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.

Memories from the golden years of my life (20)

One of the interesting incidents that I had failed to narrate earlier was that of my computer. Well its a story in itself ... I cant say that this was one companion that never left me alone or never ditched me because it did break down in term 4 ... and left me in lurch ... but ya .. otherwise it has been fairly faithful and has served me well! :)

Well the story begins with how this computer arrived in my life. It was quite certain that I would have to buy a comp. definitely. Whether it was to be a laptop or a desktop I was not so certain ... However I was biased in favour of a desktop ... more so because it was much cheaper than a laptop. I had postponed this decision to be taken in campus. When I arrived on campus .. I had absolutely no clue whom to ask or not to ask for this thing. In the first week only ... 3-4 vendors were called on campus to take our orders for comps. I picked up courage and asked a batchmate (who was repeating his first year) in hostel ... Praneet Parate. He looked like a good guy to me. He advised to go for a desktop ... because he said that a large amount of time that you would spend on campus would be spent in watching movies ... listening to songs ... and its not really fun to do that on a laptop even though it was covenient to carry it off to a class or to lets say library or CC. I saw point in his opinion and decided to go for a desktop. There were two models of desktops .. I chose the one with higher confiuguration ... because I didnt want to compromise on quality. I also got two excellent speakers (and they are really good, even till today) so that I could blow my horn in the hostel :P

We had to pay 1000 Rs. in advance for this which I did. The whole thing was costing me 32000, whereas the cheaper option would have costed me 26000. At that time 6000 was a big amount unlike today when I sometimes spend it in one days shopping. The guy was supposed to deliver my comp in next 3 days. The 3 days passed away .. However he didnt come for delivery .... I came to know that none others who had given their orders to this suppliers had got delivery... On calling up we were informed this might take a week more! ... A week passed buy. Still noone came. Now people started shouting on the supplier's personnel. Meanwhile I had to keep cash ready. I was a bit scared of keeping 30k+ in my room but there was no other option. In fact I was scared of even getting the whole amount (i.e. 15k in two trips) from the ATM ! More so because I had never handled such huge sums at that point in time. So I made 4-5 trips over two days carrying back 6-8 k every time. How silly of me :) ... Now when I think back .. I dont even realise what was it that I was fearing. Anyways, I used to lock my cupboard, lock my room also with 2 locks! and be there in my room even while it was being cleaned!

Another week passed by and after constant shouting the guy did arrive on campus. To my horror he had not got my comp ! He said that because mine was of a higher configuration this was going to take time! I was furious and asked for my money back ... on that he gave me a substitute comp which he had got for someone else .. However this one was with lower configuration! But he took the full amount from me! And I kicked myself for giving him that after I realized what I had done. Anyways .. I consoled myself saying it would be 6000 lost which I would cover up later. ... But thankfully such a need did not arise .. the guy came back next day with my comp :) .. Although the idiot didnt get my spikebuster.

Now when he configured it ... it was working fine. ... but as soon as he left I realised that the internet was not working!!! The comp would be so useless for me then ... I called him back immediately. He sent another of his persons to do the needful. Now this guy did whatever he could and proclaimed that some card in the comp was missing!!! I tried calling the orginal person back ... but he did not pick up his phone... Now I just freaked out. I shouted on this guy and told him that this is simply not done ... Thankfully once again .. he was able to turn internet on and he confirmed that whatever that card was ... it was very much present in the comp and I finally heaved a sigh of relief.... Of course the next whole night and day was spent in installing all the softwares and especially DC++ from which I did some hazar download !! The next day I also got my spikebuster and the free headphones (which turned out to be pretty useless)!

The comp served me well during my two years and was often my only companion and source of entertainment. Even now its working fine even though the monitor is no longer there ...

Memories from the golden years of my life (19)

The mid semester examinations were over. Papa, mummy and Dhiraj ... all were coming to visit me. Mummy wanted to see me at any cost .. for obvious reasons and more so because of my foot illness. Well they came and I will talk about those memories later. But if I had to change something then I would have changed this ... all of them should not have come. Because chachu was alone at home. Though they were here for only 2 days and chachu was all right when they had come, one cant help what God has already planned for us. Chachu fell ill while they were here. Two days after they left, I got a call from papa in the morning that Chachu had passed away .. In a way I blamed myself for this because I had wanted all of them to come ... though papa had never wanted this. Look at God's way of doing things .... That day I did feel lonely, hurt, and extremely concerned about papa.

Now some people may call me selfish .... some may say that I am the most emotionless person they have ever seen ... but to be very frank .. the grief did not last long for me .... I did not miss chachu .. for two reasons ... one i was never too close to him .. and secondly because I wasnt even at home when all this happened ... I was just concerned about papa .... and thats it. Within 2 days my life was back to normal! .. and now when I look back .. I find it extremely strange .. This is a classic example of life at campus gulfing you in such a way that nothing else matter .. you leave everything behind you .. your family ..your friends .. .... Ye jagah hi aisi hai ... even a small thing that happens here .. matters a lot ... and anything away from it does not matter ....

Memories from the golden years of my life (18)

Thanks Manish for your comment. I completely agree with you that all the 3.4 (especially the hindi 1.7 half) members were completely useless. Some of them could not sing to save their life. You might guess whom am I alluding to :P. I will definitely come to Debchat's HR class ... but remember .. that was in term 2 ... and we are still here in term 1 only.

I now need to talk about my mid semester examinations. Well .. first exams in a totally alien environment ... with new people .. new competitors. Frankly, I had not set very high targets for myself for these exams partially because of my foot problems and also because I had no clue what the competition was like. As I had said before it was important to do well ... but it was more important to do better than others. Somehow ... last years papers had been arranged ... They were most essential for any exam. This tradition has been followed religously by any student who has ever visited an engineering college. You can prepare for the exam without the basic textbook .. without a single note but you simply cant manage without last years papers. ... And the engineering tradition very well carried off into management also ....

I still remember our first paper was BIO (Behaviour in organizations) .... just a 20 marks paper ... having 3 questions (5, 5, 10 marks). I wrote globe to the best of my abilities. But for the last 10 marks question I was never sure. The question could have been answered by looking at it from many perspectives ... and I had chosen one with which I myself was not completely satisfied after coming out of exam. And this thing was troubling me .... However I did one good thing... whatever Debchat used to say in class ..whatever language he used to use ... I used that in paper .. liberally so ... "It is not difficult .. it is challenging" ... "Capture the learnings" .... "The layers of human thinking" ... "The conscious and the subconcious" ... and many others ... Ultimately professors are not difficult people to understand ... obviously they want to see in answer sheet what they have preached ... which massages their self ego that the students have paid attention and importance to what they had been preaching .. even if it is crap. I had already started applying BIO at my work :P

One by one all the mid term examinations passed away ... QAM (I thought that this went off well), Economics (All globe questions repeated from last year ... I again did same thing .. wrote what the prof had been blabbing about) .. MANAC (This one was particularly tough .. what with the competition coming from all the CAs ... and an above average paper .. I was doubtful of scoring even 50% from a 35 marks paper ... thankfully many others did not seem to have done it too well), COM (lotsa globe with lotsa charts ..and trees .. just like Raina liked it) and one more subject (which I dont even remember now) ... Finally they were over! And believe me ... mid sems week was much better than the week before (both professionally and personally)!

Seems like the end is near ...

Gautam Motwani signing off. Seems like my end is near if things continue going this way. This is the third consecutive night when I have not been able to sleep at all ... just coughing and coughing .. not even able to breathe ...

Music Review - Yuvvraaj

This is the first time I am writing a music review for a film. Obviously, the film has to be special. It is indeed very special. If I were to look back and think of the director whose film's music has left a mark on me the maximum number of times it would have to be the showman - Subhash Ghai. I still love the agnst and anger is "Nahin hona tha .." (Pardes, 1997). I am still transported to another world by "Nahin Saamne ..." (Taal, 1999). I am still wondering how can anyone compose a beautiful melody "Yaadein .. Yaad aati hain" (Yaadein, 2002). Even now the song "Hum hain is pal yahaan ..." (Kisna, 2005) leaves me asking for more. The movies may or may not have worked ... but the point is every movie of Ghai has a music that is special .... and special in a unique way .. be it Taal or Yaadein ... Pardes or Saudagar ... Kisna or Ram Lakhan. So here we go with his latest offering ... Yuvvraaj!

1. Main Hoon Yuvvraaj ... an introduction by Salman Khan .. about Deven Yuvvraaj i.e. himself ... Nothing great to talk about .. skip this one for the next.
2. Tu Meri Dost Hain ... Now here comes a chart topper from Rahman. You may not like or infact understand the song in the first go. But then that has been the common feature with almost all the Rahman songs. I would like to push your attention towards the lyrics. This is sheer poetry. Give the song the priveledge of you listening it 2-3 times and you will fall in love with this one.
3. Shano Shano ... Never thought Rahman could do this. Remember "Its the time to disco".. "Where is the party tonight" .... This is Rahman's version of the songs of that genre .. excellent ..without going overboard .. thats all that i can say
4. Tu Muskura .. A winner all the way ... the song paves way through your heart the very first time you put it on. And believe me ... it can well bring tears also to your eyes
5. Mastam Mastam ... No great shucks .. a typical situational song
6. Zindagi Zindagi .. a perfect song .. a perfect composition ... turn of the lights and put this on when you are in sad mood .. it will perfectly complement it
7. Dil ka Rishta ... a strange mix of western and indian classical ... i personally could not understand the song ... but its good on years ..
8. Manmohini Morey ... i have only one word for it .. bakwaas
9. Shano Shano Remix .. a remix from Rahman .. its sure worth its weight in gold

Overall I would say the album has some quality music. I would go with a rating of 3 stars plus additonal 1/2 a star for "Tu Muskura" .... Go for it .. this one will rock!

Memories from the golden years of my life (17)

Firstly, Thanks Dhiraj for commenting on the blog … the others whom I requested have shown no signs of basic courtesy. Your comment will help me move on … and yes I will respond to your comment also. Well murgi was far from any so called K-serials though I did not knew him well enough to say if he could have hatched a conspiracy. All that he was concerned with was his guitar and rock music. In fact I am sure you would have started liking him by now J He was a member of 3.4, the music band of IIML … the name 3.4 is strange but there is a legend behind it. Its 3.4 kms distance from Sitapur Mod to IIML. Once the founders took this long walk and the band was formed during this walk .. hence the name. Now a part of band was all about rock music … English songs … but where true Indians are there … apna typical bollywood style gana bajana can’t be far behind … and hence there was a hindi group or band also …. Both the groups hated each other and things had become this bad between them once during our stay there … that 3.4 nearly escaped being split into two 1.7s

Okay … now that I have started the topic of my seniors once again .. and it is quite an interesting topic indeed (at least in my view). Although my interaction with my seniors was really really limited, there are some incidents which I will never forget. Let me start with one such incident of one of our seniors called Aashika. Now Aashika was a very very short heighted girl with extremely sharp facial features - she was fair, had 'good assets' and her dress sense made her look like anything between a s*** to a girl next door. Now I did not interact with her even once during my entire stay of first year with the seniors but there is a very interesting story that I would like to share about her. In our mess, as the mess workers are also aware of the eating habits of us 'bigde shahzade' ( we eat less and throw more), so they had kept two very big dustbins in one of the corners to pour out the left over food. And believe me those dustbins could take some huge quantities of food. Ok so after dinner all of us would go and empty our plates in these dustbins and then give our plates for washing and all. Now the story goes like this. Once when Aashika went to the dustbin to throw her remaining food, her spoon also dropped into the dustbin, so like a good girl she tried taking it off (and hence reduce the loss burden that the mess was carrying like an albatross round its neck ... more on that later). Now as it happened the dustbin was just 1/4th full that day and Aashika being really short highted could not reach the spoon, so she just tried to do so by just tilting a bit more ..... and BAANG .... the next moment she finds herself in the dustbin ... upside down! ... My god ... the laugh we had when we had heard this story ... now I have not been a witness to this story ... but almost everyone on the campus would be ready to swear by it .... and some even go to the extent of saying that the dustbin was full of 'paav bhaji' remaining from previous day thrown into it ... Just imagine face into bhaji ... and she shouting for help for someone to drag her out from the dustbin ... The very thought still has me in splits ... any tippany on this Manish?

Memories from the golden years of my life (16)

After a long time ... but here it goes!

Quizzes ... they were like the constant sword hanging on us from the day we entered IIM L. They were the weapons in the hands of each professor to ensure that we were spending our precious nights studying .. not sleeping. Alas ! If only they knew that their happiness will last only for the first two or three terms (obviously now , I am not speaking about myself .. for me it lasted till the very last quiz we had .. which was in MIR - Managing Industrial Relations. Thats another story in itself!)

As it turned out to be .. our batch was called the ghissu batch by our seniors. The fault as anyone might have guess lay only with their batch. These guys (our seniors) had pissed off some of the profs so much that the profs had been forced to give dhakas and fuckas in wholesale. As a result a total of some 50-60 students were thrown out of their batch after second term as they had flunked! As they say .. no one can hide the truth ... the news travelled and it travelled fast. Even on our fresher party in Delhi (remember Ambassador Shounak?) people were asking all sorts of questions which they were not so eager to answer. Obviously .. our batch was scared as hell ... From day one .. each and every student started mugging up ... anytime in the night you go to library ... you could be sure to find it fully occupied .. the profs also responded favourably to our batch .. we soon came to be known as the best batch in years ....and this troubled our seniors to no extent.

As a batch, I would say our relations with our senior batch were rather not so good. I remember once having a discussion with Murgi (he was a hostel inmate and indeed a nice person to know who was unfortunate of repeating his first year at IIML) about relations with seniors ... Now his opinion was that our relations with seniors were excellent thanks to those 40 odd guys who had come back to repeat first year ... he said that they used to hate their seniors ... Pity i could not tell him we too :) ... as few of his best friends were from the senior batch and i am sure they would be anyday .....

There were more stories of friction between our batch and the seniors ... let me put down one here ... Suddenly one day we get a mail from senior batch that our batch is not really helping in maintaining cleanliness in the campus .. and that we leave cups lying on tables at nescafe shop ... and generally litter around ... now this speaks for itsef (I want comments from you Manish on this)

Had started writing about quizzes ... but it turned out to be something else only ... all for good .. more about quizzes and exams next time :)

This too was a golden period ...

I rolled off from GGSRL project today .. The mail I wrote to Piush and Sohini ... More on this later

Hi Piush & Sohini,

Just wanted to say thanks for the wonderful time that we have spent together on this project.

What began as just a project in the dingy UCO bank office turned out to be one of the best times that I have ever spent at work, both professionally and personally. Thanks for supporting, developing and sometimes protecting me.

Will cherish fond memories of our now famous potty jokes, joe pjs, all sorts of cheap talk (which includes "peeche se" and "beach mein"), our animal farm (goggi, doggi, hippo, rhino, kitty cat), the insignificant others (uncle bum, chuha, toothpick, tina, sita and the frustrated gang), our special capabilities, the daily hogging (of all paranthas, samosas, mad angles and the current hot favourite pass pass) and and the constant cribbing and bickering about anything and everything on earth!

Hope we will get a chance to work with each other again in near future! Wishing you both a great luck for all your future endeavours!

Warm Regards
Gautam

"We part only to meet again!"

Memories from the golden years from my life (15)

The few of those who do take the pains of reading my blog must be pissed with the gory details of my foot infection going on and on since the last 3 blogs. No more of it. I'll come back to campus life. I have already spoken about three of my subjects and their professors in first term viz. Manac, BIO and COM. Let me put down a few words about the other three before I go on to describe the Mid terms. The other three were QAM, ECO and LAM.

Ok ... now QAM and MANAC are considered to be the two most painful subjects in IIML. for the simple reason that these subjects can earn you what is commonly known as a "Dhaka" or "Fucka" any time! More so because of their professors. Well strangely enough, I found the QAM professor to be really nice - Abhijit Bhattarcharya. He knew his subject really really well. But we were like all scared of him as he had given a lot of Fs last year and was (as we had heard from seniors) a demon in disguise. Anyways .. I like to form my own opinions and I found him to be really good. The less we say about his counterpart "NKG" the better ... Kyun Manish? We had also come up with a name for him ( do you remember Manish? .... put it down in comments :)) His famous "Oooouunn .. I dont know any exampules" was repeated by us many a times during lighter moments. Manish and I had did not even have one professor in common .. While we had some oldie (whose name i cant remember) for LAM (Legal Aspects in Management) .. Manish's section had the pleasure of studying from Mr. LAA (with whom Manish shared a very "special" relationship in second year :) )

The third one was Eco. We had an excellent prof. whom i will respect through out my life .. it was really a pleasure studying from him .. Rest in next blog!

Memories from the golden years of my life (14)

I have always heard ... that there is a lot of strength in your parents blessings. And it was proved this time ... once again. I had told mom dad about my feet .... and it did make them worry like anything ... to the extent of finding unknown relations in Lucknow! However, thankfully i did not require to use those relations. There was a girl (rather an auntie would be more appropriate) called Mukuli in my class. She was about 32 years old, had about 7 years of experience and looked absolutely stupid (well ... it all changed later :) .... i think ill dedicate a full post to her sometime later). Now Mukuli was suffering from fever from sometime .... and she had a doubt that it was jaundice .... she appeared to be scared to death ... and wanted to get her blood test done .... and apparently there was no facility in campus for the blood test to be done .... and that day we were discussing about our own problems ... when she said that she wanted to go to hospital to get her tests done but was scared to go alone. Now even though i was dying with my feet in that condition ... being a man .. i offered her my help (of accompanying her) ... Now let me make it very clear ... that the help was offered with no wrong intentions in mind :) ... Actually I wanted to show my feet to someone ( as none of the medicines were having any effect whatsoever) ... and I had no clue about medical facilities in Lucknow. This was not an easy decision for me ... as my first mid term exams were just 5 days away ! ... and I guess only Manish would know what wasting one full day in those circumstances in first term would mean ... but i had little choice so i went with her after BIO class...

The hospital was first of all not at all difficult to reach. We had taken campus bus which dropped us till 3.4 .. and from there we took one of the vikrams (pooled autos) .... Well the hospital looked as if it would fall anytime ... I had my doubts if this would be of any help ... still we paid 50 bucks each for check up ... and went to our respective doctors ... Now this is one lady to whom I will be indebted for life ...We have such wrong impressions about govt. hospitals ... tell you what .. the kind of treatment this lady doctor gave me .. even the most qualified professional doctors would not be able to give ... may be this was because of the fact that i was in IIM... which had a real huge prestige in Lucknow ... Anyways ... she removed puss from my blisters .. which were all over my feet .. applyed betadiene ... bandaged my feet .. and with all the bad puss gone properly .. i was feeling very much better .. she also wrote a few medicines ... some of which were available from the chemist outside the hospital and the rest i had to get from purana chauraha .... finally mukuli also had her tests done and we came back ... and i then knew ... i had seen the worst as far as my health goes for years to come .... and things would start becoming better now .. God bless that lady doctor ...

Memories from the golden years of my life (13)

Well ... the golden year did not seem golden right just now. In fact, when I look back, I would perhaps remember these moments as the darkest moments of my life ... it seemed to me as if I will have to let go of my dream ... of doing my MBA from IIM ... Yes! .. It was that bad ... that medicine from Rangan had done its damage. My foot was in the worst possible condition ... actually not foot but feet .. The infection had spread across both the feet ... i had sort of boils filled with disgusting smelling water all over my feet. I just could not walk as that bursted the boils on the bottom of my foot and I was covered in that smelling liquid ... But I had to attend the classes .. thanks to 80% attendance rule at IIML. I remember ... it used to smell a lot and hence even though a sandal would make things simpler for me ... as i would be able to keep my foot out in open ... I still used to wear shoes to classes .. so that its not embarrasing for me ... as well as inconvenience for others ... I still remember Diwakar's (my classmate who used to sit next to me) reaction the day it was at its worse ...

Srimurugan Veluswamy (commonly called as "murgi") .... one of my classmates as well as hostelmates ... one day suddenly called it my bday in class (i am sure it was just a joke) .... but the tussle that followed .. ensured that my feet went from bad to worse ... I had almost emptied the bandage and dettol provided by Manish (thanks!) ... Since I was nursing my foot without proper directions, care and with horrid wrong medicines ... I had an irky feeling sometimes as if its going to spread to my hands also ... one or two days i could see small irritation marks on my hands also ... i could still give exams ...without my feet ... but if something happened to my hands ...

I cried in my room ... all alone ... asking God why had he done it to me ... and if I could not complete my studies ... why the hell had he allowed me to come here ... All this time I had kept everyone at home oblivous of all this ..... But now i decided to let them know .. I needed their blessings to carry on ....

Memories from the golden years of my life (12)

We were standing at Aliganj ... also known as the Purana Chowk ... Me and Manish. This was the first time we had come out of campus together ... for a strange purpose ... to buy my medicines ...

I had developed an infection in my foot ... which was going from bad to worse. It all started with an itching in between of my foot fingers ... then i got wet in the rain ... and the itching area soon converted into a rash! Slowly the rash was spreading to the areas between other fingers. I realised that this could be serious (and God damn it .. it was pretty serious) ... and i went to show it to Rangan (and this was the biggest mistake i could have committed) ... Rangan was the doctor hired by our institute .. He was the strangest creature I had ever met ( well not really :P ... I have met many more stranger creatures ... But amongst doctors .. yes). This guy did not even open his mouth once during the entire period I sat with him .. Just scribbled a few things on paper and handed it over to me. Even when I asked him .. what exactly is this ... he just mumbled something I could not understand ... Later on I came to know that people went to him only when they wanted to die :P

Back to Aliganj .. we were here to get these very medicines prescribed by Rangan! It was very kind of Manish to come with me .... this is one good thing about this guy .. he does try his level best to help people whom he doesnt even know properly .. Agreed we had been neighbours for 3-4 weeks now ... but still ... we had not yet developed the kind of bonding that we had later ... Or maybe this was just the beginning of that bond ... So there we were standing at Aliganj .. I had managed to get a few medicines from the small shops there (later on came to know there was a huge medical shop just nearby!) and we were waiting for the bus .. and I was praying that it does not rain ... as that would make my foot worse ... but it did rain ...

To all friends ...

Happy Friendship Day ... to all the friends whom I met in my this journey called life ...

I was reading one of the newsletters from campus the other day and I came across this line written by one of my juniors. And it truly portrays my feelings today ....

"We may chat on phone ... we may meet occasionally ... we might even spend some time with one another whenever our ways cross each other ... but we will never be all together at the same time .... at the same place ...."

This .... is the truth of friendship .... yet there is another one ....
"You may call a friendship so .. only when it has passed the test of time and separation"

Only a friendship which is able to sustain separation .... and still be as strong as ever is worthy of calling a frienship .... Three cheers to all my friends ... Thanks ... for giving me strength ... Thanks for being my emotional and moral supports ... Thanks ... for leading me to the right way ... and guiding me at every important or less important step of my life ... Thanks ... for being my life ....

To my friends (From the beginning)

Dhiraj Motwani
Navneet Jain
Varun Kumar
Shounak Ray
Yuvraj Sikriwal
Priyanka Saha
Manish Peter
Avichal Agrawal

Memories from the golden years of my life (11)

It was day 2 of our classes. The first day had been good. We had studied MANAC, BIO and COM which stand for Management Accounting, Behaviour in Organizations and Communication in Management respectively. We had Rashmi mam as our MANAC teacher. She appeared to be extremely strict. Deb Chat (Debashish Chatterjee), who is apparently amongst top 15 thinkers of Harvard University took BIO. He was an extremely “Global” person. Said anything and everything most of which meant nothing to me. But I liked using his language … and many a times Manish had to bear the brunt of this :) Raina, who took COM, was really a character. My seniors had advised us (and no, I did not believe that) that we should never go to his class after shaving our beard (and being a so called chickna) and all as he was thought to make unwanted advances towards some …. Anyways, that apart, he was an extremely boring teacher. Communication is a very practical subject and he had made it completely theoretical by drawing those charts in which words which mean nothing emerge as stems from other words which also meant nothing. Those trees, stems 7 Cs and 5 Ss were his favourite. God! Once I had slept in his class. I just could not help it. He was going on explaining those 7Cs and I had had very little sleep the night before due to some assignment. And the he caught me! Immediately I started looking busy ……but he said “You are not quite there with us”. And I was so embarrassed that I had to go out to wash my face!!!

Anyways back to day 2. Rashmi madam announced that we will have a quiz today! On second day of the college … a quiz! And that too of accounts. She had even made different sets for people sitting adjacent to others!. That was my first quiz at IIML. And the next day I was a proud owner of 4 marks out of a quiz of 5 marks. Clearly this was not the best but I had done a lot better than many others. CAs had outperformed and Anil Agarwal ( a dark fellow from Calcutta) was being hailed as the topper already !!!

Memories from the golden years of my life (10)

From now on my blogs are going to be about one off incidents @ helL. Basically I realized that if I continue giving a day to day account, I will die before I complete the story … and this is a story that needs to be told … maybe to myself … when the days would no longer be so good. I would need something to remind me then … that once I had the time of my life … I would need to be reminded of the memories from the golden years of my life ….

The inductions were over … all that presentation and that paper were a hoax! A small prank played by our seniors on us. We were supposed to start classes tomorrow. And the books were supposed to be given to us today. I carried the flimsy bag to the section from where we were supposed to get books. I had got two of these flimsy bags that mummy had given me. They were very cool looking. One was green and the other was blue. To my horror I found out that we were being given a huge pile of books. I was cursing them that why are they giving us books for the entire year. Can't they give it termwise? But to my utter surprise, I found that these 15-16 books that we were being given were only for term one. Some of them were as heavy as 2 kgs (Remember book on LP Manish?) The books were of two types: textbooks and compilation of notes, cases and other material called polycopies. Somehow I pushed all polycopies in my bag and then carried all the text books in my hand. I bet the weight was more than 15 kgs! And then the inevitable happened. Midway that bag was no more!. How I managed to carry those books to my hostel, only I know. :-)

I am missing hostel terribly today. Why are some things like ... gone forever?

This is how I rate a movie ...

Ok! I have had many discussions (and I truly enjoyed all of them) on how do I rate a movie. How do I say that a movie is good, bad or ugly (it fails !). Here it goes my marking scheme.

1. Content (50 marks)
This one area can make or break a movie. Now, people might have different expectations on what exactly the content means. Content is based on the following 4 sub-parameters:
- The Story - 25 marks (and yes ... it includes a proper ending)
- Justice to the movie's Genre - 10 marks (I don't want to see a horror movie when the expectation set by promos is that of a comedy)
- The Basics - 10 marks (For heaven's sake, we are in the 21st century ... let the past go ... I simple won't appreciate movies that don't live up to the times that we are living in)
- The Songs - 5 marks (Wondering why such less weightage to this one? ... Don't want to be unfair to English movies)

2. The Presentation (30 marks)
I have always maintained (unlike people who say that content is what that matters) that it takes a good presentation to take you to the content. If your presentation is not good, no one will bother to see the content. Here is what will go into the presentation.
- The pace of the movie (has to be right) - 5 marks
- The set design - 5 marks
- The costumes - 5 marks
- The packaging - 5 marks (Yes ... promos do make an impression)
- The look and the feel of the movie - 10 marks (I am allowed to be arbit at times :) )

3. The Actors - 20 marks
Need I say more !

Ok ... All this is fine .. but how would i describe a movie .. depending on the marks ...

<33 - Well ... this is fail even in board examinations .. do I have a choice
33-50 - Below Expectations
51-75 - Met Expecatations
>75 - Exceeds Expecatations
Yes! Accenture has a huge rub off on me .... Lets start rating movies now !

The three biggest gifts of my life ...

Our life is a mix of a few good things ... and the other bad ones that happen to us. This particular blog is just to thank God and acknowledge the presence / happening of these few good things, which are also the biggest gifts given to me by God ....

1. 22nd November, 1986
This was the day when God gifted me my baby brother. Till that time I was so dependent on others, for playing, for emotional support. Papa mummy tell me that there were two twins called Sonu Monu who were my life (kind of). Even if they were back home at 11 in the evening I had to visit them before I went of to sleep. And then Dhiraj came ...

I remember ... Dhiraj had jaundice when he was born .. and hence he was kept in an incubator. I used to visit mummy and Dhiraj in hospital. But since I could not visit Dhiraj, I used to play with another new born kid (somehow he was within my reach, as he was on one of the lower cradles) and come back home .. happy and contented. Since that day .. Sonu and Monu lost their importance in my life ... and Dhiraj took it all. When Dhiraj was finally brought home .. I was the first one to take him in my lap ....

21 years later, he is still my best friend ... Of course we fight .. there is a difference of opinion many of times ... but I dont think that underlying emotions have changed ... hope it will always remain the same ....

2. June, 2001 (Don't remember exact dates)
This was the day when DCE's result was out. I knew I was going to DCE that day ..... Somehow, I can't say that I had a great time at DCE. May be i was too tight assed at that time (and I have no qualms in accepting that). But it was a life changing good thing that happened to me. I knew I had a secure job at the end of four years ... Yes, many a times those four years seemed like a torture. Dhiraj will vouch how much I used to crib about DCE. But I still say that it was a good thing that happened to me for two reasons. DCE was a stepping stone for another great event in my life and of course I owe to DCE friends like Shounak, Yuvraj, Harman and Devender ..... Four years ... Four friends ... does it seem like a raw deal? You bet not ...

3. April, 2005
When we are young ... a small incident can change our life ... however as we grow older .. it takes a lot (of good things at least) to make even a small change to the kind of person you are. But this particular incident .. changed my life ... completely. Remember those mixers used for mixing cement... out side buildings where construction is taking place? It was like I was taken suddenly in one of those mixers ... and what came out was that ready to serve... cement. IIM Lucknow happened to me ..

I have changed ... I believe for the good. IIML does that to you. I have become more assertive, more progressive but maybe somewhere I have also lost something .... it is very difficult to express that in words .. so let it be .. and anyways this blog is about good things ... like Manish Peter ..... two years .... one friend .... (ok .. I can count Avichal also) ... I would still say I couldn't get a better deal ....

Memories from the golden years of my life (9)

Yes Manish, I do remember the look on your face after the finance papers … and I will devote once complete blog to that look … but for the time being my heart is beating fast because I have no clue what is Weighted Average Cost of Capital … and I have no sense what happens in textile and refining … and I don’t seem to recognize even a single name on that board from the people I met … and my head is spinning like never before … and I write my mobile number against my name on the list so that others can contact me … and the alarm is now ringing … its time already for me to go to next day’s lectures…

Somehow we tolerated next day’s lectures … it was day 2 at IIML and I am already using tolerated … for one, I was still to get over previous day’s tiredness and two … some of the lectures like that on IT infrastructure and library management ... well I thought were delivered by absolutely incompetent personalities … and well could be definitely left for later. To top it all there was presentation in the evening …

In the break I contacted the others in my group (only a few of them) … I don’t remember all but one was Himanshu Jain (an absolutely unclean guy … quite literally so … but I struck a cord with him …somehow) .. and Manish Kumar Jain (this guy seemed to know what is Weighted Average Cost of Capital … man …wasn’t I relieved to know that). He explained the concept to us … it dint seem that difficult but at the same time I could not understated it fully … somehow we managed to crap together a few slides… it was decided that Manish will present since the rest of us hardly knew what was on the slide… A few students escaped from the hall CR203 … which clearly showed the level of enthusiasm shown by the batch. This was not appreciated by the faculty and a severe reprimanding was given by the Chairperson, PGP. But all was fine till the evening.

And then began that signature IIML presentation … the conversations went something like this:

S – Senior
J - Junior

S – You yellow shirt, you start the presentation
Pointing towards a guy hiding behind others
S – Man, who wears green to a presentation?
There is another dude who wore a green formal shirt to presentation
S – Why aren’t you dressed in formals? Is there a party going on
The guy was not wearing a tie.
J – (Mumbles something which is hardly audible)
S – Okay start now. We don’t have all the time in the world
3 or 4 seniors are shouting from the back
S – What ghastly slides have you made?
Disgust is written all over their face
S – How much time did you take?
Inevitably the first person was asked this question followed by the entire class of seniors laughing at the presenters
J – 2 hours
Man.. I just put in 45 mins .. am saying 2 hours .. and the look on their face .. well I feel like running away
S – That’s it! So you think you will put in 2 hours of effort and you will pass!

Followed by more laughs ... need I mention this?


Ill post on my specific experience next time ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (8)

I had initially thought of attending that guest lecture .. but dropped it just to prepare for an exam at 9:30 in the night. This was just the beginning. Beginning of sacrifices. Beginning of deciding what my priorities are. Beginning of what was going to be a long journey of trying to get a bite of everything … everything literally. I reached the examination hall at 9:20. I was made to sit in CR101 which was also my classroom for first year. There were some strict looking seniors with papers. Finally, after the room got full, they distributed the papers.

I was shocked to see the paper. It has been almost 3 years now and I don’t remember too much but I think the paper had broadly 3 sections – Finance, Marketing and Management GK. Of the three … just imagine I thought Management GK was the best! … I who had never been good at GK! The reason being I could hardly understand what the questions said in other two sections. Marketing was full of jargon though still we could understand English. It was Finance that sent a shiver down my spine. I knew nothing!

Dreading awful things, I turned my face around. Believe me it was such a relief to see blank faces all around me. Anyways, for one hour I broke my head on that paper. One of the guys who had completed all that he knew (and I am guessing it was as good a nil) wanted to leave the room in half an hour only. But the seniors did not allow that! They said we have to be there for complete three hours! So after I was done, tried going off to sleep on the chair only, though could not manage to catch any sleep at all. I was surprised to find some guys sleeping so well. I distinctly remember the senior having to shake Helly up, to wake her when they finally decided to let all of us go. As we came out of the hall, I was glad to find that like me .. the others also knew nothing. And I learnt my first lesson at HelL .. without anyone even mentioning it to me.. “What others are doing and how well are they doing it will be equally important to me if not more, than what I ought to be doing”

All was not well … As we came out, there was another notice on the same notice board. We had been divided into groups of five and had to make a presentation on the topic assigned to us, the very next evening after the induction lectures. The topic assigned to my group was something like this :

“Comparison of Weighted average Cost of Capital for refining and textile sectors”

Memories from the Golden Years of my life (7)

I got up next morning at around 7. No ragging had happened in the night. Maybe these MBA institutes had finally realized that ragging was such a futile exercise. Wasn’t I pleased to know that? We had our orientation at 8 AM. We were all supposed to reach the academic block with the particulars (which included a few photographs, letter of acceptance of advance fees and all the original mark sheets and certificates). I had a quick bath and got ready. I went to mess first to catch some breakfast. As usual, I had sufficient time on hand (I always had this habit of reaching any place before time) so had a full breakfast of cornflakes with milk, bread pakora and tea. There was omlette also, but as I believed that one should not have omlette and leave for any exam (this was my first day in the institute and hence equivalent to an exam), I skipped it.

I reached the academic block five minutes before eight and was surprised to find that I was not the only one who had arrived before time! Just to give a flavour about the academic block to those who haven’t been there, the block is made of red bricks and has five entrances, two of which are opened only during the time of placements. One of the three open entrances which is open faces the library (which is called as Gyanodaya) and the Computer Center (fondly called by everyone as CC) has a figure of Maa Saraswati sculpted on its top. The second entrance from the same side is closed. The other two entrances (which are the main ones) face the path leading to Samadhan (the administrative block) and Chintan (the faculty block). The fifth entrance leads to the green ground behind the block where temporary mess is set up during placements. As we enter the academic block from the main entrance (which is nearer to the library), on both sides are placed notice boards. The right side contained notice boards for our batch, which was PGP 21 (the 21st batch of post graduate programme in management) and the left side contained the notice boards for our seniors’ batch, PGP 20 (which was later replaced with PGP 22, once they left at the end of our first year). On the notice board, we saw, that the entire batch had been divided into 5 sections, for the purpose of induction. We were all supposed to gather in one of the big halls on the second floor, i.e. CR 203. I climbed up the stairs and reached the hall, to finds that already quite a few students had been occupying it. It was a large hall, with seating capacity of nearly 200 students. How 300 of us were to be accommodated there, nobody knew. The infrastructure has been generally good in IIMl.. The hall was equipped with a slide projector and a screen, was fully air conditioned and had good lighting for all purposes that it was supposed to be used. I found myself a seat, in the middle of the hall, to be seated for the rest of the day.

And, I introduced myself to the beautiful girl seated beside me, Helly Ajmera. She had a pleasant personality and seemed confident of what she spoke. We anyways did not have much to speak with anyone. So, the usual round of conversation was like … Where are you from? Which college? Any workex? Helly was from Bombay. It was later only, that I came to know that she had already completed first year of her MBA from another university in Bombay itself but had dropped the college to pursue MBA at IIML. I realized two things in this conversation. One, the IIM brand is really powerful. Powerful enough to make you drop one year. And secondly, that a part of my competition would be guys and gals who have already done first year of MBA once!

Soon, the hall was fully occupied. The first person to address us was Mr. M. Ravi Sunder (fondly known as MRS by everyone). He was the then Chairman of the PGP (Post Graduate Programmes). He welcomed us into the hallowed portals of IIML. He was generally not a great orator, but we were instantly able to connect to him because of his down to earth nature and simple speaking. At the very beginning, he warned us that the next two years are not going to be easy. We will need to put in our best efforts, although there is not reason to be scared of anything and we would manage well if we follow a daily routine of studies. (I guess the last comment was to dispel the apprehension which the batch had towards studies at IIML as last year, in our senior batch some 50-60 students had been asked to leave as they could not fulfill the minimum criteria for grades!)

This was followed by a couple of more lectures. Once that is clearly etched in memory is by our Dean, Academic Affairs - Mr. R. K. Srivastava, very commonly known as Rocky. The man is a complete riot in himself. Thankfully .... unlike others ... he was not preaching in his lecture. His welcome was really warm and it really showed on his face how happy he was. He showed us some past pictures of IIML .. some 15-20 years ago when we used to operate from the building now known as city office ... located in Aliganj, the early pictures of campus, the histroy of IIM Lucknow .... How they wanted to have an IIT at Lucknow .. and then the question was raised that there is already an IIT at Kanpur ... so the minister in concern (I wouldn't name him or her of course!) asked .. if not an IIT .. what else can we have at Lucknow? ... and the result was IIM Lucknow !!!

The lectures ended by the evening. There was a notice on the notice board which said that there was a lecture by some guest who had arrived (I don't remember specifically but I think he was some alumni). There was also another notice on the test that was supposed to be held tonight at 9:30 PM!!! Apparently it was a very very important test, as on that basis we would be divided into sections. We had anyways been anticipating this as IIML had sent a book on accounting for us to study with their letter of confirmation of receival of fees. This came as a real shock to all of us. Althought I had read the book ... completed it thoroughly ... yet I was not sure if I remembered everything. (I had done it long time back). Some of the guys were least bothered about it while others were simply aghast to see it as they had not even opened the book.

Memories from the golden years of my life (6)

Papa had left the campus ... and I had to move forward. As rightly put by Manish ... I had mixed thoughts and emotions at this time. I was anxious for the future, I was excited to discover a new world, I was sad because I was all alone ... away from home for the first time in my life and I was apprehensive, not so much for what lay in store ahead ... but for the ragging. I was actually very scared of ragging ... as I always have been (perhaps Shounak can elaborate more on this), althouth i had not heard of any bad kinda ragging (you know what I am referring to) in IIM Hostels. (There was this blog written by one of our seniors in IIML, who had written about day to day life at L. This had been sent to us on yahoo group before we had joined. I had gone through the entire blog and it had given me no sense on any serious ragging)

Anyways ... I just set up some remaining stuff in my room and ventured out. I was thirsty. There was a water cooler in our floor at the intersection of the two wings I had mentioned earlier. I filled in water in the bottle I had got from home (now you can imagine what a detailed preparation we had done :-) ) from the cooler and got back to room. Next I located the washing machine. It was just below the water cooler on the ground floor. So ground floor had the washing machine and first floor had the cooler (At that time I had not visited second floor. In fact it was after quite a few days stay that I came to knew that there was a washing machine at the second floor also).

Having nothing else to do ... I thought I might as well visit the only person I knew on campus at that time. So, I went to hostel 3, to visit Tarun Maheshwari. I was a bit surprised to see him studying!! We had just only arrived in campus. We had no clue what was there in course / syllabi ... and this guy was studying already! In fact ... at that time I did not know the book, but if I am now able to recall correctly, he was reading Prasanna Chandra! (Thats the basic book in financial management). As anyone can guess what the answers could be when I asked him what was he reading and why, he just said ... for timepass :-) ... At that moment only I realised its gonna be a lot more tougher that what I am prepared for. As we had nothing much to talk, I came back to my room. As I was just wondering, what to do next, papa called ... he had reached station safely and there was 4 hours of wait in front of him (all thanks to me). After that I called home and spoke with mummy and Dhiraj. After that I needed something (I cant figure out what it was now), so just went to Manish's room to borrow it. There I met Arkaj Agarwal. Hw was in room 512, just next to Manish. So, Manish had met both his neighbours, I was yet to meet one more. Arkaj was of good height, slightly dark complexion. He introduced himself from BHU. I actually for the first time, did not form any impression about him ... maybe because our interaction was dtoo brief ... Manish welcomed me .... and I sat there for about 5 min. But since Manish and Arkaj apparently knew each other ... they were talking quite freely. Stupid person that I am I started feeling uncomfortable, took the excuse of setting up my room and left. then I just fiddled around with my room till it was time for dinner.

At 7:45 sharp, (this was the time we used to have dinner at home), went to mess for dinner. In my first term at Lucknow, I did not had non veg in mess. (Okay ... now this seems to be absolutely absurd, but my thoughts were, my parents are spending so much on me ... and they had not even allowed me to take a loan (which is a different story in itself) ... so I must try and keep my expenses to a minimum. One had to pay extra for non veg in dinner .... ) The mess was quite empty at that time with very few people having dinner. As I knew none, had my dinner alone. I ate well ... (Not that the food was great ... but I was thinking of all the things that mummy had told me ... most of which were about food and she was sure to ask what all had I eaten ... when we talked next ...).

After having food ... I went to Computer Center (fondly called as CC) ... to chat with Dhiraj. A kind senior there (no, i don't remember ... any of them) told me how to login ... and how to do settings for yahoo messenger .... (yes, it was quite some time before gtalk stormed our lives). I chatted with Dhiraj and mummy about all things .. campus, people, room .. and especially about food :-) . Around 10, went back to my room .... prayed to God .. and tried sleeping (though I had a nagging feeling about ragging) ... No one knew what was going to happen next ...

In Remembrance ... Sham Ahuja

1st April, 2008 was a sad day in all our lives. My Jiju passed away. It came as a big shock for all of us. As soon as I was back from office, papa informed me of the news. I dont want to write about all the details ... as it would bring back all the pain that we have somehow managed to push at the back of our hearts. But at the same time ... I do pray to God to give his helping hand to Sonia Didi and her two sons.

Memories from the golden years of my life (5)

Well … I deliberately stopped my last blog at the point where I just got introduced to Manish Peter. And I am so glad that Manish has offered his point of view, his thoughts just at the right time. Continue to do so Manish, for the story can never be complete without you. I continue moving further here …


My first thought was a mixed one. I thought this guy looks like an uncle. I had heard that there are people in IIMs come after a lot of experience. Manish definitely seemed to me like someone who had at least 2 years of experience. Given my way of getting informal (call it becoming kid) I thought it might be difficult for me to become friends with this guy. Anyways, it was very kind of Manish to tell me that in case I required some assistance, he was just next door i.e. room 513.

Since I had just come back from the commercial plaza, I was doing nothing while papa was doing up the room. In one of our conversations later, on this very topic Manish told me he was surprised to see papa doing work while I was just standing there doing nothing. Never got chance to clarify this in college Manish, I was not as useless as I seemed. J

I closed the door and had a look around the room. Papa told me it was very good of Manish to come and say hi. My room seemed to be in a much better state than I had left it. Papa had re-cleaned the table rack, the bed and the cupboard. Also, the maid had opened the door at the back end, which led to another door (this time made of net), beyond which there was a small balcony with 2 ropes for hanging clothes. She had cleaned the balcony, although it seemed that it could do with some more cleaning. The view from the balcony was good, though not great. There were a number of trees just outside hostel, beyond which was the main circular road. One could see the bus stop from there and students waiting for the bus. (I came to know about bus stop later only when papa was leaving for station)

Anyways, it was time for me to make a second trip to commercial plaza and have my first encounter with Sonu Singh. There was a huge rush at his shop. Seemed like the Kendriya Bhandar really had run out of everything. I got the rest of the things (which included mirror, soap tray, soap, washing powder, cloth hanging clips etc.) from his shop. I also got an Airtel Connection. (Hutch did not have prepaid and I was averse to postpaid. I always thought they were costly and that making payments is a pain.) Came back to room, while papa was settling the newly bought in stuff and the stuff from my bags, I installed the chip in my phone and called up at home. I spoke with mummy and Dhiraj. Somehow I could not speak much.

It was soon time for me to make another trip to Sonu Singh. We wanted a cellotape to stick brown sheet on my table rack. I saw a couple of familiar faces from my Delhi IIML informal meet and the fresher’s meet but did not bother saying a hi or anything as I had not found anyone to whom I could get close.

I am deliberately not writing about these informal meet and formal fresher’s meet as the story is about the golden years of my life .. which started on 29th June, 2005, the day I left for IIML.

Finally, all settings were done … all thanks to papa. I am very sure till this day that had it not been for papa, I would have never been able to set up my room the way it was done. (Though the settings underwent a drastic change later). It was just too good papa …

I had a bath in the washroom that was on the right side of my room. Actually I had a look at both the washrooms on our floor and the one on our wing seemed to be much better. There was a shower and a place for hanging clothes and keeping all necessities in the washroom. I had learnt (thanks again to yahoo group) that hot water comes from taps in winters. We then went to the mess for lunch. I registered by paying an advance of Rs. 1000 which was to be adjusted against the first bill. The food was not bad. (Actually we learnt later, that whenever parents had to turn up, whether at the time of registration or convocation, the quality of food went up). I don’t remember vividly but I think they had made moong dal and aloo ki sabzi apart from roti, rice and salad which was a constant phenomenon. Papa was satisfied to see food. He said that at least I wouldn’t go hungry as there was a jar of pickle at each table. (Given my eating habits, he was sure that I would end up eating roti and pickle most of the times)

We then went for a small walk around campus. Though this was the first time that I was actually seeing campus, it never seemed so, all thanks to the innumerable times I visited IIML site before coming and the innumerable times I saw the CD sent by Synapse (More on this later …) We saw the academic block, the library and the computer center. Somehow I did not feel like going for a further round and came back in my room. Before that we had found that there goes a bus from campus to the city as papa had to catch a train that evening itself. The bus stop was right outside my hostel. It was not the only one .. but the nearest.

It was evening soon. The bus was to leave at 5:45 and then 7:30. Although papa’s train was at 10 and he could easily reach station in time if he left by 7:30 bus, I had forced him to leave by 5:45 bus, in case the 7:30 bus never came, for then we would be in soup. Before that we went to the mess for some snacks. There was a huge bowl of butter and another one of jam. Tea was kept in a large steel container with a tap. Another such container contained Rasna Sharbat. They had also made snacks which included if I remember correctly some pakoras and a piece of cake. We ate our food in silence and then papa picked up his small bag and we went to bus stop to wait for bus. The conversation that followed was one that I would remember through out my life. Papa wished me good luck. He told me that I should be brave. This was the first time that I was going away from home. And that I should pray to God whenever I am trouble. He said that this is going to be the time when I would build my career, my future and he advised my to work hard for it. I was listening to all this but my mind was not there. There was fear …. Of being left alone. Of having no one to support me. There was fear of leaving my family behind. There was fear of something happening to them while I was here. …

The bus came. I wished papa goodbye. He wished me luck again. I told him to give me a call when he had reached station and when he would reach home the next morning. And then the bus left. I held back my tears with great effort. Went back to my room and cried for the first time on my first day at IIML. I would remember this moment for feeling the loneliest in my life ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (4)

What i saw was not very encouraging. The room was full of dust. It was a small room. There was a bed with a most dirty looking matteress on it. A table cum book rack was stacked in one of the corner. A chair made of cane was also lying there, covered up completely in dust. From the entrance I could see a door on the other end of the room and two windows. I was wondering if they would open or not, such was their condition. Just on the right side of the entering door, there was cupboard made of brick and wooden door. And furthur right to the cupboard was a small window which was inaccessible from all angles. God knows why was it designed in such a strange way !!

The room was painted yellow. The cupboard was also painted yellow. I have always liked yellow colour for the rooms. It gives a kind of glow to the room and the light appears brighter. Anyways, I pulled the luggage inside the room. And both myself and papa entered the room. Once again my interactions on yahoo group came to my rescue. I knew there were maids to take care of hostels. I went out to find out if any maids could be seen. Luckily I saw a maid on the other wing of the first floor. I asked her "Didi, ye mera room bhi clean kar dengi aap?". She replied, in what was her characteristic style "Ji Bhaiyaji". I told her my room number was 514. She came after 5 minutes. First she cleaned the room with a jhadu and later mopped it with a dirty looking rag. She also cleaned the table and the rack cum desk. I tipped her with Rs. 20 and entered the room once again with papa. There was loads to do, literally. I had to arrange all my luggage in room. I had to get so many things of daily use. And we had to eat something too! We were hungry.

I must confess that papa is really an expert at setting up things. Quickly papa set at cleaning the room once again while I set off to get items of common use from the commercial plaza. The commericial plaza was IIML's CP, our shopping centre. There were 2 shops at Commercial Plaza. One was a Kendriya Bhandar and another Sonu Singh, a sardar's shop who was ek number ka chor, again something I had learnt courtesy yahoo group. Apart from these two shops there was a canteen a.k.a. Faujji ka Dhaba and a Nescafe Coffee Shop. Anyways, I wanted to buy things from Kendriya Bhandar due to obvious reasons. There were many other people also who were buying their daily usage articles. However, as happens most of the time Kendriya Bhandar did not have most of the stuff. Anyways I bought whatever they had viz. a bucket, a mug, washing powder, brown sheets etc. and came back. I thought it would be better to keep this stuff in room rather than carry it to the Sonu Singh's shop.

As soon as I had kept the same stuff in my room, someone knocked. As I opened the door, I saw the person who made my life in hell, a heaven. He was slightly taller than me, well built, fair complexion and with few hair on his head. He introduced himself. Little did we know at that time that this person would be the most beautiful and essential part of the golden years of my life. He was Manish Peter.

Memories from the golden years of my life (3)

So finally, I had entered The Indian Institute of management, Lucknow. We asked the guard at the entrance, the way to student affairs office where I was supposed to report. He directed us to take a left turn and go straight till we see a sign board and then take a left turn. As went ahead, the way was a scenic beauty in itself. It was surrounded by bougainvilla trees on both sides and looked majestic in a mix of pink, purple and green colours. Little did I know at that time, this would be the way for many of those cherished walks with one of my dearest friends ....

We also passed Chanakya and Patanjali on the way - the guest houses. While Patanjali made a great first impression, Chanakya looked like its poorer cousin. Since no board turned up to guide us, we took the first left turn that was available and the auto halted in front of hostel 5. We asked the guard posted in front of hostel for student affairs office and he replied that we ought to take the next left turn. Strange are the ways of life ... the auto had automatically bought me to the hostel ... which was going to be my home for the next 21 months :-)

Well the auto took a recourse and we moved back to the main road and took the next left turn. We stopped the auto in front of hostel 1. I already knew that this was the girls hostel from my interactions on yahoo group and at the freshers meet. In front of it was the mess. The mess was simply huge. A great hall with a dome in the center. We unloaded the luggage from the auto and sent him off after paying him. I went to enquire about the student affairs office which was in hostel 1. The concerned person (Mr. Saxena) had not turned in yet and we were told to wait. So, we sat down on the stairs of the hostel 1. At this moment, I would like to point out that this has a special significance for me for I started my journey at L with this and ended with this too. More on this in later blogs ....

Forgot to mention. We had been asked by the seniors to come up dressed in formal wear including a tie as otherwise Mr. Saxena would be very angry! Though i had a feeling that this was just a part of pulling our leg, I was not really sure. Nonetheless I had changed into a formal shirt and trouser in train itself though did not wear a tie. I had just kept it handy in case required. And as I had presumed, this was just a part of prank the seniors played on us :-)

The guard in front of the mess asked us to have breakfast in the mess. But I did not actually felt like having anything and so we just dropped the idea. I also met a couple of people. Aman Gupta, who introduced himself from IIT Delhi, Tarun Maheshwari who was from Agra, Shaktie Prakash and his friend Tarun. I also saw Prerna Kapoor going out from the hostel towards the mess and coming back in some time. Of course much had already been spoken about her. More on this later ....

Finally, Mr. Saxena arrived. He asked each one of us to submit to him the letter confirming our admission and instructed us to take out a chit from a large glass box that was kept on his table. Tarun drew the chit out and he was alloted hostel 3. While waiting for Mr. Saxena, we had introduced ourselves to each other. I too drew out the chit. It read 514. I was not very happy as I had been informed (again through yahoo group on which i had spammed incessantly) that hostels 1-8 were old and were called slums and hostels 9-12 were new and were called the city. This meant that I was going to live in the slums. I tried asking Mr. Saxena if this could be changed. Bad as already I am at such things, I didn't have high expectations from him either.

Anyways, informed this to papa and we moved towards hostel 5. Finally we reached there. The room was on first floor. There were 10 rooms on each floor and two bathrooms. Most of the rooms looked unocuppied. The rooms were not locked. I pushed the door open for 514. Some of the golden memories of my life were going to be formed here ....

Jodha Akbar Rocks ...

February 16th, 2008

I went today to watch Jodha Akbar with Yuvraj and Shounak. I do enjoy a lot when all three of us are together. We are really a gang. :-)

Anyways .... coming to the point Jodha Akbar is a great movie. Superb acting by all the lead actors (Hrithik and Aishwarya) and by all the supporting cast also. The only glitch was the length of the film. It was indeed a bit too long .. and i hate this concept of two intervals which these hall walas have come up with recently. Really halts the flow of the movie.

Some of the scenes which stand out in my mind :-

1. When Aishwarya lays down her two conditions in front of Hrithik. The impact created was wonderful
2. Ash sees Hrithik practicing sword ...
3. The misunderstanding between Hrithik and Aishwarya ... just before the interval .... the sheer way in which Ash is able to stand upto Hrithik makes it an awesome one
4. The intimacy between Hrithik and Aishwarya in the song " In lamhon ke daaman mein ... "
5. The best was the sword fight between Jodha and Akbar ... I fell in love with Ash for the second time ...

More than anthying else .. it was the song .. Khwaja Mere Khwaja .. that took my heart away ... This was the most beautiful song I have ever seen ...

Also both Hrithik's and Ash's costume deserve a special mention .... Ash as always looked ethereal .. koodos to the cinematographer for capturing her like never before ... Imagine .. in a historical she was looking sexy ! .. Neeta Lulla takes away all my appreciations for this :-) ... Hrithik's dresses were also awesome ... I found myself wishing having those kind of sherwanis .. and I have decided I will have one of these sorts whenever I get married :-)

Aishwarya and Hrithik really form the best pair in bollywood ... they must do at least a few more movies together .. basically both of them have such star power about them ........ that they are able to hold their own forte in front of each other .. strange thought .. but i mentioned to Dhiraj ... that Hrithik and Aishwarya should have been a couple in real life too ... :-)

Aishwarya .. once again you took my heart away .. as always .. you are still the best ... no Kareena's and Rani's of the world can ever match your aura .. your beauty .. and yes .. your acting ... God bless you.

Memories from the golden years of my life (2)

Caution : You may find some of the things below as absurd ... but I have not cooked them up. All of these are real emotions that I went through.

We slept early in the train. Since it was summers, so we had taken a normal sleeper class ticket. It was raining. Now this rain has a great significance for me. When it was the first day of term 5 in engineering, it rained that day. Papa always used to accompany me till the bus stop when I was in engineering. That day I was cribbing to papa that it did not rain while I was at home but started raining the very first day of a new term. At that time papa mentioned, "Aise occasions par baarish bhagwaan ka aashirwaad hoti hai". And I topped for the first time in DCE in term 5.

In 2003, my didi (bua) passed away. When we were taking her away to the cremation ground, on our way we took her to Sindhu Samaj, the temple where she had served all her life, it rained the moment we placed her on the temple steps. Later in a conversation which mummy had with Raju didi (one of our relatives), I came to know that its like heavens are showering flowers on you when it rains.

You might be wondering what am I talking about. But the point to be noted here is IT RAINED, the day i left my home to find a new home. May be these were God's blessings in disguise. May be this was an indication from the God that these two years would make me what I am today and what I will be tomorrow. May be I had taken a right decision after all ....

We reached Lucknow Station. Lucknow Mail always arrives and leaves Lucknow at platform no. 1. It is a VIP train for Lucknow though may not be for Delhi. We got into an auto rickshaw. Already from my conversations with seniors on yahoo group (on which I had spammed so much), I knew that there was a prepaid counter and they charged Rs. 135 for an auto and Rs. 200 for a taxi. The auto travelled fast and within 25 minutes we had left the city. Within next 5-7 minutes, we entered 3.4. Now this is a road from where IIM L is 3.4 kms away. There is also a music band by the same name in HelL. On our way towards IIM L, there were (in fact are) many a boards containing preachings. One of them that was close to the institute was

"Learn to become a man of character, and not a man of success"

Finally we reached MY HOME for two years and a beautiful memory for life. The entry gate made of grey stone was magnificent and there was IIML printed by purple flowers on green grass at the entrance. As we entered the hallowed gates of L, I said a prayer in my heart. "Yahi hai meri karambhoomi" and touched the ground in my heart. I had entered INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, LUCKNOW.