College memories

Bunking lectures,organizing socials,going for outings with friends was our agenda during our college days.I miss chatting with the canteen owner who was known as "shetty".Nobody knew his real name coz "shetty" sounded more cool.Once,i suggested he should include a new dish.And so began the trend of bread pakoras and chinese pulav.Not once did I see him in a tense mood.Always smiling and inviting suggestions on how to improve his menu.Some of them took advantage of his sincere nature and never paid him back .Then there was a sandwichwala called "suresh" outside our college who used to make these amazing sandwiches.Mine was a "special" which had unique ingredients like extra chilli paste.Nobody could savor my sandwich coz a fire brigade had to be summoned after consuming one if you know what i mesn.Just opposite was "Rich fast food" where we always had masala dosa though the masala was non-existent most of the time.Any request for extra masala would invite a stare from "uncle".He usually surrendered.Our usual hangout was "tiwari's tea stall" where apart from few gossips we relished his homemade samosas made by his wife.He bought sweets when he had a baby girl.Inspite of being uneducated and orthodox ,he never cursed fate for giving him a girl unlike the so called literates willing to sacrifice anything for a boy.Ours was not a huge campus so we would be found near NM college ,where our friend's girlfriend studied and Silver beach which was an extension of juhu beach(Not many people know this) The amount of time that we spent at NM college made everyone believe that we were their alumnis.We were always on the black list for poor attendance and we had these PTA meetings where our parents were called in.Some brought their elder brothers and sisters to these meetings.A few brought their neighbours and friends posing as brothers and sisters.The result was quite amusing if i may add.

Fair and lovely

"Wanted fair ,beautiful and well cultured girl from a respectable family".These are the kind of ads we come across matrimonial classifieds.I have yet to read an ad where it says "wanted dark skinned girl".Majority of us have this fetish for fair skin or should i say "gori chitti".Even the ads of fairness creams display that you would get a suitable husband or a boyfriend only if you are fair skinned.Does that mean a dark skinned girl would never get married and be single for the rest of her life.Another misconception that we have is that ,only a beautiful girl can make our lives better.What happened to emotional connectivity!!!.It's very sad to say that all us have this perfect picture image which never exists.A man with a darker complexion will always have a fair women on his arm.I guess these men are unaware of the latest ads of Nivea which is meant for men which could make them fairer.This friend of mine always found faults in a girl be it her looks or character.He should thank his lucky stars for even meeting a girl because frankly he was no looker , but found it amusing to pass comments.He wanted a girl who resembled "angelina jolie".His quest for that perfect girl is still on.A partner should be someone with whom you are compatible with, looks should be secondary.

Reality shows

The latest one to join the bandwagon of reality shows is balaji telefilms.Not one to be left behind ,the head honcho decided to adopt a new strategy to rake in more moolah.Famous for extracting maximum work from her employees,she roped in all her telestars and created a dance competition.Last week's episode was a full fledged drama where twinkle bajpai and puneet left no stone unturned to raise the TRP"S.Guess all those visits to holy shrine's has finally paid off. What was more hilarious was the continuous threat made by twinkle to walk out of the show.It was a pleasure to see her finally quit the show.The amount of whistles and applauses that followed her exit was total paisa vasool.One of the contestants even commented "now the real competition has begun".Another victory in ekta's kitty.

True Story

It was my first job in a call centre in vashi.My office was in a place which was quite deserted in the night.After sunset it was quite spooky.Nobody ventured out after 9p.m.Why the hell would anybody want to open a venture in such a place.We had pick up and drop facility irrespective of the shift timings which was one of the perks of working in a call center.How i hated those graveyard shift(shift after midnight).Anyway,it was during one of those shifts that something happened.Five of us were travelling in a tata sumo and were half asleep.A few blocks away from our gate,our driver screeched the car to a halt and screamed like a devil.Being in the front seat,I woke up with a start and saw his eyes wide open with terror.We thought he had run somebody over but what followed was even more horrifying.It seems he had passed through a floating spirit of a man which was not white(thank god for that) and pretty unlike what they show in movies.We laughed out loud, one even joked that he had too much to drink but, that was clearly not the case.He was shivering with fear and didn't say a single word till he dropped us at the gate.The next day he didn't report to work as he was down with fever.Was it really a ghost, or was he joking.We will never know but I must admit that his eyes filled with fear still haunts my memory.

Search for a cook

Now i know what Sherpa tenzing felt when he reached mount everest because a search for a cook was no less.My wife and I decided it was high time we hired a cook.The question was , how do we go about it?.Now the only person with all this information would be our friendly neighbourhood(no,not spiderman)watchman or should i say security guard.We don't refer to them as Watchman anymore.I never knew our guard was a part time real estate agent and ran an employment agency.I just had to dial the intercom(take that yellow pages) and lo and behold ,there was a cook at my doorstep.After the initial question and answer round about where she worked etc etc...we got down to one where she asked, "How many people do i have to cook for?". She heaved a sigh of relief when she realized she had to cook for two.Before we could decide her remuneration she made it perfectly clear that she would come in once a day and if we require her services for more, then that would be double.I almost fell out of my chair.Anyway, she assured us that she would give us a reply at the end of the day after speaking to her employers and accordingly adjust her timings .We should learn a thing or two about time management from these people.Maybe they should be in the corporate business.I got another call that in case we haven't decided,he can send another.The second one was even more hilarious.She said she could cook almost anything and when we handed out our list, she replied sheepishly that she couldn't cook all of those.I told her exactly what i had heard during all of my interview sessions "We will get back to you".How i wish i had taken up a career as s chef ....We almost did a tribal dance when we got a positive response from our first cook.She has finally decided to cook for us lesser mortals.Bon apetit!!

Mtv Splitsvilla

Lately,I've become an ardent fan of Mtv Splitsvilla which is a reality show where 20 girls compete for 2 boys who are ex-roadies.Although the show has been termed a bit too chauvinistic, it grows on you once you start watching.Compared to the Saas Bahu dramas ,this is most entertaining.The most hilarious part is ,the girls are here just for the sake of money and not love which is quite evident from day one though they beg to differ.In the introduction phase the girl's comments gives us an over view about who would be chucked out first.The way Raghu changed the scenario at the last moment during the dumping phase was aplaudable.I don't want to sound like a PR for Raghu but it shows that he means business because not only do they get a chance to win 2.5 lacs but also end up hosting a show for Mtv topped with a full fledged career as a VJ.Those who were chucked out said some nasty things about the 2 guys in their blog.I guess ,it's a clear case of sour grapes.Serials move over, it's time for Reality shows guys!!

Interview Dilemma

At some point in life, everybody has appeared for an interview whether it's for admission in kindergarten,college or for a job. I on the other hand have appeared for more than 150 interviews.Each interview was a memorable experience.It's is a tool for testing one's patience. I mean, just imagine, the amount of hours you spend idling away just for that one interview. No matter how prepared you are,the fact is ,the entire decision lies at the sole discretion of the interviewer. It all depends on their mood.Heaven help if they had a spat earlier in the day ,it's doomsday for you. As always,I reached on time for one such interview at a multinational call centre.What i failed to realize was that the person who collected the resume didn't believe in the concept "Early to bed and early to rise".She walked in way past 11a.m which ,according to her was too early.She began by exchanging pleasantries with her colleagues. Helllooo!!! we are not here for donations exactly but no, we were just lesser mortals in her eyes. She did spot a few familiar faces though.With more exchanges to follow ,she turned towards us and took our resumes ,which by the way was the most important task in the world.She had the audacity to point out the flaws in the resume. Multitasking is also her forte as she handles calls and other miscellaneous work.After a good one and half hour ,the phase 1 of the interview began. I was ushered in the cabin and told to introduce myself. As soon as I began, the person conducting my interview was busy in his own world. Half the time he was glancing over his cell phone and laptop( it surely must have been porn since he was so engrossed)I wanted to shake his puny frame but the image of the burly security guard standing right outside forbid me to do so. I hate the part when they ask you about your family.I feel tempted to reply,My family is in the mafia and run a syndicate inside Arthur road jail and then watch their expressions.Wouldn't that be priceless!! They are also very punctual about their lunch hour but it doesn't apply for the rest. At the end of the day or night so to speak,I was totally exhausted in my fifth round. I remember vaguely what happened in the last round and rushed home without even waiting for the outcome.I surely didn't want to work in such an organization where they have total disregard for the time and feelings of others.Part two continued in my next blog..........until then ..adios...