Our new roommate... Part 1

First time I met him during the Morgan Stanley campus interviews. We interacted during a group exercise, but other than that, nothing. After the results were announced (3 days later), 6 of us were selected (actually 7), 2 from COEP (Sujit and me), 2 from Cummins (Amruta and Anchal), 1 from VIT (Akshay) and 1 from MIT (Mihir). After the results were announced, we all met at Marz-O-Rin, to know each other well. Me and Amruta did most of the talking that day. We 4 guys were planning to stay together, but then probably Akshay's sixth sense alerted him, and he decided not to stay with us (he was gonna stay with his college mate)!

Mihir, Sujit and me were staying together during first few months. The food (tiffin) we used to get was not that great (Akshay loved it though!), and we used to eat daily at some restaurant (with Sujit almost always skipping dinner!). We lived modestly. We washed our own clothes (Mihir did not!), our own utensils (the only one being the tiffin, and we took turns to wash it) and cleaned our flat (once in a week, though Sujit did most of the cleaning). We used to meet daily in our training program, and we used to sit together, in the last corner seats. We went to Goa trip after our training program (thanks to Sweta), and there I got to know he is quite short tempered and impatient (The trip would be subject of yet another blog =)). Life was good, for three of us, and Akshay for few months. 

But honi ko kon taal sakta hai! Sujit decided to move back and commute daily from his place to work. We had to search a new roommate, and our surprise, Akshay was gonna be brave enough to shift with us. (Though this courage was nothing compared to the courage needed to live for 5 years with us =)). But Akshay refused to acknowledge our place a flat (our flat had one bedroom, one tubelight, 1 fan, 1 table fan and a playing cards deck (very important for us!)) and insisted on moving to new place. We moved to a new place, and the fun started.

While moving to new place, Akshay forgot his camera in rick (though rickwala returned it back later). Slowly, he started transforming our flat. First came cable (we did not even have TV then, he did sometimes do things on impulse, and think of consequences later), and then internet, but only Akshay had laptop then, we were yet to buy laptops! Then he hired a maid to do all the household works (cleaning, washing and utensils). I got my desktop from Pune, and we tried watching cable on my monitor, using the cable card Akshay got from his friend, but seems he got pretty bored of that soon, and went ahead to buy a new TV. I tried to persuade him to buy LCD, but then he was adamant not to spend over 8k. He asked both of us to chip in 8k for the new LCD TV, and we decided to be content with the normal one. Then came a few utensils (enough to cook decent food for few people). Akshay was the only cook in the house, and we did get a treat of his food once in a while. I used to cook once in a blue moon, or at least make tea occasionally, Mihir did not even know to make a cup of tea, but we managed to teach him that.

Interestingly, when we played cards, Akshay had the worst luck (we used to play tanni, game Mihir taught us), even though once in a blue moon, he did manage to get good cards, we could easily defeat him. He was most responsible person among us (we never thought so, but so many people ended up telling me and Mihir about how responsible and hard working he is, that we decided to believe them, so many people can't be wrong, or wait, can they be?). When I was to fly London, and I made sure he waited back and helped me with shopping and packing. But over the weekend, when I supposed to fly, he decided to buy almirahs on Saturday afternoon! We did all the shopping for trip on Saturday evening, and there was plenty for time for packing on Sunday.

We almost had everything in our flat, almost settled. But Akshay never ceased to surprise us with more...
to be continued...

Annoying malware solution (http://www.purchasereviews.net/donate.php)

The malware (http://www.purchasereviews.net/donate.php) has troubled me for quite few days, until I happened to find the solution to this on google. This malware kept redirecting all my links on sites to http://www.purchasereviews.net/donate.php, so I turned to using Chrome, than Firefox. (Firefox is my personal favourite.) Apparently, Youtube Downloader plugin was causing the issues.i removed the plugin, and firefox worked perfectly for me, and I am glad to be able to use Firefox again. I had to repost this, in case anyone is facing the issue. Please refer to this blog for reference.

Achcha lagta hai!!

Today (15th July 2011), I was supposed to get up early (read 9:30 AM), to attend an Economics training in office. I reached office 15 minutes earlier, only to see my calendar having an entry to visit Hinduja hospital at 2 PM. I took it casually then, and after finishing my training, I left for the hospital around 2:30 (Yes, I had to skip lunch... Sigh..)

After reaching hospital, we (me, Akshay and Mihir, my roommates) were directed to go to 3rd floor. Our main intention of visit was to donate platelets, and only one of us needed to donate it. My friend (Akshay) went in first. We both (Mihir and me) were scared, as a useless friend of mine had told us that platelets are taken by piercing needle from back!! Fortunately, my friend was selected for platelet donation, and she asked us to eat something before we donate blood! And I and Mihir left for cafeteria.

After having something lite to eat, we were back, waiting to donate blood. Only problem, we both were donating for the first time, and extremely scared of needles! The guy over there checked our blood group and haemoglobin (he had to prick our finger a bit, but it stinged =( ). After that, we waited for our turn to donate, both anxious! Mihir was called, and the guy who returned started complaining about the size of needle, and the pain. I had to gulp, I could remember the ad of TV, where Sachin says, dard bilkul nahi hota... I was waiting for my turn patiently.

When I was called 10 minutes later, I could see Mihir still sleeping, and they had not yet started taking blood. When I reached there, the guy took out the needle, and to be honest, it was really thick. (I was expecting it to be the size of injection needle). After that guy was done with him, he came to me. I was uummmm a bit scared. I had to close my eyes and look at the other side. I could feel the time he pricked the needle, and could sense the pain =(. But once he pierced the needle, I pain subsidized =).

And once I was done with blood donation, my hand was kinda numb. And to be honest, it pained a bit. I was given a coffee and 8 biscuits (yes, I counted them =P ). I devoured them all, mostly because I was hungry, having skipped lunch. After that, we left back to come to work. I had no weakness, or headache, but hand ached a bit. (It pained for at least 30 minutes more).

And if I look back and think, will I ever donate blood again, well, it seems the TV ad seems to have got one thing spot on, - "Rakt Daan. Karke dekhiye, achcha lagta hai" =)

Gokarna Trip - Part II

Continued from Part I...
Much to our relief, we came to know that Hubli is birth place of Gauri. Even better, she could converse well in Kannada. We got down at Hubli around 5:30. We took a rick to bus stand, only to find that the bus to Gokarna was at 9:00 AM. But Gauri and Nachiket inquired, and we decided to go to Ankola, and take a bus to Gokarna from there. I do not remember anything about our journey to Ankola, except that when I woke up, there was a cake fallen down near my feet. Later, after getting down at Ankola, I came to know that someone had bought 6 packets of cakes, each pack of 16 cakes. (By the time we reached Ankola, Geeta was already on her 10th piece, and 2 packs had been devoured). I took one piece of cake, and it was too tasty to resist. I immediately finished 4 pieces. After having a breakfast of Idli Sambhar, we took a bus to Gokarna.

Our hotel was very close to bus stand, just 5 minutes walking distance. After reaching hotel, and resting for some time, we left for the main attraction of Gokarna, the Mahabaleshwar temple and the main beach. Gauri had already made arrangements for the travel, she had some friend who lived in Gokarna, and we got a Sumo (or whatever vehicle it was) pretty cheap (just the diesel charges and driver charges, it really helped reduce the overall cost of the trip). After going to the beach, we visited temple, and had some horrible snacks in some hotel. (But I must admit the juices were really good =)). We enjoyed our first day, (only exception being one of our trip members was always hungry and wanted to eat every 20 minutes!!!). We retired to our hotel, and started to decide for next day. Gauri's uncle suggested we leave the hotel and stay at Murudeshwar, but we had paid advance, and canceling the stay seemed difficult. Also, some people wanted to go to Jog Falls (seems it is the biggest falls in India). So, we decided to go to Jog Falls and Murudeshwar, and then return to Gokarna, and all agreed (although reluctantly, because that meant getting up early in the morning at 5 ;'( )

We left hotel around 6:15 and left for Jog Falls. Jog Falls came as a bit of disappointment, as there was not much water there. But we clicked zillions of photos here (and the best one being Prasad's solo photo =D). We left the place after couple of hours. We reached Murudeshwar around 2, and we were too hungry to be mesmerized by the huge Shiva statue. After satiating our hunger (with yet another thali), we looked with awe at the huge statue. We visited the temple (again, a zillion snaps were clicked here, I am not sure what they were trying to capture) and then went to beach for some water sports. We stayed in water till sunset, and then began our return journey to Gokarna.

By the time we reached our hotel, we were completely exhausted. After taking some rest, we left for some hotel for dinner (some people still too tired to have dinner, so they opted to have a good sleep instead). Well, we decided to go to Purohit, the only hotel that would serve something other than regular thali, but we were deceived, and had to settle for thali again. We retired to hotel, and decided to leave for the 2 famous beaches in Gokarna in 8:30 morning. But we were still tired, and I think Gauri was furious when Rahul opened the door and she saw all of us sleeping. We tried our best to get ready asap, and I think we were done in an hour (pretty fast, given that we were 4 of us). We left for Om beach, and it was the best beach we had ever seen. We clicked some snaps. Then we left for Kudle beach. And this beach was better than Om beach. The waters were very clean, and we could see ground even under 5 feet water. We went to a hotel to have a light bite, and suddenly, we started to plan to extend our trip by one day. But after some consideration, we dropped the plan. After playing in waters for couple of hours, we had lunch (the best food we had during our trip, Gauri trying some exotic dishes). And then started back for the hotel. We had booked an Omni to take to Hubli. We left the hotel around 4:30, and left Hubli at 8:00 PM. We had a quick bite at some near by hotel and then boarded the bus back to Pune. (Thankfully, the bus the sleeper, and moreover, it dropped us all the way to Nigdi =)).

Well, unexpectedly, we enjoyed the trip without any major worries. Well, Gauri's Kannada conversing skills need a special mention here, as it really helped us quite a lot. With Guhagar in 2008, and Coorg in 2009, we finally managed to add Gokarna in 2010. Just wondering what our 2011 destination will be (given that we finalized Gokarna after Ladakh, Andaman, and Lakshadweep, and took more than 6 months to do so ;))

P. S.: This by no means is complete description of the trip, and I had to skip many fine details, like not being able to contact Geeta till last day, aweful lunch we had on first day, etc etc., but it seems Prasad is taking efforts to write down the complete details of the trip, so will leave it to him to fill in the missing fun parts =D.

Gokarna Trip - Part I

"Shruti yet ahe ka?"
"Nahi"
"Mag me pan nahi yet".

This is the conversation we had a day before we left for the trip. We needed to book rooms for accommodation, and needed to know exact number of people. With Shruti opting out at the eleventh hour, we were just 6 people remaining, and Geeta too, now was not in.

We started planning for the trip months before, deciding to go to Lakshadweep. People were enthu then, and almost everyone wanted to come then. But we tried to estimate the expense for the trip, and it was something between 15k to 20k. So, we started moving our trip destination northward, more towards home. And somewhere someone suggested Gokarna, and then we stuck to that place.

But with the destination issue resolved, we had new issues, vacations. Me, Prasad, Rahul, and Gauri were fine with any dates. Nachiket's and Geeta's vacations complemented each other. But Nachiket finally agreed to take 2 days extra leave. So, the trip was set from 26th Dec - 28th Dec to Gokarna. But we planned horribly.

Shruti could not make it to the trip, as she had to complete some formalities/applications for MS. Geeta decided to join us as Gauri was in. Nachiket booked 2 rooms at Gokarna a day before we departed. (Thankfully, Prasad had done all the enquires, and we had to just transfer advance) With accommodations done, the only thing remained was booking return tickets. Me and Rahul booked the return tickets on 25tth afternoon online. We thought all the preparations were made, and now we could peacefully enjoy the trip. But we had a disastrous start for the trip.

Me, Rahul and Nachiket met at 8:45 Nigdi to catch a shuttle to Katraj. To my horror, I found out that the bus was only till Hubli, and there was more 4-5 hour ST bus travel to Gokarna. But the worst was yet to come. Our shuttle was supposed to pick up Gauri, Geeta and Prasad from Parihar chowk. When our shuttle left, the driver informed us that the shuttle would go directly to Katraj. There was a different shuttle that would bring Parihar chowk people to Katraj, and it had left at 8:30. And it was the last shuttle. Our bus left from Katraj to Hubli, it was almost 9:30 and the clock was ticking. But they managed to reach Katraj by 10:30. (Phew!!!). We had one of the worst tea at the hotel there, and boarded the bus only to find that our seats were the last ones. Me, Gauri, Geeta and Rahul each of us took an Avomin, and fell asleep. And after that, things finally began to look better. =).

Cannot think of a good subject =(

Today, 18th Aug'10, we complete 2 years at Morgan Stanley. We had joined on 18th Aug'08 as grads, not knowing each other, and today, we sit at Gari's place, celebrating 2 years at Morgan Stanley, and of our friendship.

But this post is not to describe our celebrations, but to appreciate the efforts of my friend, who made this celebration more memorable, at least for me. Today, I learnt a good lesson of life, a few people have to give up their enjoyment, and put in hard work (read "a lot" of hard work), just to make sure other people enjoy. Today, I was standing on the non-enjoying part (well, for today, the non-enjoying part was preparing food for 10 people) looking at the other enjoying side (this part being listening to songs and singing them aloud =)), and I wondered, I am usually on the other side, enjoying, oblivious of the efforts and hard work taken, so that we can enjoy =). Some people would have argued that it was needless to take such efforts, that we could have just ordered in, but it is so not true (Well, there is hardly any substitute to our Gari's cooking =D)

So Gari, this post is dedicated to you, for all your efforts you have taken today and in the past for feeding us with good edible food =). I really appreciate your efforts, and I am sure there is hardly anyone else who would not. And finally, I do appreciate Sweta and Anchal for helping in food preparations (well, this for Anchal is with a heavy heart, because there is this concept of inertia associated with her, which will need a altogether separate blog to explain =P)

P.S. @Others: The purpose of this blog was just to appreciate Gari, and not to offend anyone. If anyone is hurt, please comment here, and Gari will take care of you =P (on a serious note, it was unintential)

London Dreams...

It all started about a month ago, when my manager called me and Aasim in a meeting room, and told us that I am supposed to visit London for the new project. I had a rough idea about the project, and I was not sure why a visit to London was needed. Few days after the announcement, I went to visa office and applied for visa. (I am so glad I did not procrastinate and applied on Friday itself). It seemed that I would get my visa in 4 days, but alas, it was not the case. My visa was going to take 15 days to process. We booked and cancelled tickets twice, and third time was a do or die situation (not really, but my manager wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned to get my visa as soon as possible).

Well, it was 7th May, and perhaps not really the tea, but I will always consider that tea to be the luckiest tea of my life (courtesy, Shraddha). Well, it is because, my visa got processed, I got my foreign exchange and my visa card arrived. Awesome. Almost set to fly on Sunday night. I knew I was not at all prepared, and I made sure that Akshay stayed behind to help me with all the shopping and preparation, and after that I knew I didn’t really have to worry much. On Friday, we did some normal shopping. On Saturday, we got up early in the morning and went to drink tea at Amruta’s place. We returned and cleaned our homes and bought 2 almirahs. Later, we left our place at 5:30, only to return late night at 11 p.m. We bought few clothes, valet, belt and a bag. A lot of shopping in short. Then, at night, we started packing, but we were too tired and gave up.

Next morning, we woke up late, went to Amruta’s place again (well, it was supposed to be my last tea ), and had tea and some breakfast. Later, we came back home and started packing. Akshay helped with most of the packing. Around 2, Prasad and Girish joined us. It was unbelievable. Never thought they would come just to drop me =D. Anyways, for rest of the day, they both were cursing me why did I call them, because I was just going for 2 weeks. But it did not matter, as long as they were with me . Garima joined us around 3, and I knew I was not going to airport without tea =D. She was kind enough to bring ice cream for me, but Akshay devoured most of it =P. Later, we talked for a while, I completely forgot about packing. But then later, we again started packing, Akshay and Gari checking meticulously whether I had taken everything or not. I was not sure why, but they both always felt I would miss something, while I always thought, there could be nothing that these two can ever miss ;). Later, Akshay booked a Meru cab. Me, Akshay, Girish and Prasad left for the airport. On the way, I called up my family and friends, all wishing me happy journey and asking me take care. Later, at the airport, Rujuta joined us, it was a very pleasant surprise. Looking at all my friends and fun part of preparation, I knew that now it did not matter even if they send me back. I really felt nostalgic and missed Rahul, for back then, Rahul was in my shoes, but he was going for 9 months. Eagerly awaiting for his return. I am not sure if I will enjoy my stay at London over here, but one thing is certain, it will never be as fun as the preparations we made for this trip. Thanks for making this trip happen, friends, for without you, I would have never made it to airport so prepared and confident =D.

P.S. This does not mean I am bringing anything special for you =P. The best gift for you will be me coming back, nay? ;)