Tayzwi

It rained in Mumbai yesterday like it has never rained in India before, with 37 inches of rain, thereby beating the high-school trivia of Cheerapunji, which had some 30 inches of rain in 1910. It poured, oh-my-freaking-heavens, it poured. I was mostly in my lab through the deluge, now and then flinching at the force with which rains lashed the huge glass walls of my department, which at worst saw some slippery corridors. The worst was elsewhere.

My first reaction was that of ecstasy, with this primitive desire to get drenched in the wonderful rain. So, a few of us guys ventured into a rainwalk from the department to our hostel - the excuse being that we were all hungry. Down the IIT main building road, and well into the road section near the grounds, it was just heavy rains. The intensity of the rains, and the failure of the storm water drainage hadn't dawned on us yet. The first signs of trouble were near the hostel 11 entrance. H11 is the PG girls hostel, and has a very short roadway from its gate on the main road till the guard booth, and into the hostel itself. The entire road in front of H11 was submerged in ankle deep quick flowing water, all of which converged at the H11 gates, and were gushing through the small gate into the roadway of the hostel like a scene from some disaster movie. White water nightmare with super-quick currents. Cycles were being swept away in front of our eyes. Ecstasy had turned into horror.

As there was no obvious call for help from H11, and we could see a few guards and women watching the floods with some interest, we walked on towards H8, the first men's hostel on our way. With no power, H8 looked like a gloomy Titanic deck, with knee deep water rushing through the gate into the corridors. I guess all the water from the highlands of the academic area was rushing into these two hostels, on its way into Powai Lake. I also heard that there was some fish in the water that was flowing on the grounds. Sure death awaited anyone who stepped into the drains that surrounded the grounds. 6 feet deep, water rushing at breakneck speeds. Screwed!!

My hostel, H5 greeted us with water rushing in through its gates into the lower rooms of the first wing. My very close friends, KantuPatil, Rajveer, and Kaushal got screwed with knee-to-waist deep water in their rooms. A few computers, beds, clothes, and related stuff got screwed. Surprisingly, the mess was serving some really good food, and we hogged like pigs, hung out at Nishant's dry room for sometime, and then, walked back the same route back to the department.

Later, I heard that the PG girls had formed human chains to get people into the hostel from the main road, their flooded mess blocking an entire wing, power shutdowns, flooded computer rooms and ground floor residential rooms. H6 and H9 had submerged cycles and cars. The newly constructed H12/13 basement mess was fully submerged in water, with tables and chairs floating all the way up. I have no idea how they cleared it.

This was just IIT. Mumbai suffered more. 50 dead, gazzillions worth of property lost, transportation halted - life came to a stand still. For others who were not so fortunate, it was the end of their normal living conditions. My heart goes out to them.

Similar weather has been forecast for the next 48 hours, and this time, with heavy winds as well. Hopeth against hope that the worst has passed. I love Mumbai rains, but this was not what I had in mind.

Labels: bombay

Bombay is an experience; and esp. after living in a hamlet like Bangalore, Bombay hits me each time I venture out of the campus. And this weekend was especially severe. Two friends (Amit Rathore from ThoughtWorks and Akshay from IIM-Lucknow) were visiting, one for the exclusive purpose of "chilling out" and the other had some official work. But the three of us hit the yuppie circuit here, in full blast. And as Amit said before leaving, it was some severe shit. Restaurants, cafes, bars, beaches, local trains, never ending taxi drives, late late night chilly auto rides, malls, and all the other elements which every urban jungle has. But its sheer scale, and the way things are intertwined here; that is the difference. Amidst all our chaotic travelling and induldence, there was a lot of talk on economics, India, Kannada, Bombay, mis-adventures with women, books and so on. Coffeehouse philosophy at its very best; three geeks, what else can you get?!

Among other things, I got my wallet picked during a local train ride. The irony of it was, this was right after an eye-opening RSS meeting/lunch on Republic Day. Done with blocking all my bank-cards, still have to get new ones, get duplicate identity card, driver's licence, etc. But, more significantly, all my other personal belongings in the wallet are gone now, and all of them are beyond replacement. All of them, beyond replacement.

Bombay is a cauldron. Lot of heat, tons of volume. A single wallet?

Labels: bombay

All these days, I was under the impression that Google was THE place to work in, they were doing the coolest stuff around, coming up with geeky ads in Bangalore newspapers etc etc. And so when I heard that there was a talk by Krishna Bharat at the CSI2004 conference today, I registered myself and went for the talk....... In a packed audience of 250.....after the (quite heavy) talk, there were two questions from the audience, and guess who it was; yep, yours truly; thats about it; no other questions; nothing.....as one of my "miss"es would've said in middle school - pin-drop silence.

This was mid-afternoon. Later today, from 1900-2200, there was a Google openhouse, where they were supposed to talk about their Bangalore R&D centre, their work culture, research problems, get to know us better etc; guess how many turned up. I was there, there were 2 fresh-teachers from Punjab University. There were more waiters and maitre'Ds than technical people there. I was bowled. Ain't Google cool? Aren't people interested in knowing what they are looking for?

Couple of thoughts come to mind. The conference was CSI2004 - a historically old-school society; where they highlight topics like "use of technologry to serve rural India better", and other systems areas like DB and OS. Maybe the audience were those types. An interesting observation (confirming this) was that in the morning session on Middleware Technolgies (most of which I attended), there was NOISE, it was chaotic, with tons of questions; the presenter was screwed by a very interested and keen audience.

Does this mean the Indian software companies are still only services driven? excited by J2EE etc.? I mean, it was a proper conference in a 5 star hotel, all the works, not some IT-fair-glitz thing. The delegates here represent a good sample of folks who actually make up our industry and academia. Further, I asked Google how their hiring was going on, and they replied that it was quite frustrating that most Bangalore software people do not know what computer science means and are out applying in droves.

Anyways, I had a few things to talk about with them, but no freebies :((((.....good food, pastres, fruit punch, and back to the campus......

My first time out to Bombay-West......and "MG's", "Brigades", and "Kormangas" of Bangalore are no match for the kinda .........er......... pretty young things I saw on a DVG-road like street in Bandra. Dileep Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Shahrukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Rajesh Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan...saw all their homes. Remembered the nostalgic days of VLSI2001 (you with me till here GD? :)))) )........

Labels: bombay

I am talking a lot about Bombay, and its culture on this blog; though it seems somewhat uncalled for, it still strikes me odd each time I see something different here because I am still in India, and Bombay seems like an island here in India. With its own unique culture. Good culture.

Take the "cutting", I can give you a thousand guesses, but its hard to come up with the real meaning for this piece of popular local slang - A cutting is half a glass of tea. Just had a cutting outside the campus, in a roadside dhaba which also serves jalebi, vada-paav, and other assorted food. Another thing I found strange here is the way they prepare tender coconut to drink. Its not chopped like its done in Bangalore and other places I have seen. They actually cut it with a knife, a proper kitchen knife. I am surprised that a knife goes through the think hyde. But it does. So on and so forth.

Here's wishing Nair on his 25th birthday. Will look up his id and mail him. Did someone call up Maiyya, or mail him yesterday? I don't have his id, will have to look up the newsgroup. Need to go to Sanjay Dhaba sometime soon. It's been too long.

Richie, boli magane.....How was the exam? did you kick ass? was there enough graph theory to make you bang the desk (with your hand)? Isn't it surprisingly and pleasantly different from GATE? Anyway, do write about it. And try not to stick to your style of writing.

Me has to work on some surveys. Will get going now. Before I go, as always, the latest in movies: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is done. It's an experience. After having been in awe of the music for ages and ages now, to actually see it in action, to see the music pulse through the scenes, to see Eli Wallach as the resourceful Ugly, its a great movie. It's all about the Ugly character. He is the hero. And that was followed by American History X. This movie is bound to make you a bigger fan of Edward Norton than you already are.....its a moving film. Has a good dose of social consicence and idealism with some cut throat reality and action. A must watch.

Labels: bombay

humid and sweaty, macro and micro socities, pretty girls and hizdas, friendly and intimidating etc etc.....but what i felt when i landed and now even after two days of roaming around is that, its a great place to get lost in........the anonymity, the feeling of being an alien yet with a subtle hindi speaking confidence, I am having a ball.....

the train journey was usual, food, sleep, read, wonder, stand at the door, get out at all kinds of wierd stations and finally land in bombay.......stuff all my luggage into an auto (against all odds) and arrive at BARC (great campus, a must-visit for the tired mumbai-kar ;-> ). Got my mobile soon (09819295879)......had the police tow our vehicle away......ate vada-paav....got stuck in the oh-so-unpredictable rain........and then, finally slept after one hectic day.......

got up at 6.....went over to mankhurd railway station.....and btw, local trains are a concept in bombay, a phenomenon, its just fantastic, their speeds, their co-ordination, and surprisingly, their reliability, and consequently, their being mumbai's spine.......its awesome.......got the local train to VT (Victoria Terminus) a.k.a CST (Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus)........and landed in the grandest railway station of them all.......its ancient, its colonial heritage is striking, the grandfather clock is precise, and the stained glass is still all intact......beautiful......and imposing.......and very majestic from outside........and very very british.......

downtown mumbai is zero-activity during weekends........kids playing football and cricket on the streets, which are wide, treelined, and flanked by victorian/gothic buildings, giving you a very very non-indian look.......downtown mumbai is sober and very british..........

and guess why i went there, my cousins wife was taking a test conducted by infosys!!!.....whoa.....i cant seem to escape the bangalore ghosts.......so, off we went to some college near marine drive......and as she wrote her tests, i spent my time walking with the piegons on marine drive, wondering about the people who live in those incredibly expensive apartments off the drive........went over to VT again, had some vadapaav, walked to metro theatre, caught a local bus to regal theatre, and walked to the gateway of india........erected to commemorate the visit of their majesties, king george the fourth and queen elizabeth in MCMXI.......impressed?

oppsite the gateway is the taj, and opppsite the taj was this sev puri waala who served us some delicious sev puri for rs 5/- and then, we made our way inside the taj to find the cake shop, where they served us some delicious pastries for rs 55/-........bombay's distincitive feature is the contrast between the rich and poor.......we took rides in taxi's that were driven by 70 year old men, beggars everywhere, and i had the rare chance to see the rs 6 crore maybach.....its just awesome........bombay i mean......

saw the mumbai university, which is huge and in the middle of downtown, saw a lot of roadside books, and then, made our way to some restaurant......had some great food, got back to VT.......bought a mumbai map, and now, back in BARC........didnt expect to visit downtown the second day of my trip.......blame it on infosys.......hehe......

will be off to IITb tomorrow, get my hostel room, shop for some basic things, and start the orientation next day.......

Labels: bombay