As I stepped out of my home one fine Sunday morning, what attracted my immediate attention was frame of the zig-zag lines drawn in white chalk joined together nicely crafting out a "Stapu" as we used to call it..

Could not eschew myself from completing one round jumping on one leg, lot like imitating "Sridevi-Jeetendra- moves".

It took me down the memory lane as far as almost 15 yrs when I were in all girls school (yes- I've done my initial schooling from Alexandra Convent School).

As the bell rang announcing the lunch break, all girls ran to occupy the most clearly crafted out "Stapu's" in the sandy grounds of the school.

The one who reached first would win the first turn to throw the stone in the box and then complete one round in the succeeding boxes jumping on one leg.

Rules were quite simple:

-the stone had to fall clearly in between the limits of each box;

-player had to jump in the other boxes on one leg;

-the box in which the stone lied had to be skipped;

-the stone had to be picked from the succeeding box;

-after completion of all boxes successfully, one had to throw the stone in the frame from backside, not facing the stapu and the box in which stone landed became the property of the player.

-other players had to skip the boxes occupied by someone through back throw;

-the one with maximum number of boxes would be declared winner.

As I left the memory lane behind and stepped back into present, first thing I could think of was finding out the person who made this frame outside my house, not for (by default) scolding the kid who had spoiled the entrance of my well kept home but rather to ask her (should have been a 'she') if the rules were still the same over the years or have they been changed or modified..

I asked the colony watchman who had done it. He grinned at me showing those tobacco colored yellow teeth and told me that he had already scolded and gave a good thrashing to his 4 year daughter for spoiling the entrance n his wife would clean it as soon as she returned from her work.

I felt bad and asked to him to call his daughter. I wanted to see her but he pleaded me to let it go. I insisted that I did want to see her. Sheepishly smiling at me, he went inside his quarter at the far end of the colony n I saw him dragging his daughter by her ear mumbling abuses. I scolded him to leave her ear and asked her to dry her tearful face.
That miniature figure in front of me went calm as I took out a "Dairy- Milk" from my bag n handed it over to her.

As she was busy unwrapping the chocolate, I asked her:
"beta Tulsi (imagine Ekta Kapoor's impact on the society!!!) ye "Stapu" tumne banaya hai??"

Tulsi: haanji Didi.. Sorry.. aage se nahi banaungi..- as her eyes were near in tears again.

I (out of sympathy for her n detest for her father's cruelty)- nahi bete koi baat nahi.. pehle ye to bataao ke issey khelte kaise hain??

She giggled over this and started telling me the rules showing me the promo of the game..

And there I joined her asking her father to leave as I cherished my childhood memories...

According to the narrative from the Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana, the form of Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight a demon. The demon's father Rambha, king of the demons, once fell in love with a water buffalo, and Mahishasur was born out of this union. He is therefore able to change between human and buffalo form at will (mahisha means "buffalo"). Through intense prayers to Brahma, Mahishasura had the boon that he could not be defeated by any man or God. He unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds.
Eventually, since only a woman could kill him, the trinity bestowed a dazzling beam of energy upon the Goddess Trinity (Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati), transforming her into the Goddess, Durga. Her form was blindingly beautiful with three lotus-like eyes, eight powerful hands, lush black hair with beautiful curls, a red-golden glow from her skin and a quarter moon on her forehead.


Each god also gave her their own most powerful weapons, Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandal, Kuber's gada, etc. Himalayas gifted her a fierce whitish golden lion. On the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th day of waxing moon, Chanda and Munda came to fight the goddess. She turned blue with anger and goddess Chamunda leaped out of her third eye. Her form was the most powerful one with 3 red eyes, blood-filled tongue and dark skin; who finally killed the twin demons with her sword. This form of the divine goddess is worshipped during the sandhikshan of Durga Puja festival, as sandhi/chandi puja. Finally on the tenth day of waxing moon, goddess Durga killed Mahishasura with her trident. In the mythologies, the Goddess does kill the demons and ends the existance of evil on the earth to ensure the man kind lives well on the planet.

But through the ages, the devil has again been dwelling as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind. like the very evils of dowry killing, female feoticide, bribery, red tapism, castism.
Those were the ages when the Humane race was endangered for the fear of the devils who would kill them for power. Even today, the devils in the minds of Human still starving for power, make them toil again their own race.
Celebrating the festive season from Navratri to Dussehra to Dipawali as the symbol of triumph of good over evil is no use unless we kill the demons residing inside ourselves who dont hesitate to kill our own fellow beings for greed.

The sole reason behind the creation of Godess Durga becomes void if we fail to live with love and affection as we were intentend to be, in a world lacking the devil. And demons inhibiting in our minds have to be thrown out to complete the omen of these pious festivals.

Last week on an Industrial visit , with my class (I am the lecturer, though most of my students are elder than myself, they all have had work experience before joining in for MBA) got a chance to visit the sub-urbs of the city.

The scroching sun in the rainless monsoons was making us all look for drinking water with each passing 10 minutes. The Merchandise Shop located in the locality was making money, selling "mineral water bottles" n "Colas" to the thirsty crows on the Industrial visit.
As I emptied the tumbler carrying with myself, I heard some disturbances among the students.. I cornered to interrupt and ask what the matter was. Shipra seemed annoyed with the rest on being teased as "Ms. Super Hygenic" for she were asking them not to buy the "so called bottled water" for it not being actually the "Bagpiper", rather being adultered..

I had a look if she was right, n she was right. a piece of plastic paper was bound n joined together instead of a seal that should have been there on a mineral water bottle.
Its not just one case, we come across many such happenings in our immidiate surroundings everyday.
We get along numerous brands right from the dawn, when we "Colgate" our teeth, till late nights when we switch off our "Sony's", to get up to another day with trusted brands.
But sometimes when we find out that our reliable Brands aint exactly wat we bought, we feel ditched.
Many a times, we go shopping in hurry and pick up our routine things with a glimpse of familiar logos, designs, graphics on the packaging. And on discovering "FLAIR & LONLY" rather than "FAIR & LOVELY" some of us, really dont do anything like complaining against the vendor.
The fake brands are being sold in the market like as such and the counterfeiters are making money.
According to a FICCI study, the impact of counterfeiting was highest in the software sector to the extent of 70 per cent, next came auto parts where the impact was about 35 per cent, down the ladder came the pharma sector with 15 to 20 per cent impact, and then the FMCG sector with between five and 15 per cent impact.
These "look alike" products are not just a substitute for the genuine brand, but not maintaining the quality standards, these counterfeits, are hazardous to the users.
Unknowingly, we entertain such "business-people", who donot hesitate taking lives of the people as a five year old treats his "teddy- bear".


Many of us dont know how "TATA SALT" becomes "TAJA SALT" or "NIRMA" becomes "NISHMA", not even do we spot much when "COCA COLA" becomes "CAMPA COLA" and "LIFEBOUY" becomes "LIEEBOYE".
Apart from the harmful effects on the consumers, these counterfeitings, are bad for the Brands as well.
BRAND is a company's greatest asset. Brand is a promise of value and an assurance of quality that every customer looks for. Yet counterfeit products, artful lookalikes, are constantly entering millions of homes and bleeding brands of their reputation.

According to a survey was conducted in Chennai where a fake product was given to 100 customers, out of the 100 people surveyed for this, about 85 did not realise that they had got a duplicate product. About five persons said `it's my fate' ,another four were angry and were on the verge of marching to the distributor, which they did not finally do, and one person said he was going to write to the company about the fake product being in the market. Shows how much awareness consumers have about the products they want to buy.

This is a problem even higher in rural areas and sub urban areas.

Look- alikes are fun, but only in wax museums.

Need no reason to dance... Live to Dance and dance as if none is watching (though the cam was ;))!!!

The school life is sumthn u really cant forget or let go, particularly the last yr of school wen u get into the senior most class, mastying all the time, along wid the pressure of scoring good..


its been 6 yrs ive left school, but the moments tht I really cherish, are kindda embedded on the screen of my mind as such, n every now n then, the play button is pressed..
was juz reminded of one of those, so thot of jotting it down...

12th, the haunted course, (Board exams),
We used to have Eligibilty tests in mid Augusts. As the name suggests, they were meant for checking the eligibilty of the students, for the school can send the forms of the succesful students to the board.. though schools send the appearing forms for every student, still for the purpose of making students study harder, they had this formailty..



So coming back to the story,
We had our Eligibilty test.. n it was Accounts exam the next day.. n it was the day wen the movie was going to be released..


'Dil Chahta Hai'..

the most awaited movie of the yr.. n how could we miss the thrill of the "first day first show"..

Hard written practice n clarity of fundas, over confident me,
"yaar accounts ke exam ke liye bhi koi padta hai ek din pehle??"

n I dragged my Buddy Divya (she being the topper and I too not tht bad) to the show along wid a paltan of other "out of school" frnz who dint have any exam,
while other aspirants were burning their calories wid "Self Tutor" n "P.C. Tulsian"..

enjoyed like anything......
were rolling like anything wid Amir, Saif n Akshay....

n even after returning from the movie, literally "kasht nahi uthhya maine to books kholne ka"..
Divya wud have burnt her sleep of the nyt definitely..

n the dawn broke..

juz turned the pages once (quick revision), n i were all set for the exam..
Attempted the paper n came out humming as always.. another reason for humming was the "surroor" of the movie, plus the overwhelmed feeling of the exam going good without proper "last day" preps...

n the doomsday arrived.. it was wen the answer sheets were given back to us after assesment..
n as our beloved (sarcastic to the max extent) "Teji sir" called my name, i ran to get my paper..
he had his usual shrewd grinn on his face n told me "u got 78 on 100, but i gave u 48.. d u mind??"
I replied, in a tone as "not effected" as possible, "nuh-na" n came back to my seat..
(another story of the typical "khundak"- sum other time)

n then Divya's name was called..
n she scored 50..

wid a clean record for past 15 yrs of no red lines on the report card, expected was shock on both our faces of failing the exam.. (we had to get 50% to pass the exams in our school)


but insipte, imitating the astute smile of "Teji sir's", we looked at each other, n I asked "Dil Kya Chahta Hai?"

n Divya replied "another do (2) number"...

n we laughed out aloud......

look at my dad... so many celbs resemble him!!!!! hehe n watch out the chocolaty hero SRK.. hes got his 62% features like my dad's.....

It was yet another luncheon appointment of "the gang" at our Fave Restaurant (read: adda) "My Kind of Place"- MKoP for short.
-Good place, very good food and gooder ambiance.

As always, i were late, rather the last one to show up. And as always, I attracted the attention of people. Not because I am pretty good- looking or something, but for the melodious "knock- knock" composed by my heels on the wooden flooring of the place ;)

As I approached towards our usual table, to my surprise, it stood alone right in its place- sad, and none from the "Superb 7" was apparent.

n then I cought a glimpse of Vanshika waving at me from the far end corner table, on the round, Rest 5 were there too.

I were all set for the bombardment of taunts (oye tera ghar to saamne hi hai fir bhi jaldi nahi aa sakti?? or late nahi aayegi to apni importance kaise show karegi??? n blah blah blah...)

but to another surprise, none of them dint even say a word.. juz kept on giving mischevious smiles..they all had a kind of sarcastic look on their faces..

Amused me!!!!!

I guess now is the time for succinct intro of the "Superb 7 Gang". Waise to we say "chun chun k ikkathhe kiye gaye hain hum log" (in Dharam paaji's diction).
It goes Alphabetically:

Aakash- the naughtiest, the liarest (my personal contribution to the language, not yet communicated to the Oxford);

Karan- over confident, the source of pathetic jokes;

Kunal- the (dunno how come) sweetest, subdued;

Manan- argumentative, hyper-logical (to an irritating extent),

I - the silent but tingiest;

Sakshi - (read: the b***h);

Vanshika- the topper, illogical;

Moving on with the narration,
So this causticity on their faces, left me with a perplexed expression..
I were unable to get the reason behind their naught smiles n supressed giggling within themselves..

I: WHAT??
Rest: khee khee khee khee (tittering)
I again: "WHAT IS IT??"
Rest: again sniggering
I: Temme wat is it??
Karan: Just turn around..
I: (still confused -read kaan-fused) Y?
Aakash: Turn Around..

Astonised, I turned around, still my mind trying to figure out the reason for their unusual behaviour.

I caught a glimpse of a guy n a gal (say couple) at the table right at my back. the guy smiled at me. i too retured a casual smile n turned back to face the gang.. my concentration still at the puzzle..

I were still literally unable to logic their comportment.
N then it struck to me... as if the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle apparated in my grip out of thin air..
all wat I cud utter was: "Ye to bhaiya hai!!!!!!" (read: cousin elder bro & NOT in the context of natives of UP or Bihar)

i turned back n waved HI!! n winked ;) at him..
he too smiled back.. n I moved to their table..

I had not seen or met or even had a faint idea who tht girl was, but I must say.. she looked like a Damsel from those fairy tales.. Ravishing, deep eyes, sleek features, complexion comparable to Snow white..

n then Bro made me formally meet her.. "Guriya (this is how my family addresses me, no matter I turned 23 this monsoon, but still I m a li'l doll for them, i love it this way :) ), meet Sweeeeety,
n Sweeeeety, this is my cute li'l sis -Guriya- i told u bout her.."

n she too smiled (as sweeeetly as her name) at me in resopnse of my devilish smile at her n Bro..
he was cought red handed... n the lunch for the gang got sponsored ;) hehe
the gang were eating like gluttons and i were spoiling the "date" ;D

n when it had been 2 hrs of my continuous blah blah, Bro came to the point..
"Tune kya dekha???"
I: Kya???
Bro: Aaj yahan kya dekha??
I: Kuch bhi toh nahi.. I am "Amnesiac" ;D

Bro: ;D tune shopping kab karni hai????
I: ;D Kal chalen??

(I hope my readers can now relate the significance of the title to the whole narration)
Bro: ;D

n then appeared the long awaited "32 inch Khurafaati smiles" (copyrighted) (the smile we wore since childhood on accomplishment of a mission of ours.. may it be loading sand in wet hair of a bathed surdy kid next door, or entailing an elder ;D) on both our faces as i moved following bro n my "so called wud be Bhabhi" pinching him hard in his belly n winking at him....

N I eventually ran to my "home sweet home" literally shouting ryt from the main gate "MOM!!!! MOM!!!! guess who I met today!!!!!"

The other day, my younger cousin called me up. i learnt she has an ascending interest in cooking.
she told me "Di, ive tried Pasta, come over to taste, i think its good."

I being a foodie, on learning abt Pasta, (yuuuuuuummmmmmmm) n having a special corner for Italian, juz wanted to fly and reach there and gulp the pasta n feel it melting inside my mouth...

i kindda ran to her place(read: drove my mini truck- they call Indica the mini truck ;) ), dumping my (window) shopping in between. ;D
and she termed tht debacle "Pasta"....

disappointment, discontentment, disgruntlement!!!!!

Macaroni cooked in d.e.s.i. Chinese style, with a load of Soya Sauce....

Taste me to theek hi tha.. but when one is expecting Italian, and gets served with Chinese, toh ruing is toh apparent..

The base macaroni undoubtedly is Italian, but if we cook it the way we like it, we cant call it Italian dish.

I have another frnd, who like me, is vy fond of Italian food, and cooks it well too (this is wat ive heard) ;)
but he, each time, asks for the receipe.
This ones for u Abhishek..

For White sauce:

Ingredients:
3 cups milk
1/2 cup plain flour
1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. cheese grated
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method:
-In a dry heavy sauce pan, dry roast the flour till light pinkish in colour.
-Remove and keep aside to cool.
-Melt butter in the pan, add half the milk.
-Mix the remaining milk in the cooled flour to form a smooth paste.
-When milk comes to a boil, add paste and stir continuously.
-Bring back to a boil.
-Cook till the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon thickly.
-Sprinkle salt and fresh ground pepper and stir to mix well.
-Add grated cheese to the mixture.

Use as required in individual recipes

For Spaghetties or pastas:

Ingredients:
2 cups basic white sauce
1 1/2 cups spaghetti or other pasta boiled
1 tsp. mixed dried herbs (optional)
1 carrot grated
1/2 cup cheese grated
1 potato boiled & grated
1 tbsp. buttercrushed
dry red chillies (optional)
salt to taste

Method:
-Mix together potato, carrot, softened butter with a fork.
-Mix together spaghetti, chilli, salt, herbs and white sauce.
-Put in a deep ovenproof dish and spread evenly.
-Sprinkle the cheese to cover the surface.
-Spread the carrot potato mixture either in a design, or along the edge of the casserole.
-Bake in a hot oven till the cheese is golden and crisp.
-Serve hot with garlic bread.


For Garlic Bread:

Ingredients:
Butter,
Garlic- diced evenly
Bread
Cheese (optional)

Method:
-Melt the butter with the diced garlic for 30-40 seconds.
-Apply the melted butter on the bread.
-Grate cheese on the bread and bake it in the oven till it gets crisp.