bhande kali kara lo..!

in the pic: all the akhil mehtas. me, puneet, nimit, akhil, pralav.

Ok. So this post is all about our marketing trip on 25-01-2008, friday. Well, our motive was to promote Quark '08 (http://www.bits-quark.org/) in Goan colleges. And so Nimit, our respected and feared Marketing Head, Member-of-Organizing-Committee ordered all of us to be at the main gate at 7:15 sharp.

Now, before i continue, i suppose you must know the main characters in this story. These are:

1. Akhil Mehta aka TylerDurden aka Tillu. 2nd year. Bigshot on DC. And the reason for the title of this post.

2. Lita Das aka Bhonpu (according to NIMIT). 3rd year, very highly noticeable. And her 6 feet plus height is not the only factor.

3. Puneet Gupta aka Akhil Mehta. (reasons will be clear to you once you are done reading this post). 3rd year. by far the quietest 3rd year. Especially useful when you need wisecracks to be well, cracked.

4. Pranshu Sharma aka me aka Akhil Mehta. ME.

5. Pratik Mandrekar aka Akhil Mehta. 2nd year, quiet Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) driver. Smart 'local Goan'.

6. Pralav Dessai aka Akhil Mehta aka Driver Bhaiyya. 3rd year, 'local Goan' guy again. Drives the car well, including situations where a sonic boom occurs very close to his left ear.

7. Nimit Mehra aka Akhil Mehta aka THE ORGANIZER aka THE MARKETING HEAD. Boss, basically. The 'senapati' of this vaanar sena that went all around Goa on Friday.

So my day started with Lita whispering (for a change) at my door at 6 am to wake me up. So then finally we sign out of the campus by around 7 45 am. Now the plan was that Pratik and Puneet would go on Activa while the rest of us would be in the car. Then we realize the guy who rented us the Honda Activa (aka Kinetic Honda) needed to be dropped off to Vasco. So with me and Lita stuffed on the front seat next to the driver we almost reached Vasco following Pratik who had the bike-guy sitting behind him. And then we realize, that we could have just left Puneet at the campus gate and continued.

And then we realized the road through the jungle to Vasco had a huge huge hole in it. So Pralav tried getting us all back on a road. And I tried saving myself from being squished between the door and Lita while Lita shouted out stuff like "Hum nahin bachenge... we can't reach Vasco.. we can't reach GEC (goa engg college)... Akhil Mehta! Shut up Nimit Mehra.. Pralav bewkoof look at the road. Akhil Mehta!.."

We survived. And soon were on our way to Goa Engineering College. We reached there before 9, when the classes start. I got a good audience. Told them all about Quark, the events, the workshops, the special nights, and I told them that a London troupe of jugglers who have performed at Olympics 2004 were coming to our campus (http://www.feedingthefish.com/), and that magic shows are not just "pulling the rats out of habits" (double-slip of my tongue). So we finished with our job and soon were on our way to RIT (forgot the full form).

So we were having fun, singing songs, making Pralav change the radio station every 30 seconds and laughing uncontrollably whenever Lita would say something and Nimit would try to counter her point. "Akhil Mehta!... Nimit bewkoof.. Pralav do not drive fast. I wanna sleep... Akhil Mehta!.. Itna tez nahin... Radio chalao bewkoof!... Akhil Mehta!..." No matter who took her case/did something that annoyed her, Lita would utter 2 words "Akhil Mehta". Hence all non-Litaeans belonging to Quark-teamus kingdom, Marketingae phylum and Friday-teamus Order have a genus name of Akhil Mehta.

Well, our respected and revered and feared and non brain-severed boss was having a good time too. We all are very scared of Nimit. And we all respect him a lot. And he is a good boss. And he is not getting married to Lita. He was totally cool with us teasing him with her. And he totally was not avoiding being in the same vehicle. Pralav will not be the chauffeur of the newly-married lovebirds. Me and Tillu will not be the two witnesses needed to register a marriage. Nimit is well respected by all of us. So, he was laughing and not calling anyone a 'dumba$$'. This is when Tillu decides to tell us all about this song which is now our marketing anthem (as Nimit put it). "Bhande kali kara lo".

Now, this song fills you up with the same feelings as "aie hiphopper' and 'tic tic tic tic tic tic' do. Bhande in Punjabi means utensils. The feel that comes in this song, is unmatched. You gotta listen to it to know what i mean. Ultimate song!!! Totally cracked the Punjabis (Nimit, Tillu and Puneet) up.

Anyway, so we were continuing with "kali-karaoing the bhandes" ie our going to college, meeting students, handing them flyers worth 11 bucks each, being reminded not to be so generous with the flyers as they were expensive, put up our posters on top of every other techfest's posters, talk to some more people, and then run to the car/activa, where Nimit and Lita would mock-fight with each other. ("gimme my wallet Lita" "you give me my cellphone first" "ek haath de, ek haath le" "Im throwing your wallet outside" "Lita..." "bewkoof..."). And the rest of us would just be content with having a good laugh at their expense.

And so we continued with our trip, and then stopped in Madgaon to have lunch. Which is when we got to know Tillu speaks brilliant chaste Hindi. He told us he had just missed winning a Hindi poem-reciting competition on Hindi Diwas. Later Nimit told me the piece of Hindi literature which he had brought to life with his serene and captivating manner of speaking was "machhli jal ki rani hai".

So well then, on and on we went. Lita went on about Akhil Mehta and Kinetic Honda. I was well, just very happy 1. Tillus shorter than me 2. Litas crazier than me. Pralav was amazed Eeshan was right about what would happen on friday (he had imitated Lita very well, I believe) and happy his speedometer's 'kaanta' had the capacity to go upto 120 and not get stuck at 100. Nimit was happy we were done, and that since he was not in the car, his case would not be taken (quite wrong though, Tillu me Puneet and Pralav had fun). Puneet and Pratik were well, themsleves. All cool and calm and quiet. Enjoying the show. Tillu was being Tillu and happy that for once Lita was not yelling his name out once every 2 minutes. We had another round of Bhande kali kara lo.

And then we came back to campus where Lita finally got her Kinetic Honda and I got to sit behind her. We covered the entire campus, I believe. Hoping someone we know would see us. Which they did. :D

Brilliant trip. And our boss is going to blog about it too!