26th July 2005 - My Wet Birthday

In Bombay they say 'Jab bhagwaan deta hai, chapar faad ke deta hai'. That day god did give chapar faad ke and the medium he chose was in the form of Rain. It rained like there is no tomorrow.

My day started early in the morning. I was working in a BPO in Malad and I had to be present to answer customer queries by 4 am that day. There was no sign of rain in the morning. I was to meet up with friends for lunch in the afternoon and the plan to party were to be made there after. The rain started by about 11 a.m. It started as a drizzle which made me feel its going to be a fun day with booze and a bit of rain dance.

We entered the restaurant for lunch at 1 and till 2.30 pm, we were enclosed and couldnt get an update on what was happening outside. As soon as we stepped out, I saw that the drizzle had grown into a crazy prankster. I could see the roads being filled with water. I praised the municipality for an amazing job they had done. Okay! the adventure streak in us still didnt allow us to press the panic button. We thought it to be a great opportunity to get wet and walk all the way till we could no more take the rain. Once we reach that point we decided to take a cab and go home.

We started to walk. Crazy things followed like Dancing, splashing water, shouting at the taxi's all the way. Slowly we saw like a lot more people on the road and fewer vehicles actually plying. It dawned on us that the roads are getting inaccessible. Cars are breaking down. By this time we had reached Goregaon S.V Road. What we saw ahead of us was like unbelievable. The road across the railway bridge was like a river. People had tied a rope across to assist people to cross the road. Slowly we began to get serious. We crossed the road, thanks to the help of local people but only after we saw a few people losing the balance and getting swept by the force of water. One of them was a poor aunty. She must have been pushed by the water a good 50 metres, before some folks could help her.

Gauging the seriousness we started looking for a cab. All the cab's were either stranded because of engine failure or were already full. Luckily we got a cab who could only move about a kilo metre before his engine also gave up. We were at the western express highway now and shivering frantically. The whole of the expressway was full of traffic. No vehicle moving even an inch. I could see people starting to walk, deserting their cars. I checked my phone and there was no network. No network in any of our phones. Damn! Vodafone and Airtel would have drowned we thought.

After a bit of blame game and strategizing, we decided to go back to work and spend the time in the office premises, till we could get a vehicle to go back home. The way back was no less than an adventure. We were wading through knee deep water. We were exhausted. We could see the whole of bombay on the railway tracks. People were jumping off the immovable trains and walking the tracks. It was dangerous. But desperation to reach home was the cause. We heard news of the rain not going to stop for another 48 hours and that there is a Tsunami that is impending. Tsunami, as found out later was a rumour. Our fun side was now no where to be seen. All of us had a tired and grumpy look. It was a difficult 3 hours of walk back to the office.
We reached the lane opposite to Toyota showroom near mind space. The water was till our chest. My friend shorter than me had it till her neck. Another important decision; do we proceed or get back. What if there is an open manhole in between. That would have been the end of our experience. But then again, we had limited choice. We cant afford to be stranded in chest deep water for long. I gave my friend the support and we started walking on our toes. It took us 15 mins to cross a 200 metre lane.

Ofice was a crowded market. Everyone whose shifts got over after 3 didn't dare to leave the premises. We were drenched completely. But then, we werent the only ones. Many of the folks had returned back like us. We had no dry clothes nor could the AC in the office be turned off. I spent an hour in the bathroom trying to get as much of hot air as possible from the hand dryer. By the time I was done, I saw a queue to follow me. Crazy Day. The canteen had to prepare extra food for the whole company who would be spending the night in the office. In the office, people were getting worried. No one was able to get in touch with their loved ones and that was making them think pessimistically. The employees who stayed close to the office got as much as dry clothes as possible but we werent that lucky to lay our hads on any.

Contingency plans were been formulated at work. People who have stayed back will need to work the next day, till the management takes stock of the situation and arrangement could be made to put a message in the IVR informing our customers about the situation in Bombay. I slept on the ground, shivering the whole night in my wet clothes. It was a terrible night. Many of the employees hijacked two chairs to make themselves comfortable and sleep.

In the morning we took calls, though we struggled. more than 200 calls were waiting to be answered at any given time that day, because of shortage of staff. By 10 am in the morning, the rains has reduced down a bit. Many of the employees left the office. I was one of them. I and my friend took a rickshaw. The driver was a brave guy, greedy too. He wanted 100 rs above the metre. We agreed. We could reach till Juhu before the rickshaw gave up. I had to reach Sion and My friend Wadala. We walked through Juhu which was impacted terribly. A few pople whom we passed said their were corpse near the Juhu circle. We didnt cross that. As we reached near the link road, we got a tempo who dropped us till the Andheri station. We thought we would get a train. But many amazing mumbaikars had spent the night at the station and it was crowded to fill every inch of the platform. We were extremely tired by now. Our adventure didnt to be ending.
We waited on the road for sometime and to our relief the BEST had continued to operate the bus service. We got a bus which we took till the western express highway. From there we walked till santacruz airport, before we couldnt carry on anymore. Lot of vehicles were stranded. People who stayed nearby were offering tea and biscuits to the stranded people. That is the Bombay Spirit.
We took a bus which was relatively empty. We sat and thought, under the worst scenario we will spend the rest of the day in the bus. The bus moved at a snails pace and took 4 hours to reach Kala nagar in Bandra. For the first time I saw people on boats in Mumbai. It was the fire brigade who had the inflatable boats to help people. I thought the bus wont be able to cross the area as the water was almost to the height of the bus window. Our driver didnt give up and he got us through. What a relief.
It was 6 pm. We got down at T-Junction and took a cab. I went to drop my friend at Wadala. No traffic all the way. But the driver wasnt ready to come back to Sion.
Now I was alone, walking to Sion, cursing the rains.

I reached home by 8 pm. My ordeal of 30 hours got to an end. My parents were relieved to see me as they had no clue of my presence. My bike which my brother had taken was under water near Bandra. My Bro left it and walked home. He was lucky that he was close to home and could easily walk it out.

My 24th Birthday taught me quiet a few lessons.
- I learnt that physical fitness is of prime importance.
- Health is very important. If we were not fit at that time we wouldnt have been able to take so much of physical and mental stress.
- Fun is good as long as it doesnt turn foolish
- This world, no matter how bad it is, there are people who will help you around. They will help you with a vada pav at least.
- Businesses will always think of their survival before they do of yours. Work - Life Balance is absolutely important.
- Always keep warm dry clothes in your work locker :-)
- Always befriend people who stay a stones throw away from your office or college or your club.
- Nature has been and will be superior to Mankind.

Fight Corruption - I Moved beyond FB - I made my point

Today is the third day of the protest against corruption led by Anna Hazare. I have been active on the internet since a few days adding status messages, pictures, videos and notes all in support of the movement. But that's so convenient, isn't it? Sit on your couch with your laptop or mobile with music playing in your ears and type a few words and enjoy the comments and likes.

The real support is out there on the streets. The slogan shouting, the tricolour flying around you, the banners...just took me to another era altogether. An era which I thought was lost among the black and white pictures. The era which I thought existed only in the Indian history books. I was so wrong.

I got a text in the morning about a rally in Pune from Balgandharva Chowk till Sarasbaug. I called up a few people and got the exact route of the rally. It was Balgandharva Chowk - J.M. Road - Deccan - Lakdi Bridge - Alka Talkies Chowk - Tilak Road - Abhinav Chowk - Sarasbaug. I then coordinated with my roommates and got Venu and Kaushal into the act as well. We decided to join the rally at Deccan at about 6.15

I was excited. This would be the third instance of participating a rally for a cause. The previous two were when I was in my engineering college. The very first one was in 2000. The students in Mumbai were protesting against the 4 KT a year rule for advancement to the next year. We reached Azad Maidan with our chest inflated with the feeling that we have finally grown up. As we reached, a police constable tapped me from behind and said 'Chala Chala'. I thought may be he doesnt want us there. Then I positioned my eye towards his pointed finger. And then it struck me. We were being boarded onto a police van. I looked at Stanley and Bala, who in turn looked at Gaurav and we said 'Chal Bhai, lifetime experience hai'. We were taken to the Colaba police station and they left us by 3. While we were inside they scared us by saying that we will spend the day in the station and that they are going take pictures son and publish in the paper. By 3 we were so worked up that as soon as we came out of the police station, we took the first cab and ran away from that sight.

So my point is, though I was juvenile then and got scared a bit at the end, I know what to expect now and be prepared for the inevitable. I took my car and we reached Deccan by 7. It was my only second trip into the heart of Pune and Venu my guide was also clueless. We kind of got lost but the people were very helpful in helping us locate the exact rally wala lane.

We got our voices mingled to the screams of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Hamari bas ek hi maang - Jan lokpal Jan lokpal'. The moment I joined, I felt like - this is what I was missing on FB. The real shouts, the real banners and the real peaceful protest.
As we saw people just looking and not participating we screamed  ' Bhagtay kay? Shamil vha' which means 'what you looking at? come and join us'. As in when police used to appear the slogan used to change to 'Yeh Andar ki baat hai...police hamaare saath hai'. This more often than not left a smile on the tired and grumpy faces of the policemen.
The amazing part was to see families, starting from the grandmother till the grandchild who may not even speaking, coming together to join the rally. I also saw a lot of college students in the crowd. Many of the guys had lanyards on them. Straight from office you see. Different sights.

Its been 3 days and there is no incident of any stone pelting, fights, messing up with cops etc yet. And that's what is the beauty of this protest. You come out, show your support, make your presence felt and go home safe. This rally too was as peaceful as you can get.

We finished the rally at Sarasbaug by lighting the candle as a sign of our support to the Bill.

My relationship with sleep

She visited me at the wrong time ;-)

I love to sleep!!!

Wait! hold your question, mate. I know whats on your mind.

With whom?

Let me clear that. I love to sleep alone and she (Nitradevi) loves me in return. Yes, we have a reciprocal relationship. We give as much time to each other as possible. We give equal amount of time to each other, no less no more. The equation is always set to equilibrium.

I will tell you how it is reciprocal in nature. There are times when I have so much to do, in terms of work, interact with family n friends, surf the net, write a blog, kick myself etc that I just call Nitradevi by my side and she responds in a flash.

Once she is there -

- She ensures my ears go deaf. I mean deafer than the deafest.

- She makes sure that the door bell stops to function. Almost like miraculously.

- She makes me make my presence felt in the house. Really! Its through my nose making me sound like a roar followed by a meow.

- She also makes my trip. Yes I visit places and then forget. Almost as soon as she is gone.

- She also teaches me bonding. Yes I wake up with my legs and hands on people lying next to me.

I embrace her as soon as I feel her around. I don't let her go, never. Well, almost never. Exceptions do exist. In the night when the nature calls me, I put my body on the control mode and don't leave her side. There are times when she feels its time to get up for office but I keep convincing her to let the feeling go.

Thats my dedication!

Its worked wonderfully well for us, all these years. Its a match to die for.

Avoidance...hmmmm...yea, i avoid her when I am in the office and yes sometimes when I am working. And the best part is, she never feels sad about it.

Do I feel something now? Oh yea, there she comes. See you guys, time to sleep :-)

Wine and Beer shop - But Rum shows its face

Please don't try this at home

Its a cold and windy evening. The rain gods seem to have gone lazy and their presence is felt only by a light drizzle. The sky has covered itself with the saffron cloth with intermittent patches of dark gray. Amazing! The perfect weather and setup to call our dear friend 'Old Monk' for company. 

These were only thoughts running in my head while I was staring at the sky from the balcony, when I heard my friend approaching me. 'Dost, gala suka suka lag raha hai na, Rum peete hai?' He asked me the question for which I just had one Answer. YES!. He is my true friend. He can read my mind. Girl friend...aahhh...lets not get there.

We jumped on his CBZ and left towards the most sought after place in any city/town/suburb or a village after a medical shop and a temple, the Wine Shop. Or may be the medical shop follows the booze shop in popularity. Well, an interesting topic to do a survey on. My mind just wanders leaving the point of the present aside. aargh! when do I grow up? I know...hhmmm.......never?

Our usual shop 'Kalyani wines' near the building was closed for some reason. May be Kalyani felt like making Biryani that day. You never know. But my friend and me debated on the fact that how can the owner be so insensitive towards the need of the fellow humans. Sad. But we didn't lose hope. 

We went to the next shop just about a kilometer away. That shop left us disappointed again. His words infact broke our heart. 'Old Monk' is out of stock. Nahiiii, hamare naseeb main old Monk nahi hai aaj, my friend sobbed. I had to lift myself up from the trauma and console him and motivate him to keep looking. Being a natual leader, my words instilled the drive back in my friend. We left with more vigor and purpose than before. 

We narrowed on another shop and got down. The hoarding said ' Famous - beer and wine shop'. Well yea, with beer and wine around you gotta be famous. Fame and wine are directly proportional. More the wine, more famous you are (another of my famous theories). 

While waiting in the line, we kind of understood he will not have Rum as he can only serve beer and wine at that place. But we didnt want to give up on the shop keeper so easily. We asked in a mild tone 'Rum hai, Rum'. He said in a harsh tone 'NAHI'. Our mission just got tougher. We used tactic # 2. Uncle last week hi humne liya tha, ek khamba. Thats it. It worked. The guy went to the general store nearby and got a litre of Old Monk. 

What a sight. Rum Face so bright. 

So that's how guys and gals, Indians do the right thing, only in the best interest of the customer.

Ok people, so what do we learn from all of this?

1) Never give up - you are always close to the Rum, I mean the goal

2) Always have a plan B - usually its the other plan that gets you the spirit.

3) Observe keenly - this helps you formulate your actions better.

4) In India, everything is possible

And finally Have a knack for writing - else you will end up writing crap like me :-)

Room mate - torture me weirdo

Okay, here he was. Straight from Amdavad via a halt at Surat. A bag full of Undhiyu and Ghantiya and some more tongue twisters. His look said it all. A cunning, boring, self centred gaanda. Thank you landlord for this exemplary favor on me.

  "Hi" is all that I could say. He started "Myself Hites, from Amdavad, Gujarath. Ay am new here. Freser. Job looking here. okay". I said yeah OKAY!

I didnt need a few days or a few hours to know that he is a weirdo. 15 minutes was all that it took. I have never decoded a person so soon in my life. The rest of the days I have spent with him only reinforced the same fact again and again and yes, once again.

I saw him sleeping with his windcheater one night and I spent the next half an hour looking for water leakage from the ceiling. And that was like a 'Oh Shit' moment for me. It  isnt leaking dude, thats him, the weirdo.

My morning alarm on my phone just gave up on me. Really, it felt so sad that its job is now taken over by my roomie's mothers call at 6.45 am that it just stopped shouting at 7.15 am. 'Kem cho, mazaama?' became my new alarm music.

He used to give a lot of interviews but I think he carried his distinction on his face. Companies never gave him a second look.

The reasons -

- I want a job close to my eating place. Interviewer Bhai, where else will I get veg home-like gujrathi thali.

- I will not work beyond 6 pm. I am a man not Machine. Be a Man!

- I cant travel alone at night. People nowadays rape without any sexual preference. Hai ki Nai.

- I will write the test with the internet ON. Googling is allowed in the job na, then what.

-  I will use my programs as my products and sell them on Quikr. You companies arent doing it, I am writing them with my NOledge.

- how are your company polisies, haan.

These really are only a few ways how he managed to screw up his chances.

I felt pity on him and used to give him gyan on how to behave in interviews, how to answer, how interviewers gauge his thought process etc. But I realized I was talking to a pit of sand. One day he asks me ' Vinos Bhai, giving me gyan gives you so much pleasar?'. I just slapped myself hard and the weirdo won.

 Its actualluy 'He is not weird, He is super duper gifted'

I feel pity at times. No, not on him. Ofcourse on myself to have to endure this torture.

16th August 2011 - My encounter with the freedom struggle

Today is a historic day in the life of everyone born post 1947. I have seen the struggle in movies and seen pictures in some old archived newspapers. But to see it unfold in front of your eyes, during the times when I can assimilate facts and can decide what is just and what is not is extremely heart wrenching.

Many today debate that Anna is setting a wrong example by holding the government by the neck. They say he is playing with the law. I say SO WHAT? I say WHICH LAW? The law that is biased and is in the pockets of he rich and influential. The law that in the last 65 years hasn't been able to even recover 1 rupee from the ministers who have looted innocents. The law that has kept Raja and Kalmadi in 5 star jails. That law that has given Hasan Ali bail.

Holding a protest to get a law enacted is a contempt of the parliament. How convenient to say so. There have been (In my limited knowledge) at least 15 -20 wide spread bandhs that have happened in India since the 90's. Weren't they contempt of the parliament. When BJP was in power the congress did the bandhs. When the Congress was in power, BJP did the Bandhs. They lighted the buses, broke open the shops, threw stones and killed innocent people. Who got punished for all that? The latest been during the Babri masjid verdict. Which wasn't even a national issue. People's pulse was against it. Who cared?

Hypocrisy is the word. Utter disgust.Since independence how many nation wide protest on the principle of 'non - violence' and 'Anshan' have we had in order to bring a change in the society for the benefit of the civilians at large? I cant recollect any. If that is the case then how can the congress say that Anna is setting a wrong example and tomorrow anybody can follow suit. Excuse me. Indians are no fools. It takes a Man of impeccable character and dignity to get the whole of the nation behind him. A RAUL Gandhi or a Arun JETLEE can only dream about it. They can only FOOL people to follow them to do something.

I will be extremely happy even if the Jan Lokpal Bill fails in containing the corruption. At least the ministers now know whose servants they are. The work of Jan Lokpal Bill isn't just whats on paper. Implementation will have even more road blocks. However its this passion in people to make INDIA corruption free that will take us through and make us be an example to the other countries and to ourselves.

Long live this drive to clear out corruption. I BOW to all those who are multitasking between work and family and the fight against corruption. Lets keep going.

JAI HIND!!!!!