As a kid i remember getting moral lessons from my grand parents.i and anagha used to sit down and listen to stories.my grandparents would take turns every night and tell us one story each and always would end it with a moral lesson.aji used to end it with mag aaj tumhi kai shikla????…….ki khara bolne hach apla dharma.(honesty is our real dharma).i really miss my grandparents somehow i wish they would always be there around me.they live in gwalior my native.my family has always taught us things like honesty,truth,trust,being unselfish,being humble,being helpful,respect,etc etc…they never forced these values on us.but they made sure we were aware about it.also because they didnt force it,it has become a way of life.its simple the more you force people to do something they just tend to not do it.i am noone to judge myself but i can surely say i have turned out ok.i dont know but i somehow feel that my generation is really loosing track of values,they have been overtaken with things like money,fame,status and so on.it is alarming!
i am not a sadist i am proud of being a part of this generation for various reasons.when i talk about my generation i solely mean the indian youth,i cant really talk about the youth in the world.i dont have that kind of exposure as yet. the financial boon ,the it sector,the bpo companies,the young politicians like rahul gandhi,mr.pilot,and so on,our space technology is easily amongst the top 3 in the world,and we have also played and will play a very major role in making India a super power.I am not mentioning the progress women have made in every field simply because thanks for being a part of my generation,i dont really think there is any difference between a man and a woman.(ofcourse other than the physicality,thank god! for that;) )i have no doubts we will overtake everyone in the days to come.but in doing all this are we slowly getting away from our roots??are we giving money more importance than happiness??are we really aware of who we are and where we are heading??has family and relationships taken second priority?? all these questions keep haunting me and they disturb me more when the answer to most of them is a YES.
globalisation.thanks to the technological advances the world has really become a small place.we can exchange cultures,views,pictures,etc around the globe in a click.but globalisation can be tricky,most of us tend to ape the west in everything without really giving a thought to what is it we are getting into?for eg- the family system in India.we see more and more divorces now-a-days,more nuclear families,the whole concept of a marriage has completely taken a u-turn.i think everything positive in life is only because of the family.until and unless you dont have the emotional support in life anything you achieve will always be incomplete.when girls today get pregnant at the age of 14-15,when boys are ready to kill someone to get their dose of drugs at a tender age?? these questions arise only due to lack of values in their upbringing.i wont really say that parents today dont have the right values,its more got to do with they having no time.they are so busy making money and securing a great future for their kids,that they absoultely forget about their present.its so right to make sure that your kids dont have to worry about anything in the future but should it really be at the cost of her getting pregnant or him being a drug addict.i proudly say that my mom is a housewife.she is a gutsy woman and could have become anything she wanted, but she did sacrifice everthing so that we could always have her 24-7 whenever we wanted her to be there.SACRIFICE my mom says is the most important word in any womans life.she always tell us that in this day and age where we have our lavish lifestyles its very important that woman helps with financial concerns of her family and always be independent.but a woman also has to realise that however modern this world becomes at the end of the day she will have to give up whole lot of things in the name of her husband,children,her family.and its not because she is the weaker one its only because woman is always emotionally and mentally more stronger than a man.and she has to be proud about that and not fight it out,saying why women should make all the sacrifices??now being a 21st century girl this is a little difficult to swallow,but the truth is i do believe in family first and there is no two ways about it.
neways what i am trying to say here is we cannot lose faith in marriage,and our family system.i have a friend abroad who believes that looking at the Indian family system the people in US have realised its importance and have slowly started believing in these things.but somehow we are are not realising the strength we have in being together.we are just running away from things that in the end matter the most.
bollywood.godddd! the movies they make today are the height of senselessness.the multiplex culture has its flaws and advantages.before the movie releases i think its already a hit.no matter how crappy the acting is,the content is.it just doesnt matter.i mean what are the akshay kumar movies about,welcome,singh is king,hey baby,etc……they are sheer crap,absolutely rubbish.i mean you can understand making a mistake once,twice but it has become a bloody hit formula. HIT the bloody definition of a hit has become a movie running for ten days i think.i mean they waste crores of rupees on movies like kambakht ishq,rather they donate the money to a charity organisation.i will applaud that.cut to hollywood,man! m realy waiting to watch movies like the departed,or say all robin william movies,good will hunting,dead poets society,etc…i mean these are MOVIES.my favourite movie shawshank redemption was a flop in hollywood,i mean IF shwshank was not a good movie than movies should not be made.it is the baap of all the moveis ever made.see i know i have to realistic and not suddenly expect that kind of level here,but atleast show us that we are slowly taking steps towards that kind of film making.that will never happen i think….where the hell are we goin???the female actors in bollywood are there only to look good,wear nothing and say some 10 scentences in the movie.i mean none of them seem to represent anything but just that woman can easily be categorised as plain dumb.with an exception of aamir khan moveis which seem to make sense,very few people in bollywood are making stuff that matters.its just plain dissapointing the amount of money going waste in making crap.
money.thats the word that drives all of us,doesnt it? i dont think making money and making a good life for yourself is ever considered wrong.but we are constantly guilty of giving up things that are important.today the funda is being mean,shrewd,selfish,dishonest,donot trust anyone,etc is a key to success.if you are good the world will walk all over you.aajkal ke jamane mein bas paisa bolta hai boss!its cruel,but thats true!we are constantly after finding heroes,who are not really worth it.i mean a prime example of making a hero out of something that could have been really so great is sania mirza.i respect that girl.she got tennis again into the spotlight.she is the first woman to do a lot of stuff.but we made her so big,for performances like a 3rd round finish and pri-quater finish,that we as the indian public should be solely responsible for her performances now. i really am rooting for her and genuinely want her to do really well.we love to celebrate mediocricty,if we would have just let her be…..may be today she would have done much greater things which would have really deserved applause.the truth is we make heroes and we break them too.rakhi sawant……..can u believe that she is a celebrity today.i mean give me a bloody break.we are just making crap sound good.reality shows,talent shows,etc are recipe for instant fame….. people who we have never known existed until we saw them on these shows.hridaynath mangeshkar rightly observed that todays singers are behind things which have nothing to do with music.they want money and fame.not excellence.half of the singers today have not learnt music.they have not done rias for forget 12hrs like us but for 1 hr a day.though they might get fame they will be forgotten right after they are out of sight.if your love for music is for real,no matter what happens people will know you forever.youth of today is running behind temprorary not permanent.hes so right.!!!
i have a lot of hopes from my generation.see,i know not all of us have lost track.many of us are really doing great work,and also have our hearts at the right place.i am sure all of us together will become great indiviuals,and make our country proud.i hope that we will all respect love,honesty,relations,trust,etc. and the next generations will not say paisa bolta hai,but sirf aur sirf insaan ka karma bolta hai.lets all chase excellence and not mediocricity in whatever we choose to do,and lets all do it with a good heart.i am hoping for great things for my generation.and as my fav dailouge in my fav movie,i would like to end this monolouge,by saying that hope is a good thing and a good thing never dies.:):) LETS GO INDIA!

yesterday it was raining,i love rains.escpecially the smell of the oli matti(wet mud).it tops my charts in the best smells category.i remember the first rains in mumbai,me and my sister used to run away to the terrace and dance in the rain,it used to be fun.though now theres never time for celebration.i had my practice,the same time.i was thinking about chai and garam bhajjis then,my mum makes awesome bhajjis,but bhajjis are too oily.i cant eat them so i ate chai and parle g.also rains do want me to share it with someone its so romantic,god!but i still dont have a someone,so i share it with my baddy.i have never felt i have sacrificed so many things for my game.and i somehow do feel annoyed when players talk about sacrifices.i mean for me not eating bhajji as i might put on weight,not getting wet in the rain,be cause i might catch a cold,and not having that someone to share it with,because i dont have much time to find a guy are not sacrifices.its the other way round actually,if i am not on the court as i need to do all theses things that would be the sacrifice.its my life,how could i do something else instead of that.

i think love and friendhip are the two english words which just cannot have a correct definition.i mean they are so subjective.a best friend,they say hes the one who is around when noone stands by you.hes the one who criticizes you when everybody sings your praises,hes the won with whom you share all your secrets,things you are ashamed about,your goals,hes someone with whom even if you are sitting in aroom silent for hours together,it might still be time well-spent.there are loads of things that define a best friend.fortunately for me there is one person who qualifies my AAI. noone else comes close.i am not someone who doesnot have friends or is a loner.i love talking and i love meeting people.but the truth is i dont get time to meet new people.i am a sportsperson.the people i call friends are mostly people who play the same game.i am not saying they are not friends they all are and we have had some real great times together.but i cant call anyone my best friend,simply because at the end of the day they all are competitors and we all have to maintain that distance and respect that.in the guys i guess i have ajay….i do tell him a lot of things,he for me is one of the few genuine guys and i truely respect him fo that.and ofcourse i do trust him with secrets,whatever little i have.i dont have many secrets in my life.also intellectually i can discuss things with him.he has a beautiful girl called meghna by his side,and they are truely sensational together.:),theres another guy who knows me well called shetty,he knows most of my things,but hes a bacha,and intellectually we are at different levels.but ya we have had good times and is complete timepass.vinaya is the third person who is a darling,shes the one because of whom i know most of the hep places in pune.she drives me around everywhere,wheverever i want to go.shes just so much fun.

but all the people i mentioned above,are still not people with whom i share my heart and soul.i think its mainly got to do with being a player.i have been playing the game since i am 9,so since an very early age i have learnt to take decisions on my own,starting from the court nobody really helps you once you are on the battlefield,its all you out there by yourself.its lonely.i started travelling alone for tournaments sive i was 12.my parents were busy making money to sponsor me for the tours,so they couldnt leave jobs and accompany me everywhere.so ya i had to take care of myself since then.i ahve been very independent.i started earning my satary since i was 16yrs old.all theses things have made me very self dependent.i know whenever i am down i always look upto myself for support.i have this thing of never letting my parents know if i am tensed or feeling down.due to my life of injuries there are times i feel a low,but i never cry i dont feel the need to.i hate sympathy,i always keep people who give solutions around me.i dont need a shoulder i just need people who believe me as i believe in myself.i somehow feel i have never put myself in a position where i can be helped.i have always tried to find answers within myself.saying all this i am not a saint and i need ajay,shetty,vinaya all of them life will just not make any sense without them.i am filled with gratitude towards them being themselves. at 22yrs i do feel i can be my own best friend ad still be happy.i am cock sure tha t my view will change may be later in life.its so contradicting but thats exactly the way i feel right now.

there is a group of friends i do have from college.when i look at all of them i know that is what friendship means.most of them are friends since school and some of them from college.though they always make me feel one of them and i kno i can count on all of them to help me when i need it,i still somehow feel detatched.simply because i dont get time to meet them often,when i do meet them i dont have a clue about what they are talking.it somehow feels out of place.they are the sweetest bunch of people i have met and i am sure as time passes we are going to have some really good time s together.

so for now i am still discovering friendship and waiting for it to discover me.as for love,man i have never figured out that one.who has????i have had two relationships,but believe me with both of them love had not got anythong to do with it.my first was at 14,for me love was bollywood that time,running around trees and singing songs.and i also thought if aguy kisses you on the cheek you might get pregnant….ahhahaahaha.my guy got a heartattack.yes i was stupid but i was 14 how the hell am i supposed to know? i think kids at 14 today must be asking each other if they are still virgins.this generation i tell you;)….. big surprise we broke up! and the second one ……the guy was sending me and another girl the same shayari,i found out and i laughed my guts out when i confronted him about it.his face was white…ahahhah.ya so i didnt learn shit about love from both of them.and for the last 5yrs i ahve been pretty single.i get scared sometimes i have got used to it and enjoy it too.

though i tell aai i want to experience love once! i want to see how i define it.i have no clue as of now,none.though ya i know how my ideal date could go…..i and the guy should meet up for a game,any game which we both dont have an undue advantage in…the loser pays for the dinner.i hate candle lights and talks about the weather.i dont enjoy that.i think a game is the best way to know the character of the person….as they rightly say sports reveals character i completely agree.and ofcourse if hes a gentleman enough he will lose and come and say to me ‘harke bhi jeetne wale ko bazigaar kehte hain.’haahahhaa….i am joking.he doesnt have to say that but it will be sweet if he lets me win.

after this idea of a date i dont know if i am going to find someone.but i am sure there has to be someone that mad.koi to hoga yaar………kabhi na kabhi mil hi jayega!!!! till then though i am very happy with my singlehood.its pretty awesome..:)

i have just wrote my first blog and i am all ready to write the second one:),i have always loved writing but somehow i have been lazy about it…i know i have to continue my story but i dont want to overdose myself with me…im changing track for a little while….so neways lets come back to the title…

i was just talking to my friends a couple of weeks back about going to a place where theres a beach…ya i mean hands down everybody did think about goa…but then goa was a little far for 2 and a half days….but ya like most of the time everybody got busy and completely forgot about it…but i really wanted to go….and suddenly from nowhere i got to know that my parents were planning a trip to kokan…i was all happy because unless and until its a beach and out of pune it doesnt really matter if its goa or diveagar….ok so the trip was planned we left for it on saturday morning….these kind of family picnics are a rare occassion in a todays life and all the more in a players life…i mean i havent been to a picnic in the last 12 yrs…thats a pretty long time…so i was unbelievably excited..i started preparing for the picnic from friday morning itself….my mom has never seen me that excited she said…i almost had stars in my eyes…as it was like a once in a lifetime thing…i think enthusiasum….in todays world has become a rare thing….we all have made ourselves so busy and closed our eyes towards stoping and wondering ,being curiuos, about asking questions…i mean the younger generation today has everything readily available in front of their eyes before they ask for it…a computer,a mobile phone,a big house,a big car….i mean i still remember getting my first phone…i wasnt really enthused about it…i mean my attitude was ya big deal my friends had it ages before… so ya for me feeling that kicked about something was a nice feeling….

we started our journey….we had hired a tata sumo…we were joined by arvind ajoba,my maushi and my cousin sister…we started our journey in a traditional way….by saying ganapati bappa morya…my dad put on some bhajans on the music player….he says before you start your dhan te nan…senseless music…let me make myself mentally strong by listening to some bhajans….so we obliged graciuosly…ya the older generation does have a lot of problems with todays bollywood music…i mean if you start comparing people like r.d.burman with pritam….how in the name of god is pritam going to win….though earlier i used to fight the case of todays bollywood songs…now slowly and surely i know for a fact that songs made today are not even in the league of being said in the same breath as the older generation….the depth,the voices of lata,kishore,the lyrics,the simplicity of the music….how can you compare that too a song like say emotional attyachar from dev d…..so ya after half and hour of bhajans…we were allowed our music…

the journey to diveagar takes around 5hours….they should take less actually but the roads are lttle bad…the scenary on the way is breathtaking….we had to go through mulshi than tamini ghat and so on…my dad always say that pune is a hill station…i agree we have a lot of scenic beauty in and around pune…we stopped over at mulshi…the water their was so refreshing…we clicked some good pictures there…and carried on…their were lot of farmers there on their bullock carts….i wanted to always sit on one…i dont know i have always been eager to do that…as sane guruji rightly says if you want to really know how beautiful india is you should travel around it in a bullock cart…ofcourse it still remains a dream…so after about 4hrs.45mins we entered diveagar…god the first sight of this place is so mesmerising…
diveagar….when you enter it the first thing you see is guest house…its basically a tourist attraction and so it is filled with guest houses…though we stayed in aguest house…i would have loved satying in one of the loacal mud houses there…u have a choice to do that a lot of families give their houses on rent and provide you with food…kokan in general is filled with coconut trees all around it…it is pretty dense..and also i was pretty surprised by how clean the whole area is…no garbage lying anywhere…i guess the more educated we are the more ignorant we are of basic things…i mean most of the population there is poor and uneducated but they sure well know the importance of cleanliness…ok so went ahead and we found are lodge…now in kokan they surely have some problems with the signboards telling you the distances…i mean if it says 2kms away you can add up around 10more to it…..so finally prathamesh resort welcomed us….at first i was a little sceptical about the place…but when i saw the rooms i was pleasantly surprised…they had really good rooms charged us around 5oors each without food….

once we checked in we were really hungry….so went out looking for food…the resort had a nice place to eat…we had asal kokan jevan,with fish ( only me),usad,amti,chapati and rice…it was simple and nice…i love their masala all their preparations have a coconut taste to it…which i love…we had luch and then slept for a while….we all got ready by around 4 and went towards the beach…it is walking distance ….it was a 10mins walk….walking around kokan ….is real fun….their is greenary all around you….hens,dogs,cows,etc….i loved the houses there…the way they are built….kokan has a lot of muslim population…so if there are temples….there are mosques as well…no irritating honking…only sounds there are of birds,cuk-da-ku,radios playing old hindi songs and the sea…its heaven…we reached the beach….i ran i just ran towards the water and dived into it…being a mumbaite i have always loved beaches…when i left mumbai thats what i did miss the most ofcourse after the local trains….:)its a very safe beach to dive into…luckily for us there was a bullock cart race that day which we got to witness….there were about 100 carts fighting for the title…we were seeing this for the first time in our lives so it was nice…though animal activists would have had problems some bulls were really old and struggling to run….after we saw the sunset we came back to the room….sunsets have said to have very different effects on different people…people tend to get poetic,romantic,depressed,etc….though for me i always have a feeling of gratitude towards the almighty for its grace….i mean he only knows how has he made all this happen…
once we got back we were hungry as usual…we had already ordered for the local speciality ukadi che modak…you have to order these things a little early….i loved it…its a sweet made of coconut and jaggery…it is sure mouth-watering….so we ate that and retired to our rooms…next day was going to be eventful and we were dead so we slept early….

day two started with chai and poha….todays menu was the janjeera fort and harihareshwar temple….janjeera is about 1n half hour away from there…first we went to dighi from where we we were supposed to take a boat to the fort…this fort is right in the middle of the water…surrounded by sea from alll the sides…shivaji maharaj could supposedly never conquer it…we reached dighi and we had to wait fot the next boat for some time…so we found a barf ka golla ka thela and had that…i have never had barf ka gola and im ashamed about that it was a revelation and i loved it…after a long wait…the time came to take the boat….now taking a boat is not as easy as it sounds…there are no seat numbers and like you there are around 200more people ready to travel…so you have to form a line and get in…if you dont find a place to sit you stand….now we are indians so we have the tedency to act a little over smart…everybody is a line but as they start filling up all the people from behind will start running forward out of line….so it suddenly becomes a stampede like situation…it was almost like entering a local train in bombay…u just stand people will push you in….so somehow we managed to enter in one piece with all our body parts intact…some were not that lucky…once we got in there were people still getting in…and in the commotion the stupid motor boat wala started the engine and the boat moved a bit…all the hell broke loose..seeing half of the family people inside the other half remaining outside almost burst into tears…and people started pulling,falling and so on…the boatwala was shouting that the boat will not leave without taking everyone in…but no we indians love drama….i almost went back to the scene in titanic where people are being rescued…all this for a bloody half an hour drive …finally ever ybody got in and we started towards the fort…

the ride was really nice…the water was calm and nice… the fort came closer and there e saw that were fifth in the line towards the fort…now you have to get into a smaller boat to enter janjeera…so we started getting into a smaller boat…here people followed the line..may be because they knew if they tried there stunts the small boat would drown them so everyone behaved….once we did that there was a hour long wait…we waited in the hot sun for that long atime….we were all dead….after the long wait it was our turn and we alighted the boat and finally janjeera…the whole thing took us around three hours..so by the time we reached the fort we were so dead that we saw the fort in like 40mins….the sun was very harsh…but we still managed to walk around and look…the fort inside is something mohenjodaro…its all ruins….the tope there are all made up of metal but they are never hot on the surface …thats the way they are built….also we saw the road whicha has been made under the water till the next village….the underwater road is said to be around 750kms long….ofcourse the entrance is now sealed….its beautiful…the way it has been built is a work of a genius….after we walked around we were ready to go back…the going back bit was preety boring…may be because everone must have been so dead….we reached dighi again…and it was time to go to the harihareshwar temple….

it was lunchtime and we all were hungry…now kokan doesnt have restaurants as such….after a long wait we did somehow find one….the food was horrible….it was all wattery and gulab jamun was so scary that we didnt have the courage to even touch it…so somehow filled our stomachs and left for the temple…..the harihareshwar temple is around a two hours drive from dighi….we reached…its a renowned temple…..again its on the shores of a beach….though the beach here is dangerous to dive into….so we just said hello to the gods there sat and relaxed in the peaceful temple premises and got back to the guest house….

after we reached …we were ready for dinner…we indians cannot live without three meals can we….the dinner was awesome especially the pormfret…when i came to wash my hands one uncle looking type guy grabbed my hand..i freaked…he was my ex boss from bpcl…i was wearing a bpcl shirt so it made it easier to know me….i said hi….we updated each other with our stories and carried on….it was nice meeting him…the next day we came back to pune….

kokan was a great experience…..i took back a lot of great memories…..people there have very simple lives…they might look poor but somehow i felt they were much richer in the true sense of living a good life…the kids there still play gulli danda…they still run their tyres around with a stick…they still study under the street lamps..the innocence is untouched…thats the beauty of kokan…when i compared it to goa….kokan is a lot less commercially developed…the beaches here dont have blue water like goa ….they dont have discs and young crowds or even places to eat….but kokan has its own spirit…it has nature..it has a village life…and importantly it has people who really know how to “live” a life.