Rebound

A rebound in basketball is the act of successfully gaining possession of the basketball after a missed field goal or free throw. Rebounds in basketball are a routine part in the game, as all possessions change after a shot is successfully made.

Rebounds it seems are a routine part of life as well, especially mine. Not many people know and neither have I had the physical characteristics of one, but I used to play basketball in school and was in fact a decent player. I used to play at the position what can be loosely described as the 'Point Guard'. I used to play defense and was good at it, especially at checking and dribbling, I was fairly ok at layups too, but what I used to suck and still do is shooting. First of all I am short (for a basketball player that is, otherwise I'm above average height, at least for an Indian) so couldn't go over raised hands and blocks, plus my shooting accuracy was bad too. So I generally I used to make play happen and pass the ball, or occasionally shoot the ball hoping some of my team members will take the rebound. I never could, because of my playing position and my height. But I guess what I couldn't do on the field maybe life is doing to me off it.

To a layman a rebound (offensive rebound) is a failed attempt to score, it's when you throw the ball but it doesn't go in where you wanted it to be instead it bounces off the ring or the board of the basket but then someone of your team gets the ball and puts it where you wanted it to be in the first place, the basket or the goal.My life has seen a few rebounds too, especially two very recently. It was when I shot towards the goal, missed, and then got it in the rebound.

Excuse the dramatic portrayal which you are about to encounter and the pseudo intellectual gibberish you just did. But if this stuff happens to you in real life then Shakespearean dramas and Hindi TV soaps look bland compared to it.

First rebound was when I came back from my class; it was after my first 15 – 20 days in BIMTECH. After 98.8 percentile in CAT I was kind of overjoyed and almost with the feeling that now I am pretty much through with the MBA entrance and a good college is guaranteed. What I didn't realize that time there was a big hurdle in front of me, namely the GD-PI round, one hurdle too big it seems, of all the 9 colleges I was shortlisted for I could only clear one of them, namely BIMTECH. It seems like I missed quite a few shots. Now it wasn't too bad or too lowly for me or something but I'll be honest here, it wasn't what I was expecting either, after truly working hard for once in my life I thought I had deserved something slightly better. But what I got was what I got and with that thought I told myself to get the best out of the opportunity that I was given. BIMTECH didn't have a lot of things, but good people certainly was not one of them, I made friends quickly there, and I am still good friends with most of them. I started settling in, enjoying my first ever true hostel life and imagining my future there.

But it was the 17^th day of June and I had come back after a full day of classes and was just Facebooking and checking my mails, when a mail from a certain Ravi Sharma came in which certainly changed the course of my immediate life in many ways. It had a pretty bland subject line 'Admission to PGDM Programme - 2008 – 2010' but what was inside was pretty exciting for me. I had got into IMI, though in probably the 3^rd list but got in nonetheless. I showed it to my friend who was standing right there, where I was overjoyed his reaction was 'Abey matlab tu jaa raha hai', I nodded in approval and went out to call my parents. What had happened the earlier day was that they had said that Ravi Sharma from IMI had called and said you are offered admission in some course, the first list for IMI had come in so long back that I had totally forgot about it and had given up any hope on it. I had said it maybe for some other program of them, their main program's list, for which I was interested in had come out long back, and I wasn't really interested in all those. They had still asked me to call him once to confirm, I had also said yes just for the sake of it but wasn't planning to do it.

But then life has its own way of turning out and no matter what and how much you plan the journey there are some unexpected turns in the road that change your destination altogether. What if I had not gotten in IMI, what if I had taken finance as a major as I was planning to that time, there are a lot of what ifs that I can ask, but no one knows their answer. I was happy needless to mention, as I got into a good college, what my friends say about it now or what I feel about it from time to time is a different thing, but at that time I was happy, and content with the feeling that I got what I thought I deserved. That I had finally scored with the rebound.

It was another struggle after getting into IMI and as much as people don't think about it now but it was pretty chaotic back then, in the first trimester, juggling classes, case studies, assigned readings, reports, my sidey room in Katwaria Sarai, a certain Marketing Professor. I was almost going bonkers. The recession had hit full time and my seniors were facing the heat, scrambling for the thing they had taken for granted, the most important thing in any MBA student's life, PLACEMENTS! I had been asked in the IMI interview itself that how you think this current recession is going to affect you, I had very replied very smoothly that it's a minor slowdown, it'll blow over by the time I pass out, Guess it wasn't to be. A few Americans who I had never met, done anything to or thought about took loans on high interest rates on the simple hunch that housing prices will go up and changed the lives of many people far beyond their wildest imaginations. I was one of them. The college boasted of an average domestic package of 8.75 LPA and by even the most conservatives estimates was about to touch 11 in two years, i.e. when we would pass out. My seniors from Placecom had come and said that our senior batch was placed in just a day; we will be placed in half a day. And you … (he let out a chuckle) .. you would be placed in a matter of few hours. Of course that didn't happen, and what did happen is what as they say is history.

So as fate would have it, I passed out with a modest package of 5.5 LPA in an automobile manufacturing company and a disappointed dad who had lot of expectations from the B-School which ranked in the top 15^th in India (I still believe it does). What he didn't know was how deep and bad this recession thing was, a word he had heard a lot in the media a few years back, before it got pushed to the backburner by the media who had got bored of it. Also he absolutely hated the mechanical engineering field and any company that had something to with it. So it was like a double serving of bad luck to him. I on the other hand was ok with it with a slight twinge in my heart again, the "I think I deserved something slightly better than this" one.

So I got into Mahindra Navistar with a sales profile and a Calcutta posting. Once again I made peace with what I got or fate as someone might call it and started settling in my job, making friends, and growing roots for the lack of a more dramatic word. But then as all big things, this had also started as a small thing and got bigger and bigger. It was one day when I was sitting in my office when I got something which I recall as a ping from Mayank Sharma saying "Brother zara apni CV forward kar do". And I did without asking many questions, the one I had prepared in IMI. He later told me that there were openings in Infosys and he would refer me. I didn't give much thought to it except once in a while when Mayank used to talk about it. One day he said he was changing my center from Calcutta to Delhi as it was taking too long to happen there and Delhi was just a flight away, I again said yes without thinking much. I did start thinking about it when I got a mail from Infosys people saying that I was short listed and I had to appear for an interview in Delhi on 18^th September. I immediately booked my tickets and got serious about it when I realized that more than 10,000 Rs were at stake. I gave the interview, did 2 days of fun and came back praying that I get through. I finally got the offer on September 29^th when I was sitting in conference room with my colleagues, they are actually more friends than colleagues, again with an e mail with a bland title 'Offer of Employment'. And another rebound.

I ask the same questions to myself now and then, what if I had stayed in this company, what if I was doing Sales only instead of IT consultancy. I have no answers; but what I do have is a much more satisfied father, a higher paying job and the belief that in life you can't plan everything, certain things come out of the blue and change the game.

In an Absolut world - 2

Continuing on my vision for an Absolut™ world I think the following points should definitely exist in one –

If you have driven around in any of the Indian Cities sooner or later you would come across to what has been termed as the 'Hand of God', it's when you are doing 60 on a empty road suddenly a pedestrian pops in front of you and shows the stop sign with his hand like a traffic policeman and crosses the road. If you get too close he won't mind shouting at you a few obscenities, because he actually expected you to freeze wherever you are, doesn't matter if it wasn't the zebra crossing, it even doesn't matter if the vehicles have the first right on the road and it still doesn't matter if the vehicle hit him or her the vehicle may lose at most a few spare parts but he may lose his life. But no, you should stop dead in the tracks for you have been shown the 'Hand of God'

Well in an Absolut™ world there will be some reward points for running over the hand of god pedestrians. If some khadus looking uncle tries to give you the hand when you were happily cruising at a good speed listening to favorite song, don't brake, in fact step over the pedal and run over the bastard and get a pat on the back and reward points for doing so.

Have you ever come across a skinny guy wearing faded jeans and chappals and a tee shirt which says "Sorry girls, I only date models" or an overweight, spectacle wearing, hair tied in bun girl wearing a tee shirt saying 'Rock Chic'? I have, and there's nothing more annoying than that (except maybe the TV Reality Shows)

In an Absolut™ world these kinds of tee shirts will require a prescription from a stylist or at least some kind of qualification in terms of dress sense. This way at least the tee shirt and its message won't be de graded.

Now we are living in world where there are no poor people, just some people at the bottom of the Pyramid, there are no Muslims in our country either but some people belonging to the minority community. People have also successfully overcome the difficulties of the handicapped persons, by giving them some physical or mental challenges.

In an Absolut™ world a spade would be called a spade, a short person will be called short instead of vertically challenged. And when I will lose all my hair on my head I would be bald and not cranium coat deprived or some shit like that. No politically correct Euphemisms!

Since the Tiger survey came out which said only 1411 of them left people across the world or at least on its third most populous country i.e. Facebook really came together and worked seriously towards conservation of the tigers. They joined communities of 'save the tiger' campaign, clicked the like button on the 'save the tiger' pages some even went on the extra mile and copy pasted 'save our tigers, only 1411 of them left' as their status message. I really can't tell how many of them think the tiger poachers would be cowering in their home seeing the sheer size of the members of 'save the tiger' community on Facebook or how many tiger hunters were in their friend list who would have a change of heart after seeing their heart wrenching appeal to save the tigers, I really really have no clue. And there is no dearth 'Good Samaritans' on Facebook there are people clicking like on 'save a girl child', 'reduce poverty', 'don't indulge in nuclear warfare' and what not.

In an Absolut world the whole of Facebook would be monitored by the government and every time somebody joined the 'Save the Tiger' community immediately they would be served a summon for 50 hours community work in the forests where the tigers resided. Whenever someone liked 'Reduce Poverty' they would have a sum of Rs 10000 deducted from their bank accounts to help the poor. That they would realize that if you want to make a change in this world don't click on random buttons which makes you look cool & socially considerate and costs nothing but in fact do some actual work.

And lastly something which is very close to my heart. In an Absolut™ world anybody who ordered mixed a scotch with stuff like Thums Up or Coke or Sprite and then claimed something like "Yaar kasam se waise to maine bahut daaru pee hai lekin ye saali Scotch to bahut Smooth hai" would be shot on sight. The scotch master died blending this stuff for you and while he was busy working on the aroma, palate, and finish of this golden liquid you were pouring cola over it! And for people who ordered truck loads of snacks like Peanut Masala and Tandoori Chicken etc. along with doing the aforementioned to further kill the taste and aroma …. Well for them let's just say I might have to get medieval on their ass.

What good can drinkin' do ?

What good can drinkin' do, what good can drinkin' do ?
Lord, I drink all night but the next day I still feel blue.

There's a glass on the table, they say it's gonna ease all my pain,
And there's a glass on the table, they say it's gonna ease all my pain.
But I drink it down, an' the next day I feel the same.

Gimme whiskey, gimme bourbon, give me gin.
Oh, gimme whiskey, give me bourbon, gimme gin.
'Cause it don't matter what I'm drinkin', Lord, as long as it drown this sorrow I'm in.

I start drinking Friday, I start drinking Friday night.
Lord, I start drinking Friday, start drinking Friday night.
But then I wake up on Sunday, child, there ain't nothin' that's right.

My man he left me, child, he left me here.
Yeah, my good man left me, went away and left me here.
Lord, I'm feelin' lowdown, just give me another glass of beer.

What good can drinkin' do, what good can drinkin' do ?
Well, I drink all night but the next day I still feel blue!!!


P.S. - This is one of the very first songs of Janis Joplin, the Icon of the hippie era. There are no even proper recording available of this song, as said Janis just sang this in a bar impromptu after writing this in a drunken stupor. Some drunken stupor. I normally don't copy paste stuff on my blog, but couldn't help myself with this one.

5 days of Winter

Many people said about the two short stories I wrote that they had an abrupt ending; I said I had meant it that way. Most stories in real life have abrupt endings, including this. This is most certainly not a love story; it has no heavy dialogues, no drama and very little emotion. The only thing this story has is the truth, it actually happened.

It was the time when I was coming back to Delhi from Kota. It was mild winter and I was wearing our college sweatshirt which I liked to soil in places like trains. I got out and started looking for an Auto, I found one and as always he quoted me an insane price to go to Katwaria Sarai to which I refused. So after a little negotiation he brought down the price but said then you will share the auto, I said fine as I had just one small bag and no qualms to travel with someone else as long as I have to pay less.

After waiting for 5 – 10 minutes the Autowallah brought two people, a girl my age heavily wrapped in a cap, muffler, sweater, gloves and what not and a boy slightly younger which I assumed to be her boy friend or something. As usual I kept quiet during the travel and was looking in my cellphone the whole time, there was something wrong with it, it was saying 'Memory full. Close some applications'. The girl was giving some instructions to the boy, I thought of her being the bossy type in the relationship.

The boy got down some time before the AIIMS flyover, got some more dosage on instructions and said "theek hai didi" in the end. So the boy wasn't her boy friend I thought, then I got back to fiddling with my phone. When I was about to reach the girls suddenly asked me which year I am in. I said 'huh', she repeated the question. I said second, she said oh ok. Then we stopped talking. I thought we are going towards IIT so she would have assumed I am a student, but then I wondered how she could digest that I was a second year B.Tech student; I certainly didn't look that young. Then she said I am in the first year, I'm in IIFT. Then I added two plus two in my head that she was an IIFT student which was very near to my college IMI so that's why she could recognize the IMI logo on my sweatshirt and hence she asked which year I was in. Otherwise no way in hell somebody could recognize our college logo, people right in Katwaria Sarai didn't know which college IMI was. We chit chatted for a few minutes then it was time for me to get down, she asked me to take down her number and said maybe we could get together some time. Unfortunately my phone was conked and hence it was not possible to store any numbers. I gave her my number said bye and got down. Went back to my routine and didn't think about it much. She never called or messaged either.

Then it was few days later I was coming out of Katwaria Sarai when I saw her drinking espresso at a small store, she was with her friends, I went over and said hi, I again chit chatted for a minute when her and my friends started giving us weird looks, when parting she asked if my phone is ok now, I replied in the affirmative so she asked me to take her number and make some plans to get together in the near future. I said ok and took leave.

The next day she asked me if I wanted to have lunch, I didn't have any class so I said ok. She asked me to meet her outside her college. I was walking towards IIFT when she called and asked me to wait on the way, she said she was coming towards me as all her friends were there and she'll get teased if they saw her with me. I said ok, she came in a few minutes and asked if we could go someplace nearby as she has a class in two hours. So I suggested we could go to this place called 'Secular house canteen' which was 10 mins walking from here, was cheap and had good food. While having lunch she told me she had a class of one of our faculties only, Prof. Deepak Chawla and they were terrified of him. He had caught one guy reading the newspaper in class and insulted and ridiculed him very badly. I laughed saying that we used to watch movies in his class and played games on his laptop, we had seen scarier professors. She told me she was Indore and done engineering from there only and then had worked for a software company in Pune for a year, then she came here. I told a little about myself. I was eating slowly as usual when she said we should hurry as she had a class in half an hour and wanted to be minimum 5 minutes before time of the class. So we hurried off from there, I walked her to her college, said bye and we agreed to meet again soon.

It was after a week or so when she called me again to go out for lunch. She said this time we had a little more time and could go someplace a little far away, I being a 'lakeer ka fakeer' as always suggested to go to Saket, we could stroll there for some time and could eat somewhere there only. She agreed. We took an auto to Saket and strolled around for some time when she said she had something to tell me, I asked what but she said she'll say when we sit down. We went to Subway when she told me that she had given CAT again this year and got a good percentile, she had calls from all IIMs except IIMB. I asked but IIFT is a good college why does she want to change. She said it is ok but IIMs are better, she will only change if she gets A or C, plus she said she has some problems staying here, so she wants to move. I asked what but she didn't elaborate.

On the way back we both were feeling a bit weird, to make harmless conversation I asked her that we have met the 4^th time now and I even don't know her last name, she said it is 'Behl'. Then she asked me I said 'Chauhan', "My full name is Anirudh Singh Chauhan". She said "Oh you are a Rajput" with a tone of sadness and derision. I said yes, and asked what's wrong. She hesitated for a second and said her experiences with Rajputs till now have been bad. I again asked why , so she continued in pained voice, she told me that her boyfriend in engineering college was also a Rajput, they went around for four years and had planned to marry as soon as get out of college. But that never happened; he ditched her and married someone else, and she spent a hellish year in Pune trying to get over that. So she decided to focus on career then, got through IIFT and came here. She looked up and I saw she was trying to fight back the tears. No one spoke after that, we went up to her college, she got in and I walked back to my house. I couldn't stop thinking about this for many days.

She never called or received my call after that. Neither did she reply to any of my messages. I just saw her once when she was walking to her college carrying some packets, I offered to help but she refused and said she was in a hurry. I never saw her again. After a few months her number was disconnected too.

P.S – I generally don't talk about this incident or write about these things on my blog. May be today I am having a momentary lapse of reason.

Is life supposed to be this way?

It was again there today. My friend said it to me. Ever since I started working it has become increasingly hard for me to ignore. At first I thought that only I am having it bad, then I suddenly I started seeing it everywhere, and by everywhere I mean my remaining point of contacts with the world, Gtalk, Facebook, the occasional tweets and phone calls of friends. Status messages saying how sad their life has become, how hard their boss is coming down, status updates saying their job sucks or the exhilaration when they changed it. The phone call which said that I have quit my job because I was going crazy. I tried to ignore it thinking maybe people liked to exaggerate, liked to bitch about their boss and work or maybe it was some kind of fad when everyone started proving their life is more miserable than the other. Then one of my senior in my office quit, he was constantly ignored by the boss, made to do shitty work and was passed over in the recent annual appraisals. He finally quit. Then I met another senior who was from Calcutta, he just mentioned that how he was having it tough in Pune, no time to see his wife and kids, whole life had become office to home to office. He was travelling 20 days in a month. He tried to keep it subtle but the pain was real.

Call me naïve or ignorant or immature, but nobody told me about this deal. To earn money, which most people now agree or will agree in the future is the key to happiness; you had to be away from your loved ones, slog in the office for 12 hours, travel like crazy to attend meetings, trainings, functions. Take abuse from your boss; maybe even pass some to your sub-ordinates. Listen to demeaning things, engage in office politics, back stab people, see gross slip ups but stay silent to present rosy pictures, stay in office later than your boss just to show you are a sincere worker, staying in alien cities, giving up your hobbies. And all this for what?

A pay hike which adds 5000 Rs to your monthly salary, a promotion which changes nothing but your designation, one pat on your head from your boss meaning ‘good dog’. A drinking problem, rift in your family, never being there to see your kid grow up, lifestyle diseases, alienation from the people you spend most of your waking hours i.e. your co-workers, depressions, affairs. Spending money on shopping, expensive restaurants, imported liquor and gadgets you never needed just to feel happy, just to prove to yourself that you are happy and successful? I had updated once on Buzz and twitter that one beer should be made compulsory after work. My friend had replied in the affirmative saying that he has realized why a daily wage laborer spent half of what he earned on buying liquor, otherwise he can’t sleep with all that hard work and abuse.

When I think about all this, I always remember a scene from DDLJ. For most people it was a great romance, a big song and dance spectacle, a tribute to true India and Indianess and blah blah….. For me it was the pain of Amrish Puri, staying away from home, not seeing his loved ones, wanting to go back but not able to, why? Because of money, his store, his source of income. If I remember correctly the dialogue was “Roti paer kee zanjeer ban gayi hai’. His feeding the pigeons had they were the only ones he identified with, mind you he identified and shared things with the pigeons, not even with his family. “Inka bhi meri tarah koi desh nahin hai, jahan daana dikha wahan ruk gaye, paet bhara aur ud gaye”

But what is the alternative? Sit at home, do nothing, molly coddle your wife and kids all day long. Watch TV and pursue your hobbies, take out one hour every morning for Yoga and then sit back and reflect upon the uneventful day’s happenings? Will your wife be happy if you couldn’t fulfill her basic necessities, will your love be enough for the kids when they have no education and no material comforts so to say, nothing what the kids in the neighborhood have, and how will you pay for your TV and it’s electricity, not to forget anything else in the world. But most of all, will it not trouble you if you didn’t have anything to do whole day, nothing to contribute to the world, no sense of achievement. And what would it be, maybe a world full of mediocrity? I don’t know. Like most situations in my life I don’t have any answers, only a few good questions.

I sometimes sit and ponder over it like I am doing now. When I used to see people taking it easy in their work, acting lazy or even not willing to work harder I used to think, what’s wrong with these people, why don’t they wanna work hard, don’t they wanna progress, become someone in life, at least work is place where extra effort always shows. Now I am in the same boat, I am not working, blaming it on everybody else, my boss, my senior, the company, the fact nothing is going to matter even if I did try a little harder. When people in HR used to talk about employee satisfaction, job enlargement, job fulfillment, employee engagement, team spirit we used to laugh our ass off “Saala ye HR waalon ko to bakar karne ke hee paise milte hai”. But not anymore, ever since I started working I realized these factors are all out there, and now it’s not so easy for me to laugh at them. I still laugh at the solutions HR people come up with for these problems, but not at the problems.

But what are they doing about the problems I mentioned above. Is anybody at all? I don’t know. I don’t know why nearly everybody I know hates their job, I don’t know why nearly everybody I know hates their boss, I don’t know why nearly everybody I know wants to change his job no matter what job he or she is in. I don’t know why nearly everybody I know is away from home or away from the people he or she wants to be, I don’t know why nearly everybody I know says his is bad company. I really don’t know.

As I have said I have no answers, only questions. I can go on for some more time but I’m afraid it’ll be tautology. So I leave you with one question – ‘Is life supposed to be this way?’

Oh! Calcutta

I'm worried that this post can offend many Bengalis, especially from Calcutta (some might even feel my calling it Calcutta instead of Kolkata inappropriate) so I am gonna start with the things I like about Calcutta and then maybe move onto the things I am not so crazy about. So here I begin.

Things I like about Calcutta –

• At 5'8'' I am above average height here in Calcutta.
• Even at 10 o' clock in the morning I don't feel late in the office.
• You don't have to take a lot of Bathroom breaks here, as all the water out of your body is evaporated as sweat.
  
• The rush hour is over if you leave office by 7.
  
• Whenever on the road you have no chance of Car accidents, the people have made sure of this by using a strategic mix of narrow roads, lot of ambassadors and encroachments.
  
• Pedestrians have the first right on the road, the cars have to look first left and then right before driving on the road.
  
• Even after 10 years of completion I still proudly say that I live in a 'New' building in Calcutta.
• There is no problem in getting a seat in any restaurant on weekdays which doesn't sell 'Maach Bhaat'.
• There is always this hope that this some Bandh is going to get you a Holiday this month.
  
• After sitting and chatting whole day in office I still get to say to myself convincingly 'I work harder than most people of this city'.
  
• I get approached by Pimps and Pros right out at Park Street, no need to even go to Sonagachi.
  
• Taking a leak by the road side has never felt so dignified when others are doing worse things (Taking a bath or taking a dump) right there, in the Posh Areas of Calcutta.
  
• Driving a Accent still gives me that 'Ooh I have a big car' feeling here.
• Stepping out of the building every day I am treated to people fighting over price of fish and chickens getting their throats slashed right on the road, nothing else works better to drive out the last trace of sleep out of your head.
  
• And yes, I heard that during Puja it's very easy to get laid.
  

Now that I have put up all rosy things up front I don't think anybody would mind if I rant a little. Though there is hardly anything to dislike here except the horrendous traffic, the stench of fish everywhere, bad food and worse weather or the fact that there is rampant poverty and standard of living here is very low. But the city is very likable, though that is when you overlook the regressive mentality of people, their stubbornness to change and their falling back on culture and the accomplishments of a poet who has been dead now for 70 years and the other Bengalis who themselves do not stay here in Calcutta when it is pointed out that how far lagging behind they are from the other 3 metros. Like my friend pointed out that all the successful Calcuttans have become so outside Calcutta. Now I am sure that some people maybe boiling up after reading this, and they would like to remind me about me their Engineering Marvels, the Hoogli bridges or how Calcutta had Metro for past 20 years and how the English chose Calcutta as their capital as it was the most advanced city in India.

Anyways, jokes apart. That is all correct, Calcutta had the metro 20 years back but the fact that it has hardly added any new stations or facilities after that and just runs on one straight line through a small part of Calcutta speaks volumes about the city and its people. And yes the English did chose Calcutta as their capital as it was the most advanced city in India, WAS. Whatever the people of Calcutta are proud of, the Maidan or the Victoria Memorial were built by the British, the city just froze in time after that. To quote SRK from Swades "Jab bhi hum log muqable mae dabne lagte hai, hum log ek hee cheez ka aadhaar lete hai, sanskar aur parampara". Fine I agree that Delhi has no culture, but it is full of people who are taking risks and living life to the fullest instead of people who are 'Maroing Adda over endless cups of cheap tea and cigarettes discussing whether Argentina's team is better or Brazil's or debating politics endlessly and then voting the same party to power every time who is most responsible for their backwardness (in my humble opinion only) ; I also agree that Bombay is full of on-the-run, detached people but they are moving the weight of the nation on their shoulders, and not coming late to office because their biggest concern is finding good and fresh fish for their family in the morning. I will also be the first one to point out to you that Bangalore is full of Techno junkies who work as Cyber Coolies in IT/ITES companies for American or European countries and give the city hopeless traffic jams every day twice but there is something in them which are making all the IT companies flock to the city where here one Di has successfully driven out the only company which was foolish enough to invest in this state to make a 'cheap car'.

The thing which bugs me is not how people don't want to change and have this notion that whatever has been going on should go on but the fact is people here know that they are like this and defend it vehemently and vociferously. They scoff on people who want to change, who ask them to concentrate on work rather than forming unions and boycotting work every day, who ask them to build new buildings rather than just admiring the old ones, who asks them to replace burned out lights rather than just reading poetry about light, who asks them to show heroism rather than worship old war Heroes.

But then there are a lot of things I like about this city too, things you can't find anywhere else, first is of course the women, yeah I have a thing for Bengali women but this is not about that solely, the fact that they are so dynamic and outdoorsy here should be a inspiration to women everywhere in India. The polite people, somebody stepped over my shoes in a crowded Disc here, but instead of the shoulder shove that I had prepared myself for, after staying in Delhi for 2 years I got a 'Oh I am so sorry' and he meant it, never anywhere else in India. People go out of their way of to help people, our Zonal Service Head offered a ride to Dealer Sales Executive because he had slightly mentioned that he was not feeling well, my landlord religiously asks me to come to his club every week even though I have slept well past his coming back time for the last 5 Sundays. Then there is the music, after so long I could find a band playing live rock music here. And of course the number and the size of bookstores here, it always reminds me to read more. There is this one thing, a common thread, a part of the whole which everything shares in this city, which unites it. People here call it their city's culture, Vir Sanghvi called it its soul, I don't know what to call it, but I feel it and I like it. Calcutta has a lot of eating joints too, though I don't like the Bengali food and the joints which serve them, nor do I like the Biryani here or the sea food on offer, but still it's great to have so many choices. Good nightlife too, the bars are plenty and good too, though I was amazed to see properly formed Queue outside liquor shops, with no pushing and no commotion, nowhere else in India will you find this much decency. Even after the fact that Liqour is big taboo here while Smokers and Cigarette shops are plenty and people are cool about it too.

So there are a lot of things I like and lots of things I dislike, and as it is almost my policy, I do not judge. I do not judge a person; I am certainly not going to judge the city. I have my own reasons of liking the city and people might or might not agree with me and I have my reasons to dislike. To quote from Vir Sanghvi's article of Calcutta "

In Bombay, a man with a relatively low income will salt some of it away for the day when he gets a stock market tip. In Calcutta, a man with exactly the same income will not know the difference between a debenture and a dividend. But he will spend his money on the things that matter. Each morning, he will read at least two newspapers and develop sharply etched views on the state of the world. Each evening, there will be fresh (ideally, fresh-water or river) fish on his table. His children will be encouraged to learn to dance or sing. His family will appreciate the power of poetry. And for him, religion and culture will be in inextricably bound together."

Fine, just don't expect me to appreciate this. I have my own views about what a man should do with his life.

But then good or bad this city has many things inside it and it never ceases to amaze me, and at most time I can only utter this phrase which is the name of a painting, a play and a chain of restaurants – Oh! Calcutta!.

Black Out : Concluding Part

Robbie was pacing up and down in his room like husband whose wife has just got in labour. He was mad at Natasha, mad at Varun, mad at the whole world. “If I could just get out of this”, he thought. Why did Natasha have to open her mouth and tell that to Varun, when whatever he had said had worked out so beautifully. He was sure there were gonna be repercussions after what Natasha had told Varun he kept thinking. “If only that bitch could play along for some more time! But no, she was worried about her reputation, like she even had one, slut! “. Robbie burned up inside with these thoughts and his rage. He always had trouble controlling it and he knew it. In his anger and frustration he was about to throw the thing he had in his hand at that time, his phone.

But suddenly it beeped. It was Varun. His message made his head spin.

“I know wat u did that nite…. I rem everythin now no matter hw much u tried to hide it… I even knw where da body is”

The message made the world go vertigo around him. “Fuck fuck fuck, there was no way he could know where was it, he was not there, nobody was there, and I how did he remember everything suddenly, it that whore Natasha’s fault”. He had a million questions in his head.
He broke into sweat in his A.C. room, with trembling hands he messaged him back, he knew it was no use calling him back, his voice would give him away.

“What do you remember? And what body? I don’t know what you are talking about”

Varun’s reply came in seconds. “Meet me 2morrow morning @ a place I tell u n I will tell u what am I talking about.

Robbie panicked, he was sure now that Varun knew. “What did he want”, he thought, “money, or some favour, or something else?”

He knew what he had to do, he called Natasha immediately and asked her to meet him at the fateful place and drove off the house immediately. They both reached around 1 o’ clock and sent the servants back to sleep and asked them to not to come out no matter what happened.
Robbie could find that place very easily and he thought so could anybody else if someone was looking for it. He started digging immediately though he had no idea what he would do after that. Natasha kept saying something or the other continuously, which infuriated Robbie even more, he felt like hitting her with the shovel and burying her there. How could she say that he dragged her into this, it was her coke, her idea to have it in his car, her idea to take the girl along. It was really all her fault.

Robbie had to move her, this was the only clue anybody could have. He was going on at it when the stench hit him. He could see her. He almost felt sorry for her. But suddenly he saw a light in some distance, it was a cell phone’s light. Varun stepped out of the dark and said “Hello brother”

Natasha let out a shriek and Robbie almost fell backwards. Robbie started shouting at Natasha “See I told you he knew it, he knew!”.Natasha replied in quivering voice “But how? You said nobody saw you bury her, and he himself said he doesn’t remember anything”. “How did you know where?” they both let out almost in unison.

“I didn’t. At least till now. I just had a hunch. But I followed you two and you people led me here.”

“See I told you it was a TRICK! Jhuuth bol raha tha saala, kisi nae mujhe nahi dekha tha, I knew it. But but…. I had to be sure, I had to get the body out of here. I, I had to sure” His voice trailed off, he was having a hard time believing this was happening.

“Ya, that’s how the TRICK works” Varun replied. Natasha and Robbie both were stunned, at their own foolishness, by Varun’s intelligence, by the confidence in the college Geek’s voice and their shaking knees.

Natasha started crying, she fell on her knees and asked “But how did you know, you don’t remember anything at all of that night”

“I don’t” Varun shirked and sat down on the ground “And I never do after drinking that much, but I know that I won’t, so I took a few Mementos”

“What mementos? What are you talking about? We checked all your clothes and then threw them away, we checked your phone you haven’t told anything to anyone, we asked around the party if you spoke to anyone, I asked you even that If you have told anybody else than me. There was nothing, you had nothing, you hadn’t spoken to anyone and nobody knew. Then how did you get to KNOW ?”

Varun replied coolly, the shock he had received after deciphering his message to Sunny and putting two plus two together made him immune to anything else ”First you tell me your part and then I will tell mine. What happened to that girl? What did you people do?”

Robbie who was silent till now started speaking; he was sitting on the ground holding on the shovel between his legs like a lifeline.

“The party was in full swing” he began “But I was getting bored at around 2:30 I told Natasha her party was ‘bakwaas’ and I was leaving. She told me that the real surprise was not yet out, she had gotten some ‘pure Colombian cocaine’ through her US return cousin’s contacts. So I stayed, then she took me to one corner that she has it, but she didn’t want to shoot it here in her farm house, so I suggested to go shoot in my new Audi. Pas isne kaha kee she wanted to drive after that, I said no. She said she will give me something else to play with, she asked this Chinky girl who had come with that girl Priya if she wanted to get high, she said yes so she came along with us and then on the way … on the way”

Robbie stopped and looked up to Natasha who was brimming with anger. She shouted at him “Bol na tune aage kya kiya you sick animal!” She turned to Varun and started speaking, though she was not speaking to no one in particular. She started re living that time in her head.

She had the first line from the vanity mirror she had in her handbag and jumped on the steering wheel. “I wanna take out this baby for a spin” she exclaimed. Robbie asked her to go ahead, he had his hands full with the coke and the girl. Robbie stepped in the car with the other girl. She had come to her earlier in the party asking if she has anything stronger, this feels like a high school party, she wanted to get ‘high’. She had smiled at her and told her that she had some exclusive stuff and she will call her when its time. She whirled away in the car out of her farm house gates and wanted to hit the main road. Suddenly Robbie shouted from the back “Oye paagal ho gayi hai kya? Main road pe cops honge, yahan andar hee drive kar le, tab tak main yahan drive karta huun” Robbie focused his attention back on the girl and urged her to shoot one more line and started separating the white powder into two more lines from his dad’s platinum credit card. It was a wonderful drive, the rush, the euphoria, she felt she on the top of the world, why was she wasting her time here in Delhi drinking Vodka Orange and Cosmopolitans when she should have been in States having a wild time. She heard some commotion in the back, she looked in the back Robbie was on top of the petite girl and was trying to force himself on her, she was struggling. Natasha laughed “Don’t struggle Kudiye, It’ll all feel good in some time, enjoy the taste of Delhi when you are here”. She stepped on the pedal a little more to see what this baby can do, she had hit 120 easily, suddenly she heard the heard the rear door open and a scream, ‘Oh fuck” Robbie reached to catch her but it was too late, she hit the road at 120 Kilometers per hour trying to jump out of the car. They were already quite some distance ahead when they turned back, they saw a figure get up and walk back into a deserted part of her farm house crying for help.

They momentarily stopped on the spot where she had hit the ground, it was a lot of blood on the road, and she must have been bleeding a lot. But she walked in the farm house again, somebody might see her and might call the cops, they had to reach her before she reaches anybody. At this point Varun called in a drunken voice saying that he found a girl in the backside of her farm house all covered in blood and too incoherent to talk. She asked him to stay there and not to leave the girl and not to call anybody else. They parked the car and started running inside on foot when Varun called yet again on Robbie’s phone, apparently the girl told him what Robbie did or rather tried to do to her and he started abusing him, Robbie told him to stay there and said he was sorry he will come and take care of the girl, it was all an accident. They both knew that they were in this together, if the girl told the police about the cocaine, her driving drunk, her not helping her when she struggled she would be in as much trouble as Robbie.

They found Varun red eyed and too drunk to talk, he said he found her in the trees like this and she only gained consciousness once, he had called his friend Sunny first but he didn’t pick up, so being her place he had called her second, then the girl regained consciousness and told him what happened and he had called Robbie. They asked him not to worry, they were sorry, it was all an accident and Robbie will take the girl to a hospital while he should lie down as he was too drunk. Sunny called back saying that he didn’t pick up the first time, what was it, she said “nothing, Varun was busy” and hung up. She remembered Varun’s last line to her before passing out “Tell me exactly what happened to the girl tomorrow, she is Priya’s friend. But I won’t remember anything in the morning so you tell me” when she came out from recounting her thoughts. It all felt like she was just thinking aloud.

“So you put me to bed, took off my clothes which had the blood of the girl on them, checked my phone and deleted the message I had sent to Sunny. And told these stupid stories the next morning when I confirmed I don’t remember anything. Right?” Varun looked at both of their faces after saying this, they didn’t look up. ‘So what happened after that? The girl died due to blood loss. You Cleaned up your car and told Natasha to tell Priya that her friend went off with somebody during the party, told her a fake description of the guy and his car as well so even if she files an FIR it would not lead to you. And she will become one more missing girl. Am I right?

Robbie anger boiled over “Haan Einstein, yahi hua tha. Par wo mari nahi thee when you left her. I hit her on the head with this to make sure she was” Robbie started walking towards him menacingly with the shovel in his hand.

“Baith ja pehalwaan, mujhe bhi maarne se pehle, mere side kee kahani to sun le” Varun replied in a steel voice. “Sunny told me about your new Audi with the number 8055, I checked out the last dialed no again. ‘3555122278055’.Do you know what does ‘3555122278055’ become when typed in a message? DL 1C P 8055. That is the number of your car isn’t it? BOSS? Cool number, but the problem is that everybody remembers cool numbers, like Sunny did and that unfortunate girl who had to jump out of your car, apne aap ko bachaane ke liye. Then I thought could it be that message I had sent Sunny mean something more than just random numbers. So I typed them and played around with them until I could make something meaningful out of it. And that told me part of the story of what happened that night. Rest of it you people told me. It says in my message that I was not able to reach anyone else that night. And you people thought anyways it was a meaningless set of numbers so no harm done, but you deleted it from my ‘Sent Items’ anyways. Luckily for me I had SMSed somebody a number before and had forgotten to change the mode to text from numbers before I started typing this message. In my drunken condition and panic I didn’t realize and sent the message to Sunny who had no idea what it meant.

“So what do you want from us now? Tell me. How much money?” Natasha screamed,

“Bhaai tu ye Audi rakh le, jo hua bhul ja, kuch bhi karne se wo ladki to waapas aane se rahi , hai na?” Robbie said in a broken voice.

Varun felt disgusted. “I just want one thing from you both. Tell me, what was the name of that Girl?”

“Who cares!” Natasha shouted.

“I do. Priya cares. Her parents did. And a lot of people who are here care” He said as more people stepped out of the shadows.

” No no no …. Tune mujhe fasaya hai …. Main …. Maine ye sab…” Robbie cried.

“Chal koi na, bhaiyon ke beech mae ho jaata hai aisa, koi gal nahin. Daaru piyega?” Varun patted his back and walked off.