Thursday, December 31, 2009
What a year...
Sunday, November 1, 2009
What's on regulators mind?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Grown enough?
Friday, August 7, 2009
Do Drinking and Dancing only go together?
Don’t mix drinking with driving! Walk when you talk! But don’t talk when you drive. Making its mark amongst all these pairs is that of ‘Drinking & Dancing’. While it’s a democracy and people have the right to differ, I think they make a great ‘couple’.
Dancing – so tiring, yet so refreshing. One can of beer was just the fuel that was needed. I dare say that I never enjoyed dancing like this, ever before. While the body energy levels had subsided considerably, my EQ (Enthusiasm Quotient; a self-patented acronym) was right up there. And I was dancing for as long as I could. I just didn’t want to stop. (Screw u CR!) And for a change, I wasn’t giving a damn as to what would ‘some people’ think about my steps. I wasn’t over-conscious, nor did a FOSTER’S can manage to make me ‘un-conscious’. The overall feeling was just amazing. Yeah, the atmosphere was electric. Guys were cool and the gals were hot! DJ too didn’t ‘suck’. Though I enjoyed it thoroughly, I believe there should be a digital display of lyrics somewhere (celing/wall/wherever) so that musical nerds like me can sing… ok hum along while dancing. The pleasure increases manifold when one knows what one is dancing to!! Most notably, I didn’t repeat the blunder of ‘sporting’ an open footwear to a disco. A never ending photo session followed. Although I was very ecstatic, I had a low strike rate as far as smiling in pics was concerned. Ironical, I know.
Sutra was way better than JW Marriott or Rockbottom. ACs seemed to be working, floor had space to dance, and the cozy feeling was also not missing. Yes, few more complimentary cans would have been great! However, I must say “Well done Students’ Council”. For all the thrashing and bashing you people receive, you guys deserve this compliment.
Reached home the last amongst my roomies and continue to live up to the title of ‘rent payer only’ in my flat J
Monday, August 3, 2009
Changing priorities....changing person
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Socially responsible ??
CSR was close to being the most abused acronym, until the recent financial turmoil left most corporate philanthropists struggling to fulfill their primary responsibility – to churn profits for their shareholders! No, this isn’t another of those articles which delves into causes of the crisis or into ‘Why CSR’. This is about social responsibility. Not CSR, albeit PSR (Personal Social Responsibility- a term I first heard at a matrimonial interview last month)
Some wise man had said “All human beings are inherently good”. Somewhere down in our hearts all of us have that burning desire (though the flame is often close to getting extinguished) – To do something for our society, our place, our country and the human fraternity in general. I was no different. I was always a witness to elders in my family helping the unprivileged, partly due to PSR (gosh, then the term mustn’t have been existing) and partly because the Holy Scriptures asked them to do so. Whatever be the driving motto, the output was indisputably benevolent. Then was my exposure to Social Responsibility at two places, though the driving motto again wasn’t CSR/PSR. One was via my elder sister on her rural field visits. Here, while I was her kiddo brother dropping and picking her up, she was there for a course requirement, which she herself doesn’t know (probably even today) why she took up at the first place. My participation, under the banner of “Vandeep” at St. Xavier’s College, in various
Of late, however, I have noticed a marked…..okay, a reasonable amount of change. This time I don’t see any explicit motto of self-benefit driving my actions. On at least four occasions, I have counseled a LIG family to focus on education and family planning. At one such instance, I went overboard and over did that counseling! I have been asking rick (what others call an auto rickshaw) drivers to work harder to educate their kids. I asked a Puchkawala in Mumbai to manage his work himself, and send his son to the govt. school. I have pacified fights in Delhi Metro twice, once when a lady who jumped the queue was taken to task by a male traveler, and the other one had the reverse flow of ‘words’ when a male refused to vacate a seat marked ‘only for ladies’, and a Punjabi lady ripped him apart. I have been talking politely to almost every Grade IV/ LIG employee from watchmen and liftmen to vegetable vendors and barbers in saloons. While this has lead to a marked change in my HQ (happiness quotient, which increased at my satisfaction of having “meaningfully contributed”), I am sure it would have made those otherwise ‘trifle’ people feel important and, I dare say, resolute.
I had no idea whatsoever that I would pull myself one day into mediating peace between a couple. This incident dates back to first week of May in
Fortunately or unfortunately, that was my last major ‘encounter’ and the PSR thing has been put on hold since then. Till I get a new motto to continue…
Monday, May 4, 2009
Can 2 hours of daily travelling still be enjoyable?
My morning travel schedule:
8:29 a.m. –Metro feeder bus from Shalimar area to Netaji Subhash Place metro station
8:51 a.m. – Metro from NSP to Kashmiri Gate
9:14 a.m. – Metro from Kashmiri Gate to Rajiv Chowk
9:30 a.m. – Office-office
But the journey wasn’t tiring. It was actually wonderful. Not the least because everything was good. Like people actually queuing up for a metro train (ask any local train commuter in Mumbai and he’ll be astounded to hear that), clean and well maintained trains and station premises, punctuality in operations, air-conditioned coaches, escalators, smart card to scan-in and scan-out, security arrangements, timely announcements….the list is long. Everything mentioned above is appreciable, no doubt about that. But that is not a KCA of my current post. (Key Concern Area – been long since i last used a jargon in one of my presentations; wheeew, feeling gr8)
What do you do when you have one hour to spend in the morning, and no one to talk? Yeah, no one to talk for one full hour!! For those good-for-nothing-else fellows who would study using some xerox material for some exam, which is months away, please don’t read ahead. Now for those interesting, intelligent, candid, and most importantly observing guys (n gals) who would rather choose something else to make informed investment decision (lolzzz, here comes another over-abused phrase from a would-be-MBA) as to how to spend their precious little time, i have something to share. I chose the time to observe the feminine folk in general. K, kidding, not everyone, only young girls! But this wasn’t the typical NSP (nain-suk prapti; word courtesy: my sis) or a usual checking-out-a-gal. Honestly! I am serious. Gosh, i know it’s difficult to chew but I actually wasn’t checking them out. I was observing them. How each girl is so-so different than the previous one? I mean pick 100 random girls from a metro coach and each one would have a different statement to make. The beauty was mesmerizing, to say the least. So I chose to observe them, obviously – without getting noticed. The feeling was jittery, to begin with. But as I gained experience, I was calmer and cooler, and yeah – more observing.
Details to follow…
Saturday, April 25, 2009
How UnLuCkY can one get ?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
A Surprise visit back home.........
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Gone are the sleepless nights......
Finally, one of the longest waits of my life comes to an end. The marathon period saw me appearing in as many as 28 GDs and 8 Interviews, dozens of Pre Placement Talks, but the largest count is that of my CVs. So I sat down to take a count of the bond papers that went into the drain, and it came out to be a whopping 130 copies. The ‘night’ was long. A wait as long as 201 days! In such gloomy economic conditions, the placecomm was doing a terrific job. Getting 120 odd people placed with the corporate behemoths, in a week, is no mean task. But, not everything was in their hands. So, the rest of us had no choice but to wait. To wait for the wait to get over! September passed by. But so did all the succeeding 5 months. It was March 2009. Against the forecast of my roomies (who had all predicted that I would be the first one, amongst the 5 of us, to get placed), I turned out to be the last one. Some wise men rightly commented “You can only make a lucky forecast or a wrong forecast’’. But all these days, I had been feeling defeated. Every process, every rejection came as a rude shock. How can I be so bad? Didn’t I deserve a placement? Or, didn’t I, at the first place, deserve a seat at NMIMS? Every passing day eroded a layer of hope and self-belief, or whatever little I had of it. The days saw ecstasy and dejection, hypertension and hyper-excitement, nervousness and determination, all interspersed with days of waiting. At one point of time, I was under so much pressure that for a week I saw myself, in my dreams, attending placement processes and screwing them up. While in one dream I saw myself turning out in casuals, in another I saw myself failing to get up from my slumber. My roomies witnessed me murmuring in my dreams, but they never knew what I was talking, or at least that is what they claimed. I was crumbling under Placement-pressure, and still I had to pretend, to the outside world, that I wasn’t. Never before in my life did I realize how a big failure feels. Friends, relatives, family members – everyone was concerned, and reasonably so. Some said “Dude, you aren’t bad at all’’, while other said ‘’Tension mat le Bhai, ho jayega’’. Parents were more worried, knowing that all through my life I had never before felt so lonely and so dejected. They always kept me going. So, I would say to them that I wasn’t worried and that good companies were yet to come. Deep in my heart, I knew that they were aware of the ground realities but little could they have done to help me in this case. To others I would put up other excuses. All this while, I understated the number of placed students, so that they don’t feel….. My Mom used to say ‘’ Jab voh din nhi rhe to yeh din bhi nhi rhenge’’. Well she was right. Lives change, and change for the good. Yesterday was my last interview, which followed a staggering round of finance based quiz. But I had learnt the bitter message of not building hopes, to avoid dejection upon the hoes not being fulfilled. So, when Vohra congratulated me yesterday evening, I went blank. I just didn’t know what happened. I could see all those 6 and a half months flashing before me. I thanked him and left. Finally, I am placed. I have landed up with a good finance profile, in a Multinational. The stipend is low, but it is much higher than what I was ready to settle with at that stage. The project seems to offer tremendous exposure and great learning opportunities. Walking back to my hostel, I was thinking of thanking every person who helped me to get here - Family (comes first), Placecomm (for working day and night selflessly), Placecomm friends (going out of their ways to help me), my “The group’’ friends (for reinforcing my confidence and taking mock interviews), seniors (for their continuous support), roomies (for their optimistic forecasts), relatives (trying to get me placed somewhere), friends back home. The list is long and my heart is heavy.
There were some last moment hitches at some excitingly better placement opportunities that I was to come across. In desperation, I was selfish and mean, and highly unprofessional. But still, my friends stood by my side. I apologize to each one of them, but I don’t thank them, because they deserve much more than a thank you.
When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often, we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.
Still, gone are the days of worry. Can look forward to some sound sleep. No, got to focus on exams starting early next week, and internship immediately thereafter. NM rocks!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Main aisa kyun hoon..
Scene 1
Year 1993
It all started (or rather ended) with an incident, 15 years ago. I was in Std I. We were supposed to perform on the patriotic number “yeh desh hai veer javano ka”. It was a big group comprising of some 12 boys and girls, dressed in traditional attire – each representing a different culture of our country. I was endowed with a chance to wear a dhoti and having seen my grandfather, I was too eagerly to take dhoti as my dress, while others were fighting for choices. So, the day had come and assumedly, rehearsals had been fine. At the last moment (at least that is how I remember it) we were asked to change some of our dance ‘steps’. Everything went fine, until my wardrobe ‘malfunctioned’. Actually, towards the end, it so happened that everyone was going round and round with the beat oooooooooo (that follows the part yeh desh hai duniya kagehna). I went over the board a way too much and was enjoying myself dangling round-and-round. Suddenly, my dhoti (which my mom had tied up for me) flew open. I was singled out and my dance instructor shouted later “ab kbhi mat bolna ki dance krna hai”. I was a laughing stock for my classmates till months that followed. I thought I would, in due course of time, recuperate from the shock.
Scene 2
Year 1999
My favorite cousin at my Nanighar was getting married and the excitement surrounding his marriage was huge. It was the marriage that so many relatives of mine had been looking forward to. The stakes were high. And the “Geet-sammelan” preparations were on, with huge fanfare. I also succumbed to the temptation, and decided to present a dance on K2H2, a popular recent release in those days. So there was this friend of my sister (yeah, she was pretty….) who came to my place to help me (and my sister) learn the steps. And I was the butt of laughter & ridicule “body itna stiff kyun hai”, ”arey gadhe aise nhi aise kro” and son on and so forth. Finally, after two days of toiling hard, I gave up L Yeah, while all my cousins were performing, I was ruing not having put enough effort and loosing it all! At the same time I had lost hope that I’ll ever learn to dance
Scene 3
Year 2008/09
A decade has passed. From high school I have moved onto a management college. During a visit to the Times Utsav, there was a promotional training by a reputed dance institute, and they were teaching Salsa. That was one of the first instances where I garnered the courage to do what I wanted to. So threw away my bag, and started the training. And my Enthu level– my friends would vouch for that! I knew I wasn’t any better at the workshop but then who cares. I wanted to dance, I love dancing – so what if my body is stiff, my movements aren’t proper, and I am very conscious. I am not doing for anyone else’s sake. It was me dancing for myself. Or at least I like to think so! So when I was dancing yesterday in the salsa workshop during Euphoria, I was only euphoric about it. I m trying, and am trying hard. Ravinder is contemplating to join full-time salsa classes, and I am thinking of joining him. I hope I am able to. Otherwise, at my rate, it’ll take me another decade to start moving.
"Pappu'' is not all that alone.......
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Repentance does (not) last long
Every single time I have screwed up (read underperformed) any of my examination papers, I have prayed (and prayed hard) to the Almighty to get me across (read 'get me more marks than I deserve') 'this one time' with a promise 'to study hard(er) hereafter'. Almost all my prayers got answered - be it Geography in Std. VII, Physics in Std. IX, Mathematics in Std. XI, Biology in Std. XII, my BBA entrance test at Symbi, and all my zoology papers across 3 years, and final call from NMIMS (here my praying efforts supplemented those of my Mom)! At times, he was more than generous for letting me top (in final semester at Xavier's) and most of the times I wasn't disappointed.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Mumbai ai'nt all that bad....
This was supposed to be my first post. Accidentally, the contents got replaced while publishing my second post today; am still to come to terms with this irrecoverable loss!.Hope i can pen down my feelings again!