Deewana Tera

The days have been such that a lot is being said without saying a word, but still a lot is being left unsaid.

Here is a song I wrote a long time back. It's been playing in my head for a while now. Can't get the song out of my head.

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

आँखों में तुम, साँसों में तुम, धड़कन में तुम, तुम हो मेरी जान
तू ही चाहत, तू ही खुशबू, तू ही अरमान, यूँ ना तू सतां|
मैं चाहता हूँ तुमसे कहू, नहीं समझ पाती है तू,
जानो मेरी आँखों से, मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

ठंडी रातें, मुलाकातें, मीठी बातें, है रंगीन सामाह
ये हवाएं, ये फिजाएं, ये अदाएं, करती परेशान|
मस्ती भरी है हवा, मदहोशी का है सामाह
आओ तुमसे मैं कहू, मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||

जानेजां मैं दिवाना तेरा, मुझको तू यूँ ना तड़पाना
तेरे बिन जीना भी क्या, समझो ना मैं करता हूँ तुमसे प्यार||
 
12:32 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Treat Your Senses @ Sula Vineyards, Nasik


It had been a long time since we had a 'Just the guys' weekend. So we had decided to keep the last weekend just for the guys. All the married couples were informed in advance to take care of their women and convince them to allow their hubbies to be off their arms just for this one weekend. But was it because of the lack of convincing skills in the men, the dominance of women in our group, or a mutual feeling of 'wont spare my spouse on a weekend for friends', the guys came back with a board hanging from their neck that said 'Wife Says No!' (Just Kidding!). Except for Manish. Roopali and Manish is one couple unlike a couple, that's the best part. They love to spend time with the group rather than just by themselves. And they both give enough space to each other. Roops, Manish, I love you guys! :P Roopali was happy, in fact overjoyed, that Manish would be gone for the weekend, which meant she had the whole weekend just to herself. So the four of us, Manish, Nanu, Pedro and I decided to leave at 2AM on Saturday. However, as the night rolled on, the eyelids rolled down. Finally, at 8:30AM, we all were ready to leave. We kept arguing about where to go. Now that we were just four, some thought it would be too long a drive to Nasik, the place we had decided earlier. But Pedro suggested 'Chandu, you are behind the steering. So let's stop arguing and take us wherever you wanna go'. And hence the destination, 200kms from Mumbai, Sula Vineyards, Nasik.

It wasn't a tiring journey till Nasik. The roads from Mumbai to Nasik are well developed to provide a smooth ride with an average of 70-80 kmph. To add to that the landscapes stretching alongside the highway are picturesque. This keeps the drive pleasant. Apart from the vineyards, Nasik does not really have any major attractions. Moreover, you would not even find good enough accommodation within the 10km circle around the Sula vineyards. Sula has it's own resort called 'Beyond' (initially it was just one bungalow, which was later extended to a 30 room resort), but it's expensive (good for a couple who is out for a romantic weekend though). So if you are planning to stay in Nasik, then Tapovan resort is the place we have tried and would recommend, which is 12kms away from Sula vineyards. This place is a kilometer away from Tiger Hills Vineyards (A brand of Chateau Indage), which you may plan to visit on your way back to Mumbai. Tiger Hills vineyards also provides accommodation, cheaper than Sula, expensive than Tapovan.

When to Visit
Harvesting months for grapes in Nasik are from January to March and October to December, however Sula utilizes only the January to March period to cultivate grapes. This is the time when the temperature is cool and the vineyards would be flooded with a variety grapes.

Secondly, though the place is great in the morning and afternoon, it is awesome in the evening. Sula has an open roof wine-tasting café which opens to a bed of grape farms, a setting sun on the left and a cool breeze flowing in making the tasting experience heavenly. Sula also has a restaurant in the premises that serves a wide range of Indian and Italian cuisines at pretty moderate charges. The restaurant and the café are open from 11AM to 11PM on the weekends (not sure about weekdays).

Sula also provides a Vineyard tour followed by a wine tasting session for five different wines. This is charged at R150 per person. It's quite a learning and I would recommend the tour to everyone planning to visit this place. It's a half an hour tour explaining the wine-making process in brief, the different varieties of grapes produced in India and abroad, the nomenclature of wines, wine etiquette, etc.



Farming
There are around 3000 varieties of grapes around the world, out of which Indian climate conditions are favorable for only a handful of varieties. Out of these handful, Sula cultivates 11 varieties of grapes for wine production. One thing to notice in the farms is that at the beginning and at the end of each row of the grape trees, there is a rose plant. Until now, I was under the impression (as someone had told me) that the color of the rose indicates the color of wine produced from the grape. Any lay person would think that green grapes produce white wine and the black ones produce the red wine. However, this is not the case. All the grapes can produce white wine since it uses only the pulp part of the grape and not the skin. The skin is used to give the color and produce the red wine. So the color of the rose does not matter. It is in fact planted for early detection of a pest attack. The pest attacks the rose plant before the grape plant and hence control measures can be taken before the pest attacks the grape farms.

Sula produces wine from 1500 acres of vineyards, 400 acres of which are owned by Sula and the rest of the production is outsourced.

The Process
White wine is produced using the whole bunch of grapes (including the stem and leaves). The bunches are put into a crushing machine that punctures the berry, extracts the pulp and sends it for further processing. However, the red wine is produced using only the berries. Hence, the initial process is done in a destemmer that removes the stems and leaves using the science of centrifugal force thus separating the berries. The further process remains the same for red and white wine.

The most important activity in the whole wine-making process is the fermentation. This is naturally done by the yeast present on the grape (the white film that appears on the berries of a bunch of grapes), but this is uncontrolled. So the fermentation is induced using controlled yeast whose fermentation rate is already known. To do this, first the natural yeast is killed by cooling the pulp to 6 degrees Celsius, after which the controlled yeast is added to the juice.

After different levels of filtration to remove impurities and foreign substance from the juice, the wine is stored in huge steel cylinders, where they are allowed to ferment at a controlled temperature (generally raging from 20-24 degrees Celsius) for 6-8 months. Sula has a capacity to store 7 million liters of wine in the cylindrical tanks. For certain aged wines that have peculiar tastes and aromas like vanilla, cherry, oak, the juice is stored in wooden barrels made generally from oak (the other woods used being chestnut, cherry and mulberry). The flavors are induced not by adding the actual flavors but by the reaction between the wood and the yeast and also depends on the type of grape.

The alcohol content of the wine also depends on the aging. The more the age, more the fermentation, and more alcohol would be released by the yeast. The darkness of the red wine, which is produced by the skin of grape, goes the other way. The more the age, less darker would be the wine produced (Except for Rosé, which is a young wine taken off very early during fermentation, when the skin has not yet given out it's complete color to the wine).

A sparkling wine is a wine with a fizz. The fizz is given by the carbon-dioxide, which is released by the yeast during the fermentation. In normal wine this carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, whereas for a sparkling wine, it is trapped inside the bottle by corking the bottle before the fermentation is complete. The yeast is later removed by keeping the bottle neck down (allowing the yeast to settle down at the neck) and freezing just the neck part to minus 6 degrees Celsius. The frozen part contains the yeast which is popped out and the bottle is corked again trapping the carbon dioxide inside the bottle.

The Nomenclature
The different names of the wines come from the type of grape used to make that wine. For example, Chenin is a type of grape cultivated in France and used in the white wine Chenin Blanc (Blanc is french for White), Sauvignon and Chardonnay are other examples. Some wines are a mix of two or more grape varieties, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon.

Many of the wines also get their names from the place where they are produced. For example, Port wines are wines produced in Portugal. Champagne is nothing but a sparkling wine produced in Champagne, France.

Rosé (sometimes called Blush) is a young pink wine, extracted at a very early age during the fermentation process.

There is another type of wine called semi-sparkling wine in which the carbon-dioxide is not produced by the yeast, but artificially added to the wine. Sula's Dia is a semi-sparkling wine.

 

Wine Storage
The wine bottles are stored in a cool dark place in a horizontal position. Wines need to be prevented from direct exposure to sunlight and heat as it might lead to further fermentation or certain chemical reactions that would produce an unwanted taste in the wine. The bottle is kept horizontal so that the wine touches the cork and keeps it moist helping it to keep the bottle airtight. If the cork dries up, the wine would come in contact with the air and perish.

Once opened, the wine should be kept in a refrigerator and consumed within a couple of days, beyond which the taste of the wine would deteriorate due to reaction with the air. Such a wine, which has changed the taste, is not gone bad and need not be thrown away. It can be used for cooking purposes.

Wine Etiquette
The etiquette start right from serving the wine to gulping it.

While serving the wine the wine bottle should be held by the base and not by the neck or stem. This allows to maintain the temperature of the bottle and hence the temperature of the wine. White wines are serves chilled whereas Red wines are served at room temperature. While drinking a white wine, there should be minimal contact between the glass and the hand of the person drinking the wine, to maintain the temperature. It is therefore that white wines are served in flute glasses (or wine glasses), which should always be held by the stem of the glass. On the other hand, since red wines are served at room temperature, the contact between hand and glass does not raise the temperature as much as in case of white wine, and hence are served in goblets (Goblets are held by slipping the stem of the goblet in between the finger webs and using the palm to rest the glass).

A point to note is that the wine culture is not native to India. It has been acquired from Europe, where the room temperature is generally below 20 degrees Celsius. Hence, in India most of the wines are served chilled.

Once the wine is poured into your glass, you need to follow the four S's: See, Swirl, Smell and Sip.
See - Check the consistency in the color of the wine. Also, you can tell the alcohol contents of a wine by looking at the wine drops that stick to the glass. If they form droplets (less viscous) then the wine is not aged and has less alcohol. If there are no drops, but you can see streams of thick wine (called wine tears), then it's a well aged wine with high alcohol content.
Swirl - Swirling the glass helps release the aromas and taste from the wine. This is not done for sparkling wines.
Smell - Smelling the wine helps you experience the rich flavors generated in the wine due to aging, fermenting and reactions with the wooden barrels.
Sip - Sipping the wine also helps you identify the age of wine. Young wines are generally dry and leave you with dry gums, which isn't the case with aged wines that are pretty smooth and soothing for the throat.

Red wines go well with red meat cuisines (lamb, beef, pork, etc. that generally have red gravy) whereas white wines go well with chicken, sea food and vegetarian cuisines (pastas, etc.).

After all these learnings, our senses were further satisfied by the ambiance of the café in the evening, the music and of course the wines.

The next day we also paid a quick visit to the Tiger Hills Vineyards, a brand of Indage group that has been in the wine business for longer than Sula. Some great wines from Indage group are Chardonnay (not produced by Sula), Cabernet Sauvignon (Chantilli), Ivy and some new tastes under the brand Tiger Hills.

I have added this place to the list of places I would love to revisit and I hope out of all the other places in that list, I visit Sula Vineyards again very soon.


11:50 PM | Category: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 comments

What Have I been Up To?
It's been a long long time since I sat with my laptop and scribbled something to put on my blog. Quite a lot have happened in the last six months, due to which I could not find time to gather thoughts to write a thoughtful blog. You might notice from this post that I have lost the touch of writing to my lethargic attitude. Just a word of caution, this post might be a boring one, but I need to write to get back to where I left it. So bear with me :)

So What have I been up to? Well, since the last few months I have been trying to figure out myself. What are my interests? What I wanna be? What should I be doing? What kinda girls I like? Which of my hobbies should I grow further and take it up as a career option? Blah Blah. And frankly speaking I haven't found an answer for any (quite a complex creature I am, you see). So chuck it.

The one great thing that I have done during this period is that I have gained some control over my life. Since many years I have been procrastinating the renovation of my house. There were many reasons behind that. 1. My job requires me to fly any time on a short notice. So it would have been difficult to start the renovation work and leave it mid-way. 2. Since a couple of years, I have been hearing about my society going in for redevelopment. So no point if so much money is spent to renew my house just for 2-3 yrs. 3. It required a lot of efforts to be put in to find an alternative place to stay until the work is done, monitor the progress of work, keep an eye on the workers, keep a tab on the expenditure, etc. Apart from these, the major reason was that I was not ready for such a huge decision. After the death of my parents I have hardly taken any big financial decisions, like over a 2 lac rupees. I was unsure whether I would get the results I expect out of the money I spend and would it be worth spending at this moment.

With all these thoughts tormenting my mind, my life was getting messier. Then one fine day I decided to put an end to it. I attended the AGM of my society for the first time. There I realized that my society would not undergo renovation for at least 3-4 more years. Moreover, some of the members had taken up small renovation works at their respective places. So I was sure that these members would be in opposition to the redevelopment any time. That's when I made up my mind to beautify my house. I spoke to my cousin Gauri about I needing a place to stay. Gauri and Ujjwal whole heartedly invited me to stay over at their place until the work is done. I am very grateful to them as this would not have been possible otherwise.

The contractor that I'd appointed also took off much burden off my head since he was the one point contact for every piece of work being carried out. He also handled a few quarrels during the work in my society.

While the work was in progress at my place, the whole family once met at my aunt's place, where the thought of buying a used car popped up. My bro-in-law Sandeep advised to for a new one instead as he had a bad experience with his used car. So we did some research on cars on the web. Right from the beginning, the only car that fit into all my requirements was Ford Figo. We went to take a test drive. Both my brother-in-law took the test drives while I sat in the passenger seat. I was not that confident a driver then. Both of them liked the car. Now I was again in second thoughts whether I should buy the car. I was already spending a lot of money on renovation, plus there would be furniture required, plus electronics, plus I was about to fly to Thailand for a trip, and on top of that this new expense behind the car. Was I ready for such a huge expenditure that would sweep away all my bank balance? Then I gave a thought to the fact that whatever balance I have gathered in my account was within the last 5 years. So, even if I drain out all the money, it would take me just 5 yrs (or may be less) to reach there again.

So here I am today with all the accounts empty, still happy for what I have achieved. I have a good clean home, an awesome car, mind-boggling electronic gadgets and a bean bag :) Believe it or not I have not been this happy and satisfied ever before. I love my house, I love my car, I love my family and I love my friends. But yeah, my job sucks! So there is still some room for betterment.

Now let's talk about the Thailand trip. Actually there is not much to talk about Thailand. You gotta be there to believe it and experience it yourself. If Mumbai is the city that never sleeps, then Thailand is a whole country with Insomnia. You find people on the streets whenever you go out. And they are not just walking. They are playing music, selling stuff, selling food, and many of the women selling themselves. It's an awesome party atmosphere there. You feel like a king with all the ladies wanting you and pulling you from all the sides. Ours was an eight days trip with four places to visit. So we did not get much time to absorb the aura and experience each place to the fullest. 

However, the rooms we booked at each of the places we visited were overwhelming. Huge rooms at cheap prices. To add to that, beer is very cheap, 10-15 bucks cheaper than Indian prices. And you can find girls for economical prices too :) So let's just say we had a wonderful time in Thailand. For people interested in visiting Thailand, I would just say do not miss Pattaya, do not miss The Walking Street in Pattaya, do not miss Mouline Rougue (The Gentleman's Club) at the Walking Street and do not miss Natalie's and Linda's performance at Mouline Rouge :)

After the Thai trip, there was the New Year's Eve which was a mess. People, a lesson to learn here. When you get passes to a grand party for cheap prices, DO NOT GO THERE! It was so crowded that you didn't even have space to expand your lungs. Apart from that the liquor brands that were being served were the one's that you'll have when you are broke, the cheapest of the lot. And to add to the pain, there were only three bar counter, each just a couple of meters wide. It took 20 minutes to get one drink from the counter. On top of that the crowd (I know I said it once, but still). We were a group of around 25 people that day, but at any point even five of us could not meet and the same place.

And now recently, I am back from the BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING. A friend of mine got married. The wedding was something I would never imagine of. A complete 5-star hotel booked for the guests for two days, with a plethora of cuisines and international liquors. We had expected the wedding to be grand after the teasers we witnessed at his Bachelor's party (Belly dancers and all), but this was way past our expectations. I didn't get to attend the Sangeet and the Pool Party, but I heard were awesome. Most of the friends kept hogging on the food and pouring the drinks down their throats, with minimal attention given to the bride, the groom and the wedding. It was a real FAT wedding with some good memories to cherish.

So, that's it. That's what I have been up to until today. Hope I catch up with my writing skills and give you much better things to read in the coming days.

8:51 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Let It Burn
Mumbai is burning! he said as he poured himself another drink. We were at a local bar in Andheri. There was a television mounted high up on the wall behind the manager's counter. It was showing a report on Kasab's trial, when this person on the next table started staring at the television with a rage. Most of the others in the bar ignored the guy because he was inebriated. But this was not just another drunk guy. The guy was in late 50s, with half of his hair turned gray. His face had a character grown in it with every wrinkle on his face trying to tell a story. A story that turned that night into a dead silence.

'Calm down uncle. Don't worry. Kasab will get a death sentence.' I said in a friendly voice to calm down this drunk man who I thought could have created a scene. He turned his head towards me and looked straight down my eyes, with an anger. That really gave me shrills for a second. Why did I take this on to me? I thought. 'And then what? Will Mumbai stop burning?' I took a while to understand the question. It seemed like a rhetoric, but this guy was waiting for a response. Besides, Mumbai was burning a year ago when Kasab massacred innocent people at the Taj Hotel and other areas in town. 'I am just saying ...' I was interrupted before I could finish. He got up and moved next to my friend on the opposite side of our table. For the next half an hour we were just the audience to a drunk man, with a heart full of pain, frustration and anger and a growing rage towards this city of dreams.

 Mumbai has been burning for a while now kid. And it wasn't Kasab who started it. And it's not ending with his death sentence. Mumbai will continue to burn. You know why? Because we can't do anything about it. And even if you try, they will not allow you. [laughs sarcastically]

'Mumbai is burning! Nana, Mumbai is burning! And the Muslims are around the corner killing every Hindu they find. They are coming to kill people in our chawl!' My younger brother came running with this news after the 1992 blasts. I was quite young then, with warm blood running in my veins. I went down with many other young men from our chawl like soldiers on a mission to guard our families. It was the worst war of religions Mumbai had faced since 1947. We were around 25, each equipped with a hockey stick or a cricket bat. We stood by the gate of our chawl creating another wall. I could still feel the adrenalin when I think of that moment. Just then we heard screams from around the corner. We all stared down the road expecting the worst. And worst it was. A man tumbled and fell down near the corner. As he fell down, his head separated from his body and rolled down right in the center of the lane. My hands went numb. Suddenly the weapons in our hands, hockey sticks and cricket bats, seemed meager. We felt weak. Three of the guys ran away, while a couple of them went back in the chawl and came out with knives, hammers and spades. We were still weak in front of the swords. They killed six of us before the police arrived. But their lives did not go in vain. We managed to hold back the mob and keep our families safe. I lost mine though. My brother. He took the blow from the wildly swung sword of the leader of the mob, Abdul Qadir, brother of the then corporator. It slit his throat and the blood came out rushing like a tap left open. He could not scream and I could not help. Within moments his body went pale leaving him dead in the pool of his own blood.

Few days later, I filed a case against Abdul Qadir to get justice for my dead brother. Nothing happened. He was saved. You know by whom? A Hindu! A fucking Marathi Maanus! A minister who got the case closed for a few seats and Muslim votes that were assured to him by Abdul's brother. That's when I realized it wasn't a war of religions, it was a war for powers. Abdul is an MLA now. I feel like killing myself whenever I look at his posters by the road side.

I somehow managed to pull myself out from the dreary memories of those bloody events. I had two beautiful kids. Tanmay and Sakshi. Tanmay has grown into a man now, just like me when I was young, with warm blood. Sakshi [his voice sunk] she was an angel. Beautiful as her mother. She had just turned 18 that day when she went out for a party with her friends at Juhu. The girls were returning back home when they noticed a bunch of guys were harassing a girl in a secluded lane near the beach. The girl seemed from a rich family. Sakshi along with her friends walked into the lane keeping a safe distance from the scene so that if the guys made a move towards them they could run away. She screamed 'Hey! Leave her alone! I have called the police. Go away! Leave her!' What she didn't realize that a part of the gang was standing and entrance of the lane, from where she walked in, keeping a watch and looking out for trouble. They had moved in now blocking their way out. They started screaming out loudly and soon started crying. There were bystanders, and they did their job. By being just the fucking bystanders. Sakshi was brought home by the police, clothes torn and dried blood on her legs. All the girls were raped that night.

We filed a case against the guys, all the guys the girls could recognize. They were all sons of big-shots from Mumbai's richest lot. They all got bailed out. The cases were closed due to no evidence. You know who saved them? The girl who was being raped initially, who Sakshi and her friends tried to save. You know why? She was the daughter of another big-shot who totally put the case under covers without letting her daughter's name out in public. Like it never happened. As if his daughter was never raped. [snaps his fingers] It was that easy for him. But what about my daughter? Who would marry a raped girl from a middle-class family? This thought tortured and tormented my child every day after the incident until one day she decided to put an end to it. She walked down the same lane where she was raped, and she kept walking. She kept walking until she met the sea, which grabbed her into it's depth with a huge roaring wave.

The next day, my hands started shaking as I covered my child with logs of wood. It's not easy to light your loved ones on fire even when they are dead. I could not believe my family was halved in one day. We were four before, now we were just two. Yes, just two! My wife couldn't bare the shock of her daughter's death. She died of a massive heart attack as soon as the news was delivered to us by the police that our daughter's body was found by the shore. I couldn't believe half of my family was watching the other half being burnt to ashes, helplessly. It was devastating.

Since last few years, it's just been the two men at home now. I have learned to cook and so has Tanmay. But he prefers washing the dishes as he doesn't want me to do that work. He is my only hope and the only reason to live for. He doesn't like me drinking, but he doesn't stop me too. He knows ... I know.

[looking at the television in anger] We were at Colaba, feet away from Leopold when this motherfucker blew it up. We ducked down hiding ourselves behind a street-side handcart. Tanmay peeped out from one side. Two guys had flung a couple of grenades into the restaurant and had now ran up the stairs into the restaurant firing rounds of bullets blindly. He turned to me and said 'Anna, they are killing people there. They've blown up the place. They are burning Mumbai Anna! Our Mumbai is burning! We need to help them.' My eyes were wide open with shock, terror and fright. I looked at Tanmay. His eyes had the same rage of a warrior, as I had back in 1992. I held his hand as tightly as I could. I could feel the warm blood rushing through his body. If I let him go now, I might not see him again, just as my other family members. I was weak now. I would not be able to take another ruthless blow from life.

My feet went numb and I was drenched in sweat. My arms started shaking as I held on to his arm and started crying. [a tear trickled down his face as he narrated] 'Let it burn son! Let it burn!'.

2:41 AM | Category: , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 comments

Four-Four-Two-Two-Four-Four-Two-Two
4-4-2-2-4-4-2-2 ... That's Meru!

This birthday, I had decided to treat myself in a lavish way and so, for the first time, I decided to go to my aunt's place in a Meru cab. Anticipating the meter fare to go somewhere in the range of 600-700 bucks, I was carrying cash in surplus of two thousand bucks with me.
I called up the Meru Call center at 1315 hrs and booked a cab for 1400 hrs, which arrived a good 15 minutes before time at the spot. That's where I started liking the services. As I got into the cab, I got many more reasons to prefer this services over a normal cab, cool cab or any other cab from a similar service provider (Mega Cabs, Easy Cabs, etc.).
As I entered the cab, the first thing I notice was the printed pledge along with the driver's identity on the dashboard. I read through the list and cross-verified it at the same time.

The Pledge:
  • I will drive carefully
  • I will not drink and drive
  • I will drive within speed limits
  • I will be alert at all times
  • I will keep my car clean and tidy
  • I will be well groomed
  • I will charge the customer as per the meter
  • I will not smoke and chew pan/gutkha inside my cab
Apart from these, the chauffeur should also know how to speak, read and write in English. Pretty impressive that the chauffeur, Mr. Anwar Azad, passed with a ten-on-ten.
This made me curious to know how Meru functions, leading to a series of questions to Mr. Azad, which ended with a conclusion as to how Meru's modus operandi creates a win-win situation for Meru, the chauffeur and the customer.


Advantage Meru

Meru has a simple rule. Each chauffeur will pay 850 bucks per day to Meru no matter what. The cab can be used in two ways: 1. By taking the bookings made via the Meru call center and 2. If no bookings are currently allocated, then the chauffeur can pick up any one on the road in need of a Meru cab or any previous customer that call him at that time. But whatever the case may, the chauffeur gets a booking or the cab is empty the whole day, he has to pay 850 bucks to the company. Besides, a security deposit of R 10000 is collected from every chauffeur. Furthermore, the chauffeur is also penalized for not abiding to any of the points mentioned in the pledge.

So how does this work out for Meru?
  • Meru has more than 1400 cabs within the boundaries of Mumbai and Thane; i.e. 1400 X 850 = R 11,90,000 per day and R 3,57,00,000 per month.
  • Meru has a single office in Mumbai (2 floors in Mind Space, Malad West) that comprises of the 24X7 Call center and the Chauffeur Training center.
  • Meru has a maintenance center in Kandivali east.
  • Meru earns huge amounts from advertisements pasted on the cabs.
This means that the profit Meru has a constant profit margin and this is not dependent on the number of bookings it gets per day/month. It has a fixed amount of expenses too, which helps maintain the profit margins.


Advantage Chauffeur

The chauffeur has to take care of the following expenses.
  • Paying Meru R 850 per day
  • Gas refills for the cab
  • Any expense on keeping the car clean
The maintenance of the car is taken care by Meru.
After hearing this, initially I got the thought that the chauffeur would hardly be saving anything. But Mr. Azad told me that after taking out the above expenses from the earnings (an average of R 1500 daily), he can still manage to save 12000 to 15000 bucks per month, which is twice the average salary you get as a driver in Mumbai.
Apart from that, there are many other advantages that keep the chauffeur happy.
  • The car remains with him and he can use it for his personal purposes (Meru is only concerned with 850 bucks per day)
  • He and his clothes remain clean and fresh throughout the day
  • He gets to use the luxury of air condition. And since the windows are closed, he doesn't get any health problems from dust and pollution
  • He just has to log off from the company's system, when he wants to use the car for his own purpose
  • Since he is driving a nicely maintained air conditioned cab, he earns respect, which is generally not given to a black-n-yellow cab driver.

Advantage Customer

The most basic necessity of a customer in this case is timely service, and a Meru cab has to be the obvious choice over all the other cab services for the following reasons.

Size does matter:
Meru has more than 1400 cabs in Mumbai itself that cover Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and the outskirts like Karjat, Pen and Alibaugh. Mumbai has over 2000 kms of road. This means, on an average, there is one Meru cab at every 1.5 km. This makes it possible for the cab to reach in 30 minutes after the booking. Moreover the large number of cabs increases the probability of finding an available cab for your booking.
The competitors are not even close to the count. Mega Cabs has around 500 cabs and Easy Cab has hardly touched the count of 300 cabs.

Fair Fare:
The meter charges for a Meru cab are R 20 for the first kilometer, and R 14 for every subsequent kilometer. These rates are same across the other private cab service providers.
However, if you think a Cool cab (Blue and Silver) is cheaper, the you are terribly wrong. Cool Cab charges a fixed price to travel between two points. For example, the charges from Borivali to Dadar are R 600, whereas if you take a Meru, it would hardly go beyond R 400. What's more is that even our normal black-n-yellow cabs are expensive for long distances. These cabs charge R 16 for the first 1.6 kms, and R 17 for every subsequent kilometer.

Comparison Chart:
Here are some of the facts of different cab services for your comparison. Facts speak for themselves.
When I was inquiring for this information at their respective call centers, everyone was friendly and open enough to give out the information, except for Mega cabs. Here is the conversation I had with their representative, mind you, some senior executive.

Me: Hi, I need some information about Mega cabs.
Exec: Yes sir, where do you want to book the cab for?
Me: No. I just want some information regarding your services.
Exec: Sure sir, go on.
Me: Can you tell me the approximate count of cabs you have in Mumbai?
Exec: Eh ... Actually sir we cannot give you that information. It is against company policy.
Me: As a customer, I am trying to find out the best cab services for me, for which I need this information to make a decision. Don't you think it would help your services grow too?
Exec: Yes sir, but it is against the policy. We are not authorized give out this information.
Me: Ok. Can you find me a person who is authorized to provide me this information.
Exec: No sir. It is against the policy.
Me: What? Finding an authorized person is against the policy?
Exec: No sir. Giving information.
Me: Ok. Can you give me your Chairman's name?
Exec: No Sir. Against company policy.
Me: Even the chairman's name cannot be given out? Are you running some kinda CIA services?

There are some upcoming features in Meru that will make it more convenient and luxurious for traveling: Credit card payment and music system. Some cabs have this already in place. The others will be ready soon, that too, at the same cost.

So, in conclusion, Meru prevails as the best cab service in Mumbai.

I rest my case!
3:57 PM | Category: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 comments

I Will Find A Way To You
My friends are going to laugh at me when they read this saying 'Oh No! Not Again!'

I know you want me, You know I want you ... That was the kind of confidence with which I walked towards her. But as it has always been the case, and no matter how cool I suppose to be, I am not cool in such situations. The words leave my dictionary, my mouth is like a drought affected land, my tongue is way back in my mouth speaking to my tonsils and my bowels go missing somewhere behind my intestines. I've been so ... always!

It's sad! Really sad! And what's surprising is that I can flirt with many other girls. But when it comes to this one special girl who has pressed the right buttons on my telephone (no pun intended) and made a connection, I am dumbstruck. I have been fortunate in the past to have girls in my life despite this disability. But I don't think I have done enough good things in life that god will be that graceful again.

Here is my situation. There is a girl I met recently and I can't (rather I won't) take her out of my head. I don't know what really clicked for me, but it was probably the way she dances. Wow! Like a Greek goddess. You, you and you too, should just watch her dance once. It might seem that I am being pretty shallow, and probably I am, but consider the fact that I have known her since just a few months, so I do not know much about her. I really have no clue if she is the girl I want to bring into my life. But I wish to explore that horizon and find it out. This time, more in depth study, 'coz I don't wanna hit the ground face first, again. How? I have no damn clue!

I was speaking to one close friend today and she tried giving me ideas to strike a conversation. And now I know that I wasn't that close to this close friend of mine. I didn't know that she didn't know that the ideas she gave me are not to attract girls but to drive them away by giving an impression that I am an orthodox, narrow-minded person. Let's just leave it to that without discussing her ideas. So here I am again, trying to find ways to meet her, to talk to her, to know her better.

Does this girl like you? Well, not quite sure. I have tried to give her subtle innuendos whenever we have met (even when we met the first time), however I don't know if they were conspicuous enough for her to pick them up, though I fancy my chances and I like to believe that she did.

So far the status quo is that it's 2AM, the sleepless eyes are wide open, yet dreaming of her dancing in her own sensuous way, and I try to push things on tomorrow. What I am afraid of is what if tomorrow never comes and I never get to say it to her. Hopefully I'll end my quiet-until-she's-gone mode and express what I feel for her, soon.

I'll do it girl! I'll find a way to you, if it kills me! ... No, I did not say the last part. I take it back ... I'll just find a way to you somehow :P

1:55 AM | Category: , | 1 comments

End Of Innings ... But A Sixer On The Last Ball

Hello All,

This mail is addressed to a few chosen ones, who have similar beliefs and opinion about this stinking part of the corporate world.
And if you differ, please ignore the mail. :)

I have seen eight inglorious years at Patni, from 2003 to 2010.
I was surprised to learn that even companies grow like human beings, from a fetus to a baby, a baby to a toddler, a toddler to a teenager, a teenager to an adult, an adult to an aged.
But I didn’t know then that even companies can catch a cold, or in extreme cases, a plague or a cancer. Yes! It is true. I have seen the rise and fall of Patni.

I have seen the PMS when it was a windows based application, before it was shifted online to ePMS.
I have seen people eLearning, then changing the PACE to keep up with the competition.
I have seen people LEAPing and LEANing, trying to PROPEL towards a higher goal.
I have seen people being lured into the so called glamour of the MS degree, who later realized that it was just the cheese hooked to a mouse trap.
They even put in lot of thoughts and iDEAS, but were slammed down in Talent Review and Appraisals. The KNOWLEDGE was good when it was at the CENTER. Now it is hardly XCHANGEd.
Patni did show some concern towards its employees by saying E-Care, if not I Care.

Then the light dawned upon them. They realized we need to do something else to keep our name.
Let’s bring a radical change, a change that will keep the employees wondering for some time.
And until they realize that the change is going to take them nowhere, we would have survived through the tough times.
So they TRIMmed the SDLC and came up with Patni PLUS. As the name suggests, it just PLUSed my already existing templates.

During the world wide slow down, Patni decided to make another announcement, this time a much bigger radical change … iChange!
The employees kept wondering for a long time what good is this change going to bring them now.
All the higher level organization structures were dismantled and reinstalled. The employees kept looking with their eye balls popped out and jaws dropped.
The changes at the top seemed like a tsunami wave growing bigger and bigger, adding to the excitement of the employees.
But as the wave came closer, it suddenly calmed down as a tamed pet or the waves hitting the mangroves hardly allowing them to reach the thirsty shore.

Patni has been trying to ECO-TRACK this ecological change. But the termites have reached the darkest corners and the deepest roots and I don’t see a chance of survival.

Last year, we had no choice but to live suppressed, coz it was your day.
This year, we have the chance to raise our head to the sunlight, above the garbage we have been buried under for years.
This year, I have realized I need to change …
And that’s why iCHANGEd!

I see the corporate world as a world full of Tamatar-walas.
The tamatar wala keeps showing you different tamatars, each looking nice and juicy from outside.
It’s when you reach inside, you get the real taste.
I don’t deny that some were indeed tasty inside, but that is a rare case.
For a long time, tamatarwala keeps bargaining and at the same time doesn’t let you buy tamatar from any other tamatarwala.
But you need to realize that bargaining is not the way to live, you’ll die hungry.
You need to buy some tamatar finally. If not from this tamatarwala then from some other one, but you need to eat.
And That’s it! I am hungry and I need to eat, and this tamatarwala is not giving me tamatar.
So I am changing my tamatarwala!

Don’t take it personally. It’s business!
All the best … to me and to you!

With no emotions at all.
From,
A hungry stomach and a wrecked up mind.

9:59 PM | Category: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 comments