Sanji

Think Before You Speak

2008-09-02T18:50:32Z

It has been a difficult time for me for the last few days. Any ways hopefully I will get over it soon with the grace of God. It's Ganeshji's birthday tomorrow ie, in the next 5 minutes. Happy Birthday Ganeshji. I used to visit Dagru Shetji in Pune. Am a very firm believer in him. It is he who helped me overcome my bad times in Pune. Shetji give me strength to come out of this mess. I have almost decided what I want to do. I want to fly, I want to get engrossed in work so much that I donot have time for anything else. I want to move on in life. I want to selectively erase my past memories like they do in the classic "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

Well I thought I would write something on the old saying "Think Before You Speak". A lot many times I too have not adhered to this saying and repented later. However slowly I am getting used to. Now a days I am much more careful with the usage of my words and I indeed try to think before I speak. I think it is very imperative that people practice this. Or else what I have usually seen is that more often than not one speaks out something which one cannot substantiate when people do not think before they speak. And trust me I do not value those kind of people and am sure most others think likewise. There is a slang in Hindi which is usually used for these kind of people "Kya Bakwaas Karte Rahta(e) Hain" !!!

Loved the role played by Farhan. Too Good. Just too good. The way he changed track from being a Musician to being an Investment Banker is just awesome. He seems to have just done SHIFT + DELETE to his past of being a Musician. I think I too need something of the same. Past Memories are becoming too overburdening. Seriously need to start afresh at the earliest. Anyways will signoff now. Wishing Ganeshji a Very Happy Birthday again.

Unpredictability

2008-08-30T02:50:24Z

I am writing my blog after a long long long time. So much has happened in the last few years. I will update about those in my upcoming blogs. However first thing first. The dictionary meaning of "Unpredictability" is something that is difficult or impossible to foretell or foresee. Life is classic example of unpredictability. Its like a fast drive in a mountainous road. It has got so many hairpin bents and blind spots that if you donot drive it carefully you have got every chance of turning turtle down the gorge. But hold on, sometimes the way you drive is not within your complete control. When I say complete control what I mean is that even though you would be driving the car but there are certain very strong external factors which have a great say in how you are driving the car across the mountainous terrain as they are the ones who you think can successfully guide you through the treacherous terrain. There comes a certain point wherein you start trusting them more than your driving skills. I guess this is the point wherein people make mistakes. I too have made this mistake while driving the car. I was just about to double whammy and go down but somehow God saved me. I am a very very strong theist. It has only been him who has always helped me in my hour of need other than my parents. Anyways it has been an awe-inspiring evening for me today which I guess will be taking to my grave. The best part is that I have managed to motivate myself to blog. Signing Off. Merci Beaucoup.

Majuli - World's Largest Fresh Water Island

2006-06-15T21:39:37Z

Just wanted to share with u guys a link ... I was not feeling well today and really feeling frustrated ... was about to sleep off when i though that let me check out my yahoo messenger messages ... amongst all the messages was a message from my friend Deepak from B'ham .. actually it was an url ... he keeps on sending them to me ... but this was a bit different .... it was about a world famous heritage in Assam ... still i was circumspect in opening it ... but as soon as i opened it ... it was so soothing ... u have to let ur speakers play the music associated with this site to feel it ... the music just took away my frustration away.. as i write this i am still listening to it ...

http://majuli.info/

U might like it or u might not ... but i felt like sharing with u all ... take care

Thanks to the creator of this wonderful site.

STONEHENGE - A Visit to the Mysterious Megaliths

2006-06-12T07:47:25Z

I have been always fascinated by the picture of the huge mysterious stones amonst the backdrop of the plains in photographs since my school days and was left wondering as to what might have been the reason for them to be placed there.
Even thought I could not decipher as to why they were placed and how much effort it took for them to be placed there but I wanted to see the huge stones for myself. So when I got an opportunity during the bank holiday weekend at end of May, I was not going to miss it.

So on a relatively brighter sunny sunday we boarded our coach to Stonehenge from London.
The site is in central southern England about 130 kms west of London. It is located on a fairly flat stretch of land, known as Salisbury Plain. The bus drive from London to Stonehenge takes about 90 to 100 minutes.

Stonehenge is surrounded by hundreds of round barrows or burial mounds. The site is truly impressive, and all the more so, the closer you approach. It was really a wonderful feeling when we got the first glimpse of the Mysterious Megaliths after our tour Manager announced in the coach that the site should be visible at any moment.
On our way to Stonehenge our tour guide mentioned to us that it has not yet been possible to unravel the mystery of Stongehenge. Stonehenge is one of the few places that has generated so much speculative theories as to why and how these enormous monuments were created.

The most common theory is that it was a temple made to worship ancient deities.
Other more common theories is that it was used as an astronomical calendar, a burial ground.
And the most outrageous theory I think must be the one conceived by my roommate who suggested that it might have been the playschool for baby dinosaurs.
It has not been possible to really understand with a degree of certainity as to why it was constructed but looking at the enormous efforts required to put the megaliths, it definately comes to mind that it must have been built for some very special purpose.

It seems the stones were transported there with considerable effort from a great distance away. It is believed that some of the stones were transported by land, sea and river from Preseli mountains in Wales, about 385 kms away to its present resting place. These were the smaller stones known as the Bluestones.
The larger ones known as the Sarsen Stones were brought from the Marlborough Downs, some 30kms away from the site.
A truly remarkable achievement considering the state of technology and tools available at that time.

The Stonehenge was constructed in three phases.
1. 5050 years ago - 3050 BC: A bank and ditch arrangement called a henge was constructed.
2. 4600 years ago - 2600 BC: Wooden structures were constructed at the Centre.
3. 4500 to 3500 years ago - 2500 to 1500 BC: The stone monuments were constructed, arranged and re-arranged over almost 1000 years.

As we took the walk from the parking slot towards the giant megaliths one could not stop feeling excited to check out the mystic megaliths from a close range.
We made the entry around the circular ditch and bank and the scene was awesome. However a point to note is that visitors to Stonehenge can walk and pose around the circular ditch and bank and gaze at the giant stones. Close visitor contact with Stonehenge was prohibited in 1978 due to serious damage caused to some of the stones.
We took a complimentary audio tour while we were circumventing the stonehenge.

Photos Available at http://360.yahoo.com/sanjibondass

Holland Sojourn (Mar 24th to 26th 2006)

2006-04-23T21:56:01Z

Finally I am getting sometime to write about my Holland Sojourn.
After much overnight deliberation I boarded the Jet2 flight to Amsterdam from Manchester International Airport along with Avadhut, Deepak and Vivek. The flight duration was approximately one hour. After we landed in Amsterdam Central we had some difficulty to reach our Hostel. However we managed to reach our designated "Shelter City" hostel by afternoon. The first thing that stuck me in Amsterdam is that people seem to make good use of bicycles. One could see youngsters to Octogenarians riding bicycles all through the city. The different modes of transportation that I saw in Amsterdam are worth mentioning. Trains, trams, underground metro, canals boats, buses, bicycles, cars are the ones I can recollect. In all, it encompasses whatever a city can think of having. We bought a 72-hour pass, which we used to the utmost. The first day we moved around the city on trams from one destination to another. In the evening we took a canal ride. It is really a nice experience to know as to how the city canal system was designed and built centuries back and is still active now. We had a round of the city late night as well and return back to our hostel at around 0100hrs.
The next day we had a guided tour of the city and checked out quite a number of places in Amsterdam.
Later on the same day we went to the Holland Country side tour. We visited the cities of Hague, Delft, Scheveningen and Madurodam. It was a nice experience checking out International Court of Justice at Hague, getting to know how the world famous Delft pottery is made and Mini Holland in Madurodam.
The last day of our tour was well spent by visiting the world famous Keukenhof gardens. Even though the flowers were not in their best of colours due to unusual severe winter and unseasonal rains but still it was a trip worth making. This garden is open for public viewing only for 2 months (late March to late May) in a year and the rest of the 10 months they prepare the garden.
Finally later in the day it was time for us to say adios to Holland and return back to Manchester.
It was a trip worth remembering for many a reasons and last but not the least is that I got a Schengen Visa stamped on my passport :-)

Memoirs - KV BRPL - Batch of 95'

2006-04-17T15:57:49Z

I am just trying to consolidate the beautiful memories which all of us had regarding the time spent in our school days.

Amlan's Thoughts:

going back to school days..
the halua sir incident is etched in my mide. how the drawing classes were so boring that we used to have fun by fighting with him... after belu's hand was cut we made a big fuss about it...
Belu, you must be remembering this.. I had made some formula A+ B =... ( asit and banani) and somebody complained about it to the mishra sir (the principal) then and we had a big scolding after prayer..I got a beating from my father too because of it.. belu also i think...
how belu had made a library and he used to lend us books....
also remember angsu had a big stock of tintin books.. i used to love going to his place to read them...
remember the cricket matches ...and changmai.. fast bowling....vishal's also...
and who will forget ranjan's defending in football?
belu, was it jumi whom you wanted to impress by jumping?..................
Also,remember we used to go to champa club to watch CNN during gulf war?...
It is really nice reading all the mails and writing.....I dont know about others....but definately those years have been my best years in my life

so far...no doubts about it...

Vishal's Thoughts:

Do you guys remember how we tried to do various mischief stuffs at school...
What we did at Barua's house (when his parents were out) ,,, court'sy... Kamal....
And the booze we tried at Chana's place (when his parents were out) court'sy... DJ' da...& Champa Club.
How Satadru taught B2, Utpal and others to try "Bandar Chap Sada" .... Specially the preparation of the Mix... And how Every body tried their hands to prepare the mix and compete with others for the Quality and the taste... And how I warned all the guys not to do the stuff as it was injurious to health, as I was a health fanatic. And how I use to scold satadru for spoiling Sec - A Boys...
And how some of us got....crush on some of the girls of our as well as the girls of other classes...
Esp... Subhram on Lighthouse and as well on Tina ......(Do you remember the gesture--- on tina;s B'day he made a bouqeut of Tree flowers. and Scrubs and presented to tina in front of whole class... "saying from Jungle ka kanoon 1 for 1 or for no one" ). How he kept Spy's to give them info of light house for every move of hers.
One thing I will always remember... Ripunjoy was crazy for Ankita... and how i wrote a Love letter for him sitting in ITI feild .... which was checked and passed by Asit, as i was not very sure what i had written... And how ripunjoy treated me with sweets and chai & singra after his proposal was accepted..
And how we requested Pinku to show us the line .....

Nilay's Thoughts:

I do remember some sweet memories .... doing some special project in Angsu's place after class 10 pre-board. Ofcourse that was my 1st one. (Team members :- Kamal, Anup, B2, Deepak ...... ).
Caught Asit doing something in Saraswati Puja Night (Class 11).
All the boys running after Tina ..... (Class 12).

Sri's Thoughts:

very nice memories.. friends, send more of these.. i just remember a few..
cutting baby's nose when playing cricket.. vishal ka waat laga tha..
playing baseball.. u guys remember? in the new volleyball court in front of the goalpost towards refinery club..RS singh sir and his sneezes..
belu, halua sir hit u a lot and u were banished from the drawing class.
and best of it all, this is awesome.. after "fixing" asit and ankita, we all got together as a team to reject it.. and good dose after the net day's prayer after i broke it all :)))
one of the best things i remember is playing in the park near the refinery club water tank.. is the park still there? in rainy days we used to totally wet ourselves and then used to go home :)
and also having bhaang under the water tank after holi celebrations..and then the holi khichdi.. it was awesome..

Ranjan's Thoughts:

Oh! I must say that u guys remember a good lot from ur school days. Memory is running short for me .I am a confused lot , who could these rolli be..sanjay, if I am correct. Do u guys remember my Lambretta scooter... I used to open the gear box to make it correct and bring to BRP.

Sanji's Thoughts:

:-) Well I too have a few fond memories ... But I would like to start from the primary section.
I think it was Class II, when someone did something under the teacher's table and to clean up the same all of us were asked to vacate the classroom and head for the playground. How we wished that we have a repeat of it. But unfortunately, it never happened again.
Hey BTW is anybody in touch with a girl named Ponkhi Rani ... She used to study with us till Class II .. I am sure Sri, Hari, Nilay, Ranjan, Amlan will definately remember her.
Next was Subhram & Myself getting kicked out of a drawing class in Class III and then acting outside the classroom as if we are guarding the class so that none can enter.
Next which I remember is I think was Class VI when we had created Friends Club and playing Buurri Chorr with the girls :-))) .. No wonder Baru always used to win !!!
Also had good & bad times when every alternate day was declared as a Bandh.
Those cycle trips to Bongaigaon along with Prasant, Vishal, Asit, B2, Chana ... Having a peak a someone's house in North Bongaigaion on the way ... Picnic on Bageshwari Hill ... A quite beer shared at Kaniska after pooling each and every penny .. Good Old Days mate !!!
Class XI was also special as both the sections were merged and we have news faces ... Satadru's luchi ventures was awsome ... We were all jealous of him as to how could he manage it ;-)
Yeah I also very well remember what happened when we went to Ghy to write our NDA entrance .... We will all put up in a hotel in Paltan Bazaar and we had two visitors from Ghy ... Barua & Pinks ... ;-)) .. The rest is history !!!
Drinking on 31st December 1993 and then puking to glory ... And B2 & Pinks escapades on 01st Jan morning ;-))
Fights with lovely ladies (two years junior) as to who would celebrate Saraswati Puja in School ... To decorating the pandal throughout the night listening to Khaleed was really cool.
Class XII .... Dedicated to the Lady who sang "Rivers of Babylone" ... It was pure ecstasy .... What a song it was .... I literally feel in love with her after she sang that song .... Am sure most of the guys as well who listened to that song.
Angsu, let me try to recreate the scene of “All the boys running after Tina “ incident.
It was just before the Diwali Day ..Led by Subhram we had planted a bomb besides a window and timed it using a incent stick ... Ganjoo madam's class was going on ... We were waiting with eager breadth as to when it will go off .. Just when it was about to go off Tina saw it and showed out load .. Bomb .. Bomb ... Madam saw the bomb and got it defused before it could go off ... We were so distraught with it that as soon as the class was over all the guys ran after Tina and throwing live bombs. This was the exact scene infront of the school garden .. The poor girl had nowhere to go but to take shelter in the Railway bus. But even that bus was bombed by all ably led by Subhram.

Keep the thoughs / memories flowing.

Take Care.

Prelude to Holland Tour !!!

2006-04-02T17:22:05Z

As promised, I am back to write my experience about our Amsterdam (or rather Holland) tour.

But before I start off I think it's imperative to give a background as to under what kind of circumstances I made this trip.
We (Myself & Fundu) had booked the tickets to Amsterdam via Jet2.com for a Pound in January 2006. When we had booked the tickets, we were very sceptical if we would be able make the trip. However things slowly seem to work out. We managed to make the Hotel Bookings, Visa Stamped, Leave Approved & Journey planned.

Finally on the eve of the D-day as we were planning the finer points of our trip, a Voice Outage stuck our infrastructure at around 1100hrs.
Usually these kind of outages get resolved in a few hours and I had nothing to doubt that it would be otherwise. However something stuck my mind that it might be a bit different today. Still I was keeping high spirits. Slowly hours passed by without any resolution in sight. Finally I had to leave my office at 2130hrs without the outage being resolved even after making escalations to BT Account Manager, Director.
In the midst of the outage I had told Rishi that I might have to cancel my trip incase the outage is not resolved in time. However Rishi suggested otherwise and was ready for his team to owe up the issue in my absence. However I am not too confident if this arrangement would work out.

Finally from 2200hrs to 2330hrs there were lots of discussions, mails, phone calls on whether I should stay or leave. I then took the decision that I would stay back. Even my manager requested me to stay back even though this trip planned well in advance. More than the outage, they were more concerned because our Client Managers were not informed about my leave of absence for a day.

However when I returned back home and informed all of my decision, all were aghast of it. Rishi tried to convince me that I should not worry about the outage and should go ahead with the trip. He will take care of it, in my absence. Rishi even volunteered to talk to my Managers regarding the same. We then again had a meeting between myself, my Managers and Rishi wherein Rishi volunteered to see to it that Service would not be impacted in my absence. Even then my Manager had not agreed to relieve me for a day but his Manager overruled him after he took into consideration the strong commitment given by Rishi to see to it that the outage will be handled by his team and sevice
levels will not be impacted. I am really really thankful to Rishi and Nitin for all their support in seeing to it that I took the flight to Amsterdam early next day.

Just to your information, the outage was resolved at 0200hrs while I was packing my bags. The next day, while I was away Rishi and Nitin saw to it that things are under control. Thanks again guys. Without your help, my Holland sojourn would have ended before it could take off.

What we did in Amsterdam will follow soon. Till then, Sayounara.

Welcome to Yahoo 360

2006-03-19T22:58:14Z

This update was long over due. But still I was feeling lazy to write it.
I have just come back from the Indian Balti restaurant having a couple of pints of Cobra. Its 2230hrs on a Sunday night but still I think I should write something tonight before I go off to sleep.

The week went off very quickly. Holi was celebrated in India on 15th March (Wednesday). However for us at onsite, it was double work as it was an offshore holiday. The day went off peacefully without much action. We went to Trafford Centre for food, drinks and movie to celebrate Holi.

Have been following up with my Managers to fix up my date to go back to India, but in vain. Still am hopeful that I would land in India by April end and is keeping my fingers crossed for the same. This week I need to put up a bit more pressure on them.

Our KV BRPL yahoo group is in full flow. Mails have started flowing left and right. I too had dropped in a long mail remembering some of the good times spent out there. Rest of the gang has also chipped in. Will consolidate the list of incidents and upload it sometime later.

My tummy is bulging out day by day. Am trying to keep away from Beer, which is the cause of the same. But unfortunately have not been able to follow it with rigor. Need to take a decision very soon before things go out of control.

Last but not the least I have managed to create my profile in yahoo 360. It needed a bit of juggling around to create the right look and feel but I am happy with the final product. Also was thrilled when I could get the feed from livejournal to yahoo 360. Its really fabulous. Now I can continue with my blogs in livejournal and my yahoo 360 will also get updated. Thanks to XML RSS. This is the only constructive thing I did over the weekend other than sleeping.
The link to my latest website presence is http://360.yahoo.com/sanjibondass

Will visit Amsterdam next Friday (24th March 06). Will update my blog after the same. Till then Adiós.

Good Old Days !!!

2006-02-26T23:21:05Z

I didnot have any plans of writing the blog tonight. However what happened today evening, I need to write it.

The weekend was nothing special. Yesterday went out shopping. Bought a Puma Shoe after much deliberations.
Had planned to go out for a movie but didnot had the necessary enthusiasm when the the time came for some action. So stayed back at home.

Today also, the most of the time was spent in front of the TV and the Laptop either by channel surfing or by site surfing.

Received a ping from B2 in the evening. B2 informed that he got a microphone and we can have some voice chat. Called up Baru in US and asked him to join in. Prior to this over the last week we had some interesting mail conversations. Hence asked Baru to clarify a few things. By the time we started picking pace, Sri also joined in the chat. What transpired in the chat was fabulous. Felt like we have gone back in time to the good old days spent in school. It was good fun. Really really nice. Most of it at poor Baru's expense. Baru hope you didnot mind it. We would keep our promise and will await to hear from you for further details. We will see to it that our mailboxes are virus free. It was a nice end to the weekend.

Also showed Baru the power of google. I think google has become such an important part of life that incase it goes down, it will be very very difficult. Salute to the founders of google.

Also a special thanks to Nilay & Mots to start and keeping the KV BRPL mailing list active.
Keep up the good work mate.

sanjibon @ 2006-02-12T18:11:00

2006-02-12T19:01:00Z

Finally I logged in to update my journal.
It did require quite an effort. But I am happy I am doing it.
But it does cross my mind as to what took me so long to update it. I was really not that busy. I had surfed so many junk sites, watched so many junk movies, wasted so much time. I could have atleast utilized my time to update my journal regularly.

Anyways, let me update now. After 2 months of stay in UK, I left for India on the morning of 19th November 2005. I had a short and hectic change over in Paris. Finally managed to see Bombay at 2300hrs. Wow what a feeling it was when I touched down. After I second oversees trip I can very well say that come over whatever may be, India is the best not withstanding all it's shortcomings.
It was a wonderful feeling catching up with Mom late at 0300hrs and talking till early hours of the morning.
The 2 weeks off which I had got just flew by. I even made a quick visit to Delhi for a couple of days to see off my parents. Tried desperately not to catch / call night at Delhi. I was successful. Sorry mate, could not afford to hurt you.
Finally returned to Manchester on 05th December. It was a journey I had to undertake without really wanting to.

Back to UK, time just flew. Winters are the worst times to be in UK. The weather would be always gloomy, windy, chilling. Rarely you will get to see the sun. Hence it makes you more homesick, more so if you don’t have a great company.

Mr. Golls (Yogi's Son) was the only silver lining. He is such a sweetheart. The best thing about him is that he rarely cries.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sanjibondass/detail?.dir=cfc2&.dnm=6708re2.jpg

Fundu / Avadhut dropped in to UK in late December 05. That was a welcome change. On an above that the best part was that he stayed just in front of our flat. So it became a sort of extended family.
Even Rishi managed to get his issues sorted and fly down to UK by mid January. After that myself, Fundu and Rishi started having a good time in spite of our busy schedule. Thankfully it is still continuing now.

Late December 05, I bought a camera as well. Fuji S5600. http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/digital/cameras/s5600/index.php?lpage=/digital/cameras/range.php&flash=7

During the last few months I have come across a a few articles which have really impressed me. I am just putting up the urls.
My life as an investment banker - http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/dec/19ibank.htm
What money has taught me about love - http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2006/feb/09love.htm

I think I have written enough today. Will definitely try to keep my commitments.

Looking for Answers !!!!

2005-10-29T23:53:57Z

Location: Sale, Manchester

Finally I did not go out of my house today even though the weather was good and it was a weekend.
Why ? Because I did not have any decent company, rather I had no company.
Sometimes I think, why I cannot go out alone to enjoy a movie or go shopping. I really do not have any answers for it. But I wish I have the answers sooner than later.

Anyways if I did not go out what did I do. Well I read a few journals of my friends. Those were really interesting. Then I cleaned up our kitchen. It took me complete two hours but I enjoyed it except for the part when I had to swab the kitchen floor.

Then I browsed the Internet. Alas there was the day's second bad news flashing in front of me. The first was the train tragedy which had stuck Andhra Pradesh which killed 150 people and now there was a serial bomb blast in Delhi which had killed atleast 55 people. Then I started to wonder what must be going through the minds of those unfortunate families who near and dear ones have died just before the festive season. When I think a bit deeply and going through the news reports I feel both the tragedies could have been avoided. People planting bombs to kill innocent people is really horrific. However what stuck me as lightening is that we seem to have taken such incidents in our stride without much reaction. There are initial bitterness but then that also seem to be vanishing. People seem to be reacting only when they are personally affected or when they know someone who has been affected by the tragedies. Are we losing the human touch ? Are we so much engrossed in the fight to succeed and move ahead that we donot have time to look back. I too myself donot have the answers.

I did manage to call up a few friends to ask for their well being. By God's grace they were all away from the locations which were impacted by the bomb blasts.

Time fought with me on chat. Reason? Because of a name. Why? Because I put it on my blog. Silly !!!! Fairer sex please use your brains. World is too big and life is too small to fight on trivial matters. By the way its my view. You are all welcome to disagree.

Evening was spent in the hall. Watching x-Factor, EPL, Lord of the Rings, JetSet.

Got an offer to go out for a Halloween Dance but EPL was too tempting to miss, specially after Man U being thrashed 4-1 by M'boro. Hence turned down the offer.

Am writing this blog just before I go to sleep. Wish Lord gives courage and strength to all those who have suffered in today's twin tragedies.

Goodnight.
Sanji

sanjibon @ 2005-10-29T11:23:00

2005-10-29T10:35:17Z

Got the link to Rohan's journal from Moily.
Felt really nice reading through it.
Reached Dev's journal from there.
To give you guys a background, Rohan is a friend of my from Engineering and Dev is a friend of mine from Post Graduation. Even though I know them very well I have not managed to be in touch with them for long now. But even though they don't know each other personally they do post comments on live journal. This is really amazing. I hope to catch up with a lot of friends whom I am lost contact with.

Then I remembered that I too got an id which I have never made any updates.
Took a conscious decision that I will try to update my journal as well.
Let's see how long I can keep my

Weather is good after a very long time in UK.
Its a bit sunny.

Want to watch the movie "The Legend Of Zorro".

But really lazy to go out, that too alone on a weekend.

Lets see finally what I decide.

Till then Bye !!! ... I have made a start ;-)