H'dare you mock my poetry,I shall see you in court.Nay, I am not that forgiving,I shall you to hell deport!Alright! I know it's naive,But I love to rhyme.Guess that's what verses do,Is it that huge a crime?Abstract feelings, moving moments,I write not of,To life's untalked of banalities,Do I my poetic hat doff.To the Frosts and Coleridges,I sincerely apologize,Writing gives me a much-needed kick,That, for the moment, shall suffice!Poetry needs fresh flavours,I shall cook up something new.Tell then sit back and keep mum,Don't make me... KILL YOU!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
You, yes you!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Surely you're joking, Mr. DK Bose!
Before jumping onto some concrete matter which (I presume) shall form the meat of this post, I will like to do a merry little jig as I resume writing on my blog, hopefully, more frequently, as is always wished for. The past two months were a delightful juncture in the course of the years yet spent in my life, as I came to like a job in finance and the bustling city of Mumbai, both of which I had expected to be rather daunting at first.
The city was surprisingly easy to adjust to, although a lot of the credit goes to (I am tempted to say 'Suisse') the fact that I spent most of my time in South Bombay, which, I believe, is the hugely rosier side of the City of dreams. That apart, I enjoyed getting to know a lot of new people and the entire appeal of working in an I-bank too! It was great to pack in a lot of entertaining stuff in the weekends, and exploring and experiencing the city in varied ways over the course of the internship.
This post won't be too long as it is late at night and I am expected to sleep very soon. Also, getting up early for office has got me into a rut and I, inadvertantly, end waking up rather early on my own. Here is where I would draw attention to something I have been feeling very strongly about in the past few days (weeks?). And that is the content being telecast on television and in our movies. Reality TV came up a few years ago as a refreshing concept, but has taken little time to sink to the basest of levels, and the way these shows pander to the voyeuristic tastes and immense tendency for schadenfreude in the Indian audiences.
On a rather unrelated note, the inconsistencies in censorship on screen baffles me. In a situation where HBO/Star movies replace the spoken "Shit!" with "excrement" in their subtitles, we see pervert dialogues from movies being shown in prime time trailers, and Imran Khan's "Bhaag Bhaag DK Bose" in Delhi Belly (which does not mean that I don't think the song in itself is very catchy!). Though I am an unabashed champion of individual rights and freedom, I must admit that the need for responsibility gets hightened when one's audiences range from 4-70 years of age. Parents, these days, must be busy concocting some neo- birds & bees stories to explain some of the songs when their children innocently ask them what they mean!
I think it is time people made themselves more aware of their audiences, their sensitivities and the various stakeholders in the society!
Till then, 'aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! :D'
The city was surprisingly easy to adjust to, although a lot of the credit goes to (I am tempted to say 'Suisse') the fact that I spent most of my time in South Bombay, which, I believe, is the hugely rosier side of the City of dreams. That apart, I enjoyed getting to know a lot of new people and the entire appeal of working in an I-bank too! It was great to pack in a lot of entertaining stuff in the weekends, and exploring and experiencing the city in varied ways over the course of the internship.
This post won't be too long as it is late at night and I am expected to sleep very soon. Also, getting up early for office has got me into a rut and I, inadvertantly, end waking up rather early on my own. Here is where I would draw attention to something I have been feeling very strongly about in the past few days (weeks?). And that is the content being telecast on television and in our movies. Reality TV came up a few years ago as a refreshing concept, but has taken little time to sink to the basest of levels, and the way these shows pander to the voyeuristic tastes and immense tendency for schadenfreude in the Indian audiences.
On a rather unrelated note, the inconsistencies in censorship on screen baffles me. In a situation where HBO/Star movies replace the spoken "Shit!" with "excrement" in their subtitles, we see pervert dialogues from movies being shown in prime time trailers, and Imran Khan's "Bhaag Bhaag DK Bose" in Delhi Belly (which does not mean that I don't think the song in itself is very catchy!). Though I am an unabashed champion of individual rights and freedom, I must admit that the need for responsibility gets hightened when one's audiences range from 4-70 years of age. Parents, these days, must be busy concocting some neo- birds & bees stories to explain some of the songs when their children innocently ask them what they mean!
I think it is time people made themselves more aware of their audiences, their sensitivities and the various stakeholders in the society!
Till then, 'aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! aandhi aayi! :D'
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
HeadStrong Builders! ;)
This is a Case I wrote for evaluation purposes in the Business Ethics course:
The rise of Headstrong Builders to the league of top firms in the market had been nothing less than phenomenal. A fresh company merely 5 years back, Headstrong Builders were giving the market leaders, Nadiadwala & Sons, a run for their money. In an industry where revenues were governed by strategies and politicking around tenders for major construction deals, HeadStrong Builders (HB), with a visionary and strong-willed leader in the form of Mr. Akash Bhalla, had always relied on using the best of materials, excellent service and fair methods of bidding for contracts. The Gods had been kind and Mr. Bhalla knew it, but being at the top was a dream he had always cherished.
A mere 45 years old, Akash Bhalla was a man of few words. However, he was immensely innovative, ferociously hardworking and inspite of all the success, remarkably humble. A civil engineer from IIT Cawnpore and a management graduate from Crochet Institute of Management, Mr. Bhalla had learned the importance of hardwork and dedication, and considered no other path to success to be an agreeable option. Having been a brilliant student and studied at the most prestigious of institutes, he had also gotten used to being a success story everywhere he went. The quick success of his company had buoyed his confidence but his ambition to dethrone Nadiadwala & Sons, coupled with the recent spate of contracts his firm had lost to them, had been enough to give him sleepless nights.
When Bhalla had started out his firm in 2005, he had set up shop out of a small rented and renovated godown in the city of Agra. He had a small staff of 30 odd people and invested in rigorous groundwork before establishing a long term contract with a labour supply firm and another long standing firm in the construction materials business. Over the years, the firm had grown tremendously in size, with offices in 3 other locations across India and a working staff of close to 400 people. Apart from a huge turnover of over Rs. 3500 crores, HB's market reputation had grown after the conclusion of the recent CommonWealth Games. The construction activities during the event had come under the judicial scanner due to reported cases of misappropriation of funds and use of inferior materials. However, after painstaking trials, HB was among the few firms who had come out with a complete clean sheet.
HB's major market lay in the Eastern UP belt as the urban areas in many cities in this region were undergoing a major face-lift and the reckless drive of corporate retail giants to introduce the “mall” culture to the towns as well was creating a huge business prospect for construction firms. However, Nadiadwala had been operating in this region for almost two decades now and perhaps it was this knowledge of the pulse of the market that had led to its unparalleled success in winning tenders. Their chairman was a man of the world and was a popular figure in the local circles. There were rumours that all the practices of the firm were not entirely fair and an acute sense of business was not the only factor which had kept the firm going for all these years. Bhalla, however, had no intention to investigate any such matters and believed that their efforts would help them trump this dominance.
Bhalla believed that his success lay in the people his firm possessed. He was very proud of the hiring practices of his firm and to date, kept a keen check on each and every staff member being added to the rolls. Once inside the firm, the employees always knew that Mr. Bhalla would be collecting regular reports about every member's performance and any promotions/pay hikes would be accorded purely on this evaluation. However, he was also open to discussion and whole-heartedly welcomed employees who wished to meet him to share their troubles or any opinion they had with regards to the company workings or policies.
Apart from this, Bhalla had a core group of five employees – brilliant, dedicated managers and engineers who had been carefully handpicked by Bhalla through other construction firms or from the best campuses across the country. One of the recent inductees, Anil Mani, a young man of thirty, had got himself counted in Bhalla's good books pretty soon with his keen intellect and irrepressible drive to stay ahead of the competition. Anil, a product of WimV School of Management, had worked his way through a 'dog eat dog' environment where results were the only thing that mattered. Bhalla was wary of such attitude, having heard faint murmurs about Anil's behaviour from other staff members, but felt it better not to question him till- as long as he produced excellent results.
Meanwhile, towards the end of the first decade of the millenium, construction work in the UP belt was witnessing a massive peak due to certain radical reconstruction plans announced by the State government. Bhalla, of course, saw this as an opportunity to fulfill his dream of achieving market dominance but knew winning huge contracts like the ones in the pipeline would be an uphill task. He organized various meetings with members of the company board and also invited few of his trusted employees to discuss where they could improvise to ensure that results went their way. After long hours of brainstorming, few strategies were developed but Bhalla was growing more and more unsure of what impact these changes would bring in terms of winning them the relevant contracts. It was after one such meeting where plans were being discussed, that Bhalla was sitting slouched in his chair and lost deep in thought, when Anil knocked on his door.
Bhalla was a little surprised to see Anil approach him in his office late in the evening, but promptly asked him in. Anil had been part of the long meeting that Bhalla had gotten out of barely fifteen minutes back and which had worsened Bhalla's unfounded fears of losing the contract to Nadiadwala again. Anil had been remarkably quiet during the meeting, a fact that Bhalla had silently ovserved.
“I wish to talk to you about the plans our firm has for the contract bid.”, said Anil. Bhalla gestured him to continue.
“I believe I have a solution to our company's problems and a sure way to match Nadiadwala's contract. Although, I am not very sure if you would be willing to go ahead with this approach”.
“Would you care to come to the point?”, shot back Bhalla, his frustration now clearly showing in his tone.
“Sir, I might have skipped these details when I came here for employment, but I had worked at Nadiadwala's office for a brief stint and was responsible for analysis of material costs and contract pricing. I know of, and I dare say, am in the possession of certain documents, which reveal that their firm has clear cost standards and a knowledge of those would give us a clear idea of the bids they are going to make. All I require is your permission to act on this.”.
Anil's suggestion left Bhalla stunned. On one hand, he was aghast to hear Anil had never talked about his association with Nadiadwala. However, the other side of him suddenly grinned at the prospect of a way out. But soon enough, his conscience came in the way and he flinched. All this while, Anil was patiently waiting for a response.
“How can I trust you?”, quipped Bhalla. Anil was taken aback at this, but gathered himself soon quickly.
“HeadStrong was where my efforts were rewarded, Sir. I have no incentive to fool you.”. With this he moved out of the room in swift fashion.
Bhalla, though, was left battling a lot of doubts and trepidations. It had been a rather usual day but this startling turn of events had left him in a state of mental disarray. All his life, he had been an honest person and had stayed as far away from unfair practices as possible. The firm's image owed a lot to the transparent policies and the ethical methods it adopted in its day to day functions. Could he jeopardize this set of principles and ideals for the pleasure of being called the No.1 firm? But then, hadn't it always been his ambition? And he couldn't have been closer to achieving it...
Fair dealing, at the end of the day, was merely perception. What if Anil brought him all the information and they worked out the nuances inside closed doors? He was also perturbed by the intangible or evident favours Anil might ask for at a later stage for this act of his. Nobody risks his image for charity, he thought.
His scruples were, more or less, the only barrier in the way of the fulfillment of his ambitions. It had been a long day. With a thousand questions running through his head, Bhalla bolted the door and headed home.
The rise of Headstrong Builders to the league of top firms in the market had been nothing less than phenomenal. A fresh company merely 5 years back, Headstrong Builders were giving the market leaders, Nadiadwala & Sons, a run for their money. In an industry where revenues were governed by strategies and politicking around tenders for major construction deals, HeadStrong Builders (HB), with a visionary and strong-willed leader in the form of Mr. Akash Bhalla, had always relied on using the best of materials, excellent service and fair methods of bidding for contracts. The Gods had been kind and Mr. Bhalla knew it, but being at the top was a dream he had always cherished.
A mere 45 years old, Akash Bhalla was a man of few words. However, he was immensely innovative, ferociously hardworking and inspite of all the success, remarkably humble. A civil engineer from IIT Cawnpore and a management graduate from Crochet Institute of Management, Mr. Bhalla had learned the importance of hardwork and dedication, and considered no other path to success to be an agreeable option. Having been a brilliant student and studied at the most prestigious of institutes, he had also gotten used to being a success story everywhere he went. The quick success of his company had buoyed his confidence but his ambition to dethrone Nadiadwala & Sons, coupled with the recent spate of contracts his firm had lost to them, had been enough to give him sleepless nights.
When Bhalla had started out his firm in 2005, he had set up shop out of a small rented and renovated godown in the city of Agra. He had a small staff of 30 odd people and invested in rigorous groundwork before establishing a long term contract with a labour supply firm and another long standing firm in the construction materials business. Over the years, the firm had grown tremendously in size, with offices in 3 other locations across India and a working staff of close to 400 people. Apart from a huge turnover of over Rs. 3500 crores, HB's market reputation had grown after the conclusion of the recent CommonWealth Games. The construction activities during the event had come under the judicial scanner due to reported cases of misappropriation of funds and use of inferior materials. However, after painstaking trials, HB was among the few firms who had come out with a complete clean sheet.
HB's major market lay in the Eastern UP belt as the urban areas in many cities in this region were undergoing a major face-lift and the reckless drive of corporate retail giants to introduce the “mall” culture to the towns as well was creating a huge business prospect for construction firms. However, Nadiadwala had been operating in this region for almost two decades now and perhaps it was this knowledge of the pulse of the market that had led to its unparalleled success in winning tenders. Their chairman was a man of the world and was a popular figure in the local circles. There were rumours that all the practices of the firm were not entirely fair and an acute sense of business was not the only factor which had kept the firm going for all these years. Bhalla, however, had no intention to investigate any such matters and believed that their efforts would help them trump this dominance.
Bhalla believed that his success lay in the people his firm possessed. He was very proud of the hiring practices of his firm and to date, kept a keen check on each and every staff member being added to the rolls. Once inside the firm, the employees always knew that Mr. Bhalla would be collecting regular reports about every member's performance and any promotions/pay hikes would be accorded purely on this evaluation. However, he was also open to discussion and whole-heartedly welcomed employees who wished to meet him to share their troubles or any opinion they had with regards to the company workings or policies.
Apart from this, Bhalla had a core group of five employees – brilliant, dedicated managers and engineers who had been carefully handpicked by Bhalla through other construction firms or from the best campuses across the country. One of the recent inductees, Anil Mani, a young man of thirty, had got himself counted in Bhalla's good books pretty soon with his keen intellect and irrepressible drive to stay ahead of the competition. Anil, a product of WimV School of Management, had worked his way through a 'dog eat dog' environment where results were the only thing that mattered. Bhalla was wary of such attitude, having heard faint murmurs about Anil's behaviour from other staff members, but felt it better not to question him till- as long as he produced excellent results.
Meanwhile, towards the end of the first decade of the millenium, construction work in the UP belt was witnessing a massive peak due to certain radical reconstruction plans announced by the State government. Bhalla, of course, saw this as an opportunity to fulfill his dream of achieving market dominance but knew winning huge contracts like the ones in the pipeline would be an uphill task. He organized various meetings with members of the company board and also invited few of his trusted employees to discuss where they could improvise to ensure that results went their way. After long hours of brainstorming, few strategies were developed but Bhalla was growing more and more unsure of what impact these changes would bring in terms of winning them the relevant contracts. It was after one such meeting where plans were being discussed, that Bhalla was sitting slouched in his chair and lost deep in thought, when Anil knocked on his door.
Bhalla was a little surprised to see Anil approach him in his office late in the evening, but promptly asked him in. Anil had been part of the long meeting that Bhalla had gotten out of barely fifteen minutes back and which had worsened Bhalla's unfounded fears of losing the contract to Nadiadwala again. Anil had been remarkably quiet during the meeting, a fact that Bhalla had silently ovserved.
“I wish to talk to you about the plans our firm has for the contract bid.”, said Anil. Bhalla gestured him to continue.
“I believe I have a solution to our company's problems and a sure way to match Nadiadwala's contract. Although, I am not very sure if you would be willing to go ahead with this approach”.
“Would you care to come to the point?”, shot back Bhalla, his frustration now clearly showing in his tone.
“Sir, I might have skipped these details when I came here for employment, but I had worked at Nadiadwala's office for a brief stint and was responsible for analysis of material costs and contract pricing. I know of, and I dare say, am in the possession of certain documents, which reveal that their firm has clear cost standards and a knowledge of those would give us a clear idea of the bids they are going to make. All I require is your permission to act on this.”.
Anil's suggestion left Bhalla stunned. On one hand, he was aghast to hear Anil had never talked about his association with Nadiadwala. However, the other side of him suddenly grinned at the prospect of a way out. But soon enough, his conscience came in the way and he flinched. All this while, Anil was patiently waiting for a response.
“How can I trust you?”, quipped Bhalla. Anil was taken aback at this, but gathered himself soon quickly.
“HeadStrong was where my efforts were rewarded, Sir. I have no incentive to fool you.”. With this he moved out of the room in swift fashion.
Bhalla, though, was left battling a lot of doubts and trepidations. It had been a rather usual day but this startling turn of events had left him in a state of mental disarray. All his life, he had been an honest person and had stayed as far away from unfair practices as possible. The firm's image owed a lot to the transparent policies and the ethical methods it adopted in its day to day functions. Could he jeopardize this set of principles and ideals for the pleasure of being called the No.1 firm? But then, hadn't it always been his ambition? And he couldn't have been closer to achieving it...
Fair dealing, at the end of the day, was merely perception. What if Anil brought him all the information and they worked out the nuances inside closed doors? He was also perturbed by the intangible or evident favours Anil might ask for at a later stage for this act of his. Nobody risks his image for charity, he thought.
His scruples were, more or less, the only barrier in the way of the fulfillment of his ambitions. It had been a long day. With a thousand questions running through his head, Bhalla bolted the door and headed home.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Of moments that bite...
Hansie Cronje once said that inspite of all his successes and wins over the years, he spends numerous uneasy nights itching and searching for that solitary run that snatched a world cup final berth from his team. Ofcourse, he might have resented some other moments in his life later, but what reminded me of his example was the sheer oddity of the fact that numerous achievements, cheerful moments are, at times, dwarfed in front of that one fleeting moment. And, one is always forced to think of what could have been had things happened otherwise.
I, having led a pretty ordinary life till date, can think of some seemingly trivial things/moments (which would not have any consequence on my present, future) but which, all the same, visit me from time to time and play games with my mind. One of them is from a quiz we attended in school and finished second in. Now, it is not as if we never finished second otherwise and I might have aced certain more important quizzes in college (thanks to my team :D). Maybe the reason here was that we were pretty close to beating a certain team which had been pretty much invincible till then. For some reason, that moment, sitting in that chair and trying to answer in the rapid fire round, is still very fresh in my mind. Ofcourse, there were occasions after this when we chose between two alternatives and suceeded with our choice. But well, the wounds are the ones that bite!
There are others which come up in hindsight. One question answered correctly in the entrance exam and I would have landed up in IIT Delhi to pursue a degree in Civil Engg. Now, I won't jump into a comparison between life in IIT Delhi and Kanpur. However, I, being the completely jobless individual I am, ponder at times over how different I might have been had it happened so. The people I met going to Kanpur, the experiences I had, the campus atmosphere I soaked in over four years - all of it would have been so different. But yet, it happened as it did, and it escapes me whether it could have happened otherwise.
Which brings to my mind the discussions we had (in philosophy class, and especially in our college wings) about free will and destiny. All situations are a consequence of so many variables and other preceding situations that I have come to believe that a simulation of a "what-if" scenario if impracticable. I have come to accept a compromised theory of the two extremes and I loved the way "Ted Mosby" put it in a particular episode of 'How I met your Mother". He said that life just puts you in situations you are supposed to be (and you think that you are mere puppets). However, at every juncture it also gives you an option (among maybe a thousand different alternatives). However, once that alternative is chosen, the program executes a certain distance by itself, till it encounters the metaphorical "if... then" command. Well, that suddenly causes me to think that this is what was said in the movie "Matrix". Oh yes! HIMYM being the mushy sit-com it is actually said that all choices are made for you in a way to make sure that you end up in the "right" place at exactly the "right" moment. The "right", it seems, is set in stone already.
As with most other posts in my blog, this seems to have led me into an open ended argument too. Moreover, I stand liable to be somebody stuck in the past too, which, it turns out, is a disaster for a manager! The philosophy-lover in me says I'll pass that. Most of the things, when they happen, seem out of one's domain of control. Would it be wise then to accept that some things were not meant to happen, their lack of being happening to be the only proof of their logical existence? Does this negate the entire idea of a free will? If not, who draws the line between trying hard and acquiescing to the divine will? On this note, I guess I shall sleep and make sure that destiny (rather a lazy me) does not come between me and tomorrow's class!
I, having led a pretty ordinary life till date, can think of some seemingly trivial things/moments (which would not have any consequence on my present, future) but which, all the same, visit me from time to time and play games with my mind. One of them is from a quiz we attended in school and finished second in. Now, it is not as if we never finished second otherwise and I might have aced certain more important quizzes in college (thanks to my team :D). Maybe the reason here was that we were pretty close to beating a certain team which had been pretty much invincible till then. For some reason, that moment, sitting in that chair and trying to answer in the rapid fire round, is still very fresh in my mind. Ofcourse, there were occasions after this when we chose between two alternatives and suceeded with our choice. But well, the wounds are the ones that bite!
There are others which come up in hindsight. One question answered correctly in the entrance exam and I would have landed up in IIT Delhi to pursue a degree in Civil Engg. Now, I won't jump into a comparison between life in IIT Delhi and Kanpur. However, I, being the completely jobless individual I am, ponder at times over how different I might have been had it happened so. The people I met going to Kanpur, the experiences I had, the campus atmosphere I soaked in over four years - all of it would have been so different. But yet, it happened as it did, and it escapes me whether it could have happened otherwise.
Which brings to my mind the discussions we had (in philosophy class, and especially in our college wings) about free will and destiny. All situations are a consequence of so many variables and other preceding situations that I have come to believe that a simulation of a "what-if" scenario if impracticable. I have come to accept a compromised theory of the two extremes and I loved the way "Ted Mosby" put it in a particular episode of 'How I met your Mother". He said that life just puts you in situations you are supposed to be (and you think that you are mere puppets). However, at every juncture it also gives you an option (among maybe a thousand different alternatives). However, once that alternative is chosen, the program executes a certain distance by itself, till it encounters the metaphorical "if... then" command. Well, that suddenly causes me to think that this is what was said in the movie "Matrix". Oh yes! HIMYM being the mushy sit-com it is actually said that all choices are made for you in a way to make sure that you end up in the "right" place at exactly the "right" moment. The "right", it seems, is set in stone already.
As with most other posts in my blog, this seems to have led me into an open ended argument too. Moreover, I stand liable to be somebody stuck in the past too, which, it turns out, is a disaster for a manager! The philosophy-lover in me says I'll pass that. Most of the things, when they happen, seem out of one's domain of control. Would it be wise then to accept that some things were not meant to happen, their lack of being happening to be the only proof of their logical existence? Does this negate the entire idea of a free will? If not, who draws the line between trying hard and acquiescing to the divine will? On this note, I guess I shall sleep and make sure that destiny (rather a lazy me) does not come between me and tomorrow's class!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Back!
It has been some time since I wrote my last post. I had begun writing memoirs from the 4 years I spent at IITK. Huh! Couldn't go beyond the 2nd year :). At some point in time, I guess I realised that some memories are too deeply imprinted on you and a record is unnecessary. Moreover, they are not close to being as important to any other reader as they are to you.
The amazing part, however, is that almost everybody forgot about their blogs once they moved out of college. All my friends blogs show an over- 2 month period since their last post. I fail to believe that this came up due to everyone getting too busy with their lives. I remember the time when I used to read and appreciate DJ's library escapades (still don't know the truth behind those, if there was any :D) or Kantap's detailed anecdotes from his childhood.
It's after 3 in the morning and this is just an observation. No plans to mull over why this change happened. It's funny how we moved on from sharing every single incident in our lives with certain people to relying on FB posts (on occasions like birthdays) to communicate. It was initially disconcerting to realise that there was a world outside of the IITK microcosm that we would get so deeply immersed in once we left those gates.
How important has 'moving on' become to our way of lives. Some days at IIMC and I was already feeling a palpable kinship in my relationship to lots of people around. Having previous acquaintances surely helped. Two years hence, there will be another upheaval. New place, new people. And from then on, change will become the only constant (atleast for some years). Not that it is difficult to stay in touch with people one leaves behind, with social networking sites in place. Rather, at times, one is in "touch" with people one hardly knows! :)
I have had a very short stay on this planet. However, the magnitude of change that has taken place in relationships and the way people handle them is enough to even stagger me! As an aspiring manager, I am being drilled with the importance of networking. I am, rather, a champion of its immense utility. I only hope that not everybody around me ends up just being a part of my "network"!
How things shape up... only time will tell. As they say, "We live in interesting times!".
P.S. Staying up late at night can do strange things to one's mind :D
The amazing part, however, is that almost everybody forgot about their blogs once they moved out of college. All my friends blogs show an over- 2 month period since their last post. I fail to believe that this came up due to everyone getting too busy with their lives. I remember the time when I used to read and appreciate DJ's library escapades (still don't know the truth behind those, if there was any :D) or Kantap's detailed anecdotes from his childhood.
It's after 3 in the morning and this is just an observation. No plans to mull over why this change happened. It's funny how we moved on from sharing every single incident in our lives with certain people to relying on FB posts (on occasions like birthdays) to communicate. It was initially disconcerting to realise that there was a world outside of the IITK microcosm that we would get so deeply immersed in once we left those gates.
How important has 'moving on' become to our way of lives. Some days at IIMC and I was already feeling a palpable kinship in my relationship to lots of people around. Having previous acquaintances surely helped. Two years hence, there will be another upheaval. New place, new people. And from then on, change will become the only constant (atleast for some years). Not that it is difficult to stay in touch with people one leaves behind, with social networking sites in place. Rather, at times, one is in "touch" with people one hardly knows! :)
I have had a very short stay on this planet. However, the magnitude of change that has taken place in relationships and the way people handle them is enough to even stagger me! As an aspiring manager, I am being drilled with the importance of networking. I am, rather, a champion of its immense utility. I only hope that not everybody around me ends up just being a part of my "network"!
How things shape up... only time will tell. As they say, "We live in interesting times!".
P.S. Staying up late at night can do strange things to one's mind :D
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Bidding Adieu: Part II (a)
People... New bonds are formed!
Believe it or not! Before I came in here, I was this unseeming introvert. Probably, I still am, in certain ways. Earlier, I used to be quite a talker with my family. All that changed in IITK was - my family grew from 5 to around 500. :)
The first day, I can still recollect, came as a bit of a shocker as most of realised that seniors at IITK were not too different from the stereotypical "senior" we had heard of and feared. We were told about interaction period which stretched a little beyond the allotted time. My parents did stay over for 4-5 days and every evening I made sure they were nowhere near our hostel when the quad interactions started. I would say I, for one, was never made to do anything even close to being really embarrassing. I had never heard most of the cuss words and I had a hard time complying to demands of speaking those aloud. (Things might have changed now :P)
An amazing part in this period was the bulla sessions we (the bhais) had after the interaction had ended. Everyone had a story to tell. Our baap, Sandeep, would come and chat with us and nudging us to interact more freely with the seniors. I had a rather uneventful time till 15th August when we were supposed to be set free from the shackles of full sleeved shirts, lousy pants, no belts(!) and the compulsion of hanging around in the quad till 10 pm. The 'Y5 Kat Lo!' chants by Y6 and some audacity on my part in front of certain seniors ensured I had a long night after the freshers. However, I came out having made some new friends!
Talking of Bhais, we had, starting from Room 312, 2 Top: Saurabh, Razdan, NMJ, me, Sumit, Harlalka, Jhansi and Ashish. It was a heady mix. While saurabh and harlalka were the reticent people of the lot (initially), Jhansi had an opinion (a very traditional one :D) on everything, NMJ's language brought a smirk on our faces, Razdan was rarely seen in his room and Ashish, well, came up with some amazing hypothetical situations and his reactions to those were absolutely hilarious. Then there was this divide in our wing - people living on either side of the washrooms! Our end had Jeet, Dhesi, Sharad, Akash, Dodda, Anubhav and Sandeep who attained the status of pseudo-bhais very soon. I still remember when a 600-700 bucks treat at Hall 7 was considered a big thing. All of us used to take the Hall 7 Canteen by storm and pick up almost everything edible available on the counters... and then order the meal!
However, things changed and some of us moved to an entirely different group in 5 Bot (2nd year). This wing was a sea change from the one we were accustomed to. It was fun, though. There were Thakur, Chapu, Pelu, Chomu, Nagoo, Bhargav, Tammy, Sardar, Pant, Labroo, Raju and Sumit, Jeet, NMJ and me from the old lot. A major activity here was gaming - not one I indulged in - but was wont to listen about at length. So much so, that after a certain period, most of the wing talk became unintelligible to me :). Another enjoyable part was sitting in 152 (Pelu and Chomu's room) and having some awesome bulla sessions! The NMJ bashing after DOTA sessions was a treat to watch as well...
At the beginning of the second year, I happened to meet Garima during the freshers' preparation for MME Dept. I could say she was my first female acquaintance here and though I am sure she would be reading this... but this one's worth sharing : some of my wingmates went berserk the first time she called me. Such is the state of affairs at IITK! :D
As this post is majorly about meeting the people who went on to become an integral part of my life later, I would board a time warp to Antaragni' 07. It, I still maintain, was one of the best we ever saw with good enough competition, POTF and Atif. I still remember telling someone that seeing POTF made me think that the slogging for JEE had finally bore fruit. Here, at the POTF concert, if I remember well, I was introduced to the lot of Banerjee, Aviral, Avantika, Swetha and Sezal. Bong, ofcourse, I knew from the quizzing circuit. I would consider to be an important juncture in my life at IITK as it somehow factored in my ending up in another new wing in the 3rd year. Ofcourse, more importantly, some of these people are the closest of friends I have right now (I hope they don't differ on this! :)).
Some of the things that happened during the later half of the second year are best left unwritten :P. Though, as mentioned in my previous note, it was a golden period in our team's quizzing graph. Oh! We met some more people... being part of the Prof Shows teams in Techkriti and Megabucks. It was an amazingly fun-filled experience working with Divya Goel, Kanchan and Govil. Met 'Strings- the band', Feeding the Fish and Niladri! Really, in terms of celebrities on campus, this year was a cracker!
I also joined Dr. Anish Upadhyaya's lab in the winter of '07. Met some nice people including Saurabh, Shobhit, Pritha, Garima Joshi and Divya (who went on to become my summer project partner). I stayed over in the summer of '08 for a project and inspite of the scorching heat, it was a memorable time. A highlight being the trip to water park, lucknow where I displayed my incredible skills of drowning in water merely 3 feet deep :D.
I regret that I don't have Utkarsh's ability and uncanny knack for detail. And moreover, I can't really remember how I "met" UT. Guess it was a gradual strengthening of the QC bond! With this, I'll sign off this post, having reached half time in this whopping journey called IITK...
Believe it or not! Before I came in here, I was this unseeming introvert. Probably, I still am, in certain ways. Earlier, I used to be quite a talker with my family. All that changed in IITK was - my family grew from 5 to around 500. :)
The first day, I can still recollect, came as a bit of a shocker as most of realised that seniors at IITK were not too different from the stereotypical "senior" we had heard of and feared. We were told about interaction period which stretched a little beyond the allotted time. My parents did stay over for 4-5 days and every evening I made sure they were nowhere near our hostel when the quad interactions started. I would say I, for one, was never made to do anything even close to being really embarrassing. I had never heard most of the cuss words and I had a hard time complying to demands of speaking those aloud. (Things might have changed now :P)
An amazing part in this period was the bulla sessions we (the bhais) had after the interaction had ended. Everyone had a story to tell. Our baap, Sandeep, would come and chat with us and nudging us to interact more freely with the seniors. I had a rather uneventful time till 15th August when we were supposed to be set free from the shackles of full sleeved shirts, lousy pants, no belts(!) and the compulsion of hanging around in the quad till 10 pm. The 'Y5 Kat Lo!' chants by Y6 and some audacity on my part in front of certain seniors ensured I had a long night after the freshers. However, I came out having made some new friends!
Talking of Bhais, we had, starting from Room 312, 2 Top: Saurabh, Razdan, NMJ, me, Sumit, Harlalka, Jhansi and Ashish. It was a heady mix. While saurabh and harlalka were the reticent people of the lot (initially), Jhansi had an opinion (a very traditional one :D) on everything, NMJ's language brought a smirk on our faces, Razdan was rarely seen in his room and Ashish, well, came up with some amazing hypothetical situations and his reactions to those were absolutely hilarious. Then there was this divide in our wing - people living on either side of the washrooms! Our end had Jeet, Dhesi, Sharad, Akash, Dodda, Anubhav and Sandeep who attained the status of pseudo-bhais very soon. I still remember when a 600-700 bucks treat at Hall 7 was considered a big thing. All of us used to take the Hall 7 Canteen by storm and pick up almost everything edible available on the counters... and then order the meal!
However, things changed and some of us moved to an entirely different group in 5 Bot (2nd year). This wing was a sea change from the one we were accustomed to. It was fun, though. There were Thakur, Chapu, Pelu, Chomu, Nagoo, Bhargav, Tammy, Sardar, Pant, Labroo, Raju and Sumit, Jeet, NMJ and me from the old lot. A major activity here was gaming - not one I indulged in - but was wont to listen about at length. So much so, that after a certain period, most of the wing talk became unintelligible to me :). Another enjoyable part was sitting in 152 (Pelu and Chomu's room) and having some awesome bulla sessions! The NMJ bashing after DOTA sessions was a treat to watch as well...
At the beginning of the second year, I happened to meet Garima during the freshers' preparation for MME Dept. I could say she was my first female acquaintance here and though I am sure she would be reading this... but this one's worth sharing : some of my wingmates went berserk the first time she called me. Such is the state of affairs at IITK! :D
As this post is majorly about meeting the people who went on to become an integral part of my life later, I would board a time warp to Antaragni' 07. It, I still maintain, was one of the best we ever saw with good enough competition, POTF and Atif. I still remember telling someone that seeing POTF made me think that the slogging for JEE had finally bore fruit. Here, at the POTF concert, if I remember well, I was introduced to the lot of Banerjee, Aviral, Avantika, Swetha and Sezal. Bong, ofcourse, I knew from the quizzing circuit. I would consider to be an important juncture in my life at IITK as it somehow factored in my ending up in another new wing in the 3rd year. Ofcourse, more importantly, some of these people are the closest of friends I have right now (I hope they don't differ on this! :)).
Some of the things that happened during the later half of the second year are best left unwritten :P. Though, as mentioned in my previous note, it was a golden period in our team's quizzing graph. Oh! We met some more people... being part of the Prof Shows teams in Techkriti and Megabucks. It was an amazingly fun-filled experience working with Divya Goel, Kanchan and Govil. Met 'Strings- the band', Feeding the Fish and Niladri! Really, in terms of celebrities on campus, this year was a cracker!
I also joined Dr. Anish Upadhyaya's lab in the winter of '07. Met some nice people including Saurabh, Shobhit, Pritha, Garima Joshi and Divya (who went on to become my summer project partner). I stayed over in the summer of '08 for a project and inspite of the scorching heat, it was a memorable time. A highlight being the trip to water park, lucknow where I displayed my incredible skills of drowning in water merely 3 feet deep :D.
I regret that I don't have Utkarsh's ability and uncanny knack for detail. And moreover, I can't really remember how I "met" UT. Guess it was a gradual strengthening of the QC bond! With this, I'll sign off this post, having reached half time in this whopping journey called IITK...
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Bidding Adieu: Part 1
I had thought of writing reminiscences from the past 4 years long back. What held me all this while was the fear of accepting the truth that the end is actually near. However, I guess it is high time we all accept the obvious and I would like to pen down everything while it is still fresh.
A more immediate occurrence that prompted me to get down to write was the informal announcement of the new Vox Populi editors yesterday, coupled with the 'last' Quiz Club Meet. These two institutions, if I may say, have been very close to my heart during my stay here. While I made certain attempts, some successful and others not so much, to give my contributions to these, the relationship was much more of a boon to me than to these clubs. I believe that my love for these clubs is borne out of the fact that somehow my identity in IITK was deeply intertwined to these establishments.
I cannot remember how many times I have fumed with rage when somebody dismissed Vox and its importance, how many times I have fought against the 'glam' clubs because I thought they were trying to overshadow the QC. Somewhere deep down, I fought because any such attack was very personal to me. Remembering the feeling I had when I held the first Vox edition published under our editorship still brings a smile to my face. It might sound a li'l gay but I, sort of, realized why people are so glad to hold their new-born babies.
Quizzing had been passion for me before I came to Kanpur. It was a strange and pleasant coincidence that 2 of my Bhais formed a team with me. I remember when Razdan suggested the name "Satanic Output" in the Fresher's Quiz and I thought this guy is from some other planet! I think we did quite well and the name stuck and gladly so :D. I probably haven't said this ever 'cause it sounds a bit gay :D but here it is: Razdan ke saath ek team mein quizzing ka maza kuch aur tha... Quizzing will never be the same without you! Maybe one day, some day, we'll be back and who knows, we might be real pros then! :) NMJ was also a delight and our team wouldn't have been the same without his dazzling literature and mythology answers. On a lighter note, it wouldn't have been the same without him shouting and verbally regretting every missed answer! :) And yeah, we couldn't have found better competitors than Hopelessly Hapless (Bong, UT n Venky). Remember how Bong's team and ours was at loggerheads all the time :D... Even long before the QC had the completely awesome gang we had now, I was pretty glad in this little nutty world of our own...
Ok, I don't think I have all the time and space in the world to recount every single incident that forms my memories of Vox n QC but here r some of them in a nutshell:
Vox: 1st article- An interview with Dr. Sanjay Mittal, Some ME reviews here n there, Hoshing n Madhusudan, Dainik Gadar, the tr8 by Satrah & Co., Layouting with Mohunta, MDM, Paro n Sulla; Working with Sak, Murgi n Rashmitha; working on the layout with Raza n Azam Bhai; worrying about distribution right in the midst of the endsems
QC: Fresher's Quiz, Being volley n Secy with Sripath, Nihilanth selection in 1st yr, Sunil and then Sameer, Techkriti Quiz by Barry, Megabucks Biz Quiz in 2nd yr, Infosys Quiz, Tata Crucible TV Appearance :), Being the Coordi, Hanging out at CCC or Hall 4 after the QC meets, Interacting with the bachchas n panji, bhaskar, amritha...
I might have forgotten or inadvertantly skipped some other events which I will definitely recount in the forthcoming posts. Till then, here's me thinking of the good ol' days!
A more immediate occurrence that prompted me to get down to write was the informal announcement of the new Vox Populi editors yesterday, coupled with the 'last' Quiz Club Meet. These two institutions, if I may say, have been very close to my heart during my stay here. While I made certain attempts, some successful and others not so much, to give my contributions to these, the relationship was much more of a boon to me than to these clubs. I believe that my love for these clubs is borne out of the fact that somehow my identity in IITK was deeply intertwined to these establishments.
I cannot remember how many times I have fumed with rage when somebody dismissed Vox and its importance, how many times I have fought against the 'glam' clubs because I thought they were trying to overshadow the QC. Somewhere deep down, I fought because any such attack was very personal to me. Remembering the feeling I had when I held the first Vox edition published under our editorship still brings a smile to my face. It might sound a li'l gay but I, sort of, realized why people are so glad to hold their new-born babies.
Quizzing had been passion for me before I came to Kanpur. It was a strange and pleasant coincidence that 2 of my Bhais formed a team with me. I remember when Razdan suggested the name "Satanic Output" in the Fresher's Quiz and I thought this guy is from some other planet! I think we did quite well and the name stuck and gladly so :D. I probably haven't said this ever 'cause it sounds a bit gay :D but here it is: Razdan ke saath ek team mein quizzing ka maza kuch aur tha... Quizzing will never be the same without you! Maybe one day, some day, we'll be back and who knows, we might be real pros then! :) NMJ was also a delight and our team wouldn't have been the same without his dazzling literature and mythology answers. On a lighter note, it wouldn't have been the same without him shouting and verbally regretting every missed answer! :) And yeah, we couldn't have found better competitors than Hopelessly Hapless (Bong, UT n Venky). Remember how Bong's team and ours was at loggerheads all the time :D... Even long before the QC had the completely awesome gang we had now, I was pretty glad in this little nutty world of our own...
Ok, I don't think I have all the time and space in the world to recount every single incident that forms my memories of Vox n QC but here r some of them in a nutshell:
Vox: 1st article- An interview with Dr. Sanjay Mittal, Some ME reviews here n there, Hoshing n Madhusudan, Dainik Gadar, the tr8 by Satrah & Co., Layouting with Mohunta, MDM, Paro n Sulla; Working with Sak, Murgi n Rashmitha; working on the layout with Raza n Azam Bhai; worrying about distribution right in the midst of the endsems
QC: Fresher's Quiz, Being volley n Secy with Sripath, Nihilanth selection in 1st yr, Sunil and then Sameer, Techkriti Quiz by Barry, Megabucks Biz Quiz in 2nd yr, Infosys Quiz, Tata Crucible TV Appearance :), Being the Coordi, Hanging out at CCC or Hall 4 after the QC meets, Interacting with the bachchas n panji, bhaskar, amritha...
I might have forgotten or inadvertantly skipped some other events which I will definitely recount in the forthcoming posts. Till then, here's me thinking of the good ol' days!
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