Those three years

And the college life ends. Some might say it’s the end of an era but I
say it’s the end of one of the best chapters of our lives. The old rickety benches,
the dimly lit class rooms and all the fun and environment around it
all will be over. Still look for a chance to go back and to sit at our
group s regular table but miss the group. Every one s getting busy in
their lives really fast and it makes me feel insecure that all of a
sudden the memories that v all created together will be forgotten only
to be remembered during occasional meetings. Time fly’s bye, truly it
does.



I can remember my first day in college not knowing anyone but by
bestie and the initial few days v were bored to shit. Then v met Mandar a short guy with a small but thick moustache you meet him and you know he s a guy worth trusting your life with. By that time v were still running in and out of Mumbai university trying to get our documents done, that s when v met Harshad a slim guy so talkative that you
will bet a million bucks he s got into the wrong field and should have
been a radio jockey. I always stayed away from girls and the notes and
stuff were always taken by Parth from this one girl who always used to
occupy the first bench of the class and rarely used to speak to
anyone. Initially v though her name was Fatima but turns out it was
Farhad, a guy trapped in a girl’s body. Honestly I was a bit sacred of her as I felt she was crazy, well just for the record she became one of my closest chums. But I was right about my first impression she s still completely unpredictable and spontaneous. Then last came in the pheobe of the group, Aarti, a day
dreamer and a total “i don’t know what to do “girl. She was a
complete over actor; her most famous dialogue came in front of the
Vodafone store and almost had Parth beaten up. They were just walking
down the road and suddenly she said loudly "usne mujhe yahan chuva
vaha chuva" a famous dialogue from a romantic family movie and not from any adult movie as the dialogue may represent. The crowd around them was stunned and had she been crying while saying that parth would have been beaten up for sure.


Initially there were many other people but slowly and gradually all the others had their own separate groups and we 6 people formed a world of our own. Things we did were crazy and we were probably the only ones who used to attend college regularly. The third year, when we all had migrated to GLC from other colleges was less fun and more study as we all were not that close but from the 4th year onwards it was awesome, things we did ranged from playing Gold spot in the class to dumb charades and throwing chalks and stuff. Once we had this powder fight were my talcum powder was used to spoil others dresses. And one time Mandar brought a unique colour during holi which would just keep getting darker every time u rub it. I remember during the end of the 4th year we had our Viva’s and all of us were sitting together in the same bench and what a time we had, we were the most mischievous group in the class and even the professor who was conducting the Viva keep staring at us and we would immediately indulge ourselves in books. We literally cheered any of our group members who used to go on the dais for his/her viva. And the professor was so much distracted that she said to everyone who went up there amongst us “wow your friends are sure supportive”. And we all scored well in it in spite of this “Chakallas” ( Harshad’s slang). The Transfer of property lectures were I and parth used to doze off sitting in the first bench and Farhad would keep nudging us to pay attention. The lectures of Ruparel Sir which I used to attend even though I had not taken Tax laws. And ofcourse how can we forget Farhad’s favourite professor Brijesh Ranjan. This guy once sent a text to her saying he’ s unwell and wont be able to make it for the class and we jerks typed in “ Get Well Soon Mamu” and hit the sent button….what a laugh we had, idiots of the highest category.



Our fifth year started off with a big fight which split the group completely and it was the talk of the town for sometime as everyone kept asking what happened and why but even in fight mode we were united as none of us told anyone outside the group what had happened and brushed it off saying it was just a silly bet. After one whole semester we came back as a whole due to Mandar’s effort and our own want to be with others as no one admitted but missed the other real bad. Then it was a complete party time we had so much fun probably the best three months, bunked every lecture to such extent that we didn’t even know who our subject professor was. And who plays UNO cards when their Viva is being conducted in the next room, V did. Who appears for exams without any knowledge of the paper style and keep staring at each other the whole time, V did. Who comes in late by half an hour for this exams directly from Shirdi completely unprepared, Harshad did. Played UNO cards the whole day along with dumb charads went to malls and played so many games that we had around 4000 reward points. That was the time of our life, saw two movies back to back, fought with the watchman, set people up, made the first table of the canteen our classroom where we used to sit eating and playing from 7am to 2pm………..so much we did.


The year ended with an awesome trip to Alibaug on the eve of my birthday, the first trip all of us took together. It was so much fun three days we had a blast no touch with the outside world except with family and I got a very peaceful birthday celebration at the beach the whole day and also gifts like a couple of Ferraris and a Batman T-shirt I was longing for. It was a full on party time we had awesome food, played everything from dumb charads to antakshari to truth and dare to doing what not. We used to sleep at 4 or 5 in the morning and wake up by 9 to go out and enjoy more.

What fun days they were now as it all ends nostalgic feeling kicks in and the bare fact that it will be years from now when all of us will spend such time together seems surreal. But we all managed to do one thing we all have created a personal space of the other in our hearts that cannot be taken by anyone else. But one thing for sure the three years that we all shared through love, fights, fun and games is a memory lodged in forever. V all made a unique group, Farhad Pathan a.k.a Angry Young Man, a Muslim who has never been within 1 km radius of burka and does not read namaz. Parth Shah a.k.a Sethji a Gujarati who was the group’s World Bank and very generous to even a dog. Harshad Puranik a.k.a Pj-King, a Brahmin who loves to have chiken and other non veg items. Aarti Nimbalkar a.k.a Overactor, No Comments. Mandar Jadhav a.k.a Mimbiya, a staunch maratha who’s best friends include jerks like us. And finally me Sriraj Menon a.k.a Bhukkad Singh, a south Indian born and brought up in Gujarat who has basically no knowledge about the ancient Hindu mythology in any form and loves cars more than girls. If people call us crazy I say, Hell ya we are!!!!!!!!!!!

A Birthday to Remember by.......

This year I had decided to spend my 22nd birthday with my college pals as it was our last year and who knows where we would be in the coming years, when it would be even difficult to speak to one another once in a week. So my friends organized a surprise trip for me to Alibaug a place on the outskirts of Mumbai with beautiful beaches.

We left a day before 28th catching a boat from the Gateway to the beautiful beaches of Alibaug. After 1 and a half hour of boat and bus ride we finally landed at the place at night and booked a room in which all of us could stay. After having a quick dinner we headed for the beach with my birthday cake. What a night it was all of us got down to the beach at 11pm in the leg tickling waters of the silent beach. Then started the long solitude walk along the beach in which I covered like 3 kms all alone in the darkness, it was so peaceful. As the clock struck 12 we cut the cake at the beach, I would say one of the unique ways of celebrating birthday is to cut the cake on the beach side at 12 something I will remember for all my birthday’s to come. The cake was so damn hard that even after attempting to paste it on my face the stubborn cake refused to break and after throwing it at the dogs it refused to be eaten by them. The night that followed was more entertaining I got some of the most prized gifts. The rascals gifted me a Ferrari Enzo Scale model and an assembly kit of Ferrari F430 along with an awesome Batman T-Shirt. The sight of the Ferrari made my heart pound more aggressively than ever, like a boy who likes a girl real bad and she accepts his proposal. After that followed a game of the legendary dumb shereds which had to be halted due to the electricity being disconnected. Then followed another couple of hours chit chatting and fighting the mosquitoes which finally led us to sleep at 5 am on my birthday.

We woke up within 4 hours since we had slept and headed off towards the beach and then followed the enjoyment of a life time for me. From 11 to 4 we were in the water lazing around playing antakshari, doing anything just about anything in the water. It was so much fun, I cant remember the last time I had such a blast during my birthday I seriously cant. And as the two days we all were with each other and almost disconnected from the outside world majority of my group mates love life went for a toss, maximum due to insecurity of the other person and it was so much fun. To be precise it was a “LOVE CHANGING” trip for all except me. We will cherish every moment of it the games, the truth and dare, harshad’s sleeping secret (which we have discovered by the way) and the fun of staying together for 2 nights and a day.
This birthday will be hard to forget, I realized when we all broke up to go home how much I started missing my friends and how much I loved them. That day even a dozen Ferrari’s couldn’t match the happiness that I had by being with them. It was a birthday I will cherish, in nature’s lap not attending unwanted calls being with college mates…………well that’s something………a moment to remember always!!!

The Batch of 2011

I Opened my eyes cursing the alarm ring that was blaring under my pillow, I had to get up and leave for the college as it was our Farwell day and all of us had decided to meet up at marine drive and have a good time together for the last time, because years from now when we will be finding ourselves as the unluckiest of the lot we can take a look at the old memories and bring a smile on our faces. The nostalgia hadn’t yet kicked in so when we met we all had a gala time on marine drive even though many were late by 45 minutes and so. But we tried to do the things we did the time all of us met three years back. After a quick breakfast at our old canteen where we used to spend time together we rushed into the auditorium afraid of being late but as its in India we were spot on time even though we were running 20 minutes behind the scheduled time. The opening speech was given by some dude whom I hadn’t seen ever in college until that day and the whole auditorium was packed that’s when I realized that these people are my classmates, as no one used to attend lectures and this was one occasion when everyone would turn up for sure. We all sat together hearing stories about our “new” classmates sharing their experiences in the five years spent at the college. And then came the warm good bye speeches by the professors who wished us best of luck for the future and also made a humble appeal to keep in touch and offered us a professor’s position in the college for any subject we might want to teach. Our college has been really an old institution and when one of the most well known professors made an appeal to do our best for the college is when we all realized that our heat beats for GLC no matter how much we may curse it, the love won’t fade away. Even after a decade when we will walk out of churchgate station and look at the iconic building it will bring a smile on our face. Because that s the place where we were nurtured to be the best people we possibly can be, where we spent the best times of our lives and made the best of friends. All of us received a nice coffee mug with the words printed “Batch of 2011”. It felt good. It was a short and sweet farewell.

After the official farewell from college the hunger pangs started to get the better out of us all. After meaningless discussions and a disappointing trip to Copper Chimney (they don’t serve buffet on weekends) we ended up at one of the most coveted locations in south Mumbai, “The Ambassador”. It was totally out of budget for all of us but we were so hell bent on making this day memorable that we decided to loosen the purse strings. The food was amazing and we made sure all of us had everything from coolers to the 6 desserts. The brunch lasted a full 2 and a half hour. Then came on the most legen…….wait for it..dary moments of the day. It was the day when India were supposed to face South Africa in the Cricket World Cup match. The hotel had a big projector on which the match was put on, so when the national anthem started all of us jerks instead of Parth stood up to show respect. At his such initiation we stopped having our food and followed his lead and then the food place which was full with people including some foreign nationals stood up seeing all of us show respect and within a few seconds all were standing up to it. It felt really good.

After some more food tucking and saching sehwag innings we decided to leave because we feared if we didn’t the staff will throw us out. The match was in full swing as the duo was on fire hitting the South African bowlers all over the place. We decided to go to the sports bar to watch the match. It was sad that Farhad and Mandar could not join us. I always wished they had stayed a bit nearby but it was already getting late and we they had to go. So we reached the sports bar which was jam packed as any local train is on week days in Mumbai. But we somehow managed to get three table seats in front of the screen. Watching the match was an awesome experience as we cherred on at every boundary and stood up to give Sachin a standing ovation for his ton etc. After the innings got over we headed home and while on my way I realized that it was one of the best Saturdays of my life and for all of us. We really missed our friends who could not join us at the Sports bar for the match but in a nut shell it was a farwell we all will remember for the rest of our lives. Generally people get nostalgic and emotional during farwells but it didn’t happen with us because inside we all knew no matter how much ever we say it we are gonna be in touch for the rest of our lives and we will be just as good friends as we are today. Love you all guys and I will be bothering u no matter where ever you try to hide from me. Cheers to ourselves!!!!!!!!!!:)

The Storm in the boat of friendship

Many times in life we meet people who leave an impact on us, but its only seldom that u actually live with those people in your daily life. Well I have experienced that with my college friends which are the best group of people you can hang out with. Whenever we are together v all get along like an house on fire, and we make sure that if we all are attending a lecture the professor turns around to look at who’s creating the fuss. Mumbai was beautiful for me only because I had idiots like them in my life without which Mumbai would only be a place of materialistic happiness for me ( please Ferrari and Lamborghini don’t feel bad I love you too but in a different way ). So as in every relation the world creates there came an up- down phase between all of us which led to the ultimate separation of the group. During this period we all had our alter egos taking control of ourselves in not initiating the compromise. All of us but this one guy in our group could read our eyes and tell that we were pretending to be happy without each other but we were not actually happy. The distance grew so much to the extent that from sharing a common canteen table and pulling each other’s leg, we moved on to having two separate table and the neutral guy moving in between to make it up to both the warring parties. As time went by and events kept on happening we grew more apart thinking that we were completely over it, but actually we were getting more depressed and depressed over the time. And all of us used to jell together so beautifully that in the 4 months that we avoided each other we didn’t make new friends in the college because we had a different frequency wave which none except us could match. Many initiations came by but because of this one person in the group ( like every family has a black sheep this person was the one for this group) the initial initiations were blocked by this person making us believe that no one cares now and everyone’s happy in their own way ( only one sentence for you, never cross my line again possibilities are I might tear u apart for what u did, I don’t care ). This went on till the end of the second last semester of the final year. The best part was that we all had a very good telepathic connection in the sense somehow none of us spelt out our disconcert to anyone in the college and no one knew why there was a split……..this is something we came to know after we patched up that none of us had blabbered anything to any third party in the college.

And finally the time came when we all were pretending to be happy in our lives , the next semester started and daily the simply sitting apart silently without acknowledging the existence of the other used to pain us, then boom went the dynamite when we came to know that there were 3 initiations from the other side but none even communicated to us due to the misinformer in between. We were pretty pissed off when we heard this and then what happened was that the compromise occurred and we all came to know how miserable we were without the other and the whole college which was about to digest the fact that we were now apart had a rude shock when we all sat together and began our usual gimmicks for about 4 hours non- stop. When we all met face to face did we realize that the reason for such a split was the black sheep who never intimated us of any initiations and had added fuel to the fire of the already grim situation. The day we compromised was awesome I haven’t felt so happy in like a really long time we were back to our usual self, pulling each other’s leg ( some even hair ), spilling coffee over each other, giving the bro half hug ( keeping in respect the Bro Code article 41 ) etc. It was such an invigorating experience, seemed surreal for a day but then it sank down to the truth. The evening went acknowledging each other on facebook and letting the thirsty fingers comment on the pics and updates that were old but due to the differences were uncommentable. We all learnt a few things from this:-
1. We were a pack, and could not be separated. United we stand divided we fall.
2. If ever in a fight always chose a good mediator (because of which this finally happened: hats off to you buddy, your return gift: a bigger mimba).
3. Sit across and hear the other party out.
4. Never ever believe everything that you hear until its from the right person.
5. Kiss and make up ASAP.
6. Recognize the black sheep in the group and never let it spoil the chemistry that all share.

This is a valuable chapter in mine as well as everyone of my idiot’s life and we would like to close this with a smile. And I have only few words to describe the happiness………. we are back with a “Bang”.


P.S:- We are Awesome!!!!!

When i met John Abraham.

The evening was a bit dull as I had overslept and woken up at 8 pm, which always makes me feel a bit bored. But we had planned to go for dinner at a popular joint in bandra so I took a quick bath and freshened myself a bit. We reached bandra by 10 and as luck would have it the place where we decided to have dinner was closed on Mondays only. So we took to another eating joint at carter road. The usual crowd of youngsters with amazing cars and almost s dozen superbikes amazed me as we were having the sinful deserts at the CCD outlet on carter road. After the desert session we decided to sit at the seafront and enjoy the vibrancy of the place. We were entertained a bit by a drunken old man who was circling the police officers at their booth so I and harshad decided to watch that fun for some time, as it was fun. But we were already late it was 12:15am, a bit more late and we would have missed the last train back home. So we took the first auto that we came across for bandra station. As usual the three of us were chatting along the way when we happened to pass two Audi Q7s parked back to back, at the first instance I did not mind it at first then impulsively I turned around to look at the other Q7. I saw the number plate it rang a bell somewhere, and suddenly I knew to whom it belonged. I yelled at the autowalla to stop the auto he was about to stop on the side of the road but I couldn’t wait for it I jumped out of the auto and ran all the way back to the Q7 and again checked the number just to make sure that I was right and yes I was, the next five minutes were a high for me. I shouted for my friend to come with me and the moment I turned around there he was coming out of the restaurant in a grey t-shirt and jeans it was “John Abraham” .
I had come close to meeting him twice in the past but could not manage it but I knew this time I was gonna meet him for sure as there was no one around in the whole road except a couple of his friends and a couple of mine. My opening lines were “Sir am a big fan of yours, can have a pic with you?” I said “Ya sure” was his reply. After my friend took our picture I told him that I was a big fan and that this was a dream come true experience for me because sure enough it was. I told him that I couldn’t believe it that I was meeting him personally and could I shake hands with him once more to be sure this was not a dream and he very sweetly obliged. After that I asked him authoritatively why he wasn’t active on twitter to which he replied that it wasn’t him but a fake account. I also told him that I had once received a reply to his mail from his official site John Abraham.com to which he said he cant make out time be active frequently. I have always read and heard about him being humble but now I guarantee this as my friend who had taken the picture came up towards me to give me my phone, john himself went up to him and shook hands with him, name one celeb who would do that. After that he asked me what I was doing I told him I was a final year law student in” Government law College” to which he replied that he used to be a student of “Jai Hind” just behind my college. I told him that I already knew about the fact and that I had memorized his car number and that’s how I came to know that he was at the restaurant. While leaving I told him that I was a hardcore john Abraham fan and I even mentioned his address to him and I could tell from his looks that he was impressed. I wished him luck for his new movie “Desi Boys” and finally once more I told him,” thanks you sir this was a dream “ and shook hands with him once more. He was kind enough to oblige. All this is something which my friend told me after he left because the five minutes I was with him I was not in my senses and I didn’t know what I was saying to him. My friend told me that in the five minutes that I met him I shook hands with him four times. It took me atleast half an hour to realize that I had actually lived one of my crazy dreams where I get to talk to him personally without disturbance for some time, it was fulfilled and I couldn’t have been more happier. I idolize him not for his acting but for being what he is, and now after this brief meet with him and after experiencing his humbleness I have just begun to respect him more. Long live J.A. you rock.

Looking back as how it happened I am forced to believe that there is some force somewhere which made this meet possible. If we would have got the next auto, if we had left when parth wanted us to leave and if I wasn’t that car crazy that I would have turned to look at the two Q7’s parked back to back this wouldn’t have happened, this is a perfect example of being at the right place at the right time. My car frenzy fulfilled one of my living dreams if it hadn’t been for my impulse for turning back just to stare at the Q7 I wouldn’t have met him. Finally one of the three dreams has been fulfilled the next two in the pipeline.

Why we should value our life

The daily buss of life makes us take many things for granted and many times something really disastrous makes us really value it. For the last ten days I was regularly going to the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai as my aunt was being treated for cancer there. Initially I did not realize how dangerous this diseases was until I saw how many were affected by it without any remedy. The thing that moved my heart was when I saw a young kid effected by cancer, he was bald apparently because of the chemotherapy treatment and had a couple of tubes on him and he was so little hardly 6 years of age completely unaware of what he will face and without even knowing the true meaning of life. Then again I saw another kid this was a toddler, I could not believe that such a small kid could be having this diseases. We really don’t know the importance of life and we easily give up when we face hassles in life, looking at such small kids who smile at u when u see them makes u realize that even big hassles of life are small compared to what they go through. We have been so involved in the materlistic world of ours that we don’t realize the importance of life and how lucky we are to be alive till date without any suffering. One incident that really made me think that we should value life is when one day at the same hospital a 3 year old kid passed away and that too very abruptly in the middle of her treatment and it was something which was very hard to believe and when u see such kids sitting there in the queue for their chemo and playing withe their toys without even bothering why they are there in the first place. This made me realize that there is so much to be done in this world other than being selfish we should help such people who are effected in such bad ways , may be someone does not realize what I am feeling or what i am trying to say but the day when a dying kid smiles back at you showing one of his tooth missing and that innocent smile makes u feel really sad because u know how things will end up with him while he’s unaware what he’s gonna go through.
It’s really sad that for some money is not a problem but their cancer is so serious that money can t save them and for some people cancer is at a moderate stage but they don’t have money to get it treated for example a simple tube or a stapler that is used instead of the stitches costs more than 20K and many times the lack of a specialist for a particular cancer makes matter s worse and the costs go up to Rs. 20 lacs for an injection. Kids at the age when they are supposed to play and laugh around they spend major part of their childhood undergoing treatment. Another incident that made me feel bad was when a kid hardly 10 or something was waiting with his parents for the lift and all of a sudden he started crying aloud holding his stomach and every1 was stunned including his parents as no one knew what happened to him and then he was taken to the emergency ward for treatment. This particular experience made me value life more than I used to and made me realize that as an individual we have to fulfill some social responsibilities towards the society by helping such people as much as we can in the span of our life, because u don’t know when u will be pulled the loop of any such thing.

The Mumbai Locals

The first thing that comes to a person’s mind when he thinks about the Mumbai local trains is the crowded compartments that are packed to brim and looks as if people are overflowing from the compartments, but after a couple of years I am accustomed to this life and I must admit its really a very efficient mode of public transport. The services start at 4am in the morning and goes on till 1.40 am the next morning which leaves only round about 2 hours without the services. The trains are usually jam packed and u have to actually squeeze yourself in to the compartment and be abused a dozen times, once I was jam packed in this local so bad that I could feel the phone vibrating in my pocket but I could not manage to get my hand to the phone it was so damn packed, and incase u have someone who’s taller than u standing in front of u then u will die of the stench of his sweat and there’s no means to escape and if a lady is travelling in the second compartment then u have to be very careful not to even touch her as u will be bashed. Pickpockets are a big menace during the rush hours and because of this even if your hand brushes a person’s bum by mistake u will be frowned at, I have seen people rubbing themselves to a person standing next to him as his hand is unable to reach the specific body part and many a times u will see people in funny poses like I have seen a person who had another person’s leg tightly squeezed between his own legs. I recently had a two month internship for which I used to regularly catch the 6:16 Virar and after a few days even the fellow travelers were no more strangers and I knew precisely where everyone would get down this reminded of my school going days when I used to go in an auto with other kids and we became fellow travelers. There’s something in the locals that makes u feel good when a guy who tries to catch a running train a fellow travelers lends out his hand to pull him up regardless of the fact that he himself doesn’t have enough space to stand, whenever the train’s packed and a guy stands up from his seat and offers it to someone and that person in turn offers it to you in case u are eyeing at the seat, the regulars having a suitcase placed between them and playing out cards, organizing events inside the trains etc. for many people this bonding becomes a second home I have seen people reserve a whole booth for their friends who then join form the next station and then they have a blast. Its also the best place to catch sleep but u need to be alert when your station comes I almost missed mine once. The heavenly feeling of travelling in a train comes when u stand on the footboard at night on a fast train which is travelling from dadar to Mumbai central because that’s when most of the trains touch breakneck speeds and the cool air slaps against your face. But as good the trains are so are the mishaps once I saw a man go down the train in front of me and he broke his leg so bad that he had to drag himself onto the platform before the next train could come a terrifying site and so horrible that I feared travelling in locals for over a week but this has now become a part and parcel of life for mumbaikars sadly. The best part about the trains is that u wont ever feel lonely even if u r depressed catch a borivali fast or a virar fast u will be so involved in finding your own standing space properly that u will forget every tensions of life. Mumbai wouldn’t have been what it is today if it weren’t for the trains.