Getting too personal???

"What's in a Name? A rose with a different name would smell as sweet." Some people, though, would have arguments against these words echoed by legendary Shakespeare. I am one of them. For me its an identity and i get bugged up when somebody spells my name as V-I-N-I-T instead of V-I-N-E-E-T!!

What's in a name?!!! Well, there is a little story behind my name! I dunno if its quiet interesting to share with u all but i am definitely going to bug u all with this story - the story of my name
So lets go back into a flash back :
One fine morning, my parents expected a baby gal, they wished for a baby gal! ..The nurse brought the new born baby, my dad lifted the soft cloth covering the baby... Voila! that was me!
but one X chromosome was replaced by Y chromosome and here i was a baby boy !!!!!! Cute litle bundle of joy! boy joy! Well, i was also cute at that time, like all babies lol.
Ok, here came the confusion for my parents. They strongly believed that i would be a gal and have thought of naming me Veena!!!! but What to name me now?! I think they were still in
the gal child hangover, that they finally named me Vineet. And they called me Veenu/ Vinni/ Vimmi/ Vinita at home!!! Some gal solace for them finally!!!! So i ended up with lots of names.
Only people didnt call me with any numbers yet!!

However, the changing world has changed my view-point too. I wonder now...is that really important?? Do i really care if our PM's name was Manmohan Singh or Patrik Peter? Do i really care if my Company's name was KPMG instead of PricewaterhouseCoopers? I reckon i dont!

What made this transition? The recent series of events!

I rang up Hutch Customer Care to check with them the reason for barring my outgoing calls. I had an important phone interview (ya those cheap ppl had asked me to call them up) and i was
desperate to pass the call through Hutch Network of Towers. What's the first thing i hear? Hi, I'm Preeti. What difference would it make to me had the voice been... Hi, I am Vikas. or Ramananda. Or Subramanyamswami. Why do all these people tell their names? What do I care what their names are, or if they do have names at all or they do away with serial numbers? What I want is my call barring sorted out. And not any name matching! They would not even stop there. The next sentence would be,"may i know your name and billing address." Sometimes i feel its an introductory gambit and before you react on anything someone would be comparing Linda Goodman's Sun Signs (Libra? Really! I'm Aries, and Librans and Arians get on SO well together...) I dunno what happened to new generation corporate idol of the faceless, nameless, depersonalised bureaucratic machinery that served all comers with total, anonymous impartiality without wanting to match gotras!! (who knows this is the next thing you hearing about...one step up to Linda Goodman). Why did we become so touchy-feely, so up-close and personal?

Though it is inconsequential now, coz of the topic of discussion...still i wld mention dat Preeti ultimately cldnt come to my help... she said your unbilled usage amount is over your credit limit and we cannot allow u any further outgoing calls. I pleaded my urgency to make that call and asked her to refer my previous bill payments records. She came out with the records as well (i never thought that they do check out the records as well)... and said..Sir, you already have been levied with 2 Late Payment Charges in past quarter and we cannot extend you the facility. (now who's gonna explain that stubborn lady that it was not coz of my poor credibility... but coz of my rich laziness dat i cldnt pay my bills on time). But i persisted and promised her to make payment just after making this call... it being urgent as I need to communicate about the ill health of one of my colleagues at his home. "Ok Sir", comes the reply. (gals do have heart!!!... though i still doubt....single act of eminence is not excellence...and dats when entire community is at stake...i am not willing to move!). "But it would take minimum two hours to get your services recativated", again comes the sweet (sweet, my foot) voice of Preeti. (how correct i was about this community.... and as they say,"form is temporary, class is permanent"). Finally, i had to run for the conventional roadside yellow coloured phone booth as my interview was just 2 mins away....and i cldnt have afforded to wait for two hours promised by Preeti.

Coming back to the topic, I would say this habit of telling names is not just limited to Telecom Customer Care Centres. It permeates everywhere. You go to an eating joint. Hi, my name is Rahul, and i'm going to be serving you today. Do I really care? All i want is my pizza delivered on my table alongwith the garlic breads i ordered.

Welcome aboard, Sir. This is Romita, your flight attendant for this route. What should I do? Take a vow not to eat whatever she offers? Or risk myself into caring, sharing flight-experience with someone who, till she opened her mouth and told me her name, dint know that I existed, and vice-versa?

Where it's going to end? Hi, i'm veerappan and i am going to rob you today. Hi, I'm Vijay Saxena, i'm a cop and you are a history. Hi, I am cardio surgeon who's going to attack your body as you had a heart attack and my name is Dr.Batra.

There was this funny meeting happened at Mumbai PwC Office. Whenever some new division consultant would join the conference, i would find myself speaking...Hi, this is Vineet Aggarwal from PwC Delhi. Does he really care if I am sitting there or not. Or is he really listening to my sweet name which i am chanting monotonously. At the end of Session 1, i happened to be seated next to an employee of Mumbai Office (I later discovered he was one of the manager whom we generally reported to for our deliverables). Anyways, stranger to me when we started with the lunch. I confided in him my concern about tendency of people to impose their names on others at the drop of a 'chat'. He naturally, had not disclosed his name to me, nor i did mine to him. He totally agreed with me. He added that his juniors were the worst offenders atleast in his case/ life. He continued, "There's this one fellow, Puneet or Amit or something like that, at PwC Delhi office. He would send me the deliverables and call me, start with his name and tell me that he has sent the deliverables. I will check and record whatever he has sent; but what do i want his name for?"
I was about to tell him that actually it was Vineet. But i paused. I didnt want to get too touchy-feely, too up-close and personal, did I?

Keep the faith!

Zindagi Hai To Khwaab Hain
Khwaab Hain To Manzilein Hain
Manzilein Hain To Fasaley Hain
Fasaley Hain To Rastey Hain
Rastey Hain To Mushkilein Hain
Mushkilein Hain To Hausla Hai
Hausla Hai To Vishawas Hai

With these lines taken from someone else.... i want to reitirate that the life is ultimately balanced on Faith!!
For all my friends, relatives and acquaintances --- Keep the Faith!!

I am Proud to be an INDIAN!!

है लिये हथियार दुश्मन ताक मे बैठा उधर
और हम तैय्यार हैं सीना लिये अपना इधर
खून से खेलेंगे होली गर वतन मुश्किल में है
सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

हाथ जिनमें हो जुनून कटते नही तलवार से
सर जो उठ जाते हैं वो झुकते नहीं ललकार से
और भडकेगा जो शोल-सा हमारे दिल में है
सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

हम तो घर से निकले ही थे बांधकर सर पे कफ़न
चाहतें दिल में भर लिये लो भर चले हैं ये कदम
जिंदगी तो अपनी मेहमान मौत की महफ़िल मे है
सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

दिल मे तूफानों की तोली और नसों में इन्कलाब
होश दुश्मन के उडा देंगे हमे रोको न आज
दूर रह पाये जो हमसे दम कहाँ मंजिल मे है
सरफरोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai..... this is dedicated to 26th January.... Republic Day of India!

Reality bites.....

This one is abt all these Big Brothers and Big Bosses!! The reality shows!!
Though i havent been watching TV since long now (not coz i have grown mature and feel its a waste... but coz of predominant mom power at home which makes our LG shuffle only between 'saloni ka safar', 'koshish ek aasha', 'kkusum','saans bahu' et al......) but the curiosity created by one of my friend made me watch atleast 1 episode of Big Boss as she relentlessly used to spend an hour daily on this reality show!
but ya...thanks to her i cld understand wat all this fuss was created by another show with the prefix "Big"...guess this prefix has something to do with the popularity of the show... or was it coz of our homegrown damsel...shilpa shetty??

Big Brother....It started off as just another series of a tired, flagging reality show and ended up becoming the most internationally criticised television show of its time.

When i was just discussing Big Boss with that friend of mine who created this curosity in me ...I heard about the new series of Celebrity Big Brother and frankly, couldn't have been less interested. Shilpa's entry however was surprising -- now that I am an Indian and witnessed the standard of living for the creme of society, the A and B list actors and the privacy within which they manage their lives and control their exposure to the masses -- and being locked up with the British Z list celebrity society with 24-hour surveillance was an interesting choice for her.

Ok now all this i have read in papers and websites. Just a brief for those who have been wise enough so far, not to waste time reading abt this reality show. After an initial altercation with Jackiey (who was referred to as a 'one armed lesbian'), resulting in her eviction, mouthy daughter Jade held Shilpa responsible. The gloves were definitely on and what followed was a most shocking display of modern day hatred, bullying and alleged racism. Jade attacked her for her colour -- attacking her for the country she came from, mocking her accent and not wanting to eat food she had cooked. In a defiant stand against racism the public showed their intolerance with a whopping 82% vote to rid Channel 4 of Jade Goody. (And not to miss out on mentioning abt this frnd of mine...she was equally interested in this another show and what all was said abt Shilpa and the media reactions...lol)

When i had thrown up this issue as an open discussion in front of few of my intelligent colleagues at PwC ( i generally dont have any views on these worldy topics... for me its just another serving to be laughed at and enjoy life), they came up with few school of thoughts. As per them, there are few Indians who are unperturbed by all this, choosing to believe that their perfect worlds cannot be tarnished by this ugly disease. There are others who accept that the price of living in the West would be racism and 'no pain, no gain.' Unfortunately for many Indians around the globe, their view of a racist Britain has been confirmed.

But i still think i do have my views on certain issues. So when they dont come up in the open house discussions...they do find the place in spaces like this. (ofcourse only since i have thought of penning down this blog...before that they were a perishable commodity). I feel there is a racism in each one of us. To start with, the advertisements that are flashing on Neo TV showing India-WI cricket match series... showing a black west indian guy running for help when he has been given spicey indian food and he is not offered a drop of water. The punchline reads -- its tough being a West Indian in India!!

Closer home, my sister used to be a big fan of fair n lovely. Now she is married with a baby gal...i am sure she wld turn Sia (my niece) into another fan of the cream. And when my mom alwaz says..., "gaura aur sundar baby hai".... why at all she has to append the sentence with the word "gaura"! ...she cld easily have done away with 'sundar'. and during my childhood she used to say, " nahaa le... fir gaura lagne lagega"... and now i think she cld have very well replaced the word 'fair' with 'clean'....guess the latter should be the only purpose of bathing. And i remember, myself applying ponds talcum powder on my face rather than the areas it is meant for....so that i cld look fairer!! and wld come out saying.... "look...how fair i am".

Perhaps mine is a racist family... but pls now dont start throwing stones at us...lol!! else i wld have to come up with that dialogue..."those who have glass houses, shldnt throw stone at others".

I can recall a funny incident at school. One of my friend (gaurav sharma aka ganja) had a fight with another classmates of ours (sandeep aka rambo).
"Rambo -- gaurav dont say this (something which i cant write here), warna mujhse bura koi nahi hoga.
Gaurav -- saale kaaliye coal mine.... tujhse bura koi ho bhi nahi sakta. joota dekh lo ya teri shakal dekh lo...ek hi baat hai."
I shldnt be laughing at this... but the spontaniety of gaurav made this as one of the funniest incidents at school. Though again it has its roots to racism!! (gaurav run... ppl are coming to throw stone at u after reading this...lol)
And when Mohit (another closest pal of mine) and me spots a dead black guy, we wld say... dekh rambo se bhi kaala ladka!! Now rambo is a benchmark of black color for us!!

And the 'last time' when Annie visited India (now dont get too excited annie, i was just abt to write that even if i wld have written that 'only time annie visited india'...wldnt really change the meaning of the sentence), aunty was trying her luck by saying... "shaadi kar le, gauri gauri bahu laaungi"... and i was just wondering wat if her face looks like lalita pawar!!! (aur agar gauri bahu hi chahiye to annie US mein hi select kar lega ;)...lol )

But then the fact remains...that we indians are fond of 'white skin'. Even i cant comment why coz honeslty, even for me the external beauty of women sums up to 'fair and lovely'. Its a long way we need to travel...lots of introspections...interactions....self-belief..... and a need to arrive at a time where we could redefine beauty.

Its time we should start identifying the white colour of 'brown sugar' and dusk colour of 'wheat'.

Its time we shld correct ourselves with the fascination towards white and realise that nothing is more beautiful than a "dark night"

Its time we should all understand the words -- beauty is skin deep......

its been long....

yeah, its been long since i have written something over this space. And the best part was none of my friend ever asked me that i had not written for long....that shows the popularity of my blog!! but then, i alwaz tell annie (anirudh...one of my good friends) that i am writing this blog "for myself and not for anyone else", in reply to his statments/ comments... dat this post is not good...or u have not written dis part dat well... spelling mistakes...grammer mistakes... and sometimes in the reply to his offer for having a common blog!
and now again i can safely say that i dont really bother tht none of the person objected dat i havent written for long :(

so ultimately i have found dat the phrase, "for myself and not for anyone else" can be used as a great alibi to save me from various humiliations!

i know, even now none of u must be interested in knowing why there was a long gap..... but there actually was an eventful time i had in between these two posts...and perhaps i wld be in a position to detail dat after a month or so. ok ok...again i admit dat u dont care abt my secrets too!!

but the fact that you have come thus far reading what crap i have written... umm...welll...before i conclude on something..... am i again being too optimistic abt myself??