Bheja Fry - Part I

Missing the first train ever

There has been a regular motivation to put the incidence of Yasha and me missing our train to Bhopal into my words. Here goes the story of our most trusted and reliable Pappu Bhai and his colleague Abdul Bhai. They made untiring efforts to ensure that we miss our train to Bhopal. The story also covers our journey thereafter.

Characters

• Yasha Verma, beautiful, confident student of MICA PGDCM
• Abhishek Shandilya, most experienced student of PGP-17
• Pappu Bhai, most trusted auto driver of MICA
• Abdul Bhai, an amateur auto driver
• Bhavin Patel, owner of “Hotel Decent” near Ahmedabad Bus Depot
• Rinkesh Arondekar, formerly a human, now a resident of Palaash 

Background

In the past decade, I have lived away from my home into various cities like Kota, Indore, Pune and now Ahmedabad for education and work. Over the years, I have developed a habit of travelling alone. I have always reached Railway Stations just a few minutes before the departure of the train. At times I have caught trains even after reaching stations beyond scheduled time of departure. I had a confidence that no matter what I don’t miss trains. But this confidence was broken during Term-II holidays. It is often said that a novice swimmer is safer in water than an experienced one, as an experienced swimmer starts trying butterfly strokes in turbulent water. This is where the probability of making mistakes rise.

But, this was not the case when Yasha and I decided to travel to Bhopal together during Term-II break. I was extra cautious to call our beloved Pappu Bhai at 1:00 p.m to inform him to come to MICA at 5:00 to pick us for station. Our train was scheduled to depart at 6:45. Later, I got a call from Abhishek Shandilya and he asked me to leave MICA early as there was traffic on the way to station. But I royally ignored his warning as I thought it’s my age of taking risks and gaining experience which Abhishek Shandilya has in plenty.

Pappu Bhai’s surprise gift – first moment of truth

I woke up as my phone started ringing. It was Yasha. She asked me whether I have called any auto. I told her that Pappu Bhai was coming at 5:00. It was already 4:30. I started packing my bag and called Pappu Bhai again to ensure that he is coming. He replied saying that he is in the city and will send someone. Yasha and I decided to move to the main gate to avoid any delay. I came to know there that Yasha was suffering from stomach upset.

It was 5:15 and no auto was seen at the main gate. We called Pappu Bhai again and he told that Abdul Bhai is coming in 5 minutes and gave us his number. Abdul Bhai missed our calls many times before finally picking up and told us that he is coming in 5 minutes. It was again a chain of multiple calls with the same reply of 5 minutes. Finally to our relief Abdul Bhai came at 5:40 p.m. There was still 1 hour left for our train to depart and we could have easily made it.

Abdul Bhai’s surprise gift – second moment of truth

As our auto started off from MICA, we discussed Professors, Placements, Sankalp, Food Joints in Ahmedabad, Late Night Parties, Palaash–28, Thakur Chacha, Bhopal, Mathew’s Movies and of course Roxy. Bhai-Waah! The discussion was reaching heights and Abdul Bhai was entertaining himself with MICA gossips. We didn’t know that he also wanted to surprise us like Pappu Bhai. He turned out to be more innovative. He was driving us to Airport instead of Station. I saw the first sign board for Airport and ignored it as 75% of the way from MICA for both Railway Station and Airport is common. But on the next sign board, I questioned Abdul Bhai that where was he going, though somewhere in my mind I already knew the answer. As he replied, “Airport”, it was the extreme stage of our bheja-fry. I felt like banging my head on some wall and Yasha felt like killing someone (probably Pappu Bhai). I asked Abdul Bhai who told him to drive us to Airport. He replied, “Pappu Bhai”.

As expected, Abdul Bhai took a U-turn and we re-traced a long route in opposite direction. On our way back we were getting the updates from Abhishek Shandilya, about the arrival of the train. Yasha was quite sure that we would miss the train but I was still confident that we would catch it. As we reached the station the train just started and by the time we reached the platform it had vanished.

Bheja Fry - Part II

Journey after missing the train

As we missed the train and Yasha called her home, her mother wanted her to catch a flight to Bhopal which she refused. She told me that she didn’t want to go back to MICA. Going by flight was not an option for me because of the over priced tickets. And going back to MICA was not even considered by me. I would have better asked Abdul Bhai to take me to Bhopal by Auto with both of us driving turn by turn 100-100 kms. But that’s the difference travelling with a girl brings to your way of thinking. It was not me alone but I had to take her care. But does a Parijat creature needs that much care? May be Yasha was also capable of driving an auto. So it becomes 100-100-100 kms all three of us.

After some brain storming and thinking all permutations, we decided to go by bus. We took an auto to a private bus agent and got the last two tickets left in non-AC sleeper bus to Indore. The bus was scheduled two hours later. Thereafter we went to dinner in a 0-Star restaurant where the bill amounted to something in two-figure (yes two-figure INR for both of us). No comments the quality of food.

After dinner we realized that Yasha wanted to use washroom once before boarding the bus. She also wanted some pills. Our quest for a humanly usable toilet started at the same restaurant where we ate. Its toilet was bad. Yasha tried to use the govt. bus depot toilet which was worse. Planning Commission statistics show that 638 million Indians don’t have access to proper sanitation. I wondered whether government calculates people travelling by buses in that figure. Anyways, we decided that we can get a usable toilet only at a hotel. So we ended up searching a medical store to buy pills and a low cost hotel. When we asked people for both of these, they started passing sarcastic smiles. And I quickly made out what were they thinking. But in our case, the search was driven by worry and not by wild intensions.

Anyways, with some effort we got our Hotel Decent. We asked the owner Bhavin Patel to do us a favour of letting Yasha use the toilet. He agreed. After she was back Bhavin asked us to pay a huge amount. And then I replied that she have used only the washroom. I felt like showing middle finger to him. In the end it was argument and we left without paying him anything. Now we started searching a medical store. Someone told us the way for one.

Inception Level–2: The Kite Bazaar

As we entered the street where medical store was supposed to be located it was filled all around with kites. Nearly all the shops were selling kites. As we furthered onto our path, more and more shops selling kites revealed themselves. It was a beautiful site. A complete street filled with colourful kites. I suddenly started dreaming. I used to fly a lot many kites when I was a kid. I started remembering the battles fought in the sky. I also remembered “The Kite Runner”. I was searching for a kite bazaar like this since long, but couldn’t find it anywhere. This bazaar can’t be a reality. It has to be a dream. I felt like this kite bazaar was a dream within a dream of missing our train. Suddenly we were in front of the medical store and Yasha purchased the pills. We re-traced our way back through the kite street.

The last mile

When we boarded the bus, I realized that Yasha was the only woman in the bus. I asked her to wake me up in case of any nuisance created by anyone. The bus started and it was a peaceful journey despite the chilling cold. At 3 a.m in the night it stopped at some village which looked like Omkara set with only one hand pump in a long field. The travellers were supposed to pee in the chilling cold. When I got out of bus I had already decided to write an article on this journey and I thought probably this Omkara set would be the concluding part of it. We reached Indore around 9: 30 a.m from where a taxi took us to Bhopal within 4 hours.  Over all we wasted around 5 hours for this memorable journey.

If you ever want to go from MICA to Railway Station then please call Pappu Bhai on this number: 9879228637

Professor Patriarch

This article was taken out from the blog due to possible action against my entire computer engineering class of 2007. But as fortune favors the brave and all of us survive both Chachu and the action the post is back. And what could be a better day than fool’s day to bring it back. Happy fool’s day!

Drive fast man. Hari said this to Ryan in an absolutely cold Sunday morning with Alok adjusted behind him. When the three sat on the bike in that manner it seemed like they were performing a show in a circus. You might think where were they going when everybody else was sleeping & would continue to sleep till 12 noon? They were going to attend the lecture of IRTS (Intelligent Real Time Systems). Cold Sunday morning. Three college boys. Going to attend a lecture. Sounds strange. Only one thing must seem acceptable to you that three boys adjusted on one bike. The great engineering colleges of India have huge number of boys & not many bikes. But there was one professor who could make this morning class possible. You might think that whether she was very beautiful that made these boys get up early morning to attend a complex lecture of a complex subject?

But believe me they were going to attend the lecture of a 60 year old man who was going to teach something which was never going to help any one of them ever in their future. Forget the professor’s name. They used to call him “Chachu”. If you want to understand Chachu then imagine a person who never got married, held a double M.E & double PhD & had 25 years of experience in formal systems. He was father of all fathers, king of all kings. He used to take their classes 4 hrs a day, 7 days a week. For the whole semester he taught verification & validation but in the end even the topper was unable to tell what verification & validation is.

Chachu didn’t know how to operate a computer leave programming aside. His cabin was 4ft X 6ft & can you imagine what stuff you would find there? 3 lockers, 3 PCs, 1 printer, 3 phones, 2 tables, 4 chairs, 3 stools, 90 registers, thousands of stapled photocopies, a decade old project reports & assignment files, confidential material of some Japanese company. You must be thinking why he needed 3 PCs & all other stuff. The explanation for PCs is: One computer was for surfing & because viruses come from internet he would not keep his secure data on that, one was his personal system & he wouldn’t allow students to touch it, and one PC was for students which he would not touch. Now you can make out similar explanations for other stuff.

For the past 15 years his project groups were submitting the same project with different names every year. The project that he allotted to my topper was somewhat like this: Combine the four operating systems: DOS, Windows, Linux & UNIX & to make a single operating system & provide user the flexibility to switch from one operating system to other whenever he likes on a mouse click.

Now read the most unique quality of Chachu. He used to tell the whole examination paper in advance & sometimes gave students the opportunity to put their own questions in the examination paper. Imagine the amount of satisfaction that a student can get when he prepares his own examination paper. When the paper was finalized he used to ask the toppers to solve the paper. They used to solve it & distribute the solutions. Then he used to arrange practice sessions for the students to solve the examination paper in 2 ½ hrs so that in the final examination they can do it in 3 hrs.

And last but not the least Hari attempted for 88 marks in the IRTS paper. Chachu called him & said that he would definitely fail this time but when the result came to everybody’s surprise Hari got 95. Whether this kind of professor really exists? Whether students really wake up early morning to attend such lectures? Can a 60 year old man teach for 4 hrs a day, 7 days a week? Does Japanese company know that its confidential material is no longer confidential? Can students club four operating systems into one? Can a person survive in such a small cabin with this much stuff to handle? Can students set their own examination paper? If this all can happen then why is this article posted as pure fiction? Aren’t the names stolen from “five point someone”? Think!!!

Lead by Inspiration - part II

In this concluding part, I would write about three prominent leaders from corporate world/social sector. I would write my personal experience with them & why I feel that they lead by inspiration. The three leaders are:  

• Mr. Vineet Nayyar, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Tech Mahindra Ltd.
• Ms. Shaheen Mistri, CEO, Teach For India & Founder, Akanksha
• Mr. Datta Shrikhande, Pune – City Director, Muktangan Rehabilitation Center

Mr. Vineet Nayyar

My encounter with Mr. Nayyar dates back to May-20-2008. 2008 was a year when the effects of financial crisis could be seen on Indian IT industry. There was a lot of uncertainty. IT professionals throughout the industry were scared of lay-offs. Projects from the biggest deal struck by Tech Mahindra in the recent past were getting delayed. The dollar price was around Rs.35 and it was sinking. Tech Mahindra “all hands meet” was scheduled on May-20th. All hands meet is a concept at Tech Mahindra where CEO addresses all employees of a city and after that employees ask their questions. At times it is conducted as a phone conference. But CEO speaking in person before all the employees has its own charm. On May 20th, the hall was packed at 10:00 a.m with at least 2000 young IT professionals of Tech Mahindra. They were discussing their project deadlines, India’s poor performance in cricket, latest movies in the theatre & sale at Nike showroom near Sharda Centre.

Mr. Nayyar arrived exactly on time. He was completely dressed in formals & wore i-card around the neck. This is the formal Tech Mahindra attire on any weekday. As Mr. Nayyar started his speech his leadership qualities got revealed in front of ground level employees like me. Before he began I could sense the dissatisfaction among employees. But Mr. Nayyar was fully composed. He was not shaken by any facts and figures that business channels used to report those days. He was bullish on the long term prospects of the company. He assured that Tech Mahindra will do business even if dollar prices sink to Rs. 20. In the question answer session he patiently answered the most tricky questions on long term strategies as well as silliest questions related to sodexo passes. The beauty lied in the manner in which he responded. He was even willing to reply to the counter arguments. There was not a single question that was not convincingly answered.

I felt that Mr. Nayyar lead us by inspiration that day because of the empathy that he showed. I felt that he was someone among us and not somebody who was ruling from outside. He was well aware of ground realities and knew the business inside out. He was very accurate while stating facts and figures and showed a realistic way forward in those turbulent times. The learning that we take away with this experience is excellent speaking skills, composure even in stress, responding to the uncomfortable questions that people under you ask with dignity.

Ms. Shaheen Mistri

The graceful lady came to my desk when I was engrossed reading a change of interview slot request by a Teach For India (TFI) Fellowship applicant. “So you are the computer engineer who quit his IT job for working with TFI Selection”, she said. As I shifted my eyes from my 10 inch HCL laptop to Shaheen, I remembered my old school days when teachers used to come to my desk and I felt puzzled because I was day dreaming. The calmness of Shaheen’s face was impressive. She was there in the office since morning but the shy me couldn’t talk to her. In corporate world when your CEO is in office, you are supposed to attend to him like you attend a five year old kid. But here this was not the case. Shaheen must have seen many shy people by now in her students and fellows. So she doesn’t takes anything otherwise and anyways she thinks much beyond such petty things. As I came out of my day dream she was waiting to shake hands with me. As we shook hands she said, “Let’s go for the meeting”. There was a meeting scheduled that day for TFI Pune fellows. This was my first ever meeting with fellows as well. Shaheen was supposed to introduce community project to them.

As the Shaheen entered the room she was applauded by fellows and staff. She proceeded with the presentation and it was short and to the point. She had a clear cut idea of what she wanted fellows to do. She talked about realistic targets that were achievable. Most importantly she knew what works and what doesn’t when it comes to working with communities. The most important and the most difficult part in such case are to change the mindset of the people. But once that is successfully done, the change is sustainable. Shaheen gets a personal connect with the audience. The fellows that she was addressing also believed in the same dream. This was a perfect example of a communication being delivered successfully. TFI being a small organization that time had its entire people close to each other. It was easy to address everyone’s concern. Shaheen doesn’t gets depressed by the widespread poverty but she sees a hope and has a vision to achieve the goals. In my opinion she is a truly inspirational leader.

Mr. Datta Shrikhande

Mr. Datta Shrikhande appears like a right of centre party worker with hard core beliefs in Hindutva. When I first met Mr. Datta, he didn’t show any inclination to help us neither he showed any interest in what we were speaking. But it was Mr. Sanjay Bhagat could foresee a productive session. He agreed to help TFI fellows understand the functional and social aspects of Muktangan. And the deal was made. We finalized the plan to keep Muktangan in our itenary of end of year fellows meet.

The visit to Muktangan rehabilitation centre was scheduled post lunch. I entered the session a bit late as the TFI office was to be locked and other logistics needed to be worked out. Mr. Bhagat was addressing TFI fellows and staff. The session looked like a typical MBA HR class where people were observing wrist watches more than the presentation slides. It was like Rahul Dravid batting at 49 since last 49 balls. Finally, Mr. Bhagat concluded it and made the way for Mr. Datta. Mr. Datta was dressed in white from top to bottom. But these days white doesn’t signify peace. It signifies politics which is anything but peaceful. I was highly skeptical about Datta’s speech as he didn’t show any interest in our proposal earlier.

Mr. Datta didn’t come up with a presentation. He started his speech which was in Marathi and Hindi. It translates to English something like this:

“I am the biggest drunker that I have met in my entire life. I was born and brought up in Thane. My father was a drunker. I started drinking when I was 10 year old kid and by the time I turned 25, I used to drink almost all the time when I was awake. I was locked up in Thane jail for two years before I was brought to Muktangan. At that time I didn’t know that my entire life would be centered on this place. Muktangan took 5 years to make me a human being. I highly appreciate the efforts of the instructors of that time for their relentless efforts on me.

To cure an addict he is asked to choose a dream and then he is motivated to achieve that dream. The dream that I chose to see was to fall in love and get married. After I was cured, I started working as a peon in Muktangan and was later appointed as an instructor. First I bought a bicycle, then a scooter and recently a flat. I still remember that I couldn’t sleep the night I bought my scooter as I was excited to come to Muktangan by scooter next morning. There was an article published on my life in one local newspaper. A lady who was brought up in a local orphanage read that. She came to meet me at Muktangan and then we came closer and decided to get married. The news of our marriage was published on front page along with the news of marriage of a celebrity. I always wanted a quite wife. But this is the first wish of mine that god hasn’t filled. The second one being that I wanted my first kid to survive. He couldn’t survive and died at the age of 2. My second child is 13 year old and goes to school. When he started going there, he told me that all his friends’ parents are educated and I am not. I decided that I would also learn. I completed first graduation and then post graduation in psychology. There have been 2 movies made on my life.

I am heading Pune operations of Muktangan since past 12 years. In my life I have seen many severe cases of addiction. Whenever someone completely cured starts drinking again we get disappointment. But my team has strong enough will power to cure every patient that comes to us. Be it addiction, jail, progress, love or death of my child in my own hands. I have seen it all in my life. My next ambition is to make my body like Salman Khan. When I went to the gym for the first time, the instructor turned out to be an old patient of mine. As soon as I met him he smiled and said that sir you have helped me in curing my soul, I would make you shape your body”

Mr. Datta’s speech was excellent. The whole lot of fellows and staff gave him a standing ovation and later took his autographs. I couldn’t have imagined that my perceptions could go so wrong. I couldn’t have imagined that Mr. Datta would turn out to be the hero of the day. I couldn’t have imagined that Mr. Bhagat’s speech wouldn’t catch our attention. God has decided some or the other work that suits each one of us. The work that he has decided for Mr. Datta is to eliminate addiction from human life. The rate at which Muktangan has been removing addictions in the past makes me feel that Pune will reach an absolute figure of 0. That means 0 deaths, 0 accidents, 0 family break ups, 0 convictions, 0 fights due to addictions. As I see it, Mr. Datta’s life is an inspiration beyond this. His story tells us that whatever mistakes one has committed in the past, life gives everyone a chance to correct those. His life also inspires us to keep high spirits when things go wrong. This makes me believe that Mr. Datta leads by inspiration.