After a quiet two days at home, I finally ventured out on Sunday evening for mass. I?ve realized that I can spend days at home without evening stepping outside and not even think twice about it. Pizzas always get delivered, don?t they?

Anyway, Sunday the 4th also marked the 28th Wedding Anniversary of my parents and since Dad isn?t here I decided to take Mom out for dinner. However, she chose to order home and so be it.

Dinner was Chicken Manchurian, Prawns Masala and Chicken Fried rice. We tried a smaller new restaurant near my place instead of the regular one I ordered. While the chicken was good, the prawns was terrible. Note to myself. ?Do not order sea food from small places?.

Monday and Tuesday were normal days. Aditya was in Mumbai yesterday on placements work and dropped in after that was done. Took him to InOrbit, Malad whose sheer size had him all amazed.

Got back home, bid farewell to him and got ready for Seema?s birthday party. We were at her place gossiping and chatting till post 10.30pm before I drove back home. Had no energy to make any of the blog posts I had originally planned. Had also decided to make my way back to Pune and so needed to get some sleep.

Caught the second Volvo to Pune. The last time I was on my way back the bus tire was punctured and the driver and cleaner spent a good hour fixing that. Fortunately, today I didn?t face any such problem, though the bus that I missed by a minute broke down on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. After our driver lent a hand, we were on our way.

Reached here in the morning, met up with friends and then got down to making those blog posts. The count of unread posts in my RSS reader is slowly mounting. As is the case of my Gmail inbox which seems to be locked due to Google detecting unusual activity. Now, me not checking my email for 20 hours is characterized as unusual Hopefully, this gets unlocked by tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a long day with a lot of lectures scheduled. We also have a so called Finance paper to work on tonight.

This post was scheduled for December 1st, but never ended up getting done. Anyway, met up with Lil white mouse came over on the last day of November, the last day of my stay in Mumbai.

We decided to go to Gajalee in Seepz for a sea food dinner. The prices there have already been steep and after the makeover, its gone steeper.

However, must admit that one dish is enough to fill two persons. Ordered a sweet corn chicken soup followed by fish tikka masala and some chapatis.

Caught the 6a.m. Volvo back to Pune, which has been my routine whenever I come here to Mumbai.

Attended lectures in the evening. They are so few that they don’t seem very interesting. However, we have to attend.

Sneha‘s boy was down so we went over to Mezzanine for dinner. The food situation out here seems to get worse by the day and it takes a lot of strength to even enter into the mess. (Now you know why they call it a mess!)

This situation is combated by regular dinners outside. Aditya, Sneha and me went to Tamanna on Saturday and this was followed by the same on Sunday as well and then McDonald’s on Monday.

Was summoned to the Director’s office today and two of us sent to Mumbai for placements pitching activities. Headed over to town for a quick stop at the company and headed back home.

Am going back tomorrow morning. Intend to catch the first bus out of town. Would have stayed more but carried absolutely nothing to assist me!

Finished off my FSA paper on 23rd and awoke early Saturday morning for some last minute preparations for the SAP-BIW paper.

This turned out to be a very comfortable paper to write in 90 minutes. Had a quick breakfast and got down to packing for my journey to Mumbai. I love travelling light and infact that is what I did. Picked up my laptop and a few essentials and caught an extremely crowded 11.15am bus from college to Aundh.

Was fortunate enough to get a Metrolink volvo to Dadar immediately. Ticket prices were hiked considering that everyone is rushing to Mumbai for their Diwali vacations.

The bus was quick and we got little traffic on the way back and was at Sion in about three hours. Caught a rick from there to Bandra to my Grandma’s place. Had plans to meet Lil white mouse in the evening.

Met up with Lil white mouse and her sis and went to 5 Spice in Bandra. The prices have been jacked up there as well and it’s definitely more expensive than the one in town. We did eat and drink well, paid well and got back home. Was so zonked that I crashed almost immediately.

Awoke early morning (well not that early) to go for mass at 10am. Mass has become a lot shorter with shorter sermons

Lil white mouse came over for lunch and spent the rest of the day with me before she had to leave for a wedding reception.

The next few days are packed well. I really hope to get some studies done, but vacation can be a real big hurdle to cross when you want to study!

Have plans to go to Big Bazaar tomorrow to shop for anything I can lay my hands on. Got to redeem my Rs. 1400 in gift vouchers. So, what should I buy?

The last two weeks have been busy, as usual.

Last week had a Software Project Management class followed by which I caught a Volvo to Mumbai to get away from the weekend long powercuts. Spend time with the special someone.

Came back to Pune and immediately got down to work with my FSA case. Was called away by my director to help restore the contacts on his Nokia N96.

After struggling for a good amount of time with trying to use Nokia Contact Manager to import the CSV file, I realized it was easier to do the transfer via Outlook Express and Nokia Sync. Everything went perfect.

Got back to Financial Statement Analysis yet again which took up the next two days.

Today, attended the first day of the Luxury Marketing symposium today. Well, I won’t be buying any Luxury brands for sure!

There’s yet another day of the symposium left. I also have my summer presentation to be made tomorrow. I’m already all set to go.

I haven’t had much time to get down to blogging what I have been upto in the past month. Having celebrated my birthday in Mumbai, I headed back to Pune to get on with life.

Had originally planned to come back to Mumbai on Thursday itself for Placements work. However, a thought improvement workshop interrupted these plans.

The workshop was conducted by CGN. The workshop is actually a program by The Pacific Institute. I had originally planned on going into details for the same, but I guess most of the same is copyrighted and it would not be correct. In brief, the workshop covers topics like scotomas, Reticular Activating System, Gestalt psychology. In all it was an entertaining three days. We did miss a finance test in the middle, which I would have liked to attend.

Left for Mumbai early Sunday morning and reached there by afternoon. It’s been starting to take too much time traveling to and fro between Mumbai and Pune!

My first job was to clean up the house. Took out the vacuum cleaner that I purchased oh so long back and cleaned up lots of dust from my computer primarily, and then the rest of the house.

Aditya was to stay with me for the entire week while we roamed the city visiting companies. Well, that’s exactly what we did, “roamed the city”.

The next five days were extremely exhausting, with us traveling in all directions, in buses, rickshaws, taxis and more importantly, the local trains of Mumbai. The five day first class tourist pass did not provide that much relief!

Left for Pune last Monday and took well over five hours to get back to college. The journey was extremely frustrating. Caught a volvo at about 9am, which reached Wakad around 1.30pm! I made the mistake of getting down at the Police Chowky, only to find no rickshaws. Had to climb mounds of construction work and walk a good deal to find the tumtums. Would have taken photos but I had my hands full with three heavy bags!

Walked another kilometer or so from the Hinjewadi chowk to college, wondering at every step of the way if I would make it back alive.

Reached my room only to find out that I had a class, which had already begun. Had a quick bath (it was a necessity) and rushed for the class, which was immediately followed by a test.

The rest of this week has been extremely lazy, with a good deal of electricity problems. And, it is the weekend yet again and yet again we are without power for full 48 hours!

Did I mention that in times like these I really really miss Mumbai?

Returned from Mumbai early Monday morning. Awoke nice and early and caught the 6.15am Volvo from Teli Gali.

Reached here around 10.30 and immediately got down to studying my Corporate Finance assignment.

Had classes on all days of the week except for Wednesday, which was an equally busy day.

Also got asked out for freshers. Didn’t expect it so soon.

Took an expected surprise test in the FSA class. I’m far from where I need to be. Also have an FCQ in the Corporate Finance on Monday as well as a presentation for Project Management (Ops) on SPACE analysis and BCG Matrix.

So, basically got my hands full all of today and tomorrow morning as well

Finally getting back to the crazy life called MBA.

As I mentioned last week, I took one last holiday before my MBA course begins to visit Goa for a week along with some friends.

Crispin and I had booked tickets via Paulo Sleeper Coach. This is my first trip to Goa and also my first travel via the sleeper. We booked the upper beds in the Volvo and realized that was a big mistake.

For one the head room was too little. As a result we couldn’t sit up straight and had to lay down or risk breaking our necks by bending them for too long. Added to this was the shoe rack which could take only one pair of shoes. We took the easy way out and hung the shoes at the window (see the right portion of the above picture on the right).

As for sleep, well we didn’t get much of that because it wasn’t very comfortable when you wanted to turn in your sleep. We did have a small stopover at some place for a late dinner and few stops to relieve ourself in the trees!

Must say that Lil white mouse, her sis and granny were in a much better position coming by train.

Anyway, we landed at Mapusa a little past 9.30am Tuesday and picked up bread for our lunch and dinner.

We then caught a bus from Mapusa to Thivim which is where this beautiful house is located.

By the time most of you read this post, I will be in the Volvo on my way to Goa. Crispin and I set out on Friday hunting for tickets. We decided to try getting them in the area, but were a little taken aback by the price (Rs. 900).

So we headed towards Teli Galli in Andheri where a multitude of these booking offices exist, only to find that the rate there was just the same for the sleeper. We decided to go ahead and book the tickets anyway, since we had to go. The sleeper is air conditioned, so the journey should be pleasant. I can confirm this when I land there.

Have dragged along my camera for the journey, so I’m going to be trigger happy as much as possible. Am also grabbing my laptop with an internet connection to give possible regular updates during the stay there.

Stay tuned for the amazing adventures of Ajay D’Souza.

Had to make a rather unexpected and sudden trip to Pune yesterday to pick up some stuff from a vendor out there.
Anindya was supposed to go, however since his dad was here from Calcutta I was asked to do so. Agreed because it was work and because I knew it would be an experience.
And it was an experience indeed!

Firstly, I never ever been to Pune by myself and hence know absolutely nothing of it.

Booked a Volvo from Vashi and headed off to Pune. After much enquiring and thanks to the help of a local I landed at somewhat the right stop. As suggested by my vendor I caught a rickshaw to the place. First mistake.

The vendors place is 20Km from Pune in some really obscure location. I had the feeling of actually travelling through a village!

The meter itself came to 200 (which I think was too much) and I like an idiot paid the guy. Second and last mistake.

After a lot of haggling by me and one of the guys from the vendor we finally gave up.
Moral: Never trust rickshaw drivers in Pune as they are scoundrels. (atleast if you are new)

I can’t believe I payed 300 bucks for a rickshaw ride. And I felt even worse when I realized that if I came by the local jeeps I would pay just 20 bucks!
Had no option but to take that route back as we chased away the rick chap.

Caught a local 6seater rickshaw which carries 15 and got down at the phata (which is actually a junction of four roads, three from villages in the area and one back to Pune.

Next after a long wait and at first opportunity jumped in the jeep which took me to Kothrud. Paid just 14 bucks (which made it a total of 19 bucks from the vendor to Kothrud )
Lesson: Always sit in the back seat of these vehicles as you won’t have people on your lap then. I did this and ride was rather comfortable (though not luxurious)

Was rather lost but walked into the first travel shop. The owner happend to be an old man, who was very very very helpful. Not only did he arrange for a ticket, but also pointed me to a nice hotel for my dinner. Paid him a visit on my way back after dinner. And he kindly offered all his services whenever I am in Pune and in need of help. I’m hoping I don’t need to make trips back there for a while!

Got the Volvo back home. Got into an earlier one as there was place. Surprisingly the journey home took full five hours and I reached home only at 2 in the morning, extremely sleepy, exhausted but satisfied with a job well done.

Part II of A Tale too many: Trip to Lonavala

Struggled to contact Abhijeet (AJJ)but for some reason his cell kept showing unavailable.
Was able to get in touch with Sumir and somehow he managed to contact AJJ. Had also arranged with Sumir to meet me in case AJJ was unreachable.

Set off by rick around 8.00pm and was there at Nirmal Lifestyle in Mulund by 8.45pm.
AJJ was waiting there. Why not? Afterall he and Sumir were getting a treat for my MT results.

We decided to goto Sachin’s for dinner. A place a bit on the steep side. Food normal. Ambience sporty. Not some place I would normally go to. But, we were evaluating.

The three of us brought up a nice high bill. They won’t ask for treats again I hope

Was able to goto bed only by 12.30am. The flat in which AJJ stays is a nice one. But, their bai has been on leave for a while now.

Woke up early on Monday morning and got ready. Then we set off to catch the car near Thane Naka

Above is a pic of us in front of our Qualis near McDonalds while we waited for the other Qualis.

We reached Lonavala by 8.45am, right in time for a good breakfast =P~

Immediately after breakfast we had the lighting of the lamp and the start of our training programme. No, I wasn’t in Lonavala for a holiday

Had a good lunch and a good dinner, guess a bit too good because the next morning was my usual bad stomach.
Add to it, the AC in the conference room was so cold that I froze and by the afternoon I had a slight fever and by evening a high one.

Slept through two sessions (in my bed in my room and not the conference hall) and later was taken to the doctor. By then my fever had gone but the body ache and stomach probs were still there.
Was a nice doctor and my morning on Wednesday I was feeling much better, though a bit groggy due to the medicines. (:|

Came home by Volvo right upto Andheri because both the Qualis were full. So, had a nice comfortable journey home and didn’t have to spend much money as well

Made a new acquaintance who was new to Mumbai and headed in my direction.

Came home and rested the day out.

This brings me to the end of Part II. Stay tuned for Part III, which is life after Lonavala.