the weekend..

Its the 2nd last day at work & I'm still trying keep my eyes open after a whirlwind weekend. On Friday, after work I went to meet my granny (I had not met her in spite of the fact that I'd been in Mumbai for almost 3 months! ). I was supposed to take her out for dinner - my treat for getting into ISB. We went to this nearby Pizza Hut outlet. It was quite a different experience to go out with her. As we were talking, I realized that most of what she said was so reminiscent of the past - attitudes, insecurities, perspectives. As I munched on my pizza, I silently wondered if I would become the same in 2050 A.D. - a vestige of the 20th century. But all in all, I had a good time since she is a very sweet person! (most grannies are! :)
Saturday started with getting down to making 'to do' lists - the lists are just getting bigger & bigger. From wrapping up things at work, to settling down things related to my apartment to planning my next month of travel to planning ISB! Had a leisurely lunch with R & 2 of my roomies. Dozed off for a while before leaving for the ISB Mumbai admits meet. About 20 of us were scheduled to meet at Bandra. Eventually about 17 of us managed to make it. This was my first interaction with fellow ISBians for the class of '07 & it felt good! Amidst the banter, we discussed common issues - loans, laptops, housing, commuting, the % of women @ ISB et al :) I realized that this was the beginning of a year when I would be sharing my life with these guys, leveraging their skillsets & offering mine to share. I plan to change my travel plans to Hyderabad & instead of flying there directly from Ahmedabad, I will be going by train from Mumbai with a group of fellow ISBians.
Since I had to catch a bus for Shirdi that night, I couldn't stay for long. R, 2 of my roomies & I left for Shirdi at about 1 on Saturday night & reached at about 7 a.m. Watched 'Zinda' in the bus at night - not a bad movie at all ; atleast it managed to hold my attention for the whole time! :) Shirdi has changed tremendously in the past 5 years. I have been going there since I was a kid & suddenly I realized that the old world charm had given way to the demands of managing a huge following of the faithful. Gone were the 'kachha' roads, the small 'Swamy' place where we would have an early morning breakfast of idlis & filter coffee. All that has now been replaced by queues of over 2 hours through organized hallways, huge hotels offering everything from Gujarati thalis to North Indian cuisine, lines of Volvos. I guess this was inevitable - ensuring that such a large number of devotees can take their darshan in a disciplined manner is no easy task. Still, I miss the old days!
Got back home last night dead tired. All in all, a good weekend. Am now faced with the last 2 days at work. Although I've been here for a short while, it will take some time to uproot myself from the comfortable routine one settles into & push myself into another one.
P.S. - One more thing happened over the weekend. Dubya visited ISB. Great visibility for ISB - it truly deserves it. Check out the details here and here . Also, as I write this post, the Oscars are being announced - 'Crash' is Best Picture (unfairly) beating the touchingly better 'Brokeback Mountain'. After all, haven't the Oscars always been politically correct?