To Rajdhani on a Rajdhani

My Little Trip to Delhi

This was not my first visit to Delhi but it was my first on a Rajdhani. Due to a lot of unavoidable circumstances my wings were finally clipped and I was forced to use this mode of transport. The beginning wasn't that great as I had to travel to Mumbai Central on a Local Train. After the huffing and puffing I was stopped and searched by the RPF at Mumbai Central. When I finally got on the train, I realized this was slightly different from the usual trains.

The ambience was good with a light music in the Trains Speakers. There were periodic announcements resembling those of an airplane only difference was that this was prerecorded. After a long journey, (yes 20 hours is way longer than the usual 2 hour flight!) I reached Delhi! Ah... the familiar chaotic scene, then I realized I was too young to get nostalgic. I went to Karol Bagh... hired a Hotel/guest house. On the train I think I managed to catch an old friend... the common cold. I was sneezing pretty badly but somehow made it to the office and struggled through shouting for a whole day!

I wasn't required the following day but I just stayed in the office for the heck of it. Almost forgot to mention, I made sure I rode the Metro twice! Then I started back to Mumbai but this time on another Rajdhani from Nijamuddin. I made it to the train in time and got to my seat. I got used to the train now. I wasn't surprised by the announcements and amenities. This time around I had an interesting lot of passengers with me. There was an elderly retired Tamil Headmaster, a US return Bihari Doctor, A Cute Rajasthani Management Student, Couple of Guajarati Employees, & a young Gujarati mother with her kid. Till then, I was under the impression that you could see the whole of India only in a Sleeper Class compartment.

The journey began with the elderly person not allowing the doctor to put his luggage under the elderly man's seat. The doctor was about 27-28 years old with a typical American Accent (I wasn't sure if it was fake or not). He's got all the latest possible gadgets with him (A Vaio, a video iPod, a Sony PSP & O2 Apex PDA phone). Pretty impressive!!! It was even more impressive when he started the GPRS on his PDA to help the Rajasthani Girl. Speaking of the girl she was very traditional, beautiful, well behaved & pretty innocent. "Beautiful & not arrogant!!! Tough combination to find" was my thought. She was either that innocent or that stupid not to get the actually ticket. Instead she brought a photo copy of it. I almost had to bite my lip from not laughing out loud when she said, “My sister thought that the original may be lost in the mail.” BTW, I showed off my internet knowledge by producing the e-ticket to the TC.

The elderly man was prompt enough to instigate the TC against her & the TC was equally prompt to try and bully this girl to get a bribe. Lucky for her the rest of the lot stepped in. The TC went on for another round and by the time he came back, I and the Doctor managed to log onto the railways website to see if the ticket was still a valid one. The TC was disappointed for not making anything out of the situation but let the girl go off with a warning. Thanks to this incident everyone in the coupe started talking to each other. The topics ranged from corruption to politics to spirituality to astrology… and what not. I have travelled a lot on Train but never have I met a group of interesting strangers totally absorbed in a conversation. While everyone was speaking, I was trying to analyze what kind of people they were and also busy playing the PSP :D . The Headmaster went on & on and on… with his experiences and shared his 60 plus years of knowledge in one night. Phew!!! He can sure speak a lot. He went on till about 10:30 in the night and started off at 6 in the next morning. But thanks to him I found out the girl’s name, P**** very strange but very interesting name & definitely suits her.

After the interesting conversations and boring ones, and me trying to talk to the cute girl & playing the PSP, the journey almost ended. The Gujarati gentlemen got off at Vapi, about 150 Km from Mumbai. The train was approaching Borivali, my station but the girl had to get of at Mumbai Central. Damn it! Just when I thought she was starting to take interest in me. I desperately wanted to give her my card and ask her to call me. But then I realized, I didn’t update my card in 10 months and none of the details except my name are correct. Another missed chance!!! I got of the train in the rain… Hey that rhymed… any way… I went home and suffered from cold for the rest of the day and the day after that. But now that I look back at the journey, I am happy that I didn’t give her the number, or else I would have never met the girl of my dreams… I think that’s another story to tell on another day… Me signing off

P.S: Got off a Local Train in Mumbai just now!!! These trains do give me a lot of inspiration to write… I started this in Sep 2006 :D

My First Date ever


All this began with an innocent looking hi on a social networking website. The ‘hi’ led us to an instant messenger which in turn led to an SMS. About 6 months later it turned in to a phone call. Well the rest as they say is history.

2007, the year I was finally going to meet her. She was a little shy and a little too awkward in the beginning. She started scheming this meeting for about 2 months. The place was set and the time was right. Luckily for us both, we were having no over-protective parent problem. I came a little early and made the initial arrangements for the day (A Movie and a lunch). She finally came and she brought a ‘hi’ with her. She was pretty much as I imagined. Except that I wanted her to wear her hair open. She said I didn’t change a little bit in years, which was kind of surprising to hear.We spend a little while enjoying the moments and talking.

The movie began and it was a fun movie. However I felt very awkward sitting next to a girl. The movie made us relax a bit more and we went on for a little walk before the lunch. I finally had the guts to hold her hand. I did expect a slap though, but she managed to smile and walk. We reached the restaurant and we had lunch with a slight breeze blowing on us. It felt like the air around us is also romantic. She just couldn’t stop smiling and I just didn’t want her to stop smiling.

About an hour later we were done eating and we were gazing into each others eyes. I finally got the courage, took her hand in my hand, kissed her gently and said the magic words, “I Love you!!!” She was about to reply… “I love...” All of a sudden I heard someone calling me. Wake up! Wake Up! It’s almost 9. It was my mother. The girl disappeared and my room came into light. I was thinking, “What the Hell? Where is she? Why didn’t she finish it? Was it really a dream? It seemed too real!” Oh! By the way “HAPPY NEW YEAR” 

Anesthesia 2.... I just love sequels

OK... OK this is not just another boring narration of a medical process, it just got interesting. Where do I begin??? Its been a while.... No way!!! I am not going to start another blog like that. OK OK I will begin anyway.

Sunday 19th November, the day 2.19 lakh students' fate is half decided, me being one of them. After a euphoric 2.5 hours I finally came out of the hall grinning ear to ear and at the same time praying for the VA cutoff to be below my score. Then I had a good sleep and waited for the D- Day. Wait a minute, I just said that D-Day was over. What I said was that the exam was over. The D-Day was the surgery I was waiting since my last visit to the doctor.

The situation in the office wasn't that good either. There was a solid Cold Mail War going between me and my team. I finally got that out in front of one of the senior persons, set my mailbox on auto reply and took off for the day. That night I could hardly sleep. Not that I was pumped up for tomorrow but I had to catch an early morning flight. After a miserable night I managed an to get out of home at 4 am only to find a long deserted Road ahead. Then something happened which made me rethink my views on Mumbai!

Airport- 0430! Damn it!!! Early again! OK! Now its getting way too long... I will cut the scene to the Hospital in Hyderabad. Me had my preliminary exam and photographs taken. Then I was to take a intravenous shot of Antibiotic to avoid any infections. 3 doctors, 4 attendants tried for 30 mins, left 7 puncture wounds on my hands, fingers and arms, and finally got the liquid in. FYI, the final shot wasn't even one tenth painful as the previous ones. Now that the pre-operation stuff was over, the actual surgery began. It started with the doctor putting a lot of warm clothes and plastic sheets on my back. From what it felt like he made a nice little table on my back.

The Needles are loaded and the doctors are ready... the first needle pinched. I wanted to scream but controlled. The next 2 were worse. Finally the pain is gone and all I could hear is sound blowing through a tube. The doctor used scissors/ a knife/ a blunt hack saw/ don't know what but I could feel the skin being cut. Blood flowing down my ears. After about what felt like an hour, the thing was over and my head bandaged. But unfortunately that was only job half done. I could see that my head was one and half times the normal because of the anesthesia.

After a loo break, the rest of the surgery was done under more anesthesia. This time beginning from the eyebrows and going up into my forehead. The doctor almost called me a sissy. That made sure I didn't scream. The doctors had a lot of patience, they did their job with precision for about 2 and a half hours. I even dozed off during the thing and might have even kicked some when when I woke up. I walked out at 2:00pm and enjoyed the feeling of being numb. The numbness didn't last long and the pain made sure that I didn't sleep for the next few weeks. What ever be the thing, it will take another 6 months to find the result of the surgery.

Damn it. My blogs are getting boring and boring. Note to self: Stop writing Crap!!! 

Just Another Candle on the Cake!!!

I am not 22 anymore :(

So another year has passed since I blew out candles and the cut the cake... OK it was just some fruit bread with marshmallow chocolate pie... There was no champange but a couple of cans of Diet Pepsi were good enough. Fast forward 364 Days, here I am in the same place Blogging about how my birthday will be tomorrow.

What have I been doing these days... Roaming around the country for sure. Going under the surgeon's knife twice. Fighting with every possible person in my life. Cribbing about Mumbai and how the life sucks here. And yeah working of the same company!!! I mean actually working!!!

You may ask... Whatz so different this year? To begin with, my expectations have hit rock bottom. Or even lower. I almost forgot my B'day last year. Can you believe that, I almost forgot to buy clothes and stuff. And most importantly I would not be celebrating it in Mumbai or Hyderabad. As a matter of fact I may even end up not celebrating at all...

What ever be the case!!! I think everyone at some point of time in life will get over this B'Day Fad. I just didn't know that my turn came so fast. Anyway!!! Happy B'Day to me and I hope this one doesn't suck as bad as last year. So as I began this blog, this birthday is just another candle on the cake... Damnit I have to shift to number candles soon!!!

700Miles to Work

To Bangalore & Back in a Day!

Waking up in a different City and working in some other city isn't new to me. My day began at 4am. No No 3 am. Wait a minute! 2 am. I barely was able to sleep fearing that I would realize my worst nightmare of missing a flight and ruining everyone's schedule. After these bomb scares and heightened security at Airports, I was even more scared of missing my Flight. The worst part being that I had to be present there twice in the same day.

After much deliberation, I finally got of my house at 4:30 hoping to see no rain and at least one sober Auto Driver. I was lucky enough to get both and reached the Airport by 5. Its been only a month since my last visit here but the airport seemed a lot bigger this time. Surprisingly my flight which was to take off at 6:40, was already up for a security check. I rushed through the check in process as I had only hand luggage. In the rush I forgot to give them my Freq Flier info. I made it through the security where I was told to take off my Vest for Screening. I made it in time to the flight and finished reading most of DNA on the way.

My flight had a great landing and no turbulence on the way. Bangalore arrivals was much better than its departure. I waited for my Boss's flight to land. My wait included staring at a hot Model from Bangalore on whom I had a huge crush for like ever. Then finally my boss arrived and we were off to our Bangalore Area Office. This was a lot better than what we have at Mumbai. It was wi-fi enabled and a very good place to have a meeting or discussion.
The day progressed with a lot of training sessions and a few heated arguments. I enjoyed the South Indian meal served for lunch.

All my Bangalore friends were enjoying their long weekends and were on their way to Hyd. So I was not going to visit anyone there and spent some more time browsing. At about 7, I set out to the Bangalore Airport. I almost forgot to mention, Bangalore probably has the best weather in the country. The cool breezes were a great relief from the sultry Mumbai Rains. The Auto Driver didn't understand Hindi or he pretended he didn't. So he conveniently dropped me off at the arrivals section and I dragged my sorry ass to the Departures through the crowded parking lot.

Bangalore Departures! "Did I come to a Bus Stand or a Railway Station?" was the first thought in my mind. After seeing the airlines ticket counters I confirmed this was the airport. The place was so crowded that I thought everyone in Bangalore is leaving town tonight and is in the Airport. Luckily I had my boarding pass ready from Mumbai itself. So I hunted for the end of the endless serpentine security check queue. After an hour or so I made it through security only to find that my flight was delayed by 30 Min. TOI & Mumbai Mirror to the rescue. I spent the rest of my agonizing wait staring at people to look for familiar faces if any.

Finally I got onto the flight and after another 1 hour delay overall, I landed in Mumbai at about 12am. The journey was even more painful as the elderly gentleman next to me was a little too big and out of chivalry I didn't rest my right hand. Bad Move... very Bad move. My Shoulder still hurts from that. Anyway, Mumbai airport seems to be really changing a lot. I found an auto in 2 mins and I wasn't mobbed by the crowd like it happened on my last visit. I reached home at 12:40 to hit the bed cribbing that I had to go to work the following Day.

Another Rainyday Story...

another near death experience

This story begins in Hyderabad. My brother left for his job in Delhi last Thursday. But before going he made sure I had a big royal White Elephant to feed. (AKA his Motor bike). My Brother managed to blow up enough Moolah to get it from Jaipur (on a Train) and now he expects me to do the same thing to Mumbai. I tried hard and cribbed a lot before even he bought it. But my parents bought his story and bought him this bike. Enough of this buying... Coming back to my story.

Now that I am taking it to Mumbai... I decided of not using the World's largest Employer's services. Instead, I took up the world's most unreliable transporter, a private Volvo Service to Mumbai. The best part about this was that the Volvo had enough space below the seats that we can actually park 3 or 4 bikes. The sad part is that I had to get off before reaching Mumbai to avoid Octroi and other Bleeeeeeeeeeping taxes.

Just when I thought that my journey was going to be fun in the third row of the bus, a girl got on with her brother (I assume). She was sitting next to me and just as her brother left, she cried like a 3 year old. OK not that bad... but bad enough. So I decided to keep my distance. After 3 hours of "Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya" and another 7 hours of bus ride, we reached Pune. It was raining and soon I found out that this was just a preview before the big Movie. After another 2 hours of "Taxi No 9 2 11", I reached Navi Mumbai.

Despite my repeated requests, the stupid bus driver and his assistant dropped me off in the heavy downpour at Vashi with my Bike (empty Fuel Tank) and no Petrol Pump insight. After dragging my bike for about half a kilometer in the rain, God decided to forgive me for a while. That forgiveness lasted 5 whole minutes (time taken to refuel my bike). Then I set of in the rain to reach home dressed heavily (No rain coat though) and with a helmet without a wind shield.

On the way, I had to face a couple of "Check Nakas" & thanks to the rain I sneaked my Rajasthan Registered bike past them. I crossed the "Mankhurd" Bridge (This connects Navi Mumbai to Mumbai) with only one thought on my mind, "Will I be killed on this bridge or not?" The bridge seemed to be never-ending just as the train of thoughts initiated by the previous thought. This felt like someone throwing sharp pebbles on my face and I had to keep my eyes open to see this and to continue.

I made it through somehow, then came the Mumbai Roads excellent (but extremely scary) at places and potholed & slimy at others. I felt the back tyre of my bike slip at least at 3 different occasions and I never knew what speed I was doing because of the Luggage I was carrying from Hyd. Just when I was about a Km or so from my house, the bike finally brokedown (or so I thought). I was petrified by the fumes from the engine but was more than relieved to find out it was just the gears.

It took about a football match's time (without additional time) and directions from 20 or 30 Auto/ Taxi drivers to reach home. Only to find out that the apartment doesn't have parking space for all. I somehow reached dryland but my Bike couldn't. After all the action and adventure, all I could do was to get back Office for work.

Anesthesia... The sweet pain

Doctor's have been using this for like ever! Patients say it keeps you "Comfortably Numb"! But my couple of past experiences say its other wise. I know I am no regular at this but I sure can make a comment on it.

Let me begin... I had this stupid scalp infection and the Doc felt that the best way to do away with it is to squeeze the pus away. Now that's gonna hurt right. So he said he would use some anesthesia. By some he meant only 20 Needles around my head. It started with a small sting and just when I was comfortable, I realized there were 19 more to go. It went on for what felt like a few hundreds of years. After all the pain taking pain killer in my head, I was sure that I am done with pain for at least another 2 hours.

My doctor decided to give me a rude awakening back to reality. What anesthesia actually does is that it numbs the nerves in the skin. But the scalp below it can still feel the pressure. So, I was feeling like my head was being banged with a Sledge hammer minus the skin injuries. After another few hundreds of years, my head was tightly dressed up and I was looking like a Sardarji in a pink turban. A couple of hours later the anesthesia started to wear off and then there was even more hell to pay!!!