Mysterious Women....part 2

.....carrying forward from part 1.

She moved towards, the third floor stairs and I followed behind.....after reaching the third floor...........she turned towards..........the stairs leading to terrace. I had ruled out that possibility already given her fear of darkness......and she was going towards the terrace. It was a half moon night and light cool sea breeze was adding to the darkness of the terrace. I followed behind her with hushed footsteps. I was sure, there would be someone else too......... She moved to the farther end of terrace and was looked towards the back side, from the terrace boundary. Behind our building was a hostel of an Indian IT major. My imagination was running overtime...and again and again telling me there would be some boyfriend coming to meet her - if not from within our building, then maybe from the IT company's hostel. I knew my chance was slipping but i stood there, in the darkness, behind a pillar......to find out, who is the one for whom, she had overcome her fear of darkness and come upto the terrace. 10 mins passed by.......and nobody came...she was still standing facing the other side, looking over to the horizon.........20 mins and still nobody came. Now I was getting restless. When you are waiting in dark, and mosquitoes are tasting your sweet blood, without any disturbance......as you can't make any noise.....its tough.

After around 30 minutes of wait, i heard some sound............i knew...........this was the moment........somebody appears to be coming. wait........this is a different sound..........somebody is crying........but who?........what a dumb question ! it was two of us on the terrace and i wasn't crying, so it has to be her.........the mysterious lady. It was a silent sob only.........but I could not stop myself and approached her. She was startled to see me at first and then her tactful self took over - she said, " Isn't this evening sea breeze so nice. I love coming to here" but even in that darkness, for the first time, i could see that her words were not giving support to her voice. Next, she was talking about some prof. / assignments..........what i could hear though was the pain and turbulence in her voice. In this moment of revelation, i was able to see beyond her tact and words. " Why were you crying?" , I asked in a very demanding voice. I never understood, how i asked that question to her.

She tried to laugh it away, negating my observation. Had it been any other day, I would have believed her but today, I was believing myself and i again demanded, " why were you crying". She reminded me of time and said,"Move to dinner, or else you'll miss the hot chapatis". Cold Chapatis was my sore area of concern in the mess, but chapatis was not what was on my mind right now. I told her, either to come with me or I too am not going. The verbal tussle, continued till some time and ended in a eerie silence. We both were standing bend over the terrace boundary wall, looking over to horizon and no word was spoken for 15 minutes.......

She finally brike the silence, asking me again to leave her alone there and before I could speak anything.......she broke down into tears. I wanted to console her and lend her my shoulders. She cried and cried till I could feel my shirt becoming wet at shoulders. She was holding my hands tightly......and then she spoke.

******** the conversation that happened than between us lasted for almost 3 hours. The content of that discussion is personal, so not to be written / discussed ***********

That day and both our lives changed. That day i realised the power of love - which can make people see and do, what in normal circumstances is unthinkable. 20 months after that day...........we two got engaged and 6 more months down, we got married. Today that mysterious women is my wife - my best friend.

A day in the life of TASO

Day 2, Project 2 and I am sitting with 2 other colleagues from TAS.......The journey that begins with Bharat Darshan and token gifts (refer: Pens of Toyo, Caps of Power etc.) thereon continues throughout the year. Each TAS manager gets to work with four different group companies.......a possible chance for companies to woo...the best talents in the country. Each company offers them best available assignments (Refer : Company's entry strategy for China; Indonesia.......Acquisition of Wind farms / Coal Mines etc. ) and facilities. Meetings are fixed up by admin with top leadership(Refer: Mr. Muthuraman at Jamshedpur) of respective companies and TAS managers are offered best available guest houses from company's side (Refer: Tata Caps....worli sea face guest house with plasma TV; AIG's linking road guest house etc.) .............well well.............life is not bad at all, and I am enjoying it.



On confirmation of a TAS manager, (s)he is loaded with gifts from various group companies. This is a strategic move from Group HR to ensure that the trained TAS managers don't leave the system. The assortment inculdes :

a) One time supply: A Nano from Tata Motors; Blackberry from Tata Tele; Broadband from Tata Comm.; Inverter battery from Tata Green; Xylus from Titan; Gold coins from Tanishq; AC from Voltas

b) One year free subscription/ supply of ........Tata Sky conncetion, Tata Salt / Fertilizer / Tea / Power

c) Lifetime discounts upto 50% on: Stay at Taj / Landmark / croma / Westside

d).......GETUP................

..........GETUP..............YOU are dozing off in office time ................

and my colleague wakes me up..............what ???? where !!!! ..........I am.

Oh No !!............its still the second project stint.........and I am dozing off along with other colleagues of mine at office, as we have nothing better to do.........

Its Day 2 of project 2.....

Well.....maybe it was just a dream...........or who knows.........just a premonition of things to come.........

Train to Masjid

Three months............in a few days time, it will be three months of my project stay at Mumbai......and the most memorable (or should i say, forgettable) memory would be of the local train travel. For first one month period, I was putting up at Vashi, Navi Mumbai and thereafter at Kurla, a central suburb. Both places asked me to travel via local train to office, situated in South Mumbai, at Masjid. Travelling in local trains is a fun for the visitor, a convenience for a 'sometime' traveller but largely a pain for the regular or daily traveller.

The life of daily travellers in local seems to have become so narrow in view - with entire focus on reaching on time to station, running from auto drop point to platform no. xx to catch that punctual serpentine; fighting it out to board the already overflowing concoction, even before the deboarders can get off; making their way through the dead pack swarm to their most coveted prize of the day - a seat. It doesn't matter, whether you get the fourth seat, on that hard bench of second class, with people falling all over your body, from all possible angles - you have won the battle of the day, the prize of the lucky few, a seat in the local train.

Having got the taste of this travel. Well, not just the taste, but the experience - afterall three months is not a small period. Its 90 days of struggle, and if we include the two way journey - its almost 180 journeys. Enough experience for me to pen (...oops, type) my thoughts. I have made a few theories regarding this train travel.

The Beaker Theory : This theory relates to all lines of the journey. However, I would take the example of my first month experience on the Harbour line from Vashi to Masjid. This journey is very similar to a Beaker. A small opening with a wider space inside. At Vashi, lot of people clobber together to get in, as soon as the train comes and within a minute, when the things settle down all seats are packed and a few people standing…comfortably. Then comes Maankhurd….politically, the first stop in Mumbai, after the creek. Maankhurd is like, a box of pebbles is poured onto a beaker fill with balls. The pebbles, fill up every inch of space available.
Just when you were thinking, that now the beaker is full…….comes Kurla, which is like a pack of sand being emtied into that already filled beaker. People just keep coming in..and you wonder about the physical properties of the wonderful element created by god, called human being, which can squeeze and squeeze and squeeze till all those who want to board the train have boarded. Now definitely no more possible, else somebody would definitely fall out........from the doors, if not from the windows. Then comes a place called Vadala.......and the sand packed beaker is filled with water.......yes , the possibilities are endless......just when we think, its over...........its all over............just then only, a new opportunity emerges, in which more and more can be absorbed in a sysem. Isn't that how our minds function......adds more with each experience.

Compressed Gas Theory: This theory is very specific to Central line and relates to the compressed air filled inside a balloon and the way this air gets released from the balloon and all action reaction physics involved with it. Now, this model become applicable at two stations called Dadar and Parel.........during the peak hour of morning 8 - 9 am. Its not as if this model can't be allowed to other lines or other times.........its just that I have observed this on the particular line and time I have mentioned above. Two stations before Dadar, people start getting up from their seats, if they have to get down at either of these continuous stations. Almost 500 meters before the station comes, shouts of "utara, utara, kudhe chala" and as soon as platform comes, people start jumping - out as well as in. The real fun comes when the train stops.......people move out, as compressed air is moving out of a balloon (50 sec) and after that people move in, with equally acoustic sound (50 sec). The outflowing mass and inflowing mass somehow align themselves so well, even amongst so many heads, that these two streams of air, doesn't cross each other's way. The train moves ahead and the exact same exercise is repeated at Parel too.

Health Index theory: " I got my first project in Mumbai and i became lean and fit...........how?............simple, i travelled low..cal", a friend told me this as a joke, a few months back. We laughed it away and forgot it. Three months down the line, I somehow agree that one of the reasons of average poor built of mumbaikars is travelling in these local trains. Not just you remain short of oxygen and space to grow, with avg. 30 days in a year spent in travelling in these locals, but also take into account the mental tension and agony while travelling in such crowded trains. Average Health Index of Mumbai is going down, and Local train are partly responsible.

Its not that these trains are not providing any benefits. Infact , i completely agree to these trains being "Lifeline of Mumbai", for without these, life and business would cripple in mumbai. Life is a journey, and our responsibility is to keep moving on. Train jouneys in locals of mumbai have given me important lessons in life, which I would never forget. May these train keep running...after all चलना ही ज़िन्दगी है

Singur : Who's lost the most?

Would the festive spirit of Durga Pooja, be able to change the gloomy atmosphere in Singur - a small village, on the outskirts of Kolkata, brought to limelight two years ago, when Ratan Tata annonced the rollout of India's Dream Car - Rs. 1 lakh worth NANO from a new plant of Tata Motors to come up at Singur in West Bengal.

Would the hundreds of young dreams, of earning a decent livlihood for their families, be shattered. During these two years, hoardes of diploma holders were given free training and they built a dream of working either in the Motors' plant or one of the 100s of ancilliary units coming up alongwith the plant or set up their own mechanic business and feed their families.

Whould the farmers who'll get their land back, if they do get it, be able to reap prosperity out of it - a land over which construction work has already been done.

What would happen to all the small local businessman and transporters, planning to become suppliers of material like stone / sand etc. and transportation to the Nano plant and the ancialliary units.

What would happen to the costing of Dream car, Nano - with the addition of relocation cost. would it now still be available at the magical price of Rs. 1 lakh

What would happen to the CM buddha's dream of changing the image of west bengal to a industry friendly state

What would happen to Mamta banerjee's image in terms of state development. Had she hit on her own foot, by loosing votes from rest of the state (for defaming the state image)

What would this incident's impact be on the India's image as a investment destination

Let's see the incidents related to the buildup of today's status. Government wanted to create a land bank to entice industry in the state. They purchased lands on the outskirts of Kolkata, some farmers didnt' wanted to sell - they were enticed with either higher than market price or using force (police). The land was offered to Tata and the project of Nano came to Singur as a big political mileage to modernist CM Buddhadeb bhattacharya. Mamta Banerjee, a political opponent, couldn't have allowed the CMs popularity to increase. She put fuel into the fire, simmering among the farmers who lost land by force and staged a series of dharna protests. Meanwhile, the plant was getting constructed on the land. At one stage things went beyond her control and goons ran amok. Fearing the safety of employees, Tata decided to pull out and with that everyone is now sitting sad.

Apparently it seems, everyone has lost in this game of political one upmanship. The place has been setback by not just two years, but also the 5-6years before, that acted as a buildup of the area as a potential destination to industry. It would thus not be an exaggeration in saying the place has been pushed back into the 20th century.

Its not just moving out of Tata's from West Bengal, its moving out of NANO economy from the region.