The 3:30am drive!

Woosh!! thats the way first year went by at MDI. Now in second year things are a little different. We no longer have weekends (we have classes scheduled on each day of the week). But luckily my subject selection allows me an off day on thursday, and on this one i went home. Even few minutes spent with my shuttle28 gang of friends at home rejuvinates my mind completely.

So i decided to come back to MDI at night by first dropping dad to domestic airport at 3:30am and then driving back to MDI campus. For those who haven't checked out the new revamped domestic airport in Delhi, do check it out. Its just fab :)

So here i was driving on gurgaon highway at 3:30am in the morning with my car radio playing soothing music. I just realised that i was driving too fast and reached my campus road at 4:00 am. Well as the campus gates only open at 5:00am i didn't want to wait for an hour on any empty gurgaon road. So i went to one place where i knew i would find people and food and an awesome cup of tea. I went to cyber park, where i used to work about a year back in Hewitt Associates. That place is always alive with people of 8 different companies taking breaks at the road side dhabas and tea stalls outside the main building. I took a cup of tea and sat there in front of the main building admiring the archietecture of that one like i always do whenever i see it. My mind began to churn out thoughts.

One year back i was working at this place. Well i used to get back home at 9:00 in the night almost always but now-a-days almost all of my ex-collegues stay up late in the night and many times till the morning. I just realized that after another year many of my friends would be living a similar life, roaming like zombies at the death hour in the graveyard called the corporate. Well i have different plans for myself.

As i took another cup of tea just sitting there i thought of how each day at MDI teaches you something. Its just that we ignore the learnings most of the times. One year has taught me a lot, it has led to emergence of different traits in me. I have seen the best and worst of the same people. It is an altogether different world out there inside the campus. Sometimes I just feel that life is a lot less complicated outside the campus. But anyways i won't complain. its been a very interesting journey, both past one year and this 3:30am drive.

I decide to come back to campus and as still am not feeling sleepy, i sit down to write this blog post about my 3:30am drive..

Jai Hind

The Racist Within!!

Watching on T.V. and reading in newspapers about the racism in Australia makes everyone's blood boil. Thousands of parents are anxious about their children living in the Oz. They don't know who will be the next Indian on the hit-list of Racist attacks. Its a grim situation.

But this has been the reality that always existed below the glamour of foriegn travel, stay or study. Its just out in the open now. Such incidents have always been there and almost everyone who is an NRI would have known and prepared for the racist incident happening with them at some point of time or other.

As we see the country united in action against the racists, it makes me wonder when we are pointing a finger outside, there are four others which are pointing at us. Don't we need to tackle the racist within to tackle the racists outside?

Yes, the racist within has also lived for decades but the difference is that we don't recoganize it in the open. We as people have been showing this racism in some form or other. Whether it be calling being late as Indian Standard Time, or calling all Indians corrupt when being at trouble at some goverment office, or when being at a traffic jam saying that Indians don't have a driving sense, or simply watching garbage on streets and saying that Indians don't have a sense of cleanliness etc etc etc.. and we keep saying all this and say that ''Yeh to India  hai yahan kuch nahi badal sakta''.. We take great pride in saying that, '' Mera beta to videsh se padh ke aaya hai, wahan woh 3 saal raha tha'' and when someone talks of Indian education and the great Nalandas and Takshashilas that India has created we say that ''come on, get a life dude''

Yes, not all of the above is unreasonable on our part, but to think about it we are creating a culture of racism within. When parents make such derogatory statements in front of young kids, the kids develop a similar mindset.

I want all of us to ask ourselves that until we gain that self respect, how can we expect others to respect our race? If we look at Germany, they take such pride in their race and identity which propels them to work hard and do the best in whatever they do to show to the world how great Germans are. And the kind of progress that they have made by the drive they get from the feeling of nationalism in the past fifty years after being a completely broken country and economy in debt makes the world take notice and respect them.

I remember fighting with a student in my IMS group discussion class who could said , ''what has B****Y India given me?, i will take my first flight to US when i clear GMAT'', as the instructor told me to calm down but i walked out of the GD saying I care a damn about the GD and the same for the people who don't care a damn for my country.

I would end this post by refreshing our memories to the amazing prayer that we all used to sing in school days, ' humko mann ki shakti dena mann vijay karein, doosron ki jai se pehle khud ki jai karein'

Jai Hind

Nagraj, Dhruv, Doga, Parmanu.. You are the best :)

My Hindi teacher always tried to tell us that all of must read a lot of Hindi and try to appreciate Hindi Literature. To be honest I never really read anything in Hindi apart from my textbooks. For me the appreciation of Hindi literature in my schooling days came from my passion for Hindi comics :)

Batman, Superman, He-Man were never great enough to be my heroes :) It was always Nagraj,Dhruv,Doga,Parmanu, bankelal etc etc. who caught my imagination and got me hooked to the comic books. I would get very excited for any new addition of the comics that would hit the stands and I even had a pact with my local book shop that I should be the first customer to get the latest collection. Be it any normal day, day before exams, a day when we were loaded with homework, I always used to find my small secret place in my home when I used to open up the comics and for hours get lost into the magical world.

I often used to get scolding for doing this, but I always felt proud that for my superheroes I can take this small amount of beatings. If they can fight such supervillians, i could atleast do this much :)

Every situation I faced in my childhood, i used to think that if my superhero was here what would he do? they were with me through thick and thin (overloaded homeworks and bullying friends). They were an essential part of my childhood.

In school, we used to talk about the latest stories. How Dhruv can be so flexible that he could dogde bullets? how Doga has such an amazing network that he could reach to any part of town through the sewer lines?

Whenever our school teacher used to ask which student has created mischief, we used to murmer in the back benches that ask Nagraj, he has his snakes all over the city, and they can give him every detail :)

I still remember I had saved money for two months for something special. raj comics came up with its range of stickers and posters. I used all my savings and bought stickers and posters out of them :) I pasted them all over. I pasted them on the small wooden almirah i owned at home. I pasted them all around my room, all over my notebooks, over my water bottle, over my bag. Then one fine day looking at my notebook my english teacher asked me, what kind of stickers are these. I looked at her with a feeling of disgust. What was she an alien!!!!! SHE DID NOT KNOW SUPER COMMANDO DHRUV!! what dis-respect!! Since that day she became my least favourite teacher(ofcourse super heroes teach you not to hate any1, so she became my least favourite)

When I look at children these days going crazy about harry potter and spiderman and what not!! I still feel my superheroes can beat these modern day characters any day. 

Nagraj, Dhruv, Doga,Parmaanu..... You still are my superheroes and will always be :) 

And for all the fans who want to refresh their memories, now in the age of internet, you can get e-comics @ http://www.rajcomics.com/joomla/

Jai Hind

Lets Go for It :) The shuttle28 gang rocks :)

Shuttle28, The ''lets go for it'' theory: 

Anything crazy enough to generate an ''of course not'' response from majority of people will get a response of ''lets go for it'' from the shuttle28 gang members :)

 The day didn't really start for me. It was extension of the last night and all the previous sleepless nights that I had. No, it wasn't love that kept me awake these days. It was my final exams at the end of first year at MDI.

 Finally the first year had ended. Time runs crazy at times :) i mean things had just started to settle in so nicely when the first year ended and this time I was feeling sad about going home leaving campus and friends, adding to that was the physical turmoil of sleepless nights and packing your entire stuff out of MDI. 

 My two awesome friends’ amit and rohit (part of shuttle28) had come to help me get my stuff back to home. In early morning, in a state of trance, i kept my luggage in the car. The next thing i needed the most was sleep, a deep long sleep.

 But i had promised my friends that i would sponsor their breakfast. Then thinking of breakfast options we discussed from tea stalls to dhabas, Amit suggested we should have breakfast at Hyatt Hotel. Well it was a crazy idea, but that is what defines shuttle28. I did not even brush in the morning, in a state of trance; i thought the idea was crazy enough. So I said ok lets go for it.

And minutes later we were having breakfast in Hyatt :) we were shabbily dressed and were not even shaven whereas everyone around was suited up :) but we had fun and my awesome friends decided to share the bill.

 We reached home after that, just to continue our travelling to a friend's village in Bahadurgarh after half an hour. That day of course i didn't get any other opportunity to sleep as well. ''Lets go for it'' and we travelled to bahadurgarh, Haryana listening to music and having fun.

We explored the village a little, as our friend Rohit showed his childhood home, school talking of his memories. Then while returning we did a contradiction from our morning act. There were 4 of us and we sat and ate the famous roadside pakodas of bahadurgarh. We ate one whole KG pakodas ;) From hyatt in morning to roadside pakodas.

 Then again I got an opportunity to show my face for a few minutes at home in the evening (these days i get a feeling that i would be kicked out and disowned by my family any day) and again we shuttle28 gang members were back in our society basement playing out cult sport, of course Badminton (shuttle word comes from here). Then again after playing badminton we got into a friend's car and played crazily senti songs of 80s and 90s and roaming around in streets shouting and singing. Finally the day came to an end. 

 To think of it, it was a crazy day. But it was fun. Thats what defines us. Our cool gang 'shuttle28'.

Jai Hind

Land of slumdog millionaires !!

I tribute this piece of my writing to a post that my friend had written in his blog (http://rahulbhandarizz.blogspot.com/2009/03/indian-media-goes-hysterical.html)..

my friend you truly inspired me to write this blog :)

My friend says, ''Even the NGO's have vouched that they have never seen maiming of children for begging.
Have you ever seen a blind child begging????? ''

 Well friend, I have heard similar comments that what has been shown in the movie is not the true picture of India and its about glamorizing poverty and making money out of it.

 All that I do at such comments is just smile :) We have a habit in living in ignorance and when someone tries to show us the mirror or the truth we refrain from accepting it. Do we really want the world to ignore our poverty as we do?? 

If the NGOs haven't seen what has been shown in the movie about the poverty and kids, one these are the NGOs which are like most of the millions NGOs (yes NGOs in India are in millions) that don’t work and second they are afraid, ignorant and too sophisticated people to face the truth. But there have been numerous police and law cases where kids have been blinded and their hands and feet are broken so that they can beg effectively.

 And my friend this is no movie but a dark reality that we fail to see. It does not exist in our veil of ignorance. I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN A KID WHO WAS WILLING TO COMMIT SUICIDE FOR A LOSS OF Rs. 40.

 And till the time we shun this truth and not recognize this reality and work towards improving the conditions, movies like slum dog millionaire will time and again come to shock us.

 My friend also said, ''. The movie has only served the purpose of giving west another opportunity to look down on India, especially when they themselves are reeling under recession an India is growing healthy!!!!''

 Well friend, this reminds me of the BJP election slogan of shining India. To be honest yes we may be developing at a better GDP growth rate [statistics are like miniskirts, what they reveal is important but what they hide is vital :) ], but to be honest the process by which GDP growth rates gets calculated is highly flawed, far from reality and irrelevant to a large extent!!

The healthy country that we are growing in is dying in a civil war (Naxals,alpha,bodo etc etc). Everyday a war is going on within our country. Hundreds of people are dying which don’t make it to daily newspapers. And this is currently happening in 15 states in India!!!! And the no. is increasing everyday!! This is more dangerous than our situation with our neighbors like Pakistan and China!! When are we supposed to wake up to this reality!!

 Then some movie will come on this situation and we will again decline the reality and say that the movie is a baseless fiction..

 And my friend also says, ''Now the west says, yes the image has indeed changed to "Slum Dog millionaires", who get this by god-damned luck rather than hard work.''

 Well friend as we all can remember the fact that when KBC was started we had a whole nation going crazy on telephone lines to get to the show and try their luck :) Its ok to use a bit of luck to get rich :) 

The animal that works the hardest is the donkey :) 

 And finally about the movie, i saw it, really liked it. I think it is a good movie. 

What I felt it was a movie that shows the young spirit of India. The young people who dream and believe that they can become millionaires even if they journey begins from slums. Dhirubhai taught us how to rise from the dust to become a millionaire many years ago, Danny boyle just gave the process a name :)

 And all of us are proud of the movie and most of all A.R.Rehman for winning the oscar. Slumdog did give him a platform for the world to listen to his music. I feel Rehamn has created even better music before, if we had more movies like slumdog, i am sure oscar would go to our Rehman each year and his house would get full of these trophies :)

 JAI HO

JAI HIND

Live your dreams! Entrepreneurship rocks:)

hazaron khwaishein aisi ki har khwaish pe dum nikale....

 In my Strategic Management textbook, I read about BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and questioned few of my friends what are their BHAGs in life? Many wanted to be CEOs and Managing Directors of big companies. When I asked them by what time they would want to get there? Most of them answered 8-10 years. 

Well to be honest on an average if anyone works in a corporate scenario it would take around 25 years to achieve that goal.

 Well here I am, a 22 year old,a first year MBA student, already vice-president of an NGO, managing partner of an entrepreneurial venture on handmade chocolates and soon entering serial entrepreneurship, secretary of social cell in a B-school, working for getting a private pilot license, planning to enter politics in few years and still managing to have crazy amount of fun and good amount of sleep :) Life is just awesome :) BHAGs are just a part of everyday reality :)

 The biggest irony about business school is that it does not teach you business :). I think at a time where B-schools are available at every nook and corner in the country, even the good quality B-schools are providing a hoard of job seekers. Each year we have thousands of job seekers with similar skill sets entering the industry. Are B-schools really creating leaders or just corporate citizens? It is high time that we change the trend and there should be more job creators entering the industry. Let business school also create people who do business.

I feel that the amount of learning one gets while starting up your own business venture is much more than while you are doing a job.  I always felt while I was doing a job myself that there are a lot of restrictions and the process really curbs your creative abilities and original thought.

Also the idea of working with friends is really exciting. There is a lot of work but with friends it is like being on an extended holiday where work life is fun. You know that the person next to you is not playing politics with you, which so often happens in the corporate environment. The biggest satisfaction is that you are working for yourself and for a person like me who likes to take risks and explore life, entrepreneurship is a natural choice.

I along with friends have started a business venture in the field of handmade chocolates. The name of our organization is Chocolicious and our workshop is based in Delhi. There are three other friends with me in this venture whose profiles include a law student, a medical representative and a serial entrepreneur. Management education teaches me that this diverse combination of people would help create the medici effect :)

Each day we walk out into our work and personal world, we are faced with this choice: to play big with our lives - or to stay small.

Its a truly exciting world out there! Entrepreneurship rocks! Live your dreams :)

Jai Hind

Rear View Mirror

As i was sitting in my office seat trying to act as if I am working on the given task. I knew that i would never complete it on time. I just could not focus on work, rather anything for that matter in life. My life had been shaken and stirred in just a few moments.

It had just been yesterday that I had talked to the person who was the love of my life. It had been such a special relationship which i would always cherish. But the fact was that it was no longer there. I tried to move my hands on the keyboard as few colleagues crossed my workstation. But i don't think i wrote anything meaningful on the screen.Everything inside was feeling so meaningless, no meaningful output was possible.

The sense of security, that cozy comfort was now no longer there in my life. The reason for me to do a lot of crazy but amazingly sweet things in life no longer existed. It was as if someone had just pulled out some important part out from your body and there was a huge vacant space. That vacant space seemed to overshadow everything else, even the most beautiful things happening around me. The thoughts of all the amazing moments i lived would never come back again was a dreadful one. 

As it turned out i could not finish the task at office even after 2 days of the due date. But my PL seemed more concerned about me then the task and even told me to take some time off. Of course she didn't know the reason. She did not know what i was going through. it was tough, very tough. 

That evening i went on a drive with my friend. As we were talking on various things I saw him looking at rear view mirror at times and focusing on the road ahead. That drive rejuvenated me and made me think. 

That is the way life is. If you look at the rear view mirror all the time, you cant drive and move ahead in life. You need to look at the rear view (past) so that you don't make mistakes and avoid accidents in future.

But the most amazing experience in the journey comes when you focus on the present with a clear view of the road ahead. 

A rear view mirror is supposed to be used only as a rear view mirror :)

Looking at it all the time doesn't only blurr your vision ahead but can be fatal for you.

I believe that life is a beautiful puzzle and everything just fits in eventually, you just need to be patient to enjoy the game.

Jai Hind

Yeh Dilli Hai Mere Yaar! (part1)

This is not an informational post..

 Recently various movies have been based or shot in Delhi. But it has always been the famous places that have been in the highlight. But there is much more to Delhi than what is visible.

 There are some amazing shades in the portrait of this magical city called Delhi. Some are vibrant while some are grey and dull. But the combination of these shades is what creates the magical Delhi experience.

 I would like to quote something that I heard recently about Delhi, ''In Delhi everyone is someone :)''

You would find that everyone in the city would have some or the other connection with someone in the government, police, bureaucracy etc. :) and the people often talk about their connections (makes me remember the recent pepsi ad ''janta hai mera baap kaun hai'') 

So Delhi in this sense is a very connected city :)

 I would like to state some fun, magical, crazy, shocking experiences that you can have while being in Delhi.

I would start with amazing Chawadi Bazaar area. It is in old Delhi and you can reach there by Delhi Metro. Old Delhi is very different than what you saw in the Delhi6 movie. The skyline in those areas consists of hundreds of electrical wires tied to transformers in some amazing manner that would defy all permutations and combinations :) There are passages that are running through homes. You can cross colonies through a labyrinth of passages that connect homes in these lanes. It is fascinating to find small shop owners who are actually crorepatis roaming around in chappals and shabby clothes, even themselves loading stuff on rikshaws. These people produce export based products but dont show off their wealth.

 The metro station at Chawadi bazaar is itself very fascinating. At a place which is so crowded that it would be tough to even walk, they have created an entire underground metro station and that too the deepest one in Delhi connecting it to various metro lines. From the Chawadi bazaar metro station, one of the places you can go to is Sweety Singh's dhaba where you will find one of the most amazingly tasting chicken dishes. It’s a very small shop, but its food is often in demand by the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Akshay kumar. Sometimes, me and my friends often do the crazy thing of travelling 40 kms(to and fro) from our home just to eat food there.

 The next experience that I would talk about is the Statesman House in connaught place. Many times we visit the connaught place, we roam around in janpath and palika bazaar but there is another interesting place to go. You can visit the oxford library and the Cha Baar in the statesman house and spend lots of time reading there. Do try the chocolate truffle cake of Cha Baar. It’s honestly awesome. Now comes the secret place.

I won’t reveal the exact passage but there is a way to get to the top of the Statesman house. You are not permitted to be there, but by the secret passage you can be on the top without the security knowing about it. The view if Connaught Place from the top is just majestic. It’s awesome. It’s a photographer's delight. The feeling of standing the makes u feel being on top while being in the heart of Delhi.

 Next experience would be a shock. Well this is one place where you would find everything on wheels literally flying. I have seen wheelies on bikes before, but to see a LML scooter do a wheely and burnout is different. This is a road in Sec-22,rohini. At night this place comes alive with all kind of crazy people trying the strangest and shocking stunts that you would get to see. All kinds of cars, bikes come here. There are some mad races. 

A stunt tried by me and my friends in which all of us get half our bodies out of the moving car at speed of 80km/hr including the driver! This place though is often visited by police. But you can still find crazy people doing stunts out there at odd hours in the night. This is some thrilling experience.

 Next experience I would like to state is of awesomeness. We have all seen India Gate. But try visiting it at a very densely foggy night. It was one experience that i had with my friends. We were travelling in a santro in fog and suddenly some huge monument comes ahead of us out of nowhere. We in a moment realized that in the fog we had reached too close to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. We moved our car from there from fear of being shot by the security :) and moved towards India Gate. The road in front of India gate was almost vacant. Even India gate was visible when you went close to it and you could easily see the amazing Amar jawaan jyoti. Now try this lay down completely on the road in front of India gate(as it was empty), gaze up in towards the sky and just keep looking at the majestic monument. You would find a strange feeling of connection, a strange feeling of peace and in the Delhi cold you would feel your heart getting warm with feeling. It’s awesome.

 The post is getting a little long and I have more experiences to share, so i would write about them in my next post some time later..

 Yeh sheher nahi mehfil hai ;)

Jai Hind

DeathBed!!

Today is the last day of my life..

Today when i woke up, it was just like any other morning. 

Waking up fresh, feeling the morning sunlight, planning for the day.

But now the realization is near.

It is a strange feeling. I never expected to die at the age of  22.

Now the time is so close that i have moved beyond emotions like happiness, fear, grief, gloom etc.

My head feels numb. Thoughts seem to appear at random.

What would anyone think on the last day of his life?

The crazy no. of dreams unfulfilled.

The moments of past success and triumphs.

Those magical moments in life when everything seems to have worked out perfectly.

Those moments of fear, moments of failures..but they dont appear as failure to me anymore..they all seem to be just the right part of a plan..but i never thought the plan would end up like this!

Random thoughts are flashing in my minds.. i can see images.. images of people.. those beautiful human beings that we all call parents, my family which supported me through thick and thin in life.. those amazing friends whose really filled life into my life..millions of magical moments shared woth them..and then i think of love..its a magical feeling.. I thank God of blessing me with someone whose love changed my life and i can surely say this that love makes you a better person..everyone should fall in love once..

Life has been an eventful journey..i have seen and achieved many things at the age of 22 that millions in my country arent able to do in their lifetime.. but yet today is the last day of a life.. a promising life..

Many people say it is a crime.. a suicide is termed as a crime..

but at this moment I dont think i am commiting a crime.. it took me days to come to this decision..

but i have finally decided.. i will end this life..

things wont remain the same for the world from tomorrow.. but i really think that it is necessary..

I should have done this earlier itself.. but i am doing it right now..

Thus at 1:45pm March 14, 2009, I end the life of a non blogger..

a non blogger dies and a blogger is born :)

Jai Hind