A D Pandit

Goals and Abilities

2011-11-16T20:06:00.007+05:30

Random banter here

Most of our lives are not very eventful and have a fixed routine depending on the phase of life we are in. However that does not mean we cannot learn something from our daily lives (refer my previous post on my thoughts on routine). I try to take away something from the daily events in my life, put it into the form of a short thought, many times my original, sometimes borrowed, and send it to people in office, who have subscribed to my mails, in a daily ‘Good Morning’ mail after coming to office the next day.

Yesterday however, was different. I could not extract a single lesson out of my life yesterday. As a result, I had nothing original to share. On these occasions I try to share something I might have read or heard somewhere else. That’s exactly what I did today.

We all come across people who complain about how their jobs are either not challenging enough or too difficult to perform with their current skill set. At some point of time we all have been this person too. Continue this situation long enough and you’ll find your company’s HR department struggling to control attrition rate. That brings us to my today’s mail.

Content related to the topic starts here

During my engineering, in 2004, I attended a workshop on entrepreneurship conducted by MITCON. I shared the thought of one of the instructors in the workshop. It dealt with the topic of a person’s skills & abilities and the kind of goals he sets and the challenges he needs to face. Here’s what he said, if I remember correctly:

“The goals you set for you are like a magnet and your abilities are like iron filings. Consider the tension between the goals and abilities like a magnetic force. If you set your goals higher than your abilities, you automatically will lift yourselves up in striving to achieve that goal thereby improving your skills. Set your goals below your abilities to see a steady decay in your abilities. However, just like magnetic force, the pull here decreases with increasing distance. Set your goals too high for your abilities and you’ll give up without even trying since it is too difficult for you.”

I feel this is a very nice way of explaining the importance of proper goal setting and keeping yourself engaged in the task at hand avoiding the setting in of frustration or boredom. This reminds me of an image a friend had shared. After a brief googling, I found the image that graphically conveys what our instructor in that workshop was trying to say.

(Original Image Source: http://agamesdesignblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/flowexpanded2.png)

You might want to read the entire post where this image appears, ‘Flow – Stating the Obvious’. Though it talks about game design, I believe the takeaways are generic enough to be applied in day to day motivation. Also, the Wikipedia page on Flow makes for an interesting read. Happy reading.

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Routine

2011-11-04T10:12:00.000+05:30

A lot of us always complain about routine. How a routine, 9 to 5, job sucks. How we are doing the same thing over and over again without any excitement. I agree that there are times when we need something different. Change, in fact, is a necessity of life as without it, stagnation and lethargy kicks in. However, a routine does have its advantages too.

A few months ago I was having a discussion with a friend who was upset with her routine and was getting bored. I'm sharing a text that I had sent her that day. Would love to hear your views:

"Routine is not boring. Routine is what makes the deviations exciting. Routine is what implies stability in life. Routine tells you that you have a reason to get up at the same time every morning.

Strictly from an operational point of view, routine is actually a desirable thing. Routine is what helps standardization, development of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and setting in of learning curve. Routine is what helps in planning and forecasting.

Our routine, how much we deviate from it and how do we react to the exceptions is what defines the kind of person we are. No, routine is not boring."

Do think about this the next time you curse your 'routine' job. :)

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Aarakshan: A Review

2011-08-19T13:36:00.003+05:30

I generally don’t write movie reviews primarily because I don’t watch a lot of movies and even when I do, I generally don’t feel strongly about them. Aarakshan was different though. A lot of people were not able to see how the movie is related to reservations and feel that the title is misleading and controversial. I feel otherwise and thus, instead of explaining individually to each and every one, I decided to come up with post. Those who haven’t watched the movie can also read on as I’ll point out when the spoilers come in.

It was Saturday evening; a friend and I were killing time on F C Road. We wanted to watch a movie but she had already watched Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and I had watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The only other option which we felt worth watching was Aarakshan. Coming from Prakash Jha’s stable I knew it will be a good watch, may be not entertaining, but definitely meaningful. So we went to Inox and bought two tickets at 250 bucks each. “At that price, the movie better be good!” we said to each other. Good it was, but not worth 250 bucks I’d say.

The Plot

The movie is set in 2008, the year Supreme Court’s landmark judgment on 27% OBC quota in institutes of higher learning came out thus making the total cast based reservations close to 50%. It tries to explore the need and after effects of reservations from the point of view of both parts of the society, the reserved category and the open competition one. It tries to show how the end result of reservations is actually the opposite of what was envisioned initially. In the end, the movie presents a possible solution to the root cause of the problem of social discrimination.

The Cast

Dr Prabhakar Anand played by Amitabh Bachchan is the protagonist of the movie. He is the principal of STM, a prestigious private institute of higher learning, getting into which is every school kid’s dream. The whole movie, in a sense, revolves around his efforts to bring about social equality, educational reforms and his struggle with the system while defending his ideals.

Prof Mithilesh Singh played by Manoj Bajpai is the nemesis of Dr Anand. If Dr Anand symbolizes the nobility of teaching as a profession, Prof Singh is the epitome of hardcore business that education has become.

Deepak Kumar played by Saif Ali Khan is a brilliant researcher belonging to the backward class who has risen despite his background with the help of Dr Anand. He represents the strata of society that has potential but is backward for lack of opportunity.

Poorbi Anand played by Deepika Padukone is Dr Anand’s daughter and Deepak’s love interest.

Apart from these main characters, there are a host of other supporting characters who play their roles in bringing out the story but their details are not relevant.

The Performances

Manoj Bajpai takes the cake for an action packed performance and doing complete justice to the character of Prof Singh who is cunning and well networked individual serving his personal interests and leaves no stone unturned to bring down Dr Anand. In the end, his arrogance becomes his undoing.

It seems that Amitabh Bachchan is the Sachin Tendulkar of Bollywood. Criticizing his performance is no less than a sin. He has played his part well, but of late, I feel his style is the same irrespective of the character he is playing. If I have to draw a parallel, his role in Mohabbatein would be a good reference.

Saif Ali Khan has only brief bouts of parts in the movie, but an important role nonetheless.

Deepika Padukone is only there for eye candy and has no substantial part to play.

The Verdict

The movie is definitely a one-time watch, if not a collectible. I personally liked it because the solutions presented, which I’ll come to in a while, resonate with my beliefs also.

The Positives: Mature handling of a sensitive topic, the performances and the factual depiction of our society.

The Negatives: Unnecessary complications and dragging the story in the second half.

Rating: 3.5/5

My Take on the Movie [Attention: Contains Spoilers. If you haven’t watched the movie yet and plan to, go watch it first before reading further]

Disclaimer: The views presented here are entirely my personal. I’ll try to be as objective here as I can be but I’m not sure if I’ll be successful as at one point or other in our lives we all have come face to face with the undeniable reality or reservations. Thus, there may be some parts where my personal biases come in and if they do, I apologize upfront.

The opening scene of the movie was not convincing at all. No interview in the world begins and ends with just the questions on the candidate’s family background, read caste, being asked. On the other hand, no interviewee, however harassed, will, in his right mind, not talk to his interviewer with the arrogance that Deepak displayed. Some of Deepak Kumar’s arguments are also not convincing. He talks as if the hundreds of years of oppression, the reason cited for reservations, were personally borne by him.

Some of the dialogues, like, “Aap yahaan kyu apni life kharab kar rahe hain? Kisi govt college main jaiye, sarkaar khiarat main naukriyan baant rahi hai aap logon ko.”, “50% bhi kyu chodte ho? 100% hi rakh lo na tum log.” and “Aarakshan hamara janmsiddha adhikaar hai!”, I have witnessed in real life conversations too.

The movie very well articulates how caste based reservations have actually led to social discord and promoting mediocrity while the original aim was equality, social justice and provide a chance for the backward classes to come at par with others.

I cannot forget an instance in my engineering hostel when we were preparing for GATE, the entrance exam for an M.Tech. from the prestigious IITs. While we were slogging for getting a good score worthy of an admission call, another friend, from the reserved category commented, “Mujhe itna padhne ki zaroorat nahi hai. Mera reservation hai to 70% pe bhi seat mil jayegi mujhe.”

There’s another instance from my HSBC days. HSBC, being a private employer, is not legally obliged for affirmative action. We had just joined and one of my colleagues commented on another, who belonged to one of the reserved castes, “Tum log open competition main kyu aate ho. Govt job main jaana tha na, wo to bani hi tumhare liye hain.”

This concludes two things:

The objective of social equity is not being met as reservations have ended up promoting animosity between the reserved and open categories. This is portrayed as the hostility between Sushant Seth and Deepak Kumar.

The objective of bringing the backward classes at par as also not being met as people from these classes take reservations as a right and thus do not see the need to compete, thereby promoting mediocrity. As a corollary, a genuinely deserving candidate, who would have risen on his abilities and not reservation is also looked down upon, a situation aptly displayed by the comments hurled at Deepak Kumar.

The movie goes beyond these direct effects and touches the other indirect aspects of reservations too. Some of these are:

The increased competition for the open seats resulting in genuinely deserving candidates losing out on seats. This is depicted at different points in the movie, be it Sushant losing out his seat for Mass Communication, Poorbi not getting a medical seat and the Upadhyay guy (forgot his name) losing out on an engineering seat. This part hits a raw nerve as we all have been there seen that during our admissions. We have all been denied seats of our choice because we were not good enough to make it in the merit list. That does not hurt much. What hurts is that someone else will study on that seat with 20-25% lesser marks than you, just because he happened to be born in a particular caste. And he’s not even serious about it as he didn’t really have to struggle for it.

Not just losing out on seats due to reservations, Mr Upadhyay represents something more. He represents the irony in the system. Here we have a person from an equally economically disadvantaged section of the society. He is deserving too, his marks speak for him. But he is driven to suicide because he loses out his seat when a reserved category candidate competes in the open category even when reserved seats are empty. When he does get an admission, his scholarship application is rejected because he is from a higher caste. No one bothers to see his difficulties.

The vote bank politics is very clear and I don’t even need to elaborate on it.

Though too convoluted, the movie also explores the aspect of how reservations, though indirectly, could be responsible for the commercialization of education, which is considered a noble profession in a country where gurus are given preference over gods!

The first part of the movie brings out all these problems in the backdrop of the 27% OBC quota approved the Supreme Court of India. The second part, which a lot of people feel, is just about the clashes between Dr Anand’s free ‘Tabela Coaching’ and Prof Singh’s elite KK Coaching, to me, presents the solution by addressing the root of the problem: Education.

People who know me well would know how I believe that access to quality basic education is the only way to end our nation’s problems, be it poverty, corruption, skewed sex ratio etc. If you want reservations, implement it in primary schools where the pressure is not so high, though this is changing fast too, and the seeds of discrimination have not yet been ingrained in the children’s minds through social conditioning. Do not reserve seats in institutes of higher learning and jobs. Prepare the so called backward classes for open competition instead.

Hire the best of teachers and pay them well so that teaching becomes a preferred profession and not the last resort for people who could not do anything else in their lives. I don’t mean to denigrate the profession here. I’ve been lucky to have been taught by some very good teachers but they were into the profession not because of the money, but because they love to teach and they have enough money already. On the contrary, I’ve also known people who would have made brilliant teachers but did not pursue it as a profession as it was economically unviable. The suggestion of creating the Indian Teaching Services on the lines of IAS and IPS was one of the best parts of the movie for me.

I’ll not comment on the rest of the melodrama in the movie as that is expected out of a Hindi movie. But I will definitely say that Prakash Jha has done a brilliant job by lucidly bringing out the problems and giving us food for thought for the possible solutions. And this, he has done without any controversial dialogues. As far as the political parties raising a hue and cry on the movie are concerned, well, reservation ensures them permanent vote bank so they will resist anything that comments on the topic. Btw, the movie also points out how it is in the best interests of the so called leaders to ensure that the backward classes remain backward and keep following their orders blindly while they keep making false promises of their social upliftment.

All in all, a good idea well executed. Kudos to Prakash Jha and team for another good movie.

The Purpose of Rains

2011-07-19T16:24:00.005+05:30

The rainy season is in full swing now in most parts of the country and with rains come a lot of associated changes. One can observe flourishing greenery, instantaneous waterfalls and clean roads. All is not positive though. With rains, also come floods, a flurry of water borne diseases and increased accidents. But that is not the aim of this post.

Human beings, like in any other situation, have different reactions to rains. Many welcome the rains by dancing on rooftops and walking in the drizzle (Oh, I so miss MDI!), sharing good times with friends over chai and pakoras. Rains always bring out the extremes of emotions. Rain can act as a catalyst of joy and reviver of long lost friendships. Thanks to the rain gods, two of my close friendships got salvaged from the brink of falling apart. When it rains, one feels alive. There’s another side of the coin too. To a lonely person, his loneliness strikes the most in the melancholy of the pitter-patter of rain. It is during these solitary times that one tends to introspect, trying to search for a purpose. However, that is also not the aim of this post.

You may be wondering, what is the aim of this post? To answer that, let me take you back a couple of days. Pune has received the first installment of incessant showers for two days. Expectedly, all the roads are full of potholes and with the driving sense that Punekars possess, rather don’t possess, it’s no wonder that people are irritated. With no sun for two days, the atmosphere is gloomy and people have another thing to complain about. That is not all. The rain is not in the form of heavy showers for a few minutes followed by clear rainbowed (if there’s any such word) sky. It’s a constant stream from the sky with varying flow, sometimes pouring, sometimes a very light drizzle. And you guessed it right! People are again cribbing. “It should not constantly rain; it should rain heavily for a few minutes and then stop. That’s the way I like it”, they say.

I’m no expert, but from my limited understanding I can say that dear cribbers, rain is not for your personal pleasure. The joy, and the gloom at times, it brings is just a side effect. The main purpose of rain is to replenish the water table which you keep depleting with your bore wells. Rain feeds the crops in a nation where rainwater (I couldn’t find the irrigation data but I remember reading this somewhere) forms the biggest source of irrigation so that you can eat well. When the dams run full to capacity, you should be happy that your city will have plenty of water for the year. The ‘heavy rain for few minutes’ that you ‘like’ is practically useless as the whole water goes waste. The continuous drizzle that you despise is actually beneficial for the water table as it gets absorbed by the soil.

Please don’t complain when it rains. It is supposed to rain that’s why it’s called ‘The Rainy Season’. If you’re unhappy with the roads, please don’t blame the rains; take your municipal corporation to task. You have plenty of sunshine in the rest of the year, but that time you have to complain about the sun! We are such a bunch of complainers, never satisfied with what nature has to offer.

Please don’t complain when it rains, except if you’re in Mumbai. ;)

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

The First Weekend of The Second Decade of The Third Millennium

2011-01-04T20:23:00.004+05:30

The title will sound too convoluted but I liked the 1-2-3 combination so this title instead of ‘The First Weekend of 2011’ or something similar.

The weekend actually turned into a long one, unwillingly so. I’ll start with Friday, 31st December, 2010. The salary was a shock. I wouldn’t go into exact figures but the income tax deduction ran into five figures, which was totally unexpected and jeopardized all the plans, not just the evening, but the coming months as well. The plans anyway weren’t on track in the first place. I wanted to have a pizza party at my place with a night long movie marathon with friends. Most of the friends backed out and till 6, the time I left office, I didn’t have any plans for the night. To make things worse, I got a headache on my way home. Shri called up to fix up a place for dinner, I refused since I didn’t feel like going anywhere. Anyway, being great buddies, Shri convinced me to come and we decided to meet for dinner at Pizza Hut. I walked from my home to Kalyani Nagar, picked up Kirti and reached the venue. After a half an hour wait due to the new year rush, we got a table. Manas, Shri and Asmita showed up only after we had finished the starters and the Pizza had arrived. They ordered more stuff and we were eating and chatting till about 1 in the night. In the meantime there was wishing a happy new year, phone calls to family and close friends. I was back home at about 1:30 and was on the phone for a good part of the next two hours and finally slept off at 4 in the morning.

I got up at about 10 in the morning, drafted a new year mail to my friends, replied to the mails and messages I had received and after finishing the pasta from the night was on my way to Mumbai by about 1. The entire journey was spent mostly on the phone and little bit napping. I reached home by about 5:30 in the evening and the family decided to go out for dinner after freshening up. Dinner was at a new restaurant opposite Phoenix Mills compound, called Grass Roots. The food was nice but they need to shape up in the service quality. But I’ll not be too harsh on them since they are just 3 months old in the business. Dinner was followed by ice cream at Gelato which was available at Rs 9/- being the 1st of the month. The time between dinner and sleeping is usually marked with phone calls to friends. That night was no different.

2nd was the day when we were to go to see Asaram Bapu, our guruji. We got up a bit late and then went to seek his blessings after breakfast. The plan was to meet him, come back home and leave for Pune in the evening. He asked to come again in the evening and since you don’t go against the guru’s instructions we went again in the evening. The plans for Pune were cancelled and we decided to leave early morning next day. I slept around 11:30.

That brings us to the point for which this post was created. Everyone was asking me why I had to take an off on Monday, 3rd January, 2011. Well, me and my dad got up at about 3:30 in the morning and left at 4, after brushing. The plan was to get home by about 7-8, freshen up, get ready and leave for office. Destiny had other plans, it seems. The tires were making screeching noises which we thought probably was a minor problem. It turned out that the wheels had lost their alignment and this was putting excess load on the front right tire. We had just crossed the first toll on the expressway when a car overtook us and asked us to pull over. He told us that the front right tire of our car was about to burst. We examined it and were shocked to see that the treads had come off and the radials had started coming out. I replaced the damaged tire with the spare one and started driving slowly, stopping frequently to examine the tire.

A few kms later it also started getting damaged and we somehow reached the fuel station about 15 kms before the second toll. The guy gave us a used tire for 900 bucks and assured us that it will last us till Pune. It, however, started wearing out only a few kms later and we took the exit at Dehu road in order to reach civilization early. We couldn’t find a single shop dealing in tires and wheel alignment. Finally on the old Mumbai-Pune highway, a few kms before Dehu road the tire gave away and burst. The only option left with us now was to use the damaged tire which we had kept in spare. I put this one in the rear, deflated it a bit to reduce the pressure on the tube and put the good tire in the front.

On enquiring the locals told us that we’ll find the nearest shop in Chinchwad at Thermax Chowk. We couldn’t find any shops dealing in automobile tires but I spotted a place carrying out wheel alignment. We got the alignment corrected which had gone off by 3 degrees. Come to think of it, 3 degrees can cause so much trouble! Once the alignment was corrected, the only worry was now to find out a tire shop before the damaged wheel in the rear gave in. We found this shop, Maharashtra Traders, in Pimpri and bought two new tires. The new ones went in the front, the damaged ones got discarded and the front left one which had also worn off a bit due to the uneven loading became the spare one. By the time we were done with all this it was already past 11 in the morning and I informed my colleagues that I may not be coming in for the day.

We reached home, tired, hungry, dirty and sleep deprived past noon and by the time we freshened up and had our meal it was 2 in the afternoon. Seeing no point in going to office we slept off and I woke up only at quarter to 7 in the evening. After the evening prayers, it was time for dinner. I finished the blog post (the previous one), browsed through some old photographs and called it a day.

Thus, my first weekend of the second decade of the third millennium came to an end. :)

Cheers

Aalok

--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

The First Decade of The Third Millennium: Our Decade

2011-01-04T00:07:00.006+05:30

I’d planned to do this about a week back but couldn’t find the time to give the attention this piece deserves, hence doing it now. Most people would have heard it at least a dozen times now and would have got really bored but I’ll say it again; the last decade was probably the most important one in our lives. Of course each moment is an invaluable link in the story we call a lifetime but the experiences the last decade has made us go through have had a special role to play in the kind of person each one of us is today.

School, college, work, friends, romance, we’ve seen it all come and go. Relationships redefined, priorities changed, faith tested, it’s been a roller coaster ride and, like someone rightly said, it was the decade we’ll refer to as ‘Our times’ while narrating our life stories to our children and grand children.

No words can possibly do justice to the experience but I’ll make an attempt to recall the highs and lows which have been the defining moments of the decade that was…

2000: Technically not a part of the decade but this was a very important year. Left Hisar, our home for the previous 15 years or so, to come to Pune in March 2000. Got admission in KVSC where I completed my XII. Sold the three storied house at a throw away price to start afresh in a new place. Bought a flat in Pune, where I’m currently staying. Met some teachers and friends I’m still in touch with.

2001: Completed XII. Dad got a heart attack during my board exams and had to undergo angiography. Mom was with him in the hospital while I and sis were appearing for our exams. I got admission in ExTC engineering at PVG’sCOET. The itch for getting through to an IIT was still there, so started attending IIT coaching without bothering for attendance in college. Dad got transferred to Mumbai.

2002: Cleared IIT-JEE but the rank wasn’t enough to get the branch and institute I wanted, so continued at PVG. Profs troubled me and my parents a lot due to shortage in attendance. I was still able to clear all the exams without any major issues.

2003: Failed an exam for the first and only time in my life. Started to understand the concept of friends and friendship for the first time which I never had the chance earlier due to my frequent school changes. Mom got transferred to Mumbai, I shifted to hostel. I was on my own for the first time in my life and got a chance to discover myself.

2004: Friendships got stronger. Had my first surgery of life because of a broken nose in a road accident. Bagged a defence project for our BE project, also published a national level paper on it. First attempt at GATE, got a decent score but didn’t apply anywhere. Got placed at HSBC GLT. First crush, got rejected.

2005: Completed engineering. Went on a trip to Haridwar, Vaishno Devi and Amritsar with mom. Started my first job. Got my first salary on my 21st birthday. Found new friends. Second attempt at GATE, again got a good score but didn’t apply anywhere. Bought my first phone. Learnt to drive a car.

2006: Engineering convocation. Found myself sitting for a free diagnostic mock CAT because I was accompanying a friend. Scored well in it, decided to attempt CAT. Got myself another phone which I’m still using. Bought my bike and had my first accident within 24 hours of it. Second crush, got rejected again. First attempt at CAT, got a good score but only a SPJain call, couldn’t convert it. Met Charuta in the SPJain interview who introduced me to MDI. Sis got The Balashree Award from the then President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

2007: This was another year of major ups and downs. Granny got paralysed. I had a major bike accident two days before my birthday, was lucky to come out of it alive. Spent one week in the hospital and another three in bed at home. Third and last attempt at GATE without any preparation. 18th Nov 2007: Attempted CAT again, Granny passed away, I went to London.

2008: IIM-L, IIM-I and MDI calls. Converted MDI. Went to Vaishno Devi again before joining. Induction, open houses, club selections, random groups, all varieties of people, cultural shock, elections, summers setback, new friends. Decided not to pursue finance, thanks to a certain Prof. Rediscovered the insomniac in me. The best Illumina I ever attended. Tryst with Java again, thanks to Imperium and Yearbook. Revisited North Indian winters after a long time. Fell in love with Excel.

2009: Council. Finally got a summer placement. Control Desk for PG07’s placement, came face to face with the effects of recession. Decided to get placed in laterals itself. Summer internship, two months of work and masti and some money. Finalised on pursuing Marketing and Operations. Induction for PG09. Control Desk for PG09’s summers, hints of market improving. Delphique communication panel. Sis makes it to Top 6 of Indian Idol 4, records a playback for Priyanka Chopra. Third crush, got rejected again.

2010: Got placed in laterals as promised. Scored obscenely well in Term VI. Vaishno Devi trip with friends. Convocation. Fourth crush, got rejected again. Damn! Training in Hyderabad. Finally back to Pune. Got back on the bike. Fell again, second surgery in life, Titanium plates implanted in right forearm. Manas’ marriage.

And so, here we are, ushering in a new decade. Let’s see what this has to offer. :)

Dooriyan Bhi Hain Zaroori

2010-12-24T10:43:00.002+05:30

I generally listen to songs while travelling to and back from office in the bus. I generally care only about the music and don't pay any attention to the lyrics.

Today was one of the few days when I actually was listening to the lyrics. The song playing was 'Dooriyan bhi hain zaroori' from 'Break ke baad'.

A friend and I were wondering a few days back that losing a good friend itself is a very painful experience then ending a relationship would be so much more painful. Still people do break up. What might possibly be causing them to do so?

The initial few lines of the song point out the small differences between the couple. I believe that people can make adjustments when it comes to the big things in life but it's the small things, that define what kind of a person one is, which we are not ready to compromise on and which incidentally we observe last of all, only after we've spent enough time together.

My conclusion: People break up when they realise that they are not compatible on these small things.

Your take?

Disclaimer:
1. I'm not in a relationship, never have been and by the looks of things will not be in one anytime in the near future.
2. I haven't seen the movie and have no idea what the song is about.
3. Yes, I too am capable of thinking and wonder about stuff that I have nothing to do with.

PS: This post was originally intended to be an email to my closest friends but then I thought it will be nice to see what the wider audience thinks.

Cheers
Aalok
-- Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Intezaar

2010-10-06T15:51:00.002+05:30

My first attempt at shayari. You may choose to call it trash :D

Raah main palken bichaye baithen hain, jaane kab unka deedar ho...
Unhe fursat hi nahi ki humse baaten do chaar ho...
Tere aane ki umeed main jeete hain, ae dost...
Sabra itna na kara ki zindagi hi tera intezaar ho...

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

It has to be you!

2010-10-04T11:45:00.000+05:30

It has to be you, else... doesn't matter who.
It has to be you, no one else will do.
It has to be you, I wish I was right there beside you.
It has to be you, I want to grow old with you.
It has to be you, please say, 'I do'.
It has to be you, err... Sorry it wasn't for you! :D

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Women must be really expensive to maintain!

2010-09-06T21:47:00.002+05:30

As anyone would guess, this line shows that I've never had the opportunity, if you want to call it an opportunity, to spend on a woman's grooming since I'm happily single. The chances of this status changing anytime soon will further diminish after this post is completed.

Most people would probably agree to the statement that is the title of this post and would wonder that what took me so long to realise this fact. Let me just narrate one small incident.

An old friend who was a colleague in my first job and ended up being my colleague again after the MBA got her hair style changed, 'Straightening' is the term she used to describe the process. I personally feel the change has definitely been for the worse, but she thinks otherwise.

Now comes the realisation part. Hazarding a wild guess, I asked, "So, how much did this cost you? 200-300 bucks?". "5", the answer came, followed by a "K". I was dumbfounded. 5K for a stupid procedure that makes your hair look worse! "That's normal. In fact, she got it done for quite a bargain.", retorted a recently married friend from MDI who is also my colleague now and travels in the same bus with me.

This got me thinking what all can I do in the name of personal grooming. Let's not get into too much detail but I figured out that if I add up the amount I spend on my haircut, hair oil, shampoo... let's also put in the razor blades, shaving cream, bathing soap, hand wash, deodorants... laundry, ironing, shoe polish... that's pretty much everything I can think of I still can't get it to 5K in an year! In fact, I can even get my annual bike maintenance cost covered in the 5K budget.

Either women really are expensive to maintain or I am a very low maintenance person or both. ;)

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Dumb Call Center Client

2010-08-23T11:24:00.001+05:30

I'm sure all of you would have heard many 'Dumb Call Center Client' jokes where the client calls because he can't figure out the solution to a trivial problem. I never thought this would happen to me but I think I'm turning into one of those dumb clients! :(

Two such recent events to corroborate this fact:

1. Saturday being an off day for me and working day for dad, I went to drop him off to his office on my bike. I came back fine and parked the bike. When I had to go to pick up dad from his office, the bike just wouldn't start! I tried everything, auto start, kick start, engaging the reserve, push start (a Pulsar 180 is really hard to push). After about 45 minutes of struggle I gave up and went to pick up dad in the car. Next day I tried the same but it just wouldn't start! Frustrated, I took the bike to the workshop, pushing it all the way. The mechanic just touched it and the bike started. The problem: While the bike was parked someone had played with the controls and had engaged the emergency engine cutoff (Pulsar owners would know about this button). Since I never use the cutoff, this possibility never occurred to me and I ended up making a fool of myself. DUMB!

2. Rakhi is a Holiday in Pune office and not in Hyderabad. Since I had joined at Hyderabad, my holiday calendar was mapped to Hyderabad. I wanted to get the calendar synchronised with the Pune holidays. I raised a request for the same which was duly addressed by the concerned team. I, however, couldn't see the change being reflected in my calendar. So I reopened the request and called up the person in charge. He simply asked me to refresh the page. I did as requested and there I saw the Pune calendar on my screen. The problem: The page on my system was being fetched from the browser cache and the refresh pulled out the new data from the server. I again ended up making a fool of myself. DUMB!

Cheers
Aalok
-Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Two Years Summed Up in Two Hundred Words

2010-05-15T04:50:00.004+05:30

A junior asked me to write something about my experience during the two years at MDI. Now a senior has asked me to sya what I had written. So out comes the following text from my email archives:

---------------------------------
The two years spent at MDI have proven to be my best investment till date. Not only did I meet varied and interesting people in the form of my batch mates, but I also had a chance to interact with and listen to the views of distinguished industry stalwarts, meeting whom otherwise would have been practically impossible.

MDI taught me the business lingo in the form of corporate jargon, but more importantly, made me understand the meaning behind it all. To top it up, participating in the student run activities gave a first hand experience of applying the learnings in real life by managing people and resources.

The biggest learning from my stay at MDI is that business is not about numbers, tools and processes. It is about people. Get the right people on board and the rest falls in place.

The only regret, now that the stint is over, would be that I wasn't able to fully utilise the huge resource pool in the form of world renowned faculty and a huge library.

To sum it up all, I can only say that I am now a ManDevIan for life, and proud to be so!
------------------------

Cheers
Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

It's One of Those Days Again!

2010-05-12T02:27:00.002+05:30

It's one of those days again...
When you regret not having taken the risk...
When you know you deserve better...
When you realise you're not the one in control of your destiny...
When you know you can't make it all right...
When you wish all this hadn't happened...
When you fail to differentiate between compassion and jeer...
When you feel you could let it all go...
When you can't sleep at night...
When you long for old friends...
When you want to fly free like a bird...
When you lose all hope despite it not being the end of the road...
When you start to stop believing in your favourite quote...
When you wish you could go back...
When you know it's one of those days again...
It's one of those days again...

Peace
Aalok Deep Pandit
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Today

2010-04-17T09:56:00.003+05:30

Today is the day when:

I decided to post something again
My bike completed 900 kms after my accident in 2007. 300+ of those in the last two weeks.
I bugged Abhinav Dasgupta (yet again!) and Tanmay Sharma on a weekend morning.
I saw my sis getting all senti about leaving MDI though she's been there only for 4 days.
I Shared a video that makes fun of me.
I pack my bags and leave home again, for Hyderabad.
I will change my Facebook profile picture.
I will finally transfer the convocation pics and videos from the camera to the PC.
I will send out a few more emails to friends.
I will decide to post something meaningful more frequently.
I get confused as to why I posted this.

Sorry, but just wanted to post something :D

Aalok

-- Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Last Class at MDI

2010-02-19T16:00:00.005+05:30

So TC sir finally decided to take a class. Though I have not opted for the subject I had heard that TC sir's last (and first) class is legendary. So there I was, first time in my life at MDI witnessing a classroom full. There were no empty chairs... not even in the front rows!

On popular demand, specially by Ram Sharma, Debjit Mukherji and Kartikeya Vatsa, here's a summary of yesterday's TC sir's lecture full of wisdom pearls:

Do not stop reading. The globe is a very dynamic place. What you learn today will be outdated tomorrow. If you stop reading, the world will leave you behind.
Have someone as an inspiration. You'll not grow without inspiration. And your father cannot be your ideal. If everyone wants to become like his father, all progress will stop and society will stagnate.
Dream. It gives a meaning and purpose to life. Think positive. The power of positive thinking is often neglected.
Never think you're stuck in an industry. You have the power to move to any field you want.
Remember you are managers and not workers. Its work that you are managing and it can be any kind of work. You can hire people who know the work, you just have to manage them. You will not get manager's work immediately but eventually you will. Try and become a manager as soon as possible. Remember, the word manager contains 'man' which means it is people you will have to deal with in your professions.
In 5 years' time, you will be earning more and will have more knowledge than any of the professors here because they will keep on teaching the same thing but you will evolve with the industry.
If you have any kind of problem, call TC sir at least once. But do not stay in touch if you don't have any problem. He will try to help whether you have academic problems, marriage problems, you banged your car, committed a murder or are caught in a cross fire in the Czech republic. Even if he may not be able to solve your problem, you will not lose anything by telling him. But for God's sake do not stay in touch with him if you don't have any problems. Do not drop in to tell that you're happy with your job, got married and have two kids. It is expected from you. Moreover, he would not know how to react to social pleasantries so get in touch only when you have a problem.

There was also some stuff about income and its classification and how taxation can be used to channelise investments in a country but I'm sure people are not interested in knowing that stuff. Moreover I don't remember all that :)

So that's it folks. Let me know if I missed something.

Cheers

Aalok

--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Leadership

2009-09-10T00:34:00.004+05:30

Today, as a class assignment, we were supposed to write our views on leadership. The assignment is worth a lot of weightage so I'm not sure how well my efforts match up to those of my classmates, but I felt like sharing what I'd written. So here it is:
-----------------------------
Management literature is full of various definitions of leader and leadership. In plain English, however, The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines a leader as:

A person who leads a group of people, especially the head of a country, an organization, etc
A person or thing that is the best, or in first place in a race, business, etc.

It further explains that ‘to lead’ may imply to show the way, to be the best or to be in control. To me, however, ‘to lead’ means to inspire to do he right thing. Therefore a person who inspires others to do what they should be doing is a leader for me. Thus, we have leaders leading us in all walks of life be it family, academics, workplace, ethics, morals, religion, spirituality, sports, relations etc. If a child’s first teacher is the mother, the first leader or role model is definitely the father. However, since the subject here deals with management, I would try and restrict my opinion to organisational leaders only. There are also various theories and models dealing with leadership but since this is not intended to be a literature review, I will skip the theoretical perspectives and stick to my first hand thoughts.

Once we have established that a leader is a person who inspires others to do the right thing, the other definitions start falling in place automatically and we start to differentiate a leader from a manager. Some of the key differences that come to mind immediately are:

Leaders have followers while managers have sub-ordinates. Thus, while a leader inspires, a manager orders.
A leader would focus on strategic issues while a manager would deal with the day to day activities or operational issues. In simpler terms, a leader is more concerned about the long term while a manager may only be interested in short term goals. Both are however equally important for sustenance.
While a manager may be happy with status quo, a leader has an enquiring mind that is always challenging the established norms and innovating.

Leadership works by everyone working towards a common goal. There are numerous traits and characteristics of leaders, however, some of the traits can be found in all good leaders. For example from Jack Welch to Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Narayan Murthy and Dr Manmohan Singh, all are excellent communicators. A good leader cannot accomplish tasks without followers, and to gain followers one needs to reach out to like minded people. This reminds me of Twitter - the latest social networking trend, or a micro blogging service as it is officially called – where you need to generate original and interesting content to gain followers. Same is the story with all the Web 2.0 tools being used for marketing such as SEO, blogs, web communities and viral marketing.

Coming back to leadership, a leader needs to be a visionary and this vision, the leader strives to attain with the team of his/her followers. Even if one is able to get a following, the leader will not succeed unless there is constant communication since without communication, the followers will be directionless. Probably this is why we can see the CEOs meeting the workforce regularly to reinforce the envisioned future and remind them of what they need to do in their daily lives to achieve that goal. Similar is the case with religion where, as per our faith, the spiritual gurus keep reminding us of what we need to do to on a daily basis to attain the absolute goal – God realisation!

In Dr. Pritam Singh’s words, a leader needs to Look Around – identify competition, challenges and opportunities, Look Beyond – be imaginative, visionary and set new standards by challenging status quo and Look Within – to introspect. Thus a leader has to be self aware and must understand that one person cannot be good at everything. This self reflection is important since it forms bonds of trust between the leader and the team.

Current business scenarios are fast changing and the shortening spans of executives at firms add to the challenge of leaders. Therefore, a leader needs to be able to gauge people quickly. The ability to filter out relevant information is of utmost importance since due to the information overload in the internet age. If overlooked, important information will get mixed up with the ambient noise. Flexibility is another important trait as opportunities are very short-lived and a quick reaction time is necessary to grab those before anyone else.

Some of the other qualities essential in a modern day leader would be a strong ethical foundation, compassion, clarity of thought, tolerance and the power of persuasion. It is to be noted that while some of the positions are termed as leadership positions, a person does not become a leader just by holding that position. On the contrary, one may find people leading teams without formal titles and designations. Similarly, while some people are born with the qualities, others may develop the necessary skills for leadership through experience and coaching.

An Old Dream

2009-07-28T16:42:00.003+05:30

I happened to read a post on a particular dream by the author at mysore blog park

It reminded me of one particular dream I used to have during my teenage days. Here's what I can remember:

I am running. No, not exercising, but trying to escape. Escape what? No idea! It's pitch dark and I am running. May be scared of something. I stop intermittently... turn around to see if I'm being followed and start running again. And the sequence would endlessly repeat... running aimlessly... stopping... running again!

This dream would haunt me time and again, repeating every few weeks for years. I don't know when I stopped having this dream but I sure remember having it for a long time.

I used to discuss this with some of my friends at school also and it so turned out that I was not alone. Almost everyone I talked to, had had this dream time and again.

May be its a part of growing up, the pressure to perform, uncertainty of vast future. Just wondering what a psychologist would have to say.

Aalok
-Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Human Beings are a Disease, a Cancer of this Planet

2008-12-09T02:14:00.003+05:30

This famous dialogue from Agent Smith in The Matrix, in essence, captures what we really are. Like Joe Rogan points out in his Bacteria Theory, it's not the single individual that's to blame, we as a collective unit are a nuisance. As I discussed in my previous post, all our actions are directed towards a single goal: Multiplication.

"Why's that such a bad thing?", you may ask. "Nothing wrong with that", I'd say. That's pretty much what every organism does instinctively guided by the DNA's urge to replicate itself. The problem is, we are such a burden on our resources that soon we exhaust them and then we have to spread further, unlike other organisms that develop a balance with the nature.

As you would have guessed by now, I'm not a fan of the human race. A friend (one among the few I have) once asked me why I avoid human contact so much. My answer was simple. I prefer to spend my time with computers, or gadgets in general, over people because gadgets or machines don't get angry, they don't have ego, behave consistently and can be trusted till their very end of life. Her reply to this was that despite all these qualities a machine cannot love you, care for you, make you laugh, make you cry. To be frank things like love, being cared for, having a social network figure right at the bottom of my priority list.

I often used to wonder why we need to be so complex. Why can't pure logic rule the world instead of bloated egos and innumerable emotions? Once, during those late work hours at office, I happened to have this discussion with my manager. His opinion was that if only logic was the guiding force of the world, everyone would think the same under similar circumstances, much like a robot or a computer program which would give the same output for same input. That would make the world a really boring place.

While writing this, I just remembered what I had read a few years back in The Shiv Maha Puran. If I remember correctly it was mentioned that the first creation was of a spiritual nature, flawless, much like the first version of The Martrix as The Architect describes. The problem with this creation was that it became static as the spiritual beings that resided in it were not really interested in reproducing. Hence a new creation featuring sexual reproduction was created, complete with all the emotions and ego states enclosed in an envelope of virtual reality called Maya.

The way I understand this is that emotions and feelings are just a layer of abstraction added to avoid our getting bogged down by the intricate biochemical reactions taking place in the body. Much like love is biochemically same as eating large quantities of chocolate and dreams are a manifestation of DMT secretion in the brain by the Pineal gland. So we go about with our lives with all our achievements, accomplishments, innovations, failures, successes. We rage wars, we produce a whole lot of people, terrorists, conservationists, politicians, philosophers, thinkers, polluters, enterpreneurs. We come up with ideoligies, religions, social structures, nations. Little do we realise that under the hood it the DNA at work.

So far so good. But here's what confuses me every time. The Bhagwad Geeta and various other scriptures tell us that our aim is to rise above the Maya, realise the true world and attain Moksha. If we fail to do so we remain stuck in the birth-death-rebirth cycle. All this makes me feel like I'm a character in a game with the birth-death cycles being the different levels of the game. This also reduces God, the Almighty to a mere spectator enjoying the show who sometimes logs into the system as different Avtars (human manifestations of God). My issue is that if God is Almighty he could have come up with something better for his entertainment than playing around with people's minds. This has started sounding so much like The Matrix and The 13th Floor.

At this point of time I'd like to clarify that I'm not an Atheist. I'm a firm believer in God. It's just that my definition of God differs slightly from most of the people. To me, God is a convenient name we give to any phenomena we cannot explain with our current understanding of the Universe. The moment we come up with an explanation with empirical proof, it becomes a new scientific theory and ceases to be an act of God. At one point of time I used to suspect that if we are able to come up with a gigantic equation that models the entire Universe with all the variables representing the state of the Universe and can predict the next state from the current state, we would no longer need a concept called God. But here's the catch. To run this model, we would need a computer which is more complex than the Universe itself. Now I don't remember the exact theory but the moment we create such a computer, it becomes a part of the Universe thereby increasing the complexity and immediately making our great model obsolete! Even if we are able to get around this difficulty, there's another problem. If our computer, equipped with the model claims to be able to predict the next state of the universe, it should essentially be able to predict its own next state since it is a part of the Universe itself. Now again, a system can only predict the state of another system simpler than itself. Thus, getting an equation to model the Universe and simulating this model cannot be physically done from withing the Universe. This reinforces my faith in an external entity called God. But I'm still clueless behind the motive of creation. May be someone reading this can answer this.

I should go to sleep now. Bye, till next time.

Aalok
-Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Life, Universe, Everything...

2008-08-17T12:29:00.004+05:30

Dear readers

I'm posting after a long time today. It's not that I've run out of stuff to write about, in fact, last three months have been so high paced that I have loads to write but the schedule here does not permit enough time to write the posts of length which I generally write.

So my life's happenings in the last three months can wait for now. What I'm going to write about is what happened last night or today morning if you may prefer.

17th August, 2008, approx 3 AM and I'm doing some regular net surfing. I see an old college mate named Nilesh, online on gtalk and he has his status message as, "Why are we here?". Well, I saw this as an opportunity to have some 'deep conversations'. We chatted for about 2 hours. Reflecting back on the conversation, I found it way too interesting, so I decided to give it a spot on my blog.

Here you go...

------------------------------------------------

3:13 AM me: that depends on where you are....

Nilesh: did you complete your first assignment

3:14 AM me: i have lost count of the number of assignments i've completed and the ones remaining

;)

Nilesh: that means you know what are you doing there !

3:15 AM me: i would like to believe so

Nilesh: but do you know why are you here ?

3:16 AM me: again... that would depend on what you consider as here....

3:17 AM Nilesh: I am trying to understand what am I doing here on EARTH ?

what is my purpose ?

me: now that's what i call clarifying the question

3:18 AM Nilesh: well do the honours and clarify the doubt i have in my mind

3:19 AM me: me and my good friend manas (i guess you remember him) have had this discussion a couple of times

Nilesh: yes i remember him

so any luck ?

3:20 AM me: and our conclusion has been that whatever we do is, at the root level, basically the DNA trying to replicate itself to keep the species progressing

so it's survival of the fittest all the way

3:21 AM Nilesh: So I am here to SURVIVE ?

It is my purpose.

I need to survive.

3:22 AM So we are here to survive.

ok.

me: no, my friend...

our purpose is to be the next step in the ladder of evolution

to outdo our best

3:23 AM in order to make the species better as a whole every day

btw where did this question suddenly arise from?

Nilesh: And we do that by making all other species

EXTINCT

3:24 AM so finally the only species will be us.

me: my personal observation is that people generally ponder over this question when something bad happens to them

what happened with you?

Nilesh: Nothing has happened.

3:25 AM I was wondering

what's the use doing things

me: if you were wondering without any particular incident trigerring this process then you are a philosopher my friend

Nilesh: actually

3:26 AM I saw my parents tell me to

do good in 10th standard

ot get a good college

then do good in 12

me: and i know where it goes from there

Nilesh: ya

me: get into a good engg college

get a good job

Nilesh: So how long will this go

me: prepare for cat

get into a good mba institute

3:27 AM and the cycle keeps on going on

Nilesh: earn good money

so that you will buy things

that gives happiness.

But this is not the only way to gain happiness.

3:28 AM me: that, is where you get it wrong

Nilesh: Oh !

me: have you heard of a concept called alpha male?

Nilesh: no

proceed

3:29 AM me: this is again linked to the survival of the fittest

Nilesh: ya big fish eat small fish

3:30 AM but not in civilized society

me: no, not the big fish small fish thing.... let me complete please

Nilesh: ok

proceed

3:31 AM me: in the animal kingdom, that includes human beings, the female is always looking for security for her offspring. so she always mates with the male who is able to provide the most secure environment to the offspring.

such a male is called the alpha male

and is a highly desirable mate for the females of the herd

3:32 AM now, in the uncivilised world, security was offered by physical strength

so the alpha male was the most physically powerful male

lets extrapolate this concept to the present world and the so called civilised society

3:33 AM today, security is defined by your status and the amount of money you make.

3:34 AM so when you are trying to get yourself the best education and the best jobs, you are not trying to be happy

its your underlying DNA trying to find you a mate so that it can replicate

i hope i've made myself clear

Nilesh: Yes I got the concept.

3:35 AM I did'nt know abt alpha male concept

3:36 AM Its happening from earlier times that male from every species always fight to mate to pass on their genes to the next generation.

And that is why males produce millions of sperms

3:37 AM even though only one is needed for conception.

But if you think it this way.

Earth has undergone a lot of changes in the past.

The ice ages repeat every 10,000 or some years.

3:38 AM I think its 10 million years

wherein every species is completely wiped out.

me: no... not completely wiped out... the weaker ones are

Nilesh: ya.

3:39 AM and then we start the process of development and civilization once again

reinvent the wheel everytime we survive an ice age

3:40 AM and ice age is not the only one agent to wipe out the civlization

me: i dont have sufficient data on the ice ages and the development of civilisation but i think you got the information wrong

Nilesh: I am not even blaming industrial revolution

to cause the pollution and destroy the earth.

me: ice ages do not wipe out civilisation but put a pause in the advancement

3:41 AM Nilesh: ya hold on

Actually the earth itself undergoes transformation every like 10 million or some years.

to revive itself

3:42 AM and we also have outer space agents to destroy us.

me: have you seen the movie hera pheri?

Nilesh: which one first or second ?

me: first

Nilesh: i saw both actually

go on

3:43 AM me: in that movie, paresh rawal tells sunil shetty, "tu pehle nakki kar tera samasya kya hai"

3:44 AM Nilesh: meri samasya yeh hai

3:47 AM me: i'm waiting

3:48 AM Nilesh: jab sab khatam hone waala hai to kyu kuch karneka ?

me: because we do not live in an anarchy

3:49 AM moreover how do you know that everything is going to finish in your lifetime

Nilesh: now tell me what is going to happen next.

American and other developed nations are already rich.

And nations and India and china are developing.

3:50 AM when India and China are developed then where will be America ?

me: survival of the fittest again

its all about domination my dear

3:51 AM Nilesh: Hmm.

me: now just apply the alpha male concept to nations

3:52 AM and everything falls into place

still confused?

3:53 AM check this out... it may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_male

3:54 AM Nilesh: India and America competing to survive

3:55 AM and China doing its best in every field.

3:56 AM me: aren't we all trying to do our best in whatever we do?

Nilesh: how long will it last.

3:57 AM me: have you seen matrix? the last one?

Nilesh: yes

me: do you remember the last dialogue of the movie... where the oracle and the architect are having a conversation

3:58 AM Nilesh: yes.

me: the architect asks ger a similar question

and the movie ends with the oracle's dialogue, "as long as it can"

3:59 AM Nilesh: Yes.

again the survival of the fittest.

4:00 AM me: now you're getting it :)

4:02 AM Nilesh: But we forget that african nations and other under-developed nations are getting compromised.

and that's done by our so so called "Developed Civilization"

4:03 AM me: do you really think we are personally responsible for their condition?

4:06 AM Nilesh: Yes.

like sanctions imposed

and all

4:08 AM me: sanctions are imposed by the imposing country because it feels threatened by the actions of another country. so it does the best it can to protect its own interests

4:09 AM Nilesh: Why India's PM Mr. Singh have to launch a vote of confidence to get the nuke deal with America ?

Is it not shameful.

me: let's not bring emotions here

4:10 AM shame, pride, ego are all very subjective terms

Nilesh: Ok.

me: and i have my own way of describing these

4:11 AM Nilesh: Ok and people at nasa are researching on

a new planet to live on because earth will not be live-able in next 50 years.

Now my question is

4:12 AM when we are not supposed to live on earth in the next 50 years or so

Then why only humans have the ability to question.

4:13 AM So why are we here ? has the implicit question

that if we only humans

have the ability to think

then what is that “thing” that we should be doing

why are we here ?

4:14 AM Survival of the fittest is for animals

who only want to pass on their genes.

Not for us.

4:15 AM me: do you really think that you are something more than a glorified version of a animal?

4:16 AM Nilesh: yes. do we have the capability to fly, breathe under water or run at 75 mph ?

No. But we can

think

and survive

by using our brains.

me: thats the whole point i'm trying to drive home

4:17 AM Nilesh: Then i am sure that only surviving should not be the only purpose.

me: there was a need to build the technology for survival

necessity is the mother of invention

4:18 AM Nilesh: Listen I know that humans have the ability to survive no matter what threat looms over us.

But is it the only thing.

Bible and other holy scripts tell us that we should live in harmony and all good stuff.

4:19 AM It also promises that someone will come back and salvate us.

4:20 AM So I dont know if aliens have bred us.

or we are the result of an experiment of someone.

me: i can also argue that geeta tells us to concentrate on our karma... do our best in whatever we do and not worry about the results

4:21 AM does it really matter where we came from or where are we headed?

Nilesh: Yes.

If i can reason.

I have to ask this question.

This is the universal question.

4:22 AM What is our purpose here.

Evolution is one.

but only evolution ?

and nothing else.

4:23 AM Ok. Tell me if you are in India then it must be 4:30 am.

what are you doing this late ?

me: may be there is... but i dont see the need for another reason as long as the evolution theory is able to explain my actions

its 4:25 am

4:24 AM Nilesh: Evolution : are you referring to the Darwins theory

because it has a severe flaw.

accoring to me

me: gon on please

4:25 AM Nilesh: Ok. If we have evolved from apes.

Then apes and humans should not be living in the same time frame.

apes should be extinct.

me: by evolution, i don't imply the nitti-gritties of darwin's theory. i just stick to the survival of the fittest

Nilesh: ok.

4:26 AM me: btw, i dont think darwin implies we descended from apes. apes and we have a common ancestor from where evolution branched out

Nilesh: Survival of the fittest .

me: something similar to dogs and wolves

4:27 AM Nilesh: hmm

dogs are a creation of man.

We have bred them.

from wolves and domesticated them.

me: whatever the tirggering factors, the fact remains that they are a seperate species than wolves

4:28 AM Nilesh: Ya. So lets look at this from another angle.

4:29 AM Now nature has purposefully created a lot of deers so that a leopard can survive.

And leopard has the capability to win over an deer.

me: not always

4:30 AM only 20% of the attacks are successful

Nilesh: Now nature has also created two of the most huge animals and most powerful animals.

Elephant and a hippo.

The catch here is that

both of them are vegeterians.

Now nature went on and created man.

4:31 AM With no significant phisical features.

But with a brain.

And with this brain

4:32 AM the human has the capability to disturb the existing ecological balance of the nature.

Nature would never let this happen.

So this leads us to a link

that we do not belong here.

me: are we considering nature as a third person here or the collective result of everyone's actions?

4:33 AM Nilesh: whatever you want.

You can think of it as a god, alien

me: no.. it depends on what you assume nature to be

Nilesh: or need to survive

me: because for this discussion, we cannot assume an external entity

4:34 AM Nilesh: We cannot conclude anything about nature.

All I can think is that nature has created this balance.

which is keeping everything in place.

4:35 AM But with the introduction of humans, it gets disturbed.

me: that again brings back the question... who or what is nature?

to me, it is not a seperate identity

Nilesh: It will start a whole new discussion.

4:36 AM as why only EARTH and no other planet.

and why only oxygen and all and all.

me: yes, let's just suffice to say that it is our tendency to externalise things which we cannot or do not want to explain

4:37 AM Nilesh: Yes, whenever we cannot answer something then we say it god’d wish.

God’s wish.

4:38 AM If there is no life on other planets then its awful waste of space.

This was said by some one i dont remember

Ya Carl Sagan.

4:39 AM me: that's again because of the way we define life

you'll also need to read something called the anthropic principle, if i got the name right

Nilesh: whats that ?

4:41 AM me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

4:42 AM it says a lot of things

but what i understand is that had things been different

we would have come out with a similar argument

4:43 AM Nilesh: I’ll take a look at it later.

Its heavy.

4:44 AM me: i know :)

Nilesh: Also what I’ve observed is that

4:45 AM in every religion people expect the god to appear again and salvate us.

me: ah... religion...

Nilesh: and in a similar way there is a scientific group that expects advanced aliens to come and salvate us

4:46 AM and then I think yes

God exists

me: well... there are two categories of religion

Abrahamic ones and Vedic ones

Nilesh: scientists call it advanced alien civilization

me: the abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity etc) believe in the saviour

4:47 AM Nilesh: Oh yes.

me: Vedic religions do not believe in a saviour

Nilesh: Ya because abrahmic religions have a starting point in history like the story of Moses and the book of exodus.

4:48 AM me: yes

Nilesh: Here we hindus do not know when it began

from where all this knowledge came into existence

Was Ramayana and Mahabharta the real stories.

4:49 AM West have their Atlantis city.

Von Daniken argues that the city of Ram and the Atlantis had fought a nuclear war that destroyed both.

4:50 AM what a heavy load on our brains !

and why ask questions.

they do not answer them.

4:51 AM By the way

I have to leave now,

to play cricket.

I’ll join you back sometime in future.

me: hopefully yes

Nilesh: and we’ll continue this discussion.

4:52 AM If you think we can come to some conclusion.

me: well, i guess i've cleared some of your doubts

it was nice talking to you after a long time

Nilesh: Those were not doubts.

me: its almost 5 here

so i should get some sleep

Nilesh: Those were universal questions

4:53 AM and i am expecting some saviour to come down on earth and answer my questions.

Get some sleep.

me: I'm not

Nilesh: Hopefully you will get some realisation in your dreams.

me: so we can have our own views

tata

bye

Nilesh: bye.------------------------------------------------

So as you see, after two hours of giving gyaan to each other, we still couldn't arrive at a conclusion. Yours views on the topic requested.

Aalok
- Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Life Takes Another Turn

2008-05-06T01:08:00.005+05:30

29^th July, 2005:
My life took a turn. This was my first day at office. Fresh out of college, I had no idea what 'to be working' meant. I kept staring at the office building for quite some time before deciding to enter. This was a 'Wow!' moment for me. Finally, I entered and stepped into professional life.

5^th May, 2008:
2 years, 9 months, 6 days and many 'Wow!' moments later, my life is taking another turn. I resigned from my first job today. This marked my first step out of a professional life and back into a student one. I'll be joining a B-School soon.

When I think of it, multiple streams of thought start flowing in my mind. Here's a sample of what was going through my head today...

I'll be missing half the fun of resigning. It won't be a surprise to my manager as he already knows I'm going to resign today. There would be no salary negotiations, promotion offers, job role change, gestures to make me feel important and attempts to make me change my mind and stay back. I will have to continue working throughout the notice period and will not be able to live a king size life like my other friends who resigned recently. Basically I won't be able to hold the organisation at ransom, which I anyway don't want to!

I won't be a part of the HSBC group anymore. I won't be earning. How will I afford my phone calls? I won't be allowed to enter the building soon. No more free mineral water, tea, coffee and parking! What do I write in my resignation mail? When should I send it across? Should I get it reviewed? Should I really be working 12 hours a day even in my notice period? Soon I'll be running around floors, getting clearance forms signed. What are you supposed to say in an exit interview?

...Some questions, some answers but mostly random thoughts of anxiety which comes as a part of change. Soon I get busy with my work and before I know its 10 PM. This day was, after all, not very different from my other work days. The only thing that changed is that I won't be getting any money for a friend whom I had referred last month ;-)

-Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

My GD/PI for MDI Gurgaon

2008-04-19T18:43:00.003+05:30

My GD/PI for MDI Gurgaon was almost a month back, on 25th March 2008, and it's way too late to post my experience considering the fact that even the results are out. But since I had posted my IIML and IIMI experiences, I'd post this one also for consistency's sake.

So, this was my third and last GD/PI, the first two being for IIML and IIMI respectively.

The conditions were a lot different this time. This one was on a weekday, in the afternoon, but at the same centre and I was on anti-biotics for the throat infection and fever I had caught a couple of days earlier. This day also happened to be Angarki - A Chaturthi falling on a Tuesday - which is supposed to be a big day for Siddhivinayak's darshan. Mom had already procured special entry passes to go through the faster queue. So there we were, at the temple entrance, at 5:30 in the morning and the 'special queue' for VIP passes was also half a mile long, I'm not even mentioning the condition of the normal queue. We got free from the temple in about an hour and I went back to sleep since I had slept late in the night and had the interview later in the afternoon.

My scheduled timeslot was 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM and we were supposed to report one hour before that for other formalities. The thing different this time? Well, I went on my bike instead of a taxi. At 10 minutes from home, this was my longest bike ride since my accident! I reached the waiting hall on time where I found a few familiar faces from my previous GD/PI experiences for IIML & IIMI. After the initial formalities we were assigned our groups and taken to the interview halls.

There were two groups with ten candidates each. I was with panel 2 consisting of two friendly looking gentlemen, referred here forth as P1 and P2, who introduced themselves as professors of Operations Management and Organisational Behaviour respectively. We were seated and the GD topic given. The different thing again? Unlike all my GD's till date, where I used to be seated at the corner, here I was bang in the middle of the group with the panel directly facing me.

The topic of discussion was "Should Celebration of Valentine's Day be Banned in India?". This sounded like a very cliché topic and the expected points like adaptability of Indian culture, the issue being over hyped by the moral police, expression of love not needing special day, the day being a money making instrument for card companies etc. I had a fair amount of participation by bringing in the following points:

The day being about all kinds of love, for parents, siblings, friends, children and even country, and not just about girl friends and boy friends.
Countering the point of eve teasing by mentioning religious festivals where eve teasing is more rampant because of the large crowd, but no one raising a voice because of religious sentiments coming in.
The need for political parties (every one knows which ones, I need not take any names here) to concentrate on real developmental issues rather than creating unnecessary nuisances.
The role card and gift companies need to play in bringing awareness about the broader meaning of the day.

The GD was over in about 15 minutes and we were asked to wait outside for our interviews. The different thing again? Instead of the usual air-conditioned waiting hall, we were supposed to wait in the open, though next to a garden and under tree shade. People who've been to Mumbai will understand how uncomfortable it can become in Mumbai heat with all the humidity in the air and anxiety of the interview in the heart. While waiting we did the regular introductions and other chitchat. Since Sub-Prime Crisis was the hottest topic those days, and I being working for the world's biggest bank, happened to see myself explaining it to everyone around.

I was the fifth one to be interviewed and after getting feedback from the earlier four candidates I was expecting to be asked to calculate the Centre of Gravity of a semi circular ring and was trying to remember the integration equations involved. Here's how my interview went:

P2 (Welcoming me while P1 is nowhere to be seen): Come in Aalok, have a seat.
A (Take a seat): Thank you sir.
P2: Tell me something about yourself.
A (Kind of happy as this is a standard questions and I had an answer prepared.): (Don't remember exactly what I said but the routine stuff about my schooling, college, and college activities. By the time I came to the point of VLSI, P2 cuts in)
P2 (Cutting me in): Yaar, you talked of love and all in the GD. If you talk like this, I'll never fall in love with you. I don't want to now what you did in your school or college or job. I want to know what are you as a person? Tell me who are you? How are you different from others?
A (Slightly startled, but realised that the routine approach is not going to work. Getting out of the 'interview mode' and switching to the 'real me' mode): Sir, I personally feel I'm different from the rest of the world. I have above average intelligence and much better observation and grasping power than others. This is not just my feeling, this has been acknowledged by my teachers, peers and superiors alike. I can get things done in relatively less time and effort than others. Another area where I am very different is that I trust myself. If I know I'm right in doing something I'll go ahead and do it without caring what the world thinks of it.
(P2 seems to be getting interested. In the meantime P1 comes in and starts browsing my file.)
P2 (to P1): Sir, he's saying something about VLSI.
P1: Yes?
A: (I mention my interest in VLSI and the lab setup and that it was then that me, Manas and Shri decided to work together)
P1: Do you know any Indian companies working in VLSI fabrication?
A: I know Paxonet but they're into VLSI design and not into fabrication. Also, I'm not sure if it's entirely an Indian company or an Indian operation of some foreign company.
P1: Have you heard of .... (Some company)?
A: No sir.
P2: What do you like? What are your passions?
A: Sir, I read a lot, I blog at times, but my real passions would be computers, gadgets, speed, bikes, cars. I actually have this wish list that I maintain.
P2: Are all the items in that list materials?
A: Most of them.
P2: If you are told that you'll get one thing, what would you ask for?
A: One dream come true kind of thing?
P2: Yes.
A: I'd ask for a Lamborghini.
P2: Do you know it's top speed?
A: Not the exact figure, but it's more than 300Km/Hr
P2: Where will you drive it?
A: The only road I can think of is Pune-Mumbai expressway.
P2: What's the speed limit there?
A: 80Km/Hr
P2: Then?
A: (Don't remember the exact words, but said something to the tune of "It's not the 80 that matters, it's the Lamborghini that matters.")
P1: So you work for HSBC, what do you do?
A: We as a company or I as an individual?
P1: You as an individual.
A: (Summarise my job responsibilities, business domain and the technologies involved).
P1: How much would rate the work you've done till now?
A: On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 being the routine mundane job of moving a textbox by 2 pixels on a screen and 10 being developing a complete trading system, I'd rate my regular work at 5-6 but the best piece of work I did would get a 7-7.5.
P1: And what if 10 being something like Artificial Intelligence.
A: Sir, we don't do AI here, so I have rated my work according to the range of work we have here.
P1: You are in an IT company. As per a study the proportion of failed projects to total projects started is very high in IT compared to other industries. Why do you think that happens.
A: Sir, very frankly projects generally do not fail in our organisation. But if I have to think of the reasons for failure, I'd say wrong estimation or extreme deadlines or the requirements not being clear. Another reason might be insufficient budgets leading to abandoning of projects half way through.
P1: Why do you think that happens?
A: From a software company's point of view, this my happen due to extreme competition in the market and the pressure to win a project turning into underbidding and setting of unrealistic targets. But again this doesn't happen with us as we are not in the open market. We are a captive IT shop for the HSBC group. This means we are going to work only for HSBC group and the group will give all its IT work to us only.
P1: Have you seen any projects failing and what were the reasons?
A: I've seen very few projects failing and that too happened because of the requirements changing very frequently.
P1: What, in your opinion, are the risks associated with IT companies and projects?
A: The biggest risk would be the recent example of US recession and the Rupee appreciation affecting the bottomlines of IT companies. Another risk I perceive is skill mismatch in projects. (While writing this, I realised I should have also mentioned attrition.)
P2: Do you follow any sports?
A: Not really, but I sometimes follow F1.
P2: Where was the latest race held?
A: It was the Malaysian Grand Prix held in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.
P2: Who won?
A: No idea sir, but I read that Force India came in at no 12. I guess Raikonnen or Massa would have won.
P2: Raikonnen won. He led the race throughout.
A: All the 75 laps?
P2: Yes.(Pauses) Talking of F1, do you really think the name Force India is a good name? It feels really bad when the headline reads 'Force India Crashes Out'.
A: By what name to call his team is Mr. Mallaya's decision. But I personally feel this names signifies his faith in the team and its potential.
P2: What potential do you think this team has?
A: As per the Malaysian GP results it seems there is potential. Fisichella finished 12th and I read in Mr. Mallaya's interview they expect to be in the top ten by the end of this year and are targeting the podium in 2009 season.
P2: Let him say whatever he wants to. Has this guy Fisichella won a single race in his life that he'll win now?
A: I'd like to believe he will.
P1: Do you know how much this chap Mallaya has paid for that team?
A: No sir, all I know is that he bought the Spyker team, don't have any idea about the deal amount.
P1: This Kingfisher Airlines and the beer brand, are owned by a group. Do you know the group's name?
A: Sir it's the UB group, United Breweries.
P1: What is their share in the international beer market?
A: Not sure about the beer but they have the maximum share in the Scotch market is what I read somewhere.
P1: Which, according to you, is the most popular beer brand?
A: Kingfisher, I guess.
P1: Are you sure?
A: No sir.
P1: Kingfisher is at no 3. The first two are ...(some name from H) and ...(don't remember this one at all).(Pausing) You said something about the US recession. And you work for HSBC. We've heard that HSBC has taken major losses due to the sub prime crisis.
A: Sir, on the contrary, HSBC has taken very few losses compared to other banks. Also out of a turnover of over 300 Billion Dollars, the group lost 17 Billions to sub prime which is just a marginal fraction. Again if you compare with Citigroup, our losses are minimal compared to theirs of around 200 Billion Dollars which even cost them the no 1 position. Now HSBC is the no 1 bank as per the asset value.
P1: And why is that so?
A: The main reason we did not lose a lot of money is that the recent sub prime crisis is a US specific phenomenon. HSBC being a Europe centric bank, doesn't have enough presence in the US to have taken huge losses.
P2: Other than HSBC, name a bank which has incurred losses due to sub prime?
A: Citigroup is one.
P2: Any other?
A: Bank of America, may be. Basically all American banks took losses.
P1: Ok Aalok, we are done with you. Before leaving, is there anything you'd like to ask us?
A: Yes sir, comparing MDI with other institutes, I find that the amount of extra curricular activities happening here is much more than others.
P1: Which other institutes?
A: You may take any institute. The amount of visibility that MDI has through its extra curriculars is much more than any other institute. Is it really so or MDI promotes these activities more aggressively?
P1: Well, if you are aware, the program you've applied for is a fully residential one. So there's a lot of energy flowing around during the weekends. (Briefs me about the different events held at MDI like business quizzes, paper presentations, panel discussions etc.)
P2: Sometimes corporates also come and tell us that they want to do something, if they can sponsor any event.
P1: Our students are also running a mutual fund of their own and it is doing good if you compare with other funds in the market. All the students and staff pitched in and contributed to it. We even wanted to register the fund but their are legal restrictions, you need to create a holding company and stuff. (Pauses) Is there anything else you'd like to know?
A: No sir.
P1: Well, then we're done with you. Thanks.
A: Thank you sir.

And so, after 20 minutes of conversation (It really felt like a normal conversation rather than an interview), I came out. Discussed my interview briefly with the remaining candidates, wished them luck, started my bike and was off to home.

I was actually feeling good as the interview had gone decently well, I was done with all my GD/PI rounds and the fever didn't come back.

Well, the results came out three days back on 15th April, 2008 and I've been selected for MDI. Now just waiting for the IIM results which are expected on 23rd. Keeping my fingers crossed.

-Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Latest Trip to Mumbai

2008-04-17T19:59:00.004+05:30

I sometimes wonder how my every trip to Mumbai turns out to be a new experience everytime.
Last weekend's trip was also interesting. Since again, these are small incidents, I'll write a few lines for each.

The Bus Stand: I had decided to go at the last minute, so couldn't get a train reservation and had to take a bus. Quite interestingly, the queue for deluxe AC bus was much more longer and moving equally fast while the one for Non AC bus was a fraction of its neighbour but still stagnant. I soon found out the reason. MSRTC had realised that most of the weekend travellers are IT professionals who do not bat an eyelid before throwing away a couple of hundred bucks and the number & frequency of AC buses had been increased, not to mention the increased fares. So the situation now is that you can get an AC bus within 15 minutes but you'll have to wait for a Non AC one for anything between 30 minutes to an hour! Frustrated by the long wait, I went up to the ticket window to enquire, here's the short conversation that followed:
Me: Line कब चालू होगा?
Conductor: Bus आने के बाद
Me: Bus कब आयेगी?
Person standing at first position in the queue: Line चालू होने से पहले
I give him a weird and confused look.
Same person: Office Office देखा करो
And I come back to my position in the queue. Thankfully the bus arrived soon after and I got the ticket.

The Doctor: The person sitting next to me in the bus turned out to be a doctor. I realised this in the last hour of the journey because that was the only time he was awake. Not just a doctor, this gentleman was an Orthopaedic surgean who had studied in Pune. Well, I told him everything about my accident and the corrective surgery advised by the doctor (more details here). Obviously he couldn't comment as he didn't know my case in detail and hadn't seen my X-Rays. Interesting conversation followed about how life in IT is comfortable and enjoyable (one of his misconceptions which I duly corrected) and how engineers tend to get independent early in life whereas doctors have to depend on their parents for a long time. I asked him a lot of questions about profession in the medical fields, need for interpersonal skills in a doctor, different growth options, medical research and conferences, value of a plain MBBS degree and the constant need to further specialise for survival, how doctors struggle their entire life and their kids enjoy the fruits of their labour, why they use green cloth while surgeries, what precautions they take to avoid infection, why there are so less women doctors other than gynaecologists and paediatricians. Finally when I thought he had started getting bored with my questions, it was time to leave :-)

The Bike: My bike doesn't have a number plate after it came back from the repairs (more details here). So this time I had thought of getting the number painted as I had already got it serviced last week. Well, I roamed the whole area for about half an hour trying out different garages and paint shops, but no one did number plates! So much for getting everything in Mumbai.

Ending the Fasts: The navratris were ending on Sunday, 13th April 2008 which meant end of my week long fasts and religious ceremony to mark the event. This, for me, means delicious हलवा, पूरी, खीर, छोले and चने। Wow! what a way to end fasts!

The Gadgety Girly Girl: After some recent roller coaster events in my life (details coming in another post) I've kind of lost interest in girls. But the one sitting opposite me in train while returning to Pune was slightly different. The first thing I noticed about her was that her left arm and leg were bandaged and she was very efficiently carrying a cool cell phone, an iPod and two bags. Wow! a girl with guts, good looking too. She actually knew how to click pictures from the cell, use the handsfree and listen to music at the same time. Then I noticed something which made me lose all my interest, her socks. She was wearing dark pink socks with floral patterns on them, yuck! Her cell phone still had my attention and I couldn't resist asking the make, model and the specifications. This is when she told me that she loves clicking pictures and I challenged her to take a picture which I've never been able to take - The brilliant white trees on the hills after Lonavala during rains. If I happen to meet her again, I'm surely going to ask her about it.

The Village Well: This is a scene which reminded me of old hindi movies where village ladies travelled miles to fetch drinking water although this was not a village in the middle of nowhere, it was just outside Lonavala and the well was just a few hundred metres from their homes :-)

The Monkey: This is another scene which reminded me of our lives. A monkey sitting next to the railway tracks eating some wild fruit. Isn't that what we all do, trying to find a living while the world moves by hardly noticing us?

On this note, I'll end this post. Stay tuned for the next one ;-)

-Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Education

2008-03-16T13:48:00.007+05:30

What does education and being educated mean?

The Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary describes these as:
edu·ca·tion

noun:

1 a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills

2 a particular kind of teaching or training

edu·cated

/ adjective:

1 having had the kind of education mentioned; having been to the school, college or university mentioned

2 having had a high standard of education; showing a high standard of education

But is this really what being educated means in the broad sense? How different is this from being 'Literate' which is defined as being able to read and write?

To me, the aim of education is not just to make someone literate - by literacy I don't just mean the dictionary definition of ability to read and write, but the knowledge of one's field of education say Medicine, Physics, Engineering, Accounting and their hundreds of specialisations and super specialisations - so as to enable him/her to earn a living. Education, in addition to this, is about providing a logical way of living, being responsible for one's actions and most important of all making a positive contribution to the society and the nation.

Is education really achieving this? I don't think so. Just look around yourself and you'll find the so called educated elite behaving in a manner just opposite what you'd expect from an educated person.

On road, you are taken for a fool if you follow the traffic rules. The attitude is that if no one else is stopping at a red light, why should I? Although I don't have any empirical data to prove this, but I seriously believe that if everyone just starts honouring the red light - forget about the other traffic rules - traffic jams would be a history. Like Shahrukh Khan says in the 'Do' video, "Let's face it. You're not stuck in a traffic jam, you ARE the traffic jam!"

We're not ashamed of bribing, the traffic cop to avoid getting a ticket, the clerk to get a gas connection. What else can you expect when the very foundation of education is based on bribe - you can't get your kid into pre school without appropriate 'donation' let's not even talk about the situation for professional colleges. We are not even ashamed of submitting false rent receipts and travel bills just to save a few thousand bucks from our taxes!

Household violence, dowry related deaths, female foeticide & infanticide is increasingly being reported in educated households - another factor here might be increased proactivity of women in these homes, leading to increased reporting. Of what use is education if we still can't move over the dark ages of 'wanting a boy child to carry forward the family name', 'girls being a burden on parents', 'wanting a dowry for your son's marriage even when the prospective bride is as successful as your son'. There was a recent article in a Mumbai paper about a couple, having six daughters all of them successful by any standards, which stopped having kids only when their seventh child turned out to be a boy!

Leave aside the big issues, you can find examples of irresponsibility in subtle behaviours like using sand buckets - meant for use in case of an electric fire - as ash trays, throwing garbage on roads, smoking in public places, honking horns near hospitals & schools, breaking the queue at the ticket counter and the list can go on.

I can still understand some of the things but what really stumps me is people blindly forwarding chain mails in the name of God or about a family having an infant with brain cancer trying to generate money by forwarding mails. The most amusing and irritating at the same time is people clicking on links claiming to tell who has a crush on them but which actually spam everyone in your contact list with the same message. And the icing on the cake is the fact that so much vulnerability is being displayed by the IT professionals, the so called knowledge workers who go through innumerable sessions on social engineering and IT security!

The sole point I'm trying to make is that the flat world - I hope Thomas Friedman doesn't mind my use of the phrase - has enabled us to make a difference as individuals by providing the tools for collaborating and making ourselves heard. With education on our side we can the world a better place to live. After all society is made up of individuals there's no way the society won't change if everyone of us starts taking responsibility for our actions.

I just happened to read this quote by Swami Vivekananda which, in one sentence, says what I've been trying to say throughout this post.

"Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life." - Swami Vivekananda

-Aalok
--Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.

Mixed Bag

2008-03-13T00:20:00.003+05:30

Over the last couple of days, so many things happened which I want to write about. But since my thoughts about these are not so vast as to deserve an independent post for each, I decided to club all those in this post.

Where do aunties get so much energy for talking?:
I was going to Mumbai for my parents' wedding anniversary and I happened to be sitting with a bunch of aunties who did not stop talking throughout the journey. Luckily I had a window seat and my iPod & a copy of 'The World is Flat' came in handy. May be Steven Levitt should investigate and add a chapter in the next edition of Freakonomics, titled 'Where do aunties get so much energy for talking?' ;-)

One of the most beautiful sights!:
My faith in 'Everything happens for good' was strengthened this day. To escape the above mentioned aunties' conversation, my attention was either completely in the book or I was totally devoted to the scenes outside the window. I was duly rewarded near Khandala when I saw one of the most beautiful sights ever. The Mumbai-Pune national highway was winding through the Western Ghats with night traffic moving in unison. Deep down in the valley was Khopoli which, with its night lights, was a mirror image of the stars above - someone mentioned that it looked as if jewels had been spread around, but I like the sky analogy better - and in the real sky was the moon in a perfect crescent. I can't put a picture because my W810i couldn't capture it. As a matter of fact, you have to be there to see it, no picture of wordy description can do justice to the scene!

Perfection in profession:
We all hear about being perfect in what we do but here's an example which I came across recently. This Tuesday, while coming back from The Siddhivinayak Temple, I stopped by at the nearby coconut seller to get the prasad coconuts opened. Well, after opening the second one, he told me that it was a bad piece. Just to be sure I went ahead and tasted the water inside. Yup, it was a bad piece. But I went ahead and asked him to open it completely and the whole thing turned out to be rotten. Talk about being perfect in your profession!

Country Club:
This was my first experience of attending a marketing presentation, of which my parents have attended dozens. These are places which call you up and tell that you are the 'lucky winner' of a holiday package and need to attend a presentation to claim your gift. As it turns out, along with you there are dozens of other such 'lucky winners' attending presentations to claim their prize. This one was by Country Club. So this friendly guy comes up to you and starts asking harmless looking questions about your holiday preferences and frequency etc. Then he comes to the agenda of marketing his company's superb holiday cum investment cum value for money cum blah blah blah... plan which just happens to be similar to dozens of such plans being marketed by other holiday clubs. All said and done, we tell him that even though the plan is good, it is out of our budget and other excuses. Basically, we tell him that we are not going to shell out any money and that we have come to get our free gift and leave. Now starts the discount and the various 'attractive finance options'. The guy even says that they have arrangements for making the deal in black - since they have to cater to politicians and businessmen also - if the deal setting off alarms in the tax department is our concern. We are astonished and amused at the same time! What am I doing while all this is going on? Well, I'm reading about Deja Vu on Wikipedia on my cell phone! In the end, the poor guy fails to get any money out of our pocket, we collect our free tea set and get going.

Ritika:
It's 2230 hours and we are having dinner at Intercontinental The Grand - it's my parents' anniversary - and my phone rings. It's Ritika. Conversation follows and I'm elated. At least someone felt my absence and was considerate enough to call up and check if everything was OK. Yes, I exist!

Honey Bee:
There's this bee which apparently has lost its way and ends up banging itself against the kitchen window in an effort to get out. I watch this for some time, then I try to guide it out but to no avail. I come back a few minutes later and the poor thing is still struggling to get out. The next thing I do - I still am startled why I did so - is spray it with Mortein. It is shocked, startling, struggling and finally slain. I just took a life without a reason and now I feel miserable. I hate myself! :-(

Karjat:
After innumerable failed attempts, today I managed to spot the old age care home where we had kept granny for a few months following her stroke. I just said a silent prayer for her soul to rest in peace and that no one should go through what she had to in her last few days.

Adidas:
Ya, so Adidas is supposed to be world's leading sportswear manufacturer and a majority of the athletes use their products. So they must be good, right? Wrong! I just got this gym bag which costs half a grand, I fill up my stuff and pick it up. Surprise! the straps just come off. Well, since they are so damn good, I must have done something wrong. So I fix it up and go with my business. Two hours down the line, the stitches are already coming off! Enough of trusting Adidas. Now I'm a Reebok loyalist forever (I always was, but now the loyalty just got a hundred times stronger).

So much to do, so less time!

2008-03-02T22:11:00.003+05:30

Have you ever been through a time when you feel that the day just doesn't have enough number of hours? Well, I used to feel this once in a while but recently this has started happening a lot more frequently.

I need to get a handle on my life. There's so much on my to do list which I never really get down to doing. Not just that, this list keeps on growing by the day which has kind of started scaring me.

I'll try and list down the things I want to do according to different categories.

Professional front:

The normal routine work: The project deadline is approaching and the pending work is piling up which is forcing me to stay late and messing up the rest of my life. I know once this problem is solved, taking care of rest of the stuff should be simplified. There is only one solution for this condition. I need to work smarter and not harder so I'm trying to reduce amount of time I waste in office. How would I do that? Well, I'll have to turn completely blunt regarding social niceties. No chatting on Sametime, no reading forwarded emails, no forwarding emails, no useless phone calls. Most important of all, coming to, and leaving office on time, no extended tea breaks and a short lunch. This should free up at least four hours for other activities.
Java Certification: I've beenthinking for way too long about appearing for Sun Java Certification but it ends there as this thought never materialises into action. Why, you may ask. Because of three reasons primarily. One, I never seem to be having the time to sit and study. This should not be very difficult as discussed earlier. I just need to manage my time better. Two, I never seem to be having the spare money. Agreed that the office refunds the fee if you clear the exam but you still need to shell out the money once and I never have that. We'll come to the finance part later. Three, I'm not sure if I should go in for certification. If I get through IIM's this year, which I hope I do, the certification would go waste.
Learning Technology: Although I'm much better off here as compared to my peers, but personally I don't feel I know enough technology for a guy who's been working for almost three years now. I still don't know XML. I have to learn Hibernate, EJB, Spring, Swing, Struts, Design Patterns, Unix, SQL, and the list goes on.
Domain: I've been working in Investment Banking for about three years now and all I know is that Bloomberg & Reuters are the biggest data providers and almost every bank pays them for it and that there are some identifiers used for the instruments like ISIN, SEDOL, RIC and that in the background everyone has a mainframe running Unix which works with a fixed format or a field separated file. That's it folks, that's all I know about investment banking :-(

Catching up with the world:

Current affairs: When was the last time read a newspaper? Oh yes, I glanced over the headlines on the days of my interviews (IIML & IIMI) but apart from that it's literally been months when I read a newspaper. All the issues of 'The Week' and 'Reader's Digest' are lying unopened. Even The Manorama Yearbook, which buy every year, is lying unopened. Can you believe I still don't know what happened in The Rail Budget and The
Union Budget this year! The state of affairs is so bad that I don't even know what's the latest on box office :-(
Friend circle: People in my friend circle are getting married, changing jobs, going on-site, going back to college and I don't come to know of it for weeks and even months at times.

Finance:

Spending: Like mentioned briefly earlier, the state of my finances is bad perennially. I get my salary on 28^th of every month and by the 5^th I'm waiting for the next 28^th! I seem to be spending all my salary in repaying loans and my credit card bills. Not that I use the plastic a lot, it's my old sins that I'm paying for now. Impulsive buying is a bad thing and I've learnt the hard way that once you get trapped, it takes a lot of mental, physical and
financial discipline to come out of it. Well, I'm on my way out and things should be fine in a couple of months.
Saving: Almost three years of work and apart from repaying my education and home loans I've not invested a single penny anywhere else. I have a demat account which is lying dormant since the day it was opened. Frustrated, my relationship manager dropped an email once. I explained him the situation and he hasn't got in touch since then.
Donating: As a family we strongly believe in donating to agencies helping the underprivileged amongst us. I've been in my financial mess for far too long to have donated
anything to anyone and the guilt keeps piling up.
Contribution to home: When children start earning, parents expect they'll contribute in the
family income. Yes, you guessed it right, forget contributing, I had to borrow money from home for the tax saving investments at times!

Personal Front:

Organisation: My room is a big mess. There are books, magazines, clothes lying around everywhere. I can bet a five year old kid's room looks better than mine. The PC is another story altogether. The 120 GB hard disc is almost full and I keep dumping files wherever I find space. There are 18 GB of songs lying unsorted with hundreds surely having multiple copies. It's almost three months since I returned but the London pictures are still not organised.
Reading: I have this huge pile of books waiting to be read. And I'm not talking about the magazines I mentioned earlier, I haven't finished reading books on my reading list, like The World is Flat, Freakonomics, Nazi Germany, The Birth of English Speaking World, Sherlock Holmes, State of Fear, Prey.
Guitar: It's been years since I want to learn playing a guitar. I once actually found out the
details of instructors in the area and their charges but that was the nearest I got to learning it.
Blogging: I would like to blog about more meaningful stuff rather than just what's happening in my life but this is not a very high priority as hardly anyone reads it
and I'll have to catch up on current affairs to come up with something meaningful. More than blogging, I would like to start writing a diary but not sure if it's worth the time.
Schedule: My daily schedule is a wreck. I don't eat at time and I don't eat at times, I don't sleep at time, I get no exercise whatsoever and I spend too much time waiting for public transport which is pathetic in Pune. As a result of all this, my weight fluctuates a lot. I realised the optimal solution to this situation would be to get a bicycle as I would save
on the cost of travel, petrol, repairs of my car, would also get much needed exercise and the time saved would be a bonus. I had planned to pick up Manas' bike which was lying unused for months. But when I asked his mom about it yesterday, I came to know that they had already given it to someone else :-( I guess I'll have to buy my own now. But that has to wait as I have to clear my previous dues and am waiting for my interview results. I also need to start sleeping and getting up on time. I sleep at around 2 AM and wake up
by 8 AM which means I get late for office almost daily which in turn means that I get home late and the vicious cycle continues. In addition to all this, I need to get my 8 hours of sleep every night. Currently I'm managing with 6 or even less at times. Oh and I simply
forgot to mention about my diet. Like mentioned in my earlier post, I used to have breakfast at office, lunch at office and evening snacks at office for dinner. After a recent argument with the friend with whom I used to have breakfast and lunch, I stopped having breakfast. Lunch is continuing, although with different people and at a different place, as I need to eat something to survive and evening snacks have also become less frequent because of the work load. So basically I'm down to only one proper meal a day. I know I need to check this situation or it will take its toll on me, but I don't really know what to do!
Spirituality: This is something which is very important to me and still tends to be the most
neglected one. I want to learn Sanskrit which is the language of our religious scriptures. I want to devote more time to my prayers. Currently I get time to formally sit down for my prayers only on weekends and other holidays. I want to visit a temple once a week
like we used to, at Hisar, but again, can't find the time to do so.

So, like you must have guessed by now, my life is the best example of procrastination and time
mismanagement. I just hope I get down to sorting things out soon.

My GD/PI for IIM Indore

2008-02-23T10:41:00.005+05:30

This is the account of my second IIM GD/PI process, the first one being for IIM Lucknow on 9th February, 2008 in Mumbai. This one was for IIM Indore on 21st February, 2008 at the same center in Mumbai. My reporting time was 8:50 AM and I just managed to reach in time. Well, no familiar faces this time, so to kill time started calling people, going through the major headlines.

After about half an hour, one of the organisers came and took our attendance. A few minutes later, the individual panelists started coming and took their groups along. I was with 'Panel III' with seven others. After being seated (I was not the last one to be seated this time!) we were briefed on the process i.e. 5 minutes to study the given case (IIMI always has case studies) followed by 15 minute GD and 5 minutes for writing the summary of the discussion (Repeat, summary of the discussion and not what we individually felt). The process would finally be over after our individual interviews.

We were handed out the case papers and the clock started ticking. The case was about a steel bearing manufacturing company planning to compete with world class companies. To increase efficiency among shop floor employees the management has planned to introduce 'Performance Appraisal' system in place of the current 'Pay According to Seniority' system. There were indications in the case matter about lax management practices, lack of communication from management and no knowledge of the appraisal system among workers. There were also indications of workers taking the new system as a tool for giving management more control over them.

After the reading time was over, we were asked to get rid of our notes(!) before the discussion started. As expected, the GD started with the initiator mentioning the problem. I was the second person to speak and mentioned that the basic problem here was the inherent human tendency to resist change that our job is to convince the workers how the new system is going to help the company and them in turn. The GD went fine and I had 4 proper speaking attempts. I mentioned about the human tendency to resist change, the need to stay with the times (all the companies use performance appraisal), appraisal not being another method of control but to recognise individual's efforts. I also mentioned about providing HR representatives for all departments with whom workers can discuss their issues and concerns which was built upon by another person by rephrasing it as grievance redressal cell. Once the GD was over we were asked to write a summary at the back of our interview forms. Once done, they (the panelists) collected our CAT admit cards, interview forms, copies of marks sheets, the case study paper and even the notes we had made during the GD. The GD was over and we were back to the waiting hall where the normal 'hi', 'hello', 'which college', 'which company', 'how was the GD', 'what other calls' etc continued while waiting for our interview turns.

Unlike IIML's interviews, the good thing here was that we weren't supposed to line up outside the interview room. We had to wait in the waiting hall only where they would ring up and call the candidates for interview. Another difference was that once a person was done with the interview, he could come back to the waiting hall to provide feedback and discuss his/her interview with others.

I was the seventh person in my group to be interviewed at around 12:20. The panel consisted of twi gentlemen (P1 & P2). Since a lot of questions were asked and topics were switched randomly, I might not be able to reproduce my interview verbatim here, but I'll try to do the best job I can. Here's what went on...

P1: Come in Aalok. Have a seat.
A (Taking the seat): Thank you sir.
P1: Can we please have a look at your certificates and the original marks sheets?
A (Handing over the folder): Here it is sir.
P1 (Handing over the folder to P2): So Aalok, tell us something about yourself.
A (Kind of happy as this interview started as expected): Sir, I come from a defense background, my father was in the Army, and I've done my schooling from Hisar and Pune.
I completed my electronics & telecom engineering in 2005 from PVG'sCOET which is affiliated to Pune University. I had a distinction in my engineering. I participated in various paper presentation competitions during college the main one being on my BE project which was published in a national conference held at VIT, Pune. During college I was also a major contributor in setting up the VLSI Lab. This activity also helped me and my friends realise a common interest in the field and we decided to work together in future.
After my engineering, through campus selection, I was selected to work for HSBC Software. As a company, we are a captive IT shop for the HSBC Group i.e. we are responsible for providing all the IT solutions for the HSBC Group head quartered at London. My department deals with investment banking and my project is in the field of stock lending. As an individual developer I'm involved primarily in analysis and development of Java applications and to some extent SQL and Unix shell scripting.
(Got totally carried away in my flow of thoughts and forgot to mention about my VLSI score in college, activities at hostel and extra contributions in job :-(. Had mentioned it in my form and resume though.)
P1: Why do you want to go in for management?
A (Happy as I got another expected question): Like I briefly mentioned earlier, me and my friends have decided to have a technology startup in the future. We already have the technical knowledge to some extent and are in the process of acquiring the remaining technical skills. One of my friends is doing hie M.Tech. in Signal Processing at IIT Kharagpur and another one is doing ans M.S in Electronics at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. But apart from technical knowledge, running a business successfully also requires management knowledge which we do not have currently. So to gain the required management knowledge for our future business, I want to go in for management.
P1: So you want to be an entrepreneur?
A: Yes sir.
P2 (Who was busy scrutinising my certificates till now): So you won't need a placement. Will you give it to us in writing that you won't sit for placements?
A: Sir, how can I say now that whether two years later I will need a placement or not!
P2 (Smiling): But you said you want to do a business. So why will you need a placement?
A: Sir, being very frank and honest, if things go as planned and by the time I finish my management education, i.e. 2010, if we are ready, we'll start off our business. But I can't predict what the situation will be two years down the line, so at this point of time I won't be able to commit whether I'll need a placement or not (smile of satisfaction on my face).
(P1 & P2 look at each other and smile. Then look at me and smile. P2 goes back to my certificates. P1 continues the questioning.)
P1: So what, according to you, would be the defining difference between management and technology?
A: From a business perspective, management would deal with the details of managing people, finances, placing the product in market, sales strategies etc whereas technology would be concerned with the technical details like actual design and building of the product.
P1: So what's the difference between the roles of a Project Manager and Project Engineer?
A: From my experience in the software industry, I can say that a Project Manager's responsibility is mainly with managing the people, engaging the client, ensuring that deadlines are met, billing and reporting whereas a Project Engineer or Design Architect, as we call it, is responsible for the technical design of the application, conducting training for other resources, clarifying technical queries and consulting on technical issues.
P1: Aalok, do you read any newspapers?
A: Sir whenever I get the time, I go through The Times of India and The Economic Times.
P1: What's going on in the nation these days? Politically, Economically, Socially etc...
A: Sir, like you mentioned, there are lots of things going on different fronts. Which area would you like to know?
P1: Lets say economics. What's going on at the economic front.
A: Sir, the biggest topic of discussion on economics these days is the coming Union Budget.
P1: What are your expectations from the budget?
A: From whatever I've read recently, it seems that keeping the next year's general elections in mind, the government will try and come up with a populist budget (wanted to speak about the expected measures but was cut in).
P1 (Cutting me in): But won't that hamper the ongoing economic development?
A: Yes sir, if it's a budget solely aimed at wooing the vote bank, then it will affect the economic development. To balance the economic development and the anti incumbency factor in the budget would be the biggest challenge for Mr. Chidambaram.
P1: Don't you think that all this budget and different policies are used by the political parties as tools for their personal benefits?
A: Yes, to some extent every political party does that.
P1: You mentioned something about being from a defense background. if asked to pick a single state, which state would you say you belong to?
A: Like you said, considering my family background, it will be difficult to pick a particular state. But if it is absolute must to pick one state I'll say Maharashtra as I've stayed here for the past eight years and plan to continue staying here.
P1: Keeping this in mind, do you think the recent comments by Raj Thakrey are correct?
A: Theoretically, I agree to what Mr. Raj Thakrey is saying i.e. if a person is planning to settle down here for a long term, he should make an effort to learn the local language and culture. But I do not agree to what he is practically doing.
P1: So you don't agree to him?
A: I agree to the concept, but his and his supporters actions against the migrants do not seem coherent with what he is saying. His actions do not reflect the concern towards the common man. It just seems to be a temporary act to gain political mileage.
P2 (Finally keeping my folder aside): You work for HSBC Software. What exactly do you do?
A: Sir, as mentioned earlier, we as a company are responsible for fulfilling any IT related requirement of the HSBC Group. My primary skill set is Java and I also do some amount of back-end SQL coding and Unix Shell Scripting. I'm the only developer in my current project which is in the filed of Stock Lending.
P2: So what are you doing in your project?
A (Thinking how to explain the project): Sir, this is a migration project in which we are replacing a legacy application with Java. The old application is written with Power Builder as a front-end which is difficult to maintain. The back-end is a Sybase database. We are about to finish Phase I in which we had planned to replace the Power Builder front-end with Java Swing based application, keeping the back-end as is. Phase II is planned to start in April where the complete application will be redesigned including the back-end and new technologies will be introduced (not sure if the interviewer understood this).
P2: What is a hub & spoke schema?
A (Surprised): Sir I've never heard of that term. But the word 'schema' is used in relation to database design and user permission. Assuming this term is related to the database, it must be referring to a kind of schema design. But I won't be able to answer this for sure as databases are not my primary area of work.
P2: What's the difference between DBMS and RDBMS?
A (Surprised to get another question on databases but this is an easy one so don't create a fuss out of it): DBMS stands for DataBase Management System and RDBMS stands for Relational DataBase Management System. From what I know, a DBMS is a plain data storage mechanism using tables but in RDBMS you can define relationships between different tables using primary key and foreign key concepts.
P2: What's the difference between C and C++?
A: C is a Procedural language while C++ is an Object Oriented language.
P2: What is an ALU?
A: ALU stands for Arithmetic & Logic Unit and is used in microprocessors for performing the mathematical functions like addition, subtraction, multiplication etc. and logical functions like AND, OR, NOT etc.
P2: Can you draw the diagram for an ALU?
A: Sir I won't be able to draw the internal diagram but (drawing the symbol) the symbol of an ALU used in diagrams is this. The inputs consist of the data on which the operation is to be performed and control input which decides what operation is to be performed on the input data. The output is the result of the operation performed on the data.
P2: What is the output if V1 is less than V2?
A (Confused): Sir I'm not sure what V1 and V2 are you talking about.
P2: It's OK if you are not able to remember. We'll move on to the next question.
A (!!!)
P2: What's the relation between resistance and temperature?
A: That depends on what material you are talking about.
P2: Take any material.
A: For normal conductors like metals, Copper, Iron etc, the resistance increases with temperature which is called having a positive temperature coefficient of resistance. For semi conductors, the resistance decreases with increasing temperature which is called having a negative temperature coefficient of resistance.
P2: And what about superconductors?
A: Superconductors are not a separate class of conductors. Superconductivity is a state in which the resistance of a material becomes zero. All conductors become superconductors at a critical temperature depending on the material. These temperatures are generally very close to absolute zero.
(P2 is smiling and I'm thinking whether he really understood the answer or is thinking that I was bluffing.)
P2: Now we'll ask you some GK related questions.
A: OK.
P2: Who was Lord Curzon?
A: Sir, can't recall that name.
P2: Lord Curzon. C-U-R-Z-O-N.
A: Sorry sir, really can't recall that name.
P2: Have you heard of Lord Mountbatten?
A: Yes sir.
P2: What was his contribution to India?
A: The only contribution I'm aware of, is the partition of India. He was the Governor General of India during independence and was one of the key players involved in the partitioning of India.
P2: Apart from that?
A: Apart from that I'm not aware of any other contribution.
P2: Who was the first president of The Indian National Congress?
A (Wondering whether GK only means history): Sorry, I can't recall that.
P2: Are you aware of the process for election of the President of India?
A: The voting in the presidential elections is done by a body known as 'Electoral College' which consists of the MPs of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and the MLAs from the state legislatures.
P2: Can you give a number, what is the size of this body or how many people vote?
A: Sorry sir, I won't be able to give a figure.
P2: Does everyone have a equal vote or is there some weightage?
A: As far as I'm aware there is a differential voting. Different people have different weightages for their votes but I do not know the ratios or figures for them.
P2: What is INS?
A: In defense circles INS stands for Indian Naval Station and is used for naval vassals and land establishments.
P2 (Kind of shocked): That's correct but that's not what I was looking for. (pauses) What's IRS?
A: IRS stands for Indian Remote Sensing and represents a family of satellites launched by ISRO for the purposes of natural resource estimation....
P2 (Startled, cut me in, smiling): Ya, that's also correct but I was looking for something related to the circulation of newspapers. Do you read newspapers?
A: Sir I read The Times of India and The Economic Times whenever I find the time.
P2: Who's the editor of Economic Times?
A: I think it's Swaminathan S Iyer.
P1 (Speaking after a long time): What are your views on the Ramsetu project?
A: I feel the issue has been blown out of proportion by religious parties for their own agenda. But I personally am against the project because of the ecological reasons. The supporters of the project claim that it will increase trade but apart from that it will destroy exotic corals and other rare marine life which the region is home to. It will also add to aquatic pollution.
P1: Now we'll ask you an economics related question and then we'll be done.
P2: Who is considered Below Poverty Line?
A: Sir, I've heard...
P1 (Cutting me in): You've heard or have you read?
A (Smiling): Sorry sir, I've read that families having a daily income of below Rs. 20 are classified as below poverty line families. But I've heard that talks are going on to raise the figure to a daily income of below Rs. 40.
P1: OK Aalok, thanks you. Please collect your folder and admit card. You may leave now.
A: Thank you sir.

Now this my sound like a marathon of an interview but I was surprised when I came out and saw my watch, I was surprised that it lasted less than 20 minutes! I personally feel this was much much better than the one for IIM Lucknow. Well, I came back to the waiting hall to fulfill my duty of sharing my experience with others. In the meantime, Sonali, who happened to have her interview again on the same day but the next timeslot though, also arrived. Greetings and wishes exchanged with everyone, I was done with my IIMI GD/PI. Now, two down, one to go as I wait for the dates for MDI, Gurgaon to announce the dates for their selection procedure.

My GD/PI for IIM Lucknow

2008-02-15T00:17:00.002+05:30

The D-Day had arrived. It was Saturday, 9^th February, 2008 and I was destined to face my first IIM GD/PI process! This was for my IIM Lucknow call and I was supposed to reach the centre, Hospitality Management Institute, by 9:50 AM which I of course did and was guided to the waiting hall.

In the waiting hall the tensions were lowered as I saw some familiar faces. Rohit, Saurabh, Pratik and Gunjan from my Career Forum batch were in the same time slot as me and I also saw a girl who I figured out could be Sonali with whom I had been in touch via email. By 10:15 the organisers came and told us about our groups and interview panels. I was with 'Panel I' along with eight others who included Pratik, Gunjan and Sonali. We proceeded to the GD/PI room where we were given our seating order (like last year at SPJIMR, I was to be seated the last!). The panel (two gentlemen) briefed us about the process i.e. a 30 minute essay followed by a 15 minute GD on the same topic and then individual interviews. They collected our CAT admit cards and the filled up forms. We were set for the essay.

The topic was read out to us which was 'People who work sitting earn more than people who work standing'. This seemed a pretty straightforward topic and after investing about 10 minutes organising my thoughts I devoted myself to put my thoughts to paper. I won't be able to reproduce the exact essay here, but following are the main points which I touched upon:

Explain the topic to be dealing with White Collar (Service Sector) jobs vs. Blue Collar (Labour Sector) jobs and the increasing rich-poor divide.
Justifying the salary discrepancy with different angles like Quality of work vs. Quantity of work, difference in perspective of work & contribution to economic growth.
Brief discussion of the social (different sections of society, rise of middle class), economic (rich-poor divide, shift towards consumerism) and political (majority vote bank remaining susceptible to exploitation) impact of the discrepancy.
Discussion on solutions to the problem like education, technological innovation, improving efficiency, increasing employability.
Benefits of the problem being solved like increased social harmony, even distribution of fruits of progress to everyone.

I was done with my essay in about 350 words and I had written everything I had to write with some time to spare! Well, our answer sheets were collected and we were told that a 15 minute GD will follow and we could start once they said 'OK'. To our amazement, the way the candidate sitting next to me understood this as that we had to start after saying 'OK'! So this guy says 'OK' and introduces the topic and the rest of us are staring at him in disbelief and the panel is laughing hysterically. Anyway this post is not to criticise anyone's performance, but to describe my own so I won't comment on what others did.

Since the topic was a very straightforward one, as expected everyone had thought on the same lines. I could bring in the points of Quality vs. Quantity and Different perspectives. Another person tried to bring in the point of contribution to economy but messed up the figures, so I snatched the attempt and completed it. Surprisingly, no one discussed about the effects and even I couldn't think of bringing it in while the group was moving towards the solutions. By the time I decided to speak, others had already spoken of education and technology and someone was speaking about subsidies. I cut him halfway through his attempt and argued that subsidies are a short term solution and that for a long term solution education and technology should be the pillars. Someone said something about providing equal opportunities. I built upon this by saying something again about education and efficiency. Satisfied with three complete attempts and 2-3 partial attempts I sat listening through the remaining GD, which wasn't much as the time was soon up. Overall I was happy with my performance as I had a good number of speaking attempts, my posture and body language were much better than in the class as we had proper chairs instead of the benches. At one point of time me and Pratik had started speaking simultaneously and no one was ready to budge, but after my use of the 'Please let me finish' weapon he had to shut up.

The GD was over and we were asked to return to the waiting hall where refreshments were being served and we'd be called one by one for interviews. In the waiting hall, we started having introductions and discussions about the GD over a cup of tea/coffee. Soon people started running out of patience and started leaving to wait outside the interview rooms. Outside the interview rooms, while waiting for our turns, regular discussion among candidates at a typical selection centre followed. Finally after a long wait, my turn came (I was the last one to be interviewed, at 1:30 PM!). Here's an account of what happened between the panel (P1, P2) and me (A).

P1: Please come in Aalok. Have a seat.
A: Thank you sir.
P1: You had to wait a long time for your interview.
A (Smiling): Not a problem sir.
P1: Well, Aalok, what happened to your academics? You have 85% in XII standard which is good as per CBSE standards. Why did your percentage drop in engineering?
A: Sir, my engineering marks are also good as per Pune University standards. I was among the top 5% in the University while graduating.
P1: Oh, so this 'Distinction' that you've written is for which year?
A: Sir, that's my degree grade. Pune University considers only final year marks while awarding degree. But my average for four years is also First Class.
P1: Look at your first year and second year marks, 53% and 57%.
A: Yes, sir I agree my first year marks are bad but that's because during my first year I was also preparing for IIT entrance. But I've consistently improved my score over the remaining three years.
P1: Oh, what was your JEE rank?
A: Sir I had an AIR of around 4000.
P2 (Speaking for the first time): Did you clear the screening.
A: Yes sir. In fact I appeared for JEE twice and cleared screening both the times. The rank I mentioned is my Mains rank for my second attempt.
P1: But isn't first year the basic? That means you don't know the basics!
A (No answer. Just trying to remain calm and keep a straight face)
P1: OK, you work for HSBC Software. Is this related to that bank, (to P2) what's the name?
P2: Hong Kong something.
A: Yes, sir it is related to the bank. Would you like me to explain in detail?
P1: Yes, please do.
A: Sir, HSBC stands for Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. As the name suggests it originated in Hong Kong & Shanghai and is one of the biggest banking entities in the world. After the merging of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the corporation shifted its base to London where it is currently head quartered. We at HSBC software, also known as GLT (Global Technology Centre), are a captive IT shop and are responsible for providing the IT solutions required by the organisation. We have two more centres in China & Brazil. I work in a department primarily dealing with corporate investment banking and my current project is in the domain of stock lending.
P1 (Reading from my form): And your responsibility is analysis, design, development and implementation of Java based applications.
A: Yes sir. I work primarily in Java. Apart from Java I also do some amount of Unix scripting and SQL.
P1: What is SQL?
A: SQL stands for Structured Query Language which is a language used in databases for data manipulation like insert, update or regular searching.
P1: What is the difference between SQL and Oracle?
A: SQL is an independent ANSI standard for database queries while Oracle is a database engine. In other words, Oracle is one implementation of database concepts while SQL is an implementation independent standard. As an example we can consider Java. JVM (Java Virtual Machine) specifications are maintained and published by Sun but there are various implementations of the JVM main ones being by Sun, IBM & Oracle. Similarly there are different database engines available like Sybase, DB2 etc. Oracle being one of them.
P1 (Again reading from my form): In your extra curricular activities you've written paper presentations at national and state levels. What exactly is a paper presentation?
A: Paper presentation is a process in which you pick up a technology, read research done in the field, put in your own ideas and present them in a conference or a competition. I have two papers at national level. One was based on my BE project and was published in the conference proceedings of National Conference on Signal Processing, Communication & Control at VIT, Pune. Another one was on Prototype Embedded Networks which I presented in a competition held in my own college. The one I presented at the state level was on 4G Mobile Networks and was presented in Ratnagiri.
P1: What is VPN?
A (A bit surprised): VPN stands for Virtual Private Networking. I do not know a lot of the technical details but as far as I'm aware it's a network on the internet which appears to be a local network.
P1: You must be knowing this. You are an electronics & telecom engineer and have presented papers on networking.
A: Sir, computer networking is a separate field and we studied it only in brief during engineering. Moreover, my papers are on embedded networks and mobile networks which are different than computer networks.
P1: How many research papers did you refer while preparing your paper?
A: The one which I presented on 4G Networks was primarily based on a research done in a Japanese university. In addition to that, we read about mobile networks and generations from reference material available and 2-3 research papers on the technology.
P1: Just 2-3 research papers! That means you don't believe in going deep in the technology. Only scratching the surface is enough.
A (Surprised by the direct attack. Trying to remain calm. No answer.)
P1: Have you heard of ...(some oriental sounding name)?
A (Trying to think): Sorry sir, I can't recall that name.
P1 (Looking at P2): OK.
P2: Aalok, being an engineer you must be remembering your basic sciences.
A: Yes sir.
P2: Can you name a few elements from the periodic table?
A (Happy, as I know the periodic table): Sir do you want me to go column-wise or row-wise?
P2: Go as per the atomic number.
A: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine. Neon, Sodium, Magnesium. Sir that's all I can remember in the sequence. I can name a few more if you want.
P2: What is e-square?
A (Curbing the urge to say that it's a multiplex in Pune): You mean the base of natural logarithms?
P2: Yes.
A: Sir I'm not sure but the value of 'e' is around 2.3 or 2.7. Accordingly the square...
P2 (Cutting in): Are you sure?
A: Sir I said I'm not sure.
P2: Can you remember the series expansion for 'e'?
A (Wondering whether I have come for IIM interview or IIT): No sir I don't remember it as I haven't used it for over 5 years now.
P2: What is normal distribution?
A: As far as I remember, it's a probability distribution model. There are others also like Gaussian and Poisson distributions but I don't remember the equations.
P1 (Smirking): Again because you haven't used it for 5 years?
A (Trying to bring them back to job related questions): Sir we studied these models as a part of our communication theory in second year. But I've been out of touch as my field of work is not the same.
P1 (Looking at P2): Yes, we understand.
P2: What is skewness?
A (Plainly): Never heard of that term.
P2: These distributions are finding applications in IIMs these days.
A: Oh, I see.
P2: Did you study statistics?
A (Lost interest in the interview): Yes, briefly in school.
P2: What is mean deviation?
A: I don't remember hearing that term, but guessing from the name it might mean the summation of the deviation of terms from the mean.
P2: Direct summation without any normalisation?
A: Sir, like I mentioned I haven't heard the term 'mean deviation'. I'm just guessing what it might be from the name. I've heard of standard deviation and variance though.
P2: OK, write down the equation for standard deviation.
A (Trying to explain first): Standard deviation is...
P2 (Cutting in): Don't explain. Write down the equation given the data elements X1 to Xn.
A (Taking out pen): Assuming X bar is...
P2 (Cutting in again and giving a notepad): I know X bar is the mean. Now write down the equation.
A (After writing the equation): This is the equation for standard deviation and its square root is called variance, or the other way round, I'm not sure. But this equation is surely for sigma squared and its square root is represented as sigma. I don't remember which one is standard deviation and which one is variance.
P2: OK.
P1: Can I have a look at your certificates?
A (Hand over the certificates folder)
P1 (After going through it): We have your CAT admit card and the personal data form. I've seen your certificates. Where are the other documents, call letter etc.? You were supposed to bring them along.
A (Handing over second file): Sir that folder contains the marks sheets and the certificates. The documents which the letter had mentioned to be brought are in this file.
P1 (After going through the documents, looking at P2): OK.
P2: What if we changed our roles? What kind of questions would you ask a prospective candidate if you are the interviewer?
A: Sir I'd like to ask about the candidate's achievements, his motive behind going for management education etc.
P1 & P2 (Handing over the CAT admit card): Thank you Aalok. You may leave now.
A (Relieved and smiling): Thank you sir.

So after 20-25 minutes of grilling, my interview was over and I came back home with mixed feelings. Now looking forward to IIM Indore GD/PI on 21^st February.

My Busiest Weekend Ever!

2008-02-11T13:16:00.001+05:30

Well, may be not the busiest weekend ever, but the last weekend was definitely my busiest weekend in recent history.

This weekend started a bit early as I had taken Friday off from work. I had planned to go to Mumbai on Thursday evening but had to cancel it as my class was scheduled the same evening. Packed my stuff on Thursday morning itself and came to office. Had to miss big boss' meeting as had work to finish and also missed the dinner at Taj because of the class. Left office by 6:15 and went for the class. Once free from the class went to Manas' place where I reached by 9:30 and his mom had cooked my favourite food. After changing, had dinner and some discussion about my preparations. Went to sleep after dropping my final answers to my mentor at Career Forum in an email.

My train for Mumbai was at 7:15 AM on Friday, so got up at 5:45 (yes, I really did that), had my bath and milk and headed for the station. Journey to Mumbai was mostly eventless till Lonavala where a Gujarati family of eight (Two couples, two kids and two gorgeous dames, one of them sitting right next to me and other one opposite me) boarded the train. Most of the next couple of hours went into looking at both of them ;-) and the remaining time went into sleeping! Reached Mumbai by 10:15 when Divya called up for some office problem. Teased her a bit and reached home by 10:40. After changing, had my breakfast and went to sleep after booking my ticket for return journey to Pune. Got up in the afternoon, saw some TV and started sorting my stuff. In the evening, prepared my dress, filled up the forms, arranged my documents and went to sleep after going through some current affairs.

Saturday was the day of the interview. So got up and went for the interview after breakfast. The GD/PI got over by 1:30 and reached home by 2:00 (more details of the interview coming in another post). Had lunch and after a short nap it was time to go back to Pune. Reached Pune by 8:15 and after collecting the calculator from Deepak went to Manas' place where I reached by 9:15 and dinner was waiting. After changing, dinner and a brief discussion about my interview went to sleep as I was too tired.

Sunday was the day for GATE. I got up at 8:30 having in mind that the test was at 10:00. A look at the admit card told me that I had to be in my seat by 9:15. Jumped out of bed and was ready to go after my brush, bed and breakfast in flat 20 minutes! Reached the examination centre in time (which was my engineering college) and started going through the questions. Though most of the stuff looked alien, I was surprised to find that I could still solve some of the problems and in two hours time, I had solved more than half of the paper, which is a great feat considering that I've been out of touch for almost three years. Since we were not allowed to leave the hall before 12:30 and I didn't have my cell phone, I started playing my random number game on the calculator (this is where I generate a random number and try to find its prime factors). Finally the exam was over and I headed to my hostel where old friends had decided to meet. To relive the old days, we had lunch at the hostel, saw a movie and went to our favourite chai ki tapri. By the time we were done, it was 5:30 and I headed for Manas' home. Picked up my stuff and headed home. I reached home by 7:00 and I realised I had to go for dinner with Ritika. I was stinking with all the day's travelling, dust and sweat. So had a wash, changed into fresh clothes and headed for our rendezvous point where she picked me up. Oh my God, I never knew she could talk so much! We were talking for almost two hours over dinner and then was time for dessert where we ended up talking for another half an hour! I reached home by 11:30 and after sorting out my stuff from my journey, fired up the PC to check my mail. The good news was that the MDI shortlist was out and I had made it to their GD/PI round for admission to PGPM. The bad news was that without two days of moderation, the Pune community on Orkut had turned into a hate community with topics related to Marathi-Non Marathi and Anti-North Indian sentiments were going on (my views on the issue coming in another post soon) with foul language being used and derogatory personal comments being passed. Took some time cleaning up the community and dropped a mail to the rest of the moderators for deciding the future course of action. Finally went to sleep at 2 AM and the busiest weekend in my recent memory came to and end!

My Experiments with Food

2008-01-27T13:49:00.000+05:30

My normal food routine is breakfast at office, lunch at office and evening snacks for dinner at office. I've practically stopped eating out as good food is exorbitantly overpriced and affordable food is inedible. So, on weekends, No office + No eating out = Cooking at home. Now being the lazy bum that I am, I've never even made an effort to learn to cook despite staying out of home for about seven years now!

As a result of all the above, my staple diet on weekends consists of one or more of the following:
Maggi
Bread & Butter
Curd
Parle-G Glucose biscuits

By the time I get up on weekends breakfast time has already passed and since I'm hungry I eat before lunch time. So my first meal on weekends is a brunch rather than a breakfast or a lunch.

This weekend wasn't much different except that I was in a mood to experiment. Late Saturday morning (or early afternoon if you please) after my bath and pooja I set out to make myself a (actually two) pack of Maggi. So I emptied the usual taste-maker pouches in five cups of boiling water (Yes, I like my Maggi with lots of water) and added the noodles. Suddenly my eyes went to the bar of dark chocolate which a friend had brought from Germany and had been with me for about an year now. Two threads started executing in my mind. The first one was wondering how would Maggi cooked with chocolate taste and the second one was apprehensive that if it didn't turn out edible it would be a complete waste of two packs of Maggi, a bar of German chocolate and a meal. My curiosity got better of me and I added half of the chocolate bar in the boiling Maggi! The usual stirring and boiling followed. When I was satisfied that the chocolate bar had melted and boiled enough I ended up with a bowl full of Maggi in brownish gravy like liquid. I was surprised that It didn't taste bad. In fact, it tasted exactly like Maggi should. May be the taste-maker was too strong for the chocolate to lend its flavour. The only place where the chocolate made its presence felt was the colour of the concoction and the slight brackish tinge that it added. Overall, the experiment didn't go completely bad as I was able to finish the thing without any discomfort.

Emboldened by my morning experiment, I decided to do something different in the evening also. I brought Amul Masti Dahi and Haldiram Boondi for my dinner. I mixed the curd and the boondi to make Boondi Raita which I do a lot of times. But this didn't sound weird at all, so I opened a pack of Parle-G and put the raita on the biscuits similar to the way they used to show in those Monaco ads. This tasted a bit different, as expected when you mix two different taste groups, but wasn't bad overall.

I was feeling like a master chef on Sunday morning, so I decided to experiment once more. This time it was again a pack (Yes, only one this time) of Maggi which was cooked normally with a little butter added. OK, so the Maggi is ready, now what to do with it? I was running out of ideas so I took two slices of bread, spread some butter and put Maggi between the slices. Viola, I had invented Maggi sandwich! But this didn't taste weird at all. Well, the next one had butter on one slice and Maggi tomato ketchup on the other. No, this also tasted normal. So the next one had butter on one and Kissan mixed fruit jam on the other and Maggi between the slices. I was expecting this to taste horrible but it turned out to be awesome. I wanted to have a couple of more of these but I was full. May be some other time.

Well, Sunday dinner is yet to come. Let's see what I decide to do with it.

My Super IQ Test Result on Tickle.com

2008-01-01T18:55:00.001+05:30

The Super IQ Test

My Result: Intuitive Investigator

People who are Intuitive Investigators have multiple talents and can do anything they set their mind to. They're able to detect numerical patterns easily and are able to grasp the true complexity of the world, both in its details and in a more abstract form. You've got a sharp logical mind and are adept at using words to get even a difficult point across. The combination of all these things makes them truly brilliant.

Take this test >

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T19:01:00.000+05:30

*********************************************
Bye Bye 2007...
Welcome 2008!
*********************************************

As the year 2007 draws to a close and we prepare to welcome 2008, here's me wishing you a glorious, prosperous, happy, enriching and peaceful new year.

I hope that 2007 leaves sweet memories behind and that 2008 bring more sweetness in your lives.

May you have the courage to make new resolutions and the strength to stick to them.

May all your wishes come true and all your efforts be fruitful.
*********************************************

This was my formal new year message to all my friends. In this post I'm going to describe what I really feel about the new year celebrations:

Welcoming the new year with fervour is ok. Having a party to relieve of the last year's stress and having a fresh start is fine. But are the new year bashes organised all over truly aimed at that? I don't think so.

First of all, let's have a look at the formally organised parties at clubs, discos and pubs. Events like New Year, Christmas, Holi (I do not intend to hurt anyone's sentiments and I did not want to bring religious festivals in here, but they just slipped in) have become excellent business opportunities for organisers. Now I'm not saying that exploiting a business opportunity is bad, but business should also maintain a certain level of dignity. Dancing all night like crazy, boozing away till the wee hours, waking into the new year with a huge hangover so you need a day off on the very first day of new year... what a way of welcoming a new year!

Next comes the disruption caused to normal life! It is impossible to drive at new year's eve. Law enforcement agencies are on their toes throughout the night. And I haven't even talked about the accidents caused due to drunk driving. Even if you are driving properly, the chances of someone else banging into you increase exponentially. Eve teasing, lewd remarks at girls are a common sight. Although the guys should behave decently, the 'eves' are also to be blamed. I'm not trying to be the moral police here, the girls are free to wear whatever makes them feel comfortable, but then they should also be able to handle themselves.

Ah... how can I forget about the 'Couples-Only' entry at clubs! If the idea of having a new year party is really to welcome the coming year, why the 'couples-only' clause, shouldn't everyone ready to pay be allowed to enter? And, let's not talk about the rave parties.

Lat thing which I would like to touch upon is the money wasted. I haven't tried to calculate, but the money spent in the name of party would easily run into billions if not trillions! I wonder what if all that money was put into the nation's development, where would we be today? Moreover the organisers don't even a penny as taxes as all the 'couple passes' are issued strictly on a 'cash payment only'!

I'd end this post with a sincere hope that this year brings in peace to the world.
May we find a solution to the issue of development vs climate change.
May there be no more infiltration, terrorism, assassinations, hijacks and suicide attacks.
May we find the mantra to mutual co-existence and development.
Amen!

My IQ Test Result on Tickle.com

2007-12-30T21:36:00.001+05:30

The Classic IQ Test

My Result: Visionary Philosopher

Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game — to imagine or anticipate what should come next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with great ideas. The timelessness of your vision and the balance between your various skills are what make you a Visionary Philosopher.

In addition to your strengths in math and linguistics, you have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns. These skills and your uncanny ability to detect the underlying blueprint of most of life's situations add to your Visionary Philosopher mind.
Two philosophers who share the same combination of skills you possess are Plato and Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza had insight into how things worked in the world. He could envision a future based on the patterns he saw in life, and used mathematical logic as a structure within which to present his philosophical arguments. With that base he was able to use logic to formulate his theories. Borrowing from his linguistic strengths he wrote eloquent texts and, therefore, was able to bring his philosophical ideas and structure to the rest of the world. His story exemplifies the talents that are present in the Visionary Philosopher intellectual type.

Whatever you decide to do in life, you've got a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a wide variety of ways. You can expand your mind to understand a situation. Your strong balance of math and verbal skills will help you explain things to others. For example, if you were on an archaeological dig and discovered an object, you could probably use your deductive powers to figure out not only what the object was but also how it was used. Given your ability to put things together, you are more than capable of inventing a life plan that is in synch with your perspective on how things were, how they are, and how they might be one day.

Take this test >

A Biker's Ego: The Story of My Rise and Fall

2007-12-26T17:39:00.000+05:30

There's ego. There's male ego. And then there's Biker's Ego.

This is the story of my biker's ego...

I : The Build-up:
I always believed in doing things fast whether it was the Maths assignment or packing up the home to shift to a new place to getting home from school. My be that's the case with all the guys but I want to be the best at everything I do and I want to be the first one to do it! I never was a sports person so I could not prove my superiority on the field; I did it in my report card! The fire got fanned when I got my first bicycle, a Red Atlas ATB, somewhere in my Fifth grade. I was the fastest on the road and could take on anyone. This continued for a long time and I eventually progressed to a LML Vespa and status quo was maintained until...

II : The Bike
The year was 2001 if I'm not wrong and Bajaj Auto launched the Pulsar twins with the punch line "Definitely Male". I instantly identified with the line, as would have any other teenager at that time, and a secret ambition took birth: One day I was going to own that machine! In the meantime, my bicycle had long been gone and I didn't get much of a chance to drive my scooter as the school bus took care of most of my travel requirements. Soon high school was over and I entered College...

III : The Initiation
The closed shell of home was gone and an independent college and hostel life was in front of me. I got busy with college life. New friends and adjusting out of home took a lot of time and I had almost forgotten about the secret desire of owning a Pulsar. I didn't want my parents to spend 60k on a bike just to satisfy my ego when they had already spent a lot for getting me into an engineering college. Moreover I still had the scooter for my daily commuting. Things were going smooth till second year of engineering. That's when Manas got himself a Pulsar. But I was restricted to the pillion. Despite being best of friends I wasn't allowed to ride his bike. The fire which had gone down to last few sparks, started simmering again. I still controlled it as I didn't want my parents' money to go into a bike when it could be utilised elsewhere. The final blow came when Shri also bought a Pulsar and I got a placement offer. The desire turned into a wildfire when I joined office on 1st August, 2005 and I started having my own money. Now started the attempts to convince mom and dad to allow me to buy a Pulsar. But every time I was about to convince them, Manas used to meet with an accident and my chances of getting the permission were reduced.

It took me more than an year to convince my parents to allow me to buy a bike and finally I had my dream machine A Black Pulsar 180 UG3 in my hands on 3rd November, 2006. But alas! I met with my first bike accident within 24 hours of acquiring the bike! The bike was gone for ten days for repairs and I was in bed for a week due to injuries. Two weeks later and after some getting used to the bike, I was back in action.

IV : The Rise
The stories of my riding skills had already spread far and wide in my friend circles during my scooter days itself. Once I had the bike I was the scorcher of the roads. I felt on top of the world the day I broke 100Km/hr barrier on Nagar Road and another day when I reached from office to home in just over 4 minutes!

Things had started getting mundane until 17th March, 2007. I was supposed to be in office for a production release. The release got cancelled and I was feeling bad as a perfectly good weekend was ruined. I went home and was planning what to do. Here's what went through my head:
"May be I should go home (Mumbai) for the weekend."
"But all the trains would have already left and there would be a mile long queue at the bus stand."
"Let me just pack the bag an see what I come out with"

A few minutes of sorting the clothes and the bag was packed. I was back in my thought process:

"It's 1820 now. By the time I reach station it would be 1900. I can catch 1945 bus if I'm lucky and would reach home by 0030. Not worth the pain."
"Idea, I'll go on the bike."
"No, I've never been on the highway. Moreover, it's getting dark, I'm not used to night driving."
"C'mon. Have confidence in yourself. You've been riding the bike for months now."
"No, I'm kind of scared. I mean highway driving is a lot different than city driving."
"OK, here's a deal. If I can cross Khadki before sundown, I'll continue, otherwise I'll come back."
"Done."

I was very sure that with weekend traffic I won't be able to reach Khadki, but I did and so as per my promise to myself, I had to continue. Amazingly, I reached home in 3 hours flat and in the process I had broken my speed record. I had touched 117Km/hr on the way.

This wasn't all, on my way back, I was slightly disturbed at what I had done and so I had decided to go back slow. But somwehre aroud Lonavala a Pulsar 150 overtook me. I could not take anyone overtaking me even during my bicycle days, how could I tolerate that when I was on a Pulsar? Thus began the era of highway racing in my life. I let that guy go about 200 metres ahead of me and then I went full throttle. Within seconds he was behind me and once he was out of my rearview mirror, I slowed down to normal pace. A few minutes of cruising and the 150 guy was back at me. I did the same thing again and thought that he would have learnt his lesson. The third time he appeared on my rearview mirror, I had decided to be generous and let him go. But simultaneously a Karizma zinged past me. I forgot about the 150 and was all out after the Karizma. I have to agree this was a worthy competitor I had seen in a long time. Sometimes I would be ahead, at other occasion he would take the lead. While all this was happening I had a look at the speedometer reading 127Km/hr! Finally the Karizma ran out of fuel and we stopped at a petrol pump where we exchanged a few words and went our own ways.

This was a great confidence booster and I frequently started going to Mumbai on bike. But it had to come to an end...

V : The Fall
24th August, 2007. I was going to Mumbai on my bike as usual. The difference this time? I got stuck in office and couldn't start before 1900 and I was going home for my Birthday on 26th. It was already dark when I filled up the fuel tank started on Pune-Mumbai highway. I reached Lonavala and called up home to tell that I was on my way. It started raining in Khandala and I had to slow down to avoid skidding. The rain stopped and I started speeding to make up the lost time. Something inside of me was telling me to slow down, but I ignored that voice and kept on speeding. Finally the blow came...

24th August, 2007. Time: approx 2100 hours. Location: NH4- Pune-Mumbai Highway, approx 10 Kms before Panvel. My speed: approx 90Kms/hr.
No lighting on the road, slight gravel and I saw something in my headlight's range. It was a flyover, a small diversion to the normal route but without any indication. Before I could even think of braking, I had hit the divider at full speed and was now lying among concrete divider blocks with the bike on top of me and my head directly under the engine. Thank God I was wearing a helmet (I never ride without a helmet). I started taking stock of the situation. My whole upper body was under the bike so I could not come out. Due to the impact, my helmet had moved and the strap had started choking me. I started blacking out and my whole life was zooming past me. I believe this was the nearest I have been to death!

I started shouting for help. Luckily a boy was passing by and hearing my screams, came to my rescue. He managed to pull me out of the bike. Luckily y legs and back were uninjured so I could walk easily, but I couldn't see anything because of the shock. He (I later learned that his name was Lakshman) led me to his house where I washed my wounds and called up home to inform about the accident, my location and the primary injuries which I could assess. I was in agonising pain and was having trouble breathing.

Because of the weekend traffic, we reached the hospital by midnight. Primary investigations revealed that the helmet had saved my head (I escaped with minor injuries) but I had broken my left wrist in two places and 7th and 8th ribs on the left side. I also had severe burns (possibly caused by the silencer and the engine) on my right hand and shoulder. The Ultrasound of the abdomen showed some internal injuries but since the exact nature wasn't clear I had to undergo a CT scan of the abdomen which revealed that I had internal bleeding in the Liver and Spleen which is supposed to be a very delicate situation. I wasn't allowed even a drop of water for approximately two days and was on intravenous drip throughout this duration. After 48 hours of observation I was declared to be out of danger and that I could start having a sip of water every hour! This was the first piece of good news I had had in some time now. Incidentally It was my Birthday! One week in hospital and I was at home. I had to take strict bed rest for next three weeks as the ribs were still healing and they cannot put a cast on the ribs. I had to depend on my dad to make me sit and lie down and my mom to give me a bath. Three weeks were over and I was back to office. The ordeal was finally over! I just thought so...

VI : The Aftermath
Commuting to office was a problem as I could not drive anything and the autorickshaw drivers in my area have issues going to my office. Fortunately I had friends who took care of my commuting problem. I could not work properly as my left hand was in the cast and twisting the wrist to type was humanly impossible. Eating was a problem as I could not hold a spoon and a fork properly as both my hands were injured. The ribs still used to pain whenever I tried to move. Sleeping was a problem because I generally sleep on the belly but could not do that now because of the ribs and the burns. These are just the things which come to my mind immediately, there were a lot of other problems also.

But my condition was improving, the pain in the ribs was subsiding, the burns were healing and my head injuries had healed. Finally six weeks were over and it was time to remove the cast on my left arm. More bad news! I had a malunion in the wrist which would limit the motion in my left hand. I had to undergo four weeks of agonising physiotherapy to regain the movements. Slowly the movements started coming back and I could manage my daily chores and also start driving a car. The complete movement is still not back and would need a corrective surgery.

At the time of writing this, more than five months have passed but I still have limited mobility in my wrist. The ribs still pain at times. The burns are still healing and would take another 5-6 months to heal completely. Even then they will leave permanent marks on my hand and shoulder in addition to the ones I have on my chest and forehead.

I always knew I'll meet with something like this because of the way I used to drive, but this was too much to ask for. In retrospect, when I think about it, the momentary adrenaline rush is not worth the trouble. Considering what all was at stake, it still sends shivers down my spine. Remembering the physical pain brings tears to my eyes even now and I haven't even talked about the emotional trauma that my family and friends had to go through. I'm not allowed to drive a two wheeler for another month but even when I'm allowed I don't think I'll speed now. I even feel scared crossing 50Km/hr in my car!

I always learnt things the hard way but this lesson came with a too high price tag. My doctors later told me that I was lucky to come out alive of all this and that the painkillers administered to me during my early days in hospital were very strong ones something just short of Morphine!

You can find some of the pictures related to my accident at
http://aalokdeep.multiply.com/photos/album/9/Bike_Accident

As a request to anyone reading this, please ask rash drivers among your friends to have a look at my example so that they can learn from me and don't have to go through what I had to.

"Drive safe. Drive slow."

Aalok

Getting too dependent on Google?

2007-10-19T17:34:00.000+05:30

Are we getting too dependent on Google?

This thought just crossed my mind when I was not able to login to my Orkut account a couple of days back and I started observing the URL pattern. The URL read something like http://www.google.com/accounts?service=orkut
Being the कीडेबाज़ that I am, I started playing around with the URL and stumbled across Google’s account management site http://www.google.com/accounts
I was speechless when I saw the list of services being offered by a single Google account.

Forget about being just the world’s most powerful search engine, consider a few of the services:

Blogger for your blogs
Orkut for your social networking
Gmail for email
Gtalk for instant messaging
Page Creator for creating web pages
Picasa for online photo publishing
Docs for online document storage

And these are just the services that I’ve used at one point of time or other. There were a few more which I didn’t know existsed!

So effectively, the guys at Google know more or less everything about my online life and as an extension to this, a lot about my personal life as well. That should not be much of a problem as I’m sure Google has a robust privacy policy (I haven’t read it though). But what if I have an idea which can earn billions, stored in my Google docs and some rogue employee at Google is ready to take the risk to steal my idea? Of course I won’t be that stupid to store my billion dollar idea on an online system, but someone else might be!

Currently all these services are free of cost. May be it is a tactic used by Google to gain over competition. Once they reach the numero uno spot and most of the online community starts using Google’s services, what happens if Google’s Board of Directors decide that enough of free lunches and all the services are to be paid for or the accounts to be deleted. What is a person who has his complete online identity built around Google’s services? But that is not what scares me the most.

The thing that scares me the most is that everything is accessible using a single user-id and password. Although it’s not such a bad idea, provided I follow all the online security practices preached. After all I spare the trouble of remembering different user-ids and passwords for different services. But what if my account is compromised? Although I’m not a online celebrity to scare attacks, but let’s again assume the ‘billion dollar idea’ example. If someone is tempted to crack open my account and he is successful in doing so, not only he gets my idea but he is free to play around with my whole online identity. My life can be ruined within a matter of minutes! Moreover, what if I am one of those people who store their user-ids and passwords stored in a file on their PCs or a piece of paper? The person responsible for unleashing a nightmare on me can be someone who is a part of my social circle.

But despite all my scares, I still use these services. Why? Simple, because they offer quality. I just hope all my fears don’t turn out to be real and Google keeps on providing free quality services to one and all.

Quote and Word of the day

2007-05-29T11:34:00.001+05:30

I recently got into reading quotes and doing some research on words. So this is the place where I'll be posting the stuff I liked and would like others to read.

12th May 2008:
Quote:
Read this in the May edition of Readers' Digest.

Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life.
-Swami Vivekananda

1st January 2008:
Quote:
I read this quote a long time back. I don't remember who said it or where I read it, but I liked it so much, it has been my email signature since! A very short quote, but says a lot:

Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and no one was there.
-Unknown

24th July 2007:
Quote:
Satisfaction is death!
-George Bernard Shaw

17th July 2007:
Quote:
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
-Don Marquis

12h June 2007:
Quote:
"The only force that can overcome an idea and a faith is another and better idea and faith, positively and fearlessly upheld."
-Dorothy Thompson(1893 - 1961)

29th May 2007:
Quote:
"Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have."
-Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Word:
Unconference:
An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance.

The term unconference first appeared amongst techies in an announcement for the annual XML developers conference in 1998.

More details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

True Love

2007-05-25T11:22:00.000+05:30

I got this message as a email forward, which I duly forwarded to all my mates. But I liked this so much, I thought to myself, "This has to go in my blog". So I break the sequence of my promised posts (yet again!) and post this one. The mail claimed that these are the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda. I haven't verified whether they really are, but sure make a lot of sense. Ok, enough of my blabbering now, here it goes:

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this: "You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love." This was how I saw it: As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it finds. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love ... they try to posses it, they demand, they expect ... and just like the water spilling out of your hand, love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you can not change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

Give and don't expect.
Advise, but don't order.
Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love.To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring." Passing thought .... Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away. --Swami Vivekananda

On second thoughts, I wonder if such a love really exists these days?

-Kids love their parents as long as they are dependent on them.
-Friends love each other till they don't face troubled waters.
-Spouces love each other as long as the physical charm lasts.
-Teachers love their students as long as they bring good results.
-People love their jobs as long as they do not find a higher paying job.
-Love for knowledge has just been reduced to cramming books which can get you a decent job.
-Citizens love their motherland as long as they can find means of livelihood over there.

If the very meaning of love for us has become synonymous with selfishness and expectations, where has the true love as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda gone?

Life has become so fast paced that everything is seen in materialistic terms. All we want is .... faster bike, costlier car, bigger house, hefty bank balance, cooler phone, high-end gadgets, sexier girl friend and the endless list includes everything but peace of mind. We have become so blinded in this ratrace for survival that we have lost ourselves somewhere in the crowd. Like my friend Manas says, "Everyone has become so individualisic, but there is no individualism". Everyone thinks the same, yet everyone thinks only for himself. Those who dare to think different are labelled as crazy, morons, geeks, unsocial or immature, childish, impractical.

I am thankful to God Almighty that I share a very special bond with my parents, my sister and I've found gems of friends in Manas and Shri. I would dare say that my relation with all of them comes quite close to the description of true love given above. I just hope whenever I find the love of my life, it also turns out to be 'true' and not materialistic.

I think my thoughts have drifted a lot, so I'll stop now. As always, if anyone happens to read this, I'd like to have your sincere comments.

coming soon

2007-03-20T15:59:00.000+05:30

hi guys....

its been some time since i last posted in my blog....

here's a list of what you can expect in the coming days:

My first trip home on my bike
My sister's first biking lesson
My trip back home and bike race on the highway

so stay tuned......

Holi 2007

2007-03-05T17:15:00.000+05:30

The day was 4^th March. Time somewhere around 10AM. The phone rings. It’s Kirti.

Me(sleepily): Hello
Kirti: Oye!!! Uth. Kya so raha hai. Pata hai kya time ho gaya hai?
Me: Kya? Kitne baje hain?
Kirti: 12 baj gaye hain. Uth. Kab tak soyega?
Me: Sone de yaar. Subah 5 baje soya.
Kirti: 5 baje tak kya kar raha tha.
Me: are… total lunar eclipse tha raat ko.
Kirti: to tu kya raat bhar eclipse dekhte baitha?
Me: Haan. It was a total eclipse!
Kirti: are hota rehta hai eclipse. Kitne dekhe hain maine.
Me: c’mon yaar. It was a total lunar eclipse. India main pehli baar hua hai. Tune kaise dekh liya pehle?
Kirti: wo mujhe pata nahi. But bachpan main maine dekha hai 2-3 baar.
Me: kuch bhi mat bol. Sone de ab.
Kirti: oye… uth. Mukul ke yahaan nahi jaana kya?
Me: nahi yaar. Main nahi aa raha. Don’t have a vehicle.
Kirti: teri bike ko kya hua?
Me: bike servicing ke liye gayi hai.
Kirti: car?
Me: car kharab hai. Dopahar main milegi shayad.
Kirti: yaar dopahar bahut late ho jayega. To rick se aaja na.
Me: paise nahi hain rick se aane ke liye mere paas.
Kirti: tu paise ko lekar rota kyo rehta hai hamesha?
Me: are yaar, tujhe to pata hai. You should not be saying that.
Kirti: to kyo itne loans utha rakhe hain?
Me: wo jaane de. Can someone pick me from home? To aa sakta hoon.
Kirti: yaar mera aur archit ka tie up hai. And ham dono ne tera ghar nahi dekha.
Me: Archit ne dekha hai. She can pick me up.
Kirti: yaar wo akeli ladki tujhe ghar se lene aayegi kya?
Me: wo ek baar pehle mujhe drop bhi kar ke gayi thi. Anyways mukul ke paas bike hai na, wo pick up kar sakta hai.
Kirti: are wo kya sabko pick up aur drop hi karta rahega? Ham log udhar pahunch ke dekhte hain tera kuch arrangement hota hai to. Tab tak ready to ho.
Me: ok. Try karta hoon. Bye
Kirti: bye

Reluctantly I get up and see that it’s just a few minutes past 10. I call back Kirti and tell her that how bad a girl she is. She is all giggles that this little trick of hers was successful in getting me out of bed.

Another phone call from Archit and similar conversation follows. Interestingly these were not my first calls in the day. Now I remember that Sayeef and Jignesh had called sometime in the morning when I was too deep in sleep to remember the time and my responses.

Next phone call to Khurshid to check up what time the car will be ready. So it is finalized now that I’ll have the car by 12:30.

So I get ready and wait for further info from Archit or Kirti. When nothing comes, I call up Archit at 11:30 and I come to know that the plan has been cancelled that no one had turned up at Mukul’s place. Disappointed I start browsing the internet.

Another phone call from Navin inviting for Ritu’s b’day celebration in the evening. On the internet, a chat with Manas decides that I’ll be going to his place at 1:30.

12:30 the car arrives and at 1:00 I leave for Manas’ place. Passed time till 2:30. After that we go to F C Road, eat something and start going towards Crossword. On the way, phone call from Avanti telling me that she is also on F C Road and has seen me. So we go to the place where she was eating and I realize that she is planning to colour me up. We managed to escape before any serious damage was done.

Another hour or so at Crossword, bought couple of books. Back to F C Road. This time Aditya is also with us. Another round of snacks and chit-chat. Then, go to Navin’s place after dropping Manas to his place. I realize I’m the only one from our team to reach there. Pleasentries exchanged, we wait for rest of the gang to appear. They all come after a short wait. Parul, Sayeef, Jignesh, Nitin after failed attempts of washing off the colour from their Holi celebrations in the morning.

Now the party starts. Cake eaten, soft drinks gulped down, pictures taken, jokes cracked, some good food eaten. We thought it was all over till Amit came out with a plate full of Gulal. We are caught unawares. Navin’s father starts off with a symbolic tilak. Now the field is open to us. Parul is the first victim. Next come Ritu and Navin. They strike back and within minutes we are all coloured up and the plate empty. But it was not over. Amit came up with two more packs of colour. Another few minutes of this and we have made a mess out of their living room and the balcony. Another round of pictures and time to say good bye.

I come home and after a bath I realize that I have to finish my tiffin also. I’ve never ever struggled this much to finish my food. All done, it was time to call it a day…

My Team

2006-07-20T21:33:00.000+05:30

Here’s another one, and frankly speaking it’s too late to talk about the topics that I had promised I’d write about. C’mon it’s almost one year into the job, and I’m sure you don’t want me talking about the training and first salary leave alone the vacation with mom, which was months before joining.

So what can I talk about?
Work…. Naah not very interesting (which you must have guessed by now, given the fact that I’m writing all this crap in office hours)
Friends…. Well really speaking there are very few people whom I really can call friends. Those of you who know me already have heard a lot about these friends of mine and those of you who do not know me well would anyway not be interested in my friends.
My project team…. Ok agreed this is again something related to work, but not exactly work. Moreover it will also give me a chance to speak (actually write) about my team, which I guess I’ve never done before. So lets start with the team structure.

Hmmm… We are a team of eight people. I won’t be giving out the team name or the client details or any of that because I’m not sure whether company policies allow those details to be disclosed, and although I’m not exactly in love with my job (mind it that I don’t also hate the job), I still need the money.

The team structure goes like this:
My TL (Team Leader) Jayesh (Yes you guessed it right, we are one of those thousands of corporations where you don’t call your seniors sir or madam, but by their first names); Two SSE’s (Senior Software Engineer) Sayeef (Yes it is Sayeef and not Saif), Anand; Five SE’s (Software Engineer) Gaurav, Sameer, Navin, Divya and Yours truly.
Oops… I forgot Pappu. Now you’d say what sort of name is that. Pappu is not a person but our server, an integral part of our team nonetheless. Sameer is Pappu’s dad and I’m supposed to be his (yes we call him ‘HIM’ and not ‘IT’) chacha (uncle). This will become clear as I talk further.

Jayesh: As mentioned earlier he is my TL. I guess he’d be the best TL in the world (agreed I don’t have much experience of TL’s but I’ve heard my other friends discuss their and mine is any time better than all of them). Well let me make it clear it to you that there is no chance that he’d actually come and read this, so I’m not trying to flatter him to get a nice appraisal, it’s just what I feel about him. Ya so he’s the best TL in the world. A very nice human being indeed. Never forces you to work beyond your capabilities. As a mater of fact he feels bad if you stay late at office. He says, “It’s just a job, don’t spoil your personal life for the sake of work.” But then someone needs to tell him that I don’t have a personal life!!!! Anyway, lets move ahead. He has this cute little baby daughter whose name I don’t remember (Jayesh, sorry for that). Very caring for his family, he’s on his desk at 9:00 and leaves at 6:00 sharp; spends the weekends with family. Very good at observation and networking (I guess that’s why he’s a TL). Despite his knowledge he doesn’t have any airs about him. Always gives you a patient listening no matter what you have to say. He knows most of the stuff and if he doesn’t know something, can find the person who knows it. Most important of all, I think he feels I know something and values my opinion, and is always trying to expose Divya and me to most of the processes. Enough about Jayesh, let’s move on to Anand.

Anand: Can’t say much about him. A very quiet person, he even talks in whispers. Haven’t been able to figure out who is he scared of. Gaurav shares this opinion with me. All I can say is that he is an average family man who loves his daughter and wants to give her the best he can. But sometimes (very rarely) even he jokes. Otherwise he has a very serious outlook. He will move to Hyderabad the first chance he gets.

Sayeef: The oldest (not the eldest) member of our team. He knows our system inside out. This is one person you’ll never find wasting time (except when he is smoking, some of you may not count smoking as wasting time including Gaurav, but I do). If you have any doubt regarding the system ask Sayeef. Chances are if he’s not able to answer your queries no-one will be. Office seems to be his second home. How else would you explain him being in office till 11 in the night. Even the onsite team acknowledges him being a workaholic. All this doesn’t mean that he is a nerd. As a matter of fact he has an infectious sense of humour. The most noticeable thing about him, his opposition to marriage, and ours being a bachelors’ team (only Jayesh and Anand are married) he gets a lot of supporters. We make all sorts of jokes about Jayesh and Anand and even they take it sportingly. Well on a serious note he doesn’t mind getting married but wants to tie the knot after a long-term onsite assignment (whatever that means). The only thing that worries him, his weight. You’ll be surprised to know that unlike most of the people in software industry, his weight goes down every month. If you leave aside the smoking and the arrogance (he’s not exactly arrogant but some of it comes as an accessory to knowledge) part of it, he’s a nice guy to spend time with.

Gaurav: This is one guy whom I can write an essay on. But don’t worry you’ve passed through enough trouble coming up to this stage, so I’ll save you the trouble of reading an essay on Gaurav. Gaurav is a person who will make hay while the sun shines. He wants to try everything while he has the chance. Always looking for change, you’ll find a new cell phone in his hands every fortnight or so (seriously, believe me I’m not joking). He and Sayeef have a lot in common, from smoking to dislike for office food to love for Oracle to sense of humour to always searching for new job. So it’s anybody’s guess that you’ll find them always together. But don’t get disillusioned, they have their differences too, love for work being one of them. Where on one hand you can find Sayeef in office till midnight, on the other you’ll se Gaurav waiting impatiently for the clock to strike 6. In my personal opinion (well throughout this post I’ve been expressing my personal opinion only) he is an ideal candidate for a manager. You’ll hardly find him working, forget working you’ll hardly find him on his desk, but still somehow he manages to get all his work done. Not only that, he even got ‘Thank You’ mail from the client. OK now don’t get me wrong, I’m not being jealous but just wondering how he does that. He even managed to earn an MBA without attending a single day of college (may be that’s an exaggeration but how could he attend classes if he was in office!!!!). Another thing which amazes me about Gaurav is that how does he manage to pay his credit card bills which are orders of magnitude higher than the salary he gets… oops…. might be getting (company policy you see. We are not supposed to discuss each other’s salaries). He seems to be having friends and acquaintances in each and every company in each and every corner of the country. Doesn’t that make him an ideal manager? Well I think that’s more than enough about Gaurav. Now let’s move on to Navin.

Navin: I call him N2K which sounds similar to the famous Y2K bug and suits him because of two reasons. One his official email ID is Navin2 Kumar and second because he is always fixing bugs. He is another one of the less speaking stock. But unlike Anand who always has a serious expression on his face, Navin is always smiling. Even though he speaks less, he is humorous in his own special way. He’ll just say something and the rest of us can spend the whole day laughing. According to Sayeef his silence is because he is due to get married in near future. I haven’t tried but deep inside I feel that no-one can agitate this person. Navin is patience personified. I know this is not enough but that’s all I can think of writing about him right now. Who’s next? Of course Sameer.

Sameer: Here’s a guy who after my sincerest efforts I’ve not been able to understand. One moment he’ll behave like you’ve been his friend since time immemorial, and in the other he’s a complete stranger. One moment he’s a guide through the trenches of corporate world and in another he’s the landmine you’ve been trying to avoid. One moment he is this innocent child who doesn’t know anything about the outside world and in another you wish you didn’t know him. I feel that the first kind of behavior is due to the fact that I being his junior, it is his responsibility to guide me and the second kind of behavior is because he feels threatened that I might become more important in the team than him (he was the only Java developer in the team before I joined). Now there are examples both for and against my theory, e.g. he never spoon-feeds me. He wants me to find out things on my own. He will just point out where I might find the relevant resources. Again there are incidents where he doesn’t tell me at all what he is doing. Also there have been cases where important work has been assigned to me rather than him. I really would like to believe that my theory is wrong and I’ve just misunderstood the guy. May be I’ll understand him someday (actually I never claimed to understand anyone).

Divya: My favorite in the team (of course after Jayesh). She’s the fourth reason why I’m still holding on to the job (third is Jayesh, second is the money and I don’t want to discuss the first reason over here). I think I know enough about her personal life more than anyone else in the team will ever come to know, although she can say the same as she knows a lot about my personal life. She’s the only one in the team who has read my blog, who knows about the existence of this document and a lot more. You might not believe it but she knows some stuff even Manas is not aware of! I still remember the first day of her joining (as a matter of fact, I had not intended to include this part in the post but I happened to mention it to her so I guess this had to be included). I was wondering who recruited this quiet, simple looking girl over here (OK she’s going to kill me after she reads this, as she’s practically the only one who’s ever going to read this. Also at that time I believed my workplace to be a glamorous place. Sorry for that Divya, but I had promised I’d write only the truth). Little did I know at that time that we are going to be in the same team and become good friends (at least I’d like to believe that we are good friends). Poor girl stuck in an all boys and all bachelors’ (almost) team. She’s always the centre of our jokes. She doesn’t seem to be minding it; as a matter of fact she reciprocates and sometimes silences all of us (me at least). I call her by different names, ‘Fidessa Queen’, ‘Alice’, ‘Monalisa’, ‘Madam’ etc. etc. etc. but ‘Divya’ is a good enough name although ‘Madam’ is my favorite. The best thing about her is her gracefulness despite her simplicity. The second best is her urge to learn. She wants to know everything about everything (at least tries to). She recently got bespectacled, which gave her an intellectual look (Divya, no jokes here. I’m serious about this). The most annoying thing about her? Well she seems to be having a misconception that I’m desperate to get a girl friend (well Divya, let me tell you once again that despite all these months together you got me wrong over here. Whatever I might say, I’m never going to go after a girl, and that I don’t like it when you tease me with different girls’ names. I’m just trying to find some good friends. Not that you are the only one doing it, Manas and Shri are always doing it, but you are not in the league where I won’t mind whatever you say). We were doing fine until Jhansi did something to her. I even pointed out the change in her attitude after returning, but she doesn’t seem to be acknowledging it. Suddenly all she has to talk to me is regarding some Unix command, or some clearcase issue or to dictate her a mail for the client or running the web server or finding out which database procedure a particular button is calling (mind it that she’s getting better at the first three now). I never really took it personally as she might be having her reasons for doing that. But she seems to be coming back to normal now, although all my attempts to ask her out for dinner till date have gone futile (DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT TRYING TO HIT OUT AT HER. WE ARE JUST GOOD FRIENDS). I would have liked to write more about this and her, but that would require giving out some facts, which I don’t want to. So I guess that’s enough about Divya. Let’s start with pappu.

Pappu: Nothing much to say about the poor guy. He’s just a computer. He talks only through the logs which are generated. He must be feeling so ignored as no-body respects his privacy. Anyone takes his chair. Anybody uses his phone. We unlock him anytime we want. He never gets to sleep, only occasional reboots. I wish he understood that it is for the good of the team. Since Sameer was the one responsible for its set-up and administration, he was declared as the dad of Pappu. Now me being the only other Java developer in the team, this responsibility was handed over to me when Sameer went onsite. So naturally I became the chacha. But I think Pappu is happy under my supervision, as we don’t disturb him much now. I realized that we can administer him remotely through our desktops. We even got all his software upgraded and made Jackie use him as his desktop when he visited India. We got him access to the project shared drive, freed up lots of space on his hard disk, and now he is performing much better. Good boy Pappu! Keep it up!

That leaves me. Are you sure you want to hear about me after all going through all the pains to reach this point? I’ll take that as a yes.

I, Me, Myself: I really can’t say much about me with respect to my team. So I’ll just put in a few words about the team as a whole inputting something about me wherever I feel like. Well we are supposed to be the most fun loving team in our project. We go out for lunch together much more frequently than any other team. We celebrate our birthdays together. It almost feels like college again (this line was originally Divya’s but I don’t think she’ll mind). On a deeper thought I realized that it was because of the free atmosphere created in the team by Jayesh’s leadership and the team’s constitution (bachelor crowd again). I personally was not happy initially on being assigned to this team as most of the work is database oriented, but now I’m satisfied as the work I am getting is much more independent and worth doing than most of my batch mates are getting. I get to write whole applications all by myself, no questions asked. I even wrote a few utilities that made the team’s life easier. Thanks to Gaurav and Jayesh, I am on my way to writing another one of these utilities. Now you must be wondering that in the starting of the post this guy mentioned that he doesn’t like his job and now he is saying just the opposite. Well let me make it clear that I do love my job and my team even more, it’s in times like these when I don’t have anything to do, that I feel wasted. But letting out my emotions like I’m doing right now, helps a lot. That’s all I have to say for now.

Thanks for your patience (if you managed to read all of this). All suggestions and comments are welcome.

Leaving Hostel and old friends

2005-12-29T14:51:00.000+05:30

Well, here comes another one as promised.

Exams were over and I had already cried a lot during the farewell days. Only very close people know how emotional can I get at times. I used to call up mom (she’s my best friend after all) and cry continuously saying nothing except “mom, I’m going to miss this place, this very college which we used to abuse, this very hostel जिसके छत पे खड़ा मैं बात कर रह हूँ, जिसके खाने को हम लोग गालियाँ दिया करते थे। I’m going to miss all these great people whom I called friends and even those whom I used to treat as my arch rivals. I’m going to miss all those fights, those discussions, those bunking lectures, submission days. I don’t want to leave this place.” And burst into tears again. And my dear mom would say, “don’t worry dear, you’ll get through it. It is just because you didn’t have very close friends earlier in your life. Just because you’ve been at the same place for four years continuously, you’ve got so much attached to it. Change is the only constant thing in life and yet change is our worst nightmare. But you should not fear change, embrace it, learn from your past experiences and apply the knowledge gained to adapt to the new environment. Soon you are going to enter the corporate world, you need to be strong. As far as friends are concerned, college friendship is much more mature, stronger and long lived than school friendship. You go through good and bad times together, you share your pains and pleasures. The experiences you shared during these years believe me; will be your bonding in the future. In course of time you’ll realize the friendship of these days can continue for entire lifetime. Don’t worry you’ll overcome it as you are getting overly emotional due to the atmosphere around. Be strong, you’ll get more friends in your new environment.” And so our conversations would go on for ages. In the end I’d thank mom for all her support, hang up the phone and stay on the roof for another few minutes, waiting for my tears to dry up. Believe me or not I’m on the verge of crying while writing this as it takes me back to those golden days again.

I knew the inevitable was coming. Another few days together and the bubble would burst. We were going to come out of the protected environment of college and go our own ways. The good friends will try their best to remain in touch, the not so good ones will wander away may be not to meet again, ever.

The deadline was coming. We had to vacate the hostel rooms latest by 30th July. Everyone knew that all the exams and orals are over, but still we would create some new subject and its exam to bluff our way into staying at the hostel for another few days, spend some quality time with the friends, relive the golden years over and over again in a matter of days. No matter what frame of mind you are, what has to be done has to be done. We had packing to be done, books to be returned, the hostel kit (utensils, bed sheets, blanket, table, chair ……) to be cleaned and returned, security deposit receipts to be searched for claiming a refund, transport to be arranged to take back your physical possessions from your rooms to your new dwelling place; and of course slam books to be filled, phone numbers to be exchanged, mistakes to admit and to forgive others. All this at least gave me something else to do rather than getting senti all over again.

The clothes were not a problem; in two years at the hostel I hadn’t bought many clothes, so they fit very well in the same suitcase from where they had come. The real trouble were the books. So began operation BOOKSORTING. I didn’t realize it would become such a big task. You simply don’t realize it while dumping books and papers and files and extra stationary and …………. into your cupboard. बाद मैं sort कर लेंगे। And the sorting had been delayed so much that only two days were left and I still had to wash the bed sheets and the computer was still out (I cant work without music, so the computer was required to be out). So I made 3 piles of books, first one was to be packed and kept in pune, second one to be sold back, third one to be given as waste paper and fourth (ok make that 4) one to be taken along to Mumbai (I had actually planned to study don’t know why). My god I couldn’t believe that in those four years of engineering I had actually read so many books, that too references. Now that the sorting was done it was time to go to ABC (if anyone’s reading this and is not from pune, ABC is the grand market for all sorts of books in pune). But that could wait, so I went and washed the bed sheets etc. I believe everyone knows how nice it feels to sleep after washing clothes, but I had to go to ABC. The day’s work was done.

Next morning, me and Sumit (my room mate) start our hunt for a carton to pack the books in. well, half the day passed and we had wandered the whole of nearby market to find a carton. Exhausted we come back to our room and are about to give up when dad calls up

Dad : you don’t have to worry about the transport, I am coming to pune for some official work, I’ll be bringing the car along, so you be ready with your packing. I wont be having much time, so I’ll come, load the stuff and leave. You can stay with me in the hotel.
Me : but papa, there’s a problem, I cant find a carton to put the books into. Everything else is ready.
Dad : should I bring a spare trunk. Which one you want the black metal one or the brown wooden one?
Me : actually I don’t think I’ll be needing that much space and moreover carrying a trunk would be a problem. Can you bring a cardboard box something like a computer monitor packing.
Dad : well, yes the monitor packing for the old computer which you had sent home, is lying unused. I’ll being that.
Me : thanks a lot. I’ll be waiting.

In the meantime, Sumit had also found something to place his books in. so another one of our problems were solved. Now the final step had to be taken. The computer was to be packed and that indicated the end of my hostel days. After we were finished, we wanted to talk a lot but all were so tired that we just dozed off.

Well, another morning. This was the D Day; we returned our kits carefully folded to show the cleanest portions of the bed sheets outside (I’m really pathetic at washing clothes, but damn good at folding and packing them). So the kits were returned and our security deposits refunded. Now what? Well, waiting for dad to come in the evening. Till then विदाई the usual "तू बहुत याद आएगा यार, contact में रहता जा, कभी free हुआ तो hostel ज़रूर आना and other stuff. Well time flew by and dad was there. While we were loading my stuff in the car, dad was talking to the hostel superintendent. I just overheard their conversation and was shocked to know that sir (we used to call our hostel superintendent sir) knew so much about me. Anyways I wont go into the details what he said. It took plain 20 min to load the vehicle and we were good to move. Suddenly I realized I had the camera loaded. A few shots with hostel friends and I was off.

Well we went to our flat where I presently stay, unloaded the stuff, had dinner and were going towards hostel. Suddenly,

Dad : आज रात को मेरे साथ hotel में रुकना है या hostel पे?
Me : I would love to stay at the hostel one last night. Let me check if they can arrange a bed for me.
Dad : OK then I’ll drop u at the hostel, gate तो बंद हो गया होगा, तो आज last time दीवार भी कूद लेना।

Well, he dropped me at the hostel. I jumped the wall and went to my ex-room again and everyone was surprised to see me back.

PP : अबे ओये तू वापस कैसे आ गया
Me : बस आज की रात है, जो गिले शिकवे है आज दूर कर लो, सुबह मैं जा रह हूँ।
Manoj : तो चल आज dinner साथ मैं करेंगे।
Me : यार मैं खाना खा के आया हूँ dad के साथ। But तुम्हारे साथ चलता हूँ। I’ll just take a coffee.
So we went to eat, jumping the compound wall again. Came back at 12 midnight. And started talking about life, universe, everything…….. and before we knew it was 6 in the morning, we had been talking for the whole night without feeling any sleep. So we hugged each other one last time and it was time to go…………………………..

Exams and Project Orals

2005-12-21T19:36:00.000+05:30

well guys, i am back. ok frankly speaking, its been too long a time to talk about exams and project orals. for god's sake that was in june/july which is almost 6 months back. but since i had promised u and i'm sure no one has enough time to kill to read my blog, i'll be posting all the topics which i mentioned in the last post.

so lets see what can i remember about my exams. which all subjects we had? i think we had CN, EM, IP and one more which one...... i cant remember that. let me ask manas. hmm... manas is not reachable. lets try shri....
ok the fourth subject was CE.

for those of you who are wondering what these stand for
CN : Communication Networks
EM : Electronic Measurements
IP : Image Processing(Elective)
CE : Consumer Electronics

for those of you who have read my previous posts, would be aware of my thoughts on CN and how my PL(Preparatory Leave) passed. so having no choice, went to the market, bought local text book for CN(The one which was made for Mumbai University syllabus last year) and mugged up whatever i could(i'm not very good at mugging up things) and vomited out everything in the exam. well after the exam i was sure my future is in dark as even in my best of estimates, i was not clearing this paper. so far for the start of the exams.
you can imagine what must be my condition at that time.

i was confident of scoring in IP as that was my elective subject. but that confidence turned out to be over confidence the day before the exam when i opened the book to study. panicky, i rang up shri(as i always did before exam) and asked what to study. well being the nice guy he is, he gave me the chapters to study in order to pass the exam. but i was sure that i would not be able to finish all that. so i read whatever i could. thankfully i wrote the paper well, but i had some doubts about my performance as all the other people were out of air after the exam. i was the only one claiming the paper to be easy.

CE, except for the block diagrams, everything else was fine. but the problem was that in CE paper you had to draw block diagrams only and explain that in a few words. what i did was just the opposite. forget the diagram given in the books. just remember the working of the thing and draw your own diagram from it. i loved the TV receiver i had drawn. i just hoped the examiner liked it too.

So we are left with EM. well, the basics were clear so didnt panic much in this one. this paper went just fine.

again if you have cared to read my previous posts, you would be knowing that i was struggling to get to the magic figure of 60% to save my job offer and by extension my future. with the theory exams proving to be a showstopper, all my hopes were on the project orals now.

Ooohh my god. how could i forget to mention the project. now as you know from previous posts, our project was going through troubled waters too. well we worked day in and day out, burned mid night oil and did whatever can be called hard work(you have to believe me on this one) and got the code working perfect in simulation. now was the big day of testing the thing in real environment. but that was not to be. the senior scientist who was the incharge of the whole project, didn't have time to give us the specifications of the system so that we could integrate the whole thing.

so again, i saw time against me. i was doomed. all my hopes now rested with our final presentation minus the testing results(how can you produce results without testing). finally the dates were announced. we were told that our oral would be held on sunday(dont remember the date). so on friday night, we decided that saturday morning, we will finalise our presentation, decide who will speak what and other stuff.

there was i, having a bath on the nice saturday morning. i came out and started dressing for the meeting. but suddenly the phone rings and i find manas on the other end. the conversation that followed looked something like this

Manas : get your a** over here in 5 min.
Aalok : hey, i just came out of the bath and was getting ready. it'll take me half an hour. where's the hurry.we have whole day at our disposal.
Manas : the examiner is in the college and is waiting for us.
Aalok : what the f***!!! the oral is supposed to be tomorrow. dont you fool around at this time
Manas : rathore sir called up shri and told him this. he called me now and asked to inform you.
Aalok : this better not be a joke.
Manas : come to college in 15 min. bye

so, there was i again, just out of bath and sweating already. why me? why it always has to be me at the receiving end? sumit(my room mate) obviously noticed the expression on my face and asked what had suddenly happened to me. all i said was "i'm f***ed". put on formals for the exam, grabbed my project report and ran like hell to college.

sure i found manas and shri over there impatiently waiting for me. we all shared the typical smile which comes out when you are in thick soup together. we didn't have a proper presentation ready, so we modified one of our earlier presentations to add some of the simulation results. well, but we needed the matlab simulations to get the results.
" SIMULATIONS !!!!, those are on my computer.", was all i managed to speak.

manas : then go and get them
aalok : i dont have a blank cd and the loadshedding starts in another 15 min
shri : here, take my bike, buy a cd and write them.

well, i rushed back hostel, armed with a blank cd. booted the computer in time to get the UPS up.
"shit! nero is not installed. ok, i'll do it from linux". so i boot into linux, run k3b and burn the whole project folder onto it. i come back to college, we pop the cd in and copy the whole thing onto the hard disk. we start matlab and run the simulations. but the simulation refused to run!!!

Shri : Now what
Manas : let me check...... O Oh all the filenames have been capitalised.
Aalok : must have been done by k3b while writing them onto the cd.
Shri : how about renaming them.
Manas : we cant. we dont know where it is small and where capital.
Aalok : moreover, there are hundreds of files. how many can we rename.
Shri : hey what about the results we had emailed from IAT(Our sponsors for the project)?
Aalok : well, they are in my mailbox. we can download them from the internet lab, but we need a floppy.
Shri : we can get one from Nagmode sir.

so we got hold of the floppy, downloaded the results, and copied them onto our machine.
now we had the results into the presentation. then our HOD(who also happened to be our guide for the project) turns up.

HOD : All set?
We : yes sir, but we guess we'll have to do with the ModelSim simulations only as Matlab simulations have been corrupted.
HOD : lets have a dry run before the final presentation.

so we set up the system and fire the ModelSim simulations. but surprise!!! even those refused to work.
on investigating, we discovered that the college floppy was infected and had infected the computer also, rendering all files read-only. now we were really screwed, we thought.

anyway, the time for judgement arrived and the examiner asked us to rush through the presentation as he didnt have time for a detailed demonstration."thank god. some luck at last", we thought. after the presentation, we proceeded for the orals which thankfully went so well that the examiner was impressed by our work. he was so impressed that he offered all three of us jobs as design engineers in vhdl lab of his organisation. but we humbly declined the offer as we all had already been selected during college placement season.

thats it for now. will keep writing regularly now(at least i'll try to).

Update Pending

2005-09-05T19:16:00.000+05:30

hey all u ppl out there.

i agree i have not updated my blog for a looooooooooooooong time now.

but i am very veryyyy busy these days.

there are a lot of topics i want to talk about, which will be coming here shortly.

COMING UP AT A BLOG NEAR YOU:
>Exams and Project Orals
>Leaving Hostel and Old Friends
>My Vacation With Mom
>First Job and Training(Entry into the Corporate World)
>First Salary :)

CN is HORRIBLE

2005-05-30T13:40:00.000+05:30

never believe enyone as far as exams are concerned.

from the starting of this sem, i asked IT people about CN(read Tannenbaum). everyone told "easy hai yaar. do din main hoga".

so, i kept 4 days instead of 2 but even at the end of almost three days, i've somehow been able to finish off with second chapter. how the hell am i supposed to complete the whole syllabus in another 1 1/2 days(I just started Data Link Layer and have five more chapters to go).

i dont have the question papers(previous years' of course) and i dont even have a local text book as BAGAD is out of stock.

i need 62% marks this sem to bring my aggregate to 60.

GOD SAVE ME!!!!!

PL's are real boring!!

2005-05-27T11:40:00.000+05:30

well, well....

finally got the project report submitted. The project is still not complete, but who completes BE projects?

got the damn UART code working. The earlier code really sucked so instead of modifying it, rewrote the whole thing from scratch.

last sem, final exams are approaching, do not feel like touching the books.

but its the same with everyone in all the colleges they say. but i'll lose my job offer if i dont study. so i'm trying hard to wrap up my subjects asap.

bye for now

project problems

2005-05-13T14:02:00.000+05:30

why the hell is the UART not working?

tried everything but Matlab still refuses to receive the correct data stream.

Introduction

2005-05-12T17:52:00.000+05:30

Hi This is Aalok Deep Pandit.

presently in my final year of engineering.

might start working in a few months or may go for mtech

bye for now