E-Me

Marwadi learning to drive from sindhi

2009-10-24T19:18:00.000+05:30

Marwadi touches sindhi's car when learning to drive..

Sindhi beats marwadi again !!

2009-10-23T17:08:00.000+05:30

had a bowling scrap with sumit jain the marwadi..

Game 1 : the marwadi starts with a strike.. The sindhi replies with a strike.. The marwadi clears the frame.. The sindhi strikes,, n then neck to neck until last game.. and hold ur breath.. Sindhi wins !!!
Marwadi pays for game one..

Game 2: marwadi vows to hit back with revenge.. Starts with a strike..sindhi starts bad.. Marwadi plays well again.. Sindhi gutters.. Loses hope.. Marwadi loses steam and ends up guttering the bowl.. Sindhi gets two consecutive strikes... Marwadi cries out for help.. Sindhi wins with huge margin...

Marwadi has gotten used to losing to the Sindhi :)

2009-10-22T19:21:00.001+05:30

Today was a busy day... And im glad it was..
Most of my time was spent on solving a case study for a start up which is into the business of providing web based tutorials for the bfsi sector..
Went to the sai baba temple at cambridge layout..and i must admit that this temple has some special strength.. The last thur as i was exiting after my darshan.. I receive a call from a consultant.. call it co-incidence or luck .. this thur nothing has happened as yet but im sure something will..
I am nw stuck in a bangalore traffic jam which refuses to even crawl.. Driving in bangalore makes u patient !!

Am i alone?

2009-10-21T23:18:00.001+05:30

I tried calling 6 different people this morning between 10 and 11 am.. All from different walks of life.. None of them answered.. Co-incidence isnt it..

Now its 11.15pm.. I call 4 of my friends.. 1 answered to say that she wud call back.. All in one breath and hung up... The other 3 were on call waiting presumably talking to their loved ones..

Leads me to think... Am i alone?

2009-10-21T19:46:00.003+05:30

A few ppl with whom i enjoy my food wid.. Simply because they r foodies willin to experiment with me..

(my nanaji always says - खाना खाया जाता है शरीर के रक्षा के लिए .. ज़बान के स्वस्थ के लिए नहीं ... and if he gets to see these pics.. im history)

with chiro @ mugen

with komal @ cafe masala

with anish @ corner house and millers 46

vicky @ cafe masala

komal n vinni @ RRR biryani

and finally me belting chicken at a farm house..

2009-10-20T20:10:00.003+05:30

was feeling very very low.. chatted my heart out to a close friend .. told her things that i thot i wud never tell anyone.. yes it was personal.. N no it wasnt abt love life coz there isnt any.. Felt lighter after chatting with her... just when i thot i had no one left She came up.. Normally.. we refer to her as a devil.. she was like an angel.. Thank u friend..
(achanak blogging ka keeda lag gaya.. ek hi din mein itne post..)

2009-10-20T20:00:00.001+05:30

I am trying to blog this post from my mobile.. Hope it works..
N hey.. Heres a pic too !!

sundays..

2009-10-20T19:53:00.001+05:30

this is what my typical sunday morning in bangalore looks like...

(11.42am - Konark on Residency Road Bangalore - Plain Dosa - car service !! )

and after the dosa comes.. this is what we do :)

(my bro killing it !!)

now.. the reason we fold the dosa like this is for us to get more grip (so to say) on it ..

at times, after the dosa has sunk in.. we head to corner house and have the cake fudge or the choc thick shake - mind you.. i said only at times !! (i dont have a pic of the crime right now... but i promise to upload it the next time we indulge)

we then head back to our beds and wake up at 5ish in the evening.. and then belt domino's ka pizza.. remember they have an offer between 3pm and 6pm ... buy two small pizzas for Rs.110/- ..

dinner doesnt usually happen.. and even if it does.. its probably a bowl of fruits or a glass of cold milk..

that ends our calorified sunday !!

still looking !

2009-10-20T18:23:00.003+05:30

im blogging today after almost 2 yrs...and in the last 2 yrs a lot has changed with time..

i got placed with essar out of campus.. dint really know then if it was the right choice.. but now i do.. and that is why 2 yrs after slogging for them, i now find myself looking for jobs !! my cv is now a public document !!

in 2 yr with essar.. i did almost everything a marketing student wud aspire to do.. designed a brochure (after going thru a crash course on application engg for steel).. did some excel jadoo to control pricing of steel in india .. was made to understand how retail mobile chains operate.. set up stores in karnataka... handled a part of the bangalore's stores.. handled a business category which made me peep into the telecom window.. worked under 6 different bosses in 15 months

and just abt then.. when i was doing pretty well.. the company wasnt.. and feelers came in when my most recent boss quit.. i also chose to find myself a career change.. hooked up a friend who i drew inspiration from largely because of his flair for technology... i thot he was the perfect image of me 8-10 yrs from now.. we sat together and made a plan.. a plan to bring a big brand into indian boundaries.. and i got swept away with the ambitious layout.. my worst fear came true and the business dint kick off.. my friend went back to the US for another exigency leaving my clueless abt my career !! i began to feel the pinch.. tried my hand to open a restaurant in coimbatore .. it is one of the things i want to do before i die.. but that idea too flopped.. why - coz we were entering thru a franchise route and the company turned down ideas to expand in the 11th hr !! grrrrrr

came back to bangalore.. not knowing wat to do.. was constrained to look for jobs only in bangalore and that too in the worst of times the market was going thru.. gave a lot of interviews.. but employers were double cautious before rolling out offers...

there is now something dreadful on my cv - an employement gap .. iv been asked a lot of questions abt it.. why arent people willing to deal with reality?? wat is ur fault if ur organisation isnt doing well.. wat is your fault if your start up idea dint kick off.. wat is your fault if the market isnt hiring.. hour after hour... day after day.. im sitting right here asking the same questions to myself..

have i done a mistake by quitting my first job.. answer is NO.. im much happier than what i was 6 months back.. but i am not happy that my efforts have not received my due.. wise ones in my family and around me tell me that im being test on patience.. i pacify myself and it doesnt last for long..

i still seek answers... have i lost my prime?? or am i waiting for the ultimate to hit me ??

remembering those dayss

2008-01-31T15:33:00.000+05:30

on of the first pics at scmhrd in first year.. just after being caught for "dil Chahta Hai"

Men of honour :)

One of the best outings...
Front L-R : Mala Dhalani, Chiro Ghosh(the flirt), Adithi, Shilpa
Back L-R : Moi, Anish(the b*stard), Sunil(the b*tch)

dandiya in campus.. ( we need no reason to celebrate.. really )

i was caught studying in the library :)

temple trip !!!

CHICK MAGNET

my journey..back to blogging

2007-08-09T10:25:00.000+05:30

after a hiatus of a good 638 days.. i have decided to revive my blog...

we bschoolers do not get summer holidays.. instead we get something that is gloriously known as summer internship.. wat happens here is.. companies come and recruit you for 2 month projects.. generally market research.. some of them pay u a good stipend and some of them pay peanuts.. i was one of the last ppl of my batch of 220 to get placed simply because i had an aspirational company in mind which never came to our campus.. i went chasing behind the company for close to 2 months and nothing really worked.. i finally had my summers stint with the world's largest manufacturer of industrial paint - Akzo Nobel.. now not many ppl .. (not even me before it happend) had heard of Akzo Nobel.. so to cover up.. i used to tel ppl Exxon Mobil :P

the two months of summer internship flew past even before i knew.. a month of which was in my home town coimbatore and the second month in bangalore.. made a few good friends in the company.. parsvanath.. diya joshua.. siddharth.. all of them from XIME bangalore and along with me were Neha Puri and Neha Manohar and GP Singh from SCMHRD.. we all were wondering wat we were doing there but even before we could realise.. we were out of the place..

1st week of june 2006 and we were waiting to head back to campus.. missin friends and missin campus was the common feeling that we all had.. most of our batch was eagerly waiting to chk out the juniors.. well thats a tradition.. when u come back after dry summers.. u wanna chk out for some cuties in the junior batch... but i had other issues in life.. got back to campus and made presentations abt our internship stint.. and Sem 3 at SCMHRD begins..

subbu's concentration is now on the junior batch.. he has to cement his impression right.. and there are a few enthu cutlets in our batch who are organising for the freshers party.. now the deal in the freshers party is that a senior guy has to ask out a junior girl and a junior guy has to ask out a senior girl.. most of the batch was super kicked with the idea.. however the idea failed to ring a bell in my ears... the scene in campus 1 week before the freshers was just guys running to girls and feverishly starting a conversation and eventually fixing up dates.. now there were a bunch of guys (who the bonds termed as losers) who dint have dates fixed up.. so on the night before the freshers.. tehre was this mega match fixing scam if i can call it.. where one senior guy has a list of senior un-placed guys and a senior girl sits with junior girls and fixes them up.. man.. it was a hilarious scene.. the moment a guy got placed.. he wud dance and teh whole boys hostel wud chant the name of his date.. fun it was..

on the day of the freshers, the crowd was enthusiastically bundled close to the girls hostel waitin to watch angel (devils) descend.. and them some of the enthu cutlets wud bring flowers adn gift the girl.. and blah blah.. then they wud move towards the atrium and dance until they are bored of each other and then eventually move towards friends and dance there.. my freshers party lasted precisely 3 mins coz i dint like the idea of this junior senior date and i was down with viral..

the next big thing that happend was probably the biggest thing in my 2 yrs of scmhrd.. and one of the biggest things that happened to me.. to some its as small as a bschool fest.. for me it was a big big achievement.. something that branded me for life.. the event was called NEEV.. neev was SCMHRD's bschool fest which was revived after 5-6 yrs.. the idea to revive it was initiated by Shrenik Joy Manisha and Vinay and they did awesome ground work on it. in august..the team expanded and anish and i joined teh team to head sponsorship.. from then on the flurry of activity began.. the even was scheduled for nov 24th.. loads of money had to be collected.. anish and i stopped attending classes and instead fixed up meetings with corporates making presentations to them as to why they shud sponsor our event.. anish and i dint attend classes for 3 months.. (lets not calculate teh amount of fees down the drain for it).. we charted down a list of companies.. hunted down contacts.. left campus every monring at 8:30 am as salesmen and return totally exhausted and rather defeated at 6:30 pm and then slog it out with the rest of teh team until wee hours in the morning.. for the first few weeks.. the money barely came in.. in our minds.. we could see the event failing.. in our hearts we were not willing to let go.. whenever anish lost steam.. shrenik and i wud talk him out.. and when i lost steam.. they would talk me out..

shrenik is a guy who is so very organised.. his is a very diplomatic guy.. shrenik wud never never never give up.. he was teh guy who held the entire team together.. he was teh front office and the back office of neev.. kudos to u man..
anish ... anish-o-pedia as i call him.. is the mktg guru.. he is the guy who seems to know everything in the planet.. and i dont deny it.. anish can sell under the sun.. he is a born sales guy.. so much so that he wud sell u in the market and u wont even know that u hv just been sold... endless enthusiasm..

we collected a wishful sum of 24 lakhs in cash and a lot more in kind.. we had 23 sponsors.. no bschool fest had that many sponsors..

He challenged us.. we (team neev'06) won him over him !!!

while all this was happening.. i got closer to our junior batch.. made some good friends and enjoyed their company.. after all the junior batch wasnt too bad as i thought it would be..
neev was done with and the month of december was spent settling bills and claims.. and it was time for teh next banking conclave which i decided not to be a part of for various reasons.. dec'06 was teh first time in my life i actually celebrated xmas.. went to a church with junior friends.. and sat thru the special service and ya.. it was good fun... and (this might make me sound like a loser) it was my first night out in 2 yrs.. dec 25th was a very special day in my life.. but the special feeling ended sooner than i ever thought it would.. then came new years eve.. i hv never partied on new years eve ever.. as a kid and in all my past.. i had spent the new years eve at home.. eating some good dinner.. watchin tv.. praying at the stroke of 12 and wishing dear ones.. new year's eve 06 was again v v v special.. what more it was my 2nd night out.. (now im growing).. new years eve was with a bunch of juniors who i was really close to.. mohit malani.. bhavna.. shubham.. and yes.. it was good fun.. we went to a lounge in pune.. which was packed with more ppl that it could accomodate.. occasionally danced until stroke of 12.. and tehn moved out of that place to meridien to grab some food and spend time until dawn.. had some very special moments.. special levels of comfort.. hitched a ride back to campus at 7am in the morning.. and slept for a while.. and did wat i do on every jan 1st.. went to a temple..

straight after that.. we had to gear up for our final placements.. jan3rd was when companies was when companies start pouring in .. jan 4th .. was teh day i was taken ... but for some reason.. i wasnt too happy.. jan 5th i was in bbay with the banking conclave team meeting up with ppl in nabard and icici in bkc.. although i never wanted to be a part of banking conclave.. i unintentionally landed up doing something or the other for the team..

<> yet to continue

post banana days

2005-11-09T11:03:00.000+05:30

its been another long break before i have posted.. so lemme quickly take u thru from the happenings post vipasana until now..

after a 10 day long calming session, we guys were back in campus gearing up for summer placements.. within a span of 4 days half our batch was placed.. there were mixed feelings of both joy and sorrow.. as for me... i am constantly knocking at everydoor.. waiting for one to be opened.. i surely know for one fact.. someday it will.. went thru a lil bit of depression post vipasana.. health problem and blah blah blah.. got out of it thankfully with a help of few friends...
once the era of summers had subtled down, more light was thrown on the next big seminar called Banking Conclave which would be happening on the Nov19th at mumbai.. its a big event in the history of SCMRHD which brings together the banking heads of India to discuss the future of the banking business .. again here had taken an initiative to work but now just kept in abeyance.. may be called up on to help when required...

then nightmares began with semester exams being declared from 21oct thru 6th nov.. these were supposed to be days of sleepless nights and for us to study.. but in my case the study never happened.. i think i gave up a bit too early and began walking the path of MBA-salvation.. a term that "we" would define sooner or later.. it was during these exams period i became more friendly with a couple of guys who stay opposite my room.. and we did a lot of masti.. for the first few exams, i spent long hours in the library which was a rare happening in my life and indeed studied after a break of 4 years!! the last time i seriously studied was in std 12.. but i dont think this effort helped much coz the question paper turned out to be smarter than i was.. again.. this was something not unusual ;-)we played cricket after the exams, feasted on dominos ka pizza, discovered a mess closeby called andhra mess whose yoghurt taste like chunks of clouds ;-) [ok i think i have exaggerated a bit too much but it really is tasty].. did all sort of masti that a serious MBA student would not do atleast during exams.. our director has specified that if we flunk in more than 2 subjects, we would be sent home.. i guess i would clear this criteria of his easily and flunk in about half a doz .. and as per his calculations will be sent back home 3 times .. heheheheh .. ok serious now.. i am actually scared.. so just have to wait and watch..

then came diwali chutti from 1st to 4th nov.. the boys had not got permission to go home due to some unfortunate circumstances and diwali holidays had been restricted only to girls.. but most of us had our tickets booked and went for our holidays back home, and luckily nothing happened.. by the way .. happy diwali Subbu sir !! happy diwali guys !!! left from campus on 31st oct and spent a few hours with a close friend of mine, spent the night at the mumbai airport terminal..the new terminal is awesome by indian standards and flew home on 1st...

my family was very happy to see me.. and as expected mummy welcomed me with tears.. the first thing i was made to do was climb the weighing scale which threw up some astonishing figures.. lost some 14kgs in less than 6 months.. and mummy's tear glands broke open.. after that.. i was only feed sweets ;-) gosh now i feel like a fattened chicken ready to be made halal for the next semester.. four days at home just flew past even before i knew.. flew back to mumbai and then came back to pune on 4th evening.. the drive back to pune was very very adventurous right from the time i boarded the bus.. after i reached pune and got down, realised that i had left my favourite watch and a bag in the bus, chased the bus for about an hour and finally got it.. was very very tired when i got back to campus..

the next day we had exams again.. had 2 exams scheduled for 5th and 6th novemeber.. and once they were done there was a sense of relief that a part of the ngihtmares are over.. many of my batchmates had decided to go home for a longer stay after the exams.. fortunately for them our placements team had launched a placement drive where in the students who are placed for summers get to go to their hometown to pitch with companies and try to bring them in for further placements ... so close to 60 students are out on placment drives now and are expected to get back to campus on 13th of nov.. well i was also asked for my preference but was barred from going coz i am not placed :( never mind.. i shall go for admissions ;-)

second semester started, and the classes have been scheduled in a sort of relaxing way.. the pre-lunch sessions are the core subjects for all students to attend and post lunch are only the electives.. monday and tuesday i am free post lunch at 2pm.. so two days went back to my room and watch movies (bunty n babli, snatch, chocolate) .. the start to the second semester was not very good.. a few unfortunate incidents happened which i hope wud be corrected prettty soon..

and now.. nov9th 11.45 am .. i am sitting in some six sigma lecture.. have classes frm 830am to 6.30pm.. and this thing sucks.. just got another jerk in life when the prof told that its a 100 mark paper and the passing score is 90% .. that was a smack on the face..
amidst all this.. trust me MBA and b-school is fun.. it is prolly the last few months you are going to enjoy your student-jeevan.. the best you could do is enjoy every moment of it..

i now breathe with a sigh of relief with this post coming to an end... i guess i have successfully and briefly told almost everything that has happend post banana days ;-)

mangal ho !!

abishek

MY BANANA DAYS

2005-09-16T11:18:00.000+05:30

Caution: In my endeavor to vent out frustration, references to any being living or dead is purely coincidental and not intentional

U might just be wondering as to why I have named this mail my banana days and you shall find out as u go deeper into the mail...

The first break of dawn on aug 31, 2005 spelt doom on the first years of scmhrd... reason... we were leaving for a 10 day calming known as Vipasana... the entire batch was divided into 3.. The boys... 120 of them were sent to a village called igatpuri which is an 8hour drive from pune and 35 girls were sent to panvel on the outskrits of mumbai and the rest 65 girls were at the pune centre...

What is vipasana? i still do not know... but there is one uncle called google uncle and he knows almost everything so i will give u his address and u can find out for urself... however, i shall attempt to describe it in my own version which may not have any correlation to what it really means...vipasana is what buddha learnt and got enlightened and also spread the knowledge or technique to his disciples.. its to calm the mind down and help to deal with realities... and buddha or rather vipasana preaches that the we ourself are the cause and solutions of the problems and miseries and happiness around us... they do have 10 day, 21 day and 45 day courses out here and the small scenic village of igatpuri houses the vipasana international center and attracts people from all walks of life from all round the world..

we reached this place which is called Dhammagiri on 31st afternoon and were welcomed with some lunch.. typical Marathi poha and BANANAS.. and then we were given an orientation of the course which highlighted : No smoking , No drinking, No nonveg, No
talking, Complete Noble silence, No books, No mobiles, No male female communication, NO nothing.. it was 10 days total detachment from the world.. we were shown our rooms, most of us were allocated single rooms.. mine was barely 6 feet by 9 feet in size which also included a toilet and bathroom ...so now i hope u can imagine the size.. the rooms were decent, a few of them in the new block looked like a 5 star hotel room.. although i wasn’t so lucky and got a room with resembles a dungeon.. i managed to Survive my days out there without cribbing about it..

we then had our first meditation sitting at 5pm on day 0 and from then on we were instructed to maintain strict noble silence. initially it was sort of fun only communicating in sign lang.. we were not allowed to smile or even maintain eye contact with "fellow sadhaks".. i felt that they were literally killing our emotions but this was the first step towards "enlightenment"...the time table for the next 10 days was as follows

4.30am to 6.30am - Group meditation in dhamma hall (which i never went)
6.30am to 7.15am - Breakfast
8.00am to 11.00am - Compulsory group meditation in hall (we had to attend this but never sat for more than an hour and a half)
11.00am to 11.45am - Lunch
12.00pm to 2.30pm - Meditation in own room (which meant sleep time ... yipeee!!)
2.30pm to 5.00pm - Compulsory group meditation in dhamma hall (again used to sit here only until 4pm after which used to walk out of the hall and stroll around)
5.00pm to 5.45pm - Dinner !!!!!
6.00pm to 9.00pm - compulsory group meditation and audio video discourse ( this was sort of relieving coz the discourse was a hilarious in bits and pieces)
9.30pm - Lights off !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we "10 day monks" had to follow this time table very very strictly.. day 1 as soon as we sat for the first official sitting.. we heard gurujis voice on the audio tape and burst out laughing.. the voice is so grose.. now just imagine a man who has a sore throat speaking from his grave and not even half of the speed of a normal human talk.. man it was uncontrollable laughter.. but then the dhamma sevaks who were acting as cops came and joined hands and asked us to shut up.. each of us were given places to sit and these were called "aasan" and mine was somewhere in the centre of the octagonal hall.. apart from the 100 guys there were close to 200 others also in the same hall .. most of them aged 35 and above.. after the first group meditation sitting, i went upto the assistant teacher and explained my back problem and requested for a back rest or a chair and he was kind enough to give me a chair and also a place to sit on the floor against the wall right at the back.. i was enjoying vipasana ;-) very soon, there was hardly any place against the wall.. and i never knew that so many friends of mine had back aches.. this is known as herd-mentality... our noble silence never lasted for more than one hour and actions turned into words literally.. we started speaking in low whispers and giggling and it’s really fun to act that u are maintaining noble silence and yet giggling around.. by the end of the 2nd session, our frustration began and we realized that we are in the wrong place.. this place or this thing is not for us.. our revolt against vipasana started right there right then and we
guys decided to boycott this course, it was a lil too much for our "tender" minds...

we could draw a lot of similarities between dhamma giri and tihar jail.. and we did get to hear one more fact that kiran bedi
made her prisoners also undergo vipasana,. and then i realised that soon there would be a change in the Indian Penal code where the highest sentence one could get would be a 45day course of vipasana.. its death and rebirth 45 times..by the end of the 2nd day we were a group of 40 guys who were willing to run away and infact had a group talk with the head of the management in igatpuri and this issue blew out of proportions with our institute director stating that the 10day course is a criteria for completion of MBA in scmhrd and that dropped the number drastically.. this drama went on thru the night and finally no one left on the 2nd day.. but there was a lot of cribbing all round.. there were frequent raids in our rooms with dhamma sewaks hunting for mobile phones, mp3 players, books, eatables and on the third day they managed to confiscate close to 30 mobile phones... my room was raided 3 times inside out in 10 days and they could not find my phone.. i am not telling u my imaginative hiding place but one thing i can tell u , the insole of my right nike shoe has now become loose :( now i guess ur grey cells are working ..coming to food.. the menu would be as follows:

Breakfast - Poha/Idli/Upma , chutney, brown bread (which i once mistook for cake), milk, tea and BANANA.
Lunch - Chapathi , Rice , Dal , some vegetable, boiled vegetables, salad, curds/buttermilk , BANANA.
Dinner - Kadalai podi (Ground nuts with puffed rice), apple/papaya/kiwi, BANANA, milk, tea

on an average, i ate 5 bananas a day.. and at the end of it i had a tally of 4 dozen BANANAS, i havent eaten these many BANANAS all my life and i am sure that the BANANA plantation owners find a good prospective eater in me.. and no i was not
alone.. i was given stiff competition by my fellow sadhaks.. every day at around 10.30am a group of 5 of us would walk out of the meditation hall and roam around like hungry dogs just waiting to attack the dining all.. at the stroke of 11, we literally have a walkathon (walking race) towards the dining hall and along with 5 friends there was one old frustrated man who ran along with us.. that guy also was so frustrated of life and being in this place.. we would giggle the moment we see his face in the meditation hall... the sly look of an 8yr old kid on a 40yr olds face looking down and smiling was a sight to fight for.. he apparently sat against the wall bang in between 3 frustrated trouble makers (anish, sriram and yours truly) and giggled his way thru vipasana.. at the end of it we discovered he was named Herbalkar Prasad and this chap is from bangalore and he looks nothing less than a circus clown.. he also wanted to run away on the 5th day and whispered into our ears that he is with us if we plan an escape !!! at the end of the course we did apologize to him and found the reason for his frustration.. his wife, father in law, mother in law, brother in law have completed the course and blackmailed him to do it failing which he would be chucked out of home !!! we hence found the reason for his frustration and weird behavior and active participation in the daily walkathon towards the dining hall.. not that our race as 20year olds was justified but for a 40yr old it’s a little too much to digest.. amidst all this we did have a couple of guys getting caught for smoking and chewing gutka.. one chap who just could take it ran back to campus on the 6th day only to find him expelled from the college.. we did fight a lot as a batch on his behalf to bring him back and eventually we did.. on the final day we did have guys sneaking out of dhamma giri to a village nearby which had a waterfall and also some non veg to feast on.. i had decided not to be too adventurous..with the passing days, we realised that only a handful students are doing it seriously and maintaining full and complete silence...personally for me, my frustration was ebbing.. i even spoke to the assistant teacher and he said that this was bound to happen, but that poor old man dint realise that it was happening even without me meditating... i told him very very frankly that i am bugged of this place and want to run away and scream out loud.. and all he said was "Shanth beta, yeh sab anich (impermanant) hai.. do din mein theek ho jaoge" and after two days it only got every crazier..for some reason I believe that these assistant teachers have a “never say no” attitude, u go to them with any problem under the sun, tell them that u are frustrated, or tried, or can concentrate or getting multiple sensations in the same place or rather no sensation at all, worse u get loose motions and they have a standard answer : politely in their shudh hindi they would say “dude this is bound or rather expected to happen” i was frustrated but just dint have a method to vent it out...we were not allowed to speak to friends although we spoke in low whispers hidingly..we were not supposed to have cell phones but i did have one which i did use to keep in touch with friends and family yet i had a mental block of this entire vipasana thing..

What i could have learnt with vipasana?
I really dont know..

What did vipasana do to me?
-made me more frustrated in life
-made me realise that i can eat 4 dozen BANANAS in 10 days
-made me realise that dal is good for health ( i know some ppl wil be smiling )
-made me realise that i have a weak spine and am very restless
-made me realise that if i can watch the clock tick minute by minute, second by second
-made me realise that i wasted 250 hours of my life
-made me realise that an idle mind is not only a devils workshop but also a creative thinker... i got all wild thoughts of having a regional office on the moon !!!!!!
-made me realise that i am shrinking by the day...all my trousers have become looser by a few inches..
-made me realise that campus is heaven no matter how many angels/devils we have back there..
-made me realise that i cannot keep quiet for long time
-made me realise that a mobile phone is one of the greatest inventions
-made me realise that i can sleep for more than 12 hours a day
-made me realise a lot of things .... which i cannot recall :-(

on the final day after the noble silence was broken, we could smell freedom, but the nirvana was when we entered back into our campus...i did develop respect for Mr. Goenka who brought in this technique to India and it was his voice that was being relayed during the meditation, and vipasana does help people if they do it whole heartedly and are not forced to do it..

but now i can boast of "Successfully completed a 10 day vipasana course" which is a rare achievement.. if u dont believe me.. ask Goenka.. he will tell u..

(This is wat happens -- post vipassna)

Mangal Ho!
Be Happy!

Abishek

long time no see...

2005-06-16T18:04:00.000+05:30

i am blogging today after a span of more than 3 days..

my bday was a day to remember, with ppl singing and wishing me every one hour... only thing it was a long long day with some vedanta guest lecture, i did manage to hog some "extra" limelight that day..

after that days have just been normal... lil extra work on laptop deals, being in the negotitation committee is fun... we are making Hp, Dell and Acer run from pillar to post though personally its sure that we have striking it with Hp.

Exams begin tomm and i will be back online only on sunday...

there is a lot to pen but i dont have the time to ...

will get back with more later...

Auf Wiedersehen (Good Bye in german)

Abishek

happy bday to me...

2005-06-13T10:28:00.000+05:30

yipee... i turn 22today and i feel a year older with stronger shoulders.. and guess wat i am enjoying the pressure... last night was sitting on the lawn preparing for my first presentation in SCMHRD when mala, adithi, anish, sunil, dileep, showkath (malas friend) came with a cake..... i was smiling big time... coz these ppl had started celebrating 2hrs before i cud turn 22... cake cutting and cake smashing we unavoidable circumstances with such rogues around.... they also gifted me a shirt which makes sure i shed some weight to fit in ;-)
ppl and wishes just kept trickling and i was finally allowed to sleep at 12.30....

5.45am gym :( this was the worst thing that could happen to me on my bday.... luckily dint exert much pressure.. was flat on the floor after the 3rd push up.....rushed back to the room at 6.15 and started studying again....anish, aditi, mala, sunil mad ppl keep wishing me every one hour... came to class at 9am and the entire class was singing for me... to add more.. they gave me gifts and a HUGE bday card.. it was so sweet of them.... hope the day goes on this way...

something wat was not for the asking is happening to us.... we have classes from 9am to 6.30pm and then a guest lecture from 6.30pm to 8.45pm and i have just been assigned the duty of escorting the chief guest which means i cant bunk the guest lecture and i have to be in vicinity of the guest...

so far so good... anup and i have just managed to sneak out of class for some official duty on laptop negotiations... we are now in the lab and supposed to do soem research on specific models.. anup is hardworking.. and so i am here with u .. but not for long..

will get back with more later today...

hasta la vista (good day in spanish)

abishek

...

2005-06-12T09:50:00.000+05:30

finally got to visit Pune city on friday eveng... caught the symbi bus at 4.45 which dropped us close to e-square (a multiplex owned by sanjay dutt) ... we were 9 of us.. and it was pouring... we also got to see a rare sight : two rainbows :)
esquare dint serve nonveg and everyone (barring neha and i) wanted to feast on nonveg...
we decided to move to FC Road and we landed up travelling half of pune city and finally met at another multiplex called inox which was abt 25mins from esqaure (we dint plan to go that far) and had to settle at mcD :( we then had an eating race coz we targeted catch the 7.30pm bus back to the insti and we made it just in time.. the drive back was even more enthralling with gr8 songs on fm and rains lashing on the windows.....surprising it dint pour in hinjewadi and thats the power of our director ;-)
back at symbi, we spent some time on the lawn and enjoyed the cool breeze before we could call it a day... this was one of the most memorable days at symbi..

saturday we had classes and laptop presentations... hp had come in to campus with their offers and it was really tempting... guess we should strike a deal.. the day was so so .. nothing gr8 happening.. just that i had excess work and had to work on 3 assignments simultaneously... towards the end of the day at 10.30.....our batchmate joy tripped over while playing basket ball... we rush him to the hospital and the xray revealed 2 fractures on his right foot.. he should be fine in 3weeks... luckily off from the rigours of excersing at day break :(

today sunday:( classes from 9am to 6.30pm ... aloo parata for nashta :(
the best part of today was we dint have exercises,.... sundays are off ... but we have full day classes.... surprisingly our professor still hasnt turned up .. its 10am now... its a long day and i have to prepare for my eco presentations.. and help others with it too.. we are a group of 12 and we all are co-ordinating and making the first presentation to our classes... hope it goes well..

tomm is an even longer day :(( got gym in the morning (thinking how to bunk that) and then classes from 9am to 6.30pm and then seminar from 6.30pm to 8.30pm... hopefully there is nothing after thtat and i can have atleast three and half hours free to celebrate ;-)

bye for now...

2005-06-09T12:51:00.000+05:30

motivation is pouring in from all over the place

today morning had to be in the gym at 5.45 and got up only at 5.42...had to brush and get ready and yet reach in time or u lose on attendance... learnt to handle a lot of pressure..but this gym instructor is stupid.. he expects every to be tarzans...teh very first day 25 push ups... i was flat out after the 4th... and now my arms are paining... finished the gym session at 6.15 and went back to the room to catch up some sleep.. slept only at 1am hence the sleep was required...

had uttappam for breakfast and the classes havent been taxing today... we do have german again in the eveng and german is fun... i am enjoying and so is the german instructor.. in the very first class i was called onto the podium and asked to interact with the instructor in german and i am over whelmed with my command over the language on the very first day ... good start...

i have been in pune for 8 days now and still havent gone to the city :( guess its going to take another 15days to go there.. we are plannin togo on the 24th of june after teh computer exam.. lets hope it works..now just waiting to have lunch...

kind of enjoying the lunch, the atmosphere, the people and most importantly the pressure...u might just be wondering how i get to write so much inspite of allthe pressure surrounding me ;-) well thats teh art.. i have maintained100% attendance so far and plan to do so until april 20, 2007 - the date of our graduation..

will update soon..

hv fun reading!!!

Musings from SCMHRD Chap2

2005-06-09T12:47:00.000+05:30

Well,I am sort of getting into the habit of writing..
life is beginning to become more organised by the day although thecontents of this mail are pouring in from all directions and are notinterlinked...
to start off...lemme tell u abt my day today at scmhrd (7.6.05)
got up at 5.00am and luckily dint have yoga today..our body dimensions were being measured bunked the idea of jogging with friends and headedback to the room to read mrktg management by philip kotler...read tenpages and then slept again till 8.15 am.... slept because ysday wewere so tired that we dozed off in class and dint want to repeat itall over again.. had bath and breakfast and ready at 8.55am for theclasses... we had research methodology, organisational behavior,statistics and language... language we had choices of german, french,spanish and chinese... i opted for german and hey there Guten Tag !!!(how are u) i am beginning to enjoy german... learnt a bit andconversed with all my batchmates today.. infact created my ownsentences and made even the german teacher smile as if she iscolgate's model... today lunch was good... dal, chawal, roti, paneerkurma, curds, salad.... now got to rush for dinner before the messcloses at 9.30pm... tomm morning we have to submit our assignmentreports.. within the first two days.. we have been showered with 3 bigassignments lined up ... 1 research for 75marks.. 1 class presentationin economics and one assignment in human behaviour.. and we haventeven entered the 3rd working day... well i am sure before i see thesunrise next week will have 4-5 assignments more to do... the burdenhere is just too much ... its gonna take 200% of me to excel and i am"ready for the kill"... tonite after dinner gonna study atleast 6chaps of human behaviour and tomm morning will do 20pages ofmarketing..
team work will see u thru.. but u have to be very competitive.. ucannot board the bus alone.. but u cant stand out either.. u got tocatch the bus and catch it in time and also help ur friends into it..u never know where this journey will take u in life...
i have exams on 17th(3papers - 6hrs), 18th(3 papers - 6hrs) and 19th(1 paper - 2hrs) of june.. and got to study hard for that.. its thefirst impression we are going to thrust on the college and it betterbe the good... we dont know when we will get to see pune city.. justcant wait to take a day off.. tired already..
hope to catch up with some sleep tonite..

My Musings from SCMHRD

2005-06-09T12:35:00.000+05:30

Day 1 - 02.06.05

Reached SCMHRD at 4pm. The campus is spread over four acres withartistic landscapes. This is right in the middle of the Infotech parkand is surrounded with breath taking views. Was alloted Room No. 406in the boys hostel. My room mates are Amit Goswami (from delhi , talland very helpful guy, has worked in infy at pune before joiningscmhrd) and amit thakurel ( from bangalore and he is a sindhi) ...both these guys are very helpful and luckily for me stay away from the harazds of smoke and drink... the rooms have 3 beds, 3 wardrobes, 3 study tables with over head racks and a bathroom and closetattached... the very first day after setting up things in the room, wehad dinner in the mess.... dal, rice and chapathi come as standardmenu every day for lunch and dinner and there are subjees like rajma,paneer, alu baingan etc etc.. the food is very hygeinic...the dinnertimings are from 8pm to 9.45 pm .. after which we guys and girlsgrouped up for an informal introduction. the hostel roll call happensat 10.30pm and no matter where we are, we have to reach teh hostel intime for the roll call...

Day 2 - 3rd june

Morning woke up at 5.30 and we friends went for a jog... came at 8amand ate breakfast, toast and coffee.. went to the rooms and got readyfro the induction and presentation which was supposed to happen at11.00am... this was the first formal gathering at scmhrd and we got tomeet the founder director padmashree s.b majumdar.. and also thedirector of the institute.. the director killed us slowly.. inch byinch.. but he has a vision and we are his horses.... every professorintroduced to us was nothing less than a devil. we are sure to havemany sleepless nights lined up for us..a few of the rules...

1. no mobile phones in academic block. if found first time the simcard is broken, if found second time then the mobile is broken, if found third... then god save u ....

2. no night outs.. no sleeping more than 4 hrs... for every 2 hrsof classroom study there should be 3.5 hrs of self study.. we haveclasses from 9am to 6.30pm after which we have to do a lot ofcommittee work.. have to sleep.. have to study.. i just figured outthat 24hrs are too less

3. only formals allowed in the academic block..anything less thanthat the student is restricated.

the rules are too many and they are difficult to recollect.. all inall the director told that he is the biggest criminal and he lovesscreweing up sleeps... we can have exams at 12 midnight with 15mins notice also.. such is the life.after the induction and presentation.. we were sent for photo sessionsfor the id cards and gave mesurements for the suits... had lunch andrested in the afternoon... even we all were in casuals and went for awalk... they were screening "naina" in the auditorium... yes they doscreen 6-7 movies a month and we are not required to go out for anypurpose.. had a lot of fun.. chatted.. played around.. slep at 1am !!!

Day 3 & 4 - 4th and 5th June

OUT BOUND LEARNING...all students had to be ready at 6am and we were taken to a sportscomplex 15mins away.. tehre we wer divided into groups and made toplay management games.. the 2 days were the most tiring but the mostfun filled as well..our physical and mental limits were tested... gotto make a lot of friends ... games could be anything like making ahuman chain and rolling.. carry ppl thourgh branches...blindfoldingand walking.. it was all to build confidence, trust and above of teamwork... on 4 the evng we reached the campus at 6pm and immidly had toprepare for a group skit .. we had a bon fire at the campus at 8.30and each of the groups showed their hidden talents.. we have amitabh bachans , mr. beans, micheal jacksons, shankar mahadevans, laloo prasad yadavs, eveyone in the batch.. a thorough talent show topped upwith a mind blowing guitar and song performacen which went on till 12at night... slept at 1 and had to be at the gates at 5am on sunday morning (5th june) for the second day of the obl.. we were againdivided into other groups.. adn this was a longer and tougher day..ppldint have the strenght to walk even 500mts and we were made to coverdistances of 10kms in all by foot...the day started at 6am and we hadthe games on till 7.45pm.. got back to campus and ate dinner...we hadan interaction with seniors and everyone were so tired (dead i mustsay) got back to the rooms at 11pm and studied till 1am.

Day 5 - June 6th5.45 - 6.15

yoga :(after sleeping at 1am no soul could get up.. but we had no choice.. we dint have yoga today but were made to strip and give total bodymeasurements to the fitness centre.. we have 30mins sessions everyday... one day yoga.. one day gym.. and one day aerobics.. god we are in a jail :( after that.. we friends went for a jog and got back at 8am .. our first class started today at 9am.. all have to be in theclass at 8.58 sharp nahi toh no attendance for the entire day .. weneed to have 100% attendence without which we wont be allowed tograduate... failing - they dont understand what that means .....sickness - soemthing wat they would never give in to.. even if ur legsare broken.. ur classmate better carry u to class... and impossible -that word doesnt exist at all..i have some how got 15mins free and typed this mail...have to rush for lunch now and the next class is at 2.15.... hopefullywe get to sleep today.. slept for hardly 20hrs in the past 5days

my new number 98603 38698

My first post

2005-06-09T12:33:00.000+05:30

dear readers !!!

welcome aboard to the window which permits you to peep into my life...

this is your captain Abishek Kalro and I wish you all a safe journey..

fasten your seatbelts..

sit back and ..... relax !!!!!

" God was experimenting with intelligence - and made Me !!! "