Harshit Agarwal

I am starting off my 'Gehri Dosti' section by writing about my roomie Harshit Agarwal.

Kahela tensun hai
Bhakh peeche se maar diya(In Counter Strike) etc etc etc

All these phrases leave me in continuous splits for at least an hour daily. Well I am gonna write about a simple boy from Basti.

A computer Engineer by profession, this boy is a total kid at heart. At times you would be surprised by his sheer innocence. He is a very straight forward kind of guy and indulges in full on masti.

I and him are always at loggerheads as to whether Basti(the place where he hails from is a village or a city). All my friends fondly call him BABA, but its only me who calls him by some other name. I am sure if he reads this post, he will surely understand what I am talking about. But I would not write all that here.

He sets his alarm to 7:15 AM, but finally wakes up at 8:00 AM to catch the 8:30 AM class. One of the few guys who accept me the way I am. His knowledge in computers is unparalleled. He is also a web designer. His website www.mba10.com is well known among the college fraternity.

I always tell him that you are too innocent to be living in Bangalore and that too I sometimes wonder how he survived in Bangalore for the past 4 years. He is a Computer Engineer grad from Ramaiah College-one of the best engineering colleges in India.

His favourite game at Amoeba is the dancing equipment on the second floor and now he has developed immense liking for bowling. He celebrates all his victories whole-heartedly no matter how big or how small his victories are.

He calls his antique bike his DULHAN. I always tease him that his bike is fit for museums and he retaliates, but its all fun and done in the right spirit.

Well..... I have talked a lot about this simple boy from Basti. But who is he?

He is my roomie-HARSHIT AGRAWAL-The best roomie anybody can expect.

Hint for my next friend:
My erstwhile roomie.

Ae Waqt Ruk Jaa..........

Ae Waqt Ruk Jaa.....
Tham Jaa, Theher Jaa.....
Waapas Zara Daud Peeche.....

Don't need to say that the above song lyric is from King's biggest hit ever - DDLJ.

This is the lyric I have been humming over the past few days...Reason: The feeling has sunk in that only 60 odd days remain for my MBA to get over and the beautiful journey through which I have sailed over the past year and a half would soon come to an end.

There were many ups and downs through my beautiful journey but had it not been for God's mercy, my family's love and support and my friends company, this journey would have been a path of thorns rather than a bed of roses. I have always thanked God and my family for always being with me but have not really done that to my lovely bunch of friends.

So over the next month I would be writing about all my friends who helped me traverse through my MBA journey, under the heading 'Gehri Dosti'; beginning from this Sunday. I would write about a friend of mine on every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

And everytime I write about one of my friends, I would give the hint of my other friend about whom I would be writing next. The order in which I write about my friends follow no sequence but random permutations.

So here it starts.........

Hint about the friend with whom I will be starting off 'Gehri Dosti':

Hint No. 1: Bhak Maar Diya
Hint No. 2: Karan, Mama Ki Gun Lekar De Mujhe

Bangalore Enveloped in Fog

This pic was shot from my Motorola Cell Camera.

The moment I woke up and looked outside my balcony, I saw hardly any visibility and the entire surrounding was engulfed in fog. It was something I had rarely seen in my life. I could not resist but pull out my cell and capture the scenic imagery outside my balcony.

Its Beautiful!!!!!

She Said 'What A Chop?'

The cool breeze flung across my face as I alighted from the auto and grudgingly headed towards the college to attend my class. I was climbing the stairs when I heard a flurry of words said by the speed of the bullet train of Japan. I heard only King Khan speak faster than that.

Almost instinctively I stopped and looked back as a curly haired girl with piercing eyes and a cell phone clutched in her hand joined me on the stair case. We exchanged customary greetings and walked towards the class, taking a quick sip of water on the way.

The setting was a case discussion which neither of us had read. It was an exception that I had not read it and a regulation that she had not read. We sat together consoling each other that the faculty would ask neither.

My bubble of hope was quickly burst when Sir handed me a sub topic to be explained to the class. I tried my best to make her believe that we both have to explain it but she was shrewd enough to see through my bluff.

We both started reading the part and the cycle for case explanations started. I quickly got through my part which was more or less what Sir had expected. Then began the actual fun…………

I started talking to her regarding all the unimportant topics I could get in my head. Though she was listening but was skeptical about Sir’s presence. Once in a while she would try to stop me from talking. But it was more like a formality rather than a compulsion. She too was enjoying herself.

We had already transferred ourselves to the la-la land of thoughts and only our physical bodies were ominous to the happenings of the class. Our flurry of cooings and thoughts were rudely interrupted when Sir suddenly asked her a question. This came as a bolt from the blue for her.

I looked at her from the corner of my eyes desperately trying to stifle my chuckle which could have evolved into a full blown laughter.

She sat beside me dumbfounded as she was totally oblivious to the happening of the class. It would have been the same case for me if Sir would have asked me. But people say I am lucky, she was not so.

She looked into Sir’s eyes with a wistful smile on her face. I am sure she was heavily ‘galli’fying me for her condition. Sir continued to pester her for an answer and by now her face had turned red and her mind was blank. She sat there like a helpless Dumbo. Sir then realized that it was a waste trying to evoke a response from her and turned his attention towards other souls.

Her ordeal was over only for mine to begin.

With harsh ‘gallis’ and harsher anger she trained her guns towards me, holding me responsible for her ‘suffering’. All I could do is sit there and bear whatever she had to say. Though she never meant a word she said but the very expression of her face would have been enough to give horrible nightmares to toddlers.

Of the many ‘glorious phrases’ she said, my mind picked up the phrase,

‘What a chop?’

My mind suddenly went into an overdrive and I couldn’t restrain myself from asking her its meaning.

She was super pissed to take the effort to explain to me its meaning but I kept on thinking what it meant and her nonstop rants were reminiscent of the nonstop bullets of the Maverick gun of Counter Strike.

Even as I type these lines I am still making an effort to decipher what that word literally means and why did she use it in that context.

Finally a word to my friend: No hard feelings Dost because these are those instances which add and make memories to be cherished for a lifetime……………

Unable To Attract Even A Single Girl, Frustrated Man Sues Axe!!!

In what could prove to be a major marketing and legal embarrassment for Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), a 26-year-old man has filed a case against the FMCG company, which owns the Axe brand of men grooming products, for ‘cheating’ and causing him ‘mental suffering’. The plaintiff has cited his failure to attract any girl at all even though he’s been using Axe products for over seven years now. Axe advertisements suggest that the products help men in instantly attracting women.

Vaibhav Bedi, the petitioner, also surrendered all his used, unused and half-used deodorant sprays, perfume sticks and roll-ons, anti-perspirants, aftershaves, body washes, shampoos, and hair gels to the court, and demanded a laboratory test of the products and narcotics test of the brand managers of Axe. Vaibhav was pushed to take this step when his bai (maid) beat him with a broom when he tried to impress her by appearing naked in front of her after applying all the Axe products. No girl ever asked Vaibhav to call her.


“Where the f%*@k is the Axe effect? I’ve been waiting for it for over seven years. Right from my college to now in my office, no girl ever agreed to even go out for a tea or coffee with me, even though I’m sure they could smell my perfumes, deodorants and aftershaves. I always applied them in abundance to make sure the girls get turned on as they show in the television. Finally I thought I’d try to impress my lonely bai who had an ugly fight with her husband and was living alone for over a year. Axe effect my foot!” Vaibhav expressed his
unhappiness.

Vaibhav claims that he had been using all the Axe products as per the company’s instructions even since he first bought them. He argued that if he couldn’t experience the Axe effect despite using the products as directed, either the company was making false claims or selling fake products.

“I had always stored them in cool and dry place, and kept them away from direct light
or heat. I’d always use a ruler before applying the spray and make sure that the distance between the nozzle and my armpit was at least 15 centimeters. I’d do everything they told. I even beat up my 5-year-old nephew for coming near my closet, as they had instructed it to keep away from children’s reach. And yet, all I get is a broom beating from my ugly bai.” Vaibhav expressed his frustration.

Vaibhav claims that he had to do go a lot of mental suffering and public humiliation due to the lack of Axe effect and wants HUL to compensate him for this agony. An advocate in Karkardooma court, who happened to mistake Vaibhav for some deodorant vendor when he entered the court premises with all the bottles, has now offered to take up his case in the court. HUL has been served a legal notice in this regard.

HUL has officially declined to comment on the case citing the subject to be sub judice, but our sources inform that the company was worried over the possible outcomes of the case. The company might argue that Vaibhav was hopelessly unattractive and unintelligent and didn’t possess the bare minimum requirements for the Axe effect to take place. Officially HUL has not issued any statement, but legal experts believe that HUL could have tough time convincing the court.

“HUL might be tempted to take that line of argument, but it is very risky. There is no data to substantiate the supposition that unattractive and unintelligent men don’t attract women. In fact some of the best looking women have been known to marry and date absolutely ghoulish guys. I’d suggest that the company settles this issue out of court.” noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani said.


Source:http://www.bangalorexpo.com/news/politics/unable-to-attract-even-a-single-girl-frustrated-man-sues-axe/

An Update On My Second Novel - Blue Bells

Today I had a sumptuous dinner at Wangs - a Chinese restaurant in Bangalore. The restaurant had a good ambience and the food was also good.As I sat down on my laptop typing pages after pages of my second novel - Blue Bells, I got engrossed into the unfolding events in my novels and almost lost touch with the outside world.

I reached an instant while typing the novel, where Suraj - the main protagonist of my novel has a habit of writing blogs. It was then that I realized I had a blog too and it had been a long time ever since I had posted anything on it. I opened my blog to see what was my last post. I felt that I needed to write another post to spice up my visitor clicks. But what do I write remained a big question???

I am literally living with the characters of my novel and all I can think of at this moment is my novel. So I am updating you guys on the latest happening in my novel.

Well... first things first. This novel is set in a Post Graduation College and Blue Bells is the name of the canteen in that college and that also happens to be the name of my novel. It is so because this canteen has a very vital part in my novel. I can say that it is this canteen which actually runs my novel because most of the story unfolds here.

I am currently penning down an intense confrontation scene between Suraj and Pooja. I can't reveal further as it would act as a spoiler. All I can say is that this is one of the most crucial scenes of my novel and my novel takes a different altitude after this scene.

Well, I am having a lot of fun penning down this novel. It is actually making me understand various facets of life in a better manner.

Sorry to end this post in an abrupt manner coz it is very late into the night and I am already feeling sleepy.

Is Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize his Anticipatory Bail ???

A couple of days ago as I opened the website rediff.com to check out some movie masala news and I stumbled upon the biggest masala news; 'Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace prize'. My first reaction was WHAT!!! and my jaw dropped. It has not even been a year since he got into the office and now he was a Nobel Prize winner!!!

The world too reacted in no uncertain terms. The reactions ranged from;

'What has he done to merit this?'

'I thought Miss Universe was the only event where people get awarded for making empty speeches about world peace.' (This reaction takes the cake as the best reaction)

Now the question is what made the Nobel Prize committee which sits in the comfortable environs of Norway decide on the Peace Prize for Barack obama????

Considering that USA is waging many battles in the world, building missile systems in Europe against Russia, trying to intimidate China indirectly etc.......So how does the PEACE come into picture for its President????

The only feasible answer that seems to emerge is that now that Mr. Obama has been conferred the top honour, he has got to live upto it. Now he has an additional responsibility to make sure that the world is a safe and 'PEACE'ful place to live in.

Mr. Obama will begin feeling the heat as the entire world has once again turned their focus on everything that Mr. Obama does. He will now understand what it takes to be a PEACE awardee. One wrong step and people will accuse him of 'buying' the Peace award (if they already havn't).

Now with great 'PEACE' comes great responsibility and it would be interesting to see how Mr. Obama will conduct himself. Mr. Obama himself acknowledged this when he said on Friday, upon accepting the award, "The Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes."

The first step that Mr. Obama would be considering to justify his 'PEACE' award is to mend USA's relations with the international community. He can start off by not pestering India to sign the NPT. My argument is how can a country with arguably the largest nuclear arsenal in the world ask other nations to engage in disarmament of its nuclear arsenal???

So all my thoughts converge to a common platform that the Nobel Awards Committee played its trump card by conferring 'PEACE' prize to Barack Obama. Coz now his PEACE prize will act as his anticipatory bail and he would be forced not to take any foolish steps that would hamper world peace. Now before any foreign policy that Mr. Obama mulls on, the PEACE prize would invariably play on his mind.

But one question stills lingers in mind; 'Did Barack Obama win the Nobel PEACE Prize for being Barack Obama or for NOT being George Bush???'