I am so very SPAM'ED

I have been stalked  by the SPAMMERS.They seem to be after my life virtually in my inbox wanting me to click on those links in there desperate attempt to publicize & sell me everything & anything, that seems not at all any relevant, without any context whatsoever. Let me share in with you quite of some of the SPAM Mail's that I keep getting!
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The term spam is derived from the 1970 Spam sketch of the BBC television comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus".The sketch is set in a cafe where nearly every item on the menu includes Spam canned luncheon meat. As the waiter recites the Spam-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drowns out all conversations with a song repeating "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam... lovely Spam! wonderful Spam!", hence "Spamming" the dialogue. The excessive amount of Spam mentioned in the sketch is a reference to the preponderance of imported canned meat products in the United Kingdom, particularly corned beef from Argentina, in the years after World War II, as the country struggled to rebuild its agricultural base. Spam captured a large slice of the British market within lower economic classes and became a byword among British children of the 1960s for low-grade fodder due to its commonality, monotonous taste and cheap price - hence the humor of the Python sketch.

In the 1980s the term was adopted to describe certain abusive users who frequented BBSs and MUDs, who would repeat "Spam" a huge number of times to scroll other users' text off the screen. In early Chat rooms services like PeopleLink and the early days of AOL, they actually flooded the screen with quotes from the Monty Python Spam sketch. With internet connections over phone lines, typically running at 1200 or even 300 bit/s, it could take an enormous amount of time for a spammy logo, drawn in ASCII art to scroll to completion on a viewer's terminal. Sending an irritating, large, meaningless block of text in this way was called spamming. This was used as a tactic by insiders of a group that wanted to drive newcomers out of the room so the usual conversation could continue. It was also used to prevent members of rival groups from chatting—for instance, Star Wars fans often invaded Star Trek chat rooms, filling the space with blocks of text until the Star Trek fans left.This act, previously called flooding or trashing, came to be known as spamming. The term was soon applied to a large amount of text broadcast by many users.

It later came to be used on Usenet to mean excessive multiple posting—the repeated posting of the same message. The unwanted message would appear in many if not all newsgroups, just as Spam appeared in nearly all the menu items in the Monty Python sketch. The first usage of this sense was by Joel Furr in the aftermath of the ARMM incident of March 31, 1993, in which a piece of experimental software released dozens of recursive messages onto the news.admin.policy newsgroup. This use had also become established—to spam Usenet was flooding newsgroups with junk messages. The word was also attributed to the flood of "Make Money Fast" messages that clogged many newsgroups during the 1990s.In 1998, the New Oxford Dictionary of English, which had previously only defined "spam" in relation to the trademarked food product, added a second definition to its entry for "spam": "Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of newsgroups or users."

There are several popular false etymologies of the word "spam". One, promulgated by early spammers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, is that "spamming" is what happens when one dumps a can of Spam luncheon meat into a fan blade.[citation needed] Some others are the acronym stupid pointless annoying messages."[citation needed] There was also an effort to differentiate between types of spam. That which was sent indiscriminately to any e-mail address was true spam while that which was targeted to more likely prospects, although just as unsolicited, was called Velveeta (after the cheese product). But this latter term didn't persist.

"An email box folder littered with spam messages. A person who creates electronic spam is called a spammer (plural: spammers)".

Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising and file sharing network spam. Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. In the year 2011, the estimated figure for spam messages is around seven trillion. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions.

Spare me from the horror of SPAM, thank god, we have a spam folder, but annoying part is that often valuable mails go to the Junk folder. - Anonymous

Couch'ed' SELF-PLEASURE

“Ultimate vulnerability. That’s manly.”  - Cameron Conaway

Although its hard connecting on grey matters and substantial lines, my thoughts have been conflicted with cognitive dissonance but life is full of 'two-faced' sarcasms, funny and mean. A total absence of humor would render life impossible.

"The sex was a bonus to the great and wondrous privilege of being in close proximity to her jokes" - Atticus

Well no, do not get me wrong, I ain't talking about in here about the casting couch cliche, that exists. in here. Well Its like one of those days when you are caught up in physical lethargy of unresponsiveness or a mentally wrecking emotional state. 

You at the other end, from no where get instilled with this remotest of possibility of enjoying the moment all by yourself - with no actual sexual gratification coming to your rescue at odd times, end up feeding on to thee physical pleasures of self practice, rather hitting onto or doing in real. These innermost cravings and mourning's that you instantly need to cling onto to suffice your utmost desire to facilitate an ease to your desperate attempt to please yourself with pleasures to 'feed the heed' & suffice on to the frustrated. It could ideally be one of those days of a month, when you decide you could spend time quietly with yourself practicing all the deliriously fetish-ed, that came handy. No matter how hard you tried or even did not wanted to give it a try, for you had anticipated already that nothing of a great outcome could come to your rescue & an instant hand-job was the need of the hour.

"You certainly could use a hand or two"

I was on this couch(cartilage) all snuggled up, trying to sleep, despite being restless. I was feeling this ignition outburst that had already raised my body temperature & the weather seemed not so kind & friendly. I ended up being in a birthday suit.

'Me & my couch', We lay there completely bared to each other - We were having intercourse with the lights off. Snuggling up, grabbing, kissing & poking- plowing my well endowed manhood stuffed monster(animal) with the balls bouncing, sliding it & out of those gaps with curves & getting these monstrous manly thrills.

"I hope you know I'm for the taking' you know this cookie is for the baking (ugh) - When I'm with you, all I get is wild thoughts - Aye, I heard that pussy for the taking...I'll fuck you'till you're burned out' - throw that ass back, lets make it creamy, I can get it all juicy! You made me drown in it baby, touche!"

"Are you coming or going or are you cumming & then going?"

I so wish at times, if I only had, or someone gifted me with a sex doll (love doll or blowup doll) - a sex robot or inflatable vinyl sex doll. - Anonymous 

A Confession'FAKE ID

It’s the people we don’t really know that sometimes intrigue us the most. We get quickly infatuated with people we don’t know for a quick part of our life because we can preconceive them to be anyone we want them to be in our minds. Whether its just those sexual urges that sow the seed to get gratified in the process or it may be a longing to know a person & be friends with someone in real then virtual. 

Reality is that we won’t find out who they are behind their exterior, We won’t know anything about them other than the way they present themselves to us. We want to know them because they present us with a mystery that we want to figure out. We want to get to know them and have a meaningful conversation with them. We want to know what’s beneath that charming smile and gorgeous head of hair. We want to know them for who they are, but the thing is we will more than likely never get the chance to find out, & if ever we do, the whole charm would be lost, & in the process "the curiosity might kill the cat". That’s the catch, that we will most likely never get that opportunity to know them and that is why we want them so much more, because we know it’s a long shot. But we can’t deny we love the chase and anything we can’t have.

It’s easy to think complete strangers are perfect, because that’s all they are, strangers. It’s easy to feel infatuated from afar, but it will never be real. People are so apprehensive - I don't know why? It’s always easier to want what we can’t have by hook or crook, for as long as we could, no matter in parts or full. This Is Why It’s So Easy To Fall In Love With Strangers until you know them for real.

I am seriously loving the fact that world is of fools, and virtually it's not very difficult to fake people and take them for a spin! It's fun to make a fake identity! No one is actually going to question you and ask you who you really were virtually! There are loads of people who ask for numbers to talk, that could be avoided most of the time, and at times I do, & several times I am caught, for the other person figures out the reality and rest of the times the conversation leads to quite a wild hot chat session or a good virtual friendship.The best part is that you end up knowing people more then you ever thought, with knowing what there sexual desires and fantasies are, and how keen ,curious & excited one is to have a chat/talk with a fake identity. They will always like the fake pictures of yours that you post, That can be anyone else's picture's right and it even does not have to be yours. We all end up having conversations over the social networking and let our frustrations & sexual urges ease out. don't we? and in the process, you get to meet plenty of idiotic & intellectual people. Its might be a sinful adaptation of my perceiving things in the way I do, but it has always helped me gather quite a  truthful of results. Its mostly, about trying to know a person, and at times its only about desperate attempts to calm down your curious arousal's clinging on to thee & at times you end up figuring out that you could loose yourself completely to the emotional aspect of knowing each other, But it gets hard to let people know who you really are, at times, since no one would take you to be the way you are, & everyone seems like just a stranger, because they want to remain as strangers forever, unless they themselves are curious enough and willing to welcome you to there world & make you a part of it as much they would themselves want to be a part of your own world likewise, irrespective of sexuality, orientation, caste, religion or creed.

I mean, we certainly live in the world,where in there is more acceptance these days, but still there is less of real out of the closet straight or not to so straight ones that exist in peculiar dilemmas of apprehensions and live in there own self acclaimed fanciful world & don't appreciate anyone coming out of ones shell. It sounds weird to the another person, when person of the same sex texts or starts getting personal through interactions or in other ways, how difficult at times it is to get really what/who you desire for, and coming to rescue are these fake identities who are more welcomed then real people.

A simple thing people don't understand and that is, the fondness that one would have for the other, and denying the same only causes the other person to suffocate in loneliness.- Anonymous 

Lame People'DEAD Memory

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself." - Beryl Markham

I am sorry but I guess I have a too brighten up and lightened up 'What an Idea' Battery in my memory and it never dies' Yes I do agree at times it's half dead, It's obvious when thing are out of mind, out of memory for some time It ought to be lost, right? 

This was one of the many incidents that happened today, An old contact that I made on Facebook though (A Radio Jockey) with whom I chatted almost some 4 years back, visited my town and I got a sms dude I am in Delhi, The funnier part was since I had not stored the number in my cell, I had no clue who this person was, Though when I asked who was it. I got the name and the details! Later after not much identification I remembered tat we had never met but talked on the phone for 304 times and even I had a chance to view this person's cam! I guess I am addicted to such things happening around with me lot of time! Cant help it! Rather the funny part was that this person had no idea who he has sms'ed, & I do not understand when you are not sure who you are sms'ing then why do it! Then he kept asking me dude I have your number stored in my cell, but I have no clue who you were. But when I told him about the chat we had and the cam session and the talks! He recalled half of the thing that just might happened but still could not acknowledge who I was, I guess there was no use meeting such people who even had no clue who they messaged to meet up when in town.

Good Lord! for this incident made me realized I will never forget for what so ever reason who I interact with and remember people by there face and what they did!

This guys from the media world can be so lame, with no conversation skills at all! & when I had a 3 minute talk with this person all he was insisting me to tell me who I was! Damn! this is funny and weird and I had high hopes from people! Anonymous - 24,Kerala,India

Some-CONVERSATIONS

“More of your conversation would infect my brain.” - William Shakespeare

Here from it all started and came to an End!

One of those times, when someone would want to keep the conversations going and wont stop - really wanting to communicate that bad!

At times its like that somethings sometime are better off when not face to face, and at times they are better face to face. At times you could just go about expressing in ways better and at times you just wont know how to react or answer!

No matter what all we discuss or talk about - it's always this conversation of  communication that keeps them going-growing. It could be sheer nonsense or utter surprising awestruck intellect. Conversations could either follow its own viciousness of circles and coming back to where it all started at the first place, and that does not mean once, but at more times too. There could be this series of random questions coming to you more often from the same person every time, and at times, that you would assume it being just such a waste taking them as just a means to have the conversation going & still having had one believed to be of communicative sorts.

At times conversations could take you for a ride, over-board, crossing the limits and at times just you would feel that there was more of a silence or these quarterly sudden pauses in a conversation then actual communication. These would take you to a low & high attributes of expected or unexpected - to an understanding of ones potential of being on a verge of so knowledgeable or a complete mess - a waste!

I had a friend who had visited me the other day, & I will not go in to the details though' but rather tell you about this series of discussions that we had throughout night.face to face!. We were meeting after a real long time & we had been friends just by chance, from no where & we did shared quite a lot of our insights & personal professional ordeals of almost thick & thin of everything relevant.

There are few people, you don't chose to be friends with, but destiny makes it happen & no matter how welcoming sorts it would all be, at times you would not even want an uninvited guest coming down pestering you without any thyme or reason & at times, you are left with no choices other then to deal with it.

After a glass of water that I asked him, if he would like to have,we sat for a while on the internet & started listening to songs , checking out & sharing few pictures & videos over smartphone (of the time we had spend together earlier on our way to Mumbai) & others (pictures of me, people in my life, family) & so on. When my friend commented upon one of my pics saying that i see to have had lost weight and looked better - That was one thing I felt good about... certainly &i had a big smile on my face!

As soon as we shifted to my room, he started to hit me with series of questions like, why were you not picking up my calls, and what's happening at your end, How's family, any plan's to get married?, Hows mom doing, hows work? hows life in general? to a lot more of things that were being inquired about & I was like on this mode - where I needed to think before I replied. Not everything was answerable, or was not meant to be answered or given explanations about.

In between I went to the kitchen to get something to eat for both of us, Keeping the food on the gas to get all heated up! with the answers somewhere moving from my heart to my mind and vice-versa of the questions I was asked! "Well not every time you ended up speaking (spilling) the truth & not with just about anyone, We all had our secrets inside & until unless you had actually figured out ways of finding comfort confronting to the like minded you were not willing to come out". I came back to the room putting everything on my bed, where we sat, eating & sipping & in between changing the frequency of the radio stations ,choosing what song we wanted to listen to. 

It had rained few hours back when we met & I was waiting for more of it to come, Since I was very fond of rains & all that munching & drinking had already given me a little high, but I was surprised why was not getting drunk at all, may be it was because of the stranger with his questions, that had left me with an anxiety of sorts & I was still trying to feed onto my randomness of answers in reciprocation (which wanted to hide in layers & at the same time wanted to come-out so very bad)

It took us a little while to settle down & relax on the bed, with pillows being adjusted, finding comfortable position to settle ourselves in at ease.

I had to go to the kitchen again, & when I cam back realized this fellow was clicking his pictures & I asked him you could have at least switched on lights. As we settled, I knew that I there is going to be a lt lot more of talking. I generally am not that habitual of asking too much of questions until & unless I am real close to a person or too keen to know.

He again started with his queries of curious conversations - which had Osama - is he really dead? How is this place Andaman & Nicobar Island, Have you ever been to Egypt? He then started telling about his visit to Ajmer & his plans to visit Mumbai soon!

With more of things that he wanted to talk about, I never wanted to invade his privacy by asking him anything personal or professional whatsoever, since he has always seemed to be quite of a complex sorts & whereas his(sadist) life was concerned - I never wanted him to speak and discuss all the saddest of things that he would rather rant in vein every time he would start talking about his life.

The next question raised was - What would it be like a hell or heaven in real? How different or same are our cultures and religions, (he being from a Muslim Community and I being a Hindu), and we talked about Christians and Christianity, Why would Muslim & Christians bury the dead, and why did Hindu's fire the body! Which religion came first into its existence & where from! how true it all was? What are the dreams about? - how real and how fake they are. Do the angels and demon's really exist? The festivals, the clothes, the activities one does in one's religion. How far do we follow & practice religion and spiritualism, to a what extent? Is it necessary to pray and visit temples, mosques, church etc!

Why are people who do bad, happy and why are good ones not in content with there lives?

So are you looking for a girl now? in between he asked,and I replied I might not be on a lookout though  but then if at all someone would click, I might just give it a second thought. I am not looking to get married although but you never know how is destiny going to change things for us all. He stated "everyone needs some one in life", to which I answered, not necessary, life alone can be much more wiser and happier, with no restrictions, no problems, no adjustments, no commitments, no compromises, just you and your family, that's it, why would you want to have a stranger in your life & make someone a part of your world! It's not always that you would get someone alike and good, there is always a risk involved & it could be for worse if at all not for good. Then I started telling him about a girl who was after me, madly in love with me, & right now all that mattered to me was to deal with other things, that were way more necessary for obvious reasons & could not go about wasting my time in mingling around with other nuances of sorts, that were way to time consuming & required much time & effort.

It was already 04;45 am - I so remember the time, since I could hear & see my alarm buzz on my cellphone. It was a relief, when he asked me to switch off the music (that played continuously in loops) and lets go off to sleep, else we would have made a record of being awake whole night & not sleeping eventually.

I mean otherwise also I would have not talked this much & that too about everything, or anything, about certainly and uncertainly of things as a whole, where in life was concerned & the past present or future . Still there were some answered and few unanswered queries to ones interest. 

We got up at 09:00 am from this restless sleep that I had, don't know about him, if he slept well enough. I had to leave morning at 10;00 for some work ...so had to bid him goodbye, and he too had to leave & go back. He went half way and then he realized that he had left his packet at my place, which he came & took. As he went it was a final good bye!

I hope we had such people who could just talk in abundance and be comfortable, without even limiting themselves to any restrictions whatsoever. We all could go answerable to everything asked & still not deprive ourselves with this randomness of sorts, where in, we would have to think before we spilled everything out & we felt good about coming out gladly - whether it was about disclosing our darkest of desirable secrets or anything at all. Not everyone we often find to be so comfortable - of letting ourselves out, confronting to this eagerness of coming out of the so called vulnerability of not being spoken. At the end - it's all about communication and conversation & letting it all out.

Well hell of a conversational nightmare it was, but to an extent these questions needed answers. - Anonymous, 35, Delhi, India 

DISTANCE LOVE ' Revisited

Hello guys, I believe love is a space where two compatible souls share their emotions,grow together,adjust certain things,and reciprocate to the affection effortlessly. Having said so I have defied the most important rule that I would have made for myself ever.yes,Distance Love! I had never held any strong opinion for distance relationship,but now when I breath one myself would differ from my earlier definition of love. Like any other realization that we come across in our life we break all the subconscious belief that we had built to make ourselves content. It's been a year since I am in love with this person who has drastically changed my life, and I am stumped to how we have evolved with a distance factor being the sole foundation. I have had my set of failed relationships but never did I carry any of my past memoirs as a reference frame to judge the person who i loved or was loved by.and i guess this makes me a person who easily loves someone when I have just witnessed getting dumped,so moving on comes a little easy to me. Having said this I always feared of ending with a chain of people who must have fancied an affair with me and it only could end up as a failure. Love happened to me when I was least expecting it,it hit me when I had decided to go single all the way, happy with my friends,family,work and all that mattered for my existence. My love was a visitor to me on a dating site. He acknowledged my barely informative profile but left no trace of greetings or signs of initiating a conversation. I somehow managed to send him a "Hi!". I think this was the moment when it all just started to shape up. He responded to my hi and confessed to me that he was not expecting me to ever consider his presence. He believed that he could not trespass the age difference we share. To his surprise I have an elderly fetish (which I revealed it to him much later) so I was rather more interested at my end. We both were aware of the distance we could have to overcome if at all anything like Love was to happen,so we started with no strings attached and a clean friendship for that sake.humans are so convincing when they are making efforts to impress someone and we certainly did abide to this instinct then.so it started with a healthy dose of friendship and sharing everything of our life that ever mattered.we set a bond instantly where we ended up chatting for hours on-line and disclosing every bit of unnecessary information that we could have never bothered.it followed with swapping numbers and then also having phone conversations for every morning-afternoon-evening! He had become a routine to me and I simply flattered myself for the attention he conferred upon me. The proposal was too early to be honest and was certainly from his side(me being the least romantic of the two of us) but I could not resist from saying a yes to him,it was the most sweetest proposal I could have ever thought. He started with ,"I know we both have said earlier how we agree on the no strings attached and I know its too early for me to say a thing like this,but I think I am in Love with you!" I was aware of the effect he had on me that one week of our introduction and sharing our lives where we always virtually interfaced and spoke our hearts out. I took yet another ground breaking decision for myself and gave this whole distance relationship a chance. Today I feel glad that we took this decision.and we have already started making plans on our future,we share effortless understanding between us and are the most practical couple to my knowledge. So this was how it all begun.I always revisit my memoirs where i know its not what i would like to do,but breaking this rule is yet another realization for me to live happiness and rejoice for the wonderful start that led to this perfect present and to make us plan for a even better future ahead. Theres a lot more of stories to be told on my end about me and my love but I think its better to write it here in bits. So this is the start and I am aware that this just does not end. So friends I hope you enjoy reading this piece of my life which is really close and special for me. - 21, Anonymous, Mumbai

The 'Paan Wala' BETEL VENDOR

Be it the palaces of the rich or dwellings of the poor, everywhere, paan is guarantor of their nobility. - Bekal Utsahi

वोह अमीरों का महल हो या गरीबों की कुटी, हर जगह हुस्ने शराफ़त की ज़मानत पान है। - बेकल उत्साही

I was on my way to this paan-wala or the (beetal-vendor) to desperately get a pack of cigarettes, since I was left with none & I wouldn't have regretted walking miles to get one. Luckily there were couple of few places,I could get it from - the nearest, the better. I was out on the streets, with a pair of earphones in-synced to these melodious melodies, hopping in hopes to find the betel vendor else assuming it to be a waste & I just couldn't have survived without a pack of paper-rounded cylindrically-filtered,tobacco filled sack. The more & more keen my eagerness in attempt to get hold of one grew, more of these mirage look-alike in a deserted land from nowhere started to appear-disappear & invisible-imaginary grow. Panting with exertion - trying to convince myself, that it was just few more steps ahead & reminding myself at the same time, that I had equal steps way back home. By now, I was close enough & happy to have found this rather concrete placement so grounded...I wish you were there to witness this sheer joy - exactly the way it sounded.

I started fondling my pockets to get hold of money & to safely tuck in my phone for a while. I realized there was this old guy adorned in white set of clothes(kurta-pyjama), somewhere in his fifties, watching me from afar - noticing me. By now, I had the change in my hand & I was close to the vendor. Oh he was the betel vendor - I realized. He seemed to be in a mood to converse. Before even I could tell him what brought me to him, he said “seeing you after a real long time”to which I was surprised...I didn't recognized him at all or had a clue but he seemed to be knowing me somehow. You live there right? He asked. Have been seeing you since you were a little kid, you use to pass by on a bicycle going somewhere like a tuition class & you used to often come to this cycle repair guy, who used to sit across the road. I said yeah that was like some 15 years back or so! He himself said yeah it's been long! I couldn't resist, asking him ‘Does the cycle repair guy(bald one) still sits there under the tree’? to which he responded, yes he still does at times. I told him, I had been for a while coming to him until I gave up cycling & I passed by number of times, but couldn't see him anymore, I don't come quite often now. He said “We all are getting old now, but then we have to earn our livelihood you see by all means.”The fond memories of things down a memory lane suddenly make you blush & smile, specially when you are remembered & acknowledged somewhere somehow by someone!

By now I knew I had befriended a ‘Paan-Wala' ! So were there any chances of getting any discounts? - I asked to myself. Na, I don't think so. I asked him to give me a pack of cigarette. I bought more than then a one that I had planned though! Just to avoid more extra miles of walks to & fro another day soon & to please his friendly gesture. sigh! finally I had got what I came for. And as I was about to leave, he asked me bhaiya (brother) wont you eat paan, try it out! I nodded - what I meant was a no, but eventually he mistook my nod for a yes or he deliberately wanted me to have one and he started making one. I didn't wanted to stop him.I sat there for a while on a raised cemented surface, while he attended other customers & took his time addressing mine.And, as I waited, we kept talking about things, like since how long he & his forefathers had been in this business for - sharing about his life long insight & knowledge about betel-leaf as a betel-vendor.

“Sada or Meetha?” he asked – plain or sweet?“Meetha (sweet)” I replied, will have one right now, but do pack a plain(sada) one for me too. I replied.

An evergreen perennial creeper in nearly 32 varieties, with leaves that are heart-shaped and glossy, bright green in colour and white catkin or leaf of a vine belonging to the piperaceae family of plants, called betel quid or piper betle. While it has religious, spiritual & traditional significance in its own sweet way or pungent taste, it serves as a palate cleanser and digestive aphrodisiac, valued both as a mild stimulant and for its medicinal properties. It has its drawbacks related to health issues too. Whether you happen to relish the deliciousness of a Kolkata, Banarasi, Masala, Lucknowi or Magai paan(betel-leaf), you should know that Betel Leaf is called as paan in Assamese, foah in Dhivehi, beeda in Hindi, veelya, taamboola or yele adike in Kannada, tambulum or tamalapaku in Telugu, vettalai or vethalai in Tamil, bulath in Sinhala, faan in Sylheti and gillauri in Urdu. You'll often find paan shops (panwari or panwaadi's) ranging from the urban paan gourmet boutiques paanwallas to the so called paan-tapris everywhere. You may chew, spat or swallow - but never find your betel-leaf hollow.

Betel-Vendor has a unique style of making it and uses different ingredients for the stuffing, which is often a closely guarded secret.'He smoothes a tender betel leaf. With lightning dexterity, his hands fly over the crowded containers. Slaked lime (chuna; calcium hydroxide),A little roasted tangy fennel seed, some cloves, refreshing cardamom, betel nuts, tobacco paste, coconut flakes and sweet rose paste - all stuffed into the peppery betel leaf & then folded into a triangle and nailed together with a clove & wrapped with a silver foil.

I still am fond of it & I recall eating it when I was a kid. My dad used to get it for me & my parents would often take me to places(cities) where all it was mandatory to have(taste) one. I’ve witnessed its varied existence in totality. I still remember how there always used to be a one or two kept in our refrigerator.I still remember my childhood days, when I use to get hold of my grandfathers old wooden box(case), that was meant to store his shaving paraphernalia & sit down near the gate of our house with other neighborhood inmates & play imitating being a pan-waalah(betel vendor), often getting hold of tulsi (basil-leaves) & some amount of gulkand (sweet rose paste) & everything else that I could get hold of). I was so fond of gulkand that my dad used to get it for me often. Its a matter of chance or addiction really, I don't go out specially to have one now, its really been long. 

I still remember one of those songs 'पान खाये सैंयाँ हमारो, साँवली सूरतिया होंठ लाल-लाल, हाय-हाय मलमल का कुरता, मलमल के कुरते पे छींट लाल-लाल, हमने मँगाई सुरमेदानी, ले आया ज़ालिम बनारस का ज़रदा...पान खाये सैंयाँ हमारो'

wherein a female character is worried over the red streak (spat) stains on her muslin shirt & complains about her beloved (with a dark-complexion & red lips) who is caught up in his betel-leaf habit to pay her any attention. She says 'I asked him to get me a vial to keep kohl, and he ended up bringing fragrant tobacco(betel-nut) from Benaras for betel-leaf'."Good old days" - I tell ya!

From my grandfathers library, I happen to get hold of this book "Paan aur Adab-e-Paandaan" (The manners or subtleties of the centuries-old habit of chewing paan & maintaining a pandaan or a metal box with space to keep paan or store betel leaves and ingredients that go into the making of a paan, along with a betelnut box and a receptacle for spitting) by Nasir Ahmad Khan, which has painstaking research on paan & a compilation of beautiful couplets - An apt metaphor of a culture, that has a deep rooted history to dwell into.

Yet another poet says he wouldn’t relish or spoil his taste eating the heavenly fruits of paradise, until someone gets him paan from India(Hind).

बड मज़ा मुँह न करून खुल्द के मेवे खा कर ,हिन्द से पान न लाये कोई जब तक जाकर.

Without a word, you pop it in - stuffing your mouth and chew. Saunter down the promenade, lulled by the moonlit waves, tropical breeze and twinkling stars. The sweet juices burst in your mouth with a tantalizing mix of flavors and textures. The experience is as seductive as a stolen kiss, as relaxing as an after-dinner cigar.’- Anonymous' Male,34, Delhi,India