Mumbai firsts

So my shift to my new life started with two Kismet and Angat dropping me to Delhi airport to catch the flight to Mumbai. This time I was not going for a 10 day holiday I was going to start my new life in Mumbai. So it has been over a month that I have been here and so what have I done in one month you may ask since I still dont have a job.

Well lets see I got to Mumbai and Amrita was still working on her movie Ta Ra Rum Pum so I hung around with here for the first few days at the set at Yash Raj saw some stars (Abhishek, Saif, Bobby Deol, Javed Jaffery et all).

Amrita lived in a nice One bedroom flat in 4 Bungalows which all of a sudden got very small as I got there as the occupants were Amrita, Sabrina (Amrita's sister), Nyma (Amrita's 12 year old niece), Shoba (the maid), Waffle (the mad cocker spaniel), Lou and Lara (two turtles) and me. So first order of business was to find a new house to shift too. Now Amrita and Sabrina had alreadys started hunting and had got a few places they liked and wanted me to see. So we went and saw 3 houses and the one that they liked i liked too and we decided to go for it. So it was a new building on Yari Road near a fishing village so we are near the sea like 10 meters away on the fourth floor and tow bedrooms and a huge sitting dining area and a nice kitchen and oh yea 2 loos (for the lack of images I am sorry I lost my camera on the train to Delhi so :( )

Now Amrita was working so was her sister and all of a sudden we had a new house that we needed to shift into by the 10th so Vir who was sitting at home started packing since we didnt have any time left. We met the new land lady and she said we could shift in anytime and we could start cleaning the place up and all that.

Now Amrita the Art Director that she is walked into our new empty house and said we needed to paint the sucker as it was all a horrid yellowish colour. So a call was made to her painters who came the next day to check out the house and Amrita told them what had to be done and they set out to work.

The dining room two walls were to be made an orangy dirty looking mediteranian wall ( you will get the drift when I have images to back it up). Our room got a nice deep red wall with a light grey on the rest and Saby's and Nyma got a Purplely wall while the rest a light green the rest of the house was painted white. The front door become a funky blue.

So the house was painted and cleaned and ready for all of us to move so the day came where the truck came to pick up all the stuff and move us into our new residence. So officially on the 11th of November Vir Nakai officially had his own place and was finally out of Chandigarh mentally as well as physically I had finally left home.

The next few days went in Carpenter, Electrician, Plumber getting the house up and running. Now I sit in the Living Room with VH1 blaring Oldies music chilling in my house.

Now dont get me wrong its not like I have not done anything else other than shift and get the house running and shit. Amrita and I partied with some friends some old chandi school mates, went partying to DJ Aqueel's club Poison which was not that hot but we went back to Joshi's house where we smoked a cigar he got us for our engagement drank way too much vodka and had one glass of single malt. One evening I made an Italian dinner with Amrita and ate way too much. One night Nakai (he is a cousin of Amrita's just shifted to Mumbai as well he is a designer and is hitting Mumbai as well. being a Nakai yea he is related to me but closer to Amrita dont ask man its damn complicated).So I have my nights out here as well just a start to a lot more :).

Today I finally got my self a new Airtel Mumbai number which will get active in like 5 days (I dont get that why it should take so long and all that but hey whatever). I have given an interview and have a good feeling about it will update you on that when I know. On the 28th I fly back to Delhi and then to Chandigarh Angad and Tara's wedding and will be back in Mumbai by the 5th.

I think it will be great to go back to Chandigarh now to holiday and not as a resident coming back from a holiday. Sure I miss Chandigarh there is a lot to miss like my roof and drinking beer with nitin and mad life I had there but her who said Mumbai is not as cool.

Well that is that for me.. I will update my new address with phone number later.

Bunch Berry

Vir has left the building!!

I don't know where to start with this email that is weird because I could have sworn that it would be easy and all I would do is thank a few people curse some and viola I would have a farewell mail. Sadly most of the people I would have cursed are no longer here and there are quite a few to thank. So I guess I got to start somewhere so here goes....

July 2002 is when I came to Quark for an interview and trust me when I tell you I never thought I would get my job especially when I was handed a test for Java. So well I got the job and I came and joined a team called WPSI. It was quite freaky the first day here because I remember I walked into the office and thought to my self that damn that is a lot of nerds and there is no way I will be able to last here more than a month. That was like 4 years ago and I am still here well today is my last day here and let me tell you it was a tough decision for me to put my papers in because it was a good run and it is sad to see it end.

Well on a whole I got great memories of this place I have seen some real weird shit here but it feels like home. I am not going to start thanking people now because I don’t got all day to write this email.

To my team Creative Services rock you guys we do kick ass work, to the rest you ain't seen the last of me and to all the party animals you got my number next time you in my part of the world give me a buzz the kingfisher is always chilling as for now I am outta here.

My new number - +91 9316065611
Email – vir.nakai@gmail.com

leavin on a shit train

Good bye party 105

Bye Vir see ya later

Two weeks notice

After four and a half years finally I took a hard call I resigned my position as Design Lead at Quark. I am moving on in life I am going to Mumbai to joing my Fiance so we can start our lives together.
It took a lot of courage but then it is time to move on. Mumbai ready or not here I come...

Yara Bikki Gets Hitched

Last week I get a call from Varun(an old school friend of mine and a guy who is all over the world tending to his business you never know where he is best way to get in touch with him is let him call when he is free and you never know whent that will happen) and he says wanna get drunk on Monday the 25th. I was like hmm if that is the only day you are going to be in town sure.. So he is like perfect so on monday i am getting married see you there the card is in the mail ...

WOW ok .... Didnt think he would be the first one to get married out of the guys with Akal and Angad C on the verge of it themselves.

Well so I went and turned out I was to hang alone which I did but had a great time here are some pics from last night...

Congratulations Yara Bikki... Till the next time I get your call.

Varuns Wedding

Sep 26, 2006 - 18 Photos

GO WEST

So Kismet and Nitin were planning to come home last weekened and Kismet calls me and says lets have a BBQ since Mithu is leaving for England and it is her 21st Birthday next week and i wont be here lets BBQ..
so i said get to chandigarh and we shall plan it. Nitin and Kismet get here friday night and we all sit around chill eat dinner and all that and decide to get up early and get up early to get some work done for Kismet and get this party planned..
Saturday morning bright and early at 9:00 (hey its a saturday what is brighter and earlier than that) we get up and decide lets do this kismet says lets do somthing different this time .. "lets use a new marinate and have Mojitos" sure says I.
So with our lists in hand of things to do and stuff to buy for the party Mom, Kismet and I took off to get everything done. Around lunch time Jai calls and well he wants to take us for lunch hmmm sure we tell him to come home and chill while we will take a bit as we got some bank work for Kismet to finish.
so we catch up with Jai get in his new Honda ZX take off to pick up nitin and then the age old question of where are we going comes up ... Ahhh Oriental Lounge no one has been there yet cool lets go.. ok this seems to be becoming about lunch when it is about the BBQ. so to cut lunch short we had a couple of beers and good food Oriental Lounge is definatly a cool place (yet another one in chandigarh I tell you it gets better here every week)..
So at 4 all of us get home to a shit load of work that needs to be done to start with the chicken needs to be marinated for atleast 4 hours and well we had to still get the stuff ready... Amrita will agree total Nakai chaos leaving everything to the last moment.
well we had jai stirring and sipping the marinate lol, one maid chopping the onions the other making coffee and Kismet and I making a mess in the rest of the kitchen with the rest of the ingredients :) ohh i for got to tell you what we were making.. well Buffallo Chilli Chicken and Cagun Barbecue Corn to which i promised people i would put the recipie up so here it is

Buffallo Chilli Chicken
Its a recipie out of a Book now not mine :)

1kg chicken,skinned
3 spring onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup(250 ml) tomato sauce
4 tablespoons beer (now you know why jai was sipping it)
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 table spoon tabasco sauce

Now apparently this serves 4-6 people as per the book so for a party of punjabis i did what i usually do i multiplied it by 4 since we had about 12 people coming :) hahah.
now all you need to do is Score the chicken at 2 cm intervals.
Put the onions, garlic, tomato sauce, beer, vinegar, honey and tabasco in a dish and mix to combine and add the chicken cover it and refrigerate for 3-4 hours and then throw it on the BBQ when you ready..

Cagun Barbecue Corn

you need as much corn as you want but still on the cob break it into half
Cajun spice mix
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
now all you got to do is take some butter and brush it on the corn and sprinkle the cajun spice mix over the corn and BBQ i did the same to Potato's which were cut to 1 cm thick slices hmmm how well they came out ...
ok now for the important part

Mojitos
Bacardi Lime Mint leaves lots of embrown sugarSoda and loads of crushed ice
basically the mint and sugar go in the bottom of the glass you got to crush em there and then add the lime and the ice and the bacardi and then little soda and wow a bomb ass drink ...

so anyway we get everything together while nitin brings the coal and the beer and then kismet goes upstairs to the roof to get the seating and shit ready.i get the BBQ ready and the coal is up now all we got to do is wait for the party to begin.

So Baaz calls and says should i get music and all we got are two small speakers so i tell him yea get it we can play it thru the laptop.. Now Baaz being Baaz did bring the music with just a little twist he got 2 woodstock speakers, his amp, his laptop and his mixer ok then :) seems this party was taking off already so once we were all set up BBQ music and the Mojitos going the party just got better and better..
Check out the pics for your self :) we packed up at 5 am sunday morning all night we were blasting the music and the creating a rukus.. it has been a while ...
But well then it was a party for a friend who is going away and well she was turning 21 the next week right ...
GO WEST MITHU
oh about her turning 21 she had a party a her home with some college friend and well let me tell you that was quite crazy as well ..shhh i came home at 5 then too :)
who says chandigarh is a quiet sleepy place huh ....

Go West

Sep 23, 2006 - 61 Photos

To the mountains we went

Like a month ago Amber and I rode up into the Mountains where Mom, Dad, Kismet, Nitin and a whole lot of other people were as well . Here are some pics from the trip.

More pics here:
Kismets
Nitins

New York here comes Amrita

Bye Amrita have a good trip and a great time in New York. Will miss you see you soon bring me back lots of presents.

Mumbai Finally

So I started writing this blog while I was sitting in the cafeteria in Yash Raj Studio in Mumbai. Now I am on Spice Jet 118 Mumbai - Delhi (VTSPF) going home. Whats the point of this blog? Well it is like so.
Last Week there was an Adobe conference in Mumbai which I wanted to attend so I got permission from Matt ( my boss) who it just happens is on leave! So friday I get to the travel desk and get my tickets booked call amrita and tell her i am coming and since the conference is Tuesday - Wednesday (11th and 12th). I decided to take Monday off and leave on saturday and spend a few days with Amrita as she was leaving for New York to work on the new Yash Raj Movie Ta Ra Rum Pum.
Well after all these plans and stuff i get an email saying that Due to rain the conference was cancelled what sucks more was that in the last two days there was no rain in Mumbai.
OH CRAP this cant be happening ! So i get the travell desk to cancell the tickets F!@# this sucks I will never get to see Amrita before she leaves !! So that was the start to a very depressing Friday where not only was the Travel Desk guy giving me dirts but Amrita giving me hell.
So Saturday comes and goes and in the evening I couldnt handle it I had to go to mumbai even if it was just for a night I had to see amrita before she left .. so Sunday morning I get up and go to the airport to check on the flights. JET is full and the Air India counter is still closed. So I go in search of the office in chandigarh. Now the joy that day was it was cloudy and the sky was brown with mud for whatever reason. So on the way to the AI office it starts getting dark and by the time i get to the office i am driving with my lights on becuase it is like 9 at night. Screw that i am still going i am thinking. so i get to the office and I get the price of the ticket and am like yea what the hell i am going and i ask the guy will the flight take off? and the answer i get is NO. Should i book your ticket sir ??? Huh what he wanted to book the ticket even though the flight wouldnt take off weird. So the weather had it in for me that day so i would have to watch the world cup final and watch France beat the crap out of Italy at Vasila (I know i know France lost) fine not fair but fine. Anyway it seem that it was not meant to be becuase the air port was closed in Mumbai becuause of some bandh and shiv sena stuff in Mumbai so it means i would never have got to Amritas.
Monday I find out from Amrita that hey she is not leaving this week she is leaving on Monday. Good News for me i may still get to see her :) yea .... Well all thoughts went flying out of my head when 7 bombs rocked the railway system in Mumbai bringing Mumbai to a halt that night. Crap that was sencless violence on the people of Mumbai. Next day i am thinking there is no way getting to Mumbai will be easy this week at all with all hell breaking loose in Mumbai. What the hell let me try so I booked the tickets on flight 111 to Mumbai 5:40 A.M in the morning on Saturday. Got Nitin to get the train tickets from Chandi to Del.
The trip to mumbai from Chandi is also a story on its own the jist being I partied all night in Del with Kismet and Nitin went to the airport flew to Mumbai hung with Amrita went out partyin to town got home at 5am watched her pack and left.
So that brings me back to where i started I am on the flight back to delhi.
Happy that i made it to Mumbai to see Amrita satisfied with the trip it was more fun than I thought it would be maybe becuase I have been trying to get to see her for like a week and it seemed like the world was against me elements and all.

XPress 7.0 out of the door

So XPress 7.0 came out "wow" after a long time and the great part of it is It looks great and works as well..
So we had a great huge party and they gave us medals. I dont think I have ever got a medal before that too a Gold wow. So here is a pic of the Creative Services Leads (Design and DP) with their medals wooohooo Go XPress 7.

Tequila

Oh how my head aches today morning... I think it would be a better feeling to be dead... All it took to get me like this is Baaz who brought a few beers and some Tequila which we overkilled.

Funny how you drink for whatever reasons but the next morning you are bound to feel like shit. I dont get it ??

I know I shouldnt drink but whats the use I do but even when I dont want to !!! It must be all the booze in my blood that is getting me like this. But hey dont tell me you never thought of it either.. Look at people who dont drink they have as much fun as us when we are out.. Actually they probably are laughing at us and thinking look at all the money I save.. Sad but true.

My head still hurts...........

Shantaram

Kismet told me to read Shantaram - Amrita Bought it in Mumbai and I started reading it. I had forgotten what it was like to read. I have not been able to put the book down. It is an excellent book one of the best I have read..

Everyone must read it take my word on it. Specially if you live in Mumbai it is like you can imagine Linbaba running around all over the place mindblasting.

Read it!! Believe me and tell me what you think ?

Nano's

Check it out got my self a Nano and so did the rest of my team for working on QPS/QCM man these kind of perks i enjoy. Its pretty funky small and slim not as cool as Kismet's but hey its free and that makes it even cooler :).

Helmet's

So how important are Helmets to a rider? Quite I believe so thats why i got my self yet another one. Hey better safe than sorry huh.

Here is looking at 2005

In December the family went to Goa again to celebrate Mom's birthday. Karan, Shanti, Maya, Nitin, Kismet, Dad, Usha, god know how many more people were all there to party for Moms 50th.
Amrita who had just come back from New York where she was doing the sets of the Karan Johars new Movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehina ( i doubt i spelt that correctly) came down for 2 days (basically new years). Well funny thing Amrita and I cant remember the last time we were together on New Years. This New Years was very special as we stood on the beach watching the firecrackers all along the beach I asked Amrita to marry me and she said yes so it was an end to a crazy year and a beginning of a insane year for us.

2005 was a great year and I am guessing 2006 is going to be nuts again as already so much has happened.
Well that was my 2005 for you in a nut shell.

Then Gunjan got married...



Amber, Angat and I drove to Goa in a beat up Maruti 800 in 36 hours mind blowing. That was an excellent trip. For more pics click here













Then Madhur Got married and there was this weird looking thing near where dinner was being served.



In Febuary Dad had his Hella Saag Party !


In January Manu and I went to Rider Mania 2005 in Panvel. For more pics click here

Playing with the camera

What goes on behind the grill of a G5?


Manu's Smokes...

HMMM

well i finally thought i would take a shot at Blogging.