If i look back, i think this has to have been the most happening day of the trip. Too many twishts and turns, exacerbated by our in born Consultants - the ASK consultancy group and you know what you had in store.
But before i get there, just a quick recap. So we started the day with the usual PT and the usual groaning. I think the first signs of the genesis of the ASK were shown here. you could see the ASK in S waking up as he tried to show his disdain to the whole stretching thingy going on. So when the instructor said "Pull Left" he pulls down and is like " Abe tere ko direction se matlab hai ya stretch se, ab ho gaya!!!!".......and so on. I swear you really had to see S in action.
Anyways next up we went for this valley crossing session. For all of you thinking about daredevil commandos crossing a 1000 foot deep gorge on a wire to raid the Villain's castle and rescue the damsel in distress, and then fighting over which one of them gets to marry her ........hold on........aisa kucch nahin hua yaar. We went to our old lake, where they had put up long rope across which we had to cross over a harness, or rather were pulled across. A shade disappointed we were for sure. We had an earlier option of a trek and we thought that should have been the one exercised. But then no point, we still had our fun, mostly frolicking in the water after our mandatory crossing.
Oh and yeah, we did have our debrief session in the morning, which went typically smoothly. Having been given the warning look by buddies around, i for once shut my trap for a longer than expected time. :).
So after the crossing thing, we got back, were told to change and pack up for our trip back, get into travel clothes and come for lunch. Most of us did that, except for the lucky few. Why? Let me tell you. But first let me also tell you, that we had been in the jungle past 2 and half days, most of our clothes were soiled, we were not carrying our entire wardrobe, and we had to also make space for some decent wear to go to Phirangi Paani on way back. ( P actually wore proper club wear so to speak, the cool rich dude i tell ya).Given the above, well we were mentally all already on the bus back when we came back from lunch.
But hello, our dear instructor had something else in store for us. One final game, of making a hexagon with ropes while we were all blindfolded. The catch " Boss, the environment would change in between"!!!!, aaah, why did we not notice that comment. Because you see the moment we started playing the game, all blindfolded and all, well..........it started pouring...........no seriously, Indra Bhagwaan apni kumbhkaran ki neend se jaage aur unhone apna inbox dekha with a number of prayer requests from a certain crowd in a motley jungle, praying for some rain aur aao dekha na taao, lage bajane dhol......matlab baarish yaar. :(
To hua yeh ki hum the apni aakhri bachi jeans aur kabhin jaane layak shirt mein, jeb mein tha hamara mobile, dimaag mein aaya khayal us puraane expereince ka (Hero Ban Gaya Zero), aur bus ho gaya dimaag kharab :(. and to be true i was not the only one. Khair, socha hamare instructor saab kucch to daya karenge, but naa.......jaage Indra bhagwaan the, yeh thode....lage rahe beta khel khelne mein.........yeh nahin socha ki unka khel kitni maasoom zindagiyon se khilwaad kara hai.............sach kahoon mujhe us khooni, vehshi darinde pe jo rosh aa raha tha ki bus............the game went on, even as all our hopes of making it to a certain pub with all the good looking ladies et al seemed to be swept away.
After a while the game ends and we all rush back to our debrief room, and somebody asks me......."how was your hexagon"??? to aap ko kya lagta hai main kya boloonga.............. of course " I DONT BLOODY WELL CARE"..........Y tells me he feared i would commit murder at that very instant. well i had some sense not to do that as yet.
But i tell you the very next instant both Y and myself had the urge to just about commit that same sin. And no we would have been called martrys for that. Why? Coz we go in, the instructor looks at us, looks at the situation, our drooping faces, and asks " So what is the EMERGENCE from this"^R%^&#Q@#$#$#$@#(&$*(,.......... abe ravaan ke vanshajh, bheegi hui jeans mein thithoorte hue bacchon se poochta hai bata teri ada kya hai :( :(.........
anyways, somehow we still sat through the session. and trust me i really havent got anything against our ravaaan ka saatvaan vanshajh, but this was too much. :(.
Anyways so we left the place, pretty tired and a little aloof and lost and what have you. But kehte hain na, bhagwaan ke ghar der hai andher nahin. Jab jab dharti pe zulm, badta hai, ek Ajooba paida hota hai, jo in zulmon ka ant karta hai.
In our case, well it has to be the ASK consultancy group. They redeemed us, rejuvenated us and what all. A firm started by the the indomitable A, S, and K together, the trio had their own version of Jay Leno and Oprah WInfrey and Junta ki Adalat and what have you, with each of us being made to sit on the hot seat and asked .......well..............absolutely politically incorrect questions.......and i am being polite. It was hilarious the whole way it came out. and the way these guys handled each question and counter question was like too much........let me try and sum it in one line
"If you dont answer well screw you, if you do, well still screw you"......and boy they did......koi nahin bacha..........sabka parda phaash kiya gaya is adalat mein................and well we had an awesome time. both the victim and the audience per se. The whole journey back was all about this.
and boss what energy the trio seems to have. I made the mistake of asking them after dinner ( this at 11:30 pm in the night, when we had been on the road for 4 hours, in a restaurant for about 2, and were returning back), as to why they were silent now. bus bhaiya, ho gayee kahani chalu, i just had to somehow run away. But anyways thats the way it came about.
All in all it was an amazing 3 day outbound trip and we had an awesome fun. In fact the entire induction program was good. Over the next two days we had more presentations and all and i think we could take them a little better since we were a little more chilled out as a group. and like i said to them earlier, Y and R, take a bow, i personally enjoyed the whole thing, and i am sure the others did too. Our group and especially ASK, take a bow too, you were outrageously hilarious and awesome. got some energy levels up for sure.
So thats about the whole thing. I am back in office from today, and well have been a little lost. maybe missing the group a little, but i hardly knew them, i mean just about 7 days right? well i guess sometimes you get used to a level of energy and camaradrie and you feel like having it for that one more bit.
thats it for now i guess
adios
chaos
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Kolad Trip Day 2
Trust me, when you have been running around like your ass was on fire, from one activity to the other to the next, you dont know what hits you when you reach the tent and before you know it, you are snoring away to glory.
Exactly, what happened to most of us at the end of first day. i think most of us had no idea of our bearings physical and mental and we just flopped like dry sacks onto our respective beds, caring nothing but for Chandamama if you know what i mean. :).
By the way, did you tell you of our failed attempt at playing a prank on the ladies of our group, . To my credit, i humbly accept defeat. and to the ladies credit, well they werent taken in, even by a fear as mortal as being bitten by fiery king cobra. Or maybe they were too tired to really react to whatever we planned. For the records we did plan out some more, such as the one with a Vikram Betaal type Betaal springing on one of the unsuspecting victims from a tree in the dead of the night. Me thinks we should have been more adventurous :P.
Anyways so day 2 began with the usual morning PT so to speak. and this time it was a yoga session. Boss, try stretching your limbs here and there and thither, something you havent ever done before and then listen to the instructor go "Push Push Push, more push".......yikes.......at one point if felt as we were all females in labour, with a doctor on our head.............sheeessshhhh. and finally the instructor says........"Lock Lock" whatver that meant. I think someone did shout " arre boss, lock hi hai sabkuch ab unlock nahin hoga"....... but it was fun actually the whole thing. Most of us started feeling so young and glowing didnt we.......atleast the parts that could still feel something :D.
Anyways so the next high point of the day was a raft building exercise. so we were these two teams competing to get an orange from a hirtherto unknown king to save our respective CEO and for that we had to build this raft and then cross over a lake to reach the island. Was an interesting activity what with our attempts to build a raft while another part of our team tried to negotiate for a consultant. We got one to help us make the raft, while the other team used their own brains and did come up with a sturdy design - what if it toppled the first time??? Post the raft building a rowing exercise ( which was i admit a little disappointing since most of us thought it would be white water and all, whereas we hardly went across some 25 metres of a still lake), we had a good swimming session in the lake which was fun.
We also had a debrief on this and it kinda got to me this time. Apparently the point that we missed in the competition was that one team had to get only the orange peel while the other had to get the juice. so were supposed to have collaborated and not competed and thereby reduced our bids from US$ 6 billion to INR 1100??? ( dont even ask me to explain that). and the whole lesson being WIN - WIN approach works WIN-LOSE doesnt??? arre boss, yeh kahan se aa gaya.......too much ho gaya was the discussion i tell you, and well i think most of us still dont agree :(. anyways, so much for the win and the lose.
Post the above debrief we had a series of games played. pretty neat and enjoyable games, which worked best when we kept our mouth shut and worked rather than making whole loads of noise. so from trying to carry a basket ball balanced on 12 strings to walking on australian planks so to speak to the TT ball and pipe game, these were interesting..........
The last event for the day was this movie called " The Ghost and the Darkness". Pretty neat movie starring Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas and set in the 19th century if i am not wrong. The best was the cinematography of the lions. they looked so majestic. for the others the story is about a man who is building a bridge across a river and is haunted by the prospect of all his men falling prey to man eating lions.
Now for me the only thought i had as i went to bed - Boss three games, and one movie? imagine the discussions during the mandatory debriefs? i mean i am all for debriefs, i love participating in them, but trust me yaar........sometimes a movie is a movie is a movie....... period.
anyways this has a reason too.
adios chaos
Exactly, what happened to most of us at the end of first day. i think most of us had no idea of our bearings physical and mental and we just flopped like dry sacks onto our respective beds, caring nothing but for Chandamama if you know what i mean. :).
By the way, did you tell you of our failed attempt at playing a prank on the ladies of our group, . To my credit, i humbly accept defeat. and to the ladies credit, well they werent taken in, even by a fear as mortal as being bitten by fiery king cobra. Or maybe they were too tired to really react to whatever we planned. For the records we did plan out some more, such as the one with a Vikram Betaal type Betaal springing on one of the unsuspecting victims from a tree in the dead of the night. Me thinks we should have been more adventurous :P.
Anyways so day 2 began with the usual morning PT so to speak. and this time it was a yoga session. Boss, try stretching your limbs here and there and thither, something you havent ever done before and then listen to the instructor go "Push Push Push, more push".......yikes.......at one point if felt as we were all females in labour, with a doctor on our head.............sheeessshhhh. and finally the instructor says........"Lock Lock" whatver that meant. I think someone did shout " arre boss, lock hi hai sabkuch ab unlock nahin hoga"....... but it was fun actually the whole thing. Most of us started feeling so young and glowing didnt we.......atleast the parts that could still feel something :D.
Anyways so the next high point of the day was a raft building exercise. so we were these two teams competing to get an orange from a hirtherto unknown king to save our respective CEO and for that we had to build this raft and then cross over a lake to reach the island. Was an interesting activity what with our attempts to build a raft while another part of our team tried to negotiate for a consultant. We got one to help us make the raft, while the other team used their own brains and did come up with a sturdy design - what if it toppled the first time??? Post the raft building a rowing exercise ( which was i admit a little disappointing since most of us thought it would be white water and all, whereas we hardly went across some 25 metres of a still lake), we had a good swimming session in the lake which was fun.
We also had a debrief on this and it kinda got to me this time. Apparently the point that we missed in the competition was that one team had to get only the orange peel while the other had to get the juice. so were supposed to have collaborated and not competed and thereby reduced our bids from US$ 6 billion to INR 1100??? ( dont even ask me to explain that). and the whole lesson being WIN - WIN approach works WIN-LOSE doesnt??? arre boss, yeh kahan se aa gaya.......too much ho gaya was the discussion i tell you, and well i think most of us still dont agree :(. anyways, so much for the win and the lose.
Post the above debrief we had a series of games played. pretty neat and enjoyable games, which worked best when we kept our mouth shut and worked rather than making whole loads of noise. so from trying to carry a basket ball balanced on 12 strings to walking on australian planks so to speak to the TT ball and pipe game, these were interesting..........
The last event for the day was this movie called " The Ghost and the Darkness". Pretty neat movie starring Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas and set in the 19th century if i am not wrong. The best was the cinematography of the lions. they looked so majestic. for the others the story is about a man who is building a bridge across a river and is haunted by the prospect of all his men falling prey to man eating lions.
Now for me the only thought i had as i went to bed - Boss three games, and one movie? imagine the discussions during the mandatory debriefs? i mean i am all for debriefs, i love participating in them, but trust me yaar........sometimes a movie is a movie is a movie....... period.
anyways this has a reason too.
adios chaos
Monday, June 08, 2009
Hail the ASK Consultancy Group - Day One
Hmmm!! civilization at last!!! or atleast the luxuries of some source of communication that was missing past three days, access to my laptop and network for my phone that however has been giving me sleepless nights........hanging from the hangman's noose and refusing to go beyond the clear white screen on start up. I told you, i am always happy with the simple paanch hazaar vaala baat karne vaala phone. these funky gadgetry monsters do me no good :(.
Anyways before i digress too much, well we had gone away from civilization for a three day trip to this village in Kolad, about a hundred kms from Mumbai. Oh ya, i have been in mumbai ( my original karambhoomi so to speak :)), for a week now, as part of our company's group orientation program. and well i thought the outbound trip was one worth mentioning about.
So Day 1 started with our 3 hour trip to the camp. We left last thursday, a motley group of some 26 odd people led by our organizers, the Omnipresent (boss with his towering personality, you cant miss him) Y and the demure yet power packed and indomitable R. The trip was short yet sweet albeit with the dosage of the typical antakshari, from heavy ghazals to the cheeziest and sleaziest govinda numbers. I mean the range went from heavy duty numbers like “Hosh Vaalon Ko Khabar kya” to the mithunda flicks like “Atariya pe lutan kabutar”…….you could feel the depth of the gang I tell you.
On another note, Id like to believe this was also the time when the seeds of a soon to be extremely successful startup were being sown. More on ASK later though. They deserve a separate post per se. :D.
Our camp was set on top of a hill ( came to know of this only on the day when we were leaving though) and consisted of tented accommodation plus a pucca conference room and some ground for exercise. Having first located our tent ( which was quite luxurious contrary to our expectations) and settled down, we had our first session in the evening, that of a usual round of introductions, with everyone introducing someone else. What made it interesting was the fact that a certain bollywood actress and actor came out to be most in demand for partners on a trip to Hawaai. I am sure our instructor spent a better half of the night chalking out a rigorous schedule for accomodating the actress and actor into our oh so busy days. Then of course there were others who revealed there first love for Tuntun, Ajju Bhai et al.
Anyways so after a fine dinner we tucked in for the first day ahead, which promised to begin early. 5:45 am to be precise.
Now I am not telling you my weight, but damn it ask someone like me as well as the rest to get up at 5:30 in the morning and go for a round of PT and jogging and all, and you know whats in store. :(. I mean what do i say. but well we did begin our mornings with the round everyday of the three days. so the first had a couple of rounds of jogging followed by exercises to stretch hitherto unknown parts of your self. As one of us quipped later . “Only now i know i have 207 bones"!!! The extra one because magically, new body parts seemed to be growing these days. But I tell you we did realize the awesome physical condition we all were in. I mean 30 mins, and the combined power of our heavy breathing could have caused a storm in zulu land. :D
Post breakfast, our first session was one of splitting the group into teams that had to “Compete” in and Extremely “Collaborative” Manner in a Win Win scenario. No comments on this though. But yeah we had our teams formed - the wild, ragged, absolutely crazy Junglee Brigades, and the even crazier, whackier "Fundoo Pandooz". With slogans such as "Jhinga Lala Hu, Sharam Haya sab chhhodd do, Fundoo pandooz ko phod do", and "Screw it just do it"......you only missed a couple of spears and some war paint and some knives around there i think.
Our first outbound activity for the day was, rock climbing and rappelling. we were ( or atleast i was :(), a bit disappointed as we did not go for an actual mountain climb rather just had a vertical about 35 feet high man made wall ( wait, i never said i finished climbing it), to climb. But it still was fun nevertheless. Ab main apne baare mein to kya hi bataon, matlab saamne deewaar thi, uske saamne main tha, bus deewar main chadne hi waala tha, ki .....kambhakt yeh bhaaribharkam shareer beech mein aa gaya. Varna woh deewaar aaj tak bani nahin jo hum chad na sakein. The bottom line being i did not go beyond 5 feet i think. :(.
But we had a few others who did it. In fact our first climber almost finished the climb in first attempt, before missing the last bit ( he went on to finish the whole thing again on the last day). Then we had S, who climbed the damn thing like a monkey, hopping from one side to the other with some agility. I swear i should call him the monkey man :D. But he was good. The others also gave really good shots at the activity, differently reaching heights.
The rappelling was a comparatively easier activity, and well i sort of redeemed myself i one way, by successfully trying out the commando style one where you had to literally walk down the wall, facing downwards instead of with your back. It was scary to say the least but well we did it.
Post lunch, there were two activities lined up. One included building a tent with your team lined up and with hands and legs tied to each other such that only the ends had one leg and one hand free. Boy it did seem quite a task. And the way we moved trying to accommodate both ourselves as well as the hazaar suggestions each one of us had, it was stupefying :D. We almost had the tent erected upside down, before some saint realized the folly and directed us. But we did manage to do it, albeit after the other team.
Another activity we played later was that of the game of mats, where the team was split into two columns, and the two had to cross over each other. If you have every tried the frog puzzle on your MS Excel, when you were supposed to be working in office, youll know what I mean. This one took us awhile to crack, and in fact at one point three of us were sitting simply scratching heads and trying to remember our earlier endeavors. But thanks to a few more saner souls we managed to do this one too.
One continuous and well at times stretched factor during the entire trip was the debrief session following every game or activity. And i dont think i remember it with as much fondness as i would perhaps remember my first date with my girlfriend ( if i had one that is), but well yeah it was fun to discuss, and dissect and analyze every aspect of the activity. So we went from a simple objective of climbing a damn rock to relation with the self to fear to psychosis and mitosis and meiosis and win win and win lose. I tell you boss, the intelligentsia of the world would have been stunned at the depth of the discussions we had. We had all the answers to every problem in the world. And no i am not being cynical. I got to be crowned the Arbit CP as well as the Desperate CP King re :), an honor i missed during my ISB days.
Evening was a skit performance by each of our two teams – Jungleez and Pandooz that is. While the Jungleez performed to the tune of “Sholay Rewind” ( my buddies at ISB, take a bow, I took our earlier idea and used it again here J), the Pandooz made a new version of “Mahabharat ki Ramayana”. Both were awesomely hilarious ones. Sholay had its origins in a similar skit I had staged at college but this one was crazier by far. From thakur wanting to get rid of the suave smart and ex Ibanker Gabbar, to Jai Veeru convincing Basanti that Thakur was the best man for her, to maulvi lining up for mausi, to Kalia finally running away with mausi even as Radha implored Jai and Veeru for neglecting her, wooh, I don’t know what we were doing. But it was amazing simply. Never knew, we could come up with so many ideas, and such an impromptu performance in a space of about an hour and a half. Awesome.
The Pandooz had their own version of Mahabharat Ki Ramayan. Another hilarious endeavour with a plot that I would like to keep under wraps for fear of being hounded by the Hindu Fanatics I tell ya. I mean………we had to somehow just stop ourselves from dying laughing. Just kinda got me back to old engineering and MBA days. Sigh!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, so that’s how the day ended, with some bonfire music followed by dinner. Pretty hectic, lots of activity and great fun. We had two more days to go, and were waiting to see what would go.
The next day shall follow. But before I go, I must do this…….Hail the ASK Consultancy Group.
Adios
Chaos.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Leaving Base Camp Dilli
This will be a long one.
Yes. you heard it right. I shall soon be severing that long winded connection with delhi for good. Or will i? Its been 17 years of having a focal point, or a vector out there in delhi, from where i have moved here and there before always coming back to the same place. but now the point should be shifting for good. atleast for the time being. and its a good time i think to go down that memory lane ( i think i always end up liking to live in the past rather in the present - must say an irritating quirk of mine).
So it was in the summer of 92, that i first landed in the city. My father had just got posted to the city and we were to stay in guess what? The good old Red Fort. Those were the times when a small military unit stayed inside the grand old fort, a scion of the old British Era. And so we would too. Obviously it was surreal and most of my soon to be freinds refused to believe it. In fact i still remember being taunted as the so called "Prince of Red Fort" even a year down the line, by my Maths teacher ( the only maths teacher i ever hated, but thats another story). My first impression of the city was at best daunting. Delhi can be tough especially if you are a small town kid. and though we had come from secunderabad, it still was different. My first challenge was the school itself. From a small army school in secunderabad, i was now going to the Army School here in delhi which had close to 500 students per class, split into more than 8 sections. And all the kids seemed so good, so smart, speaking english fluently ( yup, that was a major thing for me then and remained for a long time, since i was bad). Did i have an inferiority complex? I still remember the first one week i dreaded going to school. the 5:30 am rendition of Om Jai Jagdish Hare at a temple nearby my house, used to be like a call to death for me every morning. And i think i spent the first week in the school sick bay everyday, with complaints of stomach ache and what not. But then as they say, everything does change. and so it did. Slowly, i managed to set in well in the school. I made a few good friends and well joined a so called gang, led by the smart K, the teachers pet, the good in sports dude, popular with all people around. Talk about being in good company. :-s. But then yes, i also started doing very well academically and that helped a lot. Involvement in extra curriculars like debates etc started and soon yes i was enjoying myself in school. By the end of the year i was yes at home in Delhi. Thus began an affair with the city.
While we stayed in Red Fort, we were kind of cut out from the real army life in a cantonment, especially in Delhi. But father always tried to make up for it, taking us to the officers institute for swimming etc. Every weekend, we would go to India Gate after dinner, and that was an amazing time, running around in the gardens around the monument, playing with balloons etc. Nirula's ice cream became a household popularity with fortnightly trips to the parlor in connaught place. Those were the days of seeing DDLJ in the crowded Golcha Cinema of Darya Gunj, then going out to have awesome kulfi faluda in the nearby dirty street of the market. This was also the time when i saw my first english film in a theatre " Mission Impossible"......boy was it tough to follow the dialogues. You see unlike most kids my age then, i did not have cable tv at home and so was left out of the Star world and other series then.
Anyways so the years passed and i moved into class 9th. This was where i made my closest freinds to day. M, K,D,S,V . We all have stayed in touch ever since and even now are. touchwood. we all always agree on the fact that the next two years were the best time in our school life. Of course, i think i missed out on some of the fun that these other brats had, since i used be a little as D called me then " Snobbish in nature" ( yeah i have it written right down in my autograph book)........always a stickler for rules blah blah......playing the cruel monitor to the hilt and failing to bring an sort of discipline at all. And so yes i did miss on some of the fun, but nevertheless i had my share of fun too. I could write a hugggeee post on those two years and also the next two too, but i think that will wait for awhile but suffice to say now that we had fun.
This was also the time when delhi started to really become a base camp for us. Dad had got posted to Jhansi, and mum chose to stay in delhi for my and my sisters education. Anyways so post my 9th class exams, we moved to Sheikh Sarai, in South Delhi. This was the beginning of a new phase for me. From being a protected army brat, who had always had someone to do his work, i was now learning to do stuff by myself. you wont believe it, but this was the first time i travelled in a DTC for myself. First time that i went and stood in a line to pay electricity and other bills. First of a number of things. I had always marvelled M at his independence and ability to do things at a much younger age. well finally i was going through the grind myself too. And all this while, the city watched, from a distance or sometimes closer too. it had been 5 years in the city and well i was calling it home, exploring newer aspects of it too.
The next two years passed in a whirl, what with engineering entrance preparations, the rigours of class 11th and 12th along with the associated fun too. as the seniormost class of the school, we had our share of fun. and yes by this time i had left my fascination with rules etc far behind. so even though i was the school captain, i would join in all the clandestine activities too :-s. One reason why i didnt work as hard or did as well as i should have in the entrance etc. Anyhow, time flew, and soon we were nearing the end of our school. In fact before we knew it we were out. into the world. we all went our separate ways, to different colleges and universities, with a promise to stay in touch. and well Delhi served its place well. the Homing ground for all our beacons as we tried to make sense of the world that lay beyond.
Mother was staying back in Noida ( where we had shifted soon after my 12th), this time for my sisters 10th and 12th, and so despite having gone for engineering to Roorkee, i had my base at Delhi / Noida. the city itself started undergoing changes with newer flyovers, newer roads, the metro construction and all. And i somehow managed to stay in touch with its pulse. On vacation trips to the city, we all school freinds would catch up, since we all came from different parts of the country back to Delhi. I made my first Barista trip here, even though we preferred to just have a glass of water instead of spending 70 bucks for a coffee. For us college brats, nothing like the pleasure of a 10 Rs Cold coffee and 7 rs Sandwich in one of the corner nooks of connaught place. and coming from roorkee, Baristas and all were a luxury still. By this time my father had moved to Jammu, and my mother continued in delhi. she had her school job, and my sister her school and then her college.
t
he years moved swiftly by, with most of the action now in Roorkee. 4 years of learning, making mistakes, new freinds, misunderstandings, sorting out misunderstandings, crushes and misses, drama, and a little bit of acads :). and all this while i would keep coming back to Delhi, to check how it had been when last i left. with bi annual trips to my old school as well as reunions with school freinds, somehow the city remained alive for me.
After graduation i got a job and moved to Mumbai but the affair with the city continued. In fact i was now embroiled in the Mumbai Vs Delhi debate, starting on the Delhi side of course. years have now passed and i am still in the middle. I grew from hating mumbai to loving it but that didnt mean i liked Delhi any less. every 4-5 months i would continue to make visits to meet parents. of course beyond it the charm slowly started withering a bit, more because my freinds had gone out, things were new everytime i came, new roads, new happenings etc. Yet the thread remained all through my 4 years at Mumbai. It was again like come what may i would go back to delhi some time after all.
Past one year and more i was in hyderabad for my MBA. Papa had been transferred to Delhi about a year before that and so what had been a base camp was again our main place. We were now based in Timarpur, near the Delhi Universitry North Campus. This is a picturesque location, a proper forest in the midst of the concrete jungle. I have gone for long morning waks with dad here and loved it always. Mom continued with her school, sister had started working in delhi itself and so we remained entrenched firmly in delhi. Of course i was out, but yet like i said would always come back to the city.
Couple of months back, sister got married and moved away albeit to another place in Delhi itself. Brother in law works in delhi itself and so does she so she will stay on.
Me? I am now in Kolkata, and would have been looking forward to calling base camp D again. But not anymore. Heard the news that dad just got posted out, and this time finally after 17 years, mom will also go with him. obviously it doesnt make sense for her to stay on, what with sister gone away, self away as ever. She had continued in delhi for her kids, who now are settled or in the process. So she will now be with dad.
For me this does herald the end of somethings. Delhi will change in more ways than one and i still find it difficult to describe exactly how. Of course its nothing too big, really change is what is life is all about and you move on. From school to college to first job to mba and now to the new job. And yet a part of me has remained in Delhi all these years, a connection that grew stronger with every passing moment, every time we shifted from one part of the city to the other. Now somehow, it seems that part is going to be removed. And i feel slightly lost at times. just a simple strange feeling so to speak.
Goodbye Basecamp Delhi. or atleast that part which lay for so many years.
chaos
Yes. you heard it right. I shall soon be severing that long winded connection with delhi for good. Or will i? Its been 17 years of having a focal point, or a vector out there in delhi, from where i have moved here and there before always coming back to the same place. but now the point should be shifting for good. atleast for the time being. and its a good time i think to go down that memory lane ( i think i always end up liking to live in the past rather in the present - must say an irritating quirk of mine).
So it was in the summer of 92, that i first landed in the city. My father had just got posted to the city and we were to stay in guess what? The good old Red Fort. Those were the times when a small military unit stayed inside the grand old fort, a scion of the old British Era. And so we would too. Obviously it was surreal and most of my soon to be freinds refused to believe it. In fact i still remember being taunted as the so called "Prince of Red Fort" even a year down the line, by my Maths teacher ( the only maths teacher i ever hated, but thats another story). My first impression of the city was at best daunting. Delhi can be tough especially if you are a small town kid. and though we had come from secunderabad, it still was different. My first challenge was the school itself. From a small army school in secunderabad, i was now going to the Army School here in delhi which had close to 500 students per class, split into more than 8 sections. And all the kids seemed so good, so smart, speaking english fluently ( yup, that was a major thing for me then and remained for a long time, since i was bad). Did i have an inferiority complex? I still remember the first one week i dreaded going to school. the 5:30 am rendition of Om Jai Jagdish Hare at a temple nearby my house, used to be like a call to death for me every morning. And i think i spent the first week in the school sick bay everyday, with complaints of stomach ache and what not. But then as they say, everything does change. and so it did. Slowly, i managed to set in well in the school. I made a few good friends and well joined a so called gang, led by the smart K, the teachers pet, the good in sports dude, popular with all people around. Talk about being in good company. :-s. But then yes, i also started doing very well academically and that helped a lot. Involvement in extra curriculars like debates etc started and soon yes i was enjoying myself in school. By the end of the year i was yes at home in Delhi. Thus began an affair with the city.
While we stayed in Red Fort, we were kind of cut out from the real army life in a cantonment, especially in Delhi. But father always tried to make up for it, taking us to the officers institute for swimming etc. Every weekend, we would go to India Gate after dinner, and that was an amazing time, running around in the gardens around the monument, playing with balloons etc. Nirula's ice cream became a household popularity with fortnightly trips to the parlor in connaught place. Those were the days of seeing DDLJ in the crowded Golcha Cinema of Darya Gunj, then going out to have awesome kulfi faluda in the nearby dirty street of the market. This was also the time when i saw my first english film in a theatre " Mission Impossible"......boy was it tough to follow the dialogues. You see unlike most kids my age then, i did not have cable tv at home and so was left out of the Star world and other series then.
Anyways so the years passed and i moved into class 9th. This was where i made my closest freinds to day. M, K,D,S,V . We all have stayed in touch ever since and even now are. touchwood. we all always agree on the fact that the next two years were the best time in our school life. Of course, i think i missed out on some of the fun that these other brats had, since i used be a little as D called me then " Snobbish in nature" ( yeah i have it written right down in my autograph book)........always a stickler for rules blah blah......playing the cruel monitor to the hilt and failing to bring an sort of discipline at all. And so yes i did miss on some of the fun, but nevertheless i had my share of fun too. I could write a hugggeee post on those two years and also the next two too, but i think that will wait for awhile but suffice to say now that we had fun.
This was also the time when delhi started to really become a base camp for us. Dad had got posted to Jhansi, and mum chose to stay in delhi for my and my sisters education. Anyways so post my 9th class exams, we moved to Sheikh Sarai, in South Delhi. This was the beginning of a new phase for me. From being a protected army brat, who had always had someone to do his work, i was now learning to do stuff by myself. you wont believe it, but this was the first time i travelled in a DTC for myself. First time that i went and stood in a line to pay electricity and other bills. First of a number of things. I had always marvelled M at his independence and ability to do things at a much younger age. well finally i was going through the grind myself too. And all this while, the city watched, from a distance or sometimes closer too. it had been 5 years in the city and well i was calling it home, exploring newer aspects of it too.
The next two years passed in a whirl, what with engineering entrance preparations, the rigours of class 11th and 12th along with the associated fun too. as the seniormost class of the school, we had our share of fun. and yes by this time i had left my fascination with rules etc far behind. so even though i was the school captain, i would join in all the clandestine activities too :-s. One reason why i didnt work as hard or did as well as i should have in the entrance etc. Anyhow, time flew, and soon we were nearing the end of our school. In fact before we knew it we were out. into the world. we all went our separate ways, to different colleges and universities, with a promise to stay in touch. and well Delhi served its place well. the Homing ground for all our beacons as we tried to make sense of the world that lay beyond.
Mother was staying back in Noida ( where we had shifted soon after my 12th), this time for my sisters 10th and 12th, and so despite having gone for engineering to Roorkee, i had my base at Delhi / Noida. the city itself started undergoing changes with newer flyovers, newer roads, the metro construction and all. And i somehow managed to stay in touch with its pulse. On vacation trips to the city, we all school freinds would catch up, since we all came from different parts of the country back to Delhi. I made my first Barista trip here, even though we preferred to just have a glass of water instead of spending 70 bucks for a coffee. For us college brats, nothing like the pleasure of a 10 Rs Cold coffee and 7 rs Sandwich in one of the corner nooks of connaught place. and coming from roorkee, Baristas and all were a luxury still. By this time my father had moved to Jammu, and my mother continued in delhi. she had her school job, and my sister her school and then her college.
t
he years moved swiftly by, with most of the action now in Roorkee. 4 years of learning, making mistakes, new freinds, misunderstandings, sorting out misunderstandings, crushes and misses, drama, and a little bit of acads :). and all this while i would keep coming back to Delhi, to check how it had been when last i left. with bi annual trips to my old school as well as reunions with school freinds, somehow the city remained alive for me.
After graduation i got a job and moved to Mumbai but the affair with the city continued. In fact i was now embroiled in the Mumbai Vs Delhi debate, starting on the Delhi side of course. years have now passed and i am still in the middle. I grew from hating mumbai to loving it but that didnt mean i liked Delhi any less. every 4-5 months i would continue to make visits to meet parents. of course beyond it the charm slowly started withering a bit, more because my freinds had gone out, things were new everytime i came, new roads, new happenings etc. Yet the thread remained all through my 4 years at Mumbai. It was again like come what may i would go back to delhi some time after all.
Past one year and more i was in hyderabad for my MBA. Papa had been transferred to Delhi about a year before that and so what had been a base camp was again our main place. We were now based in Timarpur, near the Delhi Universitry North Campus. This is a picturesque location, a proper forest in the midst of the concrete jungle. I have gone for long morning waks with dad here and loved it always. Mom continued with her school, sister had started working in delhi itself and so we remained entrenched firmly in delhi. Of course i was out, but yet like i said would always come back to the city.
Couple of months back, sister got married and moved away albeit to another place in Delhi itself. Brother in law works in delhi itself and so does she so she will stay on.
Me? I am now in Kolkata, and would have been looking forward to calling base camp D again. But not anymore. Heard the news that dad just got posted out, and this time finally after 17 years, mom will also go with him. obviously it doesnt make sense for her to stay on, what with sister gone away, self away as ever. She had continued in delhi for her kids, who now are settled or in the process. So she will now be with dad.
For me this does herald the end of somethings. Delhi will change in more ways than one and i still find it difficult to describe exactly how. Of course its nothing too big, really change is what is life is all about and you move on. From school to college to first job to mba and now to the new job. And yet a part of me has remained in Delhi all these years, a connection that grew stronger with every passing moment, every time we shifted from one part of the city to the other. Now somehow, it seems that part is going to be removed. And i feel slightly lost at times. just a simple strange feeling so to speak.
Goodbye Basecamp Delhi. or atleast that part which lay for so many years.
chaos
50 and going strong!!!
This happens to be my 50th official post on this blog. 50 posts in 5 years since the blog started. What a milestone to achieve and what a speed at which i reached it. Ravi Shastri would have been proud of me. in this age of T20, i am like the age old tortoise of the 1950's test cricket. slow and steady.
Neva mind. ill reach that century soon too. and to think of bloggers who clock more than 100 posts in year. my speed relative to them? Calculate karo na yaar. and tell me too.:)
till then this calls for a celebratory champagne. Yipeee
Chaos
Neva mind. ill reach that century soon too. and to think of bloggers who clock more than 100 posts in year. my speed relative to them? Calculate karo na yaar. and tell me too.:)
till then this calls for a celebratory champagne. Yipeee
Chaos
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