After quitting one of the first things I did was to go visit my grandparents! I know for a fact that it will be more than 2 years before I get to see them again. I actually wanted to see all my aunts and cousins, but then time did not really permit.
Anyway, although the journey in itself was uneventful, apart from the fact that there were two women squabbling about the fact that they were seated next to men. None of them wanted to budge from their seat!! It's been ages since I have seen senseless arrogance and that too in adults! I guess I have grown up, the world hasn't! Finally one of the women did shift, seating next to a woman on an overnight journey seemed better than hanging on to her dumb ego!
My stay at my grandparents, although shortlived was quite eventful. My youngest aunt came down to see me cuz I asked her to. It is good to know that people do take a step for u. :D I have always enjoyed spending time with her. She is definitely the most lively of the lot, although childish at several instances. I guess that is her charm. Her kids came down too.. As I was the most accomplished among everyone present, it seemed to me that I had to lead these youngsters and tell them stories of work and how things are in general... It is essential to create a dream for a child, it is essential to nurture that dream and let them strive to achieve it. I guess I was in the process of doing just that. Perhaps it came out a bit as giving a lecture, but then why let go of such an opportunity! :D I guess reaffirming your beliefs and telling them to others is definitely amazing!
It always feels great when you are valued and respected! Especially by family.
Two years I am off, hopefully the little gyan I gave will be of some use! :D


Current Mood: Cheerful
Current Music: sweet home alabama
Summer time is approaching and most children look forward to their grand vacation (some in a foreign land, playing with snow or cruising the blue seas). Me on the other hand, looking for some good ole quiet time at home, time to myself, with my family, talking chatting and discussing tons of stuff... :)
I'll be waiting until the time I have to go back to school! Good Bye Work and hello B-School! :D
Yes, I did make it through the interview I described and so did my brother.. Of course my brother will be going to greener pastures! A diff B-school in a diff land! :)
Although it is faar, although it will be a long time for which I will be away from all the people I know, I am not worried about that now.. All I am thinking about is my lovely vacation! Good ole Hyd!
I want my vacation before I go Back to School!! :D Gonna make the most of it! :D Maybe I'll write a book! ;)

Current Mood: Cheerful
Current Music: Mrs. Robinson
Yesterday was the XL interview. There were quite a few good things about it. Let me start from the beginning. I somehow mananged to wake up by 8 and even get ready by 9. Then we made our way to CST, where we got off and asked the taxi guy to take us to Xavier's College. It was like a 5 min walk, but we din't know where the college was!!
Anyway, the college is this awesome fort like ancient structure built in 1583 or something. We enter with a suit and a tie and all. Looking as formal and perhaps as smart as we can. Except I have this amazing haircut.. I guess my barber (or barberian! ) thought my head looked better like a football and hence chopped my hair to a barely there level.
In the college, there was Zombie playing.. A few memories run by me, a few people flash in my head, in my head they're still fighting...
Ok ok.. I am coming back to the point already. We go upstairs to the waiting room for the interviews and wallah! No one! Absolutely deserted. At first I am greatly happy that there is A/C is the room, cuz mumbai just decided that yesterday was when summer should begin in full bloom and ensure sweltering heat and instant dehydration. I drink half a bottle of water, do a little dance... and then search for the loo!
Man, these Xavier's Management guys have it good! I mean, they have these amazing loos. Western comode, shower, geizer, sink. Everything! It was like a 5 star cubicle!!
Anyway, as there weren't too many interview candidates, our interview times were advanced. My brother went in at 12:10 or so and he was out by 12:30. He was obviously looking very handsome in the suit and even the profs couldn't help commenting about it.
At 12:35, I ask the profs if they are going to take my interview now? They were ready to go for lunch and all. They asked me if I was ready for the interview. I replied, I most definitely was.
In 5 minutes after they emptied their tanks, I geared up with my certificates and all and they called me into the room.
I went in and, said good afternoon to all of them.. They were all very easy going. The first question they asked me was, "Oh, Jamnagar?" I said, "Yes sir, my dad works in Essar Oil". They say, "Then you must know the person we just interviewed." I said, "Yes sir, he is my brother."
They asK: "You and brother? Both here, how come?"
I say: "My brother was getting the forms and I told him to get this one also."
"Does that mean you are not interested?"
"No sir, it does not. It is just that I din't prepare this year. I thought it would be better if I had 2 and half years experience before I joined a B-School." A few "Ohos" and sounded.
"Both brothers in IT firms!"
"Yes sir, but we have totally different roles. I am into marketing, he is into projects!" An explanation of what I do follows.
They ask me, what I have learnt from this experience.
And during these answers on prof leans over to another and says, "We should ask him about one seat and which of you should get the seat!"
So I guess I was mentally prepared for it when it came. In my inimitable brash yet polite style. "You should select me! Cuz I have a better perspective for business management and I have been in this field and am gaining knowledge and would be able to contribute a lot of experience to the students of XL! And he has other opportunities as well!" He did tell them that he got calls from IIM C, L, I, K. :D
Anyway, the iterview went on and I kept giving my fundas about this that and the other!
I am sure they wouldn't forget to suit clad brothers from Jamnagar, back to back for interviews to the same college, same course! I hope the shock effect is useful in getting both of us through! That would make my father very proud! :D



Current Mood: Grand
Current Music: Stairway to Heaven
In our culture the term influence is used to convey a sense of power and used extensively and especially with politicians!
When we suggest a hair dresser, a restaurant, a doctor, a movie to our friends... we are influencing them - to a slight extent, but influencing them nonetheless. With every bit of influence comes a bit of responsibility. It is when we shrug off this responsibility that our influence really turns into misleading...
But seriously, in your friend circle, about something like what items to buy, would you really influence ur friend or would you rather let them choose for themselves? I would definitely not like to influence my friends to do things, I would much rather they chose to do it for themselves.
Is that because I am running away from responsibility or because I want to nurture their decision making capabilities?
Extending the thought of influence, when you try and sell something to people, be it yourself in an interview or some item or something else, you are not just trying to influence people, you are also trying to convince them to purchase the item or select your idea.
Ur not just trying to influence anymore you are trying to convince? How does a person who does not like to influence ever feel like convincing someone else, nevertheless selling something??
WE unfortunately live in a society where everything revolves around buying and selling.. be they items or just plain ideas! But then how do you tackle a situation of the sort above? Any ideas???

Current Mood: Confused
Current Music: Blank!!!
A couple of days ago, my dear friend from Delhi had come down. We were all sitting around and talking and just remembering how we used to pull each others legs and all. He recanted quite a few war stories from his college - the kind of war Bill Clinton would have been proud of. Anyway, that apart, we decided to call our junior- who was studying in a prestiged B-school. We just found out (from one of this own batch mates present with us) that he had finally caught himself a girlfriend.
He and I immediately thought of calling him up to play a prank. We give him a call and say, I am so and so professor, is Ms. X there? He retorts with no thought, "Yes sir she is" and hands her the phone. Supposedly, his gf is the daughter of some prof in the college and we just happened to call at the darndest time cuz he was having dinner at her house. Talk about absolutely rotten coincidence.
After a few calls were exchanged, and the infuriated girl was calmed down... I decided to say, "Wasn't me!" and run along home! We were just thanking our stars that we din't pick the prof whose daughter she actually was and say, "I am , we are worried that she hasn't come home. Is she with you?"
The guy who told us about this case, what happened to him, no idea! Probably lying somewhere bleeding because of shotgun wounds!

Current Mood: Triumphant
Current Music: None
The other day I was listening to a lecture and startlingly enough there was a little discussion about success. The startling part is not that there was a discussion, but that the person actually said some thing like: In order to succeed, you only need to know enough to succeed. You don't need to know everything. They are two disparate paths.
She went on to say, that have faith in what we say and do exactly what we ask you to, and you will succeed.
this made me think about the qualities of faith and trust.
Faith is for people who would much rather leave the burden of thought upon someone else. Not that it is bad. It is inevitable, but to what degree is definitely subjective. Without faith, life wouldn't be the same... so is true about thought.
There are a few more observations I made about faith. When you have faith, it automatically becomes the other person's (god's, the system's, the group's) responsibility to see to it that you succeed.
And then there is this one issue, which struck me much later on in thought process. What bugs me about faith is not that I have to trust someone, be guided by someone, listen to someone but rather that I have to be ignorant about other things. If I learnt about other perspectives and other ideologies, then they would clash and executing the things required as per what you are told would be close to impossible.
Imagine educating a child about all religions and let him choose to follow one. Wouldn't the choice he makes be based on some personal bias like where he was born or the teacher that taught him...
Similarly is the faith in modern sciences. We would much rather not delve into the intricacies because they are not relevant to our everyday existence. Somehow applying this for success, does not seem to be very appealing. Probably because we know there are multiple ways of doing it and more importantly, there are multiple factors involved in success.
My fundamental problem with faith is that it also preaches ignorance. I think if this can be somehow eliminated, then we'll have something more long standing. Something I can put my faith in. :D

Current Mood: Thoughtful
Current Music: Faith
I wonder why I choose songs titles for my blog titles.. but I guess it is just cuz I associate my thoughts to the titles of those songs. Anyway, that is immaterial at the present moment. This blog post is not about that.
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Last week was quite hectic and I had the wonderful opportunity of spending sankranthi in a village. The traditions, the simplicity, the joy or having an occasion smiling across every individual's face. New clothes, be they 30 Rs. of 300 Rs. were displayed by everyone.
There are so many things we do in the city, but some of the most fulfilling tasks are often overlooked. When was the last time you served food to a family from a not so well to do back ground?
When was the last time you went to party with ur friends and blew a couple of hundred or even thousand? If not all, I am sure quite a few have done this..
Fundamental questions such as: does the satisfaction compare? if you give an entire family new clothes and good food to eat, does their goodwill for you match those of ur fellow partiers?
As I stayed on and listened to a few people, I could see that they were unafraid of sharing their pains. They are looking for solutions, not masking their inadequacies with their egos, they were unafraid of being judged, slotted or simply having their lives out in the open. They don't expect you to be the same, they just hope that you will contribute to society (their society) and create an immediate effect for a better life.
We are a afraid. We live in our own shells, our own carved out caves and cages, protected from each other.
When I was a kid, I was taught this trick with a looped string called cats in the cradle - a form of entangling the strings to create different shapes and finally making all the tangles disappear.
Sankranthi was great, I remembered this trick, and realised we were playing the role of entanglement! Where was our jumble doctor? Would he/she come and straighten things out? This is a start to attack a few fundamental fears - look within... what would you like to simplify?
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Current Mood: Preachy
Current Music: Cats in the cradle

For New Year's eve I made the stupidest mistake of going to the building's party. Not only did I realize that I did not know anyone in the building, I also realized that I was so totally bored that I was falling asleep in the party. Thankfully, we had food and I rushed home.

So New Year's Eve - BIG DRAB... More so cuz the whole gang was there in Hyd and I couldn't get to see them, neither could I see my cuzin.

This was made up though, the next day when we went out for a night on the town and it was great. The place was nice, the music quite good, the crowd - there was no crowd as it was a huge place- was phenomenal, swanky, urban, chic and all such adjectives continuously pour in cuz they are what are used to describe such places in newspapers etc. It was quite a nice night. The bill was quite the blow torch, but thankfully only one of us had to stand in its path, face its fury, succumb to its mighty power and use two different cards to pay!!! It's justified considering it's not everyday that fighter pays!

 



Current Mood: Cheerful
Current Music: The final countdown
This is the second time I am trying to post this! The first it simply refused to register. I hope that does not happen this time!
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Everytime I see someone waiting, frozen or otherwise, thinking that if they wait long enough.. what's happening will cease.. As if if you stared at an accident long enough, the two cars would automatically separate without a scratch, as if a pregnant silence will make the guilt go away, as if the pain would disappear if u stared at the train long enough!
It's gone.. The train has its own journey to make (and all the passengers are forced to oblige.. ) As I stood in the station, I was in a state of disconnect, unrelated to the chattering and sqwaking of the public - an entity lost in thought - no specific direction, just random thoughts about food, water, company and other essentials!

Everytime I see someone frozen in time, thinking and reliving past memories, I can only remember Gandalf the Grey mutter, "Fly you fools!" Cuz that's what we should be doing! There is no point in holding on with dear life to what is gone and what has left.. It makes more sense to move on..
A friend reminded me, "There are 6 billion people on this planet, the last time I checked. If you are feeling alone, then it's your own doing!"
Sitting in this max populated city, I think it is about time for me to make that move.. I must fly.. Cuz I know I could soar like an eagle, perch like parrot and have a taste of many mangoes to come.
Fly you fools!

Current Mood: Bye!
Current Music: Lord of the Rings Sound Track
I never knew that the winter had so many tricks up its sleeve!
First it thrills
with that little bit of chill..
And then it makes u spill ur guts until
ur dinner's out to fill, the ground, the sewers like a hill,

then ur head feels all light, like its taking a flight,
This is all inspite the fact that u ate right..
What can be done, the winter's got neat virii floating around.. getting sick is definitely bound.

I think u can see the state I am in, the cold is killing me from within, so this is the end, I call the the fin!

Current Mood: Sick
Current Music: Killing me softly
That there she goes song reminded me that my boss has left the company and gone..
Onward and fro to new places, finding her drop in the large ocean... Make her mark on her own, consulting in boom time!
Till yesterday I had absolutely no idea what I would be doing after she left cuz she barely told me a couple of days ago that she'll be doing this! I mean flying the coop without letting the chicks know is quite a situation for the incubated chicks! Now I gotta learn to grow wings and sharpen my beak to get my own worms!
Such is life, people rushing all the time - like diarrhea patients to the loo!
That's all for now, see u when i learn which worm i gotta catch! :D

Current Mood: Happy
Current Music: Free Falling
Created this blog a million years ago and I am adding the first post now!
I guess this is the pitfall of working in a company with firewalls and crap...

Anyway, this blog is dedicated to the musings of a guy on the road. What road? To where? Why? All questions hopefully answered in the blog posts.. (If the poor shmuck finds out himself! :P)

Anyway, the road beckons and this is how it all begins!

Current Mood: Relieved
Current Music: There She Goes
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