The story of 200012086 and 200012087

Inspired by Rahul's recall series where he is reliving the memories of his friends, I thought of just recalling the moments I spent with a certain Mr Tony Singhal, a dear friend from my college days.

It was in the dreaded C labs where I met Tony for the first time. Since we had adjacent roll numbers I was allotted a machine next to his. He seemed to me very intelligent and street smart guy, so I was hoping, he will be able to help me out in the labs as I had no idea about the ABCs of C. He proved his street smartness soon when in the next lab

class, he moved next to a certain Ms RJ as she needed Tony's help. Much later we all came to know that our Tony actually had laid the bait, by disconnecting that poor gals keyboard and according to the plan later came to her rescue thereby becoming the Hero. This of course, infuriated a certain Mr RJ who could only watch as his prized possession was being taken away under his very nose. As a result he took to 'Gum ka sathi Rum' thus Tony was the reason behind our first SMIT version of Devdas.

What Tony had failed to foresee was that his helpful nature would soon prove to be his bane, when in the workshops he had to help Ms RJ, by polishing her share of wood work and filing her piece of iron slab. So as expected Tony successfully rescued himself from that vigorous work and dedicated his evenings to Ms PB teaching her some subject which no one of us is sure of till this very day. Tony actually had impressed Ms PB, when he was chucked out of the class by our psycho prof Thomas since he had no back logs in the first semester. It was during this time, that we had completed our first year in college and he started to realise the futility of his attempts and decided to try out his hand in some lukkhagiri or slacking. Thats where I came in.

Not only Tony and I had adjacent registration numbers 200012086 and 200012087, but also our structures were similar. Both of us were short and lean and when we slept (in our respective beds of course) it was tough to say whether we were sleeping under the blanket or the blanket was actually folded. We both had shitty handwriting and needless to say, were last benchers. It won’t be wrong to say that the gradual decline in Tony’s grades was a result of his newly found love for the HIGH SPIRITS, the SMOKING GUN and the person who introduced him to these EVILS. It was also very tough for us to say no to each other, as I couldn’t say no to him when he asked me to join his evening workout sessions in A-405 or he joining me in the after college football matches even if it was for one match only.

A friend in need is a friend indeed, so our greatest partnership was witnessed in the halls be it the sessionals or the semester exams. We complimented each other quite well, he was good at solving numerical whereas I at diagrams, so when the papers arrived the initial 5 minutes were utilized in scribbling the rear of the question paper with the diagrams or formulas or a few salient points of the question and then passing it on. We did it with relative ease on most occasions except on one particular semester when unfortunately we were allocated seats on the last benches of two separate columns of benches. As they say desperate time calls for desperate measures, so we had to throw the answered question papers towards each

other. I was delighted that once again we escaped the invigilators alert eyes and also couldn’t help but laugh at Suraj (Goyal), when I saw his perplexed look and his expression of disgust at our feat. I sometimes wonder how much more Suraj would have scored if it wasn’t for us always pestering him with our antics. The practicals too wasn't spared when in the 3rd sem EDC lab exam we exchanged the assigned experiments right under the nose of PUT C. Our partnership literally ended with a BANG, when after the last exam in 7th sem we bursted crackers outside the academic blocks.

Things have changed drastically after we left college. Tony is into selling boots whereas I into saving my butt from one. He has no time for social networking whereas I have no time for anything else. He has reached a stage where he must start looking for a good school for his little angel whereas I am yet look out for a good mother for my future little angel. We had last talked, when he had called me to enquire whether I had escaped the Mumbai floods and that was almost 2 years ago. It’s time that i give him a call.

Crusade against Emotional Attyachar

The following material is the ultimate reply to all the unwanted and uncalled for questions and comments which were shoved upon us and so far left unanswered. We pledge that this set of remarks will not see the light of the day by the turn of the next Genx.

Background : You are preparing for your board exams, tired and weary, you feel like giving up. So the best way to keep us motivated....
They Said : This is the last time and after that the world is yours..
We realized : "One Last Time" what a joke!!!! For many of us this one last time never seems to end, be it the certification courses at office to keep us updated or the management degrees. The world is not mine yet.

Background : You have friends from your same batch or class residing nearby, under the very nose of Theirs....
They Said : Look!!!! his/her doors are shut, he/she must be revising for the nth time..what's your status?
We know : That guy is not revising, he/she must be dreaming about his/her's latest crush, or reading the latest Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew novel hidden right between the pages of their academic book. We know people can be very pretentious.

Background : On a lazy Sunday afternoon you are lazying around....
They Said : At your age i used to support my entire family and yet study, you people have got all the comforts in this world..
We chuckle : And remember the joke and wish we could say something similar
Father to Son : "You should be ashamed,When Abraham Lincoln was of your age, he used to walk ten miles every day to get to school."
Son to Father : "Well, when he was your age, he was the president".

Background : After a heated discussion....
They Said : We never had the guts to reply back..
We are at our wits end : What, we are supposed to do if you guys didn't have the guts or were born without it. In fact we were not present then, to vindicate your claim. But aren't you happy that we don't have an organ missing.

Background : Any occasion....
They Said : Come, seek your elders blessing by touching their feet..
We wonder : how this can be scientifically proven, that blessings and well wishes traverses via the medium of touch and only through feet? but luckily like everything else around us this process is being marginalized, whereas in earlier days(Mahabharat times) the point of contact used to be the feet of the sender and head of the receiver where the victim had to lie on the ground, these days the contact has shifted to the senders knees so much less stooping for the receiver. The day would soon come when there will be touch less transmission, which many believe has already started.

Background : You are spending some valuable time on your laptop/PC ....
They Said : You guys are not at all socially and physically active..
We try to reason: What does being socially active mean? meet up with like minded people after work, discuss other people's woes and their short comings, or wrong govt policies..No Sir!!! we are happy with our virtual social networking. As far as physical inactivity is concerned, this may be not entirely untrue, but gyming is a good alternative, is it not?.

Background : The recession is on and there are unconfirmed news of sacking across the industry ....
They Said : Why didn't you apply for a govt job? You could have got pension later..
We forgive them : For their relative ignorance over the current job scenario. We are not the ones who started the fire. And pension!!! as if the sole purpose of job is getting a pension.

Background : The last one is only for bachelor men ....
They Say : If it is like this now, I wonder what will happen once he gets married..
CUT THE CRAP!!!! : Stop this barrage of Emotional Attyachar, but it is you who want us to get married.

Truely Inspiring

Just watched the movie Invictus, *ing Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as the captain of the then national Rugby team Francois Pienaar. The movie is based on how Nelson Mandela used Rugby as a unifying bond to bring the people of the Rainbow Nation together post the apartheid. The movie is directed and produced by one of my favourite Actor and Director, Clint Eastwood.

Invictus means the unconquerable and the movie gets its name from the poem by a famous 19th century English poet named William Ernest Henley. Just before the start of the World Cup, Nelson Mandela gives the captain the poem to inspire him, just as it did to the president during his prison days. I heard and read about 'Invictus' for the first time thanks largely to the movie. As i was reading the poem, i found its uncanny resemblance to another great poem by one of India's greatest, 'Where the mind is without fear' by Rabindranath Tagore. Before the day ends, I hope to get a double dose of inspiration which we all need, as i read the poems once more all over again.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Where The Mind is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Rabindranath Tagore

Mind your Language..Mumbai Ishtyle!!!!

What is the significance of the fourth year? It is after every four years that we wait eagerly for the next presidential election..i mean the US President, anyway does anyone care for who his Indian counterpart is? It is after every four years that we hope that India climbs up the Olympics medal tally or excels in the cricketing field. On the fourth year i look up to the next Maradona to emulate the GOD, but end up disappointed. Why is that we only have four year degree courses and at the end we long for more. The truth behind the 4 year plan may not be known but 2010 brings with it an important year in my life, completion of four years in Amchi Mumbai.


My stay here in the Maximum City has come with its fair share of bitter and sweet memories spent mostly within the confinements of my office space. As i look back, this city has instilled in me a lot of its features most prominent among them being the love for the Cutting Chai and Vada Pau and the very popular Mumbaiya Hindi. This special brand of Hindi can be heard anywhere, from the road side tapris(stalls) to the boardroom meetings.

My education had started from the very first day, when i thought of reaching my office in a red colored B.E.S.T bus, the cheapest mode of transport here. As i boarded the bus, anxiously i kept on enquiring about the stop to get down at from the conductor, to which the irritated public servant soon reverted back saying 'ghari ghari kya puchta hain'. I always knew that ghari was a watch but here was another way of using the word. True to his word, the conductor soon returned to tell me that we are nearing Vikhroli where my office is and its time that i start approaching the front exit door. As i pushed and shoved my way saying 'side dena bhaiyya' ,the fellow passengers gave me a very mean look. I later came to know that in Mumbai we call that particular brand of look as 'Khunnas' and also the reason why i was at the receiving end of the Khunnas was because i had said bhaiyya a title synonymous with the people from the northern states.


This brand of hindi soon became a part of my daily vocabulary be it in office or outside it. Almost anything was soon being referred to as Item, be it the contents of the restaurant menu or a P.Y.T. I started to ask questions like 'Aur Kya Bolta Hain' a multi purpose question which can mean how's ur health? or hows ur luv life? in general anything concerning you. Soon tujhe became tereko and mujhe became mereko. Instead of saying Yes or haan, i started saying barobar. Pagal hain kya? became Alibaug se aya hain kya? Alibaug being the place where the nearest mental institution is located.

One thing I realised very early, and that was When in Rome, do as the Romans do. So a statutory warning for those people who are well versed in shud hindi. If you use words like Asambhav,Nishit,Zaroori..then please take it out of your system before you become the laughing stock, as a certain colleague of mine came to know of it the harder way. I can go on and on with the wide range of words and their usages that i have learned over the last four years, but i guess its much more fun saying it than writing about it. So before i leave here a few words and their utilisation , which can be very helpful for people who are new in the city.

• Dimag ka dahi -- means i am really irritated and please don't bug me anymore
• Waanda -- Minor problem, Watt -- Major problem
• Gochhi, Jhol -- a mistake
• Shaana -- clever, cunning
• Mandivali -- any sort of bargaining
• Tang dia -- you have been ditched
• sumbdi -- quietly
• Shendi lag gaya -- fooled, bakra.
• hakal diya -- kicked out