MIDLIFE CRISIS

It was a dark and wobbly place. It was 8pm on 26th of December 2010. The year had brought in a few surprises and life was moving from the “unsteady nomad” to the stable “gruhasta”. I had played a backfoot shot in my career to become the smart-chap-in- office-who-does-some mediocre-stuff. My pay had progressed rather slowly compared to my batchmates and my value-to-organization-index in my career was struggling to shoot up from the ocean floor.
Personally, I had used my parent’s goodwill to secure a job & a rented accommodation in Pune. I failed to uplift Rush from the jobless misery she was in for a good 8months of the year. I had gained 6+ kgs in 8months; climbing 4-5 flight of stairs made me gasp for air. I saw people around with me dreams, hopes, plans and celebration of life; while I struggled with the idea of whether all of this was even necessary. Any creature with spine would have removed all mirrors from his home; I was however was in my full glory – low pressure job, owned car, good food 4 times a day, long drives to places on weekends and just enough money to encourage all this.
Having spent the last 48 hrs (with daashing)was like an icing on the cake that was 2010, I was sitting on the last seat of Shivneri Volvo with Rush and contemplating on where I was going in life. Besides career, money, goals and stuff, the first thing that was pestering me for long was my deteriorating health. I had lost stamina, gained weight and despite the transition to a low pressure job I kept falling sick occasionally. 5 days hence, there was to be a new beginning of another year and a clean chance to make things right! This was my chance to get in shape and in health. ‘Rejuvenating Life’; that’s what I would call 2011. To turnaround my health from doldrums to glory I made a good plan of healthy food, daily workouts and fewer intoxicants.
2011 started with a very good inspiration for me. Kiran & aadi ran the full marathon (42k) in less than 6 hours; only reinforcing the idea that you need not be born with a fitness streak; you can breed it! I started the walk (3.5km) and jog(1.5km) habit for 3-4days a week. My routine had gathered great momentum for 50days until the ‘herpes’ spanner jammed the wheel and I was down for couple of weeks!
On the weekend of the Mumbai marathon, I had a small marathon of myself… I went without sleep for 42hrs. (My own 42h) During the night-out I had with daashing, we planned a trip to S’pore, Malaysia around August and also created a ‘Facebook event’ for it. Our stay in Spore was to be at KeKru’s. (Truly, nothing good happens after 2a.m).
During the marathon, I struggled to keep myself awake by clicking random pics around the Fort area and drinking gallons of coffee while the runners were out there burning their bodies in Mumbai heat by the Arabian sea. We saw Shilpa Shetty, Nita Ambani, Shaan and few more celebrities. It was truly enthusing to watch the runners of all ages perform such wonderful feats.
Another memorable trip was to Bhimashankar on the weekend of 22nd where we drove off early morning at 7 and were back completely exhausted and baked; thanks to the afternoon sun and non-tainted car windows.
2010 was the most interesting year by far! Pressures of job, unsettling tensions of a newly married phase in life (between spouses and between family), transition to a new job & new city, balancing between being hyper-spending and hypo-spending. Wonderful trips to Diveagar (on valentines day), Matheran (with Chinz & Barda), Tarapur (with dashing), Giju’s wedding (in Blore), Sinhagad (with Aadi) made the year very exciting! The Highlight was COORG and the stay at ClubMahindra.
There were mixed feelings while leaving my friends & family and settling in a new city. The biggest heartbreak was to see the Pune realty market going up north and the residential offerings going down south!
I am still struggling to spend some time with my hobbies – blogging and studying astrology. Sometimes I wonder whether I have a direction in life; and if at all I do have it, could it have been better!
Let’s hope I am able to make something good from this life!
In my entire existence, I have always been this person who keeps looking around and comparing everyone (& everything) to me; only to realize that I am not good enough. At 30 doing the same thing has been endowed with a brilliant term … MID-LIFE CRISIS.

Reunion @ Mental Hospital

JAMBOREE!!

Ever felt an avalanche of happiness? Ever heard good news followed by good news followed by more good news?

Taps wanted to spend his 29^th birthday in his कर्मभूमी(Mumbai) with as many as his GIM buddies he could gather। The week before when Taps was AGAIN in Mumbai, we counted 20 odd people who would be the treat-ees. As 11^th May drew near Barda confirmed his visit to Mumbai followed by Crusher, Sunder, Sandhu and the ever doubtful Ion.

To my dismay (to be read as ‘delight’) Mom, Dad and me were expected to be at aatya’s place in Sholapur. I happily refused to make the trip on the pretext of (figuratively) entertaining my friends here. I was glad we had the whole house to ourselves.

On the morning of 9^th I bade farewell to mom n dad and lazed around the house the whole day. As dusk arrived, I shopped for liquor & चकना. Having made the Kol trip a fortnight ago, I knew exactly what all is expected under the umbrella of ‘hospitality’ and had learnt (the hard way) how to balance between hypo-hospitability & hyper-hospitability. I received a message from Tapan that he would arrive at 8:45 –exactly when Adi was supposed to alight at Thane station; exactly when Sunder was to reach Thane check-naka. Nice!! Mr. Host… assignment number1 – pick all guests at the scheduled time.

Having made Taps wait outside my home, I rode to Thane station to find that Adi had alighted at Kalyan as planned and taken the Mumbai-Pune train which was not planned. I prayed that the train was coming towards Mumbai and not going towards Pune. Having picked him I dropped him home and rushed to check-naka to pick Sunder. I had to wait for around 20mins to realize that Sunder was waiting for me for the past 15mins just 100mts away. He looked miserable – 3hrs to Hyderabad airport, 2hrs flight and another 1.5hrs in the auto rickshaw had made him half dead. I sensed only beer could bring him back to life.

After these guys freshened up and praised the interiors of the house, we sat for our regular Friday nite drinks albeit at Vaze’s; and uncle Vaze was kind enough to pour Patiala pegs to all. The choice of liquor was the same as that at Genes… beer for Sunder, Rum for me n Taps and Sprite for Adi. These guys had discovered some firang music channel on TV which was supposed to be pretty famous and I was unaware of it. While we had rounds of alcohol, our bakar kept us going till 1:00a.m. We realized that it was very late and we better eat some dinner. So we hogged on the Biryani Sunder had carried from Hyderabad. This style of Biryani is really very different from what the western part of India consumes. The rice was bland with the spices only adding to the aroma. The real fiery taste was brought in by the gravy that accompanied it. It was a great recipe.

The boys had got their laptops; I had a switch and sufficient LAN chords … CS ONNNNNN!! We all huddled up in a small room, put the a/c on & played on de_dust2. Initially we struggled to keep the team balance by being two on each side. But the abuses were getting louder on each kill. So we kept the BOTS at high difficulty and all of us played CTs. It was a wonderful game. Me and Adi started taking the lead & were fighting for top slots. But then the pros (Spike n lalala) beat us hands down.

Game after game, kills after kills, we made strategies, formed groups, defused bombs and fought the terrorist in that dark night; but in the end the BOTS were too many and too much for us. In this Gods imperfect world, the terrorists reigned and the good side was unable to clean the world of the evil force. (Oh God… I need to get myself checked up!)

We played till the cuckoo koo-ed and the rooster cock-a-doodle-doo-ed. It was 6:00a.m and we couldn’t hold our eyes any longer. It was time for Barda to arrive. I guess that’s why everyone wrapped up the game and dozed off.

PARTY!!

I was worried why he hadn’t showed up. His mobile wasn’t reachable and he hadn’t called me since last night. Moreover the bus journey was through the Kasara ghat – so I was worried all the more. No! This is not a concerned girlfriend’s lines for her bf. Barda was indeed stuck up in a bad traffic for 4 hrs after which he had to take a train from Igatpuri to Thane where he travelled standing in Panchavati express. He said it reminded him of our journey from Bolpur to Sealdah. (Lately I heard of him making a similar trip from Nanded to Aurangabad. Man!! This guy really needs to start booking tickets in advance.)

I could fortunately catch some sleep till 10:00. That’s when the second gong struck: Mr. Host … guests generally need breakfast in the morning. I rushed to the shop to get milk, bread, butter & eggs and made nice omelets for all.

Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the night-out or maybe the a/c. My throat had given up and I could hardly speak. I have been avoiding cold/oily stuff since that day. (I haven’t truly recovered even today - I cough as I write.)

As the hour passed by, everyone started to wake up and greet Barda – or was it the other way round? By the time I got ready, it was already 1:00.

We had promised lunch with lambuji and we made it for tea at his place. He was a HILLTOPPER now. TataCap had got him into Hotel HillTop at Worli. We travelled through the local train (Sunder and Adi had scary memories of this mode of transport). I told Adi how I had the propensity to get into the ‘churning’ compartment of the local train (This is the compartment which has the generator attached to it and it makes a loud churning noise every 15-20mins).

At HillTop, the guys were hungry again. (I wonder how people could be that in this hot and humid city – esp. after you are stuffed with cheese and omelets).So we ordered biryani again … and Sunders leg was pulled again and again and again!

The next venue was to be Café Mondegar. On the warm Saturday eve, on the scantily populated Worli road stretching along the sea, we were hunting for a taxi. The walk was long but I wished the walk would never end. The cool breeze, the lively but calm locality, the cruising of an occasional vehicle besides us, the appearance of the sun touching the water between two buildings and vanishing again to appear at the next building ; the place did not feel like Mumbai at all. I saw children play there and wished I had the chance to see the sun set into the sea every evening while I played with my friends. The Worli sea-face stretch is really worth watching and takes you through the good part of Mumbai.

Sandhu had landed and Taps was directing his every step towards south Mumbai.

By the time we reached Mondegar, it was too late and the venue was already updated to Farilyal’s. Somehow I couldn’t remember this name till I actually saw this place. Taps as usual did not know the exact location of the hotel so we circled the Taj, walked to Radio Club, asked for directions and made it to the hotel; and every couple of minutes I was re-asking Taps the name of this place. Since we were supposed to go ‘up’ to the restaurant, Taps assumed it was on the top floor of the hotel. We found the top floor was all long carpeted corridors terminating in ‘Thai suite’ & ‘Cambridge suite’. We wouldn’t have minded a treat in a suite, but the rest of the gang was sitting someplace in this building wondering where me Barda and Taps were lost. Finally we located the restaurant on the 1^st floor of the structure. It was a nice pool-side place and was scantily populated at that hour. The open restaurant was surrounded by tall buildings from all 4 sides from where residents could easily peek into the restaurants activity. (But no one seemed to be interested in doing it). I don’t know if it was the ambience of the place or the awkwardness of the company, but everyone was quietly sitting with an occasional small talk and formal smiles. Having greeted Mr. & Mrs. Sikka, Alimax, Ruble, Kneekill, Odrey, I took a chair and was waiting for the drinks to arrive. I learnt that Adi n Sunder were the search unit’s sniffer dogs sent to rescue me, taps & Barda from the maze of buildings downstairs. They arrived after sometime with a look of disgust on their faces.

With the chief guest having arrived, the party started getting livelier. Then the drinks arrived followed by Su, Fatality, Aris, Babe, P.An, Sandhu. People switched places, changed groups and the atmosphere was getting more pleasant. Drinks were followed by more drinks and dinner. Adit made a quick entry and a quicker exit because he wanted to get a free entry into some place screening some movies which none of us seemed interested in.

As 0000 hrs arrived, all of us planned to scare Taps by threatening to throw him into the pool. We had lifted him too and swung him over the water while he cried “Main khud chala jaunga. Mujhe mat feko.” Somehow Sugam seemed to be unaware of the plan and he actually flung Taps towards the water. Sandhu just managed to get a good grip and pulled him back. The ritual then followed –cake cutting, everyone singing, cake smearing and spanking. It was a very nice b’day treat by Ruble n Taps.

Having had spent the last summers at Wilson, most of this gang had a craving for kulfi; and by the time we were done with the kulfi, it was too late for the last train home. 12 of us decided to spend the night at marine drive. We walked to the place and sat there for quite some time. People talked, took snaps, discussed GIM days and tried to ward off sleep. When we couldn’t take it anymore, I called Adit and found out that Marine plaza which was open 24hrs. With time as an ample resource, we decided to spend it (despite the scanty resource of enthusiasm) by walking down to that hotel. It was a good 30mins walk along the beautiful queen’s necklace. We saw couples, people sitting in groups, even tramps occupying the place. Even at 2:00a.m it looked lively. The road too was filled with speeding cars and stuntmen on bikes.

At around 2:30, a police van started knocking everyone off the necklace and asking us to go home. We hunted for the place which refused to show up. The walk seemed like eternity. Finally we could see the place. From the appearance of the ‘darbaan’ outside, I sensed it was at least a 5star hotel. The look inside was plush. The ground floor was a huge seating area; the restaurant & bar was on the first floor. The restaurant was all white with ornate walls, a painting or two; a huge wooden model of ship along with its sails was on display. The white table in the center was offering a buffet and the food looked nice. Having secured some scattered tables for ourselves, we freshened up and had a look at the menu card. We ordered for tea and some pastries. I never had imagined I would be having tea in a 5-star hotel. The crowd there was very up-class, the outfits, hairstyles, quality of skin, even the shoes looked rich. Even at that hour, quite a lot of people were dropping in for dinner. The guys were rating the babes who were moving in and out of the place; some of us were shameless enough to keep staring till the object vanished from sight – ekdum ‘desi’.

Our sips of tea were minute and bites on snacks were teeny-weeny. Finally having killed enough time, we departed the place at 4:00, and walked down to Churchgate. Even at that hour there seemed to be quite a crowd in the train. Barda, as usual, rushed into the train & caught a window seat far away from the rest of the gang. We thought he was fast asleep and so decided to play a prank on him. When the next station came, Aris & Anant jumped on the platform, ran towards his window & shouted “Abbey Barda utar, station aa gaya”. Barda was too smart for them. By the whole thing neither was he panicked nor surprised - just plain embarrassed!

Having arrived at home, we guys dozed off. It was a tiring day. I enjoyed the food, the company and the celebrations a lot – but it was tiring. I never had a walk along the whole of queen’s necklace at one time; I have never had a tea in a 5star hotel; I have never been to a place anywhere in Mumbai at 3:00 a.m. which was not my workplace; all this was fun- but it was very very very tiring.

GUJJU THALIS AND PIZZAS

Day 2 was a little relaxing. It started with a nice & confusing plan of Barda & Sunder meeting Vinayna in Parel. Barda forgot to communicate this to Sunder and they were hurriedly getting ready with a guilt of having made her wait for more than an hour. They finally cancelled the plan and I had to talk her out of it. The poor gal must be cursing us for all this and we were cursing Barda.

Lunch was scheduled at Tip-Top GrandThali where we met Viddo and Don (who had escaped from the Khanvel camp to meet us guys) along with Richa & Motu. It was a good meet and it felt so nice to eat the gujju thali again.

The huge intake of ghee had made us too lethargic to plan any more outings. We sat in my place watching IPL where KKR thrashed DC, while Sandhu made nice ginger tea for all.

A round of good-byes followed. The Khanvel campers eloped to their haven, Richa & Motu rushed to wrap up some office work while the rest of he gang went to SBX again. Upon Ali’s persistence, we ate pizza at a nice place and returned home early.

ADIOS!

The next day was the saddest day when Sandhu, Sunder & Taps departed with bye-byes and promises to meet again.

Adi, me and Barda spent that eve strolling besides lakes, eating sumptuous Chinese cuisines and driving late night on the streets. I accompanied both of them to Pune next day where they took their respective routes home.

Have I archived it as just another weekend meet of the GIM gang? No – it will be archived as a time when 4000+kms of journey was made in 35 man-hrs from the corners of the nation by incurring expenditures in 5-digit figures to celebrate the kinship which had evolved over fights and argument in 2 years in the land of 3Bs. Wishing such cheerful & touching memories a long life!

AAMI JE TOMAAR… SHUDHU JE TOMAAR!

I still wonder why did I make this journey of 2000k.m. across the breadth if the country to meet a bunch of ‘JOKERS’ whom I had met just a month ago!! Was it the incessant begging of Ion to visit his hometown or was it Bad Boy’s accusation of calling me a DITCHER or was it simply the boredom I was undergoing at home or was it to make up for my lost trip to Vaishnavdevi or was it simply my vacation mood? I wouldn’t really know and I didn’t care to find out. I had a great opportunity to see a window-full of eastern India, with ample time on my hands and a haunting awareness of regrets I might face had I not made this trip.

To my fortune, another vella- the great Maratha warrior of GIM, Barda decided to accompany me to meet his rommie in the land of his favorite cricketer – Saurav-Da. Both of us had once the audacity to plan a journey to this far-away-RED land on a WL ticket. To our good fortune, dad advised us to rebook tickets on a date when Eastern Railway would guarantee us a berth. Following dad’s advice, I got up early(6:30a.m) and rushed to the booking counter to find a queue of 110-odd people fighting the sleep and calmly waiting their turn. To my fortune I got my tickets booked in Jnaneshwari express for the 21^st of April.

On the actual day of journey, Barda came to Thane from Aurangabad and we took the train together to Kol. I was initially dreading a boring journey with him but he was not a bit boring at all. No wonder everybody-loves-barda!! We talked about books, IPL, women, Thackrey’s CP on the Maharashtra’s political stage, et al. The longest we talked about was ppl from GIM, their behaviors, actions, futures and so on! The second day journey in the train was not as exciting- both of us were lost in reading and seldom peeping out of our books for a chat. The only high point of that day was the tomato soup which we had thrice. I managed to read ‘The Alchemist’ in less than half a day. We met Taps on Raipur station-he was in his GLOBAL best! For company, we had a Bangladeshi couple with a heavy fake American accent! The guy of the two looked like Fatality.

DAY 1….(Bhelcome to Kolkata)

On the early morning of 23^rd, while I was ready to alight at 0300 hrs, I found out that the train was delayed by 3 hrs. But to our good fortune Ion was kind enough to stay up all night and come pick us up at Howrah station. The first sight of Kolkata was no less than Mumbai – FILTH. We took a prepaid cab. Sightseeing started from then on! The beautiful structure of Howrah bridge surrounded us. The sheer majesty of the trusses (when we were balancing ourselves between sleep & consciousness) was overwhelming. The cab took us to a lane flanked by old buildings on both sides. One such building on the S.N.Banerjee Rd was Ion’s house. It was red bricked wall without large projections but wide windows. We dumped our luggage in his house and rushed to Sealdah station for our return bookings. Being accustomed to queuing habits back home, I was efficient enough to get ahead in the line. Having secured a ticket, we went back to Ions place.

He has a huge 3 storey house with his family occupying less than 500sqft of area. We freshened up and had a good chat with Ion on politics, women, IPL, hockey-Gill scandal, et al. Fortunately Ion’s mom couldn’t catch up with the fast paced Hindi we spoke! Pre-lunch, we were served bread-butter till we were full. Then came fruit plate followed by juice. All this made Barda drowsy and he dozed off. While I watched some TV, Ion announced that it was time for lunch. So we had an amazing round of macher-jhol and bhat in multiple rounds. Even I couldn’t eat so much. A (over-) filling lunch on a warm summer noon inside a dark & shady house with tube lights burning and fan running on its max rpm- and all this after an uneasy nights sleep, automatically drags you to sleep. However the excitement of being on a tour couldn’t let us get into to bed. We called all Kol-ites and scheduled a meet in the eve.

I don’t remember when I slept, but wen I woke up Ninty was sitting on the bed with her peering eyes & huge grin. It was so good to see her again with her familiar ‘Isssaaaan-bhaaai’!! Then we met Aneesha, Knock-knock, Pippi and even Akshat at CCD in salt lake. That place reminded me of Navi Mumbai- organized & well-planned. We were joined by Udit n Gurpreet at Misra’s. Beer and a few lumps of meat was my dinner. We were scheduled to have lunch at Rads place the following day (and the lunch at Ion’s had not been digested yet)!!

Day 2 …(Khabo Khabo)

After a good night’s sleep, I woke up to find Ion’s dad getting ready to leave for work. He managed a small talk with us before he left. Ion had promised us a light breakfast (cornflakes) and he kept his promise… only partially. Cornflakes was followed by luchi-sabji and fruitplate.. phew!! A 3 course breakfast. We were joined by Bhibek-babu who made a trip to Kol from Durgapur.

In the scorching heat that followed, we rode in a yellow tin box (cab) to Rads place. Her mom could beat all the gals hands-down in talking. She spoke more than Rads. AMAZING!! No wonder Rads is such a patient listener!!Our nightmare came true- we were thrown open to a table full of Marwari lunch (specially the lasagna made by Rads). The taste was too good but our digestive system wasn’t. We still managed to stuff ourselves with as much food as it would take to make us look un-rude. I wished I hadn’t had the rosogulla and sundesh at Ninty’s place on the way! That day I knew why the sloth bears hibernate for 6 months. We lied there on chairs, tables, beds, floors just exercising our vocal chords while the other parts were too lethargic to move.

When we finally could move ourselves, it was dark outside and already 1900hrs. We made a trip in the metro train from Kalighat to Maidan. We had a nice walk on the road to Victoria memorial. The structure is MAJESTIC. On the half-moon-lit night, the white palace was splendid. Its huge gates flanked by two roaring lion statues reminded of the power the Queen and the company exerted on Indians. We were too late for the light and sound show but decided to make it there the next day. We took a nice Baggi ride on the road along EDENs. A nice ride in a boat (chingari-koi-bhadke wala) followed by lemon soda was refreshing.

Our next destination was to be an apartment booked by Pippi somewhere in Salt lake city. We stopped by for a drink with Zicoda who had just come back from taking client calls across the length & breadth of Kolkatta. We discussed Saurav-da and his brilliant career in Indian cricket. That was the same day RR was beginning to show its form and beat DC by a marginal 1 ball.

That cab drive at 11:30 p.m. to Salt Lake with the warm night breeze blowing on our faces, streets deserted by people and flooded with lights and minute levels of alcohol in us after tiring meals thru the day, was a pleasant feeling. We were greeted by fuming Pippi who scolded us for being late. We then settled down with the gallons of liquor; me & Bhibek were urged to sing ‘senti’ songs. When alcohol had got the better of us, Ion called Sandhu late in the night and we sang out ‘Muskurana’ to him. Even at this godforsaken time, esp. after a tiring day, he was polite enough to say that he missed us guys too!! We guys took a stroll in the park outside and I don’t know when I dozed off.

Day 3… (Jai Maa Kaali)

With a heavy head I woke up to find the sun risen high in the sky as if it was noon already. I recollected our last night’s adventures and got ready to go back to Ion’s home. Our lunch was hosted at Ninty’s – an amazing spectrum of Bengali food- macher, chicken, veg, dessert, et al. I specially liked the fish cooked in sesame oil... delicious.

Our next venue was Dakshineshwar temple on the banks of Hoogly. I sat in the dickey of Ninty’s van. It was boiling hot in there but had lots of legroom for myself. Dakhsineshwar was a very well kept, neatly painted and clean temple. We saw Ramkrishna Paramhans’s living room and the place where he found enlightenment. We then took a 25min ferry ride across the river to see Bellur math. The evening sky, the calmly flowing Hoogly beneath us, the rhythmic humming of the motor and splashing cool water of the river felt so enjoyable, so serene, and so peaceful. Bellur mathh was a tidy place and in the actual math, there were 100+ Brahmins chanting some melodious tune accompanied by the organ and dholak … 100% divine. I came out of the mathh to realize that my shoes were missing; but the ‘nirmal anand’ I was experiencing was way too supreme to let mortal things bother me. I felt like giving up all pleasures and settling down there in search of divinity. (CRAZY)

We drove back to salt lake from there. Pippi was kind enough to donate a pair of floaters to me. We then went to a mall and gulped lots of soup. The gals then left and we moved to Ambrosia where we had beer and saw Punjab XI thrashing MI and then Sreesanth crying like a toddler. Ion dropped is to the night out spot again and left for home to do his packing. We did not have the nerve to stay up all night; so I and Barda saw a few GIM videos till we dozed off.

Day 4…(Hey Bhagwan Hey Bhagwaan; mujhe light & sound show mein pahunchaa dey)

Pippi was our host for the 26^th and he treated us with nice Bangladeshi Biryani and firni. Thank God we asked Ion’s mom to serve us only bread butter for breakfast. Post dinner we met a couple of sub-juniors; Barda seemed quite impressed with the female of the two. I think this was the highlight of his trip. It was good to see R. Prasher and S. Mehta too. Aneesha and Barda had decided to bore me to death (by ignoring me) at Crosswords but I quite like the place.

Hot Darjeeling tea and rum-balls at Flurry’s was awesome. This place was supposed to be almost thrice as old me.

Recollecting the time for light and sound show, we rushed to buy supaari n ‘mukhwaas’ for ourselves and proceeded to Vitoria memorial. We circled the place 3 times to miss the entrance every time and missed the show by good 20mins. I guess we had digested all the days food by then. So Rads and Aneesha took us to a chat joint where we had nice puchka n bhel.

Aneesha being the host of the evening, took us to Park Hotel’s pub (called Some-Place-else). The crowd there was head-turning & eye-popping. I could see people dressed in expensive outfits, alighting expensive cars, smelling expensive perfumes and ordering expensive spirits. The undersized pub had no seating place for us so we stood all the while watching RR take over RCB. We had an expensive KF pint (130/-) and listened to Raghu Dixit play live. The music, in that ambience, seemed amazing; the singer well-trained and the band, lively. When I heard the same music back home, it sounded pretty mediocre. We then went to Rads place and had a nights sleep for 2 hrs.

Day 5 … (Amaar shonar Shantiniketan)

At 5:00a.m we drove to Howrah station and took a train to Bolpur. Alipore to Howrah in 12 min is only possible at 5:00a.m in Kolkata. We were destined to see Shantiniketan today. Since the general compartment was full, we got into a ladies compartment which eventually turned out to be a general compartment. In the process we could get a good window seat and a peaceful sleep. Interior West Bengal is very flat. Till the horizon we could only see green pastures of paddy – not a molehill in sight. From the train window, we could see the stretch of plains and occasionally a laborer or two slogging in the fields. The cool morning breeze, the warmth of the rising sun and the absence of Kolkata filth made the scene very scenic.

We spent a good one hour at Bolpur station canteen waiting for Bhibek babu. When he arrived, we sat in cycle rickshaws like babus while the laborers pulled us towards Shantiniketan. The rickshaws took us through a small-town market place with kuchha roads, dangling electric wires flanking the road and unkempt shops manned by country folk.

We were shown Shantiniketan’s art gallery, some portraits by Rabindranath; a museum bragging the things used by Rabindra babu. The museum also elucidated his lineage and his history. It also had the history of Shantiketan in the backdrop of WW-II and Indian freedom struggle. This whole showcase brought forwards Rabindranath Thakur as a social reformist who besides being a literary genius challenged the Imperial education system and started one on his own. That was indeed a freedom struggle in his own way. We saw the place where students study, where they learn, where they live. The whole place is now politicized and ‘communist-ized‘. This was the place where once Indira Gandhi studied, where Amartya Sen has a house, where PuLa wrote his literary work ‘Vanga Chitra’; the place seems to have lost its charm. We saw shady cottages which had once been the residence of Rabindra babu. Once a barren land, the place houses many trees now and the fills the place with breeze in the scorching sun.

When the heat was getting better off us, we had a meal and came back to Bolpur station. We had to kill 3 hrs there to get into an overcrowded train which was coming from Assam. We couldn’t find a seat & travelled standing. Barda made some futile attempts to fold his extended legs and cramped-up on the floor but he found standing more comfortable. When we arrived at Burdhwaan(or Vardhamaan) we got a seat and immediately all of us dozed off only to wake up near Dakshineshwar station. The train ran over the bridge under which we had made a boat ride 48 hrs ago. The weather was getting pleasant in the eve and the wind in the running train was worth taking on your face. We got down at Sealdah and rode o Aneesha’s house to freshen up. Mr Dhanuka offered us drinks and I was glad when he unscrewed Red Label. Me n Barda had only enough energy to gulp a peg. We finally had dinner in Kolkata that night at Momo place. We had delicious momos and Barda’s favorite ‘soup’. Back at Rads place, we got a good night’s sleep.

The next day was again a heavy breakfast day with kachori(which was actually hard puri) and sabji. Baked beans on toast is such an amazing dish, I wonder why I haven’t eaten it ever. I had multiple rounds at breakfast and then we set our shopping. Ninty joined us and we got sweets, shakha and Knight Rider Tee for Barda. Some local newspaper guys took my snaps while I pretended to shop for the Tees. Finishing the final shopping of rosogulla’s on the station we started back on our journey in Geetanjali. I bade Ninty n Rads good bye before they cud start shedding tears.

This time, ‘The Adventures of Feluda’ (Satyajit Ray’s work which got more famous as Byomkesh Bakshi) were my company in the train. I was very irritated by ticketless passengers sitting in my seat- but those poor souls also had to make the journey so I tolerated them.

The train was an hour late(pretty punctual for a 30hr journey). I came home to find uncle, dada, vahini and taai waiting for me.

Some of the peculiar things of the whole episode were:

• We had dinner just once in Kol, the other days it was just beer!!
• Bengali hospitality choked us!
• We got a chance to move in different circles: us-Aneesha-Pippi, us-Aneesha-Rads, us-Ion-Zicoda, us-Ion-Bhibek …
• Virtually any sweet that is not rosogulla/rasmalai is called sundesh.
• Barda’s one-liners are priceless.

All-in-all; a wonderful experience.

G.I.M mein main.....

Kyun ruk gaya, yeh caravan mera…

Kyun aankein numm hai meri, kyun lagta mujhe ho raha kuch juda !!

Lagta hai yun mere jaane ki, hai yeh ghadi …

Dil keh raha, aye waqt tut ham ja yahi… abhi!!

-GIMSONG

Goa .. Oh man what an experience! Oh ya - The MBA too!!

I always thank my sound mind to make that decision & do my MBA in a college with such unimpressive rankings, mediocre placement statistics and a clear location disadvantage. But the education turned out to be pretty impressive, facilities very up-to-date and faculty very competent. The institute lives the life of a recluse: always working on its ethos, never attracting limelight and has a potential to change the world. My alma matter gave me opportunity to blossom - to learn to grow. It is definitely one of the most important event of my life; and the bonding developed to be inseparable because it was a residential course- bonding with friends, group-mates, faculty, staff, everyone. People called my MBA a “2 year vacation” … I would rather call it “5 term-full of slogging and a term of freaking out”.

The gallons of alcohol and meat on a regular basis made my bloat – and man!! Was I proud of it or wot? Beer, rum and vodka being on top of the list, I had the good fortune to sip through urak, feni, whisky, tequila- u just name it.

Fish almost being my staple diet (excluding Mondays), chicken was a frequent visitor in my plate. I always wondered what stopped me from visiting CASA in the first year… esp because lunch at casa, early morning at casa, tea breaks at casa and eve snacks at casa had become a routine in the second year. Some of the top-of-the-mind-recall items: Bhaaji paav, omlete paav, kingfish, chicken rice, limbu soda, limbu fanta, sweet bun, kappa, paas-paas, bhajji, double coffee, limbu cha, aale cha – Haan! tera kya?

Though uncle’s generosity of not asking for credit money was commendable, we always wondered how his 90 grand stuck up in credit could move his casa so efficiently from morning 6:30 to eve 8:00.

Never did we ask uncle’s name nor did he ask our surname. The day I realized he was Manoj uncle did he realize that I was Vaze. J

The last month in GIM was pretty amazing. I had the time of my life on the CT100. The streets are a treat to the riders – esp the ones from Mumbai. Be it’s the 60km to the northernmost tip in Goa or the 5km ride to Panjim on the b.e.a-utiful causeway.

Bump Bump Bump.. Splash!! Then it was sea water all around you and inside you as well. That was water-sports at candolim- parasailing to the top of the world where you could sea as long as you could see; a futile attempt to climb the banana ride and splashing back into the water or be it the scary-rash ride on the water scooter.

The best ride of my life was to Tiracol. A 60km road of which almost a third was curvy & sloping. The fort is on the northernmost border of Goa. That was where the Maratha kingdom began. So it seemed more of a watch tower. Its is now converted to a heritage hotel and overlooks a very scantily populated beach (where porn films are shot- or so thinks the BAD BOY AUCTIONEER). You need to cross a ferry to reach that place. It is one of the most scenic places of Goa. The ride back was horrible, my bike was light-less so I followed Jaggi and his bike was lightless too. So we piloted Vidoo’s car. She showed us the light and we showed her the way.

One of my expensive trips was that to Savoi gardens. The spice plantations were amazing and the food was more amazing. An unlimited quantity of a typical Goan cuisine is definitely a treat for the non-veggies. It was amazing to see various types of spices in one place which is not a general store. I never knew that clove grew on vines, pineapple groew on a short thorny tree, pepper graduated from being green pepper to red & finally black. The small showcase land was a peep into the 100 acres of plantations they had. The even had a small urak-feni brewery. The only inorganic part in the whole land was probably the irrigation pipes crawling across the land.

Pandava caves was one big disappointment. It was a shallow cave (smaller than Jaggu’s den) having 5 shiv-lingas. The Pandavas supposedly hid here in their “agnyatvaas”. I guess Goa had been an attraction to the northern Indian gang even 3000 years ago. (Must be cheap intoxicants and the beaches!). Not far from that place was a small waterfall which qualified as a waterfall because water fell from a certain height on the rocks below. The best part of the trip was the Howrah-bridge like bridge and the limbu soda we had at the waterfall.

Every event was followed by an eventful meal at some eventful place; it used to be NH-17 most of the times, or Suza lobo. Pitchers, potato-skin with mayonese, chicken-stuffed papad and many more.

The-last-supper or so it was called. A team of 18-20 GIM-ites who hadn’t gone home even after the convocation went to NH17 for the final meal together. Dunno who was the Christ and who his 12 apostles (would be who would betray Him); but it felt great to be with the gang for one last time.

The best day was the last week at GIM. We went to Suza lobo at 4 in the eve. I had rarely been on that scenic Calangute stretch at daytime. We had beer, cocktails, meat & desserts and the party ended at 8 in the eve.

As of date I remember nothing from the case studies. The endless case studies where one case seemed remotely different from the next taught me one thing: Its easier to be a consultant and extremely difficult to live the decision made. But I am sure I would be able to pull through life with the inputs I have got.

I learnt the master lesson of all- life stops the day you stop learning. There is so much to learn that no two-year course can fill you up with it.

To sum it up, MBA empowered me with knowledge; now its for me to be driven by courage and values i.e if I m not too lazy to drive

Cool Summers!

I opened my eyes to find the whole world shaking around me, a small window to my left overlooking a bright morning sky and a silent humming of an engine. I realized I was on my way to Bangalore to do my summers. The sun had just risen, the air was cool, the highway was not so crowded ; Bangalore seemed the same as it was 7 years ago. But right now I seemed to be somewhere on the outskirts of Bangalore with scantily populated shops bragging their Kannada name plates. Wonder why globalization hasn’t got to the masses in Bangalore!!

I saw the world around me snoring away to glory and realized that I must be very far from my destination. But somehow I couldn’t try to catch anymore sleep. Was it the excitement to lead a part of my life in a new city all by myself? Nopes… it was the just the pressure on my bowels! With every moment, the desperation started increasing and time started moving slower. Everytime I peeked out of the window the scene was same…. Cool breeze, red sun peeking from behind the skyline, a shop or two besides the highway, electricity wires waving up and down, trees whizzing by and a truck or two overtaking us. If ever all of this was to test my patience, I have a lot of complaints against God.. esp because the last night I had under eaten for the journey.

As a hour and half passed by and as landscape changed to town & then to a city I started feeling better. When the stop arrived I was preparing myself to bargain with the auto drivers but I was neither in the physical nor mental condition to do any bargaining. So I took the first ric home.

I found the way without much difficulty. When I came home I was amazed to see dada’s own house. It had a gate, a 10x10 court yard, a big living room and a storey above. Dada was brushing ketuli’s teeth while she ran about helter-skelter. I said a feeble hi and rushed to the loo. I came out feeling better and said a HI to vahini and her mom. I called her kaku. Everyone seemed happy to see me and the feeling was mutual. However I realized a muffled tension in the house. Must have been because of the new born baby & his chores. Dada started with his world-famous PJs. He told me way of dealing with ketuli and her whims. I befriended ketuli immediately by playing with her and I guess she started liking me too. I got a place to dump my luggage which till date has been mine!! I called up office & confirmed my project starting date.

I announced that I am looking for an apartment and started searching for some. Me and dada visited a few only to find them disgusting. Dada was encouraging me to stay in his house which I tried to avoid. Finally I got fed-up of searching and decided to stay when vahini urged me to. I tried not to burden the people in the house by eating in office as much as I could.

My project was not so challenging and I spent atleast some tome everyday chatting with friends from college & from Thane. Everyone still thinks I have no work at all!!

As days passed my, the baby had his naming ceremony and I had to help out lots of guests with lots of things.

I met the GIM gang at IIMB one weekend. They do have a FINE campus there. Lots of trees, good facilities and nice ambience. I visited quite a few places and pubs. Met sunny-pri one eve. They looked like a nice happy couple. I saw a good side of these people for the first time. The MBA pressure does bring out a bad side in you. I guess everyone really can’t take the pressure.

Had a weekend with Sonu & her hubby. They are fun people. They taught me bowling and treated me with nice chicken. Had a fun outing with them. Had a good lunch with Manu-taai one day. I was happy when she started being so friendly with me. I always used to feel a great gap between us which I was not capable of filling. It was nice to be with her. Its good to have elder “friends” taking care of you.

There a lot of things that dada’s family taught me. Dada’s willingness to keep me in his house for 8 weeks; his temperament to tred the RIGHT path and do the RIGHT things, his willingness to adapt to surroundings, his persistent care towards his family, his non-complacency and willingness to re-mould himself; vahini’s temperament to look after her kids, her way of easing people into her company, her care and concern for every detail; I am shocked how I missed noticing all this in my parents. (Ghar ki murgi dal baraabar).

I liked the life dada is leading now- a good job with good growth, access to the best facilities, a good family and an income to support them, his own house with a choice of his own trees to plant and happiness everywhere.

If I miss this place I will miss the home food, dada’s jokes & his occasional gyan, vahini’s concern for me & my life, playing with ketuli and most importantly the awesome whether here. These 2 months have made an impact on my life.

Pre-summers!

After a 10 week long stint at GIM, I came home for a fortnight break and was destined to leave for Bangalore. The first day I met the daashing, I pulled them to CCD… it felt good to be there after a looooong time. The familiar ambience, good friends, et al. I was back in my haven. The good part was that nothing had changed, the same old grudges between friends, same gossips, same planning of parties & picnics, it felt good again. I was kind of the centre of attraction for a few days now for two reasons; one- I had returned to katta after a long time and two- I was back to my old hairstyle. I made it a point to meet GIM people once a while. Most of them had never been to Mumbai before, so I was feeling some sluggishness while they pulled me to explore Mumbai. Fortunately Taps came to my rescue here.

I felt a little insecure when my training was postponed by 2 weeks and tried to realign it but in vain. Having had the time, I drove down to Pune and Ahmedabad, in our new GETZ. That is SOME car!! I also tried to keep the diet check ON by daily walks.. but in vain. I lost the muscle & gained the flab- thanks to hapus.

The best time was when Mek came down home. She came with a friend who befriended people quickly. Mek seemed a little wary to be her regular self in front of her friend.

We had a regular niteout at Pri’s place, with things going the routine sequence: fun; half-the-gang-leaving; serious sounding discussion; return home. The FUN element this time was Mak bringing in his keyboard and we all singing to his tunes… well literally (That guy has some stamina to play the keyboard!!) and the serious discussion was marriages & relationships. A good food for thought for those who care for it.

Sadness crept in again when I had to leave home. I went to Belgaum with dad n kaka and saw most of the proceedings of the selling of land which went on. It was really boring to go through all that. I had a quick dinner with them and departed for Bangalore. Every departure & separation makes me gloomy… be it my short trip to Pune& Gandhinagar or a long one to GIM or Bangalore. I guess the gloominess is more out of the inertia (which resists change) than out of emotional attachment with the place & people.

ONE DOWN... WISHING THE OTHER WON’T BE DOWN… EVER!!

Alone on the floor, with all rooms empty, with the bathroom for my own … it felt weird. I never felt this boredom & insecurity. I missed my friends and my enemies … and more so, the HUMAN activity around me. Its 31^st March 2007 and everyone had left for their homes/projects. The Admin block is deserted & I hardly find any signs of life. Today I realized how it feels to be really alone. I wonder how people spend their lives in isolation. It was as if I was missing a good part of life which I should have lived “when I was daring to UNBELONG”. What moti says is right … I am not an introvert; why else would I long for company. (I should break out of these shackles).

As I look past these nostalgic feelings & cynicisms of “God-knows-what-we-learnt-at-GIM” I can’t help but push my tears back. 10x3 weeks of ferry rides, discos, late-night dinners at far away places, whizzing on bikes, chats on gtalk, just-in-time-assignments, delegation of work to Sachith-baba, afternoons in the cell, differences amongst friends, lending a shoulder to cry on, looking for one too; not sleeping before 4 AM, walking into classes in half sleep; calling all subjects “global” and not scoring in them, acting like an intelligent tight-ass.

I guess the best days were those in December break… good placement week, Belgaum, Dandeli, Vagator, Chapora, Palolem, Boghmalo, Arambol... the best 10 days of my life. Good food, good people, good time.

When I look back over the past 10 months, I came here as a shy, timid, unconfident chap who couldn’t handle situations & who was not in control of his life. Today as I see myself as a PROUD, shy, timid & unconfident chap – the difference being, I am now sensitized to what I truly am.

Term I

I sat in my house, looking outside the window. The weather was dull and gloomy and it seemed that it was dusk. I had just woken up from a nap and mom was asking me to get up; dad was all dressed up to go somewhere. I had totally lost track of time and was wondering what I was doing at home.
It was 10:00 a.m. and it was the first day of my vacations.
I still remembered the morning I woke up on my last day at home. It was 20th June ’06. I had moved with a heavy heart and mind full of anxiety about my new life at GIM.
Things happened since then. I got used to sharing room with friends; listening and talking to people in general (small talk); drinking occasionally; socializing; having tea in disposable cups; eating paneer for days together; no workouts; staying up late nights-till dawn; occasionally brooming my room; missing mom-dad n my sis; taking ferry rides, taking walks late at nights; blah, blah, blah…

Surprisingly I always found college interesting and however challenging it was, I always looked forward to it. I guess I have a mindset that this process of 2 years will make my life better.

3 months passed by -I must say they whizzed by. I was just looking in front of my nose and running- running to reach some place I defined as success. But in the quest of the destination, as much as I hate to admit it, I learnt that I made the journey miserable. I kept convincing my friends that hard work and perseverance pays; I guess I overdid it.
My hard work made me mediocre, and that made me work harder. I never enjoyed parties and outings; never mingled myself with groups; never was involved in non-academics.
These 3 months were a good learning experience for me. I learnt to take onus; work as a team; resolve conflicts; the importance of contacts and believing people. I learnt that smart work is the key.
This will be my learning for my journey ahead.

The last step of my B-School admission process

CET GD/PI-30May
Happened today. I was very apprehensive about this because I had not attended any classes.
I had rehearsed the answers for a couple of days and had gone through experiences of people on website. But the apprehension was overwhelming none-the-less.
I was not worried as my chances at JB were bleak. I had been reading the papers daily and forming opinions- however weak / naïve they may have sounded!
On the D-day: I got up at 6:30 as mom-dad were out of town. Went for a jog. Had a light breakfast and left for my destiny. The train was sweaty n stinky. I revised my PI answers. Got down at CST and took a taxi to JB. The college was nowhere close to the BEST COLLEGE IN MUMBAI. It looked like a BMC ward office- but more disciplined. We were asked to register and fill in a form consisting of assorted questions- family background, education, work profile, India’s achievement in the last decade, etc. First shock came when they announced that I would not get the 2 mks for workex as it was not in a managerial role. Our batch was then sent to the first floor , enrolled for GD and given our places.. I realized that only 8 out of 12 had shown up. Pretty neat. This was getting easier. None of the guuyz around seemed to be a gujju.. so the gd had chances of being controllable. We sat in that room with not a word from anyone. Just the celing fans were going trrrrk … trrrk …trrrk !!! There were occasional exchange of intros from the particiants. This gloomy atmosphere was making me sleepy and tired.
The panelist table consisted of 3 chairs.. so I guess there would have been 3 panelist. Behind them, the blackboard read “ the true measure of your worth is how others have benefited from your success”. I was hoping that this be the topic. But I was sure it would not be.
After an agonizing wait of 70 mins, a male and 2 female profs came in greeting each other as if they had met after quite some time. They gave us cold stares- maybe that was a part of their job. One of them comforted us by asking us to be relaxed and SPEAK.
We were given a choice of 2 topics :
1)Foreign channels have destroyed our culture
2)A man who smiles in trouble has though of someone to blame it upon.
To the panelists dismay and my fortune, we decided on the first topic.
Throughout the GD everyone had the same opinion. “Foreign chanels bring in a new culture. It is upto us to take the good part of it.”
After chewing every aspect of the topic, we summarized it. It was a GOOD GD.

On the floor above PI was to be held. I was in high spirits already.
The PI was good. The interviewers were kind and helpful. Neither were they being aggressive nor were they grilling me. It was a cool interview.
I walked down to McD’s to find it FULL. So I had a McSwirl and came home. Had a hot shower.
This was the last step of my B-School admission process. Its over. I am a free bird now. At least till 10th