Of parties and more parties !! : -)

Its day 2 and we’ve had 2 parties already
After the time consuming registrations, queing up at various counters, approval of loans, verification of certies, formatting the laptop, submission of forms, opening bank account …a long day finally came to an end….nd yes it was time to party !!

Even before a welcome party was organized by the alums, our sooooooooooper enthu batch decided to get together at an SV…nd thus began the party saga for ISB CO2008

What followed the next day was an even bigger and better party thrown by the alums.
The party was arranged at the step garden at SV1 …gud music and drinks kept the crowd upbeat and the climate jst cud not get better with the thundering, lightening and slight drizzle ….the party continued till wee hours of morning….

With this we learnt our lesson 1 : This campus doesn’t sleep …. nd so wouldn’t we for the next one year :)

P.S: The 2 posts were scribbled in the first days of ISB when I did not have net access ..

First Impressions

I was asked of my First impressions of the place …nd I didn’t know where to start
I was absolutely delighted when I first visited the campus….lush green in the piercing heat of the Hyderabad summer
The place looked quite Pseud….the amazing campus, the student villages, Recreation centre, exec housing, the awesome and oh so inviting atrium (Tats a huge courtyard …bigger than what u can imagine !!! ) with the cool breeze blowing…the campus simply won me over beyond what I had heard/read about the place.


Looking forward to a new experience ……

Proprietary post ....

Tomorrow is my last day at work and boy I am still submitting code, running checklist and debugging problems. Seeing all this, my cube mate Niti reveals her sheer surprise at this...saying 'Why am I doing all this in my last week? I shud be relaxing and enjoying ..'
Relaxed I am ...very much ...but sum how I dunno from where hav i got this sudden urge to get back to work, to check code submissions, to share tips to use tools and debug stuff...Even I am amazed…I wasn’t like this ;) usually at wrk :)

It’s a weird feeling actually…..its like I’ve been studying for the last 2.5 years and now it’s the end of term….and I am vomiting out all that I learnt….cauz after the exam all that I mugged wont be of any use….tats how proprietary stuff is....like the Mumbai University syllabus …. :) ….of no use once one is out of that system…and not commercially viable outside.

Though tats got nuthin to do with me wrkin till the last day…but ya wrkin just makes me feel connected…nywayzzz…so …How am I feeling ….ya well…ummmm ….mab later ……

5 Pointer or 9 ?

Every day when I pass the Gandhinagar to Hiranandani stretch along IIT-B....I curse. I simply curse, the traffic which only seems to increase every day, the authorities for the mismanagement and lack of planning, illegal shops that keep expanding their footprint, the Mood-I crowd that adds to congestion and all the junta who decides to take out their vehicle during peak hours. At times I have taken 40 minutes to cover a stretch that should ordinarily take only 5 minutes.

However today, I decided to go in the afternoon shift. On a warm winter afternoon as I passed that stretch, in the midst of moderate traffic, what caught my attention was the huge IIT campus.
Nestled in the lap of Powai hills and flanked by the scenic lake this campus is the cradle of the Indian brain...a place where the best brains in India are nourished, a campus where even an ordinary looking shabbily dressed guy is a stud in his own ways :)

On this winter afternoon the sun rays were being filtered through the trees, as I looked nonchalantly at the campus..... The sight was usual, pink buildings, the main gate ...the security guards, the SBI branch , and then the breathtaking view of the lake, the strikingly chic looking hostel courtesy Hafeez Contracter and the Renaissance in the back drop

Amidst all this what did strike me was the news that hit headlines last month. Yet again, another IITian ended his life. Reason stated: Stress. Low GPA. Inability to get a campus job.
This aint sumthing new, we have grown up reading such pieces of news. Such incidents happen, hit the headlines and fade away from peoples memory.

What I cannot apprehend is the mindset of such students. What happens? How can they feel so low that they decide to take such drastic steps? What is it that is lacking? Why are such brainy brains unable to rationalize the situation to identify their strengths and see the light at the end of the tunnel however dark things might seem? How do they succumb to pressures such as GPA or job? Are we manufacturing graduates who can analyze Quantum mechanics and its fundas but not the jeene ka funda?
I am sure nobody needs to tell them that even if they are the worst performers on campus, they are still better than the average students outside. If a mediocre guy from an arbit collg can make it big in the world, what stops a JEE stud from giving his best shot and come out strong?? Are the pressures on campus so strong...I fail to understand.

OR is it the other way round??? They know that they r the best...and with the best ...but still they don’t find any motivation to move ahead in life...don’t find any heroes whom they can look up to, don’t know why they are distressed.
And they realize that if this is how the best is then they don’t really want to see anymore? I am not really sure if this is the case....but just a remotely possible explanation that I am trying to use to justify to myself what these guys might be thinking.

Perhaps I don’t have a solid insight into what really happens on campus and mab my friends can help me understand better….Ending this post on an inconclusive note .....

Another RDB

" A MiG-21 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force broke up in midair on Thursday near Kurseong in West Bengal's Darjeeling district and the pilot is feared to have been killed. Air Commodore Chandramouli in Bagdogra airbase told PTI on phone that the aircraft took off for a practice flight from the airbase at around 1.00 pm with Squadron Leader S Pandey piloting it. The pilot is feared to have been killed after it broke into pieces inflight between Norbong tea estate and Shibkhola in Kurseong sub-division minutes after the take-off, he said. The aircraft's wreckage was spread over the slopes of hills in the area, he said.

An IAF team has rushed to the spot but was yet to locate the body of Pandey, Chandramouli said.This was the first MiG-21 lost by the IAF in nearly a year.The last accident involving one of the ageing Russian jets had occurred on March 21 last year. "

In this year when the Indian Air force is celebrating its Platinum Jubliee, is another RDB staring us in face? Is this just a spurious incident or a start of something more?
When I read the above news article last week, i thought ...there we go again. However I didnt see any news updates after this. Is the pilot alive? What went wrong? Are we attributing it to human error yet another time? But I found no follow ups. The article just came and went away. And as civilians we never bothered to find out.

Today I decided to dig a lille and I was surprised to find the numerous MiG crashes that made way to headlines in all these years and then just vanished.
In the process I also found out a some not so known facts about MiG. The first Mig used by IAF was way back in 1963. MiGs comprise of about 60% of the IAF fleet and that is also a reason why it contributes to 70% of all crashes. IAF's annual loss due to MiG's has seen a steady decline over the last few decades from 40 to 30 and now down to 20. Fair enough. I also happened to come across an interesting read by Retd Air Cheif Marshall AY Tipnis who in his 'An ode to MiG21' sums up as:

"My parting lines on the demonising of the MiG-21 are thus: Heed not the barbed taunt of "widow-maker" my lovely filly, for you are in fact a man-maker of boys. Were I to go down with you, my soul would have been tortured to have anyone call you my "flying-coffin"; but my soul would have been mercifully becalmed would that our joint epitaph proudly proclaimed: "In life you offered this pilot a seat more coveted than that of a king’s; in death you took an air-warrior to his glorious Valhalla." But I live, so I hope that I am there 10 years from now, along with your many disciples and admirers and our progeny and theirs too, to sing your praises for your half-a-century of relentless, superlative service to the nation and the Indian Air Force. Others may continue to call you vulgar names when there is a choice of prettier ones, as some that I have used, but there be many more, more appropriate, but inadequately so. One day surely you must rest your hard driven limbs, but to each one of us whom you took to your bosom, whether in service or in retirement, you will ever remain "My Fair Lady"! "

Agreed, MiGs have contributed more than they have taken away. But even after being aware of various possible pitfalls with MiGs, errors occur and occur again. Question still remainsCan we afford MiGs at the cost of our pilots?

The platform kid

6:03 pm. Borivalli station. I m waiting for my 6:07 churchgate fast, whiling away time by looking at the ocean of people around me. Peak hour, working day. The adjoining platform is crowded with people waiting for the train to Virar. Every time I am here, I thank my stars that I am traveling against the rush and don’t have to be a part of the madness called Virar fast.

So while I am still waiting for my train .....the loud speaker announces the arrival of the large hearted Virar Giant. I call it the Giant for its energy, aggressiveness and enormity. Though it’s the same train that calmly clambers its way back to Churchgate, it looks boisterous and roaring when heading to Virar. And large hearted because when it arrives it is Oh so crowded! ...with an equally sizable junta waiting to get in....But it takes them in all.

I see a young lady carrying a small baby and a big bag get into the ladies compartment....she can barely manage to stand and is half hanging, a usual sight for Mumbai train travelers. The compartment is so crowded that some girls who had been waiting for the train decided to let go of it....And then a see a small street kid trying to get into that ladies compartment...or here should I be saying platform kid...for it was evident that he was one of those hundreds of underprivileged children who find shelter under the roof of these railway stations and practically grow up here. Nevertheless, he is taking this train to ...God knows where. He caught my attention because he was getting into an already overcrowded ladies compartment ...

But then that’s normal as you do find small kids tagging along all the time....Such kids usually sweep the compartment floor to earn some money, or use their marketing skills to sell safety pins; sing songs that bring us some customized and classified entertainment and earns them some pennies; or sometimes they just wail and cry to earn our sympathy and supplicate.

By then the loudspeaker speaks again, announcing the arrival of Churchgate fast...and I comfortably board the train. However by now there is a lot of chaos on the adjacent platform...the Virar Giant has left but the lady with the baby is standing at the platform, the platform boy is there as well. Apparently the boy has tried to pick pocket the lady’s purse....as alleged by the lady’s husband who was trying to get into the adjacent compartment. The boy has been caught red handed with his loot still intact. He is being beaten and abused. He is pleading not guilty and asking for mercy. "WHy did you open her bag?" is the man’s question. The boy has no answer. He cannot help but cry and plead. They call for the railway police....as my train pulls away from the station.

I wonder about the fate of such children and feel sorry thinking about what would be in store for this boy now....To divert my mind I decide to listen to some music and open my bag in search of my mp3 player. And boy what do I (not) find in there..... My missing wallet.

Gupshup On the way

Back in INdia after a year...its the same old story...I struggle to find time to put down my thoughts. The long office hours and the gruelling 4 to 4.5 hrs of travelling every day leaves no time or energy to post nything. Again, enumerous thoughts strike but do not make their way to the post. Surprisingly, the thought rate is very high when I am travelling...does the object's speed count ;-) Guess its just that we observe more, daily activities that we sometimes find amusing, acts that trigger thoughts and scenes that catch our attention.

So people don't be surprised if the next post talks about a sabzi vendor who sits across the street, or a sardar wearing a pink shirt, the forever dug Mumbai roads, a cute couple I meet on my way, or even why the BEST buses are painted red :p .... well the last one does sound interesting...nywayz I m clueless.

Not bad seems like sum fun-time ahead. Personally I feel that the coming 2-2.5 months will be interesting as I will be seeing certain things in a different light....y ? Ummmm ...how about thoda intezaar :-)

Professional Musings

Its 10:45 pm and I am still sitting in office. No, I dont have any deadline to meet and I dont have any code delivery planned for the week. I am not slogging and its not a crucial time of my project. My project is not in the red zone. Rather I am just through with one code delivery and have a relatively spaced out schedule.
And No, I don't work for a Call centre :-) and there is no night shift on my schedule. Its a normal day that began when I left home at 8:15 in the morning.

Welcome to the life of an Indian software professional !

Nocturnal, thats one word which describes the professionals in my league.

A world where the day warms up by 7p.m and meetings start at 8 :-) , a world where you check in at home a.k.a boarding/lodging post midnight and check out every morning. Where you know by heart, the last bus and train timings and the cell number that is always prsent in your dialled list is that of your company's bus driver. "Boss, bus rukana, I am coming".

When u get to office early to talk to ur team mates in Tokyo ..and stay back late to catch up on a teleconference wid your client in US. When in the non canteen hours, maggi and a cuppa coffee rulez and the machine tat u use the most besides ur wrkstation is the vending machine.Where work related ailements include bad wrist, ligament pain...thanks to the all day long mousing musings :-)

When you chat more than you talk, when you havent seen ur team mates who are offshore(or onsite), when you return to ur base branch but find all new faces in ur team, when you can only link voices with names but no faces, when you identify the font style of a persons mail but not his/her handwriting, when you review documents and give comments to convert a statement to active(or passive) voice....

If u've been relating to the symptoms above....u r a true s/w professional ...way to go !!!
err or to say time to take a break!

A decision to live is to die for

“RoN Woodward was on the 75^th floor of the WTC’s south block when the hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 was rammed into it between the 77^th and the 85^th floors at 9:03 a.m on September 11^th, 2001. Being below the actual impact site Woodward survived but didn’t know he had only 56 minutes before the structure collapsed. Taking no chances, he started clambering desperately down stairs to get out. Falling, floundering and lurching over people and debris in the darkness he finally made it to the lowest floors with only minutes to spare when he passed a fireman on his way up the same stairs. Their eyes met for a moment.

The fireman almost certainly died while Woodward managed to scramble away to safety. Years later he spoke on a television programme with candor and humility.

“He knew where he was going, and he didn’t miss a step. I knew where I was going and I was tripping.”

That’s the difference. At that time neither person would have imagined that the enormity of the collision would compromise the integrity of the entire tower.

Both men also had their jobs cut out for them; one had to save himself, the other had to save others. The survivor only did what comes instinctively to all of us, whereas the fireman was merely performing his duty. But that does not explain why Woodward’s eyes brimmed over with tears when he made this statement on TV.

Should Woodward have stayed back and tried to help other people? Not being trained to do so could have meant that he might have only gotten in the way of rescue operations. In any case the whole exercise would have been futile since the collapsing tower would have killed him in a short while and no one would have ever known. Just like no one would have ever known about the fireman if Woodward did not run into him.

But this much is definite: Woodward would not have wept.”

After a long time I return to the blog world with the above excerpt which is picked from Mukul Sharma’s Cosmic Uplink. It finds its way in my blog because I want this to remain with me forever.

It is so true that any calamity brings man closer to reality. It not only silences the incorrect belief which shouts that man is supreme by reinstating that we are all puppets in the hands of destiny, but it also brings a man closer to another.

I am not denying the fact that what Woodward did is what most of us would have done, but I wonder what Woodward would do if he ever finds himself in a similar situation. Perhaps not as big and drastic as the WTC disaster but a position where he has to make a choice between his safety and his inner voice. Will he take the escape route again to come out and ponder whether others made it, or will he dive in to help others and live forever?

Shattered

Dreamz…wat r they? Sometimes they are ur fascinations, sometimes they r ur scary realizations. Could be a pleasant emotion or a formidable nightmare.
Fictious wonderland or a pot pourri of ur daily activities. Ur past experience clubbed wid ur distant thoughts or ur all time appalling thought staring u in face.
As realistic as a Ram Gopal Varma movie or as unbelievable as the Karan Johar’s story line.

So, here I am on my way back home from work, listening to Rubaroo from Rang de Basanti. It’s a pleasant evening and people are speeding home after the days work. I stop at the library to return my books and like any other day I take the usual route to get home. Just 2 blocks away from my house I stop at a red light. And the next moment all I know is that everything around me is grey. Yes what ever I see is grey. The car is filled with smoke and I am already coughing ceaselessly. What just happened!!?? I wonder. I realize that the passenger seat airbag is out! Huh! Mine is out too…but now deflated. Man have I met an accident!!! Gosh! I think I have. Even before this thought occurred, my reflexes change the gear to parking and I try to open the door.
Its not opening, Oh no! The door is jammed.
My coughing is getting more and more intense. Panic is deteriorating the condition as the cough was already bad. Now I can’t even breathe properly. Eyes are watering due to smoke. I need to get outa here. Should I try the back seat door…? And again, even before this thought reaches a logical end, I am already reattempting to open my door. It is jammed but it opens just enough fr me to probably get out. I manage to push myself out …huff! Half choked I get out of the car only to see that I’ve been hit by a Camry. The driver of the Camry is out already, on phone and crying furiously.
Wow, is she guilty or what!!!
The car in the adjacent lane is stopped. The driver comes out to ask me if I’m fine.
I think I am …is all I manage to blurt out ….which clearly shows that I am not fine.
“Are there any injuries?” “Are u hurt??” In this state of shock, I can barely feel the presence of my hands and legs, how on earth will I feel any pain! No pain rite now, just some weird quivering sensation in my leg. But the inability to translate what I am feeling, into words, clubbed with all the coughing, I just end up saying … “I think I am fine…but I am in a state of shock” !!!! Can I get more articulate than this! Tell him something that he doesn’t know girl!
One look at the car and my level of shock is only compounded. It’s a total wreck, I tell myself. I still cannot believe this happened to me…all of it just seems like a dream.

I need to call up my roommate...tell her what just happened. I need her to come here. Wherez my fone?? Oh! I m clueless where my fone is..Last I know it was lying on the passenger seat. And ya again…the door is not opening. Car is still filled with smoke…I don’t think I can venture inside again just to get a fone.
The guy who helped me out of the car is diverting the traffic. Helpin everyone out. I ask his wife for a fone. As soon as she is done with the 911 she hands over the fone to me and I call my roomie. I ask the lady if they saw what happened cauz I m still unable to comprehend how this Camry just came and hit me… I know the Camry was maintaining a safe distance. The Camry’s driver is still crying…but she shouts … “She came and hit me from behind!!!”
What !!???? Excuse me !!

Apparently it’s not the Camry but another Honda behind which came and smashed into the Camry, the Camry in turn hit me and I ran into a truck ahead of me …Oh boy …this is getting more n more unreal!!
In minutes the rescue team arrives at the scene. Checking if there are any major injuries, telling us what needs to be done etc. I can’t believe I m standing in the middle of one of the busiest roads of Dallas, talking to a rescue officer. 2 lanes have been blocked. The traffic has almost come to a standstill.

I look at my car in disappointment. There isn’t anything left. My poor Corolla got completely smashed between a truck ahead and a big Camry behind. My first car is standing right in front of me struggling to keep alive. The ignition is still on though. Police is on their way, so are my friends and colleagues. At this moment I have no where to go. All I can do is to just stand and look at what has happened. Time seems to have stopped. What I feel is indescribable. And still so unreal. All seems like a dream.

The police arrive asking all of us for drivers license, insurance and car papers. That’s when I realize I don’t have my wallet. It’s in somewhere, in the car. I ask the guy who was driving the truck ahead, to enter the car from backseat and grab the car papers, my wallet and insurance papers form inside the car. He obliged. By now I can feel some uneasiness and pain in my legs. We leave the back door of the car open to let the smoke out and allow the car some breathing.

While we are exchanging our license and insurance details, we realize that the Honda girl who came and hit all of us from behind …..dosent have a license !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can this get more plausible !!????
All that can possibly go wrong in a case has already happened.

My friends arrive and help me while I am busy with the information exchange formalities and police report. I still cannot believe this happened.
More illusory than any of my imagination, more scary than any nightmare, more dreadful than any threat, more fluid than any dream…….

A dream…wat happened I had could have never even dreamt of ….but No this is not a dream.
This happened...it happened in the last days of my 11 month stay in US….adding a new chapter to my experience in this foreign land.

And a Beginning..!!

I had never thought I would blog one day...for not one but many reasons.
For starters I am a person who hasnt even maintained a dairy to pen down personal thoughts. And so I am pretty surprised with myself; surprised to see my thoughts find their way out and yeah ! even more surprised to accept that they will be visible to the whole world out there.

I have always been lucky to have family and friends around me, with whom I could share what I think. Be it my joy or my despair. My confidence or my inner apprehensions; my jubiliant celebrations on a success or reflections to learn from my mistakes. To share a laugh and to moan a cry ; to participate and to guide; to understand and nurture my thoughts ; to discuss, analyze or even remorse. They've been there all throughout.
But today, as life becomes more hectic, schedule tight and days packed, I wonder where those moments have escaped....
"GUess its just me who is getting busier day by day ! " is the thought that I ruminate upon at times.."Am I gettin so involved in my daily chores that I spare no time for myself to cogitate and care."
"Why is it that many a times these days a thought that occurs dosent reach a logical end? " I ask myself.."Why doesnt a new born idea generate a spark any more ? "

Yeah yeah !! I know its me :-) who dosent carry the thought forward.
So herez an attempt to put down what I think, to communicate what i feel, and yes to contend for what I believe :D

Hoping to rekindle the old times, the attitude, the outlook and the vigour...I start to write.

I dont know how far this will continue, will i have the determination to write or will I succumb to laziness ?? Will this energy and spirit prevail or will lack of time become the lame xcuse ?? Ignoring these thoughts for now, I decide to write, for , all the glory comes from daring to begin !!

After much procrastination I decide to enter the blog world... finally embracing the idea of blogging :-) Posts to follow soon