Chal chale, apne ghar...

This one's for all those who've asked me how my visit home has been, and for my cousins who missed the event....

The wanderer had a much-awaited visit to his home recently. The occasion - Grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary! And that means - cousins, parties, masti, hungama and Good foooood!

For the uninformed, my family stays in Bhopal, and as a joint family comprising of 14 members. My grandparents, my dad and his two brothers with their families of two children each. I happen to be the eldest one in the third generation. The year 2007 is a memorable one for us for three reasons - after 34 years we shifted to a new house this April, this year is the centenary birth year of my late great grandfather, and 50th wedding anniversary of my grandparents.

Since it was a multiple occasion, a large number of relatives were expected at Jha Sadan (that's what our home is called). Altogether there were about 40 people coming from outside Bhopal. This, alongwith other relatives and close families in Bhopal made a total figure of 80 people for the event! And Jha Sadan was accomodating 65 of them at any given point of time! It felt none less than a marriage.

And the celebrations - they were as grand as they always happen at my place. Our family is notorious for its enthu for celebrations, and ofcourse Gujju-type-gourmet (yes, I happen to be a Gujju). The function was spread over three days:

Day1: Outstation relatives arrived. After their routine "kem cho"s, recent escapades, the "what-to-wear" discussion by ladies and "which-are-the-best-stocks" discussions by the gentlemen, we had a "Jha Re Ga Ma Pa" program in the evening. Everyone who had a remote talent in singing and/or dancing had prepared something for the evening. Although we have a complete orchestra team inhouse, dad insisted on hiring professionals! The program lasted a whopping 3 hours with 25 odd performances (songs/group songs/dances). Poor orchestra guy who had come with a singer just got one song to sing. And he finally left with a comment ki "aaj aap log ne entertain kiya, talented family hai!". The highlights - Palak's dance on "Barso re", Parth's awe-inspiring "Teri Deewani", Shlok-Shreya's "Tara rum pum", Anjali Kaki-SK kaka's dance on "Tere Bina" (Guru), the emotional scene after the sons sang "Ye to sach hai ki bhagwaan hai" for my Dada Dadi, and dance on "Jodi ye" (Guru) [directed by yours truly, who incidentally doesnt know how to dance :-)]

Day2: The day of Anniversary. In the morning we had the release of a book called "Kutumb", which was published in the memory of my Great Grandfather. It had articles, snippets, poems etc contributed by everyone in our family, and by few in our extended family. This was followed by a Bhopal Darshan for outstation relatives, in a "Toy Train"! :P Quite crazy I thought! The evening was a party and DJ at The Amer Greens. The "baraat", went to, and returned from the hotel in the same "Toy Train". My bro, who couldnt attend Day1 due to his exam at Indore, made a heroic entry in the party, and took out all the frustration of missing Day1 (and his exam) by his spellbound show on the floor, a dance which would have made Hrithik Roshan jealous!

Day3: A discourse by Swami Rituraj Maharaj, a well-known saint in the North at our place in the morning. As a matter of fact our family is religious too! :P Quite familiar with gyaan sessions in ITC, I felt its very easy to give a discourse. Just state the obvious! :D The families were one a departure from Day3 evening.

Going home has always been as happening for me. When there are 13 people awaiting you home (actually 21, both my buas also stay in Bhopal), you sure gonna have a party time once you are there, irrespective of occasions. Infact, I was ill-famed in college for running back home the next day after exams end. And that was there because I've always found home more happening! But lately, I've found my attachment to home increasing. This wasn't so in college. Now, after coming back from home, once the hangover is gone, its always depressing. Sadly I live too far and have too little leaves to be able to go home more often :-(

Anyways, good times end for better ones to come. Looking forward to the next opportunity to be there!

Pics of the event uploaded on http://picasaweb.google.com/jhamayank

C'est la vie

Life's not fair at times, and I am not saying this with a reference to myself. Bad things happen to good people, and I don't understand why.

I am upset. One of my closest friends, she has not been in a settled state for quite sometime now. Death keeps passing by her, and its happening too often now. I've seen her thru thick and thin, but last few months are just unimaginable. She lost the cousin she was closest to, she lost two of her three pets (one of them yesterday), she lost a friend from college... all in a span of 6 months. I can keep consoling, and try to make her feel better, and tell her that "Such is life", but I know, this isn't fair.

I wish I could be present with her thru these, sadly I'm physically located far from where she is. But, at times I wonder, do I have the strength to face all this? One part is seeing someone close by go thru this pain, and I find that difficult, coz I really don't know how to deal with it, coz touchwood, I didn't have to lose people close to me yet. But the other, tougher and scarier part is, how would I deal with it if times like these come to me?

To this she says: "Mayank, life will teach you how to deal with it."

True. Life, and experience, is the best teacher of all. Sometimes the hard way, sometimes thru others' experiences, it teaches you how to deal with it. Experience is something one can't earn as a degree in a college, and ironically, the M. Exp. which the University of Life offers is the most coveted degree in any area you explore, professionally or personally.

We talk of heartbreaks, job dissatisfaction, academic failures, etc as "pains" in life that we are going thru, and end up cribbing : "Life Sucks!". And when I see life around me, I realise what "pain" life really has the potential to give. A mother losing a young son, a kid who's parents are filing a divorce, a couple not having a heir, an industrialist losing 95% of his property in business loss, parents being ignored by their "its-my-life" obsessed sons and having to reside in old-age homes, couple having a mentally-retarded child, murder of a brother over property - all real life examples around me!

Thank you god, for giving a relatively normal life to me. The pains in my life are insignificant. And I need to be prepared for more.

God bless u Brutus. I miss u.

Down with Love

Am in love again! Someow the feeling was dormant for the last few months. And I realise that love doesn't die. It just needs a spark to revive.

The spark this time was Bandeh by Indian Ocean. I am writing this blog in a train, I have my headphones on, the song is being played repeatedly in Winamp, and my hands are alternating between guitar chords, bass movements, psuedo drumming and typing this blog out. And I realise that I'm getting weird looks from people around me :D

This song is a masterpiece. The best Indian Ocean has done yet, although I'd like to believe that their best isn't out yet. Sushmit's guitar riff has that rock feel to it, unlike his other traditional Indian-folk-ish riffs. The electric overdriven guitar is a supplement to the rock feel. Ram's bass use, as any other Indian ocean song, is mindblowing. Don't know how he manages vocals with the sexy bassline (reminds me of Knopfler). And although Amit hasn't used his signature unconventional, wierdo-cyclic drumbeats as he has done with Maa Reva or Bhor, he has complemented well with subtle-yet-amazing rolls. The way he uses crashes and the impact it creates is superb. And Asheem's Alaap! My god, these guys are some team!

Okay, coming to the non-technical part, the song is an APT-FIT for Black Friday. I soo wished that the song was used somewhere in the movie instead of the Title. This song is one which takes u to a different world. It has the kick. For those who haven't heard Indian Ocean, I would strongly recommend to atleast give an ear to Bandeh, Maa Reva, Kandissa, Bhor, Jhini, Hille le. Or even better, attend a concert! They play pretty often. And, if you know of IO concerts in your city, please inform me. I have attended one, and seems its not enough :)

For the last few days, I'm back into a retro. My playlist consists of the songs We've played as a band in the past. Maa Rewa/Bandeh/Dhoom/Maeri/But it rained/Mama Said/Fade to Black/Nothing else matters/Like a stone/Show me how to live/Day tripper/Zombie/I'm with you/Complicated/Losing my religion/Rape Me/Polly/Love Buzz/When did you sleep last night/Sultans of Swing/Jeremy/Even Flow/Black/Last Kiss/Stairway to Heaven/Californication/Killing in the name of/Times like these/Creep/About a girl/I am mine/Road tripping.... the list goes on!

Why does life always try to drag itself back to the past?? Now... playing these songs, I miss college, I miss my band, and I miss the SAC music room at IITB where we've spent sleepless nights to perfect songs. Although we never tried original compositions, but I'd say that we reproduced well, and we did it with a feel and a passion. It pays back when you see the crowd enjoying it. Original comps is what I want to do next. There's already a song I've written, its waiting for a music team to do the rest. Guess I'll have to wait for a college again. IIMA maybe! :P

Music, or rather, playing good music, has been my love since last 5 years. I don't need liquor to get high, just some good music! I still remember how in first year, I saw a few batchmates playing a guitar, and how when I held her in my arms for the first time, I knew that she is the one, the one who'll make me sing what she wants, the one whose voice will seduce me completely into her curves. I knew I wanted to know her in and out, I know I wanted her for the rest of my life, and I was desperate. I surfed the net for all the rules of making the most of her presence, and although I am nowhere close to the GODS, I am happy that deal with her well enough, and make her realise her beauty. She knows it, and she doesnt disappoint me ever. And and and, I look good with her. :)

"Till death do us apart."

The Reunion

Few of us: Jedi, Carlee, Sandy, Ruchika, Baner, Hari, me, Walia, Shailesh and magloo at Dublin

Seventeen colleagues, six seniors @ Hotel Chola Sheraton, Chennai. This was an event I was looking forward to, for a long time. I was told by the senior batch that they had a reunion sometime in April last year, where all of them who joined ITC-PSPD/PPD, working in the "middle-of-nowhere"s met once again. And so in July 06, when sigma17 (that's what our group has been named by His Highness :P) were departing to their individual assignments across the country, we bid goodbyes with hopes of a reunion on similar lines.

And it happened! Somewhere in the middle of May, after a lot of pestering by Carlos (thank u carlee), we get a directive from His Highness that we should be planning a reunion. Though it was an official program where we were supposed to be discussing our work over the past one year and challenges faced by our businesses, I can say that we all were excited with the idea of catching up with each other after long! With a lot of deliberation over dates (for availability of all 23 concerned), amidst discussions over what's the agenda going to be, the after-hour plans and all such things, we finally got geared for the affaire-de-grand on June 10-11.

The reunion was as memorable as a reunion is supposed to be. Though work @ ITC involves a lot of travel, the group was still large enough to have been able to meet everyone through the last year. Infact I am one of those who have travelled a lot with ITC, and yet, out of the seventeen of us, there were 3 whom I hadn't met since induction. And when we all met on Saturday evening over a cack session at one of the suites in Chola, I just remembered the saying "When you meet someone after long, you realise that some things, good or bad, don't change" :-) And the group was just the same when we left! Same decibel level, same arguments, same leg pulling, same bakras and bakris :P, the non-stop ruchika and ruchi, the neta nilay, the funda-guru carlee, the sober jhaji, my dessert-partner tashi, the krrish-o-maniac hari, the ever-blissful lavs, the nawab yash, the sutta-lover-cum-teacher sandy, the happy dudes walia and shailu, the roti-breaker magloo, the PJ-god Banner, and last but not the least Professor Piran. We missed u Mankame, though I'm sure that even you haven't changed: your obsession with incense sticks hasn't faded away with the holy-smoke!

Some of the most memorable moments over the two days:

- Sat night session at Chola: "What are we going to do for the next two days? We have to plan the session". Intense discussion, agenda being jotted down, and there Baner makes a Heroic entry straight from Delhi! Loud roar, hugs, jokes, and session dropped from the discussion into a Daaru party!

- His Highness's "sack-them-all" act - enacting a butcher with a knife!

- DUBLIN! The Disc at Park Sheraton. We all had our sunday evening bash there! Great music, all exotic booze and the floor! A few pretty females! And not to mention the two brave members of sigma17 (one of them engaged!) who made a sweep on one of the females.

- Seeing a bald-guy dance at Dublin and realising that it was Sanath Jaisuriya :-)

- The look on the faces of those-few who saw the bill at Dublin: "Jo chadhi thi sab utar gayi yaar"!

- The morning after: "Yesshhh, we will begin the shesshion at 9:00 tomorrow, pakkaaa", say the drunkards! They end up at 10:30!

- Walia's "Bhookh lagi" act at 2:30 midnight in Nilay's room, where he is totally besotted, and pleading us for getting some food ordered: "Kuch to khila do, main bhookha hoon. Maine kuch nahin khaaya, sirf daaru pi!"

A lot many more! Here and there! Secrets unveiled. Crushes discovered. Work problems shared. Cribs and more cribs. Fighting over who's in a deeper shit. Arguing who's boss is more khadus. Sigma17, and Sigma23 rocks!

Working together brings an altogether different kind of bonding. We are all working for a purpose. Even though at times it all seems aimless, But I would like to believe that we are all contributing to the bottomline. We have a common goal, and a common culture to share and crib about. We come from similar educational backgrounds, have similar (and yet eerily innovative) way of looking at things, and we all face the same problems while bringing change in the organisation. We all face the "kids-with-fat-package" glances at our respective sites, and yet we all work our way through. We have seen the company together, in a two-month long induction, where we, in a huge group of seventeen, have managed to put our ideas together, agreed to disagree, and yet present proposals on a consensus. And here, working as colleagues, we have made friends, which stay, irrespective of everything else. The reunion just reinforced it!

Cheers to Sigma17, Cheers to ITC!

PS: I realised that we didn't click a single group photograph! Given the fact that we all have been given digicams by the company, some at the top management are really going to be ashamed of us! ;-)
My answer to that would be as filmy as His Highness: "Jo tasveer dil mein hai, uski kaagaz par kya ahemiyat!" :-)

Eleven Minutes

Yeah precisely, its the novel by Paulo Coelho I'm talking about. I just finished reading it yesterday (I actually have been budgeting reading it, to have something to do for solitary days). Its a story of a girl from Brazil, named Maria, who comes to Europe chasing her dreams. Though she ends up being a prostitute, she leads life the way she loves it. Its a tale of her self-discovery.

Although the book makes a nice story, its the way Paulo Coelho writes that leaves me mesmerised. Simple, subtle, yet beautiful lines. And the most beautiful part of them have been Maria's diaries. Here's a collection of excerpts from the book, that I loved the most:

- "Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them. And if nothing belongs to me, then there's no point wasting time looking after things that aren't mine; its best to live as if today was the first (or last) day of my life."

- "I can choose either to be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It's all a question of how I view my life."

- "Some people were born to face life alone, and this is neither good or bad, its simply life."

- "But life was teaching her - very fast - that only the strong survive. To be strong, she must be the best, there's no alternative".

- "I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called body."

- "A man doesn't prove he's a man by getting an erection. He's only a real man if he can pleasure a woman. And if he can pleasure a prostitue, he'll think he's the best lover on the block."

- "... but there's always one woman who frightens them (men) and forces them to submit to her caprices." (Maria, wondering how all her clients seem to be 'afraid')

- "Eleven minutes. The world revolved around something that only took eleven minutes." (The accompanying para is amazing, its too long to type though)

- "Human beings can withstand a week without water, two weeks without food, many years of homelessness, but not loneliness. Its the worst of all tortures, the worst of all sufferings."

- "That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it."

- "Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with."

- "Passion makes a person stop eating, sleeping, working, feeling at peace. A lot of people are frightened because, when it appears, it demolishes all the old things it finds in its path."

- "Each day I choose the truth which I try to live. I try to be practical, efficient, professional. But I would like to be able always to choose desire as my companion. Not out of obligation, not to lessen my loneliness, but because its good. Very good."

- "If you want to achieve your objectives, you have to be prepared for a daily dose of pain or discomfort. At first, its unpleasant and demotivating, but in time you come to realise that it's a part of the process of feeling good, and the moment arrives when, if you don't feel pain, you have a sense that exercises aren't having the desired effect." (As true as it can be, this is the hardest thing!)

- "Oh, so you want to think that, do you? All right then, do what you like, while I get on with more important things." (Maria, to herself, when her heart complained about the absence of her love)

- "The art of sex is the art of controlled abandon."

- "..., it's (pain) a very powerful drug. Its in our daily lives, in our hidden suffering, in the sacrifices we make, blaming love for the destruction of our dreams. Pain is frightening when it shows its real face, but its seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self denial. Or cowardice. However much we may reject it , we human beings always find a way of being with pain, or flirting with it and making it a part of our lives." (These lines are POWERFUL, and makes me rethink of certain decisions I took in life ;-) )

- "Pain and suffering are used to justify the one thing that brings only joy: love."

- "No one around me is happy; the clients know that they are paying for something that should be free, and thats depressing. The women know that they have to sell something which they would like to give out of pleasure and affection, and that is destructive." (Maria, in a diary entry).

- "Life is too short, or too long, to allow myself the luxury of living it so badly." (The same diary entry)

- "In all languages in the world, there's the same proverb: "What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over". Well, I say there isn't an ounce of truth in it. The further off they are, the closer to the heart are all those feelings we try to repress and forget. If we are in exile, we want to store away every tiny memory of our roots. If we're far from the person we love, everyone we pass in the street reminds us of them." (Maria, quoting a priest in her diary).

- "Its odd how, when you live in a city, you always postpone getting to know it and usually end up never knowing it at all."


Very well written, and grasping. Must read!