I have returned back to Bengalooru 3 days back from my stupendous vacation! The hangover of the same was only for few hours, and its life as usual for me- long working hours, evening calls and not to forget the on call 24X7 support this week! Phew!
Time is flying and the day ends like that only. Off late, Blogging has taken a backseat for the last 3 months. However, I try my best to capture the thoughts every time I could make it amidst all the chaos! Because the day only has 24 hours and you have to do everything in that! You can’t strech very late in night as you have to get up early in the morning to go for jog! And believe me, I have cut down my late night FIFA matches just because of that!
One feels bad especially when one is full mood and disturbance happens. Imagine-You came early just to blog something good. You have just started and the phone rings that some issue has been reported! You immediately check that, fix that and in the process almost 2 hours are gone. Now its time for the usual evening call. And as your luck would have it, the call streches a bit beyond its usual time and you feel totally exhausted after that! You have dinner after that and think is there anything left? You watch 15-20 minutes of the FIFA match and go to sleep!
Blogging-dear friends, its gone! But can’t help it- its part of the life and call of the duty! What else can I say?
I am back in Bengalooru after 12 days of rejuvenating break from work! It was a much needed one.
As it is usual with vacations- you always feel that are very less! 12 days passed off like anything.
Was supposed to update the blog on a regular basis, and had the time also, but just skipped doing it because I wanted to give no stress what so ever to my gray cells!!!
When I landed yesterday night, the temperature was 25 degrees. It was a welcome change from the stubborn heat of Indore. Bengalooru welcomed me with a cool breeze!
I am back again- back to work, back to blogging and back to the life where I would not get tea or breakfast in hands, sumptuous lunch and dinner with dishes of my choice!
I will be writing this post in “Hinglish”. For those who do not know, this term is coined when we use mixture of English and Hindi Languages in conversations, writings etc. Though, I personally do not like the same in writing, but I feel for this post, it is necessary to preserve the essence of conversation!
While coming back from my regular morning jog today, I decided to stop by a “chai-tapri” to have a cutting tea. Though I have tea ready when I get back home, I decided to have a cutting just to have a taste of Indore. Indore is a place where you would find chai-tapris in every nook and corner of the city. Along with tea there are additional delicacies you can have- Poha, Samosa, Kachori, to name a few.
People here are really mad about Poha and perhaps if I am not wrong, it is the staple diet of Indore, synonymous with the Vada-Paav of Mumbai.
Coming to the matter of fact, I took my cutting tea and stood aside nearby sipping through it. There was a group of few old people of my grandfather’s age having tea and enjoying their worldly conversations, the main topic being politics and price rise. I did not intend to hear them, but they were so loud that my ears could not reflect the voice; they had to rather absorb it!
Suddenly one Dadaji called me, “Beta zara idhar aana”.
I was wondering why on earth he is calling me. Does he know me? I was unable to recollect his face though!
Anyway, I went there- “Ji boliye”
He said, “Itni subah subah tum yaha kya kar rahe ho? Tumhaari umra ke naujawan to dikhte hi nahi hai subah me?”
“Ji main daudne gaya tha. Laut te waqt socha chai pee loon isliye yaha ruka”, I replied.
He seemed quite happy with my answer and said, “bahut achcha kar rahe ho beta.Apne swastha ka khayal har kisi ko rakhna chaiye!”
I emphatically and diplomatically nodded in yes to support his views!
Another Dadaji then asked, “Kya padh rahe ho?”
I thought for a moment, that he thinks I am studying, means I Iook young!
“Ji Padhai ho chuki hai meri” I politely replied.
“Kya padha hai?” , was his immediate next question.
“Ji maine B.E. kara hai” , I replied.
“Shabash bete!” He said as if I have won the whole world!!
In between, another Dadaji jumped to bombard with me questions. “Shaadi ho gayi kya tumhaari?”
Before I could reply, another Dadaji quicly said, “Arey Sharma ji aap bhi! Agar shaadi ho gayi hoti to yeh subah uth ke daudne thodi na jaata.”
I could clearly mark out his mischievious smile!!!
The another question came was, “kya naukri kar rahe ho?”
“Ji main Software Engineer hoon” was my sweet and small reply.
They candidly admitted that Computer was greek and latin to them, yet they know a little of it because the whole world now runs on it.
Just to clarify and dig a little more in to what I do, another one asked “Kaun sa software banate ho?”
Now I was in a soup, because to explain what I do was next to impossible and more over I wanted to go back home soon.
However, I did give it a try and said, “Hum log Airlines ke liye software banate hai-Reservations,Ticketing and Departure Control System”
One of them caught the ticketing word in the sentence I said and promptly said, “Iska matlab tum ticket banate aur bechte ho?”
I had no words for this declaration but I politely explained him that I do not make tickets but make the thing that helps in making tickets. He was not convinced though,I am sure.
The next question was-“Kaha pe naukri kar rahe ho? Poona me?”
I said, “Ji nahi, Benagluru me hoon”
Next was the question on how is Bengaluru and how does it fare as compared to Indore.I explained the same in brief to them and thought to myself that why on earth I stopped to have tea!!!
I gave up and finally said- “Mujhe thoda kaam hai isliye jaana hai”
To this all of them said in a unison, “Haan haan jao bete, humne thodi na tumhe rok rakha hai!!!! Kabhi fir mulaqat hogi”
I said Namaste to all and immediately decided to change my route next day onwards! :)
I am sitting in the 2427 Karnataka Express, heading towards my home at Indore. I can’t be more ecstatic because till morning my leave plans were in soup. I was not sure whether I would be able to make it or not. So this happiness really can be felt only! Moreover, my holidays were once canceled in the month of may so naturally am happy.
I can’t express my gratitude to the lady luck, who has the knack of often betraying me!
I have been working almost round the clock for the past 10 days for these holidays! There were some issues in one of my project and to add salt to the wounds, there were frequent change requirements. So I was not sure whether I would be able to make it or not! But yes, God helped me and here I am travelling in the chuk chuk railgadi :-)
While returning from Office today, I was lost in some random thoughts!
It’s been 4 years since I have become an Engineer! 4 years have passed by and I feel it is a thing of yesterday only. How we prepared for the Pre Engineering Test, the admission to college, the evergreen memories of four years, masti and time pass, passing out, sadness of departing from fellow mates-everything flashed before the eyes.
I feel I have spent some of the best moments of life in college.
I distinctly remember the day, when I passed out with Honors Division. It was a moment of pride for me as it was my goal to achieve Honors! Though my teachers, all throughout four years, were reluctant to give me sessional marks, yet I somehow carried on the basis of my theory marks. More than me, it was my parents who felt proud! Parents have this tendency-they feel elated on small small achievements of their children and my feat according to them was a big one. After all, only five people in my class managed to get that.
I remember the phone calls from the relatives, saying “Badhai Ho, Ladka engineer ban gaya” to my parents! Those phone calls made me realize-Yeah! I am an Engineer finally. Four long years have passed since then! I have evolved from a raw graduate engineer to a more matured Software Engineer. I have used term “more mature” because I am still a kid and want to be the one, till my last breath. Because if we become too wise, we would not be able to enjoy life!
Life will move with its pace and nobody knows where I would be tomorrow. But one thing is for sure, I would always cherish those moments that I spent with my friends in the college.
Before ending-
To my fellow folks and mates of class of 2006-It’s been 4 years since we had fought the last battle to become an engineer! 4 Years, 8 semesters, 40 papers-we braved everything! Hand in hand together, kept us moving!
A toast for those golden 4 years and the 4 years after that and many more 4 years to come…
Today I got to know that Monsoons have knocked the door of Mumbai. It was quite expected because they usually hit Mumbai in the first week of June. At least, my experience of last 3 years, when I was in Mumbai says so!
I love rains and especially the monsoons of Mumbai! They are to die for! Though they are associated with floods and water logging hither thither in Mumbai, Monsoons are still charming there!
I was poring through some old documents of mine and got an article which I wrote when the monsoons knocked the doors of Mumbai last year. I would share that with you all.Here I go-
I was sitting with my friend and roomie, chit-chatting on various issues when I suddenly saw the weather changing outside. Cool breeze started to blow and I got a feel that Monsoons would knock the door of Mumbai today itself. I was right. It started raining just after 5 minutes. The aroma generated from first showers on mud was enchanting and cannot be simply described in words.
Monsoons have been one of my favorite seasons since my childhood days. They still are but sometimes I feel this professional life has snatched away a kid inside me. Because it is been 4 days of continuous rains and I did not get out to take the heavenly showers even once! And when I asked myself why, I could not get any answer. Anyway sometimes some questions have no answers.
As a kid I used to enjoy the rains very much. I still remember my primary school days at Khandwa where we anxiously used to wait for the season’s first rainfall. The importance of rains here is much because this place receives very scanty rainfall. When the first showers of the rain arrived all the kids of the colony used to get out and enjoy the same singing and dancing. Football was our favorite game. And playing football in mud was a heavenly pleasure.
Liking for Monsoons had some other reasons also. Going to school, crossing puddles of water and boasting that how sincere we are that we have come to study in spite of such terrible weather!! Buying raincoats of our liking and comparing it with other friends. We used to say that God has converted everything in to Bournvita by looking at the muddy water.And who can forget the yummy pakodas that my mom used to make!
I enjoyed rains at Khandwa for about 6 years till I was in 6th standard. After that my father got transferred to Mandleshwar and call it a coincidence that we shifted during Monsoons only, 22nd July to be precise. I am still very good at remembering dates!
There was a gloomy feeling that I was leaving all my buddies behind but at the same time I had an excitement of making new friends at a new place. Mandleshwar also had a history of scanty rainfalls. It would rain occasionally and then the rains would take a recluse before coming again. I made many new friends at Mandleshwar and enjoyed the rains in the same passion as I used to at Khandwa.
Unlike Khandwa, Mandleshwar had a lot of open grounds. In the monsoons, the earth seemed to have been covered up with a green carpet. Well the enjoyment of monsoon was a terrific experience here. Playing football getting drenched is one of the feelings that I would always enjoy.
Our school at Mandleshwar was about 5 kms from our colony and there used to be a bridge in between. That bridge used to get full during monsoons and we used to have unofficial OFF. That was so majestic, getting an off from school unexpectedly!
Monsoons have their added advantage. You can doze off cozily under the smugness of the quilt forgetting about the world!
I enjoyed Monsoons at Mandleshwar for about 4 years. After that I moved to Jabalpur for my higher secondary school. Enjoying Rains in Jabalpur was limited as I had no friends of my age group in my colony. It was limited to dancing alone on our terrace in the rains with my cousin brother and sister.
Then came the college, at Indore. We were free birds now. Enjoying rains when in college is the most memorable. In college I used to share a room with my buddy and we had a great camaraderie between us. We had almost similar likings. Moreover both of us liked rains, was the biggest advantage. We used to roam around the city on my bike admiring nature and of course, beautiful girls! At college also we had a group and used to mass bunk the college to enjoy the rains. Enjoying in a group is always a pleasure. Stopping at a tapri to have “bhutta” along with cutting tea was the most enjoyable moment of riding on bike!
In college as they say you are the king. So whenever it used to rain we used to take our wished leave and enjoy getting wet. After that we used to try our hands in cooking pakodas, testing our culinary skills. Can I forget listening to oldie songs like “Barsaat me tumse mile hum” or “Zindgi bhar na bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat”
After college I had tryst with the monsoons at Pollachi. Pollachi, the Paris of Tamilnadu as it is called is the city where I got my initial and foundation training after getting selected as a Software Engineer in Hexaware Technologies. Pollachi has given me so many wonderful memories that will remain etched in my memory forever. They cannot be erased even if I get Alzheimer’s disease!Here it did not rain much but occasionally showers pouring in unexpectedly .It seemed like God wanted us to enjoy the heavenly nectar even if we were trying to avoid.
When I joined in Mumbai, in August, I was very excited to have the taste of Monsoon there, though the peak of the monsoons had gone by. However I have been lucky enough to enjoy it for three years now! Getting drenched at Marine Drive, witnessing the high rising waves of the sea is perhaps the most beautiful thing one can do in Mumbai Monsoons.
Those were some moments, if given a choice I would love to relive again.
These are only few of the million happy moments that I have penned down. I cannot write down completely in words the how I have grown up enjoying rains! :-)
