Friday, 18 July 2014

Muzaffarnagar ka noor, Shubhangi Kapoor :P



Tu ek kaam krna...mere pe blog likh de ek !


Roger that !

So here it is :D

Before you read further, I would like you to know that I have taken the liberty to write A LOT about you because I know that you like to read about yourself plus unlike others, I know that you would not mind ANYTHING that I say about you :P

The Introduction
In my initial days at the firm (where both of us are articles) , when I first met her, I could instantly deduce that  Shubhangi Kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar.
She is as garrulous as I am taciturn.
She is as social as I am unsociable.
She is as expressive about everything as I am self-contained and inexpressive.

Since I am not among those gregarious ones, I inferred that both of us would merely be colleagues tied by the common fate of being registered under the same CA.

How very wrong I was.



I might choose to be silent about everything but I observe quite a lot...so after auditing for one whole year, here is my Audit Report for Shubhangi Kapoor Pvt Ltd -


S for Social
She has a hundred friends (and a thousand silly male fans...Remember Luqmaan and Rahul, Shubhangi?! :P ) The moment she uploads a picture, the flood of notifications begins :D As I type this, she is perhaps busy making plans for parties and places she would go on her birthday with her friends...On the contrary, I like to be with my own self on my birthday (or other 364 days of the year  :P)
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.



H for Haute Couture
This celebrity of our firm is as girly as I can never be :P If you ever happen to walk with her, she will make you notice clothes and sandals and nail paints (basically all the things that I utterly fail to see) of other girls. While walking, she will constantly keep checking her reflection in any mirror that comes across her way.
The way I keep my blog opened on another tab, she has Jabong and Myntra opened up and keeps checking all the new stuff available...She actually makes an effort to look presentable ALL.THE.TIME which is really hard for me to digest sometimes...I mean I thank all the Gods of the universe when I manage to reach on time for my coaching at 6:30am daily so it really baffles me when she appears all dolled up ! While I like to fill my room with novels, it is clothes and shoes that occupy a huge chunk of her room...well, to each, her own !
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


U for Uproarious
She is always so full of energy that I sometimes wonder if she is the brand ambassador of Glucon-D. She is ever - ready for hanging out or shopping no matter how tired she is. I, on the other hand, was perhaps handed over to Makkar family by some sloth...I tend to avoid any activity that involves getting out of bed and being around people :P
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


B for Bollywood
She is the Wikipedia of Bollywood songs and movies. You can NEVER beat her at antakshari. She has seen all genres of movies from vivah to hate story and is a huge fan of Ranbir Kapoor. :D
I rarely watch Bollywood movies (unless it's JWM, of course!) and am as good as Katrina Kaif is at giving expressions and speaking Hindi, when it comes to remembering songs :P
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.



H for Hearsay
This is her favorite pastime - gossiping ! She knows everything that is happening in the firm...it is obviously a direct consequence of her social nature...She goes up to people to talk to them...she will always have something to tell you...a new story everyday, a new gossip...she can speak at length with or without any topic. On the contrary, all that you can manage to get out of me is a 'yes' or a 'no' on anything and everything :P
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


A for Audit Files
Ah, my favorite part for reasons as conspicuous as a 6'3'' tall guy ;) :D
The 20 days audit with her was about learning how to charge conveyance, about thums-up, about food, about candy crush, about shopping...Am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, the Balance Sheet and P&L account of the company too :P
I diligently took care of all the working papers for 19 days...I gave them to her for a day and she forgot to get them the next day !
I know how to order food properly and she knows how to serve it perfectly (I don't know what I would have done without you ! Who would have opened that delectable shahi paneer for me all those days at the client's place ! Shubhangi, my saviour :P )
She can come up with any bullshit but believable story in a matter of seconds while it shows on my face if I ever try to spin a yarn !
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


N for Narender Modi
The only thing she is passionate about apart from shopping is politics ! On the days the Railway and the Union budget came out, she had a heated discussion with the accountant of the client about how Narender Modi is the beacon of hope for the country and can help India get out of the rut...I, on the other hand, gleefully played candy crush while this discussion was on ! I had to tell her twice to chill and that ache din aane wale hain definitely only then did she stop her argument with the accountant !   I have just about as much interest in politics as Hermione Granger has in Quidditch.
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


G for Gluttony
If sloth is the sin that I commit, she is accused of gluttony :P She can gobble up lunch of 3 people all at one go...If she is extra hungry, this number might reach 5 :P And then, she will make the whole office leave all work and help her get her swimming form signed so that she can lose weight :P
Though I eat like a horse too but I can't consume lunch of 3 people at one go :P (Poor Jay! he gets only half a parantha of the 3 paranthas from his own lunch, hats off Shubhangi kapoor :P )
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.


I for Inquisitive
This is one trait that I both love and hate about her ! She wants to know everything about everybody ! Albeit the fact that it shows that she's genuinely concerned about people (the reason I love this trait), it irks me a lot if I am asked questions that I do not wish to answer (the reason I hate this trait) ! But thankfully, this Muzzafarnagar Ki Ladki  understood this about me and stopped interviewing me on my personal life though she keeps dropping hints that she knows that there is this big enigma revolving Surbhi Makkar :P As far as I am concerned, I hardly bother about anybody's life and my questions surround the books people are reading and the movies that they have watched :P
Shubhangi kapoor = 1/ Surbhi Makkar, hence proved.







Dear Shubhangi,
I know that you somehow already knew that this blog was coming but please act surprised ! :P
I might have written a few things that you might not have liked but it doesn't change the fact that if I am writing this for you, it means you matter A LOT to me...because unlike you, I shall never say it on face if I really care about somebody but prove my loyal friendship in my own small little ways...You already have a carbon copy of Surbhi Makkar in form of Sameeksha so I need not explicitly tell you that some people close their mouth and speak in a thousand different ways...I might be a big fashion disaster in your eyes but I have never had a disastrous friendship with anyone in 22 years of my existence and I think it says something more than what my attire or hairdo or looks do...It is not how attractive a person looks but how reliable, trustworthy and true he/she is that counts and there I score decent enough, I can assure you. I am not a very sensitive person like you who can convey feelings very effectively...I have no shame in accepting that between emotions and my peace of mind, I'd choose peace at any time which might make me appear indifferent but at the same time I am leaving every other work to write this for you...I hope that you get the drift...that you fucking mean a lot to me !
The aforementioned things that I am unable to do, the uninhibited expression of care, is exactly what makes you most endearing...The way you gently hold my hand while crossing the road...I can never ever forget our trip together, it is a beautiful memory I am going to take to my grave with me...The last one Km that you made me cover holding my hand... for those few steps that you walked with me, I shall walk infinite miles for you if you ever need a loyal friend.
You are a gem of a person.
Happy Birthday.
May God bless you.
May all your dreams come true.
May you have as many reasons to smile as the number of stars in the sky.
I love you, Moti :P :)






Loads of Love,
Surbhi




P.S. With this blog, I win over my prejudices and I am really proud of the fact :)


Monday, 7 July 2014

इस असुविधा के लिए हमें खेद है...



Pre - script : This post was supposed to come out long time back but I was occupied with audit plus somebody made me realise that I might be following a pattern - my last two posts being posted on 5/5 and 6/6 respectively and hence this one on 7/7 :D






So I was one of those caught in (yet another) technical glitch in Delhi's sweetheart - Metro.

This was the second time I got stuck, with a drone of "इस असुविधा के लिए हमें खेद है...We are sorry for the inconvenience caused", giving me and other people a monotonous company...

(a little bit of trivia here -







The Male voice of the Delhi Metro — Shammi Narang (Speaks in Hindi)



The Female voice of the Delhi Metro — Rini Simon Khanna (Speaks in English)





)



The first time I was lucky - I hadn't boarded the metro. I kept waiting at the platform but the metro didn't come ! Consequently, I had to miss my office (The clients are on cloud 9 when the auditors take a leave, just saying!) Anyway, I took a bus and got back home...Though I have used DTC a lot for travelling but that was in college...this time I was in formals, carrying heavy books and files...Aftermath - I sprained my ankle (ouch! that hurt...A LOT !)


The second time I got stuck inside the metro for about 45 minutes...When the metro staff finally surrendered to the glitch and asked us all to move out and make our own arrangements, I took a bus (No sprain or injuries this time, thankfully) from the nearest bus stop and reached home in 2 effing hours. For those who have travelled in a DTC bus would be aware of the fact that crowd in the buses is horrendous. A guy got slapped by a woman and I think that would give you an idea that sometimes DTC buses breed potential rapists.



This is why I love Delhi Metro.

You get to observe a wide gamut of people in a comparatively safer and air-conditioned environment.
So notwithstanding the ever- increasing technical failures, my affection for metro continues to grow with the passage of time.
It's become such an integral part of my life that the three hours that I spend in metro daily, I feel like home...that this is where I belong...It might sound insane but sometimes when I feel lost, I have found solace in the metro...when I wish to go neither home nor office, I simply board a metro without any destination in mind...simply to go on...silencing the palaver, it somehow clears out my head...I call it The Metro Therapy (Don't google it up, both the nomenclature and the therapy are of my own creation)







This is a picture of Rajeev Chowk Metro station at peak hours (I tried to take the picture but was scolded by a guard there #फोटोग्राफी निषेद है so I had to copy it from google images.) I have always been mesmerised by this scene (Perhaps my brother IS right...perhaps waldosia is the word for me)...hundreds of heads bobbing in and out after every few minutes...it might sound creepy but it looks no different than the colony of ants moving in and out...it is like getting caught in the sea of people where EACH person is running like a maniac...somebody is rushing for an urgent meeting while somebody is getting late for his exam...there is a girl trampling upon your foot with her heels while dashing towards her boyfriend...there is an old man who has to work even after retirement to meet his ends...there is a man storming out of the metro, his face tense and anxious, to take the yellow line metro towards AIIMS where his pregnant wife is soon going to give birth to his child...each person fighting his/her own battle in his/her own different way...
Metro is the storehouse of such hundred thousand stories...there is a beautiful word that aptly describes what I am trying to say here - sonder.
And that is why, to me, metro seems to be a living creature breathing the spirit of ' just keep moving, no matter what' as it makes way through the tunnels of Delhi like a humongous nematode.


Another lesson that metro seems to be conveying to me is about changes...that in order to reach your final destination, you have to embrace changes - get down at one station and take another metro. And that people are meant to just give you a company, the journey you have to make on your own...some started with you from where you first boarded the metro and got down at their respective stations...Some people continue to travel along with you for a little longer but eventually their ways separate too...such changes are part and parcel of life and there is nothing to be sad about it because in the end,everybody has his/her own journey and destination and they just happen to meet you as a co-passenger as your paths cross for a while...
As easy as it sounds to be, a change, no matter how good, is never easy to make...because change means to break free from your boundaries of comfort and venture out into the unknown... just to illustrate my point - 




This is my first ever metro travel card...I used it for 5years till a month back when it started giving issues and became unreadable at the AFC gates and the TVMs one day...and it was with a heavy heart that I got a new travel card made :( Because it wasn't just a travel card...for me, it was a loyal companion who saw me through all kinds of situations - when I was running late for college (read daily), when I had my final exams and almost ran to catch the metro to be on time for the exam, when I bunked college and went for movies, when I went for my CA classes, when I started from home for office but went to Manan's (my nephew) place instead, when I had had a serious argument with a friend and left for home in tears, when I used to be so tired because of coaching that I would sit on the floor of the metro (which is prohibited), when I would refuse to eat in the metro no matter how hungry just because I didn't want to litter the clean floor (Only after I lost a lot of weight because my meals got skipped due to coaching, I started eating my lunch in the metro), when my IPCC/Bcom Hons results were out and I celebrated my success with special friends creating memorable moments, when I felt frustrated and boarded the metro just to escape my own self...
I can go on and on about the memories this special card held. 
Notice the past tense...because I gave the card back to DMRC. Though I wanted to keep it as a souvenir but then I realised that as time elapses, everything fades away...people who were with you at the inception of your journey might not be there as you reach your destination...your perceptions change...sometimes your course of journey changes...so how could this little card be with me till eternity...I knew that I had to let go of the emotional stuff attached with it...because only when I clear out the old things can I replace them with new things and experiences...it was like losing a part of my heart but what can not be cured must be endured...and so I did...
This one saw me through my CA IPCC and the new one is recording my journey of CA Final :)
And, of course, my articleship.

I am allocated in a freight company at Mahipalpur these days...and I use the Airport Express line for commuting...Albeit expensive, it is so far one of the best means of public transport that I have ever used. It is totally different from the normal metro in the following aspects :

1. While you have an overzealous reaction (OMG...it is a lucky day !!!) when you manage to get a seat in Blue line metro, the Airport line has only 5% occupancy on an average.

2. It runs at 120kmph vis à vis blue line metro's 80kmph.

3. The platforms have enormous glass panels which open when the metro enters.This provides extra safety as highly stressed people of India attempt suicides quite often.

4. It is so clean that you actually have to remind yourself that you are still in India.

On the flip side,

a) It is quite expensive which perhaps is the reason behind such a low occupancy.

b) It has a waiting for 20 minutes on an average as compared to 1 minute in Blue line metro! So if you miss one, you are bound to get late ! 

c) The quintessential people of India are conspicuous by their absence - 
  •  There is no auntyji elbowing her way out in the waiting line.
  • There is no girl applying nail paint while talking to her boyfriend on phone.
  • There is no middle-aged lady, who has just been scolding a guy for calling her aunty, pretending to be a senior citizen just to get a seat.
  • There are no kids doing 'pole dance' :P
  • There is nobody staring at you (people in India generally believe that they have the right to stare just because they have been given eyes.)
  • There is no aroma of achaar-parantha that a famished soul might be gorging on.
  • There are no bespectacled CA students with Accountancy or Costing or Audit books in hand, catching up on sleep.Only the MBA-looking people reading orange newspapers - ET or Business Standard. :D
  • There is no auntyji looking at you with beseeching eyes to vacate your seat for her.(Some even go to the extent of saying "beta hame seat de do, aap to jawaan log ho")
But the good things are that - 
  • There is nobody judging you as a slut if you are in a skirt.
  •  You are not sandwiched between the pervert male population who strip you with their eyes and have sex with you mentally.

There is no dearth of experiences that I have had in metro. When I come to think about it, this is a really stupid topic to write a blog on...but there is this deep connection that I feel with metro...it is actually a Surbhi-thing...I like the way my thoughts fall into place while I am travelling...The strangers look more familiar than the people you thought you knew so well...I have had so many memorable random conversations with strangers in metro...especially with foreigners...I have this silly habit of going up to them and asking about their experiences in India [60% of them have turned out to be Russians and loved Delhi and Bollywood and SRK (the females, obviously)]...I start talking to any Tom,Dick or Harry with a novel ! I have befriended so many CA people I met in metro because you happen to see the same faces at each coaching you attend...There have also been some bizarre incidents when people have come up to me to say things about my fingers (I have abnormally long and thin fingers that catch every body's attention) and been told different theories about it - people with long fingers tend to be really rich, people with long fingers are known to be arrogant, people with long fingers are possessive and so on and so forth! 


Dear Delhi Metro,
Thank you for making my life so comfortable...No matter how much people grumble about your technical failures (This is what they say- metro ab buddhi ho gayi hai!), I want you to know that I am immensely grateful for your presence...you carry lakhs of people daily who sometimes litter or even damage you...Thank you for giving me so many memorable moments...it's like you have been making my journey of life along with me...I don't know what I would do without you, I would be stranded in every sense of the word !


Yours sincerely
A commuter.