Hungover for life...

If I am to look back at the last 3 years of my work-life, that required me to teach apart from my other responsibilities; my face invariably breaks into a smile as the beautiful memories of interaction with EACH AND EVERY ONE of my young and hopeful students across India, come flooding into my mind! Well my dears ... at the outset know this for a fact that I have loved these three years of my life the most, because of each of YOU! This post is to share my thoughts on the eternal question that I have been asked several times by quite a few of you 'Priya Maam, which is your favourite batch?' So here goes... Although I joined during the last quarter of the academic year of 2011, I spent only a small amount of quality time with the students and that too only with the full time events batch, and hence it is their faces and that of the young trio Deepak, Jimmy and Nowshir, the founder Directors (Deepak reintroduced me to the company after my first outing with them in their year of inception in 2002) that come to my mind, whilst I am in reflection mode... with a reasonable amount of hand-holding and industry interaction, the batch was successfully placed and on the emotionally charged graduation day held at the IES College Auditorium, a much tearful Deepak also moved on leaving me behind with mixed emotions of what lay ahead... The Class of 2012 was my first complete year of interaction with young minds; and sharing with them my experiences and perspective on life and the event and experiential marketing industry was fantastic. It was clearly a year of learning and what a roller coaster ride it was! As the students absorbed all that they could from each of the faculty members in class and all the wonderful LIVE experiences that the industry had to offer them, I too built a bond with my students by taking lectures with them, not only in Mumbai but in Kolkata, Indore, Pune and NOIDA too... my friends list on Facebook shot up and I would have all kinds of students in-boxing me on their experiences, woes and adulation. As an event manager I had the privilege of hosting some amazing national and international events; but creating and implementing an event with a bunch of young event enthusiasts was a different ball game altogether as the passion and eye for detail was at a different level altogether. So, when the annual in-house event took off in full swing around the middle of January of 2012; I could never have imagined what the future had in store for me. There was a flurry of activity and insanity reigned with the small but enthusiastic team that was trying to tie up all the MANY loose ends of the event... My cabin was transformed into a makeshift site office and I had students thumping up and down the stairs to my office and walking in and out, squatting around in any space they could squeeze themselves into, at any time of the day/evening to discuss roadblocks, status, monies and the way forward... we were all breathing and worrying for our event. D-day finally arrived and 03-04 February 2012 saw the event concluding successfully thanks to the collective efforts of the Class of 2012, despite all the possible odds... and believe you me, that it was a true wonder as 1 day short of the event date we still had quite a few unsolved pieces in our puzzle! Soon after the event, I tripped off with a motley group of close to 50 students, most of them less than half my age i.e. 18 years and upwards, by road to Goa, the land of beaches and everlasting memories! As I tried to catch a few winks while struggling to get warm in the over chilled cabin of the bus, I was thinking to myself, 'What am I doing on this bus? I hardly know these people and I'm going to be so out of place!' But destiny it seems had other plans. I rediscovered Goa from the eyes of these youthful people -- driving around the narrow lanes, relishing the seafood, dancing and singing aloud at high volume to 'Tennu main love karda' the song that became an anthem of sorts; and strangely, I found a unique friendship in all these people. Seeing the students having a fun time was awesome and the countless rushes of emotion, the love and the affection I gained in those three days, gave me an unforgettable emotional connect! I had been to Goa over twenty five times before this, however this trip stood out as the most EPIC trip ever... With attachment comes worry and so on our return journey as I mused over the time spent, I also wondered if these students were ready to face the challenges of the world, our bus was jolted to a halt to encounter a near death accident in the middle of the night on the highway. The students rushed to the aid of the wounded and screaming passengers, fearlessly helping them evacuate from the upturned bus, providing first aid, calling the highway police, distributing their own blankets, water and food and counselling the emotionally broken until help came for them. Seeing the amount of solidarity that was shown by them towards the pain and suffering of the victims; gave me the heart-warming belief that these were event managers in the real sense; boys and girls who were hands-on in trying to do the best possible to manage the situation at hand, ready to face the danger of the unknown and wanting to do whatever it takes to get things under control and I am proud to say that they did! After we came back from Goa, the internship cycle was upon us and soon all the students were taken up as interns within the industry! Coming to office was never the same again as seeing the empty Classroom No 3, made my eyes well up for reasons unexplained and I would yearn to hear the familiar chatter and laughter or see the faces of my new found young friends that I had grown to love so much. I have always had an open door policy and hence thankfully (for me) students would call in once in a while to report the fun they were having, my heart would skip a beat each time I received a message from any of them about some angst they were going through or wanted some advice in a situation they were in. The internships finally concluded and soon came the final exams and the Placement Cycle. I would have students individually sneaking up and getting emotional about their interview experiences, wiping their tears of rejection, seeking guidance, conducting mock interviews with them, giving my feedback to each of them on their strengths and weaknesses, reviewing their CVs, talking to parents, sorting their minds of the confusion on whether they should take a job in a large company or small one, whether they should take Production or Client Servicing or Concept or in the case of advertising whether they should take media planning or copywriting or client servicing or account planning; placating fears of the upcoming graduation and life ahead; and as I handheld each of them through this emotionally trying time, I knew that I would have to soon let go. Each of these young friends of mine would have to fly the nest and that I needed to encourage them to choose their path and stock them up with the best advice and knowledge reserve as possible so that they achieve their dreams. Graduation Ceremonies are tearful as they separate a body of people that are used to being with each other over a period of time and then at the end when they take on new paths that don't meet any more, or that often, the separation creates an emotional void that at the start seems difficult to fill. And so, came the Graduation Day of Class of 2012 at the Blue Frog with much fanfare, speeches, awards, music and dance and a lot of tears and I bid adieu to all my students across India as I travelled from one city to the next, watching all of them rejoice and cry in the same breath and moving on to carve their lives ahead. Just as they would have found newer people and situations to deal with I too learnt to cope with their absence as along bounced into campus the Class of 2013 and a year later Class of 2014; both with a lot of gusto and enthusiasm and undoubtedly some amazing bodies of talent and capability. Leaving emotions at bay in both these academic years, my team across India and I worked really hard to ensure that the students got the best learning experience possible. In fact each of the last three years were a mixed bag indeed; Interaction with some amazing thought leaders like Roshan Abbas, Martin D’costa, Michael Menezes, Atul Nath, Jateen Rajput, Brian Tellis, Thanush Joseph, Sabbas Joseph, Viraf Sarkari, Venky, Ramki, Nisar Merchant, Vinod Janardhan, Tanaz Basrur, Tabassum Modi, Sameer Tobaccowala, Rahul Gomes, Nishant Parasher, Rajesh Verma, Rajeev Jain, Ankur Kalra, Arnob Mukherji, Jairaj Jathar, Mani J., Swaminathan, Rachna Khanna, Zarina Poonawala, Satish Bendre, Bhakti Ledwani, Rasika Kulkarni, Tejol Kolwalkar, Mayank Mishra, Sweekar Mathkar, Kamal Punjabi, Ninad Shah, Anjali Talreja, Jeroo, Vandana Kakar, Sukanti Ghosh, Vaneeta Sreedhar and many more; interacting with the industry at EEMA’ fun-filled annual events, creation of the newsletter, the in-house events of no drinking and driving and of course the NO TOBACCO (BTW, I have a secret wish that all of you would just stop smoking somehow … Sigh… so if you ever do, please do remember to inbox me so that I can feel happy and send you some more of my power blessings) and of course the convocation last year with my super-duper team of students from Vashi at the Canvas Lounge was awesome… what creativity, detailing and passion and what a grand ending of yet another awesome academic year! Again the emotional connect with the franchise heads in Delhi, Indore and Bhopal and their respective team members and students and all my students and team in Mumbai have given me an unforgettable HIGH that I am never going to get over.

My own children often ask me which one of them I love more and my response to each of them is always the same… ‘I love you the most and you mean the world to me.’ I seem to have taken up more than 3/4th of this post writing about the Class of 2012 and you might think that they are my natural favourites over the other batches. Well, the reason to talk so much about class of 2012 was because that year' description encapsulated all the possible experiences that I have had with the rest of the batches too (with Goa being the exception in their case) and so my response to peoples general assumption of my favourite batch being Class of 2012, is a NO … and here again is applied my treatment to my own kids. Each of you have been instrumental in making my journey special and have taught me so much during my time with you; and hence each batch in its own unique way is my favourite for reasons unexplained and too private to be shared in a blog post. And whether or not it is reciprocated, I love you all dearly and often say a silent prayer for the well-being of each of you wherever you may be. I have seen that special spark in so many of you that I get goose bumps when I think of the possible success that you will achieve in the future and that I hope I am there and have the sanity to feel your joy; but I am superstitious and an emotional fool and so I am not going to mention any names and jinx things for you… instead I am sending you my ‘power blessings’ that will follow you around like a guardian angel to ensure your success! Your life has just about started out my dear friends and you have miles to go, so make your journey sincere and never fool yourself about your weaknesses. Be consistent, despite all the obstacles that might come your way and keep on the character of a curious cat to keep adding to your knowledge and if you do so, I promise, you will soon find ways to get ahead and claim what is rightfully yours. Lastly, always be humble about whatever you achieve and guide your juniors and colleagues to grow along with you. And yet, despite all the love and respect and care I have got from each of you and all my attachment for these emotional yearly cycles, that were so much a part of me; a month ago I took a decision to move on from the work place that connected you with me… Having that behind me now, I would like to sign off by saying that your relationship with me is for a lifetime and I am a phone call or an inbox message away if and whenever any of you need me. God bless and love always … Priya

Mumbai is raining down ... again!

The rains are here finally and the city is awash with the beauty of natural greens, wet roads, flowing bodies of water, fresh fruit and vegetables, relieved faces peering out of windows and grills with their arms extended to feel the rain drops on their palms and soaking in the fresh smell of wet mud … Nu and I plan to go for a walk and have pakodas and hot chai this evening… I usually try to look at everything positively but somehow or the other when I see the first rains of any year my thoughts go back to the floods of that horrible date of 26 July 2005, and the horror haunts me for a while again. What a nightmare that day was … Nature equaled us all despite all of our created partitions of religion, caste, creed, wealth, beauty, position in society etc… Yeah we were all submerged in the same cesspool of garbage and human excreta… and my family was separated from me; Raunaq somewhere between home and school, Roshni at home by herself and Nu on the roads somewhere in town inching his way through an endless snarl of traffic and water.

When we all re-grouped next morning it felt like we were reborn again. And despite the suffering we all went through as a family, the moments of humanity that were displayed by all the people, invariably bring back a smile and a tear to my eyes even to date - the city had come together in that moment of mutual helplessness, shock and grief. People helped passers-by with food, shelter, guidance; holding tight when someone stumbled through the snarling streams of water; pushing floating cars and its stranded occupants to a safer spot; speaking words of kindness. That day humanity won the fight against nature. 

After returning from a fun walk in the rain and indulging myself in pakoras and chai I reminisced, at how despite so much destruction and emotional loss the city had come together as one human force that fateful day. And AMCHI MUMBAIKAR JANTA had resurrected the very next day with some levels of awareness and humility, until the mad rush and speed of the city enveloped them again hounding them into a never ending race to become; forgetting that all they actually need to do is just BE authentic, BE in the flow and BE in a balance with the elements of life  

I do wish the force of humanity would arrive and become aware of the wisdom to unite and be a single people ... truly resurrect by keeping their self-created at bay and loving all humankind purely ... because we live just once, so why not leave behind the sea of hatred and divide and evil.

Some day we will cure our world...

Welcome into my life Wall-e :)

I am thrilled to have bought my very own laptop for the first time in all of these 47 years of my life .. its not that I haven't bought a machine before -- I've got one each for the kids but never got one for myself as I've always had a machine from work. BUT these recent times have made me feel like having one for myself to my tinkering n blogging n surfing with ... I feel guilty using the office machine for personal nonsense ... I believe my madness should be at my expense ... SOOOO since I got tired of squeezing time from the kids lappies and guilty of using the office one I went in for the splurge ... Woooopieedie ... the engineer cam and activated it today and so here I am blogging away from my own lappie ... Its got a silver coloured body, is anti glare, 1TB HDD, 6 GB RAM and an akin to I8 processor ... i.e. an AMD processor ... Its a SAMSUNG ... for me its called Wall-e ... loooove it!!! Have been trying to figure out the function of OneNote!!!?? Does anybody know watttzziss about?? Dhuuhh??! Love all the people ... including the crabby ones :)

Jawaan Shaadi - 21 years of madness

I started writing this post precisely 7 months ago and somehow it got left behind and just didnt get posted although I wrote it in much excitement because we had completed 21 years of marriage ... I am getting old I guess!!?

On the celebratory date of our saat janmon ka bandhan as people called in to wish us starting 12 midnight we realised the significance of the number of years we'd done together and couldn't help smiling ki hamaari shaadi akhir kar jawaan ho gayi hai. Yeah ... 21 whole years of togetherness and although most of the double decade seems like a blur there are the fun times that stand out clearly ... we talked of all the crazy times together as we sipped our cuppa morning chai ... and the milestones kept coming back in a natural sequence ... 214 Laxmi Industrial Estate, Lazor-Hegde-GM Singh, VT Lab, the Worli TV Tower Bus-stop, our bike rides and old hindi songs, our sweet nothings into the wee hours of the morning, learning to drive in Hegde' Van on Worli Sea Face, HongKong and Exchange Square, the court marriage, the receptions, Manali, Telerate and Four Seasons, Srishti and the eternal regret of letting it go, Roshni, Raunaq, Alica Nagar and the relief of letting it go, Royal Classic, America and so many smaller things in between ... great years NU and great moments of joy ... love you and hope to grow old with you and only death do us apart...

Bleed BLUE Saturday :(

I consciously don't work on Saturdays so that I can make quality time with my FAMILY. It is a Saturday morning and here I am typing away at my keypad all by myself, while the kids are out with friends and Nu with his brother … C'est la vie… I had a plan (in my head) to check out the summer workshop offering at Prithvi with the kids this morning. Well we did sleep late last night so I got up late and the kids got up later!! So, despite my day off and interesting plans for the day they bounced out of the house saying 'Mama, I have plans … We'll go some other time ... please!?'

Sigh … somebody said that this is the WHATEVER GENERATION that does whatever they think is right! I sense that I shall soon be left to my own devices and it is perhaps then that I will take to my true calling!? Will I ever write that book … make the film … the story is in my head and a few words are on paper too but ... I cant get myself to complete it. What stops me? An inner voice, my destiny proclaiming that this is not the right time or is it plainly just my laziness? I keep trying to put together a VISION BOARD in my head but never do in real … why do I procrastinate so?

Since the family was away, I skipped breakfast and had a dull and hurried lunch too; cleaned up the house as the maid didn't land up thanks to the conjunctivitis bug; after which, I thought I would watch Vishal Bhardwaj' 2007 film 'The Blue Umbrella' or get my hair done at the parlor or just go chill at BRU World. I logged into my blog instead and started typing … this is what you call a truly lazy day!

The only highlight was that I figured how to add the FB thumbnail at the bottom of every post ... that really felt good as I struggled a lot thru the settings to figure it out! But apart from that its been BORING … This is what you call a Bleed BLUE Saturday!!!

Hopefully the evening will be better as we have dinner with Nu' family ...

Nobility Calling...

There comes a time when you feel you want to give back … the time has come and the joy of all the people that count in my life has been unbounded!!!

I am happy to start new beginnings … I invoke Lord Rameshwara' blessings in taking the right baby steps … Thank you my Universe for giving back to me … Thank you my dear dear Rameshwara! Thank you my dear Family - Roshni, Raunaq, Mama, Papa, Nu, Malee, Anj, Baji, Vir for your love and prayers.

I am happy to be a part of the EMDI Institute of Media & Communication - General Management, Teaching and Interacting with young minds, and working closely with some of the best industry minds and practitioners in the media and event industries is music to my ears and makes my face break into a perfect 'Battisi Smile' :)

We celebrated with Vanilla and Watermelon flavors of Natural Ice-cream!

All the people - Rashid

Life and people in this beautiful city of Mumbai never seize to amaze me and today was one such chance meeting with a man called Rashid.

As I stepped out of my meeting at Lower Parel I gave Raunaq a call and confirmed that I was on my way home. He said he would wait for me for lunch and so I quickly jumped into a taxi urging the cabbie to speed up towards Bandra. I got off 20 mins later at the Linking Road KFC corner and quickly hopped into the Habit Shoe Store (my favorite shoe spot) just in case they had something interesting ... after browsing and finding nothing I jumped into a rickshaw and headed towards Andheri. I thought of Raunaq being hungry and reached into my bag for my phone... and reached ...and reached ...and reached ... it was not there!? Yikes -- Dam yaar Priya how do you manage to do this each time?

'Bhaiya gaadi rokiye hamara mobile kahin chooth gaya hai, aapke paas mobile hai kya?' 'Nahin Madam'. He stopped and I frantically looked around while my mind raced for ideas on what to do next. I saw a puny looking man standing next to a car with a mobile in his hand - he was the driver of the car. I requested him for his phone and he gave it to me a little reluctantly. I quickly dialed my number and it rang and rang ... nobody picked up. I was crestfallen! I breathed deeply and dialed once more and after a while a man' voice at the other end answered, 'Hanji boliye'. 'Dekhiye yeh hamara mobile hai ... ap kaun hain!?' 'Ji main taxi wala hoon .. agle passenger ney humko aapka mobile diya aur woh hamarey saath surakshit hai - aapko mil jayega. Lekin abhi hum Dadar ja rahe hain aur uskey baad hi wapas bandra ayengey. Aap hamein 45 minutes mein phir sey phone kariye toh hum aapko wahin KFC par milenge ... hamara naam Rashid hai aur hamari taxi ka number 921 hai'. I thanked him and gave the phone back to the puny driver and thanked him too.

I had 45 minutes to kill and I desperately needed to go to the washroom too. So I went to Sanju-Vanita' place in Khar and after using the Loo I called my son and apprised him of the situation and asked him to carry on with his lunch. I then spent some time chatting with Vanu -- she fed me some yummy lunch and chai. Exactly 45 minutes later I called Rashid on my mobile again. This time he was close to Bandra and said that I should meet him at KFC in 10 mins. I said quick good-byes and thankyous to Vanu, Sanchu and Utsie and sped to KFC.

Outside KFC, I waited and waited and peered had at every cab that passed by but there was no sign of Taxi 921 for more than half an hour!! I requested a lady dressed in a burqa sitting in a rick to lend me her phone and she willingly gave me her phone when I told her that I had left my mobile in a cab and that I was trying to trace the driver, 'Arrey baap rey, aapko yakeen hai ki wo phone waapis zaroor deyga?' 'Haan mujhe yakeen hai'. I called Rashid once again on my mobile ... he said he was stuck in traffic at Bandra masjid and should be there in a few minutes. On impulse I rushed into KFC and bought a Chicken Zinger and a Cooler.

A short while later, I saw Taxi 921 drive up thru the crazy traffic and I waved out. Rashid waved back and I smiled. I rushed to his cab and thanked him profusely as I he handed me back my mobile, 'Aapke husband ka phone abhi aaya tha ... aap unko phone kar leejiye'. I gave him the burger and cooler and some money for taking the trouble and burning his gas for me in the terrible heat on aamchi Mumbai and then finally I took down his car number and full name ... Rashid Kalu Ansari Taxi No.JA-921-C-01 saying that I would inform the Taxi Union of his goodness.

I left bidding goodbye and blessing Rashid for a great life ahead ... feeling tired but relieved I called my husband, my son, Vanita and my parents (I had seen a received call from Mum - she also must have spoken with Rashid)...and I then called the lady in the rick and the puny driver and told them that I had traced my mobile ... they were happy and I think they felt good that I called to let them know ... and then smiling to myself and thanking God for saving the day I finally reached home :)

I called my friend Vidyadhar for the Taxi Union' numbers. I spoke to Mr. Quadros the Secretary of the Union and he was very pleasant and heard out my experience and said that I could write an appreciation note for Rashid and fax it to his office and that they had a system of rewarding such members. I did so immediately and felt good ...

Like I said, every one I met in this day was supportive and helpful and amazing in their own little way ... and I felt that I had completed the circle. God please bless each of these individuals and in some way make their lives happy :)