Bichde sabhi bari bari!! (getting lost step by step)

When I landed up in the erstwhile Madras, now called as Chennai in the year 1981, I stood in the Madras Central Railway platform all alone looking for support and protective feeling that anyone would want when he is thrown into a place totally alien and unexplored?

It was the in-built Culture of Delhi that helped me to pick up friends who multiplied into squares within months!!  I felt blessed with my natural talent of singing which brought me closer to many and won good friends across the city.  The Made for each other contest sponsored and organised by ITC tobacco company in the year 1985 brought acclaims and laurels to me and my wife as winners from the South Zone.  This put me further on an elevated pedestal where I came into contact with bigwigs of Chennai.  I could get School admission for both my sons in the reputed D A V Higher Secondary School, considered the most difficult objective to achieve, through the contacts that I had developed which could be possible only with the background of Delhi upbringing!  I must admit and accept  the ocean of difference between a South Indian Lad brought up in Chennai and Delhi.

When I used to fly out of Chennai, I used to see at least 20 known faces in the airport talking various flights to various destinations on duty.  The airport, sometimes, was more a social forum where I used to meet many of my friends and catch up on personal and official terms.  The morning flight meant having the morning cup of coffee with friends and sometimes had food on flight sitting next to each other!!  The same thing happened when landing at the destination where I could easily spot a friend and invariably shared a taxi to our respective destinations!!

Two weeks back, I travelled to Delhi on a personal visit to attend a marriage.  I reached the new terminal of Kamaraj International Airport at Chennai that has been given a complete face lift and make-up to compete with airports of repute globally.  The airport is huge and spacious and makes you feel like a tiny object.  I looked around 360 degrees to find if there are any known face in the crowd?  To my utter disappointment, I could find none!  I tried hard even looking at remote places just to give a moment of solace to my desperate mind that refuses to acknowledge the fact that I now belong to the older generation that is being phased out or pushed out of circuit.  Even finding a single person known to me would give that required stimulus to the mind?  I was desperate and started screening the waiting hall.  My happiness knew no bounds when  I spotted a nice looking gentleman, cleanly combed sitting bang opposite to my chair.  My eyes refused to believe as he smiled at me and acknowledged my stare!  I went up to him and shook hands... yes, he was Arvind Swamy, the hero of Roja and Bombay who created a huge fanfare through his films directed by Mani Ratnam.

  It seemed he had done quite an extravagant expenditure on his bald head!  Now, his head was full of neatly grown and combed hair pushing him back to his younger days of charm and attraction??  When I spelt my name to him, he smiled and said that he knew me as we met several times in Madras Club!!  My inner personality rose a couple of inches and my shoulders broadened with pride as I won over my mind in finding a person known to me and with whom I shook hands!!

Nevertheless, I reconcile to the fact that I will not be able to find even that single known face in a matter of few years from now?  Acceptance of reality is sure to bring peace within??

                                   

My first entry into a 5 star hotel, delhi

It was in the year 1973, during the winters, when my Manager called me inside his cabin and invited me to a luncheon party at the Oberoi Hotel, Golf Links, New Delhi on behalf of one of our esteemed exporter client Mr Sethia who wanted to celebrate his 25 years of existence in the field of exports!  The party was to begin @10.30 hours and we were a select 15 of the staff who were given importance to be a part of this get-to-gether!
                             
As a young boy stepping into my 20th year, I was quite elated to have been given the importance by my superior!  I  ransacked my cup board to find the best outfit that could upgrade me as a smashing guy and picked the best of tweed coats to match the attire!  The next question was how to reach the 5 star hotel and some disgruntled staff who came to know about the party effectively conveyed that all of us would be stopped right at the main gate if we did not have our cars to go to the Hotel.  We formed small groups of 4 each and decided to engage a black and yellow taxi to go to the Hotel and share the expenses!

The entire group reached the famous Oberoi Hotels well before time and each group waiting for the other to join so that entry could be made together for the sake of morale strength!!  The hotel had such a wonderful lobby and most of us did not know where to go or how to hide our excitement as it was for the very first time that most of us entered a 5 star hotel!!  One of my colleagues went looking for the rest room to ease himself but came back saying the entrance to the rest room read "Kings"!!  After getting convinced by the Hotel staff that Kings meant Men, some of us ventured inside only to find that the rest rooms were neater than the work place where we worked??  Many of us giggled and chuckled to experience the aristocratic rest rooms and wondered how the rooms would be like?  Many of us resolved to come back to the hotel atleast once after getting married with respective spouses!!

Soon my Manager Mr Kanitkar and the exporter host Mr Setia joined and took us to the restaurant that had a capacity to seat at least 80 people during those times!  The tables were neatly decorated with flowers and each cushioned chair had a sparkling white napkin, a White porcelain plate with knife,fork and spoons of at least 3 sizes!  It was a comic scene to watch my friends staring at each other as to how and where to start from??  The attender pored water in each glass and helped each one to spread the napkin on their laps.  No one dared to even drink the water unless someone gave the green signal to go ahead!  Then came the much awaited Haywards Beer that was sweating from the sides of the bottle and was chilled! The drink was poured into a beer Mug which was new to us as all of us were so used to drink right from the bottle!!  The host said cheers and the entire band-wagon  started sipping and keeping the beer mugs on the table just to follow etiquette and conduct that warrants entry into a 5 star hotel?  The next 10 minutes saw everyone in their best behaviour untill the host  said" bhai log, feel relaxed, enjoy and just go for it"?  The signal was sufficient for the staff who were mostly Maharashtrians and were fond of drinking.  Most of us were unmarried and that gave us more leverage to drink and enjoy as you were far from the clutches of your wife to be  questioned?  The glasses were emptied immediately  once glued to the lip and the theory of Bottoms up emerged and within a matter of an hour, each one of us would have had atleast 2 bottles of beer(750ml) and more!

What followed next is left to imagination with many of us opening up with confidence and discussing everything that mattered??

Lunch was served and the spread was wild that included both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes that gave all of us an experience of life time!!  The experience of entering a star hotel, having drinks and eating lunch still is embedded in my life and I recall this incident whenever I am in a star hotel with family and friends.  Thanks to Mr Setia of Eastern Exports, Naraina Industrial area, Delhi and my boss Mr Kanitkar who were magnanimous in including me to be part of this event and anything that's first is always remembered for life time??  There is no doubt Oberoi Intercontinental, New delhi is one of the best hotels in India to experience and enjoy!!