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...

Will India truly be a superpower?

I'm sure a lot of us Indians from every corner of the world are aware and definitely proud of the fairly rapid strides our country of birth has made over the last decade thanks to the liberalisation of the early 90's. Ever since I have been following the country's GDP growth rate, it has been recording a 6-8% increase every year. We obviously have been living in the great global recession that has still cast its web on most of the world to this day. India still managed a 6% growth during this period and promises much in 2010 and ahead.

Our billion strong population has the advantage of churning out the maximum no of specialised graduates (the flawed education system may perhaps be a future topic) in the world and obviously serve as a massive knowledge pool. I'm not even going to discuss how good we are in IT and how we've got our techies all over the world, etc. The best example of our financial clout is the ongoing IPL which according to me is one of the most exciting global sporting events at the moment. The revenue involved amongst all stakeholders i.e. BCCI, team owners, media partners and the several other behind the scenes groups...the numbers are simply mind boggling. Anyways, these are only 2 of the most common examples I've mentioned that I know of and can associate myself with. There are many, many more...

There have been developments in almost every sector - farming/agriculture, education, IT services, Business Process outsourcing, aviation, the rail network continues to increase just when you thought it couldn't get any more complex, etc. The defense budget is probably increasing a good 20-30% annually, the space program is on a constant upward spiral, there's much to be proud of. What more - my friends work in IT companies that have been taken over by India Inc. Even our once ridiculous films are now crossing over and inviting global audiences (and that doesn't include only NRIs). The fact that till I was about 25, I hadn't watched more than possibly 10-15 hindi films in my entire life, 90% of which were those Amitabh Bachchan movies of the 80s when I was little. In the last 5 yrs, I have pretty much caught up on most new releases thanks mostly to a woman in my life who loves her share of Hindi movies that I am dragged to (although grumpy while heading to the cinema, I do end up appreciating the movies simply because no longer do I encounter a silly song-dance routine for no bloody reason)!!

I'm sure everything that I mentioned above makes it seem all very rosy for the future of the largest democracy in the world. I however do not quite agree with it. For one, I am very confident that most development has happened not because of the system but inspite of it!!

A no of issues plaguing the country continue to bother me and I'm sure will cause an obstacle possibly a decade or maybe longer down the line. If India has to truly prosper, it needs to focus on the rural areas of the country too and think of ways of empowering the people living in these areas. Back to the issues...

1. Lack of able politicians/leaders - I admire Dr. M Singh and know he's a very able, intelligent PM, but that's only one I'm talking about. Fine there's still Rahul Gandhi after him but then that's only the PM. What about all those other politicians from different parties who are more bloody interested in creating chaos in the Parliament on a daily basis, continue to harp on caste, religion and such similar crap and are only interested in stocking millions in their bank a/cs in Switzerland rather than thinking about the common man. I know there's a few good guys in there, but I have to think hard and long to identify them at the current moment.
2. I'm not aware of the specifics but I imagine sickness/disease is still rampant in rural areas, especially when you consider the effect on the children there. Sure there must be health centres cropping up in some areas but is that enough? I would think a very high percentage of new born and children around the age of 2-4 must be suffering of severe but preventive conditions.
3. Rapid development at the cost of compromising the ecosystem - I can understand this to an extent. There is obviously a need to build on the current poor infrastructure that big cities of India currently possess. However, the lack of thought & basic planning that has gone into such massive largescale development is affecting the habitat. Just makes me think if the respective ministries/builders mafia actually did any thinking!!!!
4. We can still do more in terms of education in the rural areas, especially the girl child. Not only education of the academic type but also family planning. The billion strong population is a reason for most resource related problems in this country. If regular people like me can think of ways to curb this, how come our highly intelligent politicians haven't yet?
5. Millions are still going hungry - is anything being done about it or are we too busy in this 'superpower' bubble!!
6. Unbelievable shortage of water and electricity - basic amenities!! I know the billion strong population doesn't make it easy but we have strong monsoons - anything being done in terms of rainwater harvesting???

Again, there's so much more that can be done but for the sake of avoiding making this blog terribly long and whiny, I will stop at the main issues bothering me. Finally, sports related - a few secondary concerns of mine I thought I'd share,


1. How on earth will the cricket team cope once Sachin retires?
2. Will we ever qualify for the Football WC before 2050?
3. Will we start losing 5-0 instead of 4-1 in Davis Cup once Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupathi retire?
4. What do we do with our hockey team? The ever changing coaches definitely do not know what should be done...

Now guys - these are only my opinions. I may be quite wrong and out of the mark with certain points. Rather than being a critic which I don't take too well as I don't consider myself to be a good sport (you dislike being a sore loser when all you want to do is win at everything), please feel free to leave only constructive comments.

Until the next time!!