5* hotels ! What is more scary is that there might be a lot of them still roaming free in the streets of Mumbai , ready to strike just as we get a grip on the situation at other places...
All that we can do now is may be just pray , for those trapped and for those fighting it out for all of us. But a tiny part of me also wants to just go an shoot those ******** right now.

There are 4 of them , each one more ferocious than the other and trying to scare me more than the other. Waiting for the office shuttle in the morning has never been a more terrifying experience for me :( I am sure the folks around have a neat time watching me jump from one spot to another , as my eye balls rotate at exponential speed in trying to keep a watch on those monsters! The other day I actually tripped and almost fell over on one of the flower sellers .
I can't believe it , this is my 3rd post on them, creatures that i am not too fond of. Somehow they make their presence felt in my life though and these days a gang of 4 has made the place near my cab stop their morning adda. Wonder why , there is no litter , no stray food lying around as well , then why me !Unless they feast on the terror in my eyes :((
In case you haven't realized what I am talking about .. it is the deadly 4 legged canines that haunt all Bangalore streets and lanes, and of course you must have realized my symptoms also , dog-o-phobia :(
Seriously , I have been thinking of excuses to miss the shuttle , thanks to these dogs ! It is literally mortal fear of life when I stand there for those 10 mins every morning. And I don't know how to overcome it , any tips ? At times I think I am entitled to a body guard as well :D

I know this is coming really really late considering that the trip happened sometime mid Sep, but I had to write this post ! Had to coz of a multitude of reasons , the adventure , the planning , the wait , the fun games , the amazing driver and on and on. So the story begins..
I think it was Pooja and Shilpa who came up with the plan all of a sudden and I said a yes to it as I had never been there and also coz Shilpa assured that we would not have to wait for long in the queue as she would arrange vip passes. Well when some one from The Deshmukh Family says it you do believe it :D Gattu also agreed , but the most surprising part was when Rahul also said yes! The fun just began as Shilpa clearly told at her place "it is me lipi and 2 couples " , well how are we to get 2 couples , and then started the various permutations/combinations and we were finally ready with the 5 of us and Pooja's friend Amrita. The D day comes and we are supposed to start sometime in the afternoon. Now let me mention this first , I have this weird night-travel-0-phobia (esp 4 wheeler) and desperately wanted to reach the place before late evening, threatening everyone that otherwise we halt on the way for the night. Though I was mostly engrossed in my book , it was fun watching the others struggle to guess movie names especially gattu , and that too accompanied by Pooja's enlightening comments during the journey !
Anyways after some 4 -5 hours and darshan at the Ganesh temple on the way we finally reached Tirupathi and then started the frantic calls to Mr(Basha/Pasha/Badshah) to confirm the hotel for us only to realise it was already full. And so the group spilt , me and shilpa with the driver in the car and the other 4 in another group. Something I would never forget was Shilpa's statement at one lodge "aap ghante ke hisaab se charge nahin karoge" !! Anyways , the others were luckier and after 1 and hr hours of hotel hunting we found a very good place to fit in all of us very comfortably.A good dinner and all of us tired souls off to bed knowing that the next day would be hectic.
In the morning we planned to visit the Lashmi Temple first and then head for the main temple on the hill where (lets call him this) Basha would be waiting for us with the darshan passes. While on the way we got to know it was Hindi Day , and started the game of talking in 100% shudhh hindi having decided that the one who loses would treat the rest at coffee day. Rahul was smart , didnt say a word , I tried and gave up, it was too tough for me. I think Pooja was the clear winner.
And so we reached the Tirumala town where Mr Basha was no where in sight :( and we kept waiting at MBC-25 , was that it ? Guys please correct me !
A lot of confusion , wait and finally we managed the passes. I would not go into details coz everything is well that ends well :) And then the darshan , it was truly amazing, despite the crowd and the wait. And by 6 we were done, also kinda dead tired .I must mention here that our driver was a really nice chap , did not complain even once as we kept oscillating from one place to another although did redirect us towards the free darshan queue couple of times!
And so we started back from there late in the evening , with gattu assuring me that night travel is absolutely safe and he would ensure the driver doesnt doze off, thx gattu !
Most of us managed some minutes of sleep before we reached home close to midnight . Oh yeah , we all did plan to bug Mr.Basha with missed calls for all the trouble he put us through :D , and believe me we actually did that !
Before I forget ,
@shilpa , I pity all those people you blasted on phone :) , but am so glad we all had the darshan.
@pooja, you are an awesome organizer, a must include for all outings!
@rahul, I agree with u , we must do these trips more often, and yes, sorry for the funny pic on the way :D
@amrita , amazing enthu and thx a bunch for arranging all the passes.
@gattu , thx for being awake almost all night during the return journey and taking care that the driver is awake as well and playing all those lovely songs :)

No smoking ? !

So since Oct 2nd , smoking has been officially banned at well defined public places , and that includes the reserved for smoking spaces in our campus also. This place is now well guarded , not just by a security guard but a sign board bearing the amount one can be fined for smoking there. So that helps ? Am not really sure . The EGL campus , has a lovely golf course and the walk along it is just an awesome feeling , I guess it is not going to be so anymore. For a stretch of about 50 mts along it , all that one can see now is plastic cups , chloromint wrappers , and cig stubs. Yes ,that is the new habitat of all the smokers in the campus. And despite a huge bin sitting there (it was installed after observing all this litter there ) , I doubt anyone uses it since it is actually open space and unlike the closed smoking area within the office premises that we earlier had.
I have no idea if the new rule helps/does not help , active/passive smoking , but if this is what is going to be the consequence , definitely not anticipated for. Makes sense to revert back then , atleast public places would be a lot more cleaner !
On a completely different note , most of my friends have left for their diwali vacation , me is the last to go , missing the gang already :) Suddenly had a feel of how days would be without these folks around !!

The new face of terror , operation BAD , more bombs diffused ... and on and on , we have seen all of it grabbing most newspaper front pages and TV channels breaking news off late. I must admit it hit really close in the last few months. Whether it was the Bangalore serial blasts or the ones in Delhi market or just watching how security has been tightened all around .. at times brings a feeling of helplessness. Especially the thought of so many people losing lives or possibly handicapped for the rest of their lives , just coz a bunch of inhuman people wanted to prove a point , a point that no one really understands . Panic , fear , distrust.. is wide spread. Suddenly one is safe nowhere. This definitely is not the even remotely ideal world we want out future generations to be a part of. I can see the change right now , we think a lot more before visiting any mall in the weekend , weekdays is less crowded , so lesser chance of someone blowing it up.
The victims of 9/11 or the London/Mumbai/Delhi bombings bear physical and mental scars that might never fade. Wonder how many more people are going to bear them.Wonder if there is a solution at all. I am reminded of an MTV mock interview of a Mr. Terrorist , who when asked on why they revert to bombings had absoultely no answer . All that he stammered was we will keep doing it , but we dont know why. If thats in reality , it certainly leaves us with a sad and scary picture of how things are going to be...

Ps: I wrote this post after having read what Anu and Rahul had to share on similar topics..

This one is funny!

Someone forwarded this to me , hmmm.....

whats in a name..

Thats what people say , but then a name does matter ! Lipi Tripathy , now how difficult is that to spell /pronounce ? I would say quite simple , short and simple in fact. Apparently Airtel folks have a problem with this , how else does my name transform into Mr. Lee Tirupathi one fine day !! The dude on phone drastically changed my gender , nationality ...
Or the polite lady who wanted to speak to Mr. Lips , ahem ahem . commonsense please madam , what is the probability of a Mr.Lips existing on this planet ?
I have seen quite a few modifications of my name , lips,lipsy,lipsiku but Lee Tirupathi beats them all !

Drunk Tales

All characters mentioned in this post are very much real , and you could find a lot of resemblance to someone you know well or even yourself ;) , but lets declare the norm here .No names please !!
The first incident that comes to my mind is while we were still on PS in Bangalore and this pg-mate of mine decided to gulp down much more that she could take . Problem was to get her to the room which was on the first floor from the car with the pg aunty sitting right across the hall. Somehow we managed to send aunty off for a while and 2 of us were helping this very much on-the-high friend up the stairs with all hush hush , when suddenly in full spirits she shouts " where is aunty ?"
And to think of all our efforts in making this a not so obvious affair ! But we managed and aunty did not have the slightest doubt.
The next episode has to be the most hilarious one , it involved the subject locking up a friend in the balcony , almost ransacking someone else's house and swearing all the time that 'I am fine , F.I.N.E fine .. " I should also mention that we had a movie to catch after that , and on the way also caught up with a lot more confessions from the subject very much to our amusement.
A long and happening day, that had completely drained out this person and a friend suggested a drink , the subject's first ever .A baby's dose , as termed by mr. bartender , but enough to make sure our subject was tipsy and drove the rest out of the house with "you will have to get out now !!"
There is also the case of a friend who in a royally washed out state was kinda violent , kicking the poor soul who carried her , and throwing the bucket at the rest of us.Well , the acts of violence did end with few hugs though :D
It is pure entertainment for those watching , I still remember when a friend had a sip or 2 of kerosene mistaking it for something else !Not much fun though when the person is all quiet with a look that says "just dont come anywhere close to me or talk to me" . This guy never admits it , but me and a friend can very much imitate this pose and look ! Another friend was quite a bit out after few drinks at a party and would just not let us drive him home , he was adamant on biking along while the rest of us just kept praying .
A lot more incidents that flash across now , more later . .... :)

Ugly Aur Pagli , neither actually. Watched this one last weekend , expectations were quite high , something along the lines of Pyar Ke Side Effects and it was such a damn squib comparatively.Well , the comedy was damn good in most parts , the expressions of the lead pair , especially Ranvir , just priceless but then I thought we needed something more concrete to hold all this in place . Perhaps a script . Some of the reviews on this movie have claimed this is a remake (read copy) of My Sassy Girl , I haven't watched that one but would like to believe it was a better original.
Nevertheless it was entertaining at times despite the absolutely-not-needed-and-pathetic-songs .My eyes were more glued to the awesome and smart bags Ms.Sherawat carried ;) Oh yea , if you are wondering about the 99 slaps bit as in the promos , it pretty much lives up to that mark , I was actually wondering if the guy had become immune to them after a while !!

Had been to Jayadev's place today to see him and Deepa off , they will soon be moving to Sunnyvale and officially join the gang there. Gang coz apart from few of us here , I can't seem to find anyone in my friends circle who hasn't relocated or atleast applied for the same , and it is a matter for some months before latter category folks set off as well . As Kalro says quite a few times ,"lets all move there and retain the group" , wish it was that easy. Things change , friends move on , and what is a little depressing for me is the thought of being the only one remaining here and that too just coz I cannot take a decision well. Yahoo! isnt going to be the same place without some of these folks , we will all miss Jayadev especially at the All-Hands gatherings and year-end parties , his so successful attempts at irritating us with his hindi , the non stop chatter and masti and all the fun.
I really think I need a high in life right now , the last blog post and this one too , in not so great spirits. Oh yeah, work wise it has been on a roll as another friend remarked :) , but yes its been good , just that I have learnt quite well not to entangle work related stuff in my personal space . So all the on-the-roll stuff fades out by the time it is home.
And also Shweta is leaving tomorrow for Singapore , weather is dull with rains on and off and with the recent happenings at Bangalore it is mostly sit-at-home. Hmmm , learning to live with all of this :)

The attempt to move on..

How easy it is to put some things behind in life and move on , easy for people to say time heals , to say you must move on . Move on ? At times when life take a reverse gear and leaves you behind , when certain events completely change your perception of people and things, when little things invite lovely memories , those that you want to get rid of now... what does she do in such a state.
She said , I am in a mess.And so she was , and what was making it more painful was that she tried so desperately to bury those memories. But somehow, she mustered up enough to vividly recollect and not escape from them. Remembered every moment that had brought a smile then , every event that had made the days special. Strangely she felt calm , lighter and 'moving on' seemed very much a less dreaded task, especially when the subject at the other end was so much at ease in doing the same, in moving on. Her friends had often remarked that she was a little too emotional and willing to see more of goodness around and thus would end up getting hurt easily. She did question herself over and again , whatever happened was not because she wanted it to happen that way , she just went with the flow. Life is weird,unfair .. it let someone else take decisions so vital for her .And she still ponders , I did not want to be in this mess, I was better off even before the favorable tide came in and I simply got dragged in its flow..

hello world!

Finally , events and memories will now be penned down in blogspot , while the archives continue to live at http://360.yahoo.com/lipsiku010 (the blog link) , and you will have to sign in with your Y! id. So hello world and I will come around soon with some concrete post :)