…::::The Vada Pav Chronicle::::::……

In one of the interviews I was conducting

Me: So XYZ you aspiring to be an IAS officer?

XYZ : (Hes totally confused coz nothing in his resume says this and he hasnt mentioned it ) Yes

Me (bingo) : So you gave UPSC etc.

And it goes on.

That poor chap must be still wondering how the heck did I know that he was aspiring for IAS.

Simple for me he had a mail id which indicated that, this wasnt the first time. There was a guy who had a rock stars name in his mail id and I dropped the bomb on him that which song of that star he liked the most, he too was stunned.

Its fun to speculate stuff reading their mail ids and stunning them with the info.

Came to know thru this article that Chandamama is 60 years old.

Happy birthday to a great publication.

This news has given a new life to TV addicts like me. I don’t understand the rational of blocking HBO & Star Movies, my cable operator wasn’t showing these channels but SONY PIX and ZEE Studio were shown. If they wanted to block movie channels then why the hell were they showing these ?

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This doesnt surprize me at all. Well we dont have any respect for rules and regulations and expect that our boorish behaviour would work in other countries. If it was an Indian plane then these twelve would have made more ruckus dropping names right from the airlines owner to the aviation minister. Personally I have seen whenever I travel by air, people start flashing out their cell phones the moment they get a breather, as if Mr Bachhan would call them up. Many moons ago there was a similar incident involving some politician, when the cabin crew objected he threw a typical politician tantrum on those poor folks. Seems that these 12 jokers also thought they could get away with it. Serves them right. Hope they got a third degree.

Read this today morning.

Have lived in Antop Hill for most of my formative years, that too in Sector 7 where this happened.

Shouldn,t have been a surprize coz if something wrong happens in Antop Hill it should be Sector 7. Sector 7 is supposedly a very notorious area with all kind of shady cahracters living, actually the entire area isnt so.

The entire central governmnet colony has got different types of flats ranging from  4 room ones to 1 room flats. The 4,3 and 2 room flats are 95% occupied by the legitimate allotees who are mostly of officer cadre. The 1 room flats are alloted to class 4 employees like peons etc. These class 4 employees are mostly localites unlike the rest of the higher cadre. These employees already have an accomodation in the city so what do they do? They rent out their flats thru brokers. Its these brokers who then sublet these flats. Hence if you visit these 1 room flats you would find a whole lot of people from different backgrounds, you would find students, 5-6 bachelors living in a single room most of them mallus on the way to the middle east, back then lot of dance bar girls used to live too, families who couldnt get decent accomodation in Mumbai and of course other kinds of shady characters too. Why do people choose to live in Antop Hill, its because of its strategical placement you got Dadar, Matunga, Kings Circle, Wadala and GTB Nagar railway stations nearby, thats Central, Western and Harbour lines clubbed, what else does an average Mumbaikar want? Unfortunately these dogs want the same thing too !!!

John Abraham helps MPCC chief Prabha Rau from tripping over during a function, good, but is it worth mentioning in a leading newspaper  that too on the second page !!!

Stereotyping is our national past time. We don’t need any reason to stereotype a person and our movies are no exception to this.Im not new to stereotyping, been exposed to a whole lot of them, like all madrasis lick food from the elbow to the fingers, all sindhis are cunning and the list is endless.

Well during our recent Kolhapur trip I was interviewing a young gal, this is how it went

Me:…so what’s your future plans?

Gal: Sir, I’m planning to give CAT?

ME : Great (after 3 failed attempts I know that for sure) so which colleges are you targeting.

Gal: Only IIMB

Me : Any particular reason

Gal : Coz its the second best IIM so I want to target that.

Me: Why not the first one? (personally I feel that all this college rankings are a pile of shit)

Gal: Coz IIMA is in Gujarat, its a very bad state, full of hardliners rioting around. Due to which its a jinxed state with lot of problems. So I don’t want to go to that state.

I dunno whether she would get into IIMs or not but I strongly feel that stereotyping is a result of the society’s overall view about the subject, whether right or wrong.

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Nagpur this time and hopefully Goa in September. Since donning this HR role been traveling lot, to places where I would have never visited. I’m enjoying it

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Had been to Kolhapur for a one day trip. It was quite an hectic day reached Pune at 4 in the morning. To start with the road began to get better after we crossed Pune, it actually got better. The NH-4 which we took is part of the Golden Quadrilateral, and it was very well maintained. For once I’m happy that the taxpayers money is actually been used , as for Kolhapur roads well the roads are pretty decent for that small city.
Why am I infatuated with roads? Try Pune roads for once.
The colleges we went to were huge, we got a royal treatment out there with bouquets and all, doing a campus placement drive was good. It was damn hectic though there were 100 plus students and only two of us.It went on till 9:30 and after a quick dinner we had missed lunch, couldn’t taste any of the Kolhapuri dishes we rushed back to Pune with a driver who was fighting to keep himself awake, he succeeded we reached Pune safe and sound in one piece.

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Circa 2001, 7th September, Cine Planet, Sion, Mumbai, saw Dil Chahta Hai.

Circa 2006 the movie is played on Mumbai Pune Volvo, nostalgia sets in aargh those were the days.