Feel the Thought

Restaurant 2: Royal India

2010-08-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

Visited it in Salt Lake City - Utah. It is quite a westernized Indian restaurant with lot of elephant toys and Tajmahal decorations. It has a tourist focused interiors.

Food is good though. Its menu has variety in terms of trying out samosa, chhola bhathoora etc. You can even try out dosa variety here. Dessert has a very nice Kulfi bowl.

We had a confusion where we ordered for keema samosa and got aaloo samosa.. but waiter immediately got a plate of original order too. Fast service.. no jolly waiters though.

If you visit SLC and are looking for indian food, it too is worth a visit.

Links:
http://www.royalindiautah.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/royal-india-sandy

Restaurant 1 - Bombay House (Salt Lake City - Utah)

2010-08-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Visited this highly rated place in Salt Lake City for indian food. The experience was definitely better than my expectations. Interiors were soothing (though not indian enough). We were five persons together and enjoyed giving order in punjabi. Food was served with minimal accent too.

About the food, it is fairly high in taste (but don't compare with what you get in India). Besides being tasty, there is a good variety for vegetarians as well. You can order things like bhajji and lassi and not be disappointed.

Recommended. Worth visiting.

External Links:
http://www.bombayhouse.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bombay-house-salt-lake-city

Update from Austin

2008-11-13T02:36:00.000-08:00

A lot has happenned since last post. My life has gotten into Run-the-Business mode from Change-the-Business. Things are getting stabilised - Home / office... no change in any relationship is taking things towards maturity. How good/bad is it? - I have not sat down to review in detail. Does it all smell of complacency? partly yes. Right now, it is about experiencing a calm but busy life. It is worth feeling once in a while.

The big new thing that happenned recently is that I am on an official trip to Austin (Texas) for 4 weeks - A chance to get flavour of the States first hand. It has been a week here and so far it has been good.

Some entirely new experiences would be - A fully AUTOMATED bright red CAR that I drive everyday :); big, fast and long roads - so big & fast that nobody has to overtake and so long that nobody bothers to walk; vertically challenged buildings - most of the buildings have only ground floor - even in primary shopping areas; huge parking space - have not found any trouble with parking before any shopping complex; No honking drive - I have driven more than 200 miles and have not been honked at yet - it's an achievement though ;-) ; Music tastes so different in the car here - in absence of honking; a good morning culture - people keep saying good morning to each other all the time - even to people they do not know and do not bother to know - and somehow it is only in mornings... weird; huge variety - can you believe that walmart has more than 15 different kind of salts - with different composition and use!!; you do not give your credit card to anyone - you swipe it yourself when making purchase - so secure and good; self-service gas stations - you have to fill petrol in your car yourself and make automated payment; cost of living is not too different from India - days are not far when you can earn in India and spend in the states;

Please ignore the huge assumptions and generalizations I have made above. But you get the idea - right?

So far so good. Let's see how rest of the trip goes.

An update about me

2008-06-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

A fair lot has changed since last post. I settled in new job and got control of it. I settled in new location. I married the girl I wanted to and am settling down with her. :) :) :)

I did more shopping than I have done in past 5 years combined... I lived in a place much cleaner than I have lived in, in past many years. I started buying gifts for occasions I usually would not bother about.....

I faced more frequent emotional extremes in last 12 months than probably in past 20 years. I hurted the people I care about most - and hurted them harder than I ever did... I prayed more in past few months than I might have done in my entire life.

Quite a bit for 6 months... at least if compared with history.

One more important and not very visible thing has changed - Some things that never made sense are suddenly at the point of becoming obvious. And I mean it in a positive way.

It feels like fate had denied me an important lesson.. and is teaching it to me now.

I am talking about things as simple as working towards the goal... or taking one step at a time... or taking calculated risks.. or using healing power of love..

I always thought that I understand whatever little they have to offer.. which is gyan sessions .. that keep a few people on their toes for next few days... or some liners used to bring consensus or solve a conflict or moderate a discussion.. or writing gyan books and earning some quick bucks.. or a way to spend a sunday afternoon by reflecting.. such stuff...

But now, I find its another view in a very different light .. I find it as a way of life... a thought process... something much closer to me than I thought it would ever be.. and all this is coming without any gyan sessions or gyan books or any such crap.. it comes from hard examples.. happenning Live!

These learnings are coming my way. naturally. It is Neat!

For me, 'Winning' got redefined a bit. In past, I have fought pretty hard in adverse odds.. I have taken strong entry gates head on... The gates would never open.. I shredded them to pieces.. they just would not open.

And that became my approach to solving problems. Tear them apart! Period.
But in past few months, I have seen gates opening up.. from inside.. I wish I could explain how different this experience is..

The sound of another gate opening - it gives me a kick. Oh it does!

I finally see small achievements adding up to victory.

Is it true or is it a random high? or just a phase of life? or some goodluck that my wife has brought in? Shall wait for future to answer it.

Book Review - Competing on Analytics

2007-12-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

With all the craze in the air about analytics book, I had been trying to get hold of it for long.Got a chance recently. Here is what I think about it.

This book has a clearly defined target market – mid to senior management professionals, who have not thought about analytics seriously, or those who are not well versed with use of Business Intelligence. This book breaks the glass wall for these executives, puts things in perspective and makes the word ‘Analytics’ much more approachable.

It puts many a thoughts in few tables and compiles them nicely in one place – something not readily available in the market today.

Simply put, this book is meant to convince companies to embrace analytics as a tool for outperforming competition. Period.

The book has two parts - one on the nature of analytical competition and one on building an analytic competency. The first describes an analytical competitor and how this approach can be used in both internal and external processes. The second lays out a roadmap for becoming an analytical competitor, how to manage analytical people, a quick overview of a business intelligence architecture and some predictions for the future.

The book outlines four pillars of analytical competition - a distinctive capability, enterprise-wide analytics, senior management commitment and large scale ambition. It lays out 5 stages of analytic competition from Analytically Impaired (flying blind) to Analytic Competitor (analytics as primary driver of performance and value).

For analytics professionals, it serves as a support for selling analytics services. It creates an aura in the environment that lubricates analytics selling.

However, it does not answer the question ‘How’. For analysts, more or less, this book ends up as an assortment of shallow descriptions of companies that use analytics as a competitive advantage. If one has reasonable idea about analytics industry, this book may not be more informative than a well written magazine article.

Author does not claim to have unique insights. Book does not promote any new principle of strategy. It does not teach how to implement tools. It does not discuss hardships in implementing analytics.

Anecdotes are repetitive – that too without convincingly demonstrating why those companies are so strong in analytics, or how one can follow their path. ‘Analytics’ is more descriptive than analytical – at least in the way book defines analytics. For an analyst, at best it gives some jargons to standardize and pull into vocabulary.

It is an interesting afternoon read but nothing worth retaining or referring back to. Also, if you are new to analytics, I would recommend you to skip the book and sit with someone who understands analytics. S/he would give a fairly good idea.

Sleepwalk (poem)

2007-06-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Tired of staying home to watch sun & rain

and wasting hours and hours each day

It's all so young and life is long

still so much time to kill today

Then one day years are behind you,

and you have to catch the sun.

Plans become scribbles, horizon is far;

so you wipe out your world of fun.

What's more !

This sleepwalk has attitude

and impractical demands;

Shouting from inequilibrium,

standing where no one stands!

Kerala snaps 2

2007-03-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

Kerala snaps 1

2007-03-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

God's Own Country Rockss

2007-03-08T23:17:00.000-08:00

Just back from a week long trip to Kerala... a truly rocking place... just to give you a glimpse of what all we saw, I am uploading a few sceneries here.. photographs to come later. :)

The beauty of these is that one gets a chance to capture tehse sceneries oneself and not merely feel happy after downloading them from web..!!

I am back with exams

2006-11-14T00:27:00.000-08:00

what a trend.. i am getting into a bad habit of saying sorry for absence from blog after every few posts...

I do not believe much in excuses but here are the reasons if someone would like to buy.. I was busy with college B-fest - Avenues. And it was about setting completely new benchmarks. College was organising a festival of such big scale for the first time. The second largest festival ever organised is a bit more than 10% of this scale. Academic requirements and no compromise on existing events squeezed us out. Of course, just like every other very hard task, I enjoyed doing it. However, I had to put blogging on the rear end for pretty long.

I want to write about the way it got organised and the kind of challenges one faces on following a very unknown path. However, with exams starting tomorrow morning, I need to catch up with that right now. Keep watching the space for details :).. till then Adios!

SOM ke liye likhi thi ye

2006-08-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Magic & Aura, Fire & Peace
Sitting together in our own feast

Building a momentum, a life of perfection
by fun & camaraderie, sprinkled with fierce competition

Thoughts in time, action in season
The red filled with calculus of reason

Cutting boundaries of nightmares,
toiling through the summer sweat
To learn things to remember,
and things we should learn to forget

Task daunting and challenges umpteen
Thirst for advantage that has ever since been

Our dream, courage, hope and attention
our mission, pride, path and destination

Sowing the seeds, from which success will sprout
We will hug it so hard,
we'll drive its tears out !!

vo confusing drinking for peace waali post

2006-08-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This creation is not for comprehension.

To peace.
of mind.
to harmony.
to a light feeling.
that a concernless vacation gives.
where time stops.
you can sleep.
you can think.
you can read.
whatever.
wherever.
alone.
no disturbance.
this certainly is peace.

a strong model?
i don't think so.
a desired one?
certainly yes.
at times.

does anybody drink for peace?
without any battle in recent past
or near future?

some do.

some like to appreciate peace.
others like to disturb it.
like a naughty kid.

dropping a pebble
in a pond of still water.
just for the heck of it.
.

sometimes, it's not important to make sense.
even with well thought out thoughts.
to enjoy it, is.
this happiness can come only with peace of mind.
a stillness. an eternity.

but this kid is naughtier.
he has ideas of grownups.
he drowns himself in a pond.
waits for stillness.
and takes a peg.

it shivers him.
from head to feet.
the water is disturbed.
from inside.
he relaxes and enjoys
the ripples
coming and going
trying to settle down the water.

slowly
it settles down.

another stillness.
another eternity.
another drink.
another shiver.
another ripple.
another stillness

such is the joy of drinking for peace !

Google Trends Quiz

2006-08-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is a new format of quiz... got this idea from a mail i got recently..

you need to identify the keyword (s) on which google trends gives the charts as shown... obviously u r free to google :).. use www.google.com/trends... unless mentioned, crack is a single word

enjoi !!

1) All countries search
2 words.. a phrase actually.. abt our motherland

2) All countries search
Hint: SOX act? name the company.

3)All countries search
2 words.. bollywood personality

4) India search
uff ye political parties

5)All countries search
controversy or festival?

6) India search
2 words... i will call it a disease.

7)All countries search
no hints... way too easy

8)All countries search
something indian and close to our hearts that we cannot forget

9)All countries search
It's gotta be Oil.

10)India Search
still closer to our hearts as a controversial topic

Special Friendship Poem

2006-08-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Oh mann I can't believe I have not posted for 2 months straight... gonna start again.. hv been a bit too busy... true MBA and time management is coming in.. every 10 mins tht i spend, i have a track bcos it is a replacement for something else... what the hell.. anyways... remembering the good old days when it used to happen... finally it is happenning after many a years... i guess i am getting my style back..!!!

posting a poem i found somewhere... i don't even remember where... whoever it belongs to, pls take the due credit. :)

Dedicated to someone... looking out for someone else to dedicate it to...

Special Friendship

You are the special one
With whom I needn't pretend
You're always there when I need you
Just like a proper friend

I didn't think I'd trust anyone
The way that I trust you
But you have this way about you
And know how to get through

I've told you things I've only thought about
Of silent dreams I couldn't let out
Of life, emotions and trivial things
Such things of which happiness brings

I tell you if I am sad, or simply just confused
You're always there to listen, but never to be used
You tell me your secrets and what you're going through
You're always there for me as I am for you

Your friendship is a special gift
A lifetime it will last
Look to the future now and never to the past
New people you will meet, and many things you will do
But never forget me, because I'll never forget you . . .

Hence Boredom ends!!

2006-06-16T04:31:00.000-07:00

Found a good and regular company to hang out.. a scholar with a sense of humour.. a quizzer with a talkative & humble attitude.. and a dodo with all the strategies of his world.. and all three have no work to do except timepass.. what more.. they all strongly believe in hanging out and enjoying lives out of cocoons.. and are pretty good frnds with each other as well..

Finally my evenings are spent with ppl i don't get bored with..

just to keep it alive

2006-06-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

long time no post... time to bring it alive again
after a long episode of summer project and calcutta and reservation and now football.. i haven't had a breather for long..

firstly, let me close this calcutta chapter on a better note... i don't find it that bad anymore.. there are a few friends coming here from similar culture that i belong to.. visited the malls and discovered a few places to hang around and visit.. isse jyada tareef nahi kar paa raha.. before i again start blasting it, let me change the subject with an acceptance that i don't understand the positives in this city yet.

Project stands for 2 more weeks and then back to home sweet home :)

settled in cal

2006-05-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

now I have lived in calcutta for 3 weeks in total... and the experience leaves me dumbfounded.. i love capitalism now.. anything looks better than communism..

though.. recently met a friend who knows calcutta well.. and said that it is just by chance i am repeatedly experiencing such things.. i hope it is so! though I am still looking for something smart here.

One good thing I saw was salt lake mall... mann it is bigggg.. oops sorry.. it is HHHUUUGGEEEE.. only competitor I hv seen is in mumbai.. it has everything and is a good palce to hang out.. (for those who live closeby or have own vehicles)

slowly finding acceptable places in cal.. hopefully i will have a good impression before I leave this place

Is this me?

2006-05-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

just found a file talking abt personality traits on so many bases.. lemme post it for myself. padho padho.

Ø Loves to chat
Ø Loves those who loves him
Ø Loves to takes things at the centre
Ø Attractive and suave
Ø Inner and physical beauty
Ø Does not lie or pretend
Ø Sympathetic
Ø Treats friends importantly
Ø Always making friends
Ø Easily hurt but recovers easily
Ø Bad tempered
Ø Selfish
Ø Seldom helps unless asked
Ø Daydreamer
Ø Very opinionated
Ø Does not care of what others think
Ø Emotional
Ø Decisive
Ø Strong clairvoyance
Ø Loves to travel, the arts and literature
Ø Soft-spoken, loving and caring
Ø Romantic
Ø Touchy and easily jealous
Ø Concerned
Ø Loves outdoors
Ø Just and fair
Ø Spendthrift and easily influenced
Ø Easily lose confidence

You can give good advice to a friend and any friend who follows up will never come to grief. But if you expect Libra to give the heart also, you could be disillusioned. This does not mean that Libra is cold. It only means that you Librans are often detached. You can be a good friend. It only means that one should not expect the impossible from a Libra. But Libra is excellent company. Libra has finesse and grace. Let me say, Libra is the lubricant in all-human relationship.

You are very capable. If you are a woman, you have high chance to be a renowned workingwoman. If you are a man, your path to fame and honour is near. As an innovator, you are not a good follower. You are good in implementing your imagination and share it with others. You are always well dressed.
You often lose your love ones from being too jealous. You always feel like you own the person you fall in love with and that often blows your relationship.

You are individualistic you need freedom, space excitement. You wait till you know someone well before committing yourself. Knowing someone means psyching her/him out. You feel a need to get into his/her head to see what makes him tick. You are attracted to eccentric types. You believe that age is no barrier. You are good at responding to danger, fear suspense.

You are attractive, and love your life. You have a strong feeling towards everything. And very easily distracted. Once you get angry with someone, it's hard for you to forgive them.

Full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

You are an exciting, highly volatile, rather impulsive personality; a natural leader, who's quick to make decisions, though not always the right ones. You are seen as bold and adventuresome, someone who will try anything once; someone who takes chances and enjoys an adventure. People enjoy being in your company because of the excitement you radiate.

ØCannot take orders easily
ØMake decisions fast
ØCan be flexible
ØDo not care about rules
ØRespect scientific and practical findings
ØMaintain the longest interest in what they do
ØSeem impatient
ØDislike repetitious work
ØHard to forget recent affairs, but able to forget past and memories
ØExpressive
ØCool and objective
ØAlthough joke a lot, could actually be very shy
ØChange moods like the weather
ØCannot stop complaining when they are upset
ØCreative and possess new ideas

Kuchh mila mere jaisa? mile to mujhe bhi batana..!!

Day 0 at Calcutta

2006-05-02T03:13:00.000-07:00

reached Calcutta.. for a 2 month project.. and the God is again doing timepass with me.. let me tell you how

simply put, I am staying in a TEMPLE. when the address said 'Mira Temple', i thought it was name of the building. When I reach there, i find that ground floor is actually a Temple which all those chants, satsang and aarti going on (on loud speakers). I hope you can appreciate the implications. Least of them is that I had listen to chants for one hour sitting in my room including while getting fresh after the journey.

Speechless!!! Not you. I am speechless.

Also, this locality is funny. I go to a small road side shop to buy a comb. shopkeeper talks to me in fluent English.. also to his chhotu standing there in half pant and baniyan. I still don't consider English to be such a commodity. I try talking in hindi. To my astonishment, this shopkeeper cannot speak proper hindi. He tries to speak a few words just to please me. I take that 8 bucks comb in english and leave.. again speechless.

Next, I have to visit ATM.. there are 3 (seemingly college) girls in the ATM cabin and none of them is on any of the two machines. They are hardly talking to each other. Apparently, they are not doing anything. I stand out of the cabin.. partly in courtesy that they are already in.. and partly to watch what they were up to. After about 5 minutes, one of them brings out the card. heck.. then all of them bend their heads on that small poor machine blocking even the air coming on it. As this girl types the pin code, other two bluntly cover her up so that I, standing outside, cannot see that code which comes on screen as xxxx.. heck.. this was it. I barged inside and used the other machine. Before they could collectively count their 300 bucks, I had done my transaction and left. When I looked back, one of them was confused and watched me going.. She was confused on how I could have typed pin code when they were standing right next to me.. but I had lost interest by now.. they all were too kiddish. I come back to room to 'freshen up'.

These 3 episodes came in this order in about a total of 15 minutes. I was feeling funny. It all happenned too fast. I am still trying to put together pieces of the joke played in the timepass. It has been OHT till now.

The good part is that room is good and has AC. Till I stay here.. which will be a few days, I get AC sleep. ::::))))

Summers@Home

2006-04-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

Enjoying at home.. meeting old friends and relatives.. taking all the parties due.. having home cooked food.. reading novels.. finally watching news.. chatting.. enjoying movies.. and those chocolates at home.. life is fun these days

have to move over for my project at kolkata in 3 days.. 3 days of parties and 3 nights of parties.. yippieee.. fir waha ja ke kolkata and around ke bhi plans banane hain

JEE result day

2006-04-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I recall another stupid and shockingly happy day of my life.. a day I shall never forget! This was the day of result of JEE exam in year 1999. Ya ya I know it's such a beaten theme but it is an important day mann.

I was sitting in IIIT-Allahabad exam on the day and I had no hopes of clearing anything else. In the middle of it, I got so restless that I was willing to leave that exam and go check result of JEE. I remember, one was not permitted to leave exam in middle. I fought with examiner. I fought with Principal.. and who not. Finally, after half an hour of fight, I was let out. I had just my sure chance of getting into something go just to check result of a practically proven failure. This should give you an idea of how mad I was to see the result.

I reached the JEE office straight away. There was this more than 100 ppl crowd totally covering a 5ft by 3 ft board having all the JEE results. I could not cut through this dense crowd. Finally, unwillingly, I handed over my roll number to a tall uncle to check. He replied positive! I got more energy to cross check. I could not cut through. I gave it to another guy. He also replied positive. This time I had to get in. I cut through to get right in the front. Ppl kept abusing me, but it had to be done.

Finally, I did not find my roll number in the clearing list. Those two buggers had checked it wrong. I checked result 5-6 times from different positions. But it was always the same. :-( Negative. I felt defeated and came out accepting it. I was expecting it anyway.

After some half an hour of mourning, I went back to check again. Crowd was a bit thinner now. It was still not there. Then I noticed that a guy I know, who had to clear it at any cost, was also missing. It was so silly. JEE could not fail him. Now I also noticed that roll number indexing had been done row wise not columnwise as I was reading it!

Hell!!!!!!!!!!!

I checked rowwise and I was there..!! At a rank higher than I could imagine myself getting. I literally sat down. This was the first news of my life that had put me under such a shock. I sat there in legs of the crowd for some 10 minutes. I did not have anything left to get up.

People came to console me thinking that I had failed so in shock :p. Then they slowly realised the truth having checked my roll number and gave me hand. I got up with support. They even clapped for me man!!

I had no words. I could not identify a single feeling I had. They were changing so fast.

Then, when I called up home, they already knew! I felt so stupid again to not have cross checked with them before. They would never make mistake in this.
God has these funny ways of making one feel stupid even when at top of the world!!

Khuda meharbaan !!

2006-04-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today cleared the exam... it was definitely a news :d

To know of what I am talking abt, pls read http://feelthethought.blogspot.com/2006/03/world-class-stupidity.html

I had no hopes of clearing it. And now it is there. Staring me harder in the face than it did before. Sometimes I feel like a stud and sometimes I make mockery of the certification. My friends are doing the both. I guess both are true as well !

either way money and time saved.. bina padhe exam clear.. May this happen to everybody..!!

Friendship redefined

2006-04-09T07:37:00.000-07:00

It is so relieving. Like a tension lifted off the head. Things got redefined with the friend. A new equilibrium reached. We just have to acknowledge those black areas of each others' lives that we should not probe into anymore. Things are not as well as before. Not even close. Still, they are stable. What more, this stability is going to stay for pretty long now. I no longer have to worry about sorting things out.

Surprisingly, not reaching the original status doesn't stare me in face. It is acceptable. I had spent a good deal of time and efforts in doing this. This is the best that life could offer me. And I take it.

It brings back the party mood. It brings back a lot of time. It is so satisfying. I can take on the world today.. yippieeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

problems choose the worst time to visit

2006-04-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

It is so confusing... this bitterness in my mouth.. I feel it day and night but don't quite know how to get rid of it

Hours are overloaded.. minutes are in question.. definitely a bad time to have conflict.. esp. with good friends.. a bad time to realise that at least one of you have changed so much that probably the whole friendship needs to be redefined.. but this is one mess I have managed myself into.. to make it worse, quickfixing is not an option.

Just hoping that communication remains open and both can manage time and honesty to sort things out.. let's see how it goes

Seniors' Farewell Party

2006-03-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Finally gave farewell party to seniors.. with some slowly moving out of campus having done early submissions, it was the latest we could do. the party rocked.. almost 3 houry of dance.. most ppl in either batch practically fell of tiredness

Also, a new concept.. where everyone could write comments about you on your back and these were read in front of all.. it was such a fun.. I am sure, this tradition is going to stay for many a years

and by the end, as usual was a photo shoot where everyone was fighting to be in front of the camera.. and it was not as much about seeing yourself in snaps as it was about the fun of doing it.. snaps come so natural this way... ppl making silent simple sober poses for snaps.. it makes me puke.. fortunately, that tradition is not popular around me these days

coming back, we got some really nice comments by seniors.. many of them were real and coming from their hearts.. it felt like an accomplishment and final final of all, while getting down from the bus at hostels, our social secy took a panga by mistake... he bid personalised good bye to all the girls when they got down first.. like goodbye kavita goodbye divya etc... guess what, we made him bid personalised goodbyes to all the guys.. 100 odd.. and he was given bumps for refusing to greet last few.. hope he will remember no differential treatment in future..

A Rocking Holi

2006-03-15T04:21:00.000-08:00

Played Holi in hostel today. It rocked!

This is the Holika-Burning scene last night.

our t-shirts in the very morning

sharafat waali foto

one more

in the end

A World Class Stupidity

2006-03-10T23:36:00.000-08:00

Today, I experienced something I had never felt before.

I had taken up a Beginner's level exam (Level 1) for a Certification. I was happy since the pass rate is over 90% historically. Accordingly, I did medium level preparation and went for the exam.

After reaching there, a friend looked at my Admit Card and told me that I am being asked to appear for level 3 which is the toughest in the series and almost impossible to pass without preparation. I cross checked everywhere but apparently I was at fault. Probably, I had confused between the names of Level 1 and 3 exams and by mistake had applied for level 3.

Also, I had not bothered to cross check the name later either and they did not give number of level. It came as a shock. I mean literally. A shock. Main aisa to na tha. :((
Ppl are already coining new names for me on this new benchmark. I hope to survive a week in college!

This is what I feel like deserving right now:

And this is precisely how i look like right now:

May this never happen to anyone !

Weird Toilets

2006-03-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

My God! ppl spend time on these things :O.. funny to see

Oh Boyy..!! this is irritating

What do these designers want!

For music freaks! probably

And these ones sell :O

Companies make toilets for couples also..! Gimme a break!

The best toilet ever!

No comments.

How to tie a Tie

2006-03-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

Found this in a mail... should solve some problems..!!

Getting a Summer Project

2006-03-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

Here I again come back to a high from a low within a few days.. got a summer project .. the centre of my troubles.. It happens to be in Retail segment in RPG and is based out of Kolkata. Again I come out of the pressures very soon after identifying a Low. Mann this cycle is reinforcing itself very strongly!

At the same time, this is also a very good example of how I perform average or above average at times. I had been working on getting some absolutely great projects in niche areas for a very long time. They are still uncertain.. may or may not work out.. For them, I had let some good opportunities go. And today, I bend to pressures again and accept an average or slightly above average solution.. this I will know after having done it anyways. But this is how it happens.

One ends up doing something very different from what one had set out to do, if s/he is willing to bend to any pressure.

You might be interested in my interview as well. It was all very funny. The schedule of the interviewer had got changed but for some reason, he could not contact me to prepone the interview. One evening I call him up and he says that he is already in Mumbai and going to fly out the very next day. Arranging a proper interview would be difficult. He also indicated that interview could happen late night on the very same day if the need be. Fortunately, he chose next morning .. a Sunday morning. Also, fortunately, his home is hardly 3km from my hostel and he proposes to meet in a nearby location.

Sunday morning, I am sitting before him in Mocha, a coffee lounge in Hiranandani, which had just opened up for breakfast. I am fully dressed in formals from top to bottom and he is in a T-shirt and thank God jeans and not shorts, smoking freely. I had a really bad cough and my focus was to speak minimum so that cough does not completely take over. So, in that about 45mins interview, he speaks for about 25 mins, I speak for about 5 mins and there is a silence for rest of the time. I felt awkward at times, when I saw that confused look on his face when I had failed to put my point through, in the number of words I had chosen. However, good of him that he gave due consideration to my bad throat and did not force me to speak more. I was in such a bad shape that I did not even bid him Goodbye verbally. He spoke and I didn't. Ye bhi karna padta hai. A funny experience all in all.

All said and done, I have a good Summer Project in hand..!! Time to rejoice!

At least say Congrats.. u bugger!!

Marketing project followup 060306

2006-03-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

Today, we all met the prof. and were surprised to have been ranked at average even after so much efforts. There were mistakes on our part.. no denial. However, a complete ignorance of scale of project by the reviewer makes our job tougher. There are other projects whose scope and scale is small and they had to do very little original work.They are scoring higher than us. I guess efforts don't pay here.

Every prof. has been looking for a complete connect and high accuracy + justification. There is absolutely no weightage for efforts or originality at a compromise for these. These factors occupy only intangibles and are not even a part of marking schemes in any of the projects I have done here till today. I believe same is with the whole class.

This is a new experience. It stands as a very important learning given by a PG course. Justification, Connection and Accuracy are not compromisable for scale and originality of work.

Feeling down in a low-lit surround

2006-03-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

Something has been pulling me down for past few days. I feel a stupidity, realism and irritation together. Stupidity is not being able to figure out why. Realism is to not feel odd. Irritation is the unrest to figure out why.

I have listened to loads of Beethoven, comfortably numb, everybody hurts, tu hi re and the painful kind for past 2 days. Somehow, they just keep expressing me. Which means that I know they are not bringing me down but just supplementing.

Most friends cannot even see it when I talk to them. Some others who felt it, have tried to cheer me up but it just doesn't happen. This irritates me further and I dive in to get an answer.

.

.

On a hindsight, I find a pattern in my life that has existed for almost a decade now. It is a cyclical pattern of highs and lows. Highs are closely matched by acheivements and lows by not just mediocre to low performance, but also by a strong psychological pressure to perform. This pressure may have been created by family, peers, consistent failure or may be by just a habituated feeling of simple lack of acheivement. But this pressure is strong. Very strong. And it often comes in combinations, thereby multiplying the effect.

This low is what I am going through. I have lost a lot of trust in past at such times. People take my behaviour for something completely different and assume it permanent. It has definitely hurted me hard at times.

These lows are often immediately followed by a high. This means that whenever I feel very low, I convert it into an acheivement that I find good enough to sustain me & my self-respect. Then these highs take relatively longer time to die out and to get converted into a low. A graph would typically look like this.

Such small cycles happen in large cycles as well. A combination of low on both has been deadly.

For the time being, I will ignore the reasons and repurcussions of this pattern, shall concentrate on my original questions and will attempt to further understand & describe this low I am going through.

This low is like a void. It generates a thinking process where I search out for ideas for solutions. It is like bending down before the God to beg for an idea for solution. It is to be done continously till I get the answer. It gets marked by introspection as well.

This need for solution is what stops me from cheering myself up. It would be like taking a break from some Tapasya because it was boring. It doesn't work that way. This commitment is unquestionable, even in quintessential sense. Hence, if it is this low, simple outing etc. shall just not work. Answer to the main problem is the only way out.

It seems to have worked till date. I hope it does in future as well.

However, bouncing back needs solitude. Hence, low has to be usually accompanied by a shutting self in the room or a long outing alone. Nagging is the biggest killer of this conversion. Tension is another. Room and outing both usually provide a disconnect from these and hence help.

I hope that my journey to self-realisation has started. Finally, I have started getting answers and not just questions.

Having figured out the stage I am in, I would better get to work. There is a lot of thinking to be done. :)

Marketing Project Part 1

2006-03-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

This was hell of a job.. The team did unfair discrimination and got me stuck as the team leader.. mind u mujhe fasaya gaya is jhanjhat mein.. It started in jan beginning with deciding name of group and project topic. We spent hell of a time figuring this out and had loads of fun with whacky names.. decided on a decent one- mindshare.

We were probably the last group to search for topic. Thanks to our perception, we got an appreciation for selecting a very good topic that no other group got. We started off fast and well. Ajay, Divya and I were determined to push it off so hard in the beginning that later days are relatively free. However, everytime we met the prof., the project size would inflate beyond our imagination. And he would redefine everything. Everybody came out cursing me.. cos i was the lead :(.. It was supposed to be my responsibility to not let it inflate which i simply failed at.. still we kept working and got a fairly good idea of things faster than others.

Then, Aravindan broke his left hand because he was bowling with right hand (that's how he describes it to me).. he was not given any work.. gaurav was busy conquering the kelloggs and harvards so he wasn't there.. Girish wasn't willing to spend time on it regularly cuttting out marks on other submission and scores.. we all thought that we had done significant work and will just put it together later. So we all stopped working. From the lead position, the group came to a pretty lagging one. Gaurav had promised to work after some deadlines and we were so happy tht the genius will come and take away all our troubles. But that took pretty long.

Finally, the prof agreed to postpone submission after exams. The biggest relief.

This was the turning point. Right when the exams started, I got a very bad throat. This more than anything else, implied that i could not really speak. So, the person who was coordinating was suddenly silent. Because of this, the group had to rediscover a lot of things. Ajay took the lead and gave me rest. Thanksssssssssssssss to himmmmmmmmmmmm.

Gaurav, Ajay and Aravind worked all night long on the project. I mean actually all night long. Nobody has ever done that for any other course project. Those details can be seen on Aravind's blog. Later, in midst of all confusion and trouble, after Divya had also gone to meet her husband, the prof drops the bomb. He wants far more detailed project than we have ever made. this kill us. Right after exams are finished, we sit down and spend hell of a time on getting it right.

and the result is

This snap was taken just the morning before submission, when we all stressed out after many days of continous work. But some were still energetic :).. see ajay. I had never seen Gaurav so stressed out before. He was really crushed by the amount of different work he has taken.

And finally, we submit it just to hear prof shouting in disgust. I am waiting for Ajay's blog to explain it first hand.

Boyy it felt so bad to face dissatisfaction after so much work.. but thz how life is.. thz how we learn :)

Make-up

2006-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

it often happens this way.. some ppl like the reality and most like the dreams.. some like to look at them together

2006-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

mann some companies have attitude

I met a lovely stranger

2006-03-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Met a new friend today.. yaman.. this is her poem.. kinda liked it so posting here.. with slight modifications

I met a lovely stranger
And kept meeting her every day
I thought that I knew her
Until I realized today

That it all is an illusion
And every hope is fake
Love is an emotion that
Just puts your heart at stake

Sick things happen to u
Just when your spirits r high
When u want to b delighted
You just have to sigh

And I still keep meeting strangers
Meet many every day
But the bonding is in hiding
And the heart is kept away………

Desires that never get fulfilled

2006-02-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

This often happens to me. Those who have read the following poem, often confirm that it happens to them as well.

The poem goes as:

STANDING IN A TRAIN

I was looking out,

in no hurry to get off.

I wanted to fly,

out in the fields

through the yellow corn

among the birds

in the warm Sun;

I wanted to be banged

at chest

by the running trees

and the posts passing by;

I wanted to try myself.

I wanted to feel

the rush of voltage

of those thick wires

in my veins.

I wanted to lie down

on the rail tracks

feeling

a soothing tickle

of the train

as it passed over me.

I was to try myself,

my strength,

my existence,

my abilities,

my confidence.

But I didn’t.

Thank you Consciousness!

News for free

2006-01-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

Nobody reads newspapers. They just sell for the heck of it.
So i don't purchase any.
Advised by some trustworthy friends, today I installed the messenger to keep delivering news to my desktop from across the world.
shayad ab kabhi kabhi news par nazar pad jaaye....

MindShare

2006-01-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

Je suis aussi ici..!!