Mumbai Slice -- Am I Disturbing you ? All over again

House Search started all over again. Small ones, bug ones , out of budget ones, short ones, tall ones, cool ones and not so cool ones ... all was being seen and either rejecting or getting rejected. I was finally brought to the same site which led me to the Kandivali(E) Thakur Cplx house. This was a site in TCS which displayed internal advertisements by employees of the company. After some searching, I short listed 3 houses. all stone throw distance literally!! from the office. The first try led me to this place in Cascade. The building bang opposite my office. 10th floor and well maintained, the building I mean. It was posh and the best thing, it was just crossing the road and I was in the office compound. That meant, no more thinking about food. The canteen was open 24 hrs for all 7 days a week. This was a blessing and a good one ofcourse.
I called the number displayed. The person who replied had a heavy Andhrite accent which incidentally the non-south Indians considered the "madrasi" accent. After some talking, I was invited for a check. I gratefully accepted. Oh I forgot to mention, there was another person with me. Manish Verma. This guy also wanted to have a home near the office as was tired of traveling from Powai to Borivali. I along with "vermaji" went to the house. What I saw was a welcome sight. 5 People staying in the 2 bedroom house. 2 in each bedroom and 1 in the hall. The guy in the Hall had complete control over the TV. The rooms were clean thanks to a visiting maid. The rule was, the guy who is the last to occupy the house will stay in the hall and wait for one of the other to leave then he would move in and the next guy will spend time in the hall. I kind of the liked the idea. The window of the hall opened to a good view of Borivali unless you looked directly under the falt which was a small slum. As most of you would know, you could not run away from the sight of a slum. This one below my nose, well, not practically, was more like the poor mans residence, from where the maids and the drivers of the richer occupants in the locality came from. So all in all a good Del at 2000 a head plus about another 1000 for the water, maid, gas and other things. For 3000 Rs in a palatial house, with a maid to clean and a canteen which would cook from me, there could be nothing else that I could ask for.
Manish was not amused, he dint want to be the 6th person in the house even after repeated coaxing that the other 2 guys would be vacating in about a month or so. But what I liked was a big hall for myself and a TV to top it. This was something I was not going to let go. I moved in, sans Manish. Life was good. I was near the office, friends near by, Food at the other end of the road, Ah! Wao ... time to chill out.

Mumbai Slice --Fellowship of Gokul Galaxy breaks

Just before the the fellowship of GOD -- RA group started. I had to unfortunately leave the Kandivili Thakure Cplx home. Sachchu had left following his father's sudden demise. He could not leave his mother and sister in Kanpur, alone, for long. So he opted for a transfer to Lucknow. This change kind of deprived me of a chatting companion. I still remembered those days when we used to sit n discuss everything under the sun. He was a very sharp chap and there was a lot to learn from him. We had some light moments as well. Once my other roomie-- Sandeep's ; friend and the friends girlfriend from Goa had visited us. It was early december '03 and Sachchu n I were getting along well. The best part was, we found someone who would not take our swearing seriously. I from MIT was used to such incessant swearing and he was a UP-ite. So most of the time our sentence would contain a couple of swears before arriving at the point. the presence of a girl in the house was something we had never expected or welcomed. It had made life into living hell for both of us. It was comical scene was to see Sachchu get out of the bathroom after a bath. He would first peep out for any sign of the girl being outside, look left -- look right then tip toe into the kitchen in his towel wrapped body before ramming shut the door to change into something decent. To make matters worse he had forgotten to take his soap n towel to the bathroom when both Sandeep and I were not in the house. Shy that he was, he had locked himself up in the bathroom for over an hour before we could come to his rescue. Even after coming out his peril did not end. He came out and shouted ... "Saale ... tu kahan gaya tha behn..." and there was lull ... then he looked around, got back his senses resumed his conversation; like ".. kahan BEHR (n he spelt as I have written) gaya tha ?" .
Back to May 2004, all the memories became just that. Memories. Sandeep was more of the serious kind and spoke less, at least to me. Not that we had some animosity between us, it was just a part of being sandeep for him. After Sachchu, Sandy got his other friend from BITS Pilani, Gaurav(not sure I remember his name) Khilnani (urf Khillu). Good chap, but his coming made me even more isolated in the house. Both being old friends started having late dinners in wayside dhabas and would return late after midnight. I was alone in the house. Then like a bolt from the blue, Sandy declared, that he was going to Nagpur (his native place) for a month. So was khillu. I was staying alone in the house for over a month. I was seriously bored to death. I was contemplating leaving the place to somewhere nearby my office, hence near my new found friends. Things were getting desperate. One fine day they returned, both of them on the same day. Sandeep says ... "Toh Kini ... I wanted to tell you something , We have landed ourselves a job in Baker Atlas and we are going. ". This was totally unexpected. I knew they were trying for some merchant-Navy jobs, but this was not anticipated at all. Sandeep told me he was giving me 1 month to find a new place to live. "I have informed the owner who will give me the money a week after you leave". "What?" I thought -- he has informed the owner as well ... "And You?" I interjected. "I will be leaving tomorrow". Another month of loneliness. It was driving me crazy. What was more disheartening was, I was to leave the house from which I started my Mumbai journey, that too in such a swift, unceremonious and lonely manner. Those warm weeknights, those washroom washing stints, those floor scrubbing and cleaning sessions all was going to vanish. I was going to start looking for a house all over again.

it was time to leave
501, B4, Gokul Galaxy
1234 CHS hsg society
Thakur Complex, Kandivili(E) -- A house I will never forget.

Mumbai Slice: -- GOD -!- RA

Life was well on its way in full throttle. Slog by the day and all through late night, enjoy weekends as a "Royal" stag (Pun Intended) . Come April enter Siva. Dark, Lean and a Burning .... cigarette. Fresh from Coimbatore (or was it pune) ILP. He and his other folks from ILP were a good addition to the junta on the floor. I was overloaded and Siva's coming was a blessing for me. Cool, hardworking and with loads of attitude. Siva was just what the doc ordered for the team -- that would be Kamal and I :), not the team we worked for . Taking one of the projects I owned naturally meant working late nights for Siva. Initially fretting, he soon underwent the training with ease and effortlessly slipped into the monotonous 11 AM to 2 AM routine. I kinda of liked the guys attitude towards life. He was a hard worker and his composure was something to envy about. I introduced Siva to Kamal and in no time we started spending our midnight maggi-time together. (Midnight maggi: Like college addas, we had our very own maggi hangout in the canteen. We used to stay late, and after 10.30 PM, office canteen would only provide juice, sandwich or maggi. Most of the late night owls, used to flock this place at about 1:00 AM for some midnight snack, a sutta and some good light hearted chat). All would order double maggi, egg burji and lots of tomoato sauce. Those were the times for bloating :)

Another character (yes and I mean that) who used to stay late night was Rohit GADE (spelt GAA-DEY, though most of the time Kam used to call him "Gaid"). He was another God of Coding, Java, Portal anything that ran on a PC. You could see him sitting in a dark, desolate corner of the northern end of the floor near the window. The corner seemed a perfect setting for a witches' den in a failry tale. A recluse, a coder par excellence, comparable, sometimes better than the Devil himself. Gade was a god of Jboss Potal or was it weblogic... duh!. All you could see him do, was look at a multi layout screen all day fixing hard to find defects or enjoying a ciggarette in the basement or at the shop. More on this chap later...

Finally a silent entrant into the group was Shubhra-- Dada. Silent, composed (on the crust) and a guy you would not want to mess with. The Most silent of the lot. Another comrade of the sutta party. This is probably how Siva, Kamal, Gade and Subhra started coming closer. I used to join them when they smoked, I was not a smoker but enjoyed the company. Thus formed the a developer to developer heart felt bond between us... to vent our frustrations we called ourselves GOD -- RA.

Good Offshore Developer --- Resource A$$ho**$ (GOD - RA)

None of us had even the remotest chance of going onsite because we were good developers (resources) hence the stress on offshore. This was a start to many more adventures, fun times and ofcourse lotsa booze.

Cheers ... hic.
:)

Mumbai Slice: -- Amitabh Bachchan is Scared, So frickin' What ?

I was in the office on Thurday and Friday, when the shootout in Mumbai was on. I was very disturbed and was wanting minute by minute coverage of what was happening in mumbai, naturally was watching the TV in the breakout room. Due to work pressures, I was not able to go to the break out room often and was forced to depend on the indiatimes website. What shocked me was, among disheartening news of Mumbai carnage, it ran a main story of Amitabh's blog. I read the excerpts what was displayed on the Indiatimes site, and since that moment I felt I was going to end my dependence on this site. Amitabh wrote what he felt, I respect that. But to glorify it is outright shameful. Every one in the country was feeling the rage against the terrorists and the site runs a story on how Amitabh is scared. Do I care? For one, I don't.
I have no problems about Amitabh writing in his blog, about him carrying a revolver and spending sleepless nights. So what, does he represent us? Are we reduced to petty people who have to be feel the same thing as what an Actor, someone who is just a REEL LIFE hero is feeling? Does any one write how Major Unnikrishnan, felt or what the police SI who got sprayed with Kasav's bullet would have felt? They could have thought about themselves let the country go to the dogs. Amitabh atleast had some place secure to sleep. The residents of Taj did not even have that. Next day out of habit I open the site again and there I read another cover story of Aamir khan saying... let us respond their bullets with a thousand roses. I dont agree... He does not feel the agony the people of Mumbai went through. He may just simply take refuge in Dubai or some other Arab country where he will have ample supporters and let OUR country suffer. How could he even think of this? What does he think? he is neo Gandhi? Gandhi was a great man, but remember he too did not approve of violence. And Indiatimes glorifying it was another shock. Who are these people to tell me what should I do? I have not given them the right to think for me. I know many have. I HAVE NOT. I believe that I will do what is right for the country and not for what is good to keep me alive. I am not saying I dont want to live. Just that if the heroes of Mumbai, had thought about themselves, the toll would have been higher and the terrorists would have made a scar which would not have healed for a long long time. Not that it will heal now,but atleast our heads are high and we are proud about we being Indians. I believe Aamir was doing just the opposite. Making the terrorists happy, so that they dont attack him, he stays pretty while the country suffers. Shame on you indiatimes. If Reel life actors have no sense atleast you should show some dignity.

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Mumbai Slice: -- An attack on my memories

Much is written and said about the attacks on Mumbai. I am about a 1000 kms away but, I felt the shrapnel right through my heart when I saw it. I have been writing mumbai slice for quite some time now. That shows how much the city is a part me and my my memories. A past which is wholly responsible for me being what I am. Good Bad ... I am not the one to contest. I could not continue my blog due to some time constraints. but the recent attacks have shook me hard. The city where I learnt to live was burning. This was an attack on my memories, my early youth. Leopold, any person who like a good drink or 2 in the warm nights of mumbai, have surely heard of Leopold and Mondegar. I used to frequent both places on weekends almost 2 years ago. We would most often deliberately miss the last train and then would take a walk ... drunk on the marine drive and sit in front of the Oberoi and watch the glittering cars in and out of the hotel, get chased by the police for loitering in the night. Walk back to the VT Station/ Churchgate and reach Dadar/ Borivili then back to the house. Not once did we miss the trip to the Gateway before our drink trip. we used to spend hours looking at the sea and sometimes ogle at the Taj and wishing to stay there one day.
When the news reporter was telling the names 1 by one, I felt the darned cowards shooting at my memories. Many people died, my heart felt condolences. I salute the army, Navy, NSG for their heroic deeds. I fall to the feet of Major Unni and the other NSG comando who died in the attack. I offer my flowers of gratitude to the police who, even if ill-equipped valiantly fought the terrorists. Finally I stand in 2 minute silence for all those who laid their lives to save others'. May God give you peace in your afterlife.
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