Excrepts-1

September 08'2005:

Its 00:00 midnight and I am sitting in 9313 Down Indore-Patna express. Every minute reduces the distance between me and my home. The train is running on the flat terrain between Jhansi and Kanpur, progressively approaching my penultimate destination viz. Lucknow.

The Bihari couple next to me is restless. While the husband has finally found the sleep, wife is still trying to placate the whining kid in her lap. The kid has a unique problem:she cant sleep with lights off. So all people around her are shuffling on their berths,trying to get that elusive sleep. The fellow in middle berth has a towel spread on his eyes to create a semblance of darkness around his eyes, the fellow facing him is lying prostate, his face buried in the hard berth and the fifth person, that is me,has already given up. I have left my seat to occupy a side berth next to window,some distance down the aisle.

I look out of the broad grilled window into the rapidly moving cheerless dark terrain. The sky is starless, with dark clouds covering the moon. I observe the fast moving shadow of my coach that tears through bushes and tress, it effortlessly wades through rivers and jumps across stones.I marvel and wonder:"What if everything were really so omnipotent..what if I could get those days back....".I drift into the memories of this day, 2 years ago...

Chapter 01

The journey begins

Bangalore,September 08,2003:

I was late for office..it'll leave a very bad impression if I'm late for work on the very first day. My thoughts goaded me to run and huffing and panting I finally reached the office door. "Get out", I heared a stiff command. I ignored it..but it was for me and I got to know that when the caller caught me by scruff and physically prevented me from entering. "But Sir..its exactly 10:00AM", I mumbled, but Azim Premji, a stickler for discipline would have none of it. "On first day, you should be 5 minutes early". I was thrown out and suddenly the chime of Wipro clock took a strange tone..it was something familiar and it soon mingled with the characterstic playful ringtone of my cell phone. Rubbing my eyes, I woke up to find the phone ringing ever more loudly, demanding immediate attention. I heaved a sigh of relief and took up the call. I somehow knew who is it and my suspicion was confirmed when I saw the number. I spent the next 10 minutes on phone.

It was a bright summer morning in Bangalore. The mellow sunlight spread its wings to welcome denizens into the new day. The road leading to BTM Layout, Stage II was filled with early morning joggers. The broad boulevard had bungalows on both sides,interspersed with verdant greenery. A little further, the road narrowed down until finally it was no longer broad or tree lined, it wasn't even tarred. Here it branched out into numerous alleys, each one named as a unique "Cross" by prefixing the word cross with the number of that alley. On either side of the alley and on the untarred main road loomed houses,tall and lanky,built vertically rather than horizontally, euphemistically called "appartments".

Decked up in a stiff new shirt and matching trousers I emerged out of one such building. The college folder tucked tightly in my arms,I moved towards "BTM Junction" to get a bus that would take me to Wipro office at Sarjapur Road. The folder contained my most valuable possessions: my class Xth marksheet, my class XII marksheet and my degree, in short it contained the crux of everything I had done to this date. It also conatined the joining docket for Wipro...something I had received after a long wait, after many frustrating days spent in hopelessness and despair. Today I had finally travelled the Fifteen Hundred odd Kilometers from my home to enter this much heared of land of opportunities:Bangalore. The string of my thoughts was rudely broken with a melee of sounds. I was standing on the BTM crossroads, a bewildered witness to the frantic Bangalore traffic.

The automated signal light went red and I crossed the road to reach the other end. Standing there I tried to figure out the bus that would take me to Wipro office. The traffic seemed to move in a never ending ceaseless flow of stream. In vain I tried to figure out a city bus. Almost every bus that looked liked the one was marked with "Infosys". One, two, three..I finally lost the count and concluded that in morning city buses are booked by Infosys. Then there were cars and buses, vans and mini-buses. All big names were here: Wipro, Mico-Bosch, GE, MindTree, Satyam....all seats packed with rows of engineers,some of them sleeping, some reading newspaper, some browsing through JAVA and C books...everybody flaunting the company tag around the neck.I stood there, mesimerised by the sheer number of companies having their abode here. Very soon I'll be joining these guys. This thought filled me with pride and satisfaction. At last my hard work in college was coming to some avail.

Suddenly I remembered the task at hand. I looked at my wrist-watch and found to my trepidition that the time was 9:00AM. Just one hour remained and I was yet to start towards my destination! I somehow managed to learn the bus number that would take me there. After changing the bus twice and an approx. 2Km walk, I finally reached a stop 1 km ahead of Sarjapur Office. Tired but determined not to spend any more money, I decided to walk back. Thus another 1 Km walk took me to Sarjapur Road office of Wipro. I silently started my walk on the road leading to main gate.

I stood in the Wipro Campus. Last one hour had passed in the frenzy of completing the joining formalities and meeting prospective colleagues.I had met fifteen of them. One was from IIT Kanpur,some from RECs and others were from colleges which I had never heared of before.I was relishing the beauty of manicured gardens, azure blue swimming pool, tastefully decorated lobbies,the smart and dainty receptionist and the glass and marble wonder that the wipro building was.I wondered about the future before us, I marvelled who among us will carve a niche here and who all will be lost into oblivion. Suddenly I heared my name being called from the lobby and I knew that it was my turn. I ambled inside, donned a neck-tie and got myself photographed. Within next 5 minutes I had around me that blue-ribboned tag,embossed with the words "Wipro Technologes" and having my plastic-smile adorned face peeping out of it. I knew my corporate journey had begun.

Introducing: The Games of Life.

Here goes the synopsis of my first novel:

Harsh Pandey has completed his engineering degree with sterling academics from India's premier engineering college. Ambitious, ruthless and young, Harsh enters the great Indian Corporate Maze to build a carrear in VLSI. He is hardworking and has the capacity to stretch himself. He has the support of woman whom he loves beyond his life.But entangled in the web of big corporates Harsh struggles to land ashore. Then there is Love and the pressure to build a carrear..the peer pressure and the thirst for money with the wish to reach the top! Caught in this tempest, the love turns demanding and his dreams seem to fade away....
Spanning across the boardrooms of Fortune 1 corporate and top-notch Indian company, "The Games of Life" looks beyond the glamour of glass and marble skyscrapers and burststhe myth of "satisfied software engineers" , beautifully revealing the delimma of young Indian generation.

Never trust word-of-mouth train timings!

I am sitting ideally, and it seems the time has come to document the journey which we will remember forever. Thanks to Mukesh, our good old pal of Guwahati trip, a seemingly staid journey was tranformed into a lesson for lifetime!

It was the last day of our Guwahati trip (See "The Lovely Nature")and we were all set to depart the next day. The project reports were done and certificates were ready. Lachrymose weather was announcing a grim farewell note and the lush green foliage of the hill bound campus appeared ever more beautiful,more so with the painful realization that it was our last trip..we were in our final year and next summer would see all of us moving into glitzy corporate houses.

Campus being more than 20Km from main city, we decided to move out a day earlier and spend the night in a hotel near the station as our train was at morning 8:30AM. Tickets were with Mukesh and he had confirmed the departure time. So it was, with luggage all rolled up, and a heavy heart, we boarded the college bus to move to city. Crossing the meandering mountain
roads of the college and a bridge across the silent and staid Brahmaputra, we were soon in the bustling town called Guwahati.

Finding Hotel was no big deal. Looking for the chepest accomodation we finally settled for a shack that passed as a hotel..but it was just the matter of one night, so who cares! Here our group split,for Shraff being a native of Assam, had his parents to see him off. They stayed at another hotel. Our reservation being together, we decided to meet tomorrow morning at station to get that "Kaamroop Express" to start the first stage of our journey to Trichy. Before sleeping, I again tried to confirm departure time and Mukesh, irritated by my repeated anxiety never bothered to answer. Not willing to pester him any further, I soon fell asleep, waiting for tomorrow, hoping it never comes, praying I never go from this city of pristine nature...

Morning dawned. The red early morning sun bathed the wet sky in its brilliant hue. As we got up around 7:30, we were surprised to hear someone calling Mukesh outside! It was Shraff..all set with his luggage, ready to move to station with his parents. UUfff these parents..they will reach station 1 hour before the train...useless hurry..we laughed at their apparantsurprise on seeing us so complacent. "We dont believe in waiting at station for one hour dear, you move on"..Mukesh cried out and we went on with our morning chores. Apparantly concerned, Shraff however moved away.

Finally all decked up for the long journey, our backpacks on our back, we set out for station at 7:55AM.."Full 35 minutes before train"..Mukesh grumbled. But having nothing else to do at "hotel", we deemed it better to enjoy some bird watching at station. Station was close by, but we walked leisurely, carefully avoiding the muddy spots on waterlogged slimy road. We finally reached the bridge, crossing which, we would reach Platform no. 1, where our train was set to arrive after 25 minutes. It was 7:05AM, "We are bang on time" Mukesh remarked. As we reached the bridge, a security person stopped Panda.

We were used to being subjected to such checks in security sensitive areas, so this came as no surprise. Young people with backpacks are a potential security concern afterall!"We are students going to Calcutta", Panda was explaining."Students..hmm, then I'll need to frisk your luggage". Obidiently we opened our bags before him. "Which train will you take", he suddenly demanded, as if remembering something. "Kamroop Express"..Panda answered. Policeman looked yonder, a train was leaving platform 1,probably to vacate the same for our train. He suddenly said.."Ok you may go". We cursed the lax security in India. These fellows could have easily frisked our luggage, there were still 20 minutes for the train, but these guys always seek a reason to shirk duty. No doubt our country is going to hell!

"Hey Panda see our train is leaving", I joked to Panda pointing to the train that was now almost out of platform number 1. We laughed aloud once again, thinking about the stupid security person. Relaxed and joking, we sauntered down to platform 1.The huge digital clock on platform announced 8:15AM. And then all the hell broke loose...

Shraffs bewildered mother and his shocked sister ran towards us as if they had seen ghosts. The former held Mukesh by the shoulders and shook him, repeateadly yelling.."Your train has gone..your train has gone"...Words fell on us like bombshell, our feet were jell. I could still see the big yellow cross of the last compartment of the train we saw from bridge receding away from us. Panda gnashed his teeth while I found my voice to speak,"But aunty, 10 minutes are stillremaining...." Then, it was then, that realization dawned: "We were joking on missing our own train..what a prctical joke..lireally!! Panda had snatched the tickets from Mukesh and was holding them, staring with blood-shot eyes at the time written at the bottom,"8:00AM". Ah Mukesh..but it was too late to play blame game!

Words stuttered out of Shraffs mothers mouth, she was listless, "Go to Kamakhya station".."take an auto"..."its the next stop"...We got the meaning and out we dashed. For the moment IIT Guwahati senti memories vanished in thin air and we just wanted to get that train and be out of here!! Auto drivers surrounded us, and they seemed to encounter people like us daily. "Train miss hua?".."Kamakhya jayega?"..."110 rupees"...we just stuffed into the nearest auto,our luggage all over us and our auto zoomed out of railway station.

With paryers in our mouths and our eyes glowering at Mukesh who hung his head amongst the luggage, we followed the deserted morning raods. Matters were not really helped by the excited auto drivers unsolicited one-sided conversation: "Log often miss karta hai train...generally nahin milta hai..aaj Assam band hai...isiliye roads khali hai..aap log lucky hain"...Soon we came to road that ran parallel to railway line..we looked on either end for semblance of a train, but without success. Our getting the train was crucial, Shraff's ticket was with us and he was bearing the punishment for no fault of his! Further missing this train would have a domino effect and we will miss our link train form Calcutta.."Bye Bye Trichy, see you later!!" ..my string of thoughts was suddenly broken by Auto drivers another burst of excitement:"Railway crossing open hai Sahab..matlab aapka gaadi nikal gaya"...I cant describe my surge of anger, Panda was still praying and Mukesh was still hiding in the luggage piled up on him.

Soon auto screeched to a halt at Kamakhya station. The site we saw at station is perhaps the most relieving of all the pictures I have seen! There our train was, standing on the platform. We were galvanized, we threw out the luggage(and Mukesh), and immediately Panda took out a 100Rs note while I whipped out another 50 Rs. A shrill whistle echoed in our ears and we were almost out of our senses..the train is about to leave!! "Sorry sahab change nahin hai", auto driver smirked. Mukesh came further with a mood of arguement, but me and Panda collected our luggage and shoving him aside ran inside the station. Mukesh got the signal and he followed us. Auto driver happily pocketed 150Rs for a 6 km trip!

As we reached the station our train had begun to crawl, but at last, at last, we were there. One after the other we threw our luggage inside and rapidly climbed, matching our speed on platform to keep pace with the increasing speed of the train. And finally, all 3 of us were in, Thanks God. We sat next to steps for next few seconds, panting and relishing our success and then suddenly I looked out to have one last glimpse of Guwahati and my face turned white. There was Shraff,poor fellow,standing on the very edge of the platform, glaring at the receding train,muttering profanities, his face red...as he later told us: "How was I to know that you guys have finally got the train, and how could I travel without ticket"!!

And hence our carelessness cost poor Shraff heavily,as we later learnt,he was forced to take a journey by air to join us at Calcutta. That we made up with him later in the college is a different issue all together. The lesson was starkly clear: "Never rely on others for train timings, even your best friend can go wrong"!