Can hardly believe its one year since leaving NMIMS...Juniors (DJ&co.) have their convo on 29th April. Feeling damn senti now...one entire year has passed since convo day...never really got a chance to post my thank you list (like mallu long oscar award winning speech) or list my favorate moments at NM..so here goes..Many of you who read this might get bored..pls bear with me...those 2 years meant a lot to me and this is one way or reliving those awesome moments...Chai at govind..dosas and vada pav outside college.movies at fun and fame (with pooh having 120 degree fever)..5 min jhatpat presentations (like maggi...)..Paragana..Euphoria..the list goes on and on...
But here are my top 10 unforgettable moments at NMIMS:
10-Paragana -04: As usual fight till last moment for speakers, sponsorship..permissions...2 days of pure madness running between my suite (yes...they actually gave me one), college and the ball room..
Unforgettable-3 mad chicks jumping on my bed and refusing to let me sleep. Me , mallu, nitin and DJ sitting with loads of cash and an endless supply of booze (some 20 cases of beer, 100 cans of redbull, 10 bottles of vodka and whisky eah)...corleones revisited..
9-Journey to Allahabad and Back: the top 2 ppl (who supposedly run college...much to the displeasure of others) take a quick 3 days holiday from Euphoria and hop into a train for a quizfest.
Unforgettable-Mallu reasoning with the ticket inspectors and cops after we are caught for pulling the chain..in typical mallu accent " Aap bihar mein jaakar log ko pakdo...woh roz chain khhechta hai..." and just before the cops come our man taking a hanky and trying to wipe our fingerprints off the chain (remembering his CIA days)
8-Fight at Fame: A screening of troy turns into an actual war between mallu and some baldy...with me madly calling every person i know and screaming "jaldi aa..raada ho gaya"..
Unforgettable-The look on pooh's face when rahul casually tells her that such fights were a daily occurance at Bharati Vidyapeeth and we are veterans of many such battles.
7-Euphoria-05: The last fest of my illustrious organizing career...signing off in style.
Unforgettable-Late night eating sessions at Amar...watching movies lying down on comfy gaddas in room no 21.
6-Presentation on Budget05 in Forex management class: Toughest course i ever took in my life...understoof jackshit...was happy changing slides in the presentation till suddenly the prof looks at me and says--"Now Nishith will give us a summary of the entire presentation....."
Unforgettable-The speech i made after that..." hmm...ahem....the budget was very nice...the fin minister did a very good job...he did now bow in to the pressure from the left" Prof: what are the implication on forex mgmt..Me: "hmm...we need investment in infrastructure...we need to allow more Fdi...the budget was very good...the fin min did a very good job"
5-Euphoria 04- One of the most enjoyable fests of my life...me, mallu, shubhs, dipika and good ol abbaji...along with the nair brothers..the best fest organising team i have ever seen in my life...
Unforgettable- The first razzy awards...uday dancing on sexy sexy..my first razzy...MUMBHAI award...and the reliance fiasco...what a fest...
4-Summer Placement: october-placement season starts...feb-not placed yet...totally depressed..finally get shortlisted for IDBI bank..cracked the gd and interview...but a long long wait till 9pm to get my placement confirmed..
Unforgettable-The celebration at Mocha...finally using all those free coupons which we had been hoarding all this while...drinking the obscenely expensive Lindt chocolate shake just becoz its the mst expensive thing on the menu...free ka maal hai yaar...
3-Final Placements: After a 3and a half min interview where i was asked point blank...why should we hire u?...i somehow mumbled some answer..had lost all hopes of getting placed in Kotak till that phone call 2 days later..
Unforgettable-12 pm in the library on day 1. The ambience was simply mindblowing...
2-Farewell (unofficial): The last party we had at velocity...totally smashed...hugging everyone i knew (and didnt know also)..
Unforgettable- Mallu and pooh finally confessing what i had been suspecting for quite some time...old man, little man and the fat lady..all crying and hugging each other...
1-Consumer Behaviour Presentaion (neeta Acharyas class): The best presentation team ever born in the universe...Mr Gas and Mr Razzy...what a combination...Me, mallu, pooh and the nair bros...made the presentation in exactly 2 hrs...and got a whopping 9.5 (out of 10...the highest ever)...leaving a class full of shocked faces and a very happy teacher...
Unforgettable-Me looking a some boring slide..suddenly getting inspired by looking at nitin and announcing to the teacher " our research shows that the girl child is much smarter than the guy.." Bravo says the teacher...5 points extra for that...
Some guy in class (to mallu): the figures which u ve shown in ur graph add up to more than 100%...how is that possible...
Mallu (confidently): Actually it was a very big graph..we used only a part of it...
same guy (smirks): If u used only a part of the graph then the precentage should be less than 100 not more than 100...(i ve got him by the balls look)
Mallu (scratching his head...yeh kya bol raha hai): actually i am quite bad at maths....
And that was when he won the crown-the god of gas..me and the nair brothers give up all claims on the throne....
well technically the convo was the happiest moment...but these were the best moment of my student life..while i was in college...sorry to those who got bored reading this...to those who ve reached this far...ur comments please...they matter a lot...miss u guys...
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Kalina vs NPT
This one comes due to a special request by friends and colleagues who wanted me to compare present office location to the old one..
life was so good in 2005. Office was in nariman point (bakhtawar). Travelling by ac bus...so many options at lunchtime...walk over to inox whenever u wanna watch a movie (thursdayz only...they have some manhattan card 1+1 scheme)... A lovely office building (recently voted the best in nariman pt by some organisation) and so many goodlooking women around. We were slightly taken aback when it was announced that office would now move to kalina (yeah the same place where double decker buses also drowned during the july rains)...
So many ppl were happy...reduces commuting time...can travel by rick were the main reasons given by them. Anyways most of mumbai's population lives in the western suburbs so they would be ok with kalina. But pls spare a thought for the ones who live in the central line and harbour line...yeah coming to kurla is much faster than coming to VT...but has anyone noticed what kind of a place kurla station is...the only other time i have seen so many humans together was when i went to see a match at wankhede stadium...getting a place to stand in the platform is tough at kurla leave alone getting inside the train..
so me finally decided to compare the two locations in true MBA fashion. I list down the strengths and weaknesses of each location. Then i shortlist some parameters which i think are important for an office location. Then i give each parameter a certain weightage. Finally every location is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 and the weighted score is calculated. i am proud of myself now. never ever did this in b school...but now i am finally applying this in real world...this is what i call application...however in order to be completely sure about my findings...i try to convince ashish and nishant to rate the locations also...then maybe my findings will appear more substantiated (once again i am using big words in real life situation...my application is becoming better by the day...) so here are the findings:
finally the debate is settled...the wise men at Kotak did make a smart decision by opting for Kalina instead on continuing at Bakhtawar...and i have proved my worth as an MT...by effectively utilising my time and analysing these locations on a bunch of silly parameters suggested by colleagues...maybe raju should read this...so that he can stop making fun of me for working out of kalina...
So what if i drown during the rains...so what if the road to office is filled with more potholes than the surface of the moon...so what if we get to get food at nithyanand instead of status...it doesnt matter if the only remotely feminine thing we see is aunty's going to buy vegetables at kalina market and the only smartly dressed people we see here (apart from the kotak clan) are the mechanics repairing the dozens of ricks and taxis parked outside office...it has ben officially proved that kalina is better...long live dani compound...goodbye bakhtawar...i am off to learn swimming...with monsoon fast approaching..its better to be prepared when calamity strikes...
life was so good in 2005. Office was in nariman point (bakhtawar). Travelling by ac bus...so many options at lunchtime...walk over to inox whenever u wanna watch a movie (thursdayz only...they have some manhattan card 1+1 scheme)... A lovely office building (recently voted the best in nariman pt by some organisation) and so many goodlooking women around. We were slightly taken aback when it was announced that office would now move to kalina (yeah the same place where double decker buses also drowned during the july rains)...
So many ppl were happy...reduces commuting time...can travel by rick were the main reasons given by them. Anyways most of mumbai's population lives in the western suburbs so they would be ok with kalina. But pls spare a thought for the ones who live in the central line and harbour line...yeah coming to kurla is much faster than coming to VT...but has anyone noticed what kind of a place kurla station is...the only other time i have seen so many humans together was when i went to see a match at wankhede stadium...getting a place to stand in the platform is tough at kurla leave alone getting inside the train..
so me finally decided to compare the two locations in true MBA fashion. I list down the strengths and weaknesses of each location. Then i shortlist some parameters which i think are important for an office location. Then i give each parameter a certain weightage. Finally every location is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 and the weighted score is calculated. i am proud of myself now. never ever did this in b school...but now i am finally applying this in real world...this is what i call application...however in order to be completely sure about my findings...i try to convince ashish and nishant to rate the locations also...then maybe my findings will appear more substantiated (once again i am using big words in real life situation...my application is becoming better by the day...) so here are the findings:
finally the debate is settled...the wise men at Kotak did make a smart decision by opting for Kalina instead on continuing at Bakhtawar...and i have proved my worth as an MT...by effectively utilising my time and analysing these locations on a bunch of silly parameters suggested by colleagues...maybe raju should read this...so that he can stop making fun of me for working out of kalina...So what if i drown during the rains...so what if the road to office is filled with more potholes than the surface of the moon...so what if we get to get food at nithyanand instead of status...it doesnt matter if the only remotely feminine thing we see is aunty's going to buy vegetables at kalina market and the only smartly dressed people we see here (apart from the kotak clan) are the mechanics repairing the dozens of ricks and taxis parked outside office...it has ben officially proved that kalina is better...long live dani compound...goodbye bakhtawar...i am off to learn swimming...with monsoon fast approaching..its better to be prepared when calamity strikes...
Sunday, April 09, 2006
state of mind
another day...still figuring out what work to do. Have to finish reading a 100 page document before tuesday and present my valuable inputs in the meeting. I definitely don't want to spend the weekend reading 100 pages on internet architecture and database connectivity so its time to follow up on my new found hobby.
Met Nikhil after ages yesterday. He was always the smart one. Used to top the class in BVCOE.. went to IIM B..and always managed to keep in touch with his photography and books and sports and social issues...i always felt like the poor country cousin...barely managed to scrape through 4 years of engg. in Mumbai university with the usual share of KTs. Could only manage a NMIMS (not that i regret it at all). Didnt show enough dedication and determination to wait for another year to give my CAT and try for A, B or C...i was always happy hopping into a rick and going to b school...eating yummy home cooked food while my batchmates were forced to digest hostel food or had to survive on the food dished out by cooper hospital canteen...
So me , nikhil and dj decided to head for dinner. he was in quite a bad mood. In fact yesterday was the first time i felt that he might actually hit someone. He was really upset with the HRD ministers decision to extend 27% reservation for OBCs to IITs and IIMs. I dont want to get into details of the decision and its modalities. Am sure enough people are writing about it right now. What really touched me was the story of this guy (apna nikhil)..who has come from a middle class family...always worked hard for everything in life...braved the peak hour mumbai locals..changed trains to reach college in faraway belapur...and had a paid seat...because most of the free seats were for reservation candidates....if anyone deserved a free seat it was him. Not becoz he is my friend or a very nice individual. Becoz he is the only example of a perfect student i have ever come across in my life. Brilliant in acads. Goalkeeper of college football team. A great fielder and decent batsman in cricket. An enthusiastic participant in debates and quizzes. Managed to organise a couple of decent tech fests (with very very limited resources and HUGE amount of dificulties)...always helpful..did his bit by mentoring many junior students (dj was one of them).
Our man does not complain that he did not get a free seat. He happily pays the fees (50 grand for teachers teaching in marathi, classrooms with no fans and tube lights which don't work and half a classroom full of students whose IQ was well below the retarded level..actually the same applied for the profs too). He takes a loan from his relatives to meet his educational expenses. Here in college he sees his classmates zipping around in fancy cars...eating and drinking (lots of it) at fancy places...taking their vacations at places like goa...and above all failing in every conceivable subject there is under the sun (even communication skills). These are the students who fall under the OBC category and have been allotted a free seat because their ancestors were oppressed by upper caste people in the past.
He gets into IIM B later and then TAS (still maintaining the simple lifestyle) but very happy with the fact that at least now everything in life is fair. People study and get jobs on merit and not on the basis of their caste certificates. And then comes the stupid old HRD minister who wants to implement this crazy ordinance (or act...whatever it is). Now Nikhil is worried about his kids..never ever did he want his kids to struggle in life as much as he did. He can afford to pay the high fees but he cannot come to terms with the fact that sooner or later there will be reservations in schools...in private companies..everywhere. maybe the stupid government will have reservations in trains (bcoz their ancestors were made to travel standing) and planes (becoz they didn't exist in those days, so the deprived classes should be given a chance to sit and travel in them). Now he plans to migrate to the US so that he does not have to worry about the quality of education and opportunities for his children.
Many might think its a hasty decision. Taken purely on the basis on emotion. Life out there is also not easy. Why would someone want to live like a seocnd class citizen in some other country. If we have casteism here they have racism there. But thinking from his point of view..i feel the decision is justified. Today its the IITs and IIMs...tomorrow its the schools and day after its private companies..trains and airplanes might sound a bit far fetched but its a distinct possibility. Merit is losing prominence here and the government is acting as a catalyst. Agreed there are lots of opportunities here and indian companies are doing as well. Agreed that many indians are returning from abroad to find many exciting challenges here. But think about our children. Will he ever be able to send his children to a good school if there are 50% reservations? There are only a handful of good science and commerce colleges in the city and its is quite difficult to get into them (reservations already exist here). Will his dream of sending his kids to the IITs be fulfilled here? I don't think so. Instead of improving the infrastructure and the level of teaching in technical institutions here the government is more interested in fulfilling poll time promises.
This is creating an even bigger problem. The lack of technically qualified and competent people. We are creating a new beed of incompetent and quota educated people which is going to seriously hamper the competitiveness of our country. Consider a kid who got through to a good public school due to the quota system. Then he gets into one of the best engg. Colleges because of his caste certificate. He hardly scores 50% marks in the entrance but is pusjhed thorugh. If he manages to survive the 4 yesrs of rigour he has a seat waiting for him in one of the IIMs. Once again we give him the benefit of doubt and assume that he will survive the 2 years. Once again the kid will kind a 8-10 lakh per annum job waiting for him in a private sector company. The question is how good is this kid. is he capable of handling the responsibilities given to him. Will he hold his own against the best in the business? Very debatable.
So this discussion went on and on for a coupe of hours. Me and DJ majorly inspired by RDB thought that as responsible citizens we should do something. But could not figure out what...maybe someone could help us out here. People across the country are planning marches and protests. I will defiinately join them. Cases will be filed in the sumpreme court. The apex court might also give a judgment in out favour. But then what. The government will go ahead and pass a constitutional amendment to make the judgment redundant. And no politician in his senses will dare to oppose the bill. Becoz coalition politics demands that every 6-8 months u have to submit to the whims and fancies and childlike tantrums of your partners who in this case happen to have considerable clout in the hindi heartland. So every citizen with a coinscience and a will to make a difference should vote fopr the right candidate. But how many of us actually have the patience to stand in the scorching sun to cast our ballot. How many are directed to the right poll booth...how many have faced no difficulty in obtaining a voter id card..its surprising that despite informing ward officers and poll officers about our change of residence we are shunted from one poll booth to another to cast our vote till many of us give up in frustration. How come slum dwellers never face such a problem?
i await comments from friends who read this. In the meantime i am in constant touch with nikhil to help him figure out his plans of migrating.
Met Nikhil after ages yesterday. He was always the smart one. Used to top the class in BVCOE.. went to IIM B..and always managed to keep in touch with his photography and books and sports and social issues...i always felt like the poor country cousin...barely managed to scrape through 4 years of engg. in Mumbai university with the usual share of KTs. Could only manage a NMIMS (not that i regret it at all). Didnt show enough dedication and determination to wait for another year to give my CAT and try for A, B or C...i was always happy hopping into a rick and going to b school...eating yummy home cooked food while my batchmates were forced to digest hostel food or had to survive on the food dished out by cooper hospital canteen...
So me , nikhil and dj decided to head for dinner. he was in quite a bad mood. In fact yesterday was the first time i felt that he might actually hit someone. He was really upset with the HRD ministers decision to extend 27% reservation for OBCs to IITs and IIMs. I dont want to get into details of the decision and its modalities. Am sure enough people are writing about it right now. What really touched me was the story of this guy (apna nikhil)..who has come from a middle class family...always worked hard for everything in life...braved the peak hour mumbai locals..changed trains to reach college in faraway belapur...and had a paid seat...because most of the free seats were for reservation candidates....if anyone deserved a free seat it was him. Not becoz he is my friend or a very nice individual. Becoz he is the only example of a perfect student i have ever come across in my life. Brilliant in acads. Goalkeeper of college football team. A great fielder and decent batsman in cricket. An enthusiastic participant in debates and quizzes. Managed to organise a couple of decent tech fests (with very very limited resources and HUGE amount of dificulties)...always helpful..did his bit by mentoring many junior students (dj was one of them).
Our man does not complain that he did not get a free seat. He happily pays the fees (50 grand for teachers teaching in marathi, classrooms with no fans and tube lights which don't work and half a classroom full of students whose IQ was well below the retarded level..actually the same applied for the profs too). He takes a loan from his relatives to meet his educational expenses. Here in college he sees his classmates zipping around in fancy cars...eating and drinking (lots of it) at fancy places...taking their vacations at places like goa...and above all failing in every conceivable subject there is under the sun (even communication skills). These are the students who fall under the OBC category and have been allotted a free seat because their ancestors were oppressed by upper caste people in the past.
He gets into IIM B later and then TAS (still maintaining the simple lifestyle) but very happy with the fact that at least now everything in life is fair. People study and get jobs on merit and not on the basis of their caste certificates. And then comes the stupid old HRD minister who wants to implement this crazy ordinance (or act...whatever it is). Now Nikhil is worried about his kids..never ever did he want his kids to struggle in life as much as he did. He can afford to pay the high fees but he cannot come to terms with the fact that sooner or later there will be reservations in schools...in private companies..everywhere. maybe the stupid government will have reservations in trains (bcoz their ancestors were made to travel standing) and planes (becoz they didn't exist in those days, so the deprived classes should be given a chance to sit and travel in them). Now he plans to migrate to the US so that he does not have to worry about the quality of education and opportunities for his children.
Many might think its a hasty decision. Taken purely on the basis on emotion. Life out there is also not easy. Why would someone want to live like a seocnd class citizen in some other country. If we have casteism here they have racism there. But thinking from his point of view..i feel the decision is justified. Today its the IITs and IIMs...tomorrow its the schools and day after its private companies..trains and airplanes might sound a bit far fetched but its a distinct possibility. Merit is losing prominence here and the government is acting as a catalyst. Agreed there are lots of opportunities here and indian companies are doing as well. Agreed that many indians are returning from abroad to find many exciting challenges here. But think about our children. Will he ever be able to send his children to a good school if there are 50% reservations? There are only a handful of good science and commerce colleges in the city and its is quite difficult to get into them (reservations already exist here). Will his dream of sending his kids to the IITs be fulfilled here? I don't think so. Instead of improving the infrastructure and the level of teaching in technical institutions here the government is more interested in fulfilling poll time promises.
This is creating an even bigger problem. The lack of technically qualified and competent people. We are creating a new beed of incompetent and quota educated people which is going to seriously hamper the competitiveness of our country. Consider a kid who got through to a good public school due to the quota system. Then he gets into one of the best engg. Colleges because of his caste certificate. He hardly scores 50% marks in the entrance but is pusjhed thorugh. If he manages to survive the 4 yesrs of rigour he has a seat waiting for him in one of the IIMs. Once again we give him the benefit of doubt and assume that he will survive the 2 years. Once again the kid will kind a 8-10 lakh per annum job waiting for him in a private sector company. The question is how good is this kid. is he capable of handling the responsibilities given to him. Will he hold his own against the best in the business? Very debatable.
So this discussion went on and on for a coupe of hours. Me and DJ majorly inspired by RDB thought that as responsible citizens we should do something. But could not figure out what...maybe someone could help us out here. People across the country are planning marches and protests. I will defiinately join them. Cases will be filed in the sumpreme court. The apex court might also give a judgment in out favour. But then what. The government will go ahead and pass a constitutional amendment to make the judgment redundant. And no politician in his senses will dare to oppose the bill. Becoz coalition politics demands that every 6-8 months u have to submit to the whims and fancies and childlike tantrums of your partners who in this case happen to have considerable clout in the hindi heartland. So every citizen with a coinscience and a will to make a difference should vote fopr the right candidate. But how many of us actually have the patience to stand in the scorching sun to cast our ballot. How many are directed to the right poll booth...how many have faced no difficulty in obtaining a voter id card..its surprising that despite informing ward officers and poll officers about our change of residence we are shunted from one poll booth to another to cast our vote till many of us give up in frustration. How come slum dwellers never face such a problem?
i await comments from friends who read this. In the meantime i am in constant touch with nikhil to help him figure out his plans of migrating.
Friday, April 07, 2006
my first blog
thanks to nandu for introducing me to blogging....never done it before...spent the last few days reading lots of blogs and found it quite interesting...lets hope i continue to be so vela at work that i have so much time to and post a blog during office hours everyday...
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