TOPA

Theatre of performing arts which is better known as TOPA is one of the most awaited events at NITIE....don't get confused by the name...it is not an official event....TOPA basically is an event wherein the seniors divide the juniors into groups and give them certain topics to perform a small play.
The only problem is that the topics range from 'Pati fauj me padosi mauj me' to ' khula mat chodo ghus jaayega'......people who enjoy dancing are left with 'sarkailo khatiya' and also' bheege honth tere'......people who enjoy bol-bacchan a lot are left to mumble dialogues like 'dil pe mat le yaar haath me le' and ' don ka pakadna mushkil hi nahi namumkin hai'!
This year yours truly was assigned a group full of south-indians and the song 'Sarkailo khatiya'....one hell of a task to first explain to all my team members the meaning of the song...and after that perform to it....to even our surprise the performance met with great applause & yours truly was even given a PPO (pre placement offer) from the TOPA committee for his imaginative performance.
All of us laughed our assess off in these days & witnessed some of the most imaginative, perverted, hilarious & double meaning performances from our batch-mates.
This was a welcome breather before the gruelling student committees selection interviews to be scheduled in the next few days....will post my interview experience the next time..

Back to school!

The first 10 days at NITIE are about to end & now I am slowly beginning to get used to the crazy life at a B-school. One always knew that things would be tough, but the experience in itself can never be matched.

I have always been a late sleeper, so that is one thing that is helping me over here...but I have to admit that working on assignments till 2 in the night is not something worth waking up for! So many things are going on in parallel here that one cant help but get lost...the damn lectures, surprise tests, assignments, student committees, TOPA (NITIE specific event which will discussed in the next post), forums & lots of general gyaan sessions by seniors..... things are moving fast & there is no time to waste...
Life goes on quicker, better & busier!

There and back again!

Here I am again.....its been quite a while since I've written anything on my blog...Now that I enter a new phase of my life, its time to get back to good old habits....Things have gone crazy in the past few months.. times filled with euphoria of getting thru NITIE for MBA, a tinge of sadness of leaving my friends behind at Mysore and a mix of happiness & melancholy all around.
I never believed that I would miss Mysore so much. All the time I used to think that I hated to stay alone there, but sumhow I had made peace wth myself there. The amazing company I had there at office & outside never made me feel alone. I have made some of my best buddies there & spent a memorable time at Mysore. Really missing the last minute rush to catch the movie at Sterling, the trips to all the damn restaurants in the city with the whole gang, the late night bike trips to the top of Chamundi, Open butter masala at Dosa point and I can go on and on....
Here's to Bhatta, Rommel & Ashwin....the dudes that rocked my world for the past 3 years!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S - The saviour!

F.R.I.E.N.D.S - this show has been probably the most popular TV show in our times. After a long hard day's work, there is nothing more relaxing than watching an episode of the show. Thankfully, Star World with its 11:30 pm timeslot for the show, helps us in doin exactly this. One can just forget about everything that happened throughout the day and just relax watching these bunch of people do some of the funniest things seen on TV. Take it as a recco from me, watch the show before going off to sleep. It is the best de-stresser.
The USP of the show, so to speak are the lead characters. Everyone of the six of them are so weird, funny, stupid and entertaining in their own way. All of them different from eachother, yet seem so similar. Everyone would want to have such a bunch of friends around. Every guy would like be as funny as Chandler, as wacky as Ross and a lady-killer like Joey. Who would not like to have drop-dead-gorgeous Rachel, always-there-for-u Monica and a hilariously funny Phoebe as their friends! All of us can relate to these characters as everyone has their share of stupidities.
I have watched all the 10 seasons of this show more than a couple of times.....some episodes in particular more than 10-15 times. But, still i am not bored of watching the antics of this group of people at all. And probably, i will never get bugged of watching the show ever!
I know that Friends too has its share of critics. Some say that it is a show about a bunch of losers hanging around in a coffee shop cracking poor jokes and making fun of eachother, some say the characters are fake. Well, for all these people, i only say that too bad that you cannot enjoy the show, its your loss.
Three things from the show which i wanna do sometime in my life are:
1.) Go upto a girl and say 'How u doin!' (Joey-style)
2.) Sit in that coffee house and have a cuppa coffee. (Central Perk)
3.) Get myself 'LazyBoy' (the chair at Chandler-Joey's apartment)

Long live the spirit of F.R.I.E.N.D.S!

RDB connects!

After watching Rang De Basanti recently, I kept on thinking about the movie. By the way, for those who still haven't seen it, its a must watch and not to be missed.....so go and check it out!
RDB is a very different kind of movie..the movie deals with a patriotic theme though not the in-your-face kind of patriotism as seen usually in movies. The characters seem real and the events unfolding in the movie can be related to. The most striking aspect of the movie is the dialogues.....so simple, yet so powerful!
One dialogue especially blew my mind off. When DJ(played by Aamir) while being drunk confesses about his behaviour to Sue he says......"College ke gate ke andar DJ life se khelta tha, par gate ke bahar Life DJ se khelegi.......Bahar ki duniya me bade-bade DJ pis gaye!".......man i was floored by this one!
I kept on thinking how true this was. I had never in my dreams imagined 6 months back in college that i would be away from home, working my a** off for 12 hours a day. What a change of life?.....Life in college seemed so uncomplicated and simple. Lots of fun with friends, a bit of studies(a rare event!), crushes (read crash and burns), bike trips, late night coffee at durga.......man was it fun! Now life seems so bad, or is it! Whenever i was in college and they played "Yaaron" at the farewell functions of our seniors, i was damn bugged thinking what the big deal was! Now, when we enter the real world, i know what the deal is! The value of the college days is now understood.
Now when i am sitting here in front of a computer far away from family and friends , life seems so tough! Client deadlines, business requirements, coding standards, reviews....all this seems so monotonous. Anyways, we gotta continue to guarantee a good future for ourselves....I am thinking of income tax, equity funds,debentures and god only knows what all.....The real world seems so complicated.
I wishI could rewind time and be back in college where life seemed so simple!

Home-coming!

Finally I am back home!
After being away from home for 6 months, i have finally managed to come to Pune (no matter, even if it is for only a week). This has been my first experience away from Pune for such a long time and it has been a tough and enjoyable experience at the same time.
Living away from home teaches one many things. Most of all, it teaches you the value of your family and friends. Somethings are always taken as granted by us and we can never understand their value unless they are taken away from you. You family is one such thing. The first thing which makes you feel homesick is the food. Even small things like having tea or breakfast seem such a big exercise when you are living away from home.Nothing can be better than home-made food...this i can vouch for now after eating outside for 6 months. No matter how much you are bugged of your mom's food, nothing is more satisfying than it.
As someone who has had many friends right from the school-time right uptill college, leaving behind so many friends was painful and awkward for me. I have made some real good buddies in Mysore though, and this has helped in making living there enjoyable nowadays. Friends have been my lifeline throughout my life. I have always loved being around people. Probably the worst punishment for me will be solitary confinement...I just cannot imagine being alone in a city, It would be too torturous for me.
Meeting all my friends within a short span of a week seems impossible...some I will meet, some I won't.....though I would like to meet each one of them. Now, when I am in Pune I want to treasure every moment spent with my friends and family. It is these moments which will help in keep me going untill I am back in Pune next. Precious as these moments are, there are very few left now.
Now with a day left to leave back for Mysore, even the thought of going back seems so painful. I do not what's in store for me in the future, but I just hope that my days away from home are few and numbered.

Bangalore or Bengaluruu.....Nothing else will change!

About 5 months back, when i left Pune for Bangalore to join Infosys, i felt that there could not be a worse city than Pune, infrastructure-wise. The roads, the drains, the power problem.....everything was in such a pitiable state there, that it sometimes made me wonder how is Pune being projected as the IT city of the future, when its residents can't even enjoy the basic facilities of a city!
But, i was in for a rude shock when i arrived in Bangalore. Right from the time i landed in the Bangalore airport, which in a pretty shabby state of late, the signs were ominous. I was even more shocked to see the International airport which is just a terminal away in a pathetic state considering the least criteria for an international airport. It makes u think, what the CEO's and big honcho's of the world's top IT companies have to go through even before entering the city which is supposed to lead India's challenge as a global IT superpower.
This is not all of it! Once you manage to leave the airport premises, you are caught up in the traffic jam of the Airport road. A flyover was proposed to be built to ease the congestion a couple of years back. The flyover is still under construction and by the looks of it, it will take another couple of years for it to complete! To add to the existing chaos to Bangalore's roads, the roads are being dug up again! This time it is for the upcoming Metro project which promises to de-congest the traffic situation. As of now, it is only adding to the worsening traffic situation in Bangalore. The Hosur road, which is the Gateway to the Electronics City-the hub of all the IT giants and probably one of the most revenue generating areas in India, is no better if not worse. The traffic jams on this road ensure that all the techies are forced to travel for atleast a couple of hours to reach home after a long day at office!
Bangalore, being the flag bearer of the Indian IT industry being in such a shabby state of infrastructure has not affected any of the local politicians. Inspite of contributing in a major way to the state exchequer, the politicians are least bothered to improve the situation in the capital of the state. They are more concerned to change the name of the city to a more Kannada-name....'Bengaluruu'. I fail to understand what this change will help them achieve! Just for some trivial populist reasons, the people's representatives are making a fool of themselves, if not more!
The IT companies have already started warning the state government that if the condition of the city is not improved, it could lead to disastrous repercussions. In fact some of them have already started moving to Tier-2 cities like Mysore,Trivandrum and Mohali, to ensure a good way of life to their employees. The warning bells have already started ringing, its now for the politicians to get over their selfish & populist beliefs and do something for Bangalore.
The Garden City is on the verge of a infrastructure collapse and now is the time to act..........