I was just thinking just how many people owe their shaadis to NIIT and the killer time we had to keep there. It was so cool! Parents were used to your coming late, half the chummery (is that how it is spelled?) junta were bindaas folks. People would KILL for a chance to train at SEED the taandoori night (yummmmmmmmyyyyy) wasn't the only attraction. I am still in the Safdarjung Enclave wala SEED days. I liked the new one at Sainik Farms but THE real SEED was the REAL DEAL. The late walks and the mandatory visits to the ice-cream walas are stories that a lot of lil ones will hear from their parents (and wonder these old stooges did ROMANCE??? Yes they did!).
My first visit to the place was NIP (National Induction Program - explaining for the benefit of my nonNIITian blog pals who are brave enough to wade thru my posts :~D) there I made a lot of friends a lot of whom were GNIITians who were joining NIIT as full-time employees after the mandatory one year ragda (torture + ragging) of PPship (internship)!
So in addition to the lovely stationary, trademark black bag, info dumps, visit by the big-wigs (who can forget "Mr.Damn Good Looking" in a magenta (I kid thee not) shirt, multi-colored tie, salt-pepper hair .... swooooon), I got the inside deal. One day we had to stay late and I was coerced to stay the night at SEED and share the room with a REALLY in love girl. She had a HOT DATE with the "special one". This is all the pre-cellphone era; so imagine all the coordinating effort and the long queues at the phone :-)
I wanted to meet D who I hadn't seen for days cause he had already moved to GGN and I was still at GZB with mum!! So we had our version of meeting under the harsh fluorescent lights of the AIIMS bus stop. He dropped me back to SEED at 1 am and the guard gave me a look "Arre ab to shaadi shuda log bhi ye sab kar rahen hain!" Pretty embarrassing but super-fun!
There in SEED I met an interesting lady (Ash wipe that smirk off!!!!) who became my friend and I am struggling to sneak out of that one friendshipp since hmmm.... lets see....2002 :-) I have given enough hints but .... A*S*H SHUT UP!!!! Ash calls her Whiney I call her self-absorbed shallow creature - same person different reasons to detest!
Back to rishte hi rishte ... there were loads of them, some blessed by the God above and society: that SEED girl was married to another C125 character, Pappu and his wifey were the original Stride couple, followed by another Stride pair. The MS team had the Bong and Delhite pair! Sun team had it's own clandestine couple (they tried the classic "we are just good friends" routine but hah! ...ishk te mushk chupaye nahin chupte - translation - you can't hide love and the smell of musk!), Happy will tell you about his amar prem kahani (immortal love story!) And then there were the cross-team affairs. There were too many of those to remember or count! My favorite was Pooh and GN.
Can you guys tell - I have to translate a lot for some people who are bad at Hinglish but it's fine. I will do this to ensure avid readership :-)
My MOST favorite juicy hookup was "Mr. Frog eyes who needed to join AA" (who thought he was God's gift to womankind and he always reminded me of "Your perfume is nice but must you marinate in it?!!!") and Ms.Dreams!
That is another series of post and maybe Happy will oblige us and tell us about it ALL. Cause hey NETg ka eshtory tha....
Another one was Kash and the II floor trainer. He much older, married before, sarcy as HELL, and she an innocent sa pretty sardarni. Maybe this was the real Mills and Boon saga. She 24 and inncocent he 35 and jaded! We spent a lot of lunch hours talking about this one ;-)
Then there were the unofficially-official ones - starting at STRIDE. Peace-lover and his stinky poo babe ;-) She so had that place eating outta the palm of her hand!!! And most of us covering our noses to avoid barfing!
When STRIDE was given the VISTA Dev project we got a bunch of developers from Products, who used to laugh out loud, smile, chat, listen to songs, ... my jaw was on the floor considering Pappu and Kash had a FLOW TIME (disgusting name!!! ) Where we couldn't talk - just imagine my plight!!! We could ONLY use Lotus Notes to communicate!!!!
All these guys had serious girlfriends and the trend was the girls were a good 3-5 years older! "Mr. Teddy Bear in kurta with Ravan's laughter" + petite sardaarni, Tall-fair-cute Sandy + Ms.TL from products (I still remember her talons!). Most of these fizzled out but some made it to the altar and beyond. The southie-from-UAE and trainer; KB and much younger-baby-faced-BF.
I was the buddy who used to go and passive smoke with the guys and I got a lot of HINTS from some but a mangalsutra and an adoring hubby can be such a blessing :-)
The time I spent at KKJ was the MOST fun :-) That rooftop cafeteria has so many interesting tales to tell!!!
I played a match-maker for the Mani Mani case!! Them two owe me BIG-TIME!!! But what could I do - it was so OBVIOUS they were in love and perfect for each other and both were acting out some serious adolescent fantasies by trying to make the other one jealous! They had the same surname before marriage! If they had sent ads in papers, they would found each other!
Ash was quite an unsuspecting victim in this one :-) The Eiffel Tower keychain she got played a great role! She will kill me if I tell anymore :-)
In Okhla - the guards and the canteen walas were the first set of people to know that something was afoot and the management LADIES would ALWAYS know :-) Always made me wonder how could they? Spies all around! Then the casual flirting types who names you would know if you were there and I am NOT gonna name names!!! And no I don't mean the lech manager of D 185, or the RnD Head with his gaggle of geese!!!
What a wonderful place NIIT was - full of romance!! But I hear thanks to the switch in ratio things have changed!! Sad no office romances are fun at that age / stage / place. In Ajeeb-O-Gareeb also we have some things afoot - people here know who ALL I mean. But where ever you have people who spend so much time together sparks will fly and some catch fire :@) Or maybe its a generation thing. The new kids are all in call centers and thats where sparks fly and I hear from my sis, sis-in-law, and hubby (all in call centers!) that a lot of other stuff flies about :-P
On this lovey-dovey note I sign off!
More later - ciao!
Rags
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