Simply marvelous characters ! Genesis of Prakash Varma, ad film maker and the director of the new  Vodafone Ads being aired during the IPL. It had been long since such ads (like the Intels Blue man Group ). Unlike most ads they communicate the message right across. Here is my favourite:

Election holiday in Pune. What a crappy day ! Today I realised, again, that boredom can kill you ! I'm just so relieved that I will be leaving for Indore tomorrow and wont be working for a whole week !! A 5 day leave is indeed a rare thing afterall.

Was just surfing around and found this XML template. Looks interesting !!

Me: " Sure, I'm going to Andheri too."
She : "Great, thanks !!"
Me : "Gimme a minute"
A few minutes later both of us were sitting in an auto-rickshaw which was caught in a traffic jam shortly after we had set off. All I was doing was staring at the meter probably because I was yet to be convinced abt what had just happened.

"Biscuits?", a sudden question slapped me back to reality and there they were, a pack of good day cashew biscuits stretched out towards me. Greedily, I put my hand in the pack and pulled of three of the conversation starters. THREE!! Why the hell did I have to pull out three at once? I asked myself and before I was done with cursing my self I noticed that she had a smile on her face. "No breakfast" was all I could manage to utter. Her smile widened and a simple gesture of hers made everything all right once again.

Nibbling on the yummy biscuits I asked " So, u in IT ? "
She: "TCS, Pune"
Me: "JAVA?"
She: "Dot Net and you?"
Me : "Oracle Apps, Finance Support" (someone had told me this sounds cool, but trust me there’s nothing like it)

I was so glad she did not ask where I worked. Anyways, after exchanging a few dialogues, which you should expect two IT engineers to exchange during the downtime, I was convinced that this conversation is becoming a liability, and it was, at least for me and the heat wasn’t making anything easier. A change in topic was necessity of the moment. So I began:

" Where to? A relatives place or a friend’s?"

"Bhavans College?"

"Huh ??"

"Yeah, I got an interview at SP Jain College (MBA)"

(Silence)

(Long Silence)

"What a 98, 99 in CAT?"

" 98.7"

(Silence)

All the alarms in my head went off screaming, "ALERT! ALERT! Smart Girl, Smart Girl!!"
F@*!, that reply of hers had proved to be a hammer on the thin glass of my confidence, which was now shattered by the intensity of the impact. I wasn’t able to muster enough strength to speak! I felt as if I had a milestone around my neck, which was getting heavier by the moment.

In the mean time we had arrived at her destination. Both of us got off, said out bbye and thanks, I added a 'Best of luck', she replied with a thanks, and that was pretty much it. I got back in the auto rubbing my eyes and told the rickshaw driver: " Kandivali, West "

He turned around, gave me an amazed smile and off we were.

Saturday,
06:30 Hrs


In my sleep I felt as if something was crawling on my hand. I reluctantly opened my eyes and found a kid, standing in the passageway, dragging his Hot Wheels car on my hand, trying hard to match the dragging with the Vroommmm-Vroommmm sound he was making. I gave a jerk to my hand and shooshed him away to his parents. It was at this very point I realized that the bus wasn't moving !

I went like what the hell just happened, where am I. The driver was missing, so was his helper, the AC was on , of the bus was empty and yeah that cute chick was sleeping like a log.Wow !! She looked even prettier in her sleep. Legs crossed, one hand over the other , head back , sigh. Coming back to my senses I inquired a bit and some person told me pointing through the window "White dress, in front of the police chowky, thats our driver". No one seemed to know anything much so I thought I'll get there and find things out my self. So I put on my glares and a step out of the bus where I was welcomed by a burst of hot-hot air which reminded me that summer was here. The constable in charge , called Shinde saheb by the others, told me that our driver had no license and that they were not letting him go anytime soon. The helper assured me that a new someone will arrive in about an hour or may be late and only then the bus will move. Without a word I turned around went back to the bus , determined not to travel without the AC in the hot-n-humid climate.

Once I was in, I overheard that kid (the one with the car) " Dad, when are we gonna reach Water Kingdom ?" I told them that the bus wont move for another hour so they might wanna leave early. They seemed to like the idea and started packing things up. I was back on my seat ready to doze off again and suddenly a sweet voice called from behind "Excuse me , excuse me " I turned around and whoha it was that cute chick.

She : You just had a talk with the driver right ?

Me : Yup

She: So whats the news ?

Me : The bus ain't moving for another hour may be even late.

She : Oh my god, I am getting late. would you mind sharing an auto ? I have to go till Andheri.

Wrongly reading my blank face she added after a brief pause " Ohh east, Andheri east. Thats two stops from here"

Watch this space for part -2