Delhi Diaries - Part II

[Lurker]

New Delhi is no Paris. And thank God for that!! Amidst the poverty, dirt and teeming populace, you also realize something else...India is natural and never superficial. As we drive through Lado Sarai I see a structure peer out and look back again. Wow it is the Qutub Minaar. Melted right with the vista with people moving about around it as if nothing happens. Tall and proud you could see it for miles and if it could talk it would perhaps beam at you and go "Kiddo do you realize I have been standing here since the time when Europe was in the Dark Ages?" or maybe with a wink "The modern superpower, mightiest country in the world, hmm lets talk about it after it has seen as many years as I have". Later that day we are driving through another part of Delhi when other monument sticks out. "What is that?". "Ah huh thats Humayun ka Maqabra" as if thats nothing, as my brother keeps driving away. History everywhere you see. Only in India, and Delhi. ********************************************************************** Every square mile of India has history attached to it. And perhaps some square miles bit more history than the rest. And so here you stand at Kurushetra looking at the soil that has become red forever with blood thanks to the battle of Mahabharat . Now you could be a sceptic/athiest/scientist and ask for proof OR you could be like me and just look in the distance seeing Karna on his mighty chariot standing between his friend and imminent defeat and pummeling Arjun's chariot with his mighty quivers sending him back inch by inch even though Krishna and Hanuman sit atop Arjun's chariot. It is hard to be here and not feel a shiver up your entire being. And I don't care if I end in jahannam/narak/hell, I am sticking with you Karna! ********************************************************************** Late 90s, I am standing outside the offices of State Bank of India, SEEPZ, Mumbai. My very first salary is supposed to have been deposited in my account and I can't wait to make sure it has. It is 9 o clock or so and the employees have started to trickle in. Mostly employees are age 40/50 plus with a vertical multi layered lunch box in hand. This is of course the days before ATM, Online banking and hence you have to be at the bank to get the statement, or passbook updated. I finally get the confirmation but it takes me couple of hours. Fast forward to 2012 and I am standing outside a HDFC bank in Gurgaon. It is 9 o clock and the employees walking in are all in late 20s to early 30s. The oldest person is perhaps in his 40s and he is the Security Guard! I also don't see too many lunch boxes carried by the youngsters. When it is said India is changing it is these little things that you observe, younger working force, eating out etc. Also makes me wonder where are the oldies working now, do they even have a job, and place, in modern India? Oh and I get my stuff done in 2 minutes. ********************************************************************** It is Durga Puja time and pandals are there everywhere. Although not as much as one would observe in Eastern part of the country. We are at the one erected by Ansals in Gurgaon and for my family there is no festival as big as Durga Puja. Soon as we enter the pandal my Mom grabs her aanchal, rolls over her head covering it with one end between her folded hands. It probably helps that the pratima is more Bihari style than Bengali (the two are distinctly different). The local Bengali crowds brings out the huge nagaadas putting on a crescendo and in a moment we all are transported thousands of kilometers east. We might as well be in Khidirpur or Park Road. I have my 2 year old niece in my arms and I go about the statues one by one - Ye Saraswati Maan, ye Laxmi ji, yeh Ganesh Bhagwaan, Ye Karthik ji aur yeh Durga Maan. chalo pranam karo. And on the cue she does that. So maybe this is what sanskaar is?? Three generation of family passing values from one to the other? ********************************************************************** Aur yeh Ghate gaaon hua Sir...We are driving past Golf course Road in Gurgaon and I see some odd looking houses amidst tall skyrises. Ye saari jameen yehan rahne walon ki hai. Apparently folks who lived here and owned these lands sold them to the highest bidders and are now billionaires many times over. Then he drops his punchline - Is gaaon ko aajkal Amirpur bhi kahte hain. Talk of being at the right place at the right time..literally. ********************************************************************** Meeting a Socialite friend of mine for a drink. On the phone and the conversation goes... So where are you staying buddy? Sector-56. Sector 56? Where is that? Tell you what man, I hate these sector vector ka funda. Apna Colony system was so much better. So you would much rather live in a colony I take it? Hell yeah. Whose colony? Brit or Yank? What??? Suppose the humor is lost on the phone, but do have to wonder if there are other countries where citizens like to live in colony. ********************************************************************** All good things must come to and end. And there must be few feelings worse than sitting at your Gate waiting to board the return flight back. You arrange your documents and put them back in your hand luggage. Read a bit of the cricketing magazine you just bought. Watch a young hot waitress in the Delhi Daredevils lounge but you are far removed from it all. Your mind is thinking of how your Dad has been traditionally not open with emotions but these days when you leave he hugs you tight for more than a second. Your Mom, who typically used to go Khush raho aur phone karna jaldi, now says Abki jaldi aana. You remember the goodbyes and the little ones unable to understand where their Chachoo is going, and can express themselves by simple cry. You take a deep sigh, walk to the stewards, get your ticket checked, the stubs handed to you. Before u leave for another travel, you look behind it all, reach down and touch the carpet, or the floor with one hand and in one deft movement touch your hand at your forehead and then your heart. The stewart looks at you wondering if you dropped your ticket stub? You wonder if you may have dropped it all? Then Gulzar saab comes to mind with a Zindagi to chalti rahti hai and off you go. Raah pe rahte hain.... xxxxx

[Cricketics]

Lurker yaar. you should keep writing. I love to read these anecdotes and stuff. They way you put your whole trip in words is just simply amazing to read. Thanks for this 2nd part. It was very interesting to read. Especially the part where you mention about the bank and off course the Bye bye - Tata to the Indian people at the airport.

[Sachin=GOD]

Very nice. why don't you write more?

[Nova]

Good read. The part about bidding farewell to your family is touching. Always happens...sigh! 3 xxx has increased to 5... moar love after returning from India. :)

[veer]

just awesome reading your experience.. you can put your feelings to words.. not many people can do that.. Especially the last part.. I touch 'bhoomirajj' when leaving the airport and then before getting into airport door.. its just that feeling that you are leaving something so close to you behind.

[Yoda-esque]

Bhaisaab, you were in SEEPZ in the late 90s?Theres a good chance that we both could have been sitting next to each other on the katta outside ICH ogling the same gal :giggle: Unrelated to your post but a reminiscence of SEEPZ.. SEEPZ, in the late 90s rings was an animal by itself and rings quite a few bells. The Software scene was just about to explode at the time and suddenly, the world was a younger place.My Father who had spent his life slogging on the shop floor could not, for the life of him, understand how and why we were being paid 10,000 rupees a month for sitting on our behinds in front of a box all day.Of course, he did not know that working in SEEPZ for an Indian IT company was pretty much the dream of every geek who had just spent four precious years of his Engineering life learning pretty much next to nothing. You now had these 22-23 year olds just out of college that were boarding company buses from as far as Dombivli and Ulhasnagar and making their way through to the Western suburbs.The ride to SEEPZ though Chandivli and the mess they called the "Link Road" at the time was to say the least quite an experience by itself.The commute to the hallowed land cut across flyovers that were being built,muck slush,slums (lots of them),L&T with its gazillion company buses and its own "Iron Man" and finally "the" Link Road.Oh yes, trust the authorities to make the Export Zone as inaccessible as possible. Now, one could be forgiven for assuming that this being an "Exports processing" zone and frequented by foreigners everyday, would be a fine complex with beautiful office areas ,lush green gardens and rivers flowing with honey and milk.Wrong again.The buildings known as "Standard Design Factories" or SDFs were dirty,musty,creaky,leaky and every other imaginable adjective that one can think of with a negative connotation.At best they resembled the Indian Railways government quarters and SEEPZ was flooded with them.These multi-floored grey behemoths ususally had some kind of a mechnical workshop on its ground floor and then software offices at the upper levels.Outside the offices on the common floor would be the office cafetarias. The offices were a different proposition altogether.They were modern and state-of-the-art and embellished with Glass Doors,fancy modern art, central air conditioning,Pentium PCs with 32 MB RAM and pretty receptionists (the last ones with smiles reserved for Managers who had just returned from "onsite" with their new found accent).The office cubicles segregated by projects were large and the projects themselves determined your future in the company in a way.The lucky ones got to work on Client/Server applications while the poor souls that unwittingly topped the COBOL tests worked the inferior mainframes.However,the luckiest ones got the prettiest team members and project leads. There were two cafetarias that served this ecosystem and both were called "The Indian Coffee House" or ICH-I and ICH-II.For students that have had to scrap their way through hardships,these represented the best of SEEPZ.I remember many a day feasting on Indo-Chinese food and ending with the piece-de-resistance "The Pinneapple Sheera".It was here that we first heard about the different types of Visas,the best salaries that companies had to offer,the skill sets that were en vogue and not to mention the companies that had the best looking specimens.After a good meal, we would lounge about on the "katta" outside the ICH scanning the general female populace and hoping for a fleeting glance in return. That was a good time.Now, With IT companies having their own glitzy complexes and parks, SEEPZ is no longer the same but it remains the fledgling IT industry's own Coney Island.

[Lurker]

Lurker yaar. you should keep writing. I love to read these anecdotes and stuff. They way you put your whole trip in words is just simply amazing to read. Thanks for this 2nd part. It was very interesting to read. Especially the part where you mention about the bank and off course the Bye bye - Tata to the Indian people at the airport.

Good read. The part about bidding farewell to your family is touching. Always happens...sigh! 3 xxx has increased to 5... moar love after returning from India. :)

just awesome reading your experience.. you can put your feelings to words.. not many people can do that.. Especially the last part.. I touch 'bhoomirajj' when leaving the airport and then before getting into airport door.. its just that feeling that you are leaving something so close to you behind.

Thanks guys. Glad you folks enjoyed it. :two_thumbs_up: Veer, thanks for the word bhoomirajj, I had forgotten it, thanks for reminding mate..

[Lurker]

Very nice. why don't you write more?

Aajkal mauka aur muse dono thode kam milte hain, bas issiliye. Waise full marks to you and others who read it, it is steadily in decline these days, so thank you for taking the time.

[Lurker]

Bhaisaab, you were in SEEPZ in the late 90s?Theres a good chance that we both could have been sitting next to each other on the katta outside ICH ogling the same gal :giggle: Unrelated to your post but a reminiscence of SEEPZ..

Arre goli maaro post ko dost (arre yeh saala to rhyme kar gaya), I am just happy to learn we may have rubbed shoulders unknowingly. And hum aapke is baat se poori tarah ittefaq karte hain ke chances are we may have ogled the same maal, although the bigger question is ki kiski nazar jyaada gandi thi hahaha. Aapke post se kaafi kuch yaad aaya. A few of my sharings too: a) Like your Dad, and you should share more if you like, my family was also terribly surprised about my renumeration. I can actually remember coming home with the Offer letter and how my Mom cried, and my Dad sat down with a huge sigh just smiling ear to ear. Both of them had little idea what computers was or what the company (TCS) did, but all they cared about was it was a TATA company. Such was the goodwill, maybe still is. Oh and by the way the offer letter was for 65,000 per annum lol. b) One of the two ICH was close to my TCS ODC (Offshore Development Center) office. Not sure if it was I or II, I think it was I. The other one was practically at the end of the complex and we would often go there just to have a longer walk, and in the process see more girls lol. Pineapple sheera kya yaad dila diya bhai! SEEPZ was the learning place for many dishes that I had previously not bad, like saboodaana wada. TCS had its own canteen but we often went out to ICH, jee haan lardkiyan hi kaaran thi, khaana nahin c) I did not catch the office bus, there was not one from Kandivali. But in the process it also opened the trip from office to home. Soon as you would come out of SEEPZ I would either take a right turn towards Mulund, and then catch a bus for Kandivali. Or take a left and go via Mahakali Cave, Sher-E-Punjab etc. So ghooma bahut Bombay. Magar regardless of which direction I would take, coming out of SEEPZ I would always do 2 things first: a) Buy a Mid-Day or Afternoon. b) Grab a quick bite at the Jhunka-Bhakar stall. That is one thing Shiv Sena did great :winky: By the way which company did you work for at SEEPZ? If you want to share of course...

[Sachin=GOD]

Aajkal mauka aur muse dono thode kam milte hain' date= bas issiliye. Waise full marks to you and others who read it, it is steadily in decline these days, so thank you for taking the time.

dhoondne sey mauka aur muse dono mil jaayenge :two_thumbs_up: good writing will always find takers.

[Mariyam]

Great stuff, Lurker & Yoda-esque. These experiences make for a good read.

[vayuu1]

Great stuff really touchy

[mhr123]

Luks paji ke writing padh kar mujhe Rudyard Kipling paji ke short stories ke yad aa gaye.