Monday, May 25, 2009

Mint n Ice

Mint&Ice Bar&Kitchen
We had been invited to attend the annual party of one of our service providers last friday.Being friday, we decided to let our hair down.. we made a dash for it from office, late in the evening. The party had begun at 8 and we reached there at close to 9:30 PM.. I think it was the perfect
timing. Now, remember, this is the first time I am going to such a party/place.The firt thing that stuck me odd was the blue ink rubber stamp on your hand to authorise your entry in to the bar. This kinda reminded me of the corporation seal thats punched on to the carcass of Mutton er.. goat and beef and left on the hooks in madurai's innumerable meat havens. May be a decent hand bands on the lines of Friendship bands would have been better.
None of my team mates and our sole team lead seemed perturbed by this and we moved on to the dance floor. Now its a big mistake to have selected this particular day as it turned out to be the first semi final of IPL II. Gilly was tearing the opposition apart on a large screen with in the dance hall.. and man.. the DJ sucked big time in the beginning.. he never made eye contact with the crowd and seemed to be engrossed in his own world of music.. sigh.. expected more from him.
After the customary introductions with the top honchos of the firm we moved on to the bar tables.. we could choose from Bacardi White Rum, Signature, Red Wine, Smirnoff. I had Smirnoff.. and would vouch for Absolut anyday.. and then the pary began... people started pouring in and I stood there taking in every single moment.. it seemed like the song sequence from Aayudha Eyuthu.,. albeit with out trisha.. one female did resemble her.. but as is the case, she was led by the guys on to the bar counter.. she started off with Bacardi White Rum.. that much am sure :)
Yeah.. so the party started we to got started.. plates and plates of veg crispies,paneer teeka masala dry and other nondescript non veg starters kept doing the rounds.. and I had emptied my vodka.. Now the biggest mistake I did was to ditch the glass.. I learnt it the hard way as our guest kept handing me my glass of vodka.... and my friends had already downed two signatures and another had had a couple of vodka shots by then.. ( I corrected my mistake late in
the night though) Yeah.. so a heady mix of vodka, lighting and dance with cricket in the back ground was wat was there to see.. I think pinkfloyd for a change would have been absolutely great.. guess that me bert and abhi would have to work it out some other day. For once, I was into the glam life of mumbaikars.. or maybe its there in chennai as well.. havent been there.. but somewhere in my head the devil said.. "Go damn it.. break free and freak out u idiot" while the more saner person inside me said.."Dude.. u look a total mismatch in this place.. u have ur cricket in the back ground and there are comfortable lounges too.. u decide" For once I listened to the saner guy and I should say I am thankful :D Di would be happy abt it that i didnt call her up and bother with this decision ;) Coming back.. I reclined on one of the couches.. far from the madding crowd.. but cant hide my frame even in that darkness.. my host dished me out and seeing that I didnt have a glass, insisted on another glass of vodka which I took and disposed off as soon as he was out of sight :D :D :D and the party went on..
Slowly the DJ sensed that people were getting a little let down with the music and started playing the remixed hindi disco sogns.. Mitun Da's I am disco dancer for one was a sure shot success with the crowd.. most of it were desi numbers in the end... me and the team lead had our plates filled with food and selected a place to sit down and have food.. now this is when I had a weird feeling that I was one of those filmy villans, close to the climax of the film when his den is filled with girls,dance, music, dark lighting and booze over flowing.. only thing missing from my costume was a revolver .. i could have fired in the air to appreciate the environment.. coming back.. food was good.. as always. and it was close to 12 when we finished our dinner.. TL and another associate left after that and me and two others stayed till the end of party.. close to 1:00.. caught an auto after that and reached home close to 1:30 i guess..
in all it was a mixed bag for me.. sure I appreciate the dancing.. may be in a much more sober environment :) Party is not the place for me.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Being a Mumbaikar

Baap re.. what a first month in mumbai. I had the cover of my Uncle's house in chembur for the whole of first month after landing in Mumbai. Thanks to the extended baggage allowance, I brought in most of my stuff from Chennai. Totally I think its around 45kg plus my bulk :D :D :D. Now being in a new city can be unnerving add to the fact that I was about to join a team totally into different work from what I am used to so far. And more importantly the perennial hanging sword of a bad rating resulting in job loss. Thats how I was the first month. March was the worst of all three appraisals I have seen. God bless, the end result was a not worse as over-expected. This is one thing we have to live with I guess. Damn the falling economy.
Ah! the train travel... how can one miss out information on this??? Its been a pretty good experience being in Mumbai and travelling by the local trains. I travelled by the Harbour line route, which is supposed to be one of the less crowded ones. Little did I know that travelling in II class is something really tough. Nevertheless, after a week long observation, I formulated a theory that stands good so. Approach the entrance of the compartment which makes the last
seat of the bogie. Here, you are sure to find a seat or you will have enough place to park yourself. It stems from my belief that people make a dash for the plenty. I target the last part, where at the max you can seat 17 people, while the remaining part of the compartment can seat 8*16 seats. May be people believe that more the number of seats higher the probability of getting seated. Well I just chose the opposite. So far I have never missed my seat in the Train.

Well now that the methodolgy to board the train has been established, we will see about the experiences in the next one. Au Revoir.

Life in a Metro - Amchi Mumbai

Yes. Am back after a long gap. Bert tells me that as blogger I am supposed to be blogging every single day. Now, being in Mumbai, I think I should seriously think of doing that. After all, Big B, Aamir Khan and all those celebrities who blog do belong to Mumbai. Well, far fetched explaination. You see, am all rusty being out of action for the past couple of months. Ahem.. So here we go.
Friends close to me know that I have shifted to mumbai to pursue a passion I have. After 3 years in my company, at last I feel that I have got the exact work I was looking for. Marketing Research. Thats what I do now. Working out of a posh South Mumbai Office just adds to the zing. I am yet to come to terms with what Mumbai is all about... a sea of people. Every nook and corner, every possible way of urban transport is utilized to reach the work place. Well I have
visited Mumbai at least 4 times ever since joining my company, but never to work here. Now, Here I am, This is me.. there's no where else on earth I'd rather be.. here I am .. just me and friends.. (altered the lyrics :D). Of Late, I believe I have started to crib a lot. But honestly speaking, I should really thank my stars. I have been able to follow my dreams and I know that I had given up an Onsite opportunity to New Jersy around this time last year just to be
a part of the Marketing team. A year and an onsite later, I have come here. When you really want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give you that. I would say yes.
Deep inside, I know that I have been able to steer my way the way I wanted. I can only hope that this dream stays for a while. I need to be more focussed and cannot allow the eternal libran in me to overtake my sense of balance. Now that I have confessed lets get back to what we really like to do.
I am still planning on how to present my experiences in Mumbai... may be I will have to restructure the posts later.