Learnt The Hard Way...

- A customer who shouts on you for faster delivery is better than one who is silent.

- Never compromise on quality for the sake of faster shipments. It can cost you a lot.

"The White Tiger" - A Must Read

Been reading an amazing book currently – “The White Tiger” by Arvind Adiga.

After a long time, a book that shows a true and clear picture of the Real India without any direct gaali-galauch on how this isn’t right and that is wrong…and doesn’t preach about the so-called morals of living. It’s admittedly a little bitter in places (justified) with a pinch of dark humor to add to the flavor, but after a while, the book makes you see the world (and a murder) through the eyes of Balram Halwai, a chauffer (and the murderer).

Arvind has a knack of coming up with some very witty one-liners which keeps the tempo alive. (Throughout the book, Balram is talking to the Chinese Premier and “educating” him about India prior to his visit here.) “Mr. Premier, you don’t speak English and I don’t speak English, but there are certain things that can be said only in English” –one of my favorite one-liners :)

Arvind’s sarcasm and scorn on the Indian Life is well brought out; the passion in expressing what he wishes to never losing tempo.

…and if you want to tickle your brain-buds a little more, read it with the accent that Russell Peters uses when he is mimicking Indians. The fun really starts then! ;-)

Does God Play Dice?

If God laid emphasis only on our actions – Karma – disregarding our intentions, wouldn’t that be an unfair method of evaluating our existence? If so, then it makes God unfair and partial (Partial because, He’s the One who creates the constraints within which we have to make decisions, and He’s the One who gives us our nature which influences our decision making; He controls both the environment and the act of decision-making in us). If He does not disregard our intentions, then He has to be a little subjective in evaluation, for strict parameters in His decision-making may make Him prone to mistakes…and He can’t take the “I’ll-make-an-exception-in-this-case” stance, for that, again, makes Him partial…

So how does God evaluate our life? Or rather, does He evaluate it at all? Or does He just play Dice?

XL Parting Poem

Dear Blog,

I’d written this poem long ago…as the name suggests, to commemorate the last few days @ XL. But since I am one of the four greatest all-time great poets in the world, I didn’t want to share my jewel so soon :-P …but I feel like sharing it with you now…so here it is…

Words cannot describe the time spent with u...

It’s only the smiles that i feel comforted in...

The 'Hi', the 'Cya', the 'Buzz!’ the 'U there?'...

Have so become a part of life, so ingrained within...

They say its part and parcel, a phase of life,

I say its memories, where feelings reside

I feel like crying, but something stops me...

It’s your success, and I am happy from within...

The laughter, the debates, the leg-pulling, the tests,

Nothing will be the same dear friends, not even the jests

It’s hard to let go, hard to believe,

That u won't be there...I feel emptiness within

Stay in touch comrades; let this not be the end,

We will create destiny, and rules we will bend,

The world will envy us, respect and be inspired,

May u achieve all the success, I pray from within...

My Bests - II

Dear Blog,

I’d said I’d be back with this one…and so here I am. The reason still remains the same, though – Its my back-up for any unforeseen hard-disk crashes :-P.

Memory is a very funny thing friends…it literally ‘throws up’ past incidents in one’s head when one might not be expecting or experiencing anything related to it at that time…even if it is something that you only wished in the past but which has not yet materialized…

…and then again, there are times when you desperately want to remember something, and then memory will play with you as Lord Krishna played with His Gopis!

So in order to avoid such mischief by my memory…My Bests – Part II –

Award @ XL – "The Omnipresent One" :) …Had actually not even thought about being nominated in any of the “Red Carpet” awards…but was pleasantly surprised :-D …Thank you everyone who voted!

Holi @ XL – in 2009, where we played more with mud than with colors!...I came down quite late...wasn't in the mood to play Holi...had it not been for Ankit and Rohan I wouldn't have come down at all. When I came down, the first sight in front of my eyes was that all men were semi-naked...no t-shirts on any one of them ('xept a few who had some exam or something)...so the moment they saw me in full clothes, they all ran towards me as if they ahd seen an alien who was best kidnapped or killed!!! Needless to say what happened to dear "ABG t-shirt" :-( !

Once I captured and converted into "one of them", I was part of the herd...hence, was meted with the same treatment as a baby is when he comes to this world...make him have as many baths as he can endure till he is big enough to protest another one!!...first came multani mitti (the actual word is "mud"; I am just trying to make myself feel good!) bath, then was fresh water (filled with colors and people's spit - mine too, later on - and all the dirt that they'd been accumulating on themselves since the last 1 week!), then was mud again, then came colors (finally!) but everyone thought that musd looks better on me than colors (!), and so it was mud again...but y'know the best part...I didn't have to do so much mehnat like others in having a bath... :-P

...and, of course, the time spent with friends thereafter, literally lazing around in front of the café, watching movies in the LH, non-stop bakar and the biking excursion :)

Gyan sessions – Hmmm…now let me see…where’d it all begin…oh yes, ‘twas during the “Induction” time of juniors…giving them gyan on “how to solve a case study” blah blah…and then the general gyan on Life @ XL (trust me, every senior loves to give this gyan :D)…but the best was the time when I was reviewing junior’s CVs for SIP…got to interact with so many juniors with whom I had previously not interacted. It was truly a great experience to be able to build a rapport with so many people in such a short time.

Car Trip – was (i) When I travelled from Jampot to Cal and (ii) Was when I travelled to an obscure waterfall and then to Ranchi with RJ, Rohit, Juhi, Chandu, Gunji, Neha and Gaurav (am I forgetting someone?...oops!)

Bike Trip – was when 4 of us went to see the Dimna sunrise during the sixth term…’twas an amaaazzzing trip! Here's where I learnt to bike also! :)

Compliment that I have received – “I am proud of you” (This was in the first term)

Gift that I have received – A teal colored sweat shirt. Will treasure it for my life.

XL t-shirt that I have worn –Hmmm….now this is the only topic which draws a ‘Hmmmm’ out of me….Hmmmmmm….I’ll get back to you on this one folks! :-P

Term @XL – Ummm…1^st term and…ummm…2^nd term…3^rd term was good too…4^th, 5^th and 6^th were definitely awesome….heck! every single minute spent there! :)

Most Busiest Day – was this day when I had 5 classes, 1 class quiz (don’t remember which subject!), ISE Final Presentation, PBM final submission, Consumer Behavior final report submission, final presentation AND a class quiz (for which, ultimately, I hadn’t studied a word!), BLAW presentation and an event to organize on behalf of CRESCENT…my group (including me, lest someone let their imagination run lose! :-P) finished the ISE presentation during the day, dragged and completed the PBM and CONB submission the night before, working till 4 AM (with the CONB presentation yet to be made, and with the first class at 8:30 AM!)…and whiff! Came the day and Poof!...it went away…’twas an amazing experience…love to stretch myself constantly…and this was one such day…

…by the by, just so that I remember the outcome of this day…I’d like to mention briefly the conclusion of all this activity too… :-D

In PBM, we got one of the highest marks in the class (yay!), the ISE presentation was super –we got the highest marks in class! I had the Law presentation right after the ISE presentation (yes, I gave both of them) within a span of 5 mins (had overshot time in ISE)…scored 10/10 in Law! Both these presentation have been the highest and quickest ROTI (Return on Time Invested ;-)) for me :-P

We somehow made the CONB presentation during the day, only to realize that our turn wouldn’t come in that class :-( …sab mehnat bekaar! The quiz was a funny case…we came to find out after getting to the class that nobody had studied for the quiz…hehe…so it was a guessing game all right…and since the grading was relative, so much less risk of being in the bottom few! :-P as it turned out, I scored pretty decent in the class (Sir! I listen to what you say!)

The event…well, disaster is a small name for it…some high-profile execs had come from the sponsor company, only to find out a near-empty Small Audi…it didn’t help that the guys were a little impatient themselves (They were organizing an event in the fag end of the term…what did they expect!? Duh!!)

Sunrise – This one was in the first term, remember? Chatting up till 6:30 in the morning bang in the middle of the hostel area, oblivious of the hostels and their residents, oblivious that it was, in fact, sunrise, oblivious of the fact that we had classes just some time later… (In campus, who bothered of sleep anyways!? :-P)

The morning after Welcome Party, when we went to Madsam with some seniors for the first time, remember?

The bike trip to Dimna with C.A.R.T. (The photos are on FB :-)) –learnt how to ride a bike there properly, and your truly tried his hand at photography too. Personally, I think some of the photos have come out really well…methinks there could be a chotu-motu photographer hidden in me somewhere, eh? It’s after these small…er…photo-shoots that my love for photography has grown. I will someday buy a GOOD camera…my present Cybershot is good too, but I want a better one.

Of course, these aren’t the only “Bests” I have had at XL…there are more, much more (which is what makes XL so special). As I am sure each one of us who’s been to XL has…or for that matter, anyone’s who’s ever been to any college has…some of them, we can share; some of them we can’t or don’t want to. A lot of the times, the ones we don’t share are the ones which are actually the best of the best, hai na? :-)