Hasta la Vista

As 2020 draws to a close, for some strange reason the thought of my blog came to my head once again after a gap of a few years. However, when I sat down to write, this catchphrase from Terminator is all I could think of for the year gone by.

Yes, unlike most people, I have had little impact from this pandemic. On the contrary, I have had the opportunity to spend more time with family than would have been possible, so in a way I am grateful for this opportunity. However, the impact this pandemic has had on the entire globe is difficult to gauge. In fact, some changes might be so long lasting that it may influence our lives way after the pandemic is over and life moves back to normal, whatever that would mean.

There are sections of our society whose resilience has truly been tested over the past 9 months. From labourers walking a thousand kilometers to reach home, to the many who lost their jobs and are still struggling to find the next one, to the many students who have been left behind because they were not or could not be part of the digital education wave. Unfortunately, while the pandemic was force majeure in many ways, there have been many other incidents which make one feel as if the world is coming to an end.

As pleasing as it is to witness resilience from your fellow humans, it is also surprising to see most of us standing by when our fellow humans go through suffering which we can barely imagine. While there was the odd Sonu Sood and perhaps a few others who went out of their way to help others, the vast majority of us stood like innocent bystanders, more content in providing support to everyone on LinkedIn and Twitter, while doing hardly anything for even those who were in our vicinity - Our house help, security guards, cab driver and the like.

Another thing which 2020 has done is made me realise how limited and small human life is and how little we really do in it. Most of our time is spent looking at achieving the deliverables for the day, maybe the week or month. As we age, our targets become more vague and more stretched out going from months to quarters or an year, but we hardly move forward. We just replace one target with a new one at the end of every few months. It is perhaps time to figure out what life's objective is, what is it that we are moving towards with every passing day, where would life be in another 15 years time?

In a few years, 2020 will perhaps seem more memorable than it looks today. We might even look back and miss the time when air became clean and the water became pure. However, hopefully, the memory will remain strong enough to understand the frailty of human life, and the fact that life is a gift which should be treated as such with something more than just a quarterly target.

As for 2020, I'll quote Leonardo from Blood Diamond "When was the last time the world wasn't falling apart". 2020 has come and gone in the blink of an eye. Here's to even tougher challenges awaiting us over the next few decades...

First jog of the season

1-2-2 Phew 1-2-2 Phew, so goes my rhythmic breathing as I jog along on what was the first real jog of the season. After a nearly 3 year break and a weight gain of almost 7 kgs, I decided to hit the running trail again last Sunday after pondering over it for almost a month. 

Despite being an extended weekend due to Good Friday, and all my resolve to go for a run on each of the three days, the heat was completely energy sapping. With temperatures of more than 35 degrees even at 7 PM in the evening, going out for a run was a tough task. But not so on Sunday. Despite getting up a little later than I would have liked (7:30), I put on my running gear and head out to the grand Atal park for my run.

I have vivid memories on how I used to run around Atal park in the Diwali week prior to my half marathon runs in Mumbai. It used to be a good run with me running at almost twice the speed at which mom would take her round during her morning walk. This time, of course it was different. Not only was it significantly hotter, I was also completely out of practice unlike the well oiled runner I used to be three years back. So instead of running along the standard walking track, I decide to take a detour and jog along the park boundary on the grass to cushion my knees from the impact of my now significantly heavier frame!!.

As I moved along the boundary of the park, I was pleasantly surprised with the cool breeze flowing along the park, not to mention that the entire path was covered by trees, some of which were flowering. 

Looking at the sights and the wonderful cross breeze in the park, I found a sudden spring in my step, and before I realised, I was jumping across the park and had reached the other end of it. However, try as nature might, the legs soon started revolting against what would have looked like a return to the physical education classes of 12th - No exercise for two years, and all of sudden they were expected to compete for some good marks in the PE practicals!!.

After trudging for a round more, I realised that the legs needed rest for this to be a fruitful outing, so out came the old faithful routine of sacrificing speed for distance; And I started walking half the distance from one end to the other, while jogging the remaining half.

While doing this routine, every subsequent attempt to begin the jog from the walk became tougher, and it reminded me of the 2004 Tour De France where a young Thomas Voeckler was competing to retain the Yellow Jersey for one more day (He had already retained it for 8 days). The terrain was mountainous, and the approach he adopted was one which would harm his chances in the later stages, but all that mattered was keeping the yellow jersey for one more day. Every time he would slide behind the leading group of riders, he would step out of the saddle, pull out some more reserves of energy and push himself to ensure he was always in touch with the leading group. Eventually he retained the yellow jersey for 10 days. Though he finished the overall race at 18th position, he had already made a name for himself in French cycling history. And so I pushed on, labouring with the start stop method till I had done my 10 km for the day, with a nice sprint in the last 500 m :)

The feeling of being starved of carbohydrates and pushing the body every few minutes just reminded me of why I did the two half marathons, and why running remains such a stress reliever - You forget everything else which is on your mind, and all you can think of is the rhythmic sound of your feet against the ground. Here's to another season of long distance running!

Cream Polish Sir

"Cream Polish Sir"... came the voice as I was walking on my way to a coffee shop from Bandra station. As I ignored it, assuming it might be for someone else, it came again, "Cream Polish Sir, neutral colour". And then again "Will clean up the shoes Sir". That's when I realized the voice was actually following me. 

As I looked back, I was surprised to see a man with a plastic bag in one hand and a shoe brush in the other. He was dressed in a check shirt and trousers and had a frail look about him. And he said again "Cream Polish Sir, neutral colour". I said no thank you and kept on walking. But he would follow me for a few seconds and again say "Please Sir, only 5 Rs". I stopped, though a while, looked at my shoes, and said, sorry, but these aren't leather shoes, so a polish would do them no good. He again said "Will still clean them sir". I just said no thanks, and walked away, into the coffee shop. 

And this, is the moment, that still haunts me.

As I paid the bill in the coffee shop, close to Rs 500, it just stuck me, that Rs 5, was actually inconsequential to me as an amount. As I walked back to the station, I looked for the guy, hoping to find him. Alas, he wasn't there. 

On the way back, all I could think of was what could drive a young educated man to request for shoe cleaning for a meager sum of Rs 5 in this city, where even the cheapest snack costs Rs 10. This megalopolis is famous for rewarding the hardworking, and yet, there was a young man, fighting to earn Rs 5 for polishing shoes. The worst part is that Rs 5 is not even a fair rate for what he was offering, cobblers generally charge Rs 10 at all the train stations for a cream polish.

On my trudge back to my flat from the station, all I could think of was all the countless people who beg for money on the roads, and probably earn something, and the young man who wanted to work, but alas, there was nothing for him to do. This is an image, which will probably stay with me for the rest of my life, with the regret of not being able to help a fellow human being. And as I wind down for the night, this has been a reminder, of the need to give back to the society - lucky as I have been to have received so much. Hopefully, I'll have enough opportunities to redeem myself on this journey of life.

Second wind

Its almost as if I am back to 2009, changing locations to move back to Lower Parel, enjoying crystal food once in a while, interesting times at work and most importantly, walking to office :) (The simple and best pleasure of life in a big city).
Let's see what has really changed in the last 6 years since I first came to the city-

• I have started using bullet points for making a list (Not sure if that's a positive)
• The heat and weather have definitely worsened, though most of the traffic has moved northwards to Bandra from south Mumbai
• The water situation remains as it was, with most buildings using tankers for meeting their requirements
• The rentals in Parel have increased by just about 50% while the prices of residential buildings in the suburbs have gone up by 3 times!!!
• My salary has tripled :D
• The amount of cricket has just gone up and IPL has become even more boring
• My thoughts on writing short stories are still intact.... and unused :(
• Nokia has sold out... though my old phone is still working and reads Nokia
• The government has changed, at both centre and state, though the things haven't
• Some of my close friends have left the city, though luckily a few others have come in
• I still weigh almost the same as when I first came here (That is truly an achievement given that all my meals are outside the house)
• The frequency with which entrepreneurial ideas keep hitting has thankfully remained the same
• Execution of those ideas has unfortunately remained on paper!!
• I have become a donor for charitable causes
• My english and handwriting have both become worse, thanks to the auto correct and absence of any real need to write
• Lastly, my love and respect for the city of Mumbai has greatly increased, it still remains one of the few bastions of the liberal and the professional - more on this in another post

To think of it, I always keep coming back to one of my favourite two sayings

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

The dilemma of Mumbai

It has been 5 years since I moved to Mumbai, and I just realized I haven't posted a single blog since arriving here, so this one might be slightly long.

The moment you land in this city, you realize there is something different about the place. The auto / cab guys go by meter, there is little haggling to do for your grocery shopping and there seem to be informal systems in place for almost everything, like shared auto / cabs from stations to most offices and residential complexes, the system of forming a line while getting into a bus, the fact that most people vacate their seats for ladies and senior citizens on the designated seats in buses. At the same time, there is the ever maddening rush always heading for some place without a break and without a rest. Doesn't matter if it has been raining for the past 24 hours and there is serious flooding on the roads, life doesn't stop in this city.

Mumbai is a city of contradictions. From the sorry you hear every time a person touches you while sitting in the local train to the same person ready to jump on your head for the chance to enter the train before you. The traffic will follow lane driving in most of the cases, but the moment there is a red light, almost everybody will want to jump it, and then stop right in the middle of the road and wait for the green light. The cops who are present everywhere and do not mind intervening for the smallest of disputes which might get physical to the absolute ignorance they plead on other violations as long as there is no physical damage involved.
It's difficult to decide whether to love this city or not, and even tougher to decide whether to settle in this city or not. For all its positives there are equal negatives, and for all its law and order, there is an absence of living space. Even though 5 years is a good enough time to get accustomed to shortage of space, once in a while I still tend to be nostalgic about all the facilities and playgrounds I had access to as a kid, and how none of that is a possibility in this city, not to forget the kitchen garden and the grass in the front porch.

When I first came to this city, I wasn't sure if this is where I want to be. Now 5 years, 2 jobs and 3 houses later, I am still in the same dilemma, of whether I want to be in this city or not. Hopefully, I will have the answer in another 5 years time, and hopefully I would be writing another blog before that!!

The Yearbook

The end of two years of MBA. Time really passes too fast. I can still remember the first few days at IIT and then the last semester there. This just gives a sense of deja vu. The first semester of a B-School and the last semester of one are not much different than one of an engineering college. The nostalgia of leaving the college as well as the student life and entering the professional world once again, the expectations form a new life, the feeling of actually getting older especally when you see kids 4 years younger to you doing exactly what you were trying to do 4 years ago.
Life keeps moving on, and then we reach a point where we want to get back our past, a point where we loose the motivation to keep going forward, some times you just want to rest a little, something which is so typical of the mountain goat, the Capricorn. But hen you are jolted, something hits you and takes you out of your comfort zone, you realize there is so much left to accomplish in life, and so little time. And then, you reach the point where you decide to give it all and go ahead...

Coming back to the Yearbook, this is that time of the year when you have to write testimonials for people in the yearbook, and ask people to write testimonials for you in the yearbook. Sigh, another thing to remember the past by, another pillar to build nostalgia on... but well, this was the onl regret I had while leaving IIT, the absence of an yearbook... good that the tradition is bieng maintained over here. it might be the something I need 10 years down the line to push myself to start everything over again and give it all...

Blogging eh!!

Well, long time since the last post. This time with a renewed interest in blogging. It so happens there have been a lot of people hopping onto blogging around me these days. And I have really seen those guys writing some good posts. Being a very older blogger (been more than 2 years now), I thought this was the right time to begin my blogs once again.
And in case any of you has been following my blog regularly, and desperately want to know what is going on in my life, well I have a job in this job market and will get the joining letter also in the same job. Though I am looking for a bridge job, something like so many bridge funds being arranged by companies these days to meet their debt obligations. I need something similar in the form of a job till I get my final joining letter from Mumbai.
Let's see, the college gets over on 22nd Feb, and I should have a few months before I can join the new place, so that's a lot of time to pass. Maybe a committed teaching experience in some NGO should do some help although I would also like to get some moolah so may be some career coaching institute which nowadays pay more than teaching in the actual career college for which they coach you.
Anyways, lets see whats in store for me, right now the biggest problem is motivating myself to do something meaningful in these months.

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......

Holy Holi

Here's the festival of colours. Though we had two holidays to begin with, I still have no clue what we had the holiday on tuesday for, all we did was sleep through it. So we're making plans for the last holi in college. We sure want to drink bhang this time and feel that euphoria. Its already been three years since we've been drinking thandai and this time we want the real stuff. So off we go on tuesday night from the back gate of the coll into the small shopping complex, our localite Barua Bhaiyya conversing in Assamese asking for bhang. The deal is struck, 25 packets for 300 bucks. a small hint for the rest and about 50 glasses for those who dare.
The D day, well for starters i woke up surprisingly early, shaved, had breakfast followed by a quick oil application session. Then comes the bummer, everybody else is sleeping in the lobby. Slowly they wake up and get ready with the oil and cream and stuff. Watch out world, here we come !! There's the pit we had dug up the day before and how pretty it looks so full of water and mud. One down, two down, three down and slowly one by one we all go down. What now, this dude gets the craziest of ideas and goes and stands inside a shower to get a bit cleaned up, we throw him back again. This time we just washes his face, we throw him again. But who learns easy here, this dude has to be thrown six times before he finally learns that washing is futile. Then comes the matki, hung out at second floor hieght. First layer all strong first yearites, second layer, all fourth yearites and the third layer the lightest guys in hostel. There just a swing of hands and its broke...hey wait, its just been pulled up to the third floor level !!!!!! Right, so now the base flutters and we all fall down. Another attempt, this time we have almost made it when we discover our man building is just a metre away from the matki so our man cannot reach there.........phew another fall and some guys are injured and tired now. The water which our grateful juniors have been throwing has begun to take effect and we're almost out. One final try first years bottom, fourth years next layer and lightest man on top, alas the weight is so much that we buckle once again but just while falling we throw a stone and break the matki, voila, that was it. hehehe surprisingly no serious injury to anybody. then back again to the pit for some relaxing and mud pack application, we're conscious of our skin u see :P neways then we get the REAl thing of bhang and surprisingly nothing really happens, we need a lot of that to actually have a serious effect, so much for the real stuff.
Sigh, legs dont move and u need to have a bath and have lunch. somehow u drag through all this and get to ur bed. no idea what happens for the next 3 hours and here i am back again. now im feeling too hungry with so much exercises the same day
time to catch something to eat id say.

Football Shutball hai rabba

Exams over, final sem, kya kare? Baithe Baithe kya karein karna hai kuch kaam, shuru karo ab football leke prabhu ka naam. So we go down to play football in our newly filled with sand hostel ground in block 2. The place is more fit for playing beach volleyball than football with so much sand bieng filled in. So off we go onto the field. A few kicks and passing and all the Beckhams and Ronaldo's are ready to start tge match. The supposedly 'oldest' guy in the team (and the one teased as a grandad) comes out with full intensity, its almost as if he's fighting for us to acknowledge his existence (Yeah thats what happens when u watch too much naruto. For the uninformed, Naruto is a cartoon related to ninjas and narutos fight to prove his worth) .
A few tackles here and there and this guy tries to hit the ball so hard, misses and kicks my foot instead. Slight wobbling but i get back to senses play for another half an hour when the match is called off due to the arrival of refreshments from the rest of the group which had gone to the city.
I have a bath, spend some time online, feel a slight pain in my right foot and doze off. Had to get up ealy @ 6 to leave for a mountaineering trip. I wake up and voila, my foot refuses to touch the ground. Just at the pretext of a contact with the floor which I had just cleaned in my dreams a few nights ago it shoots a huge pain right up my entire body. I can't go for the trip :( So the rest of the group leaves for the trip and the only two who stay behind are me and the extra vigourous grandad who seems to have developed some trouble in his bone from too much kicking around.
A call from home, do i tell them, no dont, yes no problem do, no dont, but yes i do tell them and here I get a huge list of do's and dont's. Go to the doctor, don't go alone, keep ur foot in warm water, dont keep it down.....................
So I get a friend to call up the dispensary and call for an ambulance. It's been almost an hou waiting for the ambulance since I completed my tirade of climbing down the first floor hopping on one foot. Getting bored again, so I check my medical history with my medical card and there's a new fact to be discovered there. During my entire four years ive always visited the dispensary in the month of August ans this time ive added another new first to add to my previous blog. So this pal of mine suggests that i should never get married in August. I come up with a brilliant plan for my marriage, I'll get married on my birthday so that on each anniversary it's going to be me who gets all the rest and affection because its my birthday in addition to the anniversary and i wouldn't have to do any stupid make your wife happy stuff !!!! Nice plan but here comes another rider, if my anniversary is going to clash with my birthday then that day which is probably going to be the only day in the entire year when im going to get pampered and all is also going to become a make your wife happy day, so I come up with another brilliant plan, I'll marry the girl on HER birthday which means two days when I would have to do a lot of work and give gifts would now be reduced to just one and even on that day I might get something in return bieng my anniversary too :D
Anyways we meet the doctor, who turns out to be a gyneacologist (gyneac my foot, literally !!) and she says get an X Ray tommorow since it can't be done on a Sunday. I'm given a crutc, crepe bandage and some pain killers and anti inflammatory to help me pass off the day in peace. Sheesh back in room I have to make a few minor adjustments like pulling my bed close to the comp and using my crutch as the stopper to throw away the need for any latch.
So now im downloading a few movies from the LAN to get over the next few days, sitting in front of the comp and lying on my bed at the same time and getting my fod delieverd to my room by the mess guys. Feels like a true David Beckham treatment doesnt it !!!!

New firsts in last sem !!

Ah my last mid sems got over. Another two months and i'll be out of this place. Come to think of it this sem has seen a lot of news and the ends. For the first time we had our winter break crossing into the new year allowing guys to spend new years at home. And then again for the first (and last i think) time we had our placements starting from 20th december which meant we final year guys had to be back and spend another new yeasr away from home. Then i got my first job. And after unofficially getting my second job I got a taste of corporate world when for the first time i got a job cancellation. Apparently i wasn't good enough in the interview, a fact they overlooked when selecting me in the first place and then rediscovering after reaching their head office !!!
Then our hostel mess has just started functioning and that means no long trips to another hostel for our snacks and dinner (we miss breakfast and lunch anyways). I had my first trouble with my computer when the monitor and UPS blew off and the last trouble with my smps which had to be changed.
Wow, ive discovered a new first, not really a first but i think this is the most boring blog ive ever written !!! so ill just stop ur torture and end this right here.

ps : My greatest first >> I read the Bhagvat Gita, just about to finish the last chapter

Love N Like

Since we are on this topic of love, I thought ill post this piece i found on a friends blog..


In front of the person u love,ur heart beats faster.
But in front of the person u like,u get happy.


In front of a person u love,winter seems like a spring.
But in front of a person u like,winter is just a beautiful winter.

If u look into the eyes of the one u love,u blush.
But if u look into the eyes of the one u like,u smile.

In front of a person u love,u can't say anything on ur mind.
But in front of a person u like,u can.

In front of the one u love,u tend to get shy.
But in front of the one u like,u can show ur own self.

U can't look straight into the eyes of the one u love.
But u can always smile into the eyes of the one u like.

When the one u love is crying,u cry with him.
But when the one u like is crying,u end up comforting him.

The feeling of love starts from the eye.
But the feeling of liking starts from the ear.

So if u stop liking a person u used to like,all u
need to do is close ur ears.

But if u try to close ur eyes,love turns into a drop
of tear & remains in ur heart forever.......

why a guy loves a girl

One thing which always troubles me is why would a guy actually fall in love with a girl....ive never fallen in love so this is probably something i can never know but at the same time this love thing seems too irrational to be fallen into....
Now this friend of mine fell in love with this girl and even though he got rejected he's still deeply in love with her......over an year now (boy, tht girls missing something !!)..and this guy actually started listing out the reasons why he's in love with her :

* Cracks great PJ's
* Drinks a minimum of half a litre of tea per day......... in her own unique way
* Looks just awesome especially..and has a great sense of dressing
* Creates a lot of fuss about him (and he loves that !!!!! )
* Has a sweet melodious voice
* Has thin lips ( ?????????? )

Just for his sake i wish that he gets this girl .... or at least gets over her
O.K., now will any SANE guy plzz post a comment down here if its normal to actually HATE all these characteristics (except for the dressing thing)..who actually likes all these things...oh and may be i should add a bit more of background to it all, the guy fell in love with this girl and then after he was rejected he decided to think as to why he STILL love her.
LOVE might be blind but it surely shouldn't be insane !!!!!
Can anybody plzz shed some light on why a guy would fall in love ????? 'cause from my friends condition i think i'd prefer watching love on the silver screen than on my friends blog :p

"How similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity" - Frenchman, Matrix revolutions

Senti's galore

Yesterday was another DP..this time for the placements....everybody in the lobby had a job now, at least a back up job even if not a dream job, whatever that means !!!
Three of us decided we weren't gonna drink and the other seven, which inluded a few surprises drank quite a lot. Though we always have some senti stuff in our DP's at least from one guy, this time around we had quite a lot more of that.
The evening started with a beer and surprisingly even that got a bit heavy for some, then followed a bottle each of Rum and Whisky. What followed after that exceeded a lot of expectations, we had ppl getting guilty feelings abt drinking !!!!! and then ppl all drunk up trying to explain that there should be no guilty feelings !!!!
Now follows the fun part, apparently somebody got a guilty (???) feeling about pulling each others leg too much, so now some of us guys (including me) will not be bothered much by their wise cracks while we can always put in our own show :D

blogging ??? me !!!!

Right, so im going to begin blogging all over again...dunno how this fad started inme but i guess it was an year ago tht i thought blogging wud be a really cool thing to do...i mean u have everything tht has gone into ur life on the net and u can share it with whoever u want to...most so for net frnds 'cause they always miss out on the action in each others life.But then again there are things u better not tell everybody abt, after all "kuch batane me maza hai to kuch chupane me"...
So here's one thing i wud REALLY like to say tht if u have the link to this blog ur free to read it and ur free to post all the comments tht u want, they arent going to be deleted, but at the same time DONT forward the link to this blog to any other person who might have an outside chance of knowing me...hehehe...some of the censored stuff goes in here so i dont wanna be dead by sharing this blog with everybody..
Oh and yeah abt the title of the blog..well my frnds say i quote a lot of what they say right back at 'em and since my brains not really working at high speed in searching for new names ill just settle for bieng The "Quoter" for now...