I LoVe RaiNs !!!!!!!!

I love rains.......

I dont love the croak of the frogs, the smell of earth, the smell of ginger tea, the smell of fresh onion pakodas....

I love the deafening thunder, the brilliant lightning that lights up even the darkest of skies, the loud sound of heavy rains lashing at the window that subdue all the noise around....

But most of all I like getting wet in the rains, when the tears mix with rains and no one can see tears in the eyes and all believe in the smile on the lips...

Rain rain come again.......

FeELs LiKe a FaCHCHa AgAin. . . .

Shit happens… I keep coming back to this particular statement. Looks as if this statement is destined to stick around with me for as long as I am alive. Then again, I guess it happens to everybody and most of them don’t care enough to notice or react.

PDPs (aka Personality Development Programme) have been the legacy of IIFT for as long as people have known but the batch of 09-11 gave another meaning to it. Ragging ! I mean, come on guys give me a break. Asking students to dance, shout, act and learn the names of seniors and batch mates cannot be termed as ragging in any sane part of the world but at IIFT, it is a grave and punishable offence to the extent that the entire senior batch (barring a few case studies :-p and in my friend Hari Singh’s words, people with needs to indulge) was stripped of any and every little iota of self respect. (then again these are my opinions and my opinions only). What followed was not the silence after a storm, rather it was the sudden tsunami of feelings, violent, destructive and angry from the entire senior batch, but didn’t last long enough to even cause an impact among the seniors.

Few things are pretty clear, the juniors would have the best time of their life. No PDPs, full on fun and lots of benefitting interactions from the seniors. The junior girls would not have any problems getting things don’t with so many testosterone rich seniors (already exemplified). Then again, it is just six or seven asses who give the entire junior batch a bad name. But is there a way out?

Either punish the people who were involved, which the authorities would not agree or just forgive and forget. The second option seems more feasible upon deep thinking because the boycott is not possible for an entire batch especially with so many traitors around.

I told Manish, that we all are nice people deep down in our heart, at least most of us are (again exceptions already mentioned) and we would not be able to stay angry with the juniors for a very long time. Only the 4 affected and a few of them like me who can’t forget the humiliation and the arrogance. I for one can’t forget the ones in the juniors who did it and the seniors who were still kissing their asses the very next day. Period.

GoD iS uNFaiR !!!

It is a hidden fact and the unfairness is all around.....Those who dont want to accept it, hide it behind the various things like Murphy's law, Law of averages etc etc, while other hide behind things like karma, destiny etc etc or cliched sayings like, whatever happens happens for a reason and for the good.....I can go on and on but the essense remains the same.....

Think about it....Hasn't it happened to you that you worked your ass off but didn't get the expected returns?? (Must have happened the other way round too, but that would be so conveniently called luck or the benevolence of the Almighty.....)

Whatever way u put it, it is still God's unfairness.....(though the very existence of God itself is a debatable topic, let's just give the victims of the world's most successful mass delusion some leeway...)

There is another thing that is used to cover this up, its religion, which is a weapon of mass delusion....the fear of hell, the greed of heaven....They say moksh is like attaining true spirituality and a level of contentment, but the greed of moksh is still greed...right???...Then why is this greed right....People aspire and desire moksha but that is fine since it is....

But no, that is not branded as greed but if i say that all i want in life are the 3M's (Money, Mansion and Mercedes) then I am labeled as greedy and materialistic....Just because these things can be bought by money...But isn't moksha gotten by flattery of the Gods....

ReMiNisCEnCinG tHe GeMs Of My LiFe Written By ThE SaANp

To The Gems Of My Life: Vishal, Nitin. Arun, Jyoti, Anuja, Ruchi, Neha, Sneha and Pawan (don’t need to write his name here because he has been there for as long as my poor memory takes me): the only good things that came out of my otherwise forget-worthy stay at SSGMCE.

I do not know why I write this because I do not want to believe that I am missing the one place that I had thought I would not ever miss. It is more than that I guess. It’s more about what that place gave me that I want to mention today. Apart from the gems (only the above mentioned people can understand this part), I think what that college gave me was the education of my life. People called SSGMCE a college but I had always preferred to call it “PLANET SHEGAON”. It was a living organism, with a host of beings. Now I know I am a mean mean person but I cannot make myself to call them humans, at least not educated and thinking ones. They were more like animals (now that would make Maneka Gandhi flip in her sleep and all animals take an offense) so let us just call them beings for now.

They taught me what the caste divide was (at least they tried, but the fact that I could not learn was my doing and my doing only). They taught me that one could not trust everyone and also that there was no test of trust other than the test of time itself. They taught me that people used other people till and when they needed and that friendship for some (unlike me and what I had seen) was just a zero sum game. They taught me that the best defence was silence and that silence was the hardest argument to refute.

Enough about those beings. This aint bout them but this is about the people I love and the people that I got during my stay at that college. Somehow the memories that I mentioned above are all hazy. All I remember are the late night snacks at the canteen, the mango shake, lassi and aam panha, the poha and the tea with parle G, the bakar before the exams, the trying to cheat at the exams and failing at it, the studying at the library(which meant everything but studying.), the movies at Akola, the rallying around akola on the bike, the masti at Krishna, the masti at Rasika, the masti at the temple while waiting for darshan, the studying and teaching sessions before the exam, the panic attack before results. the masti afterwards at pune, the coffee at Durga, the paratha at Chaitanya, the late night walks and coffee again, the fashion street shopping………

Typical masti of colleges and I had my share too but it would not have been possible without the awesome friends that I have. I was the saanp (read snake: for some screwed up reason) but still I am glad I was lucky enough for them to make me their friend.

This is for you guys: Vishal, Nitin. Arun, Jyoti, Anuja, Ruchi and Pawan : who are still there with me, and for Neha and Sneha who chose to move on but nonetheless would always be dear to me and very near to my heart. Love you all always and miss you forever…….

Have you ever been in love ??

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable, so weak. It opens up your heart and so that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defences, you build up a whole suit of armour, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life and nothing is the same again...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They become a part of you. They didn’t want to be. They do something dumb one day, like hold your hand or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.

WhaTEveR HapPeNs, hAPpenS foR 'NO' ReAsoN !!!!

All these thoughts are what i, at times call LOUD SILENCE that leave me lonely even in a room full of people.....and other times SILENT NOISES that keep screaming in my mind when I am alone.......

How well do u have know someone before you actually 'know' them??....Never if the person doesn't want you to and yet people keep trying........

How long and how well can anyone 'lie'??....It seems people can lie for as long and as beautifully as they like and yet we end up believing in some people.......

How long before you can 'trust' anyone??.....Everyone knows that you cant trust anyone but still you end up trusting someone......

How long does it actually take to 'forget' someone??.....Depends...... An eternity or merely a minute......

I don't know the answers to these questions. I am no philosopher; I am no great thinker to either to even try to give an answer. But i do believe that the answer to all of them is that there is no reason for anything that happens......There is no reason for people to be what they are, what they do and how they be.....people are just.....well just people.....

"People are like islands, no matter how close they come, they can never touch!!!”

(For all those people who think that they know what others are all about.....)

My all time favourite quote.....So true isn't it?...You think you know someone, you think you understand, u believe u can trust and that is the time that it really beings to go wrong.....It seems you can live an entire lifetime (or at least what seems like a lifetime !!) and yet not understand her a rat's ass bit....Worse yet you end up knowing and believing something that was never there.....

All said and done......Papa kehte hai whatever happens, happens for a reason but can there ever be a reason for deceit and can there be a reason for betrayal.....infact he says "जो होता है अच्छे के लिए होता है......."...Whats good about cheating, lying........

Why don't people realise......Its not a war, its not a game and its certainly not fun.....Its life, love and its the very reason to be here.....

P.S.: What I have written makes no sense.....Not even to me.....These are merely:

things that don't let me sleep at night : the loud beating of my heart,

things that don't let me sit in peace : my thoughts in pursuit of a reason of the inexplicable,

things that don’t let me be happy: my eternal hope in finding a last thread to cling,

things that don't let me live : my mind trying to find solace in the arms of misery.............

LiFe @T 'IIFT' - Written when i had joined.(12th July 2008)

As the clock keeps ticking and with every passing second the eye lids get heavier and heavier, one begins to wonder that the deep pounding that one hears is the constant chugging of a loco running or is it one’s own heart..........

A sudden shout from the teachers jolts us back into reality {but without the euphoria of the time travel..}….It seems that the sheer concentration with which one tries to evade sleep, helps sleep elude us more..The VICIOUS CYCLE of SLEEP as i love to call it….

Then one realises while doing MATHS of how much time does one have to evade sleep that the PSYCHOLOGY of BUSINESS COMMUNICATION is that ECONOMICS is nothing but the MARKETING of the PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT which is like the ACCOUNTING for the STATISTICS of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY…[ I know what I wrote makes no sense....but i guess GASSING is something that we should learn]…

The best [read WORST] part is the learning of names……With every person that enters or leaves the class, sits next to me in the canteen or mess, crosses me on the stairs or travels with me in the elevator…..All I can think of is “ISKA NAAM KYA HAI YAAR ???? “…..

Though for the pre existing and future LBs it has been a blessing in disguise as they can go up to any girl and say hey what’s your name and indulge in small talk…..Food for gossip : There seems to be a lot of people trying to win…..But it seems people dont respect equality of sexes because girls don’t seem to come out with nominations cos LB could stand for either….

As the days turn to weeks and with no respite from PDPs apparent on the horizon, the studies take a back seat as i yearn to learn WHAT TO DO @ IIFT….as opposed to what I thought I would be doing…[ Recall 5 point someone...:-)]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .F.R.I.E.N.D.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To My Best Friends
Asha and Pankaj

Without Whom I Wouldn't Be What I Am

Friendship isn't easily described, I mean there aren't many words to describe the relationship or the feeling and we usually end up using many adjectives.......viz Close friend. Best friend. Childhood friend. Intimate friend. Trusted friend. Beloved friend and so on and so forth.....
But whether you use adjectives or different words, few could deny the nearly infinite meaning in such a simple word.......We do not choose our family members and we are definately limited in how many family members we have, Society and mores (and often our own conscience) dictate we select a single mate and we also do not get to chose our relatives, but we chose our friends.....
Friends are special people, because they make you what you are (atleast they get the best out in you, though in my case what came out was a bag of crap i know but what the heck I am still better because I may not be the best but hey at least I am not like the rest)......Its like our friends, in a very real sense, reflect the choices we make in life and the kind of person that we truly are......
Best friends are a separate deal altogether (Boring fact but best friend comes before family in the dictionary where as friend comes before relative).....My best friends occasionally(i should use often but hey this is my blog and i am entitled to use whatever may damn please me) bring out the worst in me and yet, they love me as unfinished and sometimes as broken as I am.....While I am yet to learn how to comfort myself, somehow they can and they do.....
This is one topic where I can go on and on and on.......My friends are my life......

Love All Of Them & Hope I never Lose Contact With Them

"Cut off the talk, and many a times you cut off the friendship". - Aristotle

iTs JusT aNoTheR TesT....

I do not understand what the fuss is all about...Tests, Quizzes etc...As in aren't just another one of a bunch that you have already gone through...Haven't we been giving tests for like ages...अब तक तो आदत हो जानी चाहिये थी.....पर ऐसा होता नही है....लोग अभी भी एकदम hyper हो जाते है...
Cheating नही करते..गलत answer बता देते है ताकि कोई उन्से ज़्यादा number ना ले आए...That too in b school...
Too childish and immature but hey who am I to pass a judgement...I was merely wondering is it bothers me only or others too....Gawd when are people going to understand that it is not just grades that matter, it is more about what you really have and what you can really show to the interviewers which matters in the end....And then again in the job what really matters are not grades but what mettle are you made up of....It is an entirely different ball game there.....
:-p

PaiD ToRcHeR : @TTeNdaNce

Now why is attendance compulsory??...Why is attendance taken at all in b-schools??...

Come to think of it, thousands of students slog for more than an year (some for many years in a row) to get into a b school but then they don't attend classes...Why do you think students want to get in college but not attend classes??...
As far as i know I came to college for a number of reasons, none of which were that 'I wanted to study'...There was the reason of taking a break from work (Phew two years of work was taking it toll on my health!!!), the monitory reason, the 'other' reason...;-)...
Anyways now that I have made it into one of the top 10 b schools, I wanted to chillax but that just doesn't seem to be possible...There is this constant fear of DGPs...(Deficit Grade Points) which means that you miss a couple of lectures and you are screwed for your MBA life !!...
I think, no wait, I know it for a fact that no amount of classes can do you any good if you do not want to attend them...besides, medical science says that an average human can not concentrate and listen for more than 45 minutes...50 minutes tops...(Though the recent internet survey suggest a more believable figure of 10 mins or so.....)Then imagine the plight of the students in two hour lectures....

I guess colleges need to understand that -

"You can take the horse to the river but you can not make it drink !!!"

aFTeR 'CAT' iTs a RaT RaCe !!!

A little over 2,00,000 graduates apply, only a handful get through to being 'branded for life !!'....
The rest either get motivated to try again or demotivated to take the next best college while some get demotivated enough to never try again...No prizes for guessing that I am talking about the CAT exam !!!!
Well I am not patronising CAT or taunting people who didnt get through....All I wanted to say was, "Been there Done that"
This is a sequel to the string of lies that I earlier wrote about....Again I was told, "Get into a good B school and then life would be a bed of roses.........". Agreed that they meant the IIMs but hey one of the top ten is good enough for me.....
Now the problem (as always) that I have is that the competition the urge to be better does not end with CAT, it was just the start....There is this race (I like to call it rat race...) to be better, to be known, to be judged the best......No one seems to understand or realise that even if you win it you are still a rat....This is fine to an extent but spice it up with a tinge of crab mentality (not a tinge but a bag load of it !!) and you have the recipe of a typical B school.....
Only a handful get a hang of this fact but then they feel that they are being bogged down by the hyper achievers that even they join the race (heartlessly and grudgingly)......

'la estupidez conquista todos' i.e. stupidity conquers all !!!