'nayak', RDB, UPA2 & new year..

new year eve....such a huge amount of excitement in the air....everyone trying to fit in the final party passes across the city, sending 'hppy new year' messages 15 mins b4 to avoid the Re1 charge on 1st jan...doing masti wid their loved ones and so on and so forth...but on the other hand, i am sitting in my living room in front of an idiot box...down with throat infection & fever... :( nywys...was lazying around watching EPL weekend matches and mann...what a match between the reds and blacks..!! nywys...its almost 6 hours in front of this box and its 12:00 am. seems the new year has arrived and i think will take some time to figure out how it pans out. anyways.....a movie named 'nayak' is coming on zee cinema

yeah its the same movie that came while we were in the school some 10-11 years back. we laughed at the fundoo stunts performed by anil kapoor and loved the 15-20 mins part of the movie while he went on suspending govt servants while was 1 day CM of maharashtra. but today, after a decade, looking at the pathetic political events in the last few weeks, i think this movie was actually a prelude to Rang De Basanti..!! seriously...just try to recollect both the movies and analyze them with the current situation in the country. RDB was kinda a revolution which took the youth for a ride and showed them an alternative course of action to the filthy political transactions. seeing 'nayak' and the actions taken by him during his course of being a CM actually showed that after all the actions were not that flimsy. there was some amount of practicality and logic in the events and actions performed by anil kapoor. i personally feel that with these two movies bollywood had evolved and tried to contribute from its side.

lets try to understand what can be our contribution or atleast what we can understand of the current polity in the country. we have one dynasty in the country which has considered projecting its latest heir as the savior of the country as their basic agenda. for achieving this, a huge amount of money is borrowed and spent in the form of subsidies and benefits. the country's fiscal deficit is nearing 6% against a targeted 4.6%, the govt has already exceeded its borrowing targets and is now and then issuing sovereign bonds which is making their cost of borrowings high and in turn reducing the credit rating of our country. there is wide spread 'rahul-flation' in the country due to the freebies awarded across the masses just for the sake of winning some votes here and there. ofcourse this doesn't mean that the other parties are better. we have one lady ruling the biggest state of the country whose only job seems improving her 'image' and constructing elephants all around the state while the people are dying due to hunger. we have another party whose only motto seems disrupting the parliament from functioning and a lack of clear course of actions of what it wants to do. no matter there are highly qualified leaders, but what it lacks is leadership.

the buck doesn't stop here. already things were not good on the policy front for the UPA2 where the PM is loosing all the credits he had won in the past, anna hazare posted the biggest war against it. the scenes we saw on TV from rajya sabha a couple of days back said the whole story on the intention of the govt on this issue. i mean on one side there is one individual who has ionized the population for a cause and on the other side there is a useless bunch of politicians whose only work seems to create new hurdles for the proper functioning of the country. looking at all these, i feel that if not 'nayak' then RDB is definitely something that should not take us by surprise. looking at the current penetration of the media in the country and the awareness of the population of the govt's actions which is causing system paralysis, something like this cant be denied. i believe that these Aholes must really understand that the people are no fools as they used to be 20 years back and seeing the current situation, this UPA2 might really bear the brunt of their actions in the coming elections in 2012 for the five states.

with a hope that when we wake up tomorrow after all these celebrations tonight, we would see some positive actions by UPA2 and the remaining polity and the events like 'nayak' and RDB would be avoided...

with this, wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year.. :)

a RED day

i know you all are feeling the same

its for the politicians to take the blame

till when would the mumbai streets bleed

till when those mindless hooligans succeed

its time the mumbaikar take things in his hand

its time we all get united to take a stand

today again, our hearts were torn apart

seeing those poor souls depart

today again, we were tensed for their well being

of our dear ones with whom with laugh and sing

ofcourse it was a great sight, to see everyone together

but i dont want THIS, as the reason they are standing for each other

i think there is enough said and done

we need to be the flag bearers when there is none

lets not limit ourselves to push the FB 'like'

lets strive to do something and be the spike...

a RED day

i know you all are feeling the same

its for the politicians to take the blame

till when would the mumbai streets bleed

till when those mindless hooligans succeed

its time the mumbaikar take things in his hand

its time we all get united to take a stand

today again, our hearts were torn apart

seeing those poor souls depart

today again, we were tensed for their well being

of our dear ones with whom with laugh and sing

ofcourse it was a great sight, to see everyone together

but i dont want THIS, as the reason they are standing for each other

i think there is enough said and done

we need to be the flag bearers when there is none

lets not limit ourselves to push the FB 'like'

lets strive to do something and be the spike...

Internship diaries: A perfect end with and a new beginning..?

Hey friends….cant wait to see ya all. Its being a long, hot and sweaty summer since we all have met and had some fun time together. Baring me, I hope everyone of you had a great time during your summers and have definitely learnt something new at your small stint out there. This one, the last part, m not writing it in one night. But m writing it over a period of time. The time m not in Mumbai and on a trip to find out my inner peace… !!! yeah its kinda true and daga and pandya/saubh would more than agree with it. so somehow I managed to sneak out a week earlier from my internship and thought of say ‘run away’ from the mad mad world around me.

Putting things into perspective, my place is around 1000 kms/ 18 hours away from Mumbai and I had no direct ticket to my last destination. So due to this the journey was more than exciting than exhausting. It was like a race with time and somehow I had to win it to avoid waiting at a bus stop for a night out. I left my home at 5:30 am to catch a train to Ahmedabad which was suppose to reach around 1:10 pm and I had a bus booking from there further down my road at 2:00 pm. So twas quite tight to reach on time and catch a ride till the bus stop. But luckily the train kept up its reputation and was right on time to reach station. Then that bus was suppose to reach around 7:00 pm to Jamnagar and I had another booking for a 8:00 pm bus to my final location. But no, the race was still on and my bus faced a technical issue and reached Jamnagar at 8:15 pm and I literally had to beg the next buswala to wait for me. Somehow I made it at 12:00 am to my native Dwarka but twas one hell of a ride.

Before that on Friday, thanks to daga, we went out shopping our last lot of alphonsos of the season and after a long search found a good deal and luckily they were the best I had this summer..!! Saurabh shah must promise me to send a couple of dozen every summer wherever I am across india cause these are really the best mango breed among the more than 2500 of them. So coming back to dwarka, it’s a holy place where lord Krishna spent 3 quarters of His life. It’s a small town with a nice beach, a kinda sunset boulevard, totally windy, an awesome temple with its peaceful environment, holy ghats and best of all, almost the entire clan of mine lives there. Was an awesome 4 days out there meeting everyone, updating with the latest gossips, awesome food and sleeping on the terrace in the long cool nights..!! Though you might not be that much spiritual, but if you see the temple deity and the gold/pearls/emeralds/just flowers etc etc decorations of Him, you would just stand out there enjoying His looks and somehow feeling for his blessings. Life couldn’t have been better than this.

Till Tuesday, I think I had got what all I could collect in my memories and so I decided to go home. Home, a place in a small town called Mithapur on the western most shores of India and whose virgin sands are washed by the mighty Arabian Sea. An appropriately sized place with a garden bigger than the built up area and ofcourse with a swing. With trees of coconut, chicku, pomegranate, banana, guava, aamla, jasmin in there, that’s the best place on earth. Then there is my oldie ride, a 1990s LML Vespa with a pickup that puts down the Hondas to shame. All my schedules for the days out there were figured out. Waking up late, cooking, watching repeat seasons of sitcoms, Sonia shenoy on CNBC TV18 (she is the best Prasad, mind it..!!), sleeping, then comes the beach time where luckily this time there are high tides and its just the best thing to take your slippers in your hands, wear shorts and just walk down the shore where the milky white waves clung on to you with all the love in them. Nights are late with watching movies, sitcoms and pulling down your chair in the front porch of your house-close your eyes-and savor the sweet wind blowing past.

A very strange thing happened on one of my first visits to the beach. Usually I have a habit of looking for a specific type of shells which are like pistachios shaped and quite rare as they are delicate and break easily when hit by the waves. So on that day, I was looking for them and as usual, initially found none. Then I got my hand on a couple and met one old guy who I was damn sure was collecting the same ones. So I asked to confirm and when he said yes as he gives them to kids every day, I handed him mine. Then I moved on and surprisingly, I kept on finding them and at the end I had found 15..!! That’s one hell of a number as there are times when I haven’t found even one (almost always) and hence that made me thinking. I came out with a theory that this time, I had a motive behind it. I wanted to collect more and more to hand over them to that old man. Every other time, I just did for the sake of doing as in I didn’t had anything to do with them once I found them but was just doing as it was like a ‘default setting’ whenever I walk down the shores. It also led me to think that that is the reason for many of us not being successful (read ’bored/frustrated/cant take it more’) in whatall we have taken up. For example taking up an MBA if passionate about design, studying engineering for that matter, taking up marketing because no good placements for operations, taking a job in IT when you knew you can do better somewhere else and many more. We didn’t had a motive in doing them. We did them because our father said so, or by being an engineer you can earn respect, compromising cause of an education loan to pay for, IT pays nice (a myth by the way). I think Indians are strong mentally but when it comes to running behind your dreams, we are far behind others nationals. Just a thought.

Apparently I had started this by saying that I was in search of inner peace. Frankly speaking, I didn’t had the slightest of an idea about it while I was on this trip. I don’t even know what it means exactly. But while I was away from the chaos of Mumbai, away from friendship issues, away from a jerk saying ‘I have found this place so I wont adjust (or something like that)’, away from all the failures or shall I put ‘feelings of failures’, I felt good. I felt really good. I was not at all tensed/frustrated and my scalp tried to keep my hair intact from falling out of tension..!! I was cool/carefree and enjoying almost every moment that I had spent. The best time was by far the beach time as every day I would decide to go there and think whats going wrong with me (or searching that mysterious ‘inner peace’) but the waves just pulls me over towards them. The last day was the most emotional one when I tried real hard not to take a dip in those beautiful incoming waves washing up my feet. I knew it would be tough and so had took precautions to carry my wallet and cell phone in a plastic bag and believe me, they really helped J. So, I never thought of thinking and allowed the child in me to take over.

As I write this closing para while in a train to Mumbai, I think that you need not search for inner peace as it is always within you. You just need to see where you should invest your emotions and where you should not waste them. I believe that the problem with most of us is that we try to be open from the outside but from the inside, we are really close. We try to think about someone/something/etc from a single perspective that somehow we have nurtured over the period of time. Why do we get irritated with the ‘I don’t care’ type of people? Cause they have developed this psyche that they don’t give a damn about others and its possible that they are happy or satisfied. On the other hand, we - the normal kind, worry for others-want to share their miseries; in short ‘we care’ (Nope…I still hate the SRF initiative that had killed some of my 1st year Fridays). But again, its not Life if everything is hunkie-dorie. We need bad times. Overall, this trip, I needed it badly and I am glad that I took it. It seemed like a perfect ending to the year that has gone by and with a hope in my heart, I am sure that it would bring in a new beginning that would be beautiful and fulfilling…

Internship Diaries: Part 6 Nearing the end..

Hey guys...so finally we are nearing towards the end of our internship. some of us had a good time and some not. seems the freshers had got an experience of the corporate world. all in all, the thing is that we would soon be meeting each other and bas be the div E we are known for. so anyways, the other day, one of my friends said that the part 5 didnt seemed interesting to him and was too obvious. there wasnt enough originality in the note. but then i was like common, m just trying to share some thoughts that i came across. moreover they are some of the mistakes that gave me realizations about how the issue should have been tackled. m not here to share my frustration/jealousy/ego whatever u say that.. :P but yeah, this time around i would like to share what i need badly..

as always has being the case, i have taken my friend's criticism seriously and have started putting some efforts on losing some flabs here and there. so for that, i go juhu beach every evening after office for a walk and 'some' jogging. i have realized that it is an awesome experience and why there are people who are following the same routine for more than 20 years (yes its true...have met them). so there i was on evening strolling around on the beach with awesome wind blowing around and ofcourse the chicks out there are awesome too... ;) ahh...m going out of track. ok...so u know apart from our summers, the kid's summers are on too. yeah their vacations. in the evening when the sun was quite strong, there were herds and herds of crowd at the beach. children bathing in the sea water, their mommies sitting by the shore and keeping an eye on them, some kids making sand castles, some flying balloons, older ones playing cricket/football and like the whole atmosphere was so lively. there was pure innocence all around as they were not worried about their results, summers, placements, friend/girlfriend issues i mean nothing at all. they just lived by their dreams unknown and i must say unworried of the future.

i envied those kids. i too wanted NOT to care about anything. i too wanted to to play in the sea water without caring about the sewage waste visible on the shore. i too wanted to make sand castles and want to create canals to make the sea water flow. then while walking, i started thinking where has it lost...? the innocence/carefree nature/fun etc etc...where have everything gone. have i got myself so much tangled in the all the worldly issues around me that i have changed myself from what i was...?? how can one change himself/herself so much...?? big question right...too big to comprehend our present situation. i think that there are two sides of a person. one white, which is pristine/pure and another one black, dark as in competitive/jealous/treacherous. when one is born, the person is totally white and as time passes, the black side emerges and it seems that only a few can manage to keep the black side at bay. i thought i was always successful in doing that. but time and again, some or the other event makes me realize that i have failed. i have allowed all these evils to seep in me knowingly/unknowingly.

so what next..? how to go back to square 1..? frankly, i dont know how. yes, i am trying my best to figure it out. i badly need to..!! at times i feel that enough of this bull shit wherein we are fighting among ourselves for trivial matters and forgetting the good times we all had shared. i seriously wanna try to be who i was before...after all as said my master Shifu in Kungfu Panda II, 'If you have inner peace, anything is possible' and i am on my way of finding that...

Internship Diaries: Part 6 Nearing the end..

Hey guys...so finally we are nearing towards the end of our internship. some of us had a good time and some not. seems the freshers had got an experience of the corporate world. all in all, the thing is that we would soon be meeting each other and bas be the div E we are known for. so anyways, the other day, one of my friends said that the part 5 didnt seemed interesting to him and was too obvious. there wasnt enough originality in the note. but then i was like common, m just trying to share some thoughts that i came across. moreover they are some of the mistakes that gave me realizations about how the issue should have been tackled. m not here to share my frustration/jealousy/ego whatever u say that.. :P but yeah, this time around i would like to share what i need badly..

as always has being the case, i have taken my friend's criticism seriously and have started putting some efforts on losing some flabs here and there. so for that, i go juhu beach every evening after office for a walk and 'some' jogging. i have realized that it is an awesome experience and why there are people who are following the same routine for more than 20 years (yes its true...have met them). so there i was on evening strolling around on the beach with awesome wind blowing around and ofcourse the chicks out there are awesome too... ;) ahh...m going out of track. ok...so u know apart from our summers, the kid's summers are on too. yeah their vacations. in the evening when the sun was quite strong, there were herds and herds of crowd at the beach. children bathing in the sea water, their mommies sitting by the shore and keeping an eye on them, some kids making sand castles, some flying balloons, older ones playing cricket/football and like the whole atmosphere was so lively. there was pure innocence all around as they were not worried about their results, summers, placements, friend/girlfriend issues i mean nothing at all. they just lived by their dreams unknown and i must say unworried of the future.

i envied those kids. i too wanted NOT to care about anything. i too wanted to to play in the sea water without caring about the sewage waste visible on the shore. i too wanted to make sand castles and want to create canals to make the sea water flow. then while walking, i started thinking where has it lost...? the innocence/carefree nature/fun etc etc...where have everything gone. have i got myself so much tangled in the all the worldly issues around me that i have changed myself from what i was...?? how can one change himself/herself so much...?? big question right...too big to comprehend our present situation. i think that there are two sides of a person. one white, which is pristine/pure and another one black, dark as in competitive/jealous/treacherous. when one is born, the person is totally white and as time passes, the black side emerges and it seems that only a few can manage to keep the black side at bay. i thought i was always successful in doing that. but time and again, some or the other event makes me realize that i have failed. i have allowed all these evils to seep in me knowingly/unknowingly.

so what next..? how to go back to square 1..? frankly, i dont know how. yes, i am trying my best to figure it out. i badly need to..!! at times i feel that enough of this bull shit wherein we are fighting among ourselves for trivial matters and forgetting the good times we all had shared. i seriously wanna try to be who i was before...after all as said my master Shifu in Kungfu Panda II, 'If you have inner peace, anything is possible' and i am on my way of finding that...

Internhip Diaries: Part 5 Stop, breathe, feel

Hello everyone. So one month is over…seems like a long time that we all have met. Missing college like hell..!! hope u all r too. Nywys…this one that m sharing today deals with our lives very well. What the title suggests is that ‘stop’..running after money, success, fame, etc.. i.e. your job. ‘breathe’ meaning after making a halt, be still/calm/patient. ‘feel’ meaning observe the environment around you. The things you love, the people/places/moments/hobbies/food whatever that once used to be of your liking but is lost somehow in all the running around here and there for your job commitments. I would like to share three instances that I came across last week and were quite meaningful to share.

First of all, as there is no substantial work at my internship company, so once I got a few good movies from one of my colleague. Then everyday night runs a session of watching a movie. So one night I selected ‘sweet november’ movie; no particular reason for going for it. ahh..one more thing, against the popular perception that guys don’t watch love stories, they really do.. ;) nywys…so in this movie, there is a guy who works in the creative industry dealing with marketing/branding/advertising campaigns of various companies. His life is all programmed out and he is utterly workaholic. He has a girlfriend which is no more than a bed companion. So here he was, rushing around having no time even for re-issuing his driving license. Somehow he manages to go out there and like a usual love story, he finds a gal who is different but he is indifferent to her. She initially becomes ‘chep’ as because of him she gets kicked off from the driving exam. On this reason, she manages to get some time with him for transporting her here and there and finds out that he needs a break. But the guys isn’t convinced but an instance at his office gets him fired and he agrees to stay with her for a month (yeah…sad..its true in films nly.. L). During his stay he finds a new part of him and the rest of the story is not relevant in here. It’s also shown that after getting fired, he refuses to work for a big client due to reasons he never used to care for. I mean watching the movie would tell a better story but then, the crux is that there is life out of office/business/work and we just need to stop and try to find it.

Another incident you all might appreciate. One fine day I was waiting on the station to catch the train for my office. The train arrived in some time and was heavily crowded. After managing to get into the boggie, among the chaos all around, I heard the singing voices of a few passengers. Then I found out that those were the people in the next boggie who were singing and playing beats of many of the songs that we sing when we are happy. Then I saw their faces which were full of joy, their eyes all light up not caring for the hardships they are facing in their lives. Just enjoying their moments together on their way from borivalli to churchgate. In first class too, there were people who were humming to themselves the same songs but the bloody corporate sophistation, led them NOT to join the chorus. Anyways…so a lesson they were too teaching us. Don’t just walk towards your destination, enjoy your way too. Targets need to be achieved and kept in mind, but in the process of doing that we must also remember that there is someone waiting for us back home; our friends/family/loved ones/pets

Lastly, not much of details but a small co-incidence I would say. There is this F1 driver named David Coulthard who I believe has retired from the circuit. Obviously he is a F1 driver and lives life on a faster lane. But there is one part of his that many might not be aware. He has opened a hotel/resort called Columbus in the beautiful city of Monaco. Any connections ..?? No..?? no matter his work deals with speeds in excess of 350 kmph, he also prefers a calm/serene/lazy time too. That’s all about it. I mean we have heard instances of some nerds around us doing nonstop studying. Ofcourse it helps and gets reflected in the GPAs but cmmon. Isn’t there more than that..?? barring juhu beach/marine drive, which all places have we visited..? apart from a few, which different kinds of food places we have visited..?? are we able to pursue our interests in arts/theatre etc..?? I mean there are so many things that we like and after a couple of drinks, dream of doing them but due to studying/assignments/exams etc, we somehow overlook them.

So..stop reading this…take a deep breathe and think of the first person/thing/activity that comes to your mind and bas…go for it..!!

Internship Diaries: Part 4 Sometimes LIFE feels ironic

hey friends...hpe ya all are hvng a great weekend. u all might be wondering that whts in store today? what non-sense hes gonna put up ? i wud say that its nthng special. thse r just a few thngs tht i cme across last week and thght of sharing wid all of u. btw as our internships are gng on, why not strt smthn related to it. lately i hve being in cntct wid mny of u and discussed hw thngs wer gng wid ya all related to internsp. mst of the replies were kinda sme that no work, just online research, time pass, no one to care for, mentor too busy to talk for a couple of minutes etc etc. i thnk the last 4 weeks or so were more or less frustrating from many of us. especially for those who were going for a job for the first time..!! imagine going to a company which is a very well known one be a i-bank/cnsltng/fmcg whtevr. all d xcitement for the first job, a new phase of life, full enthusiasm, a drive to give 200% etc which all cme to a sudden halt. dnt u thnk that this is ironical whn on one side the candidate is totally into working hard day in and day out to somehow get into the company for a long term and on the other hand he/she is totally alone (in a way) in the org whr thrs no one who even cares for a pinch..!!u cre for the cmpny a lot but thrs no one to cre for u. u wanna hve tht brand nme attached to urself but no brand wants to get attchd wid u..!!

but chlo as m syng, thts life. lemme share one instance while i was commuting in the local back home from office. as i had mentioned previously, in the very smallest of area available, people try to co-opearte each other so that the other can hve some space to breath/read/take a nap. there is no religion/gender/caste biases etc. just people who r on their way towards destiny and wherein they come across different souls which help on their way out. but on that unfortunate day, i was sitting in the first class carriage, whre it is believed that people are educated and well cultured. opposite to my birth, there were two friends sitting and chatting around something. incidentally, i came to hear their conversation and to my shock and awe, one was sharing wid the other an instance wherein he came across a person in the train whom he felt to be a recruiter of a holy war for a religious community. after that, there was an exchange of typical stereotypic views between them and when they found me listening, they jst diverted the topic. isnt it ironical that on one instance u r the one who is ready to move a step to create sme space to accomodate someone without carrying for his caste or religion and on the other, you still have the same stereotype views towards the community. havent we grown psychologically along with growing physically and mentally...?? still we are the same what we wwere during partition/ mumbai 1993/ gujarat 2002..?? i mean cmmon...2 educated people working for some god damn mnc with a cosmopolitan culture and still having the sme small thoughts..sucks totally.

this idea of getting the opposite of what u have thought of, really screws me up sometimes. for example, yesterday night was my birthday and was sitting wid my friend on Juhu beach feeling nostalgic about the last ** years of my life. thrwng a bday prty on a beach - running arnd in the hostel lobby wid friends chasing wid buckets full of water - wkng up early and desperately waitng for a call frm home etc. i wanted all those things to come back. but here i was, watching the waves and tryin to feel that its the same ones that have lifted me whn m down whn sitting at the beach back home, the breeze is the same that has seen me have some amazing moments wid my family and friends, the sand is the same on which i used to make sand castles and the shore the same which tinkles my sole when water runs below them. but to the sad reality, thngs hve changed. nywys...i had a good bday nite with taking a good beating/some icecream/cake et all but thr were a few people tht were missed. some far...some lost...! lastly, today morning as i came to knw that its mother's day, i asked daga does it come every 8th of may, he replied ofcourse yes..

Internship Diaries: Part III The way back home....

heyy friends....hpe the summers are gng great...!!!

dnt curse me that m back again...cause there has been events that have motivated me to move on. as in the last note i had mentioned of a mail, this time around after the note "the broken shoe", two friends of mine sorted out their differences and are back to talking terms...!! on a serious note, its just that i feel things are the same with everyone and whatever i am feeling or going through, most of you would have gone through your lives too. ofcourse at times, as with the "broken shoe", it may help somebody and it may not to me...nywys.

today i would like to share the experience on my way back home. actually today evening was really beautiful and lively. it wasn't humid at all and there was wind around. so after leaving my 9C Andheri local at 5:41pm at Vile Parle station, i decided that i would walk back home. i avoided the skywalk cause i think it to be vey bland and uninteresting. instead i took the crowded road from the market where it was full of activities..the vendors-the vehicles-the mithibai crowd ( :P )-the NRI babes-gujju aunties bargainig-the garma garam farshan aroma everything seemed to be great. after crossing the market and coming down the main road, i met daga near our college and somehow convinced him to walk to his gymmming session...common...he goes in an auto to a place harldy 600mts away for doing excercise..!!! anyways...after leaving him at the gym, i was alone walking towards home.

one my way back, my mind's front end was busy being attentive not to miss out any incoming vehicle and checking out ny beautiful babe passing by but its back end was constantly tryin to search for something. i was not able to comprehend what it was trying to search. then something weird happened, i was checking my wallet to see whether i needed to go to an ATM and i found out a bunch of railway coupons which were already used. they were occupying space in the wallet unnecessarily and were making it unusable for other things. this thought led to another that there are hundreds of mail in our 'archive' folder which were at times fun keeping; like some slewed jokes, or some babe pics wala or some normal forwards etc which we had very systematically grouped as per the categories and saved. but one day, the system would read that "no memory space available" and when would see our 'archive.pst' file it would have become huge. there wont be any space in the system to store the new incoming mails. similar is the case with old pens, some old articles, some old gifts, some old clothes etc. we try to stack all these legacy stuff around and one day it so happens that there is no space to include newer stuff.

i think there is practical co-relation between this situation and life. i mentioned gifts, articles, clothes, mails, railway coupons but i didnt mentioned intangible parts of our lives that we clung onto. i didnt mentioned emotions, feelings...i didnt mentioned memories. we try not to forget what the other person had done to me and what were my emotions at that moment. this doesnt allow us to accept the person if he/she comes across in totally different avataar...if the person is changed. we create an image which always drives our action towards that person. also, at times we think that pav bhaji is best only at Amar Juice Center and hence we never even TRY a new place. who knows, we might have a better option but the image of Amar Juice Center doesnt allow us to do that. In holding on to our past experiences, we actually dont allow any future experiences to happen....we miss out on life.

the direct point i would like to make here is that "...let go". let go with you older stuff...let go with your older impressions...let go with your older memories. make some space in yourself to accomodate newer stuff like new people, new relations, new friends, new experiences..in short, a new LIFE...!! i knw that its not at all easy to "let go" and i too have learnt it the hard way but common friends, who says good things come easy..?? we must understand that a good churn - removing the old and bringing new, only keeps the dish tasty be it sugarcane juice or life. we can't continiously get juice from the single sugarcane stick, we need to give new input after every cycle. so is life, let the old-dusty-unused-unliked stuff get thrown out and let new-fresh-lively-fun stuff enter into the life to make it more colorful and worth the living....

bhargav

Internship Diaries: Part II - The story of a broken shoe (dont mind d word usage plzz..)

Heyy guys.....m back again, albeit a bit earlier.. :)

nywys....first of all thnks for your response last time. had tried to scribd out what all came to my mind. btw....as i had mentioned in the last note that people must also share nythng they come across if they find it worth sharing, i had received a personal mail from an unexpected friendl and that mail really seemed direct from the person's heart. i would really like to thank for this gesture...!!!

so moving forward, you all would be wondering what is the story of a broken shoe..?? (i know it should be torned or smthn in that line, but broken seemed more apt with it). so here it goes...

everyday i travel from vile parle to elphinstone road for my summer internship. firstly, just to give you some numbers (umm...we dumbf**ks have now become too mch number conscious...MBA scks..!!), on the western line i.e. the train service between Virar and Churchgate, which most of us uses generally, everyday approx 33 lakh passengers travel to and fro..!! cant beleive it right..?? now these passengers are serviced by approx 1210 local train services on the whole.. that means that on an avg, a single train carries more than 2700 passengers...!!!! now that is astonishing right..? (btw...dont catch my collars if the numbers are wrong...they are just used to put things into perspective) so everyday, in such a train, i travel to my destination. upar se till yesterday, i didnt even had a so called 'first class' pass where in you have to fight for a place with a different sort of people than the general class. here, everyone seems to be sophisticated and wearing a well tucked shirt and not to forget, they USE A DEO.... :P :P

so...i didnt had a first class and everyday, two times, i had to fight myself out against people who were busy fighting the odds and make a living for themselves. somehow i always managed to get a 6 x 1 feet space and also to get down at my station too. among all these chaos, many a times i was surprised to find people reading mags, ET, a book called 'stay hungry, stay foolish' and fantasizing as businessmen or fooling around on their cell phones. this made me realize that in such an enviornment, whre u hardly hve ny space to breath, the best thing is to be calm and patient. to ignore..... i think thats also the same with life....say if we are facing tough times, its best to let them pass..ignore them...be patient....and things would be under your control (smthn similar to the 'reconstructionist' strategy... :P ). then as days passes, i started applying this technique in my daily trips and surprisingly it works...everythime m pushed or pulled or take a hit in the crowd, i try to remeber those people i was tellng about and bas be calm and patient and in no time the 20 min journey of mine ends... :)

oops....i thnk you guys are right about me that i go on and on and on....double DCP (the tags are for this... ;) ) so coming back to the story of the broken shoe...during my course of jostling with 100s of mumbaikars while commuting, somehow my left shoe broke. at first i wasnt aware of it. then in office, as i was trying to readjust myself while working, i saw that the sole and the main body of the shoe were starting to tear apart. but who cares....m also an Indian nywy !!! i wud wait till the shoe is doing its duty. so i ignored it. then as two days passed, it was almst impossible to NOT notice my left shoe. i prefer walking from station to my home and so whenever there is non-flat surface and i try to walk over, i feel that the sole is about to come out. so i decided on my way back home to get it fixed before it becomes useless.

now comes the revelation part.....after reaching home, first of all i gulped some milk and grabbed a couple of 'theplas' (sorry daga... :) ) in a hurry. after satiating the 'fire in my belly ( :P ), i was just going thru my normal stuff around and then this struck me. when my sight stopped on my shoes, i felt something deep. i felt that "isnt this the same with our lives too...??" we try to ignore obvious issues in our lives till they become grave enough to be out of our control. take relationships for an example, i take this cause this part of my life made me realize the whole story of the broken shoe. nywys...so at times...in any relation be it lovers, relatives, family or friends,we see that there is some amount of jealousy or bitterness or the minutest misunderstanding due to some or the other reason..but we tend to ignore that due to silly reasons like time, work/sutdies or ego..!!! we keep on ignoring and due to this the opposite person too does the same thing. (atleast in this case...all the humans are same no matter a man or a woman.. ;) )so due to these actions, the two individuals fall apart and the distance goes on increasing to such a level that, one day, they call it quits..! now just rewind a little bit...if when it was the right time, they had talked it out, cleared the issues among themselves, then this day wont have come. similar to the shoe, if it is repaired at the right time, it wont turn uselss after two days..

unfortunately for me, i realized this lesson a bit later in my life...wished i could have learnt years before screwing up many a times with my loved ones. but better late than never...so this is one thing i wont forget and i hope you guys too would appreciate the same about it. and for the shoe, then yes yes...i would get it done over the weekennd so it would still be the same old chap and begin its services on monday...!!!

till then...have a great extended weekend.. :)

bhargav

Internship diaries: Part I

A week has gone by and me and almost all my classmates except some elites (:P), have started their internships in some of the best industrial names. Over there, there are folks from all the other BSchools no matter they are above or below our latest ranking (guys...remember we are 6th according to ET..!!)....!! The companies have tried to create an eco system where in the so called diversed minds come together and try to cook something out of nothing..! Yeah its true..there is actually nothing in store for the interns in the initial 10 days as per my interactions with many. Name any big companies, the interns are doing nothing. Ofcourse the so called cream (read IIM junta) of our batch has gotten frustrated and many also have started complaining against such firms. But people like us, we are having one hell of a honeymoon period. Actually we love that we are left alone, given a wifi connection wherein FB, moneycontrol and gmail are not barred and provided time to time lunch as well as unlimited tea/coffee... ;)

Lemme share my experience till date. Btw my company is XYZ (privacy issues.. ;P). It is touted to be the largest producer of a certain commodity in India. So...the future seems quite bright. But not for me. Last tuesday the 12th, I visited its awesome office on one of the best areas of south mumbai (the tags are for this.. ;) ). After entering the building, I was overwhelmed by the shimmering floor and the beautiful ambience if I say so. Over there, there were people from other colleges too. Then the HR came and said..."please wait for the HR Boss to come"....we waited..infact we explored the office...found out the important places like the pantry and ofcourse the loo (timepass to krna hai na...!!!) Nywys..then came the HR Boss and instead of giving some insights about the company and the work, he advised the non mumbaikars NOT to drive after drinking 'sherbat' (yeah...he actually said that..!! he meant boozz btw). Nywys...10 mins later he too went and the HR came...."please wait blah blah blah" and then the 'waiting episode' started where in we kept on waiting for... shall i say... almost the whole week for something fruitful to happen. In the mean time, we changed our office location too.

Nywys...the last two days seemed kinda good, albeit in a different way. Incidentally i met a couple of people out of nowhere who shared some of the important lessons of life they had learnt. Yesterday, after managing to get down from a genpacked local train at 7:30 pm, I shared an auto with a guy somewhere around in his late 40s. As the station was vile parle, so that guys HAD to be a gujju.. ;) So i started the conversation and we discussed our professions and education etc. During that he said, "sometimes I feel that I have missed out on something. the ones who were along me have moved ahead and i am stuck up here only. but yes, i had a choice, to run behind money or to have a stable life with comparatively lesser money and i made the right choice"...this was him...i mean i know that its good to tell that money is "moh maya" after you have enough of it, but while going thru his 25 years of experience, i think there is something meaningful and deep in his statement. During our short time together, he also shared that "in life there are both good and bad times. but in the bad ones, dont try to get frustrated but let that time pass. once it passes, there would be several new opportunities coming up. one needs to be patient enough to let that hard time pass." surprisingly, he also mentioned that today's generation is not patient enough, its selfish for oneself and hence the individual life is more screwed up then it used to be in the past. This really made me think of my expeirences and i found out a stark correlation with whatever he said.

Actually, the last 3-4 months seemed to be quite rough with me. I know that more of it is just my perception, but again at times you become pessimistic enough that you are not able to see the right in the wrong. This auto incident really showed me some light in all darkness. But the real jolt came from my mentor today morning. Let me give some introduction about him. He is an ex IITian, have a lot of experience in the field, is holding a DGM position and is a bit shall i say...'different'..!! nywys...so i went to show him the report that i had made the day before. on seeing the first line, he got irritated. then again, he started about MBAs. then looking on me, he slammed me 'on the face' regarding my demeanour and looks. as usual i was unshaved and looked sleepy after the tiring local train journey. it felt that he woke me up from my neverending slumber. then he gave me gyan on what kotler has to say on marketing/branding etc and we sat and discussed the proj plan. during the course of discussion, he got normal and everything was cool. but from inside, i was all shaken up. there was a new spirit of enthusiasm induced in me. i dont know what exactly happened...but it was effective. after completing my assignment for the day, i went to him and he felt impressed with my work..!!! i mean just hours before he was slamming me, almost shouting out loud in the office and now, he was happy..!! This incident also led me write this note.

Lastly, one of my senior send me a mail regarding some feedback i had asked for. After reading it, i felt that he had brought a mirror in front of me. all gyan came across and i understood what was going wrong since the last 4 months. there were specific points highlighted in it which made me realize what i had become. i mean, these three people came from nowhere, and just rotated the flywheel to jumpstart this machine of mine. ofcourse majorly all were professional insights but i hope they would also help personally. Dunno what else to write, but yeah i beleive many of you would also experience such instances in life and i think it would be great to share them across with all...you never know what you think useless might be useful for someone else.

I know its been a long one and a bit boring too...but according to many of u, i dnt hve mch wrk to do.. ;)

would try to keep posted and share some thing good i have come across