I love my company guys!!!
Well am off for a jaunt to Singapore and Frankfurt and will only come back next week!!!!!
cya guys!!!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Back on Campus: Pre placement talk in Lucknow!!
It was one thing that I really wanted to do: Go back to Lucknow, where undoubtedly I spent some of the best days of my life. I could not go for Manfest, but as luck could have been I had to go to L for the pre-placement talk for DB. The best part was that Shefali also managed to convince her boss to go to L and so it was more like a double bonus!
So we flew together on Sunday evening and were supposed to give the ppt on Monday. We reached Lucknow at about 9 in the evening and were duly impressed to find a person standing with a placard with my name with DB written on it. Well my chest puffed up nearly like the ad of timesjob.com waala guy. Well the sad n scary part was that the driver was new to the area and forgot the way to the campus. All of a sudden we found ourselves stranded in the car in the middle of hinterlands of UP! Seriously it was kinda frightening. But then I decided to take things in my hand and finally got back on track. I was only wondering how others, who had no idea about Lucknow, might have felt in the same situation. So we finally managed to reach campus by 9:30pm where we had a couple rooms booked for us.
Now was the first bombshell shocker. The Alcom (alumni committee) had organized talk by us on “the careers in the banking industry in India”. It wasn’t tough for us, but the fact that I have never landed up on podium for any of the extempore competitions was one of the major reasons for my inhibition. But shedding those was easy and the talk went on fine for about an hour followed by another hour of Q&A’s.
We finally rounded up at about 11:45 and promptly went for a walk around the campus. It was kinda empty as campus (well it is placement times!), but we had an awesome time. We sat as the Nescafe and spoke to Nescafe waala-Alok for a long time. Had a maggi outside and sat near the fire in between Nescafe and Guptaji’s shop. We sat there for a long time before going to the library and revisiting the old times. I mean I have sat, studied and even slept through my days in lucknow in campus. I am sure I must have spent more than 60% of my time on campus in the library. Not necessary;ly studying, but genrally it was the most peaceful place on campus. Then we took the long route behind the library towards MDP centre, then the main gate and finally patanjali. We were chocked with memories and finally decided to call it a day at about 2..
Got up early and went to Fauji! Ordered some dal fry and jeera aaloo to go with it. Vikalpa, the HR from DB Bangalore was there and so went and met her as well. Ajay, my boss who was supposed to give the ppt had run out of battery and was incommunicado. We finally managed to call him up and sent him a pick-up car which meant that there was delay in the ppt by nearly an hour. Since students were already in the classroom, I had to take the stage again and spent about 45 odd minutes giving another gyan session to the guys. Finally Ajay came and we gave the ppt which again went over time (mainly in the Q&A section). One thing I realized over this period was that as a student people are anxious to get good placements, but believe me, the companies are more nervous than the students to get good guys!
I never knew that while on campus, but this is 100% true..
After Ajay and Vikalpa had left, we went back to the Nescafe and had another round of maggi. It was nice knowing that H9 won Sikander this year around. Well in my first year we came agonizingly close to winning it. But the fact that our juniors have done us proud is one of maximum pleasure and satisfaction.
We sat with Mohini and a lot of other guys and talked our way to complete nonsense. It sometimes is fascinating how in campuses you are completely at ease with yourself and have no real worries to think about.
It was like coming home….
Well met up with Chauri, who had also come up for Deloitte PPT and then spoke for a long time with Neerja Pandey, my fave prof on campus. And when it was time to leave, I can say that except for the tears, I was crying like a baby..
I said it was like coming home, and now it was time to leave home…
A home that never really was mine, but will always be a part of me..
I miss Campus Life.
I miss Campus.
What the hell
I MISS LIFE!!
So we flew together on Sunday evening and were supposed to give the ppt on Monday. We reached Lucknow at about 9 in the evening and were duly impressed to find a person standing with a placard with my name with DB written on it. Well my chest puffed up nearly like the ad of timesjob.com waala guy. Well the sad n scary part was that the driver was new to the area and forgot the way to the campus. All of a sudden we found ourselves stranded in the car in the middle of hinterlands of UP! Seriously it was kinda frightening. But then I decided to take things in my hand and finally got back on track. I was only wondering how others, who had no idea about Lucknow, might have felt in the same situation. So we finally managed to reach campus by 9:30pm where we had a couple rooms booked for us.
Now was the first bombshell shocker. The Alcom (alumni committee) had organized talk by us on “the careers in the banking industry in India”. It wasn’t tough for us, but the fact that I have never landed up on podium for any of the extempore competitions was one of the major reasons for my inhibition. But shedding those was easy and the talk went on fine for about an hour followed by another hour of Q&A’s.
We finally rounded up at about 11:45 and promptly went for a walk around the campus. It was kinda empty as campus (well it is placement times!), but we had an awesome time. We sat as the Nescafe and spoke to Nescafe waala-Alok for a long time. Had a maggi outside and sat near the fire in between Nescafe and Guptaji’s shop. We sat there for a long time before going to the library and revisiting the old times. I mean I have sat, studied and even slept through my days in lucknow in campus. I am sure I must have spent more than 60% of my time on campus in the library. Not necessary;ly studying, but genrally it was the most peaceful place on campus. Then we took the long route behind the library towards MDP centre, then the main gate and finally patanjali. We were chocked with memories and finally decided to call it a day at about 2..
Got up early and went to Fauji! Ordered some dal fry and jeera aaloo to go with it. Vikalpa, the HR from DB Bangalore was there and so went and met her as well. Ajay, my boss who was supposed to give the ppt had run out of battery and was incommunicado. We finally managed to call him up and sent him a pick-up car which meant that there was delay in the ppt by nearly an hour. Since students were already in the classroom, I had to take the stage again and spent about 45 odd minutes giving another gyan session to the guys. Finally Ajay came and we gave the ppt which again went over time (mainly in the Q&A section). One thing I realized over this period was that as a student people are anxious to get good placements, but believe me, the companies are more nervous than the students to get good guys!
I never knew that while on campus, but this is 100% true..
After Ajay and Vikalpa had left, we went back to the Nescafe and had another round of maggi. It was nice knowing that H9 won Sikander this year around. Well in my first year we came agonizingly close to winning it. But the fact that our juniors have done us proud is one of maximum pleasure and satisfaction.
We sat with Mohini and a lot of other guys and talked our way to complete nonsense. It sometimes is fascinating how in campuses you are completely at ease with yourself and have no real worries to think about.
It was like coming home….
Well met up with Chauri, who had also come up for Deloitte PPT and then spoke for a long time with Neerja Pandey, my fave prof on campus. And when it was time to leave, I can say that except for the tears, I was crying like a baby..
I said it was like coming home, and now it was time to leave home…
A home that never really was mine, but will always be a part of me..
I miss Campus Life.
I miss Campus.
What the hell
I MISS LIFE!!
Weekend at home!!!!!
Apart from that, its been an eventful week that gone by. It was a week of many firsts, like first time going back to campus etc..
I traveled to my alma mater!! Yes, went to Lucknow for the pre placement talk. But before that I spent a couple of days at home. I will go day by day on that:
Saturday:
Saturday was off and so we (shefs n me) took a lazy morning 11Am Jet Flight to delhi. We reached there early and had a good time sitting at the amazing jet terminal in the Bombay airport. The view from that CCD is one of the best that I have seen and that fact it was warm and sunny outside made the sight from inside even better. We heard names of Dia Mirza and Ritesh Dekhmukh being announced at the departure terminal and ended up having VJ Ranvijay of MTV in our flight! Well the flight was nearly on time and for the first time, I had people waiting for me at the airport! Well Shefali’s siblings had come along with her mom to see their soon-to-be part of the family! Well so I was thrusted upon with a bouquet of flowers by a coy and smiling set of brother and sister, who were most interested in getting this piece of history captured on the camera. So I duly stood there and posed like a pro on the red carpet for the shutterbugs!
Lets keep this aside. Mom and Dad had come to pick me up at the airport and we subsequently drove down back to Ghar. Driving in Delhi roads is like driving a hot knife through cheese. Smoooooooooooth…
One new thing was the opening of the huge flyover on NH8 and the start of toll at the flyover. Had tons of rajma chawal for lunch followed by a quick power nap. In the evening went out with mom n dad to the mall and bought a pair of designed saris for my mom. It’s nice to see moms glow with pride and happiness in seeing their kids buy something for them. We called it a day with some coffee and hot chocolate at the Barista Café.
Sunday:
Woke up really really late. After all it was a Sunday. Had my customary cup of tea along with the newspaper (waah waah waah).. We had a late lunch and then rushed off to DSOI where we were scheduled to meet Shefali n her mom. Everything was in order till the time I managed to see the correct time on my ticket. I was under the assumption that the flight was at 8 and had told mom dad accordingly. All of a sudden I discovered that it was instead at 7. Thus started a hurry up process and so we rushed off to DSOI and almost immediately left for the airport where we had to catch a flight to Lucknow!!
More on this in the next blog!
I traveled to my alma mater!! Yes, went to Lucknow for the pre placement talk. But before that I spent a couple of days at home. I will go day by day on that:
Saturday:
Saturday was off and so we (shefs n me) took a lazy morning 11Am Jet Flight to delhi. We reached there early and had a good time sitting at the amazing jet terminal in the Bombay airport. The view from that CCD is one of the best that I have seen and that fact it was warm and sunny outside made the sight from inside even better. We heard names of Dia Mirza and Ritesh Dekhmukh being announced at the departure terminal and ended up having VJ Ranvijay of MTV in our flight! Well the flight was nearly on time and for the first time, I had people waiting for me at the airport! Well Shefali’s siblings had come along with her mom to see their soon-to-be part of the family! Well so I was thrusted upon with a bouquet of flowers by a coy and smiling set of brother and sister, who were most interested in getting this piece of history captured on the camera. So I duly stood there and posed like a pro on the red carpet for the shutterbugs!
Lets keep this aside. Mom and Dad had come to pick me up at the airport and we subsequently drove down back to Ghar. Driving in Delhi roads is like driving a hot knife through cheese. Smoooooooooooth…
One new thing was the opening of the huge flyover on NH8 and the start of toll at the flyover. Had tons of rajma chawal for lunch followed by a quick power nap. In the evening went out with mom n dad to the mall and bought a pair of designed saris for my mom. It’s nice to see moms glow with pride and happiness in seeing their kids buy something for them. We called it a day with some coffee and hot chocolate at the Barista Café.
Sunday:
Woke up really really late. After all it was a Sunday. Had my customary cup of tea along with the newspaper (waah waah waah).. We had a late lunch and then rushed off to DSOI where we were scheduled to meet Shefali n her mom. Everything was in order till the time I managed to see the correct time on my ticket. I was under the assumption that the flight was at 8 and had told mom dad accordingly. All of a sudden I discovered that it was instead at 7. Thus started a hurry up process and so we rushed off to DSOI and almost immediately left for the airport where we had to catch a flight to Lucknow!!
More on this in the next blog!
End of Rotations: Shackling My Freedom!!!
So this is pretty much as vella as you can get. Well I am on the verge of finishing my one year rotation (read complete uselessness). I have been completely futile and have not contributed a single penny to the banks top line, but have created a major dent on the bottom-line..
So how do I feel? Well for one, I am wondering if its just rust on me, or have I been left fatally incapable of putting in hard work. Past one year, that too after the hectic MBA regime, has been a cake walk, or for that matter, only a cake, no walk at all! But now as I look forward to joining capital market sales, I am just wondering whether I can manage that or will be left puffing for breathe. But on the positive side, I feel a know thousands of people in the bank, having learnt from them and now will work with them. I feel I know more about the different aspects of banking than most people can ever imagine. How good it turns out to be in the long term will be seen only in long term!!!
So how do I feel? Well for one, I am wondering if its just rust on me, or have I been left fatally incapable of putting in hard work. Past one year, that too after the hectic MBA regime, has been a cake walk, or for that matter, only a cake, no walk at all! But now as I look forward to joining capital market sales, I am just wondering whether I can manage that or will be left puffing for breathe. But on the positive side, I feel a know thousands of people in the bank, having learnt from them and now will work with them. I feel I know more about the different aspects of banking than most people can ever imagine. How good it turns out to be in the long term will be seen only in long term!!!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Yesterday!! Surprise Surprise!!
Well yesterday was not really a special day, but there was something special about it.
Yesterday I booked a table at the Intercontinental in the morning for myself and Shefali at their renowned Kebab Corner. I kept Shefali totally out of the loop while doing so. It was only after I met her in the evening that I told her about eating out. Even then I told her that we would go to a cheap place in Marine Drive. And so it was nice to see her smile and be happy on finding that cheap place to actually be Intercontinental.
Personally I have been to places that have the ambience and places that have good food. This was one place that had both and that too in large volumes!
The Galawti Kebabs (Shefali’s Fave) were simply fantabulous, and so was the lamb stew. Finally we feb ourselves fat to some wonderful Mughlai Daal along with some Shahi Aaloo!
The place buzzed with activity. While I was doing the booking in the morning I was wondering if there was at all any need to do so on a Wednesday evening. I was expecting not more than 10% occupancy, but was astonished to infact find a waiting there!! Blessed be my foresight!!!
The sumptuous dinner was followed by a couple of pans on offer at the exit of the reception (Thank God they were free!!!)
Another hole in the pocket, but another evening well spent.
Yesterday I booked a table at the Intercontinental in the morning for myself and Shefali at their renowned Kebab Corner. I kept Shefali totally out of the loop while doing so. It was only after I met her in the evening that I told her about eating out. Even then I told her that we would go to a cheap place in Marine Drive. And so it was nice to see her smile and be happy on finding that cheap place to actually be Intercontinental.
Personally I have been to places that have the ambience and places that have good food. This was one place that had both and that too in large volumes!
The Galawti Kebabs (Shefali’s Fave) were simply fantabulous, and so was the lamb stew. Finally we feb ourselves fat to some wonderful Mughlai Daal along with some Shahi Aaloo!
The place buzzed with activity. While I was doing the booking in the morning I was wondering if there was at all any need to do so on a Wednesday evening. I was expecting not more than 10% occupancy, but was astonished to infact find a waiting there!! Blessed be my foresight!!!
The sumptuous dinner was followed by a couple of pans on offer at the exit of the reception (Thank God they were free!!!)
Another hole in the pocket, but another evening well spent.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Mediocre But Arrogant: A Review!
Another from the list of ever increasing books written by B School grads. It again shows that one thing that all MBA’a are good in is “bakar”.When I started reading this book and was about 50 odd pages into it, I had a feeling that this was a completely useless and utterly hopeless read. It went on and on explaining the place MIJ (read XLRI) and also the teaching methods of the various professors. It looked like another brick in the wall or even worse another straw in the hay. But half way down the road and it did change gears a bit. It became a book not just for people from XLRI, but for the student community as a whole. The triumphs and tribulations that the Abbey faced was irrespective of the campus that he came from, and that is what relates to an average reader. Though it does go the ‘5 point someone’ way, but on the whole you enjoy the whole experience.
Well though the best part is that you can read it wholly in probably not more than two sittings!!!!
And I would be frank enough to say that books like these makes me want to write a book myself on campus life and all.. !!!
The Great Indian Novel: A Review
It is by far one of the best novels that I have read in the recent times. This is product of sheer brilliance.It draws a direct mapping of the characters from the Mahabharata, the great Indian mythology with the contemporary modern India History. So Bhishma becomes Gangaji, who infact is Gandhi, while Dhritrashtra becomes Nehru. Similarly Pandu becomes Subhash Chandra Bose while Duryodhan become Duryodhani or Indira Gandhi. But the book goes further than simple characterization of the political heads, it goes all the way to drawing parallels between them both in deeds as well as behavior.
It is a very well written book which changes to prose at times. Especially the whole story about Pandu (or Subhash Chandra Bose) in prose is highly recommended. One of the best books ever!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Updates from my life!!!!
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I last wrote.. So this time too it will be a collection of a lot of things;
My 25th Birthday:
I celebrated a quarter of a century this year on the 23rd Jan. Birthdays are always a happy moment when you are kids and when you see that growing up has more pros than cons. But as the number of candles increases in the cake, the area left on the pie reduces!!! So to say, the sweetness from the birthdays decreases. But then I have always told myself
“Growing old is compulsory, growing up is not!”
Such thoughts aside, I believe this was probably my best birthdays ever. Everyone got together at Shefali’s and after the customary ‘bumps’ I was flooded with gifts from Shefali! She had meticulously planned the whole thing out for me. She had ordered a cake from ITC (believe me it was crazily delicious!), had made good use of my absence during the weekend(I had gone for an office outing) to buy me a wonderful/ beautiful guitar, had got me a cuddly stuffed tiger (whom I call Tommy, much to her annoyance), and finally had planted birthday cards in almost all the places I went to. Well it was more of a treasure hunt of the cards!
I was completely flattered by the whole thing and so decided to give a major treat. So we went to this awesome place called the “Gallops” which is inside the race course and had an amazing dinner. This place not only had pretty good food but also had an ambience to die for! The bill did leave a big hole in the pocket, but filled my heart with loads and loads of joy!!
Plans of settling down:
And while I was celebrating the 25 yrs of existence in this world, about 6000 kms away my parents were busy discussing ways of curbing my independence!!!!
Well finally after 2 yrs (/well nearly!!) of courtship and sleepwalking through all serious talk, we (me and shefs!!) decided to fast track the process and have now passed on the baton to our parents to start the rounds of negotiation trying smoothen all rough edges and tune the finer ends!
But all’s well that ends well. The first round of meeting at the neutral venue were highly successful and so I am hoping that the final decision will be taken sooner than later!!!
Rest later!!!
I have loads n loadsa work!!!!!
Will Write later!
My 25th Birthday:
I celebrated a quarter of a century this year on the 23rd Jan. Birthdays are always a happy moment when you are kids and when you see that growing up has more pros than cons. But as the number of candles increases in the cake, the area left on the pie reduces!!! So to say, the sweetness from the birthdays decreases. But then I have always told myself
“Growing old is compulsory, growing up is not!”
Such thoughts aside, I believe this was probably my best birthdays ever. Everyone got together at Shefali’s and after the customary ‘bumps’ I was flooded with gifts from Shefali! She had meticulously planned the whole thing out for me. She had ordered a cake from ITC (believe me it was crazily delicious!), had made good use of my absence during the weekend(I had gone for an office outing) to buy me a wonderful/ beautiful guitar, had got me a cuddly stuffed tiger (whom I call Tommy, much to her annoyance), and finally had planted birthday cards in almost all the places I went to. Well it was more of a treasure hunt of the cards!
I was completely flattered by the whole thing and so decided to give a major treat. So we went to this awesome place called the “Gallops” which is inside the race course and had an amazing dinner. This place not only had pretty good food but also had an ambience to die for! The bill did leave a big hole in the pocket, but filled my heart with loads and loads of joy!!
Plans of settling down:
And while I was celebrating the 25 yrs of existence in this world, about 6000 kms away my parents were busy discussing ways of curbing my independence!!!!
Well finally after 2 yrs (/well nearly!!) of courtship and sleepwalking through all serious talk, we (me and shefs!!) decided to fast track the process and have now passed on the baton to our parents to start the rounds of negotiation trying smoothen all rough edges and tune the finer ends!
But all’s well that ends well. The first round of meeting at the neutral venue were highly successful and so I am hoping that the final decision will be taken sooner than later!!!
Rest later!!!
I have loads n loadsa work!!!!!
Will Write later!
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