You just love chai(tea for some). All you need is a cup to lighten up your mood. Add some ginger or occasionally some cardamom and nothing in this world can beat it. All of a sudden you decide to move to a new place. Suddenly finding a decent cup of tea becomes a treasure hunt. There is no decent place to have tea nearby. So you decide to have coffee as a substitute. Suddenly you realize your coffee affection is replacing your love for tea. But there is small problem.

Sometimes you get salty coffee instead of one with sugar. It tastes awful but you don’t have much choice. You are never sure when you will get the salty one instead of sweet. With time you realize sophisticated coffee can never match a simple cup of tea. So you crib on till you don’t get tea.

Now apply same situation to someone who has to move to new city for any reason. Tea is your old city which was you home so far and you loved it like anything. Coffee is posh new working place of yours. Cities like blore n hyd. (I tend to think in terms of IT junta, non-IT ppl pardon me here !) Salt is occasional problems you face traffic, high cost, etc etc …. Sometimes you love it for sometime but soon due to saltness start hating it and again cribbing that this city is not so gud. Delhi is far better than blore. All of a sudden you paint it all black n white.

Everyday i come across this kind of discussion about cities in some form or the other. I myself have been staying out of home for close to 6 yrs now and cud never understand how can you love or hate a city ?
You enjoy a lovely meal with your frens you will love the same place which you were cursing last weekend sitting alone @ your rented palace. I believe no city can be gud or bad its all upto you to make it so.
It might not be a stirring one but thats my 2 cents on this city debate! What do you feel about this i love my city debate?

Well after 2 months of CAT results here was the D day. GDPI for IIMK. My lone IIM hope this yr. So without any further BC let me start rolling as u ll find lot of it in experience below 🙂

GD : 10 people participating. All were active except couple of them who spoke very less.No fish market not much cross cutting.
Topic : A management institute is celebrating its annual fest. They have three bands whom they can invite. But all the students are split over which one to call and each band has 1/3rd votes by students. How should they decide which one to invite.

5 mins to think, 15 to discuss.

Scope was very wide could have included lot of points. I didn’t start intentionally. I usually prefer the 2nd slot to speak, so grabbed it here. Gave a lot of points initially. Also people were allowing me to speak at will  After around 10 mins it seemed everyone is out of points and no one was venturing to speak anything. So yours truly took the challenge and gave not so intelligent point of considering the base city of bands and how much will it cost to transport and keep at campus :):):) Amazingly all found it so interesting that it could lead to a discussion for 5 more mins presenting an impression that people are full of ideas here.

Overall I would rate myself somewhere around 8/10 in GD. Would have given 7 myself after GD but you will find reason in PI experience for additional mark.

PI: I was 9th to be grilled. For previous 8 it was ranging from 15 mins to 40 mins. Most were grilled on maths …. Mainly stats and probability even though all of them were workex guys.

Prof P1 : Accounts n Finance prof.
Prof P2: HR prof.
M : Me

P2: So Sumeet you gave a lot of points in GD and talked a lot. (Oh yeah +1 for GD score)
M: sir I participated in lots of debates n all. Its natural for me to talk 🙂
P1: So that’s like one step further from there. All smiles 🙂
P1:Tell me one point which didn’t make sense. Anything that is not possible that you said.
M: Sir I made all valid points. I organised fest in college so I know wat it takes for such things.
P2: No no there has to be something which is non feasible.
Me: I don’t think so sir. All were feasible solutions.
P1 has my data form and joins in P2. Asks me something must be there.
Me: (Can’t drag it any further with no no kind ans) Sir I said lets go and talk to other colleges in city which band are they calling for thr fest. So if all of us choose diff. bands then the fest crowd which is same in most cases will get to listen all bands.
P2 n P1: No you said lets have poll at all colleges …. Both have smirks like they caught me redhanded.
M: Corrected I was targeting fest co-ordinators n not the junta poll.
Both seemed okay with my ans and moved on.

P2 has my certis n P1 has data form.

P1: You seem to be inborn teacher. Why do you want to waste time in management? Go for MS n Phd. (I had mentioned my parens being teachers n my alternative career option in Edu n Research)
M: (Had prepared this ans well before) talked about importance of both n which they are most effective. Gave reasons collating it with top down and bottom up approaches of progress. Talked about my leadership skills n how important they are for me …..

P1 : So do gud leaders have to be gud managers ?
M: gave fundas about both have importance in different scenarios. How it is imp for a leader to be gud manager n vice versa.
P1: He gave some funda about leaders delegating work to managers and asked so you mean Gandhi was a gud leader and he managed lot of ppl during dandi march without any manager.
M: (inner me: Yaar yeh kya ho raha hai !! ) Sir his ideals were so strong that he never needed any manager to manage ppl. They were controlled with his ideals only.
P1: Pushed further on same issue. Put it in different words and asked same thing.
M: Gave example of narayan murthy. Said he is like Gandhi to infy . I never believed in ideals can be really implemented but he proved me to be wrong. His ideas can be seem everywhr in company which is driving it. (Now I knew wat will be his next que. So already started thinking abt it :):))
P1: So infy shudnt need any managers to run it. (Yeah I knew u r gonna ask it :))
M: Managers have definite role in different ways. For ex. M D Pai is the reason Infy is so respected today. Had he not been there it would never have been wat it is today. So ideals alone are not all there are others things to it as well.
P1: Wat did he do ?
M: He opened up infy account books and made it all transparent.

P1 seemed totally satisfied with this duel of around 5-7 mins. But my big mouth had other plans and somewhere blurted out word ‘balance sheet’.

P1: You read infy balance sheet ?
M: (Had crammed all infy numbers ) Yes sir, but not very recently.

Then for next 1 min he gave me a lecture to make me believe that employees are not reported in balance sheet because they can’t be counted in money nos. like other ‘intangibles’ without saying the word 🙂
Like an accha baccha agreed to wat he said feeling like he is giving me gyaan.
P1: Ok when you go back read the infy balance sheet once :O:O:O
M: (Without any thought or any idea) Sorry sir :(:((dunno y I said that !! )
P1: Arre …. Y sorry … its totally okay 🙂

P2 was busy with my certis and didn’t pitch in much apart from couple of minor interjections.

P1 back in form again.

P1: So wats your fav subject.
M: Data mining. Told about basic ideas and why do we have it n various parts in it. Was goin fine.
But he had other plans in mind. Asked me something like that is not like quantitative n all. How would you know any algo is working fine for different datas n all.
I gave some fundas and then he talked about something which I didn’t get much and ended up saying to measure you can always compare the real case algo output with ideal case and gave an example from my line of work.

By now P2 was ready to push me further.
P2: How do your frens see you as a person.
M: gave funda about ppl writing to me in yearbook that I shud go to IIM 🙂 Said can mail you those comments as well. He was fine without them 🙂 Also pushed in concept of being true to my name (Su+meet = gud fren). So I have lots of frens.
P2: Okay how do they see you as in advisor, motivator, supporter, …… (couple more).
M: Sir I have this bad habit of talking a lot and telling everyone wat to do so I mostly fit in role of avisor n motivator easily. (All grinning like stupids :))
P1: (pitches in again) You know you can be a gud teacher. Teachers also talk a lot (oh no not again !! )
M: sir, prolly this skill of talking I got from my parens 🙂
P2: So if you talk a lot you can be prob to profs.
M: Sir IIMs believe in class discussions. Prof is actually a facilitator to coordinate discussion. So I will be gud value add to that 🙂
All grinning again.

P2: Anything you want to ask us ?
M: No sir, I am fine thank you 🙂

No ques on hobbies though I had mentioned movies bigtime and P1 was supposedly big movie guru as he asked some deep fundas abt movies frm someone else.
P1 was mostly busy with certis though he didn’t see much of them even then. He picked up one I got in infy and spent most of time deciphering it 🙂

That’s all for close to 20 mins. Don’t know wat to make out of it !!

Anurag Kashyap is a relatively unknown yet among respected directors in bollywood today. He has this ability to show something very hard to digest in a very hard way that it hits your softest part ! Black Friday is one of the most realistic movie that you can have for incident like ’92 mumbai blasts. Total no nonsense movie with minimal masala just enough to set the background right and sequencing the events in the way they happened.

Now he has picked up totally different story to be shown as movie. Devdas – The classic. Already been portrayed by likes of Sehgal, Dilip kumar n SRK. Adding Abhay Deol to such a list would be sheer atrocity. Coming to movie – If you can digest first 20 mins then probably u can survive. Otherwise i ll suggest invest your precious time in something else. This is not for you.

The way he has shown it in most contemporary and believable form is a welcome sign for indian cinema. Infact first half holds you so well that you expect something very innovative waiting you in 2nd half. But here comes the spoiler. If u choose to leave 2nd half i dont think you will miss anything because nothing happens at all for full hour till end.

It can be very aptly called a KLPD. After promising so much it loses all that was built in first half. I dont want to mention the details of the innovative parts because i feel that will kill the real fun of watching movie. But the way he has explored the sexuality of young minds today it was a perfect job. Some people find it too much to handle that time after time you are shown such rousing passion but i feel thats the way it happens .. so accept it 🙂

Very idea of showing such a well known bengali story in punjabi setting was a commendable job in itself. The effort i would rate equal to showing Othello as Omkara. The way he twisted very illusionary feeling of love to more real lust is a job which very few people can portray so well. But despite so much effort I think overall it was a very average to boring stuff in general. Could have been much better but will be forgotten very soon like his earlier misadventure No smoking.

Listened to this very soulful number by highly talented Mohit Chauhan after a long time. This guy has produced amazing numbers right from silk route days to recent hits like Khoon chala n masakalli. Though a decade old song but here it goes …. Enjoy

Zaara naazar uthake dekho
Baithe hai hum yahi
Bekhabar mujhse kyon ho?
Itne boore bhi hum nahin

Zamane ki baaton mein uljho na
Hai yeh aasaan janana
Khud se jo agar tum poocho
Hai hum tumhare ke nahi
Teri aankhon ka jaadu
Poori duniya pe hai
Duniya ki iss bheed main
Sabse peeche hum khade

Mehfile aayi aur gayi
Log aaye aur gaye
Tum jo aaj aaye ho
Dil mein ho bas gaye

Muskurake baat taalo na
Phir miloge jo kahin
Dekhana yahi kahoge
Itne boore the hum nahi

Teri aankhon ka jaadu
poori duniya pe hai
Duniya ki is bheed mein
sabse peeche hum khade

Hope you are not one of those aliens who are still looking for reviews of Slumdog Millionaire. Blockbuster, Superb Screenplay, clichéd yet motivating, typical bollywood masala, dirty picture of India, not so great. These are some of the commonly appearing words in mixed bag of reviews this movie generated. Many ‘nationalists’ slammed it like anything declaring it yet another western myopic approach towards India. Painting it as dirty as it can (or should i say as it is ?)
Looking at the awards nominations and wins its definitely darling of west. They got something new to cheer to.

They don’t see everyday kids emerging out of shit literally, pardon my language, to see his superhero is celebration of human spirit and determination.
They are not used to some 200 odd people dancing on highly electric numbers on a railway station. It was something like broadway musical to them.
They don’t see slum dwellers playing cricket (or baseball for that matter) on airport runways. It was innocence (i guess so ) in its true form for them.
Dialogues like come with me … just for my undying love is insanely romantic for them.
Child turned blind just to make him better beggar is cruelty in its true form.

After so many new things apart from many more packed in one movie definitely turned them on ! No fault of danny showing what they rarely see. After all he is doing his job in a manner he found it most suitable. As an Indian i definitely found it uncomfortable to see directly in mirror reflecting most basic problems of poverty, child abuse, etc very much part of Indian society. But don’t you think such things come under artistic freedom. Did we ask Mani Ratnam why he showed one of the ugliest faces of india in Bombay ?
or should americans protest against Scorsese for painting Boston as mafia hood ?

why do have just problem to anything rather than trying to solve that problem. Of all the people who very comfortably slammed it saying its painting india in general and mumbai in particular in bad light have ever done anything to change it ? It might be ordinary by standards of many indians who think we have produced far better cinema in past and went unrecognized by west. Then why do we crave for their awards so much ?

If they liked the bollywood masala (if SlumDog is one acc. to them) then why not refine our masalas and earn big bucks like hollywood movies ? every year we see much of masala on silver screen that any attempt that tries to capture things little differently are tagged as parallel cinema. Thanks to multiplexes things are changing a bit but still we have a long way to go.

As a movie buff(i like to call myself a one :)) I definitely liked the movie. Not that great but yes one of the finest i saw lately. I wasn’t surprised the way west lapped it up. Given the fact of variety it adds to the nominations it has to be among them in a major way.
As for advantages this can bring to indian cinema i can see a definite opportunity to show west that we really have that kind of movies and music that they are finding so innovative and melodious for a long time and are really capable of producing it time and again ! Hope someone cache this opportunity before it fizzles out.

Recent pub attacks in Mangalore (or shud i say mangaluru) has started debates over pub culture in every possible way.
Coming to incident …. no doubt it was most shameful and cowardly thing to do. But apart from the act it has opened a can of worms which was very comfortably packed away for sometime.

These kind of attacks have been very much trademark of activists of organizations like shiv sena against valentines day for quite sometime. Infact if i remember correctly bajrang dal once took out rath yatra on valentines day asking the couples either to get married on the rath itself thr n thn or get tied as bro-sis. Quite innovative i must say … however stupid it may be !

Even a very casual look at such incidents point to something very common in all. Liberty to women has always been a problem to such ‘rakshaks’ of culture. Pubs n bars have been here for a long time but women drinking is problem to them.

Has anyone given a thought to women smoking beedi, hukkah and other intoxicant consumption in villages. Most of you must be aware of this fact already which is quite common in north indian villages in particular.(I m not aware of this habit in south)
No Ram or Shiv sainik will ever try to disrupt the peace and harmony there. If that is acceptable then whats the problem with pub ?
Everyone knows in so called high society parties women drinking is very common. No one has objection to that either. So isnt this whole agenda to show one as protector of society by targeting the softest target – middle class women.

Seems time and again political will prevails easily over the peace and harmony of country. Surprisingly more so we indians very easily buy these arguments too. Problem with our society is we want to be classified as developed nation walking on the western path yet trying to save our glorious culture even at the cost of personal liberty. We time and again forget that culture is nothing but the people themselves. So as and when people are exposed to changing environment every aspect related to them is bound to change. Any forced action will result if conflict and nothing else.

Be it indecent clothing, pub or mall culture, women working at odd hours in hospitality sector why are we always in protectionist mode to any such act. In name of protecting our culture we stoop to ever lower levels of cultural degradation. Beating people indiscriminately(esp if its women) is definitely more alarming sign than women drinking by any yardstick however flawed it maybe !
This debate can go endlessly but there has to be some hard actions from concerned parties before it gets even more ugly.

About 5 months back a search on 5 largest US I-banks would have fetched results something similar to

Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merill Lynch

Big names, almost a dream for anyone up for big buck jobs i guess !

Now 3 of them are history.

Bear Stearns : Sold to JP Morgan for mere $10 per share with a 52 week high of $133  !

Lehman Brothers : BANKRUPT [period]

Merill Lynch : To be taken over by BofA.

All of them survived the great depression of 1929 and couldnt survive 2007 subprime. Means situation on American front is so bad that it surpasses the 1929 as well ?

In today’s world where economy like India is hugely dependent on US economy does it mean bad news for us .. or will it open new doors of rising power centers like BRIC ?

Great depression was triggered from the US and soon engulfed whole world. Yet again the world economy seems to be goin the american way !

I am no expert in finance here so cant comment on anything except for waiting, to see how this whole drama of yet another great american follies unfolds.

27th May 2007 : Sitting all alone in hotel room fully drenched. Heart full of excitement – excited to enter a new phase in life. Mind totally occupied with imagination of how life ahead will be. Joy of being accepted as a part of a new set of people. Memories of places and people left behind adding somberness to mood.

Well this was the day after i arrived in bangalore and evening before i was to join my first job. So completed one year in my first job :). wow it feels good ! Though its not a kind of job which i would like to do all my life nor it is something that people should kill for. Still last one year means a lot to me. Coming to new city all alone has never been a very pleasing idea to me but some solace that soon will be joined by a whole gang of old friends was very comforting. But when i look back at the past one year i enjoyed a lot of it. Though there were times i felt like running away from this place, totally fed up ! But still its has been so far an amazing experience. The thrill of having my first salary in bank account was a feeling that probably i ll remember for a long time ! Initial period of finding a place to stay, setting up things with all weekends devoted buying something or else, getting up early every morning to reach office before traffic takes its toll of Hosur road , absorbing myself in office culture with so much detail attached to anything you do were some of things i never imagined i will have to do before coming here.

To be part of infy was never my aspiration in college time atleast ! The kind of work i am doing here was never my dream job but surprisingly i am enjoying it :). Yeah i was never aiming to be here but now i dont regret at all being here. Infact i feel this was one the best that i could have got at that time ! There are so many thots coming to me remembering past one year but seems putting them in words will be impossible for me. But still the endless parties (with iiit frens) we had here in past 1 yr. trips to places like Mysore or enless session of BC @ CCD in infy deserve a refernce 🙂 Also debacle at CAT deserves a place here:( Yes it feels so odd to hear all the time so are you appearing for CAT again or dropped the idea. Always unable to ans this query. Prolly this is called peer pressure to which ppl succumb to mostly and take up watever comes in there way 😐 Lets see how it goes with me as the season is approaching yet again.

Guess thats all from my side. Many people from batch completed/ will be completing one year in corporate life over next few days so will definitely look forward to hear from them 🙂