What if....

Sven quit this morning???? An interesting question. Read on - pretty decent analysis, i would say..
Cheers!

A few good...links:D

1. Penalty shoots - reminded me of Baba's kick in first year inter-section finals - after a big tussle, finally Baba won it for section E thru the classic kick of placing his penalty shot high to the corner!!!hmmm - those were the days. Wonder if it was a freak shot (i am sure Baba will kill me for this comment) or if it was actually planned - whatever it was a fantastic shot!! - wish i had my digi cam then -could have taken a snap of the shot!!

2. Bend it like Beckham - My favourite shot for set-pieces and which i pretty well do - though with my left-foot:)- the surprise factor for many!

3. Strike force - Rooney or Ronaldo?:)

4. Over-ambitious ? - Try this then:)

World Cup Mania

Its been a while since i last posted anything here but have been too caught up with work and then ofcourse - World cup. The last 19 days were too filled with watching so many games of football. I am sure i have never watched so much football as much as i have in the past 19 days or so!!
After a long time - the heavy-weights of football -(read as Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, England and France) - have made it into the last eight together!! This is quite unlike the scene in the previous world cup in Japan/ S.Korea!! These 6 together with Portugal and Ukraine make up the bandwagon!! Clearly Ukraine are the flag bearers of the underdogs at this point of time. It remains to be seen if they can follow in the foot-steps of S.korea (in last world cup) and make it the last 4.
So far - the 3 teams that captured my attention with creative, attractive football were:
1>Argentina
2>Germany
3>Spain

Esp Argentina has been awe-inspiring. Their range of passes is amazing - its a treat to the eyes to watch them play. To sample what I am blabbering, check this out, especially the second goal where Esteban Cambiasso rounded off a flowing 24-pass move, finishing from 12 yards - which many rate as the one of the best, if not THE BEST, goals ever scored in the history of the world-cup.
With a bench squad consisting of Messi, Tevez, Aimer and their likes, this is one team that could go a long way...
Germany - Out of their 4 games so far, i saw them play against Sweden only. Missed the other 3 courtesy my work timings:( But that one game was enough to raise my confidence in them. What a whopping of the swedes. I would not have been surprised if the germans didnt score more. Klose and Podolski (surprisingly both Polish originally) kep the swedes busy through out hardly giving them any kinda chance to counter-attack!!
Its a pity that 2 of the best teams (so far) have to meet each other in the quarters itself and even more disappointing is the fact that they playing at 1600 GMT- I would be at work:( Will have to try rushing back home to watch atleast the second half. Personally I would want the Argentines to win. Have been an anti-german since the 1990 finals between W.Germany n Argentina where again i was supporting the Argentines courtesy one man - Diego Armando Maradona;).
Hoping this time the results are reversed.
Its a pity that Spain have yet again lived up to their reputation of NOT delivering on the big stage. This time they seriously looked like going a long way but then amazingly they were thrown out of the race by a team of veterans - read as Zidane, Viera, Makelele - I am sure this was the biggest upset of the tournament. A lacklustre , just managed to qualify for round of 16 France defeating the amazing fantastic free flow game of Spain. What a pity. Seeing the form that the Spanish were playing, i was even forced to believe (to an extent)the Nostradmus prediction would actually correspond to football - it went something like this "At the end of the 6th month of the 6th year, The King of Spain and his men will cross the battle fields of Central Europe and win the Holy Grail" - the interpretation was "In the beginning of month of July of year 2006, the Spanish Coach and his team will go to Germany and win the World cup" - What blasphemy!!! Holy grail = World Cup? Someone should have send the forward to Dan Brown - and i am sure he would have build up another great(??:P) story surrounding the Holy grail and how actually it is the world cup which the teams are fighting for every 4 years and how the number 4 has a link some kind of feminism and how the actual Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen once and for all in 1983 by the Knights etc..etc.. lol - (I should probably give him the idea):P
And now comes my favourite team - England. Somehow every one seem to detest the England team!! I would attribute that to probably the English Media which hails the team as winners & heroes well before the world cup and derides every other team/ coach as losers. No wonder the world unity in the hatred-for-England team. Brazil have been playing unattractive football but none complaints. In fact the match against Ghana, i felt Ghana played fantastic football but ultimately they lost -Thanks to the clinical finishes by Ronaldo, Adriano & Ze Roberto!! How come the England team are always blamed of under performing. Scolari plays 5 different formations in the same game in the last world cup and everyone praises him for changing the team play as per the situation (playing according to situation) - whereas Sven changes his game plan from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 over one game and the pundits are slamming him left and right for experimentation during the world cup - how hypocritical!! Agreed Lennon is much better than Beckham in terms of dribbling and speed and piercing through the defence and the youngster might prove vital to the team, provided he is given more time on the pitch rather than just couple of minutes or 5 minutes of game every match. If you watched the England v/s Ecuador game - the coach and his staff were all set to bring out lennon n crouch instead of Becks (who has suffering from dehydration and was plying on par) and Rooney (i think) around the 59th minute and then Beckham delivers -THE free-kick just before he was being taken off and voila - its the beckham of the past -a wonderful curled in kick - fantabulous goal.
Tell me which coach would have removed the goal scorer, the moment he is scored the goal?? I dont think even the most-daring of coaches would have tried esp when the player in question was someone of the status of Beckham . I surely do hope that this time around - Eriksson gets on top of Scolari for a change. Eagerly waiting for the matches to kick start tomo.............

Camping trip - Saturday

A cold and rainy saturday morning. More than half of the ppl i knew, irrespective of the time zone differences, were fast asleep snuggled up happily under their blankets. At that very moment around 4:45 am on saturday, 8 of us - Myself, Jayesh, Rupesh, Nikhil, Sweta, Sandeep, Vidushi, Kanchan - were getting ready for our CAMPING TRIP. It was the much-awaited bank holiday weekend and we were off camping n trekking (atleast i thought so)...around 5:30 am , one gang (the latter 4) started off from Canary wharf to Edgware road while the other gang (the former 4) started off from Croydon to the very same edgware road to meet up and then proceed towards the fisher ground camping site in Eskdale in Lake District. This was not my first time to this place but then I was all excited about the trip and have been planning for the same for the past 2 weeks (atleast) just coz of the "camp" factor involved!!:)
Well getting back to the trip - we started off at 5:30 from croydon...and after an hour we were still just about 5 - 10 miles away from Croydon, going around in circles - not knowing the way around to reach edgware road. Mind you, we were loaded with print outs of the route, Road atlas, UK road maps and what not. We apparently needed to take a left turn into Parry street from South Lambeth road but then we just kept going up and down the latter not able to find where in the world parry street had disappeared. Either some nitwit had plucked off the board or we were too dumb to notice. I strongly go for the former and still believe the same. After almost an hour , Sandy got frusturated of eating and drinking and waiting for us at edgware road - that he , using his GPS (sweet lady as he calls), came to pick us / lead us out of this goddamn road!! and Guess what - the roads were so confusing that sweet lady got confused as well - lol and sandy too circled a few times before finally finding us and voila..we were off to the motorway M1 following the ford focus in our ford fiesta at around 7 am finally!!!! For us Rups was driving and the other one was driven by Sandy!! The first part of the journey was pretty uneventful ( i was asleep in the back seat) and so were all others including Rups for few seconds!! Lady luck was there with us through out;):)) and then we took our first "welcome break" at one of the services center. Little did i know that the "welcome break" was going to be too often for this trip;):))) All of us unloaded ourselves off the excess water/ coffee/ juice we had drunk and then quickly followed that by sharing/ having a coffee each. We then continued on our way and entered into M6. After a while, Rupesh being tired, I took over the wheels of the fiesta and vrooommmmm......i was Michael schumacher or alonso or whoever...changing tracks from the right extreme to the middle lane...over taking cars..touching the maximum of 120 mph at times :D:) The soul aim of our car was to keep the "Focus" in focus since that had the all important GPS and we (read as the fiesta guys) didnt trust our direction sense much - lol!! The guys in my car were asleep for sometime, chitchatted and generally having fun - the biggest fun being overtaking the focus and then trying to slow down to let the focus overtake us (courtesy the directional problems).
Around 3:00 pm...we finally reached the camping site - all were in a upbeat mood..we drive into the site and the owners come upto us saying "Sorry gentlemen, we are full - there is no space" - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, what the $%^* did they mean they were full!! we drove the last 350 miles or so not to hear this crap!! The sight of our faces was indeed a sight to be seen!! It was blank/ expressionless!!!!! we had joked about this happening but it never crossed our mind that this could actually happen. We told the lady we had come alllllllll the way from london and that we possible couldnt go back now:(. Then the man of the place came over and said, he will check the camp for a place for us to pitch the tent. We - me, nikhil, jayesh and sandy - went along with him and finally found a place. Ok, now the funda at that place was that each tent would have a campfire to themselves and they didnt have 4 campfires for us..so they asked us to manage with 1 and if thats ok we could (We had 4 tents - 2/tent) - we were kind enough to take up the offer:P;) and once again the (32*8 - not that i counted but just an estimate) teeth were gleaming on everyone's face!!
Now came event 2 - pitching the tent and to add to our existing plight, it was raining hard! None of us had camped ever before except for me (that too long back in school) and we didnt know how to pitch our tent up!! The girls - all enthu- took out first tent and started putting them together (supposedly). The smarter ones (Me and sandy;)) just walked up to few goray's and asked them for help. They obliged - yippeeeee!! We, the smart ones, got our first (and last) lesson in setting up the tent..Anyway by then the hardworkers - read as everyone else except me and sandy- had set up their tent too (full credit to them:P)..Thus going ahead, we set up all the 4 tents around our one campfire place!! Then came the next obvious question - lets eattttttttttttt!!! We went to nearby boot inn for our lunner and now here they tell us they serve dinner only from 6pm and lunch is served only till 3:30 pm!! and we were there at 5 pm!! We took off from there and went to a nearby department store and got our stock of crisps (chips in US/ elsewhere), bread, jam, cheese (for next breakfast - who told u we dont think ahead:P:))) and got back to the inn at exactly 5:59 pm and just placed the order:) All of us had our stomach/ hearts fill!! Enjoying every morsel/ grain and then with an even wider grin went to the camping site back.
Next we started on setting up the fire - Sweta got the logs and kindle for £3.5 and Vidu was the fire-manager - to set up the fire. While the girls were busy with that - Nikhil took care of the seating arrangement while me was handing a bottle of Smirnoff, sprite, packets of crisps, plastic glasses, napkins and playing cards to the remaining - sahi mahol ban gaya tha!! While everyone sipped on their drinks, we played bluff/ 420.....and ppl who played the most honest game actually ended up winning - just cementing the fact - "Truth always triumphs" - by the time it was 10:30 that the game got over..we retired to our respective tents - and into our sleeping bags (again a first time experience for all except me)!!! I had to actually plug my ears coz of the giggles by the girls in the next tent (swe/ kanchan) - they just refused to stop..!!!!all were lying in their own sleeping bags and talking out to each other thru the tents!! and soon we (rather some) were deep in sleep snoring away to glory - the last sound i heard is the rain hitting against the cloth of the tent...plop..plop.....plop....

Here we go around the London Heathrow

Back in london!! Christ sake, i thought it would be setting of spring but it is still so damn cold over here!!Rather, its just normal cold but u get the chill, when the wind blows:)
Anyway on Sunday morning boarded the flight at 6 am...it took off actually 15 min prior to scheduled time. I had to just get into the flight to fall asleep!! The only 2 times i woke up was for breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage and bread and lunch - rice, chkn curry, dal and chapatthi!!:D The remaining part of the flight, i just slept through watching "England's road to Germany 2006" on my personal tv in the flight. Well we reached London at the scheduled time itself - 12:30 pm. Or rather should i say, we reached OVER London at the scheduled time. Apparently there was no landing space in Heathrow airport and hence we continued going around in circles. It was interesting to see the flight map. First we made a small circle, then a bigger one, then another bigger one, then we went straight past the London (2 dots signifying capital) and then did a 180 degree turn and went right past london again!! The way we were making circles, i was almost sure that we would create the diagram of the solar system on the flight map with the london depicted as "Sun".
Anyway after continuing this for about 1 hour or so, we finally landed. Hurrah!!!- that was the good news -as told by the captain of the flight. Then he conveyed the bad news - we found landing space folks but we are 3rd in queue for obtaining a gate to disembark. Thus the wait continued in the flight now for another half an hour. Finally...FINALLY, we got out of the plane near about 2pm.phhheeewww.......
Immigration unusally went absolutely fine=> without them frisking me (i generally get frisked/ searched thoroughly since i resemble a terrorist - not my fault again;))
and then had to get a medical check-up. Proceeded to the Medical room in the airport and they took an x-ray of my chest and said i was healthy..yooohooo!! Finally got out, picked up my luggage - guess it already made 4 - 5 rounds by the time i got out after the health check up. They were the only 2 bags on the conveyor belt.
Took a cab to croydon and i reach Fitzroy Court where i am supposed to stay. I ring flat number 49 for someone to buzz me through the secured main entrance and i realise they are all outside and none at home. Luckily there was a payphone nearby, called them up and again luckily they were just 5 min away from home. And finally i got into my home for the next 2 months!!!
Hopefully and i seriously hope that things are less eventful than what it was on the day i arrived:)

Barcodes

Ever wondered what the black and white lines are behind every other stuff u buy from the supermarket??
well check this out. Gives you all you ever wanted to know about the stuff.
In addition, it also gives your barcode number. Time is not far when each one of us would have a barcode:)) You would just have to go through a scanning machine in any shop you enter and if its clothes - all your size n specifications get displayed to the salesperson and if its a restaurant, prob. all ur health problems and dietary regulations would be displayed:)) Interesting, aint it:)????

Gunners shoot and The Magician flops!!

Last night, i stayed up till 2:30 watching the Champions League.
Both the matches started off at the same time and i was in a dilemma which one to watch - Barca v/s Benfica
- Arsenal v/s Juventus

For the first 5 min, i just kept flipping between channel 27 (Star Sports) and 52 (ESPN). Just 5 min and the decision was as simple as it could be...i watched the former with glimpses of the second match in between!!!
The first match was a treat to watch esp since one of my fav. players - Ronaldinho -the magician. The way this dude has control over the ball, i dont think anyone else would have. Amazing reflexes, amazing tackles and fantastic passes!!! it was a treat to watch this dude play and combine this with the classic play of Deco accompanies by Eto and Larssen...i still wonder why Barca didnt score!!!!! They hit the bar like uncountable number of times - they hit the target so many times but nothing converted!! The commentators were very right in saying that Barca is playing like a millionaire with lots n lots of money (shots on the goals in this case) to throw around. I hope they dont regret the wasted chances in the next leg in barcelona!! This is one team outside the EPL that i really admire. Irrespective of whether they score or not, they play entertaining football. What a team!!
Full credit to Moretto though. This guy came up with some amazing saves and fantastic reflexes!!!
The second match - as expected - was pretty dull. Guess Juventus was trying to play too defensive!!Juventus just had 1 shot on the arsenal goal while arsenal had around 8 of which 2 were converted into goals!!
As always the clinical finisher Henry was in his top form and even Fabregas coming up pretty well off late!! In fact Arsenal as a team is coming together pretty good now. Have to wait and see how they fare in the next season of EPL!!!
Cant wait for 2006-07 season to start - Chelsea domination slowly seem to be dwindling while the old race horses - ManU, Liverpool and Arsenal -seem to be finding their lost form back!!
And more importantly just counting days for June 9th!!!

Time to revise the oath, Doc?????

Have been reading quite a lot of articles on Euthanasia/mercy killing these days. There is a faction of ppl who argue that it is interfering in God's plans by killing those ppl and this is equivalent to murder committed by any third rate criminal. Is it so??
Lets take the case of Joel (fictional character) - he is suffering from a disease which has no cure. It is the kind of disease leading to slow and eventual degradation of the entire body putting him through hell lot of pain & suffering. Every day he is alive is a equivalent to putting him on a pyre and burning him. The doctors have given him a maximum of a year to live - a year of pain, suffering, boils, swellings, rashes and all possible ailments one's mind can think of. In his little left sanity, he requests the doctor to finish his story - khallas!!! Now, should the doctor take pity on him and kill him freeing his soul of the endless pain or should he continue looking after him, treating him and giving "un-needed" hopes to his parents/relatives etc???
Countries like Netherlands, belgium and Switzerland have come to terms with this physician-assisted killing but are they too pro-modern?? Clamouring for the "right to die" the pro-euthanasia group strongly believe that every person has the right to die in dignity rather than suffer through it!!!Doctors in UK who are anti-euthanasia have voiced slogans like "Care, Not Killing" showing that they still attach themselvs strongly to the oath they take when embarking into this profession - that they would aid in the healing n cure of the sick - and NOT encourage their KILLING.
I personally believe euthanasia should not be encouraged!! On one hand, you consider capital punishment unacceptable, suicide unacceptable - then why should you accept mercy killing? All the pro-euthanasia group may say that by letting the diseased live, we are making them go through unwanted suffering. Well, empathy/ sympathy for the ones in pain is human, but intentional killing to alleviate the anguish is like, i think, burning down a house coz of mosquito trouble!!!!
This is the age when medical science is progressing by leaps & bounds every day. They are near to finding out cures for cancer/ AIDs etc(not sure if it is already been discovered). In such a progressive world, if the doctor tells you that you have a year to live - for all you know the very disease which has no cure today, might end up having something few months down the lane and you could actually live to see your generations down the ladder!!!!
Why take your life, when there may be light at the end of the tunnel?
Why force the doctors to change their oath?;)

I started off this write, thinking i would support euthanasia but on second thoughts, naaa!! Live and live as long as you can. Savour every moment of life. There would be troughs but then every trough should be followed by a crest!!!!!

Attitude v/s Aptitude

A major source of stress in your life is the “fear of rejection” or fear of criticism. This fear of rejection manifests itself in an over-concern for the approval or disapproval of your boss or other people. The fear of rejection is often learned in early childhood as the result of a parent giving the child what psychologists call “conditional love.”

Rise Above The Need For Approval
Many parents made the mistake of giving love and approval to their children only when their children did something that they wanted them to do. A child who has grown up with this kind of conditional love tends to seek for unconditional approval from others all his or her life. When the child becomes an adult, this need for approval from the parent is transferred to the workplace and onto the boss. The adult employee can then become preoccupied with the opinion of the boss. This preoccupation can lead to an obsession to perform to some undetermined high standard.

Avoid Type A Behavior
Drs. Rosenman and Friedman, two San Francisco heart specialists, have defined this obsession for performance as “Type A behavior.” Experts have concluded that approximately 60% of men and as many as 30% of women are people with Type A behavior.

Don't Burn Yourself Out
This Type A behavior can vary from mild forms to extreme cases. People who are what they call “true Type A's” usually put so much pressure on themselves to perform in order to please their bosses that they burn themselves out. They often die of heart attacks before the age of 55. This Type A behavior, triggered by conditional love in childhood, is a very serious stress-related phenomenon in the American workplace.

Work Arounds
Here are two things you can do immediately to deal with the fear of rejection, criticism and disapproval.

First, realize and accept that the opinions of others are not important enough for you to feel stressed, unhappy or over concerned about them. Even if they dislike you entirely, it has nothing to do with your own personal worth and value as a person.

Second, refuse to be over concerned about what you think people are thinking about you. The fact is that most people are not thinking about you at all. Relax and get on with your life.

Get yourself involved in something apart from just work, work n more work!!

(ps. this was something i got from Brian Tracy)

D-day - gone and another day Dawns!!

The long wait is finally over and I didnt make it through ISB. Feb 28th was a looong wait for everyone in India - there was ofcourse the Budget 2006 be presented by hon. finance minister Chidambaram but then for few 2000 others, it was the day when the results of the Round 2 of ISB were to be announced!!And surprise, they had already sent the admmit mails on previous day. This i came to know when i checked the isb-pgp yahoo group mails, where ppl where throwing arnd "Congrats" and "i am thru" mails..
Anyway then started the wait for the "waitlisted" mail which was due to be sent on 28th. And lo - that day too bygone with not even a single mail!! So there goes ISB into the horizon, once again (i was a re-applicant from last yr). Just heard today that Anuj got a "waitlisted" mail. Hope n pray the best for that dude.
Well this was not to be just another D-day, there was more to come. I got into office and came to know that they were sending promotion mails (job band change) to everyone who were eligible for the same. Surprise again..this was my day - I didnt get one, though guys who joined after me and along with me got their promotion letters, i was doomed to remain a software engineer for another six months:P Well as far as my understanding goes, getting this promotion now or in december, does not matter much coz monetarily both the promotion groups (now n decembers) get salary promotion (personal Band change) only next April!!:)))So that was the only relief i had for the day.
Now the only reason for the above, i could figure out in my little left sanity was that i had NOT passed a certification exam in finance/stocks (NCFM)sometime last october!! Why had i not passed when so many others had? coz i had lots n lots n lots of responsibilities, work which i could not ignore - lame excuse i guess. The end result of being sincere to work, i did not clear certification and hence maybe denied the promotion:P I even checked with my manager and she said she was surprised that i didnt get one and "promised" me that she would check as to why i was denied!!
Well the icing on the cake was when late in the evening, i get a call from some recruitment agency and the dude asks me where i work and in what field - i told him Infy- Mainframes. He asks me "mallu" whether i was willing to jump to IBM? i asked him my scope/ salary..and guess what he says ?? His response verbatim- "I suggest you stay in Infy. Its far better company - paywise/ opportunity wise comapred to IBM". There goes my inclination to jump from Infy!!:)
The world is not a fair place to live in , i guess. But then thats what every other dick (Tom, dick n harry - too long to type) says when things go against his favour!!!
Another day is here - nothing eventful, rather uneventful has happened till now. Oh no!! hold on - how can my streak of "good luck" not continue. My senior manager calls me and says there is an immediate onsite opportunity and that he needed me to go, esp since i had not got thru ISB now (i had delayed my onsite chances courtesy waiting for the result). I nodded yes to him and got back to my seat and then it struck me - any guesses??? My UK work-permit visa expired YESTERDAY!!!! I hate 28th February, 2006!! Well looking forward to many more "brighter" happenings for the day!!
Currently I am having a Mocachillo(a special mixture of iced espresso with chocolate and ice cream and whipped cream), sitting back n reviewing a code written by a fresher in my project. Who knows tomo , he may be my boss:P Anything is possible in the IT industry!!
Ciao!

No more free mails??????

Today almost evry Tom, Dick and harry uses emails/ web for all his/ her activities - be it keeping mai, chatting, news - its difficult to think what is not available on the www world now..anything you name and there would be some site or the other that would have it!!
Well i guess the internet has made all of us so dependent on it that the business minded dudes are slowly making a move to start charging the users for every service that they use. Yeah!! you heard me right - guys have started thinking about charging. soon the day will come when you will be charged for emails, for chatting for so many hours - and the initiators in this thinking process is currently none other than dudes from Microsoft. These guys never get fed up with every pence they earn that they want to create more n more wealth!!
Well I hope they go down to the deepest hell , if ever they actually start charging the consumers for the services that they provide!!The biggest question in this context would be are the consumers so dependent on the internet that they would go to any extent - read as paying 60 pounds a year (approx 4500 INR) - to get these services?? I read somewhere that even yahoo/ aol are also planning on the same!! They intend to charge extra for services like identifying a mail as junk and filtering it to your junk box or otherwise to your inbox.
Would you actually pay for services like the above? I'd rather go to my junk mail, and move necessary mails to my inbox rather than pay 4500 bucks a year just to avoid this. But then u never know - its the human mind which is much more varied and diverse than anything else i ever know!!! If they get atleast 50% of the junta to pay up for the services, i am sure they would succeed.
Anyway lets see where this leads to!! I wonder, how come there aren't any forwards which say " forward this to 10 ppl to prevent microsoft from charging the customers for its services":P lmao!!!

To smoke or not to smoke!!

Was reading the article on "smoking being banned in Indian movies" and another one "Smoking banned in England"!! Is the world getting to be a better/ healthier place to live in? Or are democratic rights of the citizens being questioned;)?? Well there aint any democratic right that says "You may smoke" but then i guess this can be included in indvidual liberty or maybe even in freedom of expression..
What is the govt trying to do by forcing the NON-SMOKING law on to the people? It first started off with NO SMOKING law in the train, then it was restriction of sale of tobacco within a 100 metre radius of the school, university etc and now no smoking in movies!! Come off it please...Does the smoking by hero or villain actually inspire the aam junta to smoke?? Maybe if they had introduced this law way back when the movie industry was coming up in India, the law would have been practical but now i guess its a trifle bit too late!! (personal opinion). I was laughing my ass off the other day reading about Amitabh being sued for smoking in a movie....i guess they expected him to chew a pan or probably a bubble gum (incidentally both these are known to cause mouth cancers too)!!! If the leaders who introduced these laws were actually serious about the same, then i guess they should have gone about banning smoking altogether or they should ban companies/ retailers from producing/ selling cigarettes..how do you expect to curb/ reduce the hazards of smoking, if the source itself is still kicking on without any issues.
On one hand, the govt. comes out with such laws as stated above and on the other hand, they are planning to mince money out of the Tobacco industry. One of the critical issues being discussed in The Budget 2006 is the introduction of VAT on cigarettes..this very clearly shows that our govt. is not very pro-antismoking but things like banning of smoking in movies etc. are just publicity stunts (not sure if stunts is the right word here).
Lets take the second govt in question - the English..Now these guys have banned smoking in all public places which includes - bars n pubs too!! I mean a mug of beer in one hand n NO fag in the other?? Its unimaginable..i cant even think of a pub where there is not a single trace of smoke..this may hit the pub sales soon in the UK. The whole point of drinking in a pub is the ambience and what , to a certain extent, adds to that ambience is the smoke (guess all the hard core non-smnoker will strangle me:)). Personally i'd rather drink at home now where i have the liberty to smoke my heart out rather my lungs out rather than in a pub where i would have to just drink n sit around!! At this rate, I wouldnt be surprised if soon they ban drinking alcohol in the pubs or bars!!! or even resort to something like the below -


more of these available on www.quitsmoking.com

The normal human tendency is that of OPPOSITION!! If someone asks me NOT to do something, then the tendency or inclination to do that is very HIGH!!I am sure all, if not most of them would agree to this. A classic example is how the indian govt. banned the advertising of alcohol in the media and what happened? All those alcohol/ beer companies (Kingfisher, Mcdowell etc.) came out with bottled mineral water with the same brand name and started advertising supposedly for the "mineral water".
One of the ads/billboards for Mcdowell displayed a guy in business suit smiling with his index finger raised and the script read "One on the rocks, pls" and beneath in small lettering was written "packaged mineral water" - Now u make whatever sense n meaning that the above ad depicted!!!!!

Coming back to democracy ,is this what the people wanted when they elected their respective representatives to the legislatures or where ever? I dont believe so...
What we need now probably is a participatory democracy - a democracy where every citizen takes part in the decision making of the government and it is not left in the hands of the 'so-called' representativies of the junta..but how practical this would be taking into account the population of our country..hmmm - No idea!!


trivia: there are only 4 products which does not have VAT on them currently - sugar, textiles, cigarettes and petroleum.

and yeah just for information - I DONT SMOKE:)

Seniors, we have become/ Freshie 2001!!

Second yr came and we had first glimpses of OUR prey;) The innocent lambs ( we were too when we joined, rather even now we ARE) moving arnd with their parents, the corner of their eyes trying to capture a glimpse of the seniors - not knowing what these loving seniors are holding in store for them!!
Ragging was bad for our juniors - i have to accept. They saw stars everyday/ night!! I could safely say that i am glad that i was not my senior! (did i make sense??) anyway the period of ragging went by fast...(i am sure the jus' would disagree with me on this point)!!!
The ragging had almost come to an end except for the "chosen few" who due to their over smartness or dumbness ended up getting thulped by the seniors even during the fag-end of the rag period...the lucky few included Boris for his stupidity, Chandra/ Tinku/ Sreeni for their over smartness??;)...n whtever...The NRI freshie had got over and the very next day was the our Mallu freshie for our beloved juniors..
the tough part was getting the Nri - mallu juniors to come for the freshy..what with them havin boozed their guts out the day before for the NRI freshie, most of them were not in their senses when mallu freshie had to begin and after numerous calls by the seniors to the first yr hostel all of them turned up for the freshie...one person though who was completely bonkered out was Sundeep...he had had a bit too much the day before and he could hardly stand on his 2 feet...he was even reluctant to come for the freshie..but somehow the Nri-mallu's of our batch..convinced him n pulled him for the freshie....
then there was the arrangement of freshie...we had got the Royal Southern hotel for conducting the freshie..esp since we had given them a double deal...NRI freshie n Mallu freshie on consecutive days and courtesy us..they got a lot of business for that yr for almost all the freshies..!!!it was something we had discovered - good hotel, cheap rates and suddenly everyone wanted a piece of the pie.......
the hall booked for the freshie was a medium sized hall (they called it the banquet hall) with food catering to both the veg n non-veg buds....along with the hall came the Music system and the mike...the system was pretty decent..good enough to play some songs and for juniors to put on music and present the first yr event..whatever they had to do...there was a small stage/ podium...that was carpetted in red...a chair was kept in the centre..where each junior went up..and gave his/ her intro...and where they were bombarded with questions abt their baap/ their maa and so many other questions which would make them sweat...and at the same time would please the sadistic minds of their over powering seniors...this was also the chance for each senior to tease another of his batchmate/ his senior by asking tricky complicated questions to the juniors abt their college heriditary...!!!all those seniors/ batchmates who were despised...were made fun of courtesy thru the juniors at this juncture...!!
another memorable thing was the invitation card that we had published and sent out for all the seniors inviting them for the freshie...the FUMS were infuriated with this action of ours..they created petty scenes like, one of them dint get the invitation card and it meant they were not invited for the freshie...after a lot of coaxin many of them,...all of them finally agreed to come for the freshy...(it was obvious they would come ..but then they wanted to make us beg them n this was their way of making the whole freshy very formal - as they termed it - by giving out invitation cards)
the whole work of organising the freshy was divided up into tasks amongst us second yrs...some were given the work of getting the girls to the hotel...some were in charge of transportation - to n fro..others to check if things were in order in the hotel before the function started off...and one was given the duty of getting the then final yrs to the hotel...I was the chosen one for supposedly having the knack of talking soft n cooling them off..(this was told to me, i think..so that I would not refuse the OFFER)..anyway I acceded..
on the chosen day all had got set going ...I went to the final yr hostel - to get those seniors..and boy was not I scared..what with all these towering characters boozed n their anger regarding invites still not calmed down...I got together everyone in the van designated for them (as per their request...they wanted a separate van altogether for 13 of them to reach the hotel)...and when i was abt to enter...couple of them pushed me out..telling the van was exclusive for them...and not for any freaking junior..be it the organiser or whoever...smart me -instructed the van driver then to take the van to royal southern n decided to come by TNSTC to the hotel..but few of the other seniors (sidi, sujith etc..) got me back into the van despite what few others said...the journey started off...i was a sitting duck in the last seat..just trying to hide myself n prayin that this trip to the hotel ended soon...while the final yrs were hurling abuses at me n my batchmates for not providing them A/C coach../ video coach and what not :-P...in between one of the seniors...(Jiby)..came behind..and started narrating story of how he n his batch mate slapped each other during one of their ragging sessions or so...and to illustrate this..out of the blue..THUD...the whole van that was buzzing with noise n abuses...became silent...there was just the humming of the engine that could be distinctly heard...the pain of the whack could be felt by my innocent soft cheeks only later on...I was shocked - for having got the slap, for not knowing the reason why I got slapped and for the humiliation of being prob the only 2nd yr to have got slapped by the FUMS.....however thanks to that...all the abuses being hurled were stopped...suddenly everyone came back to the senses except the one who had delivered the slap...all were calmin me down..(they probably thoguht I would get angry or upset or whateever) and now the abuses were on to that senior...prob he dint realise the strength of the blow he had just metted out...anyhow..later on he came n apologised and the remaining part of that long journey was spent in silence...
anyway the remaining part of the freshie was pretty uneventful..the regular happenings and nothing in particular...!!!

Freedom is my birth right!!!

The NRI freshers party had got over. The only memorable incident that happened for that freshy was the Ramayanam2K, a lot of comedy. We had Pradeep Muralidharan playing the Ravan with Gangster's paradise song running in the background. Anila was Sita and then the characteristic "Ada poya" by her which was picked up from the "shakalaka baby" song. I remember myself and kartik sitting at the last bench and immitating her and irritating her all thru the practice sessions for the freshy... (later i came to know that she was real angry with me for that and was irritated to the core;-)). We did the "suno to diwana dil" dance and the girls, i guess, had done a dance for "rang de"...anyway that was over and all were enjoying their new found freedom, when we as mallus had ragging ongoing even now..The mallu freshers party was the following week. And i dont think in the 4 years of college life, we NRI mallus have ever looked forward for anything more eagerly than for this particular day when we would be freed from the bonds of slavery...no more slaps...!!
it was the most painful week of the lot. ur remaining NRI counterparts were partying..going places...having fun..goign to the gate for dinner...and we were content seeing the snaps of their outings with the girls and listening to the fun times they had outside while we were undergoing another week of brutality by our very dear seniors...!!hmmm....
anyway finally the day came . We got our freshie. I was happy beyond words...and i guess the feelings were the same amongst all of us...esp after the formation of IBMk and restart of ragging and all the crap that followed..this was a welcome shower of monsoons for us...!!During the freshy there was a proper mimicking by Kuttan of the seniors including Johnny n Vinod and it was mimicked so perfectly that all were rolling on the ground..!!All fresh memories and then we did perform the "Suno tho diwana dil" partly and performed some rubbish on the stage when we were supposed to do a proper drama or dance or something...anyway then we heard a lot of advices from the seniors ..abt the mallu unity and their freshers party stories...!!one memorable day..!!!
and this was the very day when i made my entrance into the world traversed by almost all my seniors!! I tried my first voluntary gulp that day- no tensions...no mind blocks( for the NRI freshie as well, I had gulped but then i was more worried about the mallu ragging that was scheduled for me the next day more than enjoyin the freshers party)..
it was bliss....i remember one of my seniors Subhash Narayan(mallu prod) challenged me and Addy to a competition. He thought he would get a easy victory over us. We too thought the same. But for the heck of competing we competed. We had the first swig - bottoms up - on the rocks and Subhash was aghast and he too without loosing a moment had his first glass...we were al pumped up now...!!It was the moment when we had to show that we were not the "pavam pavam" types which we had portrayed ourselves to be...!!We ahd another 2 swigs and Subhash followed suit...and then we slowed down on advice from final years...esp since it was the first time for myself and addy..so we had the 4th and 5th drink slow n steeady...and sudenly we saw someone was shouting and moving arnd completely drunk. Turned arnd to see that it was none other than our dear Subhash.
He was Blown...myself, prem, dwipin carried him to someone's room, i guess it was prem's room and left him there to sleep..and we carried on..
Later on heard that never before had Subhash drank so much in his life..and we had coaxed him into it..courtesy the challenge. Anyway after that the real fun began...All the guys were pretty high up and the singing session began with parady's and vallips and first years (us) abusing all our seniors to the core for what all they had done to us...!!
The night however belonged to Addy. He was drunk and all that vaashi n hatred that had built inside him against the seniors came out and he caught the seniors one by one..starting from final yrs Ashif and ending with Vinod (2nd yr) in Diamond hostel.\He ragged each one of them...with his tongue so much that all seniors were completely flabbergast. They dint have a word to say...the best was Addy's ragging of Vinod - a common irritating guy for all the first years then. Vinod had retired early from the freshers party since he was a teetotaller and he had obviously got bored...But that was not an issue for our dude Addy...he went to his rooom..pulled off the characteristic towel which was wrapped arnd Vinod's eyes when he slept...pulled him out of his bed and abused him beyond anything...so much so that finally Vinod got irritated and me and Yeda (anand P) had to pull him out and make addy sleep somewhere else..!!
Then me and Yeda continued talking about our past, got a pep talk from him about the various departments etc..etc..!!It was the same night when Ghattis (maharashtrians) had had also their freshy and we joined Chatlawar (a 2- time year back, then studying in second yr - and a pretty good footballer though hot headed). We asked him for water and he gave us a bottle...which was just on the rocks Vodka..and both me and yeda gulped it down and realised what we had drunk was vodka and not water...!!anyway...then myself, yeda and chaat sat and talked abt football for sometime..then we went to one of the dhabas outside and had some sweets...early in the morning by arnd 4:00 am and then got back. By this time 3 of us were properly high and we decided to play football to practice for the inter-year finals due to be played that evening between 1st yrs v/s 2sn yrs...kicked arnd the ball till abt 9:00 am...and then we went to mess and had breakfast and went back to the hostel and slept off...!!
i got up at 4:30 pm only just in time for the match which was to begin at 5:00 pm...went to the field..paddded up ...and match started.but there was no sign of Yeda or Chaat...2 main players for the 2nd yrs then..!!anyhow...we had a thumpin win of 3-0 - if my memory is right. and we were doing the victory dancing and shouting happily..when chaat and yeda came in...all droopy..they obviously had had too much to drink and their head was spinning even now...pity them and saw the look of hatred for them in the remaining 2yrs eyes..!!I was glad that i had got up in time for the match..>!!
and that day it dawned upon me..that I have a great capacity..!!I am a tank..!!The news spread fast to all seniors..the rest of the second semester was spent accompanying every other senior...giving company to many...roaming arnd with the seniors..seeing places...and enjoying every moment.!!Second semester - i hardly saw the classrooms...!!
After the eventful nights of comradeship...i would get baclk to hostel by 7:00 am...have breakfast and sleep till evening...and the cycle continued...!!!This was jut the beginning of the TANK...and more was yet to come....

Suno to Diwana Dil

Well for those of you, who could not make sense of the title, it is nothing but a song by Kamal Khan (the one who sang "oh oh jaane janna" - salman khan dance number) to which we danced.
Now the we comprised of Vineesh, Akhilesh, Kartik, Adarsh, Vithal, Ashwin, Pranay. I am not very sure how exactly we had started the whole process...but it was Akki's brainwave, if my memory is right...!!!
This was almost to the end of ragging when our seniors said that we would have to perform something for the fresher's party..some dance or skit or something of the sorts...and we were unsure of what to do exactly..!!!and then akki came up with this idea of dancing!!!
now before i get into how we started off and how we prepared ourselves and got guys to dance...let me tell u something...all those guys who danced for this..were novices?? no not even that...they (including me) never ever thought in their entire life till then that one day they would be dancing on stage and that too for a fast number..nothing folk or slow!!!
anywy it was intially for the freshers party and so the above said guys were all forced to dance along with me n akki..the entire choreography was directed by both of us only..!!!Basically we tried to recollect all those dance steps we had seen over the ages in the movies and on stage in school and tried redoing that!!
First myself and akki used to try the step and we would perfect it....and once we had perfected it..we would teach the rest of the guys and make them practice over n over again...until they were comfortable doing the step and even in their sleep, if asked, they would be knowin the sequence of steps..!!!we started with one step at a time and after perfecting each step , the song was played and we danced in one shot till the point where we had perfected..!!
I dont know if dance pundits (the girls - remya, shivani, anila etc) would call our dancing as dance but atleast we were giving it a shot and that is what mattered..!!we were, frankly speaking, doing more of aerobics than dance over there...!!!Lots of steps where we jumped, did splits (almost), made few formations...(picked up from watching numeroius dances over 18 yrs of life) etc etc..!!we initially had started off practice in A-22. We used to move the beds to the sides and create space and dance...and slowly coz of the music (whch was vey upbeat) we attracted a small crowd from the neighbouring rooms and iut became a everyday routine for 7 of us to dance and practice for our fresher's party while the crowd just looked on...!!
anyway we had reached only half way thru the song when one of the guys, Shantanu Das, asked us to perform for the first year Rotract function. He was a member of the Rotract Club of RECT and they were conducting a function for the first years and this guy wanted us to dance for the same..!!initially we were very reluctant...as none of us have danced before and we were not sure if we could pull it off together..and moreover our Ragging schedules might clash and we would not be able to make it after all..!!so kept declining but he never gave up and kept pestering!! the 7 of us sat and thought abt it.and decided to give it a shot..!!we told him that it might be the case that one of us might not turn up for the dance due to some ragging calls by senior and if the dance went bad...never to point the fingers at us..!!after all this was said and dance..the practice sessions became even more vigorous...coz the Rotract function was just a week away and we still had another stanza to put the dance steps for and then practice from beginning to end for a few days..!!we shifted our dance room from A-22 to the bathroom verandha...where there was just sufficient space for the 7 of us to dance together..!!!
the main problem we were facing was that in between one of us without fail ended up forgetting the steps...and thus it would look bad on stage..slowly our confidence level was going down but then we held together. In between Adarsh even gave up sayin, it was beyond his capacity..but somehow convinced him and all others and gave them the incentive that this might be the chance to break the ice with the girl folks.
Which guy would not like to be famous and attract girls?? in my opinion None..!!and that indeed was the driving force...it worked like a charm!!myself and akki used to dance less for practice sessions and conc more on coordination and perfecting everybody...!!!
we jst did 2 -3 rounds wherein all of us danced together!!!
anyway the finaly D-day arrived..!!!We wore our cargoes and tight t-shirts, and shoes for the first time..(remember it was ragging time and we were not allowed all this little happiness' of life) and to avoid being called for raggin at the same time...what we did is..we invited all our second year seniors (both mallu n NRI's) for the program and it helped to some extent that few of the NRI n Mallu seniors(3rd yrs n Final yrs) were members of the Rotract club and they warned us not to skip the dance and go for ragging..else we would be done for..!!that was the last straw!!there was nothing that could stop us from dancing now...and after days of practice and perfecting the steps...finally the D-day had arrived...!!morning we bunked couple of classes to practice on what was going to be our final stage for the evening!!We were committing mistakes now...getting tensed..our first dance performance and thoughts of getting battered by tomatoes and rotten eggs did pass thru our minds!!!
anyway like they say in mallu "randum kalpichu njangal irangi" meaning leaving our faith in the ONE above we got onto the stage when we were beckoned upon by Das!!and the music started and we started dancing full fledged...emotions on our face..atleast we thought so...and in between mine n akki's eyes were darting behind to check if all was in sync!!and amazingly everythin seemed fine..!!we were dancing our hearts out and when one of the steps came where in myself and akki bent backwards...did a step and then fell to the ground and jumped back up...the crowd was on its feet...everyone were shouting, dancing clapping...in APPRECIATION and finally the song came to an end...we bowed and we had a really loud ,strong and all superlatives possible round of applause...!!that was one of the best moments in my life...!!!
This had put us the NRI's of 1999 batch in the lime light...everyone knew us..and the following days we spent baskin in glory and then for the freshers party (every state) the first years (our batch mates) came to us..to learn the steps and all of them performed the same for their freshie and it became so famous that we were ordered by our seniors(mallu) not to p[erformthat dance for the freshie...!!every tom, dick and harry were performin that for the freshies now and we had established our stand as NRI's...the STUDs..and later on known as the DUDES in final yr...!!!
And this incident was just the beginning of my talent in dancing...;-)

Formation of the IBM;)

Well one would be wondering where IBM came from in my first year of college days..!!well this is not the S/W company that all of you know..but this is Ist Boycotted Mallus, Kerala. This was formed as a result of merciless ragging by our mallu seniors on the guys who had come thru the Kerala quota and later on the NRI mallus also joined the group. An account of the events leading to the formation of this group is.. given below. Since I myself did not have a first hand experience here, i had asked Kuttan (sankar) to write this chapter for me. And i have added on in the end describing what was happening simultaneously at the NRI mallu front.
KutTy's account starts here:
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read vin's blog abt his 1st day of ragging n' wuz reminded of my time. well.. there were innumberable incidents, n' i rem. all of 'em vividly, but the one that stands out the most is the session by the FUMS. before i go into it, there are a few basic things abt RECT that readers shud be aware of.. tho' those very readers are all RECTians themselves n' need no explanation. anyway, here goes:
one's family is constituted of by people who occupied his/her seat in subsequent n' previous years. we have baap [known as 'technical father' in REC bhopal, as my friend sunil told me later], dada n' pardada. slapping is the way ragging happens at RECT, of course accompanied by other things that appear as humorous to seniors. at least to mallus, they don't do indecent things. kandus have to do grosser things like **** on a pole at a junction. UPs probly strip their juniors to satisfy their innermost desires. odiyas only slap, but they do enuf to compensate for all other forms of ragging.. an average odiya score is around the figure of 300. score is the no. of slaps you received n' is a figure that lives in ur brain as long as ur degree does on ur CV ;)
one day i'm reclinin in ravi's room.. when sandeep n' darsan walk in at noon.. sandeep has red marks on his cheeks- darsan is unscathed. i ask 'em what happened n' they say they'd been to the bank, where they met 'basheer'. he'd taken sandeep to a toilet near the bank [which i never knew existed!] n' banged him a few times n' sent him off with darsan to get me. well.. shiver me timbers! i didn't have a choice but to obey the wishes from above n' accompany darsan outside. we were picked up by deepu [yeah dwipin, that bastard who's made it to my list of top ten best friends] n' a guy who introduced himself as manu narayan. but i knew from my sis [who incidentally, had graduated from RECT a year earlier] that this 'manu' wuz 1 yr her junior. i guessed it wuz karthik, my dada. well they took us to BHEL [a nearby township], where we took on the role of pack-asses to carry their laundry; another common phenomenon during ragging. they treated us well for pack-asses tho', feeding us supper at abt 7 at 'bhuvaneshwar', an open-air eat-out at BHEL. we returned to college later.. n' continued beyond agate [that safe haven- the 1st yr hostel] to the dark n' dreary regions of the senior hostels.. we passed diamond on the way, the 2nd yr hostel that hid untold pain n' suffering. we'd never been there as our 2nd yrs found it fit to take us to BHEL for their exclusive pleasure in our ragging experience.
soon lapis loomed into sight.. n' we crossed it n' exited via the rear gate as we were sapphire-bound - when suddenly, into the night, erupted the wild yell of 'POOOYEEE!!!'. all four of us glanced up n' to see a row of dark faces at the top floor beckoning wildly.. and we knew that moment that we were done for. prayers flew up to the heavens from darsan's n' my throat like disturbed pigeons fluttering from a treetop.. but we cudn't evade the prospect of havin to climb up those stairs which got over all too fast for our liking.. as we walked down the corridor towards the wing-end.. wild screams n' laughter greeted us.. i don't exactly rem. what transpired afterward except that a pugilist complete with red gloves appeared from nowhere n' dealt out a series of swift punches to the region of darsan's tummy. he then turned onto me to playfully dab my nose. it wuz getting quite dark, when the play wuz abruptly cut short by someone pushing us unceremoniously into a room.
they closed the door n' asked us to latch it from inside. the door had a barred window which could be swung open. they asked us to switch the lights off n' await our destiny while they went out for dinner. the last person to leave changed his mind n' came back, to inquire of me.. 'kutty, ninakku ente adi kondattundo da?"(kutty, have you got slaps from me ?). i squinted out into the night n' realised that it wuz none other than the famed 'basheer'.. well, i replied truthfully in the negative, wishing i wuz fortunate to have done otherwise. basheer's slap wuz a legend which i was about to witness firsthand... 'engottu vaada'(come here), i heard n' complied. he slid his right hand thru the bars n' dealt me... ONE SWIFT BLOW. the force of the slap flung me backward, n' i landed on the bed at the other end of the small single room. basheer left, darsan switched off the light n' bolted the window n' came n' lay down beside me. i wuz still shocked with that slap. we consoled each other..
the wait that ensued wuz among the most fearsome periods of darsan's n' my lives.. we waited for what seemed to be just minutes, but really wuz closer to an hour, before the knocking on the door began. 'THORAKKADA'(Open the door) they yelled, as we fumbled with the latch n' finally threw it open. they burst into the room one by one.. n' arranged themselves around us.. basheer pushed me to the ground n' somebody took the sole comfort that wuz darsan, away from me.. outside the room. then began the legendary session of ragging which wuz to be related again n' again to an awestruck audience.. no less than twenty exclusively-basheer stunners landed on my poor cheeks.. soon the slaps stopped hurting n' all i felt wuz the dull pain in my head n' the jerks which came as each new blow wuz dealt. at the end of it, both sides of my face were bleeding. the surprise on their faces was evident but they grinned outwardly n' brought basheer a small vial of dettol.. he applied it on my cheeks n' they smarted like mad. i hid all emotion n' after ten mins of respite, he resumed to relentlessly take my score ahead another twenty n' then ceased..
darsan wuz brought into the room n' taking my sorry state into cognizance, he saddened.. they sat him down next n' mr. basheer meted out twenty of 'em unabated.. after which they released us. we went back to agate the next day n' our friends paled at the sight of us.. that day, we decided to boycott further ragging n' under the able n' hidden-for-long leadership of giridhar, forged IBMK.. Ist Boycotted Mallus, Kerala..
The next few months saw us released from the torture of ragging.. we enjoyed while the others suffered. a coupla seniors called us for a peaceful meeting, where we refused to return.. another meeting with the final years occurred where we stubbornly held onto our resolve.. but the walls fell apart one day, when i wuz home for the weekend n' darsan, jithu n' sandeep relented to attend non-physical ragging, the biggest mistake. giri, anil n' sumesh held back, n' escaped from physical fitness sessions consisting of push ups, etc.. which gave in to slaps again.. i had to give in too.. n' had a lone session with basheer where i confirmed that his slaps had lost the splendor of lore.. probly after peer-counsel. it all ended well.. with us getting our freshie- the only drawback being that giri, anil n' sumesh missed it.
basheer.. wuz an alias.. his real name being premlal p. k.. yeah, the same guy who accompanies dwipin on my list of top ten best friends ever.. surprising, isn't it? ;)
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Well this is what exactly happened on the mallu front...well till then..rather till before the formation of IBM, the NRI mallus had a choice of going for mallu ragging...!!As in only if they wanted to be close to their mallu seniors and wanted to attend the mallu freshie they had to atten!! but with the mallu first years all boycotting the ragging completely, the seniors were all frust. This was considered to be a humilation for any seniors to not have their juniors come for ragging and that too the main reason being excessive ragging!! So then what else..but rope in the NRI mallus and after a long tug of war we finally acceded to attend mallu ragging...!!!We were promised by the mallu third yrs and final yrs that we would not be ripped apart like how our mallu quota counterparts had faced (pun intended here:-))But intially we were not convinced coz during the begining of ragging, Ashwin had his ears slammed out by none other than Johnnie George in the train compartment's toilet. The slaps intended for face ended up on Ashwin's ears due to lack of space and this had become a major issue which is why we were given a choice to go for mallu ragging by our seniors....however this sudden twist of fate forced us to go for mallu ragging..to save the pride of the mallu seniors..!!so we became the bakraas and every day we had some ragging session euther by the NRI's or by the Mallus' and if we skipped one to attend the other...the next day all hell was loose!! Many of the guys even thought of runnin away from college due the excessive amount of slaps we were facing every other day...!!The mallu seniors used to rag us severely for the formation of IBM and for those guys not comin for ragging..!!The situation was getting pathetic.
We as NRI's at times slowly develpoed an aversion too for the mallus since it was their boycott due to which we were suffering...anyway this went on for the first semester and second semester on one fine day when i was returnin from kerala...lo!!behold...all the NRI/mallu final yrs were on the train and i had a small session of ragging there.!!Thats when i met the likes of Sajan Abraham, Sonu Sam varghese, Chandy, Pavil Jose (my par-dada) - these were the terror final yrs and i got ragged by them in the train on my return journey. One humorous incident that had happened, i shall narrate now..!!!

well in one of the previous raggin sessions one of my batchmates(mallu - dont remember who exactly) was ragged by Johnnie george!! Johnnie asked him the ? "which state do i belong to?" when the junior answered him "Kerala" , he got whacked beyond belief coz the expected answer was "Solid state" (with reference to chemistry "states"). And telling each other's ragging experiences was a commoner in first yr hostel and this was there in my mind when Sajan asked me to guess his state. Prompt came the asnwer "SOLID"!! The expressions on all these final years face i remember to this date. If i had had a camera then and had the balls..i would have taken a snap of al lthose 4 wonder strucken face as if they were struck by lightning !!! They didnt get the flow of what i was saying..and suddenly it dawned on them what i was referring to and they thought i was trying to get cheeky with them...!!sheesh poor me:-(;-)) and the rest what happened to me...its better untold...i am leaving it to your imagination!!!!
After reachin trichy i was asked to come for raggin that evenin by these seniors for my cheekiness..and i meekly agreed (as if i had a choice)...and along with me came sankar and sandeep...their first return session after boycotting!!man..the whole day..atleast half of the day..i saw them gettin physical fitness ragging...everythin except slaps...pushups...and what not...!!!This was done to so much extent that finally both these guys agreed to getting slapped than going thru this painful physical torture..!!and voila..i could just hear then what was happenin...just could not keep my eyes open seeing them get thulped...!!Sandeep almost as on the verge of tears !!!and then it was done..they were back and in for the ragging...!!and then they were left free..!!
Suddenly the seniors realise that i was just a spectator for the whole session today and their poor minds thought that i was feeling bad for being ignored and they called me...and i had a lone ragging session courtesy all of them just conc on me while kuts n sandy watched on..!!perfect reversal of roles...!!!anyway the dreaded day came to an end...!! We were then taken to Celestine Michael's room (Ghatti Mallu) where half of the guys were drunk and remaning were doped...!!and there me,kuts and sandy were forced to drink liquor for the first time - RUM to be precise..!!3 of us didnt feel anything...we resisted intially but then the seniors forced us to...Asif being the one who forced it down my throat...!!!This was just the beginning of the drinking days for all of us..!!hmmmm....and with this day over..it also meant another thing...as of now atleast the NRI's were also automatically included in the mallu ragging (NRI mallus) and henceforth one commmon freshie for mallus and NRI mallus and no distinction between the two!!!
the only good part of the whole thing for me personally was that it just brought me closer to all the mallus - kuts, sandy, Darsan, Anil, Jithu and to some extent to giri, sumesh and anil!!

Freinds - VAAKS!!

Well these are the ppl who became thick pals of mine..some of them stuck..rather most of them stuck but for a few...!!!
Kartik- My best pal...who knows everythin about me..and vice versa...the initial days were just ok with him..but as time went past...we became as thick as thieves...going after the same girls...having the same likes n tastes...and the very attitude coz of which i thought i would hate him..ended up being our common attitude...(i guess i had the same attitude and he would have felt the same first impression about me )He is the only one who has seen me crying , i guess , in my 4 years of college life...!!there was nothing that was kept between us...theremight have been delays in communcation but then ultimately we used to tell each other anything and everything...from parents,girlfriends,relatives,guys,girls etc..etc.....he has hardly done his studies in the gulf. it was all Delhi, Delhi and more Delhi. Basically from alwaye!!

Sankar - Another one close pal that i had made. Many thought he was intolerable / not compatible but amazingly i found nothing wrong with him..just another normal guy but with major LEO attitude bursting within him...ego,vanity etc..etc...u searchin for someone with this...someone who thinks he is the best ...then Sankar..lovingly called Kuts is your man:-)a genius in the field of computers (this is not my view point -everyone else feels the same. for me everyone and anyone is better than me in computers..)

Akhilesh - He came, he conquered, he lost and he went..thats my relation with him...till 2nd year mid...he was my best pal...and kartik was also second to him...infact 3 of us together were the cool dudes...we started this group called VAK (acronymn for vineesh,akki,kartik). we were very close...tellin each other about our past experiences and present experiences and everything until that dreaded day in Second yr when things took a turn and that is a different story altogether which i shall narrate later on...!! there never was a moment (other than when we went for ragging) that we were not together and 3 of us were very naughty too...to put it in juvenile terms..playin pranks with everyone else and makin a fool out of everyone..!!!and this guy was a shahrukh fan!

Adarsh - a typical gulf kid...as in never seen the outside world...hardly knew anything abt anythin in the first year..rather first semester and then the VAK's trained him to know everythin about everything...!!A real gem at heart...with the mickey mouse ears and expression..he had stole a place in my heart permanently..atleast i had thought so then..!!we both used to run away to his uncle's house to escape raggin during weekends in first semester and used to hog out like crazy with his uncle and aunty..!!!amazing guy..a great all time sallu fan...(salman khan)!!

and eventually the 5 of us together came to be known or rather called ourselves as the VAAKS - the first letter of the 5 of us..!!!!
almost everythin and anything we used to be together doing it..atleast in first 2 semesters..!!the rest of the guys and girls (NRI's) only used to call us Quack Quack.but we considered it their jealousy for not being in this group !!!anyway thats us..the VAAKS!!!and unity amongst us was amazing at that point of time..it was a "one for all and all for one" motto which was our driving force!!
our headquarters used to be A-22 (IF MY MEMORY IS RIGHT)..this was Adarsh's room...!!
the other guys who were my friends in first year were Sandeep, Ravi, Darsan, Talwar, Thakur, Pranay, Vithal, Kiran, Anil, Dejice, CG, Baba, Ashwin , Angyan and Das!!
but it was more or less always gthe VAAKS roamed together everywhere and anywhere!!:-)
There were few more to come in second year..Siddharth menon - Siddhu especially who along with me and Kartik called ourselves the "Dil Chahtha Hain"'s and our Pndy trip (simulating the Goan trip). All this later on probably!!:)

Warm welcome by the Seniors!!

Day 2...i was just back from class and for a change that day |Trichy was not HOT..there was a slight breeze which prompted me to come outside the hostel where there were hazaars of freshers acquainting each other. This guy almost as tall as me..though on the thinner side with specs walks up to me and introduces himself as Ashwin Menon - NRI - basically mallu!!He asked me if iwas an NRI and i said YES!!He said then i will have to go for the ragging today itself and this was a one time thing..!!he told me he was providing me a soft cushion for gettin least possible raggin!!and that if i voluntarily went along for raggin today..i wud get the minimum and i could be a fre bird henceforth!!and if i chose not to go for raggin today..then i would be caught someday or the other by seniors and thulped to a squishy-shquashy white pulp (picked from "the mark of Vishnu";-))..and i decideed..then and there...i am grabbin this opportunity of "Soft cushion" provided to me and finish it off..once and for all....!!
and i was waiting then for some sign from Ashwin to go to the senior hostels. He had asked me to hold on for sometime...!!!
In the meanwhile...this dude comes up to me..!!he had a sort of arrogant look on his face..i mean a guy with attitude!!He was as tall as me..maybe a niche shorter;-)(i hope he doesnt see this) with rectangular specs...hair centre split and slightly curly and build pretty much like mine...!!we shook hands...i told him i am Vineesh, NRI from qatar, basically mallu. And he introduced himself to me..."Hi, I am Kartik Krishnan, NRI from Delhi - the 'i' here being pronounced as in "I" and not as "e" - i too am basically mallu" and i was taken aback for a moment...the accent..the superiority in him..hmmm..i decided then and there that this guy would be someone whom i would not interact much with (how wrong first impressions can be:-)...he turened out to be my best pal till date...anyway all that will come up in the later chapters:-))). Anyway by then Ashwin came back and pointed at this huge figure who was walkin about 100 mteres ahead of me and told me...just follow that guy to the senior hostel.
I was shit scared man..!!This guy walkin in front of me was huge. He was abt 6' tall..double my size...lookin at his forearms i got the creeps in me...imagine gettin thulped by him..!!hmmm..anyway pissin in my pants..i followed him..heads down..not daring to look anywhere else...and justlookin at this huge figure and followin him like a good disciple of his!!anyway suddenly this dude in front of me disappeared and i could see a hoard of seniors, hungry lions, waiting for me in front of 2nd year hostel - DIAMOND.one by one they caught me and asked me who i was...where i was from etc..and when they heard NRI n mallu..al lof them just left me..sort of sympathizin with me...now this frightened me even more..!!it looked as if i belonged to a diffrent class altogether...!!!and this senior guy then came..a proper hairy guy..and he was sweatin profusely and he takes me away...from all these seniors..explainin to me the norms and conditions of ragging etc..etc..!!
I was taken into this room...and there was this guy sleeping there. This senior who had brought me to this room asked me to wake him up...and i tried wakin him up..but no use...i tugged at him and shook him and finally he woke up..!!man this guy had a cold stare in him...i was like..oops..i have woken a sleeping lion from its sleep..!!!he took me to the corner of the room..and started talkin to me...it turned out he was a mallu too and started talkin in mallu..!!
i sort of eased down as soon as he started talkin in mallu...but from the corner of my eyes i suddenly saw the big guy whom i had followed enroute to the senior hostel..was kneelin down and gettin whacked left n right...!!wow...i realised then..the huge guy whom i was scared of was indeed a guy from my batch only..!!hmmm..that was one relief!!
anyway continued talkin to this senior in mallu and i started smiling and laughin too at somethin he said...and he asked me not to smile..but i just could not hold back the smile..till...................................
till...i got SLAP number 1 from him...and voila...the very smile i was finding it hard to stop automatically disappeared from my face..i realised my raggin had begun...This guy who started my raggin was none other than Yeda (Anand P. - ICE mallu - 1 yr senior) who turned out to be one of my closest association amongst seniors!!!and the guy who took me to the room givin me all the fundas was Krur singh aka Anil Kumar Kuruganthi - NRI ece !!!
Then suddnely someone rushes into the rooom...and says Gururaj was in the hostel. This was the first year warden and he kept frequentin the senior hostels to catch someone who was involved in ragging and save the pitiful souls like myself...!!I thought my saviour had come and i would be left back to my hostel..but behold..we were asked to run..thru the back gate of diamond and we entered a bigger hostel with even more seniors awaiting us there!!!
We entered hostel LAPIS - 3rd yr hostel then..and myself and the huge guy were waiting for some 2nd yr seniors to guide us where to go..they were comin to lapis thru some other way..!!And here i had another experience..!!This group of seniors came to me and asked me who i was and to give my intro. I did that and then followin conversation took place:

X : Kaunse branch ka hain?
me: Electronic and communication Engineering

X: Quota?
me: Non-resident Indian

X: kahan se ho?
me: Kerala

X: oh NRI mallu ( and the entire group laughs out loud)
me: (silent and looking down)

X: Baap kaun hain tumhara?
me: Mathew Oommen

X: kaun?
me: Mr. Mathew Oommen , sir (thought they were demanding respect!!!)

X: kaun sa branch?? ( a bit perplexed all of them)
me: Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Y: magar tumne bola tumhara branch ECE hain na??
me: (nod my head in agreement - y shold my dad n me be in the same branch i wondered)

X: kaun se batch ka hain Mathew Oommen
me: 1971 REC-calicut

X: (gives me one tight slap o nmy face) tumhe tumhara REC baap ka naam poocha saale
me:(SHOCK OF HAVIN got a slap and not able to make head or tails of the conversation...i had told them the truth and nothin but the truth)
suddenly out of no where another guy comes up and says that this is my first day of ragging and i didnt know the funda of baap and dada and all that!!and i was spared.
For those who didnt follow y i was slapped..well baap, dada, pardada..are all RECTIAN terms of your immediate senior, 3rd year senior, and final yr senior and these guys are supposed to be your mentors kind..!!!and i a novice in getting ragged had told them details of my DAD (father) who was also a REC product and that had pissed them off and i got slapped!!!
anyway X here was gy called SIKKIM. and Y was Saurabh Ghosh. and the guy who saved me from further thulping from them was my Baap to-be - Rajgopal Bodapati - NRI ECE - basically from Hyd...the most loved senior for all the firts years in the time to come...
amazing guy...!!!
anyway he took me to lapis hostel room - a small one..in which there was hardly space for 2, there were about 15 seniors and myself and the other huge guy - my batchmate!!
and there started our actual ragging...we were hit by seniors left n right...me and the huge guy were made to hit each other...and both of us showed what potential seniors we could be by slappin each other as hard as possible..!!met a lot of seniors that day...to name a few Gotti (Madhav), Vishal (my pardada), tintin , pip (who turned out to be a distant relative of mine),premlal (3rd yr mallu senior - the terror aka BASHEER) and cant remember the rest...!!all of them ragged us proper...made us massage vishal's legs...and dance and jump and sing and what not..!!
another fresh memory was when my batchmate was asked his favourite song and the dude replied "Britney spears - Kiss me baby one more time2 and he was asked to sing that and when he sang "Hit me baby one more time" a round of slaps fell on his face..and i was lke...if ever they ask me any song that i would want to sing..i would make sure tat it had no violence in it...!!
anyway they got fed up ragging us both!!and took us to Juicy which was forbidden area for the first years unless they were accompanied by seniors. the risk of going to juicy those days were that even though u would have finished a raggin session and would be with a senior having something..and this other senior would come n pick u up and rag u for somemore time.>!
neway on the way back to the hostel after havin juice RAJ AND GOTTI gave us fundas in ragging..how to behave..how not to behave...the DO's and DONT's..and left us at our hostel gate!!!
oh!i forgot to introduce my batchmate who accompanied me on my first day of ragging...none other than K.V.S. Vithal..who was to be another one of my closest pals esp in eating n drinking;), in the years to come...!!!
After we got back to hostel...there was a crowd of NRI's who were waiting for us to relate our story of ragging to them...!!and we told them everything..obviosuly puttin it in a light manner..so that none would complain against the seniors...!!!
it was so very funny comin to think of it..!!the very guys who had thulped u..who had crushed your ego.your self esteem..now we were tryin to safe guard them from being caught by faculty when normally it should have been the other way round..!!anyway thats college..and thats ragging i guess..!!!
Lookin back now..the first year was the best year of colege life...though there was a lot of ragging...it was fun..and there were no tensions!!:-)

Day 1 in college - Land of the unknown

well, i had another blog where i had penned down - the first year of my college. But no point in wasting space/blog in the webworld....i shall put down over here, whatever i had penned there. so here goes...my day 1 in college!!

It was something of a different feeling altogether the day i entered the well known reputed college of R.E.C.-Trichy!!



Didnt know how i was going to survive there. For a person who has spent 18 years of pretty much a posh life in the gulf enjoying the air-conditioned rooms, travel by cars and food in the likes of KFC, HArdees, Pizza huts and Mcdonalds, it was a drastic change to take up...an man didnt i dread the place for the first one week...!!it was hell on earth for me..the heat was unbearable!!frankly it was not much of heat compared to deserts of gulf but then i was missin the A/C's which had shielded me from the heat for 18 years.!!anyway...after settlin down myself in the room Agate - 7...I went to the mess...and man that was the Biggest MESS i had seen!! (for those who didnt get it...the mess - where we eat- was a total mess).Anyway somehow had something and ran out of that place...!!you can imagine the agony of a guy surrounded by strangers in a land which was absolutely new to him..!!
on my way to the room..i met my first senior - Johnnie George..he had the typical - bollywood villian looks with scars on his face...completely bald and a very straight stern face!!he talked a bit rude for sometime and then left me!!and innocent little me (hmmm) thought...i was done with the ragging abt which i had heard lots n lots of horrifyin stories from seniors in school and family..!!was not i glad at that moment that i had got thru the worst phase ( this was to extend upto next one whole year - though then i didnt know that). I just ran to my room and covered myself in blanket and slept scared that if i roamed arnd too much i would face ragggin again..!!didnt even bother to introduce myself to my room mates!!
next day mornin i got up at 5:00 am..nothin unusual then for me..took bath and was ready for my first day of engineering at 7:00 am itself:-)That day i made my firt friend in college...T.Shivashankar - later called by everyone as BABA - This guy was actually innocent, had his father with him for the first couple of days. he was from kanyakumari/nagercoil region !!
then there was another uy by the name Udayakumar in my room. This guy had a slight squeaky voice and his dad stayed with him for one week..!!man!that was the only time i actually ever missed my parents a lot...in my 23 yrs of life so far!!i envied all these guys for their parents being with them!!anyway I used this guys' dad as a guide for me to go to bank and open my account!!!
Let me describe the way to the bank from the first year hostels...!!it was a long stretch of road with almost all the senior hostels fallin in the way...!!there was not a way you could avoid a senior and go to bank and be back.>!!now u understand my plight fornot havin my dad with me.>!:-)) anyway went with Udaya's dad to the bank..opened my account and back with him...!!on the way..there were a humpty number of seniors who cast their evil eyes on this poor lamb me!!me just looked down and continued my walk...never dared to look back at anyone..!!
Class was ok the first day...had this impression that this would be real huge rooms with 100's of students in each class...but all my impressions completely went wrong when i entered the class for the first time - Section B. It was a small room similar to the ones we had in school and we had hardly 60 in a class and all my hopes of a college romance also went down the drain when i saw the girls of my class...not that they were bad lookin but someohow the thought of having BABES in my class whom i would have loved hanging out with...ended right then ...right there!!All this thoughts courtesy the movies "Kuch kuch hotha hain" "pyar mein kabhi kabhi" etc..etc...i had thought i would be sitting on the college balconies, gardens singing "musu musu " and so many other fun songs and romantic songs and all i got was a Green colured steel bench in the class with hardly any greenery (forget the garden) and girls who interested me in the least bit in my class..!! if someone had shown me a cliff or something at that point of time..i would have happily taken a jump then!!Imagine what must have been runnin thru my mind!!!:-)
then came our teachers one by one..and only one who was of some interest was Miss Hilda - our physics teacher..who was a paka thambi in talk but pretty looking..!!and once again my hopes came alive...!!imagine having an afair with a teacher!!amazing at that moment!!:-)) but then interest in her took a steep curve downwards after we heard her talk..!!one of her most quoted dialogues were "You come to the room. We will spend time together"...this was her response when of the guys asked her some complicated doubts..!!She was just intending to ask him to come to the staff room where she would clear her doubts..!!but the perverted minds of the adolescents sittin in the class -...imagination runs wild:-)!!guess she never had even the slightest clue of the inner literal meanin of her statement!!!anyway...that was that..after that..none of us dared to ask her doubts for the fear of gettin a similar statement from her and then being ragged by fellow mates on the same lines;-))))
those were the dayssssss...in short...first day of college - disaster day!!

Footsie

ManU lost !!!:( secretly wished they had won against Liverpool. Not exactly able to decide my favourite between these 2 teams. Both have their own style of game but i feel ManU is a better team though off late they aint clicking much!! and to think, one of my least favoured players scored the goal - Peter Crouch...in no way does that dude look like a football player. He seems more like a volleyball player (not even basketball)!!
His only advantage and only good thing - his bledy height which the Liverpool team uses to the full advantage during free kicks/set-pieces!!Coz of this guy ManU is out of the FA cup...The only remaining thing for ManU is the Carling cup final against Wigan next week!!
On the brighter side, liverpool is still performing well following their champions league victory last season!! this is one team to reckon!! On the EPL front, they seem to be doing well but not as well as they perform(ed) in Champions league. In the latter, they are an altogether differen team playing vengence and vigilance!!
Hope atleast ManU secures this one!!Wigan is surely the team of the future. Having come from the First Division into Premiership this season, they have done extremely well so far. If they continue playing the way they are, they surely are going to be one of the top teams in the near future!!
Anyway now the match to be watched is the Chelsea v/s Barca on Wednesday (Feb 22)!! last year the match between these 2 was a spit of fire between Rijkaard and Mourinho with accusations and what not!!! Lets see what this years' match holds!!!!
Just came across this in the UEFA website -
Team of the year:

Coach - Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)

Striker - Samuel Eto (barcelona)
Striker - Andriy Schevchenko (Milan)
Attacking Midfielder - Ronaldinho (Barcelona)

Central Midfielder - Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Right Midfielder - Luis Garcia(Liverpool)
Left Midfielder - Pavel Nedved (Juventus)

Central Defender - John Terry (Chelsea)
Central Defender - Carles Puyol (Barcelona)
Left back - Paolo Maldini (Milan)
Right Back - Cafu (Milan)

Goal Keeper - Petr Cech (Chelsea)

Wow!! thats what i call a team but i wonder how they will function as a team - the above actually reminds me of Real-Madrid!! A world class team with top-flight players but not coming out with the right combination as expected (But they manage to stay right behind Barcelona in the Spanish league)!!!
Thats the footsie news/ my thoughts for the time being!
signing off!

WeekEND!

And there goes another weekend..Saturday morning woke up at 6 to play football. Reached the field to find just 5 of us. We played 2-a-side v/s 3-a-side - burnt a lot n lot of fat:) it was more like a table-tennis score than football at the end of it - score read 19-14!!!lol!!
anyway got back home - had a refreshing bath - made burger for myself and had it along with Tropicana Apple juice! read the papers for a while - especially Mittal v/s Luxembourg v/s Arcelor!! Man - this dude is dead after getting this Company - he just does not seem to be satisfied being the steel tycoon. He wants this too!! is it just a sure shot way of getting his competition out of the way - after all arcelor was the biggest before Mittal took over!!!
anyway back to the topic, reading the newspaper, i dozed off - only to be woken up by the sweet essence of food being cooked in the kitchen!! (drooling) - woke up and had lunch..In the evening just watched some tv, got food ordered from Nandhini palace and hit the sack early!!
Sunday - as usual went to church. This was followed by lunch at Empire - me, Anila and kutz!! Went there to have chicken Shwarma but they were serving that only from the evening. So had kerala parotta with pepper chicken masala and got back home. In between we bought kutz a football boot - Nivia - size 11!!We actually found boot of "Vector" to be better than "Nivia " but they had only one size which was bigger than kutz foot!! so stuck on to Nivia:) Evening we had Kutz, deepu, akutty, tahir and rajiv at home. Tahir was on his way from kolkata to EKM. CHatted with all of thm..had a nice time. They left arnd 9 pm and we(me n anila) had dinner of mushroom curry n bread:)
Well that was quite a quiet weekend!:)

Hola!!!

Well, i am coming back after a long breeeeeakkkk!! The last I blogged was on 12th November 2004:) From then , till now - life has moved on a lot..rather a LOT.
Just a gist of what happened- I got back from UK in June. It was a happy re-union with all my friends and it felt good to be back in India!!! Well i came back to India for a purpose - i got married in August 2005 to my one n only!!:) Now happily married and settled in Bangalore. Leading life as a family man (as they all say). But then life has not taken a major turn even after marriage - Many said there would be added responsibilities..blah..blah..blah!! But then for me, i was just living with my best friend and thats about it and both of us were immensely happy. It didnt change anything apart from the fact - the rent of the house we are staying had to be divided by 2 now (me and my wife) rather than by 4 - 6:) But then there were too many advantages to get married and being with her coz of which the above said disadvatange became too trifle to be bothered about:)
And wonders of wonders, i am leading a healthy life too now:) Firstly, i started eating food at home rather than the oil immersed, ghee dripping parathas/ sabjis...
Secondly i started going to gym - well this may or may not be attributed to getting married. Well the argument for is that - i started eating a large amount of the HEALTHY food prepared by my beloved and hence started gaining tyres n spare tyres and what not!!!!!! and the argument against is - ::)))))the work load at office reduced majorly and i had to kill time. What better way than spending an hour or so at the gym:)
Thirdly but not the least - I started playing football once again regularly - every day morning from 6:45 a.m. to about 8 a.m. This being more convenient now since i work in UK timings:))) So mornings, i have all the time to myself!!
Well so thats how lifez been treating me or should i say thats the way i have been treating life!
On the MBA front, i took a break last year - dint meet the deadlines and work pressure was to omuch for me to conc on the applications. I have started concentrating on my MBA once again now. The first one was the ISB:) Got shortlisted and had an interview about 3 weeks back. The interview went good but then you never know what is expected of you in such interviews. These are the kind of interviews where you come out feeling on top of the world coz you supposedly performed well, then you chat with ur friend(s) about the iview and suddenly realis - "I could have done better/ I should have answered this in this manner which would have been more impressive" and then you hear experiences of other candidates and lively iviews they had had (thanks to the yahoo groups/ forums:P) and at end of one week, you feel like a total jackass with no hopes of getting through unless the ONE above performed some miracle!! - One of my friends actually told me the same - "tumne apna part kiya - ab har sunday ko church kaao aur bhagwan se bolo admit dene ke liye" (you have done what you can - now go to a church every sunday and ask God to give you an admit)!!
Remaining universities - wel i am stil shortlisting - had attended a session by Tuck school of business and one great learning from there was - there aint much point in sending out applications to 10 - 15 different universities. Rather Shortlist just 4 -5 where you think you have the maximum scope and give in your best in writing the essays to these 5. So i am in Step 1 of the process!!
Well thats it for now...will be more regular now!!:)(hopefully)