I am an Uncle now.

My family has a brand new member, my neice. She was born y'day at around 11:30 am ( 29 April).

It is a pity that I am not with my Sis at this moment of immense joy. But hey, God bless the child. Mom is mighty pleased that she is a granny now. She has been waiting for this for so many years. At last God heard her prayers.

I am sure my neice is a sure sign of all the good things to come. I really wish I could see her.

Here at ISB, last week I had my preterms, had taken accounting. I wasn't like any sort of revelation. Learnt about balance sheets and how to balance them. Had a couple of parties, Dipti's birthday and our Section F party.

This week I got to do what I always yearned to do, Live life my way. I've settled well into my studio. The classed were b/w 8:30 and10:30 so had the rest of the day at my disposal. Really enjoyed the time/freedom and empowerement.

Term 1 starts in all earnest from Tomorrow, have loads of reading to do M.eco, stats, Mktg and Fin Accounting. Amit's handout looks classy, so the class must be good. Have a trading game tomorrow.

Random notes : Still making new friends, learning to live by myself, the Fed case discussion at my place was cool.

The news of Taliban killing surya is really sadenning.

HMTG.

First week at ISB

Day two :

Started with the Dean giving doing the opening honours, followed by ARang, asking us to take charge. It was inspiring, and then the HCV ( honour code violation ) syndrome started. Time and again , everyone standing at the lectern gave us more "gyaan" about HVC. It is almost a dreaded term now. I feel that such a thing is nothing new in education, after all one was debarred from college in Engg/Elsewhere if found cheating.

Then came the handover sessions, and loads of gyaan. The profile of 2007 ( with all the star chefs and gold medallists, basking in glory).

Then we had the welcome dinner, althougth the food was ossum. Nature played spoil sport, it started pouring cats and dogs, the atrium just could accomodate all of us without getting wet.So had to get back to our GOEL hall. Was fun all through, felt reassured when the alums told us that the welcome party was still ON.

We had the party at SV3 at the mirror pool, althought it was raining, the "spirit" of ISB never stopped flowing. The music was good, the crowd was good, the rain gods bestowed their blessing and lo...the party was on till 3 am. Then the came out the funnel. STOP.

Day three :

Loads of sessions, the PGP structure, ethics, CAS, CCA, counselling and finally the dos and donts of media communication. Although not very enjoyable sessions, was vitally important for our stay at ISB.

The next event was the "treasure hunt", although the clues were easy, it needed a lot of running and the aim was to get accustomed to the various offices/places at ISB. Had fun here, Pinku and Surya were the start of the show, literally running from Pillar to post.

Then the gyaan sessions started, one after the other, Consulting club, Marketing Club, Finance club and not but not the least the Bhakti club by ATA.

Also had the mock GMAT test, and my sec the samrtied smelt if from a mile and paid the price, least points on this front.

Day Four :


Bind Unwing : This was a team builging activity and was hosted by Sushma ( bangie ). Was fun, had the three legged race, came up with a trush game. Came up with a name and theme ( and presented it). Ours was called Biryani.

The chinese knot was ossum, although we never got around solving it. Then came our engineering gurus who designed EGGITAL which was designed to hold an egg thrown from the 2nd floor.



Day five :

Had our section gyaan, by AnMenon. Came up with our war chant...F...U....N. Found it cool. Then had some to do's and loyalty/legacy gyaan. Cricket was in the volley ball court. Found the rules really strange. Neways, we had our first match against GoDGo. We lost by 6 runs, but I felt we were the better team, just if we hadn't given all those extras. Then we had mixed results in Frizbee...lost the first one and won the second. Neways, had some really good fun with the games and finally had my first dip in the pool.

Had more gyaan at night.

Day six :

Nanhi Kali. Had to do some community service, so headed to First Lancer school in Humayun nagar. But as these guys were having their exams we had to go to another school. Had a good time playing with the kids. Neerja anchored this NetImpact initiative and it was awesome.

Played, Follow the leader,kho-kho, dog and the bone and our very own Hyderabad express. The kids were very very energetic and were almost at a frenzy on meeting us. Distributed some biscuits to the kids and left feeling satisfied about brining some happiness to many a kid.


Day seven :

Learnt more about art. Careers and had the awesome talent night. Must tell you folks that the amount of talent my class has is truly amazing.

Saturday night was fun. Went to TDS , had my first hookah. Had a good time, had my first 3 am dinners by the pool ( with Mani )

Sunday morning...the circket was good, although my mis-fieldings showed the number of years I was away from cricket.

Have a great week ahead folks.

HMTG.

First Day @ ISB

This week has to be one of the best weeks in my Life. New place. New ppl. New Life !.
This place is really awesome, it sometimes make me feel that I am in a totally different land and almost feel that I am living a brad new Life. Feel really good about being here.

Let me quickly recap the events as they happened.

Reached Hyderabad(kachiguda) on Saturday ( 15-Apr) at around 5:20 am ish. Boarded an auto to Gachibowli. The city was still asleep, and most of the businesses were yet to open for the day, and as expected did experience a very weird feeling of stepping into an alien land ( the typical babu from town coming to a new village....and enjoying what he is seeing). Well, did enjoy the beauty of Hyd at dawn, and was amazed to see the wide roads. In about an hour reached ISB. The security guy, directed my auto the exec housing as the housing was yet to be finalised. The sheer size of the campus was breathtaking, and when I reached the exec housing the front desk informed me that my housing was indeed confirmed, also found a printer for my cas declaration and admission declaration forms.

So finally headed to SV-III (K-01) , the Sarovar guys were very pleasant, after an inventory check finally checked into my Studio. My first flat, felt really good about this. Had dream of such a thing all my life.

Well, coming back to my registration, it was scheduled at around 12:30. But went there ealier, as I hadn't received my loan confirmation, thankfully it was all sorted quickly. Then was the registration process, it was well organised. So by around 2:00 was done with my registration. Had some lunch and the rest of the day was just about meeting people. Loads of them.

In the evening, my luggage arrived and so did my bike. This took about an hour. Then it was just hanging around with other folks, went to the rec centre and got some GYAAN from Mani at the pool , about the dunking thingie. Chilled out and then called it quits.

Great day !!!!

HMTG.

Last day @ Infy

It has been a whirwind 4 day in my Life. Just one word for it "Ossum".

But before that , the incomplete story at Infy. Reached office only to find that Soumya would not be able to help me get out. Then had the "loan guarantor" fiasco. Thanks Jayant, for some quick thinking. Then had to go though the entire Manual separation process to get my Rel Letter. Between all this, NG has organised a leaving party for me, cut a cake and all that. Clicked loads of snaps and gave a speech as well ( Got a tie and a display prop for my effort).

Yes, I sent out the adios mail which had a million names in the circulation list.

Was at office till 3;30 and I had to catch the train to HYD at 5. You do the math !. Neways thanks to the guy who gave me a drop on his 2-wheeler did manage to make it to Railway station. Of course, Mom and sister helped me a lot that day, they are my "real" strength.

I had typed some content for this post on the Kachiguda express, but forgot to transfer to my MemKey and lost it as ISB formatted my Lapton. ( Got my laptop today, would be posting my ISB experiences later tomorrow).

Random notes : Loads of new names to remember, the 4 days look like eons.

HMTG

The legend retires...

Since my childhood I had always thought that the day "Annavru" passes away there would be a holiday declared in Bangalore/Karnataka. Well it just happened. Today has been quite a day, with Dr. Rajkumar passing away. I have been a very BIG fan of DR and will always cherish my memories of watching the black and white , King/queen movies of DR. There used to be times when I used to sing things like "namma devuru Annavru" (Our God is DR). His is one of the very few voices I can easily remember. May his soul rest in peace.

That is not the only thing that is weighing very heavily on my heart. Today happens to be the penultimate day at Infy(due to the holiday tomorrow), and some of my plans have been tossed in the air. Yet to draft my adios mail. Boy ! it might get very emotional. I have a special attachement with Inf. Yet to see that all my exit formalities are completed by Friday. Also, need to pack up my stuff, bike etc as Anshul is planning to get the truck guys to pick my stuff tomorrow morning.

Treated Guru, Gans and Prem at the La Terrace (second visit in as many days). Had a good chat ( found out that my idealism hasn't died down completely). Each of us had unique plans. Prem wanted to settled down teaching. Gans wants to get into Politics and Guru wanted to quit his job and just do what he feels like on that day.

That apart, Arasan in struggling a bit( guess there is too much stuff on his plate). Y'day, finally got my mobile talking to my comp( thanks for the dongle Lala). Now I have a huge task of consolidating all my stuff and burning my CDs.

Cracked the Quant preterm test and did fairly well in the Business statistics test ( so would not be required to take any preterm course for these).

Thats it from me folks. Have a great day ahead.

This might just be my last blog from Bangalore/Infosys.

See you all in Hyderabad.

HMTG.

Destiny

Met Asfaq after almost 4 years and his opening sentence was "Hmm...are you doing anything about your tummy" - This coming a day after a bird told me that I have considerably slimmed down came as a convoluted shock. Now where am i going with my weight. My weight in the UK was sub-** and the next day I landed in Bangalore is cross ** by 2 kgs, Now i know that latitude impacts G and that impacts weight. Now if someone were to ask me my Weigth, I'm going to calculate my weight in a country which has the least G ! I' m annoyed as I haven't eated the Onion Dosa, i got this evening for Aunty and Mom.

Now coming to Ashfaq, had called him on Friday and he was on his way to Bangalore, even with a fever. So felt good. Also had plans to go to Sharan's wedding and Prasanna's engagement, that these funtions were in Tumkur, make my cancel my plans ( also my state of affairs were all that great to afford this break). So got my DL after 28 years of existence and shopped for some other accessories. Thanks Giri. And BTW, my HD has crashed and finally have to dump my comp of 10 years ( did my Nedit - a text editor on this one ). A bit of nostalgia. Have been biking around quite a bit ( have a black Pulsar). I'm digressing again, Ashfaq, had to meet up at Barristas at Barton centre, but with half the bangalore ppl already overflowing we decided to catch a coffee at the Barr joint at St Marks road, place is cool ( Hi Fi and all). Did my usual selling. Somehow things don't change b/w friends.

Headed off to get some shoes ( even ashu wanted to shop for some formal wear). Now as my weight, my feet too poses problems. I have a size 12 with the feet XXL wide ( my prev shoe has given me such a conch that I will remember to shop for shoe with care). Went to a Metro store , the salesman was super cool, must have tried out at least 25 shoes, before I got into a comfy one. I took almost an hour.

That done, walken into Clifftons ( I've been shopping here for almost 6 years for suits/blazers and formal wear, so know all the folks out there. As they didn't have my size 46 had to come back empty haded. After some more chat, bit ashu farewell.

Sunday a brand new day, as my Sis is expecting, there was a photo session. Also visited Punarvasam. Was a thrilling experience, seeing young kids have fun is a treat. Vivek has been volunteering with this org which helps mentally retarted/physically retarted kids for some time now. I inted to contribute to this org. Mani is a dedicated chap running the whole show, met him at this cloth shop. More about this and pics/videos if someone tells me how to transfer them from my N6600.

That apart, nothing much happening. ISB is generating a lot of positive vibe. I hope I contribute as much as I want to, to make ISB a global brand.

Random notes : Shame at Guwahati ( crowd erupts at rain washes the cricket match). Students are angry with reservations. I love Himesh Reshammiya

HMTG.

Stamp paper - err what ?

What do you do when you are asked to get 3 stamp papers of Rs 100 each and the bank don't have them. Do you get 6 Rs 50 stamps or do you get 3 Rs 200 stamps? Well I just did both, the only thing is that I returned the Rs 50 stamps.

Well it all started with me coming in to office and feeling a bit uneasy about my Loan thing. So wanted to know who SBI strike was coming up. So googled up and found that the previoius 3 times the idefinite strike had once lasted 47 days. Now that scared the sweet out of me. With just around 8 days to go, I had convoluted images of me begging ISB to let me in, I'll pay the fees later when the strike ends ! Shiver..shiver..

So decided to do what my namesake had asked me to do, get signed stamp papers from my Gurantor. Now that is not a very good thing to do. But BS is a gem. He agreed. But there was a problem, BS was heading to Delhi at 1:00 pm, and I was stuck at the boondocks. Now had to rush back to a SBM branch and get the SP and get them signed. Took an auto to KML, went to SBM and then the SP fiasco ( not sure if I would get away with this ) and then headed home to get my bike to off.

And yes, today is special as I have made a very good investment. Hope it makes me super rich. That apart nothing much happening. BAU and more chit chat with NG. Blogging is really catching me thick and fast, never knew ppl could be so funny and creative. Guess I'll have to revive myself or else I might be starin into "null voids"

Random notes : I'm crazy( just found out from the 1 billionth person). Intend to shop like crazy this weekend.

HMTG.

Mixed Feelings.

Today has been a roller coster ride for me. Started off well, as I woke up late and I got to see my favs Channel V and MTV. I really like watching/listening to Music in the mornings. The only reason I don't get to do that enough is becoz dad has all his life reacted thus "Why watch TV early in the morning" - So there is not habit at all, only longing. Yup ! Dad was away today.( and I'm almost 50 now and still can't get over this inhibition).

So watched TV till I felt I was getting late for getting my DL. Reached N.A.S aroung 9ish and shelled out some serious dough, I did not even have a LL. So had to pay for it. Met the RTO, he asked a very innocuous question, have you got your bike, to which I proudly replied "YES" (sic), now how did you drive you bike here without a license ( Hmma...ahhhha...ooopss..). Neways, the money always does the trick. So the guys applied for a LL in double quick time, and I headed to the driving test ( In the meantime, BS has come down to get his IDL and ran into complications, and hence did not get much our the the visit to the friendly RTO). The test was a farce, just had to do one round, I zip-zapped, no honks, no indicators, but still managed to pass the test.

All done, was ripping through Hosur Road at 60 kmph, was lucky today, as apparently there was a huge Jam and ppl took like 2 hours to reach office, so good reason for coming late. Then the good news, Sit..set my LWD as 14th. Boy, Did I do a good job at negotiation, and manipulation ( as the situaltion 2 hours later was totally diff project wise). Neways, M...mailed asking about my views of greed !!. Guess I amuse her quite a lot. Neways, made me think about parivaar and my commitments ( i've sponsored a child ( boy ) for a year today). Thatz good news.

Then the bad news started, Sun..is really struggling, no clues as to where this guy is going. Neways, all happend after my LWD is fixed, Jim too dropped some bombs , to which ramki panicked a bit ( again after the LWD has been set). Am worried a bit, about not having my loan sanctioned as yet ( hail SBI, hail pensions).

Took my team out for some snacks, to the terminal. Did find some amusing ppl as usual ;-0.
Have plans to meet AG. Go home and sleep. But not before I put in some more stuff...

ISB placements rock. Medha Patkar, we Love you. I love M/M/M.

HMTG.

First Lessons

Had a good time this weekend. Apart from meeting Ravi(was a revelation, how times can change a person/his perpective and approach to life). Was OK! Had some coffee at CoWorld. Before that did some things I had to do(fixing my zipper for instance) and which I couldn't procrastinate any further. Neways, for the record, I had to attend to some urgent domestic chores. Accounting did give me a scare, so much that I asked Lala to give me some of his accounting books ( that he gave me my first lessons in Management would form the latter part of this post).

Had a good long chat whith Ashu ( coll mate, we plan to meet up this weekend, if he makes it to Bangalore). B... had called up and as usual started talking about $$$$. He just got into Unilever as an asst CompSec. Talk veered to She...., and how she is making 13L/M. I almost fainted, but then getting an AIR7 is no joke. B... has promised to give me an into sometime. How good is that ?

Sunday morning was F1, as usual had to fight for the TV with no less than 2 million ppl at home. Was interesting, but somehow I managed to sleep half way thru. Neways A...won it. Kimi was not too far behind, so there is still some hope left. Been to Ge... aunty's house for lunch, Gir...was a bit funny and aunty was exlainign how Har...did a good job of helping a drunk jack ass. Y'day was a big day for Mom, finally after 6 years, I got her to Infy, ( Gee..and Gir.. also accompanied us). Had a good time explaining all the "fundoo" buildings at Infy, and also telling her that "I used to work in this building X years ago). My guess is that she enjoyed it thoroughly. Went back home to find some guests waiting for my Mom's attention.

A great cook that she is, she make some "Obattu" for them/and us of course. Did carry them along to BS's house. Jas..was too happy to see Mom, and the vice versa is true as well. Gur...pampered mom to some IceCream. How difficult is it to be diabetic.

After all this, still had to go to Lala's place and get the Acc..books. Reached 4th blk at around 8:45. Talked for a while and then shopped for some more acc material. Chatted about my career aspirations( I had never articulated it better in my life). Had a some "street tips" from Lala, it was a pretty interesting talk and lala wanted to go on ( only if the shop could have been open till midnight). But then, lala said one thing that made me happy. "I feel I have company", given that he plans to expand his business, makes me feel happy about myself. If anyone knows me better, it should be Lala. He is a better judge of yours truly than myself.

Did try to catch up with AnGupta, but then he was already in the midst of his grub, so was turned down. So, pretty productive weekend, and Oh! forgot to mention. Was blogging quite a bit over the weekend, and was happy for Sim/PT. They are a kind who I guess are gonna be buddies for a lifetime, at least for some time in the near future at Mum...

India has done well to get to close to 300 at Goa. Now the result would depend on how best we get those 10 wickets.

Have a good time folks.

HMTG.

Friends

How many times have I wondered about how good I was at making friends. Where has all that gone ? Do I think I am from Mars these days or is plain arrogance. Or is it that I just don't care enough ? Whatever the reason, I'm losing friends thick and fast. Maybe the bonding is not so strong enough.Have almost lost touch with most of my Engg coll mates. Is it that most of them are in the US or is it plain lethargy. Friends at work, have a persistence of vision time > time they remember ppl. What life ?

Was reading Simz blog, and wondered why I don't have so many-many friends (or do I know why ? Some ppl are born great, some achieve greatness and some have great looks ). Did I commit the mistake of the century by opting for Stud acco. Or is it more fun with some cool quads. Time will tell. Am meeting a friend after 10 years ( met for a hi in the interim ), but it is sorta weird, enough for the friend to ask "Whatz going on in your head?".

Have decided to put some more "thought" into my Blog and not just journal my life ( unless I would like to remember it when I lie, waiting for the angels). Yes, Sometime soon , I would literally count the number of friends I have ( or would I have the courage to do so). How many friends do I have who would die for me. Maybe I'm just not looking, it wasn't for no reason that I got a shirt and tie, at M&S that too. Am feeling that I might just let a golden opportunity pass, by just not knowing how to balance $/n and Friends. That I had a fight with my neighbours servant ( for torching up leaves and letting pumes of smoke into my house). I have good acumen I must say. Did a damn good job of it. Gives me the "go-get-it-kicking-a**" tempo.

Will I delete this mail, once posted. Not sure !

Went up to meet Ventak, and the realisation that ppl have been getting into Inf LRC is giving me nasty complexes. I played the same game, dilution sucks. Never mind, ISB still holds some promise for me, unless something bigger/better gets the better of me. What ? Cryptic bugs just got pandemic. Talk of influences.

My accounting is not something I can write home about , so clicked the register button. Will read up Stats, so that I'm not too embarassed sitting in a class studying something I cracked a 50. Sis is too fussy about things these days ( but guess , its for my own good).

How many forwards do I get ?

HMTG.