Arrey huzoor... Wah Taj boliye!

There are some childhood dreams which are wacky. I had one such dream as a kid when I used to see the ad of a brand of tea which featured a tabla playing uncle with a weird hairstyle.

We used to get the same brand of tea at home and most of the times free gifts like sketch pens, crayons, funky pencils accompanied the pack of tea. The free gifts were of much more interest to me than the tea itself as well as the uncle playing tabla or the beautiful building featured in the ad & on the tea packet.

I came up with a logical deduction that the building is the home of the uncle who likes playing tabla and just like mummy he doesn't want kid like me to drink tea. So instead of scolding me he sends sketch pens, crayons etc as gifts. No wonder I soon developed a secret desire to meet this sweet uncle and so I decided when I grow up I will visit him at his home and thank him :)

It was only later when I grew up that I realised the uncle was none other than famous tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain and his home was one of the seven wonders of the world "The Taj Mahal". Also the free gifts had soon stopped as the brand of tea we drank at home had been changed.

Anyways my fascination for the Taj grew stronger once I read the history associated with it and it became one of the must see places in life. 28th Dec was the day when I realised this long cherished dream on a visit to Mathura and Agra with fellow ManDevIans.

After the visit I strongly feel the beauty of Taj cannot be described in words as all the adjectives put together will not be able to do justice to it. I was left speechless when I got the first glimpse of it through the magnificent arched entrance. The hour and a half which I spent there will forever remain etched in my memory.

The fact that in fading light I couldnt appreciate the grandeur of the entire Taj complex and the finer details of Taj itself has strengthened my resolve to go back again and again to this temple of love.

Perhaps on one of the visits I will also meet the tabla playing uncle with the weird hairstyle. :)

Until then enjoy the pics of the visit to Taj and Mathura with my friends at MDI.

P.S: Click here for the Facebook album link or check the slide show embedded here...

Time to get my act together...

Times are tough right now for anyone on the verge of stepping out of a b-school. And its amazing how the age old Darwins principle of "survival of the fittest" fits so very aptly to the current situation.

So guess it high time to get my act together and ensure that I am fit enough to survive the upcoming placements test. :)

All this fitness related stuff also reminds me of the urgent need to hit the gym soon. And let me tell you this is not the after effect of watching Amir Khans well toned body in Ghajini (just came back from the "paid preview" of this latest Amir flick! )

It was one of my resolutions for the year 2008 and with just a week left let me try and do some justice to it before I renew it on the first day of 2009 ;)

Till next time... Merry X'mas!!

...better sense prevails!!

Unforeseen events
Tough times
Uncertain outcomes

Favorable possibilities
Unfavorable possibilities
Tempting possibilities
Unforeseen possibilities

Anxiety
Fear
Stress

Confused mind
Reactive mind

Divine intervention
Words of wisdom

Deep breath
Clarity of thought
Clarity of purpose

Cool head
Clear mind

Well thought out decision
Gutsy decision
Difficult decision

Dreams
Hopes
Prayers

Belief in "Self"
Belief in "The Supreme Being"

In the end
...better sense prevails!!

PS: I sincerely hope so... time will tell! :)

M back!! :)

Its been over 2 months now since my last post here. Had so much to post in this period but my writing skills were getting overused somewhere else.

Few moments back the thought flashed that I will at least start the process of reviving this blog. And I guess by now it must be pretty clear to you that I've got nothing concrete in my mind for this post.

Hence let me stop right here before this post further degrades the quality of this blog which has so far seen highly thought provoking and intellectually stimulating stuff! ;)

More coming very soon...

Courses and Courses...

Into my 5th trimester at MDI and have already gone through 29 courses in the first 4 trimesters but this trimester is slightly different. There are two courses which have really captured my imagination.

One is a course called "Behavioral Finance & Business Valuation" (BFBV) taken by our very own "fundoo professor" Sanjay Bakshi.

And the other one is "Leadership & Managerial Effectiveness" (LME) taken by Prof. Asha Bhandarker who is a renowned expert in this area.

BFBV is a course in which Prof. Bakshi challenges the way we think about the world in general and field of investments/business valuation in particular. He introduces brilliant mental models which have been used by the likes of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger to reap rich rewards. If properly internalised and then practised these models have the potential of completely redefining the way we approach life not just the field of financial management.

While BFBV focusses more towards the way we deal with the outside world LME shifts the focus to self. A course which forces you to think and think about your real self. Understanding your own self is the first step of leadership and its been a privilege to get invaluable insights on this from maestros like Dr. Pritam Singh and Asha ma'am.

Yesterday went through a unique exercise called "Directed Day Dream" about which I was initially a bit skeptical but by the end of the 3 hour session I was astounded as to how accurately that exercise had revealed my inner self some aspects of which only I am aware of. It was an absolutely brilliant experience!

MBA is making sense in an altogether different way now & needless to say "I'm Loving it!" :)

Time flies....

Past one month has been a hectic period in life. As I sit back @ 4AM on a Sunday morning and reflect I realized that so much has happened since I last posted here.

Exams preponed
Long break in the offing
So many plans
Home & home food
Plans go for a toss
Surprise family gathering
Back to Campus, classes & mess food
So many activities to do so less time
Good subjects
Brilliant Profs - one "Fundoo Professor" (more about him soon)
Heavy rains
Fever & cold
Sleepless nights
One party
Friends off to far off lands
New friends from far off lands
Awesome weather
This blog post :)

Time flies!!

Time to sleep!! :)

Serendipity!

In very simple terms it means a "Lucky accident".

And it was a lucky accident that I ended up watching "Serendipity" the movie yesterday evening. What a simple n beautiful movie.... one of the good ones that I have seen in a long time. Has a classical bollwood romantic movie touch to it. Had liked John Cusack in "Runaway Jury" too and after "Serendipity" I can say that I have developed a liking for his acting. BTW heres the soundtrack of the movie:



Moving on.... the movie actually got me thinking.

Many months back one Prof at MDI had narrated how serendipity had played a major role in his life in getting him where he is. And on giving it a serious thought I realized that how serendipitous even I have been so far in life (though not in my romantic life as shown in the movie ;) )

At core I too firmly believe in the concept of destiny and fate. Coz if it wasn't for fate I am sure I wouldn't have been where I am right now and perhaps the online world would have been spared of some clutter.

But then when I look at it from another perspective questions pop up in my head. If its all destiny and fate then why am I majoring in a discipline of management called "Strategy" :

And as of now I cannot say for sure that this too is a "Lucky accident". :D

Today's fortune...

Of late have been kinda hooked to the "Today's fortune" thingy on Orkut. Had even posted on the same recently, in fact it was the post prior to this one.

Todays fortune is really special. It says "When winter comes heaven will rain success on you"

This winter is sure going to be one of the most important winters of my life probably a life changing one at that and will need heavens to be on my side. So the today's fortune statement is a very soothing thought. Just hope that at least this one turns out to be true. ;)

Amen!

Orkut fortune..

9th August:
Orkut fortune says "You are going to have a very comfortable old age".
How comforting especially when life right now is not very comfortable!! :|

10th August:
Orkut fortune says "You are going to have some new clothes".
Seriously need some new stuff but am out of money. :( Wish some one would gift me some stuff on my soon to come birthday! :)

11th August:
Orkut fortune says "Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life".
Hmmm...maybe I do need to introspect about my outlook on life coz of late the happy moments in life seem to have reduced drastically or perhaps I am not able to spot them or revel in them anymore.

This blog is a reflection of my life at most times and I guess the last 8-10 posts have made it obvious that have not been exactly happy with life.

Guess its high time that I change the outlook of this blog. Perhaps that will also help change the outlook on life in general. :)

Madhushaala!!

You read some classic literary work or listen to some classic songs and suddenly some lines just make so much sense to your state of mind at that point of time. Here is a piece from the classic "Madhushaala" by Lt. Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Dard nashaa hai is Madiraa kaa
Vigat smritiyaan saaki hain!!

Peeda mein anand jise ho
Aaye meri madhushaala!!

Just realised that all my posts of late have been of the grim and sad type. But then life has been grim and sad in past month or so. Hopefully its all coming to an end and would soon be blessed with cheerful times.

As another line from this same very classic says "Raah pakad tu ek chalaa chal paa jaayega Madhushaala!!" I have taken a path and now hoping to reach my "madhushaala" soon!

PS: Click here for: Complete text of "Madhushaala"

People & the concept of greater good!!

Caged
Confined
Bounded
Restrained
Trapped

Punishment for crimes we did not commit
Forgiveness for sins we did not commit
All this...to satisfy some egos so fake
Coz greater good of community was at stake

Today I feel...
Dejected
Disgusted
Disappointed
...with people, life and to an extent myself

And it will be expected that come tomorrow I'll be...
Committed
Devoted
Dedicated
Coz greater good of community is at stake

Time will perhaps heal the wounds of today
But the scars would surely remain tomorrow

At this moment though I...
Say a silent prayer
For all of us
Shed a silent tear
For some of us

Going forward I...
Would always remember
Would always be proud of "some of us"

For letting go
For relinquishing
For sacrificing

And all this...
Coz greater good of community was at stake!!

------
Anyways I am and will always be proud of my Team. They will always hold a special place in my heart!

Cheers for my Team!

Life, Hope, Dawn..

As I right this post few lines from the title song of one of the hit sitcoms of yesteryears "Dekh Bhai Dekh" come to my mind. It went something like this:

Is rang badalti duniya mein
Kya tera hain, Kya mera hain
Dekh Bhai Dekh…Dekh Bhai Dekh
Har shaam ke baad savera hain…

These four lines aptly capture my mood right now.

After what seemed to be a long never ending dark night finally I can see some signs of the impending dawn. Dawn of..

New beginnings
New associations
Happy times ahead
A bright future for all of us!!

Amen!

Life, Times and People!

People are an integral part of any body's life. And you come across all types of them and many a times you cannot make out the difference between the type of people you should be associated with and type you should rather avoid.

But then things happen, situations arise and people's response and reactions helps you differentiate "the wheat from the chaff" as they say!

Had faced one such situation few years back which helped me understand life, people, relationships first hand. The situation in itself was grim as it unfolded in fact almost like a nightmare but then as most developments in life do, it taught me some important lessons which will hold me good for this lifetime.

Came across another such grim situation yesterday. While dealing with it verified and confirmed the lessons already learnt and in due course of time am sure will learn some new lessons too.

But the best part about it is that I could confirm my assessment of some people around me. And one person in particular whom I have known over a period of time as:

Teacher
Acquaintance
Guide
Friend
Father figure

...today rose several notches above all these.

Now on perhaps he would be just next to my God and my Parents... some one whom you can completely trust in your good times and more importantly your not so good times!

FYI.. He is Prof. Tarun Chaturvedi popularly known as "TC Sir" amongst MDI students.

Surely he is one of the best things to happen to me at MDI.

Thank you Sir for everything!

Birth, Death & the Life in between!!

Birth - the beginning of your tryst with...

Family
Friends
Relationships

People
Places

Religion
Education

Love
Hate
Envy
Jealousy

Passions
Desires
Memories
Dreams

Achievements
Successes
Failures
Attempts

Happiness
Sorrow
Joy
Pain
Agony

Mail Ids
Chat Ids
Online Profiles
Blogs

Abrupt Death - End of it all!

And then what is left behind is..

Silence
Vacuum
Memories

Period.

Effect of MBA on sher-o-shaayari :)

Yesterday night I had updated my Gtalk status message with the following two lines:

Zindagi mein sabhi ko mukkamal jahaan nahin milta..
Kissi ko zameen to kissi ko aasmaan nahin milta!

In the morning a friend (who perhaps went overboard with his preparation for the mid term examination of Strategy course scheduled later in the day) saw this and tweaked it to:

'Competition' mein sabhi ko mukkamal 'positioning' nahin milta..
Kissi ko 'low cost' to kissi ko 'differentiation' nahin milta!!

Perhaps the most creative way of putting across Porters thoughts on pursuit of low cost or product differentiation strategy by companies to create a unique positioning wrt competition.

Hail MBA! :)

PS: The great strategic thinker behind these creative lines is my batch mate fondly referred as "Tapy" by every1.

Life.. Dreams.. Pursuit..

Life
Dreams
Pursuit
Success

Life
Dreams
Pursuit
Failure

Life
Dreams
Full stop

There are dreams which you get a chance to pursue
There are dreams which could never be pursued

It pains
It hurts
It haunts

But Life goes on

You go to sleep and dream of a way out, perhaps see a new one
The next morning the pursuit resumes, perhaps a fresh pursuit begins

Thats the beauty of dreams!

You can be stopped from pursuing some of them for a while
But no one can stop you from dreaming a new one, a fresh one for sure

... and where there is a dream there is surely got to be a way

I too will surely find my way!!

The Weather!!

Its Dark
Its Gloomy
Its Cloudy
Its Raining

I'm not just talking about the weather
I'm actually feeling a little under the weather

There is something wrong with my life's script
I hope people around me are getting the drift

I hope the rain stops, clouds clear, sun shines and it turns bright and sunny again
and here I am not just talking about the weather again!

People, Trust, Relationships!!

In all my relationships I start with an implicit assumption that a person is to be trusted unless he/she proves to be unworthy of it.

In certain cases I made exception and actually trusted people who I might have felt were not worthy enough. And then....

they took no steps but I still took two steps at a time to win them over.

they had bloated egos but I killed my own to win them over.

they provoked me time and again but I overlooked it all to win them over.

they had in fact made it evident right at the start that they don't trust/like me but still I tried to win them over.

..... and I did this with sound faith in the goodness of being that I will be able to win their trust over if not them entirely.

But I guess....

I was naive
I was unreal
I was overly optimistic
I was being too good than what they actually deserved

.... as I learned a harsh lesson in relationship management today. I was proved wrong and I realized that I perhaps need to apply my assumption more carefully henceforth.

I fear that I will perhaps never be the same ever again now .... and this is a cause of great concern for me for I now run the risk of not applying my assumption when it ought to be and applying when it ought not.

I pray to the lord almighty to bless me with sound wisdom and take care of these fears...
.... and I surely trust him for that and this is not an assumption that I am making!!

Emptiness, Nothingness, Tiredness...

Last week was easily one of the most intense weeks of my life. I got so involved with each and every minute thing that now I am not able to come to terms with the fact that its all over. After the initial euphoria of successful completion of tasks planned for many months many hours, a strange feeling has engulfed me since morning.

I wish last week had continued forever
The clock stopped ticking and didn't move ever
I wish I could re-say every word that was said
And if I could replay every act in my head

But thats not going to be

I am dazed
I am numbed

Life has a huge void and all around I can only sense emptiness
Feels as if I am drowning in a deepening sea of nothingness
No gumption to fire myself again for any goal due to acute tiredness

Nothing to do nowhere to go, its a real odd day
Alone, Exiled, Sombre, Melancholy, its really a sad day

I just feel like throwing in the towel today
I just feel like throwing in the towel today!

Ciao!!

My love affair with MDI ... renewed!! :)

On an arbit morning few days back .... the campus wore a "wet n fresh" look after a rather long spell of rains ... me and my friend Sumanth who too is damn passionate about photography .... went around the campus with our cameras. And since we had nothing else to do that day we took our time looking at the campus the way no one else had till date.

And here I am with the proofs of that gorgeous day when I pretty much renewed my love affair with MDI!! :)

Enjoy!!

Rain Rain please don't go away! :)

When we were kids we used to recite a nursery rhyme:

Rain Rain Go Away
Come Again Another Day
Little Johnny Wants to Play!!

But many years down the line at this stage of life when it rained a few days back @ Gurgaon in middle of Summers I changed that nursery rhyme to suit my feelings (though the last line kind of proves that I am no good at poetry :) )

Rain Rain please don't go away
Keep falling through the day
It Makes me feel as if I am in Bombay!! :))

Actually like everyone else here, even I was expecting sweltering heat during the month of May i.e. the time when summer is usually at its peak in this part of the world. But of late surprisingly the weather has been overtly kind to us. Every other day we have a "aandhii" i.e. storm (which fills my room with loads of dust :( ) and then rain which forces the mercury down in a big way. These rains in midst of a summer which was beginning to hot up have been a real pleasant surprise.

The other day it rained just after I had finished my breakfast and since I am "working from home" I had the liberty to go out there and enjoy the rain by going on a walk around the campus getting completely drenched. This while the other summer interns staying @ Change Masters were all dressed up in formals waiting for the rain to stop so that they could go to work ;)

For the past few days we have had rains every evening and yesterday we had pretty heavy rains. Thanks to the overnight rain the weather today morning was reminiscent of Bombay during monsoon season. Overcast skies giving a gloomy feel. The wet and cold air. Wet buildings, wet roads, wet trees with leaves looking bright green after being washed by the continuous rains. Slight drizzle threatening to transform into a full fledged shower. Ahhh so so beautiful ... the kind of weather I have fallen in love with after having stayed for 20 odd years @ Bombay!

The only glitch being that here you dont get "Bhuttaa" on the road side nor can you enjoy a plate of "hot pakodas/vada paav/samosa pav" with "masala chaai", to enjoy this weather to the fullest! :(

But anyways I dont mind this break from summers at all .... may this weather continue for a couple more months.... if not for anything else at least for making me feel as if am back in Bombay! :)

Social Networking site proves "Yeh Duniya Gol Hai"!! :)

Don't believe me?? The other day while random "orkutting" came across a scrap from someone in one of my friends scrapbooks who remotely resembled one of my long lost friends. So I just dropped a scrap to him and here's how the story went thereon:

------
Me:
I hope you are the same ole Mr.XYZ ...my classmate from IES !! if u r .. then lemme ask u cple of questions ... where ve u been dude ... me n parag had been wondering where u r nowadays!! the last time we met was when u came to parag place in yr sumo and dropped me at my place!! also is the kid in the album ... junior Mr.XYZ ???
----
My Friend:
Bingo !!! i am the same Mr.XYZ...I have been travelling a lot hence havent been able to catch up with you guys...currently i m in Delhi & doing very good by god's grace...the kid in the album is my nephew... :-)
-----
Me:
bhai i m in gurgaon :) ... completed first year of my MBA at MDI Gurgaon ..... right now summer internship on in Gurgaon itself!!where r u based in delhi ????
------
My Friend:
Buddy, i m in Gurgaon as well...My office is in Infinity towers opp.ship building, DLF phase II... lets catch up if possible......
------
Me:
haaahaaahaaaaaa ... guess what ...my office is opposite the ship building too .... right behind Genpact .... Building No.8 mein ... ........ yeh duniya gol hai bhaaai!!
------
My Friend:
Buddy even i am in building no.8. You have my number now, give me a call. I m in office generally by 7 PM....
------
Me:
haaaaaaahaahaaaaaa....... i hope the coincidences end here!! ...
------

And this is how thanks to Orkut I found one of my friends whom I hadn't been able to trace since a couple of years & that too with the help of few scraps in a couple of days time.

What more we realized that he and I goto work in the same building each day. Its a small world which we live in after all. :)

Orkut Roxx!! :)

Things I did in April'08 and Things I plan to do in May'08

Had made big plans for the summers on the night of 31st March so I thought today would be the right time to take a stock of what have I done during one month of my summer break :)

- have hit the gym (finally the new year resolution being put into practice :) really happy about this)

- traveled to Jaipur for couple of weekends, visited loads of temples thanking god the for the wonderful one year and praying for an even better second year

- started playing PacMan ... and playing it pretty well now, can hit 50K scores on regular basis :)

- some college work as a part of my Council Job, also got the Council Room cleaned finally

- attended a CII Annual Conference (where I saw the two power centers of the country - PM & Soniaji in person in a matter of couple of hours besides all the gyaan I got from Sunil Bharti Mittal, K V Kamath, Kamal Nath, Dr.Trehan and co. :) )

- watched few good movies ... The Kite Runner, Runaway Jury, Sleepless in Seattle etc

- started watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S

- lots of orkutting

- shared loads of gyaan with the MDI aspirants on PaagalGuy

- shared loads of gyaan with my own batchmates on MDI mail :)

- tracked down a long lost friend

What else ?? hmmm...nothing much besides this. So what else have I not done yet ?? here's the list:

- made library visits a part of my daily routine :(

- contacted good ole friends

- read 1 good book a week (have read just 1.5 books if I aggregate all the reading that I have done and that too includes books on Supply Chain Management :( )

- watch couple of really good classic movies a week

- watch couple of series like the HIMYM, LOST, Heroes, Prison Break which are such a rage with my batch mates

So 1 more month to go to put these things into action too. Lets see if am able to do it.

I guess I did not factor in the Summers into my calculations earlier ... but now with the temperatures soaring each passing day guess the cool confines of Library would become automatically tempting. :) So there's hope at least for one thing which I haven't done so far ;)

PS: did I forget something called as "Summer Internship" here ?? Naaah.... am on a Summer Vacation :)

One Battle over but another resumes!!

30th March was the last day of first year of my course at MDI. The response to this milestone in our lives at MDI was a subdued one. Immediately post examination people got busy with packing their bags to set off for their homes/respective locations for summer internship. Many seemed rather too eager to get out of the campus and within a couple of hours their was flurry of activity outside the Change Masters and by evening the hostel wore a ransacked look with rooms vacated, essentials dumped into common cloak rooms and the unwanted stuff lying around all over.

The Change Masters normally buzzing with life all times bore a post war look and I suffered philosophical pangs of the kind the great emperor Ashoka endured after the war of Kalinga. :)

But soon had to get out of this mood as I realised that even though I was going to spend my summers@Change Master, I still had to pack my stuff and shift to a new room. Post the shifting which took few hours, a sense of emptiness set in as had nothing to do, nobody I could go and purposely disturb and the reverse.

It was then that I realised that this "dream b-school life" of no worldly worries that I was leading for 10 odd months was about to be broken albeit temporarily. Yes i had to step back into the big bad corporate battlefield in a days time. Was really looking forward to this like some of my friends who haven't tasted it yet were/are?

Don't have a definite answer. A part of me has "the been there done that" attitude and wants me to just run away from here and so that I can avoid stepping into the "real" world.

But at the same time another part of me wants to go out there again and see for myself whether this past 10 odd months of effort is going to put me in a different position in the Corporate world from where I left it.

So its with these mixed emotions that I goto bed tonight. Tomorrow morning 10AM I report to work. Hopefully the next two months will be challenging, rewarding ones and will help clear a few doubts that I have in my mind.

Good luck to all "Change Masters" ready to rock the Corporate World this summer. :)

Aaaj Biraj mein Holi re Rasiyaa....

For once I am posting something very apt for the ocassion. Yes today is Holi the Festival of Colours and this post is about my tryst with Holi of a different kind in the land of Radhey-Krishna, the holy Brijbhoomi situated around Mathura-Vrindavan!!

Last weekend I along with couple of friends set out for the Brijbhoomi. We took the Gurgaon-Faridabad-Mathura route and reached Goverdhan and settled down in one of the modern and plush dharmashaalas. After a good homely meal I decided to join one of my friends for the "parikrama" of Goverdhan hill which is a 21Km long journey to be covered barefoot. The task seemed daunting but I decided to go ahead and so there we were at 11 in the night, two of the future "Change masters and Thought leaders of the Corporate World" walking barefoot with thousands of worshippers of Lord Krishna chanting "Raadhey Raadhey Shyaam se milaa de", "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" !! :)

All along the route came face to face with an India so different from what we usually get to see in Gurgaon surrounded by all the glitzy malls and glass adorned towers!! Faith driving people to extremes where they cover the entire journey of 21 Kms rolling on the ground, people finding business opportunities which exploit this very faith all along the route, the crass exploitation of places of mythological importance which has completely destroyed them. But these very sights kept me engaged and to my utter surprise I didn't feel any hint of tiredness. We completed the parikrama in 4 hours flat which according to my friend was a pretty good effort.

Next day morning we moved to "Nand Gaaon" the place where Lord Krishna spent his childhood. This turned out to be the most memorable part of the trip. We reached there in a jeep which had believe it or not 40 odd people, with people inside, on the roof and on the bonnet as well. The driver drove the vehicle for the most part sitting outside the vehicle :)) On reaching there we had a heavenly experience. The villagers of Nand gaaon were celebrating Holi in Nand baabas palace, colors were being splashed on all and sundry, people were dancing with gay abandon.

The thought that we were playing Holi in the same land where Lord Krishna must have played many many ages back was an exhilarating experience. Though thankfully we escaped with just minor splashes of colors thanks to all the attention the "fairer sex" was getting from the revelers. After the "darshan" of the Lord we roamed around the village market having fun all along the way. But soon there was nothing much left to do so we decided to give the famous "latthh maar" holi a miss since it was still couple of hours away and chose to move on to Vrindavan instead. The ride to Vrindavan was even more exciting, with we sitting at the back of a rickshaw packed with 20 odd people driving on a non existent road. No wonder it took us an hour and half to cover distance of only 10 Kms. But then it just cost us Rs.7 each so the fun we had meant it was great value for money!! :)

Vrindavan showed a different face of India, India where faith has been commercialized to the hilt. There were concrete buildings and crappy hoardings on either side of the roads choked with vehicles where once upon a time Lord Krishna played "raas leela"! But we had darshan of "Baanke Bihariji" from close quarters which was a good experience. The "aaloo tikki chholey" & "Lassi" that we had outside the temple were just out of this world :)

We finally closed our trip with an hour in the ISKON Temple chanting "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" along with hundreds of "bhakts" which included many firangs too as is usual in ISKON temples all over.



This journey turned out to be our short & sweet tryst with "instant spirituality" and "the real India" if I may call it so. By 2 in the night we had returned back to our very own "Change Masters" where we are supposed to indulge in nothing less than "CEO level thinking" according to one of our profs. :))

Happy Holi .. have fun!! :))

Class of 2008 is gone ...

This post has been long overdue but got so busy with other stuff that couldn't post it on time. Nevertheless as is the trend with my most posts "better late than never!!" :)

The Convocation of Class of 2008 was an affair to remember. The happy faces of proud parents and our seniors thrilled at receiving their degrees and some over the moon on getting gold medals were a joy to watch. Mr. Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. was the chief guest and he delivered a short but stirring speech for the graduating batch!

But very soon this joy and excitement had to subside and mood was sombre. With mementos and year books distributed seniors started to leave the campus. It started to finally sink in that they will no longer be there with us. I could rewind some of the best moments that I have had at MDI courtesy the seniors and I am sure they must be having countless memories associated with their own batchmates some couldn't bear the pain of separation and broke down while others tried to act brave and control their emotions but I could sense it each time I saw packed bags waiting outside Change Masters and seniors spending their final moments with their friends.

From now on they would be entering the crazy n frenzied lives of managers of top notch corporates and they will never be able to spend all those "chill moments" they had on campus with their friends free from all worries for almost two years!!

Moments like these put things in perspective that even I have got just one more year left here now so why not make full use of each n every moment and yes I am already dreading the thought of having to go through this moment one year down the line!!

Somehow this has reassured me that these are really the best days of my life!! :)

Here are some pics from the Convocation day:

Kyaa mausam aayaa hai ... :)

Today was a perfect day. Just through with exams so nothing much to do on the academic front. The cold has vanished and the weather is just perfect right now. Wish this kind of weather stayed for most of the time. Life would be so beautiful then :)

Felt great to stroll around the campus after lunch having an ice cream. Late afternoon decided to check out the flowers on full bloom all across the campus. Tried to take some good snaps by being patient and focusing on creating depth of field effect in some pics and succeeded at that, felt really happy about it. But really wished if I had a SLR Cam I could do much more. Anyways heres a collection of snaps I clicked today :





It was really relaxing to just stroll around the campus and watch nature in its full glory. At the same time it also made me reflect that in our daily lives we tend to ignore our surroundings to such a huge extent. We rarely notice the chirping of birds, clear blue skies, gentle breeze, natures splendor.

Even I paid such attention to my campus in particular and nature in general after a long time and honestly the sight of flowers in various stages of their growth, bees carrying out the pollination process right in front of your eyes was well worth the effort.

Well moving on ... in the evening played badminton for a couple of hours by the end of which surprisingly felt really high on energy instead of feeling exhausted. Was really hungry and so post dinner went out with friends and rounded of the day with an ice cream scoop once more :)

All in all really great day.....just about perfect!! :) May God have mercy on us and let this weather continue for a longggg time to come.

Proud moment for MDI!!

Just felt like sharing a really proud moment for MDI and we all ManDevIans ...

Two teams from MDI have done us all proud and "tasted the success" at the PepsiCo "Taste the Success" Contest open for just select few top b-schools of the country (check out PepsiCo Taste the Success Contest)

The super Trio of Anand Mohan Sharma, Supreet Kaur and Anand Trivedi from PG07 i.e my batch have won the first prize in the contest. Guess whats their prize ..... they will soon be flying to New York to present their analysis to none other than the PepsiCo Chairperson, Indra Nooyi regarding the way ahead for PepsiCo. :) :)

Trio of Bikram Deep Singh Pannu, Ankita Chopra and Arindam Pal from PG06 i.e. senior batch bagged the second runners up spot in the same contest.

All 6 of them have also secured PPIs from PepsiCo. :)

Here are some pics of the Super 6:

Proud to be a ManDevIan!! :))

Entrepreneurship gets a push at MDI!!

19th Feb 08 will perhaps be a landmark day in the history of MDI, with the foundation stone laid for “The S.P. Kapur Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship”.

Mr. Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro India was the Chief Guest for this ceremony. Director of MDI, Dr. Sujith Basu and Mr. Surinder Kapur were also present. For the uninitiated, Late Shri S P Kapur is the father of Mr. Surinder Kapur who is the Chairman of SONA Group.

This Centre is poised for huge success with lots of students on campus showing keen interest in taking the entrepreneurial route. We already have a senior from Class of 2007 who had opted out of placements and he is operating his venture from campus which is in the take off stage.

The Centre will provide a more formal way to support entrepreneurs like him. Some fellow ManDevIans are all ready to start their venture on campus soon which will be supported by this Centre once its up and running.

The vision laid out for the Centre is a very unique one and I am sure you will hear a lot about this Centre in the years to come.

Here are some pics of that day:



You can find related news articles on MoneyControl , MBAUniverse - one, two and three.

Adios!

PS: Sanjay Kapur, the man whom Karishma Kapoor married is the son of Mr. Surinder Kapur too and ya she was there on campus too adding to the beauty of the campus

Its that time of the Term again :)

3rd trimester halfway through and its Mid-term exams time.

Yes the time when the "Change Masters" for once goes silent, no "bhasssad" going on in the mess too, no hanging around doing nothing around campus. People have a no nonsense approach at the dinner table courtesy which the dinner which usually takes good 30-40 minutes is polished off in matter of few minutes.

Its that time when the resource and time manager inside every ManDevIan who are otherwise dumped deep within come to the fore. All the pre reads that should have ideally been done during the term are now being looked into at frenetic pace.

Theres a mad rush for notes made by one of the mose sincere souls on campus who is fondly called "dadduu".... who I believe can make a business out of this and earn big bucks... which the other day in an entrepreneurship event some guys actually tried out and made a cool profit on their investment by selling his notes on a premium :))

"Gyan Griha" our library which otherwise is given step motherly treatment on campus by PGP students now gets all the attention in the world ala a girlfriend on valentines day ;)

Many "cool" people who otherwise would consider it "utterly uncoool" to be seen with a book in their hands .... now vainfuly try to explain that they were just chatting in the library and they didn't study a word ... as if studying was a crime ;)

If I were to summarise the mood through some bollywood stufff ... then on normal days the background score would be :



and now the score would be :



:)))))

... n there are some souls who though not dyslexic but still very much like the adorable Ishaan in the second part of the above song ... enjoying the ohhh so rare solitude n silence in the hostel by doing what they newayz do most of the time i.e. sleeping in peace, watching movies/cricket/football, reading novels ... blissfully unaware of all the "ghissu giri" going on in the library!!

Coz they believe in the eternal truth of a b-school, the guiding mantraa of every b-schooler... "Relative Grading Roxxx!!" :))

P.S: and then there are others like me too who are even more vela and so end up busy updating their blogs with some stupid posts like this one ;) ..... chalo let me also read something about Layout Design, Fiscal Policy, Core Competencies, Mechanistic Organizations, Qualitative Research, IS planning and Capital Budgeting :)

Phool khile hain gulshan gulshan!!

Walks on campus is a pleasure on most days, in spite of the cold weather. More so nowadays with flowers of various hues and colors blooming in possibly every nook and corner of the campus. Theres no sight as beautiful as that of blooming flowers with dew drops on their petals and the campus right now thanks to all the hardwork of numerous faceless "maaalis" on campus offers plenty of such beautiful sights.

One of my classmates who owns a pretty sleek Digital SLR clicked a few snaps of these sights some days back which I am sharing here

..... these pictures cannot describe the real beauty of the sights on display .... for that you will have to pay a visit to my campus. :)

P.S: "Phool khile hain gulshan gulshan" was also the name of a very popular T.V serial aired on DoorDarshan hosted by Tabassum from 1972-93. It was the first ever and the most popular movies based talk show of its time. She had even floated an entertainment company few years back which had failed to take off. Read about the company here.

"Lutyens Delhi" rockss!!

I had mentioned this in one of my earlier posts as well that weekends can get really boring at times on campus ... with all the NCR junta heading for home ... hostel wears a deserted look and there is sudden silence after all the cacophony throughout the week.

But last weekend was a different one for me. A Mumbaikar friend and I headed for Delhi with one of our Delhiite friends. We had pursuaded him to arrange tickets for the Republic Day which he eventually did on the very last day. 25th Night we headed for Delhi ...and suprise surprise .... we were expecting a longish journey due to barricading for security reasons, it being the R-day eve. But to our relief initially and shock later (we thought that Delhi Police had forgotten that next day was R-day :) ) there was not a single place where our vehicle was stopped ..... and we reached the heart of Delhi in flat 25 minutes ... a journey which otherwise takes 2 hours and now with the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway problems even 3-4 hours at times.

Got up early morning and we headed for Raj Path ......on the way we realised that the entire area was like a fortress ..... there was security all along the way in every nook and corner .... I have no qualms at saying that I hadn't felt as safe in public as I felt that day ;)

Newyz ... the Parade was an awesome experience despite of the chilly weather .... watching the Jawans parade in total sync and all the weaponry and floats etc was a great experience.... sort of one of something I had dreamt during childhood .. when I used to get up in the morning even though it was a "No School" day to watch the parade and get overawed by the grandeur of it all.

But the best experience came in the later part of the day that is evening when we strolled around on RajPath for couple of hours waiting for the sun to set. One the sun set ... the sights that unfolded cannot be described in words ... the lit up India Gate, North Block, South Block, Parliament and the biggest of em all the Rashtrapati Bhavan ......... loooked simply stunning ... all lit up. We went right till the gates of the Rashtrapati Bhavan and just sat there for an hour soaking in the grandeur of the various buildings on easily the most important road in India "The RajPath". Lutyens and Herbert Baker the architects have sure done a stunning job.

.... we also visited the Lodhi Gardens that day ... and the next day went to Connaught Place the most happening of places in Delhi ...... it was early on Sunday so the Central Park was quite empty ..... I also had my first taste of the much acclaimed Delhi Metro from beneath the Central Park to get back to MDI!!

Heres a compilation of pics :




by the end of the weekend ..... the grandeur of the structures ... the history associated ...... the sense of space which is terribly lacking in most parts of Bombay .... the mix of 16th Century Bada Gumbad of Lodhi Gardens and the 21st Century Delhi Metro .... bowled me over.

"Lutyens Delhi" rocks for sure!! :)

Kyaa mausam aaayaa hai .... :((

The weather here is quite extreme ..... 6 months back when I landed here in the month of July, this place was as hot as a furnace (though the locals said that the summers were over ;) ) ... Bombay can get hot too but then its nothing compared to this place!!

And since the mid of November this place has turned mind numbingly cold (though the locals say that this year the cold is milder than previous years ;) ) .... as per some websites the mercury dips to almost 3 degrees in the night time in Gurgaon ....n the campus being an open one with lots of greenery its easily a couple of degrees lower out here.... So you can imagine!! Its too damn cold out here. I have worn enough woolens and real heavy ones at that in a months time here than what I did back home in Bombay in all of 20+ years :)

In such cold weather we have classes at 8:30 AM in the morning when the mercury is hovering in single digits and the sun refuses to make its presence felt ..... and worse some professors are scheduling extra classes at 8:30 AM :((

Plus it tends to get verry foggy in the mornings (which too the locals claim is not bad this year as it can actually be) .... just the other day i.e. saturday got a taste of how bad things can get...

On normal days the view from my room is pretty decent one:

but on Saturday the scene at 7:30 AM was something like this



If you are wondering that why was I up at such a time when it was so cold .... fyi .. we had an extra class on Strategy at 8:30 AM and I had "coolly" slept through the night without reading up for the class :) ..... Making it to the 8:30 class in time is a big ask for most people nowadays....

What this kind of weather induces bigtime is SLEEEP ...... one can actually sleep through the day in the warm confines of the quilt ..... without even bothering to get out of bed for breakfast, lunch or dinner!! :)

Newyz this is all I could write on "Dillii ki Sarrdeee" or perhaps it should be "MDI ki Sarrdeee". Few months down the line .... it will be Summer time ... and I am already dreading the prospect of spending my summers@Gurgaon!! God Save Me!!

P.S: Written during the brief time I was out of my bed after sleeping through most of the day ... and most likely will again go to sleep after posting this. Pre-reads for tomorrows class ... some other time!! :)

My Campus - MDI, Gurgaon!!

Was planning to write a detailed post on this topic ... but came across this post written by a senior ManDevIan, couple of years back .... so being an IT engineer who believes in extensibility, reusability blah blah .... I can close this post by just giving a reference to the super duper seniors post!! :))

Newyz .. will post some new pics in the near future .... once the mind numbing cold subsides!!

Meanwhile you can check out my campus here too:

MDI Pics

Most if not all of the pics in this album were clicked on my first morning on this beautiful campus which is now, my home for 2 years!! :)

Besides this heres another great collection of MDI Pics and real classy ones at that clicked by one of ma friend who also happens to be ma senior here .... some of the pics even adorn the Alumni Calendar released the other day.

Alma Matters!!

For any b-school worth its salt .... besides the obvious things like faculty, quality of students, infrastructure etc ... its the alumni network which helps build its brand in the corporate world. Here is where the IIM A,B,Cs, the XLRIs n JBIMSes of the world have an edge over MDI right now ..... since these institutes have been in existence for over decades now ... their alumni is obviously in all the right places and places that matter a lot in the corporate world. MDI according to me is on par with the schools I just mentioned above or even better perhaps on some parameters. (More on this in a separate post soon ... as I don't want to digress from the main topic of this post i.e. Alumni)

As far as alumni goes, the flagship PGPM course is just 14 years old. So the Alumni network is just about on the verge of reaching maturity. The fact that in this short span of time MDI has made its place in the top 10 b-schools of the country is a testimony of the overall quality and performanceof its programmes.

Anyways coming back to the Alumni, on the 19th we had the National Alumni Meet on our campus. This years event was special as it marked the registration of the Alumni Society ...... which is rather late for a top grade b-school like MDI ...... but perhaps "better late than never" suits perfectly in this case.

There was a cricket match organised between the Alumni team and our batch i.e PG07 team. It was a keenly fought match with our team hitting the winning runs on the penultimate delivery of the match.

In the evening the Alumni Website was launched with much fanfare ... its a pretty good website ... n a much needed one to keep in touch with the alumni .... since until now the feeling was "Humare aadmee chaaron taraf phhailey hue hain!!" ;) Besides the website an Alumni Calendar was launched containing pics of MDI clicked by some ManDevIans which includes yours truly too. Also the quarterly Alumni magazine "Footprints" was released. The cover story this time is on Couples@MDI ...how their love blossoms and grows on campus :D ... A slightly modified version of one of my earlier posts on "Summer Placements" also found a place in the magazine which made me feel really proud!! :)

All in all it was a great day .... a landmark one for MDI according to me. I am pretty sure that this small step by MDI will help ManDevIans take giant strides in the years to come!! :)

The mood for the day was well captured by the punchline of the Alumni website i.e. "ALMA MATTERS".... Sure it does!! :)