introspection..

There r some questions that have been bothering me for the past few days.. or have possibly taken shape quite some time back but surfaced recently..
am i doing to my best?
what am i here for?
what do i want from this place?
what should i do to get what i want?

these seem so simple at the outset.. but believe me.. the answers to these questions depend on my mood at the time of answering.. so do i think will be the case with you..
instead of answering from my current situation.. i thought it would give me a better idea if i go back n have a look at what actually made me take this course here..

basically.. after life at a college.. the work life was not all that fun.. except that i got my own money.. with no hassles on the spending initial years seemed worth the work.. then i saw that around me.. there were more engineers than kindergarden students.. n the number seemed to be increasing by leaps n bounds every year..
i thought the only way i could sustain my own career path was by either performing extremely well in the technical field i was in.. (which i suck at..) n shifting the companies to higher posts.. or by finding a place to study which adds hugest possible value to my career.. yea.. mba from one of the iims.. the idea at that time was that getting a monthly six figure salary would a cake walk once u get into one of these institutes.. i would not comment on whether or not that is true.. now that i m here..
that was the primary reason for my appearing for cat.. n as for the other reasons..
loved college life too much to miss if given a chance..
wanted to take part in every possible event i missed at REC..
wanted to enjoy every single moment..
wanted to feel the pride of studying along with the best..
wanted to prove to myself that i would be able to get what i want..

getting in here..
its more of luck than of hard work alone.. the kind of paper that comes.. the mood you r in during the exam.. the section u start with.. the questions you select..
everything matters.. there is a chance that people who deserve a place here miss.. but i strongly feel that every single person who comes in deserves this place..

i still remember how hard i tried to improve my resume.. n how bad i felt the need for time.. every time i thought of adding some point.. i used to feel.." i wish i had done this at college..".. that was the time i decided i would never ever want to say.. "i wish i had.... " again...

now that i m here.. n now that i know what i thought before i came here.. i believe i am able to answer some questions.. but some questions r still left unanswered..
but i did get a direction from my own recent past.. lets see what i can do with what i have..

Singla's bday..

It was around 5 in the evening when i came from outside.. completely tired n was longing to feel the smooth bed behind my back.. met shwetttaaa, sum n madhvi in mess.. came to know of the gift they bought.. a nice looking table lamp for the bday girl who still has 4 years (not sure.. 4 or 5..) in this campus (dont feel sorry at all.. she is a would-be-prof..)..

there were plans of decorating someone's room n celebrating chitras bday there. at midnight..
n sum was too friendly to offer her room in advance.. thus i came back to my room having seen the gift these ppl bought n with an idea of the plans for celebration..
then passed my time in room watching heroes.. recently developed this habit of watching serials.. started with avatar..a cartoon series.. which i found extremely addictive.. sooo addictive that even the scariest of exams couldnt stop me from watching these..
had dinner.. came back to room.. was feeling extremely sleepy.. continued watching heroes n was fighting / chatting with a friend...
at around 11.20 in the night.. received summs call for decorating her room..
bday caps were bought for our group.. colour ribbons for the room.. bday cake..
went to summs room along with the camera.. the moment i entered the room... could not hold onto my lazy attitude anymore.. thanks to summ, madhavi n ayush... who were doing the work with lots n lots of enthu.. sticking the coloured ribbons, packing the gift. n arranging the room for the party.. nn I and vipul were helping them.. time was running ever faster.. with only 10 minutes to go to 12.. then only 5...
the bday girl's room is only two rooms from summs room.. so the girl was locked in her own room by madhavi so that she wouldnt know anything about our prep.. summ was shouting at the top of her voice to finish it fast.. obedient ayush was helpin one n all... madhavi finally finished packing the gift..

the time to call chitra has come..wearing the bday caps.. we all moved to her room.. all of us.. joined by gnani.. shwettaaa... sherps.. nn manisha.. went to wish chitra... unlocked her from her room n began :"happy birthday chitra..."..
the next thing.. asked her to come to summs room.. lights were off.. door was closed.. we know that chitra did not know anything about the decoration part.. the surprise was contained so well that the moment chitra opened the door n came in, seeing the preparation for her bday.. she was overcome by her emotions, she could not stop herself.. tears rolled down her eyes.. hugs.. pats.. smiles continued..
we sure have etched an unerasable memory of a bday for her.. n for all of us.. our efforts have more than paid off.. message conveyed.. that we care for her..
rest of the things like putting cake on her face.. asking her to sing and dance.. taking photos all through this.. were going on.. n the party was over at around 1.30..

on my way back to my room.. having said gnite to all..
for a moment i thought of what each one would go thru at the time when we people have to leave each other n move on...
hard but unavoidable fact.. harder to digest still...

term 3.. all fun...whn is the time for reading..??

The term 3 started with lots of promises for exciting events all through... i think in terms of the number of discrete events.. this secures the first position with a huge lead..
one week into the term n there is this Sangharsh.. the IIMA-IIMB sports meet where the best of both schools fight out for the lead.. the event takes place alternatively at A n B campuses.. this time it was our turn to be the host.. a batch of around 60 students from A came down here... we won the tournament.. though considerable efforts had to b put by our guys to defeat the title defenders.. out of 11 events, we defeated them 7 to 4..
the next week, a meet with IIMK.. Sangram.. a huge contingent of 120 ppl came from their campus.. but to no avail... this was more like a cake-walk for our guys.. even our sledgers were not needed.. the home team won by the hugest possible margin here.. i think it was 11 -2.. out of the 13 events, they managed to take 2 events from us..
once these events were done... the inter-hostel sports events start.. n they go on n on n on... actually they r still on...
wat fun is it if only sports related things happen always??
soo there is this yamini, a classical music concert organized by spic-macay chapter here.. which is generally conducted on the eve of jan 26.. the concert starts on jan 25 evening n goes on till jan 26 morning.. awesome performances by the maestros who came n mesmerized the audiences with their amazing performances..
then comes our very own Unmaad.. the super-mega event which spans across 3 days n nights.. believe me.. once the events start there is no break for 3 days n nights from fun.. there r events which start at night 1... n go on till morning.. :) .. awesome enthusiasm levels.. huge crowds.. unimaginable amounts in prizes...

how boring wud the life b... if there is only fun.. :( .. how would someone b able to enjoy the light if darkness was not there at all ??? :) .. it sounds good.. but doesnt experience the same way though.. light being fun part... darkness being the exams part..

once the dust settles down.. now tht one n a half months have passed by, without any major progress in studies.. (i m referring only to the junta who come out n take part or atleast be spectators for the events that go on.. ), ppl tighten their belts for a good amount of mugging for the mids which have been waiting to rip us in all possible angles..

me in the mid of my prep for mids got bored n thought of writing this.. hopefully .. the recollection of those sweet memories.. soothens my mind in watever small way possible.. n lets me concentrate on how to find a way through..

inter-section sports..

Some part of our student community at IIMB lend their helping hands to the administration in keeping the rest of the students as busy in participating as they keep themselves in organizing..
1st term (3 month time period) is usually spent understanding the things v have to do over here.. by the end..sports events between hostels ('A' through 'L') start taking place.. it is deliberately seen that these events do not end in the same term.. the inter hostel events then take a break owing to the 2nd year's exchange program..
in the 2nd term.. first the summers... then this time the first year's inter section sports events.. events range from carom to basket ball to cricket.. the fiercest possible battles take place between the sections where people fight out as if their lives depended on these events.. every single word used in the previous line is true to the core..
four sections.. though the events r a lot in number.. some events garner a huge support n emotions flow extremely high during those... for one.. take.. tug of war..

the day started as usual.. except that there were more than normal number of classes.. right from 8.30 in the morning to around 7.15 in the evening... (with the exception of a chutki break from 1.30 to 4.00..).. by the end of which ppl (i thought would b tired enough to go n sleep in their rooms with their cozy mattresses put on..).. but amazingly or should i say logically.. lots of people were ready to support their section girls (now i know where all that enthu came from.. ) with all the enthusiasm possible..
little did i know then that what i was going to witness would stand tall amidst the list of my most unforgettable memories..
little did i know then the literal meaning of pushing the limits..
little did i know then that by the end of the day i would vouchsafe the fact that contorted faces, screwed up in determination and a show of will power, look amazingly adorable than the most glamorous of the faces..
guys welcome .. with a loud applause.. the Sexy (oooppss.. sec c) girls.. who made everything happen the way they wanted it.. it was their day... n nobody else could have stopped them..
the first match was between B and C (my own section..).. maximum allowable weight limit was already set n all the four sections' teams formed with around.. 6 girls each..
our section's enthusiastic girls were already ready with the replacements.. just in case... sooo two other girls were ready to take part..
Best of 3 matches.. our section won the first match against B fairly simply.. but the second one was a fight.. nobody in both the sections were willing to give up.. everyone was putting in their best of the efforts.. it took more than 3 minutes (3 minutes!!!.. sounds less??.. just try pulling something hard for that amount of time n see if u would b able to put in ur best effort for any more time.. try not stopping in the middle or else the other team wins...!!!) our girls made it again... they did not let go... each of the guys around, from our section were shouting "PULLLLLLL"... "DON'T GIVE UPPP" at the top of their voices.. (that hoarse voice was never mine.. :(.. ) which our girls were more than willing to oblige.. even when it meant exhausting the last iota of their strength...
victory fought hard... tasted sooo sweet.. before v could start basking in our hard fought victory against B.. our guys realized a mistake v made.. a calculation mistake landed our team members with an additional 10 kg.. v went to the sports council... informed them of this.. option was given to the sec B to either ask for a walk-over or a re-match... nn they were generous enough to ask for a re-match.. but v came to know later of the probable reason of their generosity.. it seems their team weight exceeded our team weight by another 1 kg.. but was not disclosed to us yet.. watever the reasons.. v had a chance for a re-match.. before our match with B, the other sections A and D played their roles.. A won the first round.. but the next two were taken away with much fight, by D... very good display of perseverance there too..
i missed the re-match between B and C.. but according to some credible sources.. there was amazing effort on the part of C again.. it seems B won the first round.. then our star puller came in, letting her aching shoulder ride pillion for some time.. still B seems to have managed pulling our girls just short of one step to their victory.. that one step was all our fighters needed.. one more step n v wud have lost n wud have been fighting the next game out for the 3rd position.. but.. our girls had some other plans in their minds.. they started holding their positions even when it seemed impossible to hold anymore.. they started pulling the team towards them even when every single part of their body ached unbearably.. our girls were literally dragging their bodies.. in an endless n burning desire to win... they pulled the rope back along with the B girls.. step by step onto our side.. till the whistle-blow announced our win... yes..v won... from a point where it seemed pointless for many of our own guys to even support our team to the same section guys going gagaaa over what they were witnessing... a truly amazing experience.. kudos to our wonderful section girls.. one more time..
the third time, it was an easy pull (compared to the last one..).. n there our girls stood, the winners of this match n the potential winners of the finals.. how i wish i was stuffed with enough vocabulary to explain the game the way i felt it.. also how badly i wished i had a camera then.. to catch the triumphant smiles on those faces.. i have never known hard earned winning tastes soo sweet..
finals between C and D took place at 11.30 in the night.. here too.. the first match was lost by our girls.. one of our players got injured and v had to substitute her with one of own never-give-up ones.. v all could sense the kind of tension that was mounting.. the second game started... nn loo.. the same determined faces were there again to see.. everyone there wondered how the same team could have lost to the D, the last time.. the fight by both the sections was laudable.. v won the second game.. the third had to be won.. everyone in our team was asking our girls to play cool.. even if it meant getting the second position.. v all could not bear to look at those seemingly fragile people put under soo much of burden.. dont even have an idea of what was on their minds... the third match was easier than the first two.. with much less effort.. v won...
the point here is v won despite the fact that our girls had to go through the pulling n holding of 2+3+3 games.. so of them have hurt their shoulders, some their backs.. nn some their kneecaps..
today when v ask them how they feel.. the answer v get gives it all... "nothing comes for free.."
the day was full of lessons..
do not under evaluate mental strength..
do not give up even when it seems impossible.. (at the risk of being repetitive.. i would also say... impossible itself has... i m possible..)
nn the 15 girls of our section deserve a royal treatment for all the effort they had put that one day in one game... tug of war..
hats off to the beauties with brains n tons of will power.. hats off to those fighters who were not willing to give up.. hats off to the team effort displayed by all those participants..
i m sure this is one experience that is written deep in my memories n would take years filled with many more of these, before it loses its glamor..

trip to wynand, kerala - part 2..

all of us were ready after our lunch for our first site.. kuruva island.. v had to travel for around 3 hours from our place..(thnx to the bus driver n the bus... if not for those 2 limitations, v could have reached the intended place 45 min earlier..).. a 5 minute boat trip took us from mainland to the island... 8 members per trip.. boat trip... (two words to describe the process.. n only 5 minutes... (only !!!!!)...somebody during the those seemingly never ending 5 minutes said that the depth at that point was about 18 feet... ohh gooodd... how i wished i had known swimming.. how i wished i had enough courage to say i was scary... how i wish my friends shared my feelings of extreme fear.. the fears finally proved worthless with me here to write about the incident..
once v were on the island, v all had to walk through jungle-look-alike place..next to some water stream.. it was not much of fun except for the unending photo sessions.. photography freaks were at their possible best that time.. giving instructions to one n all who were willing to listen.. i was too happy to b a part of obliging team, each one intent upon maximizing the number of face displays (their own.. if possible next to some beautiful lass or even better lots of lasses..!!).. finally v reached this one place where from v were supposed to do water trekking.. waist deep walking in flowing water..perpendicular to the stream flow direction.. the fun part of this was that all of us being first timers were asked to hold hands n walk one after the other thru the crossing.. though it sounds sooo simple.. it was not bad at allll... n i know for sure that this kind of a thing would have worked very well for an out-bound trip organized in the initial stages of our joining here, to let people know each other..better..
once our guide felt v have had enough.. he guided us back to the boats... reached our bus through the same stupid scary boat ride..
on our way back to our resort... some people said they were feeling hungry.. n here ... our CR was ready to guide the bus to some unknown place which increased our back journey time by more than an hour n half... (hail our CR... ).. n what did v eat?? bakery made biscuits.. :(
back to the resort after what seemed to be the longest ever.. day.. v came to our rooms to cleanse ourselves without taking bath (i dont remember how v did that..!!).. not a soul was ready to take shower... (it was freezing cold.. n no immediate hot water...).. had dinner..
the bonfire was lit.. n most of our guys sat around.. started playing the game "truth or dare".. each person was given the option of either answering a question(supposedly inconvenient) or dare doing something.. it was fun.. went on for 3 hours or more.. by the end of which most of us were dead exhausted.. all of us were off to beds..
our tour the next day started at 11 in the morning.. everyone ready for the boring bus journey.. but were enthusiastic in seeing the edaikkal caves.. the bus stopped at the foot of the hill.. nn before the steps( not in the literal sense.. though better than no steps at alll... ) start v had the option to walk or go by jeep for a 30 degree inclination..1 km distance.. nn some of us chose to walk.. it was one true tiresome walk.. eating amla n taking butter milk... at pit stops ..v covered the distance with some level of difficulty.. finally reached the steps.. n not much of climbing..
caves were fun... some of our guys went to the top of the hill... more than a 1000 ft.. rest of us were in to see the caves at 200 ft.. lots of inscriptions on the walls... after yet another marathon photo session... people were willing to climb down... the experience was different in its own way...
once back... down the hill.. had our lunch.. truly amazing one (had 3 helpings of sambar + rice).. started off back to the hostel by 3.30 in the afternoon... bus journey back was powered by our CR.. he was at his awesome best.. pulling people in...to dance for the tunes sung by the rest of the audience.. this went on till 10 in the night.. when v had to take a stop for dinner... the stop was on mysore-bangalore highway...
by 12 in the night v reached our hostel... tired n aching from head to toe.. but were still ready for the next day's show..

trip to wynand, kerala.. part 1..

ours was the only of the four sections which could come up with a trip and even put it to action in less than 24 hours..after much deliberations on deciding the location for the trip, people seemed to have liked the idea of going to kerala.. i do not have very clear idea of why wynand was chosen over back waters..(i think backwaters was not an option at all..considering the 2 days time we had...nobody was keen on spending much time on journeying.)..
i did not take any part in the trip's organization.. the resort was selected ...orchid resort.. n we planned to go by a non-ac deluxe bus.. everything set..we were ready to leave by 11 pm of friday night... n we were planning to reach the campus back by midnight of sunday.. (monday we had to attend a class at 8.30 in the morning.. :(

the trip began... 37 of my section mates out of 65 came..the bus left the campus at 12.15 in the night...thus began our journey to the unknown realms of kerala....atleast unknown to me.. ;-).. the writing on the trip would be meaningless without the mention of our loving class representative...henceforth referred as cr... he was at his best in keeping the crowd lively.. gave us an idea of the places v may b goin to owing to the time contraints...v had to chuck lots of places..
it was with 'sec c rocks'..that v moved out of campus...
we had 7 hours of journey supposedly..(but it took us 8.5 hrs to reach the resort...)..one section of the crowd was extremely enthusiastic with lots of singing all through the night... the remaining of us were saving our energy sleeping ..for the next big day...
i opened my eyes at around 7.00..nnn by that time..we were in kerala...no ...i did not read any malayalam board, neither did i see any beautiful malayali girl... we all could just feel it by the change in surroundings... there were trees, trees n only trees... the color green as if redefined looked entirely special..the only problem was with the roads..they were tooo narrow for 2 buses to cross each other...
everyone was restless to get down n enjoy the pleasant morning.. atleast for some time.. finally owing to some traffic jam (!!!!!)...(remember!! i said something about the roads..).. some of us got down for tea... it was extremely cold.. compared to the slightly convenient warm morning weather of bangalore.. v walked for sometime.. the bus cleared the jam n there v were ready..n refreshed to start again to our resort..
reached the resort...it was beautiful... though out of the city...v were told..(it was really hard for us first timers to differentiate between in-city n out-of-the-city in kerala...).. humans do not seem to exist at alll... (in line with the saying ...'God's own country'.. )..
our guys have booked the entire resort.. if i remember correctly there were 3 types of rooms.. deluxe, ordinary(i doubt if this is the correct terminology..) and tribal.. most of us would have come across one or the other of deluxe or ordinary rooms..(nothing special about them..).. but the tribal ones r TRIBAL to the core.. made of bamboo sticks.. n some sorts of other plant stuff.. i remember seeing some of these kind in discovery channel's program sometime back..
some ppl thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity..n asked for it.. i cant say anything as yet about their experiences with the bamboo houses..
soo there v were getting ready to visit the first place on our long list of sites... long ..atleast at that point of time.. unfortunately later v dint have enough time to watch any of those.. the long list shortened to only 2 sites... :(
will talk about our trip to kuruva island in the next one..

summers done....pheeewww..

dont actually know how to describe the process of summers here...
soo many companies...sooo few people...still there seemed to be tons n tons of tension around..
the summers process this year started on 11th november.. n it went on for 5 days.. on the morning of sunday..every single one of my batchmates were there.. sharp by 7 in the morning..
there were people who got offers, moments after the process started... one can then imagine how enthusiastic the crowd of 250 people would have been... on the other hand...rest of the people who were attending the interviews without getting offers, were sooo hugely tensed that it required every possible effort to console them n inspire them for the new day...
my turn came on the second day(which in our slang is day z point 5)... with giving interviews for 2 companies..to be very honest i cannot say i was not tensed... the faster i come out the better i would be..i thought.... nn the moment i got the first offer..i accepted... happy to have come out blooming.... after all it was only a summer project for me...my plans for finals r different..
now lets come back to the situation of others...
one can imagine the intensity of the fight when the country's best of the best take part...
the one amazing thing about this fight is that the people (opponents or competitors..) support each other...console each other n believe in each other...everyone helps everyone else..
every new day did present us with lots of excellent companies... (watelse can one expect from the summers of IIMB..??).. slowly as the days were passing.. more n more people were getting placed.. n obviously the tension was mounting to unimaginable levels for those who were not placed yet... it is such a pain as can be remembered all thru one's life if experienced once..
finally...the day (thursday evening) has come when every one in the campus was placed.. with all the batch having one or more offers in hand..officially the summers came to an end with a closing speech by our own 'DON', whose speech was interlaced with some amazing achievements our batch has made this time..
then the time of partying began... first in line was a wonderful dinner... arranged in appreciation of the outstanding effort put in by our wonderful seniors.. then the night of l^2..wherein our batch was all out of their minds dancing to whatever tunes were played...
thus i came to see the last day when the preparations which started before 3 months, which involved countless number of modifications to the resumes, sops.. followed by filling up of company online forms n attending ppts...
hats off to the effort put in by all those trackers n placement coordinators..who could manage this humongous event with such elegance..
now can i rest peacefully recollecting all those eventful days.. having experienced such events, life now seems lacking flavor.. lets see whr life takes me to... its awesome to leave control of ur life to randomness.. one has to experience it to understand it...