smr’s blog

A flashback of the year ( in no particular order ) -
* moved to gurgaon, left hyderabad
* startup did breakeven
* became iiit ms dropout
* internalized being cool and existential
* started driving motorbike, and learned driving car
* started flirting
* didn’t get laid
* started web hosting server
* became more fitness conscious, started working out a bit, regularly
* more work, more browsing and less parties
* all clear for US
* missed the 777 plan
* got involved in an road accident, and ran away
* did my first donation; to wikipedia
* bought camera phone, started capturing life in pics as well
* watched FRIENDS. Also South Park, 24, Heroes. No good unseen con/heist movies left.
* revived on blogging (moved to wp). july ‘06 - feb ‘07 : 8 months, 7 posts. march ‘07 - dec ‘07 : 10 months, 37 posts.

Earlier : life @ 2006 , life @ 2005

Happy Lohri!

“bhirin”[bhee-rin] is a pahari thing we do on Lohri(Jan 13th). More specifically in Upper Shimla Area (Rohru etc) in Himachal.
The thing is, call someone, he answers it, and then say bhirin.
Example (How I win a bhirin on mom) -
Me : Mummiiii
Mom : Haan
Me : Bhirin

Its done early in the morning, and there is a competition on who does it first.
This is done on phone as well. Callee says hello, and caller says bhirin. It use to be more fun without caller id on phone. With caller id, the callee sometimes directly says bhirin.
Important rule - one has to take bath before he can do bhirin on others. So people take bath very early on this day.
On this day people greet each other with excitement and cheer, shouting bhirin. Very simple thing, but it rocks!

Within family its about catching up people on bed and doing bhirin on them, before they become conscious about it. I remember being woken up by mom/nanaji/mamaji etc at like 5am to do a bhirin on me. Then forced out of bed, to take bath, on a chilly morning. I rarely remember a Lohri at home without snow around. It used to be a fun filled day.

So today morning got calls from a few relatives, and called a few. Many didn’t accept my bhirin, guessing that I haven’t taken bath yet. true!
Searched net on bhirin and found nothing. Hence the post.

Hello reader,
bhirin!