Saturday, June 25, 2005

Of new faces and new people!


Hi,

I am closed person - meaning, you can never hope to understand me by just meeting me a few times. You can never really know me even after being with me as a friend for some time. Or so was true of the past. My personal history is dotted with incidents that have led me to be sceptical of every person I meet, I have been stabbed and cheated and being made fool of and taken advantage of a lot of times. Some of those incidents have lasted with me for years and some still continue to surprise me, they make me sit and wonder : "How could that happen!".

I was a dumb kid, well not dumb but rather simple, I always thought that whatever books taught was correct (it is correct) and that the whole world follows that (this is wrong) and funnily enough, it took me a long time to find this out. So I learned the hard way, by failing and then picking up the pieces and continuing and failing again. And so it shaped me, this childhood stupidity of mine, shaped me into a person that wont trust people until he can see them in action with his own eyes. In the normal course of life, it took around 2 to 3 years atleast of close companionship for me to be able to like anyone, anyone! Like a conservative banker, I viewed all people as spineless, without courage and without character, until proved otherwise.

And so it was in a very unusual fashion that I met people once again and made friends. I had attended a party, that my room mate had invited me to and reluctantly I went there. To my utter surprise, I actually liked the people there and I was enjoying more than my usual share. And then as stupidly as they were assumed, the rules in my mind were broken. I understood that you cannot and should not judge people before you know them. And should you be forced to do so, you should not form a by default bad opinion about others just to prevent a possible future injury to yourself.

My behaviour while in the light of my experiences was understandable, it was as much cowardly and lacking courage. And as things work out for me gradually, it changed.

I met new people here. New faces. New lives full of events that I didnt know about at all. I made friends, I formed a group. I have been blessed with great friends, people dont have a single person of the same standard as my entire group is. But this group was of my eleventh standard friends and we have been together in a lot of rough water together. That group has the strength of time and joy and hence is very strong.



The new group I formed here cannot take those proportions or cannot hold as much importance in my life as my Somaiya group. Not because there arent good enough people, but because the conditions arent such that a group of friends can last long in this phase of making careers and moving around in our lives.

But these people are different and good and the group is great in the given circumstances. So I am cool. We party every week end, that reminds me there is one comming up this week end.
We plan to watch some fireworks, so I hope it doesnt rain. Thats a downer: the rain here.
Peace!

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Friday, June 10, 2005


City of lights and hope! Me and Chinmay used to sit here.

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Marine Drive - Truly a Queens Necklace, one of the most beautiful places in the city.

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Maximum City!

Hi,

I have just finished reading a book about Mumbai - 'Maximum City'. Its by Suketu Mehta. I liked the book, mostly cos its about my city.

I have been born and brought up in Mumbai, before comming to the United States I have never stayed anywhere else than my home in Bombay. And yet there was a whole new Mumbai that I knew nothing about.

Although the book can be enjoyed by most people, its really made for someone from Mumbai, its best sections cannot be understood by an outsider. One thing I can tell u about this book : U will never look at Mumbai the same way.

Parts of it are very touching, parts are very hillarious, some parts deal with violence in such detail that u become immune and depressed after a while. My love for Mumbai wasnt affected by what the book said - I didnt imagine it would be. For most part it presents true picture of Mumbai - which is to put it mildly very grim. I feel that the book could have been written in a more optimistic way. But that is me.

I have always believed myself to be an objective person, capable of making neutral judgements without letting personal feelings prejudice me. But in the case of Mumbai, I donot feel the same confidence, the city is like a lover to me, it is for many people who live here.

One point though I want to make is that the city is much more comfortable and safe for the common middle class man than the book describes. Most middle class people cannot afford to buy houses in South Mumbai and hence live on the outskirts. They travel to their offices in South Mumbai in the local trains. It is entirely possible and simple to travel in Mumbai locals safely without being killed. If planned wisely you can get a seat and travel comfortably to your destination 90% of the times. Mumbai trains are by far the cheapest and most effective means of public transport in India if not the whole world. Indeed you can travel to and fro from VT to my place for a month for less than 5 dollars. A single trip on the Philadelphia Septa costed me more.

If you are a middle class professional working in a company or a call centre, you can live comfortably in Vashi or Thane, travel to your place for work and come back in good spirits. You can have a cell phone at an affordable price, you can eat out twice a week and take your girl friend to watch a movie and take her to many kissing sessions at dozens of places that lovers have (panchgani talav in thane is an eg). And there is no gangster and no criminal that will harm you. You are inert to politics. And you have what it takes to live good. You can buy a bike to roam the city as Vivek Oberoi did on Marine Drive, install ur gf on the back seat and sing O Humdum Soniyo re. You work Monday thru Saturday and enjoy Sunday.

Mumbai is a far more positive place than the author of this book portrays it to be.

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