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Funny, I seem to make more comebacks to this blog than most cricketers do to their careers - and they do a lot of them! :) What with the world cup round the corner and all, I thought a quick quip about the same was in order..

Quick quips is what life's all about these days, really. Not much to do except wait for the next weekend, and then spend that whole weekend worrying about the week thats coming. Characters in movies have more eventful lives in a couple of hours than most people in our cities do in many years - makes one think about times past.

I never really cared much for hobbies. About the only real hobby I pursued with a passion was my penchant for collecting railway time tables back in school. It was crazy back then. People would buy novels, comics, magazines, newspapers from bookstalls on train journeys...I bought time tables. I used to keep suburban time tables, zonal railway time tables, trains at a glance...even something as mundane as summer special time tables. There was a wonder in train rides back then, funnily enough I used to think growing up would be so much cooler :)

Life's not meant to go backwards though. And since it won't, one has to figure out a way to make life interesting again. Hence my new penchant for a hobby - photography, musical instruments (Still considering which one to get though), sketching, painting, cycling, writing...anything to get the mundane-ness out of life.

Not to say I'm the only one thinking this - people around me are doing very different things these days - quitting jobs, starting ventures, moving to Africa, getting a Ph. D. - things which I was taught wern't sensible things to do. But then again, these are very intelligent people!
Does it make sense? I don't know, But it sure seems to for these folks. Maybe I'm just scared, who knows :)

Actually, the past 10 months seem to have gone by without me knowing at all - maybe because each day seems exactly like the last, over and over again. A never ending deja vu, with something filling in the missing bits each day between food, sleep and work. Maybe I'll figure out a way to make those bits and pieces more than what they are, and do something besides catching another nap the next time I find myself home from work.

Or maybe I'll plot another comeback. Who knows :D

Life Post MDI

MDI's over. And it has been so for over 5 months now! Although friends remain, New friends have come up, and I have actually started to work hard for a change. The weird bit is, now that I am working hard, my boss seems to hate me with a passion I can only compare with my hitherto commonplace passion for late submissions. But then again, one has to deal with such things in life, else how would one deal with such matters as irate wives, annoying in laws and kids? Guess a little training never hurts :)

The amazing bit is, what brought me back to the blog is a Salman Khan movie. A movie I was apprehensive of watching for the simple fact that I have always thought of Salman Khan as a bit of a prick. No more! read the self-styled review below for details ;)

Work's got me new friends, a new place to put up my stuff ( have had a few adventures with a "high value" PG, questionable neighbours,irate bosses too, but those are things one doesn't put in blogs) and most of all, a new workplace and cubicle. The new boss, though, is no gift. I seem to have a talent for bosses who insist on being disciplinary with me at every turn. It may have something to do with my own 'talents' as well though, I must admit ;)

The odd bit is, I keep asking myself what about me has changed so much so that the corporate world now thinks I am worth over four times what I was to the organization earlier. And I can't find answers most of the time. Is Powerpoint really worth that much more than Visual Studio.Net?

Besides that, life as usual. A well stocked fridge, a good kitchen, a laptop table and air conditioning. Besides the work hassles, life is pretty good for now. Now if only I could find someone nice to share all this nice stuff with...it would be perfect :)

Salman Khan is back - and How!

It is ironic that what brings me back to blogging is a Salman Khan movie - a movie, that has erased any critical opinion I had of the man as an actor. While he may have his faults, In Dabaang, Salman Khan has brought back to Hindi cinema what it has been missing a long time, and what has kept the other film industries going - the Indestructible Hero. While real life, soft-spoken and real-issue heroes are all well and good, every film industry needs a Salman Khan, a Rajni, a Chiranjeevi or an Arnold Schwarzenegger to thrive.

I had mixed reviews of Dabaang before I went to saw it. Friends told me it is a nonsense, typical Salman movie. Some friends wouldn't stop going on about how awesome a movie it is. On a makeshift plan, we decided to go for an 11:45PM show - and got the last two seats in the corner of the front row. With the number of people in the mall at the time, you'd think it was prime time - actually, I doubt even the food court gets crowded that much during dinner.

And the movie deserved the crowd. From the opening Transporter-like water gun shootout to the mid air shooting stunts, from the shirt-ripping muscles to the shades at the back of the shirt, from the "I'll kick him until you're happy" justice to the romancing of the impossibly hot Sonakshi, the movie was almost perfectly executed when you consider its apparent purpose - to revive the true spirit of bollywood for what it is.

No wonder this movie beat Three Idiots hands down. Some movies tend to try to send a message, and they work. Some movies work because they entertain. Some demand an Aamir Khan, but as was made delightfully obvious to me, Salman Khan is here to stay!

Cheers,
The Currently Overworked and Underappreciated, but still Cheerful at 2:40AM dude.

Year Two - In a Nutshell

It has been an eventful year - if not shown in the rarity with which I have written on this blog, then in the massive number of well formed, utterly nonsensical Word documents and presentations in every nook and cranny of my laptop :) I believe there are a couple of Excel sheets too, but those have been safely tucked away in a desolate corner where I myself cannot find them - neither can Google Search!

The words that can almost completely cover this whole year can be put as follows - laziness, missed meals, ruined bio-clock, early morning maggi, Age Of Empires, finicky grades, missed lectures, juniors, a brother on campus, summers in Gurgaon ( and the pain, frustration, khoon pasina and bad food that came along free :) ), Forgotten friends - and new found ones, Good music, good TV shows, Tendulkar's 20th year of mesmerising the planet, 3 pairs of stolen shoes :(, Disappointments, Exhilarating holidays with friends, new investments, pending credit card bills, Mafia Wars, The psycho term from hell ( Term 4 ), arguments, cards, marketing, information management, Thums Up, samosas, Case studies, lost opportunities, good food ( definitely not at the campus :) ), Pizza - which is NOT good food, a growing paunch, countless resolutions to attend the gym, swine flu and the trip home with the brother, encouragement, depression, organization, dismay, joy, sorrow, memory and loss :)

I am certain there are a lot of words that I am missing here - but then again, there's only so much words can say, isn't it? :)

Besides these, there was Advent - the advertising and marketing cornucopia to beat them all, which we are proud to say we organized successfully and with amazingly few yawns and sleeping attendees :)

And more importantly, Imperium, which went off with a few hitches but nothing that couldn't be handled.

And at the end of it all, here's to hoping there is a job I can be proud of.

Signing off,
Cheers!

The Match to Break All Records

Whew, it certainly has been ages since I've been here. And apparently, what seems to drive me here is the pressing need to get work done :)

That aside, What I want to document here is nothing short of momentous. It speaks of a time when 11 great sportsmen - benevolent, sporting and yet well dressed - came out of the sheets of their attached bathrooms and balconies to shower their talent upon what had so far been a drab and dull tournament.

At the risk of being way too flowery, I am afraid words cannot do justice to the spectacle. The Attached Bathrooms..err, rather, The Team With Attached Bathrooms...err...actually, best to stick to "We have Attached Bathrooms" played out of their skins to give Runbhoomi its truest example of living up to its name - breaking the record for most runs conceded ever in the history of the tournament.

Not to say that it was easy. Yours truly, thoroughly convinced of his talent, very nearly got to the match on time and went out to the toss, and batted first - which would have ended up ruining what was a momentous day. Thankfully, I stayed true to tradition, and got to the match late as usual ( only 10 minutes though, I was the captain after all ;) ) - After which we began our job in earnest.

With my brother opening the bowling, we ran the risk of delivering a strong performance in the opening overs - which he managed to resolve somewhat by conceding a six off the second ball. However, his spirit broke through, and a brilliant yorker to take out the opener threatened to ruin our effort, despite all the catches we had missed. But with a line up of other bowlers who were all dedicated to the cause, it proved to be an unfounded fear. Initially, the opening bowlers threatened to reduce our chase to a paltry ( well, reasonable :) ) total. They bowled with misguided, but strong fire and accuracy to trouble the openers.

But it was not to last. With 35 runs ( not 44, 56, 60, 41 and all the others numbers floating around campus :| ) I delivered splendidly for our team's vision, paving the way along with other able teammates to a record breaking performance. 274 in 12 overs. It had to be seen to be believed!

With able support and encouragement from Purav (not to mention the continuous status updates on our record breaking performance from everyone else) we delivered a performance that made us famous - even more so than the eventual winners!

The final scoreline read -

Invincible Warriors: 274/3,12.0 Overs
Attached Bathrooms: 69/9, 12.0 Overs

Total number of runs scored - 343 ( Another new record! )

At the end of the day, the emotion was strong, the cheers were loud - but loudest of all was the exhilaration of the whole team. It is at such times that life is most alive, and joy is most profound :)

Cheers - to the stalwarts of the Attached Bathrooms!

29

Now that I am back here, what amazes me is the fact that I haven't been here since last December - nearly half a year of no posts on a blog that I used to swear by!

I began writing this chronology of sorts at some point with a degree of seriousness to be able to read them back to myself sometime in the future. But then, I realise that I wrote to make sure I was doing something besides moping around back in the time when I used to post thrice a day. Now, I have much more free time on my hands, but I find myself sleeping for 3 hours a day, working for a few hours a day ( if my firm - oh, btw, I am selling insurance this summer at Max New York Life - want some? :) ) if my company's lucky - and for practically 10 hours a day ( it would be more, but I have some pretty hungry friends with voracious appetites ) , we play this obscure and (for me, it sure is ) mysterious card game called 29.

These addiction began well before exams though - We'd have one person leaving one table, just so another could join in. At one point of time, we even had two sets of chairs and tables laid out so two sets of teams could slug it out ;) That, friends, is our sort of MBA for you. Friends, games and food!

Also elections just happened - and it is amazing how very confused the Indian populace seems to be. Not that I blame them for it. One party has a thorough academician as its prime ministerial candidate, while the other has a propaganda artist with a party that exemplifies that very image. If only politics in India did not suffer from the pedigree that it has - err - enjoyed over the past half a century, we'd probably have a strong individual like a Barack Obama coming along and deciding to put his foot down. While America may have a lot of faults, the country has brought about change by challenging traditions and brings a young black president with promise to the ironically named White House. And well, no, I didn't vote. I would have, only I haven't taken the pain to go get myself registered. And yes, I know I am a big part of the problem as well.

Ahem

And for those who were looking for a funny post.

I have more important things to worry about than finding girlfriends for now - like, creating reasons for girlfriends to find me :)

Endterms, Project submissions, depleted finances, a flight back home. A lot awaits me :)

Sadly though, summer internship isn't on that list yet.

And oh yeah - I am an authority on How I met Your Mother, Battlestar Galactica and Coupling :D

Signing off with a cartoon -

The shape of things to come.

And for those with a limited appetite for bad poetry and abstract prose,

Here's a more descriptive post. Over the past 6 months, I've done my washing - 5 times. I've developed new standards of hygiene hitherto undefined in the annals of student history ( most probably, because of how unlikely they are ). I've promised myself I won't put a smiley in this post.

Term 2 is ending, and if anything, all I've managed is to further my reputation as a prime geek with zero practical sense or comic timing. That, and have started to love sleep and computer games. Have developed a maniacal interest in the last minute, and have developed a talent for completing assignments at the last minute and typing out piles of management theory ( read 'crap'/faff/global stuff/bull****/any other terminology you may choose to use ). The funny thing is, some people seem to believe this.

The thing about life at a b-school is, when you keep attending the lectures and try to figure things out, often you'll end up not having answers to questions you hitherto had answers to. Funny, I know. But it does happen, and most folks with an MBA will agree - one becomes more measures with opinions, looks for 'strategy', 'justifications', 'analysis', 'solutions', 'proper presentation', 'real life case studies' and 'bullet points' to justify their thought. Giving structure is alright, but when did structure take precedence over plain old human thought? There are some aspects of life one must never try giving structure to - it is the shapelessness of these elements that give them their existence and charm.

Take for example, a blog post. Can you imagine how it would look with headings? ( except for this excellent post I read once by a friend about antics one can do at a market when bored :) )
( Sheesh.Have broken my promise too. gah! )

The one thing about MBA in India that I feel is very wrong is the en masse bombardment of assignments ( not to say I do them at all - that would be desecrating my reputation for ineptitude ) - as en exchange student friend of mine pointed out, in Eurpoean schools, the emphasis is not as much on the quantity of work, as on the quality. No wonder a lot of them are miffed. We folks are good machines, but bad intellectuals.

And oh yeah. Haven't been to the gym yet! :| ( and have broken my promise too. gah! )

Summer Chill in Winter

Monday Evening.

A very cold wind outside.

A very smelly room.

A couple of mice for company - Although they generally keep to themselves.

A lot of overdue reading.

Endterms :(

The prospect of going home after 6 months :)

Ghar ka khana! :D

Endterms :(

In flight meal!

Endterms :(

Credit Card bills :o

Too many smileys :|

Very little good music :(

Mango Pickle :)

Warm Quilt :)

Endterms :(

Summer Placement Ruins ( don't have a smiley for this - suggestions? )

A couple of awards won :)

Bad grades in marketing :(

Good grades in HR! ( ah, if only I had known )

Extremely depleted funds, massive loans :(

Okay, enough of that :) - You guys get the picture! ;)

Past Forward

Darn. I was looking for advertisements for a marketing project the other day,and stumbled upon some old Asian Paints advertisement - the one where the father gets the children's room painted with a tree. And that got me wondering...

It is sad, really. I have all of these memories from my childhood - large joint family dinners, going out to a hotel, playing cricket all day long ( getting hit by the ball - and bat ;) quite a few times )...and fast forward to the here and now. Computer games, email, social networking and the internet rule everywhere. My year in Noida gave me a whole new insight into what counts as the new teens - and it scares me. It is like these kids grow up too soon! They were rude, unfriendly...and worst of all, totally aloof. Our landlord's kid was a case in point. A very decent, interesting kid - but all he ever seemed to do was stay around at home and listen to music. Whatever happened to tea time cinema and football with the neighbourhood kids! I see 15 year olds dealing with relationship issues....Makes me wonder, really. If I was given a time machine to use as I wanted to, would I be able to dare to go out into the future?

First Month of MBA - The Bad,The Very Bad, and the Terrible

Well, I've lived through one month - and what a month it was! It had everything - intrigue, drama, failure, success, frustration,irritation,exercise (oh,a lot of it!)...and finally, it all comes down to this post a week before my first ever ( and hopefully,the first of many...okay,some successful ones ) mis..erm,midterms at MDI.

It has bee nan odd month, really. It all began with the horrors/thrills/chills(literally ;) )/discipline/good habits and (at that point of time, it was ) great mess food of the induction. That was one experience, I will take a while to forget ( unless of course, I screw up all my midterms, in which case the depression will take over all )..well,on to the story so far then.

It all began after the induction with my first day of actual classes - and I managed the unique and rather embarrassing distinction of mssing my first ever MBA class - because I was one minute late! :(

This, from a person who got to an office that paid him 2 and a half hours late - to make matters worse, there was a quiz in the first class, and everyone realised that prereads actually did mean prereads....luckily for me though, almost the whole class scored a 'perfect' score - in terms of shape, not numbers ;) - and I was the only one who got to boast that "I would have scored a 5 - had I been allowed to take the test" - I have a feeling though that I was the only one who faintly believed it.

With this sort of start ( and also, I stayed outside the classroom for the entire one and a half hour (another first, apparently - no such stunt was pulled at MDI before that, everyone else had the good sense to go to the hostel and get some sleep )even I was jolted...for a few days. Subsequently, I proceeded to miss my second statistics quiz too, leaving me with the lowest mark on statistics in the entire 2008 batch - including HR. I'll not mention the mark, since this is my blog, after all ;)

Besides this, I've started to work on my lack of exercise. I regularly ruin perfectly competitive games of badminton, football and tennis - and also, get a walk to the canteen now and then. I've got a lot of friends here, but I seem to be having the same problems I've always had - too many friends, too few langotiya yaars :( - I hope I have things to look back at come the end of two years.

Classes have been rather tough, but the faculty for most courses here is great! - that only means my already inane questions end up sounding even more desperate ( actually, in the LAB classes, the professor smiles even before I ask my questions now :) ) except for statistics and microeconomics though, all seems ..erm..passable for now. Will report further on the exercise later.

Things have been a bit tumultous on campus lately, with selections on for the various clubs. Didn't make it to Placecom ( tip for future students here, the engineering practice of expanding "I will work hard" into 250 words doesn't work here. ) or the IRC. Hopefully, I get through somewhere, since I won't have too much academic to show on my resume anyway ;)

And oh yeah. The weather sucks. Although its nice when it rains. And I am still single. Oh well.

Cheers!

Who is the terrorist?

This is a post that has been 7 months in the making ( honest - i wrote the title 7 months ago and its been a 'draft' ever since ;) ) - but I felt with recent events ( the Mumbai blasts, and my endterms - both, exceedingly sad events ) I should complete this post.

Enough shenanigans then. What happened in Mumbai was not only sad, but also a prime example of the cowardice and malice that humanity is capable of - and while I am saying this, it also speaks volumes of the meticulousness of the planning that went into these attacks. However much we may decide to abuse our establishment, it cannot be said that they blindly let the enemy stroll into the Taj. Some form of security still does exist, but more than that, it is the sheer confidence with which the attacks were carried out - in broad daylight.

It is a war that cannot be won. And why? for the enemy lies within - and there is no operation that can take him out. When one sees a spot on one's skin, one knows what to do. But when there is no sign of the disease, what is one to do? - we saw the terminal stage of the disease manifest itself at Mumbai - but what one needs to understand, is why do human beings do this at all? We are the only species that kill our own kind - and not through any sort of biological programming, but through the emotions and intelligence that we prize. If intelligence has made us the one race capable of killing our own selves, then one is forced to question the point of intellect itself.

Organized terrorism is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of the planet - and it got world recognition with the 9/11 killings in the US. Why is it that people seek to destroy to build anyway? Organized terrorism is a simple case of the manipulation of the mind by the misguided, yet superior intellect - the so-called 'eccentric'. Leaders who choose to assert themselves through mass killings. Every goonda king, every mafia don in this country is in essence a great leader drawn astray by the malice of greed, jealousy and hatred. Apparently, God did not mean for all leaders to be good.

There are those who say that we must understand the method to the madness of these radical individuals. But what method is there to indiscriminate killing. A person is hanged for killing someone - even if that act is revenge for grave personal harm. But what does one give to people who kill for the sake of glory?

...and the tale ends - with another beginning! :)

And with all of that, we come to the end of the season of me cribbing about work and CAT - and begin a new season of me cribbing about assignments and grades ;)

The season ends, and I find myself at MDI Gurgaon for my MBA this year. I am already in the spirit of the place, and have seen and fallen in love with the campus over and over again.I am sure I will have an awesome two years...

But there remains things that are ....undone. Although I always was waiting for the day when I would leave my job, there is an odd thing about everything that makes up life - when one leaves anything, the one thing one seems to remember are the good times one has had :) Funny how that is, but since we are lucky enough to remember the good times, we are unlucky enough to never really have them again too. Sad, how that works....no matter how many times I have read "Who moved my Cheese? " ( a phenomenon in marketing, how they got a children's story to sell in such massive numbers is beyond me...for now ;) ) - I still find it difficult to deal with change. Hopefully, this improves with time.

Then, we move to the auxiliary aspects of what I am expecting from B-school life - a satisfying social life ( which, considering my present situation, would mean even a date with a female tortoise would count :) ), a good academic scoresheet ( fat chance, eh? ;) )...and most of all, a great job! I am looking forward to this, and a lot of other aspects of bschool life I haven't discovered yet. :)

While leaving, I found out my boss does have a lot of respect for me. Sadly, he never really chose to show it earlier....oh well.Alls well that ends well,I guess.

So, again,I have packing to do, moving to a new place - Gurgaon ( even if it is the same NCR...it is still moving across three states ;) - and costs as much too ). A big thank ytou to all those who've encouraged,chided, been annoyed and frustrated by me - thank you for putting up with me! ( and hopefully,you continue to :) )

Cheers!