After spending two eventful weeks in sasuraal – I came to Bangalore. And then began the process of ‘ghar basana’ (in terms of buying items of household importance and also maintaining a daily expense diary). It has been a wonderful experience – not only we got to know aate-daal ka bhav but also came to know its proper and various usage.
Well, ghar basana also includes knowing your partner from close proximity, by close proximity, I mean as a roommate. And it was then I got to know that my Mr Perfect not only snores at times, but also makes a peculiar sound while brushing his teeth. I even got to know some facts about myself, one being -- I sleep diagonally on a bed forcing him to restrict in one corner of the bed (quite an atrocity). Trust me -- it is fun, amazement and irritation, all at the same time.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Saat Vachan
Apart from sindoor, mangalsutra and a few rituals -- one important part of marriage is seven promises. While Shashtras very rightly and broadly covered all aspect of a couple's life, we found something, which were also important, if not equally important. So we had our own set of saat vachans for each other.
Seven Promises
Sankalp to Preeti:
________________________________________
• I will give you one complement each day without fail – about your beauty, skill and understanding nature ;)
• I would take you out for shopping and movie at least twice every week
• I would cook for you occasionally
• I will drop you till office each day you don't feel like driving
• I would help you in washing clothes till I buy you a washing machine and even after that
• I will never compare your cooking / housekeeping skills with that of my mom’s
• I will carry your handbag when you want me to :(
Preeti to Sankalp:
________________________________________
•I promise to learn and cook your favorite dishes just as your mom does.
•I would not mind if you play English songs at times, even if I don’t understand them
•I would not disturb you when you watch cricket (this is applicable only when India is playing)
•I would also give you your favorite head massage as many times as possible
•My services as your salary manager will be free for you ;)
• I will not wake you up early in the morning,just because i have to go to office early
• I will make sure I don’t go to mayeke frequently ( I will call them to our place ok :))
Seven Promises
Sankalp to Preeti:
________________________________________
• I will give you one complement each day without fail – about your beauty, skill and understanding nature ;)
• I would take you out for shopping and movie at least twice every week
• I would cook for you occasionally
• I will drop you till office each day you don't feel like driving
• I would help you in washing clothes till I buy you a washing machine and even after that
• I will never compare your cooking / housekeeping skills with that of my mom’s
• I will carry your handbag when you want me to :(
Preeti to Sankalp:
________________________________________
•I promise to learn and cook your favorite dishes just as your mom does.
•I would not mind if you play English songs at times, even if I don’t understand them
•I would not disturb you when you watch cricket (this is applicable only when India is playing)
•I would also give you your favorite head massage as many times as possible
•My services as your salary manager will be free for you ;)
• I will not wake you up early in the morning,just because i have to go to office early
• I will make sure I don’t go to mayeke frequently ( I will call them to our place ok :))
Surpri-z-es of life
An encounter with a reporter
________________________________________
Prologue: I don’t really have a very nice opinion about reporters, particularly after watching them on news channels asking weird questions and doing stupid poll, which has no relation to what journalism is all about.
Story: Members of GET club (of which I was the treasurer) were organizing an annual fest for students. Whole night we were busy making final arrangements for that. On day one, after final checking of the arrangements I decided to take a nap. I was half way in my sleep when one of my junior (Jeet) told me that a journalist wants to meet the organisers and because he was busy I should attend her. I thought press release was already sent to all the press then why this special meeting, but before I could express my emotion, Jeet said that she was waiting outside. I imagined a middle aged lady with excessive makeup (I thought journalists are like that).
However, I came out of the control room looking for her, when I saw Jeet talking to a girl/lady (as I was not able to see her because she was not facing me). I asked Jeet about her when she turned and came up to me and said, “Hi, I am Preeti from HT (Hindustan Times)”. I looked at her and was paused for a moment (I had just seen a beautiful reporter first time in my life and not to mention without make-up.)
She was 5’3” as I estimated, round face with a glint of eye liner in the eyes, her hair were flying in the air and she was carrying a red bag which often fell off her shoulders. She had a Bengali touch in her face and her voice was like a call center girl (I think call center people have a good voice).
While some thoughts process was going in my mind, she interrupted and said, “Excuse me, can I take some of your time”. And after some casual hi-hello came bombardment of questions (so reporter like). I answered her question and in order to continue with the conversation, I diverted the topic to her interests. Initially she was reluctant but after some time she opened up and shared her interests and problems with me.
She told me that she is interested in defense reporting, news reading and acting – this was impressive. I had no idea about her acting skills but she could definitely be a news reader with such nice voice, moreover, she did not need any make up to present herself, just an eye liner could increase the TRP of any channel. She had to leave early coz she had to finish the write up and send it for editing and printing, she took leave but with a promise that the write up about GETs would be good.
Day 2:
Next morning first thing I did was to look at the newspaper only to be disappointed, as the article was not there. I decided that if I see her I would give her a doze of lecture. During the break I was going to have some coffee when I heard the same call center voice. I turned only to find her in a disturbed mood. I went up to her and instead of giving her a lot of blab I was there listening to her. She said that she was sorry for the article being not printed and told me the reason. However, we met on all three days of the fest and after the fest was over, I found, there was no way how I could meet her. So, with lot of dilemma, I asked her out for a cup of coffee, which to my surprise she agreed to. We exchanged our phone numbers so that we could decide on the time and venue for the meeting or should I say a date.
Day 3:
We decided to meet in a coffee shop (Cafe Coffee Day). I reached the place 10 minutes before the said time. I am a very punctual person and the thing that turns me off is when I am made to wait for long. I had to wait for 30 minutes or so and I was furious when she arrived with a smile on her face trying to show that she was very sorry, typical of a girl. My other weakness is that I cannot remain angry for a long time especially with a girl, so I was happy again.
Instead of wasting time in any argument we went inside and conversation started with topics of common interest. She started telling about incidents in her college days, which were not so funny but I pretended as if I was enjoying them a lot. (I know that she will kill me after reading this but I cannot help mentioning it).
After an hour or so our stock of topics was empty and at that time I thought of playing her part and I started interviewing her on her life. This was interesting as I had never interviewed anyone; I thought I could be a reporter too but as the saying goes – grass is always green on the other side.
I thought why not write a story on my experience of these three days along with her part in it. So I took a lot of information and points from her and promised her that I will write a story for her – and here it is.
In the end I would like to mention a very important point. I don’t know whether I can understand people involved in media (esp. reporters) very well but I can say that one of them has become a very good friend of mine.
Reply to – An encounter with a reporter
________________________________________
Donno why it didn’t occur to me earlier, may be because happiness took over all other emotions, as its all praises for me in the narrative, however, after spending four good years, reading and re-reading it (re-reading because that kind of tareef never happened again), I feel, it’s high time that he should know about my ‘then-opinion’ about him.
So, going by the method that he has followed, I would also describe the event from day one.
Before I went to cover the event, my boss told me that I should not only do event reporting but also interview some engineers for a light story.
The drama unfolds
After taking down necessary details for the report about the event I quickly started working on my story. I knew only one guy there that was Jeet, so I approached him and told him that I need to speak to him and a few of his colleagues for a story. Jeet apologized and said that he is pretty busy but he would introduce me to his senior, who would help me in my quest. I was introduced to Sankalp and I asked him, if we can sit in some peaceful place (peacefull, because there was a lot of noise there) and talk.
Giving the benefit of doubt, I assume that he did not hear it clearly when I said a ‘peaceful’ place. He took me to the back of the hall where two big sound boxes were blaring and offered me a chair there. I re-iterated my words and asked if we can go somewhere else, but he said – “Ya Ya you may ask. It’s fine here.” (Obviously he was not able to hear what I said)
Suppressing my anger and amusement, I cleared my throat to yell and asked him the first question. Reply was a general and an irritating one to any reporter and I had to rephrase my question and finally I managed it and he told me that he is a vocalist in the company’s band, Mountain Movers (company is TELCON, where he worked). This was impressive. Then he asked me about my interests and because I love talking, I told him about it.
After the interview, I exchanged phone numbers with Mr Mountain Mover and left for my office to file the report. Next Day, before I could open the newspaper, I got a message from him asking why did the report didn’t come? I chose to handle the situation rather than blaming it on my newspaper. So I told him that our esteemed newspaper has decided to use a huge comprehensive piece on the final day of the fest and not just carry 150 words single column news on all three days. While I was feeling guilty of befooling the poor guy, he said something that put my senses on alert. He said, “That means I’ll get another chance to be with you today, when you come to cover.” By this time I was cursing myself to letting it go so far and being friendly with him, who was a flirt.
By the time I met him at the venue, my anger (or whatever you call that emotion) had already melted because I had worse experience in the office. Call it my weakness or innocence, I open up with anybody very easily and when he asked about the reason for my bad mood I told him about the problem. After consoling me and knowing that I have skipped lunch, he offered some Chinese, which I readily accepted.
Next day, thankfully, my newspaper carried a comprehensive report on the event. And also a separate article as anchor for which I had interviewed him.
After two to three days, I got a message from him in which he asked me out for coffee, which to, to my surprise, I accepted.
As scheduled, I met him at CCD (I agree I was half n hour late). In the course of conversation, he said that he wants to interview me and so he did. This led to fixing up of another meeting on lunch, when he would give me the hard copy of a narrative that he would write about our meeting. That also happened and before I realised, we were friends.
Then it all started – late night calls, meeting, messages, forwards, e-cards etc. And it surprises me today that he already had become an important and close friend in just a couple of month’s time.
Though I don’t remember having any feeling of love for him, I do remember missing him, wanting him to be around me, calling him when I felt low, fighting with him when he tried to be dominating and being submissive to him when he was not. Eventually, after two whole years, I realised or rather gave up wrecking my brains and just accepted that I love him.
PS: In reference to what I mentioned in the beginning, ‘I re-read the story’, because despite remaining friend for so many years and eventually falling in love, I have never ever again got those compliments (beautiful journalist, call centre voice, glint of eye-liner to increase TRP of a channel) from him. After cribbing like a wife, I did get him to say a few lines, which sounded funny given the amount effort it took. So there are two ways I can explain it – going by the girls way: Men will be men, and that he used all the good words only till I was not his friend, later he never felt like ‘wasting’ his energy and brain. Second explanation (his way): This is a genuine problem that he not able to express his thought (poor guy).
________________________________________
Prologue: I don’t really have a very nice opinion about reporters, particularly after watching them on news channels asking weird questions and doing stupid poll, which has no relation to what journalism is all about.
Story: Members of GET club (of which I was the treasurer) were organizing an annual fest for students. Whole night we were busy making final arrangements for that. On day one, after final checking of the arrangements I decided to take a nap. I was half way in my sleep when one of my junior (Jeet) told me that a journalist wants to meet the organisers and because he was busy I should attend her. I thought press release was already sent to all the press then why this special meeting, but before I could express my emotion, Jeet said that she was waiting outside. I imagined a middle aged lady with excessive makeup (I thought journalists are like that).
However, I came out of the control room looking for her, when I saw Jeet talking to a girl/lady (as I was not able to see her because she was not facing me). I asked Jeet about her when she turned and came up to me and said, “Hi, I am Preeti from HT (Hindustan Times)”. I looked at her and was paused for a moment (I had just seen a beautiful reporter first time in my life and not to mention without make-up.)
She was 5’3” as I estimated, round face with a glint of eye liner in the eyes, her hair were flying in the air and she was carrying a red bag which often fell off her shoulders. She had a Bengali touch in her face and her voice was like a call center girl (I think call center people have a good voice).
While some thoughts process was going in my mind, she interrupted and said, “Excuse me, can I take some of your time”. And after some casual hi-hello came bombardment of questions (so reporter like). I answered her question and in order to continue with the conversation, I diverted the topic to her interests. Initially she was reluctant but after some time she opened up and shared her interests and problems with me.
She told me that she is interested in defense reporting, news reading and acting – this was impressive. I had no idea about her acting skills but she could definitely be a news reader with such nice voice, moreover, she did not need any make up to present herself, just an eye liner could increase the TRP of any channel. She had to leave early coz she had to finish the write up and send it for editing and printing, she took leave but with a promise that the write up about GETs would be good.
Day 2:
Next morning first thing I did was to look at the newspaper only to be disappointed, as the article was not there. I decided that if I see her I would give her a doze of lecture. During the break I was going to have some coffee when I heard the same call center voice. I turned only to find her in a disturbed mood. I went up to her and instead of giving her a lot of blab I was there listening to her. She said that she was sorry for the article being not printed and told me the reason. However, we met on all three days of the fest and after the fest was over, I found, there was no way how I could meet her. So, with lot of dilemma, I asked her out for a cup of coffee, which to my surprise she agreed to. We exchanged our phone numbers so that we could decide on the time and venue for the meeting or should I say a date.
Day 3:
We decided to meet in a coffee shop (Cafe Coffee Day). I reached the place 10 minutes before the said time. I am a very punctual person and the thing that turns me off is when I am made to wait for long. I had to wait for 30 minutes or so and I was furious when she arrived with a smile on her face trying to show that she was very sorry, typical of a girl. My other weakness is that I cannot remain angry for a long time especially with a girl, so I was happy again.
Instead of wasting time in any argument we went inside and conversation started with topics of common interest. She started telling about incidents in her college days, which were not so funny but I pretended as if I was enjoying them a lot. (I know that she will kill me after reading this but I cannot help mentioning it).
After an hour or so our stock of topics was empty and at that time I thought of playing her part and I started interviewing her on her life. This was interesting as I had never interviewed anyone; I thought I could be a reporter too but as the saying goes – grass is always green on the other side.
I thought why not write a story on my experience of these three days along with her part in it. So I took a lot of information and points from her and promised her that I will write a story for her – and here it is.
In the end I would like to mention a very important point. I don’t know whether I can understand people involved in media (esp. reporters) very well but I can say that one of them has become a very good friend of mine.
Reply to – An encounter with a reporter
________________________________________
Donno why it didn’t occur to me earlier, may be because happiness took over all other emotions, as its all praises for me in the narrative, however, after spending four good years, reading and re-reading it (re-reading because that kind of tareef never happened again), I feel, it’s high time that he should know about my ‘then-opinion’ about him.
So, going by the method that he has followed, I would also describe the event from day one.
Before I went to cover the event, my boss told me that I should not only do event reporting but also interview some engineers for a light story.
The drama unfolds
After taking down necessary details for the report about the event I quickly started working on my story. I knew only one guy there that was Jeet, so I approached him and told him that I need to speak to him and a few of his colleagues for a story. Jeet apologized and said that he is pretty busy but he would introduce me to his senior, who would help me in my quest. I was introduced to Sankalp and I asked him, if we can sit in some peaceful place (peacefull, because there was a lot of noise there) and talk.
Giving the benefit of doubt, I assume that he did not hear it clearly when I said a ‘peaceful’ place. He took me to the back of the hall where two big sound boxes were blaring and offered me a chair there. I re-iterated my words and asked if we can go somewhere else, but he said – “Ya Ya you may ask. It’s fine here.” (Obviously he was not able to hear what I said)
Suppressing my anger and amusement, I cleared my throat to yell and asked him the first question. Reply was a general and an irritating one to any reporter and I had to rephrase my question and finally I managed it and he told me that he is a vocalist in the company’s band, Mountain Movers (company is TELCON, where he worked). This was impressive. Then he asked me about my interests and because I love talking, I told him about it.
After the interview, I exchanged phone numbers with Mr Mountain Mover and left for my office to file the report. Next Day, before I could open the newspaper, I got a message from him asking why did the report didn’t come? I chose to handle the situation rather than blaming it on my newspaper. So I told him that our esteemed newspaper has decided to use a huge comprehensive piece on the final day of the fest and not just carry 150 words single column news on all three days. While I was feeling guilty of befooling the poor guy, he said something that put my senses on alert. He said, “That means I’ll get another chance to be with you today, when you come to cover.” By this time I was cursing myself to letting it go so far and being friendly with him, who was a flirt.
By the time I met him at the venue, my anger (or whatever you call that emotion) had already melted because I had worse experience in the office. Call it my weakness or innocence, I open up with anybody very easily and when he asked about the reason for my bad mood I told him about the problem. After consoling me and knowing that I have skipped lunch, he offered some Chinese, which I readily accepted.
Next day, thankfully, my newspaper carried a comprehensive report on the event. And also a separate article as anchor for which I had interviewed him.
After two to three days, I got a message from him in which he asked me out for coffee, which to, to my surprise, I accepted.
As scheduled, I met him at CCD (I agree I was half n hour late). In the course of conversation, he said that he wants to interview me and so he did. This led to fixing up of another meeting on lunch, when he would give me the hard copy of a narrative that he would write about our meeting. That also happened and before I realised, we were friends.
Then it all started – late night calls, meeting, messages, forwards, e-cards etc. And it surprises me today that he already had become an important and close friend in just a couple of month’s time.
Though I don’t remember having any feeling of love for him, I do remember missing him, wanting him to be around me, calling him when I felt low, fighting with him when he tried to be dominating and being submissive to him when he was not. Eventually, after two whole years, I realised or rather gave up wrecking my brains and just accepted that I love him.
PS: In reference to what I mentioned in the beginning, ‘I re-read the story’, because despite remaining friend for so many years and eventually falling in love, I have never ever again got those compliments (beautiful journalist, call centre voice, glint of eye-liner to increase TRP of a channel) from him. After cribbing like a wife, I did get him to say a few lines, which sounded funny given the amount effort it took. So there are two ways I can explain it – going by the girls way: Men will be men, and that he used all the good words only till I was not his friend, later he never felt like ‘wasting’ his energy and brain. Second explanation (his way): This is a genuine problem that he not able to express his thought (poor guy).
here it begins
From boy-meets-girl to they-lived-happily-ever-after, our story, it seems, is bollywood inspired. After meeting during a fest as a journalist and an organiser and then getting close, first as friends and later as a couple, we finally tied knot on November 23, 2010. It was wonderful knowing each other through some sweet talks, illogical arguments and horrifying fights, and we are sure future will be lovelier with more of everything. Especially with our family members and friends, who are now an important part of our relationship.
PS: Love You All.
PS: Love You All.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)