Bryan Adams in Pune!!

It rocked from the word go! I have been a fan of Bryan Adams' since I was a kid, since I was in class 5. The first album I heard of his was So Far So Good and I was hooked on to it. By the time I was in high school, he was back with his hits, The Best of Me and a few albums in between. This is one guy who has stuck around churning one hit after another, entertaining fans all over the world and supplying a long list of songs to lovers everywhere :)

I wanted to see him live for quite sometime now. When he first came to Bombay in 1995, I too had just moved to Bombay and there was no way I could go and see it (my Dad wouldn't take me and I was too young to go alone). He made 3 more trips to India since then and everytime for some reason or the other I missed him. Finally, one day while returning from office in Pune, I see this huge poster informing about his arrival and i had made up my mind that I am going.

After a little help from a colleague of mine got a decent 50% off on tickets and got myself and a friend the second cheapest tickets (actually can't really call Rs.3500 cheap but then again these fuckers levy such a huge entertainment tax that it makes things a pain in the ass). The show was to happen in Amanora Park in Pune. Its really a different corner of Pune considering the fact that I live in Kothrud. The show was to start at 6:30, though I knew that it'll be started with some local band, "Highway 61" in this case. Reached Magarpatta (bang opposite Amanora) at around 5:00, picked up my friend and then we walked. We walked and we walked. We walked a lot. Must have been more than 3 kms. All we kept seeing were, long lines of vehicles and posters with arrows pointing ahead. Anyways after the "holy-walk" we finally reached the place.

Let me fast forward a bit. We got good places to stand, there were 2 RJs boring shit out of people, then there was some performance and a weird ass fashion show which I really didn't care about. There was also a performance by this band called Highway 61. They played well and blah blah but seriously, we had gone to see Bryan Adams and didn't give shit about the other performances.

Finally at 8:15 p.m. Bryan and his band came out and suddenly the energy level jumped up by a factor of few thousand and the noise level by a few hundred decibels! That guy is 51 but believe me he'll be 18 till he dies. He was witty, energetic and absolutely fantastic! He sang most of his hits and entertained us for 2 hours. Summer of 69, Here I am, Please forgive me, Everything I do I do it for you, Straight from the heart, Can't stop this thing we started, It's only love, 18 till I die, Let's make a night to remember, The only thing that looks good on me, Heaven, You've been a friend to me, cloud number 9, when you're gone, Cut's like a knife, Somebody and One night Love affair (a song I hadn't heard before). I am sure I am missing out a few more he sang. I think he sang close to 20 songs that night.

It was funny to see him introducing himself, "Hi! I am Bryan". And then he looked up at one of the nearby buildings where there was someone sitting on the window watching. He had a monologue with him and even offered to give him tickets if he came down :P

The band was awesome. Keith Scott rocked like a true rocker. Runing all over the stage, jumping around doing crazy stuff and simultaneously playing flawlessly. He did some super riff work on some of the songs and he improvised on a few. After one such improvization, Bryan ended up asking him how he manages to do that :D. Mickey Currey did an equally awesome job with the drums as did the rest of his band.

As is his normal way of singing When You Are Gone, he called a female fan to sing the song with him and she did a good job :) The funniest part was the "Encore". Usually in rock shows, they always keep a few songs for the encore where they go out, and then come back in to sing. A lot of extremely stupid asses started leaving the place once they went in, instead of shouting, "Once More!" Is it that difficult to understand that the lights will go on when the show is over??? Luckily the guys in the front did a good job with the requests!

Well it was an absolute dream come true for me on the 11th of Feb 2011. Next time I am taking the 10K tickets and standing right in front of the stage!

My first Puneri Saturday

I stayed back! Hahaha!! I can’t believe I did it but I did. My first Saturday in Pune :) And to tell you the truth, I am liking it. What prompted me to do it? Folks are in Calcutta and I hate staying alone at home in Bombay. I don’t mind it here in Pune. I am used to it. But not so, as far as home is concerned. Even if I don’t interact with them much when I am home, their presence matters. And its just not home without them. So I decided to stay back instead and enjoy my weekend.

A lot happened :) I wanted to go and check out Koregaon Park where the fabled Osho Ashram exists. Took a bus to Pune Station from Kothrud. Saw Shaniwar Wada enroute. which I need to check out later on. Its basically a fort. Koregaon Park was a 20 – 30 minute walk from the station. I wanted to walk it out, so that I could figure out the place better. I had an approximate map of the place. Really helped me a lot. The place is rectangular in shape, with the north main road and the south main road as the 2 longer sides of the rectangle. There are numerous lanes connecting these 2 roads. I managed to walk up to lane 7. Didn’t have the energy to walk any further. I actually wanted to reach the East Main road, just cause I wanted to see the HardRock Cafe. Just in case I decide to go there someday :) I have walked so much today that my legs are literally killing me!

What really fascinated me about KP, is the greenery. I could easily make out that there were filthy rich people living there. I fell in love with the old bungalows with sprawling gardens. But a lot of these have been now sold to builders who will obviously maximize construction and turn the green Pune into a gray concrete Pune. There were a few plots which had old houses but were obviously not maintained, the lawns were overgrown, shabby gates, eroding nameplates, witness to changing fortunes and would soon be concretized. Lot of Parsi nameplates :) It reminded me of the places I lived as a child, the greenery and the open spaces. I was actually happy that thanks to these rich guys we have some greenery left. If I think about it, we are really not leaving much for our kids, except a few concrete blocks to call home.

The Osho ashram is on Lane 1. One needs to register to get in and see. The tour is no longer offered due to security reasons. Registration will cost Indians 1300 bucks. There is a garden which is open to public from 6-9 am and 3-6pm. That’s on Lane 2. The garden is beautifully landscaped with streams, bridges, rock sculptures, benches, bamboo groves and a lot of trees and shrubs. Lots of flowers too. A good place to take your girl to. :)

Came back home around 5 and decided to go and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was funny how many problems we faced to get to the theatre. First we ran out of petrol. Had to walk a kilometre to reach the petrol pump. We were then caught by cops for apparently jumping signal. That was so not true! But Apoorv very skilfully got us out of it. :) He made up a story based on a true story and the cop bought it. The movie was good. People might call it a bit slow but that is how the book was. And I really liked it the way they have adapted it. Finally! After the catastrophe that the Half Blood Prince was, this was a pleasant change. I think Potter fans will be happy with this one. Lets see how the second part turns out to be. Hermoine has grown up so bloody beautifully :D

Got back home at 11:00. A very successful day, I must say! Looking forward to tomorrow.

The Bou Bhaat

I returned home yesterday after a very successful “Baashor Raat”. Meanwhile my cousin had spent the day at his in-law’s place. I had asked him about how he planned on surviving the first day at his in-law’s and he promptly answered, “Main to safed jhanda dikha dunga. Chup chaap baitha rahunga. Jo karna hai kar le bhai!” Apparently that’s what he did :) The “Vidaai” happened in the evening and they returned to my cousin’s place. Yesterday was the “Kaal Ratri” where the bride and the groom are not supposed to see each other. Damn! Where the fuck is the “Suhaag Raat”? This is not done, specially when you get married after waiting for twenty-freaking-nine years! Lol! But that’s what happened. He was thrown out of the house and he stayed at the other place that had been hired for guests.

Me on the other hand, had an extremely interesting evening. I met up with a friend I had made online many years ago. I never thought that we would meet but then again one should never say “never”. :) right? Anyways we spent a very nice evening, did a mini-dinner and called it a night.

The “Bou Bhaat” was today. It basically consists of a few rituals, few extremely stupid games and a lot of opportunities for all the aunties to have a gala time at the newly wed’s cost :P It is then followed by the groom’s grand announcement that he takes the responsibility of the girl’s “Roti aur Kapda” and a quiet announcement to himself that he would also be responsible for all the mistakes he would and would not be committing for the rest of his life. :P The main “Bou Bhaat” is basically the point where the new bride serves food to all the member’s of the house. It is sort of a symbolic event where the bride takes the responsibility of the house.

Spent the whole afternoon lazing around, chit-chatting. We were to have the reception in the evening. Now my cousin was to have 2 receptions, one on the day of “Bou Bhaat” for people in the neighbourhood and people from the girl’s side. The second was to be on the next day at a hotel. I would be obviously missing it as I had to fly back on Sunday, i.e. tomorrow. The reception went on pretty well but we had to leave early as it’s almost an hour and a half drive to our home. So we left midway :(

The Shaadi

So my cousin’s hitched! :) We were to reach Konnogor by 6:00pm. Went and got myself a new sherwani. Pretty nice looking red sherwani :)

Well as per updates from my cousin, he was woken up at 4:30 – 5:00 in the morning and force fed a lot of curd and whey. Since he wouldn’t be getting anything else to eat the whole day, he stuffed himself as much as he could. I had initially decided to dress in formals at the wedding and wear the sherwani on the day of “Bou Bhaat”. After talking to my other cousin, I realized that the marriage would be a better occasion to show it off than Bou Bhaat. As a result, when I landed at the the marriage hall, I was dressed in a red sherwani, getting roasted and my internal temperature about 10 degrees higher than outside, all thanks to my zazzy sherwani.

Entered to find my cousin sitting almost alone except for a few of his friends. He was obviously of least interest to us and everyone else. We were more interested in meeting his better half. And that’s what we did!

The great Indian marriage is obviously a torture ritual for the bride and the groom. They have deviced it in such a way that anyone who has been through it once, will promise never to go through it again ( except for those few individuals who like to inflict torture upon themselves by going through it again and again! ). The marriage begins with a small puja which sort of represents that we are notifying our ancestors about it and asking them for their blessings. My cousin was then taken to the main area where everything was supposed to happen while we were trying to finish the snacks that we were given. Me and the rest of the guys were pretty hungry and so instead of accompanying my cousin, we stayed back and ate :P

This turned out to be a pretty good opportunity for the “Ladki-party” to steal my cousin’s shoes. For those who are not aware (eg my uncle aka my cousin’s dad), its a silly ritual where the bride’s sisters/cousins steal the groom’s slipper and then demand money in return. A case of slipper-nap.

The shaadi went on for quite sometime but not as long as the standards suggest. The pandit apparently was on a fast-forward mode and he wrapped things up pretty early. But my cousin had to go through everything and the smoke.

The marriage got done around 11:00 pm and mostly everyone had completed dinner by then. The bride-groom then had an extended dinner for an hour and a half while we waited for them to return. We have a ritual called “Baashor Raat” where all the young folks from both the bride and the groom’s side stay awake all night, along with the newly wedded couple and generally entertain. Usual games, antakshaari, dumb-charades, etc. So that’s what we did and it was super fun, especially dumb-charades :D

I got back home today. Though I have attended quite a few marriages, I never participated in a successful “Baashor Raat”. This was the first one. Pretty happy about it.

The Arrival

Landed in Calcutta yesterday evening. My trip from Bombay was good, though a little long because of the stopover at Nagpur. Personally speaking I hate the airplane seats. They are extremely uncomfortable. At least Indigo makes sure that they reach on-time. And they got pretty airhostesses :) Unfortunately watching pretty airhostesses get boring after the initial half hour. The first half of the flight was pretty quiet and peaceful. There was an elderly lady and a young guy in the seats before me. The lady could be his mother or an aunt. The guy was probably in the airline business. He kept explaining various things. The lady was one of those typical sophisticated Bengali ladies, the ones who have an accent even when they speak Bengali. I don’t know if others can make out the difference but these are the ladies who usually are educated, are over exposed to Rabindra Sangeet and a lot of art and literature. They love to enunciate, speak softly and yet firmly, mostly wear spectacles, speak of foreign countries as if they are just across the street, usually hold the reigns of household and also have the liberty of talking on behalf of their husbands in family/friend gatherings.

The second part of the trip was a headache. A man probably in mid-fifties and a lady probably in thirties installed just behind me. I heard the lady say that it was an extremely pleasant surprise that they bumped into each other. I soon realized that it was an extremely unfortunate incident for me. Both were part of the same extended Marwari family and they yapped continuously for the next 1 hour 15 minutes of flight time. I forced myself to sleep in the middle but not for long. They spoke of schools in Doon/Nainital and their quality of education, Marwari food, multiple sclerosis and how the guy booked a full 5 star hotel for 12 days for his brother’s marriage. I must have died at least twice during the whole conversation out of sheer frustration. I need to get myself one of those IPods to save myself from such misery.

Oh I forgot to mention that I think I saw Minisha Lamba at the Bombay airport. She was standing alone in a book store. I looked at her and she looked back and probably noticed my confused expression of wondering whether it was really her. Well I could have easily asked since no one was around but me being me opted to get back to the books :P

I turned into “Chakroborty” from “Chakraborty” as soon as I landed at the Cal airport and got myself a pre-paid taxi. It felt good to sit in the huge yellow ambassador once in Cal. These things are really comfortable. I remember one of their advertisements long ago. “Mercedes – 200 km/hr, Ambassador – 200 potholes/hr “. It was probably one of the most honest ads :). As I zoomed off home, hundreds of hoardings greeted me and told me about the new and developing Calcutta. The number of hoardings were really astounding, I don’t think Bombay can beat Cal in this department! The driving sense is still pathetic. I am a little used to it now thanks to my experience in Pune. Reached Ballygunge station and got off. And I suddenly found myself surrounded by Bongs. I always find it a little unnerving to see so many Bongs for the first couple of days during my Cal trips. In fact I go to shops and continue my standard modus operandi and converse in Hindi and then realize that I can actually talk in Bengali. It takes me a little time to get used to.

My cousin’s shaadi will be at a place called Konnogor. We have decided to stay in our house at Ballygunge and attend the marriage from here. All my cousins have reached and are at the central venue. I am contemplating staying back tonight so that I don’t miss out on the fun. Well my cousin’s have decided that they are no longer interested in batting and are literally throwing off their wickets. Another cousin of mine, he’s a little older than us, who was my last glimmer of hope has also just lost his wicket. He’s getting hitched on 26th of January 2011. So that’s another trip in the making. This time to Bilaspur :) That has made my parents a little more edgy :P Peer pressure apparently.

Lol!! I never knew that finding a partner is such a big deal! My Dad has started using his social networking skills to find me a mate while I am using all my skills to avoid such confrontations :P

BaZINGA!!

I have always believed that there is a higher power, someone who is watching over us, witnessing everything that we do, hearing everything that we think, the good thoughts, the bad ones and at times the gross ones. And whatever little doubt I have had about the existence of a HP ( not to be confused with Harry Potter ) has washed away thanks to the various experiences in my life. And I say so because no way can a person's life be an unending series of Punk'd episodes (The one that they show on VH1 hosted by Ashton Kutcher). It is as if HP is seriously pissed off with me and he mysteriously guides me or presents me with lucrative ways to innocently walk into one of his practical jokes. I must have done something seriously bad to him during my tenure upstairs. Here's an excerpt of a conversation I had recently with him,

Me: U r kidding me right?

God: No! This is all happening. You can finally have your way.

... Long Pause...

Me: God damn it! Why u....!

God: (smirk) BAZINGA!

A similar incident happened to me today while returning from Pune. I always take the evening bus from Pune on Fridays such that I reach home by 9:30 pm - 10:00 pm. Now today, being a Friday just before Diwali, there was a lot of rush with a lot of people going home for the Diwali break. As usual the bus was late (it always is, except for the one time that it reached on time and I missed it) and I was wondering what to do while I waited. I needed to pee too. Now unfortunately like most Indian guys I cannot just stand at street corners and go about doing my job. So after looking around I finally found a loo. It cost me 56 bucks to pee. Went into a CCD and got myself a cappuccino ( the main motive was obviously something else :P ). I got back and was generally checking out the crowd when I realized that a super cute girl was checking me out. I immediately puffed my chest, pulled my stomach in and stood at an optimum angle (I call it the angle of fat reduction). Its mostly an optical illusion :P Anyways just to make sure that she indeed was checking me out, I returned the favour and checked her out. Yup, she was! Our eyes met a couple of times but as I am an extremely "chooza" type of a guy, I quickly made sure that I didn't look at her again. While all the while, I was calculating the probability of her sitting beside me in the bus. To tell you the truth, the odds were against me. The chance that she was in the same bus as me was by itself very slim.

Anyways the bus came and I was about to board, when the conductor announced that the 5:45 pm and 6:00 pm buses had been combined. I didn't really bother about it and I got in. Went and sat in my place ( I have started taking aisle seats, a friend explained that girls always go for window seats, so the chances of a girl sitting at an aisle seat while I sat at the window was next to impossible). I was amused to see that the seat beside me was empty. The thought struck me once but a quick refresh of my past lucky incidents returned a NULL pointer and I realized that she was no way coming and sitting beside me.

I had just settled in when I suddenly see her enter the bus and looking through the seat numbers. She came and stood next to me. I think I had turned a slight shade of purple as a result of holding my breath for so long. She checked the numbers on the luggage compartment and turned around. Down went my hopes her sitting beside me. Well due to strange events it turned out that she had bought herself a window seat but she was in the 6:00 pm bus while some other girl had already bought the same seat for the 5:45 pm bus and had boarded at the starting point. So her seat was occupied and she had to take the aisle seat. Which basically meant that the aisle was the only thing separating us (the next best thing to her sitting beside me). I said a tiny "Thank You" to HP, smiled to myself and started listening to John Mayer.

I had a very happy trip till the Lonavla Food Plaza. Checked her out some more ( maybe I should have notched up the staring a bit more, to make it obvious to her that she was being watched ). But before I go ahead, here's a little side story. During my last trip back, I saw a girl from school in the bus. I don't think I ever spoke to her inspite of the fact that she was in the same class as me. Just knew her by face. She hasn't changed much since then. I wasn't really too interested in striking up a conversation firstly because I didn't think she would recognize me and mostly because I didn't want to. Well I saw her again today at the food plaza. It obviously means that she too, like me, comes back every weekend. Anyways, I decided that I had loitered enough and now needed to get back and enjoy the last hour of seeing the cute girl before she was lost forever. I got in and looked towards her seat to spot her and got a tiny heart attack. She wasn't there and instead sat the girl from my class. I don't know which hit me first, me saying "What the Fuck!?" or a resonating "BAZINGA!" Apparently the girl who had previously occupied CG's (Cute Girl) seat was her! During the break, they had decided to switch!

I went to my seat, sat down and just couldn't stop laughing at myself. HP had played a cruel, cruel joke on me! If Higher Powers use messengers among themselves, his message to all would have been "rotflmao" It just reconfirmed my faith that HP exists and he is out to screw my case. HP is a sadist and he better watch out cause he is going to be in some serious shit once I go back.

Ganpati Bappa Mourya!

The day was a little tiring but good. Ganeshotsav began today. This is the third year that we did Ganesh Puja at home and it turned out decent. The work was cut out from the beginning. My mom would do the maximum, including the management part, I would be the cheap labour while Dad would be useless. All of us did our part well. Dad did take care of the decorations, albeit a little late :P which pissed my Mom off so!

Things went off smoothly. The only crazy part was when my Mom wanted to burn cow dung cakes with "Dhuno" ( I don't know what it is called in English. That's what it is called in Bengali ) Now a lot of times it can also be done using coconut fibre. But this time Mom thought of doing something different. Question was, in what do we burn it? After a lot of serious discussion, it was upon me to find an aluminium vessel from the kitchen. (I cannot find anything in the kitchen, actually I cannot find anything when told to do so). So after a lot of searching I found the vessel in which Mom used to make cakes. I reasoned, what better vessel than this. Cow dung cakes burnt in a baking vessel :P (Anyways the way it looked, I didn't think she was ever going to use it again, given the fact that I do not remember the last time she made cake at home :P) You should have seen the look she gave me when I showed it to her! I almost burnt down to ashes right there. "Waapas rakh ke aa!" Main izzat se waapas rakh aaya :D

Had a lot of guests over in the evening. Its fun when our gang gets together :) Went to a few houses and by the time I got done, I could have killed someone if someone suggested, "Have a modak". As a result no result.

Another thing I discovered today is that there are some Shivneri buses going to Pune which has Nerul as a pick up point and goes via Kothrud. If this works out then it'll be perfect for me :D I just pray it is! Got late tickets for tomorrow so that I have the full day. The bus starts from Borivali at 7:00 pm, so should be here by 8:30.

I have also realized that my Ma can get really crazy at times. She just called me on my cell from the next room to get some chore done! I am happy to know that my mom is also partly responsible for my craziness apart from my dad :P

The hit bird!

It was not until I joined Zeus, did I first get on a plane. And it was with Chandrashekhar that I had the priviledge to fly my maiden flight. Now though, today's post is not about that particular flight, I might as well add a little information about it. It was our visit to ANURAG (a part of a defence lab) in Hyderabad for some project we were doing.

To tell you the truth, I am a little scared of flying, just for the plain fact that if I go down from there I am going straight up. And heights scare me. So everytime I look out of the window and see clouds, or the serpentine rivers running through green and brown patches of land, or just an irregular growth of concrete, I am awestruck and at the sametime a little scared. Turbulence just acts like a catalyst to my fear equation. And the seats are bloody uncomfortable.

But the fact remains that flights are a boon to mankind. It saves time like nothing else. Breakfast in Bombay, followed by a lunch in Calcutta and you could throw in dinner in Delhi if you are up for it. Its been a long time since I have travelled in a long distance train. Everytime I think of the amount of time I would save, my miser monster just gets pumelled into oblivion :P

This happened during one of my trips to Calcutta. I was going to visit a family friend's (Andy) wedding. I was to travel to Calcutta with his brother Sandy and cousin sister. The three of us boarded our flight to Bhubaneshwar. It was an indirect flight. Bombay to Calcutta via Bhubaneshwar. The first part of hte journey was pretty ordinary. No problems till we reached Bhubaneshwar. The fun began after that. We sat in the plane for quite sometime (I think about half an hour) before it started. I think the best part of a flight is just at take-off and at landing. That's the only exciting part. This trip had a little more excitement than usual.

Our plane had gathered quite some speed and I was just about done prepared for take-off, when there was a sudden bang followed by a sudden break (if it hadn't been for the seat belts I am sure I would have been sitting in the seat before me) and sound of screeching tires. Everything happened within a couple of seconds I guess and the plane came to a halt. The captain soon announced that it was a bird hit and that it would be sometime before we were in the sky again.

We waited for almost another half an hour when it was decided that the passengers had to disembark, so that the engineers could do a thorough check-up and the passengers were getting pretty crabby sitting inside for such  a long time. Sandy messaged Andy about the bird hit and told him to convey the news to our parents who had already reached a few days before us. Andy promptly replied, "oh damn! How's the bird feeling now?" :P

The wait was long and I hate waiting. But there was nothign else to do. So I decided to explore a bit and soon saw something interesting. The Indian Airlines suggestion box being put to good use :D

Awesome right!? I was so very amused by it. Made the whole bird hit thing totally worth it. Not so good for the bird though :P Fortunately, all the rest of my flights have been pretty normal and mundane, but that was indeed a not so normal experience :)