Transitioning from the year 2k4 to 2k5

This story I write reminiscing the good old days I spent in Kolkata in a small team of 5. Well though the project had started at such a small scale it reached a team size of 40 at its peak. And I feel fortunate enough to have featured till the end. Since the day we i.e. Me and Hari reported for the very first real-life project of our life under the able guidance of Anindya da and KG, we had a strong bonding with our mentor, guide and good-friend KG (I hope Krishnendu da doesn’t mind me addressing him as a friend of mine :)). The work for us started from the 14th of September ’04 and was pretty hectic to have drained us out by the year end. The 3rd of January ’05 was a holiday (for some reasons that I can’t recollect now) and the New Year started on a weekend. It was like the most auspicious time to get out of Kolkata and freak out at some other place – drinking booze and enjoying the free time. The time was perfect, the numerology was in our favor and KG was the first one to pounce upon this opportunity to break away from the shackles of office and run-away to a far off place to chillax. I wanted to go home but 3 days was not sufficient to have a good break if I spend almost a day in the train traveling one way. If I am ruling out my options of going home, then how can Hari even dream of it – he was from Kerela and it took him 52 hours to reach home from Kolkata, wherein he had to change 2 trains and then travel by bus for 4 hours. I just wondered which small village this smart mallu belonged toJ. The other team members wanted to spend some quality time with their family and that left only the 3 of us – KG, Me and Hari, as the 3 musketeers who would travel to someplace else and drown their worries along the way.

Oh boy! The team was formed but the place still undecided. There was a flurry of suggestions pouring in from all sides and you would have guessed; only KG was the guy who could evaluate and then rubbish them – one by one. All this drama started from the 15th of Dec keeping in mind that there would be no booking available if there was any delay in plans. A final consensus was reached – with me and Hari nodding to everything KG said, and we planned to go to Sunderbans. So excited I was to see those famous Bengal white tigers (which was the remotest possibility) while floating around in a house boat over the placid waters & sipping some liquor. Hari was a guy who had first time ever traveled out of Kerela and was equally excited. KG being a champion drinker had already getting dreams about how he would finish bottle of whiskey and how he would repeat his famous dialogues from the yesteryear films and what not. It was fun working in office during the last 10 days of the year with vivid imagination of how we are going to spend the 3 days away from office and not thinking of any work. But we forgot the golden rule -“Make hay while the sun shines”. The work at office was never easy and we slept over the plans of booking a hotel in advance. Eventually on the 27th of Dec I made the first call to a WBTC office to make us a reservation and received the first blow that all rooms are booked. The whole day all 3 of us kept making frantic calls to all travel agents and hotels spread across every nook-n-corner of Kolkata to get a booking but in vain. With a very heavy heart and thinking that all the plans had flopped, that day we left for home early i.e. at 8:00 pm instead of our trademark time of 10:30pm.

I just couldn’t sleep till late that night and was having nightmares of how I would be bored to death in those 3 days and thinking that a minimum of 3 bottles of hard drink could cajole me into deep slumber to escape the ennui. “Every cloud has a silver lining” and our very own KG was in himself full of silver. He rang up me and Hari at 6:30am the next day and said that he is getting his car fixed and we can drive to Digha for the New Year blast. I don’t know about Hari but it was a long time since I had seen a day starting at 6:30 am :). Suddenly all the nightmares had become pleasant scenes with us three involved in a drunken revelry by the sea-shore. To refresh your memory a bit, on 25th Dec 2004 the Indian coastline was hit by a massive Tsunami that drowned thousands of innocent people and the Christmas celebrations throughout the world were spent mourning for the peace of the departed souls. The WB govt. had announced that no one should be allowed within 3 km vicinity to the sea and Digha was abandoned for all tourists. So we were hit not by a Tsunami though, but received two blows in two days and I was again feeling my dreams drift towards the nightmares of last night.

KG i.e. short for Krishnendu Goswami a.k.a Krish da is a person who once takes up a task and gets his mind to it then there is no looking back – neither for him nor for the team. He had put his heart and soul into this project and was desperate for a break, even more than me & Hari. Thorough out his life, as we came to hear from him later, he has looked the storm in the eye and had emerged a champion in every such battle. It was under him that we learnt the importance of taking up responsibilities and striving hard to achieve excellence. Many a times there was a debate as to why he (KG) never wanted to share his problems with us and only know as to what was going on in our life. He would always parry all such queries shot at him with his penchant ‘chalta hai re’ and leave us wondering as to what he wanted to mean by that. But it took some time for the lesser mortals like us – me and Hari to understand that he had been very protective of us and wanted to open the gates for us only once we were completely prepared. He is a man of options, then how could he ever let go this opportunity of drinking for 3 whole days. Yes, KG is a regular, in fact very regular (I despise the word chain :)), smoker and heavy, though steady, drinker. Moreover his antique Maruti 800 had gone through a complete health check-up and he wanted to go on a long drive on that.

On Friday afternoon KG went to get the delivery of his car from the garage and called it a day at office. By evening 7:00 when both I and Hari were drooling about how we would spend the 3 days –watch movies, go for a jog, sleep, take bath for an hour n what not, my cell phone rang. It said ‘Krishnendu calling…’ and then came in the good news and also a bad news. The good news was that we three along with KG’s driver would be driving to Santiniketan – Shri Rabindranath Tagore’s abode for 2 days n 3 nightsJ and the bad news was that we were to wake up and be ready by 5:00am the next morningL. I and Hari wound up our work for that day and went home for dinner. Being a Friday and as a ritual Nibin & Shakki – Hari’s roomies and our batch mates during CTS training called me to have some booze at his place. After that I decided to pack up n port myself to Hari’s place and KG was informed to pick us up from there.
One piece of info: Hari is a very clean chap – he neither smokes nor does he drink anything except his pegs of Sprite.
That night we both didn’t know what to dream of Santiniketan and faded off into deep slumber just chit-chatting as to what the next 3 days be like.

To be continued…

Hindi Poetry

Statutory Warning: With whatever hindi I have learned, spoken and written, through my stay in the various provinces in India, I am warning you that reading this poetry maybe harmful to whatever hindi knowledge you already have. The poet (self-claimed) is not responsible for any of the damages that may be caused to an individual or organization upon reading the following poems.

This first one is a genuine – dil ki pukar, to one of my friend that just got typed down on a piece of paper. Sincerely, I still don’t understand how the emotions turn into poems and eventually a post on this blog.

Ek din apne ek dost ko maine phone lagaya
Magar phone to sirf bajta hi gaya
Nahi usne phone uthaya, na uske kisi saathi ne
Yehi problem hai landline ka sochkar aazmaya doosra paitra maine

Phir maine uske cell par try kiya
Lekin usne bhi mujhe ek angreezi gaana sunaya
Na kisi ne phone uthaya, na chod saka main message
Aur Jab kiya use SMS, to report aaya ‘Undelivered Message’

Do din ke asafal prayaas ke baad
Ek mutual friend ke through pata lagaya hisab
Bola who mujhe ‘apne chaavi par uda chuka woh apna pre-paid credit’
Aur PG ke chakkar mein jo choda usne job, saath gava baitha the power of debit

Phir maine socha kyun na likhun use ek patra
Lekin kismet mein likha na tha humara mel ya mail
Jo woh bhi vapas aa gaya kehke ‘No claimant to avail’
Bas gujre mere baaki din karke uski yaad
Lekin dukh isi baat ka rahega ki bichadne se pehle na kar sake baat.


This next one was just a thought that cropped up in my mind and was wonderfully modified by my dear friend Adarsh.

Main aur meri lighter aksar yeh baatein kiya karte hain
Sutta hota to kaisa hota, agar maachis na hota to kaisa hota
Tum is baat par jal jaati, tum us pal boojh jaati
Maachis hota to aisa na hota, Maachis hota to vaisa na hota
Main aur meri lighter aksar yeh baatein karte hain

Yeh maachis hai ya teri sautan
Yeh tiliyaan hai yaa uske dil ki dhadkan
Yeh Homelite ka brand hai yaa TATA ka vishwaash
Hawa ka jhonka hai yeh uske dhadakti aag
Sutte har bar aakhir uski baahon mein kyun samaa jaati
Tumhaari dil ki aag hai yaa ek dhokha
Yeh flame ki takraar hai yaa sutte ke patile se ikraar
Ki jab mujhko bhi yeh khabar hai ki sutta maachis ke saath hai
Magar yeh dil kehta hai ki sutta sirf tere saath hai, tere saath hai
Main aur meri lighter aksar yeh baatein kiya karte hain

Majboor yeh haalaat idhar bhi hai aur udhar bhi
Sutte ki jazbaat idhar bhi hain aur udhar bhi
Dil keh raha lighter ke paas jaao, patila keh raha hai maachis mein sama jaao
Stub kehta duniya ki saari rasmein mita dein
Deevar jo hum dono ke beech hai woh mita dein
Dhooyein mein is maachis aur is patile ko jalaa dein
Kyun dil mein sulagte logon ko hum bata dein
Haan humko tambaakoo se mohabbat hai, mohabbat hai
Ab dil mein yeh baat idhar bhi,aur udhar bhi

Main aur meri lighter aksar yeh baatein kiya karte hain
Cigarette smoking is injurious to health na hota to kya hota
Dhumra-paan nishedh naa hota to kya hota
Main aur meri lighter

Time in T.I.M.E.

Here is a story of a group of guys who had nothing in common but came together with a common goal and were determined to put in their best efforts to achieve the Ultimate!!!

One fine morning in a class bustling with fervor to learn from the legendary “SM” of the TIME institute two boys sat side by side – one wearing a cap all the time to suppress the locks of hair that stood in all direction indicating that he rushed to the class directly out of sleep and another guy who was apprehensive of the stiff competition ahead of him but zealous enough to give every one of his competitors a run for their money.

The capped fellow, named Avanish was a seasoned player in this game of CAT. He had spent many sleepless nights last year i.e.2004, not worrying about filthy matters but preparing for the final exam of CAT. He was a guy who had mastered all the tricks of smart calculation and eventually nicknamed the “Quant Guru” – well at least within the group that got formed and it was also attributed to his pedigree since he was born into a ‘Marwadi’ business family. He had spent his entire life in Kolkata except for the 4 years of engineering which he spent in a college at ‘Chikmangloor’ in Karnataka. Avanish was not only good at calculations but had his own way with words. During the preparation he had not only gained mastery over the exquisite set of words in English but also merrily flaunted with the foreign words of French and Greek origin. Well, I know you might be thinking that then he must be named the “English - Guru” instead but no! In CAT there are 3 major sections – English, Quants and Data Interpretation (DI) and to excel in the English section one need not have an out of the world vocabulary but very good comprehension skills that would help you crack the RC passages and gain an upper hand over the others. This was present in abundance in another guy – Rajarshi, who batted like a master blaster when the bowler was RC and the game of cricket was CAT.

Rajarshi was a cool dude who had his own mobile phone and gaming business in partnership with one of his childhood buddies. He took a bold decision to take a break from business, though he knew that he was sounding the death knell for his partnership, and prepare well for the exam. He was an aspirant who was attempting the most uncertain exam for the first time. He was a true Kolkata guy roaming around the streets on his Bajaj Pulsar – 150. A fair and stout guy and also a self-leaned guitar player he was the cynosure of all eyes at any of the get-togethers of the aspirants at TIME. His decision to take a break was very bold because he had ventured into his business so that he could devote enough time towards the practice with his evolving band wherein he was not the lead guitarist but the lead vocalist. And now here he was dedicated to only studies and taking a break from his passion that was Music. On the other hand, Avanish was no less talented and had a wonderfully flexible and thin body (all credit goes to his fantastic metabolism rate) and could move his body with the grace of Prabhu Deva. The first rendezvous of Avanish and Rajarshi was through two other links in the chain – one was a married gentleman named Shatadru and other the boy whom Avanish met in SM’s class.

Remembering of that other guy, his name was Kartik. He was a software professional like Shatadru and was posted in Kolkata since the past 8 months. Kartik was a tam-brahm, born in Maharashtra, did his engineering from Allahabad, trained at his company’s center in Chennai and now posted in Kolkata. He was disgusted with the city since he had no friends either from school or college with whom he could share his heart with and as a last resort to move from the technical ennui of his work and that of the city he joined TIME for the preparation of CAT which if cleared would open the doors to the world of new opportunities. Shatadru was no different in his motives to take CAT. He had been a techie since last 3 years and wanted a change of profile to suit his area of interest at work.

Shatadru fondly referred to as ‘Uncle’ in the group, had married his love whom he met during the training program of his first company. He had a very well built body and good height and could command respect for not only his age  but also for the sharp mind that ran fast behind that bespectacled face of his. He stayed in Kolkata with his family and had taken his first attempt at CAT during his final year of engineering at Jadavpur University. This was his second attempt and as for Kartik, he was leading the race of attempt counts with 3 unsuccessful ones earlier on. Shatadru was a great fan of SM since the very first day of class and also was a favorite of SM because of his maturity, almost perfect English grammar and on the dot attitude. There were so many instances when the other kids in the group were reviled by him for being off the scheduled time. Shatadru was a core Bengali at heart. He would deem it an uneventful day if there had been no fish or chicken in any of his meals that he had throughout the day. A well cooked home-made preparation of mutton tasted like ‘Rasagolla’ to him.

These 4 musketeers on their way to bell the CAT became friends during an English class wherein a ‘jugalbandi’ started between SM and the students when SM in his full mood to flirt diverted the topic from a simple plain meaning of ‘amour’ to sex and related fantasies. The introduction of these guys that started on a fun-filled note became a deep rooted one that became a sort of dependency for Kartik who was staying away from home and his dear friends had become his family – as is said ‘Home away from HOME’.
The awesome foursome knew their limitations and an incentive to the bond amongst them was that they complemented each other very well. Also the reasons for hanging around in the group were different for each one of them. Shatadru had become a complete family man and while with these 3 guys he was able to relive his golden days that he had spent with friends from school and college and speak his heart out that he couldn’t in a corporate environment at office. Rajarshi needed people who could back him up in this new venture of his and also get accustomed to spending a day without his old friends. For Kartik it was a break from the mundane office work and a set of people who would keep the momentum going till the final goal is reached. Avanish was still recuperating from the horrors of failure last year and needed a patient ear to not only the rhetoric of his rough love story but also his meticulously rhymed poems. This was all apart from the common aspiration of tasting a bite of the most coveted IIM pie.

The steam engine that was set rolling by the teachers and counselors at TIME caught pace when everyone was pouring into their books and trying to find new strategies to maximize their scores. But two people seemed to be lacking in the race, Kartik and Shatadru. It was very difficult for both of them to cope up with the extra hours of study after a tiring day at office. It is rightly quoted that the bonds of friendship are reinforced by sharing. Similar stuff happened when a recurrent meeting was planned on every Saturday at 3:00 pm at the TIME classroom for discussion of the concepts of quants, strategies for English and deliberations on the smart guess work and fast calculations. Avanish’s chubby friend Sachin too joined them during the meets. He was a stud in DI and knew many good techniques of winning over a problem. The guys were rebuked by Uncle a number of times for not reaching the venue on time and finally rescheduled it to 3:30pm. Every one was watching everyone’s back and they were always eager to lend a helping hand to the one who stumbled, and most of the times it was Kartik who needed the support. Even today are reminisced those days when they took at break at the make-shift shops in front of the Telephone Exchange Office. One of small confectionary shops in that area started a chain of his own by serving puffs and pastry to these gourmands when they were famished after 3-4 hours of rigorous studies. The momentum had started building and the group was gaining confidence of cracking it this time if they continued at the same pace.

One fine day while SM was on a high and taking the entire class on a frenzied ride on the English wave, Shatadru burst in with a box of ‘saundesh’ and smiling from ear to ear. His wife, Swati had been blessed with a beautiful baby girl. From that moment on the entire class ratified his epithet of ‘Uncle’. This gave another place to unwind oneself from the mundane office work and studies – Uncle’s home. There one could forget all miseries while fondling with ‘Swara’ – the baby girl and having a hearty laugh with Swati. She was a very charming lady who had a knack of relaxing the mood with her good humored banters. Kartik was the most shameless fellow to drop in at Uncle’s place any day to have a feel of home. His other favorite hang outs were Avanish’s house for lunch and anywhere with Rajarshi for a fag, a peg or some eye-exercise at City Center. His eating proportions earned Kartik a nickname at Avanish’s place – ‘Neanderthal’, a person who eats as if he has not eaten for days together. Well, no one was to relish home cooked food like a person who stays away and goes to a hotel each night as if it were a duty call and not pangs of hunger. The tea at Sachin’s place was another lure for taking a break amidst the preparations.

Days passed by and everybody could witness a substantial growth in the level of understanding between each other parallel to an increase in the scores that they scored in the mock exams. Shatadru, despite having a very solid grasp over the fundamentals of mathematics, consistently faltered when it came to DI. The scores in DI used to haunt him like unburied ghosts from the past. Meanwhile Rajarshi was blasting the English sections as if it were child’s play for him but finding it difficult to gather the same pace in Quants section. Sachin became the ‘DI guru’ in the group with leveled performance in the other 2 sections. Avanish was oscillating between the highs and lows whereas it was not until the 5th mock exam that Kartik cleared the cut-offs in all the 3 sections. After the 5th mock, on the night of Kali Puja, the group decided to do a night out and help each other in overcoming their respective weak areas. Rajarshi couldn’t turn up due to some family commitments but the other 4 met with full preparation. There were 2 flasks of tea and some snacks from Sachin’s home, Avanish had got some tea and snacks and Kartik with Uncle was ready to enjoy the preparations. The awesome foursome started directly on the 5th gear and was committed to destroy all their fears with ‘gyaan’ pouring in from all directions. But they could sustain the momentum for not more than 2 hours. Then started the rounds of tea and cigarettes interspersed by the ‘How to solve a problem in a Minute’ lectures by the each of them in turns. But as they say old habits die hard. Uncle started reading in an out-stretched position and slowly slid into deep noisy sleep on the wooden bench. As if a divine intervention for Avanish, his cell rang and he ran out into another classroom to spend the night chit-chatting with his love. Sachin and Kartik were waging a lost battle against the Sleep Goddess. Though the study hours didn’t stretch to 7-8 hours as planned, but it did have a positive effect on the scores of mock CAT-6.

The scores were constantly on a rise for all the aspirants – Kartik had covered substantial ground as compared to his initial standings and Shatadru was able to get rid of his DI ghosts to at least clear the cut-offs. Avanish, Rajarshi and Sachin had started making a forte of other areas apart from their initial expertise. Just when things were taking a turn for the good, Kartik’s aspirations hit a road block. He was to go to his client’s location for 6 weeks starting from 13th August. Though he was bound to return before the D-Day, there was no guarantee as to what chance he would stand against the others on his return. Amidst the chaos and desperate voices ringing in his head, he was not able to concentrate neither on his work nor on the studies. SM told him – “Cross the bridge only when you come to it!!” It was like a guru-mantra which changed his thinking right from that moment on. Kartik happily boarded the flight to LHR, London but not before warning his friends to not write him off. The group continued on a frenzied momentum, devising new tricks and strategies and raising their confidence levels by leaps and bound. Meanwhile, Kartik was having a gala time roaming around in Scotland and London completely devoid of any thoughts of 20th November ’05.

The judgment day was nearing fast. Kartik had landed back in India and the remaining days were as if he was learning to walk on the crutches lent by the group. The tension levels were soaring and it was becoming really difficult for many to cope up with it. SM sir decided to cool it off one day prior by organizing a camp fire night, in fact eve, on the terrace of TIME, Salt Lake. Almost everyone turned up, even the most hostile ‘junta’, who opposed the proposal gathered to relax. Avanish was the last to enter the show. Unfortunately he has fallen ill and was completely wrapped from head to toe with warm clothes to cut out the cold. Rajarshi and his friend raised the spirits when they started playing, on the guitar and mouth-organ respectively, the tune of ‘Hum honge kamayab’ and the entire group erupted in concert.

That night the entire group dispersed hoping that they all would be singing together in a similar camp fire night that they would celebrate on one of their coveted IIMs