Aussies-Deadlines-Ponnappa-ToI. Change.

Australians, notwithstanding the unrelated fact that they are bad losers, have implemented the two-innings-in-a-limited-overs-match format, the advertisement for which proclaimed the beaten-to-death cliche of "the only constant is change".

Ofcourse, things change. For starters, I am writing again. I am not 22M anymore, as the badge on my blog currently claims. I am 23M and firmly on track to hit 24M soon. I don't even stay in Chennai, fortunately or unfortunately. I stay in Bombay now, fortunately. I am not reachable on Facebook, as I was for most of the last year or two in college. My roommates have changed. I am earning - that is a welcome change. I am not my own boss anymore - I have a real boss, one with flesh and blood. The deadlines are not flexible, infact, they are as good as engraved in stone. Most of my clothes are clean as are my utensils. Oh, I have utensils too. Women around me cannot be referred to as chicks, females or girls anymore. They have to be referred to as women - sometimes out of compulsive polity and other times due to the organisational policies. Bunking the 8 'o clock classes is not an option because there are NO 8'o clock classes anymore, there are only 8'o clock reviews, the kind your boss would not appreciate if you miss. On another note, 8 AM in India is not just 8 AM in India anymore - it is 10.30 AM in Singapore and 3.30 AM in London. And it is 15 minutes away from the first daily submission routine, at 8.15 AM.

Apologies are now apols, presentations are now presos, "dude" has now become "mate", and "Fuck you" has now become "Sure, Sir". Change can be good and intoxicating. This change, from the wilderness of a student life to the almost artificial, perhaps farticifial, and forced-discipline of corporate life has been good and intoxicating, both, and promises to be better.

That India could get 101 medals in any sporting event is a change that is hard to believe. Much like the fact that they let someone like a Kalmadi take charge, in the first place. And when at it, Lalit Bhanot, too. [Lalit Bhanot and Kalmadi warrant an entire blog, not just blogpost, on them - they are a writer's dream]. The Games did much good. The opening ceremony, the unprecedented medals tally, performances in track and field, young sportsmen from the lesser known places of the country, the amazing victory in 4X400m women's relay, Saina Nehwal and Ashwini Ponnappa, the closing ceremony - indicate a welcome and a long, long overdue change.

One thing, though, has not changed and that is the ever-so abysmal quality of reporting by M/s Times of India. That their headline article could actually say "2 parts to Hindus, 1 part to Muslims" - in big bold letters on a day that could have left the nation torn just goes to show that someone very high up in that organisation is either deranged or just plainly incapable of being at the helm of the mouthpiece of a progressive nation. Somethings, after all, never change.

A post on the blog after such a long break warrants an explanation on the underlying motivation. Much thanks to Archana for pepping me all the time, to mom for candidly admitting that she missed my blog, to sister for blatantly admitting that she missed my blog and to a few others who did mail and "facebook-message" me prompting me to write. What tipped it off, though, was a rather unexpected fan mail (Fan mail!!) from Divish, from IITD. Thanks, Divish. :-)

A post for the times when I did not post

I must admit I have not been too busy. On the contrary, time has been rather generous on me. Blogging, I realised, is just like my dual degree project - DDP - (it is a year-long project that one needs to finish in order to graduate and redeem the times spent during college) - when you start your DDP, there is a lot of motivation to keep working every day and finish it bit-by-bit. After a fortnight, it is "there is always a next week".

Nonetheless, I am thankful to three specific people for rekindling the blogging energies in me - Archana, who for reasons beyond my conscious understanding, likes my blog. Laddoo, who had the time and inclination to remind me, from halfway across the world, that my blog "needs attention". And my Mommy dear for diligently following my blogs without any attempts to 'censor' them to make it suitable for all ages. The tipping point, though, was this blog - one of my faculty member's blog. If a professor can find time to write a blog, so can I! For those who have read my previous posts, the same professor has been referred to, in a couple of previous posts too, albeit not in the most recommended manner - atleast not for a final year student with an incomplete DDP.

To be blogging on a Tuesday afternoon is sure sign of atleast one of the two things: an uncontrollable desire to write OR an outlet to kill time. I suspect it is a holy combination of both. My guess is that it'll stay this way for the better part of this semester - until May, or until I finish my DDP, whichever is later.

Reliance Fellowship for Stanford MBA | Summer Awesomeness!

I think summers are a great time. Infact, summers are friggin' awesome times. I remember thinking last summer that things cannot get more awesome than they already were. This summer is slowly standing up to beat it!

A kick-ass coincidence is this: Three of us (I will qualify 'us' soon) had applied for a really amazing scholarship being offered by Reliance Industries called Reliance Dhirubhai Fellowship. It is an all-expenses covered scholarship to pursue the two-year MBA at Stanford University. It is not restricted to college students, infact most of the guys who apply are people with extensive professional experience.

So, of the 1500-odd applications (as of last year), Reliance selects about 50 fellows and then finally Stanford selects the 5 who will be offered the scholarship. So, that's a cool 80-odd lakh scholarship for two years!

The information page can be accessed here.
The list of fellows of last year is here.

Anyway, the coincidence part is this: Two of my friends...

- Gaurav Sapra - BITS Goa, just finished college this year - He is one of those 'childhood friends' that they talk about in stories and movies.

- Aniket 'Uss' Pangarkar- Insti fellow, going into final year now - He is my mentor, guide, chuddy-buddy etc. etc. He is also my partner in most, if not all, crimes in the insti. (They say gay-partner, but that's not true, trust me).

... and I had applied for this fellowship. And to our respective utter disbeliefs, all the three got through to the top 50!

So, while we reel under the sheer awesomeness (yes, indeed flicked from Kung-fu Panda) of the coincidence, those two have started preparing for their GMAT (provided free of cost by Reliance to the finalists) and I, having already taken my GMAT last month, am planning to write a book on how awesome summers, even summers like the ones in Chennai, can get! :-)

Quotable Quotes from my Viva

Prof. A: "You know what? Vikas was supposed to get a Nobel prize for his ppt, but last minute he got pipped." (Prof. A to Prof. B, with all his sarcasm in the world, when I just entered the Viva room.)
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

Prof A: "Ya ya, Vikas will make a good ppt. So be very careful!", throwing caution to everyone in the room, for no real reason.
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

"Vikas, I don't want a sales pitch. Better show me some meat." Prof. C after looking at my first slide.
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

"So, you are basically saying that if we decrease usage of vehicles, we can save energy. Thats all?" Prof. A after I had explained for over half-an-hour on how we can save energy in the transportation sector.
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. No.... Sir

Me: "Sir, there are two sides to the climate debate...."
Prof. A : "That everybody knows. Tell me what you have done." (It's unfair! It's not common sense!)
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

Prof. A."You went and worked with economists and became one yourself. I wanted you to convert them to technologists!"
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

Prof. C. : "What you said over the last 20 minutes is just common sense. Show me some mathematical models"
Firstly, it was NOT common sense. I swear by god. Secondly, and I quote myself "But Sir, my company did not want me to develop mathematical models, they just wanted a framework."
Prof A. : "But that is what I want you to do: change the way they work!"
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

Prof. A.: "Just because you are thanking me, don't think that I will give you extra marks", when I was at the Acknowledgements slide.
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

Prof. B : "You should put the source of data in every slide, unless ofcourse you deliberately want to confuse us.."
Prof. A : ".. which he is very capable of."
Me: Sir... Err.. Umm.. Err.. Okk.. Sir

***************
Well.. you win some, you lose some.

It won't be a herculean task to figure out who was the BOSS today in the viva committee. And who was looking like a big big loser.

Well.. you win some, you lose some.

PS: Fellow mates can add their quotes in the comment section, or let me know so that I can add an _update here. :-)

PS2: An old post on quotable quotes from Inter-IIT Sports Meet 2007 can be accessed here

Father's Day: To the CEO of my life

To my Dad, who has given me much much more than a middle name, here's wishing a Very Happy Father's Day and a lifetime of health and happiness!

To the CEO of my life, here's acknowledging his contribution in making me, me.

PS: I don't think I can ever pen my thoughts about my dad - it is just too pure, and yet too complex a relationship to be expressed through the mere medium of words.

Which one?

Tripp!

The following was scribbled during one of the lectures at CIIE. Snapshot of the notebook (read from bottom upwards, two lines):

It was an innocent comment followed by an honest reply. :D

Inter-IIT Sports Meet: Quotable Quotes

My fascination with the Inter-IIT Meet continues..

Tit-Bits from my cricket team:

Quotable Quotes:

"Yaar, match jaldi khatam karo, khana khatam ho jayega" - Suri, invariably in all the matches.

"Yaar, meri ball middle stump pe daalu toh in-swing hoti hai... off-stump pe dalu toh swing hi nahi hoti" - Laddoo, since his first year.

"Bikash spoke abouse words" The (Bengali) umpire in the IITM vs IITG cricket match jotting down in his diary after Lays ( Vikas) cudnt hold back the joy of getting a batsman bowled.

"IITM cricket team is the most disciplined team" Umpires.

Day 3: 6.30 am. Gigolo: " Naib get up, aaj FOG ( more like 'FOAG') nahi hai..practice time pe shuru jar sakte hain"
Naib: " Shit Man!!! !@#!@"

"I am sorry, very sorry. I dont like to hurt anybody" DB, after hitting Naresh on his toe in practice.
"You bowl so wide down the leg side, the square leg ( not even fine-leg) fielder has to run to field the ball." - Karthik Naib.

"If team needs" - -Ayush, hiding all his joy after he was asked by the coach if he could open the innings for IITM. He still claims that he was all serious.

"Our real batting starts after nine-down"
-common joke/reality during inter-IIT, as the last wicket partnership was the largest in the first two matches against KGP and Bombay.

"Haven't you all had... what do you call it in hindi - 'maa ka doodh' ... " - Karthik Naib, giving an inspiring speech to players in the team meeting after the loss against KGP in the first match.

"It was a clean strategy... you should save experience for the end" - Laddoo, trying to justify the decision to send Dharik (one of the main batsmen) 9 down. Dharik and Teju ended up winning the do-or-die match against Bombay for Madras by scoring 26 in 2 overs with just one wicket left.

"Machcha, Saarang choreo nite in jan da... practicing" -Sudheer Raj (member of saarang choreo team too), explaining the bemused captain of why he was doing strange things standing at deep mid-wicket.

"When is the next train back home?"
- The most common answer when the team members were asked what they were thinking at 65/9 (chasing 103) against bombay?

QUOTABLE JEERING QUOTES:

"Laddoo piss gaya" - IITG chap when laddoo got hit for a four.

"He is Lays?? where is Kurkure?" PJ by opposite captain during a Practice match.

"Beta don't get bored out there!"
-the all so over-confident Delhi coach to the two batsmen after Delhi was 50/0 in 7 overs in the semis.
They ended up getting all out for 103.

"I was unlucky to get bowled" Delhi batsman.( As if we are all lucky to get bowled)

"Tailender batting pe aa gaya" Aimed at one of our top batsmen after looking at his batting by KGP guys.

"Khushu Sir, Aaram aaram se khelenge" Delhi spectators.


HILARIOUS INCIDENTS:

IITM bowling first. Four overs up. Bowler at fine leg asks for Water. The 12th man by now is pretty experienced, so he takes 2 bottles of water, 3 packets of glucose and 2 bottles of pain-relief (??!!) spray. The whole of the team converges in on the sprays.. and any fielder who has even touched the ball once is complaining of pain.

At the other end of the ground, the team's premier fast bowler has lowered ( yes, he has) his pants and the whole team is watching in disbelief the sight of the 12th man kneeling on the ground and spraying at the bowler's what-we-would-call 'Groin' for sake of decency.
The names of the bowler and the 12th man withheld on request....

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Ayush, batting against Delhi. The situation is tense. We need to hold our wickets. The Delhi fielders are trying to intimidate Ayush and Laddoo, the two batsmen in the middle by sledging.

Ayush plays a ball to a fielder and wanders out of his crease. The fielder warns " Saale, crease ke andar aaja varna maar dunga". This happens twice. Third time Ayush says, " Bhainchod, kya bolta rehta hai, maarta toh hai nahi".

Oops... Then the fielder catches hold of Ayush's collar on the field. And our man, Ayush is unnerved. Ayush still maintains he was not afraid of that chap...

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Practice Match, Chemplast. Dharik is wicket keeping in place of Naib. Lays is the bowler. Lays calls out dharik by his name ( which any sane keeper wud understand to be a signal that next ball is a slower ball.)

Dharik replies loudly: " Haan haan, samajh gaya". Batsman seemed to be amused. The next ball ( slower ball) was hit for a four.

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First match at Inter-IIT v/s KGP. Ayush is full enthu, he brings his Digicam to the field hoping to take pictures after the match. We lose pretty miserably. The team management blames it squarely on the presence of the cam and the bad-luck it brought. (Non-performing) cricketers are superstitious, you see. As a result of this, there was no cam in any of the matches ( all of which we subsequently won). So we end up with no photos of the matches. Btw, Just when we were almost ( almost) sure to win the finals, we sent our poor freshie, the Sardar to get the cam all the way from the hostel. So, we have something to cherish.

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In Shillong, Durgesh, the team's left arm spinner fell down into a Drainage ( while pissing) ... LOL!!! He came back stinking and wearing borrowed clothes.


*** Compiled with special inputs from Laddoo, the captain.