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Showing posts with the label Mumbai

What are we up to?

Well, how many of you bought you that iPhone 5 S recently when the price got slashed? Whoa, just 21500 rupees, let's buy an iPhone and become famous.  No? Good. Yes? Well, we will keep the joke for the end. What kind of start is that for a write up? Brands sell, bigger brands sell even more. And Apple? Oh my freaking God, it sells like anything. Like really anything. But why am I obsessing over Apple phones? Well, let me stay away from it, or like I said already, save the joke for the end. 2016 is a year that is seeing a lot of things we always feared. Too much of tabloid news in mainstream media, too much of serious news in just 140 characters (also known as Twitter, जी हाँ आपने सही पढ़ा ) and almost anything becoming a news, that's even more dangerous. The ways we consume news has also changed. We are now hungry for spices in everything, as if Indian spices were less famous worldwide. Many of my friends are now writing for Newspapers & online. Good to s...

My Last Days at The Maximum City

3 rd March, 2014 So here I start today, noting down my countdown. It was like a voyage on a spaceship. You get pretty nervous while getting aboard, then you reach a land you have never been. And when you get back, you know you may never be able to get back there ever. I plan to write more as days will progress, but I will write that one defining feeling which will always summarize my stay in this city: When I was preparing to come to this city, I was not so happy and it became unbearable when I had to. And the first few months were so very difficult. I thought I can never survive. But little did I realize that a day will come when I will feel equally bad (or may be more than that) when I leave this city to go to my birthplace. That’s how insane & addictive this city can be. 21 st March, 2014 I have not been able to write down anything since 2 weeks or so on my thoughts. But there has not been a single day without thinking about it. Each day brings in millions of thought...

What Up!

It feels good to be back here after 3 months. But it feels terrible not to have a specific topic to write. So, I will not force myself to come up with something artificial. And these days, the weather in Mumbai is so beautifully natural that I am trying not to do anything artificial throughout the day ;) It's cold, there are drizzles and there are cold windy evenings. What else one can ask for in a city known for its humidity levels. Last few weeks have been the best when it comes to my sleep, such weather provides quality sleeping and I am just not complaining. I have been doing so many things in last couple of months, both personally and professionally, that I am not able to keep a track of my priorities. But then, who all can I keep happy. So I am just moving from one day to the other keeping myself afloat. Spendings have shot up in recent months without any changes in the salary, that leaves me on the brink of being declared a bankrupt. But I like the idea, I want to be decl...

People Make It Work!

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You have great roads, well designed fly-overs, metro rail and now a super terminal in the airport. All the basic infrastructure is in place, there are still few things to improve, but it is still far better than other metro-cities. Delhi, or Delhi – NCR, has ‘almost’ got everything that will merit this city to be as India’s capital. When I visited this city, after a gap of a decade, I went with a lot of apprehension. And the apprehension was built over the same last decade where the crime rate in our capital city has gone up several notches up. Today, it is a known fact that a girl cannot step outside her house after 7 in the evening alone. What has happened to a city like this that the situation has reached IGI Airport such a point! During my last visit before this, around 2003 – 2004, it was only the taxi & auto drivers along with the shopkeepers were unruly and rude. The number of species has now grown manifold to an extent wherein you will start suspecting every person yo...

Yeh Baarish. Woh Ummeed.

Main shukra-guzaar hoon unn lamhon kaa, jinmein maine kuch aisa paaya, jo likh sakaa. Zehen mein aksar bahut kuch likhte rehta hoon, din-raat, subeh-shaam, aate-jatey, uthate-baithtey, har pal har dum, bas  jab bhi mauka mil jaaye. Par record kar nahin paaya, lekin jab bhi samay mila hai, iss blog ke madhyam se kuch kaha hai.  Likhne mein ek alag hi mazaa hai, jo shayad main kabhi bayaan na kar paoon, lekin itna kehna lazmi zaroor hoga ki yeh bada sukoon deta hai. Mujhko, meri rooh ko! Lambe-lambe din kaate hain, raatein bhi bahut si aur bahut tarah ki dekhi hain, jinmein kal ki koi assurance nahi thi. Bhagwan ko toh dekha nahin kabhi, haan par Maa-Baap hain, jinko uski darza deta hoon, aur likhta hoon. Khushi mein likhta hoon, akelepan mein kuch zyade hi khayaal panap-tey hain, lekin gham ki shyahi ka toh koi jawaab hi nahin, bahut kaam aayi yeh mere likhney mein. Likhna mazboori hai... Aur fitrat bhi! ---- Mumbai mein monsoon ko sehna ek achievement h...

My People. My Life.

10 Days: I remember myself teasing my younger brother in the years of growing up. He never liked it, infact hated it. But I used to feel so great when he was irritated. As we grew up and stopped fighting over the cake Mom makes at home, I realize that I shared the closest bond during the 'teasing phase'. Today, when I sit with him to watch Bigg Boss to de-stress over watching nonsense by the in-mates in the show, I realize my fights with him were far more better :P I don't pull his cheek anymore, instead his leg. Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he does not. But with 10 more days to go, I believe I might miss all those days, fights and moments even more. And yes, who is going to bat first post school hours was a life-altering decision at one point. 9 Days: When I used to visit my maternal grandparents during my school holidays, I used to be quite ecstatic about it. Not just because I loved the city they used to stay, the locales or the big buildings there, but prim...

And This Is How It Went...

Sab ka khushi se faasla ek kadam hai, har ghar mein bas ek hi kamra kam hai... Early teen age is not a good time to take important calls in life. Added to that, a bunch of crazy morons surrounding you with all sorts of inputs. To this mix, you add doting parents. And then a critical phase of studies. In between all these, the ever increasing love for the newly arrived MP3s n video games. With the freedom of getting into college and getting rid of the regular uniforms, the heart was pumping than the required speed. This early teen age you know! Now leave all these. Enters a damsel! Year 1 and 2... Kya kehke gaya tha shayar woh sayana, aag ka dariya doobke jaana... Now what... Nothing, the game's over! They say enter a girl and your life will never be the same again. The guy never believed it, still don't too. But his results for next couple of years supported the argument. Studies were at an all time low, parents were big time upset, neighbors were at their s...

Year End Blabberings...

December has been quite a likable month for me as an individual. Birthdays (yes, I do celebrate on two days), Goa trips, Christmas fever and the year-end retrospections. All these constitute to my special liking to this month. The list is long though, will try to put them all here today. The last year and half has been crazy. The work schedule is insanely hectic. Just one trip to home. Little brother has been a part of Mumbai off late. I have become one more year older. Mumbai is still surprising me. New additions in buddies, new CCD mates, new perfumes. No significant addition to my gadget list though. A better maid, a great boss and best of the times in South Bombay. Same room-mate, same health and same relationship status. Seems I have been consistent in certain elements in my life. Still missing 25 th of December, the day I said someone that I like her. This year it completes 12 years of this brave act, out of which I’ll be celebrating my 5 th as a single! I’ll be into my 7 th...

I Can't Explain ...

I have lived a life with so many colours that it keeps me grounded. I've always remained grounded. So grounded that couldn't help my sibling get a job, being in a profession where I design seductive CTCs and sometimes take more than a dozen interviews a day. I failed to help him, that's the bottom line. Period. And I talk about my network, feeling so proud of them. More than ever. Tell you what, life is on such a fast ride that I have just become a puppet in its hands. My objectives have become - getting a seat in the 9:10 local (else screw your a** standing for an hour, wonder how some morons sit till the train literally stops at CST), reaching my workstation by 10 AM (where 'sometimes' the no. of hours you spend in front of the PC is directly proportional to the percentage hike in March), call a bunch of morons as colleagues without a choice, then catch a train from THE most busiest station with humidity touching atleast 90% day in and day out, then reach home to...

Till When...

Well, this post is not the result of anything that has happened a week back. My 6 years stay. 3 such moronic acts. That’s like once every 2 years. Now no one is immune to it, but we all have become used to it. We are used to it so much that it’s just like any other thing that keeps happening. These have become like either a pre-diwali or a post-diwali event for a group of people. I will again reiterate that I am no way influenced with the last event that happened, but yes, I am just sick of the events happened throughout the last decade or so. It starts right from the top, Kashmir, to every part of the country. Today we have no identity of terror unlike few years back when we very proudly used to discuss about a particular community or religion. Let’s not give terror the colour of green, saffron or white. That’s irrelevant. The best part with us is that we are so used to all these that we tend to forget everything next morning. Else, when India wins a Cricket match or we see a masala...

My Sixth Encounter...

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  June '06 June was ending. The train slowed down as it was approaching the final destination after a 37 hour journey. It was drizzling outside. Reached a place called Belapur after one more hour travel. It was windy & pouring outside. Got down and headed for Kharghar to find my new college and the hostel. Clueless about almost everything apart from just one thing. Rains. It was simply all over. My first glance from the auto rickshaw of my new place for study was a great feeling. Throughout dad's stay for three and half days, it kept on raining. We both did not like it, did not dislike as well.  November '07 The noise in the hostel was dying. Placements started. Rains were almost over. But I remember those quiet nights with the sound of rains falling on the empty plain spaces of Kharghar. The sound of it, the smell and the feeling is beyond words. The feeling of batch-mates leaving each other after two years, the hostel & the college, everything summed up in thos...