Thats how I bid adieu for a new lease of life...!

So finally the day arrived and Wednesday (y'day) was my last day with the maiden employer in Bangalore….In a ritual of sorts for all outbound colleagues, a farewell party was thrown in my honour. We all went to a seedy restaurant on 100 ft road in Indira Nagar.

Supposed to be a restaurant serving Italian cuisine, most of them were at their wits end naively running through the menu. However the saviors who had a fair idea about Italian cookery decided the menu for majority of us.

It was only after the order arrived that I realized the saviors were out to destroy our taste bud, literally. The raw vegetables kept in front reminded me of schooling on those primitive tribes who relied on uncooked food when fire was not discovered.

Most of them had a second round of lunch after reaching the office. And the worst part, for all that unfinished food the bill left a bomb in everyone’s pocket.

There was a little surprise waiting when I reached office. I was presented with one of the highly reviewed books of all time ‘The Alchemist’, and a bouquet. Was quiet touching coming from the Branch Head of the company. Also on the offer was a coffee jug and choc from my colleagues.

As the day progressed, I saw a box lying in the conference room. I realized - a one more ritual which was to be accomplished for the day - it was a cake cutting ceremony. Ironically the cake read, ‘Don’t go Sudu’ belying the otherwise less concerned colleagues of mine who had by now come to terms with my exit from the company.

In fact I realized I am at the fag end of my spell and perhaps was the last thing on the itinerary for the day. While I was firm on not giving any farewell speech, I was forced to give one by my colleagues who were insistent on listening to wax lyrical from me.

To be honest, I never intended to be untrue to myself on the last day and sound hunky dory about my stint with Hanmer and my colleagues. Except for few of them, with whom I believe my association will survive for several years to come, I really do not want to regret my break up with many others. While I picked each one of them and tried desperately to find significance of theirs in my stint with Hanmer, I somehow managed to gain words and thank everyone for their contribution. Now that’s what you call PRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

But emotional that I am in nature, today I can feel the vacuum around. All said and done, the office was lively with presence of each one of them including the bosses.

Tomorrow I won’t be going to the office, hear that effervescent crowd, pester those
friends and feel secured at all situations. Perhaps will never be able to play chauffeur to my best friend whom I religiously dropped home after office hours. But as it is said, you never leave your friends developed at work place, you leave one infrastructure for a better one, and they will continue to follow your success.

How many more...?

One more serial blast and the country is as frozen and shocked as it was earlier. Terror strikes in the UPA regime have become more common than those hoax promises delivered by our politicians before every election. After, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat, it is Delhi and God knows, there may be many more cities on the radar in the coming months.

While the terrorists were leisurely planning and marking the country’s busiest and vulnerable areas to set off their plans, our government was busy negotiating nuclear deal with US. It is debatable though on whether the Nuclear deal is more important than settling internal tribulations that the country is going though.

Right from Orissa in the East to Gujarat in the West and Kashmir in the North to Karnataka in the South, none of the cities have been left untouched by the growing influence of terrorists and naxalites. The present government has easily enabled the terrorists to crown and dub the state as ‘soft target’ of the World.

Soon after the blast, our Home Minister, Shivraj Patil ventured out of his AC cabin to give count of dead people in the blast. The audacity with which Patil ventures out after every blast and rattles those rehearsed lines shows how good he is with his dialogue deliveries. This time too, he said, “Investigators will find out the people behind the blast and punish them. We will not let them go.”

Now how many times have we heard this…? Mr Patil probably has forgotten the count of victims who died in Ahmedabad and Jaipur blasts and similar assurances offered by him to the gullible citizens of the nation.

I think and many agree that it is time for the Government to bring in stricter laws to curb terrorism in the country. Look at the big brother, America who after 9/11 terrorist attack, has not had any major attacks on them. While people have been failed by the present Government, parties sitting on the fence and waiting to seize opportunity have started political battle even as blast victims were succumbing in the hospitals.

I just wish realization dawns on the Government who are chosen by us to protect and give us decent lives and not feed our famished nation with their false promises and assurances.

Back are the days...!

The much awaited festival is round the corner. And this time around, I am embittered as I am miles away from the celebrations. And I am already envious of those who will have the opportunity to indulge in nine day night festivity when country’s only dry state will come alive.

I was born in a State, where means to unwind after hard days work is an unfound luxury. I did my schooling, college and post graduation in Gujarat. I found my first ‘naukri’ and ‘Chokri’ both in this Gandhian State, it’s a different matter though that I could not retain it for too long.

While entertainment was a far fetched idea for us, it was a group of like minded people who came together to give vent to their brimming passion in life. Basically our group comprised of those disillusioned and disgruntled soldiers who never took classroom studies seriously. We relentlessly performed and showed our moves at all functions and competitions.

Well for us that remained the only form of entertainment as till date there is no existence of pubs and discotheques in Gujarat, thanks to Gujarat’s prohibition laws. And hence no regular parties happening or no night outs with girlfriends…  Parties’ to you are as unlikely to happen as thought of prohibition free state with unrestricted booze flow. And a couple of remaining hangouts are invariably forced down before 10.30 pm by those paunch bearing khakhi clad men.

But all that did not deter us from raising a toast or shaking a leg or two on friends’ terrace on all possible occasions. The real entertainment though was those nine days of ‘Navratri’ - the only festival of nine days in a year when the city’s nightlife could put even a die hard Newyorker to shame.

It was so much fun. Be it standing in a serpentine long queue for those male passes for Garba or those jostles at the venue to take an entry into the Ground, all those efforts seemed so worth it. While most of the men (count me in) would visit the Ground to ogle at those lovely Gujju guls with backless cholis, it was amazing to see how an otherwise dreadful looking woman would turn in her strikingly hot and modish avtar under those arc lights.

For many it was not just about swinging to the tunes but a platform to find their perfect match in the crowd of those zealous revelers. I still remember how I religiously picked my girlfriend from her home and dropped her way back after Garba hours. This was the only time when I got official sanction from the girlfriends’ parents to pick and drop her. At the hindsight, I think, perhaps those were the best times of my life.

Twelve years of religiously participating in one of India’s prominent and well-known Navratri Events, United Way of Garba, it feels so dreadful that I am not in Gujarat on the 13th year. It is completely nostalgic now, sitting in Bangalore.

As the days are inching near, I still smell the distinctive aroma emanating from the brightly lit Garba ground, drone those favourite songs on which we exhibited our Garba skills and of course miss my girlfriends who cordially made efforts to match steps with me….:)