A Drive Down Memory Lane and the first firsts of life..
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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First, it was my sis who cancelled her program, and then it was Vishwas who changed his mind and stayed back in Bangalore. When ever ready (to booze) Vinay was the last to say no to drive with me, I had no options left but to drive alone till Hassan. Though the distance is hardly around 200 Kms, I thought it would be a dull and tiresome drive till I started, but never thought it would result in a trip down memory lane.It all started from the oldest day I remember, 17th Oct 1980, the day which stands out for 2 reasons, first being a birth of my only sister and second being the oldest day I remember in my life. My connection with school was plugged in when I joined a local nursery school next to my house in the early eighties. Year later I joined Vasavi Vidyalaya for kindergarten and I still remember the first day at school when I got a missile’s blow on my butt from my grandfather while I was crying to get inside the class room. Life at Vasavi was all about going to school, watching cartoon shows at Amar’s house, fighting with my first friend Yogesh (Have no clue about his whereabouts) and eating dry fruits at Amit’s godown. I also played my first cricket match during this time. I was dressed up like a groom with a pair of formals and a white sports shoe when I went to play my first official cricket match against my juniors at class three.
In 1989, I joined TMS, an over rated school in the town for my Fifth standard. Life at TMS was more of sports and less studies. I probably would have spent more time in the grounds than the classroom achieving nothing out of it. Name a sport played in the school and I was part of that team. This is the time the transformation from Pradeep to AJ happened and people started recognizing me as AJ & Kunta too. During this time I made some wonderful friends with whom I grew up.
Life at St.Josephs’ from 1992 to 1994 gave me an excellent opportunity to look life from a different angle. It all started with a bad first impression when I unintentionally mimicked one of my teachers and got a nice slap from him. Later on I managed to become one of his favorite students. During my 9th Standard I visited a Pub in Bangalore while I was here to play state level basket ball tournament. I found beer as a most nauseated drink on earth and hated that for many years. In 1993, I had to move to a hostel when my grandparents moved to Bangalore on a transitory arrangement. I stayed with Shishir, the most adventurous and Rajshekar, the most talkative guy in the hostel. The biggest challenge in front of me and Shishir was to stop Rajshekar’s superfluous speech, which was getting into our nerves at times. Life at hostel thought me lead life independently. This is the time I made lot of new friends and took friendship with old friends to the next level, friends who still stand by me as pillars of my strength and have seen each other growing inch by inch since then.
Post 10th Standard, I moved to a boarding college near Mangalore for further studies where studying was something which we were doing at our ‘free time’. Life at Karkala was more fun than learning and was kicked back to Chikmagalore after one year. I joined Mountain View school in 1996 and the only thing I remember is that I was flunked for the first time in life. Those were the most painful days when I had to spend one long year doing nothing but day dreaming (Yes, I am a true Piscean). During this time I tried my luck in agriculture and business too. There is nothing much to recall or write about my days at IDSG college where I graduated from as I hardly remember anything.
2 years spent in Davangere during my MBA days has lot of firsts to its credit. It had its share of good and bad experiences. I felt I was living fairly close to cloud 9 when I went out on a first date. My first presentation was a massive disaster. I was targeted ruthlessly by seniors during my presentation as they were pissed off by my careless attitude off turf. My first job interview was as immature as I didn’t even know how to impress people and negotiate.
My first job was an awful experience. My first boss was not only a nerd but also eloped with my money later on. Life at Jobstreet gave me a different perspective of corporate life. Having had a worst experience in my first job, everything which happened to me in the first few months at Jobstreet was a unique experience, be it my boss or my job. Having worked alone in the previous job, I got an opportunity to work with a team. I worked under a lady boss for the first time when I moved to Cybermedia. Honestly speaking, I had to eat my prejudice against working with a lady boss after working with her for sometimes. My life post 2006 also had its share of tragic firsts to its credit. The few firsts I experienced during this period are neither worth mentioning nor would like to remember moving further.
Ironically, most of the first experiences were also the last experiences for me. I never got an opportunity to have a second time experience. In four words if I can sum up everything I've learned in the past 28 years: ‘Life Just goes on’.
Songs of Aashiquee and Baazigar played from the CD player made me more nostalgic throughout the drive. Both the movies were released during my school days at TMS and Josephs’. A day’s trip to Chikmagalore on Friday looked like I was celebrating Mothers day as I met/saw most of my childhood friends’ moms who were always unbiased and trusted me more than their kids in some cases.
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