PART 2: Mission MDI....ajab trip ki ghazab kahaani!!

There's something peculiar about the General Coach of Indian Railways....
thinking about it, some special adjectives come to my mind....unkind, uncomfortable, unaccommodating, unfathomable, unacceptable....well i can go 'un' n 'un' (pun intended)...!

But there is something that is great about it too....when you enter it, you certainly feel good about yourself. You feel that there certainly are better things in your life than this, and you start valuing your otherwise screwed-up life much more..

Well, recently, I had started feeling a little uncomfortable travelling by Garib Rath (cheers to Lalu for the innovation though!), because I had started comparing it with the princely treatment I got in Rajdhani Express(whatever few times i've travelled by it). But from now on, whenever I'd think about this journey to Delhi that I am gonna describe, it'll make me respect even a jampacked local train from Dadar to Andheri at 9 in the morning on weekdays (i guess u got what i meant!)....because it allows you to exercise a right that you were born with.....the right to breathe!!

Anyways, we bought tickets of the general coach of Golden Temple Mail, and even before the next stoppage, it had become unbearable for us to stay put.

So, with a ticket of general coach, we slipped into the sleeper.

No space !!!!

We found a stinking corridor in the coach to spend....or rather see through the night ( Mr.Charles Darwin's principle of survival of the fittest was looming large in my mind that night !), and trying to stay away from the kicks of those lucky fellas who had a reservation, with a stopgap arrangement, we tried to sleep......

In the interim, Mr.TTE (I would never know why they look so beastly always!) arrived and we had to shelve out a huge sum from our pockets as a price for the oooohlala space that we were occupying in the coach!

I don't know whether it's human tendency to have the heaviest of the sleeps when one is put under the cruelest of circumstances, but for the four hours that I slept, I slept well (in fact very well, as confirmed by my companion who was unable to sleep due to my acquisition of a little more than the minimum resources required to sleep!)...

It was morning, and though I was awake, I pretended otherwise else I'd have to let go of the extra 60 cms sq. of the space that I had created for myself during sleep (another human tendency!).

A full day to go before reaching Delhi, I didn't know what to do. I somehow searched for a tiny little space to sit, and made effective use of it by almost squeezing out the poor guy who had given that seat to me (gimme a break! I had paid double the amount paid by that guy..I deserved that seat more than him!)

Couple of hours before our arrival, we found seats.

The train screeched to a halt ! It arrived an hour behind the schedule.
Anyways, we stepped onto the Nizamuddin railway station !

Gentle cool breeze of Delhi's winters! My goodness, my memory drive immediately got formatted and I forgot all about the agonizing trip that had just finished ! I was back home !!!

I spent the night at home, a justifiable end to an otherwise traumatizing day!

Morning...

C'mon dude, hurry up, you've to reach Gurgaon by 11, and you're running so late....hurry up dude hurry up....

I reached MDI, Gurgaon at exactly 11.....and we were ready to roll....



to be continued....

PART 1: Mission MDI....ajab trip ki ghazab kahaani!!

What is common between pickpocketing, kidnapping, politics, well nowadays police, and online quizzing?

Well, all these acts are committed to make quick bucks and become famous or infamous....!

We MBAs are very fond of making quick money and getting our hands on those cherished possessions called certificates by carving ourselves into groups, preparing ourselves for a fierce battle, pulling up our socks, taking the swords out and...........playing some petty online quiz which needs nothing else but a little favor from Mr. Larry Page and Mr. Sergey Brin to try and know about the whole world in 30 minutes (for those who're still wondering....all I meant was 'googling'!) and do wonders with that....supposedly!!

It was one of those days for me.....staring at my HP-500(too old i know!), i was thinking about what is and what's gonna be.....

suddenly, a mail comes up for a quiz(yeeehoooo!) that's gonna take place later in the night...

Preparing for the battle...

torrents are being stopped for internet to run faster and for googling to become easier.....dinners have already been eaten.....abuses are being dutifully passed on to those who are still searching for the quiz link.....responsibility of selecting the team name is being floated around.....the ones who are cribbing about the assignment work getting affected due to this are also being dealt with appropriately....

Amidst all this, the quiz begins...

A 1 hr quiz, and at the end of it we know that we don't stand a chance....!

One week later....

I've returned from college, and I get a mail that we have qualified for the finals....

What the @#$#@....i don't even remember having played the prelims of that event.....and we are in the finals....

Anyways, we are asked to come to Gurgaon (MDI) to play the finals, and we dilly dally before preparing our bags and setting off for the journey.....the journey which i can never forget.....

Now begins the real story.....

to be continued....

mumbai meri jaan....? not really !!

Mumbai nagariya....

When I first visited this place (sometime in February last year), I didn't really like it...

Crammed with people....crammed with traffic....crammed with, well, almost everything....

Roaming on the fashion street carrying three huge bags, searching for the route, finding only a McD's to have something to eat.....well, it was an uncomfy experience for sure..

I was there in Mumbai for only few hours, but my rendezvous with Mumbai didn't exactly lead to love at first sight....

My next trip was a little more than an year later, when I was to appear for my NM interview...

It was a far better trip, more of a jaunt, more so 'cuz I caught up with a dear friend of mine, and we went to experience the delights called The Taj, Marine Drive, Chaupati.....

Yes, it WAS awesome....but still, Mumbai didn't have that pull that could make me wish to be back there again.....

but.....

FATE....NMIMS.....back to Mumbai....

20th June 2009, and my mild flirtations with Mumbai became a full-on affair....

It is not that I am a very studious type of a person who doesn't get any time to move out of my cocoon, it's just that M..B..A..these three alphabets had intimidated me so much that I took some time to come to terms with the bottom line of studying in an MBA college..

Don't let this wonderful time go in vain....

it won't wait for you, it won't come again......

I have had many dates with Mumbai in the last 5 months....sometimes religious(Jai Ho Sri Siddhivinayak Maharaj Ki), sometimes romantic(ooooh the lovely Marine Drive and its eye candies), sometimes confrontational(my dear Local Train), but always unpredictable.....

Like many around me, I too wish to see some Katrina or Kareena some day, but so far, the list has gone only as far as.....Bhiku Mhatre aka Manoj Bajpai....wtf...

5 months into the relationship, and I already feel I'm unfaithful....

I miss my ex...New Delhi....the queen of my heart....and whenever I get time, I do go back and meet her....

It's not that Mumbai has some inherent shortcoming as compared to my darling Delhi..it's just that i find it impossible to commit to it...at least as of now...

There have been many things that I have really liked about this city of dreams....but that would need a separate post....

Anyways, it's a long way to go......let's hope for the best....

I'm leaving many threads loose here....but i assure you all i'll be revisiting them soon.....

Mumbai....you better give me a reason to fall in love with you..

otherwise I have better options, falling under my purview.....

mediocre.....but arrogant??

First things first...the novel rockss !!!!

I used to be an avid reader of novels, but this rivulet called MBA has streamed away that lone interest from my life too....:(

Now let's ponder over the history (and the psychology, philosophy, whatever) of my rendezvous with this piece of gold....

Why did i buy something called 'Mediocre but Arrogant' in the first place? Well, if you haven't already guessed, then....well......you WILL by the end of this post...

I prolly (economically challenged version of 'probably', and to be used everywhere from hereon) related to the title......

Into the second trim of my MBA, and here's what i know so far....

Marketing - it's all about peeing on the four Ps (sorry if sm1 minds this language, but who cares!)

Finance - m still unable to manage my own finances in the financial center of India

Operations - most of the times, i find even myself nonoperational...

HR - i still don't believe, even after 3 yrs of work, that the HR people do have some work to do...

Ya fine fine, MBA is not so bad....but I don't understand why every teacher over here wants to show that our whole life is dependent upon their subject....(more details about this in future posts)....

Let's come back to the point....

mediocre....well.....

people say you got admission into such a great college, you are a champ....

i say....guyz.....grow up.....if admission into an NM would make someone a champ, then this whole batch of 300 that is vying for everything from drinking water to infrastructure, and from proper seats to food in the canteen, would be called a cartel of geniuses...

no we are not geniuses, we all are mediocre....but still arrogance is instilled deeply in us...thanks to our overgrown selves (average age of 25)....which have spent 2-3 years of their lives in frustration (work-ex ppl, incl. me), and have come here to vent out their frustration and pack themselves in a good package whether they have the knowledge or capability for that or not....

god knows what will happen to us all....

there are no complaints to this arrogance, at least from my side....reason being.....that is the only way out for people like me who don't have the capability to let our frustrations fizz out in the form of the vodkas and the fosters..(pardon my knowledge on this subject pals, but i know tum bhaavnao ko samajh gaye ho...)

anyways.....for all those who now know why we all are(and should be) called mediocre but arrogant, and also those who still didn't understand why i associate myself and take so much pride in this title, here's the basic formula that defines the whole life of a management graduate...

MBA = Mediocre But Arrogant

k guyz...it's time to go to sleep...and then study/dine/sleep again/phone/movie/case study/some quizzz......zzzzzz............

un nouveau monde

Ya, i know it is uncustomary to kick off your blog with a title that might not be understood by 93.1% of the population of the world, but hey, it's MY blog, and at least here lemme have the liberty to exercise some fundamental rights.

Ya its French. And though my knowledge of this language is limited to that furnished by Mr.Dan Brown in Da Vinci Code, I shall say that I love whatever I know of this language...:)

Well, the title means A New World.

I'm late in creating this space of my own...late by atleast half a decade, but never mind, i'd try to keep up...:)

Here, I intend to cover (and uncover) facts about my life, and of things (ok, and people too) around me.

Am not a great writer or something, but 14 years of English medium school, 1st year of graduation (ya the burden lasted for one year only), and 2 trims of MBA (as of now), have instilled enough to communicate my 'vichaardharaas' (you DARE forget your mother tongue!!) to you all....

Welcome to my world.........