Blood

When was the last time you bled? I mean blood dripping out of some wound in your body?
It doesn't happen much. And it is horrible if it does.

Last week I accidentally sliced my little finger of right hand across a glass pane.

The feeling is weird. To break it down bit-by-bit, the first sensation i felt was the touch of an object to my finger. Immediate next sensation was that the object was cold; Summer has arrived in Mumbai and a touch of something cold gets immediately registered by the mind.

And then came the pain; I could actually feel the split of skin millimeter by millimeter. As I turned to look at my finger I saw the horror. Blood gushing out; literally gushing. In seconds my hand was filled with blood up to the elbow, and drops were spluttering on the floor below.

It all happened so fast, one just goes haywire seeing all that blood and feeling all that pain. I gathered myself and rushed to get cotton and Dettol ... I pressed it real hard on the wound as I winced in pain. As the bleeding sopped in few minutes, I washed my right arm, scrapped the dry blood off my forearm. The throbbing pain was still there.
I went to the doctor, got it dressed, and came back.

Now, all this was over in less than an hour. But what an experience. As I think about it in hindsight, I feel weird that my blood gushing out like that actually fascinated me. In fact, as I was doing stuff on my laptop the next day, holding the mouse put pressure on my finger wound and it split open again. I did feel the increasing pain but didn't pay attention until I saw red streak appear across my bandage. I even took a picture of it then with my cell. Thank God it was a trickle this time.


The doctor told me to go easy for a couple of days as the cut was very deep. The friends of mine who saw the wound laughed at it because it looks so tiny now. I can understand them; after all, they didn't see the blood and didn't feel the pain.

I still don't get it why I was so fascinated by my blood. Maybe because it is so rare; that last tine I recall it happen this was was way back in college, as I bruises mt arm and knee in a Football match.
I wish it remains really rare.

Waah Waah weekend

People talk a lot about weekend getaways and escapes. I had a different this saturday in Feb. It started in late afternoon being one thing, and ended being quite something else.

I learnt a couple of weeks back that the price of a 1 TB External hard disc has gone below Rs 4500/-. Being a sucker of data storage space I want to keep everything; all movies, all TV Shows, all Photos, all Setups and so on. And so I decided to go to Lamington Road.

We made a pit stop at the Alpha stores in Andheri west. Those stores are one of the kind as well.

Finally we reached Lamington road. The road's name has something to do with Lord Lamington's arrival in early 20th century. Anyways, as we scanned the whole place, I was reminded of Chandni Chowk in Kolkata. A similar huge market with electronic stuff floating everywhere. Unfortunately I did not get my hard disc as the prices had shot up dramatically owing to low supply. I could have never imagined before that Electronic items could have a spot market as well.

Totally drenched in sweat, having walked close to 2 km up and down the road, both me and Rahul were dead exhausted. We both dialed anybody and everybody we knew to get hold of how to get to Bhagat Tarachand. But inside our mind was lurking that feeling;

"It's a weekend, and we've been roaming around in dust and heat on foot for close to 3 hours . It will be a disrespect to the spirit of weekend if we go straight for dinner skipping alcohol"

Thus it was decided on the spot; Beer is on the cards. But there were no good around to go and chill out for some time, so went straight near Zaveri Bazaar area, to find something close to Bhagat Tarachand. We ended up finding a very regular bar, where we had Carlsberg and talked about stuff for more than an hour. The local deep fried snacks and green chutney there deserves a special mention.



Finally, we made our way to the gali to eat, and were stunned to find 6 or 7 Bhagat Tarachand restaurants face to face. Which one is the original? We were determined to eat in the original one only, else this trip would be such a waste. We inquired around, went into the wrong one, and then were redirected to the original one by a person dining in the wrong one.

Once we sat down to eat, we were super hungry and tired. We started with the best thing;

Super chilled buttermilk served in beer bottles


It was an amazing experience. We had dal, paneer, churma, roti made of makka and bajra... authentic punjabi taste all the way. At the end of it we were so full it was hard to move. We had to let go our desires to have gajar halwa, rabdi and lassi. And this all cost us less than Rs 150 /- per head. That in itself was a pleasant shock to us, who are used to shelling out a 1000 bucks on a regular full blown weekend outing.



I re-discovered that Saturday that it's not always about getting to Lonavala, Kashid, Matheran or Alibaug. You need not watch a single movie either. Malls can be given a pass. All the Hard Rock Cafes and Leopolds can be given a pass. Just get out of the comfort zone and see new stuff. It was the most enriching weekend experience we had in a long long time.

Farewell

Friday 5th march was the last day in office of one of my colleagues. Rathod left the organization to 'pursue better opportunities'. Knowing the circumstances and reasons he was leaving, I felt real good for him. I told him that day that I will write a blog on him, his time spent here, and his departure. I wasn't serious then. After all, I think of writing a blog about anything and everything all the time.

And here I am writing this very blog. When you leave some place, or when someone around you leaves elsewhere, the realization never sinks in until it actually happens. I know, it sounds cliche, but after the initial shock/surprise when the news first breaks, things again start to settle down. The reality begins to dawn once the final goodbyes are said. Like today, when before going for lunch, I inadvertently tried to ping him on SameTime, only to realize in an instant that he isn't here anymore. It’s moments like this one which slowly but surely bring forth the fact.

I've felt like this before; when mangaa (Gourav Dash) left Cogni, when Sid bhai transferred to Mumbai, when Shyam transferred to Bangalore. This is how it begins; the disintegration of a group in any place. When Nigam left, I was myself in such a hurry going to Germany that I missed the last goodbyes. But I realized he wasn't there on my return.
One of my collage friend has a theory on this; he says that for working bachelors in India, colleagues/roommates/girlfriends (in some cases) become as close as family, because most of us hardly see our actual family twice a year. And so, when someone from the core group leaves, the change in social support structure fills slowly.
As the Metallica song goes, "The memory remains"

I remember when Vivek came here in April last year; straight into my project. Being from Cogni Mumbai, I knew a bit about him beforehand (courtesy Rahul and Chinmay). I had a good rapport with him instantly and we started working on stuff together. Working together was fun, as we were both so-so in PRPC, but wanted to work. Also we had our Cogni anecdotes to share. I even started to like his eccentricities with time. We had the best of times in numerous KT Sessions and weekend Production Supports when I went over to stay at his place. The weekend when we worked at a stretch 6:00 am - 1:30 am was the best. Irritating asshole he was then, and remains to this day, no doubt.

Time went by, I moved to a different team, but we still chilled out together. Rathod remained an integral part of our group till the very end. He was a pain in the ass most of the time. More often than not, he was the detonator that set Chinmay off. In one year, we all knew each other pretty well … work life, love life, college days, family, insecurities, ambitions. We found out the three most important things in his life; Tomatoes, rasgulla and Amitabh Bachchan. Each of them reminds me of some small things. The way he would fight tooth and nail with the Cafeteria guys to get one extra rasgulla by paying more, the way he was completely turned-off when a beautiful girl ordering a sandwich besides him told the guy 'bhaiya tamaatar kam daalna', and how he loves horrendous movies like Laal Baadshah and Mrityudata just because of the Big B.



His last day was pretty cool. He was being badgered by one and all to get senti and cry before leaving. Everything happened over the day as he rushed about getting clearances; last trip to cafeteria, last trip to Paradigm B, his farewell Jumbo King treat, the customary snaps. But the image that everyone will remember will be the last couple of hours as he sat in his seat, surrounded by all. He sat cowered, hunched a little. He did not speak anything. A weird smile played on his face. He was sad. He just wanted it all to be over and go home. We were all sitting around, teasing him, reading the comments written by all in his farewell card one by one.

I really felt bad, because there are very few people who know all about you and to whom you can talk to about anything at anytime without being pretentious. He was that way. A guy who thinks different about money, girls, work, life …. I, like most others disagree with him on all; we've all argued with him on each of this every now and then. But he has his fundaas (weird fundaas, I repeat). He knows what he wants and how he wants it. He is a mature badass

I doubt I will ever find a guy who falls asleep in a blink.. I really want to be there when he first tastes alcohol. I hopes he gets a 1 TB hard disc and downloads more things like Coke Studio. The good thing is that because of some reasons I visit Pune regularly, so hopefully I'll meet him occasionally.



He wanted me to put his last email in the blog; it was sent to a select few:


Hi, I just wanted to share a line that’s been dear to me during these days…..It states….“You never really leave a place or person you love, part of them you take with you, leaving a part of yourself behind.” Not sure as to how much of me I will leave behind… But I am sure… I’ll carry those sweet little memories of working with a group of frens who have grown to become an integral part of my Life…..
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

Note: I am mentioning certain words which have enriched our vocabulary courtesy him
fish , freak, BhaisChand, Bhoss***, jamvaanu , snakes, custard

P.S
This was my farewell gift to a wonderful person who will be missed by one and all
(fingers crossed)

Weather

That red hot beast called summer is upon us. Again. The reason I am talking about weather is because I am idle, and as my mind goes adrift I recall a part of the lengthy conversation I had with a girl in train last night. This part basically revolved around whenever anyone is asked about their favourite season, they never say summer.
Anyways, as I am thinking what to write in this blog, and why I started writing this without a clue, I start thinking about me and the weather. I have no favourite season as such. I love the hot chai in winter and cold beer in summer (Actually i will love cold beer anytime).

Well, as I think about it even more (Yes, I am that bored), I had an epiphany. I don't love any season per se. What I love is the change in seasons. In this changing world, where a hyper-active-impatient maniac like me gets bored with anything and everything, a changing weather calms my mind.

Changing weather is cyclical, fixed. I can rely upon the fact that summer will follow winter. Nowadays, you can't be sure of anything. Surprises are a way of life. Maybe a friend of yours will change jobs and deprive you of awesome company. Maybe you will win a lottery. Maybe your boss will change. Maybe someone close to you will die in a car accident or a terror blast. Maybe you will get an exam score that will shake you to the core. Maybe you will get to experience Serendipity. None of us realize the stress caused by this emotional baggage we carry each day. I say so because this is subconscious.

So, on that note, even though Global Warming and Climate change are playing havoc with climate patterns, I'm glad that weather changes.

And I'm sure you will be glad as well that this blog has ended, he he he
P.S. I am feeling impatient again.