A love story that was... And will always remain...

They say marriages are made in heaven… Well I wouldn’t say that is true for all marriages, but one relationship I have witnessed recently, was certainly heavenly beyond imagination! Having heard about larger than life love stories like Romeo and Juliet, Heer and Ranjha you start to wonder if these kind of stories are ever possible in real life. Or are they just a result of the author’s imagination. Well, I saw one which I found unreal… Almost epic! Here is a small attempt to pen it down and may be inspire others to love… Love like there is nothing else in the world to do! Love like you would want to be loved!

So the story is about a very influential man and his wife of 45 odd years then. A renowned name in the World of local politics and literature, he had been an inspiration for many. His political career saw him work tirelessly for a political party which ruled the nation for most of its independent history. And there was no evening where he wasn’t the guest at one or the other kavi sammelan. And then it struck! Over a leisure trip to his sister’s place at the age of about 70, he suffered a vertebra collapse!

With the advent of science and medicine, you would imagine that an influential man like him should not have much of a problem coming out of a physical setback like this. But when I saw the pain in his eyes while he was being lifted by 5 other men, I had no option but to believe what doctors across various cities said. That he might never be able to walk again! Having known him closely, it was hard to believe that a super active man like him, may now never be able to stand on his feet. May have to be bedridden for the rest of his life. But every one of us who saw him then, had no option but to convince ourselves of the hard reality. Everyone but one!

Over the next one and a half year, there was just one person who believed that this man’s life would not be spent confined to a bed! That he should move and walk again! And she worked tirelessly to make it happen. Night after night, taking all his complaints, all his irritation. Working tirelessly to bring a life back on its feet. For that one and a half year, there was just one mission for her and all her energies were directed to achieve that one mission! She was of course his wife and she was living by the vachan she took in front of the holy fire 45 odd years ago. To live by him in all his sukh-dukh and to never leave his side all life long. About one and a half year, some physiotherapy and a lot of care afterwards, he walked, and yet again, she lived up to the promise she made to him on their wedding day.

Over the next few years, he recovered almost to normalcy. The doctors were amazed at this “unbelievable recovery”. Love made it happen! But it can never be love if it does not go through regular agniparikshaas. And this time, it was her turn to bear the pain. Having fought a brain tumor in the early years of her life, she was now diagnosed with the most feared disease on the planet! Doctors said that cancer had plagued her body and treatment at the age of about 70 could be very risky. The news was a melancholic bell for the family.

Her husband was the most affected. He had never lived without her! Every trip she had made to her pre-marital home had always been shortened as he was too used to her around. She was the one who stole laddoos for him under her saaree just to have him enjoy a festive occasion and keep the diabetic concerns of others at bay. She was the one who ensured that he never went to bed hungry no matter what time he returned home. She was really the woman behind his success. She had been the real warrior in his recovery to a new life. He could not imagine his life without her! He quit! Not knowing that she was fighting! Fighting to live with him for a few more years… On the day he breathed his last, I saw him! I saw the pulse going weak! I saw the doctors trying to revive it, knowing that there was no way they could. And then I saw them stop. And with that, he left her… Forever…

But destiny had played its game. In almost flimsy a manner, a week before he left her, she had to be hospitalized for some treatment. And of course the hospital was the same! Having lived as man and wife for 51 years, destiny got them together under one roof, for one last time… You had to be there to believe this, but as she left the hospital after getting discharged, his pulse dwindled and the medical parameters started to show the signs, till a few minutes later, when the pulse went blank. She didn’t know. At least we think she didn’t as she was still on her way back to the place she had made a home for them both!

The man in the story is Late Shri Narayan Das Ji Kasat and his wife, Smt. Deepti Narayan Das Kasat. And today, my aunt, struggles to fight the cancer and the effect it had on her body. Doctors say, that they cannot do anything more, that there is no point in troubling her with more medicines. Somewhere out there, uncle probably waits for her to join him. He couldn’t live without her, and she struggles to survive without him. But not this time! This time bhabhi ji, you’ll have to fight! And bhai ji, you’ll have to wait! You've fought and won many a battles… One more time! One more time!

Summer Internship:- A cross over from IT to Manufacturing

Summer Internship, probably the most important phase of your MBA education. Why? Should an 8 week long internship really matter that much for most of us who have a substantial work experience? Well, it does! They say 70% of MBA students come from the IT industry. And in a top B School, in all probability, you will not really be going back to an IT industry for your summers. So? Is an IT industry that different from the other industries? I didn’t think so before starting with my internship, but today, almost half way into my summers in a manufacturing cum FMCG firm, I can definitely say it is! Very very different!

After a completely crazy day 0 of summer placements at Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, I found myself bagging a very lucrative and sought after job. That of internship in the numero uno personal care firm in the world, L’Oréal. So here I was, from a typical IT job for 2 years to now working for a “cool” company L’Oréal from a completely different sector (now you may argue that L’Oréal does not clearly classify as a manufacturing company. But I hope you get the point I am trying to make through this post). So for the first time, I could give a convincing answer to the questions people asked me back home. “Tumhari company banaati kya hai?” And actually, not too many people even asked me that question. All I was asked was “Accha woh colour banaane waali company?” or “Woh Aishwarya Rai waali company?” That was the first change moving from an IT company to a manufacturing one. You could tell people what the company exactly did and what your job exactly was in the company, AND they could make sense of it!

This ofcourse, was before I joined my internship. The induction phase that we had about a month before joining, was the first step for most of us into the world of manufacturing, sales and distribution. As a welcome gift, we got L’Oréal goodies. Yes, company manufactured products and not a shopping voucher like in my earlier job. Another “tangible” difference between a services and a manufacturing company.

The 3 day long induction program, showed us what was in store for us in the weeks and hopefully years ahead. No random coffee breaks, no table tennis breaks, no romance breaks for that matter. Here in manufacturing, people work! And work hard! In the little over 3 weeks so far, I haven’t seen my bosses take too many “breaks” from work. The laptop, the phone and every other device they are connected to is all tuned into serious work. And they are talking money to the tune of lakhs and crores. A certain change from the IT talk of lines of code and number of defects. Not to say that they do not have fun here, but the time and the kind of fun is very different from what we did in and IT industry. Occasional team outings and parties is the only time you will have fun. Rest of the time, your work is your only fun!

Oh and another major change stepping into manufacturing. Here, you do not have a manager. You have a boss! The terminology is very different. Manager, lead, project manager quickly changes to boss, super boss and head of a function. Besides, the “first names only” policy does not apply here. You need to call your boss “Sir”, shake his hand in the morning, say good morning and be more professional than casual. You could call it formal, but then at that level, you have to maintain a degree of professionalism. And it does help you in your work, in your dealings with clients, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Then another major difference is a God like software that we call Microsoft Excel. I thought I had used a lot of Excel in my stint in the IT industry. Writing test cases, maintaining records, transactions reports etc. But I realize now, that I hadn’t even scratched the surface! Management, would not be possible without excel. And the capabilities it has built into it, is amazing! There is so much that one can do using Excel. So much to make management more of a science than art.

Would the top level management in an IT company be very similar to what I describe here? I couldn’t say for sure but I doubt that it would be. Our IT industry is heavily influenced by the American culture. Much lesser so in manufacturing. I suspect that is primarily the difference between the two. Also, the stakes are much higher in a manufacturing job. There is no easy “Ctrl+Z” for your work after all.

The difference from IT that I have seen in my early days into the manufacturing/FMCG industry are significant. I was apprehensive before entering L’Oréal just like I was before entering my first job in IT. But I had enjoyed my 2 years in IT and likewise, I have enjoyed my first few weeks in this industry and L’Oréal. I realize I do not have any particular preference of one over the other. A good friend once told me, that I have a tendency to adapt to the needs of any and every job that demands my efforts. Find that quite true today.

So how would I compare IT with manufacturing? I guess I wouldn’t. It would be like comparing apples with oranges. I believe both are unique in their own way and can interest people across the spectrum. They say manufacturing is the backbone of an economy. I would say manufacturing and IT are like the 2 eyes of a person. Without any one, you will just see plain images. For a complete 3 dimensional view, you need both working just fine.

Farewell @ SJMSOM, IIT Bombay

A week of planning, a last rescheduling and finally the day was here when we bid an unofficial goodbye to the 2014 batch of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay. Unofficial coz this was a party thrown by the SOM15 batch to SOM14 and you know what I mean when I say “party” right? ;-) So the location was finalized, theme decided, invitations sent out and unlimited drinks ensured! It was 30^th March 2014, a day before Navratri began, so that the “religious” guys too could get themselves soaked into alcohol once before the “dry” rituals began.

Zitar in Hiranandani was the venue finalized. Although small and a little congested, it was the best a batch of 80 could afford for a 120 strong senior batch. And yeah the proximity to campus and the lovely ambience won us over at first look. The time was 7 in the evening but although punctuality is drilled into us MBA students, this was one deadline we were definitely not gonna meet. To add to the delay was a World Cup T20 match between India and Australia. So people started to trickle into the venue at around 8 and went straight to the Television.  And it was only after India had ensured a comfortable victory and we had celebrated our love for our team, that the party finally began! And How!!!

Now this was 1 party in which I played multiple roles. During the party, I went from co-ordinator to personal bodyguard to gate keeper to bouncer too! Disadvantages of not being an alcoholic may be? So the party started with a few rounds of whiskeys and vodkas and once everyone was tired after a little dance, we seized the opportunity to unveil a little surprise we had in-store for SOM14. This was a short video we made for our seniors showing their journey from day 1 to the end of 2 years and all the special moments of it. The efforts went in to making that video were immense, after all it was not our journey, it was theirs. And yeah they liked it! Certainly did…

Then came the tradition of doing a paper dance… Kinda difficult tradition to follow given the gender ratio at SJMSOM… But nevertheless, some lucky guys did get a chance to dance with the lovely ladies. This was supposed to be followed by some other games for some selected seniors but then by now, not many were in a state to play games. This is when my role switch happened to a gate keeper. Keeping the guys who had no sense of themselves in another area away from the others who just wanted to have a nice time. Gets necessary to avoid any untoward incident. We are after all representing SJMSOM, IIT Bombay and carry the institute’s tag along with us.

Every party has a moment where it all quietens down a bit. People who want to eat, form a cartel at the buffet corner. Some just wanna go take a walk outside and grab some fresh air. Or some other kindda air may be… ;-) While others just wanna sit and do nothing. And this was time for one such moment in our party. Would you call it a lull or just the silence before the storm? I guess the latter is more apt. Coz what followed was truly a storm! We managed to get the games started and that was when the energy levels went through the roof! It was time we invited some of the popular seniors on stage and asked them to perform tasks. Simple, known, tried and tested tasks but yet very effective and highly entertaining. Old is gold they said, well said!

So after the proposals and the dances and some other small tasks, it was time to unleash the last bit of the DJ on the crowd to help let them loose. Well, totally loose and beyond control. Would that be all that bad? I would personally think otherwise. After all it’s the end of a journey for them, a 2 year long, difficult, hectic, fruitful and fulfilling journey! The dancing was on at full swing for a long-long time. This was the time the seniors forgot all the good and bad that they have seen so far, and just dance! Dance with all the energy, dance with passion, dance with joy, dance with their batch mates and we, juniors join them in their celebratory dance! It was time to let it all go!

Just when your body cannot take it anymore but your mind does not want to stop, comes a voice from the manager of the place, “ladies and gentlemen, this is the last song of the night”. That’s when you realize that its 1:30 in the night, the last night you will get together as a batch. After your body has given all its energy, that “once more” starts to ring in your head. And that is when people like me had to take up the role of a bouncer. Just to ensure that everyone vacates the place with dignity and the manager is left behind happy and content.

With then we ensured that enough autos were available to take all of us back to IIT and thus we bid adieu to the batch of 2014. The seniors had been amazing right through our 1^st year, helpful and fun and this was our little way of saying “Thank you”! Oh and my role as a personal bodyguard? Well, some things are best left untold…

Mood Indigo – A Management perspective

It was hyped as Asia’s largest college festival. During those days, IIT Bombay becomes the place where the World wants to be for the best four days of their lives. And finally, as a first year MBA student of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, I got a chance to witness this extravaganza. Reached campus on the morning of 20^th December in the middle of a semester break because it was time for Mood Indigo 2013!

The built up to the main event had been amazing with a lot of shows prior to the event, gatherings in different cities across India, strong promotion on social media and a buzz around the campus all of which raised the expectations from the festival. And indeed, Mood I, as we call it, did not disappoint. It was 4 days of non-stop entertainment where every corner of the 550 acres IITB campus was buzzing with activity. Be it the announced competitions, the on-the-spot fun events, extempore competitions, interactive sessions, workshops, entertainment events or media events, the enthusiasm of the crowd was there to be seen. Just when the energy levels were at their peak, there would be a fresh shot of adrenaline for the evening concerts. And after an intensity filled concert, late night shows would be a perfect way to chill while appreciating some classy acts. That followed by some fun sessions around a campfire which went on till the wee hours of the morning would ensure that no one sleeps during the 4 days of Mood I.

The events during the festival were classified into 3 categories and a different team managing each category. The “Competitions” category would have all the announced competitions grouped together where colleges would nominate teams and a contingent leader from each college contingent would co-ordinate participation from his/her college. This category covered almost every competition ever seen in a college festival, you name it and it was there! A hard fought battle of supremacy where each contingent put in their best men and women and weeks of tireless practices to bring glory to their college! The “Informals” category was about all the on-the-spot competitions, media events and sponsor events. Events like “pit stop challenge”, “She’s got the look” and many quizzes and races gave participants an opportunity to rare experiences.

The “Horizons” was the category of events where Mood Indigo threw all its star power at the crowd. Interactive sessions with the likes of Amir Khan, humour shows featuring the best of theater artists and performers from worldwide set to accomplish 1 task – Entertain! These events drew crowds from the other end of the globe and were expectedly, the most watched! The concerts featured the best performers with Euphoria on one evening and Mohit Chauhan on another. There was Mike Portnoy doing his magic with the drums too. There was of course, much more than went around the campus day and night everyday and every night!

So what is it that makes Mood Indigo such a success story? Asia’s largest college festival, and undoubtedly the best for such a long time. Is there something that the organizers manage to get right every time or are there any inherent advantages that Mood I enjoys? Let’s try and analyze this 4 days extravaganza from the lens of a management student.

Let’s first look at the most fundamental analysis of Mood I – The 4P analysis:-

Product: - The fundamental of marketing is to have a quality product which can be sold. Every college has its own cultural festival. So what is it about Mood Indigo as a festival that sets it apart? I believe it is the quality of competitions. To attract colleges, you need good competitions and Mood I manages a perfect mix of traditional competitions and a lot of innovative competitions which challenges the youth of the country to come and test their limits.

Price: - A good product would not sell if it isn’t priced appropriately is an uncompromising rule in marketing. All the competitions in Mood I are without any entry fee. Participants are provided accommodation for 4 days on campus at a minimal charge. All a participating college needs to do is to get on campus, participate with all their might and enjoy the event. The returns are alluring too! Winners not only get a healthy monetary reward but more importantly some opportunities they can grab are enviable. For example direct entries into Miss India audition finals!!

Place: - Mumbaaaiii! The financial and fun capital of India. Easy to attract sponsors and easy to attract participants and performers from all over the globe. To top it up, there is the brand name that IIT Bombay enjoys as the most prestigious college in the country. And with that comes all the facilities and facilitating power that the organizers use to the very best! An inherent advantage that makes the job of the organizers a tad easy.

Promotion: - Say the word “Mood Indigo” to a young graduate from a respectable college in India and you will know the brand image this festival enjoys! The promotion starts months in advance with a classy website and a lot of social media activity. Just the way they launch the name of the rock band which will perform for the event generates anticipation! You will have a countdown on Twitter and facebook, and the name announcement online will coincide with physical banners being put on all over the campus. All at one time! Besides, Mood I also does shows in cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Pune etc. months in advance as a built up to the main event. There are also shows done on campus like the Bawanraas concert in October this year along with Avenues and School of Management, IIT Bombay. Partnering with print, TV and radio media provides visibility of the best kind on a regular basis. Good promotion is what sells a product and Mood I puts its might into promoting the event extensively in the most impeccable manner possible! No wonder it attracts participation from over 3000 colleges and a footfall of over 1,04,000 people!

Let us now do a quick SWOT analysis of the festival to see what we do well and what is it that can be done better.

A close observation will yield some of the major strengths and weaknesses of Mood Indigo while a small thought will show some opportunities waiting to be capitalized. A little bit of effort and better involvement of the entire student community of IIT Bombay can help the organizers overcome the weaknesses listed above and make the festival more complete. Mood Indigo has many flagship events but there is an opportunity to create that one event which goes beyond global boundaries and is the most anticipated event of the year. Something like robowars in the field of robotics. Since the event attracts 1000s of people, crowd management becomes an important part and should be outsourced to agencies meant for specialized crowd management. Festivals like these often attract controversies and Mood I needs a good PR team to avoid and manage controversies if any.

All in all, there are some fundamental managerial advantages that Mood Indigo enjoys which make it Asia’s largest college festival and these need to be developed on a constant basis to ensure that the tag isn’t lost anytime soon.

Changing society – A man’s perspective

Over the last 1 year, we have seen a lot of concern in the country over security of our women. Cases of atrocities against women coming to light almost every day and getting extensive media coverage. We have seen candle marches and demonstrations of solidarity with women of our country. All this in a country which made sati a norm, is a refreshing sign, a sign of changing times. But on 16^th December, all Hindi news channels had shows asking if Delhi has changed and is more secure than a year before. Surprisingly, all of them concluded that not much has changed in Delhi. Then what is it that has actually changed?

When I went for a concert a week back, I stood in line for 2 hours to make sure I get to stand right in front in the audience. And I achieved that too. Half an hour into the concert, a girl approached me from behind and said “Excuse me, I can’t see a thing please move aside”. A gentle request in a jam packed place. I politely responded saying “There is hardly any place for me to move ma’am”. Then came her sharp reply “Dude I can’t see, MOVE!” This time, it was an order. And all I could do was just push back and allow her to go ahead. Then, her friend. And another friend. And in no time, I moved from 2^nd row to about 8^th. So much for all the effort in getting in line 2 hours in advance, braving the heat and moving in early!

In another incident, a friend of mine stood in a queue for an hour to get in to a talk by a Bollywood superstar. The queue happened to extend to hundreds of meters with over a thousand people in it. To his surprise, after an hour, the organizers asked the girls to move out and make another queue and that queue was allowed entry much earlier than the male queue. Girls who came into the queue an hour after my poor friend got in before him. On inquiring, he was told that one of the girls complained about a lot of “pushing” going on in the queue which made them feel uncomfortable. My friend later swore to me that there was absolutely nothing of that sort going on! But nothing would make the organizers agree to that fact!

THAT is what has changed in the past year! There is fear today amongst guys like me in confronting a girl no matter how right we are or how wrong the girl is. We fear because it may just lead to the next big controversy about women exploitation and no self respecting man wants to be seen as male chauvinist. This leads to an undue advantage to girls, “some” of whom exploit it to their benefit.

Our laws are getting stricter in favour of women which is a good thing as long as they do not put innocent men at a disadvantage. I do not know if the recent changes in our laws have put men at a disadvantage but it certainly has created a sense of fear in men. Fear in men wanting to do wrong to a woman is what we should attempt to create but fear in all men? We recently heard Mr. Farooq Abdullah saying that he fears keeping a female secretary. Unfortunately that is what we have managed to achieve!

Look at it this way. If a girl accuses you of exploitation of a physical nature, what defense do you have to prove your innocence? Before you can even try and prove yourself not guilty in the court of law, the society and the media would have already branded you guilty and barred you from all social interaction. How would you face your friends and relatives and neighbors? The media today tends to blow up every little case of women exploitation on just a complaint of the “victim” with little care for the court’s verdict. Once accused, you are assumed to be guilty without any doubt! And by the time you do manage to prove your innocence in court (if at all the law has provisions which may help you), thanks to our legal structure half your life is already over!

At this point I would like to clarify that I do not justify or support any atrocities against women and am totally against all men who indulge in women harassment of any nature. I am also in favor of strict action against such men and better laws which help protect our women. My concern here is the nature of the change that our society is going through. We are slowly moving towards a more conservative and a closed social structure rather than a structure where men and women are at par, interact freely and without fear of any nature on either side. In a society where we talk of gender equality, is this change a good one? And whom should we blame for this state today? In fact can I call it a “state” at all? May be not because it is just a small section of men who would feel this way today and the larger section of society sadly, is still oppressive towards women. But if this does become the norm in the future, would we have succeeded in our motive of building a society which is not biased towards any gender?

Of cattle class travel and the masses of India

Woke up at 5AM for the 1st time this holiday to travel to Indore to meet some uncles I hadn't met in years. With temperatures at 8 degrees and a 6:30 train to catch, this was one difficult morning! As is the custom with me these days, I reached station seconds before the train departure time. But luckily, the train today was running late, thank fog for that because I had to still buy a ticket! Now I had never travelled general category which may be regarded as the "cattle class" of Indian railways and since this was a short 3 hour journey, I decided to take a chance. Life is nothing but a mix of experiences and I expected this one to be a hell of an experience!

So with the ticket secured, I was all set for the journey and waiting for the train which decided to show up only at 7! In the meanwhile, a man known to dad approached him and started off a conversation. He took stock of me and the rest of my family and gave us some uninvited gyaan about his family. I've always felt that such experiences where you get in contact with the masses offer a great insight into the society we live in and these journeys to and back from Indore were no different. And that is exactly what I had signed up for! For example, this gentleman of ours told us "mera bada beta pehle yahaan 8000 ki naukri kar raha tha ab Dilli mein 28000 pe hai, khush hai". Or "Saab 20 saal aur 200 crore ke ghotalo ke baad ab jaakar apne vidhaayak ji ka tod aaya hai" implying that the corrupt incumbent MLA finally lost. Or "samaaj ke Marriage fair mein jaa raha hun Saab, bade bete ke liye koi khaate peete khaandaan ki lugaai dekhne". Marriage fairs? Really?

Must confess that his last statement shook my determination to travel cattle class. I mean these marriage fairs attract a lot of people which means that the train would be overflowing with such people! Dad sensed my fear and with an "I told you so" expression, offered me a drop to the bus stand for me to take a comfortable bus instead. But hell! I may never get a chance to experience this again and I didn't wanna let it go! The train arrived, not as full as I expected and so I jumped in and managed to get myself a… ummmm…  seat if you can call it because I was the 6^th guy to sit on that seat made for 4. And thus, the journey began…

This post is about the different kind of people you will encounter in journeys like these – the real masses of a considerably backward state of Madhya Pradesh. So the first guy of the day was the over enthusiastic, overtly friendly gentleman of ours who valued everything in monetary terms.  Then there was the kumbakaran of the journey. This guy slept below our seat, on the floor of the train right through the journey totally oblivious to all the chaos around. It was only later after the train reached its destination that he told us he’s a labourer and has a hard day’s work ahead and has to travel somewhere else at night. He’s been doing that since a week and hasn’t got enough sleep hence, the 4 hour nap at everyone’s footrest to cover up. #Respect

Then there was the “bade baap ki aulaad” and the “jaat bhai”. So this guy entered the train to sell his chanas and was confronted by this mid aged man who was upset because he did not get a seat. A fight quickly brewed up where this man fired the chana guy for entering an overcrowded train for his business and the chana guy retaliated saying he’s just doing his job. Over the next 20 minutes I heard all possible bad words in Hindi where these 2 involved their mothers and sisters and the other guy’s mother and sister. For a moment I thought they were long lost friends. How else would they even know that the other guy had a mother or sister? ;) This man went on about how the other guy doesn’t know ki “main kaun hun” and the other guy went on about how he would get all his chana selling jaat bhais together to screw this man.

An uncle, the wise guy, sitting next to me finally ended the fight saying “baatein band karo aur maarna shuru karo” after which, both our “brave” men quietly walked away from each other. A little later, our “bade baap ki aulaad” announced in the bogie that all of us should make place for all ladies to get a seat. “koi mata aur behene khadi nahi rahengi aaj” he said to my surprise considering that minutes back he was using all the maa-behen abuses known to mankind.

Nothing more on the onward journey but enough on the return journey to make me tweet incessantly from the train and eventually write this blog post. So I again reached the station minutes before the train would depart only to learn that this time, I had no place to sit in the train at all! The Marriage fair was supposedly over and everyone decided to return by this very train! I still got in with the determination to stand for the next 3 hours but NOTHING could get me to leave this train and take a bus instead! Yeah I am like that, ek baar jo maine decide kar liya fir main kisi ki nahi sunta. :P Luckily, in a while I got a seat. This one, on the top berth meant for luggage and on a platform made of wood! Damn this wasn’t expected! Out of a mini depression, I picked up a book and started to read.

Very soon, something caught my ears. It was a conversation between the uncles sitting below about Aam Aadmi Party, its promises and its fortunes in Delhi. Now that’s interesting. Here there were some mid aged to old aged men making a mockery of a political party which a lot of youth consider the future of Indian politics. Given my interest in politics, I HAD to listen to this! Very soon the conversation got the whole compartment involved. There was an old uncle, a few mid aged uncles, a few young uncles and 3 guys of my age sitting on top listening to the great uncles share there gyaan. The old uncle was the pessimist who said that AAP wouldn’t run for 3 months. A younger uncle who was also trying to be the ring leader said that he would give AAP less than a month and a half. Somehow, all the uncles agreed that AAP wouldn’t last long to which we young guys, just looked at each other and smiled.

The conversation soon turned to predictions about the 2014 general elections where the uncles bet on a sweep for BJP in the Hindi heartland and a majority for regional parties in other areas. All of them completely wrote off the Congress and called our Prime Minister a “rubber stamp” PM. That jibe somehow, has never gone down well with me. I mean c’mon, he is after all the Prime Minister of our country and we ought to be respectful to the post! But here, I was just a listener and not a contributor to the conversation. May be I would give my verdict in a most filmy manner while getting off the train and then expect a standing ovation from the uncles just like in the movies. ;)

The conversation soon moved on to corruption where each of them cited various instances where they have faced corruption. Quite ironic as most of them were travelling without tickets and blaming the government for the state of the nation. “Saab raajneeti ne desh ko duba diya hai… Is government ne toh akaash, bhu, agni, paani kisi bhi cheez ko nahi choda”. Sadly it’s become a trend for our countrymen to blame the government for everything wrong while we ourselves are responsible for making things so wrong with our country! Such hypocrites we are aren’t we?

A statement from the uncles I will never forget. “Engineer 2 tarah ke hote hain. Government college waale aur bazaar waale”. Was highly amusing to me how private colleges were referred to as “bazaar”. It is after all a market with Indore itself having more than 100 private engineering colleges! An interesting topic then started about the advent of mobile phones and Internet. A supposedly “modern” uncle spoke about this “great” new technology which tells a person where he is at that moment and to other uncle’s disbelief, can direct him to his destination with exact instructions. On hearing that, I quickly closed my Google maps which I was using to track my train’s progress and put my phone in my pocket.

While our learned old men conversed about almost every topic from politics to technology and education to weddings, we, “the future of India” as they called us, were quietly listening and absorbing and tweeting in my case. Their conversation was then interrupted by what I would call, the moment of the journey. A guy entered the bogie to sell his bhel and his unique style would put the best marketeers in our country to shame. I cannot recollect his whole “advertisement” for the bhel but the punch line went like “agar maza na aaye khaane mein toh rapat likhaao meri thane mein”! There was also a mention of Asaram Bapu in his pitch which invited a big laugh from all the passengers. Obviously, it resulted in good sale for him.

There is something that you will notice about people if you look carefully. We tend to be more accommodating and considerate when we sit together and have a random conversation to which, we share the same point of view. In an overtly full compartment, our uncles suddenly noticed a couple of men standing on the side and quickly made some adjustments and invited them to take a seat. It probably is a way to earn brownie points in a gathering of like-minded people by showing others how considerate you are as there isn’t much that differentiates you from others.

The last part of my journey was something that summed it up for me. When the conversation between the uncles was on the topic of sanskaars and how money cannot by sanskaars, one of them started smoking a beedi, an Indian alternative to a cigarette. To this, another middle aged gentleman, who had been quiet right through the journey said “uncle abhi sanskaaron ki baat kar rahe the aur ab bahu-betiyon ke saamne beedi pe rahe ho”? I so wanted to start clapping for this gentleman who delivered the punch line which I hoped to deliver myself at the end of the journey! Such hypocrites we are aren’t we?

With that arrived my station and I took leave of these strangers whom I would probably never see again but helped me to an entertaining and enriching journey. Entertaining as I did not realize how those 3 hours passed and enriching as there is always so much you can learn about people whom you don’t interact with on a day-to-day basis through such experiences.  Guys and girls, if you are adventures and want to learn what our real masses think like, take my advice and travel cattle class in train once. Be open to all kind of people around and do not hesitate in dropping in to a random conversation. You never know when and where an experience like this might come in handy…