Mind in words…
A crack at understanding the meaning of what goes in my mindArchive for Thoughts
Mumbai home hunting and Society high handedness
This experience is of hunting for a house in mumbai on rent. Well its common knowledge that rents in mumbai are the highest in the country (considering comparing it across all other metros is enough), and thats exactly the reason why even owners with sub standard houses are expecting a mine full of green paper from tenants.
Brokers and Landlords work in tandem to raise the prices every year. In fact what really happens is that , most of the houses on rent can only be rented through brokers. Now comes the worst part, owners expect say X amount from their houses . What some brokers do is , forge a deal with the owner saying i will surely get you X ( X itself is pretty high !) but in case i get anything above X ill keep that share out of the rent for the next 11 months. So , the broker gets you the booty which you want and he keeps anything hes able to achieve above that. This is one of the reasons why prices keep soaring.
Another reason for high prices – the borkerage, which usually ranges from 1 to 1.5 months rent. So, higher the rent, higher the brokerage thus burning a hole into the tenants pocket.
A word of caution though : This experience is limited to Andheri and surrounding areas and was limited to only 2 months of hunting for livable spaces which were fully furnished (Though me and my flatmates also saw many unfurnished and semi furnished places as well).
We tried to do something different when we were out hunting, we asked the broker to get us a good deal and fix the brokerage before hand 
. But he was not the one to fall into our trap. While we wanted the best deal , he was too concerned about making money. Reason : Demand has outstripped constricted supply in this overly congested city of mumbai.
Another reason is that some of the landlords keep their houses vacant so that some inexperienced idiot comes along and pays them a stupidly high sum which had no corelation to the plush (haha plush !!) house he/she got.
We were looking for some good 2 BHK fully furnished houses in Andheri East area (rents varying from 28K to 45 K) and infact in the end got one house which we all liked but the demand for rent was huge ….wasnt fitting our budget. Infact it dint have ACs , TV and Sofas but owner agreed to out them in for total package of 29 K but when we said we dont need ACs he said the reductyion in rent would not be in same proportion to increas ein rent . We gave in as we had to move in quickly or else we wouldve found ourselves on the street .
Now when we took our stuff to move in we were suprised to find an idiot standing between us and the house askinmg us to produce the permission from the Managing committee of the Society for moving in. We were suprised , asked our broker and the owner about this stupid demand of his. They had no clue . We were stranded with all our stuff in front of the society in full throttle mumbai rain and this bugger wont relent. In fact he directed the guard not to allow us in and left on his bike to god knows where.
We finally were allowed to keep our stuff when our broker pleaded with him on phone but werent allowed to move in till we got the Managing committee’s permission.
What perplexed us was that we had Police verification documents with us , the Agreement signed between us and the owner , infact these 2 documents would have sufficed to prove that we were no ruffians who would disturb the tranquility of this society ! I still am waiting to see what the Managing commitee members would add value to in addition to the police verification. In fact ill have to wait for another week to move in as all Managing committee members could not assemble at the same time in a short span of time.
Im so pissed right now that in case they ask me my antecedents , ill make sure i get theirs too recorded in front of me. I also have the right to know whether these managing committee members are fit to live in the same society as mine
This high handedness is unwarranted. Hope people realise that the people in mumbai are known to be cooperative and cordial. This reputation is taking a beating day by day.
Its all about perceptions
One guy said it about Marketing and I completely agree with it. This article is not written to reinforce this point or prove it in theory, because I don’t aim to do a practical study to enforce this. It is a statement which I believe everyday I see things around me.
My perception about events, people, products etc around me is completely different to what others have or may have. To say that I’ve discovered that it’s all because of the fact that we are in a different state of mind every second, would be a fallacy. It’s just that I haven’t read up on this matter enough to quote anyone. I’m sure someone would’ve written or talked about this before me every single moment man has lived on this earth. It’s such a common thing to think and every broad minded individual would’ve thought and / or talked about perceptions. It’s too generic and simple to be missed.
Coming back to the point of perceptions. Take for example the change of wardrobe which I recently engineered for myself. It was met with strong opposition from my parents especially my mom. I perceived this as necessary as my attire was not fit for the kind of job that I was doing. It was not in fashion and with the kind of clients I would be interacting with , it was absolutely necessary to re engineer it completely. But she did not see eye to eye with me on this. “Work is work and attire does matter , but what about all the stuff that you have before. Will that go waste? Will that rot in the closet? Why should I discard all the stuff which you haven’t worn enough, till now? At least try to use it once in a while.” This was how she countered me. J
I come from a middle class family with safe drinking habits. By this I mean we are concerned about the water which we drink. Water in this part of the world is not safe even if it comes from the municipality. You have to filter it to make it potable. But I don’t understand why people have preference for drinking only mineral water or for that matter imported packaged water from France when packaged water certified to all European standards of purity, made in India, tastes the same?
Yes , when the idea of perceptions being completely different has come to be written about, then why not discuss perceptions changing over time. I again remember an incident happening to me at home. This time it was my mother serving soup in normal “katori” accompanied by a steel spoon , when I rejected the idea and asked her for a bone china soup bowl and spoon instead. Although my request was spurned with a queer look from her but I couldn’t enjoy the soup in that utensil. I’m the same person who used to drink from the same utensil years back and suddenly I changed. Probably the consulting bug has bit me and i’m into the same mode back at home also , trying to live a life up worldly where everything seems so perfect and from the Victorian era.
State of mind phenomena also changes your perception. This incident is my favorite as I’ve seen this happen dime a dozen. Before every party , everyone would say we love boozing and getting high but when the high reaches disproportionate levels and it all spills out in the end with a heavy head crushing hangover , then the only thought that comes to mind is “Why the hell did God invent booze?? L and I’m not going to drink heavy next time” !!
Random thoughts
1. Whenever i start writing it happens that i tend to focus more on myself rather than things around me. Things that shape my personality and ultimately help me shape my destiny. Why does it happen?
2. Writing always seems fun , when there is silence everywhere.
3. Cribbing about the shitty work you’re doing in office seems to be the first thing you discuss with your colleague
4. I just feel as if someone would feel i’m sucking upto seniors , even if it means genuinely talking about your interest to him/her.
5. I’ve opened myself a lot to others. I keeptalking about myself to anyone and everyone i meet. Does that make me self centered?
6. I’ve started seeing dreams which tend to mirror , what i used to think about some people before.Those people are present in those dreams being the same way i perceived them to be behind my back.
7. Am I weird?
Atleast I have one answer -
Ans – 7 – Who cares?
Love for Music…Ageless
Ever wondered what would happen to your love for music once life takes a toll on you?
Ever wondered where would the mindless escapades would vanish (which not – so – obviously came after 4 pegs down with music playing on ur mind) once corporate culture rips your selfish soul aprt?
Never thought about so much in the future as i did today. It was only after i met Pillai today that this thought crossed my mind. It kind of strengthened when i read Fauji’s first post or zuerst post (as he calls it) about 5 minutes back.
Coming back to the main point about which i started the post with. Music and the love for it . Me and my college (Grad coll) friend Antil were sitting in a pub in Connaught place today and drinking away not so merrily when he signalled , that the same elderly man whom we’d seen about a month ago was back again the same place.
But this time he wasn’t dancing to the tunes of rock music. He was sitting on his own , ‘lonely’ on his table , as it appeared to us – though it may not be actually true, drinking his blues away. I just walked up to him and spoke to him for a minute, mentioning our experience when we saw him dancing alone in front of the speakers in the corner of the pub. It was an amazing sight, true to the experience of hearing that beautiful song which was mellowing down the Bose speakers.
He acknowledged our gesture and came up and said these beautiful words ” I hope when you’re my age , you will replicate the love for music the same way i do now”
It struck me and will strike anyone who listened to Pillai today. Rock on PLay as he mentioned his name to us again.
Don’t go by the age…its by no way a comparison to what Pillai looks like but the energy is the same!
A peek into the past – Places ive stayed @
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…
Mistakes and Rejection
I was suddenly reminded of ‘Rejection’ as a topic of discussion when i was seeing a reality contest on TV in which every week they eliminate a contestant. During one of these episodes , a contestant couldn’t handle the fact that he did not take full advantage of the opportunity given to him and succumbed to pressures of the situation. He obviously goofed up. Instead of accepting his fault , he started throwing fits , acting as if he was getting dizzy and telling it was lack of sleep and exhaustion which was making him nervous.
What was more appalling , was judges giving him a second chance. We’ll discuss more on reality TV judges in another post but you see these kind of cover ups , blame games , passing the buck kind of instances everywhere. Is there anyone ready to take blame for the wrong that they do, the mistakes they make?
We believe in the saying “Nobody’s perfect” and “Learn from your mistakes”…. Then why do we dread accepting our mistakes , our faults?
Its rare nowadays that you meet people, who accept mistakes and do not shirk responsibility attached to their actions. But that breed is getting extinct at a disturbing rate.
What could be the reasons behind this attitude?
I’m no researcher to identify them but some which i could think of are :
Firstly , there is so much of responsibility and risk attached to each decision of yours , that accepting blame for a wrong one may lead to immense opportunity lost.
Secondly , there is not enough transparency in systems to reveal the truth , so people hide it as far as they could.
Btw society doesn’t essentially reward people who accept responsibility for their wrong deeds/actions. So why accept ? huh…
Any more ideas??
Of Soap Operas , Camera Zoom ins , zips , zaps and Kkkkk….
This post is intended to apprise the camera team in daily Indian soaps , of the ill effects that their poorly conceived and executed ’special effects’ , can have on the audience. In addition to that , i just wanted to give a vent to my frustration at the so called Queen of Indian Soaps.
Tune into any of the prime channels of India (I can only claim about Hindi channel soaps) be it Sony , Zee , Star or their siblings , …the state is the same. All hell breaks loose when the director , inorder to increase the time of the soap , hands over complete control of the soap to the so called ‘ Special effects ‘ team every now and then.
If any one dies , or there is even a hint of conspiracy in the soap , the camera zooms in and out so frequently in a matter of seconds . It happens not once , not twice but as many times as there are characters / actors in that particular scene. Reasons??? The mystifying turn of events shocked everyone present in the scene…so the anguish , anxiety , anger , sadness and every possible hint of emotion is tried to be captured in that scene from every actors face.
Effects – Dizzines , Loss of memory , hallucination , sudden fear of God or even Love for God , etc etc…
and then i am fortunate enough to see some American soaps as well or to give due respect to them ill call them American series – of the likes of “24″ , “Heroes” which not only keep you glued to your seats but also make you want more.
Where will we Indians find creativity ? The so called Queen of Indian Soaps – Ms. Ekta Kapoor ( Forgive me if i got one ‘o’ or ‘r’ more / less in your name …Its a numerology fad in this part of the world you see..) , give us something else to be proud of you. Yes i agree Indians are happy seeing this dose of crap as well but they deserve better. If CID is any barometer of success , then i can proudly say , we Indians do give credit for professionalism and quality entertaining programs. So, please Ms. Kapoor spare us and deliver something better for us to be proud of you ( If that matters to you…else its been easy for you earlier and will be now as well…anybody listening..kkkk )
Craving for work
Ive been sitting idle at home for 2 months now…infact 3 days more than 2 months
and its been quite a difficult jorney to say the least. Reasons??
For 2 long years , ive been in a Business School where the Stress is religion , Booze is ambrosia , Friends are Angels and Teachers are Demons waiting to give you mental and physical pain. Everytime we used to get a break ( by a break i would mean rest from acads and other related stuff for more than 24 hours), mind used to clink and try to clamour for work and stress just to keep itself busy. It was a completion of a habituation which would now last a lifetime.
Its now been over 2 months now , and a stage of mental stagnation has finally arrived.
Ive come to believe that If the mind which is used to mental stimulation , is not excercised regularly , it may descend into an abyss of degradation. For the mental engine to be revved up , there has to be a dose of heavy duty work load or else its efficiency would reduce. This seems to be my case , and strangely it doesnt seem to follow any of laws which i know of.
Is it strange??
I seriously need a heavy dose of work to get this amazingly small yet powerful piece of mass to get up again ( i’m talking about my brainin case you wander somewhere else).
Is it the same with you??
Philosophy…my style
Stroke of luck you can say. It was just a small trip to a rest room when i got this thought in mind and i decided to pen i down coz it applied to me. Ill call it philosophy # 1 …
It basically states that a man has three states in his life.
State – 1 – This is the state where he has no idea what the world is all about and is still in the process of discovering what he is all about and in addition also tries to wonder what is the meaning and purpose of those around him. Once he gets a hang of things around him and a lil bit of sense of what he is …he transcends to state # 2
State-2 – Ill call it the stage of selfishness. This is where he gets a real hang of himself and does things that satisfy him. Mind it , he might think that a lot of work that hes doing is for the greater good. But essentially it is all driven by a need to satisfy his own inner being.Some people remain in this state and transcend to their abode in this very stage of life. But some go on and try to reach the third one.
State-3- This state ill call the state of contribution. It might seem to be interlinked , intertwined whatever you call it , with the state # 2 but its another state all together. Its the state where a person tris hard to life beyond his own self. Ive seen less of people who’ve seen this stage. People who go all out and think beyond their own self and live for others. I feel most of us human beings live and die in state # 2 . Never even put a foot in state # 3 . Although inside us we feel we’ve done enough for others and lived a part of our life for other , but the truth is , we’ve only tried to satisfy our selfish nature.
I’ve not had enough gray hair on my head or beard as yet to say which of the three stages is better w.r.t to the other. So take your pick or read some saintly , life leading books on such stuff!!
(Comments are not meant to be chauvinistic all because they are in a particular gender but are intended to apply to the other sex(es) as well)
Stories
mind races ahead and thinks of writing fascinating 2 para stories..Lets see how much of it would be down in this space ‘o’ mine. Night is descending fast and its raining outside. Whats going to happen next is just another guess waiting to be taken!
At night ull read me writing to u …writing a story for you to listen. Can’t say if you can read it to your children but yes u can read it?
ciao till then …3 hours to go before parents gooff to sleep and im upto my mischevious self
Delhi or is it Bangalore!
I was in bangalore last month and whenever mercury used to rise about 30 deg C, it used to rain. Its happening in Delhi for the last week or so and the weather is turning out to be great inthe evenings.
Hope it lasts long , long till its Monsoon time…ahhhh
I hope this time we wont be needing a rain dance in appu ghar atleast!
Delhi Blues
Its summer time in Delhi and everything outside home is burning. Only respite from this sweltering heat is a bottle of beer at one of the pubs in connaught place. Whenever i call one of my friends from engineering to hang out it usually ends up at this place called Blues. Its on the outer circle of CP and opposite Deutsche Bank…hmmm…yup sort of.
Its again just a beer to catch up…the place has good ol rock music to play in the evenings ( do not ever go to this place at noon or thereabouts especially if you dont like soft english songs ).
Amazing but true , i went to this place 2 times this summer and the first time i saw a 50 something man completely intoxicated by the music standing by the 3 feet long speakers and dancing his mind off.
It reminded me of the crazy parties we used to have at the institute. I will never ever forget those time.
CP or Connaught place or Rajiv Chowk (whoever named it Rajiv Chowk should be given lessons in heritage even if it means naming of places) for you :
Mindposts Start…
Its another day at home, getting up late and moving around like a zombie. Things get a headstart when i come to know that the job ill be joining will start next month and will take me to an unknown destination for an induction program. Last few days have been extremely painful , mind starts to wander in unknown territories , feel like a choked soul. I had a blog elsewhere but i want this to be anonymous. I want to clear my head by spilling it out in words. I know they’ll make a splash when they get out. But how huge , its anybody’s guess.
This blog would be , as the title suggest, mind on words.Its unrestricted flow of ambrosia , venom whatever comes to my mind in this space i can call mine.Unpredictable would be its nature , and i would be its master.
Life restricts you , this is the place to free yourself. Its a conquest to be in control and never ever give up.
