Oopsie!

We had a course in Microeconomics in the first term at XLRI. In the next term I met the Prof. on the road and wished him a good day. He stopped and this is how the short conversation went:

Prof.: ahhh, ummm, B?

Me: No sir, (with a smug smile), A+

Prof.: Oh no, I meant the section.

Me: (oh shit) ah, yes sir, B.

:-(

Scoring Mumbai

Mumbai was losing.
8'o clock, I leave my office after my first day at the internship. I walk straight to marine drive and then walk along it till the Chaupati. Meanwhile something reminds me that I have to use the net to download 2 files, print them and fax them. While walking along the marine drive I note that there isn't one phone booth to be seen nor any internet cafe.
So at Chaupati I decide to cross the marine drive and go into the land to find something. Even when I get in all I could find were eateries and showrooms. Suddenly I see a PCO and next to it a board which said, STD, ISD, FAX. I was delighted, if i have these, internet won't be far... But when i asked the guy it turned out that the board was misleading. The shop to which the board belonged wasn't open. I was dissappointed. It seemed to me that I won't be able to do it tonight. It was 9 already. That was when a middle aged lady asked me, "are you looking for fax?" I said I was. "what time is it?", I said 9. "Do you know this place?", I said no. "Ok, hurry, you see that lane, go into it and take the first right, you will find everything there, its getting late so rush, go." I didn't take time to think any further, I just recorded the message and started for the place I was directed to. I don't remember if I even thanked the lady. The fact that I found internet, printer and fax there doesn't make much of a difference. What I was impressed with was the nature of the people and the eagerness to help someone out. To call and provide help even when not asked for. This event was just an example. I am sure people like me come across thousands of ladies and gentlemen, everyday in Mumbai.
Pardon me if I am getting biased,
score 1-1
PS-I could have given another point just for the walk along the queen's necklace, but I controlled the temptation.

I hope she is fine

After watching IPLT20 matches at Tendulkar's I came back to my hostel room in St. Xavier's at 11:30pm to find that a) the room was locked & b) I didn't have the keys. I tried calling my roommate but he won't pick up. After several attempts at that I thought I'll do what I always wanted to... walk to marine drive and sit there for a while. I knew I had time for that as entry to the hostel closes on weekends only at 01:25am. I walked along the fashion street and passed Churchgate to reach marine-drive in some 20-25 minutes. I looked for a gap to sit and made myself comfortable there. It’s awesome. The cool breeze never stops. The waves keep coming and breaking on the rocks and those concrete tetrahedrish structures. I thanked my room-mate for being late. By that time I couldn't help notice that there was a girl sitting to my left, about 10 feet away, alone. Now this is something I had never seen before on the marine drive. You see couples; you see groups. You even see some men sitting there alone. But I had never seen a girl sitting alone. And she didn't seem happy. I took a short glance at her. She was uncomfortable. She would cover her face in the dupatta while looking at the sea. It seemed to me if she was trying not to cry. Anyway, none of my business...

.
Soon I could hear sobs. I wasn't mistaken. She was crying. I turned my head again, pretended to look at something else and turned back. Yes, she was crying. Now my head was in action. What could it be? Maybe she got stood up. Or worse still, she got dumped! Why do people even fall into all this? Why do people trust someone so much and give them so much importance that they could hurt you? I have seen in movies when people see total strangers in trouble or grief and reach out to help. Or they see someone crying and ask if they could help someway. I was in no mood for doing that. As I said… none of my business. Still, in my head I was reciting some lines which could suit the occasion. "Can I help you in some way?" "Excuse me, do you have a problem?" "Why are you crying?" "Excuse me sir!" This line, the last one, I didn't come up with that. I turned my head towards her, she was talking to me. "Excuse me sir", she said again, "Is it OK if I come and sit near you?" She was still in tears. She was too scared. I could guess why she could have said that. There was a guy sitting to her left, and he seemed to be looking at her continuously. But I wasn't 100% sure. However at that moment, I couldn't think of any other answer than no. She took her bag, her sandals, came and sat near me, still crying. Then she said. "That guy over there is looking at me and making some signals." So I was right. I peeked over her and saw that man. He was sitting there facing us, instead of the sea and looked at him for some time. He was now looking away. "Sir, I am very nervous, he is looking at me and making some signals like this." I wasn't sure about what hand signals she made, or were they even anything. I just said, "You don't have to look that side" Anyway in a minute that man walked away. I asked her if she has some problem to which she said "No sir, sometimes I get nervous". She didn't get the question it seems and said some other random things I don't remember. I also told her to go home and asked what she was doing here at that time. She said, ”kisi ka intezar". “How typical”, I said to myself and thought maybe I was right in the guesses I was making earlier. "Thank you sir", "Sir I am sorry I disturbed you." She repeated the sorry line so many times I stopped saying anything to that anymore. After a couple of minutes she took her belongings and moved away to where she was sitting before.

.

Soon she asked me what the time was. "12:35", I said. "Sir, where do you have to go?" "VT", I said. "Sir, mujhe churchgate tak chhor doge", "Aaiye", I said. We were now walking towards churchgate station and she was talking things which were not interesting me and kind of confusing me about her situation, until something reminded her of that man again and she started sobbing. A lady coming from the opposite side saw her and gave me a disgusted look. I asked her not to cry and that she shouldn’t talk or think about that. She asked me where I was supposed to go and I partially told her my situation. She suddenly got excited and said "Sir! Then you can sit with me at the station as long as you have to". "No, it’s ok, I'll leave now" I said. "No sir, I don't have any problem, you can sit with me here." I said no again making it clear this time that I would be late otherwise. "Koi baat nahi sir. aapko jana hai to jao. mujhe to wait karna hoga subah tak, Virar ki train tabhi milegi. but thik hai, station par police rahti hai. light rahta hai. I hope didi mil jayegi abhi." "Kaun didi?" I asked, "koi police wali?" "No", she said, "wo yaha rahti hai." I didn't get her but also didn’t want to inquire any further. We were at the church gate now and she took a turn and started walking into the station, perhaps not knowing that I wasn’t walking with her anymore. She doesn’t need me now and I have to leave anyway. I stood there and watched her disappear in the crowds and started my walk back to the hostel. I narrated the incident to someone when I came back. “So filmy!”, I was told. Filmy… slightly yes, after all, fiction comes from the real.

scoring Mumbai (0-1)

Reminded of the episode on F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Phoebe goes on giving points to Las Vegas and London to know which is better. I landed in Mumbai yesterday and have seen some of it already and have started scoring Mumbai, against... well itself.

.

The morning started with us reaching Mumbai half hour ahead of the schedule on LTT at around 4:15 am. A friend was expected to come there to receive us (yes, at 5 in the morning!) but the unexptected arrival made sure that he couldn't make it. We had to go to Kurla local station to take a train which would take me to VT (CST, whatever) and Mithun to Byculla. But when we came down from the train there and gathered courage to move with the luggage, with no coolies around, we met the first devil from Mumbai... a taxi driver.

.

A taxi driver is a species always ready to literally take people travelling for the first time to Mumbai for a ride. Even though I was told that you can walk from LTT to Kurla stn, I wasn't sure if we were in the condition to do that, mostly because of the luggage and partly because the person who had told me that it was a walkable distance also had taken a whole lot of tired people from CST to Gateway saying "bas pahuch gaye". So we decided to take the taxi. the taxi driver and his accompliced were very interested in us. Had to be, new faces in town (city), heavy luggage, confused conversations, indecisiveness. In fact we were so indecisive that after sitting in the taxi and loading all the luggage, we decided once to walk, however hard that would be, and whatever time that may take, suspecting that something is fishy with the projections from those two people. Inconsistency in what is the approx distance we need to travel and what time it would take. And of course taxi couldn't take the route people walk and will have to go a long way. Anyway we were back in our seats ready to go to Kurla. They soon knew where we ultimately needed to go. They tried convincing us that with such luggage it was impssible to travel on a local, but 5'o clock in the morning on a Sunday, we were ready for it. So now they knew we didn't want to go that far in their taxi. So their returns had to maximized within the short distance that is between LTT and Kurla.

.

I had never been to that part of the city but it seemed to that instead of taking a chord, we were covering the major segment of the circumference of a circle. It must have taken us some 15 minutes or even less to reach Kurla station. The taxi driver proudly showed us the board saying Kurla to prove that we were taken to the right place and thus not cheated. But now came the surprise. Demanded fare, Rs. 170... only. It seemed we were taken from Airport to Taj in a Merc. Well, had Taj been that close to the airport. Both sides started bickering. Mithun was in a mix of surprise, anger and wtf. They were much more animated and aggressive. I saw all the tactics and lines being tried there, "take your money, I don't want it"(followed by one guy leaving and other staying back), "bohni ka time hai", "dimag mat kharab kar", "we aren't asking for alms", "i am only asking what the meter shows", "do you think the meter is false?", "chalo (police) chowki chalo, wahi baat hoga", "samaan waapas daalo gadi me" and what not. All crap you can think of. By this Mithun had offered them Rs. 50/- which seemed to be only a little over what it should have been for the distance travelled. Seeing that 170 was a little too much they asked for they also started to come down. 160, 150, 120, etc. Ultimately we settled for 75/- feeling bad about parting away with the money, and good about parting away with those 2.

.

Thus Mumbai goes down 0-1

NB-reminds me of a quote, "only the strong survive" from my I3 t-shirt.

Small blunder

27th March. This is the day my IIM-I interview was scheduled. Reporting time 9.30 am. I was not completely new to this feeling. I had appeared for XLRI interview few weeks back. You know this is one of days you don't want to leave anything to chance. Normally people like us usually travel in the most inconvenient ways in NCR. Those miserable autos in Gurgaon, and the crowded DTDC buses in Delhi. But that day you need a Taxi. I had booked one too, that would take me to the centre which was in some building in the Lodhi Road. To be extra cautious I had called the Taxi at 8 and contrary to what public opinion might be, you can be late but the Taxi won't. My getting ready was accelerated by the Taxi waiting outside the house from about 7.50am. That was about the same time when my fellow inmates were getting ready to leave for jobs(which I truly miss these days). Getting ready in formals, collecting my precious certificate folder, I briefly said bye to my friends and left.
Probably the most common question you ask the driver when you start for an interview is "Bhai, how much time will it take." Only to find that even with allowances for a half an hour traffic jam, you will be there in time. But somehow you don't believe that. At every slow down of traffic, at every signal you get curious about what is happening. You don't want to get scared but you can't help it either. Specially when so much is at stake. 3 attempts at CAT and this single IIM call. This time you can't even use the excuse that you messed up a few questions here and there in the paper and that the method is not fair. Very uncertain. This time you are giving the panel some time to judge you. However small the span of interview be, it is your job to impress them. However, I was soon at the centre 45 minutes before time.
Even though I am not a very convivial person I could find 2, 3 acquaintances from the CL centre Gurgaon. That didn't make it any comfortable for me but hopefully they felt good at finding a familiar face. Most of the guys were talking about their other IIM interviews and how they were thinking of skipping this one, but then just thought, "What the hell!". All of us being early at the centre had to wait quite a bit after which some Profs arrived at the centre and we were guided to the final waiting room.
After a few minutes of further wait, one of the Profs came and welcomed us. He said he will just take the attendance and then divide the groups for GD's according to the numbers present. He started taking the attendance. It was a long list. He kept calling the names one after another pausing and repeating the names of absentees to make sure they didn't miss it. And he was soon through with the list. I found something odd. My name was not called. My only IIM call. And the name wasn't there! The Prof started calling out the names of the absentees once again. A thorough analysis of the case indicated that among the 100 reasons why I didn't hear my name (e.g. interview letter sent to wrong person, name missed from list with them, name skipped while reading out, me not being attentive enough, etc.) one strong reason was that I had read the interview call letter wrong, or rather registered the wrong date in my head. In stead of approaching the Prof with my doubt immediately I chose to verify my credentials first. Quietly pulling out the letter from the folder I read it carefully. It read 29th March. Another thing need to be checked, today's date. My watch said its 27th. I could only smile now. It was a mixed emotion with a prominent flavour of relief. Relieved I was for the fact that I was not feeling very prepared for the interview. There were a lot of topics I had thought of studying and had not covered. But most importantly because the interview was 2 days hence and not 2 days ago!
As soon as the Prof was done with attendance and left the room I quietly picked up my belongings and slipped out of the room quietly. I didn't speak a word or do a thing to attract his attention towards me as I don't wanted to look like an idiot before the person who could be my interviewer. As soon as reached the stairs I stopped. To make sure I really didn't have the interview today. I checked the papers and the dates again. I did that at least 5 times while still leaving the building. Still having made such a big mistake I was not sure of myself any more. So holding the letter in my hand and reading the date on it, I asked an auto-driver, what date was it today. He said it was 27th and only after that I was convinced enough to go leave the place.
To end the post I dare the reader to quote the most careless thing you have done in your life, if it comes close to the above, or supersedes this(that way its good to know I am not the only one!)

Robbed in Gokul

That was supposed to be a quiet and devotional trip to the Gokul-Vrindavan-Mathura circuit with my complete family uniting after a long time. My parents had come over from Muzaffarpur and my elder brother did manage to join. We started early morning from Gurgaon in a cab booked for the whole day. It took us maybe 3 hours to reach the place. But when we were there we had no idea what to do now. The 3 places mentioned were in a radius of around 10-12 kms and even the driver had no idea about the place. So we decided to take some local help. Help was all there waiting for us. Some people who seemed to be like guides hovered around our car. We had no other option other than to ask for directions.

The guides seemed to be nice. They told us about the directions in which the towns were located from that point. After proving that they are not all bad, they asked us to take a guide. In order to avoid them we told them that there wasn't much space in the car with 4+driver already seated. They suggested to take a junior guide who would fit our requirement, i mean car without using much space. The price quoted for the service of whole day was Rs 20. Much to my dismay it was decided that we will take the guide and he will travel with us hence forth practically in my lap.

Anyway he suggested that we move towards Gokul first. After some fifteen minutes of drive on the highway we entered the real Gokul. It was very sad to see that a place which is known to be a witness to all the bal-leelas and raas-leelas of Krishna in such sorry state. When we reached the residence of the Nand's who had adopted Krishna we were showed around their huge house. We were asked to bow to every other object or structure there. After showing us around the guide said took us to the door of what looked like a shrine or a prayer hall. Not much was visible inside from the entrance. He asked us all to sit down and gave us some instructions. That shrine was under government control and a freelancer guide like him wasn't allowed inside those doors while on duty. Once inside were not supposed to have the Darshan standing, our shadow shouldn't fall on the idols. We weren't supposed to throw money on the shrine, we were supposed to pay the Chadhawa and get the receipt for that. It all sounded very authentic. We had to leave the guide at the gate and as we entered the hall. It was a carpeted room which could accommodate around 100 devotees at bhajan time. At one end was something looking like a shrine behind the curtain. Near that was a small Aasan on that a Pujari. As usual a heavy and bearded person. He welcomed us and asked us to sit. He said we had come at a very good time as we were alone and could offer our Puja in peace. He repeated the exact words as said by our guide. As if they have memorized it from a common script, funny. I couldn't understand what attributed to this, strict and clear regulations or a set-up! We sat in an orientation suggested by the Pujari which was Mummy Papa sitting in front row and i sitting with bro behind, thus getting kind of getting a low preference in the process. After that he began with our introduction to the gods. Kind of went through our origins and current names and also told us about the importance of the place. THIS was supposed to be the exact coordinate were Yashoda brought up Krishna. As if it is the same house, could be. How I am supposed to know. We still have n'th generation Bodhi tree in Gaya! What's important is the sanctity of this place. Then he came to the point in a very straight forward manner. Options of Daan you can do to the shrine so that he opens the curtains for you and takes you through the shrine letting you touch the feet of the stone idols which are sitting there and waiting for people like us. The lowest would be 501/- then there were options about 2 grands and 5 grands.

I was shocked. Finally realized what the setup was all about. It wasn't flawless but we were in it. Had it not been for being with family, either I would have taken trouble with the people there, or walked out of the place fearing to get into the darker side of the whole thing. But I was sitting in that very place where Krishna was brought up(?) and with my parents who are quite religious at the same time aware of all the malpractices which go on in the backdrop. What is important to understand here is the paramount sanctitude of the place. It was an awfully uncomfortable situation. Without causing any disrespect to anyone or anything my father asked whether was any other option. That $#@$ smiled and said that you are wealthy and successful by god's grace. The contribution you make will only go to feed N poor people and M cows!!! Its all government fixed rates. Lacking experience in handling such demands shelled out the lowest fees we had to pay to see the god. The moment this happened I could feel the rush of blood in my head. I was feeling tied down on earth and being road-rolled. Awful...

After the payment was made, the Puja and the proceedings continued but the world wasn't the same again. As I was mechanically do the processes to complete the Puja I was only thinking about how we got duped. I could not hear to what people were saying around me. I felt humiliated. I could hear the Pujari laughing at his success within his own. After we were done, we left the place with a box of sweets and i was trying to divide 501 by the no. of sweets to get the how much is each sweet worth! It was expensive.

As directed by the guide we moved towards Mathura next. We had to trace back the road and we soon reached the place where we had found that crook, i mean guide. He said, please proceed to Mathura temple without me as we aren't allowed at all inside the premises of the Janmabhumi stepping down from the car he asked for his fees... 20/- My father put his point that the contract wasn't over as we were yet to see mathura and vrindavan, to which he said, "don't worry, you will find me here when you come back from mathura." And we stuck to our point that "fine, get your money then". And as the taxi moved ahead, he made no attempts to stop us. He was happy letting us go. This was the last bit of proof required of the fact that he had his fat commission in the 501/- we handed over to the fat bas**** in Gokul. No poor people and no poor cows to be fed, :D.

Well that's not the end of the story! After mathura we reached Vrindavan where we got another guide for 20/-. He took us to show a lot of places before taking us to a temple and gave us similar instructions. Well not similar, EXACTLY the same instructions! This time I was like, "oh, no, not again". Again creating a similar ambiance when Papa was asked for the option he choses to, he simply and politely said, "we have made a similar contribution already. I can't pay that much again, but will like to donate a smaller amount at my own will" :P Nice. Simply meant, we have been fooled once, not again. Just want to pay the fees which I think this temple deserves. The priest asked where we did that and then completed the rites in a haste and accepted whatever Papa offered. Obviously he didn't have to fake a receipt and note our names and address in his book as was done earlier. As soon as we walked out, he called out for our guide and in words we couldn't hear, expressed his anger. After being scolded by the priest for bringing low value customers the guide asked us, "you have already been to Gokul?" and his expression added "why didn't you tell me." We were taken to another place and his enthusiasm showed a remarkable decline. Soon we had to part, and this time the guide did make a point to collect his fees :)

Caught with pants down (the conspiracy)

CAT is approaching, yes it is. I can feel it after every spent, rather 'wasted' day. And I do not want this attempt to be like the previous ones after which everyone said "Oh that one section let you down." Feels like I was almost there, but was I? Isnt this the word which we generally use to differentiate success from failures. Anyway, thats not the thing I was going to write about today. So without getting carried away, let me come to the real story.

Ya, to make sure I get myself enough time to prepare for the exam ahead I thought of taking a week leave which was pending in my account since I had worked in the shutdown week of June. But what reason am I supposed to quote? Preparing for CAT, are you kidding? Thats something I am supposed to hide from the people at office. What could be a safe reason. I didnt want to go for a jaundice or some disaster at home. Those sound too fake. What else? Some festival at home, yes Chhath. Its something Biharis observe religiously and exclusively. Everybody knows about it. And there isnt another Bihari in my dept (nor in the division) so no one can say that he is not going why are you? Anyway no one was against my going on a leave. It was just me trying to prepare myselft with answers to all kind of (unlikely) questions and queries which could come my way. Fortunately the planned duration also coincided with a particularly lean period in some recent vehicle trial activities.

So after all the planning I decided to ask for the leave. And then it occurred to me... How about actually going home instead of staying here alone? I could spent 3 days over there and come back still having 4 days with me. Serves all the purposes. I checked for reservations. No doubt seats were full. Even tatkal bookings were in waiting list but they could get confirmed. I decided to get the leave approved before booking them. I could manage to go by air, but checking the available fare levels, I realized I wasnt that eager.

Next day I got the leave approved, no problems there at all. In the evening the extended tatkal waiting list killed my hopes of going home. So the next evening I bid goodbye to my colleagues and left the office for a long time to come. My plan was on track.

(To be continued...)

I am fine(d)

Hasnt it happened to you that while you are travelling in some mode of public transport and you see some people getting fined for not carrying an appropriate / any ticket and you / people start talking about how miserable such people are? Well it has happened to me. No, I didnt say such things about the person as the person was Me!
I love a few things about Delhi, that includes the CNG fleet of DTC. As an environmentally conscious citizen I make it a point to use ecofriendly methods to meet my requirements. Using CNG buses gives me one such high. It was a pleasant evening, I just got relieved from an HR training program I was attending at Radisson, a 5 star btw, and proudly walked out to catch a bus to Gurgaon. I got one and seeing the number of boarders > number of vacant seats inside, I hurried to grab one before I took the ticket. Thought I would keep my cap on my seat and go and get the ticket after the bus moves and the rush settles down. Bus moved and stopped soon at the next stop, not even minute away. It was still some crowd around my seat. Some 5-6 people entered the bus. One of them, a middle aged man had a reciept book in his hand. Spectacled. Safari suit. I felt uncomfortable. He tagged the conductor on his shoulders and exchanged words. Oh shit, I'm dead. I said to myself. Is this really happening to me. He is the, what do we call him, BTE?as in bus ticket examiner. What do i do now. Should i hold on to my seat and pretend to be comfortable, non-chalant? But wouldnt it be worse if he comes and ask me for a ticket and after looking for it in my wallet and all my pockets I say "nahi hai, uncle!". So after going through this thought process in 10milliseconds. I stood up, and placing my cap on the seat walked to the conductor for a ticket. But he refused to give me one! Nothing can save me now. Instead of staying away from the predator I just walked right into him. BTE noticed something going on and aske me 'tikit dikhaiye'. 'lena hai' I said. 'ab to nahi milega, wo aapke seat hai?' he asked, pointing at my cap(which btw, saurav singh, you must get it back from the cricket kit you left it in). It was followed by the regular 'bas lene wale hi the' 'to liya kyu nahi' 'pichhle stop pe hi chadhe the' 'padhe likhe lagte hain, fir bhi baat nahi samajhte?'. I took my seat, he came, I lost a medium size Gandhi chhap note.
After putting my wallet back in pocket when i held my head high, for some unknown reason everyone was staring at me. Ok, the reason is known but I didnt instead of the 'chhi chhi' look, it was the 'oh bechara' look. Anyway I didnt shy away but stared each of them into the eye until they looked away. Some one from behind asked me '1 aadmi ka saw(100) rupaya?'. I nodded in agreement, and I smiled. The reason was that 5 of them were sitting behind my seat, all w/o tickets. yessss! They were coming from the same stop as me. But the BTE wasnt interested. As if he had a ceiling for the number of people to fined in one expedition. 'Come on', I shouted inside myself, 'Fine them!' but he ignored mere andar ki awaaz. I could have straight forward asked him to check everyone else's ticket but in that i ran a risk of getting lynched by the other offenders. Anyway he was not interested and got down at the next stop.
I did all that was in my hands to save myself but the inevitable happened. Now it was my turn to justify myself, with strange logics. But I wasnt getting many. All I came up with were 'Its a lesson learnt, not only for me but also for others present there. Always buy the ticket in a DTC bus before occupying the seat' and 'after all its going to the government!'. But those could not pacify me. Then I recalled the exquisite lunch I had at Radisson + almond chocolate cakes(Kriti's mom style) + (i didnt count) glasses of juice etc. etc. Just Rs.100 for all this, its a steal! No regrets.

(note-I wish I hadnt refused the offer of being dropped at a location not very near to my home by one of the fellow trainees just before I took the bus)