GOING DOWN THE MEMORY LANES

           Well, this was my first journey out of south india. So I was little tensed and also as excited about the same. My first step in Maharashtra was into a hotel in the early morning when I came to join my company. I thought having a coffee would be better. The first sip of the drink and I did not like it at all. The coffee was tasting like a sweet hot water with little amount of coffee fragrance. Then came the waiter with the bill reading Rs.30/-. For a moment I was shocked and confirmed that it is not the famous coffee shop “CCD” from my state. They say god beginning is half done. But what about this?. Anyhow the welcome drink was not impressive. Then only I was thinking about the consequences of staying in this state for next one year or so.

          The next thing which welcomed me into the city was a series of autos. There were hundreds of auto drivers standing near the bus door not even allowing us to get down. I almost ran away from the bus and stood in the end of the road. One driver came to me asking “tumhi kudhe(Where do u wanna go)”. As I know a little Marathi, I told him the name of the place which I had written in a slip because remembering the names of the places here is not an easy task! He took me into the proper road telling that he is not like the others who might cheat people. Self appreciation is such a thing which makes us to doubt somebody. But I did not think a lot as I was sleepy. He was explaining about the city and the places in and around. The meter was running like anything but it did not matter as he demanded me some fixed money and I gave it without wanting to create a tension in the morning. He went away telling me “Welcome to Pune” and wishing me the luck. For a moment he seemed to be a nice person.

          The most boring days of my life, our first two days of introduction to the company happened in a very nice place between the sahyadri hills here our company is situated (If someone is frustrated by the workload, he can go for a trek also). There was no one, no familiar faces; neither of them was speaking in my comfortable language. The first day and many of them were so excited to have joined the company. Some of them had come without any other option. Couple of them had no goals at all. and we were given a bundle of papers in which we wrote the details of ours again and again, and a hundred signatures. Before putting every signature I was thinking why am I here. !!.There was someone who told me after the first day that he got to know himself very better. The first day only I made a lots of friends, with whom I made fun of the lady who was speaking constantly from morning to evening on our second day.

           That was lunch time and all of us went with some employee to the food court. The first thing I noticed about the Maharashtra food was, in most of the places neither the north Indian nor the south Indian cuisine is good. The breakfast culture is completely different from what we have in our place, like our evening snacks is known as the morning food here! Sounds crazy but I should not say this is bad. Anyway the lunch was bad and it will be the same everyday with daal and roti all the time. 

          I should not forget to mention about the buses in this city. On the first day, when I just entered the city I was stunned to see a bus which reminded of 1970’s era where there were a couple of buses running with people acquiring all the parts of it. The evergreen Volvo buses of Bangalore flashed across my mind at once. The second day I actually stepped into a bus asking the conductor. He was in no mood to answer my question and told yes for everything I asked. And the bell tied to the bus to stop is a very funny thing to notice. And the bus will not stop in any of the stops for more than 10 seconds if there are a couple of persons or a big gang of people. Overall the system is the worst I can say.

          It would be wrong if I do not mention about our training which is the reason why I am here. In the initial days almost all of us were sincere, attending session on time, concentrating, wearing formal dress everyday. Slowly or u can say very soon the formals changed to jeans and the arrival time got postponed by an hour and sometimes more. One eye was on the board where the trainer was trying to fill something in our head and the other was on the computer screen not to mention chatting and facebooking or live streaming the match if there was any. The free food provided by the training centre was awesome in the beginning but soon after e liked nothing but the salad. The case studies sessions were interesting in the beginning because of the so called enthusiasm to do new things for some of them. As days go on those sessions were more enthu but discussions about everything under the sun and downloading the stuff from the internet at greatest speeds. The friendship and the understanding between all the colleagues was awesome and we did a trekking or two in between and lending a helping hand whenever wanted. I cannot forget the many fundas we discovered in DC sitting with the friends in the cloudy evenings. Then there was the drama of the exam at the end with everyone coming up with a rumour everyday. The exam was the same as the internals we had in the colleges. Overall we were not at all feeling like we were working for a company barring some 3-4 cards and a couple of registration and entering our attendance by ourselves (even proxy was allowed..ssssshhhh.. ). 

          The only person with whom I am conversing in Kannada frequently is my roommate. The weekend breaks were leading us to MG Road or FC road most of the times and having food outside to get rid of the special and sometimes meaningless food provided to us by the dabbawala. I had a big blast doing a big trip of two weeks visiting my all my friends and relatives.

          In this span of three months I have learnt to live staying away from my close friends, I have missed the idly sambar, dosa and my beautiful village, I have started cooking. Everything is an experience in life. I was very enthu about visiting and staying in Pune but the motherland has its own beauty and it has no ords to explain. but I am happy that I am living in a relatively good city, if not I would have been somewhere else (refer my last post).

Life changes within a click. Within a second a birth or death occurs. Within no time a common becomes a star. The change is the necessary thing in the world. Someone rightly said “Be the change u want to see in the world”. Adapting to any conditions is the most important thing in the world. If something is not going well, turn it around in your way such that the world follows the same rule set by you. This is what I have experienced in the last three months.

          I am writing this post just because I am not finding any other options to pass time because it is almost a month I am sitting at home without a project and getting the money for it. Hopefully I will write one more post about the initial days of project soon.