Brats...Booze...Babes...The new age India......

Yesterday we went to the Great Indian Octoberfest held at Palace grounds,Bangalore.You can't really call it a cheap imitation of the German beer festival by the same name(Octoberfest).The organizers did a pretty decent job.However what caught my the eye most was the changing social/cultural scene in the country.
Most of the crowd looked like hardly out of their teens.Now since beer was dearth cheap(120 bucks for 5 cans of Kingfisher!!) people were drinking like crazy.One guy who looked totally inebirated was causing total nuisance by passing cheap comments to anybody passing by(specially girls).Looked like a spoilt brat of a rich daddy.I was sure he would pick up a fight and so did he. Looked like he passed some comment to a girl accompanied by her boyfriend(thats my guess) and unlike most others who were ignoring his shit this guy reacted and a brawl followed.But like with everything,people(including me and my friends) were watching the fun from a distance.Everything is just so exciting and funny as long as it doesnt happen to us.And then we say the goverment is like this and that,people these days are self centered and more blas blas of the like.
On one of the tables I saw a bottoms up competition going on.There were as many gals as were guys taking part(No,I am not a sexist!).And to my surprise,one of the gals gave the guys a run for their money.She guzzled down 4 mugs of beer in less than 4 minutes I guess....not bad...not bad at all!!
Then there was the DJ rocking the DJ Dome(specially constructed for the night).Sadly we couldn't enter,it was couples only.Man I wished Reena was there!!But we stood outside the dance arena for around 15 minutes,just to see whats going on.And man!!was it amazing.Gals fully drunk(again,I am not a sexist...just that looks like its difficult for gals to hold on to their drink!!) gyrating to the music and people accompanying them having to control them from falling.Some guys were damn lucky,they had more than one gal dancing around them,not to their tunes but to the Djs. I saw one girl holding on to a stranger and asking him to kiss her...man had to see the look on his face...was he embarassed or what!
One of my friends had once said...if his parents see stuff like this they will say "Dharti par narak hai to yahi hai"(If there is hell on earth,this is it)!

A Close brush with Yamraaj

The weekend gone by still flashes in front of my eyes intermittently.I am not sure(like always) as to what impact it has had on me. But one thing I know for sure is that I will be much more carefull next time while venturing into the deep blue sea.
Monday being a holiday(Gandhi Jayanti),ten of us decided to visit Mangalore.The thought of swimming in the virgin white sand beaches which this city boasts of was irresistable.After covering almost 375 kms and 12 hours on road we finally reached our destination.Without wasting a second we jumped into the water.The child in all of us took over and we started swimming,falling,jumping and in the process drank a lot of saline sea water too!!Everything was just so perfect.
After about a couple of hours 2 of our friends who didn't know swimming ventured into the danger zone.They didnt realize that suddenly the water was over their head and they were drowning.When realization struck it was too late.The thought of seeing my friends being drifted away by the mighty sea sent shivers down my spine.I tried holding them and pulling them back towards the shore.However both of them clung to me strongly and it was getting difficult for me to pull them both back to the shore.So,I just pushed one of them towards the shore and luckily he with the help of one of our friends managed to reach safe grounds.
While I was trying to push one of them to safety the other one had drifted farther as I had lost grip on him.For a second I felt helpless.On one hand my selfish self was telling me to go towards the shore and try and get some help as I myself had taken in a lot of water.Moreover I was also scared that in the process of saving him I too may get drowned. And on the other I knew that if I recede now he will be swept away to the point of no return.Knowing the fact that you alone are responsible for someones life or death and in the process your life too is at risk is a scary feeling.....very very dark.
In a matter of second so many thoughts flashed in front of my eyes.What will my loved ones go through if I perish???What will I tell my friends parents if something happens to him ???And what not..............Finally I gathered some courage,got hold of him and started pulling him towards the shore with whatever strength was left,at one point I felt that I could not carry on any longer.However at this very point I saw one of my friends who knew swimming coming towards us.The sight of him coming towards us and the fact that he knew how to swim pumped me up.He held to our friend tightly and I pulled both of them towards the shore,luckily for all of us he was wearing a vest which made my task of pulling simpler.By this time our friends had formed a human chain and we were very near to the shore as well and could be easily pulled out.
Finally after this 7-10 min ordeal we were all safe.However this will be one of those experiences which I am sure all of us will never forget.God has his own ways of reminding us that how precious life is.

Whats goin' on??

This is a question I have been asking myself since I don't know when.My last blog was writtenon 18th April .If you ask me what I have been doing since then....the answer would be hmm...letme think.....lemme think hard......ufff.....give up!!Coz I really dont have an answer.Barring performing well at work and winning accolades,I dont think I have been doing anything.If I look at myself from an outsiders perspective,I have got everything.I have a nice job and am not doing really bad at it,I am making a lot of money for someone my age,I am blessed to have a loving family and a few friends who I can bank on for anything.But then beyond a certain point does performing well at work(which you are not even sure you like or not), or making loads of money matter?...atleast not to me.The next obvious is question is:What really does matter???The answer to this is pretty simple,atleast I cannot cheat myself on this.I am not very clear as to what really matters. But what I think matters,I don't have the courage to pursue .The good thing is that I know my weaknesses,every human being has some.The frustrating part is that I have been unable to overcome them yet.There are reasons plenty,one of them being, not trying hard enough.Whats goin' on???