20 years and counting

It was the summer of '92-'93...at Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 1 Air Force Station Kalaikunda, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. 

Last day of the batch. Think it was the Biology exam!

Back from a long vacation a bunch of students joined XI Std Science. Giving them a foothold in a field they always wanted to be in. Stakes were high, so were the ambitions. Some wanted to pass the sound barriers in their MIGs & MIRAGEs, some others took a nosedive into the world of Physics & Chemistry hoping to make it to the elite league. And there were some others like me 'Live life as it comes...' 

This was the bunch which along with everything else enjoyed life and whatever it had to offer, to the fullest. Woh bhi kya din the!!! Soon everybody left in pursuit of their ambitions, their dreams, their aspirations... Days became months and soon years. 

Most of us being from defense background hand moved multiple schools & cities before Kalaikunda. And sadly at the end of that year it was my turn. Much against my wish I had to move...to a new city, a new school, a new bunch of classmates. 

Inland letters from a few close friends kept the connections going. I still cherish almost all of them. Soon it was the time of internet & e mails followed by facebook & chat. With the advent of mobile phones it should have become so convenient? Not really! Life took is in all different directions. Still pretty much chasing their own ambitions!

Inspite of all this I did keep track of a few friends of mine. Met Shalini first in Pune & then in Hyderabad, Nitin, Harvinder & Tushar in Bangalore. Soon thanks to DD got back in touch with Anu, Showmic & a few others. Thanks to facebook a few other busy souls do drop in an ocassional one liner!

Harvinder and couple of other friends did try to have a reunion meeting which thanks to distances and varied locations is yet to become a reality. It was a good decade back when yahoo was in vogue, I tried bringing the group together with a yahoo group titled kkdclan (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kkdclan/?tab=s) only to fizzle out shortly.

I think it was a couple of weeks back when I suddenly realized that's its been 20 years...yes 2 decades since we all came together. From 50th birthday and 50 weeks of successful outing for movies to today's times where every year and everyday is celebrated 20 years is a really really long time! And the best part is some 8-10 of us are in good touch. As a part of celebrating this moment I was planning to create some memorabilia and put the word out. Response was muted & not encouraging. Expected that!

Moving on I thought the least I could do is capture the journey in my own way and celebrate it in my own way....

Happy 20 guys!!!! Happy to be in touch with a few of you. Happy to have known each & everyone of you.

Cheers!

Weekend break with a bundle of joy - 2

As the first day was coming to an end we made our way to Pondicherry. We were staying at Som's cousin Namasya's (unique name!!! atleast I haven't heard it before) place. A few calls and we located her apartment and landed there. Namasya & her hubby Mr. Venkata Sashtry work for Kalinga Institute of Information Technology. She has a really adorable 8 yr old son Aniruddha who studies in SAICE (www.sriaurobindoashram.org/ashram/saice/index.php) a really interesting schooling concept. He is already learning a lot of languages. We counted Telugu (father), Oriya (mother), Hindi, English, Tamil (Pondicherry), French and many others. He's also learning skating, gymnastics, swimming, chess, cricket etc. Phew...that’s a lot!!!! We quickly settled down and dozed off for the night.

Day 2
Up in the morning we got ready, planned the day and set out. First stop was the very popular Adyar Ananda Bhavan (http://www.aabsweets.in/). While we all ordered our Pongal (http://www.pongalfestival.org/rice-pongal.html) -Vadas, wasn’t surprised that Anu ordered Onion-Rava-Masala Dosa. Recollected that this was her favourite dish during her stay in Bangalore way back in 2001. Once done with breakfast we proceeded to the Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple (http://manakulavinayagartemple.com/) and like any traditional Hindu temple in southern India especially Tamil Nadu we were greeted by the temple elephant, Lakshmi. As is the custom people visiting the temple make offerings / take blessings from the elephant thought to be a reincarnation of Lord Ganesha himself. With the idea of showing an elephant from close quarters I took Srishti along and made her give some offerings to Lakshmi. But as she brought her trunk over Srishti’s head scared she started crying. I quickly moved away and we entered the temple. Once done and out Srishti clearly told me not to go near the elephant. From there we walked a few steps to visit the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It’s really a great experience visiting two different ‘shrines’ situated so close to each other. Looking at people around her Srishti, the good girl she is kept quiet during the entire time that we were inside. As we moved out Namasya rejoined us. While deciding what next Srishti kept herself busy playing with Reema on a bicycle and running up & down the steps in front of a gate. A few minutes later we went into the nearby Auroshika (www.auroshikha.com/) outlet. Colourful that it is, it did kept Srishti busy while Som & Anu shopped for stuff. Done with the place we left to meet one of Som’s aunt. She really stays is a beautiful apartment. Walking with her towards a place for lunch she told us a bit about the modern Pondicherry and the French attachment. Little did I realize that we were entering Rendezvous (http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g659792-d1116100-Reviews-Rendezvous-Pondicherry_Union_Territory_of_Pondicherry.html) a very famous restaurant where me & Reema enjoyed a great lunch when we went to Pondicherry! While everybody was busy chatting and ordering me & Srishti went about exploring the place and having a bit of fun…running up & down the steps, checking out different types of fish etc etc. Finally the food arrived followed by desserts which we all enjoyed. Soon we left to get back home. Needed to recharge ourselves a bit…

Evening
In the evening we all set out to go to the beach front where Srishti again enjoyed seeing the waves and lot of people around. With no vehicles on the road she was free to roam a bit too. While Namasya, Reema, Anu & Srishti left on the bike (quite a sight to watch!!!) Som & me roamed a bit. He was really enthralled by the architecture around, taking a lot of nice pictures before it was time for dinner and we headed to Don Giovanni (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2010/02/27/stories/2010022750060100.htm) on the rooftop of Hotel Corbelli on Mission Street, recommended by Namasya of course. Run by a true-blue Italian chef, Massimiliano ‘Murali' Morsiani from Bologna it’s a quaint little place and already has its owns set of loyal customers. As we entered we noticed Max was asking the guests what they would be interested in having. After a lot of discussions we did order our dishes while Som was busy trying to capture a lizard on the wall!!! It was also the day when India was playing England in the World Cup…cricket of course. We were wondering there was no way to keep a tab on the match in an Italian restaurant. Sigh…but much to our delight there was a small TV on which the employees of the restaurant were watching the match. Me, Anu & Reema stayed back after dinner to watch the final overs. Relieved to witness a tied match we walked down the street to catch an auto to get back home…

Another day in Pondicherry well spent. Close friends, a darling of a kid around and a lovely place…what more can you ask for. Thus ends Day 2 of my trip…Hoping that the penultimate day is as exciting I go to bed…

Concluding part coming up...

The India Map

While chatting with one of my friends I was suddenly reminded of this India map which was in our house during my childhood days.

I think I was probably in the the 2nd or 3rd grade. We were in Nagpur then. Appa had just become a sports coach- specialising in Handball. Appa bought a huge India map and we neatly pasted it on the back of the bedroom door. It had everything we would require for our studies - states, capitals, union territories, cities, regions, roads, rail routes, rivers & oceans, distances etc etc. Helped us in history, geography, civics and current affairs. Like its Google now, almost every query on India would lead me to the map. Especially on Sundays would spends hours trying to study it. At different times of the year the reason of interest would be different. During tests & exams it would be study related, sometime in March it would be the route our train will take to reach Chennai, Coimbatore and ultimately Udumalpet (a small town in Coimbatore district in Tamilnadu) etc etc. From the day I could remember appa would travel to places near and far...defence bases...army, navy and of course air force. Once the map was up, one day appa started marking all the routes he had taken till date as a part of his official and personal travel, using a red sketch pen. Over the next week or so, about 40-50% of the map had red lines going in various directions. Then on any new route he took was updated on the map with a lot of enthusiasm & urgency. Most of them would be an extension of the already travelled routes but some were also new ones.

One day I realised this huge map of India had red lines criss-crossing in all directions covering all cities where you had rail routes or roads to...big and small. That day I was happy and surprised. Happy as if a major task was achieved and surprised at the amount of travel appa had done within say a decade. Envious too...as I still have memories connected to some trips of his...sunrise at Darjeeling, an explosion at Vizag, sand dunes of Jaisalmer and the rock gardens of Chandigarh.

Within about 4 years of buying the map, all of a sudden it seemed useless. In 1988, appa was transferred to Kharagpur, in West Bengal. We packed our bags and moved leaving the map behind....

My Limousines in Mumbai

Have 72 - 96 alloy wheels...9 -12 different compartments and sections. Travel at 60 - 80 kmph. Wondering what they are? The great Mumbai local trains...

For the record, the system carries more than 6.1 million commuters on a daily basis and constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways itself. It has the highest passenger density of any urban railway system in the world. And the entire economy seems to move around them!!!!

In December 2005 when I first ventured into Mumbai to work with JWT, I had dared to take on the might of the Mumbai workforce traveling by these trains, by taking a few trips from Kanjur Marg (the station closest to Powai on the central line) to Currey Road (where I need to alight for JWT). Did learn a few ropes, but by the time I could master them I moved back to Bangalore on personal reasons. Just when I was forgetting my experiences of that stint, here I was back in the city of dreams as some call it.

After much of huffing & puffing I have moved into Hiranandani Estate, Thane. Its hardly a month and am already getting tuned to having my life revolve around the local trains. Every day there is something to think about, what time to leave, which train to take, which one to board, where to stand to get in etc. A few trips and a friend of mine dubs it the best natural way to keep fit!!!! And everyday the challenge is will I get a place to sit and how early will that be.....

Today after a break the skies opened up and the great Mumbai Monsoon is on!!! Lets see what the monsoon train journeys have in store for us.....