Life of chapters...

My life over the past few years can be narrated as chapters...I can recall from the time I entered engineering (ofcourse I can force fit a few even before that) that there have been episodes which have tried to teach me a certain aspect of life...
My second year engineering was when mom and dad left for US to take care of sis who was pregnant with my nephew then, leaving me alone in Mumbai for a couple of months...This was the time I learnt how to manage things on my own a bit...cook...pay bills...make complaints on services not working and go through the routine bureaucracies a person faces while trying to get his homely affairs in place. This year also witnessed me ranking 2nd in my dept in engineering...Though i would like to think that was a job well done, I know that was more of luck than anything else...I had not studied a single tiny ounce more than what I generally do..but it was defn a year in which I learned to manage alone..
My third year was eclipsed by just one designation...General Secretary, Students' Council K.J Somaiya...came to the post by luck...hadnt worked enuff the previous years...or rather was not given enough work..but whatever the case...was very inexperienced for the job...and the worse part was...even my team knew it...
I had my ups and downs...I think I was pretty good in communicating and getting my point across to the management & faculty...where I lacked...significantly was to exert control over my peers...However, I am thankful that I learnt a lot of lessons then...a lesson that keeping everyone happy isnt possible and that is the death of decision making...Also to never trust anyone by their promises and only trust your own judgment...The experiences of the year were far too many...I remember a few...but many others have moulded my traits even without my knowledge...
A friend of mine used to ask "Would you have taken the same decision of wanting to be the General Secretary if you were given a choice"...My response was..."Looking back...Yes I wuld hv taken the same decision...but I wouldnt want to go through all that again..."
Fourth Year was the relaxing time...enjoying with friends..specially my group...preparing for CAT(which I enjoyed anyways)...Calls...GDPI prep...BE Project (Pranav Zindabad!)... Final calls from IIMs...blogging...The whole year was wonderful...It was the year of success...of fame...teaching me valuable lessons of when to keep low and when to raise your hood...how to be yourself even when things go good and sink bad...but without a doubt..thts the year I enjoyed the most at KJ...
First Year at IIMA was the year for the reality check...suppression of overconfidence...retelling me that things CAN go horribly wrong...retelling cos I had already learnt tht lesson during my third year and had kinda lost the idea during the fourth..It was also the year that taught me the essence of hard work and perseverance...Also that...Hope should never be lost...and that there is a fire in everyone...talk less (well I do get the lesson time and again...but thts one thing I have not been able to do much about)....I had great time in parts too ofcourse...with newfound friends...people who cared...again a year with significant learnings...
And the final year at WIMWI has undoubtedly been the year of travelling...I have already covered 15 countries and will complete 2-4 more in a couple of months...I hadnt stepped foot out of India before Aug 27 2007...and by June 5 2008...Having covered most of Europe, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia...now US and with Dubai, Indonesia on the cards in the next month..I can surely classify the year tht went as a year of seeing the world...
Made a lot of friends from various foreign places...very close ones...From Moritz (Mo) of Germany to Remi (Tipu) of France as exchange students coming to IIM...to my apartmentmates in Mannheim, Germany..Bela from Hungary, Evan from Canada, Miika and Sari from Finland, Jing Jo the chinese girl from Swiss, Nadine from Singapore....to the friends I made in Germany..Johanna, Peter etc. to my group mates Ilina and Yuben from Bulgaria...speaking with all of them without any country barriers on any topic in the world ranging from food to politics to history to games toc finance to parties to insanity...celebrating birthday parties with them...everything was indeed an amazing experience....
And then came the month of no voice...trying to teach me the asset of remaining quite...I failed miserably...it took a full paralysis of right vocal coord to shut me up...Here was my second lesson of taking heavy news with a smile...like when the doc said i culd have cancer or brain tumour which could be the reason for the paralysis...
And then the placements...putting in hardwork for preparations...receiving no calls on Day Z...being utterly disappointed and then getting a second short list from Arthur D Little...and converting it...to be placed among the top 40 in the batch to be placed on Day Z of placements...Again providing testimony that hard work always pays dividends...and there is a power of divine tht does exist to save you from perils....

Now as I sit in US...spending most of my time playing with my nephew...with only a couple of weeks to spare till I join work in Dubai....I am reminded of a famous speech by the Apple chief Steve Jobs of looking at our past and seeing the dots connecting...Though I cant see the dots connecting...I surely can see a pattern...I wonder....when would it be that I can undersand wht the pattern is shaping up into....

The Year that was!

Its been quite a while, hasnt it? A year now since I last blogged. Infact now that I look at my last post, I was supposed to write some story at the end of it. Haa I dont even remember what happened on the last day of my engineering. I remember rather hazily about a trip to Manali before going to A but that again as some unclear pictures that I had taken from my camera, a digital one which perished just after the trip or so I think. Infact coming to think of it, I dont even remember much of my first days at A. Remember vaguely getting out of my bro-in-law's car and finding out that Dorm 10 and section D would be my whereabouts at A and also searching for pals in my new section in the small green book they had provided and only finding a few Mumbaites there.
I also remember walking to my room and seeing a badminton court right beneath my balcony and me bragging that I will finally be able to play badminton as much as I want (A small trivia for what its worth: I have played badminton for not more than 10 times there!). Then I remember seeing a rather healthy ( read massive ;)...sorry Bichchu :D) boy moving into my neighbouring room and then giving a nice smile as if to say welcome to the club. Saw the first Bday party at WIMWI (now thts wht we call IIMA...). Flexi's bday was fun with the cake and all but wasnt really representative of the 'real' birthday celebrations that we have here owing to his broken back during that time.
We had our introductory lecture by Saralda....Tuchchas(our seniors...Yaa I know loads of jargons we use :)) had claimed that he was one of the best and hence we put a real good fight at preparing the case to our best. It was a 4 page case and I cribbed saying cases should be shorter(hehehe...times!!!). I remember we all sitting in that amphitheater like CR10 which was going to be the home for all of us in Section D!
This is when my memory starts blurring...I can see HRM lectures by a certain professor with a lot of Ohh Yaa...we all liked his style...not the marks at the end though...remember a lot of quizzes...oh and ya did get my first 0 too...then MANAC...with quizzes every week...getting introduced to Blackbooks and me saying thats not for me and then after some hard learned lessons having to eventually succumb to the 'herd mentality'! ...the all famous Meena....TaDap TaDap TaDap chants :D...my group G12 not being called even once for presentation...much to the happiness of Me, Sagnik Rashmi and Ravi and to the dismay of Gendy...Then findin a study group with Ami, Carona and Chomu later tagging along...then creating a G5 with them and Kazaa for the next term...Well first term was something!!!....Now am I missin something here...hmmm..T Nite :) ...Those were the best days...Just after mid terms, they began...Those Drums, those section D chants, with Fifa coming up with slogans every 5 minutes and Toto adding music to it, Then the D chants with no words and only Plate hits...People who hadnt shaken a limb, dancing...the perfect Mess Nites...a rather disasterous RJM night 1...a great recovery in night 2...The Delta Force on the thermocol...split into two...and chacha and Wright Gowda picking it and bringing it everytime there was a problem...The agony at seeing the points table and getting reminded that one fashion show could have changed it!...nice memories indeed...but at the end of the day, thats what had got our section together...like none other...some people called our section crazy, some called our section pompous but we called our section Doba :)...
Continuing with memories, as Nostalgia is indeed amazing :)...I remember getting too confident for the first endterm after my relatively decent performance in the Mid Term and getting royally screwed and grades plummenting massively and not just by itself but with every ounce of confidence that I had...
I remember those days when I used to see the red bricks as an infinite jail, with nowhere to run. The one behind the library ...the big red wall...was intimdating to say the least...Thoughts like 'Everyone is better than me...I am not even good at things that I thought I was a dude at!' and then that finding out that it was indeed true...Horrible were those days...PPTs by companies...'whatever you speak in class would be a flop...so keep your mouth mum' kind of feeling...and then out of nowhere getting calls from Goldman, DB, Merrill for summers and thinking that there is still hope...and then floppin in Day Z and pickin up the first company that offered me on Day1....then the 96 in quant and a few more nice scores in others...knowing you can stand ground...
Then the infinite assignments in term 3, sitting till 5 in the morning and completing reports, going out for a 4oclock stroll, calling CT at 3 in the night for Chicken Chilly...and asking him to get it Semi-Dry...That Chicken Biryani in FoodKing...and the alternate visits to some restaurant or the other with Chomu, TaDap, Carona...Jassi De Parathe...Metro...Curreys..the list is endless...Those intellectual discussions leading nowhere...Those Friday Night WACs and the Saturday night bash...Being the fraud GOH for 2 birthdays...The dunking of D11 girls during their Corpo...The spy attack from within their dorm ,with their own water captained by D9s Foojzi...man it has been a ride...

And as I sit here, late in the night, nearly 15 days before joining A again for the tuchchadom that we all have been awaiting...I wonder...how much have I changed...I guess I will never be able to find out...but I am sure of one thing, I have learnt...apart from the academics side of it...I have learnt that there are people better than me, I have learnt that there are times when you feel that you are worthless, I have learnt that its not always that you can be happy but at the end there is always light, there is always hope...that the bad time will pass and it does...it just does!

Life between April 12th to May 31

Sometimes I feel that this is the limit, I can't be lazier and every passing moment I am like the Sensex(till a month ago), surpassing my own personal bests and surveying an all time high in laziness.
I dont know how long was it since I last posted. How much ever I like to credit it to my exams, its just being plain lazy to actually enter into this page to write something, that has kept me far from this page.

So when we met last time....I had just won a ticket to the best management school in the country....the same day I got a call from L too and was Waitlisted in 'IIM I'...got a reject from both C and K....a few days later I got I converted too...only somedays back I realised K didnt hate me afterall...they sent me a call letter as well...so that made it 4 on 5....leaving only Cal that rejected me :)...think my girlfriendless behaviour was taken by them as 'hopeless' but wateva the case A is A [:)]

The past two months has been a revelation in its own sense. I still dont feel any different as even now I m pretty bemused that I got selected but the reaction of the people is what has amused me the most. I have seen people with their mouths open to people who say "so whats the big deal" when somebody(its usually me the brag) mentions about my 'achievement'. Some even asked me what is my first pay....no disrespect to them....just a reminder that not everyone knows abt IIMA so keep ur feet down..

But the thing that has been really takin its toll on me is the fact that everyday that goes by reduces the counter of my remaining days in Mumbai by one. I know I will miss my parents, my friends like anything and this creates such an atmosphere that you dont want to do anything....well now you know why the stock of laziness was always climbing!

Lived VIII sem like a King! Prat the brat my proj partner just took care that me and Kavz didnt have to break a sweat except for the docu part which Kavz took instructions from Prat and took care of tht too[:)] and I kept doing what i do best...nothing[:)]....Vivas came....studied just a day before(yeah gettin into IIMA does make u complacent) nd they went pretty well too...They gave 12 days between vivas and xams and 4 days leave for each exam....12 days leave(mini vacation time)!! and if my mathematics is right 4 days could be split as 2 days fun + 1 day trying to start + 1 day break ur head studying.......so thts how they went.....all fine.........

We were all awaiting The day....The day of June 1st...now being a little less dramatic....tht was the day our exams were going to end[:)]

EuphoriA - A - A!

"Somethings in life are just meant to be the way they are... U cant do nething about it... Everything happens for the best..." I kept telling myself. I had an exam the next day and I had to study but the mind kept wandering... It was then that I decided that if Cal doesnt want me....I do not want Cal :) hehehe....grapes are sour in the hindsight but effectve then nevertheless!

Burned the midnight tubelight energy till 2 30 or something and then decided to call it quits for the night...Had enuff for the day...rather night! Term tests were at 9 in the morning...It came as a relief as I wouldnt have to face my parents who would feel sympathetic towards me and I absolutely hate bein sympathized...

So next morning, after tellin my parents that IIMC dream was over and that I may get an all 5 rejects that was unheard off.....I was off to college...Again partners saved the day... Copied wholeheartedly...and attempted for all 50... My mind was relieved from a bit of stress....now that I knew I had a talent for survival :))

I come out of my test and my proj partner asks me my A result! Poppy had made it thru .... I say "I will have to check!" ... Knowing the great internet access that our college provides, it would be close to impossible to get my results before Term 3 at these institutes! So I ran to the Directors office knowing pretty well that here the internet access is the fastest... After askin the ever sweet PA of the Director... I log into the IIM A site.. put in my reg and dob and the pic shows wht I saw!!!!
I had been selected to THE BEST... Ahmedabad it was!!! After spreadin the word around....gettin a lot of well done and congrats and also some bumps... I went back to the pracs tht I was supposed to be in long ago....People were mugging for the next test... I tried but culdnt...It was the time to enjoy and studying seemed like the last thing to do....Treat was decided to be after the test... Again I relied majorly on my partners for my tests...the gang of infinte lukkas...
The best part is I aggregated 87.5 in my term tests!! Topped with 48/50 in the last paper......This WAS the best day EVER.......

And the results ........

Deal Ya No Deal......This serial didnt take off much in India as its original did abroad...One day I was watching it and saw how there are various boxes....And how people were disappointed when a box from the "baddi rakham" was lost.....Then, I didnt seem to understand wht it must feel like.....

Its been quite long since I last posted....Laziness being the most mighty factor....Orkut bein another(Addicition has always been my forte)....Then there was an eye operation for my cousin(the dude got hit by a ball on his specs and the latter part of the specs went into his eye which became critical.....but he is doing excellent now)And lastly due to the term tests...Okay I agree I didnt touch my book till midnight before the tests....but it doesnt feel good to write a blog when u have exams loomin...Its much better to gab with cousins and friends and kill time!

IIM results were expected from the 10th of April....So had to consistently go and check their webpages too...Term tests 1 and 2 were on Monday and 3 and 4 were on Wednesday.....Tuesday many of my relatives were comin home....and what better way to show off ur coolness by gabbin with them on the day before twin tests :)

So as I was saying Monday termtests were really gud.....Am still surprised at how havin good partners is much much more important than studying!
Tuesday just passed time....gabbing and playing a good host along with ma and dad....The real fun(?) begins after 8 in the night

Still guests around...I open my orkut account to check if there are any scraps...and also whether my popularity had increased (kahan yaar!)...suddenly my google talk tells me there is a message with the title "IIMB results are out"....and I knew.....that the time had come...the results had started to pour....The next 4 hrs were frustrating...for me cos others werent putting up the results and B was the only call I had not got...and even more frustrating for my cousin, who had his eyes under those Karunanidhi type glasses, as I was switchin the lights on and off in the room with the comp where he was trying to "get better" by sleepin.

Term tests next day....and had to study!...but knowin tht results that could change your life might have been put up at that very moment was too unnerving...At 12, after I had promised my cousins twice at 10 30 and 11 tht tht was the last time I m checking the results, I went and switched on the monitor again...this time I only heard a grudge from him(who had asked u to play cricket baby!)...I again refreshed all the window panes :) of the 5 IIMs...the only one tht showed a slight difference was the one of IIMC....
IIMC final calls it said....
Knew this was it!
the world seemed to zero in on the computer screen...
entered my reg no. and dob...
and then what I saw was the screenshot shown....

For a moment I couldnt say anything....or think anything.....and the whole room seemed to be echoing disappointment...So I sat there lookin at the screen for sometime...this was not the news my mom dad would like to hear when they wake up tom...but tht is the truth!

A story that means a lot to me

Fourty years ago, on a rainy evening, Dadar station, the train comes to a halt....and a youth in his late teens steps out of the train. Wearing a shirt and a lungi, a briefcase in one hand(a metal one....the kind the dubbawalas use) and a rolled bed on the other, two hundred rupees in his pocket and a half torn letter, he put his foot on the soil that was going to change his life forever.
A man standing in his mid 30s walks towards the boy and confirms that he was the boy that was supposed to be there as per a letter he had received a few days back. The boy hands the letter he was carrying in his pocket and looks at the man with anxious eyes.
The man reads the letter twice and shakes his head and says in fluent malayalam " My brother knows nothing, What can I do to help u kid? I myself stay in a lodge.".
Dumbstruck by this revelation, the boy says nothing...he simply stares at the Dadar platform board and recollects the statement made by his fathers friend ' You take this letter to him, he is well off there..I will in the meantime post that you are coming on such and such day...Dont worry, he will take care of everything'.
The man after thinking for sometime continued " See, I cant help u today in anyway....as I cant take u with me."
The boy said nothing again....he just kept staring at the board. Rain had already done its work on him. He knew the chances of spending the night on the platform loomed. This was not what he had expected when he had left his home in Kerala, with the responsibility of providing a helping hand to his father so that his six younger siblings could have a better life.
The man went on.." May be I will be able to help you tomorrow, but today as u see I m helpless"
This entire conversation was being listened to by an old woman and her son, who were fellow travellers in the same compartment as the boy and had generated a liking towards this boy because of his gentle mannerisms.
The old woman steps forward and suggests that the boy could spend the night at her brothers place in Parla! The look on the face of the boy, was not of delight, not of relief but of supreme gratitude. He understood what this woman had offered, though just a shelter for the night, was not one anyone would offer as it was very difficult to trust anyone for that matter.
Forty years have passed since that evening, and he still remembers every instant of those few moments. The journey had been no way easy. He had to struggle quite a lot initially. Knowledge was never his problem and he knew that. The problem was communicating with people as the only English he knew was the one in the text books used in Malayalam colleges. But slowly but steadily he improved, started climbing the corporate ladder and today he stands as the Country head for the IT Dept of SCI.

He had done all that he had set out to do, he had taken care that all his siblings were settled in, he had made sure that his name be taken with utmost respect everywhere, he had helped many relatives and friends realise their dreams by bringing them to Mumbai and giving them the right breaks for which till date he keeps getting cards on New Year's. But more than that he had made sure that his wife, his kids never faced a problem. He had made sure that his daughter and son would get the best education possible, best comforts possible and despite his tedious schedules, he made sure that his children wont ever complain that there was not enough love available.

The story above is of my father's. Wishing him Many many happy returns of the day( I m such an useless kid...forgot to get any gift!!)....I love him a lot...And whatever I m, however I am, I owe it completely to him...Thanks Dad for being there always!

IIM I Experience - Better late than never

Addiction to any activity was one of the weakness I had put in all my IIM forms...and to prove myself honest I have been playing fifa06 for the past 2 weeks without any break...So little wonder I couldnt post nething...but as the title suggests...better late than never..

So here goes...

The story begins from my exit from the IIMC interview....after which I had thought I had seen them all....Indore was never on a very high rank on my priority scale...So just relaxed...Despite being very sure that they were going to ask technical questions...made no efforts to do ne study whtsoever...here is the result...(So this is a reminder to all those kids who dont take studies seriously...this could happen to u too...)

Date:26th March 2006

The centre was at Vashi....Had no issues reaching there thanks to the IMS guys who had taken the pain to post the map of the place....

GD was a case study....a pretty long one....most parts of the case made no sense whtsoever(It was fun to read though...the writer might be of an engineering background too...Lots of free time to write all tht stuff)...It was pretty chilled...8 people...I started the GD...made some points(good or bad I dont know...points nevertheless)...but whateva..structured the GD in between....and according to me did enuff so that I didnt get kicked off just due to my GD...Had to write a summary too..Thanks to Jayants tips I knew tht I had to be quick while writing the summary...so managed to get done with tht too..

Now they were callin people in random order...Kind of stupid as u dont know when ur turn will come(When u got to go....u got to go...)And its worse when u are the 7th one to be called of the 8 in the group...more so cos...By the time your turn comes...there is hardly anyone nearby to listen to ur exponentially worsening jokes...

So after a wait of 3 Hrs my turn finally does come...The panel was the same as tht of the GD...2 guys in their early or mid 30s...A mucchad(MP) and a bald fair(BG) guy

MP: Long wait outside haan...
Me: Thats the beauty of IIM interviews...we can make friends from all over the country

BG: What were u ppl discussin
Me: General stuff...like jokes(Was abt to tell him abt all the swearing tht was being dished out abt Indore but....somehow my control is growing per day)

MP: Why fluctuatin marks
Me: Answered(wahi gissa pitta jawab)

And from here the techie(or was it!) begins

MP: Wht is the difference between IT and Comps
Me: IT more towards communication but Mumbai Univ missed the trick...nearly have the same syllab but for some swappin in the elective and compulsory subjects..

MP: Wht is Information Theory in Info theory and Coding(tht was a subj for us...which I had scored big time in)
Me: fundas on info and data ...abt uncertainity and all

MP: Not impressed by that answer....Who does the coding in Info Theory and coding(ITC)?
Me: WHAT(well dont read too much into tht line...I havent been able to figure out wht he wanted till now!)

MP: Who does the coding in ITC..
Me(after a bit more of whats) :I mean coding we do..implemetation by machine in case of codes like Huffman

MP(shakes his head): u have heard of coding in Mobiles
Me: We used J2ME in coll to code

MP: Was wht u wrote a code?
Me: yeah!(we compiled and ran it....wht else could it be)
MP: No(Again shakes his head)

MP:So u dont know ITC...wht else do u know...okie tell me the types of data structures
Me:arrays,stacks,queues,linkedlist
MP(after a bit of defns): how do u define the size of an array..(this leadin eventually to)..Wht s a 32 bit computer
Me(trying to recollect...Only god knows why I m trying for an IT engg certi): I think it is the number of bits tht can be processed at a given time...the data bus capacity or something
MP(shakes his head in utter disbelief...):NO

MP:okie leave that tell me u know of algos used for data structures
Me:U mean to say like sorting

MP:yeah...do diff data structures need different algos?
Me: (again thinkin)I guess it obviously should

Now MP had had enuff...he says nothing and just pushes my form and certis to BG

BG: So u were the GS?wht all did u organise
Me: Yeah...went on for sometime(Was happy finally someone asked this!)

BG: name some woman grandmasters
Me: Koneru Humpy I know...but dont follow chess as much..I play well(if there was one more interview i could as well made a tape)

BG:U watch football..English Spanish League??Who won the Leagues
Me(Now thts straight into my territory):Chelsea-English, Barca-Spanish

BG: name the order of english league last season...which finally lead to name some star players in Man U
Me: Named the entire squad and pointed out tht I m really passionate abt the club and feel every player is a star in the club!

They look at each other after a few more generic football questions like the whereabouts of beckham and all and then they tell me I can go...so an interview spanning 10 min..thts all

The impression they would have undoubtedly made would have been techie zero..not so bad in Extras....

According to an IIMC senior...also an Alumni of Somaiya...have told me the results shuld be out by 15th April.....

So tht was tht.....The journey reaches a destination....No more me joining politics questions..no more techie stuff...No more stress or gyaan on me not having girlfriends(Though that gyaan has seriously started to haunt me)!!!

But whatever said....This has been a really educative experience...I get in or not is immaterial(just bein too theatrical....it really does matter)...Only that which matters is the thrill involved...which makes it an experience to savour