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 Sunday

After last night’s extremely action packed movie experience, I was wondering whether the Sunday would be able to match up to it’s predecessor. I had decided to meet up with a friend for lunch. It was long overdue and this seemed to be a good opportunity. He stays in an area which is diametrically opposite to where I stay and hence decided to meet up at a central area so as to minimise the travelling. We met at Swargate and then moved on to M. G. Road. (I think every city has a Mahatma Gandhi Road and usually it is one of those which are bang in the middle of the city. So was this.)

The first thing that we noticed was that most of the shops were shut. The thought that Sunday was the weekly off wasn’t inspiring at all. We later found out that all shops in that area close down at around 1:00 and open again around 3:00. Apparently that’s their lunch break! Go figure! And we had reached there just after one and hence found everything closed. Sundays are supposedly worse as a few (eg Kayani Bakery) remain closed throughout. After loitering around for a while, we felt we ought to get some grub in our system. Spotted a restaurant called “George Restaurant”. It had a subtle character about itself which led me to suggest we go in. My friend suggested we try the chicken steak. I had never eaten steak before and I must say I liked what I ate :) Had some Biryani too. But the steak was definitely the highlight.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Landmark (I picked up a book called “May I hebb your attention pliss”) and Staples (my friend got himself a mobile). We then went back to Swargate and and went our way. I was to meet my roomie at F.C. Road. He had promised to help me get some shoes (Someone stole my worn out gym shoes from the locker room. Seriously pathetic!).

I ended up buying 3 pairs of shoes! And I don’t think I have ever had more than 2 pairs at a time (One for the formal attire while the other would go with my casual look) One of them is dedicated to the gym but I am kinda happy with the other two :) They are very unlike the ones I usually get.

F.C. Road is the hottest place in town, both in terms of the crowd and the food. Mostly college crowd doing what college kids do best. While pre-historic creatures like me see them, laugh a little, drool a little, feel a little guilty and then concentrate on the food :) Pune has a fascination for chocolate! Chocolate milk shake, CAD-B (Another name for something similar to chocolate shake but way better) chocolate pan, chocolate fountain and chocolate toast ( found this out today ). It was interesting and I would like to keep it that way. We then went on to Venky’s outlet where we had some more chicken. Good stuff :)

By the time we got done it was almost 9:30, so we decided to get back home. Now that I look back at my decision to stay back in Pune, it was a real good one. Saw a lot of new stuff, had a lot of fun and I think I know Pune a little better. Definitely better than sitting all day long infront of the PC watching downloaded movies :)

The weekend rocked!

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 2 week hiatus

And I am back after a 2 week hiatus! 2 packed weeks. Owing to the fact that varied stuff have happened in these 2 weeks, which are not really related to each other, this post will be more like a news bulletin, without a proper flow and pattern. Here goes.

MSRTC is weird and its functioning is at times a little difficult to understand. If you book your ticket and mention your pick-up point at say Point A, and then later decide to get up at Point X, there are a few things that could happen. If you are lucky and there is someone else getting up at Point X, then the bus will stop there. Or if there are empty seats in the bus, then it will stop too. But if neither of the above 2 cases hold, then you are screwed. It'll not stop and just zip by you (if your point A is Nerul and point X is Vashi Highway, then it will just take the flyover and screw you). That is exactly what happened to me on 12th October. If you look at it in a positive way, then it also pushed me to return to Pune on Monday morning, which I had been hesitating to to do so far. I can now actually enjoy my sundays and not worry about returning :)

Mom fell sick last weekend and she got really weak. She had the viral but the way it was going it was necessary that she saw a doctor. Dad was obviously against it. So had a mini-fight with him and finally took her to one. Lucky that she didn't have any malaria. I was a little scared that if it was then Dad would have had a terrible time managing everything alone. But the blood reports showed that Mom has very high sugar levels, possibly diabetes. So now that is one more thing to be careful about.

Dad has really impressed me with his skills. If you look at the way a Hindu man's life has been divided into 4 ashrams, my dad after being married to mom for 30 years has finally entered the Grihasta Ashram. :) He is actually doing a wonderful job of taking care of my Mom and the house. He has managed to empty the fridge by throwing out most of the things. The kitchen is so well organized now that it is pretty difficult for me to find anything there. I was more accustomed to my Mom's not so organized and yet a brilliantly successful kitchen. Its funny what love makes you do. I see my folks and it amazes me. I really do not understand their chemistry. Specially the way Dad feels about Mom. They are quarreling 24/7 over trivial things and yet he cannot stay away from her for more than 6 hours. I think I'll never understand these scorpions. Confuses me every bloody time.

Finally had my official induction at work. It was 2 days of presentations. Towards the end I just wanted to run away and get some work done. Got an overall view of what all is happening in the company. Has got a pretty impressive clientele and are involved in some good work.

Ganpati Visarjan is a huge thing in Pune. Traffic gets diverted, roads get blocked and the place is in total chaos! My roomies and I decided to do a little exploring and what we ended up doing was mostly eat :P and planned to buy a lot of things (didn't really buy anything :P). Went to Deccan, only to discover that the whole place was completely blocked and there were a million people there. We didn't even think about walking towards old pune, the Peth area. This is the place where all the action was but we decided to let it pass.

Well Life has been pretty action packed or I should rather say that, it has been trying to treat me good. I have realized that most things happen for a reason, decisions happen at the right moment, at times the granularity of our understanding is really coarse but the best part is you gain. Either what you want or a lesson. What you do with it is of course totally up to you. And then there are times when you have absolutely no idea about whats happening. Its not a good feeling when you have no control over your life's own script. Makes you feel vulnerable. You could fight against it and tire yourself out to slowly drown. Or flow along with it, learning to stay afloat, keep your eyes open and grab the first branch that comes along. Life has sort of become like that for me. Every time I fight to go against the flow, the current just sweeps me with it.

There isn't really much to complain about. In fact I really don't want to but there is one aspect which just refuses to sort itself out. I have tried and tried everything. Its like I am in a place which is positioned between a rock and a hard place. Things are getting so complicated that I can no longer see a solution to it. The truth is, I have no solution. I have thought of all the possibilities and every week seems to make the situation that more crazy. And I am still not strong enough to just shut it down.

The week that was

Another week in Pune... a good week actually :) I moved into the new house last sunday after getting back to pune in the evening. Did a very good job by getting off at Pune University rather than at Pune Railway station. Saved me money and trouble :) Picked up my stuff from the hotel and went over to Kothrud. My room was all clean and sparkling. Didn't have a lot of stuff with me, so settled in quickly. Got myself a double-bed there. I just feel so happy saying that, no idea why :P My 2 flat mates are fun. Which is a major bonus to the house deal. :)

Traveling is a bloody pain! There is no direct bus from Kothrud to Senapati Bapat Marg (where my office is) and as a result I have to change bus at S.N.D.T. The mornings are fine, not that big a deal. But evenings are terrible. Fortunately I take a shuttle from my S B Road office to the one at Erandwane (its near SNDT) and that saves me part of the trouble But its impossible to get into a bus from there. They are all bloody packed. Once I had to walk a kilometre in the reverse direction to get an opportunity to get into a bus. From the next day onwards I decided to walk towards my house rather than the opposite. Had to walk almost 1.5 - 2.0 kms before I could see buses that had the possibility of getting in :( It is truly my only problem in Pune right now.

I have got into the Embedded and Mobility Business Unit in Persistent. Which basically means I will now start coding for mobiles, netpads and some super awesome stuff that will be coming out in the near future :) Skill set required is the same - C/C++ with QT and openGL on Linux platform. So life is chilled. I have realized that QT has become a mammoth monster. Its powerful and pretty magical :) I have been fortunate enough to get a nice Team Lead and a great project team. :)

Persistent as a big company has really provided some good stuff for employees. I have started playing TT there and intend to start badminton and gym soon. Food is really awesome. We actually look forward to lunch :) which also equates to the fact that I have once again crossed the 70 kg mark :(

A few interesting facts about Pune:

1. Parking is funny. They have boards marking on which days you can park on that particular side. So if you see a board on one side of the street with numbers 10/15/20/30, it means you can park there on those particular days. Other days, you'll be towed :P

2. There are cycle tracks on the foot path in certain places. Haven't seen too many cycles though

3. The place is teeming with girls. But all of them are dressed as terrorists, with their faces completely covered. So you see a really hot girl, you can't really rate the complete hotness because you can't see the face. Just my luck. Its Baroda all over again :( I always knew that God is a sadist. I think He's trying just too hard to prove it to me.

So that's how my second week at Pune has been. Back home for the weekend/Ganpati. :)

Feels like a month!

Its been a week since I last wrote, 5 days to be precise :P And such a lot has changed within these few days. Work, location, life, everything! After the experience in Zeus, the one in Persistent is extremely different. Its not like I have not worked in a big company but its just that its been sometime. The scale and dynamics are extremely different. Here's what I have been experiencing in the past one week.

As my previous post suggests, I was a little anxious and sad leaving bombay and my family. I caught the MSRTC Ac-Volvo bus from Vashi. I think it is the best way to go to Pune compared to the other private buses. Its the fastest and there is a bus every 15 minutes. Since I had no idea about Pune, I had decided to get off at the last stop which was Pune Raliway station. It was raining continuously. I was extremely fortunate to get a good rickshaw, who knew exactly where I wanted to go.

Reached the hotel, checked in and thought I should explore Pune a bit. I had to check out the office or else would have been anxious and tensed all night. So I thought of doing a little recce. My hotel was situated very close to F. C. Road. One of the most happening places in town and I soon discovered why :) Anyways, the office is situated in a place called Erandwane and its about 30 minutes walk from where I stayed. Went, saw the office, felt comfortable and thought of returning via a different route (through gallis :P). Big mistake! If one is used to parallel roads in Bombay, parallel roads in Pune aren't really parallel. They can go anywhere. I roamed through various roads and finally after about 45 minutes reached back.

F. C. Road is teeming with restaurants with price ranging from very cheap to exhorbitant. I tried out various places throughout the week :) Had a great time eating! First day at work was weird. There were quite a few new joinees. The whole day went filling forms. But I was impressed with the way everything was happening like clockwork. By the end of the Resource Allocation manager gave us the names of our reporting managers. Spoke to my manager the next day and she gave me leads to whom I should talk about projects. Apparently there were numerous projects which required my expertise (always good to know that).

I was to meet a guy who sat at another office in Pune, located at S. B. Road. Went there and met him. Told me what the work was. Though the platform was different, the work involved all the technologies I knew. So he was happy, I was happy, a very happy environment. :)

Getting a work station is apparently not a quick job in Persistent. I am still waiting for mine. Meanwhile I sit in the Test Lab. Awaiting access to it though :P I currently require others to let me in. But the project is interesting. Will learn some new stuff.

Persistent has some really good facilities. Its got a good gym, a badminton court, table tennis and other stuff I still need to discover. Its got a library containing a lot of technical books. Very good free food at lunch and evening snacks. Once I settle in a bit, I plan to utilize these to the fullest :)

The thing I was worried about is residence. I wanted to stay independently but the cost of a 1 bhk was turning out pretty expensive. Though, it is the ideal situation and I would like to eventually get myself one of those, for the time being I have decided to go into a sharing mode. Decided to stay with a couple of guys ina 3 BHK flat. Got my own bedroom and bathroom and it is also partially furnished. So ya it looks pretty decent. the locality also looks nice and clean. Its in a place called Kothrud. A little far according to Pune standards but will figure out something. Need to get myself a bike eventually.

Well, with my work and stay fixed, I decided that it was time I came back to Bombay and so here I am :) Its just been a week and it already feels a little different. It actually feels like I have come back after a month.