The Storm...

I'm sitting in my office...though this is far from a normal day...Aila has hit Calcutta some 3 hrs ago and is creating havoc here...more so in the vilalges of south 24 parganas...mud houses are breaking, roofs can be seen flying in the wind, 4 people have already died and the news channels are saying that things will worsen as the day progresses...one of my craftsmen has already lost his home's roof and a part of his work-shop's roof... :( :(

As I look out of my office window, I can see felled trees and empty roads...news sites are saying that around 200 houses have been damaged in the districts...so many people would have lost whatever they had today...May God give them the strength and opportunity to regain whatever they have lost soon...

Am worried about my staff...some of them travel around 1.5-2 hours to reach home from office...I can't send them home and don't want them to stay here either...its not safe here as it is, they might as well be near their family members...but then, the office is probably safer than their home...

The news channels have just reported that banks near Canning have started to flood and various mud  embankments have been broken...hmmm....Will it flood in cal this time? Keeping my fingers crossed...

The Best

There are so many memorable moments of the time spent on campus...and once realises that they are "memorable" only after checking out of campus...now that I have enough time (and no other option) to reminicize about "those days", I feel an urge to capture them....

Please allow me to make an honest admission: I have a fear in Life...the fear of what if someday I suddenly lose my memory....what if I suddenly forget certain things!!? If somebody's reading this, I am sure he/she is laughing....but it's true...I fear that! and so, as a "back-up", am making this small effort to capture "My Bests" in XL (This is a partial list...Maybe someday I'll come up with an "addendum", just like I'll do for my "What do I miss most about XL" post...)

So here goes...My Best..

Wetnite in XL: 26^th January, 2009

Words I have heard on waking up: Good Morning! :)

Music that I have heard on waking up: My Phone ringing :)

Lunch while at XL: At Tango, at Dosa King

Food: Au Gratin with Garlic Bread, Pav Bhaji Dosa, Bull’s Eye, Litti, Golgappe

Sunrise: (i) At Campus, after a night out of gap-shap with my best friend and (ii) At Dimna in the 6^th term

Breakfast: At Regent…2 days in a row with the best company I could ask for :)

Movie Experience: Notting Hill, Jodha Akbar (saw it on a projector in my room!!!), DDLJ in the 6^th term and a host of others!

Interview experience: All CRISP Interviews!

Committee Experience: CRISP, Team Services (equally)

Grax experience: In Services Hub!!

Presentation experience: In ISE course (presented for only 9 mins as against the required 30       mins, still got the highest!)

English I’ve spoken: With Highly!!! (We invented a new way of speaking!!–Liking!!)

Eatery on campus: Bishu Da!

Of his offerings: Cheese Fried Maggi, Aloo Paratha and strong coffee :)

Marketing Prof: Govindrajan Sir

Fin Prof: Prantik Ray (No! Don’t die laughing!! I was just kidding!!), UD Sir

Dholki I’ve seen in XL: Well, the same opinion that SAC has! ;)

Dinner on campus: Thepl@xi Dinner, of course!

Horror movie experience: The movie 1408, In Sheela’s room in 6^th term with him, Highly and me…and Highly’s howls being more scary than the movie itself!!

Pizza’s in Jampot: At Pizzapuram

Why Aren't You Doing A Job After MBA???

It’s been almost a month since I’ve come back home from campus…been meeting a host of people – relatives, clients, karigars (sub-contractors working for me)…and everywhere I go, I’m always asked the same question – “Why aren’t you doing a job if you’ve done a MBA?”

I have faced this question a thousand times …since the time of my XL interview – was asked the same question there (“Why do you want to do a MBA if you don’t want to do a job?”), by friends once I actually got through the interview, by my paternal uncle (“If you are so sure of not doing a job after your MBA, you are wasting the institute’s seat!”), by different batch-mates all through my stay at XL and now by relatives (again!), clients (also!) and karigars too! (They are village folk; they don’t know what degree I have done, but they just know that bodo da – bade bhaiya – has done some “hi-fi” studies which pays a lot!)…

Some of them look at me expectantly after asking this question, as if I will just now start speaking about my plan of “How-will-I-build-my-hazaron-karodon-ki-industries”; some ask this question with a subtle smirk which says “Didn’t/Couldn’t get a job, huh!?”, when they don’t know that I had not even sat for placements; some ask this with genuine curiosity because they haven’t seen anyone not doing a job after MBA…but everyone is curious to understand why I didn’t go for a job at an MNC with a plush salary in a great building with a fancy designation…Why?

In the course of my interactions with these different groups of well-wishers, it seems to me that they believe that MBA is some kind of a magical course…that the Institute is a sacred Hogwart’s castle… that they teach “The Secret Formula for Quick Success in Business” in a B-School and the person who leaves a comfy job of 10-12-15 lakhs per annum is either mad or has a crystal clear plan in his mind that is going to earn him crores, starting the first day he joins/starts his business!!

I have mixed thoughts when I hear this question from such people, for I truly believe that some of them have a lot of experience (businessmen, older relatives who have seen a lot of Life), some of them have above average expertise in their chosen field (fellow MBAs, businessmen) and most of them have a practical reasoning ability…are they trying to test my clarity of thought by asking my plan of action? Are they trying to tell me that I am a fool to expose myself to greater risks of doing business than have a secure steady income of X lakhs per annum? Or are they trying to elicit an answer from me about a question which they themselves haven’t been able to answer? A lot of my clients and relatives doing business believe that time has come when small and medium businesses won’t survive for long…it’s time to scale up or ship out…So are they underestimating me?

Anyways...I have to go now...will return to you at a more apt time again, for sure...

Then and Now...

Y’day was talking to my younger bro…and he said something very interesting in a matter of fact way…he said, “Bhai, I think it’d have been a better world if we were still in the pre-civilization age…back then, Man had no tension…all he’d have to do was wake up, find food, eat it somehow, find a resting place and go back to sleep again!”. I said, “But back then, he was in constant danger of getting killed…”… “Aren’t we now?” he asked me.