Its that time of the year again..

My heart is filled with pain,
and it longs for you once again,
It’s that time of the year again

My tears are mixed with the monsoon rain,
Still I travel miles by the train, to see u smile once again,
It’s that time of the year again

I see my hopes dying in vain,
& I try to gather the remains,
Ahh, It’s that time of the year again

I behave like a child insane,
And all I need is to be my normal self again,
It’s that time of the year again

I try to fight again,
Knowing well that my defeat is certain,

Ohh, It’s that time of the year again

One last time..

i want to sit in the class with u,

one last time

i want to walk the park with u,

one last time

i want to go to the rooftop with you in the night,

one last time

i want to hug u tight,

one last time

will u concede my wishes, one last time?

Bollywood!!

I was reading a book which identified being South Asian as someone watching/fan of Bollywood movies, thus conforming that Bollywood is quite popular in countries like Malaysia,Singapore, Bhutan....Thailand. This reminded me of my first hand experience with such popularity of Bollywood in Thailand.

It was in the season of late 2008 when VJS and myself were on student exchange to Thailand and were touring Phuket. We were walking amilessly when this Thai taxi driver (actually a private cab) offered us his A/C cab services at almost zero fare. He would take us around Phuket for a couple of hours without actually charging anything to us!!!

To prove his faithfulness to his offer and his own genuineness he indicated that he is a big fan of bollywood and sang us a few good old bollywood songs in Hindi!! This was a surprize as local Thai's dont speak much of English let alone Hindi.

We gave in to his repeated requests and bollywood style falttery and started, thought cautiously on our free ride. Unaware of his intentions, we went to places he took us to - primarily gov owned jewellery shops, metal factories, cloth shopes etc. When we protested that we are not willing to buy any such things he insisted we just visit for 2 mins and come back. In some time, he discloses that he receives kick backs from these shops for getting tourists to visit them even if they dont buy anything and requested us to bear with him for a while.

With nothing much to do before we took our return bus, we went with him to all these random shops. He kept us in good mood by singing us bollywood songs, praising the industry and the stars and saying he was a good man (so that we can trust him with our luggage while we do the rounds of the shops) and collecting kick backs from the shops.

Finally the shocker - when we have completed the visit to his last shop and as promised he is taking us back to the bus stop - he stops talking to us altogeather, switches the a/c off, his face becomes stern, he drops us at the bus stop and while we try to thank him or say customary goodbye, he speeds off without a word!!

So much for the sake of Bollywood!!