Jaipur revisited

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Technically we never entered Jaipur. The best we did was sitting at a cafeteria on the walls of Nahargarh Fort and eating evening snacks while enjoying a breathtaking view of the Pink City. I cannot recount anything better that happened on my recent term break which by the way was extra-ordinarily packed with fun.

Driving some 300 miles in a day, chatting with an old friend all the way, feeling like a child running around an old majestic fort, relaxing and hurrying intermittently - these things don't happen together often. Even going crazy in a traffic jam at midnight for some two hours was somehow fitting. What a day that was !!!

the darkness that's within

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I bought my pet bottle of coke and tried to cover the lighted area of mess as quickly as possible. It was a relief to enter the darkness. Darkness is cool. It is where I am with myself. It is where nobody knows about anything.

Some say darkness is bad. I feel otherwise. How can darkness be bad if it reduces everything to such simplicity as nothingness? When it is not dark, we witness the complex. Then to comfort ourselves we try to simplify what we witness. That is life.

Autobiography: Entry 0

My grandpa was compounder to the village doctor. My dad retired as an Assistant Engineer. I was a Manager at 25. The growth is exponential and as it is with every exponential pattern, the secret lies not at t = T but at t = o.

Around 15 Km from Patna is the village Khagaul. My dad was the eldest of eleven children from a poor family in this village. The situation obviously meant that he had to work right from a young age. Something remarkable must have happened. Dad was clear that education is important to the future of our family. I am not sure from where he got this vision of his because there was nobody around educated enough to guide him. It took some effort to convince my grandpa who himself was burdened with a dependent family of thirteen. To cut a long story short, my father worked and studied at the same time and finished a diploma in engineering. How he did it would make an inspiring biography. It was a big deal at that time. He received an immediate offer from Bihar Government for the post of Junior Engineer at PWD.

There was no looking back after that. Each of his siblings got progressively educated. It is not a surprise that the average qualification in my generation is a graduate. The more I think about it the more I tend to believe that the destiny of our family was written in one single moment. That moment was coincidently on the first day of a cold November, 70 years ago, when the first child was born to a poor family.

Happy B'day Dad :)

RDB Rocks

Strange but this pre-independence revolutionary dialogue, as depicted in Rang De Basanti, still holds ground :)

...मैं जानता हूँ आप चाहते हैं मेरी शादी हो लेकिन मेरी दुल्हन तो आज़ादी है॥

A comment on achievements

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You don't realize what you have achieved until you look into the eyes of the person, who believed that you can do it, and see in those eyes the real joy and pride of being correct. In my case there are a handful of such eyes and I believe that that is a greater achievement.

sometimes, not always :)

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जिसे भी देखिये वो अपने आप में गुम है

जुबां मिली है मगर हमज़ुबां नहीं मिलता

I am what I am ...

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I am an intelligent geek to my high school friends. I am an agreeble batchmate to my under grad pals. I am a smart resource at office. I am a dumb anti-social anomaly in my family. Among my PG group, I am the big old guy who lives in his own world. To my oldest of friends back from school days, I am the guy 'who did that and ben there.'

It's amusing but I tend to behave in different groups differently. All of us do. Isn't it strange that we live so many lives in one. Isn't it stranger that we allow ourselves to be so.

What if ?

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We sleep because we think we need to sleep. We eat when we feel hungry. We smile on a joke. We care when we feel like caring. We think we do what we do is because we want to do it. How wrong we are.

Life weaves a neat web of needs around us. We feed life to keep this web intact. It grows.

I sleep today because I have to wake up early morning tomorrow to attend classes to do well in my class to get a good job to repay my loans and to earn a living at par with my status to spend on lavish flat rent and expensive friday night parties and a flamboyant lifestyle suited for an MBA.

What if I decide not to wake up early tomorrow?

PS: This blog has no connection with any living or dead person and certainly not me.

Aliver !

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Add colours to your life !

That was one of the most remarkable advice I received in one of the mock interviews. I went on to question that remark - 'But Sir, is my resume so colourless? What about traveling as an interest? The guy smiled. He told me that I better consider how others perceive me in this regard.

True. I do not consider others in my grand plan of life. To some extent I live in a cocoon. The world is too complicated for me. Yet it feels correct to add more colours. But how? Would a wild escapade do? Or a whimsical act? Or something not ever expected from me?

What would make me more colourful, more alive?

there is some good in suspense ;)

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दायरे इनकार के, इकरार की सरगोशियाँ ।
ये अगर टूटें कभी तो फासला रह जाएगा ।

Ne...phew :)

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There is something about my nephew. I can't believe how my life has transformed since he was born. I remember his existance was an instant life-support for me at that time. I was going through the lowest phase of my life. The good omen didn't cease there and then. I can feel the turned tides everyday.

Its as if he is looking straight into my eyes and telling me - chachu, don't worry ! I won't let anyone mess up with you.

The buffer that is MBA

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There is close link between MBA and buffers. In fact this link is probably the most significant reason why an MBA is suited for middle management and not entrepreneurship. A buffer is backup. When a person receives an MBA degree, he also receives a degree of freedom. The freedom is that of choice. He / she can now choose from multiple options of job profiles and salary packages. It is the same reason why b-school grads are found to hop from one job to another in search of an ideal role. Hence a post-graduation from a good b-school it is a state of minimized risk.

One can argue that under given circumstances of reduced risk in one aspect of life, an MBA would rationally go for a riskier job profile i.e. own business. However, this is not how the real world works. Out there, individuals are pushed to the brink and it is at the edge that they learn. Those who are pushed far, fall. Those who turn the tides around are the ones we see as successful entrepreneurs. The rough figure given is 1 out of 10 in India.

Earning is not easy in a competitive market-place. It would be foolishness to assume that studying theories in class on how markets work will give us even a tiny glimpse of reality. The two key take-aways I see from MBA is the confident self and an enhanced short-term memory developed in slogging for exams after exams. This is apart from the buffer that MBA actually creates.

आराम करो आराम करो

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आराम ज़िन्दगी की कुंजी, इस से ना तपेदिक होता है
आराम सुधा की एक बूँद तन का दुबलापन खोता है
आराम शब्द में राम छिपा जो भव बंधन को खोता है
आराम शब्द का ज्ञाता तो विरला ही योगी होता है
इस लिए तुम्हे समझाता हूँ मेरे अनुभव से काम करो
ये जीवन यौवन क्षणभंगुर आराम करो आराम करो

--

गोपाल प्रसाद व्यास

'Sir. How did I fare in my mid term exams?'

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Just when I was tending to achieve pareto suboptimal (a state from where improvement is impossible .. or something like it :) in my BGS paper the idea clicked. What would different course teachers respond to a single question say 'How did I fare in my mid term exams?' And the answers were so amusing that I laughed in the middle of paper.

Question

'Sir. How did I fare in my mid term exams?'

Answers

Business,Govt & Society: Let's see what Milton Friedman has to say about this.

Quantitative Methods: The answer to your question is a joint probability distribution of two discrete random variables which looks like Poisson. In short you are screwed.

Financial Accounting: Your marks are so bad, you better write it off as bad debt.

Managing Organizations: You marks are telling me that your pooled dependency with fellow students is very low.

Micro Eco: Its a diminishing marginal quantity since your first test. You better avoid inki pinki ponki on objective questions.

Managerial Communications: Boy !! There was no mid term exam in my course.

the dilemma of non-participant

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In any given class, there are approximately 20% students who participate. Among these Ps, half are active in all the classes (call them APs) while the rest half change with the interest of subject. The rest 80% of the class comprise of active non-participants (ANPs) in the sense that they choose not to participate.

Two questions arise. How does it matter and to whom? Some basic thoughts would say that the group misses on the contribution of an ANP and the ANP loses vital opportunities of putting forward his / her thoughts in a structured way. These, however, are concerns that come later and are related to individual or the group he /she belongs to. The more important concern is how to use the potential of an ANP in the best possible way. In a class, it may be a trivial matter but in corporates, it is essential to strive to bring the best of ALL employees .

It has intrigued me frequently as to why an organization designs itself to push only the APs who are any way ready to take initiatives. My experience says that they would anyway find ways to contribute. The real goldmine is the majority who sit on their desk and wait to be told what to be done. Pushing them into active participation would be more productive according to me.

and then i laughed

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As I entered the campus, I felt big. Why today? I have no idea but I felt big. I just moved through the green surroundings towards Admin Block. Suddenly there came an urge to explore the Insti. I walked to a remote corner from where I could see the series of pillars supporting a ceiling which was covered with creepers. At that moment I realized that the grey structure was sending strange cold vibes. It made me feel lonely. Deserted. I started looking for someone. Anyone. Computer Centre was nearby. There must be a few people down there. I took the stairs. As I entered, a cute looking girl looked at me and gave a smile. Whoa! That never happened to me before. Well, not never but the timing here was immaculate. Suddenly I started feeling a lot better. Girls should smile. I came out. It was raining in sunshine. I walked out into the rain. It was one of those mild drizzles that leave me with goosebumps. I love rain. It rains everyday in Bangalore. I love Bangalore. Suddenly I realized the chain of thoughts from feeling big to lonely to exuberent. I laughed. I laughed like a child and it started raining harder. I was wet and life was as beautiful as ever.

thirteen days on wheel

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Delhi > Jaipur > Udaipur > Ahmedabad > Mumbai > Davangere > Bangalore

It all started on 8th of June. I began my long drive from Delhi to Bangalore on dear Walle (my little zen estilo). A total of 2000 miles was to be covered in 13 days. I remember different people reacting differently to this supposedly crazy idea but the one I found most amusing was what Sabiha said :) "PK drive kar ke Bangalore jaa rahaa hai". Both of us laughed on that comment but that seems to be a different era.

There is so much to tell about this journey and so much to share from my experience that one blog is insufficient. However I would recount one - the last one. At the closing stage of this journey, I was crossing Chitradurga, some 130 miles from Bangalore. I realized that there is an ancient fort at the top of the city. I drove my car, walked my way and found myself at the top of this fort. The view was simply surreal. On one side I could see the ruins of palatial complex. On the other side, there was this huge farm of windmills visible for miles. It was as if with a 180 degree turn, I could move from 500 BC to 2500 AD.

That was the last of memories that I collected before entering the realms of a city that has found itself a place even in English dictionary.

जो बीत गई सो बात गई

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जीवन में मधु का प्याला था
तुमने तन मन दे डाला था
वो टूट गया तो टूट गया
मदिरालय का आँगन देखो
कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं
गिर मिटटी में मिल जाते हैं
जो गिरते हैं कब उठते हैं
पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर
कब मदिरालय पछताता है

-बच्चन

A tribute to Master

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be"
- Andrew Symonds wrote on an aussie t-shirt he autographed specially for Sachin.
"Tuzhe pata hai tune kiska catch chhoda hai?"
- Wasim Akram to Abdul Razzaq when the latter dropped Sachin's catch in 2003 WC.
"We did not lose to a team called India...we lost to a man called Sachin."
- Mark Taylor, during the test match in Chennai (1997)
He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also.
- Waqar Younis
'I Will See God When I Die But Till Then I Will See Sachin'
- A banner in Sharjah
To get his wicket better not prepare. Atleast u wont regret if he hits you for boundaries.
- Allan Donald
On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!!
- Peter Rebouck - Aussie journalist
"I have seen god, he bats at no.4 for India"
- Mathew Hayden
"He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive"

- Daniel Vettori

A journey to remember :)

12 days. 1500 miles. Me and my car. A whole list of places to visit en route. Sounds travelfreakish :)

Right now Sid is driving the car and we are heading towards Ahmedabad. That would complete the first leg of this odyssey.

We were at Monsoon Palace yesterday and pampered ourselves with chocolale brownies. Actually it was much more than brownies - in front of us was the royal palace; on the left was an engrossing view of Udaipur; on the right the sun was dying behind a blue range of mountains. Of the four I can't decide which was keeping us more occupied.

Today's morning was spend appreciating the intricate marble work @ Ranakpur Jain Temple. It's 90 km from Udaipur through a tortuous but smooth road mostly into hills. The temple is a wonder in itself. Pillars after pillars are carved with deftness - 1440 in all. Domes have radial symmetry - each with a different design so complex that Sid caught me looking at them with mouth agape.

Udaipur leaves me mesmerized. All I can say that there wouldn't have been a better place to begin with.