Life is…My thoughts…

Day before yesterday morning, while coming back from office after doing a night lost my wallet somewhere. Man it is so disturbing. Firstly due to the loss of so many important things and secondly due the feeling of carelessness i am getting that i couldn’t take care of it and lost it somewhere like this. Absolutely no clues how and where it happened but i am feeling so so bad about it .

Another cause of headache for last two weeks have been finding a new accommodation. So many things related to this one suck, so we have been planning to change it since long. Finally when some stuff got out of control, we had to take the decision and start the hunt. Man it is such a shitty job. Finally after 2 weeks or so and compromising a bit on our choice and all, finalized one and will be shifting by this month end.

On the little better side, finally managed to watch Rajneeti yesterday night. A good movie after pretty long time. Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai and especially Ranbir Kapoor gave brilliant performances. Katrina did a pretty nice job too. A good enjoyment overall.

Looks like an incomplete post . Not much to write, just hoping for the things to be in little better order in coming time .

In the evening, me and my roommate went out for a round of market and i was telling him this story. Just felt like writing it.

It was in Jan or Feb of 2004 and i hadn’t got a job by then. I was doing my final semester 6 months training. 2 of my good friends were in Delhi for the training. One day they came to know about some job opening in some not-really-a-BPO company (yea, something like handling calls about some networking or some similar stuff…not that dishwasher can wash under wears or not types). So they called me in the evening, say 5 PM and asked me to take the night train to Delhi, as the interviews were scheduled for the next day. So it was the time to pack bags and leave for Delhi. I packed the necessary luggage and started getting ready to catch the night train. It was just my 3rd or 4th time in a train. So i was not aware about the reservations thing and different types of tickets. Just knew one thing; ticket to Delhi . I reached the railway station well before time, bought one ticket and started waiting for the train. It was just a general compartment ticket so had to board that only. Finally the train arrived and man this general compartment thingie was crowded like anything. But there was no other option available so had to enter somehow. After entering i adjusted myself and the bag i was carrying. It was a long journey (around 6 hours) and it was really difficult to travel in this position. Finaly after 1-2 hours i got a half seat; yea exactly half. So it was little better but still traveling on half seat in the night, that too in such a crowded compartment is no fun, for sure but oh yes…there was no other option.

It had started to dawn and the train reached Delhi railway station. As i had to go to Noida so there was another mission pending to be accomplished. As i was explained, i started looking for a bus to Noida (It is such a pity that even being called NCR, traveling from Delhi to Noida/Gurgaon or opposite is the most pathetic thing to do). It took me around half an hour or more to look for the place from where i would get a bus to Noida. And by the time people had directed me to 3 different places that you would get it from here, here or there etc etc. As they say that people in Delhi don’t say NO. They do tell you something, may be wrong only ! So finally i succeeded and got the bus to Noida. As luck would have it, there was some problem with the engine of the bus and the driver spent around 15 minutes trying to do some jugaad-ment. Anyways, just taking it as part of the mission, i was sitting quietly, half sleepy and tired. Oh yes…then the stop where i had to get off came. I took rickshaw from there and now the target was just 10 minutes away . As expected, i reached in the room in 10 minutes. The next task was to skim through some books and get ready for the interview. I took half-bath (yea half as there was no hot water and moreover i was tired and sleepy so could mange half only ). Then i skimmed through some technical stuff. 2 of my friends had to leave for their office but there was another friend who had to accompany me to the company as i was totally new to the city…

He told me about some interview tips and all and in the afternoon, we left for the venue. In 45 minutes or so we were there. Went to the company’s office and found that actually there were no interviews happening that day ! Oh boy hit the shit ! I was with totally blank head and the only thing i could think of was to come back. Again there was no other option . But my friend was already doing a job in some BPO, so he was aware about the recruitment process of BPOs. There was another BPO’s building adjacent to this one and he said that we should check there also. As we went there, we found out that there was some recruitment planned and a chance to appear for that. Oh man some luck at last. We went inside, filled the forms and started waiting. My friend said that he would also sit in the test to avoid some boredom. As otherwise also he had nothing to do . Finally i cleared the test (he didn’t as he sat in the test to just kill some time…). There was an interview after that and they asked me to wait for HR round.  After sometime they called me for the HR round and oh YES it was done. The final wait was for the offer letter. I can’t express in words that how good it feels after clearing  2-3 rounds of interviews and waiting for your offer letter. And boy if it is your first job, it is pure magic ! My friend had to go for his shift so he left. It was evening already so my 2 other friends got free from their office and directly reached there. I was still waiting for the offer letter. Finally they gave us the offer letters and we left for the room happily. I would again say that the feeling of getting your first job is really awesome. Though it was not an A class job, but still a job is a job and something is almost always better than nothing. We had got really late and reached at room around 1 in the night. In the society, we even met the UP police’s night patrolling guys  and they congratulated for the job and asked for a treat .

So that was how i landed the first job of my career .

One day, after 2-3 weeks, i was coming back from office and met the same guys and they said “bhai tune party ni di abhi tak” . Their party is still pending…

There are some people in this world who are plain *#&(#&$#*($*& and they would not mend their ways come what may. What would you do if you see someone like that in trouble and you seem to be in a position to give a helping hand ? Would you help him/her ? Would it be a pre-decided thing that whether to help him/her or not  or it would depend upon the state of mind at that time ?

Once more…coffee…oops…its getting too much probably . This time we went to Barista . Getting seats was also a struggle. We had to get our name listed and he told us to wait for 15-20 mintues. The guy who was managing all this was almost a complete idiot, so the first impression was not so good . We were three guys. After getting the seats, we ordered 2 hot and 1 cold Cappuccino (Oh yes, this time also i googled for spells ). After some time he got 2 cups; in one cup something hot and cold in the other one. We were surprised to see the third cup missing but just waited. It was not Cappuccino actually, as we rightly guessed (What i was dead sure was that Cappuccino, at least contained some milk ). By the time we were done with this, he got the actual order. So we started enjoying the coffee we had ordered . By the time we finished it, i decided to screw him up and ask for the feedback form if he added that wrong-order-on-our-table stuff in our bill. But but but…he charged only for the right order and we spared him from the not-so-good feedback

This time it was Costa Coffee. And this time the question is that why nobody was speaking anything there ? All their waiters were silent. Even when we asked for the bill he came back with a piece of paper which read “Cash/Card ?” So any clues whats that ?

Time flies; they say. Its so true. Day before yesterday i was exploring youtube and came across few videos of Lux style awards held in Karachi where Atif Aslam & Shehzad Roy paid tribute to the legendary singer Reshma.

Given her age (she has turned 60+, i think), she was not able to sing properly. It made me recall my childhood days. We used to listen to Lahore radio station which frequently played Reshma’s songs. The most popular was haye o rabba naio lagda dil mera. Since childhood her voice has been so familiar and she has been a respected and “motherly” figure in my eyes. Then it was the articles in Punjabi newspapers about her, her life that how simple living she had, she will always keep dupatta on her head (she says jokingly that dressing style of Reshma & Sikhs has never changed and will never change) and will cook for all her guests at home. Also the stories that how hard it was for her to read and memorize his first Urdu song. It has been almost 14-15 years to all this. Still the memories are so fresh in my mind. And now when Reshma was on stage and looking old it reminds of how grown up i am; an “old” boy. Time flies…really !

May God bless Reshma ji with a healthy and long life ! Respect !

I almost count myself in the so called desi janta, not much aware of the ultra-modern lifestyle.  But it has happened twice in a week that with friends,  i went to CCD to have some coffee . First it was 2-3 days back and then today again. To avoid falling in much complexity, both the times i ordered Cappuccino (yes, i used Google for the spells ). But due to some reason, both the times it was served cold not hot. So today i was just wondering, may be there is something i am not aware of and it is served cold only; not that hot as i expected ? Any clues ?

While dealing with anything remotely related to money, the last thing i like to do is going to bank.  Most of the time, i try to do it online but some things are such that there is no other way out. One of my friend and his wife had to get their US visa stamped and he asked me to go to HDFC bank and get the receipts after paying the visa fees. I have done it before also. So it was not expected to be a big deal. Just go to HDFC bank, fill the form, submit the cash required and get it. But when God wants some adventure in your life there pops out some way of making you have it. I went to HDFC bank and asked that lady about it. First she uttered something while giving those forms (Thanks to those beautiful looking glass windows with holes of size of  the  eye of a sparrow, you can hardly understand what they speak). Then she said that they have stopped taking cash for this and you have to pay through cheque or Demand Draft (DD). So i asked (on some different counter)  if i can get DD made by paying cash ? He said NO; you need to have an account in HDFC bank. After all the beauty it was time to leave and postpone it to tomorrow.

But after getting back to office, i checked with another bank if they could make it by cash and thank God the answer was YES. So it was all set for tomorrow as half of the stuff would get done here itself. So i totalled the amount (Visa Fees & HDFC bank charges) and got 2 DDs done (for 2 people).

Today was the next wonder day to go to HDFC bank. So i reached there, with a fear in mind that now she will say that you need to get 1 DDs each for Visa fees and HDFC bank charges. This total thing was of no use. The same thing happened. So those hard worked DDs were of no use and a new strategy was required. So i called one of my friend to come with his cheque book of ICICI bank (He will bring his cheque book to office was a pre-planned stuff, due to the above fear ). So he also reached and started the process for new DDs. To add icing on the cake, ICICI bank’s software went slow (or some similar crap) and it took more than an hour to get it done. Finally we went back to HDFC bank and THANK GOD it was all right. There i was with 2 receipts, after so much of hard work !

Then to release some frustration we had a Cappuccino at Cafe Coffee Day .

I have almost always hated going to doctors, be it a small clinic or some big hospital. I always try to avoid it till last when there is no other option left. Then also, i would prefer to go to some clinic where a doctor sits and checks the patients rather then going to some multi-story hospital where there are more doctors and assistants than patients. Otherwise also, i am not very fond of royal lifestyle. But as i said when there is no option left, one has to take the call. Today was something like that only. I was having flu’ish, cough’ish and bit of fever’ish feeling since morning. Due to the viral attack these days, thought about going to some doctor in the evening. There is a good doctor in the locality. So i thought about going to him. Never knew it was a golden season for doctors, i reached there anddddd his clinic was full like an over-loaded train. I just got my name noted by his assistant and came back home to go after 1 hour or so. I went again after 1 and 1/2 hour but again had to wait for almost 30 minutes for my turn. Finally i got my turn. He asked few questions and started writing the medicines. Man he was going on and on and on. Finally after making 5 entries; few tablets, capsules and a syrup he stopped. Then he also asked to get a Blood & Urine test done tomorrow (one more worry to be taken care of ). So after all this game, here i am writing this post and medicines on my left side asking for attention .

PS: Oh yes, why this title ? Actually when i went for the first time and his assistant noted my name, i asked how long i have to wait ? He said may be 1 hour or so. There are 31 people before you. So ideally i was 32nd in the queue but 31st just looks a bit fancy so i chose 31

It is a tough question to answer that whether cleaning your house would be tough if you are a bachelor or you were married as in first case you clean your room and might assist your roommate in cleaning his and in latter case you assist your better half in cleaning the whole house . Anyways, i haven’t gone through the latter one but today was the day for experiencing the first one. It has been pending since long time and we had been planning it since pretty long. Everything was terribly screwed up and needed attention. Finally that fine Sunday came and now everything has been cleaned and set properly. As usual, what i liked the most is my books shelf which is just looking too good after arranging everything properly

Next on agenda is to clean my laptop of all the clutter around ie files, folders etc etc…