Life Reloaded!!!

The date is set for one of my best friend – Susmit’s wedding. Of course, that is not the only reason I am excited. At the time of his engagement, few of my friends had performed a small skit which received amazing response. Unfortunately I could not be part of that skit. But this time we are planning a similar but bigger skit at his Sangeet dinner. The anchor will again be Aditya. I will be replacing Nilesh as his side kick this time. There are also going to be a few dance sequences where most of Susmit’s friends will participate. The rehearsals have started and it is going to be fun practicing next few months. Here is video taken at the time of engagement -

Last week I had gone for another trip with my school friends. This time the places was Karde and Dapoli . One thing different this time though, was the traveling. Earlier, we used to travel in a hired vehicle or public transport like Train or Bus. This time it was our very own +Dnyanesh who had brought his Wagon R. The day before the picnic I did a big flip-flop by telling +Viraj and  +Aditya that I was not going to come. But eventually I did give in to Viraj's valid arguments and decided to join them.  We left early in the morning, thinking that we would take around 7-8 hours to reach Karde , although we reached there before 2PM. The house where we were staying was at an awesome location with a sea view from the window. We could hear the waves in the night very clearly in our rooms. The food was also great (both veg for the lunch as well as fish for the dinner). Meantime, we went to Harne port which is famous for its fish market. Well, I had never been to a fish mar...

Matheran 2012 - Alexander Point The recent most Matheran trip was planned by Viraj and Anand and all the credit goes to them. As Aditya and Anand had some work in the morning, they were going to join us in the evening. Like earlier trips, this also started with a confusion. When we boarded the train at CST, we told our friend who was going to join us at Dadar that we were in the compartment after the last First class compartment. But we were partially wrong. The compartment was having 2 sections, one First class and another Second class. We were in the second class part of it. Due to this, our friend got into the next compartment and then had rush into our compartment at Kurla. Fortunately, everything went well afterwards, as we reached the Matheran gate by 9.15AM. From there on we had to walk till Matheran market which took us almost an hour. We had taken a different route in earlier trips, but due to rain and the mud we had to walk parallel to the tracks, till we reached the mar...

Matheran 2010 - Taking some rest on route to Neral Before I begin with the events of the latest Matheran trip, I will first talk about how Matheran has been a memorable location for me. First thing I remember is the journey returning from Matheran to Neral. I don't know how and why we decided to walk all the way from Matheran market to Neral station. It started all well, with singing "Break up Ke Bad" song. But as the time went by, we realized how stupid we had been. Of course, the stupidest among us were Aditya and myself, who actually walked till we reached the bottom of the hill where Neral starts. Our dear friends - Susmit and Viraj, got a rickshaw in between and met us when we were resting at the bottom. Second trip was full of confusion. Day before the trip, I informed Viraj that I was not well, so I would join them in the afternoon and they could go ahead in the morning. As Viraj was having office, he decided that he would join me in the afternoon, leaving...

The idea of night-out at Nikhil’s place turned into a series of confusing phone calls. It all started when Nikhil sent an email to Viraj, Aditya and myself, informing us that his family would be out of Mumbai for few days, so we could have a night out at his house on Friday. Since, Aditya and I were having holiday on Saturday, we immediately agreed (It doesn’t matter for Viraj whether he is having office next day, though it was good to hear that he will have Saturdays off from April ’12). Afterwards, Aditya asked us if we were going to have dinner together with everyone initially agreeing to the idea. On Friday though, I told Nikhil that I will be having dinner at home as Nikhil was going to be in office till 9 (which meant he would be back to CST by 10). Now, here is the list of chats/calls which started at around 8.45PM - Chat - Aditya was chatting with me and asked when where we would be going for dinner. I told him that I was going to have dinner at home, but will join them after...

Just came back from the Drama, "All The Best". The cast included Adinath Kothare, Mayuresh Pem , Vaibhav Tatvavadi and Manava Naik. I had not seen the original, which had Sanjay Narvekar, Bharat Jadhav, Ankush Chaudhari . It is a musical comedy where a deaf, a blind and a mute fall in love with the same girl. It is complete entertainer, with really good acting by Mayuresh and Vaibav . But it seemed that Aditnath wasn't really at his best with the Blind person's role, especially in the first half. The songs were OK, but the last song where both Mayuresh and Vaibhav dance, was choreographed pretty well. All in all, it was worth the money spent.

We had gone for a picnic last weekend. It was an all boys trip (as usual). But this time, the difference was that this time around we had a friend who is in a relationship with another of our school friend. After we reached the SBI holiday home, we found that it was amazing and beyond out expectations (especially since we had paid just Rs. 30 as rent). So probably, Susmit must have told his GF about this and she would have asked if she can join us with few other girls from our class. So Susmit asked us the following question. Just before this Viraj and I commented that we would have Lavani when we have Aditya's bachelor party. Nik got confused with the 2 contexts, but the way he asked counter question to Susmit was amazing- सुस्मित: अरे, मुलींना बोलवायचं का? निखिल: काय? सुस्मित: अरे, मुली!! मुलीना बोलवायचं का? पिकनीकला? निखिल:"मुली" हे तू सामान्य नाम म्हणून वापरलं की विशेषनाम म्हणून? A big laughter followed by Anand and I shaking hands with Nik!!!

It has been pretty hectic month or so since 19th December last year. First cousin's wedding to attend, then my first official (and unofficial) tour outside Maharashtra, amazing 31st night with my best friends. I did miss the Vengurla trip because I had to go to Bangalore for official work, which was extended by 2 days and thus eliminating any hopes of reaching Vengurla even for 1 day. Then met a few VJTI friends who are back in India for holidays. It was amazing watching सवाई एकांकिका at Ravindra Natyamandir on 25th night. Of course, one cannot simply forget the cheapest picnic of their lives so easily :) Lonavala 2012 was one of the best trips I had in last couple of years. Today I watched "शाळा", the movie I was waiting for last one year.Hrushi came home for 4 days. And finally, my dear friend Susmit went back to US tonight. All this and more in detail, coming up....

काल मी माझ्या शाळेतल्या मित्रांबरोबर मृगजळ एकांकिका स्पर्धेची अंतिम फेरी पाहण्यास गेलो होतो. तिकीट काढण्यावरून झालेला गोंधळ माझ्या नेहमीच लक्षात राहील. त्या बद्दल इथे मी काही जास्त सांगणार नाही. अंतिम फेरीत पाच एकांकिका होत्या. त्यातली पाचवी एकांकिका - "HTTP 404 Page Not Found" - आम्ही आधीच सवाईच्या वेळी पहिली होती. चवथ्या एकांकिकेबद्दल आमच्या मनात बरेच कुतूहल निर्माण झाले, कारण त्या एकांकिकेचा नाव होतं - "बी. पी." :) पहिल्या एकांकिकेचा नाव होतं, "थरारली वीट". एका लहान मुलीच्या पहिल्या आळंदीच्या वारीत तिला येणारे अनुभव, तिच्या आयुष्याला मिळणारी कलाटणी, तिच्या आईबद्दलचं तिला कळणारे सत्य याचे हृदयद्रावक वर्णन या एकांकिकेत होते. "गिरगाव व्हाया दादर" या एकांकिकेचा लेखक हृषीकेश कोळी यानेच हि एकांकिका लिहिली आहे. (सवाईच्या वेळच्या "एम डी करतंय सादर, गिरगाव व्हाया दादर" ह्या घोषणा माझ्या कायम स्मरणात राहतील) दुसरी एकांकिका सदर केली होती जोशी-बेडेकर कॉलेजने - "अलगद". ही गोष्ट होती प्रेमात "तोंडावर" पडलेल्या एका तरुणीची. ह्...

Few lines by my friends which will never be forgotten from our memories - सुनील - माझी इच्छा आहे रे यायची पण जमतच नाही. आदित्य - I am nothing without them / माझ्यासाठी तुम्ही कधीच adjust करत नाहीत. विराज - (He talks about a girl, usually negative and then) ती तशी बोलायला चांगली आहे. विक्रम - आणि असा म्हटल्यावर आम्ही सगळे हसलो... रीशिकेश - अरे आपण काय professional आहोत का? And now thanks to my dear friends Viraj and Aditya, a line will be added to my name too.. सिद्धेश - मी विचारला नाही रे तुला. मला वाटलं की तू नाही म्हणशील.

Embarrassing Moment for you - Friend - So how is your work at ICICI? You - I don't work at ICICI. I work at SEBI. F - SEBI? Y - Securities & Exchanges Board of India F - Oh, ok. So what do you do? Procure security equipment? Embarrassing Moment for your friend - Y - Dude, "securities" is related to stocks and shares. More embarrassment for your friend - You tell Viraj, Aditya & Nikhil about this. Result - A joke which will be told and retold and retold till it becomes a part of our "friendly" folklore :)

Life has everything that a movie has except for subtitles and background music :) - By Vikas Komera

Yesterdays April Fool's Day reminded me of an old incident. Its been more than 1 year since Susmit, Kiran & I performed the infamous "engagement" act. I could not describe the final act which I had decided to write. Even now, I really don't remember what things we said at the final act. We all (Viraj, Amruata, Aditya, Sheetal, Kiran, Susmit and I) met at Shivaji Park. We had decided that Susmit and I will have a fight because of the "girl" to whom he was supposedly getting engaged. Then Kiran would also get involved. I thought the execution was near perfect, we almost fooled everyone (may be Viraj had doubts). Somehow I am not able to recollect any of the dialogues (probably because, unlike other "stories" involving us, this incident has never discussed/retold). I remember Kiran said something about dependency form. Does anyone remember the whole thing?

Nik, Mi, Viraj ani Aditya

The 2 Gupta’s staying next door were two of the amazing people I met at NITIE. One of them, Vaibhav, left yesterday and Varun will be leaving tomorrow. I used to call them Gupta gang. Vaibhav was like “God” to me when it came to business gyan. I always felt that he deserved to be in an IIM. Constantly reading some new stuff, a die hard Cricket and Soccer fan. We used to call him Bade Bhaiya (or as Varun used to call him “Dadda”), considering his superior knowledge. Varun aka Fachchha, was the heart of left wing of 6th floor. The NITIE record holder of most shortlists and unsuccessful attempts in Summers is registered against his name, and I think it will take another recession for his record to break. People appearing for final placements breathed a sigh of relief when his PPO was announced. Jokes apart, he has been my best friend in NITIE. I wish both of them all the very best in future.

Based on the famous song “अष्टविनायक” from the movie with the same name, my friends Susmit, Viraj and Aditya came up with a song for our group, titled – “अष्टनालायक”!! In every stanza they have made fun of each of us including themselves. The 8 nalayaks include Susmit, Viraj, Aditya, Nikhil, Dnyanesh, Jeetu, Myself and Hrashad in the same order. We had a great time listening to that song during picnic I was just wondering, the way inception names each character in the movie, like -  The Extractor, The Architect, The Forger, etc. How would we describe each member of our group with a single Noun?

These Sundays are becoming really emotional these days with farewells to friends and family members. First it was Hrushikesh, my younger brother who went to Ahmedabad for Tata Motors. My parents were actually against sending my bro “so far” from Mumbai, but my brother was firm on his decision to go there. I spent a day with my family on Saturday helping them to pack things up for him. The train was at 5.45AM next day. Once they got into the train and settled down, I asked my bro to come out of the train and had a small chat with him. I told him what I should have, being the elder brother. After, the last tight hug, I bid him a Good Bye and wished him all the best for his future journey at TM. Last week we, school friends, gave Susmit a small farewell party at “5 Spice”, Fort. It was pretty emotional at the end while parting. I had prepared a speech which I wanted to say at the end. Unfortunately, we got the table really late which meant we came out of the hotel at 12 o’clock. It was ...

हे खरं आहे की सुस्मितमुळे गेल्या दोन वर्षात घरच्यांकडून मला जितका ओरडा पडला असेल तो कधीच कुठल्या मित्रामुळे पडला नसेल, पण हेही तितकेच खरे की जी मजा मी त्याच्याबरोबर केली ती आणखी कोणत्याच मित्राबरोबर केली नसेल!!