It started like one of those drab 6 day long weekdays and ended with an experience that will definetly last this lifetime. Cheers to Chitrang for transforming a much despised review friday into a surreal experience !! - As we boarded the TIAN, the infinite luxury boat of The Ambani, it was opulence beyond the wildest of dreams.
The idea of partying on a yatch had kept me excited the whole afternoon. Despite the hour long drive amidst the traffic & heat of mumbai's scorching afternoon being a damper, it eventually accentuated the experience of the evening than in Chandlers profound words is best described as " The stand up comedian you have to sit through before Pink Floyd arrives".
We reached the boat jetty at the gateway of India around 7 pm and amidst the tight security post the episode at Taj, we boarded a classy speed boat to the TIAN. The speed boat in itself was an affair to cherish, but definitely left us no cues on the countless luxuries that awaited us. The first sign post to paradise was the Singhania's yatch - Aged yet mystic and graceful, to say the least.
In about 5 minutes, we got the first glimpse of the pricess TIAN in her bridal attire. It looked like a miniature reflection of the Taj - a luxury suite achored in the deep, swaying majestically in the cold evening breeze flaunting privilege, pride & pure insanity.
I recalled the Kerala tourism theme "Your moment is waiting" (directed by the same Prakash Varma of ZooZoo fame) - where the idea is that instead of giving you glimpses larger than life, Kerala offers you a moment, that you would remember a lifetime. I felt one such moment at the TIAN - for the ambience was perfect - A 400 Cr yatch, delicious titbits right out of the owen, steady sea breeze, groovy music and a company of best friends.
The crew of the yatch were quite accomodating and the helm of the ship, Captain Motiwala silently receded to his cabin after exchanging pleasantaries to leave the deck open for us to celebrate...3G Shtyle...
Many pieces came together that day to make the evening at TIAN memorable - the right mix of classics, retro and contemporary from DJ Chitraang had something for everybody's ears, the florescent band props streaked the dark like laser beam, the boneless dancing by Bipin that left crowd & crew equally spell bound, the numerous photo sessions by Lourina, the endless shenanigans of Neeraj, the "spirited" words of Wisdom from Vivek, the anecdotal stories of Reliance from Vinod, the random stories on everything by Pankaj, the gravity defying stunts of Mamooty, the ante-dance moves of CP, the kodak moments clicked by Joy, the head and deck banging by Partho, the quick one liners of Mr Buch, the even faster retorts of mohit, the patient karan's loosing his steam over the anonymous guy locked up in the loo, the late night welcome party for Prashant ....all sticked together into great red carpet party at the TIAN that night.
As i sat on the speed boat, heading back to the gateway....the rope lights of the TIAN faded out into the horizon but the memories of this night shall fade not for ages to come ...and thats for sure.
20th July shall be memorable......thats the day I stepped off one of the most illustrous phases of my professional carrier - the day i bid adieu to RCom. I had joined RCom 3 years back with no expectations but a tremendous amount of satisfaction for having achieved my cherished dream of making a career shift to telecom, but today when I am leaving RCom, I rewind and pause at the spectacular moments on the Maglev - the baptism through fire during the MTN due-diligence, the weekly one pagers to the boss, Prashants ripping the presentations threadbare, the endless regulatory consulting papers, last minute work on the 3G business case on the eve of my marriage, last minute changes on the 3G business case on the eve of my second anniversery, the exciting games during the auction simulation, the boring routine during the actual auction, the break neck pace, the loud arguments and the afternoon vada pav's during the 3G PMO, the six month korean sojourn, the deluge of vendor meetings, the 3G jamboree meeting....the fond memories are limitless....
