First trip to Hometown - Part 1

Well.. I have been a bit emotional lately with all the shifting to new city and leaving behind memories and people hustle. And before I could get over that feeling, I am back to the same old lovely green city which has made a mark in my life like no other place. I was extremely happy while shifting to Hyderabad, one main reason of the many being the over whelming feeling of finally moving to my mother land, AP.. (part of which some selfish people are claiming to be Telangana now! ) And "shifting to hometown" was the very same reason that I smartly specified in my exit interview! Though in spite of my infinite efforts to convince myself for the same, a part of me always feared that I was moving away from my hometown! And this fear came to reality when I stepped into Nagpur for the first time after relocating. I told my friend without looking at the station, that it was Nagpur. The recorded sound of "gadi no. 'do saath do ek', hyderabad se nizamuddin jane wali dakshin express, platform no. ek par aa chuki hai..", the kind of people getting down, the stalls visible from the window and it might sound too exaggerated but simply by the air around me I could say I was in Nagpur! When I said the same lines to my friend who kept me a wonderful company throughout the journey with all sorts of serious, funny and emotional stories all night long, he mocked at me! Little did he know, I actually meant it.. (Well, not all but at least a few..)

I am still wondering how the significance of a place changes from person to person.. In my own college I have seen wide variety of opinions about Nagpur. Some think it is just a boring place good enough only to finish engineering and return to their more happening lives at more happening places! Some think it is a calm peaceful place to get settled eventually but not to waste our "jawani ke din". Some do not think of it much, since their world is constrained only inside VNIT campus. While a few like me, give importance to every possible speciality of Nagpur, like the Dinshaws at Sadar that has no substitute in Hyderabad (high quality@low cost) and the delicious Haldirams sweets which make all pure ghee sweets at Hyderabad look OK-OK, and attach emotions with every possible place I have been to, like the college dinshaws (where we used to hang out till 8.29 pm), the Futala lake(whose walls have heard a lot more troubles than even our hostel walls), civil lines ke raaste (where i and a chhotu-motu friend of mine used to love getting lost), the balaji temple (which has relieved me of my tensions whenever i have turned that way), the sitabuldi flyover (which got converted from a phobia to a dream romantic drive), the buldi market (where everything from socks to suits are only a few steps away), the Abhyankar Nagar Square (where in the first half of my stay in Nagpur I used to wait on the signal dreaming about getting admission into VNIT and in the second half I couldn't stop feeling proud for being able to achieve that), and every other restaurant in Nagpur where we have had our mess offs, last lunch, last dinner, birthday parties, farewell parties, job treats and of course the one and only TDS which would not have been renamed top to down sexy if not for our batch.

Oh god.. I have totally drifted from the topic.. Now considering the mood set, it would be impossible for me to get back to the original topic which was supposed to revolve around "Why I was in Nagpur!" where as it revolved and rotated around "How much I missed it!". The original topic would continue soon, keep watching the space..

This one is to Nagpur and to all the Nagpurians I have ever known.. Cheers!!!

Heights of frustration!

This is not the first time, when I have felt like pulling my hair and shouting aloud "Oh God, please spare me". Sitting in a well furnished, posh conference room at Oracle India, Hyderabad and listening to "Why to Automate" presentation, I tried to keep myself involved writing this so that my brain nerves relax a bit and my BP remains normal! And it gets even more frustrating when people ask meaningless doubts and getting into unending arguments simply to come to notice.

This is not the first time that I have faced such rage in a lecture! In college though, I remember, I used to bang my head in Gandhi's class thinking "What is the fool drawing on board and blabbering.. Doesn't he know every book, in fact every chapter has an introduction!" Right now, it is difficult for me to judge which kind of frustration is more frustrating...

Finally on my own..

All the excitement that I had been holding on to for days, the day was finally coming to reality.. Though it did not start quite the way I thought it would but it definitely gave me goose bumps the way it ended or rather I should say the way it continued to date..

Though I was able to handle the 'last good bye to friends' scene at Nagpur pretty well but not the 'I miss you' scene at hyderabad very well.. With proper pre-planning I was able to contain myself at the bus stop and left with a smile on every one's faces..

And then in the bus, the thinking Swati came to life all of a sudden and started re-calling all the wonderful moments spent in Nagpur. The early tuition days when I used to run from one class to another, the most rocking four years of VNIT where every day was fun and every night was even more fun and last but not the least the PSL days which though short but had occupied the most significant part of my brain right then.. And strangely it was not the memories of these places that were haunting me but the people associated with these places that were coming back to me. Though most of the people were not even there in Nagpur then but had left their unending impressions on my memories at Nagpur and ultimately the most beautiful phase of my life..

My first step into Hyderabad and I was surrounded by auto waale bhaiyyas and in the typical nawabi tone one of them said "utte main naai aayega na, madam.." and I got the "Man, I am in Hyderabad" feel. Next I go home, paying 400 bucks to the chor auto waala combined with a nice farewell fight and that is when I decided not to use meter autos there after. I take my 4 heavy suitcases inside (man, I really do have a lot of clothes) and then fall down on the sofa to get some breath. And that is when the Hyderabad Times copy on the table caught my eye, that was the second realisation of "Man, I am in Hyderabad"! The day went well with me and my sis sharing the latest crucial updates on personal lives and utilising the last few hours of my freedom watching hangover and twilight. Finally, still not out of the twilight-feeling I went to sleep hoping for a new beginning to a lot many things. And then without alarm I woke up at 6.30 am when the chirping of birds was replaced by the kook-doo-koo of cock! And that was the third realisation of "Man, I am in Hyderabad".

Enough of that feeling, by now it is well ingrained in me. And considering, that for the first time I am relishing on the home made Sankranti sweets, I do not think anything else can intensify the feeling any further.

So speaking about the new city and the new job, there is so much to say..

Experience at Oracle:

1. Infrastructure is grand. From reception to conference room, from sports facilities to gym, even from roads to parking slots, everything is as one dreams of or must have seen on television.

2. Professional life is very well organised, less work hours, more work and a lot more responsibilities and as oracle says, every individual is a self managed team :)

3. The free pantry includes tea, coffee, soup, milk with sugar, milk without sugar, milk powder, dip tea sachets and even cold drinks!!! Haha..

Experience at Hyderabad:

1. Call it regionalism or chauvinism.. I do not care, but I love being surrounded by people talking in telugu, enjoy vicco advertisement in telugu at INOX, listen to telugu songs on radio and see wall posters of Telugu movies. I finally feel like I am at home!

2. The city might not be famous for night life or rather it might not have a night life as such but considering that I am from Nagpur and finally getting my independence I am able to enjoy a much better night life.

3. The first day I drove my vehicle back from station, I fell in love with one thing.. Yes, the roads in the city. No speed breakers, no pot holes, no bumps and no signals.. Just plain, wide roads with a fast moving traffic. So all you need to do is to raise it and keep a hand on breaks :) And the best part is the traffic cops here concentrate on regulating traffic rather than inflow of income!

A lot said and written, something that I cannot deny or try to over shadow by the excitement of my new life is the fact that I am missing my friends back home terribly. I am staying in a well furnished, posh guest house room. If I walk out of the door I have a CCD, a pizza hut and a KFC. And every time I look at these places, it makes me miss them even more. It is not that the people here are bad or difficult to get along with. But only time will help I guess. I am trying to accept this as a law of nature. Whenever I have moved further to the next phase of life, there has always been someone who makes me reconsider my decision and creates a strong impulsion of turning back even if that means turning back from success or progress. Then the thought "how important is professional success" peeps its ugly face and laughs on me. But unable to take any drastic steps, I prefer to go by the flow. I would rather regret for not having done something than for doing something wrong. And in the process I left behind my best friend while leaving junior college, another while leaving VNIT and another while leaving Persistent.. All I am looking forward to, is to find one such friend in Hyderabad.. The earlier I find that ray of light, the faster I will be able to get over this nostalgia..

Here we come, Ahmedabad!!!

Living in a corporate world full of strangers (well, this is bit of an exaggeration but sounds more dramatic!!!) was over shadowing me day by day.. A dream about the college days, a bad day at work, a realization of distances already present between friends and still multiplying and totally exasperated from the routine life I finally gave in to the extreme temptation of going for a trip to Ahmedabad and have a small Dynamic reunion J And considering the consequences of our last minute travel plans, I must say it was worth all the pains..

I came to reality with the strange fact that movement of people between Nagpur to Ahmedabad are probably more than any other city!!! (It is high time more trains be run on that route) Last minute plans meant tatkal booking, so Neha and I (two of the laziest people in the world) got up at 7.00 am (even if we had a chance to meet SRK at that time, our eyes wont open!!!) and went all the way to Ajni station to book tickets. Long queue.. What!! Have they been standing here all night!! After 15 min our number came.

Neha: 2 tickets (slips in the slip)

Booking counter man: Madam, waiting hai, 95 (wtf, 15 min mein?!?)

Neha: Bhaiyya, 3AC mein hai kya?

Booking counter man : usme bhi waiting hai

Neha: 15 min mein?!? bhaiyya plz phirse check karo (As if its university result sheet to be mistaken)

Booking counter man (irritated): madam, waiting hai (gives the slip back). Ahmedabad ke liye first number lagana padhta hai

I and Neha do a little khus puss, with others in queue giving irritated looks and finally..

Neha: De do bhaiyya..

The man gave an “omg, aaj kal ki ladkiyan” look..

That was our only motto in the train.. Aaj kal ki ladkiyan J (had to use girls power today) Strange but it did work. Everyone welcomed us to have a seat. Well that was expected but then would you believe a good man actually gave away his berth to us when we attempted to sit down on newspapers!!! So somehow we reached ahmedabad and the first look at Nilange and that group hug took away all troubles and then began our journey of craziness.

There were a few places on my “must watch in Ahmedabad” list which included the very famous Akshardham temple, the Sabarmati Ashram and of course our dream IIM. And another of our favourite institutes which cannot be named here since I could not go there thanks to the concerned person’s busy schedule and his name is not to be revealed on request (Busy person, if you get time to read this, please note I am not blaming you for not taking you around your college even though I came a long way from Nagpur)

So one by one I ticked my list. Akshardham temple was exactly as I had excepted it, calm and peaceful. I wonder how could someone have the heart to disrupt its serenity! Sabarmati Ashram was informative and tiring! And the best was IIMA, a must watch for inspiration to all MBA aspirants. The architecture is grand, the pathways are spic and span, the hostels are breezy, the class rooms are perfect, the auditorium is large. Basically has everything that one can ask for in an Institute. A perfect home to a brilliant brain. And thanks to Das that we got entry into the campus and a special thanks for all his time and efforts.

Well there is a lot more to the city than what can be seen. Not to speak about the delicious food! The gujrati thali, the khichdi at Akshardham, everything at the manikchand eat street were mouth watering. The pineapple sandwich and the Cadbury pizza are the usp at manikchand eat street. Each one of us had the “peth bhar gaya, mann nahi bhara” look when we left manikchand street.

The trip gave me everything I had sought for. A relaxing weekend, a reunion with friends, a break from the boring dabba food and a new beginning to something...

Blue review on blue blog

I used to wonder how jobless people are to write blogs on movie reviews, but after watching Blue I can understand how desperately you want to get your frustration out and warn as many people as possible not to make the same mistake as you did! That is spending 150 bucks for a movie with bad review and watching as if you own the theatre! I generally manage to get myself entertained by not so good movies which even include movies like maine pyaar kyun kiya (which was intolerable by many). But Blue was too out of the not so good movies league, my inexcusable mistake after the disastrous Home Delivery!

The movie starts with the introduction of all the characters, old Sanjay Dutt as Sagar with Lara Dutta as a babe girl friend (considering I cannot recall her name, you should be able to judge her role) and friend cum boss Akshay Kumar as Aarav. Sagar and Aarav seem to share a friendly bonding and Aarav wants Sagar to become rich to say bbye to his troubles and get settled with his hot girl friend. Now enter Sam (Sagar's brother) who is a bike rider in some far remote place (no mention of name). Sam gets into trouble working for a mafia and has to run away to his brother leaving his chick (Katrina) back whom she had known only for a day and was madly in love. The mafia manage to find Sam, kill his chick, threaten him for his life, kidnap Sagar's chick, blow off his house and so the whole family is on road. This forces Sagar to accept Aarav and Sam's long pending request of the treasure hunt for "Lady in Blue" burried under the oceans! They take the journey, get the required money (not all), throw it on the mafia's face and before they can walk away they are threatened to go back and get all the money or loose the girl. So they go back, only to realise later that this was a big plan by Aarav himself! Dont worry it is a hindi movie and Aarav is the hero. So the story that is later revealed goes like.. Aarav's grand father was getting this Indian treasure from Britain to India after independence, where on way it was drowned due to heavy storm. But he was rather accused of having taken over by greed and thereby removed from Indian Navy. So he wanted to find the treasure and take revenge from I wonder who! That brings it to the end with a dialogue indicating a sequel of it is in planning(wonder if the producer will dare to take it seriously after the response to this one)

It is not just the plot that is weak but also the cast. Zayed Khan has done nothing apart from bike riding. Though the first scene reminds you of fast and furious but after some more boom-boom you are forced to close your ears. Sanjay Dutt is looking horribly old and fat and makes you wonder how he managed to get a hot chick (or how can any sensible person pair them as gf-bf)

The only decent part in the movie are the songs which are a welcome change from the predictable and repeating scenes. For the guys, it might be a treat to watch parts of tanned Lara Dutta. The song Aaj dil gustakh hai is worth listening to, though it made me wonder if Blue Film would have been a better title for the movie!

Oh forgot one thing, Katrina turns out to be Aarav's wife and was involved in the plan! (hindi movie :))

Simply WOW adventure trip

6.30 am ?!?!
It had been ages since I had last seen the early morning sun and absorbed some healthy radiations! Somehow, this was no ordinary day. No it wasn't my first day at college or my AIEEE exam day or a life turning interview. It was just an office trip to Maitriban, an adventure camp. Now that I have been to many trips with the most rocking people in college this might not sound so exciting. But it was important because I was supposed to rediscover myself and as expected, I rightly did :)

Welcome to Maitriban, an ideal spot for naturalists, bird-watchers and adventure enthusiasts (as per the pamphlet)!!! In fact the guys did have a good watch, thanks to the delicate dolls(dd) of the new ELTP (entry level training program) batch. I will not furnish any further details here, as a few of them will be reading this as well ;) And those few are the ones with whom we spent most of the day, did all breath taking activities and thanks to them that we finally feel a part of the persistent family. I wonder how will I part from this family, if ever I do! Anyways that's a far fetched thought, right now I want to live for the moment. Wow, that's like Swati :)

So coming to the adventure trip, it was supposed to begin at 7.45 am sharp and as expected it began (as per IST standards) at around 8.30 am. So I utilised the time to take a short walk to our very own campus and relive some moments. After making some calls, clicking some pics and pulling some legs we finally got settled in bus and left for the spot. Here begins the fun with all the singing and dancing and I couldn't stop thinking of our tronix trips. In fact we got real and imaginary couples here too!!! (for more details contact me personally :)) After a 45 min travel we reached the spot on the outskirts of zhilpi lake and I crossed another item from my bucket list. The beauty and serenity of the place is beyond words. After having a quick breakfast we headed to our first activity that was rappelling. Believe me when the guide was demonstrating the equipments and explaining how to use them, it felt like we were up for some roadies task! And when I was on the cliff, I did miss a beat, in fact more than one.. I had second thoughts but couldn't back out, reputation ka sawaal hai! So finally, I went down and fortunately I went only down and reached ground in 5min (no i wasn't any expert, it was only a 50m cliff) It looked like a one hand job once I touched ground. Then we had some time pass games, which as per the guide taught us importance of team building and strategic planning :P After the tiring first half we were back to our tents for lunch.

For the second half we were divided into groups and luckily or strategically we were placed into the so called happening group. And then began a series of activities which included river rafting, archery and river crossing. First and the best of all was river rafting and before you imagine the scene, let me tell you that it was on a very steady water body and our chhotu guide took extra efforts to give us a feel by moving the raft haphazardly and throwing water all over us. Few of the dare devilry guys jumped off the raft to have a better feel, while a few like me just kept planning to do so. Completely drenched we came back, changed and headed for archery. And unexpectedly I did hit the target twice though not a bull's eye but trust me any hit on the board was commendable, its not that easy after all. And the last activity of the day was river crossing, which was more of a naala crossing but involved the same amount of courage. Though it looked very easy but turned out to be difficult only for me as I got hung up there unlike others and had to pull my way through. As per the plan, this was it but no one was willing to leave (As it is rightly said, humans can never be satisfied) So somehow, we managed to arrange for a bon-fire and then we all danced around it singing some old melodies.

Over all it was an amazing experience. And the cranky jokes, intelligent comments and timely pjs added the most essential extra element of fun . After a long long time my camera saw light. And each and every moment was worth capturing and preserving..

(To all the committee members, whom we call the elite group at Persistent)

PS: the 'we' includes gayatri and me :)

When you just don’t know what went wrong!!!

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you or is it only me. But in a fraction of a second you have a complete flashback of your life till date and you get lost into the darker side of it. You get depressed and go into complete isolation. This is one such time for me. I hope writing it down will make my heart lighter.

Sitting at my desk in cubicle A-5, 3rd floor, NG2, Persistent Systems Limited, Infotech park, MIDC in an air conditioned office (sounds insane but that has been my dream since childhood, or rather my mom’s) and listening to boulevard of broken dreams, enjoying awesome coffee, with a perfect view in a window right in front of me, waiting for a mail from manager and wondering how my life has taken form and how I wanted it to be and how much I have succeeded to that effect.

(@ Dukker: That is why I was lost :( )

Having been academically at the top throughout my life, studies and career were never my concern. I knew I would get a decent college and job, good enough for a not so career oriented Swati. The Swati who thought family is the only thing that matters in the world and that all my decisions will be based on my mom’s happiness. As a result, bbye to the better NITs and welcome VNIT (I still wonder the credibility of that decision). My hard work and dedication had paid off (I can use these words here as that was the only time I actually used to study) Those were the days of sleeping on books, eating while riding and not talking to guys (and in case of unavoidable emergency only for books) Might sound boring but that boring life brought me to VNIT, the place where I had the best four years of my life. Getting into VNIT, undoubtedly the best college in Nagpur, I was relieved of more than half of my troubles.

When I walked into the campus, I had that geek like mindset (study and be at par with your friends at IIT). This showed results in my first sem SPI. But by the end of the first year I got the feel of engineering college, for that matter VNIT and then came the emergence of a new Swati. The one who liked to have fun, do crazy things, hang out with friends and study only a night before exam :) After joining hostel in 2nd year, these activities were at peak along with the gtalk (call it girls talk rather than gossip talk :)) at night. The infinite college events always kept the all rounder in me on toes. Just four fun-filled years and I got completely lost. The girl who used to be the best in class is sitting in Persistent Nagpur, the girl who used to never talk to guys has her best friends as guys, the girl who used to be her parent’s favourite gets complaints that she doesn’t have time for family and is too immersed in friends, the girl who used to plan every minute from long term prospects thinks of living life for the moment, the girl who used to find happiness from small things in life is lost, completely lost. While I sit and wonder if that is a loss or a gain, some unsaid words, unexpected feedbacks, unimagined loses clog my mind, paralyzing me to the core. For no reason at all, for no circumstances at all, for no person at all, for no loss at all, but the fact remains..

I want to get over this feeling, I want to get my life back..

(To my mom and her ambitions for me :) )