of the sunset

Couldn’t say ‘of before the sunset’ – that would be wrong grammatically and aesthetically so I got rid of the before and the pic I have for you today is apt for the title of this post as well.

Before the Sunset...

Not bad for a phone cam eh? I probably could have done well as a  photographer – I still might, once I manage to lay my hands on a D-60, but till that point of time, will have to make do with the point and shot. Which is totally alright for a beginner! Quietly flows the Don. Pardon me if I don’t appear too coherent – the stress and the sleep deprivation has gotten a tad too much, of late, and while searching for opportunities hidden in layers of accounting tricks by firms is mighty interesting stuff, I wouldn’t exactly call it a nice n easy activity. The April heat is getting to be unbearable and I shudder to think how bad May will get. But the small matter of a European jaunt in between. I might keep posting pics now and then on my blog. But then again, I may not! Facebook notifications have started getting on the nerves, of late. It was all nice in the beginning but now that everyone is an adventure sports freak and has to show the whole world how cool it is to be tied up to another male and jumping out of an aeroplane (its crazy! Why would anyone do something as ridiculous as that?) or how handsome their faces are with the whole underwater breathing apparatus acting as the chick magnet, its started to annoy me. So much so, that I put up this status message on facebook recently: ‘ Vikranth Audi has NO plans to do ANY of the following in April: i) Scuba diving ii) Sky diving iii) Skiing iv) Rock climbing v) Driving through a sand-storm vi)In-line skating vii) Putting up pics of aforementioned ‘adventure’ sports ‘ Instead, I am simply going to wear my boots and walk. Walk the streets of the great cities of the world and try to imbibe into me, a sense of what makes these cities truly remarkable and inspiring. I’ll end the discourse here.

No self pitying psychobabble this time. The Harvard/Stan R2 results are out and seems like a couple of seniors/friends are set to grace the hallowed halls of HBS this year. Congratulations to all of them and good luck in their pursuit of happiness! Personally, I have come to believe that MBA, particularly in the markets we are in nowadays, is a bit of a risky proposition. And having read Snapshots from Hell and Ahead of the Curve, the US MBA has lost a bit of it’s mystique. Add to this mix, the restrictions on hiring H1B workers imposed by the US government on firms bailed out by TARP money and the very arbitrary and whimsical manner in which the US law making bodies have been behaving in the recent past, the decision of whether to spend 75kUS$ on yourself has suddenly become a question to which, “NO” is also an acceptable answer. Btw, here is a very well written piece of outrage, on the part of an AIG employee (who had nothing to do with CSD swaps or CDO tranches). There are, ofcourse, a few loopholes in his argument and his angst at the way he is being pilloried is understandable. Read on!

Can’t decide if I am blissfully missing some important item? All my bags are packed; am ready to go – but its only one bag so just a little surprised. Can’t think of much else to write. Its my dad’s birthday today, so have a great day dad, and hope you never read this here!

Lets keep it short then, for now? It’ll be easy for you to read and comment and not lose focus of what was in the first para, by the time you reach the last. Will you comment, again?

of a table for one

I pulled out a new cotton tee, I bought a few weeks ago, donned a pair of faded denims, grabbed my Jack Bauer bag (its yellow coloured and is a bit like what Jack uses in S5 early. The strap fits nicely across my upper half and its nice and easy to use. Picked it up in Boston last year), laced up the only pair of shoes I have and set out. Its not often that one gets to get out on a Friday afternoon, unless ofcourse, one has applied for a formal leave. First port of calling? The Andheri railway station.

I believe firmly in public transport. I prefer to use modes of mass transit as far as possible. So, while Bombay locals are too ’sweaty’ and ‘crowded’ and ‘dangerous’ for various sects of people, it suits me fine. Off I went to the head of the line – there is a separate queue for Class I tickets – and much to my chagrin, I get into a fight every frggin time I do that. It is perfectly alright that I can hop ahead of the guys waiting to get a second class ticket – its an official government rule. But most of our commuters have no patience to read the sign boards. And at times, our signboards are covered with different kinds of advertisements and pamphlets! So its very irritating and a shouting match almost always ensues with some balding shorty or a crazy aunty. And if you don’t raise your voice, they’ll trample all over your rights as a citizen. Phew!

I like the new trains, obviously. They are much more airy and spacious. The public announcement system gives out details of the next stop and the seats are much better. Add to the fact that they are pleasing to look at, and the lighting is good enough to read ‘Hedgehogging‘ by Barton Biggs without straining my eyes, I usually tend to wait for a new train, rather than board the older ones. 25minutes later, I hauled myself off a near empty compartment into platform 3 of Churchgate station. It was about 1330 and the usual hustle bustle of the railway station was missing – understandably, since most of the office goers are comfortably esconced in their work places and its not time yet to go home to the wifey and the kiddies. I had an hour to kill; just 45minutes, if you take into account my obsessive necessity to be fifteen minutes before time for any appointment. So I thought I’ll get a quick something to eat and I had heard of the new Moshe’s cafe that had opened in Colaba (right beside Indigo Deli, on the Apollo Bunder road). Moshe’s was full and had a waiting list of 10 odd couples. So I went next door to Indigo, ordered a tuna sandwich and a lemongrass cooler. But before I get into the meal….

—you walk into a restaurant and request the maitre d’ to find you a table to sit at, in his restaurant. “Table for one please!” I say, and am nearly always met with a bit of surprise.The reaction goes like, “Just one sir?” Its irritating really. And I get this all the time – from Britannia to Basilico to Red Box back again to Khyber!  Its like the guy is judging me – and he has no right to do so. Agreed restaurants are usually filled with groups of people having lunch and dinner, catching up, conducting business etc etc, but that shouldn’t mean the lonesome book reader shouldn’t be given the same courtesies. My money is as good as a group’s – and I See no reason why eyebrows need to be raised at a request for a table for one. Sigh! Indian mentality. Community dining and congenial living… all that nonsense. What can one do? The coffee shops like CCD and Barista are still okay, but the bigger restaurants must learn to not alienate ’single’ customers. As long as a guy isn’t creating a nuisance, let him just be!

From there I headed to the French consul for my visa interview. Situated in the 7th floor of the Hoecht House, it is a quiet, small office with Indian visa officers. They take your interview and give out the visas with about half an hour of the interview. The whole process of application to getting the visa takes just two days. But to apply, dates are hard to get. Soo guess what? I was asked the question, “Are you traveling alone?” a full FOUR times and the same was expressly written down in their records, whatever. And my agent had conveniently forgotten to attach my Euro rail ticket’s copy as well as my accommodation in Rome so the visa officer grilled me extra. He was also quite curious to know why I was flying to London and not Frankfurt, since I work for a German bank. Well, guess its the nature of their job: visa officers are meant to ask hard questions and a genuine applicant, aiming only to admire the aesthetic beauty of Europe, shouldn’t find it hardpressed to answer any of the questions posed to him!

So, by 1500hrs, I had my visa – the photograph on the visa is terrible – I made my way through the calm peaceful streets towards NCPA and Nariman Point. The Marine Drive promenade is always soothing, and the sea near Nariman Point, where it all begins, is a few degrees more special. It was very sunny and hot: the place would be much better later in the evening when I’d come back. So thinking, I headed to Mondy’s for a quick drink. Mondegar’s has these pub stools towards the walls of the outer room, which I really like: perfect for sipping a drink and reading whatever I have in front of me, and on a languid friday late-afternoon with not too many people in, and not as much noise, its just perfect. I thought I should check out some travel guides and remembered the Travel Fest happening at Crossword. So I got into a cab and headed to Kemp’s Corner. The Lonely Planet guides to Europe are very informative but quite expensive too. Didn’t buy anything yet – I always thought I could search the net for what to do, where to go kinda questions; plus, given my limited time and shoestring budget, I probably won’t be able to do everything given in the guide books anyway. So I just chilled at the coffee shop over Lemon and mint iced tea. There was a book reading session happening below and I sat there for a bit. The author was marketing her book, “Life is Perfect”, and though I don’t touch modern day Indian novels, I flipped through pages from the book. Its about some chick whose dad runs away with his secy and ignores his daughter all the time and this chick is always crying abt it and stuff like that… Nonsense, really. Wonder who buys these atrocious books at all? And how these authors all make a living? A few pseud looking people sat around the table and did a panel discussion on Indian writing and I quickly realised that I was wasting my time. Plus, it was time for the play. So I flagged down a cab, again, and headed back to NCPA.

I had tickets to the 7pm show at the NCPA Experimental Theatre for ‘Class of 84′. The theatre is slightly bigger than Prithvi and seats around 300 people. I personally felt more comfortable here, than at Prithvi. Story is about the St. Xavier’s class of 84 – gang of friends reminscing about the past and looking ahead to a future. It has its moments, its not completely light hearted, the comedy quotient is pretty good – I loved the ‘Fuzzy’ character, the chick whos into Feng Shui and Art of Living and all. Most of the characters are very well etched out and the actors are, clearly, pros. All this makes ‘Class of 84′ a hundred and ten minutes of great fun.

Dinner was had at Chetana, which wore a gloomy look, a far cry from when I had been there last. I ordered the special thali with puran poli. I thought Rajdhani is a much better thali meal than this fare. Rajdhani doesn’t have fancy dal bhaati and puran poli but atleast, the main fare is nice and tasty. I had some chick sitting at the next table rattling out facts about how touch CAT is and how difficult the IIMs are to get into, to some old uncle of her’s, for company. “If you score 40% in each section, you will definitely get 99.95 percentile…” she thundered. I chuckled to myself and finished up my aamras and a quick walk then, along the Causeway, I picked up a few Kahlua Tortes and had a hot chocolate at Theo’s. By then, I was too tired to do anything else, and house was reached in the normal fashion. Cab to C’gate, Borivili fast to Andheri, rick to home!

I watched Sunset Boulevard the other day. Gloria Swenson, is, well, glorious and I loved the narrative. Her acting the part of a fading silent movie star caught in an identity crisis is perfect! Yesterday I saw The Caine Mutiny. I didn’t like this one too much, probably because Humphrey Bogart is not his usual hero self in this movie and also, the story resembled the Mutiny onboard HMS Bounty at some level. But – Humphrey Bogart in color: decent watching, all in all.

Just before I went into the theatre for the play, I hung around at Nariman Point for a bit of time. Absolutely stunning view of the sunset from there; I am so jealous of the guys living and working in the NCPA apartments! I clicked a few good ones from my mobile and will probably up some time. Vast expanse of water and the sky, a fiery orange ball of light gradually fading into the enveloping darkness. A mighty pretty sight that was.

I’ve begun packing my bags. Its pretty exciting. Third time in the Old Blighty! Just need to finish a bit of shopping tomorrow. Household chores are a pain and getting people to do exactly what you want them to is turning out to be a hellish experience. I’ll not even start off about domestic helps and apartment watchmen and the likes. So, yes, its quite strange this being my second post in less than a week. Has this writing market found a bottom? Am I going to post more often here on out? The quick answer would be no, I don’t think so, because I will not have access to the internet for the next month and a half. But really, the most pertinent question of all, here is, who I am writing this for?

Its like the chicken and the egg story. Does one prefer to eat alone because he doesn’t like people? Or is he forced to eat alone because people don’t like him? Did the chicken come first, or the egg? Hmm, much philosophy and thought involved. I’ll definitely look into it. Walking along the Seine and riding a gondola in the Grand Canal, staring up at the Basilica – I shall think and see what needs to be done about the terrible absence that is you!