Friday, May 02, 2008

Mumbai and Neverland

Ok, Mumbai is not Neverland.

Mumbai is this awesome place, its like the place for everyone and a perfect place for guy like me to loearn some things. I am spending a fortune at this place, i cant figure out exactly on what i am spending it. But sometimes, there is a nice little sense of earning something, not actually earning , but virtually earning.
For example, the other day i took a Taxi from Chembur to Byculla, So as i was happily reading Brand Reporter in the back seat like a Brand Manager (Wannabe) , the mechanics worked on to move the taxi, so the system also had a sister concern called meter that moves along with it and it turned over to cost me 125 Rs. So, the next day i get to do the same thing, but i thought its time to move my butt a little more. So i catch a bus to the nearby railway station, that costed me 4 Rs and as i buy the ticket to Byculla, there is an announcement for the fast local. I run over the over bridge and just then the train stops and i thought i cant get this because , you cant actually catch a running train in Mumbai with "Used to catch Running Bus during college at Hyderabad" on your Resume. But, Hey wait up,the over bridge has a slide down instead of steps, so i run down and just as the train starts to move, i get in. And as i listen to a 4 min song from Godavari, I am there at Byculla. Now that train ticket costed me 5 Rs. With new found enthusiasm after saving 116 Rs, i thought i will walk to my place, which is kinda 1 Km away.

So is this like the Master Card Ad. Not exactly, the story is not over yet. As i walk down, i find this Pizza Place called Mama Mia and i walk into it, to celebrate my earning. After that blame it on the Great Indian Economy and the Consumer Confidence , i ate a Pizza worth 100 Rs with a cool drink worth 15 Rs. So thats it. I earned a Rupee.

Ok, even otherwise, Mumbai is an awesome place, might be too early for me to judge, but , as long as i can have 6 panipuri for 6 Rs on roadside, I love it.

Now to Neverland. Before i write this, if one is fired for bloggong about his job, this phenomena is called getting 'dooced' , i came to know this in just another quiz prelims which i didnt get thru.

I have been taking survey on 8-12 year kids on what they do and their daily activities. It has been awesome talking to them. There was this word about kids that my friend used , 'Unassuming' . i think thats it, thats one of the most beautiful attribute that humans are born with and only tend to lose it over time. There is this question that i ask "Do you worry about what your friends think about you? " . And i so loved it when they say a strong 'NO'. Seeing from where i come from - The B School and where i would go from there - I would call the kids world - Neverland.

Some really funny stats about Neverland, not actually stats as i didnt tabulate everything , actually nothing so far. God, so much work to do.

Ok, if anyone from Media Agencies are readingv this, if any of you want to put an ad for kids product, put it on this program called "Shing Chang" (i dont know if i am spelling it right, because with all curiosity, i could find out that he wears Red shorts and Yellow shirt, god i actually asked a kid if he can draw him). Kids love this program , they watch it what so ever.

They love those ads which i thought to be the stupidest Ads. There is nothing more than that i could reveal for now.

Ok, there is one final reference to Neverland i want to make. Not actually a Neverland. Anyway, let me explain.

Today kind of rounds off as a day where all of my good friends who wanted to be in a B-School, finally get to be in a B-school. Looking back, it was kinda stupid journey that we started , let me count , 1,2,3,4 years ago and got obsessed with . So, all said and done, we all looked at it as a Neverland which we wished to reach soime day. Oh, Oh!! that reminds me of something else thats common to us, as someone said, we are all this bunch of self-pitying, nostalgic graduates from JNTU Hyderabad.

And guess what, everyone is going to an IIM as just I go to XLRI. He he , howz that for differentiation. :P . Ok, very bad joke. Signing it off, just like some post long ago that i wrote, this day seems to be one more of those few days of absolute happiness.

So, if my humour seemed unoriginal, wannabe witty or plain simple bad, blame it on my obsession to watch 4 episodes of FRIENDS everyday.

As i signed off, i will have to leave a finishing joke.

P.S : I land in Mumbai Railway station from Hyderabad with all my luggage . Being an Engineer, i couldnt be smart enough than buying a Map of Mumbai in the railway station. Thinking back, i dont know what i was trying to do, what, buy a compass also and reach the place i wanted to. Anyway, so, i open this big map in the railway station and starting searching for the place i wanted to go. So, from another angle, i would be looking like holding a board saying " Come on you Taxi Guys , I am New to Mumbai and I am absolutely clueless and dumb, come take me for a ride". So one guy finally takes the offer and says, hey its just near by , and it costs just 150 bucks. So i think to myself " Oh!! ya, i have read about that in the papers, its called inflation, prices have have gone up." So i sit in the Taxi, and whoosh you are there in 5 mins. So, i get down , with gaping mouth and say "Come on, this is too much". That guy says "Buzz off, you weigh too much
- with your luggage " :D . It costs 30 bucks on Taxi from that place.

5 comments:

Rohit Anand said...

Welcome to Mumbai! Love it or hate it, you have to blog it. And don't worry you aren't the only one whom the taxi driver took for a ride...
And maybe you can try taking a bus to station/airport on your way back to Hyd, to make up for the loss.

Rohit Anand said...

and you did get through an IIM, i like to say that :) makes me feel good about myself also

Anonymous said...

haha...welcome to bombay :-)
didnt think so many people landing in mumbai would be getting fleeced by taxi drivers....i thought taking people for a ride happened only in chennai and not in aamchi mumbai...hmmm....
finally u join the friends addicted club, is it?
and i cant wait to blog about my office too...except that i hav read their policy on doocing :-(
and its scary!

Kartheek Kanumuru said...

@ Rohit
Yup, Mumbai is at its best when you want to blog, and are we busy or too lazy that we didnt meet in bombay yet. Yup, i should correct , I too got through an IIM.

@ Harini
Yup, Mumbai also has its shades of grey.

Rohit Anand said...

wow
its like a chat room in here.
:)