Sing along ......

Swimming In The Dark ... !!

2011-12-24T19:51:00.000+05:30

It's not a secret to most of the people who know me that I am in love with swimming. Having made it my favorite past time for the last 5 odd years, the love affair refuses to end. I aint complaining. Its quite refreshing to swim early in the morning. Sets up the entire day perfectly. Fitness may be an added incentive but I love swimming just coz of the feel and the experience rather than the fitness aspect. Did I forget stamina? Well, almost.

People also find me weird. For good reason. Not that I am obsessed with doing weird stuff but somethings have happened and some things have been made to happen. It was quite against the run of play when an opportunity for adventure presented itself this week.

I swim at Parsi Gymkhana(PG) which is situated at the most isolated of army surroundings in Camp. People who know the Hollywood Gurudwara in Camp will relate to this beauty of a place. Surrounded by trees and lonely narrow roads with the army quarters setting up a picturesque avenue. PG stands alone with its evergreen campus and lonely atmosphere.

Being winter, lot of people do not opt to jump into ice cold water at 6 in the morning. I was also one of these people until some years back but now I seem to be smitten by these early morning dips. So, there are only 2 regulars at PG nowdays. A guy called Tulsi and me. Tulsi runs around the Race Course before coming to PG. Something Amruta and I used to do for a considerable amount of time earlier. Nowdays, I just go to PG. Tulsi and I have become good friends over the last 3-4 months and I like people who are regulars at PG. Whether they swim or not is immaterial since there is so much you can do at PG.

I will like to provide some history before I actually narrate the adventure.

When I first started swimming at PG, it used to be open well before 6 am. A Parsi uncle (we now call him Keku uncle and thats his name. I swear.) used to open the Gymkhana. Initially I thought he was the owner of the place but later I realised that the owner was too lazy to get up so early on in the mornings and hence asked a good samaritan like Keku uncle to do the needful. Keku uncle is a 87 year old man and he is fit as a fiddle. Happened to be Mr. India in 1952. Thats what he says. I have no evidence though. But I dont doubt one bit that he must have been Mr. India. Has so many stories to say in typical Parsi manner. But since age is not on his side, he was quite irregular at the pool which meant that the Gymkhana would remain shut on days Keku uncle was not able to come to the pool. So the baton went back to the owners who employed a person called Bhaskar to open the Gymkhana in the morning.

Bhaskar is the typical government employee. He will work according to his will and wont budge on most occasions. He was being late everyday for the last 2-3 weeks which meant I had to go back home without swimming on many occasions. One day, I lost my cool and we had quite a verbal altercation which was quite ugly for any onlooker. But it seemend to have an effect since he started coming earlier than normal. We had asked him to come up 0630 hours but he started coming even earlier by 0610 or 0615 hours. This was quite pleasing. This also meant that Tulsi and I started coming even earlier than normal days.

It was Wednesday when I reached PG at around 0615 hours. Tulsi was there too. He told me that Bhaskar is going to go to his hometown today which meant that his replacement (Munna) will open the Gymkhana today. We called Munna and he told us that Bhaskar's trip has been delayed by 1 day and he will open the Gymkhana today. Bhaskar was there at 0630 hours and that day passed without anything worth writing about.

Thursday. Same time. Tulsi and I were there at PG. Today, Bhaskar was not going to come. It was going to be Munna. We called him and he said that he will try to come only by 0645 hours. Now what?

PG has quite a big campus. There is this huge gate which is the entry point to the campus. Once you enter, its almost 100 meters till the next gate. This gate is the entry to the badminton court, swimming pool and the gym. The area between the 2 gates is mainly for parking on the right and the huge club house on the left. Both these gates are locked when Tulsi and I meet everyday.

There are 2 dogs that have made PG their home. One white and the other black. Every morning, as soon as Tulsi and I are at the gate, these 2 dogs start barking and eventually come out and start playing. Since Tulsi and I had around 30 minutes to kill, we decided to have a stroll down the army quarters. We talked about a lot of things. During one such discussion, I interrupted him quite abruptly and asked:

Me: Ek baat batao. Yeh kutte baahar kaise aate hai? Koi raasta hai kya baahar aane ka? Gate to locked hai.
Tulsi: Hhhhmmm. Pata nahi. Kyu?
Me: Kuch nahi. Aise hi soch raha thaa ki yeh kutte raat mein andar rehte hai yaa baahar.
Tulsi: Maine to andar hi dekhe hai har baar.
Me: Thoda dekhte hai kya? Koi raasta hai kya?
Tulsi: Dekh sakte hai.

PG has a fence manning its campus which runs along the outer gate. Obviously, this fence is the first and last barricade on the way inside. Right? Wrong.

The outer gate has a huge tree which had fallen off sometime back in a way that the top part of the tree has fallen off completely but on the outside while the bottom part is still inside. This top part covers the fence towards the left hand side of the outer gate in a way that the fence is not visible at all. We had to bend down and get within the leaves of the fallen tree. The fence had a small opening which was quite decent for a dog to get through. Not sure if a human would get through but we were going to try. It was quite a good stretching exercise for us but we managed to get in. But there was another fence immediately after the outer fence. We walked towards both the left and right side to find another opening in this fence as well which was even wider than the earlier one. We had now breached the outer gate but we still had to find a way past the inner gate.

Once we were at the inner gate, I walked towards the right (towards the badminton court) while Tulsi walked towards the left (clubhouse passage). Both of us could not find a way past. We switched ends just to be sure. But no luck. On my way back from the clubhouse passage, I noticed that the fence inside was not a fence actually. It was a criss-cross arrangement of bamboo sticks covered by a huge green curtain-like thing. I tried to kick at this curtain with every step just to find out if it results in the curtain going back completely. The first few instances resulted in a thud and it was not doing my foot any good especially on a chilly morning. But then I found what I needed. There was quite a decent opening being covered by this curtain. And Tulsi and I were inside alongside our beloved pool.

It was quite easy just to dive in and enjoy this little discovery of ours. But no. This needed to be planned. Not today atleast. We went back the same way. Met the dogs on our way and were back outside the outer gate.

Munna came at 0645 hours. Tulsi and I were done swimming by around 0730 hours. We both were leaving together. Just before leaving, I felt this is the right time to start the plan.

I spoke to Munna about the time he would open the Gymkhana tomorrow. I told him quite sternly that even 0645 is quite late. He was quite honest in letting me know that he wont be able to come earlier. I said I didnt mind but just let me know the exact time and stick to it. Just to make matters interesting, I told him its OK if he comes at 0700 hours too as long as he sticks to 0700 hours. He fell for it. He said it works out well for him too. 0700 hours on Friday morning. The plan was set. I had intetionally asked him to be late.

I told Tulsi to come earlier the next day at 0545 hours. So that we could sneak in, swim and go home well before Munna arrives. Initially, he sounded interested but just when I got onto my bike, he said he is not comfortable and that its quite risky. I didnt force him to partner me in this heist. I was quite sure I am going to do it.

Friday.
As decided, I was at PG at 0545. Tulsi was not there. But, something told me that I should not park my bike at the same place as usual. This was coz I didnt want anyone to know that I have come. So people wont wonder where I disappeared after parking my bike. That was the only logic. I picked up my bag and helmet and the sound my shoes hitting the turf was enough to get the dogs barking. God. I completely forgot about the dogs.

Getting in from the gate and sneaking through the fences is quite a different ball game altogether. Will the dogs still relate to me as a daily pool member or as someone who is trying to sneak in? Questions. Doubts. So not my way of a plan. Now what? I had to get the dogs out before I could go in. Else who knows they would tear me apart. Thinking cap on.

I decided I will just about annoy them to an extent that they would come out without sacrificing on my well being. I sneaked through the first opening of the fence and I made up my mind that I will come out immediately as soon as the sound of the barks went up which meant they were close to me. It worked. I entered and exited in around 20 seconds. The white dog was out in jiffy and he identified me. Part 1 of the Dog show was done. But why wasnt this 2nd dog coming out?

I tried the same trick again but to no avail and I was losing precious time. The last thing I wanted was for Munna to come to the pool and find me swimming away to glory when he was about to open the gate. That would have been chaos. I didnt know what to do. Just then, I wondered whether it would be good idea to just park my bike at the usual daily place coz thats how these 2 dogs came out every day. Why not? I parked my bike outside the outer gate and Voila. Part 2 was done and dusted too. The 2 dogs were away with their other non-PG mates. I re-parked my bike away from the outer gate and I was inside soon.

I know PG quite well. The way the pool works, etc. There is a tap which needs to be opened for the water to flow into the pool. Not that the pool doesnt contain water. But it works on a re-cycling mechanism. The new water replaces the old and so on. There is a motor that needs to be switched on so that water is available in the bathrooms. I did both of these. And I was inside at 0600 hours. I decided that I will swim till 0650 hours. 5 minutes to change and 5 more to get back out. That will make it 0700 hours and Munna will be here.

What followed was absolute joy and beauty of life. No one to disturb you in pitch darkness on a very chilly morning in ice cold water. Normally, the lights are switched on in darkness but I was not gonna risk that. I was just bobbing in and out of the water for the next 50 minutes. I was out by 0650 hours and changed back to my clothes by 0655 hours. I went through all those secret passages and was very close to the outer gate. And then I froze. I was quite careful to turn the tap off but I had forgotten to turn the motor off. If the motor is switched on even after the tank is filled to capacity, it causes the motor to over heat and eventually burn. I ran back and switched the motor off and ran back even faster to be at the outer gate.

I met Tulsi over there and he saw me coming out of our secret passage. He was just about to say something when Munna made an appearance.

Munna: Dekha. 7 bola thaa to 7 ko aaya hoon nahi to aap fir bologe
Me: Haan. Sahi hai.

I start to get on to my bike.

Munna: Arey, kya hua? Jaa rahe ho?
Me: Haan. Aaaj mood nahi hai.

Tulsi smiles wryly at me and I promise to meet him tomorrow.

An adventure well planned. And took me back to times when I hardly cared of what I was doing. Over the last 2 years, I have treaded a path ready to explode. Boundaries have not felt like boundaries and it always takes me back in flashback mode.

I relate a lot to the opening few lines of Rockstar. I have my own version for Rockstar's version.

Sahi aur Galat ke beech ka maidan. Yaa to mujhe dhundna hai yaa fir ... fir se banaana hai.

Swim ke liye saala kuch bhi karega ... play the music ...

Cheers ... !!

Reading Myself ... !!

2011-11-13T21:51:00.003+05:30

I just happened to find a bit of time to idle around.

I was actually trying to find a post that I had written a long time back. After locating it, I went into a self-trance mode reading posts around the one that I was trying to locate. And i got so engrossed that I ended up reading almost all my posts. Only after reading all this, I realized that I didn't have a bit of a time but quite some time at my disposal. But it was fun.

I realized that I used to write much better earlier on. It has faded over time. The older posts had a lot of spark and zing. The latest ones lack that. I was quite enthusiastic when I used to write and it showed in the posts. Of late, its been kind of a drag. At least I feel so. Blame it on age. Actually what's age got to do with it anyway? I don't know. Well, there you are. Aptly said. I don't know. Yeah, I really don't know. Maybe, I am not doing anything worth writing to be honest.

Some of the posts quite distinguishly stand out. I was talking to Priya the other day about my posts. I asked her to ignore all my posts and just read one post which is and maybe will remain my all time favorite. That about Andre Agassi. I went back to my seat and actually read that and felt so wonderfully good about it. But there were others too. May not be in the same league as Andre's post. But good to read nevertheless. AT mein Velhe giri ka kaafi time milta thaa. Never realised that when I was in AT itself.

I loved reading the review of DON, the review of Mandi, my dear friend Addy, a monsoon experience in traffic, golfing posts, Foot fetish, a Stumbled upon post, the DAPP Calendar, table tennis posts about the tournament held in AT, my bike, my bike trip to Goa, Sweden posts, foodie posts, etc. So much for my bragging persona.

What have I come to? There is something seriously wrong with me. I met Pranay yesterday and told him the exact same statement. There is something seriously wrong with me. I guess he kind of agreed to me.

A long way to go and many battles still to be won. Starting with the battle with myself.

Cheers ... !!

Aspirations Revisited ... !!

2011-10-21T08:22:00.002+05:30

Sabhtarsha and I have known each other for 11 years now. Actually a bit less coz the first 3 years were spent just being class mates without any indication of being long time friends. One of the better friends that I have made in life. We have tread quite a similar path in our careers so far with subtle differences of course. And we keep crossing each other's paths.

We did our Graduation and Post Graduation from the great Fergusson College and have been friends ever since our MCS days. Or should I say our Swing days? One and the same thing.

We both got through the first company on Campus. Persistent Systems. Ended up in the same BU. More or less, we ended up in the same product but were doing different things. Out of the 10 that made it from Fergusson, we were 2 out of 3 who were not provided Placement. Where was the similarity going to end? Sooner than later I thought. But it didn't.

We ended up at ATN through I guess one of the only Ads that ATN has published in the papers. And we learnt everything we know today at ATN. Almost 5 years more were spent exploring each other's likes, dislikes, tantrums, falaana, timka. And then there were aspirations.

We both are quite straight forward and blunt. Brash at times. He is more sober than me I guess.

At all times, we knew what set us apart. We both knew that Sabhtarsha is much more technically sound as compared to me. I dont need to mention that actually. All our friends will vouch for that. But at the same time, we both knew that if you take into account everything other than being technical, I was better. This will also be confirmed by all our friends that know us.

He was destined to be a technical Guru. I was destined to be non-technical, people management, project management kind of a guy. And so we pursued. I always envisioned he will be an Architect sooner than later. He always felt I would be a Manager around the same time.

Then I quit ATN.

Today, we are in a strange situation. Sabhtarsha happens to be a Manager at ATN. With appraisal time at work and my promotion due as a Manager, I have been asked by the organization to become an Architect and not a Manager. Strange are the ways the world functions.

When I was asked to change my preference to Architect, I thought of Sabhtarsha. I smiled to the person speaking to me. He asked me the reason and I told him our story. Its still uncertain whether I will be promoted or not to either a Manager or an Architect. But that's immaterial.

I called Sabhtarsha and we met near ATN and spoke of the old times. Our aspirations. Our current standing. Very happy for each other and there is still a long way to go.

Good times.

Cheers ... !!

Junior Cometh ... !!

2011-09-24T13:48:00.002+05:30

Its close now. Very close.

I have always loved my wife. That's not a secret I guess. But for the last nine months, I don't know if I should say that my love for her has increased. That does not sound appropriate, does it? Sounds too cliched maybe. Yeah. Lets end it there.

Maybe, its the respect and care that has shot up. Yeah maybe. Something has changed for sure.

I am not famous for most of my relationships. I have been quite a disappointing son. A sucker at being a brother. None of my cousins are close to me. There were some but not any more. I am quite a pathetic Mamu. I have just about managed to be a below average son in law. So ...

The 2 relationships that I have somehow tried to save the ship is with my wife and my friends. Even here, both of these have taken a hit over the last year. I have hardly reached out to any of my friends and I have a wife whom I have kept waiting. Sounds like a self bashing up, isn't it? It is ...

I would have liked lots of things to be different. I would have liked to read more stories to my would-be-baby. I would have liked to satisfy more of my wife's cravings. I would have liked more of those late night strolls with my wife planning for my baby's future. I would have liked to be there for all of the get togethers of my friends. I would have liked and I would have liked. That list is pretty long. Not so great for a person who is going to be a father pretty soon.

That's the next relationship test for me. Being a father. I get goosebumps imagining that one more relationship might end up the same way as so many have in the past. Dratch.

Somehow, for a person like me who likes to be confident (and over confident a lot of times) almost always, the pressure is getting to me of being a good father. And that's the last thing I need. I don't want to be pressurized to be a good father. That will make matters worse.

But, I hope and I kinda know that all is not so bad. I am more than looking forward to it. I (along with Amruta) will ensure that our child gets to live a good life, if nothing else. I am sure all parents feel the same. I don't think I am saying anything new here to be honest.

Nervous. Tensed. Excited. Happy. Jittery. Anxious. In a loop.

Waiting to hold Junior in my arms.

Cheers ... !!

MadRAZMATAZZ ... !!

2011-08-06T10:43:00.003+05:30

Its been 13 years since I last visited Chennai. I guess it was called Madras then. I had some very emotional memories of this place. The last time I was here was with my best friend, Aditya who sadly passed away in 2007. The flight was close to touching down in Chennai when it was circling over the sea. It was obvious that we were flying above Marina Beach. Chepauk stood out like a huge black box. I was with Aditya at Marina just one day prior to our departure from Chennai in 1998. Sigh.

It was quite unexpected that I was to go to Chennai. It was late Monday afternoon when I was informed about a visit to Chennai for 3 days starting from Tuesday. I was to go there with Lokesh and join Guru in Chennai for a KT session for the team being set up in Chennai.

To be honest, Chennai did not give me the same big city feeling that a Mumbai or Delhi or Hyderabad gives me. Even entering MEPZ which is supposedly the IT park of Chennai did not impress me coz it looked like the old industries of Pimpri-Chinchwad area in Pune.

Anyway, the 3 days in Chennai were great fun.

We reached Chennai at 0730 on Tuesday morning and reached office by 0830. Well before anyone showed up. The KT started at 11 am and I started it and it had a very smooth flow to it. The 3 of us were really enjoying this KT without any PPT or other documents. Just a marker and the White board. Frankly, I just got up on Tuesday morning at home in Pune and got myself to the airport at 0430 hours. I hardly knew what I had to speak before I left for Chennai. So having said that, I was surprised at myself and the others for having answered all questions asked by the audience. Well done.

We were now brimming with confidence and that took us into the lunch break and we had some local stuff like Rassam Rice, Sambhar rice, etc. The 2nd session continued in the same way and we had a great KT day.

We were discussing plans to drive to Pondicherry but being a Union territory, friends in Chennai said that stuff shuts down by 11 pm over there and we will need to find a place to stay to avoid the cops. Plan dropped. Now what? Booze anyone? Sure.

Guru took us to a fine bar called Aatangudi close to MEPZ. We started at 7 pm and were there till 11 discussing vague stuff like whom do you like the best in the team as a person and as a crush. Whom do you hate the most, etc. It was insane. When people are drunk, they can say such a lot of great stuff and in a great way about people they like. In the same way, the manner to express anger about people whom you hate is equally enjoyable. It was 11 pm. Now what?

We had our guest house booked but we hadnt been there yet. Lokesh and I set off in a cab with Guru and Uday on their bike. It took us some time to locate our guest house but Whoa. What a place.

A huge 3 BHK with one bedroom allocated for 2 people. So Lokesh and I took one. Uday and Guru being locals had to go home some time. The other 2 rooms were occupied by other folks. We had a cook for everyone who made us lovely tea at 12:30. A Wi-fi router, A/C, lavish bath and we were set for the night. The terrace was huge and we made frequent visits for tea over there. To make matters worse, I forgot my Pyjamas at home. So I was going around in a towel all along.

We played cards. Surprising. :) I taught them how to play a game called Minimum and the very popular Maharashtrian game of Mendi Coat. It was fun and Cards + Tea ensured we were up till 0530 hours. Having slept at 2200 hours on Monday night and having got up at 0330 on Tuesday morning, we were asleep for just 6 hours since Monday. Damn it.

Guru and Uday went home at 0530 hours. Lokesh and I reached office by 11 the next day all drowsy. The next day again had some KT sessions. In the evening, we decided to head off to Marina. In a local bus. Yeah.

It took us around 1.5 hours to reach Marina. We had some Fried Fish, Bhajias and Ice cream there. Marina reminds you so much about Juhu. Beautiful place which has unnecessarily been commercialized. Sigh. We were still hungry and we also had Yuvaraja with us today. He is also a local from Chennai who was in Pune for 2 months back in February. He wanted us to have food at Sarvanam, one of the most popular South-Indian joints around the world. Apparently, present in 18 countries. Impressive.

So we were back in a bus headed to Chennai Central. There is a Sarvanam branch at Chennai Central itself. And it was a lip smacking delight. Parota Bhaji, Chilli Parota, Ghee Idli, Sambhar Rice. Just out of the top draw. Yuvaraja left for home. The 4 of us boarded a local train to Guindy. And then a cab to the guest house. It was 12 again. We played some more cards and some more tea was consumed. This time we needed to sleep early since we didnt have any sleep. But the bed supported only 2 people. But we had to adjust for 4. So be it. Done with plenty of space to spare.

The last day was more of a drag. Our flight was at 2115 hours and we decided to go down for final round of tea and gupshup at 1900 hours. We also called the cab so that it arrives by 1930 and we can reach the airport in time. At least we thought so.

It was 1940 and no signs of the cab. We called him and he said he will be there in 5 minutes. Called him again and he said it will take 10 minutes more. It was 1955. This was getting scary. Finally, we called him again and he said the number of the cab is 5588 and the name of the cab driver too. The cab turned up but to our surprise the cab driver said that he had to pick up someone else. Doomed.

We were fortunate enough to get an auto immediately who demanded Rs. 170. We did not care. We just wanted to reach the airport. He said that it will take 20 minutes to reach. It was 2005. The auto driver was driving like a man possessed and we were hoping we would be alive by the time we reached the airport. And then calamity strikes. We ran out of petrol. What more can go wrong? We were still around 3 kms from the airport. We started yelling at him but to no avail. He did not understand Hindi or English and we did not get Tamil. Panic struck, we started waving at cars and buses to stop but it was of no use. Finally, we saw an auto and literally stopped in front of it. We just jumped into the auto and asked him to take us to the airport. Now this guy was in no hurry at all and was driving at his own sweet pace.

But, we were at the aiport at 2035. 40 minutes away from departure. And now we realised that autos are not allowed inside the airport campus. Dratch. We ran for 2-3 minutes to reach the Departures gate and showed our tickets to the Guard. Problem. This was International Departures gate. Man. A jog for another 2-3 minutes got us to Domestic Departures gate. We got out Boarding passes and the lady said "Gate 7. 1st floor." OK. Again a jog for 1 minute got us to Gate 7, 1st floor. But it was a Delhi flight. As John McEnroe would say ... YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.

We had not even looked at our boarding passes. It said Gate 2. Where the hell is Gate 2 now? Ground floor of course. Back to the jog again. Reached gate 2 to realise we are the last 2 to get in to the bus that takes us to the aircraft.

Just the icing on the cake for the most memorable 3 days in Chennai.

Some incidents ...

Me: How do you guys survive over here man?
Guru: You mean the humidity?
Me: No dude. The crowd. The girls. There is hardly anyone to look at.
Guru: Aah. I see. Yeah. North Indians are very beautiful.
Me: Well yeah. But, even Pune has such a great crowd. You will agree right?
Guru; Yes buddy. By North Indians, I meant north of Chennai.

Lokesh: (singing a song from Robot) Kilimanjaro. Ladki parvat ki yaaron. Iska roop nikhaaro. Yaaro Yaaro. De do hamein ek chhoti bosi. (and then stops singing). What is the meaning of Bosi in Tamil?
Yuvaraja and Guru: Bosi? Whats that? We have never heard such a word.
Lokesh: Its there in the song
Yuvaraja and Guru: We dont know
Lokesh: Maybe it means a kiss. Ok, what do you call a kiss in Tamil?
Yuvaraja: Muttam
Me and Lokesh: (look at each other and burst out laughing)
Yuvarja and Guru wonder why.
Lokesh: It sounds so funny.
Yuvaraja: Why? Is there a meaning for Muttam in Hindi?
Me: Yes. Kind of. It means Piss or Pee.
Guru and Yuvaraja start laughing. This is the time when we get into the lift and are waiting for the door to close.
Lokesh: How funny will it sound if I say to my girl friend ... Can you give me a Muttam?
At this very time, 3 girls enter the lift and stare at Lokesh. Yuvaraja and Guru yell at Lokesh to cool it. Its a big issue here. ROFL.

It was fun. Cheers ... !!

Two Tales Of A City ... !!

2011-07-27T15:15:00.002+05:30

I am back.

Its almost like every post of mine is a I AM BACK post. Unfortunately.

Here I am sitting at home and basically just relaxing. Am I? Well, weekdays are quite hectic in office and even today was hectic despite me taking a day off. Some long pending household chores. But that's done. Perhaps the best take-away from a holiday spent at home is home-made hot lunch. Delicious.

But anyway, life at office has been so fulfilling. I have already bragged about my new responsibilities in some previous post. So its no use repeating that.

I have had the chance to work with some very cool people. One of them being Guru. The background is that we needed some Senior SQL developer and he joined the team in December when I was on leave for a week. So, when I came back from my leave, Guru was the first person I met. He hails from Chennai and was supposed to be in Pune for just 2 months. Well yeah. ;)

It's August and every attempt of his to return to Chennai seems to be running into a road block. In the meanwhile, he seems to be enjoying his stint in Pune. It's not that bad after all.

But my first distinct memory of Guru goes back to either December or January. We were having a casual chat about some basic introductory stuff like Where are you from OR Where have you worked previously.

The chat meandered towards whether both of us have been abroad. And we both had. He mentioned that he had worked for L&T Infotech. I told him that I went abroad working for Tieto which is a Finland based company. And then it was like back to my strange relationship with co-incidences.

I mentioned to him that I was in Sweden. Being in Malmo, you tend to mention Sweden as compared to Malmo since it is not one of the more popular cities of Sweden. Surprise surprise. Guru was also in Sweden. I probed him about which part of Sweden had he been to. Without taking the name of the city, he mentioned something like its a small city in the southern part of Sweden. Then I mentioned to him that I had also stayed in a small city in Sweden called Malmo.

That's it. He didnt need another invitation. Guru happens to be very touchy about Malmo and how he regrets returning back to India from Malmo. He intends to be buried in Malmo apparently, maybe at the cemetry in front of Gustav Adolfs Torg. Since then, barely a week passes without us talking about Malmo and trying to find out ways to return to Malmo. We have even irritated our team mates with our Malmo tales. As a co-incidence, we both still carry our Skanetrafiken cards in our wallets. When I showed him my green Skanetrafiken card, he was quick to flip through his wallet and show me his white Skanetrafiken card. Memories.

And another co-incidence. He lived at Davidshallsgatan which was like one bus stop prior to the one I got down at, at Mollevansgatan. We both knew identical super markets, hang outs, etc.

And the discussions dont seem to end.

Two tales of two super sentimental losers about a beauty of a place called Malmo.

Cheers ... !!

In my lifetime ... !!

2011-04-20T20:54:00.002+05:30

Yes. Something I cringed for every 4 years. Prayed that I could see India win the World Cup when I was alive. And its here.

Its quite a common Indian trait to own something special that has happened. As in this case, I said "And its here". It sounds like I myself made it possible. Its not. But thats why I say we tend to own it. And why not?

One thing that binds the entire country. Cricket.

I am quite infamous for my boasting (did someone say Fudkya?). And here comes another. Being a pious Indian supporter, I have this tendency of supporting the team no matter what. While it was obvious during the league stages that we were far away from the great quality of cricket that we usually play, (and I knew this), I somehow still couldnt bitch about the team. After the South Africa game, I had boastfully written that this would be India's last defeat of the tournament which meant that we will win the Cup. Honestly, it was nothing more than a boast, sheer optimism for a lot of people. But I am like that. Someone will really need to convince me to bad mouth my country. And that someone has still not been conceived.

It was not the most ideal World Cup for me as a spectator. I was on leave during the 2nd week of the tournament wherein I caught the India-England and India-Ireland games but for the remainder I was a hassled individual. Working late in office and setting off early in the morning.

The first real sign of India gaining momentum was against the West Indies when we were going through the motions only to take 8 quick wickets to win and set up a mouth watering QF against 3 time defending champions Australia.

Back in office, having been aware that we have been set 261, I thought it will be a tough chase. When I left office, we were 5 down and we were still 70 odd runs adrift. I was going home in my car, one of those rare days when I get a car to office. I am a bit superstitious in the sense that I feel India does not play well when I am watching. Sounds absurd. So as soon as Dhoni was out, I decided I will drive ever so slowly so as to reach home after the match is over.

Sounds simple aint it? Far from it. Even after convincing myself to do so, I was so inquizitive trying to pick up signs on the road. With a TV shop frequenting me every now and then I was trying to make out things. A crowd of 10-12 people watching the game with great intensity. What does that mean? They are not even looking at each other. Does that mean we lost another wicket? A traffic signal had very few vehicles. The next had some more. Does that mean we lost a wicket and more people have switched off and come out? No. Please No. A lot of youngsters on the road. Why arent these guys watching the match? Another traffic signal. A Pulsar stands next to me. I want the 2 guys on this Pulsar to say something about the match. I will pay you guys. But say something. Not even a word about the match. This is killing me.

I drive for 40 minutes to reach Nimantran hotel (normally on a road as isolated as this day, it takes me 20 minutes to reach home) which is still 2 kms away. From my calculation, there are still 5-7 overs left in the game. Whats happening. I dont want to reach home and start crying if India has lost. I park my car outside Nimantran. And curiosity gets to me. I switch on my cell and head to cricinfo. 28 required of 35 balls with 3 boundaries in the last 7 balls and still just 5 down. Thats it. No more waiting. As I slam the first gear, Raina hits a SIX off Lee. I covered the last 2 kms in less than 2 minutes. And rushed home. Ravi Shastri exults "He has nailed it through the covers". Yuvi almost does his own version is the Sajdah midpitch. Raina embraces him and sparks off huge celebrations. Lots of things happen. Punter eats the humble pie and gives up captaincy. But more importantly, its India-Pakistan in the Semis. HUGE ... !!

Same old story. There is a mail circulated in office to assemble at 2:20 for the National Anthem. We get Poster Paints and color people's with the tri-color by lunchtime. People wearing India jerseys (those who had it). Others had to wear Blue atleast. I was one of them. National Anthem at 2:25. Goosebumps. Sehwag starts like a train on fire. Pakistan respond. Typical India-Pakistan match. They drop the GOD several times and finally when he goes for 85, there are some who celebrate. Wonder why? I ask them why are you celebrating. Pop comes the reply. "Come on. Be a patriot. He fell short of his century. We win." I smile sarcastically. But still hoping that it comes true. Anything for an Indian win.

The tension starts getting to me. I decide to play TT to release the tension. The TV is adjacent to the TT table. Hafeez and Akmal start briskly. When will the first wicket fall? Not with me watching the match. Well if its a hoodoo, then lets try it methinks. I rush upstairs. Shove my bat in the drawer and head home. This time I am glued to my cell.

43/0. Crap. This aint meant to be this easy. I fiddle around and almost drop my cell on the road. "Akma falls after brisk start" exclaims Cricinfo. We are in it. I reach home to find them at 52/1. Run rate was not bad. Shafiq and Hafeez look confident. Hafeez plays a T-20-final-Misbah shot and gets out. 2 down. 8 to go. I am not going anywhere. Shafiq and Younis start stitching a partnership. Why? Why? My demons are coming back to haunt me. I cant watch it anymore. There is a huge screen put up in the society. So I have to get away from that too. I force Biwi to come with me even though she wants to see the match. We walk for hardly 200 steps from the society gate and huge roar. Shafiq bites the dust and in some time Younis follows suit. We are back home. Umar Akal sams Yuvi for a four and 2 sixes. I am back out. But it does not last long. Bhajji takes out Akmal. I am back home. Munaf takes out Razzaq. You wonder where is Afridi and the Powerplay. But Misbah is taking care of India :). Afridi hits a few. Misbah hits one. Its happening again. I start feeling twitchy. Mom says "Arent you supposed to be out"?. I nod. I walk into the night. No roars. Whats happening? Pin drop silence for well over 15 minutes. And finally its here. A huge roar. Afridi goes. But I am not going up so soon. Again, a period of no roars. Wahab Riaz and Gul are also out. They are 9 down. Surely, India wins now, right? I run back home. And Misbah hits 3 in a row off Zak. I almsost do a McEnroe "You cannot be serious". He hits Munaf for a Six next over. Good Lord. What made me come back? Off I go again. Praying that the last over should not have a target of less than 20. Its 30. 30 off 6 balls. I am convinced that India can bowl atleast 2-3 good balls. I go up again. Dot ball. Dot ball. Dot ball. Dot ball. Out. Huge celebrations. Its India vs Sri Lanka in a dream final at Mumbai. One win away. First World Cup won ;)

The Big Final. Super Saturday. I convince myself that I will watch every ball come what may. We are at my in-laws place. I had taken 4 chilled bottles of Canon for me and my father-in-law "khoob jamega rang" style. India start off well. Its almost like a wall on the off side. Lanka cant penetrate Yuvi, Raina and Kohli. But Mahela plays a blinder and Perera ends in style. 275. Stiff. But possible. Malinga takes out Viru and SRT. Curtains? For once, I decide to stay put. Biwi and Saas-Sasur have had it. They move to the balcony for some TP. I am all alone watching the Finale. Believe. Believe. We need to be 7 down to lose this match. Until then ... Believe. We surely cant lose this. When will we be in a Final again. I woudlnt have taken a loss. Besides, Rajnikanth was in the building. No way we are going to lose. The Totkas were running around everywhere.

Kohli and Gauti steady the innings. And Dhoni stamps his authority. What an innings for a big match. I start my "one-up" chatter with my in-laws. I am on a rampage about India. Dhoni dumps the ball in the stands to win the Cup. Lay down the red carpet. Start blowing the trumpets. Let the booze flow. I get some more beer, call up relatives and the plan for Sunday is done.

The scenes at the stadium were unreal. WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS ... THE MIGHTY MIGHTY CHAMPIONS ... !!

Yes ... in my lifetime ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Ultra Dumb Reaction Syndrome ... !!

2011-03-02T11:33:00.002+05:30

It happens ... happens quite a lot ... and it goes into the bracket of "It happens ony in India" ...

OK ... so much has already been said of the UDRS decision going against India in their match against England. For starters ... we need to move on ...

Maybe, it has become such an issue because India was involved. It is very likely too that it is more so because we could not defend 338 and even more so coz after being outplayed by England, we somehow got the grip back only to tie the match ... so are we running away from the reality once again?

Well lets first see what the UDRS means? It stands for Umpire Decision Review System. According to this, each team gets 2 reviews per 50 overs. So each team gets 2 reviews in the first 50 overs as well as 2 reviews in the next 50 overs. The UDRS essentially tells you about 3 things ...

One ... whether the ball pitched in line and not outside the leg stump ...

Two ... whether the ball is hitting the pads in line and not outside the line of off stump ...

Three ... whether the ball is hitting the stumps after impact with the pads ...

In addition to these, the UDRS checks if its a legal ball by verifying if its a NO-ball ...

Now there is a catch ... if the Third Umpire is not sure even after reviewing ... he may ask the on-field umpire to stay put and keep the decision unchanged

... lets see the following examples ...

Lets say a batsman was given Not Out and the bowling side asked for a review ... now the Third Umpire got an affirmative response for the 3 points mentioned ... I mean the ball pitched in line, hit the batsman in line and was also hitting the stumps ... but it was hitting the outside of leg stump ... in such a case the Third Umpire will ask the on-field umpire to keep his decison unchanged since there was a minute chance of it hitting the stumps ... so the on-field umpire keep his decision unchanged ... had it been hitting the middle stump instead ... it would have been a reversal of decision ...

Imagine the same scenario with the exception that the batsman was given Out by On-field umpire and the Batsman calls for a review ... even in this case the Third Umpire will inform the on-field umpire that the ball is hitting the outside of leg stump ... so you decide ... and hence the on-field umpire does not change his decision and the Batsman is Out ...

This is where I agree to what Dhoni says ... how fool-proof is this UDRS? If it is still going to let the on-field umpires make the decision then you are forced to question the credibility of such a system ... however I do not agree to one point of Dhoni ...

Even with the fallacies of UDRS, it is still enabling the game to have fairer decisions as compared to previous times ... for example, a huge inside edge can be detected by the eye (this is very important) and the batsman can be saved from a howler ...

This brings me to the next point ... why is this UDRS half-baked for an event as big as the World Cup ... where is the Snickometer? where is Hot Spot? If you are going to use technology, you bloody well use it in its entirety and dont get installments of it out ... a very faint inside edge for lbw or for a Caught-Behind cannot be detected by the naked eye ... you need a Snicko and Hot-Spot for that ... and the reason given for this is Money ... good lord ... if the ICC (or should I say the BCCI) cannot arrange money for a Snicko and Hot-Spot who will? Its almost laughable ... how come folks in Australia are using it on a normal basis ... even in domestic cricket?

And finally, there is this 2.5 metre rule which I guess 99% of the people did not know ... I dont think even the ICC knew about it ... so what is this rule?

It states that if the impact of the ball with the pads is more than 2.5 metres away from the stumps (which means that either the batsman has had a huge stride forward or he has danced down the wicket), then the Third Umpire informs the on-field umpire of this and then the on-field umpire has to think again and make a decision ... in most cases ... a 2.5 metre distance most definitely means that the ball has a long distance to go before hitting the stumps and its highly improbable that it will hit the stump coz the bounce may take the ball above the stumps ... quite true ... but as an umpire, you have to think about a lot of things before giving a decision ... the current state of the pitch, the angle from which the bowler bowled that particular delivery, the pace of the delivery, was it a particular kind of delivery (a yorker, full toss, good-length ball, doosra, off break, leg break, skidder?) ... lots of things which may not give a correct decision ...

This is exactly what happened in the India-England game ... Ian Bell was given Not-Out by the on-field umpire and India reviewed ... the review showed that the ball was pitching in-line, hitting in-line and going to hit the middle and off stump half way up ... but the impact was more than 2.5 metres away from the stumps ... so the Third umpire may have said to the on-field umpire that it has 2.5 metres to go ... if that is what he said indeed then its a problem ... probably a message should have been sent to the on-field umpire that despite being 2.5 metres ... its hitting the stumps only half way up which means that it didnt make a difference if it was 2.5 metres away ... it was still not a boundary decision ... and it should have been given Out ...

That's that ... did it change the course of the game? Maybe ... Maybe not ... Ian Bell did go on to play a match winning innings ... but then thats just food for thought ...

The reaction in the media and within the Indian team was appalling ... Dhoni giving out statements in the press was most uncalled for ... poor Ian Bell was being grilled for no fault of his own ... after all he did not give that decision ... if anything Dhoni should look at himself ... there was 2 instances where Strauss nicked to Dhoni but there was no appeal ... if they would have appealed maybe Strauss would have been on his bike ... the field placements were downright ugly ... England picked a boundary per over with utmost ease ... if it hadnt been for Strauss's shocker to have the batting Powerplay in the 43rd over ... it would have been curtains for India ... Dhoni wad forced to keep an attacking field in the Powerplay and it brought India back into the game ... lots of stuff for India to think ... they better look at themselves before giving this UDRS thing too much attention ... but then again I aint a cricketer ... I am sure Dhoni knows what he is doing and he does not need any advice ... at least not from a non-cricketer ...

Then there is the media ... I have come to the point of hating Arnab Goswami ... you put him in any Newshour Debate and he brings some pre-conceived ideas and keeps putting his point across while embarassing himself as well as Times ... that too in front of legends like Barry Richards ... come on guys ... move on ... how can you say something like "Did Billy Bowden's (the on-field umpire who gave Bell Not out) ego stop him from giving a correct decision?" ... ridiculous ... how can you state if it was a correct decision or not? There is this so called Cricket historian Boria Majumdar ... well this guy is good ... he has a lot of Cricketing knowledge but still ... you put your opinion forward and move on ... dont be hell bent on proving your point when it is clear that the debate has no proper conclusion ...

Lets enjoy the World Cup ... it will have its low points for an Indian spectator ... but its still a spectacle ... if anything then this match was a cracker for a cricket buff ... its been years since I saw a cricket match from the first ball to the last and it ended in a tie ... more than 675 runs in a day ... what more do you want?

I am quite sure India will come out all guns blazing in their next matches ... they were caught off-guard by a resurgent English team ... but who's to say that we still cannot win the Cup? I wouldnt ... as long as we keep our focus on the game ...

Go India ... !!

Cup tales ... !!

2011-02-23T09:19:00.002+05:30

They say it does not take a lot of effort for Indians to provide advice ... and Cricket rules the roost in here ...

The mother of all Cricketing events is here ... THE WORLD CUP ... and no matter how much you hate Cricket, you cannot escape being engulfed in this phenomenon ... you will at least have to ignore it ... ;)

Every Cup has a tale ... and I feel privileged to have grown up in an era when Cricket craze was at an all time high ... the mid 90s and early 2000s ... but

when did it all start?

I was just a year old when India brought home the World Cup in 1983 ... so I was not even aware of what it was or what it meant ... today when I speak to my father, he says that Yes ... it was quite a happy atmosphere all over India during that time but still people did not feel it was a big deal ...

My first teeny tiny memory of the World Cup was of 1987 ... I wont say I distinctly remember everything ... but I do remember the India-NZ match at Nagpur when Chetan Sharma got a hat-trick and Gavaskar got his only ODI hundred ... he had totally shunned his drop-anchor image and blasted Sir Richard Hadlee and others for a brisk 100 ... even Krish Srikkanth was only a spectator ... imagine ... I remember it more coz it was probably one of the few matches in which the Man of the Match was shared between 2 players ...

I also remember my father getting very angry when India lost the semis to England ... as the experts very fondly said ... Gooch sweeps India out of the World Cup ... but I was still very naive even to understand what it meant to win or lose a Cricket match in the World Cup ... I remember it more for our home being flooded by gully-waalas to see every match ... the days of the TV antenna ...

My first real World Cup experience was in 1992 ... I was in the 4th Grade and I was a totally fanatic Indian supporter (I still am) and I had participated in Scouts and there was this All-Pune Scouts associations meet on the opening day of World Cup 1992. India was playing England at Perth that day. Scouts participants from Schools from all over Pune had marched till Dastur High School just to be part of the event. This was very early in the morning and there were no TV shops open too so as to check the score. So I was missing it bigtime. By the time all this got over and my father came to school to pick me up, the England innings was already over. I guess they got 230 odd. By the time I reached home, India had lost the top order and SRT and Pravin Amre were trying to get India out of the hole. SRT looked on track until a Botham beauty ended his innings ... and India fell short by some 20-30 runs ... not the most ideal beginning ...

This Cup had several memories ... Pakistan being all out for 70 odd against England only for the rain to intervene and give both teams 1 point each ... this 1 point enabled Pakistan to make it to the semis ... Jonty Rhodes' acrobatic run out of Inzy ... India's teary 1 run loss to Australia ... the emergence of SRT and BCL ... South Africa's re-entry to international cricket albeit a very sad end to their campaign by Messrs Duckworth and Lewis ... Martin Crowe using Dipak Patel as an effective opening bowler which saw the Kiwis go right uptil the semis ... but my best memory is of the India-Pakistan match at the SCG ...

India and Pakistan had never squared up against each other before in a World Cup ... so this match was going to be rough and tough ... India were still suffering from Aquib Javed's 7/37 (including a hat-trick) at Sharjah ... and we did not put up a huge total ... it was around 225 ... thanks mainly to SRT again ... I remember coming home when Pakistan's reply was about to start ... and we got some quick wickets ... but it was going to be Miandad, Imran and Malik who were going to be thorns ... Javed was nursing an injury but was still playing (come on ... it was against India) ... but he was playing very slowly... Imran came and went ... I guess he was stumped ... Prabhakar took out Malik with a trademark banana ball ... and Javed finally fell to the rising Srinath ... there was this Kiran More-Javed tussle too which was great to watch ... everyone remembers this incident but something that not a lot of people remember is the way Azhar got angry ... you seldom saw Azhar lose his cool but so much was at stake ... India won against the actual winners ... the 1992 Jersey was by far the best Jersey that any Indian team wore ...

In 1996, there was a lot of hype for the World Cup ... I remember Sony being one of the upcoming channels and they ran a special pre-cursor to the event

hosted by Harsha Bhogle called The Final Countdown (it also had the same song :)) ... I remember lot of experts voicing their opinions about who will win the World Cup and there was one man who said Sri Lanka ... that was Sir Richard Hadlee ... he said Jayasurya and Kaluwitharna alone can win the Cup for them ... well a lot of other players (and teams ;)) put their hand up for the Lankans and it was great to see them defeating Australia at Lahore ...

I was in the 8th Grade during this time and the TV room at Lunn Dorm was abuzz every day for any match ... Mr Guzder used to be very keen in knowing the scores from any boy who was emerging out of the TV room ... I remember my sister being in college at that time and her college was next to my school ... she used to pick me up specially during the World Cup so that I get to see more of the matches and waste less time travelling in a PMT bus ... I distinctly remember her screaming "Lara out ho gaya" when she came to pick me up during the India-WI match at Gwalior ...

I remember Nathan Astle getting the Kiwis past the Poms in the first match ... India starting off with a win against Kenya ... Courtney Browne dropping a sitter off SRT at Gwalior ... Manjrekar's stunning catch to dismiss Ponting ... Jayasurya and Kalu almost ending Manoj Prabhakar's career at Delhi ... Kenya upsetting the Windies at Pune ... the Proteas winning everything only to come up against Lara at Karachi and lose in the Quarters ... Heath Streak reducing India to 30 odd for 3 including uprooting SRT's off stump only for Vinod Kambli to play a blinder to rescue India ... Warne winning the semi against the Windies from a hopeless situation ... but again the cake goes to the India-Pakistan high voltage clash at Bangalore ...

So much at stake ... Wasim Akram pulled out ... SRT played an uncharacteristic innings on 30 odd ... but Sidhu played well and later it was the Jadeja show against Waqar ... but everyone was silent when Anwar and Sohail bludgeoned India in their reply ... until Sohail got out to Prasad after some pointing and sledging ... from there on it was India ... and it was a comfortable win in the end ... not the fairy tale ending that Javed was hoping to have ... and India were in the semis at the Eden Gardens ... only to lose to the Lankans ...

Switch to 1999 ... you wondered why the World Cup was played only after 3 years ... ideally it is 4 years ... now it makes sense since the venue was England and its generally held in the English summer ... waiting another year would have meant a 4.5 year wait ... I was in Junior College at this time and was enjoying the summer holidays and not-so-enjoying the Vacation classes for 12th ... my father bought me my Yamaha during this World Cup ... this was the first World Cup since I started going to college ... and around the same time I started playing for Deccan ... so it was quite memorable ...

It was a different format ... the Super 6 made its entry ... India lost their first match against the Proteas at Hove ... and then calamity struck ... SRT rushed back to India since his father passed away ... India lost to Zimbabwe in the meanwhile ... but SRT came back and India won their last 3 matches against Kenya, Sri Lanka and England to make the Super 6s ... the hammering meted out to the Lankans at Taunton was sweet revenge for 1996 ...

This World Cup was best remembered for Lance Klusener ... both for his good stuff and his stupid stuff ... he was clearly Man of the Tournament but he played the choker to the hilt in the semis against Australia ... indeed one of my all time favorite one day games on a rainy day in India ...

India played Pakistan in this World Cup too ... and we won again ... bat first and bowl them out seemed to be an evergreen script for India against Pakistan ... this time it was Prasad who was the tormentor ... but India lost the 2 other Super 6 games and didnt make the semis ... Shane Warne lifted himself for the semis and final after a bad start to the tournament and Australia started the most stunning sequence of victories which is still ongoing ...

I guess 2003 was my most enjoyable World Cup ... Dada had changed the face of Indian cricket and finally we could say that India's fielding was good ... the team had a balanced outlook and the expectations were very high ...

I had a steady girl friend at this time (who is my wife now :)) ... I was in my final year of Graduation and this was the time when we had to finish files for practical assignments and also submit our final year project ...

every game of India is etched in my memory ...

India were embarassed by the Aussies in the first game and it resulted in a fierce backlash back home ... no one would have thought that India would surrender so meekly especially since Warne was banned from the World Cup ...

This was also a time when Pranay, Satya and I used to study at Satya's place and also play Cricket in his courtyard ... I remember seeing the India Zimbabwe game at Satya's place ... given the unpredictable history of India-Zimbabwe games, we were expecting a tough match ... but India won handsomely to get off the mark ... in between India also won against Holland with Yuvi taking 4-6 ... incredible ... I had received a call from XLRI Jamshedpur and my interview was in Mumbai ... I had gone there with my Jiju the same day as the India-Namibia match ... there was a Electronics expo bang in front of Bandra Kurla complex and we saw the Indian innings at one of the giant screens put up there ... the next game was India-England ... and this was the time we were having night labs from 9 pm to 6 am in college ... since there were 2 divisions in college and the night lab schedule was distributed across divisions ... it was not our turn that night ... instead our lab timing was 7-9 pm ... and then the other division took over from 9 pm to 6 am ... the match started at around 6 pm and Pranay, Satya and I were watching it at Satya's place ... Satya's Dad's expression is still so vivid when SRT hooked Caddick into the parking lot ... he had both his hands on his forehead in pure disbelief ... we then attended the lab from 7-9 pm only to rush back to his place to catch England's reply ... and AshishNehra took over ... 6/23 ... almost all dismissals were behind the wicket ... it was great to watch an India pacer bowling such a spell ... and finally India-Pakistan ...

This has a story ...

It was our practical assignments submission day in college and there was utter chaos for getting sheets signed and submitting the files ... and it was a day game which meant it would start at 2 pm ... we had planned a big Biryani-Booze bash at my place that day ... we were done by around 1 pm and rushed to my place in the afternoon ... I dont exactly remember who all were there ... I guess Pranay, Swapna, Mahesh, Suchit ... who else? Dont remember now ... and it

was hungama when Zaheer got the first wicket ... but Pakistan played well to get 270 odd ... by the time India's reply began, the Biryani and Booze were ready ... and so was SRT ... the most astonishing knock ... the first over from Shoaib Akhtar was magical ... a cut over third man for SIX, a wristy flick backward of square for FOUR and the best of the lot ... a trademark SRT check on-drive past mid-on for FOUR ... there was a poster backfoot cover punch from SRT off Wasim in between ... India were away and Yuvi-Dravid saw us through ... this was followed by Pakistan-Zimbabwe (or was it England-Zimbabwe?) match being abandoned which meant Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup ... yipppeee ...

In the Super Six, India faced Kenya and almost made a hash of it only for Dada and Yuvi to bail us out ... and then we won convincingly against the Kiwis and Lankans to make the semis comfortably ... I remember Pranay, Swapna and I were sitting outside a printing shop near MIT watching the India-Lanka match ... we were waiting for our Project copies to be binded ... in the Semis we were pitted to play the Kenyans again ... this time we won more comfortably ... but the Final is a bad memory ... the Aussies were just too strong ... but it was a memorable World Cup ...

The Proteas again ran into Lara in the first match of the Cup and failed to get their calculations right against a D/L affected match against Lanka ... Kenya upset the Lankans and later defeated Zimbabwe in the Super Six ... John Davison of Canada smashed an unbelievable 60 ball century against the Windies ... I guess Vaas took a hat-trick in the first over of a match ... lots of people took over 6 wickets in a game ... Bond, Nehra, Mcgrath, Bichel ...

By 2007, I must admit I was not following cricket the way I used to ... I was married just 2-3 months before the World Cup started ... the format of this tournament left a lot to be desired ... and India and Pakistan were knocked out in the first round itself by Bangladesh and Ireland ... sigh ... it hurts ...

There was still some hope for India especially after they hammered Bermuda ... but they had to win against Lanka ... and I was back at Satya's place watching that match ... we didnt play badly ... the reply was strongish but we kept losing wickets ... and Satya and I could watch no more ... and went off to sleep only to get up in the morning to see newspapers and TV channels spewing venom on the Indian team ...

The tournament went on an on and never seemed to end ... the loss of India and Pakistan took the sheen away from the 2nd round ... Australia won another World Cup on my birthday in 2007 ... I was in Matheran that day ... but I didnt seem to care ... I didnt watch the 2nd round at all in that World Cup ... one of the forgettable World Cups ...

But here we are in 2011 ... back in the sub continent ... and India are a strong team now ... but there are several good teams ... here's hoping for some more tales ... and wishing Team India all the best ...

Baaki baatein baad mein ... Cheers ... !!

Badhaai Ho ... !!

2011-02-16T09:12:00.003+05:30

No, its not something great that has happened in my life.

One of those things in life for which I am infamous for ... my sad sense of humor.

A colleague of mine was on leave for a week. He called me from his hometown just to ask about what is happening in office. I was in the middle of some important work at that time and I was not paying too much attention to the discussion on phone while pretending to take immense interest in it. After discussing about the state of affairs for around 2 minutes, he said ...

He - Aapke liye ek khush khabari hai ...
Me - Haan haan bolo ...
He - Meri shaadi fix ho gayi ...

This was the time I completely ignored the task I was doing and started wondering why it could be a good news for me if his wedding has been fixed. This guy is probably the sweetest person in the team by a long distance and is extremely innocent. Had it been a bumchum, my reply to that statement would have downright cheap ... I am sure all my good friends reading this know what I mean ;)

Anyway ... since I could not completely ignore the job at hand and I could also not afford to hurt him and I wanted to finish the discussion soon, I had to say something ... and I failed miserably at it ... my exact words were ...

Chalo ... tumko aur mujhko bohot bohot badhaai ho ... tum aa jaao fir saath mein celebrate karte hai ... (one can possibly think of gazillion meanings for that statement)

Dratch ... after about an hour or so ... I realised what I had said ... even though I knew it was something uncalled for ... I still feel ... hell forget it ... he said it was a good news for me so why cant I congratulate myself for that ...

Just a day in the life of Pratik Beri ... RIP bro ...

Cheers ... !!

Pressed for time ... !!

2011-01-20T20:43:00.002+05:30

I just have 5 minutes ...

The last 2 months have been so painstakingly busy that I go home when my wife is asleep and by the time I get up the next morning, she has already left for office ... damn ...

Weekdays have joined forces with weekends ... if anything, then weekends are busier than weekdays ... and not at doing household chores but at office itself ...

I have had the chance to learn a lot ... thats the only saving grace ... I am finally doing something which I always wanted to do ... and to be honest I think I am enjoying myself and doing well ...

But at what cost? I need to strike a balance between work and family ... aah that evergreen cliche ...

I have missed out on so many posts ... the larger than life wedding at Bihar, the escapade to Corbett, the year gone by post, the first set of appraisals that I have done, Calendar 2011 ... man I have missed my blog posts ...

Koi nahi ... my watch tells me that I had only 5 minutes ...

See you later alligator ...

Paris Quickie ... !!

2010-11-02T10:49:00.005+05:30

I wish I was there ... Oh I wish ... sigh ...

Paris was one city that I had performed the maximum R&D when I was in Malmo. I was so smitten by my trip to Paris that I hardly worked during the week that led to the weekend when I was supposed to go to Paris. But the stupid Icelandic volcano chose a wrong time to ejaculate ... I could have used a more sombre term ... but I have lost all respect for Iceland and everything related to it ... errr ... was it Miss Iceland in the last 5 at Miss World? :P

By the time that weekend arrived, I had the entire Paris metro system on my fingertips and I had a ready time table for the weekend to visit places ... Eiffel tower, Louvre, Champs Elysses, River Sienne, Disneyworld ... I had Paris going all over in my mind ... but alas ... it never happened ... and that remained the sore point of those magical 18 weeks ...

But they say lightning strikes twice ... whatever ...

Biwi had a 6 hour stopover en route to her flight to Helsinki on Sunday. The fact that she was going to land in Paris at around 7 am was even better ... her connecting flight to Helsinki was around 12:30 ... we had to plan it to precision ...

the target was to get to the Eiffel Tower and head back to the airport ... thats it ...

I am not a huge fan of flight departures and arrivals from and to India ... so accounting for an hour of delay was inevitable ... so we were talking about arriving in Paris at around 8 am ... check-in could be done even half an hour in advance since there was nothing to check in :P ... so the deadline was to reach Paris CDG latest by 12 ... we assumed 30-45 minutes to get out of the flight and get to the metro station at the airport and to purchase tickets ... so we were staring at a departure of around 9 am from Paris CDG ...

This also meant that Biwi needed to be seated very close to the exit of the aircraft ... that was done by web checking in ... the easier part was done ...

Paris metro is known by the name of RER ... there are several RER lines in Paris similar to Central, Harbour and Western in Mumbai ... Paris CDG fell on the RER-B (Blue) line ... Biwi had to board a train to St Michel Notre Dame which is around a 30-35 minute journey from the airport. Get down and then switch to RER-C (Yellow Line) and head to Champs de Mars ... which is around a 10 minute journey and its the closest metro station to the Eiffel Tower ... it is a 10 minute walk from Champs de Mar to the great structure ... so an hour was a good time to reach Eiffel Tower from the airport ... spend 15-25 minutes over there and another hour to get back to the airport ... which meant Biwi would be back at the airport by around 11:30 am ... wonderful ...

As expected, there was a 30 minute delay in departure from Mumbai ... the flight arrived at CDG at 7:45 am ... and it took her around 8:15 to get her passport stamped and stuff ... she spent some time identifying the metro station at the airport and purchasing tickets ... and she was on board a RER-B headed to Saint Remy (last stop on the Blue Line) at 8:55 ... switching trains was quite straight forward according to her ... and she was at the Tower before 10 ... well before 10 ... and she left at around 10:20 am to be back at the airport at 11:25 ... amazing amazing turn of events ...

Sitting at home in Pune ... I was predicting what she would be doing and where she might be at every minute ... praying that she does not back out of the plan ... afterall she was alone in a city completely new to her ... in some way I may have been a bit selfish that I wanted her to go to the Eiffel Tower at any cost ... but I knew that is capable of pulling it off ... and she did ... proud to be her husband ...

Some pics from Paris ...

So for anyone in a similar predicament ... here is how to get to the Eiffel Tower from Paris CDG airport (remember there are 2 airports in Paris ... the other being Paris Orly) ...

There are 2 RER stations at CDG ... at Terminal 1 and at Terminal 2 ...
You need to board a train with the last stop either as Massy Palaiseau or Saint-Remy. There are fast and slow trains in Paris too. A fast train skips lot of stations and halts at the important ones while the slow also skips some stations but halts at more stations than the fast one ... thats the only difference ... but if you are going to the Eiffel Tower ... it doesnt make a difference if you board a slow or fast one since the station in question is a Halt station for both the fast and slow train ...

It takes 30-35 minutes to reach a station called St Michel Notre Dame. Get down here. Switch to RER-C (Yello line). The train you board at St Michel should be headed to either of the following stations ...

Pontoise
Argenteuli
Versailles - Rive Gauche
Saint Quentin en Yvelines

It is a 10 minute journey from St Michel to Champs de Mars and then a 1 km walk from the station to Eiffel Tower. Biwi tells me that its visible from the station itself ...

I have also attached a map. There is a black box for St Michel and a Purple one for Champs de Mars ...

Happy PARISing ... !!

STATUSfied ... !!

2010-10-05T12:40:00.001+05:30

Yeah ... so what?

I dont recollect when I started it but I liked putting up a real-life status message everyday ... atleast on the working days coz I hardly accessed the Net during holidays ...

Of late ... I have been skipping it ... partly due to a change in job and partly due to the fact that I am always online ... on my cell ... so the holiday logic was not working ... so I thought I better move on ...

Its no use doing something if you are losing the plot or disrespecting a trend ... so I guess its time to say good bye to this everyday phenomenon ...

Over the last 5-6 years ... its been a good way to interact with people ... people pinged me and started talking ... so it was a nice mediator ...

There was some philosophy ... some witty ones ... and some garbage ... but it was a good ride ...

But theek hai ... maybe sometime in future I will pick it up again ... I am STATUSfied ...

Cheers ... !!

Sahi Sikhaaya ... !!

2010-09-06T17:50:00.004+05:30

I think Teacher's Day might be the least celebrated of all special days. Or ... maybe thats relative ... some people attribute a lot of importance to this day and why not? It makes perfect sense to raise a toast to some of the most influential people in one's life ...

I too have been blessed with the presence of such individuals in my life and I found it pretty strange that I have never looked at this day as a special one ... no wonder people call me emotionless ... dratch ...

I started my education at St. Mary's ... not the popular school (with pretty girls :)) but it caters more to aspirants who want to become teachers ... so how did I start at such a place? These aspirants were our teachers ... they were first taught to handle 3-4 year olds and then graduate to higher grade classes ... what's the logic? It should be easier to harder isnt it? :P

Anyway ... I dont remember any specific teacher from St. Mary's but there was one who taught me how to play on the swings and see-saws ... I just have a vague memory of how she looked but nothing else ...

I moved to that beauty of a place called Bishop's High School ... a stone's thrown away from St. Mary's ... an all Boys school (it has changed now to Co-ED ... dratch) ... a place ruled by the canny Mr.B.W.Roberts who taught us to BE THOROUGH (the school motto or tagline) and a place where I met the most amazing teachers ...

Started off with the cute Miss Fernandes in KG ... she was perfect for Kindergarten kids ... curly locks and not too strict ...

I met her polar opposite in Miss Pathak (most of ladies in Bishop's were unmarried ... not sure of the logic) ... a strict middle aged spectacled women ... she knew when to crack the whip ... Standard 1 helped me realise that everything in life is not cute like Miss Fernandes ... :)

Standard 2 threw up a very different kind of teacher in Mrs. Pope ... she was 4 feet 5 inches in height married to a 6 feet 2 inches Mr. Pope ... the Bishop's version of the Bachchans ... she was very affable and not too strict ...

I was then the student of my favorite teacher till date ... Mrs Daniels ... she was the one who convinced me to work harder and come up the ranks ... improved my hand writing ... she made us participate in Art related activities like painting or carving ... she even made me correct books of classmates ... come on ... Mrs Daniels was also beautiful ... I dont know if I had the senses to identify what 'Beautiful' meant in 1990 ... but I would say she was good to look at ... :)

It was Mrs Desilva in 4th ... again a middle aged grumpy lady ... she was always on collision course with Mrs. Daniels ... they kind of didnt get along ... Mrs. Desilva too wanted me to correct books of my class mates and Mrs Daniels had come to know about this and she had given me quite a verbal pasting that I should discontinue with it ... but at that time I kind of didnt know what to do ... :P

In between, we had subject teachers too ... like the so called aunty teachers in Mrs Singh and Mrs. Randhawa who taught us Hindi ... the irresistibly knowledgeable Mrs Sharabali ... and the effervescent Mrs. Forester ... the most bizarre teacher I have ever seen ... in a cute way ... it was as if she had grown old entirely in Bishop's ...

It is a big transition from 4th to 5th ... the Building changes ... we were now in Middle school from Junior school ... and who better to welcome us than Mr. Baskaran ... the man with the swagger and a unique way of teaching and talking ... a heavy South Indian accent ... we were also introduced to caning by him ... and he taught us Science of all subjects ... goodness gracious ...

We had 2 class teachers in 6th ... Mrs. Highland and Mr. Dolas. Mrs Highland was quite a practical lady. She went about her job in her own way which was quite professional. She was also a pretty lady and she was a perfect foil to Mr. Highland who taught Chemistry in Senior School ... she taught us Geography ... she went away midway to be with Mr Highland abroad and was replaced by Mr. Dolas ... a person capable enough of being the school Hitler ... anything was possible for him using his cane ... his slaps ... Gawd ... he also thought of himself of being the school hunk ... forever displaying his charisma (or trying to) to the lady teachers ... but he was not bad at heart ... taught us History ...

Enter the joker ... Mr. Chavan ... the bald headed, duck-walking, India-loving Hindi teacher who was our class teacher in 7th ... he corrected papers just by looking at the name of the person ... if its some one whom he liked ... it would be 8/10 ... else 4/10 ... end of story ... he wrote the most compelling patriotic songs during the School Concert ...

We were now in Senior School ... and we had to start wearing trousers instead of shorts ... Chemistry, Biology and Physics made an entry ... and Mrs Girija was the perfect teacher to not start off our Senior life :P ... she had strange habits ... she kept chewing something ... people said it was Tobacco ... I would say you need guts as a teacher to be chewing tobacco in Bishop's ... she kept shaking her legs vigorously when seated ... and lets not even get into the explanation ... she taught us Physics ...

Then it was Mrs. Mitra ... maybe the prettiest teacher of Bishop's in my time ... did someone say Aarti Saagar? :P well yeah ... she was pretty but she was the music teacher in Junior school ... too bad ... Mrs. Mitra was the quintessential perfect teacher ... taught us Geography ... contours, South-Westerly monsoons, Soils, Volcanoes, Dams ... who cares? when its Mrs. Mitra teaching ... :P

Finally, the most funniest teacher I have met ... Mr. Johnstone ... I think I have picked up waving hands or performing actions while speaking from him ... I used to pull off a good imitation of him in school ... the way he spoke, the way he taught, the way he walked ... everything was funny ... the way he gave examples about Physics ... hats of sire ...

These were just the class teachers ... we had several other subject teachers ... the Principal himself, Mr. B.W.Roberts didnt teach us but his towering presence during the assembly everyday was quite intimidating ... and Mr. Guzder ... a man misunderstood by most due to the way he was ... he seemed very strict and probably was ... but he had a whacky sense of humor ... he taught us The Merchant of Venice for God's sake which was one helluva ride ... I think today Mr. Roberts and Mr. Guzder are most looked upto by the old boys ...

Mrs. Singh was the lady Hitler who taught us Maths, Mrs. Furnell taught us English along with Mrs. Rawlins, Mrs. Jadhav was (and probably still is) teaching Biology ... Mr Aviet tortured us towards History and Civics, Mrs Neena Daniels taught us Chemistry ... another gem of a person ... a great sense of humor for a lady ... Mr Jumbo Fernandes also taught us Hindi ... best remembered for conducting tests on the first day of school ... dammit ...

Mr. Dupratt taught us painting and Art ... Mr Chaudhary helped us pick Craft (Fretsaw, photography, Carpentry) ... Mr Jagtap took care of the Shloks in Sanskrit ... and there were the PT Sirs ... Mr Austin and Mr Wandre ... march-past would never be the same without Mr Wandre ...

It was quite a leap when I entered college ... and I dont have a lot of teachers to talk about from Wadias ... the best I remember is Mr. Joshi ... who taught us Maths ... he dragged the entire lecture solving one sum ... best known for teaching us Determinants ... and there was Mr Mudgi ... who taught us Maths and Physics ... but the most influential person for me in Wadias was Mr Andaar ... he looked like he is a Commander in force ... upturned moustache and a commanding voice ... he was the perfect Department Head for Mathematics ...

In between, I had joined classes for 12th ... where Mr Kelkar was quite close to being the funniest teacher I have met ... while teaching Physics, whenever there was a theorem to be proved ... like e=mc square (pardon me ... I am not writing the power 2 for square) ... he used to say "put it in a box" ... and I had no idea what that meant ... I used to be with my very good friend Nikky ... and I just asked him ... "which box?" ... :P

This was a time when I entered Fergusson ... again a place where I met some great teachers and some really unfortunate ones ... :D

My first encounter was with the colorful Mr D V Kulkarni ... I didnt have the faintest idea that he was the Department head ... he didnt have a lavish way of presenting himself and I was quite surprised when I knew his actual position in college ... an avid gardener ... I must say he was responsible for the prettiest department in Fergusson ... his witty one liners are the ones to die for ...

One of my best teachers was Thakar Mam ... she was extremely professional and very cordial ... I still feel like punishing myself for joining classes on a subject taught by her ... she used to teach us Statistics and Maths ... even Atre Mam was the same ... very good teacher and a joy to talk to ... Joglekar Mam was another bubbly character who taught us Maths ...

Mrs. Page was one hell of a strict teacher ... a disciplinarian to the hilt ... no wonder people were scared of her ...

Snehal Mam tried to be as convincing as possible while teaching us DAA and CCT ... but the subjects themselves were so enduring that we couldnt blame her for not understanding most of the stuff ... Tarannum Mam ... well she was more of a friend to me and I think she was a better friend than teacher ... she taught the most life threateningly boring theoretical subjects and I liked getting into debates with her just to lend some color to her lectures ... not that I succeeded but it was well worth the effort ... :P

There were some mediocre teachers in between ... but still worth a mention for more reasons than one ... Kavita Mam, Deepali Mam. Kukde Sir and the joker in the pack... Sharma Sir ... famous for his outrageous English statements ...

I had joined classes for Maths ... Manisha Deshpande ... more popular as MD ... maybe the most unique teacher I experienced ... her classes were more like a laughathon ... she had so many differences ready about how life is different in Pune and Mumbai ... plus she paid extra attention to her Saaris and her jewellery ... girls paid extra attention to that and maybe learnt a thing or two from her ... she was funny in more ways than one ...

I found an astute teacher in Anand Das during PG ... he probably knew every technical detail of anything he taught ... kind of a genius ...

Every person has something unique and all these teachers have left an indelible mark in their own way ... and I would forever be indebted to them ... I am a firm believer in Education being the best investment of life ... and our parents, even though they do a huge favor on us by funding our education, still end up doing the easier of the 2 tasks ... its the teachers who perform the more difficult task ... of inculcating the right knowledge in us ...

I am what I am due to the education I received ... and I wish to thank all my teachers ... I may have missed some but that does not take anything away from them ...

Jo sikhaaya ... Sahi sikhaaya ... !!

Freakish coincidence ... !!

2010-07-26T12:08:00.002+05:30

Read on ...

"Pratik Beri?"
"Yes ... that's me"
"Please come ..."
"Yes"

I walk my way down the cubicles and make myself comfortable on the chair assigned to me. A pretty lady sits in front of me.

"Hello. My name is Kiran (this is probably the first time I am not using the actual name. Her actual name is quite unique and not many people have that name) and I am here for your HR interview. Can you tell me about yourself?"

As soon as I hear her name, I start getting goosebumps ... no ... not again ... my history with coincidences is pathetic ... dratch ...

"Oh Yes. As you know, my name is Pratik Beri and I ... (she cuts in ...)

"Pratik Beri ... hhhhmm ... why does that name sound familiar? ... anyway go on ... "

Flashback ... cut to September 2009 ...

One of my dear friends Appu (this is a real name ... and Appu would love this post) had appeared for an interview with the same company and they had informed him that they will be calling him for an HR round later. Some days passed and he did not get a call. He asked me if I knew anyone in this company so that we can know the status. One of my very dear friends was working in the same company.

I wrote him a mail with Appu in CC. The 3 of us exchanged mails discussing the exact scenario. At one point, we all got frustrated and started with some abuses and filthy talk regarding the approach followed by the company regarding the HR interview. We did not realise that my friend had accidentally added the HR's name in the mail thread. The name of the HR was KIRAN ... !!

Not being sure as to whether Kiran is actually a male of female, we had assumed it would be a guy and let our tongues wag ...

Kiran finally turned out be a lady and she wrote my a friend a very stern mail regarding corporate decorum ... that was that ...

Back to real time ...

I had a decent HR interview with Kiran and she asked me her last question. Her question was "Who has referred you?" ... I was so lost reminiscing about September 2009 that I didnt have the common sense to mention a name other than my friend ... and told his name to her stupidly ...

Her reaction left me cursing myself ... it was ...

"Now I know why the name Pratik Beri sounds familiar ... thank you ..."

The result of the interview should not be a secret now ...

Cheers ... !!

Dil Li ... !!

2010-07-06T11:30:00.008+05:30

Sach mein Dil le liya ... Dilli ... a city deserving to be the capital of the great country of India ...

I have been to Delhi thrice now in the last 6 months and every visit has been so enriching .... it was extremely chilly in January ... extremely hot in May ... and sticky/rainy in July ... I have seen all seasons ... :)

I was there for 4 days this time ... we had decided to see the Taj Mahal on Biwi's birthday and with Prakash staying in Noida, it was quite an easy decision to make ...

The monuments were a treat right from the first day ... India Gate, President's House, Parliament House, Laal Killa, Jama Masjid, Bahai Temple (also called the Lotus Temple), Birla Mandir, Humayun's Tomb ... every monument had ROYAL stamped all over it ...

The drive on Rajpath was also divine ...

But the icing on the cake was THE TAJ MAHAL ... we had left Delhi at 10 am and reached the Taj at 4 pm ... I have to say the traffic in Agra is pathetic for a city which hosts the best wonder of the world (Yes ... the Colosseum doesn't even come close to the Taj ... not even a contest) ... plus the highway protocol is shabby in this part of the world ... how else can you justify 6 hours to cover a distance of 200 kms ... the last 6 kms took 2 hours :P

But once we saw the Taj ... it was a jaw dropping moment ... we just couldn't get enough of it ... its such an amazing monument ... it took us almost 3 hours to check it out completely ...

I also had the best food at Agra ... a 2 Chapati and Chhola combo for Rs. 10 ... bliss ... and as has been the case with several of Biwi's birthdays ... it rained heavily as soon as we entered the Taj ... it was Mumbai last year and Agra this year around ... something with 3rd July and the rain that keeps following Biwi ...

Towards the end of the trip, we were extremely privileged to be at the Akshardham Temple ... just visit it for the light, water and sound show ... its quite a spectacle at 9 pm ...

The Metro is also another phenomenal landmark of Delhi ... plush trains with quite an astonishing frequency and it runs completely on an over bridge ... so you can view Delhi from a height ... its quite an experience ...

And last but not the least ... my suggestion to anyone who visits Delhi ... go to Chandni Chowk and head straight to Parothewaali Gali ... its one of the best "eating gullis" that I have been to ... and the menu was something I have not seen so far in my life ...

Bhindi, Nimbu, Khurchan, Parat, Mutter, Kaaju, Gaajar, Paapad, Karela, Kela ... if you are wondering what these are ... they are the flavors of Parathas ... at a reasonable Rs. 30-40 per Paratha ... lip smacking delight ...

Seriously ... Basti hai mastaano ki Dilli ... Gali hai diwaano ki Dilli ...

Cheers ... !!

Hejdå ... !!

2010-05-20T16:01:00.004+05:30

That's Good-bye in Swedish ...

Its time to bid adieu to Malmo ... a city that I have made my own for the last 18 weeks ... I say it with quite a lump ... but life goes on ... but its been a pleasure living in Malmo ... a weird city where you feel more Danish than Swedish ... due to its proximity to Copenhagen ...

I will miss the daily routine ... getting up at around 6ish and getting ready before waking up Kunal and then calling Biwi ... then proceeding to get the tiffin ready ... followed by tea/coffee ... getting down and waiting for the rest of the gang and trudging out in the snow (and later some sunshine accompanied by a chill in the air) towards Triangeln to board the bus ... and then walking again from Centralen to office ... while coming back it was a different story ... we started discussing about dinner at 3 pm itself ... the knocks on various doors to get the Belan for roti ... :P

We got so much of free stuff at Centralen ... from ready-to-cook chicen to ice creams ... to juices ... amazing ...

The weekend trips to the open market ... a walk down the frozen lake (its no more frozen and it looks inexplicably pretty) ... after-dinner walks till Gustav Adolfs Torg ... those midnight dancing attacks at the hotel club ... casino hopping ... a laidback afternoon at Kungsparken ... brannboll at Ribergsborg ... just too many memories to jot down ...

We talked about it in February that post-April ... time would fly since most of us were going to visit places around Europe ... and with Biwi also coming to Helsinki ... things only got better ...

Helsinki, Rome, Venice, Zurich, Bern, Spiez, Luzern and Copenhagen ... the only sore point was Paris ... but I will be back ... :P

I also learnt some Swedish ... but at best I can define my skills as below-par... :D

I couldnt stay without my Jojo card (its Yoyo and not Jojo :D) ... coz that guaran-damn-teed that I could freely roam around Malmo by bus without paying a penny ... er ... ore :P

It was weird in Jan and it is weird now ... back in Jan, it was like sunset at 1530 and sunrise at 0900 ... now its sunrise at 0430 and sunset at 2200 ... so its been quite weird that way :) ... we almost saw no sun in Jan-Feb since our office timings are 0800-1600 :P

As much as I am thrilled to get back to India ... I am peeved to imagine that I wont be in Malmo now ... a beautiful city and a great host ... I will miss you Malmo ... take care ...

Cheers ... !!

A Stroll ... !!

2010-05-13T15:27:00.004+05:30

Its overcast all of a sudden here in Malmo. It reminds me of the time I actually landed in this city in January. There was bright sunshine for close to 2 weeks but it has become drowsy again ... I mean the weather ...

Kunal (my roomie) went back to India this morning to be there for this sister's wedding. We have a 4 day weekend starting today. I went with him to drop him off till the Central at 0715. After his train to Copenhagen departed ... I went back to the bus stop to board any of the number 8s, 2s or 7s ... but the first bus was in 11 minutes ... hell crap ... lets go walking methinks ...

Its a straight path from the Central to our hotel unlike the bus route which meanders around the city.

It was only after 5 minutes of walking that I realised that there are not a lot of people on the street. It was almost pin drop silence at 8 am on a Thursday (Yes, it was a holiday). It was now that I started counting the number of people I see (I counted a moving vehicle as 1). When I was done with the 3 km distance ... the count stood at 59 ...

Yeah ... they do take their holidays seriously here ... :P

P.S: There is a fountain on the way that you can control on your own. Each pipe in the fountain has a corresponding button outside ... and anyone can press any of the buttons to get the ripple effect ... slick ... and I discovered this one week away from my departure to India :P

Cheers ... !!

Losing a P ... !!

2010-05-03T15:41:00.004+05:30

One of the saddest days of my life ... DAPP disintegrates and here I am sitting at a place far away from the mayhem ... Prakash leaves Pune ... to pursue something better in Noida ... surely a FLAG AT HALF MAST day ...

KYA DIN THE YAAR ... I have repeated this statement with Biwi so many times over the last 4 days ... its such a crushing blow when we both come back to India ... Prakash Bajiya saale ... :(

He will be missed ... from his unmimickable sense of singing ... to his innovative card games ... from his total negligence of timing :P ... to his filthy mouth ... :D ... kya kar diya saale ... I have never had such a MIXED FEELINGS birthday ever ...

My friend Adi's demise is still the worst moment in my life ... but this is a close second ... suddenly I feel too old realising that life has to go on and this is very much close to what's in store post our 30s ...

I dont have too many good (read: close) friends and its doubly screwing when someone as close as Prakash goes away ... I cant stop thinking about how lost we are going to be on weekends ... especially Friday evenings ...

Dev Uncle's kitchen, Meghdoot, Signature, TOaks, Marz-O-Rin, Pizza Hut, Tamhini Valley, Nivaant ... it brings tears when I foresee that DAPP would not be frequenting these places ...

Its with immense pain that I write that each of the members of DAPP would be in a different city starting tomorrow ...

Chal koi nahi bande ... here's wishing him all the best in life ... dekhe to sahi ki Noida mein woh baat hai bhi yaa nahi ...

signing off with a patented Prakash Bajiya dialogue ... one that he used when we reached the top of Rajgad on a terrible windy, rainy and slippery trek ...

Ban naa chaahte ho duniya ki sabse badi company? :P

and I would like to dedicate one more of his punchlines (I have also been using it of late :D) to Prakash ... JAZBA HAI BANDE MEIN ...

Cheers mate ... and Plan C yaad rakhna :P

Regretting a Joy ... !!

2010-04-21T19:13:00.003+05:30

Ouch ... this week has been excruciatingly painful ... Paris dreams went up in the air ... er ... ash ... and there are still signs that this may continue ... something tells me I am never gonna visit Iceland in my life :P

This was followed by me not being present for the Bachelor's party of one of my dear friends ... Sabhtarsha ... and today he enters wedlock ...

After irritating the hell out of each other for 9 years ... from FC to Persistent to AT ... it almost felt like I was wedded to him ... and I am hoping my wife does not read the last statement :P

Here's wishing my good old fat (I heard he has been gymming :P but I also heard he has not given up on Good Luck yet :P) friend a sweet married life ... have a good one mate ...

I hope Sabhtarsha is an even better husband than he is a friend ...

Cheers ... !!

Shylock Land ... !!

2010-03-31T17:49:00.003+05:30

He is one of my all time favorite fictional characters ... for some reason I like the villains who have this aura about themselves and didnt Shylock have that? A mean guy who was mostly correct in expressing his views ... but not necessarily in the correct way ... and I am going to Shylock land for Easter ... along with another childhood-dream place ... Roma ...

Shylock happens to be the evil twist in one of the very few comic plays by Shakespeare called The Merchant of Venice ... a legendary play that takes me back to school everytime I remember it ...

We were spared the nuisance of Julius Caesar coz our batch was the first to start off with The Merchant of Venice after most of our senior batches went through that ordeal called Julius Caesar ... and we had Mr. Guzder to teach us Literature at school ... who better than Mr. Guzder I say :P

The Merchant of Venice is a play set in Venice and is a story about 2 friends ... Antonio and Bassanio ... where Antonio is a ship merchant while Bassanio is his spend thrift friend ... and Antonio always helps him out in all his endeavors ... Bassanio is in love with Portia who lives in Belmont ... Shylock is also a merchant but he is a Jew and his angst against non-Jews has been portrayed so amazingly ... Shylock and Antonio never get along ... Shylock has a beautiful daughter in Jessica who is in love with one of Antonio's close buddies Lorenzo ... and there is the clown Launcelot Gobbo ... all in all its a twisted plot with Shylock always trying to gain on Antonio in some way or the other ...

Bassanio needs some money from Antonio to go to Belmont and woo Portia ... Antonio's ships have still not returned and he is a bit short on cash so he decides to borrow money to help Bassanio ... and surprise surprise ... only Shylock is ready to lend him money in Venice ... but he has a shrewd condition if Antonio doesnt pay him the money on time ... he will cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's body ... :P

The play can be divided into 2 parts ... the first part is all about introducing all characters and there is more of Antonio and Shylock ... but the 2nd part is more about Bassanio and Portia and how they come to Venice to help out Antonio ... Portia steals the show in the last quarter of the play ... but its a gripping play and makes you chuckle a lot ...

I remember that Biwi and I spent a lot of time discussing Venice for our honeymoon ... but since we got married in December ... we were a bit wary of the snow ...

But it looks like we are pretty close to realizing our dream ... we will be in Rome on April 1,4 and 5 while we will by roaming in the gondolas at Venice on April 2 and 3 ...

I hope we come across Shylock ... Bon Voyage ... Cheers ... !!

Helsingfors ... !!

2010-03-30T14:43:00.011+05:30

Well, thats the name of Helsinki in Swedish and I thought it is appropriate if I somehow used both Swedish and Finnish in some way :P

I had been to Helsinki last weekend to meet Biwi and throughout my flight I kept going back to that horrendous day in October when it seemed like every path I was taking had an invisible wall that I was banging against ... and who would have thought on that day that I would be meeting my beloved in Helsinki of all places ... but am I complaining? No way ... :)

The thing I like about Europe is that office hours are only till 4 pm which gives anyone ample leeway to plan something on a Friday evening. I boarded a train from Malmo to Copenhagen (since that's my closest international airport. Malmo has its own airport but it does not have too many good direct international connections) at around 5:30 pm. It takes around 20 minutes to reach Copenhagen airport (the train station is located at the airport called Kastrup Lufthavn) and I was at the airport at 6 pm ... still 2 hours away from my 8 pm flight ...

Copenhagen airport is quite huge (I have not been to too many airports to be honest) and I thought its the right time to explore the airport. And a person like me has to head straight to the liquor section, isnt it? Well yeah.

It took me around 40 minutes to check out all options and short listed a few that I will get to India in 2 months time. But I took some wine biscuits for Biwi and after paying in Euros, I received some Danish change. Man ... I was suddenly carrying Euros, Swedish Kronors, Danish Kronors and INR ... all at the same time ...

It was a 90 minute flight to Helsinki and Biwi had promised me that she will be at Terminal 1 at 2230 local time (Helsinki is an hour ahead of Copenhagen) but I did not find her when I reached. It was 2300 and there was till no sign of Biwi and I was starting to worry a bit ... coz I did not have a cell ... neither did she ... and there was no way to contact her if she doesnt turn up ...

But she finally came at 2315 and I was relieved at first and then extremely happy to meet my wife after 2 months ... I was so emotionally drenched ... thats what I call ... Moments ..

We boarded a bus that took us to Helsinki Central station (called Rautatientori) and its quite some distance from the airport. From there it was a 15 minute walk to Biwi's place ... and we had some planning to do for the next 2 days ...

Saturday morning and a bit of afternoon was consumed in making some food and it was early evening when we headed out ... along with Biwi's 2 colleagues ...

It was colder than Malmo the wind was making it worse ... but we went to The Rock Church first. I must say I have never seen a church like this in the sense that it does not look like a church from outside but once you are inside ... you feel like remaining inside ... its beautiful and has a arena atmosphere about it ... there is a gallery too and the view from the gallery is even more special ...

From there, we went to Zoological museum but that was already shut but we managed some pics ... and then we visited the Parliament house ... I couldnt believe that the President of Finland stays just down the road with zero security ... :P

Helsinki is quite picturesque ... the trams, the statues and small over-bridges make it very pleasing to look at ... Swedish is the second language in Finland and everyone knows both Finnish and Swedish since its part of basic education ...

We then went to The Cathedral ... this is the standout place in Helsinki for me ...

It reminded me so much about what I have read about St Peter's Basilica ... the statue of Alexander in the open space in front of the Cathedral gives you that great historic feeling ... if thats a valid phrase ;)

Unfortunately, there was a procession in place inside the Cathedral and we couldn't quite get inside ... we then roamed around in the streets which was magical ... a typical European evening ... there are people who come out on the street and play music ... just amazing ...

We checked out a few malls. Biwi and I also went off on a metro tour :P ... this was my first time in a metro train and its really something to behold ... Biwi also told me that the metro in Helsinki is the world's northernmost metro ... Kudos ... :P

We then headed back home ...

Sunday morning was also consumed by food and we headed out post 1 pm ... it was funny though ... day light saving had started and there were 2 huge tower clocks in the centre of the city which showed different times ... it was hilarious ... fortunately we had set our watches to the current time ...

We went back to The Cathedral and managed to get inside this time ... and it was even more prettier inside ... there is something about these churches in Europe that does not allow you come out again ... but we had to ... sadly ...

We checked out some more malls and managed to get some Euros for myself and my colleagues back in Malmo since our cards don't work in Sweden and Denmark coz Euro is not the default currency there ...

Back home ... I was eating away since I was not going to get any food till 11 pm coz my return flight was due at 2115 ... Biwi walked me till Rautatientori from where I was supposed to board the bus to the airport ... these are the times you hate being part of ... leaving your loved one after spending some magical moments ... but we are going to meet again and I am sure we are gonna have more fun ... with that I waved good-bye ... reached Copenhagen at 10 pm and then Malmo at 10:30 and was back at my room at 11 pm ...

And as I put up as my status message ... I need a unique scissor ... a scissor that cuts wings ... wings of TIME ... so that it never flies when I am with my loved one ...

Alas ...

Till the next fun trip ... Cheers ... !!

A Regrettable First ... !!

2010-03-07T22:21:00.003+05:30

Its my Dad's birthday today ... and its the first time I am not at home on either of my parents' birthday. Yes ... its a regrettable first ...

March is a festive month at home with both my parents celebrating their birthdays along with their anniversary ... and its the first time I will be away from my parents in March ...

Happy Birthday Daddy ...

And ... this may well be my shortest post ... since there is lot more to feel than write ...

I hope my absence hasn't dented the atmosphere in any way ... Enjoy Mummy and Daddy ...

This is one of my favorite family photos ... times when we did not have a lot but were much more happier ...

Cheers ... !!

A Prayer Answered ... !!

2010-02-24T23:45:00.002+05:30

It is that kind of a day when I dont know whether to feel happy or sad ... the undercurrent is definitely happy but I am sad that I am not in India.

Not that it is terribly bad news but I would have loved to be in India right now ... Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar froze time for around 210 minutes and I have not done so many Refreshes in my life on a web page ...

Sitting on the last bench of a so called Knowledge sharing session, I was hooked on to this match from the beginning ... that fact that Viru got out early on meant that we may have a pedestrian approach to the game ... but that was a mis-que on my part ...

SRT pulverised the Proteas into submission ... and bare in mind this was against one of the best bowling attacks in the world ... they had Steyn who has wrecked havoc in the Tests and the so called man-in-waiting Parnell ... couple that with Kallis who has a 200+ scalps in ODIs ... and the so called excellent death bowler Langelveldt ...

I am not at all ashamed that I didnt understand anything that was "transferred" to us today ... I think there were 22 overs left when he reached his 100 and I just hoped that 22 overs would be sufficient for him to complete the double ... so 13 years now ... the butchery of Saeed Anwar had haunted us ...

It was a pain to watch SRT go through all those near misses at Chennai, Hyderabad, Christchurch, Barbados ... but the man is a piece of genius ... 21 years and still going ... hats off sire ...

I would have loved to go out today to Camp or FC just to get the feel of the crowd and the atmosphere ... a good old fashioned Chaai and Bun Maska would have been just fine ... and lots of chatter about THE GOD ...

Well played sire once again and I am not gonna forgive you for playing another blinder on a working day ... hands high up in the air and bowing sire ...

Cheers ... !!

What a Marketplace ... !!

2010-02-05T13:28:00.004+05:30

If you are guessing that I am going to brag about something in Sweden ... you are wrong ...

This is about a movie that I experienced yesterday (Yes, I call it an experience). Its called Mandi. Its an old movie(1983) directed by the legendary Shyam Benegal. So whats it about? Why do I call it an experience and adorn it with exclamations?

Well, the story is very simplistic fundamentally but the way it has been woven ... it seems surreal ...

Its about a Kotha based in old town Hyderabad and its several inmates. This Kotha is run by the effervescent Paan-chewing Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi) who is like the godmother to all the prostitutes. Note that she is not the usual godmother but has this really whacky and comic way of dealing with situations. This is the highlight of Mandi. A sensitive topic is portrayed in a comic or lets say a very relieving manner. It reminded me of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron which is a landmark comedy movie which essentially deals with a sensitive topic ...

Rukmini Bai has an ensemble supporting cast in the form of prostitutes starting with the charming Zeenat (Smita Patil). Zeenat is a great singer and practices singing for hours per day. She is treated like a jewel by Rukmini Bai and she will go to any extent to maintain the virginity of Zeenat. The reason for this unfolds through out the movie and its very funny during the scenes in which Rukmini Bai runs helter-skelter preventing a suitor from sleeping with Zeenat ... Zeenat is also very childlike and Smita Patil has pulled it off like a piece of cake ... most other prostitutes are jealous of Zeenat but not in a grudging way ...

One of them is Baasanti (Neena Gupta) ... who is also a great singer and an equally potent dancer ... she always complaints to Rukmini Bai about why Zeenat gets to do Riyaaz before her and even for a longer duration ... she is also having an interesting interlude with the sleazy street photographer Ramgopal played so amazingly by Om Puri ... Ramgopal loves to click nude pics of the prostitutes and from interesting angles :P ... he has his way with the flirty Parveena but he is very fond of Baasanti ... and Baasanti would never give him any nude pics ...

Nadira ... played by the beautiful Soni Razdan is a foul mouthed wonder piece eternally egging on Rukmini Bai in all her endeavors ... Ila Arun is a delight to watch being pregnant through out the movie without ever concealing (in fact she does not know herself) the father's name ... :D ...

There is one other prostitute (or is she?) that is inducted into the Kotha ... she cant speak ... and is unaware about her duty when she first comes in ... her name is Fulmani and much of the movie revolves around Rukmini Bai illegally using a muted person to run her Kotha ...

There are some amazing characters supporting this main cast ... Harish Patel as the Hawaldaar who always dreams of sleeping with Zeenat and is thrown out innumerable times by Rukmini Bai ... a person who knows all the Dafaas of the law :P

Annu Kapoor as the expression-less doctor who keeps frequenting the Kotha to check all prostitutes with special attention to Ila Arun since she is pregnant ...

But one of my favorites is Tungrus (what name is that?) played brilliantly by Naseeruddin Shah ... Tungrus is like the office boy of the Kotha doing petty jobs ... like picking up baggage, getting tea, running errands for Rukmini Bai ... and when the night descends, he likes to drink beer and abuse Rumini Bai for destroying the lives of women ... he hates Rukmini Bai's parrot coz he feels the parrot is a Chamcha ...

Being a story based in Hyderabad, its great to listen to the Hyderabadi Hindi especially from Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah ...

There is another angle to the movie ... that being Mr. Gupta played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda ... he is a richo annexing land after land to his riches ... and finally he lays his hands on the area where the Kotha is situated ... there are several dialogues between Gupta and Rukmini Bai about shifting them to a different location ... at first Rukmini Bai doesnt agree ...

The Womens Liberation group head, Shanti Devi, also comes by to speak ... this is one of the best scenes about how Rukmini Bai justifier her profession ... she calls herself and the other prostitutes Kalakaars ... but the way she does it is so special ...

Shanti Devi is also a member of the municipality which is headed by Saeed Jaffery who has a vested interest in the brothel ... I wont say what coz thats a suspense element of the movie ... and the municipal board votes in favor of chucking out Rukmini Bai from her current location to th outskirts ... Gupta promises Rukmini Bai that he will help her set up her Kotha in the outskirts ... apparently Annu Kapoor is also a member of the municipality and the only one who votes against the municipality's decision :P

Gupta has a daughter to be married in Ratna Pathak Shah and Saeed Jaffery has a son Sushil whom he wants to marry to Ratna's character to settle debts with Gupta ... Gupta invites Rukmin Bai to his place to provide some entertainment during the first meeting between Sushil and Ratna ... Rukmini Bai comes with Zeenat and Baasanti ...

Sushil is smitten by Zeenat's beauty and her singing and falls for her immediately and keeps pursuing her for the remainder of the movie ... there is a very funny scene where Ramgopal, Hawaldar and Sushil end up at Zeenat's room at one time and Rukmini Bai shows up to chuck all of them out :P

When Rukmini Bai moves to the outskirts and starts setting up her Kotha there, Tungrus does not accompany them since he is very fond of the old place ... he drinks and abuses everyone and cries ... everyone at the Kotha miss Tungrus so much coz they feel handicapped by his absence ... and finally Tungrus comes walking along to the new place ... just amazingly shot ...

Rukmini also asks the prostitutes to do stuff that Tungrus used to do like the household chores but they are quick to snap "Hamaara kaam jo hai wohi karenge" :P

The best scene for me is ... between Rukmini Bai and Amrish Puri's character ... he plays a Jogi Baba and finds himself at a place where Rukmini Bai is venting her frustration to herself that no one is listening to her like before ... this scene is so funny that it will bring tears to your eyes ... watch it yourself ... Amrish Puri is great in a 2-minute role ...

Ramgopal and Baasanti also hit it off ... with Baasanti agreeing for nude pics ... its something like "Tu Parveena ki nangi photo kheechta hai ... meri kyu nahi kheechta?" :D and Ramgopal promises her that he will help her to become an actress in Bambai ... he has contacts you see :P

At the time of the delivery of Ila Arun's baby ... Rukmini Bai is coaxing her to deliver a baby girl ... coz then the girl would inherit her mother's job ... it is a very stupid thing to think about but it has been done in a very comic way ... Rukmini Bai is happier than the mother when Ila Arun delivers a baby girl ...

The essence of the movie is the camaraderie between all inmates of the Kotha and the amazing support cast ...

There is Pankaj Kapoor and Satish Kaushik too in itsy-bitsy roles but they do impress you ...

The movie flows from the beginning ... hits top pace in between and has an equally twisted, emotional and comic climax ...

I would seriously recommend this movie to everyone who likes meaningful (and in a way meaningless :P) cinema ...

4.5 out of 5 ... go lay yourself :P

Cheers ... !!

Sverige musings ... !!

2010-01-29T14:22:00.006+05:30

Ok ... Sverige stands for Sweden ...

Its been close to 2 weeks since I have been here and I thought its a good time to write about some of the stuff that I have observed over here.

The day I landed at Copenhagen (I know its in Denmark but it's a stone's throw from Malmo), the instructions (both written and oral) were so precise that I did not feel like a newbie. I didnt spend a lot of time for a train ticket from Copenhagen to Malmo. There were 3 different platforms, each catering to different regions. There was one dedicated platform for Malmo and there were lifts to take passengers to the platform from the airport. The ticketing system specified that there would be a discount if the number of people are more than 1. This was fruitful :P

Before every station, there were clear announcements as to which is the next station and the duration for which the train would halt at that station. This was very helpful since we had lots of baggage with us and it calmed us down a lot when we knew that Malmo is the last station and the train would stay there for close to 15 minutes.

The sunrise and sunset were some of the initial shocks. It was 5 pm when we reached Malmo and it was pitch dark. The sun doesnt rise till around 0830. So it was like going to office in the dark and coming back also in the dark.

The pedestrians have their way most of the time here. The vehicles would stop if they see anyone crossing or even when they feel that someone is approaching the zebra. So now I am used to walk right past the road. If I do the same in India ... I would be killed ... in a very bad way :P. People who are driving bring along lots of stuff with them for TP in case they have to stop if people are crossing. For example ... sandwiches, newspapers, etc.

There are also buttons at each crossing for pedestrians that speeds up the Green signal. Divine.

People here are very reserved and stick to their groups if they have one. Buses are twice our size and its pin drop silence inside. This is very weird for us Indians. We love to make friends with strangers. People dont like strangers saying Hi to their kids :(

There is a digital status board at each bus stop with route information and the due time for each bus. Additionally, there is an asterisk for each bus on this board which denotes that the bus is close by. And the bus will stop at the designated place and not an inch further or behind. There are buttons available to every passenger which can be used to inform the driver that you want to get down at the next stop. If there is no1 who presses this button and the driver finds that there is no1 who is waiting to board the bus either, then he will not stop.

Sweden is a child centric country and people value their families a lot. Its common to find people coming to office during odd hours like 3 am or 5 am and leave by noon to be with their families. Parents pick up and drop their kids to school everyday. Both parents are entitled to leaves when the baby is to be born. Both parents can work at 80% workload till the child is 8 years old. Both parents are entitled to sick leave if their kids are sick. Locals feel homesick in office ... :P

People love their weekends ... in the sense that they stay at home. The streets are deserted during weekends. Most of the stuff is automated ... but thats expected in this part of the world. People talk more about going to a different country during their free time rather than some place in their own country :P

The local currency is Kronor. One Euro is around 10 Kronors so that translates into 1 Kronor = 6.5 Rupees ... most of the grocery here is quite affordable ...

30 eggs are for 25 Kronors, Onions are 5 Kronors for a kg, Potatoes are 8 Kronors for a kg, Tomatoes are 4 Kronors for a kg, a Bread packet containing around 30 slices is for 10 Kronors, boneless Chicken is 75 Kronors for a kg, a lite of Milk costs 10 Kronors, a litre of cooking oil is for 17 Kronors, etc.

If you convert it to Indian currency, it may seem expensive but as a percentage of the salary it is quite affordable ...

Well ... thats most of what I have observed over here ... I am sure there is more to come ...

Cheers ... !!

Cards galore ... !!

2010-01-20T19:11:00.003+05:30

Everything here works with the help of cards ...

I have less of cash and more of cards it seems in my wallet. I have my identity card and photo ID card from India. When I left India, I was given a Travel insurance card to cover my medical expenses, if any, from India to Sweden. I was also given a Citibank World Card for Euros which contained my allowances. As soon as I arrived at my hotel in Malmo, I was given the hotel card, with the help of which I can access various stuff in the hotel like washing machine, room, hotel entrance as well as lifts. Yes, you cant use the lift without a card. If you go inside and press the button of some floor, it wont work if you dont use your card. As Sabhtarsha would say ... Ajeeb hai yaar ... :P

On the first day of office, I was given the Tieto Sweden card to access stuff in the office here. The HR came up and gave me yet another card. It was the medical insurance card. Yesterday, I was the proud (??) owner of yet another card. The monthly bus card to roam around Malmo any number of times during one month.

Lagta hai patte khelne baithna padega ab ... or do I need a card for that too?

Cheers ... !!

Sprint across Vantaa ... !!

2010-01-18T14:34:00.005+05:30

It was 1430 local time as the aircraft descended towards Helsinki airport, more commonly called Vantaa. At that moment, I was not too concerned about the mind boggling clouds surrounding the aircraft or the snow outside. The big concern was that my connecting flight to Copenhagen was due to depart from Vantaa at 1535. Something told me that it was not going to be easy. And it came true ...

My seat number was 59J ... the total capacity was 60 seats and I was sitting in the tail of the aircraft. The aircraft had just one exit and it was going to me an arduous task getting to the exit. We touched down at 1435 and it was 1445 till I came out of the aircraft. Now what? I had to find my way to the "Connecting flights" section. Fortunately, I found the section sooner than later. The gate number for my flight was 28. I had to go through the security check in. I had 2 bags with me. One laptop bag and the other a carry-on bag. The carry-on bag contained ready to eat stuff like Maggi, etc. It also contained something that was going to set me on a marathon across Vantaa. It was a bottle of aftershave lotion. The limit on such liquids is 100 ml and unfortunately mine was 150 ml. Dratch.

I was asked to step aside and I went through a rigorous examination of what I was carrying. I was asked to remove my belt, watch, Kada, wallet, boarding passes and tickets. Practically, everything apart from what I was wearing. My shoes and socks were checked in detail. I was not enjoying this. All I could hear was ... "This way please, Sir" or "Please turn around, Sir". Fortunately, I was not carrying anything suspicious. After querying their seniors, the security personnel gave me 2 options ...

One ... remove the aftershave lotion OR Two ... check in my carry-on baggage. For some reason, I didn't like the first option. I agreed to the second option. I was asked to proceed to a counter with my baggage. It was 1455 and I had to wear my belt again along with putting everything back in my pockets. I met a person at the counter and he asked me to furnish my passport. He proceeded to ask me something which I did not understand in 2 attempts, primarily due to his accent but it was more to do with where I am headed to. I replied with Sweden. He pointed me to his left. I asked him, "Where am I supposed to go? I am in a hurry". He said, "Find it". I did not have time to be surprised by this.

I headed to the direction he mentioned and saw lots of counters. I went up to a counter and met the lady at the counter. She was courteous enough to inform me that counter number 215 is the one I should be going to. I asked her for directions and she told me its towards the right. All this while, I descended from the 1st floor to the ground floor of the airport. I went up to 215 and let the lady know my state. To my surprise, she took it up urgently and said just one thing ... "Sir, I will make sure your bag is boarded in the aircraft but I must tell you that you need to run". No wonder ... it was 1520 and I was wondering if I would be allowed in.

Surprise, surprise. Another security examination since I was using a different entrance of the airport. Double Dratch. I went through everything again. The belt, watch, wallet, etc. It got over in 5 minutes.

I had to climb the floor I already descended but from a different direction and make my way to gate 28. When I reached the first floor, I was at gate 13. I had to run across 15 gates to reach gate 28 at 1530. The people were still moving to board the flight. That sight made me feel great. I boarded the aircraft and thanked my stars for everything.

At a temperature of -8, I was sweating as I took my seat ...

Cheers ... !!

The year that was ... !!

2009-12-29T11:17:00.005+05:30

Its that time again when you bid adieu to another year ... put on a few more wrinkles and grey hair in my case and hope that life still gets better ... :P ... Adios 2009 ...

I had a much better year as compared to the previous year ... and I am in a much better mental state as compared to the same time last year ...

In spite of that I would like to still list the negatives of the year first ... :)

The killer - Gave up job at a good organization for nothing ... actually nothing :(
As a byproduct of this ... dreams of getting out of a financial rut vanished ...
Lost a very good friend due to my bad sense of humor ... :D

The good stuff ...
Mumbai has to be there isnt it? - I went to Mumbai lots of times ... I lost count actually ...
finally travelled to some place north of Mumbai ... I went to Jaipur and attended a lavish wedding ... that of my very good friend Prakash ...
Strained relations showed signs of improvement
I improved a lot in TT and was applauded for the tournament I organized at AT along with Sabhtarsha of course ... our team ended 3rd and we were the only team to defeat all other teams in the competition ... Kudos guys ...
Had the most amazing time at Sangaon with DAPP and in-laws ...
Survived the flood at South Goa and was lucky to escape unscathed ...
Lots of friends got married ... some friends had kids ... :)
To be honest ... got a job fairly quickly considering my mental state ...
My portfolio went up quite a bit ... JP leading the way ... RIL giving a bonus and Infy closing in on 2600 ...

The stupidity ...
Went to Goa on a 2 wheeler and came back the same day ... this was stupid ... but it felt good till it lasted ...

Its evident that the Bad section is quite short and I am going into 2010 with a lot more smiles ...

Here's wishing everyone a rollicking 2010 ... I wish everyone a great decade ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS ... Cheers ... !!

Punch ... !!

2009-12-14T13:08:00.000+05:30

No, I have not been involved in a slugfest with anyone :P

This post will evolve with time. Dialogues have always fascinated me ... whether its in real or reel ... it doesn't matter ... so I thought that blogging about some of my favorites (actually they do not need to be favorites ) would be fun ...

Over the last couple of weeks ... I heard some great dialogues on the telly ... I have heard them before but it feels better the next time around ... here are a few ... and as I said ... this post will evolve with time ... and the dialogues may not be pin point in terms of the words I use ... :D

From the movie Guru ...
Manik Dasgupta (Mithun) to Shyam Saxena (Madhavan): Shyam ... kya tum is aadmi ko sabke saamne nanga kar sakte ho?
Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan): Mere kapde saari duniya pehenti hai ... sabko nanga karna padega ...

From the movie Kaala Pathhar ...
this needs a prelude ... Shatrughan Sinha challenges Macmohan for a game of Teenpatti and Macmohan is like the undisputed king of Teenpatti among the workers at the coal mine ... Macmohan's 3 cards are J J and 2 while Shatru has K K and 6. But Macmohan cheats by getting a J out of his shirt sleeve ... so he now has J J and J ... when its time for Show ... Macmohan says: Mere paas teen gulaam hai ... and then shows the 3 gulaams ... Shatru says: Mere paas 3 Baadshah hai ... Macmohan says: dikhao ... Shatru shows the first Badshah card and says "Baadshah" ... then shows the 2nd Baadshah card and says "Baadshah" and then shows the 3rd card which is a 6 ... Macmohan:Teesra Baadshah kahaan hai? and then comes the clinching dialogue ... as follows ....

Mangal Singh (Shatrughan Sinha): Mere taash ki tirpanwe(53rd) patte ... teesre Baadshah hum hai ... :P

from the iconic Sholay ... actually there are so many in this movie but I like this one ...
Police Inspector to Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar): Khota sikka to dono taraf se hi khota hota hai ...
Thakur Baldev Singh: Sikkey aur insaan mein shaayad yehi farak hai ...

from Inside Man ...
when a person is called to identify the bank robbers based on a language they are speaking inside the bank ... and this language is not known to any of the investigators headed by Denzel Washington
Person: That's the President of Algeria speaking ...
Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) to the Person: You want to tell me that the President of Algeria is trying to the rob the bank??

from Company ...
Rawte (Bharat Dabholkar) to Chandu (Vivek Oberoi) : ये पाटिल की वजह से बोहोत प्रॉब्लम हो रहा है
Chandu : पाटिल को मारना है?
Rawte : नहीं नहीं ... स्कैंडल हो जाएगा ... then he picks up his cup of tea ... looks in the other direction ... has a sip ... and says ... लेकिन उसको मरना है ... followed by the beats of Ganda hai par Dhanda hai yeh ... thrilling ... :)

from Con-Air
there is this scene where Nicolas Cage and John Cusack face each other and both have a gun in their hands ... Nicolage Cage asks Cusack to lower his gun to which Cusack asks ... "Can I also expect you to lower your gun"?

Nicolage Cage - Sorry ... there are only 2 people in this world whom I trust ... one is me and the other is not you :P ... fantastic ... !!

will keep adding to this list ... Cheers ... !!

Nayi Shuruwaat ... !!

2009-12-08T19:08:00.004+05:30

I guess that's the first Hindi title that I have used? No? I am not sure. I have used a Spanish one I suppose. Drop it.

Yeah ... a new start. A new place comes with its baggage. Some of it is good ... some not so good. Pretty much in line with most things in life. I have never had a more topsy-turvy 40 days in my life so far and I am hoping I never have one in future. Never say never they say. Alas ...

So a new company eh? Tieto ... short for TietoEnator ... OK ... before anyone wonders what it means ... it means Knowledge in Finnish ... why Finnish? ... its a company based in Finland and getting most of its development off-shored to Pune ...

Adjusting to a bigger company (compared to AT) has been a pain ... on the first day I felt like a little boy stripped of his candy ... bemused by the everyday work process of a large company ... why the hell do I need to spend 10 minutes for parking everyday? Bidding for parkings? Do hell with you ...

But there were lots of such things that made me look like that candy-lost-guy ... er ... kid ...

It takes far lesser time to climb 8 floors than in the lift ... the lift gets suffocated with the different perfumes and deos ... I thought fragrance was always good ... I dont approve of it anymore ...

What all do I need to do to get inside? Photo ID, Access Card, Fingerprints ... plus the Photo ID always has to be on display and not in your pocket ... I remember my AT photo ID locked up in the cupboard in the hall of my place ... people used to look at it and say "Aah ... yeh hai aapka beta ... bohot bada ho gaya hai" ... a sign that I was hardly at home when people visited us ... :P

The toilet (I somehow dont like the term "Washroom") is like entering Ramsay territory ... if you have just been to a brightly lit area before entering the toilet then be prepared ... its like the deepest of dungeons ... pitch dark ... or atleast it looks that way when you enter it ... there are these strange bright RED and GREEN lights that keep changing from RED to GREEN and back ... peace of mind I say ... I need peace of mind when I am releasing something that's not good to keep in my body ...

A gazillion processes ... if I have to get something reimbursed I have to do a million things ... I dont need no reimbursement now ... aah ... I speak like an American ... Amrriikkka ki to $#@ ki $#@! ... that anger is already vented ... :D

But there is something good to write about too ...

LTA here is non-taxable if you show that you have been on leave for 3 days during the entire year ... great isnt it? ... I mean you dont need to show any kind of bills or proofs ... just be on leave for 3 days during the year ... thats it ... this is amazing ...

Great pantry service ... when I say great ... its actually great ... atleast 3-4 different biscuits to choose from ... a completely functions vending machine ... tea, coffee, soup, milk, hot chocolate ... everything is working always ... a refrigerator in each pantry along with an oven ... and atleast 2 pantries per floor ... I mean I am aware most of this would be common to most companies but it was something new to me ...

The promises made by the people here are actually promises ... kharach ... aai shappat ... :P

The machine was ready at my desk at the time they promised ... fully configured ... 4GB RAM and 150 GB space ... whoa ... nothing is blocked here ... there is no firewall as such ... but you are allowed to use only Microsoft stuff like IE and not Chrome ... :( ... but theek hai ... no issues ... MS Communicator is a means of communication ... there is no restriction on Messengers as such but they dont encourage it ... every machine has a multi-purpose telephone and Mic ... wonderful ...

The seating arrangement is very open ... there is no cubicle as such ... there are cubicle arrangements but they lack in height ... so you cant call it cubicle as such ... the entire floor is a mix of Pink, Blue, light Green and Orange ...

You get reimbursement if you buy clothes for yourself :P ... its called Attire allowance ... never heard that before ... you get reimbursement if you buy books for yourself ... I mean technical books and not novels :)

The last thing ... something not so good ... no maternity expenses cover in Medical insurance ... sob sob ...

aisi kaafi cheezein hai ... so a mix of good and bad ... but a new experience ...

Lets see what the future has in store ... Aa Dekhen Zara ... Cheers ... !!

Battered ... !!

2009-11-12T22:20:00.003+05:30

So it went kaput. Read ... my plans of going to the US of A ... Amrikkkkka ... so near yet so far ...

The last 2 weeks have definitely sent out a signal ... everything can change in a day's time. Here I was ... ready to leave for Mumbai from Pune to get on board a late night flight to Tampa and one call ruined it instantly. I was told that the project I was selected for does not have any more requirements. The despair, anger and trauma that it brought to not just me but so many of my well wishers and family members was devastating. Maybe ... I was seeing too much into the future ... it was a horrible feeling to be battered so badly mentally ...

With every passing minute ... it became even more painful when so many of the things I did during the week prior made me look like a fool ... I left a good job (I wont call it a flourishing job but it was not bad at all) and more importantly an organization where I got along with most of the people :) ... so many things I bought specifically for America were left idle in the suitcase ... even the Kirana store man was asking me when I am flying :P

I hope I am not making this look like the end of the world for me ... its not ... far from it ...

But the education received is invaluable ... I am guessing I will be a hot topic of discussion (I guess I have already been that in the week that has passed) ... but thats not surprising ... I am sure I would have done the same if something similar had happened with someone else ...

As of now ... I have atleast managed to get back on my feet ... job hunting begins in Pune ... Amrikka to jaana hi hai ... by hook or by crook ... I am biased towards crook now :P

In the meanwhile ... I had quite a good day at Mumbai ... getting Darshan of Sidhhi Vinayak on a Tuesday and that too at 4:45 in the morning (that was bad planning since we didnt intend to reach Dadar at 4 am after we left Pune at 2 am ... believe me ... Asiads are fast :D) ... nice quite moments at Mahalaxmi and to top it off ... Chicken Tikka Biryani at Noorani ... :)

And ... HP bought 3Com ... that was something great and unexpected ... bodes well for AT ... are we (Yes ... it still feels "we") next in line atleast now? ... I am sure that would have been the topic of the day at office today ... I am wondering how that affects Co Branding now for AT :P ... now if HP also acquires Enterasys ... Co Branding can be done away with ... what say guys? ;)

Anyway ... I will update my status very soon ... some positive signs have already shown up ... I will be back in front of some terminal sooner than later ... and I can definitely do with some prayers and blessings ... :)

Cheers ... !!

Adios ... !!

2009-10-26T14:51:00.003+05:30

Lump in the throat? Not entirely ... but it feels odd leaving such a nice company ... I know we always bicker about lots of stuff in life ... the place we work at is at the receiving end most of the times ... but at the bottom of your heart I have always felt that the freedom and atmosphere at AT has been out of the top draw ... I will miss AT and ATians ... you guys rock ...

I remember my joining day. Drenched and just out of college. My previous company (I was an intern) had given be the most demoralising sendoff ... partly due to my own misgivings ...

I remember the disappointment of knowing that Sonal (my manager whom I had to report to) is actually a guy ... :(

But Sonal is one of the most influential people I have met in life. A manager at office but a friend at heart. I have never ever felt that gap with him. His PJs have been bettered by Sabhtarsha and myself and we both get even dirtier looks than we used to give Sonal earlier :)

There have been several others (in fact everyone here knows the entire company) whom I have had a great time with ... Sabhtarsha has now become more of a pest than a pain :P ... Avdhoot, Amit, Rahul, Gaji, Vijay, Ajay, Vineet, Pushkar, Charuta, Zarin, Khyati, Manish, Mohsin, MJ, Basu, Ghos, Nitin, Sandip, Vinayak and I am sure there are many more ... I have had a blast guys ...

Not to mention that people who have already left AT ... Ashvin, Vivek, Ganesh, Manikant, Rajat, Alok, Deepa, Amit, Debu, Nishith, Rohit ... everyone was a joy to be around ...

Some of the things that I will always remember:

Maggi at my desk
TT (it was better post 7 pm and on weekends)
rides to Good Luck, Santosh bakery, Ganesh Bhel, PD, etc.
leg-pulling sessions (some people were always the target)
meeting to decide lunch/dinner/breakfast venues
night outs (called fire-fighting sessions :P)
those amazing weekly calls (thanx to Manish) :P

and many more ...

I am going to miss AT ... but something new awaits ... dekhte hai usmein kitna mazaa hai ...

till then ... Adios AT ... Cheers ... !!

WFH ... WTF ... !!

2009-10-01T11:48:00.000+05:30

What prompted me to write about this?

Well, I am working from home (it took me a long time to realise that WFH actually means working from home) and suddenly it feels like its not that big a deal afterall ... I mean I was looking forward to it with bated breath coz I have heard such a lot of stuff about this phenomenon that it excited me a great deal ...

I do agree that WFH has perks and it should be experienced at some point in time ... but I found myself missing office while at home ...

The boon ...

I dont have to have a bath to start working ... this is like ... VOILA ... :)

Due to this ... I can get up just around 10-15 minutes before I intend to start working ...

I get home made sizzling hot food ... for breakfast, lunch and snacks ... peace ...

I get to play carrom with Dad ...

No meetings ... yaay ... ;)

I dont need to login to Moneycontrol ... CNBC is so much better ...

The bane ...

The biggest drawback is that I miss the office atmosphere ... there are not a lot of people to pull their leg ;)

I miss the sweets that people bring almost every morning ...

VPN makes the intranet all the more slow to traverse ... dratch ... :(

No free telephone calls ... not that I make a lot of them but still ...

No group discussion on the stock market state for the day ... this is a killer ...

Those TT sessions ... :(

The umpteen rides to PD, KNP, Good Luck or Santosh Bakery ... this is quite a lot I am talking about food wise ... I mean Anda rice, Vada Pav, Anna ki Chaay, Basundi Chaay, Limbu Sarbat, hot Veg Puffs, Vaati Cakes and the all time favorite Bun Maska ...

I am sure there is lot more to this than I have realised in my first 2 hours of WFH ...

and I still maintain ... idling in office is much better than working from home ... so much for the experience ...

Cheers ... !!

Dratch ... !!

2009-09-09T10:53:00.002+05:30

I was watching one of my favorite movies on the telly a few days back ... Abhimaan ... Yes, that masterpiece from Hrishikesh Mukherjee ...

I had never noticed one of its anomalies before ... to be frank its such an everyday phenomenon in movies that it can be argued that its not an anomaly afterall ... but looking at the storyline of the movie, I thought it was quite weird ...

Amitabh Bachchan is a very famous singer. This is like the base of the movie. Now when you have such a base, I felt that you should stick to atleast its most bare essentials :P ... in the sense that he should have been given only one playback voice in the movie ...

Within a space of about 15 minutes, there are 3 different songs that he sings that are actually sung by 3 different playback singers ... Rafi, Kishore and Mukesh ... its hard not to notice this ... I found it strange ...

Of late, I have also been noticing that Times Of India probably has given SpellCheck a pass ... there were 3 image errors where the picture was being portrayed as those of someone else's ...

There were 3 more on one page a couple of days back when Sania Mirza lost at the US Open. These were the 2 headlines that were so out of touch with grammar ...

Bondarenko goes though Serb way (should have been "through". This was when Bondarenko defeated Ivanovic who is a Serbian)

Sania lose 0-6, 0-6 (should have been "loses")

there was a piece in one of the sports news saying "star of yesteryeras" ... it was a pain reading all this ...

as Mutley's master would say ... Dratch ... and double Dratch ...

Cheers ... !!

Moryaa ... !!

2009-08-24T16:41:00.004+05:30

Ganpati is here ... although the festivities will take a backseat of sorts due to the unnerving swine ... but Bappa will still continue to light up homes and streets with its grandeur ...

There are so many pockets in the city where Ganesh idols are sold nowdays ... I remember there used to be just Shaniwarwada at one time (I mean the more famous ones) ... now there's Corporation, Saras Baug, Ganj Peth and sundry ...

This time we bought our Ganesh idol from Ganj Peth thanks to my bro-in-law Omkar ... and we booked it way back in the 1st week of August ... if looks could kill ... Ganesha would be on most people's wanted lists ... :P

Due to the incessant rains during the early hours of each day ...we decided to get our idol the previous night itself ... coz driving a 4 wheeler in the heart of old Pune can be mind-numbing during the day ... especially during Ganpati ... so we bought the idol at Saturday midnight itself ... resplendent in yellow dhoti and a broader than usual trunk ... and for a change we also liked the Mooshak ... this year's idol will adorn our home along side last year's "Shenduri" idol for 10 days ... The "Shenduri" idol will be immersed this year ...

We had a surprise guest on the very first day ... none other than AAG (Aditya Amit Gupte for Christ's ... er ... Ganpati's sake) ... it was tough deciding who was more cute ... the idol or AAG ... close contest but AAG won and the Lord was more than happy seeing one of his forms win against him ... :D ... AAG has the most cutest smile and the way he keeps mouthing baby-sounds (sometimes its too loud to be called a baby-sound :P) ... he had everyone at home hostage to his pyrotechnics ...

As for now ... CHORUS (a la Javed Jaffery in Mumbhai :P) ... GANPATI BAPPA MORYA ... MANGAL MURTI MORYA ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Fallback option ... !!

2009-07-31T19:22:00.002+05:30

There are times when the mundane stuff gets so overly done that you always start thinking what brings you joy in such a situation. All those moments that you have had fun in the past keep juggling in your mind and then you filter those to come to one such option that will get you out of such an ignominy.

Today, Sabhtarsha and I were caught in such a scenario. Sabhtarsha had just mopped up his work for the weekly Build and I had almost finished the tasks assigned to me. Post lunch ... we were in a quandary as to what we should do. TT was a good option. Coffee/Tea was another. A walk down the Bungalow scheme at Pinnac society was another. We ended up walking to a place, not very far away from office. Its around 10 minutes from office and we like the coffee they serve. After sipping through a 15 minute talkathon, heading back to office was the last thing we were looking forward to. Walked back to office. Tried doing some work. Got harried. Though we sit a mere peek away from each other, we mostly communicate over GTalk. Both wanted to go out again. And off we went again. This time Sabhtarsha took his bike along and we decided to check out some USB hard disk drives. Checked them out at Sujata and Sai which brought us quite close to College ... our beloved Fergusson College. Yeah ... Fallback option numero uno ...

Right ... so we were at the right place at the wrong time ... :P

We moved to Savera. After a long time, I had the pleasure of sitting at an outside table. Tea and Toast Butter was the near perfect foil. Another round of talks ... some more frustration vented ... some more philosophy vomitted out ... and it was turning out to be a jolly evening on a working day. Weekend was alive and kicking.

We entered college. What a feeling. Those trees, that parking lot that greets you and then the crowd. Times have changed. Every student looks like a kid but that doesnt mean we dont ogle at them. What a serene campus ... year after year ... it fails to disappoint you ... we didnt turn left from the Circle ... coz that would have taken us to our department and we were not very keen to interact with students or teachers ... so off we went to the ground ...

There were lots of cricket matches on display and we had the liberty to pick and choose any game we liked. Some years back, we were one of them. Shirts tucked into the trousers ... sleeves rolled up and a free swing of the bat ... stumps in disarray ... an easy catch dropped ... a stupid runout ... arguments over the Umpire's decisions ... such an everyday scene on a College ground. We ripped apart every possible classmate of ours in conjunction with the way they played cricket and ended up laughing our lungs out.

There was a special moment too. Vande Mataram was being played somewhere and at that instant itself, the entire ground stood still ... mind numbing ... one of the better sights of my Fergusson life ... kudos ...

It was 5 pm ... we had been out of office since 2 pm ... at the back of our minds we knew that we may get a mouthful from the folks back in office but it was one of those days when the atmosphere at office itself was asking us to take a break ...

We came back to office only to spend some more time with colleagues in the parking lot. And then ... instead of climbing the stairs to our 2nd floor desks ... we went straight into the lift and onto the 4th floor to play some TT. The next hour was spent sweating over smashes and slices and some fantastic rallies.

Its 7:45 pm now ... and we knew our Fallback option would never fail us ...

A long weekend like this is always welcome ... :D

Cheers ... !!

Comparing stalwarts ... !!

2009-07-09T12:50:00.002+05:30

Of late ... I have been visiting Good Luck and Vohuman a lot.

Vohuman holds a special place since I spent a lot of time there during my time in Wadias. That cramped ambience, round tables and the scent similar to that of a bakery lured me so many times to this helluva place.

I started frequenting Good Luck only when I moved to Fergys. No doubt, it is another stalwart in the Irani cafe shed.

So I thought I would compare the two ...

Good Luck is much more spacious ... there are 3 separate alleys of rooms ... Vohuman is comparatively much smaller ...

You dont get to see too many funnier people than Bava from Vohuman. His shayaris and non-veg jokes are a rave among Vohumanians (if I can call them that) ... Good Luck hardly have any funny or even decent speaking people at the "Galla" ... mostly your queries are answered in a very straight forward way ... this might be good for some people ... but I feel Bava steals the show here ...

I have said this before and I say it again. No one serves better Cheese Omlettes than Vohuman ... when you eat it ... you feel more of cheese and less of egg ... its the other way round in Good Luck ...

Similarly, Scrambled eggs on Toast is an absolute delight at Good Luck ... I dont think Vohuman has something like that ... and even if they do ... I am sure Good Luck wins hands down ...

The trademark Bun Maska ... I think its better in Vohuman ... they have more Tooti-Fruity in it :P

I find the Masala Omlette better at Good Luck ... while the tea is better at Vohuman ...

Service is more or less the same ... nothing to choose over there ...

Vohuman serves everything on the menu throughout the day ... Good Luck has certain reservations ... they serve breakfast stuff only in one of the rooms after a certain time ... the other 2 rooms are reserved for meals ...

The meals are out of the top draw at Good Luck ... the Biryanis and Chicken dishes are a major hit ... Vohuman pales in comparison ...

Parking is a huge issue at both places ... for Vohuman ... you can either park at Jehangir or some other place ... this involves some walking ... for Good Luck, it depends when you go there ... if its post 9 am ... you may have a harrowing time finding a place to park ...

Overall sentiment? ... Breakfast at Vohuman ... Meals at Good Luck ...

Go have a bite ... Cheers ... !!

Crackerjack weekend ... !!

2009-07-06T08:38:00.006+05:30

And even that is an understatement.

It was an enthralling weekend ... er ... extended enthralling weekend. We didnt even know it would turn out to be such a showpiece.

When Biwi and I came back from swimming on Thursday morning, we were at Meghdoot having an Uttapam and discussing what we would do tomorrow (it was Biwi's birthday). We both had applied for leave but we were unsure as to what we would end up doing. Dinesh had said that he will also be on leave if there is some plan. Prakash had said that he will not get a leave come what may. Somehow, MUMBAI came up ... :)

No more discussion was needed. We were going into flashback mode. Back in 2004, I had just learned how to drive a car and Biwi was working in Mumbai at that time. I had borrowed money from numerous friends (I was not working then) and managed to go to Mumbai to surprise Biwi on her Birthday. We had gone to Marine Drive to cut the Birthday cake. Yes ... we were going to do that again.

The plan was to leave Pune by 9 pm and reach Marine Drive by midnight. Spend time at Marine Drive. Move on to Taj and Cafe Leopold and round it off with a drive on the Worli-Bandra sea link (it was toll free for another 4 days :P). With this discussed, we left for office on Thursday.

Biwi and I reached home at 8 pm and were ready to leave in another 30 minutes. Prakash came home. We left at 8:45 pm and moved to Chandni Chowk. We met Dinesh over there and left for Mumbai. We all were very hungry and had to stop near Indira Institute to have some food. By the time we left, it was 10:30 pm. The drive till Lonavala was hassle free but fog engulfed the road at Khandala. Visibility was sketchy and driving was extremely slow. To make matters worse, the land slides had caused 2 lanes to be shut. When we started descending the Ghat, fog disappeared but only to be replaced by rain. It was breezy rain till Panvel but when we entered New Mumbai, it started pouring down. Fortunately, the time was such that there were hardly any vehicles on the road. It was scary to watch cars parked on the road itself. All the images of News channels came storming back about the dreadful Mumbai rains. By the time we cleared Chembur and Sion, the rain was getting even more heavier. We reached Marine Drive at 1 am. It was just drizzling now and we thought it was quite apt coz we had to cut the Birthday cake. We all got down and Biwi did the needful.

We enjoyed for around an hour. There was a police van just behind our car which prompted us to get moving. We moved on to the Taj and it was a mixed feeling. We were driving through the lanes of Colaba asking for directions. The next thing we knew was that we were in the Taj driveway. An ensemble of security personnel greeted us. We had no intention of going inside the Taj. We asked them for directions for Cafe Leopold. Since there was a divider in place, we had to go towards the end of the Taj and take a U-turn. It was both fascinating and gruelling to watch to Taj from so close. There were still some dark spots around. Sigh. Towards the corner of our eyes, we could see the Gateway of India in all its splendor. It looks even better on a rainy overcast night without a crowd.

We reached Cafe Leopold but I guess it was too late. The shutters were semi closed and we thought we can give it a miss.

Right then. Onto the Worli-Bandra sea link. We kept asking for directions to reach Kemp's Corner in Worli. We even thought of getting down and visiting Haji Ali but the rain was so heavy that walking down the sea for 15 minutes didnt sound very exciting. We finally reached the sea link and wasnt it awesome? Hats off. It looks like a showpiece. In hindsight, it could be said that it should be looked at during the daytime but nevertheless it was a spectacle at night. Clicking pics was difficult due to the rain. The police didnt allow us to get down from the car and stand on the bridge. After spending around 30 minutes, we moved on.

We got down at Bandra and moved towards Pune via Sion, Chembur and Vashi. The rain was incessant and showed no respite at all. We needed some snacks and tea since I was feeling sleepy while driving. We halted at a hotel just before Lonavala. Biwi took over from me in the car and I dozed off a bit. Then we experienced 10 minutes of mayhem.

Towards Khandala, we were driving from the centre lane and the car stopped all of a sudden. There was a truck around 20 meters behind us and we had to make sure the car didnt retrace. The hand break was not pulled up completely so I pulled it hard. I took the driver's seat but the hand break was not ready to come down. Wet hands made it all the more difficult. There was a mini traffic jam coz of us and the truck behind evaded us by a whisker. Finally, we were able to get the hand break off and moved on. Phew ... !!

We reached Pune at 7 am and went to Good Luck. Had some Naashta and dropped Dinesh at Chandni Chowk. Prakash also went home while Biwi and I hit the sack as soon as we reached home.

The Birthday was spent at my in-laws place. My Saala had bought a new Pulsar 180. We all went to Dagdushet Ganpati to perform pooja. Some shopping ensued and at 8 pm, DAPP were back together at Inox. We saw Ice Age 3. Delightful movie. A must watch. I would advise everyone to catch a night show during some weekend coz families get their kids and its a fun atmosphere in the movie hall listening to giggles and crackles of kids. We came to our place after the movie and Dinesh and Prakash had got some crackers.

We were not sure if 11 pm was the right time for crackers but still we went ahead. After some shots, 2 guys came storming out of a society and started yelling at us. We knew it was our fault and apologized immediately but there guys were not ready to cool down. Finally, we asked them to take any action they desire against us before moving on.

I met Pranay and Devyani at Good Luck on Saturday morning (Biwi was working). It was funny. I had gone to Mumbai the same day that they had come down to Pune. :). We walked till IMDR (for old time's sake :P)and chatted for an hour or so. Then I went to Gaurav's place. Initially, only Gaurav and I were supposed to meet. But we were joined by Charan, Amol and Pushkar. We had a great time chatting away till evening. Amol was the show stealer as always. Kudos sire :P.

Dinesh and Prakash had got an aquarium for Biwi as her Birthday gift. The 2 fish are very cute. We have named them Nemo and Peaches. :P
It was a typical DAPP Saturday night.

Sunday was consumed mostly by sleep and rounded off with the marathon Wimbledon final. IT WAS ALL IN THE EYES ... ANDY BLINKED FIRST ... !!

Cheers to a wonderful weekend ... !!

Extreme ... !!

2009-06-07T12:06:00.003+05:30

Ever since I rode a Pulsar for around 70 kms a month back on NH-4, I had this plan brimming in my head. I needed to convince myself before anyone else that I can pull it off. To start off, I was not sure. I was not confident. But the prospect of it was very tempting. I knew I was going to be under the pump for the duration of the plan but I just wanted to give it a shot and see where I stand. So, what was this EXTREME plan?

Simply put, I wanted to go to Goa on a Pulsar(or a similar bike) and come back to Pune. But this has to be done within 24 hours. I know it sounds crazy, weird, illogical and crap. Apparently, I also share the same feelings :). I was aware that going to Goa and spending hardly 2-3 hours and then returning didnt make any sense. But my goal was to ride the bike and see if my endurance helps me battle all the exertion of such a ride. Plus, why one day only? It would have been convenient to go to Goa, spend a day and then return. But I did not want convenience. I just wanted to try this. To execute this plan, I had to choose a day when I have a holiday and Biw does not have one.

Over the last 2 weekends, Biwi had been working. I made up my mind that if she works this weekend too, I had to take the chance. The rain was threatening all week and I wanted to get this done with before the rains started. Of course, I had to let Biwi know about this. She refused instantly when she heard about it and understandably so. I needed the entire week to convince her and though she caved in, I knew she didnt want me to go. Throughout all this, I was quietly confident that I will be responsible enough to do the basics right and make it a success.

The next step was to venture out for some mates. Frankly speaking, I didnt expect anyone to join me. No one would be ready to ride for around 17-18 hours in a single day and even if they would, they would not like the idea of spending just a couple of hours in Goa. But I would have loved someone to be with me.

I floated the idea to my CoV mates. Initially, Gaurav and Prashant sounded interested but later decided to back out and they were frank enough to tell me the reasons. Lack of sleep and the prospect of driving in rain and in the night would be extremely dangerous. I did not have any hard feelings. I asked Prakash and Dinesh. Prakash refused immediately. Dinesh jumped at the prospect. He assured me that he was going to come. This excited me even further. We had to make some decisions now and plan it to perfection.

We needed bikes. Dinesh has his own Pulsar 200. I could not afford to take my Yamaha around for 1000 kms in 24 hours. She would not last. Throughout the week, I pestered friends and colleagues to lend me their bike for a day. I know how close a bike can be for a person and I was also telling them the reason why I wanted the bike. Not many would like someone else riding his bike for 1000 kms. On Friday afternoon, I asked one of my colleagues, Vineet, for his bike. He agreed immdediately and even went to the extent of taking me with him to his place during snack hours and getting me the papers of the bike. I am extremely thankful to Vineet. That bike made the difference. It was a Pulsar 220 :)

The plan? It was to leave Pune at 3 am on Saturday morning and come back before midnight. We would ride separate bikes. This turned out to be a good advice from Gaurav. That was the basic plan. It evolved more and more on the D-Day.

I called up Dinesh on Friday evening and asked him to go home early and catch some sleep. I myself was going to reach home by 6 pm, have some food and hit the sack. So far so good. I came home by 6:15 pm. Had some food and was asleep even before it was 7 pm. I forgot just one thing. DAPP meets every Friday evening. I got a call at around 7:30 pm from Biwi asking me where we are supposed to meet. I asked "For what"? only to realise that it was Friday. Sleep plans went out of the window since I didnt want to disrupt the weekly DAPP routine. DAPP assembled at my place at 8:30 pm and we spent the night at Dev Uncle's kitchen discussing about our plans on the morrow.

Prakash was busy talking us down about how this plan is ridiculous and it was having an effect on Biwi. She started getting worried all over again. Surely, we were not going to call off the plan so late? Were we? It was 10 pm. We had to leave in 5 hours and still hadnt got sleep. Biwi suggested we postpone the plan by an hour and get extra sleep. I was not sure that was going to matter. We agreed to leave at 3:30 am. Dinesh and Prakash went home. This was followed by one last ditch attempt by Biwi to make me cancel the plan. In hindsight, I was quite close to cancelling it looking at the overcast skies on Friday evening. But this plan had been hounding me all week. I needed to get it off my mind. A typical husband-wife discussion led to no change in the outcome. I was going ...

I got up at 2:40 am and was ready by 3:15. Packed some dry clothes in my bag. Took a sweatshirt to counter the cold and I was ... as they say ... FEELING IT ...

I made sure Dinesh was up too and asked him to meet me at Ambegaon Naka in Katraj at 3:30 sharp. I myself left home at 3:25 am and reached Ambegaon at 3:40 am. Dinesh came 5 minutes later. We discussed the course of action.

We decided not to race beyond 100 km/hr. If needed, we can touch 100 once and that would be it. Clear Satara before sunrise. Reach Kolhapur no later than 7:30 am and Sankeshwar no later than 9 am. We would halt for breakfast at Gadinglaj. This was Part 1 of the plan. Part 2 was to discussed during breakfast. Gadinglaj is 310 kms from Ambegaon. The last thing was ... dont wear a watch. We did not want to keep looking at the time and feel the pressure.

With this discussed, we high fived and set off in the night. It was 3:50 am. Zooooommm.

Riding a bike on NH-4 is like a dream. You cant expect anything better than that if you are an avid bike rider. The toll nakas also do not pose as a stumbling block. We rode within ourselves (or so we thought). Satara was taken out well before sunrise. In fact, the light improved only when we were getting close to Karad. Throughout, we could see lightning in the background of the road ahead. Rain was threatening. The time of the day was such that there were not a lot vehicles on the highway. It made our task simpler.

Karad and Kolhapur came and went. Everything that I looked forward to was coming true. The thrill was magical. After passing Kolhapur, I was eagerly looking forward to reaching Sankeshwar. NH-4 is even better as we enter Karnataka. It transforms from a 4 lane to a 6 lane highway for some time. I ventured out and touched 104 km.hr as my top speed but I am generally scared when I drive fast. So, I rode between 80 and 90 throughout. I took the Sankeshwar exit and stopped. Dinesh had not yet reached. I called Biwi and informed her that we had reached Sankeshwar. I called Dinesh and he was around 4 kms off Sankeshwar. I still hadnt seen the time. Dinesh came and we both rode for another 15 kms to reach Gadinglaj. Most of the hotels had not started serving food. We finally found a hotel that served us Poha and tea. Dinesh told me that he was late coz he halted at Kolhapur and also waved and screamed at me but it seemed I neither saw him nor heard him. Dinesh had to call someone and it was then that he told me the time. It was 7:25 am. No wonder none of the hotels served food at this time. We felt good that we covered the bigger portion of the distance in less than 4 hours. We had breakfast and discussed Part 2.

The road was a state highway now and not in the best of condition. So we agreed on a speed of betwen 50-65. Pass Aazra, Amboli and reach Sawantwadi. We decided to meet at Sawantwadi next. It was 85 kms from Gadinglaj. We also discussed that it would be nice if we can reach Sawantwadi by 10 or 10:15 am. We also decided to put on our earphones and enjoy Part 2 since it was going to be a slower ride from Part 1. We left Gadinglaj at 8:05 am. The road through the jungle of Aazra and the Ghat of Amboli was OKish but it was a very pretty sight. Especially in Amboli. The clouds had descended right into the valley and it was a sight that commands Oohs and Aahs. I so wanted to halt and spend some time here. But the bigger task of reaching Goa prevented me from doing so.

Amboli's Ghat demanded that we ride extremely slowly to negotiate the sharp turns. Once Amboli was taken out, I reached Sawantwadi and parked my bike outside the bus station. This time I saw the time in my cell. It was 9:50 am. So far so ... pleasing. Again, I called Biwi. She was already in office and she also sounded surprised when she heard that we had already reached Sawantwadi. I called Dinesh. He was around 8 kms off Sawantwadi and told me that he had to stop in between coz a honey bee bit him. Luckily, either it seems it was some other insect or a smaller bee coz he seemed unhurt when he met me at Sawantwadi. Time for Part 3 of the plan.

Panaji was 60 kms away. But we needed to go more towards Mapusa rather than Panaji since we had decided to spend the time in Goa at Baga beach. We decided that it would be nice if we can reach Baga by 11. It would give us more time in Goa. Thats when things became a bit sticky. As soon as we left Sawantwadi, it started pouring down heavily. Dinesh and I had to stop and we put my sweatshirt and his jacket in the bag since we wanted them to remain dry. We decided that we will ride despite of the incessant rain. It paid off. We rode safely in the rain and negotiated the sluggish city traffic to reach Baga. It was 11:10 am and we had completed the first half of this plan.

We parked our bikes (the speedometer read 448 kms) and headed straight to Nine Hills. This is the hotel we frequented a lot during our last visit to Goa. But sadly, they were serving only drinks. We then went to Britto's. We were only going to have food for the next 3 hours.Fish and Chicken were gobbled up. I claim to be an occasional drinker and this was more than an OCCASION. I had a bottle of KF which was enough to set the zing for the remainder of the ride. There was some typical fun associated with an all-boys get together and we made sure we enjoyed with all our stupid and lewd comments. It was important to keep the spirit going in such a plan. It was quite an experience watching heavy rain on a beach. That surely made all the crowd flock to Britto's. And we were not complaining. Afterall, it was keeping us AWAKE ;)

We had some tea and it was time to leave. We stolled out on the beach just to feel the sea. The tougher of the 2 halves stared down at us. As decided, we were to leave at 2 pm. To make it even more spicier, we called up Biwi and Prakash and asked them to book tickets for Angels and Demons for any show after 11 pm. Forget midnight, we wanted to reach Pune before 11 pm now. We were pepped up and raring to go. We decided we will not change into dry clothes since it was still drizzling. We will take that call in Sawantwadi.

We discussed the plan till Pune. Reach Sawantwadi by 3:30 pm. Gadinglaj by 6 pm. And hit NH-4 before sunset. We refuelled and set off. So far, only the bums (as expected) were sore but everything else was still holding up :)

We reached Sawantwadi on the dot. It was still drizzling and we decided that we will change into dry clothes only when we see a dry patch of road. We set off for Amboli. Reached Amboli at 4:15 pm. Halted and clicked the only pics of the journey. I will put them up once Dinesh gives me the pics. Had tea and set off again. On our way to Aazra, it stopped raining and even sunlight made an appearance. This was it. We stopped and changed into dry clothes right in the middle of the jungle and the highway much to the chuckle of onlookers. Dry clothes surely gave a totally better feeling. We reached Gadinglaj at 5:40 pm. Had tea at the same hotel as the one in the morning. The owner of the hotel smiled when he saw us coz we had asked him directions to Goa in the morning. The highway was still 15 kms away and we wanted to reach there before the light started fading. Sunset was still some time away. We left Gadinglaj at 6 pm after discussing the next phase. That was to meet at the PUNE - 100 kms mark. That would be some way after Satara. It also meant that we needed to drive at a stretch for 200 kms. Given the fact that we did 300 at a stretch in the morning, this was not going to be too difficult. But our condition was not the same as morning.

Anyway, we set off for Pune. Reaching NH-4, we wanted to cover as much distance as possible before the light went out. We did a good job of it. We cleared Kolhapur around the time the light went out completely. The trouble started some time after Kolhapur. We had not taken the rain into account. That too in the night. It started off as light rain but slowly changed into heavy rain. The fact the we needed to ride with the visors of our helmets upturned didnt make it easy since the rain was hitting us in the face and eyes. The speed dropped off considerably and it was a battle to cover the remaining distance. Even when Karad passed, we had another 50 kms to go before Satara. It was extremely tough to ride in the rain ... not because we were scared that we would slip off but coz it was difficult to maintain the speed that would take us to Pune before 11 pm. Somehow, we managed to reach the PUNE - 100 kms mark at 9 pm. Fortunately, there was a small stall right at that mark. Dinesh came after 5 minutes. We had 3 cups each of tea. We could not hold the first cup at all since our right hands were stuck in the ride mode. Even when we held the cup correctly, we were shivering so much that some of the tea fell off. It was only after 2-3 sips that we felt better. Prakash had called informing us that there is no show after 10:45 pm in any of the theatres. 10:45 would be too ambitious we thought :) So the plan of watching A&D was dropped. This also made us decide that we will stop here for some more time. We sat there sipping tea for around an hour. The rain had reduced considerably.

We left at 10 pm. The last 100 kms were going to be the longest since we were itching to reach Pune and meet Prakash and Biwi. Dinesh told me that he would go home directly since we were not going for the movie or dinner. I reached home at 11:35 pm to be greeted by Prakash and Biwi in the parking lot. This was followed by me telling them about the entire trip and they were an extremely excited audience coupled with my excitment. Prakash went home. I had a hot water bath and saw the India Bangladesh match. Well played India. Way to go ... !! ;)

I also feel that there are some myths associated with riding a bike on a highway. Driving fast is not necessarily the same as driving carelessly. There is a method to most of the things we do in life. It is also not a big issue riding in the rain. You just need to stick to the basics. We covered 200 kms in the rain in 3 hours ... thats an average speed of 70 ... as I said, you just need to keep it simple. I also feel that too much is made of the fact that riding/driving in the night is an issue. While it is more conveneint to ride in the day, riding in the night is not too difficult. 50% of our journey was in the night. The last factor is sleep. For me and Dinesh, the enthusiasm of executing this plan was enough to keep sleep away. Just for the record, we slept for 3 hours on Friday night but never felt that we are dosing off for the next 24 hours ... we even found time to come back and see the cricket match. Its all in the mind. How keen are you to do something?

The after effects? Well ... the bums have been chiselled the wrong way :) ... right elbow was locked since I have a tendency to keep my right hand upright while riding ... the right ankle was locked due to constant action with the brakes ...

As they say, all in a day's time :)

Cheers ... !!

Upset weekend ... !!

2009-06-01T10:48:00.002+05:30

What a weekend it was. It seemed as if none of the predictions (read expectations) were destined to go right.

Djokovic crashed out of Roland Garros on the same day as Venus Williams also met with the same predicament. Just 2 weeks ago, Djokoic had run Nadal close at Madrid and lost an epic semi final. He was surely looking like finally breaking the Nadal code. But he lost rather meekly in straight sets. But the ripper of the day was Rafa eating the humble pie. Full marks to Soderling. What a match the Swede played. His forehand was like a dagger all evening. Nadal was found wanting trying to play his grinding game. On more than a few occasions he was caught flat footed by the marauding Swede. Credit to Soderling to fight back from a break down in both the 2nd and 4th sets. In fact, it felt as if Soderling should have won in straight sets looking at the way he dominated the match. The men's defending champion was followed by the ladies defending champ. Ana Ivanovic can win the title of the most inconsistent player over the last 12 months. She also crashed out without much of a fight.

If Federer doesnt win this time, he will surely cry more than January. He has to negotiate Tommy Haas tonight which I presume will be a tough match. His quaterfinal match should be comparatively easy. He may play Roddick or Monfils. But the semi may be tough. He can play either of Robredo, Tsonga or Del Potro. Looking at the way Soderling played, Federer might end up playing him in the final. But dont underestimate Davydenko, Murray and Gonzalez.

And what about the NBA? Lebron vs Kobe was billed as the dream Finals especially after Lakers-Celtics last year. Without a doubt, these 2 are the hottest superstars in American sports. But the Orlando Magic and Superman had other ideas. Lebron and the Cavs were dumped 4-2 in the Eastern conference finals. This was a shocker given that the Cavs had trampled their previous 2 opponents 4-0 en route to the conference finals. But the Magic have been that kind of a team. They haven't let the loss of Jameer Nelson affect them at all. If anything, this team will surely give Kobe Bryant and the Lakers a run for their money in the NBA Finals which kick of this Friday.

Stoner stunned Rossi at Mugello. This is like Rossi's pet circuit. Having won for the last 7 years ... !!

But its been that kind of a weekend. Bodes well for sport. More and more sportsmen/sportswomen are making their mark. Here's hoping for another fun filled sports weekend.

Cheers ... !!

Thanx girl ... !!

2009-05-24T16:16:00.002+05:30

We always try to make friends ... try and find people who will stand by you during your rough times ... celebrate with you when you wanna make merry ... and basically be a mode of support for you throughout ... we venture out and find some of these species ... some find lots of them while some treasure a select few ... but this is with people ...

Throughout your journey in life ... there are some inanimate friends that leave an impeccable mark on you ... unknowingly ... today is the day I bow down to my beloved ... BIKE ... she turns 10 today ... Yes ... I prefer a calling my bike a SHE ... and as they say in bike parlance ... DEFINITELY FEMALE ...

I fondly remember the evening of May 24, 1999. I was watching the World Cup match between the Kiwis and the Windies ... when my Dad called out to me ... I peeped from the window and there she stood ... resplendent in Black (and Gold stripes) ... the match went out of the window (now thats quite apt) ... I ran down and couldnt believe that my Dad got me a new bike ... there was no plan as such to get a bike ... but I was not complaining ... my Mom also came down and we had performed Puja ... I drove down to my friend Aditya's place ... which was around 2 kms from my place ... and he also had a test drive ... :)

Gone were the days that I had to go to college on my sister's Sunny (believe me it was not a great sight driving into Wadias on a limping Sunny ... my Dad was humble enough to give me his Scooter every Saturday and my body language in college was completely different on Saturdays ... :P) ... a Yamaha as I always perceived it ... was ROYAL ... the sound of it ... was like music ...

It came into my life when most of my friends (and me too :P) were going through the usual nuances of puberty ... :P ... the most obvious of this phenomenon was getting attracted to the opposite sex ... :P

By my own admission ... I am (and was) mirror-cracking material (thanx to Orkut for coming up with such a fitting description for people like me) ... so getting attracted was the only thing I could afford :) ... but my friends were much better off ... they not only got attracted but also ... well ... lets leave that for another day ... ;) ... most of my friends, like me, were from a middle to lower middle class family ... having your own bike at the age of 17 was a big deal back then ... and I think it still is (though I am sure things are better now) ... so all my friends relied on my bike to ride their dates ... I mean pillion ... so it was sort of a daily routine to give away my bike to some friend in college ... then come home by bus and then stay awake late in the night for my friend to come back and give my bike back ... magic days ... and this was not limited to guys ... even my female friends took my bike away coz their boy friends didnt have a bike ... just magic ...

I always felt my bike feeling unwanted ... maybe she felt ... "why aren't you taking some one out" ... I wish I could explain to her ... :)

The inspiration to buy a Yamaha came from my Chacha ... he had a RX-100 and then a RX-Z and I always wanted a Yamaha once I drove my Chacha's bikes ... he took care of his bike like his baby ... and I followed ... we both took my bike to a "sticker" man ... one who makes flashy stickers ... and we stuck Red&Black stickers denoting "Yamaha" on my bike ... he also gave me "Bike Wax" which allows you to clean the bike in a ... well ... better way ... I did that religiously for 2-3 years but then gave up ...

I feel quite happy with myself that the first girl who sat on bike (of course when I was driving) was Amruta ...no it wasnt a date ... it was a bit accidental ... we needed to go and meet a friend of mine (happens to be her cousin) ... Nikky ... and it didnt make sense to go on separate bikes ... but it did have me jumping with joy ... my bike also felt a bit prouder than normal ... :)

It was just before the HSC results when I met with a horrible accident at night ... it was hardly 10 days before the results when Chetan and I skid off the road and went bone crashing for around 20 meters ... I was driving ... Chetan didnt have a lot of injuries but I was hurt all over ... elbows, knees, face and belly ... I almost passed out ... Aditya (who was on his bike) and Chetan brought me home ... I recovered in 2 weeks ... fortunately there were no fractures ... but the marks (right knee and left fore-arm) still show ... it was a horrible accident ... my first instinct when I skid was to check if my bike was alright ... apart from a few scratches on the indicators (that still show) and a bent leg guard ... there were no other issues ...

Around the same time ... my bike was witness to a horrendous incident ... I had given my bike to Kiran for a date ... he was going through a rough patch with his girl friend and they hadnt met for months ... and when they finally met ... it was a like a big setup by the girl's brother to sort out Kiran ... I had been witness to a lot of gang fights in Wanorie area during those days ... Kiran was cut at several places by those people ... he had promised me that he will return my bike at around 4 pm. When it was 6 pm, we started to get worried ... Chetan, Aditya, Chinna and I went to almost every place we expected Kiran to go to ... but to no avail ... finally we found him somewhere in Wanorie and his white shirt had become red ... yes it was blood ... and again ... I was curious to know what happened to my bike ... fortunately it only had blood marks ... and nothing else ... the episode that ensued after that deserves a separate post ... one of the darkest nights of my life ... I dont think its a good idea to explain why ....

Throughout its journey with me, it has undergone changes ... mainly replacements ... the speedometer has stopped functioning ... it stands at a reading of 81 K ... one of my most heartfelt desires was to see the reading at 99999 ... but alas ... it is not going to happen since its beyond repair now ... the petrol tank has been replaced once ... so has the chain ... the stickers resemble a RX-100 instead of RX-135 ... the sparking Golden font has eroded with time ... its been blackened ... the indicators dont work as they should ... the horn is a moody creature ... my bike guzzles a lot more oil ... upper and dipper are more or less the same ... driving pillion is avoided since the power has run out ... though that can be repaired ... maybe I will gift that to her on her birthday ... I changed the tyres of my bike in 2007 ...

During this time, I have progressed as a student from Wadias to Fergusson ... my bike would religiously accompany me ... and then I got a job ... it seems like eternity that my bike has been with me ... I somehow find it difficult to fathom that its only been 10 years ... in fact I have been with my bike more than anything else ... it also made a trip to Mumbai for Mood-I once ...

The evolution of the BIKE genre has also been unprecedented. Disc brakes ... single suspensions ... digital speedometers ... fuel filters ... 220-350 cc ... non circular and jazzy indicator lights ... phew. Takes your breath away isnt it? But my bike has remained the same ... its not a pity though ... it still gives me a better than decent average ... breaks down rarely ... and doesnt trouble me during monsoons and winters ... fuel rates have gone up alarmingly. I remember the first time I filled her up (this statement sounds quite weird ... I know :P) ... the rate was Rs. 31 or 33 ... its been one helluva ride ...

Here I am taking my hat off to my companion ... Happy Birthday girl ... we still have miles to go and plenty to catch up on ... Thanx a lot ... and lets go for a ride and spend time together ... and brace ourselves for the next leg of our journey ... Cheers ... !!

Organizing foreigners ... !!

2009-05-20T17:52:00.002+05:30

Well, this is not an attempt to advise the new government about some of their gazillion reforms coming up :P

I am talking about the IPL.

I have been dumb found by the way teams have selected their 4 foreign players in any given game. To my knowledge, each team has a pool of 9-10 foreign players to choose from. Honestly speaking, I find it very appropriate that only 4 foreign players can fit into a playing eleven. The last thing we want is the dearth of Indian players in the INDIAN Premier League. Having said that, its extremely difficult for the coach and the captain to shortlist 4 players from this pool. But there are some obvious take aways which need no debate and teams have been found lacking in terms of coming up with the right foreign player formation.

Lets start with Chennai. I think this is the only team that came close to selecting the BEST 4 foreign players. Hayden would make a playing eleven of any team in the world in any format of the game. No wonder he holds the Orange cap. Albie Morkel is one of the most destructive stikers of the cricket ball and he is a capable bowler too. Murali is again a must-have. No debates on that. If he is not taking wickets, he will atleast pin down the batsmen. Last year's final was a flash in the pan when Yusuf took him apart. According to me, the fourth foreign player for Chennai should be George Bailey. Thanx to ESPN-Star for broadcasting Australian domestic cricket. I have seen Bailey play. And boy he can play. Nicknamed Geuronimo, this guy can wield the willow like no other. This guy has been INSTRUMENTAL in captaining Tasmania in the absence of Ponting and he guided Tasmania to the ODI championship Down Under. As an option, Michael Hussey should be on standby as the 5th player. Ntini and Oram are more utility players in the sense that they dont guarantee that they will put on a performance ... definitely not in T-20. Oram should have made it to my list but his recent injuries have taken the zing out of his bowling.

Next up is Delhi. Looking at their foreign players, its a bloody tough task to choose their 5 foreign players. I guess AB should make it automatically. He says he wants to become the best player in the world in all 3 formats and doesnt he back himself? The 2nd player should be Daniel Vettoti for God's sake. This man is a wizard in T-20 cricket. If you have any doubt then just look at this bowling average, strike rate and no of wickets. If you still have some doubt, get hold of the India-NZ video from the T-20 World Cup when he single handedly stopped India in its tracks after Sehwag and Gambhir threatened to murder the Kiwis. That was also India's only loss of the tournament. Dilshan comes in next. This guy is made for T-20. Having become the new Lankan captain in T-20 cricket, it has just given him the fillip to take his game up by a notch or two. An electric fielder, great runner between the wickets and more than handy off-spinning option ... this guy should be a certainty in every game. If available, Collingwood should be the 4th player. I dont know the logic of keeping him out. To be fair, Delhi's batting ends at no. 4 according to the current formation. With all due respect to Karthik, I feel Delhi lacks the depth. Collingwood is the perfect man to come in after Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan and AB. Add to that his canny bowling. The player on standby should be Farveez Maharoof. He is a good steady bowler. He has all the variations plus his nemesis (read Sehwag) is in his own team :P ... Warner is too recent a player to walk into the playing eleven and his cross batted swipes leave much to be desired. McGrath to be honest doesnt come with the same artillery for Delhi as he did for the Oz ... Owais Shah is too inconsistent.

Now Punjab. The first player should always be Brett Lee without a shade of a doubt. Everyone knows why. The next player should be Kumar Sangakkara. He is street smart and has this natural ability to adapt to the situation of the game. If you need one man to bat through while the others want to hit out, Sanga is the man for you. Amazing wicket keeper to boot. Ravi Bopara is fast becoming the most efficient T-20 player. If you have seen him finish games for Essex, you would know what I am talking about. He is going great guns in all forms of the game. His bowling is an added incentive. He is my third choice. If available, Shaun Marsh should be the 4th player and James Hopes should act as their fence player. Marsh already proved himself last year and Hopes is an extremely handy T-20 all rounder. But since they were not available, my 4th and 5th players would be Mahela and Abdulla. But I feel Mahela is too good a player to be wasted at no. 5/6. Abdulla has the potential to become the next big thing in Sputh African cricket.

On to Deccan. The captain selects himself. Gilly doesnt need any invitation to make the playing eleven. Andrew Symonds should be the next player. Great with the bat and more than good with the ball. A great fielder. My personal choice for the 3rd player is Fidel Edwards. The reason why Deccan stormed through the first half of the tournament was due to RP and Edwards opening the bowling for Deccan. Edwards also has a slinging action like Malinga and his pace can unsettle the best of batsmen. The next player should be Dwayne Smith. In fact, I would say he should be an automatic choice much like Symonds. He is the perfect no. 6 batsman in T-20. He has the capability to hit the long ball and is a deadly accurate fielder. He can also bowl decent medium pace. Looking at this year's team, I will have to say the 5th player should be Gibbs. Around 3-4 years ago, he should have made the 11 automatically. But he is inconsistent now. If Afridi was available, he would have been ahead of Smith and Gibbs for me. Vaas doesnt impress me and so does Styris.

Talking about Rajasthan, I would say the biggest mistake they have made is to keep out Tyron Henderon. This guy is made for T-20 cricket. He along with Murali Kartik took Middlesex to the T-20 championship in England. He is a great T-20 bowler and a ferocious striker of the ball. He should make the playing eleven always. Warne has missed a trick this time. Warne would be the 2nd player for obvious reasons. Graeme Smith is also an automatic choice. Given this year's team, I would pick Mascarenhas as their 4th player always. He is a canny bowler and a big hitter. Johan Botha would be my fringe player. Of course, Tanvir and Watson select themselves but they were not available this year. Quiney, Carseldine and Harwood are largely unimpressive as T-20 players.

That brings me to Mumbai. One of the most under achieving teams and its disappointing for me as a Mumbai fan to write about this. Someone needs to drill a fact into the Mumbai authorities that Sanath Jayasuriya should always be present in the eleven and he should always open. The last time he batted in the middle order was the 1992 World Cup. His average back then was 19 ... and didnt he do an admirable job working his ass to end up with an average of over 30? SRT bamboozled me when he didnt pick Sanath for a game. I will go to the extent of saying that its not a huge issue if SRT himself doesnt play but Sanath SHOULD ALWAYS BE THERE. Next is his Lankan team mate ... Lasith Malinga. This guy again is made for T-20. His toe crushing yorkers and mesmerising pace changes make it extremely difficult to score off him. JP Duminy has come on leaps and bounds and it didnt surprise me when he hit 5 fifties. In fact he was the saving grace for the much hyped Mumbai batting line up. Dwayne Bravo is the 4th player and according to me one of the game's best all rounders. But he should NOT open the innings. :). The last player (in fact he should have been tried very early in the tournament) is Graham Napier. This guy seriously makes a mockery of the cricket ball. One of the hardest hitters of the ball. Once blasted 16 sixes in one innings enroute to rip roaring 150 in a T-20 game. For my money, this guy had the potential of becoming one of the success stories of the tournament. But thats a bit of a skirmish on the part of SRT's captaincy. He should think like a captain and not as a leader :P

Time to shift from SRT to SRK. Kolkata is not a team as bad as they are projected to be. Lets be frank. They have Brendon McCullum at the helm. We all know how he lit up Chinnaswamy stadium last year. Maybe assigning the captaincy to someone like Hussey or Hodge would have helped given the fact that both of them have captained Victoria previously. McCullum isnt even a local district captain in Kiwiland. Next on the list are the 2 Victorians that I just mentioned. Brad Hodge is the highest run getter in T-20 cricket in the world and is the glue that has held Victoria and Leicestershire en route to mutliple championship seasons. A handy offie and a more than reliable fielder. He has been the saving grace for Kolkata this year. He should always be in the eleven. David Hussey for me is an automatic choice. He has a very simple way of playing T-20. Come in and graft. Hit out in the last 3-4 overs. One of the most dumb decisions have been to keep Charles Langeveldt out of the Knight Riders team. How can a T-20 freak be kept out? Dumb ... dumber ... dumbest. Period. The last player should be Chris Gayle. This guy is a very weird cricketer. It almost makes you feel that you need to perk him up for a match. He is very inconsistent for a man with his kind of talent. But should be in the pool of 5 players. In Gayle's absence, Mendis should be the fringe player.

Finally, its speaking about Vijay Mallya's Royal Challengers. Make no mistake. This is one of the best teams in the tournament and also one of the dumbest. You cant ... I repeat ... you cant keep Cameron White out of the playing eleven. If 4 captains come and go and still dont get White into the team, its a problem. White is again MADE for T-20. No wonder most of his Aussie team mates (playing for other franchises) chuckle at the thought of not facing upto White. He is one of the Victorian T-20 and ODI stalwarts along with David Hussey and Hodge. For me, White is an automatic choice. Ross Taylor walks into the team as my 2nd player. He is like Sehwag and Jayasuriya. You dont drop him if he fails once or twice or even 5 times. He has to be there always. Where the hell is Dale Steyn for God's sake? I know he got injured after 4-5 matches but that should have kept him out only for 1-2 matches. I see him giggling in the dugout and get drinks for his mates so I am assuming he can run up and pepper the batsmen as well. Just because you win with a certain combination does not allow you to drop one of the most lethal bowlers the Proteas have ever produced. Again, seriously dumb. Jacques Kallis is an imposing figure and should always be present in the eleven. My fifth player would be Jesse Ryder. Come on, this guy is talent. You cant keep dropping him. Sorry Boucher and Van Der Merwe but I dont think you are making any contributions to this team.

So that's that. My frustration at not having to see the so called T-20 players in action prompted me to write. It is still not late. Some teams might still benefit now (if not next year) by picking the right foreign players.

Here's hoping for a thrilling IPL-2 finale ... Cheers ... !!

Halo of countryside ... !!

2009-05-07T15:05:00.012+05:30

I could actually imagine that ...

It was a fun trip. One of my most satisfying moments in life. Staying in a city, we somehow always cringe to break free ... explore unchartered territory ... do something you have never done before ... basically you want to add to your resume of experiences ....

We picked the long weekend of 1st May to visit Sangaon. This is a small village on the outskirts of Kolhapur ... for people who know a bit more ... Sangaon is a stone's throw away from Kaagal ... well not exactly a stone's throw ... its around 6 kms from Kaagal. Biwi's Nanaji owns a farm (I dont like that word ... hence I am going to use the word Khet from now on ...) at Sangaon. I had been to this Khet once before but I had hardly explored it ... this time it was going to be different ... it was a nice incentive to go there ... since we had not been to Kolhapur in over 2 years ...

My in-laws were also going to join us there. Hence, we planned it in such a way that we will use one car and one bike to travel to Sangaon. Everyone assembled at our place at 4 am on Friday ... thats Dinesh, Prakash, father-in-law (Pappa), mother-in-law(Mummy), Biwi and I. Prakash and Dinesh started on Dinesh's bike while the rest travelled in our car.

I wont delve too much into the journey ... except that it was a short and sweet drive ... with hardly any traffic ... toll booths were idle ... we stopped for Naashta at Karad ... Prakash swapped places with Biwi in Satara ... and I swapped places with Biwi in Karad ... driving a Pulsar on NH-4 is a heavenly experience ... we went from Karad to Kaagal in 57 minutes ... :) ... Biwi did an admirable job anchoring our car till Sangaon ... in fact she drove beautifully ... Dinesh swapped places with Pappa in Kaagal ... Pappa and I bought from cooking oil from Kaagal and reached Sangaon ... by now everyone from Kolhapur (read Biwi's Nanaji's family ... thats Nana, Nani, Mama, Mami, Mausis, Mama's kids, Mausi's kids) had reached the Khet ... Sangaon is divided into 2 parts ... Sangaon Kasba (this is more of a marketplace kind of a place) and Juna Sangaon (this is where the Khet is and it is a very quiet place with Khets all around) ...

After exchanging pleasantries it was time to make plans for the day ... the menu for the day was Mutton and Chicken Rassa ... or more specifically Kombda Rassa ... and Vade to boot ... this is the famous Kombda Vade ... the menu was mentioned as soon as we reached the Khet ... so we wanted to be very hungry before devouring all that ... Nanaji took us to the well (Kua) of the Khet ... the cock went through the sacrifice ordeal ... Yes its not good viewing ... but that's that ...

The next thing to do was swim in the well ... I had done that during my last visit too ... but somehow it felt amazing this time around ... the fact that it was close to 40 degrees outside and almost ice-cold in the well made it all the more enjoyable ... Pappa, Nanaji, Shivam and Soham (Mama's kids) joined us in the well and it was mayhem ... Dinesh went into a diving frenzy ... from unprecedented heights ... I too joined later and we started a "Mutka" regime ... it is diving in such a way that your legs go into the water before your head ... and in doing so ... you should cross your legs ... difficult proposition ... :P

Anyway, we swam for around 2 hours and it needed someone to come and drag us out of the well ... we were hungry now ... and the food made our day ... Kombda vade were lip-smacking ... couple that with Mutton ... Masala rice ... plain rice ... and off-the-tava-chapatis ... since Prakash and Dinesh were coming to Sangaon for the first time ... they were forced to eat a lot ... and I mean it ... they were sweating profusely throughout (I have been through this before :P) ...

We lazed around in the courtyard and tried to find some sleep ... but the heat and some ants made it difficult ... we garnered some sleep before everyone assembled for tea at around 5 pm ... tea was just a starter ... the amount of junk food on offer made us skip a beat ... biscuits ... poha-chiwda ... chips ... nuts ... cashews ... bhutta ... and they kept coming ...

We decided to visit the river that flows through Juna Sangaon ... its around a km from the Khet. The walk from the Khet to the river was extremely picturesque and it culminated into the most ideal setting of a river flowing through the countryside with a wooden over bridge and acres of land to park your backside and get submerged in this aura ... there was a jamun tree over there and this being jamun season ... we had plenty of jamuns ... it was getting dark and walked back to the Khet ... the heat was still very much present and we were feeling the itch to have something chilled ... being a small village we were doubtful if we would get anything ... we walked from the Khet to Kasba Sangaon ... we were fortunate enough to find a shop selling soft drinks and ice cream ... well ice cream in a village sounded a better option ... and it was ... we all felt much better after the ice cream went down the system ... we walked back and it was now time for cards ...

Everyone went off to sleep at around 10 pm in the house and reminded us about the positions we need to take in the house when we plan to sleep ... we ignored it at that time only to repent later ... :P ... playing cards has also become such a ritual ... and Minimum at that ... its a fun game and keeps you engrossed ... Biwi, Prakash, Dinesh and I laughed the night away ... mainly discussing about all that we observed with the people present on the Khet ... poor souls ... it was like despite being good hosts they were the laughing stock ... :) ... it was only when we started hearing weird noises that we decided to call it quits and go off to sleep ... even then we went in the house and started laughing ... much to the dismay of all those who had already dozed off by now ... there were lots of mosquitoes ... so it was not trivial to find sleep ... luckily we had bought some mosquito coils ... and got saved ... but we were still laughing so much that it made us get up and go to the kitchen just to finish off the laughing ... we were asleep in some time ... and that completed a most memorable first day of the trip at Sangaon ...

The next day was spent pretty much doing the same stuff ... a heavy Gaon kaa Naashta ... playing cricket with Soham and Shivam ... swimming in the well ... a heavy lunch (again :P) ... pursuit of sleep in the afternoon ... etc ... there was a small difference though ... Prakash, Dinesh and I wanted to have a bath in the bore well ... just adjacent to the Khet ... but it was occupied by some women who were washing their (?) clothes ... we sought refuge under the tamarind tree (we saw almost every type of tree during the 3 days) ... sang some very unfortunate songs :P ... maybe that hastened the washing by the women ... but we also knew that the water will not be available for eternity ... and as ill luck would have it ... the water stopped as soon as Dinesh and I stepped in ... dratch ... we had a bath with whatever water was left but Prakash had to go back to the Khet and have a bath ...

The evenings were something we looked forward to coz the heat during the day was relentless ... we wanted to go back to Kasba Sangaon to have ice cream like yesterday ... only today we didnt realise what the time was ... the elders advised us against going coz it can be dangerous during the night ... but we still wanted to go and we did ... just that our CITY minds refused to accept that we were not in a CITY ... we reached Kasba Sangaon at around 9:30 pm ... and it was pitch dark and pin drop silence ... Yes ... the Gaon was fast asleep ... and we were left looking stupid ... no other option but to head back to the Khet ... it was nevertheless a good experience walking through the brazen paths late in the night ...

On reaching the Khet ... we played cards but there were even more mosquitoes than yesterday ... so we decided to go in and have some fun but everyone was asleep ... so we decided we will sleep in the kitchen ... chatted for a while ... played cards and then dozed off ...

The day of the trip was the final day ... as usual we got up and had Naashta ... this was followed by the most intense cricket matches that I have ever played ... and thats quite a statement ... it was Mama, Biwi, Dinesh and Shivam in 1 team while Prakash, Mummy, Pappa and I represented the other team ... quite a mismatch considering the fact that Mama has played (and still plays) state level cricket ... not that we were going to play with a season ball ... but still ... the first 2 matches were quite close ... we fielded first in both matches ... it was a 6 over affair ... Mama's team made 47 ... we sent Mummy and Pappa as our openers and we struggled :) ... when both of them got out ... it was upto me and Prakash ... we batted well and made sure we are within striking distance of the total ... but Prakash got out ... we still needed around 20 in 2 overs and one of those was going to be bowled by Mama ... I extracted 7 off Mama's over ... and we still needed 13 off the last over ... Mama tossed the ball to Biwi ... this was going to be interesting ... I didnt know whether I should go for the win :P ... but Yeah ... a loss is a loss ... even worse if its against my wife ... :) ... the first ball was a four ... the next was two ... then a dot ball ... we needed 7 off 3 ... the next was a four ... 3 off 2 ... dot ball ... 3 off 1 ... this was the moment of the match ... I thought I hit the perfect shot straight down Biwi's left hand ... but Mama just stuck his hand out ... the ball stuck and he ran me out at the bowler's end ... they rejoiced so much that all the elders busy preparing for lunch came out and asked what all the noise was all about ... and they went back holding their heads when they came to know that it was just a match ... but they didnt say GROW UP ... :)

The next match was also close ... I was surprised how well I played in the first match since I had not held a cricket bat for ages ... but Mama was a crucial factor ... he was so central to their scheme of things ... again they put up a huge score ... 58 ... and we had to get 59 ... this time we sent Prakash and Mummy to open ... both got out in the first over to Biwi ... Biwi was stellar with her bowling ... kudos ... :) ... so it was left to me and Pappa ... Pappa also got out in the next over to Mama ... and we had to make 50 in 4 overs ... hardly an inspiration ... but I soldiered on ... I targetted the overs that were not bowled by Mama ... hit lots of boundaries ... in fact I got 13 in one of Mama's overs ... we needed 22 in 2 overs ... Mama bowled the penultimate over ... and he bowled well ... I managed only 7 ... and we were left with 15 to get off 6 ... again Biwi was going to bowl ... Deja Vu ... or was it? ... I hit the first 2 balls for 4 ... we needed 7 off 4 ... the next ball was bowled almost at my chest and I fended it off to get 2 runs ... a huge argument ensued coz I definitely thought it was a no-ball ... but Mama was not ready to listen ... it was very competitive ... so it was 5 off 3 ... dot ball ... 5 off 2 ... and I got out ... bowled ... Ouch that hurts ... lost 2 close matches ... the third match was one sided coz we lost by a huge margin ... sob ...

we then headed to the well ... and this time we were going to make it count ... almost everyone on view was in the well ... Dinesh, Prakash, Biwi, Soham, Shivam, Pappa, Mummy (though she didnt swim), Nilambari(Biwi's cousin ... or shud I say Saali :P), Mama and myself ... it was highly enjoyable ... but Pappa, Mama and Mummy wernt there for long ... Dinesh and I went off on a diving spree ... we went further and further up until it started looking scary from up ... the dive from the highest point was extremely nerve racking ... its funny that you know you are not falling on firm ground ... its just water and yet you feel you will get hurt ... but what a dive it was ... from hot air(when you are about to jump) to cooler breeze (when mid-air) and finally cold water ... quite a transition ... that made us repeat it ... 3 hours came and went ... then finally we came out ...

We had planned to leave for Pune at around 1:30 pm ... so we needed to have lunch and get going ... the moment we came out of the well and reality dawned that we will be leaving soon, the mood dropped ... we talked of deferring our departure ... and everyone agreed ... so we were back to being happy ... Mami and Maheshwari (another Saali) had come to the well to inform us that lunch is ready ... we could not see people all dry ... we somehow managed to get Mami to the well and Biwi poured a bucket of water on her ... Maheshwari was close but not very close and she was already retracting ... I ran and got hold of her ... and after some time even she bore the brunt of the same bucket of water ... so now we were much more satisfied ... :)

Mami was hell bent for revenge ... and she started filling a bucket as soon as we reached the house ... but to her dismay I really didnt have an issue getting wet again ... in fact I loved it ... she started filling a second bucket ... someone called out for her and she turned ... then it was easy for me to come and pick up the same bucket of water and pour it on her ... 2-1 to me ... :P ... and thats how it stayed ... first leg goes to me ... revenge is promised for next time ... we will see ... an away win is very important :P ...

It was again very hot and we really wanted something cold. When I asked around about how many are ready for a beer ... I got a decent response ... it was Mummy, Pappa, Prakash, Biwi and Mama ... I too decided to have beer ... yes I have quit drinking but the occasion got to me ... cant help it ... Dinesh and Prakash went to Kasba Sangaon and got beer, soft drinks and chakna ... we all went back to the well and sat in the shade of a tree ... we were joined by 2 of Pappa's friends ... one of them was called DESAI SAAHAB ... and wasnt he funny ... he talked till the cows came home ... we were busy sipping beer and soft drinks and this man was just going on and on about the food he likes ... the places he has visited across India ... his farmhouse in Goa ... how there is no place like Goa (I quite agree) ... all the others did was nod in approval ... there were some trademark dialogues that are expected when people get high ... like "Our doors are always open for you Desai Saahab" (Yes it was said in English :P) ...

Finally, we went and had lunch ...

Lunch was prepared by one of Biwi's cousin grandfathers ... quite a task to explain the relation ... but he had made delicious chicken biryani ... cashew and raisins just added to the flavor and we devoured everything that came our way since it was the Last Supper ... eerrr ... Last Lunch at Sangaon ... after that we dozed off outside in the shade of yet another tree ... we got up at around 5 pm ... had tea and were ready to leave ... I must admit it was sad to leave such a divine place ... the food and the people were just amazing ... but all good things come to an end sometime ... and so did this ... we left Sangaon at 8 pm ... 7 hours behind schedule ... knowing that the next day in office will hurt ... both physically and emotionally ...

Adios Sangaon ... but we will be back ... Prakash is already planning his honeymoon at Sangaon ... :P'

Cheers ... !!

Wishes ... !!

2009-04-30T12:32:00.004+05:30

A year wiser? I doubt that ... a year older? I more than vouch for that ...

As has become a ritual with me ... I spent my birthday away from work ... and with my family ... and more importantly ... at HOME ... doing stuff that I like a lot ...

Well ... I am almost at the footsteps of an age which is described as VETERAN in cricketing terminology ... it just feels like yesterday that the TEENS deserted me ... and here I am staring at the wrong end of the TWENTIES ... I have started inviting stares from people who are not a lot older than me and I still find it convenient to call them UNCLE ... and I am getting used to the fact that more and more teenagers are calling me UNCLE ... :) ... call that a residue of age ...

So it was nice to sit in front of the TV the entire day ... watch IPL ... gorge on Mangoes ... swim ... chat on Yahoo to absolute strangers ... sleep (in all its splendor) ... and finally have a 4 course HOMELY LUNCH ...

people who matter ... wished ... Biwi decorated our room ... Dinesh and Prakash gave a nice gift ... and all 3 made it a point to come back from office early ... so that we could have a good evening ... Chocolate cake from Copper Chocs never disappoints ... couple that with a quiet dinner at Signature ... and a prank hour (with target as Prakash) ... some chatter about out trip to Sangaon in a couple of days time ... and finally some more chatter while lazying in the society garden ... till 3 in the morning ... thats more than handy recipe for a good old fashioned Birthday ...

Happy Birthday Pratik Omprakash Beri ... some things in life are priceless ... for all others ... you need MONEY ... ;)

Cheers ... !!

Impact ... !!

2009-04-13T17:15:00.003+05:30

I was surfing channels last weekend trying to get hold of some nice cartoon ... some nice sporting occasion or some nice movie ... there were lots of channels where I spent some time ... Tom n Jerry never fails to impress me (I am sure its the case with most of us) ... Augusta Masters was too appetizing but the fact that Tiger and Mickelson were not doing very well made me switch ... and finally I ended with ... SARKAR ...

It aint a secret that I am a fan of RGV's movies. There's a very interesting story about Sarkar and me ... it goes back during the time it was released (no matter how much I try ... I dont seem to create that feel of novels) ... the story is such that ... at that time City Pride Kothrud was a newbie ... and most of us counted just 4 as the number of multiplexes in Pune ... in Inox, E-Square. Adlabs and City Pride Satara Road ... some weird sequence of events had led me to see this movie in each of these multiplexes ... including thrice in three days ... it was almost as if I told my 4th accomplice ... I CAN ENACT EACH SCENE ... NO NEED TO WATCH IT ...

So when I tuned into Sarkar this weekend ... all those moments came galloping back (there I go again ... I am not novel material ... guess I am not that novel in creating a novel ... aah ... there's a statement) ... for now lets say ... those moments came running back ... much more real ...

If there was ever a scene that warms you up to watch the rest of the movie ... its the scene where Rashid meets Sarkar for the first time ... just mind boggling ... the impact it creates on th viewer ...

The director has interleaved the part of Khan informing Sarkar about Rashid and Rashid actually walking up the stairs so wonderfully ... the poise of both Rashid and Sarkar ... it gives you goose bumps ... even on the small screen ...

The back ground music is only broken by Rashid saying ... "Aapse akele main kuch baat karna thaa mereko" ... and is so promptly replied with ... "samajh lo ki mai akela hi hoon" ... Chander and Khan are both in this scene with Sarkar and Rashid (I am sure everyone knows about this) ... Chander has this habit of loosing his temper at the drop of a ... well hat would sound to advanced for Chander ... lets say he gets angry very easily ... as soon as Sarkar says this ... its like Chander getting the authority to impose himself on Rashid ... he responds with an eye contact with Rashid and pointing out his left hand towards the seat he is supposed to take ...

Throughout the scene ... its noteworthy seeing Khan chewing his Paan/tobacco/supari ... and Chander constantly hounding Rashid with his looks ... Rashid tells Sarkar of his intentions ... the way Sarkar lifts his eyes from sipping tea as soon as he hears the words "Shikuti gaon" ... just amazing ... impact ... and reaction ... just wonderful ... Sarkar hears out Rashid and then sets off for his introduction ... you almost feel he will go an for a longer time ... but he cuts it off with ... "Mai nahi karunga" ...

Rashid raises the stakes and says ... "30 lakh" ... this is enough for Chander to spit venom ... he angrily responds to Rashid ... Rashid tries to clarify with Sarkar (Rashid does a great job interacting with ONLY SARKAR ... he doesnt care a lot about Chander ... this is what a villain should be ...) ... Sarkar by now is vehemently denying Rashid ...

This is where the magic of Rashid takes over ... he is clearly disgruntled ... but he still has the audacity to finish the tea in his cup ... give Chander a WE-WILL-SEE-WHO-WINS-THIS-BATTLE-OF-STARES stare ... and finally gets up ... Sarkar is quick to chip in with ... "Aur suno ... tujhe bhi karne nahi dunga" ... this is the most amazing sequence of background score inter mingled with the most appropriate body language ... with Taasha ... Dhol and sundry ...

Rashid still touches Sarkar's feet before leaving ...

For me ... the most striking feature about this scene is that both Sarkar and Rashid appear vulnerable at different stages of this scene ... it ... as they say ... SETS UP THE MOVIE ...

Its even better in the movie hall ... ask me ... I have experienced it 4 times ... ;)

Cheers ... !!

Those were the days ... !!

2009-03-15T07:52:00.004+05:30

If there ever was a picture that spoke a thousand words (maybe a million ... maybe more), its probably this ...

Yeah those were the days ...
When the towel acted as a photo background ...
When you thought of everything other than money (and related entities) ...
When 50 paise sufficed for a day's journey from home to school and back ...
When I avoided going back home by bus so that I can save 25 paise to ... wait ... not to own a house ... but to see myself gorging on the Raspberry ice cream that was for Rs. 3
When wearing a white school uniform should have acted a reminder to keep it clean ... but instead it was the exact opposite ... a white uniform meant that it had to be DIRTIED ...
When innocence won over almost everything ...
When the scolding received from parents resulted in making a mental note of things ...
When Akku-Takku, Lappa-Chhupi and Langdi were the HEP games ...
When haircuts were done on a SHEVGE-CHA-ZHAAD (drumstick tree)
When summer meant climbing up the Jamun tree and getting Jamuns for the entire Basti ...
When we made a beeline at the place of The PATILS to catch a glimpse of Chitrahaar and Mickey-Donald or the weekend movies ...
When Zatra (Mela) was the event of the year ...
When the place to shit was a place where the most luxurious township of the area stands today ...
When Ganpati meant watching 4 movies from 6 pm to 6 am behind the Mandal ... the movies being ... Gair Kanooni, Bhrashtachaar, Mitti aur Sona and Lashkar ... its a bloody tough challenge to locate these movies ...
When I didnt have to think twice (probably more now) to wrestle a girl over a petty reason ...
When my sister won 2 cans of Complan full of marbles defeating all the guys in the Basti ...

But the most important of all ... you wanted to get done with school as soon as possible and thought that life after school would be rosy ... well ... almost ... sigh ... Yeah ... those were the days ... Cheers ... !!

Time for Ping-Pong ... !!

2009-03-04T15:30:00.000+05:30

Yes, the TT tournament at office starts tonight . Sabhtarsha and I are the organizers and its a bloody frustrating task to keep reminding teams about their matches. The schedule has already started changing and we haven't even played a match yet. I wonder how Vivek did everything alone during the last edition of the tournament. Well done mate ... !!

The teams are more evenly (read sportingly) distributed this time. The draw was fun. Sabhtarsha and I are in the same team along with Sandip and Prabhash. Its not a bad team and at least "I" am expecting that we will perform better than the last edition. Our first of 8 matches takes place tomorrow against the DreamKillers. Well ... I hope I don't dream ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 3, 2009
DreamKillers didn't show up. So we had to reschedule our match. We played the Paddlers and won 3-0. A job well done by all of us. There will be sterner tests ahead. We have to defeat at least one of Top Most 5, Warriors, Orange and DreamKillers if we are to entertain any thoughts of reaching the Semis ... our next match is tomorrow against The Rookies.

Update : Feb 6, 2009
We have upset the DreamKillers. Thats the news of the day. Yes we did it. We had 2 matches. We defeated the The Rookies in the first match 3-0. The 2nd was against the DreamKillers. We lost the first singles but won the doubles to tie it up at 1-1 going into the deciding singles that was to be played by me. It was tense. I was extremely nervous to be honest since the result was going to be the result of the series. I lost the 1st set 11-5 and was down 4-1 in the 2nd set. But I am glad I got my game back on track. Gopi was more than a formidable opponent. I came through the 2nd set 11-7. I kept the momentum going in the 3rd and was up 7-3. Some silly errors cost me and it was back at 7-7. But I held my nerve to win 11-8 and cause an upset. We now have 3 wins out of 3 and lead the table with 6 points but we have also played one additional match as compared to the other teams. But it feels good like almost getting out of jail. Keep going The Blues ... Cheers to Prabhash, Sabhtarsha and Sandip ... !!

Update : Feb 9, 2009
We have caused another sort of an upset. We have now gone on and defeated The Warriors. We have almost made it sure that we will be in the semis by defeating The Warriors. I played the first singles and won against Nishant. The first set was quite good. I won 11-4. I opened the 2nd set with a 4-0 deficit. But I played on and went onto win the 2nd set 11-7 and thereby the match. We won our doubles too with Sabhtarsha and Sandip defeating Abhijeet and Avdhoot. I pity Prabhash. He always has to play the difficult singles match. He lost to Jaswinder but put up a brave fight. But well played guys. We have won 4 out of 4 and lead the table with 8 points. One more win and we are certain to play the semis. We have another match coming up tomorrow against Nine with one of the defending champs in their ranks. Come on guys ... lets seal it tomorrow itself ... Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 11, 2009
We are almost through to the semis. We defeated Nine today. It was a tough match. The tables turned this time around. Till now, our doubles and my singles were comparatively easier matches or atleast we made them look easier while Prabhash always had to play the tough singles. But we were facing the heat against Nine. I played the first singles against the defending champ Vineet. I was happy with the first set. I competed well but still fell short and lost the first set 11-8. But I completely lost the plot in the 2nd and lost 11-4. Vineet plays at such a different level. He is just an amazing player. Period. We were down 0-1. The doubles team had not lost a set so far in th tournament. We were left shell shocked when they lost the first set 11-8 against a weaker team. The 2nd set was also very tight but we managed to win it 11-8. But the 3rd set was quite convincing. We won that 11-3. So it was 1-1 going into the deciding singles. Prabhash had to play the difficult singles every time so far but this time I had already played against their best player. So Prabhash stuck to the basics and won in straight sets in the final game. So we win 2-1. 5 wins out of 5. Pretty impressive but plenty of food for thought for me and our doubles. Nice wake up call just before the business end of the tournament. Well played The Blues. Lets get as many wins as possible before the semis. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 17, 2009
We played after a long time and I think it showed. We were playing against a comparatively weak team. We were lucky to come out with a 2-1 result in our favor. Prabhash won the first singles and we were up 1-0. But the crowd got behind our opponents in the doubles. We started well. We won the first set 11-2 but somehow the crowd pressure got to us and we lost the next 2 sets and the match. It was 1-1. For the second time I had to play the deciding singles. Hasmukh is an efficient player and I was just praying that he didnt bring his A-game to the table. I started shakily. I lost a couple of service points. But I closed out the set well and won 11-7. I was down throughout the 2nd set until 8-8. I went up 9-8 but Hasmukh brought it back to 9-9. He held set point at 10-9 but I forced Deuce. Finally, I closed out the set 12-10 and won the match. Its extremely difficult to play if the crowd is against you. But I am glad we won. We need to assume that the crowd will be against us if we are to play better in such circumstances. The confidence has taken a bit of a hit. But I am sure we will bounce back. Our next match is against Orange. We could have played better but well done guys anyway. Cheers ... !!

Update : Feb 18, 2009
You dream of such days ... such occasions ... such an atmosphere. We defeated Orange 3-0. That does not tell the story though. This was always going to be a tough one for both teams. I played the opening singles this time around. I was pitted against arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... happens to be our VP. I was completely out of sorts in the 1st set. Lost 4-11. I started badly in the 2nd too. I was down 4-8. I dont know what happened after that though. I started playing OK from there on. I brought it back to 8-8. Then it was 10-10. Then 11-11. Then 12-12 and finally 13-13. I missed 3 smashes which could have won me the set. Then I buckled down and stopped with smashes. I won the next point to make it 14-13. The last point will remain with me for the rest of my life. I was too far back and Samir hit the ball towards my backhand. I played the slice. Till now I was hitting to Samir's backhand and he was surprised to see my shot go to his forehand. But the spin in the ball took it further away and he couldnt reach it. I won the set 15-13. Man I couldnt believe it. I had won a set against the best player at AirTight. I carried the momentum in the 3rd. I couldnt believe how well I was playing. I was up 7-3. But made lots of silly mistakes. It as 7-7 soon. Then 8-8 and then 9-9. I made it 10-9 and held match point on my serve. I dished out a different serve from my previous serves and Samir blobbed it back at a decent height and close to the net. The adrenaline rush just took over. I crashed down on the ball and after a long time connected on my smash. I won man. 11-9 in the 3rd. Fantastic. Samir was gracious in defeat. We then went on and won the doubles in 3 sets too after losing the first set. Sabhtarsha and Sandip were amazing in the last 2 sets. It was great to win 2 matches after being down 1 set in both of them. Prabhash made it a convincing 3-0 scoreline by winning 11-2, 11-4 in the last match. This has been a great show of character from us after yesterday. Well done guys ... this deserves a separate post ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 24, 2009
Are we on a roll or what? We played our final match against Top Most 5. Both of us had won 7 out of 7 matches. This was the last league match for both of us. It was billed as the "Clash of the Toppers" and it lived up to all the hype that was generated at office throughout the day. The winner of this clash was going to be the top seed in the semis and end up playing the 4th placed team. Such was the anticipation among the employees that the TT arena was jam packed much before the match started. The atmosphere was electric. We decided to change our combination for this match. Prabhash and Sandip were to play the singles while Sabhtarsha and I would play Doubles. We decided on this keeping in mind that our opponents didnt have a weak player in their ranks. All 4 were good players. For us, Sandip is kind of a weak link but he has also progressed wonderfully through the tournament. Prabhash opened the series with his singles against Rahul. It was a great match. Prabhash lost a tight first set at 9-11. He showed remarkable resilience and fought back to win the 2nd sett 11-7. The deciding set was neck and neck till 6-6. Then Prabhash took over. He closed it out in a hurry and won 11-8 and with that we took a 1-0 lead. Defeating the favorites was enough to pump us up. The Doubles was next. Prabhash had given us enough confidence to assert ourselves on the match. Sabhtarsha and I were pitted against the 2 Vijays and we knew it would be a slugfest. And what a match it turned out to be. We started scratchily but picked up our game midway through the 1st set. It was tight. 9-9. We held set point at 10-9 but somehow we lost rhythm and folded up 10-12 in the 1st set. Down 1 set, we knew we had to pick up the pieces. We build a good lead in the 2nd set. We were up 6-2. But again we lost rhythm and allowed them to come back. It was 9-9 again followed by 10-10 and then 11-11. We missed some great opportunities to finish the 2nd set. But we still didnt lose focus and played well to win the 2nd set 13-11. Alright. 1 set all and the crowd were driving us into a frenzy. It was a pleasure to be playing amidst such an environment. We build a good lead again in the 3rd set. It was 7-3. Then a service point which looked Good was called Wrong by our opponents and after much debate we decided to replay the point. It looked Good to me but we decided to accept the decision. But I think we kept thinking about it. It was 7-7 very soon and it was back to being a tight match. But Sabhtarsha and I were continuously cheering each other up and we finished the game on a high ... winning 11-8. What a seesaw of a match. We had won both matches after being down 1 set. Remarkable. We had already won the rubber now. Sandip faced up against one of the best players in office ... Pushkar. He made a fist of it though Pushkar was going easy. Sandip lost the first set 2-11. He was down in the 2nd too ... but miraculously won the 2nd set 11-9 due to some poor errors from Pushkar. But Pushkar went on to win the final set 11-6. But, we won the match 2-1 and with that we become the top seeds in the semis. It was a brilliant performance from us. Top Most 5 are still the favorites to win the tournament but we have given them a more than noteworthy wake up call. Well played guys ... this was also the first match in which all 3 matches went to 3 sets ... the match lived upto its billing ... we play the DreamKillers in the semis on Thursday ... Cheers to The Blues ... !!

Update : Feb 26, 2009
And then there are days that you wish never happen in your life. After defeating every team in the tournament and being top seeds in the semis, we lost. Yeah, its painful to even write that. To be fair, our opponents did the basics right and we just couldnt get over the pressure. I played the opening singles against Atul. I played bad to be honest but he was just too good. Hats off. I lost the first 2 sets 8-21 and 11-21. The scores pretty much sum up his dominance. I tried to make a comeback in the 3rd. I won that 21-11. I was gaining on confidence. The 4th set was tight. We were even till 10-10. Then he played some good points and I played some bad ones. He went up 19-12. Still I tried to fight and made it 19-18. But then 2 silly silly silly errors later, we were down 0-1. I thought I should have competed better in the 4th set but it was that kind of a day. Our Doubles were immediately under the pump. Nothing was going our way. Our opponents were just too good. We lost the Doubles in straight sets. Prabhash won the last singles in straight sets but we eventually lost 1-2. Kudos to the DreamKillers. Yeah, they definitely killed our dreams ... :) ... but its been a great experience for us. We defeated every team in the tournament in the league phase and if we speak purely of progress ... then in the last edition we were placed 10th out of 11 teams ... and this time we are in the top 4 ... so thats pretty damn good ... plus we have a chance tomorrow to be 3rd in the match up between the losing semi-finalists ... I doubt if the motivation is the same but we will try and be 3rd at least ... well played The Blues ... it was a pleasure being a team mate of the The Blues ... Cheers ... !!

Update : March 2, 2009
We managed to finish 3rd but the fizz had pretty much gone from our game. The semi final loss was a jolt but it feels good that we are atleast placed 3rd. We played The Warriors in the 3rd place playoff match. Prabhash won the first singles for us in a 4 setter against Nishant. Prabhash lost the 1st set but came back strongly to win the next 3 sets. We played the next singles. Sandip lost against Jaswinder in straight sets. It was 1-1 and the Doubles to go. Sabhtarsha and I played against Abhijeet and Avdhoot. We lost the 1st set 19-21 but came back strongly to win the next 3 21-13, 21-17, 21-12. It felt good. Top Most 5 went on to win the tournament by defeating the DreamKillers. But it was such an amazing match. Both the singles were 5 setters while the Doubles was a 4 setter. In the end, they won 2-1. A memorable end to an amazing tournament. We played well as a team and we were the only team to defeat all other teams. No other team achieved that. Even Top Most 5 lost to us in the league phase. But we lost in the semis after being top seeds to a worth opponent. We learnt lots of lessons and I am sure we will be stronger in the next edition. Sabhtarsha and I (being the organizers) decided to award great performances in the tournament. There were 7 awards.

Best singles player - Atul
Best Doubles team - Vijay Gaji and Vijay Vachhane (Sabhtarsha and Sandip lost out)
Best singles match - Atul vs Pushkar in the Final. The score was ... hold your breath ... 13-21, 21-11, 21-23, 21-13, 22-20 in favor of Atul
Best Double match - Vijay Gaji/Vijay Vachhane vs Ashish/Shashank. The score was 9-11,13-11,13-11 in favor of Ashish/Shashank (Sabhtarsha and I vs Vijay G/Vijay V lost out)
Most improved player - Gopi (Nominees were Gopi, Sabhtarsha, Sandip and myself. 3 out of the 4 nominess were from our team but the award still went to the 4th nominee :))
Most Spirited Player - Raj
Dream team : Vineet, Pushkar, Atul, Samir and Prabhash

Cheers to The Blues ... !!

I won ... !!

2009-02-18T19:38:00.003+05:30

This is that kind of a day that everyone dreams about in life. Excelling in something and proving yourself against the toughest of situations. If I had doubts about what terms like PRESSURE-COOKER-SITUATION and ADRENALINE-RUSH meant ... it was put to rest today. What a day... I am going to photo frame this day ... ;)

It was our penultimate league match against Orange. Orange boasts of arguably the best player at office ... Samir ... he is also our VP. Orange also has our manager ... Sonal and one of our UI team mates ... Rahul. So it was quite a grudge match. Playing against your manager is daunting and fun at the same time ... this was expected to be a 2-1 scoreline match ... but we were not sure in whose favor ... after the bad match we had yesterday. We were a bit down in the confidence department.

We had already won 6 out of 6 and were secured of a spot in the semis. We didnt tinker with our combination. Prabhash and I were to play the singles and Sabhtarsha and Sandip were to play the doubles. We decided that I will play the first singles .. against whom? .... well ... against Samir ... Yes ... this was what I was looking forward to since morning. I wanted to compete with him.

I started off very shakily. I dont know what I was doing. None of my smashes connected. Most of my slices hit the net or went out and Samir also hit lots of winners. The first set was gone 4-11. Hardly competed. I was extremely disappointed. I knew I can do better than this.

It was more of the same in the 2nd set. I was just out of sorts. I was down 4-8. I decided to totally shun the smash. Thats when I started competing. I made it 8-8. Then 9-9. Forced Deuce at 10-10. Then it was 11-11. Then 12-12. And then 13-13. I missed 3 smashes on the way to 13-13. Why was I going back to the smash? I cursed myself continuously. Back to shunning the smash. I made it 14-13. Then came the moment of the match.

I was continuously a long way behind the table just to intercept Samir's smashes. He hit one ball to my backhand corner. I was a long way back and with very little options. I hit the backhand slice up the line. Till now ... I was feeding the balls to Samir's backhand corner since his forehand is a menace ... he was always expecting the ball at his backhand ... but he was surprised to see me hitting to his forehand. He had already backed away to his backhand corner. My shot landed at his forehand corner and swirled further away. He couldnt reach the ball. It was 15-13 to me and with that I won the 2nd set ... Bravo Pratik ... I had just taken a set off the best player at AirTight ... the adrenaline completely took over ... it was great walking to the other side of the table thinking that I had come from 4-8 down to win the set ... time to play ball ...

I was now on top of my game. I hit a couple of smashes too ... wow ... my weak shot had started working ... I was up 7-3 ... just 4 points away from winning the match ... then I made silly mistakes ... it was 7-7 ... Samir was not giving up so easily. It was 8-8 very soon. And then 9-9. The crowd had forgotten who they were supporting. I knew my team mates were cheering me. Every point was being cheered ... no matter who won the point. Every point took around 10 shots ... it was my serve at 9-9 ... I won the next point and made it 10-9 ... Phew ... match point against Samir ... this is what I dreamt about ... just one more point ... I took an eternity to serve ... I made up my mind that it will be a different serve from what I had served so far in the match ... I dished out a forehand top-spin serve. Samir did well to return it. But it was at a decent height and not too far away from the net. This was going to be it. I was going for broke. I slammed a forehand smash like there was nothing else in life to do ... it fell right in the centre of the table and went past Samir ... fantastic ... that was some feeling ... Samir and I shook hands and crowd clapped for around half a minute or so ... wow ... what an experience ... I had done it ... Samir was extremely gracious in defeat ...

I was feeling so proud of myself ... I has saved 4 match points in the 2nd set ... Samir actually won more points than me in the match ...

Everyone came up to me and shook hands ... man ... just amazing ... one set down ... 4-8 down in the 2nd ... a tight 3rd set ... and a result I dreamed of ... just fantastic ...

We were up 1-0 ... this was completely unexpected. It was assumed that whoever plays against Samir would lose. We had to win the other 2 matches to win 2-1. But due to this win ... the pressure from the 2 remaining matches reduced substantially ...

Sabhtarsha and Sandip were hurting after yesterday's loss and were extremely determined to start winning again ... the opponents were Rahul and Sonal ... one a Manager and the other a UI team mate ... there was plenty of needle ...

We lost the first set but competed very well ... we lost it 7-11. Again ... we were down 1 set. We played out a tight 2nd set. We were up 10-7 but they made it 10-10. But we closed it out 12-10. 1 set all and our boys were feeling it ... I think the adrenaline rush was very evident. I was shouting my lungs out cheering my team. We played the best set of the match thereafter. Though it became tight in the end ... we won 11-8. Sabhtarsha was exemplary with his chops and service while Sandip was hung up on putting the ball back on the opponent's side. Brilliant result. We had already made it 2-0 and won the rubber ...

By now ... Prabhash had witnessed 2 high-octane clashes. He was more than pepped up to win the last singles ... he just mauled his opponent in the last singles. It was such a masterly exhibition by Prabhash ... he won 11-2, 11-4 ... and hence I dont have much to write about it ...

What a day and what a match ... we defeated Orange 3-0 ... INCREDIBLE SHOW GUYS ...

Its 7 wins out of 7 for us. Top Most 5 also have 7 wins out of 7. We both have one match remaining and thats against each other. Moral victories up for grabs ...

Well done The Blues ... Cheers mates ... !!

Stranger calling ... !!

2009-02-17T15:36:00.003+05:30

You meet a lot of people in life. You remember some ... and be friends with them ... you dont remember some ... sometimes due to your own ignorance and aloofness and sometimes coz you are not considered too friendly ... part of life ...

There is this person who comes regularly to the pool I go to. We have seldom spoken to each other (or at least I thought so). He comes for swimming and religiously completes his daily quota of laps ... like any other swimming aficionado ...

The gents bathroom is a long rooms of 4 showers. I was having a shower this morning and I was completely oblivious to the fact that this person was doing the same in the adjoining shower. Some excerpts of the chat we had ...

Person : Kaay aaz lavkar nighaala?
Me : (startled by WHO-IS-THIS-PERSON-TALKING-TO-ME) Ho. Office laa zaayacha time zhaala.
Person : Tumhi tithech aahat kaa kaamala?
Me : (Surprised as to how he knows where I work and not knowing what to answer) : Ho.
Person : Mhanje tumhi atta hi Aundh paryant zaata? Waait aahe traffic aaz kaal ... kasa manage karta roz?
Me : Naahi. Aamchi company shift zhaali. Kothrud laa.
Person : Bara Bara. Mag jaasta laamb nahi padat asel tumhaala.
Me : Pan tumhaala kasa kaay maahit mi kuthe kaam karto?
Person : Aaho aamhi bol loy hyachya baddal. Tumhich saangitla hota maala. Visarla kaa?
Me : HHHmmmm ... actually maala aathvat naahi pan saangitla asel ...
Person : Yamaha aahe naa tumchya kade?
Me : Ho. Barobar.
Person : Aani car Zen aahe na?
Me : Right.
Person : Baayko azun hi Persistent madhe aahe kaa?
Me : (man this person knew a lot about me) Naahi. Ti ataa Kalyani nagar chya eka company madhe aahe.

After around a minute or so ...
Person : Tumhi roz 25 rounds maarta kaa?
Me : Kashyaache?
Person : (laughs out loud) ... Ataa swimming laa aala mhanje pool chech round maarnaar naa?
Me : (I was lost) : Arey ho. Naahi asa kaahi nahi. 25 zhaale tar 25 naahi tar zo paryant bore naahi hot to paryant karto ..
Person : Naahi. Mi mozto naa. Kaaran mi 15 maarto pan tumhi 25 maarta.
Me : (I didnt have a clue about how many rounds I do. I smile) Asel mag.
Person : Asel mhanje? Maartaatach.
Me : Ho Ho. Khara aahe. Actually mi mozat naahi
Person : Pan mi mozto naa ... tumhi panchvisach round maarta roz
Me : (by now I was convinced that I do 25 rounds) : Actually aadhi mi 25 maaraycho ... ata mozat naahi ... hot astil 25 ...

I quickly changed and made my way out of the Gymkhana but this man's knowledge about me was amazing. A stranger can know more about you than you yourself ... Cheers ... !!

Missing ADDY ... !!

2009-01-23T12:22:00.003+05:30

Its the 2nd death anniversary of Addy today and I am missing him a lot.

Its funny how the image of someone who is no more with us always stays the same. No matter how old you get.

Take care bro ... !!

Dilli unleashed ... !!

2009-01-20T14:53:00.004+05:30

I had been eagerly awaiting the music release of Dilli 6 ever since I heard Massakali. I am glad that I have not been disappointed.

The album is on similar lines to Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra's previous 2 offerings of Aks and RDB. AR Rehman's stamp is evident on each track. Looking at his past record, it is difficult to like his music in the first hearing. But Dilli 6 is quite a surprise. I liked it in the first attempt itself.

The album starts off with the now-known Massakali which is like an ode to a pigeon along with an attempt of the hero to correlate the pigeon to the heroine. That's just my guess. It can be thought of as a song to Patao or tease the girl. It is quite hummable and it almost gives you a feel that the singer is enjoying himself a lot while singing it.

The next is Bhor Bhaye which is an out and out classical music song. Its for the connoisseurs of classical music. I think this song has the potential to be the most ignored song of the album. I liked it though.

Noor follows. It is not a song actually but a recitation by Amitabh Bachchan. Usually, with such songs, the words used are very heavy and most people tend to ignore them. I didn't understand each word of it but the good thing is that its a small song and gets over before you shift to the next one.

That brings us to Tumre Bhavan Mein. This is more of an Aarti song but its good. Rehman weaves his magic and prevents it from becoming a Bhajan. Its good to hear to say the least.

One of my favorites of the album is Genda Phool. It is a feminine song catering to experience of a newly wed woman and the nuances of her in-laws. Vikash rightly pointed out that it gave him a homely feeling. And why not? The Hindi used in the song is very North Indian and very Gaon-ki-Hindi. Extremely hummable song. You should not miss this one.

One of the most calming and soothing tracks is Dil Gira Dafatan. It forced me to find the meaning of Dafatan and I have still not figured it out. Amazing song. You need to hear it at least a couple of times to understand it completely.

Funky is one of Rehman's lesser explored areas but he does a fantastic job with Kaala Bandar. It has the beat to it which makes you feel like dancing. The fusion of western and Indian music is evident along with the usage of Hindi and English throughout.

Rehna Tu is also a very soothing song. I don't have much to say about the song other than this. You cannot ignore it if you like calmness.

Coming to the title track, Dilli 6 is a rundown about the highlights of Delhi as a city. This also contains beats and for a title track, its actually quite good unlike Chandni Chowk to China.

The last song is Arziyan. Rehman seems to be heavily inspired from himself. Shades of Piya Haji Ali and Khwaaja Mere Khwaaja is painted all across this song. I think this is also the longest song of the album.

My preference of songs starting from my favorite ...

Dil Gira Dafatan

Massakali

Kaala Bandar

Genda Phool

Bhor Bhaye

Arziyan

Dilli 6

Rehna Tu

Tumre Bhavan Mein

Noor

Overall, a great album and I am not getting rid of it for at least the next 2 weeks ...

Listen to it ... you wont regret it ... Cheers ... !!

Go Slumdog ... !!

2009-01-12T10:23:00.004+05:30

I am so glad that my first post of the new year is dedicated to such an awe-inspiring piece of work. Hats off to Danny Boyle. We need more slumdogs ... errr ... SlumDogs ... I think that word deserves more respect.

For starters, I am not going with any spoilers. Hence, its not a bad idea to read the entire post. So much for self advertisement.

The plot is the heart and soul of the movie. How does a SlumDog who has grown up in the slums and bylanes of Juhu (and conned lots of people for money) end up winning the biggest cash cheque of the famous show "Who wants to be a Millionaire?". The Director poses a question to the movie audience, much on the lines of the quizshow. He asks ... "How does Jamaal know all the answers? and gives us 4 options ... A). He knows the answers B). He is a cheat C). Its his luck D). It is written. I wont delve too much into further details.

The movie starts with Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla interrogating Jamaal (played by Dev Patel) about how he managed to win 1 crore in the gameshow. They definitely feel that he has cheated and they only want to know how he managed to cheat. Thereon starts the movie about how Jamaal knew the answer of each and every question. There are some twists too. There are 3 phases of life for Jamaal (along with his elder brother Salim and love interest Latika). Each of the characters in these 3 phases make you stand up and applaud. The innocence of being a kid is depicted beautifully. My personal favorite is Jamaal and Salim in phase 1. Just hats off guys ... !!

A lot of human emotions are on display ... NO ... not those feel-good emotions ... just the normal day to day emotions. For example, something as simple as ... you know only what you have seen or experienced. That scene between Irfan Khan and Dev Patel is amazing. Then there is LOVE ... for some LOVE is genuine while for others its an easy way to get into a relationship. For the wise and the realists and the practical, you can do most manageable things when you are in LOVE.

There are undercurrents of the most visible issues that plague India as a country. I am not surprised that a foreigner made it a point to remind us about these. Like the Hindu-Muslim tension, child labor and corruption.

As actors, all the actors who played the characters of Jamaal, Salim and Latika (in all 3 phases) are the only ones worthy of applause. To be honest, there is no one else with a lot of scope in the movie. My personal favorite is Salim (in all 3 phases). Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla are just about OK. I thought Anil Kapoor continued with his of-late reputation of hamming. Mahesh Manjrekar is hardly there.

The music is the highlight. AR Rehman steals the show with a most precise rendition for such a topic. This man is just amazing. It feels great when you watch a movie and get up the next day to Breaking News of the movie grabbing the Best Movie, Best Director and Best Original score at the Golden Globe awards.

Go ahead and watch it. You wont regret a single moment. Watch out for the Three Musketeers story from the very beginning. Its like a dream. Dont miss THE Amitabh Bachchan scene.

OSCARS ... here we come ... Cheers ... !!

Hasta la Vista 2008 ... !!

2008-12-31T12:53:00.002+05:30

The inspiration for this post stems from all the other New Year posts I have read from the blogs of my friends. Sadly, I do not match up to the detail of my friends. Was it a good year? or a bad one? I am not sure.

A year when I started running away from problems instead of facing them.
A year that disappointed me the most personally.
A year when I could no longer EVEN-IF-SOMEONE-DOES-BAD-TO-ME-I-WILL-STILL-BE-GOOD-TO-THEM.
A year when self respect hit an all time low.
A year when home became a house again.
A year that was spent over and over again trying to start a new life.
A year when I tried to run away on weekends as much as possible just to shun the chaos.
A year when I made the most mistakes.
A year when I grimaced more than smiled.
A year when I fought the most.
A year that gave me names like NO-LONGER-CALM, CHANGED-A-LOT and many more that I cannot put down here.
A year when lots of friends/relatives preferred to stay away from me.
A year when I struggled to find people to share my good days.
A year when I quit Beer and started with Hard Drinks ... not sure if this falls in this section ;)
A year when I smoked more than before.
A year that I want to forget.

On the flipside ... there were some good signs too ...

I saw some new places.
People who ridiculed me came up and talked to me.
I learnt Spanish.
I started cooking.
I went to Mumbai twice.
I swam a lot.
I ran the marathon.
I had a great time with DAPP.
I restarted cycling.
I finally went to GOA.
Lots of my good friends got married.
I restarted blogging.
I overcame my fear of English movies.
I realised that I need to take my time before I call someone GOOD.
I was a Taklu for 3 months and I had a moustache for 3 months.
I reduced boasting about myself.

I am sure everyone has his/her UPs and DOWNs ... I am no different ... here's wishing a very happy and prosperous New Year to everyone ... Enjoy ... Cheers ... !!

Friends get hitched ... !!

2008-12-29T16:08:00.007+05:30

Three of my good friends got married over the last week or so. Its fun attending weddings ... especially if all 3 were in 3 different cities and with 3 different set of people.

The first one was on December 20 in Pune. It was the Nikaah of Murtaza and Rashida. We had gone with some of our close Fergys friends. It had been such a long time since I last attended a Muslim wedding. I could not have missed it at any cost. We were not disappointed. The Biryani ... the kababs ... and the curry along with Rumaali roti and ice creams were of the highest order. The only thing disappointing was when Murtaza chatted to me 3 days later and told me that lot of the food got wasted since lots of people didnt turn up. That was like a dagger. I could have done with some more of that food. How can people afford not too attend such a feast ... !!

Bhushan and Minal got married the next day at Kolhapur. This time Charan, Prashant, Lalit and I went to Kolhapur to attend the wedding. The drive to and fro Kolhapur was amazing with that kind of company. It was a typical Kolhapuri wedding ... an entertaining Baraat with everyone dancing on the roads ... lots of pretty faces for the eye exercise ... and Zhanzhanit Kolhapuri Jevan with Papads, Achaar, Masaale Bhaat, Tava Bhaaji, Batata Vade, Puri, Chapati and Moong Halwa.

Yesterday, Pranay and Devyani got married at Thane. One more chance to visit my favorite city of Mumbai. Pranay is one of my closest friends and it felt great to see my GD getting married. This guy has had his share of ups and downs. More downs than ups. I admire him for the way he has taken everything in his stride. Great person and a great advertisment for friendship. The company here was totally different. Mahesh, Anay, Rupesh, Ankur, Swapnil and Gunjan. Not to forget ... Biwi was also with me :). Again, food was amazing ... mostly on the lines of Bhushan's wedding. . Our return train was from VT. It was such an eerie feeling to be walking across the length of VT (I dont like calling it CST) ... there were some bullet marks visible on one of the walls and it only made us look away ... just imagining the massacre is such an exercise in thought.

But, its a time to rejoice for 3 couples ... time for them to have a fabulous life in matrimony ... Cheers to Murtu, Bhugho and Bunty ... way to go gentlemen ... !!

DAPP Calendar is ready ... !!

2008-12-24T11:19:00.005+05:30

It looks great. That being an understatement.

I have said it a gazillion time before that it gives me immense joy to execute a plan successfully. The DAPP (for late risers its DineshAmrutaPratikPrakash)Calendar was planned last month and it has come out better than expected.

We spent nearly a day shortlisting the photos for the Calendar. The theme for the Calendar was ... 3 pics for each month ... one individual pic ... one group pic .... and the last one would be a miscallaenous pic that all of us liked ... for example ... a scenery or something abstract. As far as possible, the individual pic and the group pic for any given month should not contain the same people. For example, if my pic is chosen as the individual pic for the month of April ... the group pic should contain Dinesh, Prakash and Biwi. But that was not possible for every month ... :(

Selecting the pics for the final Calendar was an arduous task but we saw it through. Once we had pics for all 12 months ready ... we decided we will have 3 more pages. The first page would be a cover that will have all 4 of us in the pic ... the second page would be a Collage containing lots of pics of the 4 of us ... this page will be present between the pages for June and July ... and finally the last page would contain another pic that contains all 4 of us. We were extremely lucky to get 2 pics that contain all 4 of us.

Once we had pics for all 15 pages ready, I sought the help of my colleague at work ... Rahul ... who downloaded some nice 2009 Calendar templates and effectively organized all the pics on the template. Thanks for that Rahul. I got the pages printed from Exquisite printers as referred to by Rahul and then got all 3 calendars binded from ABC. It looks even better on paper than on the computer.

Here is a sneak peek at THE DAPP CALENDAR FOR 2009 ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Myths shattered at Diveagar ... !!

2008-12-15T10:49:00.009+05:30

Diveagar is one of those places that I have always relied on for a good time. I have been there so many times that I have formed an alliance with lots of stuff connected to Diveagar. For example, the place to stay, the time to travel, the route, the place to eat, etc. All these myths were shattered this weekend.

I had been to Nagaon some time back and the road condition from Pune to Nagaon is extremely good. When I was going to Nagaon, I had seen a diversion towards Mahaad (this is not the Ashtavinayak destination). I knew that Mahaad is situated some way after Mangaon, a town from where the actual diversion of Diveagar is situated. I wondered if I can take this path on my next trip to Diveagar coz the original route for Diveagar (read Chandni Chowk - Mulshi - Tamhini - Nizampur - Mangaon - Diveagar) is frought with potholes and is capable of damaging the vehicle as well as some of your limbs. We opted for the Pune - Pimpri- Khandala - Khopoli - Pen - Nagothane - Kolad - Indapur - Mangaon - Diveagar route. It was close to 50 kms more than the Mulshi route but we reached Diveagar in less than 4 hours. I dont think I will be going from Mulshi unless I hear the road condition improves drastically.

We always thought that leaving from Pune at around 7 am is the ideal time if you are travelling to Diveagar. We had been to Goa 2 months back. We had started from Pune at 1 am at that time in order to reach Goa by 8 am. We tried this with Diveagar too. No, we didnt leave at 1 am. We left at 4:30 am and reached Diveagar at 8:25 am ... in time for some lip smacking Konkan breakfast.

Now that I am talking about food, another myth stands to be broken. I have always been fond of fish and prawns whenever I go to Konkan. I didnt battle an eyelid before deciding that I will have it at the residence of Mr Potnis. The lady there made amazing fish fry and prawns curry. For veg food, it was either Bapat or Kelkar. When we reached Diveagar, we went to Potnis and expressed our desire to have fish and prawns. We made it a point that we want only fish and prawns and that we didnt want rice, chapati, etc. We were told that they dont serve anything like ONLY FISH AND PRAWNS. They serve a Non veg thaali which has chapati rice, prawns curry and 2 pieces of fish. Thats hardly what you want if you are craving for fish and prawns. We vetoed the option of Potnis right there.

We walked towards the beach in search of a good Non-veg haven. We saw a board of SUNNY KHANAVAL. It is run by Mr Kshirsagar. We asked them for fish and prawns and they told us that they dont have any problem serving just fish and prawns. Plus, they also allowed us to have liquor (this decision of theirs was influenced by the fact that we were a family. They dont allow stags to booze). We were over the moon. But, will the taste be good? We asked them if we can taste a sample fish dish. The lady was extremely humble. She just asked us to give her 20 minutes and Bingo ... we were lapping up the most amazing Konkani fish fry. We told her that we will come in the night. Just for the information, a plate of Pomfret cost us Rs. 20 and a plate of Surmai cost us Rs. 30 (one plate consists of 2 pieces). A plate of prawns fry cost us Rs. 40. We ordered 20 plates of fish (they just had Pomfret in the night) and 5 plates of prawns. We needed some rice and chapati too since everyone was not fond on having LOTS OF FISH AND PRAWNS. They didnt charge us for the chapatis and papads. We were done in Rs. 500 (we asked them for a discount since we ate a lot). This is what we craved for and we got more than what we expected. The lady also told us that if we get fish and prawns ourselves ... she will cook it for us for only Rs. 90 irrespective of the amount of fish and prawns. Now we know what to do next time ;)

My brother-in-law has a pet Great Dane called Simba. We had not brought him with us coz the place where we stayed didnt allow us to get pets. Simba was at Pune and the neighbours were taking care of him. Whenever we saw a dog, we missed Simba. Hence, we kept asking at other places if they allow pets. We found 2 such places. One was Mr Kshirsagar himself but they are busy constructing 2 rooms. Currently, they dont have rooms for accomodation but once these 2 rooms are ready, they will allow pets. The other is Mr. Sanjay Patil. I will write down all numbers later in the piece.

During my visits to Diveagar, I stayed mostly at Mr Potnis' place. But he no longer allowed anyone to stay. Hence, we had booked 2 rooms at Mr Prasad Kelkar's place. This is not the famous Kelkar from Diveagar. The famous Kelkar is put up at a place called Saket. Insetad, Prasad Kelkar was a bit of a lottery. We didnt know anything about him or his place. But it turned out to be a fabulous experience.

For starters, they dont stay too far away from Potnis. In fact, its a 5 minute walk down from Potnis. Their place is called Shubham and is situated bang in front of the High school. They have a big parking space, capable of stacking atleast 5-7 cars (this is big in Konkan). There are 3 sets of 2 rooms each. Both rooms in each set are interconnected. But, there is door bisecting the 2 rooms. So, if you want just one room, you can always latch you side of the bisection. There are 3 bathrooms and 3 urinals. Both English and Indian style. There is provision of hot water right next to the bathrooms. Being a Brahmin family, the Kelkars have maintained top class cleanliness in their rooms. bathrooms, urinals as well as their Aangan. There is a huge dining area capable of hosting atleast a 50 people at one go. All this for Rs. 400 per day per room. There is a limit of 5 people per room. We found it very affordable especially with that kind of cleanliness. The food was typical Konkani veg food ... lip smacking. Another myth broken ... Bapat is not the only place where you get good veg food and Modaks. Prasad Kelkar has the potential to topple Bapat ... Yes ... this is being said by a person who still feels Bapat is the best place for Veg food in Diveagar. Some pics of the place ....

On the flipside, there is not enough of a solid partition between the rooms ... in the sense that you can hear what people in the other rooms are speaking even if they are marginally loud. We were asked by one of our neighbours to calm down during midnight coz we were laughing out loud. Anywayz ...

Apparently, its a good feeling that the myths have been shattered in a good way. There will no longer be any dependency on anything in Diveagar.

The contact numbers are as follows:

Kelkar (Saket) - 02147 224242 (does not server lunch and dinner ... only breakfast ... but is renowned for the service they provide ... excellent accomodation)
Kshirsagar - 9421167304/9869850687 (this is the place where we had lots of fish and prawns ... if you are not going to make a lot of noise ... you can convince them to allow you to booze ... there is no accomodation as of now)
Potnis - 02147 224096 (this guy is very moody ... they dont allow u to stay there nowdays ... excellent non veg food ... but limited fish and prawns)
Prasad Kelkar - 02147 224279 (this is where we stayed ... excellent rooms and a very clean place ... excellent veg food and modaks )
Sanjay Patil - 9420837064 (accomodation as well as veg and non-veg food available ... allows pets)

The distance break up for the route we followed is as follows:

Pune - Khopoli - 80 kms
Khopoli - Pen - 30 kms
Pen - Nagothane - 25 kms
Nagothane - Kolad - 18 kms
Kolad - Indapur - 15 kms
Indapur - Mangaon - 10 kms
Mangaon - Mhasla - 27 kms
Mhasla - Diveagar - 18 kms

I have said so much about the myths that I almost forgot about the best surprise that we received. Dinesh and Prakash drove all the way on a bike to Diveagar to surprise us on our special day. They opted for the Mulshi route and suffered the after effects of that horrible road. But ... the cake, the T-shirts and the mugs that they gifted us with were priceless ... I am fairly convinced that it was the best gift that I have personally received. Thanks mates ... !!

I am now dead sure of my next plan to Diveagar ... Cheers ... !!

An enjoyathon ... !!

2008-12-08T10:47:00.002+05:30

I am so glad that I decided to run the Pune International Marathon. Simply put, its one of the highlights of my life so far. I would be lying if I say that I was expecting this kind of aura to the event. Of course, it turned out to be a sour event for the international stars but the atmosphere was truly electric.

It all started on the wrong foot for me. I was at my friend's place for the weekend in Kharadi and I had decided that I will go home on Saturday night so that I can reach the marathon on Sunday from my own place. But after being convinced of going from Kharadi itself, I decided to stay put. I borrowed Prakash's shorts(it didn't have pockets) and T-shirt. I had decided not to carry my cell for the marathon. Since I didn't have a place to keep my belongings, I was left with the prospect of driving at 5:30 on a chilly morning from Kharadi to FC Road. That's hardly a motivation. But, it had to be done.

I drove from Kharadi to FC on Sunday morning. Stopped at 2 points on the way for Shekuti :) ... that's at Mundhwa and near Corporation. By the time I reached college, it was as if my legs were stuck in cement. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had to walk from college to Chitale and that warmed me up. I met Sonal, Manish and Vinay outside Deccan Post office and we were raring to go. The speeches from Suresh Kalmadi, Priyanka Chopra and another Mr someone was a dampener since it kept delaying our race. I don't understand why the people need some other people to constantly remind them about something bad that has happened to the country. I am sure everyone is mature enough to realize that and hence have decided to participate in such an event to pledge their support and to condemn the terrorist attacks. Anyway, that's beyond common sense.

The race started at around 7:55 am from Khandoji Baba Chowk, 25 minutes behind schedule. As we descended from Lakdi Pul, there was a sense of excitement, not just with the participants but also with the people who peeped out of their homes, from their galleries and from the streets. There were scores of people supporting the race. As a participant, it does not get any better than this. Patriotic slogans were the order of the day. Kids stuck their hands out just for high fives. It was more than inspiration, at least for me and I am sure it was the case with everyone else. The first 2 kms came and went and it was only after the 4 km mark that I started to feel the heat. Close to the 4 km mark, there was a stage set up that was playing patriotic songs. Those songs kept me(and lots of others)going. When we crossed Seven Loves Chowk, I started to believe that I can complete the race without stopping. It was almost as if the legs got used to it and took me to the finish. There were lots of people on Main Street in Camp.

I also saw school kids from my school on Main street with Lejims and dhol taasha in tow. Also, it was quite refreshing to see vehicles stacked at traffic signals just to allow the participants to run past. Wow, that was some feeling. It was quite an odd feeling to go past all those roads you zip past so effortlessly on/in a vehicle. Every km mark was so eagerly anticipated. To be honest, the stretch from Camp to the finish line was least tiring as the only thought running through my mind was to NOT STOP.

There were a couple of incidents too. There was a group of around 5-7 youths that was always either in front of me or behind me. They were continuously shouting slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vande Mataram and Jai Shivaji Jai Bhavani. When we were passing from Residency Club, they were engrossed in Bharat Mata Ki Jai. In this case, one of them would shout till Bharat Mata Ki ... while the people around him would chant Jai. They did this twice and everyone except one shouted Jai. Now these guys got irritated at the fellow who was not responding to their slogans. This could have been due to multiple reasons, most obvious being that the person must be tired to even say anything. But this group lost their cool. They howled at him "Kaay re ... Pakistani aahe ka tu $#@!%". The person still didn't respond. This group moved close to him and said "Chal mhann ... Bharat mata ki Jai". I felt sorry for that person. He was panting and looked short of breath. But he still managed to let out a rather squeaky "Bharat Mata ki Jai". The group was happy and they resumed their chants practice.

When the 9 km mark passed and we were close to Kanbay, I passed a man. He asked me "Aur kitna dur hai?". I could see the 10 km finish line in the distance at Bund Garden. I told him (pointing towards the finish line) "Bass aur 5 minute, nazdeek hi hai". He replied "Kab se bhaag raha hoon mai ... saala 4 km ke naam pe kitna bhaga diya". I almost stopped. I told him "Boss, 4 km kaa route to alag hai ... aap yahaan kaise aa gaye?". He got so bugged that he stopped there itself and started shouting "Kidar hai woh kamine? Inko samajhta nahi bataane ko". And I moved on.

I reached the finish line within 5 minutes from there. I met Vinay at the finish line. He had completed the race in 53 minutes. I came in 6 minutes later. Sonal came in another 7 minutes later followed by Manish. To be frank, we all seriously felt that we could have gone on for at least another 3-4 kms. Not because of our ability but because of the momentum.

We all walked from Bund Garden to Madhuban for breakfast. We talked about how good it felt after finishing the race and how the body is going to ache tomorrow. We all left for our respective homes in some time.

I can say one thing for sure. If I am in Pune in December in any year, I will participate in the Pune International Marathon. An enriching experience without a shadow of a doubt.

Cheers ... !!

A VISA Survival Guide ... !!

2008-11-27T11:25:00.004+05:30

Having just received a Visa, I felt that its very important for someone who is planning to apply for one to know about the procedure of getting a Visa. Even though I had Charan for advice (since he had already gone through the procedure), I thought that it would be nice if I can explain the procedure in detail. I had applied for a H1, hence I will be writing precisely about the procedure for a H1. The procedure for the other Visa differs only slightly in the form of the documents received from the American Consulate.

Assuming that you have already applied for a Visa (I applied to a H1 via a consultant), I will not write about the procedure for application. But it isn't all that difficult. You need to have all your experience letters, academic certificates and resume to apply for a Visa. You also need to pay $1600 (I am not sure of the exact amount) if you are applying for the Visa yourself. In my case, my consultant sponsored my Visa and also applied for my H1. Hence, I will not be writing about the application process.

There are essentially 4 steps (rather 4 days) to get a Visa.

The first step (pick a random day) is to pay the Visa fees. This involves visiting a HDFC Bank branch in your city. Make sure that this branch is a well established central branch in the city. For Pune, you can opt for Bhandarkar Road, Shankarseth Road, Law College Road, etc. I opted for Bhandarkar Road. Carry your passport (actually you just need the photocopy of the passport), a pen and HDFC Bank cheque book with you. When you reach the branch, go to the Teller queue. There will be a board for one of the Teller queues which says "American Visa" or something similar. You should let the Teller know that you wish to pay the Visa fees. He will give you a form which will mostly be White in Color. Beneath this White form, there will be 2 more photocopies. These 2 will be Blue and Pink in Color. You need to enter the cheque details in this form.

There is an information board for American Visa. You can follow the steps written over there. There are 2 payments you need to make. The first one is in favor of VFS Global Services. They currently charge $131. On a given day, HDFC will have an exchange rate ready which will be a whole number. In my case it was Rs. 50. For Charan, it was Rs. 48. So the amount I needed to pay was 131 * 50 = Rs. 6550. So you will need to write a cheque in favor of US Embassy - Visa Fees for Rs. 6550. The details of this cheque should be entered in the top half of the form. The second payment is a constant in Indian currency. To be precise, it is Rs. 381 as of now. You need to write another cheque for this amount in favor of HDFC Bank A/C VFS. The details of this cheque should be entered in the bottom half of the form. Once you are done with this, you need to stand in the queue for "American Visa". The Teller will accept all 3 copies of the form along with the 2 cheques. He will keep the White form with him and give the Blue and Pink form back to you. Each of the 3 forms will have a bar code sticker. This will act as your Visa identification number for the remainder of the procedure. It will typically be a 9 digit bar code number. Before actually filling the form, you can ask the Teller if you need to provide 2 cheques. I had not asked this and basically followed the steps written on the information board of American Visa. These steps ask you to prepare 2 cheques whereas its alright if you merge both payments and provide one cheque only. In this case you will need to write just one cheque of Rs. 6931 in favor of US Embassy Visa Fees. You can ask the Teller if you are confused but its not a problem following the information board blindly.

If you don't have a HDFC savings account, you will need to carry cash or a DD. In this case, the Teller will give you another form. This is the cash/cheque deposit slip that you generally find in banks. You will need to enter the cash/DD details in this slip.

The first step (or the first day) concludes here. The output of this day is that you will get 2 stamped slips (forms). One Blue and the other Pink. As a summary, input is Passport (you don'tneed to carry the passport itself but even a photocopy of the first and last pages will do but its advisable to carry the passport too) and HDFC Cheque book/cash/DD and output is the 2 slips.

The bar code that you get in the first step needs around 2 working days to be activated. In my case, it took only 1 day. Once it is activated, you need to wait for your petition to arrive from the US. For H1, it is a petition. I am not sure if there are petitions for other Visas but there maybe similar documents. My petition had arrived at my consultant's office and he sent me the soft copy of the petition. Once you receive the soft copy of the petition, take a printout of the same.

Now comes the 2nd step (2nd day).

Its advisable that you follow this step 2 days after you have paid the Visa fees. You need to log on to www.vfs-usa.co.in and apply for the interview. Keep your passport and Blue/Pink slip with you since you are asked to enter the passport number and bar code number at various places. If the bar code has not been activated, you wont be allowed to proceed. Keep this in mind. The interview date and time are towards the fag end of this step. Before that, you need to provide some information. You need to fill 2 forms namely DS-156 and DS-157. Most of the fields in these 2 forms are similar to what you fill in your exam forms. But there are certain other fields like the Place you will be staying in the US, the address of your employer, the person with whom you will be staying, etc. For me, all these were given by my Consultant. So I blindly entered all that. DS-156 is the first form followed by DS-157. Please use Internet Explorer. I tried bothFirefox and Chrome and couldn't get through even one form. Once you are done with these 2 forms, the earliest available dates for the interview will be displayed. You can choose any date you want. Remember that you can be interviewed only on weekdays, hence apply for a leave at office/college before applying for the Visa interview. You can only choose the interview date. The interview time is auto generated and the system will tell you the interview time on the chosen date. Once the interview date is finalised, there be 2 more documents that the system will generate. These 2 will basically tell you about the Guidelines for H L and O visas and the documents you need to carry to the VFS office. So overall, you will have 5 PDF documents.

DS-156
DS-157
Interview letter
Guidelines for H, L and O visas
Checklist of documents that need to be carried to VFS office.

For safety, mail these 5 documents to your mailing address. Take a printout of all these documents. Affix your Visa photograph on DS-156 and also sign this form. The other forms do not need any photos or signatures.

Its advisable that you don't follow Step 2 in isolation but in conjunction with Step 3. Here comes Step 3.

Step 3 involves visiting any VFS office that is closest to you. For Pune, the closest ones are atMumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune itself. So the obvious choice will be Pune. The VFS office at Puneis situated at Sohrab Hall at the first floor. Its in the same wing as US Pizza. In case you don'tknow where Sohrab Hall is, it is the one diagonally opposite Jehangir Hospital. It is also on the left of Le Meridien and in a way, it is behind platform no 6 of the Pune Railway station. Now, why I say follow steps 2 and 3 in conjunction with each other is due to the fact that the day you visitPune VFS office should be 5 working days (or more) before your interview date. So when you follow step 2, make sure you choose a interview date that gives you ample time to visit the PuneVFS office 5 days before the interview date.

For example, if you select the interview date as Nov 7, 2008 and your are actually applying for the interview on Nov 4, 2008, it makes no sense since even if you visit Pune VFS office on Nov 4, 2008, it is not 5 days prior to your interview date. I will give you my example. I followed step 1 on Oct 21, 2008. Within a day, my bar code got activated. I applied for my Visa interview (step 2)on Oct 23, 2008. Note that I just applied on this date. It doesn't mean I chose Oct 23 as my interview date. I chose my interview date to be Nov 7, 2008 which gave me ample time to visitPune VFS office in time. I visited Pune VFS office on Oct 27, 2008. So what happens in step 3?

You need to carry your passport, Blue and Pink slips, printouts (and not photocopies) for DS-156, DS-157, your interview letter and some cash (carry 200 * no of people coming with you toMumbai for the interview including yourself). Carry photocopies for all the stamped pages of your passport along with the 1st and last pages of the passport. The VFS office is open from 8 am to 1 pm and then from 2pm to 3 pm. The earlier you go, the better. Even if you go late, youshouldn't take more than an hour over here. Whenever you are planning to visit the VFS office, please keep in mind that they don't allow you to carry bags. These include all bags except plastic bag. They will not listen to you and ask you to keep your bags somewhere else at your own risk. They allow only plastic bags. The security guard may keep your bag with him by accepting a bribe but then its up to you. So, please don't carry your documents in a college/office bag. Carry it in a plastic bag.

There are 2 ways to go to the Pune VFS office. Go through the main entrance of Sohrab Hall and take a lift/stairs to the 1st floor. DON'T DO THIS. I am glad Charan rightly told me to not to this. Instead, walk down the left side of Sohrab Hall. Thats from outside the boundary of Sohrab Hall and not inside. Remember that you have still not entered Sohrab Hall. Once you start walking from the left, you will see a huge gate on your right. Tell the security guard that you have come for the Visa. He will let you in. 10 steps down, there will another security guard. This guard belongs to the VFS office while the first one was for Sohrab Hall in general. The VFS security guard will ask you for the interview letter and passport. He will then give you a token and ask you to go to the 1st floor to the VFS office.

Once you are at the VFS office, you will be asked to stand in a queue outside the entrance of theVFS office (actually it depends on how many candidates are before you. I had gone at 8 am and I was the first candidate, so I was directly asked to go in because there was no1 before me). When its your turn, your token number will be called and you will enter the VFS office. There are 3 counters over there. You will be seated at first. Then either one of the 3 counter bearers will announce your token number. You then need to go to the appropriate counter and submit the photocopies for DS-156, DS-157, interview letter and passport pages. You also need to submit the Blue slip. Keep the Pink slip with you. After checking all the documents, the person will tell you about the address of your interview location in Mumbai and the time you are expected to be present over there. The person will also ask you if you would like to book the VFS Leather and Stripes Lounge in Mumbai for your interview. I will come to that in step 4. But you need to book that. Its worth it. Make sure you book the lounge for yourself as well as for the people who are coming with you for the interview. The charge is Rs. 200 per person. But, its OK if you don'tbook it in Pune itself. You can book it on the interview day at Mumbai itself but the charge there is Rs. 250.

Step 3 comes to an end.

Now step 4.

This is the D-Day and you are bound to be nervous on this day. Just look up your interview time. If its early in the morning (between 8-10), it implies one of the following

You leave Pune at around 2 am in the night to reach Mumbai in time for the interview.
You leave Pune the previous night and stay at some friend's/relative's place during the night

I opted for the 2nd since I wanted to be as close as possible to Mumbai in case of some travelling problem.

Carry the following:
Passport
photocopy of Interview letter
photocopy of dS-156
photocopy of DS-157
All your marksheets and convocation certificates from 10th to latest degree
All your appointment letters and experience letters
Petition original copy (you get this when your H1 is approved. My consultant sent this to me 4 days prior to leaving for Mumbai)
Payslips for last 3 months

Its important to carry these documents though they may not be checked at all on the interview day which happened with me. But they do take the passport and petition copy for sure.

Reaching the destination can also be a pain. You need to go to Worli. The VFS office in Mumbai is bang in front of Mahalaxmi temple. Actually its not but its a good landmark. The VFS office is bang in front of Swaminarayan temple but its better you tell the taxi/rik/bus that you want to go to Mahalaxmi temple coz its just next to Swaminarayan temple. But getting to the temple is much easier than getting to the closest railway station.

There are 3 railway lines in Mumbai namely Central, Western and Harbour. Depending on where you start from, you need to decide on the rail path that you need to take to reach the VFSoffice on time.

If you are on the Central line (all Pune-Mumbai trains run on this line), then you should board a local train to Byculla. Byculla is a fast train stop (a fast train stop is one where all local trains stop, no matter if the local is slow or fast). So you can get down at Byculla. Go the the West side of the station and hire a taxi to Mahalaxmi temple. It will take 10 minutes and roughly Rs. 30. I was staying at Thane the previous night and I boarded a slow local from Thane to VT. The duration of travel was 40 minutes. The stops for Central line (starting from Kalyan) are as follows:

KALYAN - Thakurli - DOMBIVLI - Diwa - Mumbra- Kalwa - THANE - Mulund - Nahur -Bhandup - KanjurMarg - Vikhroli - GHATKOPAR - Vidyavihar - KURLA - Sion - Matunga -DADAR - Parel - Curry Road - Chinchpokhli - BYCULLA. (After Byculla, the route is SandhurstRoad - Masjid - VT but you need to go till Byculla itself and not VT)

All stations marked in CAPS are the fast local stops. It means that I could have also boarded a fast local from Thane since it will take less time coz it doesn't stop at all other stops which are not in CAPS.

If you are on the Western line, you need to get down at Mahalaxmi station and hire a taxi toMahalaxmi station. Lets assume that you start from Borivali on the Western line, the stops will be as follows:

BORIVALI - Kandivali - Malad - Goregaon - Jogeshwari - ANDHERI - Vile Parle - Santacruz -Khar Road - BANDRA - Mahim - Matunga Road - DADAR - Elphinstone Road - Lower Parel -Mahalaxmi. (After Mahalaxmi, the route is MUMBAI CENTRAL - Grant Road - Charni Road - Marine Lines - CHURCHGATE but you need to travel only upto Mahalaxmi).

Note that Mahalaxmi is not a fast local stop, so don't board a fast local fromBorivali/Andheri/Bandra. The travelling time is roughly 50 minutes from Borivali to Mahalaxmi.

If you are on the Harbour line and assuming you start from Panvel (this is what Charan did), then there is a non-straightforward path that you need to take.

There are no fast locals on the Harbour line. You need to travel up to Kurla. Get down at Kurla. You will get down at Kurla (Harbour) platform. You need to walk up to Kurla (Central) platforms. Ask people for directions. Tell them you want to go to VT. Once you are at Kurla(central) platform, you can board either a slow or a fast local to VT (called CST). The remainder of the journey is same as the Central path mentioned above. So you need 2 local trains to reach the destination. One from Panvel to Kurla and the other from Kurla to Byculla.

For this, you can opt for another path for which you will need 3 trains. One from Panvel to Kurla, the next from Kurla to Dadar. You will get down at Dadar (Central) platform. Ask people for directions to Dadar (Western) platforms. Dadar station is very confusing so take care. Once you are at Dadar (Western), board a slow local to Churchgate. The remainder of the journey is same as that of the Western path. You need to get down at Mahalaxmi station.

The path on Harbour line (Panvel to Kurla) is as follows:

Panvel - Khandeshwar - Mansarovar - Kharghar - CBD Belapur - Seawoods - Nerul - Juinagar -Sanpada - Vashi - Mankhurd - Govandi - Chembur - Tilak Nagar - Kurla.

The time taken to travel from Panvel to Kurla is approximately 70 minutes.

No matter how many trains you need, make sure you buy just one ticket to avoid buying tickets at various stations. If you follows the option with 3 trains, you still need to get just 1 ticket.That's from Panvel to Mahalaxmi. You dont need 3 tickets for 3 trains. This is very important while travelling in Mumbai.

Mahalaxmi station is closer to the VFS office than Byculla station, The time difference is roughly 3 minutes and the cost difference is around Rs. 10. It will be nice if you check out Google maps once before travelling to Mumbai.

The Mumbai Suburban railway map is attached below.

Once you are the VFS office, you need to tell the security guard about your interview time. Just ask him the batch that has gone in most recently. You will get an idea about yourself. You don'tneed to stand in any queue. When the guard announces that your interview batch can go in, keep your interview letter ready. This letter will be checked and your lounge ticket will also be checked. Once this is done, you need to move towards the Lockers chamber. You need to carry only your documents and a plastic bag (if any). Everything else needs to be deposited in the Locker. This includes your other bags, cellphone, and other electronic device, etc. You will be provided with a Locker token. Keep it safely with you. The Lockers chamber also has 3 Dressing rooms. Its not necessary that you come to the VFS office in a professional attire. Instead, you can get your professional attire with you and change in the Dressing rooms.

Once this is done, you will enter the Leather and Stripes Lounge. Its a around-100 seater A/C room with a cafeteria and a giant screen. Carry your lounge ticket. You get one portion of sandwich and a glass of coffee with this token. You can always buy anything else that you need. You can relax in this lounge till the time your batch is announced again.

I entered the lounge at 8:10 am and I was there till 9:40. Once my batch was announced, I was asked to keep my interview letter and passport ready and board the bus to the American consulate. I was also asked to submit my lounge token. The bus takes you to the American consulate which is hardly a kilometre down the same road. Once you get down, you will be asked to stand in a queue outside the consulate. I was asked to keep my interview letter, passport and petition original copy ready. Once they checked all 3 of these, we were asked to enter the consulate and stand in another queue. This queue is for the security check. You are required to hand over everything other than the clothes that you are wearing at the counter. You then go through a security doorway which detects if you have anything fishy. I could not pass this check since I had not removed my Kada. But then I removed it and passed the check. All your stuff is handed back to you and you are given a pink token after submitting your passport, interview letter and petition. You are then asked to stand in yet another queue for fingerprinting.

Overall, there are around 20 counters inside the consulate. Counters 1 to 4 are purely for fingerprinting whereas the remaining are for interviews. The interview counters are like telephone booths with a glass pane dividing the booth. The Visa officer sits across the glass pane while you are supposed to stand on the other side. There are close to 200 seats inside where you can wait for your turn. Fingerprinting is done in 3 steps:

Four fingers of your left hand - thats all fingers except the thumb
Four fingers of your right hand - thats all fingers except the thumb
Both the thumbs

You have to place your fingers on a green electronic rectangular sensing device.

Once this is done, you need to occupy one of the 200 seats available and wait for your turn. The announcements are based on the token number that you have been given after entering the consulate.

Its worth to note the expressions of all the candidates. Obviously, everyone is nervous but its important to stay calm. You can either strike a conversation to someone or talk to yourself or humm a song or anything that keeps you calm. I was humming the National Anthem all along.

Its entirely possible that even though your interview is scheduled early, it may take upto 1 pm or 2 pm for your interview. For example, your interview might be at 8 am but it may actually end up being at 1 pm. This is because the token numbers (and hence the passport and petition) are processed randomly. As soon as they are processed, they are forwarded to some counter. Depending on the load of that counter, your token is called out. So its possible that someone who came after you finished his/her interview before. The speaker quality is also a bit dodgy. You may not hear properly. So its important you locate a speaker which is sounds good and sit close to it. In any case, even if you miss your token being called, they repeat it until you go to the counter. All speakers are situated at the ceiling of the room. So as soon as fingerprinting is done, start looking upwards to locate a suitable speaker.

They will also scrutinize your photograph on DS-156. If they feel that there is even a bit of a problem on the photo, they will ask you to click new photos altogether from their In-house photographer. They charge Rs. 200 for this. So carry some cash. The photo should be 5cm * 5cm and with a white background. Its advisable that people with spects should remove their spects before clicking the Visa photo. The photo can be either a glossy or matte finish print. Your face (and not your upper body) should cover atleast 70% of the size of the photo.

My token number was announced at 11 am and I was asked to come at counter 10. I was the last of 5 candidates standing in the queue at counter 10. The first 2 candidates were out within 5 minutes collectively. The 3rd one was grilled for around 10-12 minutes and it was not at all comforting when he came out grim faced. All along, I was chatting to the person in front of me just to take my focus away from the task ahead. He was applying for a Visa renewal so I expected him to be out in a jiffy. And I was right. It was time for me to go in. This is what exactly happened.

Interviewer : Can I see you pink token please?
Me : Sure. Here you go (giving the token to him).
Interviewer : Ok. Mr. Pratik Beri. Is that right?
Me: Absolutely.
Interviewer : So which company do you work for in India?
Me : AirTight Networks Private Limited.
Interviewer : Which company are you going to work for in the US?
Me : Collabera Inc.
Interviewer : How many employees work for Collabera?
Me : Between 3500 - 4000
Interviewer : What is MCS? Is it your specialization course? What is your specialization?
Me : Yes, Its a specialization in Computer Science.
Interviewer : So its degree in computer science?
Me : NO. (he gives a confused look). its a post graduate degree in computer science.
Interviewer : (smiles). Yes, exactly. (gives me the petition). Thats all. Carry this when you are travelling.
Me : Thank You. Have a nice day ahead.

When I came out, I was a bit confused. I didnt know if my Visa was granted. The fact that he said "Carry this while you are travelling" meant that I can travel but I was still not sure. I came out of the consulate. The bus that takes us back to the VFS office was due in 20 minutes but I did not want to wait that long. You can opt to walk down the road (it will take around 20 minutes). I did that and went back walking to the VFS office and collected all my stuff from the Locker and finally everything was done.

You can collect your passport from the Consulate betwen 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm the same day although they dont guarantee that you will get it on the same day. In any case, the passport (along with the Visa) is couriered to your mailing address within 3 working days. In my case, it was couriered the next day itself at 1 pm.

This is a brief rundown on Charan's interview which was much more gruelling than mine. This chat is from Charan's point of view.

CSD = Charan
VO = Visa officer

CSD : Good afternoon ma’am!
VO: Hello!
VO: What is your qualification?
CSD : MCS i.e. Master of Computer Science
VO: From?
CSD : Pune University
VO: What is the duration of this course?
CSD : 2 years
VO: So this is a post graduation course, right?
CSD : Yes
VO: And what did you do for your graduation?
CSD : BCS i.e. Bachelor of Computer Science from Pune University
VO: What is the duration of the course?
CSD : 3 years
VO: Can I see your academic certificates?
CSD : Yes ma’am. (I gave my documents. She was looking at my Convocation certificates and other document just like we check a Rs. 500 note from various angles to confirm its authenticity. It was making me nervous.)
VO: Do you have any experience?
CSD : Yes ma’am. More than 5 years. I worked in banking sector for 15 months then for Symantec for 3 years and now I am in Calsoft for about 10 months.
VO: Which company will you be working for in US?
CSD : Collabera
VO: Ohh! Whats does this company do?
CSD : They are into banking, finance, insurance, medical and telecom. Would you like to see their profile?
VO: Yes please.
CSD : (I gave her the documents. She went through the documents carefully)
VO: Did they mail you these documents?
CSD : No Ma’am they sent it by courier.
VO: (With a Big question mark on her face) Ohh so this is a genuine document, right?
CSD : Yes ma’am. (I had the courier envelope with him.) Would you like to see the envelope they sent? (I showed it to her.)
VO: Where is the sender’s address on it?
CSD : (It had a ink stamp of Collabera with Mumbai office’s address. Ipointed it to her)
VO: It has come from Mumbai, not US, right? (Again with a big question mark)
CSD : (Iwas feeling like being interrogated in a Police Custody) Yes ma’am. (Trying to maintain my composure) As you can see in their profile, they have 4 development centers in US as well as 2 development centers in India. One is in Bangalore and the other is in Mumbai.
VO: Ok. (Starts searching something on the computer)
VO: Is this primarily a staffing company?
CSD : (by now my heart was pounding 720 times a minute instead of 72 times a minute) No ma’am. This is a services based company. They have prominent clients like Verizon, AT&T, AIG etc. They have 4 development centers in US. Would you like to see the photographs of these offices?
VO: Yes
CSD : (I showed her the photographs)
VO: OK. Which client would you be working for?
CSD : Ma’am, I’ll come to know about the client and project only when I am physically available in the US.
VO: (With one eyebrow raised, mischievously, cunningly etc whatever) See, I can’t grant you a VISA as there is no work ready for you in US. By rules, I can grant you VISA only if you have a client waiting for you over there.
CSD : (I thought I am lost now. But I took a 2-3 second pause and took a deep breath. Keeping myself calm I answered) Yes ma’am, I can understand your situation. But if Collabera confirms the client of my availability on a certain date and due to some reason I am not able to reach there on time, it becomes a bad scene for Collabera. So it’s only after I land in the US and looking at my special skill sets, I’ll be allotted a project and client. They just can’t assign me to a project before I am physically present in the US. (I don’t know if she was convinced)
VO: What have you worked on so far?
CSD : Ma’am I am a C/C++ Unix developer. Currently I am into device driver development. Before that in Symantec I was working on a big Data protection product. And before that in a bank. I built various applications for that bank.
VO: Are you currently working for Collabera?
CSD : No ma’am. I am working for Calsoft in Pune. I’ll be leaving Calsoft to join Collabera.
VO: (Again she searched something on net and then those golden words came out…) Ok I am approving your VISA. You will get your passport within two days.
CSD : (With a big smile on face) Thanks a lot ma’am. Am I done or any formality is still remaining?
VO: No. You can leave the consulate.
CSD : Ok. Thanks a lot ma’am.

One final word. Keep your answers to the point. Do not say something you are not sure of. As much as possible, answers should be one-word or one-phrase. Do not submit anything unless asked to.

I hope this helps anyone who is planning for a US Visa.

Cheers ... !!

Life is a Frisbee ... !!

2008-11-24T15:06:00.005+05:30

I happened to conjure this phrase when I visited Kashid this weekend. We had bought a Frisbee so that we can play in the sea. With every throw, catch and dive, I felt some sort of correlation of the Frisbee with Life.

For starters, all the players need to go some way into the sea to start playing. Its not worthwhile to play on the beach itself since the Frisbee sways a lot and you need to run if it sways away from you. Instead, if you are in the water, you derive more thrill by diving or swimming till the Frisbee. This is so true about life too. For anything that you do, you know exactly the output that will drive you to perform some activity. If you start at some point and don't feel the thrill or the worth, you invariably try and do it some other way.

The next point is when all the players involved throw for the first time. The wind will not be suitable for all players. For some players, his/her throw will travel in a straight line to the next person. But for someone else, his/her throw may be against the wind and the Frisbee will not sway according to plan. In such a case, all such players who feel the wind is against them need to relocate so as to avoid the gust. Again, very similar to life. For anything that you need to do in life, you will invariably face a problem while starting off. The steps you take to avoid these problems decide how effective you would be in life.

When the Frisbee is thrown, some player needs to catch it. Being a lightweight object, it sways before settling at a point. When the Frisbee is in the air (and not settled yet), the player catching it feels that it may fall at a certain point whereas actually it sways more/less as compared to anticipated and does enough to fool the player resulting in the player being unsuccessful in catching it. Anything you do in life appears to be do-able in a certain way. Throughout its journey, you mend your ways to achieve anything. Estimates go for a toss and you may fall short.

When the wind is too much in your favor (it means that whenever you throw, the Frisbee sways dramatically), you need to throw it in such a way that when it falls, the catcher doesn't need to move a lot. For this, you should throw it in such a way that it starts very far off from the catcher but it sways so much that it lands very close to the catcher. You do in anything in life but its important that the end result is fine and to the comfort of most number of people.

When you are catching the Frisbee, sometimes you may need to jump to catch it. Sometimes you jump correctly and catch it. At other times, the Frisbee stays in the air for that extra second and you mistime your jump. Had you stayed still for another second and jumped, you would have caught it. You need to time your moves in life. One step taken before/after its time can create havoc coz its not that you cant do it. Its just that you jumped the gun. Had you not, it isn't that difficult a task.

The last one was fun. When you dive to catch the Frisbee (assuming you are neck deep in the sea. In fact, chin-deep), you may be stretched to the limit and off your feet. The dive may result in you being completely immersed in the sea. Now, this is salty water capable of spoiling your hair, irritating your eyes, etc (for people who care a lot about themselves). If you are not ready to face consequences, its better you not start off at all. The best case would be to enjoy the consequences.

Maybe there is much more to life than a Frisbee. I am certain that there exists something else too that can be correlated to Life.

Cheers ... !!

When I last rode a bicycle ... !!

2008-11-14T11:25:00.002+05:30

When I last rode a bicycle ....

I didn't carry a wallet. Rather I didn't know what a wallet was.
I didn't carry a cellphone. Pagers were a hit then. But I didn't carry a pager as well.
My left thumb didn't try to locate the indicator switch on every turn.
Geared bicycles were not in fashion except for Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar.
Mostly I was in a school uniform.
I didn't ride a bicycle to stay fit or save on pollution. I rode it coz there was no other option.
I had not started shaving.
I didn't count the number of steep-road-sections before I started.
I seldom rode for 15 km at a stretch. I was still partially-sane.
I seldom rode alone. Either it was someone on my bicycle or a friend on his/her own bicycle.
It was mostly on one route. Home to school and back.
I didn't get worked up if someone drove erratically. I had a limited "Gaali" vocab.

I am sure there are many more.

Cheers ... !!

Mumbai Meri Jaan ... !!

2008-11-10T10:27:00.002+05:30

The movie is good but I am not reviewing it here. Instead, this is going to be another of those why-does-he-write-such-long-posts posts. Yes, I visited my favorite city after a long time and as expected, I freaked out completely. Though I was not going there to freak out but for my Visa interview, this amazing city made sure that I didn't lose out on any of the fun.

It all started on Thursday. I left office early at 4 pm and reached home. I shaved and had some food before I reached Pune station. It felt so great to be back at Pune station waiting for my favorite train to depart. Yes, Intercity express. Its my favorite just coz I have had memorable experiences traveling in it. The fact that it doesn't take time reaching Thane is also a bonus. To top it all, I had booked a window seat. The party begins.

It left at its scheduled time of 5:55 pm. When I reached my seat, I found a lady with her 2 kids. Her son maybe around 12 and daughter was around 7. The daughter was sitting on my seat. The lady asked me my seat number and realized that her daughter was sitting on my seat. She asked her daughter to get up. Being a child, I know how painful it can be to give up a window seat. I scratched my head (I am absolutely fond of a window seat), grimaced and decided I am not going be Mr. Good Guy. Yeah, it will take something to give up a window seat on my part :) So I promptly made myself comfortable at my seat but the look on th little girl made me hate myself. But thats that.

As expected, it didn't take time for the train to pass Lonavala, Bhor Ghat and Karjat. Its when we passed Karjat that the feel of Mumbai started to set in. Every now and then, a local train would pass by. It was time for some Mumbaigiri. I asked the little girl to sit on my seat. She couldnt believe it. Her Mom said "Thank You mhann kakanla". And she did. Yes, I am a Kaka now. God bless the child.

I went up to the door of the compartment and stood there for the remainder of the journey. The joy of standing in the doorway combined with a high speed train zipping across suburban station platforms and the wind hitting with you with gusto is an experience. Its a great feeling hanging out of the train especially when there is no need to :). It was only after the train passed the bridge after Diva, the mountain after the bridge and finally the long tunnel that I knew I was close to Thane. The tunnel passed and the next thing I knew was that I was outside Thane station.

It was time to meet my bumchums. Pranay, Anay and Mahesh. All of them stay in Thane and I was very excited. I had called Mahesh before I left for Thane that I will meet them outside their society at 9 pm. I was surprised to see Thane station from outside. The place was dug up at lots of places and it looked like a flyover was being erected. Also, I couldn't see a lot of rikks or buses outside the station which baffled me. I walked down the road and finally the atmosphere became more like the normal atmosphere outside any Mumbai station. The crowd, the vehicles ... all jostling for space. I hired a rick to Vrindavan society and reached the bus stop of Vrindavan at 8:55. Talk about timing.

I could see Pranay and Mahesh waiting for me. It was such a thrill. To be fair, they seemed as happy as me. Well, it was almost 2 years since we all met and we really wanted to make it count. Anay was not receiving our calls so we assumed it was one of his trademark last minute ditches. Pranay is getting married in December and I hadn't met his girl friend (Devyani) in flesh so far. So the 3 of us went back to Thane station and waited for Devyani to come. She came at around 9:30 pm and we decided its time to booze. We discussed a few places but finally walked down to a place called UK.

Mahesh had turned teetotaler. So it was whisky for me and Pranay and a vodka with Red Bull for Devyani. It was the most amazing time we had. Pulling each other's legs and basically having a blast. For the time being, I forgot that I had to get up at 4:30 am the next morning coz I had come to Mumbai for a far bigger task :)

I don't know what first impression Devyani made out of me but it must be similar to what many others have. Being a girl, she needed to get back home earlier than the rest of us. She left at 10:30. Pranay, Mahesh and I lapped up everything by midnight. We spoke about a bit f everything. The more people I meet, I get to know about greater facets of problems. But thats life. Everyone wears a mask and it takes guts to remove that mask even in front of your friends. Gladly, none of us have any of such inhibitions and we talked till the cows came back.

We moved from UK to an ice cream parlor. After enjoying ice cream, we went back to Mahesh's place. We chatted till around 2:30 in the night. I briefly met Mahesh's mom but we asked her to not loose any of her sleep coz of us. Pranay went back to his place. Mahesh and I hit the bed soon after. The tough part of the trip was yet to come. I had to get up in 2 hours time. Phew ... !!

I had asked Biwi to call me up at 4:30 in case I dont get up. But I didnt need that. I got up at 4:30 and got ready by 5:15. I take my hat off to Mahesh who got up with me and made tea for me which was not required. I had tea and biscuits and left from there. I took a rik to Thane station. Throughout the week, I was asking people which one of Mahalaxmi and Mumbai Central stations is closer to Mahalaxmi temple since that was the place I needed to go to. The unanimous reply was Mahalaxmi station but for that I needed to switch at Dadar to the Western line of Mumbai's railway system. Instead, Mahesh suggested that I can remain on the Central line and travel upto Byculla. I did that. While in the local, there was a noise like that of a firecracker. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound with a sense of alarm. When everyone realised it was just another sound, they got back to what they were doing. This happens with Mumbai.

I got down at Byculla. Now I needed to hire a taxi to go to Mahalaxmi temple.

I had seen this in so many movies that a person gets into a taxi and "downs" the meter himself since the driver is sitting far away from the meter. I tried doing it myself but I was rotating the meter the wrong way. The meter is supposed to be rotated towards the driver's side. It means, if you are sitting at the seat adjacent to the driver, you rotate it clockwise.

I got down right in front of Mahalaxmi temple at 7 am and saw the VFS office in front of me. I asked the security guard about when I can go in. He asked me the interview time. Since it was at 9 am, he told me that it will take time coz the ones scheduled for 8 had just gone in. I went to Mahalaxmi temple. Then I went to the backside of the temple which is a great place to be. The temple is situated alongside the sea which also brushes past Haji Ali a little down the same road. On the opposite end of the road is the famous Worli seaface.

I got down from the temple, had a cutting and called Biwi that I have reached the destination. As soon as I went back to the VFS office, they announced that the people scheduled for 9 am can now go in. It was 8 am. I went in and deposited my bag and cellphone in the locker. For all people wanting to go for the Visa interview, its not necessary that you wear good/professional/formal clothes when you go to the VFS office. They have dressing rooms where you can change into the appropriate attire. I didn't know this.

There is a very nice lounge where you can wait till you are taken to the American consulate. They charge Rs. 200 but its worth it. You can have sandwiches from the cafeteria as well as coffee along with watching the stuff being played on the giant screen. Plus, its not necessary to book the lounge from Pune itself. You can book it at runtime from Mumbai VFS office as well.

I waited till 9:40. Then it was announced that the people scheduled for 9 am can go and board the bus to the consulate. I boarded the bus and reached the consulate in 5 minutes (its hardly a km).

At the consulate, we were asked to submit the petition copy, passport and interview letter. This was even before we entered the consulate. After entering, we stood in another queue. All our stuff was checked her. Guys were supposed to remove their wallets, rings and belts. Basically, everything other than your clothes. I could not get past the security check. I tried 3 to 4 times and later realized that I had not removed my "Kada". After that, we entered yet another queue.This one was for fingerprinting. You are given a token and then asked to provide fingerprints for all 10 fingers. I did all this and then had to sit and wait for my token number to be called.

I was done with fingerprinting by 10:30. My token number was called at 10:55. The announcement was for 5 token numbers and mine was the last in the lot. I went up to counter no. 10 and saw the 4 people waiting in front of me. The first 2 must have taken 5 minutes collectively. The 3rd one was grilled for about 10-12 minutes and he came out grim faced. The one in front of me came out within a minute I guess. It was time I went in. I saw the time. It was 11:13.

The interviewer was a stout fellow with a round face and a french beard. He asked me if he can see my token. I gave it to him. Then he asked me 4 questions, the answers to which were very short.

1). Whom do you work for in India?
2). Whom are you going to work for in the US?
3). How many employees does it have?
4). What does MCS mean?

With this, he handed me the petition paper and asked me to carry it when I travel. It took me 58 seconds to be out.

I was confused. I didn't know if the Visa was granted or not. Anyway, I came out of the consulate and decided I will walk back to the VFS office to collect my stuff from the locker. It took me 20 mins to reach the VFS office. The people at VFS told me that if they haven't given the passport back to me, it means they have granted the Visa. I collected my stuff and left the VFS office. I called Biwi, Charan, my consultant, my in-laws, Sabhtarsha, Pranay and Mahesh and told them about the Visa. But it was just 11:45. I had a ticket booked for Pragati express from VT at 4:25 pm. I needed to kill a lot of time.

I went to Haji Ali and laid a "Chaadar" at the durgah. Then I came back to the chowk and went to my favorite hotel in Mumbai - Noorani. I had Chicken tikka biryani and pepper chicken and it seemed be a little too much. I asked the person to pack the remaining stuff. It was 1 pm and I was still 3.5 hours away from my train. I had not met Anay so far. So I thought I will call him one last time. Luckily, he received my call and I told him that I will come and meet him. His office is at Vikhroli which is 10 stations away from Byculla. I hired a taxi to Byculla station. The driver was an old man with a white moustache and he must be in his 60's. While driving, I asked him the place where he hails from. He said UP and then he asked me "Aap yeh kyu puchh rahe ho?". I needed some convincing to prove that I am not from MNS and I dont intend to hurt him in anyway. I was lucky that Byculla station was not too far off.

Getting to a place in Mumbai needs concise planning about time. You need to ascertain the time you will take to reach the source station, the time to stand in the ticket queue, the time to actually board a train, the time to travel between source and destination stations, the time to get transport from destination station to destination address. When I calculated all this, it came out to be an hour or so. Assuming I started at 1:15, it would be 2:15 when I meet Anay. Thats what happened. I reached Accenture at exactly 2:15 and met Anay. We chatted in their cafeteria and I was good to leave at 2:45 pm. But this time I had to travel from Vikhroli to VT which would take more time. I reached Vikhroli station at 3:10 and got a ticket by 3:15. But there was no local for about 10 minutes which is quite unusual for Mumbai. Finally, I got one at 3:25 and I started counting stations that are remaining. I had one hour to go for my train from VT. Thankfully, I reached on time. It was 4:15 when I reached VT. I left Mumbai in 10 minutes time.

As the train passed Thane station, I started thinking about the previous night and wondered when I will be able to meet my friends again. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later. One more time in my life ... I will have to say ... Mumbai Meri Jaan ... !!

Cheers ... !!

Foot fetish ... !!

2008-11-03T16:53:00.002+05:30

Ok. The title doesn't exactly give away the contents of this post :)

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, Biwi and I saw (I think I regret watching it with her) possibly the stupidest(in a good way) movie at home. It goes by the name of "You don't mess with the Zohan". Though I liked it (its a fully faaltu, illogical and sometimes like a Rajnikanth movie), Biwi thought it was completely rotten. Anyway, I am not going to go into the details of the movie. Its more about what happened after that.

It had been some time since we both had had a Pizza. That too from Pizza Hut. So we decided that tonight is going to be the night. Of course, to have Pizza :)

But Biwi came up with sounded-cool-at-that-moment suggestion. She said that we should walk down to Pizza Hut. Now, the nearest Pizza Hut from our place is at SGS Mall at Camp opposite Dorabjee's. It is around 5-6 kms from our place. I asked her if she was sure. She nodded. Well, not one to not walk, I obliged.

We started from home at around 7 pm. To be honest, it was the most enjoyable of all walks. We had a pretty healthy discussion about most of the stuff going on in our life. We reached MG Road by 8:15 pm. It was a festive atmosphere with the Diwali decorations still shining and the walking plaza lending some more colour.

We finally reached PH at around 8:30 pm. Our clothing was not the best. I was wearing a pyjama and T-shirt with Red toilet slippers on. Biwi was better. She wore an unironed trouser and a top. But the food was good. It was a good experience. The service was nice and we were out by 9:50. We also wanted to book the tickets for Golmaal Returns for the next morning at Inox. Inox is another km from SGS. Well, we didn't have any options. Off we went on foot to Inox. We reached at 10:20. Unfortunately, advance booking closes at 10 pm and we had to return grim faced.

We were entering the torture time of the walk now. We started from Inox at around 10:30. We reached West End by 10:50. By this time, Biwi started cribbing about her right sandal and how it was poking her and she couldn't walk. We decided we will walk till Bombay Garage on East street and go home by bus. We reached Bombay Garage at 11. We saw an ensemble of buses pass, most of them plying to Hadapsar and some to Swargate but none on the Kondhwa route. We waited till 11:35 and called it quits. We couldn't see lot of ricks around. So it was going to be on foot again.

Looking at the discomfort Biwi was facing with her sandal, we decided to switch footwear. Yes, I had my toilet slipper on my left foot and Biwi's sandal on my right while she wore the opposites. Yeah, it was one of those days ... rather nights. At least, we were walking fast now. Or so it seemed. We were 2 kms away from home at around 11:40 pm when I started cramping in my right leg due to the Oh-so-wonderful sandal. But we needed to go on. In the meanwhile, Biwi also started cramping up but we were very close now. The last 200-400 metres were dreadful.

Finally, we reached home at 12:30 and flung ourselves onto the bed. It didn't take long for slumber to set in.

Cheers ... !!

Kudos to Teamwork ... !!

2008-10-21T12:16:00.002+05:30

What a ruthless performance ... !!

I have read and heard about that phrase before. But it was always used for the Aussies. Somehow, the best tests experienced by the Aussies in the last decade have been at the hands of the Indians. Every series is like a slug fest. I still wonder why the Border Gavaskar trophy isn't a 5 test series. Make way Ashes or India-Pakistan. India-Australia is THE series to look forward to.

It was such a wonderful experience by a team that has withstood the fire from a cricket frenzy nation to win the inaugural T-20 world Cup, the under-19 World Cup, drew 1-1 in Australia (the result of Sydney should not be counted), won the last tri-series on Australian soil by humiliating the Wallabies, drew 1-1 against South Africa and now overwhelmed the Aussies at Mohali. Whether this performance will be mimicked is a question worthy of a debate but lets just rejoice for the time being.

Teamwork was one of the forces of this win. Just try and glance at the numbers ...

Gambhir - 67 and 104
Sehwag - 35, 90 and 1 catch
Dravid - 39 and 1 catch
Sachin - 88 , 10* and one of the best catches that I have seen by a 35+ cricketer
Ganguly - 102 and 27
Dhoni - 92 and 68* (5 sixes) and 2 catches plus astute captaincy
Harbhajan - 5 wickets
Zaheer - 4 wickets - 3 of them bowled
Mishra - 7 wickets on debut - 6 of them were bowler's wickets in the sense that the mode of dismissal was lbw, bowled or assisted by the keeper...
Ishant - 4 wickets - all 4 bowler's wickets - including Ponting in both innings plus Hussey and Watson (all top order batsmen)

The worst performer was Laxman with 12 runs ... but even thats not too bad ... there are days when 12 is the 4th or 5th best score if not the best ;) ... yeah I am over exaggerating ... but when am I not ... ;)

The figures do not reveal the complete story.

It will take a lot of history searching to find another instance when Indian fast bowlers have flattened the stumps of the opposition (and a quality opposition like the Kangaroos). The dismissals of Ponting in both innings, Hayden (1st innings), Watson(2nd innings), Haddin(2nd innings) and Lee(2nd innings) will surely make every Indian sit up and take notice. Off the 20 wickets that fell, 17 were bowler's wickets. Phew ... !! The catch by Sachin to dismiss Katich was an absolute blinder. No wonder that the Indians were pumped after that and took 3 more top order wickets immediately.

Finally, for many a aficionado, India defeated Australia at the verbals. I have not seen an Aussie team tormented by the on field duels. Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant, Gambhir, Sehwag and Dhoni bombarded the Aussies with sledging. It was such a joy to see an Aussie team face the heat. Laying our hands on the Border-Gavaskar trophy would be the best start to the winter with the Poms coming up next in order to gain some momentum before THE ASHES. Looks like a mouth watering cricketing prospect in the next 6 months.

Cheers to India ... !!

Stumbled upon ... !!

2008-10-17T12:35:00.002+05:30

I needed to put oil into my bike and I needed to find the huge screw driver to unscrew certain screws of my bike. This huge screw driver is kept in a small cupboard at my place. This cupboard contains lots of utility stuff like nailcutters, pliers, screw drivers (courtesy, my father). It also contains a huge plastic bag. I had never cared to explore this bag in the 5 years that we have been at this place. But I saw a audio cassette almost falling out of the bag. When I peeked in, I couldn't believe what I found.

This bag contained all the audio cassettes in which someone or the other from my family had recorded their favorite songs. It had at least 3 cassettes of Rafi and Lata (not those branded pre compiled sets from HMV) which my mother had fondly recorded. It also had a cassette of one Mr. Kutti who happens to be an erstwhile astrologer. My parents had gone to meet him many moons ago (I think it was 1993 or 94) to ask him about the future of themselves as well as their 2 kids. My father had taken a recorder with him to record all what Mr. Kutti had said. Its a major thrill listening to this piece of audio.

In school (and early college), I had a habit of recording best songs of a particular year. So I was Maha-thrilled to find all those cassettes. I have all those cassettes now from 1994 to 2000. Those were the days. I also found a cassette that I had gifted to my father on his 54th birthday. My father is a big, huge, major RK fan. I had compiled a list of RK songs in a cassette and gifted it to him. What a collection it is ... !!

But the cassette that took my breath away was a compilation of hit English songs. I was never great at English (and I am still miles away) and English songs and movies were like a different world to me. Still, from whatever I had heard or seen, I liked some English songs (just the feel, not the meaning coz I seldom understood what was being said). It was just amazing listening to these:

Informer
Its my Life
Macarena
Coco Jumbo
Mambo No. 5
Baby I love you way
Mysterious Girl
La Nina
Walk like an Egyptian
Lick it
Cecilia
And I miss you
Nothing's gonna change my love for you
Where do you go
My heart will go on
Its all coming back to me
Cotton Eyed Joe
Itsy Bitsy Teeny weeny

and many more ...

The reason this cassette was the most enjoyable is due to the fact that it was played at our school Christmas party in 8th grade (should be 1996) and we had a blast.

There is another cassette in which I had recorded a medley of DDLJ songs by carefully seleting the right music and lyrics to follow every part of the medley ... I remember I had to write down lyrics of all the songs of DDLJ before doing this.

It is another one of those moments in life where you ponder and bicker about the current state of life and wish you had the freedom to venture out and do things that you really want to do. For the time being, I am planning to buy a nice cassette holder/case to preserve these cassettes.

Cheers ... !!