50th Post

It’s been more than a year and many thousand words and some pictures since that November 2004, when I used to frequent the blogs of two of my friends, K , a very soft spoken, creative drummist and Sidin not too modest, gifted writer. The association we have goes back to RECT, where we formed the Dumb Charades team in the first year and scared the seniors with a neat performance in the first year.

Ya coming back to my blog. I finally decided to write on Mumbai life, where you remember timings like 7:58, 8:02 because those are the train timings and that is around which my life revolved in that city. The initial period was a little slow and draining as you needed time and later on a laptop to write something. Well time is a constraint in a city like Mumbai which for many reasons are crowded beyond its permissible limits. And time is some 9 hours I get at home on a weekday and that is inclusive of sleep. Weekends were for movies and more sleep. Well in case of my roomies- Goa, it meant more sleep, Prabhu more work, Pal more of both and Vishal, who joined us late, sleep and Powai.

November was also the time when we had to break Pal’s credit card and make into 4 pieces and carry it in our wallets to meet sometime later in life and join them and make merry. I almost lost my piece, but later on realized that it is still with me.

Well sounds stupid but we were very senti that day when first Prabhu left for Bangalore in a train, with his waving hands fading in the darkness… Pal and Goa knew him for more than 7 years and I for 3 years. Sometimes silence is so thick that you can actually take a knife and cut it. Well even if I had one, I wouldn’t want to cut it that day. For long we were silent and just went home quietly. We knew that Prabhu was gonna be very difficult to track once he is out of our radar. Well he was the guy who stopped smoking I do not know how many times. Prabhu is in Bangalore and we are almost in touch!

Then Pal left for US. This time Goa and I did the honors of going to the airport at 12 AM and seeing him off. Well we knew that Pal once gone is never gonna look at coming back to India and would be happy there. He was a masti person who would just have a nice time with any company; he would just gel into any group. We packed many packets of sutta with him and by the time he was leaving, I am sure he knew more of downtown US than the whole of India. The return trip was as usual silent. Just me and Goa. It was hitting him more than it hit me, as two of his very close friends who have been with him from college and work, have just left him in a span of few weeks. But like I said in an earlier post, guys find it very difficult to communicate in difficult circumstances. Pal is getting married in February!


Pal, Prabhu and Goa














Meanwhile, K was also planning to go onsite like any other software engineer. He was a misfit in the Mumbai life or for that matter, work life. Well I went to see him off too. The hilarious thing was we went about buying stuff to brave the cold/snow (in US) a day before he left. Well generally confused that he is, I am not very sure what he would end up doing in the next 2-3 years. It has been a long time since we used to shout in chorus “K we love you” during the western music performance at RECT…he has grown more stubbles, more hair and put on more weight and inches and is braving the snow there in US…He continues to write and amaze people. I have no idea when he is back in India and I don’t think even he has!

Our new roomie, Vishal was a new comer into my life. I knew him only for like 2-3 months. But he was fun and he came up with this one god-level joke once in a week types. And that would be really funny. He took up Japanese very seriously and it was some time pass for us. He never believed in going to a multiplex and watching movies as they would be shown by our cable operator in a week’s time. Well his khichdi is Goa’s favorite dish. Vishal is pursuing some more Japanese classes has become a Tiger!

Goa was the only guys who was stay put in Mumbai till Cap Gemini happened to him and he is set to move not just out of the city, but out of the country. Well this time only Vishal will be there to see him off! But now that he has decided to buy a roof above his head I think things are going smooth for him. He was with me throughout my Patni stint, together in mainframe training then in warming the bench, through the layoffs and then the SEEPZ training and then the Japanese Business Unit. We got into the same project and same parties and then I ditched him and went for higher studies. But I don’t think he nor his bike can change. So he is still sleeping away to glory like those old days in Happy Valley. Goa is all set to grace the Queen’s country very soon.



Vishal, Goa on his bike and me











I left Mumbai in September after another 10 month stint in Mumbai. This time Goa and Vishal were left alone. All that later. Now back to my blog…

Life in Bangalore after some days…

~sujith
P.S. K - I dont have a pic of urs man...It is there in the comp at home
When Pal and Prabhu was there in Mumbai we didnt have a digicam, hence the pic is from a mobile cam and so the low clarity