Tunga village v/s ISB

While preparing of ISB, I like many other 2010 aspirants had planned an answer which went something like “I want to also join ISB because of its rich diversity blah blah blah”. Little did I realize that my own backyard, well not exactly backyard, the colony adjacent to mine, had a cultural mix which probably rivaled that of anything I will ever see...probably even ISB!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Tunga Village, Powai aka Ibiza. This little MHADA colony of 5 buildings boasts of an ethnic mix of people which could rival any cosmopolitan Indian city. Over the last 2 years, I have been privileged to witness this first hand and now that I am leaving, I think I will miss this neighborhood after all.
Tunga village celebrates all festivals. Given the fact none of the songs played quite give you any hints as to which festival it is, it does tell you to quickly check the Accenture Holiday Calendar to check if there is a floating holiday that day. As a matter of fact, today I heard “dard-e-disco” and some “dope bhajan”, back to back and ….bang on!!! Mahashivarathri was a floating holiday on the calendar.
I have also seen political rallies (Raj Thackeray was here on the weekend), marriages, cricket celebrations, “I have speakers and want to celebrate” celebrations, “a few of us are drunk and want to celebrate” celebrations and many more. These “parties” happen on the ground, on a stage, roof tops, inside homes, on the road leading to Tunga Village and anywhere and everywhere there is place to setup a bunch of speakers and have a group of drunk hooligans matching every beat. The genre of music is even more diverse. From Ricky Martin to Jagjeet Singh, from the marathi komdi song to Bhojpuri pop, from Himesh Bhai to Madonna, and on certain occasions even Paul Oakenfold and Paul Van Dykes have followers here.
Every night, all one needs to do is climb to the terrace and you will see atleast one building with the shamiyanas on them. And if you’re really lucky, 2 buildings each playing their own music in full blast with no care of this world. Talk about peaceful co-existence!
Tunga Village, I'll sure miss you - Play on!!! :D

so much for being resourceful...

So I was using pirated software and it was doing a brilliant job… pdf to .xls converter

My manager came to me asking for something similar

I give it to him

Manager is happy, I am happy (good deed of the day kinds)

He sends mail to client ...."Eureka, we have the software. Send us the rest of the data"

CC's it to senior manager

Senior manager gets a heart attack

Calls manager and asks him…."wtf"

So manager point towards my cube

SM calls me and politely asks me what I am up to....

So I ...PROUDLY .tell him my discovery and how I helped my Manager

SM panics

Asks me if I passed the training on ethics when I joined.

I still don’t get it

I say yes.... y do u ask.

SM is now sweating

Gives me a smile

And say... Nitin....please note..."I am not screwing u, yet "… only asking..."what the F*%K is wrong with u ..

Ur leaving the company… I know but why do u want to "lath maro mine and ur managers stomach" while u leave??? Please for heavens sake, tell me what you need for the project…We really have the money to buy it for you…promise!!! Don’t use any of this pirated/free/share etc "wares "on firm laptop.

Now the bolt of lightening hits me....aaahhhaaa….So my firm has a problem when if I find an easy non-complicated way to getting a fob done.

All three people then comment..."excuse us while we save our jobs and promptly begin uninstalling the software and make an emergency call to the client to "explain" what just happened"

Well, they asked for it.

Even M was proud of me

Till that SM came in the way!!!!

So much for being resourceful!!!!!

In this firm……no "kadar"...in L&T, this very jugaad attitude made me a hero. If you wanna trouble shoot…dial “NITIN”…he will find a way…by hook or by crook.

Dumb rules and policies

Saala SM even went on to say... “when policies are etched in stone, y do u want to challenge them”

I started to giggle

Not the best thing to do

But couldn’t help it

My head was bringing back images from 10 commandments

U know Moses with 2 stone tablets

In this case, SM=Moses.

My manager is probably now scared to approach me for any help. In a way good :)

I think I may just go back to an Industry after all... Life is honestly so much simpler!!!

as useless as it gets...

How useless can your day really be, I ask you...I have been really really unproductive lately and now its starting to get to me. For example, this is today...

Got up late 9am (office starts at 9am)... bad hangover.... had been to Firangi Paani yesterday...yes it was a weekday...so what ...drank like a fish anyways....
Junked breakfast and chai...too bored...had a litre of water... told myself...no more drinking :P well, its a ritual I follow post any heavy drinking session...y change now???
Decided to "work" from home again...boss made a few nasty comments and sounds on the phone...negotiated on half day working. The #%$^&%* doesn't mind the fact that I play games in office but has a problem if I do that at home...weirdo!!!
Decided to pay a visit to my ex-CEO...horrid market + carnage on campus this year@ISB= time for desperate measures, backups and solid networking.
Horrified to hear, that my Mumbai office (ex company) is shutting down...gossiped with ex-colleagues about transfers and screwed-up suppliers and absence of orders...aaaahhhh....I like the industry, way better than consulting!!!
Took a rickshaw to work...reached the south entrance of my office only to realise that the shuttle had stopped fr the day. North entrance was an additional 60 bucks. aaaagggggghhhh!!! Finally reached office @ 2pm. That was 2 hrs later than ...well...late. Was greeted to a sickening smile from my boss...preped myself up fr a gyan session...did not get it...guess the @#%$$## no more cares since I have resigned.
scratched my bald head for some time...yes, that's an "event" in my work-life lately...had a cup of coffee, then a cup of chai, then played games on wellbored.com (a fine site I must say), and now blissfully blogging.

yukkkk!!! WHEN WILL SCHOOL START????

2009 starts with a bang!!!

Desire

I couldn't think of a better followup post. My group met at Chor bazaar last weekend. There I came across this shop selling old Hindi movie posters. As I spent a few minutes looking at those posters, I saw this one kid come up to pull out one of them for a customers. The writing on the poster was "sabse bada sukh" ("the greatest pleasure"). Being short he didn't get it in the first attempt. Seeing the kid reach out for those words, the pervert in me couldn't help but smile .That's when this pic happened. Even Sharmila Tagore's eyes (poster below) seemed to line up just right :)

The perfect picture

Its been some time since I took a good pic . Infact, in the last year there are only three such pics (displayed below).

Both the times I saw my subject and I instantly knew it...I had been put in the right place and the right time!!!

My heart beat faster, my fingers got all messed up on my camera controls and I had to literally calm myself before I took the shot. I knew how the pic would look like when I developed it. The aperture and shutter settings were a piece of cake...no bracketing the shot. It was all spot on. Infact the feeling is so overwhelming. The closest feeling is that of an adrenaline rush when u rest after a good workout.

Hoping for many such this year :) :)