Wishlist - Part 1

I'm about a few hours from wrapping up my operations in Mumbai and heading out for Pune, to do my summer internship project with a leading auto manufacturer there. Yet all I can think of is blogging :)

So I came up with a wish list.

1. Time TIVO

I sometimes wish I had the ability to time travel. I wouldnt necessarily go back in time and make some changes to my life... or travel forward and act in a more apt path. I'd relive the moments that I really want to have relived - the proud look on my dad's face as he dropped me off at B-School, the shocked look on my roomie's face when she discovered what I was really about (hehe...), the first time I met a lot of ppl on campus (no names here...), the all-niters with Tapu and the Guitar, Agra, Jaipur, McLeodganj, Chakravyuh, SP Jain... u get the drift. I'd erase those moments I never want to have lived - 1st night of PDP, a losing a dear friend to the Mumbai Attacks, watching some ghory images on TV. I would never hope to play God... not that I really believe in the whole concept, but I think it's pure headache if u try changing something in time. I'd rather... edit it for my own viewing purposes - not change time itself, just archive it a lot smarter. I'd remember the ppl I want to remember, and just "tape over" the bits that I never particularly liked. In short, I'd like a Time TIVO.

2. Omniscience (actually even 2 places works well with me...)

For more than one reason I think it makes absolute sense to be in 2 places at once - Tennis with yourself, "personalised" communication, NEVER missing an important moment in life. But why I REALLY want to do is to give my dual personality (which many of u wud be aware with) a chance to flourish... to be able to live a wild life full of uncertainty and enjoy the fun that it entails on one hand, and have a sane stable life on the other.
Besides it never hurt ne1 to know what the prof in the other room is planning in the exam hall. And it would be LOVELY to play pranks on ppl too... ;)

3. Superman for a day (Superwoman actually... but I'm enhancing the brand value here...)

This is just to fly around with no harnesses n all. Minus the underwear outside pls... my fashion sense IS a little better than that.

Plus, I can do some good work in my free time as well. :D

4. Meet an Alien

Many ppl I kno call me an Alien (read Tapu and DVD...) So just out of curiosity I wanna meet the real set of green little guys and run a little comparitive analysis. I'd also say Hi to ET. And Jaadu. And probably be joined in my quest by my good friend Raj.

5. Learn to Hack.

Not to become a white hat or nething... tht's just pure sad - knowing to hack n NOT hacking. 

I wanna learn to hack to become Robin Hood of the Internet world - Steal from the foolish and distribute to the smarties. I'd end up stealing LOADS from poor Tammy, but end up giving so much to her boyfriend that it'd even out there. But I dont think the same can be said of some other ppl...

Book Review

Recently, I received time off, courtesy PComm. While most of my time went in movie watching and phone calling, I used some time to read as well. And I did happen to come across one very interesting book.

Eoin Colfer created a BRILLIANT 12 year old mastermind by the name of Artemis Fowl. It's a whole series of books that I think not many ppl would like to claim they grew up on. It's very easy reading, and I think it's meant for an age group much lower than my own. But it was, undoubtedly, very interesting to read. 
The first book in this series primarily introduces characters - Artemis, his loyal butler Butler, his mother, the fairy Captain Holly Short, Commander Root and a host of other equally inventive characters. 

As characters, our protagonist stands out as the most well written character by a long shot. A 12 year old genius, with a rich father and a sick mother make him a very well sketched character. As also, he is without a doubt a criminal mastermind that a lot of ppl would not like to have their lives intertwined with; one that u could almost loathe. But the way the young boy pulls off a very interesting heist, is amazing - makes u sympathise with his genius mind, makes u feel for the boy.

Butler, his loyal aide, is more than just a manservant - he's a friend, almost a father to Artemis. Described in the book as a bulky man, I can onli imagine wat Artemis would've done to land Butler as a butler.

Captain Short, I think, will turn out to be a character to watch out for in many other books. She comes across as a headstrong fairy (yes, fairy, the ones that fly, the ones that steal teeth from under our pillows...) who is struggling to achieve something in life. The book mentions that she becomes involved with investigations relating to Fowl in future, but I sense a more long lasting bond between Fowl and Short.

Commander Root is ur average bully - likes to get his way, tries to prove his point.

What struck me most in this book, was not the characters or the story or the build up - it was the ease with which it was written. Science Fiction has been made a very complicated genre to write, read and comprehend. But the way Mr. Colfer writes this book even a 12 year old can relate to the boy genius, and understand the Law of the People. Apart from being a superb story teller, Eoin (pronounced Owen I think) Colfer writes a book that I would like to stay addicted to.

P.S. This is not the typical critique I do for a book. I'm not spending time analysing the characters, or the plot. It isnt even a book that I would write a review on. But if u can read this book, and NOT hunt for part 2 of it, I'd be more than surprised - which is what called for a review.

Chao buddies..

Ghazi ventures - Part 1 of many to come...

One of our most eventful nites and I couldn't help but pen it down.

It started around 8 30, with us hurrying to East Delhi in AP's car to drop off some clothes at Kajal's friends'. Post that, we drove, thru HEAVY traffic to Noida, to pick up Shrey. We decided to stop midway for dinner, since we souls from college hadn't found time to feed our groaning tummies. Special mention shall be made of the AWESOME Gobhi Paratha, that I myself consumed a huge chunk of. We were on our way back, and Avi's call patched thru to Kaj. The usual 'aww you can come meet me' requests followed. We lissened. Quietly. Then acted.. :D

A U-turn from halfway to college, we decided to head back into Delhi, to meet Avi at IIT-Delhi. Mind you, it was already way past 11 30 or so, so we were wayyy past deadline in college. Nonetheless, we reached her campus, battling heavy traffic and trucks and barricades along the way, to end up below her building; only to find her utterly shocked that we had turned up at her doorstep. After a minute of 'Oh My God!!s, it sank in that we were really at her place, and that she really had to show us around. As you wud already kno, any IIT campus, is not really nutshell sized. So she began with a tour of the most interesting place – the Nescafe; the lifeline of every residential college. The nite wore on wid a few teas, coffees and some verrry uncrackable PJs.. special mention to be made of the Little Johnny jokes.. .;)

Somewhere about now, Avi gets a brainwave that we can get on to her rooftop, and chill there NOISELESSLY. We agree; she assumes we agree to the silence clause as well. So we land up on her rooftop, not all that well dressed for the slight chill that was already creeping into the nite. Somewhere between the Nescafe and the rooftop, Kaj had her own adventreu, that I consider too personal to pen down.

Part 1 of our adventure begins here. A couple of minutes on the roof, and 2 surly looking guards corner us on the roof and forced us downstairs. One bloke was so thick, he wasn't even willing to listen that Avi in fact LIVED in the same building. Another bandha, whom I will refer to as good bandha, at least heard our part of the story out – that we weren't drunk, we weren't up to no good (definition of good in UP and Delhi is so GOOD…), and that we in fact had no idea that the rooftop was out of bounds to us. Bloke 1 still refuses to hear us out, and Shrey and AP, our gallant heroes, rush to our rescue and swoop down on him. They cornered him, literally… (the term I wud use here is kopche mein le gaye…)and tried to get our version of the story across. For some reason the bloke, who apparently was a new entrant in the security division, had obviously never seen Avi before, and was just trying to harass her. Our knights in shining armor have made all readiness to bribe our bloke, when good bandha intervenes and decides that its time our sweet party broke up and that we left campus. We agreed, assuming that the matter would end right there. Bloke had other plans tho… just as we were leaving, he accosted Shrek, and insisted on calling Avi's parents to lay some claim on the story. Very aware that this nite-time venture was definitely not plan of our good friends' parents' idea of an ideal holiday, Shrek tried to worm his way out of the situation. Worried that Shrek might actually BE in more trouble, our college negotiator, SAC member, Soni rushes to the spot, only to be brushed off by bloke. Worried that it's getting too late, and the matter's getting outta hand, AP rushes to assist Shrek, and is promptly shooed off. Shrek appears a few minutes later, running towards the car, with a look of relief that says "All's been sorted out..". We are later privy to his illusive tactics…

"Main aapka chota bhai hoon. Is naate se chod deejiye humein. " (Accompanied wid innocent face)

"Hum vaada karte hain aisa dobaara KABHI nahi hoga." (Innocent face attack part II. Here bloke suggests we SETTLE the matter)

"agli baar hum yahaan aayenge to aapko kaise bhoolenge… aap ke liye zaoor kuch laayenge."

Part 2 of our adventure begins almost where part 1 ends. On the way to Comesome's, which is all Kaj could think off in the dead of the nite, we somehow manage to convince Avi that all's OK, and that she is safe, her house is safe, her aatma-samman is safe. Obviously, she is far from convinced; but we had to try neway dint we ;)

A not so long journey later, we reach Nizamuddin Station, which houses Comesum, both on the platform, and in a location just outside of it. As luck would have it, we were on the side where neither outlet was, and we had to walk a distance to the station, and then could only manage to make our way to the outlet on the platform. The paranoid kids that we were, we decided to play the ideal citizens, and try buying ourselves a platform ticket. As per regulations in Delhi, no platform tickets will be sold till Nov 15th, for security reasons. The studs that we were, we decided to go neway, since we were hungry. Checkpost looms. Policeman watches 5 very carefree students glide past him.

"Accha kahaan ja rahe ho aap..??"

And if the events of the nite weren't enough, we had to explain to THIS policeman, how we hungry students from Delhi, who study in an insti in Ghaziabad, need only to eat and care nothing else about this world. He refused to admit we were students; apparently jeans and tees on a chilly nite weren't proof enough. So my ID card was left as collateral, while we were meant to traipse to the joint, eat and traipse right back as soon as we could. We literally RAN to the food joint, and ordered whatever we could get for ourselves in as little time as possible. Minutes turned to seconds, as 3 plates of wada-sambhar disappeared before my eyes. We packed a few sandwiches, eats and drinks, and left for our car.

Not knowing that our luck couldn't get any worse, we were stopped on the platform by a TC. The faces that showed on all 5 people were the same – we've have ENOUGH for the nite Sir… if we can find someplace to crash, we would. LET US GO!! He let us go, without fighting at all. After retrieving my ID card with another settlement, we headed back to the car, with the hope that our luck don't get any worse, and we find the car missing, or some other factor of luck work against us.

Satisfied that nothing else could go wrong with the nite, which was incidentally now around 4 30, we headed back into Ghaziabad. Throughout the journey, we tried hunting for some decent entertainment on the radio and were rewarded every few minutes or so with songs that we could sing (Aditi...), or ones that we could hum along. Thanks to some terrific driving by our very F2 aspirant AP, we reached college sometime before 5. The watchmen and we were both so tired, for very different reasons, and fgot to enter and announce our entry back into college.

People in the story will realise that are very many tidbits missing from the story… the ice-cream, the radio discussion, the kathi roll walla, the kababs… I chose not to mention them for 2 reasons a) they weren't all that relevant to the context of the nite and b) they dint fit into the storyline as smooth as all these other events did. However, for a reader, this is an eye-witness account of the nite that was the 18th of October.

Comments and suggestions are welcome... :)

The Bloodbath continues

The sensex takes another dip; Lehman files for bankruptcy, BoA takes over Merill Lynch... all in the course of one day. What does it really mean..?

First and foremost, I'm gonna have to keep my fingers crossed for the next year and a half that things get back in order, or I'm doomed to a jobless career. 

Secondly, and I'm genuinely sad about this, my friend the intern at Lehman, will probably be out of a summer job, and will probably have to get back in the fray like the rest of us. 

Thirdly, the Indian markets so proud that they are invincible, will realise that even true invincibles like Merill and Lehman have taken a hit, and that they had better start reacting before we any domestic trouble begins to worry us. 

Most of all, I'm worried about how much of this is gonna affect our work atmosphere in the country... does this mean pessimism all the way ..?? If yes, will this pessimism move in the same cycle that the crisis is moving in..? If not, how much more different is it gonna react..??

While these questions bother me, so does the fact that my marketing paper tomorrow needs a LOT of mugging... so I'm gonna put my nerd glasses on, and get down to finishing this book (Kotler btw is known to be one of the best in the field of anaesthesia; one dose and u wont feel pain, onli sleep)

Another post post the exams is due.. hang on till then 

The IMT XP

Hey all
It's been 4 weeks to the day that I've landed here in Ghazi, so I thot the auspicious day called for an update on the blog, that I've been promising people.

The first month here has been an altogether new experience for me. A roomie, hostel life, mess food, responsibility (tic..) is all something I've never had a full-dose exposure to. So I'll begin with a timeline explanation of my month here.

As my previous post indicates, the first week went thru with sleepless nites and numerous references to shavasan (mind u.. tht one aasan was legitimate reason to be found dozing..).One week down, I suddenly realized the 24 hour clause in the day, and with the whole day to myself and not too much to do, I took to basketball, badminton, football even. Apart from this, I've found some time to mail, chat, and even study!! (yea, the studies is a minuscule part of the schedule, courtesy onli 5 subjects this term..) A good part of the 2 weeks after that were spent in AlCom and PlaceCom interviews.. which went on into the unruly hours of he morning. The experience was a new one, especially since I've never been asked to light a candle under a fan, or connect Beethoven with a question mark. Or for that matter build a bridge out of newspaper and wrapping tape. Eventually, I made it through to the final rounds of both, and opted out of PlaceCom in favour of AlCom, and Alcom opted me out in favour of some 14 others. No hard feelings there... but would have a fun experience on that front to report as well...

My past few days have been spent quizzing, which is our own internal assessment criterion, and I've been spending considerable amounts of time cramming for quizzes (read close to 2 hours a day..) The worst part is never the questions, or the lack of answers... but the fact that someone else knew them!!! As always, there are always some geeks who are the know-it-alls who get pitiable know-not-everythings like me into a very uncomfortable corner, by scoring a cent percent on their quizzes (and whose guilt factor is so high that they almost end up on the verge of tears on hearing that they scored 4.5 and not 5!!) It doesn't help to be part of a batch where GPAs are paramount... I can onli hope that I cna convince this batch to change their attitudes a wee bit... :)

My next few days will go in quizzing, and then gearing up for the B-School events, which I plan to actively haunt. B-Plans are certainly not my forte, but then again.. wats impossible for me..??! ;)

Until the next update from Raj Nagar

Uma

iMT Ventures

Finally made it to IMT. Ghazi, as I told u before, is less than an hour from Delhi... of course, that doesnt involve the time u spend in looking for the college on a wrong road, and then backtracking.
In the sweltering heat, our registrations were done on the 22nd, and I discovered (sounded better than invented, which was my second choice) my roomie. And the fact that hostel life is, well, hostel life and not home life.
My schedule here till now has involved waking up by 5 am, for Yoga at 5 15. Then a run back to the hostel for a shower, a jog to the mess for breakfast (which I generally gulp down, as I've always managed to make it just in time for the first lecture) and a run to the academic wing for the day's first lecture. An hour long lunch break is a reprieve in the jam packed day. Mind you, I use free time at lunch to catch up on long lost friends on wonderous modes of communication (read email).
The rest of the day involves more lectures, and then the famous Personality Development Program, which runs into the wee hours of the morning (explaining y i'm awake at this insane hour typing furiously at the keyboard...). And then a re-run of the schedule with a new day.

As for the place, the campus is considerably large, and the lawns and tennis courts will at least ensure that I can stay fit (lets hope...)I have connectivity to internet, which you wud have guessed by seeing this blog update. I also have, for the record, responsibility after a fairly long time - responsibility of my room and belongings, my health, my career, and it goes without saying my fun time. I have goten my guitar here, so I will hopefully try hard to practise so that i may get a little better at it before a particular student/bandmate gets back in town n beats me at it..

As u may have guessed, the long drawn out update is since i am unable to sleep (surprise..) and I thot writing (like reading) might have some positive effect on this erratic sleep pattern, but to no avail.
Till I can sleep at nite
Ciao

Hopefully as this post comes out I will be in Ghaziabad, baking in the sun and waiting on my hostel room. I thought that since I was posting this a little in advance, I should leave some blank space where you imaginative fiends can fill in my experience on the train; but thought against it since you would do that neway ;)
Leaving work wasnt as easy as I imagined it would be; I am leaving behind friends and a culture of easy days for more friends and, from wat i hear, a lifestyle with erratic sleep patterns. Nonetheless, its a seperate kind of excitement that I will be spending majority of the next 2 years away from home.
Till ne further news, its adieu from me.