Bakar Gang Blore Mysore Trip....

This trip happened in the first week of April 2009. I am sure the memory of fresh out of MBA time will not be very distant for all of us...

Bakar Gang has an internal record of stuff happening....The below mentioned piece was written by myself for limited circulation in the Bakar gang....

First time any mail/piece written by any BAKAR GANG member is being made public...Of course after a due caution period and after a limited consensus with some of the Gang Members.

For the uninitiated...BAKAR GANG consists of the below people....

The Bakar gang had a few members that were posted in Mumbai..The trip to B'lore was as much an excuse to go to Tirupati Balaji Darshan as it was a result of the reluctance to break the gang after the MBA...

Here goes the mail...

Here follows an account of the latest trip of the Bakar Gang...

After some exploits in Mumbai (Including a 90Rs. Mango Milk shake) and Pune (Diet coke for Rs60) the next leg of the journey was the trip to Bangalore...

In all pomp and glory a train that befits the gang was found. The name being Chalukya Express (Chalu kya ???).... In view of the current NINJA status A/C was given a miss and the great Indian Sleeper Class was chosen...

Yours truly joined in Pune armed with 8 paans , ½ kg of Bakarwadi and quarter kg of Aam Barfi...

The platform saw the emotional reunion of Swanand who had come to drop me and Truckinder aka Tarvinder the L’Oreal Challenge mates...

After the requisite amount of backslapping and Paan Eating...The rest of the night was spend in the memory of Naga and as an ode to him we all slept soundly till almost 930 next morning...

The following list of words would aptly describe the journey - Sleep, Heat, Bakar, Bhel, Water, Idli, Wada, Nariyal Paani, Chaas, Lassi, Kurkure, Hide and Seek (Biscuit wala), Pepsi, Mirinda, More water, Tatte Idli (Sound pretty indecent but was infact tasty) and the list goes on....

After landing up in Balgalore we had the privilege of Going to the beautiful house of Arun and see his fathers passion for music manifested in the form of a music room. It was the one of the most unparalleled displays of equipment I have ever seen in my life... Like pathetic people we converted the music room into our bedroom for the next 2 days :)

One of the defining factors of Bangalore just in the short journey from station to home was the number of Speedbreakers... an awesome sight of 5 speed breakers in a short lane of 25 meters left a lasting
impact on all of our Dubai roads cultured minds... Silver lining was that the driving was as bad as Dubai ..... Truckinder was the most verbal with his choice cuss words.....

Next mornings Mysore trip was characterized by delayed start... a proposal for 10AM departure generated almost 10 minutes worth of laughter and 12 in the afternoon was settled upon which translated into almost 1330 by the
time we got on the highway...

The drive was made memorable with imitations of F1 car sounds by Arun when overtaking and during some heart stopping chases...Some people also got some parts of their anatomy (heart excluded) in their mouths
during certain risqué manoeuvres....first stop Mysore Palace..

As part of trying to be Bakars we did 2 things in the palace grounds that would make all of us proud...

1. Arun Ameya and Myself at one point started to discuss how we are going to shoot some chase scenes for one of the forthcoming movies which generated significant interest and curious eavesdroppers in the form of a small crowd, Ameya pointed to an antique chair and said that this is the place where one of the Don (Shah Rukh Khan) Shoot happened and a couple of kids dragged their dads to show it...

2. An elaborate story was woven to get the ticket back from the ticket collector just for kicks. 5 jobless individuals came up with a story of a company refunding the ticket and hence we needed proof of visit...

Post Mysore I had to undergo the biggest farce ever seen in my life in the form a musical fountain show at the Famed Vrindavan Gardens...But this after the worst samosa chaat was consumed by us...10 minutes were enough to gobble up 180 worth of Wada, Dosa and Chaats at a dilapidated place...

A humble request to all...Do not go with any hopes for the show, it was an assortment of 1 Kannada Song (No Idea except that must have been popular), 1 Hindi song (Nimbooda Nimbooda) and Saare Jahaan Se Accha...

It was the most pathetic musical fountain show I ever saw in my life.... In a shocked state we went to eat the famed Gobi Manchurian and were punished with a gooey mess tossed in a tangy ketchup and lots of pepper that must have been crushed when the equally bad fountain was being constructed....

Tarvinder took the responsibility of getting us all out of the harm’s way as soon as possible and it was a sight worth watching..... The dexterity with which the steering was handled pointed towards an accomplished commercial vehicle driver....

The gastronomic misadventure of the day ceased with Bangalore Corner House ka “Death by Chocolate with extra chocolate sauce”.... A Paani Puri and Paan followed by lassi....

The next day was spent chilling out and meeting Maddy, Ban, Kukil and Prashant Azar in Cormangala Bangalore...

We had an average Biryani at Hyderabad House but spent an exceptionally good time with all....Sheeshas above Purple Haze and a long walk were the highlights....

A visit to Shiv Temple behind the erstwhile Kempfort Mall wasfollowed by a visit to the Leela Palace galleria to meet a couple of cousins of Gogo ...

The Barista in the Leela Palace should be termed as the most Mosquito Infested Barista in the World....

The Bakar spirit and mindless conversation was shared by the 2 cousins both pretty young and we went away with the satisfaction of spoiling 2 more young minds....

The highlight was that of the waiter getting a lit piece of mosquito coil and Amey asking for ODOMOS gel instead... The expression on the face of the waiter was priceless....

Unfortunately after this it was time for me and Amey to go to Tirupati and the Gang had a last huddle and an emotional farewell under a building that was named Swiss Complex in line with the great Indian tradition of optimistic naming.... I would bet that till date no Swiss Citizen must have entered the complex...

The mood was lightened with the arrival of Kukil who was going to Tirupati & by coincidence we had booked the same bus...

Thus the Bakars were split in two with me and Ameya going to Tirupati and Gogo and Terry making all of us proud by donating 2 liters of Black Dog whisky to Airport authorities by carring it in a Handbag (WTF) on their way to Delhi... SP Jain does turnout some really intelligent and selfless people....

Gogo and Terry reached safely and me and Ameya went to Tirupati with Kukil and a friend of his...

The temple was awesome and we had the Darshan really quickly...One thing about Tirupati though...

Me and Amey were roaming around the streets of Tirupati....You could not take 10 steps without seeing a movie poster which had a range of ladies with a varied amount of fat content on their bellies flaunting their belly buttons...It does seem to be a Uniquely Andhra Pradesh thing...

Kalyan we would require some background research to get to the roots of this state-wide obsession.... Kindly oblige...(Kalyan did oblige but the contents cannot be made public...Sorry)..

Subsequently me and Amey caught the train in the night and went into Naga mode for a solid 11 hours...By the time we woke up it was almost lunch time....

I got down at Pune at 1600hrs and Amey technically became the last Bakar to reach home...

Thus closed the GMBA phase of the Bakar Gang , but don’t worry we all would be back arranging Bakar sessions once a year...We do have high hopes of having the better half of Gogo join us somewhere around Diwali this year (Thoda delay but good forecasting skills huh???).... Latest news was that a couple of brides were lined up for consideration in Mujjafarpur... So the next time of meeting is about fixed (unfortunately some of us could not make it)...

So make a note and block the time and make sure that you will be there... (Full details of the Bihar Trip by Amey to follow on his blog soon)...

Visual updates by Arun to follow....

On behalf of Amey, Gogo, Tarvinder & Arun i would say that we did miss you all and the trip would have been more memorable if we all were there...

So till then BBye and good luck with the job hunt...

Paddy

An Ode to My Laptop....

Wow at last I resume to blog.......

This blog is dedicated to my dear laptop. I bought it as a necessity for my MBA program. Little did i know that it would become my constant companion for the next 18 months. It was a shiny DV2000 model from HP and a Limited Edition one :-)

But alas in my batch itself there were 6 people with the same laptop. So the "limited edition" turned out to be a marketing gimmick (I would learn about such things in detail over the
course of the year)...

It was my constant companion over the next year and saw along with me that tumultuous time that we now call the Financial Crisis.... It (my laptop) started off fast and quick and and navigated cooly and worked upon many things at once with good speed but post the stock market crash it started to crash as well ...

It went with me to Kuala Lumpur and Genting and many places in Singapore and had a blast in Langkawi...So a well holidayed laptop it was....Not too much stress...Good doses of chill time....

Like the stimulus packages and subsequent regulation post the Financial Crisis...I too took responsible measures against the laptop crashes...Dutifully I put in an original anti virus software bought in India when I went there in Diwali...So there was a money invested and systemic improvement done for the laptop...Ideally it should have stemmed the tide of the crash...BUT WELL....

Dubai turned out to be worse that before in part due to my super extensive usage with Counter Strike :-) Laptop did not crash but used to get heated up like there was no tomorrow....The fans used to mimic helicopter sounds and overall it was heavy duty usage time for the Graphics Card...

To cut a long painful journey that was the Dubai Leg of MBA really short...No Jobs...No Large Assets left :-)...No Income as well for the last year when we were studying.....We were typical NINJA candidates that burst the housing bubble...The newfangled MBAs wanted education loan waivers and looked upon the election as a carrot that may get the Fin Minister to waive loans and get the student population....But well we were not so populous it seems...

Bottom line......the laptop (despite high depreciation rate) suddenly became an asset....

Came back to India and started the Job Hunt...Guess what..The laptop was my window to the world of Job Portals...Searching for a job for the first time is pretty much a learning experience...Me and my laptop went through revisions and redrafting of CVs....Countless Job
Sites/Agent Sites and other such sites were visited....All in all it was a time of tough labor, dead ends and long days turning into months....

The laptop was good to me not crashing at all...I feel it must have understood the gravity of the situation.....So at least for me at that point of time it did not crash.....The laptop post the overhaul (cash injection+systemic) performed at a critical juncture.....

And then one fine day I get a Job :-) :-)

My laptop, my trusty laptop started to behave funny the next day itself....Suddenly the color started to go out of its screen and it became pale....The display started to shatter into 8 pieces and every one started to mirror state of the next one...

In panic and desperation....I went to Laptop Repair...After a full software change and new drivers installed and all it went fine...I could see my Visa on the screen and went to Dubai....It even was kind enough to stay with me for the next one month when home and hearth was not set and Laptop was essential...

But as soon as home was set..It started to do the same thing as before...This time a detailed analysis was done and I was told that the motherboard was shorted and nothing short of a full Motherboard Change would help the Laptop...A cost the revenue starved Dubai Guy told me would be equivalent to a new laptop....

And so it was that my trusted laptop met its end....I have not used it for the past 45 days...It stays there in its bag in an inert state waiting for the day when he would find a passage back home...My hopes for it are the same as its own aspirations like me, that the skilled healers back home and the wholesome air of motherland will inject some new life and maybe just maybe it will run again...And its display will again be colourful rather than pale and speckled and shattered as now...

Thus ended the story of my laptop...It stuck by me through Thick and Thin..through Dark and Light....and Through the crisis both Global and Personal....

If by chance it does a phoenix back in India.....Another Post ;-)