1066-The Betray!

1066 is the only word I could utter after I regained my senses. I had fainted and injured myself earlier in the morning of 30th Aug 07.Well the best was yet to come; Apollo Delhi Emergency responded saying "there is no doctor right now; get yourself admitted to some hospital and we will pick you up". And they didn't even send the ambulance neither did they call me back.

Without wasting time anup got me to the Max Healthcare hospital in Gurgaon. I sensed like entering some IT company; later the doc greeted me. I come from a place where my grandfather died because there was no oxygen in the state and my dad was treated as a malaria patient for 25 days for gall bladder stones. For me yeah it was definitely the first prioriy to have access to proper healthcare and MAX Hospital was an automatic choice. After 4 days i walked out of the hospital without having any single grudge against the hospital or any facility. The best part were the nursing people; all are from kerala with one exception from manipur. They were at their best in commitment and dedication towards duty is just uncomparable. Coupled with the high tech gadgets life is easy definitely for them but there are annoying people who make their life miserable. And its really amazing that they choose the profession just because they want to serve mankind and left their home to pursue that.

My veins had a tough time fighting the pricks of the needles and the subsequent sodium drugs. I really screamed like an animal and finally fought it off in 4 days.

In these few days i had met quite a few cartoon characters and interesting people. One patient had got admitted himself as he had a sore throat only and finally he went mad as he was held back for three days. Another worth mentioning is a damsel who had met with a major accident. Her car was banged by a speeding wagonR and the car twisted one circle and toppled 3 times before it crashed. Three people inside came out alive miraculously.

It was like a late night tragic movie I would never like to watch again but few aspects gave me a new paradigm.

Rendezvous in Bangalore

It's an illusion
Get together (It's an illusion)
It's an illusion
Get together (It's an illusion)

Down, down, down in your heart
Find, find, find the secret
Turn, turn, turn your head around
Baby we can do it, we can do it all right

Do you believe in love at first sight?
It's an illusion, I don't care
Do you believe I can make you feel better?
Too much confusion, come on over here

…….

…….

…….

…….

It's all an illusion
There's too much confusion
I'll make you feel better
If it's bitter at the start, then it's sweeter in the end

(Get Together by Madonna- Confession on a Dance Floor)

Escaping the razzmatazz of the daily work is always fun but its exciting when it promises you a retreat to your friends. For those who couldn’t make it to the assemblage in blore this weekend, it was a life time miss and if that makes you jealous it serves my purpose.

The “focus” was definitely pawan’s marriage but it was the rendevous at the dance floor that we all enjoyed to the fullest. Few of us had embarked on Friday morning itself and were stuffed with malpoas at pawan’s in-laws. In the evening I joined the party and cheered Pawan for losing his bachelorhood. And it took less than 5 mins for all of us to come out of the corporate shell and get back to basics. We all had bid-adieu to pawan and traversed through the city to another end of Karnataka to Menon’s place. Well in anticipation Menon had shifted the whole of Sab-Millers inventory to his house which was supposed to be in a residential area. After a round of rejoice we realized Deep and Shashi have just arrived at pawan’s place. Back at pawan’s place, few of us sat by him till 3 am in the night for moral support and I was as usual irritating him with my customized gagged up questions. Finally King Kaadu came back to menon’s place and on our effort to maintain a zero inventory at sab millers we all were at work. By 4 am, Deep realized he has to be in London the next morning. So sreejit was asked to be at Paddington station the next day. In this attempt Shashi also remembered he has to be in Wimbledon for the final and Alok wanted to be in the British Grand Prix. I called up again to communicate the update and sreejit got the background music as kaadus broke into huge laughter. In the morning we all experienced the transition of night to dawn after ages. We moved to the triple 7 day. We all had a mega kerala brunch at a kerala restaurant with loads of kerala paratha and chicken.

The day was by default a sluggish one. After a long bakar session at shashi’s place I had a small nap. I woke up in the land of utter confusion. And there were thousands of options for the next move. As the kaadus were dispersed at different parts of the city; the coordination was again creating confusion. After dealing with confusion for the whole evening we banged into a pub called “Purple Haze”. This was the first time kaadus having a party on a dance floor other than our most beloved floor “mudra”. Hosted by Shailu and Dhanuja apparently for their marriage; the party was the best we could have. Beers and tequilas flowed like niagra broke loose and really it was an illusion to be with all my friends at one place. Danced and rocked the floor to the greatest extent we could stretch ourselves the most. We received a compliment from the manager “ Aisa group abhi tak nahin dekha ke pub ko disc bana diya”.

Well the most amazing thing happened in the parking lot. We tried to barge in a swift and its alarm went off big time. That proves we all were high by that time. Now Kaadus were heading to Shashi’s Place. Shashi’s roommates were asked to be prepared for the unexpected. We all just managed to slip in shashi’s house and to my utter surprise there were lots of food already waiting for the demons to come and savour. And Shashi proposed “whisky, rum or vodka??”. Deep started focusing and we had to finish off another inventory. Again booze flowed and Rajesh menon and Alok drank till six in the morning.

Awesome is the only word I can find in my vocab to describe the whole event. Sky full of thanks to Shashi, Gopal and Rajesh for the end-to-end supply chain management. Also special thanks to Bhavana and Dhanuja for bearing the jungle kala kauwaas ( kaadus). My best wishes for all of you.

Hope fate gives a chance to repeat history again.

Chopsticks!!

Down the lane when we reached Mainland China, I was very excited by the ambience and the encounter with a newest brand in the restaurant segment was really much awaited one. While seated I was waiting for the menu of the Chinese New Year, one of the red capped guys had put a small dragon shaped china clay beside the plate. It was impossible for us to comprehend what that was meant for. A cup of tea was served before he gave each of us a pair of chopsticks. Sudipta sipped the Jasmine tea and told us that the dragon was the chopstick rest.

I knew I have entered the applied physics laboratory where the pair of tapered sticks is my apparatus. And this was the first time I am doing the experimentation though I wanted to impress upon the onlooker that I am quite familiar with Chopsticks daring him not to jump to the conclusion by looking at my nose. But the curiosity of judging my applied physics ability compelled me to victimize the cabbage salad. After a series of futile attempts I suggested if we could ask them how to hold the chopsticks. Siddharth just came from Singapore with hands on experience on the apparatus and he showed me how to hold the sticks.

You hold one stick as static for the support of the other one which move to pick food from the plate. I could realize its not applied physics but it was more of a team work between the two sticks. One moves and picks with the trust that the other will give the support to accomplish the objective. Defying the laws of applied physics, it was quite exciting for me to savour the Chinese specialties with the strategic HR funda.

This was indeed a self realization for me that I have evolved from being an engineer to explaining things in the usual MBA way.

Now I developed a wish of getting a pair of chopsticks. I knew searching it in the market would turn out to be a futile one, so I decided to ask a pair from Mainland China itself. With some more HR fundas and a catalytic effect from Sudipta, I managed to get a pair of chopsticks from the manager.

I know what you might be thinking; yes next time u visit my place you will be served food with a pair of chopsticks.

** Special Thanks to Supriyoda and Pralayda for the excellent hospitality extended by you.