Monday, November 28, 2005
Nightmare on Wall Street
We had a visitor last week. Well, he started out as a visitor. Then the story unfolded. And as the many threads were put together, we got this thick rope (metaphorically speaking) which/whom I now intend on warning u all about.
A lot of this information has been gathered from others at home, so I apologise for any errors that may creep into my narration.
CAT Sunday (21/11/2005):
R [refer previous blog] calls me after CAT to say he had an interesting exam. He basically psyched out the people in his centre having arrived for the exam in tracks and a sweat shirt, giving everyone the impresion that he studied so hard, he had no time to get dressed. The true story is quite different actually, but I digress.
It is now that R receives a call from a batchmate of his, lets call him X. Now R has been warned against associating with X, but R has the human spirit in him which makes him want to give this person a chance. And R suffered for it.
X comes to meet R at the test centre. Using X's bike, R & X ride off to the book fair at Palace grounds. There X gets bored quite quickly, and starts to bore R with his tales of "conquest" in many cities. And his techniques. Pretty soon, R realises that this is not the way to spend his post CAT freedom.
1630 hrs that day
R and I are supposed to meet up a bunch of friends at a mall in bangalore (will not name it as i refuse to give publicity if not paid for it!) Unfortunately, or rather as it turned out, fortunately, I enjoyed my sunday afternoon sleeping at home.
R heads off to the coffee place in the mall.. and X decided to drop him there. (he has a bike u see.) At the mall, X props himself, uninvited, with the rest of the gang, and introduces himself as R's friend. (R still cringes at the thought)
X cleverly sits near the girls, and quickly obtains their phone numbers. He then progresses to boast to the entire table how he is amazing. He has been working for over 3 months now, and is still on bench! People dont dare give him a project to work on, and he gladly boasts about it. Apparently he interacted with the CEO of the company.. and claims to have the best of relations with the top brass of the company. (again no name, as i am still unpaid!)
2000 hrs that day
X calls me up to enquire about dinner plans. I tell him that A, S, and I are off to our nearby dhaba. He says he will join us. And so does X!
2100 hrs that day
We all meet up at the dhaba. Introductions are passed around. And X starts his story again. There was some story which ended with, when elephants walk, let the dogs bark or somethign to that effect. I was already too zonked to pay attention.
Dinner comes and goes...
The stories persisit.
2200 hrs that day
Dinner over, the four of us from Wall Street (R, S, A, and I) who came for dinner decide to go home and catch Mission Udaan. X decided to join us.
X and R decide to use X's bike. The three of us walk. Thankfully!
10 min later R calls me to say that X's bike has been punctured and that they are looking for a mechanic. Its 10 PM on a sunday night. The chances were very slim. So X got to crash at our place for the night.
During mission udaan, it was quite interesting to watch as X tried to explain the fundamentals of aeronautics to R, an aeronautical engineer! The frustration levels in the room soared, and slowly we all turned in to sleep.
Day 2: 22/11/2005
I awake at my usual 545 am, and prepare to get ready for the monday in office ahead. Surprisingly R is already awake, and heads out for an early morning jog. He did do this when he first moved in, so it was not too strange for me.
I leave home at 0700 hrs, and from what i hear so does R, but not before X borrows 200 rupees from R.
G, another room-mate comes home at 0715. S introduces him to X, and goes back to sleep. G is already late, but given that X is R's friend, is cordial enough to strike up a conversation. Something that still scares him!
And the stories began... G waited patiently.. and finally left at 0845, already one and a half hours late.
Halfway to office he realises that he has left his phone at home. Faced with the choice of spending a day without his phone, and going back to face X, G decides to carry on without his phone. You need to know G to realise how hard it must have been for him.
That evening, R narrates to me this entire story.
But wait, its not over yet.
Day 3: 23/11/2005
X calls R and tells him he is comign to reutrn R's money. R would rather lose hsi money than spend any time with X, but somehow succumbs to the pressure.
2000 hrs that day
X drops in. I head off to my room. X and R head off to the ATM to withdraw money to pay R. At the ATM, X's debit card is swallowed. X has 50 bucks on him.. and no debit card. He is furious. He abuses the guard. He abuses the machine. He kicks the machine. He calls the bank helpline and abuses them. He is really pissed.
He then suggests he and R go watch a movie. He says it will be tough to survive without his debit card. But then he has five credit cards to survive on!!!
R really wants to go home. He has a test in office the next day, and he needs to study! R passes this information to X, who responds in his manner, " Chill.. I am here.. lets hang for a bit."
R finally convinces X to drop him home, and then leave.
Day 4: 24/11/2005
R and I are enjoying our evenign at home. We open the door to get some fresh air, and guess who is standing outside.. X. Its been raining, he drove 8 km in the wet to come and "hang." I quickly run to my room, and let R handle this.
Five minutes into the conversation, R enters my room strangling himself. He needs help.. and fast, before we have a homicide on our case. I dont think the cops would drive away if we had a murder/homicide here. I mean its no case of vandalism!
Beign the nice room-mate that I am (sic), I decide to intervene. I send R back out into the war zone. And then proceed to message a friend, N. I tell her to call R and give him work to do. This is all on the hope that X will have some sense prevail, and leave if both of us are busy.
X, however, has other ideas. He says " I am there na? Lets chill and hang!"
R then proceeds to take out his books, and starts studying. X is then slowly edged out of the house.
We have not heard from him since....
Some of you may feel we have been mean in marginalising X. But you had to be there to understand our reactions. Its somewhat like the saying on rear view mirrors. "Characters in the story are worse than they appear!)
A lot of this information has been gathered from others at home, so I apologise for any errors that may creep into my narration.
CAT Sunday (21/11/2005):
R [refer previous blog] calls me after CAT to say he had an interesting exam. He basically psyched out the people in his centre having arrived for the exam in tracks and a sweat shirt, giving everyone the impresion that he studied so hard, he had no time to get dressed. The true story is quite different actually, but I digress.
It is now that R receives a call from a batchmate of his, lets call him X. Now R has been warned against associating with X, but R has the human spirit in him which makes him want to give this person a chance. And R suffered for it.
X comes to meet R at the test centre. Using X's bike, R & X ride off to the book fair at Palace grounds. There X gets bored quite quickly, and starts to bore R with his tales of "conquest" in many cities. And his techniques. Pretty soon, R realises that this is not the way to spend his post CAT freedom.
1630 hrs that day
R and I are supposed to meet up a bunch of friends at a mall in bangalore (will not name it as i refuse to give publicity if not paid for it!) Unfortunately, or rather as it turned out, fortunately, I enjoyed my sunday afternoon sleeping at home.
R heads off to the coffee place in the mall.. and X decided to drop him there. (he has a bike u see.) At the mall, X props himself, uninvited, with the rest of the gang, and introduces himself as R's friend. (R still cringes at the thought)
X cleverly sits near the girls, and quickly obtains their phone numbers. He then progresses to boast to the entire table how he is amazing. He has been working for over 3 months now, and is still on bench! People dont dare give him a project to work on, and he gladly boasts about it. Apparently he interacted with the CEO of the company.. and claims to have the best of relations with the top brass of the company. (again no name, as i am still unpaid!)
2000 hrs that day
X calls me up to enquire about dinner plans. I tell him that A, S, and I are off to our nearby dhaba. He says he will join us. And so does X!
2100 hrs that day
We all meet up at the dhaba. Introductions are passed around. And X starts his story again. There was some story which ended with, when elephants walk, let the dogs bark or somethign to that effect. I was already too zonked to pay attention.
Dinner comes and goes...
The stories persisit.
2200 hrs that day
Dinner over, the four of us from Wall Street (R, S, A, and I) who came for dinner decide to go home and catch Mission Udaan. X decided to join us.
X and R decide to use X's bike. The three of us walk. Thankfully!
10 min later R calls me to say that X's bike has been punctured and that they are looking for a mechanic. Its 10 PM on a sunday night. The chances were very slim. So X got to crash at our place for the night.
During mission udaan, it was quite interesting to watch as X tried to explain the fundamentals of aeronautics to R, an aeronautical engineer! The frustration levels in the room soared, and slowly we all turned in to sleep.
Day 2: 22/11/2005
I awake at my usual 545 am, and prepare to get ready for the monday in office ahead. Surprisingly R is already awake, and heads out for an early morning jog. He did do this when he first moved in, so it was not too strange for me.
I leave home at 0700 hrs, and from what i hear so does R, but not before X borrows 200 rupees from R.
G, another room-mate comes home at 0715. S introduces him to X, and goes back to sleep. G is already late, but given that X is R's friend, is cordial enough to strike up a conversation. Something that still scares him!
And the stories began... G waited patiently.. and finally left at 0845, already one and a half hours late.
Halfway to office he realises that he has left his phone at home. Faced with the choice of spending a day without his phone, and going back to face X, G decides to carry on without his phone. You need to know G to realise how hard it must have been for him.
That evening, R narrates to me this entire story.
But wait, its not over yet.
Day 3: 23/11/2005
X calls R and tells him he is comign to reutrn R's money. R would rather lose hsi money than spend any time with X, but somehow succumbs to the pressure.
2000 hrs that day
X drops in. I head off to my room. X and R head off to the ATM to withdraw money to pay R. At the ATM, X's debit card is swallowed. X has 50 bucks on him.. and no debit card. He is furious. He abuses the guard. He abuses the machine. He kicks the machine. He calls the bank helpline and abuses them. He is really pissed.
He then suggests he and R go watch a movie. He says it will be tough to survive without his debit card. But then he has five credit cards to survive on!!!
R really wants to go home. He has a test in office the next day, and he needs to study! R passes this information to X, who responds in his manner, " Chill.. I am here.. lets hang for a bit."
R finally convinces X to drop him home, and then leave.
Day 4: 24/11/2005
R and I are enjoying our evenign at home. We open the door to get some fresh air, and guess who is standing outside.. X. Its been raining, he drove 8 km in the wet to come and "hang." I quickly run to my room, and let R handle this.
Five minutes into the conversation, R enters my room strangling himself. He needs help.. and fast, before we have a homicide on our case. I dont think the cops would drive away if we had a murder/homicide here. I mean its no case of vandalism!
Beign the nice room-mate that I am (sic), I decide to intervene. I send R back out into the war zone. And then proceed to message a friend, N. I tell her to call R and give him work to do. This is all on the hope that X will have some sense prevail, and leave if both of us are busy.
X, however, has other ideas. He says " I am there na? Lets chill and hang!"
R then proceeds to take out his books, and starts studying. X is then slowly edged out of the house.
We have not heard from him since....
Some of you may feel we have been mean in marginalising X. But you had to be there to understand our reactions. Its somewhat like the saying on rear view mirrors. "Characters in the story are worse than they appear!)
Monday, November 21, 2005
Vandals!
I still dont know why we did it. Maybe beacause we thought it would be fun. Maybe we just wanted to christen the place. Or maybe, we just wanted the thrill. Not that we were expecting a thrill.
Friday evening. I was at home relaxing, when as usual, the electricity decided it needed a break. Not a very long one, mind you. Just for an hour or so. Thats probably the rest the electricity in bangalore needs to run the entire IT industry of the country. But never mind. I'm not complaining about that. At least not today!
To enliven our evening, my room-mate (lets call him R) and I decided to have some fun! Maybe it was the orange juice we had drunk earlier that made us do this ;-)
A bit of geography now. We stay right next to the airport. Literally. As u will see in subsequent pictures.
Anyway, here we decided that the airport wall was too generic a name for an "object" we see everyday. It gives us a boundary. You could say it helps keeps the planes away from our house. So we wanted to name it! R came up with WALL STREET. In those colours too!
Uninterrupted.. some more writing..
Now the thrill part of it all....
I (the photographer) was supposed to be the lookout man too. I was so engrossed in capturing this event for the posterity.. and u ppl, that i failed to hear the police radio as TWO cops on a motorcycle.. carrying a Lathi slowed to a stop near our friend R. Having stood some distance away to take photos as R posed, I maintained my distance.
R caught blue-handed and subsequently trying to wash his hands off the matter!
The ensuing conversation was quite interesting!
Cop1: [to R] What you are doing?
(I was actually quite surprised he spoke to us in English!)
R: Sir... I am writing Wall Street, sir....
Cop1:(apparently taken aback) .... Oh.. ok.
Cop2:What is your name?
R: Sir... R... Sir.
Cop1: Where do you stay?
R: Sir, here sir. (Points across the street to our house.)
What happened next, really stunned us. You would now expect the cops to probably hit us or warn or us or do something!
They drove off...
Friday evening. I was at home relaxing, when as usual, the electricity decided it needed a break. Not a very long one, mind you. Just for an hour or so. Thats probably the rest the electricity in bangalore needs to run the entire IT industry of the country. But never mind. I'm not complaining about that. At least not today!
To enliven our evening, my room-mate (lets call him R) and I decided to have some fun! Maybe it was the orange juice we had drunk earlier that made us do this ;-)
A bit of geography now. We stay right next to the airport. Literally. As u will see in subsequent pictures.
Anyway, here we decided that the airport wall was too generic a name for an "object" we see everyday. It gives us a boundary. You could say it helps keeps the planes away from our house. So we wanted to name it! R came up with WALL STREET. In those colours too!
Uninterrupted.. some more writing..
Now the thrill part of it all....
I (the photographer) was supposed to be the lookout man too. I was so engrossed in capturing this event for the posterity.. and u ppl, that i failed to hear the police radio as TWO cops on a motorcycle.. carrying a Lathi slowed to a stop near our friend R. Having stood some distance away to take photos as R posed, I maintained my distance.
R caught blue-handed and subsequently trying to wash his hands off the matter!
The ensuing conversation was quite interesting!
Cop1: [to R] What you are doing?
(I was actually quite surprised he spoke to us in English!)
R: Sir... I am writing Wall Street, sir....
Cop1:(apparently taken aback) .... Oh.. ok.
Cop2:What is your name?
R: Sir... R... Sir.
Cop1: Where do you stay?
R: Sir, here sir. (Points across the street to our house.)
What happened next, really stunned us. You would now expect the cops to probably hit us or warn or us or do something!
They drove off...
