Monday, January 31, 2005

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?

1 comment:

Samba said...

Beta Theja. Ninna postge comment hodyana anthane blog id create madde. Also plan to come up with some content on entrepreneurship. But I aint setting myself any timelines on that.

Looking at the name IIM, this idea hit me. If IIM finds a way to do more with CAT than just make 1000+ bucks per candidate, it's gonna be fantastic. I mean, I'm taking a game theory perspectives. If IIM can devise a way to make good commercial use of all the hard work the guys put in, it can pro'ly rival Bill Gates in terms of wealth. I mean, two hundred thousand guys are already betting 1000+ rupees and months of hard work. It's understandable that they can't offer admission to everyone who has worked hard. But certainly, they can come up with ways to make good use of the hard work of even those who don't get in. More on this later.

Coffehouse philosophy. I've begun to wonder of there is any philosophy other than the coffeehouse type. Can we all not grow outta it? A couple of days ago, Teja exhorted me to and I'm bent on atleast making an honest effort.