April Fool

I was prankster in my teens.On numerous occasions i was reprimanded for these pranks.I never realized the tables would turn someday.One of my office colleagues pulled a fast one on me on the 1st of april.Posing as someone from FM radio he called me up on my landline and said he wanted to speak to me regarding a bumper prize.My father answered and was quite excited on hearing i had won the bumper prize of 1 lac.He's the perfect example of "Counting the chicken before they hatch".He made plans on what to do with the prize money.The top priority on his list was to paint the house specially since the ceiling was cracking up,second was to get a second hand maruti 800 and all this before i even came on the phone.Once i came on line ,the person on the other end inquired if i listened to FM radio.Now, since i was working night shifts , i hardly had time for a wink forget listening to radio.I replied in the affirmative coz i was too excited to tell the truth.He went about inquiring what i intended to do with the prize money and if i had a girlfriend.That gave him away and I knew this was my friend Dharmesh from the office.Suffice to say ,i was pretty embarassed and it gave him an opportunity to pull my leg in front of everyone.My father's dreams came crashing down, not to mention mine too.I learnt my lesson and henceforth,i vowed never to play a prank.But then ,you never know, as Arnold said in Terminator, "I'll be back".

Twinkle Twinkle little star

In yesterday's episode of "kaun jitega bollywood ka ticket",twinkle and puneet were back in the game due to public demand.It's pretty evident from the fact that this was a strategy adopted by the head honcho.I mean,who would want to lose such participants who are responsible for raising the TRP's of the show.Much to the disgust of the other contestants and the judges,the show goes on.All that talk of self respect and dignity went down the drain.It's all about money,money,money .What was more hilarious was to see the audio visuals of the comments made by the judges when they had walked out ,which were quite nasty but true.According to me,they shouldn't come back but I'm just a viewer so,my suggestion doesn't count.

Telemarketing

Working in a call center you encounter various experiences.I worked in both inbound and outbound processes.The experience of working in an outbound was more Fun.At the beginning of every call, it was mandatory to confirm the right person we were speaking to.I called up to inquire about a certain Mr.Smith.His son answered and said he was digging potatoes.I inquired about the convenient time to call back and was shocked to hear him say never.Judging my expression,he said ,it won't be possible because his father was DEAD. While working in a collecting process,this lady Beatrice always had excuses for not paying up.Once ,she told me she couldn't pay up as her mother had passed away ,so,after offering my condolences i hung up.When i called up after 6 months,she said the same thing that her mother had passed away the earlier day ,to which i replied sarcastically "Was it the same mother who passed away six months back??". She hung up but paid the amount the very next day.Next,i came upon a customer who said if i was looking for his wife, i should ask the cops ,for she stole his car and ran away with her boyfriend on which the payment was due.It's experiences like these that make the job more interesting.

College memories

Bunking lectures,organizing socials,going for outings with friends was our agenda during our college days.I miss chatting with the canteen owner who was known as "shetty".Nobody knew his real name coz "shetty" sounded more cool.Once,i suggested he should include a new dish.And so began the trend of bread pakoras and chinese pulav.Not once did I see him in a tense mood.Always smiling and inviting suggestions on how to improve his menu.Some of them took advantage of his sincere nature and never paid him back .Then there was a sandwichwala called "suresh" outside our college who used to make these amazing sandwiches.Mine was a "special" which had unique ingredients like extra chilli paste.Nobody could savor my sandwich coz a fire brigade had to be summoned after consuming one if you know what i mesn.Just opposite was "Rich fast food" where we always had masala dosa though the masala was non-existent most of the time.Any request for extra masala would invite a stare from "uncle".He usually surrendered.Our usual hangout was "tiwari's tea stall" where apart from few gossips we relished his homemade samosas made by his wife.He bought sweets when he had a baby girl.Inspite of being uneducated and orthodox ,he never cursed fate for giving him a girl unlike the so called literates willing to sacrifice anything for a boy.Ours was not a huge campus so we would be found near NM college ,where our friend's girlfriend studied and Silver beach which was an extension of juhu beach(Not many people know this) The amount of time that we spent at NM college made everyone believe that we were their alumnis.We were always on the black list for poor attendance and we had these PTA meetings where our parents were called in.Some brought their elder brothers and sisters to these meetings.A few brought their neighbours and friends posing as brothers and sisters.The result was quite amusing if i may add.

Fair and lovely

"Wanted fair ,beautiful and well cultured girl from a respectable family".These are the kind of ads we come across matrimonial classifieds.I have yet to read an ad where it says "wanted dark skinned girl".Majority of us have this fetish for fair skin or should i say "gori chitti".Even the ads of fairness creams display that you would get a suitable husband or a boyfriend only if you are fair skinned.Does that mean a dark skinned girl would never get married and be single for the rest of her life.Another misconception that we have is that ,only a beautiful girl can make our lives better.What happened to emotional connectivity!!!.It's very sad to say that all us have this perfect picture image which never exists.A man with a darker complexion will always have a fair women on his arm.I guess these men are unaware of the latest ads of Nivea which is meant for men which could make them fairer.This friend of mine always found faults in a girl be it her looks or character.He should thank his lucky stars for even meeting a girl because frankly he was no looker , but found it amusing to pass comments.He wanted a girl who resembled "angelina jolie".His quest for that perfect girl is still on.A partner should be someone with whom you are compatible with, looks should be secondary.

Reality shows

The latest one to join the bandwagon of reality shows is balaji telefilms.Not one to be left behind ,the head honcho decided to adopt a new strategy to rake in more moolah.Famous for extracting maximum work from her employees,she roped in all her telestars and created a dance competition.Last week's episode was a full fledged drama where twinkle bajpai and puneet left no stone unturned to raise the TRP"S.Guess all those visits to holy shrine's has finally paid off. What was more hilarious was the continuous threat made by twinkle to walk out of the show.It was a pleasure to see her finally quit the show.The amount of whistles and applauses that followed her exit was total paisa vasool.One of the contestants even commented "now the real competition has begun".Another victory in ekta's kitty.

True Story

It was my first job in a call centre in vashi.My office was in a place which was quite deserted in the night.After sunset it was quite spooky.Nobody ventured out after 9p.m.Why the hell would anybody want to open a venture in such a place.We had pick up and drop facility irrespective of the shift timings which was one of the perks of working in a call center.How i hated those graveyard shift(shift after midnight).Anyway,it was during one of those shifts that something happened.Five of us were travelling in a tata sumo and were half asleep.A few blocks away from our gate,our driver screeched the car to a halt and screamed like a devil.Being in the front seat,I woke up with a start and saw his eyes wide open with terror.We thought he had run somebody over but what followed was even more horrifying.It seems he had passed through a floating spirit of a man which was not white(thank god for that) and pretty unlike what they show in movies.We laughed out loud, one even joked that he had too much to drink but, that was clearly not the case.He was shivering with fear and didn't say a single word till he dropped us at the gate.The next day he didn't report to work as he was down with fever.Was it really a ghost, or was he joking.We will never know but I must admit that his eyes filled with fear still haunts my memory.