F***** Up Day

Started off late at night during badi.

Randolf got angry.

Hit the bed at 2, but did not fall asleep till 3:30

Morning, could not wake up with alarm(s).

F***** up MANAC quiz. Expecting first F.

Slept in evening (A/C routine, i am not supposed to sleep in the evening, i am supposed to sleep early at night, which i have been doing for the last few days)

N now, just got my marketing exam grades (which i am gonna fight over tomoro). Was one of my better mkting plans. Dont wanna mention it here.

DAMN!

Randolf....

A friend is someone who stands by u, who kicks ur ass when u need KITA, who pulls ur leg, who gives u good advice

but sometimes friends can be real jerks

I was a real jerk today.

Sorry Randolf.

Sleepy Hollow

Coming back from the library just now.
We have these cubes in our library where u can sit in peace (legs table par utha ke) and study or sleep.

I was feeling very sleepy in my room. So went to the lib to study.
Ek cube dhoonda. Baith gaya. Economics khola. Shuru ho gaya.

It had hardly been ten minutes. I could hear sounds (now dont worry...I aint gonna say next that i could see dead people :o)). Wat kind of sounds, one may ask. Hmmm....sounds which go

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Yes. I could hear snoring. I smiled to myself. Wasnt new to me. I myself always slept in the library in college. Here too, I have slept many times (we have a couch also where its really comfortable sleeping :o))

Neway, the person kept snoring n snoring. Also the goonj (reverberation) of the snoring was distracting me. So i decided to just check who this person is. It seemed like it was someone pretty far away. The goonj was coming from pretty far. So i walked ahead and checked.

No one. THen i went in the other direction ie backwards. Turns out that the person in the cube right behind mine has his head in his book (actually forehead, like when u pray to god in the temple) and is snoring away to glory.

I had no intention to wake him up. So i let him be.

He continued snoring. In a few minutes, i also fell asleep (just to be waken up in a couple of minutes by my drool falling on my hands :o)).

My dear sleeping colleague woke up in another 10-15 minutes (he must have slept a solid 45 mins-1hr) and left.

I studied for some more time and have come back now.

The library is a really nice place to sleep :o)

Things u do wen u drink too much

> Sing out loud, with a lot of head banging
> Shower all ur affection on the campus dog
> Gobble up aaloo ka paratha at record speeds
> Bug a stranger to give u his last cig
> Write strange mails about deep seated emotions


And finally, dont remember a single thing in the morning


hic!

Coldcall Part II

Thursday the 23rd
Life is cruising along fine. Slept in the second hour finance lecture. Quant lecture going on fine.
Sir is teaching joint prob distribution n stuff.

Suddenly he throws open a question to the class n asks for volunteers.
Now i wouldnt even dream of volunteering in proving theorems n stuff. Some people did raise their hands, but then they were the studs of quant. So sir said, they would be needed in subsequent proofs.

Now a piece of advice. To avoid being coldcalled, 2 things must be done (or rather not done). Dont look at the prof. Look down, or look east or west but dont look at him (n if by some teeny weeny chance u do look at him, look totally disinterested n totally lost). The 2nd thing is dont discuss nething with ur neighbours, not even the answer. Be totally silent.

I broke the second sacrosanct law of avoiding coldcall. I talked to randolf on my left. I was asking him "abbey saale kya karna hai ismein". Before he would reply, i heard "Anurag, would u like to do it on the board?"

Now dont be mistaken. This stt was not a question where one can answer yes or no.

So i slipped on slippers (i usually open my floaters in class), and collected my notebook and pen and walked towards the board. Sir said i wont need the notebook. So i left it somewhere on the way. And then wit big foolish grin on my face, reached the board, collected a chalk piece (we use yellow chalk in class usually for the benefit of the back benchers).....n i didnt know wat to do next.

But our prof is really nice. He helped me out with the problem and finally i did fine.

So that was my 2nd coldcall of the term.

A Child called "IT"

The title of this post is not A Child Called I.T. but A Child Called It.
Its a book by Dave Pelzer.

First time i read a book on child abuse. I cant even imagine how can a small child survive, mentally, physically, emotionally, after being inflicted upon with so much pain, so much torture...

The book is about David ie Dave himself. I am not gonna go into a book review. Read the book sometime.

Adios

The dream that screwed my jogging

Scene: Today morning

The alarms( mobile, phone n clock) were set for 6:00, 6:15 and 6:30 (not in the same order)
When i switched off the last of the alarms, only then did i realize its time to wake up, since i had planned to read the newspaper and then go for jogging

now why is reading the newspaper imp?

Since my last CAT interview, i havent read the newspaper (that is something like 9 months). And i am keeping a newspaper in my room for the last 1 month. So its high time i start reading it again.

Neway, coming back to today morning, the last alarm clock rang. I decided to wake up at 7. It was completely feasible since i was semi sleeping and had a fair idea of the time.

Between 6:30 n 7 i had this terrible morning mare (nightmare's morning cousin). it was a pretty electronic dream. my mobile rings. an sms has arrived.
its from an unknown number. it reads

SHORT MANAC-II QUIZ AT 9 AM IN UR RESPECTIVE CLASSROOMS
REGARDS
MANAC INSTRUCTORS

meri neend mein hi neend udh gayi

So i decided i have to make a choice. Either i jog and i get my quiz screwed. Or i donot jog n still get my quiz screwed.
I chose the latter. So i started revising (all this happened while sleeping). I was feeling like i am rememberin manac fundae. Many a time i thought i shld wake up and read from the book. But then i kept reading the message in my mobile in my dream n i decided not to (illogical thing :o))

Neway I finally thought at 8:15, have to get out of bed now or will miss the quiz.
Got up. Started brushing.



Turned slowly towards the mobile. Walked towards it. Checked the last message. It wasnt from MANAC instructors.

#($&#($*(#*(

Now MANAC is screwing up my health also (in ways other than increasing my smoke intake)

a sedentary week

mid term exams - 3 days
prep for summers - 2 days (though actual prep was hardly 0.5 days :o))
summer placements - 1 day

time pass, badminton, movies, sleeping, doing nothing, getting bored, getting excited, talking to a few important people - 7 days :o)

N now, back to classes :o(

the year of the cat

tomoro is the first annivesary. tomoro theoretically one yr gets over since i took the cat (bole to din ke hisaab se 20 ko hoyega)

the fight began early in january last yr. joined IMS. attended classes every weekend. my roomies used to have fun on the weekends (me too to some extent :o)) and here i was attending classes where arithmetic n english were being taught. used to console myself saying that after the exams i will also have fun.

made some good friends in ims. some of the instructors were real nice.

days flew by. my prep wasnt really getting newhere. used to psyche myself from time to time according the the methods specified in books like "The Monk who sold his ferrari" and "The Magic of thinking big". It did work.

Shifted to jayanagar in August. Got a room to myself. Started serious preparations from then on.

Finally 20th Nov came. Took the test. Coming out of the room, the only thought was "Damn, 1 yr for nothing". But then in the world of IIMs, evrything is "RELATIVE". So gradually i realized, I have done "Relatively Well".

So then the wait started. Got a interview call from IIFT. Told my office that i would be looking forward to mgmt. Told them coz i thought they shld know (a team thingy). That my life in office became miserable after that is a different issue (advice to work ex people taking CAT or any other competetive exam -- Never tell in ur office that u r doing nething of this sort).

Early Jan, the calls came. All of them. Along with NITIE n MDI.

Then started the preps for interview. Again the weekends were screwed. Again consoled myself "After the interviews".

Interveiws started happening. Didnt get much feelers as to how they were going (seems they went well, coz other than IIFT n IIMB, got confirmed calls from all the other schools).

Decided to join IIMA.

Took a giant personal decision in the meanwhile. Still have n will stand by it.

Time came to leave blore. My last day in office was really nice. Will always remember it. Was happy n sad. Sad coz i left behind many good friends. Sad coz........ Happy coz that was one of the few days when i actually spoke what i intended to. Actually spoke what i wanted to. Actually spoke wat i beleived in and felt deep down inside.

Came home for a month. Got bored since there was nothing to do. I really cant do nothing n still remain calm (watching movies is doing something :o))

Neway came to IIMA. Since then till now survival has been a struggle. But it has been one hell of an experience. Exams, summers, all of it.

But what i find strange now is when people ask me, "Give us some pointers to crack CAT". one dude actually wrote in my scrapbook that he needs my "blessings" to get thru CAT :o). COme on man, praise is one thing, flattery is another. something i cant really stand coz it is so obviously artificial. Have seen a lot of artificiality here also. Some of it among people i know well. does not go down well with me. Now some may say, to be a good manager u have to be artificial. Agreed. But not to the extent that i have seen here. but then different people have different standards. i am not the right person to comment on others.

neway wat i was saying is that there are no real pointers to belling the cat. its not something superhuman. its just wat happens on that day. those 2 (now 2.5) hours. n wat happens then is decided by "i dont know wat". i was lucky i got a good number of questions right. Someone might have a bad day. Someone's mind might be preoccupied with some more important things.

so there is not way one can tell u how to crack cat. if u crack it, then next yr u will be flooded with queries of how to do it. if u dont, then i beleive u will emerge a stronger person, set ur priorities again, n if cat is one of them, prepare urself mentally to take the challenge again.

adios

blog blog blog

i will....till u read it :o)

ispe

we have this course called ispe
am not sure about the full form of ispe but it sure is one great course
in this course, we have to take a relevant social issue or sector n work on it
and wat makes it more interesting is prof. anil gupta
he is a padmashree. and the way he speaks, wat he speaks, are things that i have beleived in intrinsically and am learning to beleive in
something he said the other day made a lot of sense
he said that in nature, nothing is constant; its either growing or its decaying
hence when someone says that he/she is stagnating, it actually means that that person is decaying n does not know/does not want to acknowledge that fact
i for one donot want to stagnate
i dont want my life to decay at any point of time, hence i only want it to develop
n i know my lungs are decaying, but then chalta hai :o)

a visit to the prayaas school

first time i went on my own to prayaas school
had taken some pointers from sweta (batti) as to wat is to be done there :o)
reached there at around 5:45 in the evening
there were around 27 children today n 3 teachers
all the children were huddled around the teachers....some with slates...some
with notebooks
some were having petty quarrels with the one sitting next to him/her regarding
who has written the alphabet correctly
some of the senior students were helping the younger ones with the numbers and the letters
i sat near them n just watched for some time (could not understand most of the
letters :o))
then one of the students sahdev was trying to get the teacher's attention to
show him A to Z
i checked it and told him "saras che" :o)
at around 6 PM the guy from CT sukhdip came
he had got the milk and the biscuits
chatted with him for some time
talked to chandrika bhen for some time....today the children would be having
their drawing classes
after that , they would have the daily dose of physical education followed by
national anthem and devotional song(s)
when the drawin class started, now there was something i could also involve myself in
but while i was thinking how to involve myself, this kid called yogesh comes to
me with a beautiful drawing of two flowers, fully coloured
i told him..."mast hai...saras che" :o)
he goes back, smiling
i follow him and involve myself with the other kids with their drawings
help out a couple with drawing jugs and table lamps
stop a couple from tracing the drawings from the text book :o)
its fun, feels like u r back to school, primary school :o)
i talked to sahdev, rashmi, vishal, yogesh, prakash, and was also introduced to
yogesh's and prakash's smaller brother ghanshyam :o) (i think i am good at
remembering names :o))
then the PT session started
their was no synchrony, but the everyone was trying :o)
the national anthem was sung, we all stood up
then some devotional songs ( i personally am against devotional songs of any
kind in schools but then that is my personal opinion)
then milk n biscuits were served...i too helped with the serving
came back at around 7
but the best part of the day was....when i was helping the children with the
drawing....n sahdev asked me.....u will come again tomoro right ?
i will surely try to go
its a great feeling to see these children study, play, draw, sing
cant define it....one has to feel it to know it

P.S. Plz excuse the gramatical mistakes n the mistakes in tenses....was early in the morning...without sleep when i wrote this :o)

boredom sink :o)

ever had neone calling u n saying "i am calling coz i am getting bored?" :o)
he he he he
i for one beleive one talks to people when u feel like talking to them, not when u get bored.
i call my friends when i miss them, i scrap them when i want to get in touch with them
NEVER TO RELIEVE MYSELF OF MY BOREDOM
but then its a big big world with different people :o)

so since its a big big world with people of different kinds, i for one do not like being a boredom sink.
But then i can definitely help with advice. Following are a few of the things that u can do if u feel bored
- Play (computer games or watever)
- watch a movie
- go out for a walk
- goto sleep
if u dont do any of these things, and decide to relieve urself of ur boredom thru me, then also its ok, as long as u dont tell me blatantly that "Hey u r the sink for all my boredom :o)"
Might cause a negative reaction, like a post of this kind :o)
Now u may ask why a negative reaction?
Coz i expect to be called not when u r bored, but when u feel like talking to a friend. Not that big an expectation is it? :o)
Adios