Yeh hai Mumbai meri Jaan!!!!!

For 22 years, ever since I opened my eyes, I have lived in Pune. In this period, I have seen it bursting from a tiny , peaceful city to a bustling metropolis. I have seen it shed away its erstwhile Maharashtrian blanket and make way for a totally cosmopolitian cape. People from every corner of the globe have found solace in this bustling Metropolis situated on the Deccan Plateau. I have always loved this city for what it was and till now also lived under the belief that this is the best city in the world.

But as it so happens, every fairy tale has a villain. The main plotspoiler in this tale is a megacity called Mumbai formerly known as Bombay. Pune has always lived in the shadows of this gigantic megapolis and in my 22 years of stay in Pune, I would have made a countless trips to " Aamchi Mumbai". But never has my love for Pune been threatened.I have always come back home with the feeling," Yeah Mumbai is nice, but Pune is always Pune". Then four months ago, professional endeavours threw me right into the heart of this seamless megapolis and OMG how things changed!!

I finally understood the true feeling of "Love at first sight". Bombay (as I still like to call it) has a charm unto its own. You need to actually live here to be charmed, but once the charming occurs, there is no turning back. Firstly, Mumbai is unrealistically massive. From the southernmost tip of Colaba to the northernmost tip of Virar along the Arabian Sea, the city expands a whopping 94 kms. That is practially larger than some of the smaller states in India. And when distances run into such figures, the infrastructure needs to be top notch. And OMG, how Mumbai delivers that. The city is a potpourri of concrete wonders along every square inch of its magnanimous expanse. The arterial roads of the city ensure quick travel as they are made of the best quality concrete and are 8 lanes wide. But this quick travel is only in the wee hours of the morning. For, as is natural with a city this size, it has a massive population, resulting in clogging of these arterial behemoths.

So what are the alternatives to this conundrum? Ahh ofcourse the impeccable local train network of the city.

For a city which has earned its way to be the financial capital of the country, Time truly is Money, so the city cannot afford even a second's delay. This results in the most precise-to-the-clock Local train network which cover the length and breadth of Mumbai with an alarming penchant for puntuality. And with trains travelling literally every 2 mins on an average and that too with such stunning timeliness and at costs as low as peanuts , they remain the lifeline for this city and its people. A single journey on the local train is proof enough as to why Mumbai is such a wonderful city. The local trains are the cities great equalisers, where everyone keeps status and image aside. Everyone from the poorest guy earning the bare minimum, to the richest guy clad in the most expensive attires and gadgets of the time travel together as one force, uniting sweat and blood to keep the cogs of the economic wheel running. Ticket checkings are a rarity on these trains owing to the unimaginable volume of people using it, but still ticket counters at all stations play host to simply unrealistically huge lines.All you can do seeing this integrity is to take a bow. The most impressive sight though is when a major station arrives and around a 100 people deboard and a 100 more board the train in a matter of 45 seconds through a door barely 2 metres wide(as long as you are not in the middle of it).

Further more Mumbai is a city where you just cant covert air from either side of your alimentary canal into money. You need to work your ass out, because it is a city where hard work is appreciated. It is a city where everyone from a wadapav vendor to the top notch gliteratti are treated as equal forces churning the wheels of the economy. Effort yields maximum dividends here.Even a beggar on the street is an owner of a multimillion rupee property in one of its many suburbs. Mumbai is also literally" The City that never sleeps". You travel at anytime of the day or night, the city and its people will always be involved in some work or the other to keep themselves busy.It is like a 24/7 economic cash churner. It is also "the city of opportunities". People come here from different corners of not just the country but the globe hoping to find some opportunity and make it large( Couldnt resist the use of this phrase :P ). And Mumbai does not disappoint. Anyone with an idea and the willingness to work for it can make a name for himself here.

Mumbai is also the land of Bollywood and the gliteratti here just add to the sheen of the city at the same time contributing their measly sums to its gargantuan legacy. It is also the home of the Underworld which supposedly controls the whole world through financial and political influence.Above all Mumbai is the Land of Dreams. People dream of settling down here just as a cab driver maybe because everyone here is treated as equal. Even a man rich enough to dine at a plush upmarket restaurant everyday prefers to eat at the roadside stalls because he knows the value of money. This knowledge is owing to the fact that the money is truly hard earned here. People have contributed their sweat and blood for this. The temptation to show off your wealth is virtually absent in the city because everyone knows that if people truly begin to flaunt their assets, the battle would be never ending.It is also the only city in the country with a nightlife. While most other cities in the country have restaurants closing by 11, dining in Mumbai starts around 11. They say that you can find anything in the world in Mumbai. How true is that!!

If I continue on, the praises will never end, so let me move towards a conclusion. There will always be a million reasons why you dont like Mumbai, you may not like the crowd, the horrible traffic, the overcrowded trains, the remorseless weather, the littered beaches, the unescapable foul stench and many more but there will always be one reason why you will love it, BECAUSE IT IS MUMBAI!!!!!! And while Pune will always be like a mother whom I always love, Mumbai in this short period has become the soulmate and the wife I will always love and hope to spend my life with ( bloody Calcutta and Delhi and Lucknow tempting me into extramarital affairs :P: P)!!!!!!!!

Of Fear and Hope

Over the past few weeks, I have been living the life of a Harlem Globetrotter. Professional and career endeavors have compelled me to move back and fro between Delhi and Mumbai.Needless to say, these short periods of stay have resulted in me meeting many of my old friends and colleagues. There was much regaling as many stories had to be exchanged and many tales( mostly of gossip :P) to be shared.Here is one such conversation which really got me thinking or as a matter of fact change the manner in which i think.

A get together after a long time over a couple of drinks can take a conversation to its absolute extremities. In the middle of this exchange of drunken gyaan, my friend asked me a seemingly simple question, " What is your biggest fear in life?". I was taken aback by this question, truth be told. I mean a discussion of one's fears is not something you discuss on the occassion of a joyous reunion. Fears are kept deeply locked up in the forgotten corners of our brain. So i just blurted out some statement which was with the flow of the discussion taking place before.The moment I made the statement, I checked my friends face. I could judge by the look, that I had failed to convince. So in order to better gauge the situation, I reciprocated the same question to my friend. The reply I got was simply," The thing I fear most is loosing my loved ones".

Hmmm, i thought at first," Well, that is a fear present deep within everyone's heart is it not?". Everyone is afraid of being left alone in this world, of loosing everyone in life who keeps you motivated enough to live. The problem is we dont bring these fears out into the open. No one discusses such matters, although deep down in the back of our heads, this fear lingers us forever. I developed a deep respect for that friend that day, for having actually bought this demon out of the closet.

But as i trailed off from that meeting and withdrew into my solitude, I started to ponder," Is that not natural? Everyone has to die. That is how, the world was intended to be. The dead clear out and the new come in to replace them. This is the cycle of life and death. Everyone has a certain time and purpose on this earth.Once that is over, he/she will depart. The bondings we make on this journey become stronger as time passes on , but they have to break off eventually. And quite naturally, the harder the bond, the more will be the pain. Being afraid of breaking these bonds is just a moot emotion. Because fear wont alleviate the pain or worsen it, the end is inevitable."

As I slept on this thought and returned back to the hustle and buslte of Mumbai, my prodigal room mates announced that they were off to Nagpur as they had got another job offer. Now I understood, the true meaning of my friends prognosis, that the parting though inevitable, the fear always overcomes you. As my roomates started packing away, my mind was ambushed by those same thoughts or fears as to how the hell was I going to survive without the warmth of human company? But as they say time has the power to heal all wounds. As my mind became accustomed to this tortorous routine, I began to realise that Fear is just a temporary state. It is Hope which truly should ambush our mind. I made myself understand that people come and people go from your lives, but living in the fear of solitude once they are gone is the worst thing you can do. We have to be ready to fuel ourselves with the hope that more company awaits, that more bonds are on the fringes of being created. That living in fear will always hold you back, We have to go out there and battle our fears, using hope as our weapon.

And today 2 weeks hence as I sit in the comforts of my room draped in the blanket of solitude, I am mighty glad that I had that conversation about Fear and how the eye opener at the time served as an ideal anecdote to usher in the Hope which has kept me up and moving( new roommates shifting in next week, hope life returns to normal). And as I look for a way to finsh off this article, my eyes fall upon my desktop wallpaper of Andy Dufresne( Shawshank Redemption) standing outside the prison with his hands wide open and the quote at the bottom brings a smile to the face

" Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free"

Is IT Shit??

Well it has been a long time since I have penned something down,probably because I have been so occupied (Feels funny even to say it, its so nor true :P).But anyways here are the rantings of a frustrated soul.

The world was a very simple place back in those good old days of school. But then something called IT entered into our simple world. It is apparently big stuff today. It has supposedly transformed India and all the big banter about us being World Powers with China by 2020 is apparently thanks to this "phenomenon".

But is this really true? I mean, okay it has literally made the Indian economy a global force, it has transformed Bangalore from a small pleasant city to a gargantuan behemoth flooded with monstrous traffic jams. So let us explore what really happens behind the scenes. Is it all the makings of an economy changing masterclass or is it just a masquerade developed to fool the commonwealth.

As I joined TCS, fresh as a college graduate, I thought ,"YAYY, Now I get to be a part of this hooplah. Let me see what all the fuss is about". And from the very first day, the paradise was ripped apart. This is how a typical day in TCS transpires for a college fresher( TCS recruits around 35000 of them annually so they are a major part of the workforce). A general shift starts at 9.30 a.m. and ends typically by 6.30 p.m or does it??

Well 9.30 is just a definition. What really happens is that people dont trudge in with total indomitation anytime before 10.30. As the vast majority of the nations economic upturn makes its way to work an hour late, the delay is not even fretted upon. Instead people shamelessly head straight to the cafeteria for breakfast as if denial of this meal might just lead to their demise.The more alarming thing is that these people spend a good 45 minutes exchanging meaningless banter and pleasantries over breakfast.So by the time , the vast majority of the growth cells begin work it is nearly 11.30 am. Now begins the uncluttered initiation of internet banalities and vulgarisms, all this amidst the formal browsing of top priority mails received overnight. Once the petty forwarded mails have made their way around the campus, the work finally begins. Well so you would think, but what begins is the planning for lunch and where to go and what to have. Invitations are sent out to everyone requesting their presence for the all important meal of the day( everyone is entitled to atleast a one hour break for this). Anyone who dares to dis acquiesce to this request is then subject to a group mauling and branding as the office nerd.

As the clock strikes 1, this workforce responsible for making India into a economic giant heads in unison for the luncheon break. A quite 30 minute excercise is converted into a 1.5 hour sojourn through the realms of time killing. People who have never worked out in their life find it necessary to engage themselves in a compulsory 45 minute walk after lunch. The small tapris which sell Cigarettes, Tea and munchies are crowded worse than Times Square on New Years. As the afternoon sun begins its descent, these " hardworking people" head to the air conditioned facilities and give their tired bodies a rest by taking a good one hour nap.

Now that they are all rested, they all head back to energize themselves with a cup of Hot Tea or Coffee and umpteen Munchies to munch along. These tea sessions are again wiled away in meaningless banter as the clock ticks on. At 5 pm sharp everyone heads back to office, a look of steely determination on their faces. But this is just a disguise meant to fool the Leads and managers. At around 6, when the sun begins to set, this very group of people passes all their workload to the freshers who are placed below them under the pretext of learning. They then trudge out and rush towards their commute proud of having worked so hard, and the poor fresher who thought the day was over after meekly staring at walls from 10 in the morning to 6 in the evening, is heartbroken to realize that his day has just begun and he will have to continue onwards and probably even burn the midnight oil till some fresh new fish comes under his grasp.

And so, having been a frustrated fresher for 3 months now living under the noose of a good for nothing maniac with the ego as large as an elephant, i wont ask " Have i made IT large?"...I will instead ask, "Is IT Shit"..and the answer is an overwhelming affirmative. It is very difficult to fathom how this schedule followed by everyone and How IT remains to be the driving force of the Indian economy? maybe we have all been blindfolded.

" To be or not to be, that is the question" has always been the question, but seeing how IT has done so much for the economy without its working parts not doing anything really makes me conclude" To DO or Not To DO, That is the QUESTION"!!!!!!!!!!!

Goodbye!!!

It has been 4 years since I joined NIT Jalandhar fresh as a budding engineer. Over these years I have had my shares of ups and downs and learnt to fight everything with an iron fist. My best friends and worst enemies both emerged out of this pot. i have been through both the best of times and the worst of times. And today as I stand on the verge of exiting this place and kissing it 'Goodbye', a very important realisation dawned on me. It is not the place, so much as the people who made this place so special that i will miss and it is the saying goodbye to them, which is going to be the toughest part.
places come and places go but people who enter your life leave lasting impressions in your mind and some of your most cherished memories are with these people. They have cast their image in your mind and no matter how big a nuclear warhead hits you, you will never forget these memories.
These faces and the various emotions they carry, the plethora of pranks they played, the tonnes of consoling they provided in your hour of need become indelible parts of your psyche.
And so it comes to pass, that though you might feel that you are bidding these priceless souls goodbye, you are acually deep in your minds making them a more integral part of your life. By keeping them deep in your souls you are protecting them from the evils of the world outside at the same time making yourself stronger to face the challenges.
And as these thoughts pass through my head at 3.30 in the morning, I feel consoled that i am not bidding these priceless gems of my life "Goodbye" but I am just welcoming them to start a new life with me and enrich my soul once again with their almost divine like presence...


So to all my closest pals, let me tell you...This is not the end, but just the Beginning..

Auf Wiedersehn NITJ!!!!!

For the last 1 month everyone has been flooding Facebook with their umpteen experiences and nostalgic moments of their college life. So I thought lets enter the fray and contribute my own experiences. So here it is.

Its been 4 years since I took my fledgling steps into the ' LAnd of booze, chicken and babes'. J- town at the begiining was a tremendous downgrade from my bustling hometown of Pune. Nightlife seemed bleak and places for fun were few and far between. But as it so happens epiphanies do strike in and it dint take me long to realise that fun is defined by the company not the place. And this fun could not have had a better beginning than the awesome group of friends of A block Hostel Number 1. We christened ourselves as the Night out freaks and went from being disciplined Mama boys to hard core nocturnals, so much so that we would have scared the shit out of the owls. From the first night out on the roof, which indeed had epic proportions to the first bottle of beer shared between 10 guys to the first birthday party where we got boxfuls of samosas and tikkis from the canteen to the first trip to Bidhipur by tapoing the walls, the first week of college had freaking awesome written all over it. Class bunking and proxies became a part and parcel of the psyche. The stomach became immune to the aweful mess food, so much so that we can digest even shit today. Evening trips to the Nescafe became a regularity in order to give the eyes a fair share of the opposite sex. Interactions with the initially feared but later loved seniors fuelled many trips to the awesome Changra tea stall and the impregnable Sukhman Dhaba. Getting into trouble with the hostel authorities became a mundane activity as many famous incidents like the birthday of 29th august, the diwali rocket firing incident and the big brawl between A block and C block and the infamous Gamla KAAND became a lasting legacy of the college jargons. As the first semester drew to a close many of us got our first experience of the biting cold which made us all clinomaniacs making attendance in classes minimal. Relationships started blossoming. As the first V Day drew close, new couples bloomed while a plethora of other rejected souls ( including me :P) started to adjust back to life as a single guy even starting to take pride of their status. As the first year drew to a close many of the studious guys took to new passions involving smoke and drink and girls leading to a startling plummet in the GPA's of many. CGPA took a major back seat as we welcomed the 2nd year and our juniors with renewed vigour.

The 2nd year blew off with a shabby hostel allotment where the words Black List drew initially fear but was later mocked upon. We started looking at our juniors with new interest as newer prospects of establishing your seniority dawned on. Positions of higher responsibility were obtained during the tech and cult fests.The beautiful terrain of North India found brand new visitors who were all amazed and had a blast. A couple of people especially from the Southern part of the country finally managed to hammer the last nail in the coffin that was the national language Hindi. Visits to Changra and night outs became a part of the daily lexicon.

As the Pre final year dawned on, the awesome batch of 2010 grouped in together to organise the best TechNiti to date. An awesome Ganesh Chaturti also became the highlight of this year. The infamous strike gave the students a much deserved mid semester break which we exploited fully to visit the paradise on earth ' Kashmir'. Studies and exams became synonymous with a visit to the brothel. Parties and parties was the essence of the 2ND SEMESTER OF 3 RD YEAR AS we bid adieu to our awesome seniors ready to take the baton from them. The last week of 3rd year was spent in frantic perusal of Internships at any place where it was available. The frantic efforts Yielded fruit as everyone was able to obtain an internship which fetched them good grades.

And then in the blink of an eye We were in our final years. The college administration started becoming more and more ridiculous.Strikes became more frequent than classes. The junior batches became more and more distant. Many relations made their last final hurrah before taking a bow, very few endured on. The realisation of the inevitable end became more and more clear. And today as we sit on the perch of our launch pad into the outside world, these series of memories flash before your eyes, filling you with joy that the 4 years here was a period well spent. People seldom known from forgotten corners of the country became your closest friends. Juniors seemed even more loving than before as the season of parties and farewells was reborn only this time with you on the hot seat.

And today as i roll my eyes past these memories and this college which has made me who I am, I can safely say that the decision I took 4 years ago was the best of my lifetime. The friends i have made here will be the bedrock of my life for many years to come. The seniors we had will always continue to inspire us and the juniors we have will continue to be as helpful, loving and awesome as ever.

And i bid au revoir with only one hope.. the hope that I have been a good friend, junior and senior and that people will not curse me wen I may meet them Many years from today. And for all those people to whom I may have caused pain or suffering, I am extremely sorry guys and this apology is from the deepest chasms of my heart.Have had an awesome time with you guys and i hope to continue rocking life in your company for many more years to come...

I will end with a quote fromone of my favourite movies 'Troy''...Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?

Powerplay-1

holla everyone, I am bt to START BLOGGING...SO STAY TUNED IN....