Random Thoughts

Ha Ha Ha Ha.. this one is brilliant, to everyone who hates to go out to family dinners and has to "behave" themselves and not be who they are..

Awesome

As George in Seinfield says "I dont know what to say, I have no Words".

What's this Nonsence - Under the belt tactics by McCain

Why does John McCain suddenly want to suspend his presidential campaign and postpone Friday's debate? His campaign surrogates are saying it's a typical "maverick" move, that McCain is simply "putting country first." Let's look at the evidence:

1) As Ben Smith notes, McCain's move "is a mark, most of all, that he doesn't like the way this campaign is going. ... The only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling."

2) The idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn't even McCain's idea.

3) John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. He hasn't cast a single vote in five months, since April 9. All of a sudden, McCain is demanding that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?

4) A reminder: President Bush was able to debate John Kerry while he was president. (During the Freaking WAR) For all of his sudden urgency, McCain acknowledged just yesterday that he had not even read the administration's three-page bailout proposal.

5) It's not at all clear that having McCain and Obama back in DC will actually help. "What does seem apparent, though, is that putting the two candidates in the negotiating room is far more likely to distract--and derail--negotiations than having them out on the hustings," Jonathan Cohn writes at the New Republic.

It's impossible to know why McCain chose this course, but it sure seems like more of a political stunt than a maverick moment.

But really - even if McCain becomes president, and dies - even though i am not an american i dont think i want Sarah Palin to become the President, there's too much running on the US economy globally to gamble on it for someone who's a Pitbull with Lipstic on.

My Roomies

Varun, Me and Girish - My Room Mates During my MBA at Great Lakes in Chennai.

To All The Girls Who Never said yes to ME

3 Letters from Lord Ganesha

The First Letter from Lord Ganesha

Glitter, glint and gleam your temples. Clean them well.
These are the twinkle that is seen by those who do not see.
Guard the gilded throne of Siva's stall.
Keep it well lit and open.

No night doth fall upon His Holy Form.
He is the Sun, both cold and warm.

Piercing vision of deep, inner spinning wheels
pierces through the twinkle and the clinkle of your temple Ferris wheel.
These enjoy the darshan flooding out. Those caught in chain-like
discs of darker hours see only glitter and the flowers.

When we come, as puja calls, we hardly see those
who cannot see. We see those who can, clear and
crisp, their wasp-like form in the temple,
they adorn lovingly the floors.

I tell you this, Saivite brahmin souls,
have no fear to shine the sparkle all the year.
Gild the gilded forms anew so that your temples
appear just built. Appeal to every chakra wheel; one spins one and then the other.

Gild -- the base, the rudder, the anchor of it all -- doth stimulate.
And sound, the one that hears. Smell, the controller of the glands.
And so, when chakras spin all through,
your temple will be always new.

Once you realize that some see, and others do not condescend to kneel, but stand and look with open mouth as sight and sound rush in along with drainage from the bath, be not afraid to open wide the door. Those who enter will eventually prostrate on the floor.

Keep it clean, and gild and glint anew.
That is your job, what you have to do.

Love,
Lord Ganesha

---

The Second Letter from Lord Ganesha

Keep track of your paces, for your walk makes marks.
Each mark is a reward or a stumbling block.
Learn to look at the step you have made
and the step you have not made yet.
This brings you close to Me.
I'm not doing anything.
If I were any place, I would not be.
You are someplace, doing something. You are not.

Insofar as this is a fact, there then is some semblance of Me in you.
If you are not what you apparently are
and you keep track of your paces fore and aft in your mind,
the karma balancing out the dharma is nothing.

Always live as nothing,
and your mission is fulfilled immediately.
You do not have to live long, but live well while you live.
Be sum total at any point in time.

The mind through which you think you travel,
or of which you think you are, is not.
The awareness of which you think doth travel,
or which you think is aware, is not. Therefore, what is?

That is a mystery, to the mind, to awareness,
but can be solved by you and Me coming close together.
Let's do it now.

Love,
Lord Umaganesh

---

The Third Letter from Lord Ganesha

Softness comes when you are precise, concentrated,
with a sense of penuriousness.
The concentration of the intellect
comes from a vast, expansive ability accrued

which has brought an intricate intellect into usage.

Softness, therefore, and a demure countenance and approach
to life and associates must be accrued through these means.

If you are not soft in your intellect toward others,
refrain from speaking as well as thinking.
For the true intellect is accrued from within oneself,
and by listening to your guruji,
who stimulates the within of you for this to occur.

Obedience is the keynote here,
and the ravaging forces of emotion are rejected.
And I dismay as you retreat into the devilish worlds
in the plane beyond My sight.
I sit waiting for your return.

Because I am here, it all exists.
The pole holds the feathers that dance in
the wind of desire around it.

Therefore, the thing that we seek is
countenance, precision and self-effacement.
You know the rest. I wait for your return.

See Me first before each advent into another Lord.
I am the gatekeeper, the Mother that cares for you
and makes you just right for the Father.
I am the now that makes you ready for the then.
I am the dragon that scares away the untimely events in your life
due to the ignorance within your dharma.

I am the innovation of your karma,
if you come to Me, My Being, your Being,
when you get here, now.

See to this. I command you. I implore you.
I do puja to you by ringing My little bell in front of Me,
by eating a ball-like sweet goody and by lighting the fire of Siva,
My Father, in My Father, through My head,
burning at the top of My head, your head, burning there,
a flickering flame burning there on nothing
except the dross forces of your dharma,
the accumulation of your karma of this life,
burns away the top of your head,
My head, Our head.

Success on the path is assured for you
who have the good fortune to hear, to see, to read
or to have been told to this message,
is blessed by your good fortune,
is in tune with Me, your Self, and
I introduce you to realms beyond your limited vision
at this very moment.

Love,
Lord Ganesh

Inner Strength

Inner-Strength; Don't depend on others to give it to you-You have to find it yourself.
Then life will become like this:

Prayer

when each of us pray, how sincerely do we pray, how true are we to the prayer. when we are praying are we thinking about the lunch planned for that day, or some conversation we had with someone, or some inconsequential issue which is running through our heads.

Can't we spare one minute for the god who created this universe, and pray to him with all love and faith. I think we all must, take a minute, and pray to the good god up there every day, and i m sure you will be a more content person emotionally.

Love the way the dog is praying, so sincerely and with so much intensity, i wish the dog could pray for me also.

Dear God!!!

I Love the expression on this child's face.
Here are some of the words that come to my mind when i look at it...
*Prayer
*Faith
*Love
*Please Help Me

Dear God,
Please forgive me for all my sins, protect and care for me when i m in trouble, guide me through the decisions which i have to take, protect my family and my friends.
Cleanse me of all the sins that i think i have committed, knowingly or unknowingly.

Dear God, Dear God, Dear God.

what Animal are you?

what animal are you?

have you ever thought of it?

we as human beings have the amazing flexibility to be more than one animal at a time...

are you a lion? or a horse? or any other animal

well! here's my 2 pence worth. I believe that your emotional status determines your attitude which determines your character which determines the animal you are at that point of time...

also, please remember that no animal is bad or good, every animal has its own disadvantages and advantages....

I Like the regality that reflects in this Lion's eyes, he sees it all, stands tall, and faces the storm head on....

I Hate Luck!!!

What is this Good luck, Bad Luck Business?
what are Omens, freaking things....

you have an deadline coming soon, and suddenly something wrong happens, then you start believing that what was to happen will not, just because you have become unlucky.

This is something i believe in, "What has to happen will happen weather you like it or not", so live with it. Its called fate, and its pre-determined. We all come into this world believing that we can make our own destiny, true, agreed. but what we fail to realize is that our destiny is predetermined even before we start writing it.

what you think, what you say, when you say, how you say, who you say it to, even every single grain of rice that you put into your mouth is predetermined. you do not have a choice. your choices are predetermined, we; in our limited capacity believe that we have taken the choice based on our own conscious decisions, But this also is predetermined.

In a case like this, there is nothing called Luck, nothing called good or bad omen, it does not exist. they are all creations for us to understand and give reasons for why somethings happen and somethings do not.


what's predetermined, none of us will ever know until we actually go through the entire experience; emotionally and physically.

so i say again,

WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN WILL HAPPEN WEATHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT.

God bless us all...bless us that what's been written is good, and something which will bring harmony to your body and soul.

IQ + EQ = SQ

We all have heard of IQ, during my grandfathers age, it was believed that the person with the highest IQ was given more value and more respect. Sometime around the 80's it was a time when the EQ (emotional quotient) was brought into the picture. It was believed that due to the better education system and the opportunity for all to be able to learn, the IQ part seemed on the same plain, however the EQ was what's intrinsic, it was what differentiated one person's performance from the other.
Now, i wonder, should not one person also look at the SQ (Spiritual Quotient), to be able to see how the person handles the stress and touch scenarios in life.

Just a thought, i will be writing about the same in the near future too.

Are Brahmins the Dalits of today?

This was such a good read that could not resist but post it in my Blog.

At a time when the Congress government wants to raise the quota for Other Backward Classes to 49.5 per cent in private and public sectors, nobody talks about the plight of the upper castes. The public image of the Brahmins, for instance, is that of an affluent, pampered class. But is it so today?
There are 50 Sulabh Shauchalayas (public toilets) in Delhi; all of them are cleaned and looked after by Brahmins (this very welcome public institution was started by a Brahmin). A far cry from the elitist image that Brahmins have!
There are five to six Brahmins manning each Shauchalaya. They came to Delhi eight to ten years back looking for a source of income, as they were a minority in most of their villages, where Dalits are in majority (60 per cent to 65 per cent). In most villages in UP and Bihar, Dalits have a union which helps them secure jobs in villages.
Did you know that you also stumble upon a number of Brahmins working as coolies at Delhi's railway stations? One of them, Kripa Shankar Sharma, says while his daughter is doing her Bachelors in Science he is not sure if she will secure a job.
"Dalits often have five to six kids, but they are confident of placing them easily and well," he says. As a result, the Dalit population is increasing in villages. He adds: "Dalits are provided with housing, even their pigs have spaces; whereas there is no provision for gaushalas (cowsheds) for the cows of the Brahmins."
You also find Brahmin rickshaw pullers in Delhi. 50 per cent of Patel Nagar's rickshaw pullers are Brahmins who like their brethren have moved to the city looking for jobs for lack of employment opportunities and poor education in their villages.
Even after toiling the whole day, Vijay Pratap and Sidharth Tiwari, two Brahmin rickshaw pullers, say they are hardly able to make ends meet. These men make about Rs 100 to Rs 150 on an average every day from which they pay a daily rent of Rs 25 for their rickshaws and Rs 500 to Rs 600 towards the rent of their rooms which is shared by 3 to 4 people or their families.
Did you also know that most rickshaw pullers in Banaras are Brahmins?
This reverse discrimination is also found in bureaucracy and politics. Most of the intellectual Brahmin Tamil class has emigrated outside Tamil Nadu. Only 5 seats out of 600 in the combined UP and Bihar assembly are held by Brahmins -- the rest are in the hands of the Yadavs.
400,000 Brahmins of the Kashmir valley, the once respected Kashmiri Pandits, now live as refugees in their own country, sometimes in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi in appalling conditions. But who gives a damn about them? Their vote bank is negligible.
And this is not limited to the North alone. 75 per cent of domestic help and cooks in Andhra Pradesh are Brahmins. A study of the Brahmin community in a district in Andhra Pradesh (Brahmins of India by J Radhakrishna, published by Chugh Publications) reveals that today all purohits live below the poverty line.
Eighty per cent of those surveyed stated that their poverty and traditional style of dress and hair (tuft) had made them the butt of ridicule. Financial constraints coupled with the existing system of reservations for the 'backward classes' prevented them from providing secular education to their children.
In fact, according to this study there has been an overall decline in the number of Brahmin students. With the average income of Brahmins being less than that of non-Brahmins, a high percentage of Brahmin students drop out at the intermediate level. In the 5 to 18 year age group, 44 per cent Brahmin students stopped education at the primary level and 36 per cent at the pre-matriculation level.
The study also found that 55 per cent of all Brahmins lived below the poverty line -- below a per capita income of Rs 650 a month. Since 45 per cent of the total population of India is officially stated to be below the poverty line it follows that the percentage of destitute Brahmins is 10 per cent higher than the all-India figure.
There is no reason to believe that the condition of Brahmins in other parts of the country is different. In this connection it would be revealing to quote the per capita income of various communities as stated by the Karnataka finance minister in the state assembly: Christians Rs 1,562, Vokkaligas Rs 914, Muslims Rs 794, Scheduled castes Rs 680, Scheduled Tribes Rs 577 and Brahmins Rs 537.
Appalling poverty compels many Brahmins to migrate to towns leading to spatial dispersal and consequent decline in their local influence and institutions. Brahmins initially turned to government jobs and modern occupations such as law and medicine. But preferential policies for the non-Brahmins have forced Brahmins to retreat in these spheres as well.
According to the Andhra Pradesh study, the largest percentage of Brahmins today are employed as domestic servants. The unemployment rate among them is as high as 75 per cent. Seventy percent of Brahmins are still relying on their hereditary vocation. There are hundreds of families that are surviving on just Rs 500 per month as priests in various temples (Department of Endowments statistics).
Priests are under tremendous difficulty today, sometimes even forced to beg for alms for survival. There are innumerable instances in which Brahmin priests who spent a lifetime studying Vedas are being ridiculed and disrespected.
At Tamil Nadu's Ranganathaswamy Temple, a priest's monthly salary is Rs 300 (Census Department studies) and a daily allowance of one measure of rice. The government staff at the same temple receive Rs 2,500 plus per month. But these facts have not modified the priests' reputation as 'haves' and as 'exploiters.' The destitution of Hindu priests has moved none, not even the parties known for Hindu sympathy.
The tragedy of modern India is that the combined votes of Dalits/OBC and Muslims are enough for any government to be elected. The Congress quickly cashed in on it after Independence, but probably no other government than Sonia Gandhi's has gone so far in shamelessly dividing Indian society for garnering votes.
The Indian government gives Rs 1,000 crores (Rs 10 billion) for salaries of imams in mosques and Rs 200 crores (Rs 2 billion) as Haj subsidies. But no such help is available to Brahmins and upper castes. As a result, not only the Brahmins, but also some of the other upper castes in the lower middle class are suffering in silence today, seeing the minorities slowly taking control of their majority.
Anti-Brahminism originated in, and still prospers in anti-Hindu circles. It is particularly welcome among Marxists, missionaries, Muslims, separatists and Christian-backed Dalit movements of different hues. When they attack Brahmins, their target is unmistakably Hinduism.
So the question has to be asked: are the Brahmins (and other upper castes) of yesterday becoming the Dalits of today?

Biblography:

Written by Francois Gautier, on www.rediff.com

shades of Glasses

A hundred years back, if there was an idea of a machine that would produce cold air, and said that I would have to pay for it, I probably would told that person that he needed a bath and would have tossed the idea aside. Today however there is a premium on the very same cool air that is produced by a machine.

Today, we see some ideas as being stupid, idiotic, or ridiculous, but have we ever thought that somewhere we are looking at that idea through a colored glass. A glass that has been colored by our experiences and ideas in their life;

Each one of us have a colored glass in front of us, through which we look at the world, the glass could have been colored through our experiences, emotions, and day to day lives that we live.

What-o-what could help us clean these glasses, leaving it clear and clean.

IT Karmchari

Yeah…..Work and More!!!

How many times have we said this to people who ask us the quintessential question – How is Life?

Well, I have been thinking about what life should hold for an Aam Hindusthani IT Worker.

Let’s first get the ideal scenario in perspective:

Mon – Fri: Pretty Routine,
Get Up, Exercise (Maybe), Travel to office, work, work, work, evening work, late evening traffic, home, shower, dinner, TV, sleep.

Hmmm… not too interesting, but, there’s nothing much that can be done on this front; except philosophically give in or start enjoying work more!

Sat-Sun: Sleep, Movie, Dinner out with the family, or maybe have a drink in some horribly expensive pub with jarring music, and badly dressed page 3 people,
Clean house, do up wardrobe etc, etc, etc….

Hey, By no means is this BAD, its great, we are lucky to be the .01% of the financial Diaspora of this great democratic country.

Anyway, what to do?

I m stuck…. I don’t really know.

To be able to do anything that is uncommon seems to be too much effort, or that there is no availability for any of this stuff, or is too expensive.

i was driving through one of the villages on the Medchal Highway, it was a Saturday, and I saw in an open ground, what they would call in telugu “ Santa” as in a bi-weekely market. Where you get to shop, barter cows, socialize, network and maybe check out the cute village bells from the neighboring villages.. heh!

Now, that was something to look forward to, to me, if I was a villager I would have looked forward to that,

Now, except for the occasional movie, I don’t know what else to look forward to….

I will keep my eyes open this week, to see what else can be done, within budget, and sure will be fun… and report back in a week….

What's the Greatest Motivator

I have always wondered, what’s the greatest motivator?

Is it …God as an entity, the devil, hell, pain, fear, religion, heaven, bliss,….what it is?

At a philosophical level – it could be anything; I guess it varies from individual to individual…

From a corporate standpoint, I believe its fear that works wonders….

I would like to clarify something here; fear need not always be bad, sometimes it is also good to be afraid;

As they say, the only thing that keeps you alive in a tough situation apart from hope is the fear of death; I m not saying that it ever has to get that extreme, however it’s a thought.

I say, fear is the greatest motivator, fear makes you a better worker, it makes you more alert, less lethargic, keeps you from drowning.

Now, the question is… how do we use this very powerful motivator and channel it in a positive way, into areas where required. An analogy I would like to use here is like; gasoline –is extremely volatile, flammable, however when used to fuel an engine, it becomes the very life and essence of it.

Just a thought….

I still oppose dictatorship and communism….

Cognizentian

Hello World!!!

Let us assume, you are sitting in a restaurant where, information is your food.

For the Starters & Main course:

Its that time of the year when, every associate who has worked his behind off and/or lazed it through the year start to show sudden bursts of energy, enthusiasm and try to stalk out their manager's (what i would like to call) AIR TIME.
Weather you have worked or not, weather you have spent time doing justice to the money that is being paid to you, mostly goes all out the window. Somehow all you want is a great review with an ever better raise.

hmmmm... unfair?

Absolutely!

Per Me, its a simple philosophy, all you have to do is do the work that you are supposed to do, a little more or a little less is acceptable... after all you are human. When i say this i do not mean that its only work and no FUN. The fun side if most definitely what should be done, its also part of your JOB.

All i would like to say is, stay calm, stay cool. You will get what you deserve, if not today tomorrow. I am not overly religious, but i would like to take assimilate and impart some of the Awesome pearls of wisdom that has come down to us through the channel called Religion.
Here i quote Sai Baba, he says that every person has to have two Qualities, and they are "Shraddha" and "saburi". What is means is "Respect" (in General for everything) and "Patience" (Towards Anything). I for one believe that these two qualities and a summation of them encompass most of what is agreed to in society as being "Good".

Coming back to the point of People getting reviewed - The point to take away here is firstly, respect what you have, there are crores of People out there who would give their left arm for what you have, yet you disrespect the entire function and look for something better. Secondly, Patience - You will get what you deserve, if not today tomorrow. Rome was not built in a day; Caesar did not become Caesar with one fist fight. I m sure you will know what I m speaking about....

Dessert:

I overheard someone say, "I wish we had a campus where everyone could work, we can have so much fun, NA ", to that I thought - Yea Right! Agreed!
If you are reading the blog, Friend, I’ll say; Try reading the Main sheet of the paper, not the last page of the supplement where they show ample stretches of skin partially covered by something worse, badly designed, designer wear.

Fun my Friend Is here and NOW!

to blog or not..

ok, i m officially psyched,
i seem to have writer's block, which i don't think i have ever had before.
can't seem to write anything, or think of anything.
what's wrong with me....

maybe i need some inspiration, positive inspiration....

i'll get back to ya all once i get that inspiration,

I am my own GrandFather

" I married a widow who had a grown-updaughter. my father, who visited us quite often, fell in love with mystep daughter and married her. hence, my father became my son-in-law,and my step-daughter became my mother. some months later, my wife gavebirth to a son, who became the brother in law of my father as well asmy uncle.

The wife of my father, that is my step daughter, also had a son.
thereby,i got a brother and at the same time a grandson. my wife is mygrandmother, since she is my mother's mother. hence, as i am my wife's husband and at the same time her step-grandson; in other words, i am my own grandfather. "

After a tough day's crappy work, this is the best one i have read...

WOW! its a Tuesday....

Its finally a tuesday, after a gruelling monday living through a party on sunday night. well the biggest of surprises was that "THE BOSS" came home for the first time.. did not think he would.... le me give you a small intro, Rajneet Kumar... he was my first manager, awsome person, probably the best manager in the world and learnt a lot from him.. total bindass character, get's cranky once in a while, but, hey, he's also human....bottom line, i'm a FAN!


some tips at work....

Be pally with the Boss!!!IT helps


hehe.. nice one ..i like it....

well,
if you are reading this, i m sure you know about the food chain, well there are not too many animals that end up at the end of the natural food chain ( i'm saying natural cause humans do it the unnatural way) well sharks as you all konw are at the end of the food chain, they do not get humted, there is no animal in the natural animal kingdom that is the shark's enemy....or predator

taking up from there, comparing it to the IT industry, who is the shark!!! think about it...
is it the CEO, but the CEO is also part of a pecking order, who is it, or is there no one at all....

Where's the real money!!!

have any of you thought about art, i mean this world is full of hungry people, people dying due to wars and the stuppidity of some of our world leaders, especially like the one ruling the most powerful country.
yet, there are people out there investing in art, investing billions of dollars. this got me thinking, why do they do this???
cant they go buy a car, or buy a plane or something, why ART?

so here i am looking at some real nice renissance paintings, and wait.. see the paintings yourself, and then think




here's another one


and another one

anyway, as i sit here and try and figure out how to save my taxes and have enough money to buy a nice car for my kid when and if i have one.... i fugure, if there is some jackass who is willing to pay a fortune for a painting, why not invest...

Join the Dark Side

that's me on the right corner, its just the starting. I m moving into the dark side. Bad guys have all the fun!!! so why the hell can't i be the bad guy. why should everyone want to be the good guy.

anyway, the picture here has my whole BA team

Starting from the left : Samana (Ali's Little Sister), Ali (BA with Cogni), Sarabjeet (BA with Cognizant), Sarabjeet's wife.
now the right file ME in front, rajas, his girlfriend, neelam, and pradeep.

Scary Shit

your in the middle of a war, in one of the battles, you seem to be on the backfoot, loose some men here and there and basically make some tactical mistakes. well that's ok. but what happenes when you are faced with what you think will be the battle that can win you the war, and know that your chances of winning are not great.

what do you do then, where do you pull the strength and the courage to go on, how do you get it...
and then we have to move to spirituality.. to keep ourselves sane.

but what if there was no spirituality, and only logic prevailed. do what makes sence and only what's right. IMAGINE.

the abstract painting that i have included at the top speaks of a sinking ship, in seas of blood.

Survival is a MUST, yet losing seems inavitable

The Long Walk

I was thinking about the "quintessential" question, the question about GOD and his existance.
what intreagues me here is that almost everyone believes that this supernatural power exists, and we pray to that existance, pray that we be happy, and that we see no pain and no dificulties.
yet there is pain and difficulty, some have it easy, and some have it very tough.
when some kid dies in the earthquake, it makes me wonder what wrong that child has done to deserve the punishment of death. when Lawers using the flawed laws, by our forefathers, destroy someone's life, have fun doing it, and thank god for alloving them to do it......makes me feel sick.
the argument of "Karma" and "Prarabdham" seem to keep popping up every time i look in this direction. yet i do not see any proof. people get what they strive for, and strive hard enough.

there is an interesting story, which i think will always remember, it goes like this...

Plato's student walks up to plato one day and tells him that he wants to be successful, and wanted to understand success.
This student was callous in his attitude, in other words, very lazy; and was not motivated.
Plato saw this in him, asked the student to follow him to the river. waded into the river with the student following him till they were waist deep.
PLato then asked the student to take a deep breath, go into the water and then hold his breath; the student did so.
just as the student was about to come out of water, Plato pushed him back, submerging him, not alloving him to come up to take a breath of air. The student started trashing around, a minute later he pulled the Student out of the water and asked him... " when you were in the water, what was the only thought in your mind", the student replied "all i could think of was to take a breath".
Plato then told him that, if you want success as badly as you wanted air, then success will be yours"

First Day at Work - feel Like a Rock Star

today after a long time i again felt like updating my blog, its my first day at work, in Cognizant Hyderabad. Really liked the place and the people. my team is awsome, surprisingly where ever i go "SNIST" alumni keep popping up, and surprisingly enough they all know me, my current team of BA for the health care vertical also has one of my juniors from "SNIST". imagine juniors, i m a senior now, makes me feel old in more than one way.

my induction in chennai was quite eventful, with most of my "buddies" up to their usual ways, old habbits die hard huh??? anyway learnt a lot about the company and about the culture of the company.

well, that's that for now...

i-LIFE

This is one of my favourete calvin and hobbes cartoon, its normally calvin that gets picked by hobbes, but in this one its the other way round, maybe bill waterson wanted to give calvin a chance to get the upper hand for once.

i cant help but feel nostalgic about college, its going to get over in the next 19 days, after which each one of us sails of in our own boats to live our life, the one year that i have spent here, the emotions you go through, the amount you mature, the things you see, the people you meet, and then there is the parties, movies, ups and downs, exams and assignments et al.

i actually want to write a book about my experiences in college, but i dont know when that will materialize, i am planning to write at least one page for every month that i spent in college ... for a start.

i got placed in hyderabad Cognizant
so should be heading back home for work, its going to be good fun hopefully....





i dont yet know what vertical i will be assigned to, let's wait and see.

Being Cyrus or Being Nischal

I just saw Being Cyrus, i Liked it, though my cousen Divya who i saw the movie with thought that it was crappy and that Maalamaal weekly would have been a better choice, yet, butthen, it was a good movie, predictable however well made,

its movies like this that that help you see the real world, the world we chose to ignore just because its not in front of us, or that we chose to only see what we like to see, i call it "selective memories", to make sure that you are happy, keep the happy thought of the shahrukh-rani poster in front of you and forget the beggar boy/girl's eyes that are calling out for your attention, where we fail to realize the void that they have in their hearts, it shows through their eyes.



life has been a roler coaster ride the last month or so, its that part of the ride where your going down the huge slope with tremondus speeds, when you suddenly get scared when you imagine the cart shooting off the tracks because its going too fast..... FEAR of the uncertain.... Does that ever Eat you up.

I am starting to sound ominous, so i'll close on a note of HOPE, which is that FAITH is the only thing that keeps us sane, it keeps us in touch with the good lord,

then again, is it FAITH or is it FEAR.............

"DEEP FAITH ELIMINATES FEAR"

HOPE

hope is the greatest gift that god has given us,
hope is what keeps us going, the hope of a better day, the hope of a happier moment, the hope of sorting things that have gone wrong.
HOPE... i think is the greatest gift to mankind.

someone once asked me,
what's the one thing... anything it can be that you would want, and franlkly i did not have an answer, i was looking at something material, but today if i was asked the same question i would say, "Peace of mind".... absoloutely would be the one thing that i would desire more than anything else, peace of mind for me and peace of mind for my family, and for my friends.

The Worlds a scary place

The world is a scary place,
for we don't know the future,
how i wish we all knew what was comming and were tiold that it was inavitable,
and then we would make sure that we live in that time that we have to the fullest.

The Worlds a scary place

The world is a scary place,
for we don't know the future,
how i wish we all knew what was comming and were tiold that it was inavitable,
and then we would make sure that we live in that tieme that we have to the fullest.

Please Please Please

the world goes around the sun, the sun's a spot in the milkey way, and the milkey way's a spot in the universe.
in contrast we are nothing, yet, our peoblems seem to bring our world to a halt in front of us.
selfish, Yes, but its still what one calls their world, its everything we stand for, and everything we hope to have.
i had attended a speech by swami Sukhbodhananda in hyderabad, where he spoke about each and every individual having a colored glass in front of them, through which they see the world.
Does the glass keep changing, or are there more and more layers added, emotional layers, layers that affect what way we think and also change our perspective of the world around us.
how simple it would have been if we could choose the glass through which we can see the world, and if the world changed just because the of the colored glass that's changed, in the name of humanity.

reflecting back on the "ET in the Classroom" Quiz, i guess we just got lucky and were able to answer the crucial questions to win the quiz. but its going to take lot's of hardwork here on to be able to actually keep the winning streak going.

Life's Playing a game, i don't know if its just mental or emotional toughness that counts, Mind games through and through. The way out as i see it, LOGIC.
the more the stress, the cooler your head has to become, that i think is the only way out.

A lot like "Don" Corleone in the movie " Godfather", cool as hell, and dangerously strategic, i actually love that charecter.

I Won the" ET in the Classroom for 2006" quiz

i won the ET in the classroom quiz, pretty exhilerating!
am on top of the world right now.
coming out on top of all the other B-shools in chennai does feel good, sadly this year ET does not have a national Round, i would have loved to compete against some of the other B-school Quizzing teams out there.
NO CASH, sad, but here's what i won,
an I-pod,
7 days&nights all paid trip to GOA,
SWATCH
and some coupons from Lifestyle, Mysicworld, etc etc.

what i'm happiest about is the branding this is going to give my College , Great Lakes Institute of Management.

And for the finalle - i met some of the top cognizant folks there, and have got some awsome visibility there, they were all happy to see me win, and also see that i was to joing cogni soon.
here's what's better, my Project Guide from Times of India, was in the audience, he was probably more exited about my win than i was at that time. "cherry on the pie"

the win is good, but i m going through some pretty stressful time here, hopefully it should all dissapear, and normality to life should be restored.

What's the Motive of Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti if probably the most dangerous movie i have ever seen,
the motive of the movie as i see it was to bring to the spotlight the crap the defence ministry is buying from the Russians and Eastern Europe just to fill some swiss bank account somewhere.

But think about it like this: politician does wrong -> someone gets killed->mistake not analyzed-> people get paranoid->kill politician->his people kill more people-> the government starts panicking-> the police are brought in-> the army is brought in-> money is spent-> media has a hay day->net net->root of the problem not solved->one more politician is doing the same mistake somewhere, and is innocent till brought to light...

ok i'm was speaking about what could happen, but the thought that solving a problem by killing someone is wrong, who ever it may be.

I appreciate Aamir Khan to have the courage to come out with a movie like this;

i really hope and pray that the audience interprets the movie the way it was intended to be, and not in a skewed up barbaric way.

Yeah, and today is probably the most jobless day in college, no classes scheduled, no assignments to be submitted. so i think i'l go and play some cricket today.

i had gone to the Brand Equity quiz in Chennai; yesterday, by Derek o'Brian, this time his charecter was a bad mouthing Gen.Rumdi, one of his dialogues to his female assistants and i quote it " dont turn your ass to the audience" apalling... hell yeah.

The quiz content was not all that great, the questions were way too eazy for a quiz of that level, and i won an audience prize, a t-shirt, with the Times Now LOGO. Next year i plan to win the quiz.

55 more days to go

Its now been ten and a half months at Great Lakes Institute of Management,
another 55 days to go,
i have decided to try and update my blog as much as possible today on.
which brings me to the primary question:
why blog?
This got me thinking, psychologists say that the best way to get sane is to speak/write or type your mind out. i believe that blogging in a large way is a portal to vent out thoughts, making a lot of people more and more normal everyday.
enough of my venting my thoughts out, people of planet earth, i am very pleased to tell you that as i mentioned i attempted moving to redhat linix a few days back, well, i have moved to linux but the flavor is UBUNTU. and now i m completely on linux, wifi, e-mail, and chat. i still have to get those damn Mp3's to work of course. but otherwise, i am converted. not that i hate windows or anything, but its just that working on linux is kind of exhilerating.

i m going to go to the Brand Equity quiz today, as a participant, hopeful of winning a audience prize.
that's about it from me.
beam me up scotty!!!!

Just a Pretty Face

there was a survey in MIT recently, which said that when there is a picture of a pretty women on your advertisement or sheet, people seem to recognise or respond to it more. here i have tried the exact same thing. its for your eyes , so you can see a few pretty faces, will make you feel better and nicer, and make the world a smaller place. " one image for my blog, one thought to make the world a better place"

This is ME

This is ME, this picture was taken during the placement season of college (Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai) , between september 2005 to january 2006. i actually like this pic, i m not normally photogenic and don't like to look at myself on film or camera, however this is one of my nicer pictures which i would like the world to see. you see.

RedHat Fedora Core 2 Linux

I have now partially moved to Linux, its an acheivement of sorts for me since i have not had too much exposure to this universe.

Installed the Linux onto my IBM R51 ThinkPad, i am currently using both windowsXP and Linux FC2, dual booting it.

I really like the interface, and the way it works, the awsome power that the operating system provides, and what's most amazing is the online support that the LINUX community provides.

The only issue i have had is that i have not been able to configure my laptop to use the WiFi card. I have a inbulit Intel 2100 2B pro/Wireless card, though i have downloaded the drivers, i m finding it tough to install it, but i think i should be able to do it soon thanks to the awsome community out there.

baba and baby 

Datta's Adventure

How the hospitals of inda saved a good man’s life…

Here is the story of Datta, a man who has been through the fleecing sessions of the corporate hospitals of Chennai., he was locked in the ICCU … intensive cardiac care unit…for eating a pastry… stripped naked in public, given paper to wear, punctured with needles, put though an MRI, ECG, CT Scan, and every conceieveble type of medical test….now, the question to ask is..why did this happen,  just because his face was a little puffed up… my first thought was c’mon….. an avil can do what all this has done at one thousandth the rate.

It was another night in chennai, when datta, Samhita and Pooja went on a mega food date ,  to hot breads, not really the most romantical place… but has a lot of bread,

The mystery is still what did they eat… bread was definitelyon my mind when I heard where they went. But the fact is he ended  up in mallar hospitals, and was pushed into the ICCU..

When Varun, Girish, and Me went there the next day… and waltzed into the hospital.. we found adi flirting with the nurse at the reception, not realy pretty but maby it is the mallu link I think.. so we grabbed adi before he made any more cassanova moves at the nurse who was as perplexed as a caged giant panda in  a Chinese zoo.

We went up to the ICCU on the third floor…. In that rickety lift…  which I think was the most stressful part of being in the hospital, not knowing when the damn thing will just snap off the ropes and fall….

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity, nurses waking up and down, attenders running helter scelter,  and the huge doors of the ICCU opend, and there emerged Datta,
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Like a tortured man from a natzi concentration camp… but still strong,
like a reed in the nile  river…surviving, and trying to smile through the pain….

But it was not over, they were not done with him yet, they still wanted to observe him, try and figure out where they could fleece more out of…

Then he was taken to a room, and was put on a bed, it then dawned on us there what to tell datta about the bill… we were all scared about him getting a heart attack when he found out the bill…. Which was a hefty sum considering he was there only for a face swelling….
And it was all there to see.. we decided to come up with a way to tell it to him…

Varun, came up with the psychological strategy of putting it across to him…. In this picture you can see varun deep in thought .










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Adi and Sam, contemplating on datta’s reaction to the bill…

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Girish waiting to see his reaction …..

But, it did not turn out all that bad, they did fleece him, but not as much as was thought. He did not get a heart attack, but a heart burn from the crappy hospital food. He is now in Bangalore, eating bisibelebath and tomato curd.. hoping to full facial recovery.

Natasha's story

Girls....what you they make you do..and what you'l do for them..just like that

Natasha was sick, i mean really sick, cold like she came skinny dipping from

alaska, and all the snow was comming in through her nose..sneezing and

snorting....
well being a nice guy and all, i offered to take her out to dinner, probably have her

take some hot chiken soup, so i'l sooth her soul and her battered lungs.. at least i

hoped it would.
well.. this is what happened, i took her out on my stupendously superb pulsar...and

as usual i was not carrying any cash in paper.. its all plastic money, imagine what i

could do with the Plastic card when i'm stuck in the sahara dessert, maby i can

scratch my back if i really needed to..anyway, i went to the freaking ATM, god

only knows why OBC has one ATM for all of chennai, and eventhough i thought i

was their only customer. i was surprised to see that. when i got there... there was

some uncle looking at the ATM like he was looking at some steven spielberg

move...i had to wait there for at least 10 mins while he was counting the single 100

rupee note that he had drawn from the ATM...anyway, after this she got this

wired idea of going some 1000 kms out of chennai to ECR to have a burger....a

burger...please how desperate can someone get for a burger, i was like the natzi in

a concentration camp who was to dig my own grave, well the idea of taking here

there was mine,

finally i did end up taking her there, only to find that i was not as hungry as my

ansistral neandrathals were when they went your to the malls to eat their dinosaurs

burgers, so i opted to have a green salad, sounded apealing since chennai has been

lashed by rains the last few weeks .... there's plenty of greenary on the trees...

unfortunately that's exactly what i was given in the salad... made sure she had her

chicken soup for the soul... i hoped she would get better with that, at least i came

out a realized soul.. like buddha after he meditated under the bhodi tree, realized

the truth about life.. my take here was not to loose your head for any girls girlish

charms....

Swim initiative by Great Lakes

When you see the eagle soar in the sky, you don’t wonder how it does that, but you do know that it has strong wings to take it to soaring heights.

Here at Great Lakes, under the aegis of uncle Bala the institute has started an initiative called the SWIM (Successful Women in Management) initiative, concurring to my analogy in Management as in Life, men and women have to be given their rightful space to grow and do as they should.

Seminars and talks are conducted by successful women in the industry such as Mallika Srinivasan for the women in this institute, to help them break the barriers and mindset that has come down through the echelons of management over the years. Women have the chance here to be the best that they can, and the SWIM initiative seeks to provide them that opportunity. I remember the quote by Mallika Srinivasan during her speech on our inaugural function, and it is my favorite one and an inspiring one; “Know the way, Go the way, Show the way”. The Institute let’s the women know the way, gives them the opportunity of going the way, and then eventually showing a way to the future generation of women in management.

Management thinking and practice has matured in India over the last 10 years with the advent of the ‘knowledge era” and thanks to the IT industry. Women have moved out of the generic job types that were prevalent to giving women a high post only in the government to today being able to lead companies as CEO’s. Great Lakes has taken the first step towards achieving the goal of helping the future of management soar, taking men to be one wing and the women to be the other. Creating equal opportunity for the eagle called Management to SOAR.

Group: 4th dimension . . .

Philosophy: been there, done that, what next!!!

It was the first time we were assigned groups, after we were assigned groups the first time, well technically at least, the day was 10^th of may, I remember having a watery yet hot pongal at ram’s shimla canteen on the Great Lakes “roof garden”,

I heard someone shout “the new groups lists are out…the new group lists are out”, there was a wired buzz around, like the results of CAT being announced. I quit eating rest of the liquidy stuff in my plate and rushed to the lobby (waiting room- but it sounds like a hospital, so I like lobby better) on the first floor.

As I got down to the lobby, the junta were “ooh and aah” ing about who their group mates were, while I was trying hard not to get crushed trying to read the names of my groupies…. I got a sms… me.. A sms ….. Here…who. Why…how, while trying to figure out these extremely complicated questions, I checked my phone only to see a message from some babe whose number I had taken just yesterday, it said “ wre n th sme grp” .

I was walking away from the fighting mob, trying to figure out who this person I had met, who was my groupie and yet whose face I could not remember… anyway I looked up and saw this tall, lanky brunette standing near the stairs and smiling at me, my boyish instincts got to me, wanting to strike a conversation with her before some other clown with the same instincts got there first, in the process almost knocking down Prof. Rakesh Singh, who was passing by.

i…..sorry sir.

You..have…to…be..more..careful…

i..was…in a hurry …..excuse me…. sir

heyyyyyyy, long time, what’s up, how u doing? –> cheesy dialogue

she gave me a steely smile, yes all I could see were the steely braces.. and said “wre n th sme grp”, must be speaking Chinese I thought.

to continue the small talk I said “that’s neat isi’nt it.. who else is part of the group?”

She said” Sathish- that tall boy who’s super brainy, latha-she was sitting next to me yesterday, adithya-don’t know who he is, but his name sounds cool, Girish- don’t know who, but everybody says he smart, Gopal- that boy brain from NASA and you” poetic I thought yet, I still did not know her name and did not want to embarrass myself asking her what it was, especially after she knew mine. Sheesh…..how do these CEO’s remember names, is there some trick in the book I was missing?

We called our group the 4^th dimension, no one except Satish knows why, he suggested the name, but it sounded cool so we kept it. All the super high aspirations I had with my group were washed away in the first few weeks, as I wipe my tears and say that the other groups did much better than we did…. As it happened all the pep talks Satish and Girish used to give us benefited the other groups more than it benefited us... sob..sniff..sniff

The first assignment as I remember had a deadline of a month….yet we all started work only the night before…. Devon street- a road where a bunch of Indians have set up shop in Chicago, my kid brother can do this I thought…..confidently went to Google and typed Devon Street, there were more hits there than the sand particles in the Sahara dessert, I was starting to blame myself for having such a heavy dinner at sangeethas , I was feeling a little drowsy.... mummy, this is going to be a loooooong night…..

Just as I was googling myself to sleep Gopal waltzed in, from his usual disappearing act, (we all felt he was up to something, later on only did we find out that he was trying to get the ITC’s annual turnover up, at least 10 times a day)

It was 2:00 AM Sathish was head banging on his laptop, trying a new yogasana called sit sleeping, somewhere in the twilight between consciousness and sleep, Girish was lying in a coma in the corner, latha and prarthana were starting to look like aliens from another planet, adi was looking at his computer….his face was lifeless. Suddenly Gopal walks in and asked me

“saale.. kuch kiya?” ,

it woke everyone up from the trance, but I was looking for a something sharp to stab in his stomach.

Finally our PPT man … had just chosen after hours of intense deliberation a very sexy loud background for our slides...this has always been 4^th dimensions strategy, visually bombard the lecturer with highly colorful backgrounds and images so that hopefully the data in the slides is ignored…it’s our core competency…

8:00 in the morning, the only company I had was the cleaner, everyone else had left, for a short nap I thought, I got out of there lest I fall asleep in the chair,

After a long night out, there is nothing more alluring than hitting the pillow, but we all had to be there for the presentation, along with submitting a 5 page report.

By the time I got back to class…..

The girls were still in utter shock and disbelief looking at what we had achieved during the night ……

5 guys X 12 hours = 60 man hours = 5 pages of report…

there seems to be something inherently wrong with the equation….

Latha who also was the group captain, was looking to us …shaking her head in disbelief…like one of those trauma patients whose lost the ability to speak after witnessing a shocking, gruesome occurrence…in this case our shoddy report.

Sathish was hyper …… simultaneously working on the ppt and shouting loudly

“Arre bachao...bachao koi meri madat karoo”...

Aditya I believe was in an irreversible coma somewhere… no sign of him.

After skipping our turn as many times as possible we gave the presentation, during my time of the presentation in front of the rowdy mob of Superior,

I shook like a reed in a desert storm, My legs wobbled like an untrained belly dancer, my voice was pitched like a soprano, my memory stabbed me like a deceitful friend...due to my sheer nervousness I collapsed, I had to be carried out in a stretcher (and that’s the last time, I did ever present), but hey we are the 4^th dimension.

Its strange how the human psyche works when there is numbing demands, true we were not on time, but the fact is we did present considering the overwhelming odds against us…and that’s the saga of our group ……We were like six brave sailors in a terrible storm left to tide the mighty dark ocean... …we nearly capsized, but who cares once the boat kisses the shore…and we stand victorious. All in all the work we had put in was never boo’d at, it was a damn freaking good job if I must say.

Interesting!!!!
a paradox, an irony, a compliment, or a cacaphony of gibberish slang...only time will tell.
smart, intelligent , potential to be the best, and am sure will become one.

getting your imagination running wild when your drunk is not the best thing, but we have a chinese exam comming to us in the next few days...feels like a jew in a concentration camp...now you know what it is to dig your own grave. For all it matters....this is what i think...Our Chinese prof, Who’s battled the chinkis at siachen and pakis at leh seems to have lost the war in getting us to attend his classes, his repeated refrain that learning the language is thee quickest way to become a millionaire, other than marrying a rich heiress or winning the Sikkim interstate lottery, seems to have fallen by the way side. The only time I am ever going to make the effort to learn the language is if I enrol at the Shaolin temple…. and spend my life there as a monk…. and the option I definitely prefer ……if I get to date Zhang Li the “hot… hot” Chinki model on ftv….as u people know they suck at English…..and a lot of other things!

I frankly don’t see myself working in a back office of sundaram fasteners or Chang and brothers in Nanking (I dint get placed at shanghai because my cgpa was too damn low…..) having sticky rice and steamed bamboo shoots for lunch, the only thing vaguely Indian they did have there was, curried python and eel masala…....I can vividly imagine the scene when I am invited to Mr. Ming’s, (my boss at nanking )…. house for dinner where I manage to charm him and his flirtatious British wife, Laura ( who greeted me rather mischievously, with a twinkle in her cerulean blue eyes… she asked me in her English twang “ Mr.Nischal is that a gun in your pocket or your just excited to see me”…. (make no mistake I wasn’t armed that day) …oblivious to the ignoramus Mr.Ming….Whose knowledge of English extended monosyllabically to the sentence…Mr.Nischal....U bad...u lazy…..u useless...he was just conforming to the universal rule…

Nic's Hypothesis: all the losers always…always have the most beautiful women around them …not vice-versa though.

After flooring Laura, in addition to wolfing down a whole roasted Peking duck, which by any standards is a Bonne Soir... a good evening ...the next day I expect to get my ticket to civilized Shangai…my promotion for yesterday nights exploits….instead I have been fired…It turns out thanks to the Chinese….. The professor at GreatLakes taught us and the urge to show of my linguistic skills….

In place of complimenting the curvaceous Jade vase from the Ming dynasty that my boss had in his living room, I ended up doing the same for the equally curvaceous Mrs. Ming… I guess...i got into a bit too much detail describing the beautiful “curves” of the vase …much to the chagrin of Mr.Ming …maybe I dint get the ‘tone’ (that prof. Krishnan stressed so much) right or something… ….I never did like the Chinese or their stupid cryptic language anyway……

One peg down…..two peg down…three peg down…..four…five…….seven down……and your demeanour changes……the world all of the sudden looks oooo so beautiful……sights are mellow…and hazy…sounds are an unending hummmm…….your in a deep meditative trance …oooooM…..

You want to be surrounded by the beautiful things of life……all things vaguely pretty, attracts you like scent of the sweetest smelling rose (so what would you do….hold your nose and stay away??)…….the gulti narcissist in you dies down…and you take a true Aryan persona….brash and bold …..not an iota of timidness……no lust…no hatred…no jealousy…..no thoughts….just a sense of pleasant awareness of being…….

What did I do that moment ?...i don’t know……I am a selective amnesiac…..what do you think I did, if I perceive as I did ???.........

The next day you know you acted like a clown……

but deep down you don’t feel bad…you had a blast……and you know very well, you’ll do it again……and again… (till you lose all your acquaintances)

You pick up your cell…..dial you’re girls number and tell her the date at C.D is cancelled…”.sorry baby I have a hangover…things don’t look beautiful to me anymore….i am game only when I start counting….one peg…two peg…three peg…four peg…..on and on…… “

(let the ‘old monk’ lead you to nirvana and ‘cask’ away you’re ‘old’ problems …..hic hic hurray)!