The last time I updated the blog..

Its been so long since I updated this blog. A lot has happened in the last two years. One of the major changes in my life was shifting to Pune. A city I just can't come to terms with. Anyways, I am trying to crib less.

The last time I had updated the blog, nearly all my friends were unmarried. As I write this today, I am one of the few who is still unmarried. In the last two years, the amount of travelling I have done for attending these wedding should make me a privileged customers for all the national airlines. Sometimes, I feel that I might be lost in this transition to the next phase of life as my friends move ahead and I stay back for some more time. Its a fear which is constantly there at the back of my head but I hope it never comes true.

The last time I updated the blog, most Indians thought that roast was a type of chicken dish to be had. But now everyone knows what AIB stands for and what is a roast. The roast video had to be taken down from youtube after an FIR was lodged citing indecency. First of all, it was uploaded on a forum and no one twisted anyone's arm to make them watch it. The new brand of intolerance in this country is quite unsettling where an offense is taken at the drop of a hat. We as a nation are slowly losing our sense of humour and the ability to laugh at ourselves.

The last time I updated the blog, India were still the world champions of the 50 over format. Since then, we have lost the T20 world cup finals against Srilanka. Then when we went to Australia to defend the title, we were greeted with the test series first which we lost quite predictably. Then there was the pointless tri-series with England as the third team in which we got hammered. Finally the world cup started and what a rosy picture it was for the next seven matches in which we took all 10 wickets of the opposition. Then in the semis, we ran into the mighty Aussies and lost. It was an admirable effort by a team which was expected to struggle through the group stages and lose in the quarters. But, the way our beloved electronic media went after our Indian team was plain and simple disgusting. Times Now tried to get #shamedinsydney to trend but the netizens turned around the hash-tag to #shameontimesnow which was a fitting reply to a channel which tries to stir up non-issues at the behest of real issues.

The last time I updated the blog, Game of Thrones, Sherlock and House of Cards were kicking some serious ass. Somethings don't change I suppose.

Its been so long that I have lost the art of writing. It shall come back to me as I start writing more often.

The Journey

I remember nearly two years ago, when I stood outside MET Institute of Management and thinking to myself “Did I make the right decision in joining this college?”

It all started with all my frustration at work. I was bored beyond belief doing the same thing over and over again, day in and day out. I desperately needed a change and with that mentality I gave the CET. For the first time in my life, I went through the whole CET process. From the exam itself to the GD to the PI and I somehow managed to secure a seat in MET. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and put in my papers the very next day and in a month’s time I was back to being a student.

The transition itself from a professional to a student was a very difficult one for me. I had lost all my will to sit in one place and listen to people go on about stuff. The 1^st three days of the induction program were brutal on me. Sitting on those uncomfortable chairs listening to people drone on about how great it is that I am doing an MBA and how bad the economy was doing. Now when I look back, I am glad that some of the speakers didn’t sugarcoat things for me. It was bit of an eye opening moment for me and it actually willed me into working a bit harder in the next four semesters. But during those three days the one thing about which I thought non-stop was - “would it be too drastic if I jumped through the window to escape this?” Anyways after the grueling rite of passage every MET student has to go through, we went on the outbound programs. This is where I made my first friends in MET and I came to realize that this could be fun. My engineering college experience was nothing much to write home about. I had somehow managed to survive my 4 years of rigorous imprisonment. I had made a promise to myself that things would be different this time around. I am not going to survive it but I am going to enjoy it and I swear on everything that I hold dear to me, I did exactly that!

But ladies and gentlemen, it was never that easy. 44 subjects in 4 semesters with a summer internship of 2 months left me with very little time to do anything else. The lectures were 3 hours long an as it is I have a big problem in paying attention to anything for more than 10 minutes. It was difficult to sit there and try to pay attention for the whole 3 hours. Then there were the presentations. So many freaking presentations! It was sometimes really good and sometimes not too good. The most fun I personally had in a presentation was the 1^st semester Law presentation. I don’t think a lot many would agree with me but I never had that much fun while presenting a PPT. The re-scheduling of the time table all the time surely frayed my nerves on more than one occasion. The exams were another nightmare for me. 11 papers on the trot without a break can surely drive anyone crazy! But that was not even the worst part. The worst part was the disappearance of my weekends. With three lectures on both Saturdays and Sundays, the weekend part of my life was cruelly taken from me.

But times were never always dark. I shifted to Bandra and got three incredible room-mates Lovenish, Niraj and Patil Sahib. We had some crazy times in that stupid wash basin leaking flat. We also made the GMB Inc. Don’t ask!

And then there was the division in which I was in. The best damn division in the whole of MET. B division! I had a lot of fun in the class, no matter what. What made everything feel even better was that people genuinely helped each other without an agenda. There were a few trips also thrown in for good measure. Be it the Outbound, Silvassa IV, Lonavala b’day party, or the Goa IV. I had a really good time on each and every trip.

I got along with nearly everyone (some might say in the contrary) but I still hadn’t found my so called friends niche. I am lucky that I eventually did and thus was born “The Wolfpack”. If you think that this is a very presumptuous name, I would ask you to take it up with the guy who came up with the name, Mr. Rahul Noronha, king of Bandra, Patron-in-chief of Janta’s, etc etc. Then there was Janhavi, the nerd of the group (what? It’s true! Ask anyone), Devanshi the first girl I spoke to in MET, Motwani according to whom “No Entry” is the best hindi comedy made, Rucha the one soon to be married, Dhwanil the blackberry boy (you ditched blackberry now but it’s fine), Yogi fellow RAITian, and the ever absent Shivani. The whole MBA experience was better because I went through it with you guys!

So coming back to the question, “did I make the right decision?” The right answer to that is a resounding “YES”. Leave aside the curriculum, the abysmal placement scene, the professors; the answer is yes because I was able to share the journey with some of the best people I know in my life.

So it is the end or the beginning? Everybody will answer it differently. For me personally, it’s just the beginning of the rest of my life. I hope I keep running into “my friends from MBA” all the time.

And lastly, I am really sorry from the bottom of my heart to anyone whom I hurt during these two years. I wish the whole MET MMS class of 2013 all the very best in their lives and may you all fulfill all your dreams. It was both a pleasure and an honor to have shared such an important phase of my life with you guys. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Picture courtesy Aditya Phatak

Being 26

I am 26 and a half. It is a really difficult age to be. I mean your wild years are behind you. Now all you can look forward to is maturity. All your friends are getting married or engaged. Your facebook timeline looks like a Wedding album and Engagement proclamation combined.

Everywhere you look, you will find people just waiting to get married. All your exes are getting married and driving into the sunset with their knight in shining armour.  You are working real hard because you want to be worthwhile. There’s no time to be wasted. You lose touch with your close friends with whom you thought you would always be in touch. You come to know about their marriages via status updates and photo updates. You can’t drink as much alcohol as you used to. Now it takes a whole day just to recover from the hangover. You start getting a tummy. All the girls you see are too young for you. All the girls your age are in a steady relationship. God forbid if you are single at the age of 26, you will find a single girl when hell freezes over.

These symptoms were not even the worse ones. The worst side effect of being a 26 year old guy in India is your family relatives asking you the dreaded question: “When are you getting married?” Why the hell is everyone all of a sudden interested in me getting married! Do I think I am ready? Let me tell you the answer to that one “NO!!” Every family function or get together you attend this topic raises its ugly head! I feel as if I should stick a note on my head saying “Not ready”. Everyone is curious if you are seeing someone. Even if you are not, there are a lot of nosey people who would try to dig out information about it. You really can’t run away from all this. How long can you say no to attending family functions?!

Ahh well.. what can one do? I guess as we go towards the later half of the 20s, this all is expected. But, why god why? I thought we had a deal. I wouldn’t age more than 25!! Whatever happened to that one??

Memoirs of an Engineer

I graduated in engineering way back in 2008. This is just a look back on those 4 years of, how do I put it delicately “suffering”. Well, I started attending an engineering college in 2004 (nearly 10 years ago, time does fly by!!) and for the next 4 years I went through all the ups and downs an engineer is supposed to go through especially if that engineer is doing his engineering from Mumbai University.

The fight is to get to the magical figure of 40. Everyone apart from the really bright, genious ones looked at 40 as a milestone. An engineer knows the true power of the number 40. It can make or break your semester depending which side of 40 you fall on. 40 for me was the begin all and end all of exams. During each and every paper of my engineering life, I counted my marks till I was sure I would somehow get to the magical number. After that, whatever I got was just a bonus for me! I was a reluctant engineer, just doing engineering because I couldn’t think of doing anything else and also, all my school friends were on their way to becoming one. So for me, getting 40 was all that mattered.

Another interesting aspect of doiing engineering from Mumbai University was the “Vivas”. That was always fun. Sample this: 3 guys sitting facing an unknown face in most cases.

Unknown face: What do you mean by blah blah?

Guy 1: (with an really intense look on his face) Sir, I have not read that chapter.

Guy 2: (with a look that says he is trying to remember) Blah blah I think sir is ahhh..uhhhh..mmmm..

The Unknown face looks at the 3^rd guy

Guy 3: I don’t know sir!

Unknown face: You guys have not prepared anything at all. Anyways what is the equation for a circle?

Guy 1: (draws a circle and trying to deduce the equation)

Guy 2: It’s x2/a2 + y2/b2 = r2

The unknown face looks impressed and turns to guy 3.

Guy 3: Sir, as guy 2 said!

I was nearly always guy 3 in the vivas. And it was always fun. The crowding of people who just came out after giving their vivas, asking them questions as the paparazzi would have asked them. “what questions did he ask you?” “which chapter is this shit from?” “is the external strict?” “what the fuck?!” etc etc. And God forbid, if the profs go for their lunch break before taking your viva. The choicest of words were then used to describe the situation! It was always fun these vivas!! The amounting tension. The what if question about what if the external tells us to go, study and come back to give the vivas. That was always dreaded.

Moving on to the practicals! Ahhhh…praticals! 2 hours wasted standing in some lab or other with faulty machinary to give you company. The most productive work of the viva happened in the last 10 mins where readings were smartly copied from the one group of geniouses who actually managed to get the reading somehow. Praticals were the time when people caught up with each other. Tales were exchanged. Gossip was circulated etc etc.

Then there were the assignents! I mean I still don’t understand the use of assignments in egineering. Same questions were given to the whole class on the pretext that the students will not copy from each other. Everyone used to wait till someone finished the assignment and then it was a mad scramble to get the photocopy (xerox in popular lingo) of that elusive solution set. People spent days trying to copy and decipher what the other person has written. That mad rush was really special!

I admit I could never bring myself to love engineering but there were these moments which made it nearly worth it. I got my first job just because I was an engineer and I could talk properly. I am ever grateful to my college for getting me a job at the height of the 2008 recession.  The friends I made, the hostel life, becoming an independent person, falling in and out of love, and many other things! It’s true I am not very proud of being an engineer but as I look back now, it was the best thing that could have happened to me at that point of time to me. It played a big role in making me what I am today! So thank you Engineering for teaching me so many valuable lessons.

P.S: The most important thing which engineering taught me was to procastinate till the very last moment and still get the work done at the very last moment!

The Joy of West Indian Cricket

Sometime back I had the pleasure of watching “Fire in Babylon”. It is a documentary which showcases the rise of the West Indian cricket team to the pinnacle of the sport. Led by a fearless leader, Clive Lloyd, the West Indian cricket team adopted the motto “one for all, all for one”. The West Indian team consists of players from all the Caribbean islands. All islands come under the same banner only for the West Indian cricket team. When people from so many cultures share the same dressing room, there’s bound to be conflict. Still, the West Indian players came together against the common enemy, Australia and England. West Indian cricket team ruled international cricket from the mid 70s to late 80s. They never lost a test series at home, in fact, till the mid 90s.

But, as the 90s rolled by, the decline had started. Players like Sir Vivian Richards, Malcolm Marshall and company retired one after the other. There was no successive planning in place to blood in the youngsters. And hence, the West Indian cricket team started their journey towards the wrong end of the world rankings. The nadir was when West Indies lost the home test series to Bangladesh. A lot of factors had played a part. The internal politics of the cricket board, the player’s strike, cricket been replaced by basketball as the most popular game in the Caribbean were some of the reasons which led to the downfall of West Indian cricket.

But, finally in 2012, the tide seems to be changing. The West Indies cricket team is the newly crowned World T20 Champions. In today’s West Indian team, they have no dearth of impact players like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels and they have the best mystery spinner in Suniel Narine.

But, the unsung hero of the whole campaign was their captain, Darren Sammy. Experts have cast their apprehensions even on his place in the side but he has given everything he had to get the team to gel together and to top it, he has led from the front. He has managed all the egos in the dressing room to form a band of merry men who gave us such joy with their way of playing cricket and celebrating their win. If for nothing else, just for their inhibited celebrations, they deserved to win the T20 World Cup.

There are a lot of management lessons one can pick up from the story of the journey of West Indian cricket team. How to build a team , what not to do to destroy the legacy, how a leader should mould and lead their team, how to out-think your opponent, and most of all, how to beat the odds and emerge victorious.

The joy which West Indies cricket brings is really required at this time in international cricket. Whenever West Indies cricket is going well, world cricket is more interesting to watch.

Let the celebrations go on Gangnam Style!

Avengers - Reviewed by a Fan (Not A Critic)

CAUTION: The review contains spoilers. So read it only if you have already seen the movie or plan not seeing it at all!!

So, apparently Avengers took 6 odd years to complete. So, was all the money, time and sweat of people that went into making Avengers worth it? Does the movie stand up to the hype and hoopla surrounding it? And does the movie justify - me spending so much money to it in the theatres..?? The answer to all these questions is a resounding "YES"!!

First and foremost, Avengers gives you Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow and that guy who is really good with the bow and the arrow, Clint Barton. There's also Nick Fury and his merry band of SHIELD agents. And then there's the super villain Loki! So many superheroes and others just for the price of one!! The effects are mind blowing and the story doesn't suck either!!

Let's start with the script. It is well scripted. Every Super-hero has been given equal screen time. The villain looks notorious enough. The scenes are well shot. The dialogues are comical. There's the customary tension between the super heroes when they first meet each other.

Moving on to the actors, Robert Downey Jr., I salute thee for the rendition of the Iron Man and even more for Tony Stark, the smart talking, playboy billionaire when the armour suit is taken away!! Infact he's more funny when he's not inside the armour suit. One of the most iconic lines in the movie comes from Robert Downey Jr. when he says "We got Hulk"!  He's funny throughout the movie and he's the one who holds it together!!

Chris Evans as Captain America is for me very vanilla. A lot of scope was there to make him more entertaining, after all he has woken up after 70 odd years. How was he coping up trying to adapt to this new world? He just does the strategizing and keep saying Soilder and Ma'am.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor sounds Australian throughout the movie. He does what he is supposed to do as the super villain is a brother he is trying to take home. The fight sequence between him, Iron Man and Captain America is really good. Also same is the case of his fight against Hulk.

Scarlett Johansson does what she does best - Looks HOT!!

Jeremy Renner tries really hard to cement his place in the starting line-up of super heroes and he does fairly well too. But falling to the super villain in the very beginning and then getting beat up by a girl doesn't really add up to a super hero.

And then there's Mark Ruffalo as the HULK!! And for me, he or let's say the computer generated green version of him was the surprise package of the movie. The Hulk was funny every time he was on-screen. The biggest cheers in the theatre were for him. The scenes in which he punches Thor, just for fun and the way he manhandles Loki were really really funny.

Now a word for Tom Hiddleston. The british actor plays an awesome super villain who is a match for all the 6 super heroes combined.

Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury is solid. But what disappointed me the most was Cobie Smulders in a very insignificant role as Fury's sidekick! She has been wasted!!

Joss Whedon who is the director surely knew how to make an epic!

Hope who ever watched the movie stayed till the very end. There's  an extra scene after the credits. There's definitely going to be Avengers - 2. And I will be waiting for it!!!!!!!!

But before that The Dark Knight Rises....

The Great Wall of India

The year was 1996. Indian cricket team was on a tour of the British Isles. As usual the Indians were getting beaten left, right and centre. Navjot Singh Sidhu had flown home after a tiff with Mohd. Azharuddin. So, on 20th June 1996, two Indians made their debut for the Indian side at the home of cricket, Lord’s in London. Both the young men left an imprint that day. One made a century on debut and the other fell for 95. I am going to talk about the gentleman who made 95 on debut and was overshadowed by a century on debut, the perennial unsung hero of Indian Cricket, Rahul Sharad Dravid.

I don’t exactly remember when I became a fan of Rahul Dravid. It was right after he made his debut in England, I suppose. I was amazed by his calm demeanour, the seriousness in which he played the game. He was not brash in any way. Very down to earth. He has had ups and downs in his career like any other sportsperson. He had an amazing 1st year of International cricket. Then, he was dropped from the ODI side. The reason given was that his strike rate was not up to the mark. Also, he was predominantly a legside player. Dravid was still playing test cricket. He scored his first test century against South Africa in South Africa, an innings of 148 against the likes of the Allan Donald. He was recalled to the ODI side for the series against Bangladesh and Kenya. I had to sit and watch him struggle against Kenya I think where he scored 1 from 30-odd deliveries. It was very difficult to watch to see such a class act struggle. But he battled it out. He went back to the drawing board, worked hard on his game, and came back to the Indian side for the 1999 World Cup. Dravid was the highest run-getter of the tournament where India was knocked out in the Super Six stage. He then went on to score centuries in both the innings of a test match against the kiwis in New Zealand. Then Sourav Ganguly took over the captaincy and India started a journey towards redemption. I still get Goosebumps when I think of the Kolkata test against Australia in which India won after following-on. People will remember the heroics of VVS Laxman. But Dravid also played one of his most important innings. He contributed 180 to the score and batted a whole day alongside VVS to deny Australia even a single wicket on the 4th day. As the 2003 world cup rolled by, he was asked to keep wickets for the ODI team. He did it without saying anything. The Headingly test where Dravid again scored a century in very demanding conditions. The Adelaide test where he scored 233 and 72* in the second innings and helped India to a famous win on Australian soil after 22 years. Then he was appointed the captain of the side. India under his captaincy won the test series in England. But then came another low point. India got knocked out of the World Cup 2007 in the 1st round itself after embarrassing losses to Bangladesh and Srilanka. No one had asked for his resignation as the captain of the side but he stepped aside himself. And then he struggled, struggled a lot. Finally last year, he had an amazing year where he scored 6 centuries. And then the disaster called the Australian tour came and the rest as they say is history!

I think Dravid has made the decision to retire at the right time. India doesn’t have an overseas tour for the next year. Youngsters can be blooded in the Indian side in home conditions. The coveted No.3 spot is up for grabs.
Rahul Dravid has always handled himself in a very dignified manner, a perfect gentleman in a gentlemen’s game. He is a role model for all youngsters. You don’t have to abuse or show the middle finger to get a point across. Let your performances do the talking.

Rahul, you will be sorely missed. Best of luck for your future ventures. Hope you became a commentator. Atleast, it would give me an incentive to watch the game again. I don’t know if I will watch test cricket again! Thanks a lot for all the memories!

In the end, there is only one Rahul “The Wall” Dravid. There never will be another one!!

When You are Nervous

One of the meanings of Nervous given in Oxford Dictionary is anxious or apprehensive. Be it that test tomorrow for which you have not studied at all, or the presentation which you know how so much you prepare the chances of getting a positive feedback on that is 10% or less, or in some cases when you are going to take a major step forward in your life. The first day of a new school, college or work sets off the butterflies in the stomach. Now imagine the nervousness of a man when he stands next to a lady with a ring in his hand all ready to get engaged. What will be his level of nervousness?

One of my best friends went through it today. He got engaged! Congrats, you know who (don’t want to name him here). Anyways thinking of settling down first of all is a faraway thought. But actually going and doing it is sheer courage! In recent times I have seen quite a few of my friends getting married/engaged. And the symptoms are all the same for all cases and I mean the interviews and tests and all but the following are most accurate for the engagement.

It all starts with “Have I made the right decision?”. Then you waste a few hours thinking over it. Going over and over, playing each scenario, each one more improbable than the previous one. You fight yourselves into the corner. Finally, after boxing yourself into a corner, you get an absolute amazing idea. The idea is “Phone a friend”. Next you call up a friend who you think will understand your plight. But Alas, all he does is laugh at you for being a chicken! But after calling you a chicken, he does provide you with some encouragement like “you made the right choice”, “she is the best thing that happened to you, so count your lucky stars and be happy” or my favourite “you should have thought before”.

As the days go by and the grand occasion is coming nearer and nearer, you feel a sense of dearth. Again you call up that friends of yours who you think will understand. Again that friend makes light of the situation and tries to laugh it off. You also laugh along with him and realize that you are making a big deal out of nothing. So, you let it go.

Finally, the day arrives. Your dear friend calls you up and wishes you luck still making some joke or the other. The feeling is still not sinking in. You inhale and exhale deeply to calm yourself down. Finally, the moment is here. You take a deep breath. You say “I got to pee!” Go to the bathroom, you look yourself in mirror. And your bachelorhood whizzes past your eyes. Those drunken parties, those awesome trips. You think to yourself “Is it the end?”. But somehow you manage to pluck up some courage and go to the ceremony and 5 minutes later you are engaged! All the build up panic, apprehensions go away. You feel deflated. You are tired without exactly doing much. So you sleep. Your friend calls you up again and this time he just wishes you. Finally, the doubts are out. You feel at peace with yourself.

All I can tell you is that for the time being the panic attack is avoided. Now let’s wait for the wedding!

P.S: Congrats Chigi! I know I have made a quite a number of assumptions above and blown everything out of proportions, you ask why? It wouldn’t have been funny!!!!

Looking Back!

On August 25th as I looked at the MET building in Bandra, many random thoughts went through my head. The one over-riding nearly every other thought was “How would College 2.0 would be for me?”

Returning to college life after more than 3 years was tough. I was used to earning money and spending it. Returning to the student lifestyle would be tough I thought. And believe me it still is!

So getting back to reviewing the last few months of college 2.0, let me start at the very beginning. The 1st three days were pure torture to begin with. Just sitting there on those uncomfortable chairs for 9 to 9.5 hours with sporadic breaks thrown in to keep us from shooting each other or just jumping out of the windows!

The next 2 days spent in outbound were really good. I made my 1st friends in that place! And then the lectures started!

Now a 3 hour lecture to start with after 3 years of not attending a single lecture can be very disorientating. One can easily be in a deluded state thinking that the last 5 minutes seemed to last an hour! I went through that phrase. I still go through that whenever the lecture gets boring.

11 subjects in total. At least 10 lectures of 3 hours per subjects. Do the math yourself! In the end we ended up doing much more than that!

Crazy times followed!! College, presentations (too many if you ask me), debates, parties and everything in between. I shifted base to Bandra from Malad. If you see, from Belapur to Malad to Bandra, I am surely moving in the right direction towards South Bombay ;-)

Well, we had quite a good faculty, I must admit. From learning how to respect women to “all the beautiful girls and handsome guys”, from reading ET every freaking Thursday to attending the last lecture on every Saturday, from Kotler to Johnson, from Debit/credit to how to write snail mail in the electronic world, from writing till the end of the world or the book whichever came first to doing nothing at all in a lecture, to wearing suits and sarees to wearing casuals, we did it all.

If you haven’t seen a zombie in real life, you could have seen me during the written exams. 11 papers in 12 days is no joke! And it doesn’t help when you actually open the books for the 1st time 2 days before the exams.

The one positive side effect of college 2.0 was that I made quite a few friends and I hope to spend the rest of my time here with you guys enjoying every bit of the journey. It sure has been a pleasure sharing this ride with you guys!

Everyone have a glorious new year. Here’s to 2012! CHEERS!!

Last Month at Work

On 19th July this year, I came to know that I had finally got into an MBA college. After exactly 3 years and 1 day, I put in my papers here. And thus, began my last month in my company which has been like a home to me for the last three years.

It all started when I was in Ranchi enjoying myself after my sixth semester holidays. I got a call from my friend saying that there was a company coming to college which would allow people with less % to sit. I took a flight to Calcutta the very next morning and then a connecting flight to Mumbai. Once I was in Mumbai, I came to know I had to report to the Logitech office of some “CITOS”. I just knew C in CITOS stood for Citigroup. This was a big thing. I mean who didn’t know what Citigroup was (Believe me, many people still don’t know what Citigroup is. You have to tell them that it’s basically Citibank). So I reached the office, cleared my written exams, followed by GD, then two rounds of Interviews. Thankfully for me, the interviews were a mix of both technical and HR questions. I made a mess of all the technical questions but did pretty well on my HR segments. Anyways around 7:30 in the night, the final results were announced. I was in. my first job! More than been happy at that moment, I was more relieved that atleast I had a job in hand when I got out of college. The last year of Engineering just flew by. And it was already 18th July 2008 and I had to report to office. CITOS was CTS by that time.

Now, when you are joining the private sector, people tell you all sort of horror stories of how they are blood suckers and what not. So, I reported to Interface very apprehensive on 18th July morning fearing the worst. That whole day is just a blur in my mind. All I remember is just signing the mountain of papers in front of me and that the Airtel network was down that day. Then one of the best months of my life started. There was a month long training. And the people I met inside that conference room have become my closest friends since. There was Karan who was from my college only. We had never ever looked at each other during our college mainly because he was in a different branch from me. The more mind baffling case was of Nipun. We were in the same branch in the same college and lived like a 200 yards away from each other, yet for some reason we had never spoken to each other. These two guys quickly became my very good friends once we started our training. Then slowly and surely I become friends with nearly everyone from that room. There was Arvind. A typical nerd. (sorry Bro! but you know that I felt like that initially). He always had a question after a long winding session. Then there was Abhishek Kalapatapu. A really nice guy. Nisha Patel, the sweet chocolate loving girl. Then, there was Liana Deboo, one of my best friends with an amazing sense of homour. There was Furhad Jidda, who could turn Pink at the drop of a Hat, literally! Manan Shah, the most chindi-est person I have had the honour to call one of my best friends (come on Builder, you know that you are Chindi) and then we come to Santosh Sai Venkat, a most amazing friend and the biggest flirt I have ever met in my life till now. And though, he didn’t join with Batch 3 initially, but Mark Fernandes, one of the funniest guys..EVER!! This was our small group and we prided ourselves as “BATCH-3”. Things were damn good when all of these guys were around.

I was allotted a team which was easily one of the stress free ones. There was Nimisha, who taught me everything about the work and who was and still is a very hard working person. Pooja, one of the biggest gossip mongers I have come across! Just kidding but she does like to talk. Then there was Shweta “Ma’am”. Atul, a guy who did all his work without any issues and Sumith, one of the best friends I have around here. Rahul was my 1st TL and a cool one at that. There were also Eunice and Darshan. Then there’s Dhiraj. The official Batch 3 buddy and an amazing guy. Sandeep Naik, one of my best friends once I shifted to Powai and an awesome boss(he was for like 3 months which were the most hard working months in this office for me). There were quite a lot of other people from that time who were my good friends. Those initial 6-7 months were really fun. Whoever would have thought working could be so much fun.

Then in Jan of 2009, our company was sold off to an Indian MNC(don’t want to name it here) and things started to change. But still it was fun working with my friends all around. Till March 31st 2010, everything went on as usual. People left and moved on to higher studies and with Arvind leaving and me shifting to Powai Office from 1st April, things completely changed. Coming to Powai had some plus points also. I met and made quite a number of new friends like Sayali, Yogesh, Smruti, Ameya, Vandana, Shreyashi, Sanjayji, Mukul, Gati, Bijal, Rasika, Viraj, Ashish and Chinmay to name a few. I got along very well with my new TL, Vipul. So, nearly after an year in April 2011, every old face of the team was gone, moved on to different projects. The only guys who were left behind were me, Yogesh and Dhiraj in the team. The last few months have flown by because I was busy with work and what not. And with 19th August fast approaching, the day I leave office, I am very sure that I will have mixed feelings. I would like to take this opportunity and thank everyone who made these last three years fly by. Post 19th August , I am going to miss you all.

End of an Era

10 years ago, I watched the 1st Harry Potter movie “Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone”. Now 7 movies and 7 books after, I bid adieu to another bit of my childhood. In the last 10 years many things have changed but the Potter series was one of the constants.

To be very honest, I never was going to read the books. The movies were doing it just fine for me. Emma Watson was more or less the reason why I watched the movies initially. Then after the Goblet of Fire (the movie) came out, I was at my friends place and she started talking about how awesome the books were. And she asked me what I think of them. I told her point blank that I haven’t read any books and nor I am going to read them….EVER! I also told her that I watch the movies because of Emma Watson. She gave me Order of the Phoenix to read. 700 odd pages. I was like when will I ever read it. But she made me promise that I have to atleast give it a try. Two days and 700 pages later, I was a Potter maniac. And then I started reading the books one by one and I came to realise how much better the books were from the movies. The movies never showed it all!

The whole series is quite a reflection on many things relevant: The good v/s evil, friendships, sacrifices, first crushes, love and heartbreaks. The Harry-Ron-Hermione friendship has to be one of the best examples of friendships today. They have gone through their ups and downs but never let go of each other. Maybe Ron, in the 7th book leaves them, but he more than makes up for it by saving Harry’s life. One of the things which J.K.Rowling did different from the other authors was that Hermione ended up with Ron and not Harry. The sidekick never gets the girl..NEVER! The romantic angle between Ron and Hermione was build up throughout the series and finally culminated in the last few chapters of the last book.

My favourite character from the series is Ron. I see a lot of my traits in me. Another character which I really like in the whole series is that of Severus Snape. He has to be one of the best if not the best Anti-Hero of our generation. He did everything in his power to protect Harry and Harry realised it in the end and that’s why named his son Albus Severus Potter. Another character which constantly grew during the series was Neville Longbottom. From a fat chubby kid to leading the DA in his 7th book. If you catch the last instalment on screen, you will realise that Neville’s the man! The scene in which he kills Nagini is one of the highpoints of the movie. People were actually cheering for Neville in the theatre.

It has been a truly amazing ride for me in the Potter Universe and today it’s all over. There won’t be another movie or a book. I am really going to miss it.

Farewell Hogwarts! You will always be remembered!

And thank you J.K.Rowling for giving us the Potter Universe! It was quite a ride!!

Mumbai’s 26/11 Part Deux

Another series of blasts, many died, even more got injured. It’s just another day for us Mumbaikars. I got the news while I was going back from work and was stuck in a traffic jam. When I came to know about all this, I was just thinking about getting home as soon as possible. I started calling my friends in all parts of the city just to make sure. But suddenly all the networks were jammed. Anyways I got home and a miracle happened. I got through to my parents on the first dial. Told them I was fine and at home. Then again started calling up everyone. Thankfully was able to contact them.

All the news channels were beaming the pictures, getting accounts from the witnesses. Some of what the eye-witnesses to the blast said was horrifying. I would never want to be caught in such a situation. I thanked God that everyone I know was fine.

This time around, the reaction was swift. The police and ambulances were at ground zero (3 in this case) within 15 mins of the blast. All the eye-witnesses praised the police in dealing with the situation. They must have been good. They are not praised that often. The official statements were coming in at regular intervals always increasing the death and injury toll. But atleast there were statements! The emergency numbers were being flashed continuously. People were asked to maintain calm and stay at home.

I am glad that we can have such quick reactions. It’s better than the last time. But why do such instances take place again and again. In Mumbai’s case, once every two years. We never seem to be able to stop them. But kudos to the Mumbai police for swinging into action so soon.

Now, moving on to the political reactions. Every politician worth his bread and butter “CONDEMNED” the attacks. The word is fast becoming the most over-used word in the case of terrorist attacks in India. For that matter, even Pakistan CONDEMNED the blasts. Yeah, even PAKISTAN uses this word! So, anyways from the Prime minister to the taluka head of a remote village in the middle of nowhere, “CONDEMNED” these blasts and promised a detailed investigation into the blasts. They all promised to bring the culprits who did this heinous act of terror to justice and keep them as an honourary guest at our prisons and keep them happy for the rest of their lives. They said as it is the tax payers money is going to be eaten by us the politicians, may as well include these guests of state. Prime example – Kasab. Futhermore, the political brass was quick to add that they worry about how we live our life and not our lives. They have already embarked to make a rule to ban holding hands anywhere in public. They were quick to add that increasing the drinking age to 25 was the first step in constructing a better future as the current generation is so immature. Maybe, that’s why we keep voting for dumbasses like you! Get off your asses, do something useful with your time. Instead of increasing the drinking age, maybe give a lot more time and attention to internal security. You won’t be able to tell the people how to live their lives if there aren’t any left around.

I know the above para sounds like a Rant and it is a rant. I am sick and tired of politicians “COMDEMNING” the attacks. If we do compare USA and India on this scale, after 9/11, USA no terrorist attacks. India: every now and then. The apathy shown in such cases is appalling. There’s always the detailed investigation and even if someone is caught finally, they are treated like royalty.

I don’t know what will shake the Political class out of its present indifference to the common man’s life. Mumbai will be back on it’s feet AGAIN! Life goes on here. We “MOVE ON”. How many times do we have to “MOVE ON? It seems only God knows the answer to that question.

Keep safe everyone!

P.S: Yesterday according to some reports was Kasab's B'day. Go figure....

Failings

We are living in a time right now where Petrol is worth 70 bucks in Mumbai. When and how did it become seventy bucks. I still remember the days when petrol was just worth 50 bucks. Everything was cheaper back then. Anyways the oil companies increased prices twice in the last month. The government we selected should have done something about it, right? Something on the lines of controlling the price. When the price of petrol is increased, it leads to a domino effect where every essential commodity price also increases. Do we Indians have so much money that we can afford it?

Maybe the answer is “YES” but that money is stashed away in the Swiss Banks. There must be lakhs of crores of black money in the Swiss banks belonging to all Politicians and corrupt babus. Why hasn’t the government taken any steps retrieve it? And why are they trying to stop Baba Ramdev? He’s only asking about the black money.

Moving on, Whatever happened to the Lokpal Bill? There’s absolutely no development on that front apart from the government people in the committee trying to disrupt the talks. The govt has very good firefighters in Kapil Sibal and Digvijay Singh. If someone asks an uncomfortable question, one of these two often attack that person and try to undermine him. Good tactics, I must say!

This govt. was supposed to be the Common Man’s govt. And it is the common Man who is suffering the most. Why doesn’t Rahul Gandhi do anything about these failures of his govt.? Doesn’t he get some time away from his shenanigans to focus on something like this?

The govt. was pushed into taking action on the whole 3G spectrum case. If it wasn’t for the media who didn’t let this issue die down, A.Raja would still be roaming free and probably would still be the Telecom Minister. Same was the case with the Commonwealth games, the Adarsh society scam! If the media wasn’t adamant on getting the culprits to book, all of them would have been roaming free.

As far as the state govt. of Maharastra goes, what should I say? They have the time to pass a bill for increasing the legal drinking age to 25, but yesterday after a single pre-monsoon shower, all the street s got water logged, what did they do over the last one year?

Who is to blame in the end? It is Us, the people of India who vote for these guys who are too busy filling their own pockets than to actually work for what they have been selected. We have to change to bring about a change and the sooner we change, the better it is for the nation!

One Painful Air Journey

One of the hazards of travelling alone in a flight is that if the flight gets delayed, YOU ARE SCREWED!! If you happen to be flying from Mumbai, be absolutely sure to book a flight at around 3 in the night and if you are lucky, you might be able to avoid “TRAFFIC CONGESTION”.

I don’t understand how we can have traffic congestion at airports. Don’t the airports have the same number of flights coming in and going out on a particular day? If yes, then how the traffic congestion? For some unfathomable reason, The Mumbai airport seems to be functioning with only one runway. I mean, it’s supposed to be one of busiest in India and it has only 1 runway? Way to go to becoming a superpower on time (as the tag line goes for one of the stupid airlines). Actually the Mumbai airport has 2 runways but one of them has been “UNDER MAINTAINCE” for like, forever! How can a airport which sees so much density of air traffic have one of its runways not functioning on a Friday when so many people are flying out!

This is the 2nd time that this has happened to me. I waited at the airport for an extra hour and another hour and an half inside the aircraft just waiting for it to take-off! If this won’t get you pissed, what will? Wait, I know the answer to that as I am experiencing that problem right now. The answer ladies and gentlemen is annoying co-passengers! The dumbass sitting in my front can’t sit still for a moment and has been playing with his seat since the time he got in and then there’s the noisy Jackass troika sitting behind me. One of them actually on seeing that I was trying to connect to the net commented with such a witty comment “Net laga raha hai. Hope he opens some INTRESTING sites” I mean, really? I comment on people but that’s always in an undertone, not loud enough for all the people inside the aircraft to be able to hear it!

And finally, congrats to Go Air on killing the concept of AIR HOSTESSES. Right now there are 4 men serving the amazingly LOWLY priced food onboard! I am so bloody glad that I am returning by Kingfisher! Atleast, there will be air hostesses there. Fingers crossed for that!

An Ode to LEGEN-wait for it- DARY “BARNEY STINSON”

I believe that who so ever reads this post on my blog has seen “How I met your mother” at least once in their life. If you haven’t, please take Chullu bhar paani and then do the needful.

Anyways, for people who follow HIMYM, you guys will know Barney Stinson. Awesome!! So Barney Stinson is a guy who’s SUITED UP all the time, is after every girl and is always AWESOME!! He infact has a whole playbook which lists all his tricks to bed the girls with maneuvers like “The Ted Mosby”, “The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn” and the best of them all “The Scuba Diver”. He is the scotch drinking, cigar smoking smooth talker who loves to play laser tag.

He’s one of the guys who is always ready with his opinion (unwanted most of the times), always up to a challenge (as his catch phase goes “Challenge accepted”) be it running the New York Marathon or getting laid in his overalls. He has bit of a gambling problem.

Although many people will think that Barney is without any morals but his life is governed by the “BRO CODE” and the various other rules created by him like the Lemon Law. Barney comes up with the most outlandish stories to score with women be it “I am an astronaut” or “I am a pitcher for New York Yankees”. He also has elaborate plans how to get rid of the girls the following morning.

Barney is also a great magician and his magic tricks are a sure way of getting the girls. He also speaks many languages and is very well connected. No one knows what he really does apart from the fact that he works for GNB (The most Evil Bank of the world in Marshall’s own words). He is surely the richest among all of the gang. He has an awesome video CV in which he comes up with the word “Possimpible”.

He’s a guy every guy one time or the other aspires to be. The best wingman in history and maybe Ted’s best friend. So, a day after the “SUIT UP” day, let’s try to be more AWESOME like Barney Stinson.

P.S: Here are a few of my favorite articles from the Bro Code:

ARTICLE 1:
Bros before hoes. I cannot stress this enough. Always remember, girlfriends come and go, but your boys are always there. Breaking this rule is to commit the cardinal sin against Team Testosterone.

ARTICLE 2:
Never drink the last beer, unless you’ve been granted specific permission that it’s OK.

ARTICLE 3:
If a girl falls into the following criteria, she is off limits forever until the end of time:
A. Was an ex-girlfriend
B. Your friend specifically told you he wanted her
C. Is your buddy’s sister (However, if it’s your buddy’s cousin, well she’s up for grabs, and you’re welcome to rub it in his face for years to come)

ARTICLE 4:
Never diss a guy whose team just lost a crushing game. Just leave it alone, it’s kinder to pick on them for a dead relative

ARTICLE 6:
If you get 2 tickets to the big game/gig/event, the priority list for granting the second ticket is as follows:
1. Your best friends (in order of how long you’ve known them)
2. Your acquaintances
3. Your co-workers
4. The mailman
5. The UPS guy
6. NASA
7. John Kerry
…
1,485,726. Your girlfriend

ARTICLE 7:
You are allowed to enjoy exactly one chick TV show, and one chick flick. You may have no more. And if you like Grease, well, we’re already too late

ARTICLE 8:
Birthday and Christmas presents for your guy friends are optional. Beer always makes a great gift

ARTICLE 12:
Standard shotgun rules are as follows:
A. Shotgun may only be called within full sight of the car
B. Shotgun must be called outside
C. Shotgun calls last approximately ten minutes
D. Shotgun never carries over to a second ride

ARTICLE 13:
NO PDA (Public Displays of Affection), even if John Legend says they just don’t care. I mean, congratulations, another girl can stand the sight of you. You don’t need to wear her like a ******* trophy.

ARTICLE 14:
It’s alright to cheat at any game where money isn’t involved. In certain circumstances, relationships may be classified as “games”.

ARTICLE 16:
Never openly question another guy’s sports wisdom, unless said information specifically pertains to your favorite team.

ARTICLE 17:
When out with the guys, never accept a call from your girlfriend—unless she’s dying or trapped under a burning fuel truck, and if that’s the case, make it quick

ARTICLE 20:
Bros before Hoes. I know, I already used it. I can’t stress it enough, though. It is absolutely infuriating how many of my guy friends have become insufferable dicks since they’ve gone out with someone

ARTICLE 21
Bros will not be assumed to be exclusive unless each has explicitly granted the other exclusive Bro rights. If a Bro is not exclusive then a Bro may have more than one Bro. However, upon becoming exclusive, said Bro must break any Bro ties with all other Bros.

ARTICLE 26:
A bro will, in a timely manner, alert his bro to the existence of a girl fight

ARTICLE 37
If one Bro calls another Bro a douche then said naming must be confirmed by another Bro even if the third Bro is a chick. This naming only requires a “second” by any Bro and does not require a majority vote by all Bros involved.

ARTICLE 40
Love thy neigh-bro

ARTICLE 53:
A Bro will, whenever possible, provide his Bro with protection

ARTICLE 58:
If a Bro, for whatever reason, becomes aware of another Bro’s girlfriend’s birthday and / or anniversary date, he shall endeavor to make that information available to his Bro, regardless whether he thinks his Bro already knows

ARTICLE 59:
One Bro makes a solo chick attack
A second Bro provides a crutch
A third Bro rounds out the pack
But a fourth Bro is one too much

ARTICLE 60:
Should a Bro be near to closing with a girl, his Bro shall do anything within his means to ensure the desired outcome, up to and including the seduction of said girl’s wildly unattractive cousin / friend / mother.

ARTICLE 62:
In the event that two Bros acquire the same target, the Bro with the longer dry spell has dibs. Should the dry spells be of equal length, a game of discreet roshambo shall determine the outcome.

ARTICLE 63:
In a scenario in which two or more Bros are engaged in entertainment of the adult variety, one Bro is forbidden from intentionally or unintentionally touching another Bro in ANY capacity, including but not limited to; the high five, the fist bump, or the congratulatory gluteal pat. Winking is also kind of a no-no.

ARTICLE 66:
If a Bro suffers pain from a permanent dissolution of a relationship with a lady friend, a Bro shall offer nothing more than a “that sucks, man” and copious quantities of beer

ARTICLE 67:
Should a Bro pick up a guitar at a party and commence playing, another Bro shall point out that he is a tool

ARTICLE 68:
If a Bro is on a hot streak, another Bro will do everything possibly to ensure its longevity, even if that includes jeopardizing his own records, the missing of work, or temporarily immigrating to a foreign country.

ARTICLE 80:
When in a slap bet thy bro must always obey the rules of the slap bet. If caught cheating in a slap bet the selected slap bet coordinator must rule the consequences of how many more slaps must be given to thy cheater

ARTICLE 87:
A Bro shall at all times say ‘Yes’

ARTICLE 89:
A Bro may never pursue the mom of another Bro. Be it here resolved that at no point is it permissible for one Bro to engage in carnal delicacies with another Bro’s mother. It is, however, allowed and encouraged for one Bro to graphically suggest to a Bro the athletic feats, animalia, and/or machinery utilized during a fictional encounter with his mom. Should a Bro discover his Bro is in fact adopted, he is free to pursue his Bro’s adoptive mother, but only after first corroborating non-biological parentage through notarized birth certificates, hospital records, or comparative deoxyribonucleic acid gel electrophoresis, whichever is easiest. Since the adopted Bro cannot legitimately claim to have shared a canal with his Bro,
ARTICLE 89 expressly prohibits the adopted Bro from invoking the Sloppy Second clause in any related filings with the International Court of Bros. Though the mom of a Bro is always off limits, the step-mom of a Bro is allowed if she initiates it and/or is wearing at least one article of leopard print clothing. If she looks good in it.
So, here the best Bro-Code Articles. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
So guys “SUIT UP!!"

I MISS….

I haven’t done any cribbing for a long long time now. And everything has been boiling inside of me. So I thought of letting it all out on my blog because I know nobody reads it anyway, so my misgivings will go unnoticed (Thank God for that). Anyways, without much further ado, here’s a list of 50 things I miss:
1) I miss my home.
2) I miss my family.
3) I miss Ranchi.
4) I miss DPS.
5) I miss my school friends.
6) I miss driving my car.
7) I miss hanging out with my friends at my place after school playing carom or hockey or just chatting.
8) I miss my dogs.
9) I miss sleeping on the last bench of my physics tuitions.
10)I miss those wonderful scooter rides in the evening.
11)I miss having cold-drinks in the evening with my friends.
12)I miss the mad rush for each other’s tiffin during recess.
13)I miss the last bench.
14)I miss sitting at our bus stop and discussing everything under the sun.
15)I miss Kaveri.
16)I miss playing cricket on terrace in the night under the lights.
17)I miss all the unnecessary telephone chats.
18)I miss the return gifts of the b’day parties.
19)I miss the school picnics.
20)I miss the month long holidays.
21)I miss my hostel.
22)I miss my hostel friends.
23)I miss the hostel days.
24)I miss writing assignments in the lectures.
25)I miss all the booze nights.
26)I miss Native Roots.
27)I miss Manohar Mishtan.
28)I miss crispy chicken of Meenakshi.
29)I miss those heart-to-heart talks in the middle of the night.
30)I miss going from room to room looking for a new movie.
31)I miss just sitting there in 308 and listening to music.
32)I miss those walks to the tapri after every meal.
33)I miss French fries of my hostel mess.
34)I miss sitting in canteen and wasting time in college.
35)I miss the bus-rides to college and the lifts while coming back to hostel.
36)I miss the late nights at my hostel.
37)I miss interface.
38)I miss batch 3.
39)I miss my desks in interface.
40)I miss the small rickshaw drive from my place to Interface.
41)I miss being a skeleton.
42)I miss the jokes.
43)I miss travelling from Napean Sea Road to work.
44)I miss the Napean Sea Road apartment.
45)I miss my Uncle in Mumbai.
46)I miss South Bombay.
47)I miss Regal and Eros.
48)I miss bowling at Phoenix Mills.
49)I miss the laughter.
50)I miss……….MYSELF.

BACK IN TIME

Yesterday one of my friends called me up who is doing his MS from the US of A. We were very thick friends in school and till now we are. I don’t know what’s it about my school friends but whenever I talk to any one of them, I feel calm. That’s maybe because we have spent too much time together in the past and shared some really unforgettable moments. I sometimes really wish that I could go back in time and live through school again. Maybe not the thing like exams and stuff but certainly all the good times.

The times were so simpler then. We only had to worry about doing well in exams. Apart from that everything was taken care of and we didn’t have any other worries. Okay, maybe some issues like “I really like this girl” or something on similar lines. As I said earlier “Simpler Times”.

Today when I look back, I smile on my school days. My school gave me my best friends, friends I would keep for the rest of my life, friends with whom I could share anything with and who wouldn’t judge me, friends who had my back, friends who go to any lengths to help me out and I will go out to any lengths to help them out.
I still remember my 1st day at DPS. Anju ma’am took me to class 3-B where I met the most amazing people whom I have the honour of calling my friends. Coming into a new school and settling in can be very stressful. Especially for a kid who was so shy that he couldn’t even talk properly (that was me BTW). But the way you guys made sure I felt a part of the group was amazing. All my friends were in DPS since Prep. So they were already well set. But welcoming an outsider to the group was just……well…all I can say is “Thank You guys”.

As the time went by we all became a more exclusive group. All of us from Ashok Nagar always hanged out together after school playing cricket or just roaming about looking at girls. I can still remember all of us on our cycles riding through the roads of Ashok Nagar, having cold-drinks in the evening after playing cricket, playing carom at my place, TT at the club, hockey in my room (awesome fun) and many other things like Kittu trying to teach Utkarsh chemistry.
As we grew older we started going to Shyamli and SAIL colonies. Some of my best friends were from these colonies. Too many memories from these places also. Actually too many to point out any one of them.

And there are many memories from school also. Utkarsh and Gagan fighting, Ravi asking me on my 2nd day of school “Nikhil….what’s your name?”(I know for a fact that Ravi won’t remember this), the great red and white bravery award incident, the rakhi tragedy, the class picnics, Uts’s love story, many other love stories also for that matter.

I am what I am today is because of my friends from school. They took a really shy kid who couldn’t even talk when someone he didn’t know was in the room and turned him to one of the most talkative persons. My friends made me believe that I was not just some random kid. I felt special with them. I still feel like I own this world when I meet these guys. Sadly, now it’s not that frequently.

So, in the end I would end this piece by saying that thanks a lot guys….if it wasn’t for you guys, I would have still been a shy kid who would freeze up every time he had to speak with a stranger. I miss you guys a lot. Thanks for all the wonderful memories. And yes, if I had a chance I would surely go back in time and live through school again without any complains.

In The Loving Memory of BATCH-3

This has to be the hardest post I have written for my blog. When I think of BATCH-3, I remember the day when we all met in that conference room at Interface. It was 18th July 2008. And for the next 1 month, we had a lot of fun.

Now after an year and a half, as Arvind leaves the office, I guess that it’s over for us as BATCH-3. We will always be known as BATCH-3 but now there are very few of us left.

When I look back at the time we all have spent together for the last 18 months or so, I can’t help but smile, infact laugh. I still remember our first outing as a group. It was when we had walked all the way to Inorbit from Interface and at that very time the Electronics results came out. Then came going for movies. And what all movies we saw together. I guess the best one had to be “Rock On” and the worst would be “Heroes” or “Drona” or “CC2C”. I still can’t get why did we went for Heroes or CC2C for that matter.

Then there were the B-n-B (Bowling and Beer). Nearly every weekend meeting up at Phoenix for bowling at COs (which has been closed down) and then moving to Sports Bar or The Brew Bar for drinks. Another vivid memory is of going for the Manchester United v/s Liverpool games to Sports Bar which unfortunately Man-U lost. Infact, Liverpool scored a double over Man-U. It was after the 2nd game, I decided I am never ever going to watch a Man-U match again with my friends (specifically Ari). Then, there were the b’days which were always celebrated with much enthusiasm. The planning for the gifts, the ordering of the cake, the treat, everything was so awesome. The Annual day was also worth remembering. The Daman trip was one trip which is really close to my heart. Amazing times.

And then people started leaving.

The 1st one to go was Karan. My bro in office. He left and went back to Lucknow to help his Dad in business. Right now, he is doing a course in XLRI, Jamshedpur. After you left Karey, there never was a B-n-B combo, it was only bowling.

Then, Anupam left and joined SITM where he doing pretty well for himself.

And then there was a spate of Farewells. Nipun, Liana and Abhishek left in a span of days. Nipun and Abhi went to the States to pursue MS while Liana got into Welingkar’s.

And then there was a lull. As it was, very few of us were left. Jidda was in Logi and me, Ari, Manan, Mark, Santy and Nisha in interface.

But today everything changes. Ari leaves us with a big hole in BATCH-3. Ari, Who is going to book the tickets now? Me and Mark are going to our new Powai Office where we start working from tomorrow. So, that leaves only Manan, Santy and Nisha in Interface as the remains of BATCH-3.
If you ask me, it was the perfect script. We had our run. Today when I look back at the best times I had after school I have a very bittersweet feeling. Sweet because it was unadulterated fun for the last 18 months or so and bitter because today it ends. We will still all meet up once in a while and have fun but still the breakfast, lunch, TT, carom will never be the same. Today while leaving Interface, I felt I was leaving a part of me behind in that office. It seemed as if I was 18 all over again, standing in front of my beloved school and looking at it for the very last time knowing I will be return to visit but never ever study again there. Today I had a similar feeling. I knew I would visit again but not work here.

Some wise person once said “Everything comes to an End”. I guess he was right. As I move on to the new office, Ari to an IIM (dude, you will make it, don’t worry), I look back and feel happy for everyone. Each one got what they wanted. Nisha is finally a DBA, Manan will leave in sometime and join a good MBA college and Santy will move on. After everything is done and dusted, there will always be a table in the cafeteria which will remember BATCH-3 sitting together, talking, cracking jokes, eating and just enjoying without a care in the world….

THE IPL Experience

Disclaimer: The events listed below are absolutely true.

So the IPL is back for season 3 and thankfully it’s being held in India this time around. Every team is looking strong this time apart from Rajasthan Royals.

Anyways I was at the Brabourne for the Mumbai Indians VS Rajasthan Royals game, which can very well turn out to be the match of the season.

Now, you will think that it very simple to go for a IPL match. Just get the tickets and turn up at the stadium and that’s it.

Well, my dear friends, the only problem is it’s not that simple.

So we or should I say THE PLANNER thought of going for this match. It was Mumbai Indians first match and all of us except for 1 or 2 (maybe) support MI. It just felt right.
So when the tickets finally came online, we started to ask people who were interested in coming for the match. The tickets were priced starting from Rs. 500 and onwards. Initially, we were thinking of going for the 1000 bucks ticket. But, 1 of us said a firm “NO” (called “CHINDI” from here on in) which was right in the end but at that time it felt as if he was acting a bit stingy. So, it was decided that we will buy the 500 bucks ticket. But still after that, we didn’t have the COUNT.
The COUNT can be defined as the number of people who want to come for the match. The COUNT is also of two types:

1) Accurate Count: This type of COUNT refers to people who eventually turned up for the match which was 19 in our case.

2) Initial Count: This is the number of people who said at first that they will be there. But some have emergencies on that very day of the game which they had forgotten while saying “YES” in the 1st place.

3) Unexpected Increase: This in essence is not a type of COUNT but consists of the people who just say “I want to come for the game tomorrow”. Well, for starters, my advice for such people is that please receive your calls and even if you don’t, call back on the number.

So one fine morning a month before the match, we booked our tickets. While booking tickets, we had to keep in mind all the permutations and combinations like “If she/he is coming, only then I am coming” and “if she/he‘s coming I am not coming”. So we booked 9 tickets for us and another 10 for LAMBU’s Friends.

So after booking the tickets, we suddenly realized that we haven’t asked one of our friends who doesn’t work with us anymore (called EX-EMPLOYEE from here on in). So, we asked her/him. She/he said “YES”. And just like that we were two tickets short. Now, you will ask how 2 tickets short! Didn’t he just write “they asked one of his friends”?? Well, the answer to that question is there was another friend of ours who had said that if the friend we had asked to come will come then, she/he would also come. I know it sounds pretty confusing. But, come on use your grey cells for crying out loud. But, then one of our friends from office backed out. So, we had 1 ticket free and we just assumed because of the earlier Permutations and combinations that another friend of ours won’t come (called “UNDECIDED” from here on in). So we gave their tickets to our other two friends mentioned above. But, you should never ever in a zillion years ASSUME anything. ASSUME: ASS+U+ME….even the word says “Don’t bloody ASSUME”… so “UNDECIDED” said she/he wanted to come. So, again we were back at being 1 ticket short. We let the situation simmer for sometime as we were pretty sure that someone will backout in the end. And one of our friends did, so we were again at the same count. All tickets had a person’s name on it.

And then came the twist. The evening before the game one of our other friends (called “LATE LAATIF” from here on in) comes up and says “what about the tickets, dude? I so want to come for the match”. So dumbass, receive your calls when we call you. He was the unexpected increase as mentioned above. So the evening before the match we are all of a sudden a ticket short. After a lot of backroom politics, like CHINDI calling up UNDECIDED and asking him/her to come so that LATE-LAATIF won’t get to come. Finally, we came to know that the friend “UNDECIDED” has finally decided not to come for match. So that ticket was snapped up by “LATE LAATIF”.

So, finally the match day was here. We had decided to meet up at the stadium gates by 1300 hrs because the seats we booked were in the stand where there was “FREE SEATING”. So before that me, “THE PLANNER” (the guy/girl who had planned everything) and my other friend “KHAZAKISTAN” met up for lunch. As we were scouting for the Gate no. 7 we saw a guy selling MI jerseys. Me and THE PLANNER got ourselves MI jerseys for 200 bucks…(I know….True Story). Then we picked up our other Friend “HARDWORKER” from Churchgate and finally reached Gate No. 7. There we saw our friends “LAMBU”, “STUD” and CHINDI waiting for us. Now, CHINDI is RR’s supporters so he was not cool about our jerseys. And then the most embarrassing thing happened. CHINDI pointed out that the “A” was missing from “Adidas” making it “Didas” on the jersey. Anyways after we were made fun of, we gave a few interviews to some News Channels (Hope you guys saw me on TV), we realized it was already 1400 hrs and we might not get good seats. And we couldn’t go in because EX-EMPLOYEE and LATE LAATIF hadn’t come yet. So, a decision was made after CHINDI kept complaining that I and THE PLANNER will wait for the people who hadn’t come yet while the rest of them would go in and get good seats. After this was decided we called up LATE LAATIF and asked him where he was. He said he was nearby and will reach before the match started. But Alas, that was not true. In reality he was still a long way from the stadium. Also, LATE LAATIF told us that he had stomach ache or something and wasn’t feeling well. Finally, around 1445 hrs EX-EMPLOYEE reached the stadium and I escorted him/her inside the stadium. We met up with our friends there. I felt really bad for leaving behind THE PLANNER to wait for LATE LAATIF but I also didn’t want to miss the action. In the meantime, THE PLANNER standing outside the stadium was pissed off at LATE LAATIF and to spend his/her time updated his Facebook status. I saw LATE LAATIF and THE PLANNER in the stands after 5 overs were already bowled. As soon as LATE LAATIF sat down or should I say stood in front of us Sachin got out! We already wanted to beat LATE LAATIF up and this gave us a good enough reason to beat (as if arriving like royalty 2 hours late wasn’t enough) him/her. It seemed as if LATE LAATIF just couldn’t sit. The people sitting next to him actually got scared and changed their seats. The people behind kept on telling him to sit but he just couldn’t. Maybe his ASS was hurting.

As the match continued, CHINDI went through various expressions of disappointment as MI batsmen were murdering the RR bowlers. So to please himself, CHINDI kept staring at the cheerleaders and waving out to them to keep his spirits up.
Then came Yousuf Pathan and scored a century of 37 balls and CHINDI had the smuggest expression on his face. But thankfully Pathan got out. The last over was very tense. As Malinga was warming up, EX-EMPLOYEE started shouting “MALINGA, MALINGA”, we joined in, then the whole stand started shouting and then the whole stadium. For 6 deliveries, we shouted ourselves hoarse “MALINGA MALINGA MALINGA!!” When MI finally won it was pure Joy and relief. In the earlier seasons MI had snatched defeat from the jaws of Victory but finally they had won a close game. We waited till the presentation was over. Then we left.

All in all it was an amazing experience. There were a few lessons to be learnt in man-management which we all will keep in mind going forward. But, come on it was the game to watch this season.

P.S: This blog has been inspired by the fakeiplplayer’s Blog.

A New Blog

I know it has been long, infact make that really long since I updated my blog. But I finally decided to update my blog.

It seems a lot is happening these days. Especially the Shiv Sena gunning for anyone they think can get them some primetime airwaves. Be it attacking Sachin Tendulkar who said “Mumbai belongs to all”, to SRK for saying he would have wanted Pakistan players for his IPL team, to Saif Ali Khan not deserving a Padma Shree, to Mukesh Ambani for again saying that Mumbai belongs to all Indians, to Aamir and then finally Rahul Gandhi and even calling P. Chidambaram “Home Minister of Pakistan”. The Sena needs political leverage of some kind after they suffered massive defeats in the Lok Sabha elections and then the Maharastra State Assembly elections which saw them reduced to the junior partner status in the Sena-BJP coalition. So it seems they have taken to take pot shots on all famous personalities.

The Rahul Gandhi episode was the worst one. There was no need of making a comment about the NSG commandos. On 26/11, it was not only Mumbai which was under attack but it was India as a whole which was under attack. The NSG commandos defended India that day no matter which state they hailed from. The speech in which Rahul Gandhi commented on this issue was delievered in Bihar. With the State Elections due in Bihar this November it seems as if he was just trying to sway the voters towards Congress. And then he was called a frustrated 36 year old bachelor. What good did it do apart from nearly dividing the defense forces on regional lines and showing to which level our esteemed politicians can stoop to?

And if Rahul Gandhi is so concerned about the non-maharastrians residing in Maharastra, why doesn’t he ask the state government which is of Congress do something about it? Something seems fishy in this controversy.

Moving on, I never knew that only 1411 tigers were left in India. Wow. The National Animal is on the verge of extinction just like the national game hockey. I have seen tigers in national reserves like Kanha and Pench (both in M.P.) and tigers are one of the most royal of animals. When you look at them in the wild, you feel insignificant in front of them. This is one animal which has to be saved at any cost.

Apart from these there’s the India-South Africa test series starting in a few days. With no Dravid and Yuvraj it would be a difficult task for the Indians to beat the Proteas. Hope the Indian batsmen can come to the party.

And with that, I will end this piece.

P.S: Manchester United showed why they are the champions last weekend when they tore apart Arsenal at the Emirates. Special mention for Wayne Rooney who scored his 100th EPL goal. Go, ROONEY!!

And congrats to Roger Federer for sweet 16. Murray put it really well when he was on verge of tears “I can cry like Roger, it’s a shame I can’t play like him.” I am definitely supporting Murray when he gets to a final not featuring Federer at the other end of the court.

Disclaimer: This was written on the 4th Feb night.