Belief and Change

It matters little where you are born. What matters more is where you belong, where your soul owes allegiance.



The quote above is from an article by Shashi Tharoor in The Hindu dt 26 march 2006. It struck an immediate chord with me, as it put in perspective a lot of the events in my life in the past month. In fact the past month has without doubt been the period of my life that has seen the most flux. Now what remains to be seen is how much i learn from these events and move forward in life as a better person.

Its such a pity that I cannot verbalise a lot of these events and emotions that I've experienced but only relate to them euphemistically.

All my life I've performed better when i get shunted out of my comfort zone. And I've always hated those moments. They are most uncomfortable yet most necessary. These are the events that have catapulted me to the next level. Yet again I'm at such a threshold and this time it is the biggest and most important as this time i'm at a crossroads, professionally, personally and intellectually. And I dont foresee a quick solution to any of these thresholds. Its going to take a long sustained process and big fight to get through this corner of my life. And its going to be my beliefs and values that are going to sustain me through this.

GodSpeed Mr.Viswam.

Moving on

Life is all about moving on...and how effectively one can do it determines one's success with it. I'm beginning to understand the meaning of the term honeytrap! And why even the best of men fall for it.

Its important for me to retain the edge that is the hallmark of my professional career. The ability to get to the top and stay there.

V- Day Blues

This is the first time in my life that i've felt the significance of this day so much, and i can tell u that my heart is bleeding...

HAPPY JANUARY

January has been a month which was filled with those little joys of life that really please me. First up i managed to see the Prime Minister of the country in flesh and blood upto 15 ft away from me when he came to D'School. It was not just the man but also seeing all the security detail around him, the best the system has to offer. must say it wasnt up to my hollywood type expectation!

Also went for the Beating the Retreat ceremony at Raisina Hill...It was an awesome exhibition of the regal and splendour of the Indian State. Surely must Thank Yogeshji for the passes! It will definitely be the high point of my stay in Delhi. Now im all the more determined to catch the RD parade next year.

The best piece of news I got this year was two of my very good friends getting placed out of GLIM. I've been witness to the struggles these guys went through...all the mental pressures and tortures to get into an Institute and finally to see them get placed on Day One with packages which satisfied them has certainly made me very very glad.

I'm in the process of doing some psychological assessments of myself and have come to face some pretty challenging questions. Need to do something about these "assessments"...let us see :)

Homo Sapiens...

Basically good at heart but never to be trusted...

Happy New Year

12 months to go. Aspirations, commitments, challenges and fears.
Life has a lot to offer and take this year...

Snapshots of thoughts going through my head.

Sourav Ganguly is either on the last tour of his career or he is gonna score big. Something tells me its gonna be the latter.

Its gonna be really cold when i get back to delhi....*shudders*

Cant wait to get back to work there.

Need to get back to jogging...im wasting away here.

Need to get O R G A N I S E D ! !

May have to get spectacles by June...lets see...

my travails in delhi

Well I've been absent from this blog the past month or so because of my exams. I've also been in some amount of physical discomfort. Yes exams are a pain in the ass but no literally! It has been the weather in Delhi! Too cold for comfort...

It was a torture studying during the exams, especially in the nights. Couldn't wait for that hot 2 am maggi from the canteen to warm my alimentary system. And once i fell asleep it was impossible to wake up in the morning. All the alarms and wake up calls were useless. Getting oneself off the bed was the toughest thing to do.

Initially I was happy they scheduled the exams between 2-5pm. Thought that would avoid early morning wake ups and shower. Also thought it would help me beat the cold. How wrong i was... I was always seated near the window and after 4 pm it suddenly started getting cold and I would always be caught unawares. And it would get difficult to write after that! So after the first exam i made a mental note that i have to finish writing my best answers up front coz not much can be done in the last hour.

After the exams it had gotten even colder and i had taken to jogging and sports to keep myself warm! Hell most of the hostel is doin the same to keep themselves warm! Now guys wake up only by about 8.30ish and get into the 8.50 shift for getting ready for the 9.00 am class. My roomie's friend in the Indian Military Academy came visiting last week and told us that in the IMA they get ready in 10 mins bath crap shave boot polish dress etc in that time. I told him we do the same too only we miss out some of those activities :D

Well I'm back in Chennai now. It feels good to be warm again! I guess the metro should have been extended till dwaraka by the time i get back so i get to my LG's place much more easily! And to Gurgaon too hopefully.

ok i confess

i did try to rob santa claus!

Sourav Ganguly - Whither Indian Cricket?

A long time has passed since my last post but more on that later. First I want to unload something that has been eating my head for the past 24 hours.

The recent Ganguly episode in my opinion marks the beginning of the end for Indian cricket. More now than even during the match fixing crises days. The rationale of the Ganguly brigade for bringing him back was that he was experienced, got more ODI runs save Tendulkar and was an asset to the team.

By the same criteria, Anil Kumble should be playing in ODI's too. He has got more ODI wickets than any other Indian, 329 to be precise from 264 matches and that is experience. And by all accounts his bowling hasnt gone down but on the contrary, the man is in the best form of his life. Pray tell me why should the same Ganguly logic not apply to Anil Kumble? Maybe they should've had a left Govt in Karnataka. Imagine Lalu pushing for someone from Bihar to be included in the team. The day is not far off as Lalu is already President of the Bihar Cricket Association.

Ganguly, no doubt should be given a chance to get back to the team but by the sheer weight of performance. ie His performance on the field and not his supporters off the field. He should've been scoring tons of runs in the domestic circuit to press his case. And its not like he is a man who can't do it. It happened to him at the beginning of his career and he did comeback on the sheer weight of his domestic performances. But the Ganguly of now seems content to ride the weight of his political backers. And they have not done themselves any credit with the pathetic way they treated the Indian team in Kolkata.

Sourav Ganguly made his reputation as a Tiger who didn't have to hide behind someone else but as someone was never afraid of confrontation. But his "comeback" is as a man who needed all other persuasions but the performance of his bat to merit a recall.

The irony of this entire show is that now the stage is set. He has made a comeback. How he did it is history. If he fails in Pakistan, then he is as good as history. Because there are a lot of powers that be who have a little less patience for him.

Random Musings

1. Libido levels are pretty high in Delhi. I guess its
the weather for even rank outsiders like me are
affected.

2. Its not even winter yet and already im having to
squeeze frozen oil out of a Parachute bottle!

3. I will die of pnuemonia by January!

4. Accounts can be so simple yet so irritatingly
complicated.

5. Its unethical to cheat in a Business and Ethics
paper...or is it?

6. The mess food is really good now with the new mess
contractor coming in.

7. As a result of point no.6, I think I might put on
weight as its too cold to go out jogging in the
morning.

8. I need to get some perspective on my life and start
looking at the bigger picture!

9. Statistics is killing me....BIGGER PICTURE DAMMIT!!!

Its all about the money

Business Environment from a student's perspective.

As professionals, we look forward to working in the best organisations which offer us the maximum potential for growth and learning. From such a perspective, for a true professional, all things considered, geographical location shouldn't be a problem. That meaning, he/she has to find that place adaptable.

My recent visits to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai have set me thinking as to how we at MHROD are looking towards adapting. We have an alumni strength of about 320 and we have at best only around 25 people working in these cities. Straight up, the reason for this imbalance, can be explained to be that most of our students come from across North India. But these three cities, the IT triangle, is where the action is happening. Can we afford to miss the bus? And moreover what do these cities have to offer for us MHRODians?

Hyderabad, for one is one of the cheapest cities to live in. It has got everything to offer in terms of modern urban amenities-movie plazas, malls, posh apartment blocks etc but still is the cheapest of the IT cities to live in. Bangalore, for long having enjoyed the status of being the city to live in, is now under the cloud of "crumbling" infrastructre.It also has a problem with rising vehicular pollution. But, nevertheless,is furiously working towards regaining its pre-eminince. Chennai, the other end of this triangle, has a big problem for the non-Hindi speaking population but is ramping up infrastructure pretty fast too.

These three cities are pulling ahead very fast and offer companies a huge cost saving if they invest here. Hence, even these companies don't seem to mind the minor inconvenience as long as they work gets done.Its all about the money...

ok Mr./hopefully Ms. Anonymous!

i had an entry from an anonymous person asking me to guess who he/hopefully she was! problem is how do i get in touch with the gentleman/ hopefully lady?

I'm currently in Chennai after a short stop at Hyderabad, again as part of my extended PlaceCom trip. At the end of two years, if i last in the placecom im sure well qualified to be a Head Hunter....Presentations, Negotiations, Deals....you name it...PlaceCom does it!!

It better be as well coz im not getting any live projects which the other students in class are getting right now. This is so seriously bad!!!...no regrets so far. Enjoying it.

Man never ask people in Hyderabad for directions. Its seriously sad. They wouldn't know the place but wud say seedha jaakar right maro while pointing towards the left!!... always find the nearest landmark to the location u want to go to. Mere address will not get you there.

I did have hyderabadi biryani...not in the old city but still it was very good. Much better than any other ive had. Rohan George and his fave Shameerpet Dabha stand forgiven!!

We had a good Alumni dinner for 5 at Hyderabad and one of em was a friend i was meeting after 5 years. What can i say...A Real Pleasure! And i also couldnt help thinking...you gotta be a hopeless loser in life to remain unemployed after getting out of MHROD!!!

alumni dinner

hey folks
we had our alumni dinner yesterday. Another party and another dance. This time i wasnt even in the vicinity of the dance floor. hmmm and the gals of our dept who turned up in sarees were positively hot!! yeah....! i wud put up pics but im too lazy for it!!

man the lappie is takin too long. tryin to tie up a lot of loose ends with the finance etc before i get this wrapped up. the time loss is seriously frustrating and gettin to me. Its a struggle each day without a comp!!!

finally got a new cellphone today but considering my luck with cell phones in the past 1.5 years im kinda wondering how long this one is gonna last!!

relaxed !!

well i have this strange relaxed feeling right now. I've just given in a paper presentation for TISS and made that just in the nick of time inspite of fears to the contrary. Mostly, thanks to my team mate! Well its not that i have nothing else to do now...we do have a mid term test in management coming up next week and a stats test the week after that plus load of placecom work and NCR region presentations. Need to sort out my laptop in the mean time and also deal with a heck load of class politics in the meantime!!...Yup ppl...i am in a B School!!!

I have lost heck load of weight!! I know ive been saying this for sometime now but i cant wait till i meet each of you and see the shock register on your faces!!! [:D] yup vanity is getting to me in delhi!! I do some jogging everyday and then exercise in the gym....no i use only light weights and am not into weight training.

Bangalore trip

yes ppl im back from a placecom trip to bangalore...we covered 75 companies in all...and the rest of the info is confidential!!

man bangalore is much better than delhi...if only they could do something about the traffic and burgeoning pollution...and as for the babe quotient is concerned...it dont compare with North Campus...but i wonder if the quality is better there....anyways wasnt around long enuff to find out.As for the trip itself i visited some really cool offices and companies but the place i would really really love to work in is google!! they had by far the best office. Its on Vittal Mallya Road in Bangalore and im not goin to go into details beyond the reception area...they have this huge 9ft*15ft screen on which every google search made anywhere in the world in any language pops up in real time...this is barrin the porn searches of course...but just the sight of it all scrollin up the screen in real time...in diff scripts....man.......... ....google isnt recruiting.... Another strikin thing was most of the campus relations HR execs seemed to be around our age and mustve been barely out of college... that allowed for some really interesting conversations with some of the ladies .

i did meet some friends good ones after a long time and some for the first time....and it really felt good...seein anup after 8 yrs....rohit with his fledgling pot belly and meeting girish aka zingo for the first time!!

ID 15

well before i get on with this story i better say that i had put in a blog on a floppy last week but was not able to put it as the stupid floppy screwed up...damn!! ok moving on i had a great weekend .. i went to my uncs house at dwaraka on sunday and from there to stephens where i met up with a few friends. I had met my roomie at my hostel in the mean time...nice clean guy...very studious!! i spent the night at my friends house and i wudnt take any names. Lets call them A B C D E... before shackin up the night we went to a convenience store at a petrol pump...and there was this owners dog in the back of the store....and A decides to whistle at it while the dog gets right behind him and starts barking at us [it wasnt tied u see!!]...hehehe the other guys got pretty freaked out!! and then minutes later the clock strikes 12 and its 15th aug and the national anthem starts playing...4 of us were high and decided to stand in attention and start singing the song....:D yeah the patriot in some ppl has to be coaxed out by high spirits.!!! The best part of the night was around 3 am whe A B C D were sitting on the park bench in the apt complex and C wants to take a leak... he says he is goin to the bushes by the side of the park...it was pitch dark and i told him dude its kinda risky da...what if a snake takes a liking to ur snake!! he laughs it off and walks off...and midway through the park he turns bak and asks me if i was serious....and i said yeah....he looked around and decided to pee right there!!! in the middle of the damn park!! :D last night i moved into my hostel....cool place...we got a canteen that opens till 4am and yeah i washed my clothes for the first time last night at 12am!! ok ok only on a washing machine...but still i did it!!! :D... ill put in more stuff about the hostel as i discover more about it...

We had our annual HRD symposia last week ... we had talks from the top HR honchos in the industry from Bank of AMerica, Satyam, Aviva, Flextronics, Bhel, BirlaSoft, TNS etc... i learnt a lot from there talks though most of them were of the nature of preplacement presentations...but it gave a very interesting insight into HR processes and work culture of different companies. Gave me more of an insight into how to go about choosing which companies to work for and what are the criteria each individual should look for.

Is Life Boring If there is no inundation?

Well i just read a mail from a friend in Mumbai talking about his quite unbelievable experience in mumbai during the recent rains there and this led me to think if my life is boring! Well ive not been close to bein inundated by anything in delhi, except for that leakin flush in rohans place!!

Well ive made it to the placecom in College. hmmm...dunno about the realms of responsibility coming up...but definitely lots of hard work and politics!! yipee!!! :D BTW we did have two guest lectures so far one by rajiv khandelwal , Dir Internal Audit Ranabaxy and another by Omar Farooq Head HR at ATS, who is also an alumnus of ours. Classes are gettin on ok...just about getting used to the 2 hr lectures but it gets really boring and irritating if a class is cancelled or rescheduled. The profs are good so far, not as bad as the ones ive encountered in my UG!!

Oh ok another clarification to all these family types who are reading this....no i did not snip Shreya' s hair....it was an accident and there were not more than 5 strands of hair about 5 cms long...if u hear anything otherwise its a big exaggeration and i am not responsible for it!

Had my first experience in delhi of getting into a restaurant and getting out as it was way over our budget!! and in our defence we thought it was sagar not swagat!! and its really weird to have a north indian guy reading out the specials for the day in a south indian restaurant!!....seriously even a simple word like idli is pronounced weird!! :D

MHROD analysis

Well its been about a week at MHROD, DSE now and ive realised a few things here. What to do and what not to do and how things work here etc! Im hoping to get into a hostel soon...just hoping ill get in!!

The course is entirely run by students, seniors and juniors and if we leave it to the university it wud degenerate into the rut that college was for me! Im sure every other b School has its cribbing points but here i need to focus on the job at hand and keep the eyes on the prize and keep chipping away, regardless of other distractions.But this cannot be a one man show and i need to take the prime movers in my batch along with me. And thru them the entire batch..this is gonna be the toughest test.

I do have a few ideas which now have to be sold to the class. So now its back to the same old selling of ideas, planning, and again selling!!...will i love it the way i used to?? :D ?? let see!!

B School/ D School

Hmmm ive spent two full days at MHROD at DSE now and have lots to say about it.

Firstly about the institute
there is always a question if MHROD and Dept of Commerce is part of D School or not...well for all practical purposes yes! Delhi School of Economics was started along with the dept of commerce and later geography and sociology but now the other 3 depts are under one diff admin and that of the dept of commerce is separate. But that however doesnt mean that we are not part of Dschool which at the end of the day is nothing more than a campus address! We do share all the infrastructre they have access to, the libraries, the hostels etc. Anyways this shud give u an idea of DU politics and its resultant bureaucracy and all the tides we and the guys from FMS have to swim against!!

First day at college

the first thing that struck me was that out of the 13 ppl in my GD group, 5 of them had made it to the batch which i thought was pretty decent!! We had to wait for about an hour and a half till the HOD and the other senior profs turned up for the lecture...DU culture!! At least one of them had the decency to apologise. you know one of the most important advantages of being a HOD at DU is that u can say very staid poems and go on and try explaining them and there will be whole room of helpless ppl listening to it. And there will also be a couple of chamchas praising ur poetry skills. But to save my own sanity, i assumed the praise was entirely tongue in cheek!!

After that we had the rest of the day with seniors who gave us a run of the entire scene at MHROD and here came strike two! The entire show is run by the students....everything from the college website [new one comin up shortly www.mhrod.du.org] to the alumni committee and the placement committee is run by the students. Also including the convention committee, the student development cell and the magazine. Oh yeah they claim even the disciplinary committee!! :) So a whole load of things to do apart from the studies and a lot of this in my opinion goes towards character building and making tougher ppl out of us!

Some things about the seniors, well couple of them were trying to act a bit too smart on day one and ended up showing themselves to be immature but i guess i shud give em a break coz most of these guys are first rate chaps who im proud to have as my seniors....cant say much about most of the gals as yet....is it that they act aloof or thats part of the "induction" atmospherics....je ne sais pas mais ce n'est pas mon embetement non plus!!

As for my own batchmates, things are pretty neat so far not too much to complain about though i wish there were some guys who showed a lil more interest in the course, there was this one guy who brought in a friend along on the induction day who pretended to be part of the course. I found that a real piss off. If i were my seniors, i wudve really mauled this guy for this. Then there is this really bunch of chickens who keep addressing the seniors as sir!!! i mean they didnt even ask to be called that but these chickens wud address anyone who talks sternly to them as sir i guess!!.....damn....whats next....plz mr. doggy sir dont bark at me plz!!! Get some spine dudes!!

As for the profs, well ive come across only two so far [we have 2 hr lectures btw!!] and these two guys showed us why D School has such a high reputation. Man there was this guy who teaches us Management Concepts and Practises and he was kool man....more than a Bschool prof, i was really impressed by his intellect, decency and professionalism. The guy cud also quote GB Shaw quite freely and not repeat the same thing again!! as some folks wud say...cool shit!!

We have been hit by an avalanche of presentations to make...part of the induction process and part of the seniors effort to evaluate our entries to diff committees. Ive been saddled with a presentation on Training and Development which explains what im doin online at this time of the night at a friends house 25 kms from college!! But.... a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do...adios ppl ... i hope to put up some pics of college soon.

Eureka!

I found it!! errr...yeah the reason for the awful lump in my throat is coz i have an ulcer on a gland in my throat that has swollen up as a result...so once i take care of the ulcer the swelling will go too.

Boy it was raining cats and dogs in delhi today...more cats and dogs than ive ever seen before and i can assure you i've never walked the roads in this much of rain in my life before. All this for a meeting that never happened and i almost got my nikes spoilt for it. To top it all i got back home, forgetting my purse and keys at my uncles house and had to borrow money from the society guard to pay the auto and wait out for an hour till my friend came in with the keys!

Now i wanna talk about the 2 guys im living with right now. The hairy bear-like creature is Rohan. He likes to call himself amar chandi [my ass] as a tongue in cheek tribute to his employers. i just call him Ro! He has let me stay in his apt and has allowed me to use his car when he was away!! Thanks Da!!

The other dude is Gaurav, who is a law school junior of Ro's. He has just recently started working as the law officer for an NGO. Compared to Ro he has quite a lesser paying and demanding job but he is very adept at getting his friends to take care of him and envy his ability to do that!! The bugger doesnt even ask, they just pay up for him all the time!!



I think ive lost some weight since ive come to delhi but i have no clue how much as im yet to get around to a weighing machine. I've brought along a couple of pants that do not fit me, maybe ill try them on and see if they fit me now...then i know im getting into better shape!!