Why blog?

Pick up any book to learn any programming language (C, C++ or Java) and the first program that you find is "Hello World". This inherently emphasizes the need for people to talk to the world. I am a recent entrant into the world of blogs. When I first starting writing my blog, it was just because blogging was the "in" thing. I had read many blogs and scratched my head as how to start and what to write. But very soon, I realised that blogging is a way of letting others know your thoughts. When I have an opinion on something to share with others, how do I present it? Blog. We all had a favorite place we retreated to as a child and today, as an adult...you know, the room where we go to disappear and just be ourselves. When I log on to blog, I am entering one of my favourite retreats where I can think, express and be myself. Here, I write whatever comes to my mind, things that I am passionate about, my learnings and experiences and the issues that I care about and disturb me. Its a way of connecting to various people who think on similar/dissimilar lines. Its a way of sharing my views and changing the way I think.

When I start a post, I have no idea where I am headed. Its my freedom. No outlines, no strategies, no cost-benefit analysis! Blog writing is like going off for a walk with no predetermined path, into the streets, into the fields. How does this help? This improves the creativity and the breadth of my thinking. It helps me connect with people whom I have never met and probably will never meet.

Ok, agreed that what I have written is not all original. I have been "inspired" by others who have written why they blog. I would say that 60% ideas is mine :) And I wrote this not because I wanted to declare myself out in the blog world but in our college our ER Cell (External Relations) wanted reasons from bloggers as why they blog.

Exam time

My mid-term exams are starting from Aug 1st and I still have loads to study!
God knows if I will be able to finish the portion for the exams or not.
Anyways, since I believe in long-term vision, I have decided to concentrate on my end terms and not be bogged down by the mid-terms. And as is my trait, I always do things at the end.
Planning to change this habit. Shall study daily after my mid-terms. Well, this is a plan!
Hope He helps me to clear past the obstacle of my mid-terms!

Heart Vs Mind!

Its 3am in the morning and I have just started writing this. Today, I went to the Calcutta city (note that our campus is on the outskirts) for a field project of one of our courses namely "Behavioural Sciences". We went to TIME institute, MBA coaching centre, to interview its Director and gave him a questionnaire to fill it and give it back to us. Came back in the evening and missed the Adventure Club 5km run. Anyways, am saying as if I lost a great opportunity. Even if I would have participated, I probably could not have completed the distance though I my friends told me that its all in the mind and that distance can be covered easily if one has the will power. And then there were a slew of club interviews. Interviews for Team Intaglio, organising committee of our b-school fest which is one of the most reputed in Asia! Then for Carpediem, our annual cultural fest. Yesterday I had an intv to join the Alumni Cell. There are interviews and then there are more interviews. Some have one round while some have 2. Gosh! does life have to be so competitive always?

Well, I suppose I have digressed from the issue I wanted to write on. One of my friend/batch mate is leaving for his home tomorrow. He initially plans to take a week's leave and then probably off for an year and if he doesn't get back to his normal, chuck the admission! Hez gonna leave an institute for which he has strived for so many months and which if one could have sold would have fetched lakhs of rupees!! But well, he aint a fool to come to such a decision. I had only seen in movies how people get affected by depression. Here was a live case.

This guy suffers from depression. Strange thoughts enter his mind. He was speaking to me today about how he felt. He had become a good friend of mine. Dont think that such guys are nerds and have dazed faces. He is smart and mind u an IITian. Even when he was in IIT, he used to suffer from depression but since he made many andhra friends and was always in a group, it somewhat alleviated him from his worried. Yeah, coming back to what he was telling me today. He always feels that he is inferior to others. Whenever he talks to someone, a big thought is going on in his mind as to what image the other person is creating about him. He feels that the other person is studying a lot while he is wasting away his time. He thinks a lot or infact I should say that thoughts come into his mind without any permission. Some days back, he was worried that our mid-term exams are approaching and so decides to study. But his comp is not working and he cant download some study material. So a technician comes to upgrade the comp but it aint working. He is feeling pissed off and even felt like banging that person. During those moments he felt he was wasting a lot of time and others were reading away to glory! The technician leaves unable to fructify his efforts and leaving this guy in deep shit! Then these "thoughts" start attacking his mind. Mind u, he always has thoughts running in his mind but that at this moment they started taking over him. Until a person can control his thoughts, he is safe but when the reverse starts to happen, it eats the brain. He started thinking if he could cut himself into pieces, how his body would feel!! He wanted to know how his body would react to immense pain but luckily he did not do any crazy act.

Anyways, today he was saying that he joined IIM because that seemed to be the only logical thing to do so. Many of his friends wrote CAT, so he too wrote. Now he feels that this was not what he wanted. He has some other ideas which he says might be successful and which at the end of the day gives him satisfaction. He wants to get out of the web of thoughts being created in his mind endlessly. Some kind of spider seems to have entered his brain and has turned hyperactive! Anyways, after a lot of thinking, he decided yesterday to call it quits. He plans to go back for a week and then an year and then if his idea succeeds, never ever look back to this part of the world!

Well, I have missed writing many things what he was telling me. This is partly because by the time I have ended writing this, its already 3.32am and am going for a nice sleep while at some other room in the same campus, a person whose mind has being engulfed by unnecessary and stypid thoughts is rolling on his bed trying to get some good sleep.

Its GOD who has created all these disparities and I am sure he will take good care of them.

Note: My brother suggested me to change the earlier title "Am I satisfied" and so did I.

Paucity of Time

Well, I am posting after about a week. And the reason for it I have already given in the title. Before I joined here, everybody said life is chill here. But man, there is hardly any time left to do anything. Before I realised our mid-term exams have already cast their shadow on me. I feel like I am standing on a runway and am able to see a boeing approaching towards me. Very soon, it will go over me before I realise what happened.

Well, I suppose this is a kind of contradiction. I say am able to see a boeing approaching me and realise that it will run over me while on the other hand I say that after it runs over me I wont realise what happened.....

Well, before u think I have turned crazy, let me forewarn u that I am not in my right senses. Time is flying by and am just a bystander. Possibly this is because of my poor time management skills. But I hear many of my friends cribbing the same thing. So who knows.....

Seems, I have written this crap just because I wanted to write something. And I hope that there is someone reading this. Well I can only say who asked u to read the whole thing !!!! And before u suggest me that instead of writing this crap, I could have studied something, that does not hold true. Anyways, bye for now...

Leadership....

Today I had the first hand look at a person whom I have seen in TV and read in papers. Its Mr. Subir Raha, CMD of ONGC. He gave a lecture on "ONGC: Strategy and Initiatives". Though only the 2nd yearites were invited to the lecture, I gate-crashed into the lecture. It was a good one. Now, dont ask me what I learnt from it but the man himself inspired me a lot. He gave a brief history of the company and how he catalysed the turnaround of the company in the year 2000. He gave three strategies that ONGC follows:
1) Monetise assets
2) Assetize money
3) Mitigate risk
He also talked about how his company took over MRPL (Mangalore Refineries) shrewdly.
He said that when he took over ONGC as a CMD resigning the post of Chairman in IOC, ONGC was in a crisis and what lacked was the motivation and hope in the employees. He told us that a CEO should bring back the confidence of the employees and that everyone should take pride in what they do. A team is effective only when every member of the team feels he/she is an integral part of it.

When asked why he chose to remain in ONGC, a PSU which does not even give him such a salary so that he can buy a Hyundai Accent, he smilingly said "Its the freedom that is given to any manager in ONGC that attracted him. Moreover, at the end of the day there is a kind of satisfaction that you had the opportunity of turning around a company, which McKinsey predicted in 2000 that it would shutdown in 2-3yrs, into a Fortune 500 company!"

Such are the traits of a leader....

Party hard...

Well, people here know how to party hard and also study hard. Today we fachas (freshers) gave a party to our seniors. Booze was on full flow and so was the music. Its 3.45am and am just back from the party. People are still dancing down there. By the way, my room is on the 3rd floor and is the corner one. So I get a clear view of whats happening from my window. The party usually continues till about 5-6am and one can still find junta dancing. Most of the dancers are out of their wits coz they are fully drunk and some of them have the enthu to dance till early morning.

Whatever it is, life is definitely fun out here. Its a right balance of studies, parties and extra-currics.

IIMC rockzzzz!!!

7/7 London Attacked

Well, I have been thinking of writing about this since a few days but not getting much time to do so. Anyways, here I am giving my thoughts about it. What happened was a tragic incident. A number of people lost their lives and many were injured in what was a ghastly mindless bomb attack. I dont understand what these terrorists get by taking the lives of innocent by-standers. It does definitely prove that they can attack such a high security financial capital of the world. When I had been to London, I noticed the high security presence there. People live there under constant surveillance. One can always hear police sirens or convoys here and there. Not only on the roads but we also noticed helicopters keeping a constant vigil of the Parliament area. I suppose this has come into being after 9/11 and moreso after UK's support to the Iraq War.

Well, I was quite surprised by the media coverage in the newspapers. And the duality of policy of the Western countries predominantly US and UK stands out clear. In India, we have been waging a war against the terrorists since more than 40years. Such attacks are so common here that the media hardly gives a damn about it. When I had been to Pahalgam in Kashmir, I spoke to a soldier manning an army outpost near our guest house. He said that daily about 2-3 army jawans are killed. And the papers carry a small column in the paper. I must agree that the tabloids must be getting bored and wasting their space daily for such a routine matter. Such is the value of life here in India. In the Mumbai blasts, so many people lost their lives. And what did the west say. "We condemn such acts". And thats it. Now that the UK was affected, they say " We shall renew the War on Terrorism and shall not let the terrorists who caused 7/7 go scot-free". So its all about them. They dont give a damn how many people die in other countries daily.

Hail the Queen!

Competition

Well, I have come to know what competition really means here in the distant land of kolkatta. The place where I study. Yesterday, we had auditions for the JBS BaroC aka Music Club and Dramatics Club. I decided to generally go and try though I knew that I would not be selected because I have neither sang before on a mic nor ever participated in any drama. But what surprised me was the sheer turnout to participate. People have come here dreaming to make it big some day. And they leave no stone unturned. The sheer enthusiasm that I got to see in the people around me is simply awesome! I talked to a few and the impression that I got is many of them had come just like me.

It was not about getting selected. There were no professional singers or actors here. It was just the experience of going through the whole thing. Its about making friends. Its about thinking impromptu. Its about giving it a shot though u know u are nothing. Its about the patience and endurance. Its about the learning from your peers. Its about participation. Its about.....Ok, I could go on but lets stop it here.

It also made me realise that its a rat world out there. Everybody is willing to run the race and many have the inner desire to come on the top. But only those who persevere reach there. As they say, its not just about how you work but about how smartly you work. You cant achieve everything in one day. Its a process which one has to go through to achieve something. There's a jungle out there with cut-throat competition and only the best survive.

Business is all about competition. Your competitor is always on the lookout for you and you can survive if u add value or atleast make it appear that you are better than the other. Have to learn the jungle rules of survival in this humane world!

First week at IIMC

We reached Howrah on the 23rd of June at 2.30pm from Hyderabad. The drive from the station to Joka campus was abt 1.5hrs. Diamond Harbour Road is situated in southern parts of Calcutta. The moment I saw the board 'Indian Institute of Management Calcutta', I was thrilled to have reached the place where I was going to spend 2yrs learning new things and making new friends and coming out branded as an alumnus of a prestigious b-school. We went to the reception office at Ramanujam Hostel (well, I shall leave some of the jargons and not take hostel names) and I was pre-allocated a room E-419. My dad's first reaction was "Haa, good that u did not get 420!". Shifted all my luggage there and then had some snacks. It was quite humid the day we reached Joka but it was manageable. The campus is serene with lush green trees and about 7 lakes which every IIMCian is proud of! Well, the first day we did not have much to do rather than just walk around the campus. My parents were also excited but my mom would have been much happier had I gone to IIMB! I liked the food though my parents were just satisfied. That was the end of the first day.

The next day we had hostel registration. Actually mine was over the previous day itself, so again roaming across the campus. Saw the institute building and the auditorium. Since it was raining that day, we could not roam around much. Luckily it rained else we would bathe the whole day with sweat! Not much things happening today except some time pass here and there.
The third day, my parents left Kolkatta with a heavy heart. After all, I had stayed with them for almost 2.5yrs and they felt very bad leaving me! But life has to go on.....I had nothing much to do today as well.

The 4th day as well I had nothing much to do. So decided to go to the city with a couple of my wingies. Went to the centre of the city which being Esplanade and Park Street. Went to this mall called INOX and did some window shopping. We were having a voila of time not knowing what was to come in a few days!

The 5th day ie., 27/06 we had our term-1 registration. We would be having 5 courses. And another course called Qualifying Mathematics in case we do not clear a QM test to be held on the 5th of July. Made some new friends and met few seniors. We were basically having a very chill time till we came to know that there is a placement crasher. Well for the uninitiated, a placement crasher is where the placement representatives from the 2nd year batch address us. What happened and what goes on is a secret which I will not reveal. There were such crashers almost daily for the next week and believe me, these were at the oddest times u can think of.That very day started our tutorials by the seniors which went upto 3am the next morning.Well, if u think that it was only a one-off thing, plz dont. This was the case for the days to come. Actually this was nothing. We used to sleep at 5am and get up at 8am. This was the schedule for the days to come!

Well, I will finish this here. Have to get back to sleep. Its already 3.45am now and I have a class at 9.30am. ok tata birla....zzzzzzzzzzz