A few unanswered questions

When you travel alone on the streets of Mumbai and especially during office hours, even a 15 minutes travel converts into an hour and a half because of the incessant irritating traffic. Often under such scenario I end up having a shirt nap or taking to the auto driver. Most of them are the usual boring ones but sometimes I have come across people who really are different from the marching crowd of vagabonds and cheaters.
A few months back I met a driver who was a graduate and worked with reliance as a sales manager drawing some 30,000 per month. And when I asked him the rationale for his night shift as an auto driver, he gave a simple plain reply; money. Of course he worked that extra bit to earn money. How could I be so dumb in not interpreting that myself? Possibly because I completely blew out of water knowing that even a person earning this amount has to drive to earn that extra buck in order to meet his family demands. Not that I was aghast because I consider driving a menial job but I was more than surprised at the level of determination and commitment he has towards his success. I could only visualize his daily schedule and the amount of allegiance he maintains to his goals and ambitions. And on the second though I realized do I also have that kind of passion to get to the top. Do I have that guts in me to take up whatever I get in a short term and sacrifice my comforts in order to secure the future. I guess not to the tune of what that man possess. Last time when I heard a person needs to work from 8 to 8 in a dealing room I almost thought not to go in that field. I could probably think on those lines because I have someone to fall upon if needed. But then I realized, it’s not the way I can afford to be.
Yesterday again I met a driver who couldn’t complete his education because of his family commitments and does not loot his customers because of his moral principles. He tries to save a mere 300 to 500 everyday which goes into the family of 4. So no savings for him! And inspite of these entire circumstances, he never complains about his state of life or blames the corrupt system around. Probably he is a stalwart believer in the goodness of the almighty. After listening to his story where in I couldn’t find any remorse and knowing his value system I could help questioning myself and people around me on a number of issues.
Where do we stand on these grounds of moral principles?
Where do we find ourselves in appreciating what we can gain instead of endless cribbing about the system?
And for those of us like me who feel it’s important to be a critic have ever tried to move towards a position where in they could possibly bring about all the changes they talk about?
Where do we see ourselves without the support of our parents?
Where do we rate ourselves in terms of the amount of patience and belief in the goodness of the great God?
Where do I find my knowledge of economics helping them increase his standard of life?
How many of us have actually ever thought about people not so fortunate like us and come up with a sustainable solution? Or at least even tried to work towards that!
Where do I find my MBA education useful to these people in even a slightest of manner?
Or to go deeper, how does my overall education help in ameliorating the lives of millions of piteous around who don’t even have the very basics of their life?
It’s not that these are the questions which come once in a while and fade away like the colour of a shirt bought from a venal seller. Some of these unanswered questions have troubled me not since a year or two but right from the day I first spoke in my school long back. The dubiousness of my mind is a chronic issue. And till the time I don’t find one for myself, I don’t have a right to question anyone else.
But I do hope I will find an answer to all of it or at least some of it in my lifetime. And now that I have nothing to say I can think of just those few lines which have impacted my thought process more than significantly
“Our ingress into the world was fun and fare
Our progress in the word is troubles and care
Our egress from the world would be nobody knows where
But if we do well here, with care
We will do well there “

Beautiful loneliness

I look out of my window
Mellowly into the far sky
I am happy for there is no one to disturb me
In a hostel so full of lonely melancholies

The horizon is like a bright orange
With shades of pinked hue
Hills on other end seem like a mirage
And I keep gazing as if stuck with glue

The birds are flying back in groups
But to me they seem like a bunch of elegant shadows
The lights across the roads have started flickering
And as the darkness takes over the little squirrels start quivering

Down the lanes and the small patch of neatly cut grasses
I see people walking to the tunes of their life
There are both the old and the young
Accompanied by women and children big and small

While the old, stroll spreading calmness all around
And the couples saunter, creating an aroma of romance and synergy
A young men few take strides burning their calories and pound
As the small children hop around disseminating energy

Slowly I could see none of it
Only their sounds and energy traveled across me
And as the sun set on the distance so far
Those flickering lights took over the hued sky

Suddenly I hear a commotion on my floor
With people coming back to the hostel
And I am forced to come out of that beautiful moment
With a loud knock on my door

It took me an year to realize the beauty around
But i am happy to have felt it today; and as I opened the door of my room
I realized that sometimes loneliness brings us closer
And intimate to a lot of other beautiful things around

---Sriram

Status message

A few minutes back I saw my friend completely engrossed in something over internet. It was nothing new but still this time he seemed to be trying to concentrate and come up with some new ideas, I guess. I didn’t want to disturb him. So I just waited patiently. After I could hold no more, I peeped into what he was doing with no bad intentions. And guess what! He was surfing to find some humorous messages. Till now everything seems pretty normal. Isn’t it?
Well then hold on. This message search wasn’t for an add or a concept development as I actually initially thought it to be. It was exclusively for putting it on the gtak status message.
Can you believe it? An exhaustive surfing done to find a good message to be displayed on the G talk!!! Well don’t be surprised. The effort is not just unidirectional. There are equally energetic people who read those status messages and even initiate a chat on those lines.
I was wondering what all possible uses people make of this thing. I will start from my own. Whenever I add a new post on my blog I update it on my status message. If I feel very happy or very melancholous I again write something in indication to that on my status message. Sometimes i also tend to get a little philosophical and so end up writing some heavy statements (mostly picked up from some great source)
Many people write great quotes as per their personality. It ranges from being academic to pun intended and from lively to dark humor.
Currently most people have their status message inspired from “ kamene” with s being replaced with f and this is getting truly very viral.
One my friend and his love indulge in online romance through gtak status message!!! (I know he might screw me for this. but couldn't help mentioning this.) After all this is one of the sweetest uses of status message i have seen till now.
But off late the best use of this has been made by the students of PGA @ SIMSR.
Every controversy in class is communicated in a very subtle manner through gtak status msg. There have been numerous instances where everyone in the class came up with a common status message for a specific person. And that poor targeted creature could do nothing but sigh. And no one is spared in this.
And as I complete this and post this, my status message would also be “blog updated”. And why not? After all it’s all about using the resources we have, at our discretion.

A lost opportunity

I sit here in my room all relaxed
After a storm of events which made me feel drained
Times can be truly contrasting and combat
Some days we feel the heat; rest we miss the heat

When we have strict professors we pray for liberals
When we have lenient ones we complain the complacency
We miss the personalization when a prof is cold
While we ourselves react cold when treated personally

I am not to blame anyone or take sides
But I wonder if we know what we want
Is it we who always desire what we do not possess
Or it is just humane to not value things we already get

I always had an answer to this seemingly easy question
Until I myself was a part of an exhibition
Where the best minds failed to act rational
And lost a multitude of what could have been ‘ours’
- Sriram

I am loving it

Last few days had been really just too busy. Right from 8 am in the morning to 4 am events kept occurring keeping me right on to my foot. Not that I have never been on an edge, but this time it has been a little different. If I were to compare the past few days with my 3rd trimester days, I kept busy on both the occasions. During both the periods I seldom did sit casually in the mess and did talk on phone for long hours.
But the stark difference which I can feel is the things which are keeping me busy. Earlier, neither did I study a lot as much I should have, nor was there any kind of fun in my life. Or to put it more bluntly, I myself ran away from anything which could really make me happy. I have no reason to why I did so. And even if I have, I possibly won’t like to mention it anymore. All I did was to be melancholous about things around me and critically examine everything around me. Now before it seems that I am guilty about those days, I think I must stress, I am not. Probably those days were meant to be like that and what I did was the best course of action for me. Even if it was not, as some say, I disagree. Someone’s rightly said, “Believe in all that you decide and you shall come victorious even if the decision was not the best.” What I did learn was that sometimes even being sad about something can make you feel good and happy. It’s strange and I won’t be surprised if people mock at me because until now even I felt it to be stupid. But then the complexity of human mind and behaviour can make anything possible.
Coming back to the present day, I somehow am very happy about how things have been going around though nothing really has changed in the external environment. It seems like I have now learnt to take control of things happening to and around me rather than lamenting on the same inefficiencies and deficiencies of the system. If I were to take a look over the last one week, I have studied more than I generally do and that does satisfies me. I have attended all the meetings which I had to without any problem of time constraint and made sure it didn’t affect my life balance. I have been in touch with all my old friends and people who are close to my heart inspite of the hectic schedules we are forced to follow. I have been going out with my friends more than often. Most surprisingly I have not been involved in any kind of college bashing and society bashing. Last night I had an amazing time just getting soaked wet in rain and it did make me happy because that is what I have always loved to do but off late never did. I also feel back to what I was 2 years ago; someone who is pretty confident of what he does and gives a shit to what others talk behind his back; someone who loves interacting with new people and is never afraid to say what he believes in, even if that means going against the general perception of people.
It’s so amazing to find one’s own true self through acts which are regarded nothing more than insignificant. Probably so insignificant that people around me might not have even noticed the change in behavior and attitude. But, who cares! What is of the essence is I do realize and feel the change. I do understand what it means to me because seeing this change wasn’t so easy for me. Changes which I mentioned a few minutes back and changes which I did not. But for everything in this world I am loving it.

Press conference @ INTERCONTINENTAL

Probably its the first time a day has been so eventful that I have been compelled to write a 2nd post on my blog on the same day. Though its 1:15 am now and the post will appear as on July 2nd, the experiences are all of the first day of the 7th month.
My Roomie, has been doing a great job at MTV as an intern and probably it was because of his extra ordinary performance that he got a chance to work back stage on today’s press conference of the movie LUCK starring Imran Khan, Shruti Hassan, Sanjay Dutt and many more. And I being his roomie did have an advantage to attend the same which was strictly meant only for media people on invitation. And so did my other roomie too, who in a second got rid of his thick finance notes he was supposedly studying for his exams.
So both of reached the INTERCONTINENTAL, a 5 star hotel in Andheri. To be honest i was pretty excited like a kid as i had never got a chance to see one from inside. As we entered the hotel we could find rows of BMW and a few other luxury brands which made it evident that the crowd inside was meant to be real sophisticated. We walked in without being intrigued by any of the staff and while we found our way into the basement (where the event was supposed to take place) the interiors and the setup were worth appreciating. It isn’t one of the best hotels in Mumbai, but it certainly does have an enigma of its own. The soft music from the piano mingled with the air in the room and together with an aroma spread into the lobby, we really felt pleased. Right across the hall were 2 young beautiful ladies dressed elegantly in black sipping a cup of coffee. Their presence added another fragrance to the place and it was intoxicating enough for any young man to fall for it.
Anyways, we moved across the hall towards the basement where Imran Khan just arrived and was escorted with his men. Since he had already been to our college, it wasn’t a big deal in any case. We followed our way into the basement where the whole set up was just magnificent. Every tiny detail was taken care of and there wasn’t any stone unturned in managing the place to keep up the dignity of the people and the organizations involved. Finally we saw the whole event. Shruti Hassan indeed sand pretty well and there were a number of gorgeous reporters who were busy asking stupid questions. Yet, they were lovely and so we didn’t mind their naivety.
Then came the best part. FOOD !!! There were complete preparations to satisfy gourmets like me with all the veg delicacies. But what was more exciting was the variety of desserts and ice creams and pastries and moose. As soon as i kept it on the tip of my tongue, it just melted down and my roomie could utter just one line, “ this is what is heaven” . And yes, it certainly was!!!
With all the sweetness in our taste buds and heart, we came to what we call “SIMSR HOSTEL”
And here I sit still thinking about all those delicious stuff i savoured and yet lamenting why was our stomach so full that we had no scope of putting in even a single piece of anything more.
Whatever be it, we all three had a really gala time

First day in PG-Finance @ SIMSR

And finally the day came... A bunch of future finance barons assembled in room no 17 to attend the first class of their chosen coveted specialization. People call it finance. Since past few weeks there was only one thing common in all the conversations these people had. All of them including me had expected or had been forced to believe that this year is going to be a hell lot of work with classes scheduled 7 days a week. Oh the very sound of it makes it so cumbersome and demanding. Just like people assume MBA to be.
For the first time i was so very punctual that i woke up early in the morning at 6 am (i don’t remember the last time when i did this; probably during my school days.) Consequently a few of us were the first ones to reach the class well in time. But alas! Seems all the excitement was a mere act of stupidity and not being rational enough to understand the way things work.
We waited for our highly esteemed professor for nearly an hour after which we were finally informed with regret that we won’t have that class as if we hadn’t realized it till then. As a matter of fact it was only us who were sitting idle, gossiping and sharing the vacation we had in lieu of our summer internship. Rest all other people had their classes in full swing. Surprisingly HR department has student faculty ratio of 10:12. At this point i would rather keep my mouth shut regarding the ratios of the finance department.
Finally the time for the second lecture started after another wait of 20 minutes. It really didn’t bother us because we were satisfied that at least someone did come after all. The professor started by addressing us as “friends.” Now i sincerely wonder why? Did he really consider us friends knowing that he more than thrice the age of the youngest boy sitting in the class? Or was it an attempt to break the ice? Or possibly he did so because he is well versed with the fact that students no more consider their professors as their teachers. Whatever be it, he gave a really long and descriptive introduction of his stressing the fact more than once that he did his PhD in 1969. (That is how i remember the year). He then consequently proved that all of us sitting on the other side have poor knowledge in finance because none of knew when the IDBI bank was formulated. Probably it hurt him more because he was one of the founding members. He also constantly pressed the fact that he was very sad because he didn’t become an engineer. Finally his talks changed from financial to philosophical. After an hour he was more than happy to let us go to have our lunch.
And so this was our first day at college in the second year. Let’s see what the future has in store for us. I hope unlike last year we will have at least some classes to attend but i do sincerely hope we don’t have classes in the weekends. After all MBA ain’t just about classes.