Weird topic...I know...But when I was taking an evening 3.5 km walk alone to Hyderabad Central to buy BOSE, I saw nine guys engaging in a entertaining activity that held my attention for 10 mins....and anything that is worth my attention is worth a blog entry...Ofcourse there are other thins also that mite be discussed in this entry...
Back to the Small black ball incident...The location was a small mud shuttle court thats jus in the entry area of a road side park in SriNagar colony.....Nine small bags were hangin in trees that shelter that area from the sun durin daytime but ....the time was 6.15 in the evenin and the trees' primary role was to be a holder for all the bags of our protagonists....the nine guys were standin in a circle and a small black ball made of telephone wire/rubber tube was the object of their and a whole lot of "watchers from the sidelines'" attention....and man were they talented....
kickin the ball to each other and keepin the ball in "play", their ball skills were downright amazing.....One fella particularly was dexterous in the way he received the ball with his stomach area and nursed it like a baby before transfering it to the back of his leg and kicking it precisely to the person he intended...all of them were born entertainers and yours truly had a great time seeing the guys enjoy the game and the attention they were getting....But boy these guys deserve their place under the sun....
Bose was purchased finally...(Girish was particularly particular that I buy the album) and man it's one of the albums of the year....
Aazadi...is absolutely the patriotic song of the year...The orchestral style "Jaya Hinds" are brilliantly supplemented by our man ARR singing his lines....Especially brilliant is the way he says "Lok tere ek vatan" and "Azadi" and "Lakhon dilon ki"....excuse me if the lyrics aren't spot on....
And one more song that evoked a "play-tears on the eye, replay-goosepimples" routine some seven times was Zikr...Again by ARR..man is he the FEEL singer.....Absolutely the man to deliver songs that have feeling...And the Allaah Hu....chorus and the mantraic repetitions are mind blowing...ARR and the lyricist Javed saab are absolute geniuses in complementing music and tune with rhythmic lyric...
Sonu was at his lilting best in his two songs and "Des ki Mitti" was brilliant and reminded me of "En kaadhale"....
Guys if you haven't experienced Bose yet....please....It's a journey into our Indianness...Patriotism as girish said is an even better feeling to experience than Love;)
Monday, April 25, 2005
Thursday, April 14, 2005
July 2003-May 2005 : A Journey
It's been a while since a very pleasant storm struck Girish's and my life....and We are sure that it's a life transforming bit of news..Girish and myself saw the gods granting us our long yearned for wishes - A seat in the IIMs and has it been a windfall...Girish has made it to the best of them all- IIMA, and yours truly will by his grace go to IIMB....I just wanted the "sinking in" to be completed before attempting a post..hence the delay...
It all seems like a blur- the years of effort, the disappointment of not making it last year, the pressures at work that almost made me stay in office the last 48 hours before the exam, a potentially dangerous accident that I survived with the least damage possible, the hours spent reading Business World and stuff I was totally unbothered or simply unaware of, the early morning 10 km drives in semi asleep state to the GD PI classes, the numerous chat sessions with Raama, the thousands spent in the phone discussing anything vaguely related to CAT and B-Schools with Girish, the hours spent analysing SIMCATs, the hits made to Pagalguy.com hunting down any bit of gyaan related to MBA, the pep talks of Hyd junta, the numerous times Self doubts almost got the better of me and threatened to consider calling it quits, All in all I must say God has been very very kind to me and that I am one of the most fortunate fellows on Earth...
It all started when on July 3 2003, My joining date at TCS got postponed from July 16 to October 6 and I was suddenly left with nothing to do for the next three months....That's when Raama and Kaushik Rajan asked me to consider preparing for CAT 03...Strange to note that this was how a passion was finally given the go- ahead....Something had always stopped me from writing or rather preparing for CAT....I needed that bit of "goof-up" from the TCS-HR to convince me to shrug off the laziness and put my head down....
For some strange reason, some one decided to cancel that CAT, which I had done very well ( infact that still remains my best ever CAT to date), and the re-test was a flop mainly because I just could not digest living away from my mother in Hyderabad when she was undergoing a surgery in Chennai....Well, No excuses but that's the truth.... and I still remember the LONG train journey from Chennai to Hyderabad after messing up that CAT on Feb 15 2004....BK and Vatsa were there at the station and I cried as much as I have ever...I still remember BK calling me from home that night and I spoke for 45 mins from the train toilet;)
Numerous mails, phone calls, and a needless depression later, I started to stop fooling around and face the truth and start all over again...That has to be the best decision I have made....God has carried me from then....May 04 - April 05...this entire year has been centered around the CAT...and I am delighted and thankful to god to be where I am....
Girish flying down after an MS to join my "dream chase" was a piece of magic that God decided to enforce....and our journey together has been as it always has been...
The moral of the story is something I have made a part of my Belief set...."GIVE 100% to whatever you do WITHOUT FEAR OF FAILURE"...It required this episode in life to reinforce that....
Sorry People if this was a bore to read, or too "me-centric" but I thought some readers might draw inspiration from an example of the fact that God's grace, a dream, honest effort and good guidance from family and friends can lead to that dream being realized.....
GOD IS GREAT...Hope he carries me in my future endeavours as he has so far.....
It all seems like a blur- the years of effort, the disappointment of not making it last year, the pressures at work that almost made me stay in office the last 48 hours before the exam, a potentially dangerous accident that I survived with the least damage possible, the hours spent reading Business World and stuff I was totally unbothered or simply unaware of, the early morning 10 km drives in semi asleep state to the GD PI classes, the numerous chat sessions with Raama, the thousands spent in the phone discussing anything vaguely related to CAT and B-Schools with Girish, the hours spent analysing SIMCATs, the hits made to Pagalguy.com hunting down any bit of gyaan related to MBA, the pep talks of Hyd junta, the numerous times Self doubts almost got the better of me and threatened to consider calling it quits, All in all I must say God has been very very kind to me and that I am one of the most fortunate fellows on Earth...
It all started when on July 3 2003, My joining date at TCS got postponed from July 16 to October 6 and I was suddenly left with nothing to do for the next three months....That's when Raama and Kaushik Rajan asked me to consider preparing for CAT 03...Strange to note that this was how a passion was finally given the go- ahead....Something had always stopped me from writing or rather preparing for CAT....I needed that bit of "goof-up" from the TCS-HR to convince me to shrug off the laziness and put my head down....
For some strange reason, some one decided to cancel that CAT, which I had done very well ( infact that still remains my best ever CAT to date), and the re-test was a flop mainly because I just could not digest living away from my mother in Hyderabad when she was undergoing a surgery in Chennai....Well, No excuses but that's the truth.... and I still remember the LONG train journey from Chennai to Hyderabad after messing up that CAT on Feb 15 2004....BK and Vatsa were there at the station and I cried as much as I have ever...I still remember BK calling me from home that night and I spoke for 45 mins from the train toilet;)
Numerous mails, phone calls, and a needless depression later, I started to stop fooling around and face the truth and start all over again...That has to be the best decision I have made....God has carried me from then....May 04 - April 05...this entire year has been centered around the CAT...and I am delighted and thankful to god to be where I am....
Girish flying down after an MS to join my "dream chase" was a piece of magic that God decided to enforce....and our journey together has been as it always has been...
The moral of the story is something I have made a part of my Belief set...."GIVE 100% to whatever you do WITHOUT FEAR OF FAILURE"...It required this episode in life to reinforce that....
Sorry People if this was a bore to read, or too "me-centric" but I thought some readers might draw inspiration from an example of the fact that God's grace, a dream, honest effort and good guidance from family and friends can lead to that dream being realized.....
GOD IS GREAT...Hope he carries me in my future endeavours as he has so far.....
Monday, April 04, 2005
Animal Farm...Parable beyond compare
If there has to be a book that enlightens, entertains and keeps you riveted to the end that too in a matter of 100 mins and 120 pages...it has to be this book by George Orwell...
The best example to cite for "Short and sweet"...the same can be said of "Love Story" and "Alchemist" too...but this one has to rank number one jointly with The Alchemist...
People who know what it is to be in a work environ, this is one book that you can relate to, in every page and every little detail. Ofcourse, for the fresher too, it will go down as a very informative and will teach the keen reader some things to be wary of in the workplace...
What Power can do, and what egos do to an organization, and how the managers manipulate the workers, the power the voluble talker commands in any organization, and the naivette of the lower middle class....All these are brilliantly depicted in a fable par excellence...
"All animals are equal but some are more equal then others" - though this has been oft repeated...the truest truism of all....
How every noble cause is vulnerable to manipulation and how important regulation is and how dangerous over regulation is, the plus and minus of democracy, the leadership styles of managers, why a workhorse is called a WORK HORSE..Great for readers who like to go the inferential route after reading books..I would defly want to read it again and extract more gyaan...
The best example to cite for "Short and sweet"...the same can be said of "Love Story" and "Alchemist" too...but this one has to rank number one jointly with The Alchemist...
People who know what it is to be in a work environ, this is one book that you can relate to, in every page and every little detail. Ofcourse, for the fresher too, it will go down as a very informative and will teach the keen reader some things to be wary of in the workplace...
What Power can do, and what egos do to an organization, and how the managers manipulate the workers, the power the voluble talker commands in any organization, and the naivette of the lower middle class....All these are brilliantly depicted in a fable par excellence...
"All animals are equal but some are more equal then others" - though this has been oft repeated...the truest truism of all....
How every noble cause is vulnerable to manipulation and how important regulation is and how dangerous over regulation is, the plus and minus of democracy, the leadership styles of managers, why a workhorse is called a WORK HORSE..Great for readers who like to go the inferential route after reading books..I would defly want to read it again and extract more gyaan...
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