Old Stuff - Chronicles of Mumbai

update 1:
today as it was founders day...i decided to sleep a long while...!!but around 11.00 couple of us guys and gals from wrk decided to go visit the "gateway to india"!!
and thus i had today mah first ride in the metros...!!it is great i agree...that is on a day like to day when u do avoid the rush!!well the guy mumbai local told me..so i was indeed avoiding a rush..but i thought so otherwise..!!....i belive i am yet to experience the real rush!!
anyway the good side is that i now know how to get to bandra..and it aint that difficult!!we got down and church gate and decided to walk all the way till gateway....not a good idea with a bad leg...
half way thru we popped into hat seemed like a nice enuf place giving sizzlers.....
the prices...blowed us away...and we ordered something for name sake and got out as fast as we cud!!.........
but do belive we were still in college wala spending mentality!!...have to shift to earning guy type!
but that said..i must find some source of cheap good non veg dinner place to have food on normal days...cos spending 100 bucks a day on dinner aint economical!!
anyway...after reaching gate way of india..we proceeded to elephanta caves...on a rather wet boat trip!!
It..was mainly unmentionable trip...cos me really aint that big history or sculpture buff to enjoy it to the maximum.....but had good time with teh others....at least i at last found a map to buy of mumbai there!!return trip was cool...cos the boat ride was windy with the sun just setting....!!....relaxing and invigotrating at the same time..!!
must say the plan of only taxis from bandra and south is rather clever and really seems to make traffic ordered!....trip back n metro less crowded....ok!!
but then the auto ride from kandivili station to this necafe...was ...lets say...eye opening!!
the auto driver seemed to been upsurped by one of the passenger who drove it half the way....and was in amood to wanna pick a fight with all other auto drivers......
i was thus exposed to a diff driving skill!!... the no of times we had near misses was lost to me!!...

i will never understand why anyone wud wanna drive a car here ..in these metros..!!
i mean what use is having all that horse power in ur hands and u can only drive at max of 20 at hort inetrevals...start stop...start stop!!
at least i got to learn some marathi..bad wrds...at least thats what i thought it was!!

OLD STUFF - CHRONICLE IN NASIK

this a set of my intial observation when i ventured first time from south india to west india.
Update 1:
at last i have set foot in maharashtra...in this place called nasik.....
well first observation....much cooler climate...!!so i wont sweat like i do in kerala!!
second observation.....i shud control my outflow of english and its speed!! otherwise they dont get u!!.
...thankfully one of mah comrades were fluent in hindi!!...i asked a man about an internet cafe...and he was like....kya?
they have lodged me in this three star hotel.
..that is nice...they got cable...also cool
they got laundry too...cool
the prices are atrocious...not so cool
almost free food....coolall veg...not so cool!
so now i just have to get to wrk and see how things are...and if the stmosphere is great!!
i also have t find a way across this hindi block!!

update 2:
ok update on the chronicles..
the day started ok..until they told me abut the taxes...
i find it rather depressing that the more i earn the mor ei have to give as taxes....
but wait they have an escape...investments...
besides the " force it down ur throat" provident fund...u got the public provident fund..
the licthe fixed ddepositsw..mutual funds!mediclaim...etc...
so that i can reduce mah income to an amount for which i dont have to pay tax...which thru rough calcualtion means i will have 8000rs a monthh....
and here i thought i was going to get 18000/-
and to add to insult...i have uniforms and tomorrow i have to wear a stupid white t-shirt..(not that bad)and next a black...which have racing checks colars and sleeve ends!!
but at least in the end i have a nice hotel room to go to!!!!
no wait.....one which i share a double bed with another guy!!

Update 3:

todays update!!
i learned to day that this entire week ...senior executives will come and tak about their particular dept to us!!this is ok...
but i was really bumped to hear that i wud most probably be stuck in manufacturing dept in kandivili!!....u can't exactly communicate with a machine.

Earlu musings!!

There comes a moment …or lets say moments than realize something about oneself.
Some moments tell u what you have the skill to do.
Some tell you what your weakness is. Recently I had a moment that told me something about myself. it told me I am rather narcissistic in nature.

I was alarmed at first. but then, maybe I was justifying, I realized to some extent every body is. To every one things happening around them has some relation to themselves. Is it true, I don’t know. But I admit I feel that a lot more than others.

Dictionary definition for this word is one who loves oneself, even sexually.
I do not like myself sexually. But I do love my life. I enjoy every moment I spend living it….the goods and the bads. The life altering and the mundane.

Why do I love it?
My main reason is that you have only one to enjoy. So do enjoy the maximum of it.
Of the course the pundits of after life and rebirth would say ther is more life later on.
I think that is bullshit.
Maybe because I am an atheist I feel so….you figure it out.

So instead of veering off the topic …let me come to the point. The moments that u spend your life aint all worth remembering. Only some you will. But to make sure you don’t miss out, we all should learn to enjoy or rather truthfully experience each and every moment of our life. Then only is the PURPOSE of life fulfilled!.


Purpose of life.

This is a term used by many for their own need to explain some means.
So do I use it, with out shame or chagrin!
What would I define purpose of life?
To have a sinless, humane life?
Well no….cause what most things that come under stereo typical definition of sins aint so according to me.
So to make matters clear , in my opinion the purpose of life is to live it ,enjoying it with the single direction aiming at once happiness.
As simple as that!!

STAR SIGNS AND THEIR ACCURACY!!

Recently I have been feeding my weird urge to read as many stuff on my zodiac sign.
I have continuously pouring over different sites which includes Linda good man stuff.
I have to admit, they are some what accurate in how they describe me.

Of course now I wonder is that just wishful thinking about how I want to be. I wonder if what ever I read is something that I wish or think I am and all these description is subconsciously twisted by my brain to appease me. If that’s the case, then whoever wrote this are the best at the business of suggestive writing.

But on the other hand, there are many things about the universe that isn’t known to us. Astrology in the end talks about the effect of different stars and constellations effect on human beings. We all are continuously being bombarded by rays from all these cosmos inhabitants. More comforting is the fact not any astrologers (professionally respected) tries to claim that zodiac signs have any connection to a supernatural being. It is a supposed science. So there is some validity in it. In fact I seem to agree with most of the description about my sign.

So what does all this mean to me?

I have found it all a bit comforting and giving clarity to what I am about and what I probably am. It gave base to some nagging suspicions I have about myself and confirmed some others.

Is this ok to do?

As some friends suggested you end up stereotyping yourself to situations and instinctly dealing with them.

So I guess I have to react to situations instinctively but immediately see if the description holds true then.

Let’s see what the stars make me do!!

The Cycle Trip

It was in the monsoon season 2005 and i was in my 3rd year of mechanical engineering. i studied in NITC ,an esteemed college, which has a lot of extra curricular clubs. One of these was the ADVENTURE CLUB. My good friend, who was the head of this club, organized a cycle trip from our college to a waterfall spot around 25 kms away.

There were 6 of us. 5 guys, 1 gal. The route was a scenic passing through small towns in rural Kerala. The flipside of riding through this scenic, rural atmosphere is that we get the amused, astonished and curious stares of the local inhabitants. I don’t think they have observed that many young people riding on bicycles with a backpack wearing t-shirts and three fourths. Needless to say, we were a sight for them too.

Around half way into our trip, one of our friends cycle got a puncture. Our initial rudimentary attempts at fixing it on the spot were very unsuccessful. i shall admit at this point my feelings for my good friend who organized the trip wasn't that good. Me and another of the adventurist decided to take the damn wheel and walked back to the nearest town where we hoped we might find someone who knew better how to patch a tire than us.
Of course once in the town, the sight of two long haired, unkempt youths wearing t-shirts, bermuda and carrying a tire along with them invited a lot of smart ass comments.

One such was “I think they fell off a plane"

The trip wasn’t that fruitful. The next step was that we had to bring the entire cycle back to the town. We went back, got our entire group together and started back. Of course we all were pushing our cycles.

Then it started to rain. The thing about rains in Kerala is they don't drizzle, they just don’t fall lightly. They pour. They pour so hard; you are wet to your undergarments’ in a minute.
There we can’t hope that we find a shelter and it will get over fast. It rains continuously for hours.
So now here we were 5 guys and 1 gal wet and walking. Shoes sloshing, specs fogged, feeling really cold. It was miserable at that point. But when now i think about it was fun.

So we walked in the rain all the way back, again inviting even more smarty comments about idiotic wet kids. We fixed the cycle and went all the way back to our college in this rain.

It was miserable then, but fun when you think about it now.

Of course a week later my good friend did the trip completely with out interruptions. i decided not to join.

Because it was raining!

Arrested Flight

Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time is moving slowly

Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Time is sailing further away

Tick… I am Bored
Tock…. I am still bored.

Birds, weather, landing gear crappy..who know?
But for some reason… my flight at ‘Tick’,
Doesn’t even come for ‘Tock’

Tick… I open my book
Tock….I don’t wanna read it.

Tick…. A plane lands.
Tock…..Not my flight.

Tick…… I look at my watch
Tock……Only a minute gone


I can’t count ticks and tocks in 40 minutes
But I realize there are 2400 of them.

Tick … I see a pretty girl
Tock…..I see her beefy boy friend

Tick…. I order coffee.
Tock…..I order another.

Tick ….. I get an SMS
Tock……I get another bloody one.

The time kept ticking away
Till all seemed rather surreal.


Then the fight landed!

I HELPED!

Most of us have really pumped up opinions of ourselves. We have images and notions in our end about how we would act in face of certain situations. We imagine ourselves fighting off a mugger, intimidating an eve teaser, saving some one from a fire or some other danger. I dream and have notions of myself about such stuff. I assume most of us do. Most of us pass our lives never getting an opportunity to test it out. But a recent experience made me wonder. Is it that we don’t get chances or that we do but we fail to meet the expectations of our notions or worse we decide to not recognize such opportunity due to the inconvenience it causes us. I fear it is the last.

I believe people do the latter cos they are sure if they do recognize they will end up proving their notions wrong. So rather than face such truths, people rather act as if particular situations don’t meet their specifics. They console themselves that a particular situation can be ignored as it doesn’t rate the magnanimity of their time. Maybe I am being too harsh but the harshness is needed cos that is what probably will jolt people out of their false reality.

The incident which resulted in such reflection was simple. I was passing by the road to go to the laundry, where upon I cam across this female sprawled on the road. This road wasn’t deserted. For those who are familiar with the area, it was directly in front of a restaurant near lokandwala circle in kandivili. People are not gathering around her. They stand at what they believe safe distance and observe her. People like me pass by, see her, make a wide arc around her avoiding what I believe was some aura she was emitting. To summarize what was happening, it was walk, stare, avoid, stare some more and walk away.

Sadly to say, this is what I did initially, I saw her, walked by her, stopped and stared and walked away. All this while I was convincing myself like all the others who passed by with excuses. “It is the police or municipalities job”, “probably a drunk”, “some one must have called the police already”, “maybe she is dead already, shouldn’t get involved”. Telling myself these seemingly valid excuses, I continued down to the laundry. But due to a nagging conscience, I tried to pass the buck. I told the laundry guy that there is some woman sprawled on the road, she might need help. He took this news as I expected him to and answered as I expected “it is the municipalities’ job”. Then my mind started negating all excuses. If it’s the municipalities’ job, how do they know some is sprawled? How do I know for sure it is a drunk and if she is ok? How can I be so sure that some one might have called?

All these thoughts was churning on my return trip. I saw that the lady was still lying there. Then I decided to do something, I found the police emergency no and called it. Gave the description of situation and where she can be found. I waited in the general area until the police van came. They attended to her. I decided I should approach the cops and identify myself as the caller. They took down and my name and address. I wondered what the need of that is. There was a worry it would trouble me. But the biggest kicker of all in this situation was that the female was indeed drunk. My battle with my conscience was for some drunk.

But in the end I was happy. Even though late in reacting I did stand for something of what my notion of myself demanded. Of course I should have reacted faster and immediately. I am still ashamed that I had to convince myself into acting. But I least I am glad I acted.

I now wonder did the others who passed lost the same battle, or consoled themselves in the way I initially did or didn’t even bother to face such a battle and pushed it out of their minds

I ask those were not present there, what would you have done?