Perfect evening

Me in a blanket, working on my laptop with classical music in the background in a dark room.

Another thing in the list

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, S. Sreesanth

This is the squad for the upcoming ODI series India will play. I haven't followed cricket like some of my more devoted friends, hence this isn't a view on what the team composition should have been. I just wanted to say that it sure feels odd to see a team without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly.

Even the cricket team's changed, looks like I really have grown up (or older at least).

Goodbye 2007!

Its gonna be LEGEN.....

.....wait for it.....

....DARY!!

There are times in a person's life when there he is abound with just too many questions, that is when a man realises what he must now do.

Suit up and spread some awesomeness! (Thank you Mr. Stinson!)

Looking forward to the much talked about 3rd term at IIMA and life in general, with a mix of anticipation and apprehension. I heard this somewhere - 98% excitement and 2% nervousness or 2% excitement and 98% nervousness....I don't know

A very very Happy New Year to all of you and I really hope this year and the years ahead bring you all that you want!...;)

Greed

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is
good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures
the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for
life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind

~ Wall Street

And I agree.

I Was Reborn Today

If There Was A God...

...Here's his chance to prove his existence

I am really hungry and have nothing to eat. Please o God, give me something to eat! and a little more time to blog in higher detail...!

I've Fallen off the Cliff...

...And I hope to God he makes me fly

One Thing You Didn't Know About IIMA

Something for that matter which even I didn't know.

IIMA is one HELL of a dating joint! I mean at the parking or the LKP or some other secluded corner of the campus, you see the local Amdavadi couples together. I am pretty sure they tell their folks that they're going for CAT coaching classes and come here instead. For 'inspiration' I guess!

Infact I see this one couple at the parking stand, near the ever-present Rambhai (more on him later, he deserves a full post), every evening. And I mean, every evening. The guy is sitting on his motorbike and the girl is sitting on a chair nearby or the reverse arrangement. Boring but definitely cost-effective and also hats off to the guy's patience for being able to chat with the girl everyday for atleast 2-3 hours. I always wonder where that couple finds the topics to talk on everyday.

From the IIMA perspective, I guess its a contribution to the society, saving those young lovelorn couples their pocket money...;)

That's LKP (Louis Kahn Plaza) by the way


Beautiful, isn't it? Don't blame those couples for coming here! Sometimes when things aren't going good, which is most of the times for me, sitting here at night makes it all worth it. Makes you feel like a WIMWIan, an ossum and a godly feeling indeed!

15 August, 2007

A habit, developed over the past twenty-two years has now been ingrained deeply into my system. I am late again.

I'm a day late but on Independence Day, when I am old enough to understand a lot of things, here's a humble dedication from me to our nation and to the brave men and women who fought for my freedom to abuse/make proud my nation. I don't know what adjectives I should use to describe it. To some its a nation worth dying for, to some its just a place they were born in and where they pass their time before they get the US/UK/Canadian visa. Personally speaking I don't know if I'll ever face a situation when I need to die for it, even if I do, I don't know if I'll do it. Neither do I know if I'll ever leave this land permanently.

I do however like, even love this country. The reasons for the same though, might or might not exist.

Moving on, a few lines from a man who according to BBC made the sun set on the empire.

I believe that the civilisation into which India has evolved is not to be beaten in the world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestry.
Rome went; Greece shared the same fate;
the might of the Pharaohs was broken;
Japan has become westernised; of China nothing can be said;
but India is still,somehow or other, sound at the foundation
~ Mahatma Gandhi


In the words of Mohammed Iqbal -
Yunan Mishra Roma, sab mit gaye jahan se,
Ab tak magar hai baaki, naam-o-nishan hamara

Kuch baat hai ki hasti, mitti nahi hamari,
Sadio raha hai dushman daur-e-jahan hamara

Happy Independence Day

4pLay

That, ladies and gentlemen is my name from now on. In other words, I've been rechristened as

4pLay - The Sex God

This is another WIMWI tradition, one of the famous ones I guess - Dorm Naming. An example - the Vindi you hear in M.S. Vindi Banga (a well known alumnus of IIMA), is his dorm name. The first thing people do when talking to IIMA students or alumni is ask their dorm name. So it is quite well known. There are 26 dorms in all over here and every dorm has secret rituals and traditions for dorm naming. No one outside the dorm is aware of these.

Here are all the dorm names in Dorm 20 - Dorm of Sex Gods...


This board though, hardly tells you the story. There have been worse names than these. A few examples are - Sussu Singh, Potty Singh, Landesh Singh, Blojo, Blomie, Brasak etc. Then we have some nice ones too, but then nice is boring!...;)

Airports

Someone has rightly said that whenever one feels there is too much hatred around, go to an airport.

The amount of love one witnesses there, between parents and children, brothers and sisters, lovers, husbands and wives, should certainly fill you with a little hope, for a little while at least, if not too long.

Politically In...Never-correct

Why am I the most politically incorrect person you'll ever meet???

I hate those social occasions where you need to speak with people you barely know. I speak my mind most of the times. That is if I speak. Most times, I don't speak, because I guess I am a little shy/reticent/introvert. And people mistake that for arrogance.

Essentially, I hate thinking so much, but I do and I can't help it. And at social occasions, am always thinking about what should I say, whether I should talk to XYZ person or not. Maybe, it's not that complicated, but in my mind, it is.

I'd rather hang out with my college buddies, eat, drink and enjoy life. Sigh!...when will I stop missing college?...:p

Men, Women and an Academic Paper

According to this study, men and women (in the US atleast) have the following preferences when it comes to the opposite sex -

• For men, the only thing that matters is how hot the girl is.

Wicked I know, but that's the ultimate truth.

Coming to women...ahhh...women! They on the other hand are a bit more flexible with their choices. They don't mind a shorter or a not very good looking guy, but they do have a common benchmark against which they measure these parameters. Any guesses on what that benchmark is?

Its Money.

• A guy only 5 feet tall will need to earn $325,000 more than the 6 feet tall guy, to be as successful in the online dating market.

• Coming to looks, if you are somewhere in the middle of the pile, you need to earn $143,000 more than the guy at the top (whose there simply on the basis of his looks)

• If you're at the very bottom of the pile (again solely because of your looks), to get the girls the top guys get, you'll need to earn $186,000 more than the top guys.

Wickeder right? But it's true.

By the way, just for the record - I have nothing against women in general, I love you all...;)... but this was too interesting an article too ignore. You can also read the original blogpost I got it from, here.

All these are results from a scientific study in the US, so now we know 2 things for sure.

• People in the US conduct research on almost anything

• Nothing like true love. Money does matter, in the end. And if to any of the female readers it doesn't (Read: those who don't mind supporting a stay-at-home husband/boyfriend, who drinks beer and watches TV the whole day), send me your photo!...;)

Nostalgia Again

It is that time of the year again, when engineering colleges throughout the country are getting over with the 2nd semester of the current session. And across Orkut, you find headlines such as "Leaving xxxx", "Bye-bye xxxx" and the likes of these. All this just reminds me of my engineering college and the time I left it, which was the same time as now last year. Even otherwise, at various times of the day I think about what I would have been doing at that time, had I still been a student at TIET. It sounds funny. TIET, short for Thapar Institute of Engg and Tech. I guess the college also realised that and now its called TU or Thapar University, which I guess ranks higher up in the cool quotient.

As you might have seen from the numerous number of posts on TIET, I really miss my college and Patiala and in a strange, weird, slap-me-and-wash-my-mouth-with-soap-for-saying-this way Punjab too.

Coming to think of it, all the incidents, all the people, every small thing that took place, it all seems so unnatural now, as if it was all just a dream and suddenly I woke up one day, back in my room in Delhi. With only memories of some strange and weird people, of some stranger and weirder incidents, in a place that refuses to be erased from my memory.

I usually get so pensive only during the evenings or when I see the profile of somebody still in engineering college and look through his scraps to realize, that's what my scrapbook looked like not a very long time ago but it'll never look that way again. A stupid line I know, but just a thought.

This line fits in well right now - Those were the best days of my life...

This is what I hate about life. I hate changes and moving on. Both of which I will have to deal with and keep dealing with.

If you've come this far folks, then do let me know you address. You definitely deserve a bravery award!

The Sordid Saga of a W710i, Gurgaon Weather and Yours Truly

With all due respect to those who work there, all the call center executives I have talked with so far, seem to be the biggest losers on this planet. Basic IQ and intelligence is what is missing, why can't everybody have it? Now, I am not generalizing it but most executives I talked to so far were highly successful in irritating the crap out of me.

Anyways, so my W710i story has today taken a new turn with the old set getting replaced by a new one and I HOPE this one works fine. Usually when I buy new stuff, there is a tendency for it to go bad within 24-48 hours of buying it. Happened when I bought my first computer, video-game and now this. If this set doesn't work fine then I am reselling this one, I'll have to suffer quite a heavy monetary loss but I don't care. I can't go through the head-ache I have gone through once to get this set replaced.

Today the weather in Gurgaon is simply amazing. And I don't know why, I felt lonely, not in the romantic sense you dirty mind. I just felt like sitting down somewhere, with some good friends and drinking down a few beers. Even now, there's an awesome breeze blowing. Makes me think why I am not going to IIM Kozhikode/honeymoon destination!...lol. Man...Chetan Bhagat rightly said...who Chetan Bhagat you asked??..This guy. So as I was saying, he said - A guy bonds with his hostel and college buddies more than even his spouse.

I second that. Now after that comment I don't really expect any of the female readers to show even the slightest bit of interest in me, if there was any initial scope. Add to that, I have been called boring, serious and over-mature. So there goes my already barren love-life further down the drain!

Anyways, mommy calling me for dinner and a younger brother getting really impatient and irritated because I'm hogging the PC. Reminds me of the time in 1970's when people paid money to use PC time for their programming purposes, much like the cyber-cafes of today. Here I go on a tangent again.

Shall take your leave for now.

22 May 2007, 2:35 AM...This is What I Was Thinking

1. Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it
There was a small one on my leg. Got it while jumping off a chair at granny's house. It's almost faded away now.

2. What is on the walls in your room?
Plain and boring.

3. What does your phone look like?
w710i...Gone for repairs....:(

4. What music do you listen to?
Anything that sounds good.

5. What is your current desktop picture?
A photograph of my hostel room in Patiala

6. What do you want more than anything right now?
Satisfaction and peace of mind

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?
No problems if two people want to do it. It's biological man!...even if it wasn't, how does it bother straight people? Don't think about it if you don't want to!

8. What time were you born?
Approx 12:30 AM

9. Are your parents still together?
Yep

10. What are you listening to?
Fan blades cutting through the air

11. Do you get scared of the dark?
Nope

12. The last person who made you cry?
Himesh Reshammiya.

13. What is your favourite perfume/cologne?
Whichever I can get my hands on at that moment!

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?
Blue eyes....with blonde hair...;)

15. Do you like pain killers?
I'd like to make a sad statement here....I like to enjoy the pain...;)

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
Not in a million years!

17. Fave pizza topping?
Anything that moved before it was cooked = non vegetarian

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?
Chicken burger, fries and pepsi

19. Who was the last person you made mad?
Rohit

20. Is anyone in love with you?
Loads of 'em...;)...but seriously speaking, no idea

This template is from another blog, so whoever it was, thank you!

The Worst 5 Minutes of My Life

It was last week. The worst 5 minutes of my life.

Ever wondered what were yours? Is something or someone so important and precious to you?

I discovered it through last week's incident. It's too personal so I am not blogging it but let me tell you, I realise now, how important that thing is to me.

There are a few posts I have on it, unpublished. I may publish them sometime or maybe never, but it's the one thing in my life I am blatantly emotional about, what I otherwise hate being.

I call it the real IIM Ahmedabad.

Hope I get that too someday!

Being Backstage

For 4 years in Thapar, I saw most stage events from backstage (because I had a hand in organizing them in some way) and I must say I loved it.

Just hope that if I ever make it to IIM Ahmedabad, then there too, I watch all events from the place where I can see everything in profile view.

Would feel just like home.

The Kind of Heroes Society Will Never Wake Up To

How would it feel if you lose vision in both of your eyes at an early age or for that matter have your right arm get amputated when you are the lone bread-winner of a struggling family? It’s very easy to get dispirited, lose hope and blame God for all the sufferings. But there are men who struggle and strive hard to lead a dignified life even when the odds are stacked heavily against them. This post is about the story of two men who for me are the epitome of courage, perseverance, determination and self respect.It was sweltering hot inside the packed compartment of New Delhi – Sri Ganganagar Express. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice of “Moongfalia le lo, daal te badam le lo”. I look up and it was the same face of an old man strutting past me whom I have seen since childhood in my most of the journeys in the Bathinda – New Delhi section. I ask him to stop and out of habit buy groundnuts worth 5 bucks from him. I always used to purchase from him not because his groundnuts are the best in the world but because I thought this is my way of helping a person live a dignified life. The man in question is special because he sells in the train in spite of being totally blind in both eyes!! Just imagine for two seconds life without your eyes. It’s not pretty and definitely it’s not easy.Ram Jeet Singh was born to a poor peasant family in 1950. He is a resident of village Khokarkala near Mansa in Punjab. At a very early age he contracted eye infection and in absence of proper medical care started losing his vision in both his eyes. By the time he was 15 he was totally blind. He says with voice choking that those were the tough times. He was rendered unemployable in field and if being blind wasn’t enough he had to hear taunts for being a liability from his near and dear ones.In many such cases people turn to begging but he was determined to live a dignified life. He started selling stuffs like groundnuts, peanuts, moong daals, lozenges etc in the trains. Initially it was tough but gradually he got accustomed to it. Today he has a family of 5 of which his elder daughter is married and now his wish is to marry his second daughter. His son is 10 years old and his dream is to see his son become an afsar after padhai – likhai.To give you a peek in his daily life he gets up early in the morning and catches the 8:15 bus from his village to reach Mansa railway station. From there he catches the 2482 Intercity Express and sells his stuffs in the train till Rohtak approx 200kms away. He has his lunch there and after a break catches the 2481 up train to return to Mansa by 5:30 in the evening. And after all this toil in grime n dirt he manages to earn Rs 50-60/- daily. Just imagine in most of the parties we don’t mind spending hundreds of bucks on one meal whereas he has to run a family of 4 in this meager sum. Suddenly I felt guilty conscious and tried to tuck in a hundred rupee note to him. He suddenly sensed that it wasn’t the natural 10 rupee note he is used to handle and asked how much is it worth. On being told he said “Saab main bheekh nahin leta. Aap se baat karke accha laga. Aap jaise bade aadmi ka mujhse tameez se baat karma hi bahut hai mere liye. Aap paise wapis le lo.” I was stunned but I managed to convince him that it wasn’t an alm but my token of appreciation for his grit and determination. After a while he relented and accepted it shyly. Mansa station had arrived and he had to get down before leaving a waived at me cheerfully and said “Agli baar aana to bas awaz dena, main pehchan jaaonga. Main chhota aadmi hoon pas agar main aapke kabhi bhi kaam aa paaya to bas ek baar bolke dekhna.” It was a humbling experience and perhaps for the first time words were failing me.On reaching Bathinda I was looking for a rickshaw. I was haggling on the price when one of the rickshaw-wallahs came, lifted my luggage and motioned to me to follow him. I didn’t notice initially but midway I realized that the rickshaw puller has his right arm amputated from his elbow. Curious I wanted to hear his story.Vijay Pal was born in a village in Fatehpur in UP and came to bathinda in 1976 to work as a labourer. After few struggles he was forced to pull a rickshaw for survival. Calamity struck him when 15 years ago he lost his arm while working in a mill. Like Ram Jeet Singh he too refused to give up under adversity and continued pulling rickshaw for his living. He says proudly “Hamnein kisi ke saamne haath nahin failaye sahib”. He has two sons and he is very particular about their studies. He says “ Mera baap mawali tha jiske liye mujhe bachpan se kaam karma padha aur padh nahin paaya. Main apne bacchon ke sath aisa nahin karoonga. Pata hai sahib kai kai baar jab himmat jawab de jati hai rickshaw kheenchte waqt tab main unka chehra yaad karta hoon aur sochta hoon kabhi wo rickshaw ke doosre side baithe balki mere side.”
When I look back I see two very different persons with one thing in common and that is courage. Most of us can’t even imagine the life these people live. For us everything is rosy and we don’t even know such a world could exist. They are proud people and are heroes in real life in true sense of the word. If at anytime I feel down and need to look for inspiration I don’t need to look beyond I just have to remember Ram Jeet Singh and Vijay Pal.

This post is courtesy Anirban's blog. I am putting this here because someday when I feel down, I'll read this.

Bengali: The Economist

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Here is Kingshuk Das a.k.a. Bengali. He was called so because he was the only bengali fellow in the hostel. Add to that, he looks like a typical bengali too.

In our hostel, we had something called a 'night canteen'. It was an arrangement in the mess where we could get eats like maggie, biscuits, milk, tea etc. at night after dinner. It started around 10-30 PM till around 12 AM. That was the time most people got hungry and most of the time, like always, no one had anything to eat.

A typical scene at night.

In my room-
Bengali: chal, contri(contribution) mei maggie khaa ke aate hain!
Me (happy that bengali is actually talking about spending his money): chal!

Maggie costed 15 bucks in the night canteen.

After this

Me: paise nikaal...

Bengali gives me a two rupee coin, saying: ye meri contri!

Me---> standing their bewildered! Deciding whether to kick his ass or simply laugh.

And yes, I almost always had to pay the rest of the 13 bucks.

Bengali is now doing an MBA in HR from TISS, Mumbai and having the time of his life. Miss you bro!