Life in a Metro... Chapter 4

Delhi...
The national capital.. The crime capital.. A city which had more Beemers and Mercs than taxis or autos! the most common phrase - "Ho jayega JI "  so respectful in there language and so loving in their interactions. Delhi is often referred to as city of show offs.. yes indeed there is show off but when you can afford it why not? Money flows in Delhi (by delhi i mean NCR) and it flows in style no doubt about it! I wonder at times where does this money come from? Land some say.. corruption some others.. but nevertheless money is in plenty.. it very easy to get carried away and spend the money you don't have!
Delhi weather is of extremes.. in the summer the heat gets to your head.. and you will see fights on the road for something as small a hairline scratch on the bumper..  thinks get out of hand when power goes off! the heat is quite unbearable.. i have heard the winters are too.. had just a glimpse of it in 2010 when i had come for Auto Expo.. and during my brother's wedding the same year in December.
hoping this time it would be fun .. thank to my great abode.. with a massive balcony.. where we can have all the bon-fire and sit around and sip our drinks!!!
Delhi, its been just 7 months, so quite early to make my conclusion so it won't be the conclusion about Delhi but definitely my opinions.. which if you may ask me on a later date, it might have changed.. or worsened!
I have my best friends from my pune days  here in delhi! so life is awesome over the weekends.. 
Beautiful roads.. nice plush green after the first rains.. delhi has its own beauty. Talking about beauty.. yes best looking girls, atleast well dressed giving a good fight to pune in this regard.
especially around the location of my house.. gk the crowd is notch higher and definitely well dressed!

Moving on.. one of the craziest incident happened to me the day it rained for the first time after the really hot summer. it was a friday evening.. as usual i was enjoying my drive back from office to home in the rain.. its just a beautiful feeling! anyways i was really close to my home when it started raining heavily.. since it was the first rain people were standing under the trees, bridges etc. to save themselves from being drenched... i saw a middle aged couple struggling to find an auto, as they were out for their evening walk, assuming they wanted a ride i decided to stop and ask if i could drop them, i used to do the same when i was in bombay and many a times have dropped people to their destination which was not on my way back home. Assuming the same kinda response (a smile and thank you) i asked the question to the gentleman waiting. 'sir can i drop you somewhere?' but to my surprise i got a response which was stunning.. the lady and guy looked at me in such a disgusting manner as if i had asked the guy if i could sleep with his wife.. for a couple of minutes i expected they will change the expression and say 'no thank you!'but they kept looking at me and finally the lady gave smirk and there i had it, i just left deciding in my mind never to offer help, but later i did understand after i could calm myself down that its delhi.. people suspect you to  be a rapist first, then a burglar, then a brainless ass, a politician's son, a rich spoiled brat and after this you if you still continue to be nice they might think you are mad! It's not wrong to have such a perception it can be misleading at times but when it comes to Delhi it might be more often right than wrong!
CWG was famous for its corruption but i had the chance to see and play in one of the facility and see a few others, trust me we needn't be ashamed. its world-class but yeah what could have been done in 50 was done in 50000 so yes tax payer's money did go into the wrong hands. but at least they didn't compromise on the infrastructure. anyways thanks to delhi i got back to playing badminton!! something which i loved while in pune! That too playing in international standard courts!
Coming into Delhi changed a lot of things for me personally and professionally.. celeb parties... stand up comedy events... hauz khaz village.. India gate... big wide roads.. chandi chowk... kareem's @ juma masjid.. beer breweries pubs.. Delhi has its charms and yes it may have its flaws as well.. but after all there might be some truth in the common phrase.. 'dilwalon ki dilli'! hoping to have more experiences!! :)

How i forgot to breathe.. n blink... while looking at you!!!!

Most often words ‘romance’, ‘blush’ are associated with girls... women... ladies... but somehow we men do all crazy stuff and we blush too... we also feel like making it special for that special someone... But somehow the male complex ego steps in to remind the first line of this blog... “associated with girls...” now you don’t want to be termed swaying in that direction... and obviously manly , rugged outlook fares better with women also... so there you go an already complex situation just swirled a couple of more loops!

Women want their men to be rugged and ‘manly’ - defined as “with qualities thought to befit a man”, now please tell who thought of this... and what are the freaking qualities that befit me best? If we get too romantic, we get too clingy or we get too cheesy, ewew!!! And when we be all manly then ‘why are you so insensitive! You don’t care!’ I really don’t know!

All I know is that I want to romance the way I want without being judged. Or frankly I don’t care if I am judged.

I want to take that plunge! I want to chat endlessly about things that rarely matter to anyone... I want to hold hands and stare at the sea for hours... I want to go on the long bike ride with someone talking into my ear about stuff that may not be life changing but if said while she is clutching my shoulders or my waist and her warm breath gushing in my ear, will definitely change mine! I want to write (with the help of Microsoft word dictionary) a rhyming poem and gift her. I want to put in effort and time and make a gift that means a lot in value and gift her… I want to lie down on her lap and get my hair caressed… I want to dance in the rain with her at the Worli sea face… I want to her wet hair splashing rain drops on my face… I want her hair slip right between my fingers while she turns and twitters looking deep into my eyes… I want to make her swing on the swing in the children’s park till her heart skips a beat and she feels the tears of joy trickle down her cheek while it wakes up the child in her… I want to surprise her when she least expects it… I want to fly many a kilometers to her doorstep when she feels lonely even in the middle of the night or may be a middle of career changing deal somehow I feel that career may not be worth what I might lose – that few minutes with her when she wanted me the most! I want to share my smallest failure to my biggest success and my smallest success and biggest failure with her and feel elated or light at heart! I want to do stupidest and craziest things to convince her how much I love her… enact and rehearse those stupid things through the night to perfect it next day and while doing so always enacting a happy ending, perhaps play in some rahman melody in the background to perfect the mood… Get lost in her eyes so much so that I forget to breath and her touch revives my senses… I want to love her so much so that she skips a beat when she feels my love… just like how I freeze in time when I know that she loves me too… just like how I forget to breathe… or blink while looking at you…

I want yell my heart out but somehow something pulls me back from Romancing ‘love’… the love of my life…

Love is a beautiful feeling, its blissful… it’s like the fresh green look just after a rain… it’s like that beautiful orange sun rise on a winter morning… it’s like that sip of coffee on the veranda on a rainy Sunday afternoon… it’s like the rehydrating feeling that drop of cold water brings right from your lips through your tongue down your food pipe all the way to your stomach making your subconscious mind spill out ‘aaa ha’… it’s like that little chuckle of a new born when he sees something he likes…

Its love... it’s like everything that’s wonderful!

Rise in love (© Taal movie) cause its divine and its up above!

Life in a Metro... Chapter 3

 

Chapter 3..
Salaam Mumbai! first stint at staying on your own, paying rent, cooking and all this after struggling to work from 9 am to god knows when, usually 11pm and sometimes even 2 am. I was pretty sure i wanted to stay alone, didn't want to share with strangers and obviously a girl friend in my life also demanded a little bit of privacy! (blush blush.. soon turned to flush flush though! :p) anyways after a 6 month stint living alone i guess the rent was overburdening me and to my luck my close friend from coimbatore chapter... Tushar Chhapia came in from nowhere (actually not nowhere from another part of town only) to put some life in my abode. With him and other friends from Coimbatore mumbai was a different place altogether. Bike ride (to start with) to marine drive, meeting and dinning in crystal for their famous 'aam rass' and 'phulka roti' and trips to Regal Cinema, Sterling Cinema, Eros Cinema, Metro Adlabs, and to Mohd. Ali road during ramzan! Mahalaksmi race course during India's only derby! Mixed fruit cream at Haji Ali Juice center! Siddhi Vinayak Temple and Mahalakshmi Temple on Sunday Morning post which some awesome non-veg brunch at monde cafe or leopold cafe! then desert at theobroma! oh god! mouth waters even now!!
Clicking pictures from the Mahalakshmi bridge of the white white Dhobi Ghat! panorama clicks of the queeen's necklace, getting really great deals for electronic stuff from lamington road! Going to crawford market to bargain your heart out (never could but was interesting to see nevertheless).
"Govinda aala re aala zara matki sambhaal bichua"!! festive season the best enjoyed by the marathi manoos! i guess i should say mumbaikar!! with the rains in the air and competitive spirits in getting the tallest man pyramid! (i couldn't remember the colloquial term) and procession and dance, life which sees the maximum tension and pressure like no other city but somehow during the festive times they just seem to forget everything and enjoy! Then comes Ganapathi!! lalbaugcha raja!! various ganesh pandhaals and then comes visarjan after 21 days! a day when mumbai is inaccessible and proudly so!
A very few know the 'sort of private' beach at worli which is quite deserted and is so calming to spent a few minutes or if lucky may be an hour or so.. very soothing to hear the sea and then see the worli sea link all lit up, a beautiful sight.. sometimes to top it off i usually take family helping of Baskin & Robins and while away some time.. Sometimes did have company and sometimes wooed some company! and sometimes me and my tanhaai!
Work wise life was awesome.. great boss who mentored me and set my professional life to a trajectory that was upwards!
Life is most complicated in bombay, hours spent on the road traveling or a faster and more adventurous  means called the locals to reach office and back home, living in a pigeon hole, busting your stress on friday and saturday nights and finding time for family and friends after all this! that was life in Bombay! and yes spot some celebrity at bandra carter road or if not slurrp on really hot chicks in short dresses!
Life ki choti choti khushiyaan powerpacked in a small congested city rather metro called Mumbai!
Aamchi mumbai really solid mumbai!...

to be continued...

Life in a Metro .... Chapter 2

Chapter 2...

Pune, the oxford of the east! from a highly restrictive and conservative South Indian city to a wham baam! thank you ma'am! fast paced, young, vivid, colourful and vibrant Pune!! oh! yeah! it was a wake up call! A student who spent a mere 50K in 4 years including mess fees while in Coimbatore, my dad was in for a shock when i first called him in 5 months after wiping clean the bank account which had 75k at the start and when all my mess and books were paid for! he got a shock of his life .. a very little clue did he have that his son is spoiled and has changed himself to a spendthrift who had no value for money! i had taken a plunge a downward spiral! good thing was i had company! Life in Pune was fun! too much fun in fact! Road trips to Mahabaleswar, Matheran, Lonavla, Mumbai and what not! Life was spent on the bike and yes had a beautiful company to make it a really nice experience. 2 years went by with a memorable t20 World cup final in the auditorium and with out doubt the loudest man in that audi! many a cricket matches with seniors and splendid bowling spells and some really bad days on the field. Many management games and presentations! Winning the Deloitte competition working with extended hours outside the hostel, only to spent time with a girl when all work could have been done in the boys hostel but no.. take special permission and sit under girls hostel and while away time. Being part of the Placement Assistance Team making a lot of batch mates really jealous of that fact, bunking classes on the pretext of placement, eating 1 full Medium Sized Cheese Burst pizza + a portion of garlic bread on my own with my best bud for company! Placement parties and placement fights life was really adventurous and coming to class for presentations only and when you know no head and tail of what you were speaking! still putting up a confident face! life was different back then! Having the famous Cad B was more important than staying fit, playing badminton had altogether a different intention especially when the court was right in the middle of girls hostel! Priorities were different and choices were different! May be not as eventful but yeah full of life.
In Pune i was exposed to a wide variety of people north south east and west, though i did get a glimpse of this back in Coimbatore as well this was different, this was more crude, more raw and yes put to practice the long lost handwriting and behavioral analysis and to my surprise i was good at it and did increase my popularity. I did see the worst of fights, worst of politics and worst of exploitation! oh yes i did see the best of people as well and have till date my best friends thanks to this era of my life! Talking about era brings me to PINK FLOYD! Def Leppard! Queen! & GNR (though heard a before but never before was fully into it) in other words classic rock struck me! Nights spent sitting on the balcony with Pink Floyd playing in the back ground looking at the beautiful Pune Night sky, no targets no reports and no stress but just plain classic music and me! life was blissfully beautiful.
Another exposure was the time of multiplexes and free pricing of movie tickets. From fixed balcony rates and a mere Rs 50 / ticket at the most premium cinema halls back home to Rs. 225 / ticket for the worst movie ever (Om Shanti Om) and that too for second row from screen @ E-Square symbi's own backyard cineplex.
So from a action filled life losely tied around spending my dad's money, to paying that same money for stupid ass movies and countless dining outside the mess and those milion countless CAD-B's! it was time to move on the commercial capital of India.. Mumbai here i come..

to be continued...

Life in a Metro .. Chapter 1

For the past 9 years i have been living away from home! and from little 2nd tier cities of Coimbatore to Oxford of east Pune to king of Metros - Bombay and now Delhi..

life has been quite different in each of these cities.. some dreams.. some great memories.. some romantic moments.. some lustful moments.. some adventurous moments.. it was nothing short of excitement. Life as it was... my life in a metro..

Chapter 1..

Coimbatore had a lot of interesting encounters.. struggling in a beautiful abode under the Nilgiris! One of the most beautiful location to have college.. and the irony was most romantic location to have girls and boys under one roof... but the moment you talk to one another, sit and sip a coffee you were under the radar... but like every other restrictions didn't stop any of us from rubbing the authorities the wrong way..

Weekend movie at Apsara theater, a zillion bike rides on friend's bikes to palaghat to have those yummy biriyani's at the noorjahan hotel, catch some Mohanlal movie at paradise cineplex the train journey's with out ticket to Coimbatore and dodging the TC at the station and running to delhi dhabba to have the most yummy aloo ke parate, having chicken at he Cuckoo ra koo and loitering around R S Puram to check out hot chicks from GRD and PSG. Bus rides and train rides to home and getting coffee and food for my friends back in hostel. The Trip to Goa oh! my god that was indeed the highlight with all my friends except one (that ass had a pain in the butt girl friend), Dil Chahta Hain poses.. bike rides, water rides, the dance (imitating 'main aise kyon hoon' from lakshya) and cooking back in our bunk! Freakish Bike Accident! oh that eventful trip to Goa!
Another eventful trip to our backyard called Ooty! that was fun too with crazy drunken dancing, acts which may be on the verge of being called inappropriate in more than one way!! and probably i was the only one not in those videos as i was busy capturing the same on camera!! anyways crazy trek and chess games and escapade to the cremation ground down the hill from our resort. it was funny as there were 6 of us 4 really drunk, 1 busy talking to his new girl friend (drunk in other words) and then me who was shitting in his pants trying to cook up a conversation with a ghost if i encounter and probably convince him / her to let me off and take the rest!!
Coimbatore went by in a flash with a few encounters of the heart and a few encounters with the wrong people and a few encounters with the faculty and a few encounters with the unknown and the relation with non -veg food started here!

to be continued...