WYS Is Not WYG

An Open Letter

2011-04-17T00:33:00.004+05:30

To think of it now, it's not like I remember the first day we met in crystal clear HD pictures. But I do vaguely remember the excitement with which I caught my first glimpse of you and I think I also detected a not-so-evident smile on your face on spotting one more possible victim who would most probably succumb to your charms. I queued up along with your numerous suitors, dancing to your tunes and bowing to your whims. In due time, I did not have any other purpose in life but to keep you happy. I realised that I was slowly , but definitely slipping down a path from where there was no escape.

It took me a long time to realise the devious tricks you were playing on my mind. But realise I did, I started deviating from the vows I had made to you. I pursued my other "interests" which made you jealous. And man did you throw tantrums that demanded attention! We worked towards building a relationship that moved like the sine curve, with both of us trying to understand each other and giving enough space for us to have an independent life. You never seemed truly happy after that though.

While I kept giving it my best shot, you were never the same again. You seemed to look forward to the courtship dance from your other suitors. I feared the day you would realise our folly for devoting your time on someone as ordinary as me. As the days moved on, I realised that the best way to prepare myself would be to distance myself from you, to be ready for the day when you eventually broke the news to me. I saw you flirting with others at various points of time, but I never bought it up for I was never sure I wanted to say goodbye. Despite the tumultous relationship we have had, I would forever remember all the wonderful moments we have spent together. The numerous days and nights when it used to be just the 2 of us over just a cup of coffee for hours altogether without realising how time flew in each others company, it seemed like it would never be the case again. I was prepared for the eventuality that loomed near us now.

And on March 31st 2011, we finally bid our long awaited goodbye. On that day, I was ready, to bid farewell, to start off on a different note and look forward to life with someone else. After a 20 year long relationship, we couldnt really break up on a bad note could we ? We broke-up with our tokens of love for each other, with the hope that both of us would find better people than each other to spend our time with.

Dear Education, Now I can gladly bid goodbye to you! After all these years across 6 institutions in 3 different locations, I am well and truly done with Institutionalized Education. Here's a toast to that, and to PGP2009's, f2005's and my schoolmates.

P.S:
Quite late with the timelines and the plan, but the idea for the formal "break-up" always in the pipeline.

P.P.S:
With this, I hope to be returning from a self imposed exile and hope to keep the blog alive. Apologies to any audience I had prior to this exile and hope my new "partner" work life as occupied as the "ex":) .

22

2009-12-08T21:06:00.004+05:30

This is not one of those "ages" on reaching which grand celebrations mark a landmark that has been reached. It is not the beginning or end of teenage or the age at which I legally become an "adult". It is just another ordinary day, the passage of one more year, in this occassion a very eventful one for me. Over the last 6 years, every time I have spent this day worrying about the impending doom in the form of trivial acadmic pursuits such as examinations. Somehow this year, that "maturity" seems to have creeped into me, their triviality seems to have been completely decoded by my inner senses.

This year made me realise something else though, the day is made memorable by the people whom I spend it with. The last 4 years in Pilani are still etched in my memory, be it the Chemistry I compre that marked the first year celebrations or the OOP compre that signalled the end of my engineering education. Amidst this was spent 2 years where my good friend Aditya saved me from all the bumps (he was the more popular guy on campus you see) . This year the scene had shifted to a more "sophisticated" institute. I had a different set of people from the last few years and boy, they did make it special for me. If I thought things were going to be any different, they werent. I had a willing friend here too who bore all the pains of the "hooshing" while I stood by the side and watched the events. As for the celebrations, by the end of it , I could not feel my behind , see 5 foot ahead of me or stand without shivering at a vigorous rate. At the end of it all, a cake was cut, the song was sung and we entertained ourselves for an amount of time which is a luxury around here.

Despite it not being a landmark or a milestone, turning 22 will be a special memory for me. This was the day when my Section (D) of the PGP 2009 batch of IIM Bangalore wished me Birthday vocally while I walked up to present a case in front of a professor, truly priceless. What more could I ask for ?

This day, thanks to everyone who made this day special for me. To those who took the time out from the blood-thirsty witch that is academics to ensure that I remembered this day. Today, I am as old or as kiddish as this post may sound to you.

P.S:
My apologies to those who lined up to "smack that", but did not get the opportunity to do so.The pain had crossed the threshold by then .

Not really questionable whether this is truly awesome or not , please do watch this if you are looking for something to kill time , courtesy the batch of students who left this institute one year back (I hope I am right) .

The simpler joys of Life

2009-10-16T21:33:00.003+05:30

About 5 minutes before the scheduled start of a test, we heard loud sighs of relief from the floor below, one that houses 2 classrooms. As we were wondering what had resulted in this came the announcement that the test had been cancelled. What resulted was a marked deviation from the usual in "L cluster", most importantly decibel levels . About 350 of the so called "leaders of tomorrow" were celebrating the momentary relief by clearly putting their vocal chords to best use.

But most people walking back probably had no clue what they would do in this new found free time (or wondering about the next deadline that has to be met). This has more or less what the last 2 months have been for me. A schedule has been made for me and all that I do is run with it. It has gotten me thinking about what has really happened to the things that I used to enjoy and those that I used to look forward to eagerly. Maybe the life around here is designed to be hectic and as the lines of poem Leisure goes , "there is no time to stand and stare".

There have been some special moments that I cherish, but most of them just zoom past me and it eventually takes some time for me to realise that they would indeed fall in the "once-in-a-lifetime" category. These are the times that I would like to live through longer, enjoying them in it's full beauty without the worries of what the future holds for me. I can picture the look of disbelief on the faces of many people inside the campus as they would disagree with me writing this. For, the reason is that I have succumbed to the pressures of the environment and am truly left wondering at what cost have I changed myself to suit this place. I no longer find the time to be in front of the T.V whenever Arsenal steps on a football pitch, have a track of the cricket tournaments happening in the world, read Dilbert at a stretch, watch "The Contest" for the 186th time, stubmling upon random blogs in the cyberworld and probably most importantly writing the occasional post on this blog about whatever leaves a mark on me.

These and many more are the things that I would truly like to be a more significant part of my life in the next 2 years I spend here. Everytime I walk in front of the room M-14, memories flash in front of me, a re-run of an old episode which could have led to a very signifcant change in my "script".

And yes, A Happy and Safe Diwali to everyone of you reading this post (as long as that is within 2 days of posting :) ).

Overheard

2009-08-05T18:08:00.009+05:30

6 weeks and a set of mid-terms down , I have finished more than half-a-term in this place now. The words most often heard inside these walls are " This too shall pass" . Many of our classrooms are interesting for those special "examples" through which "concepts" are taught.

A few excerpts from our classes so far :
(I fail to relate what concepts most of them relate to, for they mostly went somewhere over my head)

Managerial Economics - Prof. Ranganathan. V

"Mere inefficiency cannot get you fired in the public sector"

"It is always wise to opt for education ahead of sports, for here, a lot of mediocres are tolerated"

"It's all over. It's like marriage" (On Sunk Costs)

Financial Accounting - Prof.Padmini Srinivasan

"All accountants know the cost of everything and the the value of nothing"

"If one of your legs is on ice and the other on fire, on an average you are fine".

"In India, we do not know which way to follow - the U.S way or the U.K way" ( On Accounting Standards, but I guess it can be generalised to everything).

Manish Sabharwal , Founder Teamlease (Guest Lecture)

"Why bother digging with shovels, when you can do so with spoons? " (On NREGA)

"Secret to success is being at the right place at the right time. You never know what the right time is so you hang out at the right place all the time" (Quoting Calvin)

"You dont have to be Cleopatra, you have to be less ugly than your competitors"

"Strategy is the art of creating an unfair advantage"

"We did not write the 11th plan, but the 11th version of the first plan" (On working with the Planning Commission)

"Know your customer or Kick your customer" (On Banking Infrastructure in place)

"Most of my competitors are either criminals or politicians, often both"

"The notion of a taxpayer paid social security is science fiction"

"MBA is the most intellectual wine tasting session that lasts longest"

"Post mortems have a certainity over prescriptions"

"You married a pregnant bride , you can't take credit for what happened" (His dad's comment on his company's success".

"You have to kiss many frogs, before you find your price/princess"

To end it, something which acts as a comforting factor for me most of the time, heard in Prof. Rishikesha.T.Krishnan 's class :

"In the long run , we are all dead" (Quoting Keynes)

Mostly Harmless

2009-07-11T00:49:00.003+05:30

It has been more than a fortnight since I have reached the campus of the place to B - IIM Bangalore. Life has been a "Series of fortunate/unfortunate events " over this period of time. Each week has been characterised by a particular theme and significantly none of them have been the magic word - Academics.This was more or less on the expected lines for that is what a B School is supposed to be , not just the Education , but much more than that.

The first week that was essentially spent in getting oriented to life in IIM Bangalore , will probably remain the most interesting week I shall remember after these 2 years. With the second week going off with the facchas trying to prove their worth to seniors through Aarambh , the cultural show put on by us to entertain our seniors. Sleep is the most luxurious thing inside these walls in Bilekhalli and something which the freshers realise in the first week, for I hear "Zombie" has become an annual feature at Aarambh.Amidst such activity , something else started off - Classes. They have just become another of our daily activities, we can either choose to be prepared for every class with all the prior readings or you can be present at the class, sign the attendance sheet and try catching up on some lost sleep if the professors do not mind. Fortunately for me, every professor has taken a different approach to the subject and none of them which is scaring me about it. I have opted to attend the classes, but as to contribution I doubt what I can do on those lines.

And the last 5 days have truly been the benchmark of the ratrace, the mad fight for that single biggest bullet point in your resume which can get you the coveted Day 0 Shortlist.Noone really knows how significant that line can be and how that can give you a "spike" in the resume which your past 20 odd years of existence has not given , but you just do not want to risk missing out on that. And let me tell you that, I too am running, partly worried as to why truly I am doing this and partly being ready to agree to the fact that it is the fear of a being tortoise in this ratrace.

354 other people have joined me in this journey , many of whom are just simply exceptional and to say the least , it's plainly scary to know that I will be competing with them.But I dont think that will be bearing heavily on my mind throughout the next 2 years ,for slowly everyone of us will become just another PGP1 (and hopefully PGP2's next year) who is trying to prove Darwin's theory of "Survival of the Fittest" wrong . As the days progress , the challenges increase and we either will ourselves to fight it out or we just know what we are best at , realise our limitations and know where we stand in the crowd. The last 20 days have been intimidating, frightening and overwhelming but I am slowly realising that this place is Mostly Harmless.

P.S:
The theme for the next week is the magic word , 4 quizzes and I get the first true taste of "competition" around here , I hope I survive to narrate the story.

(L)Earnings from the Practice

2009-06-20T09:24:00.003+05:30

It is only in the last 6 months that I have truly experienced what "Bachelor Life" is all about in an Indian city. Even though I have been away from home during college too, this was something different , not in a hostel, no running for tuts , no curfews , no supres/wardens to watch out for and watching CL matches in your own hall, not a lodge.Lest I forget all this was funded by the wonderful "hands-on" experience creating internship ( aptly title Practice School) which was very very educative indeed.

The fact that all of this happened in Hyderabad , a city which I had been in last summer , was slightly familiar with and had a little knowledge of helped . After using the expertise of people around me for the first 1 month, I knew which were the eat-outs to which you could go to , where would be the best "ambience" for sports matches and of course the hip and happening places in the city. For those planning to visit the city , know that Chutney's is the place to go to for the Steamed Dosas, Guntur Idly's, Babai Hotel Idly's , exquisite Sambar and mouth-watering coconut chutney , Malgudi for authentic south Indian food and any of the Ohri's for the ambience. K Circle at YMCA and HQC proved to be the occassional tonic to keep myself in touch with the Quizzing world. As time moved on after the interview phase , I had more free time than anything , making more friends , having more "fun" and the only complaint I had was about the"Paying Guest" I was staying. Thankfully for the last 2 months, I live in a house and not a hostel.Friends from last summer - Arun and Kaushik ( who have now started on with the second "child" after Lootstreet ) were also around for the occasional get-together and Poker times amidst their busy schedules.Sandeep Prakash too could always be met in one of the book outlets on a Saturday evening for a pre-Poker conversation, looking forward to you making me familiar with Bangalore too.

The best part is and will remain my stay in the flat -Praveen , Pradeep, Thiaga and Mani being the other inhabitants. During this period , I have evolved into a fairly moderate "cooker" under the guidance and mentorship". The 5 of us have cooked 4 course meals and had lunches/ dinners while watching all-time favourite "Jest 4 Jolly" comedy clips from Tamil movies. There is nothing that can beat getting up in the morning, making a cup of coffee for yourself, watching the 1 hour back-to-back F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes with a newspaper in your hands.All the conversations in the flat - the tips for becoming an excellent "peanut farmer" , Sports/Politics related arguements with Praveen ( more so when both of us were sitting in adjacent buildings in Oracle with absolutely nothing to do and debating over the transfer policy and brains of Benitez,Wenger and Florentino Perez) , cursing Dhoni for the CSK loss,disapppointment at India's catastrophic failure, ex-flatmate Psyche's nonchalance, "Ok Boys", never ending comedies and many more such special moments are just a few things I will miss.

Goodbye Hyderabad , I will miss everything from here - Hi-tech City, Rock View apartments, Cafe Nandhini, JMJ meals and being around each one of the above mentioned people. Here is to knowing that we will definitely be meeting again sooner or later .

The End : BITS-Pilani Class of 2009

2009-06-12T16:54:00.003+05:30

An ode , 4 years of engineering , 3.5 years of village life , 0.5 years of "work-experience" , 8 semesters of "Education". A lot of memories, a series of amazing incidents , unforgettable times.In a format that is special to BITS. Here is how I remember 4 years in Pilani.A collage of almost everything I have been through.

0 % Attendance. You are a smart ! Retailer in 3rd year. Being "parliamentary". Lounge Piranha at 3.30 am.96 hours - Oasis and not desert for once. Galeez . Cheese Pizzas at Sky. Pappuji. PPW,MNB,Blue Moon,Chimpuji.Saint and Flatley - ELAS as a phoenix.Galeez.Magic of Wholesale and Retail.T20 finals in Audi.Heena at BOSM. Catfight at BOSM Girls BasketBall. OD's gift to Sponz. DOPY's truly "amazing" snaps, more so on delivery. Running from chowkis. "Are you a superstar ? " - Satpathi D.K. Roadies Audition - Devrishi shines, in Bear's room. Sitcom marathons. "Xchng Plsss" . Trivia, DC ++ . Dude/BOB/Kadalai/CRC Iyer. Chitappa's Night outs. "Interaction Sessions". OHT,OQ,BOB, AVQ. First Blood. Wordstock. Treasure hunt "decoys" and "Ahaa" moments."You are David".APK as Nathuram Godse.Nightout in C Lawns - Psyche grinning and "happy" throughout. Arsenal Vs Man U in CR , in high spirits. "How long can a 50 gm toothpaste tube last for 9 people ? " - Galeez has answers . Adirad saving me on Birthday(s). One comp for 8 eight Illads in first year - Janki, the man ! Kevalramani's EG classes .Challenges to VVS Pavan, the COSTAN ( or whatever it is rightly spelt as). Go "Fill Arbit Name here" Go ! DumbCharades in FD3 , the night before Workshop compre."Who Moved my Quiz" - India Quiz 2007. "Niiii!" - Shilpa. The best guitarist BITS has ever seen - You Know Who . Kaiser, the camper - Chitappa's CS avtar . EPC stapling sessions. Intros starting with "Myself XYZ".Suicide Notes in SMS language , courtesy OEP.OHT QM asking for a "peg" before the quiz.CL matches in Pilani Lodge.Sharma's Dinner. Revamped ANC , still "Sweat Maggi". Haran Rajkumar ! Aravind's fight for supremacy over the SWD Website - Instances : Nilam "Sweet" Babu,"AFHQ" . SUBASHREE@NAGALAKSHMI R. Specially for Illads, SAC Lunches. Psenti-sem without a wing. JB and Chitappa going at it. Chitappa neads black charts! Special entrant in Lights Booth. Bear beating up Ashwin.The secret Swimming Pool break-in.Joseph's never ending analysis of PS.Kiddo in demand.Chari and his secrets. Kaushik's love for robotics. Aswin's love for the truth. CuppyCake! CP 1, CP 2 "Evaluated Labs". Vivek's "Mech by choice" . Himesh! King Mama/Ravishing Ravi/King Diamond ! APK going "cuckoo" . Ramya looking lost all the time.Kairali Grubs and Dhotis.Beg/Borrow/Steal for Batch Snaps. "Happy Days" at Batch snaps.Vivek's walk-in pics. Super Special KC in the mimes.Psyche, Vasanth,Kutts and me at Mithali."Have you read Fountainhead" .The two wonderful TA's. Mech "reaching steady state takes infinite time" Labs. Upto 300 % error accepted.School Kids in Roctaves.Gossip Girl . Operation Deltaforce( Did I get the name right ? ) . "Love is in the air" 3-1 , also the article and after-effects.Wing Formation Politics. "Dont you just simply love Wodehouse" - Psyche in 3-1 . Psyche's special nuances . Impartial Chittu and Pres Treat.Mama's Sports Quiz - D13's sledging. Informals and ELAS tie-ups. KOTA karthik and his CraCing abilities. Anand Iyer - "Give Gossip".FL@SH-"Orgasmic" over TB's on DC++."I ate Zebra" says the Bear. List of missing items APK is responsible for. APK and his hidden stash of Pringles and Chocolates. Vladtepes being a madman.Mighty Joe young. Cheeku and the Saint fighting over hidden secrets from school. Kaushik throwing mudballs."You cannot eat Hide n Seek during Audi Ragging" . The EC brigade and their bags. Dhall hugging trees. Seinfeld- The key, starring Gangster ! No tracks for Pilani - save us from the dacoits.Bunty's, Chirawa and Punjabi Dhabas,Unforgettable "Good times".

For everything else , there is mastercard, this is simply Priceless.

To all my batchmates, wishing you a great future and the hope that we keep bumping into each other at every turn in our lives. Comments with more such lists would be really great, for that is the only place where I can add things that I have missed out.

P.S:

No Offences meant, extremely sorry if anyone feels hurt.

Dummy's Guide: How to lead CSK and lose !

2009-05-25T12:30:00.006+05:30

Despite having possibly the most balanced team in the Indian Premier League, Chennai SuperKings contrived to lose and that too in a pathetic fashion in the semi-finals.I am pretty sure every Chennai fan would have strangled M.S.Dhoni to death, if possible as soon as they saw the starting XI for the match. I cannot not rant and vent out my feelings of depression on seeing the same, please excuse me for this post.

1.There was no logical explanation for Jacob Oram being an "important player" . Despite never being used as a bowler in the league stages, the captain believed that when called to do a job Oram could deliver the goods.The reasoning would have been extremely sound if Oram had been used consistently throughout the tournament, been used to bowling such a thing called as "dibbly-dobbly"/millitary pace/ medium fast.It clearly showed when Oram could not even hit the deck and managed to save some trouble by using his expertise to concede 14 runs in 4 balls.

2. Mike Hussey. It is probably only in a country like Australia that a player of the calibre of Mike Hussey could be kept out of the national team till he was 28( 30 in case of tests ! ). Irrespective of however excellent Jacob Oram is , nothing should have kept Hussey out of the Chennai Super Kings team,especially after he made himself available despite the taxing international schedule for the knockout stages. Form or no form , any Chennai school kid knows who Mr.Cricket is , only the man in charge doesn't.

3. The love for small town boys has been carried a bit too far. Joginder Sharma and Manpreet Singh Gony do not win you matches. The captain seems to be in love with "rural development", but you are not being paid for that, you are being paid to win. M.S.Gony's 2 overs cost 23 runs, it always has. For no fault of his, Sudeep Tyagi was missing from the line-up, his 2 overs might have cost the same, but it probably would not have been the rank long-hops and full tosses that deserved to be smacked. Tyagi seemed to have mastered the art of bowling 2 overs in the start, taking a wicket and getting done with the job ( except for maybe McCullum). This was not right and might have lead to the team's victory, hence drop him !

4.Taking charge was the captains responsibility and man did he do it well.Throughout the 2 seasons of IPL, Subramaniam Badrinath was grossly under-utilised.A player of his mould is best coming in at no.3/4 in the first ten overs after the fall of wickets, not in the 18th over when you use your ingenious batting technique to swat balls down the track. But again this might have lead to better performance and hence forget that.The innings in the semi-final was excruciatingly painful to watch, the consolidation and building up was much better left in the hands of Badrinath, the "slam-bang-thank-you-ma'm" is something which players like Badri (I should add Dravid too here) cannot learn.

I do have my own theory which can back this up, the performance of Badri could have cost one very good friend of the captain a place in the test side. Badri is due a place in the national test team, the fact that he fails to suck up to Dhoni is the cause for him not being there is disheartening. Smacking Stuart Broad for 36 runs in a T20 match does not make you fit to become a test player.

The failure was in no part the fault of the players, the fault lies in all its entirety with the "Cool Dude" - "Win my Love Songs " - "I can field as badly as you guys too" Captain Fantastic Dhoni. Being Cool is over-rated *. It does not bode well if you stand around and smile while your team is dropping catches left, right and center . In the semi-final,where you have a small possibility of winning, this demands some intensity/display of emotion/inspiration from the captain, which was very clearly missing.In sharp contrast at the other end the captain was Anil Kumble and you could clearly see the difference in attitude.

I have always stood with the fact that Dhoni has been riding his luck. The current Indian team is probably the best ever to play in a long time, we have a good pack of pacers up front who can perform in any set of conditions, few decent spinners ( according to the cricinfo Page 2 resume one of them is the best spinner for India abroad after Irfan Pathan ) and a batting line-up which no longer revolves around one man.This team does not need an inspirational/special/magical/made in heavens captain, it will probably perform the same if the "match ke pehle first ball" captain continues to captain the team throughout the T20 World Cup.

At the end of the tournament, none of the teams looked like champion material.Though, I really feel for Anil Kumble, under him the Royal Challengers were a different team, he did his best and the others just could not deliver when it mattered. The IPL is yet to be won by an Indian captain - Sachin can never be a great captain, Dhoni's luck has run out, Kumble needs an ounce of luck and Yuvraj needs to do something other than take hat-tricks (Sehwag/Gambhir dont deserve a mention) .It is going to take sometime coming , but I hope it comes soon.

P.S:

1.The T-20 "Champions League" beckons and in all probability that will be a bigger farce (or in Lalit Modi's words "Marketing Success" ) than the IPL . Do the rules of the IPL stick there too ? - Not more than 4 overseas players ? Isn't that putting Deccan/RCB/Delhi to a disadvantage ? If you know the answer, please leave a comment.

2.*Thanks to Srikanth, my PS team-mate for this.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2009-05-11T22:11:00.005+05:30

The last 12 months have easily been the most eventful period in my life so far . There have been some unforgettable experiences , over-the-moon periods , down in the dump despair times and of course just the fun of the exciting life in the city and not a village . But taking into account everything, it has been the most enjoyable spell irrespective of successes and failures.

The Good :

There is no guessing what occupies the top spot. The entire experience, preparing , trying to make sense of completely random terms in the Economic Times , making new friends , "selling myself",learning about Mr.TKGR (the above-God authority) - all this compromises what I call the B Experience .

But I should say something that I enjoyed more would be the summer of 2008 , which is more or less responsible for the above mentioned result.Working for 2 months with Arun and Kaushik , the benefits of learning while you work , the chance to visit the campus of IIM Ahmedabad ( which now unfortunately has become the taboo word ) and of course the chance to see a lot of surprised faces when being told that I was still a student who was trying his hand with work in the firm . It truly was something which changed me in all terms and will probably be a part of my introduction to anyone for a few more years to come.

Even though its significance has been lost in view of the present situation, getting the job at Morgan Stanley was another thing which gave me an "unrecoverable" high. I had people abusing me for the grin on my face while walking on the roads for even a week after the results.At that point of time, I was completely overwhelmed by the same.

The Bad :

Even though , it should not be counted as bad if you get paid for doing nothing except occasionally being asked to do something which even Zimbu, the monkey could probably do,PS 2 falls in this category for me. But fortunately, the people and the firm are really a great place to spend 6 months and it has been a mixed bag to say the least.

Despite spending 4 ( ok, not 4 , 3.5 ) years in Pilani , there was absolutely a lack of "emotion" if I can call it that when I left the campus. Most people have been taken aback by my obvious relief on leaving the place.Like many of my previous posts, it is always the people that made the place so enjoyable for me and I shall be ensuring that I get more of those moments with the people whom I spent those 3.5 years in that village in Rajasthan.
Unfortunately , the times have changed since the time we were on campus for our placements.

This semester has been particularly bad for many friends I know and I am sure everyone will find / make their own way out of this messy situation, if I might add , all that it takes might be some patience and compromise for better things to happen to you soon.

The Ugly:

Fortunately/Unfortunately this happens to do with only my sports affiliations .

Arsenal F.C has progressed from bad to worse in this period. The signing of the wizard Andrei Arshavin must have injected some sense into the all-knowing, kids-loving Professor we fans hope. Development or not, the club needs to progress and it is the time to make a few inspired signings rather than harp on the talent present in the academy. 16 year old Luke Freeman is not going to win us anything next season.

I shall still call him by the same name I always refer to him with : His Royal Highness Roger Federer is going through his worst slump of form and for the love of the game I hope he returns to his stylish and devastating best.

Formula 1 is being hijacked by teams who previously had nothing significant attached to them. Ross Brawn is a technical genius beyond doubt , but I do hope that things return to normal soon and more importantly Scuderia Ferrari getting things back in place.

That ends what is a brief description of how my last one year has been. Though , I am not celebrating my birthday or anything of that sort , I just realised that the technical 1 year - 365 day period for which I have mentioned the activities above will be coming to a close soon.

P.S:

1. Of Course something are just priceless , such as the 5 months in Hyderabad , where I have had the opportunity to meet so many people, weekends spent just watching football and playing UNO , learning a few nuances of poker - everything has made this a really enjoyable experience .

2. I co-hosted a quiz last week for the K Circle with Psyche(less popularly known as Vijay ), Hyderabad Chapter whose review can be found here, written by dear friend Praveen. Thanks to him for portraying the quiz as not the complete disaster it actually was.

Yippee Kay Yay

2009-05-02T11:30:00.005+05:30

The wait has ended and the title must have more or less given it away . I have made it into IIM Bangalore for the PGP Batch of 2009-2011. What I feel at this moment is relief, more than anything else .After all this, I wouldn't have really wanted to go through this entire process again, fortunately I don't have to . This post if any longer wont make much sense and I stop it here.

A special thanks to the Great Man Above .

P.S:

The madNavin most of you know is in some other dimension and cannot be reached at this moment due to the state of euphoria he is in. This post is by his alter ego : N Madhavan.

Nowhere To Go

2009-04-12T15:05:00.008+05:30

The long wait has not yet ended for me. The results for admissions to IIM Bangalore have come out and I have been Waitlisted for admissions with WaitList No : 48 . I do not know whether this is something which I should rejoice or be dejected about, for my next 1 year is still a mystery to me . My results are such that when told to someone they do not know what would be the right thing to say . It is very evident to me that most of you are stuck without knowing what my chances are and whether this result is good or bad. Frankly , even I have absolutely no idea as to what I should expect based on such a result. To help you interpret my chances here are a few facts:

Fact 1 : I am amongst the last 5 candidates to be shortlisted by IIM B in the General Category (52 is the total number )

Fact 2 : This Waitlist no does not indicate that 47 people not taking up their seat would result in me getting admission. The admission panel is smart, they have already given 23 buffer offers from whatever I know and this would mean at least 70 people turning down their seats for me to stand a chance of making it .

Fact 3 : Last year , the Waitlist moved till 46, with a probably lesser number of buffer calls and a lesser number of seats. This might indicate that my chances are better and I hope they are .

Besides the above facts remain the choices that people make . The growing popularity of IIM Calcutta and its outstanding finance expertise is also going to be a factor which will influence my results .

Today, I know that there is an extremely high probability that I would either be amongst the last candidates to make into the institution or be amongst the first ones to miss it . The latter will be a very difficult fact to digest, rejection is simpler to face , but knowing that probably not guessing one answer in the verbal section might have resulted in me making it will haunt me . Whatever the result, I still have hope to hang onto for at least the next 1 month or so and at the end of it I will be a different person.

P.S:

1. The Killer - I will be getting an admission letter from IIM Bangalore, I hope it turns out to be more than just a souvenir .
2. Congratulations to everyone who has cleared the final hurdle and heading to the best B Schools in the country to spend the next 2 years.

The Final Lap

2009-04-05T21:04:00.008+05:30

Before Nov 16, 2008 :

I knew that in all probability I would be spending the next 1 or 2 years working in Morgan Stanley , something which seemed really exciting at that point of time and I was more than happy to take up the same .Even though before I had reached campus for the semester I was intent on taking CAT seriously and trying to continue with education , the "dream job" offer changed my mindset.

Nov 16, 2008 - Jan 9, 2009

After what I thought was not a complete disaster as expected on the day of CAT, I harbored hopes of a few calls, with the more important question being whether any one of them would be from the big ones. As the days went by and I kept hearing scores of 200 and increasing, I had doubts as to whether anything good would come out at all on Jan 9th .

Jan 9, 2009 - Feb 23, 2009

When the results did come out , the time-tested weightage to academics pulled me through for a call to one call that mattered - IIM Bangalore . The next 45 days were a mad rush with me trying to get things in place and get them perfect and polished for the big day . The 4 hours spent in IIM Bangalore on the actual day was not the way I had dreamt of it, with a GD that was more than peaceful and an interview which was completely out of the blue. I did come out of the interview room with a big grin on my face , but that was more because I knew I had given my best shot, the preparations were over and now all that remained was to wait for the results

Feb 23, 2009 - Now :

Despite all the post-mortem analysis,PagalGuy visits to see how other competitors fared , I am presently back to a preparation phase. Preparing myself for the Chequered flag , trying to be ready to digest the message that will popup on the results page. Whatever the results , I will have to brace myself and face it. Easy to write and say,but when it does dawn on me , I have absolutely no idea how I will take it. To be honest,before this there has been nothing else for which I had put such a dedicated and concentrated effort to achieve.Unlike before when I was all geared up to work in Morgan Stanley, that would be a disappointment for me now.At the end of highly engaging discussions with Praveen and Psyche, fellow "wait-ers" hoping that April 10 comes sooner , the only conclusion that I could draw was that there is only so much we can do, the rest is the "secret ingredient" , give it whatever name - Luck,Destiny or Fate.

All the best to everyone of my friends and competitors who are expecting ( some including me - dreading ) and hoping that their efforts do not go in vain.

The Special One

2009-03-20T17:20:00.004+05:30

It is bigger, it is better and it is back. For all those who need introduction , last summer I pursued a Business Development Internship with AKVenture , an IIM A startup. So, as all good things normally do, it is back for the summer of 2009. Interested applicants can download this document . To all those who have any second thoughts , please forget them and this will be one summer which you wont forget. If you need any personal insight from me, I have already blogged enough about the same and feel free to contact my by e-mail or any other mode convenient for you. Please pass on the news to your circle of friends/batchmates/juniors about the same.

Ok, now for googles sake : Summer Internships 2009 , Internships in start-ups
(I am not a techie, and anyone who has suggestions on how I can make this better can educate me about the same) .

Hi-Tech City

2009-03-19T19:50:00.008+05:30

Even though I did spend my last summer in the same city , what I am seeing this time is a very different one from what I saw last time around. Now this is not my way of saying that Hyderabad has changed / improved / developed a whole new face in the last 6 months . The last time I was here, I seem to have spent my time in "Hyderabad", presenty I am spending my time in "Cyberabad" . Now, to people who are unfamiliar with the city , Hi-Tech City is not a synonym for the city , but a landmark / bus-stop / railway station , where as you can guess IT-boom-ed (Looks like noone realy wanted to spend too much time thinking about a "localised" name! ) . This is the place where you find all the offices - MNC/Desi, big/small , cost-cutting/still in profit , you will be getting the hint I hope.

Naturally, the place is populated with engineering graduates from all over the country and everyone of them want to take the fastest escape route out of their jobs . Even though there is a lack of idea as to what to do next, most are very clear with the fact that they do not want to be continuing with their jobs after the summer. So, the probability is very high that you person sitting next to you in the daily mode of conveyance, share-auto is a competitor for the very seat that you aspire to be sitting in 6 months from now, be it an IIM, XLRI, ISB,Stanford, UIUC, Berkeley or any other institute you can think of.Basically, everyone is a "fund" in his own terms and I have got to meet a lot of such people through work, casual interactions(read bump-ins) and IMS classes. I have really enjoyed their company and hope to meet more interesting people during my stay here.

Unlike your school/college where the very mention of the name creates a bond and some sort of connection to any stranger who is from the same place and you did not know before , corporates are a different playing ground. Every share-auto packed with 6 people in space for 3 will have at least 4 people from the same company , but there is no-chitchat , casual smiles and nods of acknowledgment. For that matter, even company shuttles follow suit , very little talking, with everyone seemingly eager, enthusiastic and looking forward to getting to work .

The stay being made more enjoyable by the fact that there are friends are in the city , I have some knowledge of places and am more than capable of handling the ever smart auto drivers with this limited city-sense of mine . The recovery-period after the B interview was quite long and I still find it difficult to have conversations without mention of it and worries about the results , that the waiting period is reducing everyday is the only thing that gives me some joy. A lot of things here help me to keep my mind off it , wonderful weekends where I more than happily put my stipend put to good use tops the list .

P.S:
The recent surge in my friends circle for quizzes and activities on facebook indicates to me that almost everyone finds work to be minimal :) . But one thing which surprised me is the page below.

I mean is this some kind of weird joke being played by Facebook as an advertising trick ? If that is not the case, the "friends" and "admirers" are welcome to prove me wrong and throw some light on it in any other form.

P.P.S:

The last post received a lot of attention and a thanks to everyone for your opinion and a special thanks to those who found it good enough to share on their respective twitter/blog accounts .

The Curious Case of Navin M

2009-02-24T20:15:00.013+05:30

Saturday
I had reached Bangalore 2 days in advance , some last minute things pending as always , I needed a pair of shoes to complete my wardrobe for D-Day and this was purchased from Koramangla. The fact that I was not carrying sufficient cash resulted in me bumping into Shashank , Mandeep and Vaibhav out of the blue in a street corner in Bangalore . Shasank's interview experience lead me to believe that the route would be clear of academics and it was a "feel-good" interview that was going to take place .

Sunday
2 visits to the temple and no prizes for guessing what I was asking for . The typical last day with a rush to read everything I had written in my one-stop ready reckoner, ironing of clothes and polishing the shoe.

Feb 23rd , 2009:Judgment Day

The day that India had been waiting for years altogether , history would be made today. No, obviously it's not me being referred to here. I tried to see whether Slumdog had already received any oscars before I left home - Resul Pookutty and the maestro A.R.Rahman awaiting the judgment of their work, while here I was about to put my case forward for the same to a different panel for a different reason.

7.50 am :
No, this was not the time I left from home. I had reached the campus by now and was heading towards the M-Block, the scheduled spot where the jury was waiting. I saw competitors everywhere, one outside the gate, one signing in the register just before me and another already sitting in front of the rooms.Everyone had come prepared to plead their cases and put their best foot forward to ensure a future stay within the same walls.The list in M-14 had two "Naveen"'s and one "Navin" and one "Neetha Joy" , one person from the fairer sex in the group, might lead to some order in the GD, I hoped.

8.45 am :
The bonding process had begun , but surprisingly only 5 people had turned up till 10 minutes before the scheduled time.I guess some of prayers had been answered after all, the GD was going to be the easier part. So, it was only to be the 5 of us yapping our way to glory for 15 minutes in the GD . I played the role of the " enthusiastic fresher " who was keen to interact with everyone with the group.

9.15 am :
Prof NarayanSwamy called each individual as per the order in the list, ensured that we sat at the right positions and no it was not a U shaped table with the panel sitting in front of you, it was to be a round table conference with 5 people and the panel sitting in one corner of the room making observations . Prof Bhattacharya greeted us and explained the ground rules to us. So, the fun began, the Case Topic : In light of the current Recession, job losses or pay cuts . What is your stance and what do you think should be the approach of companies ? We had some one paragraph of facts on the same and were asked to start after 10 minutes of preparation time.As soon as the signal was given, I was out of the blocks, starting off the GD, trying to lay a basic structure and define the questions which we were attempting to answer through the discusssion. It did not look like anyone wanted to take the stage from me and I had to go on talking for around a minute before someone took over from me. Through the course of the interview , I managed to speak many times throwing in some management jargon about the "80-20" rule, manufacturing sector's impacts, performance based pay scales and moving employees up the value chain. And while the lady went on one more of her "I have read this article about blah blah" we were asked to stop in what was almost less than 15 minutes , but then we were not really keeping a count and we did seem to have run out of content.

As the other Naveen.C had put it , it is very difficult to "ace a GD" , so I believe I contributed well, had enough to speak about and managed to just write a decent enough summary filling the space they had given me to write. And now, I had to wait, I was the penultimate person in the list and would have a good wait before I had my interviews .

Amidst all this, I remembered that history might have been made and was elated to know that Slumdog did sweep the Oscars and both Indians - Rahman and Pookutty had indeed won the oscars. So that was a good day for India , would it be the same for me ? Would it be possible that I could carry off the interview in a similar fashion to what I had done in the GD ? Half an hour down, the first person with 19 months of work-experience comes out and says the dreaded word : "Academics" ! I was stumped , but I hoped it was not the case with everyone. Naveen C had an interview on Carnatic Music and Naveen N had an interview on his work-experience and again a course which he had done almost 5 years before .So,what would it be for me - Navin M ?

The Real Thing

Prof NarayanSwamy(RNS) came out and called out for Navin M , it was time for me to present my case . I walked in greeted Prof Bhattacharya(MB) and waited to take my seat . So, it began , the jury was out and I had to present arguements in my favour and as it turned out, they tried to flatten everyone of them .One thing which I did do before taking my seat was place my extra-curriculars file on the table in front of them. A file with all my certificates tagged and assorted with the hope that at some point this would draw their attention.

MB: So, Navin . 94 % in 10th, 96 % in 12th and 88.6% in Pilani.( Now , I was dreading where this was heading towards ) Where does that leave you in your class ?
Me : Sir, I think I would be 7th or 8th in my class, I am not exactly sure .
MB:In a class of ?
Me:108 students who did the mechanical courses with me ( Technically,our batch is only 80 in number, but then there were dualites who were passing out with us as well and 108 I am sure was the number in our attendance sheets and besides that sounds better than 80 :))
MB:You are in BITS-Pilani, why are you in Bangalore for your interview ?
Me:Sir,I am currently interning with Oracle,Hyderabad . All students of BITS-Pilani take up an internship programme called Practice School 2 as a part of our curriculum and since most internship centers are in and around Bangalore I chose to give Bangalore as my center for the interviews
RNS decides to poke me , the facebook way in a mild fashion
RNS:What is a mechanical engineer doing at Oracle ? (Smiles around)
Now, that was a free hit for which I had prepared for
Me : The internship stations are alloted by the institute keeping in mind various criterion. I believe that the institute found it apt to allot Oracle to me since I had been placed in the IT arm of Morgan Stanley. This would probably be a good experience for me in the case that I miss out on IIM Bangalore and have to work with Morgan Stanley.
RNS: Is this a programming job with Morgan Stanley?
Me: The profile offered to me is that of an IT Associate, but I am not completely sure about what would be the kind of work I am doing.
RNS: Do you think you will like it ?
Me: Sir, I have an interest in Object Oriented Programming cultivated through my 12th standard where I secured excellent marks and merit certificate for the same. This knowledge is what helped me secure the job, but as to how much I will really be "enjoying" it I am not sure right now.
RNS : It looks good on your resume doesn't it ?
Me: Sir, it just a fact really , I am not sure .
RNS: Just a fact huh , Tell me Dont Mechanical Engineering firms come for placements in Pilani ?
Me: Sir, I managed to get a job with Morgan Stanley on day 6 of the placements schedule and the placements norm dictated that once a student gets an offer he ideally opts out to give others an opportunity. Especially with the current situation I thought that would be the best thing to do.But, later on when Exxon Mobil visited the campus and was in the open for all slot, I did sit for it and secure a job with them .
RNS: So, you have an offer from Exxon Mobil as well ?
Me: There are a few formalities to be completed with Exxon before the offer is confirmed as such ( The fact is that I did get a job with Exxon and I knew it on the same day as my CAT results, so when the HR female called up CAT was one of the various excuses I gave for not making a commitment to Exxon, when she was kind enough to inform me that the results were out. I had no other go, but to tell her that ok , I have got calls and that is where I would ideally be spending my time. After that I have not been contacted for these "formalities")
RNS:And what would be your choice ?
Me: In the case of not gaining an admission from here , besides the above 2 offers , I also have an offer from Lootstreet.com, a start-up venture whose founders are from IIM Ahmedabad and with whom I interned in the summer of 2008. I would want to get more details on the same before I make a final decision.(2 Minutes into the interview, no mention of Lootstreet, I had to take a gamble here and hope that they would pick it up)
RNS:So you have not yet decided what to do , is it ?
Me: Ideally I would want to be in IIM Bangalore and not decide from the above .
A pause before MB decides to get back to me
MB:Navin, I see from your eligiblity sheet (Oh no , please dont see anything in that !) that there is a # in a few of your courses and that you are "Debarred to register" for it. Can you tell me what that means ?
Me:Actually sir, students in Pilani are given an option for repeating the courses for which they are not satisfied with their grades . But, these courses which you mention are Study Oriented Projects which we take up in different semesters. For these, we take up the time and other resources from the professor under whom we are working and hence the institute does not permit us to repeat these courses (I was really lucky to pull that one off,the eligibility sheet given to us was something which noone really pays much attention to beyond the first line)
MB:Ok, so I see that you have done courses on Probability and Statistics(No,please dont go down those lines) , Operations Research, Optimisation Theory,Numerical Analysis and Production Techniques, do you remember anything from all this ?
Me: Sir, Probability and Statistics is there somewhere in the back of my mind, but I dont really remember everything we did in the course.
Smiles from both MB and RNS
MB: Already, ancient you say, what about others ? When did you do it ?
Me: Sir in my second semester, first year.
MB: Is it , wasn't it later ? (Takes a look at the grade sheet and nods in agreement) .What about Numerical Analysis ?
Me: I remember that Numerical Analysis had something to do with the calculation of approximate values of functions , there were different methods like Runge Kutta Method, Newton Raphson(!) Method . I just remember them as names and cant really remember the exact algorithms of each of them. Optimisation Theory and Production Techniques are courses in which I remember the basics that I had read.
MB: So, what do you do in Optimisation ?
Me:We try to achieve a given condition such as maximize or minimize a function within a given set of constraints. We can solve these problems by different algorithms such as simplex or dual simplex.
MB:Do you know what these problems are called ?
Me: I think they are called Linear Programming Problems , but I have my doubts and I am not sure whether Linear Programming is another approach to solving the problems or is the name given to them.
MB: Do simplex and dual simplex come under Linear Programming ?
Me: I am not really sure about that , I remember that we also solved problems graphically, not very sure about the names.(trying to pull off a sheepish smile)
MB: I am still not able to get you, so take a piece of paper and explain to us what you really learnt in OT .(This is not something I had hoped for to happen in the interview)
RNS:Ok, take this paper and explain it to us with a problem you have solved before
I try to take out a pen from my pocket and 3 of them come out.
RNS: Navin, Why do you carry so many pens around ?
Me : (Smiles) Sir, just in case, backup,you never know and I slowly get to writing down the problem they had asked me to.
Sir, there is a function z which we are trying to maximize say z = 3x1+5x2+8x3 given the set of constraints 2x1+7x2+4x3<=30 , 5x1+6x2+7x3<=40 and 3x1+4x2+9x3<=50. We can use the simplex algorithm to solve these problems by introducing slack variables and so on. MB: Can you explain to me what the variables X1,X2 and X3 mean ? Me: They could be basic or non-basic variables depending on our solution MB:No No, In real terms, some real-life example Me: Sir, they could be the costs involved in running a company, say X1 could be the HR costs, X2 could be the operating costs and X3 the material costs/miscellaneous costs (All this with the hope that they would take one of these terms that I am talking about and forget Optimisation ! )
MB: (Smiles) Are you sure this is right ?
Me: Not completely, but I think this could be one possibility.
RNS: Wait , you said these are the costs right , and what have you written here that you want to do with the variable z ?
I had initially started off with maximize and my example had been in the opposite sense.
Me: Sir, with respect to the example I am stating it would be minimize, any company would want to minimise the total costs involved in the running of the organisation , I forgot to change that.
RNS: Thats what I thought as well, why would anyone want to maxmize the costs ! Anyways, continue.
MB: So, what are the co-efficients you have mentioned in the equation ?
Me: Sir, they could be the weights assigned to each variable and how significant they are in the final contribution.(Now his smile has become much more evident)
MB: (Looking at the grade sheet) This is is 3-credit course right ? So how many hours does that translate to ?
Me: Three hours a week and a common hour to clear doubts and solve additional problems.
MB: And how many weeks does your semester run ?
Me: Sir, August to Decemeber , around 24 weeks (that was random and I would not know the implications of this till later)
MB: Are you telling me that all that you learnt during these 72 hours and the additional problem solving session was just simplex and dual simplex methods ?
Me: No, sir . We did solve a lot of problems on the same with different special cases , learnt the same through matrix methods and also moved on to different classes of problems later.
At this point of time, RNS decides to adapt a BodyLine approach, coming out with something that could have lead to me being forced to Retire Hurt with serious injuries.
RNS: Navin, are you from the BITS Pilani in Rajasthan that we all know of or is there some other place where you studied and we are not aware of ?
I managed to break into a smile or something else close to it, to avoid any other evident feelings from appearing on my face .
Me: Sir, I am from the same BITS-Pilani you are talking about and I apologise if I am showing my institute in the wrong light here and projecting a wrong image about it. The fact is that the real-time examples that you are asking me is just not striking me at this moment.
RNS: But I thought that you being a mechanical engineering student with such good marks would grasp these concepts easily and be eager to explain this to me . It does not look like you are interested in Mechanical Engineering, is that the case ?
Me: No sir, the exact answer seems to be slipping my mind at present and I am not able to recollect the answer to this specific question.
RNS: Would you be able to answer the same question when asked in a casual environment ? What would you say if I asked this question while we were taking a walk in the park ? (This was nothing close to a walk in the park for me! )
MB: Navin, dont feel stressed, answer casually .
Me: No sir, if I know the answer I can answer the question when asked in any environment . At this point of time, the answer is not striking me.
RNS: What was the grade you made in this course ?
Me: I made a B in optimisation
RNS is still not clear about my grade
MB helps me out
MB: A is the highest right ?
Me: Yes, sir . An A is the highest sir a 10 and a B is the next an 8.
RNS: So, did you get all your marks by copying or something ? MB breaks into a smile
Me: No sir. I have had to work hard for all the grades and marks that I have made .
RNS: But it does not look like you can appreciate the applications of it , so dont you think whereever you join - Shell or anywhere else, it would be better for you to gain some experience and join an MBA later ?
Me: Sir, if it turns out that I dont make it here, I might learn while I am working. But I believe that I will have enough chances to interact with people with diverse experience in IIM Bangalore's selected batch of students and I will be approaching them to ensure that I learn anything that I have missed out on because of the lack of experience. Also, with such reputed faculty available to help me out, I believe I can learn things faster .
RNS: Is there anything else you studied in the course and you are confident about ?
Me: Other things we studied in optimisation was about Production Centers and Distribution Centers for a company.Costs involved in transportation between each of them is given and we try and arrive at a solution where the demand is met at minimum cost . Simultaneously I was drawing a table of the question and demonstrating it to them
RNS: Do you know what such problems are called ?
Me : Transportation Problems Sir
RNS: Ok, anything else ?
Me: We also learnt assignment problems where we had to schedule a certain number of tasks among a given set of employees such that the objective is met in the best fashion
MB: What do you mean by "best " fashion ?
Me: Sir, since this is a mathematical approach I do not think we can qualitatively say that the results will be best, the algorithm is such that we minimise a certain entity : in this case man hours .
They seem to be satisfied with my efforts to put across my limited knowledge of Optimisation Theory.
MB:Ok Navin , where else have you got calls from ?
Me: Sir, only Bangalore and Shillong have called me for the interviews.
MB: What was your CAT percentile ?
Me : 98.8 Sir
RNS: In the case that you do not make it to Bangalore and get an admission from Shillong , will you be taking that up ?
Me: Sir, I have not thought about that , I will probably have to look more details about Shillong .(What the hell, who was I kidding here, I decided to let diplomacy loose ) But I do not think that I will be joining it if that is the case . Since I have time on my hand and I think I am made for IIM Bangalore, I would learn from my mistakes if any I have made this year and come back and give it a better shot next time around.
RNS: But it looks like you put all your effort in making it to the institute and dont really do anything after that ?
An 8.86 in Pilani and still he says this .
Me: If you give me the chance to join IIM Bangalore I assure you that I will be making the best efforts to ensure that I put to best use the facilities provided to me by you.
Smiles
RNS: Giving an assurance is one thing and proving from what you have already done is something else
Me: Sir, I believe that I have done it to the best of my abilities and I have to work hard for an 88.6 in Pilani.
RNS: It looks like everyone else relaxed by the time they reached their final year and you just got away because of that.
Me: That is not the case sir, I am a part of the first set of students who entered BITS Pilani through BITSAT .Most of us had aspired to join the IIT's and missing out due to various reasons. All of us had high aspirations and ambitions for our future and most of us were working hard to ensure that we achieved what we wanted.(Batch of 2005, stand up and fight for your pride ! )
RNS: Fine, so what are your other interests ?
Me : I have been an avid quizzer since primary school. A quarter-finalist at the All Asia Bournvita Quiz Contest and Champions of the World, I also take interest in hosting quizzes, literary events for an interested audience. I am also a sports enthusiast and a passionate fan of Arsenal Football Club, Roger Federer and Rahul Dravid .
A brief pause, RNS smiles at me and I smile back .
RNS : So why do you want to do an MBA Navin ?
Me : It is my belief that the 2 years that I spend in doing my MBA will change me as an individual. At the end of this period, I will be a wise, mature and accomplished person who has the knowledge to make the right choices from the different opportunities available to me. This would also be the best way to achieve the targets that I have set for myself in terms of career in both the long-term and short-term.
Finally, one question I had prepared for and a line I added intentionall with the never-ending hope that a bait works for once in the interview. They decided to relent.
RNS: And what are those ?
Me: I want to enter consulting after my degree since this would give me the chance to work across different industry verticals, work on projects across various sectors and with time find an area of interest I would like to specialise in. In the long run, I would like to start-up my own organisation , it is just one of those things on my wishlist and I think would be a memorable accomplishment .
RNS: But you do not need an MBA for that, you can learn on the fly.
Me: Sir, but an MBA from an institute like IIM Bangalore with its diverse peer group and renowned faculty would be teaching me a lot, exposing me to different perspectives and I think will be extremely useful for me . Besides, the kind of experience that I will be getting after a degree from IIM Bangalore would be the best place for me to learn on the fly different aspects about the running of an organisation.
RNS : What about your schooling, where have you studied ?
Me: Till my 10th standard I was in Bhaktavatsalam Vidyashram, Chennai and for my 11th and 12th I moved onto DAV Senior Secondary School , Mogappair.
RNS: So you have done all your schooling in Chennai ?
Me: Yes sir
RNS: What do your parents do ?
Me: My father works as a Manager(Electrical) in Container Corporation of India at Delhi and my mother is working with the Railways Tribunal , Delhi as an administrative staff.(Thats the closest I knew about my mother's designation )
RNS: So, both are in railways huh ?
Me: Sir, ConCor comes under the Ministry of Railways, but I am not completely sure about its status as a part of the Railways (Now this is because of the fact that my mother gets free travel passes, while my dad doesnt , so I was pretty sure there was some difference )
RNS: Was he working in some other arm of railways before he joined ?
Me : He actually worked with Central Warehousing Corporation and moved over to ConCor after going on a deputation.
RNS: Ok, you were telling you joined through BITSAT right ? So what is your rank in the same ?
Me: According to the institutes records, my rank would be 340 .(That is my id no and my seniors had mentioned at some point that it was my rank, though it does not take into account many people who dropped out and joined IIT's and NIT's )
RNS: And how many students took the test ?
Me: Around 50,000 students in the year I took it I think
RNS: And where was the cut-off for Computer Science ?
Me: (Very confidently coming up with a number) The last student to get Computer Science had the rank 216 Sir
RNS: Oh, it goes down so low ?
Me: Sir, students have certain preferences, many opt for electrical, instrumentation and mechanical above computer science
RNS: Yes Yes, that is fine
Me : Actually sir, BITS still has a system of giving admissions to around 35 students from states based purely on merit.
RNS: Even after BITSAT ?
Me: Yes, Sir. So 340 might not be the exact rank, there might be a slight variation .
RNS: Ok , Navin. Do you have any questions for us ?
Me: Sir, I have heard a lot about the student exchange program in IIM Bangalore and it giving us a chance to interact with the best business brains across the world at B schools around the world. Can you tell me something more about the same ?
RNS: That is something where after you join, you give in your preference about various institutes with which we are associated: . The institute will be making a decision based on your options and previous performance and then allot you the same. You can either take it up or decline it after the results.We actually have tie-ups with more schools in Europe and anyone who wants to go abroad will definitely get a chance.
Me: Sir, Isnt Stanford a part of the list ?
RNS: No, what we have with Stanford is just a short 2 week program where students from here go there and a few of them come here. It is not graded .
Me: Fine, Sir. I had spoken to a senior who had the opportunity to visit Stanford through this program.
RNS: Oh, a current 2nd year student ?
Me: No Sir. He passed out last year , working in BCG currently, Gautham Krishnan.
RNS: Ok, Good luck Navin .
Me: Thank you sir, turn to MB and repeat Thank You sir .

AfterThoughts :
What could I have changed about the interview ? I dont think there was much scope for that, they seemed to be too interested in testing my optimisation. The fact remains that Optimisation Theory is not the only thing I have done in my life :) . Despite the overall tone of the interview, I have not lost all hope, I brought them down to the Why MBA standard questions had a few smiles in the 20 minute duration . Rather than a 10 minute chit-chat, it was a 20 minute long session where they either saw me crumble or decided I will fit in. What was the decision I will be knowing only later .

Unlike my other posts, this is one where I would want you to leave a comment with your verdict and comments on what I could have done better, I would greatly appreciate that.

For all those who google for the same: IIM Bangalore 2009 GD/PI experiences.

P.S:
The title credits rest with the master himself, Kaushik Mukherjee. People who know me will know that I am really pathetic at naming as my previous mundane titles suggest.

Acknowledgments

2009-02-24T15:45:00.008+05:30

D-day is over , my 40 minutes of fame are up. "The Curious Case of Navin M" awaits its judgment from the 2-member faculty panel at IIM Bangalore . "The Curious Case of Navin M" will be aired soon through this media.But before I can take my time to finish off the script, I am going ahead with the credits and acknowledgments. The list of people who have been troubled because of the fact that I had been selected for the GD/PI process is really a long one. Irrespective of what the verdict is, I cannot thank enough everyone for putting up with me over this "preparations" phase of mine.

Undoubtedly , at the top of the list are two people I can never really thank enough - Arun Balakrishnan and Kaushik Mukherjee, the founders and directors of Lootstreet who had to read through every version of my SOP ,answer an insane number of questions from me and above all take mock interviews , listen and correct those ridiculous answers of mine.I am not sure how many seconds of the actual interview I could have survived without the insight provided by them to me.Others who were unfortunate enough to be interacting with me in close quarters over the past one month have also had to put up this with this different side of mine.The saint, Thrivikraman who had to share a room with me was forced to be at the wrong end of many long monologues where I rambled, cribbed and spoke about everything under the sun. Praveen and Psyce(aka.ivyjar aka.R.Vijay) also had to put up with my never-ending enthusiasm for preparations and discussions on what the actual interviews might turn out to be like. And of course, my PS Teammates - Srikanth and Ramya, who had to sit patiently and listen to me cribbing, worrying and narrating my experiences and thoughts everyday.Special Mention to Sandeep Prakash, the entrepreneur-in-making who always had something significant to point out to me.

Then there are those who have been lucky to be farther and have been troubled only by the g-talk windows and phone conversations . That list includes Srihari(aka Kutts), Dude Iyer (aka Shell Iyer aka Anand Iyer),Janani , Poornima,Avinash and Vinayakk.Also Diwakar who was gracious enough to run around the ARCD office in Pilani to secure my transcripts . And of course,students and alumni from IIM B who were forced to help me out despite their busy schedule - Mochu(aka Arun Prasath, I hope I am right with the real name !) for the interviews tips and Gautham Krishnan(Chitappa(Old man's) brother) for throwing some valuable light on what actual consultants do and what would be the best approach to take in the interview.

There are more people in the list and its endless. So, to everyone else, you have been saved from public view since you are special .

Releasing Soon : "The Curious Case of Navin M"
Location: M-14 , IIM Bangalore

Cast : Navin M( in a supporting role), Malay Bhattacharya , R.NarayanSwamy

Q and A

2009-02-02T20:06:00.000+05:30

I have been finding it very difficult to introduce myself nowadays. It takes a lot of explaining to convey the fact that I am a Mechanical Engineering student from BITS-Pilani, who is interning with an IT firm, Oracle in Hyderabad and does not belong to the city. When asked about where my roots lie, I have an even longer answer. It has been more than a month since I left Pilani - lock, stock and barrel. Naturally, the next question that props up is about my return to Pilani for the convocation. Now , I have a new answer to give - BITS Pilani does not have a convocation system. Even though none of us who are studying there really seem to mind, we accept it as one more of our "unique and flexible" traditions , it seems to be surprising news to everyone else .

If these are the standard questions , other more specific questions depends on the person at the other end.Bumping into seniors from the college could result in questions about the changing culture in Pilani as a result of BITSAT, SAC or about the departments and clubs of which they were a part of. People from the corporate world unaware about the Practise School program in Pilani want to know how the system works and diverse questions revolving around the same.

Friends have something more personal to ask , Do I miss Pilani ? At present, I am a newcomer to city life and enjoying its benefits,I am not missing the Village. Maybe as time goes on and as the Wise Camel says, I will miss the place. The more important question I ask myself is :What do I really miss - the place or the people ? Sky Lawns, the never-heard-beyond-second-row-plays by EDC ,the SEQC sessions, the "aaha" moment on stage of a quiz finals , BuZZBuzz,BUzz during JAM , interesting truth revealing "sessions" and of course the wildfire spreading along the grapevine are just some of the things I will definitely miss. I would have never enjoyed the place without the people , it is they who I miss . On a visit back to campus , I was happy to see more familiar faces , pleasantries to exchange and jokes to crack. Though at the point of time I was yet to step into work, I am in one of those glass walled buildings today . I have just started to realise how much has really changed and what the future really holds.

As preparations for my Personal Interview move ahead , I am faced with more questions from others and within myself . For Many of these I have well prepared answers to convince the person sitting oppposite me, but to others which really stump me I just give a puzzled look.I hope that on D-Day (Feb 23rd) there does not come a Question for which I do not have an answer . As always, anyone who believes they have the favour of Lady Luck and do not really need are requested to guide her to me.

P.S:

I did not see the Titanic Clash between His Royal Highness Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and I am happy that I did not have to see the champion break down in despair. I hope that back in the lush green courts of his backyard, Wimbledon, he deservedly matches Pistol Pete's record of Grand Slam titles.

Apologies for the break

2009-01-12T11:47:00.000+05:30

I was pleasantly surprised to be questioned by a few friends as to why there has been no updates on my blog of late. So, I apologize to readers for staying off the internet for quiet a while.

An update on where I stand today - I have left the village of Pilani, hopefully for the good. I have obtained an internship opportunity at Oracle , Hyderabad , which was supposed to start about a week back, but hasn't yet, I am hoping the latest versions of truth (Satyam) and the market scenario/recession is not going to affect my 6 month long internship here. I have received GD/PI calls from IIM B and RGIIM S after CAT 2008. At the moment , I am trying to utilize my joblessness to prepare something constructive for the interviews, obtain recommendation letters and finish my Statement of Purpose.I warn friends in advance that many of you are bound to receive mails from me for suggestions/assistance on any of the above, again apologies up front.Also, my congratulations to all my friends/batchmates/seniors who have received GD/PI calls .

As for a post on a more serious note and issues I am still thinking and shall hopefully come up with something, sooner rather than later . The year 2009 has begun well and I hope it goes on and becomes even better for everyone I know.

A Beginning or The End ?

2008-11-24T22:21:00.000+05:30

The following post was written as a "Psenti article" for The Fine Print, the newsletter published on BITS Pilani campus by the English Press Club, ,my last one as a member of the club.

The ceremonies have begun, indications have been given that it is the time for me to leave. I am at the wrong end of treats, eager to take snaps and making sure that I collect any pending debts for there is not going to be the dreaded journey through those badly laid roads for one more time. Over the last few months, I have had the belief that I have overstayed my “welcome” on campus. I no longer find familiar faces when I step out, get to know about the happenings on campus as soon as I used to or even find company for the long trip to sky from my hostel. With absolutely nothing to keep me occupied, one thing I have wondered about all the time is whether I will be accepted anywhere outside Pilani. I doubt that the habits and nature that I have grown used to over the past 3 years are considered regular and normal in the social setup outside these walls. Despite this, I do not feel sad, nostalgic or “psenti” about this place. I do not have any regrets or “things to do” before I leave. I do not know whether these were really the best days of my life, for I believe that I have a lot more to see. I do not know whether I would laugh over incidents on campus many years down the line. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that every moment I spent on campus will be etched in my memories, but it would not be a lie if I say that there are many moments and a large number of smiling faces which I will cherish as a memory of my time in Pilani. I have also realized that there is a distinct possibility that I might not be seeing many of these faces again and I hope that I encounter the same faces sometime in the near future outside of this environment . We all knew the day we stepped in that we had to leave, the 4 years on campus was expected to be just a preparation for more “exciting” things we expect out of life. I would prefer to walk out happily, thinking about all the time I spent here and the people I have got to know, than grieving over the fact that I am leaving and I might not be missed by anyone at all.

The First of many Lasts

2008-10-30T18:05:00.000+05:30

Last week seemed to be a huge relief from the schedule of doing absolutely nothing everyday over this semester. My "psenti" Oasis, the first of many things which I will be witnessing for the last time on campus as a student. Sadly, this one turned out to be a dud compared to the previous ones I have seen.

The trend seems to be pretty strong on making Oasis a professional music show rather than a cultural fest with most things centered around one or two "big guns" and their convenience . Despite the huge amounts that students end up paying for their visits 2 out of the last 3 have turned out to be painstaking, with last years performer lip-syncing and this years band refusing to end their performance for hours altogether .This despite the audience dwindling with every passing minute to get away from the "Euphoria" . Many of us believe that it is high time we stop spending our entire budget on performers who normally play to bigger crowds in the city. Lounge Piranha was simply something out of the ordinary, with their video projections, bass guitarist playing with his teeth and violin bow and everything they did was recieved with a lot of wild cheers from the crowd that remained. Almost everyone who stayed were of the opinion that it was the best performance they had seen in the Audi, which included a brilliant take on Euphoria's never ending performance .

The best parts for me though was a second place in the Oasis Quiz, setting and hosting that the AVQ(Audio Visual Quiz) and some 9 great rounds of JAM in the BLAB finals. Establising a logical connection between the sentences " We shall see sunrise soon . Norwegians are... " , rapid jamming , Jack and Jill meeting the Pope ,Schumacher brothers and many others in the story-forming round and of course trying our best to form poems with the rhyme sequence a a b b made the finals a lot of fun. As always the winner takes it all, this time Aravind did take it all - BLAB and OQ( Vivek and Rachit completing the team) , the big ones , Congrats to him. My attempt at story telling ended up with me narrating a story of how Nilesh Kulkarni should be shot and surprisingly did fetch my only winners trophy during the fest.

Despite the events and activity , it was a reminder of things to come and things that I was going to leave behind . The next time I might be spending 4 days or 96 hours filled with activity and lack of sleep would probably be on a project deadline in my office cubicle which I dont think will be anything close to "fun" . I have ended up at home almost every alternate week this semester and am not sure how much and what I will be missing when I finally leave. "Psenti-sem" without a wing and no company has not really turned out to be very interesting. Though one last I will definitely enjoy is the test and compre looming in front of me .

P.S:

A Snippet from the fest:

A says to B : " You are so freakishly competitive that it scares me " . Is it supposed to be a compliment ?

Stay Hungry , Stay Foolish

2008-09-06T21:19:00.000+05:30

The above words were made extremely popular by Steve Jobs in his commencement address to the Stanford University students delivered on June 12 2005 , you may find the full text here . I had the opportunity of reading a book with the same title about the story of 25 entrepreneurs from IIM Ahmedabad and their now successful ventures (the book is yet to be released in the consumer market) .

The book portrays the most important essence of the speech - "Find something that you love to do". For me and I believe that many others of my age it is not exactly something easy. I am yet to figure out what I would enjoy doing with my life. A few ambitions that I have been carrying around for a long time with certain beliefs about how my life should be is all that I have. As things stand now, after 3 years of doing something which I am more or less sure I would not enjoy doing - Mechanical Engineering, I might be getting back to something that I used to like sometime back through the job offer in hand. The fact that it might be of great assistance in what I dream to be my next stop - the MBA dream only drives me further to take it up.

Something that I have realised is that a lot of things which we attach a lot of importance matters the least bit. Most things evolve best when you think, ponder and when you do so make no mistakes, always Think BIG. The most important lessons that I have learnt where at Lootstreet from the daily experiences and more importantly from Arun and Kaushik, my first "bosses" in the real sense of the word. A lot of things from there will stick with me for a long time. Without a doubt, I loved what I did in the 2 months there. Whether it will be the same case with my next job from July 2009, I am not sure , but then I guess that what is life for - to find what you "love" most.

To end with, one of my favourite quotes from Arun Balakrishnan "Sochne ke Liye tax nahi lagta hain , tho bada socho" ( I suck at Hindi ! ) translated it means "There are no taxes levied for your thoughts and dreams, always think big".

P.S:

To many of my friends who are giving their CAT , do read this , an account by Kaushik of all his IIM Interviews in a very interesting fashion, to say the least.

Placement Update

2008-08-24T12:10:00.000+05:30

Eventually,the search did end soon. I have been offered a job as an IT Analyst at Morgan Stanley, Technology division, Mumbai. The first interview that I did sit for and the end of a comprehensive interview process did have good results for me, thankfully. I am one out off the 11 students from BITS Pilani given the offer to join the firm. The elimination went down from 115 in the resume to 33 after the test to 19 after the first technical interview. Somehow, I seem to have survived everything.

The first interview that I sat for, I have made the job and my happiness cannot be described. Lady luck smiled on at the right time I guess. Nothing more to say.

The Search Begins

2008-08-20T20:25:00.000+05:30

It was a wonderful summer which included a great experience at lootstreet, getting to meet Harsha Bhogle, the slightly more consequential fact being that I got thrashed by 2 cricket "pundoos" ( nerds to those unfamiliar ) from Anna University who are now my good friends, catching up with long lost friends who have suddenly become scousers ( Praveen ) and getting introduced to more interesting things , like the Hyderabadi Biriyani for one. I am back in Pilani and the usual laziness attached to college accounts for the lack of activity and the uncanny similarity to a Sloth as explained by Kutts last year at a similar stage.

Being a psenti-semite , the BITSian final year student has its own pros and cons. Slowly, you realise that the number of people who you actually know on campus has reduced all of a sudden. The big pro being the fact that you are now an engineer and supposed to be ready to step into the corporate world, showcase yourselves to everyone who has been invited to the campus and try to "sell" yourself. You realise that you have the "appropriate" skill set to apply to anyone who is ready to "compensate" well for the work that you might be doing for the next few years. I do match their requirements , I convince myself before applying to companies who strictly say knowledge of Data Structure, Operation Systems and Algorithms is a must in bold and have a proven track record of choosing only B.E(Hons) Computer Science. I have realised my folly and that my trust has been misplaced.

Without the slightest clue as to how campus interviews work , I have my own plans for the interview and how to impress the panel I am facing. I am just banking on the fact they stick to my script and not theirs !! So, am I searching for the "Right" offer or is the corporate searching for the "Right" person ? Do I want to take up a job which compensates me well or one that matches my expectations in terms of work ? Will I start applying madly to companies on the list if it comes down to that ? Would I rest at a good job or continue in my pursuits of the IIM MBA,that I dream of ? I have no answers to any of the above questions at the moment.

For now , I know what to expect and understand that I have to bide my time patiently till the "Right" people come in search of me.

Lest I forget, anyone who believes that they have excess luck with them and is not being put to good use, please ( pretty please I would add ) be gracious enough to pass it onto me. Thanks to you in advance.

Sirf Aapke Liye

2008-07-07T16:42:00.000+05:30

Are you planning to buy anything soon ? Please remember that you have the chance to bargain for it at lootstreet and get it delivered to your doorstep for no additional costs. Mr.Bag is always ready to negotiate with you for any of the products he has. So, log onto lootstreet to discover how effective bargaining can be.

Since, there are many products in our work-in-progress, in case you do not find the product of your choice at Lootstreet, you can mail in your requests at : wishlist@lootstreet.com . For any other related query : navin@lootstreet.com . If you want to know more on bargaining, possible rates for anything in particular mail me . Our product catalogue includes - Nokia,Samsung,Sony Ericsson,Hewlett Packard,Apple,Lenovo,Canon,Titan,Nikon,Seagate, Funskool, CD's, DVD's and books(any title of the last 3 will be available with us, drop in a mail and we will get back to you, if you do not find it on the site) . Please register with Lootstreet and start bargaining for any product of your choice.

A Visit to Remember

2008-07-02T09:43:00.000+05:30

The Internship at Lootstreet has been a wonderful learning place for me so far and in particular , I had an opportunity to visit IIM Ahmedabad last weekend. The trip was for the IIM Ahmedabad Entrepreneurs meet 2008. The meet intended to bring together all the entrepreneurs who had graduated from IIM A and hence try to pass on some valuable information to the current batch of students. The visitors list at the conference was a long one with many familiar ventures, but not-so-familiar founders - naukri.com,makemytrip.com,Subhiksha and Sintex to name a few.

The 2 day event was a good place for old friends to catch up, to network and get mentored by people who had done it all.There were a few panel discussions on start-ups, ecosystem etc and I managed to throw a question during one of them which was about the involvement of a VC with a start-up - 2 things about which I had minimal knowledge before May 19, 2008. It is not everyday that you get to be in a gathering where there are people(that too many in number) whose net personal worth runs in excess of Rs 500 crores and sit down and talk with them as well ! I believe that this visit has prepared me to interact people with experience in the corporate sector without any fear , which I hope gives me some additional advantage during my Placements and interviews that I will have to face over the next few months.

Through the course of my stay at Lootstreet, I have managed to gain a lot of knowledge about almost everything to do with a start-up, some bit on management,business development, interacted with a lot of people at different levels in their organisation and the best ways to get things done. The trip to IIM A was one more great experience that this internship has given me. To visit an institute where you aspire to be in the near future and meet a few of your "potential" seniors and interact with them is bound to be something that drives you further to make sure that your dreams come alive . At least for me, that has been one of the take-back's from the meet. As I stepped out of the campus on Sunday evening, I could only hope that this was not the last time that I walked out of those gates.

Stranger in the City

2008-06-26T09:27:00.000+05:30

I have been in Hyderabad, the Nizam's city for more than a month now and the city never ceases to surprise me. Over the time I have been here, there are a few things which have been new to me, thankfully most of them for good.

As a person who has been in Chennai for almost my entire lifetime till now, I am used to the notorious behaviour of "Autorickshaw wallas" , where I have to engage in a 5 minute "about-to-fight,about-to-leave" encounter with him before a reasonable fare is agreed. So, I was all geared up for the fight when I waved out my hand to stop and Auto . I said "Banjara Hills, kitna loge ? " and I gaped in disbelief, when he told me "Meter" !! I did not know whether it was a genuine or tampered meter ,but he was not ready to engage in a conversation regarding the fare with me. I agreed thinking that maybe only Chennai drivers are notorious, but this guy did not fail to surprise me by taking me on a ride for 5 minutes before taking a U-turn and then reaching a place right opposite to where I started and the meter was ticking thick and fast already. Yes, autowallas did live up to my expectations here.

Another thing I noticed on the second day in the city was that just like your pizza order, buses in Hyderabad come in 3 different varieties - Small(Setwin Service ), Medium ( RTC) and Large (Metro) . Each of them have their own "differentiating factors". The Setwin buses are for those who desperately need to reach their destination, are willing to fit themselves into the smallest available and cry in despair when you find one of the other varieties overtaking the bus you are in. They are a very hospitable family and are ready to accomodate any person who stretches his hand out on the road, irrespective of whether he is in the Bus-stop or not. The RTC and Metro are just your regular buses, the former being the older traditional rattled buses which has withstood long years of rain and shine while the latter is a newbie on the roads. In striking contrast to their Chennai counterparts, I hardly find any of the drivers and conductors getting down for a tea at each and every terminus, the bus just seems to be on a non-stop schedule.Live for yourself too, are'nt you a government servant - defined as those who manage to spend more time drinking tea and eating refreshments in office hours than working ? Why don't you join the gang ?

Next thing is undoubtedly the restaurants in Andhra. As Arun informed me yesterday, an average Andhraite eats 1.75 times the amount of rice as an average non-Andhraite. Anyone new to Hyderabad will be amazed at the amount of rice served to you for one "Hyderabadi Biriyani". Do not venture into it alone unless you have been starving for quite sometime, they do taste excellent when had at the best places - I have tried them out so far at "Hyderabad House " and of course "Paradise ". Being a vegetarian, I am apparently not enjoying the real thing, still it is a taste to savour.

Something that I mentioned in passing above, the riduculous nature of Hyderabad roads. I have travelled quite a few times on official purposes with Arun and often end up having to travel 2 kms forward despite seeing the place that you want right opposite to you - to take a U turn. The design is just beautiful- makes you enjoy your ride, drink loads of petrol everyday and pollute the planet more as well, what more can you ask for ?

I have enjoyed my stay here so far, both at work and off it. I am yet to see the "sights" of the city - Charminar for one , Golconda and of course the biggest Film Studio in Asia - Ramoji Rao Film City. I hope to find someone who can accompany me to these places before my stay here ends .

Workaholism

2008-06-18T11:04:00.000+05:30

I have been working for nearly a month now and am forced to reflect on what Srihari predicted around a year back that I will turn out to be a workaholic once I start working . Sadly, I have realised that he might be correct. Maybe it has something to do with the excitment of my first "job" or the experience of being in an alien city with nothing else to do , the truth remains that all I have been doing since I reached Hyderabad is work.

Despite the fact that I have been enjoying my work and have been singing it's praises to most people I know , I am surprised at the energy levels with which I turn up for work everyday morning. I am enjoying the work, but am I really supposed to be ? I am yet to use any of my permitted "off" days and am always thinking about the work that might be affected if I dont turn up ( working in a firm of 5 members, it really matters if 20 % of the workforce is off on a day ) . I am more than happy to stay back late to ensure that work is completed or take part in brainstorming sessions till 8, even though it takes me nearly 1 hour to travel home in a cramped bus in the usually "chaotic" Cyberabad traffic.

Over the past 1 month, my only "hangout" spot has been from the R.T.C bus footboards and the only places I have visited in Hyderabad besides my office are the ones where I have accompanied my boss Arun Balakrishnan on his bike on "official business" . Saturday afternoon's are reserved for team lunches at our office and when a plan had to be put off , I ended up sitting alone in a family restaurant with absolutely no-one to call for company .Believe me when I say that Hyderabadi restaurants are totally paisa vasool for heavy eaters , but a complete loss for a BITSian like me whose appetites have been destroyed by the messes - one Hyderabadi Biriyani is meant for a family, not for a person , try how much you may you can never finish it alone.

All this to me looks like symptoms of the disease " Workaholism" and I have seriously decided to fight this chronic disease ( as a first step, I am using official internet for non - official purposes :D ) . I am hoping that the enthusiasm does not last forever and does not repeat with my future endeavours at employment.

Summer @ lootstreet

2008-06-02T15:38:00.000+05:30

I am working as a Business Development Intern @ lootstreet. I have been working in Hyderabad, visiting the city again after a gap pf nearly 10 years with absolutely no memories whatsoever from my previous visits while my father used to work here. To all those to whom I haven't already explained about lootstreet , we are an online start-up venture headed by 2 IIM-A graduates. We are the first website in India that provides platform for bargaining and negotiation of prices before a buyer and seller strike a deal. This is the standard line that I use in my work everyday.

As a business development intern, I am responsible for trying to woo sellers onto lootstreet and hence make a larger bargaining market for all the buyers on website. This would be my job description, but I have enjoyed working here with 2 people who have left behind hefty salary packages from their placements in IIM to take up the challenge of bringing their own dream venture alive. I have already learnt much from my first two working weeks here and am also sure that this " work experience " will enhance my knowledge about many things that happen in the real-time working of a firm( unlike what Principles of Management,POM teaches most BITSians ) . This seems to be a lot more enjoyable than working in a 1000 member strong workforce right now, but I am completely unaware of what that feels like. I am yet to sit in an interview for a job myself, but have already interviewed 2 people for a post here, so you can guess the kind of experience I will be deriving out of this. Also, I managed to visit ISB and sit through an engaging discussion between an ISB professor and an IIM graduate.

This summer sure looks very promising and interesting for me.Despite this hampering my CAT preparations , I am still happy that I managed to contact lootstreet and join them here for a brief period in these initial stages of this interesting venture.Do visit the website and try your hand at bargaining - something which am sure all of you do when you go shopping, try it online too now .

The end of days

2008-05-12T23:12:00.001+05:30

3 years of academics is finally nearing an end. The 2005 batch of single degree students of BITS Pilani have finished the curriculum to become engineers save a few electives and a 6 month long "industrial internship".

Personally, a lot has changed for me since the day I walked in through those gates. These 3 years of independent existence has lead to a marked difference in character,perspectives and habits , hopefully for the good. I have always maintained that staying in this village would make it impossible for most of us to live within the acceptable terms laid down by the society.We have our own set of rules, language and a very unique way of living. The transition once we step outside might appear non-existent to a few, but what we leave behind here are things which we are bound to recollect with smiles - definitely Pappuji, Skylawns, the PPW's and the lacchas under the statues are not things which can be relived outside this village.

Despite the fact that I have one more year to go before I am a graduate and the certificate reaches my home , I know it is the end of most "routine" things for me . I am no longer under the pressure to wake up and rush off to tuts 4 days a week, live in the fear of surprise test or dread about averages and grade cutoff's after this semester. BITSians also have to bid their farewells sooner than most college-goers due to the complex process of the "Practise School" programme. The farewells might not be the regular tear-jerkers, for we do part ways, but only with the hope and belief that we will bump into each other at another turn of life in due course of time.

Cheers to the 2005 batch and to the prospect of having a great future filled with a lot of delightful surprises.

Is this seat Reserved ?

2008-04-10T20:59:00.000+05:30

The Supreme court of India today passed a verdict that will change an existing education system for the worst according to most of the student population which will be affected by this, but for the best according to the government which enforced this rule. Reservation in IIT's and IIM's the premier Engineering and Management institutions of the nation respectively has just shot up to a very insignificant share : 49.5 % . For a detailed news article you can probably go here . Prime time News channels must be running their debates and polls on this as I write and heated debates must be on at various points across the nation. The 500 page verdict thankfully does not try and impose this rule in private institutions, like this one from where I am going to recieve my graduation certificate (which the government wanted to by the way).

Reservations were introduced in the constitution by Dr.B.R Ambedkar, currently hailed as the father of Dalits and The SC's and ST's. I do not think he intended it to grow into this "vote bank politics" scheme of things as it runs now. The idea was to roll back reservations 50 years after independence because that was the entire point behind the scheme. India had made a plan to move ahead by making sure that there are no longer backward people 50 years from then. But today, we keep moving backward. I hope I am not attributing the following quote wrongly to Mr.Narayana Murthy " India is the only country where people want to be called backward and proud of it " . It just about explains the scenario. No government today would risk losing its chance of winning the next general elections by modifying the existing reservation scenario for the "forward " movement of the nation.

Sadly. all this is leading to a very disheartening situation. The worst hit are students whose best efforts to make it to the best colleges is being thwarted by the government's moves. Many deserving students are missing their chance to get the best education that the nation can provide them.How can we call these the best institutes of the nation if it does not provide fair grounds for students to gain entry to it ? How can their quality of education be judged if they are not providing it to the best brains in the country ? How can India with all this complain about Brain Drain ? How can students who have been deprived of good education be the pillars of the nation tomorrow ? Above all this, How can this "reserved " candidates live upto the standards of others if they are given a concession to make it there in the first place ? How can these "special" ones be the best equipped to put to use the so called advanced infrastructure that the government has established? Will the IIT's and IIM's have the same respect as before in the world outside if 51.1 % students are of one standard and the other 49.9% at a different plane ?( On the lighter side , will intros in IIT carry "Merit/Reserved Quota" from this year ? )

Getting down to the "better" part of the ruling, the "creamy layer" of the OBC's have been excluded from this judgement. But,does this really affect the process at all ? A majority of
these "categories" are in the government sectors, mostly again by the concession that the government provides for them in their jobs. A few others maybe in the business sector. Both fields where the actual "status" might be Below-the-poverty line according to their salary certificates/ affidavits while they live in bungalows with the most posh of facilities. Will the college facilities visit each home to determine whether they are "creamy" or "dirty" ?

The government seems to be making a concession for the special ones at every walk of their lives right from their moment they are born. They have backdoor entries into the premier institutes , government jobs and even promotions in them. How can the nation then blame the educated for failing to contribute to the nation when all that they do is push us backward and backward. Not all of us will be what SRK was in Swades - none of us are willing to do anything for the street we live in, leave alone the nation.

My intentions is not to state that "I am Proud to be a BITSIAN" .Sadly In Fact , at this point of time it is to state that I am not proud of being an Indian.

The Name is Rajnikanth

2008-03-31T23:28:00.000+05:30

Just like any other kid who has grown up in Chennai I am a part of the innumerous "fans" of Thalaivar. Though I may not belong to those group of people who do the "palabhishekam" and "Rupeemala's" for him , the number of times I have watched every movie of his cannot be counted on my fingers. My mother is still amazed at how I do not tire from watching their repeats on the Saturday 1'0 clock slots. I still remember the adrenaling pumping for each of those dialogues I heard during the second day screening of Sivaji.There were fathers of teenagers sitting around me outshouting their sons , that is the excitement created when Thailavar delivers his punchline.

Despite all his fan following and demi-god status in South India , he is just a laughing stock in the north. The people are amazed at how Rajnikanth does not obey the laws of physics and fail to accept the fact that none of his stunts are graphic-animated, all of it is true - he does not use a stunt double- that is what all of us believe and that is what makes the movie a success down south. We are all believers :).To just give you a sample of what non-believers make out of a Superstar movie , please read this , a blog post by Anuradha Sengupta, a CNN-IBN journalist. The post recieved a response of a meagre 1798 comments to date many of which included death threats and denouncing her skills, all for writing a few lines about her views on the Superstar's latest movie-Sivaji. The beauty of the movie is lost when she understands the dialogue as : Pigs come in herds, lion comes single ; while sitting in a Mumbai theatre. For the same line, Satyam( the theatre) literally vibrated from the audience response. Down south , it is imbibed in our culture to watch a Rajni movie and cheer for every line, hate the villain, buy first show tickets for whooping prices of upto 1500 to display our love for the Man .

More than everything else, a Rajni movie takes cinemagoers to a level never seen before. For which other actor, would producers ever be ready to invest the staggering amount of Rs 80 crores without thinking twice.Everything moves to a new level when the stakes are on Rajni- the music, the camera work, the art , nothing goes unattended. Such is the perfection levels a Thaliavar movie delivers. No other actor in the Indian cinema industry can command such respect, his worst flop gave him Rs 25 crores if I am not wrong ( a self-driven spiritual based venture Baba ) . For ages altogether he has reigned the movie industry down south and of late has started gaining good ground in the lands above too. The distributors of "The Pirates of the Carribean : At the world's end " advanced their Indian release date fearing the Rajni onslaught awaiting in the form of Sivaji. A fact that is well known is that Sivaji's parking costs in Mumbai and Delhi earned more than the total collection of the Bacchan family starrer Jhoom Barabar Jhoom .

Pages altogether can be written , and has most recently been released - "The Name is Rajnikanth" by Gayathri Shreekanth which I am sure is by far the bestseller in lands where Tamil is spoken. We all await with bated breath ,the auspicious moment to see the Thalaivar on big screen for the next time.

To end with, despite all the hype and hoopla surrounding the new Rajni movies, my all time favourite still is ThilluMullu, whats yours ?

Do your bit

2008-03-18T09:32:00.000+05:30

For all those who use Google as their default search engine , Google is doing its bit to save energy, please jump onto the bandwagon if you haven't already done it. Taking into account the fact the energy that is spent by an average computer every time the page is opened, an alternate version has been created , which uses the colour black and hence consumes lesser energy.So, from the next time you want to search for something on the internet, please use this link and do your bit to "conserve" energy .

The Great BITSian Prom

2008-03-03T21:08:00.000+05:30

It is not exactly as the title suggests , there is no prom night on the campus of BITS Pilani, but this is probably the closest people might ever to get to the American equivalent , which is for students passing out of high school. But in the "Indian" scheme of things it would even be a disaster to consider anything beyond a school-organised farewell, where most girls try their hand at the sari for the first time .

The event that I am talking would be the momentous occasion - Batch Snaps . This is the time of the year when all 3rd yearites on campus, spend a lot of time trying to look civilized, change their appearance to look good on those "to be preserved for life" snaps and go around begging for formal attire. Once people start pouring into "Skylawns" at the appointed time, it resembles a mela ground with the only things missing being a merry go round and the ferris wheel. A few crushes are revealed and the equivalent of asking anybody out for a dance would be to take a snap with them to always remember our crush during college. We do have our own set of enterprising people who prefer to turn up for this occasion in very "high spirits". Then there is the discrimination based on physical features - height order which determines where you stand in this very important snap . Once, that is done there has to be a detailed analysis to make sure that everybody is seen from every angle , so in all around 45 minutes in front of the lenses and under the mercy of Lord Surya. The show goes on till everybody has taken a snap with whomsoever they know on campus or till the charge in your battery run out ( of course ,now it is possible that you could now contract out your snaps to the Department of Photography on campus, who would ensure that these special moments are never forgotten due to the want of a camera ). Pappuji thrives on the treats that are being thrown around, though I do have no idea of how he keeps track of who has ordered what single handedly on such a hectic day.

The funda behind this idea is that like every other thing, BITS offers a unique experience of college life. This semester is the last 5 months that the entire batch of soon-to-be engineers will be on campus together with us taking shifts in doing an internship for one semester in our final year. The college authorities politely remind us through this process that we are nearing the end of our stay here and might not be around with many of our friends . In many cases this semester maybe the last time we even meet them before we diverge off to pursue our own future . So, yes indeed this is an occasion to celebrate, get ready for and enjoy a few hours before you get back into your room and realize in order to pass out, you still need to wait for another year and give the test the next day as well :).

P.S:
Dedications to all my batchmates and to the institute which has given me my current identity - 2005A4PS340.

Credits :
Vikram Chari insists that it be mentioned that he is enterprising person being referred to in the post.

Blogging : Personal or Business ?

2008-02-07T22:38:00.000+05:30

Blogging is a phenomenon for every man to air his views on anything under the sky. Something I have been considering : Will I ever be penalised for the contents in my blog ? Will my views on the situation in the institution I study catch the eye of an authority and land me into trouble ? Topping the list of my worries are the fact whether corporates care to check your blog to analyse the aptitude of their prospective employee .

I can never know whether employers will go to such extents of wasting available human resources.Though, that will be a good source of employment for the loads of unemployed in the nation. But, am I not allowed to express my views on anything without being put under heavy scrutiny ? Wasn't that freedom among the primary reasons for the success of blogs ? Aren't the corporates intruding on my privacy by doing so ? On the contrary, if I do have complaints against being scrutinised why should I make my views public in the first place ? As long as I crave for readership on the blog, I should be ready to put myself under the microscope.

This in its entirety becomes a simple situation first described by Joseph Heller in a book of the same name - Catch 22.

Wish you were here

2008-01-28T00:14:00.000+05:30

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

This is how wikipedia describes the song from which the above lyrics are taken "The song's lyrics encompass writer Roger Waters' feelings of alienation from other people. Like most of the album, it partly refers to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett and his breakdown. However, unlike the Shine on You Crazy Diamond suite, Wish You Were Here is universal: it is directed at anyone who is missing a special person from their life. "

It is just about perfect. Each time I hear this song a different person comes to my mind. Recently, the list has just grown bigger.I got to know about the existence of a band called Pink Floyd only after I reached the campus here, where it is absolutely a craze. One of my most favourite numbers of the band is the above song, for the reason that I could directly relate to it. At the time I reached here, the list used to just consist of my parents and school friends depending on the mood I used to be in. After December 27, 2005 for a long time it used to be one person whom I will miss a lot in my life - A . Praveen Chander . This December the list just got a huge lot bigger . A lot of people with whom I used to spend my time with left the campus after finishing their academic commitments here. Now, I realise how time used to fly with them around. Also, this semester will probably be the last time I stay with many of my batchmates and again the list gets bigger.

I never know whether there will be just one special person, for me to think about. I would also never know whether I am ever remembered by many of these people whom I miss. But, I know that whenever I hear this song, I will always remember some of the best moments I have spent with these special people.

Dedications : To everybody who comes in my mind when I listen to this song and as u know the list is just too long to list out here .

The Fourth Estate

2008-01-11T21:04:00.000+05:30

Journalism has been a profession I admire since my childhood. What first sparked off my interest was this serial aired on good old Doordarshan - " Reporter" where Shekar Suman played the title role. This made me think of journalists as the guys who used to always search for the truth, reveal corruption and help the common man. With time I realised that much of it was made up, but still they were bound to get the correct news to people which would otherwise remain hidden from them.

From what I observed in the holidays, it seems to have taken a totally new and alarming dimension.There is no longer a human touch, nor does there seem to be the time to assert the truth before going ahead with the news. Today it just is a rush to get out first with the news and create a controversy whenever possible.With television news channels popping up everday, the media really has its presence everywhere. But the quality of journalists seem to have gone down really. I could find guys who would not string a few words together properly questioning the nations leaders about their stands on various issues. I seem to be having more knowledge than people hosting the sports sections of various news channels. ( Btw, all the sports shows seem to be handled by women, are there no Alpha Males in the journalism sector !! )

Interviews are just turning out to be fights. Karan Thapar on being interviewed said this " When Kapil Dev started crying on my show, I realised he should not stop, for if he does it would be extremely bad for the show. All that I wanted to do was make sure his tears did not stop, for there are two things that really sell on T.V- tears and children ". I do like the man for his unnerving style of conducting interviews, but he does go overboard at times and this quote from him just portrays the attitude of today's mediapersons.

Two issues which bought out the worst of news channels in these holidays :
1. The Benazir Bhutto Assasination: A private news channel manages to get hold of her husband, Asif Aii Zardari the day after her killing and the first question they ask him is Who do you think will lead the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the upcoming elections? All that the man could say was that he had not yet put his wife's body to rest and that was the only issue he was concerned about at that point of time ( Although, he later went on to take the helm is a different issue ) . And yes, what does the Indian media gain by spending hours on the discussion of Prevez Musharaff's regime and how is it going to affect his governing policy ??

2. The " Mumbai Molestation" : An incident which highlited the insecurity in the city of Mumbai had to be given prime importance. But that was not to be done by getting into the privacy of two victims. The victim's reply to television news channels :" I never thought that this would become such a big issue. We did not want to take it up seriously as it would only lead to troubles in our lives " . Shouldn't the journalists have left this news alone and let those two women live in peace, rather than reminding them of the horrors that they had to go through ?

Truly a pity that journalism has come down to such levels. But a few standouts still remain - Nirupama Swaminathan's ( I think I got the name correct ) first hand "politically correct" account of the Bhutto assasination despite being a few feet away from the spot and Rajaraman's bold questioning of the "morally justified " victorious Australian Captain Ricky Ponting.

Home and Away

2008-01-07T20:42:00.000+05:30

Returning to my hostel room after spending the semester vacations has finally made me to come up with a new post on my blog. At the end of every semester I am eager to get back home , to the place where my heart is , where my friends are and where I like to spend my time. But am I really heading back to " home" , the same place that I left before joining college ?

Every time I get back home, I am surprised by the number of changes that have taken place . I know many friends who left from one home, which had changed through the span of time that they had spent here and had to go to a new home. Of course getting back to your parents and staying with them is something each one of us will look forward to. But the change in the other terms is simply drastic. I find myself out of place. I am no longer a part of the regular schedule of some of my old friends. I have nothing much to speak about to people whom I used to speak endlessly a few years back. School get-togethers no longer attract any response. I ended up spending most of the last holidays alone at home , with nothing much to do but read books ( which I frankly do enjoy a lot, but did not want to spend my entire vacations doing that ).Everybody seems to have moved on a lot , I seem to be a bit slow at the same thing.

On the contrary, my hostel room - the place that I leave to reach "home" seems to be much more of a comfortable place in many terms . I am used to most of things around here. Friends are around, there are things to be done and life seems to be much more interesting here. Irrespective of great amount of cribbing that most of us do about the acads, mess food and what not, we do end up living here for nearly 8 out of 12 months in a year for 4 years and we get used to the place.

It is again bound to shift once we move on to the next step in our life- career or education or whatever maybe our plans . It is just a taste of what we are going to face soon ," home" will keep changing , likes and dislikes will keep changing, friends will keep changing and we too will keep changing. Although Life will move on , without any change .

College Da !!

2007-10-13T21:16:00.000+05:30

Long time, but thats what your 3rd year of college is supposed to be all about. We are finally getting to learn what we actually came here for - Engineering and started leaving the sciences alone after 3 semesters of almost pure sciences. Call it different, call it new or call it whatever, but it is indeed truly bugging to have a system which gives you no clue whatsoever as to what you might do all your life till your almost there at the end of it and have truly madly lost interest. And boy when they come, they really want to hit you hard. I am pretty sure that any 3rd year BITSian would agree with me on the fact that the institute somehow manages to make a test schedule that saps the life out of you.

Now that I actually have a taste of engineering, I have reached a decision that I cannot be an engineer for nuts. At least thats what my course results have been telling me. With tests designed to test your speed at the calculator and permissible errors of upto 100 %, I am really wondering as to how different it is from what every school boy wants to become nowadays. At school I used believe that engineers are people who require intelligence, need to apply their brains and face something challenging to solve everyday.But the truth from whatever I seem to be learning so far looks nowhere near that. Its just a mundane thing where you should know which set of formulae you should refer to in a standard databook and this could well be the dream job that many of us had in our childhood.As of today, most of us around here, even those who took a particular discipline of engineering because it had been their dream since the day they took their first step have given up and decided that this is not going to be our forte.

And college life, well I am experiencing a completely different thing around here. Living in a village for 4 years with only your friends around and at many times not even them teaches you a lot of things. A new set of people to call friends, 3 years of lugging your own trunks, wounds and egoes around the place, cleaning your own room at the end of every year ( staring at all the junk and wondering what made you not throw it away then), "Interaction" sessions, growing from a rookie to novice to amateur to an almost professional at many things, College life ( - acads )is fun for most part of it. If not the books, I am pretty sure the maturity and independence we gain by the time we leave this place will help us throughout our lives to face challenges.

P.S:

I have a critic who says my writing style is "uninteresting", can anybody else review it for me please. This is one of the fields at which I am still an amateur and would like to get better soon ( to add to the list of alternate professions that I can jump to - once they start calling me an Engineer :D ) .

The Wait

2007-09-25T01:23:00.000+05:30

All that he could think of were the moments they had spent together. Each one of them were etched in his memories, they were amongst the best of his life. He had always been in search of something like this, something special, something to remember. He had had enough of hypocrisies and false talks.

It had been 2 years since they first met.They seemed to have a lot in common, but a lot more different.They got to know each other slowly.He could not have possibly asked for anything more.In a new place, in search of companions, he had found a person he could go to when in need of a few comforting words, for a few good laughs, most of all for some great moments he could always relish. He started appreciating the beauty of a lot of things which he had never even cared to look closely before. Their conversations never seemed to end,there was always something more to tell, a few more jokes to share and a few more secrets to reveal.Things kept changing a lot as time progressed,they seemed to be always for good.

At some terrible moment it all started falling out of place.He made a mistake ,a very costly one. He had betrayed the trust shown in him during those great times they had spent together. He had done the same thing that a lot of others had done to him. He did not live upto his promises.He could not lift his head due to guilt and shame while the other pair of eyes no longer wanted to see him in front of them. A barrier had crept up between them, one which seeemed to be very difficult to be broken.He begged for forgiveness, but he knew he never deserved it for what he had done. He just hoped that someday, the anger would subside and his apology accepted.He was ready to wait, however long it took. He had to feel the pains of losing something he could never do without. He had to suffer the agony and pain all on his own. He no longer had anybody to go to. He had destroyed something special.

But would everything still be the same between them ? Could those golden moments be relived ? Could they ever meet each others eyes again ? Would the scars of the wound ever vanish ? He would never know.

( Dedicated to someone special, who I hope is reading this. )

True Supporters

2007-09-22T18:07:00.000+05:30

'Men in Blue' are back in business. We have a new young captain, the members are standing up to the occasion and the young guns are staking a claim to oust seniors from the regular team ( but with the great BCCI selection panel will never happen :)). The entire country is back to its usual routine, rooting for the team at a world cup even though it is a new and much shorter version of the game they are just getting familiar with - T 20 .

T 20 is designed for the spectators, no longer do they have to endure slow painstaking batting. There is complete entertainment for the 3 odd hours it goes on.Teams are no longer in the pavillion, it is the dug-out instead. You move from your seat and the game has turned on its head. There is no changing of channels between advertisements. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to finish it off. But, where has the beauty of the game gone ? Where have the coaching manuals gone ? Technique,timing, placement- where have all these terms disappeared ? You can enjoy the game, but you cannot avoid the ironies of it. Most of the nerve wracking situations in the games in the past 2 weeks have been resolved in the weirdest fashions - edges flying to third man, free hits and what not. Despite the belief that orthodox techniqe would fail at this level of the game, it has turned out to be pretty much the opposite. Such batsmen have been the best to watch. A pity that the trinity from India preferred to sit out, the form all three of them were in England, it might have been a greart sight to watch them score through sheer brilliance .Exquisite shots have been played, runs have been scored all in the proper cricketing fashion( only six of "those maginificent 36 runs" was a mishit ). But the young blood does prefer to take the risk element and score runs in their own fashion- the ugly unsure way ( Gautam Gambhir in the indian team for one, all his edges have landed in no mans land so far ). The bowlers though have been the surprise of the tournament, expected to be made mince meat of, but have come out on the top on many occasions. Most bowlers have adapted well to the format, the have realised that they will be smacked for runs, but the ugly hitting is bound to fail at some time. Stuart Clark,Mornie Morkel and our own R P Singh being examples. It is a great venture , but should not be the future of the game for it destroys it beauty.

At my hostel, a room with one TV whose channels change on its own and volume cannot be adjusted is the place to be during the games. Despite having tests, showing the regular BITsian attitue we have all been there standing to applaud the indian team in it's victories, to appreciate the fighting spirit of the team. We have won from improbable situtaions. But there is a topic that crops up whenever the team starts performing within the audience - Match Fixing. There are wickets tumbling for South Africa chasing a small total and the consent was that this could be the result of nothing but match fixing. How else could the Indian team make the mighty africans eat dust ?

Everyone seemed to agree , then why the watch the match in the first place !! If you think that the match is fixed and there has been external speculation that lead to the result how can you enjoy the sport ? In any game, the result should be and is farily decided on the ground. In case you do not believe such things happen, do not follow the game is my suggestion.It is my belief that every sportsman gives his all when on the field and lets nothing external influence him . The result is a mystery to the true supporter till the game is over. Celebrating their teams hard earned victory at the end of the game is what a true supporter hopes for while the duration of the match not a victory earned through the back door . Such a sight is what can be seen in our common rooms at the end of every game. Despite all the doubts of match fixing, not a guy moves from his seat till the last ball has been bowled and victory assured. That is the essence of sport and what a supporter/follower/fan celebrates everyday.

P.S:
Of course, attempts to taunt the opponent and induce a change in the course of the game are plenty - Flintoff pulling one on Yuvraj and the reply will haunt Stuart Broad for his lifetime, sadly in another game what Materazzi did and Zizou's response wil also haunt a lot of lives .

The Nice Guy Who Finished First

2007-09-18T12:51:00.000+05:30

That is the title of the autobiography of my favourite cricketer of this age- Rahul Dravid. Readership seems to have increased over the past few posts and I am sure that by the end of this post, I will end up angering most of you who worship the one and only GOD of Indian Cricket- His Majesty Sachin Tendulkar.

Dravid stepped down as the captain of the 'Men in Blue' a few days ago. After what most cricket experts would have termed as a 'safe, non- aggressive' stint. The period under Greg Chappel was even attributed as one in which he had absolutely no control over the team. Also he also lead India to it's worst performace in the world cup for a long long time - one which was supposed to be the swansong of the mighty trinity.Of course, there were a few lucky moments which included test series victories in West Indies, England and a maiden test victory in South Africa.

To me the highpoint Dravid's captaincy will be the declaration of the Indian 2nd innings at Lahore ( I think ) against Pakistan leaving His Majesty 5 runs short of a magnificient double ton. And this was when he became a stand-in captain. That was the best sign of intent any captain could show - the team always comes first, no individual however high or low gets a preference. Dravid was always the team player, both as a captain as well as a member . He did everything demanded from him - keeping wickets , open the innings, bat as low as No:6 or 7. Each demand opened up a new dimension to his batting and also delivered a treat to the eyes of fans. There were no complaints, no requests for the captain to change the team's plans or press conferences called. India defeating Australia at Adelaide -a 233 in the first innings, Dravid deservingly came back to score the winning runs - a glorious cover drive ( show innumerable times on espn star ) and some 50 odd runs in the 2nd innings. And lest we forget THE Kolkata test match, the famous victory scripted by Laxman's magnificient innings and the once efficent turbanators doosras, but there too Dravid had a small contribution in changing the script of the match.The number of innings he has played on foreign soil that changed the course of the match are just too many to list. He has always been the man who does all the work, but gets close to no praise, is always criticised for a failure in a single innings. But Sachin can always be depended upon to come back from his failures and rescue the team ( for Dravid has a human elbow, but he has a tennis elbow :P ). Lest I forget to point out he played in some 96 that the indian national team played without being dropped/rested or fitness troubles since his test debut. Nobody else on the international circuit holds such a record.He has scored five double centuries with each one being bigger than the previous one.

As far as captaincy goes, Dravid has always been compared with the most successful captain in Indian cricket- the prince of calcutta . But it was very obvious that both captains had completely different styles - while one wore his heart on his sleeve, the other always had the same calm face. Dravid never displayed aggression enough to satisfy the pundits, he seemed to be silent always. But the team that he took over consisted of a few seniors who doubted themselves, got frequently injured , youngsters who had had lived upto expectations cemented their place in the team and a new bunch of bowlers for every test match.Under Ganguly's captaincy he scored nearly 23% of the total runs put up by India (with a batting average of 102.84) in the 21 Test matches won. This is the highest percentage contribution by any batsman in Test cricket history in matches won under a single captain where the captain has won more than 20 Tests. But he could not repeat the same in his captaincy nor could anybody in the team help their captain in troubled times.

Now, I shall dwell on a topic which I will forever argue with my best friends. Many of them would have already heard me saying everytyhing below at various points of time. Remember the day after the declaration the front page of The Hindu had Sachin complaining about the decision . Another instance - Sachin being forced to play at No 4, after repeated failures , he just went public that he was 'unhappy' with the team management for not giving him his favourite position. The team could fail but not him ! The 2003 world cup - Sachin was indeed the man of the tournament playing brilliantly in every match , but the so called battle of the world cup - Brett Lee Vs Sachin Tendulkar just never happened because he was out in the 4th ball of the innings when the team required a massive contribution from him to even stand a chance of chasing 358. I have no memories of how much Dravid scored or how he got out, but plainly Sachin may deserve praise but not all of whatever is showered upon him. As recently as the England test series - an innings in which Dravid and Karthik had scored something in the 80 + regions and Sachin some 40's the report had a single mention of both of them but every single stroke - offence or defence had been admired by the writer.I shall stop it here for I do agree that Sachin is a great player without doubt, but not as great he is projected to be is my arguement.

If the captaincy of the now strong Indian team goes to Sachin , there is a course of possible events that might have lead to this - Sachin dropping a hint to the selectors/ Pawar/Dravid that he might consider taking up captaincy once again before he calls it a day. Either Dravid would have been commanded to step down or he would have done so graciously. Doesnt that seem like a brilliant story ?? Of course it is ( I at least hope it is ), I made it up for I am no lover of Sachin Tendulkar and seemed to make an interesting end for this long long post of mine :).

But if all this does mean that I get to see more of the ever stylish innings built from brick by the great indian wall, I am all for it .

Of Professors and Teachers

2007-09-13T23:46:00.000+05:30

The difference between "Teachers" and "Professors" just cannot be said enough. Despite the fact that our Professors are much more qualified and learned, I am sure that most of us would have preferred the teaching style of the school teachers and also that we would have learnt much more from them than from the gruelling of our professors in college. Even though they used to stare back at us when confounded with doubts and come up with the forever dependable replies such as : " That is out of portions " and " Such Questions will not be asked for your exam". We could always get away with a laugh in the class , the back benchers could enjoy their snacks , listening to cricket commentary or in todays world of GPRS equipped mobiles check the mail , browse the net and what not. Then we were those 'innocent' kids who could always be spared with a good scolding and the familiar " Do not repeat this in the future " accompanied by a an attempted but never threatening cold stare.

When we join college, we do expect our professors to behave a bit differently, for after all they are paid more and we are 'matured' . But the attitude is just too difficult to handle. Especially in a college such as mine when professors are supposed to be the only ones to whom a student should go in case of any problem. They are supposed to be friendly, accommodating and understanding. Out of the some 300 odd faculty here ( I hope the number is close to the actual value ) , an extremely small number would fit the bill above and a tag of students favourite. Most of the professors derive pleasure by laughing at students and pointing out that we do not know stuff which they know by virtue of the 5 or more degrees in their resume. A few of them even try to impart the knowledge that they have gained by stuffing up everything into our heads and get disappointed when we cannot perform in the examinations. Why do they have to try so hard to teach us these things, if we will anyways learn ithrough the next step in our education ? Then there are those chaps who possess so much of an ego that they do not even consider us worthy of standing in front of them , let alone gain knowledge from them. They look at us with disgust as though we are some vermin from the earth. The best of all these highly qualified professionals come forth when a doubt is asked, the answers given just leave us dumbfounded. Most of the times it is their practical experience over so many years that gives an answer for lessons completely defied by theory. In other cases, the answers that they give are just to make sure that we never ask a doubt again, either they give up a huge explanation from one of their Ph D papers or just outright insult us telling that it is a basic concept that we should be knowing( from where God Only Knows ). An answer that would have been recieved only by bitsians : " Please come to my chamber during the Chamber consultation hour" during which there is a 99 % chance that the room would have a lock on it.

What prompted me to write this was a simple incident : In BITS, we have to submit an outstation form when we leave campus to the hostel warden. As it goes with any laid down rule this is never followed and they cant even find out for there are so many places where we could be in .But still there do exist fools like me who make my father send a fax whenever I visit him and make it a point to inform the warden. So, this time around I went to the warden's house at 9.30 to give in the form . He replies "I usually take these only till 9.00 pm .Please come back at 7.30 tomorrow morning and submit". Damn it, he was standing right in front of me and all that he had to was sign the form. Who do they think they are, kings who rule the land ? They are supposed to help us in case of trouble and not keep troubling us for such simple formalities . If they cannot be accommodating, why take up the responsiblity ?

Professors do not have a few extra horns with which they can torment students. But they are trying to frighten students like any raging bull would do to a new inexperienced matador. I would any day prefer learning from a school teacher, who would work hard to clear any of our doubts rather than duping us with high level nonsense. They used to care for us, not treat us like slaves !!

P.S: The hit rate has been simply amazing for me, what magic can some stupid piece of poetry do ! Finally the hit counter is not increasing by just me checking whether there have been any visitors .:)

Is this a Poem ??

2007-09-12T00:39:00.000+05:30

There has been a lot of thought,
But there is always plenty of doubt.
I am in great plight,
For I dont have anything to write.
My blog is being read,
As of now there is nothing to be said.
This is absolute tomfoolery,
And I am not asking it to be called poetry.

Do pardon me for my stupidty for trying out something as bad as this. This is my first attempt at writing a poem and is like a kid's first step. Hopefully, I will learn to walk pretty soon.

For all those people who have been checking the blog . I know I can even name them :) .Thank you all .The stat counter does help even though out of the 21 it shows now, 11 have been my own visits, still I have been visited 10 other times and that is good enough for me to keep writing.A blog has been deleted once already and this time around it shall not happen.

Happily Ever After

2007-09-06T17:26:00.000+05:30

This is inarguably the finishing statement of every fairy tale story and most of those romance flicks. But this is also what some of us would like to happen to our lives after some point of time. Why cant we just live happily ever after, without having to live everyday with the fear of where the next turn of life will take you ? Why cant there be a fairy godmother who can transform our lives just like she did for Cinderalla? You have nothing to complain about, all your dreams have come true and you live "happily ever after ".

For others it is exactly the surprise element of lives that makes it an enjoyable experience. What fun is it if you can predict everything that is going to happen to you over the next 24 hours of your life ? How can you enjoy life when decisions have already been made for you ? Life is like a jigsaw puzzle, when playing you should have the freedom to put the pieces in various positions and admire the results. You really cannot enjoy it when all the pieces are always in position and you have nothing else to do except looking at it and adoring it's beauty.Besides, why would you want to live "happily ever after" when you define happiness differently at different times. You should have the right to decide where your happiness lies and whether you can remain happy while pursuing it .

So would you rather design your "happily ever after" or let somebody else make it for you and just enjoy that ?

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

Posted after back to back screenings of Shrek 2 and 3 , a fairy tale that surprisingly rejects the happily ever after potion !

The Bout

2007-09-05T13:03:00.000+05:30

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same

These lines are from the poem "If" By Rudyard Kipling and inscribed rightly so above the entryway to Center Court, Wimbledon. Every sportsman who walks through that will realise that there could be no next time. Every time he walks in , he is battling for survival, for walking through the same doors once again in search of the glory. Even the smallest amount of stage fright or butterflies in the stomach could rule out his/her chance . It could even be a cruel turn of fate that forces him to give up his struggle. But not a single guy who has entered the arena would be happy that he never has to step back into it once again.

It takes a lot of courage to keep standing up. Remember Sylvester Stallone from Rocky who kept standing up only to be beaten up again, knowing and hoping that a single punch from him would knock out the opponent. But always the question remained for how long could he keep taking it. Once he gathered enough steam to return the punches that without any surpirses used to be a knockout blow. Only to know he could be called up again to go through all this again but from a different guy at a different place. Could he do the same again? Will the underdog always keep winning ? It was that spirit that I loved the most about the movie.

It will not be the same case for all of us though, we could end up taking the knockout punch even without realising that it has happened. But we will keep turning up for the bout, giving it a shot again. For all of us believe we have it in us to deliver one deadly punch, the ability to win against all odds. The sweet taste of victory, which seems to be elusive forever is what everybody craves to taste.

I started off with Wimbledon and I will end with my favourites who have walked into the center court - Pete Sampras, Andre Aggasi , Goran Ivanisevic and its today's emperor Roger Federer.

The Debut

2007-09-04T23:20:00.000+05:30

For Starters, the title means " What you see is Not What you get " for life is not as simple as a Graphic User Interface on which you can work magic.Thats where my beliefs are as of now. What i would say is What you see is restricted to What you want to see, applies on a practical, spiritual and all kinds of basis i suppose ( does sound like a very bad cliche though) . But I do believe you can work magic by having a clear idea of what you would like to see in the future and making sure that you see it by working towards it. Having to stop this in pursuit of useless education.Carpediem is what i will end this with.