Growing young.

As we grow old so do our parents and a lot of people around. Apart from growing old physically there's a stage after which their mental growth ceases. Call it the early 70's or mid 70's. This is a time when the brain stops developing any more, rather it slowly starts switching off it's sections. To put it in a simple way, after that peak period everyone starts growing young. They start their journey towards becoming a child again, naïvely enjoying everyday as a new one.

There are short term and long term memory losses. Listening to and focusing on normal conversations could be a problem. Vision starts to die away. The body has already started giving up. They are going to be slow now. Don't expect them to have the same reaction time as you. This is the period when you have to be patient... as patient as your mom and dad were when you were a baby or sometimes even more patient than that. Think of them as children.

But can I even compare them with a child? A child is so full of energy. Everyone around them is delighted, overjoyed with their presence and entertained by their monkeying around. Well, obviously don't expect that from the old timers. But ask them about their college days or workplace memories and see them amaze you. Oh and if you think they are not as cute as a child, just go back in time for a moment. Think of those days when your mom/dad used to tell people how cute, sweet and intelligent you were even if you were slow amongst most of the kids, dark in complexion, too fat to run or too skinny like a dry twig. They don't even expect you to give any accolades, although one or two wouldn't really hurt ;) But at least don't look at them as if they have committed a crime.

Go slow with them on certain matters. Getting pissed off won't do the work faster, would it now?! Do you remember how often they used to repeat stuff till you got it right or till you were satisfied. They would do all that with a childish and godly tone.

For some time forget they are your mom and dad or uncle and aunts or a random person you met at the bank! She’s the most beautiful, sweetest girl; he’s a bit boyish at times but still your chubby, cute boy. They are like kids now! :)

And for those who don't want to accept this fact, remember that life is a cycle and you are going to be old too. What goes around comes around!

The Roomie Hunt!

And so the database on Orkut’s RU Fall 07 starts filling-up with people trying to show how I am a “roomie material” :D
These are all 4 of us:

Name: Siddharth Wagh
Age: 21
religion: Hindu
I stay at: Borivali, Mumbai
Currently pursuing: Sem 8, Electronix engg, VJTI
Program in Rutgers: MS in ECE
Housing preferred: Off-campus (one which is cheaper)

Languages i know: Marathi, Hindi, English
Eating habits: Non-veg. esp SEA FOOD. am an absolute foodie. can eat almost anything. Karwari style food at home.
Cooking: Am learning.
Smoking/ Drinking: Social drinker (3-4 times/yr) Non-smoker
Any eccentricities? none.
Hobbies: Singing, reading fiction/non-fiction, drawing, travelling

Yahoo ID: callwhitetiger
Gmail: siddharth.wagh@gmail.com
MSN: talkwithsid (rarely used)

Compatibility??
Preferably males. Good sense of humor as well as ability to withstand a bad one. Smokers who dont smoke in my face are ok. non-smokers are welcome. Basically, i cant handle people with moods varying in extremes. A balanced persona is a must.



Name: Indraneel Kulkarni
Age: 22
religion: Hindu
Currently pursuing: Working. passed out in 2006
Program in Rutgers: EE Control syst
Housing preferred: Off Campus

Languages i know: Hindi, English, Marathi
Eating habits: I love Veg, non-veg both, though stictly no sea food, but i dont have problem with people eating it.
Cooking : Under training......
Smoking/ Drinking: Occasional drinker(once or twice in 3-4 months) strictly no smoking....
Any eccentricities? No eccentricities (found yet... lol)
Hobbies: Sports,Playing Violin, reading etc...

Yahoo ID: neel_24_2000@yahoo.com
Gmail: neel2407@gmail.com
MSN: neelsteer@msn.com

Compatibility room-mate)
Sensibility is a must...level headed..with reasonable tolerance... no naggers please...
social with at least a little sense of humor.....
I Stay at: Santacruz(W)...Mumbai..



Name : Prashant Jadhav
Age: 21
Religion: Hindu
Currently pursuing: Last sem of Electronics and telecom. Engg in FrCRIT,VASHI at Mumbai University
Program in Rutgers: MS in ECE
Housing preferred: Offcampus(bcoz it is cheaper)

Languages i know: English , Marathi , Hindi
Eating habits: Veg/Non veg
Smoking/ Drinking: NO
Any eccentricities? : none
Hobbies: music(listening as well as singing), Reading , Sports(cricket,football,table tennis(amateur),badminton!)

Yahoo ID: prashu_8519@yahoo.co.in
Gmail: prashant.mjadhav@gmail.com
Compatibility?? : Preferably non smoking and non drinking.
Cooking : Still learning
I stay at: Koparkhairne(Navi Mumbai)


Name: Jay Takle
Age: 22
religion: Hindu
I stay at: Dadar, Mumbai
Currently pursuing: Working, Passed out 2006
Program in Rutgers: MS in MECH
Housing preferred: Off-campus

Languages i know: Marathi, Hindi, English
Eating habits: Non-veg/Veg (I mean anything, but am a Non-veg freak)
Cooking: Basic training under way.
Smoking/ Drinking: Once or twice a year, Non-smoker
Any eccentricities: None.
Hobbies: Swimming,Travelling, Watching & reading fiction, Exercising.

Yahoo ID: jaytakle@yahoo.co.in
Gmail: jaytakle@gmail.com
Compatibility??
Jolly & lively people are my best friends I must say. Smokers & occasional Drinkers are no probs with me. And did I mention that HUMOUR is my middle name!

We even had Taj certified Chefs in that database :O The only thing that was highlighted for me in Siddharth’s info was ‘Non-veg. esp SEA FOOD. am an absolute foodie. can eat almost anything.’ and ‘Good sense of humor as well as ability to withstand a bad one.’ Now that’s where we started talking on yahoo messenger and the lines are still fresh in my mind “Tula masey avadtat, arrey malapan avadtat" (you like fish? Me too!), "khup jamega rang jab mil baithengey 3 yaar, tu, main aur apna paplet fry!” Not that we cook fish everyday, for that matter in these last 2yrs we have had fish at our house just thrice. It’s the feeling that someone else too shares your interests that makes you happy.

Now time to search the other two. There were long conversations of visas, general info on the orkut community but none of roomie meets.
Finally Tejas started the meet venue and time post after which everyone confirmed on Infinity Mall.
Quoting the Orkut post:
“Mohnish:
23rd Infinity Mall
So then its fixed finally. For rutgers ppl --> 23rd June at 3 pm at Infinity Mall in Andheri. Anyone not frm Mumbai who can manage to come are also welcome”

Siddharth was going to come from Vile-Parle (marriage) and I was coming from Dadar. So we decided we’ll go to the mall together. Incidentally I was gonna go to Vile-Parle & Siddharth to Dadar after the meet :P I had seen Siddharth only on orkut. After almost a wait for 10mins outside the Andheri station McDonalds, Siddharth called me to tell me he’s coming to the front gate and that he’s wearing a white kurta. In 5 mins I saw someone coming towards me. “What the hell is that?” :O A white kurta alright but with long hair and a hair band. I was stunned for a moment and was picturising siddharth as a rock band guitarist head banging. He came up to me and started talking in Marathi. Phew then I came back to my senses :D

We took a rickshaw to Infinity and went up to the food court. I could see around 20 people chatting and smiling at each other. From what I recollect Akshay Shetty, Askhay Jog, Mohnish, Bhushan, Shahil, Tejas, Puneet, Ronak Shah, Melville, Jayant and Indraneel were there. Me and siddharth were going up to people introducing ourselves as roomies & searching for 2 more. It was only after this that I could relate them to their Orkut profiles :P Ahh the first match we found was Melville & Jayant, both Universal Non-vegs like us, and Melville also had a same G-shock as mine :P

My phone started ringing as I was talking with Melville. Prashant called me to ask where exactly we were in the mall. I started giving him directions till he reached the food court ‘safely’. He was…well 30mins late I think.

Just as we were moving around there was a discussion about a VEGGIE group being formed to make it easy for veggie roomies. Then there was Akshay Jog telling people which hard-disk to buy and what all “Important Stuff” we need in the Disk….in 10s of GB’s mind you ;)
After almost an hour of telling which Univs we rejected and which rejected us, everyone started feeling hungry. Siddharth and me still had our reserves in the tummy, Indraneel was going home. Prashant was the one most pissed off, he was there for only half an hour now and we were leaving. “Shya, I had to come all the way from navi mumbai yaar, for just half an hour!” Since Prashant too was going by train we 3 went to the station in a rick and had a talk with prashant on the roomie issue. Someone, some idiot took up the task of noting down everyone’s cell phone # and was supposed to post them on the Yahoo group, it never came up there :X

Alright so the meet was a good one, time to go through everyone’s profile. Of course! What do you mean by ‘why stalk others profile’, more than half of the people had tried to make a good “Roomie Resume” in the ‘About yourself’ thread. Some might have even gone to the extent of changing their profile info. As an example I had a totally different profile for my friends in Siemens. They were one of my best friends and I didn’t want them to hate me so early (I knew they would, once I told them about my MS plans). When I did, I shifted them back to my original profile and I am happy I didn’t lose them, they still remain my best friends. Yes I am selfish, I don’t mind being selfish for friends.

After going through a lot of possible and eligible roomies, siddharth and I finalized 5 people amongst which Prashant clicked us the day we had a talk in the Rickshaw and the way back to the station. Indraneel was in too because of the fact that he was going to get trained in making chapattis (sense our joy when we picturised hot chapati’s being served :P)

06/28/2007
This was a common format sent to both Indraneel & Prashant asking them if they would like to join us.

Prashant saheb kay mhantay? Roommate confirm kele ka?
Nahi tar, kya aap humko aapke sath rehnekey layak samjhenge?
Kay boltos? Do reply.

Regards
Jay Takle &
Siddharth Wagh


Prashant replied with a simple yes. Following was the conversation between me and Indraneel:

wah, aab toh maja ayega! Jab mil baithenge hum 5 log.... aap, mai, sid, prashant aur hamare jokes!!!

indraneel kulkarni wrote:

Namaskar Saheb..........
thank u for the offer....I m obliged.......
Will join u all for sure.

Thanks & Regards
Indraneel Kulkarni

jay takle wrote:

Neel saheb kay mhnatay? Roommate confirm kele ka?
Nahi tar, kya aap humko aapke sath rehneke layak samjhenge?
Kay boltos? Do reply.

Regards
Jay Takle &
Siddharth Wagh

And so was formed, my new family away from home. We had one meeting in a Borivali park where Siddharth used to do his marathon practice. This one was to finalize stuff that would be used by all of us and to avoid any redundancies. And this one’s to show how naïve we were then….
Indraneel: Arrey which all languages do you know?
Siddharth: I just know Hindi, Marathi & English. Why do we need to know any more??
Me, Indraneel & Prashant were laughing literally rolling on the floor. It didn’t click siddharth till Indraneel told him “Arrey I was asking about Computer Languages :P”

It started raining then and we had to move in under a shade. We were the only ‘all boys team’ there, the other people around us at that time were couples. As we were murmuring about utensils, clothes, household stuff the couples started looking at us in a racist manner. Wtf can’t 4 boys ever be just friends….I am asking you…..you who’s reading! :D

But I doubt if I could have found anyone more perfect than these 3. When I want to talk about any Tech stuff or go to the Gym, indraneel is always game. When I want someone to sing on my bad guitar notes or want company to take out the trash and then roam around a bit in cedar lane, prashant is ready with a devilish smile. And if it’s being passionate about food or having a lot of similar interests (which I don’t want to disclose :D) Siddharth is the first person who comes to my mind!