The 'Jab We Met' experience...................

Prologue -

--> Jab We Met is a Hindi movie in which the female protagonist misses her train and then meets a guy with whom she eventually falls in love. Lovely movie- go watch it if you have not. :)

--> Mumbai Central, Kurla, Byculla, Dockyard Road, Borivali are all sub-urban stations of Bombay, and the city is full of countless such stations for the local trains.

7th December, 2009

We all have heard about the 'kissas' that keep happening day in and day out in the city of Bombay. I too heard them. But, today it was my turn to witness one such 'kissa' first hand. (A 'kissa' is an interesting incident.)

After a lot of trouble, I had managed to get a confirmed ticket for going from Bombay to Amritsar. The scheduled time for departure of the train was 9.25 pm on 7th December, 2009, from Mumbai Central.

7th December also happens to be my Mom's b'day. That was the reason why I had booked my ticket on a night train. But then, since I was leaving, my Mom decided to celebrate it with our family at my maternal home. So, we left together and stopped for 5 minutes to buy a cake for her. I had decided to travel by a local train to reach the boarding station, since going by road in the rush hour would amount to foolishness. I reached Kurla from where I was supposed to get on another local for Byculla and get a taxi from there to reach Mumbai Central. Bombay and its commuting...PHEW!!

All this would normally take around 1 hour. We left the cake shop at 8.40. (First mistake -10 minutes late.) We reached Kurla at 8.50 and I quickly boarded a train that would take me to Mumbai CST (a terminus for all local trains) by literally jumping onto a moving train. After a while I asked a co-passenger about the time it would take to reach Byculla. He said around 15 minutes, and I thought, 'Okay, I think I would make it'. After a couple of minutes, he said that, 'You want to go to Byculla?? This train is a harbour line train, and it does not go to Byculla!!' (Bombay has 3 lines of local trains - Western , Central & Harbour, & Byculla is on the Central line.) I was shocked!! I knew well about the different lines, but in my hurry to get on a train, I did not realize that I had got on a harbour line train. (Second mistake that cost me 5 crucial minutes.) I called up a friend and asked about the nearest station to Byculla on the harbour line, since all the lines of local train lines run parallel to each other. I got off at a station called Dockyard Road. I ran and got on a cab, and asked the cabbie to get me to Mumbai Central ASAP, and also offered to pay extra to him for getting me there in lesser time. We hit traffic, but still managed to reach by 9.25. I was praying all through. I got off the cab, jumped over the divider and RAN. I got a porter to grab my baggage and ran with him. I reached the platform from where the train was to leave...huffing and panting.

I could see the train's end. It was chugging away, slowly. It had left on time, and I had reached about 2 minutes late. I had missed the train................................................

I quickly decided to run and try to catch the train from the next stop called Borivali, the last stop of my train in Bombay. I hopped on the local train completely packed with the rush hour crowd. People advised me against getting on the train, since it was very crowded, and it would only get more crowded before reaching Borivali, thus making it almost impossible to get off. 2 bags and a laptop bag would not have made my task any easier. But, still I had to get on it, if I was to have any chance of making it in time to get on my missed train. I explained my predicament to the co-passengers, and was delighted to see that all of them were ready to accommodate a silly guy who was trying to catch a train. One of them gave me space to stand with my bags, another one told me about how much time the train would take to reach Borivali, and yet another guy tried to calm me by saying that I would reach in time. I got to know from the railway inquiry (computerised and manual, both), that the train was running late by 22 mins, and thus it would reach at 10.24 pm. I called repeatedly to confirm the same and was relieved when I got the same info each time i called. I thought that I just might make it. One guy even called up his friend to find out if my train was indeed running late. He even offered to help me get down off the crowded train, and eventually did so too. I LOVE Bombay, and its lovely people. :)

I reached Borivali at 10.14 and could not find the train anywhere. I inquired at a tea stall, and got to know that the train had LEFT. At its scheduled time of 10.06. I reconfirmed the same at the Ticket Checker's office. The railway inquiry was wrong.

OMG I missed the train!! For the first time in my life, I had missed a train. And that too right in the beginning of a fortnight long trip.

Some might term it as irresponsible behaviour on my part, or maybe laugh it off, or hold me responsible and scold me, or even say that 'you advertised about your trip to everyone, toh pakka kisi ki nazar lag gayi hai'. I agree, it was irresponsible on my part, and I should have left earlier, and with a buffer on my hand. It was funny to a certain extent as well. But, still it has been a great learning experience. It was a first in my life, and I hope it would be the last. And somehow, as soon as the realization sunk in that the train has left, I somehow had the feeling that it happened for the good.

So, now I have booked a ticket for 10th, and I would be skipping the Amritsar leg of the trip. (I guess Babaji wants me to come to him at some other time.)

This is how my 'Jab We Met' experience unfolded. Full of drama, tension, helpful Mumbaikars, running around, and ironies, but sadly without 'my Kareena'!! :P

PS - This post is a narrative of the day's dramatic events, as well as a confusing guide to the confusing commute of the Bombay city. LOL

E-Dependence...Agony.............

Today I experienced one of the worst feelings known to the modern man hugely dependent on electronics like cell fones.. laptops... ipods.. internet.. emails... and so on, but a feeling completely unknown to a large chunk of the population who do not have access to things like the internet, files in soft copies on the computers n external hard drives.

I realized today how much we are dependent on our computers and the files we have on them, and how miserable we feel when something happens to that data. We use our computers to do our work at office, store important files and presentations, stay in touch with friends through various social networking sites and chat tools, communicate with relatives living in faraway places, carry out our banking transactions, store our pictures (our memories) , play games, watch movies, listen to songs and sign along, sometimes even record our songs (when the hidden Kishor Kumar in us raises its head..!! ), find out stuff we need to make that college project, or some information we are no able to get in our course books, and what not. In short, it is an inseparable part of our lives, no actually our life !! It would not be an exaggeration if I said that our lives com to a stand still if something happens to our computers. We are totally 'E-Dependent'.

Imagine that something happened to your precious little computer. A wretched little thing called ‘virus’ struck, and wiped out all your data!! OMG !! The very thought makes a cold shudder run down the spine. But, I’m sure things like anti- virus softwares and back-ups make us breathe easy. BUT, imagine that something happens to your back-up. Ok, maybe we can get a new back-up from the original source. Phew !! BUT, now imagine that something happened to your back-up while your original data wasn’t there and you were counting on your back-up !!! Today, i had given my laptop away for getting the operating system reinstalled. So, naturally I didn’t have my original data which would normally be there on my laptop. And, before giving it, I took some of the new files that I had on my laptop to my external hard disk (which I use as a back-up). It was painfully slow, and I had no clue why, since it was a reasonably fast computer that I was using to take the back-up and the data was not huge. The computer guy said, “your data has virus”, and I rubbished his warning, since while the data was on my laptop, it was not creating any problems. Once, the transfer finished, I gave away my laptop for reinstallation, and tried to see the data I had taken on the hard disk on some other laptop. And…….. the hard disk didn’t get detected on that laptop. Big deal. I tried again, and again, and then on another laptop, and another…and another…………….. THE HARD DISK DIDN’T GET DETECTED ON ANY OF THE LAPTOPS !!! And my friend who owns the shop said, “You have a back-up of the data on the disk right ??!!” NOOOO.. How many people have back-ups of their back-up ???!! How many people lose their back-up and the original data at the same time ??!! OMG .. as I tried again and again, I felt more and more miserable. The feeling that I didn’t have any of the data – my office files, my photograps..my memories, my e-books, my games, my movies, my songs, OMG everything was on that hard disk. It was working 5 mins back, and now it wasn’t..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was dazed, shocked, worried, actually, really really really sad. I had this piercing head ache as my mind raced with multiple emotions of anger, sadness, feeling stupid, disbelief, and what not. But, slowly it was sinking in and i was growing increasingly sad. I was thinking that, what if i had not tried to take the back-up of such stupid movies, what if my laptop had not crashed yesterday, what if i had forgotten my hard drive at my home, what if i could reverse time, what if this, what if that......

My laptop was finally fixed, and i was forced to wait longer to take some files for installing essential softwares, something i would have done on my own had my hard disk not stopped working. I was feeling miserable, and it kept increasing as i was finally alone as i drove home and my mind was racing again. I was riding my bike, dodging the late evening traffic, but i was in a daze. My mind was in an auto-pilot mode, and it was my sub-conscious that kept guiding me on the familiar road home, as i was unaware of the racing traffic, the blaring horns, and the voice of one of my favourite RJs - Karan Singh on his show Rubaroo coming through my earfones.

As i neared home, my Mom called, asking me about my whereabouts, since it was quite late and i had not reached home. The call broke my daze, and i heard the RJ reading out a couplet that kept fighing with my thoughts about my loss, to occupy a space in my thoughts for the rest of the journey. He said -

'Kitne hi khayal syahi mein dhal na sake.... Yuhi hawa ho gaye...

Kitne hi khayal syahi mein dhal na sake... Yuhi hawa ho gaye...

Kaash hum apni ungliyon se likh pate... apne hi khoon mein dubo dubo ke'

He was trying to express the feelings of a poet who expressed the desire of being able to write with his fingers using his own blood to ensure that all the thoughts that came to his mind didn't go back to the winding and confusing lanes of his mind.. mayb never to return back again.

This made me think and feel even more miserable about my day. I felt an extremely keen need to have a power to memorize each and every thing in my head and be able to remove it at will. I wanted to have a safe place where things I needed to preserve, like my thoughts, my memories (in the form of the pictures i had in my hard disk :( ...... )

It was made worse by the fact that i had had some problem in my cell fone a few days back and lost all its data, without any recent back-ups. The only back-up I had was more than 6 months old. And it was then that I had decided to back-up my data frequently to make sure I didn’t lost it. But, today I lost my back-up too !!

There was a glimmer of hope. I thought maybe my brother has my data on his laptop. I called him, only to find that he didn’t have my data. He said that he didn’t have ANY DATA, and his laptop too had crashed !!! OMG this cannot be happening.

I had no words to describe my feelings when I returned home. I told about it to a few friends. But, what could have they done except giving me a comforting word. But, then I thought of speaking to a friend who is a computer whiz. I thought that he might have a solution to my predicament. I noticed that Anurag was online. I started chatting with him, and later called him, and he suggested some solutions to my problem and ended with the words “Chinta na kar… aaram se mil jaayega back-up !!!” OMG … I was so relieved !! I kept on pestering him and asking repeatedly if I would get my precious data. And he said that I would. J J J. Now, I can’t wait to go to the hard drive company’s office and get my data back. Wish me luck !!

PS – I learnt a lesson through the course of events today. Try doing any of the following things to ensure having a back-up that you can fall back upon and prevent any anxious moments (thanks fr the tips Anurag..n Vandana J ) –

1) Burn DVDs – Keep the extremely important data on DVD’s. Don’t use the DVD’s frequently and preserve them. Access them only in case of emergencies.

2) Take help of Yahoo or Google – Most of our extremely important data is not huge in size. Its our movies and songs that make the data huge. The movies can come back. But, the important data like office files and photographs might not. So, create folders and zip them to make their size below 10 MB(the maximum size of attachments a llowed per mail by yahoo) and mail it to yourself .This would ensure that your data rests safely on the servers of yahoo or google.

3) If your data is too huge and all of it is extremely important, then keep a back-up of the back-up. Put files on that second back-up only after scanning them for viruses. And access that second back-up only in case of emergencies.

And of course, use a good anti-virus and keep taking back-ups of your data periodically. I hope things that happened would never happen to any of you, or me too in future. J