LORD OF THE MINDS

Eurotrip - Part VII

2011-12-09T03:41:00.001+05:30

Which way to take???
Shot at the way to Tornetrask, the path divides into two and only one took towards the lake... We really were unsure which one to take...

Breathtaking!
Shot at Tornetrask, this photograph captures the absolute beauty of the place...

Along the King's trail, this was one of the spots where you actually feel you are over the river flowing below... A beautiful spot for photographers!

Shot at Abisko National Park...

Hiking in the snowy King's trail... Walking in the wilderness...

No words to explain this...

Eurotrip - Part VI - Paris, France

2011-11-14T20:04:00.001+05:30

Taken at the 1st floor of the Denon section of the Louvre, this photograph shows a lady admiring some spanish paintings. A beauty admiring another beauty?

Taken at the Sulley section during the Masterpieces tour, this photograph shows one of the sculptures on display - The Venus De Milo. The background makes for a wonderful contrast. :)

Taken from inside the Denon section of the Louvre Museum, this photograph captures the entrance and one facade of the museum beautifully! :)

Taken at the entrance of the Versailles palace, this photograph shows TK sporting his "Universitie Paris" sweatshirt with the statue of King Louis XIV in the background. A king in the making??

Simply beautiful... I don't need to tell you where I am! :)

Taken from the spot that best captures the beauty of the Eiffel tower!

Cross-posted on: Facebook

Eurotrip - Part V - Switzerland

2011-11-14T05:53:00.001+05:30

Shot at Montreux, this photograph shows Mirchi onlooking Lake Geneve. The falling evening sun's glows on him makes for an amazing scene.

The Swiss alps from atop Mt. Pilatus

A totally fortunate incident, we got the chance to attend a laser show on the history of Switzerland at the Parliament in Bern. One of the best I had seen, this photograph captures one era depicted during the show.

Basel city in the night!

P.S. I just love the night life of Europe!!

Taken at Interlaken West during the 2-hour hiking we did from Thun to the station, this photograph shows a poster in front of a stable. The tagline was catchy!

Cross posted on: Facebook

Eurotrip - Part IV - Praha, Czech Republic

2011-10-26T03:37:00.000+05:30

Along the scenic route from Dresden to Prague...
The changing landscape made for this beautiful photograph...

The enchanting Prague Castle...
It took three attempts to get the amount of exposure right. But the effect was so beautiful that we shot it from multiple sides.

All smiles before the dive...
Taken at the Skydive arena when the instructor was giving us all the necessary gyaan to have a safe dive... We were so fascinated by the spacesuits and the moments before the jump that hardly anyone heard the safety instructions...

Taken at the skydive arena, this photograph has Tanmay overlooking the runway (or whatever it was..)... I liked the combination of the subject in front and the plane in the backdrop..

Taken from the famous Charles bridge of Prague, the photograph captures the mesmerizing night line of the city... A visual treat..

Cross posted on: Facebook

Eurotrip - Part III - Berlin, Germany

2011-10-23T18:21:00.000+05:30

Ever seen a ballerina dancing outside a store (rather on the outside wall) showing off the designs? Well, Berlin has it all. Awesome concept!!

An Indian dance performance at a Bengali gathering in Germany! Awesome stuff... Although I must admit it wasn't the best of the performances I had been to but the sheer delight of seeing one in Europe surpassed every other emotion... Good performance nonetheless (the lady sure was sweating)..

Taken at the bridge when you are about to enter the museum island, this photograph shows Payal di posing in front of one of the oldest monuments in Germany, house to some 19th century sculptures.

Taken at the museum island, this picture shows Mirchi in front of the Berliner Dom... The island makes for a true visual treat... No wonder we were clicking pics and my sister got bored.

Taken at the East Side Gallery, this place is like a palette where artists (or some random crazy people) have just come and painted some graffiti... Somehow the ideas clicked and it became a tourist spot... Fascinating, isn't it?

Cross-posted on: Facebook

Eurotrip - Part II - The Netherlands

2011-10-22T15:43:00.000+05:30

Taken at the Alkmaar Cheese factory north of Amsterdam, Holland; this photograph shows all types of cheese they had on sale. With lotsa cheese to taste for free, this tour was truly a cheesy one...

Taken at a souvenir shop in Delft, Holland this photograph shows the prominent souvenirs that one associates Amsterdam with. "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls come to Amsterdam"

Taken at the Dam square, this tower is a national monument... A place for frequent parties and events; I loved the architecture of the area.

Taken at the world-famous Madame Tussauds museum located at Dam Square; this photograph is just at the start of the show which narrates the history of Holland.

I amsterdam!

Cross posted on: Facebook

Eurotrip - Part I - Sweden

2011-10-20T02:23:00.000+05:30

Taken at the City Hall, the photograph depicts a lady checking up messages on her cell. What I loved was the combination it made with the walls

Taken at the Vaxholm harbour which is a 30 min ferry ride from Stockholm harbour, the evening sky made for a remarkable shine in the water. The combination of water, sky and harbour makes the photograph breathtaking.

Onlooking the east side of Stockholm from the harbour behind the National museum, the city gives an amazing view.

This picture depicts the Vasa ship which was extracted 333 years after it sank in 1628 on its maiden voyage. The archaeologists have done a wonderful job preserving it and converting it into a museum.

Taken at the Vaxholm harbor, one of the major islands of the archipelago of Stockholm, the picture shows TK looking over the beautiful sea ... A tantalizing mix of clouds, land and sea.

Cross posted on: Facebook

The Copenhagen Diaries - I

2011-09-14T04:28:00.000+05:30

Taken at one of those places which reminds you of your watan, India Palace (or for that matter any good Indian restaurant) is what every Indian craves for when he/she goes to foren. Located in Central Copenhagen near Norreport, just the smell of a 135 DKK Indian buffet was enough to get you nostalgic.

Taken at Norresgade, one of the pool roads connecting Norresbro and Norreport, the picture depicts the superb afternoon sunny scene in Copenhagen. A walk beside this canal is beautiful and its no wonder that you would see a lot of people jogging on both sides.

Taken outside the Osterport station, this picture depicts the Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art. One of the rare places of art which don't get too crowded in Copenhagen.

Taken at the edge of Osterbro's Churchillparken, this picture depicts 'The Little Mermaid' or rather Den lille havfrue on the edge of the harbour. A popular tourist location, I actually discovered it during a morning walk around the park. The statue is actually under copyright after attempts by several sculptors to make copies of it around the world. Also, it was taken to Shanghai last year for an expo; the first time it had been moved after being installed a century earlier.

Taken at the Amalienborg Palace, the main residence of the Danish monarch, this picture depicts the Brockdorff's Palace or Frederik VIII's Palace. A popular tourist destination, this too I discovered during one of my morning walks. The location has actually four separate palaces all guarded by the special guardsmen (you can see one at the bottom right corner of the picture).

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 6

2011-08-02T12:05:00.000+05:30

Taken during the Photo walk of IIM Lucknow campus organized by our Right AngLes, this picture captures the serene quietness of a regular feature of our rooms during monsoons - frogs. What we were not sure was that whether it was dead or alive. So we decided to click 1st before we checked it out.

Taken near Medusa, this picture captures the early morning brightness of the flowers at that spot. Mesmerizing!

Taken from atop one of the sidewalls of the ring road of IIM Lucknow, this picture depicts a moss. A macro pic, the leaf adds that special glow to it.

Taken during Team SynapsE's junior induction party, at Barbeque Nation, this picture shows us having a round of drinks and the kebabs. What I liked was the depth the picture captured and the glow of the wine glasses.

Waiting to be turned down, another gem at Barbeque Nation.

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 5

2011-08-02T11:53:00.000+05:30

Taken on a beautiful wednesday evening in IIM Lucknow campus, this picture shows the beautiful flowers near the convocation stage.

Clicked near Medusa, the symbol of IIM Lucknow, this picture captures the beauty of the campus after a spell of rains.

The beautiful garden onlooking Chintan block.

An amazing rainy evening giving a special glow to the faculty block - Chintan

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 4

2011-06-15T23:25:00.001+05:30

Taken from atop IIMB hostels on the last day of my internship at Bangalore, this picture depicts an evening sky in the city. The clouds were pregnant with rain, which is kind of a normal feature in the city. The could formations reminded me of my clicks in Coorg. Absolutely marvelous!

Taken at the busy Nagerbazar crossing in North Kolkata, the picture shows a hot summer day in the city which witnessed a historic change earlier in the month. And Mamata Didi is thanking everyone for believing in her "Maa Maati Manush" agenda.

Taken at the beautiful Victoria Memorial, one of the historic tourist locations in Kolkata; this picture shows the monument in its full glory. Truly a mesmerizing spectacle!

Taken at Princep Ghat, this picture depicts the evening scenery at the stunningly beautiful river banks of the Hooghly. The light on the water made it shimmer like gold. Thanks to my buddy Pradipta for the pose.

Taken atop Hostel 15 of IIM Lucknow, the picture depicts a typical evening sky! What I like were the streaks of light penetrating the clouds. Amazing! :)

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 3

2011-06-07T00:44:00.002+05:30

Taken at the F block of IIM Bangalore hostels, this is the sign that the particular block is that side. This section has yellow tubelights for some reason giving it a kinda burning feeling. Also the sign of F (the dreaded grade for MBAs) makes it seem like some burning Hell.

Taken from inside the bus while on the way to Mysore, this particular picture has Smiti soaking up wonderful summer sun. We were on the way to the beautiful city to attend our beloved classmate Sunil's marriage. In the picture, I kinda liked the way the light played with her shades and face. A totally opportunist picture!

Shot after another spell of rains in IIM Bangalore, this picture is from the PGP block towards an eatery called Amrutha Kalash. One of the more green sections of this beautiful campus, this pathway has an amazing classic feel to it which I loved.

Shot at the amazingly beautiful Amphitheater of IIM Bangalore (where they manage to conduct their convocation which I am yet to understand how given the space constraints!), this picture has Sonam relaxing beside one of the section of flowers after some rains there. To my credit, I really had to convince her to smile well for the picture. Think I did a good job! :)

Taken after yeah yeah, the same rains of IIM Bangalore, this picture shows some beautiful fruits at H block. The rain drops kind of cleaned the surface of theirs and gave them a juicy feeling. The depth that this picture showcases gives the picture a truly wonderful touch. Loved it!

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 2

2011-05-31T17:09:00.001+05:30

This picture is taken at Coorg on the way to Abby falls. It was evening time and the skies were kind to me to provide for such an amazing scene. In fact, the entire area of Madikeri was witness to such heavenly scenes throughout.
The essence of the picture has come out so well that you would feel its a professional one (although I won't mind hearing it. :))

This hilarious picture is taken at the Nagarhole National Park. We were hugely disappointed when we got to know that the safari was not available that day because of the immense rain the previous night. Anyways this poor creature provided for enough entertainment as we satisfied our hunger of clicking pics with 'wild animals' with pics round these. :)

This picture is the result of a comedy incident during Monica and my birthday treat this year at Silver Metro, Total Mall, Bangalore. Apparently Mandar had 'reserved' his seat as he went about filling his plate for the next round during the buffet lunch. But Ankita 'madam' took over his place. So when she went for a refill, Mandar came round and left this note. Nonetheless, when Mandar went for his refill, Ankita stole his new place too to replace this note with 'I Have Taken This'. :)

This amazingly beautiful picture is taken at Somanathpur Temple during the journey to Mysore for Sunil's Marriage. The serenity and calmness of the temple made for a perfect moment. Taken in Black & White, the slight light gives the pillars a soul which in general they lack due to the lack of activity at the temple.

This picture is taken at Talakad, on of the tourist spots on the way to Mysore from Bangalore. The temples ther are submerged in sand and thus are referred to as classic. Taken again in Black & White, the presence of my friends gives a feeling of exploring India's classic monuments and observing the beautiful constructions of yesteryears.

Some of my best clicks of the past month - Part 1

2011-05-31T16:04:00.001+05:30

Taken in Black & White at the corridor of IIM Bangalore PGP block, this picture captures the timeless beauty of arguably the most green section of the beautiful campus.
This particular section is in front of the library which has a huge poster of the latest batch that graduated from IIM Bangalore right at its entrance.
A photographer's treat, this building provides an excellent opportunity to click pictures both during daytime and at night.

This picture on the right has been taken at the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary which is about a 20-30 min drive from Mysore on the Bangalore Mysore Road. The sanctuary is beautiful with all different kinds of birds and even some crocodiles lurking around. The highlight is the boat ride which by all means is one where you wont stop clicking. I missed pics with the birds in flight but was lucky to get this one.

This picture of the Tanga is taken outside the City Palace, Mysore. Considering the bustling activity of the arguably the center of the city, this tanga provided for a stark contrast. Taken in B&W again, I wanted to capture the essence of the vehicle of classic times.

This one is taken at the Mysore City Market a stone's throw away from Ladies Circle (I am yet to fathom the reason for such a nomenclature). It was dusk and somehow the clouds came round for an amazing setup. The crow in the sky provided a perfect center of the storm kind of a feeling.

This picture is taken at the Brindavan Gardens, Mysore. Arguably one of the two most famous spots of Mysore, this garden has been witness to many movie shoots both in the Hindi movie industry - Bollywood and the Kannada movie industry. This exact spot is the lake behind the Dam when you cross the bridge to go towards the spot of the Dancing Fountains' show. The play of the lights over the water was simply irresistible. In fact, it was the scarcity of light that made the picture what it was.

The Year That Was

2011-04-07T11:32:00.003+05:30

As I was about to board the bus, I looked back to the top of the last gate of Amausi Airport. It read 'Lucknow. Arrivals'. I just realized that I wasn't going to see the board for the next two months. I was about to leave my home for the past 10 months for a brief stint at Bangalore, back to where I had so many memories.
Exactly 294 days, 19 hours and 30 mins back I was at the same Amausi Airport. I was about to start a new life, a new beginning. The first month went well. My hard work in the committee selections paid off and I became a part of Team SynapsE. In one shot the doors to so many activities on campus opened up. In August, Section F had its first party at DC 54. We had a private lounge, some drinks (guess the topper?), a lot of hukaah (guess the other topper) and terrific impromptu dancing (The great Montek!) . And to top it all, the section anthem 'Battiyan bujha do ki neend nahi aati hai'. We literally sang the song like a zillion times on our way back in the cab (Dunno how the cab driver put up with that :)). A rocking party and a perfect way to celebrate our victory in Camaraderie 2010 where we won probably 80% of the competitions.

A week later we had the Dharam-Rishabh-you know who saga. A small mistake by Dharmesh led to 4 hours of ultimate fun and some embarassing moments for him. The talk of the campus and probably the basis for Dharmesh going on to work really hard during Index 2010 (Although he would disagree to that! :)). As they say 'Ek choti galti aapko ... bana sakti hai'.
The first term break was totally welcome. The first trip back home, some amazing time at the Sunderbans, lovely sightseeing, home-made food. The stay was peaceful to say the least. But little did I know that the peace was shortlived.

Term II started on a very promising note. We had Varchasva 2010 on campus amidst a lot of scheduling issues primarily due to the Ayodha verdict and the associated tension in the city. It was fun though watching an event being organized of IIM stature (although I doubt it reached the levels it had promised). I won Dwandwa, the English Debate even though earlier my team was not the best team from campus (who cares!). The highlight was definitely the fashion show (isn't it obvious?). We performed well overall but probably others had prepared better. Anyways, a nice time indeed. What followed that was a month long race. A race to get the best summer placements, the best job. I saw the best and the worst in people, best of solidarity and probably the worst of emotions. It was the end of November that Section F had its trip to Lucknow Mahotsav. What a trip! 30 people, a schoolbus and an evening at the Mahotsav. Still remember Saurabh Yadav's mistake, Rishikesh's monkey pose, Jhoolan Jhoola, pics with that Devil hairband and Rajasthani, Bareilly, Nawabi & god knows which all places' food. A delightful evening and yes, that section F anthem - Battiyan bujha do ki neend nahi aati hai... sung all the way back to campus.

Term 2 break was amazing. A trip to Mumbai after god knows how much time and finally the chance to get my hands on my latest love - My new Canon DSLR EOS Rebel T2i. My friends - Debanshu, Debashree and Shubhro ensured that I had a rollercoaster 3 days in Mumbai and some truly great memories. A day long trek to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (Saale Prinshu ne exams khatam hone ke agle din itna chalwaya ki....), checking out Chowpatty Beach, Marine Drive, Nariman Point, Sheesha (the pic on the right); and back-to-back movies to end the trip. Totally engaging and whole lot of fun! That was followed by a trip to Bishnupur in rural West Bengal (by then I was in total adventurous mood with my camera) and a short trip back home to complete the year.

New year and I was back to campus. Manfest 2011 was coming up and my work as Vertical Manager started. The run up to the D-day had lots of night outs at H9 developing the games, lots of frustrations and a little element of goofups as well. An amazing experience and whole new feeling of organizing an international fest, something that I had been craving for.The three days of Manfest were exciting to say the least. Co-ordinating two events, covering them with pictures, Pain of Salvation and Bollywood Pronite with Salim-Suleiman & Neha Bhasin (the pic to the left). Rocking performances and total entertainment. The weekend ended with a superb Insti party but rather a forgettable night, the actions of which I regret till today.

Ignicion Core brought out the creative person inside me. Promoting the mentorship program through all kinds of channels - online as well as offline, automating the mapping was interesting. But what stood out was the experience of making the video testimonials (Hehe!). 13 PGP-Is, 13 profiles, 13 locations and close to 10,000 views. The initiative that differentiated us from all the other IIMs! And judging by the feedback and ratings that we got from the mentees, its been an absolute hit.
The rest of the term went off with preparation for the internship. And yes, preparation for student exchange to Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (slotted for later this year). The plans for a Eurotrip were materializing and by the looks of it, it sure was going to be an awesome experience. Anyways, project submissions and presentations marked the end of the term and I was all set to go back to Bangalore, the city where I made my dreams. Back to old friends, back to the parties and hopefully back to those stupendous hangouts (Hard Rock included).
Thus an eventful 1st year at IIM Lucknow and I was an half-MBA (sounds stupid). Made lots of friends, lost some; brought smiles to many, tears and anger to some. But hopefully I 'managed' to achieve what I had set out for at the beginning of the year.

Cross-posted on: Wordpress

Aankhen

2011-04-05T23:39:00.001+05:30

Hothon ne jiska zikr na kiya ho,
Aankhen unka paigaam deti hain |
Duniya se unko chupaaye kaise,
Har dhadkan unka hi toh naam leti hai |

Principle based Leadership by Dr. Kiran Bedi

2011-03-17T14:39:00.001+05:30

On the 15^th of March, 2011, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow welcomed India’s first woman police officer, Kiran Bedi, to speak on Principle based Leadership; part of the Ethics workshop series being conducted for the 1st year students. This was Kiran Bedi’s 2^nd visit to campus, the earlier one being for the Management Development Program (MDP) participants.

Amidst the roar that welcomed her on stage, she started off her speech by stating the key to being a centered leader – being vibrant and enthusiastic. To illustrate this, she cited an incident from her life: when in 1994 after being awarded the Ramon Magasaysay Award, she had come back to Tihar Jail and celebrated the award with the prisoners. Thus she asked everyone to make ‘Being at joy’ a habit.

She then proceeded to divide her speech into two parts – Her beliefs on leadership and the Gandhian ways to policing. According to her, defining the purpose of one’s life is the most important part of leadership. One should have his/her own identity, be creative and work with the people. So when that focus has come and identity is set in, one should shape according to the purpose and brand oneself. One should demonstrate excellence and constantly improve. She cited her example by narrating what all she did when she was first inducted into the police force. By the first few days, she had quickly realized that she was in a commanding position but the people under her were constables and police officers who had more than 20 years of experience. So the only way to learn and contribute was to go to the grassroots. So she did night patrolling, went to the courts so as to make her juniors her allies. Other senior officers frowned upon her but she stood by her act.

She always believed in constant self-audit and self-awareness. When she was on New Delhi traffic postings, she used to randomly choose an area a day where she would come to know of traffic blockages and visit that place without any notice. This was to keep her officers on toes and ultimately set in fear of constant improvement amongst them. This way she stressed on the fact that everyday the brand was built and trust was set in. She also stressed on the value for health – physical, mental and spiritual; also to be grateful and give full credit to the person who deserves it.

As part of Gandhism, she said that maintenance of transparency was very important. 60% of all corruption in India was in the corporate sector. This was bringing in a dis-leveled playing field. She said that one should put a face to policy and look at the poorest client when deciding upon them. And one should have patience – one should trust time rather than resent it. Gandhiji had said – “Don’t wait, be the change” and “Ethics is the oil of enterprise” even before industrialisation truly set in in India.

Finally in the Q&A session, she described her immediate goal which was the National Movement against corruption. This is going to be a nationally selected body which will work towards eradication of corruption by raising awareness and conducting dharnas etc. Do visit www.indiaagainstcorruption.org for more details.

Cross-posted on : IIM Lucknow Blog

Gunaah

2011-02-07T23:44:00.001+05:30

Jaane kya gunaah ho gaya humse,
Ki woh yun khafa ho gaye,
Hum to haal-e-dil bayaan kar rahe the,
Par shayad unke jazbaat samajhna bhool gaye |

Search Friction

2011-01-03T02:38:00.000+05:30

Browsing through the pages of an edition of Forbes India, I chanced upon an article on last year's Nobel Prize for economics winner - Dale T. Mortensen. The article was on a concept in economics known as 'search friction'. In layman terms, search friction refers to the imperfect information about finding out where jobs are and where workers are for the appropriate jobs. He goes on to say that the traditional economics model of demand and supply does not hold water. Unemployment and job vacancies exist simultaneously because it takes time and money for companies and job seekers to find the perfect match.

Well... This is the effect of a whole term of Macroeconomic Environment... A guy who was never caring about these 'wordly terms' is suddenly finding economics interesting (and that guy is me by the way)!! But jokes apart, this is interesting. It explains a lot of phenomenon that we see daily. Haven't we heard friends crying out that someone somewhere has got job in a big shot XYZ company whereas with the same skill set he is languishing in KLM (sorry I cudnt get another combination of triplet) company, which means getting paid less for same kind of job. Its partly his and partly the system's fault. There exists imperfect information - in companies, with recruiters and even with job seekers. And its much more pertinent in India where formal systems are yet to get in place for a totalitarian information database. And these are the fallouts of a developing economy.
Perfect match... Hmm... Seems like some marriage bureau at work... But hey, don't they also operate on the same... They also work on this 'imperfect information' and try to 'perfect' them... They also try to fill this gap, so to say... But does it always work? Well, that is open to debate. In the same way, there are so many internet based job search engines like timesjobs.com, naukri.com etc. But are they efficient? I know so many recruiters who still work on the 'contacts' mechanism, that is getting their own employees to refer friends because they believe that those references provide 'perfect information'.
But there is hope. The whole concept of UID, popularly known as Adhaar, will, I believe, solve this imperfection. Just like the finance department is looking up to it for providing 'financial inclusion', I think this would solve the issue of search friction too. The whole information database that the UID system is creating is going to be a huge boost to many sectors. Apart from just providing the election information of each and every citizen of India, it can be used to store employment records, bank accounts, credit information, education information, legal information and what not. Wow! What opportunities will it open up! An employer could get information to any citizen with a particular skill set and work experience. No requirement of job search agencies and no need to post and update your profile there. Cool, isnt it?

The Next Step

2010-11-04T18:35:00.000+05:30

The summer placements at IIML are over and the next two months promises to have some super action. There are Nirvaan - the entrepreneurship summit of E-Cell of IIML , Index - the disguised market research fair, Samvit - the leader's conclave by IIC to name a few. And in the term break, I fly out to Mumbai for the Christmas weekend. But yes, before that I got my mid-terms that start in 4 days. So lets get back to studies. Bbye!

The other side of Sunderbans

2010-10-09T01:32:00.000+05:30

It was my first term-break at IIM Lucknow and I was desperate to maximize the opportunity. So when mom informed me that we were going on a short trip to the Sunderbans, I was excited. Would I be able to see tigers? Will they be in their guarded cages or swimming in the water (tigers are great swimmers by the way)?
So after 6 days of exams, one Loyola 12D - IIM L meet and one day of customary visits to relatives, I was off to the beautiful world of the sunderbans. It was the middle of September and the monsoons were in full swing. We equipped ourselves with enough food and clothing for the trip and at 9am on a beautiful morning, we were off. The route map told us that we had to first visit the beautiful Ramakrishna Mission Ashram at Nimpith which we duly reached within 3 hours.

Now I had been to several Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams before this. But this one really struck me. The way they welcomed us was amazingly heart-warming. Quickly we were allotted a room and asked to freshen up. After about half an hour when the call for lunch came, we were taken to a nearby building. Supposedly, they had a marriage hall on the side and there the lunch was non-veg. Now after 3 months of aloo and baigan and donno what not at the legendary IIM Lucknow mess, I can't tell you how desperate I was to have a proper bengali lunch - the world famous macher jhol bhaath. And boy, was it great! The manager of the Nimpith RK Mission, a friend of my youngest uncle, was telling us some trivia. It turned out that the fish we had were local catch and not imported from the main city, which in this case is Kolkata. The chicken we tasted later was a hybrid of an Indian and an Israeli chicken. Turns out, these chicken grow three times faster and bigger than the ordinary Indian chicken thus providing more yield.

After a sumptuous lunch and a short afternoon nap, we set out to our final destination - Kaikhali, on the banks of river Matla. By the time we reached the Kaikhali Paryatan Abash, it was already dusk. Nimpith Ashram Maharaj had granted us permission to stay there which meant we were allotted rooms immediately. The river bank and some cool weather provided the perfect setting for a relaxed evening walk. But unfortunately, for reasons obvious we were not allowed. So we went off to sleep pretty early in anticipation of an exciting trip to the Sunderban islands the next morning.

7 am and I hear a thumping on my door. The mess boy had brought me my morning tea. It was 7 am and we were supposed to get ready in an hour. The boats were ready. I went over to my parents' room and learnt that they had already had a morning walk around the area. Apparently, it wasn't crowded and the place was beautiful. So we got ready and reached the river bank by 8:30. A motorboat was waiting for us with breakfast packets inside. Within minutes, we were off. The boat cut across the barrage of submerged trees and you could well make out what carnage Aila had done to these areas. The banks of the rivers, which supposedly had a lot of buildings, were devastated by the cyclone last year. As we moved to the island of Jharkhali, I kept looking at the water in anticipation of some tigers. But our guide told us that due to the rains most of the tigers had retreated to the inner forests of Sunderbans. Some kind of relief. As we reached Jharkhali, we headed to the jungle area. Now there were various boards which told us that there was a jungle reserve and a park ahead. So we headed the way of the reserve. The next one hour went about exploring the area. The way a forest was encircled by islands was truly amazing. There were some parks and some villages. But a lot of it was devastated by Cyclone Aila last year. Pity, 'cos what could have been a wonderful tourist destination, was affected so badly by nature's fury.

After about 2 hours of roaming around, we took our boat back to Kaikhali. Our guide told us that in winter we could go to the inner islands as well. Right now, those areas were inaccessible due to monsoons. Also we should never stay in boats in the nights. Tigers are known to have swam and killed locals during the night. No worries for us 'cos we got back to shore just in time for lunch. Meanwhile, I had a short walk round the area. The RK Mission had done an a tremendous job in turning around the area. Locals were employed in bakery, fishing, cattle rearing and other businesses all under the RK Mission banner. Upon return to Nimpith, we saw a biotechnology college, a school and a hospital all run by locals under them. The sheer amount of employment generated was remarkable and truly worth applause.
With some lovely memories, we headed back to Kolkata. Our two day trip was over. Jamshedpur was the next destination and I just couldn't wait to go to meet my mates at XLRI.

A New Start to 'Life

2010-08-20T22:58:00.000+05:30

Its now been a month at HEL(L), and am slowly starting to get hold of the changes that have happened after coming here. The distinction between days and nights has vanished, sleep times (if I get to sleep that is) have changed, eating habits have changed, and the ability to sustain any kind of pressure too. Assignments, committee selection interviews, group tasks, reports and quizzes have become the order of the day (and night). Life seems to have suddenly become very hectic.
Exactly 30 days ago, 8th June 2010, as the 12:10 IndiGo flight from Kolkata (actually it starts from Bangalore, then goes to Kolkata, then Patna, Lucknow and Mumbai... Gosh... The pilot and air-hostesses must have been drained) touched down at the calm and quiet Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport at Lucknow, I felt excited. I was at the 'City of Nawabs' - Lucknow, the city which was to be 'my city' for the next 2 years, the city where I was about to start a fresh new life.

Compared to the buzzing activity at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, this airport seemed very calm and quiet. The officials and staff seemed to wake up to the fact that an aircraft landed. The only passengers at the premises were from our flight. Interesting! Thereafter, me and Rahul (who was accompanying me in the flight) booked a cab which was to take us directly to our home - Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. A long 45 min ride which clocked a distance of over 30 kms brought us to the entrance of the campus. A serious security personnel greeted us and asked us some details before ushering us in. The logo of the institution was shining bright at the centre of the road and the words 'Indian Institute of Management Lucknow' looked beautiful embossed on stone at the side of the gate. A statue of Arjun greeted us as we entered the campus along with another statue which had a lot of politicians - Mahatma Gandhi leading the pack there. The driver took us to the Student Affair's Centre where we (Rahul and I) both got allotted to H-15. From what I had heard, it was the latest one and the farthest. "Gosh! I would have to run to class everyday" was my first reation. Hmm. Lets see! A short drive and then a 5 min walk and we were at H-15. I got my ground floor room - 1509 where as Rahul got a top floor one - 1578, which in the sveltering heat of Lucknow (the temperature was 44 degrees as we stood at H-15), would be a torture in itself. As I got into my room, I couldn't help but notice how clean and fresh they looked. And the view from the verandah was the beautiful Umang! Wow! I would definitely make use of it. The campus seemed quiet (after all only we 120 had come for the 'Preparatory Course' (Remedial course) and the seniors were yet to come) but very hot. Working in Bangalore for the past 3 years had my body conditioned to a much cooler climate and compared to that, the campus felt burning hot.

The first two weeks in the campus were a cakewalk. Classes for the first half only (And yes, it was mathematics. So it was cazz!), dozzing off in the afternoon, squash at Umang in the evening and then watching movies / playing games / hanging out in the night. I took up an interesting task in this period. A group of 7 came together to teach a fellow batchmate of ours who was visually impaired. I took up the session on Integration one day with a session of 2 hours. What an experience! I learnt a whole new meaning to teaching. No wonder our teachers have a tough time with us. We also checked out the campus during this period wondering why the institute buildings had such cryptic names like 'Bodhigraha', 'Gyanoday', 'Samadhan' and 'Chintan'.
Anyways, we had our first group hangout to the city in the first weekend when our group of 12 watched Raajneeti together and also tried out the world famous Tundey Kebabs. Saharabanj, Hazratganj, Aminabad (which I checked out with my parents), Charbagh all places seemed good. What astonished me was that even though Lucknow was the capital of Uttar Pradesh, the city seemed clean, the people friendly and the air pollution-free. But if I had thought traffic in Bangalore was a pain, the one here is a torture. No one, absolutely no one follows rules. People just barge in from sides. And the bus drivers don't even care for passengers. I actually saw a bus driver throw a prospective passenger out of the bus using the door even though the guy was half in.
Now back to the campus, things were going steady and the preparatory course was nearing its end. The rest of the batch started coming in and thus came the time for our induction. Now I had heard stories of people not being able to sleep during that time, so was excited. But boy, was I in for a ride! The 4 days had inductions by alumni and faculty members from morning to evening. Apparently the head of the Global Alumni Association had come and yeah, his sessions were really good. Then night 10pm used to be the time for induction by seniors where we were made to do all kinds of stuff. From SOPs to 3 hour notice presentations; from 5000 word reports to role plays, from official teaching sessions by the seniors to formal tests. And if this wasn't enough, we came back to attend hostel inductions which typically lasted from 3am to 5am where we were made to do all kinds random ( censored) stuff. I used to sleep at 6am when the sun was bright up in the sky only to get up at 8am and attend sessions at 9am. Finally on the last day of the induction, to take the torture further, we had a solidarity march at 6am. But all this culminated in a grand 'Insti Party' on the night of Saturday, the 26th which was awesome. The performance by Three.Four (The official band of IIM Lucknow) was amazing and the DJ kept belting terrific numbers. The booze kept on as well as the dancing. Fabulous start to our two years here.

The classes started next. Some subjects seemed interesting, some which routine, in others I somehow managed to keep my eyes open in class. Then came 'Parichay 2010' and till now my claim to fame in the campus. Parichay is the annual performance night by the PGP-I. And I was performing a mime along with a group of 12. Boy, was I excited! The schedule of the practice used to be like 1am - 3am (because of the multiple committee interviews going round) after which the gang used to have maggi and chai together at mess or Gossip & Bites. Then when the D-day came, we were nervous. The crowd was hostile with the seniors booing each and every performance with chants such as "Ek do teen chaar, band karo yeh atyachaar". As we were painting our faces and getting ready, the shouting became overwhelming. But then we had faith in ourselves. As the mime started, we heard a few shouts from the back, but by the end of the 4th scene, the crowd was all silent. Finally when the skit ended, the entire crowd was on its feet. We deservedly got a standing ovation from seniors, faculty, batch-mates alike. I had a speech at the end of it and had planned that if our show would not have gone well I would not say out our names (our faces were postered, so anyways people wouldn't recognize us). But after the response, I had to introduce the team. We became the talk of the campus and the pride of the batch overnight. I lost the count how many people actually came up and congratulated me for the performance. Amazing!
As of now, the order of the day is classes, quizzes, committee selections (I am in the fray for the posts in 7), auditions (Yeah. I sang 3 songs in the first audition), groups for various projects, presentations, long nights in the library, assignments, parties, boozing... Oh yes, did I forget what I have come to this prestigious institution - Indian Institute of Management Lucknow for? Studies! :)

Memories

2010-06-09T00:34:00.003+05:30

As the 9:15 am Jet Airways flight (which was delayed 15 mins due to some idiots who turned up late at the check-in counter) turned to face the runway and start its run towards the sky, towards its destination - Kolkata, my eyes fell upon the words “Bangalore International Airport” and I closed my eyes, tired and somewhat moist. Somehow I felt empty, somewhere there was a void.
36 days ago when the GD/PI results for Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIM Lucknow) came out, I was overjoyed. They were published the day before but I didn’t have the courage to look them up (yeah... I too can be scared at times, especially when it’s a life changing event). Moreover the site was unstable and results inconsistent. So I waited a night to see my results. It turned out to be the second longest night of my life (The longest being the night before my CAT exam). My roommate Navoneel was the one to tell me the good news. In a split second, my life had changed. No more was I a struggler. I had made it. I had fulfilled my dream. I had triumphed, finally. What made the news even more sweet was that my childhood friend – Adarsh had made it to IIML too (We were in the same class in high school too. So we were going back to school, albeit a b-school, together).
The celebrations had started before that. We had had an amazing IPL match outing (even though Kolkata Knight Riders lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore, overall the match was fun) in mid-April. That was followed by a crazy Loyola Reunion which included beer, tequila and marijuana (kudos to GVS for that). I bet we ‘took it to the next level’. But things went berserk after the 29th.
The month that followed included trips to Hard Rock Cafe (one on a Thursday to watch a live band performance... awesome \m/), numerous movies (mostly the Friday 10PM show at Big Cinemas), countless lunch/dinner parties (especially the one at Koshy's), my first birthday party where I didn’t touch alcohol and had vegetarian food (veg. food can be lovely too), my career-best performance at Amoeba bowling (right after my career-worst performance), some lovely cooking at home (we made Chicken curry one Sunday afternoon), farewell parties with amazing gifts (that show-piece was beautiful, thanks guys) and fantabulous IIML achievers and alumni meets. I don’t know how it could have been better.
Then the time came to bid goodbye to MindTree. I had prepared 5 versions of my ‘bbye mail’ and even a video of my days at Cadence (my last project in MindTree). Last day included some tearful moments (from the girls of my project who saw the video and the mail) and some hurting ones (from the last day bumps that is). I surrendered my tag and finally lost my MindTree Mind status. At that moment, I didn’t know whether it felt good or bad, but somehow it felt very different.
So, now I am at the 'Bengaluru International Airport', waiting; waiting for my flight to Kolkata; waiting for the journey that I had planned to make long time ago; waiting to end a phase of my life (so that I can start a new one); waiting for a 'change' in my life. But somehow a part of mine didn't want to make that trip, partly because of the fear of torturous weather which I later get to know in Kolkata was atrocious, partly because of the wonderful party life I was enjoying in Bangalore (How I wish I could have had more... :( ) and partly because of.... I don't know! Am I missing something or am I missing someone?

हमारी ज़हानत

2010-05-15T22:56:00.000+05:30

क्या समझोगे आप हमारी ज़हानत को,
आपसे नाता हम तोड्द देंगे |
ना बर्दाश्त करेंगे ऐसी ज़िल्लत,
एक दिन इस दुनिया को ही छोडद देंगे |

आंसू

2010-04-12T18:38:00.001+05:30

कितने ही आंसू झलके हैं,
कितना ही रोया है दिल,
ईतनी चाहत से जो पाने निकले थे,
वोह ना हुआ हासिल |

या खुदा

2010-04-04T11:52:00.000+05:30

या खुदा सुन ले मेरी पुकार,
सिर्फ तुझी से रखता हूँ मैं आस |
पूरी कर दे मेरी मोहब्बत,
या बुला ले अपने पास |

बारिश में भींग जाने दो |

2010-03-31T00:02:00.000+05:30

आज मुझे बारिश में भींग जाने दो,
फिर उस गीली मिट्टी की खुश्बू को महसूस करने दो,
कब तक रोक के रखोगे,
कभी तो इस दर्द में थोड़ी उमंग भरने दो!

Change

2010-02-10T21:27:00.002+05:30

It was 5 in the morning. The taxi was running at breathtaking speed. The sound of the motor accompanied by the infrequent honking was tearing the morning calm which lies on the roads of North Kolkata; Jessore Road in this case. Occasionally, some homeless street dweller peeped out of his rags with scornful eyes scolding us for breaking his sweet sleep. It was cold and misty outside but I felt warm. Partly because of the wonderful 'Pepe Jeans' jacket that I was wearing but mostly because of the fact that I had had a peaceful week long vacation away from the hectic life in Bangalore and the atrocities at work.
The taxi took a turn towards the approach road of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Within an hour, I would be heading back to Bangalore via a 6:30 am IndiGo flight. And it was then that I realized how much 'change' I had witnessed over the past week. Attitudes, cultures, music, roads, transportation, Kolkata; in short, Life had changed. I was like the NRB (Non-Resident Bengali) coming back to his homeland wishing to see it as it was - untouched, unstained, pure; just as he had left it only to realize that it wasn't. It had changed. It had evolved. It had moved on.
10 days ago when my 10 am SpiceJet flight from Bangalore touched down at the NSCBI airport in Kolkata, I was relieved. Not because the flight had landed safe but because I had successfully managed to escape. Escape from office, from ever-demanding bosses, from the harrowing life that I was leading in Bangalore over the past month. Then when I came out of the airport, I saw the first 'change'. Beautiful Volvo buses waiting outside ready to whisk us away to whichever corner of the city we wanted to go. We got on one which was going to Tollygunj via the VIP Road. It was similar to the ones we travelled in in Bangalore; just as comfortable, just as fast and just as smooth. But that was not all. Most of the old 1970's/1980's private buses had been replaced with JN Nurm buses too. Cool!
So had Kolkata finally grown up? Had it changed its mindset and started accepting the norms set worldwide instead of creating its own and following it?
There was so much more which had changed in the city. Kolkata Metro had added more stations and renamed some of the existing ones to its legendary Bengalis' names. There were station names like Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, Kavi Nazrul and Masterda Surya Sen. Some way to uphold Bengali culture! Ah yes, the legendary CPI(M) leader and ex-Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu had expired; but he was still in the hearts of the people (as claimed by the "shouting" posters all throughout the city). To my amazement, Bengali film industry fondly known as Tollywood had started incorporating Bangla Rock in its songs. Wow! Thats some advancement.
Now lets cut short to 4th of February. I was in Kolkata (somewhere near Dum Dum) attending my dear friend - Raja's wedding. In between I had made a 3 day trip to Jamshedpur, met up with our 12D's King KC - Joshi who is now enlightening XLRI with his amazing "skills", taken some friends out for dinner, bitterly broken up with a once-dear friend and yes, got some much-needed car driving practice. The wedding was a wonderful ceremony, the typical traditional Bengali wedding complete with the Subho-drishti, mala-bodol and basi biye; nothing different from the other ones that I had attended before. But somehow it got me thinking. Was it time for me to plan for my other life, the one apart from my career? Was it time to come out of that pub-hopping, weekend timepassing, HIMYM (for those who don't know what it is - its the acronym for 'How I Met Your Mother'; if you still don't know what that means, leave it.) watching life? Was it time to get serious about stuff other than my profession?
So there I was at the NSCBI airport in Kolkata, waiting for my flight back to Bangalore. Back to that hectic life. Back to that daily struggle albeit with some new energy. But what occupied my thoughts were those questions, those "changes". Kolkata, people there, my friends had "changed". So do I need to do the same? Do I need to "Change"? Or had I changed already?

तन्हाई

2009-11-17T18:02:00.004+05:30

दोसतों के बीच भी क्यूँ खोया खोया सा रहता हूँ,
अपनों के बीच भी क्यूँ तन्हाई महसूस करता हूँ,
यह कैसा असर है आपकी जुदाई का,
कि दुनिया जीतने पर भी हार महसूस करता हूँ |

इस शेर में हमारी मदद करने के लिए Shreenivasan, Nipanjana, Sutapa और Shailesh को हमारी तरफ़ से धन्यवाद |

Cross-posted on:

घायल

2009-11-09T23:59:00.005+05:30

यूँ तो हम निकल पड़े थे येह दुनिया जीतने,
पर आखरी पड़ाव पर हार गए |
ऐसा लगा आपका तीर निशाने पर,
चोट दिल पे लगी और हम घायल हो गए |

Cross-posted on:

मेरी ज़िन्दगी

2009-10-08T14:21:00.005+05:30

जो पाने निकला था वोह मिला नहीं,
जो मिला उसे रख सका नहीं,
यह कैसी अजीब कहानी है मेरी ज़िन्दगी की,
कि जिससे सब पाया उसे हासिल कर सका नहीं |

Cross-posted on:

Movie review : Kaminey

2009-08-28T18:00:00.001+05:30

Q: What goes through your mind when you go to the theatre to watch a highly anticipated movie like 'Kaminey'?
A: You want a crisp story, good direction, brilliant performances, nice songs... In other words you want a total paisa vasool show.
And Kaminey delivers just that. In these times of utter crappy movies (like Kambakht Ishq) or total bore ones (like New York) or somewhat ok ones (like Love Aaj Kal), this movie comes like a breath of fresh air. And a lot of the credit goes to the director - Vishal Bharadwaj.
So lets start with the story. This is probably Shahid's first movie where he has a double role. One as Charlie - a gangster who wants to be a bookie, lisps (pronounces S as F). The other brother, Guddu - an NGO worker who has big dreams, stammers and loves Sweety (played by the gorgeous Priyanka Chopra). Both got separated when their father committed suicide and went separate ways. Then during one of inter-gang-crossfires Charlie hits jackpot when he gets cocaine worth ten crores in the 'guitar' . Guddu gets Sweety pregnant and so has to marry her. But then he realizes that she is the sister of a top goon - Bhope bhau, who in turn wants to become a politician. What follows is a pacy story of how they get out of the mess and claim their lives. Not once will you yawn during the 2 hour show that the story is getting boring.
Next about the direction. Typical Vishal Bhardwaj stuff but then you want the same style. Anyone who has seen Omkara would agree that his dark handling does wonders to the movie and never does it get dragged into the typical Ram Gopal Verma style of gangster movies.
Now about the performances, Shahid does an commendable job. The biggest difficulty when playing double roles is to keep the two characters separate and Shahid does that part brilliantly. One person's stammering and the other's lisping are executed well. Priyanka does well in whatever small role she gets of Sweety. She has her typical bubbly and sometimes crying persona. Among the other actors, Amol Gupte as Bhope bhau was good too. But its mostly Shahid who dominates.
The songs all get overshadowed by one top notch number - Dhan Te Nan and its melody gets repeated throughout the movie. Among the others Pehli Baar Mohabbat is melodious. But rest all just merge well with the movie.
In all, a movie definitely worth watching once maybe twice (mostly twice). I bet you would feel satisfied and come out of the theatre feeling good that you had a paisa vasool time.

Photo: courtesy www.bollywoodhungama.com
Cross-posted on:

प्यार में दर्द

2009-08-04T12:19:00.009+05:30

प्यार खुशी देती है, दर्द भी, प्यार हँसी देती है, आंसू भी,
प्यार मिलने की उम्मीद देती है, बिछड़ने का गम भी
आप नसीबवाले होंगे जो आपको आपके प्यार ने खुशी दी,
पर हमें तो इस प्यार ने देवदास बना दिया और शायर भी |

Cross-posted on:

कभी

2009-08-04T10:21:00.004+05:30

कभी आना किसी बहाने से,
फ़िर ना जाना किसी बहाने से,
हम तो भुला ना सके कभी आपको,
पर आप कभी हमें ना भुलाना किसी बहाने से |

Cross-posted on:

क्यूँ

2009-07-29T13:46:00.002+05:30

क्यूँ तुम ख्वाबों ख्यालों में आती हो,
आकर चैन और नींदें उदा ले जाती हो,
हमने तो आपके बगैर जीने की कोशिश शुरू ही की थी,
क्यूँ हमें हराकर मौत की और खींच ले जाती हो |

आपकी खुशी

2009-07-28T14:27:00.001+05:30

एक और शायरी ख़ास आपके लिए ...

यह हवा आपकी हँसी की ख़बर देती है,
मेरे दिल को खुशी से भर देती है |
खुदा सलामत रखे आपकी हँसी को,
क्यूँकी आपकी खुशी हमें खुश कर देती है |

Cross-posted on:

याद

2009-06-23T13:45:00.006+05:30

आज मौसम बड़ा सुहाना है, और हमारा mood बड़ा शायराना है ! इसलिए अर्ज़ किया है....

हर वक्त मैं तुझे याद करता हूँ,
हर लम्हे में तुझे जिया करता हूँ,
अब तो यकीन कर लो मेरे वफाओं को,
नहीं तो मांग लो मेरे मौत की दुआओं को |

और इस शायरी के एक दीवाने, Shreenivasan, का सुहाना जवाब...

क्यूँ फालतू में मुझे याद करता है,
खामखा हिचकियाँ क्यूँ दिलाता है,
मरना है तो ऐसे ही मर जाओ,
दुआ मुझसे करवाके, मुझे पापी क्यूँ बनाता है |

A 'Ground-breaking' incident in my life

2009-06-15T17:00:00.008+05:30

A week ago on 5th June 2009, a certain incident took place. An incident which was to have serious consequences on my future. An incident which shook the very foundations of my over-the-top-spending, too-much-How-I-Met-Your-Mother-watching, playing-Mafia-Wars-on-Facebook ... life.
Well, I exaggerated in the last part. But it surely was a significant incident. This took place on the beautiful morning of 5th June, 2009. As usual, I woke up at 6 am, a good one hour before my usual (by usual I mean what I used to do one month before) time. And this was so that I could go for some jogging in the morning. Why jogging? Now that is a question that you would not have asked if you had seen me. The 9-6:30 job in front of a computer all the time had started to take toll on my health and quite naturally (and very usual for a Software Professional) I had started to develop a bulge. It didn't bother me that much 'cos I was never really the athletic kind and also not the I-date-girls type. But this one fateful weekend in April I went to Kemmanagundi (where I had taken this beautiful picture of my feet on the left) and had to trek quite a bit down to Hebbe falls and then climb back up. The trek wasn't too difficult but I was panting after some climb itself. Its then that I realized I had to work up and do something. And the most logical choice was to start running. So back to Bangalore, I went straight to an Adidas showroom, bought a brand new pair of running shoes and there I was ready to start the eternal struggle against the burgeoning bulge.
Hey, we are deviating from the main subject. Lets get back. So where was I? Yes. That morning. So after a round of nature's small and bigger calls (and having felt relieved after that, don't we all?) I put on my running gear which comprises of a pair of track pants and t-shirt and my Adidas shoes and headed out. I took up my usual route which was first a down-lane (I mean it was downhill but there was no hill, just a lane, so down-lane). All was fine. Since it had rained the night before, the route was a teeny bit damp and the air was chilly. I was enjoying the cool Bangalore morning breeze, looking up to the beautiful flowers springing on the trees which formed a part of my route and also keeping a lookout for the other flowers who took the pain to come out in the morning (they came out for their jogs/workouts/walks whatever but in the process they do shower a lot of happiness to the surroundings and people they interact with). So now there is this turn where I reach the farthest point in my jogging route and I have to take the parallel road back to my place. Its a kind of pothole-infested point and especially that morning due to the heavy showers and wind, a lot of stuff was lying around that area along with water which had filled up the potholes. And then it happened. My right foot landed on one such spot and as I transferred my balance onto that foot, I suddenly felt the ground give way (like what they say in Hindi - mere paon tale zameen khisak gayi). OMG! For a split second, I was under shock. Dhud! I fell down twisting my ankle in the process. My track pants greased the road and attained a whole lot of dirt in the process and for five minutes I was in immense amount of pain. It was through a lot of mental strength that I managed to not cry.
But what mattered at that moment was not the mental but the physical strength. So I garnered whatever ounce of strength I had in me and got up, dusted myself and tried to walk. Putting any amount of weight on the right leg was like asking a 5th grader to solve a Calculus Problem. Too difficult but not impossible! Somehow, I managed to limp my way home. My roommate, who had just got up from sleep and successfully managed to evade the need to go for jogging was stunned. Ki holo tor paye? (translated from Bengali to English it meant - What happened to your leg?) The pain in my leg managed to cut the story short to just 5 words - Ami dourate giye pore gechilam! (again translated from Bengali to English it meant - I fell down while running!) That spurned a sudden spike of activity wherein he helped me get to the chair and sit down. Next he put on the geyser and filled a bucket half full with hot water and another half full with cold water. I was to alternately dip my leg into the two buckets in what was the hot-and-cold-water-therapy/massage, something suggested by my dad whom I managed to call while on the way back home.
Ten minutes of therapy and I suddenly felt a lot better. But I was late for office. So I rushed (where rushed means quickly limping) to my room to get ready. Somehow I managed to do that and come to office. I had brought crepe bandage with which I duly bandaged my ankle and simply sat down on my seat. Since Fridays are typically lazy days in office with not much work, I was happy. But then nature's calls are something you can't avoid and a visit to the loo became the most difficult task for me for the day. Still I managed it along with a visit to the cafeteria for my lunch.
What was interesting was the number of 'get well soon' messages that I got. I had updated my status message on all my social network profiles viz. Orkut, Facebook, Gtalk, Twitter. People who had never scrapped me started sending scraps asking about the health of my leg. So many people pinged me on Gtalk. The comments I got on my Facebook status turned out to be a discussion in itself ranging from the status of my leg and the status of the ground where I fell upon. And that's when an idea struck me. Why not keep updating the status of my foot right through the week! So any improvement was duly reported as status messages on the respective social networks. And as I had thought it produced the desired results.
When I reported that I could barely walk, people asked me how bad was it.
When I reported that I could now walk but not climb stairs and all, people asked me if I had consulted a doctor.
When I reported that I could walk well but not run, people asked me the need to run and where the urge came from.
Well, I made the last one up. But it does prove that the little experiment that I did with my social networks did prove successful. So now I am finally reporting the status of my injured ankle.
The ankle is a lot better and I have successfully managed to give it the much needed rest over the last two weekends. Walking is not so much an issue but still running is. I tried to have a practice run last weekend but my first jump desperately told me to stop and forget about the idea for the moment.
Those of you who may be wondering what happened to that ground where I fell upon; well when I last saw it it was fine although I must admit I wasn't in the state for a more precise inspection of that piece of land. So this topic is still open for speculation and debate.

Talking about bulges or rather paunches, here's an Ode To A Bengali Paunch by Amit Varma.

Cross-posted on:

दिल का दर्द

2009-06-02T14:40:00.004+05:30

Found this randomly somewhere:

दिल के दर्द को जुबाँ पर लाते नहीं,
हम अपनी आंखों से आंसू बहाते नहीं,
ज़ख्म चाहे कितने ही गहरे क्यूँ ना हो,
हम DETTOL के सिवा कुछ लगाते नहीं.

तुम्हारे जनाज़े पर रोये

2009-05-27T12:08:00.001+05:30

कोई दिखा के रोये,
कोई छुपाके रोये,
पर मौत का असली मज़ा तो तब आये
जब कातिल खुद तुम्हारे जनाज़े पर रोये |

The Knight I Danced

2009-05-22T14:46:00.022+05:30

And its not to the tune of music. I mean I do dance to music. Whenever I have been to discos, I have not been on the sidelines watching the pretty babes dancing but actually been shaking a leg or two with them (although I must say I am a pretty bad dancer, though better than Sreesanth). But I just couldn't fathom a better, more fitting name than this. The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had won their second consecutive match in the Indian Premier League Season 2. They had defeated the Rajasthan Royals (which the Fake IPL Player calls Big Sister's team) ensuring that the defending champions bow out of the competition before the semi-finals. And this time too, the match went down to the wire.
And this time around the unlikely hero was Laxmi Ratan Shukla. And guess who was at the other end to provide support? Ajit Agarkar. Who would have imagined that? Especially after the departure of Hussey. It was a complete transformation. KKR had won this match without the batting prowess of McCullum, Hodge and Hussey. Wow! In one innings of 48 not out from 46 balls made under a pressure situation when KKR were down 5 wickets for just 37 runs, Shukla had shown what he was capable of.
But the victory also belonged to two other knights - Ajit Agarkar and Charl Langeveldt. Agarkar had scored an unbeaten 13 off 17 balls establishing a partnership with Shukla to see KKR through. He also clocked a bowling figures of 4-0-15-2 which means he bowled 4 overs taking 2 wickets for 15 runs giving 3.75 runs per over. Did he actually do that? I mean I will have to think hard to remember the last T20 match when Agarkar had conceded less than 6 runs per over and also taken wickets. And the other star was Langeveldt. Where had you hidden him Buchanan? He was outstanding in the match taking 3 wickets for 15 runs in his 4 overs. If only KKR had played him before!
But if you had to single out a comeback match, it had to be the previous one against Chennai Super Kings. CSK batsmen had again put up a fine performance piling up 188 runs off their 20 overs on the back of a superb knock by Suresh Raina and a cameo by Captain MS Dhoni and Morkel. Raina was particularly good smashing 3 sixes. And all that was done without Hayden (the orange cap owner) playing. KKR had started off poorly. Dada again departed early having been bowled by Murali for a mere 4 runs off 14 balls. From there McCullum took over. He smashed 81 off 24 balls studded with 11 fours and 3 sixes. He spared no bowler in his pursuit of showing everyone exactly what he and KKR batsmen were capable of. On the other side was Brad Hodge giving able company to his captain. When McCullum fell in the 13th over with the score at 124 having been bowled by Jakati, it looked like match over again for KKR. But Hodge had other ideas. He lost Hussey to a totally foolish run out but found a partner in Saha. Together they went on to put up a match winning partnership of 56 runs of 28 balls.
What struck me in both the victories was the never-say-die attitude of the KKR team. An attitude which I and all other KKR fans had been looking for from the very start of the tournament. An attitude which we thought they had forgotten having lost so many close and not so close matches. Both the above matches were chases. The first one was a big one and the second a small one. In both the cases, while chasing they were in dire straits at a point. A point where it looked as if we were going to see the now-very-familiar KKR debacle. But they had come out of the predicament. First match via Hodge and Saha and the second one via Shukla and Agarkar. Too good! This is what I had been dying to see. When KKR won the match against CSK, I was in my hotel room in Ooty with my brother. We both danced and shouted at the top of our voices. So much so that all the other boarders understood that there were KKR fans in room 101. But when they won against Rajasthan Royals, I was at home dancing alone. I had said that if Kolkata Knight Riders would go on to win the tournament, I would dance on the streets of Chowringhee with Shah Rukh Khan and the other fans to the tune of করব লরব জীতব ের (Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re - the theme song of Kolkata Knight Riders). Well, that didn't happen. But after both the victories, somehow I could hear করব লরব জীতব ের playing in the background and I did dance to it.

Cross posted on : ,

আমার বাংলা, আমার ভাষা

2009-05-11T15:29:00.001+05:30

আজ google এর transliteration labs এ এসে যখন দেখলাম যে বাংলা তেও এখন লেখা যাবে তখন আমি আর থাকেত পারলামনা. আমাকে এই post তা লিখতেই হত. আসা করছি এর পর থেকে আরো বাংলায় লিখবো.

Social network status messages: An insight to the individual

2009-04-24T10:42:00.009+05:30

Last night while going through the friend's list on my gtalk desktop client, I couldn't help but notice an 'interesting' phenomenon. Amongst those who were online (active or idle), about 90% of them had something or the other in their status messages. The last 10% had either 'Available' or 'Busy' on their status messages which are the default ones provided by Gtalk to denote the respective states. Now amongst those 90%, the status messages could be divided into various categories:
1) Status messages which wanted to convey some event. These status messages were in general like 'Been promoted', 'Got through to XYZ', 'Back from ABC trip' etc. Many a times they were accompanied by links which could be photo albums or blogs on that event or links that described that event.
2) Status messages which tended to be philosophical in nature. These contain quotations or mere one-liners or some poetry.

The 1st category falls into the group of people who are well off or happy. That is because people don't publicize negative or sad events on gtalk. Its the classic example of sharing happiness with all but sadness with select people.

What I am interested in is the 2nd category. If you ever delve into this category, you will find a lot of emotions plugged in. And they are heavily linked to what that particular person is going through or feeling at that particular moment. Like one message which says 'The greatest pleasure in life is in doing what people say you cannot do'. Guess what happened to this guy? He had been in love with a girl whose parents had been against their marriage. And most people who knew him thought he didn't have the guts to stand up for her. He not only managed to do so, but also married the gal. He proved everyone wrong.

Another one was from a lady who got through to IIM-A and proved herself to her boyfriend and current IIM-C student - 'Men are like bank accounts. Without a lot of money they don't generate a lot of interest'. Attitude! You can forgive her for doing that now.

People who are yearning for success wrote stuff like 'The road to success is always under construction', 'Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things', 'The desire to succeed means nothing without the will to prepare', 'Tough times don't last, tough people do', 'Some people believe in destiny and some people make their own. Which category are you?' and 'There are no Failures. Just experiences and your reactions to them'. Marvellous. I fell in love with them. How true and how self-reflecting each of them were!

Some guys who just fell in love wrote stuff like 'Sometimes love is for a moment, sometimes love is for the lifetime'. And at times some more philosophical ones like 'Freedom is not worth if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes', 'Happiness is not a station you arrive at but a manner of travelling', 'You see things and you say - Why? I dream things and I say - Why not?'. Amazing. What is fascinating is that these messages are not necessarily their own creations but more or less show what those people are thinking at that point.
I came up with one myself - 'Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.' Guess what it tells about me?

Cross Posted on :

Can the Knights Ride home to the ultimate victory?

2009-04-22T09:53:00.017+05:30

Yesterday, while watching the Indian Premier League (IPL) coverage on television, I couldn't help but ponder on the fact that how brittle the Kolkata Knight Riders' team looked in totality. Kolkata Knight Riders had just won their match against the 'injured' King's XI Punjab via the Duckworth-Lewis method and they were showing Mandira bedi's interview of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), the owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders team. One loss and one win from two matches. According to SRK, it wasn't bad. The team started slow on the first day against Deccan Chargers. Deccan Chargers looked the hungrier side. He defended his team beautifully setting the multiple captaincy saga, Gavaskar lash behind. He can be excused for that. After all, I can imagine what amount of hate mail he must have got when Sourav Ganguly a.k.a. Dada was removed from captaincy. But when he said that his dream was to bring the IPL trophy home to Kolkata, was he really serious?
Don't get me wrong! I have my loyalties set correctly. My heart is for the KKR team. I have the KKR wallpaper on my laptop wallpaper. I have the KKR theme on my orkut profile. I listen to the 'Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo' song on television atleast once a day with much pride. I follow KKR on twitter. I plan to buy the official t-shirt too. When any discussion comes up over the team, I defend it religiously. But then the mind does not believe in the team. It would definitely bet upon Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai for that matter for the IPL '09 trophy.
And why wouldn't it do so? Okay they won their match against the Punjab team. Veer's team had defeated Zaara's team. And Zaara would surely not be kissing or hugging Yuvi last night. But was the manner convincing? I mean just look at the stats. It was a 2-man show for Kolkata. While bowling, it was a beauty of an over from Dada that got us 2 wickets in quick succession and stemmed the start. If he had not done that, then Punjab would have scored above 180 and the match would have slipped. And while batting, it was Gayle. His whirlwhind 44 which included 4 sixes and the rate at which he hit made sure we were ahead on RR and thus put us through when the D/L method came into effect. Now look closely into the bowling statistics and you would find a lot of mistakes. When you have a specialist spinner in Murali Karthik why bowl him for only one over and Shukla for 2 overs? Was Karthik picked up as a bowler or an all-rounder? I don't have much knowledge about the stats but I certainly can say that Karthik's batting is not something you would bet upon to win you matches.
Now lets come to the batting. It has always been said that to succeed in IPL, you need the local lads to fire. Depending totally on foreign imports is like playing with fire. Most of them don't stay up for the entire tournament and then you have the cap of playing only 4 per match. KKR's batting totally depends on the foreigners. If Gayle and McCullum both don't fire on the night, the brittle middle order gets exposed badly. And we don't have any tried-and-tested consistent performer in there. Sure we have Dada. But let's be realistic. Can you really depend that much on him now that he does not play for Team India anymore? And this fact was heavily exposed in the match against Deccan Chargers. You have a Brad Hodge there to bail you out at times but then again he is a foreign import and you have the max 4 foreigners playing criteria. So can you be totally confident with this team?
Having said all this, last night's victory also told us a few things. Firstly, you don't need to have a team effort to win matches. How many of the T20 matches have actually been team effort victories? Secondly, you need just one or two members in the team to fire and that's it. You are done. Unfortunately, the Kolkata Knight Riders seem to be heavily banking on this. I too share the dream with SRK to see the IPL trophy come to Kolkata. I too would like to dance 'Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo' on the streets of Chowringhee when we have the victory lap. But its a dream which needs to be heavily worked upon and a dream which does not look to be fulfilled in this edition of the Indian Premier League.

Cross-posted on ,

Has it been the Hell that was promised?

2009-04-17T16:21:00.013+05:30

Well the 6th instalment of MTV Roadies is coming to an end with the grand finale. Needless to say, this season has been "entertaining", to say the least. But the fireworks have not come from the pitch but from the tents. This season has been dominated by fights, abuses, foul mouthing more than actual tasks. It was supposed to be Hell for the contestants but more than that some of the days it had become Hell for the crew of Roadies.
Now first lets analyze the situation. The finalists are Nauman and Palak. The former being the christened lover boy coming back to play politics to survive. And the latter the total abuse queen. I still remember the vote out when she abused Sufi. It must have taken Sufi a lot of patience not to react to her foul mouthing with a tight slap. But seriously, ever since Sufi has left I have lost my interest in the show. If you would ask me, Samrat or Sufi deserved to be winners. None of the others had that vigour, courage, strength to go on to win. And the irony is, the reason for exit of both of them is now getting a shot at the prize - Palak.
If you go back to the day the group came to Australia and after the vote out where Sandeep went out, the group dynamics had changed. The GROUP (Sandeep, Pradeep, Roop and Bobby) had left. The ones there had to make new FRIENDS. There we saw Natasha going out due to a plan by Samrat and Palak. Thereafter Sufi took centerstage as the planner and Nauman his accomplice. A great show in the crocodile task gave Sufi the platform to vote Samrat out. But that left a bad taste with Palak and she took it out in the next vote out when a twist in tale gave her full power instead of setting her home-bound.
Since that vote out, Nauman has been winning all the tasks and the immunities. Why won't he! He was the only guy amongst the team and the ladies weren't really the tough ones. So first Natasha went out due to her own stupidity and then the inevitable exit of Poulomi, a girl who should have been voted out in the second episode when actually Varisha went out.
Coming back to the Hellish part of it, I am not too sure whether the contestants have been through the Hell which was promised. More than the tasks, the bickering and bitching and fighting and shouting of contestants has been Hell to the crew. From Palak's fights with Tamanna to Poulomi's outburst with Palak at the camping site the Roadies crew have had to endure a lot. To some extent some of the tasks were surely difficult. Like the one where Sufi had to fight two wrestlers alone, or the one which had crocodiles. Those were good ones and were well performed too. To my knowledge this year's group have performed better than the one last year. Last year's one had losers. Nauman and Palak may not be the best of the lot but they have done stuff. Not like Ashutosh of last time who had done absolutely nothing but still won it. I bet if Devarshi would have survived some more time and come to Australia, that sure would have had been hell for most contestants.
But as far as the twists in the show are concerned, they have worked marvellously. From Roop's vote out to Sufi getting advantage and blocking Palak's vote to get Samrat out to Palak getting that power when they opened that envelope to Natasha's vote out. Those twists have been great and changed a lot of the dynamics which is great for the show. Anything that doesn't go according to script works wonders for reality shows and they just bask in that glory.
Anyways, this edition is going to come to and end this weekend. And the end is in India. I sure look forward to a grand finale this time.

Cross posted on:

BarCamp Bangalore 8

2009-02-26T17:39:00.004+05:30

BarCamp Bangalore is back with its 8^th edition. And this time it’s at Yahoo campus (which incidentally was the venue for the 1^st edition).

For those new to the concept of BarCamp, a BarCamp is basically a network of user generated conferences which transformed into the term unconferences (which we use for the sessions in Osmosis). Its open participation which means you are free to join any ‘unconference’ at any given time. BarCamps have been taking place all over the world and in India they have been active in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad etc. Bangalore obviously is the leader in India having organized 7 editions successfully already. For more details about BarCamps visit the wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp or its website www.barcamp.org .

BarCamp Bangalore 8 (BCB8) will be at the Yahoo campus on 7^th and 8^th March, 2009. The sessions will be on various topics but having attended 2 already, I can tell you they will have a beautiful mixture of technical and non-technical topics. It’s a chance to meet a lot of people from across the community, share knowledge, gain knowledge, and also have fun in the process. Participation is free and everything is sponsored (including the food). Be there! Feel it! I can assure you won’t feel dejected.

For more info visit: http://barcampbangalore.org/

For registration visit: http://barcampbangalore.org/bcb/wp-register.php

For venue visit: http://barcampbangalore.org/venue

How hellish is this hell?

2009-01-15T12:43:00.012+05:30

The most loved, most hated, most admired, most controversial, most bitchy... (the list goes on... ) reality show is back with a whole new season. And this time, it promises to be a "Hell Down Under". Yes! I am talking about Roadies which enters into its Season 6. Like each time, it has a bunch of wannabes from various parts of the country vying to become the last surviving Roadie and win the final grand prize. Like each time, they have Karizma bikes to ride through their journey. Like each time, they have Rannvijay as their host. But hey, there sure seems to be something different this time.
For starters, this season all the auditions were taken up by the bald twins. So unlike earlier times, you don't have Nikhil/Rannvijay or other MTV VJs taking up any of the auditions. Some real weird characters emerged from these auditions. I remember this girl from Kolkata auditions - Paulomi. Apparently, the craziest thing she had done was try to suicide. She was branded as a Psycho by the judges. But surprisingly, she was chosen. I guess anything that is not typical is news, and news sells. And since its the contestants who are the biggest selling factor of the show, non-typical contestants are the selling factors of Roadies. Another interesting character during the auditions was Ashish from the Mumbai auditions. That guy had apparently prepared for 2 years for the audition. He had studied the earlier auditions and planned how to answer to what all questions. The guy got such a solid bamboo from the judges that he would never even dream about the auditions ever in his life.

So finally after all that, 20 Roadies were chosen by the panel of judges to take part in this season's show. Now on their first day, after meeting each other and partying around at their first location in Manesar, the first shock was revealed. Some 10 Roadies were chosen as safe by Raghu and his team and 10 others had to "Prove themselves". Their task was some series of military type drills. The team members were tied to one another by legs and arms. Before the task started, Akshay Kumar (who seems to be at every place where there is action related stuff going on) wished them luck over a video shot earlier and also informed that the team losing will be immediately eliminated.The task was tough as it involved a lot of coordination and correct decisions in terms of jumps etc. The part of climbing the rope structure and lying on the ground and cutting your way below a wire structure was dirty and difficult as they were all tied to one another. Finally eating parathas laced with mud without using hands is obviously not easy. Finally the yellow team of 5 completed it faster than the green teamand so the latter were immediately eliminated.
But it was not over for the episode. The vote out, one of the core elements of Roadies, had to be undergone. The yellow team went through the vote out in which Sufi, one of the strongest contestants in this edition, got eliminated. The politics had started and we had not even completed Episode 1. Sure, politics seems to be integral to every edition of Roadies.
Next episode, the Roadies literally start their journey on their bikes. Let's see how hellish is this Hell that Roadies 6 is billed as! But for the show's and Roadies' sake whatever happens, I sure hope the spirit and passion that is synonymous with Roadies is surely on display this time.

Not again!!!

2008-12-16T12:35:00.015+05:30

Crossing the Bangalore City Railway Station in the morning of 6th Dec 2008 at about 7 am sitting in the plush Tata Indigo; seeing the rush and the pushing of people trying to get into the station, I somehow felt nostalgic. Eighteen months ago, I was one of them when I was studying at my University. I too had to push and shove in the lines in order to get ahead and catch the train at the earliest. But now! Now the situation was different. I was being chauffeur-driven to the Bengaluru International Airport to catch the Jet Airways flight to Kolkata as a guest of Jet Airways itself. Wondering why? Lets go back one day.

It was 5th of December 2008. I was supposed to catch the JetLite evening flight to Kolkata. The flight was to depart at 8:10 pm. As the new airport is very far away from the city, taking about 2 hrs to reach, I planned to take the BMTC BIAL shuttle BIAS11. I reached the airport shuttle bus stop at about 4:45 pm. The bus came at 5:15. No issues. I was on my way home. But fate had some other plans. The bus had some suspension problems because of which it stopped at Mekhri Circle. The time was 6:50 pm and I still had more than 20 kms to cover to reach the airport. The conductor put us up into some other BIAL bound bus BIAS3. But I had lost some vital time. It was this loss of time which proved costly to me.

When I finally reached the airport, it was already 7:40 pm. I was wondering whether my flight was on time or not. But before that, I had to put up with the extra level of security checking at the airport. This time, at the entry point itself, the security guards were checking the tickets along with a valid identity proof. A huge line to get in. But since it was being serviced by 4 entry points, it didn't take time. Alas! It was of no use. When I finally entered the airport, I looked up at the digital display board showing up the schedules of the departing flights. Jetlite flight to Kolkata was on time and that made me happy that I would reach home in time for dinner. But the Jetlite personnel at the check-in counter had other news. According to them, the flight was overbooked by 2 persons. This meant that there were no seats left in the flight. All the passengers had checked-in. I was shocked! Overbooking in flights was not new information to me, but now I was actually a victim of it. I had no idea what to do. According to the officials, all flights departing from Bangalore were already overbooked. This meant they couldn't put me up into any connecting flight via Mumbai, Chennai or Hyderabad. I called up mom who was furious. According to her, flight officials couldn't allocate tickets more than the seats. I made her understand that they don't provide us final seats at the time of booking. So this kind of situation could arise. The only way to avoid this was to arrive early which unfortunately, I could not that day.

Coming back to my situation, the officials offered me a compensation. They said they will put me up onto the next morning's Jet Airways flight to Kolkata at 9:20 am. They would check-in me and provide a boarding pass so that I would surely board the flight the next day. What more, they would provide me a pick up from home in the morning. I was kind of smiling at the thought of it and decided to take it ( I had no other option anyways ). So I picked up my bags and again caught the BIAS11, taking the tedious trip back to my flat in Bangalore. It was already 11 pm. I was hungry, disgusted and sad. Somehow, I got back home; ate something ( I was weak because of fever anyways so couldn't eat too much ) and slept.

Next morning getting up at 6 am, the first thought that crossed my mind was whether I would need to buy breakfast for the trip. I couldn't stay hungry for too long and eatables at the airport were simply priced over the roof. It was then that I realized my boarding pass was for the Jet Airways flight ( The kinda ones my dad used to go when travelling on official visits ), not for Jetlite. So I was getting to go in a full service aircraft at the price of a low cost ticket. Awesome! The cab driver called me up at 6:20 and I was off to the airport by 6:45 am. I could not help but laugh on my fate that I was taking the same route of journey to the airport thrice in the span of 14 hours. But somehow, the trip was different. Apart from the fact that I was going in a car and not in a bus, it was also daytime while I was travelling. This meant I was actually able to see the 'Route' to the airport. This time the journey took just 45 mins and I was at my destination by 7:30 am. Excited, I checked-in my luggage at the counter but then lazily went up to the cabin luggage check. There was too much time to kill. This time though, I was in for more. The scan of my cabin luggage showed some suspicious item on the screen of the personnel manning the x-ray scanner. So the security guy asked me to open the bag. Alas, it was my deoderant. Apparently, due to some idiocracy by some British Airways customer, they were not allowing deoderants to the cabin; they had to be in the check-in luggage. Obviously, I couldn't go to the check-in counter at that time. So I simply submitted it to them. The guy took it, brought out a tray and kept my Axe deoderant in it. And the entire process left just enough time to reveal that there were atleast 20 more deoderants in the tray. What an idea, sirjee! They would not register these; so could simply take them home. Awesome!

Hanging around the lounge of the departure area, I just could help admire the beauty of it. Some place! Beautiful shops and restaurants. Most of them were of international brands and befitted the culture of the new airport. I spent my rest of the waiting time for the flight in there and finally boarded the flight at 9. And from then, the khatirdari started. First, the towels to clean off your faces. Then the juice. And finally, the breakfast which was not too much in quantity, but marvellous in quality and taste. Satisfied, I took a small nap and thus spent my rest of the journey to Kolkata.

Now, you may have heard of lightning striking twice। But have you ever experienced it? I am not talking of that happennig to you literally ( You would not be in here to narrate that experience anyways) but figuratively, has it? Well, this time it did for me. My return flight was on Sunday 14th Dec 2008, again in JetLite. This time, the flight being from Kolkata (which I was very familiar of), I decided to reach the airport an hour before the scheduled departure time of 5:20 pm. I had been doing that most of the times I had been flying out of Kolkata ( which is just 4 times apart from this, but who cares! Its more than one na! ); so was pretty confident I would not face any issues. But alas, that was not to be! Whoever had advised me to read the paper and see the news everyday had did it for a good purpose, but this time I had not followed him. I had forgotten about the new security cover at the airports. So when I reached at about 4:20 pm, there was a huge line to enter the airport. Also, since it was the Kolkata Airport, where passenger concern is given least priority, they had just one entry gate. So by the time I entered the airport, it was already 4:50 pm. Add to that the baggage check, and I was at the JetLite counter only at 5 pm. At that moment, the lady in front of me was being given the boarding pass for the flight. So I was relieved that I would also get mine. But not to be! When my turn came, the guy at the counter coolly told me that the flight was full. No seats. I was like - not again! I was stranded again. And this time, they didn't offer me any flight straight away. Instead, the Jetlite personnel was scolding me for being late. I told him that I was well ahead of time and early too. But he was in not buying my explanation.

For the next 30 mins, I was simply standing there, knowing nothing as to what would happen next. Whether I would be able to go to Bangalore that day or not? Whether I would have to wait for another day? No idea. It was only at 5:30 that he informed me that there was a Kingfisher Class flight to Bangalore at 5:55 pm and he would try to put me up in it. But it was via Hyderabad. I was overwhelmed! No issues about the extended journey. For the first time, I was actually thanking Mr. Mallaya and Mr. Goyal for the tie-up of their respective airlines. I got my boarding pass at the Kingfisher counter after being informed that I was a guest of Jet Airways ( What a feeling! ) and off I was to board my Kingfisher flight. Security checks done. Nothing taken this time from my cabin luggage ( I had been careful this time ), and I was at my seat. TV in the front and KF airhostesses passing by my side. Amazing! The Air Premiere of Singh is Kinng was playing and I decided to watch that during my flight. An airhostess came by and provided me with a pair of earphones and the menu card. The menu card informed me that apart from the dessert, we had chicken tikka, veg kati roll and a corn and spinach dish for evening snacks to Hyderabad. Amazing! Too good! I enjoyed the movie and the food and for the first time did not sleep during my flight. Hats off to Mr. Mallaya! No wonder Kingfisher has been voted the Most Admired Airlines in India. So when I finally reached Bangalore Airport at 10 pm, a full 2 hours 20 mins behind schedule, I was actually thoroughly satisfied with my experience and ready to take that same monotonous trip back to my flat from the Bengaluru International Airport.

My first year in Bangalore

2008-07-07T13:26:00.011+05:30

So, we have finally completed a year in our job and also in Bangalore. From young graduates right out of college to software professionals, its been an amazing transformation. A transformation which includes an experience like never before.
I still remember the day I was coming to Bangalore. Right after my final semester exams and after just a week's break, I had set out on the flight from Kolkata to Bangalore. It was my first experience of a flight and was full of emotions. My mom had tears in her eyes as she bade me goodbye at the airport and my grandmom could hardly speak. I was about to set foot out of my safe zone and face the world to make my mark, to become a man.
So when the flight touched down at Bangalore's HAL Airport, the first thing that caught my notice was the weather. It was cold; really cold. From the hot and humid high 30 degrees in Kolkata to a low cold 20 degrees in Bangalore on June 30th, the weather change was dramatic. This actually lasted the entire time from July - September and we got used to wearing jackets which we could never imagine in Jamshedpur or Kolkata during this time.
Apart from the weather, what also I noticed was the language and the culture change. But Bangalore is a very open-minded city and you can easily manage here without knowing the local language, a very unlike Chennai. But yes, the culture change was evident everywhere. From a very laid-back approach in Kolkata, you are into a highly professional culture of Bangalore. Every morning when you board the bus to office, you can see a huge crowd of people wearing tags and waiting for their buses to take them to their workplace.

Now talking about workplace, the experience at MindTree has been phenomenal. First 3 months of C2 training - the Orchard experience, House activities, PALs, inter-house competitions, Ethnic Day to sessions, lectures, assessments and finally allotment into projects; it ensured our transformation from college to corporate was smooth and actually enjoyable.

It was also during the C2 training that we had our OBL trip to Savandurga. 120 Campus Minds on a one-day trip. Savandurga is famous as the largest single rock structure in Asia. From garbage collection drive to walking on ropes, from getting thrown off a rock in Trust the team to playing dodge ball in the mud; it was amazing fun. But the enjoyment in Bangalore didn't remain confined to team outings only.
In August, Payal Di had come down to Bangalore from Cambridge for Rakhi. And the 3 days she was here, we had awesome fun. I had my first experience of late night movies at a multiplex when we watched 'Heyy Babyy' 10:30 pm show on the day of Rakhi.

Now it took me 2 months since coming to Bangalore to make my first trip out of Bangalore. On 15th Sep morning, I boarded the Volvo bus to Mysore for which was to become the weekend trip I would never forget. From visiting the Infy campus (which was simply breath-taking) to Brindavan Gardens, I had an awesome time with my friends. We managed to offer puja at Chamundeshwari Temple, lunch at Rice Bowl and even make a trip to City Palace in the rain. A whirlwind weekend and a truly cherishable experience; an experience which I was to revisit two weekends later with my MindTree mates.

Then came the Pujas and my first trip back home. It was so uncertain that we had to go by train from Chennai. The trip by bus to Chennai was pathetic and the weather was worse. But our eagerness to reach home made me forget all those hardships faced. Pujas were great and I had a beautiful time home. It also made me realize how important it was to spend time with your family and relatives.

We came back refreshed after the trip and ready to face the next months which went off in a fly. The Avis Redesign project, the host of sessions & lectures we attended as part of the ramp up sessions and whole new team feeling. It was amazing. What really went in my favour was that I had about 15 Campus Minds from my batch joining along with me. I had a group at the very start.
The project time has been a total learning experience. Apart from learning a whole set of new technologies, I also learnt how to actually work in a team. How to coordinate, cooperate and share knowledge so as to benefit everyone. And being part of a huge group had other benefits too. Frequent outings, team outings and even over-night trip to Value Lanes in January. It has been a rocking time being part of ABG and Avis Redesign.
Bangalore also got me in touch with another thing I truly liked - Blogging. And it was being part of Blogger's Community that took me to these camps being held in Bangalore - DevCamp and BarCamp. A truly enriching experience, I got to know a whole new side of the city. I met up with a lot of people who shared similar interests and really enjoyed the concept of knowledge sharing and open-source community.

In between all this I managed my second trip back home. This time, it was for my convocation. On 16th february, when I received my Bachelor of Engineering degree, I finally graduated from college. I was an Engineer. That day was truly enjoyable. Lunch at Rich (I realized how much I missed it; especially Chamki's food) and then party in the evening at Park Street with friends. Then I went for a trip to North Bengal with my parents. A week at home and I was back to Bangalore.

It was only in March that we managed to form our Loyola group in Bangalore. It took some special effort from some of us but we were back together. Then a host of parties at various hangouts in Bangalore. Suddenly, life was no more only work. It was enjoyable. From watching IPL matches at Mojos to listening live music at Java City, from bearing Sayantan's jokes to celebrating birthday at Barbeque Nation; its been masti all the time.
Now a year has passed and I have supposedly grown one year wiser. Can't confirm that but have certainly confirm is that I have definitely become a lot more independent and a lot more informed. Hopefully it will stand me in good stead for a lot more years in the future.

ABG's IPL Match Outing

2008-05-20T19:32:00.024+05:30

It all started when Sajan, ABG's Delivery Manager, told us that Avis Budget Group, on the occasion of completing of 8 years of the account, had asked us to have a celebration. There were many suggestions pouring in on how to spend the funds allocated. They ranged from social service initiative to trekking in Kerela etc. But finally, the one which was chosen was the entire team going to watch an IPL match. The match chosen was Bangalore Royal Challengers vs. Delhi Daredevils on 19th May.
There were a lot of preparations done before the day ranging from getting the exact number of people visiting to the transportation. Routes were earmarked. Vehicles were assigned and route coordinators chosen who would take care of the team members going from their route.
Finally the day came. We got our tickets in the morning. We learnt that we had got corporate passes. So we would be sitting in the corporate stand. Finally we left our office at about 5:45 pm. Heavy traffic in Bangalore (as usual) meant we reached at about 7:10 pm. In the meantime, it had began to rain and drench our expectations. Weather in Bangalore is unpredictable and so we all started praying that by the time the match started, the skies would clear up. I think the weather gods heard our prayers because the rain stopped just when we reached the stadium.
As we took our seats in the stands, one couldn't help but praise the ground. Amazing! The ground was right in front of us as we were in the lower row. And the entire view was simply breathtaking. Shaan had just finished his performance (which meant we had missed a great show) and got the crowd buzzing. As the captains of the 2 teams (Dravid of RCB and Sehwag of DD) came out into the ground along with the cheerleaders, the crowd started shouting. We were divided over where to keep our focus on. Sehwag then won the toss and chose to field first.

So RCB were to bat first. We got our drinks (which were complimentary) and waited in anticipation. Unlike the earlier tournaments, when one had to wait for the teams to come out for the entertainment to start, the IPL didn't keep anyone waiting. The cheerleaders had started their job. One song after the other, and one move after the other, they managed to make the crowd dance very well to their tunes. The ground had 3 symmetrically placed stands for the cheerleaders and fortunately, one of them was just on front of us.

Now having a group of about 100 members, with minimum 20 of your peer age has its benefits. You can have amazing fun without worrying if anyone would feel bad about it. We had lots of placards put up. From 'Mallaya Adopt Us!' to 'Cheer gals V Luv U!', we had various kinds of placards. People put up their cell numbers asking the cheerleaders to call them. I have no idea how much of their effort suceeded. But one thing was sure, the amount of shouting we did managed to attract the attention of the dancers and they actually waved back. Awesome fun!
Meanwhile, the match was in progress. Bangalore were struggling (as usual) but their debut batsman - Srivatsa Goswami wasn't. He was hitting fours and sixes all over and managed to take the game to the Delhi bowlers who were on fire. McGrath was bowling with an impeccable line and Maharoof was chipping in with some good bowling. On the other hand, Goswami was losing partners as most RCB batsmen were losing wickets. But Misbah managed to hit some sixes towards the end to bring up the Royal Challengers to some respectable total.

The break meant some more show by the cheerleaders. And when the second innings started, Bangalore was bowling. So they were dancing at the fall of the wickets and in between overs. There were a lot of people clicking their camera phones. Nobody wanted to miss the fun. But the nature of the crowd, coupled with the moves of the dancers made it very difficult to get blur-free images. Anyways, I managed to get some decent clicks of one of their moves.

Moving on to the game, for Delhi, Sehwag and Gambhir, the highest scorers in the competition, came out to bat. And as predicted, they started hitting the Bangalore bowlers. After Sehwag scored a typical quick fire 47, Praveen Kumar got him caught by Chipli. Then De Villers came in and steadied the innings with a patient 21. Meanwhile, our ABG team was going crazy. As most of them were Delhi supporters (which was actually not surprising), they were cheering each hit by Delhi. Finally, with some hitting by Dhawan and Maharoof, Delhi managed to end the match. In fact, Dhawan ended the match with a six. Bangalore team had lost another match but our ABG team had not. It was a thoroughly delightful experience for all of us. Hopefully, we will have more such fun with this team in the future.

Bangalore traffic woes: Can we improve the situation?

2008-04-20T10:03:00.001+05:30

Bangalore as a city is severely plagued by traffic issues. And it has numerous reasons to be in that situation. The steady influx of people from all over the country, to either work in the IT city or study at the numerous institutions here has translated to good business for contractors, but has eaten up the lungs of the city - the roads. You go to Hosur Road on any of the weekdays and you will find that from the Silk Board Junction to Electronic City, vehicles are lined up bumper-to-bumper. Just traveling during office hours has become a nightmare for most, leave alone driving. No wonder you hear of so many incidents everyday of someone getting crushed by a speeding bike or hit by a car. Its actually very easy to lose your cool at times. Also, the deteriorating condition of the roads has meant that the load of the traffic is not shared well amongst the existing roads; thereby worsening the situation. Instead of coming up with new roads and flyovers all the time, if they could improve the inner roads; these roads could serve to bypass some of the major thoroughfares, thus distributing the load and speeding up the process.
What is utmost important at thus time is the need for an alternate system. The transport ministry is putting the Metro service into place and I think that would be a huge boost. If the service can be maintained well and connect most of the important locations in the city, if not all; then it would serve two purposes. Firstly, it would no doubt help the worsening traffic problems as the bulk would be routed to the Metro. Secondly, it would help reduce the burden on vehicles which would mean that people would be less encouraged to own personal vehicles. Thus, ultimately we will also be able to reduce the levels of pollution.
Another thing that can be done is to discourage people to buy personal vehicles. Either increase the costs of buying a new vehicle like taxes etc. Already the fuel hike pinches the public. A further increase in base costs of owning a vehicle would definitely help( I don't know how much that would be feasible, though!). Further, incentives could be provided to people to use public transport. Like reduction of prices of public transport vehicle tickets. Also increasing the frequency of the vehicles or providing better facilities like they have in the Volvo buses (which are an experience by themselves). These measures would not go unnoticed.
But I believe that the need of the hour is to educate the drivers and discipline them. A lot of the problems arise because of rash driving. People change lanes, zig zag on the road, its like crazy. All that needs to be stopped. A good way is to severely punish them and the punishment should not be in monetary terms because that does not help. Either you take the driving license away or ban the driver for a few months. Once the laws become stringent then people will take up notice and start adhering to them.
I don't know how much of all this would be actually applied. But even if 10% of it is, traveling in Bangalore would be that much better.

Tags: blogathonindia , blogathonindia1

Royal victory for the Kolkata Knight Riders

2008-04-19T14:21:00.009+05:30

As the official website of Kolkata Knight Riders had put it 'Royal win for Kolkata Knight Riders', it was truly a win in ROYAL style. Right from the first ball bowled by Praveen Kumar to Ganguly till the end when Shukla got the ageing Sunil Joshi caught by McCullum; it was Kolkata Knight Riders all the way. The Bangalore Royal Challengers could never put up a good challenge and thus got crushed by a mighty margin of 140 runs in the opening match of the Indian Premier League held at their own backyard - The Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
But lets rewind ourselves to the start of the match. After the dazzling fireworks and the sizzling show put up by the performers, everyone was expecting a similar display from the players. And boy, did they get one! But it came from one of the most unlikely fellows in the team - New Zealand wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum. He hit an unbeaten 158 of just 73 balls, which included 10 fours and 13 sixes. Not only was it the highest score in the match (for which he rightfully got the Man-of-the-Match award), it was also the highest score by any individual in a Twenty20 match. Such was the impact of blitzkrieg that Dravid and his men were down and out when returning to the team dug-out after the Knight Riders' innings. The next highest score was that of Ponting who made 20 followed by extras which amounted to 17. Sourav hit 2 fours. Ponting hit a boundary and cleared the ropes once during his stay. Hussey played a bit too. But no one could take the glory away from McCullum. His innings was a show of clean hitting, improvisation and some clever positioning. That he was able to survive the entire 20 overs tells the story. The Bangalore Royal Challengers' bowlers had no clue as to what to bowl to him. Even Dravid admitted during the presentation ceremony that he tried various strategies to get him out; rotating his bowlers, trying new tactics; but to no avail. One of the shots that I truly liked was the attempted sweep which went for a six. Whew! How can one hit such a cheeky shot to the ropes, I just can't fathom! Quite deservingly, the Kolkata Knight Riders ended their innings at 222/3, thus setting the Bangalore Royal Challengers a target of 223 to be scored in 20 overs at an asking rate of over 11 per over.
Now what would you expect the captain of a team coming out to chase a score of 223 in 20 overs to do? You would want to see clean hitters opening the innings so as to get the boost. But what do you see? Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid coming out to open the innings. I presume they took it as a Test Match where their Objective was to survive the 20 overs. The home crowd expected fireworks from their Royal Challengers team. But sadly there were none to come. In contrast, Kolkata Knight Riders chose to open the bowling with a rookie - Ashoke Dinda. He was quick, pumped up and accurate. From the first over itself, he showed no nerves (None of the bowlers needed to; the target was too big and the pressure was totally on the batsmen) and bowled to the field. His first over on the big stage was good but there was better to come. The prized bowler of the Kolkata Knight Riders - Ishant Sharma was next. And his entry was a bang. The first ball he bowled ripped apart the leg-stump of Rahul Dravid as he attempted to hit through the line. The WALL had been breached. Next came the captain of the Indian U-19 team - Kohli. Ishant Sharma was bowling in-swingers to which he had no reply. He was bowled by Dinda in the very next over. Kallis came in next and tried to steady the boat. he hit a six too. But the rout had started. He was caught off the bowling of Agarkar (who as usual got hit for a few runs but as usual took some wickets, which were all that mattered). And then Jaffer was caught by Ponting. The others just came in and tried their hands at swinging the willow. The Knight Riders were enjoying their time so much that Ponting could even afford to miss a catch ( so rare I don't remember any instance of this happening before). In the end it became a no-show with the Bangalore Royal Challengers getting bundled for a mere 82 runs, thus providing the Kolkata Knight Riders with a victory of 140 runs.
My roommates were joking that the Knight Riders don't have to bat in their next match. The opponent team should first chase down the remaining 140 runs, then they would come out to topple the score. In the presentation ceremony, Dravid was looking dejected as usual as he admired the innings of McCullum and Ganguly was understandably elated. The tournament had started well and I hope that the 40 day Festival of cricket really lives up to its massive billing.

BarCamp Bangalore 6

2008-04-16T10:17:00.004+05:30

The summer edition of this year's Barcamp Bangalore is going to take place at IIM-Bangalore on 19th and 20th of April,2008. Since it will be my first visit to a Barcamp, I am really excited. In february this year I had gone to the first edition of DevCamp which took place at Thoughtworks, Bangalore and really liked it. The unconference format was not new to me since we had the same at Osmosis - The MindTree TechFest, but the sessions were really enriching.
DevCamp was more of a tech, geek conference and it was suitable to hold it in Bangalore. But BarCamp is a universal concept with much more participation and a greater appeal. So I am going this weekend. Hope to see a lot of you there.

PeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenP

2008-03-22T12:16:00.004+05:30

You must be thinking what this is, isnt it? But seriously, this was the best eye-catching topic name that I could come up with for an article on the most mudslinging, bitching, politics-filled show on Indian television right now - Roadies 5.0.
The show is filled up with more instances of slang use than other things. Its difficult to hear even a single line said by the contestants without this sound. And in 90%+ cases, its done to mask the F-word. From reactionary comments to bitching, the contestants use it as if they got truckloads of it and want to dispose them off. I understand that in the current Indian society, it sounds cool to use this language. And probably its our generation getting personified screen there.
But seriously, it seems that this current edition of Roadies has taken bitching, politics etc to a whole new level all-together. The show had started out promoting itself as the place to find the toughest roadie. In the auditions too, what was tested mostly was the strength of the contestants in handling situations and confidence in performing tasks.
However, tasks are the least interesting events on the show now. In fact, the current group is performing so badly, they have already been branded a group of non-performers. The best performer by far was Vikrant. But he was voted out due to some expert strategy by Snehashish and Nihal. And then, very cleverly Snehashish was voted out. Shambhavi has been getting lucky a lot of times. She got the advantage once and then the roulette thing. She will go a long way because of this. It was precisely because of bad luck that Ankita is out. And in the last vote out when Ashutosh gave the immunity to the group of Shambhavi, Anmol and Aayaz saying that Aayaz was the closest to getting the immunity, so he deserves it; it was fully clear that they had planned to vote out Prabhjot from the show. Vote-outs have indeed become the most interesting part of Roadies.
Coming back to the tasks; be it money task, or immunity or advantage; this batch of Roadies have been doing very poorly. They fared miserably in the ball-out immunity task with none of them hitting the stumps. In fact, at some point they started indulging in sledging and commenting about one-another's looks rather than concentrating on the task. And be it the tennis task in Bangalore or the banana task in Goa, they have been pathetic. Most of the points scored during the tennis task were from double faults or mistakes by the trained players. And yet they seemed too happy. But come to using foul language, and they are champs there.
The show is indeed getting away from the bracket it was earlier in. I used to watch the earlier Roadies to see people who had guts to complete tasks. But now, I mostly watch it for the vote-outs, masala and stuff. And most of the viewers will agree with me that this has become the thing to WATCH OUT FOR in this current edition. The auditions were far better and much more interesting. I just hope that Raghu can make it interesting in the International leg. Otherwise a good show will become just some other late night show.

2008-03-12T19:29:00.000+05:30

Saluting India's victory of Commonwealth Bank Series

2008-03-05T10:14:00.001+05:30

Finally! Finally after three lost chances in 1986, 1992 and 2004 when they didn't even win a single match in the best-of-three finals Down Under, India has managed to upstage the Aussies. It finally ended one of the most turbulent tours for India, a tour which was at a point in danger of ending prematurely. The racism row involving Bhajji and Symonds; the on-field bickering; all seem to have been forgotten in this wonderful victory of India. The impact, importance and extent of the victory for India could be easily seen from the wild celebrations at the Gabba that were triggered by the fall of the wicket of James Hopes. The wicket of Hopes finally ending any hopes of Australia of snatching the match from India and keeping the series lively.

But unlike previous times, this victory was not fashioned solely by the so-called seniors in the team. In fact the lion share of the victory goes to the 'Young Brigade' of India. It was Praveen Kumar who started the Aussie downfall with the highly prized wickets of Gilchrist(1st over) and Ponting(3rd over). And then later when the Hayden-Symonds partnership was beginning to threaten India, a single over of Bhajji turned around the match in favour of India. Hayden was run-out and Symonds was out lbw. It turned out to be the most important over of the match.

Before that it was Tendulkar who played the anchor role again to steer India to a competitive score. He was unlucky not to score a second succesive century missing it by a mere 9 runs. Uthappa, Yuvi and Dhoni chipped in with important and quickfire contributions. India missed a golden chance to score big in the final overs when they lost their way somewhat in the overs 40-45.

But then, All's well that end's well. India have won the series 2-0, and that's what matters. Coupled with the colts victory of the U-19 WC at Malaysia, and it already looks like the next generation of Indian cricketers has arrived and they have that hunger for victory which we so badly missed earlier.

The entire nation is celebrating this superb time for Indian cricket, and so am I. When Dhoni's boys had won the T-20 WC I had jumped on the floor and danced on the streets with my roommates and others in the locality. That's because there is nothing more binding for the people of India than cricket. Now when the boys look to have turned to be men, showing the character and will-power to upstage the Aussies at their own den, I bet that each and every Indian has a smile on his face.

Finally I would like to sign off with statement. When Ponting had said before the start of the Best-of-three finals in the Commonwealth Bank series that the third final would not be required, I bet he wasn't expecting this result. Cheers!

Technorati

2007-12-18T11:41:00.000+05:30

Technorati Profile

What a chef!

2007-12-17T11:49:00.000+05:30

Its been about 2 weeks now that we have started cooking food at our rented flat in Bangalore. By we, I mean my roommates and I. And this was after a lot of scepticism like whether we should be investing like this or not. We wanted a cook at first but eventually settled on cooking food ourselves.
The day (or rather night) when we started was rather eventful. It was a saturday and having been bitten by the MindTree bug of hard work, all three of us - Dipankar, Anirban and I had gone to office to work. After laboriously working till evening, Dipankar and I boarded the 6 o'clock shuttle from West Campus to Banshankari office. There Anirban joined us. We decided that it was tonight or never. So all three got into an auto to Jayanagar to buy the items to setup the kitchen.
At jayanagar, we realized that we had no concrete plan. We didn't know what all to buy and what not to. After a long debate, we freezed upon our essential requirements which needed to be addressed first. We chose a shop nearer to our flat not for the costs. But because 'agar koi problem hua to stove uthakar laa to sakenge wahan'! So by the time we bought all our utensils and headed home, it was about 9 pm. Now what we required was the food items. Dipanakar, being the most experienced chef amongst us (actually thats bcos the others know nothing about cooking, so its the case of 'andhon me kaana raja'), declared - 'What do you guys wanna eat tonight?' And then it started!
For 5 minutes, everyone started pouring in their requests. No one knew who would cook all that or whether anyone knew how to cook those dishes. What came out was the uproar after 5 months of eating those dosas(especially rava dosa), bhaths, roti curries and occasional fried rice at nearby Sree Upahar/Shanti Sagar! Finally we decided upon a dish of egg, dal and rice. So again we headed for the market, this time to the Reliance fresh shop. By the time we were back home with the grocery, it was about 10pm.
Then started our maiden venture of cooking. Dipankar cooked the egg dish (that was the only day the eggs boiled correctly, we have been struggling to get that same performance since). Anirban called up home to get the recipe for masoor dal. I helped him out in that. And finally the rice. It was at this time that I realized that the turmeric(haldi) packet wasn't opened. It should have been since we had used haldi in the dal, isn't it? Then came that deadly realization. I had mixed garam masala with haldi. So instead of haldi, I had added garam masala to the dal. Oh my god! Nothing to do now. All of us were laughing. The dal tasted fine, just a bit too chilly. Thus ended our first experience at cooking which incidently got over at 12:30am. So by the time we finished our dinner, it was 1am. A late but satisfying dinner.
The next week we prepared a number dishes ranging from matar paneer to simple paneer with gravy, from mixed veg dish to egg curry. It was fun at times and tough at times. Especially the idea of cooking at home after coming back from office so tired was tough. But we have managed to weather the waters till now. Its the team effort which has brought success.
The weekends are the days when we plan to have our favourite dishes. Like this weekend we decided to cook fish at home. So on sunday morning , Dipankar and I made a trip to the meat mart of 'Monday to Sunday'. We settled on Catla fish because it was the easiest to cook and the first try should be witht he easiest one (Also it was the least costly of all). I called up mom (as usual) for instructions. Now armed with her advice, we first marinated the fish with salt and turmeric(haldi). Then came the tough task of frying the fish. And boy was it hard! Dipankar really had a tough time. But eventually it came off well and we got the first taste of home made fish at Bangalore. The fish gravy dish was simply superb.
When I was discussing about this experience to my ex-Rich mates, they couldn't believe it. They were saying that a guy who never once went near the kitchen to cook, how come he cooks food at home everyday. But you know, thats life. It teaches you everything! So after a satisfying weekend, its back to work. I hope you all too have this type of a success in your life sometime or other.

Finally

2007-11-15T18:24:00.000+05:30

Finally.... After a lot of head banging, mind rackling, keyboard kicking ... we finally managed to crack the code. We got to know that there was actually no problem with the code. The problem was the wrong version of the app server we were using (What a shame!). We eventually completed our assignment on time. Voila!

Now since Shyam has mischieviously tagged me (I will kill him for this!) I shall surely go on to tell some weird things about myself. So here it goes...

1) Since Abhishek is such a common name, I never used to be known by this name. Neither in school, home or college. At home, my friends called me Roni. In school, I was called Pseudo. And in college, I was known as Shaora. Now don't ask me why I was named that way (Its got some grave background!!) but the name Shaora was so popular in my batch that many people actually never knew my actual name.

2) Moreover, the name which my parents had given me was not Abhishek. It was actually Avishek. My parents had to get it changed when I joined school.

3) I am a very sober person (you can argue about that!) but when I pass out after a long booze party, I can do some very strange things. Some of these blackout experiences have been at IIT KGP where once we friends actually abused a group. And in the freshers party at Richardson Hall I almost ... leave it!

I think this is enough for now. I shall continue sometime later, if possible.
Meanwhile, I need to get back to my work. These new technologies in my project are already killing me a lot. My tech lead said that these were meant to simplify the task of a Developer but using them has been such a headache I don't know when they will actually simplify my task and if possible, my life.

Why the hell doesn't it run ?

2007-11-13T14:51:00.000+05:30

Its been 2 days and about 9 hours but I still haven't been able to get this damn application to work on my system. Every time I compile and execute it it gives me this same *ing 404 error.
Actually the Technological Lead (TL) of our project gave us the introduction to the technological stack yesterday in our first technical ramp up meeting. So we 8 freshers in the team got to hear some cool but till now unknown terms like Struts 2, Spring, iLog etc. Now all these sound very hi-fi but unfortunately, we got to learn them all. So the TL gave us a simple task. To create a sort of a form using Struts 2 framework. And we are to know the framework and all about it too.
So from last evening we set about "Learning Struts 2". First, we checked out our most faithful pal in this area - Google. Got some links and started reading. Its then that we got the first shock. Most of the stuff was obviously going tangential. I stayed up till 8:15 in the night but to no avail. So I took some pdfs and printouts to read at home.
But as u all know, when at home who wants to study. As usual, I spent the time sleeping. No studies. So from today morning, we team members have been racking our brains to get something working but success has lured us till now. The TL had said that he would make us wait till 9 in the night but would make sure that each one of us executed that bit of code on his/her own machines. Lets hope we manage to do that before the timeline set.
Hey, I think I have wasted a lot of time writing this post and I better get done to cracking some code or else I may have to stay up for the night. :-)

क्या तुम्हें याद है

2007-08-28T13:59:00.004+05:30

क्या तुम्हें याद है,
बारिश की वोह रात ,
जब हम चल पड़े थे
हाथों में लेकर हाथ ?

वोह बारिश में टपकती
बूंदों की आवाज़,
वोह आकाश में गरजते
बादलों का साज़!

हम दोनों कुछ खोये से
कुछ घबराए से थे,
और राह ना देख पाने के कारण
असमंजस में थे !

क्या करे क्या ना करें
यह सोचने लगे,
और धीरे धीरे एक दूसरे
के करीब आने लगे!

फ़िर कहीं से एक आवाज़ आई
जिसमें तेरा नाम था,
पलट के देखा तो
खड़ा तेरा बाप था!

अब आगे लिखते हुए
मेरी आंखों में आंसू आ जाते हैं,
अस्पताल में बिताये हुए
वोह पल याद आ जाते हैं !!

Office ki pehli shayari...

2007-07-10T16:37:00.000+05:30

Ek duniya ko chodd aaya hoon,
Ek nayi duniya basaane.
Yaadon ko samet laya hoon,
Kuch nayi yaadein banane.

Woh college ke din,
Woh hostel ki raatein.
Yaad aati hain yaaron se saath,
Woh idhar udhar ki baatein.

Ab ek naye shahar mein,
Naye sapne sajaane aaya hoon.
MindTree ki waadion mein,
Naye dost banane aaya hoon.

First week at MindTree

2007-07-09T16:56:00.000+05:30

Its now been a week since I have joined MindTree and I must say it has been a wonderful experience. I had never expected this much amount of fun, participation and enjoyment from the 1st day itself.
The 1st day, 2nd july, we had an orientation programme at St. John's Auditorium. There were sessions by Subroto Bagchi and Ashok Soota. What was most fascinating was the FAQ session taken up by Subroto Bagchi where he took up the questions presented by everyone with great confidence. The answers were simply stupendous. A really enjoyable session.
In the afternoon session taken up by Ashok Soota on values and vision, we got to know our goals and key improvement areas. A real eye opener. The cultural programme following that was beautiful. We witnessed a group song and also a dance performance by senior MINDs. Totally enjoyable.
The sesond day was not so enjoyable but nonetheless very important. We had to create our profiles, ICICI Bank accounts, ID Cards, Hutch Corporate connections and other forms. I finally got my employee id card and I must say, I feel proud to wear it everywhere.
On fri, 6th July we had to wear our MindTree T-shirts to office. We had a group photo session to look forward to. But before that we had a really enjoyable session. In the afternoon, we had something called 'House Assimilation'. Here we had to introduce ourselves to the housemates but in an innovative manner. Our section 1 of House of Joy were divided into groups of 10 each. Each group was told to choose a theme. Then each member of the group had to choose a character related to the theme. Now when they came up to the stage they had to first introduce the theme, why they chose it and then descirbe why they chose the character they mentioned. The themes ranged from colours to jungle to cartoon characters. People chose characters like Goofy and described themselves like it - Someone who goofs up all the time. Also someone chose Leaning Tower of Pisa, saying that they want to be like it - leaning but not falling off in spite of pressures.
The next section were told to write some task for one other group. But when their papers were taken, they had to do what they had written for other groups. This was really hilarious. One group had to exchange shoes amongst themselves and then do a catwalk. The group had 3 girls and 2 boys and the boys had a tough time not only fitting into the girls high-heeled shoes but actually do the catwalk. Awesome fun. Another group had to enact a scene from Sholay etc.
The third section was divided into two groups and had to play a kind of virtual volleyball. 1 member of a group calls the name of one other member of the other group and moves out. If at any time the person called does not exist or has moved out or one fails to call a name, his/her team lost a point and also had to come up on stage to introduce. This was total enjoyment because towards the end when one ran out of names people really goofed up. So you see it was full timepass and masti. Finally we had the photo session of the entire batch outside the food court.
In this way our first week got over at MindTree. The pressure of the training had not set in yet but the schedule given told us that we were in for a tough time. But sincerely, I believe that even after the rigours of this Learning programme (MindTree prefers to call it Learning Programme instead of Training cos we LEARN at MindTree, we are not trained), we will surely get our share of enjoyment. Here's looking forward to some awesome times ahead.

Final days at BESUS

2007-06-06T15:14:00.006+05:30

Its the month of June and my life at BESUS is coming to an end. A roller coaster ride really but nonetheless a lot satisfying. Its this mood of joy, sorrow, belonging etc that is set upon all of us of the 2007 batch.
The past few weeks have been mostly spent on planning out all the farewell parties, joining dates, shifting etc rather than on the final exams. Anyways, who cares about the exams now. We all know that we shall all pass (Just kidding! Kuch to likhna hi padega baap, warna marks kahan se aayenge).
One such farewell was the Department Farewell organized by the 2nd years for us. It was awesome. Instead of the typical ragging wherein all that was asked was who flirted with whom or who had a fling etc, we had songs, ball dances, dances with accidents etc. Good fun. Also we had some innovative ideas like a video on final year students, video messages by the final years, Ulti Jalzeera TV News and Quiz on BESUS. Hats off to the 2nd years for organizing such a wonderful farewell. We shall all remember it for the rest of our lives.

The plans for the other farewells are on. Rich Farewell shall take place after the final exam. So lots of fun to be had before I catch the 30th June flight to Bangalore which would signal the end of life as a student and the start of a new phase.
It sounds incredible that the four years have come to an end so fast. I can still feel the tension of my 1st day way back on 4th August, 2003 when I came here with my dad. The threat of the famous Shibpur ragging looming large upon me. Life goes fast and so have the 4 years out here. There have been so many wonderful moments in BESUS. 1st year welcome, REBECA (all 4 years), Life at Richardson, Campus placements etc. There is so much to take from all this.
Oh-my-god! Its getting way too emotional. Lets leave that crap out for the fairer sex. Suits them more. As for me, I just wanna enjoy this last month of unemployment. Here's to the next step of our lives!

Phew! Its Over!

2007-03-30T20:29:00.000+05:30

The past week has been a maddening experience for all of us here. We had our postponed semester exams then. And the authority decided to rub it in. 4 examinations in 4 days. This kind of torture was not even in the first year. And even then, I had started preparing well before. But this was just a one night effort.
Last saturday, when I started to study VLSI Design it appeared as Latin and Hebrew. And the greatest problem was that although I had attended some classes, I had heard and understood nothing. How could I? The classes were at 8 in the morning. As it is it is tough to get up for that class. And even if I could, I used to sleep in the class. I had even yawned in front of the teacher. No wonder I see a sure supplementary in that paper staring in front of me.
Of the other papers, the most satisfying was Broadband communication. I achieved maximum efficiency in that paper. I had Cellular technology well and had 4 questions from it. What luck!
Now that its over, there is a lot to look forward to. I have a workshop of Mindtree (where I have got selected) next week. And since I am the representative from my university, I got lots of work to do. Hope to have a good time then.
Also the annual fest of my university, REBECA comes up within 4 weeks. And since its our final year, we are going to enjoy to the hilt.
I think thats enough for today. I got to rush. I've to take take part in the next match on the LAN which I hope to win this time. Have been having such bad luck that the worst player in Rich defeated me 7-4 in the last match. I think its just not my day today.
Anyways guys, do come back to read my blog. And even if you don't, who cares. Ha ha!

Awesome movie!

2007-03-17T21:23:00.000+05:30

Today I watched a movie which I have been awaiting for the past few months. Its named 300. Based on a novel by Frank Miller, it concerns the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae. There the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians. The battle is said to have inspired all of Greece to band together against the Persians, and helped usher in the world's first democracy.
The trailer was very impressive and the movie actually lived up to the hype created. The visuals were breath-taking and the dialogues apt. The use of light and colours was very impressive. So much so that to the layman it is a greater attraction than the story.
There were quite a number of memorable scenes like the scene when King Leonidas kicks the messenger saying "We are Spartans!" or the fight scenes or when he says "Tonight we die in hell". The creaters have really worked hard and that shows. A movie fully worth the investment made.

New year's first blog

2007-01-26T18:10:00.000+05:30

Its been about a month since I have updated my blog. And I seriously feel you folks have been missing me (just kidding, I know you haven't. Who cares!). Well a lot has happened since I lasted posted. The year has changed!! (Poor joke, I know) But still, its been quite a time.
We friends have had a lot of parties, mostly for the various placements of the group. And without doubt, they have been a lot of fun.
On 19th, we friends went for a trip to some of the suburbs of Kolkata. The places we visited were Chandannagore, Bandel and Chunchurah. We had a great time together and the photos have come out fine quite accurately describing the joy experienced there.
For the past few days, classes in the department have been low and its only IMS that has kept me busy on the academic front. Most of the time has gone to watching movies, downloading them and perhaps.. sleeping.
I don't think anyone has any more patience to read any further. So I better call it a day here. See ya around.

Back Home!

2006-12-30T00:50:00.000+05:30

Finally.... After 2 months of constant mental pressure and sweating it out at Rich (Not literally, cos its quite cold for sweating), I have got back to my 'Home Sweet Home' for a much needed break.
The last week has been really harrowing. Life sucked big time cos we had to stay up in Rich to work on our project and its presentation when all the other department students went back after the sems. The mess was closed. So had to eat out. And that is plain AWFUL(Thats cos there's no comparison between the food at Rich and the food at Shyam Da)!
The presentations went off pretty well. The first day was for the project presentation. For that we had worked our socks off! We went to sleep at 4:30 am one night after finishing the work. And since I was the one o start, it was a bit chilling! But it went off well. The next day was cazz.
Now back home in Jamshedpur, I plan to chill out with my old mates. Am looking forward to a fun filled week. Hope you all have a rocking new year! Bbye!

B.E.S.U. Campus during the 150 year celebration

2006-11-25T23:50:00.000+05:30

These are the pictures of the Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur 150 years celebration. There were two shows during that day. The pictures are of the campus and the show.

The 'real' placement treat!

2006-11-23T23:28:00.000+05:30

Here are the snaps from the placement treat with my 12D mates. They are taken at Equinox. Notice the contrasting physiques of Dasi and Nikhil.

The Placement Party

2006-11-13T14:58:00.000+05:30

Here are some of the pictures of my Placement Party at Deep Purple, a Bar and Restaurant at Jamshedpur on the 22nd of October, 2006. It was a day after diwali and as you can see, the people had loads of fun.

A lazy blog of life!

2006-10-14T15:22:00.000+05:30

This last week at Rich has been like a dull time. Not much classes (who wants to attend them anyway even if they are going on) and certainly not much of fun. Most of the days are going on just lazily in my campus.
With no internet access (The bloody Sify providers have not been able to fix the disconnected cable even after a week) my computer is getting much needed rest in the night. I am desperately trying to finish up watching my entire DVD movie collection (which incidently has over 150 movies). But over the last 2 days, I have really liked to watch the old episodes of FRIENDS. Cool people and certainly a cool show.
Besides that, 2 of my buddies on our LAN have been playing 'Need For Speed Most Wanted'. We managed to finish up 6 blacklists in 3 days (I know thats not a big deal and there are better gamers than us. But we like to go at our pace). One of them is at Blacklist 4 and I gotta tell you, its getting bloody difficult to just keep the car on track. There's one thing that really catches the eye in the game and thats the Motion Blur. This comes on when we put on the nitro boost and honestly, its damn sexy. I have been an NFS fan since 9th standard when I used to play 'Need For Speed 2 Special Edition' with the FZR as the best car and Monolithic Studios as the best track. And I have to admit, I've been an admirer since then. I certainly look forward to NFS Carbon which releases shortly.
By next week, I shall be in jamshedpur and hopefully enjoying with my friends. We have been planning a booze party (oops...sorry.... Placement treat, whatever the name is. How does it matter? What matters is whats on store). And since I haven's touched alcohol for like 2 months (more because of my low bank balance than the urge. The urge is always there. And over the last couple of days it has certainly got bigger.), I am certainly looking forward to that. Just need to finalize the place and the buddies who would attend.
Also next week is the annual "Diwali Nite'. This is the official party of my dad's company for diwali. Its more like a moonh dikhai for me. Coz all the uncles and aunts ask me is like Kaise ho, Beta?; College me padhai kaisi chal rahi hai?; Job kahan mila?; Posting kahan hai? and stuff. It is only on the insistence of my mate, Prinshu that I go to this place. We end up having a good time together.
So I certainly look forward to this oppurtunity (To have booze, of course). Hope you guys have fun too over diwali. Bbye.......

The Puja Masti!

2006-10-03T16:43:00.000+05:30

It is that time of the year for which a Bengali always longs for. It is that time of the year for which a bong decks up his/her wardrobe for. Needless to say, I too had done the same.
Because of the postponement of the 7th mid-sems (or rather, we bunked it), I got the chance to catch up on some lost time for my puja shopping. One trip to the REEBOK store, one to the Pantaloons outlet at 22 Camac and I was done. I had enough clothing to last all the four (or rather, five) days of durga pujas plus the two days I had to dress up in ethnic clothes to give Anjali.
Our Richardson Hall's mess closed down on 27th september which was the day of panchami. So I neatly packed up my bag and took the bus to my grandmom's place at Paikpara, where I was to stay during the pujas. The plans started and my friends, who were mainly South Calcuttans (oops sorry, Kolkatans) came up with a whole night plan for Saptami (27th September). So since I had no plan for Panchami, I decided to spend the day lasily on the bed to catch up on some lost sleep. But before that, I had to give my examination at IMS. This one was called Mid-course assessment test (MCT 3) . Needless to say, it was pathetic. But who cares, I could already see the puja fun unfloding in front of my eyes.
The 28th of september which turned out to be Sashthi turned out to be dull. It rained all morning to afternoon leaving the roads waterlogged and making sure that I did not bring out my brand new Reeboks for an early puja opening show. In the evening, I went out with my mami and cousins for an early puja pandal hopping. First, we visited Deshbandhu Park & Jubabrinda. We then went to my mami's place to collect some much needed guest cards. After some refreshments there, we went on to Karbagan, Jubabrinda, Telengabagan and Gouribari. The pandals at the last two were especially well designed and I predicted that they would definitely win some awards(which came true 2 days later when the awards were announced). Since it was already 10pm, we came back home.
In the morning of 29th september, saptami, I could feel the pujas coming. Although it was just the first day of the festivities but my digital camera was already full of photographs of last evening's pujas. I had been invited to my youngest grandmom's place for lunch and which I duly obliged. After that at about 6pm I set out to meet my friends at Rabindra Sarobar Metro station to start off our night out.
I reached outside the metro at 7:30pm. Rik, Rajashik, Sabya, Arijit and Arkajeet joined me there. We then got up a bus to reach Jodhpur Park. There Arka, Shaon, Ayan, Zango and Sandy were waiting for us. Thus our group of 11 set out for our extravaganza.
First up, Jodhpur Park. Since it was 8 pm and saptami we got the maximum crowd there. Half and hour of pushing and sweating in the queue, we managed to reach the entrance of the pandal. But it was worth it. Not only was the durga pratima good, but the entire surroundings were beautiful too. I somehow managed to click 3 photographs of the entire surroundings.
Next up was Salim Pally. The queue was much much smaller and so we easily manouvered our way through the public there. The pandal and durga pratima were much smaller in size here. Subsequently we went on to see the pandals of Babubagan, Ekdalia Evergeen Club and Singhi Park.
Now it was 11pm and time for dinner. We headed off to the highly acclaimed restaurant of HATARI. This was on Rashbehari Avenue and by the size of the crowd that was standing outside, one could easily guess that there was a big rush too. We had to withstand a big confrontation with a lady (whom we guessed to be part of one of the following professions:
a) Teacher b) Politician c) Divorce lawyer d) Divorcee) before entering. It took us 60 mins to get inside the restaurant and an equally tiring 15 mins to decide upon our order. Finally, (and with some expert advice of Zango, who was a regular there and knew what was good and what was not) we ordered for some fried rice and schezuan chicken. Another 15 min wait to make it a full 90 mins of waiting, and our prasad, naa, food arrived.
The next hours went about visiting the pujas of Mudiali, 66 Palli, Md. Ali Park, College Square, Santosh Mitra Square etc. The themes for the pandals were indeed diverse. It ranged from Mudiali which had a Rajbari as its theme to Santosh Mitra Square which had the events of terrorist attacks as its theme. We covered the area of Central Kolkata at about the best time of the day (3am-5am). Minimum crowd, cool temperatures. It was only at about 5am that we were reminded of our tired limbs and minds. So the group broke up to go back home for a much needed sleep. When I got to Paikpara at 6am, I straight went to bed.
The next morning, or I should say the same morning because I had got home only 4 hours ago was Ashtami. And that meant the day of anjali to Goddess Durga. My grandmom broke into my sweet sleep and gave me a deadline of 11 am by which to get ready. I somehow managed to dress up. So I made the trip to the nearby pandal at 11 to offer my anjali. I was in the day's last batch.
It was Pamela called up at about 1 pm to inform me of the time and place to meet up. We decided to get to Rashbehari more where Souvik and Aritra would be joining us. At about 4 pm we got to the designated spot. We then had a nice tour down the area for about 3 hrs before we split up at Gariahat. I wanted to get back to bed coz I hadnt had that much of rest last night. So for me, my ashtami was over.
Navami morning was greeted by my dad who had come down from Jamshedpur that morning at 6. So had mom. By afternoon my uncles, aunts and cousins had come up. We had a nice get-together and lunch. By evening, and after completing a nice nap in the afternoon, my relatives decided to go out for some pandal hopping. But it was not until 8:30pm that we managed to go out.
Navami being the supposed last day of the pujas, draws the maximum crowd. We really had to evade through a lot of traffic to reach our starting point which was Cassipally lane near Scottish Church College. It was beautifully laden with gold-plating roofs etc. After that we went on to visit the pandals near Hatibagan.
At about 11pm, we reached Sovabazar Beniatola which had some mountain as its theme. Next up was Ahiritola which had a pagoda as its pandal theme surrounded by rickshaws. It was here that my dad obtained a pass for Kumartuli Park which he duly obliged and we justified our possessing it. Kumartuli Park had some kind of volcano as their pandal. Finally we rounded our tour with Bagbazar. It was 3am and my mom was constantly scolding me for keeping them out for so long.
Thus my Durga Puja '06 celebrations ended. I spent my next few days at home in Jamshedpur to complete my holidays. Just hope that wherever I be next year (coz I certainly wont be in Calcutta), I get to have the same fun I had this time.

2006-09-11T10:54:00.000+05:30

There are some times in life when you wonder what you have done already and what it has caused. You tend to conduct an introspection into your actions, behavior and deeds. And it is then that a sense of cleansing comes into you.
It funny. I used to think that doing good deeds, helping out others, reaching out to people would earn me mileage. That it would earn me good reputation. But then I was wrong. I was wrong all the way. The world and the people in it do not remember what good you do to them. They start taking you for granted. And it is then that it hurts. It hurts you emotionally. It hurts you when you have to face embarassment for something you have not done just because they "expected" you to do it. And the worst part of it is to have to apologize. Apologize not because you were wrong. But apologize because you don't want to make enemies out of your supposed "friends".
The only thing that these materialistic people remember is your "achievements". They would never want to be a friend, or rather, be known as a friend of an under-achiever. That would not give them a good image in society and they don't want to be embarassed to call you a friend in public. Its as if you need to prove yourself to them all the time that you deserve to be their friend. But hey, thats not right. The only person(s) you need to prove yourself to is "YOU". Isn't that awkward? You would never to think it in that way. But it is true for sure. Because if you don't do that, you will be killing your own conscience. And without that, you are as hollow as a pipe.
So friends think about this sometime. Maybe this can help many of you to improve your lives...

Shayari

2006-09-04T10:02:00.000+05:30

Hope you like my next shayari...

Aapki aankhon me junoon nazar aata hai,
Aapke lavon par ikraar nazar aata hai.
Aap kahen yaa naa kahen,
Par hamen to aapke dil me apna chehra nazar aata hai.

Long time!!!

2006-09-04T09:55:00.000+05:30

Hi everybody,
Its been a long time that I have posted on my blog site. And as usual, the complaints were coming in. Needless to say, I was a touch busy with life. And not for the wrong reasons (plz.....).
A lot of changes have happenned in life since I last posted. My status has changed from unemployed to employed with my getting through into MINDTREE. So I'm a MINDTREE MIND now. Plz cut out jokes abt the name....
So here I am back to one of my favourite pastimes, blogging.... Hope you like my subsequent posts.
Bye. Mmmuuuaaahhhhh...
Abhishek Saha

2006-06-21T15:18:00.000+05:30

Since this is my very first post, I would not like to bore you all who have taken the pain to visit this link.
I will start off with a shayari here. Hope you all like it...

Fursat nahi hai zakhmo par marham lagane ki,
nigahe badal gayi apne aur begaane ki!
Tum hamara saath na chodd dena kabhi,
warna tamanna na rahegi naye dost banane ki!!