Mumbai

Finally I went on board for my internship. After a tumultuous week I don’t really want to write this but let’s do it for Prateek and Rangoli, 2 very vella followers of my blog. So, Saturday morning was my train and for the first time ever I needed the tatkal system to be successful but you know it, things can never be so predictable for me and it wasn’t in spite of using solid jugaad which had never ever failed. Then the jugaad person promised a ticket in the night train, so hopefully I got the previous one cancelled and was glad that I got an extra 12 hours at home but it backfired. The fact that I am going away from home for the first time for a long duration did not occur to me previously when I was busy with the packing and all stuff but during this time I had nothing to do so all those negative thoughts came into mind and I called up the near and dear ones for one last chat before going, a sign of weakness. I had company for the ride in the form of Gul (my first cousin’s daughter)’s dad. We made sure that she was sent somewhere else before we left along with dad who was there to see us off because I doubt whether she would have let us go that easily. Deep down, I felt sad for my 3 year old niece, it was like cheating her. Predictably ma cried, in spite of all my talks.

There at the station, when I came out of this scenario and saw the challenges I have to face, suddenly my motivation was back. Bribe was paid to secure the seat and dad comforted me by saying that these are honest people (convincing me that they won’t run away with my money and give me a seat in spite of there being no proof of my claim). The ride is the only part I can’t fully describe here, will later come in my autobiography when the one big partial lie will be revealed. Didn’t really get much sleep and the fellow passengers were adamant that the lights be switched off so I couldn’t read anything so instead I chatted along with Chirag and realized that he has treaded the same path of struggle on which I am walking now and I didn’t feel that bad about all the mistakes I have committed, keeping in mind the greater good. Many wonderful insights were gained, and totally not conforming to ma’s instructions I blurted all what I justifiably think I should have and made him realize how this machau disguise of mine is a wonderful recourse to all this tension around. Tasted 10 different types of mineral water on the way and was so happy that sis was on time at Surat to take the extra baggage which ma had bundled me with, containing the local delicacies which I feel are useless as in this globalization time when everything is available everywhere. Narmada river underneath the bridge was huge and it reaffirmed my belief in the concept of creation of the early human civilizations near rivers. Land near Mumbai was scary, all submerged.

I agree that I am here to grow and growth is through learning and learning is hard but why were there eunuchs in my story that too just when I was about to reach, that too really obstinate ones( again non reveal able part here). Destiny tried to scare me off by making it rain again but I was ready for it and the clouds ran away, making sure not to make me angry. The way to my guest house went through the boundary of the airport, Dharavi and I doubt whether it should be called a slum as the shops looked pretty decent there. The guest house was great and initially the first reaction of seeing a high rise building was to count the number of floors and right now the highest I have counted is 35 (under construction). The first day in spite of being very tired, Pavit and Akshay (fellow interns) took me to the office on foot but returned from 20 metres before the building with the excuse,’kal to ana hi hai, tab dekh lenge’ (will see it tomorrow when we would report to work).

Now comes the first day, with all 3 of us rather sound sleepers, the morning light from the window and not the sound form the alarms saved us from getting late. Akshay without his moustache ( got trimmed off that very day like it happened with Ajay Devgan (Devgn) in the movie ‘Pyar to hona hi tha’) looked a shadow of the person whom I thought would be an easy target for me and turned up to be a pretty decent person. From some rather funny notion portraying us to be ‘Delegates from New York’ office and have to be suited perfectly, he convinced us all to wear ties and and we were the only 3 people with ties till lunch time after when I decided that enough was enough. We missed the first day of W2D (welcome to deloitte), the famed introduction session of Deloitte and the very reason for us not getting a joining date immediately after our exams so that we could have it with the whole batch of people joining due to some miscommunication from the HR. We have been given really good lappies for our duration, (it is for the whole staff as desktops are used only for the big workloads) I was put into a live project team on day 1 and fell onto the mercy of a workaholic DCE (DTU) passout employee who I think is wasting his life by not having any kind of fun. His eyes enlightened on finding a prey in the form of a NSIT student, especially since the last time, the DCE interns under him had not done anything significant so he made it clear that I would be pushed hard. I was told to line up all these softwares for installation and ring up the call centre for the validation tickets. It got pretty late and also rained so the other 2 who have been having a pretty easy time, left and got an auto but still got very wet whereas there was none available by the time I packed up so had to walk back all the way to home, hence the previous night recee proved worthy. At night we did various activities like showcasing our brand of cinema, mine the Deshdrohi, Gunda kind, Pavit with some Victorian classics and Akshay with his Japanese, Korean kind and none of us liked what the other had on display.

The second day was legendary, one of the softwares, IBM RAD costing 2184$ (cheaper for the firm as they take licenses in bulk) came with a 160 page installation book which had to be followed word to word was taking a lot of time and I was instructed not to leave before completing it and I returned home at 11 PM, after a 14 hour day. This time we had a bigger goof up, we went to the assigned apartment for our dinner and Pavit left the only key to the main door inside. So we got LOCKED OUT. Vikas (the laundry boy) tried all tricks but couldn’t open it. With nothing but a couple of cell phones outside and everything inside, the idea of sleeping just outside the door seemed acceptable until we got a confirmation that a locksmith was on the way braving the rain. When he arrived, he jacked up the price to 1000 from an acceptable 600 but we stood our ground as we had another one on the way who was twice told not to come in spite of leaving for our place. All this was too much for me and I started laughing hysterically while rolling on the floor. Finally it opened and I was happy that his workload increased as the key he had used to open it broke down inside the lock and he had to take out its pieces. But it is a scary thing to know that these guys can open anything and everything.
The next day after work we spent looking for a place to live and it drew a blank. Pavit got his stay arranged and I felt betrayed as it felt like someone who knew swimming jumped off a sinking boat leaving just 2 of us and I had told all my contacts to look for a place for all 3. But I accept that it was really foolish on my side, he had tried all he could and arranged for my stay at the very place for 1 week. Anyways, this lead to frantic calls by both me and Akshay to our respective families for arrangements. As I was later wisely told by Chirag, this too was a sign of weakness. Irrespective of all, the night was spent the boy’s way and they were thankful to me for introducing them to someone whose sirname is ‘Heart’. Also came the news that Akshay had to rush back for a week for his midsems which were twice cancelled previously.
I always wondered what next and did not get disappointed as the next day started with spilled coffee for me and also a weird dress combination which was immediately shot down by all around me for not being, ‘formal’ and also led to my PM saying, ‘you seem to be having a tough time boy’ and it had happened as my trousers were misplaced by the laundry wala. Next night, we used the FIFO algorithm to take turns at showing the pics of nice looking girls in our facebook friends list and also ripped apart the famed and shamelessly expensive alphonso mangoes (well documented in facebook pics) like a villain does away with the heroine’s clothes. I again fell down laughing on seeing the look on Pavit’s face after his first one turned out to be rotten and mind you this one was specially chosen by him.

Friday was the ‘casual’ dress code day and I was shocked to see how cool and happy everyone around seemed. There was one really hot IIM-A girl who seems to have vanished along with other management recruits. Anyways, I doubt my chances of getting female company here as the fear of being labelled a flirt is stopping me from venturing out from my close group of friends.

Coming back to work, my team comprises of kind hearted people who don’t compromise at all on work as our project manager is very strict on deadlines and I was feeling goosebumps when someone else was being given the treatment for keeping his work pending. We have a meeting every day, and even if I am not meant to be in it, I gatecrash no matter how boring it is to learn from all these hotshots. Another game for us is to brag about how senior our respective manager is. The other 2 have got relatively easy work whereas I would be having a challenging time, I guess it serves me right to get into some serious coding as I have not touched upon it since a long time. The simple yes to an innocuous question, ‘bhaiya non veg khaoge?’ (will you eat non-veg? )lead to some bad blood at our guest house when we checked out. Right now I am at the place where Pavit would be staying for the whole duration and would move to our arranged accommodation along with other Deloitte employees when Akshay returns. This place is awesome, apart from all the necessary utilities, a breathtaking view, 2 gyms, a pool table and I have seen just 3-4 other guests here for the 19 available rooms so have all these resources in the available category (only those who have studied operating system can get this joke but am sure you would still not laugh). But in spite of all this I am getting bored as Pavit has gone to his relatives and Akshay back in Delhi for exams. Let’s hope the matter gets ever more complicated if I get called up for the lucky loser round at the sports quiz by synergy.

Well, my relatives too could have got me this place if they wanted to but they didn’t, thankfully maintain my fire to do better than them in life. All I want from this time is experiences and memories as the responsibility of taking snaps has been handed over to Pavit as he is pretty good at it. The plan to go to Essel World has been shot down with the statement, ‘wahaan to bache jaate hain’ (kids go there) by both and they are pretty keen to see some film shooting. Will try my jugaad for it though I myself am least interested in it. Someone please suggest me a better word to replace the repeated use of ‘in spite’ which has been used 6 times in this post. Don't know when will the placement preparations start, a bagful of books is waiting to be opened. Have exhausted my Sunday for this post so better value it.