2009: A lifechanging year

January

• It began with quite a nightmare, 31st night itself finding myself rushing to the hospital at 5:00 am with a friend frothing from his mouth after an accident. Hours in the hospital and leaving without any good news.
• On a brighter note after quitting IBM had lots of time on hand, and had met a number of ppl from ISB and it began. A series of meetings week after week - house parties, scrabble, lots of drinking, coffee, movies and dinners. A house party at my place with bonfire and lots of alcohol, whole lots of fun.
• A trip to Amritsar, wagah border and bhatinda - Kari, dolphy, tashan and I. Lots of good food, train rides and reminiscing college days.

February

• The saga of ISB meets continue, the gang - Sushant, sangram, sree, kat, aarti, fluffy, dolphy, kari and I.
• A trip with the ISB gang to Rishikesh - fire by the river, good music n a few drinks. A day full of rafting, ending with a photoshoot of us modeling for the camp!
• Guttu's wedding - 3 days of B52's Sambuka's and black label. Meeting whole lots of ppl, dancing and having a blast!
• The IIM experience - Dad, Rahul maus & I suited up to go to IIMs to recruit! I gave the presentation, accepted applications, shortlisted candidates, and interviewed them. Boy at the end was i glad that i did not go to IIM I (not that i got through!) .. Very disappointed with the quality of students, did not pick anyone.
• Goa in style - with the opening of the hotels in Goa, boy was it lavish!

March

• MDI - After the IIM fiasco, I thought of going to MDI to recruit. Spoke to someone at the football field while playing and got me a slot. Repeated the routine, but this time did pick one guy.
• It was finally time. Our US trip. Dolphy & I packed our bags and we were off to the states! It started with quite a disaster. After an 18 hr flight, we finally land in New Jersey and took a shady cab to jha's place, went quickly to see newport and back on the tube towards the airport to board the flight to Costa Rica. American Airlines took off from JFK only to make an emergency landing back at JFK because they couldnt retract the landing gear! Thus began a never ending wait for the next flight in a queue served by this bugging black .. oops.. african american guy! Finally our flight takes for miami (we had a connecting) but by the time we landed, our connecting flight to costa rica had left. Again in a line, got ourselves some coupons for accomodation at a nearby holiday inn. After sleeping for a few hours (slept an hr less coz daylight saving changed that day but the clocks said the same time, i really wonder how these guys manage!) again back to the airport. A couple of hours flight to Costa Rica, finally after almost 72 very long hours, most of which were spent on the airport or a plane, we reached our destination!
• Costa Rica (8th March - 13th march) - Meet Ashish's cousins Manan and Ranjana. Almost saw a live volcano (the bloody guides pointed and said its there, all i could see was fog!), went to hot water springs, ate tons of beans and rice, lots of beer (forgetting the name!), swim in the pacific ocean, boat ride to a desolated beach, caught a fish, stayed at a locals home in san jose. (Pics)
• Miami (13th - 16th March) - Miami spring time with college friends. Wat do you do the first night - yea strip club! Bandar volunteered not to drink and was driving, lots of alcohol later most of us were thrown out :) wont divulge more details here! An awesome drive to keywest the next day, hitting the beach next day, and a major culture shock at 'The Mansion' A nightclub in miami. (Pics)
• Orlando (17th - 19th March) - Chilled for a day then 2 days of universal studios and tons of exciting rides, only let down was that i couldnt do skydiving :(.
• NY - Atlantic City - Boston - Philly - NY (19th - 29th March): Times Square, a singles party at a club opening, a night of gambling from - $150 to + $300 to + $50, Harvard, Columbia University, west village, Statue of liberty, Rocky steps, Empire state building, hot dogs!, NBA game, wharton 52 disco inferno (painting my hair red!). (Pics)

April

• A rushed one week before joining ISB, lots of work to wrap up!
• Time to pack my bags, a last night with the boys and off I go to B school ..
• Settled into school, a hectic O Week - treasure hunt, first case study (krishna's dilemma), talent night - emotional atyachaar & love mera hit hit, football, cricket (ghungralu baal!)
• Pre terms - Accounts, still struggling with that subject

May

• A number of ISB lounge parties, ending up at 8 am followed by breakfast at goel/ista/ell, lot of new ppl, friends and weird asses.
• Sushant & I regularly went to library to do our assignments and pre reads, only to realize we stand no where after the first mid terms, never went back :)
• Campus elections - stood for the president of Real estate club, but lost. Cant blame a guy for trying ..

June

• More long nights of assignments, drinking, sports, more assignments and exams!
• Came back home in the first term break to meet up with the gang before they left for their B schools.
• Birthday night was treated by my friends at sports bar, but that wasnt the end, the birth-day was extended to a birth-weekend. It was a blast!

July

• Term breakTrip to Mumbai to meet her, lived at ritesh's place and spent some really nice evenings with her watching a movie, taking the local, eating awesome food, a night at HRC, morning breakfast, n drinking
• Rest of ISB seems like a blurr - more assignments I guess!

August

• Again seems like a blurr, like night after night it was this race against time with so much to do and so little time.
• Started the league - ISB Football League, the wild greens, the golden rays, the blazing reds, the lightening blacks and the icy blues!

September

• Went to Humpi in the term break with a gang of 20 ppl, didnt really see any ruins, just ate drank, played poker and slept - perfect :)

October

• Diwali on campus! played lots of cards, dressed up for diwali, did pooja at DK's place and ofcourse enjoyed a few drinks!
• End of core terms, fate was sealed, couldnt do much about the CGPA any more.
• Bandar came over on probably one of the most boring weekends on campus!

November

• Goa again! this time with the entire ISB gang! 9 bar, Curlys, Mandolin, brito's, Mykonos Blue and ofcourse 'do your own thing' the infamous quote of suzi.

December

• International placements begin on campus with a few bagging a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
• Solstice - kari and dolphy came over and 72 hours of non stop drinking and fun began! I still dnt know how kari managed to take his flight back! A good prank pulled on me by the SLC, and ofcourse one jerk was there at the end of the party to irritate 30 of us but surprise surprise not a single punch was exchanged
• New years - Threw a party at the new house, ended up at 7 am, was a blast!

What a week !

Phew .. Beginning of last week I did expect this week to be quite eventful, but even then I underestimated its impact.

Monday: Dumped!

Tuesday & Wednesday: 2 sleepless nights of assignments.

Thursday: Kari popped over on campus, Porn Prank on me .. a night of drinking at the Pauls

Friday: Dolphin came over too, the Gurgaon trio came together for a long night of partying @ Solstice! (Kari was sloshed :) ) .. O Ver Das killed it!

Saturday: After surfacing late in the afternoon, an evening of drinking with awesome rock music by Conjoint and a scintillating performance by Raghu Dixit! Another night of dancing :) .. PS: Fatty got engaged.

Sunday Morning: An hr long episode with a cocky guy on campus, and 30 ppl trying their best to resist the temptation of beating the crap out of the guy.

Sunday Evening: Flight to delhi, a beer at Howzzat with colg buddies and a long night of assignments

Monday: Bank, Offices, deals, meetings ... back to Hyd in the evening

I wonder what else is in store before this year comes to an end ..

Stars Theory

This theory came out during one of the Lounge of 'o8 parties at ISB, and expectedly I was drunk when it was made. But when I actually remembered the theory the next morning I was actually impressed as it was actually damn cool. It goes like this ..

When one looks up at the sky on a clear night, what does one see? The stars shining bright across the sky. What did you miss? The obvious .. All the dark space in between the stars. Its very natural to look out for the stars in the sky and your line of sight hops from one star to the other. Now, these stars represent all the big names in the corporate world The BCG's, Mckinseys, ITC's, Blackstone etc where every MBA aspires to reach. Amidst all the focus on these stars he forgets the space in between and more importantly forgets his own ability .. his own light. If only once one can see the darkness in between and realize that he does not have to reach those stars but rather has the capability of giving birth to a new star. One can make a mark for himself and not run after all the jobs. Especially students at ISB who do have the talent and skill to give birth to a new star.

For once, just look up to see the darkness and visualize the birth of a star. Thats all.

BOOM !

Loud enuff blasts have rung thru several cities in the last few months - Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur... Are we deaf, or do we just roll over n put it on snooze thinking i will wake up the next time it rings ?

I know a lot has been written, spoken, read and heard in the media. Frankly, I dont follow politics as much to understand half the things .. But chucking aside whether India should look Nuke out those bastards from Pakistan or the leaders resign. I dnt believe in the top down approach, as in ofcourse the leaders have a lot of influence over such happenings, but what hits me first always is what is the picture on the ground, what is it that we can do differently to make India a better n safer place to live?

Now b4 u start thinking that this is another blog to form a forum or light candles, then stop! I aint suggesting any of that. Frankly i am not suggesting something that is ground breaking. What i feel amiss here is that ppl dnt take a city or a country here as one community (not gng into regionalism or religion). For ex, ppl dnt consider Delhi as their own city. For most ppl, their lives is limited, like in a silo - restricted to their ofc, car or home. Walled. Noone looks beyond that. Its surprising when ppl open their window of a BMW and throw an empty packet of chips on the road ?! I just dnt get it. Why ppl bribe the cops for a jumping a red light, dont you think you did something wrong thr? Why ppl dnt give their seat to an elderly lady standing in a bus?

Another example i find baffling is, when the metro stops .. everyone looks to exit and enter the metro at the same time ! y cant u stop for 10 secs let the ppl come out first and then enter !! Its these small things, wat i term as 'social consciousness' is something that is abso-bloody-lutely absent. I know there are plenty of ppl who fight for their daily survival, so dnt expect them to be socially conscious , but there so many other well educated and aptly well off ppl and even they dont realize it !!

Its these small things that makes you conscious of your surroundings and you accept it as part of your living and thats when you start taking care of it. Then probably one wouldnt sell a mobile SIM card without proper proof or wudnt give an aptt on rent without checking all credentials. Call the police without reluctance when one sees something fishy.

Moreover, hopefully next time apologize and give a smile when one bumps into someone accidentally rather than giving a scorn and walking off.

My lil dream world ..

This was one evening in hostel in the final yr. Vicky had just got his placement, and we were all celebrating the occassion, sitting outside kari's room n drinking silly. It was vicky, kari, birla, shady, n me. As always one topic came up where we all had a strong point to put forward ..

Me: " Life has got more stuff than just being in a job man .. I mean one definitely needs to do a job but then should not loose focus on other things that he or she loves doing."
Vicky: "its all a bloody rat race, you just keep getting sucked into the system, slowly n steadily even b4 u realize, you have lost touch of all those things that you thot u wud do in life"
Me: " Na, i beg to differ ! i think one definitely can go ahead n manage things, and always still pursue his dreams hobbies .. watever makes him happy"
Vicky: " Its easier said then done. You are saying this coz u aint part of the system yet."

Its been 3 years since that discussion.

Now i look back at myself, all naive and living in this dreamworld of doing wat not with life. Dont get me wrong, i love my life and am enjoying every bit of it. I still manage to do everything i feel like .. as dolphin puts it, i live in my own dream world. But frankly, i say wats wrong with living in one, i end up staying happy and not get bogged down by realities.

Now, most probably i wud be doing my mba next yr. Now a course like that has tremendous potential to get one right in the center of the rat race, more salaries, quicker life with all the ringin blackberry's and flying across to attend x number of meetings across the globe. Life shifts gears, and the dreams then just seem like dreams.

But here again, i think there is a lot more to it then just that. Its upto one to pick his battles and resist to lead one's own life. Dont get me wrong, i am not saying i dnt want success or specifically professional success. But that's just a part of the big picture, there is so much more .. As someone wrote 'Be more than what you do' .. I think here the 'more' is defined by the way you lead your life.

I'll give my view again on my lil dream world 3 yrs hence to see whether reality caught up with me or not ..

Return

I have been away for a long time, more than a yr as someone pointed out! U'll be hearing a lot more often from me ..

Wall Paintings!

The pictures you see on the right are wall paintings made by my bro n me (primarily by the former :))

They are life sized and made by hand!! I'll explain the method used and you can use it to create own masterpiece. If you think you need great artistic talents to pull this off, then you are wrong. Trust me if i could do it, then so can you! :)

The process:

1. Take a black and white printout of the image that you want to paint on a transparent A4 plastic sheet. (The one we guys used in between our BTech Project reports.)

2. Choose an appropriate wall where you want to paint it.

3. Use anything u can get from which you can hang (or make it stand) the picture at a resonable height (waist high would be fine) at a distance of about 3 feet from the wall.

4. Take a bulb and put in a box (a shoe box would do fine.) Make a small hole at one end of the box through which you can get a point light.

5. Darken the room and place the light behind the picture so that you get its image on the wall!

6. Use a pencil and outline the picture.

7. Remove the whole apparatus and now colour it up!!


Here I have showed a couple of drawings I have done, as i make more I'll upload their pictures here!

If anyone does follow these steps or has any improvements then please mention it in the comments

Enjoy !

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The poem game ..

Its this game I played once with a friend of mine. The rules are pretty simple and the result is quite colorful. All you have to do is write a poem; you write one line then the other person writes the next line and so on.. So the next time you are getting bored in office use gtalk to get poetic!

Here is our result,(All good lines and big words are hers :))

~~~~~~~~~ The Rising ~~~~~~~~~

In horrors of darkness, bright sunlight evades,
Bursting through the cracks darkness prevails,
The abyss of emotion this journey creates,
Trying to fill the void, but alas! Darkness darkens and doesn't vacate.

Lost in translation, fear engulfs,
Transcending through time, like empty skulls,
A feeling so pristine, nothing but, visceral,
Hoping with belief for life's a sabbatical.

From chthonic depths, rises the soul,
Beyond reason it searches for thee, thy light is what brings darkness to heel,
The powerful beauty unleashed on the world to feel,
It cleanses the aura making nefarious forces kneel!

Learning's of life, from darkness to light, is god's way,
Awakening the dormant spirit, from a world so grey,
Comes from within, it's the mind that's got to slay,
For a beautiful life, we have to live each day!