Memories of my city - Pune

Pune has been known by a plethora of sobriquets. Popular among them: Queen of the Deccan, cultural capital of Maharashtra, pensioner's paradise and Oxford of the East. Pune is one of the historical cities of India with a glorious past; innovative present and promising future.I had the most wonderful memories of my life in pune and believe me, which helps me to spend some hours in sleep. My city has given me all the fun and leisure I could ask for.

Starting with some memories, like the sun was high up in the sky. It was almost noon, and all the classes were already dismissed. The parking lot was slowly filling up with mingling college students. Simultaneously, the two wheelers were causing minor traffic jams at the small entrance to the college. Our small group of students were trying to decide what they wanted to do with the rest of the day. There were several suggestions, then it was unanimously decided that the appropriate first destination would be Madhuban, the haven for idli-sambhar, masala dosa, onion uttapas and to top it off, a cup of filter coffee. A little general conversation, a few PJs and the atmosphere was perfect. It was just after the breakfast rush, but before the professionals took over at the lunch hour. And somewhere in between were all those lovelorn teenagers, trying against all odds to find a private nook in the busy restaurant. Main Street was the place where anyone and everyone could be found. That you had met them in college just a few score minutes ago didn’t matter. Each time you passed some acquaintance on the streets; you couldn’t help but yell out in excitement! Lunch was either outside or then taken at any of friends home. It didn’t matter that your mom was expecting you to join her!!

Koregaon Park was never far from us in the hot, steaming summer days. Prem’s was where we went for the most cosmopolitan breakfast. Baked beans on toast, omelettes, pancakes, anything goes as far as food in the posh and calm surroundings were concerned. Oshoites were seen at every nook and cranny and just listening to their different stories gave you food for thought and topics for conversation for days to come. If you were broke, you just sat on the steps in college, chatted with people, and shared pranks you could play on unsuspecting friends and lenient professors. (All of those with a nice sense of humor, though!) Bunking lectures and just sitting around with a group of friends, getting opinions and ideas on different topics. Management accountancy and QT classes were just another place to meet people. Accounts were just another excuse to better your social life. And then, who wanted to really study when there were so many more important things to do.

The Jaws, was another hang out place, I think it’s closed now. But Café Delight (CD) was one our favorites after Parsi Gymkhana & YMCA, Just like another home, swimming, table tennis, pool. Haaaaa from pool I remember one of my friend he was treating the cue stick as a hockey stick and hammering the balls. F**k man the stick broke into two, and then they started playing marbles (Gotiya) with the balls. This resulted in the early shutdown of the pool room, before 8 in evening. My friend thought me how too lean on the table tennis table for cheating, and yaa we two use to throw empty soft drink bottles in the swimming pool from the gym on the first floor. The life guard at the pool use to wonder, from where the hell these bottles land up.I have taken some pictures during my last vacation, and up loaded in my earlier posts,

http://tanveerk.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_tanveerk_archive.html

These small things you remember when you are lying down on your bed, in a strange country, with strange people as neighbors. You don’t regret your decision of leaving your motherland for another country. But a little nostalgia helps keep those happy memories evergreen and fresh in your mind. It gives you an urge to push just that inch more, to prove to the world that you have made the right decision. To make it in another country, one that is not your own has a heady feeling of its own. Life goes on with your daily routine taking the place of the uncertain college gallivanting. Responsibility towards your family not only with you, but also back in India motivates you to work all the more harder to prove your mettle to the world. And the last but not the least is the happiness that you feel when you see your hard work pay off. But I really miss my city.

My Computer

Sometime it crashes, sometimes it can’t handle the heavy loads I give, sometime it gives strange beeps, sometime it gives blue screen of death, I know my computer is only a box, that is filled with chips and cables, and to some it may seem a little strange when I tell them, I rely on it so much, You know it is really filled with very precious treasures, like my family, my friends and fun and some of whom I may or may not ever see, yet I love them every one.

I love My Computer

Sinful Me

Your Deadly Sins

Lust: 80%

Wrath: 60%

Pride: 40%

Sloth: 40%

Gluttony: 20%

Greed: 20%

Envy: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 37%

You'll die while in the throws of passion - the best way to go.

How Sinful Are You?

Yummy

Yummy Pizza. Forgotten what's it called there's anchovies in it... mushrooms etc

Yummy! 3 flavors in 1 container plus a waffle underneath

Food.. Do you live to eat or eat to live? This question is very common and the answers are subjective indeed. For me I would say that I eat to live or rather live to eat may be don’t know, probably Haha. Hey! I'm still trying my best to loose more Kgs ok. I guess I have moved out of the 'overweight' category according to my Body Mass Index (BMI) questioner anyway, I haven't actually answered the all question... But I can almost guarantee that I am still on dieting.

Ohh ya yesterday saw “Alag”, believe me it was real alag. This guy called Tejas Rastogi gives electric shocks and all by holding hands, and I will not comment any further on that, well thanks to Purva (Diya Mirza) that she was there so I somehow managed to see the full movie at least.

Dedicated Post - Azam Campus

Azam Campus had a humble beginning 130 years ago in the form of an Arabic "MAKTAB" of which one of the first students was late Sir Mohd. Rafiuddin, tutor to Queen Victoria. The nucleus, through the concerted efforts of benefactors, benevolent leaders and eminent educationists such as late Haji Gulam Mohammed Azam a business man from Surat, late Khan Abdul Kadir Khan leading lawyer of Pune city of his times and late Khan Bahadur Hidayatullah the first principal of Anglo Urdu Boys’ High School has gradually grown into present large system of learning and research catering to the needs of more than 15,000 students right from the Pre- primary school to Post Graduate level with special facilities for girls with instructions in English as well as Urdu medium.

The Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education (M.C.E.) Society, Pune was established in 1948. It is one of the oldest educational organizations of Pune & has done pioneering work in the field of education for the socially & economically weaker sections of the society. The M.C.E. Society has set up educational institutions covering a broad spectrum from Oriental Languages, Computer Science, Science, Commerce, Arts, Law, Pharmacy, Architecture, Management Sciences, Medical, Dental, and Information Technology are being offered on a piece of land in Pune Cantonment area admeasuring 24 acres.

The V.M. Gany Pavillion and Sports Stadium constructed within the campus is one of the best in the entire Pune City. It boasts of an eight lane 400 meter Athletic Track enclosing a Football field within. Besides, separate playing areas are available for other outdoor games like Cricket, Basket ball, Volley ball, etc. also a well equipped gymnasium is available for the students. To promote excellent in education, guest lectures, competitions, group discussions, seminars are organized from time to time. A well-equipped Assembly Hall is available for seminars and conference and other educational get- together.

The motto of the college is "knowledge is power" There is a spacious auditorium, well-stocked library; audio-visual aids to facilitate better presentation and well-furnished classrooms are some of the facilities available here. Even though the accent is on exposing the students to a progressive and scientific environment, value education and Islamic tradition are not neglected. Going beyond formal academic inputs, the college strives to provide life skills enabling students to face the challenges of their highly patriarchal society. Specially designed interactive workshops encourage students to move beyond academics.

The Azam Campus consistes of:

Colleges

M.A. Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Center
Allana Institute of Management Sciences
Allana College of Pharmacy
Institute of Pharmacy (Diploma in Pharmacy)
Allana College of Architecture
H.G.M. Azam College of Education
Junior College of Education D.Ed. English Medium
A.K. Khan Law College
Abeda Inamdar Sr. College for Girls
Abeda Inamdar Jr. College for Girls

Institutions

Z.V.M. Rangoonwala Industrial Training Centre
Institute of Career Development
Anglo Urdu Boys' High School
Anglo Urdu Girls' High School
Anglo Urdu Boys' Night High School
H.G.M. Azam Urdu Primary School
English Medium Primary School

Sister Institutes

AkI's Poona College of Arts, Science & Commerce
MMERC's ZVM Unani Medical College & Hospital
Deccan Muslim Institute & Library

(Write-up Source: mcesociety)

What a Dish

Things just have been awesome with me, I got the new project work going good and I'm enjoying it a lot! And guess what, here was this Japanese guest form the Toyota company staying in one of our hotels, ooooffffff my god.....itna pakayaa….the way I struggled to communicate with him, all he could understand and speak in English was YES and NO. He had this mac laptop with a Japanese operating system and wanted to configure his email client on our lan. You know it was like every option I click I have to ask him what’s the meaning of this, then he replied though I could not understand any thing he was speaking… I said to my self, wish I knew Japanese or at least he knew English. After eating his head for one hour and with all the experience of my Guess Work…at last was able to get it working. On a personal not I must tell, that these Japanese people are good by nature, while all this was going on, that poor chap arranged for some orange juice and these Pringles Chips, The Teriyaki, Crispy Curry, Grilled Shrimp and Pepper flavors, he said that some of these flavors are now sold in Japan and US. I tried the Curry and Grilled Shrimp Flavor and I loved it!

Went home a little late, it was Thursday night, lot of rush rush. Reached home finally at 12:15 or so. Had a quick hot shower, its like just standing sometime in the hot shower and let the water drops run from your head to your neck then your shoulders and so on, its sooo relaxing, it just takes out the full day stress. Anyways there was this C grade Methun movie going on set max, don’t know the name. Sometimes I like this kind of off beat cinema, it’s just like something different from the usual. After some time all off of a sudden started feeling hungry, may be the effect of the c grade movie or so. Walked to the kitchen, took a pack of biscuits, then on a second thought put it back. Then took 2 eggs and frying pan, ok now I said to my self , will give it the old way, now the stage is set to make “Anda Bhurji”

Now this does not require any special skill or recipe of any kind. It’s just simple and over the years I've become more comfortable with this. First the Ingredients: Eggs 2 , Onions chopped 1, Tomatoes chopped 1, Green chili chopped 1, Garam Masala powder ½ tea spoon, a little chili powder, Vegetable oil 2 or 3 small spoons and some slat.

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add salt, red chili powder and beat again so that salt and red chili powder mixes well. Heat oil in a non stick pan. Add green chili, and onions and saute over medium heat till onions become slight brown in color. Add tomatoes and cook until tender, Add beaten eggs and mix well. Using a spatula in the non-stick pan, turn the scrambled eggs upside down so that the eggs get fully cooked, Sprinkle garam masala, then cook for 3 minutes or so. It’s ready to be served with tomato sauce. Ohh boy what a dish....delicious.

I miss the old days with my friends we use to have this near the railway station late nights. Anyway its not that I am lazy, I can try out learning and cooking different dishes, but who will clean up the mess after that!!!

Foot Ball Fever

Yaa that’s my cup now

The Warbler pub at our hotel is going very strong, there is this new band playing it’s the Nelson band called as Streetnoyz Band, its very loud, very good singing and dancing. Lately there was this salsa night, it was rocking.

The Foot Ball Fever, World Cup 2006, the atmosphere is very charged up. Huge screens to show the matches, crowd enjoying every bit of it.

Six Feet Under

The Tv serail I love to watch, this comes on A1 plus and HBO, its very intresting, even the title music is so sweet , its goes like, taaaa.. naa.. nnnaaa.. naa, taaaa.. naa.. nnnaaa.. naa. It’s like it sheds light on life by focusing on death. HBO's Six Feet Under by Alan Ball (the maker of American Beauty) it deals with a family that runs a mortuary. Each week begins with a death of someone whose body ends up at Fisher & Diaz Mortuary. The dead person's spirit often appears to one of the main characters to shed some light on what's happening. As much as death seems central to the show, it is really about life.

First off, it's a show about a very real family, these characters are like real people, grow and make mistakes with very real issues to deal with. The family, who have just recently lost the father consists of the mother Ruth, two sons Nate and David, and Sister Claire. The two brothers run the business previously owned by the father, a funeral parlor. I just love this show; there is not a single bad actor on the show, in every role. Each episode goes into a different direction every week. This is a wonderful show that is about those who deal with death.

A dysfunctional Pasadena family that runs an independent funeral home, it’s very amazing to see how they decorate the dead body with make up, flowers, music, presentation and all, no mater how much the dead body is damaged. It’s a funny and emotional look at a grieving family...that just happens to be in the grief management business. The characters move from crisis to crisis in their personal lives, all are looking for happiness in many ways like romance, success, relationship, family, religion; but they always come up short, these are people have seriously messed up their lives. After watching the series finale, I think that SFU is the most raw and personal television show I've ever seen.

Some Shopping

Yesterday had been to the biggest shopping mall in the city, for some shopping of course. took a Prestige nonstick cookware set, LG Microwave Oven with Grill & Convection 30L , four slice toaster, all this for my mom, For my self, took a pair of jeans, I had to go for 31 W seems I am putting on, and a pair of sleeve less t-shirt black ones. I don’t know why I am always attracted to that black color. Moving ahead in the electronics section I took 1 TB (1000 GB) external usb hard drive, now how’s that for some data storage, well that was the maximum available in the market. I also upgraded my mp3 player to 1 gb. All this was fine till it was on the trolley, but as I got out of the taxi and had to carry all that to my apartment, it was shit man, had a very tough time with that.

Late evening went out for dinner, this new hotel had some recreation facilities, and guess what there was even table tennis , well some one was playing my song and I wanted to join the cores, but how, I did not have the TT racket with me, some how on request I got one ohh yaaa…. Now playing after a long time but still I manage to win 2 out of 3 games, all credits to my good friend “D”, he was my guru in TT, he taught me the game, thanks to him. I still remember the way we use to play in YMCA and the hotel gaming zone next to Liberty, it was fun. I learnt how to hold the racket, to serve, to spin, to smash and how to cheat sometimes J . I really miss those times, I had to leave them for a job and come here, I feel strange. That's ok. If you don't feel strange going away from your beloved family and friends , you should donate your heart so that someone can melt it and use all the steel, now too when I talk to him, he tells me to come back. Apart from my family, he is one of the few people who have had the misfortune of discovering me in all my pristine stupidity. I think I should make a light footed flashback leap here.

Minor scoldings about watching too many movies not withstanding, I have had a very nice childhood. My parents have been wonderful and have understood my usual tendencies. I got everything from them what I wanted. But still, there comes a stage when parental wisdom and a child's adventurism don't make a perfect pair, and you want someone as stupid and reckless as yourself, or a friend as they call it. As a kid, I had friends, and that's natural when someone is as harmless as me. No one feared me, it was the classic case of everybody liking the guy who could not beat them in exams, not steal away their girlfriends and could not stop them from eating their lunch boxes, though my lunch box was finished by them before lunch. I was perfect friend material, safe and useful. Boys do make great company, when you plan to watch a soccer or cricket game and abuse everyone around, not in more sensitive and non violent situations. We have fooled the Supriya hotel owner for free lunches, and also the sugarcane juice yard opposite our school. I remember we still have to pay the panipuri wala at Pudamji Park,

Anyways it’s like you walk in alone and walk out knowing a person who is willing to accept you as you are, with all your weaknesses and fears, with all your flunked math’s courses and lack of sophistication. Our friendship has come a long way. Small moments , moments of trust , moments of laughter , moments of teasing each other , a few moments of sadness , little moments which seem insignificant when compared to the big milestones of life such as clearing our CET and getting into MBA, and so on. I also thank him for helping me to prepare for that and my project work,then the interviews and jobs etc.

Sometimes, things really are simple. People may see it in any way, but I know the moments we had together, were moments when we could pause life, keep aside its worries and look away from its questions... Hope to see him soon.

New wall hanging

That’s the new wall hanging in my cabin; put up by the housekeeping dept on the empty wall, it’s a hand made panting of open doors, I think its made for some positive thinking or so, the other old one is a motivational thought of team work, second is the work mantra and one other I have put right in front “24 hours allotted each day”, you know sometimes I feel 24 hours a day is not enough, the day should be at least 30 hours or so. Many a times my work is pending and the day just finishes off. I wish every one should have a customize day settings, like how they want to. It will be real fun; I will put my hours in loop.

Not for me

But I had it, the chocolate cake there was so mmmmmm, but I had only some of it, carefully removed the thick chocolate layers in between and hogged the rest of it. It was YYYYMMMMMEEE… Any way last weekend was a jet black day in the history of my driving. Early in the day, I was reversing the car (not mine of course) out of the parking lot and I barged into the hedge around the neighboring garden fence. My colleague was like "Shucks !!! And guess what.. all those scratches on it…look like a crocodile used the car door for her manicure. " and my neighbor came out, it was like, areee !!! You killed my jasmine plants !! Their fragrance was so lucky for our home as per vaastu shastra". I said her sorry and moved off.

Any way’s there was this a birthday party of my FC ‘s daughter, and I was given the video cam for some shoots. That did it man …I rolled the camera and jet set gooooo.. I was behaving like crazy, just like the star news camera man, and also started asking people stupid question and they came out with more stupid answers seeing the camera in front. I guess this is result of watching too much of star news, now I know that. This went on for 2 hours or so. Finally he came to me and said, give me the camera and you have food. Ohhh thank god I said, was feeling shit hungry. Grabbed a plate started with some salads, achar, chicken curry, roti and fruit salad, after that he gave a full plate of some sweet dish I don’t know the name, it was so sweet I could not eat but had to.

That night I got such a deep sleep, the alarm was also of no use, missed my prayers too. Any way’s I wish he should never watch that video, if he does he will surely curse me. Guess what, today he came to me with the video cam, usb cords and all and requested me to digitize the video on a dvd to watch. Now I wish his dvd player gets kharab.

Thought of the Month

"When you’re in a hole,

stop digging."

A moment to be Proud

Today at a remote site system testing, I connected the laptop over a dialup connection, guess what I got a sucking speed of 9.6 kbps, I was like.. what the fu** this is ridicules, the worst I have seen in my life. Now I am feeling proud of the Indian ISP’s, i.e.: BSNL, VSNL, TATA etc. all are doing a good job man. To my friends at TATA, especially Devs.. no worries now if any costumer complains of slow speed, no need to give them the usual big stories of under sea cable and router problems, you can just say, get lost we are much better than others