through my scope

Since the summer of 2009 ...

2010-04-08T10:18:00.003+05:30

That is when I last wrote a post, summer of 2009. I had got calls from MDI, XLRI &; IMT for my management post-graduation and I was in the process of giving the interviews. I was also working the "technical" field on linux thin-client sercer setup on Debian (lenny). I had started to swim, read novels again and had been almost getting bored.

Then I converted my MDI call for a post grad. in HR field, and suddenly I wasn't bored. Hectic schedules started from the first week itself. In my engineering, we DID NOT have compulsory lecture attendance (and I think partly that was a reason I never studied), but boy-oh-boy MBA was different. More than 90% attendance or they dock your grade one level; as it is I have a negative correlation to grades, there was no scope for a dock!! Tried to enter the several clubs at the institute ("MBA is never only about the acads" as the seniors were saying); and got through to the cultural club.

Though never strong in acads and very lethargic, I can work. A practical person at core, I excitedly worked for the cultural club; even participated for on-stage performances- mime (link here) and dance (no proper record, yey!! I suck at remembering the dance steps apparently). Acads as usual were giving me a hard time; pre-session readings and assignments and presentations, discussion and class participation in every class, post-session projects were irritating to say the least. I was at my lethargic best throughout and as a true DAIICTian believed in Just-In-Time! Though bunking classes was not an option, sleeping certainly was :D. Some professors din't quite notice, while some were very strict and pushed for participation; as if! We got our seats fixed according to our roll no.s and as luck had it I stayed at the last bench :) .. solving sudokus and word-jumbles from the Delhi Times, reading the whole Times from front to last, sketching (random) on the notebook on the same page as the class notes, writing more short proses, and ofcourse sleeping; which no matter however hours I slept the night before, was a constant. The courses too sucked big time; and the exams obviously. I din't quite have the experience or the requisite skills (read: faff, in the terminology of MDI) for writing 3-4 pages answers to a single question!!

Between all this I made some wonderful and special friends, got shifted (after 2 weeks :D) to the best room at campus with attached bathroom (thanks to my roomie's luck I should say), enjoyed my time with outings to the malls of gurgaon (there's not much else to do in gurgaon), failed miserable at acads again (and again), created more projects and presentations than in the whole life and then some, helped organized the various cultural activities and festivals at MDI and got selected as the joint secretary of the club, tried to dance at the irregular parties in the campus without success, went to a few 4'o clock outings to McD and convergys (the 11 pm limit of entry-exit is errm "manageable" sometimes), had to go through the dissapointing period of getting a summer internship (my grad. grades are just so awesome ;) ), attended sad and happy events back in Indore, plus a great trip to Jaipur, then started to study a bit more (very reluctantly), extended my gaming career for some time more (dissapointingly irregular), got selected as the secretary of the cultural club, joined the college's corporate communication team, finally got selected for an internship, and cleared my room before going home.

Now looking back it was a great time, could have been better could have been worse, but who cares. And the summer of 2010 is going to be a great time (though at home!)

"Sicko"

2010-01-21T14:06:00.000+05:30

Its not everyday that I watch documentaries, infact its been quite some time since I saw one. But being at home this weekend, and watching tv for lack of alternatives, I came across this Micheal Moore documentary. It highlighted and showed how the american system of healthcare is failing, and also showed how few other countries run their own healthcare system. On a broader note, it compared "socialised/central healthcare" with the "open/private healthcare" systems.

Well, its shocking to say the least. I suppose many people would have seen it by now, but those who havn't, do give it a try. Did you know that you can walk into a hospital in Canada or UK and not get charged even if you've been in the ICU ? Or that the maximum bill on a/any prescription you can get in UK is 6.65 (or so) pounds ? And many such things. Heck, even Cuba has an enviable healthcare system (acc. to the documentary that is). No wonder the film got into trouble while releasing, but it was nominated for the oscars, isn't it ?

Anyways, taking it in the Indian perspective, our healthcare "costs" are still far better than in the states, (one of my friends doing a post-grad there told me something about how she should have taken a bagfull of medicines from India), but isn't our system too going the same way ?

Also I wonder if someone was to make a documentary in India on such "systems", well just how many would there be on the list ?

I wondher why ye can always read a doctor's bill an' ye niver can read his purscription.
~Finley Peter Dunne

My long term Career Goals!

2009-02-16T01:07:00.005+05:30

XL this time around asked all the "call-getters" to fill in a questionaire before the interview process takes place ... an online form which preferably you had to login only once and fill-in ... no notifications about how the questions would be ... so after searching in the endless forums i did try to find out the list of the questions.... and the very first of them was "What are your long-term career goals ?" and my first reaction ? well i was trully, completely and totally BLANK ...

i guess i never really gave it a thought, did i? but then even now if i do give it a thought, i don't actually come up with something ... heck i dont come up with anything ... dreams maybe, but goals, damn! ... even dreams change as often as umm well very often ... but people around do seem to have, especially the ones preping for admission into a good MBA college ... well i was able to make something up for the admission process, and convinced myself about it, well half-heartidly atleast ...

hmm.. let me give a thought again ... bah ... does lying around, lazying and maybe doing something of interest count ? .. maybe ..

If you don't know where you are going, you can never get lost.
~Herb Cohen

the Convocation ...

2009-02-04T19:25:00.019+05:30

and back we were .... to the place of our professional birth ..for the conferrings... too melodramatic ? .. ah well, it was the convocation of the batch of 2004 (some people say it should be 2008, since thats the year we passed it in ...but i'll let you decide) ... and we were back in da-iict ... meeting all the friends and acquaintances we made and some we did not make ...

anyways, after a poker filled train journey and the first day pleasentaries and meeting with people ... we were feeling "at-home" ... like the time in between was just like a small vacation ... the jokes were back (albeit on newer topics..) .. all the camaraderie was there ... though we definitely missed some of the non-attending friends ...

we had a dress rehearsal a day before to the convo... and god we were bored ... the director who hadnt talked to students for even 2 minutes in our time at the college was spending that time with each person, asking questions, "getting-to-know" .. while the rest of us were sitting in the sun getting bored ... while some simply dozed off :D ... this "ordeal" really took a long time to get over ... but once it did .. we were back to enjoying ourselves ... the dinner at sardar's; one of the favourites .. coffee at CCD after that ...

and then true to our nature, we had to have a party (if you know what i mean..).. the items arranged, we were deciding on "where", when one of our enlightened friends took the high (or stupid .. i'll leave that to you .. ) road and went to the hostel supervisor to ask him for "permission" so that since this is our last time in college, can we party in the hostel and we'll be good boys ... as expected that din't work out, and instead left the authorities "hot-on-our-trail" ; literally, they were following us : , though we had some fun there too ... and then they actually did manage to find something from some juniors room, whch obv. we had kept there in hope, and out of the campus we went at 3 (or so) in the night ... and ended up at a local (since hes working there) friend's place ...

early next day saw us back in college, in a prof's room, awaiting the "punishment" given to us by Disciplinary Action Committee (supposedly) ... for crying out loud, we were graduating that day!! then were told that should leave the campus right away and were not going to be given degree during the convo process, but later by mail .. (well technically, my name wasnt on the list that turned up, but what the heck..) ... since some guys had their parents attending the ceremovies this din't go down well... so after some help by some "good" ( hell, i am biased!) prof's, and mini- victory,vis-a-vis those having their parents there, and heated discussions (some amongst the group), everyone did end up being part of the ceremony, even with "special" treatement of all being awarded in the end ...

some celebrations, some photographs, trip to the fav. sizzler joint and later a party (not in campus though) brought a good end to the day ... and with everone leaving the next day or so brought a good end to a memorable last visit to the college; but the nostalgia remains ...

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

~ Aeschylus

The Bengaluru trip

2009-01-03T14:29:00.000+05:30

The new year has started and what a start it was - there's nothing like a chilled beer and company of a friend after a long and tiring journey; and top that with a filling meal (read: paranthas) ...nice!

This was still in 2008 .. spent most of the next day in NID campus and after a 1.5 hours bus journey (and I thought only Delhi had long distances) ended up at Manpho Pavilion (contact for weekend parties) to meet the bangalore "crowd" there - good old (wtf already!) college friends ..

Ah all of them are earning now, but new year's eve is still too costly and conjusted to go out to some place... AND some useless people had their offices fucking open on the 1st! So, couldn't plan to go out-of-town and had a "house-party" (shit sounds ridiculous I know) - drinks, food and hukka (the-best-buy) !! after which we (tried-to) played "mafia". Alcohol and logic is a wierd combo and that was pertinent from the kind of "blame-game" we played :D ... and then obviously adjusted, found space wherever we could and slept...

And what better way to start the first day of the year lazying around! A late rise (except obviously those same useless people with office..), a pizza order in for lunch, all the while sitting on those lazy bags (bean bags some people call it). After a dropped plan to catch some movie, we ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe. Alert: 1st time pub goers do not go there for your maiden visits - although costly (very), its one of the "cool" places (I've heard). After beers, shots and a flaming tower (yeah lol) at HRC we ended up at Noon-Wine (its the name of the place!!) and eating one the best lamb burgers I have had...

Back at Manpho, after a round of late night poker (with unreal chips :/), another late morning, and a subdued 2nd day of the year, it was the end of my great short trip to bangalore esp. for the new year's :)

Good thing I went ...

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. "
-Oprah Winfrey

p.s. - a happy new year!

40 hours ..

2008-12-29T14:20:00.000+05:30

Ah the last trip of the year! I write this while "on the train" and towards the end of my journey (not trip :-) )...

New Year as such has never been a "festival" in India but is now pretty much celebrated (read party) by many (atleast those who get/take holidays). So I too took a break and travelled to Bangalore, where many of my college friends are. Before this trip, the southern-most point I had gone to was Goa (which is not even "south"); and as expected it was a long train journey down...

Not that I was complaining... I had my novels, my writing pad, and my pillow so I thought it would just pass by. How wrong I was! Firstly, the train did start on time even with all the heavy fog in Delhi, but since its Indian Rail it was already late by an hour inside two hours of the journey !! And by the end of it the supposedly 36 hours journey ended up almost 40 hours...

A long journey when in company of friends, or known persons, or good-looking-gals-sitting-beside-you-and-willing-to-talk pass by good, but when instead you have for company are an aged couple (nothing personal...hmm), two 40-year-olds-going-home, and the only person your age is a techie who though-okay-to-talk-to-initially-but-gets-a-call-midway-through-about-the-"nature"-of-his-girfriend-and-breaks-down is pretty cumbersome and tiring and long and at the end of the journey the only appetite you can have for is for it to end, however much you sleep - its just not enough to cover that boring time...

The books that were taking me pretty long to finish at home, the classic novels I had been keeping away for sometime, got finished too quickly; and two at that! It was fun to be again able to read a book from start to end in one sitting (i almost miss my daiict sem exams coz that was the last time I did that )

The trip had its moments....when a few 12-year old came to the compartment searching for a place to charge their mini-DVD player and were watching and enjoying a movie on it all the while, a movie in "one-of-the-southern" languages - which none of the other passengers (me included, even after those lazy attempts to learn it in college) could comprehend and yet seemed to drawn by the "actions" of the hero; when my sister told me over the phone of the distinct places she had visited (on a trip which I was supposedly to be on) in the past 24 hours while I had been on the same train, in the same compartment changing my positions between sitting, standing and sleeping; when I got a call from my team leader informing me about my offer-letter (long in waiting) and the let down it was (in terms of position, and compensation obviously) considering the amount of work I had put in; and obviously that time "the techie guy" was on the phone - I din't know if i should feel some sorrow for the stranger i had met that day (but had talked to more than I did to some of my batchmates in 4 years) ...

In the end I was so bored that "I" had supplanted to music, listening songs (odd selections) put by my sis on the cellphone!!

Good thing then that I'm returning by air!

"’T is with our judgments as our watches — none, Go just alike, yet each believes his own. "
- Alexander Pope

A Start

2008-06-07T01:41:00.000+05:30

It seemed such a new good thing,
to share, to tell, to show,
stories and poems,
events and bearings;

but when the initial excitement went missing,
and it seemed as an enduring flow,
the zeal to write wasn't there,
nor was it easy to capture feelings.

and then out nowhere came a sudden ring,
a rush to write also glow,
it may not be much, but then its a start,
comments are welcome, and so are the naggings.