Wedding Chronicles - I (The Bong Konnection)

"A man in love is incomplete until he is married.  Then he's finished." - Zsa Zsa Gabor

My best friend Subhodeep has been in love since the last 2 years nearly. So late last year he decided to move on and get married to the women of his dreams. It was a strange feeling to get the news from him. My chaddi dost was getting married. Had we grown old enough? I still remember us parking ourselves on the bus stops outside our tuitions and looking at nature's beauty. And now he was getting married !

Managing to go to wedding was tricky as I had urgent committments at work around the same time and plus with me quitting it was doubly tricky. But there was no way in which I could miss his wedding. Luckily even my other buddy and partner-in-crime Hradayesh was gonna be there so Subhu was gonna be screwed by his best buddies. I landed in Kolkata in the evening before the wedding day. Subhu had sent his car to have me picked up. So the royal treatment had started from the airport itself. 

The journey from the Airport to Subhodeep's home was fascinating. Kolkata is allegedly a metro and a one with some many amenities. For example if you are going for any function, you dont need a make - up as there is enough carbon in the air to decorate the face. There is also lot of dust just in case you needed to add the glamour quotient. The roads are amazing. They are based on the famous funnel design. The main roads are two cars wide. The approach roads are one car wide. Just to make sure the people there bond closely on the roads.  This is one city that needs too many flyovers (approach roads included). All cars there are dented even the Mercedes. The trucks and buses operating there seem as if they were bought when the first ones were made by the companies. Kolkata loves its heritage and culture. This is why they still have the old buildings which are very close to each other (some are standing only because they cannot fall i.e. well supported on all the 4 sides). Conclusion: Infrastructure needs a major overhaul ! So is Kolkata really a city of Joy ? Yes it is. Because the people are awesome. If you want to ever see how a content life is to be led then come to Kolkata and live with them. They are a closely knit unit who still pride in living life the simple way which is difficult to find in any other city.

It took me about an hour and half to reach my buddy's place. And there he was .. waiting for me at the window - all dressed up in a amazing kurta ! Then I was treated to a couple of awesome Bengali dishes: Rosogulla, Sondesh, 4 pc Maach and four huge tiger prawns cooked in authentic Bengali style. Then I had loochi ( 9 of them) and was very very full. Btw the Dulha is not supposed to be eating non-Veg before the wedding day. So he had luchi and curry. After which we retired for the day !

The Bong weddings are physically a torture for the Dulha. He is supposed to wake up at 4 am in the morning and then made to eat curd. After that whole day till the wedding is over he cannot have anything but fruits and Mishti. Oh man ! Imagine all the yummy food around and you are only allowed to drool ! Culturally a bong wedding is a amazing treat to the eyes. In the morning they pack lots of packets (about 63 here) which contains daily use items for the girl and the family (exhaustive - dresses, deo, powder and even comb). And there is a entire barrage of sweets. Also a first to me: a model of the mantap with the dulha-dulhan, family and the panda (priest) made out of sweets. Also a model of a house and farm outside it made totally out of the masala (or sounp that we have after food). Took all of that in 3 Tata sumos and delivered it at the girl's house.

From there I went to pick up our Dubai Sheikh Hradayesh from the airport filling him up on the action that he missed till now. We went to Subhu's place and were greeted by food again. Man ! I cant remember the last time I have stuffed myself to this level  before and I still wanted more. Its not everyday that you get to eat such awesome stuff. In the evening we reached the wedding hall ofcourse with the natural make up and glamour added by Kolkata's roads and traffic. We went in and surrounded the groom in his moment of glory. A weird note to add here: the groom's mom cannot attend the wedding. That sucks ! I wonder why such a thing exists ! People came and blessed him while we watched him put on his awesome Colgate smile. You gotta give it to him, its a tiring day but he still looked energetic.

Then the bride's father came and asked our Dulha to come and marry his daughter. Our Dulha was in for more torture as he sat in front of the havan with the smoke blowing on his face and being surrounded by so many people. It was a virtual sauna bath for the poor chap. The bride joined him an hour later and ditto for her. Soon it was time for the sindoor but the sauna bath had taken its toll on the dulha. Instead of applying it on the forehead he applied some on her nose as well. My best buddy had just lost his bachelor's degree !

The ceremony continued for some more time and soon it was time for dinner. Food was amazing again. Soon the Dulha joined. But the ceremony was not completely done yet. In Bong culture the first night doesnt happen on the first night. The first night the dulha-dulhan and their friends spend the night together playing games till late in the morning.

We commemerated that by first doing the Dhoti-haran of my buddy and his close cousin ! Then we played the dumb charades of B & C- grade movies like "Adhoori Kanya", "Sookhi Naali mein Murde ki Geeli laash" and many more. The rest as they say was history ! 

By 5am we called it a day. I and Hradayesh were supposed to catch the early morning flight at 8 so we woke up at 6.30 and scrammed to the airport !

All in all it was an awesome time ! Just too memorable for us ! 

Suburban Rail Madness !

The one very big upside of my job is that I get to travel all over Mumbai. This is the video i shot at Virar station just after peak hours were over. Notice how enthusiastically people get on to the train. I simply love it !

Breaking the News !

Background: ISB happened on Nov 20. While it meant moving on in pursuit of my dreams, it also meant that I have to quit my current job which I simply love. Let me be honest on this: I have a dream job in Ashok Leyland where inspite of being the youngest in the regional office I was given the best of responsibilities which gave me a lot of exposure (read importance) - the kind of stuf we dream of when passing out of college ! So quitting was tough and telling my boss (who had been instrumental in giving these responsibilties to me) was tougher. Everybody in office knows that my departure is a big setback to him coz' I am handling all his key projects and responsibilties. So replacing me will be a daunting task to him ! So this the story on how I managed to tell him and how he took it !

Since Nov 20 I have been waiting for the right time to tell my boss that I was moving on. But I wasnt sure what his reactions would be. I was worried that if I told him immediately he would keep me jobless till March. And joblessness is something I cant handle right !  To quit, I had to give a month's notice and considering the volume of work I handle I decided that January would be appropriate as it would give me 2 months to handover responsibilities. In that way my boss would be hit too bad as he would have time to recover.So it meant he had to wait to know.

Come January I knew the time had come. Now it was all about choosing the right time ! December 15 to January 14th is a inauspicious time for Marathis (my boss is a marathi) so I didnt wanna tell him and reinforce his belief in that ! So I decided to spill the beans after 15th.

Attempt 1 (16th Jan 2009): I reached Office at 9am. A bit nervous ! A bit anxious ! But eager to get it out ! But my boss was not to be seen. I waited and waited ... still no signs ! Tried calling ... phone unreachable ! God .. where was he? Finally he turned up around lunch time. I wasted no time and went to his cabin. I didnt wanna start my conversation with "I am going to quit" so I am told him of all the pending issues which I had managed to resolve. But he was not listening ! Then he started saying about issues that were of concern and told me about the meeting he attended in the morning where he was screwed royally. He looked really agitated (thats his natural reaction to problems) ! Oh Oh !! Wrong time to give him the news !! ABORT ABORT !! I quietly left the cabin after offering some suggestions on how to handle the issue.

Attempt 2 (17th Jan 2009): After reaching the office I was told that an review meeting had been called. All of us gathered in the central hall for the meeting. The review meeting started by 10am. My boss presided over the meeting and quickly started to first discuss general issues. Then he started to take up issues individually with each one of us. When my turn came he started adding new responsibilties to me by stressing how important they were and told me that the company was going to give me a new laptop. I was bewildered ... my colleagues who knew about my plans couldnt help getting a smurky smile on their face. I was thinking "In a few minutes you will be wondering what hit you" ! Finally meeting ended around lunch time. He must have got really hungry coz' he straight away started munching his lunch (Chapathi and bhendi fry). Seeing that I got hungry myself and went for lunch. Later around 3 when I came back to him to give him the news, he said he was kind of busy and that he would call me.  Around 4 he wanted some data. By 5 I got all the data ready and gave it to him. Since we stayed very close by I decided I would travel with him in his car back home ! That way I would have his undivided attention ! At dot 5.30 I went to his cabin .... Shoooshhh .... he was gone ! He had left early because of some work ! Guess god didnt want me to ruin his weekend !

Attempt 3 (19th Jan 2009): This attempt was thwarted even before I made it. He sent me on a special assignment to meet a customer, conivnce him about our truck technically and close a sales deal. So I decided to tell him in the afternoon. When I called around lunch time to tell him that I was coming to office he told me not to as  one my colleagues had lost his father. So everybody was leaving for his place ! Somehow it didnt look appropriate of me to break the news ! So plan aborted .. again ! But to ensure that I got his time on Tuesday I messaged him in the night "Sir, Will you be available in office tomorrow in the 2nd half? We need to discuss a few urgent issues". To this he replied "Yes." Gotta make this one count !

Touchdown (20th Jan 2009):  I had a meeting to attend at a customer's place in the morning. The meeting dragged abnormally long and ended by 3pm. I called up my colleague in the office and he told me that my boss had not yet shown up. It was a bit frustrating to hear that but I was sure he would turn up. So I left for office and reached by 4pm. When I reached my boss also had turned up ! So had to nail this today at any cost. He was really busy till 5.30 but I let him know that I was waiting for him. Luckily he had plans to stick in office till 8pm as he had a few reports to send to HO. At about 6pm he called me ... after talking about how I managed to close the deal with the customer .. I broke it to him !! 

He was shocked and taken aback ! He took 2 minutes to digest what I had just told him ! He got melancholic after that and told me a lot of senti stuff and then he wished me luck in my future endeavors. After about half'n hour we were done and I left as ISB - Mumbai 6.0 was waiting for me ! By the time I reached the rendezvous point, my colleague called and told me how depressed my boss got and left for home immediately after I left his cabin. "We'll do the report tomorrow. There is no hurry" he quipped to my colleague as he left !

Somehow I feel sad for him but in life nothing is for forever. Each one of us has to move on !

Short term Memory loss Service Engineer

This is how a Service Engineer with short term memory loss would be like. 

Things I am likely to hear at ISB !

This is my compilation of what I think will be one of the Top 5 lines in the introductory conversations between two people at ISB:

1. "Your posts at PG sounded smarter."

2. "I love your blogs. They have a better sense of humour than you."

3. "And to think that I was looking forward to meet you."

4. "Wow ! You look better than your orkut pics. I guess the camera does add 10 pounds."

5. "Since you were the first to volunteer for coordinating our pre-ISB lunches, why dont you volunteer to get dunked into the pool first?"