Chennai me chain

I used to laugh vehemently in opposition when my Tamil friends adored Chennai as a great place to live in. Everyone else told me about the tough times North Indians face in Chennai- the language problem, dealing with auto drivers, scorching climate, tendency of the natives to dislike the outsiders, food etc ... I was prepared for the hostile treatment I could receive in the city. To my surprise my one month stay here so far has been really comfortable and a lot of experiences have been eye openers for me. One more month to go and a lot of prejudiced speculations are getting pushed into the stack. I hope and feel that the stack will not do a pop operation.
Food is not a problem if you like south Indian. Dosas, idlis and vadas are the tastiest here. Apart from that there are plenty of places where you get north Indian food. One of the best chaats I ever had was here in Gangotri. Summers of Chennai are supposed to be painful but they are not as intense as they are in North India and evenings are much cooler.

Place is humid but then if you love beaches, you got to go where humidity is. Language problem occurs only with the few illiterate people as most of the people have Hindi or English as their second language in school and can manage to converse in either or both.

So then the only problem I faced initially was with auto drivers and this is how you can overcome to this problem: - Here the meter starts from Rs. 30. By meter I mean drivers’ greedy mind.The physical machine never operates- I am sure for more than half the autos in the city this machine would have got rusted. But I have found a good way of bargaining. All you need to do before travelling is to call up your local friend and know the exact fare. Now, when the auto driver places his bid, tell the exact amount and then say this – “naan dhinamum inth route la poitu varen” meaning boss, I do travel up and down daily on this route. Even Hindi works well (for those who cannot by heart this phrase). You then need to leave that auto and pretend to look for another. 95% of times the same auto driver will come back and agree to your amount. Best practice- never catch a stationary auto, always stop a running auto.

For my friend

It has been looooong since I wrote here... Have started tweeting these days though. This blog is for my friend whose wedding anniversary is on 19th of this month. Dunno if I will get time on 19th to write this so thought will write today(16th) on saturday evening itself.. 4 years we were together in engineering college. This is my second stint but he is not here. But infinite number of times similar events happen here in college which remind me of him. I keep relating that if we were together here, we would have done this thing in that way, we would have laughed today on this matter, we would have participated in that cricket tournament, we would have traveled back home together talking and laughing all the night etc etc..
But just one more week to go. I am gonna be in Bangalore then and we shall catch up.
Lots of wishes to both of you on your wedding anniversary ....

Sharmajiiiii......
Here nobody calls me sharmaji :(

I P L ay

This one had to be there in my blogs. I realized so late that I had not written about my first wife yet.

We do a lot many things in life without interest. Just because trends are set that way we follow them. Ironically, many times we do not even realize doing things that do not interest us. Studies tops the list of such things. Job, family commitments are few others to mention. People still do reasonably well. Sports is but one field I feel one can never do well if not interested in. Not to offend any one but I think very low of the people who do not have place for sports in their life. This sounds arrogant and a vain statement but I will not press backspace to erase it.

I will not write an essay about advantages of sports to bore any one with the cliché statements. I will try to contain this blog with some of my wonderful experiences. I feel, more than learning and mastering the nitty gritties of a game that comes with practice, it is very important to grow as person while pursuing the sport.

Like every one, I started playing football and cricket in school but was never very serious as studies had to be first preference like most of the parents want their children to do. My inclination towards sports started increasing after I played football in the Bhopal zone. Got to see so many devoted professional players and was amazed to see their passion and commitment towards the sport. Ours was the last team in the standings but I gauged the amount of seriousness required to excel.

In college I took cricket and was able to make in to the college cricket team in the second year. It was then that I started to enjoy the sport so much. We played a lot of memorable matches but one the most crucial match was the final of a tournament that we lost. I had tears in my eyes having failed to win the match for the team. The next few days were so gloomy. I rate it as the most disappointing lose of my sporting career. But all the subsequent defeats (haven't had many ;) )were never so painful. That day I learned to digest the defeat.

Can never forget the consecutive victories in the office cricket tournaments- Excellent team work and camaraderie that we showcased. As we meet with people and interact, friendship flourishes over a period of time but I have always felt that the relationships that are made on a cricket field, by applauding, encouraging and supporting each other are inherently staunch and flourish in no time.

How can I not mention our weekly football sessions where I discover my passion in 8 inch diameter.

Let me finish this with my “about me” in orkut -

“Its not alcohol, its not cocaine, its not movies, its not women, neither is it television. Its only the sports that i am addicted to. The medals don't mean anything and the glory doesn't last. It's all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.”

Coming U.P....

I feel very sad, when good movies go unnoticed. The list of such movies is huge. I feel sad for the director, producer, story writer and the ARTISTs (Any One who has seen HAASIL will know why artist is in capitals :) ).. The big question here is, what is the definition of a good movie? Well, I do not intend to answer that as I feel it is not possible. Interests and likings vary. What one person likes, other may not like and vice versa.

I got tempted to write this blog after watching the masterpiece of indian cinema “HAASIL” by Tigmanshu Dhulia... This flick based on the student politics in UP has been immortalized by stunning performances from Gauri Shankar (Ashutosh Rana) and Ranvijay Singh (Irfan Khan). Every single character picked in the movie has made a profound impact. But the movie truly belongs to Irfan Khan. His effortless dialog delivery and his involvement in the character is amazingly fascinating. The movie does make you laugh at times, though comedy is not intended, only because of the reality in the characters portrayed.

The dialogs customized to suit the UP lingo are extremely hilarious and mind boggling. I am extremely excited to be spending my next two years in Lucknow the capital city of UP. Looking forward to hearing a lot of lucknowi and shooting my by hearted Haasil dialogs in style.... :) .
HUMEN JANNTE HO KI NAHIN BEY......

Good Bad Ugly

Good:
Finally I did it. Got the confirmation call for IIML. Good.. I will be a manager in 2 years time from a premier institute.
Life is all set. Will make new friends.. No more office headache.. College life that I was missing so much after engineering
will be back. It may not be same though. Good that the dream I saw some 3 years ago has finally come true. It was so good to
call home and tell my parents about this. So good to have that feeling of having achieved something. Good to know that
so many friends and relatives feel proud today and are so happy for me. Can there be anything bad at this point of time....

Bad:
It feels bad to end 4 years old association with my company. Company where I had grown both at personal and professional fronts.
Shall miss my cubicle, team treats, football sessions and all my colleagues.
Back to studies now :(. Dunno after a break of 4 years, how tough it is going to be to attend the classes, do assignments,
surprise tests, what not..
I made so many friends in the past 4 years. Some really so close to my heart. Shall miss all of them.
And ya no monthly credit of the salary now. :(

Ugly:
Last day at my company.. Dunno how bad it will be to say good bye to some of the close ones.
Final meeting with friends, say good bye, turn back and travel back home through those streets perhaps for the last time..

Turning point

I never used to get good marks in the last paper of any exam in the school. Like most, I never liked the exam time and only good thing about exams was that the vacations will start immediately after. Writing the last paper in the exam, I used to think that just 2 more hours and then fun time starts. I always passed with mediocre ranks..

I went to the best school in the city and all the students were supposed to come from middle/ higher middle class family. I had a friend in my school. I used to spend a lot of time with him but never got to know much about his family, his life outside of the school. Since some days he had segregated himself from others and he preferred spending time alone thinking about something. I never went and asked him about this. I was too carefree to think so deep and emotional.

I was in 9^th standard and exams were about a month way. I went on vacation for a few days with my family to attend a wedding at a distant place. Had a great time in the wedding and did not want to return back home where the ominous exam time was waiting for me. While returning from the marriage we had to take one overnight bus that would take us to the place 10 kms away from our town. From there we had to take another bus to reach home. It was 6 a.m. of the monday morning when we took this second bus. We were very tired of the overnight journey and I was a little tense about going to school at 12 later in the afternoon. As we were waiting for the bus to start a boy stepped inside the bus and started selling the newspaper. I looked at him and was shocked to find that it was same friend of mine. I tried to take my eyes off him to save him from the embarrassment but our eyes had collided and he came, greeted my parents and then went off without selling any of the newspapers.

Through out the journey, I was thinking about him, the circumstances at his house that would have made him do this. For the first time in my life I realized the importance of being born in a family of haves. I was upset throughout the travel and somewhere in my mind there was a fear about me falling into the same situation sometime.

I came back home and went to bed straight away and fell in to the sleep. A sleep that would change my life, a sleep that was worth a million. I saw a dream in which I found severe crisis hitting my family and I am the one who has to take my family out of all this. I am surrounded by problems all around me. I woke up out of alarm and saw sweat dripping out from my face. It was 9 a.m. in the watch. I immediately went to my study table and started studying. That was the day, I became serious about my life, my career. My parents were surprised to find me studying in my room. That one month I gave it my all and scored 94% marks in the exam.

My friend had left the school after that year and I never met him again. After almost 12 years I happened to go back to that city and I visited his house but I could not find him. Its amazing to know how one small incident can make such a profound impact and change your outlook towards life . Had it been some other guy selling the newspaper in the bus, I would not have been writing this...

finally its over...

I had been planning to start blogging since last 2 years. But everytime I tried to, a thought came to my mind: what sulabh you need to give CAT this year better give some time to studies. Can do justice to this interest latter.

And finally the day has come. Finally after making 3 attempts I was able to get a sole IIM call from Lucknow. I remember the day (night in fact) I saw my result , called my friend who used to accompany me to write all the mock tests. Both of us were so happy. Since then one half of my brain had CAT preparation filled inside and god they want you to write essay also (Verbal is already weak ;) and they again want me to write an essay). If only I had started blogging earlier, would have developed decent writing skills by now. Started preparation for the 2nd phase with the following questions: Where do I stand? Do I have a chance? What all things I need to study? . With the remaining half of my mind I used to manage my office and daily work. As the interview date approached nearer, tension started to increase but used to calm myself by saying: sulabh you have nothing to lose. Already you have a good job. Just go by free mind and whatever happens will be good for you. But there was always a thought that this is something which might change my life completely. I feel it is very important to take away all these apprehensions from your mind. It is little diffcult though when you get one single call in your last attempt ;).

Finally the night before the interview arrived and 2 months of anxiety, discomfort and prepartion will be over in just about 12 hours time. More than the interview I was thinking about the relief I will get after the interview is over. As it happens to me before any big day, I kept on rolling in the bed for hours but could not get sleep. Every five mins I ll be imagining myself in the interview room or on the GD table. Will peep into the watch and get shocked. God its 12 . its 1 ..oh my god it is 2 already.. 7-2, just 5 hours of sleep. Finally was able to sleep for some time before the alarm rang at 7...

Fortunately this time I really went with a clear mind and did my best.Time will tell if my best was good enough ;).. I am so happy that it is over... Time to relax ....