Meandering Mind

What have i been doing?

2007-09-09T12:42:00.000+05:30

Well, though i have been seriously considering applying to BSchools since Jan this year, i was not able to get done with GMAT till last month. One of the primary reasons for that is my loss of passport. Following is an excerpt from one of the mail's i sent to my friends early may:

"I have been involved in a series of Unfortunate incidents of late (Sounds like a movie title isnt it?)

I realized that i lost my passport when i decided to book for a date for GMAT and have been subjected to the revelry of the red-tape in India since then, running from pillar to post (read police station to passport office), standing in those cheerfully long queues for just about 3-4 hrs a day, getting my application finally accepted.
Got done with another wonderful process called Police Verification...

Oops forgot to tell ya that i contracted one of those beatiful things called "Chicken Pox" in the process, raising serious doubts about my immunity levels. My mum wrinkled her nose at least once in a day since, as to how could her lad grab this thing again at 25 when he successfully did it twice when he was 6 and 12 month old respectively. And she thought that was the end :)

We have an expression in Telugu which when translated into English literally would mean "A cocunut falling on the head of an already troubled and moaning fox" was what my condition could be equal to :) Though i amnt as wily as a fox."

I should have researched about my schools and goals meanwhile, but lazy thing i am, i spent my time singing and dancing like that darned grasshopper. Due to some arcane reason, Ross and Darden were stamped on my mind since last year. I was invloved in a few community activites too, at least one thing that i am satisfied about. GMAT got done on August 13th and it has been almost a month since. I took almost a week off revelling in my stellar score. Though i knew score and GPA are just two minor factors in the admission, i could not help but take a break. The gravity of the whole process struck me when i started researching schools by late August, by when few of my fellow applicants completed their first drafts!! I landed up choosing

Tuck - Quaint location, small class size, wonderful alumni network, great product strategy courses and talks with a few seniors from my alma mater at Tuck

Chicago GSB - Great City, Good Brand in Asia/Europe, wonderful career opportunities, flexible curriculum like my alma mater's, September 5th Information session at Bangalore, Consulting opportunities abound

Darden - I knew i will be applying to Darden since last year :) small class size, case based pedagogy, Dean Robert Bruncer, few class mates got admission for this academic year

Ross - Strong technology roots of UMich, hawkeye, Multi-disciplinary focus of the curriculum

I ruled out London Business School for now, as i do not have time to squeeze it into R1, given the snail's pace of my progress to-date.

I sent the recommendation links for Tuck and requested my manager and PL to work on them. I am yet to send my 3 annual appraisal sheets, stories that i would want them to quote, my career goals essay. I sat down to do that but ended by blogging :) Since my manager sits at my company's HQ at CA, it may be slightly difficult to co-ordinate things, but he thankfully agreed to take it up. I worked very closely with him for the past 3 years and he knows the worth of the work i did and the impact i created. I am confident he can articulate it in the best possible manner. My PL recruited me into the team and has been my mentor since then. After all the attrition that has happened in my team we are two most senior members of team in India.
I will request my current manager in India for the recommendations i will be submitting for the sub-sequent schools.

At the essay front, I am still grappling with the career goals essay. I need to complete three more for Tuck and the "shoes" essay for Chicago GSB soon and send these essays for review.
On top of all this, I am leading a community leadership initiative in my company and directing about 20 people to work for the NGO i am currently involved with.

I hope i land up with some progress by my next post.

Simba visited my blog and left a comment and boy! i am honored :). Thanks Simba, that was mighty nice of you.

Simba is my guide to the MBA world, hers was the first 'MBA journey' blog that i started reading more than two years ago. She is a phenomenal writer and a role model, inspiration and motivation for me. I am sure anyone who followed her journey will agree with me.

Why Darden?

2007-08-18T01:31:00.001+05:30

I think I have no more second thoughts to apply to Darden. I stumbled on Darden's Dean's (Robert Bruner) Blog a while ago. The concern that Darden has for International students is laudable.
Read about the Visa Situation for Darden's International Students in Robert's own words.
Following has been the phlisophy of Darden and when put in Robert's own words again feels like, yes this is "my call".

When I explain this to groups of prospective applicants, virtually no one walks away. Instead they ask, “Tell us more; in what ways is Darden demanding?” I think that three factors explain most of it:
**Case studies, not textbooks and problem sets. Cases require a lot of reading and are usually ambiguous. You can feel like you are floundering at times. There are no right answers (but there are many wrong ones.) And every case requires an action recommendation. If you’re used to rote learning, the combination of ambiguity and pressure to decide will stretch you. But that’s the point: every day, managers must take action in the midst of ambiguity. Real business life does not conform to sterile textbook problems. Case studies are great training for professional life.
**Active participation and the “cold call.” At Darden you are evaluated continuously. About half of your course grades will derive from daily class participation. Without warning, the professor will ask a student to begin the discussion in each class—this is the “cold call”. You are expected to come to class prepared each day and to participate actively in group discussion. To say what you think, defend your ideas, and make actionable recommendations can be uncomfortable for many people. But these demands mirror professional life. The feedback you receive on your ideas is immediate and compelling, a daily jolt of energy that lets you know how you are doing. Many students deliberately choose to attend Darden because they want to grow in the ability to communicate, think on their feet, and learn the discipline of effective professional preparation.
**Obligation to others. Any strong community like Darden’s makes demands as the price of participation. You will belong to a study group from which you will gain important insights and to which you will feel an obligation to contribute. The same goes for your section of 60-some students. Clubs, friends, roommates and family will make their demands. And UVA’s very successful honor system creates a community of trust and demands honorable behavior. If you want to play strictly by your own rules, Darden will not be your cup of tea. For its part, Darden will invest a lot in you--there is a great deal of support to help with Darden's demands: study groups, mentors, tutors, and very ready access to faculty members. This aspect of Darden will teach you how to contribute to and lead groups, how to get timely help, and how to help others grow.

I do not think i need any more reasons.

The GMAT

2007-08-18T01:01:00.000+05:30

Last few months have been a whirr. The best part could be the single yet visit Amar and I managed to the Chidren's Lovecastle Trust, Bangalore. This is actually in relation to my previous post The Light. CLT works with Digital Study Hall to create content that supplements the Government School education in about 40 villages in Bangalore. Its a wonderful Organization and am very excited to contribute something tangible to it.

Apart from the above, what kept me busy for the most part of the last few months has been the dreaded GMAT. After the debcble of the CAT last year, i decided that i had to take GMAT. Though an MBA abroad was always my first preference, i decided to take CAT because of monetary reasons. Somehow i was always not quite comfortable with listening to lecture with a bunch of fresh college grads. In any case, after visiting Stanford last April, i subconsiously developed a deep urge to hear those bells chime for me :). So here it is, I am finally done with the GMAT with a score of 770 (Q51, V44). To the uninitiated, those are the raw scores on 60 that GMAT gives. Q - Quantitative, V - Verbal. This is about 99 percentile as per the official score sheet. I also seem to have scored a 6.0 on the Analytical Writing Ability part!

I am done also with another dread called TOEFL. I dont know why would somebody need to take TOEFL when the GMAT itself demonstrates the Verbal abilities of a candidate. Some say, Indians can get a TOEFL waiver from MBA Schools, after all English language is the one good (or bad??) heirloom the Brits have passed on to us. Some other say that all schools may not graciously agree to waive off this requirement. Anyway, i scored a decent 112 on 120 in the TOEFL iBT, with minor hiccups on the "Speaking" section.

This is just the beginning and a fairly decent start, if am permitted to think so :). I need all the energy i can muster for the next few months to brave through the admission process. But, i am definetely not feeling smug, as i am very aware of the fact that, however stellar the scores are, schools wont even give a rat's ass :), if there is no story to tell. So...Miles and Miles to go. At least, I am almost done with short-listing of the schools, will post information on the same soon. But the sketch looks like:

1. Kellogs
2. Darden
3. Ross
4. Tuck

I am also thinking about London Business School and Insead. Need to research on these schools more.

The light

2007-05-31T23:13:00.000+05:30

I could not stop myself writing this post and clip this picture on my blog. This is unarguably the best picture i saw in my entire life.

This was clicked by Randolph Wang. One of the pioneers of the Digital Study Hall (DSH project. He was an assistant professor at Princeton and is now living in India implementing DSH to uplift the dismally ignored state of the Primary Education in India.
More information about DSH can be found here.

More about this picture in Randolph's own words, picked from the DSH public archives:

I just returned from, arguably, the best school trip we've ever had!
And this picture is probably the most poetic of anything we've seen :)

We came to a BETI village school to see an evening school. We had heard about this for a while, but this was the first time we saw it.

It was 6:30pm. Dusk was just settling in. The entire village was starting to gradually fall into darkness. Except for one dim but warm yellow-reddish light bulb from under one thatched roof (powered by the same battery that powered our TV).

This was our "school." Little kids, with books, under the moonlight, from all over the village started to walk into the "school." It seemed entirely business as usual to them.
They sat down. The teacher flipped on the TV. For the next 1.5 hours, they had an English lesson and a science lesson, and we were absolutely astonished by the level of quality instruction we saw.

The teacher and the TV in this case probably formed the best "team" I'd seen. She was pausing and resuming the TV throughout, but she was so in command, so confident, assertive, playful, natural, that you could be easily forgiven for forgetting the background she had. But what was perhaps even more remarkable were the kids. They clamored to answer every question, to volunteer for every act, and most amazingly of all, they got the answers right most of the time! The participation was deafening for the entire period and they literally wore down us adults first :)

I took time to step back from the school house and receded into the darkness that was the rest of the village. It was quite a magical moment :) There was this single orange dot in the distance, under a thatched roof, under a silver moon. And there was a cacophony of the TV "teacher", the "real" teacher, kids screaming answers, and lots, lots, lots of laughter, echoing in the night sky.

Randolph already reserved a place for himself in heaven for thousand years to come with just one picture of this kind :) Most importantly he reserved for himself a place in the hearts of thousands of these kids who are going to reach a place they deserve, like you and me.

Most remarkable thing is that, i worked with and saw a few NGOs that are doing wonderful work with respect to the upliftment of Primary Education, but by far, DSH is the only one that is scalable, obviously because of the amount of research that went into it and with best minds like Randolph's at work, i hope the much hyped pompous statements like "India Poised/India Shining" are going to come true.

So what is our own HRD minister and governement doing all along? Worrying about shoving a hand-ful of OBC students into the IITs and IIMs, ignoring the "BETI"s of the world to be taken care of by Randolph. What an irony!!!!

A picture is worth thousand words

2007-01-05T12:22:00.000+05:30

Dedicated to all the waves that touched my shore!

The year that was...

2007-01-01T20:27:00.000+05:30

Let this New Year usher in all the happiness that you were deprived of the previous year :)
Its the time to introspect, A full year has gone by and i would like to list out things that i learnt/did through the past 12 months

I seriously do not remember anything worthwhile that happened in January, excepting that on the December 31st, 2005 i had a group of friends at my place, they got drunk and puked all over the place! One of them slept the whole night partly on the mattress and partly on the cold winter floor! One almost killed another of my friends but for my intervention :)
Otherwise, I was stuck with work and weekend visits to Parikrma all through January.

Early February, I attended a Business Visa interview for visiting the US at their consulate in Chennai. I remember being humiliated to see the way some of my fellow Indians were treated. But hell, there were rows and rows of people queing up to peer at Uncle Sam. The interviewers are Humans too.

I was off to California in March. I still remember the plush green carpets adorning the floor of the Singapore Airport during my transit.

I stayed at Belmont and had a chance to wander around the Silicon Valley. I liked the way every occupation is respected in the States. You give the same respect to the room cleaner as you give to a cab driver or a receptionist in a hotel. Obviously being a pedestrian through a larger part of my life, i enjoyed the respect given to the people on the foot by the people on the huge fancy cars on the streets of Belmont. I remember (after coming back to India) standing infront of the Christ College in Bangalore and waiting for the torrent of the traffic infront of me to miraculously give me a way. It took some time for me to realise that, i have to wade through this quagmire myself by showing my palm to the angry people in the Santros and the bikes.
I visited Los Angeles, but my visit was restricted only to the Universal Studios and the Disney Land. One of the best memories i have from this visit was the half-day that i spent at Stanfornd University.

After coming back from US and after getting inspired by my room-mate, I finally attempted the impossible, I joined a moderately posh Gymnasium called Zone. Its 5 min walk from my house and i for the first time in my life realised how harmful those innocent looking pizzas are! I lost about 12 pounds and am in the process of losing more of that flab.

I met my sister after about 2 years in July. Though i had to accompany her all through her shopping spree in Life Style, Hyderabad Central and Shopper Stop (Effectively spending about 8 hours a day staring at overly enthused teenagers drooling over stuff that shouldnt cost them a quarter of what is written on the price tags) it was fun.

I started to prepare (perhaps prepare is too strong a word!) for what is voted as one of toughest competetive exams in the whole country, CAT. I used to spend a lot of my time watching T.V than the books. I did not fare well. But as i mentioned in one of my previous posts, CAT is not that big a deal. Though i am not going to make it, i realised one thing, I do not need to look at those guys who will get those coveted calls from the IIMs with awe. With a little bit of effort (and should we include the blessing of lady luck) i would have been there. I am a staunch believer of this little bit of wisdom that "Everything that happens in one's life happens for the better". Hoping that i have more in store in my life.

In November my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl "Anchita" and my mom has been at Sydney with her for the past 3 months.

At work front, I started assuming more responsibility, taking decisions, interacting with people from a host of countries. Technically i may not have learnt a great lot, but otherwise, i feel i learnt a lot. On a slightly darker note, i had to bid good bye to three of my close friends and team mates. Another of my very good friend's brother passed away. May his soul rest in peace.

And this new year, i spent quietly on contrary to the ruckus last year :) I was watching Audrey Hepburn's "Roman Holiday" one more time as the clock struck 12 with another friend who came to spend the New Year Eve with me.

Wishing every one a very Happy New Year once again.

Happy Birthday Niece Dear

2006-11-22T10:17:00.000+05:30

Sound the trumpets

and beat the drum.

To celebrate the birth

of a new little one.

A precious life

to cherish and love.

Sent to you

from the angels above.

Destined to bring you

happiness and joy

How blessed you are

it's a Girl!

Congratulations!

My dear little niece was born today morning 8.39 A.M Sydney time. Happy Birthday dear!

P.S: the poem wasnt penned by me :)

I trip, I fall..I rise and I fly

2006-11-19T18:17:00.000+05:30

CAT 2006 was a disaster. It was an extremely easy paper when compared to the standards set by the IMS SIMCAT papers.
I was under the garb of preparing for this exam for about three months now. Excepting the guilt when i was watchhing the T.V that i was doing something that i ought not to and am not doing something that i ought to (studying!!), i havent done much in improving on my weakness which primarily has been speed.

CAT has always been a suprise to anyone taking it. Perhaps the IIMs want it to be that way, occult, always changing colors and jolting the test taker. How much ever the coaching institutes brag, not even one test that these guys design come any nearer to the original exam. No offense to the coaching institutes though, these tests are good in their own but nah..either too difficult or too easy but do not have the subtle touch that CAT adds to each of the questions.

CAT 2006 had three sections. A superb Verbal section (BTW, i did not do well here), an extremely easy Quantitative section and an averagely difficult Logical Reasoning/Data Interpretation section. I was stuck at a pair of questions in QA that has a typo in one of the choices. I as it is have these perennial doubts on the authenticity of my calculations, i checked, re-checked and cross checked effectively spending those precious minutes that could be used for solving the other questions. Then i did the verbal section with my mind still peering at the disaster of the Quantitative section (by then i realised that Quant had been too easy and people would have fared far better), This section involved reasoning in every Question and my rationality was partly still looking back at the Quantitative secion leading to another reeling disaster in the Verbal Section. Now there is not much time for Logical reasoning and with two past disasters there is no prize for guessing that another would follow.

But i knew i had success within a whisker but i did not care to take it. The stakes here are simply too high. A couple of mistakes and you would land up in an abyss. While i have great respect for this exam and the people who do well in it, I do not think i am any bad just because i could not solve two more problems under sweat. I am not sour but i am not sure how well can this test gauge the preparedness of a person in becoming someone who could transform a business. Having work for about 2.5 years in the software industry in a great company and 0.5 years in a startup as an intern, i have much better a perspective about business and entrepreneurship than a kid from an IIT who could do math faster than i can. I do not know how easy/difficult is GMAT when compared to CAT but i have great respect for the admission process in schools abroad because schools there do not stop you from applying even if you have a measly score (as per the indian standards 700 is considered a decent score) in GMAT. They look at the holistic traits of the person than a myopic view that IIMs choose to take.

I know i can do better next time with CAT with a little more preparation (and obviously some more confidence), but i guess it isnt simply worthy enough to spend days to improve on my speed in Math/Reasoning. I rather spend my energies in doing more constructive. On the personal front, i need to start going to the Gym, resume cooking and need to concentrate more on my career.

It was good trying to bell you CAT but i guess i have to move on with my career and not brood over your craftiness :)

Hey, I amnt even feeling down anymore. Its a good sign of the erosion of my erstwhile sensitivities.

I trip, i fall..I rise and I fly

Edge of Reason!

2006-10-08T20:08:00.000+05:30

I know i have not blogged for a looong time. I am perhaps quite content reading blogs these days. There have been a lot of times when i was motivated to write something, like when i saw Renee Zelleweger in Bridget Jones Diary talking to a bunch of women in a jail in Thailand. She considers a misunderstanding with her boyfriend as an unimaginable tribulation. But when she gets to to talk to her jail-inmates about her bitter experience with her boyfriend they tell her how their respective boyfriend's drug them, beat, molest and make them slog so that they sit tight. She then realises how insignificant her woes are.

Perhaps each one of us think that what we are going through is the largest trial any one can be put to. But making things work when one thinks they will never, differentiates winners from losers.

Though i know i am writing this blog for myself, i did not try to offer the miniscule audience who at times read this blog anything but about myself. Perhaps though i felt like sharing something that i thought is pertinent i never did, due to my laziness. If i only i could achieve a fraction of what the following blog achieved, i will be extremely grateful to myself!

Enter hawkeyeview

A pertinent motivator:
Nothing in life comes easy

Who matters more?

2006-08-07T11:07:00.000+05:30

Following is a forward i just received from a friend.
You do not need look at the most intelligent person in your class, great performer in your team, the wealthiest person in your neighborhood with awe. They simply do not matter to you. Now the forward..

Take the following quiz.

You don't need a pen, pencil, or paper.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for Best Actor
and Actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series Winners.

How did you do?

THE LESSON

NONE of us remembers the headliners of yesterday.

There are no second-rate achievers on the above quiz.
They are the best in their fields.

But the applause dies.
Awards tarnish.
Achievements are forgotten.
Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Now here's another quiz.

See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult
time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and
special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
6. Name a half dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Wasn't that a lot easier?

The lesson?

The people who make a difference in your life aren't the ones
with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards.

They're the ones who care enough to spend personal time and
effort for you.

Broken Promises!

2006-07-31T10:19:00.000+05:30

I solemnly apologize for not upkeeping the promises that i recently made :(.
I am simply not having the time to get the photographs in the blog. I dunno how people do it, but i find it as a daunting task. I dont like the vertical stacking of the photographs and aligning them as i like takes oodles of patience and time.
Patience i do have, but not the time :(

I have been through the marketing strategies of a company recently. Hilarious though some of these stategies may seem, mud slinging is something that i am not quite for.
Company Y was setting up a conference at a city in CA. Company X had setup hoardings in the airport of the city that says "This city runs our products". If the executives of Company Y (not to mention the Customers of Y) arriving at the airports missed this, they setup advertisements (of company X) on the top of taxis that made a bee-line just at the exit of the airport. If any of the executives were blind enough to miss this too, leaving no stone unturned company X published its ads on the rear of the receipts that these taxi drivers give.

What exactly are Business Etichs? Does marketing not adhere to them? The competition may be cut throat but is mud slinging justifiable? (The above acts though not mud slinging were quite near being the same).

Will i ever hear those bells chime?

2006-07-03T21:20:00.000+05:30

Dearest Blog,

I am sorry for not updating you for long. I have not even told you a fraction of my travelogue. I was swamped with work and other commitments.

1. I promise you that i will complete the travelogue in about two weeks time.
2. I promise to be more open (concrete to myself) about my future aspirations.
3. I promise to leave some time for you (consequently to myself and my reflections)and keep you posted of my ideas and observations.
4. I want to tell you that in about four to five years time i want to be an MBA and you are going to be the witness to this journey i am planning to embark on!

This title may seem odd to you. I am referring to those bells on the top of the Hoover tower in Stanford that ring for the graduating Class of MBA students. I wish i could hear them for once and i swear i will never ask for anything else :)
I will write to you more about that at a later point.

I am feeling a bit down as two of my very good friends and colleagues are leaving our team for greener pastures. Wishing both of them all the very best with their respective careers.

I have been also reading this moving tale of a 15 year old German Jew who stayed with her family in hiding for about two years in a warehouse at Amsterdam during 1942 to 1945, a period in the decade of history that wiped out six million jews, a blot on Germany that the world can never forget, a period of wild madness that defied basic humane feelings of pity and compassion.Her innocence and intelligence mesemerises the reader and places before the reader the mindset of an adolscent female, the idiosyncracies and insecurities as she matures into a female albeit living in a confinement during the darkest periods of Human history. Its called "The Diary of a Young Girl" and the girl's name is Anne Frank.

I also read this wonderful book called "Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson.
I cannot describe how hilarious and fun the book was. Its about a year in the life of a speech writer to the United States President, Ronald Reagen who forsaked his job at the Oval office to join Stanford as an MBA student.
He being a poet (Not an engineer/consultant who plays with numbers but someone who
plays with words) found it extremely difficult to get acclimatized to the Stanford way of life and wrote this book as a token of decency of a person who found the last peaceful bend of a river to plant this sign board "Be wary, waterfall ahead".

More to come..

360 Degree Singapore View

2006-04-29T22:41:00.000+05:30

Following video is the one that i shooted from about 130 metres from the ground. From the revolving Carlsberg tower in Sentosa island, Singapore. You can catch the Siloso beach, Palawa beach on one side and the imposing modern buildings on the other, the Merlion in between.

Bank surrounding the Zoo

2006-04-28T21:22:00.000+05:30

More Wild Life

2006-04-28T21:21:00.000+05:30

Scintillating Singapore

2006-04-28T21:18:00.001+05:30

We reached Singapore after another weary 4 hour flight journey. Changi Airport is one of the best Airports in the world. Changi is better than San Franciso's, Seoul's and Hong Kong's airports bundled together.
Its larger than life and filled with plush carpets, greenary and travellators. It took us about 25 minutes to WALK from one to another gate when we had to change flights to San Francisco. Its a testimony to man made magnificence and grandeur.

Singapore National Zoo

2006-04-28T21:18:00.000+05:30

My awe for Singapore Airport is not just due to the grandeur, the facilities here are equally overwhelming too. We could easiy check-in into a hotel from the Airport and we took a cab (The cabs are far cheaper than they are in US and much more comfortable.) to our Hotel from there.

The very first thing that dawned on me once i entered Singapore is the climate. Its TORRID. Coming from the onslaught of the not so welcome rains and chill weather at the Bay Area in California this was a blow. It did not take much time for me to realise that the worst thing about Singapore is the climate and also it did not take long for me to realise theirs defense against this nature's bane. They have Air Conditioned almost the entire island. From Cabs to Hotel Lounges to Shopping complexes the whole place runs on Air Conditioning. Even the Singapore National Zoo had certain "Cool Zone" rooms that are Air Conditioned and where you can tend your scorched skin.

We had to choose between the Jurong's Bird Park and the zoo for the day. Though i was not very interested in wild-life we had to zero on the zoo as it had a Night Safari attached to it. Going to the Zoo awas after all was not a bad idea but for our moaning muscles from a 19 hour flight journey and not to mention the weather. We got to see whole lot of tigers, Kangroos and variety of birds.

After the Zoo we went to have snacks and not much to my dismay there was no vegetarian food around and the lady at the KFC counter looked at me with all the pity in the world when she came to know i was looking for vegetarian food. The whipped potato and French Fries too were made from Animal oil. I had to settle for an overly priced Pizza which neither looked nor tasted like one.

We went to the Night Safari next. We were put in a tram and by the time it was around 7.30 in the night. The safari took us around miniature Rain, Amazon, Himalayan and Indo-Malayan forests with the corresponding wild-life. It was an awesome experience. We could not take a lot of walking trails that could have exposed us more to the forest ambience due to our already squealing limbs. Flash Photography is a strict No in the Safari.

Halt at Hong Kong

2006-04-28T21:16:00.000+05:30

While coming back from San Francisco, our flight stopped at Hongkong for an hour. We were asked either to enjoy the stuffiness of the Singapore Airlines flight or venture into the airport. The caveat was that going out meant security check which consumed around 40 min!! so we did not get to see a lot of the airport but atleast we could stretch our worn out muscles and by the time they were rejuvenated we are asked to board.

Below are the two photos i managed to click meanwhile. This airport is quite similar to the one at Seoul. The passages are lined by giant glass plates on either sides. One side over looking lofty buildings and the other side the sea. Its quite a sight.

Travelogue

2006-04-28T20:59:00.000+05:30

I have been to the United States for about three weeks this month. So a lot of my coming posts will cover the same.
The experience has been rewarding. I got to see part of the west coast, San Francisco, Los Angeles and some parts of Silicon Valley.

I also stayed in Singapore for about a day and half. We have a lot to learn from this small country. Its exquisite. Its as lively (read bustling with noise) as any Asian cities and as sophisticated as any of the cities in the west.
Welcoming you to the three week chronicles....

Long Overdue

2006-02-23T19:26:00.000+05:30

This is long overdue. It was a long hiatus, not consiously planned though.
I have been reading a lot of blogs of-late. Some with a poweful aura and many not worth a look. I am not sure which of these categories my blog comes under. I will update the links of the blogs i read once i figure how could that arcane task be accomplished :)

One of them i read was all about book reviews and considering my love for anything written i fell for it instantly. Perhaps i too should start posting reviews of the books i read. As a prologue let me introduce the books that spent time with me for the past few months

a) Lord of the Rings (Awesome, Needs oodles of patience but worth the read. Drafted by Tolkein with such meticulousness that you wonder if its possible for hinself to do it again. He crafted maps, invented languages of scores of mythical races)

b) One Night At a Call Center (Average, dint like the climax. Though Chetan Bhagat has got miles to go to become a "respectable" writer. His sense of humor and a very simlistic style of writing (exploiting the typical youth's adolscent craving) is laudable and makes you believe he holds promise.)

c) Pickwick Papers (A young Charles Dicken's first work. Fun, fun and fun. Strikingly Wodehousian. Considering that i am reading this after his "Tale of Two Cities" though i am no one to judge the prodigy, he sure is one heck of a versatile writer.)

Life is Beautiful...

2005-12-06T20:55:00.000+05:30

Following is a post i retrieved from IMDB about Life is Beautiful (Its quite sweet a movie). A racist claiming that he isnt...:)
This came as no surprise to me for there are these kinds of people that exist in every corner of the world accepting racism/prejudices from their ancestors as a heirloom and as legacy and are even quite proud of it.

"Do being proud of my heritage and ancestors makes me a racist? I take it that you too, are proud of your heritage are you not? Every culture has attrocious acts and blood in their past, mine does as does yours. If that makes me a racist then I am glad to be one. The ammount of control Germany had over the jews during WW2 reflects the jew's inability to defend themselves, their inferiority, as it may be. This movie depicts Nazi's as bumbling idiots, which I find offensive and innacurate. Oh but of course, It isn't PC to be proud of your race if you are white. So I don't expect anyone here to understand or see the hipocracy behind the whole concept of "racism." The most "racist" people you will find are minorities, and yet they aren't labelled as such, as their beliefs are seen as pride and courage. While those of white descent are expected to bend over backwards to accomodate the shortfalls of minority groups, not to do so giving the person a label of "racist," merely because they are proud and feel devoted to furthering the advancement of their own race. I don't expect any of you jews to understand. You play for your team and I play for mine."

There is this dowry system pervading through a lot of communities in South India. I have some friends/aquantainces who speculate of how much they are worth..:) Its the same case here too, it has been a tradition descending down the chronology and is tastefully cherished. For, who doesnt love earning money for nothing? They argue that the bride's side is capable of giving the money and after all aren't they doing this for their own daughter? Quite charming is'nt it?
But what these guys dont realise is that, by design humans are prone to looking for the "sour" grapes. If "X" gets 20 Lakh Rupees as dowry for his son, Would'nt "Y" want to get the same?

Of Rotten Luck, Deluge and Catastrophies

2005-11-07T22:55:00.000+05:30

It all started on the evening of 28th October....I was starting for home from Bangalore for Diwali. At the nick of the moment i checked-in my code and ran down to collect money from the ATM.
I had a foreboding that it wud'nt work and how true, it did'nt. I ran up and borrowed some money from my colleagues and caught an Auto.
Coastal South India was under the spell of a deluge. Incessant rains brought normal life to a stand still. Chennai was submerged. Bangalore had its share of disaster too. I boarded my train which thankfully started on time.
Coming home i came to know of a disaster that befell on a train carrying hundreds of passengers from Repalla.
Due to the negligence of the track sureveying personnel the train tread onto a non-existent track over a bridge (the track was washed away by the furious waves) and hundreds of lives were sacrificed to mother nature's fury.
At times like this i reckon how insignificant a human is infront of the mystified forces of the universe and nature...

Dussehara!!

2005-10-17T13:38:00.000+05:30

I was at home for the last 5 days for Dussehra. My brother and sister-in-law have come down from Bhubaneswar. It was nice to while away time chatting.
The only miserable thing i did during my entire stay is watching a ghastly telugu film 'Chatrapthi'.

The train journey from Bangalore in the evening was a wonderul experience, I was standing at the door (whilst wishing that no body should knock me down) and contemplating the nature. Galloping Meadows, Running trees and vast stretches of greenary is a welcome substitute to the concrete jungle that inundates south bangalore. The evening didnt last long and i reclined on my berth and started to read about the 'Pickwickians'.

Hail Fractions

2005-10-03T20:51:00.000+05:30

Last Saturday, we were assigned the task of teaching fractions to 'Pioneer'.
'How many one-fourth's are there in a whole?' was the day's mantra.
I taught this so diligently till there could come no sound out of my larynx to Salman Khan last week. He is such a traitor, he swore he doesnt know a word this week.
Santosh started to teach this with aid of figures. He drew a circle and divided it into quarters and explained them with ease. I wish i too could gather the dexterity.

My First Working Visit to Parikrma

2005-09-27T09:44:00.000+05:30

Finally, i was there at Parikrma, Jayanagat at 9 o'clock in the morning. Had breakfast at Adiga's and went in with my friend. We were assigned the 'Pioneer' Class.
Yes, the classes here are not marked by numbers but names. Students here come from different back grounds and if a student is not able to cope up with the curriculum at a particular class, he is sent to the one prior. This convention would not let him/her to lament over the demotion. Student is moved from 'Pioneer' to 'Atlas' or from 'Atlas' to 'Helen' and not from V to IV or IV to III.
These are one of the 'feel' good subtleties at Parikrma.
I was instructed to take charge of two children, 'Salman Khan' and 'Mani'. I was supposed to review their test papers and help them out with answers.
Salman khan is quite shrewd but has extreme reservations about learning Math or anything related to Math!! Apparently he loves learning English :)

A saying goes in Telugu whose purport being 'You can pull a horse to a Pond, but you can never make it drink water if doesnt want to!!'
I almost choked of the effort to make him reduce 36/48 to lowest terms!!
But these guys are REALLY smart.
They have the fire and zeal in them to make it big. They come from such deplorable backgrounds, they dont want to spare any effort to make it big. Belive me, its very easy to instruct them. Just that it might take a li'l more time for me to mould Mr.Khan :)

Some time when we moved to 'Atlas' during the second period, some volunteers (apparently) from a well known OEM have come down and distributed chocolates to the kids. Right after that they opened up a banner that has their company name and an obscure slogan and clicked some snaps with the kids. That done, they congratulated each other for the novel effort, and laden with satisfaction derived from their service to the community they left the place (after spending about 1/2 hr distributing chocolates.)

No Offense, but i felt quite ill at ease at their behavior. Yes, they have come a long way. But it looked like they have only come for the snap that would be posted on their community service site. Nothing against their intention, but they should have spent more time in knowing what better they could have done.

I have to get back to work now..:(

Tale of Two Cities

2005-09-20T19:36:00.000+05:30

This is a wonderful book set in the 17th century of France and England was written in the 18th century by one of the literary genius of the the then-England, Charles Dickens.

The novel starts with a slow pace, gather momentum in the mid and runs into an extremely frenzy and nerve racking affair towards the end with an extremely unexpected and satisfying climax.

Its a love story beautifully woven into the fabric of the fury of French Revolution. Its about the 'Lady Guillotine', the one borne out of the oppression of the peasant class by the French Nobles.
Its about the fury that rose after intense subjugation to exterminate the King and subsequently the Queen of France. Its a story of love, sacrifice and revenge.

Do not miss this one if have'nt read it yet.

Why is One neither Prime nor Composite?

2005-09-20T09:58:00.000+05:30

I tried creating a post on the much talked Oracle's 'Siebel Acquisition' and the implications of the same (Hope one of them does not manifest as retrenchment). Seems like there was a problem with the proxy settings, it was swallowed twice and i am not doing it anymore.

I have been home for my B'day. And it has been seven years since i celebrated the same with my Parents. Took some cooking lessons from my mum. I have to put these newly acquired culinary skills to practice this weekend. Very much looking forward to it.
Also this weekend will be my first 'working' visit to Parikrma. Looking forward eagerly for the same too.

There are scores off issues that we trivialise and not think about. One of them an issue with Basic Math.
Why is 1 neither prime nor composite?. When my friend asked me the reason, i was short of words, i knew the reason but i could not explain it satisfactorily in a verbose manner.
Before looking down try to tell yourself the answer!!

A prime number can be defined as the one that has two and ONLY two DIFFERENT divisors. So our poor 'one' cannot come into this category.
A composite number should be decomposible with neither of factors as 1. Hence one cannot come into this category as well.
QED ('Quite Easily Done' as our Math Prof. used to put it :) )
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57036.html gives a better perspective.

Lesson Learned.

Vakratunda Mahakaya....

2005-09-12T09:27:00.000+05:30

"Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha
Nirvignam Kurume Deva
Sarva kaala sarvada"

This is a prayer to the leader of the "ganas" (the demi-gods worshipping Lord Shiva).
The purport being:

"Oh Lord with twisted tusk and great body and the one who shines with the brillinance of a crore of suns
Please remove the obstacles in my path
always and in all times"

Last Wednesday was "Vinayaka Chaturthi", a festival celebrated with great reverence by lots of Hindus. It has been quite sometime since i celebrated this festival, for the last year i was at Pune and the last 4 years before that, i was at BITS, Pilani (My alma mater).
I woke up early in the morning (8.30 on Holiday is sure early :) ), by them time my friend already cooked Vadas and Chakrapongali. We set the puja mandap (thanks to our maid) and lighted incense and oil lamps. Another friend (He claims that he is a Hindustani Classical Singer) started singing prayers (His singing is of no rarity to us, but this is one of the very first times we liked his effort). Then we went to the temple near by and came back to pounce on the food.

I called up my mum and she said that there is a mandatory chore that we have complete. The story reading!! Yes, we read a story on this occasion and then put "turmeric smeared rice grains" on our head. Since we did not have the literature ready for this story in our native language (Telugu), i read it out for the convenience of my friend (Bengali) in English..LOL!!!
It was very funny and we enjoyed the day thoroughly.

Parikrma - The Humanity Foundation

2005-09-12T09:02:00.000+05:30

Parikrama in Sanskrit means "Completing a Circle" or "Circumambulating". As there is no beginning or end to a circle, there is no beginning or end to poverty in India. It has been perennially part of the great sub-continent. "Parikrma" the NGO is becoming a "circle" of hope for hundereds of children across the slums of Bangalore.

A week ago we (me and two of my friends) have been been to Jayanagar to know what "parikrma" is all about. We were welcomed and were shown inside. First we met Ms Kalpana, the head mistress of three schools in Bangalore. She introduced us to the CEO, Ms Shukla Bose, who explained us what Parikrma is all about. It was very intriguing to listen to her account of experiences. She belonged to the elite corporate world at the United States, used to travel first-class always. Now here she is seeking content educating hundreds of children. A very unforseen transformation indeed. She and Ms Kalpana were very sweet to show us around the school, we went and visited a couple of classrooms.

In one of the classrooms children were differentiating vowels from consonants. I could not believe that this class was just 6 weeks old and children there were not aware of even an alphabet of English!!

We started off with creating a mailing-list for Parikrama volunteers. We are planning to visit the school every saturday to teach our bit to the students. Last Saturday was a holiday and this Saturday i am going home..:( Will have to go to the school only the next saturday.

More about Parikrma soon.

Boss Came to Bangalore

2005-09-02T16:50:00.000+05:30

So now that i am with the second blog, yes i have made some progress in my efforts and will be going to meet some people tommorrow morning. Wish me luck!!

The day before, our Vice President (Apps Dev) came to Bangalore.
There was a High Tea (Yes! We are stingy to host a lunch/dinner, you see) for the ocassion at NIMHANS (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH AND NEURO SCIENCES) Convention center. Can anyone believe that? Here comes the direct Reportee to the CEO of the world's second largest software company (with more than 9000 ppl working for him) and we welcome him at NIMHANS..:)
Jokes apart, the convention center was quite good a place, we were briefed about the strategies of the applications development for the next 5 years blah..blah..But it was just enough to look at the person (Our EVP, Apps Devleopment), he is an icon of sheer power and energy.

He created history with assimilating one of the world's largest acquisitions with nothing more than some hiccups. There was specualtion, prohecies of doom. He countered all that singularly (There were lotsa lay-offs too, one of the inevitables of a merger. I might have obviously not said this, had i been part of what was called the 'unfortuante incident'. :) )

Is India the fastest growing economy?

2005-08-26T22:13:00.000+05:30

I have been wanting to do this for quite long. Got lucky only now. My office cab left and i am stuck in the office at the dead of the night, (well though its 10 P.M, since its Friday it damned well be dead of the night being at office.)

Human mind meanders and mine does it more. I am currently 'one of the thousands' of the I.T industry guys working in Bangalore. Working, sleeping, working, sleeping, this is the cliched infinite loop of typical I.T guy's life. As of now mine is nothing more. But i want to come out of the cocoon, do other things too.....One of the many is outlined below...

India is a country that is being most talked out these days, Indian Economy the fastest growing, Indian engineers the brightest of the bay area. But this is not in anyway helping the kid who sits infront of Forum with an year old sibling, the old woman infront of Cafe-Coffee day waiting for a rupee to come in her way, the kid that begs everyday at the signal at St. John's circle.

I want to help them with more than giving few coins. Want to start doing something in my own way tommorrow (Have been postponing this due to my lazy friend since two weeks.) Only my next blog will tell whether i have been successful in my efforts.

Adieu.