Just some juggie thoughts...

UK Trip - Fall of 2018

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 21:32:00 +0000

29 Sep 2018

6:30 am
The journey begins on a high
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport)

Some mind-blowing bisi bhele baath and veg cheese omelet at the Plaza Premium Lounge

12:30 pm
A Black Cab to enter the country
London Heathrow Airport (LHR) (London Heathrow Airport)

The quintessential London experience started right at the airport when we took one of the famous “London Black Cab” to head to our hotel.

2:30 pm
Checking in
Le Méridien Piccadilly

Arrived at our hotel to a warm welcome from the hotel manager.

After checking in to our rooms and dropping off the bags, some refreshments were in order before we head out into the town.

Ofcourse it was “High Tea” time in the lounge...some buttery English scones with jam, and tea (D-uh!)

4:30 pm
Westminister Walk
Bus Stop S - Piccadilly Circus

First up on London itinerary was a long long walk around the city of Westminster. Starting at the Piccadilly Circus and it’s Times-Square-like massive screens and billboards, the 3 hour walk took us through Leicester Square, China Town, West End, Trafalgar Square, north bank of the Thames and finally to Jubilee Gardens and London Eye.

7:00 pm
Night Walking Tour
Jubilee Gardens

The day ended with a walking tour of the south bank of Thames. Matt (Maceij) was enthralling with stories for 2 hours as he guided us through the sites like Big Ben, Parliament, London Eye, Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Prison, Shakespeare Theatre, Bear Pit and many more.

The tour ended at London Bridge where we got lucky and saw the Tower Bridge open. It was a sight to behold with its lights on.

Day 1 ended with our first experience of London Underground and some quick Udon for dinner.

30 Sep 2018

9:00 am
To see the Queen...
Buckingham Palace

No trip to London is complete without paying respects to the queen, but alas she was no where to be seen in the Buckingham Palace. We did get lucky though, with this being the last day that palace is open for 2018. The audio tour included a walk through the State Rooms, experiencing what all royal guests do, along with the Royal collections, investiture halls and venues for the queen's garden parties. We did miss the change of guards though...something for our next trip.

Once the palace tour wrapped up, the cool weather and light sun tempted us for another long walking day. St. James Park, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Palace of Westminister (Parliament) and 10 Downing Street led us to the banks of Thames for lunch.

2:00 pm
Walk Along the Thames
National Theatre

Our quest for lunch took us to a farmer's market outside the National Theatre, where we dug into some local delicacies like Scotch Eggs and Bubble wrap. Further downstream got us to a spot for Gourmet wood-fired pizza...yum on a chilly day!

Having recently finished reading Dan Brown's latest (Origins), I couldn't rests the temptation of checking out Tate Modern. Modern art is never easy to understand, but it did result in some nice photos and great views of the city.

7:00 pm
Lights up London
Tower Bridge

As we continued our riverside stroll taking in the sights along the way, we finally made it to the Tower Bridge after sunset. As luck would have it, we would be on the bridge it was being opened...got to see it action up close!

As the sun goes down, you get to see the famous London landmarks in a new "light"...St Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, The Scoop, HMS Belfast and the Tower Bridge combine to give a breathtaking atmosphere after dark. Of course, tired legs & jet-lagged eyes still need some coffee and a little nap to take it all in.

Back to Piccadilly and an "authentic" Ramen place for dinner.

01 Oct 2018

9:30 am
Where is the Kohinoor?
Tower of London

Next day we were back to the Thames banks again, but the object of desire this time was the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. The Beefeaters make for entertaining guides, delving in the past horrors and amusing stories surrounding the tower. The Kohinoor in the Queen's crown was a definite site to behold.

5:30 pm
Primrose hill
Regent's Park

A quick change of hotels to move out of the city and we arrived at the North end of Regent's Park and the Marriott located there. The nearby Primrose hill provided a quiet and romantic spot to watch the sun set over the London skyline.

02 Oct 2018

6:00 am
Train to Edinburgh
London King's Cross Railway Station (KGX) (London King's Cross Railway Station)

Early morning run to catch the 6.30 AM LNER at the King's Cross terminal. The ride to Scotland was uneventful, as we passed through the highlands munching down some more local fare for breakfast - porridge and poached eggs.

2:00 pm
Old Town Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Like most European cities, Edinburgh also has all its tourist attractions scattered within walking distance of each other. An Aussie turned Scot tour guide (Lachlan) took us through a 3.5 hrs journey up and down the Royal Mile getting us familiar with the history of Edinburgh, the Scot-English relationship, famous Edinburgh residents (JK Rowling et al), inspiration for Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde and the origin of the phrase "shit drunk".

4:00 pm
The North Sea
Portobello Beach

Next we rode the local double decker bus to get away from hustle and bustle and hit the serene beach of Portobello. Chilly weather meant there were only handful of people at the beach, but we were not complaining.

An hour of sea breeze meant we needed a steaming cup of hot chocolate (loaded with marshmallows) to get us back to action, and that when we found the Australian Jaffle Joint.

7:00 pm
Princes Street & Scottish dinner
Princes Street

Once the sun set, we were back to downtown Edinburgh and strolled through Princes Street. Auld100 turned out to be surprisingly cozy place to enjoy some Scot favorite for dinner - Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. It was amazing how being vegetarian is so much easier in UK, and we never had to find "veggie friendly" restaurants or live on salads...something US needs to catch up on.

03 Oct 2018

9:30 am
Grassmarket & Victoria Street
Grassmarket

Grassmarket Edinburgh is full of insane history and pubs dedicated to historic incidents...be it "The Last Drop" near a former public execution spot or "Maggie Dickson's" in the former house of a lady who was hanged and came back to life after a few hours. As Lachlan said, the ultimate honor in Edinburgh is to have a pub named after you.

Grassmarket leads to Victoria street, the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Hardly a surprise given that JK Rowling wrote most of her work in the city, but the whole street is an absolute delight for Harry Potter fans.

11:30 am
The Castle that guards the city
Edinburgh Castle

Perched on top of a hill in the middle of the city, you cannot miss the imposing Edinburgh castle from anywhere in the town. A former Royal Palace and house of the Scottish Crown Jewels, its morphine for a history junkie.

3:30 pm
Walking the Mile
The Royal Mile

After castle, we still had a few hours to kill before our flight back to London. Walking down the Royal Mile, we finally reached the Palace of Holyroodhouse (current Royal residence) and the Scottish Parliament building.

7:00 pm
Flight back to London
Airlink bus stop | Haymarket

It was finally time to say goodbye to Edinburgh, but we clearly needed more than two days. As we boarded the airport bus and I tried to swipe my contactless card on the terminal, the bus driver stopped me and said "This is not London, here we talk! Tell me where you want to go..."

Quick dinner at the BA lounge and it was good bye Scotland.

04 Oct 2018

10:30 am
Finding GMT
Greenwich

Back to London and refreshed after the night's sleep, we were back on road looking for the place from where the world counts its time...Greenwich Meridian. Measured from the Royal Observatory on top of the hill in Greenwich Park, it now houses a museum that walks through journey of astronomy, navigation and time.

A pitstop at Cutty Sark naval vessel and a lunch of traditional pie and mash with parsley sauce rounded off the eventful morning.

4:30 pm
Hanging Gardens anyone?
Sky Garden

Sky Gardens is literally that...Garden in the Sky. A three story garden built on top of one of London's tallest towers provides great views of the city.

7:30 pm
West End Musical
Queen's Theatre

Another quintessential London experience....A West End musical. We managed to score tickets at the majestic Queen's Theatre to catch Jean Valjean's sung-through story of "Les Miserables".

05 Oct 2018

11:00 am
Home of cricket
Lord's Cricket Ground (MCC)

Within walking distance of our hotel was St John's Woods and the home of cricket - Lords. There was no way an avid cricket fan was going to miss a tour of this place. The Ashes urn, Kapil Dev's Prudential World Cup, 2017 Women's world cup trophy, the long room, the dressing rooms, the batting & bowling honors board, member's pavilion, media center, old man wind-vane and the "nursery" at Nursery end...almost every corner of this place reeks of history and tradition.

3:00 pm
Elementary my dear Watson
The Sherlock Holmes Museum

221B Bakers Street...need I say more?!

Around the world in One Buck

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:10:00 +0000

I was recently going through an article on Lonely Planet, that talks about how you can spend an entire day in under 50 dollars in different parts of the world. While pretty insightful in itself, I started wondering - what really is the value of one buck across the world? Most of us have heard of the Big Mac Index, where PPP across different economies are compared based on the price of the Big Mac burgers. This is my own twist to that index, based on what I have experienced in course of my travels.

What can you do with your last dollar in different cities across the world?

Munich/Berlin: Roughly 70 Euro Cents, you can treat yourself to a medium sized pretzel (without cheese) or half a cup of hot wine. Walk down to the nearest park and watch locals ice-skating while you sip the hot wine. That should get you set for the cold winters.

Paris: For 70 cents in Paris, you get to answer nature’s call once at Gare de l’Est rest room. Thats right, cause 70 cents is what you need to put in the turnstile to enter the rest room at any railway station in Paris! Talk about entry barriers. Expensive shit!

Madrid: No Tapas for you, but you can surely walk down to Plaza Mayor and tip the street musicians and listen to some amazing music. You will find artists playing all kinds of instruments, ranging from castanets to the tambourine, each capable of holding you spellbound for hours. Madrid has one of the best set of street musicians across Europe, you don't really need to be a music connoisseur's to appreciate and enjoy it.

Zurich: A dollar gets you close to one Swiss Franc (CHF), buy one small cube of Swiss cheese (the cheaper variety of course) from any Coop outlet. The touts will of course try to sell you one of the DDLJ-cow-bell souvenirs if realize you are an Indian, but with only 1 Franc, you either need to be a very good bargainer or the guy needs to be really dumb for you to pick it up. Else use that money to send one SMS/E-mail from any of the public phone booths, asking your dad for more money:D

Oslo: A dollar, or 6 Kroners (NOK), gets you 1/3rd of a cup of coffee from a vending machine or the nearest 7-eleven/Narvesan shop. Absolutely nothing else. Norway is a freakishly expensive country even by European standards.If you think Aurora Borealis make for a spectacular sight, remember that no good things in life come cheap.

Rome: One journey on any public transport (subway, tram or bus), the ticket cost being independent of the distance. So walk around the Colosseum, explore the roman ruins and then take that tram ride across the river to Vatican. There, you have seen it all in Rome, and done it as the Romans do.

Chennai: Full plate unlimited south Indian meals at most decent restaurants with unlimited servings of rice, poriyal, sambar, rasam, curd, papad and pickle, end it with a filter coffee too. But don't expect to travel any distance greater than 1 km in the auto; No sir you can’t!

Bratislava: Contrary to what you may have seen in the movie “Eurotrip”, a dollar only entitles you to a glass of zincica (sheep milk) or a cup of sauerkraut soup at any of the Salas (local restaurant chain). Both can get you hungry again real quick. Unless you already have a couple of shots of Absinthe inside you...

Singapore: 1.3 SGD, good enough for a 500ml bottle of coke zero or one cup of coffee at the McCafe. Buy one, sit at the Esplanade and enjoy the sun set over the Marina Bay Sands and the CBD skyline. A photographer's delight and an architect's fantasy, combined into one awesome experience.

Bangkok: 1 buck gives you a rough equivalent of 30 Thai Baht, which can buy you a full meal at any of the road side shops consisting of rice (boiled/sticky), one serving each of two different vegetables and a omelette, along with a glass of crushed ice. With a straw. Why crushed ice? You can then pour water or coke or milk or any other beverage of your choice into it, and then slowly sip it with straw. Atleast thats the way locals do it.

The obvious missing from the above list is the greenback’s land of origin, the US of A. But then I have never been to that part of the world, so I really have no clue what a buck can fetch you out there. Guess that one shouldn't be very far away, doing what I do for a living.

P.S.: All things mentioned above are from memory and from the time I travelled to these places, so they may not necessarily be relevant today

Tatkal : Super frust ticketing

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:59:00 +0000

“Lets head to Bangalore this weekend. It will be great to hangout with the guys and relive some of the old memories”. I make a few calls, set it up with the guys. Plans are in place. Its already Tuesday, so the chances of getting my hands on a confirmed ticket on any of the trains is as good as that of Gordon Brown becoming the PM again. So I think, “Lets get up in the morning and book a Tatkal ticket. I will be online by 8, it should be a breeze”. tch tch…so naive.

So I go to bed in the night thinking, I have to get up early tomorrow, atleast by 7:45 am. Alarm is set, but am yet to get hang of my new cell phone, and thus creeps in the discomfort…what if I dont get up on time? These Bangalore tickets get sold out faster than hot cakes, even 10 minutes delay can mean travelling in one of those god-forbidden Volvos…shudder! My all-forms-of-road-transport-phobia leads to a sleepless night, and over countless open-eyed moments through the night, I look at the glowing wall clock. 06:30 am…enough, going back to sleep again can be catastrophic. So i get up, do my morning chores, warm up my laptop and check my internet connection. www.google.com - fast and easy, the net connection seems to be in order.

0800 hrs…there goes the clock. I open the irctc website, the home page comes up in a jiffy. I-am-in-luck! Remember the golden rule - minimum transaction on irctc website, so open cleartrip website in another tab (god bless tabbed browsing) to track availability. Meanwhile enter the login credentials on irctc, hit enter…the page goes blank, its loading. See availability on the cleartrip site…08:05, already 30 tickets gone in each of the 3 trains…damn! 08:06 - irctc still loading, not even the navigation appears. 08:08 - still nothing…hit escape. Lets try re-entering. This time, even home page doesnt appear! Damn these sarkari sites…lets try IE, am sure they didnt optimise it for Firefox. 08:10…IE appears with the message “connecting…” (what does it have to connect to when the home page is about:blank???) 08:12 - IE stabilises, enter irctc website - 2 minutes, still no luck. 08:15 - they must be fast running out of tickets now!!! back to firefox - still no sign of the irctc home page. ohk…forget irctc, lets book in cleartrip itself…saving the extra 20 bucks is not worth this much trouble.

click on “book”…smooth transition to next page. Aha…finally something going my way. Enter passenger details - check. Time - 08:22. This 1 Mbps connection has to come good some day. Click on “pay”…waiting. 08:24. another minute of page loading…”There seems to be some problem. Like people, our servers also has some cranky days. Please try later” Whaat! 08:28…dont think there would any tickets left. Any point in buying W/L tickets in Tatkal? Dont think so…lets try again.

Restart Firefox. irctc? naah…cleartrip. search - 12 available. There is still hope. “Book”…enter passenger details…click “pay”. Loading for another frustrating 100 seconds “Just a moment” the page reads…whatever! And then I see it….appearing in parts. Oh yeah…the payment page is here. Green coloured label reading 7 tickets available. quick - enter credit card details. What was the expiry date again??? Oops..now where did I leave my wallet last night? Look under the bed…not there. On table…you must be kidding. Under the humoungous pile of clothes….BINGO! Found it. Enter the details, click next….”You are being redirected to Verified by Visa“. Keep going…asks for my password. Enter. Page loading….surely it must be done now. 08:37.

“Page cannot be displayed…” what??? what happened there. Murphy at work! What a time for the server to crash…why does this happen to me??? Try F5…still the same. Did I do something wrong? Open another tab…try google.com, the surefire test for the internet connection. “Page cannot be displayed…” ab kya hua? A drop of sweat forms on my forehead, and drips on to the keyboard. Oh chennai heat…

Wait a second…wasn’t I sitting under a fan? Where did the sweat come from? I look up…and the fan is not moving. THE FAN IS NOT MOVING! Power cut….OMG they cut the power in the house. Yes I have a laptop with a working battery, but the modem still needs power. I am doomed. 08:55…there is no way I can make it to Bangalore now. I give up…might as well get ready for office. Will call the guys from office and let them know I wont make it.

What a disappointing start to the day. So I wake up, have my bath, eat my breakfast and start for office. 09:30 - Where’s that mobile of mine…ah here it is, under the pillow. “You have 1 unread message”…must be one of those Docomo ads, asking me to pay 10 bucks a week to listen some mumbo-jumbo about astrology and my future. Who cares…I can see my future. I am not going to bangalore this weekend. Sigh. Let me atleast delete this message…unread message leave an ugly icon on my dashboard. “Read Message” - “YOUR TKT BOOKED. PNRNO ^^%$%$ from MAS to SBC“….IT ACTUALLY WORKED!

whooo...I got my ticket. That final transaction did go through! close to 90 minutes of hardwork and frustration…finally paid off :). Felt like the world was good to me all over again. Look out Bangalore, here I come. And Tatkal booking…never again. LESSON LEARNED. PERIOD.

The Nordic Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:16:00 +0000

Continuing on my videsh yatra 2008, the second stage takes me to Europe. Official line: Exchange programme, trying to learn and experience new culture. The chosen venue is NHH (Norges Handelshoyskole), angrezi mein Norwegian School of Economics, situated in Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway. Not many at IIM A get to do their internship abroad and also go on exchange, but this was too good an opportunity to let go.

The small little vacation I had after my fourth sem was spent on helping my parents move to Mumbai. (Yes, yours truly is once again a Mumbaikar). And immediately the next morning (Friday the 29th), I was off. I met Quaddro at Mumbai Airport and after a little shopping at the duty free shops, we boarded our Finn Air flight to Helsinki. He slept for most of the 8 hour flight, while I busied myself with the personal TV provided. The flight turned out to be surprisingly good in spite of the cheap tickets we managed to buy, however 8 hours is too long a time to be sitting in one place. Understandably by the time we landed at Helsinki, we were jet-lagged and tired. And the walk across the whole of Helsinki airport from terminal 33 to terminal 12 for our connecting flight to Oslo only made things worse.

While we were not allowed to go out of the airport (nor did we have the time), the landing itself give us a picturesque view of Helsinki city, typical of a Scandinavian city. Green coniferous trees, smooth roads, sparse population, pleasant sunshine and vast spans of greenery. It was quite chilly and all my winter clothes were checked in at the Mumbai airport (we were supposed to pick them up in Oslo directly), so Quaddro suggested I put on the coat of my suit that I had in my hand. A little respite, but suits are not the most comfortable piece of clothing. A 3 Euro coffee and a couple of futile attempts to connect to airport wi-fi later, I though the time would be better spent in clicking some pics of the airport. Here are a few. First the inside, then the outside.

We then undertook the next part of our journey, the 1.5hrs flight from Helsinki to Oslo. Compared to the 8 hr flight we had previously, this one got over pretty soon. And thus we landed in Oslo at 4:15 pm local time. We now needed to reach Oslo Central Station, from where we had to take our train to Bergen. We found out that the Airport basement is directly connected to a local train station (wonder when this would happen in India), and we took the train to Oslo Sentrum. Once there, we had 5 hours till our train departed. So we found out the locker room on the first floor of the station, dumped our bags in the automatic lockers and headed for the tourist information centre just outside the station. The lady at the counter gave us a map of Oslo, and suggested a few places. We soon figured out that all the major attractions in Oslo could be covered by foot from the station. How convenient!

Now while putting out stuff in the lockers, we did not think of taking out our cameras. Jet lagged and tired, we were just concentrating on getting rid of those huge bags of ours. So we had to make do with the camera on our mobile phones. We first visited the Oslo Opera house situated on the banks of one of the fjords. Shaped as a glacier or a ship, the building seems to float by the inlet Bjorvika, giving a stunning impression. We then headed over to Akershus Fesnting, a medieval castle which now acts as a centre for the Norwegian military. Since it was already past 6, most of the castle was closed but we spent our time roaming in the castle grounds. We came across used tanks, beautiful sculptures and the royal guards marching, with a unique and impressive attire. The next stop was Aker Brygge, which was once was a harbour, now filled with shopping malls and pubs. Hundreds of people were sitting in the outside tables of these pubs, enjoying the sunset and their drinks. We too entered one of these places to while away some time. The sun set at 9, and we started walking back towards the station. On the way, we saw the Nobel Peace Centre and the Norwegian Parliament (The Stortinget). Dinner at Burger King and we headed for our platform, where we were expecting Landy to meet us (his British Airways flight was via London). He did turn up, but we were surprised by Gilli who was out visiting Norway in his first weekend at the Stockholm School of Economics. We boarded the train, and I was too exhausted for any chitchat. I saw blinds, ear plugs and blanket in my seat. I put the blinds over my eyes, wrapped myself in the blanket and dozed off...Zzzzzz

P.S.: I reached Bergen at 7 in the morning, and spent the Saturday and Sunday exploring Bergen and visiting the Sognefjord. Details and pics in the next post.

Summer of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:13:00 +0000

It has been more than a month since I came back from my summer internship, and life has returned to its usual hectic self. When I was in first year, I was shown this beautiful picture of totally-jobless-enjoying-the-best-of-life tuchchadom (second year), which most of us were so eagerly looking forward to. But with a few small tweaks in the academic programme, the IIM A powers to be have managed to make me wish I was back in first year! It not that things are as bad as first year, but the expectations from tuchchadom were so high that this is a big let-down. I guess my ranting will never end.

During one of the extremely dull discussions that were happening in the class sometime last week, my mind wandered to those wonderful days I spent in Thailand. Here are some things I was reminiscing about my “Summer of 2008”:

1) Food: As I had already mentioned in my earlier post, Bangkok has no dearth of places dishing out delicacies. And with vegetarian food being available only at a premium, I indulged myself in some of the best Thai cuisine had to offer. The office junta was more than willing to chip in with recommendations, and soon the list of things I digested included the likes I dare not mention here, lest mom comes across it and freaks out. Fruit bhajjis (Banana, sweet potato and pumpkin) were just one of the many weird tastes I came across. One thing I dared not try, look below.

2) Activities: Ocean floor walking near an island off Pattaya was one of the most memorable experiences (Imagine hundreds of varied coloured fishes eating out of your hand while you walk 40ft under water). Parasailing, snorkelling and sea canoeing also deserve a mention. And of course, I got myself a few sessions of the world famous Thai massage: D. They come cheap and they really rejuvenate you for the week ahead after the weekend travel.

3) Modes of transport: Bus, cabs, tuk tuks, sky train, subway, motor bike taxis, ferry, water skis, canoes, speed boats, golf carts, pick up vans – each one serves a purpose of its own, and is an experience in itself.

4) Ice ice baby: Go to a restaurant, and the first thing they serve on your table is a glass full of crushed/cubes of ice. You can then pour in water or coke in it, and sip it with a straw. Standard practice every time you eat out, no drink is cold enough once I came back. And I almost forgot how to drink stuff without straw, even milk! The omnipresent air-conditioning makes you feel Thailand was once near the poles, and recently drifted across the Indian Ocean and hit Burma.

5) Thai language has a nice musical connotation to it, and coupled with their extremely pleasant demeanour, you constantly feel you are a part of a musical. The sweet sound of “sawatdee kha” greets you in every restaurant, shop and hotels.

6) The Bangkok sky train is equipped with television screens inside, which serve the purpose of both informing the entertaining. And believe me, even you don’t understand a single word in Thai, they can really keep you entertained during your journey. The ridiculously stupid ads (where one doesn’t even understand what the product is) ensures you begin every day on a cheerful note J.

The trip was not all hunky dory. There were occasions I wondered, “Why the hell am I here?!”. Here are a few things I DO NOT look back at fondly:

1) Ladyboys! (Am not going to write more on it, kindly refer to wiki)

2) The where-the-hell-are-all-the-vegetables phase, that one is subjected to when the only form of potato you consume are McD’s French fries and the only other vegetables known to mankind are tomato and basil.

3) Durian! The most disgusting taste known to mankind, it’s a total disgrace to the fruit family. The horrible taste lingered in my mouth for more than two days, and I took considerable amount of mint and Colgate mouthwash to get rid of it.

4) Absolutely no cricket for two months – this was the longest I had gone without any contact with the sport. Cricinfo was my bread and butter, but there is only so much you can read. And on top of everything, I missed the whole of IPL extravaganza. L

5) All live sporting events had commentary in Thai, and only repeat telecasts provide some relief. Half the fun in watching formula 1 lies in the amazing commentary by Steve Slater, and the boring Thai commentary made me realise watching a formula 1 race can be really boring at times.

P.S.: Most of this was composed long ago on my return trip to India waiting at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok sipping a ridiculously overpriced cold coffee (Dark Chocolate Macchiato) while waiting for my flight announcement. The fact the it took me so long to post it just goes to show my rants are not unreasonable.

The tale of 3 Holis and 3 New Years

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:45:00 +0000

Yes its a real tiger. And yes thats me. But lets get back to it later.

It has been about a month since I reached Bangkok, and I have already had 5 days of holidays, apart from the weekends. Thailand celebrates lots of festivals just like India, and whats even better is that they have a concept of compensation holiday. If a festival/holiday happends to fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, the subsequent Monday is a holiday. How wonderful! In short, I have had a lot of free time, and there is no dearth of options. Thailand is an exotic tourist destination and is wildly popular among world's travelers. And for good reason too, as I continue to find out.

I celebrated New year with the rest of the world on 1st of Jan ( New Year # 1) this year, nothing special about it. Then came the Holi at IIM A(Holi #1). Holi in any college is always fun, and this place was no different. Dripping colours, over-head sprinklers, tanks full of coloured water, keechad, gujiya, torn clothes hanging on tree tops, music and rain dance - how can it not be fun when 200 people come together for a celebration. I went home after completion of my first year, since I had 3 days gap before I had to reach Bangkok. Now 6th April is a Thai national holiday (some Chakri Day), so I was duly informed that 7th will be a holiday, and I got to spend one more day home. 7th April also happened to be Ugadi, the Telugu New Year (New Year #2), and so I got to enjoy yet another of mom's delicious festival special meals.

I reach Bangkok, 4 days in office and suddenly, we have 4 days of holidays. Thais celebrate "Songkran" during this time of the year, which is their biggest festival and it lasts for 4 days. The festival commemorates the ushering of a New Year (New Year #3), and the whole country brightens up during this time of the year. It also incorporates a Thai version of Holi, where people splash each other with water and apply chalk on each other. The only difference is they use only water, and chalk is only white. Kids, teenagers, adults all armed with latest water guns are found on the roads, ready to splash water on any by passer. And its all taken in the right spirit, as it is supposed to cool u down in the summer heat. One fine evening, we dumped all our mobiles and wallets in hotel room, took little money in a plastic bag and reached Silom area of Bangkok. What a sight! Close to 10000 people, mostly youngsters, gathered on one stretch of road splashing water and putting chalk on each other. Not an inch for the vehicles to move, with people crawling like ants in straight lines. It didnt take us 5 mins to get totally drenched (Holi #2), and we saw how a real community festival is celebrated. With two fire engines stationed on either end of the road with their hoses open to the full, it was an unforgettable day.

We went to Pattaya the following weekend, one of the most famous beach resorts of the world. On reaching there, we found out that there is a slight difference in the days when Songkran is celebrated in different provinces of Thailand. To our dismay, Pattaya was celebrating it that very weekend. Again, we ended up totally drenched (Holi #3). Thus, within the first 4 months of 2008, I have already celebrated 3 New Years and 3 Holis.

After having explored most of Bangkok, we started going to other places in the country. So last weekend, we decided to explore the Kanchanaburi Province. Their in lies the famous World War 2 site "The bridge over River Kwai", which also happens to be the backdrop for one of the best hollywood movies ever. This is how the bridge actually looks today.

While the story of the bridge itself is fascinating, the province makes for a wonderful tour. We later travelled on the Thailand-Burma railway line, considered the most dangerous railway line in the world (I know every place tends to exaggerate about itself), christened The Death Railway.

And that brings us to the story of sher khan above. The last stop of our trip was at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, better known as the Tiger Temple. The uniqueness of this place is that it is a temple cum tiger sanctuary, where tigers are allowed to roam free. These tigers have been raised by the temple monks since the time they were cubs, and thus they are tame and more free around humans. For a small fee, they allow visitors like me to get close to these magnificent beasts. I wont lie, I had my heart in my mouth all the time, such was the enormous size of this animal. But as Gabbar said, Jo dar gaya, Samjho mar gaya.

I am still alive, and have this photo as a proof of my daredevilry.

Sa-wat Dee Bangkok

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:55:00 +0000

The much spoken about, much feared and much hated fachchadom (first year) at IIM A is finally over. Oh yeah, its definitely a moment to celebrate. No more surprise-quizzes-at-1430 hrs, no WAC-runs-at-1625 hrs, no 0845-classes and no more hearing "Muggo-fachcho-muggo" shouts. Though there wasn't enough time for champagne n stuff, but a birthday at home after almost 6 years did compensate for it. Happy birthday to me :)

Next up on the agenda, the summer internship. Way back in November and months leading to that were spent in the yearly ritual called the summer placements. Sitting through company ppts, preparing resumes, praying for Day-zero slots, multiple rounds of interviews - I finally ended up with an internship offer at ING Asia Pacific. I got what I was looking for - Day-zero finance company with foreign location. Can't complain. Subsequently I came to know that I will be working with ING Life Thailand in Bangkok. Like father like son, insurance beckoned me. So I spent the better part of my birthday and Ugadi shopping and packing for my trip to Bangkok.

I landed in Bangkok 5 am in the morning, and there was the ING driver waiting holding a placard that read - "Vamsee Krishna - IIM Ahmedabad". I always used to wonder when someone would do that for me. They had a nice service apartment waiting for me. Saurabh had already arrived the day before, and he was put up in the adjacent apartment. I dumped my bag, changed and off I was for my first day in the corporate world outside India. Lots more on that later.

This being the first time I crossed any of the seven seas, I did expect to see a lot of different things. Had it been the US or UK, things would have been different since the sitcoms and Hollywood movies give one an idea of what to expect. But Bangkok was unchartered territory, we being the first interns ever from IIM A here. Its been almost one week, and some things I have observed about this place.

1. People here are shockingly polite. Am yet to see a heated conversation anywhere in the office or the road. One is always welcomed with smiles everywhere.

2. Traffic is excruciatingly devoid of horns. Drivers have a lot of patience, and I doubt if any of the Toyotas (they are the only cars one would see here) here even have a horn built in.

3. They consider themselves a traditional society, and it shows in the way they interact. People have immense respect for other. They greet each other with the traditional Wai, which is exactly like our Namaste, even in the corporate world. And everyone transaction has to end with a “thank you”. They are also very religious, with beautiful temples in front of almost each and every building.

4. Ironically though, the Thai dress very modern. Specially the female. “Aggressive” is the word one used to describe their dressing sense. They do it pretty smartly though. No wonder fashion brands and cosmetic industry are flourishing here.

5. Thai people eat out A LOT. You find food stalls absolutely everywhere…shopping malls have food sections (that’s plural) on every floor, plus a wholly dedicated floor only for food; the side-walks are full of food vendors selling all sorts of things imaginable. Believe me, within 5 min walking radius of my office, there are more than 150 places where you can eat. And I am not exaggerating.

6. Strikingly though, Thai people are very fit. The average weight of a Thai would be a good 15 kgs less than that of an Indian, if not more. I wonder how.

7. A surprising low number of people are well conversant with English. Communication can be a major struggle, sometimes even inside office. Poor Saurabh has already resorted to dumb charades. It took him a good bit of 20 min to explain the receptionist that the bathtub-plug in his room was missing.

8. Bangkok is a beautiful city, and extremely clean. Case in point, I polished my shoes the first day to office, and till date I haven’t even had to brush it again.

The next two months are going to be really interesting. Meanwhile, am just glad that won the third test match against South Africa. Dada rocks :D

Vindicated!

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:34:00 +0000

I proclaimed in my last post that "Nothing good ever happens on Valentine's Day". Well, today I stand vindicated. The point was that one big reason I missed out on exchange program was due to the fact that it was scheduled on that (un)fateful day.

The big-wigs of the college went on meet on a later date to mull over increasing the allocation limit. New day brought new luck, and lo behold; lets make it 100 students going out. And guess who was the first person in line this time around :D . Things fall in place, and finally Norway it was. Me and Quaddro will eventually end up at the same place, the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen. The company of Landy-boy and papa will only make the trip more interesting.

Look out Vikings, here we come!

So close, yet so far

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:05:00 +0000

This is my third Valentine’s Day post. It goes to show two things. One, my blog has been in existence for such a long time. Two, nothing good ever happens on Valentine’s Day. I seem to have some sort of a “chattees ka aakada” with the day. Case in point, look what happened this time around.

The story begins long long ago, circa October 2004. My first visit to IIM A in the company of GA, Ram, polie, quirky and gang. The occasion – SPIC MACAY west zone convention. While it was more memorable for the incident of my first nap in a classroom at IIM A, I also distinctly remember us looking for a college senior of ours who was in IIM A at that time. We came to know that the guy is in Turkey, on a student exchange program. Tintin (D-12 was it?) went on to explain the funda behind exchange, and we were fascinated by the whole concept and wished we could do something like that! Cut to April 2007, when I came to know that I would be going to IIM A and I told my mom, “Looks like I will finally get to use my passport”. I was really looking forward to my turn to go to Europe on a “three-month vacation”, as they call it.

Once on campus, tuchchas (seniors at IIM A) went to tell me that almost everyone who wants to go to exchange, gets to go. So things were all hunky dory on this front. Then came summers, and when ING offered me an internship in Thailand, came the first hurdle. How? Well IIM A believes in the concept of equal opportunity, and hence they have a rule that for allocation of exchange school, first preference will be given to those who have never had a previous foreign exposure. Now I knew that my options are going to be very limited, but the tuchchas still maintained that Europe is still within reach with more than 82 seats in Europe alone. Out came the ranking list according to which allotment was to be done, and I stood at 121, thanks to my foreign internship. But with 126 seats on offer in total, and also the fact that most people tend to opt out eventually put me on the safe side. History was also on my side, with allocations last year happening till rank 160.

The first danger signal for me was when it was decided that the allocation was going to happen on 14th of February. It was a bad omen for me. Then one fine day, someone unearthed a tit-bit from The Constitution of WIMWI which reads “Not more than one-third of a batch can go on the Exchange Programme (refer to Appendix 13)”.That meant a maximum of 87 students. Still dry grounds, but something that started to bother me. Yet the still was enough hope.

Now I and Quaddro (my next door neighbour) were separated by just two ranks, and there was a good possibility that we would end up at the same place. So we began our research and come up with a priority list. Thing to consider – location (travel wise), academics (who wants to study on exchange), attendance (bunks are essential for travelling) and reputation (the thing will be going on my CV). It took 6 hours, 2 chicken sandwiches and some coffees, and we had a pecking order ready by bedtime (5 am).

Come 14^th February, Valentines’ day was marked by a very distinct red tinge to people’s attires. We attend morning lectures as usual and eagerly waited for process to start, scheduled at 3:30 in the afternoon. We were sitting in our rooms, armed with laptops and our excel sheets with all our calculations. Updates started coming on Dbabble and we started crossing off b-schools from our list. As expected, the top rankers began with US B-schools like Stern, Columbia and Chicago GSB and then started the European parade. And as usual, some people opted out at the last moment and all was going as planned. 60 ranks and 48 seats gone, it followed the last years’ pattern and opt-out rate was set to increase.

And then things started to go really wrong. HEC, ESSEC, ESC-CAP (all France), Cologne, EBS (Germany), ESADE (Spain) went as expected but the trouble began when people gobbled up Bocconi (Italy), Vienna, Solvay (Belgium), St. Gallen (Switzerland), Nice, Toulouse et al. in absolutely no time. These were the schools we had bet on based on our calculation from previous trends, and they started disappearing from the radar. And the more serious problem was we were getting too close to the magical figure of 87. The countdown began, 40 ranks to go and only 28 seats left. It began to feel like the end overs of a cricket match with the team chasing getting iffy. We reached to the exchange office only to find out that the whole of Western Europe is done. 12 ranks and 8 seats left, people began to gamble on Canada and Scandinavia. I and Quaddro could see our exchange dreams disappear. 6 ranks and 4 seats left, one guy suddenly opts out. Quaddro let out a whoop, “I am in!”. And then one more guy opted out, “We will be taking till rank 120 only”. Disaster struck, and I was left stranded with nothing in hand!

It simply couldn’t get worse. So near yet so far. There I was, dreams shattered, thinking what a great blog entry this will make. Aussies believe 87 is bad luck because it is 13 less than 100. Now I knew why. And I slowly walked back to my dorm, with only one song in my head:

“दील के अरमान आंसुओं में बह गए ..."

Good ol' Sunday television

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:40:00 +0000

After completing my second term here at IIM A, we had what was easily the biggest break of first year. 10 full days at home, doing more or less absolutely nothing. On offing was the exciting prospect of India-Australia test matches, and the Sydney test match turned out the be fantastic. This I say despite the result and blatant "Aussie-ness" on display. Every matchday, I was up at 7 30 in the morning, which gave me 20 min before post-lunch session started for all my morning ablutions. And then, there I sat, in front of the idiot box till 2:30 pm, when Harsha Bhogle finally said

"Thats all we have for you today. Join us tomorrow morning for what promises to be another day of exciting test cricket".

Yes he said the same thing every day. And that was cue for me to begin my normal life.

This was the period when I realised how useless TV has become now a days. Television the rest of the day became extremely boring. Yes, there are more than 80 channels to choose from, but what can one do if each one of them doles out the same thrash. Every one of them tries to please the same audience leading to absolutely no variety. Soaps are shit (I hate Ekta Kapoor), news channels cannot be watched for more than half an hour (Syed Kirmani and Nikhil Chopra are called cricket experts!), cartoons are not funny at all (Japanese Anime dubbed in Hindi is the only option) while discovery/history channel are also telecast in Hindi, where I need to spend half my energy in deciphering the complex words that they try to substitute. A friend of mine took 3 days to figure out that a "Saanganik" was actually just a computer.

I still remember the old days when DD 2(or DD Metro) was something to envy about. Chutti-chutti was something to look forward to in holidays, while Alif Laila, Surabhi and Byomkesh Bakshi kept our week nights interesting. However, Sundays were by far the best. Stuff like Ducktales, Talespin, The Sword of Tipu Sultan, BQC, Chandrakanta, Jungle book and many more. Here's a small sneek peak of what used to be.

DuckTales

Malgudi Days

Mahabharat

Jungle Book

Surabhi

Vikram Bethal

Giant Robot

The sword of Tipu Sultan

Gosh I miss good television.

Holiday atlast

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:08:00 +0000

Phew! One week into the second term, and what a week it has been! Considered to be a “chill” term (wonder who made that classification), I was looking for a nice term ahead with an opportunity to do all the non-boring (read everything other than studies) stuff that I generally enjoy doing. But so far, there are no signs of the same.

Start with the best thing that has happened to Indian cricket in the recent times…the T-20 world cup. I can safely say I didn’t miss even one match of the tournament, what with term break coinciding with the schedule. And what a way to announce your entry to the world of Indian cricket captains…way to go Mahi! As the popular joke goes,

“Abdul Kalam’s dreams have finally been realised – India becomes a super power in 2020”. J

And poor Sachin – A world cup victory was the one thing that would complete a fantastic CV (Why the word CV? Long story…hang on for a bit). And just when he decided to skip one tournament, India goes on to win that one. Now all he can do is sit in his room and “congratulate the boys”. Destiny can be so cruel.

I for one had an awesome time watching the tournament, specially the way India managed to make every match interesting (old habits die hard), and contrary to popular script, managed to eke out wins. It only adds to excitement, one would say. Whatever. But it was reminiscent of the 2003 world cup played in the very same grounds, and history was repeating itself. I was actually glad we ran into the Aussies in the semi-finals itself, which was always a better place to kick their butts. After extracting the “South African Badla”, it set a mouth watering Indo-Pak world cup final. Every organiser’s dream come true (prolly why Carribean world cup sucked big time). I remember the last time (2003) where I followed every match with 150 other first year SVNITians (my engineering college) in the smallish Bhabha Bhavan TV room, and the agony felt when we lost miserably in the finals. The excitement of watching India win with 100 other fanatics in the same room is exhilarating, and I thought I will never get to see India win a world cup final in such an atmosphere. And lo-behold, thanks to one smart ECB official who had a flash of brilliance over his shot of Brandy, the opportunity presented itself again, and this time India went all the way. The team nicely adores my desktop now.

As for CV thing, well talk to any IIM A fachcha over the last one week, and it would be the only thing in his mind. I told my father the other day that I would need to spend atleast 25-30 hrs on my CV, and dad went “Itna kya likhega!”. Gee…I only people knew that these CVs are the sole basis of one getting jobs. Can’t blame the companies, there is hardly much to choose between most of us. This is something called Mayonnaise effect that we learnt last term. The good are good, the bad are bad, but the rest are all the same. Let me tell you, the process of making CV can be a real pain. I have always lauded English for being such a versatile language, but this makes ur life hell when making the CV. There are 100s of ways of putting across the same point, the pain is finding the best one. There is a world of difference between my first draft and the final thing that I submitted after rounds and rounds of modification by tuchchas. As of now, I am just glad that it has all ended.

Lastly, Happy Birthday O father of Nation. If it were not for you, this desperately required and rarely available holiday would not have been possible.

Here’s to a great man…

oops, it’s a dry state and a dry day, or is it? ;)

P.S.: Hey Chimp, time to put me back on that blog roll.

Accounting...Hyderabadi Style

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:52:00 +0000

Flashback: 25th June, 2007. First day of class in CR-8 in the new campus of IIM A, the class room of Section -B PGP class of 2009. Its 8:35 am, and our protoganist, Prof M S Shriram(MSS) walks in. 75 fachchas await in eager anticipation, not sure what awaits them. He looks at the clock at the back of the class, turns to his RA and comments, "Shruti, we must take a pic of the whole class with the clock in the background. I am sure I will never again get to see a class full of students at 8:35 am". All smiles. He goes on to say, "Dont laugh, I am serious. There will be marked difference in your definition of punctuality in the second year. In fact, forget second year or second term, I promise a difference post-midterm itself". We were not really sure about it, so we just nodded along.

Cut to date. 6th August.
8:35 am: MSS walks in as usual for his MANAC (Accounting) class. 12 students in the class.
8:40 am: 23 students, RA also arrives.
8:42 am: Sudden increase in the flow of students, MSS observes and smiles from his chair. 38 students in the class now.
8:43 am: another 10 have entered, and trying to settle down at their respective places. People fiddle with their name tags, which have been transformed overnight to the likes of "tanki" (TAnuj SolaNKI) and "surma" (SURajit MAllick).
8:44 am: deluge of breakfast munching, hands wiping, half-running students into the class. The trash bin outside is working at its full capacity collecting all breakfast that could not be forced into mouths in time.
8:45 am: Last minute just in time entries...finally class reaches it full strength.

MSS begins, "Just as I said in the beginning of the term, there goes ur puncutality". Then comes the bouncer, "2T, why dont u start the class". Bewildered expression on my face is a total give-away (how in the world does he know my dorm name?!). "Why are you giving me that look? Aren't you prepared for the class?". "I didnt expect you to know my dorm name, Sir", I stuttered. "I know a whole lot of things which you dont expect me to", and after a brief pause and a wicked smile "which includes accounting." With a sheepish grin, I move towards the board.

He seemed in one of his usual good moods, which almost always spelt trouble for "the chosen one". Today, it happened to me. I started making entries on the board, with the idea that I will write out stuff before explaning them. But he obviously disapproved. "2T apparently believes in opposite of what bhagvad gita says. Gita says, "Karmanyeva adhikaaraste maa phaleshu kadaachana, while 2T is only bothered about the results, and not the karma." The whole class erupts, and I knew I had a lot more coming.

I started explaining all entries. I started in the centre board, which got filled up after which I moved to the one on the left. In the end, there was one entry which I could not explain properly, and when he repeated the question, I just nodded out of sheer desperation. MS laughs, "Thats a very nice way of answering something. Go back to your seat." I thanked heavens that the ordeal was finally over, and while I was about to sit back at my desk, "our 2T will go long way in life". "Thank you sir" was all I could say, resulting in more laughter around the class.

And just when I thought it was all over, he had one last comment to make. He was clearing the board, when he again came across my entries. "2T, you are from Hyderabad na". "Yes sir I am", not sure what that was supposed to be for. "So thats where u picked up the habit of writing from right to left"!

I always though MANAC classes were entertaining, but today I found myself at the receiving end. Not that bad actually.

Rechristened...

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:29:00 +0000

Wow! 2 posts in 3 days...something is definitely wrong out here. Well its not much, just that mid-term exams are going on, and one always looks for outlets to vent out frustrations in such situations. Just when I thought I had already been through the worse that could be (breaking the non-negativity barrier in an exam), WIMWI manages to prove me wrong again. Mid terms...2 exams a day, and you dont even know how long your exam is going to last (Operations was 3.5 hrs long, while computing "just" 2). MS Sriram, our MANAC (there is no "I" there) prof, did tell us in the first day itself..."Welcome to IIM A. Its the end of your dream, and the beginning of a nightmare". Now I know why he said that. More of Shriram to come in my future posts.

On the bright side, I have sucessfully managed to complete half a term here. 2 WACs, 12 surprise quizzes, 23 cases, 7 subjects and 2 midsems later, I am still here. And while I am here, I invariably become a part of the WIMWI culture. We finally had our traditional dorm naming ceremony, and after a 2 week long process, the sorting hat finally had me...

"Thou shall henceforth be known as 2T - The Sex God".

Thats our tuchchas saying, welcome to Dorm-20, the Dorm of Sex Gods.

Glimpses...

D-20 Fuchchas - The new sex gods. They will henceforth be known as ...

Now Shriram will not have to call me Vamsee anymore, poor chap always keeps asking in the class "Whats ur dorm name?". And yeah, talk about the origin of my name. Well, I can't really tell that to you. Thats a Dorm secret, and no one outside my Dorm will never know that. Its been so since times immemorial, and shall remain so. The Dorm culture here at IIM A is very strong, and each of the 23 dorms has its own traditions, rituals, ceremonies and practices. People here are never bothered with your real name, they always ask "Which Dorm? Whats your dorm name?". Such is the significance of dorm name that we know HLL head as Vindi Banga, well vindi was his dorm name here at IIM A.

Read more about the IIM A dorm name tradition on Sleepless at IIM A.

In the world of WIMWI...

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 09:17:00 +0000

I am really tempted to write a full fledged blog here, considering that this will be my first post since entering the hallowed portals of IIM A. But alas, with the mid-terms around the corner, it would be too much of a risk. But since I have managed the miracle of completing my WAC assignment before time (three hours to go!!!), I will take the liberty to put up a post.

Here is a list of some common jargons used here in WIMWI. Disclaimers, since it is not an original work. None the less, it makes a pretty interesting read. I promise there is a lot to follow, for which this will work as a reference guide. Take them at the face value now, explanations will follow in due course of time. I am off to enjoy the famous WAC run(See below) now...

Arbit (adj.: origin:: local); short for arbitrary .meaning nothing in particular and everything in general.

Assignment (n: origin:: James Bond Movies); PC lab has computer paper; groups have to meet; the Profs have to give something in order to take something; hence ass-ignments; gives rise to Newton's nth law - "thickness of the report shall be directly proportional to the weightage of the assignment".

Blackbooks (n: origin:: IIM A); collectors' items; consists of old question papers which are the saviours during quizzes, midterms and endterms; question-able methods of cracking the scene. "

Bumps (n: origin:: A'bad Municipal Corporation); if it's your birthday or in case you crack the scene , then you have had it - no ifs and butts.

Case mat (n: origin:: Case Unit); IN CASE YOU ARE FOUND WITHOUT IT IN CLASS , THEN YOUR CASE IS VERY WEAK. BT THE WAY THE UPPER CASE IS INCIDENTAL

CCCF (n: origin:: IIM A); acronym for 'Conceptual Clarity and Contextual Familiarity'; for cccf on what that means see cccf.

Chai (n: origin:: obscure); the underlying fillosophy of WIMWIans; the forum for countless discussions over countless cups; the non-alcoholic spirit of IIM-A life. Has strong associations with mess , NR and Rambhai's

CHAOS (n: origin:: Biblical (almost), IIM-A); describes the state of an WIMWIian two hours prior to any submission or presentation. Also IIM-A's organised (???) annual extravaganza.

Cogging (n: origin:: Arthur Hailey); Collaborative Operations on Getting Good Insights for Necessary Grades; on-line teaching aids for turning the wheels of one's life . Strictly prohibited in WIMWI.

Combo (n: origin:: Phantom Comics); IIM-A equivalent of Jungle Olympics; never ending source of fun, entertainment and activity in the second term, when battles are fought on an mental and physical plane; an outlet for action and interaction.

Convocation (n: origin:: Nalanda); the day when IIM-A life turns full circle; 180 degrees are handed over on this day.

Corpo Dinner (n: origin:: IIM-A), one more resultant)of mess grub; around 25 Indians go out in English suits to an American place, have Mexican and Chinese food and go Dutch; a truly global affair.

CP (n: origin:: Harvard); Acronym for 'Class Participation'; IIM's vocal support to the cause of socialism, often accompanied by its offshoots like Arbit CP, Challenge CP, RCP, ACP etc.

CR (n: origin:: Sholay); acronym for 'Class Representative'; generally jobless except for rescheduling classes, making farewell speeches, postponing assignments and making a fool of him(her)self in the Talent Nite.

Cribbing (n:: Oliver Twist); Continuous Ranting and Industrious Brow Beating Inevitably for Necessary Grades.

D-l, D-2 & D-ll (origin:: Louis Kahn); short for Dorm-1, Dorm-2 and Dorm-11; residences for non-males and non- resident males.

Day Zero (n: origin:: Algeber-wai mulublai); the day of reckoning for the best; genesis for some ;armageddon for any.

Diro (n: origin:: English); Big Chief of IIM-A; a figurehead who can't figure out where we are heading.

Dorm (n: origin:: Louis Kahn); they exist from 1 to 23; the epicentre of all activity in IIM-A; also residences for WIMWIans.

Dorm Rep (n: origin:: IIM-A); Chief of the dorm; arranges for dinners, dunkings, T-shirts and other common dorm inventory

Dunking (origin:: Niagara fn!!s) ; IIMA's answer to the patriot missiles ; long range aqueous projectiles aimed at an unsuspecting passerby providing source of immense gratification; this ritual for no perceivable reason, has a distinctive sexual bias.

Endterm (origin :'The Crusaders'}; the magnum opus of the coterie of professors, an epic battle fought by valiant students to stay afloat, which puts other occurrences like the Mahahharata and the Ramayana to shame; used in conjunction with other torture instruments like midterms and quizzes.

Exhibit (origin:: showbiz); Unnecessary, but necessary portion of anything attached to its end; an integral part of WAC reports and PPTs.

'F'(origin:: ancient Greek); the most dreaded grade in non-academic circles; also happens to be the sixth letter of the alphabet.

Fachchas ( origin: obfciirc); all new entrants to the realms of Louis Kahn, Vastrapur, the case method, corpodom and MANAC quizzes.

FPM ( origin: 11M A); fully paid mazaa; a four year transform which involves a fully subsidized vacation with a universal pastime called research; fine fellows they become.

Fraud (origin: RaviC, mind u, only the word, not what it stands for) to beautifully elaborate and then succinctly encapsulate first grade BS, applies to many assignments, and unfortunately, some courses as well

Garba ( origin: Gujjuland); a rollicking local dance form; an occasion for honing one'? skills in tertiary activities like dancing, bird-watching; a time when IIM A comes to NID, NIFT and CEPT.

Group Meeting (origin: Harvard); necessary part of the curriculum; when WIMWIans sit or stand or lie down and discuss solutions tor unstructured problems and dilemmas in life; in other words , the day's juice is collated, arranged and prepared ready for dispatch to community at large the next day.

Harvard Dinner (origin: IIM A); the soup that we land ourselves in on Friday nights; a solemn acknowledgment of where we derive our 'bread and butter' from;

IIM-B (origin: Indian Govt.); never heard of such a place, cccf invited. Also called Not So Well Known Institute of Management In Southern India.

IIM-C (origin: Indian Govt.); never heard of such a place, cccf invited. Also called Not So Well Known Institute of Management In Eastern India.

Juice (n: origin: IIM-A): WIMWI's own edition of the British, Hindi and vernacular tabloids put together in torture chambers called classrooms for public consumption and reprieve; no wonder Hitler didn't like the 'juice'.

Junta (origin: 1930s, Spain); we, the people, the mob, any number of guys and gals from one to infinity generally present anywhere.

KLMDC (origin:Gujjuland); Kinda' Lodge for Misled Delegations from Companies, a paid vacation for middle level managers in an amiable ambiance; for those who can't afford golf courses, crash courses are the in-thing; a classic case of mutual value addition.

Leli (origin IIM-A); ancient war cry of the masses; occurs when unwitting individual(s) have been taken (in) by a revenge seeking mob. (see tempo shout and zigzag).

LKP (origin: Louis Kahn); IIM-A equivalent of the red square; venue for convo, afternoon snoozes, photograph sessions, inaugs, rock-nites .....

LSD (origin: 'TheBeatles); stands originally for' Literary and Symposium Desk' but literally the symposium part is non-existent.

MAD Club (origin: IIM-A); stands for Movie A Day; but often Xceeds one's XXpectations.

Management (origin: Gujjuland); what one tells the auto driver when you want to get to IIM-A; not to be confused with anything else.

Marketing (origin: Indus Valley Civilisation); if it's not finance it must be; governed by four P's, especially during placement - Please Pardon Poor Percentages; also the name of torture instrument used by PO, Vyas and Jain Baba.

MF (origin: IIM-A); stands for Marketing Fair christened 'Insight'; where the companies use WIMWIans as guinea pigs for trying out new ideas and the WIMWIans use local junta as guinea pigs to try out their fledging skills and all the junta not doing serious work enjoy themselves immensely.

Midterms (origin: 'The Crusades'); See endterms.

NID (origin: 'Govt. Of India'); Place forming a mutual admiration society with WIMWI. They admire the , way our campus is built and we admire the way they are.

CT (origin: local); Where WIMWIans mortally wounded in the mess, retreat in the night to assuage grumbling tummies.

Nightout (origin: 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat'); doing something you should have done earlier, at a time when you should be doing what you did earlier, (see WAC).

Open Book (origin: smug Profs); Kind of exam in which cogging from a book is allowed, but in which you can't figure out which chapter. Or if you know the chapter you must have brought the wrong book. If nothing else you've come to the wrong classroom. See cogging.

Operations (origin:World War II); nothing medical There is a rumour that it used to be a substitute for Finance and Marketing, but you shouldn't believe everything you hear.

Pantry (origin: Louis Kahn); A. small room in every dorm. Some of these actually contain Ossum food.

PGP (origin: PGP office); Presently Grilled Prisoners. (See endterms, midterms, quiz, assignments).

Postpone (origin: Mojo); Something that is done to assignments, classes, quizzes on pretexts like Talent Nite, LAN crashes and a general attack of lethargy.

PPO (origin: P&G); Stands for 'Placement Panic Over' or 'Persistence Pays, OK?'.

PPT (origin: Placement Office); Stands for 'Please Pay "Ttention'. Sadly, very few comply and the rest pay up 250 bucks each.

Quiz (origin: Charles Daley); Like any other you have seen. Puzzling questions, limited time, makes you wish you knew more and of course the quizmaster's decisions final.

R.As (n: origin: 'The Mahabharta'; Lord Ganesha being the first one); People holding the key to a good GPA and must hence be kept in good humour. Attendance, CP and exam marks are in their hands. Behold them in awe and handle them with care (see GPA, CP, cribbing).

Rambhai (origin: Gujjuland); One man institution outside WIMWI who could teach a course or Wo if he had time (see marketing, chai).

Rem (origin: 'the Bible', 'The Second Coming'); Replay in slow motion for those who missed action the first time round.

RG (origin: The autobiography of Daintier Benz); I know what it means but why should I tell you ?

SAC-C (origin: The Chancellor of Exchequer); WIMWIan equivalent of President, Pope and CEO rolled into one. In short a position in which you can sac, see?(see WIMWI).

Soapbox (origin: Hyde Park, London); Place where some people go to speak and rest go to have fun.

Tucchas (Origin: Paradise Regained by Milton); the Gods in WIMWI

Ramp (origin: Stanford Univ. USA); Architectural marvel for foreigners and NID-ians to gawk at and for WIMWIans to climb, (see NID). Now notorious for parties

Summers (origin: Revolution of the earth round She sun);Hot season in preparation for which people wear blazers and ties .

Systems (origin: Mckinsey's 7 S model); Like Operations a rumoured alternative to Finance and Marketing. Most WIMWIans don't believe this to be true. (see operations, marketing, finance).

Talent Nite (origin: local); High point of the first term. An elaborate exercise to get to know almost everyone in your section and to see your CR make a fool of himself, (see CR).

Tempo Shout (origin: The Paleolithic Age; origin: of spoken tongue); tribal war whoop emitted by groups of WIMWIans, apparently without any provocation, rhyme or reason (see Leli, zigzag-zigzag).

Tower Lawns (origin: Louis Kahn); used by WIMWIans for playing football and hockey, general junta for lazing on and cows for grazing on.

Vastrapur (origin: unknown); Small unimportant village in a small unimportant town in Western India.

Vet (origin: Blue Cross); The medical man about town. Short for 'veteran doctor' - contrary to popular opinion. Met when you report a stomach upset , the main symptoms of which are over-sleeping and inability to attend classes.

WAC run (origin: local); strange ritual held nine times a year in which WIMWIans remain awake all Friday night and start running madly at 04:25 PM on the next day. (see Nightout).

Welcome Night (origin: local); Traditional event to see how well a PGP 1 can sing when two hundred PGP 2s are yelling.

WIMWI (origin: extremely local); Where I Mingle With IIM-ites.

Wing (origin: Louis Kahn); View of the campus from the wrong side of the LKP.

Work-ex (origin: Newton's Third Lam); After which some people come here for a two year break.

Zigzag-zigzag (origin: Tempo Shout); Description of the path to success and future glory from here. Part of tempo shout, no doubt for that reason, (see Leli, tempo shout).

Summer Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Tue, 15 May 2007 05:33:00 +0000

I know I am into job now, and unlike back in school or college, there ain't no such thing as a summer vacation. But then, some habits die hard. So I decided I need a summer vacation this time too, albeit not one that stretches over the whole of summer. My cousin's marriage was the official reason, just because you need one to get leave. Frankly speaking I was just bored of waiting for my results, so just wanted to chill out at home. So a two week leave was what I finally managed to eek out. How ironical is it that people generally take a break to "chill out" in summer?!

So first stop was home sweet home, Hyderabad. First few days were spent hogging on mom's gastronomical delights and gaining all that I had lost over the last 6 months in just 6 meals. Eat-sleep-TV-comp-eat-sleep again. Throw in a couple of long drives and a few movies, life simply doesn't get better than this.

Now when u think of summer vacations back in school days, it usually involved lots of TV, cricket, fighting with Brindle, going to granny's and meeting cousins. Of course, that was almost 8 years ago and I hadn't been to granny's since. So I decided to make the trip this time.

They live in this village called Vuyyuru some 20 kms from Vijayawada. Mom would insist that its not a village, but it is definitely where u get to see rural India. Here are some thing characteristic of a trip to Vuyyuru:

1) Tiled roofs : Certainly not something to be seen easily in cities.

2) The box-shaped cycle rickshaws : A unique characteristic of Vuyyuru, I bet not many of you have seen this.
3) Sugarcane laden bullock-carts : The life-line of Vuyyuru, connecting the farms to the sugar factory.
4) Hand pumps!
5) The best respite from the heat - Goli Soda.
6) And finally, the sign boards....

P.S. : While I was busy capturing all this, the IIMs finally declared their results.
Yours truly is headed for IIM A!
Looks like my association with Gujarat is going to continue for another two years.

Me & Blind Date

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:36:00 +0000

When IBM posted me in Pune in early June last year, it gave me a chance to reunite with lots of my school friends. I had lost contact with most of them when I left Nagpur almost 5 years ago, but thanks to Pune being the IT and educational hub, most of us landed up here. Orkut, of course was always there to help out.

It all began one fine day, when we were all hanging out together. Since we were meeting after a really long time, there was lots to catch up on…junior college, graduation, jobs etc etc. Eventually the conversation moved to past/current girlfriends and boyfriends (as the case may be). One by one, they all spelt out their stories. When my turn came along, I just told them that I don’t have a girl friend right now, and never had any in the past either (which is true!). They refused to believe me, and insisted that I was not being honest. To end the argument, I passed an oft used remark “All I have is useless friends like you who do nothing to help me in this regard”. It was a sarcastic comment which generally doesn’t yield anything. But this time, someone actually took it seriously.

So a few days later, B offered to set me up on a blind date with a very good friend of hers. B thought that she would be a good match for me and we might hit it off. Though initially taken by surprise, I thought that since there is nothing to lose, why not give it a shot. I agreed. B refused to tell me anything about her, except her name and the fact that they were very good friends. Also, I was supposed to make it a formal date, complete with roses and chocolates. I reluctantly agreed.

Now B was supposed to decide on the time and venue and let us know, but she suddenly disappeared for a few days due to some work. Meanwhile she (my to-be-date) managed to extract my mail ID from one of B’s forwards (smart eh!) and sent me a mail directly. Though we initially thought of meeting over a weekend, I had some other plans for Saturday and she was not free on Sunday. So we decided to go out on some week day itself. The plan was for a movie and dinner, but between us we had already seen everything that was worth watch (which isn’t much considering the kind of movies coming out today). So it was to be just a dinner.

I was there at the decided place on time. I did not take any flowers for her, but I did pick up a chocolate. I was not sure what kind she liked, so I picked my favourite (Mars). I thought if she doesn't like it, I can have it myself. She was late as expected. (Why is it that girls can never make it on time?). Expecting this, I had picked to meet at crossword (smart na). Having not seen each other before, I was wondering how we would identify each other. The problem got solved when she gave me a call as soon as she reached the place, and at that time she was the only person around talking on phone. After the preliminaries, she suggested that we go this restaurant called ‘Horn OK Please’. All my previous attempts to get into this place were futile, since this place is horribly crowded over weekends. But this time, I managed to find a table. It was a dhaba theme restaurant, complete with artificial truck tyres. It was only after we occupied our places that we realized that we were both non-vegetarians, and this was a veg restaurant (bummer!). We got this table near a nice waterfall and keeping with the theme of the place, we ordered makkai di roti aur sarson da saag. She had never tried it before, so I suggested that she should.

B had not told us anything about the other person, so we had to start from scratch. During the first few minutes, I felt like I was back at one of the B-school interviews, trying to tell her everything about myself. Both being from Nagpur, we did end up having a lot in common to talk about. We ended up having a nice conversation over a surprisingly delicious dinner. The bill came. I offered to pay, she offered to split, I didn’t refuse. The dinner was followed by desserts at Naturals (the real ice-cream of Juhu scheme) after which we said our good byes and headed home. Thus ended my first blind date ever. I did have a good time, and I must thank B for this. She turned out to be a true friend.

Btw, this story is like one of those which we read in our Moral Science subject when we were kids. A nice story, followed by a moral. And this one is for all my female friends out there :

Take a cue from B…

My LOC (Love O' Cricket)

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:30:00 +0000

Meet MELLO...the official mascot of the 2007 cricket World cup.

Oh yeah…its world cup time again. The greatest cricket carnival has its stop at the Caribbean station this time around. And as before, Indian cricket team (oops! Make that Team India, else it may be considered blasphemy) is expected to come back home with the title. The great Indian fan has come to expect nothing less, specially after the team’s performance in the last world cup, and even the recently concluded twin series’ against WI & SL. I am one such fan too. And like everyone else, I have my own opinion on various matters.

First of all, it is sad what happened to Bob Woolmer. Though it is still not clear whether it was due to natural causes or homicide, cricket lost a great champion. I am a big fan of Hansie Cronje & Woolmer, for the way they made South Africa such a force to reckon with, without being nasty. (Sunny bhai, I am with you on the Aussie thing. Nice guys need not always finish last, as Roger Federer would demonstrate.) Its pains me that neither of them is alive today. May they rest in peace.

India’s loss to Bangladesh has come as a rude shock to the Indian cricket fan. The extreme reactions that it invoked were totally unwarranted. People say, “With all the experience we had, it’s a shame we lost.” I say, we had one bad day. Absolutely nothing went right for us that day (except for Zaheer and Munaf’s batting “exploits”) and such days are not uncommon for us. Also, give some credit to the Bangladesh team. They played superb cricket in all three departments and they displayed superb spirit too. Its not that it was totally out of blue. They defeated the mighty Aussies not so long ago, and begin the world cup by beating New Zealand. Kudos to their coach Dave Whatmore, who is once again showing his magic after SL’s ’96 triumph. Another testimony to what a good coach can do.

It took a world record thrashing of Bermuda to cool the tempers back home. Indians are good at accumulating these records. India always likes to be in the record books, it doesn’t care which end though. I am sure there are as many records made against the Indians, as there are those made by them.

It has all boiled down to the crucial India vs Sri Lanka match now. There are numerous permutations and combinations being discussed on TV channels and TOI. But the bottom line is, India HAS to beat Sri Lanka. And the implications of this results are mind boggling. If India fails to make it to the super 8, 150 million dollars worth of advertising revenue is at stake. There was a banner during the Bangladesh match that aptly summed up the kind of reactions Indians can expect if they return home soon. It said, “Go to Barbados (venue for our super 8 matches, if we qualify) or stay in Trinidad (Our current base)”. And Greg Chappell would definitely face the axe.

Personally I have something at stake too. My long time judaii from the idiot box was supposed to end come the world cup. But the Bangladesh defeat has put things in perspective. Dipayan says, “If India doesn’t qualify, then why bother”. I just hope India does a repeat of the ’99 world cup, where they thrashed SL under similar circumstances. Else, this picture might actually turn out to be true. (I dont want this road to the Indo-Pak peace process)

So, in chorus with the Pepsi Blue Billion, I go “Uh Ah India, Ah yeah India” (Whatever that is supposed to mean!)

Mera Pehla Project - adhura nahi raha.

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:54:00 +0000

Arrive Online….that is the name of my recently concluded project here at IBM. And how appropriate it is for me, considering that it was my first ever project in my professional career. And being a web developer, I can actually say, “I have Arrived, Online!”

On the occasion of the successful release, I am both delighted and pleased. Last night, I logged on to internet at home and hit the URL(Check it out here). And there it was, the pages that I had developed with my own hands, now on the internet, ready to be used by thousands of people and making life that much simpler for them. Let me tell you, the feeling is absolutely fantastic. Probably this is what job satisfaction feels like. I know I have written blogs earlier which are published, just like a website. But this is something which will actually be useful to lots of people.

I am not going to get into the technical details of the project, but as I was just chatting with Prabhat, he suggested that may be I should blog my experiences. Not a bad idea. So here’s the whole story.

It all started one fine day in October, when I was on “bench” and had no work at all. “Tring-tring” rang the phone, and that was my call of reckoning. The news was that there was someone who wanted me to join his team and work on a new project. I was introduced to the team, and thus began the journey. Starting from acquiring the requirements from the client, designing the pages, working out the nitty-gritties to learning all the processes that one has to go through while coding, every phase of the project was new to me, so I was continuously learning something everyday both on the technical front and also the ways of IBM. There were lots of ups and downs, delights (when some new idea begins to work) and the frustrations (when something goes wrong and you have no idea why it is so), it had the whole package.

When I was in the college, and we had our placements going on, I often wondered why these IT companies are recruiting on such a large scale. This was true with every company, and across the country. I also wondered why there are hundreds of such companies out there, and how do they all manage to survive. Every third human being in Pune is an IT professional, and I am sure the case is the same in places like Hyderabad and Bangalore also.

Today, I realise how tough it can be to design a software application. It took us almost 4 months to build an application that had basically just two main functions, and some 20 odd pages. Considering the rate at which internet is exploding, no wonder the industry has such huge requirements.

P.S: Why this title? Well when we were working on a dummy project during our initial days at IBM, the person who was incharge was giving us a tough time. One day, he explained that almost 80% projects in the industry end as failure, either due to financial constraints or due to time constraints. Ofcourse we never validated his theory, but today I feel like going up to that guy and say.."So you were saying...". He is onsite now, so I am deprived of that sadistic pleasure :-D.

Also, there is a reference to K2H2 too, SRK was all over TOI today, courtesy filmfare. Speaking of which, Hrithik Roshan Best Actor for Dhoom-2!!! Gimme a break...

Yr V Go

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:59:00 +0000

I just realised that my last post was just before Diwali. And here I am again, back with the same purpose. This way, my blog may soon turn into one of those SMSes from your friends that appear on the horizon only on festivals, anniversaries, birthdays and other such occasions. But then again, considering the number of festivals we Indians celebrate here, that would put me in the same league as maybe Seth or Guy (for the uninitiated, they are considered the blogging Gurus)!

Speaking of SMSes, unless you are a hermit who has taken refuge on top of Mt. Etna (If you are reading my blog, chances are you are not), you must be familiar with the SMS bombardment phenomenon that occurs around these “special” days. And statistics prove that New Year happens to be the worst of the lot. A typical student in a college or a guy working in an IT firm would average around 50 SMSes each, outgoing and incoming. In olden days (in terms of mobile revolution), this invariably led to networks getting jammed due to overload and hence, network operators resorted to blocking SMSes for a blanket period. But now, even they have become street smart. Instead, they have increased the rates of SMS for that particular day, thus not only saving themselves the trouble of jammed network, but also earning a few bucks in the process. Very smart. Seems to be the outcome of some new MBAs in their ranks.

Anyway, the SMSes that come our way (I am assuming you and me fall on the positive side of that average) tell a lot about the person who sends them. Atleast, from just reading the SMS, we can say something about the person on the other side. This is how :-

It all begins a few days before new year with something like this.

Don't open this for another 5 days...

(scroll down 2 or 3 screens)

Just as I thought, you couldn't wait...
Anyway Happy New Year in advance...remember, I may be the first one.

Nope, not a smart ass…I am sure he received it from someone else at a time when he had nothing better to do than forward it to me, and thus breaking the golden rule of originality (Originality is the art of hiding your source).

Around the same time, comes the new age SRK fan (Amitabh fan-Reloaded)

Happy New Year....
(scroll down)
Soch raha hai aaj kyun wish kiya?
Don jab chahata hai, tab wish karta hai...

Of course, a new entrant this year was the senti-wala…
As this year is coming to an end, I wish to THANK people who have touched various walks of my LIFE, in their own different ways!
Thoughtful FRIENDS who have shown their concern and have always been there for me. Life becomes meaningful by presence of such lovely friends like u!
Do remain so dear...always..take care and thanks once AGAIN!
(Check out the Caps)…
this from a guy who recently discovered the emotional side of himself (where the hell was that in college!)…read found a girlfriend, atlast!

And then, on the New Year eve, come:

The boring
Before the Networks get jammed –Wish you a Happy New Year 2@@7…the year which starts & ends on a Monday
(Whatever the second sentence is supposed to mean!)

and the not so boring
Isse pehle is 2007 ast ho,
2006 ka calender nasht ho,
aap nashe mein mast ho,
mobile ka network vyast ho,
dua he 2007 aapke liye jabardast ho!

Finally, on the D-Day, comes the real stuff. This includes:

The Professional one:
May all good things come your way as the year unfolds & God's bountiful blessings be upon you whole year through! Happy New Year...XYX n Family.
Expect this from your superiors at job or some uncles in the neighbourhood, or even some of your dad’s friends.

If you happen to have some girls in your circle of friends, expect something like this:
I wish you a fantastic January,
Lovable February,
Marvellous March,
Foolish April,
Enjoyable May,
Successful June,
Wonderful July,
Independent August,
Sizzling September,
Tastiest October,
Beautiful November,
Happiest December...Happy New Year...2007.

Then come the Wordsworth & Tennyson fans:
Wishes never turn old,
neither can be brought or sold.
They may reach you early or late,
but if true, turn away all the blues...
So here's wishing you Happy New Year.

Not far behind, would be our desi versions:
Bhul jaao beete hue kal ko,
Dil me basa lo aane wale pal ko,
Muskurao chaahe jo bhi ho pal,
khushiyan lekar aayega aane wala kal...Happy New Year

The bhai-log from Mumbai would also have some say:
Apun wishing you n ur family a wonderful, zabardast,
x-tra badhiya, x-tra special ekdum mast n dhinchak,
bole to ekdum jhakaas "HAPPY NEW YEAR"

Then there are those, who try to be “Jara hatke” :
No formalities....
No artificial wishes...
No decorative words...
Just from the deep in my heart...
Happy New Year!

And finally, my favourite. This one comes from none other than the new kid on the blog, dear ol’ Dobby.
If life is a garbage dump, I hope u are the incinerator.
If life is full of shit, hope u are Harpic.
If life is bad breath, hope u r pepsodent : Happy New year!
This is very typical of him, total crap! I must tell you, be around him when he gets into one of his moods…the fundas that come out will blow you away! For more, check out Dobby’s blog.

(Statutory warning : Continuous exposure to Dobby’s fundas can be injurious to human rationale)

As for me, how would I wish you all? Here..

Enjoy the year-to-bond...Happy 2-007!

(yes... I loved Casino Royale)

T.G.I.F.

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:04:00 +0000

I simply LOVE fridays. There is nothing that can match the feelings that you have on a friday evening. I had often heard many seniors and read a lot of jokes and satires on the Monday vs Friday debate. But could never really make out as to what the big deal was. Being used to the 5-day-week schedule during my NIT days, I never felt so exhilarated on a fri-night. Ofcourse, being a mechanical engg, bunking was a common phenomenon and as such, college was never really a bother for us. But now that I have been in the corporate world for almost 4 months, I have begun to appreciate the beauty of Friday. Thank GOD I did not opt for a job in a core company! Here is a small video that amply illustrates how I feel about mondays and fridays now...

He he..HAPPY DIWALI folks! Have a rocking year ahead.

Humko Deewana(MAD) kar gaya

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 12:28:00 +0000

Who the heck is the person in that picture??? Can't place him anywhere? Let me help you out...imagine him with a beard and a baseball cap.

There you are...of course, it is our own "beloved" Himeshbhai (I know i dont live in Gujarat anymore, but old habits die hard). Its just that with the Ganesh Puja season back here, and Pune, with its omnipresent pandals (Pune averages one pandal every 100 meters of the so called roads), definitely doesn’t have much choice when it comes to music. As a result, some ol' feelings are rekindled and here I am, with another round of my PDA (Public display of "Affection", the latest acronym I have learned, thanks to TOI). Though Nikhil is the one who got me thinking on these lines…

What 'use' can we put Himesh reshammiya songs to?? These are what i came up with...

1. Nikhil asks: Got anything for a headache?
Vamsee Replies: Lots of Himesh songs...want me to share the folder over LAN?

2. You have recently launched a new brand of razor...u can use himesh's songs for "BEFORE" and Coffee-with-Karan clips for "AFTER".

3. Himesh Concerts on LOC & POK: No need of all those peace talks and Agra summits. One concert, and all the terrorists will vacate the place in no time. So what if the people also run away, all we want is the land and the flora/fauna, right?

4. Introducing a 4th degree of torture: Himesh songs...Sources reveal that Al Gharib is using them on prisoners and this has the human rights activists raising a lot of hue and cry.

5. Ganesh Mandal: You have ur exams going (exams happen almost all around the year now a days) and the Ganesh Mandal near your house is celebrating noisily with loudspeakers n all. Get back at them by secretly replacing their "Jai Ganesh Deva" CDs with Himesh CDs.

6. End of India's Olympic Medal Drought: We are the only country in the world who has Himesh. Let our scientists work on him and develop anti-Himesh vaccines for all our athletes. And then, play Himesh songs at full volume at the 2016 Delhi Olympic games...

7. Set it as hello tune for someone u "love", Airtel now gives u an option of caller specific hello tune.

8. Ur GF/wife's name is Sayyoni. Well, "I LOVE U SAYYONI...."

9. UNITED WE STAND AGAINST HIMESH: Use them as a riot-control measure. When the fighting groups find a common enemy (Himesh songs), they will stop fighting, join hands and that should bring an end to Godhras and Babri Masjids.

10. You own a Bajaj Platina and you want ur ringtone to complement your bike.

11. The new-age Exorcist: Himesh songs can become the latest tool of your next door exorcist(Na na, your neighbour is not one, I was just using the phrase)...one songs, and good bye ghosts (After all, even they were Humans once).

12. D Cold Total ads : The punchline reads :"One dose will turn ur kid from Himesh to SP"

13. Use it in training sessions in IT companies.
Do Tarah ki hoti hai "JAVA"..............
Mar "JAVA" , Mit "JAVA"

14. Having early morning bowel-movement problems? The sure shot solution....HIMESH Songs!
(Ek bar aaja aaja, aaja aaja, aajaa...)

Water, Water......EVERYWHERE!

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 13:28:00 +0000

I hear thunder, I hear thunder.

Hark don't you? Hark don't you?

Pitter, patter raindrops,

I'm wet through;

so are you.

This nursery rhyme really sums up my past few days. It been raining cats and dogs and every god damn animal on the streets. Really sickening. Added to that the pathetic roads of this city, makes me dread every time i step of my house.

Anyway, yesterday was FRIENDSHIP DAY. When I got the first of the smses at 12 midnight (what a perfect way to disturb a sleeping soul!), it suddenly stuck me that i don't know why this day is celebrated! I mean, there had to be some reason, like valentine's day being St. Valentine's birthday and children's day being Nehru's b'day (Exact 9 months the difference, what coincidence!). I asked Dipu about it in the morning, and turns out, even he didnt know. Times of India had no special article on this (I was expecting a whole supplement, going by their usual standards). So I turned to my most trusted source of information, dear ol' wiki. Surprise surprise, even wiki did not have a proper explanation for that. All it said was that this day was first celebrated in US in 1935 due to some declaration of the U.S. congress. How strange! So it continued through out the day and late into the night, the barrage of "happy friendship day" messages in all it varied forms. Poems in English, Hindi(Hinglish) shayari, witty remarks, picture messages or just simple plain texts. Plain silly to serious senti ones. But the best part is, they kept me entertained throughout the day.

How did i spend this day? In the best way possible (specially in these bloody rains):

In my room, wrapped in a blanket and enjoying an 8 hour long F.R.I.E.N.D.S marathon..hows that!

Btw, I watched Tokyo Drift over the weekend along with Soumen. It was really awesome. Drifting at its best! I really enjoyed the movie, never mind what TOI had to say about it. If u ask me, its a MUST WATCH!

Times of India though carried a very interesting thought :

"Friendship marks a life even more deeple than love. Love risks degeneration into obsession, but friendship is never anything but sharing"

My take on that :

AMEN!

Aamhi Puneri (!!!)

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 12:04:00 +0000

Ah, finally some time and something to write about. But so much has happened around me since my last blog that I have no idea where to start. Since leaving college almost two months ago, there has been the short vacation at home (which did not even last a month), the sudden call from IBM, the eventual joining and the subsequent training, the initial struggles in this Punya-Nagari (Pune), the subsequent settling down, the FIFA WC and so many other things. So while I sit at my IBM office in Pune on a fine working day, listening to In the Shadows by Rasmus, supposedly reading up on some project documentation, lets have a look at all of them. For one, this will rid me of all the “interviews” that people subject me when I meet them online.

After vacation, I went home and planned out things for a nice long vacation. Popular consensus among the guys was that the joining date will be sometime in august. So I did everything to make sure my stay at home would be comfortable. Bought some novels, got a broadband connection at home, burned almost the entire movie collection on college LAN on DVDs and was eagerly looking forward to enjoy the whole of world cup. But then, one fine day, Karan calls up and says, “Dude, joining dates are here. Check your mail”. And when I open my yahoo mail, there it was…IBM beckons!

Yes, I am finally in the corporate world. I am yet to see Madhur Bhandarkar’s Corporate, so I have no idea what image it projects of the corporate world. But as far as my experience goes, so far its been one helluva ride. Starting with travelling to Pune aboard Air Deccan (It was my first time in Air Deccan, and I could easily see why it’s a low cost airline), I arrived in this new city which I have heard so much about. Technically speaking, this is not my first time in the city, but my previous visit was so long ago that I don’t even remember when it was. But let me tell you frankly, this city has been a huge disappointment for me. Being used to wide, spacious and swanky roads and excellent civic amenities in Nagpur, Hyderabad and then Surat, Pune has come as a big shock to me. Pathetic roads, horrible public transport system and even worse traffic (People, your vehicles have something known as a horn, use it!). Added to that was my accommodation woes. Had it not been for some of my college seniors, it would have been really difficult for me. Here I must thank Charan, Dhir, Sushil, Swaraj and Billu for coming to my rescue. Guys, you have been amazing hosts. And thanks to you, I did not miss out on one of the biggest sporting bonanza on this planet, the FIFA WC ’06.

Speaking of which, what an amazing world cup that was! Germany got things rolling with a goal fest in the very first match. My team Argentina looked strong to lift the cup especially during their thrashing of Serbia & Montenegro. I was supporting Argentina and Holland from the very beginning. (Don’t ask me why Holland). Holland could not live up to the expectations, being outwitted by Luiz Felipe Scholari. And more heart breaks for me when Argentina got knocked out too (peaked too early maybe?). After that, Italy it was for me. With the pair of Buffon and Cannavaro at the back, it was only a matter of the forwards finding the net. And luckily, I got to watch the final in the best possible atmosphere…in a hostel with a totally football crazy crowd. How did that happen? Well I must thank the people who painted Meena Thackeray’s statue black. Thanks to the subsequent riots that broke out in Pune, I got stuck at Singhad collage where I had gone to visit Bamboo, Bajrangi, GA n others. I was forced to stay overnight at their hostel and there was my opportunity. Now bamboo was rooting for France, so we had our own rivalry going on. And the match surely lived up to its expectations. But ironically, it was three of France’s biggest heroes of ‘98 that led to their defeat. First, it was Fabien Barthez’s blunder that resulted in Italy’s equaliser. Then, Zidane did what he did (enough has been written and said about it). And to cap it all, it was David Trezeguet who missed that all important penalty in the shoot out. Understandably, while I was elated at the end of the match, Bamboo was literally in tears.

So after almost 5 full days (holidays at that) of house-hunting, and after looking at almost 20 different flats, I finally found a place worth living. And luckily, I found a decent enough roommate having similar interests as me. But there are people who say my choice of roommate has taken a “dip”. Why? If it was Ayan Ghosh (a.k.a. dobby) in my final year not so long ago, now it is Dip-ayan Ghosh. Added to that, they are both bongs (obviously) with NCR connections! Dobby has this theory that I missed him so much, that I took out an ad in the newspaper to find a roommate similar to himself. Ha ha!

Recently, we got our first pay cheques (I am not telling you how much it was). So I and Dipayan thought we should celebrate by watching a movie. We went to the multiplex, and found out that the only tickets that were available were for Krish (arrgh!). Even though neither of us was particularly inclined, we did not want to go back home without watching a movie. So we sat down to enjoy ourselves. And enjoy we did! We could identify so many movies that Krish(or is Krrish) was “inspired” from…Superman, Spiderman, Final Destination, Matrix etc etc.
Also, we enjoyed the commercials in the middle of the movie. What? Didn’t you see any? Oh com’on! If I am not wrong, these were the products advertised during the movie: Tide, Bournvita, Faber Castell, Vicks Inhaler, Siyaram’s, Lays, Hero Honda, Samsung and Karizma. Now if you missed even one of these, there are only the following explanations:
1. You enjoyed the movie so much that you did not pay attention to them (i.e. you are a huge Hrithik Roshan fan).
2. You found the movie so boring that you dozed off.
3. You saw the movie with your girlfriend/boyfriend, doing you-know-what rather than watching the movie.
4. You did not see the movie at all.

And if I missed out on any more, then the reason is none of the above.

Spell check please!

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 28 May 2006 06:01:00 +0000

This is inspired by chinsi's blog...

Check out these spellings by one of the most famous "prof" of our mech department.

They say a pictures says a 1000 words...that makes this my biggest blog! ;-)

A Lazy Sunday Morning...

noreply@blogger.com (2T aka Vamsee) — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 04:50:00 +0000

Frankly speaking, the only reason i am writing this blog is that i am really bored. The world has come to a standstill. I read the newspaper today after almost a week, and the news remains the same. Absolutely nothing new to read about. I know I am in the middle of my semester exams (the last one at that) and I should be studying for the next one, but it is still two days away. And as a mechanical engg in SVR, its a big crime to start off so early. Specially when your subject is something as dull as TQM (I am sure most of u out there know what it stands for, so please tell me about it). Just went through the stuff once some time back, and I realised then itself that my answer paper is gonna be a jumble of the following words :

1) Customer Satisfaction

2) Training for the workers

3) Continuous Evaluation

4) Self-Improvement

5) Scientific Methods

Mix them up, and make the full usage of the oh-so-flexible and versatile English language, and voila - thats my answer paper! It pays to have a decent knowledge of the language, u can easily play around with words and escape scot-free. Trust me, it works.

As for my previous exams, well...things were going fine till "Friday, the 28th" happened. Easily the biggest disaster of my illustrious academic career (yup...i am serious), the only consolation I have is that i have already seen the worse. And the next two being not so difficult, i can safely say i am almost done with engineering. Looking back, i was not so hard.

Amazingly, we have been getting internet 24 hours a day for the past one week. Yup, exactly the same time as our exams started. What sort of conspiracy is this! Dont they wanna let us go out of this place with some peace? We thought that if somehow we manage some decent scores this time around, maybe it will make up for all the previous catastrophes. 'Cause as they say, Alls well that ends well. But it was not to be. And with the orkut fever reaching it's peak, the guys end up spending almost 4-5 hours per day only on orkut. People like Pole and Hunk have their scrap counts increased @ almost 100/day!!! Unfortunately, urs truly has also fallen into the trap. Its like, ek chapter ho gaya...lets orkut for a while. So u study for one hour, and to compensate (!) for it, Ur orkut for almost 2 hours!!! Its is so goddamn addictive!

Now that i am coming to the end of my wonderful hostel life, one thing i am gonna miss the most is the college LAN. What an amazing storehouse it is! One stop destination for all ur computer needs. How can i forget those hours and hours that i have spent on LAN playing AOE? So many things to see, so many things to do. I was counting yesterday, and the number of movies available on LAN was close to 150!!! and this i am talking about only Hollywood stuff. Just dont know how i am gonna manage my comp at home with the LAN. I have spent the past 50 hours trying to collect all the stuff that i can, and burn it away on CDs/DVDs so that i can carry some part of it along. My dear ol' Compaq Presario is working overtime at the limit of its processing powers. Let us see how AMD Athalon holds out to this work load. And while all the work is going on in the background, this is the only thing i can do without using up too much of my CPU resources.

Now with the mouth watering sunday lunch around the corner, time for me to hit the showers (though no such thing exists in the hostel). A sumptuous lunch, and then to do what i am best at...

Zzzzzz!