Feels good to be a gold medallist from IIM-A :)

TIMES OF INDIA WEBSITE, violation of my rights!

Times of India website has now found a loophole in your pop up blockers. Instead of pop-ups they now have advertisments in new tabs.
This along with the poor quality of journalism has made me to take a vow that I will not return to the website in near future. It is grossly irritating and is violation of my rights. I do not want to be sent to a page that I don't wanna see!

Ruskin Bond Revisited

I miss my home the most on festivals. This Dusherra was no different.

I look forward to calls from home and friends. It feels great to be in touch with them. I really get nostalgic when I think of the good times we had together. This time I just couldn't get over the memories of Dushera.

Every year Dad and I, would go to sector 18, which had arguably the best Dushera celebrations. The security would ask us to park our scooter one km away from the site. And then Dad and I would walk to the site. For about hour and a half I would forget about everything in the world and concentrate on the last few scenes of 'Ramlila'. After this, Ravan's effigy was burnt. This was accompanied by brilliant fireworks. A fire sign by birth, nothing enthralled me more!

After this we would walk back to the scooter and this is here 'my celebrations' would differ from everyone else's. Dad and I would go to Fancy Book Store, where I used to browse through 100 books (at least) and then pick up the one which I thought I liked the most. This was almost always based on my gut feeling and nothing else. I never tried to understand why my dad would take me to the book store. I never understood why he would do so when we had just taken a loan to build a house. I never understood why he did so, when he would save money on everything else- he travelled to office on bus! Now I realise why. I really love my parents for the way they are!

More often than not I used to pick up books by Ruskin Bond. I was always attracted to his short stories.

After talking to my folks on the phone I was feeling very nostalgic. I was reminded of Ruskin bond's stories which captured human emotions like no other literary piece does.

Thus in spite of the hazaar lectures the next day I picked up my credit card, took an auto-rickshaw to Crosswords and picked up "The best of Ruskin Bond". Am already halfway through the book and am enjoying every page of it. It reminds me of a childhood which I can never forget. It constantly reminds me of my parents who are the best in the world.

I reached IIM Ahmedabad on Saturday. I had great expectations from this place and luckily for me it has exceeded all of them!
The campus is beautiful. The professors are great. But one thing that stands out is the sense of purpose and professionalism that everyone exhibits. Its simply amazing. i really hope that I am able to inculcate some of it!
Another good thing has been the tremendous stress on academics and ethics. We all know that IIM Ahemedabad is undoubtedly the finest business school in India. However, what most people do not know is the effort that goes in to mantain the supremacy.
I really hope I am able to inculcate these values which makes the institute and the alumni stand out in the crowd.

These days I have been reading a book called ‘Inspite of the Gods’ which I picked up at the behest of a very dear friend. It is a refreshing attempt by a westerner to look beyond India’s spiritual character which seems to be the only interesting topic for the other Western Authors. Having already read the Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald (Another interesting book) I was able to appreciate the book much better.
Many times I have been extremely frustrated by the fact that the perception of India in the eyes of the foreigners is not the correct one. They have a habit of looking at spirituality in everything, even in India’s poverty. The gross misrepresentation of India’s spirituality pains me even more!
I would like to share an interesting anecdote from one personal experience. During one of the parties at University of Frankfurt I met an interesting girl who was doing her masters in biophysical chemistry. While talking to her the conversation moved on to India. I was really happy to know that she was very interested in Eastern mysticism. However, soon I realized her connotation for Indian mysticism when she asked me ‘Is the sacred book of India – The Kamasutra?’ I reached the pinnacle of frustration when my advisor asked me if I used Elephants for commuting to school!
Despite having captured the imagination of the entire world with its stellar economic growth India still continues to be a land of Kamasutra, snake charmers and Elephants!

Mitti ka tan,






Masti ka mann,







Kshan Bhar Jeevan ,

















- Mera Parichay .

By The River Side....


The day began on a somber note.. After i was through with my daily ablutions I picked up the copy of TOI that the newspaper wala had slid through the door of my room while I was sleeping. It being a Sunday today, I straight away went to the favourite page of mine... MIND OVER MATTER its called. A beautiful quotation said everything that I have been trying to explain to people all this while. Its by WM Lewis and it goes as follows:-
" The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it"
How true!!! Most of us are always invlolved in building our future and be successful and forget about our present. This obviously got me on a high because feelings like this are hard to express and when someone does it so beautifully you obviously enjoy it.
Soon, I looked at the watch and it was 11 30 already. Dudani and I had made plans to go to the riverside early in the morning. Even though it was no longer 'early' I thought to myself , it still was morning. Moreover, Dudani, who had gone to Cal a day before had returned late in the night only because we had to go to the 'river side'. And hence a couple of phone calls later, we were on the road.
I must admit that neither me nor Dudani knew the name of the river. WE had just a faint idea where it was because I had been there once with Seniors before.
After crossing Garden Inn we were on the National Higway. And boy, the bike zooming on the Highway gets you on a high! I guess thats the reason they named it as the HIGH-way!!
We weren't sure where the river was so we asked the local inhabitants about the 'nadi'... We had to take a 'kaccha rasta' through a village. If Highway was an experience , the village road was another one. The sight of a kid running after our bike chaising us in ecstasy was a sight i'll probably never forget. Being from Northern part of the country and never having seen poverty of this magnitutde I was moved. One of the things which KGP has given me is definitely the expansion in my horizon and outlook towards life. I have become more compassionate to say the least. But more about that later( In another blog... This blog is about the trip!)
After negotiating the tricky village roads we reached our destination. It is tough to describe how it looked like. I can use the cliched terms like serene, beautiful, peaceful, ecstatic but none of them quite describe the feeling that we got. But I'll make an attempt nonetheless.
In north the rivers flow fast cause its the place where they originate. This one was a pleasant change for me. It was slow, serene, green, with cold water. Me and Dudani played with the riverwater for a while. Then, moments were spent in silence , reflecting upon ...lots of things actually. Moments such as those are hard to come by these days in our busy lives and were definitely cherished!!
Then Dudani started talking to one of the local farmers... About what all crops he grew.. Why the water in the river was less.. The name of the village( Krishna Nagar)... and all silly questions that he is so very capable of coming up with!!
After having washed his face in the cool water of the river Dudani decided that it was time to go back. We called up Reshmi and told her what we were upto!
After exchanging our expert comments about the site we decided to return with a promise to come back for a longer time and with our group of friends. The explorer in us was thrilled to the core.
After having deply engrossed in the college life especially after the First year this came as a very pleasant break. The experience was a spiritually and mentally refreshing. The resolves about what I gotta do in life are stronger than ever. I am confident of my aims and aspirations... You can wonder what correlation this has to our trip.. But only I know!
And Dudani, well if there is something that KGP has given me and that I'll never forget, its my friends and Dudani tops the list. When I look at him I someday think what would life be without him. Then I think kuch to kar hi lengey. On second thoughts kya karengey yaar!

For me each SF since my first year has been a unique experience. The first one, undoubtedly shall remain the most memorable one.
As an accomodation team volunteer I had the first tryst with SF. The experience was a great one as a first year. But as a volunteer, well I really did not enjoy carrying matresses and blankets.
Also, it was the time when i first had 'healthy interaction' with my seniors. The interaction was a learning experience. Being caught by the seniors at the control tent all alone as a dutiful volunteer, on the last night of SF, all seniors (including girls) were generous to interact with me and play OP-OP with me. My batch mates from SN smiled at me, I am sure they were jealous of me having fun all alone.
This reminds me of our beloved Kundan, who talked and proposed,to more girls than he ever did in his entire life,ever this SF. I am sure that he would love to play OP-OP in future ,whenever he gets a chance. On a more serious note it was great fun to be with him. The first pic in this blog is his.
Yo Kundan!

Last SF was... Well being a core team member of Kshitij I had lil time for SF. but we had fun nonetheless.
This time aound it was all about old friends (Read Dudani). We guys had great fun. The icing on the cake was the last night again. We guys had great fun thanks to the GR team and specail thanks to Kashi for his sweet guest appearance!!!

After a few hours spent at Veggies we decided to check out Gymkhana top (All outrageous ideas like this seem to stem from the 'chandaal khopdi' of Ms. u know who...) at 3 am in the morning. A few horror stories later ( Kundan's story was a horror one and Choumou's was... a horrifying one :P) we decided that it was time to go back.
All of us i guess were reluctant to leave though.
Upon reaching Sn, Choumou ,who had run out of his sutta supply, and me decided to go to Cheddis. Every one else decided to join.
Before we realised the beautiful morning Sun was out. a few photographs later we reached SN again. Ms You-Know-Who proposed the idea of a trip to ninety degrees. It was seconded by Eisha and others. Soon we were all busy arranging cycles for our trip.
The trip was great fun. The best part being the PJ jugalbandi and Choumou's GPL. Eisha seemed to enjoy the most. We could all see the adventurer in her. Some of her ideas were great. The pictures taken towards the end were all courtesy her... ( though it disappointed Choumou a lot. Moral of the story is never go out with Choumou's sans his supply of sutta. Its better to have Choumou with a burning sutta rather than a burning hot temper!). These pictures were great specially the one which I titled as "Crossroad"... thanks once again to her.
Time for me to shut up and the Photos to speak for themselves!


Praan jaye par chappal na jaye




Baba jee ke haseen fundey



The complete GANG at the SF arena



Hero Cycles-Shaan ki sawari



Akbar's Picnic Spot



Bhaang Chad gayi



GPL




Dudaani jee aapke bas ki cheez nahi hai



Play with Hay while the sun shines</span>



CrossRoad(S)