The Newport University..

In Bangalore I am staying at the company's guest house.. There is a Senior Designer who has recently joined Newport.. The guy is amazing in designs and fashion sense... Very nice and great friend.. Few days back he asked me to write few lines as a synopsis for the brand... Felt like sharing it here... Here it goes

The New phase in life which every youth waits to enter. The life which starts with nervousness on the first day. New place, new friends, new style.
The place where there is less of restrictions and more of responsibilities. The phase where needs are more but supply is limited.

The phase which is the stepping stone for the future.The phase which gives the confidence to face the entire world with roughness and elegance at the same time. The phase where he is a rebel and is also a responsible youth.

The youth which is out there to make his own style statement. The statement which will be unique to him and would speak his attitude.The statement which is driven by what he wears. The attire which defines his style. The style which is iconic and yet manageable by his pocket.

The brand which can offer him the confidence, style, energy and elegance.
The brand which is all about his confidence .What better than Newport.

Time-Machine....

When I joined the company for winters, the client which was being discussed was one of the Gaming Chain owner. I was not able to believe that people go to these places and spend money to play the games..How foolish can one be not to go out for a family outing..catching movies...n spend money on every weekend on the silly games..
My previous experience was the Gaming outlet in HN where too I used to do bowling. I had never tried my hands at any of these games.

During the discussion I came to know that my Manager, Abhay himself was a big gaming freak. On talking to him came to know that there were many people who use to hang out at these places and try their hands. He narrated his experience of these stores. How there is an old man who comes and wins loads of chocolates though he distributes them all among the kids in the stores. How a Mom and her son spend hours on weekends.

I was not able to believe these as I haven't seen any such store. Even the HN store I use to visit on Saturdays had crowd coming there for bowling. Then finally I landed up in a gaming zone in Phoenix Mills on a Friday night with my team. The time was past 10 and we had planned to go bowling. I could find very few people in the store at that time.

The store was really huge in size and loads of games. There were close to 12 tracks for bowling. 2 Pool tables.. and other games..As I could not find many people playing games I still was of the same opinion...
The next day AN invited me for a trip to the Mill again. There were Brijesh, Killi, Vivek, Satman, AN and me. There was also an FLSL employee with whom AN was doing his internship. The company has tied up with different outlets in Phoenix Mill for good discounts. I again landed up in the same gaming zone.
But this time the scene was entirely different. The place was crowded and there was a waiting of 30 mins for a bowling track. Me n iyer grabbed a beer and decided to wait and enjoy the beauties in the store. In the meanwhile, AN got us a table for pool.
Around afternoon we got to the gaming section to grab a bowling track and I was astonished to see the place. There were people ranging from kids of Age 4 to uncle and aunties of mid-40s trying their hands at different games and winning coupons. The expression on the faces of the parents playing the games told me that they were concentrating hard and not just playing the games for their kids.

I still was unsure.. Then Me and AN decided to try our hands at a shooting game..more like a stress buster.. But the moment I took the gun in my hands, I returned to my days where I use to play Contra on my Samurai..the kid in me has returned and I was competing hard to survive the game long... We were shouting at each other like schoolboys guiding each other to survive..building strategy that we should reload the guns alternatively...

The game lasted for 20 mins and we both were smiling after the game.. That was my first tryst with the Gaming Zone but it was still not addictive..

After that life has been busy with work and didn't get much chance...

This Sunday, me, Rajat and Johry were sitting in my place and watching a movie..too tired to go anywhere..Finally, Rajat said lets all go out and we decided to go bowling at Amoeba near Brigade Road..

We landed there to find to our disappointment that the waiting was 2 hours..we were about to leave when Johry said that we should atleast check out the 2nd floor..I was keen on trying my hands at shooting again so we went upstairs.. Rajat was not much of a gaming freak but he had no other option..

Here the environment was more electrifying with humans from all age-group...from school kids to college goers..from mummies to grannies.. all were playing and winning tickets..
Johry was a NFS fan so we decided to try a track.. A refill card of 200 was bought.. We all sat on the set, geared up for the battle... The race lasted 5 minutes when Johry won the race...

Since the refill still had some money left, we went for Basketball...The game was so addictive that we played almost 4 rounds and won some coupons.. We decided to take some goodies with the coupons but the number was worth nothing..

We could see around grannies, mummies all of having rolls of tickets.. We decided to hide our tickets in our pockets to avoid being a laughing stock...Our skills were so bad!!!

I took another card refill of 200 and decided to play few more games.. I could see the childhood returning to us..all excited and ready to compete to get more coupons.. We tried our hand a few more games..Rajat and me payed Air Hockey..The way we played the game we would have put the schoolkids to shame...

We won loads of tickets this time and the way Rajat had put in efforts, I could not belive he was the same Rajat who was not ready to enter the 2nd floor...

After exhausting the refill, we decided to return...Only then we realised that its been 2.5 hours of gaming...We all were cursing each other that we should have booked a track....
It was an amazing evening and we decided to return again next weekend for a Game of Bowling!!!! I guess am getting addicted to the Bowling now...

Looking forward to next Saturday...

Those were the days......Chapter IV(153/180)

Well.. The much awaited holidays have arrived for us... All were ready to go back home for the first time and share their experience with their parents and siblings..
Now that they have landed on the first step towards a promising career.. moms were waiting to pamper their child... but again the ghost of ragging was haunting on us..and this time there was no college authority to save us.. but this was also the time to know your seniors in a better way.. Luckily or unluckily there was no senior on the route to Bangalore.. It was going to be a long journey of 40 hours all alone..

I boarded the train and waited for the day I will be meeting my parents after months...There was no direct train to Bangalore from Ranchi so there was going to be a gap of 2 hours at Chennai.. The journey was not eventful and I finally landed at Bangalore Cantt Station.

I was surprised not to find my parents and my sis at the station.. I waited for 10 mins and called home. Luckily my mom was at home and she picked up the call.. On asking I came to know that Dad n sis have gone to the Bangalore Central station... Such a big goof up!!!!! And I was going to miss those expressions on my Dad's face after seeing me...

Mom sent the other car to pick me up and informed Dad that I was at Cantt.. Finally I landed home.. the delight and happiness on the faces of he families were the true Kodak moments...

I was going to be there for a week and mom has already planned the week long menu.. Also I was to go shopping for my formals and necessities for college.. It was going to be an eventful week... The coming days were spent in shopping, meeting friends, partying and enjoying Bangalore...
Meeting with friends and families and seeing their positive response to BIT cleared my doubts about my decision to join BIT and gave me a fresh energy and enthusiasm. I was looking forward to college now...
Finally the day came and I was to leave for the college... I have hardly touched any books and there were mid-sems planned post dusshera.
I was shit scared but was confident as I was regular with my studies.Finally I boarded the train with a heavy heart....

This time I have landed with an emergency light which has a cassette player and radio as well.
This became a source of entertainment for the next 2 modules..Batchmates from Delhi shared their experiences of ragging which ranged from they singing in train.. selling tea... going and asking names of random girls...

After settling down we all were geared up for the mid-sems.. The format in BIT was a bit different.
The mid-term was suppose to be of 30 marks. There will be questions of 36 marks out of which 24 will be from assignments given by the profs. A student can attempt the paper of 36 marks and score max..At first the concept looked pretty neat and favouring students but after the first mid-sem we realised what it was.

I scored 153/180 in my first sem...Was very satisfying...

so far you all will be wondering why there is no masala in the story.. there is nothing happening before 3rd Sem...I'll try to start that semester in the next chapter...

Till then enjoy..

Missing Mumbai Traffic...

Its been while that i scribbled here. Blame it to the IPL or the work schedule but the monotonous routine of life has taken a toll on my interests as well.There are 3 books which are waiting to be touched by me. There are movies in my laptop which I had downloaded from DC++.

The new life is really different. Though there are not many interesting things happening, apart from interactions with the industry people adding to the knowledge
base, still life is on a roller coaster ride.

After finishing my final presentation at NITIE I have moved my base to Bangalore. Though my reporting office is in Mumbai, I haven't yet rented a flat there.

This assignment is going to be for a month and I don't know how I'll be surviving here. Mumbai and Bangalore are poles apart.

Even if you are stuck in office till 9 in Mumbai, you can still go out and party late. But if you are in Bangalore, the city goes to sleep by 8.30!!!! There is just no night life in bangalore.

There are pubs where even stag entry is not allowed.!!

I guess this is the same reason because of which the night charges for autos start at 8.00 in bangalore. Added to that the rickshawpullers will never agree to go by meter. Even if you are hungry and want to buy grocery or some medicine, you will not find a single shop opened after 8.30. Language problem is there anyways. The Bus service also is not as advanced as in Mumbai.

The traffic is worse than Mumbai!!!

There are just malls for you to hang-out in Bangalore and on a weekend you will find the malls as crowded as a CST local on a Monday morning. But the difference will be that the people will have no reason to hang out at these malls.

If you have decided to go out for a dinner and you land up in a local restaurant, there is a high probability of you eating a Paneer Makhani cooked in coconut oil. Its always better to eat in malls or McDs or Subways. Though like Mumbai Vada-Pavs, you can eat Idlis at the same price and survive.

The good thing about the city is the climate. The pollution is trying to change that as well. Also the shopping opportunities are huge but nothing comes cheap these days in Bangalore.

Somehow I am feeling home sick and missing Mumbai.. How I wish I was getting drenched in Mumbai rains at this moment...