Smart Phones & Dumb People?

If you take a selfie of your life in the past couple of years, the hashtagged words born out of smartphone usage has slowly become a part of your daily life...yes that’s quite obvious from the first very statement of this post. There are many questions hovering in my head regarding smartphone usage. Let me list it down, I am sure I speak on behalf on many people out there.

1.     Why don’t we call a dear friend whom I haven’t talked for ages, when we are constantly    in touch with them through whatsapp?

2.     Do people share their happiness and sorrows on social media just because we have stopped asking them how they are and how’s life?

3.    Why are we so eager to share the picture of the food we eat on Instagram than to taste it first?

4.       Why is our self esteem measured by new units like ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, ‘Mentions’ etc?

5.       Why do we keep ourselves awake by keeping our phones on late night, why do we take it to our bed?

6.     Why do we panic when someone borrows our phone and we are not able to reply to the chats?

7.      Why have we deprived ourselves opportunities to talk to strangers to ask for ways when we are lost, why do we rather stick our heads to our phone screens using Maps app?

8.    Why do we speak sub-standard language using words like LOL, Hashtags, Pings in the world beyond smartphones?

9.       Why do we see our friends who have met for a dinner stuck to their respective phones?

10.   Why does a child crave for attention from his father when he is back home from work but still carrying work on his smartphone?

11.   Why do we use smartphones when we are driving, watching a movie in a theatre, crossing a road even peeing!

12.   Why are we so obsessed to get a perfect selfie and post it online and finally be happy about ourselves according to the number of likes received?

13.   Why don’t we remember any phone numbers like we used to do before?

14.   Why do we have to tell someone to repeat something they just said, just because we were paying attention to our smartphone at the first time?

15.   Why do we feel insecure when our loved one has read yet not replied to our chat?

16.   Why do we fear low battery, being tagged in a picture, being seen last online at, the blue ticks, check-ins, etc

       I am sure there are many such questions in everyone’s mind. Like everyone, I too keep wondering about these questions and yet do nothing about it. Am I over reacting or am I making sense? Are corrections required or are things just fine as it is? I don’t know the answers for these questions as of yet. But one thing is certain; Our Phones are getting smarter while we are getting dumber by the day.

Namma Bengaluru!

Bangalore or Bengaluru had been by karma-bhoomi for a year. Prior to moving in, I knew Bangalore as ‘The IT Capital of India’, ‘Garden City’, ‘Pensioners Paradise’, ‘The Pub Capital of India’ etc. There were a lot of experiences, observations during my stay in Bangalore. Here are some of them:

•     No. of trees > Human Population. This is the best part about Bangalore. Never, I have seen people being so possessive and protective about their trees. It’s amazing to see such a large green cover over a metropolitan.
•        You are pampered by lovely weather for almost entire year. Though the summers are getting worse they say, yet it is much better and bearable. Get used to the gentle breeze that keeps running throughout the city due to its high altitude
•   People from remote corners of the country live here peacefully without being bothered, bullied, discriminated or ignored. Bangalore provides roof to all. Although original bangaloreans might whine about this influx, still largely it’s the outsiders that make this city what it is now.
•     A pakka bangalorean can speak at least 5 languages.
•      You get amazing Filter Coffee or Kaapi in every nook and corner of the city through the stand-n-eat restaurants called Darshinis. By-two Coffee is the most consumed beverage here and not beer as is the popular presumption
•        Your home address will sound something like 4322, XYZ layout, 3^rd Stage, 6^th Main, 15^th C Cross
•         North Indians come to know, not every south-indian is a ‘madarasi’ after coming here
•        ‘Change’ or ‘Chillar’ or ‘Chhutta’ is a rare thing to find. Even ATM dispenses only 1000 Rs Notes.
•      Street-Food starts with Idli-Dosa or Tiffins as they call it here and ends there. They are amazing! But Bangaloreans are deprived of Good Chaats and other Non-South Indian Street Food.
•         People pull out their winter clothers for anything below 25 degrees.
•     Strategizing how to ask out to avoid rejection – is more difficult for an autorickshaw waala than asking for a date.
•     An autorickshaw thinks it’s his birthright to – 1. Reject passengers 2. Give back change 3. Charge double after 12 am 4.Charge 10 times if it Rains 5. Harass passengers for no reason at all
•        The road which you travelled in the morning can be a no-entry by evening. There are roads where you drive on the right. One-Ways are dynamic, keeps changing with time.
•     “maadi” is one of the first kannada words you learn. And you keep adding it as suffix to every damn thing you do…”Add Maadi”, “Chill Maadi”, “Switch-on Maadi”
•     After you come home from Bangalore, you feel like Mumbai Autoricshaw Waalas are Gods!
•     After you return from a trip to Mumbai, you feel life is running in slow motion.
•     Beyond 11 pm, finding food is like finding treasure.
•     Watching movie is a pocket emptying process. Insanely expensive tickets.
•     Footpaths become make-shift roads for bikers when the Roads are full of vehicles                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The city has certain charm that keeps attracting people all around the country. They come here, fall in love with the city, despise a lot of things about it and yet stay back. Though I didn’t stay back, but I can say I loved my short stint with the city. I think whenever I will hear good things about the city, it will put a smile on my face with my mind saying “Namma Bengaluru!”

Backpacking odyssey - kollur, murudeshwar and gokarna

2 t-shirts - check, 2 shorts - check ,  essentials - check, did I forget something? I hope not. Put my laptop and official papers inside my drawer ,locked it with a sense of satisfaction of putting work behind and I set sail for a trip which was somewhat impromptu at one point of time but turned out to be one of my best trips till date. It all started when I recalled my mom asking me to visit kollur mukambika temple since day one of me setting foot on Bangalore. It is supposed to have lot of followers in Kerala.  All my family members had visited while I couldnt despite being here since a year. Finally I thought of visiting it so that it doesn't remain one of those things I couldn't do and will keep pricking me. Only this time I added two more places which I always wanted to visit - murudeshwar and gokarna. So a quick plan and the itenary was ready.

First in the itenary was take a bus to Mangalore. Karnataka has good network of ac volvos called airavat connecting all major towns in the state. I have frequently travelled in them for official trips but this time I was really looking forward to get into it. I made calls to my loved ones before starting off. But my excitement was a bit scarred when I got a work related sms from my boss. I was sure this would be a deterrent in my trip though it was a weekend. Corporate slavery. Sigh! So a cellphone was made to pay the price of my trip as I switched it off. And it wasn't difficult. All the 'what if' thoughts were put to trash and the driver hit the accelerator. The bus reached early morning to Mangalore and I had to switch bus to kollur. I was still in sleep while all this happened but sparkles of rain water woke me up like a stubborn kid and I opened my eyes to see why it wanted me to be awake. And the reason was totally justified. Had I slept off I would have missed the lush green earth made stunning by the rains. The bus cut through the rains as I stuck myself to the window in awe of the sight outside through droplets of rains on the pane. I suddenly realized I had missed a very important thing in my checklist - the umbrella. I think a checklist for checklist is what I need in my next trip.

So I got down from the bus early morning and checked in a small hotel – ‘kairali residency’ which was fortunately neat. All I had to do here was freshen up, visit the temple and check out. And I did just that. As I entered the temple premises for once I thought did the bus bring me to Kerala. After moving at a snail's pace through a serpentine queue, I finally got darshan. Although I am not very religious, it felt complete and came at the right time. Fortunately it wasn't raining, and I had a quick breakfast at adigas and the raingods weren't kind enough now as it made me strike off one more thing in my checklist that should have been. I got an umbrella which I doubted it will survive such rains. Nevertheless! So kollur visit was completed and very quick indeed. I went to the local bus stand and enquired buses to murudeshwar. Got to know there's none. So I had to take a private bus to bayandur , again a govt bus to bhatkal and from there an antique mahindra van (still didn't find its name)to murudeshwar.

Temple is closed from 1-3 pm. So I decided to kill time having lunch at naveen beach restaurant. Great view and simple food. After that I went to a highly recommended ‘konkan café’ in the RNS hotel. Sipped cold coffee and enjoyed a breathtaking view of the ocean blurred by heavy rains. It was time for the temple to re-open and fortunately the rain stopped as if it never rained. The entry is from an 18- storeyed spectacular ‘gopura’ tower. I paid 10 bucks for a lift ride till top. From there you can view the famous Murudeshwar Shiva statue through a small grilled window. I risked putting my hands through the grill and clicked a shot of the statue. It was worth the risk. You will know. The mammoth statue will make you so small and feel humbled. There's a cave below the statue which has fabulous claywork depicting stories of lord Shiva and Ganesha. There's a running Kannada commentary that runs continuously which speaks about the story. I couldn't understand a thing; it should be in Hindi and English too. As I left the temple it rained profusely and my umbrella came handy. I got into a rick that took me till the bus stand. And again there's no direct bus to Gokarna. I had to change bus from kumta and I finally reached gokarna just before sunset.

 I took a rickshaw from the stand to kudle beach where I was planning to stay at ‘sunset café’. Sunset cafe was my second option, as the most popular option namaste cafe at Om beach was already full. If you plan to visit, stay at one of these places. During off season most of these shacks are closed while namaste is open. So plan your visit between October and April. I got down from the rick and trekked down from there to reach kudle beach. All beaches in gokarna have to be accessed on foot trekking down from an altitude from the point last accessible by automobiles. As I reached the heavy rains had already swallowed the beach and there were no place open to stay so there goes my plan to stay near beach for a toss. I climbed back again with my poor umbrella struggling the heavy lashes of rain and wind to protect me. I reached the top and took a rickshaw to a hotel away from beach as I didn't have a choice. Not recommended at all, if you are in gokarna you have stay on the beach.

Got up early morning to visit a very famous gokarna mahabaleshwara temple and after that started my trail of trek and beaches for the entire day. First stop the gokarna beach at town. It was very dirty and not at all worth your time. I trekked from there to kudle beach. It starts with a normal road and slowly converts itself to a small path going upwards. I was exhausted and a good Samaritan passing by gave me lift on his bike voluntarily. He dropped me at a place, from where I walked more and you finally reached kudle beach. I could see the beach today and couldn't believe it didn't exist yesterday. From there I trekked a cliff to reach the most popular beach in gokarna - Om beach. It is named so as it is shaped like 'Om'. I got into the popular ‘namaste café’ for my breakfast. It is just at the start of the beach. Good place to relax and lay back and enjoy the sea and food. I ordered Spanish breakfast which has a Spanish omlette, toasts, hash burn and a juice. I also ordered a recommended nutella pancake with cold coffee. Both were good. I knew I had to come back for lunch here.

 I walked through the beach as it seemed the waves were talking to me. As I crossed it and was just about to start my next trek to ‘half moon’ beach it rained and I realized I had lost my umbrella in the rickshaw this morning. I took shelter in a nearby abandoned shack and waited for the rain to subside. Two more travellers joined and gave me company till it was time to venture out. I began my next trek which turned out to be the best one in my life. Its a trek from Om beach to half moon beach . I was planning to take a safer route as the riskier one would have been slippery as it had rained. It went parallel to the sea and just one step away for you to fall into Indian Ocean. But fate has it ways as I lost my way and unknowingly I took the riskier route. It’s quite something that you just follow a path made by strangers who traveled before and trust them blindly while you cannot trust even the closest people in your life. Trekking through this path will take you to a point from where you can have a spectacular view of Om beach.  It’s a narrow path running at the edge of the hill surrounding the sea.  Be careful not to get swayed by the magnificent sight and lose a step. After a while you trek through bushes, jump down at few places, use both hands and feet to climb and finally reach a small beach called half moon beach. I sat here for a while on one of many rocks around to see waves trying to fight these huge rocks. 

From there I asked a villager the way out, he said something I didn't understand and I went that way he pointed out which started with just rocks which I had to climb through. Then I walked up a hillock through a not so developed path and I realized probably it wasn’t a popular path. I still went ahead as I didn't want to climb down from those rocks and I couldn't have. I was huffing and panting as I pulled myself through this torturous route which went through forest like surroundings. I could hear wild birds hooting. My thoughts got hallucinated and I started worrying about wild animals. I was dead tired and wished someone could just pick me and put me out of this forest. I couldn’t stop too fearing wild animals. I didnt even know if I was walking out of the forest or further deeper. Never take this route. Never! It was a really long and tiring walk till I found a human soul. I asked him the way and he said 4 more kms to hit main road. The path got better and after walking some more I saw a road. I felt like Robinson Crusoe for some time. I sat beside the road and emptied my water bottle. I breathed heavily to kill my tiredness. Truly living is nothing but to keep breathing.

 I waited for a rickshaw but it didn't come and a virtual me gave me a hand to make me stand up and walk again. I walked for another couple of miles and reached Om beach again. I went straight to namaste cafe for lunch and decided to not move even my hair for the rest of the day. I had some yummy prawn curry with rice. Simple and best. After a couple of hours I decided to hit the beach and spend time there till sunset. I wrote all that you have read now as I sat on the beach with sound of waves in background. Looking back as I am about to sign off from gokarna seeing the sunset , I have to say I was oblivious to the world outside, unaware of time as I had forgotten my watch, cut off from whatsapp, Facebook, Google maps throughout my trip and all other new world pleasures. I was completely dependent on random strangers and public transport to reach places, to ask what time is it and for the occasional lifts. And yet somewhere...I was free!

P.S. : 

1.Pics for the trip can be found below:

https://plus.google.com/photos/115753590967744279293/albums/6028212802134218593?authkey=CMat4bvm4MyFigE

2. People have a tendency to give strange looks to solo travelers, keep calm and keep travelling!

3. There are direct buses to Murudeshwar & Gokarna, my trip was longer since I included Kollur too

4. Carry a lot of cash, there are no ATMs on the way to beaches.

5. Only take the trek from Om Beach to Half Moon Beach if you are short of time. It simply cannot be missed.

6. Go during season, you can do much more things in Gokarna

Aamchi Metro

Mumbai flagged of its first Metro Line yesterday. Mumbaikars gets one more alternative for public transport, local trains though will still always be at the center of our hearts.  People have memories of struggle, love, happiness, fear , success associated with it. Local trains rides have its peculiar characteristics which our advanced Metro System might fall short to offer. Few Things of Local Trains you may probably miss in a Metro…or may be not...

1. Hawkers turning the local to a mini shopping mall, a source of entertainment at times. Merchandise consists of  Combs, Key Chains, Wallets, Cough Tablets, Laser Pens, etc etc…this list would be endless if our female friends contributed to this blog.
2. Hanging at the door is probably the world cheapest adventure sport. It takes some practice to give way to people to get in and get out when a station arrives and yet don’t lose the spot to competition eyeing on it. They will pounce on a single opportunity you leave the space. People even fight for it. However it is freely up for grabs once it is raining cats and dogs.
3. The fourth seat is a fundamental right of every passenger who failed to make it to the other three seats.  The ones who dont offer the fourth seat are looked down upon.This guy who fought his way to enter among the first may not make it to the fourth seat in the metro. Or may be.
4. The blockers or the train bullies are the ones Mumbaikars would never to wish to see in the Metro. There is no way to get out of the metro even if you fight and manage to wrestle through these maniacs and finally stamp your face on a automatically closing door.
5. Train Groups singing Bhajan Kirtan on top of their vocal chords. Some of them are really good, while others are plain nuisance. I wonder what will happen if they are given a closed environment in a metro.
6.  Another type of train groups who reserve seats for members who are going to board few stations down the line. 
7. Women cutting vegetables. Fellow passengers even helping them!
8. Adventurists getting down at some station to pack samosas for his gang back in train and managing to catch a running train after taking full change back from the canteen guy who is also running with him.
9.  People opening their brief cases pulling out a pack of cards and all the office bags now become a table for playing cards. I think this may continue in a metro as well.
10.  Asking the lucky ones sitting where they will get down and stand just next to him. Putting half of ones weight over him to declare to others…”Don’t you dare try sitting here, its mine!”
11. Killing time eating bhel or  having jaljeera soda in the station while waiting for train or Getting a quick shoe polish. Will the metro station have all this value added services?
12.   Romeos doing stunts before ladies dabba, touching electric poles besides tracks while train is in full speed. Some travelling atop. Unfortunately he will not have the stage to display his talents in the metro.
13. Video Coach, yes the bogie in which starved men can ogle at women. Someone is going to get disappointed.
14. Numerous ‘Baba Bangali’, ‘Pass Directly’ posters will hopefully not make its way to a metro.
15. Names and Numbers etched on the train for ‘Love’, ‘True Friendship’ etc
16. An additional coat of red on the bogie, free of cost by passengers spitting ghutka and paan.
17.  Beggars singing to “pardesi, pardesi jaana nahi” with tile chips in their hands.
18. And of course who can forget the Fights. Some just end in empty threats. Aah disappointing!

Anarchy Aadmi Party?

“Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos, I’m an agent of chaos , and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair.” – couldn’t help but recall these lines by ‘The Joker’ from the cult ‘The Dark Knight’ when Arvind Kejriwal declared himself as an anarchist in a resigned manner as he became the first chief minister in India to stage a dharna. The same dharnas used to be media‘s favourite at one point of time had now become the battleground of controversial news material. The very media who pampered kejriwal once, crowned him the throne of Anarchist.

Arvind Kejriwal is the result of lack of trust on political parties, result of boredom, result of lost hope by people over ages. He was expected to be an agent of change in the Indian Political System. People voted for AAP to try to do something different, out of the box as they say.

Let’s flip back few pages here, Arvind Kejriwal as we all know him now as Delhi Chief Minister has donned various hats as:

1. .       Instrumental in drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill
2. .   Won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006 for his contribution to the enactment of the Right to Information Act
3. .       Worked with the Indian Revenue Services
4. .       Worked with Tata Steel
5. .       B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur

This is the guy with an impressive resume, albeit any kind of experience of politics in it. He is a fresher in the Indian Political System. And as any fresher, he is bound to make mistakes now and even in future. His mistakes are minuscule considering what the nation has been through all these years because of “experienced” governance. So if you cannot tolerate with his small setbacks, you cannot expect him to do something out of the box. And as AAP is pro-swarajya, it encourages people to come forward, join them and better the system. If you feel he is not doing the right thing, you know what to do. AAP is recruiting.

The AAP is a great example of a start-up that targets the market untapped and ignored by well-established competitors and to capture it by changing the rules of the game. AAP has managed to run a successful electoral campaign through unconventional means and popular support. However its success in governance is remained to be seen.  AAP has been the heart of many controversies off late like the Somnath Bharthi Incidents, Kumar Viswas Incident, Mohalla Sabhas etc. These incidents may have deeply scarred its goodwill among the aam aadmi. Political Biggies have not left any stone unturned to leverage on these glitches to sway mind of aam aadmi thus creating a big question mark in his mind. Media are riding these waves to create news which has further confused people.

AAP has been quite vocal in their political ambitions for general elections. But are they really ready for it? Any start up who are planning to scale up their operations must need to build on their strengths before planning to expand. They need to first accept and correct the mistakes they have committed, regain goodwill they might have lost due to controversies and show they can deliver on good governance to clear doubts in the minds of people if any. Performance alone can guarantee life of this party. We need to remember AAP is not the first party to portray itself as the peoples party. First it was Congress during British raj and then it was BJP, and the rest as we say is history. Let’s hope AAP doesn’t join the bandwagon and remain as ‘Aam Party’.

7 Kinds of people you see in a gym

Well as I write this I cant help but quote one of the many funny lines Chandler has said in the famous series F.R.I.E.N.D.S- “Oh yeah, I'm a gym member. I try to go four times a week, but I've missed the last...twelve hundred times”

And out of the few times I have been in gym, I have seen the 7 kinds of people around:

1.       The Hulk: These are regulars. They take out time from gym and give some time for friends, family and work. They intimidate you. You have just one expression when you see them – ‘wow!’ and one question when you see them ‘how?!’. You don’t want to be them; you can’t be them for sure. Yet you are jealous. They make you nervous when you have to work out near them. They don’t give a damn what others do. They keep working out and never leave before you do.

2.       The Young Gun: He is in awe with the hulk. He wants to be the next hulk. Typically in his late teens or early twenties. You can see him screaming at the top of his vocal cord pulling up one extra rep of that heavy dumbbell which is way out of his league. They make the quarter-lifers realize why they are getting more uncle-ized.

3.       The Seekers: They need expert advice on everything. They talk more than they work out. They are always around the gym staff. They need to know what they should eat, how is the best way to work out etc. They are never satisfied with the answers. They have access to probably more information about working out than the gym staff. If only they worked out as much they talk.

4.       Uncles & Aunties: They are the ones who realize pretty late that they need to be fit. But better late than never. They will run on a threadmill wearing salwar with a nike, they read newspapers while cycling.Yet you have to commend their spirit.

5.       The Time- Passers: They will find all the excuse to not work out. They will talk around. They will watch TV. They will request the manager to put a particular song. They will discuss about work out. They will gossip. They will constantly look at the clock. For them 20 reps means 10. And when its finally time to leave, they will look even more tired than the hulk.

6.       The Babe – You have absolutely no idea why she is in the gym. But surely after seeing her you will know why a lot of others are so regular in gym. 80% of time of the trainer is usually reserved for the babe and you can see the result too.

7.       The Paying Guest: I am one of them. I paid for an annual membership (heights of optimism) to convert my family pack to a ..err…probably not a six pack, but yeah at least ground zero. I am the one who goes on rare occasions. I am treated like a guest. My instructor has just one question to ask – when am I coming again next time? I always tell him “tomorrow! (read: I have no idea)”. And one fine day, while hogging to some really delicious junk, I burp loud holding my paunch and the feeling of guilt reminds me of my annual membership that I need to use sometimes. Once again I take an oath to visit my gym after…hmm…I don’t remember when I went there last! Life goes on...

Properties of an engineer

Properties of a weird specie of people called ‘engineer’ -

1. He is found in varied professions banking, entertainment, media, advertising, Hotels. If you think he does only technical jobs, you are wrong. He can do anything; you just have to train him. Yes he is a threat to your job too. You can keep cribbing that he is wasting his degree doing other jobs, but secretly he doesn’t want to use his degree at all.
2. No. Pls don’t tell an engineer to repair your broken tap, mixer-grinder, car etc. He can exactly tell you how it works, but cannot tell why it doesn’t.
3. All engineers are not math-geniuses. Lot of them actually hate maths. It’s like a pill you don’t like but cant do without. He may very well solve complicated calculus equations, yet make silly mistakes in divisions and multiplications
4. He likes to complicate his life and try to find a complicated solution. This is how he feels, his degree was worth of everything he had sacrificed in life. Do not teach him common sense. That’s the last thing he would like to use.
5. He will always pretend to know more about gadgets than others, often fumes if a non-engineer knows more about gadgets than him.
6. He will leave no stone unturned to flaunt his engineering degree and to brag about it. Secretly he knows the only thing to flaunt about the degree is that engineers have evolved as people who can bear with any kind of academic torture.
7. Half of these species go abroad for further studies just because others are going, Lots of them get into IT,  other do courses which have no relation to engineering and the remaining few do actual technical jobs. Most of the times, the last herd are the most satisfied lot.
8. Female species are often rare in engineering colleges, speaking to one of them is considered to be one of the biggest achievements. Guys having girl friends were given demi-god status and were often consulted by the have-nots for tips. Very often these demi-gods were the best source of all information related to the better gender.
9. All those habits which make the boy a man are often introduced to and perfected in these 4 years.
10. ‘40’ is a special number. It is like the finishing line of a marathon for an engineering student. ‘All Clear’ - That’s what defines any successful engineering student. He strives to see that number on his mark list, and any shortage in that is multiplied with the worst swore words in any possible gaali encyclopaedia, often targeted to the professor who taught that subject, the examiner, the paper-setter, the invigilator who didn’t let him copy, the exam-neighbours, the cricket series, the crush and every one else who cleared the subject. Basically everyone except himself.
11. You have written as many pages of assignments that can bring down a forest. Every engineer is a skilled editor. The assignments of the one who can bring down a toppers assignment to an optimum minimum pages is a benchmark for all future manual Xerox copies of the same. Yet there is always scope of further reduction.
12. The humble scientific calculator suddenly becomes a device with usages even the inventor wouldnt have imagined in his wildest dreams. It becomes a secret message device, the storage device for formulas/important values for exams, the boredom killer in lectures.
13. Has often being taught important definitions in local language by professors.
14. Has weird usage of words, even in normal circumstances. This blog title is one such example.
15. He might have spent the most torturous academic years of his life doing engineering, he actually starts living after his engineering. Yet he will cherish it as the best years of his life.

Chhattisgarhiya Sable Badhiya!

Sable Badiya Chhattisgarhiya! – it means ‘Chhattisgarh is the best’ in Chhattisgarhi language. Those were the bold letters written on a giant gate at the entry to the capital city – Raipur. I still remember reading these words when I had taken my first steps towards the city. I still haven’t been to find the reason why locals there think so. However there are few things that make CG a bit unique in its own way.

Few enlightening things about my Karmabhoomi – Chhattisgarh:

1. Apart from Tigers it houses a human population of 25,540,196
2. No, not all people staying there are Naxals
3. No, not all people staying there are Adivasis
4. Yes there are a lot of people who buy cars there (for all those ignorant @$$es who kept asking me “Tu waha gaadi kisko bechega, forest officials ko??” )
5. During summers you cant differentiate between a girl and a guy, both are covered by super long scarf on top half.
6. Yes there are malls, 6 sprawling ones in a small city. Now you just have to find people to visit them.
7. Everything is as expensive as metro cities, surely they have at least tried to replicate one aspect of Metros
8. Summers are like a baking oven, can go upto 45 degrees
9. ‘Bhaiyya’ becomes ‘Bhiya’, ‘Haan’ becomes ‘haau’, ‘Paani Puri’ becomes ‘Gup Chup’
10. Rare to find localites, everyone is either a Marwari, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Maharashtrian etc etc
11. Peace loving people, hardly witnessed petty crimes
12. Terrible food options, though I can vouch for the fact that ‘Rasoi’ in Bilaspur is the best vegetarian restaurant I have tried yet. No food available before 10 am and after 10 pm. 
13. It is not unusual to see a jerk stopping the vehicle on a flyover and talking on phone and waving other people to move ahead his car
14. Cattles on the road give you an exciting driving experience
15. Wine shops remind you of Mumbai Locals, round the year, as if the next day is a dry day.
16. Sunday is a holiday, even for shopkeepers. So if you make plans to do some Sunday shopping, you are sure to be disappointed.
17. Every Autorickshaw is a 10 seater, and even 15 seater if the traffic cop is on leave.
18. Remember those School Bags with buckles to close them? You get those as a free accessory with every bike. They are used as a side carrier!
19. Have seen a Bhelpuri waala sporting a huge LCD screen on his thhela powered by an Auto Battery. Call it a jugaad or innovation, means the same. He is a celeb.
20. Don’t be shocked if you feel your plane has landed on a railway station. Yes it is the airport.

Having said all these, I must say CG is developing rapidly thanks to its abundance of rich mines and minerals. It is one of the fastest progressing state in India. 10 years down the line I am sure any MBA passout getting posted will be happy to go there. I have absolutely cherished every day of CG, each one of them was a learning experience. I evolved. No matter what all reasons people have made to make that quote, but for me this was the reason why Chhattisgarh was truly sable badiya.

Why this viral di???

 ‘Why This Kolaveri Di (Why This Murderous Rage, Girl?) is an Indian song from the soundtrack of the upcoming Tamil film 3, which is due to be released in 2012… The song was officially released on 16 November 2011, and it instantly became viral on social networking sites for its quirky “Tanglish” (portmanteau word of Tamil and English) lyrics. Soon, the song became the most searched YouTube video in India. Within a few weeks, YouTube honored the track with a Gold Award for getting the most number of hits.’

 – This is an official Wiki Entry for the Kolaveri Song and pretty much sums up the introduction for a song for all those (if at all) unaware of the phenomenon. If there are actually people like that I guess we can successfully declare them Web-Illiterate.

When I first saw the song pretty much before most of us started sharing it, for me it was a catchy song sung by a southie star for promoting his new movie through social media. What followed was a mass sharing on facebook with endless likes and status messages about the song, crores of tweets and millions of hits on youtube. Many of them shared it just because others were sharing it.  It took me completely by surprise that my north Indian friends started humming the song and they thought Dhanush was a south Indian singer until I corrected them. Last heard the song has crossed borders and even Pakistanis are going gaga over it. And then we were thrown in some interesting and some really ridiculous versions of the song, all trying to cash in the fame. This included a female version (yaawwn!), Metal version (murderous rage to the core), Rnb version (wannabe), Sharad Pawar Slap Song (okayish) and even a jr sonu nigam version (cute, good way to make a son popular)

Many of us have wondered why this song has become so viral, I have tried to pen down some of which I have heard or read:

1.     The Musical Theory: First of all let’s not take the credit from the creators of the song. The young Music director, Anirudh Ravichander and the Actor cum Singer cum Lyricist, Dhanush is told to have composed and made the song in 25 minutes flat. The song has simple urban lyrics, very simple to be understood and one that you can relate to easily. This makes the song very hummable even by a non-tamilian. It has a very addictive rhythm that makes you listen repeatedly.

2.     The ripple effect: You might have seen the video just to know why people are sharing it and many others have done it too. This has in turn made it even more popular.

3.     A highly critical but interesting theory:  Reasoning why the soup song has become so popular is also the reason why it is so popular. We can conclude two things from the fact that it has become so popular - First, it is establishing that we live anxious lives, always in the quest of answers for the Five Ws, the one H and their cousins. It is probably out of this curiosity and never ending journey to know the unknown that we are listening to it again and again. Second, by going viral we are also trying to heal our anxious selves. There is often so much things of meaning around, meaning being created out of nothing, meanings to explain the unexplained, meanings to define, to regularise, to legalise – that at times we feel it is good to transport ourselves to modes of zero-meaning; where there is no meaning of anything whatsoever. Kolaveri di is one such zero-meaning mode. Let us not unravel the meaning of why this kolaveri di, it supposed to have no meaning and let it be that way. It is just a moment of zero gravity for our mind.

4.    The Mathew effect: The Matthew Effect dates from the 1960s. It is the theory, first expressed by sociologist Robert K. Merton, that those who possess power and economic or social capital can leverage those resources to gain more power or capital. Put simply: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Or as it is expressed in the Gospel of St Matthew, from which the effect takes its name - “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” Thanks to the Matthew Effect, the already famous get more famous, the often quoted get more and more quoted…It is easy to see how this transfers into social media – the more something is spread the more it will be spread even further by word of mouth. So next time you see 15 friends from your list sharing a same link, there is high probability that you would be in that list too on your friend's walls.

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Can't believe you are actually searching for an explanation here!

What to expect from a Sales Job after MBA!

1. Your Targets – That’s the first word that pops into your mind when you hear ‘Sales’ and sure it is the first thing that you are fed with once you are ‘Sales – ready’. It all starts from this one most dreaded word. This is one number that constantly hovers around your mind most of the time. And after 20^th of every month, this number starts intruding your sleep and can give the ghosts in your nightmares a run for their money. Suddenly you will recite this holy number even when you are deep asleep. Suddenly you will realise you remember this number more than your best friends birthday.

2. Your Product – Before being sales ready, you are given a bible of sorts about the product you are going to sell. Trust me it is the best sleep inducer. You try to read the alien language and repeatedly fail after the 3^rd page and promise yourself – “Next time, I am gonna read it full No matter what”. And thus you give birth to a fine art which is overused ruthlessly & repeatedly – ‘Procrastination’. You master it as time passes. But thankfully this stops much later when you start answering the customer with “Sir, I will get back to you on this”. This is when you will go back to the biblical product book and will read all those words with so much enthusiasm like never before. You will suddenly see your product everywhere while previously you never knew this product even existed. The very sight of it make you go “hey I sell them!” with a glee. You get possessive about your product and donot like a single word against it. This is when you know about your product like never before. Its like an arranged marriage of sorts, you don’t have a choice but to love your product.

3. Your Boss – Usually a guy who had started like you. Do not presume he doesn’t know the ground realities. Don’t make false stories of why something didn’t happen. You will be caught and bowled. He will be behind you all the time like a thermo-sensing missile, like a Hutch Pug – ‘where ever you go our network follows’. He will ensure that your life is a pressure cooker. The more heat on your bum, the more you whistle. At times he will show you your real worth, will prove how a big mistake was it to recruit you, how useless you are and the list of insults goes on. At the beginning you take it to heart and his words keep banging your head all the time. Later you get accustomed to it. Moral of the story : Don’t take your bosses brickbats very seriously learn to shut off when he starts his blah, but take his praises more than seriously (you will get to hear it very rarely)

4. Your Life – If you are someone who has never lived out of your home, things are going to be really different for you. Suddenly you will get to learn a lot of things which you thought were by default your Bai’s. You learn to wash your clothes by your own hand, you broom, clean your utensils. You get to know the prices of groceries & vegetables; even names of some you never knew. You will work on Saturdays; your Sundays will seem longer. You will find yourself watching every stupid movies releasing on friday. Your laptop is full of stuffs like ______ (Fill in the blanks as per your own interests). Facebook is where you meet your friends. You will start calling people whom you used to ignore just to hear someone talking. You will feel happy to see your home location in movies, in my case ‘Mumbai’ - which is seen in every second movie. You will stare people speaking your mother tongue as if you seen a UFO full of Martians. You suddenly start liking the “The customer is on another call” message, because you feel like home when you hear it in Marathi. Maggi is your saviour when the cook bunks work. You start learning how to use different weapons in kitchen. You will search for holidays to book tickets to your hometown. When you reach home, you tell mom to cook all those things you generally complained about for having every second day. Your 2 days in your home-city = 1 month in your job location.

Despite all odds, I believe the learning is immense. You are enlightened by the fact that not everything Philip Kotler said was true. All those presentations, projects, assignments, case-studies etc will seem fake and will fall flat on your face. You learn what really works and what not. This is truly the first step for all Marketing Aspirants. You get to evolve as a person. You become Independent and start becoming more responsible. You get to meet new people, see new places and learn new things. I was hesitant and apprehensive at the beginning to take up this assignment. Now when I look back I feel,I would have missed a great deal had I declined it. 

My Experiments with Kitchen

Off late I have been staying with a colleague of mine as a make-shift arrangement, as my company sponsored hotel accommodation had surpassed its day limits and I haven’t yet found a roof for myself yet. My colleague who is shortly planning to get settled has made this place a ‘proper home’ unlike the transit-camp like bachelors home. Every morning I used to wake up late shamelessly, and used to find him making some breakfast for both of us. Today was different, I woke up and the kitchen was waiting for some one to come and use it. My colleague had gone to his hometown for a ceremony. It was an early morning hunger and old habits die hard. Subconsciously my hand opened the refrigerator and found nothing but milk, water, jam nothing of which could be eaten as breakfast as it it. Ok I could get a pack of bread from the store down, if it was open. If you are planning to have bread in the morning, postpone your breakfast till atleast 11 am. That’s when the shops open here, take it or leave it – that’s Raipur for you! So bread-jam was out of choice, I raided the kitchen to find one packet of maggi, and I was unsuccessful. My tummy kept growling and I couldn’t think of something to keep it quite. I suddenly recalled, once as my colleague was making poha, I casually asked him, how is it made and he had told me the recipe like a quick tip. Being from Indore, poha came naturally to him. I had the entire kitchen with me and this was possibly the best time to experiment, there is no one to laugh! So I took the plunge and tried recalling and doing the steps –

1. Take some poha, salt, garam masala, haldi powder. Some? This is the most difficult aspect to start with, you don’t know exactly what is ‘some’. Is it a handful? 2 Cups, 1 teaspoon, pinch? You will just not know it unless it is made and eaten. The next time when you make it the ‘some’ changes and it keeps on changing after each attempt till you have mastered the art. Its like repeated iterations till you find the perfect unkown in an equation. (Ok if you dint get this, not your fault, we engineers have learnt a lot of useless stuff which we like to flaunt whenever we get an opportunity to relate it with real life. This was one of them!)

2. Wetten your poha and add ‘some’ garam masala, Haldi powder and Salt to it. Mix them well and you can already smell the masala which boosts your confidence.

3. Chop onions and green chilly, ignore the shape of onion pieces you have cut. It will never match your mom’s. So leave it like that, start liking it. Any ways its gonna go inside your tummy.

4. Take a tawa, heat it. Hell! Why isn’t the stove not burning? Tick, tick, tick! Failed! I bend down to see the cylinder knob. I look closely whether the position is really ‘close’ or ‘open’ and what is exactly close or open. This is what happens when you use the stove after a really long time. The last time you used it was when you had to make maggi when your mom had went out and you were hungry.

5. Back to the tawa. Carefully add drops of oil and let it heat till ‘some’ time. Now comes some audio part – Rai Fodni! This is something basic common denominator for most of the Indian food. I gave my mom credits for this as the mustard seeds fell from my hand into the oil. Add the chop onions and chilly to it.

6. Now add the wet poha to this tawa, stir it with some utensil, I don’t know what it is called. After doing this for a while, remove it from the stove and add some bhujia to it. (Atleast bhujia would be edible for sure, since I haven’t made it.)

 

Tadaaaaa! Hopefully I have made something reasonably edible. I prayed as I put one spoon of it in my mouth. I didn’t want to throw it in the garbage bin. And Voila! The poha tasted surprisingly good with a pinch of salt more than required, which can be forgiven. In case you actually read this recipe religiously just a warning: I was plain lucky!

Corporate Debut

This is a post which is a compilation of me and my friend’s experiences when you join an organisation. You need not go through each one of this, but some of them should make some sense to you. For all those who are already working, this might bring back memories of your initial days, for others this is something you may expect!

Day 1: Form-ality

Forms, Forms & More Forms. You realise, you have been using the PC much more than the mighty pen. Your fingers struggle to control the way the pen moves and you write in a handwriting you don’t recognize as yours. The Bank Guy opens a salary account for you on the spot which might have taken ages and repeated visits had you visited a bank yourself. You sign at atleast 100 places, each one differently. You check out your Debit Card and the Cheque Book in a way a Kid checks out his new toy. You try to break ice with other colleagues joined with you. The HR usually are often amused to see such bunch of confused souls joining together and pray that they don’t have to find replacement for them soon.

Day 2: Where’s my place?

This is one thing everyone is very excited about - Your cubicle! The Place where you would be chatting, whining, cursing, swearing, gossiping, bitching, sleeping, playing games, secretly logging to Gmail & FB and sometimes even do a bit of work! Once you get to know where your cubicle is, you do the recee of the area and try to find the ‘safest’ angle and position of your seat. Office privacy is ofcourse a topic of high importance. Allright what have we got here – A PC! Lets switch it on. Window --> IE -->”Windows cannot display your page”. Damn! Now what? OK lets try something else, Windows -->Games -->Solitaire, Yaay! Solitaire is something you will definitely find in any pc even if it doesn’t have a thing to keep you busy. So ensure you know how to play Solitaire.

Day 3: Know thy neighbours

You introduce yourself to your cubicle-ites. You are taken around and introduced to each and every person on the floor. After sometime, you start noticing the grin on your introducer’s and others face or is it just a figment of your imagination? You hear voices, ‘why on earth has he/she joined here”. Your jaws start aching after putting up a fake smile to each and every one. Smiling despite apprehension, confusion and nervousness does take efforts. People say the feeling is similar when you get married.

Day 4: Hello? IT helpdesk? Ohhh….Ok I will call again later

You have now become a champ of solitaire and there is nothing more to achieve. You realise you cannot live without the most and probably the only useful, important and interesting part of your PC viz the Internet. You call up probably one of the most busiest dept in any office – The IT helpdesk. Their hectic schedule is a shadow of goof-ups they have given birth to. So after umpteen calling back again and followups, the online ticket is raised whose status keeps yo-yo-ing between pending and resolved. They have a six-sigma for not solving the issue correctly the first time. Finally the matter is solved and your PC suddenly becomes much more interesting than ever before.

Day 5: Love thy neighbours

“Hey why don’t you join us for lunch?” – you hear this and are relieved that you would not be eating alone from now onwards. After many lunch and coffee/smoke/drink sessions, your colleagues turn into friends. They tell you the ‘who-is-what’s, how to deal with different kind of creatures in the office, the affairs, working proxies etc. This is the real induction.

Day 6...10..30...: Monday

You have been pretty much doing nothing for many days since you joined except for going through the same presentations repeatedly, surf the net, chat and keep checking the PC clock till 1.30 pm lunch and 6 pm to leave for the day. .Monday is synonymous to the day when your actual work begins. This can be day 6 for some, day 10 for some, even day 35, 50, 60 for the unlucky. Some noble soul realises someday that you have been sitting idle and being wasted for long enough. And you for once and for the first and last time become actually happy to get some work! You start taking baby steps, trying to stand, holding finger and walking and finally walking alone and after some time running, jumping too. You have done it all. You do this day in and day out. This gets xeroxed day after day. This is when your job starts becoming routine. You start waiting for Friday like a prisoner awaits end of his term and wish the next Monday never comes. Now you have truly arrived. Welcome to the corporate world!

Raipur Diaries - 1

As my flight was about to land at Raipur Airport, I was shocked looking at the cattle and fields from the fibreglass windows of Airbus. 'Why are they punishing me by sending me here!?' was the thought continuously buzzing around my mind like a honeybee. I got down at the Fan-Conditioned Airport and was received by the hotel guy. Throughout the 40 minute drive through the fields and trees, I  kept questioning the credibility of Google Maps. Hell! Wait a minute, this was not the Raipur I had seen on Google. Crosschecked the ticket - It said 'Raipur'. Finally I could see few buildings and some more as I realised we had entered proper city and the airport was on the outskirts. I managed to restart my heartbeat and bring back my breath. Raipur did begin with a kind of shocker.

Its been 3 days now since I joined office. I had just started getting along with the like-aged colleagues who were searching for accommodation just like me. It is a pain finding rental homes here for bachelors and people shoo you as if you are a salesman. Their eyes will scan you as if you are a terrorist and want the flat for planning a nuclear bomb attack in Raipur, of all! Wish Google could help us with it. Roaming around in search of a home, I made good friends with them. On the fourth day we planned to watch a movie in the cinema next to our office. For once, I thought maybe I will stop missing Mumbai now that I have made friends here and found out some options to hangout. This thought was dampened by the sudden rains that fell on my forehead as we moved out of the Mall. This rain felt like a stranger to me. This was not the usual thick, continuous, heavy rains of Mumbai. No matter how much It causes you inconvenience, still there is something about Mumbai Rains which you would appreciate only when you are out of the city. Some things cannot be explained it can be just experienced! I guess it will take a little more longer to stop missing my good old city of dreams!

Re-Boot!

For the first time in my life, I am not able to find words to write a new post as I am sitting on the Mumbai Airport Lounge waiting for my flight to Raipur! Yes, you heard it right. In case you were weak at geography or GK for that matter, It is the capital city of Chattisgarh. This state is known only for three things - The forests filled with of dacoits, majority of the Tigers still alive in India and The Naxals. Well this is the popular opinion about the city (supposed to be), where I am being posted after a month long stretched Training period come paid holiday from Tata Motors. Its strange where life takes you. I had never in my wildest dreams imagined to go to Raipur from a fast paced Mumbai full of friends, family and fun! As I sit here, on a crossroad, a crucial juncture of my life, I look back and rewind the good old days in Mumbai. It was yesterday night that 'the government' enjoyed it's probably the last such 'Ice-cream cum booze weekend'. With Dan moving out of Country, Craig trying to tie a knot before the wine ages more and Me chasing the great Indian dream, we are not sure when will that day come again when we laughed endlessly, did crazy acts and had loads of fun together. But looking back, I was lucky that we had so much of fun for the last 7 years, I couldnt ask for more. As I wait for my flight to arrive, I am trying to leave things behind and move ahead with optimism and embrace the change. Everything happens for a reason and for good!

Bleed Blue

I was on the internet checking scores on Rediff Scores while the Grand Finale of World Cup 2011 was been seen by my entire family in the Living Room. Why? My Dad wasnt allowing me to watch the match being superstitious. Last time when India-Pak match was going on, I had exams the other day 'cause of which I was checking scores online and not watching it. and India Won. And he wanted my sis-in-law to sit in a particular chair. This is the magnitude of involvement of an average Indian while India is playing cricket. India had reached the finals of the world cup and close to winning it. The entire nation was glued to the television. The roads wore a deserted look. Pubs, Malls, Even housing societies displayed match on the Big Screen,so much that, projector was not available on rent. I saw Sachin and Sehwag go early, so I decided to follow my Dad's instruction and it did work. Gambhir, Kohli, Dhoni all showed the world what the new India is all about. Fearless, Resilient and Bold! The entire nation screamed, cried, hugged, danced as Dhoni hit that final six. You could here crackers for hours and it was like a festival. I was not born when India had become Independent, but I am sure the celebration would have been similar then. India lifted the world cup after 28 years as Virat Kohli and others carried Sachin over their shoulders to parade his home ground. This was indeed a tribute to the little master, a dream fulfilled. As rightly put by kohli, "Sachin has been carrying the burden for more than 20 years now,its time we carry him!" This victory is a sign of the coming of age of a nation with the largest youth in the world, raring to go and prove to the world that we are the champions!

Induction Training? Really?

"Tata Motors has spend close to Rs. 10,000/- on each trainee for the outbound training. It will not be possible to grant leave on such short notice. In case of emergency, I would request you to email the regional manager, the HR head and me"- This was the reply I got from my HR when I smsed him asking whether I can skip the scheduled outbound training at lonavala. I was waiting for my turn in the dispensary for a checkup suspecting fever. This message was more of a nice way to threaten me with dire consequences. The doctor advised me to stay indoors. I was wondering how am I going to manage that for an outbound training. After a long debate with my family, I made up mind to go with a clear mission in my mind - I will go there and just rest in the 5-star hotel citing medical reasons.

The bus was scheduled to leave Fort at around 5.45 am. Since it was humanly impossible for a thanekar like me to reach there before the sun does, I decided to catch the Bus midway at Dadar. After having a short nap in the plush AC cabin, we reached the hotel.  Unfortunately we were made to go to the conference hall before going to our rooms. There stood a guy, stylish, smart (obviously...who else could fool such corporate biggies to pay for such crap!) who addressed all of us and gave some gyaan. After some blah, he made us do activity and I was like, "I dont want to do this and want to go to the room and just relax!". Finally I thought not to be a cry baby and do whatever my body allowed me to do. And to my surprise, I found myself doing all those games and activities (read: Team building sessions :P) and it was great fun if not anything else. After sometime we were told to go to our rooms and relax for sometime and comeback. Again I couldnt stop myself from coming back and at the end of the day I ended up doing Treasure Hunt, Making a catapult, Human Pyramid and even walk over broken glass pieces! Yes you heard it right. All along it was interesting to see guys much elder to me, most of them married, behaving like kids, doing all kinds of keedas, even Dogging (Male version of bitching) about Guys from other parts of the country. There you realise the true meaning of Unity under Diversity!

The next day was a challenge, we were supposed to trek over a hillock, crossover to the next hill by valley crossing and comedown Rappelling over the Dukes Nose. Even though I could hear my Body telling me, "Noways are you going to do all that", My Mind was constantly pricking me up telling me.."I am not sure you will get the chance to do all this again, that too getting paid to do it". I chose to snub my body and listen to my mind as I was crawling to the top of the mountain. First up- Valley Crossing: After first few seconds of nervousness, It was a smooth breeze. The view to see the valley below you was superb! Then came the nightmare- Rappelling. As I held the ropes and took my few steps downward the cliff, my heatbeats beat the speeds of all the Tata Motor cars I was supposed to sell. We were too rappell down 350 feets! That almost a 30 storey building. After walking 90 degree to the cliff for sometime, my foot lost contact as I started to fall at a steady pace. It reminded me of the dreams we have when we suddenly experience the floor below your foot has suddenly slipped. I was really scared and for that moment, I realised that ambitions, career, money, aspirations etc are not at all in your mind when you experience a near death. Its just love and living that matters to live a good life.

Kahaani me twist - Re-hired!

I was happily under TCS Hangover, that I got one more element of surprise that Life always manages to give me, just to make things interesting enough to be blogged about. I got a call from Tata Motors for an interview. Yes, the very company which I had been trying hard now for almost half a year. I had almost lost hope and had moulded my mind to be ready for whatever opportunity I get and I did too. "Why now?" was the only thing that came in my mind. I was happy, no doubt about that, but somewhere the happiness was hesitant. I agreed to be interviewed but my mind was still solving puzzles to understand whats happening. I couldnot understand why am I not entirely happy, when the opportunity to be associated with Automobiles had come knocking my doors, which I had been trying relentlessly and failed consistently right from 10th class!

I went for the interview. The office was like my home ground as I had done my summers there. The interviewer had seen me roaming clueless around dealerships. He quipped whether I was looking for a second Innings and I nodded in firm agreement. Then the Regional Head wanted to be convinced whether I was fit enough for the Job. I got a call informing that I was selected and I will receive the offer soon. I did get the offer which was too less for me to relocate out of Mumbai and then started a really long period of negotiations. Throughout this period I was being seduced by the awesome bucks TCS offered and its assumed comfortable Job Role with a possible chance of going abroad and earning a lot more awesome bucks! It was like making a choice between an arranged match and true love. Finally they agreed to pay more at the fag end. Today being the first day of me joining Tata Motors, I cant  help but to believe that Success is like a Butterfly, You run after it...it runs away..and when you stand still, It comes and sits on you. What? Was it for happiness and not success? Well it suits me this way.

Hired!

"Why MBA?" - this is one question that keeps haunting you right since you were preparing for the never ending entrance tests, when you get admissions, when you are studying for the course. You kept lying to yourself that you were doing it for growth, higher degree, value addition and all other blahs that you learnt during the course. But 21st Jan 2011 was the day when I had the moment of truth, I looked at the mirror and I found the answer - "I need a job". I knew that day was different.

Placements is the most emotionally charged event in an MBA college. Especially when you are in a Tier2 college.This is when you actually witness the supply-demand gap you have been learning about. A typical Tier2 MBA student is a 24 something who couldnot crack CAT and with some work-experience which is considered inadequate both in terms of quality as well as quantity by most of the recruiters. This guy is in a dilemma, he waits for something that does justice to his profile, while recruiters feel such profile are not doing justice to their high paying jobs. This is where frustration creeps in. In this frustration, you can witness scenes like people getting ecstatic for not getting selected while you can also see tears rolling down the cheeks for getting selected - Insane!

After being not selected (Although some people like to read it as 'rejected', I prefer this way), for 3 occasions, this time I had mentally prepared to fight to win. This is exactly what I did during, the otherwise very burdening process for me, GD. I started the GD for the first time in my life, there I sensed that 'I have arrived!". There was no looking back after that, I got shortlisted for the PI which was a smooth sail and it did have a happy end with finally getting to hear my name being announced by the Placement Manager as a selection for TCS E-serve! This day I came to  know the real meaning of the statement - "Attitude and not aptitude is what matters"

Adventures of the Govt 3 : The Goan Hogfest!

       My dear friend Craig rightly says, "I guess we spent the entire 2010 eating". If the Chinese have 'The year of Tiger, Mongoose, Snakes etc', the government surely can name 2010 as The year of Hogging. We have been spending weekends hogging at possibly the best places in and around Mumbai, all those places which once we used to feel intimidated entering. Surely the Governments GDP is growing! We decided to give the year of hogging a much deserved climax - The Goan Hogfest!

     It was a chilly December morning, 5:45 am to be precise, when Craig's Dark Wife (his nick for his much beloved Black Alto) took a roar after being put to the first gear. The Trance Music blended effortlessly with the 100 kph cruise along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. We touched NH4 at the break of dawn, and it was all a smooth ride through blooming sugar cane fields all along till Goa. We reached Mapusa in the evening and finally manged to find ourself a roof for just one day as for the rest days it was already arranged. Staying in Goa for 420 bucks for a day at the center of city was itself a great start. The night at '9 bar' at Vegathore was amazing with an international DJ getting us into the groove.

The rest 3 days we spent eating at some of the best places in Goa, Johncy's at Benaulim, Brittos at Baga, Lobo's at Calangute, Infantaria at Baga Road and Kashi's Diary at Vasco. No that is not a spelling mistake, thats how the Propreiter wishes to name his resto. Kashi's may not be as well known as other places, but yeah you get one of the most amazing Parathas, Chhole bauture, Jalebi, Mava Cake and Tea! It served as a welcome veggie break every morning to cure the Sea-food Hangover. The count of species that we had will surely make our tummies eligible to be called as aquarium. We had a great dinner on Jan 31st at Lobos and Finally we spent the new year inside our beloved Dark wife, cutting the blue berry cake from Infantaria away from the crowd, noise, buzz! Just with ourselves.

It was possibly one of the best times we had together, yet there was current of thought flowing somewhere inside the sea of enjoyment, that probably we may lead different lives from 2011, each having their own priorities. So this was the moment, and we wanted to live it to the fullest. This celebration of all the good times we had together propelled a great amount of 'josh' in me to look forward for 2011 which is going to be a great year. I am standing at the crossroads, this year is going to be the time when I chose the right roads for me both personally and professionally. 2011...here I am!

An Odyssey called 'Enthiran'

When you do Internet Booking for a movie scheduled early Sunday morning, you are sure not many would be interested in spoiling their post-saturday extra sleephours. I was disappointed with the show timing, as I was not just going to watch the movie, but to live the experience. But I was wrong. Rajnikanth has once again proved that he doesnt go by the law of nature. For a moment, I partially started believing all the Rajni Jokes floating around the net and sms. This man has made a mob throng the posh multiplex along with their kids, grandparents and even extended families. The ladies made the air fragrant with the garlands of jasmine as their hair ornaments. I felt close to being a proud southie now. It was this experience I wanted to witness and the buzz around hinted me about whats in store ahead.

The doors opened as people rushed in to grab their seats. Within few minutes, the entire audi was full to brim and you would easily mistake it for a theater in chennai. The show began and the men did give AR's background score tough competition with their whistles and hoots. And this was just for the credits at the beginning mentioning the name "SuperStar Rajnikanth". I always used to think that the film is being made on a robot just because you can make Rajni do anything as a robot which was otherwise not possible. But as the movie progressed I realised this was probably the most realistic Rajni movie I have seen in recent times. Shankar had a clear picture in mind when he planned for the movie. Some visually exhilarating songs at exotic locales like machu-pichu and futuristic sets does affect the pace of the excellent screenplay. But then you cannot dissapoint the typical thalaivan follower. He has come there to see this and some more. He whistles when the robo-rajni speaks to a mosquito convincing it to not to bite the dumb-bimbo Aishwarya Rai (the only turn-off in the entire movie). Even the tin-box mini-robot in the movie acts better than her. This woman is the reason in the movie why we got to see all those rajni-robo clones formations. Brilliantly shot sequences towards the climax and breath taking special effects is the movie's forte that even a non-rajni fan should enjoy. I expected less from the movie, but I have to say Shankar has taken Indian Cinema to the next level with all the special effects and a very novel concept. 

Along with this, there was a parallel experience which I was witnessing. My Dad, who has taken me and my bro around when we were kids, was visibly happy to see the reverse of that happening. We ate at the same udupi resto where we had been during our childhood. There I recalled a particular scene in enthiran, when my dad hooted! That moment, I truly felt thankful to rajni and the makers of the movie. If you call Enthiran a movie, it would be an insult. Its an experience. DOT!