Efforts... and opportunities

Sometimes, you just feel so helpless that it drives you to the limits of frustration. You can do everything in your hands, work as hard as you or anyone else could have, but even then, sometimes its just not enough.

Sometimes what matters is not how much effort you put in, but what opportunity came up to you. Ans then you have a sense of Deja vu. It is not the first time things have gone bad despite your best efforts, and it is definitely not the first time when luck has played its role in undermining your efforts.

You pick yourself up and say well ill still stand up and fight for the next time. I won't give up and keep fighting till I win because loosing is... well... for loosers....

But the question is for how long can you do this? How many times can you pick yourself up and say one more fight.....

At least this time I can say that it aint over till its over....
So here I come world, try and stop me...

"Its not about how hard you can hit, Its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" - Rocky Balboa

Back from Mumbai

Its been almost 5 months since my last blog.... lots of happenings since then. Third trimester is over, 2 months summer internship in Mumbai is over and now im back in college for the second and final year of my MBA.

Mumbai was the fun time so I guess i'll write more about it than anything else. The first thin that strikes you in Mumbai is the traffic on the roads. For a Delhi person so used to travelling on the road, this comes as a huge shock as there is never any space on Mumbai roads. The only saving grace are the auto and taxi drivers who agree to go by meter thus saving you some money.

Next thing which strikes you are the high property rentals. Finding a house in Mumbai is like finding a needle in a haystack. There are so many flats and apartments in the city that finding the one to your liking (And here, liking only means a place from where you have more than 50% chance of reaching your office on time) is a month long project in itself.

But then Mumbai has a charm of its own.... Old buildings still intact like ever surrounded by high rising flats.. and if you can manage some place down south near Girgaum then there's nothing like it. Cool ind blows in from the sea every night and the crowd is amazing.

Of course, we had some more adventures up our sleeve, like going to a chor bazar which opens only at 4 in the morning. That itself is a unique experience. Also if you travel against the crowd, then the local is a pretty efficient means of transportation with a train coming every 3 minutes throughout the day.

Anyways, now its back to Gurgaon in my college hostel and its amazing to watch the monsoon from the window, kind of reminds you of the beach. Just 8 more months and then im out of college life, perhaps forever and into the corporate jungle. Lets hope there is some greenery when I reach there....

500 miles

I remember listening to this song all the time when I was pretty small... not that I used to play this song but it was still on all the time in my house... just found it recently.. nice song :)



Lyrics

If you miss the train Im on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.

Lord Im one, lord Im two, lord Im three, lord Im four,
Lord Im 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord Im five hundred miles from my home.

Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way.

If you miss the train Im on you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.

Elections

And so we had our student council elections... nothing much, same old stuff... same old politics... same old problems of democracy... its not the best candidate who wins, but the best orator. People get so blinded by language that they fail to see simple truths... and no, its not a comment on their intellect, its a fact that even when people know that they are probably wrong, they just do not want to change their decisions.

I have been struggling to put words as to why I opposed the popular choice, when their are so many people who have almost blind faith in the person that nothing would have ever made them change their votes. So much that the elections were in essence decided even before they started. But now I have found the reason why I do not support the person. The whole point is "Breaking the rules for the greater good."

Yes, that is exactly the kind of leaders who are needed in the present world, those who are ready to break the rules for the larger good. Unfortunately, we are still not ready for this fact even though we all know that it is the essence of existence in today's world. Even though we all break the rules and know that sometimes it is necessary to beak rules since rules are not infallible, still, the majority of us support the person who will never break or change the rules even if he knows they are wrong. Probably this has got to do with the fact that deep inside we are all still very religious and ethical in our thinking and even though we may not apply those ethics in our day to day life, we still want to see everybody around us drowned in ethics... most of which are meaningless anyways...

Relationships give you the leeway to falter once in a while

This is precisely what relationships are about... they allow you to make mistakes and learn from them. Nopes, this doesn't have a sad point to ponder on, this is about making mistakes and recovering from them. And yes, you do get a second chance.
But yes, you do have to be careful about the kind of relationships you have, for an unripe relationship doesn't let you falter and doesn't give you any second chances. Instead, even trying to get a second chance will just ruin whatever little is left of an unripe relationship, something which is so so common for me because I end up trusting people a lot earlier than i get trusted. Anyways, this is the stuff for another post.
Right now, its back to the wonderful opportunities you get from relationships. Yeah, you wouldn't believe it but I got this line from my marketing class but just how true this is. I just have to think of the past few weeks to see how true it is. And if that was not enough, there is enough history in the last one year to make me realize the importance of friends and relationships. Of course once the mirror breaks it can't be joined back, but at least it gives you that extra Teflon coating. Even if you may never be able to get back to where you were originally, at least it prevents you from falling all of a sudden and acts as that once in a lifetime chance to get yourself back on track. After that, it's all up to you.
But unripe relationships, ah, that's a different story all altogether.

Saawariya vs Om Shanti Om

Enough of serious topics... time for some entertainment...

Two of the biggest releases this year, Saawariya and OSM released simultaneously. One, a complete masala flick, the other a subtle story based on "White Nights". From bollywood records it seems OSO has won the battle but what exactly is each movie worth. Just like Farah Khan's first movie, Mai Hoo Na, OSO is a pure masala flick which takes a potshot at a lot of leading bollywood actors and directors. Saawariya on the other hand is pure artistry.

I have nothing against OSO but probably its too cliche'd a movie, and it seems more like a parody on Bollywood movies than a new movie. It is like the Bollywood equivalent of Scary movie. But while Scary movie is restricted to the college going audience just looking for kicks, the dearth of good movies in Bollywood has made OSO a movie for everybody and sadly, this happens at the expense of well made movie. In the long run, even though OSO might get the bucks, it will hardly be considered worth any mention in Bollywood. On the other hand, Sawariya might just be Sanjay Leela Bhansali's finest work so far. Far better than even Black, which gets very predictable but is carried on by the actors rather than the director. Saawariya though, is Sanjay Leela Bhansali all along...

Life

And so I continue on my quest. Time goes back to my school days...
There is a constant struggle to get good marks so that we can get admission into the next school I might have to shift (When you are moving every two years it does happen a lot). Then comes Tenth and you have to get good marks to get admission into sciences for eleventh. Ten you struggle for two years to get admission into a good engineering college where you struggle to get good grades for a successful MS application or perhaps your dream job. In your job you struggle to meet client deadlines and then you struggle preparing for CAT to get into a good B-School. In your B-school you are always having some deadlines to meet in your preparation for the corporate life.

Today we had the great Indian Tamasha of CAT exam for getting admission in a premier B-School of the country. More than 2 lakh students appear for the exam out of which probably just 5,000 will make it to a good college. Soon we will have JEE where again more than 2 lakh students will appear to get a seat into the IIT's


When exactly does life's struggle end? Or dies it never end... What happened to those happily ever after themes? When will my happily ever after moment come? Cleared JEE, Cleared CAT and here I am, assured of a good job my my B-School there still remains that element of unsatisfied needs, unfulfilled dreams and fading visions. Perhaps this is a way to understand our reason for existence... perhaps this is why we have life. Would there be so much fun in living if we didn't have the blips every now and then? Perhaps we will never know because as of now... nobody can put the tag "Happily Ever After" on their lives.

"He who would live must fight, he who will not fight in this world where eternal struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist"

Lull before the storm (or after !!)

There is a famous saying of a lull before a storm. But there is always a silence after the storm as well.... so when you have just silence, how do you know whether it is the before one or the after one..
I mean all this while you can think that you have weathered the storm and its all quiet now, but what if this was just a precursor to things which might happen... what if the real thing is about to come and you have no idea about it?
Perhaps the bigger question is, when you have a big storm coming your way, can you do something about it even if you know that its coming?

Roller Coaster

Today was one of the most topsy turvy days I have seen... and unfortunately... it ends on a low rather than a high...
The day begins with great depths... then you muster all your courage and crawl out... and just when you think you have crawled out of the depths you slip back... almost half way back deep down.... you again get back your courage and think of a plan to crawl out by the next day... and just when you think you are about to end the day on a high... you are pushed.... no slip this time... you are pushed down to such depths that you begin questioning yourself.... and the entire logic of trying to crawl back day after day.....
But as I said in the previous post... HOPE... it can take your imagination places.... and thats what I have as of now... hope of crawling all the way out... if not by tomorrow then hopefully in a few weeks...

Hope

"Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness" - The Architect, Matrix Reloaded

Hope is what makes us human. Without hope, there would hardly be any reason to look out for the future and there wouldn't be any reason to look ahead from the past. Every night, we hope for the Sun. Every autumn, we hope for the spring. With every failure, we hope for a success, and with every shattered dream we hope for another one to come true.

Is there a limit to how much hope we can depend on? I hope not, for it is one thing which gives you a good night's sleep after a bad cold day.

Good Night!!

Pataudi

My first taste of rural marketing.... As part of the disguised marketing research festival (Illumina), we were carrying out a research for ITC at the Dussehra Mela of Pataudi. For the uninformed, Pataudi was the capital of the kingdom of Nawab of Pataudi, the lineage of Saif and Soha Ali Khan.

Since we were not part of the volunteering team and I have always been a free bird preferring to stray away from the crowd, it was decided we (Me N Lukha) would be going on bike rather than with the rest of the group for whom cars had been arranged by the Illumina team.

The road was pretty impressive with Marigolds being grown on both sides of the road. Of course the government school and PWD rest houses also have a charm of their own when they are built in villages, away from the glitz offered by the cities.

In the mela itself, it was amazing to see people coming in Tractors and descending upon the Ram Leela ground Apart from our stall, there were stalls of eatables as well as toys for kids. Being totally devoid of grass, there was enough dirt being raised in the ground to almost eclipse the Sun. It was almost like there was a shade above us. The best part was when Ravana entered the ground on a tractor as his chariot. The dramatization was pretty impressive to say the least.

Our disguised research was full of mythological characters and it was pretty shocking to see people seeking blessings from our actors who had dressed up as different Gods. Kudos to our actors for such a wonderful job but it was more surprising as how people in villages still worship actors just because they are dressed up as a God.

Off from the mela we went for a small Pataudi trip. There was hardly anything other than the house of Nawab of Pataudi which was a gaurded estate with no visitors allowed.

The best part was the accuracy of the people when it came to distances. Whether we asked the distance o the nearest petrol pump or the distance of the highway, the replies of 2km and 9 kms were accurate up to 100 meters by the odometer. No wonder the government felt no need for putting up road signs along the entire rout !!!

The more things change, the more they remain the same

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Things, or more specifically, people can't change. The basic essence is so strongly imbibed in a person that if he changes, he stops being what he was. And since society and its rules and cultures are made by people, the world itself can never change, at least not fast enough to become a noticeable change.
But then again, what doesn't change in this world? Can there be change and at the same time an things remain the same. Stagnation is the same as death... for there can be no life without change, no life without the constant adjustments and adaptations that come with the rising Sun every morning. Some changes are so drastic that it is almost impossible to recognise the original identity. Harmless individuals become violent criminals. Hardcore murderers can become preachers of non violence.
Can things really change? Or is change just a new body with an old soul? There is a hidden purpose behind every action. The direct motive is always backed by a hidden one, sometimes so deeply hidden that we ourselves are unaware of it. And then there is another action, for a different motive. Are the two linked? Nobody can tell. Every single human being can be described in a few words. Those few words can explain all actions of the person, past and future, as well as what makes the person tick with somebody and blow off with somebody else. True change happens when a person can successfully change those few words which describe him. I don't know whether it can be done or not... for I myself can never be my own judge, but then, there is another definition of life, and that is again the continuous struggle for success, even if it means trying the impossible.

Cricket is the religion here

Date: 15th Sept... EPL match... venue... Mess where we incidentally also had Ganesh Puja going on

The poor guys who came to watch the match were turned away as TV could definitely not be turned on at the Puja Venue.

Date: 16th Sept... India Vs New Zealand in twenty20... How could we ever miss this match... everybody was sitting in the mess watching the match albeit barefoot.

Welcome to India guys... cricket is the biggest religion here.... where a Sachin dismissal brings greater grief than probably a terrorist attack right in the capital.....

India beats Pak 3-0

No, it isn't the scoreline of a football or a hockey match... its the scoreline of a cricket match... welcome twenty20.
I'm not going to really bore you with more details about the matches... but more so about the fans who watch these matches. Now Australia is supposedly the best team in cricket, not much in terms of talent, but in terms of fighting spirit... YES. Don't we all just love to see the winer loose, i mean so what if we couldn't win... this team which works so very hard and fights till the end should loose, how dare they fight so hard when our own team acts like a bunch of loser's. Anyways, when Zimbabwe beat Australia, nobody was more happy than the Indians.... doesn't matter that we ourselves couldn't beat this team.. at least somebody else did right....
And then came the mother of all matches, India vs Pakistan.... the match goes down to the last ball... and all this while there are all sorts of slogans... from India Jeetega to Miss miss miss miss during the bowl out (yeah thats what they call the cricket version of shootout).... and finally we won...

Now the whole point is.. not that we won or Australia lost, the whole point was the passion with which our generation sill watches the sport. Forget all those who said cricket is going down and probably its time for another sport to take over... the passion still exists...

Watching the match in the hostel with a 100 guys shouting at every moment is a great experience altogether... reminded me of college 1st year which was perhaps the last time I saw a match with such a voracious crowd... im sure no stadium can match such an atmosphere.... and yeah India faces New Zealand in first match of super 8 stage.... India Jeetega...

UPDATES

hmm so here i was giving finishing touches to the clients ppt when i suddenly get a call that ive been selected into MDI Gurgaon and I have to join in 3 days. And there creep in all the doubts whether I should join or give it another shot next year.
While im still thinking about it, as soon as I tell my bro and my parents about it, all my dilemma just melts away and I know im going to join.
Great, so ive missed my first weeks induction and I hardly know most of the guys here. But soon we are divided into groups and thats the beginning of assignments... and some more assignments, which we do very religiously for the first few weeks. Soon its mid terms... i mean seriously... mid terms within a month....

As soon as our mid terms end... its like an eternal feeling of freedom and independence.... nothing to do for the first time in more than a month !!!!!!
and well, its 10 days past mid terms and we have really gotten used to faculty giving all the assignments in the world... and ignoring them... not even trying to find out the pre reads for the next class... and to top it all having the guts to ask the prof to cancel a certain lecture because we aren't comfy with the timings....

ITS BACK TO COLLEGE AND IM LOVNG IT

Back to the Future !!!

OK don't ask me why "Back to the future"... probably because thats one flick I really liked when I was a kid... all three parts at that. And secondly, I just felt like giving this name because it feels like I'm really back in a full circle..... an year in job and Delhi, and I'm back to where I started from....

Anyways, some nice Quotes to restart "The Quoter"

Every Man searching his second Mother in the Name of LOVE.
Every Women gets her 1st Child in the Name of her LOVER
---------- Shakespeare

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover
--------- Mark Twain

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God has written all the books.
-------- Samuel Butler

" I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games.
26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot...and missed.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life.

And that is why I succeed! "

- - - Michael Jordan

" If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself "


- - - Norman Vincent Peale

Even though U may be the best of friends there is always a limit which should never be crossed. Then it starts hurting........... ---- Anon


" Being happy doesn't mean every thing's perfect. It means that you have decided to see beyond the imperfections "

- - - Frank Kaiser



" A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind "

- - - John Neal

JOB !!!!

After all those interviews (more than a dozen of them for me !!) here i am finally ending up with two jobs....and finally joining one of them. The call came on 8th June that I was to join on 12th of June itself. So im placed in delhi with a decent enough package...the first week went in training and from the next i was on a live training with one of the client projects. It turns out that Friday is a very crunch day because the reports have to be sent to the client on that day after all the Quality Checks and stuff (no extended weekends it seems :( and we even have alternative working saturdays)....neways thankfully there are four more guys from my college and in fact 2 of them are very close pals with whome ive spent 4 yrs of coll life so adjusting was pretty easy more so with te completely informal attitude of the employees here.
Next stop getting a new SIM...which turns out to be a harrowing experience ecause I ave no proff of ID and hence im not eligible to get a SIM...what follows is a big persuation effort to let the shopkeeper give me a sim based on my driving license alone....thankfully it got activated and hopefully it will remain activated for some time now.....for those who still havent got my number its 9810268039.
And yeah we have full acess to internet in office but unfortunately orkuts blocked so scraps will take some time to get their replies.
The work isnt too much right now because our trainers temselves have too much work to actually trrain us into anything :P but its just expected to increase in the coming few weeks.
Oh and btw tonight is varad's farewell night out at his house since that guys going to Indonesia's quake prone areas ad we all have to meet him at least once more in this lifetime :P
And well the affect of this job is already pretty evident on me as can be seen in this blog itself....read the last few pnes and read this...u'll get the hurry in finishing it off pretty evident...ive changed a bit in just these 2 weeks...and that too when i didnt want to change...dont know whats in store in te future....Guess thats life.....

When I was drunk

"im drunk with i have no idea what ??? shud be vodka....ok i just went and puked.......thats supposed to be good because it takes off that druinken feeling from you...........now the reason why im writing this inspite of being drunk is that this is probably the last time im getting so drunk in my life...and since ive started bloggin this dhould go down as one heck of an experience. oh btw we had our graduation party and thats the whole reason why im drunk.....
Gosh this hangover is sure a tough thing to conquer....i can feel that im drunk and i can feel the effort im making to resist it. I can still remember a lot of things that happened ....from raghuram helping me out to the present when im writing on varads comp...this shud be enuff stuff for a blog....i wish i could write more but i guess ill go to sleep right now..best thing to do when ur drunk...g'night peeps."
This is what i wrote immidiately after coming back from the graduation party in varad's room because i was too drunk to log on from my own comp........that was one hell of a party...and oh yeah i was nominated in the writer's category where the award went to haider of course......now we're about to shoot for the batch video where again we are totally blank as to what to do but then again.....when have we given any exam with full preparation since entering this college....

SILICON JUNGLE

SPOILER WARNING : Slight revealing of the plot.

Ok so yesterday was a special exclusive and the first show of this movie Silicon Jungle, produced and directed by Rabi Kisku, a 2005 batch passout from IITM. Our audi still being under construction the movie was on show in the senate hall which despite its 1000+ capacity was so packed that ppl occupied every bit of space they could get on the ground.
The movie isnt something too great, it follows the standard IIT guy no girl damn profs storyline which was there in 5 point someone and is again there in a new short story written by a 4th year student of IITD (although it has hopefully got something more to it because of the girl being in a different city altogethor). But yeah, IITians are going to enjoy the movie because they can relate to each and every experience shown there......from doing small chores for your seniors to trying out something called food in the mess....to those first quizzes and the times when the prof calls you to the board and you are completely oblivious to what has been happening around you.
One more thing which really surprises me is the amount of books that are being written about IITians. There were books written even earlier but 5 point someone really opened floodgates........now we have a movie coming on FPS....we have had silicon jungle and we have another short story not to mention the various documentaries and other books..
Are we really so important that everybody else will want to read and see what goes on in the life of those IIT nerds ?? and all that we guys do is getting frustrated by girls and profs alike ??

Farewell !!!!

Farewell to Mech02b Batch
Date: April 7th , 2006 (Friday)

Time: 5 min

Please speak on the following:

1. Introduction (Name, About Family, Home Town, Hobby etc)
2. Where have you been placed
3. Happiest moment at IITG
4. Most embarresing moment at IITG
5. Internship related memories
6. Your future prospect/planning (Job/MS/PhD/MBA etc)
7. About girlfriend etc. at IITG
8. When you are going to get married
9. Coment about faculty/staff/etc from Mechanical Dept.
10. Message to juniors

This is the print out we guys were supposed to be given by our juniors but dont know what happened and better sense prevailed.....it was good to get a farewell though attendance was pretty thin....less than 40/46 seniors and even lesser number of juniors (3rd yearites were hardly to be seen)...we have the usual stuff, guys bieng called out one by one and then fishing for their embarrasing moments in their four years of stay....oh yeah the dinner was great though paneer parantha, paneer kofta dal makhani pulao gulab jamun and ice cream.....neways here are some of the answers to that questtionare which we never got..

1. Raghav Malhotra, home town > karnal/chandigarh
2. Presently TCS, hope to get a good job by giving some walk ins in delhi
3. Happiest moment was actually just before reaching IITG..after reaching here all happiness vanished...
4. Most embarrasing moment never came, its still yet to come..may be when parents come here for the convocation somehtings going to go wrong
5. Internship...well did industrial; training at TATA motors....made some good friends there and learnt to never go in a mechanical industry ...
6. Future prospect lies in Delhi and MBA for sure after an year or two
7. A question about girlfriend @ IITG, this guy has ben hit pretty hard by the work load here i guess
8. Again, hes asking about marriage before even graduation.....whose the guilty faculty ???

Rest two, well some other time, guess im not the right person to give comments on fac and messages to juniors....
Wow, so we are finally about to graduate andleave this place...seems kinda unbelievable, still remember the first journey with my parents to this place.....met a few other guys in the train, got a room in the hostels....meeting new guys...that hated word ragging....and then we are the seniors....another year.......... final year..........final month of final sem......and now i dont want to leave this place.......its like a stage of your life gone by never to return again......