A sunday well spent...

A Monday morning and i have around half hour before I hit for office.. am surprised and all my room-mates are.. AJ leaving at 8.30 for office is a rare sight... well that's a habit I have decided to inculcate.. just an hour early rise...

An insight on my routine is not the reason am writing the blog this for after almost 9 months... over last 2 weeks I came across group of people who trying their bit to make a difference in this country.. the scale of coverage might be small but the intentions are to generate as many educated and earning member in families where it matters...

There are two instances wherein I was part of the efforts trying to give my bit.. The recent once was few hours spent in a school but at the end of day the smile it brought to my face was more than anything I would have wanted...

It was a classroom of Standard-IV of a Govt school with wooden desks (the uncomfortable ones used in 90s with chair and table attached and you cannot arrange them as per your size)..

I somehow managed to fit in the desk..a girl of around 16 sitting opposite to me telling me, "I want to be a CA because I am good in accounts.. I know a bit about CA but want to know the details.. Also I know English is important for better future and hence I want to learn it..".. The sheer determination of the girl and her focus amazed me...

Well this is part of an initiative EY Foundation has taken up where the sponsor 10+ education of kids, till there Graduation, from municipal school who has scored more than 75% of marks and who need the support... The foundation decided a one-on-one counselling session for these kids to understand their problems and guide them...

It was a Sunday morning and I was ready by 8 to leave.. a school in Dadar was where the sessions were to happen.. Apart from EY employees there were few more volunteers from different walks of life which have come... The lady who has been part of EYF and has been interacting with us informed that the problems could range from personal ones at home to asking for financial support..but we are to keep studies as focus..

I was not sure how I would I able to guide them but I sure wanted to try and make a difference.. Me and Salil were waiting eagerly.. a guy in spectacles..wearing a black jeans and a black shirt with a smiled entered...
He seemed full of positive energy and the smile on his face told us that he was on the top of this world right now.. He was going to start his Electronics engineering from Monday.. wanted guidance in terms of future options available.. It brought a smile on our faces..after all it was a comfortable zone as we were both engineers.. we told him about ME,M.Tech, MS, MBA, Campus placement.. he went away smiling..

One after another there were students who were in 12th or in First year pursuing Engineering or Commerce.. I was not aware much about CA as an option but promised them to get someone for a session for options available in Commerce field... The other major problem these students are facing is Ease of talking in English.. all of them were studying in Marathi medium schools and have never touched English till their 10th standard.. suddenly a switch to English as a medium of teaching has crippled them to some extent...

I was relate to the problem as somewhere in my past I have faced the ghost... The good thing about this was all of them wanted to face the ghost and move ahead.. the knew the importance of the language in today's world.. they have started efforts on their own side.. reading in English, English news, Discovery channel, using dictionary. I loved the dedication and zeal these guys were full of...
There were simple questions like.." I am not confident of talking in English in front of people.. people tell me to do away with that fear.. tell me how to do away with it"... another guy came with a focused question." I know I want to do CA.. I am preparing for it.. I am afraid of doing anything..Why should I be afraid?? But tell me what all should I do to improve my understanding and answering the questions in English in a better way".. It went on and on...

I was planning to be there in just the first half of the day but the interest and zeal of these students made be stay back till the end... All the volunteers.. from an auntie in her 60s to people like me finishing studies recently.. all were busy.. taking working lunches to talk to as many students as possible... At the end of day we all felt privileged to be part of the program and it brought a feeling of satisfaction that we are able to contribute our bit hoping that we were able to equip these missiles towards their target to some extent..

The next episode would be coming up soon...

Those were the days.... Chapter V (New phase...)

The 3 girls in the story are Drew, Lucy and Cameroon..

After around 4 months of hibernation I am trying to write another post.. I don't know if you guys were waiting for the next chapter but a mail from a friend got me to penning the next chapter in "BIT Life"...

Work life has kept me busy and there is hardly time to pursue habits.. Assignments after assignments have been adding flab to me.. Only break I managed was a 15 days break when I was down with chicken-pox..

I am not complaining that work pressure has messed up my life or I have any regrets.. Its been a learning phase where the sector and process learning have been fun and have added to my growth. Team dynamics have been the best where I feel like part of a family where everyone is ready to help you when are facing problem at client place..

Now lets get back to the main topic as the blog is not about my work-life or EY Culture..

Post first semester we moved to outer hostels and we came to know what ragging is all about. The line which became famous during one of the sessions was when I answered a query by a senior on my location as, "I am coming from Bangalore" and rest is a history... The semester passed by where we interacted with seniors and sports came back to life as the complex was more accessible to us.. The good thing was I came to know Anand bhaiya who became an important part of my life... apart from him other batchmates of his whom i came to know of were Shashi, Vikas, Arijit, Om n others.. Arijit bhaiya was heading few of the societies... One incident i remember was of Arijit bhaiya getting kidnapped and his coming back after fighting with the goons.. also me pursuing shashi bhaiya to stop tobacco chewing was another instance...

Lets get to the third module where loads of things happened.. It started with a stream-wise division of the batch where sections were restructured as per the branches... The people I use to hang out were Kundan, Ayush and Bose.. Though Bose was now more involved with another set of batchmates where a larger set of people came on a common gang.. these included a set of 6-7 guys and 6-7 girls...this was the start of a filmy story....

My first interaction with this gang came over a cup of coffee in the canteen.. slowly even I became a part of the gang.. the group had sharad, kuchu,bose, sudeep, seemant, charlie's angels, sharoda, neha and few more people.... The gang use to hang out together while going out and during lectures..

Then came the freshers party where Comp Sc junies got a party from the seniors.. this is where stories were made.. the famous one was of our very own "Dehati"...

The story took a filmy turn where few people got more important and the others dint like the same.. this phase got the gang divided and people started hating each other.. During the same time I started liking one of the girls and coincidentally my dear roomie "bose" also had a crush on the same girl.. can you people beat that!!!!! Seemu too had a crush on one of the angels....

So you see how filmy the story can be...

When me and my roomie came to know of our common interest we decided to share whatever we did to pursue our interest...

This was the time when my interaction with Anand bhaiya and his gang became more frequent... By this time Charlie's angels came to know of my feelings and of others as well... I became a good friend with lucy and we use to talk loads..

This is when I came to know that bhai was a good friend of Arijit bhaiya but some misunderstandings got them apart... I decided to get them on a common table and I still remember the day when it actually happened.. Their entire batch was in cafeteria waiting for the moment and when it happened all of them applauded...

The next day I went with bhaiya to get some cards for Drew.. the cards were lying in my bags for 3 weeks now.. Ruhail bhaiya came to know of this. He and bhai took my case and said that if today these cards are not given to Drew,Ruhail bhaiya will go and tell JS that there is something lying for you in Abhinav's bag..

I decided to do the same now.. After the computer lab I decided to stay back.. To my surprise most of the batch left the lab.. the angels were in the lab too.. I went out and after some time called Lucys out.. I told her of my intentions and asked her.. She said go ahead and asked Drew to come out.. I still remember those seconds.. the longest in my life.. She came out and I said,

"These cards are for you and says what I feel for you.. I would wait for a reply..." ................

A Lot can happen over a cup of coffee... Rejectz Revisited...

For last two weeks my days and nights..weekdays and weekends.. are spent slogging at work..The biggest enemy of people like Us is the Laptop..so called masterpiece of Technology...

My first interaction with laptop was some 10 years back..when my cousin bought one..

Since then I always wanted to own one.. Finally the D-day came when I joined MBA...a laptop is suppose to be part n parcel of MBA life..though 90% of the time with Laptop is spent in building database of movies and sitcoms and the other 10% in G-talk and orkut..

But today a desktop seems to me the best thing as I won't have the option of "Working From Home"...

Well this blog is not on cribbing about what Technology has given me or not..Its about an hour spent over a cup of coffee with Iyer..
To start of an intro of Iyer..Satish is a batchmate from NITIE who has become a close friend in last few months at NITIE.. He has recently shifted his base from Gurgaon to Cypress.. A shift to Cypress which he was desperately looking for.... Been waiting to meet him..
The day was hectic.. 9 bomb blasts in the city..Meetings and presentations.. Was sitting with Designer friend When got a call from Satish..He was in my office..We left office n reached the Guest House...

I finished my packing.. hopefully I am leaving tomorrow for Mumbai.. though the flight I was suppose to take is cancelled as the meeting is postponed for tomorrow morning.. We left for Garuda Mall as Iyer was hungry...

Reached Garuda Mall... I could not believe my eyes.. the mall was empty.. 90% of the shops were closed... just saw 2 families out there... We decided to take a walk to Central.. that was closed...

A walk to Brigade Road.. and it was all deserted.. I checked my mobile for time... it was just 8 p.m... has bangalore night life curfew shifted to 8 from 8.30!!!!

thats when I realised..there were 9 bomb blasts rocking the city today...

Finally we decided to have a coffee at CCD... after the order was placed the chat started with the cliche questions.. how is life?? how is work?? What is the work profile??

It was getting all formal.. I just popped up a question.. "How is Jiten?".. and then there was no looking back... When it comes to Rejectz.. the entire gang gets passionate..... Be it Bhupi..dodo.. nimzi..An..daddu.. Jiten.. iyer..devi..sumeet.... we all just go on and on... We talked about all of them.. The Goa trip.. it was all coming back.. all nostalgic!!!

How was Rejectz started!!! thats what the rest evening all about... The Gang finally came its final shape in Nov'07.. It all started because of a prof whom most of the student find finicky.. TP...

Dabawalla..that was an event when I first came into touch with AN.. I knew Devi since long coz of Impress and PMG.. anyways after Dabawalla.. we 3 use to hang out together.. there were other reasons of us sticking together (controversial details...)

slowly n slowly..lunches,dinners, lectures, outings.. all started happening together.. Dodo..nimzz and dadu joined in..

We had Satsih n Jitu joining in..Bhupi too was a part but because of his frequent trip to Pune we never felt his preesnce..

We decided to give the gang a name.. Devi said Vogons..a lucky one for him.. I said Rejectz....

To me that was a word common to the 3 founding members for obvious reasons... We freezed on the name....

Placements were round the corner..preparation were priority on everyone's agenda... sharing of articles, information in groups were common thing.. there were two groups we had on Dbabb.. one was Vogons and other was Rejectz... the same article on two groups.. We were getting tired..

We merged the two gangs.. and it became Rejectz... Thats when we had Sumeet joining in..

After that there was no looking back for us.. a big gang.. eating out, preparing for exams.. outings.. happiness and sadness.. it was all shared between us... We all were ready to fight with each other..

The commitment with which the gang worked during placements speaks for itself.. none of us had a sound sleep till all of us were placed.. and all of us have placed in one of the best companies in the campus... From Olam to HSBC.. from ABC to Idea... From ICICI to Titan.. from GE to EY.. from SAP VE..sorry Cypress to HSBC Global...

After that a trip to Goa was planned.. that requires another blog... Finally we left for winters..

And then met when we were down to campus for Winter presentations.... A dinner at Tunga Paradise on a Karoke Night... 9 songs.. all in-sync..which can put all singers to shame...

Well after that we all have been busy in our lives majorly because of initial phase of career.. An n Dodo staying together in Mumbai.... Nimzz at home..Sumeet too in Mumbai...
Satish n Bhupi in Bangalore.. Jiten in US and Dev in Africa.. Dadu settled with family in Hyderabad.. I am in Bangalore for last 2 months on a client assignment spending a true consultant life.. two bags...

Finally we left the Cafe as it was getting late and Satish has to leave..

But it was a beautiful and relaxed evening after a long time well spent with a rejectz...

A t-shirt was to be designed and I hope the design and t-shirt will be ready by the time we all meet on our Convos... and it has resulted in a blog...

The Newport University..

In Bangalore I am staying at the company's guest house.. There is a Senior Designer who has recently joined Newport.. The guy is amazing in designs and fashion sense... Very nice and great friend.. Few days back he asked me to write few lines as a synopsis for the brand... Felt like sharing it here... Here it goes

The New phase in life which every youth waits to enter. The life which starts with nervousness on the first day. New place, new friends, new style.
The place where there is less of restrictions and more of responsibilities. The phase where needs are more but supply is limited.

The phase which is the stepping stone for the future.The phase which gives the confidence to face the entire world with roughness and elegance at the same time. The phase where he is a rebel and is also a responsible youth.

The youth which is out there to make his own style statement. The statement which will be unique to him and would speak his attitude.The statement which is driven by what he wears. The attire which defines his style. The style which is iconic and yet manageable by his pocket.

The brand which can offer him the confidence, style, energy and elegance.
The brand which is all about his confidence .What better than Newport.

Time-Machine....

When I joined the company for winters, the client which was being discussed was one of the Gaming Chain owner. I was not able to believe that people go to these places and spend money to play the games..How foolish can one be not to go out for a family outing..catching movies...n spend money on every weekend on the silly games..
My previous experience was the Gaming outlet in HN where too I used to do bowling. I had never tried my hands at any of these games.

During the discussion I came to know that my Manager, Abhay himself was a big gaming freak. On talking to him came to know that there were many people who use to hang out at these places and try their hands. He narrated his experience of these stores. How there is an old man who comes and wins loads of chocolates though he distributes them all among the kids in the stores. How a Mom and her son spend hours on weekends.

I was not able to believe these as I haven't seen any such store. Even the HN store I use to visit on Saturdays had crowd coming there for bowling. Then finally I landed up in a gaming zone in Phoenix Mills on a Friday night with my team. The time was past 10 and we had planned to go bowling. I could find very few people in the store at that time.

The store was really huge in size and loads of games. There were close to 12 tracks for bowling. 2 Pool tables.. and other games..As I could not find many people playing games I still was of the same opinion...
The next day AN invited me for a trip to the Mill again. There were Brijesh, Killi, Vivek, Satman, AN and me. There was also an FLSL employee with whom AN was doing his internship. The company has tied up with different outlets in Phoenix Mill for good discounts. I again landed up in the same gaming zone.
But this time the scene was entirely different. The place was crowded and there was a waiting of 30 mins for a bowling track. Me n iyer grabbed a beer and decided to wait and enjoy the beauties in the store. In the meanwhile, AN got us a table for pool.
Around afternoon we got to the gaming section to grab a bowling track and I was astonished to see the place. There were people ranging from kids of Age 4 to uncle and aunties of mid-40s trying their hands at different games and winning coupons. The expression on the faces of the parents playing the games told me that they were concentrating hard and not just playing the games for their kids.

I still was unsure.. Then Me and AN decided to try our hands at a shooting game..more like a stress buster.. But the moment I took the gun in my hands, I returned to my days where I use to play Contra on my Samurai..the kid in me has returned and I was competing hard to survive the game long... We were shouting at each other like schoolboys guiding each other to survive..building strategy that we should reload the guns alternatively...

The game lasted for 20 mins and we both were smiling after the game.. That was my first tryst with the Gaming Zone but it was still not addictive..

After that life has been busy with work and didn't get much chance...

This Sunday, me, Rajat and Johry were sitting in my place and watching a movie..too tired to go anywhere..Finally, Rajat said lets all go out and we decided to go bowling at Amoeba near Brigade Road..

We landed there to find to our disappointment that the waiting was 2 hours..we were about to leave when Johry said that we should atleast check out the 2nd floor..I was keen on trying my hands at shooting again so we went upstairs.. Rajat was not much of a gaming freak but he had no other option..

Here the environment was more electrifying with humans from all age-group...from school kids to college goers..from mummies to grannies.. all were playing and winning tickets..
Johry was a NFS fan so we decided to try a track.. A refill card of 200 was bought.. We all sat on the set, geared up for the battle... The race lasted 5 minutes when Johry won the race...

Since the refill still had some money left, we went for Basketball...The game was so addictive that we played almost 4 rounds and won some coupons.. We decided to take some goodies with the coupons but the number was worth nothing..

We could see around grannies, mummies all of having rolls of tickets.. We decided to hide our tickets in our pockets to avoid being a laughing stock...Our skills were so bad!!!

I took another card refill of 200 and decided to play few more games.. I could see the childhood returning to us..all excited and ready to compete to get more coupons.. We tried our hand a few more games..Rajat and me payed Air Hockey..The way we played the game we would have put the schoolkids to shame...

We won loads of tickets this time and the way Rajat had put in efforts, I could not belive he was the same Rajat who was not ready to enter the 2nd floor...

After exhausting the refill, we decided to return...Only then we realised that its been 2.5 hours of gaming...We all were cursing each other that we should have booked a track....
It was an amazing evening and we decided to return again next weekend for a Game of Bowling!!!! I guess am getting addicted to the Bowling now...

Looking forward to next Saturday...

Those were the days......Chapter IV(153/180)

Well.. The much awaited holidays have arrived for us... All were ready to go back home for the first time and share their experience with their parents and siblings..
Now that they have landed on the first step towards a promising career.. moms were waiting to pamper their child... but again the ghost of ragging was haunting on us..and this time there was no college authority to save us.. but this was also the time to know your seniors in a better way.. Luckily or unluckily there was no senior on the route to Bangalore.. It was going to be a long journey of 40 hours all alone..

I boarded the train and waited for the day I will be meeting my parents after months...There was no direct train to Bangalore from Ranchi so there was going to be a gap of 2 hours at Chennai.. The journey was not eventful and I finally landed at Bangalore Cantt Station.

I was surprised not to find my parents and my sis at the station.. I waited for 10 mins and called home. Luckily my mom was at home and she picked up the call.. On asking I came to know that Dad n sis have gone to the Bangalore Central station... Such a big goof up!!!!! And I was going to miss those expressions on my Dad's face after seeing me...

Mom sent the other car to pick me up and informed Dad that I was at Cantt.. Finally I landed home.. the delight and happiness on the faces of he families were the true Kodak moments...

I was going to be there for a week and mom has already planned the week long menu.. Also I was to go shopping for my formals and necessities for college.. It was going to be an eventful week... The coming days were spent in shopping, meeting friends, partying and enjoying Bangalore...
Meeting with friends and families and seeing their positive response to BIT cleared my doubts about my decision to join BIT and gave me a fresh energy and enthusiasm. I was looking forward to college now...
Finally the day came and I was to leave for the college... I have hardly touched any books and there were mid-sems planned post dusshera.
I was shit scared but was confident as I was regular with my studies.Finally I boarded the train with a heavy heart....

This time I have landed with an emergency light which has a cassette player and radio as well.
This became a source of entertainment for the next 2 modules..Batchmates from Delhi shared their experiences of ragging which ranged from they singing in train.. selling tea... going and asking names of random girls...

After settling down we all were geared up for the mid-sems.. The format in BIT was a bit different.
The mid-term was suppose to be of 30 marks. There will be questions of 36 marks out of which 24 will be from assignments given by the profs. A student can attempt the paper of 36 marks and score max..At first the concept looked pretty neat and favouring students but after the first mid-sem we realised what it was.

I scored 153/180 in my first sem...Was very satisfying...

so far you all will be wondering why there is no masala in the story.. there is nothing happening before 3rd Sem...I'll try to start that semester in the next chapter...

Till then enjoy..

Missing Mumbai Traffic...

Its been while that i scribbled here. Blame it to the IPL or the work schedule but the monotonous routine of life has taken a toll on my interests as well.There are 3 books which are waiting to be touched by me. There are movies in my laptop which I had downloaded from DC++.

The new life is really different. Though there are not many interesting things happening, apart from interactions with the industry people adding to the knowledge
base, still life is on a roller coaster ride.

After finishing my final presentation at NITIE I have moved my base to Bangalore. Though my reporting office is in Mumbai, I haven't yet rented a flat there.

This assignment is going to be for a month and I don't know how I'll be surviving here. Mumbai and Bangalore are poles apart.

Even if you are stuck in office till 9 in Mumbai, you can still go out and party late. But if you are in Bangalore, the city goes to sleep by 8.30!!!! There is just no night life in bangalore.

There are pubs where even stag entry is not allowed.!!

I guess this is the same reason because of which the night charges for autos start at 8.00 in bangalore. Added to that the rickshawpullers will never agree to go by meter. Even if you are hungry and want to buy grocery or some medicine, you will not find a single shop opened after 8.30. Language problem is there anyways. The Bus service also is not as advanced as in Mumbai.

The traffic is worse than Mumbai!!!

There are just malls for you to hang-out in Bangalore and on a weekend you will find the malls as crowded as a CST local on a Monday morning. But the difference will be that the people will have no reason to hang out at these malls.

If you have decided to go out for a dinner and you land up in a local restaurant, there is a high probability of you eating a Paneer Makhani cooked in coconut oil. Its always better to eat in malls or McDs or Subways. Though like Mumbai Vada-Pavs, you can eat Idlis at the same price and survive.

The good thing about the city is the climate. The pollution is trying to change that as well. Also the shopping opportunities are huge but nothing comes cheap these days in Bangalore.

Somehow I am feeling home sick and missing Mumbai.. How I wish I was getting drenched in Mumbai rains at this moment...