In Bangalore you are never far from

In Bangalore you are never far from –


A Bar –

Literally you are never far from a Bar in Bangalore. There always near you, and wherever you are in Bangalore) you can always walk to your nearest bar, and a good thing is they are open till 11.30 officially and, till around 2-3 unofficially (well a few of them at least, you just have to knock at the shutter and pass the money under it and magically a bottle of the liquor you wanted appears). But the best thing is the concept of ‘Standing Peg’, you can very well stand at the bar and have a peg then and there at the bar. You can get water, cold drink (soft drink actually, there is nothing cold about them), muudi, cucumber, and the all time favourite here ‘Achaar’ and ‘Rasam’ complimentary. They see activity from morning 9 o clock to night 11:30. If you are wondering who goes in a bar at morning 9 you should see the Autowallahs here, morning before they start their shift they stop over at a bar for a quick drink, and boy it is quick! They empty one whole quarter of cheap whisky in one glass, top up with water and gulp it down in one breath and go off to work (What was I doing at the bar at 9 o clock seeing this is a different story altogether).

The bar guy will be very happy to chat with you and even offer you his lunch if you are hanging around at that time and will say Hi the next time you see him. Unlike Delhi where the guy will ask – ‘Ke chaahe bhaai’ after you put the money in his hand or like Kota where they pass booze through a Iron grill.

A Bakery –

They are a good invention of Bangalore, and they offer nothing baked and most will not even have an oven. But they offer you a lot instead, bun samosa, bun butter jam, lime, tea, coffee and a myriad other things, that too very cheap and are a favourite hang outs of smokers. I have had many of my breakfasts, lunch and dinner at these bakeries.

Entire Generations (well, atleast entire college generations) grew up eating at these bakeries. They are the first choice everytime you get that small pang of hunger, though it's not uncommon for people to have their breakfast/lunch/dinner here.

They have come to my rescue to wheneover I wanted to eat after my regular night outs in exam time, as I like to say to myself that I used to study in night time in exams. We used to wait for the clock to strike 5 in the morning to have our dinner. Oh I forgot to tell you that these bakeries are open from morning 5 to night 11. And were (yes probably not so anymore) the favourite hangouts of our college people.
I sometimes think about franchising these and taking it to other cities ;-)


A Traffic Cop –


Omnipresent, Ubiquitous, Perennial are few of the Adjectives that can be used to describe them. Paunchy, Moustached and permanently hungry for money are the others. When I went to Goa the first thing I noticed was no Traffic Cops! Quite a change from Bangalore. Not only are they are at all Traffic lights (which are aplenty themselves) but they are in the middle of roads, at the start of turns, at end of flyovers, in the middle of nowhere actually. If you have a bike and also the habit of taking it out in the night you will very soon have a brush with them. And it doesn’t matter that you are guilty of any offence or not you will have to pay them something. You can be booked for not carrying DL, PUC, RC Book (Common terms for you if the cops keep catching you). Drunk driving or Jumping red light is hell. But if you didn’t do anything like that you will still be booked for something like not having ‘Chunni Guard’ (yes you heard me right), incorrect size of number plate, Noise Pollution, Dirty Rear Glass (in case of a car) or my personal favourite – Dangerous Driving, they can’t prove this is not important but more important is that you can’t disprove it.

Either way you have to give them some money. Though that probability decreases drastically if you know Kannada and can talk endlessly till they get bugged of you.


A Pub –

Don’t get me started on these. Bangalore has been aptly described as the Pub City and I have heard that Bangalore has most pubs in the country. But anyways I don’t wanna go and on about this but I will so I shut up here.










A Shop that sells ‘Hot Chips’ –

I have always wondered about how can keeps all their chips hot every time; but that’s immaterial right now. What is material is that they are everywhere in Bangalore, they are Bangalore’s counterparts to all the Namkeen shops in North. And they sell South Indian equivalent of Namkeens.

How many people actually eat these things is again a mystery to me.Because I have never seen a single customer at them. Except probably my friend Ashutosh who used to buy Banana chips from here to take it to Lucknow as a Delicacy from Bangalore.



Some sort of ‘Sagar’ –

There is a Shanthi Sagar, a Neel Sagar, a New Sagar and even a Blue Sagar here , and myriad of other Sagars here in Bangalore. They are South Indian Restaurants serving all types of cuisines actually (Udupi, North Indian, Chinese,Chaats, etc etc) but all with a South Indian touch. And of course a ‘Sagar’ in their name.
Most of them are the self service, quick eat, fast food type, but some them do have service.

But among those who do, they really have a commendable service. There are different people to take orders, to give orders, to bring food and to take food from your table and they are actually dress coded. And all in all they do have very fast if not courteous service.


Someone who is drinking coffee with an id tag around his neck –

Pretty self explanatory. Bangalore has lots of IT companies (big and small) which make it mandatory for their employees to wear ID Tags, and people here love coffee and hence the above sight.







Some ‘Andhra Style’ Restaurant –

Sometimes I wonder if they are more ‘Andhra Style’ restaurants in Bangalore then probably they are in Andhra Pradesh itself. But anyways they are aplenty in Bangalore, and every fifth Restaurant in Bangalore will turn out to be an ‘Andhra Style’ one. Biryanis aside they are a plenty of other Andhra food which is quite famous in Bangalore, mutton ghee roast, sholay kabab etc are a few of them. Why they are so much in Demand in Bangalore is still a mystery to me.




A ‘Cafe coffee day’ –

They are like bloody ‘Chaai kee thadi’ here in Bangalore.

They have built CCDs (Cafe Coffee Days) in every nook and corner of Bangalore. In busy places like MG Road they are like 5 of them. Sometimes you will have to wonder which CCD to go to; they are more than one which qualify for ‘the nearest’. There are CCDs, CCD Express, CCD Fresh & Ground and newest edition CCD Square. And they are Bangalore Junta’s favourite hangout.




And yes somebody from ‘Ramaiah’ –

Oh yes! From Nelamangla to Whitefield, from Bannerghtta to Devanahalli they are present everywhere. Wherever you go in Bangalore you can bump into them, whether you go to Discs, Pubs or late night eating Joints like Empire or whether it’s the Airport or the Railway station. They are in IT companies, in Ice Cream parlours, you can bump into them at Petrol Pumps, Queues at Multiplexes, and you name it, any part of Bangalore they are there.

Love Story

Well keeping up with my Aspiration of being a novelist, let me tell you a story.

This story begins as they often do with a guy and a girl, but as I like my stories this doesn’t have a happy ending, or probably no ending.

There is a guy, let’s call him A and there is a girl let’s call her B. The names here are immaterial, and you probably would know a 100 such As and Bs.

Well begun is half done –

A and B have been going around for around 2 years now and are seemingly very much in love. But the thing is that A recently moved to a different city and a different college and it is now what they call a ‘Long distance relationship’. All is going good; they talk to each other every day on the phone and miss each other very much. They try to meet each other whenever they get to and it looks like ‘Happily ever after’ scenario for both of them.

Enter the third guy C here. C & B are classmates and have recently become good friends. B tells A about C that they have recently become good friends. A smiles and feels happy about B; he was never that nosy/jealous/possessive type. In fact he feels happy about B, thinking that good she has found a good friend, he was worried about B after he left thinking that she might be lonely.

Things continue normally between the two, just that there is an increased mention about C on the phone. A once in a while teases B about C. "I’m sure that there is something going on between you two" but all in good spirit, B always laughs it off.

Trouble in Paradise –

All bad things start as small. One phone call that B couldn’t pick because she was watching a movie with C. One engaged phone because B was talking to C all night, after all the poor guy had a bad fight with his girl friend. One rebuff by A when he was out drinking with his buddies because he couldn’t get to speak to B for an hour.

A increasingly starts to get worried and there are fights aplenty between them. It’s like both of them are looking for excuses to fight with each other. But both are very much in love and very much willing to patch up every time they fight. In fact both of them go out of there way now days to make each other happy. But A can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong somewhere and C is to be blamed for it.

A is back to his old city for a few days and tries to spend as much time as possible with B. But he realizes that things aren’t exactly the same like he left them, and B is busy a lot these days. One day he meets a few buddies of his which are classmates of B. After a few drinks they pull out worried looks on their faces, like they are about to announce somebody’s death. A asks

"What up Guys, why you people look so worried?"
"Nothing bro, but there is this thing we wanted to tell you"
"Ya tell me then"
Na... Never mind. It’s nothing "
"No no, tell me"
"Well.....You know about C, right? Well there is buzz around the campus that there is something going on between them, they are ALWAYS together."

A rubbishes the whole conversation and is in fact angry at his buddies for bringing this up.
But his worst fears are spelled out now. Confused he calls B and talks to her for an hour just to reassure him that this is the girl he fell in love with. Just when he is about to keep down the phone he says

"Hey I have heard about your friend C so much, when am I going to meet him?"
"Oh anytime, In fact he also wanted to meet you. I talk about you all the time in front of him."
He thinks and you talk about him all the time when you are with me.
"Listen why don’t you come to the CCD outside college tomorrow, I’ll meet you there, my class ends at 5. I’ll also bring C along"
"Cool, see you at 5 then."
"Bye"
"Bye. Love you"
"Love you too"

It’s 5 and A is before time and all dressed up waiting in CCD. He doesn’t want C to think that she goes around with a jerk. But actually he wants to assure himself that he is a good boy friend and B would never want to leave him.
It’s half an hour past and there is no sign of both of them. He calls B but her phone is switched off.

Then B enters.
"Hi..... I’m soooooo Sorry, Prof P’s class went on too late. And we have to keep our phones switched off in his class"
"It’s ok. Hey your friend was also supposed to come na?"
"He has a name. It’s C"
"Ha ha ha. Yes that’s what I meant. Where’s C?
"He is outside parking the bike"
"So where do we sit?"
"We’ll sit on the table. That’s our Adda, we always sit there"

Then a tall guy enters looking around. Dressed up in clothes that A never thought of wearing till he is 30.

B’s face lights up seeing him, she frantically waves at him and asks him to come sit. She introduces both of them to each other. A shakes C’s hand hard and looks him in the eye with the look probably saying -
"If you are fuckin’ with Tony Montana, you are fuckin’ with the best"

Then the Uncomfortable Silence. After 5 long minutes C says he will go the counter and order coffee and asks A what is he going to drink. He doesn’t need to ask B, they probably had 100 cups here. As soon as C stands A puts his arm around B, signalling ‘My Property’. C notices it with the corner of his eye but doesn’t react. B starts feeling uncomfortable and wiggles out of the embrace of the arm soon.

They have their coffee and for that half an hour C doesn’t speak anything apart from short whispers in B’s ear. And A begins to wonder what she saw in this guy. And how the hell does she talk him for hours on the phone; he doesn’t speak at all. After half an hour B announces that they have to leave, they have a major assignment the next day and she is going to C’s house to do it, as they are in the same group. A masks his irritation and says bye to both of them. ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’ were probably the only two words C spoke to A. A wonders why had C wanted to meet him in the first place and why did he ever plan this meeting.

That night after 10 missed calls from A, B messages that she is very busy with the work. It’s already 10 and they haven’t done any work till now. They will be working whole night tonight.
This pisses off A. If they haven’t done any work till now what work were they doing till now. Angry messages fly off between them ending with A sending " U shud marry him i think...After all u luv him sooooo much"
And B breaking down in tears and sending "U are an asshole.... Dont ever tlk 2 me again"

So much for the super trip home. A goes back to his city and calls up and apologizes to B for acting like that. B also apologizes for not giving enough time to him while he was there. She also clarifies that nothing is going on between them; C actually has a girl friend. And she will stop talking to him if it bothers him. A says no need of that. He is sorry and he just hopes that she gives little more time to him. That’s all.

Beginning of the End –

But things have changed irrevocably. B hardly talks about C anymore. She says she is out 'with friends' whenever A asks what is she doing. She is watching movie 'with friends' or she is studying 'with her friends'. She never calls him when she is upset. Every time when A senses B is in a bad mood she says yes but she doesn’t want to talk about it, she just needs some time alone. Most of the conversations now hover around –

"So what else"
"Nothing, you tell me"
"Same here"
"So how’s college"
Ummm.... Ok"
"When are exams?"
"Next month"
"Hmmm... So what else...."
A repeatedly asks if something is wrong, if she is sad or something, is she is angry with him. All these questions are replied with
"No, nothing like that. Why do you ask?"

One day after finding B’s phone engaged for an hour A calls C and finds his phone engaged too. After getting through to her he asks whom was she talking to she replies my cousins had called from Australia.

A gets increasingly paranoid and one day decides to log into B’s email account. He always had the password but never bothered to use it till now. He snoops around in her account looking for mails from C or Chats with her. But there is no conversation with C, not one. A wonders if she has been deleting her chats because he is dead sure she used to chat with C.

Every time he wants to confront B about that he hesitates because she doesn’t want him to think he is possessive or jealous or anything. Plus there is nothing B can say that will put an end to A’s suspicion once and for all.

The End –

There is a long weekend coming up. A borrows money from his friends for a flight ticket to and fro from his city. He wants to surprise B. He flies off to his city without telling B.

He stands outside B’s college with a bouquet of flowers all ready to surprise her. He calls her but she is not picking up. After half an hour of frantic calling and standing the Sun he ditches the flowers and enters the college. He sees some friends of hers, after inquiring about her they tell her that they did see her in college in the morning but they think she left. One girls says she probably saw him leaving with C.

He calls C. He doesn’t answer either. He is surprised out of his wits. She said she had a test today, she said she was studying for it last night.

Worried he goes to her house. He asks her mom if she is home, because she isn’t in college. Her mom is unaware. Even she was thinking B was in college.

Now both of them are worried. Her mom calls tens of friends and none of them knows where she is.

It’s nearly dark and suddenly A’s phone rings. It’s B’s home no.
"Hello"
"It’s me"
"Where the hell have you been? I’ve been looking for you since morning. I went to your college...."
"Did you tell my mom I wasn’t in college?"
Yes. I was so worried about you. When I couldn’t find you in...."
"What! Do you know how much trouble I have gotten into because of you? Mom is screaming like anything. She told Dad. My cell has been taken. No pocket money from now. Dad is actually thinking to hire a driver to take me to college every day."
"Look I didn’t know. I had no other option. You were not picking up my call too."
"My phone was in my bag"
Bag? What was it doing in the bag? A cell phone is to be carried with you and supposed to be answered when I call."
"You call?"
"I mean when anybody calls. Why was C also not answering?"
"His phone was also in my bag"
"What? What were you two doing?"
"We went to the beach. Were we supposed to carry the phone in the water? I don’t know if your phone is waterproof but mine is not!"
"Beach! What beach? And didn’t you have a test today? You lied to me!"
"No I didn’t. We were supposed to have a test today but it got postponed. So C said lets go to the X, he always wanted to go there with me."
"What! I flew 2000 kms, borrowed money from 5 people, bunked college and came here to meet you and you were busy coochi-cooing with that bastard on the beach!
"Shut up! Keep him out of this!"
"Oh you are worried about him. You never even bothered to ask how am I here. What all did I have to go through this morning? How worried was I? What all thoughts did not come in my mind?"
"Oh I know what were your thoughts. That I’m having an affair with C, that I am sleeping around with him."
"Shut up. I never said that."
"Oh but you have thought about it"
"Shut the fuck up! And why the hell did you go alone with him? You didn’t tell any of your friends or me."
"I didn’t tell them because I didn’t want them teasing me with his name. I’ve had enough of this shit. Every other day you or your friends are teasing me with his name. I’m sick of it. That’s why I never talk to him or about him in front of anybody. And I don’t need to explain myself to anyone."
"I’m your boy friend god damn it! You need to explain yourself to me."
"I just went to an outing with my best friend. I don’t need to ask your permission for this. I never ask you anything"
"That’s right these days you never ask or tell me anything. We hardly talk these days."
"There’s nothing like that. You only used to say you are too busy and can’t talk to me 24/7"
"And I thought I was your best friend"
"You are, you both are my good friends. But I swear there is nothing going on between me and C."
"Good friends uh? Well let me say one last thing sweetheart. I don’t know if there is something going between you two but there is sure as hell nothing going on between us, not anymore. Good Night and Good Luck"
*click*

P.S. - This is not to show a wrong or right decision. Nor to Malign Guys or Gals, but to show a very common scenario. If you have bothered to read through 2430 words please also bother to comment. I really want this in this case.

Also check the notify follow up comments box when you post your comment.

P.P.S - Do you think B was cheating on A?
Do you think this is anybody's fault? If yes, whom
And lastly do you think anyone could have done anything to save the realtionship? If yes, what ?

Musings on a lonely night...

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M.B.A

"All business is show business"

You Know You Are taking Your MBA Seriously When...

• You know 50 ways how to say ‘I don’t know’ without saying ‘I don’t know’
• You can say “The organizations needs to re-engineer its business process to focus on its core competencies by using lean manufacturing to leverage its human resources for better consumer focus” and still keep a straight face.
• You can answer all questions with ‘It Depends’
• You have to specify ‘Meeting at 2’ meant 2 in the afternoon or 2 in the night
• You refer to 5 people seated in a circle and screaming at the top of their voices as a ‘Meeting’.
• You don’t know what ‘Ego out of control’ means.
• You think ‘Maggi’ is a perfect meal.
• You can’t imagine doing an MBA before ‘Google’
• Whether given 2 months or 2 days, you still come up with the same quality of work.
• You use abbreviations like POD, COC, EBITDA, ROI as it is common lingo.
• Your laptop is actually your best friend.
• You can quote data like ‘The total no of Malaria Patients in Namibia is 326,987’, ‘The PAT of Pfizer grew from 7.82% to 11.08% this year’ out of thin air.
• You ask the waiter what the restaurant's core competencies are.
• You refer to dating as test marketing.
• You know how to pronounce 'paradigm'.
• You actually know what a paradigm is.
• You write executive summaries on your love letters.
• You think it is actually efficient to write a ten-page paper with six other people you do not know.
• You believe you never have any problems in your life, just 'issues' and 'improvement opportunities’.
• You know Micrsoft Office like the back of your hand.
• You can explain to someone the difference between 'retrenchment', ‘lay off’, ‘down-sizing', 'right-sizing', and 'firing'.
• Telling you mom she hasn’t cooked well is ‘Constructive feedback’ to you
• You start to feel sorry for Dilbert's boss.
• You refer to divorce as 'demerger'.
• You insist that you do some more market research before you and your spouse produce another child.
• You use the term 'value-added' without falling down laughing.
• Marriage is Another "M & A" for you.
• You can give a presentation on a topic without knowing anything about it.
• Having more than one girl/boy friend is just ‘Hedging your Risk’
• Your justification for cheating on your girlfriend is that you were only trying to exploit ‘Economies of Scale’ or ‘Economies of Scope’

After all MBA only stands for Master of Bullshitting Art (yes it is an art)

Or Master of Bakar Accordance

P.S - Few of the points are not written by me and I picked them up while surfing the net. No plaigirism intended. But more than half are purely my own. So its not fully copy paste :-)

Two Thumbs Up (With Vodka) !!!

I just watched Dev D last night. Dev D is an offence to your senses and to everything the Indian Cinema has always stood for, and that’s what makes it a killer!!

The movie claims that it is Loosely Inspired from Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Novel and it is exactly that only loosely inspired. It’s far detached from other adaptations of the novel there are no grand dance sequences, no heavy dialogues, no lavish sets. The movie takes place in very contemporary India and the characters are very realistic.

Personally I think both the girls steal the show, mostly because of their bold portrayals and never seen before antics in Indian Cinema. But most of the movie is devoted to Abhay Deol who plays the titular Devender Singh Dhillon or Dev D. He has underplayed the character too much for my taste but the angst in his eyes when he downs peg after peg of vodka is very real, the way he throws the glass, the way he asks he asks "Kya hua ? Bar Band ? Ek aur nahi milega kya ?" reminds me of many people I know, including myself.

But the most hard hitting scene I felt was when he hits the bar with a vengeance with Emotional Attyachaar (Rock Version) playing in the background. He downs shots after shot like he is angry at the booze when perhaps he is angry at himself for being a fool and is trying to convince himself that he is angry at Paro, though no matter how hard he tries he cannot be. It’s like trying to put out a fire by pouring fuel over it, the more you put the more the flames rise and you put more fuel on it to douse the fire. I have been through the exact phase so I know what it feels like. Its self destructive but you do not have much of a choice.

That scene is followed closely in my liking by the one which he narrowly misses a car and realizes that he is lucky he survived, and he has his whole life to look forward to.

It's a very realistic movie, rather too realistic for me. Seen most of it with my own eyes I get too uncomfortable seeing it, probably that’s why I didn’t like all that much. Dev's drinking till he vomits blood and then asking for more, his going to Chanda for nothing more than her company and her not judging him. Many people I know went to Bar Girls not to sleep with them but because of the company offered, and being no saints themselves they never judged them and they could be themselves. Bangalore has shown me a lot I think.
.
The music is very experimental and like all experiments sometimes it pure bliss and sometimes it fails miserably. Sometimes the music sets the mood and sometimes it upsets it.

The camera work in the drugs scene is very psychedelic and heady. Courtesy Mr Danny Boyle of the Slumdog Millionaire fame whose best movie I think is 'Trainspotting' from which the camera work has been taken. It really gets my pulse going.

The movie also puts my worst fear to flesh. If you are roaming/driving around that drunk and alone only two things will happen to you, either you are getting mugged or you are going to run over somebody. Scary !

The movie though has too sweet a ending for such a dark movie. I was mentally prepared to see Dev drink himself do death and Paro realizing too late what she had let him become. But probably Anurag Kashyap wanted him to 'Move On' or rather all 3 of the characters.

But overall I think this movie is path breaking. Hindi Cinema will never be the same again.
Overall i give it Two Thumbs Up (with vodka) !!

New Year Jinx

A jinx, in popular superstition and folklore, is:

• A sort of curse placed on a person that makes them prey to large numbers of minor misfortunes and other forms of bad luck;
• A person afflicted with a similar curse, who, while not directly subject to a series of misfortunes, seems to attract them to anyone in his general area.
• An object that brings bad luck.

Did I tell you that my New Years is Jinxed?

If you know me well I probably would have. I don’t know why it is so, or what I did to deserve it, but it is the way it is.

I don’t remember a good New Year’s Eve party ever, I remember one where my elder brother got really angry and ruined his and my new year’s eve and I remember one where was the party we went was so boring that we had to actually had to walk out of it much before midnight. But these are only childhood one, the last 5 ones I remember vividly (people tend to remember their bad experiences pretty well).

New Year’s Eve 1 (31st Dec 2003) -

The first year in college and the first one in Bangalore. I’m all excited that I’m out of home now and can have a REAL New Year Bash.

Luck is supposed to favoring me too. See the thing is my friends have made plans for one of the hottest bashes in town, the party is supposed to be big and real fun. My friend (let’s call him A) is good friends with the ‘localites’ of the city so he makes plans for them and being a good friend of mine asks me to come. He has also asked a girl to come with me as my date; the girl has bought my ticket and is very much willing to go. Only thing left to me is that I have to arrange a Car for the night, or rather rent one for tonight. Piece of cake! My brother rents car from this guy all the time and he said no issues, he will go with me to get that car. So assured I chill out and say to my friends that their work is done and we are all set to go.

But when 31st arrives and I call the car guy asking for a car he says that today is 31st and all the cars are already rented (Apparently there are other Wise guys like me). Now I start to panic. Brother says don’t worry I will get you one, let me talk to that guy. So he talks to him and argues for half an hour, after stomach churning (for me) half an hour he says that he arranged one car for me, the car is not in top shape but hey! Beggars are not choosers!

So I call up my friends that I got the car and will be there in an hour, they ask me to hurry up as we are already getting late. I assure them and head to Johnson Market to get the car. When I reach there I realize that car is not there and will be there in some time (which turns out to be an hour or so).

A is a punctual guy by nature and even after adjusting for my lackadaisical approach he is furious at me and says we are very late. After what looked like an endless wait the car arrives and we head back to college to pick 'A. I call him and say that I’m on my way, call everyone and tell them to be ready.

We fill up lot of Petrol (I want to be extra cautious, its new year’s eve and I don’t wanna screw this up) and head back. As soon we leave the petrol bunk tragedy strikes! Car dies in middle of ‘MG Road’ and won’t start! Now if you have ever been to Bangalore or any of the big cities you would know what the traffic is on the busiest road of the city on New Year’s Eve. It is your worst nightmare comes true.

Traffic Piles up behind the car and I have people honking, shouting, cursing and basically doing everything short of bashing me up. I get a traffic cop shouting at me, asking me to remove the car and I have a tough time to explain him the car won’t start, that’s why I am here in the first place. We call all ‘Car Help Lines’ and even they Guy who gave me the car. But hey, its new year’s eve all the lines are either jammed or nobody picks up.

Frustrated I call up A and tell him I won’t be able to make it and ask him to take a ‘City Taxi instead, he asks what about that girl, I reply “Find a replacement guy also, there would be some loser who hasn’t made any plans yet”.

So Finally I push the car to the nearest empty parking slot and head out to a bar to drink. After being turned out from a couple of places we finally reach one place and stand there whole night and drink to drive away the blues.

‘A’ told me next day that was the party was Rocking! And my ‘could have been date’ got really drunk and made out big time with my substitute (which could have me according to him).


New Year’s Eve 2 (31st Dec 2004)-

Don’t remember much but it wasn’t pretty either.


New Year’s Eve 3 (31st Dec 2005) -

My third year in Bangalore and my third year exams are about to begin. Normally that wouldn’t stop me from partying but I had also fought with my friend. Let’s call her ‘P’. So my mood was off and I was sitting in my room and was trying to study. My other Room mate ‘T’ was is in the other room, he was partying with his girl friend and her friends with the door shut. Two of P’s friends said they would be coming to our house in the night. They both used to go around once, but I didn’t know that then.

Now they were supposed to come well after midnight. But I was surprised when there was a knock on the door at around 11 and ‘R’ walked in. His words were something like “Arey Andy ye kya hai ? Main to soch raha tha kee Full volume pae music baj raha hoga. Daaru beh rahi hogi. Main andar aate hee dance karna shuru kar dunga. Par ye sab kya hai ?”

Then Surprise of Surprises! Another one of P’s friend ‘S’ walks in. And she was supposed to come after the party at around 2 or so. What a COINCIDENCE! So inspired by the above dialogue and appearance of the above two I get into party mode, get dressed and head out to buy booze. I come back in a 15 mins, happy that my new year is saved from being ruined and with big plans.

We start drinking and after sometime both R and S disappear. After some time I realize that they both have been gone long time, so when I look for them I find them in the kitchen talking, they say they will be right with me in a few minutes. When I return that I find P has also slept and I’m left all alone to drink.

Great!

So frustrated I go to sleep too.

After a year or so ‘S’ told me that they both got back together that night and she wanted to thank me for it. (And maybe all the coincidence was pre-planned) Well anyways, Glad to be of any help.


New Year’s Eve 4 (31st Dec 2006) -

My Final year in Bangalore and things isn’t going great with me. It was just that I was not getting along with 'P' very well. So anyways I tell my friends that I’m not in a mood to party and my New Year’s Eve is jinxed so I won’t make any plans.

I get treated to dialogues like “Andy bhaai app to party animal ho, aap hee party ke liye mana karoge to kaise chalega?” and “Andy bhaai aap load mat lo, aapka New Year hum accha karaayenge” and “Andy saale tu tension mat le, bhaa tere saath hai, tu daaru pee aaj, bhaai tere liye baat karega” I shrug them off. But when Big Brother calls and asks me to make a plan I can’t say No.

So I start making the arrangements, I want to have a decent enough party so that I can drive away from my blues. So when my plans are well under way ‘P’ walks in with a load of her friends including ‘Q’ and a case of beer and few other bottles of booze. To say the least I wasn’t very crazy about Q, so enraged (at nobody in particular, after all it was P’s house too and Q was her friend, I should have thought about it) I walk out of my house.


New Year’s Eve 5 (31st Dec 2007) -

I have left Bangalore and in Kota now. I have no plans when my two of my School friends call me and say they are in town and say that we’ll party. I’m meeting them after few months so I can’t say No. So hesitating I say yes.

Then I wait, wait and then wait some more for them to come pick me up from home. After calling ten times I realize that one hasn’t reached Kota yet and the other one is busy in his factory.

Finally they come after 12 when I have had dinner and am so pissed off that I want to strangle the first person I see. ‘B’ says that was himself stranded by ‘D’ and one other guy who were supposed to pick him since morning and didn’t so he had to come in a bus finally. And 'D' makes some silly excuses that how he had very important work in his factory. By this time I am sick of his excuses and too pissed of to argue further.

Now it’s well past 12 and nothing is open in Kota city, leave alone a liquor shop. So we roam around for an hour in the deserted streets of Kota with nothing to do. And then one guy says he has to go back home. So we drop him off and then everybody goes home.

Super Ending to a Super Year!

P.S. - This year wasn’t a tragedy of this proportion but it wasn’t great either.

Rest In Peace

Writing your own obituary used to part if the curriculum of many college courses, even in B Schools. And I was quite looking forward to it here in IMI, not that I wish I was dead, at least not yet. But alas, it wasn't in the curriculum here.

Not many people know why Alfred Nobel started the Nobel Prize. And also that He owned Bofors (of the bofors scam fame), a major armaments manufacturer, which he had redirected from its previous role as an iron and steel mill.

When Nobel's brother, Ludvig, died in 1888, a French newspaper inadvertently published an obituary about Alfred, who was most famous at the time for having invented dynamite. The translated headline read, "The merchant of death is dead."
This shocked Nobel, he realized that this was the way he was going to be remembered. So he decided to put in his life saving in starting the Nobel Prize. Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality. He died of a stroke on 10 December 1896 at Sanremo, Italy. He left 31 million kronor to fund the prizes which, allowing for inflation would be hundreds of millions of US dollars today.

But not all people are so lucky to see their own obituary, most can only speculate.

And here's my speculation -
Anirudh Singh Chauhan, the famous businessman, Restaurateur and owner of the Bar Chain - "The Watering Hole" died yesterday after crashing his brand new Lamborghini in the Hangar while racing his own plane. He was 75.
Born in Rajasthan, Chauhan graduated from M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore and then completed his MBA from International Management Institute, New Delhi before joining General Motors in 2010. He spent the next 5 years working as a manager in GM India which he then quit to start his chain of Bars with two of College Classmates.

In 2015, he opened his first Bar in Bangalore. Followed by the 2nd in 2019 in Mumbai and then soon in all the major cities of India. At 2030 he opened his first international Bar in Singapore.

"I can see everybody having a good time in my bar, a place where leave their worries behind and live in the present, like I tried all my life" Chauhan once said.

Chauhan was also an avid music fan and a collector; he had items like a burnt Jimi Hendrix Guitar, Drum Kit of Lars Ulrich of Metallica and others. When 50, he also wrote his memoirs titled ***** (Haven't thought of the name yet), which went to become a best seller.

Chauhan was considered Richard Branson of his times, and was a connoisseur of Race Cars, Watches, Old Bi - planes and Scotch whisky.

Chauhan is survived by his wife and one son. In his final years, he stayed in his Villa in Goa, and enjoyed sailing and the playing the Guitar.