New Blog

I've started a new blog and I would be posting in that one mostly from now. The link is


http://beingatb.blogspot.com

The last month of leisure…

There have been some incidents worth writing about since my last post. I finally bid adieu to the college and the hostel taking forward some unforgettable memories. Was very eagerly looking forward to spend some quality time at home ‘gorging’ on some delicacies. My parents were ready with a nice 1-kg cake that said ‘Welcome home Tatai and Congratulations!’. The relaxed atmosphere was disturbed the very next day due a very careless act of mine. I had somehow misplaced a bag containing my important documents during travelling. Tension filled the air, but then I somehow tried to recollect everything, made a few phone calls and was thinking about the steps required to be taken now. Dad and I left for the station to lodge an official complaint and my friends back in Bhubaneswar were helping out in every way possible. On the way back from the station, I got a phone call from a person who said that he had my bag and he took it by mistake. He said he was in a big group and thought that they had left behind this piece of luggage. He was supposed to pass over Visakhapatnam and I told him that I would collect it from him. I was finally relieved when I finally got the bag with all documents in order. Yes, I know it was very stupid of me to be so absent-minded and careless, but then mistakes happen and most importantly they teach you not to repeat it. The support lent by my family is worth mentioning and they were very stable through the whole ordeal. Running around everywhere – that was how the first day at home was spent. Had only one day in between as we were supposed to leave for Chennai on 25^th April. Ran some errands and sold some old books, apart from packing my luggage. The draft with the amount confirming the admission in IIM Calcutta was also sent.

The journey was quite comfortable on AC Chair Car and I spent most of the time watching movies and playing games on my laptop. Before coming here, I thought that I would be brushing up some mathematics which would be required to pass the Qualifying Mathematics exam that I would be having at IIMC. Started jogging daily here after inaugurating my brand new tennis shoes and was looking up the math book that I brought along with me. Though I admit the affair with the math was short-lived and terminated abruptly. Most of time, I watch episodes of Prison Break and Heroes and catch up with the Sensex and the no. of confirmed ‘Swine Flu’ cases all over the world. One fine evening, I wake up from my afternoon siesta and see that I’ve got a few missed calls from a Bangalore no. Just as I was to brush them off as some useless telemarketing calls, I saw a couple of messages which asked me to call IIM Bangalore admission office immediately. I was excited as the only reason I could think of was that the waitlist must have moved and I was to be offered a seat there. My prediction turned out to be true and I was elated. So, with that my GD/PI conversion ratio moves up to 50% and my IIM calls conversion ratio to 100% ! My reaction was of disbelief earlier because my name did not even figure in the first waitlist of IIMB. The lady over the phone said that I was waitlisted at no.12 and they are offering admission to waitlisted people up to no.20 as quite a few people had overlapping converts from IIM-Ahmedabad. I had almost prepared myself mentally to be a part of IIMC and now this sweet little surprise from B. Though not much of a difference between B and C, but nevertheless general perception ranks B above C. Finally made up my mind that I would like to do my MBA from the 2^nd ranked institution in the country and not the 3^rd.

Looking forward to catch up with some friends here in Chennai, but the heat is a strong deterrent in stepping out of the house. Speaking of the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders have managed to disappoint me in every way possible and their performance has been below par in all aspects of the game. However, Hyderabad, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chennai and Punjab are providing the entertainment and Chennai seems to be in good touch.

Signing off for now … Gracias!

Engineered !

I've been thinking a lot about putting down what has been going through my mind lately. However, to maintain absolutely any sense of continuity from where I'd left it would surely take a herculean effort. To sum it up in as little sentences as possible, I'd say I had a tough time touring the whole country on what seemed like an unending season of group discussions and personal interviews. There was the initial rejection which kind of unsettled me, but then it only made the final selection even more special. I definitely had more belief in myself to have a higher conversion ratio than 33.33%, but then the reality is different and the circumstances are unusual. The best part is that I could convert the one that mattered. My journey through each one of them would take considerable space and I will probably post it when I am in the mood.

While I am elated about being selected into a glorious institution for the next two years of my education, I am in a very strange frame of mind regarding the prospect of saying goodbye to the one where I have spent four very important and unforgettable years of my life. Hell, that's almost a quarter of the time I've spent on this earth My education has been more in terms of knowledge of the vastly contrasting personalities that I've been associated with - my roomies, friends, and many other acquaintances.. Dealing with these people teaches one a lot about life in these 4 years, the extent of which is comparable to what one might learn in half a lifetime. You have selfish people, extremely selfish people, selfless people, the altruists, the egoists, the empty vessels which bang themselves, the full ones who keep shut, the confused ones, the extremely indecisive one, the impulsive ones, the hard-working ones, the geeks and nerds, the psychedelics, the alcoholics, the combination of the two, the honest ones, the meek, the rats.. can go on and on..

To keep it short, I've maintained a pretty low profile these 4 years. Nothing too much out of the ordinary. Was that because laziness got the better of me, or was it that I was too influenced by my surroundings? Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience of anonymity. Hardly came into either the good or bad books of any of my profs., and it had its own luxuries. Given a lot of exams and I can proudly claim that I've passed all of them without any unfair means. With the exception of Micro Processor Lab maybe, where I had the programs written on that cell phone of mine.

It dawned on me finally that certain things need to be tried after all. Had a taste of beer, hated it. Promptly labeled it as a waste of time and money. However, the desire to get a little high was still there. The irony of it all was when I eventually drank enough alternating pegs of whisky and vodka and was almost on the verge of getting high, one of my friends freaked out. Ultimately, had to force myself to focus and help control the situation at hand. Taking positives out of it, I know that I can control myself under tough situations. And on the flip side, will my sense of responsibility ever let me enjoy myself ?

So many more things to write about. Hope I made some sense up there. It hardly ever comes this freely. I'm glad it did and hope it comes more often.

Instances

The article that I've written for the IT Yearbook, Nostalgia :

The memories of the first day in our college would still be fresh in many of our minds, the day we were asked to report and complete the remaining formalities of the admission process. The air was filled with anxiety, which could easily be seen in our faces – curious to find out everything. After settling down in our allotted rooms and the initial round of introductions, new bonds were formed and new friends made. One of the most discussed topics at that time was the anticipation of ragging by our seniors – various instructions were conveyed through messengers like the 90-degree bend, an elaborate salutation and a few unlucky ones did have to complete pages of assignments from another hostel. However, the real thing wasn’t really that bad and didn’t last very long. The grand way in which our seniors welcomed us into the IT family of KIIT, during the Fresher’s Party, UTKARSH was overwhelming and we were thrilled to bits. The boys were seen dishing out red roses to seniors and classmates by the dozen, as instructed by the seniors.

Labs in the first year never ceased to amaze us – be it the physics lab where some of us had experimentally proved that the speed of sound could vary anywhere in the range of 150-850 km/hr, or the Engineering Drawing Lab – which gave most of us a horrid time with our drafters for meager A’s. The Basic Manufacturing Systems lab or the workshop was where the boys had to sweat it out, while girls were lucky to giggle away to glory, not only during the lab, but also when the grades were finally awarded. However, the lab which most of us looked forward to was the Basic Electronics Lab, where the actual experiment took not more than 15 minutes and the remaining time was spent in chatting with each other – it was the place where interactions and conversations flowed freely across the boundaries of the King’s Palace and Queen’s Castle. The true realization of the power of IT came upon us when finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we were granted internet access in our hostels. The IT branch boys were swift enough to use the hostel reception table as a makeshift arrangement and the huddle in the reception became a daily routine after dinner. There were numerous instances when a guy enthusiastically tells his friend that he finally gets a reply from a certain girl, only to see his friend is busy chatting with the same girl. The online group, ‘kiit_dudes’ was a huge hit and everyone was more than eager to post his/her best mails on the forum. We thank Google Inc. and Yahoo! Corp. for their wonderful contributions to mankind.

Our memories of the first year of our engineering would be incomplete without the mention of the famous ‘bathroom incident’! Boys, desperate to run away from another monotonic (read robotic) & torturous physics lecture, holed up in a bathroom, which got locked from outside. What followed when sir himself opened the bolt is something which still manages to make us laugh till it hurts. We also got a feel of how serious college violence could be when a ‘sine die’ was declared for our super-seniors.

The second year started with the season of heartbreaks, with IT being divided into IT1 and IT2. Few of our friends bid us goodbye, some changed their branches but still are as much a part of IT as every one of us. Some new ‘late entry’ friends joined us but were not late to mingle with us and the only regret they have is why they didn’t join a year earlier. We had our first brush with responsibility with the organization of the Freshers’ Party. Nights after night were spent discussing various programs, scripts and other nuances, which finally ensured that all of us and our juniors had a fabulous time during the function. The fact that we bunked our Network Theory lab exam while preparing for the function stands testimony to the effort put in by us. The true spirit of IT was what came forward during the open dance on stage after the party. Uninhibited enjoyment was the flavor of the evening as everyone danced till we were forced to leave. The Dandiya Nite was looking nothing less of a page 3 party with the boys looking dapper in their sherwanis and the girls looking their gorgeous best in lehenga-cholis. After the fun and frolic, we were reminded of the important times to come during the first personality development program we had. Then we had to toil in the summer heat to learn Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, after which the dreaded project evaluation took place, which many of us avoided till it was absolutely inevitable.

The third year of our college was probably the most important one of all, as it brought us the thing we were all waiting for – Placements ! Good things usually don’t come so easy. We understood the word ‘hectic’ in its entirety – apart from regular classes, we had math, English and reasoning aptitude classes, technical aptitude classes, personality development classes and numerous group discussion and personal interview sessions. Finally, we did prove that no challenge is too tough for us and almost all of us got placed successfully. We re-created history when a sine-die was declared for our year. Though it might not be something to be proud of, but nevertheless is a part of our memories. Another important event in the third year was the bold protest by the girls, fed up by the strict rules, regulations, dress code and atyachar of the authorities. The boys were fully in support of their counterparts, however for not entirely selfless reasons and were naturally elated on their success.

On reaching the final year, many of us felt that enough was enough. We have already become 3/4^th engineers, and the remaining part of our college life needs to be spent in the comforts of our cots rather than the benches of the classrooms. Attendance registers saw new lows and didn’t seem very surprised. The terrace started to be used for more ‘innovative’ and ‘indulgent’ purposes, other than becoming the most popular destination for lovebirds who stay glued to the phone all-night long. The feeling of attachment among us grew so strong that many of decided to mourn the loss of our branch in the final of a cricket tournament by bunking a mid semester examination. The hostelites managed to create an indoor cricket arena within the hostel, with elaborate floodlights for day-night matches. We were spared the effort to select our playlists on our laptops as some or the other generous, over-enthusiastic soul usually played the latest chartbusters on his speakers, full volume. Project-reports were completed within a couple of hours – in true engineering style.

It seems like 4 years have just whizzed past in a jiffy, we’ve been together in the ups and downs, ridden together the crests and troughs. Its tough to believe that there wouldn’t be anyone next year to give us the dreaded ‘B-Day bumps’ and no more wild, watery and fun-filled celebrations. We might be parting ways now, but the world is a very small place and we hope to bump into each other as often as possible.

(Anand Biswas) with invaluable inputs from Amrit, Ankit, Smaran, Revant, Tapan, Vineet and of course the whole branch without whom there wouldn’t be anything to write about !

Yahoo !!

Feeling a lot lighter after the 7th semester exams are dealt with. Also, not to forget the mighty CAT, and the stupid IIFT exams. I'm primarily calling IIFT stupid not just because I couldn't do well in it, but the exam was inherently very stupid. Right from the invigilator to the question paper, nothing was proper. The exam was a nightmare.. 150 questions in 120 minutes and that too the level wasn't so low. Anyways, what is gone, is gone. Luckily, CAT went well and expecting a few calls from the big ones. But the next big news is that I'm leaving with my friends to a Sikkim trip for about a week. Hope to have some great time over there. It was fun planning the whole thing, right from the itinerary to the budget, to noting down locations of ATMs and hotels that fit our budget. The tentative itinerary is as given below..

Day 1 - 27/11 - Reach Gangtok by noon. Find out details about changu lake,pelling,lachung(yumthang/zero point),darjeeling trips. Local Sightseeing (Rumtek Monastery,etc.)
Day 2 - 28/11 - Start for Changu lake early morning, Nathula Pass.Return to Gangtok.
Day 3 - 29/11 - Yumthang and zero point. Stay at Lachung/GTK.
Day 4 - 30/11 - Start early morning for Gangtok/Pelling. Lunch at Gangtok and leave for Pelling by 1.30 pm. Stay at Pelling.
Day 5 - 01/12 - See Pelling by noon and leave for Darjeeling. Reach by evening. (or) Start for Darjeeling early morning. Reach by 10-11 am, local sightseeing,nightstay.
Day 6 - 02/12 - See Tiger Hills,early morning. Local sightseeing till time permits. Reach NJP by evening by toy train(0915 hrs) or bus/taxi. Train at 1925 hrs for Howrah.
Day 7 - 03/12 - Reach Howrah at 0510 hrs. Train from howrah 0735 hrs.

Will get back soon.. Goodbye till then..

Proud to be part of the Tata Group

I don’t have to mention the sequence or details of the events that led to the great disaster of Singur. What actually deserves mention and laudatory applause are the ethics, values and principles that make Mr.J.R.D.Tata the gentleman he is. Poor Mamata Bannerjee, little did she know that her move to stand by the farmers in protest against one of the prolific industrialists of the country, who was trying to bring the poster child of Indian innovation in frugal manufacturing and numerous other opportunities to the state of West Bengal, would ultimately not result in any significant enhancement in her vote bank. The Nano, which drew the attention of the world towards India, is now resulting in bent eyebrows about the friction industry faces with vote bank politics in this part of the world. Some western newspaper had a report whose title read “Tata Nano falls in Indian ditch”. The Singur imbroglio will not only scare away huge potential investments in the state of Bengal, but could also force a rethink about foreign investors planning to invest in India’s booming economy. The comments it has drawn from Indian industry stalwarts clearly speak for themselves. Sunil Mittal made it clear enough when he said “If the house of Tatas can face such serious problems, then it is definitely a sorry state of affairs”. Infosys and many other conglomerates have stated that they are closely watching the Singur episode and would take cues from it about their future intent of investing in the state and even their current investments. A Trinamool Congress henchman close to Mamata said on condition of anonymity that Mamata Bannerjee might have to face the stigma of driving off investments from Bengal for a long time.


But Mamata Bannerjee is not new in the game of politics. Her stature might not have grown at the pace with witch UP CM Mayawati’s has, but it is still worth taking note of. She’s always found the protest route the best thing to do. Right from the time she forayed into politics, she was vociferous and also got literally, I mean physically charged at by CPI henchmen, the police and also probably the RAF. But this has never deterred her to keep away from the political bigwigs. She’s slowly and steadily earned a noteworthy status in the Red/Left dominated politics of the state. By now, she’s experienced enough to know opportunity from disaster. Then, where did she go wrong in case of Singur? Simple. She couldn’t comprehend Mr.Tata. In fact, many of us might have done the same mistake if we were at her position. The prospect of relocating the Nano factory would mean incurring a loss of about Rs.500 crore, which is a huge sum by any standards to forgo. Therefore, she thought if she could force/choke the govt. or the Tatas to return the disputed 400 acres of land, she could score a noticeable political victory and significantly increase the size of her vote bank by tilting the farmers in her favor. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn the way she expected them too and she has nothing to do now.


The whole episode brings to the fore the reason why the Tata group is not only a national brand of repute, but internationally acclaimed for its core values and business ethics. This makes me proud as a future member of this group, whose leader is a man who doesn’t believe in compromising his values for anything.

Positive Signs ..

There's this nice feeling when you realize that you can actually do what you think would require a lot of effort and would still not be possible to achieve! Hard work,persistence and perseverance cannot be substituted, but often people tend to ignore or sideline certain other factors which play a part in achieving one's objectives. One of them being the strong, unflinching belief that it can be done and the right frame of mind at the all-important moment. The strong and unconditional belief that I referred to needs to be elucidated further as it simply doesn't mean the burning desire to achieve something, but a comprehensive knowledge of one's strengths, weaknesses and intended course of action-which should be an outcome of thorough research of the situation & the possible strategies, taking into account not only their effectiveness, but also feasibility. What is applicable to someone else might provide you a good idea,but would have to be transformed of customized, based on your requirements. I'm sure all this seems quite obvious, but the problem arises when one faces reality. Prior to that, it seems that all groundwork has been done and everything is ready. However, being prepared for failure should essentially be, and in my opinion be the most important and integral part of the strategy, without which it would be almost ineffective as even the slightest deviation from the plan would lead to a debacle.

I'm elated as Abhinav Bindra has become the first Indian to win an Olympic gold in an individual sporting event. What is depressing is the fact that the credit-snatching game has started back home here in India. What should be noted is the fact that Bindra's father was a businessman, financially secure and thus, wasn't dependent on the government for assistance or aid of any kind. He rightfully converted a farmhouse into a shooting range for his son's practise and could afford all the equipment he needed. Contrast this with the numerous stories of sportsmen who are not so well off, spend most of their time and energy in arranging for funds and makedo with sub-standard equipment,infrastructure and facilities. The sporting scenario in India is a pathetic state and can only improve with greater private enterprise sponsorship. Private sponsorship demands not only results, but also popularity of the sport - which is usually the stumbling block. Cricket fanatic India doesn't give a damn if the Indian Men's hockey team fails to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 8 decades, nor does the fact matters that India is ranked above 130 in the world in football, where small island nations with populations of a few thousand are ranked higher than this country of 1.3 billion people. The major reason being lack of financial incentives in the respective sports at the regional or national level. Cricket is glamorized and it is a known fact that cricketers earn an attractive pay package, apart from numerous advertising contracts. If the governments initiates incentivisation of sports alongside infrastructure development, then private players might find it feasible at a later stage and can be expected to carry on further.

Enough for now, feeling groggy and the fact that I have to attend the first class tomorrow at 7.30 am implies that I should hit the sack now.