City Boy » reflection

Letter to 16 year old Amortya

Amortya Ray — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:21:35 +0000

Dear 16-year-old-Amortya:

Hi!

First things first. The Backstreet Boys are so 1997. The Nick Carter middle-parted hairdo that you are going for is just not working. You have thick bushy, often curly hair. You cannot pull off the straight-silky-bouncy hair look. So stop trying already.

You cannot look like him

You turn 16 in a few hours. It’s probably a little too late to tell you study well for your class 10 exams. But thankfully, the nightmarish last 2 years of school are over. You’re in junior college now. It’s a clean slate for you. But yes, for the rest of your life, you will be embarrassed of your junior college. Over the next 10 years, you will have more than your fair share of screw ups. There will be times when you find yourself in a royal mess of epic proportions. And often the damage done will be irreparable. But there will also be several high points in the next 10 years. A few of those achievements are academic in nature. And that is not entirely a compliment.

As much as you hate it, you will move a few more times in the next couple of years. Thankfully, by now you’ve been immunized to the whole I-change-homes-every-6-months thing, so it won’t matter much. And in about 6 years, you will get live in the greatest city in the world. Look forward to that.

Friends. Ah, possibly the one thing you’ve done right. Well, almost. You will have friends that stay in touch no matter what. You will have friends that aren’t worth your while. You will have friends you reconnect with after an extended period of time and that would result in forging a bond stronger than before. You will have friends you will cut out of your life forever. And you will have friends whom you don’t see or speak to for years and when you eventually do, it’s like no time has passed. You pick up right where you left off. You will have friends who don’t care what zip code or time zone you live in. They love you all the same.

Family. Don’t be so angry at your parents. The decisions they made have always had a meaningful impact on your life. Even if you don’t see it that way right away. Be nicer to your sister. She’s the only one you have. And yes, she’s going to be mighty successful someday. So start working on building that brother-sister relationship the way it’s supposed to be.

When you are at a four-way intersection, stop at least a few feet away from the stop sign. This is possibly the sole reason you have items #9 and #10 on your Life List.

Drive carefully, especially if it's your Father's car

Now I cannot emphasize this enough, but not everyone gets your sarcasm-filled sense of humor. To some folks, you may come across as smart, sassy and cleverly funny. To others, you’re just a douche-canoe. And as it’s recently been brought to my attention, you can be really rude and mean. When you are mean, you tend to be vicious and just go for the kill. Remember, with great popularity comes great responsibility. Be wise, my younger self.

Lastly, be happy, be safe. And happy 16th birthday.

Best wishes,

26 year old Amortya

PS- In about 2 years you will get a phone call bearing some grave news: Sonali Bendre gets married. As tragic as that thought sounds, you need to be strong and pull yourself together.

Choo choo!

Amortya Ray — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:55:16 +0000

The Path train that countless working professionals take to get into the city every morning

Sometimes when I miss my morning train into the city by a few seconds, my quant obsessed brain nearly goes completely anal trying to figure out how I could have made the train. Here are the top 10 reasons I feel could help me shave those few precious seconds off the 7.5 minute walk from my building to the train station.

Oh, and before I start, I should add that, typically, I snooze my alarm for an average of 30 minutes before actually crawling out of bed.

Oh God! I shouldn’t have snoozed the alarm again. It was supposed to be 2 more minutes. I closed my eyes and the next thing I know its 20 minutes later!
This obsessive, compulsive need to begin my day with email and facebook is going to get me fired one day!
Juju Chang is gorgeous!
Note to self: iron clothes on the previous night!
Okay, heating my lunch at 7 am is so retarded. I ain’t gonna eat it till noon. Its bound be an icicle by then!
Boxers or briefs, boots or dress shoes, black or brown, polish them or not, reuse socks or get fresh ones. Decisions decisions!
Ugh! I didn’t really need to shave today. The stubble wasn’t really noticeable!
Why the hell did I need to check my mailbox in the morning. Its not like my bills are going to vanish if I don’t check it. Though I wish they did!
Crap! Need to get a new metrocard today! Well, I had to get it any which ways, so this wasn’t going to help me save time in any case!

And my personal favorite:

Dude! Get a grip! Chivalry is dead! That girl doesn’t care that you smiled at her, wished her good morning, held the door open for her and told her to have a great day!

By the time I’m halfway through this list (which is precisely 2 and a half minutes later), the next train to the city charges in. Time to get to work folks!

Joy

Amortya Ray — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:34:30 +0000

I went skydiving last summer. Naturally, I pretty much crapped my pants right up to the point me and my tandem instructor jumped off the plane, but once I was in the air, plummeting 20,000 feet to the ground, with the wind distorting my face, making it look like I was struck by a vicious flesh eating disease, I realized the awesomeness of the moment. That 3 minute drop gave me biggest rush of my life, a high no drink can match. Even the El Toro pales miserably in comparison to this ride. Knowing that it can very well be the last thing I ever do, so might as well go in style, I took a massive leap-of-faith and ended up with an experience of a lifetime.

Morty & skydiver dude trying to be all cool for the camera

Mum once told me that to travel one needs to get 3 things right: the right age, the financial resources, and most importantly, the will to travel. So here’s a couple of things I believe I should definitely attempt before I get too old, go broke, or become too chicken for adventure.

Some day, perhaps!

I’ve always considered myself to be a water baby. Hence, its not surprising that topping my bucket list are a host of water based activities. Scuba diving, surfing, snorkeling, diving with sharks are some of the things I’d love to try. The last one in particular. Considering that I’m not much of an animal lover and detest sea food (yes, a kalank on all of them Bongs out there), I think it would be interesting to live through the Jaws experience first hand. Step one for the aforementioned goal is already in the works. A trip to V’s Caribbean homeland, experimenting with T&T cuisine (which, I gather, is very much like Desi food, so I should feel just at home) and lazing on the beach, sipping on a Mojito, is step two. Step three: **gulp** stepping into a steel cage, descending down the clear blue waters, with sharks circling around me, and being terrified of being eaten alive by the very thing I came to see!

Sweet Lord, thats one gorgeous view!

Moving onto less dangerous, but equally incredible things to do! People who know me would agree that physically strenuous activities are really not my thing, but a man can dream, can’t he? I think that climbing to the top of the Pyramid of Giza would be super cool and would certainly make for interesting conversation on a date. Hot date: So Morty, what did you do last weekend? Me: Well, I was in Egypt and I climbed to top of the Great Pyramid of Giza with my buddies and had a beer. Hot date: **too stunned to say anything** I’ve always thought that Egypt is a country much like India. Steeped in mythology and culture and a fabulous destination for tourists. I really want to visit the place someday. Ever since Lucky Ali crooned O Sanam to that gorgeous woman in his video, I was convinced that Cairo/Egypt is one place I must go to. Standing on the top of the pyramid, would be one of the most breathtaking moments of my life.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s the carnival at Rio, the touristy spots in Italy/Rome, the gondola’s in Venice, Kerala backwaters, Rajasthan, Ladakh, and of course the millions of places I could visit in the US itself. My list could go on and on. The world is huge and we have so little time. A single lifetime simply isn’t enough to enjoy the beauty of this planet. Makes you realize how insignificant a part you are of this huge ass planet.

A Midsummer Update

Amortya Ray — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:51:14 +0000

A few noteworthy observations about my life these past few months-

Relegated to the Jersey office, for what I hope will be a temporary thing. I miss my city, I miss it’s ever so vibrant nature, I miss my Chicken Shahi Korma from Minar, I miss being crushed in the train to work in the mornings.
I absolutely adore my new friends here. I have finally managed to maintain a decent balance between the professional and the personal. M, m and V- you guys rock! More on them in due course.
The corner couches at the Hyatt in Exchange Place are henceforth forever reserved for me and my crew. Fridays are generally spent in anticipation of the evenings where we vent the week’s frustrations to each other on possibly the best mojitos in all of New Jersey.
Walking along New York’s Fifth Ave. on a beautiful summer afternoon is delightfully sinful. The Louis Vuitton store has some of the most ridiculously priced jackets I’ve ever seen! However, spending a month’s salary on a single piece of clothing is just not unacceptable.
It’s amazing how quickly time can pass in a bookstore. As a skinny, young boy in South Bombay, I remember begging my parents to take me to the Crossword store at the Mahalaxmi Temple on Sunday evenings. I’d end up spending hours and hours pouring over books and wondering how cool it’d be to own a library. I got that familiar feeling when I visited the Borders bookstore a few weeks back. Came home with a NYT bestseller.
The goal for the near future is to stay as busy as possible. Keeping myself occupied would be beneficial in several ways. For one, I get to meet new people. For someone like me who grew up in a big city, my life story is completely and totally different from someone who spent their entire life living in the a palatial house overlooking a gorgeous yard in a small town in North India!
I’m starting to realize the joys of drinking wine.
Murphy at work: Less than a day after signing the lease to my new apartment, I meet my current neighbor face-to-face for the first time in a year and half. And yes, she’s jaw-dropping gorgeous.
Learning to dress sharper.
Reconnecting with old, long lost friends. Totally. And disconnecting from others who no longer matter.

That’s it for now, folks.