Mumbai... the city of dreams.

Sitting at Marine Drive... staring at the New-York esque skyline on one side.... the occasional noticeable sound of the soft waves crashing below. The casual laughter, the dismissive words and the silences that capture everthing else.

A million words woudn't capture the Marine Drive evening.
................

Its a stunningly beautiful city. The problem is most of the people living here miss that fact regularly. Its crowded and humid and a ride on the local trains can be a horrendous affair but the traffic is worse. I was stuck for almost an hour and half in traffic on my way to office one day.

Work is HECTIC. I work approximately 40 hour weeks. I leave in the morning and return twelve hours later, minimum. Almost 2 hours are spent commuting. The first week was fun. It was interesting to see almost every co-passenger wearing a fancy ear-gear plugged into their cell phones, busy listening to the radio. Many have the Agent Smith sort of earphones. Its wondrous seeing all these these techno savvy people. The sheer volume of people going to work is mindboggling and i guess another noticeable for a bangali here is that everyone here sticks firmly to their 9-5 timings. Infact the 5'o clock deadline is invariably pushed back further.

The site I'm in charge of is located in poshland- Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri. Its home to music directors and most recently Manoj Bajpai! Flats here are easily worth in crores. Mumbai gets you used to talking in crores.

Mumbai has its share of interesting people. Kamlesh, the guy incharge of the site before me, seemed straight out of the Munnabahi movie. The talk, the walk... everyday he'd ask me if had set my eyes on any "item" yet. We were incharge of the site together for a week, and everyday there was some interesting funda about life in Mumbai. Even taxi wallahs havent refrained from sharing their bits of advice on the city.

The most common refrain is of how you can't leave this place once you visit Mumbai...
if only....

post

3 days at home: mostly spent reading a novel, surfing the net and anchoring with some old friends over gtalk. S leaves for scandinavia today. tis interesting to note how vacations have been turning points in zis life...

i'm pretty apprehensive about joining work in mumbai. makes me introspect on the great grand "plan". introspect on three years of being a techie. in a years time i'll have a b.tech degree to my name. seems like a big joke.

the whole idea of us being a part of the great organic program run by Deep Thoughts successor (yes am reading: H2G2... yeah i kno, but theres always a time to start innit?) seats itself firmly in the chaotic neurons overworking themsleves, crosswiring all the matter, to paint a hazy shade of ze blues for a while now. its a curious ailment, identified with a detachment from all things fun and monosyllabic answers to queries and attempts made at conversation by third parties.

diversion was seeked by confronting an old ghost, shopping and then using free messaging to bother S. poogloo called, to my surprise, and did his usual hooping laugh thing to drive me into splits. the adventures of poogloo and the igloo are tales of legend... luckily for him, his visa woes have been solved.

another whole afternoon was spent dissecting of the topic of the blue village monster with an old friend. another tale of visa worries. hers is still on hold, while travel dates are fixed and close at hand.

.........
am not sure if i'll post before leaving for mumbai. if not post, comments shall be used to communicate most certainly. and yes, suggestions about the template are invited! it's the waiting-for-the-rains theme

"shelter from the storm"- dylan

a year past. a lot of things found and a lot of things lost. a lot of shiny new feelings and reflections of the self in different shades of light, dark and blue. a few days back i hit the realisation that time was speeding past silently. i lost myself, wondering what will happen to us. fearing the storm that promises to make the sea a monster. but promises too, to make it the worthiest sail of all.

somehow i just can't communicate the senses that form the lumps in my throat. if you'd ask me, i'd say "nothing"....

lets hope the lumps just evaporate!

shelter in song...

its a 4 day weekend we're not celebrating. eggjams be damned! not too many thoughts to distill off my head right now, the heat be cursed!

foul mood prevails and catastrophic thinking spirals* eat up brain cells.... sorry, pathetic unintended rhyme.

a pretty rough week up ahead, with all possible class tests and group project final presentation. the latter i know nought of. seeking refuge in song, right now winamp plays tangled up in blue.

been watching parts of dil chahta hai to offload the heaviness that has set into the night. tanhayee i think is a classic. it be intensely angsty and thus be liked.

shubho noboborsho to all! may the year bring much joy and happiness!
.........
alter ego proceeds to ponder over lost beliefs. thoughts that gave hope and made days brighter...

*an expression i picked up from another blog, i think we both suffer from the same ailment- catastrophic thinking spirals

3 weeks until the end of the month. summers and final year are all that shall be left of college life. a two month internship in maximum city (no, i haven't read the book). a place i like to romanticise about.

i've found a new song to fall in love with. i've been traversing cyberspace and reading eloquent eloquent blogs. thanks to one post i fell in love with a favourite u2 no. all over again. another one lead me to discover joni mitchell to her unfathomable depths.

in village news, western vocals was a debacle. our guitarist had apparently on some previous occasion tried to win the attention of the pretty young lady who was also the judge. obviously she did let us know what she felt about the attention.

the soc-cult gc scene is set to travel into interesting times. rk are seemingly within range of netting a golden gc, with everyone obviously trying hard to prevent that from happening. (read: the hall running in for 2nd place benefits and incites more chaos ;), they call it poltu in the village )

state of mind is pretty weird at times. the thoughts have voracious appetites and eat up the brain matter often. fears and worries. shadows haunting the empty corridors of a blank mind. its difficult not to think. the music helps at times. theres always a song for every mood, every feeling, every colour. someone teach me how to encode songs on a blog?

exam weeks up ahead... hopefull they'll drive me frust enough to post with a little more frequency.

i also realized, that other than the regulars (ofcourse, i'm making a big assumption here that there are still people left who read the blog), there are some visitors who've never commented. hi! :) to you. why not leave a comment this time round?

It’s been a long time since I've done some wondering around here. Not blogging for a long time leaves you with some problems. Too many things to talk about in one go. Doesn't work too well always.

Ravings and rantings about the village is mostly awl of this post.

A first is up for me next week. Though I did debut in western groups, western vocals will be more percentage of stage area hogged. No, I’m not exactly crazy about it. I think I do a decent job. The modest me says, lets see what happens. The not so modest me is hoping to cause a few upsets. I can promise it shall be memorable.

In other Kgp news, holi was played in colours true to Kgp spirit. Did not try the bhang served in the mess as I felt very holy on the particular day. To avoid sacrificing another t-shirt to the festival I decided to go without one. It was one of my shortest holi yet, as I did not venture out of the hall. Spreading colours in all the wings was satisfying enough.

I haven't been home for over a month now. Not that I miss it. Kolkata is a place I’ve lost touch with in a big way. Friends have all mostly left the place. The para folks are the only ones I meet every weekend that I go back. Till a couple of years back, pujo was the time for old timers. Friends would return to the city and meet-ups planned. Now, my last anchor in the whole scheme of things has gone his way too... Anyways... that shall be extolled upon some other day.

I am home at present. I'm a little worried. I caught myself gazing in awe at all the riveted connections that hold up Howrah bridge. The design of steel structures class has surely had its ill effects on my impressionable mind.

I think I shall exit here as I feel I'm stretching a bad post too far.

the lovers

And since we're talking of love and things like that. Heres something I loved reading.

The Lovers

The Lovers will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can tear away the veils of intellect and melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love, body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love, and you will not be separated again.

-Rumi

Everytime I chance upon this guys poems they blow me away. Just had to post this.

TAG!

Back on this page after a LONG time. I've been perfectly fine. Just somehow never got around to post. I've been tagged. For a long time now. Twice over. It’s the 8 things about your lover tag. It’s the chance to make the dream wishlist even Santa would have difficulty in fulfilling. But the enviable justification of being a tag, it should not be wasted.

Infact the list that follows is stuff I randomly came up with. It in no way comes close to listing all that could be wanted in a dream partner. And moreover I guess it holds both ways, i.e. yours truly must needfully fulfill all the following criteria too.


She:

1) Should be someone who'd take my quirks and make me feel comfortable. I should be able to open up to her, not fearing that by doing so she’d use anything against me.

2) Should be someone I can talk crap to all day long, be my crazy loony self and should pretend she's enjoying it all the way.

3) Should understand me: not be affected by my nonchalance, my detachedness... often mistakenly linked to me being an unfeeling person. Should basically realize that at times I am like that and let it be.

4) Shouldn’t necessarily be all like me. Infact, we should compliment each other, enrich each other with our thoughts and takes on life.

5) Should respect me for what I am. Criticize the bad things, appreciate the good. Be proud of me the way I am: sappy, crappy, weird, mad, unfeeling, uncaring... it’s called love baby! And they say it’s blind.

6) Should reciprocate my feelings; make me feel wanted, cared for and special.

7) Must needs be talkative and not be discouraged by my quiet moods.

8) Should not expect me to direct things always. I often believe in taking the backseat. Being laid back and unworried is in my nature.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that, she should accept me the way I am and be proud at that.

Phew!

Finally done. I refuse to tag anybody else as I don't believe in propagating evil.

I think i will post up in a while. Though knowing myself I wouldn't promise that yet.