Warning Signs

This is a signboard near a railway crossing attached just next to the gate. Firstly the language is hilarious, not just in english but also the hindi version (the third version is beyond my scope of understanding).

Also secondly the board is placed right next to the crossing, so we read it only after we had jumped around 15-20 vehicles standing there. If u want a queue must be maintained u need to provide a prior indication for the same.

 

Bekal Fort - Tu Hi Re......

Ahh... after three odd weeks in the campus we get two and a half days of freedom. And this definitely called for an outing. Countless plans were made with a variety of options considered- Bangalore (well i have to spend 2 months there so not now..), Munnar - the awesome tea estates, Allepy- the wonderful backwaters, Wayanad - ahh this is rather too close (we can visit it some other day), Mahe - cheaper liquor and good beach. But the final decision came out to Bekal fort -190 km journey (it is the same fort which featured in Bombay's Tu Hi Re.

Okay so it was decided then came the problem of how to travel- bikes, hired sumo or even a self driven car. well of that too  both a sumo and bikes were finalized given the uncertainty of the car's performance. The day was decided as Saturday- to go in the afternoon, stay overnight and be back the next day. But again here some people backed out and made alternate arrangements and there was a problem with getting a bike (it took 22 days for a friend's bike to reach here from delhi and above that the transporter made us wait more than 2 hrs in his office for the delivery.)

finally were able to leave on sunday morning. from the ETD of 6:30 we were already over an hour late. had my best breakfast for a long time- hot idlis and vadas (with gr8 emphasis on hot and tasty). we finally reached our destination at around one. with the sun high upon us and lack of food our sightseeing of the fort lasted only half an hour after which we left for the beach. Ahh.. the cold water, the smooth sands and no odour that plagues many of our other beaches- the rotten smell of fish or other dead creatures. 

After more than an hour in the sea it was already three and there was no sign of good food. We had to make our way back and find some good bar and restaurant. we reached calicut only after 9 but the ride back, driving over a 100 km stretch on a Karizma was awesome. we initially went to the kappad beach resort for dinner but there had a fight with the guards and the manger. Things would have gotten hot but we decided not to take it further and call the police after it all - Don't these people have any business sense on how to treat guests....

Our journey thus ended at Coffee Beanz one of the favourite hangout places.  

Another series reaches its present stage

In another year and a quarter i will have my degree. 6 terms of torture and little learning. But of the few thing I have/will be done/doing, is watching a few or rather a lot of the TV series on campus.

Mind u I never saw a single one during my engineering days- may be coz i was a day-ski but now spending my time in the hostel it is the best time pass or rather wastage of every second of my precious time I could/should have spent studying or putting more efforts towards my classes and assignments. but what the hell it would never have been so interesting.

So doing a check what all have i watched yet-

• Prison break 
• Heroes
• HIMYM
• Smallville
• Big Bang Theory
• Knight rider

And the next one in line is Lost....

So what should be my next target???? Suggest some good ones...

Happy Birthday

Had my 22nd birthday last week. For the first time in the last 22 years I was alone without my family on the day. For the first time in the last 22 years I did not blow a candle on the day. For the first time in the last 22 years I did not cut the birthday cake.

The day too went like any ordinary day. Nah!! I had more work than the other days. Slept at 3 in night, got up at 7:30 and then again was able to hit the bed at 3 again in the night. That somehow does it the longest time I spent awake on my birthday. 

But still I do not regret the day howsoever it passed away. But it would have been better if some of the people would have remembered it and sent a greeting or two. :-(

Athos, Parthos, Slumdog

So the million dollar question goes- Who is the third musketeer after Athos and Parthos??

Win one million or lose all?? and what does our protagonist do..... takes a random guess A) Aramis. Well if a slumdog who has never seen such kind of money take such a risk hell bet he is more of a musketeer than these three and D'Artagnan. 

Slumdog millionaire by Danny Boyle a rags to riches story of a Muslim boy Jamal who gets a chance on Who wants to be a millionaire and goes on to win the big prize. But how does he do it?.is he a)genius, b)cheating, c)luck or d)fate.  As the police torture goes - when doctors, lawyers and engineers cannot do it how can a slumdog.....

Watch the movie to find out.

The movie may have its flaws with the show being showed live and having a phone a friend question (in the age of internet how can u even think of this), a blind begging kid who would never have seen a dollar knows that a $100 note has Benjamin Franklin on it. And many others.... but still the actual storyline, the real Indian slum experience, great camera work make it a must watch movie. 

Choosing a bride

Well as we were told today once again an MBA is all about decision making. Various models exist for the same as i studied in my Organization Behaviour II in the last sem with these being: Rational model, Carnegie model, Incrementalist model, Unstructured model and Garbage Can model. 

Time and again we have studied the rational method to be the best for it requires examining all the options. May seem inviable and impossible and so there is the concept of bounded rationality. But do we really go about using them in our lives. When it comes to corporate decisions then we make use of several models and different evaluation criteria for optimality but when it comes to our personal lives the answer is totally different.

Like an example discussed in our marketing class. Selection of a bride. This is one of the most important decision of our lives but how do we go about it????

Most of us outsource the decision to a third party (parents)- But is it so that when and if things go wrong we have someone to blame for the same.

Or if we take our personal decisions we may examine a range of possibilities but do not go about the process in a manner that can give us an optimal answer.

So how to go about this task. Firstly we need to identify the attributes. As per some study the major ones are- A,B,C,D,E,F.

Age

Beauty

Character

Dowry (something i am against)

Education

Family

The second step involves quantification. We need to assign values to these attributes for each candidate. Qualitative attributes can be assigned relative values. 

Now all that is required is a simple use of excel and solver to get an optimum value that maximizes our utility.

But would a girl go about marrying a guy if she comes to know that such a method was used?????? (maybe yes- she may even be proud of being the best among the list and love you for that)

So is this a good way......... Decide for yourselves 

Dilli Ki Sardi

So am back after the extremely short term break that i had (short coz it lasted only 10 days and very short coz in winters days are smaller). It was great to be back in Delhi and enjoy the winters as opposed to the ever hot climate of Kozhikode. Sitting or rather lazing in the quilt, eating peanuts and gajjak, oh what a bliss it was. 

No worry bout waking up early (sleeping till 11 in the morning - couldn't help it, not when its warm in the quilt and freezing outside), having great home cooked food (finally have realized how good it is after hating it for the earlier years of my life (before 6 months), celebrating the new year with your parents watching a bollywood flick- priceless....

And how can i forget a meet with friends, however regret missing the appointment i had been looking forward to since the last six months. What was i thinking? i don't know. Maybe i wanted to escape from the harsh reality and forget the past, but not like this......