Summers were cool!

Two months in one page

Two months of summer were spent in two months. With memories and pictures taking 2 Gb. Here is a summary of those very two months, in just a page.

The Deccan flight from Lucknow to Mumbai was the inaugural flight for the carrier, and true to the Indian spirit of things, was late by a 30 mins. But I was unfazed. I was after all going to Mumbai. After so many years, I would get a chance to live on my own. For two months only but that’s a start. It was not meant to be so easy. I ended up living with my relatives for the better part of the first month. Not complaining. I got good food, bonding time with my cousin, a great home to rest overnight and then leave for office at 7 again. Yes. 7. A.M. That was the only bad part about living there. It was way too far for my liking. Took me about two hours every day. Each side. Thats almost half of the time i spent in office! Then some sense came to the world when i shifted to the hostel at Churchgate. And boy did i love it!

Churchgate was the ultimate location one could have hoped to be living in for the internship. There was marine drive at an arm’s length and the local station at the other arm’s length. Wankhede saw a lot of action and was located just round the corner. There are so many places to eat, drink and be merry that we could not try them all. Colaba, the most interesting location for guys like us was a short drive away from the hostel. And ofcourse we spent most of the evenings there, Leopold and Mondegar becoming second and third homes for us.

Everything was so perfect for the internship program. All the pieces were in places. Then I saw Tashan. That was the end of the first good run and the beginning of the second. Followed up the tashan experience with Iron Man, a visit to Kashid beach, many more trips to Modegar, Leopold, Pizzeria, Sports Bar.... its a long list.

Im sure I can add a lot more detail to the description. It almost seems like injustice to leave it at the crust and not dig deeper. There was so much to see, learn, feel, experience and so many people to meet, and to put it all down in words would be limiting the affect it had on my persona. The two months have left a massive footprint on my mind and many decisions that I will make in future will reflect in some way the Mumbai attitude thats now a part of me too :)

--
Puneet

New members in the family :)

Hi guys

This is to announce the "induction" of two new members in the family...

Two xtreamly cute and awfully loud pups! Now about 2 months old. Indian Spitz or Pomeranian as they are more commonly known.

One we named as Naughty (the dog) and the other Pepsi (the bitch). I know they are really innovative (hehe) but there is a small story behind their names. Their mother is very naughty and is regularly involved in some or the other act which demands punishment. And she has a Pepsi bottle she never lets out of her kennel. Well, we took one Pepsi out of there :P


I did take photographs of them so that i could post them here. Not able to do that somehow.
I spent hours playing with them when i was at home during term break. Somehow I think they are pretty intelligent. And every morning, they are just soooo happy to see everyone that they almost go mad with running around and licking!

Pepsi never wants the collar to be put around her neck and will do anything to get it off. once she even refused to eat untill i took it off! And she bites so much! maybe because her teeth are coming out...

So does anyone else here has a pup/dog/pet?

Cheers!
Puneet

Manfest 2008

Ah......Manfest 08 if finally over. Three days of great fun, hangovers, and of course no sleep and time to eat.

I somehow was given the task of handling all the informal events. Now, I’m not kidding when I say this, I told everyone I met that I was an honorary member of the Manfest committee. (Seriously, the Manfest guys are going to kill me if they find out). Friday was a working day for us here so the informalz started only in the evening. The first event was Capitalist. It was a complex game where guys got a chance to act like someone pushing their venture idea and trying to raise funding...after a lot of jostling, shouting, name calling and frenzy, the first round was over. The fall out of the mega interest in this event? No. no one came to congratulate me. They were worried about attendance in their events. Now come on…who will attend a talk on some globish subject when they could be taking part in an exciting event? They had a point. But why were they having the talks in the first place? Let they guys have some fun…

Night time, there was a rock competition. Illuminati from Bangalore won the event. And it was not a difficult decision for the judges I’m sure. Try looking for their videos on youtube. They had self composition that goes something like this “Use, use, use………use protection” hehe. The guy said it was based on his life. His GF stopped him mid way and insisted on protection. Will try and embed a video later.

Next morning was pretty interesting, as well as jam packed with events. Including many events under Informalz. We started out with kite flying. Yes kite flying. And in case u are wondering who would participate in that in a management fest, well ppl, it was the most successful event on campus. We finished off all the kites (more than a 100) in a less than two hours. Then the participants started making their own kites! And they flew! Hehe. But the support guys on campus hate me for that. All the grounds were littered with kite “debris” and kites hanging on trees all over the campus.

Rishi was here too on that day. And like a good studious boy, he stayed away from the infomalz desk most of the time.

That night, there was a dual performance in pro-nights. First, Mohit Chauhan of Silk Route and then the rock band Parikrama. I was with parikarama at their hotel. They guys were resting and I had to spend close to 3 hours. Alone. Hungry. Bored. And I could not even leave! Not even for a snack. What if the band wanted something? what if they called for me? And because of this, I missed out on

1. Performance by 3.4, the IIML band
2. Dance performance by college choreo club
3. Play by students and professionals
4. Silk Route performance. Well atleast half of it.

But the Parikrama performance made up for it. More than made up for it. And it was also the first time I was back stage for a concert J

Last day was not so eventful, but we had a lot of fun at the informalz desk. Getting ppl to play arbit games, handling out snikers for no particular reason, watching Sourish Basu perform on Bipasha Basu numbers (and it was covered by Channel V). It was simply a great time. I also won a T-shirt from Channel V.

Pro-night for the last day was by Euphoria. they kept the crowd on its feet all through the 4 hr show. And Palash Sen sang songs from everywhere. English (Old McDonald, We will rock you, summer of 69…), Hindi film music (Kajrare (!), some more numbers), Junoon, Jal, and whatever came to his mind I think. He even sang Punjabi folk!

Then at about 12, the Manfest party started. And that was the best party on campus ever. Free flowing booz, DJ specially flown in from Delhi with all his music systems and crew, and around 600 IIML guys (with classes at 8:30 in the morning). Dancing, drunken dancing, doped dancing. Till 5:30 am. Then the DJ had to go. He had a train at 6am. He somehow managed to stop the music and the party. Me? I was behind the bar, with some Manfest guys. Pouring out drinks for all the others at the party. Maybe, staying sober was not a good idea. But bar tendering was more fun than I thought.

So that was Manfest for me. Rishi, why don’t u add something on this? BTW, Rishi came 2^nd in the competition and netted a cool 10K prize money. Where should he take us for the treat?

Cheers!

Puneet

easy way to office ..... or is it !!

mumbai .... an experience I'll never forget !! :)
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trinnnnnnn trinnnnnnnn well thats not how exactly as my alarm goes, but the poor thing is snoozed off atleast six times before getting any acknowlegdement.... and so begins my day....yaaaaaaaaawn.

At around 8 30 I am on road along with my friend cum roommate cum team member, bracing ourselves up for the ordeal that lies ahead.The first mode of transport is auto, which by God's grace we get just outside our building.

We get down at the middle of a tri-junction before the station. And how we cross roads amidst hundreds of autos and buses still surprises me. Its exciting enough to give any elderly person a heart attack. No autos stops for you.... in case you are expecting it.
So what do you do...
Lemme tell you .... take a deep breath, and march forward signalling autos to slow down ( its foolishness although to expect chivalry from them). If you survive this then come along to take a ride in the mumbai's very own local trains.

Since we have passes for the trains, I must say this makes life a bit easier for us. And at the moment save me from describing the never ending queues, and the ever running time.

We had three options the 9 10 fast train from platform 3 or 9 04 fast from platform 5.
No prizes for guessing we took the latter. The train came and it went and we were left dejected at the station, for we still didn't know the art of travelling by hanging on to the doors.

By this time the 9 06 slow local too had left platform 3. So we went for the first one, which was about to leave. "Hey run... train jaane wali hai"... I had the option of getting into first class or the second. I looked at the former and thought "I wish i were a few more kilos less, I could have definitely squeezed in"; cut short my thought and barged into the second class ladies compartment which was still not overflowing with humanity.

Wow we got into the fast train. The sense of victory written all over our faces. But it was short lived. As the train halted at stations we found ourselves being treated like lemons, and by default treating others as well in the same fashion.
Just then a female tells me "thoda andar jao na.... kitni khali jagah hai.... double line banao.... "
I wondered 'huh !! aapko jagah kahaan dikh rahi hai.. yahaan to hilne ki bhi jagah nahin hai"
Arey itni to jagah hai..........
Theek hai to aap hi chale jayiye.......
And while she tried in vain to get inside...... I gave in to her demand and decided to go into that virtual empty space she had pointed to...

Minutes later i found myself in a Hrithik Roshan kind of position( idhar chal main udhar chala...) leaning at an angle of 30 degress from the vertical over a plump lady desperately holding on to her fourth seat on the seat meant for three people. She bore my weight for the next fifteen minutes, as my leg muscles stretched to their limit and i tried in vain to keep my feet on the ground and hold on to the handle way beyond my reach.
The only thing that drew my attention away from my distress were the constant babble of middle aged aunts, shouting and screaming at each other, for the virtual space.Now I know what people mean when they say " you have to have an ear for music"......... nevermind even if they don't say so..

A few more stations, and I had decided to give my resignation.
Finally I got to stand on both feet. I am at a loss of words to describe that feeling. After spending some moments of bliss it was time to 'make an effort ' to move near to the door so that you do not end up getting down beyond your destination.

While we were tacitly congratulating ourselves at this decision of ours, standing on both legs, one female suddenly realized that station she is supposed to get down at is about to come. "Please lemme go ... mera station aane wala hai"
Everyone wondered "aapko Bandra utarna hai…to abhi tak kya kar rahe the??..
"haan ... thoda jagah do na......."
She desperately or rather violently tried to make her way stamping on innumerable feet (including mine), still having the sympathy of the aunts around and I inspite of my best efforts to think well... wished that she misses her stop.

As me and my friend exchanged tired glances, forcing a smile, in the hope that this would lessen our miseries, we saw our efforts of formal dressing going down the drain. “What is the point of pressing our clothes, when it has to get crushed so miserably?”
Neither of us needed an answer. In the mean while we reached Dadar station.

The train stops for only around 25 – 30 seconds and in that time around hunderd people get down from a single compartment while another hundred are waiting to get in. How? Don’t ask. I shrugged to get this unnerving piece of information out of my head and allowed my self to be carried forward out of the train. But lo after all these months of training, I failed to get out of it face forward. Even before I realized, I had been torqued by 180 degrees. It surely must have been the fruits of my past life’s deeds that I came out unscathed. And while I was gasping for air, my sweet sandals decided to add to my agony. …………Here I was left with only one question in mind.
Why do sandal straps have to give way at such times??????

This question assumes all the more significance when even after much pleading none of the taxis agree to take us to our office, saying it’s too near and we are left with no option but to walk our way to the office.
After walking for fifteen minutes we reached.
Whoever said that its near……………………….aaah!!