Author: Swati Sani

After several years again got in touch with two of my hostel friends a few days back. Nandini was pretty mad at me for not keeping her informed about my new phone nos.. but then, i did not have hers as well… not my fault entirely. Roopa has shifted to Shanghai Wonder where Joba is. She was never the letter writing kinds so I just hope whereever she is she is in great shape and enjoying herself. Here’s how the conversation about her goes whenever we talk about her

swati: Joba is in the US. Mandavi last I knew was in hyderabad
Roopa: where in the u.s. i’m going there in december
swati: wait a sec.. let me see old emails
swati: 🙁 her last mail to me dated 20th february 2001 does not say where she is
swati: she has a daughter called Nina
Roopa: too bad then
Roopa: all right, joba had sex!! yay, whee!!

Ah! hope we all meet up with Joba somewhere – it’ll be great fun to reminescence the hostel days and pull her leg 😉

Brother in law asked me to send him some romantic hindi and urdu poetry so that he can impress someone 😉 men do change when they turn 40 don’t they?

Baat Niklegi to phir door talak jayegi

Whoa!! days are passing by real fast – weekend whizzed past me and I didn’t even notice !!!
Work, work, more work… …
Managed to watch Humraz yesterday – Could have been made into a better movie only if it was half its length. The first half really dragged.
Going to Bangkok for a business trip on wednesday. Lot of arrangements to be done.. I am dead tired but this trip is important for us as well as Aasim who will stay back with my parents for the first time.

I sometimes think of discontinuing writing in this journal. Throughout the day, I am running around the office and home organising things, talking to people, attending to guests, looking after the interests of the office, watching over Aasim, feeding him and his father, going here, doing this, looking at that… I just can not sit at one place for long enough to write sensible entries.
I reminiscence those carefree days when I had few friends to talk to and all my emotions and feelings I would pour in my diary in the form of poetry. I found that diary today buried deep inside my cupboard.
Even when I worked 14 hours a day for Pressman, I had more time at hand. This poem was written on one of those evenings when I was looking at the sun setting in the horizon from the window of my cabin on the 14th floor of my office building. The love of my life was hundreds of miles away and I longed to touch him, hear him, see him…

Standing
near the window
whenever i peep out
and look at the tide
receding and
the waves far away
kissing the shore softly
I recall
our evenings on the beach side
when we walked
hand in hand
looking for the
barnacle colonies
over the rocks
searching for the colourful tiny crabs
leaving behind
our footsteps
in the freshly washed sand
The sun,
unleashing its
evening colours
splashing it across the sky
into our hearts

(Written: Feb 12, 1993)

Our weekend actually began on Thursday with watching Pakeezah – a beautiful redention of prose, poetry and dance to portray love. The film is a timeless classic

Followed by Devdas (starring Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai) on Friday. The direction, acting choreography and Music Direction is good but the lyrics lack depth. They fall flat on ears- Complete disappointment. The lyrics are supposed to bring tears to your eyes – they fail miserably.

Later in the night we saw The blue Lagoon. It was after a long long time we sat together holding hands, watching this beautifully made film.

Jo kahi gayi na hamse wo jamana kah raha hai
Ki fasana ban gayi hai meri baat talte talte meri baat talte talte…

Just upgraded my machine to RH 7.3. It was an absolutely painless upgrade, my settings and preferences were untouched – I love it

Most of all I loved the looks and crisper feel of KDE 3. I remember talking to Sirtaj in Atul’s office during Linux Bangalore/2001 about this and he said – just wait and watch – Thanks Sirtaj 🙂 KDE 3.0.2 was released on 2nd july and KDE 3.1 alpha is out – More usability enhancements in the pipeline – I love it – I love it!! Had it not been bandwidth consideration, i would have loved to beta test this product as a power user… well.. ce st la vie sigh!!

Only one complaint my XMMS did not start from my taskbar icon nor was it in the menu list I had to run it from term… minor trouble no complaints… …

Great News!!! The sleep just vanished when I discovered

Sholay at Rs.99/- on planet M – Sholay the “Kitne Aadmi thae?” movie

ALso Tom and Jerry for Rs.99/- Rush Rush, book your copy now!!

And a funny item on planetm “mera cheese kisne hataya?” Hindi translation of “Who moved my cheese” -people sure know how to make money you see movie posters like “futball shutball… …” for bend it like beckham and “hamshaklon ka hamla” for Attack of the clones- Go more towards MP and UP and you will find funnier things..

Whoa!! what a day!!! and I thought today I will be able to rest a while in the day…

I told Aasim, “you got to skate a little faster, Son” and he replies, “One day I will show you mom” – I like the attitude, quite like mine 😉

Visit to CA in the morning was fruitful. ULIP money has still not come in. Unit Trust of India is not to be trusted… .. every investor I have spoken to is skeptical about this company and every investor had bought a few of Unit 64’s. This is what keeps me from investing in long term LIC plans for aasim as well Who knows what will happen 20 years from now…