Chp 468. Master of PPT

These past few months, I’ve been making a lot of PowerPoint presentations… around 40% were on gaming industry and statistics research, another 40% on business plan proposals and remaining 20% on new gaming concepts. The sad part is, all 100% of them will not be published online because of their “For Eyes Only” nature. Yeah, they’re all those secret hush hush corporate’ish stuff.

And then I realized, I have also roughly made a couple of PPTs, mostly for my dear friend Rini who blogs at mizogurl. We spoke the other day and I asked her if it was alright for me to upload those PPTs on my slideshare account, mainly to keep my slideshare account active, and also be a part of the internet community that contributes so that one fine day, one person looking for that exact info may find it and be happy :) She was ok with it.

And so, here are some of the PPTs I have uploaded to my slideshare account today, in case it is something you’re interested in reading.

(Ps. In case some of you are new to embedded Slideshare PPTs, it works the same way as embedded YouTube videos. You can simply view the slides by clicking the "play" button, and you can enlarge the PPT by clicking on the “maximize” button on the slide if you think the texts are too small. Also, slideshare is not very mobile-friendly, so the size alignment you see on your phone may not exactly be proper.)

This first slide is an “in absentia” presentation I was invited to present at the UGC sponsored National Seminar on “Narrativizing Cultures of the North East” in Mizoram. My part was a very very tiny part of that seminar, about the “representation of North Eastern culture in the cyber space” part where I was asked to talk about what I have done for the North Eastern community in the digital space, especially when it comes to blogging.

Narrativizing Cultures of the North East from Mizohican

This next one is a very simple PPT I designed for Rini. This is special to me because it’s the first PPT I’ve designed in Mizo! Just to be clear, all the content came from Rini, all I did was the UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) layout design. The PPT is about “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, translated in Mizo, about the moral of the story and it’s implication in modern society. She presented this at the local KTP (Christian Youth Group) function back in Mizoram, and they apparently loved it (Too bad slideshare doesn’t have a “Mizo” option in their language selection, so I just listed it under “all languages”).

The Pilgrim's Progress [in Mizo] from Mizohican

And then here is a quick presentation I made for her, about a comparative analysis she did between Folktale and Novel forms of Storytelling when she was doing her Refresher’s Course at Mumbai University. I learnt a lot from this PPT :)

 

Storytelling in Folktale and Novel forms from Mizohican

And finally, here’s the last PPT I made for Rini, this one is serious. This is her introductory presentation to her research she presented before a panel of judges. Turns out, they really liked it. Wishing her all the best :)

A Study of the Oral Folk Tales in Mizo from Mizohican

And so, that was it. Hoping to stay clear of any PPTs for the next few days, lolz. Cheers.

Hope my presentations weren't boring... :P

Chp 467. Every dog has its day

Today is our beagle Saddam’s birthday! He’s one year old today, yayyy! Oh he really had a great time being wished by the entire office, dressed in new clothes and treats after treats bestowed upon him. Somehow, the little dictator who made our life a living hell in his earlier months, realized he was the center of attraction for today. And he really flaunted that.

And I think this blog post is perfectly apt for today, in honor of this cuddly awesome smart (and extremely cunning) mischievous mutt of ours that we love so much. I call this – “12 steps to having the most uncomfortable stomachache”, or, “My dog didn’t eat my homework, but I ate his food”.

1. After spending 4 days in Gurgaon on a business trip, I landed in Mumbai on 16th Sept. It was a late night flight so I reached my apartment around 11:30 Pm

2. My flatmate Sid was having his dinner and was just about to sleep. We said our hi’s and caught up for a few minutes. Sid was eating a "yellow colored" rice and he told me our maid had made awesome pulao for dinner.

3. Around an hour later after I had refreshed and showered (and 3 glasses of Old Monk rum to set the appetite rolling), I went to the kitchen and saw the "yellow rice" in the fridge.

4. I heated it in the microwave without any second thoughts because it never occurred to me that it could have ever been Saddam's food. Saddam's food was always white in color.

5. Unfortunately, while we were in Delhi/Gurgaon for our business meetings, our dear friend Shweta had instructed our maid to add "haldi" (turmeric powder) to Saddam's food! I wasn't aware of that!!! That's why it was freaking yellow!

6. I heated that food, and ate it. It was extremely bland, and tasted a bit "funny" too. The meat tasted kinda raw too, but then, I thought it must be the Old Monk talking. I added our Mizo chilly, made eggs with extra salt etc to make it more digestible etc.

7. I went to sleep.

8. Woke up the next day with a very strange feeling in my tummy.

9. Told my colleagues I might not come in and that I could work from home because I seemed to be farting continuously and running to the loo too, though it wasn’t loosies.

10. The maid knocked on my bedroom door. I opened. She asked me how come Saddam's food got over so fast!

11. She showed me where she had kept Saddam's food, and then she showed me where she had kept the food she made for us, which was on the lower shelf of the fridge! They both looked very similar! Aaarggh... felt like puking immediately upon realization.

12. I stayed in bed the whole day with Saddam giving me that, "You bastard, you ate my food" looks. Went and saw a doctor in the evening and he told me it was not serious, and that my stomach was upset because I had raw meat and the food could have been stale. Yeah, he really tried to put on a straight face as he told me that.

Lolz, I know this may sound funny to y'all, but trust me, it's not something you want happening to you! And of course, the jokes kept coming in office for more than a week. Who let the dogs out. Snoop doggy dogg. A man’s best friend is Kima.  Woof woof. You went to a doctor, or a vet? Blah blah blah.

Heh. It’s ok, I’m cool with it. The bigger question is, are YOU cool enough to eat your dog’s food? :P

Happy birthday dear Saddam. Cheers :)

Chp 466. Mother of all Coincidences!

As I mentioned in my earlier post, this blog post is about the most coincidental coincidence of all coincidences I have ever come across. And for all of it to take place in the same journey really blew my mind.

So, after meeting up with my blog friend Suzz at DLF Promenade, I went back, packed, and left for the airport with my good friend and fellow Co-Founder of FITH Media - Sumeet.

Coincidence #1.

We reached the airport quite early. Now I have come across a few Mizos now and then serving as a flight attendant or even a pilot. After all, more and more Mizos are now working across various sectors outside Mizoram. But I have never met a Mizo working in the front desk of an airport (other than at Mizoram airport of course, duh).

So as Sumeet and I handed our tickets and IDs to the cute Indian Airlines employee at Delhi’s T3 terminal, she looked at my ticket and sweetly asked, “Mumbai lamah maw in kal dawn?” (You guys are heading to Mumbai?). Yeah I was shocked for a moment, but then, I’m a man of composure, right? So I calmly replied, “Aw Mumbai ah. In buai em tunlai hi?” (Yes Mumbai. Is your work hectic these days?). And of course now it was Sumeet’s turn to be shocked, and we both laughed and continued speaking in Mizo while translating it in English to him. It felt great actually as this was something I’ve never done before. “Flight an delay lovang tiraw?” (The flights are not delayed right?), “Mumbai a i rawn zin chuan mi rawn phone la?” (I really like the service Indian Airlines offers) :P

And then we said our “Mangtha’s” and headed for the Security Check-in. Of all the different Airlines we could have flown that day and all the IA counters at T3 terminal, what were the chances of me walking to probably the only front desk manned by a Mizo? Fascinating. Damn I really should have taken a picture of her (that is, if she didn’t mind of course).

Coincidence #2.

So since we had a lot of time in our hands, Sumeet and I headed straight for the bar :D But not to repeat the mistake we made when we flew from Mumbai to Delhi, where we sat at Kingfisher’s “Good Times Bar” inside the airport and Sumeet had a large JD and I had a large Old Monk and the bill came up to Rs. 2200 and Rs. 800 respectively! Man, that really burnt a hole in our wallets.

And so we found this really awesome place called the “Grid Bar” on the first floor, where alcohol was not only cheaper but they had a 1+1 offer too! Yeah screw you Kingfisher :P Plus it had a really nice ambience too.

By the time we boarded, Sumeet and I were both quite tipsy :) And I guess the worst thing about flying under the influence is when we have to go to the loo.

And so the moment the seat-belt sign was switched off after taking off, I dashed to the loo immediately. They were all occupied by the time I got there, so I waited.

Suddenly the flight attendant called out from behind, “Excuse me?”

Thinking I was blocking the food tray, I immediately stuck myself flat to the wall of the loo.

Again she called out, “Excuse me?”

And so I turned around. The flight attendant asked me, “Are you Kima?”

I was like…. huh? I couldn’t speak for a fraction of a second and I just nodded my head.

She smiled and said, “Hi I’m Emanuelle…”

Immediately my neurons and deuterons activated and accelerated wildly inside my brain racking ever nerve cells with electrifying power trying to recollect who she was -> Emmanuelle, yes that name sounds familiar. Is it somebody I know personally? Cross-referring that name with all the people I personally know. Cross-referring. Cross-referring. Cross-referring. Nopes, definitely not somebody I know personally. Wait a minute, her face is familiar too. Where have I seen her before. Oh YES, Facebook. So she is my Facebook friend. Now I remember her friend request notification, I think it was around March. Yes March, that was when I wrote that article about the Mumbai Police tea incident. So she is a Mumbaikar. Yes, definitely a Mumbaikar, now I remember seeing her in faded blue jeans and white top once, and a few other pics at various locations in Mumbai. She likes to post photo of food too… Songate. Yes that is it, Songate. Her name is Emanuelle Songate!

All those activities took place in my head in a matter of micro seconds and I replied immediately, “Ahhhh… Emanuelle Songate right?” :D :P

She grinned and shook my hand, “Wow really glad you know who I am. I love that article of yours about the Mumbai Police.”

“Thank you thank you “, I said with a blush, “And it’s really good to finally meet you in person.”

And so for the rest of the flight, we sat in the empty seats in the last row and we had a really really good conversation, talking about Mizo welfare, Hmar welfare, Mizoram, food, parties etc etc. We took a couple of pics too before I went back to my seat just before we landed.

Sumeet told me that was the longest dump anybody ever took inside a plane, lolz. See, what’s the probability of me meeting a Facebook friend in the same flight? Almost zero right? Really glad I made a new friend (though technically we were already “Facebook friends”). Good flight indeed.

Now you wait for the final coincidence. It’s freaky actually!

Coincidence #3.

So Sumeet and I made our way into the plane. We had two adjacent seats, he got the window seat and I got the middle seat. Guess who was assigned the aisle seat in our row?

Geetansh Bamania!

He’s a very good friend of ours, he works for this company called “Hope Monkey”. Their office and our office are in the same building, on the same floor. So we used to meet regularly on our cigarettes break and even partied together many times. He had even slept over at our apartment a couple of times when he was too drunk to go home.

Dayyyyymmmmm what were the chances of that ever happening!!!!???? The moment we all saw each other, we were all like “What the F*ckkkkk???? You’re sitting here???” loudly, forgetting about etiquette and decency for a brief moment.

Man, that was really crazy. We had no idea he was in Delhi, neither did he. We booked our tickets separately, and our seats were allocated by different people. And to end up in the same freaking row, was something really unbelievable. I mean, yeah, we could have ended up in the same flight which was a huge coincidence enough, but the same freaking row? Mannnn, that was too much.

So we landed in Mumbai around 11 PM, and we all made our separate ways from the airport. That was the most coincidental flight I have ever taken in my life.

I reached home around 11:30 PM, and something even crazier took place there. Watch my next upcoming blog post for that :) Until then, cheers y’all.

Chp 465. Gurgaon journal - Sept 13, 2013

The past three days we were in Gurgaon for a couple of business meetings. The meetings really went well, and we celebrated every night :P

Back when I was in Delhi, I used to visit Gurgaon occasionally and that too just for the parties and then head back to Delhi. I’ve never actually stayed there, and man, it was actually very beautiful!

We stayed in this really awesome apartment with a breathtaking view overlooking the Golf course. 27th floor. Yup, we were definitely high all the time :P









And yup, the centralized AC apartment came with a lot of high-tech gizmos like one of those luxurious rain waterfall showers, a well stocked mini bar, and a full body massager chair.



Many of the office buildings had quite unorthodox structures too, which I guess, gave Gurgaon its own distinct identity.



And of course our day wouldn’t be complete without smiling at the typos :D



And no matter how advanced the city seemed and how posh and up-market the buildings and societies we went to were, none of the high-rises had a 13th floor!



Triskaidekaphobia too much? But then again, who am I to compare superstitions because most buildings here in Mumbai including the Bombay Stock Exchange don’t have a 13th floor either.


Fashion makeover

So after two days and three nights of endless meetings and discussions in Gurgaon, we were finally all set to fly back to Mumbai. I decided to make use of my remaining time and so I finally got to meet my good blog friend Suzz in person.

She blogs at Mawipui Loves. She is currently a NIFT student, blogs mainly about fashion, has an opinionated insights about almost anything ranging from culture and society to politics and religion, and she’s just 19! She is fiery and feisty, a hardcore foodie and a devoted Christian.

We met up at DLF Promenade and after an hour of window shopping, we had lunch at L’Opera.



Quite an expensive place, but it’s definitely one of the best bakery/pastry shops I’ve ever been to here in India. And having to spend some time there with the immaculate Suzz was totally worth it :) Although I must put a disclaimer here that she currently has a boyfriend :P



Here is she posing with her favorite Macaroons - pistachio and raspberry flavored. Heavenly taste indeed.



Some of the other awesome food that we had. Definitely a 5/5 stars rating for everything we ordered.



After lunch, we talked about fashion. I told her I don’t know much about fashion and style, and she looked at me from my feet to my head and solemnly said, “I can tell”. :P

She said my sense of fashion is soooo August 2013, that I must keep myself continuously updated. Just kidding :P She didn’t say such stuff, but yeah her passion in fashion is obvious if you visit her blog.

I told her I wanted to buy new shoes and she was more than eager to take me shopping to select for me. All my life, I have always bought shoes from Bata, Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Puma etc. These were the brands I knew and was comfortable with. And I can't tell the difference between good and bad shoes.

I have also never set foot inside brand outlets such as Zara, Aldo, Bluefly, Marks & Spencers, S.Oliver etc. to buy shoes, and that’s exactly where Suzz took me! Such a new experience for me. She made me try on various shoes and loved a lot of them.

“You’re not only the Co-Founder of your own gaming company, you’re also still a bachelor. Never forget that. You need to improve your fashion taste and level up your league if you want to stay in the game”, she wisely told me! :) Oh she is indeed a gem.

Finally, we decided upon these two shoes from Zara. Not bad aye? My first two non-Sporting franchise branded casual shoes! :)





We hung out for some more time after that, took a few more selfies together to remember the moment and finally she left as she had to attend the Mizo Church service held at Green Park.





I went back to pack and we left for the airport at 6 pm.

It was indeed a very memorable trip to Gurgaon, having such a kickass successful meeting regarding business, and also finally having to meet an online friend in real life. Cheers.


Next upcoming post: The most coincidental coincidence of all coincidences!

You don’t wanna miss that! :) :)

Chp 464. Lessons from a Start-Up – 1

It’s been 9 months now since we started our own company. Nine months of an extreme roller-coaster ride. Nine months of successes, coupled with itsy-bitsy failures. Nine months of trial-and-error experiments.  Nine months of risks, especially with the rupee value drastically falling and many Investors pulling out from an unstable Indian market because they prefer to invest in the dollar instead. Nine months of pivoting and adjustments.

I have learnt a lot in these nine months. Some learnings that would make me a better entrepreneur, and some learnings that made me regret about a few decisions we’ve taken. But nevertheless, learnings.

After all, that is the whole point of being a Start-Up, especially in an ever evolving industry. We learn, we lose some, we gain some, yet we keep adapting. We keep surviving.

I know there are already a lot of really good articles about lessons learnt from a Start-Up. I am not going to repeat the same thing that’s already out there, nor can I match the insight they have. But one of the biggest changes I have noticed in my personal life compared to the corporate life I used to dwell in, are the work hours.

There is no such thing as the “Monday Blues” anymore.

Yep.

I remember back in my corporate days, we would complain so much about the Monday blues. We would even post memes and gif images about it. But once you’re a Start-Up, there is no such thing as the Monday blues, purely because Monday is not a significant day any longer. After working from Monday to Friday, you eventually go to office on Saturday and Sunday as well. So Monday just becomes another normal day in your hectic timetable of trying to succeed in this competitive world.

Likewise, there is no such thing as TGIF. Hell if we want, we can make any day TGIF –> TGIM, TGIT, TGIW, TGIS. If we feel like we’ve been burning out too much, we just take the next day off. And I’m sure that is what most Start-Ups go through too.

Of course in the long run if when we become successful and turn into a full fledge functional organization, there will be rules laid down. There will be designated holidays and workdays. There will be a proper HR system. There will be a list of holidays mailed to every employee. There will be a reason to celebrate TGIF and a reason to hate the Monday Blues.

But as of now, I am in a “never experienced before phase” about all this, and it actually feels great. Let me try to make the best out of this before it changes.

And this is why I find it a tad funny now looking at all my Facebook friends complaining about the end of a long three-day weekend (today being Ganpathi Chaturthi). Or some of my Mizo friends rejoicing about a “bandh” in Mizoram tomorrow. Such sentiments I actually do not feel. They are irrelevant. Guess those are the changes one goes through when starting one’s own business.

Maybe in the future I’ll get to revel in such joys again.

But as of now, its back to the grind, regardless of whether this entire week had been declared a holiday or there’s a Zombie Apocalypse.

Here’s to Start-Ups. Cheers.

Chp 463. Heroes of Destiny - A review

I’ve been playing Glu’s popular mobile game “Heroes of Destiny” for quite some time now and even spent more than 8000 bucks on In-App Purchase so far. And just recently, I was so disappointed with the gameplay that I wrote a long review about it via a PPT presentation on slideshare, ranting about why I’ll never play HoD or any of Glu’s games again.

And to my surprise, I got a notification the next day from slideshare saying that my PPT was currently one of the most talked-about slideshare presentations on Facebook, and it was even featured on the homepage of slideshare! I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a topic I thought not many would be interested in knowing about, but there were already 200 views in just two days.

So if you’re in the gaming industry and interested in today’s gaming insights and reviews, please do go through my presentation and lemme know what you think :)

Here’s my review below.

Heroes of Destiny - Why I stopped playing it from Mizohican

Cheers…

Chp 462. Hello & Goodbye Castro

When I returned to Mumbai after spending more than a month chasing my Passport and Visa all over India, there was a new family member waiting for me at home.

Castro.

The cutest Labrador I’ve ever seen, he was already chewing through all my shoes and furniture.

And unlike Saddam, our beagle (who is still the love of my life), Castro was smart and toilet-trained within the first one month. Of course Saddam would get jealous when we focused our attention too much on Castro, so we had to show him lots of love too.

Castro became my flatmate Pranav’s personal pup, as he took up the responsibility of all the ordeal new parents have to go through.

My flatmates bought him from “Oh My Dog!!!”, the same breeder from where we got Saddam. I was a bit skeptical about the place because the breeder kept bragging about how healthy and pure Saddam was and that he had been given the best medical care and vaccinations, but there had been more than five occasions till now when Saddam fell seriously ill and the vet told us it had something to do with his genes and vaccinations he might have missed before we bought him.

But hey, it could be just our bad luck too.

And then a month ago, Castro started wheezing and coughing badly, continuously. We initially thought it was just kennel cough, which is quite common among young domesticated animals, and it is treatable.

But a few trips to the vet and we got the shock of our lives. Castro was diagnosed with Canine distemper!

Canine distemper is a fatal RNA viral disease that infects dogs. And there is no treatment for it!

“Your breeder should have vaccinated him against it”, the vet told us solemnly.

Fucking breeder.

The vet suggested we put him to sleep because the chances of dogs recovering from Canine distemper is very small, and even the ones that do survive, will keep having life-threatening symptoms throughout their lives, making their owners’ lives miserable.

There was no way Pranav or any of us could do that to the sweet and adorable young thing.

And so the nightmare began. Pranav would make Castro breathe through a nebulizer at least 3-4 times a day and took him to the vet almost every day. And the medical bills kept piling up. Pranav even once spent 6000 bucks on cab fare to go from Mumbai to Thane and back just to buy a medicine worth just 80 bucks because that was not available anywhere in Mumbai.

Here are some happy photos of Castro before I get to the sad part.

[With Pranav]

Day before yesterday night, we got a frantic phone call from our maid. She was panicking, saying that Castro had collapsed while walking!

Pranav and I rushed home immediately.

There was so much tension in the short auto ride home… it felt like forever. The silence was deafening. The air was difficult to breathe.

We jumped out from the auto and ran all the way up to our apartment immediately without waiting for the lift.

Castro was lying on the sofa, breathing heavily. His face lit up when he saw us. But he barely had the strength to lift his head up. He couldn’t even walk anymore.

We held him in our arms. He loved it. His penetrating stares that night will forever etch in my memory. His breathing became heavier and heavier…

And then when Pranav held him close in his arms… Castro looked up at him, licked him, smiled for one last time and breathed his last…

We tried CPR, we tried our damn best to revive him, but this time, he remained at peace… the vet stayed with us on the phone the entire time…

Our other flatmate Sid and a couple of close friends too reached home soon after… everybody was in a very melancholic mood… Yes, we all cried…

But on one hand, the sweet little pup was finally at peace, no more wheezing, no more coughing, no more struggling… he must be running around and jumping everywhere in sweet Doggy Heaven now.

RIP Castro. You will always be remembered.

Here’s a short video I found in my phone… This was the night both Saddam and Castro kept disturbing me because they were playing with the toilet brush outside (the bathroom is out of bounds for them). And I kept throwing the brush back inside the loo but they somehow always managed to bring it back, so I decided to spy on them and catch Saddam in the act.

Saddam is usually the naughty boy, and as this video rightfully proves, he was guilty. But what surprised me was the involvement of Castro in this little crime too! At 0:47, you can hear me exclaim, “Uffff, you too?” on seeing Castro inside the bathroom.

Dayymmm sweet Castro, you are so going to be missed!

.

Chp 461. Russian escapade in Goa

Since yesterday, I think at least 50 of my Facebook friends have shared this article on their walls, many agreeing with it. When I read it last night too, even though I’m a guy, I could relate to it immediately because many of my female friends had gone through similar ordeals here in India.

The article I’m talking about is this - “India: The Story you Never Wanted to Hear” at CNN blog, written by an American student called RoseChasm, where she described about the horrible experiences she had during her short 3 months stay in India.

What is really sad is, such things do happen here. I’ve read the comment section where chauvinistic Indian men angrily and defensively comment, “Don’t exaggerate. Nobody masturbates at women in public, you should be ashamed of yourself for lying and giving India a bad name.”

Oh really???

You’re a guy so you’ve probably never seen a guy masturbate at you. Neither have I. But I’ve been hearing about such incidents from my female friends and cousins since… forever. Yes, there are indeed many sick men who do that in public.

Still don’t believe?

Just a few freaking days ago, there was a case of a man publicly masturbating in front of women traveling in the first class compartment of our Mumbai local. Here’s the link:

Mumbai rail employee caught pleasuring himself in front of female commuters on train

A 30-year-old employee of the Western Railway was caught pleasuring himself in public on the Churchgate-bound Virar fast local train at 8 am yesterday. He started masturbating after waving to grab the attention of women travelling in the ladies’ coach. He was arrested by Dadar GRP and will be produced in court today.

Yes they do happen. It’s not a myth or propaganda to taint India’s name.

Now the experiences Rose had to endure were extremely unfortunate, horrible and sad. Makes us all ashamed to be Indians. At the same time, there are also many instances where foreigners had a really great experience. That’s the thing with India. It’s a land of contradictions. You will meet both the Good and the Bad (and if you meet my friend Vaiva, then the Ugly too) here in India.

There are many articles online where foreigners have written about their wonderful and memorable experiences across India. But then, as is the case with most things, negative news usually overshadow the positive ones.

While going through the comments of the above mentioned CNN blog piece, I came across this comment by a user called technovite:

Well done, technovite.

His comment immediately brought back memories of those Goa vacation days. Yes, I too have helped a stranded foreigner, a damsel in distress, in the middle of the freaking night, and I didn’t take advantage of that situation. And I’m sure there are many other Indian guys out there who have done a similar thing too. The thing is, such activities never make it to the papers or blogs. Maybe the foreigners we helped didn’t bother to write about it or they weren’t as articulate as Miss RoseChasm… and even if they were, I don’t think many people would be interested in reading about it.

I still remember that night so well. April 12, 2010. Around 3 in the morning.

We had just returned from Goa Fest Abby’s Award ceremony, held at Cavelossim beach, where we, Webchutney, bagged three awards! We partied hard after that (GoaFest tradition), and by the time we reached our shacks, located at Palolem beach, most of us were sloshed or had passed out. I helped support two of my bosses Tarana and Meghna back to their shacks, and then saying goodbye to the others staying there, I made my way back to my shack, Big Fish, which was located around 200m away from where my bosses were staying.

Like I said, it was around 3 in the morning. The entire place was deserted and the bright moonlight was the only source of light. The only sounds that could be heard were the wailing of the winds across the palm trees and the waves thrashing the shores of the sandy beach.

Up ahead in the winding road, I saw a taxi stop. Somebody got down and then the taxi took a u-turn and left. As I passed that place, the person who just got down didn’t move. I couldn’t make out who it was as all I saw was a silhouette of somebody with a strolley.

As I passed that person, trying to mind my own business, a meek voice called out to me, “Excuse me please. Please help”.

I was like, huh??? And so I turned around and walked back to that person. She was this really cute foreigner, in the middle of nowhere, looking quite terrified.

She was holding a piece of paper. She looked at me in all earnest and said, “Russian. No English”.

I was like, “oookaaay…?”

She pushed the paper towards me with her trembling fingers and said “Help” once again. I looked at it, and there was a Russian name written on it, and the name of a Shack.

I pointed at the name on the sheet and then pointed at her and asked “You?”

And then she gave me this really sweet smile and said, “No no, friend.”

I was like, “Ahhh, you’re here to meet a friend called (name on the sheet) who’s staying at this particular Shack?” I smiled at her.

She gave me this extremely blank stare.

And then it suddenly occurred to me, I had a freaking smartphone (Samsung Omnio Pro, this was before my Android days). Excitedly (but at the same time slowly, in order to not freak her out) I pulled out my phone, opened Google Translate and typed the same sentence above. Translated it to Russian and showed it to her.

She hesitantly glanced into my phone, read it, and then suddenly she grinned from ear to ear. She excitedly said something in Russian, grabbed my phone and typed in Russian, translated it back to English and showed it to me.

And just like that, I was in her comfort zone.

As we searched for her Shack together in the middle of the night (I even offered to drag her strolley along, lolz), we kept passing my phone back and forth to each other and laughing at what the other had written. She apparently landed very late in Goa because her flight got delayed and she still decided to go to Palolem beach at that hour because she had promised to meet a friend. I told her about how dangerous it was for women, especially a foreigner to be wandering alone at that time of the night and she said she didn’t know it was unsafe and that she actually thought there would be a lot of people partying on the beach :)

Finally we found her shack. I woke up the… shack-boy or whoever that person was supposed to be, and he went to summon the manager. When the manager came a few minutes later, I showed him the name of the person written on that paper. He shook his head and said there was no such person there!

When I translated this to her, she took my phone, did the Google translate thing and we asked the manager if there were any firang lady staying all by herself in one of his shacks, as her friend was definitely that person. He said there were three firang women staying alone, and of course we didn’t want to take the chance of waking up the wrong person at that time of the night/morning, so I booked her into one of his shacks so that she could find her friend easily in the morning.

As I walked with her inside her shack, using Google Translate again, I told her not to open the door for anybody once I leave, even if it’s the manager. She said she understood, and then suddenly kissed me on the cheeks. I blushed like hell and said good night to her.

When I reached my own shack, my shack-mate Jonathan Sreekumaran was pissed-off as hell because I had the keys to our shack (since we were traveling as an Agency, we were all on a shack sharing basis). He even did all his toilet stuff at the adjoining shack where other colleagues were staying. Of course he didn’t believe in any Russian damsel in distress “bullshit” so I told him I was actually helping our bosses back to their shacks because they were quite drunk, which was not a lie anyway.

I slept with a wide smile that night.

The next morning, we had to leave for Mumbai, so, the moment I woke up, I ran back to the other shack.

The manager greeted me with a smile and told me my “friend” had found her friend in morning. The problem was that her friend was staying in a shack under the name of HER friend who had left the previous day… ah complications. He told me their Shack number.

I knocked on their door meekly, heart pumping a bit, and when she opened the door and saw me, her face lit up. She hurriedly called her friend while speaking rapidly in Russian. Her friend, thankfully, could speak in broken English. I told her how foolish it was of her to arrive at that place alone at that time of the night, and her friend told me she had actually mailed her, asking her to stay for the night in the airport since her flight was delayed and that it was not a good idea to travel that late, but unfortunately she didn’t check her mail.

We talked for a few more minutes, and then I had to go because my bus was leaving.

And then she took out a camera and asked her friend to take a picture of us together. I too took out my phone and asked her friend to take a picture of us together, lolz.

Just before we said our final goodbye, I told her I blog and wrote down my blog address on her small notebook. Well, I really hope she visits my blog one day and sees this. I don’t even remember her name anymore. Here is the blog post I wrote of the goa trip mentioned above, except of course without any mention of my Russian escapade – GoafEST 2010 – Webchutney wins three

I have never mentioned about this on my blog before because I thought my girlfriend back then would get jealous! :D And also, of course, one should never “brag” about a good deed one had done, except in this case, I just thought it should be mentioned now, to prove technovite’s point and to tell people that everything is not all sex, rape and molestation over here in India.

Just as the Russian girl had a good experience, I’m sure there are many other cases like this across India too. Yes, what happened to RoseChasm was extremely unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean all of us are bad. There are many good men too, men who respect and treat women as sisters (Happy Raksha Bandhan by the way!). I really hope Rose’s article will not deter foreigners from visiting our country.

Cheers and have a great day.

Chp 460. Happy Independence Day India

A few months ago, there was this small incident here in Mumbai where a uniformed Policeman racially abused me and some of my Mizo friends with words such as “Kanchha” and “Kathmandu”. I wrote a blog post about it, which was picked up by First Post and I got immense support from people everywhere. All I did was merely invite the policeman for a cup of tea where I could educate him about people from India’s North Eastern states and clear his misconceptions about us. Instead, the DCP of Zone II Mr. Nisar Tamboli invited me over for a cup of tea!

We sorted everything amicably.

But that was not the end of it! A few days later, Mr. Sadanand Date, one of Mumbai’s 26/11 heroes and the Jt Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, invited our Mizo community members for tea at his office!

We discussed about how we could create more awareness about the North East among our Mumbai police force. One of the suggestions Mr. Sadanand made was whether various representatives of the North Eastern states could participate at flag hoisting ceremonies held at Police Stations on 15th August. We agreed that was a good idea.

And then months passed by.

I was busy in my own world, working on my Start-Up FITH Media and also chasing my passport and Visa all over India. Frankly speaking, I assumed all that was forgotten.

And then a week ago, Maruata, one of our Mizo community leaders, received a mail from Mr. Sadanand Date inviting him and other North Eastern community leaders to take part in the flag hoisting ceremony held at three main Police Stations here in Mumbai – Malabar Hills, BKC and Chembur!

He immediately started getting in touch with other North Eastern communities, and in the end, managed to make an arrangement (in spite of the fact that he’s been running a fever till today!). The Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh Association would take part in Chembur Police Station, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and Manipur Association would take part in BKC Police Station, and Mizoram, Assam and Manipur representatives would take part in Malabar Hills Police Station. He wasn’t able to find any proper representatives from Sikkim though.

Just to be clear, just because we’re all from the North East doesn’t mean we all know each other. Other North Eastern community members are as much of a stranger to us as other people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Haryana etc are. That’s how diversified we are. Hence Maruata did a very impressive job of managing to reach out to such people.

And so today, 15th August 2013, our Independence Day, my alarm woke me up at 6:30 AM, something that I haven’t done in a really really long time.

Left home by 7:30, took the Bandra Worli Sea Link, and man, it was deserted!

We reached Malabar Police Station around 8:20 AM, just in time for the flag hoisting ceremony.

DCP Nisar Tamboli unfurled the flag and then we sang our National Anthem.

After the ceremony, we were all ushered to the DCP’s office, where other high ranking police officers joined us and we all had a long conversation about the different North Eastern States over coffee and snacks. I was really impressed with the two Assamese representatives Mr. Pradip Sarma and Mr. Susanta Dhar who knew so much about our North Eastern history, they did a very good job of informing the officers about our culture and heritage.

After around an hour of a very fruitful interaction, we all parted ways. All the police officers saw us off till the gate of the Police Station. We took a few photos there as well.

I hope it went well in the other two Police Stations (BKC and Chembur) as well, and I am looking forward to reading about the report from there.

I took a cab home back to Bandra after that, and then immediately went back to sleep, the shameless me, lolz. Last but not the least, I was wearing this waistcoat which was a fusion of our Mizo culture… just to press the point that such Mizo designs too deserve to be a part of India’s greatest function since we too are a part of India. Hope you like it.

Cheers (on a dry day) :P