A man known as Gaurav Mittal

Its already 2006.... and i haven't ever blogged in my life ... not even once.....

This thought struck me one fine day..... i thought, what the heck, lets give it a shot and see what's blogging all about..... Not bad..eh! I mean, i actually dislike the idea of advertising myself.... but blogging certainly is different.... gives u a chance to express ur views.

So i thought, let me write the 1st blog on myself.... aka Gaurav Mittal....

Now u would have read my complete profile at the top the page, but here i would like to tell u about my life and my experiences.
Well God decided to courier me to mumma's belly on 1st Aug '83 and viola.... i came out... a little sticky and yuccky messy little thing...!!! but all well

After that began the perils of childhood.... Things were pretty ok... and i enjoyed my life... not too bad!! At that time, i was put up in delhi and my house was in Janak Puri (later we shifted to Vikas Puri). There i used to goto St. Marks Senior Secondary Public School, Janak Puri....

School life was fun.... as long as there was KARAN... We had loads of entertainment together. We were almost inseperable... Tell u the fact, we used be the most talkative lot in the school, so talkative that all the teachers and the prefect were annoyed by our habits... and made us sit seperately. Yet distance was never an issue for us... Somehow one used to sneek back to the other to continue all the chit-chatting, the fun, and the laughter....!!!!

We are (still!!) the best buds... even after many many years of living apart from each other, i can still recall the days when we were punished by our teachers but yet managed to stay together at all times... So strong was our friendship, that in 1997, when my dad was transferred to Bombay, we literally cried .. I liked hanging out at karan's house because it was pretty big and used to give us complete privacy. We could talk everything in the world that we wanted to.. I still remember the last day of our 7th std exam when we walked all the way back from school just to spend as much time together as possible, before i move to bombay.

But as someone has said... Gud and bad things just don't last long!!

1997 we moved to Bombay.... the best city i have ever seen.... full of life....

Initially, things were tough as i couldn't get an admission nearby and had to travel all the way to Colaba (i was staying in goregaon, near film city). This meant getting up everyday at around 5:30 a.m. and leaving for school by 6 a.m. Changing two buses and a train was very hectic in the starting... atleast for the guy who had always been clutching to daddy's hand everywhere.... but then, that life of b'bay taught me a lot and made me more independent... Moreover, it was my 1st experience of travelling alone, meeting new people, new places.... and doing everything by myself... and, it was fun....

The fast local trains of bombay, which run dot on time, ever over-crowded... people flooded inside as though they are in a fish market... and trying their best to get a seat... I was lucky, for folks were sometimes very generous to offer their seats.

Bombay, is a city which never sleeps.... dymanic, full of life... people running hither-and-thither for earning their livelihood... one might think that no one would care for anybody in such a place.... but i can still remember an incident, very vividly....

Once it was raining very hard and we were stuck in the school. All the buses had stopped running. Even after waiting for an hour, we couldn't get a bus.... I was thinking that probably, i would not be able to reach home before night.. there were a few taxis, but i never had enough money with me to take a taxi... Suddenly a taxi-wallah, came up to me after sensing my desperation. I told him about my situation, and he generously offered to drop me at the Colaba station... without even asking for any money....

Well.... i had to go to that school only for a few days, after which i got a transfer to a nearby school... KV. Hamla, Malad... It was situated in a naval areas and there were many kids whose dads were navy officers..

Well life was good here too.... except for the normal travails that a fresher finds in a new school or college... Life gave me a chance to meet another guy, who later became my best bud ... SAYAK... Sayak and me started out with a small fight or rather a nasty argument... he was probably trying out to be a bit smart or something, but honestly i always liked his attitude and personality... which was uniqely differentt from others.... I also met another guy named Siddharth... We three formed a sort of a gang, a trio... a closely knit pack of friends who could always be seen together, whether in the playground chatting away without caring for the rest of the world... or in the class-room, still doing the same thing... !!!

We three were distinctly different from the rest... for i found so much in Sayak... a true friend, a guide, a mentor....which I couldn’t see in anyone else. He never gossiped about anything or anyone unecessarily and we used to have very knowledge-able discussions whether it be about Indian politics or the attractive girls in our class or even on the adult movies which we used to watch.... We actually had 'Sayakologics' and 'Gauravologics' and both the 'logics' used to be a sort of a brainstorming session during the discussions.

But honestly, Sayak was a true friend from whom i could learn a lot. Never ever felt lonely and he was not the kind of a guy who would just praise u for nothing or advice u on something which is impossible. He was always frank with me and that is what drew me close to him... There was this famous batata-vada shop which used to be our popular hangout.... We did all types of activities here... from crackling jokes to discussing on various topics to even talking about (hmm.. or rather learning about) the female anatomy.

In true words, ours was a friendship, quite different from the rest and i always found a deep meaning in it... not just about two people talking nonsense, but about two brothers ready to do anything for each other.
We even had used to hang out on the desolated area above the stairs, which we had christened as 'colosseum' where we used to do some friendly wrestling.

Well as i said earlier, that probably God wasn't quite in the mood for me to keep me happy this long.... and within 2 years... 2 magnificient years, dad got transferred to Chennai.... in 1998.

Now chennai was an entirely different country.... a place where people talked something which went above my head... and wore lungis or mundus in the market place, which i didn't even like to wear at my home.... Life was very dull here and infact very lonely as well... I badly missed all my bombay fun. But as they say, that when u can't beat them, u should join them.... Slowly, i started getting adjusted to the chennai life.... trying to understand what people say and their customs... I realised that there is a very vast difference between North and South.... and likewise, people in south are entirely different from north.... the way they speak, they way they dress, they eat, etc etc

My 1st year in chennai was quite busy.... It was the year when i had to face board exams and i was deep buried under my books.... I didn't even realise how fast the whole year passed away and i cleared my boards with very good results... Basically life here was quite dull... with people being quite reserved (this is purely my perception) and i didn't have any close friends here... Gradually my life moved on.... completing my 11th and then, 12th from chennai.... with the only exception that since we had a lot of people from north india in 11th and 12th std.... we used to have more fun....

My life account of chennai would be incomplete without the mention of some of my class teachers... namely Mrs. Padmavathy, Mrs. Suraja and Mr. Ullalgalanal (the guy had a very weird name)

Well, they were some of the teachers of whom i can be so proud to say that i got a chance to study under them.... esp padmavathy ma'm, who taught me and showed me the real meaning of a teacher and a house-wife. She used to manage her responsibilities and duties very nicely. In true terms, i still consider her as my idol... for creating an ever-lasting image in my mind... Though, i couldn't get too many chances to see her after i left chennai, but i pray to God for her well being, wherever she might be.....

Well... after 18 years of life, and having enjoyed some of it and seeing all kinds of people on this Earth, i was destined to move to cochin for my graduation, even though i wrote 11 entrance exams, of which cochin was the best deal....

Life in the college was a totally different experience... full of fun, responsibilities, work-load, excitement, seperation, et al. Frankly, it teaches u a lot of things... it taught me a lot of things... The guy who never did anything by himself, like, who had never ever washed a cloth by himself or cleaned the floor or even booked a railway ticket, had to do all these things ... all by himself... and i feel very proud to say, that these 4 years really shaped me into the man i am today. At first, things seemed to be very tough..... the seperation from the family, used to be grueling, really unbearable, but slowly things started to set... and i was able to set into my college life quite well.
Here i met new people, from all walks of life.... some were good, some unfriendly... some had a true heart, while others were selfish... Basically, it made me wiser and more self-reliant... and offcourse, more experienced too....

Every day was a challenge in cochin, dealing with different people, whether it be in ur class, in ur flat, the grocery store... in the market... or even with the common man u casually see... For the first time, when i moved into a flat with 4 other guys, i stayed there as a group... There were responsibilites, like household management, purchasing of groceries... facing each and every problem as a group and we worked out pretty fine.... This life taught me a lot on how to manage things, how to manage people, difficulties and my own life.....

Today, i feel i have come across a whole lot of world.... a world which is full of love, hatred, laughter, gloom, sensitivity, hard heartedness, et al.. yet i keep myself cheerful.... I do not let myself be bogged down by the unhappy happenings around me. I think it is because of the few people for whom I care and love them the most.... who are more important to me than the entire world....

So.... this is me.... Gaurav.... and this is the story of my life.....