Memories from the golden years of my life (24)

Let me start the blog on a sad note. No one read my last blog after repeated mails! I was actually sad to see this but I must realize that maybe what seems so interesting and is dear to me may not make up even a good story for others. So I have decided not to pain people anymore with my stupid blog mails. I will write just for myself. Maybe 10 years down the line when things are totally different I will have a good time reading it.

Lets start from where I had left in my last blog. I have always believed that the first half of my first term was the toughest time of my stay at IIML. Thankfully, it had come to an end. I do believe that tough times bring out the best in any person and the same was reflected in my behaviour during this period. To quote just one example my expenditure during this one and half months was at an all time low. If I am to guess correctly it would not be more than 1500 a month 80% of which would be contributed by mess bills. This figure had grown to an exorbitant 6-7000 per month by the time the course ended. This was despite the tough times such as my foot infection.

Anyways … classes had begun again in full force. We had four full credit courses continuing from pre mid term which were Behaviour in Organizations – By now it had turned out to be completely boring and useless. Debchat used to give loadsa gyan (most of which held little meaning) for me. All that I picked up from him was wielding hi fi sounding words into sentences which seem to convey a lot but actually mean nothing. Consider this “The personality of the person is truly reflected in his inner conscious and sub conscious interacting with each other, the effects of which are evident in his demeanor” :P

Economics was perhaps becoming more and more interesting with every passing day. I loved my prof. Mr. Bannerjee, though I hated the way he made his papers. Totally globe questions such as “Is economics an art or science? (20 marks)”. This was actually a question in our mid term paper! But the subject nonetheless was very interesting.

Another important thing that I had picked up by now was to play on expectations. I had learnt to look out for what a prof expects from us and deliver the same and believe me this was the best thing that I could do for myself in the entire course. So I was furiously taking note of every sentence that eco prof said so that I could reproduce the same in the final exam while for BIO I was practicing making sentences like above. Believe me it worked like hell. Rest about other subjects and profs in my next blog ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (23)

It has been almost 2 months since my last post. The other day only I was telling Manish, that sometimes it is really emotionally exhausting to write a blog ... because it simply reminds me of so many things that I miss so badly that I just dont feel like entering this world where everything seemed good (well not always!). For example .. its a Sunday today .... and guess what I am writing this blog exactly at 5:43 AM! Well thats not surprising as I am sure there would have been many Sundays in Lucknow when I would have been up at 5:43 AM. But this different coz .. this is after a full 8 hours of sleep :P .... What has happened to me?

Anyways ... back to the story ... Ever since the mid terms got over .. I had this feeling that they hadn't gone too well ... as in I myself was not satisfied with my own performance .. and that is why I had started my readings even before the classes commenced. A second factor was the presence of Mr. Manish Peter. Now strange as it may sound .. Manish was named Maggu of the hostel!!!! Can you imagine .. the same guy who used to roam crying one day before a fin exam saying alound "Gautam ... main fail ho jaaooonga" was actually labelled a Maggu! .. and rightly so ... coz he mugged so much in the first half of first term ... that seniors and juniors both alike thought that he is here to do something! (well we are were ... but still). What convinced us all further was the way in which Manish had done his room. I just cannot describe the difference in how his room looked during those days and during our fifth or sixth term. The entire room was full of books ... to say the least. Morevoer Manish had gone to some cheap Lucknow market and got some posters .. which kinda helped him gain the "Maggu Peter" title ... One such poster saying "Do not disturb ... serious study in progress" was placed outside his room door. In fact I remember one incident when Shanky (one of our hostelmates on the same floor as ours .. 511) even altered that poster using a marker so that now it said ... "Do not disturb ... serious study in progress by Maggu Peter" (of course i was the one who gave the idea for that since i was pissed that he refused to come for evening snacks ... and there was that famous aloo tikki for snacks that day which i loved and he loathed ... just because he wanted to finish a reading). This was then read by Mr. Rajas Raut ... who obviously took no time in spreading the news ... and hence our Mr. Peter was formally named "Maggu Peter". See Manish ... so think twice before you say no to me next time ... ESPECIALLY FOR ALOO TIKKI :P

Anyways ... all said and done .. I was really inspired by Manish .. I was. In fact today also .. when I look back at my winning the gold medal ... I guess the seeds for the same were laid in first term itself by Mr. Peter .. Thank you Manish .. I will be indebted to you for life .. for this ..

So I had started my readings early this time .. one obviously coz of above stated and secondly to get over Mom and Dad leaving .. Well things always do not go in our favour ... It was never meant to be a smooth ride for me. 2 days after they had left ... one morning papa called me to inform me that chachu had expired ... I kind of spent the next 2 days convincing myself that it wasnt because I forced all 3 .. mummy, papa and dhiraj to come with me ... and chachu was left alone even when he wasnt in the best of his health. The sad thing is I myself am not convinced till date ...

Memories from the golden years of my life (22)

Long time since I wrote my last blog. In fact I am yet to start over blogging in new year !! Such a shame. But anyways I will try to compensate for that. Or at least I am making a start now.

Well I had a good time when mummy and papa were here. Although both of them freaked out really when they saw the condition of my foot! It wasn’t a quarter as bad as it was earlier, but the huge infection had left its marks and it would have taken a blind man to ignore them! Anyways papa and mummy thanked God and I was reprimanded for not letting them know since so long and also never letting them know that it was that critical.

It was during those days when papa mummy were here that we went to the city and I went there for the first time in 6 weeks for enjoyment purpose. I don’t remember exactly but I think that we had taken the bus to Hazratganj from campus. On bus we met one of my favourite profs Abhijit Bhattacharya aka Golu. Papa wished him and he too responded back. Am not sure if he recognized papa as the one who had come with me to the interview (owing to the fact that I had my interview one day later than planned). Since all of us were new to the place and we were also not really aware how big / small this market was, we asked the bus driver only where can we go to eat. Basically I did not want to explore the market or for that matter any place in Lucknow as I had planned to pull up my socks in studies (some of the mid term examinations had gone really bad and Manish inspired me a great deal).

The driver pointed us to Nirulas – the same Nirulas which became a hot favourite of mine and Manish for its Chilli Chicken Tikka Pizza – Remember Manish? Anyways … that Nirulas was like far from where we were left by bus. 2-3 times we contemplated giving up but still carried on. Since Saharaganj was non existent that time, the place was really deserted. Finally we did reach there and had a great meal. When we started coming back we realized that we would miss the bus!! It was late! Anyways we finally managed to locate two rickshaws and hopped on to them. Rickshaw wallahs drive like maniacs in Lucknow. Comments, Manish ??? Finally we did manage to catch the bus back after some confusion.

The next day we went to Aliganj only and had food there. I was not really in mood to go out as mummy, papa and Dhiraj were leaving the day after. It was really great to come back to family from classes after missing them for like 6 weeks! Few things which are still etched in mind – all of them really liked the campus, the mess (and for its unlimited food which they found good surprisingly! And the Nescafe shop for its badam milk!) They left the next day and I was back to basics … I did feel lonely and sad for some time but then life at IIML is such that you can’t even brood for a long period of time. The pending work finally sucks you back into the system ….

How the New Year has changed over the years ...

New Year ... I just love this period that starts from Christmas and ends at the New Year. I am not a Christian but I would have to agree that there is a general good feel in the air at this time which I have been finding missing even during Diwali, which is our main festival. The reasons have varied from year to year. So while it was school holidays during the good old days when we were in school, a reason to party when we were at college and now perhaps we are back to square one .. a break from the office work.

Winter Vacations have always been enjoyable. I have loved since eternity just sitting in a rajai ... doing nothing ... watching tv and having hot tea and samosas / pakoras. Let me take you through three 'New Years' which are still .. sort of etched in my memory ... Here we go ...

Terrible Mondays ....

Why are Mondays so terrible? ... God has made all days equal ... Why then Mondays seems so terrible to me? Why does the very thought of a Monday depresses me right from Sunday evening itself? Nothing goes well on a Monday ... Recently only I have had 2 Mondays which just turned out to be terrible right from the word go ... One ... when that stupid old tharki client of mine sent a mail that I would not send to my enemy and Two ... i.e. today ... when whatever I wanted to do just refused to happen .. I went to get a card for Sohini, the shop was closed .. I went to get a giftplus card from HDFC, they wanted id proof which I did not had ... terrible terrible terrible .. I wish there was a way that Tuesday straight away came after Sunday ... and there was nothing in this world called a Monday ..

Snapshots from Hell

I dont know if I ever mentioned about this. There was a blog that had been sent to all of us by our seniors before we had joined IIM Lucknow ... Its called "Snapshots from HELL" written by Aniruddh Marathe (IIML 2003-05). Believe me .. its one of the best stories ever told. In fact my blog is an inspiration from this blog only. Here is the link for that (in case anyone is interested). I would surely like to go through it .. even 10 years down the lane :)

http://iimhell.rediffblogs.com/2003_22_06_iimhell_archive.html

Memories from the golden years of my life (21)

This is the photo of Patanjali .. one of the guest houses at IIM Lucknow. The other one was called Chankya. Although I had always liked Patanjali better, my parents and Dhiraj never got a chance to stay in it. We were always placed in Chanakya. Patanjali was the new one. Chanakya was built earlier and hence obviously ...

Anyways... I will take off from where I had left before after this short break.