OTFFU

This the how the OTFFU t-shirt looked from the front













This is how the rear side of OTFFU T-shirt looked





OT first floor or simply OTFF is a historic place in GIM. Actually, GIM or Old Goa Hospital itself being so historic owing to its 150 years old building, OT is its small subset. It has its own flair and memories which the Goans are associated with.

But over here, I am talking about the historic angle which is attached to OTFF as a residence. OTFF was home to so many ppl in the last 14-15 years. It has been traditionally proven, over and over again, that OTFF was home to not only the guys who stayed in those rooms but also the ladies who used to stay and (most of the time) work at OTFF!!

Things happen so quickly in OTFF. Friendships. Relationships. Projects. Music change. Decisions. Venues to go for dinner. So many things.

OTFF is not just a place. It is a platform. It is a mindset that all its residents have within themselves as well as for each other. This mindset is such a big thing. It automatically brings that respect, that acceptibility, that resonance which no other place in GIM can provide. And this mindset is shared across not just amongst the residents, but the visitors as well.

OTFF is a brand in itself. Be it alumni meets, be it internally organized bucket parties. It is always known as OTFF party. The brand was so strong that we made a union to protect this brand. We called this body as OTFF union or simply OTTFU.

And we made OTFFU a brand. All parties were henceforth being organized by the OTFFU. We made an exlusive community on Orkut by the name OTFFU!!

We in fact made an exclusive OTFFU T-shirt. This was a limited edition launch and we then realized that this can be promoted in all alumni meets!! Hence we did that. And it was an instantanneous success!! And why would it not be?? Which GIMite is not proud of OTFF? The idea was obviously appreciated.

The idea, by the way, was conceptualised by CS and Alimax. What an idea!! The T-shirt's front view had a message " Statutory Warning Addiction Guaranteed" with the GIM logo above placed at the centre and not at the side (unlike the normal GIM t-shirt). This concept was taken from Adidas. The logo is always at the centre. The reverse had all the major activities that used to happen on the OTFF like Pela Pela, etc. The color chosen was white and black.

Pela Pela was fun. Though many ppl found it too disturbing (especially from the junior batch), but then who the fuck cares!! We enjoyed playing it! Whosoever started Pela Pela, dude, our hats off to u.....wherever u r!!

One thing was certain. This place was not for those who wanted to be alone, who focused on acads, who were used staying in Hill top. OTFF was a place which attracted all out of which a handful (57 ppl to be precise; 3 X 4=12, 3 X 1=3, 2 X 21=42) resided.

We brought in carom board there which was again a huge success. Hardly any doors were latched. This demonstrated the openness of the place, the free nature of the ppl who live there, the masculinity attached with the place!!

OTFF was a phenomenon which brought about the uniqueness of living in GIM. This uniqueness was itself an idea which shared across the batch!! We shared happiness in OTFF. We shared all our secrets there. We shared smokes in OTFF. We shared booze in OTFF.

GIM to was a unique phenomenon that happened to all of us. The biggest factor why this phenomenon was unique to most of us was OTFF.

The baton of OTFFU has been passed on. The brand I am sure is gonna stay in the decades to come.

Placement memories

How often have u seen Naveen like that??


Ya baby!! those smiles are priceless!!

And those too!!
How often do u see that?? My best pic during placement week!

And more smiles!!
And even more smiles!!

Casa de Cha

This is Manoj Uncle, owner, Casa

I never understood why we ignored this place in the first year. We always used this place for fags or simply chai at very irregular intervals. This could be due the fact that we weren't sure of such a place and since hardly anybody had meals there, nobody could know the greatness of the food there.

So what is so great about the place. Is it the food? Is it the place itself (almost on the banks of Mandovi and the view from the window seat was so serene!!)? Is it the service which Manoj uncle used to give. Why on earth we got so emotional and so attached with this place in the 2nd yr?

I think it all started with summers. Quite a few of our batchmates were doing their summers in Goa. And it was they who started having their lunch at Casa. And i think it was they who made the place so popular.

We tried. We liked it. We really liked it!! For the non-veg ppl, Wed and Fri was spl because chicken was prepared. And the best thing about the food at Casa was the simplicity. The simplicity was expressed in taste, in preparation, in serving.

And the lunch was usually followed by lime soda - "nimbu soda". This drink was a big hit. Everyone liked it. Everyone had it at least once. We used to have it after lunch. We used to have it after a match played be it Volleyball or football or cricket. This drink was consumed by all and it saw becoming a part of all the post discussions which used to happen after the matches or any other discussion - be it private or public.

Other items offered at Casa were nimbu cha (lemon tea), half fry, masala pav, samosas and MIRCHI PAKODA. This was one more item which was so popular. Prof Mirchi was asked my Manoj Unlce "Mirchi pakoda?" and Prof Mirchi used to say "haan..one plate". And then i used to ask Mirchi.."sir, u also come in plates???" and he used to laugh it away!!

So everyone was very closely associated with Casa. Be it us or Fac. CMR used to spend 1/3rd of his time at Casa out of the time he used to spend at the institute. Prof. Ranjini, Prof Sarita, Mukesh, Vivek the librarian, Prof Nagu, Prof Mihir, Prof Anand.

One fac which was never seen (or perhaps was seen only once or max twice) was Prof Parulekar. I still don't have any clue why he was hardly seen at Casa. Nina Jacob was one other person never seen there. But then HR ppl have their own creativity in explaining why they do things differently!! Sundaram would agree with me on this.

One typical habit we had developed in the 4th term was playing CS the whole night and then have breakfast at Casa. And then sleep the whole day. Visitng Facs were very kind enough to come in the middle of the term during the weekends. Hence we were vella the whole day.

This was followed by lunch at Casa. I always used to have Veg thali with more than 2 kappas in it. The typical ingredients of the thali were:
1) 2 cups of rice
2) papad
3) Salad
4) Dal
5) Bhaaji
6) Sol kari.
7) Kappa
8) pickles.

The non-veg didn't have Bhaaji and pickles. Fish (baangra or king fish and on very rare occasions prawns) was the regular feature in the non-veg thali.

As you can see, simplicity of the food was the biggest strength. But later on it was more of a hang-out joint. When we didn't want to be in the institute, we used to be at Casa.

Carlos and that lazy person (never knew his name).....were a typical feature of Casa. Carlos typical was hardly seen. But whenever he was visible, he was always on his toes. And that lazy person always used to forget the orders he took. Hence he always used to come the 2nd time to check whether he missed out any order. It turned out that he had to take most of the orders again.

I think this delay did a lot of things. It helped in oozing out all the fatigue we used to carry before entering Casa. I think it did a lot in building the bondage we share as a batch in a big way.

If one does an analysis on the time spent outside the campus, then Casa would have a market share of more than 75%. This means that apart from classrooms and hostel rooms, the no. of times we used to go out, we used to be at Casa almost 8 out of 10 times. This is huge. As daily crowding at Casa was so frequent.

This daily crowding got infected so rapidly to our junior batch as well. In that way, they are damn lucky as we never had such infections!!

The biggest day in Manoj uncle's life would be when he recieved 80 grand in one day. This was our last day at the institute. Uncle was so over-whelmed that he was treating all of us with beer and cold-drinks at Gene's. In spite of us not wanting them any more, he kept "dumping" those bottles of beer on us.

And he was in tears when we all were leaving. As Ishaan and Ashish had put it, he misses us as much as we miss him. I miss that beg thali. Those kappas. That nimbu soda.

Jaggu's and Kal's juice centre

Jaggu and gang. Former Volleyball champs

Kailash and his fruits at his outlet

These places has its own history. When we came in to GIM in 2006, there was no food served at Jaggu's then and the place was simply used for packaged foods like wafers, kurkure, etc, beverages like tea, coffee and cold drinks and ice creams.
We also used to purchase our stationary items from there. Phone recharge was also one amenity available there. Food sucked at Joe's and hence we used to either eat at Gene's or go out or selectively eat at Joe's.

Kal's juice center was crowded at specific intervals like just before 8:30 or 9 am classes, breaks in between 2 consequtive lectures, post lunch or post dinner, etc. Some ppl used to have their lunch in the form of fruit plate.

Both Kailash and Jaggu provided taxi services to the students (and one or two fac members) which used to be quite a respite to all us as both Madgaon station and Dabolim Airport were like 45 min to 1.5 hours of journey. A phone call was enough to take care of the logistics.

We became a lot closer to Jaggu especially after he got the approval to prepare Paratha's and Maggi and bread-omlette and curry-rice and other "non-meal" items. Our going out to dine was drastically reduced especially in 4th and 5th terms when the elective selectively were ripping our asses apart.

Turn wise mktg guys, fin guys and HR guys had to continuously attend anywhere between 3 to 6 lectures per day . And we used to have small breaks in between 2 lectures of 10 to 15 min. Both Jaggu and Kailash (and Casa....post on which is coming soon) gave us the necessary break.

The food item was just a tool to ooze off our mental fatigue which was done usually by Bakar sessions either with a smoke or just like that.

Parathas for lunch with a coke and Rajma or curry chawal for dinner followed by coffee or ice cream was a routine thing. Capstone, MI, Pricing, voleyball, cricket, football, movies, fac members, juniors, leg pulling of fellow batchmates, companies, career.

Everything was discussed on those stairs. It was open forum where everyone participated (while on their way to Jaggu's) and gave their opinions.
An example:
We were having dinner and while having dinner, we were trying to prove why Anant Sandhu is called a poojari or a sethbaaj!! After at least 3 to 4 rounds of rigorous discussions, which involved not less than 10 to 12 ppl, we could convincingly prove that Anant Sandhu is a sethbaaj and he is a poojari!!

All of these are not coming back to us. We might come back to them once every year for a day or 2 to relive these moments. But for the meantime, we don't have those parathas or chai and above all those bakar sessions.

Blog Community

The blogs which have been launched by our batchmates so far are as follows:

1) http://peace-memories.blogspot.com/
(Tapan)

2) http://eplanalysis.blogspot.com/
(Ashish Bardapurkar)

3) http://askdpankazz.blogspot.com/
(Pankazzz)

4) http://csthinks.wordpress.com/
(CS)

5) http://daysofhourlives.blogspot.com/
(Ishaan)

6) http://vivekspeakz.blogspot.com/
(Vivek)

7) http://iplbydruid.blogspot.com/
(Sundaram)

Football memories

Did he score any goal? Maybe that's why that pose?


How did Falcons score that goal is still a mystery. But they scored it against Nanak!!


She doesn't have anything to do with the match!! That's P.An for u!!



The post-match analysis at Casa. Lemon Soda and Maggi and Kadak cha and etc.


The champs of 2008!

aaaa and lalala

I don't exactly remember which class in the very first term of our PGP1 days was it, when I was given this "aaaa" tag. The man behind this hugely famous tag is none other than hamaara neta Vaibhav Rampuria. I still can't figure out why did he do it. But it made me known as aaaa or made aaaaa know as Tapan.

I am still called Tapaaaan or simply "aaaaa" or "lalala"

The history of its origin goes back to the CP days of PGP1 in the first term when all were unusually active in class and hardly 3 to 5 ppl slept in the class. Courses like Marketing 1 and OSD drove enthu CPs whereas courses like FAM and Micro Eco drove forced CPs.

Irrespective of the course, my style of delivering a CP was unique. This unique style was advertised in a big way!! And following are the examples of how it was advertised and my aaaa (which is just a natural pause either between sentences or words) was made famous:

My attendance was never in the form yes sir/ma'am, but a loud "aaaa" from the crowd.

Whenever a fac asked me about my views, then it was preceded by an aaaa from the crowd

I actually was asked to sing a song "Kaun hai jo...." which had an aaaa in every line of its mukhdaa.....man that was something i must say.

In Mumbai, during our summers and in the first Mumbai meet, i was actually addressed as aaaa at CCD, Carter rd....thanks to Batta.

the first line in the Yearbook starts with a long aaaa!!! and my middle name in the year book is lalala.

GBMs, hi/hellos, Counter-strike, bakar sessions at Jaggu's and innumerable instances when this aaaa and lalala were used.

lalala has its own history.

I never played CS in the first year. I somehow managed to get a hand on it during the summer break where i used to stay in Wilson, Chowpati. I and Alton used to compete on our own machines as to who can kill the max terrorists at the same difficulty level and with the same no. of bots.

He never kept a name and i kept lalala.....maybe because of the music played in the room and i humming the tone. I never changed the name (and continued using it till the last time i played CS) and loved the response when my CS friends found out that lalala was me !!!

I never felt bad about it. In fact, marketing says, brands are recalled best by their distinctive characteristics which we imprint in our minds.

aaaa and lalala were just ways ppl used to recognize and turn around and look at me. There was an element of ridicule which initially was intended for. But eventually, these were just names (brands !!) which everyone used in those 2 lovely years to address me.

And everyone is definitely gonna remember these names in many years to come.

I want them to remember me as these names.

Be Together

I was thinking of continuing to write my blog the way i had planned earlier. But i don't think this plan is allowing me to share what i really have been longing for.

This includes my 2 absolutely fabulous years at GIM, my joinig HUL, my birthday get together recently held at Mumbai (where i almost got drowned!!) and many more. This would at least give me a kick to restart my blog ;)

So, i start with the latest. My birthday get-together. This day clearly is one of my most memorable days ever. To show their benign presence on this day were my closest of buddies. It was a great feeling when 21 ppl got together on an eve which ended the next day at 6 am!!

The excuse was to be there on my birthday; but the intention was to meet those ppl with whom there was a strong bondage. This bondage was an outcome of the 2 lovely years we spent at GIM. This bondage was just a reflection of the kind of proximity we demonstrated being the batch of 2008.

Why would one spent 6 grand and come from Delhi to Mumbai to just get together? Why would one fight with his folks to come from Nagpur in a train with his ticket not confirmed and bribe the TTC for just some sleep? All this for a get together? Why would one spend 5 grand and come from Hyderabad just because it is friend's birthday? And why would one come to Mumbai from Aurangabad to watch a Chelsea-Bolton Wanderers match in a place which just has an ambience to boast but no space to accomodate all their ardent fans?

All these ppl didn't turn up to be there just for my birthday. All these ppl turned up because they "really wanted" to be with their friends. Friends mean a lot to these ppl. Friends mean a lot to me. And this is why our batch is so special. We just need an excuse to be together.

We may live different lives in different circumstances. But when we get together, we live and talk and breathe the way we used to in GIM. Ppl who claim they have stopped drinking, all of a sudden order pitchers of beer!! We used to goto Aces in Goa, and we now goto Monde or SBX or even Gokul in Colaba!!

These things are never gonna change. We still would keep getting together, every now and then, and would keep enjoying every moment of those get togethers!