its me!!

After all it’s not a car, that it could get stolen in 60 seconds – hence 60 minutes. My room-mate’s birthday was on Friday. He invited one of his friends along with who came another ‘friend’. By the time they came, I was, ahem, high on spirits. Ages since C 2 H 5 OH has had such an effect on me. Sadly for the ‘friend’, that was the day! While I can’t recall completely, but with whatever I do, I was doing something which I don’t usually do. I was loud, dancing like crazies, inviting everyone on the dance floor and hitting blatantly on the ‘friend’. The first three I have done occasionally, but the last one – well! With whatever little memories of the night are present, I remember that I danced all around her. I guess I was using my extremely animated facial expressions which were a cause of extreme laughter all around and a cause of extreme anxiety for my room-mate. I also remember that another of my friend was trying to keep me away from her, but to his utter failure. I believe s

For all those born in 80's ! We are the last generation that learnt to play in the street, we are the first who've played video games, see cartoons in color and went to amusement parks. We were the last to record songs of the radio on cassettes and we are the pioneers of walkmans and chatrooms... We Learned how to program the VCR before anyone else, play with the Atari, Super...... Nintendo and believed that the Internet would be a free world all on a 56kbit modem Traveled in cars without seat belts or air-bags & lived without cell phones. Rode our bicycles down the road without brakes. We never had phones but still kept in touch. We did not have Play stations, 99 television stations, flat screens, surround sound, mp3s, iPods, computers and broadband... but nevertheless we had a GREAT Time #Copied

I have read all the Chetan Bhagat novels and if one of my friends is to be believed, it’s a case of Yin-Yang, dark and light; what I have gained in photographic taste, I've lost in literary taste. In the literary circle, he has been criticized and condemned on various aspects: poor grammar, redundant sentence formation, recurring thoughts and artless language; not to mention lack of imagination and no LOTR-like detailing. His books are not works of literature by any means and 5 books down, the quality of work is still the same. He survives only on economy of scale and his cheap publicity gimmicks are pathetic. With a risk of being labeled as ‘lesser’ reader, I wish to put my thoughts on CB’s writing. All you big readers, I am sorry to say that I like reading his books. I enjoy them and even relate to the protagonist often. I like that I don’t have to think much while reading his books nor do I have to go back to the dictionary to understand what the words mean. I often feel for th

Everyone has a view. I too have it. Everyone has a view about things they don’t know about. I am no different. I have views about Anna Hazare and the Lokpal Bill even though I haven’t really followed the proceedings. I tried reading newspaper, but was thoroughly bored after a few lines, which too were mostly incomprehensible for me. I still have a view about Lokpal bill because it is present on Twitter, Facebook and the roads. I am supporting the Lokpal Bill. Of course I don’t know zilch about what is inside (Law has been my weakest area in academics in addition to Compensation, Training & Development and PMS). Why I support it is because I feel a revolution has arrived and no one has remained untouched. While people don’t know about the technical details, they think that it will bring a change – a positive one – in the Indian Politics and life in general. Why I support this bill is because it has forced lot of people to think – to think that things can be changed for good, to thi

My room mate drops me at Kherwadi Bus stop (Bandra) daily. I take a bus from there to my office in Worli. This whole process takes around an hour or so: 20-25 minutes to reach Kherwadi, another 15-20 minutes for the bus to arrive, again a 15-20 minutes foe the bus to reach Worli and finally 10-15 minutes for me to walk from the stop to my office. All in all, I take around 65-75 minutes to arrive at the office. It took me 45 minutes today. I got up early, walked to the bus stop near my office, waited 10 minutes and took a bus to office. From Andheri to Worli, it took flat 20 minutes. The traffic was thin and there was no hurdle in between. And we reached the sea-link. I cross that bridge daily. The only difference was that today I was not pre-occupied by thought of reaching office on time. In fact, I was before time. That my mind was at peace, I looked with awe the buildings across the sea water. I never saw that before. I found it picturesque. Often in movies there are scenes in which

Yesterday while I was sleeping in the afternoon, I saw a weird dream that I flunked a PT (Physical Training) examination at XLRI and that they are kicking me out of the college that too in the sixth term. I woke up with a start and felt strange – a bit out of breath. I checked the date and time, tried to recollect the way I wrote the exams and finally was reassured that the dreadful days of XL were over, I received the diploma, I have a job and that there was no such exam like PT in a HR course. I got up, drank some water, patted my back to have come out of such difficult times and realized I had a smile on my face because of that dream. I couldn’t help but remember how many times I woke up because of similar dreams with different versions and different classes: class X, XII even engineering. A few versions are as follows: You got up on time for the exam, reached the exam centre well in time only to realize that the admit card is missing. You rush back towards your home o

One of my friends (let’s call him Mamashri) doesn’t believe in the self-help books. I, on the other hand have derived immense benefits from them. Mamashri claims that a book will never be able to tell about him as much as he knows about himself. My argument is that people don’t know even the basics by which I meanthat there are certain things which should be present in everyone, but people don’t realize that. Many self-help books assist us in pointing those things out and bringing them to our notice. From them we appreciate their importance. One of those things is listening to others. I was in class XI when I first read a book called “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. Though there were many concepts present in the book, I particularly liked the idea of giving a patient ear to others. The book told that half the problems between the two genders can be solved just by listening to each other patiently. I extended the concept to everyone. I have received innumerable c

The Plan It has become a ritual for the people at XLRI to visit places immediately after the sixth-term exams get over. The rationale is that this time before joining the job is the only time which is absolutely free with nothing to do, nothing to worry about and to relish. There is a major possibility that the passing out students would busy themselves in their coveted jobs and would not find time to visit places with friends in next couple of decades, or at least as freely as they will before joining. As far as money is concerned, the fathers can always be coaxed into giving this “one-final contribution” before the kids start getting hefty pay packages. The parents also relent. What more can be asked: time, money and friends!The world at our feet. The twelve of us set out for the trip to Goa and Rajasthan. It was incredible trip and while that trip was going on the plans for a Bhutan-trip was formulatedthough the seeds for Bhutan were sown way back when two of the seni

Watching a cricket match is a national pleasure. The pleasure gets manifold when the TV room is shared with parents. It is a completely different experience compared to watching the same match with friends. With friends you abuse the opponent or your own players after every delivery. This freedom is ofcourse not there when you watch the match with your parents. Your father can ofcourse do that. The only question that comes your way is: “Has India lost the match? Ye sale hain hi chu@#&a. Harenge har match. ” The frequency of this question increases every time an Indian wicket falls or every time the opponent team hits a boundary or a six. Even if India has scored 350+, the question doesn’t cease to rise. In case the score is lower, one can guess the fate. Another thing: Sachin Tendulkar should make a century in every match else he should be kicked out of the team. Since he is getting so many endorsements, he HAS to score hundred runs in every match. “How much did Sachin make? Kya –

My mother asked me to teach her to use a computer. She didn’t want to be a master in that, just that she is an inquisitive person and wanted to learn the basics of a computer. She wanted to learn how to listen to music, watch movies, write letters, use internet mainly to get the rail tickets booked, and a bit of Facebook because that is a good medium to be in touch with many, look at the pictures of her kids and grand kid. So we started post dinner. I had told her a few things earlier also but due to lack of practice, she had forgotten most of that. So we started again with cut, copy, paste, bold, italics and other basics. The whole process was not easy. While copying was once done with Ctrl + C, the very next time a capital ‘C’ came up because Ctrl was switched with Shift. This happened a few times. I had to explain the use of Click and Enter. This was difficult because explaining such basic things in words was a new thing. I tried my level best. I have no clue what she has learnt but

This post is not in remembrance of my dear college. This is a product of lack of sleep at night (which is a brand new thing for me), absolutely extra free time and absence of any friends here at Allahabad. With a pang of guilt, I want to confess that I am getting bored. While it’s great to be with parents, but it is of utmost importance that friends are also around. I am reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. In that he also accepts (and accepts with “pang of guilt”) that he at times forgot his parents, siblings and his native place while he was having fun at college. This can be extrapolated to my situation as well. In fact, his autobiography was of much solace to me. My thoughts: when such a great personality can do such a things, I too can. It doesn’t seem that entire alien thing at all. Everyone, at least every guy must have felt such feelings in absence of friends. While you can have great talks with your parents, can even crack jokes with them, but I feel a friend’s place c

This post is the outcome of certain analogies that I developed while I was lying in my bed after going through numerous slides on how to save the world! Just a few days back, I was quite charged up: I got the placement after lot of struggle, people (genuine people) appreciated my efforts, I was quite energetic and ready to go! I tried a few things, but after that the pressure of subjects started. Quizzes, project reports, presentations, assignments and finally end-term exams. While I was lying there, I felt like that scientist, who just discovered a new element, but when he reached his home, his wife asked, "Tarkari laye?" which of course he forgot! This is a bad feeling. As we end our college, and become part of the new workforce, the chores of the daily life should not be such as to extract the creative juices and enthusiasm out of the soul. Here I am waiting for few hours and few days to pass so that I can go home and have some fun, those useless exams awaits me in between

I posted the previous blog on FB. All hell broke loose. There were a few who loved it. A few who were concerned. Finally, seeking a few advises, I removed it. The process was nice, however. I chatted with my sister after many days, and it was chat between two similars: one out of whom has changed over a period of time majorly because of the harshness of the world, and the other is in a process of joining the same world and motivated enough to give the best shot to change it. During the chat, there was concern shown towards me. I was tending towards a more idealistic scenario which even I know won't exist. The same was told to me by my sister. I was not ready to accept that though. It was not convincing even though she has 8 years of HR work ex. The reason it was unconvincing was that even she believed in what I was saying: probably she only accepted that nothing much can be done to change the situation, a feeling that " ek chana kya bhaad phodega ". I am ye t to face thos

Dear Sir Finally, even I was able to fool one company after trying to cheat other companies by giving them similar bogus answers in the interviews, showing fake interest in the organizations, telling every interviewer how great their job offering was (which was, by the way identical for all the companies) and blowing my own trumpets, which were all false by the way. Now has to pay me for all this. Though the process started on December 12th, 2010 with CV calls from , the actual interview process was from 21st of December. Whereas there were the most ordinary who got through their first pecked company within 2 hours of attending the whole Placement process, and there were certain lesser mortals who did this within 15 days, I was among the best! I was one of the longest standing candidates in the history of XLRI (an additional CV point). I took a total of 52 days to achieve the feat. I saw next to every process and I also know why is every company so great, or rather GREATEST. I am mo

This is a blog that I read. A guy left his job and started to work on his own. He shares his good and bad experiences. I liked them, so sharing them here With Clear Presentation Design being just over a year old I thought it might be a good time to put together some of my thoughts on the good and bad aspects of running your own business. Now, while these views are my own, and based on my experiences over the last yearI would imagine that most business owners would identify to a certain degree with at least some of what I have to say here. I’ll kick things off with the “Bad” aspects so I can end with the good news - THE BAD … - 1. You do what?… oh that’s nice. The majority of people who are important to you, friends, family etc, will just not understand. Firstly, they will probably not fully understand what exactly it is that you do. This is of course fair enough, especially if you inhabit a pretty specific niche like I do. The bottom line is that people won’t understand what you do an

What a way to bring about the fifty-first! Looked like a celebration post the fiftieth. More than a bombastic innings, this one had all the ingredients of a typical first-class test century coming form a master batsman. The pitch was hostile. The bowlers gave nothing away. The ball seamed and swung more than ever. And it was under these circumstances that the 146 was made. It required patience, grit, perseverance, calm and cool mind, top-class and every other thing that I missed out here. The ball did a lot. What was more special was that no side dominated. The bowlers were top-class. So many nicks didn't reach the slip fielders. So many balls hit the body. So many leg-before appeals. So many times saved from the skin of the teeth. But every time coming back stronger. We are in a bad habit of praising heroes who are flashy. A flamboyant innings laden with fours and sixes with a strike rate of over 120 would have gained innumerable applauses. What would have missed would be the clas

How the hell can you feel motivated the very next day after the rejection? That is precisely what I am feeling. After the interview, in which I was royally screwed in acads, I felt great, because I didn't know acads. Preparing acads is not difficult. You just have to sit down with the books and start reading. What is difficult is to change the attitude! How do I sit with the books?! As the process is progressing, the belief that the job is a hygiene factor is only increasing. I can now empathize with Maslow and appreciate what he wrote ages ago. A good job, a well-paying job isn't a motivating factor for me. It is only a necessity, because without that, the survival would be difficult. That is the problem. In order to fulfill them, I have to let go of the things that motivate me, keeps the spark alive and makes me tick! I love them still there is a problem. Sala padhna hai . There are so many beautiful and amazing things to do than to read the academics, none of which will be a

The placement season is going on, and the header of the topic would have indicated to you the result that I received. As great men say, "Success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." I am slightly confused about that. Why do only those speak such things who are successful? After screwing up badly in an interview, I would never come up with any such statement. And if I do, it would sound like a loser's comment. The interview was horrible. I could barely answer a question. More than my own , I was worried about my college's reputation. "Creme-de-la-creme" students come here, and those students of don't know the basics of what has been taught and what is supposed to be "the best course of Asia-Pacific", there are reasons to worry. Though this experience is not a new one for me, and in general I hate giving excuses, but as soon as my interview started, I didn't get a good feeling like I did in the previous interview (I s

Enough has been said and written about the maximum city, and I am not the best of the writers to give something new or something old in new and blasting words. But on and off, the city brings strange excitement in me. The placement season is going on. We will try to sell ourselves to the company of our choice. Most of us would not be able to do that in the most desired manner. But most of the students would get placed at Mumbai, or Bombay as I like calling it. I read two books on Bombay: The Maximum City, and Shantaram. Shantaram isn't about the city per se, but contains huge details about it, and that gave me an additional point to get excited about the city. I visited Bombay a few times and every time I felt strange buzz across the city, as if something was going on. "The city never sleeps" as some people like to say about Bombay. I feel there are innumerable possibilities there. Not only for people pursuing wealth, but otherwise as well. I feel Bombay is an experience:

Since last few days (its been more than 30), I haven't played badminton, majorly because 'it' returned. 'It' started in class X when I was returning from a tour from Hindalco Plant. It was October, changing season and we all had cold-drinks. The damn thing happened to me! Breathlessness. It got converted into asthma and is together with me since. When I work out, whether on court or in my room via Yoga, gradually it goes away for sometime. Then suddenly out of nowhere it returns. And when it does, it takes away all the stamina I built up during all the previous days. It doesn't matter how well I am doing before that, it just takes away everything, and every time from then on, I have to start everything from the scratch. I hate it more than anything or anyone. It disables me to huge extent. Playing becomes impossible, running is out of question, even climbing the stairs becomes a problem. The only solution, they say, is Yoga. I have included it in my New year Res

Last term (I am at XLRI, Jamshedpur right now. Pursuing MBA-HR, VI term) in a course called Personal Effectiveness and Leadership (PEL) , an assignment was given in which I had to decide on a few things which I will do daily for the whole term. Since I am in a B-school, the use of power point or excel sheet is inevitable in any assignment. Here too, I had to put entries in an excel sheet about whether or not I did. In addition to that, there had to be put in some of my feelings about those things or the day in general. The Start : When I started, I put in a few things which I wanted to do. They were very simple and ordinary. Playing badminton, doing yoga, going to gym (unfortunately I could write 'Y' in this column only once), reading news, brushing teeth before sleeping and so on. It started off well. Most of the columns had a 'Y' in it which meant I did them. I loved myself for that. I have always struggled with remaining regular all through my life. Innumerable time

It is the third time that I am writing on this topic. I am promising myself again that I will write on this blog daily. I tried doing this earlier as well but failed miserably. In fact, my last entry was in this thing only and that was a few months back. I feel some or the other thing motivates me on one fine day and I promise myself based on those feelings rather than being rational. Rational thinking might help me not feeling bad about myself because if I make some promises which are rational and achievable, most probably I would end up achieving them. However, I also feel that over rationalization makes the task simpler and easier. Mostly the progress happens when there are stretch goals: not too difficult that one can't reach them, nor too easy that there is no efforts put in to realize them. Hence, here I come again with a renewed energy and enthusiasm to restart the things that I left unrealized last time.