!5th Nov 2006!! Age:- 23...

Happy birthday to me , happy birthday to me...
I am updating my blog after quite a while today but the focus of today's entry is as u can see from the title "My 23rd Birthday'...
My birthday was ushered in with my closest friends present in Pune...
Annshul, Saurabh,Namit,Sam,Neha and his friends Rajat n Kunal...
Got the privilige to cut 2 cakes at night!
Sam got me a bottle of RED wine which we all gleefully finished in like 10 mins!
Well since then the only thing I have been busy with is attending calls, replying to mails and scraps...
I got a surprised in the morning when a delivery guy gave me a bouquet of roses on behalf of Divya early in the morning...
I reached office by 11 am and since then I have been busy only with calls, mails n scraps....
My training batch group from Infy came to Phase 2 Food court around lunch time to celebrate my birthday , the only way they know...
Let the birthday boy cut the cake and then kill him with bumps...
Well got birthdaybumps after a gap of 3 yrs so am happy to have been able to attain such a record period.
The afternoon period bought me more surprises as I recieved 3 boxes of chocolates from Ruchi who sent them via courier from the U.S.
the entire day was spent wondering man am i lucky to be blessed with so many well wishers n friends...
I guess today i came to know the number of friends and people i really know and who care abt me...
And believe me its a mind blowing number... Serious mind blowing...
Well i have ard 4 hrs of my birthday to spend now!
I guess will do that with Annshul now!
God has been great to me to have blessed me with so many dear n near ones...
Hope he keeps this grace over all of us for as long as we exist...
Thank u one n all for making my birthday... one to remember...
God bless u all!

Best Diwali ever!!

Diwali-07 will be one that I'll remember for a very long time!!
This Diwali was special in many ways than one...First it was after a yrs absence that I was celebrating diwali at home.(I was in Hyderabad last yr same time). Secondly this was the first time in Diwali that I haven't burst even a fulgadhi forget abt crackers n stuff.
Apart from chilling at home and gorging on some delicious food I also met up with most of my friends and most importantly my school friends whom I met after a gap of 7 and a half yrs. I also met up with Arun, ravi,Gaurav and Anvita the same day!!
And that is not all...I even managed to spend some time with Sambit n Bhavesh too that nite as well as chilled at fannoos with my Elex friends.
I guess the only set of friends I didn't meet this Diwali were my Extc classmates.
On Diwali nite as is the tradition for many yrs we all went to Anna uncle place for Diwali pooja and celebrations. Later that nite I played cricket in my building which in turning into an annual do now...and the best part being that I was in the form of my life both in terms of batting and fielding...Must have played ard 12 games and my team won abt 8 games after being 2-4 down at one stage.
On Monday I spent the afternoon at my sister's place. Good quality time pulling each others leg... Later went to meet my maasi at breach kandy, where I bumped into Cherisha.Spent the evening with her before going to Churchgate. Took a walk till Colaba causeway n back before coming back home and retiring for the nite...
All in all the entire trip was tiring but great and I ended my Mumbai sojourn as always by spending Tuesday nite at Fannoos with Mohit n Batka.Spoke to Bakdu n Ruchi after a long time on the same nite....
As for now, I spend the entire of today sitting in office doing nothing but orkutting... Man what a waste of a day...Would have been better playing cricket back in Mumbai; nevertheless it's time to go , as one more diwali of my life comes to a close.

p.s... Went to school on Saturday morning for a while.Roamed around the Hansraj ground as well as my own school...
Saw a group of kids playing 3 on 4 football. What times, what fun...Sadly they all remain a sweet distant memory now...

Just Another Week!

Well where should I start from....
The past couple of days,nay actually a lot more than that were spent in the office from 10 in the morning to 10 in the nite!
Yes sir, I have been working a 12hr shift for the past 7-8 days now. Have thoroughly enjoyed it though.
For the first time in a long time, I am having the feeling of satisfaction of doing something productive with my life and existence on this earth. For the first time in my life I am taking responsibility for my actions.
The past few days have taught me quite a few important lessons which I hope will go a long way in shaping my future in this world in whatever capacity I find myself.
Apart from work, the weekend went smoothly.
A brief summary...
Saturday played football in the morning. Did household shopping in the afternoon. Ate at Pizza Hut in the nite.Over...
Sunday gave a PRECAT test;screwed up royally. Nothing unusual about that.Then highlight of the weekend!!!
Finally dragging myself to go check a bike.Went to a Baja showroom to check a few models.Hoping to get a bike for myself before Diwali! Keeping my fingers crossed.
After the trip to the showroom the three of us i.e Annshul,Divya and your's truly went to Adlabs to catch a movie.
Saw Dor...wortha watch if u have way to much time in your hand and cash to spare.
After the movie wnet to Pune Central for some Window shopping.
The nite was spent at Sheesha lounging around, enjoying whatelse but Hooka...
Monday came and the mundane existence on this earth was well and truly underway once again.
Sambit took his GRE this week.Managed 1270...
Had a celebration get-together to mark the occassion.Reached the place late alongwith Annshul and found a group of 6 high spirited individuals enjoying themselves over drinks.That was a fun nite!
Well to sum it all up...Life is smooth, god is great and I am shit tired to type anymore....

Back to the Good Old Days!!

Last week was spent doing mundane work for most part of my working hours.
The best time during office was spent on the basketball court in the evening practising for the weekend match against Mahindra Tech...
The weekend started with a trip to Apache(Chandnichowk) on Friday nite after office and more importantly practice.
Girish and Shruti on one bike and myself & Divya on the other.Namit, Annshul and Kiran joined us there in their respective bikes.
The evening was fun listening to rock music and having beer & vodka.It was the first time that I had gone out with Girish & Co...It was fun.
Saturday started early for me with a match at 8.40 am against Mahindra Tech.
Played the second half and scored a goal apart from winning a penalty for the team.
Went on to win 4-0.
The match turned out to be great for my self confidence since the goal was a long time coming.
The entire team was happy for me.
Reached Mumbai in the afternoon and met the guys at Fanoos in the nite.
It rained like crazy the whole weekend in Mumbai.But the best was yet to come.
Sunday was a day to remember.
I got up early hoping to go and appear for the Precat at Dadar but looking at the rains decided otherwise.
In the evening went to TOPS to play football with the lads.
this time around it was more fun than last week since we wee 7 of us.
Played 4 vs 3, with me,Mohit and Ankit prevailing against,Matka,Batka,Sanket and Rahul in the end.
Final Score: 15-9.
Later we were joined by Anway,Jay,Punit and Akash at college.
Went inside college after a long time.
checked out the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Nothing had changed except new AC's been put in the elex clas of yore.
Deja-Vu for me...
From college we proceeded to Khasiyat for dinner and then to Aashirwad for some mouth watering desserts in the form of ice-creams.We were joined by Neha there.
As always is the case the nite ended with a hooka in hand at Fanoos.
Man,sunday was a day to cherish...
Got back to the good old days; albeit just for a few hours.
Monday was spend playing cricket in the building;one more of my favourite activities from college time.
In all the entire weekend in Mumbai was spent doing what I love most: Playing my heart out with friends...
To cap it all off:- Happy dussera to all....

What A Weekend!!

Well to start with, the weekend came sooner for me than expected.
On Friday we had a project account party in the evening...
We were taken to a place called Lekha farms close to the Mumbai-Pune highway.
A nice place to run away from the hub-bub of the city but still not something that would interest us youngsters...The place has vast acres of green pasture and we started off on the right note too with a game of cricket...
The game was fun since we got to see our SPM,DM,PM's and PA's rubbing shoulder with us S.E's at the same level.
After that we had a game of musical chairs.It may sound boring and trust me the trip was boring,but the sight of seeing grown up playing that game just brought out the funny side of the whole affair.People were tumbling over and chasing each other in pursuit of that eculsive chair...
After the fun and frolics we got down to the serious business of dancing but alas the D.J didn't have anything but hindi songs...
We dragged ourselves to the dance floor and tried enjoying the music but after the experience of the D.J in the previous account party we had,this one was a big let down....
The silver lining of the entire trip was the dinner...
Man what a meal...
A full course Indian thali...
I hogged like a pig which I usually do anyways...
The trip ended at 11 in the nite, a bit early for an account party but I was happy.I needed sleep badly after the t.p we guys did in the room the previous nite since Gaurav had come for the weekend from Mysore.
I forgot to add that in the afternoon the same day my ex-PM gave our entire Purtron(that's my previous project) group a lunch treat at dominos...
Again needless to say that I hogged like anything.
Well that's all abt Friday.If u though this was fun then the time I had in the weekend ahead was even better.
Sarturday started with an early morning cricket practise at F.C road.I reached the place at 7.30 am alongwith Akhilesh...
The practise was uneventful. Finally the cricket season has started.
I reached home at 10.45 alongwith Girish and then we guys made our way to Baner in the car to pick up Dilip and his friends.
I was taking my car back to Mumbai today after 3 months.
The drive back to Mumbai was far from uneventful.
At first we thought that one of the tyres was punctured so we stopped on the way to get it checked.
Then when we were on the expressway I realized that I hadn't filled petrol in the car and we were running dangerously low on it.
Keeping our fingers crossed I sped throught the open roads admiring the beautiful scenic images around me hoping to land on a petrol pump soon.Luckily for us with the last drop of petrol consumed by the car we reached a petrol pump on our way!!
After getting the car refuelled we were on our way again, listening to Golmaal,DCH and ya KANK along the way.
We had a small scare on the way, when in a tunnel and with me speeding at 110km/hr the car sped through a wet patch on the road and swivered uncontrollably at first before easing out again.After that it was cruise control till Sion where I got caught in a huge traffic jam that too in the scorching heat in the afternoon at around 2 pm.
Finally reached home by 3pm and after lunch went straight to bed.
The evening was well spent resting at home and catching up on stuff on T.V.
On Sunday morning I went for a haircut in the morning and shaved off all my hair on my head...Yup I have a clean shavened head now!!
In the afternoon after lunch Jimish came to my place and we saw a bit of Salaam Namaste before leaving for Lokandwala to meet up with Hitesh...
Man whenever I meet this guy,I get totally amazed by his thinking and ways of doing things.
He will be leaving for Europe tonite for 3 months of sightseeing on the pretense of following up on an exchange course.And if that was not enough the countries on his agenda to visit : England,Scotland,France,Germany,Holland,Italy...
Hey Hitesh did I miss anything!
Hope you have an amazing time.
Well after meeting up with him it was time for football on the beach(TOPS).
I,Jimish,Mohit,Jay and Sanket made up the field and had a blast enjoying playing on the sand after ages.Man it felt as if nothing had changed and we were back in college doing what we did best: enjoy football at the beach.The only difference- before we would be atleast 15 guys and now a paltry 5.Still it was great fun playing after a longtime.
After that we went to college and had our customary burjee pav and pav bhaji!
The nite was spent in Fanoos as has become a custom on Sunday nites.Got a cake for Sanket from "Hangout".Went to that place after like a yr and a half...
Well got him a whisky flavoured chocolate cake which was savoured by the four of us...
The nite was spent having hooka and talking about our experiences in the I.T industry in the past one yrIn all a weekend to remember since after a long time we guys spent quality time with each other...

Party Time!!

The past 48 hours of my life has been spent partying and roaming around.
On 19th we guys i.e Annshul,Namit,Saurabh (the birthday boy) and myself went to Pizza Hut to celebrate the "Great one's" birthday!!
After waiting for nearly an hour we finally got tables.Knowing the four of us, deciding on what to eat wasn't a problem.Here were 4 guys who have literally been living on pizza from either Dominos or Pizza hut for a while now.No sooner had the Garlic breads and pizza arrived that we were ordering for seconds.After a sumptuous meal we finally left the place around 11.30 pm.
Back in the comfort of our home, I & Annshul got down to business and opened up our books to atleast try and study something(for CAT) though in our minds it was just an act to pacify the guilt stemming from the fact that we spent 2.5 hrs in having dinner instead of utilizing that time to study.We again resolved to study diligently from tomorrow.Hee....Hee... we always tend to do that...
Well again on 20th i.e yesterday I had a big celebration party of the football team.
The occassion:- Finishing 3rd in the recently concluded tournament...
The entire day was spent flooding mails to each other in the football group deciding on the time and mode of transport to reach there.
Man I must have posted atleast 20 mails in the group just to decide how and when w'll be leaving.
We started this discussion in the morning around 11 and till 6 in the evening we hadn't arrived to any conclusion.(You guys will be wondering don't I do any work.Well that's something I'll discuss in my next post.)
Finally it was decided that I'll get my car from home and the guys from my area will reach the place via the office bus.
I reached "Veer Da Dhabha"; that's the place where we usually meet up alongwith one of my teammates.
This palce is along the Mumbai-Bangalore highway and is a typical highway dhabha.
After settling down and gulping down a few shots and chicken kebabs, the obvious discussion started on what else but football!! What else will you have when there are 5 Bengalis sans myself in a group of 13 people.
As the night passed and the count of the drinks increased the topic of discussion veered from the E.P.L,to the Spanish League, to Series A and finally to Indian football especially the clash of the titans of Indian football.
On one corner the few supporters of East Bengal and on the other corner the supporters of Mohun Bagan.Mind you the discussion on ManU vs Arsenal match & the Chelsea vs Liverpool match as well as them atch fixing saga of Italian League and the status of Spanish league were all already discussed before reaching this final point of discussion.
After all the serious talks and discussion on football on all levels we came back to the reason why were were celebrating tonite. By this time I must have already gulped about 6 shots of vodka...
Finally we ended the party or should I say our discussion forum by posing for a few, sorry a hell lot of snaps taken mostly by me of course...
The photo sessions started from the dinner table to the parking lot and then to the top of the hood of my car.
In the end we were 5 of us in my car and we left the place in high spirits for obvious reasons towards sweet home and to my beloved bed...
Man it was a crazy nite...
Must do this again and hopefully next time w'll be celebrating a tournament victory and not a 3rd place finish...
Cheers...

It's a Start !!

Well the credit or the brickbats for me starting my own blog must go to Manas and Hitesh.
Reading their respective blogs compelled me to start my own. So here it is...

Today is Tuesday 19th Sept '06 and I am sitting in office at 6.45 in the evening doing this...
As for the day, same old story which most I.T folks will agree to....
No work, but you have to look busy else before you know it you will be assigned workloads of assignments which is not to be done by you officially but by your PM or PA.(instead you end up in the office in the weekend doing their crappy work).
Actually I had work which was to be done today but my onsite contact was himself in a fix because he had to give a presentation to the client.
So there I was sitting comfortably on my seat and playing fantasyfootball and checking ManU sites and ofcourse orkutting the whole day and in between doing some work just for the heck of it!!
Well actually my work begins when everybody from my office is starting to leave...
after 6 cause that's the time we usually have a talk with our onsite resource...
My project is still at the planning stage so life is bit relaxed now but I know that the happy days are about to end cause starting from tomorrow I have to start working on the testcases for the current project.
So goodbye to orkutting and surfing for a while I guess.
On the personal front life is the same...
2 months to go for CAT and still not started preparing for it...
Guess I have resigned to the fact that I'll be enjoying the hospitalities of Infy for another year.
This Sunday I got my lowest ever Test score in a CAT prep paper.
A paltry 11.5!! Can you believe that...
Though it doesn't help if you reach 20 minutes late for the test but still 11.5 is way too less man!!
That too when my confidence level was moving upwards at a good rate, the Sunday fiasco has brought it plummeting down.
So yesterday nite my roomies got a jolt when i reached home way past midnite from office and started analyzing the paper in the nite...
Well don't get any ideas abt the late nite bit!
I was sitting in office from 7.30 doing what I do most now days...
surfing the net and in between studying a bit...
I guess I am preparing for next year's CAT from now...Hee...hee.