It takes a few years of driving experience and skill to reach in front of the long queue at traffic lights in pune. You have to move thru the packed traffic taking meandering curves to reach spear head of the waiting traffic.
A few days back at one of the traffic lights I accomplished that feat with ease.
I stopped beside a luxury car and I glanced to check if there's anything worth looking inside, i found a girl sitting in the lap of a man in his late thirties. I did not appreciate what that man was doing but could not take my eyes off that cute girl. She was wearing a spaghetti top and her unkept hair was falling on her cheek which she constantly kept moving to the sides of her ear. It was dangerous to drive with a girl on ur lap, for a second an accident scene crossed my mind. I looked at the girl again and hoped she had a more sensible and caring father or whoever he was. I do not approve of driving with such a small kid in your lap.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Lonely walk on an empty street
Last night was different.
I went for a walk at about 12:30 in the night. I was feeling very uneasy. I realized it getting worse after the FM, which was providing some solace to the unwanted feeling, went silent. I wore some warm clothes and got out of the house not knowing how to make me feel better. I locked my house and took the stairs. It was cold outside, but bearable. I started walking on the empty street towards Kumar padmalaya apartments. The road looked so similar to my heart which was feeling empty and void. I had my hands in the large pocket of my sweatshirt at my tummy and I was clutching them inside. It made me feel better, for unknown reason.
All the major events of my life @ pune, which started nearly 4 years back, were crossing my disturbed and panicky mind. I started my professional life here, quite casually. A few months went without realizing that I have become a professional. The 4 month training period made it appear so similar to the college life. Classes, tests, hanging out with the new acquaintances etc was the daily routine. Coming months brought responsibilities and seriousness in me. Before I realized I had become a workaholic, sitting in office from 9:00 AM to any time. On a few occasions I stayed in office for more than 36 hours. Eventually my friend circle reduced to my room mates and the people who used to sit with me for long time in office and sparingly few juniors.
I had reached Kumar padmalaya, I decided to take the square route and go along Convergeys, parihar chowk, food world back to my place. I kept walking.
Amidst all this I got close to few females at regular intervals, some from office and some outside. None of them were interesting enough for me to alter my working hours. With these short intermittent breaks and the eventual abrupt end of the relationships that could have been, I always fell back on my usual working schedule. 2 years went by in the same fashion. Inadvertently I had cut myself off from the species called friends oblivious of the long lasting effect it would have on me. I was doing well professionally and didn’t have time to think of other things. The only time I had for myself was spent sleeping. A few months later I went to US for the big implementation. I had worked on the same project for the past 1.5 years. The charisma of the US of A lasted for a few weeks before crashing in front of my eyes. I worked for even longer hours as I had nothing better to do and well that was the need of the hour. After working like donkeys and saving some good bucks, I came back to India. In the meantime all my friends (room mates and people who used to sit for long hours and sparingly few juniors) had disappeared to other faces of earth. I started realizing that I had become lonely; sometimes the feeling was so strong I wanted to run away from myself. I did. I shifted to Aundh because one of my close school friends had moved in there. I thought I would relive the old school days when I had so much fun, when I was so happy. Things improved but not to the extent I had imagined. The new rule of leaving office at 5:30 had landed me in big trouble. It gave me time for myself which I couldn’t handle. I had forgotten the trick of handling such a simple thing. I really had.
Some other people came close to me in the days to come, very close. I had no control on that coz I was broken apart by my situation then. I was so lonely that anyone and everyone were welcome. I had become so weak and vulnerable. Eventually I yielded to wutever was happening with me least bothered to take control of the situations. Anyway it had not brought much happiness in the past.
I came back to the empty Street again. My heart felt heavy. I got reminded of one of the lines from a book I was reading a few hours back, “Never choose achievement at the cost of happiness”. Had I made the same mistake?
I would leave for Greece in a couple of days. I don’t know a single soul there, not even a distant one. I realized that my life was a lonely walk and it will be till I find a companion. I looked around to find someone only to get more disappointed. The street was empty till the farthest point that was visible. I wanted to run through the empty stretch away from my loneliness. The air had become cooler; my slow walk was not helping me get any warmer.
I wanted to be warm; warmth only a human could provide.
As I reached close to my apartment I hoped these lonely walks lead me to someone; I was desperate.
Can anyone hear?
I went for a walk at about 12:30 in the night. I was feeling very uneasy. I realized it getting worse after the FM, which was providing some solace to the unwanted feeling, went silent. I wore some warm clothes and got out of the house not knowing how to make me feel better. I locked my house and took the stairs. It was cold outside, but bearable. I started walking on the empty street towards Kumar padmalaya apartments. The road looked so similar to my heart which was feeling empty and void. I had my hands in the large pocket of my sweatshirt at my tummy and I was clutching them inside. It made me feel better, for unknown reason.
All the major events of my life @ pune, which started nearly 4 years back, were crossing my disturbed and panicky mind. I started my professional life here, quite casually. A few months went without realizing that I have become a professional. The 4 month training period made it appear so similar to the college life. Classes, tests, hanging out with the new acquaintances etc was the daily routine. Coming months brought responsibilities and seriousness in me. Before I realized I had become a workaholic, sitting in office from 9:00 AM to any time. On a few occasions I stayed in office for more than 36 hours. Eventually my friend circle reduced to my room mates and the people who used to sit with me for long time in office and sparingly few juniors.
I had reached Kumar padmalaya, I decided to take the square route and go along Convergeys, parihar chowk, food world back to my place. I kept walking.
Amidst all this I got close to few females at regular intervals, some from office and some outside. None of them were interesting enough for me to alter my working hours. With these short intermittent breaks and the eventual abrupt end of the relationships that could have been, I always fell back on my usual working schedule. 2 years went by in the same fashion. Inadvertently I had cut myself off from the species called friends oblivious of the long lasting effect it would have on me. I was doing well professionally and didn’t have time to think of other things. The only time I had for myself was spent sleeping. A few months later I went to US for the big implementation. I had worked on the same project for the past 1.5 years. The charisma of the US of A lasted for a few weeks before crashing in front of my eyes. I worked for even longer hours as I had nothing better to do and well that was the need of the hour. After working like donkeys and saving some good bucks, I came back to India. In the meantime all my friends (room mates and people who used to sit for long hours and sparingly few juniors) had disappeared to other faces of earth. I started realizing that I had become lonely; sometimes the feeling was so strong I wanted to run away from myself. I did. I shifted to Aundh because one of my close school friends had moved in there. I thought I would relive the old school days when I had so much fun, when I was so happy. Things improved but not to the extent I had imagined. The new rule of leaving office at 5:30 had landed me in big trouble. It gave me time for myself which I couldn’t handle. I had forgotten the trick of handling such a simple thing. I really had.
Some other people came close to me in the days to come, very close. I had no control on that coz I was broken apart by my situation then. I was so lonely that anyone and everyone were welcome. I had become so weak and vulnerable. Eventually I yielded to wutever was happening with me least bothered to take control of the situations. Anyway it had not brought much happiness in the past.
I came back to the empty Street again. My heart felt heavy. I got reminded of one of the lines from a book I was reading a few hours back, “Never choose achievement at the cost of happiness”. Had I made the same mistake?
I would leave for Greece in a couple of days. I don’t know a single soul there, not even a distant one. I realized that my life was a lonely walk and it will be till I find a companion. I looked around to find someone only to get more disappointed. The street was empty till the farthest point that was visible. I wanted to run through the empty stretch away from my loneliness. The air had become cooler; my slow walk was not helping me get any warmer.
I wanted to be warm; warmth only a human could provide.
As I reached close to my apartment I hoped these lonely walks lead me to someone; I was desperate.
Can anyone hear?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
First Confrontation with the 94 Batch
Meeting old friends still gives me a greater pleasure than having an old french wine.I went to Mumbai on the Makar Sankranti weekend to spend time with some long lost friends.After picking up Sumit K Jha (the nepali batsman) and one of my Adityapur friends, We went to SPJAIN college of Management to meet Lalit Pareek, the same scholarly guy who used to sit for long hours in the library with one of the toppers of our batch (in LOOKS department), Satsang Randhelia, Basketbaal freak and another topper of our Batch, and Vimala, who can take lectures on the survival techniques in male dominated society. We managed to meet the former two.Lodhi celebration was on when we reached the SPJ campus. The students were celebrating Lodhi with great fervor. Future Managers dancing around the bonfire clad in ethnic clothes reminded me of the bonfire in our college days. It was so different for the simple fact that there was abundance of girls dancing along with the equal number of guys and yeah; in One group.After doing some talking and leg pulling we succumbed to the the inevitable, “Talking about College days”.Saggy had an interesting thing to share. The event goes back to the inception of our college life. Some GACCH people from our Batch, namely Saggy, Sappal, Bhusan, Rishi etc had good fun during the early ragging period era. The audacious group would go to SUDHA dairy to get a glimpse of any female or similar looking creature and have the few pleasantries Sudha Dairy offered.During their initial endeavors Saggy and Rishi were caught @ Sudha by the 94 Batch. The others i.e. the blessed souls did not turn up for reasons unknown.The seniors took Saggy and Rishi in the jungle beside the down hostel. They accompanied the seniors oblivious of what was gonna befall. It was scary going thru that jungle though it was far from dense. The scantily lit college premises hardly promised any help for the poor souls. In some time they reached the end of the jungle which faces the kharkai river. It would be callous to put details of all that happened thereafter. They were made to slap each other as hard as they can, strip butt naked, go to their hostel naked etc etc. It was even more dangerous to plead and ask the seniors to return their clothes coz their mind could come up with things more innovative, troublesome, hurtful and offensive. Saggy and Rishi decided to leave before the seniors changed their mind and started walking with hesitant steps towards the UP hostel.Inundated with embarrassment they were unable to think of anything, they knew that on their way and upon reaching the hostel they are gonna be laughed upon by the crazy, and then alien crowd. Some holy spirit passed over the seniors heads and they called the Ma#$^&* 97 batch back. The clothes were returned and Rishi and Saggy somehow managed to wear them all and run back to the hostel.In the meantime the blessed souls were anxious and worried for the lost members. Quite like his nature, Saggy cooked up a different story and told the entire hostel. He told the rest of 97 how they bumped into the 94 Batch seniors who after taking their introduction took them to town and treated them with delectable food at some hotel. He did not forget to mention how good they made both of them feel and dropped them back to the UP hostel safe and sound.All the gory details of ragging in an REC seemed false. People who by then had never thought of going to Sudha dairy started venturing. History repeated itself; Sappal and Bhusan were trapped in the hands of 94 Batch again. They had no better experience but could not cook any story and were left @ the mercy of the notorious 97 batch who demonstrated none. They were the laughing stock for days to come. The actual story of Saggy and Rishi’s first confrontation with the 94 batch was divulged during a Daroo session in the final year in one of the rooms of Down Hostel.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Rang De Basanti
The 7:10 PM show was houseful when I went to book the tickets for ‘Rang De Basanti’ @ 6:30 PM @ E Square.
Ultimately I booked the tickets for 8:15 show and managed a seat in the 3rd row from top.
The movie was good watch, extremely well directed by Rakeysh Mehra.
He is same guy who directed AKS which bombed at the Box office. Nontheless I was impressed with his work even then.
Mr. Mckinley met these extremely intrepid guys (Bhagat Singh, Azad, Bismil and Rajguru) during his service with the British police force and witnessed their hanging. He was so impressed with their valor and character that he wrote a diary on these extremists. His writing mentioned all the events related to these heroes in detail. McKinley’s grand daughter (Sue), a film maker, was obsessed with making a film on these heroes. She lands in India in search of the cast for her movie. She meets DJ, Karan, Laxman, Sukhi, Ajay and Aslam (Amir, Sidhartha, Atul kulkarni, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor) thru her friend Sonia (Soha Ali) and sees the characters of her movie coming alive in them.
Ajay is a fighter pilot and Sonia’s Boyfriend (Thank God he mentions that @ the start of the movie, I was a bit confused coz Sonia used to hug and get close to everyone in the group). The other four are college going brats except DJ who had passed out 5 years back but couldn’t leave the college for his love for friends and college and an inner fear of losing his identity outside the college. They are hardcore party animals totally disappointed with everything this country provides. They are also of belief that nothing can be changed in India and it would be the same for years to come. Ajay had a different opinion. He believed that every Indian was responsible for anything right or wrong happening in a country. ‘No Nation is prefect, it had to made perfect’ was his thought which others couldn’t buy. As opposed to Ajay, they had no passion for a free country which offered them nothing better than a dog’s life.
Amidst all this, the movie goes back to the lives and events of India’s freedom fighters and freedom movement at regular intervals connecting contemporary analogical events. This has been done beautifully in the movie. The background scores at these junctions in the movie pronounce the effects and generate that passionate feeling in the audience. The movie carries itself pretty well with the soundtrack that is not otherwise impressive but creates a good impact with the movie. After a few casual rehearsal sessions, the characters delve into the freedom fighters psyche and start producing impressive acting for Sue.
As the events unfolds, Ajay dies in a plane crash. The plane crashes due to some mechanical fault in the MIG. Defence Minister alleges Ajay to be an irresponsible and denies any bad or old parts being responsible for the crash. The fearsome foursome kill the Defence minister and admit it on AIR. Eventually they all get shot by the Black cat commandos in the AIR building.
The entire crew has done an impressive job. Amir is GAU (Good as usual), Atul Kulkarni produces fire and passion better than all the other people.
Sidhartha is cute and thoroughly stylish. He even kills his dad as he was involved in the MIG deal.
The movie is thought provoking and mocks at people like us who want to go to the US and lead a better life rather than improving things here.
A must see movie!!
Ultimately I booked the tickets for 8:15 show and managed a seat in the 3rd row from top.
The movie was good watch, extremely well directed by Rakeysh Mehra.
He is same guy who directed AKS which bombed at the Box office. Nontheless I was impressed with his work even then.
Mr. Mckinley met these extremely intrepid guys (Bhagat Singh, Azad, Bismil and Rajguru) during his service with the British police force and witnessed their hanging. He was so impressed with their valor and character that he wrote a diary on these extremists. His writing mentioned all the events related to these heroes in detail. McKinley’s grand daughter (Sue), a film maker, was obsessed with making a film on these heroes. She lands in India in search of the cast for her movie. She meets DJ, Karan, Laxman, Sukhi, Ajay and Aslam (Amir, Sidhartha, Atul kulkarni, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor) thru her friend Sonia (Soha Ali) and sees the characters of her movie coming alive in them.
Ajay is a fighter pilot and Sonia’s Boyfriend (Thank God he mentions that @ the start of the movie, I was a bit confused coz Sonia used to hug and get close to everyone in the group). The other four are college going brats except DJ who had passed out 5 years back but couldn’t leave the college for his love for friends and college and an inner fear of losing his identity outside the college. They are hardcore party animals totally disappointed with everything this country provides. They are also of belief that nothing can be changed in India and it would be the same for years to come. Ajay had a different opinion. He believed that every Indian was responsible for anything right or wrong happening in a country. ‘No Nation is prefect, it had to made perfect’ was his thought which others couldn’t buy. As opposed to Ajay, they had no passion for a free country which offered them nothing better than a dog’s life.
Amidst all this, the movie goes back to the lives and events of India’s freedom fighters and freedom movement at regular intervals connecting contemporary analogical events. This has been done beautifully in the movie. The background scores at these junctions in the movie pronounce the effects and generate that passionate feeling in the audience. The movie carries itself pretty well with the soundtrack that is not otherwise impressive but creates a good impact with the movie. After a few casual rehearsal sessions, the characters delve into the freedom fighters psyche and start producing impressive acting for Sue.
As the events unfolds, Ajay dies in a plane crash. The plane crashes due to some mechanical fault in the MIG. Defence Minister alleges Ajay to be an irresponsible and denies any bad or old parts being responsible for the crash. The fearsome foursome kill the Defence minister and admit it on AIR. Eventually they all get shot by the Black cat commandos in the AIR building.
The entire crew has done an impressive job. Amir is GAU (Good as usual), Atul Kulkarni produces fire and passion better than all the other people.
Sidhartha is cute and thoroughly stylish. He even kills his dad as he was involved in the MIG deal.
The movie is thought provoking and mocks at people like us who want to go to the US and lead a better life rather than improving things here.
A must see movie!!
Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear
A berth in an AC train has never failed to allure me to sleep. I rate it as one of the best beds that anyone can have.
I usually cover myself with a blanket and sleep for really long durations with short breaks to appease my stomach.
I detest the idea of being connected when I am sleeping. Hence I switch off my cell phone before going into that blissful state.
I was on my way back to Mumbai after attending a childhood friend’s wedding. Attended the wedding and even before it got over I congratulated the half married couple and left to catch the 3:00 AM train to Mumbai. Had I missed that, I would not have been able to attend the office on the next day. The entire plan was made in haste and I ended up spending more time traveling and less time at the wedding.
I got up at 11:00 in the morning for some fresh coffee. Imagine opening your eyes in the morning to find 3 really good looking females and 1 okay looking female in the same compartment. I cursed myself for having slept longer. I got down from the top berth and looked at the females to make some space for me. They were all coming back from a wedding in Calcutta and had so many luggages that I had to put my single small bag in space between the seats when I boarded the train that night.
I have never been able to figure out why females invariably need to carry so many luggages.
As I got down from the top berth, one of the females moved to one side and made some space for me simultaneously apologizing for occupying all the space available for luggage. Voila! A conversation had started without any effort and that too so early.
I brushed my teeth, washed my face and came back to the seat quickly. One of the females was quite a look alike of Riya Sen; she was the one who had offered the seat. She caught my attention again. My presence had silenced their never ending talk. I knew within that it would be resumed with even greater vigor shortly. The uncomfortable silence made me take my cell phone out & switch it on; as soon as it was put on messages started getting delivered on it.
4 msgs and all of them were implying a sense of urgency, requesting me to contact office as soon as possible. One of my team mates called me up before I could contact office, asking me to contact my PL right away. She transferred the phone and my PL broke news that promised an abundance of opportunities for me. I was selected for a new project @ Greece. Just as he was about to reveal more, the network was gone. I fumbled with my phone trying to find a network manually; I did find one but was unable to make an outgoing call. I messaged my PL to call me again. The network was so bad that nothing was audible when he called. I hung up telling him that I would contact as soon as the train stopped @ a station. I called him up after some time when the network tower was so high it would have come out of my phone.
I was selected for an Onsite assignment @ Greece and was to fly in about 2 week’s time. The project was to be kicked off in a day or two. The short conversation was so pleasing. It filled my head and soul with anxiety and happiness. My face had become a mirror of my emotions. I had been waiting for something like this for quite some time. Riya Sen triggered the conversation again by asking me if I was flying to Greece. She had overheard my conversation with the PL and so had everyone else in that compartment. We started talking and soon another beautiful stranger joined. I boasted about our Job and how it frequently demands us to go to various geographical locations to implement projects for giants like GE, HSBC, CITI etc. I kept them interested with my talk for sometime but my mind was somewhere else. All but Riya Sen got down at Durg station. She was a good company and accompanied me till Akola. She was one of those people who had multitude of topics to talk on and who knew exactly how to start a conversation. She reached her destination at 10:00 in the night and I helped her with the luggage when she got down.
All awhile even amidst those conversations my mind was working on the plan to go to Greece. There was so much to be done in so less time. I was hoping everything to happen according to the plan.
I went to my berth after she got down. As I stretched myself on the berth, I was thinking deeply about things. I realized I was feeling sad because flying to a foreign land would estrange me from my few close friends who I spent time with. It would also mean short and less frequent visits to my family. Some faces flashed in my mind turning me really sad. I knew I would not meet some of them for long time to come. I remembered something I read so often on the rear view mirror of the vehicles, ‘Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’. In the mirror of my heart I could see some faces for which I was feeling stronger than usual; they were definitely closer to my heart than they apparently appeared to be. In some time that berth in the AC train started working and I unconsciously covered myself with the blanket. I switched off my cell phone again and went into that blissful state.
I usually cover myself with a blanket and sleep for really long durations with short breaks to appease my stomach.
I detest the idea of being connected when I am sleeping. Hence I switch off my cell phone before going into that blissful state.
I was on my way back to Mumbai after attending a childhood friend’s wedding. Attended the wedding and even before it got over I congratulated the half married couple and left to catch the 3:00 AM train to Mumbai. Had I missed that, I would not have been able to attend the office on the next day. The entire plan was made in haste and I ended up spending more time traveling and less time at the wedding.
I got up at 11:00 in the morning for some fresh coffee. Imagine opening your eyes in the morning to find 3 really good looking females and 1 okay looking female in the same compartment. I cursed myself for having slept longer. I got down from the top berth and looked at the females to make some space for me. They were all coming back from a wedding in Calcutta and had so many luggages that I had to put my single small bag in space between the seats when I boarded the train that night.
I have never been able to figure out why females invariably need to carry so many luggages.
As I got down from the top berth, one of the females moved to one side and made some space for me simultaneously apologizing for occupying all the space available for luggage. Voila! A conversation had started without any effort and that too so early.
I brushed my teeth, washed my face and came back to the seat quickly. One of the females was quite a look alike of Riya Sen; she was the one who had offered the seat. She caught my attention again. My presence had silenced their never ending talk. I knew within that it would be resumed with even greater vigor shortly. The uncomfortable silence made me take my cell phone out & switch it on; as soon as it was put on messages started getting delivered on it.
4 msgs and all of them were implying a sense of urgency, requesting me to contact office as soon as possible. One of my team mates called me up before I could contact office, asking me to contact my PL right away. She transferred the phone and my PL broke news that promised an abundance of opportunities for me. I was selected for a new project @ Greece. Just as he was about to reveal more, the network was gone. I fumbled with my phone trying to find a network manually; I did find one but was unable to make an outgoing call. I messaged my PL to call me again. The network was so bad that nothing was audible when he called. I hung up telling him that I would contact as soon as the train stopped @ a station. I called him up after some time when the network tower was so high it would have come out of my phone.
I was selected for an Onsite assignment @ Greece and was to fly in about 2 week’s time. The project was to be kicked off in a day or two. The short conversation was so pleasing. It filled my head and soul with anxiety and happiness. My face had become a mirror of my emotions. I had been waiting for something like this for quite some time. Riya Sen triggered the conversation again by asking me if I was flying to Greece. She had overheard my conversation with the PL and so had everyone else in that compartment. We started talking and soon another beautiful stranger joined. I boasted about our Job and how it frequently demands us to go to various geographical locations to implement projects for giants like GE, HSBC, CITI etc. I kept them interested with my talk for sometime but my mind was somewhere else. All but Riya Sen got down at Durg station. She was a good company and accompanied me till Akola. She was one of those people who had multitude of topics to talk on and who knew exactly how to start a conversation. She reached her destination at 10:00 in the night and I helped her with the luggage when she got down.
All awhile even amidst those conversations my mind was working on the plan to go to Greece. There was so much to be done in so less time. I was hoping everything to happen according to the plan.
I went to my berth after she got down. As I stretched myself on the berth, I was thinking deeply about things. I realized I was feeling sad because flying to a foreign land would estrange me from my few close friends who I spent time with. It would also mean short and less frequent visits to my family. Some faces flashed in my mind turning me really sad. I knew I would not meet some of them for long time to come. I remembered something I read so often on the rear view mirror of the vehicles, ‘Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear’. In the mirror of my heart I could see some faces for which I was feeling stronger than usual; they were definitely closer to my heart than they apparently appeared to be. In some time that berth in the AC train started working and I unconsciously covered myself with the blanket. I switched off my cell phone again and went into that blissful state.
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