The Big Blank

Terrorism

2008-05-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

Whats the aim? People die, but of course they cannot kill all the people they hate. They want attention. But among all bunch of groups claiming responsibilities who gets the ownership. I guess nobody knows by doing what can we get rid of this problem. The reasons are may be known but the problem is too big right now to even think of solving it.

Day after the jaipur blasts, I reached office unaware of anything. I was puzzled by a mail from my friend just asking if everything ok back home. It was good that another close friend mailed me who knew that all was ok. It didn't even cross my mind that a bomb blast or even some other natural calamity can happen there. It has been such a peaceful city for sometime now. I saw the images after and recognised the places. It hits you hard. Images more than all the words. So far I always thought its really bad for the people who suffer. Only this time I knew how it really felt. I was there just two weeks back riding the same roads. I did my shopping around that area. My cousin takes the same roads everyday for work.

Jaipur is one of the biggest tourist destinations in India. Its a fast growing city in the region. Its a metropolitan now. But to me terrorism never made any sense anyway. It may help them to get attention but now people are too used to it. Strictly talking the markets went up the day after london blasts. Jaipur blasts, people barely heard about. It has stopped registering. Thats the world we live in.

How I lost 10 Kgs !?!?

2008-05-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

This is a declaration(i did it!), a wonderment(does the word exist!) and record of what I did about those 10kgs. Long time since I did something entirely for personal reasons. It was always professional for sometime now. :)

Though not many people notice. My mom as usual says that you look thinner. But that she used to say even when I moved from low 70s to 80s to nervous 90s. I always had a resolution that I will never be in the 90s. The first day I netted 90.4 on the machine, I got psyched out enough to do something about it.

I don't exactly remember when I started but jogging around the imperial palace here last summer was the start. Its a good 4.8km of track around the palace surrounded by a moat, lined with trees. I sometimes used to do two rounds. I even tried three once and thats when I screwed my knee. My dinner those days were one or two bowls of daal and a couple of oranges/apples. And those were busy days at office. I used to come back from office at 9ish and go for the jog come back 10ish and putting together a full dinner was anyway a big hassle. Also lunch at office is usually very early. And once I followed the routine for a few days it was surprisingly easy to go without the dinner. I did push in an evening coffee/snack those days. Weekend binging with friends was always there. So in a way I was not starving myself. Diet wise it was as easy at it gets.

Winter and my screwed knee meant the jogging stopped. But I started squash on the weekends. It was two days of squash+gym but more often squash+swimming. In those days I was sort of stuck midway in these 10Kgs. And I don't recall how I broke through that but pretty soon I was approaching it. These days squash has also stopped and have finally started using office's in house gym. I never liked working out at a gym. Its indoors and its lonely :). But it does feel good after a long day at office to do that. Also I found out a nice public swimming pool near my house. Will go there more often. My swimming still sucks. Its embarrassing to splash water all over the place while people around me pretend to be fishes.

After the recent trip back to India I have eaten my way back into a couple of these 10kgs but now I know what to do. It did take close to 12 months but will be easy to maintain. This timespan included trips back home, my parents visiting me for a month, meaning I was back on heavy dinner schedule for a month in between etc. But I am surprised by the ease of it. I was just a little conscious about it, regular workouts in whatever way was convenient at that time and avoided overeating all the time. It feels good !!

Hello everyone.

2008-03-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

More than a year of Blankness here. Tokyo is an amazing place, keeps you busy. OK, not that I was busy but somehow didn't feel like writing. First one feels so out of place here. Everything is different. Then you adjust, and then you like it. May be soon I will love it like all other expats living here. It surely spoils you for life.

Its a totally different developed world experience. It sure is expensive but more than worth it. People are so polite that they wont stop bowing. And guess what, the elder of the two will have the right to bow last so that he be considered more polite. The people will not help someone when needed so that one does not have to accept the fact that one needs help in the first place. I don't ask people for directions to places. As chances are they wont know it and will be so embarrassed that you regret even asking. Spring is here, the best weather of the year long good weather. All one needs is good company here and then ..Heaven :).

Who he is

2007-03-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

I say there are 4 kind of people.

1) Who do not know anything and do not even know that he do not know.
2) Who do not know anything and knows that he do not know.
3) Who knows a lot and also do not know a lot.
4) Who knows so much that he do not know what it is to not know.

And the deadliest combo is the category 1) who thinks he knows a lot. And its a pain and i would say impossible to make them understand that. :(

Holidays on moongfali, gajak and test matches.

2007-01-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

The perfect combination!!. I was watching the 3rd test at home and the setting was perfect to relax. It started at 2pm which was good for a late riser and went on till 9 in the night. So I just sat back munched moongfalis(roasted peanuts) and the Gajak and let holidays sweep over. It was too good to last. India lost pathetically and now I am back to slogging. But by winning the first test they at least won something on this tour.

I used to take the Rajasthan roadways bus to Jaipur from Delhi which ran every 10 minutes or so. This was very convenient(except the bidi smoking all around). Also north India is really cold now so I took the deluxe bus at least blocks out the cold. But there is a new nuisance in this also. The really busy mobile businessmen/professionals. They take these buses to make a day trip from Jaipur to Delhi. And man they try to do all their business on cell phones in the bus only. And they are generally loud speakers, understandable as one need to be passionate to run businesses. My luck was such that on three seats surrounding me there were people putting the bus journey to good use. One was definitely a hotshot CA in some hot shot firm. He was talking of PGs and PDCs from directors of companies whose net worth was in excess of 90million. Now working in India he should either be talking in lakhs or crores but whatever. He kept switching between millions and lakhs so I am not sure. Now my guess is PG is personal guarantee from a director for a new loan or something and PDC god knows what. India does follow some rules.

Another was loading and unloading "gaadis"(trucks). And I am sure none were following the schedule, all were stuck at some check naka or the other. He was loosing some real moolah. The pandu hawaldars on the nakas were the beneficiaries of this.

The last was our marketing manager from "AdyyDas"(Adidas). Some sucker in Calcutta was complaining about jackets sent by him to be loosing colors. Adidas supplies such junk I didn’t knew. Our marketing guru was saying that I am calling from adyydas and will resolve this within the hour. And I was thinking - how? by sitting in the bus !!! was going to ask "apne MBA kahan se kiya hai bhaisab."

I didn’t even notice the 5 hours it took to reach Jaipur in such interesting conversations. But I have decided to buy a handheld-cell jammer too. I am sure I can find one in this gadget friendly city of Tokyo. Will be good for these people, will help them to relax for a while. I also noticed one thing it’s an honour to look like a workaholic in India. Man he is something ... he is always on the phone, his boss can't do without him. The CA was saying to his friend that I work on weekends too. Now is that good or too good !!

All dead ?...not yet

2006-10-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

All the blogs I read freequently are dead. I know all have busy professional lives or are preparing towards that end. Just as I read somewhere when someone asks an MBA hows life buddy ?. Pat comes the reply - life ...after MBA ?? are you kidding me. I would agree with that but guess there is no one to be blamed. I like the work but it is a bit too much. One of my freind puts it in a different way. He says you atleast have the weekend to look forward to. Cant disagree with that too. Weekends feels like heaven but usually they are very short and disappear in restocking the house and preparation of the next week. I am still wearing those torn shoes which I forgot to replace last weekend. I am still juggling those 3-4 remaining ironed shirts through the week.
On tuesday it felt like thursdays and on thursday I have to pour out all this to last the friday and then it is the much awaited weekend. Yippe!...uh .. oh...No have to get through the friday first.

BTW there was this first hindi movie Jaaneman released in "a" theatre in Japan but was so far out of here that gave it a miss. I hope somebody watched it so that there will be more later.

My own !!

2006-10-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

The city of jaipur from the days of abandoned matches due to bad pitches has grown up to be a day and night ODI cricket matches. Not one, two but what 3 matches(i think). Even an India match. The political clout of Jaipur has shown up. Anyway, great that it is becoming a happening place. All the more reason for me to get back to my city!!. I did not know that i will miss it so much against the other places i have spent time in. Bangalore with its ultra modern laid back style and the fast paced Mumbai. Jaipur has that feel of home man.

One realise the importance of ones own things when one does not have even a single one of them. Nor the freinds neither the family, nor a city one can call his own. When with freinds one does not miss the belongingness of the family and of course at home you take it for granted. I realised all this when I am away from all of them far away. Too late. I have sort of learnt to live for the next high of meeting old freinds or the next going back home date. Work has its high and i am here for that but ahhhhhh !! these dont even match the highs of alcohol :P.

God is back!

2006-09-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah I am back. But I meant Tendulkar. :) So what if a scratchy century and the usual loss for India. It surely means the history will repeat itself. Sort of similar to the consistent Indian performances when Tendulkar used to play well, get out in 40th over and rest of the Indians goes down chasing the remaining 20 odd runs. But may be not, may be Pathan will bail us out everytime in the ODIs. May be bhajji will be more consistent in his batting innovations on the pitch. Indian team minus Tendulkar has much more now. They will win the DLF cup and may be the world cup too(ahem ahem).

Coming back to God, every critic say that don't be too critical of Tendulkar. He has played so well for so long so let him play his natural, don't expect too much and crap like that!! They sound like Tendulkar has already announced his retirement. Come on now he is just back after an injury may be it took a little long but who cares he is back now. He is ready for more and I would say that we will see a few more memorable innings in the coming days. Yeah may be the best of him on a consistent basis is over, he has played his golden phase out. But he will give us something that I will recall in every single discussion of cricket 10 years from now.

Just that his elbow holds up.

India Shining?

2006-05-18T04:39:00.000-07:00

Are we doing well? The economy's development level is mostly determined by the standard of living of the general public. I read it somewhere (prolly the hitchhiker's guide to galaxy .... The book sure has some pearls of wisdom) that countrys develop from "What to eat?(rice or wheat)" to "Where to eat?(McD or Subway?)", "Shall we fly or take the train?" to "Which airline to take?". One indicator could be what we are consuming or what advertisers are prodding us to consume. I believe they have done their market researches and surveys among other similar stuff before pumping the products into the market.

The idiot box these days is filled up with products which have moved on from the simple stuff. It advertises for pin drop catching high end speakers, way ahead from the 1000 watts Videocon Bazooka days. The mobile industry is no longer targeting the metropolitans. King Khan has moved on from his swanky GAP getups in these ads to "Jha jis and Pa jis" of small towns. Instead there is the international roaming cards for the city mobiles.

The stock market might have gone bonkers but India is surely doing well or let me say that the well to do are doing better and better. The problem is that the "bottom of the pyramid" never knows when to let go and plunge in the consumerism.

Proaxsys Reader Engine

2006-04-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

One of my friends finally launched the first service of his company. The text to speech convertor looks real good. Though this is a beta release and has a few restrictions on the length of the generated audio. Do have a look. Extract from the launching mail follows

I am happy to announce the launch of our product, the Proaxsys Reader Engine ( http://www.proaxsysreader.com ). This product brings the convenience of voice to PCs. You can create material for your iPod right from your desktop. The Engine runs on our web-server, and is most convenient to use and totally hassle-free. You are spared any painful installations and configurations!

Bhutan se Gangtok tak

2006-03-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

The wingies got placed and we finally got off for some holiday making. Even before we finalised to go to Bhutan half the campus knew we were going there. So had to go there only. I brilliantly booked the special weekly train starting from Bangalore and reaching Kolkata on 3rd day to go to nearby New Jalpaiguri. As expected(not by me) the train was late and we had some real good early dinner at the station. After a few hours of waiting at the station we even decided to show our long faces back on campus but thankfully the train arrived just before we were ready to giveup.

Indians need a permit to go to Bhutan and we were just in time to reach the border town in office hours. But then we realised it was a saturday and we won't get a permit. I was the chief architect of this trip and the wingies were impressed by the gloden touch. Though I would just say that I always like the uncertainities of life. It keeps everybody interested. There is nothing interesting in going on a reserved ticket to a reserved hotel to hop on a reserved taxi to few recommended destinations. I mean come on ....let there be some adventure. Lets enjoy the joys of uncertainity. After all we are managers who always deal with the "gray area."

So now it was either a wait till Monday which was not possible or some other destination. We decided to go to Gangtok and Darjeeling. The weather in the mountains at this time of the year is really wet. But we were lucky enough to reach there in a spell of better weather.

The way to Nathula pass was blocked because of a day's heavy snowfall. We just went to Changu lake and the snow was absolutely amazing. This was the first time I had been in heavy snow. A light snowfall happened when we were there. I had been to Changu and Nathula in October too. And that time is the recommended time to go there, Nathula was freezing then too. But this Changu trip was great. We rolled around in the snow, went down to the freezing lake water and had some nasty snow fight. Though the casualties were minimum, one down with cold, a few doubting about frost bites and one hobbling due to a (mis?)directed snowball on the delicate parts of human anatomy.

From there we went to Darjeeling. The taxi driver took us through a not so often used route. His village being on the way and what a scenic route it was. The tea gardens and the mountain sides were beautifoooool !!! The clouds and the fog was amazing.

The drive from Darjeeling down to the plains was mostly in dense fog. Visibility was not more than 5 meters ahead. But the daredevil driver would not let the speed needle go below 40kmph. A few were barely able to sit on their seat edges and me in the back side was half the time hanging on the support handles to avoid bumping or going down on the floor. The driver was sometimes too interested in the village beauties and needed reminders about the bends on the roads. The drive down was quick, adventurous and dangerous. We were having bets on our speed once we reach the plains. The driver grossly disappointed us there. He barely corssed 95kmph in the Sumo. We got back to Jalpaiguri well in time for the train, which was on time for a change.

One of the more memorable trips I would say :)

The Aftermath

2006-03-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

The D-day for a lot many of the people was today. The placement process went into the "Slot-1". The so called boom in the economy showered its blessing on the job scene too. Hell lot of offers made on the campus this time but still the people placed in the slot was less than the last time. All was going on in between the news from A of legendry $185,000 pkgs. People here were trying to inflate the packages to a respectable and comparable number. So around $180,000 was arrived at. I guess it must include the per head expense for cleaning the toilets people might be using on the job. Afterall it is an indirect component of the salary!!! The placement process was as bizarre as ever. After first few hour nobody really cared whose GD/interview one was taking. You are my first priority and yours is so fun palce to work at, I will get a kick working there, I get a high doing this. Same old shit and same old answers. Can there be a sizeable fraction of people working who like their jobs. Job means you wont like it PERIOD.

Though after getting the dream-jobs and just-get-out-of-the-process jobs, half the campus was not on campus. Poor Kolkata infrastructure could not take it. And there was a severe shortage of taxis. People have nothing to do. Discussions move on from the salaries to thrid grade movies of Salman Khan and even the comics released on these movies. The good old days of Dhruv and Nagraj and the gully cricket. There is footer volley going on in one of the hostels.(Though it happened otherwise too) Booze is flowing like anything.(Flowed all the time) Teetotallers have dropped the bad habit and can be heard cracking really really bad "shers".(Now this is a new one) Its good for this campus to shed the eternal worry of something or the other, once in a while and enjoy. But can never enjoy as much as the care free and the We-Are-Invincible days of the undergrad. The burden of growing up and the responsibilities thereof.

Sorry cant keep out the routine complaints about life and stuff.

Will visit (and must visits)

2006-03-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

I was tagged for my top 5 "will visit" destinations by Varun Singh. So here you go.

Eskimo Settlement
African Safari (for the lions).
South America (Argntina, Brazil, Peru, Chile etc.)
Western part of Malaysia.
New Zealand.

Among the recommended must visits for others

Beach cities of Spain
Austria/Swiss for the Bavarian Alps.
Beaches on the islands of Malaysia.
Rome, Italy
Paris, France

Arrrgh!!!

2006-02-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

What does one do when one cannot get a point across. The thing is so f#$%ingly simple that one can't understand where the blockade is. Is it in the argument or in the head of the person. He throws "n" number of facts at you which has nothing to do with the argument. People go on and on, with passion, when they don't even understand the basic issue of the problem. Reminds me of that girl in my IIM-B GD who spoke, spoke and spoke and there were blank faces all around in the GD. She went on and on, nobody got what she was trying to say. BOY!! can she bullshit. I am pretty sure she is there now. I even wrote her name(in frustration) in the after GD question asking by whom you were most impressed. Though I am not sure wehther the context of the question was that GD or my whole life. The answer might not have been different.

Anyway .. people these days are pretty serious about understanding complex things and I am the poor chap sitting here playing a game or two on my comp. They see me doing nothing(for them) and it starts. Can I tell them that may be they should have started a bit early or tried a little harder earlier. I guess not. Up theirs.

Placements or Recruitments

2006-02-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

What difference does it make. But now days the "Placement Representatives"(PlaceReps) are being called RCs(Recruitment Co-ordinator). I see absolutely no sense in this change though. Whats in name. The process will be as gruelling as ever and as arbit as it can be. It all starts with making of resumes. Reams and reams of paper goes into getting the exact balance of leadership qualities, co-currics and the academics. M$ does not help the cause at all. People spend hours alligning, resizing tables and getting that exact shade of gray on the paper. Some one want to show his/her fin focus. The other will highlight his/her work-ex. And deciding on how many lines to devote to each section requires at least a few hours of thought. Though in the end nothing comes up and one goes by how much one can write without dragging. One sleeps with the satisfaction ahhh at last I have finalised it. Only to wake up in the morning and find at least 10 more mistakes/loopholes. Ok plugged these. Time to get it reviewed by the wingmate. He comes up with another 10.

The wingy :- This "Stood 1st in blah", "Stood 1st in blooh", "Stood 1st in dahh","Stood 1st in ahh" looks boring.
Aspirant :- Man I had had a unlucky life. I have only 7 stood firsts. How I will get a shortlist. (wingy rolling his eyes)

The wingy :- What's this you have played districts in cricket!!!! I never seen you play.
Aspirant :- Yeah actually I used to play in primary school intra city competition. Thats why I have not mentioned the year. Neat na !! I also changed my rank 999 to top 1% of the candidates.

The wingy :- What is this 10 in front of work-ex.
Aspirant :- hey where did the "months" go. I am sure I wrote it....M$ Word ki toh #%#@.

The wingy :- The whole text looks a bit off center.
Aspirant :- I am sure I center alligned it....M$ Word ki toh #%#@.

The wingy :- Why is this gap wider than that gap.
Aspirant :- I am sure I fitted it....M$ Word ki toh #%#@.

Let me take one more printout. The next printout...and the next and the next, (the printer runs out of paper), next printout, next, (printer runs out of cartridge) next, next....... finally the deadline arrives aspirant submits the resume to the Recruitment Cell.(Printer is thanking the Time God)

P.S. The first shortlist has arrived. People have analysed why such and such person have got a shortlist. And why such and such did not. All the best to all of them. Or may be not to all of them :P. So it all starts.

Career and life

2006-02-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

Now that I am on the verge of settling to some well earned degrees and am not thinking of any further additions, I have been doing a bit of thinking. Right from the time when I thought to do something.... everything was about "kuch ban-na hai". And now that I very well know about where I will land up in my professional life, I am begining to realise that only professional success is not everything. I would even say that it is nothing until and unless I land up at a place doing something which I really like. Right now I would do something I know I will be good at. But do I like it? I am not too sure. So all these years just for this, which obviously is not "just" for a lot of people. But for me it does not have the charm which many people will slog out for. Could I have done something else. Who knows and rather no one will ever know.

It is great that I had hell lot of fun on the way uptil here. Otherwise I dont know how much I would have appreciated this. I enjoyed the path. The destination is boring. The joy of journey is on the way. Something is amiss. And I dont know what.

Last Semester

2006-02-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

This might be the last semester of my life in any formal educational system. And as the last sem goes it asks for little effort. The professors float their good courses in the earlier sems and only some useless courses are left for this semester. The institute is pretty busy preparing for placements and profs also know that they can't expect us to share our leisure time with cases, projects and petty classes. Hell we have already done this shit for more than 1.5 years. It has got to stop now. So all "good" profs and "good" courses are already done with in previous sems. In one of the courses this term, professor takes quiz in every class to ensure attendence. People take the quiz and leave in break. Others goes missing to participate in non-exisiting lateral processes and ask for make up quizzes later. A majority does not give a damn anyway for these stupid quizzes. Me though belongs to none of these, I take the quizzes regularly :).

I have absolutely nothing to do. Most of the batchmates are preparing for placements. The whole insititute is gearing up for one thing they all existed/slogged/cooled their heels for. There was a quote in SeaBiscuit about when the horse goes for a race. The jockey says something about how he senses the whole body of the horse tensing up like a coiled spring just before the start of every race. A race horse's existence is simply for running. It is that and much much more here at the moment. The rat race is just round the corner. And by the blessings of whoever ?!?!....I am the rat who is already out of this race. Bless me bless me. Yippppee. wahhh!!! and what not.

So good to read, read and ....read

2005-12-09T04:35:00.000-08:00

I have been doing a lot of reading these days. From the masala novel "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. This is the ususal Dan Brown conspiracy theory incorporating all the banks in the world, American Presidents, great scientists and basically of all the famous figures in the human history. After the vinci code. This was rather boring though one should give credit to him for researching everything and giving readers atleast a story which grips in parts.

The heart moving "The kite runner". This is a first attempt by Khaled Hosseini. Oooh and he is written it really really well. A refreshing style. It is a story before and during the rise of Taliban in Afghanistan. A kid who grew up in those turbulent days. You run behind the kites with the kid on the streets of kabul. I recalled my own days running behind kites in Jaipur. It has been atleast 8-10 years since I have been in jaipur on Makar Sakranti. It was and is my favouraite festival. The loud music on rooftops and the thrill of fighting kites with your neighbour and the trimuphant cry of victory. It used to give me thrills every 15 minutes which I have not experinced since a long time. Coming back to the book, it drags a bit in the middle but catches up towards the end. I really liked it.

I have also read a few time pass books like this start up story of the company Vertex. The company looking for "The Billion Dollar Molecule". Had to make a presentation in a course on this. I was supposed to present history of business. People were presenting like 200 years of history. I did 4 years. Prof. was not amused. :(. I should have presented "The 100 years of Mafia". Another one I borrowed but didnt complete. Also been doing a bit of reading on the great families in the history of business. Relates to the same course. So far has read about the vanderbilts, warburgs. Often too multi colored stories of the robber barons of America.

Holiday Music

2005-11-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to some international music these days. Talk about Paris being a global city. Actually I am using a common room computer with no music. So have stumbled on some internet radios. When the bollywood masala on Raaga and the Radio Teentaal of Paris gets boring I explore other radio streams. Right now I am listening to some stream called "World Mauritius Sega". The songs automatically makes me think of beaches and holidays. They sure have been holidaying for long now to have made their music like this :).

The trip to Paris has been one long holiday. I am absolutely wasting my days here. If we don't count being tourist to a lot of european cities. I see people preparing for the final placements(long time to go), some participating in business fests, writing papers or on the least reading up something. The courses are absolute freaking waste as compared to India. I tried learning French but learning a foreign language which eats up half the consonants in pronounciation. Gets difficult for a "absoulutely phonetic" Hindi speaker. French is on the other end in this regard. Beucoup is bokoo, Denfert is donfur. It is just impossible which is pronounced aan-possi-bley.

Whirlwind Eurotrip

2005-11-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

I had a weeks break from classes and did catch-train-run-around-the-city-catch-train routine through germany, austria, italy and spain all in 10 days. The schedule goes something like this.

Munich, Germany (Half day - delayed train) Dachau concentration camp
Comments - It was a cold gray morning. I forgot to take my camera and ooohhh it was a depressing place. With pics of heaps of corpses, the beds used and the films shot. It was gruesome. The POWs were taken into the gas chambers faking them as bath rooms. They even had fake showers.
Salzburg, Austria (A day) Salt Mines and biking around in the city
Comments - It was a beautiful sunny day. The biking up the alps to the salt mine was strenuous. I had to drag my bicycle half the distance. The hills were great with its small houses scattered here and there. The city is really beautiful.

Venice, Pisa, Pompeii, Rome (three days)
Comments - Rome and Pisa were absolutely amazing. The compound in which leaning tower of Pisa is looked absolutely amazing in the late evening. I liked the other buildings in that area better than the tower.

I just dont have words for Rome. The city is riddled with ruins of the ancient time and every corner has a majestic site. Now I know why all roads lead to Rome and why it couldn't have been built in a day. Cliches they are but absolutely true.

Pompeii of the volcano Mount Vesuvius fame and Venice were a bit of a let down. May be the expectations were too much.

We caught a cruise from near Rome to Barcelona. It was one royal cruise with pool side bar, casions, on board shopping and what not. It was off season and we got it cheap. The deck was pretty empty and we had 15 people for 200 seats. We watched TV, sat by the swimming pool and spent time on all the decks of the cruise.

Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastin (three days)
Comments - Barcelona is one happening city. It is a vibrant place. As the evening sets people turn out of no where and flood the streets. Saw such a display of culture and creativity no where else. In addition to the usual silver painted guy with the hat in front, there was a tree, a king, a queen, a sword eater, few skeletons and a devil all in few 100 feet.

Madrid did not had much. Had a batchmate there and as did not have time to go into southern Spain so decided to go there. We went to a nearby monastery and finally entered a museum, so far avoiding them. Tapestry there were intricate and beuatiful.

The final stop San Sebastin had these sexy beaches and a high castle on hill to view them all from a height. It was too good a view. Though I have to say the best beaches I have seen are in Malaysia.

Short One

2005-11-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

He was sitting there waiting for his late train. Across on the other platform there was this old man sitting right under the Disneyland, Paris poster inviting people for christmas special. The mermaid with the crab, the peter pan and of course the mickey mini pair all were smiling at him but the old man had this sad look on his face. The old man didn't get on the two trains which arrive and then the train arrived on this platform. He was late for the class by 10 minutes skipped it and the one in the evening too. Post holiday blues :(

Old experience

2005-10-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

I never came down to writing about the hike in Belgium after the Spain Belgium match. It is worth a write. We got out of the match about 10 minutes early to catch the last train to the place we stay. The connecting train was late etc. And we could reach a place which was about 5 kms from the night halt place.

Now we landed on a station the size of Kanjurmarg(before that platform extension) in Bombay. It was basically a one paltform station. It was around 11:30 in the night and it was a bit cold. We got off and saw an old guard waving the train off and locking up his office for the day(rather night). Fortunately we had company. There were few more people who were coming from that match and going to Louvain (the university town we were going to) They talked gibberish(read French) with the guard and happily told us that there was no chances of getting a Taxi.

So off we started, first along the tracks and then went down on one side into some unkempt fields. From the other end came someone with a ferocious dog, whom we thought was the guard of the place. The guy was just out for a walk at around 12 in the night!!!! I told you French, and Belgians nearer the French side for that matter, are crazy. He gave some directions and off we went into a residential colony. The porch lights of all and I mean ALL the houses kept going on and off as we passed by. But no one answered our pleas for help. We left a number of F--- yous on their frosted car windows.

Finally we saw a direction board telling the way towards Louvain. The road was pitch black but off we went. Imagine 6-7 people scattered on the sides of such a road waving the passing cars to stop. They must have thought a few terrorist are on the loose. But a car stopped and told us this is longer way better take a pathway which will be shorter. Again off we went. The pathway was surely wrong as after a while it turned in the wrong direction. So after hiking a full round around that ghostly colony we got back to our direction board of Louvain. Here we parted our way with those crazy french speaking belgians and bingo!!!! found our way to the place in 10 minutes. The night hike was really terrific with all that creepiness. Over that the natural beauty of Belgium is awesome. Belgium has a great country side and this place was bang in the middle of it. I really enjoyed it even in the night.

A nation of Joggers

2005-10-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

The French are obsessed by jogging. I think there is a half marathon like thing every weekend. I have seen posters of these inviting people all over. Once I saw the army of joggers from the train out of Paris on one of my weekend trips. The joggers can be seen at any time of the day. The fact that people are not inclined to work is evident when I see people of the office going age running on wednesday afternoons. The old and the really old can be seen running daily on odd times.

About me taking up jogging a bit seriously here. I am embarrassed daily by the grandpas and the hot chicks who were running when I started and are running when I am huffing my way back to my room. Though the feeling of having run is really a great one. The weather here is a bit cold so I can run that bit long. I think I might begin to like this boring sport. All you readers slouched in front of your computers, in those office chairs, lets meet in Bombay marathon ;-)(I think in January)

Diversity

2005-10-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

The Paris city has so much diversity in its population which is incomparable to the places I have been before. There all kind of skin colors. One south American I talked to turned out to be Indian. One Indian I talked to was Sri Lankan. And an Indian floormate is always thought of as an Italian by the French people here.

I have seen Indians, Blacks talking in French, and even among themselves. There are so many different faces in the city Metro that it is impossible to mark anyone as of a given nationality. Paris is truely a global city. The people are cultured and offer their seat to the needy. Help women carry heavy weight up the metro stations. They even offer to share the monthly pass with anyone who wants to enter the stations without a ticket. People are good but the trouble is that they only want to talk in French. :)

Espagnole !!!

2005-10-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

The shout went like this Ess-paa-neole!!. Again it went Ess-paa-neole!!, Ess-paa-neole!!. Then with the drumbeat doom(Ess) doom(Paa) doom(Neole). And then came the Mexican wave all over us. The atmosphere was electric in the Koning Boudewijn stadium, Brussles, Belgium. The occassion was world cup qualifiers Spain vs Belgium. We were supporting Spain as tickets on their side were cheaper. They divide up the seats so that there is lesser chances of a fight. Belgium had a very slim chances of qualifying even after winning. Spain has to win to make it.

We went to Brussels and Brugge this weekend and landed in Brussels on saturday for this match. Outside the stadium there were policemen on horses of the size of an elephant!! and over that people with trumpets were teasing the horses by blowing close to them. People go crazy after a few beers and at such a place. The cars running around were all covered in flags and people were wearing caps and t-shirts of their national colors. Both conutry's flag have red and yellow and Belgium has black too. So it was kind of confusing as to who was supporting whom. We anyway went to enjoy the occassion and to watch some good football.

And good football it was. We were sitting behind the goal posts and where Belgium was attacking. Belgium dominated the first half with some very good chances but they were poor finishers. The spanish golakeeper made some amazing saves and score remained 0-0 at half time. Next half, Spain was attacking and they thoroughly dominated the half. We were kind of lucky to have sat on this side as all the action in both halves was on our side. Final score was 2-0 and both the goals were scored by Torres. It was good stuff and total paisa vasool. Though we missed the train back to our staying place and had to hike back which deserves a whole new post. May be next time.

The age old look

2005-10-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

The french capital has the look of an old royal city. The rooftops are all similar looking under some regulation. The windows are regulated to be wider than the height. These are old rules and may not be followed now but it sure gave Paris a different look.

Museums are everywhere. From Louvre owning Mona Lisa to artillery and aeroplane museum. Paris has museum for everything. About Louvre, one of my freind got too excited and started narrating the plot of Da Vinchi Code which happens inside Louvre. It was good. Some paintings like "Coronation of Napolean" were amazing. But I got bored soon looking at them as it was difficult to make out what was so great about them.

We went to this place this weekend called fontaine bleau. It was the place where napolean and all other emperors stayed for a while. Though it had the "darbar", the throne and royal beds but they were no where as majestic as Indian darbars. The Napolean's throne was smaller than our marriage chairs in which the newly wed couples sit. The darbar was held in a measely 30 by 30 feet room. Things were impressive but not majestic. In these things India has a very rich cultural history which we sadly are not preserving. Even the Taj Mahal was in danger recently, leave aside lesser monuments like the Jai baan of the "Churu ka gola" fame in Jaipur.

Here I am

2005-09-29T03:53:00.000-07:00

I am back with my travelouge. I am now at ESCP-EAP, Paris on a semester exchange. This is my first visit to Europe and the work culture here is totally different from what I have experienced so far. People work but they seem to enjoy life more than anyone I have seen elsewhere. There is very little prevelance of fast food. Though one sees the omnipresent McD and chains like Quick burgers. But nothing here is fast the lunch starts at 12 and goes on till 2. The administration is slow though effecient. And they even tried to offcially extend the weekend to include firdays. The innumerable cafes seems to be always full. There is no Barista, no Starbucks only these cafes. These spill over to the roads and are very tempting. Of course on our budgets we dont even take trouble to check out the prices. We carry our own sandwhiches and juice bottles baught in bulk. We are trying to transfer as much of our food budget to travel. Plans are on. We might go to Bruges, a beautiful city in Belgium.

The university is world class. I didnt expect such good quality of professors after hearing the experiences of our seniors. They seemed to have only enjoyed their exchange and never studied. But its not that thye courses need effort. The classes are like a cinemascope Benetton ad and a dressing sense to match. Lots and lots of exchange students are here

Its a long time since I have spent and lived in constraint. It was the case 6 years back when I joined my undergrad. Phewww that was 6 years back!!!!! I have come a long way :)

Paris It is

2005-09-27T03:27:00.000-07:00

I reached Paris last week. Still in the settling in phase. Though have been to Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Seinne River, Pantheon, Notre Dame and what not. Details later.

Himalayas here I come.

2005-08-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am off to trek to baralacha la in himachal. The base will be manali. The schedule of the trek is:

day 1 trek to batal
day 2 trek to chandra tal
day 3 trek to topkogongma
day 4 trek to topkoyongma
day 5 trek to baralacha la to back to manali.

We will be going upto 17000 feet. Yeah thats right 17000 feet !!! Hoping to have no height sickness.

IF anyone wants to get in touch. You know where I will be. :)

What I missed behind "just study this year then its cool".

2005-08-16T06:53:00.000-07:00

Today we went for the basketball tournament at St. Xavier's Calcutta, Park Street. Man!! I realised today how many girls there are supposed to be in a college. Having spent my entire adolescent life and the lonely years after that in all boys school and shitty engineering college. I didnt know that there can be so many girls around a guy. We need to ask where is the basketball court and I looked up to ask someone and wohhaa there were girls everywhere. If you noticed that I "looked up". I was looking down as I didn't want to stare open mouthed at all those girls. There were cool chicks, hot chicks, attitude babes and all sort of varities of them in my line of sight. Which was not more than a 10m circle. I mean that was enough to fill out my vision. Yeah finally I did infact observe them closely to make out all these kinds. Me being the usual shy guy tried to look for a guy and after quite an effort spotted a few of them in those trademark Bengali kurtas. I didnt expect them in St. Xavier's. (I am not talking about boys bozo but those kurtas.) Its Xavier's !! supposed to be cool and all. Turned out they were not from the college. So again I looked up and finally one chick saw our predicament and directed us to the court. Smart girl saw that we were carrying a basketball. Now that's how a girl should behave not like what they do in my college. It screws them in the head when they get all the attention of a skewed ratio of 1:15.

Meanwhile the captain called up the contact we were given in Xavier's to tell we are here to play. Now that was a girl too. So you can imagine how many girls there were. Let me explain....if a girl is organising a basketball tournament !!! then imagine how many girls are there to organise other things so that this chick got to manage a game as manly as basketball. No chauvinism here just getting my point across. Yeah we played and won. Forget it. The guys playing were from Scottish Church college and I felt old looking at them. Boys really.

We have exams next week and a few more games lined up in Xavier's. Dunno what to do.

War of the worlds

2005-08-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

We have this "World War" going on among the 3 hostels. It is the annual publicising of your own hostel, putting up posters, putting up skits to get your point through and getting maximum points(Yeah here too!!). And then the week long sporting activities. This is the preparation for the annual IIMC-XLRI sports meet which XL manages to win once every 8-10 years and that disaster struck last year. But what happens is basically it brings the same hostel people closer and by newton's action reaction, further from other hostels people. One can sledge to heart's content in the matches and still not get enough of it. One's family is dragged on to the court and by the end of the match the family relations are so screwed up that you hope you can start afresh. This is also a good preparation for IIMC-XL as the same things you hear from the girls there. And in the end, like everytime, there was the usual discussion about the futility of it all.

Anyway, I got interested only in the sporting part and that too in the sports which me and my close friends were playing. Sounds snobbish but that is the way. I have not the sort of enthusiasm I had as a fresh bachelor in these activities. I played (basketball) with some passion on court and remember bashing a few PGP1s. The institute basketball team players are too close knit to sledge among ourselves in these inter-hostel matches. But still there were heated moments on courts. Without these moments sports are not sports. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The result went like "win some loose some" :P. I also realised today, as a referee, how difficult it is to referee these matches. And we had this basketball coach at IIT-B who can referee while showing favouritism. Man!! that required skill. I recall he had a PhD in sports. Getting back to IIM-C I expect people of the age group around 25 to be more gracious in their victory/loss. But here people will just not shut up. They will stand on rooftops, shout themselves hoarse and more. The war is over with the closing events going uncontested as the winners are well ahead of the pack and right now they are shouting down below that they are the ones. I would have been happy to win but I mean who cares!!

Live in the moment

2005-07-25T23:18:00.000-07:00

I woke up early to study. I mean I woke up at 9AM. A surprise quiz was to be. But then the lecture is cancelled. No lecture for the whole day. I don't have anything to do. I mean I cannot think of anything to be done in the next 24 hours. It feels so good to be like that. Its amazing weather this morning. The campus looks like a tropical forest in the monsoons. The randomizer in winamp is playing good songs for last hour. For a change net is real fast. I have clean clothes for a week !!:P. Lets see how long this lasts. But till then don't worry be happy !! Enjoy!!

Ashes Beckons !!

2005-07-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

The mother of all cricketing battles is here. The India-Australia series didn't live upto the expectation last time around. And India once challenging Autralia do not inspire that confidence now. Also England has played like anything last year and have climbed to no.2. The way they are enjoying their cricket. It looks similar to the way Australia enjoyed there dominance on the world over the last decade. The famous Indian huddle is now England's too. The talk is not of what will be the series score in favour of Australia but whether it will be in favour of Aussies at all. The mental battles have begin long before and England is upto it this time. The smiling Flintoff is enjoying all the attention he is getting as the key to England's succsess. The new kid Kevin Pieterson looks like he will handle the Aussies. Simon Jones and Steve Harmison are bowling well. On the other hand the Aussies are aging. Gillespie was almost out of the team. McGrath has become iffy. Warne is still to be seen. But his name still sends shivers down English-men. Ponting is scoring and Gilchrist is as usual blasting. Hayden is conspicuously out of limelight. The wonder kid Clarke has not been talked about this summer. Aussies do look stronger but I think it is more reputation then current form. England have the best chance since 1987. My heart says let England end the last 20 years of humiliation this time. My head says a close contest that will go Australia's way. Let the sledging begin !!

Whats up ...??

2005-07-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Nothing much. This will be the routine answer I will be blurting out. Should this be like at this palce? Where banks welcome "Future Corporate Leaders" and coax them into THE cheapest loan on campus. Thanks to the ousted HRD minister they have got ample eager leaders-to-be.

Just in the evening me and a batchmate were wondering why things are so easy here. We have got weighty named courses with elaborate contents but in the end I think I don't get much out of it. Yeah I do work for that illusory grade and they do teach good stuff. But after the brief stint in the industry it got more difficult for me to really work for it. But then we are in for a MBA and I didn't have the guts to go for a PhD. A few of the PhD type bachelors' batchmates quit it after masters so I guess that was a good decision. I wouldn't have survived a PhD. Its back to that missing passion or atleast some interesting thing in life I would like to end up doing.

I have begun to realise more and more that the interesting things are the things which you are not supposed to do. I get a job and the work I am supposed to do will be or become boring. The interesting things will be the things I am not supposed to do but I still end up doing. The basketball game in the bunked classes at school. The treks in the Western ghats ditching the bachelors studies. The late night cards at during job-life@Bangalore. When I come to think of it I can't recall many of these:P.

Ahhh the exam blues are getting to me. Will take a break from this place and will try to go North-East. Till then it is the ever loving cribbs. This late night blog reading-writing is good while it pours outside wetting the basketball court day-in and day-out.

Bizarre Questionnaire

2005-07-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

Got this from Jaat boy's blog. Interesting way to express things.

Three names I go by:
Chamad, Asun & PJ (Few call me Pankaj these days)

Three screen names I would like to have:
Munna bhai (atleast on screen can be the tough guy), ever cool Rahul & Rohit(Badjatya's and Johar's favoutraite). Two of my school friends share these name with the dudes.

Three physical things I like about myself:
Height - it gets me into basketball and volleyball teams with absolutely no talent :P, Torso - I think it looks good hidden in a T-Shirt & Huge palms - It helps in experimenting with things mechanical which I love to do. Met only one guy who got bigger palms than mine. Incidentally the current captain of our Basketball team.

Three physical things I don't like about myself:
Hair - they just won't settle down once the cut gets 2-3 weeks old. Looks like I am carrying a nest around. I get my most famous name from this ugly nest. I don't hate the name though :), Feet - Its difficult to find the shoe size. I always look for the size first and then choose the look & The Pointy Ears - People will just won't stop noticing them :).

Three parts of your heritage:
Patience with anything under the sun. Be it the Japanese guy explaining for 10 minutes how to use a card key when I checked in after an exhausting journey or standing like a fool beside the trader's desk waiting to get his attention. Kind of - "in the family", Home cooked Indian food. I have not had the pleasure of this for a loooong loooong time :( & Cut your own path as if nobody is there for you. May be not I want to express. But quite close.

Three things that scare me:
Fear of the dark. I find it difficult to venture into the unkown, make mistakes etc, A trader in one of those foul mood & Walking on the highway outside Joka land. Believe me the trucks out there just rock!!!

Three of my everyday essentials:
Caffine (Coffee, Tea or Mountain Dew), News & Idly lying, thinking crap.

Three things I badly want to do before I die:
Swinging like a pendulum hanging from a huge crane. I don't know the name of this sport if there is any. Its the stunt there in that Pardes song "Yeh Dil", A trek through a glacier & Kick the shit out of the oh-so-high receptionists in 5-star Indian Hotels.

Three careers I'm considering:
A quiet I-Banker earning discreetly in the noisiest office that can be, A nice desk job crunching away numbers & pub-chain icon of India(later in my life).

Three places I want to go:
An African Safari, Sahara Desert & an Eskimo settlement.

Two truths and a lie (in no particular order):
I had my first crush in 7th standard, I have never had an accident & I absoluetly love MBA education.

The photolog

2005-06-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

I have finally put up a photolog. The pics will be of the campus and this village called Kolkata. Heman is also a team member in this blog, expecting nthu from him and from you all in pepping us up from time to time.

The layout needs work but I had put enough effort for now.

Overall about my being around trading desk

2005-06-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

I am back from Tokyo and although I had my share of Id checks there by absolutely polite policemen I think japs respect Indians. As Indians here are not into taxi driving(NY/London), cleaning(S'Pore) and HK being still of colonial thinking. I think best among the financial centers. Other than that disadvantages being, few Indians to interact with but I didn't had the time and inclination anyway.

This being around the trading desk was a hell of an exposure to the I-Banking industry. It reveals the futility of those pre placements talks by company exectuives. It tells about the uselessness of second hand information from seniors. It tells that how freakishly competitive a mundane job can be made. It also tells how astronomical sum of money is earned by the first generation traders. And most of all the glamour around the trading job is absolutely rubbish. There are no golf on green courses and girls in ferraris only excel and graphs. They work dilligently for hours, analyze data till they stop getting rubbish results.

Now am I thinking of getting into this shit.

Man!!... they work too much. Ok I can work too much.
Work is uninteresting. hmmmm so is all work I have come across....Can try.
They earn like anything. Yeah!!!...Now you are talking.
You are all alone in the allien world. Oh oh ....Now I am not sure.
Family will need you. More "oh ohs..".
Will be difficult to come back. Too far down the line.

Can't make up my mind. Lets procrastinate. Time will come to decide then I will see. Till then I will enjoy the college life...phewww!!

What is our deepest fear?

2005-06-14T09:34:00.000-07:00

In Return to Love Williamson explains:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

This quote was there in the movie "Coach Carter". One more sports movie on the lines of "Remember the Titans". When , after a close defeat, the coach asks what is your deepest fear. A basketball team member quotes this. I liked the quote very much.

When will I get rid of my fears and find my light ??

You get what you like.

2005-06-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Booker is back after getting something to chew on. This will obviously be on the desk. No luxury of sitting in the cafe.

Trader - Hey what happened to that trade I can't find it. Neither can the client.
Booker - Oh ....that was modified.
Trader - WHAT !!!! I have been looking for it for last one hour. So was our client. Bullshit. Why didn't you tell me?
Booker - I ..I..mailed you the new Id.
Trader - MAILED IT. I get f#$%%#$ hundreds of email everyday. I have got calls to make. I have trades to do. I have clients to attend to. And you sent a f#$%%#$ email. And you expect me to read that. You sit just 20 m away from me and you need to mail this. Next time shout out, tap me on the shoulder, somehow engage my attention and let me know. Am I f#$%%#$ clear. Bloody hell you wasted my 2.5 hours for this......Mate this is a sensitive business you know that. I am putting my ass on fire here man!!. Be a little considerate......huhhhh....Why am I sitting here, going through this crap, when I should be at a birthday party...and it goes on and on.
(BTW the traders are the earliest leaving people on the floor)

Next day (similar settings)- Hurry up with these trades. We need to be fast. So and so client was saying it is nice to be trading with the slowest brokers on this planet..... that will be us. Yeah the same client I shouted about. ... (With a sweet smile and a friendly squeeze on the shoulder) Mate don't mind yester evening. So, lets get going this day.

On once a year day when the index fell around 4%. A million might have been lost between 3-4 people with similar positions. Emotions are high;Tempers are flaying. Two traders across the desk.
Trader1 - Dude I told you about telling me before you sell that off.
Trader2 - Yeah....I was going to.

Trader1 - Do you think I am stupid ....dont you bullshit me.
Trader2 - Yeah may be thats why I didn't tell you.

Trader1 - Ok thats it I am coming over to smash you like a bug.

Poeple around. - heyyyy lets cool off!!
Trader1 - heee heee heee.....:)

First thing I was told when I came here is don't mind when somebody shouts at you. And I have seen people shout at each other just before lunch and go down together to the cafe smiling like bosom buddies. Nothing is personal. Everything is business.

Among Equals
A single sales trader engaged three risk management guys in an argument for over an hour on a 40 million exposure they were objecting against. I was sitting close by and can easily say that the trader was hands down winner. Though finally he has to clean out the position. :)

The guy next to me is asking how is Bombay University. I was like, which one was this so went to the Indian style of ghal mel non committal comments. "Yeah the university is top tier in India but nothing compared to Engineering colleges. In pure sciences might be among the top ones in India" etc. etc. This is that typical Indain way of saying "Yes" and head nodding sideways.

First real post about the office life.

2005-05-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

A quick intro. I am around a trading desk these days. Not much work and have been listening to things. Traders being the only revenue generators of this side of the finance industry expects to be treated like kings(desrevedly so). Traders, sales trader are in the king category and tech guy, booker etc are in the serving category.

Things I hear.
Trader to Tech guy and his assistant - "I am his worst nightmare and now I will be yours too...Muhahahahaha!!!"

Sales trader to agency trader- I want 20% of the volume. You have 30 seconds, work the trade with everything you have got, go Go GOOOO!!
5 seconds later - My mistake. cancel that order.

Sales trader to agency trader - Man... what are you doing go on with that order.
Agency trader - Oh..uh....yeah....a few seconds later.....You failed to shout at me this once ...he he he!!.
Sales trader - I NEVER SHOUT AT YOU.

Trader to booker - We have baught 1000 of these. Do you get it. So remember to book as buy 1000 not sell 1000. Thats BUY 1000 and not SELL 1000. Got it.
Booker - Yeah Yeah.
Trader - Brilliant!! So that will be Buy...right?

A few lessons learnt.
1) Never feel bad when somebody, in fact everybody, totally ignores you and only acknowledge that you exist when they need coffee, this could happen once or twice a day. The desk secretary can also come and ask you to get muffins for the desk. Its all in good spirit. After all you are getting free coffee and muffins. Just don't forget that you are in fact a B.Tech and going to be an MBA soon. And yeah also that you cleared CAT. Damn it!! This test was the thing responsible for all of this. Ban it :) (Actually this doesn't happen with me but with a colleague. :) )

2) Traders are nice people and generally don't swear and shout until someone comes in their way of making money. It can be the poor tech guy or the trade booking assistant. You being an intern, by default, interfere with their work but are not shouted at out of kindness(or the fraternity thing). Although a few warms up to the interns right from day one.

A Peek in
This friday somebody braught a star-wars sword and half the floor is enjoying the swoosh and the flicker of the tube. We are all kids at heart.

On the surface traders look like spoiled brats shouting at everyone. But are nice guys who don't take bullshit from the people around. They want to know who is working and who is taking the credit.

Some time well spent

2005-05-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

We generally plan our weekend by looking at this Friday magazine that lists up the things going on in the city over the weekend. Now there was this beer festival at Yebisu park. Obviously we went to have a look and a sip. We landed at the Yebisu metro station and passed thorugh what seemed like a Barber market. Every second shop was a barber's. The barbers here have this funda of a 10 minute session for Y1000. I think this gives every other guy in Tokyo, a partially-done-hair-cut look. It must have gone like this "Dude, your 10 minutes are up so come next week, go take an appointment from my secretary." By next week guy decides what the heck this looks good. Unfortunately a lot of guys felt like that and it became a fashion. People like me are the odd-man-out.
About that beer festival, it was at Yebisu garden place which itself was worth a visit. There were people showing off their dogs, kids playing and some kid-contest etc going on. We could not find the beer festival but found a pub in the park. So, had what we came for. Talking about dogs, Japs have these very little, cute looking rat sized dogs, a few have bigger. I mean upto the size of a cat. Thats the limit. They like to carry them in bags, buckets etc. And the dogs look like as if they are stepping out of a hair stylist/beauty clinic. There were quite a few on show at the park. From there we went to Ikebukoro which is famous as biggest shopping area in Tokyo. It was too costly for us but still one of us baught a blue(!!) coloured leather shoes. The city was having its effects I guess. On sunday we went to Omote sando(O-mote-sand-o). There is this open area where girls come dressed up as different characters. Its a good spot for tourists etc. Clicked a few pics. There was one particularly dangerous looking character dressed up as what I think was dracula. It was good fun.

Sanity of Indian Movies

2005-05-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

I remember how I despised the storyline and plot of Hindi movies. How we used to laugh at emotional scenes and cry in the "humorous" ones. I remember the first movie I had to leave halfway through in a hall. It was "Yeh Dillagi" casting if-but-jutt and Mahima aunty I guess. Another one was the creative copy of Run-Lola-Run, ek din chaubees ghante. It was such a pathetic copy that there is nothing more I can think about it.

Anyway so after office hours I have nothing to do here. And I have no energy left to roam around or explore this city. So I picked up two of these 3-in-1 DVDs of Hindi superhits from one and only talked about store here, where I can get Indian stuff. They have another of my saviours ......the MTR food packets. God bless MTR's soul. Yeah the movies .....Ahhhh!! they are such a relief in this alien land that I totally understand why overseas market have become such an important market for Ghais, Chopras et. al. You identify with something other than yourself away from everybody you know. One DVD is MunnaBhai MBBS, Khoobsurat, Daud combo. Other combo is Hum-Tum, Main hun na and Kal ho na ho. Most watched is obviuosly MunnaBhai MBBS. Its such a great movie and Sanju baba has given such a fantabulous performance that I keep it running when ever I am in my room. The other characters , Circuit, and other side kicks, Zaheer Bhai, Munna's mom, all are just too much in this movie. Totally natural and totally flawless. Some of my favourites dialouge. "Poor people-hungry people" Goes perfectly with my current condition with no salary and a loan of 77000 yen. :). Another is "To lagta hai kya mast life hai" Sometime....no everytime I feel that way on Friday evenings coming out of my office. Over that it is set in Mumbai. The city where I spent the golden years of my life. I was going to call these most productive years but I know no-one will agree. Yeah so the taxi chase scene, carrom scenes all take me back to mumbai. Its good to be reminded that there is a place where you are not uncomfortable on the road. You know that no-one will check your I-card. Though this will be done most politely here but still why ? Here the foreign visitor I-card is called Alien Card, how apt. Its a totally alien world. People here say that its worst for asian in west though I always thought otherwise. So I guess parting comment should be East or West, India is the best. India rocks man!!

Pre Golden Weekend

2005-05-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Tokyo to Nagoya in Shinkansen - The Bullet Train. I felt nothing different from a normal train except that I got a wonderfully refreshing sleep given that I cant usually sleep in trains. The interiors were like an airplane. The legspace was unlike the economy seats. The engine looked like it was made for flying and yeah there was ear trouble for few of us. I also felt it whenever the train entered a tunnel. So not much different from our Rajdhanis. Except that the train is amazingly fast and reaches at least 80-90kmph even before it has left the platform. Top speed limit is supposed to be 270kmph but it is not adhered to and train touches 300 sometimes. They leave every 5 minutes from Tokyo to various destinations. So they are at only 10 minutes distance from each other on the same track !!!. Also they are stopped in case of an emergencies like earthquake. I seriously pray that India never try to start something similar.

World Expo - Only few things worth mentioning. Impatient people should not go to expos. I was amazed by the patience of Japanese people to queue up under blazing sun to view some special show by Hitachi. Never found out what it was. Japanese are a patient lot. They will form long queues outside restaurants waiting. I just don't understand it. One interesting psychological game goes on in the queues here. As the queue gets longer and longer, longer the maze like barricades get, thourgh which one needs to walks to reach the end of the queue. I guess it makes you feel that you are not waiting and the whole thing looks to be moving fast. We had crappy Indian food at bollywood masala stall. Crappy as they were here to make a quick buck giving no thought to projecting a good image for India. Rice was under cooked and dishes were dirty. A Jap. girl was going to do kathak at the Indian center, skipped it. Had a ride in gindoloa(??)/cable car. And finally had chilled beer with wonderfully prepared combo of fries and chicken. Man it was heaven in the heat!!

We went to Kyoto next day which is supposed to be a must visit for tourists in Japan. It has shit loads of temples/shrines. On a map, what I thought was bus stands of the city were actually the temples in the city. Now you get the picture I guess. We visited a temple, the Hein shrine and the famous golden pavalion. The places were amazingly well maintained. But it has started to rain and sort of spoiled the fun. Also we reached late for a visit to the castle in the city.

Back to Tokyo in Shinkansen. I think Shinkansens would have killed the domestic airline industry of Japan. You don't have to reach early and get through the hassle of check-in and all. I will check this up. Also for tourist the tickets are a bit cheaper than for locals. This in a city where there are absolutely no bulk discounts. As we found out when we bought our Nikon 5900s from bangladeshi salesman. Same old "Bhaiya do lene hain thik rate lagao". He took his time multiplying the cost by 2. And we thought he was discounting. May be he has been too long in Japan. Or may be bangladeshi people don't have this very indian knack of bargaining, which I seriously doubt.

Third Weekend

2005-05-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

Almost the same as the last time. Drank a lot, slept a lot. We went to Shibuya which is supposed to be a place for the wierd creatures of the night. Man were they wierd!!! Even by the Japanese standards they were wierdos. The place was bustling with peoples and a lot of foreigners. We heard that there were a few elite clubs here. We came for the novelty of these. But a few were members only and a few were I guess too hidden from the public view. The bars we explored were empty !!! But all the people around had a purpose in their walk. It looked like they knew where to go. So again we headed to Roppongi. As usual it was absolutely rocking. Last weekend we went to MoTown, this time we went to MoTown 2!!. We met this dude from Mumbai, India who was hell bent to convince us that we should take more risk in life, quit jobs and start our own businesses. "Dont you want to earn millions." No sir !! I dont. I will be happy in a well paid job. He took the risk of starting his own business, knowing a crorepati baap is anyways there to bail him out. bah!!. Saw a few typical Indian uncles with bulging bellys dancing with jap. girls. We also met a bunch of despo pakistanis who were sorry that Pakistan beat the shit out of India in tests as well as One-days. They were nice guys and were actually embarassed by the loud swearing of the mumbai dude. Other than the fun had to do a lot of washing and ironing to be presentable in the office.

Next : Pre Golden weekend trip to Kyoto on a bullet train.

First and Second Weekends

2005-05-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

I came here on a friday so only a day of office and weekend cometh. Saturday we went to this electric town Akihabara. The place for everything electronic. Huge shops to get the cheapest rates in Tokyo and I guess in Japan. But I didn't get my camera there. Sunday morning, we went to this much hyped Indian food festival at the Indian embassy. The kind of - "reach there before 11AM or food will be over" - stuff!!. We got there around 12 but food was a big letdown. Prolly people staying here for longer periods have lost the taste of Indian food. Everything was kind of sweet. Imagine eating a sweet "spicy chicken curry" with sticky chinese variety of rice for Y700!!. Yeah Nan were over before we got there. The Indian Nan is quite popular among all in Tokyo.

The cherry blossom festival was in full glory on that weekend. The pathway outside embassy was lined up with these beautiful pink flower laden trees.We met the other IIM-C interns there, so there were a few more heads to plan the touring of Tokyo. We roamed around a bit under the canopy of pink trees. It looked like half of Tokyo was there, it was like a carnival. From there we went to Imperial Palace of the royal family. The place was amazingly beautiful(from the outside, nobody is allowed inside). A moat all around the palace with trees on the slope.A bridge across the moat perfectly placed for a good pic. The royal family appears on it once a year or something like that.

The second weekend we headed to Roppongi, the night life capital of Tokyo. We went there a bit late and still the place was abuzz like anything. We explored a few bars and had a couple of drinks. In all bars there were girls for the taking. But we were there just for the drinks and the music. We headed home at around 5am. There were these minivans lined up on the curb offering snacks. I had a Turkish Kebab. It is kind of a wheat roti as a bag with beef fillings in it. And yeah the amazing thing, the place was so crowded that there was a partial traffic jam at 5am at the crossing!!. The weekend was well spent in binging and sleeping.A long week ahead :(.

Next : Third weekend...absolutely nothing worth mentioning in office days.

Emotions and Passions.

2005-05-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you are tossing in your bed counting sheeps, you start thinking about life work life and such mundane stuff. Why was I doing what I was doing ? How people get so passionate about things. What are these emotions people feel so strongly about. adi ityadi. Mind you these things happen after you have read the discussions about "Quality" and such stuff in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence". And specially when you have slept throughout the day and again went to bed early to wake up in time for office. But alas only sheeps and clouds.

I remember one time during our initial days at the institute. There was one guy talking very enthusiastically about hostel publicity, raids and stuff and trying to get me involved. I looked at his face and in his eyes and felt sort of detached and thought man how can anyone get enthusiasm for such a thing. For that matter for anything in life so as to try to convince others. I thought myself as a person with lack of passions and emotions. Hmmm now I recall that I have felt these often not burning passion for anything but emotions at least. I didn't knew that I hated the Bangalore auto guys so much that I fought with a poor auto guy for 5 bucks!! For that matter a parking guy for Re. 1. Its kind of embarassing when you think about it. But may be at that time I felt something very strong. Well whatever I think this is the point where I went to sleep. :) The thoughts at that time were creative, plenty and perfect to pen down. But I dont have access to my comp at home otherwise I would have surely typed it down. And after the essentials of the day you have nothing left inside your head to write down which is happening now. I think I will get a laptop for these lonely and creative nights.

BTW I just read Varun's post and Himanshu's post AFTER I have written this. (I write at office late in the day and put it on blog from a friend's palce.) Now of course what a coincidence that all of us were tossing over the same thing. Read "The Celestine Prophecy". I am a firm believer of the first prophecy about coincidences. It is a very well written book given what we(at least I) feel about today's world.

Tokyo Arrival

2005-05-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

We came out of the airport in arrival lobby and ahhh it almost looked like the Delhi airport lobby. There were people all around and chaos was ruling. This was a welcome change from the too clean, too sparse airports of Bangkok and HongKong. There were bus counters, metro rail counters for tourists minus the bargain doling agents lurking around.

We were advised to catch limousine bus service to Tokyo. But we opted for a cheaper way i.e. through the complicated rail network of Tokyo. After a long hour on a train we came a bit closer to central Tokyo. We had to change the rail line from here. Man it was a nightmare with our luggage. To change you need to sometime walk like more than a km in underground tunnels and esclators. And these stations are like underground cities with multiple levels of platforms and all. Atlast we came out of the station to the surface of the earth. The weather was good and a cool breeze helped us recuperate. We were told that our hotel is 5 minute walk from the station. So we asked around for our hotel and though people were helpful noone knew where the place was. There was this one guy who started running all over the place with our address in his hand, pointing to various buildings. In the end we gave up and got on a taxi whose old driver gave us a indulging smile to us and took us to this building barely 100m away from the place. It costed us 660Yen though. We got to our place and dumped our luggage. The reception guy was extra courteous. He explained in detail how to use an access card-key by inserting it in the slot in the door, then a green light will come on, then one should pull the door by your hand(!!!) and now the door was open(pheww!!) and all this in faltering english, took around 10 minutes. Dinner was at the familiar McD as did not want to take chances on the first meal. McD is amazing in consistency of flavor, anywhere you go in the world.

One peculiarity which I noticed was that everything was very efficiently used. Advertisements posters in trains were covered till there edges with slogans and smiling faces. Platforms were not very large. In all nooks and corners there were either vending machines or a small shop selling trinkets. Everything looked a bit cluttered. Though this effect has worned off now but it was surely there. This should have something to do with the scarcity of natural resources in Japan.

Next - First Weekend in Tokyo

Three days in Hong Kong

2005-05-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

I landed in Hong Kong around 12:15pm. I had to reach the office by 2:30pm to at least catch the afternoon session of the training. There was some delay at the immigration. He prolly didn't like my face or something. But I finally got through without trouble. I found out the fastest way to get to the city was the Airport Express. Cost me a cool HK$100. Though I reached the city in 45 mnts flat. Actually earlier I was thinking of making to it to the lunch at 1:00pm or may be the later part of it. But finding out the hotel and checking-in etc. took a lot of time. In fact I was late by 5 minutes for the afternoon session. The morning session was plain chit chat and afternoon was also just intro to the support functions of the company. So the most important stuff I missed was the lunch, which people told me was not that good. So all the bad luck I had since the start of my trip seems to be wearing off.

HK has all mode of transports imaginable. Buses, Metro, Tram, Express trains, ferries and of course taxis. And yeah one more The Peak Tram. This thing has been around for some 100 years and like all things in HK extremely well maintained. It takes you to one of the numerous peaks around HK. It goes up on a steep slope, which sometimes is upto 45 degrees. You get beautiful panorama view of the city while going up. On the top of course you can see the whole city. The top is like a small city with numerous restaurants and shops. Interestingly almost all the shops had these last day stock clearing sale notice on them. The notices sure looked old. We were a little short on cash as we had to still get our first salries/reimbursements. But when you see a Hagan Das you got to have some.So we shared like 2 scoops among us seven. There was this old man selling battery operated crawling soldiers for 70$ which right after were offered for 50. Anyway they were kind of interesting. We sort of got lost finding the tram station. It was right in fornt of that Hagan Das. We climbed up and down the whole place and threatened to bump the guy, who was kind of leading us, off.

We also went to this place, Kowloon, which is supposed to be a place to get cheap things. The cheapest way to go there is this star ferry. You cut across the sea on the ferry and on the way get a terrific view of HK in HK$1.7. I bought a good fake Tomy Hilfiger watch for an equivalent of 120 rupees. A few had to desperately get phone cards to call there "dear ones". Rest decided to gain from these peoples calling charges experience. So next day we came back to Kowloon for the rest and for those who already exhausted their cards. We came in an open top double decker bus this time. The one in that DDLJ song. It felt great in that good weather and specially after the long day at office. Yeah there was office going too from 9AM to 5ish. I think lets give it a miss. We explored the whole place for an Indian Diner and though found a few but couldn't make our selves spend the dough for the goodies. Darn the habit of converting $ to Rs. And later almost has to do without a dinner as everything was almost closed. The food stalls there take last order till 930pm. I had to catch the morning flight for Tokyo and others had to go to the office early so we headed for the hotel quite early.

Next- Tokyo Landing

Delhi to Bangkok

2005-05-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

After the fiasco in the morning I came back to the airport in the evening to catch the 00:30 flight of indian airlines. I came in too early obviously taking no risks and the counter was not open yet. This time my parents refused to leave till I got the boarding pass. So a long wait, for them across the glass barrier. The "uncleji"(no nice-girls) at the IA counter didn't understand why I was going through Bangkok when there were direct flights for Hong Kong. He consulted someone and used whatever brain he had or cared to spare to understand the complicated case and finally gave me the boarding pass. So parents were happy and even willing to wave off my plane. But rationality prevailed.

I chatted with a girl for NIIT software Development(not teaching) going to Bangkok for an onsite project. Man! she was flying international for the first time and knew what all to do. Even that one should avoid the last immigration counter as it is resereved for MPs or something. Though I got my stamp there only. Turned out that the company gives guiedlines for their smooth travel.

The flight was boring, had to be with a bunch of aged, rude and witchy looking air-hostesses. I mean it is alright if a pretty one is being rude but an old witch doing that is too much. Yeah so I reached Bangkok early morning and had to catch the connecting flight when I was told that IA has not checked in my luggage till hong kong but only till bangkok. I had very little time on me. But thanks to the efficient and rude lady on the counter I got my luggage checked in for HongKong without much delay. The Indian girl from Vancouver and punjabi old lady was also on the same flight and they were there too. I dont know how the old lady would have managed the transit if the girl had not been with her. The girl was visiting her relatives in Amritsar. So prolly the punjabi motherland was the link between them. Anyway we were again on the same flight and this time we got our boarding passes. But this terminal was like 5 miles away and we reached there just in the nick of time to board the flight. This was a Cathay Pacific flight, had inflight movie and all, unlike IA flight. The food was inedible ...oh no that was on Bangkok-Tokyo flight. Here it was alright I had something or the other.

Next - Three days in HongKong.

Jypore to Hong Kong

2005-04-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

The Delhi airport.

I reached the airport around 2hrs before boarding. I had a confirmed ticket with seat no. etc. and I guessed this much time was enough or rather this was the earliest I can wake up and get ready etc for a 7am flight. But ..but ..but it was a weekend flight and over that only two of the five ticket counters were working. Some "technical glitch". So, there was this mile-long line at the ticket counter. Though it was moving fast.

I weighed in my luggage and guess what??....right...it was overweight. With all the last minute adding of Aashirvad-pre-cooked packets and "Haldiram" packs it has reached a healthy 34 kgs. 14kgs !!! over the modest 20kg limit. I guess they were finding ways to offloads passengers, flight being overbooked and all, as my friend's luggage-weight was not even looked at about an hour ago(Yeah he is an early riser!!). I was asked to reduce(no pun intended) or pay up Rs.400 per kg for the stuff. I thought of giving it the nice girl at the counter and get a boarding pass. But as she was not very helpful with these overweight suitcases I decided against it and stuffed some into my cabin luggage and some in my flight-mate's cabin luggage.

I came back to the counter to find four very excited and very oriental looking guys blocking my way. They were insisting to get the passes before me and the nice girl was thinking of giving me a boarding pass(I should have given her a few packets). They threatened to complaint to her manager and all. She gave me this pleading look and I thought what the heck let them have it before me. To my horror these were the last seats. I along with an aged punjabi lady and an Indian looking girl who I thought was not Indian.(and later found was in fact of indian origin). In fact there were a few more, who went back as their cases were not as desperate as ours. I had to join my company. My job offer at stake etc. The girl had her annual exams or something to take in Vancouver, for which she has prepared an year. The old lady being alone and kind of undecided stayed back.

We were told that alternative flights were being checked and meanwhile a compensation of a measely $150 was offered for this.(It is MEASELY against a job offer at stake). There was also some talk of I being very co-operative in such a tight situation. Only if I would have known that I could have sued them for offloading a confirmed ticket passenger. Anyway we were waiting and it was taking long to explore all options. So they lodged me at Intercontinental. Of course all expenses paid i.e breakfast, lunch and dinner etc. etc. Except I didn't knew that I have to take them down in the lobby. I found this after the breakfast and decided to check out. Meanwhile I got confirmed ticket for Delhi-Bangkok-Hong Kong on Indian Airlines and Cathay Pacific in that order. So, this way I would reach Hong Kong after the introductory lunch and before the real training stuff started. The start of my journey was the indicator of things to come.

Next - Delhi to Bangkok flight.