Growing up in Bombay

I grew up in the most unique city in the world - I've had my precious family (mostly my lovely mom and at least 1 of my 3 bullying sisters most of the time), wonderful friends, did some pretty interesting things there with them and without them. As I write this, a thousand memories of all my experiences flood in from this city. The lovely city that is Bombay.

I'm no 'Marathi Manoos' and therefore pardon me for calling the best city in the world Bombay and not Mumbai. It's a good thing I'm no celebrity and therefore will never face the ire of the SS/MNS. Not that I care in any case.

This post does not explicitly state any of my good or bad deeds from Bombay but only my life as a snapshot as I grew up there.

My first memory of this infectious place is my school - St Andrews or simply Andrews as we called it to make it sound cooler than it actually was. I'm glad this is the school I went to. The fact that it had such massive grounds to practise and perfect sporting abilities taught me very early on to not only be a nerd when it came to studies but also actively pursue sports. To this day, I'm proud that I did well academically as well as represented my school in a few sporting disciplines. Of course not to forget heading to St Josephs and Carmels Convent girls schools during lunch breaks to catch up with my school crushes. I'm very lucky to have the friends I did in school. As you grow older and other priorities take up your life, you tend to lose touch with some of these friends. However, thanks to Facebook and a bit of proactivity from our ends, almost all of us have been regularly in touch over the last few yrs. If the reunions from the last couple of yrs are anything to go by, these reunions will reach legendary proportions in the yrs to come. I guess the perfect way to sign off my school days was the fact that I appeared for my SSC exams suffering from a massive bout of chicken pox!

Right so from my lovely days at Andrews, my next memorable experience was my cooooool Jr College - St Xaviers. Considering it was a family tradition to continue education in Jai Hind, this was a welcome change. Again lovely friends, some of them friends for life - you know who you all are! Those awesome cool to hangout quadrangles when bunking lectures, the canteen foyer and of course the lovely libraries which I used as a place for everything other than read books!! Now we add the awesome Proms and you know this was the college to be in. Those teen experiences
of my first few dates in numerous cinemas of South Bombay and not to forget my first true love...it was a pity I only spent 2 yrs completing my Jr college there and went on to do my Bachelors in Computer Engg. I am glad though - it was the perfect move and I obviously do not regret it one bit!

So this leads to my next saga of suffering turning to determination and finally success at my Engg College - RAIT (Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology - my single biggest obstacle in life so far but also eventually my biggest achievement). My 1st day in this college was a massive shock and I didn't return to RAIT for the next month. This trend continued right through my first year and I suddenly found myself with a stack of backlogs and under a lot of pressure going into my 2nd year. However, a few wise words from close ones and taking a step back and assessing where I found myself helped immensely. From that moment on, the path got smoother and in fact ended with quite the bang! My situation was also helped with a group of like minded guys and through our similar experiences we all got closer and became the best of friends. It's a pity that as years have passed by, our group has been affected by egos and misunderstandings.

So I finally became a Computer Engineer. Not the best of overall percentages but I think I did pretty well in the last few semesters. Following this long path of knowledge enhancement and self learning, I then started working as a professional. It was a classic case of starting right from the bottom there and working my way up through more egos and politics but also along the way making several genuine friends.

Since then, all I did was work non stop for the next 4 yrs. A few vacations to Goa with my band of brothers from Engg and the 'fine experiences' there did help a little. Work continued...promotions came along the way and finally got an opportunity to lead and mentor a team. This was a difficult task to begin with considering I was still only about 25 yrs old and had a bit of a learning to do myself. I managed though...got a great team to work with. Soon we were all like family and guys from other departments wished they were part of my team. Then came my work related trips to London. I soon realised life in UK was more the sort of lifestyle I needed. Not in terms of luxuries as I think I already enjoyed these in Bombay. After all, a chauffeur, cook and maid 24/7 can spoil anyone! It was just the freedom to do things. To probably make mistakes along the way but importantly learn from them with the satisfaction of deciding and running things for yourself. Clearly the best decision I've made so far. It wasn't the easiest of decisions initially as I was giving up a whole lot back home. A great job with a lovely team who became really close during my last few months of working with them.

As I now continue to live and work here, I am content with life. I work for a kickass company, continue to learn lessons in life and work, do my bit to contribute in everyway possible and have a brand new team with completely different personalities to manage. Many new challenges to look forward to!!

Until the next time...