The Bangalore Trip

Have u ever been really misunderstood? Of course you have. We all have been through it. A blog post I wrote in Jan turned out to be too controversial for my taste. Fought with two very important people over it. And then I disappeared into a cocoon, a bit scared of hurting more feelings. But I came back, after a few smiles over the same post - my hands itching to write. And here I am writing again....

Regarding the last few months... LOTS has happened!! I've become an Alumni. I've been hired. I've fought over one of my life's biggest decisions. I've met some old friends after a very very long time. and the vacation still aint over. Some of you who follow me on Facebook, might know what I'm bragging about but for the rest...

• I've graduated from IIM Indore with a Post Graduate Diploma in Management
• I shall be joining Pfizer on June 28th
• Let's skip this one for the time being
• I traveled to Bangalore and met friends from my days in Kota and Chennai

Yes, I'm still in bullet-point mode. :)
Points 1 and 2 - Not for today, and not for this blog. Point 3 would require a whole new blog or a book.
The Bangalore trip.... that's when the mind starts flowing with words.

They call Bangalore (or should I say Bangaluru) the Silicon Valley of India. Naturally, it's the city where many of my best friends are employed today. In addition to that, a cousin sister and her two great kids... The city becomes an emotional magnet, to which I surrendered this summer. The trip being pretty much unplanned saw me traveling by buses almost everywhere. I hate Railways for allowing people to plan their trips 3 months in advance and then cancel 24 hrs b4 departure, losing just 20 bucks. Madness!!

What was so amazing about the Bangalore Trip? Friends & Family (I'm sure that sounds strange after my previous post, but then again I did say I'm a big sucker for family and even bigger when it comes to friends)... We have strange relations with many members of the family, but with some we just have an understanding, a bonding.. though we meet very little, we feel we can just open up to them. That's how it is with my cousin in Bangalore... even though we're 12 yrs apart by age. and her daughter, well she's a true doll - one gal whom it's so hard to say goodbye to. Some people could really get parenting skills from that pair (I mean my Sis and Jiju). :) It became tough when I had to divide the limited time between her family and my friends out there. But, I'd say I managed pretty well, even though time management isn't my forte.

When we say goodbyes we always think we'll meet people some time soon. Even me.... but that's not how it worked out with my roommate from Kota (Anurag); we met after 6 years, and boy was that a long time for buddies like us. GE had to send that fool off to Bulgaria or Hungary or Bosnia or some country like that.... and hence I was only able to spend about half a day with him, half of which I spent twitching with food poisoning (not what you expect after eating at a place like Sahib Sindh Sultan - awesome decor I must say however). Whatever the pain may have been, the shared nostalgia was amazing!! It felt like we were 18 again, playing cricket, tackling neighbors, sharing meals in Kota again.

There was a touch of Chennai and Indore as well in Bangalore. The former I met after 2 years and the latter... well after 2 months, but both felt like ages. An evening which took us from Shoppers Stop to Hard Rock Cafe to UB City to some restaurant whose name I can't recall (strange considering that I gave my treat there)... followed by a night which some would wish to remember and some.... well..... u know what I mean. ;-) Let's just say we were in high spirits, some more than others. What will I never forget from that day.... Chandu's bag of gold, Raj's constant whining as he sat behind me on his Pulsar :), Gokul's advice and also his description of how TCS mates work, Rudra & Sidhu driving all the way from Chennai, the argument with Swati over the route to her guesthouse, Rijin's photography stints, Raj's community mug, Sachin's persistent efforts to get back home b4 his mom wakes up and well.... my dance (read "hands and legs moving in unknown directions in no particular fashion") and mimickery (no, not of politicians or film stars, but of a German Shepherd and a Pomeranian).

Though I was gone from home for almost a month (including the time spent in Surat & Mumbai), I hardly felt the time pass (unlike my time spent in Udaipur). I just hope Bangalore beckons me again very soon.

And the Seasons Go On........

People get addicted to alcohol...to cigarettes...and drugs.... I'm addicted to something totally different - "English TV Series". I'm sure those of you who've seen the likes of Prison Break, Friends, How I Met Your Mother,"24" or Heroes would understand why.

They remind me of the tag line of Lays Chips - "No one can eat Just One". Of course here there's a different sense involved - the eyes and mind to be more specific. I remember nights spent watching some of these serials when I've gone from midnight to dawn and at times even till the sun is right above the head. That's the advantage (or disadvantage, if you wana call it that) of watching the downloaded series on laptop and not on TV. No advertisements (though I really love watching ads most of the times) and no one-week breaks after each episode. I feel like a 4 year old with a truck-load of chocolate ice cream.

Once you start watching these series, you fall in love with some of the characters like Barney Stinson and Chandler Bing. And then there are others by whom you're awed... like Michael Scofield. They've become such huge personalities that I'm pretty sure, 90% people who know these actors, don't know their real name. You can say they've been Christened once again.... :) They're all over the net... Blogs (like this one), Wiki, Websites, etc.

But you know, nothing stays great forever, not even "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" (please note the sarcasm). God knows how people watch that bull ****. I pity our Indian public sometimes; have they nothing better to do?? Hey, I don't loathe all Indian series. I have a few of my Hindi favorites also.. "Rishtey" from Zee TV, "Office Office" from SAB TV and a few others.
OK, where was I??? Yeah, I was saying.. "Nothing Stays Great Forever" - and I'm starting to see some of my favorite TV series become draaaaaaaaaaaags........... It's like, these people want to squeeze every last bit from their show's TRP. Commercialism at it's best!!

Prison Break went from "Fox River" to "The Chase" to "Sona" to "Scylla" across 4 seasons and it still hasn't ended. I'd probably kill myself if I had to run for so long!! The show has started getting on my nerves. I feel as if after every few episodes these guys cook up a new story and air a few more shows. After sometime, they themselves probably won't have a clue where the show is heading. They've taken some inspiration I guess from Ekta Kapoor. Honestly speaking, I was mesmerized by Seasons 1 and to an extent 2, but after that it's been just downhill. To the relief of many souls like me, sources say that the show will probably close after another six episodes, starting in mid-April this year.

I guess Prison Break was such a big hit that even "Heroes", a series on NBC, has recently picked up its style. I'm not kidding... the most recent episodes of season 3 (3x14,3x15,3x16) have become a crash course of Season 1 and 2 of Prison Break with some variations of course. If you watch it, you'll know what I mean. I wish Tim Kring would just put those super humans out of their misery. The show's concept was great but then the producers began to get greedy and they ruined everything.

Of course there are always shows such as "Friends" which I could watch a dozen more times and I wouldn't mind that many seasons more either. The same goes for "How I Met Your Mother" and Barney Stinson too (However, to be honest, I do get irritated and anxious sometimes over the suspense being built around who the mother's gonna be...)

I guess you now realise how addicted I am to all of these, that I get worked up over their murder by their own creators. What should I say.... I'm just one of a million out there.

In search of a lost friend.... "William (Billy) Spanos"

One of the things I've always cherished in life is childhood friendship (Something which many of us in India call "Langotiye yaar"). And by childhood, I mean the days when you were learning to read, write, spell and ride a bicycle. I consider those people very special who have been able to maintain that bond throughout their life. Sometimes we meet people in this world, whom we wish we had known since childhood. But unfortunately, we only have one shot at those diaper-days and some of us make the best of it...

Why am I writing about this today? Well, for quite some time now I've been trying to get in touch with a really good friend of mine, whom I know since the days which my mind can remember. You'd wonder that in this era of the "www", tracking down anyone would be easy. But, my searches have ended in a tall wall every time. I've had a go at Google, Yahoo, MSN, Rediff and so many more but in vain. I have even gone to the extent of messaging every single profile with the name "Billy/William Spanos" on various social networking sites such as orkut, facebook, hi5, etc. Now before you start calling me crazy, let me tell you the complexities of my case.
Billy and I grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut during the late 80s and early 90s. He is a few years younger than me but I guess that never really mattered. Our houses were right opposite each other and out of 24 hrs in a day, if you were to remove the 14 hrs of sleep and school, the remaining 10 were always spent playing together. Billy is basically Greek but I think he was born in US only. We fought like all other friends but it never lasted long. Our parents always had to search both houses before declaring us lost. Oh..... we never really got lost. We'd just be hanging around. I miss every moment of those days; fooling around with sand & mud, jumping on the trampoline, playing video games, racing on our bicycles (with 3 wheels), playing basketball. But what I miss the most are the Swings, where we tried our best to go real high and touch the sky, as if that were possible!! I recall Billy trying hard to teach me how to ride a bicycle, but I was a horrible learner. Poor Billy!
I remember how glad I was when Billy shifted to my school (Read Elementary) from his previous one. It was like the cherry on top of dessert. After that, on many occassions Anna or Taso (Billy's parents) used to drop us to school together. I've had many other friends at School and I've made many more over the years, but I can never forget that little fellow who taught me what friendship is.
I left the U.S. in 1995 and that was the last time I saw Billy (except for a picture of his which he sent me a few years later). Little did I know that I would never be returning to USA (atleast not in the near future) and may never see him again. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to recognize him today, that's why even the pictures on net don't really help. During the initial years after 95', we used to write to each other (email wasn't really prominent during that time) but then the letters just got lost in the haze. It kinda reminds me of "Kumbh ka Mela" which Indian cinematogrophers use so conveniently in many movies.
Today, when I try his VERY OLD number which I have, it's useless. I guess he's changed his home and as I said, the net hasn't helped me much. In a way, this blog-post is like a last-pitch effort in my search for that long-lost buddy; In the hope that maybe he or someone else who knows him will read it. Miss you brother.....
The collage below contains a few pics from those good old days.


P.S. If any of you out there want to mention some of their childhood memories of friends, feel free to do so. You have my Ears, or I should say Eyes.... :-)