Montreal

Montreal welcomed me with snow. As soon as my flight landed it started snowing. What does that signify? I don't know! I am too bothered to think of metaphors right now. The last 2 days have been full of nostalgia and self doubt. Did I make the right decision? Was it worth leaving my cozy life in Pune? Lets see, I will know soon.
The city is beautiful and I loved the walk down St. Catherine. Hoping to make interesting freinds here. Happy new year to Everyone, I hope mine is very happy and...

End of an Era

It does feel like end of an era. An era has ended in my life, the era of HSBC. Peut etre, era of Indian software companies. Today was my last day at HSBC. I feel sad. Take back really happy meories, of the events, the people, the experience. My first onsite trip, London, Canary wharf, a dream office. Then the fun I had with the team back in India.
Yesterday while returning from office, as I sat on the pillion seat, passing by GLT 1.0, thoughts came rushing to my mind. I suddenly realised it would be my last day tomorrow. I could remember the winter evenings of last year, me sharing a joke with a colleague, on the Level 5 terrace. The scene was beautiful, it was twilight and the Yerwada bridge was twinkling, courtesy, the traffic on it.
I remember when I left Nihilent, a good friend of mine asked me if I was feeling a little sad. I said no and I wasn't lying. Leaving Nihilent excited me! However now I understand what she was talking about. I will certainly miss HSBC.
Maybe the feeling is more because I got a splendid farewell. Not only did my team gift me a huge card and parker pens(yeah mon fav. brand) but so did the reporting team. I just didn't know how to thank them!
Bye Bye Kalyani Nagar, GLT, HSBC...I won't write a comment saying
"HSBC AN 16/12/2006:Added for Defect#20006" anymore!

Au Revoir...

Jinn

Jinn
Originally uploaded by abhi8381.

Grand Success, time to bid farewell

It's strange but I never thought that a 2 -minute performance could ever generate so much of adulation. I was hoping that the play turns out well. Not exactly. It turned out exceedingly well. I mean, the crowd was cheering and laughing in each scene. A big relief really, as I wasn't only an actor in the play but I had also written the story. So the acceptance of the story by the crowd mattered a lot to me. And also it was great to see that each and every actor performed amazingly in the final show.....too good guys.

I had an idea that people will like my role because of the reaction I received in the rehersals and also my department head's reaction during the review practice. But I had never imagined the kind of things people said to me yesterday night. Imagine this, a professional choreographer comes up to me and says"Do you perform dance shows professionally? Your dance step where you go around the stage was mind blowing"

Someone else "Have you learnt classical dancing" I say"No" He says "R u sure ?"

There were many who told me I was fabulous especially the dance but the best one was when this guy told me

"You were the performer of the night"

and believe me there were many other performances that night which were of amazing standards. And what was it with the photographs? Was it my costume? After the skit whenever I got up to go the food bar or to the restroom, people would stop me on the way and take a picture, whether it would be on their handicams, digital cameras or even mobile phones! Thanks for appreciation guy n gals, it feels great for sure.

There is no doubt that the CIBM townhall was of a much higher standard than the HSBC Annual day, whether it be the compering, singing or the dances. My favourite though was the "Kabuliwala" song sung by Jayant. He is too good a singer not to be singing professionally.

I hope I can get a CD of that night's performance. I just want to see what exactly did I do right:)
I thought I was doing a comedy sequence on stage but being complemented in such a manner for my dance was suprising to say the least. These last days at HSBC have been memorable ones, not that the earlier ones were not. Will talk about that some other day.

So the verdict is out, "Munnu Ka Chirag" which released on Friday, 8th December 2006 at the Elysium grounds, Koregaon Park was a superhit!!! Come to think of it and I realise we ended up making up a Bollywood masala skit. The skit had serious scenes, it had comedy, a romantic scene, a song for almost every character and yes some action too! Madam H in a action packed role:) . We made a bollywood potboiler guys...haha. Let the whole cast and crew take bow. "Guuyhhhzzz all of you were fahntashtic."



PS: Couldn't use Salaam E Ishq songs for the cast intro at the end as the play was getting stretched beyond it's time limit. But I am sure the song would have gone perfectly with the crowd mood.

Walk down memory lane

Thinking of a story, writing script and dialouges, is new for me. But not acting. That too acting out an Arabian Nights character in a musical. Now, what does that remind me of:)))

Abdullah! Few of my fondest memories. Those were days of fun and enjoyment.

Not to say that I am not having fun this time round. It's always fun to act and dance. The rehersals are fun filled, with loud laughter and crazy thinking. Hope it turns out the way I am imagining it to be. I wait patiently for Friday. My play releases on a Friday...hheeehee

Dream come True?

PS: Salaam -E - Ishq has fantastic tracks. Thinking of using the title in the play.