Taxi Driver's MBA lesson

Got this from a dear friend of mine...another awesome read

This is a true story from a Microsoft employee in China, very long but an interesting read. It reveals the power of statistics.

The Taxi Driver Taught Me An MBA Lesson

I needed to go from Xujiahui to the airport, so I hurriedly concluded a meeting and I was looking for a taxi in front of the Meiluo building. A taxi driver saw me and very professionally came in a straight line and stopped right in front of me. Thus followed the story that astonished me greatly as if I had attended a lively MBA course. In order to faithfully preserve the intent of the taxi driver, I have tried to reproduce his original words according to my memory.

"Where do you want to go? Good, the airport. At Xujiahui, I loved to get business in front of the Meiluo building. Over here, I only work two places: Meiluo building ( 美罗 ) and Junyao building (均瑶 ). Did you know? Before I picked you up, I circled around Meiluo building twice before I saw you! People who come out of office building are definitely not going to some place nearby ...."

"Oh? You have a method!" I agreed.

"A taxi driver must also have scientific methods," he said. I was surprised and I got curious: "What scientific methods?"

"I have to know statistics. I have made detailed calculations. Let me tell you. I operate the car 17 hours a day, and my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB ..."

"How did you arrive at that?" I asked

"You calculate. I have to pay 380 RMB to the company each day for the car. The gas is about 210 RMB. I work 17 hours per day. On an hourly basis, the fixed cost is the 22 RMB that I give to the taxi company and an average of 12.5 RMB per hour in gasoline expenses. Isn't that 34.5 RMB?" I was a bit surprised. I have taken taxis for ten years, but this is the first time that a taxi driver has calculated the costs this way. Previously, the taxi drivers all tell me that the cost per kilometer was 0.3 RMB in addition to the total company fee.

"Costs should not be calculated on a per-kilometer basis. It should be calculated on an hourly basis. You see, each meter has a 'review' function through which you can see the details of the day. I have done a data analysis. The averarge time gap between customers is seven minutes. If I started counting the costs when someone gets in, it is 10 RMB for about 10 minutes. That means each 10 RMB customer takes 17 minutes of time, which costs 9.8 RMB (=34.5 x 17 / 60). This is not making money! If we say that customers who want to go to Pudong, Hangzhou or Qingpu are like meals, then a 10 RMB customer is not even a bite of food. You can only say that this is just a sprinkle of MSG."

Great! This driver did not sound like a taxi driver. He seemed more like an accountant. "So what you do then?" I was even more interested and I continued my questioning. It looked like I was going to learn something new on the way to the airport.

"You must not let the customer lead you all over the place. You decide what you want to do based upon the location, time and customer." I was very surprised, but this sounded significant. "Someone said that the taxi driving is a profession that depends on luck. I don't think so. You have to stand in the position of the customer and consider things from the customer's perspective." This sounded very professional, and very much like many business management teachers who say "put yourself in others' shoes."

"Let me give you an example. You are at the entrance to a hospital. There is someone holding some medicine and there is someone else holding a wash basin. Which person will you pick up?" I thought about it and I said that I didn't know.

"You take the one with the wash basin. If you have a minor complaint that you want to be examined and to get some medicine, you don't usually go to a faraway hospital. Anyone who is carrying a wash basin has just been discharged from the hospital. When people enter the hospital, some of them die. Today, someone on the second floor dies. Tomorrow, someone on the third floor dies. Those who make it out of the hospital usually have a feeling of having been given a second life and they recognize the meaning of life again -- health is the most important thing. So on that day, that person told me, "Go ... go to Qingpu." He did not even blink. Would you say that he wanted to take a taxi to People's Plaza to transfer to the Qingpu line subway? Absolutely not!"

I began to admire him.

"Let me give you another example. That day at People's Plaza, three people were waving at me. One was a young woman who had just finished shopping and was holding some small bags. Another was a young couple who were out for a stroll. The third one was a man who wore a silk shirt and a down jacket and holding a notebook computer bag. I spent three seconds looking at each person and I stopped in front of the man without hesitation. When the man got in, he said: 'Yannan Elevated Highway. South North Elevated Highway ...' Before even finishing, he could not help but ask, 'Why did you stop in front of me without hesitating? There were two people in front. They wanted to get on as well. I was too embarrassed to fight with them.' I replied, 'It is around noon and just a dozen or so minutes before one o'clock. That young woman must have slipped out at noon to buy something and I guess that her company must be nearby. That couple are tourists because they are not holding anything and they are not going to travel far. You are going out on business. You are holding a notebook computer bag, so I can tell that this is business. If you are going out at this time, I guess that it would not be too close.' The man said, 'You are right. I'm going to Baoshan.'"

"Are those people wearing pajamas in front of supermarkets or subway stations going to travel far? Are they going to the airport? The airport is not going to let them enter."

That makes sense! I was liking this more and more.

"Many drivers complain that business is tough and the price of gas has gone up. They are trying to pin the cause down on other people. If you keep pinning the cause on other people, you will never get any better. You must look at yourself to see where the problem is." This sounds very familiar. It seems like "If you cannot change the world, then you should change yourself" or perhaps a pirated copy of Steven Corey's "Circles of Influence and Concern." "One time, on Nandan Road, someone flagged me down and wanted to go to Tianlin. Later on, someone else flagged me down on Nandan Road and he also wanted to go to Tianlin. So I asked, 'How come all you people who come out on Nandan Road want to go to Tianlin?' He said, 'There is a public bus depot at Nandan Road. We all take the public bus from Pudong to there, and then we take the taxi to Tianlin. So I understood. For example, you look at the road that we just passed. There are no offices, no hotels, nothing. Just a public bus station. Those people who flag down taxis there are mostly people who just got off the public bus, and they look for the shortest road for a taxi. People who flag down taxis here will usually ride not more than 15 RMB."

"Therefore, I say that the attitude determines everything!" I have heard dozens of company CEO's say that, but this was the first time that I heard a taxi driver say that.

"We need to use scientific methods and statistics to conduct business. Those people who wait at the subway exits every day for business will never make money. How are you going to provide for your wife and kids at 500 RMB a month? This is murder? This is slowly murdering your whole family. You must arm yourself with knowledge. You have to learn knowledge to become a smart person. A smart person learns knowledge in order to become a very smart person. A very smart person learns knowledge in order to become a genius."

"One time, a person wanted a taxi in order to get to the train station. I asked him how he wanted to go. He told me how to get there. I said that was slow. I said to get on the elevated highway and go this other way. He said that it was a longer way. I said, 'No problem. You have experience because you go that way frequently. It costs you 50 RMB. If you go my way, I will turn off the meter when it reaches 50 RMB. You can just pay me 50 RMB. Anything more is mine. If you go your way, it will take 50 minutes. If I go my way, it will take 25 minutes.' So in the end, we went my way. We traveled an additional four kilometers but 25 minutes quicker. I accepted only 50 RMB. The customer was very delighted for saving about 10 RMB. This extra four kilometers cost me just over 1 RMB in gas. So I have swapped 1 RMB for 25 extra minutes of my time. As I just said, my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB. It was quite worthwhile for me!"

"In a public taxi company, an ordinary driver takes three to four thousand RMB home per month. The good driver can get around five thousand. The top driver can get seven thousand RMB. Out of the 20,000 drivers, there are about two to three who can make more than 8,000 RMB a month. I am one of those two or three. Furthermore, it is very stable without too much fluctuation."

Great! By this point, I admired this taxi driver more and more.

"I often say that I am a happy driver. Some people say, 'That's because you earn a lot of money. Of course, you must be happy.' I tell them, 'You are wrong. This is because I have a happy and active mind, and that is why I make a lot of money.'"

What a wonderful way to put it!

"You have to appreciate the beauty that your work brings. Stuck in a traffic jam at People's Plaza, many drivers complain, 'Oh, there's a traffic jam again! What rotten luck!' You must not be like that. You should try to experience the beauty of the city. There are many pretty girls passing by. There are many tall modern buildings; although you cannot afford them, you can still enjoy them with an appreciative look. While driving to the airport, you can look at the greenery on both sides. In the winter, it is white. How beautiful! Look at the meter -- it is more than 100 RMB. That is even more beautiful! Each job has its own beauty. We need to learn how to experience that beauty in our work."

"Ten years ago, I was a general instructor at Johnson's. Eight years ago, I had been the department manager for three different departments. I quit because there was no point in making three or five thousand a month. I decided to become a taxi driver. I want to be a happy driver. Ha ha ha ..."

When we arrived at the airport, I gave him my business card and said, "Are you interested in coming this Friday to my office and explain to the Microsoft workers about how you operate your taxi? You can treat it as if your meter is running at 60 kilometers per hour. I will pay you for the time that you talk to us. Give me a call."

Then I began to write down his lively MBA lecture on the airplane.

Mail from Mrs.Sudha Murthy

I personally find this article very inspiring. Small sentences can give so much help to how life should be handled. Please read it.


It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science.

I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India.

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: "Lady candidates need not apply."

I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up
against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful.

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco.

I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then). I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote.

"The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender."

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like
laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview.

There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was serious business.

"This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realisation abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a technical interview."

They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories."

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place.

I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories."

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw "appro JRD". Appro means "our" in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him.

I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, "Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate.
She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it).

Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. "It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?"

"When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I am Sudha Murthy." He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

"Young lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I said,
"Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD said, "It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor.

I'll wait with you till your husband comes."

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.

I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee."

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again." In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, "So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?" (That was the way he always addressed me.) "Sir, I am leaving Telco."

"Where are you going?" he asked. "Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune."

"Oh! And what will you do when you are successful."
"Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful." "Never start with diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best."

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, "It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today."

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and
mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.


(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)


Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004

Ode to CEO, Deccan Airways

One great swashbuckling karate kick in the face of the company "dubba peetofying about being the second most famous airline in India" in so few years!!!
http://smilesnsmiles.blogspot.com/2006/08/to-ceo-air-deccan.html#comments

This one is a must read though I apologize to the author to have put this link on my page without her permission. I am sure that she will not be averse to any miniscule publicity that this post might get for her blog.

Phone calls

So many new things hapenning in life that I almost forgot to put this in...but anger and frustration apart, blogs should be updated with (in my case) anything that my dimaad thinks about...

What do you do when you are called out of your office by a very good friend of yours and then just when you two start talking, this friend gets a phone call? Nothing...right? You just stand their and wait for him to end it as soon as he can and restart his talk with you...right?

This is just what I did today...waited and waited and waited and finally found that I had been doing that wait for more than 15 minutes (let me assure you if you do not already know that these 15 minutes are longer than most years that you have lived on this planet). All that I do is grin at anything which sounds remotely familier even though I have no clue about the person at the other end of the line who is taking the time which was supposed to be yours!

Finally decided that I had enough and since nothing else seemed good to be done, I started walking away slowly only to find this friend of mine following me....OK...so now what? Start walking with him!!...And this guy did not stop talking on the phone...finally I just took off leaving him to do his chatting making sure that next time something like this happens...I will not do anything.

What I am going to do now is that I am going to send the link of this post to this good friend of mine ;-)

Chill guys!!!
Nishant

Mast zindagi hai...meri nahi...unn logo ki jo normal times par kaam karte hai. I came to office at 9 in morning yesterday and felt so bad about having to come at odd times to work. If only I could work at the same time as every single normal person....guess that is not going to be the case for some time to come. Still felt such a different feeling. Now I will definitely understand the improtance and the special feeling of working at these times more than any person who has been waking up at 7 just to be in office on time. My roomie shouts and screams about having to go early in the morning....ab ussko kaun samjhaye ki kaash main bhi aisa kar sakta... :-(

Hope I will do the same one day........one day

dhoom dhadakka

could not thnk of any better heading for this post. after all this is what is going on in my head currently...24X7....day in and day out. Have so many things to think about. Earlier it was the daily targets that I was thinking about...now since I have taken myself away from them, it has become the "other" things (best left unsaid till a better time since I dont know who all must be reading these posts)

I never thought that my head could ache so much just because of some stupid things going on inside. actually cant exactly call them stupid since they have more to do with the thing called my career than anything else has ever been...and that brings me to the reason why i have been blabbering here for so long.

I was thinking about all the things that we have done since we were born that we have been told or we have thought "are the last things that we need to work hard on to become something"!!! I remember the first time that i was told this was in class 8th. My mom went after me saying that if i work hard, i will get enough grades to see me through the rest of my life...and I BELIEVED HER!!! Then class tenth boards, class twelth boards, medical entrances, navy SSB, air force SSB, medical entrances again, all enggineering years, MBA entrances....and then I went away to XIMB hostel and no one to say anything and hence i started the completely useless work of blogging...but now this thing comes up and again i start thinking...had all those things really been so important? if i had secured a li'l bit less marks in any of them, would I have been worse off...or vice versa...had I been better off had i got something better in any of them? guess i will never know since i did not get anything less or more.

Strange world...we work so hard to get what we get and then dont have a clue what would have hapenned had we worked less hard....or we do not work and get what we get and again have no clue what we would have got had we worked harder...!!! Simply...as I said initially...my brain is going crazy and making a sound....DHOOM DHADAKKA

My GOD...WHAT IS WITH ME?

yesterday a gr8 frnd of mine writes a testimonial for me on orkut saying that he loves to read my blog....opened my eyes...i forget to write stuff on it and thr is at least someone here who likes to read it!

I decided that i have to do something for this lone customer that my blog has...i am not going to let him down and am going to write with new vigor and josh (is thr any diff between the two words? i dont know)

anyways...i decided that i will write about orkut today. seriously an amazing creation of human brain. i met up with a loooot of old long lost frnds thru this thing.....

as i said...getting so late now. have to log out but i dont want to lose this nice habit of blogging....used to take so much tension away from me....actually feeling better already

Seems like my posts at this blog are decreasing by the day. :-( life is taking a toll on me....kya karu

on a serious note...i have nothing worthwhile to contribute to humanity and hence i feel that the only reason why i m writing this seems to be my all encompassing statement that i m perfectly useless to any process that i going on on this planet...hence possibly i m the best person to be sent to the moon whenever the next trip goes there...maybe i will do something usefull thr

blore is good....as far as the weather is concerned at least. my job is stressfull...as far as i am concerned at least. my bike is flying...as far as the roads are concerned at least. but things are very very dull PERIOD

update on my side...working in office at least between 4 to 1 and stay back and come early since nothing to do at home. play snooker, almost started to go to the gym (this i do daily ;-))...

and a news flash...first couple from my XIMB batch to get married- Sujesh and Sudeshna..sure hope that the message on yahoogroups is from Sujesh and sure hope that they find the true everlasting love for each other in this relationship not just in this life but all the future ones to come.

now i get back to my work!

Bangalore.....

Here I am...This is me...i guess i had no clue as to what i will be....

in bangalore for arnd 10 days now i feel as if i have been thru so many things. Events are the ones which drive ur life and not time. this is what i get to understand now. same 10 days without any events would have been just a blip on my life's radar. these 10 days in a completely new place, among completely new ppl, being (literally) thrown out of a guest house and then going on to another, joining a company which is changing by the day, going on a leasurely (though official) tour to Bandipur Wildlife santuary (earlier more famous for Veerappan but now the elephants and tigers and leopards seem to have taken the place)...all these things do seem to change things.

Then getting to do things which i had never thought will be something i will be interested in (thinking of finance as i was during most of my mba...though later turned to sales) now this feels like a completely new challenge that i have to take and succeed at.

we have also taken a house (me and bisu) which is more of a duplex and ppl are actually shocked at how we could get it at such low costs. and now i am planning to take a bike very SOON...cant go back to my place at 1AM or later without the auto walla taking 2-3 times the actual money.

lots of crap have i said today...take care all the vella junta reading this crap column

Anuj and Soumya.....and Bangalore tomorrow

yesterday i had two great frnds getting married. Anuj and Soumya had never talked during all the years in school together. and finally decided during a small meeting in a small meet in another frnd's place that they were made for each other. surely marriages are made heaven. as anuj was saying sitting on the dias yesterday waiting for soumya, "I had never thought that i will be marrying a girl from AFBBS!!". Sure anuj...neither did i thnk about you that way.

All the best to a great couple and may your love blossom as it has till now. u 2 make me feel like getting married fast now ;)

though i wil have to convince someone else for that and she is not in any mood right now...i know that :D

i am leaving for bangalore tomorrow. lets see what happens in this new place. Till date i have learnt something worthwhile in all the new cities that i have been to. Hope blore is only different that it teaches me a LOT of things and not just afew.

Till next time (which i dont know when will happen)

frm bbsr to bglr

Things change, locations change. But such changes do not happen so often. It seems just yesterday that i was leaving home to joing XIMB in Bhubaneswar thinking of another new city that i will get to explore and another new life that i wil be able to live. and now after having gone thru bbsr, ctk, puri and a host of other places..not to mention kolkata in my summers, i am now going to leave delhi in 3 days time for going to bangalore...another new city to explore and another new life to live.

What is that place like? their seems to be at least one person from each indian family who is currently working in bangalore. wherever i have gone in these past weeks..after my convo which itself was such a big event in my life that the excitement kept me away from my blog for all these days...there has been someone who is "currently in bangalore" or has "just gone to bangalore" or is "just shifting to bangalore". How much place does that city have???? i wonder!!!

My XIMB...i do miss it a lot

This was something which was always going to happen. We always knew that we will have to leave XIMB...for good. Then why is it that after leaving campus last week, after coming home to the same 24hrs net connection, after getting all the home made food that i was longing for all this while, after knowing that i will soon be one of those ppl in the world whose first salary will be in the top income tax bracket, after knowing that a completely new and hopefully as exciting life awaits me in Bangalore, I still feel as if i have lost a huge and important part of myself by coming out of XIMB?

The Ashoka trees lining the roads, the professors whose classes were better for catching up on our sleep, the rooms where we spent most of the time even if it was to chat with the guy living in the room next to ours, the mess which was more famous for the things it did not serve rather than the ones it did, the stairs in front of the mess and the culverts where we added all those spices to the already flavored gossip that we heard, the flowers that studded the campus as the placement season neared bearing a reminder to the days to follow the placements, the payiks and the mess wallas sitting thr always looking at u as a person who has come for a short time and in this time, they try to become ur family...in this time u become thr family.

Have a great time my XIMB....and all the ppl who come in and go out of those gates which changed so many things...inside us and outside us.

Left XIMB for good

working on my comp from home seems to be such strange occurance for me right now. no ppl coming over to disturb me and no pops to reply to. this life is going to be difficult to adjust to...sply since this net previlidge may not stay for long as have to join itc in less than one week now. things are actually getting more senti with meetings with old frnds (school and college) and this creates a greater feeling of being away from ppl u love....sply after leaving them. man was created by god and by putting these emotions into man, god gave him a huge responsibility. now i m starting to understand it. but soon ximb will also become a memory and a beautiful incident in my life which will be thr to remember and cherish and the feeling of having to leave it will go away...after all this is part and parcel of everyone's life...ain't it?

And on...and on...

My neighbour left today...now i feel that i never talked to nitin (gambhir) as i shld have...no heart to heart talks...nothing. feels as if we missed out on knowing each other even more during our 1.5 years of night outs together, 1.5 years of staying in adjacent rooms, 1.5 years of listening to each other...but now he is gone...and i am going today. hope i meet him again and am able to tell him this.

Mickey also left today. this guy has been such great help...any problem and inevitably his name will be first in my mind as in most of the other ppls minds. i just feel that i get more time with these ppl in the future...and they stay happy wherever they are.

miss u guys...b-top looks and feels strange without u and without the usual shouting and banter

And the days go by....

These last few days have gone in nothing but parties...from junis to seniors or vice versa...from one individual to the other...or in any other form or fashion (including one between me and manu ;-)) but the days still go by...thinking about what next is going to come in our lives. it seems to be just yesterday when i was writing a blog post wishing my seniors best wishes in thr lives...now i m in thr position and the same seniors are telling us that they will be thr to help us and our junis are wishing us in the same way as we were...

i leave campus day after tomorrow...to surely come back once to attend the convocation baraat that tells the world that we are corporates now. i dont know wether we are actually or not...seems like MBA shld be not 2 but 3 years long. since we were told in the beginning that we will unlearn what we have learnt till then and then relearn...i guess what we have done in 2 years has been all unlearning...so we shld need at least one year to do the other part i.e. relearn. Plz make it 3 years.

dunno what i m talking about.. i dont say that my posts have some sort of a format in terms of a head, body and ending but today..i know that this one does not...so anyone who has cared to drop by and actually read this post till this time..plz excuse my banter

all the best everyone

YOU CAN TAKE AN XIMBIAN OUT OF XIMB BUT YOU CAN NEVER TAKE XIMB OUT OF AN XIMBIAN.

Truth and now i understand why.

http://maloyvilla.blogspot.com/2006/02/last-day-at-ximb.html

this one says most of the things that i would want to myself.

Everything is nothing

These words seem to have come from the mouth of some great thinker in a very high class gathering. If i say that they came from a waiter in Chilka Dhaba...a small highway dhaba near the Chilka lake, it will seem like a very strange thing. Actually the reference in this case was to a query about any cold drinks which they may have and his reply was "Everything is nothing" meaning that all the drinks that we asked for, none of them was their. strange eh? stranger things happen.

The above incident occurred on our night tryst with Oliver Ridley Turtules which was arranged by Prakriti the nature club of XIMB for us a couple of days back. These turtles come on the coast in these 4-5 days at a place near the Chilka lake to lay their eggs...and they come in thousands. A nice adventure and some good company was what made the trip a really memorable one. Entire B-top along with Meera and Manu and Satyen were in one car and we had some great fun inside as well as on the beach. Apart from the turtles which surely were scared seeing so many ppl thr, the beach during night with the waves shining and the foam glimmering made for a spectacular view. The stars also seem to have a way with expression specially for ppl who come from the city. u might just be stunned into silence if u see a night sky in the wild for the first time. the sheer quantity of the stars is enuf to make one think about his place in this universe again. The eggs of the turtles which our guide quitely dug out and kept in my hands felt and looked like TT balls. The guide told us that we could keep them in formalin and they will hatch. none of us was interested in that kind of a pet so we gave the eggs back to him and he promptly slid them into his bag....most probably to make an aumlette in the morning.

Some great experiences i have had in these last few days of my stay in ximb...sure hope that these continue forever.

It feels so good to talk about having been placed and going to start earning and all the different things that come along with that. what we forget or feel like overlooking are all the things that we are going to miss after we go out of ximb. I had never been in a hostel except in the navy and surely this experience has been absolutely amazing. No words are sufficient to describe the amount of learning that i have gained and the change that has come in me that i myself has felt in these 1.5 years. (even my typing speed has increased manifold)...

After yesterday's party (I feel like me and the other 4 Bad Boyz troupe have become an item performers...when nothing else is thr then send us in on the stage.) it seems that the time has reaally come in now. I hope that everyone in this place gets what they want and get it fast so that they get enuf time to enjoy it as well.

And by the way...plz my acting yesterday left a lot to be desired and i m thankful for that since the role that i got did not exactly suite me ;-)

Ode to XIMB Batch of 2006

Remembering my class mates after few years
My eyes were filled with tears
Everyone now is busy a lot,
No one escaoed destiny's plot

Project reviews to campus interviews
Nicknames to last bench games
Cultural rehearsals to love proposals
Short term crushes to class room blushes

Everything is fresh in our mind
Wish life could just rewind
Let's laugh play and rejoice
Once again become college guys

Chatting and laughing. we all were in elation
Till the painful moment of seperation
When it was time to part
We returned with a heavy heart

Today life is full of commitments
And too many worries
But those cherished moments
Will live forever in our memories!!

Maxinations 2006

Well!!! words cannot express the feelings that went through me and everyone else in XIM in these last few days that we have here. Maxinations just came to end with a surprise win for us which has left not only the rest of people but also our own block stunned. great team effort along with almost everything clicking for us in the end was what took the game towards our side. From the morning (coming second in quiz when nothing was expected) then following that up with some great presentation skills shown by pankaj and nitin in the brand presentation (we came second in that in the end) then coming second in Sargam as well (I was with mickey in that event :-D...no one in XIMB knew that any of us could sing...i still uphold that trophy :-D) and then to top it all, first in Block Rock!!! and this time our confidence card on the event gave us a huge lead. now i can again say that i was part of the 5 guys in the choreography...again a surprise for not only XIM but for me as well!!!

Overall...personally for me, a very satisfying end to a great 3 days...sply since we were so close to winning last year as well. Here is the win to the entire B Block as well as to the seniors who always wanted to but could never get the trophy. Great play by everyone else as well.

BAD BOYS ARE HERE!!!

Seems like a looong time since i last wrote something on my blog. My "frnd in times of boredom" whom i totally "forgot" during other times...guess that is the reason i put this post now. days seem to have gotten shorter for me for some days. The classes in KIIT seem to have not only got a lot of experience for me but also this great feeling that i could be the result because of which several 100 students get some jobs in the next few months. the students thr seem to be somewhat like in XIMB. A mixture of great and not so great ppl who together make a campus such a beautiful place. I really feel a lot for some guys with just about great skills in engineering but almost no way that i could make them speak. just hope that the companies that come are able to understand this and likewise recruit. i just hope that they all get placed and do not forget to tell me about it. a silent best wish for them all.

Today we start off with our quest for the Maxinations trophy. Something which we Almost won last year but could not because of no reason. The tempo is great and reminds me of the last year when we were all really charged up with that fire in our belly and i am sure we can do an encore this time as well. ALL THE BEST B BLOCK....After all...B A D B O Y S Are Here!!!

Great time i m having

Guess losing friends and getting new friends is a part and parcel of life. but all these things apart, last few days have been really great. First was the trip which i talked about to puri...not exactly puri but to beautiful and empty beaches near puri. The views were spectacular and we really enjoyed a full day of masti. Details about that in the next post since right now i am a bit busy (yep...in these times of excess time ;-)) after all i have a quiz to give and then go on to KIIT for the classes that i m taking thr. It really feels great knowing that u have 2 full hours to urself to keep talking and the poor souls in front of u have no other option to listen to u.

Going to Puri

nice times to get bored in :)...

going to puri to spend a day on the beach with friends...njoy everyone

Khandagiri and Bhittarkanika...my answer

I got a complaint today on my google talk. unfortunately I was not in my room at that time. The problem with this friend was that even though my status message was that i was "extremely bored" I had not bothered to write anything on my blog for a couple of days now. Sorry bhai but this was more because i forgot to change my GT status message :-) These 2 days have been busy like any other nice day should be and the title of this post should tell you just why!!

Yesterday, I went to andhra bank to do a small 2 min work for my NEM project. The fellow told me to come after one hour since he was "busy". I had no clue what to do so went over to khandagiri which was close by and spent an hour in that place eating chanas at the top of a mountain which also had a jain temple and a shiv temple. An hour was spent their and then when i reached back, i spent another 1.5 hours sitting in front of that idiot of an officer just staring at his face. Eventually he simply told me that he did not have the two minutes to spare :-( and could not even give an appointment for the next day. (actually that was good since i had more important stuff to do today :-D)

Today was our trip to bhittarkanika (yep again for me) but this was different and enjoyable in a different way. While the first trip was 4 guys on an adventure with no plans made beforehand, this one had been meticuously planned out by sujesh and consisted of 16 ppl (after richa opted out). 2 Qualis and a huge boat later not to mention the treck and the leg breaking journey in the cars, i have reached the following conclusions:
1. It really matters wether u have been to a place before or not. It could be as enjoyable if not more if u have a different group and/or a different reason for going. I had both, my reason being to keep a better lookout for snakes (i managed to get a glimpse of one in the wild) and to just chill out which i did.

2. Do NOT eat in the new Reliance A1 dhabas...the food is bad and cold and basically more of glamor in the place than anything else (after all how many dhabas have waiters who have left places like Pal Heights to serve u food on a highway!!!) Just does not give the dhaba feeling after the food has come in front of you.

3. Enjoy life!!! :-)

So...really sorry my frnd for not having changed my status message, i have done that now...though it seems that from tomorrow, it is going to be the same old story again...

orkut rules

Seems strange to thing that with nothing else to do, even then i did not write anything on my blog yesterday. The reason is stranger...with nothing to do, there is nothing to think and hence nothing to write about....simple eh!

So how am i passing my free time nowadays one may think. Till yesterday it was through one of the most ridiculous things that one could think of. I was using the famed orkut.com to find long lost friends and getting in touch with them. Believe it or not...i actually found a friend i had lost contact with after class X!!! And small as this world is, this guy is in bangalore...where i am destined to be in months time. The two of us do share a lot of memories together and i hope that shankar was as happy to see my mail as i was after seeing his.

Enjoy life ppl

So much to talk about

Thr are days as i must have mentioned before when u have so much to talk about that u feel that you need more than a blog and more than afew minutes to write about them. Yesterday was one such day. The only reason why i did not put anything yesterday itself was that at 5 in the morning, after dancing for 5 whole hours and then taking a guy back to his room after he had had more than his usual quota of drinks, i had no energy left to even think about logging in and writing something.

A very dear friend of mine took me to a temple yesterday. No big deal...I am one of those ppl who go to temples on a regular basis. Now this temple i went to was really located in such a small corner of the city that we actually wondered who had discovered that such a temple even existed. And then it was really small. Why this friend took me was because she had kept a small mannat and on its finishing she wanted to come and take 108 rounds of the idol. Why u may ask. This will happen in case u r not familier with the way indian society is run. Total faith in God and all his doings and undoings is such that even things which are explained by normal contemorary science are sometimes attributed to Him. But we are MBA's (me and my friend), so why do we believe in all this and actually feel that in case we ask him for something, he is the one who is going to give it to us? Not that i am in any way lowering his place or trying to dispute that he does not exist or even trying to lay a claim about his presence. This is supposed to be a very median statement not meant to mean or convey anything. I just felt sitting their and waiting for her to finish her rounds, as to why this was happening. Is it because we are not confident of what we can achieve on our own? Or is it because we need someone to put all our mistakes on? Or probably to have someone with us...because man is a social animal and all our lonely ordeals on this planet make us want to have someone around...so why not have God who will be present everywhere and we can talk to him and walk with him and listen to him at any time that we feel lost in this big bad world?

If that is the case then as soon as the above things are taken care of, will we lose our faith in the existence and hand of god?

I dunno...all that i know is that if their is God, then i would prefer to have him on my side...

For the Blogophobics

Since last year when i started this blog, i have had numerous ppl coming over and saying how much time i am wasting on this "crap" and "@#@%&#" and some decent words as well. Now i give one small thing that hapenned yeserday night that was actually an example of how USEFUL a blog can be. Rabi came over to my room asking me about Bhittarkanika, how to get thr, what to do thr and all similar details. All that I had to do was open my blog and let him read my post about Bhittarkanika. Howzzat!!!

So now for all the blogophobics, blog haters and the similar junta....herez a reason to write blogs. You dont have to remember everything that happens in your small or big world...depending on how you see it.

So pick up those idle fingers and type away...

These medicines do have a way of thr own. I got this really bitter cough syrup from a doctor and was told specially that it will make me go to sleep and hence i shld not be driving or doing any similar risky work after having it. Within a week, i finished an entire bottle but not once did i feel that my sleep was because of the medicine. absolutely no affect...either on my sleep or on my cough.

Next bottle that i get is another medicine which is supposed to be in a "new tingle flavour"...whatever that means...and this does not come with any soporific warnings. i took one spoon of this and i got to know the "tingle" flavor...and after 15 min...i had forgotten everything and was in a deep slumber on my bed. Thnk god that i was in my room nahi to pata nahi kaha so raha hota raat bhar ;-)

these medicines and there ways!!!

cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough cough ...............

that is all that is coming out of me right now...so that is all that i can think of putting on my blog right now...

hope i m the only one suffering from this illness on the planet right now

take care everyone

my plans

back from wasting some of my quality time at home, i have a very daunting task ahead of me. I have to decide where to spend the rest of my days that lie in front of me before my company decides to have the guts to start giving me money (for what, i still dont understand). i have thought of afew things which i am not sure about that will work. but still my mind is so so so confused that i really cant understand what to do. i have put enuf e-books on my comp to last me a lifetime if i want to, enuf movies on cd's to while away another lifetime, enuf games to waste another generations precious time....but what the hell am i going to do?????

anyone having any suggestions or recommendations...plz come ahead and put them up for me. I will be really grateful

going home

seems like such a long time that 0.2 celsius temperature in delhi is also not at all putting ice on my mood of going back home. tonight, i push off for a nice long week at home which as it happens will be my longest stay at home since i joined ximb.

hope the dilli ki sardi is able to create a cool atmosphere but not put ice on any of my plans...

enjoy everyone

Xuberance 2006..grand closure

I have been itching to write this post for a long long time. Actually since last year when sitting at the control desk, I saw the elation on the faces of my seniors when signing out...each with a job and each happy not just for themselves but for their friends of 2 years who are going to be their for them for the rest of their lives. Tomorrow is that day for us. We all sign out starting 10:30AM. But I saw that joy on my batchmates faces today itself.

As soon as word came out that the last of us had been placed...it was simply a "cycle stand affect" that took place...with an uproar going up all over the campus (right upto the faculty quarters waking them up as well). There was no stopping any of us, shouting and shouting and jumping and jumping and laughing and laughing away to the brink of madness. The elation and joy and ecstacy knew no bounds.

It is but difficult to put into words, and even more difficult to put into writing (since no one can actually see the emotions that arise on my face while writing this post) the kind of feeling that is going on. We were all awaiting the last result with bated breath counting down the number of people left to be placed. A real painful thing specially for those who were part of that group. And then....it goes down in history as the first truly 100% placement for XIMB on day 1...it goes into history as the best placement for XIMB in its history...it goes into history as Xuberance 2006.

With these emotions I want to draw this post to a close humbly wishing all my batchmates best wishes for a wonderful and successfull career and life full of joy and happiness and satisfaction with all achieved and desire to achieve all that is yet to be attained.

These last few weeks...

Long have been these weeks. No sense of what is going on....first the GD's were not getting cleared. Then suddenly there seems to have been some major upturn and I started clearing them...all of them!!! On last count..I had cleared 7 of them on the trot. Then I came across another hindrance...interviews. I had to somehow find out what the hell did each company want...."profile matching" is what the HR ppl like to call it. Then came 4th of Jan...the day when I had given XAT 2 years back and the day when I had got my summers one year back...this time it was my turn to get a job!!!
HDFC offerred me my first job! I was stunned...because the way I had performed in the interview was absolutely pathetic. Giving stupid answers to stupid questions
e.g.
Q: What are u looking for in HDFC?
Ans: Treasury
Q: Why?
Ans: Because everyone who has done finance wants treasury!
Q: But dont u think u will be more suitable for retail marketing?
Ans: May be...actually that is the reason why I took SDM and B2B and SM as papers!

And I was selected....GOD knows what they were looking for.

Anyways..that scared me..because of a simple reason that I have a strange aversion to banks. They simply dont impress me. So next day..with renewed vigour, I sat for ITC Infotech. GD cleared...interview..I gave but i did not know what impression i made. Suddenly I came to know that i had been cleared for a second round of interview and i was shocked. that also went coolly and i was waiting for the result. bated breath and almost senseless. What came was even a bigger shock than what had been hapenning in the last few days. I was offerred a LATERAL OFFER!!!!!

Some company had actually recognized my Navy experience as lateral and had decided to offer me a job then!!!

Things have taken such a lovely turn...

WHEW!!!...these last few weeks are coming to an end now!!!

This is just a continuation from a reply on a very dear friends blog (http://xcellence.blogspot.com )

This is regarding success and failure that people look at. Ppl like to go to bookstalls and read books about "1001 ways to succeed" but never think about failure. Something similar to what we learnt in our PROF class. Why do we forget that behind every Armani suite, their are a 100 torn shirts. This is a very known human tendency that success gets on the brain much faster than failure. You will hardly find a person who has had a success without failure to even think about people who have failed more often (a.k.a. my frnds in XIMB) whilst people who succeed after having failed more than their due share of times find success to be sweeter (a.k.a. some other of my friends in XIMB). And then (as my blogger friend puts it) people go to successful people to ask how to succeed not understanding that to be successful, it is more important to understand failure than it is to understand success.

This diatribe of sorts may be taken by some as my own wanteness for recognition (u know....one of the people who continue to fail despite all the "strategies" that we adopt) but it surely is a truth in life.

Oh...by the way...A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone who bothers to drop by and read these small ejaculations from my heart

Days seem to be getting longer....

IT is just afew days left to the beginning and end of placement week to come on us and I am starting to find these days getting longer and longer and longer. With daily full dress rehearsals and GD's (and somehow I feel...now interviews as well) it is becoming an ordeal that does not show any signs of abating. As it is...it is becoming more and more difficult to go out with so many other people who have nothing more to do but give gyaan to people like me on how to go about targetting companies...

What can a little success do to an individual is amazing. From being a no one to being a person who feels that he is the GOD and then going ahead and trying to prove it to the less lucky mortals is a behavior that has been written on since long time back (not that I have read any such books but guess it must have..how can the enterprising psychologists and sociologists of this world leave such a topic alone!)

Anyways...as Abhishek Bacchan says... "ye world hai na world...isme do type ke log hote hai, ek jinki naukri nahi lagi hoti hai aur dusre jinki lag chuki hoti hai. Jitni jaldi iss dusri category mein aa jaoge, utni jaldi kismatwaale kehlaoge" (this world has two type of people, one who have not got a job and the others who have. The sooner you join the second category, the earlier you will be called a lucky guy.)

Friends???

Friends...that is what people like to call themselves. Of course everyone knows the definition of a friend.." one who stays with you in cheer and tear....bla bla bla..." and of course everyone boasts of being one who does that. But in the end it all boils down to the same thing. "I have one thing which you dont...so obviously you dont know what you want in life while I always did..." even though the same person for the same thing may be feeling exactly the same way just two days back as you are feeling today. Arre if you dont know how to make a person feel more comfortable...then at least dont worsen the situation for him. At least, calling yourself a friend, this much you can do. But what does a friend in despair...in need of a shoulder to cry upon get? He gets another person talking in the same way as the rest of the human race in exactly the same tone making it clear ki in this world, every man is for himself. Friends are there only till the time they are required by you. Least bothered about what they may be feeling or may feel if you talk in the way you want to.

This is the definition of a "friend" as should be told to children. After all schools are supposed to make children fit to live in this world and this is one essential thing that has to be learned....or maybe this IS taught in school...i may have missed that class

A random thought...for the record

Just a thought which passed by in my mind while talking with a junior...

Since you are in the system,
Be like the system.
Till the time, you are not able to change the system,
Dont talk about the system.

All the more reason to try and rise above the system

Nice day this was...

Hmm....so where do i start?

This post is actually a continuum of the last two posts with positive results for both of them. I cant believe that I finally managed to clear a GD. This is a different matter that out of the 9 ppl in my group, 7 were selected (these minor things are better overlooked) but the point is that I cleared! Company is Genpact (GE's BPO) and the pay is good. The interview was also fine...actually i guess my navy background really helps in a lot of places simply because of the reason that the other person surely does not know anything about the field and i can faff to my heart's content :-)

I may or may not get thru but i surely gained some confidence as far as my capabilities regarding my getting placed is concerned.

Dinner ka to pata nahi...but the lunch in the mess was again pretty darn decent. Rajma chawal remains my fav any time anyways and this today was also pretty good...of course not comparable to what i could get in delhi from my mom's hands.

Vaibhav has reached back to delhi from IMA after two terms getting over. Next term he will be the boss in the academy...how i remember my days in NAVAC when our sixth termers used to srew us like hell and we had no option but to think of the time when we will be in thr place...that chance never came for me but still.....remember i do...


chalo gd nite for now
till nxt time

The mess bounces back

By making that statement...i am probably imitating our media which has the habit of exhorbitantly expressing itself everytime a small player makes a significant achievement...sometimes to such an extent that the poor player (he is a human after all) is left feeling like a god and starts to falter...before reaching the alter (;-))..

I guess since our mess is not going to know about this post, it really does not matter in this case. Tonight for dinner (which is cancelled for me by the way) we had parathas with potato in gravy and cucumber raita with the usual daal and fried rice. The entire fare has been served to us every friday but today, the taste was much much better. It sounded as if the thought of losing great business had made the contractor realize that he had to do something and finally...a.k.a. Ajay Jadeja in his hay days...the mess rose from its slumber to serve a menu which was not only eatable but actually relishable (if i could use a word like that)

Hope the good work continues....and oh!!!...by the way...i still dont have a job :-D

I have no clue what i was thinking about when i opened my blog today. guess that is what it is supposed to be like that u can publish anything that u feel like, whenever u feel like. but today seems to be a very very spl day. i have lost 2 offers...not that i had them at any point of time but i could have got them only if.........

only if i knew the answer to that only if....
only if i understood what these ppl select in a GD....
only if i knew what godamn thing is going to be asked by an interview panel which could be of importance...
only if i had the capabilities of faffing which everyone else seems to have and everyone feels that as an "mba" everyone is supposed to have....
only if i understood what was going on in ppl's minds at any given point of time...
only if i had a fraction of intelligence that Mel Gibson got in What Women Want...
only if i become fortunate enough to get what i want or desire at least once in my life....(other that my better half or best full that she likes to be called...and of course my parents who i am really fortunate to have...)
only if.....i knew the answer to these only if's.....

i was just wondering wether the only way that i could get a job was in a company which did not take a gd...???

maybe...because that is how i got my summers as well.

god send a good company where they dont take a gd....baaki future mein kya karna hai ye main sambhaal lunga...shayad...probably with ur help....

guess thats it...this is all that i had going on in my mind and this is all that i wanted to just take out somehow

Team for the World Cup

i was standing in front of the mess the other day when i heard a great roar of spectators coming from the T.V. in the MPH upstairs. Sensing a blistering knock from Tendulkar or Dhoni, I ran upstairs to see the match. What i saw on the screen was something completely different. Tendulkar was dejectedly walking back to the pavilion after having made a painstaking 2 runs from 15 balls. India had lost their second wicket. India went on to lose the match by a record breaking 10 wickets. They had achieved this feat only 3 times previous to this, once before against the proteas. Big deal...u may feel. India is known to be unreliable in terms of cinsistent performances anyways. But the deal is big...this time, it was the first time that a home crowd was cheering for the visitors...and cheering in one voice. It was the first time that a state or a region had taken so much importance over the country for so many people at one place. It was for the first time that just because a Bengali was not playing in the match, the crowd was willing to change their dedication to an alien nation. It was in my reckoning, the first time that the true nature of this regional snake has shown its fangs.

Are not the other players of the team not Indians? Are they not playing for the country? Are they not representing the people of India (which in my knowledge also includes West Bengal)? This is the same team which convincingly defeated the Lankans and had just broken the record of unbeaten south africans. Would they have lost in this way had the crowd behaved as they shld have....For the Country...?

From next time I feel the selectors have one more criteria to fill before deciding on the team for home matches...the venue will have to be decided first and then a reservation has to be made in the team that at least one player in the playing 11 has to come from that state.

If these are the reservations that are going to come to the team...why not have the usual SC/ST etc reservations? Possibly we could even incorporate one for the part of the country....say...2 places for a North paw, etc etc etc etc....and the team for the World Cup is ready!!!

The World as I see it

The World as I see it

This blog belongs to a senior in XIMB...some awesome pics that he has taken. Chk it out

Friends

With so many things at hand, you would never expect someone to have time to just sit idle. That is what I felt like doing for some days now. It is in times like this that the true value of friendship is seen. Somehow, friends will just sense something wrong....somehow they will know that you are not feeling good...somehow you will give urself away even if u try ur best not to. Then that friend will just take in their hand to guide u out of the rut and back on the track. Such an amazing feeling it is to feel that way...to either get urself pulled out or to pull someone out who u really care for.

A friend can easily change ur mind from feeling like nothing could go right to the point where u just start murmuring "I believe I can fly" and actually feel that u can.

Thanks to the world for giving such good friends to me. Hope I can keep upto the expectations of my friends...

Ironies abound

I was going through an old episode of "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge"...it seems to have taken our campus by storm...every dialogue/joke is listened to with the utmost attention and then repeated almost everywhere across the campus. One guy who was not even selected (his jokes were really pathetic...probably that was the reason for his rejection) gave this really nice seeming sentence..."What an irony in life that Diwali has Ali (Diw'Ali') in it and Ramzan has Ram ('Ram'zan) and still the two religions find it so difficult to coexist in so many parts of our country.Cant we just stay together and work together?

Nice thought...I really feel it merits more than a small mention in a laughter show amidst so many other PJ's which are being told at a dime a dozen...

Life is full of ironies. Or I seem to be experiencing more than my fair share of them. Our B-school follows a mixed way of teaching. What I mean is that we do a lot of theory through the Stanford way of teaching through books and class discussions but almost similar amounts of work using Harvard style case studies where we get to experience the problem as it took place in some organisation and then solve it.

I really dont mind either of them and truthfully feel that both Stanford and Harvard should follow our style of teaching. My current apathy is towards the cases as we discuss them in class. The company in concern has a problem (most likely they have got into one). Among all the things that we will see, there will be the way that things would have been done so as to have avoided the problem alltogether. And mostly, this is the teaching that we are supposed to get from the case. "How could things have been done so that this problem would not have occurred?" Wonderful, right? But a small problem. Dont these companies have managers who have also done their MBA from some b-schools? OF course they do. Then would not they have thought of all these things before going for the step that they did? Of course they would have. Even then they decided to go ahead with this idea. Why dont we discuss that?

e.g. the HLL's merger with Tomco was being discussed in one class. Final decision was that the only person that it benefited was the promoters of HLL. If that was the case, why the hell did eveyone else still go ahead with it? It has been found clearly that they all could have known about this imbalance of synergy before going for the merger. Did they not do the simple valuation calculations that are required to do this? I dont think so. Then why did they go ahead with this? The case is over but we still dont know.

Time is flying

It has been 11 days since my last post here. Sure not what i have been doing since afew months. But with the news of the first company coming on campus for its placements, time has just started flying. Nervousness has become evident on a the faces of a lot of people. Library is getting more and more people every night...and Time Is Flying.

All the best to everyone for getting the jobs that they are dreaming about.

My aim in life

I read a science fiction novel some days (or was it months) back. It talked about time-traveling and how tourists were taken across time to see the dinosaurs and all the other beasts and things that were present in their history. They were not allowed to step on the land in these different times but a floating carpet was spread just above the land on which they could walk. This was done so as not to disturb the balance that was prevalent at that time.

One guy on one such tour mistakenly steps on the grass and kills a butterfly which was sitting there. He gets scared and does not tell anyone. On coming back, they find that the entire world has changed. Things are not as they had left them. Their is a different fascist government, people talk different, houses are different...nothing is the same. The guy understands that it is because of the butterfly that he killed and decides to do something about it.

The novel starts here, my story ends here. My wish is to be like that butterfly. Just imagine the kind of change that occurred over time just because of the absence (or presence) of that butterfly. I want to be a person who brings about a change in the world which will be seen and appreciated. How many people can right now boast of having brought that change? I dunno but I am sure very few. I want to be one of them and that is my target...I want to be the butterfly...

Bhitarkanika Trip

I seem to have this strange laziness which lives deep inside me. We went to Bhittarkanika National Park on 7th and came back on 8th. During the entire trip, I kept thinking about all the things about the trip that I was going to write in my blog (one of those things that u get to start doing once u start writing on a blog I guess…). I came back 2 days back but this laziness has ensured that I did not put a word anywhere about this trip. Now that I am at it….so be it….

Bhittarkanika is one of the lesser known national parks in India. Situated in North Orissa (some people might call it dangerous because of the number of incidents of disappearances their), it is famous for the crocodiles that are present in huge numbers in the backwaters. Creeks and small lakes make for beautiful sightseeing as well and the number and varieties of birds that are present here will probably be matched only by Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. The strange name of the place really struck me hard and I was unable to remember the name even after the program was finalized (took a real stress on my poor small brain for me to remember it). I actually asked a number of people why the park got this name but no one knew. It seems that the place (called Kanika I presume) was ruled by King Ali a long time back. He used to go for hunting in the jungle which is now the park. Since this was a pretty dense forest (it still is), it came to be known as Bhittarkanika….(bheetar means inside in hindi….I guess it means the same in Oriya).

We started in high spirits on 7th morning feeling really great and wanting a lot of adventure (not knowing that we were in for a LOT OF adventure). The 4 of us i.e. myself, Mayank (Ghattu…the guy who arranged the entire trip…thanks man), Sabyasachi (Saby….our interpreter for the trip since he is the only one among the 4 of us knowing Oriya…though we all doubted his mastery over the language) and Abhishek (Tyagi) had hired a taxi (happened to be a Tata Indica) for taking us to Raj Nagar and then on to Gupti. Raj Nagar has the main office of the forest department who were supposed to give us permission to go into the park and stay their for the night (our plan was to stay for 2 nights inside the park in a place called Dangmal where the forest department has a guesthouse. We reached Rajnagar in 4 hours (most of the time was spent listening to songs of Shhh… on the car player and sleeping…Tyagi slept the most as he did throughout the trip…this guy has the stamina for that). In Rajnagar, we asked for directions and a really great fellow told us that we need not go to the forest office their and could get the permission directly from Gupti (this was the place from where we could get the boat for the park). We were really happy and thanked him for the kindness and carried on to Gupti. I will never forget the next one hour of my life. Muddy ponds of land on both sides with a road snaking between them (no light poles which would actually make a night trip a very horrendous experience…we were going at 2 PM though). The road was just a mud track with large and small stones sharing space on the road. After every small distance, there was a catchment of huts made of mud and straw. Lots of people and almost all of them living in total poverty. We reached Gupti at 3 not knowing that we had a total drama waiting for us. There we got to know that the permission had to be got from Rajnagar. Since we had come all the way, the official there told us that he will try to get permission for us on the wireless when he talked at 4. We had to wait. So we decided to have something to eat. A small restaurant (if u could call it that) came to our rescue. Had great tasting fried fish and some vegetable mix (which also had fish pieces in it…they don’t make anything without fish there) with rice. I loved it, so did Saby (though he says that he liked it because of the hunger…though I don’t thnk the same), Ghattu did not have the dried fish and Tyagi did not have anything (just biscuits and some namkeen). At 4, the man (I actually want to use a lot of abuses for him but I guess I shld not do that here) took his own sweet time in calling up the central office and finally announced that we will have to go all the way. After a lot of shouting and cursing, we started back on the same beautiful track to Rajnagar. We reached there around 6 (just in time since the sun was setting and we had no intention of going on the mudtrack in darkness) and went straight to the office of the DFO. I have never seen a more efficient govt office before (not even the German visa office which was worse than most of the Indian govt offices anyways). The clerk was more than willing to prepare the order, the officer was more than willing to sign it and the peons were more than willing to help us with the details and even give us tips. Amazing!!! And none of them took any money!!! There was a catch though….we will have to stay at Gupti since the park is closed after 6 and no movement is allowed. I was the unlucky person who had to go outside and ask our driver to take that poor Indica back to Gupti in darkness on that same track…I was scared… but the second shock for us….he agreed without blinking and no extra costs…just the pre-determined kilometer reading….Amazing!!!

Back to Gupti was a completely different experience and I will love to share that with u but I guess I have already told a huge story without talking about the park (nothing much their though….just animals and trecking…we all know about that, don’t we?) We stayed in Gupti in 2 rooms. I went off to sleep almost immediately. Then at 12:30 Mr.Ghattu woke me up and asked me if I will accompany them. They were going with the guys on duty who were going on a night round in the park for looking out for poachers….interesting but no thnks…!!! Then Ghattu said that Saby and Tyagi were also coming…interesting…O.K. and we were off. Took a boat in the silence of the night which took us to some place inside. Then we were supposed to go into the water and on the land for a round. This was not what I was going to do and the same thing was there in both Saby and Tyagi’s minds as well. We all stayed put…Ghattu….went off after being careful to take off his shoes (he got a lot of rashes and bruises and was groaning even now!) The rest of the trip went in sleep and we came back to senses only after we reached back to Gupti at around 4:30. slept for 1 more hour in our rooms and then we got ready for pushing off for the park in the boat which was made ready for us.

The park is basically lots of small “islands” surrounded by lakes and swamps making for a lovely breeding ground for a large number of animals and birds as well as for fishes and snakes. A very beautiful park and I could really not find any good reason why it is not as famous as some of the others that I know of or have been to. Besides the crocs (which are actually in abundance), Bhitarkanika is also famous for a large varieties of Kingfishers, deers, monitors, snakes, turtles (including the now famous Olive Ridley Turtles)….this list could go on endlessly….flora consists of very beautiful mangroves which are actually more beautiful to look at in reality than they look in photographs with their prop roots and all the other plants with their breathing roots (pneumatophores for the more botany oriented minds). The creeks with dense vegetation on both sides ensured that we had that feeling of being watched throughout the trip which actually makes such visits even more exciting. We went to Baghaban (plz ignore the spelling mistake in the name in case it exists) where we saw the birds on top of the trees….awesome…..then went on to Dangmal where Ghattu prepared lunch for us using the ready-to-eat meals which was very yummy and we even played with a house-cat (he he he) which was more interested in the left-overs than in us. We came out of the park through Chandbali because the exit roads from here are a bit better (they were actually a lot better) and then took a bus and then taxi back to college.

In all a lovely trip which could not have gone better. We were able to fulfill our basic aim of having a great time and we did come back with a lot of nice memories and learnings. I will definitely recommend Bhitarkanika to anyone who wants to spend a couple of days specially in the winter season since the weather here is absolutely fabulous then and the birds as well as the turtles are in full breeding mode….a scene worth watching.

Njoy!!!

Superbly amazing, majestically awesome....these were the kind of words which were coming into my mind when I was thinking of how to write about today's event in my blog. Unfortunately, I find all these to be very small words. My vocabulary does not have words to suggest the kind of show I witnessed today.

Decibelz 2005, part of xpressions had its first version this year. With bands coming in from small cities and colleges, I personally was not expecting the kind of show it finally came out to be. I was actually wondering what OTV (state TV of Orissa) will gain out of telecasting this event live.

In the end, I am happy to eat my words. Sorry...again a very small word....I was made to swallow my words and digest them by the performances. Each of the 6 bands were just upping the standards of rock music as I know it. Compositions...original or not were simply awesome and you did not need to be high on dope to just sit their gaping at the scene in front. I am not going to talk about individual bands since it may not do justice to all of them but the kind of talent that exists in our country has made me understand and decide that I am never going to underestimate anything and anyone before I have seen them first hand.

SIMPLY AMAZIMG.....

I seem to have come a full circle. I had decided at the beginning of this term that I WILL NOT take part in any competition. Had too many already for showing on my CV as it is. But little did I know that I am not going to heed to my own words. Here I am right now busy more with the various competition deadlines than with my own deadlines in terms of staying free. In cases like these, I usually like to blame everything to God and this time is no different. It is all God's wish that I find myself where I am right now. Interestingly, after realizing my fault and actually not having any time, I still look at the new competitions to see if I can take part in any one of them!

Something I would like to say to myself in hindi....arre sudhar ja bhai...sudhar jaa...varna bahut pacchtayega

It is not normal for me to put in two posts on the same date...even though the time difference is a bit on the higher side, but as I said in the previous post, there are days when things just keep hapenning.

This time it was the re-arrival of the pop (our LAN messenger). Now things will go more towards normal as we have the divine pop to provide some sort of excitement in our otherwise dull lives.

Thank you God for listening to our prayers...we can get back some semblance of normalcy in our lives now.

Some days life is so dull. As if their was nothing in this entire world that could shake the laziness away from you. Then suddenly one day in between will change the entire idea....in my case I would put it at 2 days actually. This entire term had started on a very lazy note. Absolutely no classes and the entire weather ensured that we did not feel the need to get out of our beds....let alone do some useful work. The last two days changed the entire thing.

In the end it feels as if some hidden force had just been gathering strength to strike at the right time. This time it had to be my girlfriend...actually it was me only...I am just blaming her (after all I can take those liberties on my blog ;-)) Yesterday I suddenly came to realize that I had (I thought) not told my beloved (her name is Megha btw) about my blog. Just one of those things which suddenly strike you and I could not believe what will happen to me when she finds out. Daring that I am, I decided to find out my fate and the next time I mailed to her, I sent her the link to my blog.

I came to know almost instantly that lightning takes a lot of time to strike. She took less. The next moment I knew, she had inundated me with "How could you's"...well had I known the answer, I would have told her but that is not the case....even I dont know. It has taken two days for me to get back into her good books again (hopefully) and this time I intend to be more carefull. You dont want to lost the faith of the one person who means so much to you, right...

So the next time you are getting bored...just 'forget' to tell something to your girlfriend / boyfriend (I dont think the latter will work though...it is the girl's who have the knack of scolding properly)

All the best people.

The following are the lyrics of the song "Am I true to myself" by Lobo. How true can simple songs sometimes be? I guess this actually takes care of the self-actualization stage that we keep talking about in our management day and night. We would have reached this stage if we can actually look into the mirror and see a very satisfied person, a person who has been true to everyone, a person who is happy with all that he has and all that he has been able to achieve for himself and for people around him. Can we actually make these things come true for ourselves? Ever?

Take care and have a safe journey towards self-actualization....

Today I looked down in the water
I saw a face look back at me
It hit me like a bolt of lightning
I may not like what I see.

Am I true to myself
Do I believe in what I do
Am I playing a role
Do I want to be like you
Or am I what I hate in others
Only seeing things my way
That's what I'm gonna ask myself today.

Do I really like my brothers
Do I like my hair so long
Do I try to think of others
Can I believe what's in my song

Do I think of all men equal
Or pretend I just don't see
Have I looked for good in others
Or just laughed and let them be.

Someone tell me how much can it rain in one place. Delhi has started getting rain from the last 2 days as I came to know through my family. Here in Bhubaneswar if I find the sky clear and no water falling from heaven to completely soak me within 15 seconds flat, then it will seem different. So much has it rained since the last 10 days or so (non-stop, unlimited, beating down on the roofs) that the recent Mumbai floods would definitely have got a lot less (this makes me want to praise the dranage system of Bhubaneswar though I feel it is more because of the elevated land area that has resulted in this beautiful drainage).

The pros of these rains is the wonderful water that is always present for you to take a bath in. We can always go to the bathroom to do that but bathing in the rain has a different sensation which only people who have VOLUNTARILY taken a bath in the rain will be able to explain. Another huge advantage is that I actually sit inside my room all the time and that is really essential right now with a business plan, Kurukshetra presentation, project appraisal and company analysis to be done in the next one week.

The con is definitely the difficulty with which clothes dry up. They take more time to dry than start smelling due to the dampness. I thought I had left this clothes problem in the navy but it seems to keep occuring again and again. "History repeats itself" so they say.

Not that I never think about people in distress but this time my heart seriously goes to the people in the drought affected areas. Cant someone give some of this rain to them?

Exams are over. Actually it has been two days since they finished. I was too lazy to get up from my bed to write a post to let anyone who cared to know about this. Actually anyone who would care to know about my exams being over already knows that they are over.

My learning from the last two days:
1. Come what may, I cannot sleep for more than 11 hours at a stretch (Yes, I AM doing an MBA)
2. If you sleep for long hours, you actually feel more sleepy during the day. So you have to sleep more and that makes you even more sleepy.
3. You feel more hungry when you sleep than when you go out and play football!!! Yeah...even I could not believe this could be true untill it hapenned to me.

Its been two days since the pop stopped working on campus. It was a real relief intially with Kartikeya (K-virus) and now even Bivas and Maloy coming up with thr versions of Stick Cricket and Pingu and all the other games....and that also always during exams....but now the absence of pop is getting on to me. You feel so cut off with nothing to do. No pops just popping out of anywhere and u getting to do all sort of things....quizzing, revising syllabii, teasing ppl etc etc etc...

And that actually made me start feeling about the time when we will leave the place. Probably ximbians.com will be helpful since we still will be able to have a virtual pop where we can interact and chat but what if we do not get time? Rumpelstiltzkin, Don, Eminence, Webmaniac, Dragon, King Arthur, Scarface, Cupid, Critter, Narcissist, Scorpion... and of course the ppl with thr actual names...Safi, Maloy, Venky and roll nos as well (U104008 is the top of the mind here)....is it going to be the same? I actually see two juniors calling themselves Hawk and Eagle...wether intentional or not....I liked it ;)..these are synonyms of my name after all so i can say they are inspired by me...he he he (God save them)

The 14 14 14 14 (War cry of AOE) from Arthur which makes us run to start AOE......(6) (sign of the devil on pop) from Don which i started patenting for myself......demands for songs or movies, assignments or project reports of seniors, calls for meetings or fixing of dates....I am sure we cant have all this anywhere else.

I hope my work makes me so busy that I forget all about it and get on with my life. I hope that the same does not happen with my frnds and we all stay together. I hope i stop being so senti sooner than later since i have an exam to give tomorrow and 4 more over the next 2 days...

This term is coming to an end in another week or two with the end of the exams. Looking back i found this to be a really different term from a lot of aspects. First of all I actually feel that i have learnt something in this term. This feeling of having learnt something is actually an alien to me and my body still has to create antibodies for this disease. Till that time i have to suffer. Secondly this was probably the first time in my life that we had less classes during the week and more during the weekend (sometimes even 6-7 classes on a sunday). 15 august was a monday and we were actually regretting getting an extended weekend since that meant more classes.

All said and done this was a better term....not withstanding the constant enmity which exists between me and marks which i am sure is going to continue till death do us apart...

till next time.....ciao

I was going through a website detailing the lives of people living in concentration camps during WW-2. I came across this para from a guy in Auschwitz Concentration Camp which was supposed to be the most notorious camp of the type. The para goes...

"Despite the madness of war, we lived for a world that would be different. For a better world to come when all this is over. And perhaps even our being here is a step towards that world. Do you really think that, without the hope that such a world is possible, that the rights of man will be restored again, we could stand the concentration camp even for one day? It is that very hope that makes people go without a murmur to the gas chambers, keeps them from risking a revolt, paralyses them into numb inactivity. It is hope that breaks down family ties, makes mothers renounce their children, or wives sell their bodies for bread, or husbands kill. It is hope that compels man to hold on to one more day of life, because that day may be the day of liberation. Ah, and not even the hope for a different, better world, but simply for life, a life of peace and rest. Never before in the history of mankind has hope been stronger than man, but never also has it done so much harm as it has in this war, in this concentration camp. We were never taught how to give up hope, and this is why today we perish in gas chambers."

To think about the plight of the people living there is a bloodcurdling experience in itself but to think of the really important ideas that come up from these experiences is another. Dont we all live on that thin string of hope that binds us to what we want to achieve. Had it not been for hope, would I have ever thought of becoming an MBA and spending 2 more years of my life studying? It is just the hope of making it big after doing this course that i am actually doing it. Same can be said for everyone in this world.....cant it?

GOD loves me. I am 100% sure of that. And how I got to know this is because however much i try to reduce my weight, it just does not come down. GOD likes to see me healthy and hence he has put such habits into me. My interest in food and excercises seems to be conversely related to each other. So even when my aim of reduction requires me to concentrate more on the latter, I seem to be more inclined towards the former. Hence while I usually skip excercising almost daily, i prefer to eat enough food to keep a family happy (and such a quantity is possible because of the mess i eat in....had it been anywhere else, my consumption of food will probably rocket to inconcievable proportions)

Please everyone...pray to god to keep loving me as much but do change his perceptions of a healthy person..

Yesterday evening I played football. Not that it is a really great achievement of that I did this for the first time but it was a genuinely new experience. I never thought that football could actually take the role of a cross country and that a ball could decide the direction of your running. We were practically running from forward position to defence position as the other team kicked the ball here and there. The final scoreline of our having lost 0-3 was actually an appreciation of our talents. The way the teams were matched....it should have been at least nothing to a dozen or two. In the end I was basically lying down in the ground with absolutely no energy to move my legs and wondering what kind of godly intervention will make me get up and go up to the second floor (my room is on the second floor). I somehow managed.

After that I had a feeling that I really wanted a 'bhutta' (corn...the way it is made here makes it really tasty.) For that I took my legs which were screeming for some kind of respite all the way to Swosti for buying that.

It is morning now and still my legs are aching for a little bit of rest....well lets see...I thnk i will let them rest in class where i will sleep peacefully.

Life is a torture. Specially when this life takes us to the Business Ethics classes twice a week. I have no clue why we are studying what Aristotle did or could have done or what is the meaning of teleology. Ethics as a concept is known to everyone and I would prefer if it is left to each and everyone to follow his own ethical standards. As it is, I dont see much change in anyone who has gone through this course.

Considering all this, I am the only one in our batch who has to attend two ethics classes continuously. Not considering the fact that these two classes are seperated by a gap of two whole days and also not considering the fact that the reason why these two classes are continuous for me is that I have not attending the 3 classes that lie in these two days, the thought of 2 classes is enought to send shivers down my spine.

Hope I scrape through tomorrows' class....

Exams ended day before yesterday and new energy came into my otherwise lazy bones. It ensured that the great pangs of sleep that i had been experiencing for the past few days was gone and was taken over by this really great urge to stay awake...even when i actually had time to sleep now. Stay awake I did but what i did while awake is something which even i cant explain. For the simple reason that i did not do anything. The cycle starts like this...in your room you think of what to do...cant find anything worthwhile (i am not going to start studying plz...papers just ended...) so i just start off on an expedition tour roaming around in blocks and trying to find people who are both awake and in their rooms so i can reduce there brains to dust by using my gift of the gab. i dont find any people who fit into the above category because of the simple fact that each one of them is on a similar mission. so what i finally end up with is a group of people chatting away to glory with no respect for either the people or the time...all of us competing with each other for talk time as if we are not in any informal discussion about no topic (choice of topics is an entirely different matter which requires a whole blog to itself but i will rather devote another post to it)...but as if we were in a GD for the post of a CEO (do we have GD's at that stage???)...The great chatting session actually makes us all hungry so we decide to go to mess and have something to eat. another chatting session till the time that eatable is consumed and then back to our rooms. In the room i try to think that i am feeling sleepy and try to go to sleep. seems like another waste of time so i get up again and not having anything to do...go on a mission to make people get up and talk with me....and everyone else is doing the same....cycle continues. This is how i keep busy during days after the exams...really a very very hard work to do..dont u thnk

Seems that all that I can talk about during exam time is related to exams...we had International Finance paper today. I practically started studying yesterday after giving myself the usual kicks in the ass for not having studied till then and how i was going to flunk because of that...(how do i manage to repeat this again and again after promising myself to study as soon as the exams get over...I will never understand)

People all around me were studying like there was no tomorrow or someone will hold back there degrees if they did not study...I couldnt care more it seems...but I did. My paper was at 6:00PM today. Yesterday I decided that i will surely wake up early in the morning and go to the library and study like hell...u thnk that i did not get up eh??? Well i am not that bad....i did get up, had breakfast as soon as the mess opened and even went to the library to study. Sat and studied for some half an hour before the first pangs of sleep hit me. I immediately heeded their advice and dozed off right there......what hapenned after that is history and i prefer not to repeat this part of history ever...

Hope they do not hold back my degree!!!

My dreams

Man...am I bad at this...everytime I log in I think that next time will be sooner and it always gets later. And the funny part is that I always happen to remember my ID and password...for a guy who cant remember where he kept his mobile...this is a big thing. Guess I am more hung on the old fashioned way of writing diaries. Will take time to get used to a blog. (Please dont ask me how much time)

I was listening to some saxophone instrumentals today in my room (supposedly preparing for my term exams) and I started of on one of my frequent dream chases....

What will probably be the best thing that will happen to me? It will probably be moments with the girl I love. Dancing close to each other with sweet romantic instrumentals playing in the background (have to be slow though...dont u feel i am very selective?....back to my dream...), sweet smells of sandalwood in the slow breeze and no one to disturb us or worry us in any way. I could probably carry on this way throughout my life....

lemme get on in my dreams for some more time before i get back to my paper preparation....and nxt time i promise to be more regular...!!!

tough weeks gone by

whew...those were tough last few weeks. First the great German fiasco in which the embassy actually proved that there is no difference between the Indian or any European government as long as it is a government. How do these people survive...I have no clue.

Now in Kolkata (I still prefer to call it Calcutta) things are going along much better. Cant really think about Germany all the time. Life keeps going on. Project is great and simply put...will make for good interview FAFF. "FIBRES based reverse engineering model for future strategies for 3 of TATA international's products". I hope that I will be able to do as much work as it requires. Sure will give my best.

Ciao my blog for now...will keep posting

As we saw and the seniors went away

As i saw them all leaving one by one, all the things that we had done together went through my mind...the ragging in which we really hated them all to the time when they woke up at 5 in the morning to help us out with our assignments when we loved them so much. those were our seniors...so good yet so bad. now that they are gone leaving us to take care of the next batch which is yet to come, i really miss them. now is the time when i really know there true worth. what they stood for and what they did. of course there was not much defference between them and us but they were the seniors...the guys who were supposed to help us settle down and the guys who did this work perfectly.

all the best to all of them from the bottom of my heart. take care and do well in life. that is all i wish for.

keep in touch guys...

As we saw and the seniors went away

As i saw them all leaving one by one, all the things that we had done together went through my mind...the ragging in which we really hated them all to the time when they woke up at 5 in the morning to help us out with our assignments when we loved them so much. those were our seniors...so good yet so bad. now that they are gone leaving us to take care of the next batch which is yet to come, i really miss them. now is the time when i really know there true worth. what they stood for and what they did. of course there was not much defference between them and us but they were the seniors...the guys who were supposed to help us settle down and the guys who did this work perfectly.

all the best to all of them from the bottom of my heart. take care and do well in life. that is all i wish for.

keep in touch guys...