Heartless Mumbai

A recent incident in the Local train has left me speechless about the heart of the city.
I was traveling in a local train in the morning.Although it was peak hour, since it was a Saturday, there wasn't much rush.I boarded at the starting station i.e Borivali and sat down.At Kandivali, some people got in.Just as the train was about to start, someone noticed a pickpocket trying to flick a purse.he was caught, although he tried to get down before the train started.The people started abusing him and then started hitting him like he was some punching bag.Thy hit him without any mercy.I was totally stunned by this misbehavior.The crowd then stripped him of his garments ad threw him out of the train at Malad, the next station.
I think that even if someone would have tried to stop the crowd, they would have hit that person too.It seemed as if the crowd was just channeling their everyday life frustration on that pickpocket, be it their boss, wife or someone else.I know the pickpocket was in the wrong, but did he deserve all this? when one old gentleman told the mob to stop and hand the person to the police ,he was asked to shut up, and told that the police is hand in glove with such guys.

Is it that Mumbai has lost its heart?

Dry day blues

Last Friday got a call from Nandan...We thought of meeting up fr dinner and daroo...we thought of sitting at on of these sidey places in central Mumbai and catch up with each other.

Well what we weren't aware of , was that since it was the day for counting for the civic elections, it was a "dry day", which means that bars and wine shops will be closed!

Nandan thought that only the central suburbs being a sensitive area had this problem, so we went to another suburb of Mumbai, but again we were left disappointed.

Ok, here is the fun part.When we were looking tor open bars in Dadar, we met a Havaldar patrolling traffic on the street.Hence is the gist of the conversation, translated in English.

Nandan : Hellos Sir, is there a dry day today?

Cop : Arey boys, see today is counting day.Now actually we don't need a dry day today, but the powers above think that people might drink today, and may cause a law and order problem.

Nandan : oh, OK

Cop : See actually the wine shops and the bars would love to remain open today.The victors in the election, would love to drink and celebrate, and the losers would probably like to drown their sorrows in booze.But the authorities think otherwise.
now everyday drinkers know when are the dry days, so they have stocked up the booze already.Its just people like you who drink once in a while who are caught unawares.

Nandan : so what do you suggest now?

Cop : well most of teh shops here in this area are closed. a wine shop down the 1st left from here may be open, just try your luck.

Nandan : but then we can only bu the booze there, where should we drink?

Cop : well just head for the beach

Nandan : but then you guys(cops) will come there and drive us away...

Cop : No no my friend, we visit teh beach to drive people away only at 12. now its only 10 pm, so you guys can enjy for 2 hours

Nandan : Thanks, nice talking to you, bye

Well we didn't find that elusive , "open" wine shop and had to settle only for a nice non veg dinner, without booze, but the conversation with teh cop did lift up our moods for a while!

India in south africa

Hi,
am posting after some time!

The Indian cricket team has flattered to deceive once again.I thought that this time we will win a series in south Africa, something that we haven't done ever.

The disappointing end however had a silver lining.Dada now looks set to play the one day series against SL and Windies , as well as the World cup.And Shreesanth has finally managed to get a foot in the door and looks set to play the WC2007.Dinesh Kartick has done well in the few opportunities he has got on the tour.

Ox,Bull,Buffalo,Cow

ok, we spent 3 hrs on Saturday in office trying to argue about the "distinguishable features" of all the above named animals

True Spirit of Christmas

Since, I was a kid, Christmas has always been special for me.It was always an occasion to look forward to, not only for gifts, but also because it gave a change for us kids to feel good, meet other cousins and have a good time.

And so when I decided to do my MBA away from Mumbai, one thing on my mind was, how will Christmas be away from home? I want to be at home, i must.But that wasn't something I had control over.

Christmas eve came.Although my parents were not with me, mom tried to make up by sending some foodstuff for me from home.Although it wasn't enough, at least something is better than nothing.I decided to go along for mass with my friends.I have always had a lot of non catholic friends all my life, and MBA was no different.My friends had never been for a mid night mass before, and I asked them asking them to come with me.We had a nice time at the mass, in the open grounds, listening to the Christmas story and singing carols, and I almost forgot that I was away from home.Being with my new family, my college mates, made me more than happy.Before we knew, mass ended, we greeted each other, came back to the hostel and went to our respective rooms.

I felt something missing, there was a family here, but where is the spirit of Christmas? It is then that I saw the bag of cookies sent by mom, and it hit me.I sat on my laptop and typed a message on the instant messenger calling one and all in the hostel to share the cookies.Moments later, my room was full of people, all sharing the stuff I had got.Another Catholic friend barged in, apparently he had just received some stuff from his folks sometime ago.And there we were, now celebrating the true spirit of Christmas.Yes the true spirit of Christmas is in sharing.

It was indeed a Merry Christmas now!

Trip to Bangalore

there are cleints..and then there are clients

our clients want us to see fieldwork ourselves, to verify if its taking place correctly...sothey manage to sendus to bangalore fr a day

24 hrs in total...work of about 8 hrs, hunting housesand locations fr 4 hrs...sleep for 8 hrs and tp for 4 hrs

Cricket Unites

 

Cricket is a religion in India, no doubt.and hence it is one of the greatest binding factors I know of. I mean 2-3 people, who have never met each other, can suddenly start chatting/discussing/arguing or quarreling, when it comes to the mention of this game. It doesn’t matter if the place of disscussion is a local train, or a office cubicle.Talking to that tough looking VP the way you chat with friends doesn’t look possible, but then start talking cricket and he will talk as if he knows you from years!

 

I can recall this incident about 4 years back, when I was still doing graduation. I and a friend were traveling in the Mumbai local train, back from college. The second class compartment was crowded as usual but we managed to grab a place. As soon as the discussion veered away from studies and towards cricket, 2 gentlemen who were sitting besides us got involved in the discussion. One of them gave his expert analysis on why John Wright was not the right coach for India, while another was lamenting the fact that the BCCI does not keep enough day-night matches, which means the common man doesn’t get to see matches. (Day matches get over by the time the guy comes back home)

 

By the time we reached our station, we got enriched on a lot of aspects of Indian Cricket.

Diwali / Eid Holidays

man, Diwali n Eid are gr8...since i joined IMRB, ihave never got 5 days off on a trot..and now that i have, i didnt know how to spend them!

but i guess everythin has its way, andi found it out too

Saturday: went to awedding...manglorean one, so lots of hoggin of food....Something i noticed and wanna share with u guys, i the way music has changed in these weddings...from western classic and rock to Indipop...heard more of himesh than anyone else!

Sunday :made chilli shots at home ...Ya i made my own variations..but then its cool...Later in the day had some great non veg food at Bhendi bazar ((iftar hosted by my frends)...and then watched Schumi in his final race

Monday: Packed off my bike...my bros gettin it on friday

Tuesday: Enjoyed at my 8 year old cousin's place!Its really fun playin with kids!

Wednesday: well my weekly Mahim novena...and maybe wld meet sum friends!


Happy Diwali and Eid Mubarak

An hour at SBI

Today I happened to go to SBI at Shivaji Park, to get an MBA entrance
test form for my bro. Reached a bit early so I tried looking around
and amusing myself. Since it was early morning, I saw all those ppl
hurriedly walking towards the rail station, the BMC dumpers trying to
pack the garbage from the dumps, the shopkeepers just opening their
shutters...and before I knew it, it was time for the bank to open.

Typical babudom rules the roost.

Here is a time trail

Trying to find someone in the bank who knew abt the form I wanted- 5 mins
Waiting fr theperson (as the person hadn't come)- 10mins
Finding out that I need to fill a slip first- 2 mins
...and finding the counter to deposit it-5 mins
realising that the line I am standing is not moving - 5 mins
making the decison to jump to the other line-2 min
The list goes on

and SBI is the leading bank in India...Amen

Aksar

Somehow I like movies where the bad guy gets away with doing the wrong things. And Aksar is one of the rarities in Bollywood in this regard. Most of the villains have to pay for what they do in these Bollywood masala movies.



In this regard, Hollywood is much better. Remember Primal Fear (Edward Norton, Richard Gere ) ?I loved that movie and its Climax. Only to find that some years later Bollywood made a mess of it with Deewanagee (Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna, Urmila Matondkar) where the bad guy is humbled in the end.