Down down

Hey Hi

Writing something after a long time... The life has been a slippery slop for sometime... In May boss made my job redundant... N he made it worst by rating my performance as zero... I tried everything, inserting myself into new initiatives... Coming up with new ideas to scale business... Arguing with him and fighting him... Nothing worked... He seem to be on a mission to reduce me to zero... My days at this job were clearly numbered... it took toll on me in more ways than one... I was switched off at home most of the times... Started loosing weight... Shedding hair like a tree in fall... ulcers of varied kinds... Started calling up ppl, whom I hang on to... Most of them were extremely kind and patient with me... Sympathetic most of the times and worst scenario intent listeners... I can't thank them enough... But it wasn't enough... 

Awkward Fligh

A couple of weeks back i was traveling to Mumbai. I boarded the flight in time in the Morning after having my regular breakkie at airport. I took my mobile and headphones out upon taking my window seat in 16th row... I started watching the series that I had planned on completing during my Mumbai trip. I was pretty hooked on to the series and didn't want to miss a minute and delay watching it... the series was Sex Education. if u have watched it, most of the episodes of the series start with a steamy sex scene (may not be very graphic but hot nonetheless)... This episode started with an Asian girl on top of her American boy friend, she seemed pretty engrossed and was yelling madly while on her trip to heaven and back. The scene was set in the bedroom of the girl. She was on her way to reaching the crescendo, that's when she took the pillow and put it on the face of the guy... Having covered his face, she cam and started yelling even louder than every... the entire scene would have lasted 30 seconds or less... but it was very engrossing to put it mildly... The introduction title and song started playing after this scene... That's when i had this guilty pleasure that i had seen something that no one else had... no how glad i was that no one else knew what i had seen... with that relief I started looking around and saw that almost everyone was looking at me... I was feeling a bit awkward...

I realised my bluetooth headphones were not working... all this while i had been watching that scene on the speaker of the phone, as my bluetooth never got paired after turning the flight mode off.

The rest of the flight i pretended to sleep... i didnt even take my usual yogurt... I continued to sleep until the last person de-boarded the flight.

Sex Education

No not here to teach anything on sex inspite of wife spread ban on popular porn sites... Sex Education is a series on Netflix... It's about high school kids and how they r exploring their sexuality... While the sex and Gyan around it is the theme there r lots of things around relationships... N it's amazing how the stories of school kids apply to that of adults in corporate worlds 

1. Otis loves Maev and she has fallen for Jackson, who is hunk of the school and is a golden boy... To stay sane Otis goes after Ola, who is a brilliant girl and my favorite character... 

I have seen similar situation in office only in this story Maev and Otis were married, not to each other obviously and Otis didn't go after anyone.

The attractions, chemistry and the agony were very similar

2. Otis had a friend, Eric,knows everything about Otis... This friend is kind of a side kick and sage both... He is bold and has lot of worldly wisdom... The friend usually pops up on the scene whenevet Otis needs him... I know that guy, actually I have been that guy

3. Eric has a love story too but he ends up cheating on that... Well not exactly but it's contextually true...

4. They have a headteacher who is a moron... Isnt it every boss...

5. There is a group of three who looks at majority of ppl in a condescending way... That group of three is most sales ppl... Or the early teams in start up who have lost plot...

6. Otis is also an expert on sex and in every office there is this career advisor... I will like to think it s me...

Few more may be in good time

How to lose friends

So here I am after a long long time... N I am going to use lots of I and me in this one. So if u are also one of those who wants to stay away from me then... Wait y the hell did u come here if u want to stay away from me.


I am not a person who makes great friends in a jiffy. In fact in spite of being a sales guy I take ages to let anyone peep inside me. I m kind of a pvt person. So if u think u know me, well unless u r GJ u actually don't know shit about me.

N u don't know me cause I never wanted u to know me. I would rather go see a doc than trust u, n if I have confided in u well u have no idea how special u r to me. I will do anything for u. N u will always mean a world to me.

N in spite of having few friends I have done a spectacular job of fucking up two friendships in a year. One got fucked up cause Toxic is chutiya and I don't really care about it. The second one was so special I kind of changed my whole being to be worthy... N still I fucked it up and I don't even know why... A friendship I was actually committed to absolutely selflessly... N I still fucked it up... A friend I opened up my jade black and darkest secrets, secrets I will dread to think about in the loneliness... N I still fucked it up...

OK n now that I have fucked it up... How does it matter

Enough blabbering 

Friendship is undergoing a definition Change

The overturn of the whole being.

Till now life was all about being fun, having fun. Helping friends, understanding them and talking to them on their face. Its gone well till now, in fact very well. being blunt helps you in separating friends from crowd. The friends take it in their stride and tell you on your face as well. they are called friends cause they take a place in your life that the crowd cannot. They are not friends cause they are the best in the world but because they mean a world to you.

But recently I have started questioning the whole belief about friendship. The friendships have changed the whole premise of the friendships have changed. The moment you bring up inconvenient topic the friendship changes. Nobody brings up your inconvenient topics, should i be thankful for that? Or should u doubt your selection of friends?

These are the ppl who effect you a lot, so what are you supposed to do? Keep speculating about the inconvenient topics about them, gossip about it, forget it as it is someone else’s life. Hmmm doesn’t it change the whole premise?

Is it part of growing up, is it what it means to be mature. That u suck up your problems and don’t worry about that of others’?

It all seems too screwed up right now. And it kind of invalidates the whole theory you have been living with until now.

So what am i going to do? First thing, Change. No not going to stop giving importance to friends and the whole friendship thing. Afterall friends and friendships define a large part of my life. But going to have stronger measures and yardsticks around whom i call friends and who move to the crowd bucket. Be very cautious before qualifying anyone as a friend. Build the walls a little taller. Act mature and be cold. Hmmm thats what i am going to do.

 These changes will probably make me stronger. Eliminate weakness, shouldn’t all the weak and weakness be eliminated? Isn’t it what Darwin mean by survival of fittest?

Will it be Being more or Being less

Happy Day

April 16

This was supposed to an email to a friend. And because it came out ok and I was feeling lazy, I thought I will use this as my next post. I haven’t penned any personal email in a long time

But today is a special day. A day I should celebrate and note down somewhere as a day I was really happy. Need to note it down because this day may lose its significance as one of those days when things happen you feel happy and then move on with your life. I think I will ask FB to remember this day. They seem to be kickass at it.

Today morning it looked like just another day. Got up with my 6AM alarm and went for a quick walk. Lazied around on that couch with a view. Got ready to finish off a few chores. Actually it started getting bad because a. A dose of daily discussion with this friend was ruled out today. And b. Airtel people. You may not want to believe but the good news or the happy news has nothing to do with closing the airtel issue. I generally have way with people and processes to a good extent. It’s the nature that wouldn’t listen to me. The same nature had turned against me 4 years back. It was at the end of 6 months in Chennai when my mom called up and told me that dad was pissing blood. I freaked out and started pushing my whole family to get to the best doctors asap and do as the docs suggested. We realized that it was a bladder cancer and that too pretty advanced. They actually don’t have stages for this type of cancer, its either initial or advanced or pretty advanced. The doctor suggested a surgery (lets call it procedure) immediately. I took the next flight home to be around for the procedure. It went well but the doctor was not too happy, he suggested bladder removal.

Dad was shocked and so were we. It was a huge decision not only will this shape his health but also his lifestyle for rest of his life.

Dad is an irritable character who also gets irritated quickly. A cow appearing in the middle of the road will be showered with choicest abuses. The grandson would be cursed if he changes a channel when dad is watching one of his favorite mythological fiction or one of those dubbed tam movies. He will blame the whole family for lack of rains. The global warming is only because a certain people are allowed to walk on this earth. His favorite past time used to be inventing new abuses and using them whenever the time is not apt, i.e. in front of kids. In most of the cases the kid used to be me. I have seen him as an angry old man since the day I can remember.

So coming back to his situation, now u can imagine the kind of torture we were being asked to sign for. If this guy loses his bladder we all start pissing in our pants.

We took second, third, fourth and fifth opinion every doctor wanted to remove his bladder. Man are they serious? They were actually talking of removing bladder as if it was something that every human being should experience. I took the matter in my hands and started sending his reports to all the big doctors in India and overseas I could connect with. Things started looking better and some of them actually ruled out possibility of removing bladder at this stage. Now I had to find a doctor in Baroda/Gujarat who shared the same opinion and will treat him accordingly. We met Dr Kamat, he suggested multiple rounds of procedures. He also put a word of caution that the bladder removal will only be delayed with whatever we do, the possibility of avoiding the inevitable was minute.

We decided to still give it a shot and go through the procedures. The number of procedures was initially thought to be 3 and post that we had to take a call. Dad went through 7 procedures and we kept on postponing the big one. Long story short. Its been 9 months since his last procedure and today the doctor conveyed that things look ok and we wouldn’t have to take the big step at least not in foreseeable future.

I am happy because my dad did it. He fought the cancer and kicked its ass. He didn’t do it with lifestyle change or by exercising he actually didn’t give up on his tambakoo also. I think it was his sheer stubbornness and baseless grit with which he killed cancer Second time. Oh didn’t I tell you he killed cancer 8 years back when it started eating into his intestine.

He is not all that happy you would imagine him to be, in the process/procedures he has lost any chance to continue his sex life at the young age of seventy three and he is grumpy about it.

Whats in the name

I have been working for banks for ten years.  During these ten years, I have seen bankers successful and mediocre in their career. I am yet to see a failure banker and this has nothing to do the stringent 3 minute interviews for recruiting people. May be its so simple that its too difficult to fail. The successful bankers are not necessarily the one portrayed in movies, the high flyer, quick thinker and smart talker. In fact a successful banker may be none of these. I have seen bankers whose oratory skills are worst than Laxman of Golmal 3, about their thinking prowess what will you call ppl who keep putting the global economy in jeopardy every now and then.

So what differentiates a successful banker from the other? The key differences are two, one an abashed guiltfree sense of belonging to bank and second the name. I will come to the second one first, the most successful bankers have names that will put voldemart to shame. Their surnames are generally short and north Indian types e.g. Khanna, Gupta, Ravi, Gahlot etc. I think its easier to win customers with impressive name imagine introducing yourself to a prospective client saying, Hello I am Popatlal Kannubhai Gadda… the client will rush to nearest facility to wash his hands. Now imagine meeting a prospect and introducing yourself as Hi I am Aditya Bhalla. Instant orgasm. His eyes will light up, and will hand over all the wealth to you including his shower duck.

So does it mean only the people with fancy names and surnames survive in banking. Well as I said earlier, everyone survives banking. So the people with not so fancy names have two ways to grow. One wait for the Gods to be kind, which never works cause a guy who doesn’t have fancy name even God wants to keep away from them. The second is modify your name, though I know a few who have gone to the extent of changing the name altogether. By modification I mean try to improvise on the name that your insensitive parents gave you. For example if your name is Kanchana Vasudevan (hypothetical name any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental) you may consider calling yourself as Kay or Vee or KV or VK. You can sprinkle a few illogical vowels for extra effect, and call yourself Kayyyy or Kaaaayyyyy. After you decide on your reincarnation name you have to enforce it by using that name wherever possible. Just like charity the new name begins with yourself. To begin with you change your Whatsapp display name and slowly progress to your email signature and visiting cards. All this while make sure its not only you who addresses yourself as Kay. 

Coming to first quality an abashed guiltfree sense of belonging to bank. This definition is as deep as “to get things done with and from others”. I will try to explain in short. The sense of belonging does not mean that the successful banker will keep belonging to one bank.   This means that while working for a particular bank the banker is aware that his EMIs, branded apparel, alimony are being paid and by the bank. His me malik k liye kuch b karunga sensibility is stronger than that of Ramu Kaka’s towards Rajesh Khanna.

Remember this guru mantra and you will scale heights that a no one other than a guiltfree Mr. Singh can achieve. And ya remember your kid’s success lies in the name you bestow upon him. Signing off Mak

Random work related

The work has got screwed up lately. There have been some organisational structural changes (big word right, n so is the impact) that has lead to increased friction between various units mine being one of them. The boss is supportive but his boss is not wtf. First thought in the mind let me find another avenue n second one let me fight it out. Sounds sexy, trendy and so much youthful. But is it actually possible. Is the work life really like a film, rocket sing salesman of the year. And is it worth fighting for. What u do when best of ur allies become worst of ur enemies? What u do when ppl u trusted the most have chosen to work behind ur backs? Blame them confront them or just plain ignore them. Ignore u cant coz their deed is gonna affect u. blame them is not an option coz u know they have done this to save their arse. Confrontation is a viable option, that will at lease relieve u if not help u.

Three Faces

There are times when u r on top of the world and ready to dictate ur terms… u want to take over everything and u know it is all possible… these are the times when people just stay in a far corner and marvell at you… these are times when u care for no one no more… these are times when you are going at the speed of light on the path decided by you… these are times when you are god…

And there are times when u don’t want to anything… u know every action of urs is very important and still u refuse to move… u know that ur actions will only take u to what u want in life… u are aware that ur movement is required like never before… and still u lie numb doing nothing and wanting to do nothing… these are the times when you have descended to the lowest of what a human can become.

I have been through the roller coaster of both the times and have faced consequences for each. Right now I m in phase three, where you do what is expected of you nothing more and nothing less. The third phase is worst of all coz you don’t dictate, you don’t decide, you don’t take a call.

I am back

Have been keeping away from this blog for long… was concentrating completely on the business and business blog, if u went to that blog u would know what I am talking about. For this post also I was wondering should this be put on the business blog or this. decided on lostconfusedandconfident coz the post matches the blog id.

Ud and I have been working like crazy for last two months. Coordinating work of so many people and so many suppliers was not a joke. In hindi sabhi jagah se pani nikal aya, youngistan. Finally the place is ready, thank god for small mercies, but is still not operative. I think god believes in small mercies only. It’s a new building and the electricity board people are kindda waiting for Christmas to provide power supply. The temporary power supply of the place is too low to support our business.

On the other hand the Mat department says its gonna be normal monsoon this year. Can you beat it of all the years, 2008 had to be normal monsoon year, me and my luck. That will mean less number of people would like to have mocktails at any outlet. Leading this to lesser sales. It has already started raining in Delhi and its just matter of time (time that is getting wasted) that we get rains here.

As if it was not enough, we have found out that the number of seats we were planning are too much for the size of the place, so all the profitability numbers need to be worked out again. And I don’t think they gonna be very encouraging.

I am lost as to what should I do… I am confused, as I cant understand how can there be so many obstacles in a dream run… I am anxious to know what kindda response we gonna get for our outlet… I feel uneasy to see my dream waiting for a government department stamp. Trust me u don’t want to be in this kindda position and I would prayer to god to not to let anyone face this… this is worst than waiting for CAT results or appearing for board exams.

But am I still confident… you bet I am… not because I am sure of success but because I still know… I was born to do something of my own, and doing something of my own is only going to bring me salvation. And I am confident coz I know its all worth it.

Glassfull

Hi Guys,
We have created a new blog to promote our venture. All the entries related to the business would be posted there. Keep visiting new blog and invite others to give it a dekko. Blog address is glassfullahmedabad.blogspot.com.

About Partner, Location and Business

I and Uday, my partner, used to have these seducing thoughts of getting into food business before we were born. And then one day we both sat on a glass of Chivas when we decided to get into the pool together. The decision was made almost 9 months ago. So were we sitting on the thought and waiting for it to hetch? well sort of. We both had our full fledged careers where we were making decent amount of money and spending all the daylight time. Moreover getting into food business is no joke there are hazzaaar things (I will be sharing most of those in coming posts) you got to work on.

It was a glass of Chivas that changed things. I was still with my Bangalore employer and Uday was working in Mumbai. Starting a brick and mortal business would mean we should be in the same geography. So I started looking out for job in Gujarat and Uday decided to call it quits at the right time.

What made us take this decision:
No it was not a mundane job that we were tired off. We both love our jobs still. It was neither the frustration of the bosses. It was not even a spirit of changing the world. I think it was plain sulemani keeda inside us that wanted us to work for ourselves, and enterprising spirit. Probably a cliché that Sindhis are born to do business worked here as well.

We were not our first choices as business partners. Uday had a group of friends and all of them went on to become NRIs. I thought my circle of friends had a different waive length and it would be difficult to work on something together. Involving relatives is too compromising. And after knowing a lot about each other we made this informed choice of becoming partners. So the business line was decided: Food business. And being from Gujarat, Ahmedabad was decided as the playing ground. Ahmedabad market was an obvious choice because people eat out a lot here, the place is becoming more cosmo each day and the realty prices were affordable (at least at the time when we decided). The location had to be good where we would get SEC A crowd, typically working class and college going kids, people in the age group of 20-35. This was not so tricky as other aspects and the area had to be SG Highway, CG road, Drive-in Gurukul or Prahalad nagar. And the search began for the location, coz as one more cliche goes in food business the most important aspect is location, location and location.

Enterprising

Hi guys this is my first entrepreneurial post.

Lots of us nurture the thought of starting something of our own. I have been having this thought for ten years now. I have been craving for starting something of my own since SSC. The thought is now getting actuated, is getting executed. The thought has taken the shape of a small juice bar in Ahmedabad. The bar will serve fresh combination juices, sandwiches and kathi rolls. Yup it’s no rocket science and there is nothing new about it. it’s a tried and tested concept, and that is why I chose it. Doing something of my own was more important than doing something revolutionary. I never thought of anything else but to get into food business. This is one business where u can be as mundane or as creative as you dare. You can go to extreme levels of getting innovative and risk taking or you can chose to play the basic game and be on a safer side. What I am getting into is a reasonably safe and decently innovative concept.

So wish me luck and I will keep you posted about glass full, that’s what the place would be called.

P.S. for those who think guys are complete waste when it comes to cleaning, cooking and housekeeping, this venture is a brain child of two guys who are all game for everything including sweeping the floor and cleaning the doormats.

Award Time

The blogosphere seems to be caught by the bug… everyone has become a critic, jury, junta and judges at the same time. People are throwing awards for best movies, worst movies, best baby products and best sex positions every now and then.

To hum kahe hamau award banten

I was thinking deliberately about in which category or segment I should throw my awards. After a lot of thinking I have decided my awards would be for the most aggressive brands in India. The definition of the aggressive is not necessarily smart marketers and is also not the best marketed brand. In simple words it is the brand which has got fantastic penetration among its target audience.

My list goes like this.

P.s. The order of the winners is random and each of them is a winner with equal dignity irrespective of the ordering in the below list.

ICICI: being the banker consciously I have put ICICI first on the list, as the organization deserves all the respect for being whatever it is today. Profitable or not they just want to get into the veins of India. The funda is simple, largest market share of everything. And they have left no stone unturned. The organization is an ocean of people and trust me, they actually have developed systems where the individual no longer matters. However much we like to hate this bank due to operational goof ups and the infamous collection scandals, I cant stop marveling at the sheer aggression of the bank and its top management.

The Times of India group. Worlds largest circulated broadsheet newspaper. The times of India, economic times, the mirror (Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad), Navbharat times, Sandesh, oh the list goes on. The group is too focused, they don’t want to do too many things. They are clear about penetrating media sector. In the world where the newspaper circulations are going down, this is one group that has courage to launch new dailies in new geographies (Bangalore mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror). TOI is the only popular daily that has sold its editorial page as well. Even the most sacred, sacred space carries Citi advertisement and yet the circulation is soaring. With Lead India do we see a fourth front in Indian politics coming up.

Big Entertainment: what can be more appropriate name for the entertainment group floated by Anil Dirubhai Ambani. The brand started with FM radio and got what it wanted, same frequency across India, so what if it meant the existing players had to change the frequency. Imagine a TT coming into a crowded train compartment and telling you, hey you why don’t u just get up and let this gentlemen sit here, I have made alternate arrangements for you. No, no arguments, he is rich. The penetration levels can be gauged by the below pic. It was shot at a very small chai ka galla in vadodara. The group has gone into various entertainment segments from movie distribution to movie making and music to entertainment parks.

Future group: All of us thought Reliance, TATA, Walmart are here and there will not be enough of future group anymore, a soft take over target. But we all were mistaken and the future group is standing taller than ever. Mr. Biyani has gone aggressively on adding new private labels new brand stores. Big Bazaar kindda changed the whole shopping experience for the Indian middle class. The guy has laid out all real estate acquisition program till 2011!!!

Vodafone: They have paid too much for Hutch, was what all the analysts were shouting… I say every penny is well spent. After all where else you will get so many licenses in place, a good brand to piggy back on, a market with potential of 1 million new connections every month, margins in excess of 40% and a cute tubb to woo so many customers. The magic box opened and the brand spread to all the possible frontiers. The town was colored red and everyone knew hutch is now Vodafone. Just when everyone thought there was not a single place left for putting your brand Vodafone went into colonies and told them “I brand your colony, give u all the boards and signs you need in your vicinity and will keep my little smiling red and white logo next to it.” Community branding I say!!!!

This list is exhaustive and all inclusive. No I don’t think putting IIPM, SRK or OSO next to these brands is a dignified thing to do. There are no other brands as aggressive as the above ones in India. Period. If you think there are try to put a comment for the same and see how I rip you apart.

Cuts Like a Knife

The post was removed by the blogger, as it was personal

They never say what they mean

Background: I handled an IPO for one of my clients recently. Five days after the day of IPO closing, it was a public holiday and I was sitting with Aishwarya in my arms. Suddenly the hand phone rang and Aishwarya jumped out of my hands. I cursed the caller and get out of bed. It was my IPO client (GM). He was singing some melody, I tried to figure out what song was that. And then he said, are you listening.

GM (The abbreviation where M sounds like Charu): Vijay, there is an employee who applied for our company shares, his cheque bounced, can you do something?
Me: But its been 5 days that the IPO has closed, I can not take a fresh instrument (bankers love to use this word while talking to the client, in simple words it means a cheque). It will be an audit issue (Audit is one of the words that bankers use, when we don’t know what reason to give to the client) as the instrument number on form will never match with my records. However let me try. I don’t promise anything (if your banker likes you, these words mean don’t worry, I ll do anything)

After lots of back and forth with all the small and big numbers (read ranks / bankers) in the organization I managed to convince lots of people. With a pleasant thought on my mind to impress the new customer and help an employee I called up GM again.

Me: sir, I can do it. but this will delay your listing procedure by two days. Nothing to worry we will still have two days extra to meet guidelines. I hope that should be ok with you. Trust me no banker would have done it for anyone, its purely because of the relationship we share with your company. (talk about selling)
GM: two days, hmmm let me think.


Big banker: I had chat with A, cant we give him MIS tomorrow (i.e. listing as scheduled) and accommodate the cheque as well.
(GM had called him after talking to me.)
Me: nope
BB: I am sure we can
Me: I am telling you we cant.

I got no phone calls or confirmation from GM. After two hours, my door bell rings.

Stranger (S): GM sent me to give u this cheque. Sorry I goofed up but with the help of our GM and you I am sure I will be able to participate in this money making proposition.
Me: (looks like GM has decided in favor of S). Sure sir, I ll be glad to help you.

S left

Call from GM
Before he said hello
Me: sir S came and gave me new cheque. We will do the needful.
GM: listen first, keep this cheque with you till tomorrow afternoon. Call S and tell him you could not do it, coz of some internal problem and that you were sorry for that.
Me: but sir this will make his life, he will make at least 2 lacs on this.
GM: We have our own constraints. Thank you, anyways as no banker would have done it. I did not want you to make an exception and get into unnecessary trouble. I do appreciate the gesture, thank you for everything.
ME: sure sir.

Next day:
Me: sorry sir, I could not do it, auditors did not agree.
E: (broken, shaken, shattered, destroyed like heroshima). Silent
Me: I am really sorry sir.
E: Silent.
Me: I tried my best.
E: silent.
Me: I will send you back the instrument today.
E: I thought I will not have to take loan for my kid’s education, how could you? Is it because I am too small a person to trouble you or pressurize you.
Me: sir I could not help it, and I can understand what you going through.

I was actually sorry, I still am. Not for being in a position where I could not do anything. It was the client’s call and there was no irregulation from my side. I would have gone against the system, had I accommodated this request. I would have spoiled my relationship with registrar but I still wanted to do it. I could not.

I wonder, how insensitive could A get while telling me to take the blame. I am sure he will love me for the rest of his life and will owe me one. He will give me more business, I will have better numbers to show and appreciation from my boss. But I still wanted to do it for the guy who is working as a production manager for my client for last 15 years. I wanted to do it for his kid, who would be an MBA like me and would probably not do what I did today. I wanted to do it for myself, I know how problematic it can get when it comes to financing education. I had almost given up my confirmed MBA seat.

But I will always hate GM, and make him realize how bad can it get when your bank does not like you.

...they never mean what they say

they never say they mean

they only want you to give in

i wish to god that i could meet somebody

that i could just spend

somebody that i could just spend

Spam

I recently got a mail from google that shook me off completely

Blogger
to me
show details
Dec 14 (6 days ago)
Dear Blogger user, This is a message from the Blogger team. Your blog, at http://lostconfusedandconfident.blogspot.com/, has been identified as a potential spam blog. For an explanation of what spam blogs are, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577 You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog. To request a review, please fill out the form found here: http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=3827509568294412998 We will take a look at your blog and unlock it within four business days. Please note that if we do not hear from you within 20 days, we will remove your blog. If this blog does not belong to you, then you do not have to do anything. Any other blogs you may have will not be affected. Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not spam. We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this erroneous result. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to users like you instead of to spammers. Thank you for your understanding and for your help in our spam-fighting efforts. Sincerely, The Blogger Team

I SPAM!! What do they mean by spam. Now here is a boy who has just started blogging, this is his first ever stint at writing. On one hand you encourage him to blog by marketing blogging as the in thing and then you go and block his blog. But thank god for small mercies, I reverted to this mail and now the blog seems to be working fine.

P.S. If you ever want to publicize your blog, sending link to all your 500 friends is not a good idea.

Mirror Mirror on the page

Wake up, go see the sea (I was staying at marine drive this time! Wow I love this bank). Go to balcony, scratch oops i mean stretch. Come to drawing room pick up a tabloid. First I thought the paper is not properly organized and someone has just kept the third page on front. I flip through the tabloid to find the first page and suddenly realize. The below is the front page .

Whoop! Can you beat it, this was the first page of a popular tabloid. And the name of the tabloid hits me harder, is it really a mirror of Mumbai. The poor guy in the photo does not even belong to Mumbai and has never played for Mumbai even in local day night tournaments ever. I am no expert on the media and the journalism but even to me the above piece seems to be a total rip off of the profession.

Mumbai never fails to surprise me.

Aadmi hun Aadmi se PYAR karta hun

Gay confrontations in Mumbai

The city seems to be a gay paradise. There are gay clubs, gay pubs and someone told me even gay gangs. Some people actually go overboard in announcing it. And some people in better jobs enjoy it while being on security duty at the Haji Ali entrance point. I have no issues with sexual orientation of anyone and I completely respect such natural tendencies. But at the same time I am opposed to any homosexual confrontations, just like I am opposed to eve teasing, harassment and molestation of the opposite sex. During my stay at the city of dreams I had some bitter confrontations. Here is the account on that.

Confrontation one: I am traveling on local train it’s crowded as it has to be. The compartment is jam packed to the extent that I am almost in the superman-taking-off position, not holding on to any hangers and still not shaking a micro centimeter, due to hoards of people. While standing in such a yogic position, I suddenly feel a hand moving across my crotch, first I ignored it thinking someone just might have accidentally hum ah… but the strokes continued and I was taken a back. I looked into all the faces around me; each of them was expressionless like that of a clerk at government tourism desk. With great difficulty I pulled back and tried to catch the hand. I failed. I am sure for the committer my organ was as faceless as for me his hand. But how can anyone even try something as absurd as this in crowded place like Mumbai local.

Confrontation two: Mastram was fellow trainee at the training I attended in Mumbai. Mastram, as the name suggests is cheerful and equally colorful gay guy. He did not confront me physically but threw vital hints and invitations. Couple of things he said were, “yar, I am kindda heterosexual male and like to move with lots of guys around. You know what I mean (smirk)”. Yeah I know what u mean but I don’t even want to understand why you telling this to me. When this did not work he invited me for a drink to his home, I tried to escape by giving excuse of traveling he said he will come over and gave a wide grin when I told him he could not have stayed over at the guest house, as there was only one bed. He was delighted to know that.

No complaints against Mastram, lots of straight people do flirt / chance maro with the other gender. I do. But the kind of physical molestation I underwent in first incident shattered me. I wonder, what would be going inside such a mind while doing something that. Was that person really deprived, desperate or was he purely experimental? Was it really his fault or is it because the system and society that discourage him to come out in open and admit his preferences? Was it him alone or there are many who go to crowded places like local only for such physical pleasure. If there are many, my appeal, stop doing it, your single action may make people generalize and hate the whole homosexual community. Also no one boards local thinking, “wow! It’s crowded today, let’s see how many of these people are interested in stroking me.” So do yourself a favor and resist the temptation.

Mumbai

I was in Mumbai for one week. Jotting down highlights of my week at the city that never sleeps.

Day one:
Marine lines and Charni road: Beautiful, awesome and romantic place missed motu. Did not smoke, the panipuri at the chopati is good.

Day two:
Haaji Ali: surprised to sea such a peaceful place at the centre of Mumbai. Was not crowded for a change, sitting in the backyard of dargah is blissful. Wanted to smoke, could not. Go after 9 in the evening on Mon-thu to feel the place.

Day three:
Totos at Bandra: Mumbai’s answer to Bangalore pubbing. Good ambience, rock(ing) music and surprisingly affordable. Was a chaos even on a Wednesday. Smoked, might not want to come back here.

Day four:
Market Area: I love markets, I find them more fascinating than a graceful woman. The hustle bustle of these trade intensive low margin markets keep Mumbai running. A larger part of the trading activity in India is affected directly or indirectly by these markets. Crowfard, Raminton and Manish markets are kind of price barometers of lots of products for rest of India. I will come here again. Went to Marine lines again, smoked.

Day Five:
Most amazing day. Went to Gateway for fairy ride, walked back to Churchgate and had beer at the best-view place in Mumbai i.e. Pizzeria. It’s the place with sea view on Churchgate sea face a must visit when in Mumbai; opp to Baskin Robins and mocha. Walked back till Charni Road, took last local to reach guest house.

Day Six:
Met the tamilian gang. They look so much out of place in Mumbai. KK, Gundu and the six guys had all the plans ready for the evening. I was the star of evening, as always, the Tamilian Mafia gets impressed by me pretty easily. I think that’s the beauty, they just give in. Half of us were drunk like fish when we decided to walk out and have dinner at a roadside dosa place (what if drunk, they are still Tamilians). He-man poured his heart out in front of me (dude I am not what u think I am, I might just spill it infront of someone else, I have never done this to anyone but I fear when anyone trusts me). KK, was all emotional to have spent one more memorable evening (see I have that effect on people I like). Kat was not drunk but he said an evening like this was not thinkable without me (Kat thanks if it was a compliment). I got good kick and behaved like a drunkard after a long time. Logged in late in the night, SW was not there. Good night to me, all the Tamilians were asleep already. Gundu went to her home.

Thanks KK, Gana, Kam and Kat for pampering drunkard me; like a kid. I ll always love you for that.

Day seven:
Hangover, a very bad one. Still gathered myself and went to Siddivinayak, see I am one of those religious types, this was my third religious place. Hangover. The place is over crowded, I may not go there again. Hangover. Boarded flight for back home with lots of good times. Hope hangover goes off after this black coffee.

Thank you KK, Gundu, Tam Gang, Udu, Kiddo and SW for making it a wonderful stay.

Checklist
Go to Crowfard Market Check
Go to Manish Market Check
Go to Siddivinayak Check
Pick up FF’s parcel Oops
Meet SW Ditched
Go to haji ali Check
Drink lots of beer Check

Next post: Gay confrontations in Mumbai.