A night at Reena's...and Enigma

This was my second time at Enigma, the first was for the India-Pakistan World Cup 2003 enconter. This was different though, it was the six of us shelling out a obscenely huge sum to get into the place and dance away to glory. I will spare the details of what actually happened inside, but yeah, did manage to catch a glimpse of Beyonce Knowles. Apparently she had been put up at J.W. Marriot, and got to the discotheque in a saree. Barely caught a glimpse in that dark, smoky place, so cannot comment on how she looked, but a friend who accompanied me tells me that she had a weird silvery 'thing' on her saree.

Pardon me, but I am not too certain about what the thing was.

Later I also heard that Yuvraj was in the same hotel, with Deepika Padukone, and left the place around the same time we got out, around 3 a.m.

The one celebrity that I actually managed to view, was none other than Bobby Darling. Yes, I did. Serious.

That's luck.

Got back to Reena's appartment, tired to the bones. At least I was, lack of sleep for nights on end, but a photo session is never far away with Twin-kill and PJ in the group. So, by the time, Twinkle had regaled us with her 'Abhisheks', 'Suneer C Shetty', 'Shravan is a bad guy', 'Suneer fooled and lied to me', we were all refreshed for the shoot.

This is one of the best group pictures that I have been a part of...

A mid term review of my new year resolution

This was a post I had put up at the end of the first year of my MBA life. A resolution of sorts. As they say, it is a time for the periodic review, one and a half trimesters into the second year.

1. To begin with, I would need to show a little more interest in a couple of things that I wish to learn. Could begin with all the features of that wonderful tool called MS Excel. Capital Markets would be another one. Probably Six Sigma - showed interest, a little more than earlier, but, not as much as I should have. For now, need to grasp certain things on excel before the all important placements.

2. Would need to start dozing off less in the class. It’s a bloody expensive habit. Costs about 150 bucks per hour to sleep (without considering the Time Value of money that is!) Or to learn some thing. Should reduce my sleeping time and start learning! - Stopped dozing off in the class. That is because, I started sleeping more at home, not giving any chance of attending too many lectures.

3. Try waking up for the 9oclock lectures daily. Alrite, make that thrice a week atleast. - had only one 9oclock lecture. So, this is a 'Not Applicable' clause. Will try it out in the 5th trimester.

4. Pray that there are no 9oclock lectures! - Followed this to the hilt. Religiously. Was successfull in my prayers. Result is that I have become more pious than before.

5. Try carrying my own pen and notebook to college daily. Ok, atleast 3-4 times a week! Some people have suffered bad because of this habit! - did this whenever I went to college. The word 'whenever' assumes huge importance.

6. Write some B-Plans. Long time dream this. Would do no harm to the resume as well - Yes. One success at last. Three B-plans and one paper written so far. Need to up the ante, and change the clause to reach the finals in at least one contest. Reason: Same as before.

7. Start working on my Resume, adding all those small things that I may want to put down. - err, have sent in a rough draft, in the process of adding all those 'small' points. Some are too small to be added.

8. Reduce the Auto travel to and from home. Bloody expensive habit again! - :-( :-(

9. Start gassing in ppts. Woefully fall short of doing that. Need to take help from the James Andersons of our class. Or were they Warren Andersons. Blame it on the World Cup! I went the other way, stopped talking in ppts. The only ppt I gave was for my M&M PPI. DO NOT want to make, what happened, public.

10. Visit the NMIMS library more often, to read it’s books, that is. Actually, for that matter, read more non fiction. - Nopes, didnt read any books, fiction or non fiction. Still got time to improve.

11. Start exercising/gymming (this refers to the point 3 above, if I wake up early, why not exercise as well, haina?) - Sorry? What is that?

12. Continue blogging. An awesome habit, especially if you wanna relax and can’t get things out otherwise! And most especially if you enjoy writing and don’t wanna be “anonymously judged” about your writings! - Oh yes, have not given up on this, writers' block notwithstanding. Feel good about it.

13. Start playing Cricket again, at least on a weekly basis, lost touch big time, as was evident in the recently concluded World Cup (!!) - Lasted just two days, sprained my ankle on the first, bled on the second. That was the end of that. Sheer Laziness.

14. Above all, Let Bygones be Bygones. Cannot change things. Try enjoying college more. It ain’t that bad, is it? Surprised myself here. Pleasantly at that, selective alrite, but showed great will power here. Probably because I think strongly about the issues, but gives me loads of pleasure. Best one and a half trimesters so far. Life's Good!

P.S. 15. Improve my sense of humor? So that I get associated with Tigers and not Cobras!!! (alrite, that’s another bad one…cannot reduce my fan following this way!!) - No comments.

P.P.S. Ensure I succeed in at least five of the above! Lemme see, I think the count stands at 7. Which is a rating 'Above Expectations' Way to go!

The Days gone by...!

Doing stuff that ain't legal gives the thrills. Well, legal, by Indian Penal Code, or by the family's code or by the society's code...or by one's college's code.

Posting this one amidst something 'legal' in college gives the kicks. Kicks about the fact that if I do get caught, it would be give me harder kicks. On my backside.

Have been 10 of my best days, make it a fortnight in fact. A match at Baroda, next up at Wankhede to be rounded off by Brabourne. More importantly, a short, but sweet-n-sour rendezvous with Priyanka, interwined between a couple of B-plans and white papers on either side of it, add a new offer to the whole affair, and what I got is a breathless feeling. And a worried mum, who wonders these days why I act so busy. After she almost thought that my MBA's done much before it actually begun.

There is loads to be said about the past some days, I will highlight only the salient 'features':

a. Priyanka's Googly: Sitting at Wankhede, when I thought that she would crib away to glory for making her watch a meaningless match, after India slumped to 60 odd for 6 wickets, she says, "I get this feeling that India should win this match. Let's not go home, let's watch it till the end." I scoff. India win from this position?

India win. She scoffed at me.

b. Cricket Magazine: Aaah, a small dream come true, an opportunity to write for a cricket magazine. Now, I just hope it gets published! A small baby step in my long term goal. I can afford to pat myself here.

c. Biz Plans: Three Business Plans. One paper. One case study. No time whatsoever. Still I attend college. In the 5th trimester. Weird.

d. Placements and the war: Will only talk about the placements, no wars for now. Less than two months to go, and if the couple of pre placemement talks are anything to go by, IT pay packages are not going to be too enticing. Rupee problem they say. Or is it brand dilution? We will soon have the answers. A couple of months or more.

e. Brokerage Agent?: That's what I get called for helping friends with cricket match tickets. Damn, I am hurt. Alrite, just kidding.

f. India versus Pakistan: Waiting. Desperately. Been long since I watched cricket. Almost twenty four hours.

Alrite...need to end this abruptly, the second variety of kick seems coming my way.

A Rendezvous with Baroda

When you desire something, ever so desperately, and after much deliberations and twists and turns and angles like a typical Bollywood movie of the yonder years, you actually manage to achieve that objective, it invariably ends in shattered dreams. Kaput. Broken Heart. And a few bones. Almost

No, I ain't talking of a relationship gone sour. I was alluding to a cricket match. A cricket match that I wanted so much, a match that I actually got, a match that messed up the deep recesses of mind, and eroded the enthusiasm factor I possess so badly that...that nothing, just a few bloody frustrated moments for me, and I was back to normal.

India took on the might of the Aussies, a team raring to go after being beaten by a resurgent Team India, at the IPCL ground in Baroda. And I had the (mis)fortune of landing up with the tickets and visiting this city. This venue. The match was almost as good as over in the first three quarters of an hour, we were back home in three.



The Aussies thrashed the living daylights of the Indian team, and for all it's worth, the Baroda crowd made it's displeasure felt, in a way that has been patented so well by the Indian audience. Throwing plastic bottles. Onto the playing arena.

The only positive that came out of this was that we managed to get out early (before the crowd trouble started), and check out a few places in the city. Had a sumptuos lunch with the guys. Oops, in the whole sad affair of the match description, I managed to forget those other four, who battled with their emotions gallantly, like me. Samarth (the guy who got us the tickets, and a wonderful room in an equally wonderful hotel), Nitin Mohan Srivastava (like calling out his full name, a sense of vintage like Amitabh Bacchan say, Vijay Dinanaath Chauhan...haaain!), Aditya (with his muscles hanging out of his shoulder sockets like none other) and Ayush (Samarth's relation)



The above picture was taken in the room, after the frustration of the day almost meant that we could do everything. Err...almost. However, the match was not the only talking point of that day, there were a few others as well. For starters, the train journey that took us to Baroda, where we had the privilege of encountering an old guy, who seemed almost ready to displace Lalchand Rajput from his current post of the Indian Team's manager, he knew where Kapil Dev set up his first hotel, and what does he import from Australia, to st up his business. He had the knowledge of Lawrence Rowe's eye defect and allergy to grass, and Evan Chatfield's car registration number. Alrite, I made the last one up, but you get the gist? Even when we needed to discuss something amongst ourselves, he would make his presence felt with some heart-felt and 'useful' advise, that we could do without.

Then came the 'shot of the match', figuratively speaking that is. Aditya, as his wont, had his biceps bulging out of his sleeveless tee, when a man...err...woman...err...dunno...entered, and asked Addy for a note or two. Our man refused. The result was something like this, verbatim, translated into English, for the benefit of those non-Hindi audiences.

"Aye...body toh aisi, aur pocket may paisa nahi hai...!"

"Heyy...the physique's like Arnold and Salman Khan, and the pocket's as full as a Roadside Romeo."

For a minute, or probably a little more than that, Aditya was too stunned to speak. The point to be noted here was, we were three (Nitin, Addy and me), and all of us were equally distant from 'him', but, it was only Addy who bore the brunt (fruit?) of 'his' glaze!

The return journey was not as eventful, though we did come across an utterly honest Ticket Collector in our train, almost out of nowhere, just when we were struggling to get home. A pleasant surprise. A definite first.



As India kept losing wickets, my disappointment only got worse.

Some of the other pictures, during the cricket match...


A Pensive looking Addy and a confident Nitin. Addy's worst fears came true.


At the hotel corridor, while checking out.


A kid with expectations penned down. Loads of them. All Shattered.


Look at the guy in the left. He almost shook that same hand with me. Eeeks.

Youhoooooo!!!!

So a long cherished dream get fulfilled tomorrow. A small speck in the ocean it would be, but then, I don't mind it one bit.

Hope to be able to come back and talk extensively about it...

Till then, it would suffice to say that, it has been one helluva week for me, and it can only get better over the weekend...hopefully!

I will be back...

Yesterday..what a day :-)

There are days...and then there are days.

Yesterday was one such instance. A day not had for a long time. A day that winded it's way through a maze, getting lost, then finding it's feet, reaching climaxes before it should, and then not actually doing so, to finally hitting the bed, and hard at that.

The ample testimony to that is that it is way before the break of dawn today, the rooster would have just about reared the head and probably dozed off again, but here is me. In front of technology, to bring things to logical conclusions, that I could not yesterday.

Some day yesterday.

Advertising or over-advertising?

Something for those who want to get into hard core Marketing, and Promotion/Advertising:

A SMALL word on the coverage by Neo Sports for the ongoing India-Australian Series. Something that beats India's performance is the coverage, appalling is one word that comes to mind for starters. The main course gets worse.

Commentary is ordinary, but I suppose we could try to live with that. The worse comes when advertisements usually end up eating into the first ball of the over. Same is the case with the adverts. that end up blocking the replays when a batsman has just got out. However, what takes the cake is the new definition of the ticker advertisements that remain through out the match. By themselves they were distracting enough, but the advertisers have gone one step by adding sound (read noise) to them. So, we now have a Big Bazaar, saying "Sapnon ki Jhholii...." when the commentators would have (by chance) made an interesting point, worth listening to.

Irritating for sure, but now, as I sit back and ponder, I have one small advise for these sponsors. Sometimes, it is better, that you advertise your product, subject to the match situation. So, if India is floundering, and in a little bit of a bother, a typical Indian fan is generally pissed, irritated, angry, sad...and all sorts of those things that you would understand if you were a cricket fan. And then, if you go on to promote your product, it would be akin to adding fuel to the already raging fire. The marketing strategy may just back fire. I, for one (and my dad as well), have decided not to ever go to Big Bazaar to buy stuff. (and believe you me when I say that, there was a period of around four years when I started having only Coke, because Pepsi had eroded the deep recesses of mind with their highly irresponsible and idiotic promotions). There could be many like me, who would be equally appalled at the advertisers' lack of cricketing sense. Try and promote your stuff when the Team India is in a relatively healthier state, though I can also understand your concern in following that advise for this series, rarely would you find that kind of a situation. Anyways, it is better that ways, for you would not lose valuable customers, like you have now. May be you lack a domain expert in your marketing team, a guy who understand the cricket needs of this nation. I am looking for a freelancing job for the next 5-6 months as well, and I have a reasonable interest, and knowledge about this game.

Get the hint?

P.S. This is a part of the article I wrote on my Cricket Blog (www.sonofapitch.blogspot.com), but this particular issue is more generic and deep rooted.

Do we faffer that bad?

So I had my first pre placement talk given to me today. At the end of it all, I wondered.

I wondered about all the presentations that I have been a part of, not as a recipient, but as a participant, as a speaker. Did I gas so much ever? Could not recall one. In fact, I am a black spot in the name of MBAs, hardly faffer around in my ppts.

But what happened today, was the purest form of gas, that got released, not only as a by product of the experiment that the company tried on us, but as the main one. It stank. Awfully bad at that.

At the end of one hour of a continuous and a liberal distribution of gyaan, here is an excerpt from the Q and A session:

Q. Sir, what is the renumeration?
(No answer, conveniently moved on to the next question.)

Q. Sir, what is the difference in the pay packages of a lateral and a fresher?
Yeah, there would a difference.

(Yeah, that we all know, we asked for a number, a figure so that we could feel good, satiate our ego of having a three or four year work experience.)

Q. So sir, what is the pay package at the base level?
We will decide on that as we go along.

(go along? where? we would be gone, long time before that saar)

Q. What is the profile you would be offering us?
Anything of your choice, any vertical, any horizontal, any....anything

Q. So, could we apply for any domain if we wanted a BA profile?
Anything you want.

(yawnnn, should we come for the interview, or would you want to directly meet us on the date-of-joining)

Q. And what about the location?
We have presence in more than 50 countries, it could be any place.

(now, we cannot even meet you directly, don't even know where to meet, plzz tell us something, anything?)

Q. Sir.....
Now lets all watch a video...come on...

Lights get switched off. Video begins.

It ends soon.

We wake up around the same time as well.

I am still wondering about my presentations. And the QA session that generally follows it.