Bangalore - Goa Adventures_Day I

I made my second trip in a month to Bangalore and Goa around 23 - 27 Jan and it was nothing less than an adventure.. The first time was post New Years - which was much more fun. I shall write about it later may be.

Not a very positive trip, but still it was something which shook me from my roots..

Reached Bangalore on the 22nd Evening and headed off to my cousin's place. I was staying back at her place and we were meeting after almost a year after her marriage. Brother in Law was hit by an iron rod a few days back by some random guy outside the Microsoft Office in Bangalore, which kind of shocked me and made me feel disgusted..

Are these the Metros which they talk about... Why would someone hit someone so innocent, someone who hasn't scratched anyone all his life..

They were in the US before returning to India, Jiju was pursuing Post Doctoral at the Rutgers and also teaching at Princeton. I am not sure if its the other way round, but probably if you know Neeraj Kayal, I don't think I would need to make further statements about him.

I am going to get thrashed by sis for putting him up on the blog, but I guess its ok :P

Anyways, I was in Bangalore for Proto, which went off pretty well and unorganized. We did a Pitch Camp and also a VC Speed Dating Session for startups who wanted to meet potential funding partners, which was appreciated by the audience and the participants. It was a little unorganised and on the spot, but it went off pretty smoothly.

The Event was a good networking platform and I ended up meeting a whole lot of VCs and Startups and pitching them our iAccelerator Program.Freeman did a small Introduction on both the days and got a good response as well.

24th night, I took the bus to Bangalore. I had reserved a KSRTC and the services were ok. The mid way stop was awesome, and since I didn't get a chance to grab on some food, this was a blessing in disguise. Chatted with a couple females on the bus, the men were all obnoxious.. :P

25th morning, I headed off to Namita and Priya's house near Baga. Post friday night, I expected these girls to be drunk and sleepy.. I reached at about 11:30 pm and Priya was still sleeping and someone by the name of Sonia was also sleeping in Namita's room. Namita was no where to be seen, apparently she went off to sleep at her friend's place because Sonia had taken her bed :D

Sonia is an Afro Indian lady, who was in Goa writing her thesis on Afro Indian Lifestyles in India. She is studying in France. She still looked hungover and dead and I had just met her, so I didn't know what would make her feel better. Nonetheless, since I was hungry [no breakfast] and she looked like she wanted some breakfast, we headed off to the near by restaurant to eat something.

Had some banter about Commitment, Marriage, Guys, having kids and not having kids and how 33 yrs and Socialogy has taught her what life is all about... All this over Masala Omlette and Veg Fried Rice with Coke and Mazza.. And then we headed off, when she insisted she wanted to go back to Panjim to her house, as she had a lot of stuff to wrap up.

Asked a couple people there for rickshaws and where we can get them, no one had a clue. So we crossed the road and stood under a tree against a White Maruti 800, and were looking for an empty rickshaw to Panjim or Mapusa. 2 mins.. 5 mins.. no luck and the sun was burning me up.

The traffic was speeding past and no one even bothered to stop by and help us what so ever. The roads were thin and two lane traffic is something which was almost impossible on these tracks. But traffic was flowing.. at almost 50 - 60 kmph.

Worse comes to worse, I would have had to hire a bike and drop her to Mapusa and drive back to home at 1 in the afternoon. I suggested to come back home and rest for some more time and leave in the noon, but she was hell bent on leaving at 1 pm. So I accompanied her..

We were still waiting for rickshaws when a speeding inter city volvo, which looked almost out of control of the driver, was coming towards us. Considering that we were standing off the road, Sonia didn't expect it to come and bang into us. I mean, the bus is expected to move atleast half a meter away from the parked vehicles if not more. I moved behind the car because I didn't want a scratch on my body. But she was still there, leaning against the car so that she can be safe.

Well, the bus came crashing into the White 800, scratched the car, pushed it about half a meter from the road and also hit Sonia. Sonia was pushed about a meter from the car on the sides of the road and her head was bleeding. All this happened in the second that I moved from the car to the back.

I ran to her, was disgusted at the driver's ways. The bus had stopped about a 50 metres away and someone from the bus had already called the Emergency Number - 108. Gave her some water to drink and shouted at the driver, apparently the guy I shouted on wasn't the driver :P

Till the Emergency Van came, we figured that she had fractured her right arm, it was swollen and painful. The Emergency Van took us to Calangute Hospital which looked like some shady Government hospital, but the services were ok. They cleaned up the open wound and stitched it up. Almost 14 stiches on the forehead ! and applied some red tonic on the other open wounds.

In between, Sonia called up one of her friend who came to see her at Calangute Hospital. Priya and Myself had to accompany her all over Goa because apparently her "friends" were all working on a "national holiday". She also informed her Mother about the accident and aunty was trying all possible ways to figure out how to help Sonia from Bangalore.

The right arm was squashed and the Doctor just tied it to her neck with a bandage for support. She was being carried around on a wheel - chair. We were asked to move to a specialty hospital for X - Rays and CT Scans and we drove off to Goa Medical College.

It was the 26th of January and everything was shut. And it was getting difficult to get small things done. Goa Medical College took a lot of time to carry out tests. Priya was running around with her because I couldn't sit any longer in the Emergency Ward, which had people puking and screaming with pain. It kinda brought back memories of Ahmedabad Blasts and the patients at the Civil Hospital [I had gone to meet them 3 days after the blast, with a reporter friend]. So I was waiting outside.

One of Aunty's Contacts came to meet Sonia at Goa Medical College, someone with connections in the Government and private establishments in Goa.. Rich Man :D. We were a little relaxed then.

It was almost 3 pm and Priya was hungry.. She'd just gotten up and washed her face and brushed too [apparently she thought it must be some minor accident so she dressed up and freshened up before coming out to see the drama on the road outside her house] but didn't have anything to eat. So we rushed to the Hospital Coffee Parlour [Nescafe it was] and called for lots of stuff to eat. I explained her the entire story and she still looked confused.. Had to use the empty glasses from all the drinks we had and animated the scene on the table.. was fun.. :P and she seemed to be following it, so all was good.

I am not sure if such tragedies and dramas in my life make me a comedy model, may be its just a reflex action to not show the tension on my face and in my head. But I was smiling all through out and handled the situation pretty much well.. I would say so. This was the first time I'd ever faced an accident and so it was good..

Talked to a couple friends, while Sonia got herself checked up at the CT Scan place but all in vain.. didn't really help.. I didn't know how I was feeling.. One part of me said its all fine and that I need to keep my head open and take quick decisions and that tensions on this moment will screw up more than one life.. Had this rush of blood and energy and all good things which kept me going..

God was there.. And I knew he was there.. cus I was saved by a second and I knew he would help me.. :) help me survive till Sonia gets into better hands..

Goa Med College wasn't of much help, to the extent that they didn't want to give it in writing about the analysis they did on her and the injections they gave her. The IAS Office [Aunty's Friend] made a decision of taking her to the Manipal Hospital. We carried Sonia back into his car and drove to Manipal which is pretty much South Goa. Sonia was craving for a smoke, lit one for her and she was happy.

Manipal Hospital is close to the Cidade Goa resort, pretty location !

We put her into the hospital's custody and while they did their duties. What a relief !

The X-Rays and CT scan was done again and the reports mentioned multiple fracture of the right shoulder which had to be operated and no other major injuries. The Right Shoulder would be eventually fixed with metal joints because it was squashed completely.
The operation was scheduled for the 28th Morning. I still haven't got a chance to talk to her and ask her how she is, but I know that her family reached Goa on Tuesday morning to take care of her.

Another problem emerged before we could leave her in the hospital. Someone had to stay back with her all through the night to take care of her demands etc. We were in a fix and hoping she had enough friends to stay back at the hospital, because we barely knew her to stay back and take care. Over and above that, both of us were dead tired and lived pretty far away, leave that, We didn't have clothes or the morning stuff to stay back at the hospital.

Sonia then called her friend to come and stay back at the hospital and he agreed.
It was almost 7:00 P.M. when we left her. Her friend had still not come and we were not in a mood to stay longer.

Bid her farewell and headed off home, only to find Max sitting with Namita in her room. Max is Makarand Deshpande :)

Eventually, Sujoy drove down to Namita's place and the five of us headed off to Whispering Lake Resort, near Arambol Beach to have some gala time and good food. Makarand and Sujoy are Namita's friends. Sujoy lives in Goa itself and is a journo by profession, and Makarand came down from Mumbai to spend the extended weekend in Goa :)

Whispering Lake Resort was one heaven and after all the jazz during the day I really needed some piece of mind and a nice place to relax. The place has been designed and maintained by Stanzin, again Namita's friend from TISS. Amazing person and amazing work. If you like this place and want to make a visit there, leave a comment on this blog with your e-mail ID and I shall put you in touch with Stanzin.

The Night passed away singing with another bunch of people and Makarand Dancing :)




coming up, Bangalore - Goa Adventures_Day 2

TwiTrip Day II

After a really long night of drinking, talking, walking around, dancing a bit and all of those things, we woke up pretty hungover.

The idiot me, went off to sleep way before the other guys because I was kinda depressed and stuff, high - obviously and was missing my Granma..

Woke up at 6 to walk down to the beach. Salonee was still sleeping and feeling ill, so the four of us walked down to the beach..
Dhempe and I went into the sea to get wet and it was lot of fun. I love diving over the waves and flowing back to the shore. It had started raining and it was getting colder. The water was chilly and the wind was making it worse.

Punkpolkadots wanted to go back to the room, so s4ur4bh, Dhempe and me went walking down to the other side of the beach, over the rocks. The rocks were spikey and good enough for an accupressure treatment for the feet.
Walked back towards the sea and the shore to relieve our feet of all the torture and had some hot maggie and tea at the near by stalls.

The plan for the day was sorted out, we had decided on pushing off to Janjira fort and stay back at Murud for the night. We moved out of the Hotel at around 12 and tuk tuk it was again for till Janjira.. Another 300 bucks, but having one is almost like having your own four wheeler..
One of the very interesting things which happened before leaving was this entire story which I made up on spotting the thing in the pic below..
"I thought it was some sorta wi-fi router in the Hotel and we could probably have access to Wi-Fi even though we don't have any phone connection or GPRS for that matter."
And we decided to call it the Ganesh Wi-Fi ! The Spot of the trip was this new invention.. Dual purpose WiFi Router !

After a lot of soul searching, we finally found a tuk - tuk and in the mean time the duo - and Salonee. Dhempe clicked this image below.. The hotel was decent enough to spend a night.

Had a memorable drive down to Janjira... awesome scenic beauty and the rains had made it even more better, clearer, chilly and dampy.. I totally love that kinda climate.. Wetness, windy and the smell of the wet earth..reached janjira and the five of us were mersmerised with the beauty of this historic location. It was huge, and it is said that this fort was never conquered by anyone. We climbed up to the highest point in the fort and were screaming on top of our lungs :)

And yes, there was Phone Network on the highest point of the fort :)
spent the entire noon at Janjira.. and requested the tuk tuk to wait till we come back from the fort and he agreed :)

Half hour drive to Murud and we were back to the beach.. Oh-So-Beautiful !
We stayed back at a hotel which was on the beach.. all of us bunked into one room..
Drank till the wee hours of the morning and I again dozed off early cus i had drank too much probably.. and the others ended up enjoyin some Russel Peters on my hard drive.. I think they were just trying to make me jealous..
Day II at Murud went off well.. luckily, the bus to Alibaug went from right outside our resort at 6 am and it was so damn convenient. We got up, freshened up, picked our bags and walked outta the room, waiting for the bus to come..

I think all of us slept in the bus, and I don't think I remember how long it took us to reach Alibaug from Murud. Was a convenient ride back and we enjoyed the slight drizzle on the way.

At Alibaug, we had some break fast at a resto and found some hillarious stuff.. Heard of Excited Drinkss... errr.. uttejit pey.. yeah, we did get to see some there.. the list included tea, coffee and some more random stuff, outta which we ordered for some tea and coffee and lots of stuff to eat.

Decided to take a tuk tuk to Mandwa, the guys there were asking for too much moolah.. The bus to Mandwa went from the same place, so decided on waiting for some more time, patiently for it to come..

We had to literally stop the bus to Mandwa mid - way by blockin the road..

But over all it was lot of fun.. look forward to reading about our adventures on the Third Day of the Trip..






Coming up: TwiTrip - Day III

TwiTrip - Day I

The process started a good 15 days before the trip actually began.. and everything was planned online on a site called twitter. after that minute details were decided over e-mails and this is how the first ever TwiTrip was planned and implemented.

The plan initially was to head to a karaoke bar in Mumbai and sing "That Thing You Do".. i really wanted to do it.. i still want to.. but it ended up becoming an extended vacation to the virgin beaches of Murud and Kashid.. We decided to just book tickets to and from Mumbai and nothing beyond that, unplanned trips are lot more fun than planned trips..

Salonee and Myself wanted to head to a beach place.. Goa was on our mind. But due to the lack of enough modes of travel to Goa from Ahmedabad we decided on Murud Kashid.. and I am happy we didn't go to Goa.. Dhempe was travelling all the way from Bangalore for this trip.

2nd October, Salonee and me parked our asses at Bandra Terminus quite early in the morning.. We took Lokshakti from Ahmedabad as the other trains were not available..

Bandra and then a local from there to Bombay Central, as the bus to Alibaug was from Bombay Central.. We met three other twitter pals there.. Dhempe, s4ur4bh and punkpolkadots joined us here...

Dhempe and s4ur4bh enquired at the State Bus stop, while the three girls chatted over some chai. We figured that the bus takes around 4 - 5 hours to reach Alibaug and then another hour to reach Kashid, which would basically mean losing one entire day...

We decided to take the ferry then and pushed off to Gateway of India. The ferry incidentally takes only 1.5 hr and in another hour we'd be at Kashid.. And nothing like an early morning ferry ride in the Arabian Sea with all the wind and all the nice bright sun..

Reached Mandwa and from there we had a connection bus to Alibaug. At Alibaug, we inquired about the bus to Kashid figured that the bus leaves at 1 in the afternoon. We decided on taking a tuk tuk instead. And it was totally worth the ride, for 300 bucks..

The village is more like Goa, the construction etc is very Portuguese. I am not sure why but. The houses are like duplexes and for one family. I am sure the land is pretty cheap there and hence people can afford living in such spatial duplexes and houses. Each of them had a garden and quite a lot of open space around. The roads were nice, there was no proper mobile network though..

We enjoyed the tuk tuk trip over all.. twitter junkies that we are, lack of twitter made us sad time and again.

Reached Kashid at around 2 pm or so.. We saved around 3 hours of time by not taking a bus from Mumbai to Alibaug.

Dhempe had already booked Picnic Park in Kashid which he'd found through some research on the internet.. I think Mouthshut.com had rated this resort pretty high and the ratings were true.
5 mins walk thru the jungle to the beach and awesome food and hospitality. The rooms were nice and the staff was good too.. Dogs included :D

We went to the beach for a long evening walk. Salonee and s4ur4bh went missing and the three of us kept waiting all thru evening for them..

The beach was awesome.. totally virgin, not many people around and lovely breeze, sunset, food and chai. Not to forget sutta.. :)

Started talking about LyF, families, work, boyfriends/girlfriends, ghosts, spirits, auras.. and lot more things till the sun sunk into the sea.

Decided to pick up cold-drinks and wafers for the night.. it was Gandhiji's budday.. and we had to celebrate and get drunk.. :)

Walked back to the hotel.. Nokia 1100 turned out be a very handy, the torch light I mean.. the roads were pitch dark with traffic moving from both ends and at high speeds..

What followed was opening of bottles and the rest is history....






Coming up: TwiTrip - Day II

Romance in his LyF ??

I met my first .. first .. first ever Girlfriend.. can you believe that.. After TEN years..
Its such a nice feeling.. I can't even express..

She was my first ever thing, first ever girl friend I possessed.. It was the same for her.. and it went on for three.. three and a half years..

We were so close to each other..

At those college traditional evenings, we used to dress up in similar clothes and go to college. I used to call her one night before and tell her "Look, we are wearing Black T-shirt over Blue Jeans tomorrow to college" and everyone used to go ga - ga over our dress because we were not traditionally dressed..

Its so cute and nice to meet her after 10 years.. She is still the same.. She still gets the same dimples after so many years..

It still feels like those days.. Its so nice to meet her.. Its an exhilarating feeling.. I'm all so happy..

We are trying to show people that we were not together.. we are trying to do things differently at the re-union thing.. its so funny.. she'll sit on the couch and I go and sit on the bed.. but I can see that she's looking at me from the corner of her eye.. So am I !!



Its so nice to listen to such stories.. and your heart goes, "Wow, perfect. One of those uniquely nice love stories. Totally romantic."

And no this is not fiction, this hasn't been made up by me.. but these are the snippets from a conversation I just had with a friend over the phone..

He sounded "So Much in Love" and so very nice.. He sounded so different.. He sounded so like I would have sounded 5 years back.. I could feel the emotions on the Phone.. It would have been so much better if I were there listening to all of this.. :)

These are one of those things I miss in my life.. the first boyfriend.. the first serious relationship.. I am not sure if I've had one in such a young age.. The first serious relationship I had was when I'd started working.. in Mumbai.. which went on for a year ! and then Phoooot.. hehehehe ..

Well, yes, I guess, if I do get a chance to meet him, it will be the same sparks and smirks and blushes kinda feeling.. But I am again nt sure if I will sound so-much-in-love types..

I think it will be more so after meeting my first crush.. But, its almost like, I end up fighting with the guy and so we completely lose touch.. I am not in touch with any of my previous boy friends.. none of them.. for reasons, I better keep them to myself..

I am in touch with all my friends, however, and we keep cribbin about the kind of girls / guys we find.. not the kind we would have ever dated... Seriously..

None.. absolutely none of my close friends have come up and told me that they've found the best girl / guy for themselves.. Nor have I ever seen them with the purrfekt girl / guy..

Personally.. I'm such a freak, tomboy, crazy, wierdo that I doubt if God has sent that one purrfekt guy for me.. :) .. not that I mind.. but still speculating..

And if that one purrfekt guy is, by any chance, reading this blog, please do let me know that you have been sent by God for me.. :)

I am not sure.. what more to write about..

But I miss "those" days of my LyF.. realised its 5 years since school ! and yes, five years since I met my first crush. Hmmm..

And you there, stop missing out on such sweet, romantic things in life.. Go out and find that purfekt guy/girl for yourself and keep me posted :)

Cheers

Aditi

BarCampMumbai 3

BarCampMumbai - 3 came to an end...
Don't want to say much, just that yes it was good fun.

Except for the morning Chaos and people (read: PiScEaNaTeD) being allotted 2 different sessions in 2 different rooms at the same time, everything else was fine !

Purfektly dis-organised !!

Being a planner, you are anyways not supposed to attend sessions, but a few of them kept insisting on attending sessions while the event was goin for a toss. Being a planner, i had expectations. I don't know if other Planners expected something from it too.

Nonetheless, the first timers enjoyed it a lot and have sent in very good reviews of the event on their blogs. A Google search for barcamp mumbai 3 / bcm 3 should help you with quite a lot of stuff on this event.

Positives...
BlogCamp rocked.. just that I couldn't sit through any of the sessions.
FireTalk was happening too...

Your's trully presented the iAccelerator program, the newest thing at the CIIE as part of the startup track.

Got good reviews for the project and quite enthu crowd.

Missed out on the Linkbun.ch and Startup Saturday launch. Fooled around with the flying saucer for some time and posed for the camera-man from Mint, who was obsessed with the stickers on my hand.

Was good fun being in Mumbai.... three weeks after farewell, too humid, so skipped lunch.

Saturday night was fun too... nice dinner followed by lots of talks.. and some banter with a friend over BCM3. Slept and woke up every two hours :P

I'm now looking forward to BCB - 6 !! and I'm looking forward to enjoy the rains in South India...

Hope to see the gang there too.. and meet a few more interesting people.

Cheers till the next post..

aDeSe

Double - U - Turn

"Painstakingly Complicated" is the word for my LyF !!

i just took a U-Turn !!

Came back to Amdabad..

from Mumbai.. of all the things, from Mumbai..

I still remember the day I moved to Mumbai.. 30th of May it was... and the moment I entered the city, Mumbai saw its first showers of the yr 2006.. :)
Nice na..
Tat was a 'nice' U - Turn.

Unfortunately, the city was dry wen i left it.. The poor thing must been bored of me.. 18 months u see..

If you think, this post is going to have something nice to it, please don't stick around... I havn't even organised my thoughts before writing this post.

anyways... so yes, the second U - Turn happened on the 12th of Feb, wen i got this offer from the IIMA.. to work with them as a full-time employee... jus signed the offer letter and got back home..

It should be fun.. it is the asia's number one insti after all.. :P ! but i dislike the city.. !

oh yeah, so in the train i had a fight with a ummmm (tryin to hide things) family.. kinduv lost my brains.. started shouting and all of it.. and then realised how brainless people cud be... :P !

two men and a woman can't take care of their luggage and have to trouble a poor kid like me..
the TT came in and both of us were smiling at these guys stupidity..

and yes, i won the battle... :P

and then i typed in this message on my phone...

"Bye Bye Mumbai for one last time. Feeling wierd, wierd for a fact tat the obsession has ended. Nah... Not really.. The obsession with Mumbai can nevah end. To do justice to my emotions, the obsession with IIMA continues"

he he he ... in a sleepy state of affairs, missing things and people, high on emotions and mood swings, Miss PaGLi writes such things...

CriBBr PagLi !!

And another message to a fren:

"I want to so f***in get off at dadar and meet u again. You've been a darling and one thing I'm gonna miss in Amdabad are friends like you. Thank you so much for being here with me tonite. Good bye and good luck wit everythin. I'm already waitin for the next trip to Mumbai"

I was in two minds till the last minute.. thanks to the folks in mumbai, who almost convinced me to stay on the train and not get off.. If I'd been alone there, for sure, this post wud have been something else.. this day would have been somethin else.. !

Mumbai will keep happenin.. will try and put up the updates of travels to the city so that people can track me. :)

and as for the news.. I have signed the Offer letter and my new job starts from the 17th of March.. !

a lil excited... a lil sad.. for Madness and Amdabad are not supplementary.. or shud it be complementary.. yeah, Madness and Amdabad are not Complementary..

for the moment, its the north east calling... pics will go up soon..

till then enjoy.. I will try to..

LyF... Comin to a Halt !!

this post should have gone up long time back....
but since, things were still not in place, I thot of relaxin a bit on this news and not writing anything on the blog...

this would be the right time to talk about it.. though I am almost on the verge of backin out of it !!

U - turn in Lyf... things ending in Maximum City..
M movin off to Amdabad... for good or for bad, that tym will tell.. :P

the Incubation Centre at IIMA decided to hire me, so here I am, for all the affection and luv I hav for this insti, movin out of the the max city was a part of wat i can do to romance the campus again.. after some 18 months.. :)

happy.. or sad.. i still don no... i still don no, if i am actually goin to move in..
split minds... i wish i cud have a similar job profile with a similar kinda institution in the max city..
like they say, you can't get everythin you wish...

Shit scared of movin to amdabad and livin the family. missin out on the 'fun' with the awesome set of frens I had made in this city.. my cool gang from Pune.. hell... I don't want all this to end so easily.. and it had just started... why the hell is God playin games with moi lyf !!!

oh and wat about my other group of friends who are movin in this city this year.. m definitely goin to miss out being with you guys too...

the "Pagalpan" will end...

happy for a fact that it is one of the coolest institutes in the country... rocks ! the campus, canteen ki chicken maggie, rambhai ki kitli.. and on a more professional front, the interaction with the professors and of course the students...

well, lets see what does God have in store for me this time around..

Have decided to move with the flow... :) .. not gonna curse anyone for the decisions I make now.. Cus I am followin what the almighty asks me to do...

now u know, why no posts have gone up in the last 2 weeks..
wil make sure that i get on with the writing bit again... and atleast a post a day !!

keep logged in for more .. on my lyf..


Cheers

Aditi
- soon to be an Amdavadi..



(P.S.: Did I mention that all this love for IIMA has come back cus of this new song. Composed and sung by Gaurav, an IIMite, it is video-graphed on the IIMA Campus and it really made me nostalgic and wanting to go back to the city. 'for a change'. Check it out)

Lookin Back... and New Yr Wishes !

Got this Comic off Ahmedabad Times - dated 31st Dec..
That frog with his tongue sticking on the Cactus has to be me..

This comic summarizes my experiences with the year 2007 !!
Took unbelievable risks with life.. Enjoyed a few.. and fell apart with few..

but like they say, experience is the spice of Lyf.. My life looks a little too Spicey.. :-D !

the biggest one being changing companies.. from a multi-national, me jumped careers and joined a start-up.. and the foolish me switched companies without an appointment letter.. :P .. the experience has been worth it though.. working for a start-up has to the best thing that happened this yr..

met a set of most beautiful people on the planet.. and made a couple of very special friends.. will cherish those moments spent with you guys forever.. :)

did the weirdest of things.. drives at 4 am.. coming back home at 6 am from work and parties.. sleeping for 4 - 5 hrs for months together.. managing 2 jobs for a month.. dinner at 2 am and early morning Reshmi Tikka at Mogul Sarai !

life was actually good.. busy, hectic, lot of parties, lot of work, lot of travelling, lot of friends.. everything in excess.. "Bhagwaan jab deta hai toh chhapad faad ke deta hai" types..

i hope this continues in the coming year as well..

the other best experience has to be managing family, a job and 2 businesses at the same time.. yep.. was in Amdabad for Mum's knee replacement surgery, which went of pretty well. Had plans of staying for a month, but the chhota vacation turned out be 2 months long..

Part of the stay was my stint in Amdabad... managing my Dad's business, my own business plan, my job with Apricot and Ghar ka kaam.. Not in that order and everything didn't happen at the same time.. with a few mistakes here and there like depositing the cheque in the wrong bank account... the cheque ended up at some Calcutta dudes account :P.. and burnt fingers while cooking, the BSNL dude disconected the Broadband cus the cheque was out-station.. and some more careless errors..

It was more like testing myself for the future.. and I passed the test.. :-D

the resolution for '07 has still not been accomplished.. :P

the resolution for '08 is goin to be deleting the the Orkut, OpenBC and Ryze Profile.. :)
LinkedIN and Facebook are goin to be my networking companions for the rest of my life.

Thats more or less about my one yr...

and here's wishing all my readers a Very Happy New year..

Wishing all the luck for the coming year.
Hope it turns out to be more fruitful and full of life than the previous year's.

Luvv.. alwaysss..

Adi

phoneLess me

there used to be a time wen i used to be hooked on to the phone almost the entire day...
every 2 mins, i used to check it for messages or missed calls.. if nothin else, time !! and if nothin nothing else, change tunes, change my welcome message..

and by the way, my welcome message was "Obnoxiously Cute" !! This certain someone preferred callin me Obnoxious, and I kinda liked the name... And its stuck on wit me post the incident !!

save all those crazy messages exchanged with friends.. the then boy friend.. current love.. that one special love message, which u lyk want to keep it wit you for the rest of you life.. cus its so special !!
jhagda wala message ?? woh bhi thha...

those crazy nites, all those drunken talks n sleep talks.. jhagda.. careless whispers !! all those memories wit my lil butterfly (butterfly is my mobile phone)

and those imp contacts..

all this is lost now...

the b**** flicked the phone from my jeans pocket..

i was sleepy ya, so cudn't really make out someone was flickin the precious thing from my jeans pocket.. i still don't knw wen that happened..

i was goin to work in some local train from thane.. over crowded... one of those 'Virar Fast' kinda experiences.. sandwiched between fat women.. crazee.. luckily, i came out in one piece !!

the lady behin me kept pullin my hair cus they touched her nose and tickled her.. gave her a nice gyan.. !! hehe

the usual me, was givin gyan to the women around as to how to behave wen the train's overcrowded and there's no place to stand.. and not to shout and not to pull my hair :-P !!

anyways, so yeah, the butterfly is gone now.. i won't be gettin a new one before the 2nd of nov.. the number remains the same though !!



oh.. and i was lookin at a few more contributors for my other blogs.. leme know if anyone's interested.. !!


LuV

~Obnoxiously Cute~

..: FareWell :..

5th of October was the last day at Nielsen. Been a year + 4 months + 5 days at the same company.. amazing !!

for a fact that i managed to stick around wit the same company for so long...

anyways, funny day... felt so wierd, tat I cudn't even make out wat exactly i was feeling...
was a first farewell for me... had one at school after 12th, but not all that farewell kinds..

AIESEC, nevah had a farewell of sorts.. remember the last conf ka farewell though...

the conf was at Hyderabad in Nov.. like really chilly... u lyk had to wear 4 sets of clothes to feel warm and comfy.. anyways, last day, people in my dept (External Relations) were lyk completely drunk... we had this lil session of wat u think abt the conf and the dept and the future.. and some more jazz lyk tat... and few of the members sheddin tears..
for some, tears of joy... for me sadness.. was goin to be my last conf...

aur fir plenary main jaake jo dhamaka kiya ER ne, sab depts ki bolti bandh ho gayi thhi.. we were like 12 members, highly high, the loudest.. and active... still miss it.. !

anyways, lemme come back to the Nielsen farewell...
was greeted by a bouquet... and a sad face on the paper.. which I turned over and kept it in the corner.. eventually it was torn off as i hate seein sad faces around me..
gave everyone chocolates.. to cheer them up.. and some humor to make them laugh..

i guess everyone was feelin wierd.. didn't know, whether to be happy or sad.. to cry or to laugh..

towards 5 pm, had a lil cake cuttin session and huggin and farewell speaches..
followed the AIESEC culture of giving everyone a Sugar Cube.. basically a lil partin note from me to everyone...

thot of puttin up some of the farewell messages i recieved from my clients and team-members on the blog..
followin this post, i'd also put up my farewell message..

guys, remember, u'd alwayz hav a special place in my heart... for reasons, i'd prefer not mentionin them here.

Needhi - is my Team Member.. one of those MBA types :-D... really nice to be around with.. we used to have lunch together.. she'd get chicken for me, which i miss a lot these days...

this is wat she has to say :

Hey Miss DJ,
I didn't really like you in the beginning, cos like you said you were very strict. But as I got to know you, I realised what a sweetheart you actually are.
I really enjoyed being with your 'Pichhwada'.. lol !!
Anyway, hope you have a bright future and stay in touch ya.

Luv
Needhi

P.S. Now I don't have company for Mama's :-(

ok.. she used to sit behind me, which is why this 'Pichhwada' tag.. ! the name Dj cus i was the only one around who dared to play music on loud speakers in the office, only to get a warnin from the Director.. 3 days of jazz, and then hell.. the IT dude was tracing my internet usage and stuff !!

Anyways, Neha Kokane, another colleague from the same dept :

Hi Aditi,

Jus wanna say 'All the Best'
It was a pleasure knowing you !
You were the first person who introduced me to RRC and from then.. the goa trip :-), my first normalisation sheet :-))... he he he... it has all been memorable.

Have an amazing future !!
Keep writing blogs so that we keep on reading your adventures.

Take Care

Loads of wishes...

Neha

And one from the Client..
Kerri takes care of ShopperTrends for the Europe region -

Hi Aditi,

I'm really sorry to hear you are leaving! You have been a great support to me on ShopperTrends which I really appreciate. I had a sneaking feeling that you may be venturing on when you declined the later half of my meeting invites but was hoping you were taking a long holiday instead ;-)

I wish you all the best at Apricot Media and I hope we keep in touch.

Regards,
Kerri

one of those people whom i'd want to meet, cus she's so sweet. Very easy to work with and very accomodating. And one of those clients i'm gonna miss working for...

Anyways, lyf's gotto move on.. I have moved on..

Lovely and a well spent day…

The best part of the day was the drive down to Manor…

More in the next post..

Till ‘en… enjoy every bit of the evening..

~ a ~

..: Sunscreen :..

one of those all time favs..
a fren was talkin abt it today on the gtalk, listened to the song after almost 2 yrs now..

read the lyrics again...

and here are snippets of the song... the whole of it makes sense...

but i'm puttin the lines which are more relevant to me..

enjoy.. !


Baz Luhrmann - Everyone's free (to wear Sunscreen)

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

i'm goin thru this phase rite now.. was talkin to a fren about how i've lost my childhood, doin absolutely nothing, nothin to be proud of... the circumstances were wierd.. but, i'm livin my lyf now, since a year and a half to be precise... thanks Mumbai - for happening ! thank u God, for makin it happen !!

Don’t worry about the future.
Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts.
Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

i wish, it cud be so easy.. loved, broke, loved again, broke.. status - love is not for the weak hearted.. i'm not gonna stop lovin people jus cus they are reckless.. instead teach them a lesson or two in the process !!

The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults.
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life.

i feel, knwin things makes it all more complicated.. jus live in the moment and take it from there.. plans will crash and fail, jus let it be the way it is supposed to be.. instead of complicatin your own lyf by puttin rules and plans to the ever-so-enthused lyf !

Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.

Enjoy your body.
Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

i like this line.. 'the greatest instrument' !!

Dance - even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

one thing which relaxes me, and the only thing which can cure me of all the pains ! dance.. and yes i do dance, but only wen i feel lyk..

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,
but with a precious few you should hold on.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

you now knw why i'm not dependent on u, why i keep refusin favours from u... i believe in living alone.. wen i need the support, i'l definitely come back to you..

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

“brother and sister together we’ll make it through,
someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know that you’re hurting but I’ve been waiting there for you
and I’ll be there just helping you out
whenever I can
everybody’s free
everybody’s free
to feel good”

and that is how the song ends...

so true, so inspiring, so refreshing (a few lines are), and so very bringing-back-to-reality kinds !

enjoy, while it lasts...

~A~

.. the WEEK that was ..

one hell of a week..

more than a gist of wat all happened... !

Monday.. monday mornin blues... nothin much happened that day..

Tuesday.. Thomas was comin back frm B'lore.. met him at around 12 in the nite at Bandra... grabbed a bite at Macs.. went train jumpin at 1:30 in the nite.. only to find that there's no train back to dadar from Andheri.. Koi na.. paise kharch karo.. taxi lo aur ghar jao.. slept at 3 AM.. ! nice start...

Wednesday... at theBIG.tv ! ok, ma new firm.. joined them already as a freelancer.. so reached office at 8 ish or so.. brainstormin on the marketing plan.. Blog specifically.. goes on till 2.. sleep at 3...

Thursday.. another day at theBIG.tv.. left at around 11ish.. ended up at Bandra with my cousin... went down to Poison.. bad music.. dirty crowd.. 6 of us... the drink was bad too.. i dont knw.. surpisingly, this place on wednesday nite rocks.. and thursday was aweful.. so yeah.. ended up at Mogul Sarai at Bandra Station - west.. this restaurant is open till like 6 in the morning.. were there till 4ish or so.. :-P.. another long day...

Friday... one of the better days.. Bandra ka plan.. and then move to Juhu to a club.. and i'm all decked up and stuck in Mahim... :-P.. cuzzin and some frens were waitin at JWM since 11:30 or so.. and i reach at 12:30.. anyways..
i actually don't like enigma.. but it turned out to be awefully great that nite.. DJ Akhtar on the sets... and awesome music.. didn't wanna go over-board with the drinks so had breezers.. and the whole thing got over at around 3am.. headed towards Mogul Sarai again... reshmi tikka kabab at 4am.. and some smoke.. and talks.. well spent day with nice people..

Saturday... headed to Mondy's first with my cuzzin and then Leo's with other friends.. at 11 in the nite... nothin much in the day happened... another breezer gulped down.. and some conversations with a drunk friend... slappin, pinchin.. at 3 in the nite.. and some rain walks.. headed to ma fren's place with ma cuzzin.. slept at 4... not bad..

Sunday.. headed to just around the corner for lunch.. nice plate of salad, dessert and some teasing.. was teasing my cuzzin cus she's decided to get married and stuff... anyways...

so that was the week..

this week is pretty much relaxed...

hopin for a wilder and more energizing days ahead..

~adi~

one of those things which i enjoy the most.... music...
especially wen i can relate the lyrics of the song to wat i've gone thru...

nothin much... one of my favourites - song and moments...

The Lighthouse Family - High

[gonna delete of parts of the song which are not really related to my feelings]

When you're close to tears remember
Some day it'll all be over
One day were gonna get so high
And though its darker than december
Whats ahead is a different colour
One day were gonna get so high

And at

The end of the day

Well remember the days

We were close to the edge

And well wonder how we made it through

And at

The end of the day

Well remember the way

We stayed so close to till the end

Well remember it was me and you

cause we are gonna be forever you and me

Youll always keep me flying high in the sky of love

Dont you think its time you started

Doing what we always wanted

One day were gonna get so high

cause even the impossible is easy

When we got each other

One day were gonna get so high

cause we are gonna be forever you and me

You will always keep me flying high in the sky of love

can you relate a part of your life to this song as well ??

~a~ ['missin u']