I’ve not been to many places in this short life of around 25 years , but still places or in fact cities ive stayed for more than a month @ have left me a different person altogether.
I’ll start in a random order with one of my favs being -
Sana’a , Capital of Yemen – This country as i would describe to my mates in school – as the country which appears in the world map a lil below K SA , has given me the best time in my life till now. The formative years so to say , were spent here and i studied in a good institution run by Indians , for many nationalities – The Indian Embassy School. Through my father’s conversations (which i normally overheard) , i came to know that the people of this country were more favourable to the Pakistanis than Indians. Though i never got a chance to experience this bit. I would also remember this city for my first experience with socialising. The community here was very well close and we used to spend evenings catching a game of baddy with friends and i even managed to win 2 championships here. This was the first time i interacted with children from various countries , be it Ethiopia , Somalia , USA , France , Yemen , Saudi Arabia , India ( from various parts – Gujarat , TN , Maharashtra , etc etc..) .
Delhi – Capital of India - Another city which i would love to stay in. As soon as i enter Delhi , I feel a sense of homeliness , a city i can call my own.This is the city where most of my relatives stay and I’ve spent most of my life in. Majority of school life , undergrads , first corporate job….can’t count the years.Although the people here are much rougher to say the least as compared to Mumbai , but its got its share of niceties to beat mumbai. Green cover , Fresh air , Wide roads , Lutyens Delhi , India Gate , Chandni Chowk , Connaught Place , DU , Metro !!… This is also where i first fell in love. In-fact second time as well!
Mumbai – Financial Capital of India - 2 months on the trot @ chembur , Worli and Thane and working at service outlets and sales stations of Maruti. I won’t deny it was one hell of an experience but it wasn’t what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be an experience for getting to know the ground realities of sales and service but it turned out to be 40% S&M and rest 60% travel and enjoyment. I still remember the dance bar experience with 3 of my colleagues from Maruti ( One of them- Tanuj , had specially come down from Ahmedabad for this)….It turned out to be an embarrassing experience, We just wanted to see what happens inside. It was one cheap affair to remember , with Thakur and me , being asked by waiters whether we wanted a hooker from options who were dancing away on the floor in front of us. We gulped our beer as fast as we could and returned home. An experience of Services – “Customer is King” – Maruti has this policy – and service personnel have to bear the brunt of the customer’s ire again and again. The Service center Manager used to be treated like a peon by customers in the Worli area where , as was told by him , a Maruti is usually a second or third car for the residents. So , it used to start in the morning 10 a.m and till 10p.m in the night when the manager would step onto a train to Borivili ( in-fact till he would switch off his mobile phone for which he had 2 batteries!) , he would be constantly hounded by customers. “Meri gadi kab milegi”, “Struts main se awaaz abhi bhi aa rahi hai” , “Traffic main se jaati hai to band ho jaati hai gaadi”…”Kya karun …free service do mujhe”…..and what not!!!…To top it all that guy was a professional rally driver…a pint sized dynamo with immense sense of cars and bikes.
To be continued…
