My observations

The intoxicating experience

2011-12-11T12:42:00.001-08:00

Now I am little intoxicated and I really feel writing something.. something that has created a huge interest lately. Mr. Romanov is smiling at me. Thanks to him, I am writing this...
6 months into MBA, after having done numerous case studies and assignments repeatedly, i felt that I would end up doing only these in the rest of my MBA life, until i found something that evoked enthusiasm in me. I am seeing a host of new changes in me. I looked like a barbarian over the past few weeks. With long, curly hair, and a beard that horrified many people around me. I used to feel bored to go to class, and i seldom wanted to dress neatly. All of a sudden, something is happening to me. Recently, I have been dressing better than a professional. There is something that is motivating me to improve my personality. A whole lot of energy is being generated from within, which compels me to perform well in every fucking thing that i encounter in my day to day life. Sometimes I feel that I have become more responsible and disciplined. Never thought the west Indian culture would ever have such a huge influence on me! Dont know how long this will last. But I am loving every moment of it

ye chaand saa roshan cheharaa, zulfon kaa rang sunaharaa
ye zeel see neelee aankhe, koee raaj hain in mein gaharaa
taareef karu kyaa us kee, jis ne tumhe banaayaa

Goa Institute of Management - the first look

2011-09-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

The time of my life where I experienced things that I never experienced before, learned things that I have never heard of, started looking at the world in a whole new perspective. Looks like the world is full of opportunities, just that people don't figure them out, me not being an exception. This reminds me of a hacker in an English movie 'Information is everywhere.... all over this place, it is in the air.. I just know how to grab them'.

I reached Madgaon on the wee hours of June 12. It was raining heavily. I was really excited, coz I reached Goa, the most happening place on earth. I was received by my Goan friend Aaron and his dad. I have heard that Goans are courteous, but I have seen that on that morning. I stayed in a hotel booked by Aaron along with 12 others. The next morning we headed to Goa Institute of Management. Which was around 50 km from Madgaon, quite a distance. The college is located on top of a hill in a less known place call Sanquelim. We have to climb a hill to reach the college.. it was a scenic beauty.. we were amid hill and it was drizzling. we were all excited. People shouted crazily when they had the first glimpse of GIM. They started taking pics as soon as they reached the campus.

A room got allotted and luckily it was a valley facing room. It was cloudy and it rained all day. I and my roomie decided to walk around the campus. We both were equally impressed with the lush nature there. We kept walking around whenever we got free time. We had foundation course on the first 3 weeks.

PS: This should have been published on July :)

New chapter

2011-06-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

After having retired from IT after working there for 5 long years, I went into a hiatus before entering a new chapter of my life. Two weeks at home to take rest and revitalize the spirit and the body. It has been a different experience than I thought. I went to swim, jog and play basket ball; spent time with family, attended a family marriage, visited grandpa's home at Andhra, some time in Karnataka and much of my time in FB. This short span - 2 weeks has taught me so many things. Few things that I didnt even learn in my 5 yr work life.
One such thing is this - I made a special friend with whom I spent just 2 weeks.. and I already feel that I have known that person for life and this person has made a huge impact on me. I dont even know if I ll be able to meet her. But she has become a friend for life!
I am excited about the college life I am gonna go through. I think this is definitely going to be the occasion where in I study things which I am completely interested in and the things which I would love to master and explore. Everything is gonna be practically applicable and the scope is enormous. And this is the first time in my life I am going to study in a place other than TN. Excited about mastering Hindi, socializing with people from various culture and yeah obviously - learning business management. A year back the life was in a crisis with an ultra low CAT score. Hardwork after that completely turned my life around. Just a small amount of hardwork resulted in a complete change in the life style, the way I see the life and an enormous increase in the self confidence. Depression was overcome by determination ;)

I am going to college again. I have again become a youth!! ;)

PS: I am unable to write so many other things I would wish to write due to lack of time

Easy stpes to satisfy people around you

2011-03-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

From a boy's perspective:

If you want to satisfy your parents, buy them few gadgets available in the market. But make sure that they are of the basic level. Advanced once might repel them away!
If you want to satisfy your brother/sister, gift him/her the latest gadget that is available in the market.
If you like to satisfy your friends, just spend some time with them, tease them, get teased and enjoy every moment EQUALLY.
If you want to impress your girl friend, just tell her that she is beautiful and buy them few garments. Make sure that you tell believeable lies when they wear the garments you gifted her. Unbelieveable lies also work out some times. Women like men who tell lies to impress them.
If you want to impress your superior, do the work that others hesitate to do; work in the time when others dont work; ask the questions that others dont ask.
If you want to gain respect among your subordinates, just show some compassion towards them and treat them equally. It would make wonders
If you want to please elders, just respect them and make them understand that you are doing so.

And if you want to impress me, let me know your thoughts on this topic ;)

96 and 57 are divisible by 3

2011-02-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

HE: You Got 96th percentile in CAT?? Congrats! What do the other numbers represent?
ME: Thanks. I wrote it for the third time
HE: Then, you must be happy!
ME: Yes I am. At the same time, I am sad that I didnt get a single IIM call even after getting 96, given my work experience!
HE: But why?
ME: Got 57th percentile in DI section, which screwed up my chances of getting call from IIM. Didnt meet the minimum sectional cut off of 60th percentile
HE: Holy shit!! Did you know when you walked out of the hall that if you didnt get an IIM call, it would be due to DI score?
ME: Yeah, I knew I screwed up this section. I knew it upfront
HE: I heard you got a call from IIM Kozhikode? What happened to that?
ME: Yes I did clear the first round. In the second round, they took academic performance into consideration. I was hoping that I would clear it easily since I had good academic record. Surprisingly, they awarded 7/20 for my SSLC marks in which I scored 90% and 4/20 for HSC marks in which I scored 92%. This brought down my score and I couldnt qualify for the final round. In summary, I didnt get any call for Personal Interview, which was the last round in the selection process.
HE: So, did you apply for any other top b-schools before CAT results?
ME: Nope, I didnt. To be frank, I never expected 96. I thought I would get around 80-85. I ignored SP Jain and IIFM
HE: WTF?? You told me you were interested in Forest management. You should have applied for that!! Moreover, the cut-off for IIFM is not high
ME: Yeah, you are right. I have to admit that it was due to my laziness. I had to take a DD and post it. When I was about to take this decision, the deadline was just 2 days away. The post had to reach Bhopal; I was not sure if it could reach the destination on time. The admissions committee has also mentioned that any post reaching later than the deadline would be summarily rejected. I didnt want to lose the money. Also, if I had been selected I would have to travel all the way to Bhopal, which I thought was difficult
HE: You screwed it big time, mate!
ME: Yeah I know that buddy. Thanks for enlightening me! Though most of the institutes have closed the registration process, still there are few good b-schools, whose registrations haven't closed yet. I have applied there. Hoping for the best...
HE: All the best, bro!!
ME: Thanks!

The ruthless non-conformist

2010-11-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

Of late, I have transformed into a non-conformist... mind you, a ruthless non-conformist, but for good. I fucking hate when people praise the celebrities. Especially Sachin, Rajnikanth, et al. Yeah I agree that they are great people. Yet, there is a limit for everything. Whatever it be! There are equally great people in our country; few are greater! But they neither get the attention of media nor the public. Robot, which was released on Oct 01 worldwide is just a mediocre film. Not even a single scene in the film made me laugh. But, when I express this, people around me go crazy. They don't want to accept that it is just like any other movie, and not a special one. They are afraid of facing the reality.
Coming to sports, And when Sachin scores a hundred, it would be the hottest news. But when Baichung takes India to finals, no one would give a damn about it. Media has to be blamed for this. Reporting has become such an ugly thing nowadays. They yearn for the worst thing to happen. The private news channels breach all the limits. It makes me fucking angry when I see them for a minute. Quality of reporting has hit the rock-bottom.

When people around me watch NDTV and CNN IBN, I would happily opt to watch DD-News, 9X news.
When they prefer buying a bike, I prefer buying a bicycle.
They like Rajini and Sachin, but I like Vikram and Raina.
They like to travel by car, I like to travel by Bus or train.
They like to go home frequently, I would rather prefer occasional but long duration trips.
They always do it how others do it; I always do it how I would like to do it.
They would like to reside in a polluted place, which they call it a developed area, where hundreds of vehicles bustle now and then. I would love to reside in a forest-like place that is verdant, always filled with birds tweets and which is away from the so-called developed area.

THEY ARE CONFORMISTS, I AM A BLOODY, RUTHLESS NON-CONFORMIST!!

Last project party at Infy - Mar24

2010-03-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Day before yesterday was my the last project party at Infy. As there was severe attrition in our team, there was no one to urge to go for the party. I enquired the fellow members about going for a party. To my astonishment, the deadline was just two days ahead. Immediately we planned to go to Blue Lagoon. I had to take the entire responsibility of organizing the project. I took the help of my close associates - Harish and Kaushik (who accompany me in almost everything I do). It had to be planned as to how we were going to reach the restaurant. We roughly knew the location of the resort. I was bit nervous; as bus arrangements can't be done (shortage of funds!!). There were around 30 members which added up to my worries.

We managed to negotiate the fare to a price which complies to the Infosys standards. Just like how our Indian government has been providing 1000 odd rupees to the pensioners (for the past 2 decades or so, without considering the price hike), Infy has been providing 300 rupees as the project fund per member. Logistics is also included in that 300.

First Phase: It was the day. The first phase, which I was afraid of, went smooth. The entire team came to the bus bay on time and everyone got a seat in the shols bus! I got the last seat as planned. Our team occupied half the seats available in the bus. There were celebrations and photo sessions. Pranksters were doing their jobs nicely. There were laughs, confessions and lighter moments. As usual, people were complaining that I act differently in different situations with different people. They even threatened me to disclose few secrets in public. These didnt bother me at all! I was happy laughing.

Second phase: We reached shols. We had to walk under the blazing sun till the shols signal to get share autos. Here comes one of the most difficult situations one would ever face in Chennai: Bargaining with the auto rickshaw-men. Our task was a bit easy since we were dealing with share-autos. We hired 3 autos to reach the place. I saw discomfort in few of the faces of team members. They were expecting an ac bus to ride them to the venue. Sadly, that can never be the case in Infy party. They can't be blamed as they were new to Infy. They dont even know how much fund is allocated for a member.

Third phase: We reached the venue. As soon as we got down from the share-autos, photo sessions started. The new PM is very humble and soft-spoken. When we were walking towards 'picnic hut' in blue lagoon, we had a chit chat with the PM. I was taken by surprise when he told me that he was also from Tanjore. In the picnic hut, I met Gopal, who was the one I was in touch with. He seemed to be of Northeast origin. It reflected in his speech and in the dedication he showed in his work. Grape juice was ready. As soon as we drunk it, we reached a corridor, from where we could view the beach. It was so breezy that it dried up all our sweat. There were few other people present there who were also out for party. Those lads seemed to be from a mechanical firm; they were devoid of girls, yet they were decent. Then, as expected, photo session started. Clicks all around!! Team members, especially Dechy, wanted me to be in each of the photos as I would soon be leaving the firm. I felt as if I was treated as the VIP. I really liked that J

I understood that the moments as well as those people are important to me. They are the ones whom I should never forget in my life. Like me, they too give much importance to relationship. Then, it was the time for lunch. Started with soup and ended with dessert. So many 'cows' (born scavengers) were flying just above our heads for collecting the food that were dropped. Crackers were fired to scare them. But it made no difference. They got used to the crackers. Everyday was Diwali for them! We rested for a while. Then, it was play time. Cricket, volleyball and shuttle badminton were chosen by us.

Our PM had 'dodgeball' in his mind. He wanted the entire team to participate in it. It was full of fun and was really exhausting. Then came the 'handkerchief-picking' game. It reminded me of my P.Ed classes in my high school, where we used to play this game with full vigour. Only few were familiar with that game. I laughed for nearly 2 mins when Harish was giving a demo of how to play the game. He sprinted towards the kerchief and fell abruptly!! The guy is full of entusiasm, energy and funnyJ. But, he becomes serious easily. Koushik (KV) is cool and composed. Kaushik (LMK), who is a fan of Ajith and Ganguly, is normally the victim, whom we make fun of. He becomes angry easily and takes things to his heart. But he can be convinced with some effort. Thats how the gang is stuck together. LMK was wearing a fast-track cooling glass and was posing himself like a serious guy and more like Yousuf pathan (He calls himself as Yousuf pathan!!) Sadly, in the hanky game, he was caught out by the same girl, twice!! Initially, I thought it was unfair to make a girl compete against a guy in this game. But these incidents proved me wrong. I was up against KV. First time, I managed a narrow escape when I took away the hanky. The second time, KV fell in a trap laid by me. I was waiting for him to take the hanky. I touched him as soon as he took it. It was full of fun.

It was 5 pm. The cricket pitch was ready by then. The team which was playing moved out of the pitch. We started playing with 5 players in each team. We made 26, which includes many wides, some runs and my boundary ;) I bowled the first over and took a wicket. It conceded only 3 runs. There were flurry of runs in the next three overs. The opponent team won comfortably. We had a great time playing cricket after a long time. PM was waiting for us to finish the match. Tea and pakoda were waiting for us. The Pakoda was horrible. I couldnt eat more than 2 pieces. Normally, I eat 15-20 pieces. After 5 mins of chit-chat, I called up the auto. We planned to spend the next 15 mins at the beach, till the auto-rickshaws arrive. We again went to the beach to take final snaps at the resort. A slew of photos were taken there.

Fourth and Final Phase: The share autos arrived. We all started from there and reached shols signal. We walked towards Infy to swipe out. As soon as we reached there, few people left by office bus. My final responsibility was to make sure that the remaining 13 of them reach home safely. We took some rest at shols. Took some snaps in B1 and at the FC. At 7, we decided to start. We walked again towards the shols signal. They all were really tired. When we were about to reach the shols bus stop, 2 buses had just left :( Only a very few people knew the importance of that event.

After 2 mins of wait, there were talks around me about taking share autos. Before this discussion spread, a T51 vestibule bus arrived. Few guys were not happy since there was no space in the bus to sit. They were new to the place; they didn't know that the usual case was - people don't get space even to stand! I told them to get into the bus. At one point, everyone except 2 girls were in to the bus and the it had almost started. I hit the bus twice (a usual gesture by the Indian citizens to convey the driver that few people haven't got into the bus yet). The driver was intelligent enough to have decoded the gesture and was kind enough to stop the bus. The girls got into the bus. We got the tickets. It was sweating like hell. To make the condition worse, ticket inspectors arrived. We showed them the tickets. KV was beside me talking about various routes available to get to Chrompet. We arrived at Tambaram. Few guys had season tickets. So, they decided to go by train. I was then left with 6 people who would get down at different places between Tambaram and Chengalpet. M500 was the only choice if all of us were to travel together. We found one!! It was less croweded since few T60lss, E18 and G18 left just 5 minutes ago. The journey was cool. I was talking to Dechy in the bus which reminded me of the moments we spent when we were returning home after the previous project party!

I reached home. In 10 minutes, I got messages from team mates saying that they had reached home... It was a sweet trip, which I would not forget in my lifetime!!!

Paa

2009-12-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

Was released with great expectations.
performed by Big-B, who never lost his height,
inspite of acting as a 13 yr old child
which rendered the film illogical
whose father is his own son(in real life),
who posed like a sharp and enthusiastic politician (paa).
the child's mom is a pretty woman called vidya,
who wanted to have that child inspite of being deserted by paa!
and who has got a mom, who agrees with her decision,
inspite of knowing what society talks about her and
inspite of experiencing how it would have been like when deserted!
everything goes smoothly for vidya(thats how it is shown there)
the busy politician(paa) almost forgets abt his past
where he makes her 'maa'
and is busy trying to correct the nation instead of correcting himself.
gets impressed by the diseased child during a science fair
and gets in touch with him frequently,
inspite of his busy schedule (again illogical)
becomes so close to the child.
discovers that the child is gonna die
reaches the hospital,
gets shocked to see vidya there(a typical director's touch)
and realises that the child is his son
the child calls him 'paa' (thats y the name')
the child when dying unites his mom and dad

My rating - 3/5
story - 2.5; overall acting - 3; music - 3.5; direction - 3

secret weapons used - sentiment, ilayaraja's music
illogical stuffs - a few

Feeling the heat?

2009-12-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

u just thought i was a dumb fellow
i think, u just heard how i could emit a bellow

once you used the situation to ur favour
now, i am gonna show you the pain of the devour

dont ever think u can put me in a cage
that thought would invoke an immitent carnage

i dont easily lose my temper
but when i do, u would search for ur diaper

dont get mislead by my appearance
i never ever forget to take my vengeance

dont think that u have escaped my blow
i never leave you unless u take a bow

i aint started utilising my full power
it would easily demolish a magnificent tower

so my advise for u is not to exploit any situation
someone goes up, someone goes down, all due to earth's gravitation

Disturbed

2009-11-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

I am disturbed to see you like this.

You had once inspired so many people around you
You were once the leader of a group
You were once the kind of person, who was the role model of so many
You were once so able-handed that you seldom saw difficulty while dealing with even the hardest problem
You were once bored of being on the top
You were once looking for a challenge that could topple you, which never happened!
You were once looking for people could really compete with you; but you found only a few
You were once the epitome of sincerity and hardwork
You were once the person like by the Gurus the most
You were once admired to be the most consistent performer
You were once one of the smartest people your world had ever seen !!!

The Aim

2009-07-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

July 16, 11:45 pm

Haaa now I am in a mood to write about the aim. This entry was primarily motivated by the thoughts about the ambition. When i think of aim, i think about minimising the distraction, which essentially means improving the concentration. Bryan Adams once said ‘when was in my school, i was too far in to the music such that i had no time to show interest in girls’. This shows his extent of involvement in music! I feel that when someone has this amount of dedication, one would achieve whatever they wish to. Our mind is like a monkey as mentioned in Tamil proverbs. It jumps from one tree to the other. Reason being the attraction. It is referred as Kama/Moha in Sanskrit. We have to control these to achieve our aim of life. It would be difficult otherwise. One can meditate to improve one’s concentration. In modern days, people dont get time even to meditate. In that case, one has to make sure that the aim keeps flashing in one’s mind everyday, every hour, every minute, every second.

Visualisation is relatively a new concept. It has been proven by psychologists that when we visualise ourselves to be a successful person, we would really become one. Many people dont know about this. Our mind can do wonders. We just need to keep motivating ourselves. We have to have faith in our mind that we will achieve it. Hard work, planning and perseverance are two other things that would guide you in achieving our aim. We should know about each and everything we would encounter during the course of our journey towards our aim.

Boring Sunday Night

2009-07-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Jul 12, 11 pm
I donno what to do tonight. I had few plans that i didn't execute.
The weather is too hot. Few drizzles were there. But it made the situation worse. The cloud is spreading over the city which is acting as a blanket. It is not letting the radiations out. Yeah it is the greenhouse effect. I am watching harry potter and the goblet of fire. I am not fond of watching harry potter series. I even donno which part this movie is. Nor i have seen the previous parts. Seeing it just for time pass.
The speciality is i am writing this from windows live writer. I know this blog is of no significance. But what would i do now? No internet connection, no friend is in home, not getting sleep, no mood to read, no girlfriend to talk to, etc…
I know loneliness is the best time to write philosophy. I have been longing for this occasion. But when it came, i had nothing in my mind to write. I have something to write about the aim in the life. But there is not enough clarity in my mind to write about that. May be i ll write about that in the coming days.
I am thinking of getting up early. Every night i think of the same, but seldom do that. :)

Bold and beautiful

2009-07-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

I attended a meeting 2 days ago. It was about Information security threat, which is one of the most serious threats to any firm. Violation of any norm results in the termination of contract between firms. Software exporters are very particular in completely adhering to the norms laid by the clients. Banking info, SSN numbers are confidential and are not supposed to exposed to the outsiders. The session was open for discussion. I asked few questions and gave some suggestions as usual. Most of the attendees were freshers, who were normally mute spectators. All were reluctant to ask questions but one. She was too bold and too beautiful. She caught my attention when she was late for the session. I was attracted towards her since she had brownish complexion. Her eyes were very sharp. But she was very humble. She didnt show off. She asked few questions that were very reasonable and she fought back when the session anchor found fault with her. She was trying the prove that she was not wrong. Then the anchor laid few rules and asked the attendees how long they would follow those rules. I gave chance to the freshers this time as the question was directed at them. She fired back saying 'till the recession is over' !!! I was astonished. There were laughs all over. It was the first time i have ever seen a person in a session who was bolder than me! Though everyone(including the anchor) applauded her for the answer she gave, she kept herself cool. She had a smile on her face, still focussing on the session. There was neither a laugh nor show off, which people do normally when appreciated by others. She is a unique person I have ever seen. Her humility, her questions which were reasonable, her beauty, her cool temprement and her sharp eyes made me to ponder about her character.

Summer of '09

2009-07-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

Haaa.... it is a saturday morning. and guess what? I am blogging from diamond homes for the first time. But using neighbours wi-fi connectivity.. shhhhh dont tell him. Today is one of those days I am alone in home. I am confused as usual as to what to do... I am thinking of spending some quality time with my LAPTOP. Yes he the only companion i have now. I just got up and was surprised to see that i have connectivity... :)Ufff what happened suddenly? net disconnected :( I am saving it in my lappy and i m gonna post it whenever i get connected to the net again.. b byeeeee

Only your mind determines whether you are growing old

2009-04-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was travelling in the train with my friend. The train was late. We were irked by the delay and by the accumulating crowd. We were wondering whether we would get place to stand in the compartment. The train arrived and we were releived. We were happy to see that there was place near the door. We stood there and discussed about the space we got.

After some time, my friend told me that he would obesrve few things after entering the train in the morning(while going to office). He said there would nomally be 3 categories -

1. The young

2. The old and

3. The middle aged

Accordingly he would plan where to stand. If he stands next to the young ppl (who are sitting), he would get a seat soon.

Then he continued.... The young ppl are SRM ppl (eductional institute) who get down at Potheri, old folks get down at MM nagar, which is an industrial area; and the middle-aged folks(we!) get down at Paranur(Mahindra city). It was a striking observation, which I never thought of. May be coz I never wanted to get a place to sit :) I was unhappy about one of the facts he told, though it was true. He made me realize that I am growing old.

But I still feel like I am younger than most of the college goers ;) Psychology quotes that only our mind determines who we wanna be.

The political turmoil

2009-04-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

The upcoming election is gonna be an interesting one as the parties other than congress and BJP has formed alliance and call themselves as the 'third front'. It is initiated by the left parties which withdrew support from the UPA when the nuke deal was inked between India and the US. The funniest thing about the third front is it has as many PM aspirants as the number of parties.

There is no stability in the alliance. Few of the parties didnt attend even the first convention conducted by the third front. AIADMK is one of them. As a result no one can be sure that the alliance would last for the period 5 years

There is a wide difference in the ideals of the parties. Left parties support communism whereas few other parties are strong supporters of liberalism
The third front is so selfish; they want to defeat the UPA and NDA at any cost. I feel that there could be a chance for re-election as the parties are too stubborn to form alliance with others. If it is the case, then the cost to be borne by the election commission would be enormous. Security issues have to be addressed in this terror hit era. It would be the onus of the election commission and the ruling government to provide adequate security at the time of elections. In terror hit areas like Jammu and Kashmir and North eastern states, conducting re-elections would be a daunting task. But the pathetic thing is, no politician is gonna feel or think about this.

Her darting eyes

2009-03-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

I have been encountered many times a day by her darting eyes. She gives a stunning look and disappears. It takes ages for me to forget that. Her eyes are so powerful that I couldnt withstand that for more than a second. I felt many times that I am more daring than most of the people. But after that moment, I understood that her gaze is one of the most powerful weapons in the world that could easily defeat me. Thiruvalluvar quoted in his famous Thirukkuaral - A warrior slays his enemies on the warfield until he was stunned by the daring eyes of a beautiful woman! Such a powerful weapon it is.

I couldnt avoid her eyes at the same time. Coz her eyes were so charming. No one would ever wish to avoid that. She glances for few seconds ,puts her head down after that and walks away. I am hesitant to talk to her too. That wouldnt be nice. Sometimes, my instincts conspire against me and pushes me towards her urging me to talk to her. But there are so many other things going on my mind. I dont know anything about her; i dont know what she thinks and i donno what she likes. Understanding woman's heart is harder than swimming across an ocean! All these factors pull me away from her and keeps me expecting some kind of sign from her. Sometimes my heart tends to get closer to her and sometimes it urges me to get away from her. I am still confused what to do! God, keep me away from her darting EYES please...

NEW YEAR ??

2009-01-02T04:54:00.000-08:00

Everyone over here were much excited about the new year. I still dont understand why they were so! It is not the new year for most of the people here. Telugus celebrate Ugadi, Tamils have their own new year. But still these people try to be as perfect and as honest as possible during the English new year.

There are two kinds of people -

1. People who go to the Temples. I dont know how they link english new year and the Hindu deity! Though it is not logical, it makes good for them; coz few ppl who never go to the temple go there atleast this day.

2. There are another kind of people who tend to 'celebrate' the new year. Celebration is all about going to a pub, doing romance, boozing, etc... They DONT like to celebrate it with their family.

They try to set some unrealistic goals which they call 'New Year resolution'. This is good for only a few and bad for most others. This is not my personal opinion; but the result of a recent research done in France. It is evident from here that our culture is ruining. Western culture is having too much of impact on ours. As of now, it seems to be going good and people are fascinated about the western culture. But we will soon be concerned the impact made when divorce cases pile up rock our society ( i am pointing out just one issue that could be very dangerous )

Festival of lights - Deepavali

2008-11-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Posted on 29 Oct 2008
Everything was set. I left for Tanjore happily for the four day trip. It was a nice journey in the Pallavan express. I reached home at 10.20. Distributed gifts to dad, mom and bro. They were happy. All of a sudden, there was a huge improvement in the home. They had installed UPS ! and i cudnt just believe that. There is a severe power shortage in TN nowadays. Power cut accounts for 6 hrs a day. We are not affected by this, thanks to the UPS.

The weather was perfect. Temperature was comparitively low and i really enjoyed it. It rained frequently. It gave me peace of mind. Environments in Tanjore and Chennai are uncomparable entities. Tnj is very tidy. Devoid of the damned crowd that prevails in chennai. Nature is still undestroyed. Our orchard(i d say rather a gargen) is a perfect example of that. People over there (atleast in outskirts) are well aware of the environmental issues. Lots of trees are present, which can be said to be a product of social forestry.

I was thinking how to spend these 4 days. Thought of preparing a bit. First day was fully dedicted to relaxation. Washed clothes, saw TV, Bond movies in DVD, etc... Bullet ride in between. Bro purchased a royal enfield, for which I funded him. I rode till the Tamil university library. It is the most serene place in Tanjore i ve ever seen. I saw peacoks there. I stood there for a while relaxing. Sharath also accompanied me. I slept most of the time. I saw a bond movie. Sean connery starrer 1st day passed like this.

Second day - I had promised mama that i wud spend that day with them. I reached the town. I purchased few gifts for the kids. They were happy when i handed them over the gift. They were playing their 'business'. I spent time with aththa, pedhamma, mama and aunty. Gayathri akka along with her husband came to the town house. Then I had food. Slept for an hour and a half.When I woke up, it was raining. Weather was perfect. I went to Suchitra akka home. I gave some diwali gifts to Avinash. He was as mischievous as before. He accidentally poured hot tea on Akka. She beat him. He was not afraid at all! After spending some time, i started from there. I reached home.

The Third day (27 Oct 2008): It was Diwali !!!!!!!!!!!!! I heard the sounds of crackers. People get up early in the morining. They take oil bath. They wear new dress and fire crackers. - This may sound like reading an essay written by school children :) But this is wat happens during Diwali.
I got up early. Mom would be angry if i got up late. I had the responsibility of firing crackers. My bro and dad were still sleeping as usual. But for me, it was a matter of following the tradition. I am pretty serious on this. Mom liked it when i was all set to fire the crackers. She came out and helped me. I could see the satisfaction in her face when she heard the sound from the crackers. After that we ate a lot, watched TV and took rest. It becam night, the time to fire chakras and flower pots. We all four came out. Bro joined me in firing them. Mom and dad watched us and helped us in the process. Finally it was the time to fire Rockets. It found a strategic location to fire them as they were dangerous. It might lit the hut on top of our home. We started firing them. There were nearly 15 rockets. One of them was almost fell on the hut. Thanks to the tree just in front of our house which deviated the rocket, which changed its course.

I took rest on the fourth day and started to SETC bus stand. We lost the ticket we reserved. Dad accidentally burnt it. There was some anxiety when we arrived the bus stand. But mama knew the Tanjore union leader, who helped us to secure our seat. Finally I reached Chennai. BACK TO WORK :)

Darwinism Redefined

2008-08-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

The world is becoming too competitive day by day. As rightly said by Darwin, 'survival of the fittest', the species which is competive enough can alone survive in this world. This is how it gets traslated when it comes to society, where the Homo sapiens rule.

The innocent people are pulled down and they dont find a place in this world. Majority of the ppl in the world are wicked, cruel and cunning. For instance, lets take the case of Africans. They were the species who survived even in the adverse conditions; they were the perfect example of 'survival of the fittest'. But when it comes to the new era of technological development, they fall behind. Africans have been enslaved and treated like animals by the devious Americans. They exploited the places in Africa that were rich in nature. They made money out of that. Now the entire African continent is in drought.

We can infer from here that one should not be too innocent. Chanakya says "A person should not be too honest.Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first.” I d say that Honesty and Innocence are interrelated. A person should not be honest in a situation, which might destroy him if he remains honest. If he still remains honest, he is either an innocent or a fool or a fanatic of his own ideologies/principles. There is no point of being honest in a world which has people who dont know the meaning of 'honesty'. I do agree that few people are honest. Behave honestly with those people alone, though it is very hard to identify who is honest and who is not! We should try to be as honest as we can. I dont say that we should not be honest at all. But i say that we should not be innocent at all!

We need to be competitive in this world. If someone says that you are competitive, it means you are not innocent. We need to dump our minds with as much information as possible. It makes you a geniuos. You need to know about the things happening around you. Now half of the people around the globe have the net connectivity (I am excluding Africa here). If you dont have that, it doesnt mean that you are not gonna be competitive. Use other media to add information to ur brain! If you are going by bus/train, observe people around you; observe places you travel along; get a newspaper n read; listen to radio, they give you a lot of information! There is no point in blaming the economic condition anymore. You will be competitive, only if you want to be!

Is this Optimism

2008-08-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

' After one and half months on bench, i got a new project. I have been told that the deadline would be september. I am in to CSAR(Comprehensive Source for Analytics and Research) team now. Someone in onsite is moving out of the project. PM has told me that I wud be a replacement for him. He wud be giving seminars on what he had done so far. I have to understand thoroughly and work after he is out of the project. PM told me that they required a person who could pick concepts fast and work. I need to cope with the strict timelines and meet the high expectations. I really dont know how the work wud be and donno whether this is a good opportunity for me to shine. I wud try my best to make sure that there wudnt be any hinderance in preparation to achieve the goal i have. I see this as an opportunity to make myself sharp. I feel if we dont give work to our mind, it stops to work altogether.... ' - This is how an optimistic person views one's life when he faces a challenge :-)

Beauty

2008-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Beauty doeSnt not have to deal only with the appearance of someone. It includes many other things as well. I describe beauty of a gal like this-

- She always smiles at every known person around her. This quality makes people feel so comforting and pleasing.

- She doent have ego.She never proud of her beauty

- She seldom makes loud noise

- She passes comments on guys; she smiles at those people and they dont know the meaning of that smile! :) (It may sound ridiculous; But I say this coz she should be well balanced). In short she is couragoeus

- She is open minded. She doesnt hesitate to mingle with guys, keeping her distance from the guys at the same time whenever needed.

- She knows whom to avoid and how to avoid people

- She very well manages her relationship with others

- She is kind hearted and helps the needy whenever she gets a chance

- She is revolutionary!

The CAPITALISM

2008-08-01T00:10:00.000-07:00

Capitalism, the economic system, is the system in which the means of production are owned by private persons, and operated only for profit. This is how i define CAPITALISM. They dont care about the welfare of the employees. Though few firms care about their employees, most of them just DONT!
Though I like my firm for many reasons, my respect for the company is degrading day by day! It is due to FOOD price hike and introduction of fares(unfair fares) for the TRANSPORT. Fares are introduced for PARANUR and S.P.KOIL shuttles for the first time in Outfy-Ncity history. I protest this. I came by auto and planning to go by walk in the evening.
Now Outfy has got 3000 unsatisfied employees in Ncity alone. I am wondering how a firm can prosper with majority of unsatisfied employees! Employees are forced to use the transport facility provided by the company. And now they have been forced to pay the fare!
A group of 5 people including me, met the Transport committee head. We spoke to him regarding the issue. After a 30 minutes long discussion, he informed us that the price will be revised. Later we came to know that he had told that just for the namesake!
There was famous quote in The Hindu on RNR, the founder and chief mentor of Outfy - 'The Capitalist with a Communist heart'. I noticed that before I joined the firm. I was very proud to join a company like this. As soon as he left, the scenario changed completely. The human values, to which Outfy used to give preference is not in the priority list of Outfy now! I can sense the changes happening. Attrition rate going up; food prices too going up; profit is not so high as expected; lot of unsatisfied employees, etc. I feel this is not a good sign for a company, which is acclaimed all over the world. The scenario has to change. Otherwise it will destroy the company altogether!
I see this as a sign of Rise of CAPITALISM ; human values are not considered here. When i was discussing an issue with an HR manager, i had been told that their BUSINESS is much important than anything else, which means that they are not bothered about the employees' welfare! The REVOLUTION will follow as soon as every one in the organisation realises this.

PS: Outfy, Ncity and RNR represent real world entities; they have names that are different from the ones mentioned here

Meditation on the top of the tank !

2008-07-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

I was so tired yesterday evening. I took bath and i needed rest after that. I needed some peace as it was very noisy in the house. I went upstairs and reached the terrace. Sat on the overhead tank and was listening radio for some time. Temperature dropped after some time. From there, i could see the construction works going on in SRM. There were such huge machines used for construction purpose. And after some time, my mind was calm. I decided to meditate for some time. First it was very hard to concenterate. Several thoughts were flashing in my mind. I got rid of everything and finally i was able to concenterate. After 5 mins i felt like floating in the air. I felt like i am in a new world! (Vijay came now and gave me advice for 15 minutes. He says i dont have hunger in learning :) ! And he also says english literature will not help me. He saw the blog i was writing. He said that java is going to give food for me and not my english knowledge).

Okay.. I come back to the topic i was discussing about. I felt really refreshing after meditating. Then i got inside the house and started the preparation.

On the top of the terrace |_|

2008-07-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I spent an hour on the terrace yesterday night. I climbed up to the top of the overhead tank and sat on it as i do usually when i want to relax. Yesterday it rained and the weather was really nice! It was cold! It was a refreshing experience. Any one who goes over there and sits can get rid of the stress they have! It is an excellent stress buster. Cool breeze tranquilizes the mind! I laid on the tank and watched the stars binking on the sky. Coconut trees surrounding our house were dancing... Uh! I cant really explain the atmosphere. A range of hillocks are present over there. That adds beauty to the place.

I started thinking about the moment when i was on the terrace few months back. I remembered the time when i was chatting a lot! Hours and hours of chatting. Simply talking; with no subject in it! Sometimes having small fights. Was it due to possessiveness or is it because i was not a balanced guy? Am i a perfect person now? In fact, no one is perfect. Am i nearing the ideal state?Is my life balanced? I am trying to find it out and i am hopeful to achieve it in near future.

Haunted

2008-07-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, i have been getting dreams like i am involved in married life. Mom was deciding the gal i am going to marry. I really donno the reason behind this. I havent ever thought of getting married! And i have never thought of a gal whom i should marry during these days. It is freaky. I have been haunted by these dreams! God, I need to get rid of these kinds of thoughts. Give me peace :)

Mock test No. 6

2008-07-24T05:07:00.000-07:00

Today I checked my 6th mock test score. Though there were many mistakes in VA section, there was good improvement overall. I got all time high percentile and rank this time. I am trying to solve more and more problems to achieve good results. I identified that I am leaving out relatively easier problems. The main area to be focussed is VA section in which I failed terribly last time. Expected many answers to be correct. But i lost hell lot of marks by answering wrongly. I look forward to do my best in the upcoming tests. All the best to me :)

My Previous project mates - CAOB

2008-07-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

This is my last project team mates. Me standing in black n black FLETCHER :)

Photo taken during our project party at Green coconut restaurant on Jun 26 '08

From left - Nitin, Anand, Pushkala Menon, Rakhi Menon, Lenin, Balaje, Myself, Aravind a.k.a Atti, Bharathi and Vivek a.k.a Mandi.

We performed a skit that day, which is so famous! It had Dhasavatharam story line. I played the role of Chris Fletzer who has 'Shut down syndrome' !!! (an attempt to make ppl understand the importance of energy conservation)

Weeklong Tanjore trip

2008-07-21T03:08:00.000-07:00

Well it was a nice trip... Spent 4 full days there... Fully relaxed! It rained there for two days. It was a heavy rain on Friday. I was very happy to see our garden turning wet and green. Within hours, the ground absorbed the stagnant water. Then i could sense the intensity of the sunshine over the past few days. Parents were apprehensive on the condition of the plants due to the weather that prevailed for the past few days. They were relieved and were happy after two days of rain. I too enjoyed the rain. Took few snaps of the garden and i stood out in the garden when it was drizzling.
Frequent power cuts were there. It is due to the shortage of electricity in TN. I remember we faced similar situation six years back, not sure though. But it was long back. My bro suggested of having a UPS for the fans and lights which wud cost around 8k. I am thinking of harnessing the solar power, which is abundantly available over there. Lemme try this technique when i build my own house :)
Spent time with parents, discussing about their trip to Madanapalle. I cudnt make it to there since i have weekend classes for CAT. Hope i can go there after november. I prepared a bit for CAT to take AIMCAT no.6. Washed clothes too. Then i came back to chennai. My adjacent seat was not occupied! This is first time in my journey it happened. I was very happy though i slept for a very little time.
It reached chennai at 7. As soon as i reached, i had to get ready for the AIMCAT. I reached tambaram, had breakfast and entered the school hoping to do my best. Started with english, then DI and Quants finally. attended 16+6+6. Got terrified after knowing that 12 were wrong in english! :( I didnt expect that. But when i noticed others, i was satisfied a bit. 1 was worng in each of the other sections. Need to check the percentile and the rank. Results are not out yet. Lemme see how it turns out to be!

Released from Project - on BENCH

2008-07-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

I got released from the project I have been on bench for the past 8 days. And i had no work for the past one month. Trying to find time to prepare for the test. AIMCAT scores getting reduced test by test. 5 tests are over till now and i havent cleared the cut off even once!!! Finding out a new strategy to clear the test and to top the results. Putting required effort to crack it. I am in the process of asking suggestions from professors and peers to crack the CAT or atleast mock cat! :) Got a friend in the institute who is brighter and who knows answers for most of the questions and he is the one who gives the answers first most of the time. I get feedback from his as well. I am going home today. On Leave for 3 days. Thinking of preparing from home. There are other works as well in TNJ. Need to finish them too. Need to spend time with family and reduce the stress level (wondering whether a person on bench can have stress!!!) ... I am going thro a book on Stress management. Though it is not useful for me now, the knowledge i get from that will come handy when i get stressed out in future.. Trying to follow strict time management techniques! Reading newspapers too to have a knowledge on the happenings.

AIM CAT 01 - wat a performance!

2008-05-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wrote my first AIM CAT. After seeing the complexity of the question paper, i felt dizzy. Wondered if i could solve ten questions :) People around were preparing like they were going to write engineering semester exams. I wondered if they cud improve their performance as a result of that last minute skimming. I do agree that it cud make a difference in case of engg or other academic exams. But in case of exams like CAT, we need to use our inherent knowledge. We need to think logically most of the times. Formulae are not used frequently.
I carried a pencil with me. I was happy till it became blunt. I borrowed a sharpner from my neighbour and sharpened it. Ppl had erasers, two pencils, 2 pens,etc with them.
The questions were so tough.. may be it seemed like that since it was the first time for me. I saw other people solving it enthusiastically. I geared up and started solving many questions. Finally i cud solve around 16 out of 75 questions! They gave me the key when i surrendered my answer sheet to them. When i verified, 10 were correct and 6 were worng! 2 of them were silly mistakes. Most of the questions i answered in english went wrong :). I wud get [10*4 - 1*6] 36 marks out of 300. Great huh?
I inferred that my accuracy in Quants section was good. I know my performance was poor. But, I just wanted to test my capacity. I am happy that i have alomost identified my strengths and weaknesses. Now heading towards improving my weak areas...

Life this summer

2008-05-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

Summer is in its peak. Not able to be inside the home. Often we move to the terrace. No mood to prepare! There are hardly 5 months for preparations. Reached a steady state after a shaky start. Trying to achieve excellence in English words usage. Concentrating more on the sentence formation and vocabulory. Office life is somewhat cool. Had little work last week. I hope it wud continue for the upcoming week. Though i reach home early nowadays, i am not able to study at home due to the terrible whether outside. Trying to get as much information as possible regarding the institutes for pursuing higher education. Just got to know the potential we, the Indians have. And trying to explore the oppurtunities in India. I really dont know why ppl are not going for this. I presume that they are afraid of leaving the job in hand. And i also think that they are not well informed about the happenings.

Okay. Its time to leave. Got to go to SP koil and then to home...

जेय हिंद !!!

Affair and the break up!!!

2008-05-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

Today i heard of an affair of my friend. Due to some unavoidable reasons - created by the circumstances, they had to break up... I cud feel their pain!

வானம் எங்கும் உன் பிம்பம் ...
ஆனால் கையில் சேரவில்லை
காற்றில் எங்கும் உன் வாசம்
வெறும் வாசம் வாழ்க்கை இல்லை!!

உயிரை வேறோடு கிள்ளி
என்னை செந்தீயில் தள்ளி
எங்கே சென்றாயோ கள்ளி
ஓடும் ஜீவன் ஓயும் முன்னே ஓடோடி வா !!!

பூங்காற்றிலே உன் சுவாசத்தை தனியாக தேடி பார்த்தேன்
கடலில் ஒரு துளி வீழ்ந்ததே அதை தேடி தேடி பார்த்தேன்!!!!

BLOOD

2008-05-08T00:26:00.000-07:00

First time in my life, i donated my blood today after severe compulsion from my team mates :) கொஞ்சம் பயமாக இருந்தது. இருந்தாலும் ரத்தம் கொடுத்தேன். சிங்கமுல்ல!

Hectic days

2008-05-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden, life has become very hectic... Responsibilities seem to be mounting on me! not very sure whether to be happy or to worry about this... But one thing is for sure - there is a hinderance in the preparation due to this. I m taking it as an oppurtunity to examine how usefully i utilise my time, though i am in workplace most of the time.
If u ask me, there should be a compromise between these two - time spent at the work place working for the company and the time spent at the workplace enhancing our skills. Most of the time, the former aids the latter. Hoping to get the best out of this!

Happy days

2008-04-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

For the past few months i have been living a happy life! :) Credit goes to my friends both at workplace and at home who make me happy all the time... I am very much happy when they accompany me. Even my parents are more supportive throughout these days. I feel no pressure in the project as well. Seems that it is being managed well nowadays. I feel i can spend my entire life time like this. But I do have an aim.... so i need to shed these off in few months and march towards the goal. Preparing for the greatest test ever, which is gonna change my life. I have to turn out in to a sharp, mentally strong and an aggressive man in due course to face the stiff competition the world is going to pose on me. I am in the course of improving my concenteration. Meanwhile, i am taking care of my health as well. Esp the weight gain....

My lead is threatening me :(

2008-04-17T02:31:00.000-07:00

I am writing this with utmost caution. My lead is threating me not to open any website. She even threatened me not to open and not to write any blog! But she is reading news paper now. That too, gossips! I am testing documentation interface for entityType='TR' simulatnously. I am such a dedicated fellow. But world doesnt know that!

Summer started

2008-04-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

Summer has already started and has reached its peak! becoming really hard to walk on the streets esp during the day time when reaching the office... It is expected to last for the next two months... But i think the weather will change in the next two weeks... i am expecting rains and i predict that the temperature over the next two months is not going to be as high as expected; since last time it was like what i had just mentioned. It seems to be an effect of global warming.

My first blog ever :)

2008-04-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hmm... this is my first blog ever. Trying to express myself in a better way. Let's see how far it goes!

Cheers,
Ranjeee