weed in the lawn

a lot of nothings

2008-01-26T02:56:00.000-08:00

Its been ages since I've written anything here... , and as usual I dont really have an agenda.
I guess I have a right to not have one since I am on holiday. . I am in the perfect holiday spirit.
lazy, pampered, hale and healthy.
Its liberating to escape from the daily 4 hours journey up and down to office, the pollution and a lot of other things..
I've watched a couple of movies lately, OSO( for the second time), Jab we met & Sivaahji! Sivaji has to be seen to be believed!, Its unadultrated, unapoloegtic crap. A must watch!
If you're not the artsy types, and dont mind disconnecting your mind for a while, its a joyride. Its worth watching just for vivek and Rajni's red dress and gold locks.Oh ya and its a femillly taipe movie too.
Jab we met, was syruppy. Started off well... but gets on to your nerves when they try to pass of kareena's incessant nonsense and moronishitty as 'cute'. Its essentially about a dumb guy who likes a dumb female who likes a dumb guy.Shahid Kapoor is cute though.. pretty underplayed.
Ha so i dished out something for the lack of something worthwhile to write.
This after half the world and its brother has seen all these movies.
My fingers are tingling to write more arbit nonsense... but not all of it can be published here!
So i shall detingle my fingers and dissapear. Until i can think of something universal to write about.

this and that.....

2007-08-08T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is my first post since i started work.. or lets say-since i've been employed. In case you are thinking to yourself its the same thing-Let me tell you-Its not!.

This is not going to be about my half hearted cribs about not getting work today, and the murder of my drive to work and all that jazz.

So yeah, i got a job, joined in June. Got trained on assertiveness, cross cultural sensitivity and dining etiquette and all sorts of regular irrelevant jazz- which was fun nonetheless. . especially knowing you were being paid to do all this; Got trained on more jazz for another 3 weeks... and finally got Bangalore as my base location to my joy and glee and to the relief of my folks.

Its been 2 weeks and my activities involve a ten o clock trip to the fruit ship, a long lunch break and tea break , and then i break to my bus. I think I am slowly starting to get used to the stupor.. i wonder how it will be when i get work...

Its called 'bench'. . ( like you dint know!) , apparently on an average 22% of the work force in the industry lead lives such as mine!.. frequenting all the cafeteria, and toggling between gmail and yahoo. So yeah people on bench are like 'inventory', neatly stacked up to show the greedy clients that 'we have more of them' or something like that. yup. so i am on shelf.

And its kinda nice. . all though i know i am supposed to start worrying soon.

Its a loooong ride to work. I catch the 645 bus near my place.. or sometimes the 730 bus near my sister's office. I prefer the earlier buses.. Bangalore looks lovely in the morning.. I like the the mix of sleepiness, cool morning air and the sights of the city stretching itself up out of bed. Sleepy school kids, vegetable vendors smooth traffic. There is a stretch of vegetable vendors on my ride near madiwala that i particularly like. Its got a lot of fresh mint, ginger and lemon.. so the smell wafts in through the window.. often waking me up from my nap. Its all green, brown and yellow... always make me smile somehow.

Listening to Tangerine now...... lawaleeee :)

2 yrs!

2007-05-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

Am posting after almost a year!... I am done with my MBA, back at home, getting my quota of curd rice, vatha kuzhumbu , idlis, loads of old friends, my bike, gulmohar lined roads, patti and thata, my folks, my goofy sister, scrabble..
feels good!... i am surprised at my lack of nostlagia for my campus life. I had a great time but i guess 'when you gotta go you gotta go' no looking back!..
The liberty of taking a walk around the campus at wee hours, 2 am basketball, chatting on the terrace, a little bit of melodrama, dal chawal butter mix, clubs, quizzes, fests .. the feeling of knowing there is so much you can do out there.. and oh 100 mbps internet and DC++.
Fed on malory towers as a kid i always wanted to go to boarding school.. i had a rather romanticised notion of staying away from home, as all 9 or 10 yr are wont to. finally i did go out for my MBA... My mom always told me all those rosy hostel stories were overrated .. but for the first year i was in cloud number 9... thrilled at the liberty, the independence and how ridiculuously one could flout routines and cycles!.. it was everything i was hoping it to be...
but i guess over a period of time the wide eyedness wears out.
At the end of the day however you want the comfort of home, or if not home- a life of your own.you need the place to escape- a distraction.
Spending your complete day(weeks, months) in the same environment, same surroundings can make you myopic at times.. one tends to get too caught up with the little details. When at home, i had the option of escaping from the goings on at college when i reached hoem, numerous other friends.. all in all-healthy distractions-escapes.
In a hostel especially wth a small batch size as mine you run the risk of over familiarity getting too involved with your surrounds. you tend to loose a degree of detachment that is healthy and needed.
Ive probably grown up a lot in the 2yrs I was there. met people...grown a little smarter, a little less wide eyed, shocked myself by certain aspects of my personality, sometimes pleasantly so and at other times a little disappointed. made some great friends, discovered how blind i can be at times-and almost lost one. learnt that compliance for the sake of peace is moronishiity..! i am highly prone to that.
and found out who i am not..and a little bit of who i am.
I am glad i went, and am glad am back.
boy this is serious fare by my standards..!

existential angst!

2006-08-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been a tad overwhelmed by my cyber persona...I am more of the colorful splash on my orkut profile, the weed in my blogspot than i am who i am on this side of the computer screen.
If my great gramma were to see me from heaven on a normal day, she'd see me occasioanlly trudging to classes, getting back to my room, sitting in front of a box smiling at it occasionally, laughing, scowling,staring, staring, staring at it till i have to sleep.She'd then think my poor poor little descendent, 'she hath not a life', 'kind heavens shower her with company' after which, god promptly responding would arrange for some sort of an entertainment - 'a meeting', a project meeting, a committee meeting, a 'whats going on' meeting, a 'whats not not going on' meeting. sufferers of an MBA might have had thier great grammas doing such things to them from up there.
to others-It happens :(! most of what you do in an MBA is about that!
But well, this post is about my cyber persona, not about well meaning great grammas doing thier bit, or about my raves and rants about my MBA-Fear not!, It shall out be out in the sun someday soon!But for today, me being my usual incisive, focussed, bang on target, to-the-point self i shall come straight to the matter of consequence-the thought for the day-my cyber persona!
I have more friends floating about in cyber space than around me-which is pretty all right since at some point every real time friend resurfaces in cyber space, i talk to my friend next door online, friends three blocks down online , friends a coupla continents away online.Wheres the concept of distance ? my next door nieghbour could well be in malibu!The internet is a great equaliser that way!
my orkut profile has details of my pet fetishes, my pompous sketches, testimonials... i am an alive and kicking cyber being, all the while when am in my room staring at the idiot box my great gramma would so spike, effectively comatose!
Kind reader!... you must be thinking heres someone whos woken up the internet revolution a decade late!.......... but well i am still wide eyed, and a little stupified by what ive become!...
No one is lost, no one is far,no one is near, no one is really dear either considering how copious an ubiquitous one becomes when ones' permanently logged on to google talk detailing thier litle cyber world of every little scratch - on thier status messages!
We're loosing our market value in a way, remind me of freakonomics where levitt talks of the great information assymetry that the internet blurs....its not just the real estate prices ..its our own lives too!...
Whats my point?.... nothing really!, but i cant help feeling like I've discovered something latent, uncovered a layer blah blah!.... I mean there are two mes! one that s on this side of the screen and another, with a unique existence online, immersed in web paint, thumping around cyber space.
see how profound i am!:)
:P

2006-08-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

I've had an overdose of holidays... my soul is screaming out for work, sweat, nights outs and dark circles...
A game of basketball will also do.
I feel aged now, in my second year of MBA, I dont feel threatened enough to do the readings, nor excited enough to watch all the movies on the LAN.So what does one do with a five day break.
Watch movies nevertheless
play crosswords online
chat
sleep
stare at the comp
clean up my desktop
rearrange my desktop
offer to help my friend with an article review(imagine?!)
sit
stand
lie down
watch movies and so forth... you get the drift.....
I keep wanting to write profound stuff on my blog about my deep philosophic introspections, the inconsequentialness( did i invent a word?) of human existence, oil prices, and world peace, but one must settle important matters first ;)
I miss being in first year, the earnestness, wide eyed-ness, the little bit of stuggle to get important things working( like movies on the LAN), wanting to do everything right..discovering people...and a lot more
okay am beggining to sound melancholic!!! I DO not sulk on my blog!....
all though i can if i want to..
I am sounding like some one hit me in the head with an iron rod!..feels liberating!to crap like this.
I repeat -shall soon write about matters of consequence!
until then...
asta lavista!
may the insanity prevail

2006-08-03T04:16:00.000-07:00

Back to uskool!...
Feelling the usual bout of first week ambition, plans to kill myself through out the semester, slog, get smarter, reform and all that.
Yeah Right!
Suffering from a chronic summer setback,forgot what subjects I've chosen, the way to my class, and have completely lost the ability to sit through two classes a stretch..
I thought three months would be enough and more to fullfill by absence from bangalore for the past 9 months.... but it turns out it was't.
A lot of unfinished business!..namely
Bun Nippat
Gullus chat
moole manne
Max( which would have been incomplete anyway with my bestest buddy in vilayat)
CInanmon""
Coffeday Cunnningham road""
Veena stores
Honey Cake-Dont they make them any more???:-(
crosswords
Landmark
Longer time at Blossoms
Sankey Tank-The are still repairing it :-((
Lakeview
Smithe's mom's chole!..how can i forget!
A lot of friends!
College

Will keep it mind next time!....

Noo-dals!!

2006-07-26T05:10:00.000-07:00

The east and west- the twain shall never meet!..... Tell the chappies that make Maggi dal atta noodles this.... immensely disappointing.
An insultingly bland tribute to Sambhar.... all it has is a smattering of toor dal pieces (or is it grains, specks?, pulses??) and a punchless sambhar podi one wouldnt touch even when suffering from jaundice.
Is there anything that can save this concoction?.... methinks frying it a bit, adding a a generous helping of my gramma's thengai podi, some tamarind, tomatoes,some green chilli and ginger might do the trick....
I shall try it tomorrow...
Yaa... there are more profound things on earth to review like principia mathematica or chaos theory.. but is that going to help consumers make that critical buying decision in the supermarket alley!... will that save a well intentioned mother from stuffing her little one with this protien rich harakiri?! Nay!......... look up to the skies and thank the lord, this is your friendly neighbourhood noodle police!.....
Yes this is what happens to people who have maggi dal atta noodles..
can they sue me for this?

FILLER...........

2006-03-06T23:46:00.000-08:00

Owing to a writers' block( okay am not a writer) am lifting my own article from my college magazine and publishing it here, by the way, this is the link, if you would like to read more intelligent articles ....its a jolly good magazine..have a look!
http://www.iitk.ac.in/ime/MBA_IITK/avantgarde/index.htm
and here goes my article...

MEGABUCKS AND MORE...!

In my past seven months at IIT-Kanpur, there has seldom been a period devoid of fests or the anticipation of a fest.-Antaragini, Umang, Techkriti Udgosh… one after another. I have been a completely wide eyed observer to all these fests absolutely overwhelmed by the magnitude and scale of events at IIT.

Megabucks was one of the fests in which a significant chunk of my MBA class was involved. Ever since we stepped foot into the campus we were told about Megabucks the big event, the most awaited entrepreneurial contest. Post October work began full scale calling judges, contacting famous persons to speak on entrepreneurship. There were all big names, we were at first a little over awed and jittery, but with time we started really liking our work. Some of us were calling companies to get sponsorship, ‘Do-ing’ real marketing that we had only studied in our textbooks. Many were involved with the logistics, publicity and at a later stage arranging for hospitality et al. This was a full scale management workout!

Finally the big day dawned –events started with the ‘aptly’ titled Battle field- the case study competition. Teams from all over India battled out their wits on a tough supply chain management case.

This was followed by the prelims of the B-quiz-cliffhanger round. This was just a trailer of the finals that was to come. The audience was absolutely spell bound with the sheer brilliance of questions. Many of the answers were cleverly disguised in the question itself, and many laced with a subtle sense of humor. The quizmaster (Avinash Mudaliar) gave the audience a ‘laddu’ of a question, when he showed us a clipping from ‘Bunty aur babli’ showing the two stars gobbling laddus at a particular place. We had to guess the place. All of us of course knew our food well!, and were more than happy to shout out ‘thaggu ke laddu’ the pride of our town!

The AD-MAD competition was next up, a couple of friends and I secured an on the spot entry by completing a quiz successfully. Being stage shy, we surprised ourselves by concocting advertisements for a bucket with a hole all rolled up with some slap stick comedy. The finale was of course the jingle round where we had to stretch our vocal chords and our imagination to compose a jingle for ‘chimpanzee chhaap dant manjan’. All three of us being confirmed bathroom singers were shocked to hear ourselves singing away to glory the praises of a certain toothpowder!

The evening brought up the final round of quiz. The quizmaster –Avinash Mudaliar regaled the audience with his gregarious energy and utterly brilliant questions. The audience was in peels when he occasionally embarrassed the very embarrass -able participants with wicked jokes.

This quiz was unlike any other quiz that we attended because a large number of answers were self evident if one thought. The answers to questions ranged from bizarre to shocking and some were fascinatingly interesting.

The next day morning was FORUM the panel discussion. The panelists included Suhas Gopinath( The world’s youngest CEO), Allwyn Agnel (Pagalguy) ,Kiran Deshpande (CEO,Airtight networks) and R. Kumariya (Regional manager SBI). Each of them represented a distinct face of entrepreneurship and enthralled the audience with their experience and advice. I have never been much inclined to entrepreneurship personally. But through the course of this discussion I found myself asking myself –why not? The sheer passion and drive that these people had was infectious! Allwyn Agnel aka pagalguy said an entrepreneur would be incomplete with out arrogance! Ironically he is a very humble and unpretentious person!

The last event was the b-plan competition. This was the pot of gold!, Winning meant a hefty sum of money, and incubation at SIDBI!. Teams came up with all sorts of interesting proposals –from an animation firm to testing services.

This particular event was the culmination of months of efforts; teams had posted in their summaries form August onwards. The finalists had made it through a lot of rounds of elimination.

Having witnessed Megabucks as part of the organizing team, as a participant and as audience was a unique experience. It felt great to see something that had been occupying our hearts and minds for so many months taking form finally.

I believe that we can learn a lot of our management backstage through such events, when you really get your hands dirty, book rooms, call and speak to unknown people, face refusals, the joy of a call getting successful. Last minute crisis management the list goes on. These are some things that books can’t teach you!

2006-03-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

My revered basketball court!

:-):-)!

2006-01-28T02:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a forward i had got nearly a year back..., rummaged it out!Everytime i read it my heart does a few cartwheels for Madhu trehan!

This is an article written by Madhu Trehan.She writes regularly for Outlook and in this she is replying to a letter by a reader.Both the letters are shown below.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Madhu,
I have read your articles ever since I was a kid and you were at India Today. You have often come across as a balanced person not prone to Gandhi nonsense, until now. I live in a White Nation (the US) and have never felt like a second class citizen. Only a blind and a deaf person can compare the pride of a US citizen with the indignity of being an India. A US citizen trusts his government, knows his/her death will never go unpunished,while an Indian solider is there to die. Elite is a bad word in India because 95% of our country lives in abject poverty.
Next time ask the waiter in Taj who served you the Rs 400 drink, how much he makes in a month. The Durban who opens the door for you, ask him how much he makes? I bet his monthly salary will be around your dinnerbill. Shame on you and journalists like you who have failed India in the past with coloured reporting and are doing so now. They should feel ashamed. Rather than calling bush names, maybe we should hang our heads in shame on PM's like Vajpayee who is too old to walk, too much of a coward to protect his people.Maybe, just maybe, the day people like us (the English educated hence smarter) start feeling ashamed enough we will start making changes in India rather than just exploiting our servants and labour class. It anguishes me to read this national character articles.
A nation that cannot feed its people (a la Orrisa) has no character, a nation whose children move around naked (Mumbai) has no reason to feel proud, a nation whose elected reps call religious riots "opposite reaction" has no future. Once again, shame on you and all of India. I am ashamed to be an Indian and shame on you for suggesting anything else.
Chet (Chaitanya)
****************************************************
Her response was:
Hello Chet,
I will answer your letter point by point.
O Your name. You can be Chet or Jet, stay away from the sun, fake anAmerican accent, but you will never be able to run away from Chaitanya.He will always be there even though you hate him today.
O Gandhi, whom you hold in such contempt, despite all his controversialbehavior, is largely responsible for the fact that there is no whiteboot on a part of your anatomy today.
O You live in a white nation but you are not white and never will be.You can fool yourself to believe that you are not treated as a secondclass citizen. You choose to forget the Dot Busters, the Sikh who waskilled because he looked foreign and rampant racism. How many times aweek do you have to explain where you are from and spend your timeEXPLAINING India to Americans? I cringe to think what you say to themabout India. We do not need spokesman such as you. You will never beable to share a good desi joke with any of your new friends.If youcan't laugh together, you cannot understand each other.You will alwaysbe an alien.
O Yes, we are economically poor compared to US but we do not have tosuffer the highest rate of teenage pregnancies, kids coming intoschools and killing students and teachers, the highest rate of suicideamong college students, alienated parents and children, lonely oldpeople dumped into old age homes, drugs being offered to eight year olds(as my daughter was when she was in the UN school in New York), serial marriages and divorces. The US had a president who was senile and deaf(Reagan), one who turned out to be a serial sex offender (Clinton),and now you have one who didn't know the heads of state of majorcountries and ignored warnings of a terrorist attack months before it took place. The US isresponsible for massacres in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Chile and the list goes on. The rest of the world does not view America with the rose-coloured glasses youhave been brainwashed by the US media to see thorough.
And, how much does a waiter in Jean Georges restaurant in TrumpInternational Hotel in New York make compared to the price of the drinkhe is serving? The labour class in exploited all over the world.
O You seem to very upset that I am pointing out we have a nationalcharacter to be ashamed of and we should do something about it. Yourinsistence that we stay ashamed and do nothing about it is perhaps to make it easierfor you to live in a country where the only religion is to hang out atmalls and accumulate consumer items you don't really need but have been dictated byadvertising to buy that, to keep the US economy going. It is not byaccident that Americans are flocking to yoga and meditation classes to buy happiness.
O You have done well to leave a country you are ashamed of. Callyourself an American but sooner or later your disguise and American Halloween costume will frighten you enough to get rid of it.O I love America's energy and have good friends there. New York is acentre for an enormous outpouring of creativity and imaginativethinking. Every country has itsown problems. It is for the people who belong there to takeresponsibility for change.
O If you are so far removed from India, ask yourself why you are soanguished with my article. Chaitanya is raising his head, Chet is introuble.

Regards,
Madhu Trehan

Kai kat bai muchh....

2006-01-23T05:04:00.000-08:00

So I was cluelessly sitting in my business communication class... nothing new, nothing earth shattering really... but then i happened to be sitting plum in front of the entire class trying to unfurl the mysteries of reflective listening or something with my equally mystified group.... I was a part of the demo.
my moderator asked me to tell her about something that bothered me lately...Uhm few things really bother me , so before I know i found myself reciting a tale of culinary deceit, of cheated taste buds....
'I went to this place called Kerala cafe nearby, where i was hoping to get some good dosa'(My group mates started uncomfortably shifting in thier chairs at this point).... ' (this was approximately when i realized that very few people in the world would choose to embarass themselves in front of an entire class by proclaiming that thier greatest worry in the world is food )But when i went over there and ordered for ghee dosa (At this point my mod interrupts and enquires about how ghee dosa is prepared , so i told her roughly, by now my prof was looking at me with slightly narrowed eyes.., meanwhile i also realized that amongst my audience was seated my well meaning friend who had reccomended this place to me...here i was with my foot in my mouth!) but then all i got was dosa with dalda!(My class grew silent trying to grapple the depth of my tragedy , my group mates had meanwhile probably shrunk and disappeared into thier boots i dint dare see..., my audience was awaiting the climax so i declared...) so i decided never to venture out and have dosa ever again'
The moderator then looked at me sympathetic eyes , and did her reflecting thingummy... She asked me if this had depressed me greatly!.... I'll stop there..wont get it into any further details... but essentially I've decided to shut my mouth when i get the urge to open my heart!
This is not to say that I dont view my dosa episode as a tragedy.. Infact I wish i could take the clueless many who think this is authentic dosa to CTR in bangalore!......... thats the real thing!
I am quiet happy with the roti sabji and dal that you get here.....would be more than glad to import some chat from here to my mulq...!But do not make dosa and I promise you we wont make any 'chats'( pronounced to rhyme with cat ) and barotas back home!

MORE RAMBLINGS.....

2006-01-18T05:36:00.000-08:00

Another one of those times that I am writhing in regret!... A visit to the M.Des department left me kicking myself for not writing CEED!.... The same feeling I felt when i lost my application to NID the day before the last date,and the time i traded animation for an MBA!....Enough of my sob story...but my point is..oh well...U should see thier department urself... you'll know what i mean!
We entered the deptt... and we saw a coupla guys playing some non violent cricket in the corridors....upon entering the office of the senior design students, we were greeted with paintings murals, quaint photographs..., a lot of ingeniously handmade stuff.... ,plaster of paris models of CPU units.... things u'd never have realised have so much aesthetic value... a painting on a scrap of cloth.., tin biscuit packs... and oh yeah , what i liked best.... we have this wild plant that grows in our campus -it always fascinated me.Thier like 10 feet high...and are like those furry broomsticks that we use at home...each leaf-if u can call them that is like a feather of a broomstick.. So this guy had crumbled one feather into a nice plastic jar..looked really nice!Am sure most people would be a little cross eyed wiht my description, but for those who dwell at IIT-K(and are reading my post-which is most likely a null set) am reffering to those brown colored brush like stuff that grows near hall-8!I managed to break of a little bit of it, and have it neatly perched in a mountain dew bottle in my room!...
I'd kill to work in an environment like that!... It would squeeze the creativity out of even even? uhm let me see.... someone as unoriginal as Anu Malik!While we are at it ,i would credit Bappi Lahri with more creativity than AM..!You are my chicken fry u are my fish fry kabhi na kehna mujhko bye bye bye! I like it :-)
Visual beauty and creativity always get me excited.... I can never fully appreciate even a well made copied picture as much as i can marvel at something that is spontaneous and quaint... Is that a very pompous statement?? So what :-)!My blog!

IIT!...

2006-01-07T23:00:00.000-08:00

I can never stop myself from getting absolutely awed by what goes on at IIT stands ... The kind of autonomy the student's body -the gymkhana itself has was something i had never seen before.... Doing my OB project on the gymkhana was an experience by itself..The fact that people of my age or even younger have so much of enterprise, ability and dynamicism and on the on the other hand that they are ambitious,clever politicians playing thier pawns so carefully never ceases to amaze me.
IIT is in itself a mino cosmos... there is always a scurry of activities over here, clubs,fests,workshops...sometimes there are so many things I 'd like to do.. go for the quiz club meetng, the literary discussion group meetings... animation club lectures and then i realize that I have 'n' meetings lined up... proposals to submit and miles to go before i sleep!..I wonder how people manage to squeeze time out for everything that there to see and do.
Currently we're having 'Umang' the film festival going on.... Great movies.... and my south Indian heart was elated to find that they were screening 'Nayagan' a master piece of a tamil film!...
intrestingly we're also having panel discussions with directors of some contemprory films that are being screened in our auditorium.I mean look at the kind of celebrity names that are coming here... the brand name IIT carries a lot of flak... Duh.... I mean i know its obvious but still..being a part of the experience is great...... here again its all thanks to student enterprise-calling those guests, hosting them, printing out those glossy brochures..... !
Well I suppose I am all wide eyed because od the fact that my engineering college ...things were quiet different... or what ever bit of such similar initiative that was around was not well publicized, restricted to a few...
I wonder how people get back to terra firma once they pass out...?No 100mbps internet?...No clubs, no glider rides at 40 rs!... wont they miss the freedom of roaming about the campus till the wee hours..........no vikram rides..!I am growing to really love this place.....

What Ho!..... I've been De-graded!

2005-11-30T00:34:00.000-08:00

I got my grades... two Cs! Not good!....We also got our marks for our beloved 'baby'- Our OB project on the gymkhana.Very upsetting..This was one thing that all of us-my group mates put in our heart and soul into...
wonder what went wrong... Our editting was a little slapdash-yes...bt we slogged for it!.. What i would rather not tell myself though, is that we screwed up on the flow, maybe we dint link everything to the subject... Maybe we had the passion and all that.... but lost our way!
Same is the story with my economics paper.realy loved sitting through the class, studying it(when i rarely did!),yesterday I was utterly absorbed reading it in the library, but then again. the moment i found my bed i just snuggled in,having fnished less than half the syllabus.
I cant explain it!... all fizz and no stuff?! :-(!...
Maybe not.... I just need to teach my slothy,lazy self that work is not about getting carried away by one trivial success,but just about keeping at it!.
Maybe I was just designed to be one of those drifters... dreaming away!...Oh well..... maybe all I need is a KITA!..(A term my marketing teaching very discreetly introduced to us)..Not that I give 'A' grade that much value..I ve never been one to aspire to top.but then getting a C because u were so lazy that u dint even do any worthwhile enjoying in the bargain!.....Pricelessly stupid!...
I wish I was like Bertie Wooster!... money no work to do!,just mending broken hearts, travelling to the US for kicks!..Wodehouse is god!.everytime i read a J&W I find myself relaxing and unwinding as i step into the soul of good ol' Bertie!.... I think If i were to identify with any fictional character It would be a cross between Bertie, the emperess and lord Emsworth!....
There I go dreaming my head off!....Prick! and back to earth... If i emulate the emperess any longer i am probably going to end up with a D tomorrow!...
When am in a less halcyon mood, maybe i will choose to be a more firy purposeful fictional character..but for now..despite my exams.I am just going to do wat emperess does- curl up and sleep-till i am woken up for meals!

weed in the lawn: NOW!

2005-11-30T00:24:00.001-08:00

weed in the lawn: NOW!

2005-11-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

weed in the lawn: NOW!

Salaam Kanpur!

2005-11-29T02:09:00.000-08:00

my article published in my college magazine...:-)

For some one who had not ventured out from south India except for a one day pilgrimage, Kanpur seemed another planet! So anyway here I was with just a mouthful of Hindi (Even that would be an overstatement considering how limited my Hindi skills are), all wide-eyed, bags packed ready to join IIT Kanpur.

I had been forewarned by uncles and aunts about thugs who attack you in broad daylight, chain snatchers, and free riders who would oust you out of your seats in trains and what not! My grandma ordered that I limit my ventures to the classroom and back for the coming two years I was going to be staying in the city.

So I set out like I was venturing into Veerapan’s Satyamangalam forest all armed and equipped (with loads of advice and ‘Do-not’s’ essentially)

As I began my drive to IIT Kanpur from the station, I was jolted by the familiar feeling of roller coasting through pot holes -feels like home I thought…..As I peered out of the window I was surprised to see that people had cheerfully stretched out their cots and chairs and lounged about in them, just a mere half foot from the highway! I smiled to myself –I already liked the place!

After entering IIT Kanpur, there is a huge transformation-Manicured lawns, no litter, Traffic cops everywhere, more interestingly people who listened to the traffic cops! and beautiful, albeit cacophonous peacocks with their not so stunning female counterparts, and their little ones (also rather unattractive!).

Passing by an ‘Indian Oil’ petrol bunk I felt a sad twang-two years of life without gears, petrol and rear view mirrors! I suppose I am doing my bit for the environment and my expanding horizontality!

A couple of weeks down I was indoctrinated into the IIT way of life-Plodding around with my cycle, potatoes for breakfast, blistering heat ,potatoes for lunch, mind blowing internet( and of course this is incomplete without a honorary mention of the revered DC++)more potatoes, visits to shop C(The shopping complex) , Manna(heavenly food) at the boys hostel canteen et al.

Naveen Market did turn out to be worth it after our arduous journey. It has everything from versatile tailors to shoe collections that would put Jayalaltha to shame; and of course deviously charming shopkeepers! Outsiders like me are bound to be taken for a ride with the inherently polite Hindi characteristic of this part of the country and their compelling persuasions. I believe my MBA brethren could benefit from learning a lesson or two from their marketing skills. But what remained in mind was the Rickshaw walas over there. It is saddening to see that they sweat it out and lug our girth, and charge utter pittance. Surprisingly the shrewdness of tempo drivers hasn’t rubbed on! Speaking of which –one’s stay in Kanpur is incomplete without a joyride in the Tempos. Newton’s laws of motion take on a new meaning once u get into one of these. A tempo stays in a state of motion provided there are a minimum of eight people in taking just about enough oxygen to stay alive at any point of time. The only external force that can get it rolling is the number 8! (This does not include the driver and any one stuffed in the front)

Another facet of Kanpur is the teeming ‘wildlife’ that coexists with you every day. One never does have to feel alone over here. Cycling to class alone? Take a second look! You will find a kindly grasshopper family hitching a ride on your shoulder. Venture out of your room you will be heralded by a circus of insects bouncing off the walls, on your head, gliding across the floor. If u open your windows for a breather, enter an entire color palette of beetles, bugs, moths, flies, wasps-you name it. If you’re lucky (and your hostel has spared you the inconvenience of a wired mesh) you might also have a peacock visiting you. One of my friends woke up one morning to see a live peacock preening itself on his study table! Life is never dull here! Amidst all the flurry of everyday life, the one creature that baffles me here is the praying mantis. They just sit (Or is it stand?) meditatively at the same point endlessly for days together .I wish I could do that! After the initial girlish (feminists- I am speaking for myself) screeching and squealing on seeing my winged friends. I am gradually learning to treat them with nonchalance and maybe with a bit of reserved fondness!

It has been nearly three months since I got here. I haven’t met any thugs yet! I have made successful trips to the city and back, all in one piece. My Hindi is finally expanding beyond rolling eyes and ‘haan’s (the hindi yes). I can find my way back home if I am let loose anywhere in the city! I can bravely walk through a deluge of grasshoppers without flinching a bit. To use some terminology acquired in the past months-My socialization has begun!..

I am glad I dint heed to grandma’s advice. Every place has its soul, and spirit. To savor Kanpur in its element, one must turn deaf ears to warnings, jostle your way into a tempo and haggle endlessly with shopkeepers at Naveen market…and tip the rickshaw walas generously at the end of it all. An added bonus to IITians-The sylvan surroundings, no pollution and the round the clock safety-One can roam around the campus worry free through the night.

Mother! I don’t have a curfew here!..

Salaam Kanpur! Here I am!

NOW!

2005-11-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

And I thought last week was busy!.... I submitted 3 projects,and wrote one exam within 24 hours..all with one hour of sleep!....
This is one of those times when i got really involved with my projects.Especially my OB project and my marketing case... Team work can be fun!... especially when u have the right synergy.It was great fun as we sat in my room and pondered over every sentence that we were going to write in the report.We had really worked for it... !next week i will be back home ripping around in my bike in bangalore :-)... hot coffee, gay flower markets in malleshwaram, thatha paatti, ginger my under devoloped doggy, brigade road..... adjust maadi lingo....I could go on...
there is no place like home!...
As i sat with my marketing group mates, trying to ponder over how to break even with our new brand of soap...my head was reeling with the amountof work pending...., the fact that i am a collosal time waster and all that..i thencame up with this poem...
NOW...
Its there now,
It just went
Its right NOW
Now its just then
As i look back
at the spent nows..
just bygone 'thens'
I sigh now as i let go
another precious 'now'...

AD MAD..........

2005-11-17T04:23:00.000-08:00

Over the past month over the the only things that kept me busy were watching movies on the LAN, playing basketball and sleeping...sometimes it got me wondering if I am actually doing an MBA course!..But then I always worked on 'energy saving mode'Doing the minimum amount of work required by me!This week was different... there was a deluge of work that was unavoidable.9 hours of seminars on Sunday.. a project in Computing that we tehnically challenged souls struggled through... stayin up till 6 in the morning!..that done... we began work on our Marketing project.This project will forever be close to my heart.. as it was the first time i got to concieve, plan and create an ad.... None of us groaned even a bit despite the amount of hard work involved... Takes me back to one of those phases where I wished I hadn't done my Engineering taken up fine arts -worked at an Ad agency.......Oh well...!.
Tomorrow we'll be presenting this to the class hope it goes well...
Other good things that happened to me-A virus free comp..., a new green Kurta and a call from a friend....Its nice being busy... u cant think, u cant mull... all you can do is crash into bed and sleep after a tiring day...:-)

Et tu Blogger?........

2005-11-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

It had to happen!Its been on my mind for a long time.....But sloth and a writer's block are a bad combination!...Nevertheless... What better time to start blogging than a gloomy evening away from home, feeling a little lost.. missing my bike, my friends and my city!..I cant assure you its going to be readable but yes... the mood makes me want to write!Thats why I am here I guess..To wallow in celebratory self introspection, to gush, crib, to just let go!..And yes, marvel at my limited writing skills!..
Wonder if I am trying to sound modest there!... Naa.. I am trying to sound like I am trying to sound modest.. But Limited it certainly is!..
My basic level french course brought to light that the famed 'et tu brutus' line meant ' and you Brutus' not 'u too Brutus' as its commonly mistaken to be!..All the same for the sake of poetic justice I think 'Et tu Blogger' sounds better than 'toi aussi Blogger'!..
Was I trying to holler out to faceless(maybe nonexixtent) audience that I know French?!..Maybe!...I am lovin it!....I can brag all I want!...
Thats it for today!