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!!!