The world is expanding.....

The world is expanding....

Or atleast Bengaluru is...

that is what the autowaalahs will make u believe.

I have taken an auto from IIMB to my office on 4 occasions and the fare reported was Rs 71, 85, 91 and 99. Now how can it be so if u take the same route unless the world is expanding. And this is not thermal expansion also coz Bangalore is pretty cooler than other areas.

Bangalore autowalas are one of the roguest breed of people I have ever seen, always ready to con u. The auto rates are pretty high at Rs 7 per km but still no one is actually ready to go by the meter. They demand exorbitant rates as high as thrice of the actual fare. And their arguments are totally foolish - If i take u by the meter i will take a longer route and it will waste ur time as well as cost u more. Now how baseless can that be.

And of the few who are ready to ply by the meter they have tweaked their meters to show a higher reading. In my last trip the guy kept pressing his wiper switch on and off continuously while we were on the road (the wiper was non existent) and so instead of the 11-12 km the reading showed 14 km.

And all this happens because there is no control. People earning fat checks working at the numerous BPO's and other MNC's pay and so it is the common man who ultimately suffers. The police does absolutely nothing.

Why Not to be an I banker

well my internship started at XYZ company in Bangalore. Joined on Monday and hoped of having a good time and get a feel of how and what exactly one does on a job. Well we had our training sessions on the first two days in which since we were only 3 people we could not sleep no matter how boring it was. We used to go in the morning at 10 and leave by 7:30 which was still acceptable.

But trouble started on Wednesday, when we were assigned our terminals and projects. To tell about my division it is quite small but and there are a few highly enthusiastic people because of which it has reached its present level as well as is burdened with work. The problem however is that these people have absolutely no life. The come in the morning, some around 9 and leave late nights often after 1. Also many even prefer to work on weekends ( Now they prefer or are forced is a divided issue ) but still, this is insane. And to top it off they get only 9 holidays a year ( besides the weekends that they do come on).

Still i would not have minded it all except for the fact that they would like me to share their views on the same. So had to go the whole week (Good Friday turned to a Bad Friday), had a 12 hour workday at least, spend 2 hours commuting to and fro. And above all they expect me to put in weekends too.

Spent the last three days reading some silly reports without any idea as to what exactly is to be focussed on. And as for some of my friends in the same company but different division they enjoy just a 9 hour workday and weekends off.

I seriously don't think that I would like to ruin my life like this.

PS - the feelings expressed above are the author's views only and not to dissuade fellows vying to be an I Banker. The views are highly company specific so the situation may differ from company to company.

The Night and Day at IIMB

So as I mentioned earlier, am putting up in IIMB for the next 50 days. Arrived here at around 9:30 and was issued a room in a far flung corner, the last hostel block (i believe) and that too the third floor. Although this saves me from the insects that usually plague the ground floors but lugging my heavy bags and making this long journey, staying away from rest of my fellow mates is somewhat of a torture.

Finally got things settled by 11. Had to have dinner etc. So switched on my Mac and connected to the net. And what do i notice??? there are absolutely no restrictions besides not being able to run chat softwares (as i am not able to configure them), but everything else is accessible ( naughty naughty), alongwith downloading. So am awake till 3 when i realise have to get up before 7 to reach safely on the first day.

The IIMB campus - Located quite near the main city or rather the city is now located quite near the campus now. Lush greenery everywhere but the paths are pretty confusing. Everywhere it looks almost the same and one can easily forget one's way. The rooms are no match for those at IIMK but are not too bad also. The one thing that is good is the availability of playing space between the hostels ( but don't know if I will make any use of it or not, still its something very good) ( although all these sporting facilities could do nothing for IIMB in saving their face).

Waking up the next morning at 7 i got ready and had breakfast in the staff canteen. Must say the food was piping hot and tasty. The canteen was newly built and was clean and tidy. The workers even wore shower caps. Finally made the walk outside and caught an auto to take us on my first company experience ( most probably the topic of my next post). The auto charges are Rs 7/km which are way way high. Don't know then what the taxis must be charging.

Am waiting for a holiday ( tomm. doesn't seem to be one despite it being Mahavir Jayanti ) to explore the campus as well as the city.

A very short stint and the very long wait

Half done or half left, one can say whatever one feels but the relief I felt after the dreadful third semester was unmatched. Like always the ending of the exams meant holidays and a trip back home, but this time it was different. Had only 3 days to spend at home due to the training that is supposed to start from 6th and I need to reach Bengaluru by the 5th.

So left Calicut on the Fool's day to endure a 6.5 hour flight journey for Delhi. Was able to reach home only by 9:30 in the night. The next day received one of the biggest shocks of my life. Had never anticipated such a situation, and it shattered all my plans, coz I just did not feel like meeting up with my friends. These holidays turned out to one of my worst and the thought still haunts me, don't know what will happen on doomsday.

with this i left home at 8 on sunday, hoping to catch the 9:30 flight, but alas the airlines had changed the airplane. the no. of seats reduced and the vacant seats in J class disappeared. I was left stranded at the airport with my father waiting with me. The next flight was at 4:30 which also by the looks of it was somewhat overbooked. This meant an extra wait of 7 hours at the airport. Thank goodness for the Sunday papers (tried my hand at Sudoku after a very long time) and the net which helped me pass my time. The seat was confirmed only at 4:15 when the supposed passengers didn't turn up and I got a seat. Just rushed through the check-in counter for the flight had started boarding but it wasn't going to be this easy. The guard wanted me to open my attache. he ruffled through my stuff and removed my Victorinox Swiss multipurpose set (a miniature version with a 2 inch blade) and a matchbox. These people are afraid of a two inch blade but what about the steel crockery one gets on the plane??? I managed to return it to my father who was still waiting and he somehow got it sneaked inside to be delivered to me. But i being the non risky type refused and handed it back.

Reached Bengaluru by 7:15 and got outside 15 minutes later. IIMB being 45-50 km away and knowing the high rates of taxis, i decided to try the shuttle service. As i went towards the bus there were taxi drivers outside looking for a fare. Talked to 3 different people with the rates at ech level falling from 850-750, 700-650, 600-500. Boarded a shuttle to JP Nagar (the closest option I could find), charging Rs 80. After 1.5 hours i was at JP Nagar with not much clue as to what next. Tried looking for autos but to no avail. Got a cab which was waiting there, he did charge a lot Rs 75 for a 4 km odd drive, but atleast and at last I was at IIMB.

P.S. - Describing IIMB - Saved for later as haven't seen much and am yet to explore.

The Holi Special - Who am I??

Date - 11th March 2009

Venue - IIMK, Kerala

Occassion - Holi

Time : 8:45

Damn, had to get up early on what is regarded as a holiday all over the country, but not so at an IIM. Had not one but two classes in the day - HR and Marketing. one tolerable and the other a nuisance. But still there is a 90% attendance rule and so the class was almost full barring a few batchmates ( who were either too lazy to come or were enjoying their 10% leeway)

Also the India - New Zealand was underway with Sehwag in an awesome form... Match was closely followed via cricinfo during the class and then seen in the mess after 12 (barring the too frequent rain breaks )

Had a special lunch organised for the occassion but it was a dud. The food didn't taste too different from the awful food we get everyday except the sweetdish.

Finally it was 3 and the scheduled time for starting the Holi the IIMK way had arrived. A massive tank full of water which saw nearly everyone on campus being lifted and thrown inside. Both gulals and grease were freely used.. the effect will be clearly visible in the classes tomorrow and it remains to be seen how our profs will react. It was totally awesome. My first Holi @ hostel and it totally rocked. With chilled thandai (with bhang added ) and some raunchy songs being played it set a rockin mood.

In the pics above everyone has his tees removed not because they may get dirty or it was hot, but because the tees no longer existed. They had been ripped apart to leave everyone topless.

BBQ night @ K1

Its already two weeks now since we had that awesome BBQ night. All this time I waited just because I could not lay my hands on the pics for the day, and this was one awesome night which just cannot be explained by mere words.

So lets start from how it all started. The previous day another of our hostel had its BBQ party in which they used a small pot like substance as the BBQ vessel. Well we also got a bit excited and so asked them to lease it for a day for our very own party. But they refused and this was a huge blow to us. We were now determined to have a bigger and better BBQ and so two of our angry hostel souls ran from pillar to post to arrange the stuff. They had to plead with the guy to complete it on time. Panner, vegetables, fish and chicken were arranged from the NC and masala and all was bought from the outside. With the refrigerator full of beer it was going to be a great night.

The preparations started on a grand scale. Ingredients were mixed and the respective dishes were marinated by our very own budding chefs. The lighting of coal was an experience in itself. Huge amount of financial newspapers had to bear the brunt(rather were burned). It took more than half an hour to get it started and to have an even burning (constant airing required by frantic waving of newspapers).

The marinated stuff was skewed and placed on the red hot coals. It took ages to get it heated from the inside for the outer layer had been burnt black but the inner layers were still pretty raw. The skewing was not proper for whenever the stick was rotated the food too adjusted itself to return to its original position. But as time passed and more and more food was prepared the quality started improving.

Non veg had to be kept for over half an hour to get a good taste whereas the paneer barely survived a few minutes as the pieces kept falling at regular intervals but this was not a major problem for panner can easily be eaten even if a bit undercooked but the same does not apply to non veg stuff.

Standing next to the hot coal with a chilled beer in one hand and munching on the BBQ chicken with the other, it was priceless......

Delhi-6

Saw it today. In the beginning it revived some old memories but as the story passed further all that was left was the story of the monkey man.

Do u remember the monkey man???

That one creature that caused panic in the whole of Delhi...

But to make a movie on that subject (even though it was so that the story-line used it to portray a deeper meaning of communal tensions and people's foolishness) but still to make it a central character?? Why??

This wasn't expected from Mr Mehra after RDB... 

Give the movie a definite miss or see it for Miss Kapoor but do not expect anything ...

sheer waste of a couple of hours