Fight of a Genius

"A Beautiful Mind" has inspired this post.  

I was apprehensive about watching this movie, initially. I'd heard that it was similar to the horrenduous "Mayakkam Enna" (ME)- a recent Tamil film that made me resolve to never watch any creation of the director Selvaraghavan again. There are people who saw some form of genius and beauty in the film. Not me. My simple purpose was to unwind after back-to-back Finance and Quant quizzes. ME achieved something never before done by any movie- making me shut out all sight and sound, wanting to run away from the theatre!

Hence, on a lazy holiday evening, I double-clicked the icon "A Beautiful Mind" in my laptop, deciding to close it in less than five minutes if it were anything similar to ME. 

But i forgot the small "x" button at the top-right corner for the next two hours. This story- which in contrast had a logical flow comprehensible to mere mortals like yours truly- was engrossing. And yeah, there is the fact that parts of my Microeconomics reading did help me relate well to the dating logic explained beautifully in the pub (this was soothing, given that the reading didn't help a bit in the exam).

The film talks about an extreme genius whose brain imagines to the extent of making him schizoprenic. The wife's care that helps him cope with it is touching. Yes, some of this part of the film seems to have inspired ME but if this is the director's way of improvising and adapting a story to a different context, the attempt has been pathetic. There is no part of the older movie that can be called gory. Everything seems natural and credible. There is no so-called "stark reality" that pains an average movie-watcher.

Both movies have a happy ending- the protagonist wins a prestigious award. But as the adage goes, it is the journey, the storyline, that matters. One shows a genius fighting a disease and winning over it, while the other portrays a sequence of random happenings- weakly linked, gross and mostly illogical.

'Term'inated

Okay, I am one-third an MBA now. Almost, that is.

It has been a mind-boggling ride so far. Term 1 initiated me to the system and showed me the various aspects of life outside home. But the most strenuous and memorable one was the second term, which deserves this blogspace.

On day one of term 2, a senior at the breakfast counter gave me a warm welcome with "If you survive this term, you can survive anything within and outside IIMB. All the best!". Apprehensively, I began the term. The academic load was minimal, compared to the previous term. It was more than compensated for by the much-dreaded "Summer Internship Placements". Days were filled with Pre-placement talks, pizzas, resume mentoring, preparatory group formation and getting back to school and college teachers to verify your accomplishments that you never gave much thought to, back in the good old days.

As the days went by, the shortlists started arriving for the much-hyped "Day Zero" firms and preparations took a serious turn. The Summer heat was on! Well into the wee hours of each morning, the consulting aspirants were seen cracking cases and making guesstimates while those inclined towards finance were invariably found sleeping with books open on macroeconomics, derivatives and puzzles, or reading up on M&As, sectors and valuations. Newspapers- those non-white-coloured ones we booked in the first term with dreams of reading "Business stuff" (but never did anything beyond dump them in a corner)- started being respected and read religiously. "The Economist" became The Bible.

Those were the dark days when no one was happy on campus. While the agony of the non-shortlisted candidates was obvious, the shortlisted people were bothered about impressing the company representatives and ensuring that they beat the fellow shortlisted people in getting that dream job. There were just a handful of guys cool enough to either remain nonchalant or sign out of the process to pursue their dreams.

Well, everything scheduled to happen will invariably happen whether you fear it or not; so did the "Day Zero" on the 9th of November. The beautiful MDC lawns were filled with people in dark business suits, looking smart at the outset. A deeper look into everyone's eyes revealed the tension within. The following five days were a medley of cheers and tears. Gratitude for the unwavering support offered by the senior batch in helping us all get through those days is etched deeply in every junior's mind. Come November 14th 2011- we were all back to our childhood in a way- cheering, applauding and celebrating the end with champagne!

And the campus started looking more beautiful. Though a mountain of assignments, projects and quizzes eagerly awaited our return to academics, we were not worried. Life was more chilled out than ever. The four weeks from then to now remain a blur of strenuous academic activities, all going late into the night, but done on a light note. 

Surprisingly, Spring has come after Summer to our campus! And it shall stay on. 

P.S. Again, I left the campus for the vacation with the strong belief that friends make life beautiful and cheerful, during times good and bad. :)

Exploring Inward...

"What is this life full of care,

There is no time to stand and stare"

- these lines occur to me daily, as I rush past the lovely campus, on the way to some class or quiz or getting some Assignment printed. 

Just what am I doing here? Is all this madness justified? Well, yes. Once you start to look at this place as something that adds value to you, not merely in terms of academic grades, but something more, you will realize the worth of being here. 

I have been learning a lot since I came here - and the learning that I did for the mid-terms last week was just a negligible fraction of the whole. The best thing about IIM B is the diversity of people I get to interact with. I frankly did not imagine that a CA-CS who quit SEBI would be my batchmate when I mentioned "diversity" in my SoP! What was an abstract term then, makes a whole lot of sense now. 

And my development as a person is taking a new dimension, these days. Overcoming flaws and trying to identify and interpret the true me are everyday activities here. There have been moments of happiness as well as those of disappointments. Overall, I am learning. To Live.

A Fortnight later!

The fervent packing, the farewell, the train journey, the visits to all relatives and finally, the ride to my home for the next two years! It has been two weeks since I spent my first night here in this cozy room (I am one of the lucky few who got the new block rooms at the hostel here) but everything that happened since then seems to be one crazy blur in my memory, with no sense of date or time. 

The Orientation week had me freaking out (Ah! Proof that I am a normal human being!) and wondering why I even thought of CAT in the first place. What seemed to be endless hours of torturous sleep deprivation, now seems fun! The "official" team activities were both enjoyable and enriching!

The next week was a faster whirl of cherished memories. The classes - some good, some globe - end here at mid-day. Aarambh 2011's drama practice, general body meetings and activities extending well into the next day had us well-occupied. There was a point when, walking alone amidst the trees at 3 a.m., not unlike a zombie, I wondered what had ever happened to that kid Shilpa who was afraid of ghosts in the dark!! 

Aarambh happened yesterday and was a runaway success with our skit being very well appreciated! :) The Exhilaration was fantastic after all the group effort! 

As I gear myself up to face the tsunami of Assignments, tutorials and quizzes, amidst other stuff here, I shall do whatever is within my capacity to visit this space with updates on life @ IIMB or some of my insights which shall truthfully obey Sturgeon's Law!

A Memoir

I remember the first night she spent here, in my proximity. Seven years ago. A scared 14 year old, she jumped up at every minute sound- real and imaginary. There was an instant when she almost ran outside, to her parents; but stayed back due to some magical willpower. And she has stayed, ever since. 

She mostly reads in my company; she occasionally tattooed on me, played ball with me and shared with me every exam scheduled for her. She loved to collect Harry Potter paraphernalia and went about it furiously. Then came this queer contraption she sat with often. She fiddled with it continually and the device even sang for her, played movies for her and had her enraptured. I was jealous- her long contemplations, face-to-face with me, were remarkably reduced. Still, I tolerated it. I was happy to see her study hard and bore her occasional barrage of French words at me, with patience- maybe she was in for something good, though she was always cynical about it. 

To the world, she appeared to be a nerd. But I knew better than that. 

Then there came a time when she was in a mild dilemma. She almost left me. But she chose not to, for several reasons (and I am sure that missing me was one of them!). 

The four years following that most fortunate decision have been the most interesting ones for me. I have seen her in various moods, going through phases- good and bad, making mistakes as well as a few right decisions. I am happy to say that I have truly stood by her through everything.

But even the best of times must come to an end. And she is leaving me. She will return, occasionally, for a handful of days at a stretch. But it will not be like the old times. 

Oh, come on. I should stop feeling bad. In fact, I should not feel anything at all. After all, I am just a wall in her room. 

What after +2?

Yet another academic year has ended and a fresh batch of school pass-outs are now ready to enter college. When I saw the results of the Tamilnadu State Board for Std.XII, the one major feeling that overcame me was Relief! 

Relief that I had completed this four years back and didn't have to face the competition of a batch that has produced 120 students with 200/200 cut-off (for Engineering admission).

That apart, I've also been playing the role of a career counselor ( :D ) to quite a few relatives and friends. The one thing that is unshakable in all of them is the belief that a degree in Engineering is the one and only elixir in their lives. Looking back by four years, I find that I was quite determined about this degree too, that is, after my earlier career choice of journalism was ruled out. Did I have any particular reason for taking up this course I've been through these four years? Frankly No. It was one of the best available options for my rank and its "scope" was highly spoken of. Hence, I cannot completely criticize those 198.somethings and 199.somethings for their choice of Engineering. But the advantage of a B.E. degree is restricted mainly to the college from which one graduates. 

The various factors that people consider for choosing among several similar colleges are: 

• Faculty
• Infrastructure
• The most important one - Placements

Faculty- this factor is no longer relevant. Even in some of the most respected colleges, all you find is a handful of professors who know their subjects and are in the profession for something more than the monthly cheque. But it is a fact from personal experience that a really good teacher will make one love the course and study it in depth.

Infrastructure- This too, does not matter and can be obtained with a few hundred crores of rupees (which should not be a problem with the private businessmen who start Engg colleges as more of an investment). 

Placements- This is where the hitch arises. The companies that recruit in masses from most of the colleges do not offer job profiles suitable to the knowledge gained through the four year course. Relevant jobs (the really good software jobs and the core jobs for hardware students) are offered only to students from the cream of all colleges. 

A very important factor that is not looked into properly by the diehard engineering aspirants with lower cut-offs is the peer group. However high one's aspirations may be, if he/she is part of an unmotivated group, it doesn't take long to lose focus.

The gargantuan demand for an Engineering degree is understandable. In four years, you start earning 20-30k per month which most students' parents didn't earn until they reached their 40s. But what I'd give more preference to is the suitability of the candidate to the job he takes up. This is where our Indian Education system's serious flaw comes to mind. 

For a Science group higher secondary student, any degree other than B.E. or MBBS (at ANY college) or their approximate equivalents like the integrated MSc (at a few reputed colleges) is a shame to hold. A friend openly told me this when I advised him against a B.E. at a college that would suit his cut-off. The reason for this - jobs cannot be obtained easily if you are not a B.E. holder.
We all prefer a stable life. Fulfilling our personal passions with respect to career is not as important as keeping our family happy and satisfied with that steady monthly salary. But at the same time, we are not as independent a society as in some Western nations. We are family-oriented. We like sticking together rather than live as strangers under a roof. All these are things I love about Indian culture. But this in itself should not be a deterrent to following one's passions. For this, we need the families' and at large the society's support. They don't need to do much. Allow enough space for the "other kind of" professionals to exist and achieve whatever they are talented to do, in life.

Oligarchy in Camouflage

The Tamilnadu Assembly election results, declared on Friday the 13th, bore no suspense or surprise. Those who genuinely expected the incumbent party to return to power would have been the people who would have believed the voting populace to be short of the six senses that human beings are generally endowed with.

Yes, People have voted for change. But is it a change for the good or for the lesser evil?  

For the past two decades, we have had the two biggies - DMK & AIADMK - taking alternate turns to rule the state (and fill their coffers). Now it is simply the latter's turn. 

I couldn't understand why people wanting a change for better governance would elect convicted people. After all, with an 80.3% literacy rate in this state, would people be averse to having some fresh air in the arena of politics?

A new party, started by a common man and not a well-known (and of course influential) cine actor, seems to rise to power only in movies like "Ko" (what it takes for that to happen, is quite plainly shown in the film). The Lok Satta Party, that fielded candidates who looked fresh and ready to bring in some change, has lost in all constituencies. A truly inspirational candidate, Mr. Sarathbabu, lost in Velachery, coming behind not only the AIADMK but also the candidate of PMK which is a party that is the embodiment of absolute fickleness! How many BITS, Pilani + IIM A graduates would give up lucrative careers to serve the people? The few stalwarts who do so are nipped in the bud. How can we then expect more youngsters to join the losers' bandwagon?

India is a democracy - so said my Civics textbook. But it looks more like an oligarchy. 

Ko!

The last movie I have seen, as a B.E. student during official college hours. The movie was fresh in its look and theme. A very brief recap-

The Good:

Unusual characters. A photo journalist as the hero who keeps clicking away even when he is about to be thrashed, kindles the shutterbug in anyone possessing a camera. For me, it was a sneak peek into the world I wanted to inhabit, as a teenager. No one is clean- be it the incumbents or the opposition. Politics is a dirty world. We are obviously thrilled to see the hero cruising through it, armed with a Canon camera! The twist in the tale towards the end is very good. The climax has been handled beautifully.

The Bad: 

The lack of an element called logic. Well, though it is an accepted fact that Tamil films always have super-heroes, I still find it difficult to digest the unreal stunt scenes from an objective point of view. 

The Ugly:

The song "Venpaniye" is nothing short of a pain in the neck. A complete irritant, it has been inserted at the most inappropriate place. The heroine's mostly passive screen presence. Well, I can't call it acting. The character was a good one. An expressive portrayal would have done justice to it. And seriously, her questioning the link between the hero and another guy while the former is on the verge of a huge discovery is stupid to the normal senses, whatever significance the ensuing flashback holds.   

On the whole, "Ko" was definitely worth a watch, though I'm still wondering as to why it has been named so! (if any reader knows, kindly put it up as a comment)

Red vs. Blue!

Feb 14, 2011: Coimbatore was draped in Red. Banners, Hoardings, Boards over petty shops and what not! 

The reason was not Valentine's Day.

It was the arrival, in Coimbatore, of "Times of India"- a newspaper that never had a dominance in the South. The loud entry was accompanied by aggressive marketing strategies, including a one year subscription for Rs.299/- which also entitled you to the gift of a very useful travel bag. People naturally signed up for it, in hordes; my household included. My uncle's family, based in Mumbai, has frequently endorsed ToI and regretted its non-availability in Tamilnadu. They felt that "The Hindu", which is easily the King in the Ring of South Indian Newspapers, focussed too much on regional news only. 

I was all set to experiment this new flavour each morning. Especially, as this was the time I used to scour newspapers hungrily for GD/PI preparation, an extra paper meant extra knowledge to my simpleton mind!  

ToI's entry here was a cause of serious concern to our dear old "The Hindu". They tried to advertise themselves too. Suddenly, many a bus-stop had a backdrop of their blue hoarding with a picture of a cute family reading their traditional newspaper. I was completely amused!

ToI was very articulate. Lots of attention-seeking images and nuggets of news in bits and pieces of message balloons strewn around. I initially liked it. Like most human beings, I prefer pictures to words and it was good to see a colourful paper. They announced a contest "One Day in the Life of India"- asking for entries in various categories- comics, photos and jokes. The shortlisted entries made good food for entertainment. But I realised I was leaving out something when I read ToI. And that something was nothing other than my mind. I was enticed by the loud captions and colours; I took in silly jokes. I was reading more gossip-stuff than real news that mattered. The one column that brought me back to my senses was the one on Parties going on in the city. I was shocked to see that they found it worth reporting who came to which party dressed in what, spending time how and with whom, etc.! Seriously who'd give a damn about all this, maybe except those party-freaks who got pictured in the paper?!  

Meanwhile, my "The Hindu" was still there. Quality reporting. Top-class language ( I once thought I'd identified a usage error in the paper and sent them an email. They called me back to clarify it! Such a huge organization cared enough to clear the doubt of a college girl they might as well have ignored! ) And Absolutely No Gossip. The supplementary editions made good reading, as usual, with no nonsense. There was good humour in the words of Indu Balachandran in Sunday's "Magazine". Wow, I even remember the writers' names as I type now. Goes on to show the impression the paper has made on me. 

ToI's crass reporting became obvious to me when they put up the news item of a boy from my college committing suicide in the hostel. Well, the data given in the report was illogical and did not corroborate with my knowledge of my college's functioning. Maybe they were given wrong facts. But publishing every word heard without giving a thought to verifying the data obtained is not responsible journalism. Come on, which 20-year-old will take his life due to wheezing problem?! Has common sense become so uncommon? The Hindu had no trace of that news item.

Blue has won my permanent respect. They surely don't focus on the South Regional news alone. Which Indian newspaper got the rights to the WikiLeaks India cables? And I'm just happy with the amount of other International and National News I get from "The Hindu".     

ToI, I shall take a leaf out of your book to learn marketing strategies. Your entry was good. But sadly, your core workforce (at least here in Coimbatore) is not up to the mark, to retain the attraction you gained.

Road to the "B"eehive!

Okay, this is it. The post that I have been hoping to write for a long time. The journey to the start of the most exciting phase of my life!

I have written time and again, in this blog-space about my managerial aspirations. 

Many people have asked me, "With a cgpa of 9.84 why don't you do Technical Research or do higher studies in Engineering?". A senior once explicitly told me that MBA is for people with bad academic records in Engineering. 

But I did not see MBA as an alternative to a technical career. It was not an escape route to me. An MBA (or rather the Post Graduate Program in Management), to me, would complement my career. 

Okay, now that sounds like a too wise and polished-for-the-interview kind of statement, right?

But it happens to be the truth. I frankly did not have such clarity when I first decided to do an MBA. It was quite an immature decision triggered by:

• My interest in Extra-Curricular activities
• My inability to do as much as I wanted (and as I could do) in the extra-curricular field due to my being the "day-scholar-girl-in-ECE-possible-nerd" - easily the worst position to be in for a girl with ambitions to hold positions of responsibility
• My discovery of the talent I had in covering up blunders and the joy I derived from the few organizational things I'd done in college

The Not-So-Good Start..

So, early on, I enrolled for CAT 2009 full-time course at T.I.M.E., though I was eligible only for CAT 2010. The classes were fun (though it was full of seniors!) and I particularly enjoyed the Verbal Ability classes handled by a spectacular teacher. I was enjoying English classes for the first time since the heavenly days in Std. X at school!

Though I attended the classes regularly, I never worked at home for CAT. The laziness was due to the extra year I had to prepare. The MockCAT season started for CAT'09 and I attempted the mocks with zilch preparation. Though I knew that the analysis of a mockCAT is more important than taking the mock itself, I rarely did it. The early bird strategy was backfiring and I was helplessly falling down the pit of not knowing what/when/where to start a serious prep for CAT'10.

The Revival..

Then came the Blessed SMS from T.I.M.E. in December 2009- "We are starting Revision Classes for CAT'10 aspirants who joined us for CAT'09 classes" 

And during those classes, which mostly ended on an inspirational note by our QA/DI coach, I got to know Bala who was also working with me for an event in Kriya'10. Post Kriya, we decided to team up for CAT prep. 

And we worked. Hard. Maybe it could have been harder. But it was much better than the laggard state I had previously been in. 

The Fever..

The mock season started. I was scoring mostly around 98%ile, with a rare 99%ile and a relatively more common 97%ile. There was also one mock where I reached the late 80s which left me depressed and in self-doubt. But these scores kept me on my toes and I never lost focus. I knew that as a General Category student I needed a 99+ to get the coveted calls.

I used to work out Quants during classes at college; a couple of teachers even caught me in the act. But, incredibly, they let me off, wishing me success :-O

Prep gained momentum with the weekly toppers' batch classes that introduced me to many serious students who shared innovative ways of solving problems. 

The Test..      

November 3, 2010, was the day. 10.15 a.m.-12.30 p.m. The exam turned out to be weird. With wrong questions and the obscure normalization, I had no idea of how things would turn out. Discovered, to my dismay, that I had made 2 silly mistakes in DI. Waited for Jan 12, 2011, impatiently.

The Call..

Quant: 98.49%ile [ :) ]

DI: 88.77%ile   [ :( ]

Verbal: 97.65%ile [neutral]

Overall: 98.70%ile 

I was terribly unhappy at 00.30 hrs on 12/01/2011. Due to the General category, my chances of top calls were very bleak. But my past deeds came to my rescue and I got a call from IIM Bangalore :) 

The Introspection..

Time for me to do some Qualitative thinking instead of the Quantitative one. I looked within me for the true reason I'd been working away furiously all those months. Those reasons I'd mentioned earlier seemed too childish and irrelevant, though they formed the seed of the thought process. I saw how management was part of every activity we did. Even in our completely technical project "Voice-Controlled Robot" I found a lot of management aspects. And I enjoyed the power-point presentations of the work more than the MATLAB coding- which is reason enough ;) 

I tried to express my purpose as clearly as possible in the SoP. 

The Interview..

The day before April Fools' Day. I'd done a decent job on the essay on Social Networking. The Interview was a random psychometric process, with me voicing my opinions on God-Men, Maoism (enacting a Maoist!), Films and Censorship. It was incredibly short (one-third of the time that every other candidate had spent inside!) and I was not sure of the result.

The Result..

April 18, 2011. A night out with the F5 button on my keyboard. The site was hacked! What an omen! I dragged myself to bed at 1.30 a.m. but sleep was elusive. The results came conveniently after 13 more hours. 

The "Congratulations!" message took time (and ten views) to sink in. 

Well, the work of one year has paid off. And I'm on my way to Bannerghatta Road, to the place which is popularly called the one to "B"e in.

The rigours of the curriculum and activities do look a bit scary, but I am ready to take it on.

Adios!

Disclaimer: A longish one, this just-released-from-the-drafts post might attract "Yawn" reactions. :)

"You have done, in these four days, all the lab work that you have never done in your past four years"- a teacher joked, upon our recent completion of a relatively simple job. This kick-started the cliched train of thoughts which I boarded to go down the still more cliched lane of memory.

What have I done in the past four years?

I decided to breeze through the time period briefly.

Have I enjoyed life in this college? Not really.

Can I quantify my learning here? My non-academic learning should be well over a thousand times my academic cgpa over the same denominator. 

First Year..

Started with Josh and eagerness. Happiness that I got to choose the college I want to join. Getting used to the fact that there can be two Physics labs in a campus and not reaching the correct one on time will result in being told-off. Hourly attendance. Freedom to bunk. New Friendships. Fights. Movies with friends became a matter of habit. 

Second Year..

IV, Intrams: Possibly the best time of these four years. We were never united as a class, both before and after this period. And the third semester comes closest to what can be described as "enjoyable". Subjects like Analog electronics and Electro Magnetic Fields were really brain-stimulating! After all, this blog was conceived while studying them :) Got to know a good lot of friendly seniors; even did my first mini project! 

A short stint at Reliance Communications, Mumbai for an In-Plant training after the second year served the purpose of changing my "Mujhe Hindi malum nahin" to "Mujhe Hindi thoda thoda malum hai" :P

Third Year..

I Block!! The 135-step climb to the classes (while the elevators were reserved only for faculty members and physically challenged students) kept us fit throughout the year! We started working on Embedded Systems, celebrated a "Batch" Day with only the girls and started taking placement prep tests. A tough period for me, for I didn't want to risk opting out in favour of an MBA and simultaneously hated learning C/C++ in greater depth. I preferred Quant Books to "Let US C" or "The Complete Refernce to C/C++" , earned the wrath of the Placement Representatives, being an unyielding girl, went unprepared for the first mock interview (which turned out to be a blessing actually, helping me get in touch with two Great Seniors I still adore) and skipped the second mock interview! YLGC'10 was fun and I decided to attend more Model United Nations conferences. And then there was Kriya. The joy of organizing and seeing my words on the official homepage were temporary. The most valuable thing I got out of Kriya'10 was my study partner. I don't prefer group study usually, but without this guy, my CAT prep would have never gained momentum.

Fourth Year..  
I started planning for my life beyond this college. Fervent B-school entrance prep, laced by occasional studying of Engg subjects (the occasions being the Internals and Semesters!). An enjoyable Model UN Conference at VIT with Bala & Sathya provided a respite from studies and made me richer by Rs.1000 :) 
An incredible first-shot placement success. Several lessons, learnt on the personal front, added to my mental maturity. 
Jobless Project-work sessions. Realization that even without flexing a single muscle for your project, you may gain the maximum score of 9/10 in the Project Review (err.. I'm not sure if this has yet been officially renamed as "Fingerprint-Attendance Review" in honour of the component that counts). You may have broken your leg in an accident, you may have attended interviews or you may have just casually bunked college. Everything seems to be the same here. Absence is absence. Legitimate and Illegitimate reasons don't appear distinctive.
And finally... The Nearing End! 
Am I nostalgic? Will I miss this place? 
The answer happens to be a loud "No!"
There were good moments; so also were bad, worse and even worst moments here. Each of those has contributed to my evolution in the past four years. For these, I thank you, PSG Tech.

An Insomniac's Rant

I may not know the Theory of Relativity perfectly. But, definitely, Time is Relative! 

One week before an interview seems so short a span, while the same week before a result seems endless.

Demons on Tar

"Road fear and Exam fear are the two fears I've never had and will never have" - so said a 16 year old Shilpa who was studious and raced town buses on her BSA Ladybird! 

I have strongly stood by my statement till date, well, literally till date!

This very evening, a motorbike screeching past, too close to the right of my vehicle and a not-so-pleasant experience of being sandwiched between a carefree push-cart vendor and a car whizzing along, left me with something like an electric shock in my heart.  Is it sane to call yourself fearless of a blind demon slashing away in all possible directions? 

Possibly, the speeding car that rammed my vehicle's front panel and left my circulation system short of a few hundred millilitres of blood (or whatever quantity is sufficient to soak a sandal and drip over), has made me more conscious and cautious on the road. 

My two-week bus travel post the accident made something of an early bird out of me and on resuming my two-wheeler ride to college, I found that it was actually possible for me to start earlier than (the usual) 8.30 a.m. to reach the 10 km-away college before 8.50 a.m.! Travelling in a relaxed mood, I have been able to observe my fellow road-commuters. A surmise that applies to a majority of them is this- An Absolute lack of a sense of coexistence! Eight out of ten people seem to possess a book of traffic rules that reads:

• Your own job is the most important! Get to it as quickly as possible; never bother about anything else.  
• You may start as late as you please; but ensure that you always reach your destination on time!
• You don't have to slow down at cuts or U-turns; the  moron driving straight ahead with no clue as to your sudden arrival in front of him shall pay for his ignorance.
• Jump the red signals; the recently installed cameras near traffic lights are actually for screening people for bike-stunt ads.
• The noble pedestrian has all rights to cross the road with no regard to the vehicles coming ahead; the road, after all, was built using his tax money!
• "Keep Speeding" is the mantra; "Keep Left" is outdated.
• Horns that sound like a pack of wolves' howling are the in-things.
• You may remove the silencer of your motorbikes, to draw attention to your sleek assembled bikes and your cool riding stunts.
• Helmets are for sissies who prefer safety (haha! what danger can ever befall a hero?!) and don't mind hair loss!! 
• You may even start your bike without a key (well, some new technology will crop up) but never ever start it without both your ears plugged to your I-Pod or Cellphone with its media-player belting out your favourite songs!  

There are definitely more of these and might be observed by yours truly in the days to come.

I admit that I used to be a very fast driver pre-feb 18,2011. But now my eyes are wide open to the road around me. I'd always believed that if I ever met with an accident on the road, it would be by my mistake. Alas! I was shown that there was atleast one guy who was a more careless driver than me. 

Does everyone need to pass through such an ordeal before he/she realizes what I have realized?!

Fear, may be uncalled for; Awareness, most definitely, is needed!

The Sine Curve called Life

Life is such an amazing thing! It has put me through a vast gamut of emotions in the past one week.

The week last started with a visit to the lab where we do our project, with the least of hopes, for we had been going in circles, trying to resolve a recurring and seemingly incorrigible error. We had no hopes of wrapping up the project and were sad that we may have to disappoint the most wonderful project guide one may get. But wonder of wonders! A slight change to enhance the compatibility between certain sampling rates and there we were with our almost accurately working code. We later learnt that a 100% accuracy can never be obtained in practice! :D 

Then came the trip to Delhi. I was a little tensed and the usual thrill of visiting a city for the first time was somewhat missing. The vast Delhi University campus left me in total awe! The Group Discussion and Extempore (where I was lucky to speak on Hogwarts!!) processes went decently well. The Interview's gruelling last part left me apprehensive and I returned, with no big hopes. 

On return, a news of a certain unjust occurrence reached my ears. Though I knew the right way to handle it, I was also aware that I was not mature enough to accept injustice with nonchalance. The declaration of the final admit list of a B school (whose written test I had failed to clear by a whisker) added to my woes and I felt that I was at the very rock bottom, then. No words of consolation or advices of "ignore-it-it-doesn't-matter" could penetrate my thick skull. 

The next day dawned and I was sure that the soon-to-be-declared results of my Delhi trip would be negative. After all, I had run out of luck long back, in my opinion. But I was ready to face anything. Talking to a respectable person who gave me neither consolation nor advice but just hard facts from her life, made me bold enough. 

The dreaded results came in due time. Opening the pdf, I found the names of some famous Puys and felt happy for them. Suddenly, just beneath the name of one of the most respected people in Pagalguy, I found my name and roll number!! I couldn't believe it. I reopened and refreshed the pdf some ten times and took out my admit card to verify my roll no.

I am getting to do an MBA this year!!!  

Well, the sine curve of life has started moving upwards for me. I am well aware of the fact that it will start falling again, sooner or later, but I am prepared for it :)          

The Case of The Missing Blogger

'The Social Network' won Three Oscars today. But its real victory has been on a much larger scale, over this very Blogosphere. 

I joined Facebook around the end of May 2010, basically to get in touch with my old schoolmates and relatives who live far away. But it turned out to be nothing but a pointless chat platform, with most of the people commenting on your statuses and photos being the ones you actually interact with daily! 

The popularity of these social networking sites is mainly attributed to the human mindset. We tend to get bored, looking at long pages of text which will require more time than what our average attention span lasts for. A mere :) or :( on your wall will attract a good number of likes and appropriate comments (albeit in inappropriate cool or rather kewl lingo). 

Sharing photos of everything from your latest lunch with friends in a nearby hotel to a random bee on a flower in your garden, eagerly pressing the F5 button for comments and likes and visiting friends' profiles for updates- can easily be a very popular pastime today. 

Facebook also has other apps. Farmville and Mafia Wars provide gaming attractions while you can create/like any number of pages, describing anything from a popular personality to an institution at the corner of your street. 

Sharing videos, writing notes (by far, the closest to blogs) and getting to send your friends virtual gifts on their birthdays and anniversaries.. Mark Zuckerberg has created (even if not conceptualized) a revolution of sorts in the human interest domain.

Each creation has an equal and opposite destruction. The victim of the latter is the free flow of thought that leads to enjoyable prose in blogs. My blog has been a victim, yes. And I have been distracted and diverted by fb. 

Still, thanking the rusted iron gates of my mind for not being permeable to Twitter usage and subscription to further social networking sites, I shall end on a hopeful note that I shall be back on Blogger sooner rather than later ;)  

A Root Canal operation needed..

India is not new to scams. Power and money have an anti-gravitational tendency- they get to people's heads easily. But the recent spate of exposed corruptions is nothing short of an avalanche of stinking reality, breaking through this bubble of democratic freedom that we live in.

While the general feeling that prevails these days is frustration at all these, I'd rather feel happy that issues previously in the dark have come to the fore now. The more the scams unearthed, the better.Fear has been instilled in corrupt minds.
You can be dethroned in a jiffy even if you head Asia's largest integrated aluminium production firm. Black money in your pocket will reach out to stain your white collars, even if you had the highest judicial contacts or if you felt the landscape in Switzerland would beautifully camouflage it. Flout rules and just norms, favour your cronies in handing out spectrum or contracts for games or apartments (which are non-Eco-friendly by the way), and your next stop would be at the headquarters of the CBI (which is learning to stop being a ruling-party's-investigator). If you were a hypocrite sitting at the vigilance headquarters, you shall soon be exposed. You will be fined five years from now, if you currently manipulate stocks during IPOs. But if you are an Italian gun-deal middleman with compatriots who ghost-rule the country, you are safe at least for the time being.   
The backbone that supports the whole of the previous paragraph is the fourth estate, the common man's informer, the supposed-to-be-honest Press. But our Great Indian Democracy has proved its capability of managing to corrupt even this area, resulting in the "Paid News scandal" which was ironically aired by none other than the Press. Freedom is always prone to be misused. A journalist's job is to take the truth- to the people- as it is. To this extent, he has the freedom of speech and expression. Learning about the misuse of these, by those pursuing the only profession I have passionately adored, is painful.
However, we, as a nation, seem to have woken up to address the root cause of all troubles- the  now-so-familiar word "Corruption", in every domain. But how do we tackle this issue? We cannot be corruption-free tomorrow or the day-after. It is a deep-rooted evil. Let us start from the grassroots level. Mere Moral Science lessons don't help a bit. A sense of pride in being honest, a true feeling of integrity in upholding one's ethics and values sans yielding under any circumstance, the joy that results from giving one's best to one's job- all these will need to be instilled strongly.
Okay, I do sound like an idealist. But this is just the beginning of what is required to overcome the problems faced today. If these are unrealistic, then the calls to clean up the blotched democracy are, sadly, in vain.

Payanam FDFS

A movie on the first day of its release, after a long time! By pure coincidence,we had to do quite a lot of payanam/ travel to reach a theatre where the reels would be available for the morning show. But the movie was worth it.

Yes, there were flaws in the screenplay. Like the close-up shot of a dead man where his breathing is visible. The cast of T-shirt donning youngsters as terrorists is seen to be in tandem with the Mumbai attacks. But the guys need a good course in acting. They don't need to scream hysterically and slap random people to induce terror. Which sensible parent will leave a four-year-old kid with heart ailment on the aisle seat in a hijacked plane? 

But there were a few good issues highlighted in the movie.  For instance, the indecisive nature of the Indian Bureaucracy and the consequences of Irresponsible Journalism. The religious integration endorsed the Priest is good, but his character later on becomes melodramatic. Maybe in a normal environment we would not enjoy it so much but the Indian commandos' instant human ladder formation at a nail-biting moment during the climax makes us Proud! But at the same time, the hero's predicted-by-all-in-the-audience escape from the bomb is the pictorial description of the word "cliche". 

The movie gets a bit thrilling in the second half after the drag of "Okay. What Next?" feel that comes over one in the first half.  

Overall, a definitely better way to spend the morning session, instead of lazing around, shifting between the Department's labs. And I did learn a few things. Like the consequences of  accidentally getting into an adjacent screen's hall, sitting and starting to watch a different movie after the Intermission! :-D       

The sacred word- "I"

The one-month-old year has provided me with quite a versatile set of days. A good mix of happiness, anger, dejection and silly enjoyment. 

While JMET and FMS made me happy in the first week of January, the Feline Queen was let out of the bag in another week's time and it has generated a wide range of reactions from me. 

Anyway, I am looking forward to my D-days- two in Feb and three in March. It does look like every other experience shall culminate as a training for the Big day on March 31. 

These days, as I run around with SoPs, CVs, Reference Letters and Bonafide Certificates, I realize that there is just one main and ultimate subject I need to be thorough with... "I, Me, Myself"

Surprising as it sounds, this happens to be one of the toughest parts for a considerable section of the aspirants. There is no Wikipedia or Google to help you out in this aspect. Well, to most of us- the spoilt brats of today's techie world- answers have been provided by the Internet for far too long that introspection has become just another word in the dictionary, used when appropriate in GDs and Essays but never practised. I have seen some posts in PagalGuy asking for "good answers to Why MBA"! 

Is this not a matter of our own choice? It is possible that 100% clarity may not exist in most of our minds. But those gaping holes need to be plugged into. I am enjoying the process, despite the occasional off-mood moments caused due to meaningless apprehensions. Only these moments cause exhilaration when I find answers to those very doubts from within my own self. 

Another important aspect in life, I have come to realise, is Passion. The Great Indian Mould, which churns out Engineers and Doctors in plentitude, erodes the once-cherished dreams of many an adolescent heart. One such example I know of is a girl who is sitting in front of this computer right now. But she is on the road to self-discovery and is very excited about it. 

With a lot more to be found from deep within herself and also from Wikipedia , Ayn Rand and certain Eco-Fin enlightened souls like Roshni, she signs off from Blogosphere for the time being. :)