Those were the days.... Chapter V (New phase...)

The 3 girls in the story are Drew, Lucy and Cameroon..

After around 4 months of hibernation I am trying to write another post.. I don't know if you guys were waiting for the next chapter but a mail from a friend got me to penning the next chapter in "BIT Life"...

Work life has kept me busy and there is hardly time to pursue habits.. Assignments after assignments have been adding flab to me.. Only break I managed was a 15 days break when I was down with chicken-pox..

I am not complaining that work pressure has messed up my life or I have any regrets.. Its been a learning phase where the sector and process learning have been fun and have added to my growth. Team dynamics have been the best where I feel like part of a family where everyone is ready to help you when are facing problem at client place..

Now lets get back to the main topic as the blog is not about my work-life or EY Culture..

Post first semester we moved to outer hostels and we came to know what ragging is all about. The line which became famous during one of the sessions was when I answered a query by a senior on my location as, "I am coming from Bangalore" and rest is a history... The semester passed by where we interacted with seniors and sports came back to life as the complex was more accessible to us.. The good thing was I came to know Anand bhaiya who became an important part of my life... apart from him other batchmates of his whom i came to know of were Shashi, Vikas, Arijit, Om n others.. Arijit bhaiya was heading few of the societies... One incident i remember was of Arijit bhaiya getting kidnapped and his coming back after fighting with the goons.. also me pursuing shashi bhaiya to stop tobacco chewing was another instance...

Lets get to the third module where loads of things happened.. It started with a stream-wise division of the batch where sections were restructured as per the branches... The people I use to hang out were Kundan, Ayush and Bose.. Though Bose was now more involved with another set of batchmates where a larger set of people came on a common gang.. these included a set of 6-7 guys and 6-7 girls...this was the start of a filmy story....

My first interaction with this gang came over a cup of coffee in the canteen.. slowly even I became a part of the gang.. the group had sharad, kuchu,bose, sudeep, seemant, charlie's angels, sharoda, neha and few more people.... The gang use to hang out together while going out and during lectures..

Then came the freshers party where Comp Sc junies got a party from the seniors.. this is where stories were made.. the famous one was of our very own "Dehati"...

The story took a filmy turn where few people got more important and the others dint like the same.. this phase got the gang divided and people started hating each other.. During the same time I started liking one of the girls and coincidentally my dear roomie "bose" also had a crush on the same girl.. can you people beat that!!!!! Seemu too had a crush on one of the angels....

So you see how filmy the story can be...

When me and my roomie came to know of our common interest we decided to share whatever we did to pursue our interest...

This was the time when my interaction with Anand bhaiya and his gang became more frequent... By this time Charlie's angels came to know of my feelings and of others as well... I became a good friend with lucy and we use to talk loads..

This is when I came to know that bhai was a good friend of Arijit bhaiya but some misunderstandings got them apart... I decided to get them on a common table and I still remember the day when it actually happened.. Their entire batch was in cafeteria waiting for the moment and when it happened all of them applauded...

The next day I went with bhaiya to get some cards for Drew.. the cards were lying in my bags for 3 weeks now.. Ruhail bhaiya came to know of this. He and bhai took my case and said that if today these cards are not given to Drew,Ruhail bhaiya will go and tell JS that there is something lying for you in Abhinav's bag..

I decided to do the same now.. After the computer lab I decided to stay back.. To my surprise most of the batch left the lab.. the angels were in the lab too.. I went out and after some time called Lucys out.. I told her of my intentions and asked her.. She said go ahead and asked Drew to come out.. I still remember those seconds.. the longest in my life.. She came out and I said,

"These cards are for you and says what I feel for you.. I would wait for a reply..." ................

A Lot can happen over a cup of coffee... Rejectz Revisited...

For last two weeks my days and nights..weekdays and weekends.. are spent slogging at work..The biggest enemy of people like Us is the Laptop..so called masterpiece of Technology...

My first interaction with laptop was some 10 years back..when my cousin bought one..

Since then I always wanted to own one.. Finally the D-day came when I joined MBA...a laptop is suppose to be part n parcel of MBA life..though 90% of the time with Laptop is spent in building database of movies and sitcoms and the other 10% in G-talk and orkut..

But today a desktop seems to me the best thing as I won't have the option of "Working From Home"...

Well this blog is not on cribbing about what Technology has given me or not..Its about an hour spent over a cup of coffee with Iyer..
To start of an intro of Iyer..Satish is a batchmate from NITIE who has become a close friend in last few months at NITIE.. He has recently shifted his base from Gurgaon to Cypress.. A shift to Cypress which he was desperately looking for.... Been waiting to meet him..
The day was hectic.. 9 bomb blasts in the city..Meetings and presentations.. Was sitting with Designer friend When got a call from Satish..He was in my office..We left office n reached the Guest House...

I finished my packing.. hopefully I am leaving tomorrow for Mumbai.. though the flight I was suppose to take is cancelled as the meeting is postponed for tomorrow morning.. We left for Garuda Mall as Iyer was hungry...

Reached Garuda Mall... I could not believe my eyes.. the mall was empty.. 90% of the shops were closed... just saw 2 families out there... We decided to take a walk to Central.. that was closed...

A walk to Brigade Road.. and it was all deserted.. I checked my mobile for time... it was just 8 p.m... has bangalore night life curfew shifted to 8 from 8.30!!!!

thats when I realised..there were 9 bomb blasts rocking the city today...

Finally we decided to have a coffee at CCD... after the order was placed the chat started with the cliche questions.. how is life?? how is work?? What is the work profile??

It was getting all formal.. I just popped up a question.. "How is Jiten?".. and then there was no looking back... When it comes to Rejectz.. the entire gang gets passionate..... Be it Bhupi..dodo.. nimzi..An..daddu.. Jiten.. iyer..devi..sumeet.... we all just go on and on... We talked about all of them.. The Goa trip.. it was all coming back.. all nostalgic!!!

How was Rejectz started!!! thats what the rest evening all about... The Gang finally came its final shape in Nov'07.. It all started because of a prof whom most of the student find finicky.. TP...

Dabawalla..that was an event when I first came into touch with AN.. I knew Devi since long coz of Impress and PMG.. anyways after Dabawalla.. we 3 use to hang out together.. there were other reasons of us sticking together (controversial details...)

slowly n slowly..lunches,dinners, lectures, outings.. all started happening together.. Dodo..nimzz and dadu joined in..

We had Satsih n Jitu joining in..Bhupi too was a part but because of his frequent trip to Pune we never felt his preesnce..

We decided to give the gang a name.. Devi said Vogons..a lucky one for him.. I said Rejectz....

To me that was a word common to the 3 founding members for obvious reasons... We freezed on the name....

Placements were round the corner..preparation were priority on everyone's agenda... sharing of articles, information in groups were common thing.. there were two groups we had on Dbabb.. one was Vogons and other was Rejectz... the same article on two groups.. We were getting tired..

We merged the two gangs.. and it became Rejectz... Thats when we had Sumeet joining in..

After that there was no looking back for us.. a big gang.. eating out, preparing for exams.. outings.. happiness and sadness.. it was all shared between us... We all were ready to fight with each other..

The commitment with which the gang worked during placements speaks for itself.. none of us had a sound sleep till all of us were placed.. and all of us have placed in one of the best companies in the campus... From Olam to HSBC.. from ABC to Idea... From ICICI to Titan.. from GE to EY.. from SAP VE..sorry Cypress to HSBC Global...

After that a trip to Goa was planned.. that requires another blog... Finally we left for winters..

And then met when we were down to campus for Winter presentations.... A dinner at Tunga Paradise on a Karoke Night... 9 songs.. all in-sync..which can put all singers to shame...

Well after that we all have been busy in our lives majorly because of initial phase of career.. An n Dodo staying together in Mumbai.... Nimzz at home..Sumeet too in Mumbai...
Satish n Bhupi in Bangalore.. Jiten in US and Dev in Africa.. Dadu settled with family in Hyderabad.. I am in Bangalore for last 2 months on a client assignment spending a true consultant life.. two bags...

Finally we left the Cafe as it was getting late and Satish has to leave..

But it was a beautiful and relaxed evening after a long time well spent with a rejectz...

A t-shirt was to be designed and I hope the design and t-shirt will be ready by the time we all meet on our Convos... and it has resulted in a blog...

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...

Those were the days... Chapter III (The semester of new friendships..)

Readers wanted masala in the Chapter 2 but I can't add any for the readers.Chapter 2 was more about how I made up my mind to land up in BIT.. I don't think there will be masala in this chapter either.. but there will be masala in chapters to come..

There I was standing in the mess...met Bose and we found another thing in common.. The Key Chain..both of us had the same key chain..well after the tea and hot pakoras, Bose introduced me to Gaurav, Mishra and Ayush.. so to say the Delhi gang.. spent some time in the evening with them..discussing branches, schools etc.. Of these only two of them stand-by me till now.. cassi and kundan ( he comes later in the story).. There also is Momo (met him after dusshera)...
Then it came to the dreaded topic of freshers in college...

"Ragging".. there were tales and stories which people had heard from others.."Seniors make you strip"...'No, They can't do that. they can't go physical".. "they make you kiss each other".. etc etc...though the College authorities had provided adequate security. Anyone from outside had to make an entry and no senior was allowed in the hostel. but we all knew it was inevitable. Me n Bose were scared the most as our room (6D) was the corner most room and anyone could enter anytime.

But there was an added advantage of the room. It was the room facing the insti and while sitting in the room you could see everyone going and leaving the main building. The whole gang use to sit there and wait for the girls to pass-by in the morning, afternoon and evening.. it had become the hub of activities

Then there were places like telephone booths where you couldn't avoid seniors. It really was a terrifying thought. We decided to hang out together, follow the instructions of wearing formals and lay low. We all use to go together to attend or make calls... It was really funny.. If we have to leave hostel anytime, we were supposed to wear full formals with shoes. We were not allowed to visit the canteen..Once Bose and Mishra tried after getting fed up with the food and landed up in the senior's hostel playing ping-pong with the balls....

The favourite pass-time was playing UNO at night and cricket in the evening. This was the time when I met the Cricket gang of Dhaka in the college.I was immediately recognised as the lefty fast bowler and was always given the first over. Those matches used to be real fun.
I vaguely remember an incident that scared the gang. We were sitting in my room playing UNO (Kundan has been introduced as Ayush's roomie and Ishan too has joined the college). Suddenly power failure.

Few of them had gone to get the candles and the door was open. Suddenly a guy with long hair and beard enters the room with 2 others.(later we realised that was true to LEO Clubs image) We were shit scared and terrified.. (Beta aaj tho gaye.. ragging tho hogi hi and seeing them you can't imagine what thoughts went in our heads)..

Senior1 : "You guys are playing card. Don' you know you aren't allowed"
Bose : "No bhaiya, we are not playing cards. Its UNO"
Senior2: "Bhaiya?? You don't know how to address your senior!! What UNO?? All are cardgames"
Us : "Sorry Sir. Won't repeat it again"
Senior2 : "What sorry!!...."
Senior1 (interrupting) : "Jaane de yaar. Now we are in final year. leave it for 2nd year. Givethem the poster"

They handed us the poster and asked us to put it in Hostel Mess.We were also asked to come for the party. We did attend the party (Senior1 turned out to be the President of Leo club) and it was real fun though the turnout in LEO party was very low as compared to Rotract.That was our first encounter to any club in the college...

All the guys went through the ragging.. Bose, Cassi, Kundan, Mishra.. Doing the chawani-aathani dance, playing TT, acting as couples on honeymoon, etc..somehow i managed to escape it in the first semester..

From there on we used to have different clubs coming to hostels and talk about what they do and why should we join them. Rotract and Leo had their rivalry going on. With Rotract known as the hep and delhi gang while Leo having the image of "Bhaiya club" and lower class. There were IEEEs, IEEs, UNESCO, ACM SPICMACAY.. none seemed to excite me in the first semester. Mishra had zeroed on IEEE and ACM. Ayush was impressed with Photo Soc.. Bose was into Fine Arts.. Kundan was another losser like me..

I was more busy with studies and crying over my decision to join BIT and also all of the clubs asked a certain membership fee which I couldn't afford as my this stay wasn't planned. I still remember the names given to me in the first sem..Daanu, Salim were the favourites and I carried a rough image.

Another incident which makes me laugh till now was Me and Majumdar catching Kyunki in the TV Room. Both of us used to watch that serial. The series had just started and we were kinda hooked on to Tulsi.No matter what we use to catch the series and both of us had gone famous for that.. batchmates use to never argue and leave the room.. I can't believe that I used to do that.

A famous story doing the round was that our hostel was built over a kabristan and that a student had committed suicide in the hostel and it was haunted. It had scared the shit out of us. Around the same time people had started seeing figures in their lobbies.. At nights me and bose use to go to the loo together or in a gang. There were many pranks played in the hostel with people seeing some random figures dressed in white.. It really had turned a haunted land..

Well Dusshera break had arrived and we were all going back home.. It was a time we all were waiting for... I was more than desperate because for last one month I had been wearing the same trouser....