With eager fingers, I sat down to fill in an entry, but only when I started typing away at the keyboard, I tried to think about what it was that took me so long to get back to this position which I absolutely loved till about three months ago. Writing an online journal seemed to be an easy task in the beginning, agreed when you know that there are other people reading it and then you have to make it interesting (and at the very basic level, at least readable) it does make the task a little more difficult, but nothing can be an excuse for staying away for a whole three months or even more I guess.

I will admit here that I made two attempts in the whole of the three month sabbatical but somehow I knew that I wasn't even trying with all my heart. And what is it now that makes me try to complete a longish entry here?? I frankly don’t know. Today the results for the GD/PI shortlist for MDI were announced and I did run down once or twice to check out the fate of some applicants who had applied to MDI and posted their numbers on pagalguy (http://www.pagalguy.com) and suddenly I remember the story as it stood one year before this day (well not to the date, but at least to the event) and that was where it all began, me getting a call for the MDI interview, me finally making it and then me starting to write this blog and so what better way to start over again than today. I also made some new year resolutions amongst which top most was "I shall not succumb to the temptations of eating junk food" and somewhere down the line came "I shall try to maintain my long forgotten blog" and well I am happy to say that I have been successful in keeping up both the resolutions (the ones in between, I shall not delve into those).

I really wanted to talk about another issue here, and for those of you who will actually stumble across this new entry, a real disappointment awaits you guys  because I am in this really global mood today (something to do with the RMB classes today). What I want to talk about is the philosophy behind the blog. Right in the beginning, I had made it clear that this is a place where I want to exercise my passion for writing and anyone willing to hitch a ride is doing so at his own risk. I must thank my dear friend Prateek Agarwal for maintaining keen interest in my blog and trying to provide gentle nudges along the way to make me start writing all over again, but to him I must say that writing comes from within. The journal written for the sake of providing a daily or a weekly entry is another issue, but when deeper passions (as many of my friends who share equally deeper passions will support me) are involved, the matter takes on a different approach. Also many people have asked for better formatting and maybe integrating some images into the blog entries. The idea about the images I really like, and i'll see what I can do about it.

So now that we have established the bottom line of "I shall write when I want to write" let us get to the part where I stop making egoistic statements and actually write something worth reading.

I am just back from Mumbai (yeah the best city in the whole wide world) from my term break, and it was a great experience. Back in gurgaon the temperature is about 12 degrees lower, the fog is choking me and I can see no sunlight. Right from my childhood, I have been blessed with homes which have in turn been blessed with ample sunlight and so I really love the sun and it makes me sad that he doesn't acknowledge me for days on end here in Gurgaon. One more thing that I miss from Mumbai is the sensuous breeze (as my friend Arvind says). I must say that there is something in the city which will make you stop in the street, look at the sky and smile as you let the atmosphere and the breeze soak you (and before you get knocked out by a speeding car or some guy in a hurry to catch his 9.34 Church gate fast). Well as many of my fellow students at MDI will vouch, once I start about Mumbai, it is usually difficult to make me stop.

One thing that I loved about Delhi winters is the fact that they are so refreshing. It is freaking cold outside, your hands are shivering, you have not taken a bath since the past three days, you are covered in three layers of clothing, the hot coffee is not hot after two minutes, the heaters in the room make you feel claustrophobic, the sun never shines, the fog smells weird, getting up at 7.30 in the morning is a real pain, but once you do all of this, rather once you get out into the open and take a breath of the cool winter air, the feeling is the most refreshing feeling I have ever had. Some aspects of Delhi are really great. I have just finished reading Delhi – A novel (Artful entertainment as some of my friends would say) and it just make you aware of the culture and history that Delhi can boast of. Not many cities in the world have had so much to witness in such short a time. Khushwant Singh is a great writer (I know many people who are turned off by his style of writing and his language and generous helpings of sex in between) but Delhi is a masterpiece. A friend of mine Dr Kotwal rightly said about the book “Alternate chapters are pure pornography … but alternate chapters are pure gems” When I mentioned this description to a friend in college he said “Yeah great, I’ll just read the alternate chapters … the porn ones”

I have taken to read contemporary Indian authors, I just finished reading “The hungry tide” by Amitav Ghose and I must warn all of you who have never heard of this book, not to take the trouble of finding out more about this book. I read almost 450 pages, cover to cover and am still trying to find out what the real story was a book which can surely be given a miss. Next in line is V. S. Naipaul’s “India – A thousand Mutinies now” that is if I find the time.

Its 3.00 in the night and I should be getting some sleep because I may have to present a case in class tomorrow and I haven’t even read it as yet. Hopefully this is the start of my new blogging life and this time I will try to make it more interesting and better still …more regular.