Saturday, 25 Oct:
Party at nia's. Civil lines, an uncivil distance from home. Picked up ruchi, met suhail at CP and blundered over to party. Met nia (duh), kingy, kamini, pari+priyanka. People played cards. I spectated! exit parents, enter alcohol. sneaky. Left around 12.45, with a complimentary box of crackers.
Monday, 27 Oct:
Met suhail and ruchi in MGF. discussed sho's wedding basically. and how to get there. still no consensus on travel, acco, what to wear, what to gift. we favour thrift.
Tuesday, 28 Oct:
Diwali. Puja. Despite best efforts, unable to xhaust the pile of fireworks gifted by nia. Card party with family. Finito a la una menos cuarto en la madrugala.
Wednesday, 29 Oct:
Russell Peters. Sirifort, with NRTG. 45 minutes to commute, 30 minutes to park. Stark! Seemed like all of Delhi was there. Everyone, that is, except people i knew. Felt like a dud, especially when our seats turned out to be on either sides of an aisle. LAME!! met up with anubha and devesh. that was kinda nice. the show itself was somewhat funny. wish i could laugh. dropped nrtg at def col afterwards
Thursday, 30 Oct:
Met mohini n megha in khan market for lunch. ate at the big chill. good food. diappointing crowd. only spice - saif ali khan's ex wife. what a life.
Saturday 1 November 2008
Thursday 16 October 2008
Bombay times: 8-12 Oct
A very good weekend. That’s what I just had. I went to Bombay for 4 days, during the long Dussehra weekend. And unlike last time, I wasn’t unwell before going. So I knew it had to be decent. But it turned out to be pretty much better than expected.
The joy started at the airport. Reaching at 1 hr 5 mins before flight departure time, I was security checked at T-55 minutes. Boarding was announced at T-45. The flight started taxiing at T-5. It took off in such a way that it flew virtually parallel to NH 8. So I saw the expressway, the actual gargantuan size of the toll plaza, the Nestle building, IFFCO chowk, and even home!!
Landed in Bbay only 4 mins late. The plane parked in its bay within 1 minute of leaving the runway, and the bay was right in front of the terminal. I walked straight out and got into a cab. Unfortunately, we hit traffic on the Bandra flyover due to narrowed lanes and ongoing visarjans of Durga. I went to Prabhadevi, picked up Murli, and we went to Colaba to meet the others. The entire drive took 2 hours, longer than the flight to Bbay!! At Basilico, we met Dipu, Shek and Suhail (who had also landed that afternoon) and had a decent dinner. We called Nia also, but she was unable to come. Then we walked along the Gateway, and I saw every car worth seeing in India in the first 10 minutes there! Murli then left to catch a train to Baroda, where some factory was being inaugurated, and we went to Worli in Suhail’s office cab. Shefali was in NY, so her room was empty, which is where Suhail and I stayed. Happily, by way of double bonus, Priyanka was also out of town, so we had the run of the house!
We reached there by about 11.30, and met Mohini and Shek II. The rest of the evening consisted of talking, catching up, and drinking. We tried having a Glenmorangie neat, but it was a Herculean task, and ultimately we all had to dilute it a bit. Then we had a bit of Bailley’s, infinitely more palatable! Finally, the cards session started at 3ish I think. I was a spectator, who slept off while watching. Finally I think we all slept around 5-5.30 am.
Dipu left early, around 8 I think, back to his place. Shek also left by 11ish. Suhail, who had slept on the couch, well, him I woke prolly around 12 and we got ready. Went to Phoenix mills with the intent of eating at Copper Chimney, but seeing the crowd settled for a miniscule proportioned meal at Spaghetti Kitchen. Dipu, Mohini and Shek II joined Suhail, Shek and I for the meal. After that, we went bowling. That was a lot of fun. It had been long, but I was eventually able to get into stride. Dipu won thanks to a late burst, scoring 152. I closed at 146. The Sheks ended in the 120’s. Suhail made Mohini very happy by scoring less than her at 68, a fact he is not entirely proud of!
At the lanes we bumped into Suchai, Katragadda Kartik, Aditya Kaviraaj and Ritesh Rajoria. Outside, once we finished, we bumped into Deepali Sehgal, Venkat MS and 1 more guy. They had all been hanging out together. Was nice catching up with so many people. To bond, we took Dipu’s case.
From there, Mohini and Shek II went off to Bandra on their own. We made our way to Atria, where we met Nia at the food court CCD. Here, we also bumped into Meera MR. As we were on our way out, Suchai arrived. Then we went to Ivy café, this neat place near Atria which was a wine bar and bakery. That’s where the get together happened. After a lotta last minute coordination, the people to arrive in addition to the 6 of us were – Kartik, Basu, Rohan, Dhaval, Shipra, Sandy and Shatanshu. We had white wine, red wine, sparkling wine, chicken nuggets, fries, chocolate pastries, and blueberry cheesecakes. And the bill was reasonable. We were also lucky, on our way out, to bump into Balaji Ravi and Abhinav Sutte. Anyway, everyone went their own ways. Only Shek, Nia, Suhail, Dipu, Rohan and I were left, with 2 cars. We went to Nariman, bought movie tickets at Inox, then went to Bade Miyan, Colaba for a kebab dinner served on the car bonnet. It was delish!! :)
Made our way back after that to Inox for the 10.30 show of Babylon AD, the only sore point of the trip. Wotta miserable movie!! Everything about it was irritating. Only the crowd was good!
We were dropped home by Rohan, and after speaking to Shek II a bit, we slept off I think around 2ish.
Friday was not a holiday. But Suhail was bunking and I was unemployed. So I woke around 9, woke Suhail by about 11. We lounged till 1, watching TV, reading the paper and getting ready. Then we made our way to Nariman and had lunch at Ansaa (Only Parathas) with Dipu and Murli. Free once more, we went and killed an hour at Mocha before going again to Inox at 3.30 for a show of The Accidental Husband. It was a decent 1 time watch that concluded at 5.15ish. Then we went to Phoenix to kill some more time and perhaps shop. We were caught in the evening traffic compounded by Durga Puja and took an hour to reach.
Once there, we bumped into a couple of Shirotans, Rohan and Sanchit. We also spent some time at the Barista there, having Irish lattes. We even bumped into Harsh ‘Horsie’ Shah, which was the biggest surprise as he was visiting from Singapore on some work. Then we returned to Worli. Shek got free late, and we had plans of going clubbing with Murli and Mansi. Since Shek also got stuck in traffic, we met him directly at Phoenix for a kebab dinner at Maroosh. Then we went to his place so he could change. This was the real dampener. All routes to his place were blocked by processions of Visarjan. Took us 45 minutes for the 3-4 km distance, and we had to walk a bit at the end. He got ready while we waited, and the plan changed.
We went, once he was ready, to Dome, one of our favourite places in Bombay and the place with the best crowd. Met Murli and Manasi there. Bumped into Jai, my ex-trainee from Kotak, who was on a date it seems. Suhail and I had a couple LIIT’s each, while Shek had his whisky. It was quite nice, and even rained quite heavily during that time. The lightning made wonderful patterns low in the sky. I was almost thrown into the pool by the DCE pair. We left around 1. Reached home close to 2. Spoke a bit with Shek II, and slept finally at 2.40.
Saturday morning the alarm rang at 5:30. I was greeted by an SMS from Dipu the great, saying that he had to mail some report, so instead of 7am, we should take the 9am. After re-coordinating and cursing, and after much tossing and turning, I went back to sleep. Woke afresh at 7.30, and Suhail and I got ready. Packed a few things in our backpacks, and left by 8ish. We first picked up Shek, then Dipu, and with this circuitous route, reached gateway by 8.50. After buying some snacks, we boarded the 9am ferry, and were thus ferried to Mandhwa. Suhail was working throughout the ride. We listened to music, ogled, and generally passed time.
On reaching the other side, we got into a vikram and went to Alibag. At Alibag, we broke fast (:)) at a strange place which actually served eggless omelettes!! I of course had only wadas, the safest option. Suhail was working here too. Then we went, bought some alcohol (Antiquity and Smirnoff), went to the ATM and finally got into a vikram. By the time we reached Kashid and found a place to stay, it was 1.45. We whiled away the afternoon on the hammocks, playing cards and listening to music. At 4ish, we changed and walked out. We went to our old favourite dhaba and had vadapavs with green chilli, pakoras and some drinks. Refilled, we went to the beach. Horror! It had dogs, cows, horses and people!! Anyway, it was still relatively clean, so we went to a somewhat secluded place and jumped in. It was awesome!! Had a blast, got out and walked back to our place. It was getting dark, so I assume it was around 6.30-6.45pm. After bathing (Dipu without lights), we got down to business. Business was 29. We had dinner, which I liked, then went for a walk. It was a nice quiet, dark walk, probably a kilometre. We came back, resumed business and opened the alcohol. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to consume much. The warm weather, warm alcohol and warm Thums up conspired to burn our chests like heartburn. So, after just playing the game, we slept off, I think by around 2.
The next day saw me wake at 7 to Suhail’s alarm. He was to go for a swim at 6, but seeing the darkness outside at the hour, decided against it. So at 7 we got ready, packed, settled the dues and got out. The plan was to catch the 8 am bus to Alibag. Well. We got on the road and started walking towards the destination. We walked. And walked. And walked. 8 became 8.25. We reached the shacks at the other end of the beach. Decided to sit there and eat something. Ordered maggi and eggs. And the bus came! So, foodless, we boarded, sat at the rear, and nodded off.
Reached Alibag at 9.45ish. Walked to the city office of the ferry service and bought tickets for the 10.30 ferry. They provided a bus to take us to Mandhwa. So we were able to board the 10.30. Suhail, as usual, was busy throughout. It was a pleasant, snack-filled ride back. Marred only by an extremely irritating middle aged man who found it necessary to peer over our shoulders to examine the fascinating gadgets we carried, and who considered it his sacred duty to keep the ferry clean by polluting the ocean.
We reached good ol’ Bbay by 11.45. Suhail went off on a conference call. The 3 of us took a cab back to Worli. We met Mohini and Shek II. Had some of Mo’s handmade parathas. Yes, they were edible. Lounged a bit. Then we ordered lunch in from Domino’s, and were able to secure some discounts through tough negotiations on the time and quality of delivery. Good food. Meantime, Suhail came along and packed. At 3.30, with bags in hand and dues settled, we left. And so….back to saadi dilli :(
Cheers to the good times!!
The joy started at the airport. Reaching at 1 hr 5 mins before flight departure time, I was security checked at T-55 minutes. Boarding was announced at T-45. The flight started taxiing at T-5. It took off in such a way that it flew virtually parallel to NH 8. So I saw the expressway, the actual gargantuan size of the toll plaza, the Nestle building, IFFCO chowk, and even home!!
Landed in Bbay only 4 mins late. The plane parked in its bay within 1 minute of leaving the runway, and the bay was right in front of the terminal. I walked straight out and got into a cab. Unfortunately, we hit traffic on the Bandra flyover due to narrowed lanes and ongoing visarjans of Durga. I went to Prabhadevi, picked up Murli, and we went to Colaba to meet the others. The entire drive took 2 hours, longer than the flight to Bbay!! At Basilico, we met Dipu, Shek and Suhail (who had also landed that afternoon) and had a decent dinner. We called Nia also, but she was unable to come. Then we walked along the Gateway, and I saw every car worth seeing in India in the first 10 minutes there! Murli then left to catch a train to Baroda, where some factory was being inaugurated, and we went to Worli in Suhail’s office cab. Shefali was in NY, so her room was empty, which is where Suhail and I stayed. Happily, by way of double bonus, Priyanka was also out of town, so we had the run of the house!
We reached there by about 11.30, and met Mohini and Shek II. The rest of the evening consisted of talking, catching up, and drinking. We tried having a Glenmorangie neat, but it was a Herculean task, and ultimately we all had to dilute it a bit. Then we had a bit of Bailley’s, infinitely more palatable! Finally, the cards session started at 3ish I think. I was a spectator, who slept off while watching. Finally I think we all slept around 5-5.30 am.
Dipu left early, around 8 I think, back to his place. Shek also left by 11ish. Suhail, who had slept on the couch, well, him I woke prolly around 12 and we got ready. Went to Phoenix mills with the intent of eating at Copper Chimney, but seeing the crowd settled for a miniscule proportioned meal at Spaghetti Kitchen. Dipu, Mohini and Shek II joined Suhail, Shek and I for the meal. After that, we went bowling. That was a lot of fun. It had been long, but I was eventually able to get into stride. Dipu won thanks to a late burst, scoring 152. I closed at 146. The Sheks ended in the 120’s. Suhail made Mohini very happy by scoring less than her at 68, a fact he is not entirely proud of!
At the lanes we bumped into Suchai, Katragadda Kartik, Aditya Kaviraaj and Ritesh Rajoria. Outside, once we finished, we bumped into Deepali Sehgal, Venkat MS and 1 more guy. They had all been hanging out together. Was nice catching up with so many people. To bond, we took Dipu’s case.
From there, Mohini and Shek II went off to Bandra on their own. We made our way to Atria, where we met Nia at the food court CCD. Here, we also bumped into Meera MR. As we were on our way out, Suchai arrived. Then we went to Ivy café, this neat place near Atria which was a wine bar and bakery. That’s where the get together happened. After a lotta last minute coordination, the people to arrive in addition to the 6 of us were – Kartik, Basu, Rohan, Dhaval, Shipra, Sandy and Shatanshu. We had white wine, red wine, sparkling wine, chicken nuggets, fries, chocolate pastries, and blueberry cheesecakes. And the bill was reasonable. We were also lucky, on our way out, to bump into Balaji Ravi and Abhinav Sutte. Anyway, everyone went their own ways. Only Shek, Nia, Suhail, Dipu, Rohan and I were left, with 2 cars. We went to Nariman, bought movie tickets at Inox, then went to Bade Miyan, Colaba for a kebab dinner served on the car bonnet. It was delish!! :)
Made our way back after that to Inox for the 10.30 show of Babylon AD, the only sore point of the trip. Wotta miserable movie!! Everything about it was irritating. Only the crowd was good!
We were dropped home by Rohan, and after speaking to Shek II a bit, we slept off I think around 2ish.
Friday was not a holiday. But Suhail was bunking and I was unemployed. So I woke around 9, woke Suhail by about 11. We lounged till 1, watching TV, reading the paper and getting ready. Then we made our way to Nariman and had lunch at Ansaa (Only Parathas) with Dipu and Murli. Free once more, we went and killed an hour at Mocha before going again to Inox at 3.30 for a show of The Accidental Husband. It was a decent 1 time watch that concluded at 5.15ish. Then we went to Phoenix to kill some more time and perhaps shop. We were caught in the evening traffic compounded by Durga Puja and took an hour to reach.
Once there, we bumped into a couple of Shirotans, Rohan and Sanchit. We also spent some time at the Barista there, having Irish lattes. We even bumped into Harsh ‘Horsie’ Shah, which was the biggest surprise as he was visiting from Singapore on some work. Then we returned to Worli. Shek got free late, and we had plans of going clubbing with Murli and Mansi. Since Shek also got stuck in traffic, we met him directly at Phoenix for a kebab dinner at Maroosh. Then we went to his place so he could change. This was the real dampener. All routes to his place were blocked by processions of Visarjan. Took us 45 minutes for the 3-4 km distance, and we had to walk a bit at the end. He got ready while we waited, and the plan changed.
We went, once he was ready, to Dome, one of our favourite places in Bombay and the place with the best crowd. Met Murli and Manasi there. Bumped into Jai, my ex-trainee from Kotak, who was on a date it seems. Suhail and I had a couple LIIT’s each, while Shek had his whisky. It was quite nice, and even rained quite heavily during that time. The lightning made wonderful patterns low in the sky. I was almost thrown into the pool by the DCE pair. We left around 1. Reached home close to 2. Spoke a bit with Shek II, and slept finally at 2.40.
Saturday morning the alarm rang at 5:30. I was greeted by an SMS from Dipu the great, saying that he had to mail some report, so instead of 7am, we should take the 9am. After re-coordinating and cursing, and after much tossing and turning, I went back to sleep. Woke afresh at 7.30, and Suhail and I got ready. Packed a few things in our backpacks, and left by 8ish. We first picked up Shek, then Dipu, and with this circuitous route, reached gateway by 8.50. After buying some snacks, we boarded the 9am ferry, and were thus ferried to Mandhwa. Suhail was working throughout the ride. We listened to music, ogled, and generally passed time.
On reaching the other side, we got into a vikram and went to Alibag. At Alibag, we broke fast (:)) at a strange place which actually served eggless omelettes!! I of course had only wadas, the safest option. Suhail was working here too. Then we went, bought some alcohol (Antiquity and Smirnoff), went to the ATM and finally got into a vikram. By the time we reached Kashid and found a place to stay, it was 1.45. We whiled away the afternoon on the hammocks, playing cards and listening to music. At 4ish, we changed and walked out. We went to our old favourite dhaba and had vadapavs with green chilli, pakoras and some drinks. Refilled, we went to the beach. Horror! It had dogs, cows, horses and people!! Anyway, it was still relatively clean, so we went to a somewhat secluded place and jumped in. It was awesome!! Had a blast, got out and walked back to our place. It was getting dark, so I assume it was around 6.30-6.45pm. After bathing (Dipu without lights), we got down to business. Business was 29. We had dinner, which I liked, then went for a walk. It was a nice quiet, dark walk, probably a kilometre. We came back, resumed business and opened the alcohol. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to consume much. The warm weather, warm alcohol and warm Thums up conspired to burn our chests like heartburn. So, after just playing the game, we slept off, I think by around 2.
The next day saw me wake at 7 to Suhail’s alarm. He was to go for a swim at 6, but seeing the darkness outside at the hour, decided against it. So at 7 we got ready, packed, settled the dues and got out. The plan was to catch the 8 am bus to Alibag. Well. We got on the road and started walking towards the destination. We walked. And walked. And walked. 8 became 8.25. We reached the shacks at the other end of the beach. Decided to sit there and eat something. Ordered maggi and eggs. And the bus came! So, foodless, we boarded, sat at the rear, and nodded off.
Reached Alibag at 9.45ish. Walked to the city office of the ferry service and bought tickets for the 10.30 ferry. They provided a bus to take us to Mandhwa. So we were able to board the 10.30. Suhail, as usual, was busy throughout. It was a pleasant, snack-filled ride back. Marred only by an extremely irritating middle aged man who found it necessary to peer over our shoulders to examine the fascinating gadgets we carried, and who considered it his sacred duty to keep the ferry clean by polluting the ocean.
We reached good ol’ Bbay by 11.45. Suhail went off on a conference call. The 3 of us took a cab back to Worli. We met Mohini and Shek II. Had some of Mo’s handmade parathas. Yes, they were edible. Lounged a bit. Then we ordered lunch in from Domino’s, and were able to secure some discounts through tough negotiations on the time and quality of delivery. Good food. Meantime, Suhail came along and packed. At 3.30, with bags in hand and dues settled, we left. And so….back to saadi dilli :(
Cheers to the good times!!
Thursday 2 October 2008
Updates
Friday 19th September: Had a nice evening. Drove to Akshay's at 11.30 pm. We went to GK and Kalkaji to pick up Nidhi n Niti....came over to Akshay's house...Raghav joined us there. We watched 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' while having Breezers and smoking a hukka. Got home at 4, slept at quarter to 5.
Been nice with Akshay in town....met him 4-5 times, for bowling, clubbing at CTC, and at Mocha (def col) with PK on i think 23 sep. Caught up with an old friend, and managed to thaw the (till now somewhat awkward) friendship with nrtg.
Wednesday 24th September: Met neha n sunayana after spanish class. Saw neha's place in munirka. treated them to lunch at tgif, vasant vihar. was nice catching up after a while....
Friday 26th September: Bunked my spanish class, went alone to pvr mgf after an early lunch and saw back to back shows of A Wednesday and Charlie Bartlett. Evening was dinner at home with Shweta mausi and family. I bartended. Ate haleem. Drank beer. Aaaah :)
Thursday 2nd Oct: Not just Gandhi jayanti....priti also arrived from UK. landed at 6:15 am, only got in touch with us at 5:45 pm...leading to some confusion and chaos regarding evening plans. Ekta, priti n i ordered dinner from pizza hut and ate while watching scrubs.
Going to bbay on 8th evening for a long weekend....looking forward to it!!!
Been nice with Akshay in town....met him 4-5 times, for bowling, clubbing at CTC, and at Mocha (def col) with PK on i think 23 sep. Caught up with an old friend, and managed to thaw the (till now somewhat awkward) friendship with nrtg.
Wednesday 24th September: Met neha n sunayana after spanish class. Saw neha's place in munirka. treated them to lunch at tgif, vasant vihar. was nice catching up after a while....
Friday 26th September: Bunked my spanish class, went alone to pvr mgf after an early lunch and saw back to back shows of A Wednesday and Charlie Bartlett. Evening was dinner at home with Shweta mausi and family. I bartended. Ate haleem. Drank beer. Aaaah :)
Thursday 2nd Oct: Not just Gandhi jayanti....priti also arrived from UK. landed at 6:15 am, only got in touch with us at 5:45 pm...leading to some confusion and chaos regarding evening plans. Ekta, priti n i ordered dinner from pizza hut and ate while watching scrubs.
Going to bbay on 8th evening for a long weekend....looking forward to it!!!
Wednesday 21 May 2008
going shirotian
what can i say? i love weekends....but that seems to be the motto of all my entries on this blog....what to do though? someone has to have a good time after all, if not you....
so this time around it was a trip. not with 'my gang', but with an almost totally random group of strangers. suchai invited me along. i had asked him to, after the last time he went on a cycling trip. i love doing such things. nevertheless, i was a bit anxious. i didn't know anyone except him at the time, and i felt a bit guilty not hanging out with my group, especially since i expect to be leaving in 1-2 weekends....
anyway, somehow suchai managed to convince me into going...mixing senti and coercion. in my defense i did ask shek n shef, but they declined. dipu, sport that he is, agreed. he also likes meeting people and doing such things.
so saturday, 17 may, he and i were in front of chitra cinema near dadar tt at 3 pm, with him fuming coz a. the minibus we were supposed to go in hadnt even left churchgate and b. he had rushed home from office and packed in 5 minutes.
we saw there a group of 5-7 people also with backpacks....i wasn't sure whether they were part of our group, but dipu was quite certain of that. turns out he was right. i felt a twinge of unease. these were not people i would hang out with, given a choice. i started to wonder whether i would regret my decision.
the bus finally came around 4, along with a qualis. we both got into the bus. the other group in the qualis. suchai started off straight away, waxing eloqent about the fact that he hd 2 bananas on him, and then commencing to eat one.
this one guy (rohan it turns out) asked me/dipu to shift into the qualis for the benefit of logistics. dipu didn't move, so i reluctantly went. big mistake. i was in the back parallel seats, cramped in with 3 others. and there was no window there. and they were not my kind of crowd AT ALL. back office type of people. no offense or discrimination intended. making bad jokes and asking me to join in. we went via chembur, picking up one more guy. lemme recount some of their names. there was umesh (kotak), kavita (kotak, KMIL), nazia, shriram (FMS 03, hsbc strategy) and the one we picked up was mihir (prabhudas liladher).
so via chembur we went to navi mumbai, passed DY Patil stadium, and finally stopped almost 1.5 hours into the drive at a mcd's somewhere near kharghar apparently. had a coke and burger. the coke was to quench my thirst; i hadn't had water since my bottle was in dipu's bag and i didn't wanna ask these guys. i made some small talk. the minibus of ppl arrived, and it was instant nirvana!! straightaway i started talking to a girl (shilpa, scmhrd, mahindra hr) and joking with dipu n suchai. after talking to them about it, i decided i was going from now in the bus come what may. so we filed out in a while, where i bumped into niraj, a silo head in the firm.
we got into the bus, where i flatly told rohan that he could send someone else to take my place in the qualis. which he did. then the fun finally started. over the course of the drive i got to know the others. lemme describe them a bit, coz they were a diverse and interesting group:
me
dipu
suchai
nishit mathur
varun goel
rohan (modern, cbs, iimk, kotak ib)
sanchit (modern, cbs, jll)
rachit (gyan bharti, cbs, jll)
anuradha (film director)
neha (sbi caps)
richa (stephen's, bessemer)
kedar (scientist at barc)
alisha (his gf, at cnn-turner after xim)
pravin (teacher)
himani
ashish
darshil (organizer, class 12)
and some guy whose name i forgot who was in kotak corp banking
and some others whom i wasnt able to get to know
we had a nice bus trip chatting, getting to know each other, taking suchai's case, taking other peoples' case and having some beer. neha was listening to her ipod, a sin in our prestigious company, so we gave suchai bumps. i abused the modernites. finally i think around 8 we reached lonavla, where we stopped at a theka. picked up our alcohol's and got moving again. the beer was opened in the bus itself. aaah foster's!!! i spread the story of suchai's lungi incident in the mess. we sang songs like we were rabid. singing the 10 words of each song we knew and then moving on.
all this happened while the bus had moved off the road onto a dirt track. it continued on the track for about an hour. by this time my bladder was swollen like a water balloon. we finally got off the bus to walk the rest of the way, partly coz we wanted to and partly coz the road was quite bad. while the others moved ahead, i and the corp bank guy relieved ourselves in some bushes. was quite easy as it was pitch dark except for an exceptionally bright moon.
we had quite a pleasant walk, interspersed with some frooti and sandwiches. the moon was shining down to give a very beautiful if somewhat eerie landscape. it was a bit tricky negotiating the path, especially once we reached the decline. and then....the plain. we saw the lake, reflecting the moonlight like a grounded cloud of silver. we walked along the plain, which turned out to be quite huge though it didn't seem so at first sight. and we walked on. finally reached the campsite, by which time it was slightly past 10, and dipu n i claimed one of the tents by dumping our bags in. there were only 7-8 tents, and 30 odd people. the tents turned out to be quite spacious, though they didnt seem so at first sight.
anyway, after exploring around a bit, we sat and had dinner, which was laid down on newspapers and illuminated by a bike's headlight. i had some aloo, roti and dal. we sat around, talked a bit more. then we went to the lakeside, negotiating a slippery stretch of moss or something, and sat down in little groups. then we proceeded to have the red wine, the white wine, the port and the neat rum. kedar nearby was smoking hash with alisha. by the time supplies were exhausted, sanchit was nicely high. at this point we decided to take a little innocuous walk. that walk happened to lead up a slope to a little plateau of sorts, where we clicked some pics. we all thought about climbing further, but in the pitch dark, with no clear cut path in sight, some of us changed our minds. kedar was anyway off lighting up with his gf and ashish. in addition, rohan, shilpa, suchai, richa and i stayed back on the plateau while others climbed on. we just lay around on the ground, listening to old rock such as the doors etc. on rohan' cellphone. it was nice and soothing.
anyway, i think restlessness got to us eventually. suchai and i could make out where the climbers were by periodic shinings of their flashlights and their loud noises. we decided to sneak up on them and scare them. so instead of taking the beaten path, we climbed straight up the hill slope, making a beeline through all obstacles. we sneaked up on them, made a couple of wolf howls. i think that scared them. but then there was too much distance to cover in the open without cover, so we were given away and they saw us. only half the group was here. the other half was further up, and we joined them. we clicked some pics, lay and enjoyed the sky and the breeze, saw the lake spread out below us. saw what looked like an empty grave.
then finally we decided to go down. here it was me, suchai, anu and sanchit. the others wanted to stay the night there and see the sunrise. and sanchit was high enough to by then be fighting over the flashlight and annoying everyone. on the way down, we bumped into darshil, ashish and a couple more people who were on their way up to find us. ashish then came down with us, while the others continued up. we reached the bottom, with sanchit slipping once and choosing to fall on his back.
on reaching camp, we realized that rohan and richa were missing. we thought they might be up to no good....so feeling mischevious, we set about looking for them. first richa looked in the girls' tents...they weren't there. then we started chcking the guys' tents one by one till we came across one where we heard a guy and a girl. we stooped to listen, and in a minute realized it was kedar and alisha. we quickly moved away, all except sanchit, who kept stoopin. he then sauntered over to the back of the tent and started peeing, while shouting out for rohan. irritated voices came back from the tent, and without warning, sanchit was peeing and he and kedar were exchanging abuses without knowing who they were abusing!
anyhoo....we found rohan and richa sitting on a nice outcropping by the lakeside, just chatting. we joined them for 5 minutes, then came away.
soon after, suchai and i went into my tent. we chatted for a while, reliving campus days, talking about the ppl on the trip, about work...and finally, i think around 3....we slept off.
it was a disturbed sleep, with sanchit joining us then going out...ppl shouting outside, sleeping on the floor with no pillow/mattress/quilt.
we were woken, suchai and i, around 6 by rohan and dipu....who opened our tent flap so we froze and threw small stones on us....suchai finally got up, and i followed suit, disgruntled. he changed into his swimming trunks and went to join nishit in the lake. sniffling, i went out, clicking the morning into memory with my cam. i walked up to the lake, clicked some pics there, saw signs of life stir as other people woke, calmly took suchai's shirt and sandals, and walked back to camp. there i found rohan and dipu sleeping in our spot. i, still calmly, walked back to the lake, filled some algea-ridden water in a bottle, and poured a bit on dipu and tossed a pebble on rohan. surprisingly, i got scolded. then we were distracted as suchai emerged, shouting about having to tread barefoot on the stones around the lake. topless, he came to the tent and, using his towel as erotically as possible, started his antics. then he noticed that there was a group of girls behind him, walking back from the bushes, who had taken in his act. so he demurely began changing in the privacy of his towel. it's at this point that sanchit, rachit (who had woken), rohan and i turned into wild animals and tried to strip suchai of his little remaining modesty. it was a funny wake up to the rest of the troop.
once all this was over, we walked around to the other side of the lake, sat on a rock face, clicked pics and passed some time. around 8-8.30, they served breakfast, which consisted of bread-butter and poha. i had a little of both, conscious as i was of my personaly hygiene, utensil hygiene and the lack of bathroom facilities.
then we just loafed, using a stick as a javelin, clicking pics in poses, packing up a bit. sat around as the tents were dismantled, soaking in the vitamin d, all of us in a circle. kedar and alisha had joined us. meanwhile, rachit, suchai and nishit went back on the trail of the previous night to find nishit's watch which had fallen off. no luck there. sanchit wandered off on his own to click photos. all too soon, it was time to go, around 10.30 - 11.
i went to the bushes, then caught up with everyone. talking and clicking, we made our way under the burning sun to the bus, where we sat down and gulped the last of the water. it was then that we found we had to walk more as the bus couldn't drive over the stones bearing our weight. so we walked, another half hour i think. our throats began to parch. we got into the bus again, and drove on. i nodded off for a bit, literally, and banged my head a couple times too.
we reached kamath hotel in khandala, where we picked up lots of water and had lunch. we washed up a bit there, had cold drinks, some decent food (we were starved, so this is not an accurate representation of the food) and moved on again. yet again i slept off for a bit, till we reached navi mumbai. chatted a bit with alisha, and all too soon...it was over. people began getting off, at chembur, at sion, and finally...our turn, at dadar. home again, 4:30 pm. almost exactly 24 hours since we had left. the shortest trip.
but the longest blog.
so this time around it was a trip. not with 'my gang', but with an almost totally random group of strangers. suchai invited me along. i had asked him to, after the last time he went on a cycling trip. i love doing such things. nevertheless, i was a bit anxious. i didn't know anyone except him at the time, and i felt a bit guilty not hanging out with my group, especially since i expect to be leaving in 1-2 weekends....
anyway, somehow suchai managed to convince me into going...mixing senti and coercion. in my defense i did ask shek n shef, but they declined. dipu, sport that he is, agreed. he also likes meeting people and doing such things.
so saturday, 17 may, he and i were in front of chitra cinema near dadar tt at 3 pm, with him fuming coz a. the minibus we were supposed to go in hadnt even left churchgate and b. he had rushed home from office and packed in 5 minutes.
we saw there a group of 5-7 people also with backpacks....i wasn't sure whether they were part of our group, but dipu was quite certain of that. turns out he was right. i felt a twinge of unease. these were not people i would hang out with, given a choice. i started to wonder whether i would regret my decision.
the bus finally came around 4, along with a qualis. we both got into the bus. the other group in the qualis. suchai started off straight away, waxing eloqent about the fact that he hd 2 bananas on him, and then commencing to eat one.
this one guy (rohan it turns out) asked me/dipu to shift into the qualis for the benefit of logistics. dipu didn't move, so i reluctantly went. big mistake. i was in the back parallel seats, cramped in with 3 others. and there was no window there. and they were not my kind of crowd AT ALL. back office type of people. no offense or discrimination intended. making bad jokes and asking me to join in. we went via chembur, picking up one more guy. lemme recount some of their names. there was umesh (kotak), kavita (kotak, KMIL), nazia, shriram (FMS 03, hsbc strategy) and the one we picked up was mihir (prabhudas liladher).
so via chembur we went to navi mumbai, passed DY Patil stadium, and finally stopped almost 1.5 hours into the drive at a mcd's somewhere near kharghar apparently. had a coke and burger. the coke was to quench my thirst; i hadn't had water since my bottle was in dipu's bag and i didn't wanna ask these guys. i made some small talk. the minibus of ppl arrived, and it was instant nirvana!! straightaway i started talking to a girl (shilpa, scmhrd, mahindra hr) and joking with dipu n suchai. after talking to them about it, i decided i was going from now in the bus come what may. so we filed out in a while, where i bumped into niraj, a silo head in the firm.
we got into the bus, where i flatly told rohan that he could send someone else to take my place in the qualis. which he did. then the fun finally started. over the course of the drive i got to know the others. lemme describe them a bit, coz they were a diverse and interesting group:
me
dipu
suchai
nishit mathur
varun goel
rohan (modern, cbs, iimk, kotak ib)
sanchit (modern, cbs, jll)
rachit (gyan bharti, cbs, jll)
anuradha (film director)
neha (sbi caps)
richa (stephen's, bessemer)
kedar (scientist at barc)
alisha (his gf, at cnn-turner after xim)
pravin (teacher)
himani
ashish
darshil (organizer, class 12)
and some guy whose name i forgot who was in kotak corp banking
and some others whom i wasnt able to get to know
we had a nice bus trip chatting, getting to know each other, taking suchai's case, taking other peoples' case and having some beer. neha was listening to her ipod, a sin in our prestigious company, so we gave suchai bumps. i abused the modernites. finally i think around 8 we reached lonavla, where we stopped at a theka. picked up our alcohol's and got moving again. the beer was opened in the bus itself. aaah foster's!!! i spread the story of suchai's lungi incident in the mess. we sang songs like we were rabid. singing the 10 words of each song we knew and then moving on.
all this happened while the bus had moved off the road onto a dirt track. it continued on the track for about an hour. by this time my bladder was swollen like a water balloon. we finally got off the bus to walk the rest of the way, partly coz we wanted to and partly coz the road was quite bad. while the others moved ahead, i and the corp bank guy relieved ourselves in some bushes. was quite easy as it was pitch dark except for an exceptionally bright moon.
we had quite a pleasant walk, interspersed with some frooti and sandwiches. the moon was shining down to give a very beautiful if somewhat eerie landscape. it was a bit tricky negotiating the path, especially once we reached the decline. and then....the plain. we saw the lake, reflecting the moonlight like a grounded cloud of silver. we walked along the plain, which turned out to be quite huge though it didn't seem so at first sight. and we walked on. finally reached the campsite, by which time it was slightly past 10, and dipu n i claimed one of the tents by dumping our bags in. there were only 7-8 tents, and 30 odd people. the tents turned out to be quite spacious, though they didnt seem so at first sight.
anyway, after exploring around a bit, we sat and had dinner, which was laid down on newspapers and illuminated by a bike's headlight. i had some aloo, roti and dal. we sat around, talked a bit more. then we went to the lakeside, negotiating a slippery stretch of moss or something, and sat down in little groups. then we proceeded to have the red wine, the white wine, the port and the neat rum. kedar nearby was smoking hash with alisha. by the time supplies were exhausted, sanchit was nicely high. at this point we decided to take a little innocuous walk. that walk happened to lead up a slope to a little plateau of sorts, where we clicked some pics. we all thought about climbing further, but in the pitch dark, with no clear cut path in sight, some of us changed our minds. kedar was anyway off lighting up with his gf and ashish. in addition, rohan, shilpa, suchai, richa and i stayed back on the plateau while others climbed on. we just lay around on the ground, listening to old rock such as the doors etc. on rohan' cellphone. it was nice and soothing.
anyway, i think restlessness got to us eventually. suchai and i could make out where the climbers were by periodic shinings of their flashlights and their loud noises. we decided to sneak up on them and scare them. so instead of taking the beaten path, we climbed straight up the hill slope, making a beeline through all obstacles. we sneaked up on them, made a couple of wolf howls. i think that scared them. but then there was too much distance to cover in the open without cover, so we were given away and they saw us. only half the group was here. the other half was further up, and we joined them. we clicked some pics, lay and enjoyed the sky and the breeze, saw the lake spread out below us. saw what looked like an empty grave.
then finally we decided to go down. here it was me, suchai, anu and sanchit. the others wanted to stay the night there and see the sunrise. and sanchit was high enough to by then be fighting over the flashlight and annoying everyone. on the way down, we bumped into darshil, ashish and a couple more people who were on their way up to find us. ashish then came down with us, while the others continued up. we reached the bottom, with sanchit slipping once and choosing to fall on his back.
on reaching camp, we realized that rohan and richa were missing. we thought they might be up to no good....so feeling mischevious, we set about looking for them. first richa looked in the girls' tents...they weren't there. then we started chcking the guys' tents one by one till we came across one where we heard a guy and a girl. we stooped to listen, and in a minute realized it was kedar and alisha. we quickly moved away, all except sanchit, who kept stoopin. he then sauntered over to the back of the tent and started peeing, while shouting out for rohan. irritated voices came back from the tent, and without warning, sanchit was peeing and he and kedar were exchanging abuses without knowing who they were abusing!
anyhoo....we found rohan and richa sitting on a nice outcropping by the lakeside, just chatting. we joined them for 5 minutes, then came away.
soon after, suchai and i went into my tent. we chatted for a while, reliving campus days, talking about the ppl on the trip, about work...and finally, i think around 3....we slept off.
it was a disturbed sleep, with sanchit joining us then going out...ppl shouting outside, sleeping on the floor with no pillow/mattress/quilt.
we were woken, suchai and i, around 6 by rohan and dipu....who opened our tent flap so we froze and threw small stones on us....suchai finally got up, and i followed suit, disgruntled. he changed into his swimming trunks and went to join nishit in the lake. sniffling, i went out, clicking the morning into memory with my cam. i walked up to the lake, clicked some pics there, saw signs of life stir as other people woke, calmly took suchai's shirt and sandals, and walked back to camp. there i found rohan and dipu sleeping in our spot. i, still calmly, walked back to the lake, filled some algea-ridden water in a bottle, and poured a bit on dipu and tossed a pebble on rohan. surprisingly, i got scolded. then we were distracted as suchai emerged, shouting about having to tread barefoot on the stones around the lake. topless, he came to the tent and, using his towel as erotically as possible, started his antics. then he noticed that there was a group of girls behind him, walking back from the bushes, who had taken in his act. so he demurely began changing in the privacy of his towel. it's at this point that sanchit, rachit (who had woken), rohan and i turned into wild animals and tried to strip suchai of his little remaining modesty. it was a funny wake up to the rest of the troop.
once all this was over, we walked around to the other side of the lake, sat on a rock face, clicked pics and passed some time. around 8-8.30, they served breakfast, which consisted of bread-butter and poha. i had a little of both, conscious as i was of my personaly hygiene, utensil hygiene and the lack of bathroom facilities.
then we just loafed, using a stick as a javelin, clicking pics in poses, packing up a bit. sat around as the tents were dismantled, soaking in the vitamin d, all of us in a circle. kedar and alisha had joined us. meanwhile, rachit, suchai and nishit went back on the trail of the previous night to find nishit's watch which had fallen off. no luck there. sanchit wandered off on his own to click photos. all too soon, it was time to go, around 10.30 - 11.
i went to the bushes, then caught up with everyone. talking and clicking, we made our way under the burning sun to the bus, where we sat down and gulped the last of the water. it was then that we found we had to walk more as the bus couldn't drive over the stones bearing our weight. so we walked, another half hour i think. our throats began to parch. we got into the bus again, and drove on. i nodded off for a bit, literally, and banged my head a couple times too.
we reached kamath hotel in khandala, where we picked up lots of water and had lunch. we washed up a bit there, had cold drinks, some decent food (we were starved, so this is not an accurate representation of the food) and moved on again. yet again i slept off for a bit, till we reached navi mumbai. chatted a bit with alisha, and all too soon...it was over. people began getting off, at chembur, at sion, and finally...our turn, at dadar. home again, 4:30 pm. almost exactly 24 hours since we had left. the shortest trip.
but the longest blog.
Monday 21 April 2008
cloud number 9....
a 9 day holiday
started inauspiciously
i was supposed to go home, to my beloved delhi, evening of 11th april, friday. but since monday i had been battling with fever that touched 103, cough and a cold that acted like my nuice was an open sluice gate. hardly spent 4 hours in office combined from wednesday to friday, though i did go on 2 meetings.
friday afternoon, my meru cab didnt show up for 40 minutes, so i took a normal cab, defeating the attempt to travel in some comfort away from the dust, humidity and associated strains, and getting very late in the process.
to top it all, once in the cab i found out the flight was an hour late.
anyway, all worth it on getting home. aditi and mom were at the airport. got home i think around 10. went for coffee at ccd, mega mall post dinner.
12th, saturday, nani and pannu arrived. i was, however, in a bad mood for reasons i cant remember now. met dipu and suhail around 2 opposite privat hospital, and we went in suhail's car to ambi mall. had lunch there at a pizza hut. the waitress smiled at the size of our order! murarka joined us there, taking a cab from the airport. it was a surprise to everyone but me, and suhail and dipu seemed quite pleased (btw he had missed his morning flight, and took a later one). we took him to the food court to eat, loitered about a bit and went home, me being dropped by suhail. murarka and dips were staying with him. at home, i got ready, wore my suit, got into the i10, realized it was out of fuel, waited for mom to get home, grew irritable again, took the optra, and went to essex farms for shek/shef's engagement.
reached there around 715, and the 2 chief guests hadnt reached. suhail, dipu, murli and ruchi were playing a game of bowling. i went to watch. sho and shilpa joined us.
the engagement went off well...met shek and shef's parents, met up with paritosh, karan, nia and zakir, and met some of shek's college buddies like pandu, nijhara, nishant, sharmaji, etc. unfortunately, the whole affair was dry and vegetarian, but good fun nevertheless, with a dance floor also. both s and s were looking very nice for once!!
everyone gradually went home. pari, dips, suhail, murli and i went to saket in 3 cars, and hung out at the ccd ther (after checking out some club also). finally i left around 1:15 and got home at 2
sunday murli landed up at home, after realizing he had confused am and pm. hung out with him, went to nath and had bfast of aloo parathas. he murli went to meet suhail, hitching a ride with aditi n ekta who went to janpath. i had a fairly quiet day otherwise. went to nirvana, saw the place. i quite like the colony. evening we ventured out to roam around galleria, but landed up at the club. they were having some baisakhi evening with a dj, floor and some dance performances. ekta joined us there after dance. turned out to be a nice evening after all. though my belt caused a huge prob!!!
monday was also a quiet day. mom got some medical tests done. in the evening, we watched 'khuda kay liye' at europa, metropolitan. we being aditi, pannu, nani, papa and i.
tuesday i met up with mohini at megha. met mohini at venky to collect our degree certificate. i didnt get mine, in line with my luck. we bumped into kk sir, who recognized us and was very happy to see us. so happy that he left the exam room he was invigilating and came out, literally with open arms. it was nice. then we roamed around a bit, went to the canteen, ate some stuff. went from there to khan market. ate at big chill. megha joined us there. also roamed around some shops, went to ccd, from where megha made a hasty exit. mohini also left around 515. then i went to ihc, went to eatopia and had a muddy fudge. mom came around 6, and we went home. think this was the evening we watched evan almighty on my comp on a cd
wednesday, as usual, i cant remember. was a plain day. chinni mausi and viraj arrived. venkat mausa's bags arrived. my kotak card arrived. in the evening around 5 i left in the i10 for gk2, where around 645 at the costa coffee i met nidhi rastogi. after 6 years. she looks good. spent slightly under 2 hours with her (in the course also meeting shivanti after same time gap). was also nice seeing the marketplace i used to frequent as a child. then went to bluebells to pick up ekta, the confusionmaster. got scolded by mom in the process. got home by 10. dinner was downstairs, where some chinese had been ordered in. had that and some ice cream.
thursday, 17th, was the day of doctors. mom bunked office and took chinni mausi and viraj to some 3-4 docs, and did some of her medical stuff as well. in the evening, we all went to phase 1. i went to khurana for a worn filling. then walked over to marwah's, where mom, mausi, nani, pannu and viraj were. then we drove to plaza. met aditi there, did some shopping for the trip, and went to mgf mall. aditi, pannu and viraj did some bowling at amoeba. everyone window shopped a bit. i had a tart. got home, had dinner, packed and everyone slept. end of day 6.
friday, 18th. woke at 445, got ready and left for the station by 535, only 5 minutes late, a record i think. we went in 2 cars, the optra with ratan and a cab. reached by about 610. caught the dehradun shatabdi at 650, with nani, pannu, viru, chinni mausi, ekta and papa on one end of the train, and me, ekta, mom, venkat mausa and anjali mami on the other. we were served tea and breakfast. i slept a bit. we had a 20 minute halt at saharanpur. reached haridwar dot on time. had a big van there to pick us up, along with a couple of foreigners (gabriel and son from canada and san diego). reached the camp, pooped, around 1:15. we were initiated by amon (or amen, or eymond, or aymon, god knows), an englishman. we settled into our tents, numbered 19-24 (ekta and i took 21), had lunch, and took off for the first round of rafting at 3. ps it was nice to meet vijay and ram again. on day 1 it was only us 5 kids, mom, mausi and mami. and the 2 canadians. we went in a pickup to their guest house. there we bumped into bathwal and his group from accenture. i got a crush on a female in that group. then after sitting there for a while and having a rooh afza based drink, we went to the raft site. our group (including canadians) split into 2 rafts with me getting the weak one with pannu, viru, mami and the free riding mausi. had a good session. on the biggest rapid, called 3 blind mice, one of the accenture rafts overturned. we did a nice rescue job. and felt important also!! i also stood on the edge of my raft while santosh squirmed it side to side. didn't fall off!! reached camp and hung around. the evening, once it darkened, was spent around a bonfire with the vodka we had carried, some sandpiper beer, and lots of singing. we heard the barking deer. had dinner, sat on the sands, and slept off i think by around 10:15. maddeningly early, but there was nothing else to do!! everyone had slept off and there was no electricity.
saturday i woke at around quarter to 8. basically a 9.5 hour sleep. hugely unheard of from me. and it was so quiet outside i thought i must be the first up. but turns out all the adults were awake, and i was the first of the kids. had had a good sleep, though the funny owl making that twicking noise had woken me in between. anyway, had some chai, and some small breakfast of bread jam. 930 we started rafting, after the new joinees got a small briefing. papa joined in this time. and somehow the accenture laden rafts also appeared! after stopping to collect a first aid kit, we set off. we started off on the 'good morning' rapid, followed by a dip in the water. other rapids included 'return to sender', 'rollercoaster', 'tee off', 'golf course', and 'clubhouse'. after this the course became easier. so at this point we took on the tots and elderly. nani and mausa joined here. we went on another rapid, 'initiation', and did a good bit of body surfing. then we came upon a 7 metre high outcropping of rock, of which people were jumping into the river. it was very crowded. determined to conquer my fear, i got in queue. after 10 minutes, my turn came. partly to keep the line moving, and mostly to avoid a change of heart, i jumped quite fast. think i closed my eyes somewhere on the way. it felt like a forever drop. damn scary. and i fell and sank a long way before resurfacing. later i learnt i had made a good jump. viru, pannu and aditi also jumped. then we were on our way again. went over 'double trouble', and we were done!!! at the landing point, we had lots of chana jor garam by a hawker, after nani borrowed money from a fellow camp mate to buy it! went back to camp in our pickup. got to know that a school friend of shobhit mohan's ws also there.
at camp we had a nice lunch and then lazed around. 3pm we crossed the river to go rappelling. exceptions were nani papa ekta and mausa. we went in 2 lots on the little raft. once there, we wore the harness and climbed up 80 feet along a precarious path, clutching a rope for support. i was near a state of panic, even once i reached the top. i went down after pannu and viru. scared the crap out of me as usual. but i managed. the others came after that. viru went twice. then, i was in no mood to attempt the 10 foot climb down to the raft, so i jumped into the river again. still scared me, even from half the previous height.
once back at camp, we had chai again, and then went kayaking. i likes this more for the fact that i was solely in command. but it was way more strenuous. especially as we were asked to go upriver, if anywhere. the kayak went off course easily. everyone tried their hand at this activity at least. it was good fun.
then back to camp, and we had 3 games of volleyball. in the process we made friends with mayank, prasad, jiji and their son avinash. mami had some unfortunate falls, so she was out of the game. ekta was out for all practical purposes. it was good fun. then another evening around the bonfire. more people singing. more drinks. dinner again. after dinner, everyone slept earlyish. only ekta and i were walking around chatting. still we slept by 1030.
sunday. last day. i had mom wake me at 645, so i could appreciate the morning, sunrise behind mountains and cool weather. woke and had chai, though not too much as i was trying to not create pressure. the other kids were woken in another 15 odd minutes. after that, we still had a long time till the rafting began. so we went to the volleyball court, and mom and i played baddi on it for 5-7 minutes. it was nice doing that. had been a long time ago when we used to do that. then mom got tired, so everyone took turns playing, including mami, mausi, nani, pannu, viraj, aditi and ekta. we then had a very tasty breakfast of puri aloo. i had like 5-6 puris.
then we set off again at 9:30. this time, there were fewer people, and thus only 2 rafts. i was now with mom, aditi, mayank, prasad and jiji. we took the same course as the previous day, same rapids, except we navigated the hardling, ie the toughest, most turbulent path along the rapids. it was really good fun. we reached the pickup point fairly early this time, where nani joined us. mausa didnt. set off again. bodysurfed again. i almost came under 2 rafts simultaneously. it was fun. dived off the cliff again. this time it was nearly empty. think it's coz we were earlier. only aditi and i jumped this time. she went first. didn't inspire a lot of confidence in me either, as when she splashed, the buckle of her helmet broke and the helmet came off. still, jump went ok. i was more scared. still felt like a forever fall.
we completed the couse, where mausa was waiting and clicking away. he also had lots of soft drinks and the cash to buy a lot of chana jor garam. then we took off in the pickup. dropped mayank along the way and went back to camp. at camp, we 5 cousins climbed atop a fallen tree and had pics clicked. then 3 of us, including me and mami (i forget who was 3rd) did a little more kayaking. i really enjoyed it. went further upstream than before. after that, it was lunch (fish cutlets and rice), packing, and leaving. we had a cuppa tea, said our goodbyes, and left around 3.
we took the same van we had while coming, and went on the 1 and a quarter hour drive to haridwar. i dozed a bit on the way. on reaching there, we walked to the immersion area. nani and mami were in a rickshaw. there were just walked around the shops. had some kulfi, lassi, samosa. ekta and aditi made some purchases. we bought those sugar balls. some dipped their feet in the ganga. then we left. reached the station around 5:15. we stood around. checked our weights on those 1 rupee machines. ribbed mausi about her '78' kilos. i turned out to be 70 on this. i dont know how accurate they are, but i remember being 61 on a similar machine in chakki bank, mar 2007. so thats good progress.
the train came at 6:08, dot on time. we were all in the same coach this time. it was a quiet ride home, and we were served soup and dinner. reached delhi at 10:45. got home by around 11:45, same optra and cab. i was in the qualis this time, with papa, mausa, mausi and aditi. we watched a bit of the rishikesh video, i packed, and slept by around 1:30.
woke at 4 the next morning, went to the airport with ekta and mom, and caught the 5:45 air deccan flight to bombay. end of a lovely holiday, and onset of the depression!! i love delhi...
started inauspiciously
i was supposed to go home, to my beloved delhi, evening of 11th april, friday. but since monday i had been battling with fever that touched 103, cough and a cold that acted like my nuice was an open sluice gate. hardly spent 4 hours in office combined from wednesday to friday, though i did go on 2 meetings.
friday afternoon, my meru cab didnt show up for 40 minutes, so i took a normal cab, defeating the attempt to travel in some comfort away from the dust, humidity and associated strains, and getting very late in the process.
to top it all, once in the cab i found out the flight was an hour late.
anyway, all worth it on getting home. aditi and mom were at the airport. got home i think around 10. went for coffee at ccd, mega mall post dinner.
12th, saturday, nani and pannu arrived. i was, however, in a bad mood for reasons i cant remember now. met dipu and suhail around 2 opposite privat hospital, and we went in suhail's car to ambi mall. had lunch there at a pizza hut. the waitress smiled at the size of our order! murarka joined us there, taking a cab from the airport. it was a surprise to everyone but me, and suhail and dipu seemed quite pleased (btw he had missed his morning flight, and took a later one). we took him to the food court to eat, loitered about a bit and went home, me being dropped by suhail. murarka and dips were staying with him. at home, i got ready, wore my suit, got into the i10, realized it was out of fuel, waited for mom to get home, grew irritable again, took the optra, and went to essex farms for shek/shef's engagement.
reached there around 715, and the 2 chief guests hadnt reached. suhail, dipu, murli and ruchi were playing a game of bowling. i went to watch. sho and shilpa joined us.
the engagement went off well...met shek and shef's parents, met up with paritosh, karan, nia and zakir, and met some of shek's college buddies like pandu, nijhara, nishant, sharmaji, etc. unfortunately, the whole affair was dry and vegetarian, but good fun nevertheless, with a dance floor also. both s and s were looking very nice for once!!
everyone gradually went home. pari, dips, suhail, murli and i went to saket in 3 cars, and hung out at the ccd ther (after checking out some club also). finally i left around 1:15 and got home at 2
sunday murli landed up at home, after realizing he had confused am and pm. hung out with him, went to nath and had bfast of aloo parathas. he murli went to meet suhail, hitching a ride with aditi n ekta who went to janpath. i had a fairly quiet day otherwise. went to nirvana, saw the place. i quite like the colony. evening we ventured out to roam around galleria, but landed up at the club. they were having some baisakhi evening with a dj, floor and some dance performances. ekta joined us there after dance. turned out to be a nice evening after all. though my belt caused a huge prob!!!
monday was also a quiet day. mom got some medical tests done. in the evening, we watched 'khuda kay liye' at europa, metropolitan. we being aditi, pannu, nani, papa and i.
tuesday i met up with mohini at megha. met mohini at venky to collect our degree certificate. i didnt get mine, in line with my luck. we bumped into kk sir, who recognized us and was very happy to see us. so happy that he left the exam room he was invigilating and came out, literally with open arms. it was nice. then we roamed around a bit, went to the canteen, ate some stuff. went from there to khan market. ate at big chill. megha joined us there. also roamed around some shops, went to ccd, from where megha made a hasty exit. mohini also left around 515. then i went to ihc, went to eatopia and had a muddy fudge. mom came around 6, and we went home. think this was the evening we watched evan almighty on my comp on a cd
wednesday, as usual, i cant remember. was a plain day. chinni mausi and viraj arrived. venkat mausa's bags arrived. my kotak card arrived. in the evening around 5 i left in the i10 for gk2, where around 645 at the costa coffee i met nidhi rastogi. after 6 years. she looks good. spent slightly under 2 hours with her (in the course also meeting shivanti after same time gap). was also nice seeing the marketplace i used to frequent as a child. then went to bluebells to pick up ekta, the confusionmaster. got scolded by mom in the process. got home by 10. dinner was downstairs, where some chinese had been ordered in. had that and some ice cream.
thursday, 17th, was the day of doctors. mom bunked office and took chinni mausi and viraj to some 3-4 docs, and did some of her medical stuff as well. in the evening, we all went to phase 1. i went to khurana for a worn filling. then walked over to marwah's, where mom, mausi, nani, pannu and viraj were. then we drove to plaza. met aditi there, did some shopping for the trip, and went to mgf mall. aditi, pannu and viraj did some bowling at amoeba. everyone window shopped a bit. i had a tart. got home, had dinner, packed and everyone slept. end of day 6.
friday, 18th. woke at 445, got ready and left for the station by 535, only 5 minutes late, a record i think. we went in 2 cars, the optra with ratan and a cab. reached by about 610. caught the dehradun shatabdi at 650, with nani, pannu, viru, chinni mausi, ekta and papa on one end of the train, and me, ekta, mom, venkat mausa and anjali mami on the other. we were served tea and breakfast. i slept a bit. we had a 20 minute halt at saharanpur. reached haridwar dot on time. had a big van there to pick us up, along with a couple of foreigners (gabriel and son from canada and san diego). reached the camp, pooped, around 1:15. we were initiated by amon (or amen, or eymond, or aymon, god knows), an englishman. we settled into our tents, numbered 19-24 (ekta and i took 21), had lunch, and took off for the first round of rafting at 3. ps it was nice to meet vijay and ram again. on day 1 it was only us 5 kids, mom, mausi and mami. and the 2 canadians. we went in a pickup to their guest house. there we bumped into bathwal and his group from accenture. i got a crush on a female in that group. then after sitting there for a while and having a rooh afza based drink, we went to the raft site. our group (including canadians) split into 2 rafts with me getting the weak one with pannu, viru, mami and the free riding mausi. had a good session. on the biggest rapid, called 3 blind mice, one of the accenture rafts overturned. we did a nice rescue job. and felt important also!! i also stood on the edge of my raft while santosh squirmed it side to side. didn't fall off!! reached camp and hung around. the evening, once it darkened, was spent around a bonfire with the vodka we had carried, some sandpiper beer, and lots of singing. we heard the barking deer. had dinner, sat on the sands, and slept off i think by around 10:15. maddeningly early, but there was nothing else to do!! everyone had slept off and there was no electricity.
saturday i woke at around quarter to 8. basically a 9.5 hour sleep. hugely unheard of from me. and it was so quiet outside i thought i must be the first up. but turns out all the adults were awake, and i was the first of the kids. had had a good sleep, though the funny owl making that twicking noise had woken me in between. anyway, had some chai, and some small breakfast of bread jam. 930 we started rafting, after the new joinees got a small briefing. papa joined in this time. and somehow the accenture laden rafts also appeared! after stopping to collect a first aid kit, we set off. we started off on the 'good morning' rapid, followed by a dip in the water. other rapids included 'return to sender', 'rollercoaster', 'tee off', 'golf course', and 'clubhouse'. after this the course became easier. so at this point we took on the tots and elderly. nani and mausa joined here. we went on another rapid, 'initiation', and did a good bit of body surfing. then we came upon a 7 metre high outcropping of rock, of which people were jumping into the river. it was very crowded. determined to conquer my fear, i got in queue. after 10 minutes, my turn came. partly to keep the line moving, and mostly to avoid a change of heart, i jumped quite fast. think i closed my eyes somewhere on the way. it felt like a forever drop. damn scary. and i fell and sank a long way before resurfacing. later i learnt i had made a good jump. viru, pannu and aditi also jumped. then we were on our way again. went over 'double trouble', and we were done!!! at the landing point, we had lots of chana jor garam by a hawker, after nani borrowed money from a fellow camp mate to buy it! went back to camp in our pickup. got to know that a school friend of shobhit mohan's ws also there.
at camp we had a nice lunch and then lazed around. 3pm we crossed the river to go rappelling. exceptions were nani papa ekta and mausa. we went in 2 lots on the little raft. once there, we wore the harness and climbed up 80 feet along a precarious path, clutching a rope for support. i was near a state of panic, even once i reached the top. i went down after pannu and viru. scared the crap out of me as usual. but i managed. the others came after that. viru went twice. then, i was in no mood to attempt the 10 foot climb down to the raft, so i jumped into the river again. still scared me, even from half the previous height.
once back at camp, we had chai again, and then went kayaking. i likes this more for the fact that i was solely in command. but it was way more strenuous. especially as we were asked to go upriver, if anywhere. the kayak went off course easily. everyone tried their hand at this activity at least. it was good fun.
then back to camp, and we had 3 games of volleyball. in the process we made friends with mayank, prasad, jiji and their son avinash. mami had some unfortunate falls, so she was out of the game. ekta was out for all practical purposes. it was good fun. then another evening around the bonfire. more people singing. more drinks. dinner again. after dinner, everyone slept earlyish. only ekta and i were walking around chatting. still we slept by 1030.
sunday. last day. i had mom wake me at 645, so i could appreciate the morning, sunrise behind mountains and cool weather. woke and had chai, though not too much as i was trying to not create pressure. the other kids were woken in another 15 odd minutes. after that, we still had a long time till the rafting began. so we went to the volleyball court, and mom and i played baddi on it for 5-7 minutes. it was nice doing that. had been a long time ago when we used to do that. then mom got tired, so everyone took turns playing, including mami, mausi, nani, pannu, viraj, aditi and ekta. we then had a very tasty breakfast of puri aloo. i had like 5-6 puris.
then we set off again at 9:30. this time, there were fewer people, and thus only 2 rafts. i was now with mom, aditi, mayank, prasad and jiji. we took the same course as the previous day, same rapids, except we navigated the hardling, ie the toughest, most turbulent path along the rapids. it was really good fun. we reached the pickup point fairly early this time, where nani joined us. mausa didnt. set off again. bodysurfed again. i almost came under 2 rafts simultaneously. it was fun. dived off the cliff again. this time it was nearly empty. think it's coz we were earlier. only aditi and i jumped this time. she went first. didn't inspire a lot of confidence in me either, as when she splashed, the buckle of her helmet broke and the helmet came off. still, jump went ok. i was more scared. still felt like a forever fall.
we completed the couse, where mausa was waiting and clicking away. he also had lots of soft drinks and the cash to buy a lot of chana jor garam. then we took off in the pickup. dropped mayank along the way and went back to camp. at camp, we 5 cousins climbed atop a fallen tree and had pics clicked. then 3 of us, including me and mami (i forget who was 3rd) did a little more kayaking. i really enjoyed it. went further upstream than before. after that, it was lunch (fish cutlets and rice), packing, and leaving. we had a cuppa tea, said our goodbyes, and left around 3.
we took the same van we had while coming, and went on the 1 and a quarter hour drive to haridwar. i dozed a bit on the way. on reaching there, we walked to the immersion area. nani and mami were in a rickshaw. there were just walked around the shops. had some kulfi, lassi, samosa. ekta and aditi made some purchases. we bought those sugar balls. some dipped their feet in the ganga. then we left. reached the station around 5:15. we stood around. checked our weights on those 1 rupee machines. ribbed mausi about her '78' kilos. i turned out to be 70 on this. i dont know how accurate they are, but i remember being 61 on a similar machine in chakki bank, mar 2007. so thats good progress.
the train came at 6:08, dot on time. we were all in the same coach this time. it was a quiet ride home, and we were served soup and dinner. reached delhi at 10:45. got home by around 11:45, same optra and cab. i was in the qualis this time, with papa, mausa, mausi and aditi. we watched a bit of the rishikesh video, i packed, and slept by around 1:30.
woke at 4 the next morning, went to the airport with ekta and mom, and caught the 5:45 air deccan flight to bombay. end of a lovely holiday, and onset of the depression!! i love delhi...
Sunday 6 April 2008
the break in the drudgery
yoohoo!!!! i love weekends!!! especially those with non-working saturdays!!!
the highlights of this weekend....(with ruchi now in delhi and shef visiting home, it was a pack of wolves let loose...)
1. friday lunch was at royal china, fort, a treat for the entire RM team by od for her promotion. some 35 of us, and a bill of almost a lakh. no alcohol. had duck for the first time, and ate like pigs. jha and sahil were amusing. spoke mainly to shruti and sat. after a 2 hour lunch, half the people went home. those of us who returned to office, spent the time playing text twirl and golf.
2. friday evening i spent an hour on marine drive with suhail and murarka. the night was spent at dome (after a cheap dinner across the road from churchgate station), with shek and dipu as well as murli & suhail. had a nice absolut screwdriver, and loved the class of the place and crowd. slept early at 1:45
3. saturday morning, woke, read the paper, did the laundry and went to the gym (5th day this week, a record!!). after getting ready at home, had lunch with shek and suhail at atria and then went to nariman, where with dipu and murli watched a 3:15 show of shaurya. afterwards, while dipu and suhail went to dadar for xbox and murli went home, i went with shek to worli where he had to do his laundry, and spoke to him about careers.
4. for saturday night, we then went to dadar, and the 4 of us went to ITC grand central to check suhail in and have dinner at hornby's pavilion. and we didnt have to pay the bill ;) from there we cabbed over to hawaiian shack, where we danced ourselves mad. i had 2 beers, a vodka and a tequila shot. the crowd for once wasnt great, though dips had his first experience of a girl coming on to him!! near the end we bumped into a couple of seniors, including meera, mukim, and shravan sampath. after the shack, we went again to the ITC, and sat around having chai in suhail's room. earl grey, twinings....aaaahhh.... finally got home at 2:45, lounged online and slept around 4ish.
5. sunday morning, i had switched off the mains. so my annoying bai couldnt come and wake me come 930 am. not that it made much difference. a procession woke me at 1015. read the paper, gave clothes for ironing, oiled myself and had a bath. then went with suhail and shek to maroosh for a lunch of kebabs and tikkas. shek was veg due to navratras. bumped into akshay hiranandani there. then went to lifestyle's ccd and had our customary coffees. mine was obv frappe. dipu joined us meantime, and then we shopped. guiltily, i blew up 8k in 1 hour, mostly on unnecessary stuff. in pantaloons i bumped into vishu anand from GS. took me a while, not just to recognize him, but to make out whether he was a cousin, a senior from campus or what!! also had ice creams from gelatos
6. then went to ITC, to suhail's room and had chai. i love it. presently, dipu's company was traded for murarka's. watched a bit of evan almighty, then played 29 till 9pm. then went back to phoenix mills, shopping bags and all, and ate at noodle bar. finally got home by 1115, and i finished watching evan almighty by 12. surfed online, read, etc etc, and slept at 1:45. end of nice weekend number 34523914734
the highlights of this weekend....(with ruchi now in delhi and shef visiting home, it was a pack of wolves let loose...)
1. friday lunch was at royal china, fort, a treat for the entire RM team by od for her promotion. some 35 of us, and a bill of almost a lakh. no alcohol. had duck for the first time, and ate like pigs. jha and sahil were amusing. spoke mainly to shruti and sat. after a 2 hour lunch, half the people went home. those of us who returned to office, spent the time playing text twirl and golf.
2. friday evening i spent an hour on marine drive with suhail and murarka. the night was spent at dome (after a cheap dinner across the road from churchgate station), with shek and dipu as well as murli & suhail. had a nice absolut screwdriver, and loved the class of the place and crowd. slept early at 1:45
3. saturday morning, woke, read the paper, did the laundry and went to the gym (5th day this week, a record!!). after getting ready at home, had lunch with shek and suhail at atria and then went to nariman, where with dipu and murli watched a 3:15 show of shaurya. afterwards, while dipu and suhail went to dadar for xbox and murli went home, i went with shek to worli where he had to do his laundry, and spoke to him about careers.
4. for saturday night, we then went to dadar, and the 4 of us went to ITC grand central to check suhail in and have dinner at hornby's pavilion. and we didnt have to pay the bill ;) from there we cabbed over to hawaiian shack, where we danced ourselves mad. i had 2 beers, a vodka and a tequila shot. the crowd for once wasnt great, though dips had his first experience of a girl coming on to him!! near the end we bumped into a couple of seniors, including meera, mukim, and shravan sampath. after the shack, we went again to the ITC, and sat around having chai in suhail's room. earl grey, twinings....aaaahhh.... finally got home at 2:45, lounged online and slept around 4ish.
5. sunday morning, i had switched off the mains. so my annoying bai couldnt come and wake me come 930 am. not that it made much difference. a procession woke me at 1015. read the paper, gave clothes for ironing, oiled myself and had a bath. then went with suhail and shek to maroosh for a lunch of kebabs and tikkas. shek was veg due to navratras. bumped into akshay hiranandani there. then went to lifestyle's ccd and had our customary coffees. mine was obv frappe. dipu joined us meantime, and then we shopped. guiltily, i blew up 8k in 1 hour, mostly on unnecessary stuff. in pantaloons i bumped into vishu anand from GS. took me a while, not just to recognize him, but to make out whether he was a cousin, a senior from campus or what!! also had ice creams from gelatos
6. then went to ITC, to suhail's room and had chai. i love it. presently, dipu's company was traded for murarka's. watched a bit of evan almighty, then played 29 till 9pm. then went back to phoenix mills, shopping bags and all, and ate at noodle bar. finally got home by 1115, and i finished watching evan almighty by 12. surfed online, read, etc etc, and slept at 1:45. end of nice weekend number 34523914734
Sunday 16 March 2008
another good weekend
a nice social start, by meeting helly for lunch on friday. then of course, a second lunch break with dhruv, followed by the early departure from office.
suhail came home in the evening. we went together to maroosh in phoenix mills and had a dinner of 3 plates of kebab and roomali rotis. dipu joined us, having eaten already at home. we cabbed it to churchgate, met up with shek and shefali and went to not just jazz by the bay. tuhina was there with colleagues. not that it makes any difference to us, but generally, iim-iim bond. plus she's hot. then we had, landing up there, the sbi mf gang, in terms of enthu, raizada, nishit mathur and anoop menon. with a colleague. anyway, heard some jazz/blues.the guy with the harmonica was good, though he hardly played. i had a beer, that's it. kingfishers.
anyway, we left around 11:15ish, and walked over to inox. there we watched the 1130 show of 'juno', a very nice movie about a teenage pregnancy. juno herself was cute.
saturday, i woke early, 10ish. read the paper, surfed the net. went to the gym. from there i walked across to phoenix mills and met shek and shefali for lunch at copper chimney. then we went to heera panna and window shopped for mobiles.
i went home after that, and dipu came over. we played xbox, and soon murli joined us. then dipu left.
murli and i then went to phoenix mills, where we had dinner with shek and shef at lemon grass. it was a nice dinner. good food, good coversation, and good shabab on the next table!!!
after dinner, though we wanted to go to blue frog, due to time and space restrictions, we went instead to ccd at worli. sat there till about 12.15, then walked over to the worli seaface. sat there enjoying the breeze and people, till 1. then murli and i went home, played xbox and slept around 3:30.
i was woken by our soothing doorbell at 945 am, the bai had come to 'clean'. played xbox all morning and afternoon, with dipu joining us soon enough. so much so, that we ordered lunch in and played. dipu and i from dominos, and murli from shang dynasty. i shooed them out around 6 to get ready.
had a company event u see. a fashion show, by manish malhotra. and it rocked!! i mean, the first thing i see upon walking in is the new, tall female in marketing standing in a 1 piece mini. gulp!!! then clients an their families were looking soooooo page 3!!! and then there were the models themselves. it was a good event, lots of eye candy. and so many people knew each other, and i managed to convince a big guy to become our client coz he bumped into someone he knew well, who also happened to be namby's client. for once, private banking seemed to be the pseud thing it was made out to be initially.
also bumped into freddy daruwalla again....he had walkked the ramp, and i had utterly failed to recognize him till dhruv went and asked him whether he was the nivea guy. we had an interesting conversation then after that.
i left around 10:45, took a lift with ham and his petit wife delna to charni road, and took a train home from there. i love mumbaiian weekends
epilogue:
bumped into enthu and nishit again on monday morning, as their cab overtook mine near dadar sabzi mandi en route to work
had an alumni dinner on tuesday, with jj irani at the taj mahal hotel. met dhav and kc there. saw and met some of the legendarily prominent alumni. a very social week
a nice social start, by meeting helly for lunch on friday. then of course, a second lunch break with dhruv, followed by the early departure from office.
suhail came home in the evening. we went together to maroosh in phoenix mills and had a dinner of 3 plates of kebab and roomali rotis. dipu joined us, having eaten already at home. we cabbed it to churchgate, met up with shek and shefali and went to not just jazz by the bay. tuhina was there with colleagues. not that it makes any difference to us, but generally, iim-iim bond. plus she's hot. then we had, landing up there, the sbi mf gang, in terms of enthu, raizada, nishit mathur and anoop menon. with a colleague. anyway, heard some jazz/blues.the guy with the harmonica was good, though he hardly played. i had a beer, that's it. kingfishers.
anyway, we left around 11:15ish, and walked over to inox. there we watched the 1130 show of 'juno', a very nice movie about a teenage pregnancy. juno herself was cute.
saturday, i woke early, 10ish. read the paper, surfed the net. went to the gym. from there i walked across to phoenix mills and met shek and shefali for lunch at copper chimney. then we went to heera panna and window shopped for mobiles.
i went home after that, and dipu came over. we played xbox, and soon murli joined us. then dipu left.
murli and i then went to phoenix mills, where we had dinner with shek and shef at lemon grass. it was a nice dinner. good food, good coversation, and good shabab on the next table!!!
after dinner, though we wanted to go to blue frog, due to time and space restrictions, we went instead to ccd at worli. sat there till about 12.15, then walked over to the worli seaface. sat there enjoying the breeze and people, till 1. then murli and i went home, played xbox and slept around 3:30.
i was woken by our soothing doorbell at 945 am, the bai had come to 'clean'. played xbox all morning and afternoon, with dipu joining us soon enough. so much so, that we ordered lunch in and played. dipu and i from dominos, and murli from shang dynasty. i shooed them out around 6 to get ready.
had a company event u see. a fashion show, by manish malhotra. and it rocked!! i mean, the first thing i see upon walking in is the new, tall female in marketing standing in a 1 piece mini. gulp!!! then clients an their families were looking soooooo page 3!!! and then there were the models themselves. it was a good event, lots of eye candy. and so many people knew each other, and i managed to convince a big guy to become our client coz he bumped into someone he knew well, who also happened to be namby's client. for once, private banking seemed to be the pseud thing it was made out to be initially.
also bumped into freddy daruwalla again....he had walkked the ramp, and i had utterly failed to recognize him till dhruv went and asked him whether he was the nivea guy. we had an interesting conversation then after that.
i left around 10:45, took a lift with ham and his petit wife delna to charni road, and took a train home from there. i love mumbaiian weekends
epilogue:
bumped into enthu and nishit again on monday morning, as their cab overtook mine near dadar sabzi mandi en route to work
had an alumni dinner on tuesday, with jj irani at the taj mahal hotel. met dhav and kc there. saw and met some of the legendarily prominent alumni. a very social week
Sunday 24 February 2008
gymkhana khazana
another nice weekend....they make me happy
left office at 7:15 after some internal meetings....went home, spent about 20 minutes there, and we left for fort. had a quick dinner at khyber with suhail, ruchi, dipu, shek and shefali. went and watched 'michael clayton' at metro with murli joining us. got home at 2, murli spent the night, so slept aroung 3.
saturday was the d-day (wonder what it means). office finished for me at 1:30. went for lunch to moshe with aashika, jassi, manish, dhruv and chirag....where i received a rude shock when the bill was given to me as an initiation ragging. finished lunch around 4....
got home only close to 6, after shopping at zodiac, cr2. relaxed about 1.5 hours, and did some housework. left around 7:45, went to mocha, churchgate where i met up with shek, shefali, murli, suhail n ruchi. spent a nice while there, till 10ish. then i went to bombay gymkhana, fort, for a party with my ex-silo. present there were ruksh, nipa, dhruv, vodhi, sagar, shradha, od and mustu. crowd was killer. tube tops, backless dresses, boots, the works. all classy, all beautiful. met up with other colleagues there. saw clients of the company.
danced a lot. had a corona. had 6 vodkas. had a blast. god knows what time we left. took a cab with dhruv, vodhi and sagar.
digression 1: chruchgate station, thela next to it. had egg bhurji and pav. tasted damn nice
digression 2: breach candy, for some famous paanwaala....which had closed by then
got home and slept around 3.
was woken sunday by the kaamwaali. assume her name is asha. she bugs me. wakes me every sunday. curse her. watched the match. had lunch at copper chimney with shek, shef, ruchi, suhail. dipu joined in later. mom also joined in. spent an hour with her at barista. got home n played xbox. went to cinemax matunga and watched 'jumper'. walked to tibbs and had frankies. walked to ccd shivaji park and had chai. walked to dadar seaface and had overdose of sewage smells. walked home and had an overdose of walking. and now here i am, with an overdose of typing. so tata for now.
left office at 7:15 after some internal meetings....went home, spent about 20 minutes there, and we left for fort. had a quick dinner at khyber with suhail, ruchi, dipu, shek and shefali. went and watched 'michael clayton' at metro with murli joining us. got home at 2, murli spent the night, so slept aroung 3.
saturday was the d-day (wonder what it means). office finished for me at 1:30. went for lunch to moshe with aashika, jassi, manish, dhruv and chirag....where i received a rude shock when the bill was given to me as an initiation ragging. finished lunch around 4....
got home only close to 6, after shopping at zodiac, cr2. relaxed about 1.5 hours, and did some housework. left around 7:45, went to mocha, churchgate where i met up with shek, shefali, murli, suhail n ruchi. spent a nice while there, till 10ish. then i went to bombay gymkhana, fort, for a party with my ex-silo. present there were ruksh, nipa, dhruv, vodhi, sagar, shradha, od and mustu. crowd was killer. tube tops, backless dresses, boots, the works. all classy, all beautiful. met up with other colleagues there. saw clients of the company.
danced a lot. had a corona. had 6 vodkas. had a blast. god knows what time we left. took a cab with dhruv, vodhi and sagar.
digression 1: chruchgate station, thela next to it. had egg bhurji and pav. tasted damn nice
digression 2: breach candy, for some famous paanwaala....which had closed by then
got home and slept around 3.
was woken sunday by the kaamwaali. assume her name is asha. she bugs me. wakes me every sunday. curse her. watched the match. had lunch at copper chimney with shek, shef, ruchi, suhail. dipu joined in later. mom also joined in. spent an hour with her at barista. got home n played xbox. went to cinemax matunga and watched 'jumper'. walked to tibbs and had frankies. walked to ccd shivaji park and had chai. walked to dadar seaface and had overdose of sewage smells. walked home and had an overdose of walking. and now here i am, with an overdose of typing. so tata for now.
Tuesday 19 February 2008
weekend warrior!!! the genuine....
well well well well WELL!!!
what a wekend it was, the weekend of 9-10 feb. i ended up in office on both days!!
we've had classes on a sunday in iim, several friends of mine have worked on weekends, i've heard them grumble and i've pitied them and felt some contempt, but this was the first time i experienced it myself. and i felt like a trooper, a slogger, a workhorse, etc. no jokes!
it all started on the wednesday before that weekend. the country head gave me some work and put me under the charge of vodhi....and looking at the work, i was thrilled. it seemed like an exciting challenge. it also seemed to be a way of making a difference. i think i was kind of wrong in these assumptions.
it was a lot of dirty work. i ended up missing the PE/RE meet at the renaissance on thursday and friday. i was one of only 7-8 people in office on saturday. that too till 7 pm. and one of two people on sunday. that was till almost 4. and it was all unexpected. the string of unexpected delays led to a string of dismay, which finally turned into disgust, i dont know exactly where.
what i basically had to do was create a template for a portfolio monitor, to be used for clients with investments of more than INR 500 million.
i thought i was done on friday evening, and was very happy with myself for meeting a deadline. office on saturday was supposed to be a 10 minute review with JH, and then on to the weekend!! well that review was postponed to late afternoon. but that was before early afternoon when we were given more work. that started the dismay. he kept asking for more from the MIS till at 7, vodhi said he had a movie to go to, so lets work tomorrow instead. he said he would pick me up from dadar at 10 am. that was that.
next morning i ended up following him to office around 10:20, reached there, had a struggle to get in since lifts werent working and door was locked. worked till 4, then i finally left. to have my first meal of the day. i was more disgusted than words could express, mostly coz the delays had been needless.
that being said, i managed to have fun as well. watched a movie on friday, mithya, after dinner at zaffran. saturday we watched fool's gold in versova, then went to club escape (a truly sad place), with a late late dinner at kareem's, bandra. and sunday was chilled, spent at phoenix mills, in front of xbox, and finally a lavish 900 per head dinner at out of the blue with murli and dipu.
finally, in epilogue, i did 2 more portfolios. they took much lesser time, but were almost equally frustrating. hopefully i'm done with that now!
what a wekend it was, the weekend of 9-10 feb. i ended up in office on both days!!
we've had classes on a sunday in iim, several friends of mine have worked on weekends, i've heard them grumble and i've pitied them and felt some contempt, but this was the first time i experienced it myself. and i felt like a trooper, a slogger, a workhorse, etc. no jokes!
it all started on the wednesday before that weekend. the country head gave me some work and put me under the charge of vodhi....and looking at the work, i was thrilled. it seemed like an exciting challenge. it also seemed to be a way of making a difference. i think i was kind of wrong in these assumptions.
it was a lot of dirty work. i ended up missing the PE/RE meet at the renaissance on thursday and friday. i was one of only 7-8 people in office on saturday. that too till 7 pm. and one of two people on sunday. that was till almost 4. and it was all unexpected. the string of unexpected delays led to a string of dismay, which finally turned into disgust, i dont know exactly where.
what i basically had to do was create a template for a portfolio monitor, to be used for clients with investments of more than INR 500 million.
i thought i was done on friday evening, and was very happy with myself for meeting a deadline. office on saturday was supposed to be a 10 minute review with JH, and then on to the weekend!! well that review was postponed to late afternoon. but that was before early afternoon when we were given more work. that started the dismay. he kept asking for more from the MIS till at 7, vodhi said he had a movie to go to, so lets work tomorrow instead. he said he would pick me up from dadar at 10 am. that was that.
next morning i ended up following him to office around 10:20, reached there, had a struggle to get in since lifts werent working and door was locked. worked till 4, then i finally left. to have my first meal of the day. i was more disgusted than words could express, mostly coz the delays had been needless.
that being said, i managed to have fun as well. watched a movie on friday, mithya, after dinner at zaffran. saturday we watched fool's gold in versova, then went to club escape (a truly sad place), with a late late dinner at kareem's, bandra. and sunday was chilled, spent at phoenix mills, in front of xbox, and finally a lavish 900 per head dinner at out of the blue with murli and dipu.
finally, in epilogue, i did 2 more portfolios. they took much lesser time, but were almost equally frustrating. hopefully i'm done with that now!
Sunday 3 February 2008
weekend warrior
well, this time i had a really good start to the weekend.
i left office early, around 3:30, though it was for a meeting in yucky kalbadevi!! the meeting was ok. it got over at 4:15, and i took a cab to go to pay my reliance bill in dadar. with my luck, systems were down, so i went home having wasted money and time.
got ready, shek came over and we left via train for the iron maiden concert. we were dressed as wannabe college dudes, in three fourths, and wearing our chains and wristbands!! took a train to bandra, from where we took an auto to the mmrda grounds. our copassenger in this ride was a freddy darruwala, grasim mr. india-world 2007. seemed a down to earth guy, though he made us feel properly ashamed to be bankers!!
we reached the ground around 645. parikrama was just winding up their last 2 pieces. through coordination via smses, we met up with shaggy, kartik and basu. we also eventually met bania, butalia, soumak, kartik prasad, suchai, srini, gaurav raizada, and rohit jain. also there were venkat, bala and abhinav though i didnt meet them
maiden was awesome....played vintage pieces like trooper, fear of the dark, wasted years, iron maiden, rime of the ancient mariner, aces high, can i play with madness, clairvoyant, powerslave, number of the beast, revelations, hallowed be thy name, etc....and they had good props and costumes for diferent songs.
there was a mosh pit with people bumping into each other, girls smoking up, girls abusing and kicking guys for excessive contact. we almost caught a drumstick thrown toward us by the band, but werent able to hold on to it.
after the show shek and i went to phoenix mills and dined at copper chimney with the intent of having beer. we got home early, and i slept by 145 coz it had been a long tiring day!!
saturday i woke at 930 and read the paper, went to pay the reliance bill finally and got ready. at 2, i went to churchgate and met dipu. had some stuff to eat at croissant. then went to oxford book store. suhail ruchi and murarka joined us, and we watched american gangster in eros. nice movie, though very complicated.
then murli went to meet a school friend. suhail ruchi went shoe shopping. dipu n i walked to theobroma and had some pastries. then with suhail and ruchi we went to crossword in kemp's corner. murli joined us there and i bought 4 books. after that we went to crystal at chowpatty and the 5 of us ate like kings for a total of 350/-!!!
then after a nice walk to peddar road, we went to phoenix mills and settled in sports bar. checked out the awesome crowd at play, shot some hoops, had some beer, met raghavendra, saurabh, shatanshu, TJ, shalaut and arkaj. came home around 1ish, played xbox till 4 and slept off.
sunday we woke at 1130. went to imax wadala, lunched on some oriental shit at the food court and watched 'we own the night'. also a nice movie!!
we came home and i settled in when shek and shef arrived. after pottering around a bit, we went to tamnak thai in shivaji park for dinner. it wa nice n upscale (and expensive!), and shek made an embarassment of himself. the food and budweiser were smackalicious!!
followed up with a frappe at ccd in prabhadevi.
i finally slept at 3am. turned out to be a sleepless night. now i'm tired, but happy.
coz i just went to bkc for a meeting, and met up with rohan for an hour. i like meeting people, and rohan is a good friend. and it's been long....
i left office early, around 3:30, though it was for a meeting in yucky kalbadevi!! the meeting was ok. it got over at 4:15, and i took a cab to go to pay my reliance bill in dadar. with my luck, systems were down, so i went home having wasted money and time.
got ready, shek came over and we left via train for the iron maiden concert. we were dressed as wannabe college dudes, in three fourths, and wearing our chains and wristbands!! took a train to bandra, from where we took an auto to the mmrda grounds. our copassenger in this ride was a freddy darruwala, grasim mr. india-world 2007. seemed a down to earth guy, though he made us feel properly ashamed to be bankers!!
we reached the ground around 645. parikrama was just winding up their last 2 pieces. through coordination via smses, we met up with shaggy, kartik and basu. we also eventually met bania, butalia, soumak, kartik prasad, suchai, srini, gaurav raizada, and rohit jain. also there were venkat, bala and abhinav though i didnt meet them
maiden was awesome....played vintage pieces like trooper, fear of the dark, wasted years, iron maiden, rime of the ancient mariner, aces high, can i play with madness, clairvoyant, powerslave, number of the beast, revelations, hallowed be thy name, etc....and they had good props and costumes for diferent songs.
there was a mosh pit with people bumping into each other, girls smoking up, girls abusing and kicking guys for excessive contact. we almost caught a drumstick thrown toward us by the band, but werent able to hold on to it.
after the show shek and i went to phoenix mills and dined at copper chimney with the intent of having beer. we got home early, and i slept by 145 coz it had been a long tiring day!!
saturday i woke at 930 and read the paper, went to pay the reliance bill finally and got ready. at 2, i went to churchgate and met dipu. had some stuff to eat at croissant. then went to oxford book store. suhail ruchi and murarka joined us, and we watched american gangster in eros. nice movie, though very complicated.
then murli went to meet a school friend. suhail ruchi went shoe shopping. dipu n i walked to theobroma and had some pastries. then with suhail and ruchi we went to crossword in kemp's corner. murli joined us there and i bought 4 books. after that we went to crystal at chowpatty and the 5 of us ate like kings for a total of 350/-!!!
then after a nice walk to peddar road, we went to phoenix mills and settled in sports bar. checked out the awesome crowd at play, shot some hoops, had some beer, met raghavendra, saurabh, shatanshu, TJ, shalaut and arkaj. came home around 1ish, played xbox till 4 and slept off.
sunday we woke at 1130. went to imax wadala, lunched on some oriental shit at the food court and watched 'we own the night'. also a nice movie!!
we came home and i settled in when shek and shef arrived. after pottering around a bit, we went to tamnak thai in shivaji park for dinner. it wa nice n upscale (and expensive!), and shek made an embarassment of himself. the food and budweiser were smackalicious!!
followed up with a frappe at ccd in prabhadevi.
i finally slept at 3am. turned out to be a sleepless night. now i'm tired, but happy.
coz i just went to bkc for a meeting, and met up with rohan for an hour. i like meeting people, and rohan is a good friend. and it's been long....
Wednesday 30 January 2008
another great saturday!
republic day 2008. saturday
it was a dry day, but without going into a pub/club, without going anywhere new, without stepping out of the city, i had a great time. just coz we did so much, and coz all of us were together all day.
elaboration:
i was woken at 11 am by suhail watching the adelaide match between ind-aus, which was ultimately drawn. dipu came over 5 minutes after that, so it was a nice wake up, surrounded by friends. we all took turns playing xbox while suhail and i also got ready. around 1 we (suhail, ruchi, dipu and i) went to phoenix mills, where we met up with shek and shef. for about 45 minutes the 6 of us window shopped, saw the sales and the snakelike line outside big bazaar.
then around 145-2 we had lunch at the noodle bar. this involved us doing the puzzles on the paper table mats. shek provided a hilarious moment by turning his mat over and making obscene and vulgar drawings, not realizing that the waitress was standing over his shoulder. needless to say, he hastily scribbled over it and tore the page and turned it back over!!!
then we got into 2 cabs, the 6 of us, and went to imax wadala. there, in the 3d imax dome we saw a 45 minute movie called 'santa and the snowman', dipu's choice! still, it was ok except the last 15 minutes, which dragged on. after the movie, we all had ice creams (a first) from baskin robbins, and played some arcade games, including some boxing game which was great fun. suhail and i chipped in for shek's fights!! he still lost finally though :(
then we took cabs and went to bandra bandstand, where we got off in front of SRK's house, mannat. stood there for 10 minutes while ruchi clicked pics and shek tried desperately to catch a glimpse. we then had some chaats, walked along the bandstand enjoying the cold ocean breeze, went out to the rocks, slipping and sliding on the moss (dipu the ungainly was the funniest sight!)
then we walked over to the taj land's end, sat for an hour and a half or so, had some soft drinks in their atrium, where shek lamented on the cost of each sip of the drink he took!
then we went to linking road and shopped at shopper's stop for an hour or so. i didnt shop due to my dire fiancial straits, but saw some nice stuff.
then we walked over to mcd's. here dipu left us to go home. the 5 of us ate there, then went to ccd at shivaji park. sat there till 1145-1200 when murarka joined us. shek nearly got thrown out for being too loud. sat around another half hour, then everyone went to their respective homes. murli and i walked back to dadar, a nice half hour walk. got back be around 1-115.
suhail, murli and i then played xbox till 515, then murli and i chatted a bit and finally slept at 6 am.
nice day? i think so....surrounded by my friends, from morning till morning!! that too almost all of us, almost all the time! what more can one want?
it was a dry day, but without going into a pub/club, without going anywhere new, without stepping out of the city, i had a great time. just coz we did so much, and coz all of us were together all day.
elaboration:
i was woken at 11 am by suhail watching the adelaide match between ind-aus, which was ultimately drawn. dipu came over 5 minutes after that, so it was a nice wake up, surrounded by friends. we all took turns playing xbox while suhail and i also got ready. around 1 we (suhail, ruchi, dipu and i) went to phoenix mills, where we met up with shek and shef. for about 45 minutes the 6 of us window shopped, saw the sales and the snakelike line outside big bazaar.
then around 145-2 we had lunch at the noodle bar. this involved us doing the puzzles on the paper table mats. shek provided a hilarious moment by turning his mat over and making obscene and vulgar drawings, not realizing that the waitress was standing over his shoulder. needless to say, he hastily scribbled over it and tore the page and turned it back over!!!
then we got into 2 cabs, the 6 of us, and went to imax wadala. there, in the 3d imax dome we saw a 45 minute movie called 'santa and the snowman', dipu's choice! still, it was ok except the last 15 minutes, which dragged on. after the movie, we all had ice creams (a first) from baskin robbins, and played some arcade games, including some boxing game which was great fun. suhail and i chipped in for shek's fights!! he still lost finally though :(
then we took cabs and went to bandra bandstand, where we got off in front of SRK's house, mannat. stood there for 10 minutes while ruchi clicked pics and shek tried desperately to catch a glimpse. we then had some chaats, walked along the bandstand enjoying the cold ocean breeze, went out to the rocks, slipping and sliding on the moss (dipu the ungainly was the funniest sight!)
then we walked over to the taj land's end, sat for an hour and a half or so, had some soft drinks in their atrium, where shek lamented on the cost of each sip of the drink he took!
then we went to linking road and shopped at shopper's stop for an hour or so. i didnt shop due to my dire fiancial straits, but saw some nice stuff.
then we walked over to mcd's. here dipu left us to go home. the 5 of us ate there, then went to ccd at shivaji park. sat there till 1145-1200 when murarka joined us. shek nearly got thrown out for being too loud. sat around another half hour, then everyone went to their respective homes. murli and i walked back to dadar, a nice half hour walk. got back be around 1-115.
suhail, murli and i then played xbox till 515, then murli and i chatted a bit and finally slept at 6 am.
nice day? i think so....surrounded by my friends, from morning till morning!! that too almost all of us, almost all the time! what more can one want?
Sunday 20 January 2008
campus revisited
ah well.....after literally weeks, maybe even months, of eagerly waiting, i finally went to campus on the weekend of 11th january. i needed to go....i think it was mainly for two reasons, both conflicting
one was that i was desperately missing campus. i was missing being a student. after 7 months of monotony in work life, i wanted to go back to a familiar place, where i lived my best days, where i knew everyone around. just so i could relive those memories and be happy in the laid back lifestyle. it was to be like balm for my soul, searching for familiarity in this new life
the second reason was that i was deperately missing campus. i havent been able to get over it, over leaving it knowing i'll never have it back. it's like a physical ache, a very strong ache that sometimes threatens to overcome me. i needed to go to campus and see the 2 junior batches to know that i was now an outsider. that i didnt belong there anymore. that that's not where my friends now were. that things were different. maybe then i would get some closure...and get over it to an extent.
as i'm writing this, it's less than a week since i've returned. it's too soon to tell whether the trip served its purpose.
all i know is i had a blast. from our group, only murarka and suhail were there. while i missed the others, not havin them around helped me bond with others. actually, i cant explain it, but there was already some invisible bond between all my batchmates who turned up. we were linked together by the same campus, the same love for it, the pining for it. it was evident in the warmth we exhibited to each other, the way we hugged people we'd hardly known back when we studied there, the way everyone was smiling!
i stayed in h10, in abhishek gupta's room (1065). played table tennis. heard performances by euphoria, silk route and parikrama, as well as the rock contest. went to ganj, to eat at royal cafe and dastarkhwan, travelling by bus and vikram. went on campus walks and met alok and sonuji. heard bhat's commentary again. which was awesome! got drunk at the manfest party....
and then i felt terrible leaving campus again. in the knowledge that i was going back to office and its drudgery. and that i wouldnt return to campus for a long long time. and that when i do, things will be even more different. i felt empty....a sense of loss
but i do know this....in the last 7 months i've been earning, i've incurred some substantial expenditures. but i think the 14k i blew on going to lucknow was the best money i spent. i went to campus!!!!!!!!!
one was that i was desperately missing campus. i was missing being a student. after 7 months of monotony in work life, i wanted to go back to a familiar place, where i lived my best days, where i knew everyone around. just so i could relive those memories and be happy in the laid back lifestyle. it was to be like balm for my soul, searching for familiarity in this new life
the second reason was that i was deperately missing campus. i havent been able to get over it, over leaving it knowing i'll never have it back. it's like a physical ache, a very strong ache that sometimes threatens to overcome me. i needed to go to campus and see the 2 junior batches to know that i was now an outsider. that i didnt belong there anymore. that that's not where my friends now were. that things were different. maybe then i would get some closure...and get over it to an extent.
as i'm writing this, it's less than a week since i've returned. it's too soon to tell whether the trip served its purpose.
all i know is i had a blast. from our group, only murarka and suhail were there. while i missed the others, not havin them around helped me bond with others. actually, i cant explain it, but there was already some invisible bond between all my batchmates who turned up. we were linked together by the same campus, the same love for it, the pining for it. it was evident in the warmth we exhibited to each other, the way we hugged people we'd hardly known back when we studied there, the way everyone was smiling!
i stayed in h10, in abhishek gupta's room (1065). played table tennis. heard performances by euphoria, silk route and parikrama, as well as the rock contest. went to ganj, to eat at royal cafe and dastarkhwan, travelling by bus and vikram. went on campus walks and met alok and sonuji. heard bhat's commentary again. which was awesome! got drunk at the manfest party....
and then i felt terrible leaving campus again. in the knowledge that i was going back to office and its drudgery. and that i wouldnt return to campus for a long long time. and that when i do, things will be even more different. i felt empty....a sense of loss
but i do know this....in the last 7 months i've been earning, i've incurred some substantial expenditures. but i think the 14k i blew on going to lucknow was the best money i spent. i went to campus!!!!!!!!!
Friday 4 January 2008
is it love?
CLASS XII
i can't even remember how i met her....
all i remember is her in winter uniform...green sweater, grey skirt, red glass of fountain coke in hand.
her friends' names flash through my mind.....atam, berry berry, rahat
her sleeping. gokul threatening to wake her with a poke, grinning wickedly. me sternly stopping him.
expressing to her my twinge of sadness at her leaving for mumbai. her holding my hand.
i remember her smile, i always thought mohini's was kind of similar.
i remember waking around 6 and driving to the airport through pouring rain to see her off, and i remember missing her coz she took the other gate.
i remember those std calls i made to her from the booth near our tuitions, vasant vihar. they used to last 4-5 minutes, and cost 80-90 bucks.
i remember akshay making fun of the frills.
most, i remember how i felt about her. no physical attraction. i just wanted to sit with her, holding her, her hands in mine, protecting her from the world. she was never pretty, but she had always been beautiful.
her making out on scribble day with some guy, no strings attached. that hurt.
her being upset at not doing well in the boards. that hurt more.
visiting her, with the 3 page letter. now thinking back, that was really stupid. but atleast i remember her house. and the long black dress she wore that day.
i miss and cherish those memories of cold winter mornings in the school bus. it would stop in front of her apartments, wheezing and grunting. i would scan the embarking crowd and catch her eye. usually she, goks and i would sit together. pitch dark outside, gloomy yellow lights on inside. it felt like we were the only beings in existence, with the fog outside cutting off the rest of the world. complete isolation. we would huddle in the cold, playing games, along with neha and manjari. those are happy memories....
where did they go??
PRESENT DAY
december 24th, 2007. i'm in goa, with my gang from L. we're having a blast, and just preparing to set off for a christmas party in a club someplace. my phone rings; an unknown number. i start working up a head of steam for these damned telecallers. and when the high pitched voice says it's a N*****a, it takes me a second to recognize her. it takes less than half a second after that for all of the above memories to rush back to me. suddenly i'm that shy, hopeful, introverted, painfully skinny schoolboy once again, clothes neatly tucked in, shoes polished, tiffin in my bag, thinking about that demi-goddess whom i revered, that 17 year old who was the coolest person i knew. 17!!! what an awesome age!!
she's almost 25 now, and i'm well into 23 myself. where have the last 7 years gone??? we lost touch while she was in mumbai, and didnt know of each other's existence till goks came across her profile on orkut. after over 6 years, we said hi again.
when i found out she was coming to mumbai and i gave her my number, i didnt really expect her to call. meanwhile i mused at the pleasures of flirting with her in case she did.
all of that fell away when she did call. she called!!!! childish, innocent joy!! this girl might like me!!! the thrill of a kid saying hi to a girl he has a crush on. no other way to dscribe that thrill of pleasure.
we met twice, for a total of 6 hours approximately. it was awkward at first. not just due to the long time, but also because i wasnt sure if she'd prefer me to be the kiddy friend she left behind and who she was immensely fond of, or if she'd rather i acted my age, a young man, fairly mature, yadda yadda. tuns out i needn't have worried. being me was ok. if anything was not ok, it was glossed over by her incessant chatting.
i have not met anyone else who could talk 4 hours out of 5 in a first meeting. and i drank in her words. i dont know how much i followed. it was just such a pleasure hearing her and also knowing she was comfortable conversing.
i think the best thing i could have done (possibly in my life) was gifting her the bouquet of flowers that i did. she said no one had done that without ulterior motives, and that was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. maybe a slight exaggeration on her part, but man, i felt soooooooooooooooo good.
on her part, i loved that she kept calling. she had no ego, and dutifully called whne she said she would. she took initative to meet me. she called me sweetie. and like a yesteryear romantic, she asked me to call her when i got home, to make sure i was safe.
and now she's gone. and i feel paranoid about her leaving so soon after we met after so long. it's like i'm afraid of losing her again, even though i never 'had' her, so to speak.
and all i can think of are the 2 lines running from her nose to the edges of her mouth, accentuating her cheeks. her perenially half closed eyes. the 17 million watt smile. the burn weal-like stretch marks behind her arms. the giggle. hugging her (something i never did 7 years back).
and all i can think of is holding her, protecting her from the world.
she was never pretty, but she was always beautiful.
is it just a powerful memory and idea?
or can this be love?
i can't even remember how i met her....
all i remember is her in winter uniform...green sweater, grey skirt, red glass of fountain coke in hand.
her friends' names flash through my mind.....atam, berry berry, rahat
her sleeping. gokul threatening to wake her with a poke, grinning wickedly. me sternly stopping him.
expressing to her my twinge of sadness at her leaving for mumbai. her holding my hand.
i remember her smile, i always thought mohini's was kind of similar.
i remember waking around 6 and driving to the airport through pouring rain to see her off, and i remember missing her coz she took the other gate.
i remember those std calls i made to her from the booth near our tuitions, vasant vihar. they used to last 4-5 minutes, and cost 80-90 bucks.
i remember akshay making fun of the frills.
most, i remember how i felt about her. no physical attraction. i just wanted to sit with her, holding her, her hands in mine, protecting her from the world. she was never pretty, but she had always been beautiful.
her making out on scribble day with some guy, no strings attached. that hurt.
her being upset at not doing well in the boards. that hurt more.
visiting her, with the 3 page letter. now thinking back, that was really stupid. but atleast i remember her house. and the long black dress she wore that day.
i miss and cherish those memories of cold winter mornings in the school bus. it would stop in front of her apartments, wheezing and grunting. i would scan the embarking crowd and catch her eye. usually she, goks and i would sit together. pitch dark outside, gloomy yellow lights on inside. it felt like we were the only beings in existence, with the fog outside cutting off the rest of the world. complete isolation. we would huddle in the cold, playing games, along with neha and manjari. those are happy memories....
where did they go??
PRESENT DAY
december 24th, 2007. i'm in goa, with my gang from L. we're having a blast, and just preparing to set off for a christmas party in a club someplace. my phone rings; an unknown number. i start working up a head of steam for these damned telecallers. and when the high pitched voice says it's a N*****a, it takes me a second to recognize her. it takes less than half a second after that for all of the above memories to rush back to me. suddenly i'm that shy, hopeful, introverted, painfully skinny schoolboy once again, clothes neatly tucked in, shoes polished, tiffin in my bag, thinking about that demi-goddess whom i revered, that 17 year old who was the coolest person i knew. 17!!! what an awesome age!!
she's almost 25 now, and i'm well into 23 myself. where have the last 7 years gone??? we lost touch while she was in mumbai, and didnt know of each other's existence till goks came across her profile on orkut. after over 6 years, we said hi again.
when i found out she was coming to mumbai and i gave her my number, i didnt really expect her to call. meanwhile i mused at the pleasures of flirting with her in case she did.
all of that fell away when she did call. she called!!!! childish, innocent joy!! this girl might like me!!! the thrill of a kid saying hi to a girl he has a crush on. no other way to dscribe that thrill of pleasure.
we met twice, for a total of 6 hours approximately. it was awkward at first. not just due to the long time, but also because i wasnt sure if she'd prefer me to be the kiddy friend she left behind and who she was immensely fond of, or if she'd rather i acted my age, a young man, fairly mature, yadda yadda. tuns out i needn't have worried. being me was ok. if anything was not ok, it was glossed over by her incessant chatting.
i have not met anyone else who could talk 4 hours out of 5 in a first meeting. and i drank in her words. i dont know how much i followed. it was just such a pleasure hearing her and also knowing she was comfortable conversing.
i think the best thing i could have done (possibly in my life) was gifting her the bouquet of flowers that i did. she said no one had done that without ulterior motives, and that was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. maybe a slight exaggeration on her part, but man, i felt soooooooooooooooo good.
on her part, i loved that she kept calling. she had no ego, and dutifully called whne she said she would. she took initative to meet me. she called me sweetie. and like a yesteryear romantic, she asked me to call her when i got home, to make sure i was safe.
and now she's gone. and i feel paranoid about her leaving so soon after we met after so long. it's like i'm afraid of losing her again, even though i never 'had' her, so to speak.
and all i can think of are the 2 lines running from her nose to the edges of her mouth, accentuating her cheeks. her perenially half closed eyes. the 17 million watt smile. the burn weal-like stretch marks behind her arms. the giggle. hugging her (something i never did 7 years back).
and all i can think of is holding her, protecting her from the world.
she was never pretty, but she was always beautiful.
is it just a powerful memory and idea?
or can this be love?
Wednesday 2 January 2008
the year that was
you know...of late (the last 2-3 years), i've started believing time is flying by faster than ever. and it always scared me. well, in comparison, 2007 has been truly frightening. so much has happened. so many new memories, bittersweet in nature!! if every year is going to be like this one, there's no way my little brain will remember even an iota of my life
it feels like only 4-5 months have passed, not 12, since last new year, spent in hyderabad (convention centre) with family. and it was a good time. after spending 4 days in hyd, i had returned to campus, only to feel homesick and scamper back in a day (chucking my goa plan) to surprise all!!
from there, memories just keep accumulating. the next was the manic process of placements. i loved my cv. i had been working on it since november. i was almost a star on campus when i got 16 shortlists from 20 applications. my name was on almost every list. and i pulled through. got 4 offers, selected my 'dream job' at kotak, and spent the rest of placement season drinking in the beauty of campus. the best was that placements ended the day we were leaving, so we were able to enjoy the holi/placement party about 2 hours before leaving. talk about JIT!!!
the next is our holiday to dharamsala/dalhousie. 6 days. cold wave. inadequate protection. incessant rain. potts' loosies. dipu's rum. snow. peeing in the snow. missing our train from chakki bank by 24 hours. not realizing it. general compartment. eunuch!!
and in the blink of an eye, convo. the proudest i must have ever felt. finally a graduation ceremony. by that evening, half our batch had left and campus seemed a less friendly place. the goodbyes. leaving the next day. i cried when i left home to come to L. i didnt cry while leaving it. but i felt the pain more acutely. i think campus set me free. made me more confident, more sure of myself. in a 100 acres of some of india's brightest minds, though i barely passed, i leaped ahead. can i even begin to express the gratitude and love i feel for the place and the people??
2 months at home. nothing on my mind. sheer bliss. catching up with the life i had left behind 2 years ago.
interjected with 2 weeks in europe. of which 5 days were alone. sheer independence of travel, accomodation, everything. granted, europe is easy to travel around. but that knowledge doesnt come before experience. and it is a whole other continent, with different languages and attitudes. and for the first time, i bonded with uncles and aunts....not just as a nephew, but as a person.
another thing....the world shrunk for me. i started meeting people i knew all over the place. in malls (such as bittu), at airports (such as siddharth the pcom at delhi, samarth dada in frankfurt!!) and in other cities (sounak in cal). plus i knew people all over the place, people i could choose to meet.
anyway, then came mumbai. although ready for change, i was still upset leaving the wonderful life of home. bbay didnt make my initiation any easier. i got fleeced by the cabbie from the airport. it was friggin humid and i was sweating rivulets. i stayed at a hotel of lesser calibre than i expected, and the restaurant was closed by the time i reached.
took a month to find a half decent place to stay. hated travelling around mumbai. the only thing that made it easier was that there were tons of people i knew here....kept bumping into them as well.
well.....now life has settled since those trials. been staying here for 6 months. made a trip to hyd for meena mausi's silver anniv. went to kashid/murud with 'the gang'. went to goa with 'the gang'. went pub hopping, discing, friday night movie watching with 'the gang'. and now i dont know what i'll do in delhi once i shift, without all these people.
met a certain lady....am still wondering what that's about......
met an old school friend after 7 years....am still wondering about that too!!!! that's a heck of a memory by the way....
got initiated into work life. now this totally sucks. i miss being a student. i hate office. 7 months. and the frustrations of a disorganized company. making new friends/colleagues. a boss. muster for attendance. sales.
positives. party at poison. sneaking murli n shek into it. sri lanka.
good and bad have been mixed this year. among the worst...drifting apart from smriti. i miss her sometimes. feel guilty for not being there at her wedding.
anyway....more goods than bads i think. more importantly, so many memories.....i'll try and remember you, 2007, as the year in which i discovered....
it feels like only 4-5 months have passed, not 12, since last new year, spent in hyderabad (convention centre) with family. and it was a good time. after spending 4 days in hyd, i had returned to campus, only to feel homesick and scamper back in a day (chucking my goa plan) to surprise all!!
from there, memories just keep accumulating. the next was the manic process of placements. i loved my cv. i had been working on it since november. i was almost a star on campus when i got 16 shortlists from 20 applications. my name was on almost every list. and i pulled through. got 4 offers, selected my 'dream job' at kotak, and spent the rest of placement season drinking in the beauty of campus. the best was that placements ended the day we were leaving, so we were able to enjoy the holi/placement party about 2 hours before leaving. talk about JIT!!!
the next is our holiday to dharamsala/dalhousie. 6 days. cold wave. inadequate protection. incessant rain. potts' loosies. dipu's rum. snow. peeing in the snow. missing our train from chakki bank by 24 hours. not realizing it. general compartment. eunuch!!
and in the blink of an eye, convo. the proudest i must have ever felt. finally a graduation ceremony. by that evening, half our batch had left and campus seemed a less friendly place. the goodbyes. leaving the next day. i cried when i left home to come to L. i didnt cry while leaving it. but i felt the pain more acutely. i think campus set me free. made me more confident, more sure of myself. in a 100 acres of some of india's brightest minds, though i barely passed, i leaped ahead. can i even begin to express the gratitude and love i feel for the place and the people??
2 months at home. nothing on my mind. sheer bliss. catching up with the life i had left behind 2 years ago.
interjected with 2 weeks in europe. of which 5 days were alone. sheer independence of travel, accomodation, everything. granted, europe is easy to travel around. but that knowledge doesnt come before experience. and it is a whole other continent, with different languages and attitudes. and for the first time, i bonded with uncles and aunts....not just as a nephew, but as a person.
another thing....the world shrunk for me. i started meeting people i knew all over the place. in malls (such as bittu), at airports (such as siddharth the pcom at delhi, samarth dada in frankfurt!!) and in other cities (sounak in cal). plus i knew people all over the place, people i could choose to meet.
anyway, then came mumbai. although ready for change, i was still upset leaving the wonderful life of home. bbay didnt make my initiation any easier. i got fleeced by the cabbie from the airport. it was friggin humid and i was sweating rivulets. i stayed at a hotel of lesser calibre than i expected, and the restaurant was closed by the time i reached.
took a month to find a half decent place to stay. hated travelling around mumbai. the only thing that made it easier was that there were tons of people i knew here....kept bumping into them as well.
well.....now life has settled since those trials. been staying here for 6 months. made a trip to hyd for meena mausi's silver anniv. went to kashid/murud with 'the gang'. went to goa with 'the gang'. went pub hopping, discing, friday night movie watching with 'the gang'. and now i dont know what i'll do in delhi once i shift, without all these people.
met a certain lady....am still wondering what that's about......
met an old school friend after 7 years....am still wondering about that too!!!! that's a heck of a memory by the way....
got initiated into work life. now this totally sucks. i miss being a student. i hate office. 7 months. and the frustrations of a disorganized company. making new friends/colleagues. a boss. muster for attendance. sales.
positives. party at poison. sneaking murli n shek into it. sri lanka.
good and bad have been mixed this year. among the worst...drifting apart from smriti. i miss her sometimes. feel guilty for not being there at her wedding.
anyway....more goods than bads i think. more importantly, so many memories.....i'll try and remember you, 2007, as the year in which i discovered....
goa, trip 2
hmmm.....what can i say?
the most exotic location in india....
christmas time...which is carnival season without the mad rush for new years
it was a dream time....with some of my most favourite people in the world (and against the wishes of some lesser preferred!!)
we went from 22-25 dec, leaving mumbai on 21st night by a/c sleeper volvo. 5 of us went, ie ruchi suhail shek shefali and i. it was a nice journey, commenced with games of cards on the upper beds. froze through the night, managing some excuse of sleep by tuckin my arms inside my shirt.
we woke around 9 and disembarked at mapusa, from where we took a van to candolim, shanu holiday home. it was a damn nice place, and after settling in, we immediately went to a supermart on the main road and bought ice creams and namkeens.
shobhit and shilpa joined us later, as their bus was delayed by some 5-6 hrs from blore
ok.....this blog is going to be too long if i write in narrative like this. so rest of it is in bullet points:
- rented a couple jeeps to drive around in for a day
- went at night to baga, where the brakes of 1 jeep failed causing a slight accident
- visited tito's, followed by a shack on the beach where we had dog and watched a firangi do a fire dance
- dipu joined us the following morning (sunday). we picked him up from the food court in calangute
- after settling the accident bill, getting the marooned jeep back and having some ice cream, we headed to anjuna to spend the day
- oh...most importantly, we had a dream location. candolim is quite empty, and more importantly, its empty of indians. though most foriegners were old, some were quite good, and a fair number were topless!!
- in a related aspect, i loved pete's shack, where we lounged in our beachwear, ate every 2 hours (thanks to dipu) and drank budweiser with every meal!!
- saw dolphins in the water, jumping around....a beautiful sight
- 24th morning was lazy, though we went in the evening for watersports at calangute and spent new year's eve at a club called paradiso in anjuna.....had free booze after paying entry!!!! also had a nice crowd, fireworks and dance floor with trance music
- 23rd night was spent at tito's, where the guys (suhail, shek, dipu and i) knockd ourselves out on shots. most were tequila, but one was an exotic one called head fcuk. i loved the name, if not the inadequate effect. also shek and i had beer, and tried our gym routines as dance steps
- 25th was spent entirely and solely on our candolim beach. sat on beach chairs, ate, played frisbee, went in the water, played frisbee there, read, etc. lovely chilled day. went to panjim in the evening to catch bus back. quilts werent available this time, so froze again
CONCLUSION:
i had an awesome time. as feedback for my friends, i would have appreciated more enthu for certain activities. i really wanted to go to a god party, which i was not able to. next time, will prolly rent scooters/bikes so each is free to do their own thing. would have also liked to visit vagator fort.
but i had an awesome time. spent 4 days with my best friends. met shobhit after soooo long. got along well with shilpa; she's a very nice girl. got a massive suntan on my face, and sunburn on my chest, shoulders and back (skin from which is still peeling!!!). all part of the experience :)
the most exotic location in india....
christmas time...which is carnival season without the mad rush for new years
it was a dream time....with some of my most favourite people in the world (and against the wishes of some lesser preferred!!)
we went from 22-25 dec, leaving mumbai on 21st night by a/c sleeper volvo. 5 of us went, ie ruchi suhail shek shefali and i. it was a nice journey, commenced with games of cards on the upper beds. froze through the night, managing some excuse of sleep by tuckin my arms inside my shirt.
we woke around 9 and disembarked at mapusa, from where we took a van to candolim, shanu holiday home. it was a damn nice place, and after settling in, we immediately went to a supermart on the main road and bought ice creams and namkeens.
shobhit and shilpa joined us later, as their bus was delayed by some 5-6 hrs from blore
ok.....this blog is going to be too long if i write in narrative like this. so rest of it is in bullet points:
- rented a couple jeeps to drive around in for a day
- went at night to baga, where the brakes of 1 jeep failed causing a slight accident
- visited tito's, followed by a shack on the beach where we had dog and watched a firangi do a fire dance
- dipu joined us the following morning (sunday). we picked him up from the food court in calangute
- after settling the accident bill, getting the marooned jeep back and having some ice cream, we headed to anjuna to spend the day
- oh...most importantly, we had a dream location. candolim is quite empty, and more importantly, its empty of indians. though most foriegners were old, some were quite good, and a fair number were topless!!
- in a related aspect, i loved pete's shack, where we lounged in our beachwear, ate every 2 hours (thanks to dipu) and drank budweiser with every meal!!
- saw dolphins in the water, jumping around....a beautiful sight
- 24th morning was lazy, though we went in the evening for watersports at calangute and spent new year's eve at a club called paradiso in anjuna.....had free booze after paying entry!!!! also had a nice crowd, fireworks and dance floor with trance music
- 23rd night was spent at tito's, where the guys (suhail, shek, dipu and i) knockd ourselves out on shots. most were tequila, but one was an exotic one called head fcuk. i loved the name, if not the inadequate effect. also shek and i had beer, and tried our gym routines as dance steps
- 25th was spent entirely and solely on our candolim beach. sat on beach chairs, ate, played frisbee, went in the water, played frisbee there, read, etc. lovely chilled day. went to panjim in the evening to catch bus back. quilts werent available this time, so froze again
CONCLUSION:
i had an awesome time. as feedback for my friends, i would have appreciated more enthu for certain activities. i really wanted to go to a god party, which i was not able to. next time, will prolly rent scooters/bikes so each is free to do their own thing. would have also liked to visit vagator fort.
but i had an awesome time. spent 4 days with my best friends. met shobhit after soooo long. got along well with shilpa; she's a very nice girl. got a massive suntan on my face, and sunburn on my chest, shoulders and back (skin from which is still peeling!!!). all part of the experience :)
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