First Birthday

Day before yesterday, that is January 27th, 2007 was my First Birthday of the Second Innings...

On this occasion, I especially wanted to thank God. I would also like to say thanks to my family and friends; who were always there when I needed them and their suport. And special thanks to all the Doctors and Nurses who had taken care of me.

Silver Jubilee...

Hey don't worry I'm not writing about any movie which had completed silver jubilee nor about any couple completing their silver marriage aniversary.

Today, I turned 25. On this occasion, especially wanted to thank God because last year on the same day I requested Him that please show me my 25th birthday and here I am... I would also like to say thanks to my family and friends; who were always there when I needed them and their suport.


Other details to follow soon...

GURU

GURU – The story of a Villager, Visionary and a Winner

Gurukant Desai, a character whose life moved similarly as to the iconic Dhirubhai Ambani. According to the Mani Ratnam, director of this awesome movie, the story and the character Guru are totally fictitious and are not inspired from the life of legendary Dhirubhai but are inspired from the lives of various great men.

The movie starts from the time, when Guru was only sixteen or seventeen years of age but continues till he becomes eighty. Depicting the whole life of a person in 2.5 hours is also a very difficult task for the director. But three cheers to him, he did it again and that too perfectly. I don’t know which of his creations would be ranked as the best but I’m sure that Guru would also be amongst one of the best ones.

Not only the director but the entire team of guru had done a marvelous job. The cinematography by Rajiv Menon is brilliant, the screenplay by Mani Ratnam and editing by Sreekar Prasad are too good. Even the music by Rehman and the background score are too good.

The protagonist of the movie is Abhishek Bachchan. After watching the movie, you may belief that both of them that is, the role and Abhishek was made for each other. He did such a fantastic job that it looks like it was a tailor made role for him, even though every actor would love to do such type of roles. He overall did a stupendous acting. I think that Guru is his best performance till date. The movie is solely his and he carries it well.

Apart from Abhishek, every other actor too did their job very well but the Mithun Da was the best amongst the others. It seemed that he is back in Bollywood after a long time. Even Madhavan looked very young and handsome in this movie.

There are many scenes which I liked but the best ones were the final court room scene, the emotional hospital scene with his long time friend and associate, Manoj Joshi and the scene at the Mithun’s house, where Madhavan gives his opinion about Guru.

Finally, this is a movie which everyone must watch. And if you are missing this one then surely you are missing one of the best movies made in the Bollywood in the recent times.

The best thing which I liked in the story or about Guru is the passion which he had for making his dreams true. And one thing which Guru always believed and told people was:

“if you don’t dream
you will be stuck to your village
all your life”

What Celebration means…???

For past one week, I’ve been getting mails asking & stating what Celebration means…???

After analyzing this question, I found that the word Celebration is a perceptive word; for which every other individual has some other meaning. The ways of celebrating any occasion could differ from person to person. Celebrations for same occasions may also differ depending upon various factors such as our finances, our mood, also on people with whom we’re celebrating, etc.

For some of us:-

• Celebration could mean four friends chatting on a winter evening or on a rainy day over the cups of tea / coffee.
• Celebration could mean few friends in a hostel room, cooking and eating Maggi noodles at 4:30 a.m. in the morning.
• Celebration could mean three old buddies in three different cities chatting on the messenger.
• Celebration could also mean boozing, dancing and partying.

But this year, Celebration for me on the occasion of Christmas was the Office Party & the Trip to Alibaug and on the New Year eve was a simple chat & photo session with my friends, over the drinks and the dinner @ PopTates.

We may spend Hundreds on birthdays, Thousands on festivals, Lakhs on weddings,
But to celebrate, all we need to do is to spend our Time with our loved ones…

The week that was...

The week, which started on Monday 18^th December, 2006 and continued till Sunday 24^thDecember, 2006 was full of pressure, deadlines, anxiety & excitement. I think all these emotions weren’t only for me but for some of my friends too.

That week had two special days or occasions; to which almost everyone, who were associated to it was looking forward too. The first one was Thursday 21^st December, 2006: the day for Annual Christmas Party, this year, we named it as iCE Carnival ’06. The other was our (i-leap batch) trip to Alibaug, which was scheduled on Saturday 23^rd December, 2006 & Sunday 24^th December, 2006.

Party:
As usual that week too began on Monday morning, with lot of last minute activities to be completed for making the party a huge success. A usual checklist mail from Santanu was there in my mailbox and I began my day with completing those items present in the list. It almost became a routine to remind each other about the tasks which needs to be completed by the other one.

After rounds of checklists, approvals, meetings and reviews, arrived the final day. It was a day, for which our team had been working atleast from past one month. I don’t know about others but that day there were butterflies inside my stomach.

The excitement for the party started building up quite a few days back with posters put across the office and the mails sent from time to time kept the momentum going and set the grapevine buzzing about the most happening party of the year.

And a rocking party it was… with a packed house with people turning up in full strength accompanied by Family and Friends. The party began with full of enthusiasm and energy, where people also played games. Later they all set the dance floor on fire.

Kids section was another place which was really rocking; people playing with their kids, kids jumping & dancing all over the place. The party gave equal amount of space to all the parents & their kids, dance lovers and also to the people who just wanted to chill out with friends and colleagues.

The party came to an end around 2 a.m. And by God’s grace none of our efforts were wasted, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the party.

Alibaug Trip:
Eleven of us finally agreed to go to Alibaug on Saturday. Each of us was equally excited to enjoy this trip.

We nominated Rohit as our Event Manager for the trip. He planned all the necessary requirements and even made the proper arrangements for them. He tried to cover the minutest details and even planned our scheduled; frankly speaking he proved that he deserves to be an event manager. A Tempo Traveler was booked to carry all us, to our destination.

In the morning, travel agent ditched us. After trying hard for hours, for hiring another car, we somehow managed to get a Scorpio and an Indica for us. We were late by more than 5 hours as per our schedule inspite of the delay; it didn’t affected much since everyone was very keen to go there. We started our journey from J.B. Nagar around 12 noon instead of 6o’clock in the morning.

After hours of traveling, the first beautiful sight which we came across was the Sunset: the most admirable one which I’ve ever seen in my life. Next was the Kashid Beach, a white sand beach. This was our first stop; we spent more than an hour there.

Around 8 in the night, we reached our destination – Nandgaon, a village forty kilometers ahead of Alibaug. The cottage which we had booked was awesome. After having dinner, we had camp fire. You guys won’t believe that for putting the fire, we used Blender’s Pride Whisky instead of kerosene oil, ask Nishant and he’ll tell you how bad he felt at that moment. Our discussions, jokes & singing continued till 3 in the morning.

Next morning, most of us were ready by 7:30, for going to the nearby beach. Meanwhile others got ready, we all warmed-up by playing football, cricket and flying disc. Now came the beach time, most magnificent beach I’ve ever seen, greenish-blue water, white sand and mountains at the sides. What an amazing view, it was? Initially we played at the beach but once we entered into the sea, we had the real fun…

Afternoon was the time to visit Murud Zanzira Fort, located at an island. We reached fort by a boat and hired a guide too, who told various stories, which weren’t sounding true to us. Even though the view was good from there but it was a tiring too. On our journey back to Nandgaon, we had supper in a beachside restaurant, Anand Vatika.

Finally we left, Nandgaon at 8 o’clock in the night for coming back to Mumbai with only one slogan on everyone’s mouth, “Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle baras tu GOA le jaa…”

Although the whole week was very hectic and tiring but it was one of the best weeks of this year.

Fresher Dulhan

From a long time, I’ve been thinking on this analogy which according to me, exists between a newly married bride and a fresher engineer joining an IT company.

I found lot of similarities in the course of the events which happen to a newly married bride, when she reaches her in-laws’ house and in a fresher engineer who joins an IT company. Let me put these similarities as stages of their lives:

Stage 1: Newly married bride comes to her in-laws’ house; first she is introduced to the senior members of the family and everyone give their blessings to her. Later she is taught all the traditions and customs followed by their family, since ages.

In the same manner, when a fresher joins an IT company; the first few days are kept for Induction. In this phase, all the seniors of the organization come and have an interaction with the new employees, joining the organization and also give them presentations about the organization and its processes. Like in the case of bride, she was made accustomed to the traditions of the family; here the freshers are made aware of PPP (principles, processes & policies) of the organization.

Stage 2: Once all the necessary customs are over or when the induction phase ends; the newly married couple is sent for a honeymoon trip. Similarly, freshers also start with their technical training, once their induction finishes off. Generally this training continues for more than a month. In this period, freshers make friends with other people (mostly freshers), who have joined the organization with them and also explore different places in that city like theatres, restaurants, tourist places, etc. Even some people call this training period as a Honeymoon period for freshers joining any company.

Stage 3: The Honeymoon period ends and now it’s time to work. Everyone whether a bride or a fresher looks forward to work sincerely and get recognition in her in-laws’ family or the organization respectively. A great man had said that getting work is also not easy in this world, same thing happens here too. Freshers come out of training with an urge to work hard and to prove their mettle but then in most of the cases they are not allotted on any project immediately, meaning that they are on bench. Similarly, whenever a new bride enters the kitchen to do something, the family members say that you don’t need to work right now. They even say that till now the color of Mehndi (Henna) also haven’t faded from your palms, so how can we ask you to work. So finally both of them don’t have any work for few days, weeks or may be months.

Stage 4: Finally after some time, everyone gets work; bride gets involved in her daily work at home and fresher in the project to which he or she is assigned to. But please don’t think that is the end of the story, infact this is the beginning of the real story. Till now everything was moving smoothly & happily but now comes the twist in the tale. Now the elders or the supervisors forget that these people are new and may make mistakes. They start assuming that both the bride and the fresher will be perfect in all the work they do. Even sometimes they start blaming them for the smallest of the mistakes these people commit. They even ask them that what you guys have learnt so far, most general question to the bride: What have your parents taught you? And to the fresher: What have you learnt at the engineering college and in the technical training?

In this manner, the story continues further but this post ends here…

Let's talk Pink

In the fashion world today, they say Pink is the new Black. The color pink has acquired a lot of popularity and acceptance in the recent past, surprisingly even among men too. "Men in Pink" is the happening thing these days.

Sometime back, I decided to find more about this color and what it portrays. Here are some interesting facts about the color pink, which I picked up from Wikipedia:

• "Pink" was not a color word known to Shakespeare. He used words like "light red" to describe pink.

• Pink, though popular is a vile color that should be avoided at all times.

• The color pink is now associated with womanhood, just like blue is associated with boys and manhood.

• In Catholicism, pink symbolizes joy and happiness.

• Pink, along with red, is traditionally used on maps for territory ruled by the British Empire or for members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

• "Paint the Town Pink" a phrase that arose in the 1950s reflecting its influence on fashion and design and the popularity of pastel colors.

• Pink is the color of the Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon. Breast cancer is a leading killer of women, and pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.

• Pink, being a 'watered-down' red, is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe a watered-down socialist ('Pinko').

• Similar to white collar, there is a term Pink collar, which refers to female office worker (sometimes used in a derogatory manner).

• While the west typically refers to adult films as "blue movies", in Japan these films are often called "pink movies".

• Pink, is also associated with gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, often in the form of a pink triangle. In Britain, Pink News is a leading gay newspaper and online news service. In business, 'the pink pound' or 'pink dollar' refers to the spending power of the GLBT community.

Quite interesting, isn't it? I too never knew these shades of pink before…

After One Year

As O’ Henry used the title for his brilliantly written story “After Twenty Years”, to show that how the lives of two friends had changed in a time span of twenty years. I’m also using a similar title to list out some of the changes which had happened to me, after I came to Mumbai.

Question: What all have changed in me, in the past one year?

Answer: The answer seems to be very simple to me; but when I try to analyze these answers, I find that I’ve gained a lot in every aspect of life.

Made some more good friends and hope to continue these relationships throughout my life.
Now I know Places, People & Culture of one more city – Mumbai, the City of Dreams.
Got second life after having successful operation at the beginning of this calendar year.
Learnt some of typical words of the Mumbaiya language. And have also started using them in my day to day talks.
Also learnt 2 levels of ballroom dancing (Jive, Salsa & Waltz) & looking forward to learn Level 3 soon.
Now I’m an IT professional with one year of experience.
Also started loving Vada Pav with Cutting (a cup of tea).
How can I forget this, I also started blogging this year, which gave me freedom to express my thoughts.

But there are certain things in life which I still don’t like or find them incorrect:

Don’t like traveling in local trains and buses, although I travel in them whenever required.
Always miss my college & hostel life. I still missed my friends a lot.
Never liked the Rains of Mumbai.
Still don’t have a GF…

Celebrations...

Atleast I never expected that we’ll have so much fun that day. It was a celebration in the true sense.

It was 7^th November, the day we joined i-flex, a year ago. The first anniversary of my first job, not only mine; but for most of us it was their first job, hence it was a special day. Last year, 27 of us joined together as freshers and most of us were strangers to each other. Everyone ready to prove their metal in the organization and raring to climb up the ladder to success. Time passed and we became friends, infact good friends, even though some of the guys moved to the Bangalore office.

We decided to do something special that day. Something which should be different and out-of-box (actually I heard this phrase here only and it is one of the most commonly used jargon used here). This was followed by number of chain mails and also lots of conversations happened. After much discussions and debate, finally we decided to distribute sweets to our teammates, seniors and acquaintances in office. One more thing we decided that we’ll be sending out the same mail and approximately at the same time too. And it all happened according to our plans. Nishant suggested that atleast on this day; all of us who are working in the same office should have lunch together. Later we had photo session.

The day ended in carrying out all these activities and now was the evening time, meant for partying. We, actually 15 of us who are still in Mumbai, went to Bowling Café @ Hiranandani Gardens for bowling. Later we went to PopTates for dinner. The spirits were so high that we fitted ourselves at a table which was meant for only 8 people. Rounds of drink began, followed by dinner. I’m unable to express the emotions, spirit and the amicability which were present there. We missed all our batchmates who are not in Mumbai. We reached home around 1:30 in the night, with all the memories of that last one year. I always heard that people in Mumbai work hard and party harder, and I too realized that is true atleast for all of us today.

It was an awesome evening. I think that everyone of us must have enjoyed more than the other one of us. I’ll definitely remember that beautiful evening and celebrations throughout my life. That was also one of the best evenings that I have ever spent in my life.

On a lighter note, now when the day had already passed, we all became 1+ year of experience professionals and are no longer a fresher…

First Aniversary

Today is the first aniversary of joining i-flex.

Last year, on this same date, that is 7th November; a batch of 27 people joined this organisation. I was one of them.

This is an occasion to celebrate the completion of one year @ i-flex, completion of one year of my first salaried job and also the completion of one year of friendship with other people whom I came to know due to this job.

This year may have totally been different, if all the people and their best wishes wouldn't have been with me.

Happy B'Day SRK !!!

Today is the 41st birthday of King Khan aka Shah Rukh Khan...

Join me in wishing him:

"Many Many Happy Returns of the Day... May you continue to rule the industry for another century... Wishing you all the success and fame in Life !!!"