The Alibi

The seed of this thought came from our F.M. Professor who is the most influential person and probably the BEST teacher I have ever come across. He says, “You must have an alibi in life.” All JBites would easily conjure up who I am talking about…. 

Yes, Prof Sandeep Gokhale.

Our life is always crammed with materialistic aspirations. When you were in school, the peer and public pressures of getting those top ranks; in undergrad, the same rat race of keeping your cgpa above the acceptable limits; in post grad another arduous task of selling yourself to companies and getting the coveted job for yourself. And the more it is coveted, the more satisfaction you have of grabbing the offer letter. There are only more laps in the race, and the race never ends…….

After all does it really matter?

Yes. It does, but only for any other person, but you. After all, the materialistic things are what people look at you for. It may not be that thing which gives you internal fulfillment, that satisfaction of having established something in life. For that you must have recourse in life; to keep yourself going. Materialistic things become trivial after a point in time, at which you have to have something that will make your life meaningful.  This recourse is not what you pursue foremost, but in addition to what you consider to be foremost.

And, it could be anything. For a ruddy good CEO of a top MNC, it could be his desire of singing. For an accomplished doc, it could be playing a guitar. For an ordinary aam aadmi it could be doing his part for the society. For a well established entrepreneur, it could be something as as trivial sounding as spending time with his family and loved ones. It is something the motivation for which does not emerge out of monetary or any kind of benefits. The only motivation behind which is happiness.

It is there in everyone. It is an inner yearning we have. Of something that we wanted to pursue, maybe, but couldn’t, to make that difference to our life… Or it can also be about making some positive difference to others’ lives. And it is worth taking some time out to figure out what exactly this resort is for you. So that when you have attained the peak in Maslow’s need hierarchy, and there’s nothing more to climb, you exactly know where to fly… : )

For me… I am still trying to figure out, what it is for me. Maybe playing a piano…. Maybe singing….. Maybe teaching..... Maybe even writing! Don’t know. But will figure out soon. It’s still a long time before I reach The Maslow’s Peak!

But…………. What’s your alibi in life?  : )

Goodnight/day !

Please  CLICK HERE In case you have forgotten Maslow's Need Hierarchy ;)  

4

Thoughts are yours,

Words are mine,

Without you can I 

Ever....

Complete this rhyme?!

Filled with feelings that

Words alone can't portray

This one's for you

Dear,

With all the love today....

We may have changed,

But one thing I wanna say...

The sparkle in your eyes

Makes me fall for you

Even today....

Sometimes I am the vine

Holding onto you (tree) ....

And sometimes you are a kid

N I'm the one to hold...

In some ways we've matured

Like a good 4 year old wine,

In others we're still as fresh

As a fruit ..

Picked off a tree in time...

Eternal togetherness

For years four,

You gave me the privilege of 

Being friends,

And a bit more... ;-)

10 - 8 - 2013

ALL, in 24hrs

It was the time when I was interning with Castrol. I picked up a novel of my favorite love author Niholas Sparks. I have read many of his books and I love the way he paints the picture, gradually, beautifully, of the characters and sensitively introduces different issues. The stories he writes are amazingly different than the run of the mill stories we see in movies. Now, I’m not an avid love story reader. But I love this author’s style more than love stories. Then be it any story.

No, this is not a book review, not even anything close to that. Read on.

So, on this late Sunday eve, I started reading this novel- “the lucky one”. Totally engrossed, never felt like giving it up. Read till about 2am at night. But had to give up, since I had market visits in central Bombay (sion, gtb nagar) the next day. And these visits used to be kinda demanding, since it was summer, one; and two, it involved too much interactions with mechanics- who had better things to get frustrated in life than answering to some questions thrown at them by a summer trainee :D :P

Woke up at about 7am, again started reading. Got ready. And by 10:30am I was on the streets of central Mumbai, under sun, and in fronta mechanics- who were staring at me with great irritation :P Having done with the visit, came back home by about 4pm and again started reading the novel, by this time it was getting damn interesting!

Ok, reading on….. finished it by about 7-7:15pm. and this was only second time in life that I had completed reading a novel in just one day, infact even lesser than that! I generally take atleast 2 days or 3 days to finish one. Just 1 day was an achievement for me :P

Then took up a newspaper, which was a routine read. Flipping pages, reading only headlines outta laziness (laziness outta happiness of having finished reading a book in one day), was surprised to *discover* that the movie based on the same novel HAS BEEN released ! :O :D Oh that was an electrifying feeling! Aaaaand I decided to watch it! It was running in Sterling theatre at CST, 8.30pm.

I thought it’d be useless to ask anyone to accompany me, since nobody knows Nicholas Sparks and nobody reads his novel (except for a senior of mine in JBIMS). I went alone! Bought the ticket. Took a Sub. Went to the hall. Found my seat. And enjoyed the book, which I read just minutes back, being played in fronta me. As always, it felt that the book was better. In a movie, they obviously have to curb many things, which kinda tweaks the entire plot around the characters. But I could see the characters, just like I had imagined while reading. The sets, just like portrayed in the description. The story, a bit compressed but nonetheless nicely elaborated in movie form.

I know, you’d think that people *do read novels* and *do watch movies* based on them. BIG DEAL!? Hehe :P … but normally there is a huge time difference between two activities and seldom it happens that the movie IS in theatres right when you finish the book! Hence, why I consider this as different and treasurable is obvious.

Tell me-
How often does it happen that—> 1.you read a book + 2.watch a movie based on that book “IN THEATRE” + 3.all this within a span of *24hrs* ! It’s sure a rarity !

Goodnight/day!

Minus 3

This day, we walked, then walked even more
Beyond the furthest point we'd been before

Clueless how it happened, the serendipity
Was designed by not me or you, but sanctity

Like destiny and origin, found the shore
Of life’s infinite ocean of love… and only more

Found the calm that drains my rage,
Writing a new story on my every page

Having said everything there’s more to write
Speechless me, help me complete this line?

Can’t express the joy for it is too much for words,
First coffee, First dinner and all the sweet firsts!

Wish I could playback it all, my dear, but
How can one poem convey our fun of 3 years ;) ??

 

Goodnight/day

unjust time

Another day begins
Questioning your choices
A day of mindless meditations
Casting doubts on your decisions

You hear meaningless names
Sundry people around you,
Callous, with empty faces 
Gearing up for the races

In a world where
Truth and justice is gone,
Faded has the color of life
No end to this eternal strife

Storms of dust, 
Rains and rust,
Utterly lost, only to find
The end of this unjust time

Bombay Diaries #1 FOOD

Road-side food, or fast-food, or budget hotels, or expensive hotels, or 5+ star hotels or the awfully good chai-wala every 50metres, Bombay has it all.

Places I (in most cases I and S) have been to regularly for these 7 years are:

Parel : Aditi, 7 spice, Anna, Noble Tea;

Dadar: Shagun, Gold Rush, Oven Fresh, Sujata, Pritam, Sher-e-Punjab, Chandragupta, Prakash, Aswaad, 6th Street Yogurt, Grass,  Satyam Dosa, El Café etc;

Matunga: VJTI canteen, UDCT canteen, Classic, Garnish, Rasna Punjab, Madras Café, Mysore Café, Koolar, Durga Parmeshwari, Mani’s, Chinaman, Arya Bhavan, Anand Bhavan, Idli House, Relax, Ramashraya, Chatai Pav Bhaji, Café Gulshan, 5 Garden Sandwich, Guptaji’s chaat, Health, Family Park …Phewww… so many still missing….

Bandra: Candies, Pali Presidency, Papa Poncho da Dhaba, 5 spice etc. etc.

South: Stadium, JBIMS canteen, Aaram vada-pav, Aamdar nivas, Vihar, Status, Copper Chimney, Khyber, Piccadilly, Relish, Samrat, Jazz by the bay, Sardar Pavbhaji, Crystal, Bhagat Tarachand.

IIT: Gulmohar, Brewberry, H14, H6, Kresit, Papa John’s

Sion: Hanuman, Gurukrupa

Miscellaneous: Blossom (Ghatkopar), McD’s, Naturals, Subways, Pizza huts, CCDs, Baristas, Baskin n Robbins, Infinite chaat waalas, tea waalas and sandwich waalas… … phew!

These are the ones I can recollect right now. Will add more as and when…………. …..  ………….

Goodnight/day!

6-3-2013

A Random Update

So, we are re-launching a product which hasn’t been successful for multiple reasons. And mind you none of these reasons is related to the quality. The product is a premium product in its category and has been a failure, more of a managerial kind than of a technical sort! Re-launching that product has several aspects to it, ATL, digital, BTL, this, that…… what I’m concerned with is the BTL activation of the re-launch, choosing an agency, getting the stuff implemented through them throughout India within the given budget. Hah! Let’s see how it goes! I’m not here to write about it :P That’s for my reference in future.
So, it’s been like.. what … 8 days since it started. And we are making the most of it.. I mean making most of the Coffee Machine… Oh! Did you think about the Learning? :P Well haven’t thought much about that yet…. :)
A typical day of mine starts with waking up at 6:00am and re-waking up at 6:30am….. The morning rituals and bathing takes about an hour… by the end of which my tiffin is ready (Thanks to aunty :)  ). I then board a taxi for Dadar station by 7:35am.. Now what kind of taxi drivers I have to deal with every coming day, don’t ask! I rush for the 7:56 Andheri local (ie goes only upto Andheri, not beyond and therefore has less crowd) and board the particular bogie I love- “the most churchgate side” bogie :P (this nomenclature was taught to me by Vrishali- one who taught me to board locals, read the display boards, K=Kalyan, T= Thane, C=Churchgate etc…, 12=12car, 9=9car, F=fast, S=slow etc…)
The-Most-Churchgate-Side bogie would mean the southernmost bogie.. or in *this* case the last bogie! All this while I have my radio plugged in. Or at times Sango’s lectures. Depends whether I’m carrying my ipod or not.
Ok. So where were we… Andheri. Yeah. The real tussle begins once I reach Andheri, the worst place in the whole of Mumbai! Mad Rush! Mad Public! Mad Autowallahs! Ufffff !!!! So After crossing the bridge West to East, you have to stand in the queue for an auto. Because if you don’t stand, they charge you 150/- for the same trip for which you’d end up paying just 20bucks if you stand in queue! You really BUY TIME in Mumbai! Tell ya, that’s Mumbai for you! But in all of this, what I like the most is- the discipline… People here are civilized and disciplined…
The Auto running on the jagged and crooked road takes me to the place I intended to be- Technopolis Knowledge Park- in about 20mins and 20bucks! Ha! So by now I’m already sleepy all over again. So now you realize what kind of motivation is needed to get you through the rest of the day which is actually the WHOLE of it?! I go mad! One hour after I reach the office, my mind is soo turbulent.. All negative thoughts.. immense tension of deadlines.. sleeeepy.. missing home…. All of which ends up in me pressing the machine for a hot chocolate. And as I’m back to the desk, I see my buddies turning up one by one…. We slowly get into conversation and it lightens my dark blues..
All of this ends up in logging on to Facebook and JBmail :D …. And now I get all answers to the questions I used to ask to Mukul and Varun when they were constantly online during their internship :P . Funny… how it all unfolds…. Innit?!
The day goes by. We laugh. We chat. Some of us wait eagerly for the free lunch. Sometimes in between we read up stuff. We meet our mentors for a dosage of de-motivation, I do atleast! Then by the time it’s 4:30pm I am already dreaming of leaving for home.
And ssso I do at 5:00pm! I hurry for a random bus to Andheri station… I board any damn FAST local I see in the offing on the indicator.. Get down at Dadar… and back home by taxi/bus depending upon my mental energy levels to sustain patience of waiting for a bus! After all this, IF I have some sanity left, I work on stuff which I should have ideally done in the office… ELSE, I end up writing such posts! :D
Goodnight/day!

Our Tree

...And one by one the birds fly to their respective trees

Some nearby, some to other countries,

Drenched with nostalgia and memories,

The pain of parting doesn't start to cease.

Chirping, giggling and tweeting,

The fun had no ending,

A picture painted perfect and serene,

Had to one day change the scene.

How long gonna stay away. No clue.

Who'd then as effectively lighten the dark blues,

Who'd digest your stances however obtuse, 

And still be with you throwing sweet abuse

Can't let you go, dunno how to hold on

What if we never return to 'our tree' we so long lived on

Tell me there won't be a time we moved on

I'll be on the same tree... Waiting for you all.

Goodnight/day!

In sanity !

Writing after long.. Blame the overrated course called ‘Yem Bee Yea’, otherwise I’d’ve been an established author by now with 100 books published :P Ok sarcasm n jokes apart, Today I’m gonna talk some sense. Or something that I think is sense :D
You know… We all aspire for things in life...! To become this, that. To get here. To get there. No, there’s nothing wrong in it. One must…. I say…… aspire, dream and work hard for it. I have learnt it the hard way. Point I am going to make here is not to discourage one from working hard. But this will certainly soothe pain of those who have aspired for something but achieved something lesser. Believe me, it happened for a reason. It is not about accepting the defeat. It’s just about facing the reality.
So, we aspire for things in life. Right? But on what basis?
We evaluate whether our abilities, capabilities are enough for us to get there, thus considering only those aspects of ourselves which are positive. But I feel, what we eventually get is something that also takes into account our negatives. This is where my philosophy of life starts, I have learnt this from experiences- personal and around me. So my examples would be related to engineering, MBA, PG entrances to put it broadly, cos that’s where I come from as on 7-2-2012. :P 
So, It’s like looking at a company and analyzing it. You are awed by looking at the assets and come to establish that the company is doing good! But the picture is incomplete until you check its liabilities and check whether company is able to pay back the debt while in the condition it is in.
Or….. say it’s like looking at a PnL statement… Looking only at the Sales Revenue is not correct. You also need to account for what’s your ‘Cost’ to come to the actual Profit—i.e. what you are actually worth of.
Similarly, rather than only concentrating on positives, one must also consider negatives while expecting something in life. Now, one is not so capable of evaluating oneself so critically as to get a true picture of what he deserves. So leave it up to Him i.e. God !
To substantiate this with an example:
Take my case, I thought I am fairly good to crack CAT and therefore I took the exam with an expectation of getting into an IIM. I certainly expected more than what I could perform/resist/realize. Or, say, I did not consider my drawbacks but only strengths. Fine, but what I landed up with finally? ---> Something that was in equilibrium with what I am. Something that suited me. Something that matched my personality. Getting into IIM would have meant staying away from home. But today where I am, I’m not actually away from my home (just giving an example, eh) … And who took care of it? HE did! I got something that did justice to my positives but also by taking into consideration my negatives.

They say that- Jo apni marjee se nahi hota, wo USKI marjee se hota hai and that is always better.
That’s soo true. And believe me… USKI marjee is actually a complete package for you! The most you can do, to increase the odds of getting closer to what you expect, is by augmenting the positive part of you.
Ok. Having said that, I don’t mean that one is less capable than someone else. Everyone has his core competency which is different from others’. So, what if the person sitting next to me in my classroom is wonderful at understanding the financial statements and I am not….! It’s ok. As I said, everyone is good at something or the other. I take solace in the fact that I can write philosophical blogs and that’s where he struggles :P …. I hope you get the point I’m trying to make :)
A linear combination of unit vectors is always unique, like, all faces are made up of eyes, nose, lips, eyebrows etc… and yet everyone looks unique. How? Its linear combinations of these various unit vectors!!!! :) Vector logic applies everywhere. And to all !
Homework:
Then, Think why all Chinese look similar?? :P :P
Goodnight/day!