apparent apparitions

We came, she smiled and he fell for it

2008-12-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

Delhi, Indore, Mumbai, Singapore, Trivandrum, Bangalore: traveling to more than 6 cities and meeting more than 50 friends in the last 15 days, I have been down the memory lane so many times I have realized that the more I go down that road, the more vivid and more pleasurable it becomes... I thought I would let you people get a sneak preview into these journeys, for more details .. err Contact ME :)

Singapore

Kondu, Bullshee and ME embarked on the first international trip amidst a lot of speculation that we would scoot at the last moment and that going international is a frontier a bit too far.. well we proved them wrong and we had a helluva time. I agree Spore is smaller than Bangalore, hell I heard it is smaller than trivandrum.. but believe me in terms of entertainment quotients it has more to offer than all 4 metros combined! well maybe I am exaggerating, but again you did not have the opportunity to see Bullshee in action. Let me give you one excerpt:

First night in Singapore and we venture into the first bar that comes our way. One cute waitress comes to take the order and she (un)knowingly smiles at Bullshee. Bullshee smiled back at her and grinned his infamous 'kaamaprandha chiri' (amorous grin) and she grinned back him and said 'Nanri' ( thank you in Tamil) .. and from first principles we came to the conclusion that the waitress had to be pitch drunk to something so foolhardy ... well, little did we know..

Waitress: Hey, Can I get you ppl something *burp*

BS: Yeah, get us a jug of beer

waitress comes back with the beer and smiles again and mumbles something, comes up to us with a small glass of her own and pours some beer into the glass and says cheers!
bullshee for people who do not know him is very possessive about two things: his bike and his beer and his girl(when he finds one)
Bullshee doesn't even notice this while Kondu is completely pissed off and is worried about the waitress asking for one of his ciggys next ..
meanwhile Bullshee introduces himself: Hey call me KK .. ( yeah you heard me right, K and then another K)
Me and kondu mumble our rather unpronounceable Indian names ( according to Bullshee, these pretty damsels cannot pronounce the letter R) after which the waitress giggles and mentions her name- Sharon ... Bullshee is out for the count, in 7th heaven and is chanting her name .. sharon, shaaron .. shaaaaaron !
He even tried teaching her some Mallu vernacular, leveraging on her limited Tamil vocabulary( she knew only one word in tamil .. nanri .. bullshee tried to convert that into Nanni) trying to increase the the compatibility and parental acceptance levels...

Many jugs of beer later interspersed with multiple chanting of sharon, sharon ... Sharon was back with the bill .. Bullshee pounced on the bill, took out his wallet and flashed a $50 note .. the conniving waitress brings back the change, smiles at Bullshee and said "Nanri, KK" .. and that is when all hell broke loose, Bullshee threw all the money from his wallet in the direction of Sharon, and started thumping his chest and started crooning and dancing in Elvis priesley sshtyle, " take all my money, darling .. I just want you to call me .. KK"

yeah, we lost a lot of money, but that performance was worth hundred times more than any live concert I have been to .. what happened to Bullshee's and Sharon's love story, u ask .. well, I be damned if I know .. Kondu and I were too busy collecting all the cash that Bullshee had showered around Sharon !

There was also the 'topless bus", HOOTERS bar, sunday evening pick me ups in clarks quay, the awesome water and gravity defying frisbee sessions at Sentosa, brainstorming sessions to feed the pesky kids in the backseat to the lions ... but all that pales in front of this incident .. believe me this set the tone for the entire trip .. Bullshee YOU ROCK !

London Diaries

2008-05-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

the month that was:

Well I have been waiting in the wings for a perfect moment to happen but so many things have happened which have fallen in the category of 'almost perfect' .. and I am not ready to wait no more ( to be read as: I am not getting sleep)

So here goes the list of .... random things that happened in the last one month:

1. Chelsea losing the champions league final and also the league to ManU. Somehow I have a feeling that missed penalty is going to change a lot of things at Chelsea.

2. Getting to see a live photo shoot, and that also I suspect it was some lingerie modeling, was too good to be true. It happened right across my office ( my office is on the 13th floor) and it all seemed surreal.. until later in the day i came to know that my team mates had a telescope installed on the 14th floor for their 'viewing pleasure' !

3. Seeing an ad which said 125 pounds per week to stay in central London.. yeah yeah I am not dreaming. I saw it .. and I diligently took down the number and was about to call when I realized it was for a car parking space! .. people pay 10,000 bucks per week to park their car .. to quote a good friend of mine " I could buy a Maruti 800 in two weeks with that money" - no dont ask me which model!

4. Getting hooked up with a European girl .well this bubble burst pretty quickly . she had another boyfriend .. and more importantly she was 30! ( well in my defense she did not look that old)

5. Shopping: After shopping for one week in central London ( window shopping, they just wouldnt allow me inside in my attire) we landed up at Oxford street where you could haggle and get things cheaper and see discounts being given in every alternate shop , and surprise surprise .. either all teh shops are owned by Indians .. or the goods sold are made in India ( or sri Lanka, or taiwan . or yeah China) ..

6. The secretary got stuck in the lobby and I rescued her with my mmm .. ID card .. but the look on her face was priceless .. ( for those who don't know the story behind this, ping me for personal details .. )

7. Chelsea football club: Went and visited the Stamford Bridge and took loads and loads of photographs :) .. but the megastore was too pricey to buy anything ... :(

well will continue this thread later .. gotta go back to sleep .. have a big day tomorrow.

Tag

2008-04-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

I got tagged and given I am not busy eating bacon and eggs ..(although I still struggle to gulp down bread and cornflakes every morning) .. I have decided to do the honourable thing. So here goes:

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: RACE,(No I am not cogging from Anphy, IIM professors instill enough fear in us, that even people like me put away the small bits of paper that were as essential as a calculator) .. the movie was crap! even by Bollywood standards. The only saving grace was that I was flanked by two pretty ladies which made for a pleasant distraction.

2)WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?: Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini. Now don't stare at the screen like that .. I DO read books once in a while .. its a very touching novel, and the irony that the author brings out makes it very enjoyable and realistic to a great extent. Must read. ( gawd, I sound like those rediff book reviewers)

3)FAVORITE BOARD GAME? : Does Pool/Snooker count ?? hmm.. would have to be Chess. My love started when I could beat my mom and sister with uncanny ease. My mom mistook me for the next 'Viswanathan Anand' and enrolled me in some professional tournament, and the next 15 chess games made me understand that board games are not my cup of tea. I had a second lease of Chess mania when I got new scapegoats in the form of my niece and nephew .. but they have also caught on and have started having airs about themselves .. I guess its time I enrolled them in the same professional tournament !

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? : Reader's digest .. RD has been my favorite for variety of evolving reasons: initially it was the laughter the best medicine and the 'humor in uniform' .. then it was the Otto Berlington ads .. and then it was for the classy articles and captivating stories. RD gets my vote hands down.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS? : Coffee, the smell of the earth when the first showers wet the ground, but the winner is :
the smell of pudina chutney and idli that Mom makes .. coming from a person stuck in London with Cornflakes and butter toasts .. dear readers please empathize.

6. FAVORITE SOUND? : "ok, time is up, everyone put your pens down" .. which inevitably indicates the end of (yet) another exam and gets me that much closer to my MBA degree. Never before has studies been a struggle. But never before did I learn so much either. No pain, no gain.

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? : You move ahead in life and then you realise that you could have done some previous part differently. Regret can gnaw away at your happiness very quickly. And, believe me, its very painful.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?: Different things through different phases in life:

pre schooling days: Did I wet my bed today ?

2nd - 5th : What is the day today ? Is there a PT period today ? ( PT period is like a games period)

6th - 8th : Oh shit, I am going to be late for the school bus again.

9th - 10th: Oh there is a cricket match today, what excuse can I make at home so that I can stay home and watch the match ?

11th - 12th: not another tuition .. I hate tuitions, I hate CBSE, I hate studies .. oh crap I am late again ..

post 12th : I wish I were in School ..

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? : Pizza hut .. I know its not exactly fast food .. but that's how close I get to eating fast food outside. I miss the ambiance ( or lack of it) and the gang of friends who used to hang out there ..

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? : There is a tradition in my family where the first male child gets the name of the grand father and female of the grand mom. So ... Mom, happy ? ( it never hurts to remain in mum's good books)

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...? : BE RICH ! .. other than stating the obvious .. I would buy a penthouse in London , Paris, Mumbai and yeah get myself a beach house/mansion in Goa ... blah blah .. Always have dreamed about HOW I would get rich .. never reached the part about how I would spend the money .. guess I have to sleep more from now on .. :)

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? : Yeah .. as fast as my Honda Activa takes me . ok don't laugh. It can be pretty quick for city roads. *shrugs his shoulders*

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? : No. Come to think of it .. thats one thing even 'Caligula' did not have .. the person who wrote this question must be a genius.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY? – Cool .. I love the weather and the rain lashings .. as long as it does not lead to a power cut ( and the subsequent calls to the electricity board people)

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? – hot wheels ? trying to buy a Merc, hmm .. inherit rather ..or is it acquire .. ( will make do with a Merc as Dowry .. guahahahaha ..) all u feminists out there .. SHUT UP!

16. FAVORITE DRINK? : Sweet Lassi served with Malai on top .. Thats the closest I have got to losing my senses over a drink ..

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD..” – read books, play football, watch football, talk to my friends, and yeah sit at home and eat mom's food ..

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? : I eat anything that is classified VEG. Anything.

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? : BLACK. BLACK. BLACK. i.e. if there is any hair left to be dyed in a few years time .. :(

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN : Ambala, Bathinda, Naliya ( Gujarat), Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Agra, and yeah last my hometown TRIVANDRUM .. and yeah presently in London doing my internship!

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? : Football, EPL in particular .. passionate about Chelsea FC. Also follow tennis, Basketball. Cricket .. actually leave me in a room with a TV which has sky and setanta sports and I would happily spend a few days ( or is that a few months) there in solitary confinement.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU : I could get away with saying that she is 'nice' , cute, understanding .. or blah blah ... but the one thing that differentiates her from the other females I know is her attitude and the 'non girly' things that she does .. ( I am not sure she would agree with me) .. but still ..

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? : My football boots, my socks, shin guards, and yeah under some circumstances .. ME.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? : Yeah. I love being myself and also the chances that I get such wonderful parents and sister is close to impossible. I would take up that offer any day.

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? : night owl - used to sleeping at 5 am everyday. IIM life can do that to your bioligical clock. Otherwise you would miss out on all the fun that happens on Campus ..

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP? :hmm.. *ignorance disclaimer* .. hence left unanswered

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? : Home, any place with lotsa friends, or some place with just my closest buddies .. nothin better than to have someone close to you who can understand whats going through your brain without ever having to utter a word ..

28. FAVORITE PIE?: walking back the memmory lane, the pie that i most fondly remember has to be 'American Pie I' .. that Nadia female was HOT !

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? : Butterscotch .. any day.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? : nice try .. what makes you think I will tag this to anyone . :P

And there ends the ordeal of answering 30 Q .. ( frankly i got bored by the time i reached the 15th Q . i can sympathise with ppl who managed to read this far) .. thanks a lot for the patient hearing ..
Office beckons .. *I wish I was back in School*

Photo Faux Pas

2008-04-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

This blog reminds me of a crazy incident that happened to me long time back ..

My school gang was meeting at some restaurant to have lunch and catch up on the latest gossip ( and create some more) .. and there across the floor sat one very beautiful girl ( and as it always happens she was there with her boyfriend and other friends who looked like they were ready to kill her boyfriend to get their chance) .. All the straight males in the gang ( me included of course) started drooling all over her, but given the number of her boyfriends sitting with her, that was how far we were going to get ...

And then we hit upon this crazy idea of getting her foto and after a lot of attempts ( which were in no way discreet) we succeeded ( no points for guessing who was the main protagonist (!!) in this whole scene)

--->> fast forward one whole year ------>>

I am sitting with my girlfriend ( now don't ask which one) and there enters her 'best friend' and surprise surprise its a face I remember vaguely ( yeah, right) and to my astonishment that friend remembers MY face vividly... you can only imagine ( or.. can you ?) how the conversation would have proceeded from there onwards .. thankfully it was short and to the point and embarrassing to say the least !

In the end I was left wondering about two things :

first : Why do the girl friends best friend always have to be the 'super hot' female who looks 10 times hotter than ur own girlfriend and make you feel like u make the wrong choice ..

the second one was : Where the hell did I store the photo that we took that day ???

'broken' experiences

2008-02-06T04:42:00.000-08:00

I know I have been really late in posting here. Initially it was the work pressure: coming from the s/w industry where i worked shorter hours than a govt employee, this was a rude shock to me.

Gradually the pressure lifted (atleast for ppl like me who thought it would be wise to just side step and enjoy the two years out here .. )

there are so many things to write about: my first term, first week, t nite, summers, the dorm parties and teh dorm naming ceremony etc etc . the list goes on and on and on ..

but the inspiration to blog comes for totally different reasons,

I just heard two very interesting stories from a friend of mine regarding HER life experience:

story 1
--------

She is walking down a pretty busy street trying desperately to ignore the stares of a particular man who kept rotating his head as the sunflower might in case the sun attempted to flee all of a sudden.. In her desperate attempt to get away from that place, she ended up breaking up her slippers. Totally dazed at her good luck, she tried in vain to flag down an auto ( murphy's law: when u need an auto, there are many coming ur way but all of them are ALWAYS occupied) .. she looked around for a cobbler who might be able to fix it for her ( so she claims) and then ... ok lets save tat for later ...

what would you ppl have done ?

- waited patiently for an auto and caught one and gone home? ( estimated cost: 50 bucks)

- my friends must be sniggering to themselves muttering under their breath" who cares about the slippers, I would chuck them and take the next bus home .. "

- worst case: called up a friend and asked him/her to pick u up from that place ..

- look around for a shop where u can buy an alternate pair of slippers ..

do i see some of you out there saying " yup, that would be a good idea" .. well she did exactly that . the problem was the nearest shop was a REEBOK showroom and she ended up buying a brand new sneakers worth around 5ooo bucks !!!! . My marketing profs keep preaching about impulsive buys and mind space, but this to me was mind boggling and outright stupid to say the least .. when I tried to talk sense into her ..she told me another incident which is

story 2
-----------

Have always heard from everyone who can speak that experience brings in loads of confidence to handle similar situations .. guess thats exactly what happened in her case..

she had a pretty decent day in office and towards the end of the day realized that the fly of her jeans was malfunctioning .. *stop laughing guyz, it is NOT funny*

(btw i must admit that i myself doubled over with laughter when i heard this) *grin*

Not to be outdone this time and armed with the proverbial experience of being in a 'similar' situation this time she does not even hesitate to make a quick exit from her office and hurries back ( home u think ?? nah .. ) .. she makes a beeline for the nearest Levi's store and gets herself a new pair of jeans worth 4K !!!

all things said and done money is supposed to be spent and it depends on the person on how he/SHE wants to spend it .. but i do wish to god that next time she is travelling in an auto, let the auto breakdown in front of a Merc showroom and there be no other transportation in the vicinity

ps: I always wanted to drive a Merc :) ..

akkare akkare akkare !

2007-06-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

My friend came from Tuticorin (where he claims he works) to tvm so that he could catch a flight to Dubai today. He lands at 10 in the morning and calls Anilesh and goes on a shopping spree .. ( he has an allowance of 10K for the trip accessories and he plans to get everything. for ppl who know my colg gang . its JT).

excerpts from what transpired during this period of total chaos:

scene 1
------------

J.t barges into the costliest retail store in the city and proclaims : "I don't care how much it costs, but I need the best."

hearing this, the prettiest damsel saleswoman walks over ,smiles demurely and asks " what is it that you intend to buy sir ?"

J.T (unabashedly) : get me 5 underwear !!!!

ps: anilesh looked around and said " I am NOT with him " and walked away.

scene 2
------------

They go into another showroom to get a tie. JT is in a very foul mood because he lost more than half an hour due to uncooperative(!!) staff at the previous place. so he goes into this shop, grabs a tie and says " I will pay the cash now, you can make the bill later .. "

the shop ppl being very honest and truthful (as all Indians are) say that they would not part with the 'tie' unless they have a bill for the transaction ..

JT grumbles "I hate these bloody Indians" and says in a dubai accent " ok ok hurry it up"

While the saleswoman is packing the tie .. JT gets hold of the bill, pays it and starts marching out of the shop .. perplexed and surprised .. the sales lady calls behind him " Sir, don't you need this thing" . She is holding in her hand the tie for which JT had just paid the bill.

JT .. nope , I don't need it .. you can keep it! " and walks out of the showroom triumphantly for having saved some time ..by not picking up the tie (yet paying for it).

Anilesh does the mopping up this time round.

Scene 3
----------

Next they move into a shoe bazaar ( chor bazaar types) and some thug hands him a shoe that he claims is 'woodlands' and is selling it at a discount - now it costs just 2500 .. JT jumps at the bargain and gives him the cash and before he could say " you can give me the bill later", the thug has vanished !!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

he somehow finishes his shopping, get home. packs everything he has just bought + the official samples ( this is the reason why he is flying to dubai) and we pack him off to the airport .. we reach there and give him an emotional send off and start on our way back .. halfway back from the airport he calls and asks us to come back to the airport ..

me: why? what happened ?
JT: eda, they are not letting me take those samples with me .. so you guys will have to take it back.

me: then what will you do once you get there ? what will you show your client ?
JT: I have taken fotos, I will show them the snaps of the sample.

Ok ppl .. the sample that he was taking with him was some kind of SOIL .. foto of soil ????

scene 4
-----------
emigration check officer (ECO) : sir are you going on business?
JT : (impatiently) yes yes .. (looks at his Rolex watch).

ECO : Sir , could you please show me the license?
JT : huh , what license?

ECO: Sir don't you know .. you need a license to export Underwear from India to Dubai !

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I seriously doubt how he would last in Dubai for 5 days . I hope he keeps his hands in his pockets(!) and more importantly doesn't venture out to shop on his own .. ALL THE BEST J.T

nb: special thanks to Anilesh for filling me in on what I missed .. I arrived late(as usual) and missed the shopping part!

Cheque washing!

2007-05-24T01:55:00.000-07:00

I know I have not been blogging regularly and as Bullshee says " this blog has spider webs hanging off it!" .. hmm .. am no cleanliness freak .. and lil spideys never hurt anyone .. so all those wannabe spidermans .. walk in and get bitten !

I was hanging out at my friends place, I get a call from my roomie-Thanku. He was going bonkers about some cheque.(uncashed one ofcourse!)

Thanku: Eda, do you remember giving me a cheque for 12K some time back ?
Me : err .. hmm ... yeah! (unless he is talking about something that i have to return .. what is the harm in saying YES!)

Thanku : hey, that cheque got washed off..

I have heard about bouncing cheques .. but washed off cheques.. *perplexed*

I knew that he had gone to some water theme park with his 'friends' .. but diving in with your wallet that has a cheque worth 12K .. ridiculous!

Me : so ?

Thanku : Do you think I can get another cheque from that person ?
Me : err .. *sheepish grin* ... time to own up my mistake .. which cheque are you talking about ?

Thanku : tries explaining .. eventually he succeeds! should have heard his sigh of relief at that point of time .. worth more than that washed out cheque i tell you!

Me : sure .......I will........ try asking him.. ( am still dazed that he had not encashed this cheque because this 'recent' incident happened almost two months ago!

He murmurs his thanks and signs off .. and leaves me thinking ..

1. What if the cheque was from some person I hardly knew .. slim chance he would write me another one!
In such a scenario who ends up being the loser ?

Me - who got my friend the phone worth 12K

or
Thanku: the person who lent me the 12K.

I thought and then decided let the JUNTA decide .. SO ..what do you people think ? ( i can always delete the 'unfavourable' posts! )

A positive

2007-04-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

A positive : - Kudos to the Aussies who have yet again won the world cup, they have a way of making a mockery of the finals every time .. first it was pakistan, then India and now Sri Lanka. I commiserate dear Lankans , guess the kangaroos were too much for the Lankan tigers to digest.

If that 'Island' ( i meant Australia) could have been banned from playing WC finals .. the last thee world cups would have been won by the sub continent 'so called giants' . one for each of 'em.. guess the next final would be between Bangladesh and Australia .. *fingers crossed*

A positive: second meaning .. yeah yeah .. thats my blood group .. so if u see me in a hospital bed saying .. " muzhe thoda blood chahiye,mera gala sookh raha hai" please you know which flavour I want!

and as an afterthought: i got through IIM A .. IIM A ( let me check that once again so that I can be sure I am not dreaming) *refresh the page once again*

guess that would classify as a positive, or would it ? ( rhetorical Q, please don't bother answering that one!)

Would like to thank all the well wishers, ppl who prayed for me, ppl who guided me, prepared me for the interviews. Thanks a lot ..

Roomies, all said and done.. no1 can clear even his kindergarden series tests ( do they have one?) if the roomies conspire against that person .. thankfully my roomies were busy conspiring on how to empty my coffers once i get in .. thanks a lot dudes for all those tied knots .. those long hours of 'forced' silence and abstinence from Television.
special thanks to all the 'candle lighters' .. somehow I feel those candles are magical .. thanks Tommy!
Also to the 'transporter' .. for porting me to the venues and waiting there to bring me back also !

and yeah would like to thank HIM .. without him nothing would have happened .. thanks a lot GOD ! I owe you one .. :)
would like to ask just one more favor from HIM .. let all those 'treat mongering' friends suffer from 'treatophobic amnesia' .. :)

Cheers.

cricketophobia

2007-04-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Curtains will soon be drawn on the world cup, where everyone expected it to be a 'grand finale', there are more than enough pointers to indicate that this would be yet another 'we came-we saw- we won' world cup for the australians. you ask me what pointers?? here goes:

1. The ardent and irrepressible Cricket fans have gone silent, SetMax has been all but tuned out. My roomies prefer watching Mallu serials and Discovery channel to sitting and watching (yet another) annihilation by the aussies or for that matter seeing 'India glorious' on ESPN. (tired of seeing the same matches over and over again! did India win only these many matches??)

2. The sports page in Papers is filled with some golfing exploits of an ethnic african whose great grand father was an Indian ( we indians have a tendency to tag anyone worthwhile as Indian, if we can ie)

3. The ads in between overs (yeah we do watch the matches sometimes) are pathetic. Seen the BINGO ads anyone ?? (vaaango -poooongo-bingo!) *aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh*

4. My roomie discussses 'globalization' and 'quota issues' over dinner (yeah I know its not relevant .. but couldnt help it) *grin*

5. There is a sense of respect for the Bangladesh team all of a sudden. they are Minnows no more .. wait maybe we could reclassify Indians in that case .. how about 'whipping boys' of world cricket?

Wait, I sound like some delusioned fan who is venting his anger just because of the one-off defeat at the hands of Bangladesh. hmm . maybe I am .. and yes it hurts ..it hurts to see an 'island' thats maybe 1/50 the size of India and is also split in half by the LTTE producing such sublime cricketers and entering the world cup final, whereas the BCCI convenes a 'meeting' and decides to sack the coach (wat can he do ? teach those superstars how to hold a bat?) and 'rest' the senior players and prepare for the enormous 'battle' against Bangladesh. Sad .. real sad.

All things said and done, have to admit there would be more viewership to the India-Bangladesh match (if its shown on DD) than for the world cup final ! Thats Indian fans my friends .. yeah thats US (yup I am one of 'em allrite)

Afterthought: all the best to South Africa and if that doesnt work - to Sri lanka ..cmon make a fist of it .. make me eat 'humble pie' .. well everyone cheers for the Underdogs, dont we!

Me-Myself ( and Irene)

2007-04-18T02:50:00.000-07:00

Have been reading a book : 'Blink' . am still reading it so cant say definitively as to what the author says, but from what I have read I inferred the following:

No matter how much we sit and analyse,think and break our head over an issue or problem, our own sub(un) conscious mind would have already SHOUTED out the solution within a blink of an eye. We just dont listen to what it says , maybe it sounds like Mr Suresh Kumars voice - a prof who had the privilege of teaching me during my college days (!).

Well If I were to somehow acquire the required expertise and cunningness using which I could decipher what my alter-ego yells at me, then I would be in a quandary. Have always believed in the dictum " do what you think is right" . Now things would get a bit difficult- which part of me do I listen to - my subconscious mind or my rational thinking, analytical Conscious brain?

lets take an eg:
I see a girl in the mall, whom I so badly want to hit on ( u might think i am really desperate, wel I am! )
my subconscious mind tells me : go for it buddy, after all she has eyes only for u !

my conscious mind says: look dude, she has eyes only for u - she is glowering at u ! she has a boyfriend who looks lik all that you are not - tall, handsome and more importantly has a 6ft 6'' frame. She has been on a shopping spree for the last 8 hours ( not good news for my wallet)

Which of these 'voices' would you like to hear ? The one that gets you beaten up, bruised,bankrupt and running for cover. Or the one that gives u the sensible option, a boring time at the mall and err some more boring hours afterwards!

I would prefer both .. atleast I get to make a choice, next time I say " abe, she looked at me, chal follow karte hain .. listen its not the quixotic valentine inside me thats doing the talking, its my subconscious brain!!"

Well everyone is here to make a difference, to do something unique. Irrespective of which voice we listen to, we will end up on a fork on the road and will have to make a choice ( la Matrix) .. just be sure that you dont mess up at that time ..
still in doubt?? well I have a solution for that also : " when in doubt, act DUMB"

Waiting . . .

2007-04-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

Yes I am still waiting for a reply from that female , and NO a simple "hi kaise ho" scrap on ORKUT does NOT count as a reply.
If you think I spend the whole day in office peeling off the rose petals and saying " she loves me, she loves me not" get a grip on it .. i am not brooding over that, not yet anyway.

When are your results coming? That is the only Question that people want to ask me nowadays. even my mamaji's chachaji's nephew's new born sons kindergarden friend asks me that very question !
Pehle pehle to it was similar to " how are you? how was the weekend ? " kind of questions but after a certain threshold it gets under the skin. It was so irritating that I sat down and instead of reading all the blogs and tabloids and economictimes (kya kare aadat se bechar hoon) I sit and think why do they ask me this question. I raked my brains and came with the plausible conclusions

1.My teammates- " They see me as an 'outsider' now and want me to be where I belong ( no not IIM) ie OUTSIDE ! "

2. company ppl -"they empathise with me and want to alleviate the pain that I am suffering by sittin on my bum the whole day counting the number of ppl who peep into my cube and sulk away when they see me grinning at them. '

3. Friends - " Friends being friends , wishing me well , want to see me doing something worthwhile for a change" (yeah rite .. they want the treat !! everything else comes later!)

4. Roomies : " they really wish me well and want me to do well and blah blah" ( get out so that we can fag inside the house and dont have to worry abt ur 'tantrums' !! and also the treat )

Hope I make it through this time esp coz I don't want to break so many hearts ( and MINE).

Every time I hear some1 ask me that question, I know any reply that I give could be misconstrued as being presumptuous, cocky, arrogant or dismissive depending on the 'Pakaoo' answers that I give them ..

Wait .. waiting *raps fingers on the table*.. still waiting ..
"time is one thing that I have in plenty but patience is definitely not my cup of tea .."

Much Ado about Nothing

2007-04-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Always knew I was never good with the one liners, but was under the impression that I could hold my own once it come s to a proper 'conversation', just wen u think things cant get any worse, fate conspires to take u down - way down !

I had been to Hyderabad this weekend, my sister graduated from ISB and is officialy an MBA grad now! (time for the pocket money to trickle in hopefully). Back to the point .. nope I was not overawed by the dazzling articulate grads at ISB but by a female whom I met at the airport.

She was there at the airport on Friday as well wen we were supposed to board the train err flight to Hyderabad. She was really in a hurry that day so .. *grin*

She was behind me in the check in counter in the Hyderabad airport.

me: hi, were u by any chance there in the Friday flight from blore ?

EB : yeah I was ..

we talk a little more and just as we were warming up to each other ..

Tring tring .. SANKAR calls asking me to come to the gate so that he can come inside ( we had bukd tickets together)

conversation breaks ... and then he comes, I introduce him,(he has more hair than she had !)

She is impressed by Sankar. (IBM and GRE and I suspect coz of his hair , or is it her lack of it ?). Time passes by and soon its time to board. We get in and I ditch Sankar and sit with her (had to continue the conversation rite!)

We talked about almost everything she was interested in : books, dance, singing and all that .. she cribbed about her TL ( I wanted to do the same, but restrained myself) she kept telling me Hyderabad is better than blore and her new room was painted 'sky blue' and that she slapped guys for time pass ( I shifted to the far end of my seat at this point of time)!

Well all said and done (read as HEARD) we reached Blore airport and I was waiting for her to at least hint about exchanging phone numbers (or mail ids) .. seeing things were not going to plan :

Me: how do u like the Moto Razr ? (hoping she would give me her number or at least get a hint)
her: My bro give me the phone as a gift, I don't like it very much though ! FULL STOP !
Me : err .. cool

I had to go pick up a pretty heavy suitcase that my sister gave me as her graduation gift to me (loads of USELESS buks) and as I wait for that gift I can see her walking away ... *sigh*

wait .. she turns back-comes towards us -looks at Sankar and smiles and asks him

her: " hope u had a nice flight and slept nicely "
Sankar: yeah, how did you know I was sleeping ?
Me : (he was sitting two rows in front of us , no way she could have seen him )
her : Oh, her voice trails off ..

she turns to me and says a perfunctory bye and whooosh .. shes GONE !

Later I found out that between all the drama (melodrama) I had taken the wrong 40 kilo suitcase and dragged my shoes all the way home .. The owner called me up and asked me to come bak to the airport (with the suitcase ofcourse) ...
Ego buster huh ... but not giving up on her though, have found her out on Orkut. next attack to be launched pretty soon *grin*

Dumb Dumber Dumbest

2007-04-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

Just watch the video on the top and you can vote for the AMERICAN you think is the dumbest ( no offense BULLSHEE )

ps : does look like its just a 'show' but it was too good to resist !

???

2007-04-04T05:37:00.001-07:00

why do we have etiquttes and 'manners'? why do we have to follow them even wen we dont feel like it ?
Ever felt lik " i wanna be myself" .. seen ppl fritter and get fidgety wen they know that they are being 'watched' and trying (pathetically) to do wat they have been TAUGHT is right ! why ?

Let me live the way I want to live. I dont feel lik saying 'good morning' to every moron I meet in office. No i dont feel lik holding the lift so that the obnoxious looking fat guy can delay me another 30 seconds (!!) and I dont want to send 'formal' mails to my manager even though he sits a stones throw away from me .. ( i know coz I have contemplated throwing that STONE at him ! )

Why do we have to wear blazers, full sleeve shirts and shoes (with socks) for interviews ? (if the interviewers are impressed by that why dont they also wear that shit to the interview room ??)

Why do some tasks always have a 'right' way of doing it ??

AND : why do I suffer from an acute hair loss even after trying al 'solutions' ??

I wonder I wonder ... I am still wondering ..

ps: lucky me that there is no 'right' way to blog ... or is there ? (who the hell cares anyway !)

jana tha Chennai , magar gaye Mysore

2007-03-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Nope .. not coz we boarded the wrong flight or train , coz it was a bandh in TN where ppl were protesting against the Supreme courts decision to STAY the OBC quota in IIT's and IIM's based on some outdated sensus taken in 1931(!!!).. the whole Nation mourns the anarchy prevalent in India at the moment (yeah rite!)...

We for once had booked our tickets to Chennai this time (the first time we went by Indian Railways, without ticket and the second time we went with ticket in Unreserved sitting near the *ahem ahem* restrooms (WTF TOILETS) ... so not wanting to do an encore this time, we bukd our tickets and were all rearing to go !

We came to know of this on Friday morning (abt the BANDH) and then there was a heated discussion at home, I tried to sit on the fence (according to Bullshee 'la IIM GD style' ) and wen he said that i said bluntly "nope me not coming" and also put in (u guys should go no matter wat! just to rub it in) .. and I left for office grumbling .. my other roomies sat and slept and ate on it .. and by afternoon i got an SMS - " tickets cancelled .. total loss per person 124 bucks" .. i could only smile ( i mean GRIN).

in between all tat i had already bukd my ticket on the trip to Mysore with my branch mates, they had almost dropped the trip due to lack of 'participation' ! So our trip 'defectors' (there were 3 of us who jumped ship) we were on our way to Mysore ..

well the whole thing was well planned by Devassy ( a dumb friend of mine who got a GATE rank of 17 in the ELECTRONICS category after studying EEE for 4 years) -- but the one thing he could not account for was that the major 'attractions' were in itself not quite up to scratch .. the two best things abt the trip were -

1. The mysore palace security guys catching me and Fahad for allegedly trying to sneak out fotos of the interior ( u are not supposed to take fotos inside) and carry out some terrorist attacks there (!!!) .. I was not aware that Fahad was so much into fotographing palaces, but I was busy talking to my roomie who is in the US .. he had called (ISD u c ) .. the security guy interrupts

SG: hey u there, stop .. why are u using the mobile inside the palace??
me: *hear wat he said and do an 'area scoot' (learnt from Mambu) .. and go to the another corner of the room (palatial room ie) and start talking again ..

SG: (hell, that guy was persistent.. he was jogging towards me now.. ) U there , STOP u !@#$ .. give me the phone ..
Me: *shit i am in trouble* .. leave my gang .. run to the next room, mingle with the crowd..phew that was close !

SG: *jumps in from nowhere* ESCAPE, ESCAPE and then some kannada expletives and catches me by the collar and brings me to the crime scene ..(were i was talking in the first place)

FAHAD has already been cornered and is trying in vain to convince them that he did not do anything wrong .. I pass my mobile to Devassy and also try to convince the guy that i was not using any fone ..(!!!!)

after a lot of cajoling and explaining .. he is still not sure and wants to take me to the Security office and register some complaint and also confiscate the Mobile .. thats wen Shimna comes in ..the only girl in the gang . and the SG asks her
SG: wat do you say madam ?? (OMG )
Shimna : sir, please leave them this time ..(a friend in need is a friend in deed .. thanks shimna) * i almost thought she would say, take them to the gallows*

and voila the SG left us without any cases .. another classic case of GIRL power on display ..

anyway for once we were not complaining .. went on with the sight seeing .. (lotsa foreigners were there .. *grin*)

the second one worth mentioning revolved around April 1st and the arrest of some Siddharammiah in Mysore .. will write abt that later ..

Home sweet home

2007-03-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Its good to be home ,I mean its good to be BACK home .. Esp. for reasons lik u dont have to walk 2 km to get your food(and u dont have to pay exhorbitant rates either!), dont have to clean the room, no office, no worries abt the laundry, or for anything else for that matter.

I had all this in mind wen I literally conned my manager into letting me take the two days off to come down to tvm. Must be his 'baddua' (or for that matter my team-mates who had to share the extra work coz of my Scooooooooot) , but I somehow managed to fall ill and waste the hard earned vacation: having to lie down the whole day without anything edible to eat (who said medicines are edible!!), no TV (damn the doctor) and yeah no pool table get-together with friends , I am hoping Bullshee will update me on that one though ..

well not to be outdone by anyone's 'buddua', I finally came up with a plan to actually not leave tvm with atleast a days enjoyment, and originally slated to return on Tuesday morning, I yet again fell sick and called office saying "I will come in ...*cough* only on Thursday *cough*(!!) " somehow got the leave sanctioned and was pretty eager to start the 'njoyment' .. but alas, all my friends had already left the place and the ones who remained had to go to 'work' .. WTF ! Even my pretty 'next door neighbour' was busy with college exams (or thats wat she told me).. so u can imagine how frustrating it ought to be for me to sit for TWO MORE days doing nothing worthwhile .. *sigh*
Am actually happy that I am coming bak to work tomm, atleast I would be doing something ..(on second thoughts no way!) Managers please note - give ppl vacations like these and it is a possibility that they might end up working better than ever! ( nah .. i have already bukd the tickets for the Easter holidays .. so dont let any wrong ideas into ur brain .. )

C - (anti)climax

2007-03-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

The final interview of the ordeal (yeah attending 6 interviews HAS to be described lik that) was on the 13th -yeah it was Calcutta ..

The GD was good ... we were asked to discuss abt a low cost airlines and its problems with overbooking .. I had many personal opinions based on the air-deccan fiasco(s) so was able to hold my own in the GD .. all in all it was gud , we were asked to summarize orally .. that was also ok ..

The interview: I went in 4th ..

there were 3 ppl this time in the Panel .. P1 P2 and P3
P1: leads me into the room and shows me to the HOTSEAT
P2: ok, introduce yourself ..
Me: start off with the long by-hearted 'introduce yourself' answer ..

P1: interrupts and asks some arbit question ..

Me: i mumble some answer .. and am not sure whether to start all over again or to continue .. and i decide to start all over again .. *grin* .. keep going for around 90 secs .. and then my prep answer is abt to end. I say, "..., my hobbies include Playing futball, tennis, violin and singing" !!

P3: yeah .. sing us a song, we are really bored .. so please sing us a song..
Me: *trapped* . sir I am not into classical music and al ..

P3: well sing me a film song ..
Me: hmm .. ok .. err .. WTF .. yessir .. sing him a SONG .. 4 lines .. and in the end of it .. they actually clapped .. (i am sure it was meant to be sarcastic .. but ignorance is bliss in these cases)

P2: ok, wat do u think makes a great business leader ?
Me: blah blah .. loads of Bullshit (oops thats my roomies proprietary .. but guess he wont sue me for this .. ) *grin*

P2: ok then name one successful bussiness Indian Leader ?
Me: *rake my brain* .. dhirubhai Ambani ..

P2: he is dead .. name a living one ..
Me: err .. *scratch my head* .. Infy boss . narayanamoorthy (i dont even know how to spell his name .. )

P2: he is retired .. do u know who took his place ?
Me : (i dont even know he is retired how would I know who replaced him .. ) err sir .. i am not able to recollect the name .. (!!)

P2: ok .. then . name another person .
Me: azim Premji .. WIPRO head .. *smile*

P3: ok , name 6 people whom you are comparing him with ?
Me: (dont hear it properly) start naming companies ..
P2: interrupts. and says name people ..
Me: name STEVE JOBS and Bill gates ..

P1: takes over .. asks me abt the condition of futball in India .. how to improve and all that ..
Me: the same Q was asked at my IIM A interview .. so was better prepared than last time .. so gave them a pretty comprehensive answer .. the whole discussion took around 10 minutes ..

P2: comes bak into the Interview .. and says .. I have an imp Q to ask u . u said Steve JObs .. why do u think he is a great leader ..
Me: *gulp* .. sir .. i will move from an eg to the generic .. Talk abt the iPhone ..

P2: asks abt the selling points of iphone ..
Me: name around 5 -6 ..
P2: asks the price range ..
Me: 500 -600 dollars ..
P2: ok , I can get all these features for the same money on nokia or Moto, why Iphone ..
Me: sir, luks have a major selling point .. give the example of Moto Razr (say no features but sold 70 million units ..) Everyone laughs ..
P2: so what is Moto doing to counter the threat by Iphone ..
Me: name the drawbacks of iphone ..
P2: see you are contradicting yourself . you said Steve Jobs is a great leader and now u say that his product is worthless .. so wat does that mean ?
Me: *shit* sir .. i meant sir .. err ..err .. sir the market for Iphone and Moto is diff .. so there is no conflict .. thats wat I meant > *lame smile*

P3: ok .. thanks a lot you can leave now ..
Me: thank U sir ..

well no acads .. but Steve Jobs .. I have to learn to keep my mouth shut wen I dont know anything abt wat I am being asked .. *hindsight, nah .. al the interviews are over .. why bother changing*

yeah its great to be back to the lazy old self .. no more magazines reading ..no more editorials ( god knows how I read all that) and no more Thereja .. !!! its good to be back .. and yeah if u are reading this .. welcome to the world of "employed but workless (worthless??) " gang of ppl ..

A -- Agonizingly close

2007-03-07T02:58:00.000-08:00

On 5th I had my A interview .. the biggest of 'em all .. and it seems befitting for the situation that there should be something 'extra' for the occasion .. or so thought the intitution (mayb the profs are fed up of teaching and want to roam around brigade for a change .. ) so there were 3 instead of two .. everything else was the same .. the same waiting rooms .. the same GD rooms .. and more than that my GD group had 6 ppl (out of 8) the same as in the IIM L interview .. ( we could hear ppl saying : "Last time (during L) , u spoke so much, is bar aisa karega maar daloonga !!" )

We entered the GD room, got three papers on our seats, (one with the case study, one paper for rough work and one for summary) .. and the prof told us "no writing TWO or THREE extra words after I say STOP .. ) and I was like *wat the hell .. who is listening to this crap*

the GD was abt some transcriptionist company on the boom and some recruitment problems faced by them .. I was making a very conscious effort to come in early in the GD and brought out some obscure point that I myself thought would be of relevance in the later part. I was given some 5 seconds to elaborate my point and then the whole group shot me down *whooooosh* .. I tried to listen and then wen the oppurtunity presented itself made an attempt again .. this time mayb they gave me 3 seconds , *bang bang* and then i decided that it was better to keep my trap shut and nod my head at the points that they were dishing out ...

Once the GD was over, we were given 5 minutes to summarise. I was the BEST listener (!!!) in the group and obviously had a lot to write down (in chronological order) and by the time I reached the long term solutions discussed, the Prof said STOP, but me in my endevour to bring out the best summary, kept writing furiously. The next I noticed, everyone in the room is staring at me, including the Prof (the one who had said NO writing once i said STOP) , I tried to mumble something .. but alas .. no cognitive syllables came to my mouth. that I thought was the end of my A interview.

Came bak to the waiting room, and we discussed and cribbed ( and I was sulking) abt wat transpired in the GD, the other 7 were happy that they got to speak , two of them even ventured on to say " maine aaj tak itna kisi GD main nahi bola .. aaj to maza aa gaya" (at my expense, of course) :(

I was no. 4 in the panel, biding my time by feasting on the tea (n coffee n biscuits and snacks) made available by the Hotel .. at last my turn came and in I went ..

there were 3 of them .. P1 (the one who was staring at me) P2 (a paavam person) P3 ( lukd lik paavam .. but naah 'first impressions can be deceiving' ..

P1: so you are working at Motorola for the past 8 months ?
Me: yessir (please ask me abt Motorola)
P2: Please name 4 methods of coding ?
Me: (!!!!!!!!) wat sir ?
P1 :repeats the same thing again, this time slowly. methods ..of coding ??
Me: sir, I did not understand .. *err, this is not going according to plan*
P1: there is one method where you do a requirement document and then plan and then code ..
Me: *very eager to tell him the rest* ..sir thats the way coding is done at Motorola, thats the process that we follow.
P2: *sigh* so can you tell us the other methods of coding ?
Me: no sir, am not aware of 'other' methods...*voice trailing off*
P1: ok, leave that .. then wat are you doing at Motorola ?
Me: try to emphasise that the project is mature and we just do maintanence and no coding !!! also mention that we are the best in the market in streaming ..
P2: hmm.. what is streaming? and is it used in india ?
Me : explain .. also try to hint abt 3G phones .. (luckily they let me lead them on .. )
P3: so, wat is 3G ?
Me: explain.. bandwidth, downlink rates .. streaming RDJ, video telephony .. etc etc. also put in 3G licensing in India.. (but they dont fall for that)
P1: which countries have 3G ?
Me: explain .. europe and all .. also mention abt Japan and Korea (pioneers and all )
P2: what abt 4G ? what is diff?
Me: try talking abt QOS .. and also higher quality services .. and Japan .. and Nextel and al
P1 : ok what is the difference between RDJ and normal FM ?
Me : explain that also in detail ..
P1: ok, I will come in later .. now you can grill him .. (luks at the other two .. )
Me: (turn my head to them) ..
P3: Do you watch movies ?
Me: yes sir .. a little bit .. (i did not want to get into that ..)
P3: have you seen 'Pyaar ke Side effects' ?
Me: Rahul bose and Mallika Sherawat ?
P3: *impressed* yes ..
Me: sir I have seen the ads and the posters .. but did not get a chance to see the movie.
P3: but still persists .. did you see Mallika's coffee with Karan yesterday ?
Me: No sir I missed that also ..
p3: then no point in asking you abt Mallika then (sad luk on his face .. wat does he want me to tell him .. that she thinks that she is 'Viagra to the Indian movie industry' and that i completely agree on that with Ms Mallika ??? )
P1: ok, which is the last Movie that you saw ?
Me : sir I watched the 'ghost rider' (thats one shitty movie btw) day before .. at REX (and at this point i point to the theatre which is a stones throw from the hotel)
P2: no no .. the last Hindi movie that you saw?
Me: (smell sumthin fishy) .. I go for ..DHOOM 2 ..(no story, no suspense, so no chances of questions on that one ..)
P1: hmm .. thats so old ..
Me: i watch more regional and English movies .. (excuses *grin* )
P3: ok leave that, what is the single most important event that happ to u this week ?
P2: and please NO budget and NO samjhauta express !! (gud I had forgotten abt the samjhauta one .. )
Me : *move the conversation to futball* .. sir the victory of Chelsea over Arsenal in the Carling cup final .. talk abt Chelsea n the owner .. Ramon Abrahmovic .. billionaire et al

all three were not that into futball .. but gave me a patient hearing ..

P2: ok ok .. you said you played in the Calicut district league and the inter-university for NITC ?
why did you move from Tennis at School to Futbal in colg ?
Me : explain abt 'team game' and also abt being versatile and ability to think and intercept ..

P1 : ok, Tennis has atleast some appeal in India, with Sania and Leander and all .. futball not even one star is there .. then why futball ?
Me: passion, live your dreams .. blah blah .. worlds most watched game .. global appeal .. blah blah

P1: name 5 indian futball clubs ?
Me: name around 8 teams .. (he asked me to stop at that time .. )

P1: if, Ramon Abrahmovic (he had listened to what I had said!!) comes and invests in India, what can be done to make India world class in 5-6 years ?
Me : There are two methods, either Import talent (Malaysia did that) and other grow talent, this will take a lot of time though.

P2: lets grow talent here itself ...
Me: then it will take around 12 -15 years .. have to train from a very young age .. have to target niches like Kerala, Kolkata, Goa etc ..

P1: do you think Media also has a role in this ?
Me: yes .. only then the talent pool would be larger .. otherwise parents would not allow their children into the game ..

P1: hmm . how many ppl watch games in kerala, I can tell you East Bengal and Mohan Bagan play to empty stands in Kolkata ..
Me: in calicut, the matches are played to semi filled stadium .. around 5000 ppl watch the game .. (wat the hell .. we used to play to absolutely empty stadiums .. not even ball boys *grin* )

P1 2 3 : surprised !!! explain ??
Me: sir, akk the league players have free pass to the games, then there are tickets for 50 bucks, those seats are full. Other costlier seats are not occupied .. so there is enthusiasm for the game .. maybe the revenue is not there.

P1: *sighs* ok do you like Math ?
Me: yes .. (apprehensive)

P1: ok .. do you like Calculus ?
Me: sir .. err .. I have done calculus .. (was sitting on the wal on this)

P2: ok draw a graph for the function ..y2 =3x2 + 4x + 5 without plotting points.
Me: convert it to a parabola and draw it ! *phew that was easy*

P1: how do you define differentiability of a function ?
Me : explain .. continuity and crap ..

p1: is |x| differentiable ?
Me: at which point ?

P1: at zero
me: (very confidently) yes it is .. (is it ?? if you know please let me know )

P1: ok , wat abt |x| / x .. at point zero ?
Me : no it is not .. since the left hand limit is not equal to the right hand limit .. so not differentiable.

P1: hmm .. think abt that .. anyway thanks a lot .. have a toffee ..and please bang the door wen u leave
Me: yessir .. and abt to get up ..

P3: wait .. who wrote the application form for you ?? (wt kinda question is taht ?? )
Me: sir I wrote it myself ...

P3: but your handwriting is so diff wen u wrote the summary ..
Me: sir, have two handwritings, one for assignments and one for class notes .. (smile .. ) *luckily for me they also smile*
moreover there was not enuf time to write neatly, so I was writing fast even then i could not finish .. this sir (point to P1 at this point) was glaring at me for not stoppin after he said STOP ..

P1: *amused* yes .. I did .. (and then he smiles)
Me: *phew* lucky esscape ..

P1: ok u can leave now ..
Me: thank you sir..

well all in all it was much better than building an SEZ in calicut .. but the GD was not upto the mark .. well dont want to crib abt that now .. watched Nishabd after that .. how bad can things get .. a y60 year old guy gets a 18 year old girl and a 21 year old guy is sitting without one ( ME ME ME ) .. *grin*
well as the 60 year old guy found out later in the movie .. girls are a pain .. (no i did not mean to the heart !!) .. so I am not complaining .. 'single and not ready to mingle' is the best way to be .. wat say guys ??

B - Bannarghatta massacre

2007-03-02T00:45:00.002-08:00

The bells were knolling and the butterflies were flyin (no not really) .. here I was standing at the doors of IIM-B trying to reason with the guard there to let me in (i forgot my interview letter at home..*grin*)

hmm .. the place does have an aura that tends to put ppl off guard .. (i think the profs got that from the place or vice versa ) .. well all said and done, the panel was already decided and everyone from my panel were already there (i was last as always *grin* blame it on the guard who gave me wrong directions !!) .. after a round of introductions, I came to know that the panel had a senior of mine, two ppl whom I had met at TIME classes and some 'friends of friends' .. small world huh *sigh*

anyway, the GD was pretty ok .. we were asked to discuss abt some case wherein some 'rustic' small time actress with an attitude problem was goin to make it big .. whether she should go to finishing school, or wud that polish her off as too sophisticated .. the only problem in the GD was, one person consuming too much 'airtime' and not contributing ABSOLUTELY nothin to the grp .. i was damn sure that if one person had got up and hit him on the face (which the person next to me was abt to do ..) everyone wud have 'avered' with him quite vociferously !!! well all said and done .. 15 min to discuss (8 to that guy and 7 min to the other 7 .. ) it was well discussed .. were asked to write a summary and then were asked to march off ..

The interview started soon after .. mine was 5th .. all the interviews would take somewhere around 30 min .. every time a person came out .. they would be all beaming and saying ."bahut cool tha yaar, no ACADS, no work ex, just general stuff .. " .. i was very happy coz i hate acads (i got screwed on acads for the last two interviews :( .... )

well mu turn came and IN i went .. two profs P1 and P2

P1 : so u are also (!!) from NIT Calicut .. so many ppl from NIT calicut today .. we had two in the morning, do you know them by any chance ?
Me: yessir (all excited with the easy opening gambit) one is my batchmate and one is my junior.
P1 : Suppose we have only one seat have to choose among u three . whom would u choose ?? *devilish grin*

Me : sir, I dont know their motivation to do an MBA, and that should be the main parameter on which you ought to choose .. so I cant compare myself with them .. I can give you reasons why I want to do an MBA and then you can decide coz u ppl have already interviewed them.. (quite satisfied with my answer)

P1 : hmm .. ok lets make life more miserable for you .. suppose they come to Motorola for interview .. and u can choose only one .. then whom wud u choose ?

Me : our policies dont allow us to interview ppl we know before hand .. *grin*

P1 : ok .. *frustrated* you have two CV's , based on that whom would you choose ??

Me : tough decision .. *smile again*

P2 : ok leave that .. well you know Calicut is a very underdeveloped area, what can you do to improve the place ??
Me : (i wanted to circumvent the topic, so .. ) Sir, I am basically from Tvm, not from Calicut

P1: ok ok ... the capital .. there must be some development there .. but bak to Calicut .. what can you do improve the place ??
Me : Sir, the major money comes from the Gulf from the Expatriates .. so maybe we could have some projects, with partial funding from the Govt and the rest from the Expatriates.

P1: ok .. why would they want to give you money to set up some industry ?? why their money??
Me : maybe we can persuade them to give money, if we give them TAX exemptions .. this would also prevent money laundering .. *phew that was close*

P1 : hmm .. ok what kind of projects do you want to set up, so tat it would improve Calicut as a whole ??
Me : thinking on a large scale, we could implement something lik STPI (s/w parks ) or some SEZ in Calicut .. It would usher in a lot of growth ..

I wanted the interview to go towards the s/w park thing .. but alas ..

P1: aha .. SEZ .. ok .. suppose we get you a piece of land earmarked as SEZ .. wat now ??? wat industry are u going to set up there?
Me : *SHIT, now I am dead* Sir .. supply wise .. raw materials .. monazite sand, thorium and Titanium only available .. maybe we could set up a Titanium mining and its secondary markets there ..

P1: hmm .. ok .. what is Titanium used for ?
Me : err .. sir .. i am not sure .. but since it is being mined .. it ought to be used for a lot many things .. (i knew i was in deep shit then .. )

P1: then why dont u think of some other bussiness then ??
Me: ok , (remember the Vasco da gama thing) there is a very gud port there .. maybe we could emulate the Kandla port .. India's firt SEZ .. and start an export oriented SEZ !! *triumphant luk*

P1: ok ok .. so what do you think is the cost required to set up a shipyard ??
Me: hmm .. (wat the hell) . sir I think I can give you a ballpark figure .. hmm no sir .. i dont know ..

P2: ok we will give you two minutes to think and wont ask u anything during that time . sit and think and come up with a plan ..
Me : ok.. *sit and stare at their faces for two minutes* .. then sir I cant think of anythin .. :(

P1 : are yaar .. cmon .. atleast open a Tea shop !!!
Me : hehehehehehe (rub it in bastard .. rub it in .. !!!)

P2: ok leave that .. tell me what you need to start a business ?
Me : demand for the product, market to sell the product, transportation, availability of resources, cheap and skilled labour, blah blah ..

P1: ok then ..
Me : then start the factory and start producing ..

P1 : wat abt the license from the govt ? ?
Me : (oops) yeah tat is also required ..

P1 : why do u need a license?
Me : oligopolies, restriction into the market and all that stuff ...

P2: leave telecom .. if I open a BOMB factory .. wat then?? there is a demand for that .. *smiles*
Me: *i also join in and smile* ..yes sir, there is .. but since it is detrminental to national security ..there wil again be a restriction ..

P1: *exasparated* .. hmm suppose I start a cloth factory ,wat then?
Me : sir , again emission levels, non compliance to labour laws etc ..

P2: hmm ..ok , what if i am ready to pay a price to the neighbours and they are also willing to suffer (for the money ofcourse ??)
Me : no not possible .. norms are to be followed .. after all the govt is basically there to regulate and thats the reason why they regulate ..

P1 $ P2 : burst out laughing ..
Me : confused but I also smile meekly (wat was so funny in that ?? )

P1 : ok u can leave now . thanks a lot ..
Me : thank you sir ..

Once outside .. everyone expects me to be all laughs .. but I am like 'why does shit always happen to me ' why why ??? (thats a rhetorical question, I dont expect an answer for that !! )

wel on second thoughts ... if you do have a remedy for it .. please lemme know .. :)

Carling cup .. Chelsea wins !!

2007-02-26T01:46:00.000-08:00

A software professional luks forward to very few things in life .. 1. Salary hikes 2. Year end Bonuses 3. Public Holidays 4. WEEKENDS .. (well this consensus has been taken from ppl who cud be categorized in the 'i hate to work but luv the paycheck' kind .. )

My education at NIT calicut has taught me many things .. miniature fonts to inculcate the whole syllabus in a piece of paper, work distribution( read as copy the assignments .. ) , proxy 'settings' (u do mine today .. i will do urs tomm .. ) .. but all this leads to the bigger picture .. SHIRK work .. i have to admit I am not the best at 'shirking' work .. my roomie is (Manjeri.. ) I am still learning the art from the maestro .. *grin*

enuf of the ramblings .. well we were (as usual) luking forward to yet another weekend of nothingness, laziness and yes of course - the CARLING cup final between Chelsea and Arsenal .. (these matches have a special significance at our abode coz Sharat is a 'die-hard' Arsenal fan and I am a ' not so die-hard' Chelsea fan ..

but to spoil the whole build-up, the Electricity board decides to do some maintanence work on THIS very Sunday .. and we are left in the 'dark' for the whole day .. we tried to 'kill' time .. play cricket, go to corner house (to see the birds) .. came bak home at 7 .. (the expected time for the game to start . )
no flickering lights .. no street lights even .. this power failure was getting under the skin. We decided to have dinner in a place where we could watch the match .. and off we went to all pausible and plausible places .. either no current .. or no cable .. we even tried the TATA sky showroom (to do some 'window fuball watching' .. but there it seems there is no Zee sports .. :(

we had almost given up hope .. wen suddenly the whole 'airport road' was illuminated .. and voila 'there was light' .. the first half was already over ... with the score .. 1-1 .. (drogba for chelsea and walcott for arsenal .. )

Once you reach a much sought after summit .. u kinda lose interest in that thing .. or suddenly it does not mean that much to u anymore .. (ever felt lik that ?? ) .. but no .. this time ..every minute was nerve-wrecking .. and exciting ... well to cut the long story short .. CHELSEA won ..2-1 .. (what else did u expect .. I wud not be blogging abt this otherwise ..*grin*!!)

Afterthought : Arsenal has some great talent coming up .. but lets hope they dont spoil the chelsea applecart anytime soon .. *fingers crossed* ..

Blood(y) diamonds

2007-02-19T23:51:00.000-08:00

Well the past few days I have been pretty busy with preparation for my interviews .. I think I have learnt (read as by hearted) more abt EEE during these days than i did during 4 years in colg ..(but the profs always find a way to screw me up ..i guess thats wat a management degree can do to u ...) anyway i am digressing from the point ... well I decided enuf is enuf! lets go watch a movie ..
and before I knew whats happ .. I was in PVR buying tickets for the movie BLOOD DIAMONDS ..

Well i must admit that I was genuinely surprised (jealous) to see so many couples thronging the place to see this movie, wen there were so many 'boy meets girl-fall in love-parents fight-boy doesnt relent-hogi pyaar ki jeet ' kinda movies there .. Once the movie started the reasons were staring at me from the tinsel screen .. but more on that later ..

Well for people who have not seen the movie its abt illegal diamond trade (a very profitable business) and all the bigwigs in nexus to keep that trade route going, which requires them to indirectly create a civil war in Sierra leone .. has some pretty gory scenes .. (which i njoyed!! *grin) but all in all a Must watch movie ..
well back to the movie .. at a certain point of time in the movie, DiCaprio says " its people like the star eyed American woman who wants a diamond necklace for her wedding (and her subsequent aniversaries also !!) that creates a market for these diamonds " --- and that is the time when one amongst them .. (them = all the guys who had dilligently brought their girl friends along) decided to stand and state, " the next time you ask me for a diamond ring, I am goin to have to kill u" .. the whole crowd is amused and a lot of giggles all around..

spare a thought for that guy ... for all the bravado, he might have just shot himself on the foot .. forget the blood diamonds buddy .. one thing is for sure .. you will have a 'bloody nose' by the time you get home .. *grin*

So all guys who are not 'single' , hope you get the msg .. (coz i did not) and if not .. do go and watch the movie .. (for obvious reasons .. ) .. and for all the guys who are single, go watch the movie .. (the girls i mean !!) .. njoy !!

L - lady to the rescue !!

2007-02-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

hmm .. with all the feverish preparations and all the mock GD's at TIME and the mock(ing) interviews that my friends took for me .. it was time for destiny to play out its cruel hand .. (dont mind the overdramatization ...

the interview was to happen at Brigade Road .. (of all places in blore .. the place where a guy with a shirt and a tie sticks out like a sore thumb !!)

I always imagined myself as being the anamoly, the defector(the II types as they call them .. ) I entered the hall expecting the Einsteins and the edison's to be falling over one another .. but there sittin in front of me wer ppl whom I thought I could see only in the last benches of my alma mater .. NIT Calicut .. :D

The topics that we discussed sitting there in that half hour ranged from the abstract to the absurd .. but I must say, I did relish the conversations .. it was stress relieving ..

well to the GD .. it was topic based .. abt "Universities are what colleges become when the faculty loses interest in the students " .. talked around 4 times .. it was a 20 minute GD ..was almost asked to summarise .. (wel he asked number 5 to summarise(ME) .. then said .. no no .. number 6 .. :)

The interviews got under way pretty fast .. they seemed to be in a hurry to get rid of us .. I was the fifth to go in ..

Interviewer(s) : hello Raghav, please take a seat.
me: thank you sir. *phew* (this was not going to be a stress interview .. )
Interviewer: You are currently working at Motorola .. what do you do there ..
me: tell him abt my team and put in Vodafone and H3g .. hoping they wil ask me abt the Hutch deal .. but to no avail .. :(
I : who are your major competitors ?
Me : Samsung, LG and ofcourse Nokia, they are number 1 now but we plan to overtake them in another 234 days .. *watever*
I : [interested] how do you plan to do that ?
Me : give them a lot of BS abt low tier phones and Mid tier phones .. value for money .. customer satisfaction ..
I : why dont you want to enter the High tier ?? dont you think Indians can afford it ?? (insulted luk on her face)
Me : no no .. take for eg the Nokia N series .. its a 3G phone and half the features cant be used by a customer in India .. so there is no value for money for those phones in India right now ... once we have the 3G network up and running inIndia .. we wil challenge Nokia on that frontier as well ..
I : when will India get the 3G license ?
Me : [At last they ask me what I wanted] .. explain in detail .. coz i had prepared for this stuff..:D
I (male) : ok .. I want to know how many people in India would be owning two handsets ?
Me : sir .. err ...ballpark figure ?
I : [rephrases] ok .. if I pick 100 ppl in India at random, how many would have 2 handsets ?
Me : sir .. err .. out of the whole population ??
I : Yeah ..
Me : sir .. the 99.95% prob .. ZERO ..
I : ok, then among the populace that has a handset ??
Me : hmm .. again I think maybe out of 100, zero .. coz the whole market in India is for Low tier and Mid tier and these ppl do not have a use for their second handsets !!
I : [not to be outdone.. takes a paper and hides it .. and says] .. I have a survey with me which tells me the name of the country where the % of ppl who have two handsets is the highest .. can you tell me which country it is ?
Me : hmm .. if you take the whole populace .. I would think JAPAN . coz they are the pioneers in 4G ..
I : [huge grin on his face] .. NOPE .. your answer is wrong .. [luks at his counterpart .. to my dismay she was also njoying the joke .. ]
I(male) : ok .. you have learnt MATH .. in engg .. so you must have learnt Statistics .. ( a sense of deja vu anyone .. !!)
Me : [cautiously] .. yes sir .. I have learnt a little bit ..
I : ok .. tell me the diff between binomial distribution and Poison distribution ..
Me : [oh shit .!] .. hmm .. sir .. we have not learnt abt these distributions .. i know Normal, Chi Square ... and Students T distribution ... *thats all that I know abt distributions .. *
I : how is that possible .. Normal is derived from Binomial and Poisson ..
Me : (i am dead) .. well sir .. we learnt only to use Normal in practical situations like .. finding the errors .. levels of significance .. and explained abt 'alpha' and all .. and brought in 6 sigma into it .. [i dont remember how that dropped in though .]
I (female ) : [steps in] .. so who are the majors in 6 sigma .
Me : (bak to familiar teritory) ma'm .. MOTOROLA is the pioneer in 6 sigma .. other companies lik Honeywell et al also got it later on ..
I : ok .. can you name some non tech comp which is famous for 6 sigma ..? [giggles]
Me : [ I join the giggle] .. hmm .. [put up a show as if I am thinkin ] .. and yeah . i do .. is it the Bombay Dabbawalas ...
I (male) : [cuts in].. ok .. tell me what are the 14 principles of management ?
Me : [where the hell did this come from!!!] .. hmm .. err . . sirrr .. I dont remember them sir ..
I : how can that be .. you had a course on Principles of management !!
Me : hmm.. sir I cant recollect them right now ..
I : [scowl on his face..] .. ok tel me what is marginal utility ?
Me : hmm .. give him the definition .. (extra satisfaction got from that particular utility)
I : now .. wat is utility ??
Me : anything that satisfies the need or requirement .. eg.. a glass of water .. a candy bar..(smile at the female ..hoping she will rescue me .. )
I (female) : ok .. why do u want to do an MBA ..
Me : [thankful smile] .. loads of BS ..
I : who are Motorola's major partners ..
Me : talk abt Freescale and Beatnik .. and all .. both are disinterested .. and after some time .. they cut me off .. (frankly i did not want to stop .. didnt want any more acad questions .. )
I : thanks a lot .. you may leave and ask the next person .. ( by this time I am already at the door .. my hand on the door knob .. ) .. to come in after 3 minutes ..
Me : yes ma'm I will do that .. thanks a lot ma'm (and sir) !!!

so that was the end of that ... all in al . Lucknow was ok .. my friends had a lil bit of stress .. but they have the knack of catching you off guard by asking you things wen you least expect it .. lik askin a 5 year work ex guy abt his ACADS .. and a 6 month work ex guy (lik me ) abt my comp ..
Once outside the Hotel .. it was Valentines Day .. and I had a mission at hand .. to find myself a jailers daughter .. (not that I wanted to be a modern day Valentine or anythin .. but then seein all the chics all dressed up and cooin with their bf's at brigade can get your hearts racing .. )

I ended up spending the rest of my day at office .. so that explains how gud a 'valentine hunter' I am rite .. *grin*

2006-12-10T23:37:00.000-08:00

My life in blore has been pretty short and very much boring to say the least .. but i can always put that down to abstaining from "FUN" till the D-Day .. (wat else .. CAT 2006) .. and after that i found out to my dismay that i was so much caught up with this abstinence that i was findin hard to snap out of it .. but al gud things must come to an end .. *sigh*
As a part of the 'snapping out' i decided to join the nearest gym and get bak in shape (and NOT get in shape) ..
hmm .. the hard part of getting bak in shape is just that .. it is pretty HARD !!! :(
The Gym instructor recognized me at once .. I had already suffered similar bouts of impulsive desires b4 and had rushed to the very same Gym and got myself enrolled .. but never bothered to show up .. nt that he was complainin .. but his tone dripped of sarcasm wen he asked ..
G.I : are u seriously goin to come this time ?

me: I am always serious!

G.I: ok ..u can start tomm morning .. (i think he was already betting on his house that i was not goin to come ..)

I decided to prove that bloke wrong.. and this time i even woke up in the morning .. courtesy the multiple alarms that i had activated last nite .. but ..
with the chilly breeze in the morning and my eyelids weighing a TON i gave up a bit too easily and slept off till afternoon ( if u can cal 4 afternoon ie )...*grin*

To give myself a sense of 'there is nothin wrong is procrastination' feeling ... i have decided to follow the following rules :

1. dont listen to ur brain,it doesnt listen to u .. so why bother !!
2. Think twice b4 doin anythin .. chances are u mite find a way of not doin anythin and still solving the problem.
3. If that doesnt work .. stop thinkin abt it!
4. wen there is somthin important at office-stay at home!! (and vice versa)
5. Wen none of this works . . its high time u modify the 'rulz' list !

Rite now the only thing thats eating my brains is .. how do i get past the gym instructor !! i think its time to scoot .. catch ya later ..

Why Do people BLOG?

2006-12-05T16:30:00.000-08:00

All these days I had a pretty nasty feeling that someday i might actually start feelin bad about sitting and lazing around in office .. normally i just sit stil and let that moment of rashness pass (ie the sudden impulse to Do sumthing!!)
Ever heard of Murphy .. he was one smartass who had a knack for stating the obvious .. who doesnt know that the toast always falls the butterred side down .. (in my case its always rite .. considering i butter both sides .. :)

Well if u think i am riting this piece so that it will help me in some(obscure) way to wash away all the guilt that keeps gnawing at my conscience coz i use the office resources(!) for all the wrong purposes .. then u came to the WRONG conclusion ..

dont want to get rid of my guilt .. coz thats the only thing that keeps my conscience from goin to sleep . . ;)
I njoy doin nothin at work .. in fact i even luk forward to it, but dont know how ppl manage doin nothin and sittin alone and brooding abt everything and anythin under the moon (watever)!

anyway .. gotta go now .. i think my manager wants me fr his *let ur frustration out, shout at some1* therapy ..
will complete this one later .. procrastination is not an evil .. its just a 'must have' skill !

njoy .