A year flies by

Its almost been a year since i have been away from my home. Living in pune away from my family has been quite an experience. I like pune's climate, its less humid as compared to Mumbai, so you sweat less. But, the summer heat might kill you if you decide to take a stroll outside in the afternoon. In Aundh, finding flats at affordable rates, without brokerage can be a big pain.But, because i knew somebody who was doing an internship @ GSLab(thats where i work btw), it was easier for me. He was gonna join Microsoft @ Hyderabad after the internship. So, me and my friend moved into the flat he was staying in. There was one guy already there. A friend of his also joined us. The 4 of us clicked, we had no problems gelling together. It was a 1 BHK and we hardly spent any time in the flat during the weekdays. The routine was simple, get up, get dressed , goto work, have dinner , come back, sleep. Our landladies were a deadly duo - a foul mouthed lady(who we think had some sort of a grudge with the guy who was already staying in the flat when we joined and according to her, he hadn't paid for some previous repairing work, electricity bills,etc.) and her grumpy old mother. The only saving grace were a few chicks who were staying as paying guests in the granny's flat below ours :).

Dinner was always in one of the hotels. Initially it was tasty, then it became ok, then it got boring. After a few months, we had almost tried most of the items in most restaurants in the area. it was getting boring day by day. We knew we had to cook on our own. We discussed a lot , but didnt happen. Another problem was that one of us was a jain and he said he couldn't stand us cooking meat,fish,etc in the house. Anyways, we realized that we were already paying too much for a 1 BHK flat in Aundh Gaon. We decided to ditch the flat and the ladies who came packaged with it. The day we went to the ladies to give back the flat key and get back the flat deposit was an interesting one. Me and the roomie, whom the lady suspected to have not paid some amount in the previous stay, went to her flat. After long discussions and calculations, we realized, it wasnt he who was supposed to pay her, it was her who was supposed to pay him. So he went to pay money to her and came back with her money. Atlast, we were free. We had already looked for a much better 2 BHK flat without any brokerage thnx to one of the roomie's friend. and the owner was a decent one this time. no khich khich.

Abt the food, we had a decision to make, all of us, except one guy had no problems with cooking non-veg in the flat. So, the dude with problems decided to look for another flat and he eventually found one. So there were now 3 of us. We joined the 2 who were already in the flat.The owner said we could have at max 4 ppl in the flat and there were 5 of us. But, the 5th guy didnt need an agreement coz it was of no use to him. The owner still thinks there are only 4 of us staying in the flat, but we are five.

We still ate dinner @ hotels. Then one of the roomies left and another hyderabadi dude joined us. Again, we started discussing about cooking, and it went on and on till finally we decided to buy a small 2 litre gas handi. We thought we would still continue to have dinners at hotels and occasionally cook at home since none of us knew how to cook. When we started cooking, we realized its not that difficult as we thought it would be. we were actually able to make edible stuff out of raw materials. We started cooking ourselves every day and stopped going to hotels for dinner. After a month, we decided to have another hundi, so that 2 ppl could cook simultaneously to make the process faster. I got to learn a lot abt other styles of cooking. The combination of vegetables in a bhaji, the ingredients, the masalas, the recipes, the way you cut vegetables, fruits,etc..., its all so different. Its been 3-4 months since we started cooking and we still haven't perfected the art of making curries though, but we now know that we can survive on our own food.

This year was also important to me because i got to convey my thoughts to my parents that i thought i would never be able to convey without causing too much chaos. I was also involved in an interesting conversation with a friend of mine on similar stuff, the results of which i am planning to post once its done. I have been reading books and exploring both sides(well obv a little biased towards one side ofcourse ;) ). Its been a learning experience and wikipedia rocks!! . The following quote aptly summarizes what i feel now:

"When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world, not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live my own ideal, free to live for myself and those I loved, free to use all my faculties, all my senses, free to spread imagination's wings, free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope, free to judge and determine for myself . . . I was free! I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously faced all worlds"

My work @ GSLab has been pretty decent so far. Working on kwanzoo.com has been a good learning experience. Meanwhile, I have become a little bit more social than i once was(atleast i think i have). Made some good friends at my work place. I have also started to live life to the fullest whenever possible.

So, on the whole, it has been a cool year for me. Looking forward to a good raise($$ :) ) and a fun filled next year.