Project 2_ITMC_Cheap Thrills

Let me introduce to you a way of travelling which my friends have discovered.
We proudly call ourselves the “CHEAP THRILLS”.

We believe in age old adage. .that “the point of journey is not reaching the destination but the journey itself “
Additionally we also believe that the journeys which are marked by confusion, on spot decisions, total desperation and serendipity are more interesting and worth remembering.

We have three Commandments to guide us in all the trips that we undertake.
Let me explain, enumerating them with the incidents that took place when we went to MM Hills.
A place that was made famous by the sandalwood bandit Veerapan and his fearsome moustache.

The first commandment.
Thou shall plan everything, except for unnecessary details like what, where, how and how many.
So one fine weekend we decide to go to MM Hills. We had a vague idea that we would get bus from Majestic (Bangalore Main Bus Stand). But its frequency, the timing of last bus and the time taken to travel etc, were mysteries that we planned to solve on spot.
We were uncertain to the very last moment how many of us were actually going to come, it was no wonder; some of us stared helplessly at the last bus as it pulled out of the stand, while others were stuck in traffic.
We frantically considered our options, should we go somewhere else? Should we stay put in Bangalore?
Deciding to stick with the plan we went to Mysore, from there we were bound to find something connecting.
We realized how wrong were we only after reaching Mysore, where we had to hire a cab at around 3 am, since stranded at the bus stand is not exactly our idea of thrills.

The Second Commandment
Thou shall seek thrills the cheapest way.
The funny thing about money is … It’s never enough…
So we try our best not to spend too much of it during our travels.
We broke our commandment by hiring a cab. But we tried to compensate, by making full use of the DVD player in the cab. We saw a movie in Malayalam, a language which we are not familiar with, through the night, a cheap thrill wasn’t it.
Normally, we travel by cheapest available buses and the lowest class of trains. This way we get to know the real culture of that place without our wallet losing much weight.
To understand the culture of the place, it’s essential to haggle for seats with the general public, it’s absolutely immaterial that one does this with people whose languages one doesn’t understand. The gestures are self explanatory.


The third commandment
Thou shall crack PJs constantly, silence is strictly prohibited.
One way of seeking thrills is to keep coming up with outrageous PJs (Poor Jokes), no matter what the situation is. And the funny thing about PJ’s is the worst they are the better they sound.
We keep pulling each other’s legs, coming up with wacky one-liners and parodies.
We even came up with anthem for our group, during our return journey on the bus, which went something like this
“Life is exciting we are cheap thrills
Confusion, indecision we are cheap thrills”
We created so much racket in the bus, it resulted in harsh altercation with our co passengers, who took us for drunken lunatics.


So that was crux of our philosophy without going into the details of what we did at our actual destination.
We basically compromise our comforts and risk our lives in our quest to achieve thrills without spending too much money on it.


But let’s talk about a journey in which we try our best, not to reach the destination. Life; and we all know what final destination is, we have seen the movie haven’t we?
In my opinion these three commandments are applicable here also, only our understanding needs to be changed.

Life is not a 6 sigma project; don’t plan everything meticulously in life. You never know when something or maybe someone comes up and disrupts your plans. Follow the first commandment.

Coming to the second, being cheap is not related to money in this journey. The important thing is not to search for your happiness in materialistic things around you. The best things in life are free; seek thrill in those, like; enjoy the nature, get wet in rains till your soul get drenched.

Follow the third commandment with extreme care, not everyone can tolerate PJ’s.
But try to make people smile especially when they are feeling blue or when they are tensed, this can be your good deed for the day.

Project 1__ITMC__In search of true Niketan

This was my first shot at public speaking.. I must proudly say it went pretty well ;
I won the best prepared speech speaker of the day , in my very first speech :)
ITMC is acronym for Infosys Toastmasters Club , a forum that encourages public speaking

Is it too late? Has the situation become hopeless?
We must find out.
As I cautiously embark on my public speaking journey before you.

Mr. Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and welcome guests.
A very good evening to all.

My name finds its root in the hindi word Niketan which means Home.
If u put a 'A' before it, it becomes "Homeless"…
Homeless .. not Hopeless
Its One of the names of Lord Krishna. Signifying his omnipresence, all the world to him is his home, rendering him essentially,a homeless…
But, for me the literal meaning suits better.
I am a Maharastrian , brought up In UP at 12 different cities and attended 9 different schools; and from last 6 years in Karnataka .
Where is My HOME !!!

My nomadic lifestyle is attributed to my parent's dynamic job requirements. My dad is retired High court judge and mom is District Judge. The tryst of my family with the Judicial services doesn't end here, my grandparents, uncle, cousins and aunts from both paternal and maternal sides are dedicated to the judicial cause.
In short I come from a family filled with lawyers and judges.
I know what you are thinking. What the hell am I doing here!

Dont "judge" me the answer to this all pertinent question has eluded me so far.

In fact my carrier aspiration has fluctuated like a pendulum and changed sides like our political parties.
Every semester I would be fascinated by a different subject and saw my future in it.
Robotics, Aerospace, Management, Thermodynamics .to name a few
My mom got so fed up of my ephemeral ambitions. She responded to each with same reply “I hope u come up with something better next year". My father, who epitomizes stolid personality, on other hand would never loose patience with me.

I am still to figure out the next course of action after joining Infosys.
Like the architect said to Neo in the movie Matrix "You already have made the choices, now you must understand them".. My understanding phase is going on...

By now you might have guessed that, I am a dilettante of the first order. I have many superficial interests that wax and vane with time.
But some interests that stood the test of time are reading and travelling.
My Reading had its humble beginning in kiddy stuff like Hardy boys and Famous five
Which gradually transcended into serious literature like Dickens and
Asimov. Not too serious though. I confined myself to fiction only.
Also the kid in me made me read each Harry Potter book at least 5 times …

Travelling … I was bestowed with parents who themselves are super fond of travelling. They would take me and my brother along with them in their many journeys.
So I tagged along with them initially out of compulsion and latter with bubbling enthusiasm to almost every nook and corner of this great country.
My favorite places have always been the beaches. Sitting on serene beaches I realized that solitude is the best company a man can ever have .
Still the thirst for travelling is not quenched. It’s my dear wish to travel whole India in one stretch like Sharukh Khan of Swadesh.
Now the gloomy aspect of my life; the absence of fairer sex.
For 22 years my tongue seized functioning in front of girls.
Their mere presence made my throat dry, palm sweaty and vision hazy, much like public speaking.
This problem miraculously got rectified during training days at Infosys.
Only to replaced by another of much bigger size.
The few single girls that are left today, think I look like an innocent kid, and hence can’t be considered seriously.

What !!!!
Even if I do, what's wrong with that?
Have rowdy looking men become knights in shinning amour for 21st century dames?
I hope not..

Finally I have a confession to make.
All my life I have been like a sponge stuck at bottom of the sea. Letting the fishes of opportunity pass me by while I filtered out only the essential for survival.
I am looking for a path to redemption.
Lately I have sprouted tiny tentacles. But that is not enough. I wish ITMC help me evolve strong flippers that would help me to leave murky depths of ordinary and rise to dazzling surface of the extra ordinary.
And in the process discover my true Home , my Niketan; my destiny.

Back to you Mr. Toastmaster.

Missing Mysore

It’s been almost a year now, but the memories are still fresh. Memories of good times are like wine, they better with time, they become more intoxicating and powerful, enough to make us travel back in time to those hey days. The details may get blurred but we tend to recall exact emotions that we felt then.

Such were the days of my training at Infosys Technologies, held in Mysore.

I was at perigee of my confidence ,( due to terrible times at my previous job) , I had no idea what to expect , having heard claims of my friends that they were harassed and thoroughly exploited during their training, I was very skeptical of my chances. Only one thing drove me, that it can’t be as bad as my previous stint.

The entry was dramatic and it kind of blew my breath away, being whisked away in a golf cart all I could think was WOWWW.

Enormous campus, shining glass façade buildings and spick and span boulevards that seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. The thing that really struck out was enormous glass golf ball building which I latter came to know was the multiplex.

I was put up at hostel room which was comparable to a 4 star hotel’s room. I perpetually had Colgate smile on my face for first few days, I couldn’t believe my luck , few days back I was toiling in miasma of shop floor , now I was in midst of surfeit luxury.

Eventually the training began, it was preceded by string of ILI (Infosys Leadership Institute) sessions, these sessions were fun and served as ice breaker among group of strangers who were to become training mates. We were made to do silly tasks to improve team spirit among us. I thoroughly enjoyed these.

The technical training which had halo of being extra tough started on daunting note. Modules, assignments, module tests, compre were the four words that were most talked about.

Eventually late night patrolling of GEC became an innate trait of everyone. Since we had GEC (Global education Center) at our disposal 24 hrs we began to procrastinate work, leaving more and more work to be done after midnight.

I was amazed at the facility, with which I understood the concepts of training and the fact I didn’t struggle as much I thought I would.

So I shifted my attention to ECC (Employee Care Center) and I would not be overstating when I say I over exploited the facilities there. When I had state of art GYM , swimming pool , steam bath , squash courts , tennis courts etc etc at my doorstep , I didn’t see any reason to hold myself back ,not even stern warning from my physiotherapist ,who would have killed me if he knew what all I was doing then; and I unleashed my self on these.

During the training another major foible, in myself was addressed automatically, the inability to accost girls. I thought with four years in Mechanical engineering and six months on shop floor, I would have to use sign language to communicate with the fairer sex. But I was lucky enough to meet some very understanding girls with whom I did manage to communicate in normal colloquial languages, and made friendships that I hope will last for lifetime.

As it is quite obvious that no matter how luxurious your surrounding’s are you will be happy only if you get good company. I did get that and time spend with my friends during training , was truly memorable , be it be during group studies cramming our head with last minute knowledge , or during project work , or while playing or partying (DJ nights were instant hits) , every moment was enjoyable and worthy to be cherished.

Some of the best memories that keep brimming in my memory are:

1. Coming back late in the night around 4 am listening to “I walk alone” on my cell, it gave me Goosebumps all over my body.
2. Discussing ghost stories with my friends till late in night.
3. Having fruitless philosophical discussions with Bhavna, in which I was comprehensively beaten.
4. Coming to room late in night struggling to find way through myriads of sprinklers, which had the knack of going on when I was coming back.
5. Fights with Arpita over silliest of reasons.
6. Seeing back to back movies in Multiplex.
7. Breaking our heads just days before compre.
8. Cycling around the campus late in the night.
9. Lying in the swimming pool late in the evening and bask in the view of fully lit GEC.
10. Trying to understand musical concepts from Sughosh and teach him Mainframes, believe me both were next to impossible tasks.
11. Lolling around in front of Loyal World (Super Market inside the campus).
12. Occasional jaunts to Ambrish Dabha, on weekends.

But every good thing has to end, so did the training, the glare of Mysore DC blinded me so much that I choose Mysore as my first option, although I got Bangalore. Same golf cart carried me and my luggage out, but this time my heart carried more luggage than my bags.

Most of my good friends went to other DC’s.

The abrupt end left a void that I am still struggling to fill. And on the anniversary of what I called a sudden death, I crave for those days when we earned while we learned and led mostly carefree lives only compre and module tests playing the spoilsport.

There are new demons now namely traffic, production issues and compensation reviews, to make our lives interesting. Life would be surely dull without any challenges!!!

The Human Junction

Filthy , dirty , stinking and overcrowded ; images that occur to us when somebody mentions about the Indian Railway Stations.
But in my opinion, a lot can be learnt from them if we just be receptive enough to look for them. The Railway Platform is like a huge canvass where one can find all the hues of human emotions mingling with each other and forming a brilliant masterpiece, which is a miniature representation of our society itself!
I got to observe this masterpiece during my break journey to home this time around. I had two hours to pass on Itarsi station, before I could board the connecting train to Allahabad.
Refused to be bound by the ennui of the first class waiting room, I ventured out for a midnight stroll on the platform.
The images offered by the railway station were as usual - vivid and diverse!. One could observe myriads of human emotions and behaviors, all brimming in a small place.
Few that I could discern were. -
The expression of happiness lit up the faces of dear ones, who met after a long duration; the trains play an important part in reuniting family & friends!
The confused look borne by the passengers, whose tickets were not confirmed! They kept running helter-skelter & waited for the earliest opportunity to flank the TT & bombard him with their anxieties, contrary to the stoic stance taken by the TT, who resembled a boxing match referee, while standing in the middle of the pandemonium, which was created by disgruntled waiting list passengers
The tired hungry faces of the porters, as they looked onto the approaching trains with expectations of passengers bringing tons of luggage for them to carry!
The constant babble from the platform vendors creates a ubiquitous background in every corner of the station.
The echoes of “Chai!! Chai!!”.. is invariably the strongest association of station in our memories. Their frantic attempts to allure prospective customers are an indicative to their desperation.
The endurance of Indian passengers as they wait for their trains to arrive is world renowned, they bring all the essential items with them and make themselves at home while their trains keep getting delayed.
The look of intense disappointment in the eyes of a father, caught my eye, while he was trying to pat his son to sleep, who was lying on the platform. His heart must have pained to see his son sleep in such an ungainly predicament, but he was helpless.

Then there are homeless people whom the railway station tends to soak in its vast enormity, they are present at every nook and corner of the station where it is even remotely feasible to lie down. They are always found sleeping in their dirty rags, their sleep which is oblivious to the confusion all around them, seems peaceful.

The sad demeanor of the poor trash pickers is heart rendering, their condition seems abject as they scavenge around for treasure in heaps of trash all around. Their empty and hollow eyes gleam only at the sight of uncrushed plastic bottles, which they carefully stow away in their sacks.

The nonchalant countenances of some brave souls are also noteworthy! These fellows like to get down at every stop for a drink or to eat or just to stretch their legs, and they always prefer to give the train a start before boarding it, stretching their sojourn on the platform to the very last minute, as if boarding a static train is a lowly act, which is to be avoided at all cost. (Unfortunately I also belong to this species of foolhardy ruffians).

If I had an opportunity to observe myself on that day, I would have seen a bemused passenger who realized at the very last moment, that his confirmed railway ticket is a day old, and is running around from one officer to the other with the hope of finding a loophole in the rules, that don’t allow traveling by a day old ticket, and somehow bribe his way through.!

Endless Quest

O slave of Neptune, kings of seas
Mighty ocean, what secrets you hold inside thee!!
Many fathoms of water you hold,
Nobody could ever fathom it no matter how much old.

What you think and want is difficult to descry,
As you can do anything but cry.
There is no way to tell the tears that you shed,
From the waters which you tread .

Your emotions are shown ,
By the constant ravaging of the waters you own.
For the love which you seek ,
Is far away in skies beyond your reach.

Moon, the gleaming white orb ,
Is your beloved heartthrob .
Every time it comes near ,
You cry out loud for every one to hear!!

The futility of your efforts is evident ,
None the less you are not diffident .
You don’t loose hope ,
As forgetting love is beyond your scope.

There is a lesson from the ocean to be learn,
If it’s the love that you want to earn !!
You have to keep on trying ,
Till you melt the heart of your darling.

Love Quotient

This valentine go SentiMental ….
This valentine treat your skin so that it glows….
Feel the Love in the air…..
What are your plans for this valentine?? ……..
Statements like these were booming on the air waves on every radio channel, while I was browsing through them traveling on bus to work yesterday.People surely know to cash in the madness associated with the valentine day.For a person, trickling through the quasi static traffic of Bangalore is a punishment bad enough, and for a single man listening to this sort of gibberish while doing that, is nothing short of torture.I turned off the radio for good, and played Hanuman Chalisa on my cell phone, I thought, its better to indulge in some devotion rather to get more irritated. And who is better than Lord Hanuman (bachelor for life) to distract ones mind from love-shove rubbish.
Sadly this Love Bug came chasing me later in the day. When I have to attend a meeting whose theme was Love Quotient. I couldn’t escape reality this time; I had to ruminate on the sorry state of affairs in my life.
So what exactly is this Love Quotient?? I guess it is like IQ, while IQ is a reflection of ones intelligence, LQ is the reflection of ones ability to understand love and the complications associated with it. Unfortunately there is no standardized test for quantifying this.
Where do I stand as far as LQ is concerned? I pondered …
Well my understanding of Love is pretty abysmal. I never understood the Paradox associated with Love & Friendship.
As far as general norm goes you can't fall in Love unless you are friends with the opposite sex, and there is another conflicting norm that state if you are good friends then you qualify for "Friends For Ever” category where it is deemed inappropriate to garner such thoughts. So, one will have to go through the whole process again with different person, with apparently the same results next time.
For me Love without friendship is like building without foundation. Is my understanding correct? I don't know…
Are there two ways of befriending girls, type one where there is a possibility of the relationship going to the next level and type two where such thoughts are not entertained?? I don't know …The very thought of becoming friends with a girl with an intent for something more (hidden agenda) revolts me, falling in love should be a natural process. Is it really??
In my opinion, one has to know the other person thoroughly, in order to be serious about him/her, and that can be achieved only by becoming good friends. Again this is just a theory, never tested by me ... so not sure about this also.
Is there an optimum point in friendship where it’s appropriate to move it a notch up, or on the similar lines is there a point of no return, where it becomes impossible?
Well I think I won't know the answers until I experience this Love thing on my own. Or could any of you educated guys/gals could give me pointers to my qualms and clear my elementary concepts at least.
Till then I humbly admit that I seriously lack LQ.

Coming Back To Life...

It’s some twenty months since I had written my last blog, it would be gross understatement if I say my life has changed upside down and turned on its head by 360 degrees since then. Actually it’s changed more than that.
Why did I just let this forum slip away is a mystery to me also, I guess there was no room for creativity left in those roller coaster months of mine.
I have come back with an intend to stay put this time with firmer resolve to update the blog on regular basis and perhaps with more amount of understanding, greater skill sets as far as knowledge of words goes ( took my GRE recently) and more experiences to share.
Wish me luck!