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... !!!

CAT 2009 Analysis for Pests

There has been a lot of hunky dory on CAT, the mouse and its effects. Mr.Chidiya (Name changed) has come up with some real cool tools for CAT aspirants:

1. Who said cheat codes do not work. Click XYZSPOON on your keyboard and your timer will rises up very rapidly. Since time shown is the 'time left' therefore it is good to have your time increasing.

2. Who said water was not allowed. You just had to type 'WATER PLEASE' and Aloha 100 units of water are allotted which is indicated at the top left corner of the screen. And what is more - you can have food, wood, gold and stone too by the same proces. Everything is allowed.

3. You can always refresh the timer by pressing F5.

4. You can always dismiss a question by reporting it spam and you wouldnt have to play such difficult levels again.

5. Cellphones are not allowed inside but yeah you can always log on to indyarocks.com. Complaints that players who already had an indyarocks account had an unfair advantage over those who did nt because it took a good amount of time to register.



Mr. Chideeya (Name changed twice to maintain anonymity) also claimed that the game had been very good to him coz it gave him an unfair advantage over others in aspects like:

1. Due to capacity constraint some had to do with camlin pencils and some apsara and those who got the former benefitted due to extra long nib life. However it had a free eraser (and free things suck), so you couldnt rub anything. but that was manageable.

2. While some got A4 sheets for rough work, some got A3.9 sheets which left them with approximately 1.2 cm2 less paper to work upon.

3. Some candidates who had strong vitamin A content prior to the game - i hope you get it. Claims are on that in the biometric check prior to the game should even gauge vitamin A quotient and subsequently scores normalised. (Candidates of Bengali domicile whose staple food is fish, the most important source of vitamin A will automatically see 10 marks deducted from their net score. Other coastal region students will also witness 5-10 marks deduction depending on the topography and fish price index)

4. Candidates in second slot also had an unfair advantage of vitamin - D and NIN, hyderabad is working out on a formula to normalise slot 1 and slot 2 points/scores. (However CAT convener dismissed all claims regarding the effect of vitamin D on performance as false.)



Some more news from prometric regarding steps to be introduced next year:

1. Taking into consideration the different physical levels of candidates, they have to come to the test locations 5 hours prior to the test where the candidates will be verified and then fed so that their protien/vitamin/mineral content are equal before going into the exam. (Coaching institutes are already claiming that they are geared up for this new version and would hire dieticians to boost their students performance.)

2. However no normalisation would take place between those who pray to God more ferverntly than others because 'Right to religion and expression' are alreasy present in fundamental rights of india. However foreign nationals applying have to go through a 'What percent do you believe in GOD' test on facebook and submit the results with the url duly attested by MD, facebook india.

3. However there is no returning to the paper-pencil format as amount of paper that comes into usage has drastically reduced. Only pencils are used for working on rough sheets given in any slot. They will be taken back and rubbed using an eraser and will be recycled in the subsequent slot thereby minimising wastage further. (Candidates can apply for the post of 'Chief Rough sheet rubber' on or before CAT 2010 and they will be compensated in the grade 8000 - 12000 depending on prior experience).


Well, Thats CAT 2009 - Analysis discussions for pessimists out there. You get a chance and you critify(good word) anything. Unless you breach non-disclosure agreement how do you even know that questions repeat or get copied. Personally i think it is a step forward and everything should go much smoother next year.

A decade ago !!!

Well, I saw this old Complan Ad of Shahid Kapoor and Ayesha Takia on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-fysFHfBYM and couldn't stop wondering how big actually i have grown.

So, I decided that I'd make my own list for all of us, who are now in early twenty's and our childhood spent in India, This must be true for most of us:

1. Unlike our younger siblings, we have seen a sparrow and have chased squirrels
2. It was mandatory to buy tinkle digest at railway stations
3. There was conflict on whether mercury or pluto was the smallest planet.
4. 50% of our grandparents always fought with the other 50% (grandma Vs grandpa)
5. We have seen a million distinct coconut trees (More so for Southern India)

6. Udit narayan sang the majority of songs but sonu nigam was the hot favorite.
7. Our grandfathers had newspaper cuttings of 1960's and 1970's.
8. Sales of babool gum and boomer were due to the free tattoos that came along.
9. Essel world was the place to go.
10. Veerappan - We know who he is and what he is

11. We know what Asian sky shop is
12. There was infinite stock of nebasulf powder at home to spray on our wounds.
13. Mangoes came not in multiples of 13 but in multiples of 50.
14. Akshay kumar was someone who could do only action movies like perhaps sunil shetty and sunny deol.
15. NRI's(primarily from US, Dubai and sharjah and sometimes singapore) who came to visit our house had to bring chocolates.

16. Only half of these foreign chocolates were tasty enough to eat.
17. Unlike daily sops we had to wait one whole week to watch our favorite program.
18. William shakespeare ruled the English text books.
19. An imaginary tooth fairy came to pick our broken milk teeth.
20. Election day was a welcome holiday not on the calendar.

21. We had some really insane Michael Jackson Fans as friends.
22. Shahrukh khan movies were watched atleast twice.
23. The pink candy at exhibitions and fairs was the tastiest thing on earth.
24. We somehow did not like mahatma gandhi over other freedom fighters
25. However we were surprised that our social teacher gave him so much credit.

26. We would run to the terrace as soon as we hear a helicopter/aeroplane engine chugging.
27. We loved and feared the view atop the giant wheel.
28. Amitabh Bachan still did lead roles for films.
29. Cricket matches were held in sharjah also.
30. We were prohibited from climbing a ladder for fear we would fall.

31. We did climb the ladder atleast once.
32. We started experimenting our signature we hoped to use when we grew up.
33. If Amrish Puri is in a movie then he is the villain.
34. It was mandatory to be awake until midnight for newyear.
35. Cartoon network rocked. Tom and jerry Rocked.

36. We wished we had alladin's genie and magic carpet kaleen.
37. Our first spinach lunch was after we watched the popeye show.
38. Mowgli and his jungle was mandatory every sundays.
39. We played WWF cards atleast once.
40. April Fool was done by showing a lizard which wasnt there.

41. Fathers were allowed to go only to 'The Office' without taking us children.
42. We waved at the trains at the rail-road crossing.
43. A 5 story building could easily be the tallest edifice in our town.
44. Aishwarya Rai made us proud when she became the miss world.
45. We knew how to make boats and aeroplanes with paper.

46. The school principal was someone to be afraid of.
47. Newton was the jack of all trades - Science , social , maths What not..
48. Goats were real cute creatures to feed.
49. Shankar dayal sharma was answers to one of the G.K.Questions.
50. Finding a 25 paise coin on the road was also profitable.

51. Empty tooth paste boxes and broken bangles were also things to play with.
52. We know the rules of kabaddi and kho-kho.
53. S.Radhakrishnan was a hero on teachers day.
54. We had our own collectin of hotwheels/barbie dolls.
55. We hated to share this collection with other kids.

56. People came form nowhere and pulled our cheeks and asked if we remembered them.
57. The number of ambassador cars were countless.
58. The way to choose who played first was In-pin Safety pin.
59. Penguins and Zebra's were fascinating but never found in a zoo.
60. Arabian sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean all seemed the same.

61. Spotting France on the world political map was an achievement.
62. Knowing more than 100 country capitals stood us a marvel.
63. Identifying these country flags too and we were a child prodigy.
64. There was a bottle of rasna at home always.
65. Titanic/Jurassic park was the first English movie we saw.

66. It was fun to read station names from a speeding train.
67. If Pickles were not home-made they were 'PRIYA Pickles'
68. The only way to drive away mosquitoes were good night mats.
69. We have seen movie posters on stick-no-bill signs.
70. Oxygen was indeed 21% of the composition of the air.

71. Photosynthesis was the longest word in English
72. School bus was the longest way to reach the house.
73. Popcorns in theaters and eclairs in groceries were mandatory.
74. Hibiscus was a flower that every neighbour grew.
75. DD National was full of programs starting with 'S' - Shanti, swabhiman, Saboot, Shaktiman and even NEWS was Samachar...


This list is endless. I bet there are lots more....