Commendable Gesture...

I thought of writing about this incident earlier but wasn't able to do so because of my busy schedule. Anyway here it goes.

Anybody who uses Autorickshaws in Bangalore knows well the pain involved. Yours truly has experienced such troubles many a times.

About a month back I was searching for an Auto near Ulsoor Police station for Kumble Circle, M G Road. No autowallah was willing to go by Meter- "20 extra sir" "One and half sir" "No passenger from MG road sir"- giving banal excuses, that too at 2' o clock in the afternoon. Soon traffic light turned red and few Autos coming from the other end stopped. I started looking among the ones halted on red light. From one of the Autos someone started waving his hand, as if calling me. I went nearby to find a guy, about 28, sitting inside the Auto. I thought I misinterpreted and went ahead to look for the next auto standing in line. Then he called from back.

"Hey"
"Me?"
"Yeah"
"Searching for an Auto?"
"Yeah"
"For?"
"M G Road"
"Ok come in"

I waited for a second.

"Hey come on, signal will turn green."

I jumped in.

"M G Road will fall in my way. You can get down there."

"Thanks, Do You work?" He nodded." Where?"

"Earnst and Young". He told me his position too. But as it was not clear, I concluded it was something related to Chartered Accountancy.

When Auto reached Kumble Circle I got down and offered to pay the rent. He declined "Leave it to me, my pleasure. Bye"

"Bye Bye"

It was a very small gesture but still I guess, it will not happen with many. I found it good enough to write about. Who knows, may be that person visits this place and recollects the incident.

How to connect ...?

5 Happenings/Thoughts I came across in last few days. The question remains - how to relate all of them? I may be asked - why u want to relate them? I don't know.

1. Rajkumar Hirani launched his new film titled "3 Idiots", starring Aamir Khan, Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi, based on Chetan Bhagat's novel "5 point someone".
2. 4 friends started form the same reference point. 2 (X&Y) went ahead a bit as compared to other two (A&B) on first hurdle by successfully completing it. A always regarded this as "failure" at the back of his his mind. 6 years after that he came back with a bang and now with the same reference point he is way ahead of Y & B. X has been able to remain in the same league.
3. A blog of one of my college friends where he talked about "....if life came with a rear view mirror. To see how far is somebody whom you left behind. To see who's coming up to you. To maybe slow down a little at times......"- an awesome thought not easy to forget.
4. Who can be called successful? One who achieves what he wants to? One who do things differently and emerge as unique in his class? One who achieve fame?
5. You talk of choices either in two cases- you are master of many trades to make a choice out of them OR you are not even average in any of those trade to concentrate on that only.

Big Time Final Loser!!

I am a kind of person who is always happy with his past, never giving a thought to what I did - right or wrong. But lately some one's comment forced me to give a thought about it, though it was a sub conscious try but resulted in a factual conclusion. I do realized it and logically deduced it from my past life - I AM A big time FINAL LOSER.

I have almost always been able to come up with flying colours in whatever field I have given a honest try-most of the time in top 2. But may be I never gave that extra punch which separates the first from second, gold medalist from silver medalist and topper from others in the top group. May be being happy with my good satisfactory performances, I never strived for the best. At least, thats what my own history suggests me-

• Silver medalist for 5 district/state TT championship but won only 1 Gold in my whole TT career in school days.
• 2nd in class from VI to XI but never 1st, continuously for 6 years.
• 2nd in XII board results in school.
• 2nd in so many school events- kho-kho, carrom, chess, etc.
  
• Around 98 percentile in my CAT attempts but never crossed 99 percentile, the mark which makes the difference.
• In IIT always remained among the 2nd tier performers (may be top among them:)) but never moved to the top tier performers group.
  
• Lost the elections for House Secretary after coming up as top two consensus candidate; almost guaranteed victory before the election and the small losing margin made the loss worst.
• Most of my skits and plays fell short of the 1st position (always 2nd/3rd) for some or the other reason, irrespective of the applauses. (MM, my best creation, is the only exception which broke all records)
• In campus placement got interview calls from almost all dream companies from different fields (consulting(Mckinsey)/banking(Lehman)/analytics/tech) but finally made into a 2nd tier tech company.
  
• In professional life too - solution developed by myself is contesting with a competitor for the top slot, and is presently placed at 2nd position.

Though there have been few exceptions- JEE, MM, BTP. May be I have always been a jack of many trades but expert in few. But I seriously think that it is the attitude for the top slot which makes the difference. And as it is always known, best is always remembered while next i.e. second, though may receive applauses for very short time, is always next to best. May be someday I too will strive to move from rest to best category with that extra - I need to find that!!

I would DIE for THIS!!

I am in a old style house in a small town, sitting in aangan and reading the newspaper. The house resembles the one used in the film Swadesh. It is around late afternoon with dark clouds hovering around.

There is a gentle knock on the door. I being happy alone with myself got annoyed with someone's arrival at this time. I got up and went to open the door thinking some one from the credit card company must have come for promotion. On opening the door the person whom I saw standing there swept the floor under my feet. Oh my God!! It was SACHIN TENDULKAR, a person who required no introduction.

Me: Are baap re!!Aila Sachin!!
It was almost a shout.
Sachin: Looking at your expression I believe you definitely recognize me.
His childish voice immediately made a mark.
Me: hmm......Yes!
Sachin: Hope I didn't disturbed you?
Me: NO, definitely No; its just that I am not able to overcome the excitement.
Sachin: OK, you will settle down. Come...
He kept his hands on my shoulder and took me inside.

Sachin and me, both are lying on a mat laid in the aangan with a light drizzle outside in the courtyard and talking as if we were good old friends. This went on for long time.

Sachin: Hey don't let anyone know that I am here. Very rarely I get a chance to be away from the limelight and be of my own.

Time passed and it is late evening now. I realized that Sachin did not had anything to eat since he arrived at my house. So I thought of ordering pizza from US Pizza.

Me: I think yo umust be hungry by now. Is Pizza fine with you?
Sachin: No Yaar! No Pizza, no item from outside.
He paused for a second.
Sachin: Can I share the tiffin that you have ordered for the night.
This was like the moment of my life. Sachin Tendulkar, whom everyone in their life would like to at least see once in their lifetime, is sitting beside me and asking to share my tiifin with him.

But sometimes too much of excitement is really bad. It takes from you even the moment you are enjoying. I immediately tried to get up to inform my tiffin wallah to increase the quantity.

The moment I sat up, I realized that I have got up from my bed and may have slept a bit long than usual. So need to hurry up for office!! But yeah each and every moment of this dream remains in my memory.

P.S: Things to connect with the dream- recently I have been receiving too many credit card calls, even I accepted one of the offer after getting annoyed; recently had an argument with one of my friends regarding Sachin's down to earth qualities; have kept a tiffin waalah for dinner since May; once in a week the number or quantity of tiffin needs to get altered for various reasons; weather has been too good in Bangalore for a month or so which i keep telling to my friends who have recently moved in or out of Bangalore; newspaper has been a source of argument in my house; whenever we order Pizzas, we do it generally from US Pizza, the closest one.

Eventful Nite : Spirited Way of spending a Nite

Last to last Saturday, 19th April to be exact, I spent the nite aka "Jim Carey Saturday Nite" style. It all started with a serious thought among ourselves (me, my two roomies-Jazz & Sid- and one of our office friend- Raju) that because of our busy schedules we have not done any "chutiyapa" for long (daily routine of chutiyapas are not counted as such). We finally decided to go to Corner House in Carlton Towers, a place in Bangalore marked with the presence of so called sophosticated people. The plan was made in a nearby dhaba on dinner.

We returned to our house after dinner. The only person supposed to change the clothes was me as I was wearing a very casual t-shirt and a short half pant which is generally used by me for sleeping. And there started the argument which set the tone of nite. I convinced everyone to change to casual night dress kinda stuff for the outing. Shoes were replaced with slippers, jeans with 3/4ths, shirts with "Om" t-shirts, etc. On top of that we put on some cool funny stuffs used during the annual fashion show in our companywhich were brought specially for the IPL match. Though it was not allowed for the match by the police we used it on that eventful nite. Sequence of events that followed:

1. Parked the bikes behind carlton towers, got on the attires and entered the building. We could see every eye present there looking on directly or trying to see form the corner. They were not sure whether to laugh or to ignore but the dresses were were meant for the former. We believed one who doesn't laugh tonite he can't for his whole life.
2. While crossing TGIF, a waiter shouted from back "Sir.....very nice dress" giving us a thumbs up.
3. On the Corner House counter a small girl to his father "Papa, I am scared". Papa was himself busy in having his share of laugh.
4. While paying the money, a couple just behind us murmered "Are these guys coming from a fancy dress competition?". Sid replied "This is our way of having fun, you can join too".
5. At the table I was trying to control the hairy stuff on my hat. A lady closeby quizzed "If you are not bale to mange your long hairs why don't you use hair band?". The reply was "This is for the first time for me, why don't you help me out?"
6. Every kid's eyes were so much focussed on us that the kid was no longer interested in his ice cream.
7. We had a long photo session in the central location of the place amusing most of the people out there.
8. The person who clicked us asked "Where are you people from? Have you people been set by the authorites here for some promotion?". The reply was- "Did you smiled on seeing us?". He nodded. "That's what we are here for. It brings smiles to our faces too". The chutiyapa outing transformed a bit philosophical out there.
9. Next we went to Brigade Road.On the way, We decided to thank everyone who smiles on seeing us.
10. On MG Road there was a big jam making us the centre of attraction for everyone waiting on the red light.There were kids clapping, people smiling, auto wallahs laughing and people pointing us to each other. This became more explicit once I raised myself on the back seat of the bike to check Jazz's bike. A girl in an auto just behind us "Is that a girl?". The moment I turned she immediately responded "oh my god!! he is a guy". I smiled and turned back.
11. On brigade road, a girl with her BF smiled while crossing us. We all shouted "Thank You" which made her bewildered- "for what?"
12. Sid danced with few road side children out there. They were after our stylish hats.
13. While coming back the same girl passed us once more but this time it was she who said "Thank you" and we responded with a "Welcome."
14. An auto wallah at MG brigade juction- "Inhe kaha se chodh diya hai? (From where they have been left off?)"
15. Another drunk auto wallah- "India is great." We replied "Angrezo bharat chodo(Englishmen leave our country), Inquilab Jindabaad " (they have already left 60+ years ago) and had a photo session with them.
16. We met few of my college juniors in front of Empire Hotel where we paused for half an hour. We were havng first experience of that place in nite. So many girls were being brought to the lodge just in front of us. All kinda combinations were present- 1 girl & 3 boys; 4 girls & 1 boy; 1 girl & 1 boy, etc. A pair whom we thought to be a couple ended up in a girl accompanied by her pimp.
17. Meanwhile 3/4 girls arrived in a Maruti Swift on the other side of the road. They started shouting "I like that cap, please come over here....please please once" as if they require it for their orgasm. When we had started we never thought of encountering such a situation.They must have been too hot to handle for the only guy with them.
18. When we were finally coming back on the church street, 3/4 fully drunk guys caught us and got sentimental.
"This cap is too good",
"I love this cap"
"I love sardarjee" considering Jazz a one of the fashion designers.
"I love dilliwaalahs" and many more. For one of them Jaipur and Rajkot were kind of rhyming words- I don't know how? They clicked photos with us. One of them got too senti to have a photograph with the hat I was wearing.
19. At last while returning we saw a Lamborghini.

The whole nite was filled with many more intersting incidents. And everyone who heared about our eventful nite doubted our sanity.

P.S: This world is really a small place. When I sent the photographs to one of my friends he immediately recognized those 3/4 drunk guys as they were his collegemates.