What Ho!

Moving to Juhu

gautamsatpathy — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:07:00 +0000

Today we shift to JVPD in Juhu. The flat there is on the third floor of a small apartment complex next to Ecole Mandel School. It is a SAIL flat alloted to my wife, Padmaja, after she joined the Mumbai Regional office.

So our last day at West End, Raheja Vihar, Chandiveli, Powai – our first home in Mumbai. I can’t say I am sorry to move. Raheja has it’s points but it is way too far from the Kid’s school in Santa Cruz and Padmaja’s office in Bandra Kurla Complex.

The packers will come at about 9 – 9.30 am. The packing is all done thanks to Padmaja who had the day off yesterday. A few loose ends to tie up and we will be ready for the move.

Juhu, here we come…

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I am leaving on a jet plane…

gautamsatpathy — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:40:27 +0000

i am leaving on a jet plane…

I am leaving on a jet plane… With the loves of my life beside me though

Off to Hyderabad for 4 days. Biryani, Haleem & old friends before we leave the city for ever in the quest for more…

I spent 15 years in the dear old city and came to love it as my own. I left in March 2010 to join Rolta India & Santhosh George at Mumbai. Today I am taking my family back for a last visit to the old city.

Oh, I know we will return but this does seem like the last time – a rending of ties, of last goodbyes…

Hyderabad, here we come!

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On my way to Dubai & Abu Dhabi

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:59:18 +0000

I am on my way to the Mumbai International Airport to catch the Jet Airways flight to Dubai. My client is in Abu Dhabi but I chose to fly into Dubai as it is the month of Ramjan and Abu Dhabi is the more conservative of the two. I will arrive at 10 pm IST, about 8.30 pm Dubai time.

This is my third trip to the middle east in the last 4 months & I expect to be back again in a few weeks time to present the architecture of the proposed solution.

Not sure when I can post again. Maybe if I get some free time during my visit otherwise when I return on Thursday.

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Old Battle Tank, Rakshak Chowk, Poona

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:48:21 +0000

Old Battle Tank at Rakshak Chowk, Poona

Bablu loves Tanks. I had promised to stop by the old Battle Tanks at Rakshak Chowk on the way back from lunch and reminded me of the promise as we neared the chowk.

Well he got his up close view of the battle tank

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Poona With My Sala

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:12:06 +0000

Bablu at Rakshak Chowk, Poona, with the Battle Tank he wanted to see along with Rohan & Mamli

We first planned to spend a weekend in Poona in mid July. First Mamli had class tests and then Bablu fell sick. So we finally managed to visit my Sala, Rohan Padhi, on August 15, 2010, after discussing the trip for a month.

We started from Mumbai at about 8.30 am on Saturday, Aug 14, having planned to start at 7 am. Not bad for a family with two small kids who love their sleep and have to get up at 5.30 am on weekdays to catch the school bus and as a result are slightly pampered on wake up time by Daddy & Mummy on weekends.

Anyway it started raining just as we started and the sky was heavily overcast, shadowing our mood a bit but not damping it out all together. I only knew the Thane route and prooceeded to follow it. The MIDC roads on the mainland were a mess. Bad does not start to describe them. It took as a good hour and a half to hit the Mumbai Poona Expressway. The kids and Padmaja had nodded off and finally woke up after the jerking of the car stopped on the concrete of the Expressway. Or maybe because I slowly increased speed till I was doing 80 kmph.

We stopped at the first food plaza after the toll gate. It wasn’t very clean and very very crowded. Anyway Padmaja & the kids grabbed icecreams while I bought samosas and vada pao. Then it was back to the expressway again.

We reached Poona at about 11.40 and my Sala’s home at noon.

Had a light lunch and the a siasta. In the evening we visited our dear friends Ravi & Vathsala. They moved to Poona in 2008 when Ravi took up a job with Suzlon. We had not met them since. Their two sons, Nikhil & Dhruv are slightly older than Mamli & Bablu. The kids had a great time jumping and playing while we caught up on 3 years with Ravi & Vathsala. We finally left at about 10.40.

Today we plan to grab lunch at a seafood restaurant and then head back to Mumbai at about 3.00 pm. This time I plan to take the Navi Mumbai – Vasi – Gatkopar route rather than via Thane.

Update:
We left Poona at 4 pm and made very good time, reaching Navi Mumbai by 5.45 pm. Reached home just after 7 pm though. I had to go get vegetables etc for the week ahead from the Madha vegetable mandi as I will be away visiting my client in Dubai & Abu Dhabi this week. Plan to return early Thursday morning.

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Bablu Loses His First Milk Tooth

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:44:50 +0000

Bablu lost his firrst milk tooth today! It was loose and he already had a tooth growing behind it. I had promised to take it off if he would loosen it. He asked me to take a hand as the loose tooth was bothering him. He was rather apprehensive about the ordeal I was about to put him through but put up a brave front

I used a soft handkerchief to pull the tooth out. It was hanging on by a thread and came off easily. Bablu was rather taken aback when he realized the ordeal was over.

The tooth fairy has to call…

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Moved to MTNL from Airtel

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:50:23 +0000

I finally moved to MTNL completely. I was using an Airtel connection with BlackBerry services for the last 3 odd months. Wasn’t very happy with them for nature of their billing but was using it anyway.

Padmaja has now joined the SAIL Regional Office at Mumbai and she as MTNL here. So we now have a MTNL CUG for Padmaja, home & I.

My transition from Airtel wasn’t smooth. I had become too dependent on my BlackBerry and the thought of being cutoff from the world (Ya. I know…) was not a pretty one. So I kept the Airtel number till I completed the migration to MTNL.

This migration was far from smooth. First I called 1503 and told them to activate the SIM and BlackBerry services. This happened quickly enough. I remember checking after about an hour and found the SIM activated. So far so good.

Then I pulled out the Airtel SIM and pushed in the MTNL one. Went online to mtnl.blacbkberry.com to create a new user account and setup my email and got my first shock The site kept refusing to accept my phone PIN & IMEI claiming that the device was not registered on the network and giving me instructions to follow. Well I did follow the instructions. Many times. And kept getting a “Registered” message back buty the web site would not budge!

After trying a few times I called 1503 again. The first person I spoke to didn’t have a clue so I called back. The second chap tried a few things and then took a complaint. Gave me the complaint number and the standard “it will take 12 to 24 hour” parting shot.

I put the Airtel SIM back in my BlackBerry and went home.

That was Friday. I gave MTNL the full 24 hours before checking the status of my SIM again. And it worked!

I was able to visit the mtnl.blackberry.com web site, create a new user and setup my email accounts. Had a bit of a bother with the office email but finally got everything ticking along just fine.

I have sent a plan termination email to Airtel and will have to btrave their “BlackBerry Retention” team’s innumerable calls and offers to try and make me stick around.

They should have given me better service to start with rather than trying to retain me with offers of bill waivers and other such tactics. When I took my first Airtel SIM in April 2010 I asked for unlimited GPRS and was given the 2 Gb plan for Rs. 99/-. I still had my BSNL SIM from Hyderabad and I started using the Airtel number as my primary phone. I got a rude shock 2 weeks later when I started receiving SMS messages from Airtel saying that my outstanding bill was Rs. 986 and growing. I have never ever paid such a mobile bill. My Hyderabad BSNL number still does not cross Rs. 406/- per month even when I am on National Roaming and am using GPRS like there is no tomorrow. When BSNL says “unlimited” the service really is unlimited and does not have any strings attached.

So bye bye Airtel! Farewell and I hope we shall never meet again.

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Bablu Getting Ready to Bunk School

gautamsatpathy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:15:18 +0000

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Mumbai!

gautamsatpathy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:24:46 +0000

Western Expressway at Bandra Kurla Complex. Taken on a Saturday morning in July (17th, July 2010 to be exact) after I dropped Padmaja at her office in BKC and was on my way back home to Powai.

I am begining to fall in love with Mumbai.

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The Monsoon Breeze of Mumbai

gautamsatpathy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:08:47 +0000

I came to Mumbai in March 2010 – as spring was dying and summer merriy laying it’s sticky grip on the city. As the weeks rolled by I realised that I missed the evening breeze I had grown accustomed to in Hyderabad. A breeze that blows away the heat & dust of the Hyderabadi day and ushers in the cool of the night.

I dearly missed that brezee as I tried to get an autowalla to go the way I wanted to go. I forgot all about it as soon as I entered my air conditioned service apartment – till the next evening found me lugging a laptop in business formals trying to find an auto to take me “home”.

It was one such evening that I noticed the smell. Of fish. I had somehow never noticed it before but after that first surprised meeting we kept bumping into each other on what seemed to be a daily basis.

It was then that I realised that it was the Mumbai breeze that was brining my new friend the smell of fish to me everyday. The breeze was a slip of a thing. I barely noticed her. But she was strong enough to carry my new friend all the way from the Arabian Sea to Andheri East.

I soon took both my new friends for granted, barely noticing them till I needed them.

Then with almost startling suddeness it started raining. Nothing coy about the mighty mistress of the monsoon. She just arrived one day and laid siege to our lives. She rules all. She cannot be denied or ignored. She is everywhere. All dominating, willful, strong and passionate.

With the arrival of the monsoon I rediscovered my friend, the shy breeze of Mumbai. I am sure it is her but she has changed! She is no longer a shy little girl but a woman in full control of her life. She no longer whispers around the rooms but blows through them. And she no longer bears on her shoulders my other friend – the smell of fish from the sea.

My friend is a little frightening in her current form but she is also very loving. She brings with her a cooling freshness that has finally blown away the accumulated misery of summer. A true Shakti!

I wait to see how she will change in the coming months – the first I will see as a new citizen of Mumbai.

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