Working on a Saturday

Before I start writing let me tell you 2nd and 4th Saturdays are off for me and other two Saturday I work, how disgusting isn’t it. Well what makes it more disgusting is working on one of the two off Saturdays, yes I am working this time on a Saturday. When you have a weekend off in two weeks, you wait for the Saturday as you have never waited for anything else in life, every time you plan the same thing with new excitement.

When my boss called me and told me that I have to come on a Saturday for a meeting with our advertisment agency, I suddenly felt choked, I felt like saying no but I couldn’t and dam it even yes was also not coming out of my mouth, so I just shook my head, letting him understand that I will come. Anyways I am trying my level best to get this meeting postponed for Monday, but that looks impossible. So all you guys who are working on Saturday you are not the only one…………..

Life without Boss

When your boss is not around you feel happy from within, your high on energy, some people also take time out to dress then and some also wear new clothes, you suddenly remember all your friends/family (whom you have not called from last many days) and then make a full use of office phone, its like a festival where everyone is in a celebration mode. Well the last whole week was a festival week for me too, because my boss was not around. I was finishing my work with my own pace, “No hurry and No worry” but as they say nothing is permanent in your life, my blessed days were also coming to an end, ya he was coming back and I was thinking why… so early, he just left last week, he needs some more rest, but god is cruel and so is he.

I was at my creative best when he is not around (yes I do have a creative side) I worked on a ppt, Uttranchal-“The land of God”…….I know the next best question is why? because I am from Uttranchal…and some intellectual thought which encouraged me to work on this. Anyways I also created my own blog and posted some entries in it, not very good in computer work, I first found it difficult to post my ppt in my blog but then came to my escape was my friend in need- Rakesh, who always helped me when it’s wanted. He helped me reducing the size of the pics so it’s courtesy him that you are seeing the slideshow on the right side of my blog (though its not exactly the way I wanted but then it’s better than nothing).

Today in the morning when I received my bosses email saying he will discuss this on Monday, I was happy thinking he is coming on Monday and our days of independence will only end with the weekend, but then I got to know from my colleague that he is coming tonight, and passed a fake smile to him as if its ok with me.

Adding to my woes was the bad food which we had for lunch today (by the way we get lunch in office). Somebody yesterday complained to the caterer that why can’t we get Chinese food someday (something different he meant) so today the bugger got a Gujarati Kadhi, which nobody knew it’s Gujarati or from some other land. It was even worst then it looked (sweet to taste and white in colour). Anyways we are hoping he gets the so called Chinese tomorrow and for today the icing on the cake is I was about to close my laptop, and my boss surprised everyone, he came today instead of tomorrow, everyone welcomed him with a fake smile and for me I have to stay back in office now.

A Day at Elephanta Caves

On a sunny Sunday, Shantanu and I were looking for a place where we could spend few hours, we already sat 3 hrs in barista and now there was no place to go. Two years of affair and I think we tried all the frapes, sandwiches and coffees in barista and café coffee day. Our regular routine on those days were to calculate how much we have spend on a single weekend. Every week the budget was going higher, as we used the malls, restaurants, bus stops just to spend some time together.

As we walked towards gateway, we saw a huge crowd around, we noticed that the crowd has taken a shape of queue and wondered where is it going, enquired and we found out it’s a ticket for Elephanta caves, 30 minutes of struggle in the queue and we were off to Elephanta.

It was a pleasant hour and 15 minutes of ferry ride, as we left the shore and moved in the Arabian Sea, the color of the sea was getting darker and the waves were going higher, as if they are trying to touch us. Everyone in the boat was very excited, honestly even I was quite excited as this was my first ride on sea.

As you reach there a small toy trains(not in a very nice shape) welcomes you, you can explore the island all on your own or take a small ride in it and then start walking. The island is famous for its caves dedicated to lord Shiva. Covered with lots of trees the island is an amazing way to spend your day in the arms of history.

They say that the great warrior prince of Chalukya Dynasty Pulkesin II, raised the shrin to celebrate his victory. The entire cave temple complex covers an area of about 60,000 square feet. The beauty of these caves is the temples in these caves and the carvings on the walls show Shiva in different moods and shapes, Lord Shiva practicing Yoga, Lord Shiva meditating with snakes coiled around his neck, and at places Shiva is in the company of his wife Parvati. One of the caves represents the marriage of Shiva with Parvati with the rites being performed by Brahma and scores of other Gods attending the marriage. The Trimurti of Elephanta showing the three faces of Shiva almost akin to the Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh is another beautiful sculpture

Most of the sculptures here were defaced by the Portuguese, who used the sculptures as target practice in the 17th century. Made in the 6th century AD, the caves are in complete wreck, and surprisingly even after being a protected zone under ASI and Ministry of Environment it’s in bad shape.

I suggest even if you are not interested in the history, do make a visit to Elephanta caves, it gives you an ecstatic view of sea, an amazing boat ride and an island to yourself for a whole day, night stay is not allowed in the island.

My Hostel Days in Mumbai

My first day in Mumbai, i came down from Mumbai Rajdhani and within 16 hrs I was in the city of dreams, ya the world is definitely getting smaller. We (my father accompanied me, probably the effect of Mumbai’s horror stories, which I am sure you must have also heard). The two infamous and yet lovely cities Delhi and Mumbai have there share of stories, which all of us love to tell each other. Anyway we made our way to the Army Mess, Colaba and on 12th July I was supposed to shift to YWCA guest house. we decided to go around Mumbai and check out some places there, and obviously our first visit was at the Mahalaxmi temple and Sidhivinayak temple in Dadar. My dad prayed for my well being and I thanked god for coming in this city, I loved Colaba the moment I saw it, an amazingly royal feel, reminds you of old British Raj.

My 11 months stay in Mumbai showed me a new world of opportunity, cut throat competition and don't care attitude. I was of the impression that Mumbai doesn't sleep and so are the markets/malls. But to my surprise Colaba closes at 10 pm except few pubs like Cafe Mondegar and Leopold Cafe, which are most of the time crowded with phirangs (more so it was out of my budget).

I shifted in a 4 seater room in YWCA, a huge room with four beds, cupbords and 4 tables in it, two days I was like a queen their, four beds to my disposal. And then on the 3rd day a girl from south shifted in my room, she was a virgin marry, away from guy's shadow, and those sick bad girls, who think and do all the things in life they shouldn’t do(I am sorry for using sick, but that’s not my connotation). she also heard lot of Mumbai horror stories, which were even more horrifying then my stories, so she decided to be in hostel after office, the 2nd girl was Avantika, a safai freek, the day she came, I saw her busy scrubbing the table making me wonder, that the tables skin will come out. After cleaning the table she covered it with a table cloth and then put a money plant on it and some more stuff which I can't recollect, later we became good friends, but unfortunately I lost her number and we are no more in touch now. The 4th and the last girl was an invisible woman (hardly in hostel) completely in love with Mumbai, thou this was her first visit, she was most of the time out of hostel, so we hardly had a chance to interact, except that she had a family friend in Borivalli whom she used to visit in weekends.

The working women hostel life is very different from student hostel life, everyone is busy in there own life, everyone is seeing someone and someone is seeing everyone, so everyone is busy. I was also seeing someone, so I was also busy (infact my reason to come to Mumbai).

I went around checking out places in Bombay, Bandra bandstand, Linking road, Colaba Crossway became a 2nd home for me, everyday after office I used to sit at gateway of India with Shantanu (my boyfriend then and husband now) discussing about our future in the city, where will take up a house in Bombay and how much we have to travel everyday (I think this is a main cause of concern in most of the big cities for working couples).

After five months I shifted to the main hostel where I was paying much lesser as compare to the 6000 bucks that I was paying for just lodging in the guest accommodation. By then I was pretty much settled in Mumbai(thanks to one of my colleague Sangeeta Lalwani, who agreed to be my local guardian), made some Good friends, and was earning reasonable money. Mumbai has a magic to it, it takes a lot from you every day, but it also teaches you something, I always wonder this is one city(if you manage to stay here for 10 years) it can either make you rich and famous or it will make you a saint. But whatever it does to you will carry this city in your heart.