A S H I S H Y A H O O

The truth about earning in dollars!

2009-06-16T13:57:00.003+05:30

A very interesting read - though this article is about four years old, Rashmi captures life in US vis-a-vis life in India to the best extent. I can associate with the thoughts even though I havent been to the US - simply because I have seen people around me who have done so - either gone there and settled, or gone there and come back post some time, or have preferred to be in India. The article touches upon the mind-frames of all three categories.

Enjoy, if you have a few minutes to spare...

There are two ways to look at a foreign salary -- the Catholic and the Protestant.

The first is characterised by a missionary zeal to convert using the rupees-multiplied-by-43.8-times formula ingrained in every self-respecting Indian head.

Which is how $110,000 achieves the headline-grabbing status of 'Rs 50 lakh!'

But, protests the economist, how far does that Rs 50 lakh go in a foreign land?

What you have to look at, then, is Purchasing Power Parity. The theory of purchasing power parity says that, in the long run, exchange rates should move towards rates that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in any two countries.

Duh. Despite having acquired, at some point in life, a BA in Economics, I have no idea what that means.

Purely in layman's terms, how much bang for the buck? Well, says the World Bank, $150,000 fetches you a Rs 50-lakh lifestyle if you reside in India.

In the US, the same $150,000 is actually equivalent to earning Rs 18.7 lakh.

The Economist's famous 'Big Mac index' makes it easy to understand. A hamburger costs $2.90 in the US, but $1.10 in India. Take that, you dollar-earning desi!

Beyond economics

Of course, the real picture is far more complex. Despite what the Big Mac index might indicate, an 'upwardly mobile' lifestyle in India is more expensive.

If your family decides to have Kellogg's cornflakes for breakfast everyday in India, it will work out to about 4 boxes or Rs 500 a month.

An American family, on the other hand, would spend about $20 a month for the same breakfast.

Given that a reasonably well-to-do Indian family earns Rs 50,000 a month, it spends 1% on its cornflakes! Whereas the reasonably well-to-do American family earning $5,000 a month spends only 0.4% from the mahine ka budget. That's way, way cheaper.

So despite being a supposedly 'poor' economy, we have higher relative prices -- dollar prices -- for many commonly consumed goods. Food and petrol, in particular.

Although, conversely, we can afford bais and drivers, dry cleaning and nice haircuts. There is always a trade-off!

Living like a desi

How much dosh you have stashed away in the bank depends on how you choose to live.

If you are earning a dollar/ pound salary and your objective is to 'save', you live an Indian lifestyle in a foreign land.

This means eating mostly at home/ shopping at Kmart/ Wal-mart; thinking 10 times before making an impulse buy (out pops the conversion calculator: 'I can get this cheaper in India. Forget it!')

This is an attitude typical of the just-set-foot-on-foreign-shore worker, especially on an H1-B visa. And there's nothing wrong with it. Four-five dudes share a cramped apartment, live frugally and save a pretty packet by the time they head back home.

And even though they may have lived in what the Chicago or London native might consider as Mira Road and eaten at the US equivalent of Udipi joints, the experience of living in the First World is reward enough the first-timer. Clean air, wide roads, 'systems' that seem to work.

But, should s/he decide to stay on longer, the immigrant will be tempted to buy in to the host country's way of life. You shop to 'feel good' about yourself and, eventually, being the thriftiest shopper in town loses its charm.

So one fine day you decide to buy the Polo shirt costing $100, even if your mom thinks you are crazy because you could buy five shirts for the same money back home. Earlier, you moved, geographically. Now, you have arrived, mentally.

That dollar salary will never feel quite as weighty again.

Resident Non-Indians

On the other hand, living in India -- even for the guy with the Rs 18 lakh salary -- has its own hidden cost.

Money provides some insulation -- but the stress of working in First World conditions but living in Third World ones is inevitable. You can fiddle with a Blackberry [suit] in the backseat of an A/C chauffeur driven car.

But you are in Saki Naka, stuck in a trademark traffic jam, with a beggar tap-tapping furiously at your window.

The airport -- which sees more of you early in the morning than your spouse does -- seriously sucks. As does the fact that a substantial portion of the taxes the government earns from you end up as employment guarantee scheme for politicians.

Par kya karen, yeh hai India. So we 'adjust', grin and bear it.

At least we now have multiplexes and megamalls to hang out at, no?

The hidden price

Of course, living abroad may result in a postcard perfect 'Big Picture'. But life is made up of a million little things. And, at that level, regrets remain.

A friend who has spent most of his post-IIT life in the US -- a good 12 to 15 years -- noted on a recent visit that he really enjoyed visiting Chinese restaurants in India. "Because you can taste the food," he said wryly. "Everything there is so bland... so American."

Another friend says she misses the sights and smells of the sabzi markets in India. "The veggies there are so fresh, it feels like abhi zameen se nikle hain." American tomatoes, she insists, are huge and red, but absolutely insipid.

On a more serious note, there's the issue of parents. Growing old and lonely, often not in the best of health. Move here, you insist. But they resist.

The world is a 'global village' where India is just a mouse click away.

You buy the folks a computer with a broadband connection.

And life goes on.

The economics of emigration

Is where you live about geography, or a state of mind?

Well-known journalist Thomas Friedman has just authored a new book on globalisation titled, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

In an article in the The New York Times Sunday Magazine, he writes, 'Only 30 years ago, if you had a choice of being born a B student in Boston or a genius in Bangalore or Beijing, you probably would have chosen Boston, because a genius in Beijing or Bangalore could not really take advantage of his or her talent.'

Now, he argues, anyone with smarts, access to Google and a cheap wireless laptop can join the innovation fray. 'When the world is flat, you can innovate without having to emigrate.'

With all due respect to Friedman -- a brilliant writer with a mostly credible theory -- emigration will continue.

Despite anecdotal evidence exchanged at cocktail parties about young people who would rather stay back in India than go abroad, the fact remains that every Indian who enrols at Penn State or Sheffield University is a potential immigrant.

The Japanese or Koreans are not.

The odd Westerner will make India his/ her home, often citing the warmth received from the Indian people.

The majority of middle class Indians, given a chance, will make the West their home, despite the cold reception.

Suketu Mehta, in his scintillating book, Maximum City, analyses the situation as only an Indian can.

'Every summer, waves of Indians living overseas come back or send back little pictures: of their son in front of the new 52-inch TV; their daughter sitting on the hood of the new mini van; the wife in the open-plan kitchen... the whole family laughing together in the small backyard pool, their 'bungalow' in the background.'

These pictures plant little time bombs in the minds of siblings left behind, he writes. 'They hold the pictures and look around their two-room flat in Mahim and, suddenly, the new sofa and 2-in-1 Akai stereo look cheap and shabby in comparison.'

Hope floats

In the 1980s and 1990s, the IITs were associated with 'brain drain'.

Now, reports of dollar salaries of IIM graduates hit the headlines. But the real story lies elsewhere.

These handful of graduates studying in near world class institutions will be in demand whether in India or abroad. There will be some initial heartburn -- bhala usko mujhse better paying job kaise mila -- but in the medium to long term, things usually even out.

And staying on in India -- where your company values you enough to put down a Rs 50-lakh deposit for a house in Napean Sea Road -- is a very smart option.

The real appeal of 'foreign' lies for those who graduate from the second and third rung institutes. Job mil jayega but not one with fast enough growth or large enough goodies.

Going abroad, for them, is the only means of achieving quick and easy economic salvation.

So, at great personal risk, they beg, borrow and pay their way into not-so-well known universities. And then fight for a job to recover the several lakhs 'invested'.

By and large, the strategy seems to work.

And dollar dreams will continue to pound in India's head.

(authored by Rashmi Bansal)
Source: http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/apr/11rashmi.htm

Mind your punchline!

2009-06-08T09:36:00.004+05:30

Sometimes I just dont get company punchlines. They never seem to be aligned with their principles, and the value they provide to the customers.

Here are two examples from companies I have interacted with, and experienced:

Vodafone - 'Happy to help you'

WTF? None of my friends have ever agreed to that line. I mean - its not just a line right, there has to be more meaning to it. Dozens of times when I have called up Vodafone Customer Care, and have had long wait periods, calls being connected from one department to another etc etc. The last time I did it was last week - I had to cancel my Gurgaon connection (I am in Bangalore presently) - so I call up Vodafone (toll free 111). So they first tell me that this isnt the Postpaid Department, so they will connect me to the required one. I wait online for the same - then I get onto another agent. However he tells me that this is a Karnataka connection, and advises me to call an NCR Customer Care number.

I then call the new number, and await for the umpteenth time while the IVR finishes, then I explain to the new Service agent I find about the cancellation and whaddaya know - he again says this is not the Postpaid Department, so I will connect you across. I wait, wait and wait - no sign of the phone being picked up. Tired - I hang up. (Remember that the NCR number now isnt toll free for me). I call back after an hour or so - finally get an agent, convince him to do the job fast - but the problem aint done with rite - he tells me no one is available in the Postpaid Department - hence he will forward my request and I will get a call within 24 hours. A week passed by - there was no call from them. I gave them a call yesterday - went through more shit - finally he assured me that the connection would be terminated in two hours.

Wait - there is more - he also told me that in order to recover the security deposit of Rs 250 (which I paid 2 years back) - I will have to submit a written application to a Vodafone store, and go along with an address proof, ID proof blah blah. Oh hang on - not to a Karnatake store, but one in NCR. Hello - whatever happened to globalization!

HDFC Bank - 'We understand your world'

When you choose such a punchline - you have to see to it that you completely cater to the customer demands. Now I dont have any other problem with HDFC service - just that there is always one fear when you visit an HDFC ATM - that the card may remain stuck in the machine. Now if you did understand our world, you would have imbibed an ICICI or any other model - where you just have swipe the card, and not insert it in the machine. Thats definitely more easing for the customer. At times I have seen many customers complaining of cards getting stuck in the machine - especially when it happens to the neighbourhood old uncle - he does get worried! What about their world - you gotto understand that too - rite?

Well - the world would just be a better place if you companies either completely get onto what the customer wants - that aint easy for sure - so well just improve on your punchlines! :)

Watz wid the Academy Awards?

2009-06-08T08:59:00.004+05:30

I happened to see the movie - 'The Reader' yesterday. The only thing which possibly impressed me in the movie was the silence and slow but emphasizing pace of the movie. On the whole, I thought that the Academy has gone for a toss by having presented an Oscar to Winslet.

To those who haven't seen the movie - make sure you dont watch it along wid children or even female colleagues. The movie contains brash, bold shots of full frontal nudity - both male and female. In fact the first 40 minutes of the movie was more of an erotic drama than dat part which would yield the momentum to cinema. Winslet doesnt leave any respite in exposing every inch of her body - nothing new for her as she has done it in the past in Jude, Heavenly Creatures and the unforgettable Titanic. I must say she looks very beautiful, but then it seems that she took the Oscar for the erotic scenes and nudity rather than acting - I could hardly see any of that there. I have seen better performances from her in the past. Probably I agree with what one of my friends had to say - 'soft port show - maybe Winslet was just due for the Oscar'.

Amidst such movies, performances and skin show on the screen - where does august cinema like Taare Zameen Par & Lagaan get lost ? So many good Bollywood directors aspire to reach the elusive 'Academy Awards' - however dont such things reduce the credibility in the awards, and bring out feelings of nepotism, injustice and even at times disgust. Besides all other thoughts, I did like Slumdog Millionnaire, and found it to be wholesome entertainment for the viewer. But Oscars - naah... am just happy that Rehman got the long deserved one for the background score. For the rest, the Awards Committee will just have to learn to open their eyes, look around, take better decisions, make better judgements.

Things at MDI I would neva fget...

2009-03-15T01:47:00.007+05:30

Wow - here I am back penning down my thoughts before I leave my alma meter - neva did this despite having so many chances in the last so many months...
Here goes da list - in no particular order:

- Room No 223, First Floor Boys Hostel, Change Masters
- Team Ulrichians
- Students Council, MDI
- Being the PGHR Representative - PGHR07
- Induction days, when I learnt to live without a cellphone :)
- Vaibhav Chaturvedi, the best roommate one can ever have
- Chhakka Wing Terrace
- The only cricket match HR07 won & the victory night
- One sleepless night for a project submission in Term 1; sleeping nearly at 6 AM
- Reaching late for the same submission and scrambling a good presentation :)
- Rahul Jain, my best pal at MDI
- Rahul's impromptu presentation in Term 4 - STCM class (he didnt know ANYTHING about the case/topic/slides etc)
- Term 3 - HRIS class Role Plays; the great DILBERT experience
- Late night countdown meets within Team Imperium 07
- Summer Placements Oscars night - three awesome converts :) - a sleep of 1.5 hours and a lecture at 8:30 AM
- Sankar Prasad Datta - one of the best people I have known in my life
- March 31 2007 - packing stuff all nite post Term 3 exams to vacate room for Summers; nearly NO sleep
- Term 1: Group 3
- Unlimited pangey wid Profs at MDI
- Term 2: Cost Accounting Exam days: absolutely no idea how to answer the paper - everything upto the Almighty :)
- Badminton post 11 pm at night - especially in winters
- The innumerous dinners at Metro Mall Food Court
- Roaming the campus at night - and then adding to the number of rounds, doing bakar :)
- Competing on Pacman with my roomie :)

Da process of becomin a Mandevian began from Day 1 - and is still underway - prolly 18th March 09 will brand us forever - look forward to it now...

Term 5 - YAT

2008-09-14T10:58:00.004+05:30

And here's Yet Another Term - not that i have spoken bout the prev terms - but sometimes I do get an urge to spring back to my blog. It emerges in my dreams - crying out for having left it lost on da net... ;)

With the beginning of this term, academic RG has kind of subsided, and the one with projects and competitions has upsurged - the first one being Manthan at TISS. Looking forward to an awesome experience when the 4 of us- me, Rahul, Arpita and Adarsh are headed there in the comin week on 17th.

ManDevIan in Mumbai

2008-04-27T23:21:00.002+05:30

Now what pushed me to get back to my blog eh? ;)
Well - it was something which used to keep my mind occupied last year - about wat 'more' to write - and I used tosearch for newer topics to write on...now I tot I'd just use it to pen down my musings - n not realli as wat happens in my life... so I neednt be hanged by mah frenz now for not updating it.. :D
Rite now moi at Mumbai - the land where u wud find everyone - rite from the pauper to the prince. Internship is definitely one phase of the MBA where one gets out of the books and gets a good perspective about the realities ofthe functioning of organizations. For us HR interns, it is about learning bout the importance of the HR function in the organization, and the importance of HR in today's business world.
Wud consider myself as lucky to be provided acco and drop/pickup in Mumbai - lotsa my friends are facing it in termsof travel in locals on weekdays, busy guides, sultry weather and pure Mumbai mechanical life. My comforts give me more space in terms of putting more into work, and tiring out mentally, rather than physically. Its 6 interns atda place me interning in Mumbai - Hewitt Associates - 2 XL guys, 2 SIBM grads, one IIML(ABM) gal and da gloriousManDevIan me :)
Probably da reason I am not experiencing hectic Mumbai on weekdays is wats making me think dat Mumbai mite not be a bad place to settle after all ;) - though Bangalore is something one cannot get over very easily coz of da climate...
Will key in more aspects of da experience as time passes by...

MDI - a leader on the HR front :)

2007-09-04T22:19:00.000+05:30

A recent article in Economic Times has prompted me to write this post. Though time for penning down huge stories is not at hand in these days ;)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2321241,prtpage-1.cms

The article states that there is a dearth of human resource professionals in the country, and that (I heard this from elsewhere too) we would need around 35000 HR Professionals in the next 10 years. As of now too, there is a huge shortage of HR Professionals in the country's workforce. The article proceeds to say that institutes like TISS,XLRI,SCMHRD are in the forefront in providing education in the field of HR. I was personally surprised (and so were most of my friends and faculty members here) that they did not state the name of MDI in the 'roll of honour'.

Being new here, we judge out possible reasons of the same to be the absence of a 'superb' alumni network (as in TISS/XL) in MDI. These institutes have been known from a long time, and have built their industry relations and a very strong alumni network over the years. MDI is relatively new - only around 13 to 14 years old, but has still made immense progress by leaps and bounds. It has crept up the charts of B-school ratings and is settled in at a number between 4 and 7 (personal opinion). Again the HR course at MDI is four years old, and is again newer as compared to TISS/XL. Though I thought there were certain points which came to my notice in my GD/PI endeavours with these institutes and I thought that I should bring it to notice.

- At the SCMHRD GD, I was told by the seniors there that the name 'SCMHRD' as in '.... Human Resource Development' was very deceiving. Lot of people ditched the institute thinking that it was only for HR - whereas that wasnt the case. In fact the institute is like any other general MBA institute which offers all specializations, and has a lot of stress on Fin/Mar - and has a basket of electives to choose from finally. HR is just a mere specialization there, which might not even get that much importance as much as the name of the institute gives it. Personally I feel that the HR specialization is equivalent to SIBM/IMT Ghaziabad.

- TISS this year supposedly had announced an intake of 80 students for the acclaimed HRM/LR
program. Though when the results were out, they accepted only 64 people. The thought which struck me on reading this article on ET was that - 'Well, in this case are these renowned institutes sufficing the need for HR professionals in India? By not even accepting the intake declared?'

By now you must have given a thought on 'Well this guy is out to boast about his institute' - hell right I am ! :D ;) Especially when there are certain facts about MDI which need to e brought out in public - the sooner, the better. MDI is probably very modest about its image, despite the fact that its in the lead rankings for B-schools in India. Facts which form the bigger picture:

- MDI is the first and only B-school in India to have received the AMBA's accreditation (UK based association of B-schools) - ie a global accreditation. This puts MDI in the forefront in terms of global relations. (The accreditation goes way beyong a mere AICTE approval ;) )

- MDI is ranked no 1 in the country in terms of its foreign relations with other global MBA institutes, and is reputed to have the one of the best exchange programs in the country.

- The course PGPHR was initiated by MDI around 4 years back - by a collaboration with the National HRD Ministry. (well for those who dont know -its the prime HR governing body in the country ;) ) Moreover The syllabus for this course is drafted by the NHRD itself. Need more assurance ?

- MDI has undoubtedly the best HR faculty in India - and I would vouch for this anytime. It probably has the highest number of HR faculty in India - around 80 - some of them very renowned. Recently we have Prof Saini who is the Chairperson in the HR Arena, who has got the 'Best HR Faculty award' on Aug 23 2007 by the Chancellor of the Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida. And I believe we have received several such accolades in the past - with several BIG names from industry/very very qualified faculty teaching us. Almost every other faculty member I bump into is from an IIT or an IIM ;)

- The MDI HR course is designed to produce holistic HR professionals - HR Managers per se - and not just people who are well versed in the HR Arena. MDI HR products have an overall personality in terms of business understanding, and are wealth creators themselves.

The above all, besides the fact that MDI is normally ranked 4th or 5th among the Indian B-schools holds strong proof enough. Its true that an alumni network cannot be built overnight, and thus probably MDI loses out a bit on the name which XL and TISS have gained over the decades. But probably India needs to awaken to yet another institute which is in the forefront for imparting quality HR Education, and who is known for producing some of the best management professionals of the country.

Hear ye hear ye :) :)

Whats a ManDevIan made up of...

2007-08-14T01:02:00.000+05:30

Yes, sometimes circumstances do force me to take a break from my blog and then get back to it some days later... :) The last one and a half month has been a roller coaster ride - where I have hardly got any time for myself... There have been so many instances when I have felt like penning down a lot of my experiences, a lot of my thoughts on what has been going on in my life as a B-skooler - but time has offered me very less chances to do so....

Aah - the feeling of being a ManDevIan is finally settling in now :) - for those of you who arent aware - this is how every MDI student is referred (probably even by global standards :D ;) )
It seems as though I have spent around six months at least here - when its just been around 50 days.Thats how a B-skool operates - every day seems like three or four days bundled together. At the end of the day... hmmm... correction... at the beginning of the next day... it seems as if the previous day was so very hectic and you start thinking as to whether there will be a day even more hectic than the same - and well - u said it...the next day promises to be the mother of all hectic days... :D

Probably I want to pen down my learning experiences etc separately - and also go ahead to write about the learning methodologies in a B-school. If I take an average of the B-school ratings which MDI has received - and probably my own perception about it - MDI would hover at positions 5 or 6. But yes - there is always much more to a B-skool than just the rankings it gets - and thats a fact all my batchmates will vouch for. Of course I have described da physical aspects of MDI in the best possible way in my previous post (agreed it was more than a month back though ;) )... what are the things which make MDI a different place - what makes it lively, frenzied and full of euphoria...

Let me offer you some situational choices.. :)

- A campus stroll... this is somethin which takes from 15 min to 1.5 hours... :D - as soon as we are nearing the hostel building (which is called 'Change Masters' :D ) - we are found retracing our steps to Nescafe's or Sharmaji - the two hotspots on campus for nite coffees, maggi, cold drinks and so on... the list is endless...

- Traditions... mobiles are supposed to be in silent mode/switched off in class. If any idiot's mobile rings, he has to treat the entire class to coffee immediately after the class - get that for some bankruptcy... :D

- Birthdays - ahem!... celebrated at the legendary 'Dome' :)... where the bday bakra is 'caked' and 'bumped' and 'kicked'... - and then... well - his roomie is also 'caked'... and 'bumped' and 'kicked' - with the worst possible shoes... :D - and the traditions continue with the bday boy's girlfriend - and the roomie's girlfriend too, if possible... the females are also 'water' treated - and 'cold drink' treated... and then every person possibly associated with the birthday is equally bashed up... :D

- My room apparently located in a corridor which keeps changing names - some time back it was 'Pillai Street' - dedicated to one of our 'stock broker' seniors... now its 'Rockers Street' - laden with pics of rock stars on walls etc... with the 'rockers' literally bashing up the weekend nite.. oops morning - with electronic guitars, keyboards and so on... :D

- The wing across the mess - which was initially the girls hostel - now called 'chakka' wing... and well - most recently the name was changed to 'CSA' wing - on account of the heavy 'counter strikers' present there - and well - I am kind of a recent addition to the same... :)

Time, and sleepy eyes is wats stopping me from continuing on today's musings - else there was another huge list to add on... :D ... kal ke liye bahut load hai... exams have just got over over the weekend - and well there is no relief as there is a truckload of submissions - assignments, project proposals - and to add to the same - quizzes and pre-readings... will there ever be some academic solace in the first trim of a b-skool?

A question yet to be answered....

MDI Gurgaon finally :)

2007-07-03T00:11:00.000+05:30

Dreams of a b-school had finally set foot on real ground - Me reached Delhi on 21st June with parents. The next two days were spent in nice sight-seeing at Delhi. The first day comprised the normal Delhi darshan which was tiring enough. The following day we had a nice experience at the Nehru Planetarium near Teen Murti. I guess this was the first of its kind. The sky show was fabulous and very informative. We also had a nice experience in the Metro at Delhi - thats how we found our way back to Karol Bagh where we had lodged. Had to switch trains etc in between - but it was really an interesting experience :) .

The morning of June 24th - and it was time to leave for Gurgaon. The weather was like any normal day - and it took us around 40 min to scale the super empty highway from Delhi to Gurgaon. There was nothing one could make out on the way - it was simply barren land. Asked people how to get to the place - and reached there soon enough. As compared to the two 'campuses' I had seen earlier, this one really took my breath away - I was expecting something nice - but this was beyong expectations. Much more than just decent. Thankfully it wasnt as crowded as I had expected as we had reached early. Collected the room lock and keys, and proceeded. The room was really decent too - bought a mattress from the student run store Prayas for my comfy bedding - and then Mom and me did most of the unpacking and setting up in the cupboard etc. 1.5 hours down the line my half of the room was complete in all respects. Details of the room included a decently large cupboard (bit bigger than my PG wala at Bangalore), a table with 3 drawers, a comfy chair, a bed and a shelf.

Following this I went out with parents to search for the Bank ATM's etc. They were all located at a very close distance in Sector 14 market, which relieved me. My parents were off after dropping me back at the institute - and well - I was on my own.

Before continuing with what happened later - here is a brief description of what I can see and feel at MDI ;)

37 acres - but its not just the magnitude - the campus itself tells a lot of tales - its one BIYOOTIFUL campus - about da same size as dat of IIMB - though IIMB was covered almost entirely with trees - the campus here is maintained with the utmost decorum - seriously clean to say the least !!! The buildings are named after great educational institutions - Gurukul, Nalanda, Parthenon etc. The hostel is named Change Masters - and is one of the most happening places in town. The boys and da gals mess is connected via the 1st floor mess - and well there is another mess on the ground floor (yep Mandevians - thats the main one )... The mess serves great food with loads of dessert (unlimited ice cream etc ;) ), fabulous breakfast (my fav part), but a small prob for non-veggies like me as its only non-veg thrice a week - one day of which I am veg - so core non-veggies life me suffer a bit - though the veg food is of more than decent quality.

The campus is sexy for a nice stroll late in the evenings (not mornings as u dont want to bake ureself out - the climate is EXTRA-SUPER HOTTT )... the library is one of the best in Asia - its been one week and I am yet to see it properly - there is a computer center running around 20 hours per day - and of course the other things like AC classrooms, an AC audi etc... There are coffee stalls like Nescafe, Jhaji etc besides a canteen called Sharmaji which remain open very late into the nite and are great social spots. Besides all these there is a football ground, lots of greens where there is a small golf course, a badminton court, a lawn tennis court, a basketball field (unused though), a gym, and well a NEW gym being inaugrated now, a TT room and so on.

The description might speak high of MDI - but well the hectic student life probably might not let you enjoy all the facilities to the fullest extent. Though as of now I can say that besides the weather and a slight homesick feeling , I am enjoying almost evrythin else here.

More to come on how I began off here - as of now I am off to count the stars...

MBA Entrance Exams, Determination and ME :) :)

2007-05-31T11:31:00.000+05:30

This is probably the post I have been waiting to write from a long time - its as I have put it up on Pagalguy - the section - 'All I Wanted to Speak about CAT' ...

My pleasure in presenting it here as well. Note that the names mentioned in the entire article/story are all PG members.

-Start...

Disclaimer: All characters/ incidences below are purely real – and any attempt of associating the stuff with fictional mumbo-jumbo will NOT be tolerated. ;).

Acknowledgements: Chandoo’s first article. (I always dreamt of writing one just like that – some day J)

Warning: This article is meant for fun-reading, inspiration – and may be of some help only to the average percentilers at CAT and other entrances. If the top scorers and absolutely confident 100 percentilers at CAT think that they need better gyaan, they better look elsewhere ;) ;)

Amidst the myriad questions of ‘Why MBA’, ‘Long-term goals’, ‘Short-term goals’ etc etc – was me – somewhere in July or August 2003 – when we began with Semester 5 in my engineering college. Probably that was the semester, which kicks off Computer Science on the whole – and here I was – dreaming of some other things – like how was my life proceeding, and whether I was evaluating myself properly. Programming certainly wasn’t the thing I would be happy doing for the rest of my life :D . I believed more in the Howard Roark philosophy – When I have around 50 more years to live, I feel I should be spending them in the way I like – and ork in the field I am best at.

Probably it was the Economics and Management subject in Sem 5, which set me thinking in some direction about the same. The ideas inspired me – and I could associate with the subject better – maybe also because the teaching of the faculty rocked. A post-graduation in the field of Management – an MBA, had heard about it long back – even before I had joined my engineering college. Is it the real push for a great career? Is it the thing I would need to build myself to better prospects? I needed to find out. Got some magazines – old IMS magazines on Advancedge – read more. Inspiring stories, great institutes – yes – maybe I had to get there. This is probably what is real education – real learning.

The Common Admission Test – had heard about this before – but never knew I would be taking it at any stage in life. I enrolled for the IMS Correspondence package at Goa, and they sent me some average material. One of the days in June 2004 I was sitting listening to an inspiring lecture from a student who had made it to IIML that year – a senior Goan. At the end of the lecture, he had one piece of advice – use this site – its really very helpful. I rubbed my eyes and for a second couldn’t understand what he wrote – whatever did that name mean in the world of MBA entrance examinations. Nevertheless I took it down on my book and thought I would sign in right away. Pagalguy.com. J

From then on began a roller coaster ride of studying DI, Verbal and Quant. CAT had leaked just the year before and had come out in a terrible form at the time of the re-test – with a terribly tough Quant section. Hence of course the normal rigmarole which I wasn’t aware of, at that stage at least – the coaching classes start putting up mock tests which have difficult Quant sections only. At that time however, IMS was the only institute I was aware of – being the only one in Goa. The additional info would come from PG – for some days I failed to understand why were threads entitled AIMCAT 0503, 0504 etc etc. It really took me some time to know that these were mock cat names – or rather numbers J. Goa still had to open out in terms of coaching classes and the prepratory environment for MBA preparations.

Sectional tests, Mock tests – I was on a spree – I wasn’t scoring great – but well kya mazaa aa raha tha… competition – nice fun. Got some TIME mocks, CL mocks xeroxed from my cousin who had taken the test series in Pune. They seemed tougher than the IMS Simcats (except for the godly IMS DI :D). I must have taken around 60 to 70 mocks in those 4 months or so – in the end it was almost every day – with the hope that the max score dwells on D Day. I made many friends in PG – some high-edged mock cat’ers, who would beat the hell out of the others in the percentiles. I would hardly be studying the college stuff at that time – the seventh semester passed away so fast that I hardly came to know. I had only one thought – CAT. Probably that’s why what awaited me on that day took its share of fun – and I had my share of misery.

CAT 2004 – Dadar, Mumbai. Goa had been removed as a CAT center that year itself (to my bad luck) – so the trip to Mumbai was necessary. Kept cool on the previous day while revising only very important stuff. What was landlocked in my mind was how I had to answer the paper, my ‘strategy’, my scoring sections etc. Yes – childish stuff. November 21 2004. IES School at Mumbai was crowded (had already been there the previous day). Once I was seated at my place I was simply praying was a 3 section paper like CAT 2003. What came was a 3 section paper – but with a blast of surprises – differential marking for the first time, reduced no of questions (to 123), and well, loads of surprises inside the paper too. What I did in the next 2 hours involved more of praying and less of confident problem solving – yes – I wasn’t confident – of each and every question. Even in Verbal, which had been my strongest section. I tackled the ½ markers, the 1 markers and then the 2 markers – in that order. My order was supposed to be verbal/DI/Quant – 40 min for each. I must have taken 45 min for Verbal, then came to DI (my weakest section) and tried to go in for the 2 markers (read as overconfidence). Unfortunately I attacked that question which was wrong – the infamous hockey set problem of CAT 2004. Checked it out for some time, cudnt make any sense out of it, and then moved to the one markers – no more himmat left for the two markers. Managed to solve some of the one-marker sets and then moved to Quant – tried to blast this section, but apparently I ended up ‘not’ doing it. This section had loads of scoring problems, which I managed to oversee :D . The two markers were a piece of cake, but in my spree I didn’t even notice it. Managed an attempt of some 75 marks in the paper and came out quite shaky.

The wait till the New Year was long and unbearable – and the result – one of the biggest shocks of my life.

Overall percentile – 85.XX :( :(

DI – 84.XX Quant 83.XX Verbal – 77.XX (supp to be strongest :( :( )

Expectations came crashing down, thoughts of wrong bubbles shaded passed by – well, so many other things happened. The first reactions were, of course, its useless for me to take it up again. Already lost so much money having applied to NITIE, MDI etc in the same year. Anyway I had my campus placement secure, though I had lost out in the seventh semester marks, after having topped the University in the sixth semester.

I couldn’t get over the entire thing so easily. This was soon followed by a mediocre IIFT entrance (Mumbai again) and a mediocre XAT (some 85 percentile again). Still the thought of the coveted schools wasn’t leaving me. But I had to forego it for sometime at least. Finished my engineering, and was awaiting the joining letter from my company. In the meanwhile I applied to several other companies (maybe to prove myself to me) – companies vied by several others. The joining letter hadnt arrived, and I had some other personal issues on my head. Thoughts of CAT 2005 floated by, and I grabbed hold of them. I had to leave Goa, and opt for a better test series, and of course work harder. With some news of my posting being at Bangalore, I left for the city in the end of July 2005. I signed up for the TIME test series, and started taking them up eagerly. At the same time I also sat for some company tests/ interviews. September 2 2005 – I come to know that I have made it to one of the best MNCs in the world, and my joy knew no bounds. Eventually I joined it on September 19 2005. During this period the mock cat series was on, but my scores were diminishing badly. Only once or twice could I get the score to a 95 percentile or a 96 percentile. To make up for my confidence, I enrolled at Career Avenues and interacted with Amit Saboo – who gave me some amount of confidence in the entire thing. I took up his mock cats too, in which I would at least score better than what I did at the TIME mock cats. I took up some of the old CAT papers and managed to solve quite a few. I tried to understand some of the mistakes I had made in CAT 2004 – but probably they are too many to enlist. I made sure somehow that I did not burn out myself with mock cats as I had done in 2004. I somehow got a broader horizon to CAT by having interacted with a lot of people – grasped it more as a skill gauging test, rather than a flat 3 section paper and so on.

At the same time I made some very close lifetime friends through PG, who took the mock cats with me – nicked as akhil_agrawal, bhandari, nitin_jain etc on PG. We shared thoughts, exchanged loads of views, took mock cats together etc. Besides these of course I made tons of other friends on PG. Enjoyed at some PG meets in Bangalore – finally met Psychodementia and some other known Pgites like Orca (was in my company itself), bingo (one of the first timers on PG) and many many others – most of who might be absconding from the scene now. A simple evaluation would tell me that I was strong on my HR skills, and I needed an MBA to get on into that field. It was the only thing which would get me there. Though, somehow with the hectic training etc at my company I was kinda all lost. I decided to give a couple of entrances, but apply to not more than one college in each. Thru CAT it was only the IIMs – probably as I wasn’t at all confident, and gauging myself from the mock scores, I could see that nothing was possible for me this time. But I simply couldn’t resist taking the exams.

CAT 2005- North Bangalore, Vivekananda College. I stayed overnite at a friends place the day before and it was quite a normal day, with absolutely no stress from my side. And why should there be – I had nothing to lose if I didn’t make it. Probably the attitude was lacking this time though. The morning of CAT – the normal crowd. My friend departed just before the exam – and I sat there, expecting the worst to happen – well, its CAT – and there are bound to be surprises. The paper had even more reduced questions, 90 this time, with continued differential marking, though this time more structured. My method of solving was simple – the same – Verbal/DI/Quant – 40 min each. Whizzed through Verbal, and landed up at DI – the usual nervousness. This was one section I could neva get even with – and well, the nervousness existed in some small amount coz I had neva managed to practice enough for this section – had always got bored during my entire preparation cycle. Solved only 13 marks here and moved ahead to Quant – where I could solve at least some of the questions with ease. I had kept in mind this time that I only had to pick the sitters, and had practised well at it. Hence I could do it with some ease at least. Attempted only 65 marks on the whole. I knew it was very less the moment I counted it out.

Just a week later I came to know that in the lone 2-marker set I had solved in DI, I had made a very silly mistake. That ends the story – I didn’t need to look more at the result – the loss with that one set was mammoth. The tragedy was that of course, I had to get the bad news on yet another new year J

Overall percentile – 89.XX

Verbal – 93.XX Quant – 93.XX DI – 35.XX (holy cow !! ;) ;) :D :D :D )

Immediate thoughts – no more CAT for me. I would never be able to solve the kind of problems which came for DI. I was a loser at these puzzles – and would neva manage them inside the exam hall. Yes of course, given some good amount of time, maybe I could do it, but not there in the hall :mg: :mg: .

Yes, to provide some solace were the other entrances – IIFT, which was immediately after CAT that year – went good, but eventually a shocking reject – couldn’t believe it, but I guess I was getting used to the bad luck. :mg: JMET banged right in my face – disqualified – not even a rank, XAT had the same mark left – some 85.XX percentile. And well, there was FMS too this time – with a cascaded reject effect :mg: What went really wrong was the TISS application – one real big tragedy in my life – my TISS application somehow never reached them – and got stuck due to some problem in the courier office. I came to know this only after the list for the students answering the exam was released, and my name was missing. I was devastated – the only exam left in the year also had had me bowled out – that too without taking it. :( L L

Eventually after the GD/PI some of my friends made it to some B-schools, and left from Bangalore with a promise from my side that I would make it the next year. I really don’t know why I committed in that way – did I have any confidence left in me, when nature itself was turning against me and telling me a different tale? At this point of time, I really didn’t know. I needed a lot of time to myself – and I made good use of it. I put to thinking as to whether I really needed an MBA – the answer was surprisingly a ‘yes’. The roads to the HR sector branched through this field of education – it was either some correspondence course I had to do, or a residential MBA, and I would anytime have preferred the latter. 2006 was a turning point in my maturity and my thinking levels. I put in a lot of hard work at the work place, and spent the remaining time mulling over the entire thing and also reading a lot of books. Did loads of research in the HR field too. The road ahead appeared tough, but it was definitely my last shot – couldn’t take it once more, as probably I was giving a lot of my personal self and resources to it. I decided to give it all I have this time.

I was hell bent on making the preparation more structured this time. Mocks – yes – but not without proper analysis. I introspected myself well, and saw that I was an average CAT taker, who could make it to an average 97 to 98 range – but on a high scale could just peak if the score required was less. (People in this case always pray for a difficult CAT paper). I can say that in 2006 I must have spent around 65 percent of time at devising strategies, and 35 percent for concepts. If I enlist whatever preparation I did in the latter half of 2006 – it would probably lag on for a few more thousands of words ;) ;) – so lets keep it minumum. I enrolled for both TIME and CL mock test series. I used to take the TIME tests on Sunday mornings and CL tests on Sunday afternoons (read as useless – in fact the quality of the mocks deteriorated and so did my performance). Besides these I would take up the CAV mocks posted on PG too. I started giving more time to preparations and lesser to the office work.

Read a huge lot of stuff from the net/PG/other areas on tackling the entrances. I had it entrenched in my mind that the concepts are best wrapped up fast and all problems of similar kinds which had to be broomed. :D . There were two main things I did. From August, I solved all the old original CAT papers from 1996 till 2005. I knew that the problems coming in the mocks had a style picked up from old CAT papers, and I was right. Besides I noticed something strange and advantageous – the questions in the CAT papers were repeated too – believe it or not, several quant questions had been repeated, some styles of verbal questions, and some DI types. This would be great as the questions could be repeated now too. The second thing I did was keeping a notebook to note something I called ‘Out of the box fundae/problems’. These were fundae that one would hardly find in the basic concepts books, and in normal problems. You can find some of them floating on PG now, but previously they were hardly present. Some problems too, which had fundae which cyclically repeated throughout mock tests and entrance exams. I found this extremely advantageous in the mocks.

Though I saw that my scores did not improve in the mocks – in fact, they worsened. I would score in the CL mocks, and not do so in the TIME mocks. I would score the best in the CAV mocks, which I felt were really designed well. Then I did something drastic – I stopped seeing my TIME and CL mock scores. I did this for two months upto CAT. Believe me, I just used to answer the test, come home, solve the unsolved problems – that’s it. I made a ‘repeated mistakes’ doc separately – which I would keep seeing after October. The only mock scores I would check were those of CL FLT’s and the CAV mocks that I took at home. These were my only morale boosters.

However much one is prepared, the CAT surprise throws him off guard. This is something well heard of. As usual there were rumours and half truths on PG on how CAT would be this time. 2.5 hours – of course that was the in-thing new for 2006. But anything else was unknown. I had decided there would be no surprise in terms of paper pattern that could throw me off-guard – and well – definitely the mock tests were helpful in it (in fact TIME covered almost all patterns possible). Besides this, I myself made a ‘countdown’ doc in which I prepared my final strategy – as to how I would answer CAT 2006. This strategy was devised by having put all the initial 8 to 10 mock cats of the season to severe experimentation in terms of order of sections, break up time etc. This would be what I was most comfy with. Besides this there was a supplement in the doc that made the adjustments for all kinds of patterns – starting from 75 questions, 25 per section to 200 plus questions (which was also predicted by TIME, Munira L etc). All such things boosted my confidence – inspite of low or unseen scores in mocks etc. Besides all this, I would continue solving home tests, and new problems. The struggle continued till Nov 17^th.

CAT 2006 – North Bangalore – Malleswaram – MES College. Spent the previous evening at the same friend’s place. Much much more at ease and confident than on the 2 years before. Enjoyed a bit with these guys before finally hitting the bed at nite. The morning crowd as usual – was used to this more than anything now. The college was a popular one, though not a huge one. Having relieved myself, I sat in my place – and didn’t know what to expect – nothin could much of a surprise now – was sure about it. The paper in – 75 questions – 25 per section – one of my expected patterns – but one of the least expected ones. What were the IIMs doing reducing questions was my first thought. This was a desparate way of evaluating people – a single drop would kill – instantly ;) ;). What I missed to see initially was that there were 5 options per question – somehow missed seeing that. Though the neg marking was 1/4^th , the only relaxing factor. Besides this, nothing was relaxing for me once I started off with the paper. 20 min into it and 2 bubbles shaded in verbal – an utterly, hopelessly ambiguous section. Was wondering what the others were experiencing. My luck was it that somehow I struck on the right easy questions in DI. Though I couldn’t make the most out of the Quant section – how much ever easy it may have seemed at the first shot. At the end of the entire thing I put my head down – nervousness had once again taken the better of me. Had managed a decent attempt, but could have done much much much better. Knew the others could have blasted this CAT.

Attempts – overall 45 questions - Verbal – 19 questions, DI – 12 questions – Quant – 14 questions. – totally dissatisfactory inmy standards.

The drama that followed in the next 2 months is well known – the usual jhagda between the coaching classes over the English answers – it was counted out as an endlessly debatable section – with totally ambiguous answers (and well the IIMs came out with some totally different answers at the end :D ;) ). The pattern of CAT resembled GMAT this time – but the Verbal section could have been much better. Besides this were the mis-prints and so on. I don’t need to state more about it – its well known. The jhagda over the the CAT Retest still rings in PG as of today too ;) ;). Though I stayed aloof from the coaching classes hassles – didn’t check my scores/answers etc. Was not at ease – but somehow managed it. Didn’t take IIFT this year as I knew I could neva score in that test. JMET was well balanced – but could have done better – though the result was terrible (some 3000 odd rank – useless to say the least). The only other exam which probably boosted me was SNAP this year – decent paper and managed it real well – all due to my sound prerparations – a score of 91.25.

Though the new year brought sad news again. The score at CAT –

Overall percentile – 94.56 Verbal – 85.35 :( :( Quant – 93.XX DI – 89.XX

The enthu after CAT results was all lost – faint hope for the other B-schools, but of course not the IIMs. The worst part was that I noticed that so many of my good PG friends lost out coz of the same – the ambiguous Verbal section. (one of the biggest gang I had made in 2006 – awesome Pgites, all brainies to say the least). And then there were people who made it coz of sheer luck, maybe blind shading, or riduculous reasoning. There was little energy I put after this in XAT – was calm, composed and had a decent paper – though it was the worst possible paper I had seen in my life – perfectly CAT imbibed, though with a monstrous ‘none of these’ in each question which destroyed it. (sorry XL guys, but I have said this before too ;) ). To add to it the shock at the results – a 28 percentile which XAT gifted me at my birthday – wat the hell was zattt??? :D :D ;) was shaken up – but kept control :D ;).

I can say that TISS was the only entrance that I blasted this year – left only 3 to 4 questions out of the 120-question paper. After the XL debacle, this was the only best college I was aspiring for. Thankfully it was an easy and decent paper. The DSE paper I took last went well, but I was unlucky – maybe I needed more speed in it.

Feb first week I had all my season-end calls – SIBM, SCMHRD, TISS, MDI (HR).

GD/PI Preparations

Probably one of the most dear, memorable and enriching phases of my life. Memorable coz we had a good number of PG meets in this phase. :D :D . Dear coz it finally bore fruit. Enriching coz I must have neva increased my own knowledge as much as I did during this period :D. As usual, I have always been more confident for the GD/PI phase than for the entrances – though I had neva reached it uptil 2006.

SIBM/SCMHRD involved almost NO GD/PI preparations. Except for an all interview questions doc I prepared – listing out all the ‘most common’ interview questions and my answers to each – eg Tell me somethin about ureself, why MBA, why HR, best experiences, memorable incidents, work life etc etc. This doc was my only weapon for the interviews. The GD’s had almost zilch preparation done. I managed to convert SIBM - though I had to leave the call (thats another story ;) ). Soon after the first 2 GD/PI’s I enrolled at IMS for the GD/PI classes and attended two mock interviews at the Achievers Workshop, which was indeed helpful. But what helped more was my personal preparation – interaction with HR guys in the company, with managers, top-notch introspection, preparation and modulation of the answers, speaking to the college seniors on chat etc – and above all a lot of work on the net. Wikipedia was my biggest source of information. I must have downloaded hundreds of webpages from Wiki about past political and social events, general knowledge, facts, trivia etc etc. Things that have happened in the past in India, and too in detail – most of the things that I wasn’t even aware till now. Truly speaking I never had the habit of reading the newspaper since childhood – maybe one reason was coz we always used to get a regional language paper at home. At Bangalore I somehow forced myself into the habit. Though the info I gained from Wiki, Google etc was of immense help to me.

Besides this was of course our great weekend GD/PI ‘bash’ – the Bangalore PGites meeting up for some GD/PI practice. Anarchy, Prem, Krishanu, Mufasa, Ashwini, Billy, Vijay, Saurav, Atul – some of the people I can enlist, along with whom I really practiced a lot – and the gd/pi sessions were indeed really helpful (hats off to Anarchy’s feedback sessions ;) ;) ). Somehow all these things together clubbed to uphold my confidence levels. The interview questions doc expanded like anything, and so did my folders on ‘India and issues’, ‘Docs to read for gd/pi’ etc etc. These contained other things like info on institute background, faculty of the institute, about the course, the electives etc etc. Background study of HR subjects like OB (my personal interest), other HR related arenas were also included.

All in all – I was a reasonably confident man on approachin MDI on March 12^th at IIMB and TISS at Mumbai on April 16^th. The GD/PI experiences are as described in the post before this one.

All done – I was just awaiting the results. Probably this year was the most ridiculous year for MBA aspirants with an errored CAT paper, a cry for a retest, delayed results initially, vague results, and then the OBC thingy – which delayed the final results even more. WL 15 was my MDI result – was very much hopeful about it – but fingers were crossed. Though the longest wait was on the day of the TISS results. It was something I had expected more than anything – with an excellent test and PI, a decent GD and a decent profile. Though it wasn’t to be – I had a reject from TISS – and spent 2 or 3 of the worst days of my life thinkin about why did it happen. The blow was harsh – though things worked out in May second week when MDI converted. Yes – finally it happened – for me – and for u folks too who have been bearing with me throughout this full story ;) ;) :D .

Looking back now I want to leave all my regrets behind. The HR course at MDI ranks third best in India, and MDI is definitely in the top ten colleges – hence it ascertains my target (one in the top 10). Maybe whatever happens always happens for the good (a dear friend’s advice which I shall always remember). My losses through the entire journey would probably be mainly monetary, and psychological – but my gains were totally on the intellectual and on the social side. I have grown – have matured – as I can see now – to someone who didn’t know CAT – to someone who will be doing his masters from one of the best colleges in India now. I have gained a lot of experience and wisdom in the entire experience – and would be more than grateful to grant it to others. Along with this, I have gained friendship of some of the most intelligent people in India through PG – one of the best places I have been at. Friendships that would last for a lifetime – that too even before I have done my MBA. :) :) .

Advice to future aspirants (if you consider me worthy to be givin it J )

On Mock Tests:

TIME – Probably the best for experimenting, but real difficult at times – so take them with a pinch of salt
CL – Superb in Verbal and DI – way too tough in Quant
IMS – Have improved much much more in 2006.
CF – Decent, and good morale-boosters.
PT – Heard they were just about ok.

I would say any of the above with good analysis of where you went wrong after each mock, and noting ‘out of the box’ problems would suffice more than enough. Of course above all this comes solving all the previous CAT papers, being thoroughly sure of every old problem that has appeared, and also of the concept attached to it.

On indivudual sections:

Verbal – My strongest, but didn’t help me much when I wanted it to. A good day bad day concept (read my notes elsewhere on PG – and on the new Verbal thread for this year). Be inherently good, and crack it. No one day/two day preparation can help you here. Especially when the ambiguity in it is increasing to large extents. Focus more on comprehending stuff – watever it may be. Will be very hepful – both in Verbal and in RC.

Quant – Past CAT papers – the best source of information. Besides these come the ‘out of box’ problems. Try things like TWI and Vedic Mathematics if only you are very confident about them ( I wasn’t, hence they didn’t work much for me). But TWI is indeed a very useful approach, especially the ‘bottom-up’ approach (through the alternatives).

DI – I am not the person to contact for this section. But what I referred – DI A Question A Day on PG, puzzles by George Summers (hardly solved any, but helpful), and of course CAT oriented problems.

On CAT on a whole:

One thing I agree with Munira L on this - the sectional percentiles do matter, but what matters more is the overall percentile. If the overall percentile is low, you are directly out of the race. Though its slowly moving to the stage when the cutoffs wud be sectionally 99/99/99 and overall 99.5. The day is not far when this too will happen.. Another point - CAT is best when cracked at an early stage. As every year is passing by, CAT is becoming increasingly difficult. If you are thinking tat lets give it a try this year and a better shot next year then think again. This year might just be your best chance - you neva know what can happen the next year :)

On GD/PI:

I attended IMS only – so cant comment much on the others. But this is where there is maximum preparation required on the personal front. I could probably do much better here coz of the confidence I had in myself. Make sure you get a hold of the workshops which IMS/TIME/CL conduct – they are really decent and a very good practice. I am always reachable on PG for help on this phase of the preparation (might not be a very good contender for the previous phase ;) ;) )

On the personal front:

1: Be sure of where you are now, where you want to be, and how would an MBA bridge the gap between the two. Only then can you jump into the ocean of preparation for these entrances – else its useless – believe me.

2: Pagalguy.com. Only this site would give you info, reviews, opinions from thousands of people who have made it, and loads of loads of trivia. I don’t think I need to say more about how to tackle CAT mentally/physically etc. Believe me, its more a game of the mind than of anything else. As so many others have said, get out of the hype surrounding it, and be a winner. Most importantly, (its tough but try it) – be yourself when the time is cricical – around ten to fifteen days countdown to CAT, on the day before, and of course on that day. It will always have surprises, and the aura of the unexpected. Its how you wish to tackle these things, by being prepared and being confident, or by thinking that after all its only an exam. Refer Pagalguy for words of wisdom from Chandoo, PsychoD, Orca, vinz and several other veterans on hundreds of different threads. Since I began on CAT, there has been almost no day when I haven’t checked PG – it has become a part and parcel of my life – and will be so too. In the words of Amit Saboo, it is really a goldmine that Allwin discovered 5 years back.

How I believe the CAT should be:

In the current world scenario, I believe that the CAT should have some subjective stuff also, probably an objective screening test, and then a second level test accompanied with essays, SOP’s, situational problems etc. This would screen out the real managers from those who make it through plain IQ. Of course following this can be the GD/PIs. The hype surrounding the supposedly 2 lakh aspirants would also be diminished in this case – as those who are worthy, and know why they need to pursue a career in management would be differentiated from those who don’t.

Signing off for now with a ‘kind of’ satisfied feeling. The calm mind is yet to see another storm, and even more thunder – the next 2 years promise to be two of the most gruelling years of my life – and yet the most fun-filled. Looking forward to an even more enriching phase of life now.

Ashish Kolvalker

MDI PGP-HR
(Batch of 2007-09)

TISS GD/PI experience

2007-05-31T11:24:00.000+05:30

This was probably my best - but didnt get me da result expected :(.

Date and time: April 16th - 9:30 am
Place: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai

Reached at around 2 pm on Sunday the 15th and spent that evening at TISS - met many new PG friends - Vachan, Rajiv and of course later Saki and Ram (whom I already knew)... the stay overnite was nice - doesnt feel as if u are in Mumbai when inside the campus at TISS :) - small in size but really nice to have a walk in da evenings etc - and extremely conducive atmosphere and surroundings for study - and well - the latest news is that TISS has become wi-fi :) - all da info was poured in from Babu who met us on Sun evening and answered a lot of questions from our side...

Woke up early in da morning - got ready and went to the main lounge where there was a smal crowd - not as much as expected - we had a small presentation on the know-how of TISS by a second-year'ite of the HRM/LR program... later we came up and were grouped into different batches (as put on da notice board) - and were led to da different classes for the GD/PI - Mine was in class XI - 8 of us (2 absent) - 4 boys 4 gals... so even ratio :)

GD: Globalisation is a mixed blessing for the youth of today (it was the same topic for all the batches in my main group) - the other group had got Gandhian values etc etc... ( though the topics are being changed evryday - so dont go by them :| )

Very decent GD - chipped in a lot of times... was surprised by da female junta as some spoke real well, and real fluently. By da way we ourselves decided that we wud use paper, and recollect our thoughts for sometime - the 2 supervisors didnt have a prob with it - though when we decided on the topic as globalisation and started writing, one of them said 'Isnt this a GD ?? ' - and well - one of the ladies started rite away. Two of the females seemed to be dominating the show - though all guys spoke well too - and well - chipped in a lott of good points - though the youth aspect was kinda fading away with all the industrial and economic aspect takin toll of da topic :mg: - all of us spoke without majorly cutting others - as we had been reminded that domination of the GD wud lead to getting -ve points.

Rating: 8/10

After this - we were led into a room, and were told that there is still some time for the PI. Hence we moved off - grabbed a vada-paav for a quick bite and then came back - to our disbelief the PI's had already begun - apparently the people were being called RANDOMLY. Was surprised at this - but there was nothin we cud do. We just gave our names, and sat there hopin for a quick call. I was called in just before the lunch call - though they dedided later that I too shud be pushed in after lunch :|. So i went ahead, ate somethin and returned. The wait before the PI was long. The PI finally happened at around 3 to 3:15 pm. I was all jittery before as I had heard my panel had been stressing the people in da morning and blasting on GK... finally I was in...

PI: The panel - Oldish smiling lady - L (did almost all questioning)
Elderly man in between - E
Different lookin elderly person with long tied hair - D
Bakra moi ;) - B

B (enters and wishes all - sits)
E: Whats these documents? (pointing to my change of name docs)
B: (Explains what were they)
E: But why did you change your name ?
B: blah blah
All 3 of them: Ok ok
L (smiling eternally :mg: ) - So u are working in XXX - how long?
B: blah blah
L: Oh - thats a lot of time - wat are u working in?
B: blah blah (cool workex questions :mg:)
L: Ohk so such a nice field - why do u want to come into HR?
B: Blah blah blah blah -( some kind of an answer which I had thought of... explained properly - wat do I get -- EXPRESSIONLESS faces from all except from L - she is smiling in an understanding manner - E is checkin my papers/docs/certificates)...
E: So what do you know about HR as a field?
B: blah blah - tell them the basics
(all shaking head except D of course ;) )
L: Ok - so Ashish tell me bout what you think of women in this present day corporate world? And what are the issues faced by them ?
B: blah blah - sexual harrasment, ego problems from men, etc etc
L: Ohkie - so wat are the things companies have been doin to prevent such things like sexual harrasment?
B: blah blah
(trying to maintain eye contact with all - but E is busy with file - doesnt look at me AT ALL - and D is well - blank - stone-faced - no expressions! )
L: Ohkie - so tell me about the reservations issue now -
wat do u think bout the reservations issue in the private sector?
B: Blah blah blah blah
L: Ohk cool - (looks at others for their turn)
D (all of a sudden): What are the different central trade unions in India?
B: (says somethin which goes kinda unheard)
D: wattt???
B: blah blah (explains)
E: Ohkay yes yes
D: (shaking head)
D: Can you name some trade union in the unorganized sector?
B: umm - dont think I know any - but i guess BMS can be one of them
D: (smilingly looks at L)
Moi understands that my answer is wrong :(
D: So which are the new states in India??
B: blah blah
(all quiet for sometime)
L: (asks E if he wants to ask any questions)
E: No nothin actually - so bout ur hostel accomodation at TISS -- blah blah ( they were askin this to all at their interviews)
B: blah blah
L: Ohkay thats it then - thanx Ashish
E: yes thanks
D: expressionless :|
B: (wishes and exits)

Approx 15 min - Dont know wat to say - questions were ok and I answered without any gaps etc -managed it well- but hardly any reaction from the panel - except for the lady at times... the people before me and those after me had a similar kinda interview - though not entirely on GK questions - theirs were even shorter - some 8 to 9 min...
Looks like they were lookin for more than just mere answers... :|

Rating: 8.5 to 9/10 (from my side)

Travelled in da evening to Churchgate to meet a friend and stayed overnite with him - had kinda fun - and then travelled back to airport da next morning to catch flite back to Blore - Saki (chaosunlimited) and another girl accompanied me in it - so that was good fun too :)

General opinion: Diverse interviews being conducted - entirely on luck which panel u get, and also how ur interview goes. Heard later that my panel conducted stress interviews in the latter half of the day... was again surprised at that... The panel with the dean was stressing most of da guys (like every year) - so guess people had to watch out there...

MDI (PGP-HR) GT/PI experience

2007-05-15T15:23:00.000+05:30

This one probably has a silver lining to it :D . Had got some good time to prepare for this - and believe me, koi kasar nahin chhodi :D

Batch: 2 pm to 5:30 pm (12th March)
Place: IIM Bangalore
Ratio: 5 boys - 4 gals - 1 missing :D

This was a decent procedure, with me making it on time, finding some friends applying to the PGP and PGPIM programs - some PGites whom I knew too - some in blazers etc. I was told that my red tie would surely be questioned on :D . Soon there was a big crowd, and I was unable to make it out which are for which programme. When the faculty arrived, the people for PGP and PGPIM were taken to the floor above, and the PGP-HR batch remained down.

What I noticed with the interactions I made with them. People had simply marked PGP-HR course for no reason - some by mistake. They actually wanted PGP... some had multiple calls - one gal, who i must say was good had C,L,I calls... (and now she has a C convert too :) )

GT: A task where they gave us a lot to read at first - which didnt make any sense... panelists were 2 ladies... one elderly, and the other young, good looking, but strict too ;) . We were given articles like rubber band, pen refill, stapler pins, thread, a cd etc - and told to first decide how many articles we can make, and then make them of course - in the first 10 and 20 min respectively. I guess the full group was bamboozled initially, as all were individually writing down bout da articles to be made - but then at some stage, we were told that 'we' had to come up with a number to be made. I immediately put across that its a group task and has be pursued togetha - from then it took some shape - there were some good contributions - esp from the person next to me - named Vinod (he finally didnt make it though :( ) - he was da most active fellow I guess... We estimated 7 articles - created 8 - out of which 5 were accepted by the panel..

Conclusion: I guess the main part was the group perspective. I heard later of other groups who purused the task individually as they were neva told its a group task. Thankfully we chose to use our communication skills ;) ;).

Rating: 8/10 - decent contribution from my side.

The break after the GD's was better as we were served some refreshments, and we interacted with each other. Some decent profiled people - some freshers, and some work-ex guys/gals - as expected.

Interview: - Panel same - 2 ladies - one elderly, smiling kind - E
second young, strict, non-smiling kind - Y

Both of them looked very knowledgeable, especially the elderly lady... and well, also looked liked they would finish us off... :D - but an interview with such high profiled people is always interesting - and i heard that in the morning they had taken the PGP interviews - so well - the panels were interchanging between the programmes too :)

I was the seventh as per the order in the GD. They started in the same order. All da people were comin out one after the other being stressed out on why HR, individual profile questions, general questions (not GK) - mostly related to da form filled... so i guessed tat the form had to be filled with care - i had tot that the interview was goin to be a good one today ;) as I had coloured my form pretty well :D ... due to which the others were like ' You are seriously goin to have it in the interview ! ' - somethin else was in store for me though :(

They changed the order at the fifth person, started callin randomly, then finished off the 3 gals remaining, and i was kept LAST :(... - at around 6:40 pm... no one was left there - only me...

Moi goes inside -- Moi - M

E: Hello Ashish, sorry to have kept u waiting for so longg... blah blah.. :D :D
Y - (also joining in) - yeah yeah - smiling (was surprised at that - was nice to see her smile :D)
M (wishin): Its ok ma'am etc etc... :D
E: -- (explains that recruitment is a long procedure and takes some time)...
M: I understand ma'am.
E: Ok - so I see here that you have graduated from Goa, schooling Goa etc - why Goa?
Y: Maybe he is from Goa.
M: Yes (koi gunaah kiya kya ? ;) )
E: Oh Goa !! Wow - we have a Goan among us !!
Y: Yes its very interesting to be interviewing a Goan
M: :D :D - also joining in - (guess they are getting ready to slaughter me - so are they gonna ask me on Goa? :| )
E: So I can see some nice grades in Xth and XIIth, but it dropped in grad - y so?
M: Blah blah - good percentile though...
E: So Goa University doesnt give high percentages?
M: Blah blah - only to comp sci it gives low, to Electronics its favourable :mg:

(During this while, Y takes my files and goes thru - was pleased at that ... wanted her to see them :D )

E: (turning the form) - So well, u have been workin in Oracle and have a nice profile as a consultant, good pay etc... good good - well then why this program now?
Y - joining in : yes, u have applied to IM program etc etc...
M - cuts short - No Ma'am - only PGP-HR
M - Starts the Why HR answer - and suddenly goes blank :( - (uh oh - gadbad)
E: Thats all... and starts her gyaan
M: cuts short - gives my gyaan
E: gyaan - 'Look Ashish, we are here to help u... we dont want u to make a wrong decision etc etc... ;) ' -- (wow - really?? :D )
M: gyaan

:D :D :D :D

(This was followed by a huge convincing battle from both sides on Why HR... nothin much to gain in it etc etc etc ... both sides givin gyaan - both sides adamant :mg: :mg: )

- Very tough to tell who ended up convincing whom... :D :D - but they were hell bent on throwing me out of the room tryin to say 'Its a wrong decision on your part'... though I defended real well - looks like they didnt want to ask anything else - and I didnt want to lose out on the argument :D ;)

Y: Which other calls?
M: SIBM (converted but left) and TISS
E: - (Stern look) - If you get both MDI and TISS, which one would you go for?
M (coolly) - Ma'am - if you ask me at this point , it would be TISS ... coz...blah blah ( was honest here :D - had decided to be...in short told the truth first - which they were expecting, and then praised MDI on all the significant points)
E: Ok thank you Ashish
Y: Thank you (smiling)
M (Wat the F$$$... !!! ) - Thank you ma'am (almost said - thats it?? )
E: Yes thank you.

(Before leaving) M: Ma'am do you want the attested CAT score card/work ex proof
Y & E: No we have checked it
M: (when did they do so? )
M: Thanks Ma'am (wishes and exits)

Thats it - ten min interview - maximum time only ONE question - didnt know what to say - almost all others had around 20 to 25 min interviews with a lot of questions asked... moi had nothin like that...

Rating: 7.5 to 8 /10 - only on my performance in the interview.

Bachaale bhagwaan... :) :) - was my first emotion on coming out. Went off to meet a friend at IIMB from there, and had dinner there itself. The experience was interesting - but too short. I had absolutely no idea that later I was going to be a part of this great B-school :)

SCMHRD Experience

2007-05-15T15:02:00.000+05:30

Now this was one experience I dreaded from the beginning - simply because the GD's were the elimination for the PI, and I hardly had had any experience at GD's. And well - the worst possible happened.

Time: Around 1:15
Place: Indian Social Institute, Benson Road, Cantonment Side, Bangalore
Batch: (fgot :D )

No PI involved in this experience - rite - kinda sad story... SCMHRD didnt like me so much :( ...

ISI was really far off from where I live - so left at 10:30 am itself - reached by 11:45 am. I took some time to find the otherwise unknown place. Quiet surroundings - only the SCMHRD process on. We were seated in a room, with a group co-ordinator - Aditya by name. A very nice and kool dude - but was definitely solvin all the doubts only 'diplomatically'... - keeping to the safe side of praising SCMHRD well ;) ;)

The wait was a bit long - during which I heard good stuff like a lot of people from the groups making it to the PI's... and tat the panels were impressed with the Bangalore people... ;)

I saw my group when we were called -all boys - 2 without workex... total 8 of us...
We entered the room at around 1:35 pm.The panel consisted of two old gentlemen - one of whom spoke really fluently... the other guy was kind of the typical, uninterested guy...

GD 1 - Apparently a GT - but no cartoon strip, no video clip (as I had heard of other SCMHRD stuff from the Pune processes) - it was a huge transcript of one normal psychological exercise - 8 survivors in a tragedy (world comin to an end) and we have to select 3 out of them - based on the description of each of them... real tough to describe how this GD went coz all brought out good points (including me ) - but all knew that we were ratofyin our way around ... the 3 we selected finally were just about OK people...

Frank evaluation: I did pretty welll - chipped in a couple of times - and yes, during a major time of the GD I had the people lookin at me only... and i saw to it that I didnt simply hog air-time... (coutesy my Bangalore PG mates ;) )

Rating: 7.5/10

GD 2 - Case study - a one page transcript - total business related- about two companies who had a joint venture and were doin well - but one company is in the lead and due to the other's failures/set backs, the merger suffers. Lots and lots of other data. We have to think on whether the merger should continue to exist or should split up.

The GD was good enough - came to a decent conclusion (thankfully the same one I had selected) - though I had very less points in this one - and some people came out with some very good business-related points. There was a CA in the group who apparently would bring out some excellent points which overshadowed everyone else.

Frank evaluation: Decently managed it - but losing factor was I had very less actual contribution besides the two points I had jotted earlier. These points were brought out by others too. But overall, once again I was kind of among the top 3 speakers in the group - and the thing about emerging as the leader etc was all good enough - in fact - the consensus was initiated by me

Rating: 6/10

After this we were ushered to another room - nothing offered to eat too (dat was a bit bad as we all were very hungry - at least I was - come on SCMHRD guys - at least Marie biscuits are affordable :D ;) ) - I had tot i would get to grab somethin to eat after the GD's - but it wasnt goin to be the case...

45 min of wait and then the printed results - only 3 from our group were in - and well - i wasnt in them - so it was the 'bad luck' day for me...

Guys selected - no use givin their profiles coz only the GD/GT counts at this stage and they dont look at one's profile - the first fellow was da CA guy - real good in the second GD - gave a lot of good points - jotted down stuff in between GD, tried to conclude well etc etc . Person 2 had some good points which were jammed down by the others (and well me too - anyway its a fair game - all wanna have a share of the GD) - the surprise was Person 3 - spoke very less - had the group listening but i felt the points he made were crap with regards to the discussion goin in - didnt expect him to make it - but he did... (no hard feelings buddy ). The guys selected had to write an SOP kind of essay ( which I had really prepared well and come - pointless though :( ) - and then come for the interview on the next day.

Guys not selected - frankly there were 2 of us - me and another fellow who made some decent contribution, and gave the GD some shape when it was going haywire - but probably that WASN'T what the panel was lookin for... the others had some points too - but probably werent selected as they couldnt keep up with the pace of the GD...

It was a long ride back from the place to home - but as it managed to finish earlier - I cud manage to reach office and finish off some pending work. But yes, the day was kind of a let down. I had heard of many others who didnt make it through the SCMHRD GD's and finally made it to some better institutes - and relieved myself with these thoughts. Probably the institute never deserved me ;) .

Conclusions from my side for future SCMHRD aspirants:

- Sincerely no advice on how to go about doin it. Yes, some people were selected on the basis of the content - but some werent too... so hard to say which one holds more... So to be on the safer side - as the SCMHRD guys on PG have been sayin ---be good in your content...
- Leadership skills, how you speak, how you sit, listening blah blah is bull shit when this institute's GD process is concerened - - (sorry SCMHRD guys but this is my opinion)... frankly ALL of us were doin these things really well today... but it DIDNT count...
- The morning batch has a better chance of makin it - at least this is my conclusion. I read it elsewhere on this thread too. The ratio being selected in the morning were 6/8 or 7/8 etc. The afternoon figures dropped to 3/8 and 4/8. Another fellow I met before I left told me that in his group only 1 guy was selected out of the 8 people - I feel thats kind of really bad as people have really worked out their way for getting till here - elimination on a 50-50 basis can be decent.. like 4/8.
- Dont know about the females converting - but I heard a lot of them did make it today (saw it too) - inspite of being in low number this time... and some real good ones too

Not all that bogged on not being selected - comments on the evaluation procedure ---> give some weightage to the profile before throwing out at the GD stage - mite help throwing out a 3 or 4+ yrs experienced guy just because he cudnt make it in a fishmarket gd is unreasonable... so there should be some consideration (not stating my case here)- my personal opinion is that without the PI a person can neva be eliminated - but that doesnt hold here - so just try considering the above suggestion...

In fact lookin at the bright side of it - at least I wont have to get up at 5:45 am for Yoga... (verified fact - no hard feelings SCMHRD guys ). Just expecting something better from the other GD/PI's - the best ones to come.

SIBM GD/PI experience

2007-05-14T18:26:00.000+05:30

Posting this one a bit late - though had kind of decided that I would post all my GD/PI experiences at one shot - after having got through a particular b-school - and here I am now - a proud to-be-MDI-alumnus penning down the experiences of this year..

Jan 30th 8 AM- Pune ( first batch in the entire GD/PI process spanning 4 days)
Institute: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM)
Batch - 1XF ( had a SNAP 100 scorer in this batch too )
Composition: 10 boys, 1 gal... but well - the gal wasnt present in the GD's and GT's with us...

The sight of SIBM wasnt really a pleasing one for me, as I had seen it the previous day - as it was nothing more than a building - frankly speaking even smaller than my school. Though I was here, and I had to attend the GD/PI now. The previous evening had been spent meeting friends, and also meeting my buddy Chinmay at SIBM (a buddy was supposed to guide he/her through the entire GD/PI process)

There was a crowd outside SIBM - the line of students for registration had reached the road ( the institute is one building right outside the road ). I got in the line - and it didnt take time to finish the registration procedure. I was given a batch tag - and was directed upwards to one of the floors above. We were made to sit in a classroom - some 3 or 4 batches in the morning. After a brief presentation by the seniors on SIBM and its culture, we started off. The first thing on the programme was the essay

Essay as told above - Whistle Blowers are guardians to democracy..

Hardly any time to recollect thoughts and write some stuff, in fact the topic needs better understanding and better examples as a good essay - which of course mine lacked.

Rating - 5/10.

Following this we were led to separate rooms where we sat with our buddies/other coordinators, who I must say were extremely helpful. My batch was seated in a small circle, and the coordinator gave us more ideas on how life at SIBM is. Soon we were called for the interviews - which was unexpected to come before the GD's. I was the third on the list in the group. We were led to another room, where the three of us had a seat on the bench outside. The first person was a guy who was from PG (Pagalguy.com) - and had interacted with him in the morning. He seemed to have a good profile (2 years at DRDO, owner of a tech-forum online etc), and I was all apprehensive of him going before me. Still I was more at ease then expected. He had a cool interview, and so did the person before me - a 2 year experienced fellow at GE.

The next to enter was me. The following is how it all went.

Panel: One internal faculty(in middle) - F
One Senior HR Manager from Pepsi - P
One IIMA pass out - A
Myself - M

F did most of the questioning.

M (enters, greets and sits down)
F: So Ashish, tell me about yourself, your schooling, your extra curriculars, your workex, your hobbies and so on.
M (prepared answer): blah blah
P: Hmm ok - so which coaching institute have you prepared this answer from?
M (taken aback): Frankly this is my own prepared answer Sir, I do not require any external preparation for this - so I did not take help from any coaching class.
P: Thats good - its a general answer rite - so it doesnt require any preparations.
M: Yes Sir it doesnt
F: So Ashish, you have had workex as a technical consultant, so why an MBA now?
M: Blah blah - interests in HR etc
F: So Ashish, I see you have done your schooling and graduation at Goa. Why then do you want to come to Pune to do your management from SIBM? I am sure Goa too has a nice management institute.
M: blah blah - why SIBM prepared answer :D ;) - qualities SIBM possesses.
F: So what in HR interests you?
M: Blah blah - more on Traning and Development
P: Ohk - tell me more about what kinds of trainings are there in Oracle
M: Blah blah
P: Ohkay - are all these trainings required at all levels?
M: No - as you go higher in the ladder, you require to take certain types of trainings.. blah blah ( had discussed most of the T&D part with an HR manager I knew - phew - was saved here ;) )
P: Ohk
F ( looks at A )
A: So you say you like reading - what books do you read?
M: blah blah - all kinds blah blah
A: So name some books of Paulo Coelho
M: blah blah
A: Ohkay so you have interest in Hindu mythology...especially in Mahabharata - so I suppose I can ask you anything from it (big grin)
M: I guess so (scared a bit ;) )
A: Ohkay - how many siblings did Dhritarashtra have?
M: 100
A: Siblings?
M: (oops!!) - Oh sorry - he had one sibling - thats Pandu
A: Are you very sure?
M: Yes Sir
A: Hmm - I think you need to revise your concepts on Mahabharata again then (all laughing)
M: Perhaps sir - if you say so...(was reasonably sure of the answer)
F: Ohkay Ashish - so what if we dont offer you the admission at SIBM? Whats the backup plan?
M: (prepared answer): blah blah - have to do it this year itself - maybe correspondence in HR - cant pursue a residential MBA after this year - blah blah
F: So you are hell bent on doing HR this year itself
M: Yes Sir
F: Ohk then thank you Ashish.
M: Thank you Sir

M (thanks all and leaves)

Quite a decent interview - would rate it 8/10.
Was bugged as they didnt go through my files at all - though they were there in my hands all the while etc. - Had really arranged them well and brought - and I tot i had some things to show in them

GD - Case study ( I guess all had case studies )... first case study of my life - hence was a bit nervous...

The case was about a person who joins a company as a programmer, then the company changes its domain of technology, and along with it, this 4 yr experienced guy has to adapt to the new domain, and new business. He is unable to do it , and underperforms, hence is warned from HR manager to be removed. The guy gets pissed, applies to other companies, gets reco letters from known people etc etc. One year down the line or so, the HR manager tells him that he has to leave the company. The guy loses it and threatens to sue the company for the treatment and show the reco letters as proof etc etc.
What should the HR manager do?

PS - this is as far as I can remember the case - ne one else please correct me...

Okish discussion - lot of argument - there was more talk about the reco letters and the suing , rather than the HR manager's alternatives for tackling the problem - probably thats where we lost out. (my opinion).

The two panelists were ok (one male one female) - the female leader stopped us twice to make the quiet people speak - the male guy was noting our expressions, how we spoke etc... the GD was stopped by the female lady (probably she got bored )

Rating for my performance: 7.5/10

Next
Group Task: (This was the weirdest part in the procedure)
Panel: 2 old gentlemen

Task 1: This was a handkerchief placed at a distance from all of us - and we had to somehow touch it by crossing the line before it, without touching any part of our body to the ground. Weird rite? We discussed for a major part of the time - but I landed up convincing them to spend more time on doing the task at the end - so we somehow started. One fellow volunteered to be held by the others - and we all held him in some strategic method. Somehow we managed to do the task eventually. Looks like they were observing more of the group dynamics in it.

Task 2: This was a restrainer-captive task - where the prof stands at one end. We have to pair ourselves with a partner. At one instance I am the restrainer, trying to hold my partner from reaching the prof at the other end of the room. Next I am the captive, and he is holding me, preventing me from reaching the prof. We had this exercise - and well, I had some fun tickling my partner (he complained, but I retorted sayin that the prof had mentioned 'the restrainer can do nethin in his power to stop the captive'. So it was kinda allowed. :D ;) . At the end of the task, we all were made to stand in a line, and were questioned one by one on whether we liked to be the restrainer or the captive. This was dumb as the others further in line would try to mould their answers acc to what we answered. I chose to be the captive, as I gave some gyaan about having a certain goal to move to etc.

Tough to rate myself - but would give it a 6.5/10.

Our group was the first to finish that day. We left at around 12 - and me and my restrainer partner (Akaash) went over and had something at a Java Green center nearby. From there we departed, and I moved to my friends place where I was staying, and prepared to leave Pune.

Overall I was kind of satisfied with the entire experience - knowing I had done well with most of the proceedings - though I knew that if I got other calls later, I would have to leave this one for them - as the last date to pay the fees (75k) was 28th Feb. Eventually I did land up converting SIBM, but took a strong decision and gave up the seat without paying the fees. I had other better interviews to attend - and was confident in cracking at least one more of them.

GOA – JUST A HOLIDAY LAND ?

2007-02-16T17:32:00.000+05:30

Somewhere in Dec 2006 I was informed by one of my friends that Rashmi Bansal was doing a run-up of Goa and its colleges (engineering and MBA) on the JAMMAG site, as well as on da JAM magazine. I tot it would be fun to rite to Rashmi, and tell her what facts of Goa I want her to highlight. I was surprised to receive Rashmi's reply, tellin me that she needed a proper write-up of da same for the survey... so wat followed was me writing it, and passing it to her - and she editing it down to proper size for da content on the page. I was unaware of what happened later - whether the article got published or not. Just today I got da confirmation of the article being printed in the JAM Magazine (Dec 1 to 15th issue), and also on the website. Please check out the same as under the section 'Behind the Booze'...

Click here for the article published on JAM website

The best part is dat it mentions my name and wherabouts too :D :D.

Though one small correction - it mentions me to be a student of Goa Engineering College, though I am actually from Padre Conceicao College of Engineering at Goa.

For the benefit of all, here is the proper, original article which was written by me. Hope it brings some awareness in one and all.

------------------------------------------------Begins.........

Yeah right – that’s what we hear more about - Goa being the ‘island’ of freedom, fun, enjoyment and the place where life is ‘susegaad’ in pure Goan style. The beaches, the sunset, the funky happy-go-lucky people – that’s what more people are looking forward to for a great vacation – after toiling for days and nights in their respective fields of work, families who need a break from the normal routine, couples who want to spice up their honeymoons, and yeah a lot more of others. Yes of couse, Goa offers all this to you – but probably the real life in Goa, how Goans make it big etc etc remains veiled behind the mish-mash which the tourism highlights and the picture which it presents before the world. Lets throw some light on the facts here.

Having been born in Goan, and being a native Goan, probably I can be the best horse’s mouth. But yes, its also true that one does realize the importance of his own native land when he is away from it – however far he may be. I moved to Bangalore in order to start my career a year back (yeah yeah – software). Fantastic climate, good people etc – but yes, Goa remains unmatched by everything. Having interacted with a lot of people here, my friends, my colleagues / superiors at the work place etc etc I gained knowledge about how exactly tourism has elevated as well as depreciated Goa’s image before the world, and especially before the people living in India.

Of course I can attribute tourism to be a major factor to have underlined Goa’s presence in the world. But yes, there are a lot of facts, which remain unseen, yet are taken for granted. For starters, most of my friends would go holidaying to Goa with the sole purpose of alcohol – and of course playfully condemning me as a person who has alcohol running in his blood – not believing that well, I do not drink. According to me, the very fact that alcohol is available at a cheap rate in Goa has tarnished Goa’s image. A blot on Goa’s canvas is the way it is being portrayed in this way – as a merry land where alcohol seems to be the only hope to life live with leisure, and well – all Goans indulge into alcoholism undeniably with pleasure. Probably people would actually need to peek into Goan culture and see that it’s the tourists themselves who mar Goan image in this way, by spending their holidays on the beaches and of course indulging in excessive drinking, sometimes to the extent that they create unnecessary issues in hotels, spoil Goan culture by openly exhibiting their cultures in a drunken state and so on. Several cases like this have been seen on Goan newspaper pages, mentioning names of Goans involved, yet ignored – well – just to worsen the existing beliefs about Goans.

Goan culture has been imbibed in several places in the Konkan region, and a lot of places of course do not attribute the same to Goa. This applies in most cases to the Goan language ie Konkani too. An even more important fact is that there is a major chunk of Goans is Hindus, yet the religion aspect highlighted by most of the tourism and other media is Catholic. I do not wish to compare the percentages of Hindus and Catholics in Goa here, just that the fact remains unseen that the Hindu culture in Goa is unlike any other state. There are innumerous temples, devasthanas, religious sites etc besides the huge number of churches. Of course to add to this a lot of mosques too– that is the Hindus, the Muslims and the Catholics live in peace and harmony. But as the Portuguese had ruled over Goa for quite a long time, Catholicism is dominant in the way tourism portrays Goa – placing major emphasis on Catholic culture. What I want to point out here is that the beauty of the churches and the Catholic religion is very pristine and rich, yet the vast spectrum of Goan Hindu cultures and traditions is not worth missing as an important trait to promotion and tourism.

Several points like these seem to have found root in the minds of people from all over the world – not just India – in terms of interpreting Goan culture and the people. Another one well-heard of in these days is that most Goans are non-residents, especially the Hindus and are either people from Maharashtra or Karnataka, who moved to Goa long back and settled in Goa. This is seemingly outrageous, as a majority of Goans are natives of Goa itself. Speaking of Hindus, there is a class of Goans, which specifically hold up the trace of Goan culture in their roots – these are the Goan Saraswat Brahmins. The class is very rich and prestigious, and well known in Goa. There are several such classes, which proudly hold the native Goan staff high. Yet several people outside Goa bear misconceptions, and build facts on half-truths and rumours.

I have completed my entire education in Goa itself, right from schooling, and would say that yes, Goa has some of the best schools and colleges – but again – most of which arent well known throughout India. Probably this is because most people in Goa choose to pursue their education under the State Board, which according to me isnt at par with the CBSE or the ICSE boards. What I gained from my education in Goa is primarily invaluable ethics and morals, which are hardly imparted in any institute nowadays – but find prime importance in Goan schools and colleges. I also had an opportunity of studying in the ICSE board in my primary and uptil my Sixth Standard, which imparted a lot of basic skills, and a high level of communication skills with verbal fluency in English in me. Making another important point here – the English standard in Goa, as I have observed is the one of the highest as compared to most of the other states. Most Goans excel in their fluency in this language as compared to other Indians, probably because English bears a huge weightage in their curriculum, and is the meduim of instruction is to a large extent in Goa. Of course I have made this observation only after having interacted with several people from other states in Bangalore. I have noticed that in most of the other states in India, the regional language is more dominant as compared to English, and in most cases, it even has an influence in the way English is spoken in the states. This is probably where Goans stand out, as there is miniscule or no impact of the regional language in spoken English.

Probably where Goan education might take a beating is the level of education in the other states, the study atmosphere, the cream of the intelligent Indian students etc. The Goan curriculum for Engineering was of a high-level, and on par with most of the NIT’s as I had noticed (many colleagues in the NIT’s). But the atmosphere for study was more languid, and very less student desiring to reach great heights. There are also a lesser number of extra-curricular activities and major events of institute meets, fests etc in Goa. Higher education on the national front also bears little weightage in Goa – most people would have, around ten years back or so pursued their masters more in arts or science. With the coming of three engineering colleges in Goa, there was a spurt of engineers passing out each year at Goa. After I finished my engineering, Goa also came up with BITS, a national engineering college, with national standards. There is little knowledge I can impart on it, as it has come up just recently. Though there is little Goa can offer to core electronic or computer engineers in terms of bright careers and work. Hence most people pursue their work life outside Goa – like me in Bangalore. The companies coming for campus recruitment to Goan colleges have increased only in recent times, but of course they mainly come from the other cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Higher education from prestigious national institutes, in terms of MS, Mtech or MBA has been gaining importance only in the recent times, with a lot of people aspiring to do their further studies from the IIT’s, IIM’s and other national institutes. Although the resources available for studying for competitive entrance exams etc are meagre. Aspirants would normally have to get better coaching etc from outside the state and then fulfil their ambitions. A good example would be the removal of Goa as a center for the Common Admisstion Test of the IIMs two years back. This is probably where Goa needs some run-up to do, as Goan population is on the rise, and Goa is out to chart out its position in the world. Although I would always want to further my career in my own native land – I know for sure that the beauty and the status that Goa enjoys now would be destroyed if software and other industries start entering Goa on a large scale. Hence according to me, Goa is better off without these. Probably its just the task of the Goans to make it big themselves, and then make their own state reach great heights.

Goa is also on the forefront as far as the film industry is concerned. However in the recent times, Goa has acquired more of a negative stance in Bollywood cinema. To cite examples, Goa is portrayed mostly as a location of meet for smugglers or dacoits, or most of the times incidences of murder, rape, robberies are associated with Goa. This trend is now being seen on the small screen too. There is no particular reason why this has been happening – and it’s well known to Goans that there are hardly any such incidents in Goa. Yet cinema portrays Goa as the rendezvous for crime. Enjoyable on cinema, yet hard to believe, and emotionally hurting to the Goan.

Though now, Goa has earned its position in international cinema too, with the advent of festivals like IFFI. It makes me proud to say that Goa is the chosen location for such a prestigious event every year. It’s great to see that Goa is making its mark in most of the fields now – and enjoys a prized status in India. There is much much more to speak about Goa – but I guess this is all I have to say. It is definitely upto each person to individually see what Goa holds in reality, and how Goa enjoys its esteemed place on the map of the nation. Goa is a holiday destination for one and all, true, but well is, of course, much more than that too.

_________________________________________Ends.....

The Catastrophic Admission Test...

2007-02-13T14:58:00.000+05:30

19th November 2006. 1.77 lakh students. 2.5 hours. 3 gruelling sections. 6 renowned B-schools. One renowned – but over-hyped admission test.

No more stats needed – it was yet another year when students sharpened their ‘lead’ weapons and braced themselves for the make-or-break 2.5 hours – yes, 2.5 hours this time as opposed to the 2 hours before. But was it supposed to help collect your energy and supplement the weak chances, or retain you in the cave of strategy and sweat for longer… this was what no one knew about.
Brief additions – as usual my center was in North Bangalore – and I spent the previous nite at my friends’ place. The college was close by and was supposed to be a famous one in Malleswaram – that’s the area. No surprises in the morning – a huge crowd at the center – but yes, this time a majority of the crowd seemed very much prepared for whateva was supposed to come. TIME/CL/CF/PT/IMS/… (and many more…) seemed to have done their job well – though I will reserve my comments for that, later.

Having found the class and relieved myself, I settled in the typical Bangalorean college benches, awaiting for what was supposed to be the media sensation for the day – the question paper. The gleam of the white booklet was so much that in the hurry I forgot to get a very good look at the OMR itself – it had 5 options for every question. 120 questions printed – so well, I had kind of prepared for each kind of question paper pattern – and formulated some strategies. Though I skipped to settle my mind for the 5 option pattern for those few minutes. Mistake 1.

Why does the Admission Committee ask for the entire addressh to be SHADED is a question which still bothers me. Though I could have done without doing the same – probably I wouldn’t have wasted time till 5 minutes after the test began. Test booklet were distributed 5 minutes late – 75 questions - +4 and –1 pattern - and I had just time to shade the relevant stuff and see the pattern – though I was still shading ‘Bannerghatta Road’ – had practised for it, but it was getting irritating. Mistake 2. All of a sudden the bell rang… heh wait a minute – I am still shadin da address dude – cudnt u ask me before ringing it ???

The next moment I snatch the booklet, break it open and begin on my planned journey for the next 2.5 hours. If I can remember properly now – here’s the detailed transcript:

10:35 – Test begins for me – and I notice 5 options for each answer. Ok enough for 75 questions – I can definitely spend a lot of time on each question – but hang on – one smalll thing – the verbal section can definitely get tough as in elimination of options. But it might not be the case. Lets hope not. Lets go ahead and see the questions. Lets relax… Lets…

10:50 – Verbal. 3 shaded bubbles only – a forced attempt. Tough section. Bakwaas type questions. Sweat.

11:10 – VERY easy quant. Contrary to what I had expected. Some questions done and others marked. Can definitely do more. Bhaaaaaaaaai – wahi theherna – main waapas aaoonga.

11:30 – Easy DI – couldn’t believe I was doing well in this section, as it had been my nemesis throughout the preparations.

11:55 – Wtf – what was that ? RC?? One passage took more than 15 min !! What was happening? Verbal was my strongest section or what?? More sweat. Nervous like hell throughout. Gulping some water. Look on top – bhagwaan – main hi kyon??

12:20 – DI. Well done Ashish. Could manage some questions nicely. And the backward strategy worked everywhere. Verbal on mind though. Questions unanswered everywhere.

12:45 – Quant. Ok enough job done – but I could have done much better. Verbal questions still unanswered.

12:57 – Marked all the unsure verbal questions. Kya aur thoda quant karein ???

1:00 – Sorry buddy – time up.

All fancies of 75 attempts etc in paani. 45 attempts in all – 14 in Quant, 12 in DI and 19 in Verbal (god knows here if they were attempts or what – but they were well reasoned out according to me).

The rest is kinda curtains – oops history ;) – one good job done – I stayed away from the analysis and other bull shit offered by the coaching classes till the results – and did a fine job in that. Did not calculate my score. Threw the paper in one corner of the house. Great stuff. Definitely a degraded quality paper in terms of what the IIMs could have come out with. Only later did I come to know that the GMAT too has 5 options for each question. But does it have such pathetic, endlessly debatable Verbal questions? That’s another question altogether. Will be comin up in my verdict – but maybe not so soon.

Bout whether the result was good or not – that’s another story. Kisi aur din – sure… :D :D

Resurrection ...

2007-02-13T13:09:00.000+05:30

Complaints from a lot of people, and received with due acknowledgements from my side… yes I have stayed away from my blog for long enough now – but its a primary passion I had developed – and I probably cant keep myself away from it. There have been a number of things I have had to pen down in the last few months – since November when I last retired from my dear diary friend, but the work and the MBA entrances kind of kept me aloof from the expressions of thought – though I cursed myself for the same. Probably what I jot down in the days to come might not be a chronological order of the events that have bygone, just that they are experiences I have to speak about.

Lets say that the feline story will come up in the next post – and this post is all about a gist of what happened in the last few months – and probably some things which I might be including in the blog as well. The last three months have been a roller coaster ride in terms of the start and the end of the MBA entrance season – right from the feline monster herself to the Delhi School of Economics entrance, just last week – interspersed in between with JMET of the IIT’s, the SYMBI test SNAP, XLRI honours XAT, Mumbai special TISS and finally Delhi zindabad to end it all. I havent had a moment to take a breath and say that ‘yes, lets sit now and muster the moments spent in the entrances on da blog’… But yes, the subtitle to my profile on PG – ‘MBA Entrances Suck’ definitely does say something about my own emotions about the last thre months. Lets set apart the issue that I might have become around 30 percent successful in some of these entrances.

Besides this, well, life has almost been the same as it was three months before – a nice relaxing holiday in Goa towards the end of the year as always, an overnite trip to Hogenakkal falls in TN with friends, and of course an even more unforgettable birthday at Goa again just some days back… probably these are some of the enjoyable moments in the bygone days. And yeah – then came the point where I realized that my diary friend was alone and isolated – I hadnt penned down anything since a long time… demands from the people made me think I was losing the creative side of my life, and heh I am determined not to let go of it ;)

Some great posts comin up – at ur service as always :D

Diwali time...

2006-10-19T10:20:00.000+05:30

Goodness me - its been more than a month since I edited da blog - happened to notice it just today and tot i wasnt givin it enough justice... Of course there are lotsa reasons for the same - the work schedule is tight and demanding in these days - the project I am working on has turned 'fixed-price' (if u dont understand it - den fget it ;) )... sometimes when i look back and see at the bygone year, just working like dogs for the clients doesnt pay off - a person gotto be smarter in this new gen-IT industry - and make some smart moves to climb up the ladder - but such changes in the project progress - and mainly - getting stuck in a long term project is kind of a hindrance to one's career path...

In these turbulent days of work and god knows wat-wat - i feel its a relief to go home - yeah - its been 2 months since i went, so probably its time i took a break - although the decision still remains till the very last minute, in case the project takes a monstrous shape at the eleventh hour... :D - what prompted me to edit da blog today is the occasion for the trip back home - Diwali...

Some time back I read a short note on the significance of the same - 'Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya'... meaning 'Lead me away from the darkness and towards light' - the darkness signifying the negative aspect of life - sorrows, pains, jealousy, hatred etc - the light depicting purity, freedom, happiness, joy! - Gave me the thought that Diwali is indeed multi-faceted in terms of how it defines life... indeed if one gives a thought, the light can signify something different for each person in life... and so can the darkness... probably the effort to get away from the darkness is fulfilled only at the this bright festival - the darkness is also different for different entities in life - it may be different for a poor orphan, a farmer, a businessman, a salaried professional, a student, an organization, and even a country. One can very well deduce what is the height/variations of darkness in each of these cases - but the feeling of the darkness is unique pertaining to each of these, and can be best felt only individually.

The best part is that there is a continuous effort on the part of each of these entities to get ahead in life - not just to grope about in the darkness, but to dig out the tunnel to light, and dance with joy once its found - the light too forms a major part of life - probably Diwali - or Deepavali - the festival of lights signifies just that - to leave behind the darkness - and that its time to go ahead and witness whats in store for each one in the light of tomorrow...

A special one to all my friends who are working away from home... - Go ahead enjoy the holidays!!! :) :)

HAPPY DEEPAWALI !!

A fresher - once out of the shell...

2006-09-08T12:27:00.000+05:30

Thought I shud share my views on an entirely different topic today...

A fresher - or a fachha (MBA jargon) is someone who is naive, unaware of the buri duniya, the 'taur-tarikey' of the people present in it - well thats how he/she gets da input in da final semester of the college - at least in Goa thats the story... plz enlighten me in the comments if ur story is somethin else...

This topic shud interest those who are emerging out of college this year, and will be doing so next year, and the year after tat.. and so on.. :D... Well lets categorise the students who emerge as so-called graduates from ne engineering college:

1: The bright stud - the hero of all - the guy who can solve any problem, who eats binary numbers for lunch, sleeps with ten problems in mind, but drinks only - well even his drink is 'contaminated' with theory stuff...
Its a rare chance that such a person will not shine in life - howeva anyone mite say that he is a bookish guy, no 'practical' knowledge etc etc. To the guys who are sayin this - well, how good are u? At least he has gained a lot by being that much...
Believe me, bookish knowledge helps too, as there is a certain point when massive bookish knowledge, and havin gone thru the same stuff repeatedly, the person acquires a certain practical sense... (even though he mite not be dat good)... and if he is sound in logical thinking - u dont need more... :)

2: The guy who neva reads a single book, who hardly refers any stuff, and still is a storehouse of 'practical' knowledge... whose problem solvin skills are faster than the guy above, and he amazes evryone by being an all-rounder in several things - though he may not shine that much in studies as our hero above does...
Such a guy will have varied interests in life - as he is multi-faceted, and can do well in anythin he takes up... he/she is so confident about him/herself that there is nothin to stop that, and in fact it is impossible that he doesnt rise in life as he has tried evry other stuff in college, school etc etc... If there isnt stuff like family responsibilities, other duties etc pullin him down...

Probably the above 2 can be generally derived from esteemed institutions like the IIT's, BITS, IIIT and so on. The possibility of such people being in ordinary engineering institutes is less, but of course there is a chance for that too - there were a number of such people in my college - and hence I am able to write in detail about them...

3: The average guy/gal - Now this is a big range... this is where all the engineering 'fachhas' get cluttered in terms of their positions - and are fighting neck to neck for marks/status/superiority and even things like well... 'I am da funkiest person in college', and 'I can study da entire syllabus even one nite before the paper'... Now where 'havent' we heard such stuff :)...
Now such guys/gals know what they want in life...are good, but lack certain stuff like resources, a good name in college, confidence, laziness etc etc. With these factors, they can remain sincere and dedicated to life... even out of college, but it takes them time to mature/realize the same...Until then its 'paaardi taaymmmm!!!' in college :)...

4: The labelled 'loser' - now this wud be a very bad word to use - i use it normally for people who smoke... its coz they dont have anythin else in life to do, hence they let go of a few puffs... Well, so these guys are those who got into engineering without a motive - probably coz they cud just make it with the percentages or coz their parents thought ki 'mera beta engineer banega'... ... of course its not they are good - they have varied interests too, and are sometimes really popular in the college... but this doesnt normally get them anywer in life later... probably these guys need to buck up a lot in life after engineering...

Lets come to the main point now - what I wish to impart by writin about such stuff. I wanted to primarily target the job one acquires after engineering - now well, i know the lines down will normally pertain to software and mostly IT-sided jobs - but this is wat the job-sector is bubbling about these days - IT is evrywhere... and engineers from all streams find solace in a developer's/tester's/call-center executive's/etc etc's job... :D... a very important point to mention here will be the recession in the IT industry, which had happened 5 years back in 2001 when i was supposed to join for my engineering - the job scenario sucked in IT, and people had driven me mad as I had chosen engineering in Computers...well what do these guys have to say now... four years with wires and circuits/noise-makin machines/desigining the ceiling of a building and now they sit with their heads buried in their desktop/laptop screens.... Does that ring a bell...? Well the job scenario is hot presently in IT... and I knew it wud always be, as the its somethin which will come out with more and more innovation - not to say electronics is bad... but the companies in India are lesser/ have more stringent requirements pertaining to percentages at graduation/have tougher entrance tests and so on...

Back to our main discussion... why stress on the fresher part? Well, when a fresher is out of college, he is unaware of wats happening in the industry, how are the different processes in the company he will be joining, and most important - what will HE be doin... Lets put some emphasis on this point... If I look back at the bygone year, I have gained expertise in the task i began with, have gained programming skills, have become logically better... but heh - see the words 'began with'... rite - for a long time, a fresher remains with the kind of job he begins with, unless he is some whimsical idiot and likes to switch companies every 3 months or so... A sensible person will of course at first think of gettin some experience, say of around 2-3 years and then make a move. But well, even in these 2-3 years, or say, even later, the person tends to normally stick to the area he began with... lets say he begins with core application programming in Java - product development for a company... now this person works for a year or more in Java, and keeps devouring skills...in fact begins a master Java programmer in 2-3 years... what happens later... lets say he isnt interested in further studies, and wants some different exposure in life - a new technology or so - mind u - this becomes real tough... the person finds he is unable to adjust fast... as he could do before - and if he has to seek help, he would normally go back to da love of his life - Java itself... :)... This scenario can arise even if he tries to switch companies, and in this case normally, he wud target a company working in a similar technology, of course with better prospects for him, or else he would feel his work-ex goes waste...

Now there isnt ANYTHIN wrong in this - its a choice he makes, but what do I want to point at with this example? The lesson to learn for freshers from this - there is something called a 'comfort zone' which develops when a person starts workin with one kind of technology or area - in fact even if he hates it in the beginning, gradually he/she gets adjusted to it, and then, moving out of it later becomes difficult for him/her... so moral of the story - CHOOSE UR JOB WISELY... I guess its the toughest for a fresher who is placed at campus as he/she is hardly aware of the job profile, despite innumerous presentations which the campus guys bring with them :)... But he/she has to get a hold of his life sooner or later... even in the company where he/she is placed... its important that he moves into his/her area of interest soon enough, hence stayin away from the comfort zone :)... I guess I dont need to explain any more...

I guess hence the position of a fresher, and the first job he chooses is of prime importance, and may even decide the next ten years of his/her life - hence the decision must be taken appropriately. With all due respect, this applies to all 4 categories I have described above... this doesnt apply to only one of them or so... so all 'fresher' readers - get a hold of ur life !! Its now... wont say neva, u mite get one or two chances, but not more than that in life...

Cheers!

Ganesh celabrations in Goa...

2006-09-01T12:10:00.000+05:30

Posting again after long - tot I shud begin this month with my blog itself... :)

Had gone to Goa last weekend for Ganesh - and well - the work for the preparations for Ganesh festival was really a lot this time - reasons being it was our family's turn to put in all the effort for the preparations at my ancestral house in Panaji... some days back when I had left for Goa in mid-August we had already begun decoratingthe huge makar or in other words the place to keep the idol of Lord Ganesha and the topi for it. After we were done, we had a couple of other professionals to do the work for the ghumti or the seating of Lord Ganesha behind the makar. Once done, it was really looking good.

I got busy the moment I reached on Saturday. Of course in the evening, as it is every year, there was a lot of help to tie the matoli or the hanging of fruits and vegetables of all sorts (offerings to God) above the makar, and also to lift and place the makar, topi etc on a high level, after other formalities. Ganesha himself arrived at around 6 :) - well yeah, brought him in the car, with some crackers being burst here and there :). The next 2 days promised to be more hectic than ever!!

And well - yes they were... The main task I undertook was to perform the puja at the time of the aartis - all 4 times they were done - for 2 afternoons and the subsequent 2 nights. It was a long task, but it was a real nice experience. Uptil now, I had only been in the crowd singing the aartis with my sonorous voice (ahem!), or outside on the road with loads of crackers and a mission at hand to have fire around me ;)...
But this was something altogether different. It was something like what I felt when doing the abhishek at Marcel (where the temples of our kula-devta are situated. There were a lot of people to help me now and then, hence it was no problem at all. All the rituals went just as planned, though my dad was as tense as ever :), probably as he had a major responsibility on his shoulders.

The tasks did tend to make all 3 of us tired - especially my mom, who was involved in each and everything from the start till the very end. Thankfully we had called a cook who helped in the cooking ( and well, spoilt the tastes of the food made on the first day itself :( )... did miss da food made by mom for those 2 days, but none of us really wanted to put more pressure on her regading the cooking as well...

The nite of day 2 was the visarjan, when we bid farewell to Ganesha and proceed to leave the Ganesha idols in a nearby river or lake. Dats when Ganesh festival officially comes to an end for all of us - relatives etc who come from near and far to our ancestral house - whom I hardly see anytime in the year except at the time of Ganesh, plus some whom I cant even name the relation between them and me ;)... The visarjan took place in style - we started the aartis at 10 pm ( as announced - we wanted to make it as late as possible :) ).. and then we proceeded with the Ganesh idol for the actual visarjan by around 11 pm. My dad was in the car with the Ganesha idol, and I led the way with my cousins blasting crackers, fireworks etc etc and shouting 'Morya' all the way... this is certainly the most exciting part, though it brings about the end of the festival. The Ganesh idol was left in the Mandovi river atop from Pato bridge in Panaji, as usual... and then well, it was over...

Had a late sleep that nite ( wanted to wake up late too, as the next evening I was leaving for Bangalore, and wanted to have a relaxed day )... Normally this is the festival which brings all Goans closer, a festival celebrated with more pomp and show than any other in Goa. One line says it all -

'Ganapati bappa morya... pudhlya varshi lawkar ya'

PS - Visit Goa for the translation if you dont already know about it :)

Madikeri - njoy maadi :)

2006-08-11T14:30:00.000+05:30

Gosh I cant believe I havent blogged at all for July - :) was i so busy or was it that there was no time and da patience for blogging... probably its my near and dear friends who can answer the same again... in fact the schedule i am planning is getting even more stringent in the comin days now...

Tot just before leavin for Goa today - (yippeee...) for a nice break... would share da stuff bout last week's trip with u guys... well it was an office trip, and 'supposedly' we were supposed to visit placed like Talkaad, Shivana-samudram etc... and all the office gang (da 23 of us who had joined last year on 12th September) were intimated by mail ( of course i was in the initial planning committee :D)... this was followed by a series of yes's and no's and no time re's etc etc... i had decided i would at least take a day from the full schedule and spend it with this group which had hardly received any attention from my side since I had joined Oracle SSI (no offence meant from my dearest office friends :D)...

Trip day dawned on Saturday 5th August, and a big surprise - 17 of us turned up... problem again coz the tempo-trax we had called for was a 13 sitter :D hence well... some stood, some made place for the rest, took turns etc etc... but i guess da travel was the most enjoyable part... the reason being there was more of travel and nuthin else... ;) Well... half way thru I learned that the major guy involved in plannin out had changed the destination at his own convenience and that too a place which was around 6 hrs from Bangalore - Coorg/Madikeri - had been there more than a year ago with my college friends and had had great fun with them - the place isnt all that great as much as it is hyped - but well there are some locations which are worth mentioning...

There was one we missed in the initial trip - Harangi Dam - u can see it and deduce how much we enjoyed for ureself... ;)

And there's Abbey falls - well.. it wasnt all that great the last time we had been there, but this time it was seriously overflowing...

Too bad when we reached the Tibetan monastery, it had been closed for the day...the people who hadnt seen it earlier missed somethin really good... for u guys out there - if u need some time to spend with ureself... please go to this lovely place and put aside some time for meditation... a sincere advice...

Nuthin more to tell bout the trip, except that it was another 5 hour journey back... and well - reached at 3 in the morning da next day... friendship day... what an occasion to have a nice trip and also another nice time i had with close friends da next day... would have shared that too - but some other time...

Gotto leave now as i gotto catch da bus soon...

Development

2006-06-06T11:45:00.000+05:30

Blogging after a long time - near and dear people cud have figured out why from my Orkut profile...Hochtief in its last and presumably worst stages - its now that max load work is concentrated - on account of issues which were not attended to...of course the data-extraction team is first to be blamed to come out with such pathetic data, which does not pass through even da minors of da validations...da developers are left to the rest of the rigmarole - change da functionality, change the code, etc etc...

Developers...this kind of has a new meaning for me now...wen in college, it was like 'Oh which guy has coded it? Juz take the code from him man - its no use tryin...da deadline is juz too close...' or 'Why bother...so-and-so is there na?'...der were always some too-brainy, or smarty guys who could figure out da code logic better than ne other person could...I was of course lost in da crowd of experiment copiers, code 'downloaders', and whateva u wud name them to be...had hated the concept of software rite from when i had understood what computer engineering is all about - more software than hardware - skills to be applied lie more in da logical coding part, understanding the yucky syntax of languages like Java, Prolog and so on - :(...y did i come here?? It was a big loss for me...my logical mind couldnt seem to be putting coding skills in place...my partners, buddies at college could logically reason out the code theories much better...I was in deep trouble...

As we all know, engineering is a phase by itself - even da most intelligent guy either makes thru by scraping the bull-shit, learn-by-heart, mug-and-vomit exams, where brains are of less use...or the others devour the bookish knowledge part by part, learning less of actual application...this was one thing which was definitely in my mind, and settles in the mind of any engineer, say by about mid-fifth semester...dats wen people mite start snooping around for other options - just rite about wat i did...I passed out hardly knowing what horse-shit i had coded in da last 7 semesters...and also wid da advice from someone that 99.99 percent of da engineering syllabus hardly finds any application in practical work life...

Enter the work place - projects, objects to be particular, functional documents, technical documents, test cases, test documents, deadlines (have seen to it that i neva make an issue out of these)...and of course - CODE...now this is what forms the major part of a developers life...now for what i got from my software life in da company...there are some ground rules in programming/coding/development (howeva u may put it)...the biggest of them all - whateva be the syntax of the language...da basic is formed by pure programming 'logic'...probably what any one of us have leart in our kindergarten programming language - C. Features like syntax, functionality of the language hardly forms importance.Of course, if u want to progress in the functional domain, its good to know how the technical development you are doing forms the base of the object, or in a wider sense the project, and how the funcionality builds/is improved. But the fact still holds, a major part of you day is spent in pure logic...

Having passed from engineering, and now having spent a reasonable time in development...I can say that my all-time persistent fear of not-being-able-to-follow-the-code-logic has kind of stopped chasing me. Life in terms of code seems much simpler and easier now. In fact more work in pure coding has made it dat way - da comfort zone in coding seems to have developed well...though of course a new language, new syntax has to be properly inculcated...this mite be a common problem for all IT techies...(i dont like to be branded as one, mind u)...as far as the official work is concerned, coding, and software life seems fine...but as far as personal interests run, I stay as far away from it as possible...

Work is bound to more hectic until the next 2 or 3 weeks...which automatically reduces comfort in anyone's life...I too am a sofwtare engineer of the same race/caste/creed. Here's a toast to the C's, Java's, Python's ,PL/SQL's,HTML's, VB's, Sharp's and all their likes!!

B L A C K day !

2006-05-19T16:10:00.000+05:30

There are some days in our lives when feelings of nationalism, unity in diversity, feelings to pay our respects to the country arise...one such situation was described well in RDB... In my standard 8th and 9th, I had become quite popular due to a certain essay, and later an elocution I had given on the same topic - 50 years of India's independence. I still remember a couple of lines from it. What I have been realizing in the bygone years is that I was speaking it out to deaf ears - zombies who cant understand - 'people'who dont want to break from the shackles of being pinned down first by the British, and now by sluggishness and lack of movement. Lack of movement - lack of the desire to move ahead and speak out what one really wants...speak out that whats goin on is not democracy after all..

Our thinking has most certainly acquired rust through the times - we see hundreds of things happening rite in front of our eyes, yet we dont do anything, dont move a muscle...one of my roommates gave me a good excuse for it today 'Who has the time to...' lets not complete it...dont most of us mention the same thing? Whats shaking the country at present is mainly the needs of the students, whose cries arent being heard...the decision for 49.75 percent reservation for seats in educational institutions as well as a mojority of the private sector (including companies, and even schools) is being taken forward by the Central government, and no one seems to be able to do somethin...who stands up - the people affected the most...the students from medical colleges to be the max...and what do they get in return - water bombs, tear gas...words of appreciation??

TOI mentioned May 19th to be a national 'black' day...in opposition to these reservations. As I walked out of da place where i stay today morning, I felt a sense of relief in doin at least some small thing for the country...which is at present in da hands of some bewakoofs...relieved to see that at least some of my fellow countrymen did get the message and wore a black attire to some extent...a bit cross when i saw dat people had forgotten about it, or the message had not properly been delivered across, mind u, inspite of being published in TOI Bangalore Edition...

I do not exactly know how the response was from the people from other companies, but as per one of my colleagues here, 'We could do the best to express ourselves...we cant do nethin if the others just cant or dont want to do it'... True, but expression is necessary. How closely the situation matches disaster is known only to the people who have fire within them...those who are closely fighting the people formulating these laws. The others stay in the shadows, provide comments, but use English as a powerful tool in order to express their feelings - not physical, but expressed well. 'Scholarships, not reservations', 'Why reservations in the first place', 'Give it to THEM instead of plain vanilla reservations'...such messages are across all media...and yeah they have provoked da youth to a considerable extent...

What I am searching for, though, are revolutionaries - an Azaad, an Ashfaqulla, a Singh, and so on of their kind, who will one of these days go ahead and do the needful... the country needs blood...let it be of those guys who make such 'bakwaas' laws...!

Old times ... Old friends !

2006-05-04T12:29:00.000+05:30

Der is somethin I havent yet mentioned in my blog - bout the team outing - in fact 2 of them, which happened in successive weeks - da only thing mentionable about them being my first experience with go-karting and bowling (I know if a go-kart maniac is readin this he wud be shocked)...

Pics of da team outings:

Howeva nuthin else mentionable in the same, as compared to da holiday which was yet to come - this holiday to my native place seemed even more important as I had missed another planned holidat in mid-April. And of course, this time da holiday was more about meetin da 'bichdey-huey' dost along with good time with the family. And so it was...

I guess da travelogue posted by my friend Kiran on his blog will be more informative, and will give a detailed explanation of da entire trip (ahem - he is a travel freak...knows all da road names, town names etc etc like nethin!)...To be more specific, he enjoyed his time on Saturday with me, and on Sunday wid his Ponda friends, so well - for da latter- I guess it wud be best to refer his write-up...

Saturday - we reached quite late, thanx to my dear friends love for Kadamba Transport, after a nite infested wid cockroaches and a punctured tyre...Was famished coz I hadnt had a proper dinner too...Kiran (for those who dont know, is my pal who had come to visit Goa where he had lived for a long time) had to leave soon to settle some rent agreement with a tenant for his own flat...so da aftnoon was more about lunch (fish of course - most non-veg Goans die for dat!)...and also mangoes...Kiran was back by lunch...

We left early in da evening...bought a new Nokia cell for mom, and den proceeded to meet all da friends at Miramar... Surprisingly a huge crowd had gathered there...realized soon dat almost evryone was down (or 'up') at Goa for this short holiday - so it was a great time to meet...met all da Goa Engineering guys first...a huge number...of course among them my school pal Sumegh, and later joined by Rohan...also met Deepa after 3 months...she had left Blore in Jan end...

dats Kiran for u...

da GEC gang...

Deepa dear...

dats me and my pal Sumegh over there...

Rohan - still da same...

Sarvesh with his new bike...

Wat do u think - a Mushti reunion...

dedicated to da old bhel-puri guy for havin always made some awesome bhel...

n finally this is dedicated to Kiran - a la Sunset...

Baatein bahut hui..snaps were clicked...then it was the traditional move-on to the bhelpuri waalaas...(there isnt a single place in Blore where u will get such awesome bhel-puri...so come to Goa and enjoy)...along who Shashank, Sarvesh, and another school pal Lessica whom we met there,we formed a school meet as well...so dat was even more fun...

Had some errands to run with Kiran later, after which we sat down at Rohan's house and had a small chat before we departed...later we went to Gauri's house (another school pal)...Kiran was meetin these people after hell of a long time (YEARS in fact!)...so it was a great reunion for him...waited for some time there and were back home then...

Day 2 - Sunday...lazy day...and even lazier coz we were in Goa...Kiran left early morning for Ponda to meet his friends there...I went out with dad to withdraw some money and for some other errands...come afternoon, a heavy lunch...(seriously yumm!)...and I was enjoyin drivin on da way to Margao...had to meet Uma and Mangirish after almost a year at Uma's place...after reachin there got stuck on da way, and had to call for Mang to show the way ahead to her place...

Had a great time there...a nice talk over sherbet and other eatables...Mang seemed da same, though Uma looked like she had put on some weight...(know she will kill me for mentioning this here)...we spoke a lot...Mang had to leave in between to Pune for some exam on Tuesday...so the remaining talk was with Uma and her parents...we knew we wudnt meet soon after this, so we spoke our hearts out!!

dats Uma and Mang...miss da great times we have had togetha!

Guess dat was all about friends for da trip...had a lazy last day to add to evrythin, and a nice trip back to blore - wid a maniac driver - no one's eva brot me faster than him at ne time!!

Sumhow took time from my schedule these days to write this...gettin back to work now...

A farewell unfit for a veteran...

2006-04-22T11:54:00.000+05:30

Dis new object I have taken up is preventing me from spending even some time writing stuff bout da happenings these days - although there is real much to write...sometimes even in da while travelling, so many things cross my mind n i decide dat yeah...this thing gotcha be blogged...but aft reaching office, finishin da morning chores...mails, 'fe'mails (grin)...etc...once i get on with da work, der is little time left for my precious little blog...da time i get is when da energy is exhausted...

Here is anotha day in office today...now people otha than those who are close to me in Bangalore will be wondering how come this 'dood' is blogging on a Saturday morning...has he taken the laptop home and he has no work at all?? nope peepul...hear me...its a compensatory day to be spent in office by evryone...reasons was da day which was given off last week - April 13th...da day Bangalore was in total turmoil...

Rajkumar...i really dont think i can even pronounce his full name corectly (this is for people who dont know his full name- please refer TOI dated April 13-page 1)...apparently being in Bangalore dat day gave all of da northies, westies and easties a great 'chance' to almost witness a day where evrythin was closed...a day where 'violence' was the word...a day when a peaceful burial was avoided, and instead mayhem and chaos took control...

The day was showcased in the news bulletins as when anti-social elements took over the stage and shook the foundation of stability and peace in Bangalore. The day was very correctly given as an off by the Karnataka CM (howeva a lot to refute on this from my side), officially a 'bandh' to pay respects to Rajkumar...howeva this does not find any agreement from my side, and I guess it is the same from all da other people who faced a similar situation that day.

Hundreds of people gathered in the streets of various areas in Bangalore - da so-called 'fans' of Rajkumar...what followed wasnt a silent walk for Rajkumar's moksha...but a savage battle among police and the anti-social youth, in which even police lost some men, along with several others injured...da violence shown on da television was heavy, and people dint dare to even step out of their houses. I had to sacrifice my planned trip to Goa along with da bus money which cudnt be refunded. In the evenings, non-Bangloreans in huge numbers wandered in da streets, flooding even a small shop in sight (coz all others were closed)...papi pet ka sawaal tha...I cud hear murmurs and curses all around...

Wat I concluded...

Did Rajkumar eventually get a decent burial, and a proper shraddhhanjali, from all who, in reality believed in da guy's worth, and thought highly of him? I hardly know anything about him, but can infer that he might have been a virtuous and a humble person when he lived...i even read recently dat of all da movies he did, der wasnt a single obscene or vulgar scene, not in any song too. But was respect received with grace, or lost in the wilderness? In a day filled with fire, chaos, anger, commotion, even his own family couldnt pay proper respects to him. Da rest neednt be explained...

Above all, I rightfully concluded that Bangalore has just got a cover of professionals who shield it from the inhuman anti-social elements around, among whom the thinking still runs in low grade. What must have the thousands of clients of the IT companies in Bangalore, from the US and other countries abroad, thought about 13th April? A day given off due to da death of an actor, which 'could' cause unprecedented chaos in society? What possible explanations could they have got from the people here? In reality, Bangalore has to rise in much more terms than just being a IT hub...practical knowledge remains astray... Da murmurs and curses of people all over India who find their jobs here werent all unjustified...a bandh in case of thousands of people depending on food from hotels or shops isnt exactly da correct idea... Also, can we call the city advanced in terms of security and other issues when da police werent prepared to handle what happened that day inspite of having faced a similar situation before? Once again reality speaks...if Bangalore has to progress, it has to rise beyond a lot of this and more...

Think about it people...!

From being a bad movie to being 'cyrus'...

2006-04-07T17:08:00.000+05:30

Was thinkin da entire week wat wud be da title topic for this week's ender - and tot wat i wasted 120 bucks on 2 weeks back wud be an ok topic...at least it wud save da others from makin a dumb blunder...

I must say Pataudi's son chose a real dumb movie to start his English 'sidetracked' film career...howeeva the reasons I am mentioning this movie in the blog is coz its received real strange reviews acc to me...After da 90 minutes length of the movie, all I had in my mouth were 2 words - 'bull shit'...some dumb story spanned with events, mis-architectured to be a thriller with a sudden twist...da movie in general highlights da Parsee community - here are some noteworthy names - director Homi Adajania, Boman Irani, Naseeruddin Shah and a whole lot of other not-so-important actors.

Some dumb plot about a guy who enters a Parsee family as an apprentice, and finally ends up swindling them, extracting huge amount of notes from them...after havin seen a huge amount of mysteries and suspense thrillers, this one was a pain in da neck...da same old plot...with the meagre amount of characters, before the interval was up I could guess wat wud be goin on and who-dun-it...(mind u - the murder wasnt even done till now)...

Now why am I writin about this - the astonishing reviews (astonishin only to poor me) which this movie has received, as I have been reading from some days in da papers...'The boz office collections of Being Cyrus is comparable to the Chronicles of Narnia, ie about Rs 2 Crore. The movie has received huge accolades, and praising comments from renowned people like Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Jackie Shroff etc etc...'...this is what Karan Johar had to say...'Being Cyrus is a deviation from the normal Bollywood cinema, and explores an entirely different style of (horseshit) film-making....'and then...'(more bullshit)'...hard to expect from such a mature film director...

You guys must have definitely heard of people appreciating wat is called 'modern' art at an art exhibition or auction, especially the 'know-all' types of people. Well Being Cyrus is just that...a visit to the theatre is a must for the following reasons - If you have free time and no time to spare for good Indian cinema
- If you are a Parsee chauvinist
- If you believe ur 'free' time should be totally wasted by watchin dumb movies which also...believe it...dont make any sense

Disclaimer: Being Cyrus attempts to be a Hollywood kinda cinema, is of short length, and has a good performance by our prince Khan, but sorry performances from da others...da only one worth a watch being da scintillating Simone Singh...but alas, da movie fails to achieve wateva objective da director initially had (no idea wat dat was...)

Nice Articles - "The Meaning of Life - Raising Questions for a New World Order "

2006-03-27T17:32:00.000+05:30

Read this - and find out how long does the chase, or rather the greed to grow higher continues life - are we forgetting our actual purposes in life due to it?

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Today, in a little cottage by the hillside, I am born. For some months now I have heard muffled sounds of the world outside, and I have been curious. Now that I am here, it’s a whole new world outside my mother’s womb. Just outside the window is a beautiful sprinkling of color on the hills, the cool breeze blowing in carries the sweet smell of flowers… and feels good on my face. My mother’s arms around me are reassuring, and as I wake up to these new surroundings, it seems like a really nice place to be in. It’s a good feeling to have a life of my own, to be able to think and experience. The world has existed for an eternity before my birth, and will continue to do so… till long after I am gone. Billions of miles wide, this universe existing for billions of years and I just have this small window of time to experience all its amazing wonders. I want to make the best of this time. I am curious to know what is beyond the hills, I want to see how the world looks from the top of the mountain, and I want to look into the star sprinkled night sky and try to understand why it all exists. I want to experience everything there is. Resting comfortably in my mother’s arms, I can only imagine how it is going to be a wonderful journey. Just then, I notice that the voices, which sounded muffled and distant, are now clear and close. There are people talking around me, and they are talking about what I will ‘become’. Someone is saying that I will study a lot and do everyone proud, and someone else is saying that I ought to become a businessman and earn a lot of money. I have never thought about this before. I didn’t know I will have to ‘become’ something, and I still don’t know why I should. Why can I not just ‘be’?

Seventh Grade. I am fourteen now. The school in my town back home apparently was not good enough, so I was sent here to this big school in the city two years back. I did not want to come, but father said I have to go if I can ever hope to be a ‘big’ man. I did not understand why it is important to become big. I was so happy there, with my mother, with my friends, with people who seemed to be my own. Besides, the mountains were there, always beautiful and enchanting. I loved the mountains and I always dreamed about climbing them, about how I would feel like the king of the universe when I would stand on the top and see how spectacular the earth looks from there. I once asked father if we could go climb, but he said I am too young for something like that. Then I came here. I am not happy here but when I tell mother about this, she says that this is a sacrifice I have to make. She says it’s a preparation for all the happiness I will have later in life. I am confused. I feel that I am in a cage. All of us here wake up and sleep at the same time; we attend the same classes and do the same homework, and we say the same prayers and aspire for the same goals. It’s like I am going through a mass production line, getting molded into the same shape as everyone else, learning and working hard so that the end product that comes out of this system is profitable. I feel my humanity is getting lost, that my identity is being robbed off for the economic cause, that I am turning into yet another diminutive cog in the giant wheel of economics. Everyone around me tries to measure me on the scale of performance. They want to know what I am worth, and my worth is measured not for what I am and what I stand for, but for how well I can outperform others and for how much money I can potentially earn. I am rewarded and everyone loves me when I succeed, and I am punished and abandoned if I don’t. Mean while, I have heard about the serenity of the great Everest, the turbulent beauty of the vast oceans, about ice caps on the poles and so many other wonderful places. My heart is there and sometimes I can’t sleep because I feel so restless that I want to just run and go where I belong. Nevertheless, I am just a little boy who likes to be loved and appreciated. So I am doing what the world wants me to do. The little child in me is dying, to make way for a successful achieving machine. I am falling into the trap.

Business School. Years ago, I lost my grip on my dreams. I gave up my deepest desires and I hoped that small successes and joys would add up to something like happiness. They haven’t. My life has become just a quest for the next big goal. In high school I always performed better than everyone else. Everyone said I could do better, so I worked hard for months and I beat a hundred thousand people in an admission test to get into the best engineering college. It was not enough yet, so after undergraduate school I outperformed a million people in yet another admission test to get into the best business school. It isn’t ending here either. Now I want the best job, and then I will want the biggest promotion and then something else and then something bigger still. I challenged my limits and I achieved goals bigger than I imagined myself capable of, and yet it seems nothing has been achieved. In the mad race for ever-bigger goals, I have never had the time to stop a while and appreciate and enjoy what I have already achieved. There is beauty all around me, waiting to be appreciated. There are thoughts in my mind that I want to pay attention to. There are people in despair, needing my love and compassion. Sometimes I want to stop chasing that elusive future happiness, and to start really living in the moment. But there’s a performance appraisal coming just around the corner, and my mind tells me I can’t indulge in silly thoughts and lose that big promotion. A part of me resists, but there’s twenty years of brainwashing and the whole world’s conventions pitted against it. I better start running again. So this race is never going to end, and it is making no one happy. My parents are old now and they need me, but they won’t leave the place where they have spent their lives, and my job will not let me be there. The girl I love and say I can give my life for isn’t as happy as I would like her to be because I can’t give her enough time. The dreams of my life are alive in a corner of my mind, and they constantly remind me that I am not happy, not at peace with myself. The ocean roars in its splendid beauty outside my office window, but I am only concerned with how much stature the view adds to my office. There are wonderful people I can be friends with, but I am too busy competing with everyone. There is a little child begging on the street, but as I drive by in my luxury car, my mind is busy making plans to get as much Nigerian oil as possible for my oil company, regardless of entire tribes being eliminated… or how best to lobby with the government so it can make the World Trade Organization stop Brazil from selling cheap AIDS medicines and hurting my company’s bottom line, never mind the millions dying. Yes, I am helping create a lot of shareholder value, but is that all my life means?

What is the meaning of life? The quest for achievement has become the cornerstone of human society. Ever more people are setting their eyes on ever-higher goals, and pushing themselves beyond what were thought to be limits of human intellect and endeavor. Certainly, modern society wouldn’t be what it is if it were not for the efforts of the enterprising, but it is nevertheless ironical that the perpetual pursuit of dominance itself now overbearingly dominates collective human thought. We live our lives as if economic prosperity is a divine cause. Material comforts and consumerism have become noble quests, but what really is humanity heading towards? The most glorious species of all, are we not just parasites destroying the planet and converting the earth into a big heap of unrecoverable waste? The blind pursuit for competitive advantage has created a world in which whole continents are dying of hunger and disease while a tenth of the world’s population consumes twenty five times the world’s average. We live in a world where the weaker nations either quietly accept foreign dominance or try to fight back covertly by using methods like terrorism, and the powerful nations feel secure by the ridiculous notion of mutually assured destruction. Economic prosperity and technological progress may have saved millions of lives from hunger and disease, but the divisions that have been created in the process have taken many more lives in countries, which have been marginalized, and in wars and internal strife. There could have been a better way, a way in which more people could have lived, and could have lived more fulfilling lives… but justified by ‘self interest rationality’ economics and blinded by the intensity of our greedy ambitions, maybe we never spent enough time finding that way at all. I am old now, and I will die soon. I have lived my life for a purpose I did not believe in. I always knew I was doing what I never wanted to, and I made a conscious choice to go with the flow. In retrospect, I think I would have had a more fulfilling life living as a nomad, or maybe just in a cave in the Himalayas. I regret I did not, but the only consolation I have is that the odds were pitted too heavily against me. I ‘learned’ a way of life before I got a chance to make my own, and later I never gathered enough courage to break the rules. The bad thing about life is that one always believes that it’s not ending yet and there will be time to do the things one wants to do, till it’s too late and reality hits home. I am too old to pursue my dreams now. I have more money than I need and all the material comforts money could buy, but still no happiness and peace of mind. I now find refuge in literature and prayer, but I think it is just another pathetic attempt to cheat myself. I never got a chance to truly experience and appreciate anything in the world, and now I am trying to find the beauty in someone else’s description of it. I never took the time to understand myself, to discover my faith and to find my own god… and now I am trying to find salvation in someone else’s idea of god which I do not believe in. Anyway, it’s time for me to go now. My eyes are closing, never to open again. All my achievements, all my successes are of no use anymore. The dream of a one day old is still a dream for the eighty year old. I am finishing my life, but I am leaving it incomplete.

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A N N I V E R S A R Y

2006-03-24T15:08:00.000+05:30

Just realized this a week back when i was surfin thru da previous posts - cant believe I have been into blogging since 365 days now...of course - it has had its ups and downs - especially when I have had no time to blog at all - or there have been reasons why I couldnt blog (like now sometimes its very tough)...those who know me closely can understand y...

Was thinkin today morning wat would I edit in da blog today - some days back I heard from a buddy dat bloggins is used by most people in order to vent their frustrations at their work place in terms of words, and thus make an attempt to escape from their own stress problems by expressing themselves to others - personally, or non-personally. Of course it depends on da amount of people reading the blog...(smile)...

Yea - da life of a software engineer sucks big time - especially if one were to visit dat part of my company where yours truly sits...one would understand what makes up most of a programmer's life...programmer i can say coz majority of da people out here are from my team, involved in large scale, back-end programmin work (reasons for the shivers when front-end work is concerned...bluddy one doesnt even understand da simple forms u come across, n its real tough tallyin them to da back-end data)...somehow my 'brave' teammate pals seem to work it out well - n they arent even qualified com'puke'ter engi'nerds'...dey have a degree in electronics...again I would say - neone would be qualified to do coding - he just needs to get a good hand at the syntax, and should be good at logical flow...why, in a few months I seem to be coding well too...of course besides the fact dat the outer shell of the program (this holds true for a lot of software engineers as far as I have noticed)...is totally concerned with 'programmin hai waste - believe in ...yawn...u r smart enough to know wat...'...

Coming back to the point...of course till now I have used da blog to only list down my experiences in day-to-day life, and not for looking at da screen with fuming nostrils and banging away on da keyboard...though I have my own score to settle with my superiors, and of course, da great software industry, of which me and most of my readers are part of - (If you arent, then you are safe)...I had heard at a point dat blogging was started by people who felt they needed to express themselves out to da world, so that they have some earthly 'fans' whom they dint know too...and who visited their webpage now and den...feelin happy dat they have found 'another of their kind'...it mite be dat I started off blogging for the same reason, and of course hosting it on Orkut, Pagalguy, and some other places - so dat like minded people would come and share thoughts with me thru comments and so on...

Things still to be implemented on my webpage - a hit counter (this is for people who read and dont comment - maybe dey will receive a pop-up message too, in case they spend more than 'x' time goin thru any webpage in my blog, and leave no comments for me to find that that dey 'DID' visit my webpage..., also shall be putting up a list of webpages and blogs I visit on da net, including some of my own friends' blogs...want to edit my profile too properly...of course all this wen I have da time and space..maybe I shall try these things wen I leave for Goa next week...

Till then guys - happy blogging!!

Routine...

2006-03-22T09:32:00.000+05:30

Had tot of this some days back - but wheneva i used to sit in da evening to edit da blog, it would be seriously boring to write about da day dat has passed...or da days dat are passing...but to put it correctly, future mite hold somethin different for me - a new environment and a new place of stay - so here I am accounting how a typical day passes in my present life. To put it more interestingly (dont want readers to doze off) I have put it in third person -

7 AM - Good morning : sleepy eyes, hangover of ruined sleep some 3 hours back due to my roomie arrivin from his work...but fine - da guy gets up...of course, checks either the mobile or the watch for the time... Utilization of free Hutch messages has already begun as he checks his GM messages and forwards, and replies back to them...

One hour - needed to finish the morning chores, got used very much to the jam/bread breakfast at home so much dat he carries da 'parampara' here too...der is always a mental tussle between all the roomies in da PG for the paper, so whenever he can sneak outside and take the paper first, he does it..(grinning)...

bout 8:10 AM - busy reading paper - takes another 20-30 min...yes da editorial page looks real boring with only text sprawled over it...but its the page carryin da most amount of sensible information...at least for an information-interested person like this person...information devoid of political fites, and wordly dramas - makin dat clear...

8:40 AM- on da road - off to hunt for the rick - a walk till busy and dusty 80 feet road, near da famous Aishwarya Department Store of Jakkasandra...some rick guys run off like as if a ghost is chasin them when the guy mentions da words 'BTM Layout', or even sometimes 'Bannerghatta Road'...not interested, also scared of the traffic, and the never ending signal timings at the famed Udupi Gardens...

Finally in some rick which agrees...the sight of an electronic meter is a delight...but most of the times he settles for an analog, mechanical one...da rick journey sometimes turns hostile, or even interesting...as he knows most of the paths very well, and the objective is to go thru the shortest path available, despite the heavy traffic jam...the rick guy mite say 'nahin saahab, bahut jam hota hai wahaan...' - reasons why the guy sometimes even settles for 'one and a half'...most readers will understand - no elaborations needed...

9:05 to 9:20 AM- probably around this time dock at office, after havins sometimes gone thru a huge traffic jam in the inner turns of Udupi Gardens hotel...(da hotel is just to be heard of, and is a great junction to meet at - mind u - not AT ALL a good eating joint)...Off to the sixth floor - dats Oracle GFIC (land of finance, n land of babes too)...nearest to my destination floor...and havin some good coffee vending machines - aha...some good coffee...!!

9:25 - 9:30 AM - Boy is he punctual or not? Sometimes, like today, he was much earlier than this...off to da most boring part of da company where I have been shifted to...nuthin but 'work' happens there...Of course checkin mails, surfin thru PG, chatting, listening to songs etc etc happens thruout da day...

About 1 to 1:15 PM - Lunch time...off to the mess...pathetic menu, which appeared good only in the first 3 days at the company...so he prefers the pastry joint for some burgers etc...a la lunch!

About 2 to 2:30 PM - yawn... yea..time for more work..so wat does this variable do? yawwn...and why is this exception not def...yawnnn..ined? Also...yaawnnn....yaawwnnn...ad guess wat....
YAWWWNNN...!!!

About 4 PM - Bright eyes - good work goin on - time for a break in another half an hour...(good thoughts)

4:20 to 4:30 PM - Coffee break - though its normally mango juice for him...or a soft drink - wateva - its all free...with some nice biscuits too...

What follows at office - some fast work - evening speeding into da darkness of the nite...

Now this varies from 6:15 to 7:45 PM - Work done - laptop closed...wires disconnected...bye guys...'me' off home...

About 8 PM - Its 90 percent Delicious Dine for dinner time, as wateva neone says, the place rules as far as taste of food is concerned...a nice dinner for a tired guy...

About 8:45 PM - back to PG - TV for sometime...surf thru channels...'bachhon - please dont check out FTV at 9:30 PM...it isnt exactly the time for 'Midnight ...' but u neva know wat turns up..hehe!!

About 9:20 PM - a refreshin bath...

About 9:45 PM - bath and prayers done...now lyin down on bed - relaxin...messaging friends...and also thinkin wat else to do for the remaining part of the nite...

About 10:15 PM - reading a book...wat else is new?

About 11:30 to 11:45 PM - Either he is already asleep...or he prefers to close down for the nite.

About 12:30 AM - Wat else readers? its done...the guy is dozing off...

U guys get back to ur own work now..and dont fget to list down ur routines in ur blogs...

PG meet...

2006-03-20T14:30:00.000+05:30

Saturday afternoon - havin returned from my cuz's flat at CV Raman Nagar(good one - but hell far away man!!)- it was time for another PG meet as had been planned in da last week's proceedings of the 'Bangalore PG meet' thread...buzzing with activity initially, but then all blown off suddenly...a lot of guys said they wudnt turn up on account of several personal reasons - so it was known dat the meet wudnt be all dat great, as the last one I had attended...

After the morning adventure, and with a pain in da ass...(this is for real)...I wasnt actually in the mood for walking a huge distance, so a cool and calm PG meet wud be da best thing...venue - Barista - as had been decided last time too...but wat the heck? No one to be seen when me, Abhishek and another PGite Manas reached there...Some time later - we managed to find a gang of guys huddled at a corner - ready to leave - we were an hour late, but well, we tot PG meets always started at least one hour late - (grinning)...

The meet there wasnt much - except for meeting new people...just about knowing them...We moved very soon from there, to Airlines hotel, to a small hotel outside it...there mr dadaji himself - Psychodementia aka Arun was supposed to come...he arrived pretty late...but then, i guess more about this week's PG meet was Mr Arun himself...I had met him earlier - but he was new for the others...good, healthy discussions on already discussed topics like why MBA...but a good amount of info exchanged...too bad i dont have snaps with Arun bhai...but I have some of those at Barista...so posting those...

Ethnic Day...

2006-03-16T18:26:00.000+05:30

More snaps...you will find me this time in a kurta - nope - its not mine...my teammate gave it to me...too bad da day lacked my superb blue-shaded kurta and jacket...people were lookin real good in their respective ones, and i wished i had my own kurta too...after all - occasions like Ethnic Day are very rare in SSI...

I am postin this a week late, coz i was drowned in work...nope - no deadline...but deadlines set by me on my own work...today i am a 'bit' free...just attended training on a module in Apps i dint even know head or tail of... (serves me rite for knowing almost nothing of financials)...I know da 'veryy few' people who must be goin thru this page must be totally bugged wid me writin so less these days, just putting up photos as if this is an album or so...but yaaron...samjha karo...kaam mein dooba hua hoon, and of course...my 'physical' position isnt all that great too... (grinning)...

enjoy da snaps...hope they have come betta then the ones in da last post...took them in a hurry...

And finally - the great ME!!

Rangoli at SSI...

2006-03-09T19:20:00.000+05:30

Tot I'd update da blog wid da latest happenings at my company...thanx to da employee club there is more fun nowadays...for starters take the Rangoli competition...I wont write much, coz wid da workload, there isnt much energy to edit the blog...dats all dat has been happening in mu life these days - work, work and more work...tryin to get a good hold over things at work...sometimes i do feel like blogging thoughts etc which come to my mind - but then at da end of da day i realize that there aint ne time left...

To fill up some space here are some snaps i just took today...

Yup..its me again!

2006-03-01T14:27:00.000+05:30

There cant be many reasons why I havent posted for a real long time on da blog...except that I now sit next to my PL - of course, though he is a real nice guy, things do get a bit apprehensive for me if he is around and i am peepin into 'wat else is new' on da net - or editing da blog...howeva I have indeed been questioned on why I havent been editing my blog for a good number of days now...

Things have been pretty stagnant - at least me in my place for sure...getting to know more about the technicalities involved in Work Orders(dats what mah latest object is bout)...and of course staring into the laptop for 8 hours every day into code, code and gess wat...more code!! Of course life has just been goin the normal way...I was down to my cuz's place 2 days back for dinner, and have taken some pics...shall post dem as soon as i get my new mobile done wid (sum probs with it)...

Da buzzing season dese days is as usual - the MBA interview season...PG seems to be flooded as usual with threads of those - every day a new institute thread springs up...for those of u who arent aware of those, the mod Simba on PG has come up with PagalGirl...a new concept - only meant for the gals and ladies from PG i guess..my my...this was news for me when i went thru PG today morning...dont know how soon PGirl will acquire the fame of PGuy...but it IS an innovative concept to add to PG nomenclature...

As usual da month of Feb hasnt been all dat great for me...though now its over, and i can hopefully look towards a successful journey ahead in 2006...to begin with, there is good amount of work...yea - da tech part, da coding etc sucks...but i realize the functional understanding in ERP is not that bad after all...

Goin to enrich some more functional concepts as of now...

Life is beautiful...you just gotto see it the rite way...

2006-02-07T12:48:00.000+05:30

A small but moralistic story...

--->

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.

Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats.

Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.

The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situationsShared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.Today is a gift, that's why it is called the present.

LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

<------

An awakening...

2006-02-06T15:55:00.001+05:30

It has been, that at times a movie has made me use my tear glands often during its course...and Rang De Basanti was another one in its line - no wonder it has hit the box office like nethin...especially here in Bangalore, where considering the crowd, the tickets have to be booked well in advance. The same happened to us - we had to 'enjoy' the movie in the dress circle in a theatre we normally dont 'enjoy' so much...but i think every minute of the movie is worth it...the spotlight being of course Aamir Khan, who, having crossed 40, still plays the college passout and steals the show...Howeva there is almost nothing that lets this movie down, or spoils the pastime of the viewer who visits the theatre to enjoy himself.

But besides being the 'paisa-vasool' film, with awesome performances, mind-blowing music by the genius of Rehman, and of course a fantastic storyline, the fact remains - why is the movie made? What has been showcased in this two hour forty-five minute film? With more movies being made for entertainment these days, its easy to guess that RDB is that mature kind of film, which the film-maker creates in order to set a good impact on the viewers...to set an example...to awaken a dead nation...

Life is fun, life is mazaa, but when sometimes it turns against u, the film ideology speaks of 2 ways out - either stay in the system and keep movin with it , or take the responsibility to change the system. Why has the writer struck a balance between the revolutionaries of the late 1920's and the rebels of today's generation is a thought every Indian should ponder on...even dialogues like 'Koi kuch nahin kar sakta is desh ka...kuch nahin badal sakta yahaan'...in fact the writer emphasizes on these dialogues repeatedly...

I would once again recommend that Indian cinema has indeed come of age...with some masterpieces like Lakshya, Swades and RDB...movies which are made less for entertainment, and more to set an example to the youth of today - more to reduce the myriad differences between Indians, to speak out that while resolving the petty issues like 'main hindu, main musalmaan' , the major issues like the people being fooled into unnecessary riots, insensible democracy still lie at large...and if they arent demolished, indeed 'is desh ka koi kuch nahin kar sakta'. Yes India has a huge number of records to list, India speaks big when it comes to numerous issues in hundreds of fields, India is advancing in several domains - but there are things which still remain ugly from within India - marring India's image...dont we as citizens have the duty of cleaning it up and saving it from damage...

Lets not say more - bravo to some movie directors of today for focussing into what sometimes is right before us, but cant be seen!

office Bday bash!!!

2006-01-31T19:08:00.000+05:30

nuthin to say - just the pics...party time at office with my teammates...postin them a bit late - check out the one with the cake on da face...cool huh?(grinning)

Feelings on being 'twenty-two'...

2006-01-27T12:07:00.000+05:30

When i got up in da morning today, my first tot was pertaining to da title of this post...was it some sort of a great achievement or just a 'time-stone'(instead of a milestone)...theek tarah se dekha jaaye to life still has a lot to offer me..and i still have to live a lot more of life. But having crossed the mark for the proper age of adulthood...(ahem! 21 years - official age for a lot of things, including marriage and watching certain stuff which every teenage boy dreams of - OPENLY!!-haha)...of course there are things now which bear even more importance in life than just these things...responsibilities to be shouldered, opinions and advice to be given - dese things are a part and parcel of life beyond the teens - in fact these are the things which make one feel like an adult...which gives one a sense of satisfaction that he is being asked for, he is respected as an individual...aint I rite folks?

It was real nice of my parents having come down from Goa to celebrate the bigDay with ME...of course i had been feeling so lonely since a lot of so-called 'debacles' had happened in the last couple of weeks...always agree with da fact tat in bad times, even when things just dont seem to be going rite for u, its best to turn to people for whom u mean a lot - who care too much for u to see u shed tears, or even have a pouted face... It gives me a real nice feeling to state that the in da 22 years of life i have lived, I have had, and have also found a lot of people who are, and have formed a big part of my life...who have given me a lot more that they can imagine, not just in tangible terms, but in mental feedbacks, who have beared with me in times when i have needed them so much and was at despair..who have encouraged and inspired me, and have been my motivating force...warm hugs and kisses to all who have made my life so very SPECIAL!!

There have been parents, relatives, and of course, dat part of my life which i give a huge amount of importance - FRIENDS -> especially close friends...evryone will agree tat a nice evening spent talking to a close friend, or a nice time @lunch or @dinner spent with some close friends are some of the best moments one can have in life...something one can always cherish in his/her life - once again its nice to say that I have had so many of these...and am looking forward to havin lots and lots more with my friends... For me it has always been life moving at an unusual pace - sometimes slow, sometimes fast...friends have been comin, and departing - (gee...i guess everyone has a life like this)...I sincerely invite the comments of those people on this page whom I mite have missed out on in life...dat wud be a real nice way to get back with oldd friends...

Any issue left to discuss as yet - ah yes...maturity...kam ya zyaada? hehe...left to the others to decide...of course you readers who know me personally, and/or, know me thru this blog...But i guess a 70 percent level wud be a 'mature' answer...what - me boasting? Howeva there is a lot of maturity in different spheres of life yet to come - here's hopin that 2006 is a stepping stone to dat!!

Friends, Indians and countrymen -> I officially declare that...

my jokes(pj's), silly humour, whacky styles(ahem!) and a whole lot of other things shall still continue...

in other words...

you still gotto bear with me and tale-tellin blog!

Achchha ulluu banaaya!!

2006-01-25T16:03:00.000+05:30

If you guys wondering what this post is all about - well - u gotto read till the very end.

We had one hell of a time with Deepa in Bangalore...especially during this week and the weekend which just passed...with loads of shopping...me buying jeans, a Denim shirt..and Deepa buying a nice T-shirt for her cuzin...selected by yours truly...

Jan 24th...one day before our dear friend Deepa was to be leaving for Pune - what was planned was a nice gift - a reallll cute teddy bear soft toy...which we knew she wud adore...more than nethin else. (I can imagine Shweta's tears to be givin away that teddy - are u readin this Shweta? hehe!!)...well this just starts the whole thing...

Jan 24th nite...a dinner planned to bid farewell to Deepa for hre trip to Pune...venue - Lemon Grass, restaurant in Jakassandra...the first appearance of the restaurant was great...altho the latter experience with da food etc wasnt so pleasing...Lemon Grass was bound to be more fun as our whole group was supposed to meet. By around 9, all of us had arrived...me and my friend hiding Deepa's gift. I dint know that my friends were goin to get a cake for Deepa too, and was surprised to see it - made a face at my friend for not havin told me bout it in the first place.

After the usual gupshup, of course, the cake had to be cut. The covers were thrown open, and what do i see - low and behold - 'Happny Birthday Ashish'....(for those of you who dont know, my bday is on Friday this week)... I was really taken by surprise...and shud admit that I would have neva guessed what was cookin up these guys' sleeves. To add to it, there were some marvellous cards from da 2 gals, and the biggest surprise of all, a gift - guess wat - the same T-shirt I had selected for Deepa's so-called 'cousin'...

Yup - too much...i know...seems to be a re-run of Bluffmaster's ending - indeed was feelin like AB junior, as he runs through after havin found out the truth at the end...I was literally overwhelmed...had neva been surprised in this way..but it was certainly very very nice of all my friends to have brought it this way. Thank you guys...for each and every moment of yesterday evening....I know it has been special for all of us...

Of course what followed was a nice dinner - (leave the food aside)...and Deepa's teddy gift to end with...

One of the best birthdays I have had ever - and guess wat - it isnt even done with as yet...!!!

SOS - a movement...

2006-01-25T15:29:00.000+05:30

Guess this post in the blog has been delayed enough...it was a visit to a unique place that had taken place on Sunday - I hadnt heard of it myself - it was my friend Deepa who gave me most of the inputs...and as she was leaving for Pune on Monday it became all the more reason why she shud have visited da place in Bangalore before she left...

The time - around 1 pm, after a rather late breakfast, and a hangover of the previous day's excitin time togetha. The place - SOS villages...quite far off on Bannerghatta Road. On the way to it, my friends could get a nice view of my company, as well as Honeywell, where another of our friend works, as well as of course, the one and only and ever-prestigious by its presence in Bangalore - the Indian Institute of Management. Now what this place was - and why would I describe it as a movement...SOS is an effort to home a majority of the orphans in the world...started quite long back by a foreigner - but now quite widespread in 37 cities India (dat was real nice to hear)...I guess its a must for one to know about such places - and such a movement for the cause for mankind...

The first thing I missed there on reaching of course was my camera phone(some defect in it)...howeva Deepa's 6600 was there to do da work...there was an official from SOS who showed us around and let us know the place better...there were around 16 homes everywhere, with around 10 children at any time in each home - of course 'equipped' with a mother(well she is employed, out of around 100 people who apply for the post)...the mother is the lady who takes care of all the children entrusted to that house. She spends all the life she after she joins SOS in nurturing the well-being of the children, till they become of eligible ages. The man, in fact even told us of a girl from SOS who was now comin back to her mom after delivery so that she can take care of her in her post-pregnancy period.

Once again- not all the photos are come dat good...still postin them so that u readers get a teeny weeny feel of this place...

The photos depict the lake in the campus, and also a snap of their beds in the rooms. Each house has around 3-4 rooms, with similar kind of beds for the kids. Of course, that is, until they are kids.

The place SOS is a must-visit. Deepa has left for Pune today, of course with the urge in mind to also visit SOS in Pune. Besides everything else, the place was a relief to get to from the busy life at Bangalore, with its quiet and serene surroundings. The 'movement' as I have called it, seeks help from every source possible, and of course even from monthly or annual donations, something which the official told us about.It is also possible to legally adopt a child from SOS. But of course, only after a screening process of how well can u mother or father the child. It was indeed a nice time that we had had at SOS. The reason was that we could associate ourselves with this movement - for the benefit of the homeless children, or those who are deserted by their parents. Lend a hand, take out a day from your busy life, and do visit SOS - an asset to the nation.

Planned, cancelled, but wat a way to enjoy!

2006-01-23T18:20:00.000+05:30

This time the weekend had been well-planned - a trip outside Bangalore, picnic time - etc etc...kinda wud be nice for me, as i had had an awful week - mails bein exchanged about the stuff to be taken etc added to the fun...but well, some things came up and the outing had to be cancelled...what did we do then? lay at home? no way...here is how the plan proceeded -

Spot 1: Lal Bagh Gardens - The prestigious garden at Bangalore, visited by one and all...it seems to be a bore for guys like us, but well it was much more than better...not coz we roamed and admired the scenery, but well - coz we sat in the lawns, played 'chain cook'(hope u guys remember dat)...and just talked our way out until around mid-afternoon...

uhh...shanks...excuse me for not havin included u here...there isnt a single one featurin u in da lawns...

The best part at Lal Bagh was the exhibition which we happened to visit...where certain saplings were even available for sale, which my pal Shanks purchased...pardon me for the loose photography...

A quick, but rather late lunch, we spend some time coolin ourselves in the park, now joined by da my twin 'brat' friends...

Spot 2(final for da day): Coffee World - tot we'd try it out...had seen it from long at Kormangala...so there we were...toastin some heavy coffee and mocha drinks like frappes, iced mochas, belgium chocolates etc etc...

and voila...there is what was left of it all...

comments on Coffee World - almost similar to Coffee Day, but i guess da latter is cheaper, ie if u leave out the VAT expenses(chuckle!)...but i gess a quiet Qwuiky's
at Kormangala rules...both in terms of taste and price...da only noticeable thing at CW was the photos of grand brand ambassador Esha Deol hangin all around...

And there u go - a happy group to end it all !

Now wasnt dat one FUN-FILLED DAY!!!

Weekend mazaa!

2006-01-16T11:26:00.000+05:30

Now that was a weekend which i can speak somethin bout - most certainly...studded with several stuff...rite from getting up at wheneva I wanted on both the days - to a fun-filled cyber chat with great friends yest evenin...boy i really cant speak about all - but i gess both fun and some seriousness settles in from now onwards...with the great 'Yem Bee Yaa eggjam' season ending with style - of course style here doesnt mean that i got ne calls...just that it was excitin enugh...it isnt all that over, in the sense that TISS remains, but that being in early March, I have Jan and Feb to mull over wateva happened in the last 6 months and try to make amends for the better...

Lets speak bout sum better things now - like wat was fun for the weekend...Saturday was for friends of course - a movie which had been planned in November itself, so dat was one thing executed nicely - Zinda is a must-see...but not for the faint-hearted. Although the movie covers a broad range of violence, some of which mite be termed as unnecessary, the movie has its owm moments of glory, as well as some spell-bounding roles by Dutt and Abraham...and of course the seductive n sizzling Lara Dutta(dont miss her man!)...but the 2 hour length, the unusual storyline, the dark nites, the mysterious plot..all makes for a good film...zinda deserves an applause...

post-Zinda saw me and my frenz at Sweet Chariot...finally I had to see one of those -and it was in the one at MG Road...i must say this place is worth it...n it was nice checkin out my pal's Sony Ericsson P910A at the same time...check out these...altho they havent come so clear due to the faulty lighting conditions..but the phone is a cool thing...except for its size...

The main thing to speak about Sunday was of course FMS primarily...the ending MBA exam of the season....hadnt answered this one last 'MBA season'...coz mainly the test is more about speed...basically jo sabse tez woh jeeta...n of course innumerous more things come into the picture - the reservation which reduces the no of seats to almost nothin, the huge no of Delhites writin the test after havin prepared extensively, absence of hi-fi speed when needed most in my body(hehe), the huge emphasis on the written score in the final FMS call etc etc etc...all in all make the test a lot tougher than it seems...tough to make it finally to the famous insitute...

Christ College- the place I answered it howeva dint get all the thumbs-ups from my side...considering dumb things like standing in a line to make it inside, the dumb invigilators, the benches...new, but uncomfy to sit on, especially those against the wall(poor me)...howeva FMS was all wrapped up and done by 4 in da evenin...needless to say i dont know bout gettin the call...depends on luck too u see(geee)...

A nice ender to the evenin was a dear chat in the cafe with 2 of my best friends who are at present workin in Pune...me and my friend rattled away on the keyboard as it was totally unplanned...and we were all the more excited to be chattin with these 2 after more than 6 months now...one hour of great fun-filled chat...of course the hour seemed to pass off too soon...promises laid that the next chat wud be better planned and for a longer while of course...

all in all a great weekend...

post no 50

2006-01-13T15:40:00.000+05:30

The title of this one looks like the typical title of a Ramsay horror film doesnt it? Howeva I could not think of ne other title, and this post was incidentally the golden one, so well... Just postin this coz its the end of the week and I have nothin else to do in the last few 'Friday' hours...the 'Friday' feeling had settled in quite some time back today and me was already feelin very lazy...just tryin to go thru the concepts of Order Management and tryin to make some sense out of the myriad ppt's and pdf's...

I just remembered that I hadnt kind of written bout my XAT experience...of course not that i do wanna write bout it...just zat it was an extremely disgusting experience which mite make my blog filthy, so i mite as well not mention it here (heheh)...and then there were those aspirants who tot they had seen evrythin after seein CAT 2005! To find out what happened at XAT 2006, log on to PG - check out this page - da link is available...

The days passing by since new year have been boring to the max...not much work...mba season ending for me with pathetic performances in da exams, and the oncoming year lookin like a huge monster with god knows what lying ahead. I find myself sandwiched between my goals in life, my committment towards work, and my ethical life...the path between these three hasnt been easy for me, and isnt goin to be some sort of a cakewalk. But wat amuses me is the probability when in a given sample of time, the number of things which do not seem to be in my favour are enormous...

goin to play now...more discussions on monday i gess...gotto enjoy my weekend - also studded with my last big entrance for this season...

On the 'bench'...

2006-01-10T19:18:00.000+05:30

Another very unfriendly term used in software companies nowadays. Seems to have derived its source from companies which recruit more people than the amount of work available in units...(need i take any names?)....howeva i can say in pure technical terms that this is when one is not bein billed...the present state in which i am maybe...goin thru dummy objects for study purpose, preparing myself for the real battles which are gonna come netime now...da projects i mean...

When one is on bench i gess he can savour all possible things in life, dream, have fun etc etc...these are some of the things we used to do evryday in college - ahem! Got my new laptop yest...a beauty from DELL...a pity that it has only one USB port, and well, it isnt the latest version which most of the senior employees have here...howeva - its with me to stay now...things which i can boast bout which sometimes i only used to think...1 GB RAM etc etc...in college days i used to wonder how fast pc's with this much memory must be in accessing data..yea pretty fast - but satisfactory i can say...

Too bad i had to depart with my old Compaq friend - howeva i can say that it was definitely a good one...(at least it had 2 USB ports - grrr)...me tryin to get used of the touchpad as and when i have time...took a hell of time transferrin data between the 2 lappies...but finally its done and today mornin i cud savour the new machine...and then wat i did? nuthin much...yea - one can say i studied somethings to 'some' extent...but evryday its a promise given to oneself that the next day i will do more and better...dats why maybe the 'bench' time is time which one can actually make good use of - in the context of knowing his or her concepts better - so that he can build up good knowledge and doesnt have to run to basics when the deadlines in the projects approach...

With 2 entrances on the MBA side to go...one immediately ahead...and one far away to contemplate...i gess it IS time for some good quality work!

another one of 'nice' articles I have picked up!

2006-01-06T15:31:00.000+05:30

Just wish dat if this happened once, it shud neva happen again to neone else!!

My Best Friends Wedding

It was his wedding day. As I finished giving touches to my mild makeup, my thoughts flew back to my school days. The first time I met him, he was just another face in the crowd. We met occasionally through common friends. We became good friends, always had fun at the other's expense. He never spared a chance to irritate me, which was not very difficult. We always ended up fighting and patching up the next day only to fight again. 2 years flew by but nothing changed. Our friends knew we were very close and teased us incessantly. We would blush but still continue fighting. Everyday I would wait impatiently for him to come. If I didn't see him for even a day my heart would not be in whatever I do. I would roam around listlessly. I attributed it to the fact that I did not have my daily quota of fights and patch up. We grew up together, but as we grew up we became more aware of our friends making fun of us and the usual teenage gossip. We slowly reduced our fights and spent less and less time together. One day he came and told me that he was leaving to another city. I had always taken it for granted that I could see him whenever I wanted to. For the first time I realized how much he meant to me. All our friends were there to say goodbye. I wanted to say so much, but I didn't know how to convey my feelings. As the car pulled out, I realized at that moment that he meant more to me than anything else. He was my best friend but I also realized, I had unknowingly, unconsciously fallen in love with him. I wished he was there, in front of me so that I could tell him how I felt. But he was gone. There was not a day, not an hour when I didn't think of him. My friends realized something was amiss as they had never seen me so silent and so lost in thoughts. When they found out the reason, they felt it was just a crush and that it would go away. Some suggested finding out his whereabouts, but I didn't want them to. I was happy to be in love. I didn't want to think that there were two possibilities. He might love me, but he might not. I was happy that I was in love, it was beautiful. There were times when I would miss the sharing, the companionship, the sweet nothings that people in love felt and enjoyed. My love was one sided but it was love nevertheless. He was always there in my thoughts and what better companionship can I ask for? Time flew. I went to college and then to work. Through the years I heard bits and pieces of news about him. I heard he was abroad, studying. And then I heard he was in love. My heart broke. The rational side of me knew that since I had never told him how I felt, I should accept what happened. But my heart cried. As much as I tried I couldn't stop thinking about it. I would spend the whole day putting up a smiling face for the people around me and fall into my bed tears streaming down my face. I realized I had to face the truth. He was my first love and would always be, but I realized life has much more to offer. I wanted to move on, be happy and maybe meet someone whom I would love and who would love me. Surprisingly fate decided to help me in its own way. I met his mom by chance and she promptly invited me for his wedding. I realized the only way to come to terms would be to actually go for wedding. I knew, once I see him happily married, I could and would get over it. I came back to the present with a start, as my mobile rang. It was my friend asking me out for a movie. I told her I was going to a marriage to meet a long lost friend and hung up. I was ready, to face reality.

-Saujanya

MY BEST FRIEND IN MY WEDDING

I just came out of the shower. The new suit was lying on the bed. It was a memorable day for me, my wedding day. I was getting ready when my mother entered the room and told me that my friends have come and they are waiting to see me in the hall. I just glanced through the window n I could see all my friends chatting n laughing, people who have been with me through my thick n thin. And then I saw her, an angel, my best friend. She looked really beautiful, had put on some weight, n carried the cute little smile that I always admired. I slowly started traversing back, memories started pouring in, and it has been a long eight years since I last saw her....

I first met her in school when we were taking part in a debate competition. She was cute, shy and a bit funny too. We occasionally met through some of our common friends. Slowly, she became a part of my life. We used to have lunch together, gossip around, and make fun of the teachers and those were moments when we felt that nothing existed beyond us in the entire universe. She used to wait for me when I had special classes and pretend that she had missed the school bus. Life was so much of fun. No day ended without fighting and patching up. At times, there was nothing to talk, but still I craved to talk. That's when I used this weapon of fighting. She was quite adamant, never gave up so quickly, n I enjoyed every moment of those precious times when we fought and argued and then patched up. There were times when our friends teased us of a growing affinity, something beyond friendship. I pondered about it at times, but she was very quick to dismiss it every time. I slowly started realizing that we were made for each other. But, fate had other ideas. My father got a transfer and we had to move to another city in short notice. The day finally arrived, I expected her to say a lot, I was looking into her eyes, trying to read what's going on in her mind, realized at that moment, Einstein's equations were much easier to understand than what's going on in a girl's mind. She never uttered a single word, just said good bye. Tears were flowing down my cheek, I thought she would understand at least at that moment, but rain poured in washing away my tears and with it my chance of being with my angel for life.

She never contacted me after that. I joined college and went abroad for my further studies. I always made sure that she knows what I am doing and where I am through our common friends, hoping against hope that someday she will realize the love for me hidden in the deep cavities of her heart, and she would say those words which I longed to hear for years. But it never happened. She finished her education and later she joined a reputed software company. I slowly started accepting the fact that I was not the kind of guy she would like to spend her life with. In the mean while, I met a girl who fell in love with me. Knowing the pain of an unfulfilled love, I accepted her proposal, and our marriage got fixed. But, I wanted to see my angel at least once in my life. I asked my mother to pass on the invitation to her; somehow I strongly felt that she would surely turn up for my wedding.

There was a thud sound and I came back to reality. She was still sitting there and laughing, maybe to one of the jokes cracked by my friends. I knew at that moment, mine was not a lost love; it will always be there in my heart. If it was there for eight years, it will last forever, till I reach my grave. Just that we had to move ahead in life, in different directions. I got ready and started walking towards my friends. I was ready, to face reality.

-Ram

2006 - what bout it?

2006-01-04T11:43:00.000+05:30

For some 2006 began wid a bang - for others it crashed like hell - for some like me - it remained normal, but more on the negative end...hows it for Bangalore - soon to become Bengaluru - more on the negative end again, with terrorism striking out in all spheres...the atmosphere particularly not bein very good with the IISc attack to end 2005, the finding of AK 56's etc proving the existence of Islamic terrorists in the city,and to make matters worse, a hoard of bomb hoaxes in the city - no one can imagine the destruction which can take place if ne of these turns out to be true...

Lets speak as if in a bestseller - amidst this turbulent atmosphere of terrorism, deceit, corruption and so on is ME - now 2006 dint begin in a great way for me either...rite from a foolish argument with a close friend to not getting ne calls from the IIMs...now that isnt new is it? I was expectin none, so no much blues this time - except that the IIMs once again have the results as unpredictable as they can be...the plot thickens as the scorecards are not out as yet...only the calls are - PG is roaring with the victories of many a number, and of course weeping with the miseries of a much bigger number, people who have spent their full year without a job in hand, having aspirations of a seven figure salary and to pass out from the best institutes in the country have been as usual let down by the not-so-very-transparent procedure of the IIMs. Why why why...these questions of course raise doubts in thousands of minds, especially of those who havent made it to single call - also of those who have got some of those red-lettered calls and mysteriously havent got the others...now thats a thing to wonder for them...

I think I shall be relieved till the thing dat in another 2 days the scorecards will be out...too bad that these results have to be sandwiched between the other exams...it shudnt but it kind of has a mental impact on how we perform in the other exams...da main thing which wurries me this time is that several deserving people whom i know well have again been let down...people whom i have prepared with, and who have raced past others in the mock season - it isnt that CDay was bad for them...just that maybe all the dreaded cut-offs cudnt be surpassed...

2006 I guess will also be a technically active year for me...in any case - management or no management, the year promises a hoard of other technical fundae in store for me...and it isnt so bad actually - just that it isnt the thing i wanna be active in...but then this isnt the first time life has shown me that i cant do everythin wat i want in life...some things are best done when the things at hand have received some justice...

For all the people who gave CAT 2005 after real good preparation but cudnt get honoured:
You guys got a lot of prepare for in the next year too...one thing i learnt from PG...neva give up...neva lose faith..

For all those who made it...

Get ready to be screwd first in the GD/PI's...and then in the IIMs..

For all those who dint prepare well...

CAT 2006...its a decision...take it or leave it...

I think i fall in the third category...

Disclaimer: I gess all those readin this will be thinkin dat my new year is only wonderin more bout CAT, CAT and CAT...naah...its just dat da atmosphere talks of it these days...there is definitely much more to life than just this feline.

new year wishes...

2006-01-04T11:35:00.000+05:30

Lets reserve a special post for this...

A VERRRY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL VISITORS OF MY BLOG!

What 2005 was...

2005-12-30T17:42:00.000+05:30

New year time is always celebration time...especially I have heard in Bangalore its to the peak - except that this time da papers were filled with news articles that the clubs, dance parties etc must be closed down even before the clock strikes 2006...uh huh...dint quite make sense to me...u can do it for ne other day except the 31st of December...probable reasons i can state today is the attack which happened in the Indian Institute of Science on the nite b4 yesterday...indeed tragic...n the thought of AK 56's, terrorists, Islamic JeHadis etc etc gives the shudders...

I should be saying as i mentioned to my friend today that every year seems to closing on a bad note, especially for India - this year it was this incident, last year it was the tsunami...fate and nature seem to be up to their old tricks again...helpless people can just hope for a better new year...a better beginning...

As for me, 2005 was a year once again of mixed feelings, emotions, and of course, indeed a decisive year in my life - fate working out in my favour at least in a certain way, by placing me in a comfy position in a major consulting company...grateful for dat...grateful for many more things...may of which I cant exactly discuss on the blog...or else u will be takin a nap on ur keyboard, but yea - things which have changed the course of my life to a significant extent...one major milestone in this year for me has been the amount of people I hav networked with...yea with my usual styles it has, as usual been goin good...da amount of people I have come in contact with, in both the halves of the year has been amazing - rite from simple and cheerful people, social guys who are satisfied with their life and where they are, to amazing geeks, tech freak outs and not to forget some master blasters at the Common 'Attitude' Test (got a gud friend in this category who i know will be huffing puffing with anger while readin this)...

bas ab zyaada kuch bolna nahin hai..the year beginning mite not be all that great with da results of all da entrance exams and of course - mor exams to go..I can only hope that someday in 2006 will be a day when people stand aside and make way for the guy writing this blog...

WISH U A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR...!!!

(Disclaimer: Da message persists till my next post)

Ctrl+C .... Ctrl+V

2005-12-30T17:24:00.000+05:30

This post is entitled to all those who know its meaning...I can guess most of the guys from the software companies do...I wont take ne names - hush hush...but some renowned people from 'Indian' companies quite often blabber bout it on forums and in blogs which i have read - stating that thats all they seem to be doin the full day...unbelievable - Believe it...(picked up from Ripleys Believe It Or Not - great show - a must see on AXN)...

Kinda this is wat I was doin this week - was entrusted the task of preparing the docs for the tables, views etc etc etc for a certain project which i guess has to be delivered to the client somewhere in this year...yea u mite catch a hint in dat - only 36 hours to go for the year to rocket off into thin air...all i cud describe in plain words what i did to carry out the 'hectic, tedious' task is best explained by the title to the post...of course - it wasnt bad at all - it IS what most software engineers carry out when there is little time at hand and the work should be done faster...there is nuthin like this magical phrase for speedin up any task - (guaranteed motto for any s/w organisation)...

Well the work surely ends today...but what a week it has been - a week of mindless work - it dint really require any application of the mind - it was simply the copy-paste technique - wont say it was effortless though...the last 3 days i have been whizzing off in my head at around 8 to 9...tired out from the day's workload...reasons of course why i could not edit the blog at all...so pushing in 2 quick posts before i leave for the day...if u wanna see how i looked yesterday nite - look if u must - but beware - u mite not like me at all...

Here is ME...

Things I had missed for long...

2005-12-26T11:10:00.000+05:30

Two things which had been missed for long finally culminated in the weekend, the visit to Iskcon in Vijaynagar...and the arrival of my new cell - an E398 Motorola black beauty...have no words to describe either - the former coz it was simply amazingly done...and the latter coz well, had analyzed and wished for this piece from quite some time now...finally it was in my hands...

Iskcon - International Society for Krishna Consciousness...this was one place I had had a kind of not so nice experience with at Mumbai, the reason I can explain well now I think...the temple at Mumbai simply seemed to be cluttered a lot...it was definitely smaller, and all things seemed to be at one place...heard yesterday that the Delhi and Bangalore ones are bigger and better...and yeah it was certainly true...the temple was well planned out, with a huge winding kinda stairway, which led to the insides from the entrance to complete the normal formalities like keeping the shoes or the bags and then led all the way up the hill to the actual temples (of course the place was flooded with people, and we took some time in the queues)...3 temples which we saw - the Prahlad Narsimha one, the Govinda one and of course the main Krishna temple right on top...the interiors of the third place were amazing - of course I couldnt capture them on my new phones...it seemed logical too...coz the beauty of the place could be felt and appreciated only after having visited it...

Of course the things which I had hated in Mumbai seemed to persist in Bangalore too...commercialization of the entire thing...people making good business by opening food stalls ,so much so that there was even a restaurant down...but of couse the place wasnt as noisy as it was in Mumbai, where the singing etc seemed to disturb the holy atmosphere instead of making it more divine...(strictly a personal opinion)...somehow being such a staunch Krishna bhakt, I dint seem to like the place as much at Mumbai as I did yesterday here...this experience was altogetha somethin different...the place was indeed far from the place where we stayed here...but evrythin was worth it...n plus, the second objective of visiting my school friends was justified too...

The phone, as i had expected was a beauty...hearty thanks to the person who bought it from the company, and of course to my friend who got it from her this Saturday...I think this would be the best place to thank them...I still have to experiment a lot with the phone and get used to all its features etc - howeva the blog would of course now be looking better which pictures from my day-to-day life...the camera isnt exactly what evryone calls a good one...but the photos are good enugh...

Dont have much time now, so just jotted the above quickly...some amount of work, and more experimentation with da new phone...tada for now..!

Nostalgia...

2005-12-26T10:34:00.000+05:30

The reason I am writing this post late is simple - I FGOT...else i wud have got to tell a lot more bout how i enjoyed in Goa in da last week - enjoyed in da sense, in my words, spent time with parents...something which I had been waiting for since long..so much so that when i came back on thursday evening, the nite was too lonely in the pg...my roommate too had left for his native place on his leave - so no one to talk to...so ultimately landed up spending the next 2 days reading and in fact, finishing books...

One of the most memorable things which happened last week was my first flite journey...it was possible coz i cud get the flite ticket for less, but dat was not due to the continuous monitoring of the websites i had done in the last 2 months to catch a sudden decrease in the prices...the agent who booked the ticket himself neva came to know the fact that I would be getting it for less - so you can say it was my good luck...not so endearing though, as the Air Deccan plane was indeed small, appearing small even to the Spice Jet plane which i happened to see before my own flite...certain things i wanted to do during the flite - look around, of course have a nice look at the air hostesses(alas...they werent all good to look at - there were only 2, and it seemed they were packaged beautifully in order to sell you off evrythin they came to you with - lets add a disclaimer note here - Air Deccan charges for eatables online, dat also with prices befitting that of a king's palace! I think this is one thing which was outrageous...though I wasnt hungry so dint need them...

The 2 most important moments during the flight were of course the take off and the landing...the take off which took all the cake, feeling the pull of gravity when the plane attained a huge speed and then took left the earth all of a sudden...dat was wonderful to describe...surely some of the people around me had experienced it before(could make out from their sleepy faces in the latter half of the flite)...but during this moment, everyone tried to grasp the feeling of flying...I think this is one moment all people should get to enjoy...one of the best moments in life i should say...

The flight i should say was one of the most comfy journeys i had had ever...some of the best things to describe were we hovering above the clouds...and the silver lining of the clouds(as we normaly phrase it) enjoyable to all. Coming to landing - uh,oh...realized one thing...I had noticed when we took off...nice valleys and picturesque scenes of my own native land - Goa...what i realized when landing was that the scene was one of the most ugly ones i had seen in recent times...one nice swerve by the plane, and the city emerged like the gameboard of a game we used to play when we were small...filling those spaces with white cubicles...Bangalore was appearing at its worst...and for a second I couldnt understand how I was staying in this place! Why had I even left my own heaven to come and live in this so very polluted, densely populated city? No answers for this - as there are no much choices I have as of now...maybe when IT progresses in Goa I can answer it - again a vicious circle...I dont want that to happen, as Goa might start assuming the fearful face of Bangalore, with cubicle like houses etc etc...maybe Goa would now be best after retirement itself...

Some of the good things were - my nice holiday hadnt been disturbed by aching exam results, or tensions of any other sort...there arent any sort of expectations coz I know there isnt any reason to expect, but the worries persist...howeva all that seemes so good in the holiday was short-lived...I cant get huge holidays when I am on a casual leave of course...there were some moments when, lying on my bed in Goa, I would think 'hell...I gotto return too'...but I got over them soon...now sitting in my cubicle and writing down my diary entries..i can imagine how soon I will be back to my own self...my own place - back to Goa...

holiday time...

2005-12-16T13:49:00.000+05:30

Wow - doesnt this post smell cheerful itself? at least it does to me - well if u guys dont know then me headin for Goa this aftnoon - back to my hometown aft more than three months...have been repeatedly tellin my friends that my parents mite even put up the 'devdas' act of havin their eyes closed when i enter the flat...hehe...wud be da same for them as their only beta returnin back home aft long...

Bangalore for the past 3 months hasnt been unwelcoming for me at all...in the sense have got pretty used to it now, n have taken it to be my second home itself...but well - can neone give up the thought of their primary home? - n in my case its a place where everyone vouch normally to go for in case of a holiday...aaj aur kal to sabhi yehi keh rahe hain ki 'kya ashish..goa jaa raha hai? wahaan se hamaare kya laaoge yaar?'

bas - its great to go back after havin got some reputation for ureself - passed out from an unknown college and landed in one among the top 3 companies in da world - with a quite comfy life in Bangalore...hopin for a relatively warmer weather in Goa than here - howeva i know it will be cold there too...some things i have to do once i go there - go to da beach(wont get one here of course), meet some relatives n friends (wonder who are left in Goa presently)...n of course - chat a lot with my dear parents - hehe...

Of course the shesh bhaag of my adventure for management entrances this year is still to come - shall be back with a bang for sure(overconfidence - haha)...shall get back with more incidences of those aft me back...

2005 and my MBA prospects...

2005-12-13T17:52:00.000+05:30

I gess all the MBA entrances this year will again shut their doors on me just as IIFT did today - just a very terse reply - not selected for GD/PI...now wat does that supp to mean? Somethin which i dont like about these colleges - they dont have proper sense of management themselves...now another thing which i heard on PG today - 'O well I got thru IIFT and yea I was pretty sure the cutoff will be in the range of 30-31...about 5 to 10 marks less than what the institutes have predicted'...oh yeah? Well I'll be damned if I havent heard one of those before...n yea - to think of it...after a nice exam i had had at St Joseph's...i am supposed to believe that my score is in the sub 30's...i very well refuse to admit that...

Why does my belief in these MBA entrances seem to be diminishin day by day - just coz i cant make it...naah..but just coz those who make it just seem to be havin their luck shining that day...either in terms of rockin speed - say like crackin all da questions in the paper in the allotted time...or a perfect bulls eye accuracy...or just like an 'in-pin-safety-pin'...and IIM is where i finally land in! No seriously, I will be happier now the day the entrance exam procedure becomes more transparent, more specific...n not just ranged over a wide range of topics as they say - 'a good mix of acads, work-ex, CAT score, blah blah...'The IIMs have already taken the first step forward by declaring the negative marking this year - something which they hadnt done i guess from when CAT had started being conducted...

Howeva the day wasnt so bad today - with the Time Management Workshop training for the full day, again taken by the eloquent Communication Skills teacher(ahem..an XIMB graduate)...did get to learn a lot though it turned monotonous in between...but it was better than sitin bekaar the full day...n here I am..havin just come from a friend's mini bday celeb...typin speedily so dat i can leave for today from office...

Anyway-the only exam which had gone gud for me in the 3 bygone exams has shown no mercy for this individual editin the blog - MBA prospects have been indeed bad for me in the year 2005...I dont know what the next year has in store for me...have stopped expecting things, but yes there is always a difference between what i expect and what i wish for...

People out here must damn well be knowin bout my wishes...

B Schooling – Hype and Hard Facts !

2005-12-12T16:06:00.000+05:30

This is an article I have picked up form my all-time favourite forum, and I must give due credit to my pal from IIM Ahmedabad Suhas Anand for havin composed it...its certainly a must read...
--->

Before starting to write anything whatsoever about B School I would ask you to rent your ears to a truth which a lot of us forget in the big bang of salaries and entrance test preparations.

What might that be?

B Schools are a place where, at the end of the day you are going to do a post graduation in a chosen field. Doesn’t sound as romantic as those Swiss holidays and 6 figure dollar salary quotes? But yea that’s about it. All hype and hoopla must be put in the right perspective. I do not expect that all you young enthusiastic folks are going to take a post graduation for the love of learning and wisdom of words emanating from the Porters and the Kotlers of the world. But believe me when I say that it sure helps if you walk into the hallowed portals of a B School having a rough idea as to how you want to use two very important years of your life in an appropriate manner. It is entirely up to you as individuals to define and redefine what appropriateness means to you.

I don’t like your preaching. I’m in it for the dough!

Fine. But the catch is the media exemplifies everything that is wrong with projecting salary as the key driver of educational decision making. One Ravi Singhvi at IIMA getting 150000 + USD as starting salary must not be the driver for your decision for more than one reason. For starters, he has relevant and wide ranging experience spanning firms like Anderson and Citibank. Then again he was chosen as associate, a post not many graduates even from IIM A, can aspire as freshers. But the more critical aspect that a lot of folks tend to forget is that it is the highest salary offered. And by the very definition of highest, it follows logically (yea a no brainer!!) that it was offered to only one person! Logically it also follows that half of the batches in any B School gets less than or equal to the average salary projected (at around 7-8 lakhs) by most top schools. And the definition of average remains same whether it is A or B or Z! (Yea yea, I know. A no brainer again, but sad is the fact that a lot of people tend to forget this basic truth!).

Ok. Accepting that half of the class gets only around 8 lakhs, which in itself is some good money. 66666.666 rupees a month is good enough for me and my girlfriend to lead a happy life!

But unfortunately for you and your girlfriend, that is obviously not what you get in hand. That, in jobstreet parlance, is what is called the CTC (Cost to Company). At the end of the day if one gets around 35000 post the tax pie eaten by the government, one can consider oneself lucky.

Oops, I get more than that in my ABC Tech firm taking in underwear billing orders outsourced from Texas based retailing big wig !Why the hell should I then even heed this rigmarole of B schooling gibberish? Especially when I have been frightened by seniors regarding the sleepless nights and extreme workloads. Add on to that the unhealthy competition within batch mates and suddenly B school for me looks as appealing as Britney Spears and the boy bands!

Ok. Academic rigour exists. For the sole reason that there is so much to be taught, and only so much that can be learnt in a given period of time. At least the faculty thinks there is so much to be learnt before one can get out with the PG Diploma. If you are literally scared of studying, then it could be a tough time. But then one hopes you haven’t decided to do a PG for partying, pubbing and watching movies as prime motives .At the same time u shall get to sleep 4-6 hours depending on the match (or mismatch) between your aspirational levels (read positioning in the grade point scale) and smart study habits. I for one do not think intelligence has a lot to do with getting great grades in B Schools as much as smartness in writing exams and hard work has. It does help if you are a 9 pointer from IITs because you have been there and done that. The first thing one needs to do in the initial weeks of B Schooling is to understand that it is best to compete with yourself than with the entire batch. Set benchmarks for yourself and try to beat the bar. This in turn helps in relation building too! I reckon lot of people think that due to Relative grading (RG) relationships are tough to be built up at a B school. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The students understand the importance of networking. So whether with sincerity or otherwise folks here do build up relations and makes sure embarrassing fights are avoided. (The beer bottle swinging, drunk, rowdy brawls of engineering days are over for ever!!) The idea is simple. Most of the smart dudes surmise that tomorrow in the corporate world, a lot of their classmates are going to be head honchos in some XYZ corporation. They would rather not be in the bad books of anyone around, for you never know who’s going to be in need of whom! I for one have made some real fruitful friendships (which I hope stands for life) without such thoughts in mind. It again is incumbent on your own attitude to competition and how well you manage your relationships.

Ok. So what else can one practically gain out of 2 years other than building bosom buddies?

First up is a good first job!!!(Yea I come back to that!!) Hopefully in terms of profile as much as in terms of money! But there is definitely more to B schooling than placements. Remember that one gets out of any institution how much ever you want it to give you. If you spend more time with Sylvia Saint or J Lo than with something more productive (Ok, no pun!) you might not get too much of learning out of the system. But then you do not have a right to crib that there is no value-add in an MBA! You come across some amazing professors who are eager to teach and help you in any sphere, a great infrastructure setup, and a bunch of folks who generally are more ambitious and probably more intelligent than the majority. Their insights and drive might inspire you or at the very least help you appreciate different perspectives. You work a lot in groups (You are expected to work!!).Whether you end up doing it or not at least you get a feel of group dynamics. This is further bolstered by the innumerable chances you get to manage events and teams. If you want, you can go on exchange to international schools (in most of the top rung schools there are large number of options to choose from). You develop confidence by speaking/presenting your ideas in front of some of the best brains and getting it dissected by them threadbare. (This does help you in real corporate life especially in stormy meetings with subcontractors and clients).The course content also provides you some knowledge on theories which can come in handy in corporate life or even if you start something on your own. (Things like the accounting and financial management fundae, apart from the more critical aspects of Organisational Behaviour and Human resource management).

But can none of this be learnt or acquired out of a B School?

You can. B School helps you in being a single window providing these various services! If you individually start acquiring these, it might take you more time, energy and much much more motivation to be successful. But in the long run it wouldn’t make much difference. But again in the long run we are all dead!!
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givin ur best - but what if it isnt enugh?

2005-12-12T14:18:00.000+05:30

You people must be sayin I blog after only an entrance exam...but well these days other than that there isnt nethin much to write u see...but kinda its better to write more bout the lessons one learns in life thru his experiences - JMET yesterday was another experience...

The IIT's are a brand by themselves - which sets them apart from the IIMs - i guess the only brand which has been havin recognition all ova da world from many years down the line now...so well - we can forget that the paper will even be misconducted - forget as shabbily conducted as IIFT did - besides da JMET process is carried by da GATE office itself...so well - n yes, it did have kinda da same standard a normal GATE paper wud have - normal sections like an evry'year' JMET paper...n yes, not to forget - an untouchable Quant section...

Had gone to stay over at my frenzs' place overnite at rajaji just as i had done for CAT...this time the centre was S.Nijalingappa College very close to their house. Did go to have a look at it da previous day though, but the other things done the prev day of course werent of ne use - eg. goin thru some basics in calculus,conics and vectors (folks, remember the higher math we studied?)...dint know wat was in store for me on 11th Dec...

As usual, 2 things were conspicuous by their absence - the hype of CAT which sets off the butterflies in one's stomach on DDAY...n the instruction on the first page of the test booklet to perform equally well in all sections. Reached the college by 9:30 AM...da normal situation - crowd outside...but heh...noticed some other things too - now i shud say some real innovative ways of makin money - number 1 - the mobiles were told to be deposited outside at a counter n ten rupees were collected from evryone as a fee - bull shit i shud say - i just switched it off and put it in my pocket, as must have some others...but yea there were a lot of dumb engineers out there i shud say... number 2 - a pandit from a temple standin outside, putin teeka for each kind of nervous student - hehe...dat was funny...n i gess he too was doin it for a ten rupee note to be put in his thali...

Howeva even more things...the bench of the same type which i had for CAT..but this time i even got a shaky one...i saw the dumb engineers of today also handin out evry bit of paper they had to da supervisor...as if he wud rap on their heads durin the 2 hours which wud follow and ask them to remove their gurlfrenz photo from their wallet as if they had xray vision - more bull huh?? me was unmoved though...the real fire set in wen the booklets were distributed...n yea it all began at 10:30 am...a normal start to a normal paper - verbal to begin - bashed the entire section, went onto logic...went very good in da beginning, with the exception of an arrangements caselet which was disguised and appeared real easy, but of course wasnt...wasted almost ten min there, n yes...if i hadnt left it the next sec i wud have ruined the paper...for a change DI was gud and i had a decent no of attempts there...came for a brief break in betn to Quant (shall call it a brief break coz i ran back to DI soon)...sectional cutoffs not bein there i guess is the trademark of JMET...but coz u gotto attempt this section, i had to scan for 2-3 sitters...which werent there of course...but some solvable questions were present...the level of the calculus and higher math questions reminded me of the paper i had answered five years back - IIT JEE - that too only the screening as i cudnt make it to da mains...

The experience was pleasant but i cud have done much better...attempts as usual werent much at all...howeva the bad memories for the day were extinguished with a blast with my frenz in the evenin which followed..one of the best get-togetha's in recent times...mornin dawned today - come n surf thru PG n i find dat some guys had actually cracked the paper like netin...there were no complaints of a tough logical caselet or nethin..(wer did dat go?)...

Realized well - howeva betta an average guy performs, there are always people who perform much better than him....n well, this time there are even more number of people vyin for the top b-schools...da guys n gals in India, as i had earlier estimated are indeed good at braining up in da exam hall...n there are some real good performers who will neva be missin...pushes me to think that I have no place here in this maniac entrance exam world now...coz sometimes even ur best effort isnt enugh in certain cases...just as an entrance exam...(opinions needed)...of course but thats how life is...all u can do is give ur best n just wait n hope for the rest to be the best for u...

phew! am tired for the 2005 at least - no more exams for now!! This whole rigmarole will make my trip to Goa this weekend even more excitin in fact...!

cant wait to get back home now!

Thoughts about making into HR...

2005-12-05T12:43:00.000+05:30

Aha...finali i am findin days where i have nutin much to do at office...today is one of those red-lettered days...but well...nuthin to do also give u the feelin that well- u r good for nuthn, so nutin is given to u...such a feeling can be difficult to digest...

Wateva...a nice day actually to think of how i can make my blog a better one for my pals to read...write some more interestin stuff from my life, my thoughts etc etc..as from today mornin i have just been chattin n goin thru mails...as my object is done there isnt much to do (as of now no phones or emails from the PL or TL - hard to say bout this coz i can get one in the aftnoon itself)...tot i shud devote the time to enrich my laptop wid some good stuff...n make it more user friendly for my usage...so will probably spend the aftnoon dloadin the latest version of DirectX etc(I was surprised when my teammate told me dat i had only an 8.1 - dats pathetic)...cud have relied on the technical guys here to have installed the latest one much before...oh well - will have to do the same myself now...

neway comin to the topic of today- why HR appeals to me...had been goin thru a few blogs a while back about people, HR and technology, how the three are linked...the word people itself has a significant meaning for me...I know i can bond well, speak well, consult effectively, etc etc..(boastin eh?)...but all dat doesnt actually mean that i can get into the HR domain immediately does it? A few conversations with people and they tell me...'Oh for HR u require an MBA pal'...some others go like this on my question as to why one requires experience to enter HR..'oh dats gotto do wid da company's policies..now u cant fite those can u?'...i wud very well want to...

Put this question up for debate or a GD and i wud very well emerge the winner....no one has yet been able to justify my question as to why to enter the field of HR one wud require experience in the technical domain? I mean - what da hell do pointers, interface programming, or in my case,triggers or cursors gotto do with recruitment and other HR policies? Some others wud say that ok, well, for being a senior HR manager, one shud be experienced in da HR domain...now how to zoo zatt??? We enter IT companies obviously as consultants or programmers rite? then htf does one move into the HR side?

An experienced person had once given me a good reply,'Kinda maybe u require experience, so that with that experience, a person understands how to manage himself, and so he can move upto levels like HR'...but me not satisfied? Wat bout the previous notion bout experience in HR?

Will neva get ova this topic? Still think a lot of 'readin' knowledge about HR wud be good...da coveted MBA leaves only a few destinations for HR...the entrances of which are yet to come - in case dat doesnt seem possible, i gess i have to do it the hard way..

The topic is open for discussion...

How a software engineer matures...

2005-12-02T15:16:00.000+05:30

Posting this after a long nite yesterday, and a late good morning from all my friends today…yea…it was some good amount of ‘work’ time…but not that I actually did a lot of work…yesterday was da delivery of my first object to the client. Yeah the object had been finished long back, but it had got delayed kinda due to other stuff with higher priority…mine n my pal Krishna’s object release was yesterday…so well – it was a long nite with the PL(Project Leader) and da TL(Tech Lead)…

Not all dat boring…pretty managed to enjoy myself coz of the great smiling faces of both of them…n the jokes which were cracked in betn the testing and the other procedures…was more of testing yesterday, my mentor was nice enugh to take the lead to prepare the Test Plan document for me – of course I helped him in every possible way…but it were his fingers which moved along da keypad…

Of course after all hoch-poch I finally embarked on my journey to the room at 2 AM in da cab – yea knowin that I will sleep a lot, but not knowin that I will sleep till 9:30 am today…2 and a half hours more than the normal sleep which I been havin these days…reached office todat at 11:30 am…Krishna of course came much later…at around 2:30 – dats a small while ago…was shocked to hear that he left at 6! Dats a full nite’s sleep gone…so well – truths of a software engineer which I had heard finally do turn out true…so indeed do people break their backs and ruin their sleeps for meeting the deadlines of the clients…of course it only meant yesterday that they werent kinda met as one object wud have been released today…don’t know how much it wud cost them this thing…maybe a fortune…but Pfizer finally doesn’t turn out to be zero defect error leakage after all…

Finally the points in my life have come when the transition of the boy to man have begun…when the midnite oil burns for more specific reasons…where I start returnin late for more relevant stuff, other than nite outs with friends, parties etc…of course those will always be part of life…but kinda responsibilities make u feel more broad-shouldered, more a part of the mature junta in the world…it feels like u have actually entered the corporate world..

Of course my choice of what I want to do in life, and what I want to get from it doesn’t end here…blog, lets hope me n u share this journey togetha 4 all da days to come…

The IIFT test - 2 down,3 to go...

2005-11-29T04:20:00.001+05:30

Relieved a bit today coz my mentor is here to show me a bit of directions regarding my code – and have some insight into the performance issues I have been havin since last week…nice to sit with him n understand the code…shud have done a major part of it earlier…but yea it was tough – n no one kinda had time 4 me…Da delivery is supposed to be today…so lets wait n see what happens…

It was a relief that da IIFT test went fine yesterday – some changes in da paper,yeah,but not so significant. With a 100+ attempts…yea I can say that I mite make it big – but again…IIFT gives out only around 800 calls…naturally the top 800 and those who lie a bit below, say in the top 1500-2000 and having sufficient workex will be da ones called…the convert ratio of course is seemingly even more harsh…only 120 finally convert…so well…even if I have performed good…n there is someone who has performed better…there goes my chance at IIFT…

Sometimes I really cant understand howeva what do they get by putting questions like the foll in GK…

Which of the foll is true?
a) The climate of the equitorial region is 20 deg in summer blah blah…
b) In the tropics, the rainfall decreases from 30 deg East latitude to blah blah….
c) Blah blah..
d) Need I say more?

It makes me wonder whether MBA in International Business will deal with weather forecast. Have a look at the next one…

Which of the foll is true?
a) Of the 10 million species living today, about a few hundred are endangered and blah blah
b) Of the 70 million species living today, about a few fifty are preserved blah blah…
c)&d) more blah blah…

Yeh kya ho raha hai bhai?? Is this general knowledge or have I gone psyched? Who will go to learn this stuff? Are these facts or statistics? With these myriad questions in mind, all a student answerin IIFT entrance wud do is of course – resort to blind guessing – with dese kinda questions around there isnt even a need to read the question – the OMR is enugh…J

Big deal…IIFT kind of wants us to mug up evrythin possible…a relief that the IIMs at least don’t do that…n neither will XL from now onwards if my guess is rite…

And after all the torment in GK wat does one see in the Quant section is the following…

(forgive me as I cudnt replace da word below with the appropriate symbol)

- Integral of e^x(1+sinx)
___________
(1+cosx)

Now do we actually integrate this in the exam?? Where da hell does application of integral calculus come in foreign trade neway???

The less said the better about IIFT…nyway lukin fwd to a better JMET on the 11th…answerin it for the first time…

The evenin yest was as usual spent freakin out with the gang, and was giggling and laughing out at Deewane Huey Paagal…a definite time pass movie!!

Back to work now…!a

CAT - came, saw and conquered...the aspirants!

2005-11-22T01:12:00.000+05:30

Don’t really know whether I shud shed my tears on my blog too, after I have done so on PG…but I mite as well do it as I gotto write sumtin bout the Common Aptitude Test…

The Common Aptitude Test…ahem! Was it just common aptitude this time or was it sumtin more dan dat? Wateva it was, it was certainly another bomb or a monster for sure..which about 20k-30k guys(kinda da serious aspirants from the mammoth 1.75 L guys) had been comprehending from the last six monts or so…The IIMs once away had their cake – n ate it too…even though the variable marking pattern had been introduced last year, the decrease in the number of questions from 123 to 90 created even more tension – no for me it dint…for me it just enhanced my fear of not bein able to solve the questions from areas which I dint know much about…coz with just 30 questions in quant n DI there was no much playing around…u had to stick to the questions given to u…

So much so for CAT…DI was tough as usual for me..there was only one calculation based caselet which was a bit time consuming…and one easy one…the scare was the more no of 2 markers in each section. True the IIMs once more stressed on the risk-taking ability of managers…this time with even more emphasis as there were 20 2 mkers in each section…

Some of the institutes have termed CAT 2005 as one of the toughest in history..with the Verbal section being defintely the toughest…howeva I dint find verbal so tough on Dday…verbal is a good day-bad day concept acc to me…u just got to have ur instincts rite in verbal n try to match ur thoughts with those of the paper-setter…at least dats what he means by stating ‘choose the most appropriate alternative’…in case of ne verbal question – new or old, and most importantly, in case of RC – good lord there were 2 mkers in tat section too this time…howeva was kinda my strong area this time so me was relaxed…

Quant was quant by its name – dint find it easy either – though I seem to have a good accuracy there…howeva the no of 2 mkers again was daunting…one had to go for them or else he wud comfortably ‘miss’ the so called cut-offs…

Wat is the main point is the tension that creeps in one mind during the paper, howeva much he tries to avoid it…this time I can say I avoided it to around 80 percent…but landed up lookin at the watch more than I was lookin at the paper itself…the passing seconds push one in deeper truble…if I hadnt done dat…maybe I wud have got past the cutoff in DI too..which I normally don’t – hehe…

Howeva there was some point in mind which told me continuously that dis was one paper where no preparation wud have helped…leaves me with more doubts regarding next year’s preparation – if at all the need will arise…da amount of people screamin on PG about the difficulty level and the vagueness of the paper are witness to dat..

For now its back to my work, and da expectation of performing better in the other exams to come…at least those were the ones which I kinda lok forward to more than CAT itself…!

Dedications to this lonely Diwali...

2005-11-03T08:30:00.000+05:30

Those of you who are wondering why the title ‘lonely diwali’ – well, diwali is certainly not very entertaining and lively for all – especially for those who do have holidays, but do not go home as they have a hoard of management exams approachin, and their scores in da mocks only seem to be dippin further down – and well, when 90 percent of their roommates leave for their homes and they cant – and when it’s a bright shiny diwali day and da visit to the nearby ATM yields null as their salaries havent yet been credited into their accounts- also when they spend the nite all alone watchin Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani on TV(now dats a switch- don’t remember havin seen one from ages), n plus a nite where the current goes twice on account of a stormy nite…

Ooh la la – dats Diwali there!!

Basically it was the same for all the people around – cudnt even sit in peace at a place due to the fireworks goin on in all directions – especially those rite outside the window, one side of which I was sitting in order to get some entertainment through Shah Rukh and Juhi…no big deal…isnt Ganesh the same way for Goans- when we don’t let even a single soul in the locality rest in peace – yes let the children enjoy their holidays, and da teenagers their free time – coz they aint getin ne later in their life, especially if they enter IT world…

Da absence of the salary realli stung me yest’day though – had to withdraw from the existing balance, which seemed like a beggars account, after havin donated funds to da likes of XL, FMS etc etc…except this time the etc doesn’t lead to much as I really don’t wanna flood da treasuries of more b-schools…Tot I’d buy a nice book instead – so picked Five Points Someone from the roadside – a friend had suggested I go thru it, as it depicted da life story of someone I cud neva be in life – an IITian…of course showin da truth of how da life in those institutes is…

Wid around 15 days to go, I don’t have much to say – except dat I keep tellin guys I shall give it my best shot, which sometimes is just not enugh to sail u thru…howeva a recent friend of mine wid whom I met day b4 yest encouraged me to some respectable extent – to say da guy is real gud at da mocks wud be an understatement…but me hapi dat I found a nice friend in him…

Retiring from the blog for 2day…spent an extra 2 hours at office, inspite of havin nutin much to do…but I am not very sure where the fatigue comes from – physical coz the responsibility at office can turn massive, or fear dat da whole cycle which happened post-July this year will repeat nxt year…Maybe only dat keeps me lookin ahead and not think of givn up…

Finali i leave da trainin room...

2005-10-29T06:30:00.000+05:30

I am always think i will blog frequently - and proudly quote dat blogging is my all time hobby n well…I am seriously able to blog as much as a normal guy who works 17 hrs per day wud do – not that I do that much work- not for all da gold in the world…but well I simply don’t simply to remember the golden line – ‘blogger.com’ so dat it can sometimes adorn the explorer bar of my firefox with it…

Well da core line of the blog signifies it all today- training over- work begins…question 2- is the work hectic? Doesn’t seem so as of now, but afaihh(as far as I have heard) it is…question 3- is the work interesting? – pretty much – but I don’t know if I shall be completely honest in stating that…coz well it isnt part of my agenda in life – still experience to lena hi hai – and it doesn’t concern a specific department in SSI…covers a whole range of possibilities and functions, relating different departments – if I can best put it…and its altogetha a different kinda work – all I need is now to plunge myself into it, so that I can start liking it soon…

Although I still gotto get my concepts cleared…certain procedures etc taken care of…etc etc…for starters I have received a temporary desk on the 8th floor…and so have my other 2 teammates who departed from the training group with me…howeva ‘desktops’ wasn’t exactly my idea of a perfect job…still seekin da kinda system about 75 percent of SSI has here – a laptop to be specific – don’t know when I get dat, but it will be good workin wid it…

As of today we just had review of some docs, and then one of the guys in the team explained da flow of da code which he was handling, to me…so dat I wudnt have ne probs with it later – he is goin on a leave – which reminds me – I must think about setting my own timetable properly now…

So far so good…havent yet found ne bloggers here in SSI..though me sure there will be a pretty big number hiding deir faces in the laptops and typin out their day-to-day happenings…shall update as soon as I locate one…

Ciao for now..

Things sumtimes just dont go ur way...

2005-10-12T06:00:00.000+05:30

This post is about 2 main things - how i want to proceed in life- and how is life proceeding for me...

Lets talk first bout da former...

Dreams - according to the most of the motivating books i have read till now, are wat take u forward in life - how many times in life have i heard the line - dont ever give up on ur dreams...thats what i have always agreed with n will to - think bout it - life will certainly change with say a high-edge percentile in the mocks - confidence enough to crack a 100 percentile on Dday, following which zoom thru the GD/PIs of the major b-schools, get thru the one rite at the top, slog ur ass for the next 2 years and move to the managerial field i have always wanted in life - an HR manager - or da least to say a Systems wida Marketing degree that wud me scale pretty high too...wat say then?? i get wat i want and a comfy life with a wife follows (correction - the second thing is an altogetha different experiment in life)...

Or say the famed management side proceedings dont go very well...well then proceed far off in the company itself - say the time taken to climb the ladder is long - still worthy enugh if u can be a functional consultant initially, slowly elevate upwards to the Staff stage and then move to the HR side..why not? after all, my skills reside in that area itself...life can be a cake-walk after that too naa? say a senior HR manager in 2-3 years...wudnt mind da toil of 2 eyars for that...

Lets come to part 2 of the discusssion...ahem! dats where i am at present naa...

Bored and bugged of life...as a rule to parallelism or shud i say 'antonymism', evry thing just doesnt proceed in da way u want it to sometimes...2nd attempt at the Common Aptitude Test and yeah - i'm a pretty bad second attempter - reasons - things not gettin serious enough due to the time spent at work...returnin home by 8-9 and well...formalities of bath and lunch takin up more time than normal...result - havin the preparatory material as the sleepin partner at nite - no dats not at all romantic...

Work seems to be goin fine with the trainin, but well things are gona get tough when we put in my stream - the name Interfaces and Conversions and all da things i have heard bout it till now dont reali sound so good as far as my career graph is concerned...but still the name Oracle - so gotto go by da rule that things will be tougher initiali- but well u gotto have patience...n maybe maybe better things are in store for u later...

Bout a month left for CAT and the tests to follow...n my blog overflows with my failure stories...

dont know what title to give...

2005-09-29T03:20:00.000+05:30

Blogging a stupid and boring phase in Oracle 2day...me had fever yest nite and am still tryin to overcome the weakness caused by it...n heh...i cant seem to do it!

Trainin seems to be a real dull period in Oracle SSI - at least for me it is...learnin on how to work with Oracle Applications - and will continue to do so in the next 2 days...of course i think Friday evening is Oracle Day so mite be excused off then..for now me planning to take some rest/do some preparations for CAT(which isnt goin newhere believe me)...or even attend the function - keepig the probability of me gettin a coat(suit) by Friday above 75 percent, but i dont think that will be da case...

Some consolation - at least the new trainer is good, knows his concepts well inspite of going a bit faster than normal. Of course lets not forget that he is the CMD of some company and hence has a good amount of experience. He seems to be patient with us and yea, good to talk with too...wont mention his name - he wudnt like me doin it...

I think the training carries on for another 2 weeks or so...after which i shall be assigned to my 'destined' cubicle...(OH GODD long awaitin it!!!)...at least for the sake of the phone...now evryone knows how much they want a cubicle and their personal space along with a phone so that they can cu-chi-coo with their girlfriends and get reminded by their parents that 'betaa..do get me so-and-so the next time u come home'...evryone wants it, howeva no one mentions it...bloody why cant people speak out their emotions?? Does the feeling of sitting in this training class with a guy to preside over the session give u airs of bein a corporate executive - or does it take u back to ur school and college days..?? i wud lay my bets on the latter!!

guess i got another 10 min before the trainer starts the rigmarole again...n what do i have here?? a pc...so i continue surfin for the time being...n contemplating what will happen in the next few days of trainin...

My first company :)

2005-09-21T00:55:00.001+05:30

FINALLLLY me accessing the net from the second largest s/w company in the world - Oracle itself - to be more precise Oracle SSI - Solutions Services India. SSI is basically a consulting company, and i am an Associate Consultant - to tell u the truth i still cant figure out why me called so - though i have some vague ideas.

SSI interacts with da Oracle country, ie the Oracle offices mainly at EMEA and APAC, who in turn interact with the clients and get the job done from Oracle SSI, which is located here at Bannerghatta Road in Commerce@Mantri. The job basically involves consulting in the sense upgrade and introduction of new features which the clients desire in the their products, and also development of new services(to some extent). So dats bout the gist of it - who cares as when the sal is high eh?

Well bout da induction - we had it as any other XYZ IT company - there was nuthin 'Oracle' bout it...normal talks and presentations from the various departments in SSI - like the HR, da managed services etc...along wid the normal masala of the Communication Skills programs - which was thankfully conducted by 2 XIMB graduates who i must say were really excellent...dat was a good time...

At present a highly bugging and boring guy is trainin us on the tech stuff - SQL to begin with...continuin with pl/sql blah blah yawwwwwn...too borin for a non-developer like me...hee hee...well not so much too..wanted to get into dbases so here I am...lets get goin wid it now...

Ciao for now!!

ORACLE - here i come!!

2005-09-09T07:10:00.000+05:30

Pancham of Ganesh Chaturthi today...n we are all busy...gettin ready for preparations of the nite when the ganesh visarjan is there as well as the preps for leavin tomm for Bangalore...mom n dad comin with me - nice holiday for them too...leavin by train from Vasco - a change of trains in between at Londa...

Parents and relatives kehte hain-'beta Oracle acchi company hai- use chhodna bewakoofi hogi- CAT vagaira ke baare me sochna chhod de'...well well well - does Oracle mean the end of the world? Does it mean that i have acquired all that i have to in life ? How can i discard my options now itself...when i havent even given my best to CAT and all the other exams to follow? Can i just leave my dreams stranded? Certainly not..

Howeva i am most certainly excited of the fact that Oracle happened for me - and well just 3 days separate me from joining it...shall edit you next on joining Oracle officially from my blog...till then -
c ya at Bangalore!!

Ganesh ne vaapas bulaaya...

2005-09-07T11:58:00.000+05:30

Know i havent edited you for long blog - but just as i had told i will...well da month that passed in Bangalore had actually been the month where i did learn a lot...to write evrytin bout it is actually out of bounds, coz there is so much which happened...listin the main events here -

- enrolled for TIME Aimcats - defintely worth takin them...six are over and my ranks are hoverin in the 1100's...want to pull them up to the 500's which is definitely possible...i answer them at St Francis College at Kormangala where i used to stay with my cuz...

- enrolled for Career Avenues Mock Cats - slightly on the easier side but here are the actual teachers who can give one a real feedback on how to answer the paper etc etc...struck up one 60 lately in one of the papers - but nowhere does that mean that it will be easy enugh to do dat on Nov 20...

- used to travel to Richmond Street almost evryday to go to Career Avenues(cav for short)...real tiring as i had to get down on Double Road and walk ahead from there..the buses wud neva wactually go there..

- usse yaad aaya - one great achievement...the BUSES - which i have got a good heck of by now - i mean the bus numbers which most people dread coz they tend to be hard to remember...n most of the times u have to change two buses etc to go to a single destination.

- Another thing which happened recently - my Ganesh gift i shall call it...made it thru Oracle - to be precise Oracle Solutions Services India or OSSI for short at Bangalore...here were the proceedings
-> 6th August called for test at the OSSI office at Commerce@Mantri on Bannerghatta road(sweet dreams of IIMB)...
-> Test in mornin comprisin of aptitude, math, englisn(exactly of CAT) and tech stuff too(databases and pointer programmin-picked for Y Kanetkar)...bombarded it like netin- probably main reason why i got thru...a good score
->selected among the top 33 from the 300-400 students- (this was following an essay - topic -'Finish what you start'...wrote real well - quoted examples of da Software Industry itself...
->immediate interviews...mostly HR kind..but main tech part bein of the Final Year project on which i was asked a lott..but went well...
->told to leave as we wud be notified later...guess wat - first notification aft 2 weeks (had almost given up hope - only for the fact that it had all gone real well)..sent a form which i was told to fill along with updated resume and send to be called for da next steps of entrance...me was surprised..
->waited for one week...only to see the offer letter itself in my inbox on the next friday..elated like netin!!

Now back to Goa to an awaitin thrilled parents...after havin spent some great time with my best friend who was who equally quite thrilled bout Oracle happenin...and me bein selected as an Associate Consultant (ahem!)...and what a great occasion - Ganesha Chaturthi itself...party time indeed!!...So me here for the next 2 days now n leavin on friday with parents to Blore...where i have found a pg at Kormangala...Oracle joinin on Sept 12th ie coming Monday..so maybe i can edit some more of you after i join there..

till then blog - tada!

Goodbye Goa...

2005-07-29T15:44:00.000+05:30

As i write this post, i am tryin to recollect alllll...almost all the things dat may have happened to me in Goa in da last 20 years..dats since i was born...of course i cant..but its so difficult to leave Goa...!

Shall miss the beaches, the quite alleys and streets at our place here, Panaji most of all...the cool free-from-contamination air, da BEST people in da whole world, all my friends and relatives, and of course my parents whom i love so much...yeah but me goin ahead to the next city now only to accomplish somethin..to achieve sometin great...my job, my MBA preps...just prayin to God dat things work out well for me...

As of now i dont know where i shall be ahead - Bangalore, Chennai or God knows where...but for me headin once again for a month to the city of all IT dreams...dats Bangalore...! So till then blog - ciao!!

packin up for a new life!!

2005-07-28T10:00:00.000+05:30

phew!! da days seem to be goin fast n i cant kinda help it..time's comin soon to say a goodbye to Goa...

decided to take up the TIME AIMCATs which are commencin from July 31st...n TIME's got no centre here...so well off to da nearest city to ans them..dats in case Caritor doesnt begin now for me...ie back to Bangalore...da city of dreams for a Software Engineer...but i am not one as of now - of course passed out with a 76.7 in da final year and with a 71.4 aggregate tag on my head now and printed for good on my resume - i go ahead...

What awaits me at Bangalore are a lot of things - my cuzin, apparently with whom i got to stay with, but just got da news dat he will be in Sweden for the next 2-3 months..so ab mujhe mera pataa thikanaa maloom nahin...shaayad kisi friend ke yahaan..jahaan kismat le chale - (dash of philosophy - excuse me)..

4 now mw packin up...just now mom's voice pierced the air - 'what about ur shoes? u dont have to take them?' yeah.more weight to the innocent arms...put it on..i can carry da full world..no probs at all - 4 now its just 2 bags..filled more with MBA preparatory material than my clothes n other stuff...coz thats what i shall be doin more there i guess...aimcats every sunday n preparation thruout the week just in case caritor doesnt bring itself out in da middle of the month..preparations will go a bit slower then...

feelin a bit dumb havin to make my parents pay up for the MBA stuff(application forms etc)..when i wantd to do it myself this time...still i shall be able to manage a huge chunk of it so no probs...hope the stayin at Blore is managed easily..

Da only thing that remains - mite not be able to edit da blog for a while now...so its up only until my last post which i guess comes on friday mornin...friday evenin i set off...!2

B A N G A L O R E !!

2005-07-20T12:11:00.000+05:30

Really a long time since i edited my blog...reasons for a sudden trip to the city which mite be my future home - the city of all IT dreams - Bangalore...

After my best friend set off on July 7th, dejectedly staring at the pc at nice brought me upon the arrival of a red letter mail in my gmail inbox...i rubbed my eyes to see nuthin but a call from Motorola for a technical test...(i had applied to the company some days back)...well n the test was the day after that day - Saturday 9th in the morning at 10 am...

The events that followed were fast-paced and hectic...had a brief sleep only of about 3 hrs dat nite after havin packed the luggage and arranged my certificates etc for which mom n dad woke up to and helped me out..the next day the bus tickets were taken n bfore i knew it, i was takin a nap on the KSRTC bus to Blore...

After quite a long journey (realised that day dat KSRTC buses dont take the margao - karwar route but go via Hubli)...reached Bangalore at around 7:30 am n there were only 2 hrs or so to reach the company for the test...had already called Kiran (introducing my close friend who was having his final semester internship at Motorola that time)...his brother Arun( introducing my second closest pal) came to pick me up from Navrang theatre where i got off the bus n took me home...

After a quick bath and breakfast i was off to Motorola with Kiran in a rickshaw (cost us 90 bucks - the b**st***s...daylite robberies i tell u...da test began exactly at 10..was surprised to see that it was totally a new paper and none like the questions of the recent test papers which Kiran had sent me the previous day...howeva got into the mood immediately n found that the test was fine - not so bad after all...da link-list data structure programs seemed comfy too...although the second program dint make ne sense (remind me to revise my theory of short n long integers later)...

Once da test was done my primary objective of being at Blore was done...n the remains was to enjoy with my friends..meet my best friend and party!!...This of course was to follow in da next 3-4 days...now yeah..cant possibly rite down evry bit of it...just a gist of da events...

Spent most of the time at their house as mostly Kiran was busy later...so was with Arun...met my best friend a couple of times...she was placed in Siemens and was stayin in a guesthouse temporarily given by them - in contrast with another friend who was stayin in a posh colony (ahem! Raheja Residency)...also managed to check out some cool places like Forum at Kormangala with Kiran where lunch was at McDonalds...and also had dinner at a nice place called Green Onion on Brigade Road (man i luv those places)...

Managed to catch Sarkar on Monday the 11th...a FANTA FABULO movie...RGV(Ram Gopal Verma) does it again...with absolutely brilliant performances from the entire starcast - especially AB bfore the interval and AB Jr after the interval - a nicely balanced version...go watch it - i saw it for 45 bucks at Tribhuvan near Majestic...but u can catch it at PVR or neother multiplex...the movie is even worth a 150 buck ticket...!!!

Also stayed over with my cuz on Wednesday nite...a bachelor who works at Wipro Embedded and is a real great guy...have always loved his company coz i can get to learn so much from him...maybe i shall be stayin with him in the near future..n maybe dat shall be too early from now...the mocks are gonna start soon n i dont know when i shall land up next in Blore coz Caritor isnt yet out with our joinin letters...

All said and done all the party time overshadowed my loss of the job - i cudnt make it thru the test...cudnt understand why but yeah was dejected as it had been one in a million chance...howeva decided i shall try my best for a better job in Blore...

Left on Thursday n was back on Friday the 15th mornin at Goa...intime to see my grandma who had arrived last week (sigh!)...Blore had whiffed away like a dream but seemed more than real to me now...sumtin bout the city -

Bangalore had changed from good to bad n to WORSE now...movement in the traffic had been sickenin and tiresome...we mostly roamed on bikes (Arun's new Wind)...but used to get terribly bugged when caught for long in a jam with the traffic counters showin 90 minutes to go etc etc...howeva the pollution and travel with the traffic maybe were the things which did make me lose out on a lot of energy when i arrived at Goa back..dats why my health hasnt been so good in the last 3 days..howeva i am feelin much better today...reasons enugh for editing the blog...

Blore is cool n happenin if u want it to be...in reality the city of dreams for an IT professional but even worse that Mumbai in several other cases as i have noticed...

Check it out!!!

Cleaning up...

2005-07-01T11:01:00.000+05:30

Am I tired or wat?? I think this is the last time me clearing my shelf n papa’s…lies above it…got a whole lot of assorted stuff spread out on the floor yest nite which I have spent the morning cleaning up…now ninety percent of it is safely tucked in the buags – a major of which will be leavin the house soon…either with me, or with my cuzin for her engg studies, and some for my junior engg boy who pays me so well..(grin!)

Arranged the stuff exactly like I wanted it…the newest stuff bein the nearest – none other than my MBA preparatory stuff – assorted from TIME, CL, IMS etc etc…gotto go thru the whole lot in a span of few days now…few days shit – Caritor seemed to be least interested in callin us to join soon – rumour has it that we mite be called in the third week of August or so, which sounds so late..for now I think I have already applied to more than 20 companies but not a reply from a single one. My resume isn’t that bad eh? But of course it lacks the mammoth percentiles bestowed by universities such as VTU and Annamalai down south, due to which the only guys beatin us to the jobs are the southies…me kinda tired applyin…n will be more bored now waitin for Caritor’s joinin letter…I’ve got a score to settle with the people there…

Got used to wearin these 3/4ths now…dey look cool and will suit me when I’m outa Goa…poor me don’t even know whether me at Chennai or Blore itself…help me God…!!

Recovered soooo many things while cleaning up in the last 2-3 days…my KG-I report card, stating me perfect in all respects of studies but a final remark – ‘rather talkative’…cant understand if children aren’t talkative who will be? Maybe she was grading me relatively to the class dat time…the rest all bein sad souls who cudnt utter a word…but acc to my mom they all used to chatter a lot too – just that when the teacher came around, she used to see me with a broad smile…which from some angle appeared like that of a thief – aur phir mera time aa hi jaata tha…

In the midst of the cleaning process, was reading another blog and got a load of some real good pics of IIMK…mannn its like a summer resort on a hill station or something…the campus and the views around are breath-taking…wonder who ‘studies’ there…but it seems to be the ideal place for dat too…at once IIMC seemed to drop down from the image I had of it…but well – IIMK zaraa door ki baat hai – with an average batch profile of 24 months workex (as I heard later)….ahem! for now IIMs hi to zara door ki baat hai…!

Cant write more for today…gotto go off to do some more cleaning..n got a bday party in an hour and a half…so gotto rush to dat…!! Catch ya later…

da secret....

2005-06-26T12:09:00.000+05:30

finally i am at the PC once again - unkempt as ever on a Saturday nite...but with a sense of satisfaction and a smile of peace on my face...a lot of things had been taken care of in this week...reasons enugh for the light heart and the relaxed winds flowing by...

But maybe this is da first secret i keep from the blog...sawwy buddy but i just cant leak this one out until its da rite time.(which it isnt now)...all i can say that somethin really wonderful happened this week...for which i (majorly)...n my best friend had waited for a long time...n well it did happened...to which we rejoiced..but got little time to do so...hush hush...secret ok...u not supposed to leak it out to neone...

Da proceedings of the week had been hectic...in order to carry out da 'unsaid' task..but all da worries and tensions were immediately set aside once the task was executed successfully...n i cant still believe it has been done now...n that i can heave a sigh of relief n say that part of the tensions etc are done with...

Holiday mood settled in...but well i cant elt it overcome coz this is da only time i can get goin with my preps or the MBA entrances - the mock CATs for which will start soon now...at July end...n of course i shud have packed up my ammunition etc and be fully geared for it..

saali yeh meri company bhi itni jaldi joinin letter hi nahin bhejti? wats up with it huh?? n to the think of all the IT companies (around 13-14) to which i have spent my valuable time in applying havent even given me a faint look - apparently all still have their backs turned....the next resume i send will definitely be perfumed...chahe woh email se hi bheja kyon na ho!!

Liked one thing a good friend said to me today - 'Ashish...u really seem to know what u want in life'...but to how much extent is it true re? i dont know my stuff well - a bad coder- but not exactly the reason me runnin away from it...howeva yeah..can spend more n more time now...n wud like to too...to find out more bout the specialisations in which i wanna 'expand' myself...n where do i fit in!

lets hope i succeed in doin so...

Termination of graduation!!!

2005-06-21T12:02:00.000+05:30

I knew i would neva fget the last look on the external examiner Raikar's face as he said 'ok..dats just about it - all done'...a sense of relief, satisfaction, and a feeling of completion - the completion of my four years of toil n bull shit hard work, of copied assignments, of bunked lectures, of nervousness and tensions of by-hearting 1200 page text books for a single semester paper, of gossip and flirting with gals, of eating the pastries, resoice and frankies from Monginis at Leonaras, n God knows wat wat...need i say more?

The last presentation for the final year project was done today, with the external asking some SDLC related questions, and of course our internal guide Antao adding some rubbish doubts in between much of which he must have not understood nethin himself...all in all an OK presentation - not bad i shud say...but now who is bothered anyway - its ALL DONE...i can safely look back now and say that Padre Conceicao was a dream that has passed and is never to return - howeva of course being nostsalgic and adding some really fond memories...

Well certain thumbs up and thumbs down - which i would list later on the blog regarding what i faced at Padre...but all in all - the 4 years course had been worth it only because of the great friends i had found and the network i have presently established...its not huge...but big enugh to spread the word and contact...to be safe the yahoogrp for our class owned by me itself, entitled Bandarnagar can do most of the work...

Cheers!

ghanan ghanan ghir ghir aayo...

2005-06-18T00:05:00.000+05:30

my eyes opened n i heard the first sound of the 'heaviest' rains today mornin - a loud sound which promised never to end...baahar dekha to it was pouring cats, dogs, lizards, bears, tigers and whoeva else cud be thrown down. Yes, the monsoon was on...

Finally the long-awaited season had broken out and the atmosphere had became much cooler...the sky had assumed the darker colours, but i cudnt even see it clearly as i was blinded by the rain. The rain. Aha! i think all had awaited it long enugh this time - but what a timing...my friends, including my best friend had finished her project presentation at college yesterday, havin safely said goodbye to good old under-raduation days and there i was - stuck as eva with my team, with da project stil on our heads...had to collect the report from the place where it had been given for binding 2 days earlier...so had to hurry out...evrythin was a muddle as it normally was with the first rains - i somehow managed to fish out the umbrella from under all my old books under the bed - it was perfectly fine...imagined all the lazy people like me in each house doin the same at that time itself...coz they just cudnt find 'time' to do it earlier...

Mom's leg had had a hairline fracture and she had to walk slow as we took our first steps in the puddles down...the scene as we proceeded in the car was terrible...exactly as predicted by the sewage expert and city hygiene officer Ashok Naik - the work left incomplete due to the collapse of Parrikar Government had shown its results well...half of Panaji was badly flooded in the first half of the morning itself...never before had i seen so much water collectin on the main road near the Secretariat...n heh..there wa more to come...

Mom had to leave me quite at a distance from the pavement where she dropped me as it was totally flooded...i walkd across and waited outside the shop to collect the reports after da others arrived...n then yeah - the thoughts on a rainy day as i always imagine them - had the mobile...so msged and smsed a couple of people...

da wait was long..but watchin the rains was pastime...these guys arrived n then it was back to the normal day once again...well but of course there is a long time to go bfore the season finally closes its doors on us...so me cooool..!!

my furst mobile...!

2005-06-12T00:25:00.000+05:30

actually acc to the indian riwaaj, nethin new to the house must receive a BIG welcome along with da usual 'aarti' and stuff...howeva the mobile dint receive ne of this kinda 'naariyal swaagat'...it just slipped in the house - and i guess my best friend too doesnt have an idea bout it...coz well - she is outaaa range - n when she was the one i wanted to tell first...!!!!

got the motorola c200 as a second hand from one of my friend who is a mobile geek - he has just bought a nokia 6680 from one of his friends for 25k...the ass was showin it to me - n well - i was dreamin of the phone i shall take for myself later, with which i wud show off with...a higher end one - but me reconsiderin the video option - it isnt really much of use u see...

nyway - talkin bout the mobile i got today - of course papa ki krupa se...mom n me initially tot of it for him...n now of course its there with me itself - (the only son rulez)...well shall teach him the controls but me myself figurin it out to a certain extent as it is kinda like a primitive cell - no color display etc...only txt based...me satisfied as i have da option of sendin sms and callin itself...in fact me ok with just smsin...its just 25 p u see...!

have just msged a cuple of my friends n received deir missed calls...well - had experienced wat a mobile was only thru my best friend's one till now - today i had one in my own hand - n of course it was no big deal - coz more than 99 percent of my friends had it already...in fact there is still a time when i will get a cell i have been wantin to take - this was juz to experience wat a cell is like - n yeah it has proved to be quite good too...except that my best friend's missin and havent got her call as yet...she will be back to her place tomm and shall question me of course - 'now u tellin me?'...

so acc to dad da last thing which was supp to come in the house(basically as it had almost become a necessity now) has come - and can be used by all now...dis line must appear funny for all - but its not for him coz he has gone a long way to see this little thing - also bein not at all tech savvy...n of course me too coz me been waitin a long time for this...

cheers!!!

Congess rises to power...

2005-06-07T13:00:00.000+05:30

da results of the by elections were announced yesterday n well - at 4 outa 5 places Congress set their flag...seems like a joke when takin into consideration all the Parrikar Government had done for da state in da last year...especially with things like IFFI, the eradication of the Baina cubicles etc...

How cud the people fget all that?? Are they ready to fall prey to the misleadings of the goons like Babush, Pacheko, Deshprabhu, Faleiro etc...??? It doesnt make any sense to me. I had felt da people had appreciated the dynamic nature of Parrikar...wen he was around everyone only appreciated him...but soon enugh the baddies arrived to stab him in da back...i admit Parrikar wasnt all that right too...he intentionally never differentiated betn religions but gave importance to the Hindus - as such the Christians and the Muslims were bound to feel neglected...the Congress took advantage of that n kept their support from da Christians etc strong - of course Babush won y a huge margin due to da votes from the Taleigao people...da rest of the people fgettin that Babush wud only help out the Taleigao residents in their development and not those of newhere else...

Izidor Fernandes lost badly at Painguinim though...n the Congress had to lose out on one place...i guess all the beer he had ordered in da mornin to 'pre-celebrate' da success of his victory had to be drained out - the Painguinim people were strong and determined to throw the Congress off stand...howeva at Margao Digambar Kamat got da majority by a mere 1300 votes..i shud say the new candidate Sharmad Raiturkar almost made it by gettin 7300 votes which itself is a huge number for a newcomer...just wish he had made it...

Finally today Margaret Alwa officially announced da ascension of Pratapsingh Rane on the Throne of the Chief Minister - da place was worth a site - lookin more like an 'adda' of gangsters announcing their next plan of conquerin Goa...Dayanand Narverkar, Luizin Faleiro, Jeetendra Deshprabhu, Babush, Pacheko etc etc...all havin more roles to play in the uncivilised life in Goa then in politics...of course der wud be a lot of partyin these days...each thinkin in his mind that Parrikar Government is finally gone...

Tommorow will be the swearing ceremony - and then we can safely say that we have handed over Goa in 'cleanest' hands...

D

2005-06-06T10:00:00.000+05:30

with about a week and a half left for the project demo, and with dat Uma and Mangirish leavin soon from Goa...we decided to get onto one final good meet today...a movie n the day to enjoy of course...

Just the 4 of us...spent time full day till 6 in da evenin...food from 'Royal Foods' was good indeed...its really worth a try once again n i must tell my parents bout it...wonder why they dont have it up at Panaji...it wud have been a greatt success for sure...cant say much now as the Congress is up in Goa once again with a majority, and with all the goons possible like Babush and Pacheko - guess its 'gundaraj' now...

The movie seen was D -> Ram Gopal Verma's latest underworld flick - this time focussing on Dawood's life itself...Ranveer Hooda playin the lead role in da movie (i managed to catch the name at the end of the movie)...n well he does literally carry the film on his shoulders...his character is portayed fabulously by Verma - although he hasnt even directed da movie - just produced it..but da drops of Verma's ideas are all over da movie's canvas...

Verma has once again managed to create a very good film undoubtedly...having focussed a lot on the main character...he even has shown the linkups of da actor (called Dishu in da movie) wid a heroine from Bollywood - presumably Mandakini from the actual Bollywood...who is Dawood's wife...n mann does she look beautiful!!!! I mean - where does Verma pick such characters - name is Rukhsar n guess i shud do a bit of checkin on her online...wat ya say?

D proves to be a good followin (wont say sequel) to Satya and Company - looks like Verma RULES when it comes to makin movies on da underworld...gave it a four and a half on five...the movie is of short length...n is definitely worth a watch...so yeah catch it at ur nearest theatre.

2005-06-05T20:50:00.000+05:30

Alchemist points the way ---->path to motivation and destiny...

2005-06-05T02:05:00.000+05:30

'Baapat, with one hand to his cheek- in a pose to slap himself any time and Antao, staring like the dumbest asshole in da world...wat more is needed? the 10 minutes of a orals were to pass soon - the questions easy..n Limy and Shruti in good form today...guess all's well that ends well...justified by da 'yippppeeeeee' and yell from Limy's side da moment the door of the lab opened out to the temporary free hold and shut onto us from behind da portals of one sick n boring theory subject we had this time (true i had asked for the elective - par come on yaaron - kuch raham karo!)...dats Multimedia Systems for us...'

The orals done with..spent da rest of the day with my best friend and others, stopped to talk to my juniors aft da exam at Leo's and i was off home...now for the main part of today's story...ahem!

finished a greattttt book today which was really really appreciable...and was worth all da comments i had seen or read bout it earlier...Paulo Coelho's Alchemist...not that da title under Ayesha Takia's (mannnn she's hotttttttt) interview in the newspaper attracted me to it...a few other friends had too...but it was really worth it. I had discovered it accidentally in the library, even when Rohan had told me i wudnt find it...guess it wanted to be read by me...

wont state much on the story - just that its that of a boy who seeks a certain trasure hidden in some part of the world for him...n hopes and aspires to find it only on the basis of his dreams...coz he believes in them...some important lessons we learn from it - neva fear from pursuing one's own dreams - perserverance and determination will help one achieve them and MUCH MORE soon enugh....its just that we shudnt give up in life - dats coz for each one of us in da world, there is some treasure hidden somewhere...just waitin for us to cast our eyes on it...but maybe it just takes more that a mere view...it takes dedication and effort to pursue one's dreams - so GUYS dont be afraid of dreamin !!!

wud recommend the book to neone who
a) wants some motivation in life
b) is broken down n nothin in life seems possible
c) who needs some pastime
d) all of the above

Cheers!

first meetin wid a PGite...

2005-06-02T00:11:00.000+05:30

to sum up day's events...library today mornin...n luckilly got the book i wanted very soon - The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho...read only 30 pages and was drawn to the simplicity of the book...really good books written here...simple language but highly motivatin...plannin to finish it off in 2-3 days...got mannny more books to read...

met up with my best friend in college today later and had lunch with her and the others..but stupidly ended the day with a silly argument..which i proposed to end the moment i reached home...had other plans today..was supposed to meet Jormund Elver- the PGite i used to chat with on Yahoo mess...got a lift to Panaji in Aditya's car - he was the guy who had apparently appreciated my performance in the GD classes at IMS...by da way he is from IIFT..

Jormund Elver - or Kunal as is real name was, yeah was cool...a strike-on 100 percentiler in English...i guess a whole lot owin to the HUGE amount of readin that guy does - believe me i guess he has realllly read a LOTTT...mythology, sociology, fiction, non-fiction etc etc etc etc....a lot more to name....so i was basically takin suggesions from him on how shud i improve my readin habits...

he is gonna join NMIMS..guess only coz his Math n DI performance wasnt upto mark...n had to lose out on some greatt calls...else his percentile was a 99+...wonder why he dint convert SP Jain as he had workex n was an MCom too...hamesha lagtaa tha main bhi english mein kuch teer mar hi saktaa tha..but well - english bein my strongest section let me down on 21st Nov...so der is nuthin much i can say now but pray for da best for ne entrance exam now onwards...

Kunal apparently loves Goa..like ne other b-schooler around i guess...have met many more on chat who do so n havent been surprised...looks like me am runnin away from Goa though...simply bcoz it cant give sufficient exposure to my priorities, and also my growth...as Goa is normally meant to be a place post-retirin n for a holiday..but one shud prefer to have his/her education outside Goa acc to me...as it has more exposure to muchhh more stuff...

day endin out with da last words of the blog- yes do come to GOA and have a BLASTT!!

first blog in evenin i guess...

2005-05-31T20:28:00.000+05:30

just returned home from college n well - the Image Processing viva had turned out good...Princy himself was at the chair along with another guy who resembled Chakravarthy from Satya n well - gave the say to Adu in most of the cases...my viva lasted for juz around 10 min...thanx to the gals along wid me who well, dint know that da height of an image is measured in pixels...i was wonderon what da hell was wrong with them...

spend the rest of the day wid my best friend...some real nice talks over a long lunch (well it was her eatin slowly as usual - she'll kill me if she reads dis)...went back to college only to realize that da orals day aft tomm wud mostly be postponed coz of the election scenario...left at 5 n well - found myself in da bus with my English teacher from school...another for whom i was like the 'fav' student...moreover i had scored the highest in her subject at da Goa Board...the meeting reminded me of those days once again - the busy mornin - the tears in my dad's eyes...shakin hands and distributing pedaas - well the remanin day had gone in that itself - in a couple of days itself i had become top notch famous in Goa i guess...aaaah - welll...those were the TIMES!!!

I had a nice talk wid the teacher all the way...she seemed interested to hear dat i had resumed the habit of readin...n asked me how i get time for it - to which i bragged - 'i have to the best of the time available- n have to FIND time'...she wud be leavin for Germany in a few days to meet her son...so i wished her the best for her journey...

wished i cud step into my school shoes again for once - as life was gonna be hard now...once i got into the corporate world - wud be losin much of the 'happy-go-lucky'
part of myself n turnin into the more serious guy - sob! dont wanna do dat...but work, MBA preps and varrrious otha responsibilities mite push me to the edge...
It seemed all da more peculiar though...Goa was sort of wavin me a slow goodbye...as though it knew i was gonna leave soon - as i was meetin all da people i cud have missed meetin bfore i left...like the teacher today wfor example whom i wudnt have met as she had already retired...also manny other friends who somehow managed to bump into me even though the others hadnt heard of them...strange huh?

boy o boy - da corporate world - am i waitin for it NOW!!!!

'memory blast' exams end for now...

2005-05-29T00:55:00.000+05:30

da last glass of 'rasna' drunk for da nite...n da last chat window closed- me only wid my blog for today now...i'm already into the nexy day - but peeped in to rite bout the end of the Semester 8 theory exams...

'memory blast' coz well - dese exams involve no actualy application of stuff - just remember and vomit in paper...so wat is the use? i for one did one subject well this time- coz i think i understood it well and have started likin it - Image Processing..dint know i will like it though...howeva looks like dis is the only electronic signals lesson i shall be likin...regardless of whether the beauty queen from college 'Natasha' was there to teach it or da old man 'Adu'(princy for those who dont know)...

Image Processing was today - n well it was a nice paper - set by Adu itself..so guess all went accordingly well - da think to post was bout the post plans- went so bluddy fast tat i had to catch a breath...decided last minute for Bunty and Babli - aftnoon show...so there we were..movie was total timepass and doesnt make sense at all..so it isnt at all worth wastin ur time n money in it ...Big B isnt so good but chemistry betn Abhishek and Rani is cool...rani looks reallllll cute tooo...

da post 8 pm was one of my dearest friend= Raghu's phone aft a real long time really..chatted for long...he too apparently wanted to talk a lot...

closing down for today...

2005-05-07T03:30:00.001+05:30

Alvidaa PCCE...

2005-05-07T03:30:00.000+05:30

does the title of the post give way to somethin? naaaaahh...its not that i am actually leavin da college now itself - but wanna brag a bit bout the hop which our class itself hosted for the farewell for our batch at PCCE...

happened yest..still da faces of friends and mates are fresh in mind...a grand farewell hosted by our juniors - followed by the hop which was hosted by our class - BE Computers. Thinkin bout it makes me wonder dat yeah well - i gotto write a lot...so much happened n so fast since last week - discussions on how the farewell shud be n whether we can arrange for the hop....but of course da nitty with of Mangirish's mind cant be matched...once he makes up his brains regardin somethin no one can have a say rite? The rumour of the hop was soon ON....of course along with this was the idea bout wearin a suit for the farewell....gosh i know me wud look like a clown n well..hadnt ever thought of wearin it but yeah...friends managed to convince and well Pramesh n some of the others did have these weird ideas in their mind rite from the start...

Borrowed the suit from one of the sons of Dad's close friend...ahem..well i dint look dat baaaad too...5th may was up..was to head in da car to college...mornin jampacked with errands regardin the arrangements of the hop as well as a movie- SRK n Johar Productions Kaal which we managed to fit in somehow...got to Mangirish's house and puffed up perfume all over n there all of us were - lookin as handsome as ever...there was a surprise awaitin me at the hop though - 95 percent of the boys had turned up with suits...n of course the gals with sarees lookin real nice...the farewell was a BIG BLASTT and my sincere thanx to our juniors...esp Roma, Reema, Ralston and Liz Anne. There was a cake cutting ceremony, several contests, we had special sheets to write bout each other which we cud take home then ie each one take his own...another surprise that me n mah close friend was chosen as the best couple for da evenin...evrythin was perfectly arranged - rite up to the final Mr and Miss Computers prizes which Hrishikesh and Snehal bagged...

Da farewell dun...we were off to the hop aft a quick change (ahem in the college corridors)...now this was somethin which had been long planned and i can say was a grand success due to the efforts of the four main guys - Samson for his SUPERB deejaying and music, Preston and Braulio for the arrangements and of course dear Mangirish who takes the overall credit...we really danced like mad...at least i did and i noticed dat the rarest people had a great time too...was a treat to watch balls dancin...n of course his matchmate(our creation of course) laksha doin the jhatka dancin...Malvika, Phanikar for his amazing pelvic thursts, n all the others had a great time...Sam had seen to it that evryone gets their fill of the hop - so had planned allll kinda music...includin hip-hop, rock, trance, indi pop, slow etc etc etc...BE Computers was rockin it out...!!

I know i will neva be able to fget the day - esp when Neha (my esteemed bench partner) and the study geek had stayed the full day, when Anay and Pashmin danced again - n it was nice to see them do so...n of course all the zealous faces of tmy friends...buddies for all the great times we had had in the last 3 years...all the picnics, hops, get togethers - the plethora of college activities was comin to an end - and what an end it was....gleamin with the soulful melody of KK's Pal...and me watchin each one as they hugged each other n waved their last goodbyes..werent exactly last as we still had the dreaded exams to go..but we knew we wud neva be able to enjoy like this...eva again...

for once i shud be sayin long live BE Computers - PCCE batch of 2004...!!

end of engg college days...

2005-05-01T12:15:00.000+05:30

gosh havent seen u from quite a while blog - have i? even when India lost to Pak in tat pathetic final i dint find it interestin enugh to give my own view of the mess...coz maybe it wasnt kinda necessary...they got the full thing and are out searchin for a good coach for themselves...

party time today - n nostalgia time too...officially, we are out of Engineering college, havin finished our 8th sem engg...with only the exams to go now..(n ahem!- of course the remains of the project work including the docs etc)...how was the last day? poocho mat...class mein last day to ho gaya...dat was wednesday...when we were out stalkin the class for every but of chalk piece to throw on each other...n of course despite all grumbling managed to catch a last bit of the last lecture of the semester in multimedia systems...(woh to hona hi tha)..n well then that day saw its end...

today? well fine - the last internal test we wud have ever answered - and of course a bit of work on the project..a lot of it in fact...(somehow i saw myself doin a lot too today)...lekin chalk pieces aaj nahin miley - to kya hua??? paper balls se kaam chalaana padaa...i think the lab was a place to see with all the paper balls flyin all around - me too jumpin around likea kid throwin balls on my friends and showerin them sometimes...surely no one must have done this ever bfore in da history of PCCE...n no one will too...the lab assistant too got a few of them on him and dat was indeed a funny sight...all the more the day ended on a great note...

To think widely, will i miss college days? naah - not this college - but the friends..aah yes...they have really been a great treasure...n i will treasure all my friends i have gained here always...keepin somethin from u for now blog..a new relationship which appears to be struck up, but hasnt flowered as yet...so will update ya later on it...more nostalgia on the farewell day in another 3 days if i get to edit u that time - till then...ciao...!!

My Night out - (anonymous post)...

2005-04-14T00:11:00.001+05:30

Dont actually know why i am postin this..but juz coz i liked it...it was posted on PG...

__________________________________________________________

My Night-Out

My feet were getting numb. My arms were getting tired. But I sat there, looking at the monitor, pretending to work. What if I slept off on the keyboard? What would people around me think? Am I not competitive enough. Would another night out hurt. "No it won't." I consoled myself. "Work a little more." I told myself.

Images of links between tables and pages from what we call, ETRMs crossed my mind. "Why?" I asked myself. "Why doesn't my mind wander away to the more beautiful things in life?" "Why does it always have to be WORK!!!?"

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I pressed the shutdown button on the PC as if to say, "I hate you". As if in reply, it took me twice to shut it down. I kicked my locker and walked out of my cubicle. The security at the reception looked into my eyes sympathetically. I pretended like I am solving problems in my head. As if the world depended on my silly program. As if to justify the fact that the Security needs to respect me. I hated myself. I walked down the corridor towards the lift.

There I was, on the fifth floor. It was 3.30 in the morning. The terrace looked deserted. I loved the feeling. I was all alone. Just me, and the sky and the stars and the early morning breeze. I looked all around. The world looked much beautiful. Somewhere, far away, I could see lights. I presume that must have been another workplace where people like me are working away at their PCs.

I stood at the edge of the terrace. As I looked at the road that ran in front of our office, I slowly kept my palm on the wall. A chill ran down my spine. Tiny droplets of water had formed on the wall, which I touched. I wanted to feel it again. I touched it again. It was the most wonderful feeling. I wondered why I don't do these things often.

I decided to stay there till sunrise. I closed my eyes and waited. Finally, I could see a faint light in the east. Even though we hardly notice, these things do happen. Like sunrise and stuff. I saw the sun rise. As he rose I could see more and more buildings like ours. The breeze had got much stronger. It was like sitting near the window seat of a bus that was moving through some lonely road near a lush paddy field. I got that taste in the air. I got the feel. It was like heaven had met earth.

In the cubicle, I congratulate someone when his SELECT statement works. There I was, all alone, on the terrace, when more important things were happening and I had no one to congratulate. I wanted to cry "Thank you God". "Thank you for giving me this beautiful world to live in." But... the words wouldn't come out. I felt guilty. I knew very well that I would go back in the cubicle once my emotions wore off.

"No" I said. "I am NOT going back there again." I ran down the stairs. I wanted the glass that covers our reception to break and let some of this air in. I rushed into my cubicle and got my bag and stuff. Running out, I did not bother to sign the register. Strangely, my vehicle started with just one kick. I rode my bike quite fast, just to feel the air on my face.

When I reached the road, I realized that I was late. Considering the fact that I was in office since yesterday, I was really really late. The world had moved on. People had spent another night with their families. Kids had spent another day studying for exams. Old folks had spent another night wondering when to dye their hair. Teenagers had spent another night dreaming about their loved ones.

There I was, like a machine coming out of my office building. I saw people taking their morning walks. Some of them jogging. Some of them standing and talking. Some old aunties jogging and talking and laughing, all at the same time. There were newspaper-boys, milk-vendors and what not.

I started feeling out of place. "Was I from another planet or something?" I thought. I was dreaming I guess, a milk-vendor chap on his bicycle nearly hit my bike. "Idiot" I said. Didn't he know I am going home after a tough day? Didn't he know that I am tired, and do not have the energy for such crap? "Wait a minute," I told myself. "Are you doing somebody a favor by staying in the office so long?" "Will this world be a better place if you do that?" "Do you have it in you to buy one meal for that milk-vendor's family?"

YOU CAN'T!!! And that's the truth. You can't do anything except writing pieces of code, which you regard as full of life for reasons known best to you.

I broke into tears thinking about my own plight. I hated the fact that I existed. Why was I going through this entire trauma? What was holding me here? The money?. The passion to program?. The feeling that I would be isolated if I didn't work?. I don't know. I am still searching for the answers.

Then, suddenly out of nowhere, images of my family came into my mind. My dad, who had taken care of the family since I remember him. In fact, since I remember anything. My mom who would not have slept even a little bit, since I have not reached home. And my brother, who doesn't actually show it, but misses me when he doesn't see me. "I am not alone" I shouted. "I have this beautiful world to live in, with beautiful people in it"

Friends, do go out sometimes. Share your life with the people you love the most. Share your life with the nature. Share it with the wind. Share it with the sun. Share it with the rain. Things much much more important than programming is happening out there. But it won't come for you, you have to go out and find it.

Source: Unknown, recieved thru email.

Very well written Mr Anonymous

___________________________________________________________

Goan dreams of MBA...

2005-04-11T13:11:00.000+05:30

had been missin mah best friend so much today dat i did tend to fite a bit online with her juz wen she had come online a few min ago...as i dint want her to leave soon...but she had to...so i guess now its me n u dear blog...

heard today dat well - da topper in CAT 2004 here in Goa dint make it to the final calls of IIMB and C...so all the huff- puff he had gone thru durin all his preps was down the drain for a minute...cudnt really imagine it..as i know he had prepared, of course i had too..but my luck cudnt just strike up on the D Day i guess..whereas his did...reasons enugh for the 99.10 numbers...

howeva the panels of interviewers dont seem to be impressed by a Padre Conceicao profile..(for dose of u who dont know - dats my eng college - unheard of, in ROI - rest of India dat is....so finally me not gettin thru dat time..n tryin again now with a better profile - dat of work ext mite really add to somethin...wonder if i will be able to work n prepare togetha...but i think me made for managin things...n neway - things are gonna get even more hectic afterwards in b-school life...so i better gear up now itself...

dreams tonite will comprise Alto of course - the new one we bought yest..hee hee..n the new music system i put in it...n maybe me drivin it along with mah closest friends...rockin the town...dat will be some fun...at present me confused...yes CAT, submissions, study for sem exams, n also the work at my company...all are lined up...so manage?? big deal eh?

one month to go...

2005-04-03T14:10:00.000+05:30

Nite time - time again to edit the blog as usual - dis was the last week juz befaw the 'one month to go' time...bizy bizy with projects evryone - howeva me not takin so much interest in our project for starters...gotto finish it..dats it...but well - gotto learn heck of Java - every bit of it...although i hate the stupid syntax it has...so kinda gonna sit down tom n work on practically with the java features of our project - ahem in detail...we are workin on p2p system architectures using JXTA set of protocols intro by Sun Microsystems...

Have been readin quite a bit these days n wud like to delve further into it, coz later me into the work field der kinda mite not be ne time for moi to relax n enjoy turnin the pages of ne book even if i wish too...me gettin interested into the economics stuff...n buildin up my interests into it...howeva well one month before i have to start prep for exams too...da last kinda tech exams i shall have...

One month also to be departin from friends...some very close ones...n of course mah best friend whom i think i have spent max time with dese days...n from the last year...think somewat she has been a lot to think about for me...n has shared a lot of my life - wish it cud have even been more, but i guess its a race against time now; gotto make the most of it...

A great deal this month then...n a lot of catchin up to do...more importantly i gotto enjoy ebethin i do !!!

second last internals of Engg life...finally done...

2005-03-30T14:52:00.000+05:30

A back which is really painin...oooff....juz finished chattin with mah best friend, n tot i'd do some editin stuff ova here...yeah rite...another series of the stupid internals over...oly 3 subjex this time but well seems like a mountain though...n evrytime we finish with it...the landslide has like..juz passed...yet another along its way...so we gotto juz wait...but now FINALLY...the last one to come...kinda will be around our farewell time i guess...heard from someone the farewell is before the 3rd internals...horse shit!! dont wanna attend ne more aft farewell at least naa? what is the full motive of havin it then?

A month left for the term to get ova...n as i sit back n think bout it...yeah well...tot i cant recollect all of the moments i have enjoyed in the college but i can.
N in this class of mine, yeah of course - has been pne of the best class in times to come. All great friends who gonna split like nethin aft engineering now...maybe bandarnagar finds reason in that...united we are bandars, and divided? ..guess wat?

We remain bandars.

Colors all the way!

2005-03-27T00:53:00.000+05:30

A fast-paced morning and an indeed slow paced evenin - with the exception of sum memories of my best friend's phone. Holi was indeed once more full of colors, although none of us actually bought a lot...the same rigmarole - on bikes to visit houses of friends...n meetin sum friends who r like - hardly seen now...surprisingly some seniors too - working in companies like L&T, HP etc...its great to hear bout how their company is etc...in their own sweet troo words...

Me returned home of course like a demon - dry all the way back but only to be drenched by a tumbler of water in the street just adjacent to our colony...one of the guys thee almost had me stopped and was all ready to give me a nice bath there itself - save the nice bath i was supposed to have later - of course which i did have...and a real GOOD ONE too...

dats with HOLI i think...of course splashe with a bit of worries bout the internal tests on Monday - the second last of the long series of tests which ew have been havin rite from the first semester...onlt 2 more to go now, n yeah..we just cant stand it!!!

need some 'lakshya' in ur life...!!

2005-03-26T14:45:00.000+05:30

its 12:56 AM on holi day n i have just retired to sit back n type on the PC after havin seen one of my fav movies once again...wonder why Lakshya neva made it to the box office hits, n yeah...was neva popularly nominated in ne of the award ceremonies too...although i feel Farhan Akhtar had made a masterpiece; n has failed on no instances in comparison to his earlier blockbuster DCH...hats off to u Farhan...

thinkin bout the movie highlights to me the need for evryone to see it...esp evryone of my age presently...dose confused in their life bout their career and their goals in life...Its also a must watch for those with a passion for the Indian Army. Maybe people neva really appreciated the true moral of the movie, and swatted it off like ne other stereotyped army movie...dis one is didactic, and a true bagger for all the awards, of course along with Swades by Gowariker. The silence in the scenes with which the movie is shot says it all...and of course Hrithik does his job well...

as for now thinkin bout careers n future gives me da jitters...long-term plans are like broken cobwebs in my mind...short-term well..OK i shud say...planned to a certain extent...aakhir ek plain s/w engineer hi to hoon...who hates coding like nethin...(pardon me for now IT industry)

gotto get up for holi tomm..last celebrations in Goa...juz hope da colors last longer in life - more dan juz one day!!

Furst post...

2005-03-26T02:20:00.000+05:30

hullo peepul..!!

Dis is ma furst post...so excuse the initial 'bloggin' nervousness...have just created da blog and am yet to add mucchh more stuff to it...so hang on..howeva visit ma blog for ne stuff u want to ask me about and of course to read more bout me!!

Ashish

2005-03-26T00:44:00.000+05:30

dats ME ova dere...