Secularism or Communalism??

One of those rare posts which rant abt the politics

Well, the story goes like this. Election happens. No party gets the absolute majority. The incumbent party(X) is sort of routed, being third largest party now. Just to keep the single largest party(Y) out of power, in the name of protecting "Secularism" (sic), the incumbent party placed third and the second largest(Z), power hungry party, enter into a power sharing agreement, where X will hold the power for the first half and Z for the second half.

Remember all these is done with the "noble" cause of saving the state and the country from the so called communal party. Now this marriage gets done and somehow goes on for abt an year or so when cracks start developing. The power hungry Z wants stuffs done their way, which was obviously not in the interest of X. This war continues and at the end of 20 months, the party Z "breaks", in the sense, 45 out of its 48 MLAs decide not to support the government. They withdraw support and the govt falls.

Now, the so called "Secular" Party Z decides to get into an alliance with the so called "communal" party Y and being power hungry they decide to have their share of power of 20 months first. This continues for another 20 months and when the time comes to pass on the power to party Y, which actually was the one who was given the people's mandate to be in power in the the first case (well it was the single largest party), Z decides to break the alliance. And so comes the election.

The election happens. Obviously the people are frustrated with the politics of party Z and votes against it. Party Y almost gets the majority. Party Z gets routed winning only about a 10% of the seats. They still have the audacity to go to Party X and suggest an alliance, which Party X rightly disagrees to.

Finally Party Z does an introspection on why they lost. And what do they find? Do they find that the actual reason was the way they behaved when in power or their apparent hunger for power??

Well knowing party Z's characteristics as I have described the answer is an obvious NO. The reasons they come up with .... Have a look

• Migration of former minister J belonging to caste A and former minister L belonging to caste B.
• senior leader M upset with the party leadership (doesn't tell why)
• migration of workers in some place D sent wrong signals.
• Delay in candidates selection and giving opportunity to new faces (Think giving opportunity to new faces got them those seats)
• Communication gap between ministers and workers while in power.
• Failure to reward workers Internal reservation has not helped the party.
• OBCs like P,Q,R,S and other community people did not support the party
• Failure in handling media.
• Y and X spent huge money.

Knowing that the state i am talking of is my home state, i think it is easy for every one to guess which parties i am talking about.

Now my only questions are

1. What do mean by Secular? Does a party which support a minority religion just to get their votes and not work for them any secular than the group which supports another religion?
2. How can a party be secular when on introspection the reasons given out by the party for its routing in the election has reasons like a caste didn't support me, or a religion didn't support me?
   
3. Isn't caste based politics equivalent to communalism?
4. If so, how correct is to go on branding a particular party as a communal force?

Anybody has any answers?

First Day in Mumbai

Well, finally back on, after a 3 month break. Well it was not a self imposed break or anything like that. It was just that I was in my summer internship and with no net connection, wasn't able to post anything .

So now that i am back here lemme see what all have i done in the past 3 months. Well went to mumbai, the first time i travelled alone sans any family member to an unknown location. Landed in Mumbai and went to the hostel in which the accommodation was allocated for us from the placement office. Turned out that the hostel warden won't be sitting in his office on sundays. So there i was, in an unknown city with no place to go for the night. Luckily for me, there was one more person from my college who was in the same situation. So we both went around looking for accommodation in the nearby "Guest Houses". Finally we were able to find accommodation in a sub-standard "Aaram" Guest House. Having spent 700 on the room, we went and found that the room's door opened right into the kitchen and the so called Luxury guest house had nothing but a double bed, another single bed, a TV in which the cable connection looked as if it was stolen from a cable running nearby, and a bathroom with a broken commode.

Having somehow managed in this room for a single day, none of us could actually think of spending one more day in that room. So the next day we took half day permission from the office (on the first day) and thought of going searching for room. We came to know that as of now, there was only accommodation available for 2 ppl in the hostel mentioned above. And that the warden comes in at 7pm and is allotted on a first come first serve basis. So I decided that I will go and sit in the waiting room of the hostel from 4:30 and went over there whereas the rest of the ppl, we were almost 5-6 in number now, decided against it. When i went over there, there was already one guy from our college in the queue. Well to cut the long story short, we all ran up 3 floors from the ground floor to the warden office in the 3rd floor and I managed to reach 2nd and got the accommodation into Mackichan hall 4/11,12 which turned out to be my home for the next 2 months. I was sharing the room with 3 other ppl and i would tell this was the most memorable 2 months of my life till now.... not because of the room, but coz of the time i spent outside of it.

Hopefully i will write more about the stay in Mumbai ... Till then ... Ciao

Continued arbit musings

Continuing the musing which was going on in my mind for the past few days it suddenly struck to me...why do we hold on to people even after we know they are not happy with us? Why do we hold on even after we know that they don't want to be with us?

Are we holding on to them for reasons of our own insecurities?? Or are we desperate for the relationship to work out?? I have been guilty of these many times (Whaddya know... I might even be doing the same now)

Control freaks

Warning: Highly philosophical stuffs follows

With lots of time and nothing to do, have started musing about the way of life. Well something to stop my mind from being a devil's workshop. Well till now it has just turned out to be questions questions and more questions with no answers coming out of it.

Why is that people want to control others life? I have seen this a lot and it is especially the people whom we love that we want to control. Although most of us don't even recognize that we are doing it, it comes out rather involuntarily. It is almost like "Well here is another part of my life that i need to get in order" and never "Yeah... She is an important part of my life but let her do the things her way". Agreed that she is an important part of your life, but from where does it give you the right to control it. In some situations i have seen it being done to that extent that every action might be questioned like "Why were you smiling so much? Stop smiling so much", "Why were you sitting there?? Sit here" ...

A lot many relationships have broken down due to this, but yet it couldn't be controlled as it is involuntary. I am not telling that i haven't done anything of that sort. Rather i am sure that if you draw a list of the culprits, mine will be the top most name in the list. But most of the times i have known right after i have told/done something and have either shut up or apologized, being an idiot i am it is mostly the former.

Another variation of the former is wanting others to do the things in the same way as i do. Be it a normal chore of moving a chair around, finding the sum of the cells in an excel file or be it any other simple task. We want others to do the stuffs in the same way that we do. That is the reason you see your friend moving the chair slightly off the position and then back to the same position it was in earlier after you have pushed it in. Another friend of mine amused and irritated me to the same extent when he said that i am taking the sum of the cells wrong. Well, it was the sum of some 20 rows of numbers in 3 columns and all i was doing was selecting all the 20 rows in one column and then selecting the other 2 columns, so that the entire set of numbers are selected. After 3 attempts, I came to know what was happening here and passed on the mouse to him and asked him to do his way. And what did he do select all the 3 columns in one row and then select the 20 rows. It didn't matter to him that the sum was the same. He wanted it to be done his way.

Well, one explanation i could think of for this phenomenon is that once we get comfortable with some people we start thinking that it is a part of our life. And then we would want that part of the life to be led the same way we had done all the other parts of our life. What we seem to forget is that doing so we might end up losing that part of life altogether.

Well another reason for this may be that indeed the way we are doing is not the correct one and the person might have already tried it out and thus is advising us against it. But in the world of control freaks, how do we identify these noble souls??

PS: All the gender specific instances in the above post doesn't mean that it is only one gender which does it. It just came out that way, coz it was easier to write

Farewell "Indivisibles"

Well back to the update time again.

Well the third term exam has finished and i am half an MBA, or as my childhood buddy tells "The knight in a shining half MBA Armour, ready to take on the big bad corporate world". I have spent my half life period of Joka life.

Talking of Joka, had our senior's placement and what an event it was. Though some of the companies (read international banks) were not as enthusiastic as last year due their tails being cut sub-prime by the impending recession in the US, their losses were to the gain of the consulting majors. And if somebody (that is if anybody is still interested in reading this crap, called the insight into my mind) wants to read the entire report on the placement scene at Joka land, you can find it here or another report here.

And it is with heavy hearts that we bid farewell to the batch of indivisibles (as the 43/13 batch were called). So we the pi batch (as the 44/14 batch is called for obvious reasons) will be the seniors the next year. And i do hope we can be as good as our seniors were. Coming to the batch of the indivisibles, well i would like to thank them for all the help they provided right from welcoming us ignorants to joka land till the end taking us through by giving gyans on specific subjects, profs, mid-terms, end-terms, even what to study in specific subjects and what to leave, CV making (well i would like to thank them for whatever my CV has become. I myself would laugh at the first version of what i tried to pass off as CV), being for us there during our summers process, helping us when needed and supporting us when we were down, through all the parties and the fun. Thank you indivisible for your support and help in making us the half MBAs which we are now. It would have been really tough without you.

So, once done with the placements, it was time to leave jokaland, temporarily for us. So it was off to packing and since we had to empty our rooms before leaving, i had to pack everything which i don't need into cartons to be kept in the common store room. Well, it is a different fact that i ended up packing till the minute i had to board the cab. With all the mess related works pending, i really had to rush through the last day. Just managed to pack and sent the boxes up with the help of some workers and just ran to the cab. Dropping the bags in the cab, i just remembered that i had some more work left in the mess. So asking for 2 mins from the senior with whom i was sharing my cab, i just ran in to the mess, gave the contractor a letter which i had to give, wrote a cheque, got the counterfoil signed and just ran off to catch the plane. Even now i dunno, if i have packed everything or left some stuffs behind in the room.

Well, ended up paying extra for the luggage as i had packed 28 kgs in the luggage when i was allowed just 20 kgs. Thank god they don't weigh our cabin luggages. If they had, i think i was carrying around 15 kgs in the cabin luggage and another 10 kgs in my laptop bag. Well i know it must have been so much, coz the Kolkata airport was on strike and they had no power in the airport. So i ended up carrying everything of it and climbing up a flight of stairs for security check and then climbing down a flight of stairs to the flight (As the escalators and aero bridge were not working.

So here i am back at home, with lots of extra time after spending my time on hogging on food and sleeping. Some of which i spend in some musings. So hoping to update my blog pretty soon on some of my musings pretty soon.

Till then ciao.

Breaking News

What the crap. Just to what level has journalism dipped in this country.

Nice Guy vs Cool Dude

Well this post was something which i had started around an year back, but just held myself back from completing. Well after reading this post recommended by a friend, i was inspired complete it. But having read the post, i know i couldn't write even as good as that. So just completing the two paras which i had written earlier.

It is the same old debate of the nice guy vs the cool dude. Well being a nice guy all through my life, i have to admit that we do finish last. And it is no fun being the loser.

I actually find it amusing when the girls go on and just make a motherhood statement like "There are no nice guys around". As if you were any nicer to those nice guys when you had an opportunity. All you wanted was some random cool dude who you can call as ur boy friend and show around. Now that you need the nice guy for emotional intimacy, how do you expect to find him, when he would have long withdrawn knowing his fate.


Edit:

Well yes, i do feel like changing from a nice guy to a cool dude. Of course i don't want to finish last all the time. I don't want to be a spectator and just watch while some cool dude come and sweep off my girl just because he can crack some "real cool" wise-crack. I do feel like coming out of this useless "nice-guy-who-is-always-the-best-friend"skin of mine and get into the "oh-he-is-such-a-cool-dude-but-he-has-no-emotions" skin.

Or who knows, i might want to give one more chance, though i am sure i will end up a loser again.

Oh well just got one more funny post on the same issue posted a looooooooooong time back on my blog which u can check here

Arbitness

Done with my exam and with lots of time on hand during the weekend and the beautiful rainy weather which just makes you sit in your cozy room, wrapped in a blanket .... what more do you want.

Yeah me not an outgoing kind of person. I prefer spending my time in silence then going to a noisy disc where you can't even hear your partner (not that i have one) and get your stomach filled on a number of hydrocarbons which i can't even differentiate from one other. So am happily spending my time sleeping away to glory and watching the friends series (yeah have started with season one again). Whenever i am not doing both of these, then iTunes have to be busy on my computer. Oh yeah, one more thing... i don't like rock and heavy metals which just goes on with some incomprehensible lyrics drowned in a mix of jarring tones. No Offence Meant to the people who do like it.

Trying to finish one or two novels which i have started and not finished (though i do know that i won't finish it this weekend too). Trying to get my hands on may be a few poems and for people who don't know (which i think is the max number of people i know), i love reading poetry. Yeah its a pity i can't write poems unless and until i am really sad and the poems which come out then are usually the ones which couldn't be shared (well ... i don't wanna answer all those queries by the inquisitive minds).

And staying on the topic of inquisitive minds, yeah my GTalk status and the about me in orkut do mean something and something abt whats in my mind at that time ... Or do they ??? ;)

Oh yeah, before i forget. Whoever had read my previous post might remember the post "Risk Unmanaged". Well, lemme tell you the risk after turned out to be managed one, though not so well managed. Well if u had even given me the grade lesser than the one i got ( oh yeah and there could only be one other grade apart from F below mine) on that day, i would have accepted it gladl. But now, I have missed the higher grade by half a mark, am thinking whether to put for a revaluation or not. Talk about greedy mind. Well what do you know, I am selfish after all. The one who asked me to be more selfish ... hope you are listening (though i know you wanted me to be more selfish in other things... couldn't help it :P)

New ICC Rules

Past the infamous second test between Australia and India which saw "sportsmanship" and "integrity" being taken to new levels by the Australians, here are a few rule changes which are proposed in front of ICC. These rules are valid only when some team plays against Australia and in all other conditions, these rules are deemed invalid.

Source: A number of email forwards which are doing round.

(1) Ricky Ponting - (THE TRULY GENUINE CRICKETER OF THE CRICKET ERA AND WHOSE INTEGRITY SHOULD NOT BE DOUBTED) should be considered as the FOURTH UMPIRE. As per the new rules, FOURTH UMPIRE decision is final and will over ride any decisions taken by any other umpires. ON-FIELD umpires can seek the assistance of RICKY PONTING even if he is not on the field. This rule is to be made, so that every team should understand the importance of the FOURTH UMPIRE.

(2) While AUSTRALIAN TEAM is bowling, If the ball flies anywhere close to the AUSTRALIAN FIELDER(WITHIN 5 metre distance), the batsman is to be considered OUT irrelevant of whether the catch was taken cleanly or grassed. Any decision for further clarification should be seeked from the FOURTH UMPIRE. This is made to ensure that the cricket is played with SPORTIVE SPIRIT by all the teams.

(2 (a)) If the ball hits the pad of any player of the opposing team and the ball doesnt fall within 5

meters of any of the Australian player ,then he is to be adjudged LBW.

(3) While BATTING, AUSTRALIAN players will wait for the ON-FIELD UMPIRE decisions only (even if the catch goes to the FIFTH SLIP as the ball might not have touched the bat). Each AUSTRALIAN batsman has to be out FOUR TIMES (minimum) before he can return to the pavilion. In case of THE CRICKETER WITH INTEGRITY, this can be higher.



(4) UMPIRES should consider a huge bonus if an AUSTRALIAN player scores a century. Any wrong decisions can be ignored as they will be paid huge bonus and will receive the backing of the AUSTRALIAN team and board.



(5) All AUSTRALIAN players are eligible to keep commenting about all players on the field and the OPPONENT TEAM should never comment as they will be spoiling the spirit of the AUSTRALIAN team. Any comments made in any other language are to be considered as RACISM only.

(5(a)) If any of the bowler of the opposing team hits more than 30 runs,then he should be banned for racism ( because he has had the guts to punish the Australian bowlers ) and he should be banned for 3 test matches.



(6) MATCH REFREE decisions will be taken purely on the AUSTRALIAN TEAM advices only. Player views from the other teams decisions will not be considered for hearing. MATCH REFREES are to be given huge bonus if this rule is implemented.



(7) NO VISITING TEAM should plan to win in AUSTRALIA. This is to ensure that the sportive spirit of CRICKET is maintained.



(8) THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: If any bowler gets RICKY PONTING - "THE UNDISPUTED CRICKETER WITH INTEGTIRY IN THE GAME OF CRICKET" more than twice in a series, he will be banned for the REST OF THE SERIES. This is to ensure that the best batsman/Captain will be played to break records and create history in the game of CRICKET.

Happy New Year and all that jazz

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!



Well, i know it is 5 days since the new year has begun. But as this is my first post of the year, i would like to wish all my readers(???), if any (pls to come out in the open and identify urself).

OK, So what is new about this year after all??? Apart from the dates that is (as the status message of one of my acquaintances tell). You open the paper, it is the same old stuff about someone getting killed, someone getting raped, someone committing a suicide and someone getting hurt. You move on in the paper and all you see the same old headlines ... "Left threatens Government of withdrawing support", "Secular forces (sic) unite against the communal BJP" (something which i can't understand.... what is the criteria for being considered secular??), "X lashes out at Y". You move on and you read the same old sports headlines too "India loses to XYZ ....." or an occasional "India thrashes XYZ".

Another thing which i want to write about is the partying. Looking at the incidents happening in the New Year Parties in the past couple of years, is it really necessary to party to bring in the new year. I do have a couple of friends who will feel depressed if they don't party on the new years day. I wonder why?? Apart from providing another "special" occasion to booze and dance and drop down, i can't find any other thing associated with the New Year that makes it depressing if u don't go to some crowded place filled with lechers of all shapes and size and dance to some arbit song. OK lest this make me feel like an old traditional fool (or uncle as some of my friends call me coz they think i am not as hep as them), lemme clarify. I have nothing against going out and partying, but i am just wondering at the absolute necessity of partying to bring in a new year. I for one, believe in bringing in the new year in some peace and solitude, which will anyway be lacking for the rest of the year. May be thats why i am called uncle.

Disclaimer: No Offense Meant (NOM) to anyone

Risk unmanaged

Finally the end of exam and what a way to end it.

The subject was Risk management and i feel i took a huge risk taking that subject. I could answer only for 40 out of the 100 marks...not sure of even a single mark. Looks like the first fukka of my life is awaiting me. There goes my dream of a consultant's job :(

Boondein (Silk Route)

A beautiful song.... I just love this song. The music, the tone in which it has been sung, the lyrics and not to forget, the video all complement each other and produce this awesome song. Just listen to it once and even u will fall in luv with this song.

Just a video i found on the You tube.... Nice one


"Find yourself an engineer, feed him pizza buy him beer, give just a fraction of a fraction of the pie"
Reminds me of my 3 yrs of work :)

Internet Addiction

"Internet addiction is described as an impulse control disorder which does not involve use of an intoxicating drug and is very similar to pathological gambling". (source: Net Addiction).

In plain terms it means getting addicted to internet.

According to this report, Internet addiction can cause depression

You can find the signs and symptoms of IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder) over here

And to find out if you are suffering from IAD, you can take this test

Long time

Long time since i even got time to update my blog here. Apart from a few arbit posts/poem(the inspiration for which is still being questioned), i think the last meaningful post had been in august and this being end of November that makes it nearly 4 and half months

Lots have happened in the meanwhile. Went home on a vacation, had our mid-terms, had our summers, now the election fever is on in the campus and next week se we have our end-terms.
Add to it the random submissions, quizzes, projects and what not just to eat into our time.

Random - ???...how did this word get into my vocab??? Too much influences are there :)

As i said, had been home for the only vacation which a PGP1 gets in the year. All i want to talk about that will be food, food and more food (Not that i talk abt something else even otherwise). But all that i did at home (that is apart from food) is fill forms for summers. And my friends for sure would be cursing me for not meeting them.

Back to Joka after a week and the mid-terms pounced on us. As i had mentioned in a few other places, the mid-terms was like an over from Shoaib Akthar....fast, furious and dunno what hit u types. Some of the exams i had to go in unprepared. Others i went in under prepared.

The mid-terms had just finished, when the summers came over. And it was a long process for me, although i had an opportunity to convert the one call which i had the second day, i failed and went on till the last day. It was a pretty good learning experience. I would say, it was an experience which got ppl together...a good network building exercise, where most of the people were seen helping each other. What followed was a record breaking summers where for the first time the entire batch was placed before the end of day 4. As for me, i ended up with Johnson and Johnson consumer products and will be posted mostly in Mumbai.

And now the election fever is on in the campus with the studcom elections going on. Enjoying the fun as an outsider is soo much fun :)

PS: Have 2 quizzes today, have two submissions and a case to prepare for tomorrow and here i am sitting and writing this :)

Now an arbit article

Feeling bored, but not sad enough to write a poem. Thought of writing something. But i think i am hit by a bad case of writer's block. Can't write anything to save my life. So thought i'll post some article which i had written a long time ago ( actually 3 months ago), as a part of the interview process for the finance club @ IIMC. The standard of the article is sooo poor, well u know the result. I didn't get thru. Here i am left with no club, no CV points ( and u thought that there are ppl in the clubs just because they are interested in it), and a miserable and a disgusting life (according to my CV at least). The article is called Rupee appreciation and i am posting what i had written then as is. I'll later try and do some research(if time permits) and write an article on the same thing (again if the time permits).

Rupee appreciation: A boon or a bane

Indian rupee is on a role. From the end of February 2007, the rupee has seen an appreciation run. From somewhere around Rs 44.9 per dollar at the end of February 2007, it stands at Rs 40.5 per dollar today, a whopping 9.8% appreciation in a span of just around 4 months. Now what is the impact of this on the Indian market and particularly on an Indian exporter? This write up is a small attempt to look into these factors.

Now what can be the reason for this rise in the rupee price? One important reason will be the need of the hour to curb inflation. During the month of February to April 2007, India witnessed an inflation of about 6 – 6.5%. To get a hold on this, the Reserve Bank of India would have left the rupee to appreciate. What happens when the rupee appreciates and how does it help to curb inflation? The answer is simple. Most of out inward and the outward trades are conducted in dollars. Now if the rupee appreciates, we will be paying lesser amount for the same good. For example, assume we will be buying some good X at $10 per piece say. So at the older rupee rate, we would have had to pay around Rs 449 for that. With the appreciated rupee rate, we will be paying only around Rs 405 for that. Since we are paying less for the goods we are importing, we will be selling it for lesser. Thus selling the good at lower prices will bring down the inflation.

But there is a flop side to this too and that is in the exports. Since the rupee value per dollar has gone down, we will be paid virtually less for the goods and services that we export. Now if the profit margin is not high enough to start with, the exporters will start to suffer. The services industry has already started raising voices about this. Since services is a highly competitive market, they will be operating with a very small profit margin and hence the reason for their concern.

Another flop side to this will be that, in order to get back the same price which they were getting earlier, the exporters will have to start hiking up their rates. But there are other competing countries out there like China, whose currency value hasn’t changed and thus would still be charging the same. This will lead to a loss of opportunity for the Indian exporters.

One way to hedge against this will be if you import and export at the same time. If you import the raw material and export the finished goods and vice-versa, then the effect of currency appreciation and depreciation will virtually cancel out and you will end up earning the same amount. An example in case will be the diamond industry, which will import the uncut diamond and exports the finished jewellery. But in sectors like software services, it is difficult to import and export at the same time and they are the ones who will feel most of the pinch.

So, in conclusion the appreciating value of the rupee is both a boon and a bane. It is a boon in the sense that it will bring down the import price of important goods like petroleum (which incidentally was thought to be one of the contributors for inflation) and help in curbing the inflation. But it will also affect the export sector in that the value for the goods and services which we offer will be significantly lesser and the way to hedge from all these is by both importing and exporting at the same time.

-Arun

More Arbit Bakar

Well just got a bit bored, now that the exams are over. So trying to pass off a collection of line which just came into my mind as a poem.

Oh yeah and before you ppl ping and ask me what is wrong with me (well, that is if anybody does read this), fear not. This is just something that just came into my mind and has no correlation with my life (too much of studying statistics effects are there). So instead of regressing and extrapolating this (which is btw not to be done according to statistics), trying to link with my life, just try to read the poem (poem ??)

What is that I have done?

That I am being made to pay for

What sin have I done?

That I am not being absolved of.

I loved a flower,

But it didn’t even blossom from a bud

Loved the flower again

All I got is a thorn deep in my heart

I loved a smile,

But it was yearning for someone new

I loved the sunshine,

But the clouds got in there too.

I loved the flower again

But it was so attracted towards light

It just turned away from me

Leaving me in despite.

Oh just what is it my lord,

Tell me the sin that I can’t be absolved of

Tell me why is it

Please do tell me.

-Arun

PS : It actually feels nice to see your name written below your creation. :D

Arbit post

Hmmm, A long time since i wrote anything (that is apart from my exam). Actually i haven't written anything since i left my job (that should give you some idea on what i was doing at work :) ).

As I told in the last post, i am now in Kolkata, the erstwhile British capital of India. Initially it took time to get adjusted to the rigors of an MBA course. Especially to a lazy ass like me, who has literally slept through 3 yrs of his life in the name of work, it is like hell. But once you do get adjusted, it just becomes the routine.

OK, now lemme try to recap the last 8 weeks of my life. Joining formalities were pretty simple, almost next to nothing. Just fill in a form and there u r into the pre alloted hostel room. You get registered to the course a few verifications and you are all ready to go. Actually as i said, the few days, it is like all systems on the limit.

Parties...yes we do have parties (with unlimited booze, which goes on till the day break). Already attended 4 parties in the past 8 weeks, so on an average 2 parties every month.

Then there are tutorials, conducted by the seniors. Actually these are our saviors in the exams.They cover all the important stuffs in a way that goes into a dumbo brain like mine too.

Amidst all the partying, studies, tutorials comes the mid-term exam. Well 5 weeks into it and there it is...even before u can blink mid-terms come up. Thanks to the batchmates who take up crashers, a 2-3 hr synopsis of the entire course. Actually there are ppl who just attended these crashers and have got A-Pos in the paper.

Regarding the weather....least said the better. After coming from a city like Bangalore, known for its weather, this is a virtual hell for me. The weather is soooooo humid that u take the bath and come out and with 1 minute, u'll be sweating.

And then u do have ur best friends visiting you (especially those in the ground floor like me). Well, the best friends i am talking about are frogs, all sorts of reptiles (and may be sometimes the snakes too). Snails are pretty common over here (what with the 7 lakes in the campus). It is a sad sight to see soo many snails crashed by the cabs and the bikes.

Coming to the campus. It is beautiful campus, with 7 lakes in the campus. Our hostel is blessed with the view of a lake as soon as we come out of it. This lake a jetty too. So it is pretty common to find ppl chatting with others on this jetty.

With Kolkata being on the eastern side of India, it becomes very bright at around 5:30 or 6. I remember the first day when i got up and saw out of my window, it was so bright that i thought it must be 10 or 11 in the morning. Only after checking the watch a couple of times and crosschecking with the time on my mobile, i confirmed that the time is actually just 6 in the morning. Well it is another thing that this has made me miss a couple of classes, when i overslept thinking it is just 6 only to wake up after half an hour and see the time is actually 11.


Coming back to the early sunrise, i think it is apt to mention the existense of a mini Howrah Bridge in our campus. It is just a bridge across one of the lakes. The view of the sunrise from this bridge is just too good and some people (not me...i go to sleep then) do go over there at 5 am to watch the sunrise. As can be seen from the pic below, the view is just ...awesome....






The rains here are even more wierd. One minute there is no sign of the rain and for the next half an hour, it rains cats and dogs. Once it rained the entire night and then the situation was something like this.




Well, the seniors do tell that it might get worse if it rains continuously for a day, as it does every year. So am waiting for that, it will be fun...though drying the shoes is a major problem. Oh well, not to forget, there were a few dead fishes on the road after the water dried out :D

I think i can go on and on writing about this, but right now i have to stop and start on preparing for a case presentation which we have to do on monday. So long, till the next post...which hopefully is pretty soon.

Off to Joka

OK. No posts for a long time. So thought that i will go ahead and post the update from my side.

on 24th of May, my manager announced to my team that i will be going to IIM Lucknow. After all the congratulations and adulations, i came back to my seat and logged in to check for any new mails and what do i see???!!!!

I get to see a mail from pgpadmissions and thanks to the way gmail displays the to address all i can see is that much. Now all the iims have the same email id (pgpadmission@....). So i thought this to be a communication from IIM Lucknow . I didn't bother to read the from address and was mystified when the body told that i am offered admission and was supposed to send a DD of 50k before 4th of June. !!!!

It was then that i see the from address and what do i see..... the letter is from iim Calcutta !!!!!!
The sanctum sanctorum of finance!!! offering me admission.

Well my manager had told once that there are 4 stages of reaction to any startling news.
Shock, Denial, Frustration and Acceptance. Well for good news i am sure the third level will not be present. This was my condition on that day

For the first five minutes, i was dumbstruck. I didn't know how to react. I just stared blankly at the screen. Read and re-read the mail a couple of times. The second stage set in...denial. I thought it must be some prank now. Well, this institute is known for not giving out a wait list and usually give out exact number of calls, and it is now giving admission to me, almost a month after the first list was announced !!!!!

I sent back a mail asking for the attachment which was non-existent, and only after seeing that did i realise, that yes.... i am offered the seat !!!!

Well the ecstasy was overwhelming!!! (I dunno if that sentence makes any sense.... but i was in such a state). I rushed home, almost banging into a couple of vehicles on the way. I told my father and my brother, but was shocked at their response. Then i realised, that they didn't know the enormity of the news. So i waited till my mom came back and told her. It was when she told the enormity of the situation, that the other 2 got it.

Well there it is... the best 2 hrs of my life in a 50 line post.... :). So here i am ... off to Joka.

Oh yeah, for those who don't know, Joka is kinda suburb in Kolkata where IIMC is situated

Speed ( huh???) Post experience

Well for starters, Dictionary.com defines speed as

Speed : –noun

1.	rapidity in moving, going, traveling, proceeding, or performing; swiftness; celerity:

So applying this meaning, i thought speed post == a post which reaches earlier than all other posts. Moreover, it is supposedly a priority delivery service, according to Indian postal service at least.

No wonder, i decided to send my acceptance letter + the DD to the B-School using speed post as i had just one week time. So on 7th of May 2007, i went to my local post office and after confirmation from the concerned person, that the mail will reach Lucknow in 2 days, i sent it through the speed post.

After 5 days (on 11th of May 2007)

I see a post in the famous forum for B-school aspirants that some person who had sent his acceptance letter through speed post had found out that his letter hasn't reached Lucknow yet. I felt a bit concerned about my letter and decided to call up the office and inquire the status. well, yes i was right. My letter hadn't reached the institute yet. Well I had time till 14th of May for the letter to reach, failing which my candidature will be annulled. I sent a mail and a fax to the concerned person, telling him that i have accepted the offer and the letter is lost in the post. But i was informed that if the letter along with the DD doesn't reach the institute by 5:00 PM on 14th of May, they can't do anything.

The goddamn website of India post does have a tracking mechanism, but it just showed that my letter has been bagged from Bangalore. After a few more hours of frantic calling, I finally had to fly to Lucknow and deposit a fresh DD and come back. And even now, the DD hasn't reached yet.

Well, what i wanted to tell was.... if this is the case of the priority based service, then what abt the other one which are not prioritized. And this was not a one off case. Nearly 50 odd students suffered the tension and distress. This is the worst possible service provided by them.

I am actually planning to ask those ppl for compensation. Because of them, I had to shell out another 30k for DD and 50K for flying.

But I HATE SPEED POST

Update: Well it has been more than 3 weeks since the draft was sent in speed post and it hasn't reached the recipient yet. God knows where on the holy earth is that letter of mine. There is no action taken on the complaint filed with the post office in this regard. Looks like consumer court is the only option