3 mistakes of my life.. !!

I am not really fond of books and reading and stuff. But I’ve always been a fan of Chetan Bhagat and his novels. I had read his Five Point Someone and One night @ a Call Center and really liked them. As soon as his third book, 3 Mistakes of my life was launched, I wanted to really get my hands on it.

I did not really get the time to read it as soon as it was launched. One day I reached early to college and had some time to kill, so I just went to the nearby Oxford Bookstore and bought the book. It’s priced at a really cheap Rs 95 only.

There are very few books that I have read which had me engrossed into it completely. Whenever I used the read it, I lost track of the time. Initially, I only read it while traveling in the train. I travel for atleast 2 – 2.5 hrs every day (only train travel) from Malad to Churchgate and back. I used to finish close to around 25 – 30 pages everyday. I was slow mainly because, I enjoyed reading it and wanted it to last for as long as it could. However, with time, my curiosity increased.

Now, I also started reading it at home after dinner while on my bed. I read it till my eyes turned watery and when it was time to sleep. Somehow, the entire plot kept running in my mind throughout the day. Even while I am not reading, I kept thinking about Govind, Omi, Ish, Ali, Vidya. All the characters kept haunting me throughout. I kept wondering what would happen next, forming my own version of the book.

I started relating the entire story to that of mine, not that it matched, but I was wondering what would have I have done next if I were in Govind’s shoes. What if I did this? Should I also start my own business which I have been long wanting to do? A Cricket Shop? Tutions? All these thoughts kept running in my mind.

Till finally, when I finished the book. Yesterday, I stay awake till 1.30 AM just so that I finish the book. The climax was so well written, it kept me interested throughout. Somehow, I thought the ending could have been a little different. In the sense, it was a very sad and unfortunate ending. But anyways, I am no one to really suggest anything to Chetan Bhagat. He is the best, a master in writing. He writes in such an easy and simple language, anyone can understand.

There it is, my little tribute to Mr Chetan Bhagat. Thought I’ll write something on him and the fantastic book. Its a must read for all. Am already waiting for his next. Oh and btw, I finshed the book in 7 days flat! :-)

Long time.. !!

Its been so long since I updated my blog. Last I posted was on Feb 24, a good 5 months back. On my way back home today, I just thought I'll write something today. Do not really have anything to write on.. let me just start.. may be it'll lead me somewhere.. ;-)

These 5 months have been crazy.. in every aspect. Umm.. ok got it.. Let me just list down some of the major things that happened over the past 5 months (not necessarily in order, just what comes to my mind first) -

Finally, pursuing MBA
Yes, I got through JBIMS Part Time MBA course. After a good 2 yrs of attempt, I finally got through the college any one would dream of getting into. So what if its a Part Time course, once I am out of college, I'll have a good 5 yrs of work-ex along with a MBA degree from JBIMS with Finance as specialization. Wow, my CV is going to be rocking 2 years from now. The faculty here is amazing, and the overall quality of knowledge is excellent. Phew, but must mention the travelling takes a toll.

Pehla Vilayti safar;-)
Thanks to my bro who is settled in Singapore, I went for my first trip abroad with family. It was fun.. a very good break from the hectic schedule here in Mumbai. We first landed at Changi Airport, Singapore and the very next day took another flight and headed to Bangkok, Thailand. Spent around 4 days there and came back to SGP. Spent a good 4-5 days at my bro's place then headed to Malaysia for a small 2 day trip. The entire trip was truly memorable. Took a lot of pics, but sadly not many with me in them coz I was the official photographer. But nwy must say, SGP has impressed me a lot. Its such a well planned city. Really amazing. Another precious moment for me was the sight of the Petronas Twin Towers in the night. Trust me it looks gorgeous when lit. Absoultely stunning. I would say its a must see once in a lifetime moment for anyone.

Farewell to my mentor
Very few people have I come across in life who have a tremendous influencing power. Harish is one of them. He was my manager for a good year until he got promoted further and moved on to lead another team. It was a real setback not only for me but also for the other members of my team since it was really difficult to digest that he would be leaving the team. The kind of leadership he displayed was really inspiring. Some months down the line came the shocking news about him leaving the organisation. Everyone in the department including me were stunned to learn that and why not! It was a great loss, not only to the business, but also to each individual. As for me, I was his biggest fan! Will never forget all those days when we used to organise events, stay back late, pani puri at 5.30 AM while we were working nights, appraisal discussions, parties and what not. And yes, how can I forget his sweet gesture, that of giving a gift to everyone who worked under him. I got a cool Ford car model and even special was the letter he wrote for me which will always be with me wherever I go. Thanks Harish for everything! You'll always be my greatest inspiration ever. And yaa, dont be surprised if I take your place somewhere in the future ;-)

CCD & me
What has not changed in these 5 months is my regular visit to CCD, with someone special :-), who got even more special with time :-) :-) The frequency has definitely gone down due to my college, but it still continues! Btw, a new coffee joint at Orlem is giving tough competition. Though, I am sure CCD will be back with a bang, since I heard its getting a facelift.

The Secret
How can I forget the secret. My friend recommended watching this movie for a long time but he would always fail to get the movie because of some pen drive issues. But nwys, co-incidently my college professor showed us the movie. And now I recommend this movie to all my friends. Its a must watch. I'll not disclose anything about the secret, but frankly, it has the power to change your life. I have started implementing it, with great difficulty initially, but it sure works. It works wonders.

My stupid, cute little mind :p
Hehe, sorry for the wierd heading. But its true, a lot of things going on in my mind these days. A lot more than what did 5 months back, which is why I am writing about it. Money, Family, Studies, Love, Hate, Friends, Fights, Irritation, Frustration, Happiness, Bliss, Enjoyment, Peace, Holiday, Luxury, Job, Cellphone, Music, Movies, Life,.. and what not.. the list is endless. All these keep running in my mind.

Phew, not sure if I covered everything. But this is all I can think of at this moment. Some great moments, some not so great ones. While a lot of good had happened over the lsat 5 months, some regrets as well. All in all, Life was a roller coaster, as it always is and will be.

ROCK ON!!

Cricket for Crores.. !!

I had read somewhere - "Money is like a sixth sense, and you cant make use of the other five without it". Its really amazing what money can do to you. The other day, I was watching the IPL auctions live on the news channels and was really amazed at how much the corporates are willing to spend on each player. The owners of the teams (Yes, teams are no longer according to the place where their players belong. They are owned!) sat and strategically decided upon the team composition they wish to have and thereby started bidding for cricketers.

Wow, Now cricketers were on sale. Literally. A total of 70-80 odd players were bought by 8-10 different teams owned by the elite class of people from India including SRK, Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya and the like. Anything between 1 to 6 crores were spent on a single player with the highest getting 6 crore rupees going to our very own MSD. As always a lot of controversy followed with regards to whether cricketers deserved the price they were bought for. Certainly, MSD who does not have a great technique seems to be overpriced (much like the Rel Power IPO) when compared to Ponting (sold for just 1.5 crores).

All this apart, I feel all international players would now be quite in a fix since the IPL tournament clashes with much of their other commitments. Frankly, I wont be surprised if the IPL gets a place in the official ICC calender soon. I mean, with the BCCI (richest sports body of the World) which is even richer than the ICC, there is no doubt whatsoever. What worries me is the fact when cricketers get carried away with money, they really dont seem to serve their primary purpose, which is playing for their country.

Anyways, for a common man and a cricket fan like me, its going to be pure entertainment. Just imagine the fun at Brabourne when Sachin belts Shoaib for a towering six, and when the entire stadium erupts! Wow, am waiting for the calender to come out. Just hope all matches at Mumbai are on weekends.. ;-)

A lot can happen over coffee.. !!

CCD has always been my favorite coffee joint. So much so that I actually thought of writing this. Well, Bombay has always been known for its cafe culture and the youth frequenting the coffee shops for all sorts of reasons. It has really picked up off late with a lot of cafes opening up at every nook and corner of the city, well almost. Malad Link Road itself has 4 CCD's and 3 Barista's. Just imagine within a stretch of 2 Kms from Inorbit Mall to Evershine Nagar, a total of 7 cafes and apart from that a host of other restaurants and freak out joints.

Anyway, I visit CCD absolutely every weekend. Yes, as shocking as it may seem, it has to be atleast 2-4 times in a week. Almost every Saturday & Sunday you'll find me there. Apart from that once in a while on weekdays as well. And to top it all sometimes twice in a single day, of course, at two different joints. I know you would be now wondering why on earth does this guy go there so frequently? Well, to be frank, I don't know. Needless to say, I am completely addicted to coffee which is why most of my orders at CCD comprise of a Cappuccino and for a change sometimes a Chocolate Pastry to go with it.

Sometimes I feel I would have benefited the most if CCD had a Loyalty Program or something like that. In fact, that is an idea I am in someway going to pass on to the Marketing Personnel at CCD. Its not a bad idea actually, its a win win situation both ways. CCD benefits with more customers, and people like me will always welcome this move.

Its really is a great place to just de-stress, relax, chill out with friends. Most of them come in as part of a group of friends probably to just chat over coffee, a lot of two chair tables will be booked for a couple on a date, some prefer coming alone with their ipod playing in their ears and a sutta to go with the coffee, very rarely have I seen people coming with their family and off lately I've even seen business meetings between corporates while sipping coffee with some number crunching on their laptops. As for me, keep guessing which category do I belong to... ;-)

MNS Shit.. !!

I never imagined something like this would occur in the so called biggest metropolitan city - Bombay. Never imagined because of just a few group of shitty people, the image of Bombay would be questioned. Bombay was and will always be my favourite city with the never say die spirit and the so called 'the city never sleeps' tag. And actually, I stand by it.

Seriously, the whole MNS fiasco is crazy. How can they differentiate people by the state they belong to? How can someone be called a UP'ite or someone from Bihar or Jharkhand when they all are from one country? It irritates me, aren't all states in one single country - India. Why are we not Indians first and then from different states? These guys have brains of the size of peanuts I feel.

I just happened to see the video of them brutally beating up the cabbies and rickshaw walas randomly just because they were bhaiyaas. Just imagine the same happening to you when you go to some other 'state'. Actually I hope these MNS guys get the same treatment when they visit UP or Bihar. I mean, I seriously hope this doesn't get aggreviated into a major tiff among states, but I feel just arresting them wont help. Their thoughts should be arrested, and killed forever.

I really hope this episode ends and there is peace everywhere. Anyway, Bombay is Bombay... !! ;-)

Night Life.. !!

Nopes, am not talking about the Night Life of Bombay (sounds better than Mumbai), which is quite interesting actually. I am referring to my night life. I work in the night shift at an MNC bank. I remember when I was offered this profile, I was really excited since I pretty much liked the job but I was split in two minds whether to accept the night shift and work for a good process or continue working in the day timings but not for an interesting process.

I eventually ended up accepting the new job and thought I would get over the night shift thingy since we had a lot of people working nights anyways. I was supposed to work from 6.30 PM to 3.30 AM officially. I have always liked the idea of going to work earlier than usual and kindof finishing most of the work that can be done asap and just casually enjoy the rest of the day and leave on time (I still do that).

Initially, it was different. Since I was on training, I had to go according to the schedule prepared by my trainers and approved by my TL. I ususally used to go on time go to sleep as soon as I get home (5 mins from my office) :-) and get up by around 10-11 AM the next day. I should admit that was my honeymoon period (ask any of my colleagues about it) in office. I had not been given much of a responsibility yet in the team so was enjoying my training.

Gradually, months passed by and we had a majot transition in the team when out TL moved on the another team and even further some months later another senior member of the team was moved to another process. That left me as one of the most experienced members of the team with which came a lot of responsibility which in turn meant long working hours. That is when I realised, damn! this was not a piece of cake. I am not denying the fact that I am the only one working overtime in the office, a lot of people worked for even longer hours. But I was quick to realise that the difference lied not in the work, but in something else.

Soon I realised the reason behind my constant headache, tremendous increase in coffee intake, loss of weight, weariness, and the like was the awkward working hours (now I felt it was awkward). My style of working was now suddenly a nightmare. Come early to work, go home really late, or I should say early in the morning the next day. Soon, I was called the night watchman.. quite a funny name actually.

And it still continues, it'll probably be somewhere around 2.30 AM by the time I finish writing this blog. After this I have another host of things to do by the time I am done for the day and at the end of it all again reach home early in the morning. Trust me it is not funny to share the lift with the newspaper vendor or the milkman everyday in the morning after a tiring day's work.

Quite depressing as this article may seem, its not really a sad story. Afterall, not everything comes on a platter in life. I am sure this experience is going to make me tough, as a person. I am never going to forget these days(read: nights) ever. Looking at it from a wider perspective, this is going to help me immensly in the long years to come in my career. Hope my managers read it.. ;-)

SRK and his Big Bucks.. !!

Well, please don't be of the impression that I am a big SRK fan because I am NOT. Just decided to put down my thoughts when I read about the shocking news (to me) a couple of days back which said 'SRK pays Rs 27 crore as advance tax'. Isn't that really hair raising stuff. A man pays Rs 27 crore only as advance tax. Just imagine his income. On further reading the article I was even more shocked when it said his earnings could be somewhere around Rs 150 crore for the year 2007. Wow! I'll be fortunate to own such a huge amount ever in my life.

Then I was left wondering how and where would he spend it (if at all he needs to). Rs 150 crore, with some math here and there, it comes to roughly around Rs 1 crore every 2 days.. !! Wow again.. I mean somewhere we talk about the management graduates from the IIM's getting amazing pay packages close to around Rs 1-1.5 crore annually, and here we have a man earning the same amount roughly in 2 days. Not that I am comparing SRK to the IIM graduates, but I am just amazed at the huge difference.

Ofcourse, all said and done, ultimately we are talking about someone who has an outstanding fan following throughout the world, someone who can attract a maddening crowd at the London premier of his movie where the next day's Tom Cruise movie premier saw empty cinema hall and above all someone who is given the title of the King of Bollywood.