Young at Heart !!!

Yesterday, was a field visit day. We witnessed a 100 experiments in Rs.1000/- initiative. Simple experiments to demonstrate simple facts that make you scratch your head. It was fun reliving the good old school days.

At Wimwi, this was not the only day we put ourselves in Class 5 shoes. The last time I played Four Cups (as popularly called in my part of the country) was Standard 5. 12 Years later I happened to play it again. Yes, The same game where you write colors on one side and a secret message on the other. And you get ready to be teased the rest of the day.

With the medium of instruction using management exercises & real cases over long laggard lectures, it is fun to actually be a part of the system. In the past one month we have made close to 2000 boats, 600 jumping frogs, Airplanes and other weird stuff hard to put a name to.

After all, most things that you learn here is something human brain is conditioned from birth with. There are so many things we as kids behaved rather than deciphering why.

When we were young, we played Name Place Animal Thing. The guessing game. Guess the same as the opposite player and you get 5 points. Guess differently and you get 10 points. Weren't we sub-consciously applying Nash Equilibrium (popularly Prisoner's Dilemma) when we actually chose a strategy to maximize our pay-offs.

When your elder brother wanted something, you wanted the same thing. You perhaps knew Operationally Standard product is easy to get over Customized product.

When someone asked us to choose between two options by pointing fingers at us. We playfully caught both fingers and said "Both of Em..." Weren't we actually hedging??

When we made Sand Castles at the beach, wasn't the work a piece of art without any product development analysis? It was purely judgmental.

We were young. We were creative. We didn't fear What is Next. We just couldn't spell the Jargon. Now, we pronounce the jargon. We lost the former. But being young at heart is a choice you can always make.

I started with the field visit. So it is only logical I end with it. This happened to be one of the most beautiful pixels on an eventful day less the long transit time.

Summers in Winter

Before I came to WIMWI, I was on PagalGuy. I was sure I was going to meet a lot of people who had too strong opinions on too strange topics and if you get the flow right, people whose messages read, "I attempted 57 out of 60 questions. Remaining three questions were wrong. I think the cutoff will be 58 out of 60. The system is so unfair." I did meet some of them.

Summers at Wimwi happen in early winter. Climatically it isn't cold enough. Emotionally very hot and intense. The name is somehow apt. Summers is celebrated with a lot of opinions here. Before entering one of the group-discussions my friend advised me to look up the horoscope. Taurus said that I was going to meet a lot of self-centered people today. Well, it predicted right.

If u observe closely, In any GD, you find the following characters:

1. The Ice-Breaker - His job is pretty similar to the tube-light starter. Chip in when everyone is hesitant, show some leadership and relax for the most part.
2. The know-it-all - Every alternate word spoken in the GD comes out of his throat.
3. The know-it-none - Frequently uses 'Adding to...', 'Building on...', 'Supporting his...',
4. The Tangent Thinker - Wanders away from the original topic by usage of words like "Thinking tangentially', "Radically different", "Looking from a new perspective..."
5. The De-digressor - His job is to chip in with "I think we are digressing from the topic" every 5 minutes.

People who do not believe in Class participation also fight to insert a point. There is always one individual whom everyone hates post the GD.

Interviews in many ways are the reverse of the pre-placement talks by firms. You face questions like "Tell me something about yourself that is not on your resume" and "Why this particular firm". The firms are just taking revenge of their ppt sessions when you asked Why are you here and Tell me something about yourself that is not in your ppt. This said, It is the most student-empowered placement program i have been through.

As the process progresses, facebook updates reach a peak, Usage of :D 's and :) 's. and subtle status messages rise. You find African nation 'Congo' in the trending topics. Perhaps due to excessive usage of abbreviated Congratulations. There are always comparisons. There are some backbites. There are some frontbites. Fortunately it isnt cold enough for a frost bite.

But there are things that bind us more than just placements. At the end of cluster 1, when a DayZee wimwian was asked, "Hey, Did you get placed?", the reply comes, "No, We aren't."
That is how we define 'You' and that is what defines us as a batch.

The Golden jubilee Batch - Wimwi 2010-2012 !!!

It comes once in 50 years and never again. You have to be a part of it to experience it.

The pursuit of HappEness

Some people blog just because they have it on their resume. Some others to express. Yet others to impress. The reasons do not matter. The blog does. And I decide to resume something that i classify as interests on my resume.

Life at Wimwi is cruelly awesome. For Cat Aspirants who assume we are all nerds wearing spectacles 5 diopters deep, Good news : The batch average goes less than 1 diopter deep. Pretty much in the reach right. Not the best of analogies but all the best for CAT 2010.

Life at Wimwi is gruelly awesome. You get to see the early bird catching the worm daily. Literally. Once you witness it you go safely to sleep. And then you wake up before the bird digests the worm.

Today, one such morning, I happened to witness this.And then I realized the importance of having a camera ready at hand. :)

More importantly i realized what I wanted to be. Deep down I am still a boy who likes to stare at a speeding airplane till it disappears in thin air(Literally). I am still the one who likes to throw water from the terrace and hear the sound as it taps the ground. Still the one who loves the distinct smell in the air after it rains, still the one who loves to experiment with the size and shape of shadows in the dark, still the one who loves reading old letters from friends & relatives ...

Somewhere in the rush you stop realizing it. The little things that make you happy.

Its festival time and a great opportunity to revisit old friends. Friends are like bank accounts. There is a savings account. There is a current account. You spend the whole life with your current account. You peak in to the savings account sometimes. Life goes on with the current account. All good memories are etched with the savings account.I have decided to send these memories (read photos) as part of an individual level 'Is diwali Aap Kisko Khush kar rahe ho' campaign.

The pursuit of HappEness is more than just a phrase. And there is more than one reason for the 'E' in HappEness.

First view of IIM - A

Finally after a 36 hour long journey I had my first step in IIM - A. Only to see that the college is full of steps. Perhaps it has its own way to teach u things. Life is full of steps. Lets leave philosophy here. The next important thing you will notice is brick. Like someone said that this college was built brick by brick by the people who happened to study here. The next amazing thing is you are lost. Yes, you are. You feel like a rookie on Counter Strike and to top it, the lift here has an G, A and B point instead of 1 and 2. You enter in one direction and exit in the other. Large diametric holes seem to be result of a grenade attack. But will soon realise that its no lesser architects marvel.

As historical as the moment seems they allotted me a number which read '1943'. The best thing i can co-relate myself with 1943 is that I am in WIMWI and 1943 was the time of WWII. Alas !! No other historically significant event i can think of without using google. The previous occupant of this room was a ghajini of sorts from the scribblings on the wood to remind him of things that one might forget after 15 minutes of loosing oneself completely in the awesome campus. Inspired from 3 idiots a 'mm' comes into your room. It becomes clear that he knows the place in and out. Perhaps the one stop shop for all your hostel needs.

One thing u realise very soon here is that your existing GSM/CDMA provider is running deep debt under roaming and you go looking for advice for a new connection. Here everyone has an offer for you. Uninor says that it gives 5% to 60% discount based on which tree you are standing under. tata docomo says that you will be charged on nano-second pulse. Idea gives easy connections as it wont take applications this time to save paper of course. virgin mobile trying to compete in saving paper is not even willing to provide recharge vouchers. Reliance thinks a picture speaks a thousand words and has life-sized hrithik posing with a flute. Sad story there is no ready pick. Students are on the look out of an operator who gives discount proportional to their cat percentiles. Alas.

A few other trivial and unimportant things to notice. The tissues you use inside the campus are themselves branded. They bear the logo and are branded for life. Yes, until they reach the 'Use Me'. The trees here are etched with their own scientific name, perhaps to entice the few of those non-engineer non-commerce people who somehow make it here. Magnifera Indica and Azadirachta Indica included. The college is mainly inhabited by three creatures. The homosapiens, avians and the canines. They bark at the CAT'S that come in but soon make friends. Avians however love being photographed and appeearing in subsequent college brochures. Homo sapiens are the ones that buy SIM cards and implement great ideas. For instance using solar panels to capture energy. A great idea to a place that is generally very hot by the grace of god. And to go green further you have a special place called 'Joos'. And it sells the same things it pronounces. But all organic fresh and healthy. If appy fizz and grappo fizz are 'Two cool drinks to hangout with', Joos is 'Too many cool drinks to hang out with.' Also the best bet in a dry state. Calling it a dry state would be a misnomer. It actually is pretty humid. And locationally the power to follow a time zone of its own. People coming from other side of the subcontinent do not find it easy tracking time just by having a look at the sun. Unlike their territory the moon comes out much before it is dark.

Finishing a post needs a power statement and I have none at my disposal. So i guess this post is going to have a sequel.

The serial Twitter !!!

Women have this extra ordinary capacity to take in minute details of as many as 10 clients in a single day. The capacity to lend an ear to each one of them and give focused attention while not neglecting any household work surprises me. And the fact that they attend these clients between 7 pm and 11:30 pm is incomparable. Okay..Yes, It's about the daily sops. But I tell you this is no mean feat.

I was just wondering how an advanced serial addict would use her twitter account :

7:12 pm - Kanika ropes in experienced truck driver to kill her husband's ex-love.
7:47 pm - Thakur banishes his son for falling in love with a BPL(Below poverty line) girl.
8:13 pm - Manav divorces archana to save his friend's brother's cousin in law's marriage.
8:37 pm - Laali bribes doctor who forgot to take the hippocratic oath to produce a false pregnancy report.
9:04 pm - Abha turns out to be an akhand saubhagyavati. (Beyond my English)
9:49 pm - Shashtriji curses vaishali for mixing poison in her mother in law's milk.
10:21 pm - Mukhiyaji locks up his daughter in the room for reasons to be declared soon.
10:42 pm - mihir supposedly killed for the last 2 seasons returns as a memory lost fisherman
11:17 pm - Anandi's lighted candle(Read 'diya') which signified the life of her husband was put off due to heavy wind and a possible danger to his life.
11:35 pm - There is so much of evil in this world. Let us sleep ourselves to peace. R.I.P to all the serial victims who lost their lives today. Good bye Tweepalikas !!

Like someone said - Anyone who disturbs midway through the serial is called a serial killer !!!

P.S : This post is not to be generalised. Negative Assumptions are not to be made. Strictly for Fun (Read Truth !!!)

Scratch to Staunch !!!

Post school when we parted we had Slam Books. Yes, Those colourful diaries with questions from favorite toilet soap to darkest unrevealed secret used to be circulated among friends. Their birthdays, contact numbers, favorite cuisines, first crushes all safely stored.



Post Grad when we parted we had diaries. Real diaries. Pages of White. No questions just feelings. Long testimonials written in the form of 'How i met my best friend' unending hate for the mess food and love for maggi and the CS and the AOE and the mass bunks and the mass drunks and the etc; Just feelings. All material data stored safely on orkut & facebook and the etc;



When i joined work though, I never thought that anything even similar could be experienced. The long process of making friends. From Scratch to Staunch !!! I never thought close friends could be made at this stage of life. It seems close friends can be made at any stage of life. And beyond a particular stage you do not need slam books or diaries or orkut or facebook or etc to store them. You just do.



Now leaving on another journey, from east to the west (No, I am not going abroad), towards another stage of life, towards another long process of making friends. From Scratch to Staunch !!! Knowing names. Knowing hometowns, grad colleges, work places, making fun of it, coining nick-names, knowing each others strengths and weaknesses, pursuing hobbies, discussing nonsense, playing pranks, gossiping, interlinking,... and on and on and on... !!!