Having spent rather exhausting three days in Mumbai, I met up with Sneha, Akshat and Neha for pizzas at the Pizza Hut in Powai.

Was surprised to see a whole new menu on offer. There have been several good additions to the menu, but there have been equally bad ones. Going to check if the menu has been updated in Bangalore as well.

I headed off home soon after dinner. Lil white mouse came over on Friday as well as Saturday. Friday and Saturday both turned out to be extremely rainy days. However, the newspapers claim that it rained everywhere except the lakes!

Lil white mouse and me went over to her house on Saturday evening, so that I could meet the family. Attended mass as well, after quite a while, at the Sacred Hearth Church in Worli, had a quick dinner and set off in the rain back to Andheri.

I wasn’t able to find a single cab but was lucky enough to find a 39 that brought me right up to Nelco, where I caught a 333 back home.

Began packing for returning to Bangalore this morning. It doesn’t take much time when you have minimal dumping to do. Got a rickshaw to the airport. Asked for the row number 6 seat in the airplane, since it was the same row with ample leg space on my journey to Mumbai. Wasn’t disappointed and one of the cabin crew turned out to be the same one on my flight to Mumbai! Decided to grab some grub in the plane itself, since it is cheaper to eat there than at the airport.

The journey was rather peaceful, with minor turbulence. I caught one of the A/C buses from the airport that dropped me off at Koramangala 1st block, where I caught a rick home. Have finally settled in. It’s work day from tomorrow, which means reduced updates out here!

I am going to vent in this post. So, if you don’t like me grumbling then this is where you should you leave! (But do come back)!

And for those who don’t mind me grumbling…

Sunday began with yet another AIMCAT. With two AIMCATs to go I will admit that I am still struggling to get the strategy correct.

I will compliment T.I.M.E. for the excellent mock CATs that they have been throwing at us. This time they went one step further. The AIMCAT was organized at only two centers in Mumbai. Mine was at Ambedkar College, Wadala. Found the place on Google Earth so riding out there was a breeze.

Got there to find the college in a real bad state. The benches were covered with dust, probably because of the Diwali Vacations

Then came the exam. 75 questions, 150 marks in 150 minutes. Didn’t clear a single cut-off. What I realized accuracy took a beating. And, I was so helpless, still am because I can’t figure out how to solve half of them (without the solutions) (

Got home after the paper. The ride home was peaceful and there were signs of rain.

Rain it did, in the evening during the open air mass that we had in church to celebrate Family Day.

We were singing and that came out extremely good (One bright aspect of the day).

The mass had to be moved inside church and it was real wonder that twice the number (if not more) of people, than the normal capacity, fit inside our church.

Following mass was housie (I didn’t play) and dinner. I was a bit apprehensive about the quality of the food especially since my last experience with Fiesta Night. And this time the tickets were only Rs 40, with the rest being put in by the church.

Then began Monday. We had originally planned to fill up a good deal of the admission forms and send it off today.
Started with the XLRI Admission first only to realize that their whole process is so damn confusing. The website backend is pathetically designed. Maybe the designers (Sify) need to hire people who know their stuff!

The Sify helpline is equally pathetic, but isn’t that the case with most of the call centres?

As a result we have to cancel the demand-drafts that we created and go pick up the XLRI forms from Mahim tomorrow. Another long trip in the heat!

Thankfully, we don’t have to face this trouble with each and every form we fill. I like clean, easy to understand procedures. Seems like some institutes want to test your “management skills” even before they think of hiring you!

That’s what Dad and I did on Wednesday and Thursday.

We went to the travel agent who has his office in Khar Market (near Khar West Station).

On Wednesday, just as we were about to leave it started pouring!

So dropped the idea of taking the bike, and we took a rick instead. The ticket was ready and just before we set off home, Dad came to know that he didn’t need to fly to Abu Dhabi and also didn’t need to fly on Thursday morning as originally planned.

So we just asked the agent to book the new tickets and headed home.

So on Thursday morning, we once again set out to Khar market to get the new ticket. However, this time we went by bike inspite of the slight drizzle.

After picking up the ticket, we dropped in at my Dad’s Mom’s place for a while and then came home.

The rest of the days, uneventful.

Uploaded the pictures and videos from my Sony Handycam today. Am amazed by the quality of both the video, audio and the pictures.

It may be a little big to cart around, but is well worth it. I’m going to enjoy

So began Saturday, like any other day.

Dad and I set off towards Mahin at a clinic there. Reached there well on time, waited a while, finished the tests and set off towards my grandmom‘s place.

Just as we reached St. Michael’s Church signal, the skies opened up and let down their blessing!

A direct consequence was that we were totally drenched (atleast waist below) and I hate getting wet when I am out!!!

Spent a good part of the next two hours drying my clothes (besides lunch) and it was off again to the clinic.

And yet again as we neared St. Michael’s Church signal, it started to drizzle. Thankfully this time it didn’t pour!

Made a brief stopover at my grandmom’s place again to collect some stuff before we headed home (made another stopover in Andheri on the way back).

Was so tired after all the roaming that I have been doing lately that I just came home and crashed.

Awoke for dinner and some computer time.

Had the SNAP-MOCK today. The SNAP seems to be a lot easier paper to attempt than the CAT. However, one problem is the General Knowledge and Current Affairs section. This means I have a lot more newspaper reading to do, especially Indian news.

Went for mass in the evening, which was quite good today.

Met up with a few pals after mass before heading home.

It’s been raining all day today. Infact, it has just continued since yesterday. Woke up, found it raining and went back to bed.

Stayed at home all day long while the rains came down outside. Reports have it that as usual Mumbai suburbs went under water.

Did set off in the afternoon, but plans got cancelled and I came right back

Also spent a good deal of the morning and afternoon cleaning up my computer stuff. Threw away around a 100 CDs!

Went for the 6pm mass. We were singing. And now, I’m watching WWE: The Great American Bash

Gonna make sure I don’t stay up too late tonight. Tomorrow I begin my last week as work. Am actually waiting for Friday

We had barely travelled two kilometres from office yesterday when we heard a huge hissing sound, only to find that the back tyre of our bus had punctured.
Probably because of some pointed stone on the extremely rundown, pothole-ridden road.

It meant a good wait of nearly half an hour while our driver and his helper changed the tyre.

That also resulted in getting heavy traffic all the way home

Reached home a little before 9pm, extremely bored, tired and sleepy.

The li’l white mouse came over this morning. Left prelunch, first to the bank and then dropped her off at the 84 bustop. Picked up a whole bunch of CDs on my way home. The prices sure have fallen since the last time I bought CDs.

It’s been pouring all of today. Slept a good deal in the afternoon. Am going to skip class today because whole of MVLU must be under water by now !!!

Yesterday, I paid a visit to a marize called the Li’l White Mouse, who had been down with malaria.

Yesterday was also a very rainy day. While I don’t mind the rains, I hate getting wet, and that is exactly what happened.

Just as I stepped out of the bus at Andheri Station it started to pour. It did reduce immediately so my jeans didn’t get completely wet.
Stood in a massively long line for the 84, which would take me to Worli.

Managed to find a place to sit in the long journey out there. Thankfully had my iPOD for company the entire journey.

Got off at Worli and started walking towards her place and just when I was five minutes away, the sky let loose. Before I knew it my jeans were wet. Was given permission to iron the jeans out. She has a good iron which got the jeans relatively dry (and a little burnt) after a good deal of ironing.

Next step was to find out why my contact lens were hurting. Took them out and managed to tear them (there always is a first for everything)!

Dropped plans of buying a new set because they were just to expensive. This meant that I would be relatively blind for the rest of the day.

And after this was the tragedy of the broken glass. For some extremely weird reason a glass that the Li’l White Mouse gave me developed a crack at the bottom! It didn’t break but it leaked out all the tang :O (Like I said, always a first for everything)

Thankfully the rest of the day was uneventful. Lunch was fabulous. Her mother is a good cook

Didn’t go for my evening class because of my lens tragedy and left her place around 8. She put me in a 39 which comes right upto Seepz. Got a rick immediately and was home in one piece.

Sunday passed quickly. The mock CAT mocked me yet again. Went for the evening mass, had dinner and now I am off to bed.

Feeling really tired and I can really do with some sleep right now.

This week has been rather uneventful. The bug that has been worrying me last week, continues to do so with no solution.

I’m finding my schedules slipping and I just don’t like that!

Managed to dodge one really heavy shower just after I got off the bus, but got stuck in the next one, resulting in an extremely wet jeans!
Am glad that my cellphone didn’t get wet. Way too expensive and I soon will be way too poor to be able to change a cell at this point in time.

The weekend is also lined up, which means very little rest. And my last AIMCAT really mocked me major. I guess I can only get serious results once I am sitting at home
Got another one this Sunday, lets see how that turns out.

We are leaving work today at 3.00pm

What I wonder now is what time will I actually reach home.

I’m sure my internet at home is not working, so I may post feedback tomorrow…

Not only was the internet down, but also the electricity in the area was turned off.

We left and I was able to get a nice picture of the skyline outside our campus as you can see on the right. (Hint: Can be used as wallpaper)

The journey home was quick because there was absolutely no traffic on the roads. BEST buses had stopped plying and most people were at home.

Had to walk home through flowing water from Seepz.

Having no electricity at home can make it extremely boring! We did get electicity back by 6pm. An uneventful and boring evening.

I did get down to loading music onto my sexy iPOD 30gb I now have something to do when the electricity next gos.

The situation today is equally bad. It has been pouring right since morning and I am sure the situation today is going to be just as bad, if not worse.

Also there is no news of us leaving today, so I take it we will be off at normal time. A long journey home?

Woke up early Monday morning to find that the rains had only worsened. It has been pouring right from Saturday morning, so I have no doubt that a good portion of Mumbai is flooded.

Finding a rickshaw was extremely difficult. Finally managed to convince a guy. Had to take a different route because M.I.D.C. area was badly flooded. I’m surprised how Sakshi manages to travel every single day to MIDC. She has to go through lot more waterlogged areas on her way from Juhu.

I was fully clad in my new rain jacket and the rain pants as well as my floaters so I remained very dry all the way to work.

The company bus was a little late, which was expected because of the rains. The journey to work however was no problem.

I really wanted to take photographs but didn’t want to risk getting my cellphone wet.

The rains worsened as the day passed and a good portion of Mumbai & Navi Mumbai offices let their people leave early. Not mine. We expected to but we only left at 6.15, usual office hours.

Travelling home was surprisingly absolutely no problem. I reached home a little past 8pm. The reason: No traffic.

As expected my internet connection was down. I still have to upload the pictures of my Muscat Visit. Now I am wondering when!