Bangalore and Non-Veg Food

Bangalore has undoubtedly, one of the best weathers in India which probably is the reason for so many IT companies settling here. In turn, Bangalore attracts people from across the country making it one of the most cosmopolitan cities. The food joints here leave no stone unturned to ensure that one gets non-veg food varying from Lang-sha (North-Eastern States) to Awadhi Biryani (Uttar Pradesh) and different food from other states. Bangalore has not been always like this. I got to know from a news article (link below) that in Malleswaram, the hub of the city it was difficult to get liquor, leave alone non veg food, twenty years back. Being a vegetarian was considered to have a ‘higher social status’ since that was more or less, at par with Brahmins. 

We have a plethora of options for having non veg food now in Bangalore. Ranging from street food stalls to military hotels to 5 star restaurants these food points ensure that one get nearly all kinds of non veg food that fits in her budget. Talking about military hotels, it was difficult to get the origin of the name by searching on internet however, we get a vague idea that these military hotels were set-up to serve military people. Mostly these military hotels are non veg and don’t burn a hole in your pocket. 

Some streets in bangalore become a paradise for nonveg connoisseurs in the festivals particularly Ramadan. People will be thronging around stalls having non veg delicacies in Shivajinagar on Ramadan evenings. If you’re lucky you get to taste camel’s meat otherwise the normal stuff like mutton samosa (half the size of a regular samosa), chicken burger, beef / mutton kebabs, caramel custard and last but not the least sulemani chai are served. These stalls are temporary ones and hygiene-minded people may hesitate a bit to have food here. Some stalls are open post midnight in Shivajinagar for latecomers. Other places where these stalls can be found are Tilak Nagar, Rahamat Nagar and Frazer Town.

While now-days there’s a lot of debate going on what to eat and what not to eat and some atrocious incidents have also taken place (particularly in North India) for people eating / storing beef, Bangalore is a relatively safe place to have non veg food with the variety, unlikely to get anywhere else.

My new phone - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (4 GB RAM with 64 GB memory)

I recently bought the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (4 GB RAM with 64 GB memory) for $210 (13,500 INR). Considering other phones with the same specifications, this was a steal deal. This was my first experience with a Xiaomi device and I must say that there are reasons why the brand is called ‘Apple’ of China.

Let’s quickly have a look at the Pros and Cons of the phone:
Pros: • Once you’re logged in to your MI account, all the messages and call logs will appear on your phone just like you left it with your last Xiaomi device. • The in-built apps like Cleaner, Security Compass, Notes work like a charm. • The battery easily lasts for 1.5 days with mixed usage. • It has great customization options. You can even flip the placements of buttons (multi-tasking on the right and back on the left or vice versa) or turn their lights off • Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 SoC works flawlessly in most of the situations. I had a good experience playing Asphalt 8.
Cons: • It still uses micro USB when the whole world is adopting USB Type C. • It takes a while (around 2.5 hours) to charge the battery from scratch.

Homeschooling - Concept

Since time immemorial, children have been gathering chunks of knowledge by a mentor aka Guru. Format of this education may have changed from ‘Ashrams’ to ‘International Schools’ but the basics remains the same. A Guru disseminates the knowledge and in the end seeks ‘Gurudakshina’ which is paid by the disciple. However, it is not mandatory from the Guru’s side to ask ‘Gurudakshina’.

Let’s come to the modern way of education system. Children still go to a bunch of Gurus who don’t seek any ‘Gurudakshina’ but are on the payrolls of the educational institution. To ensure that these institutions don’t run out of money to pay to their hired Gurus, they keep charging money in different formats from children’s parents. The basic school fee is justified to some extent; what is not justified, are the different charges which they name very innovatively as Development Fee, Infrastructure Fee etc.

Adding on to that, the nexus which the schools have with different uniform-and-book-shops is highly condemnable. The nexus pressurizes school to ask parents to buy books, stationary, uniform and all other not-that-necessary stuff from a particular shop and everybody wins in this deal except the parents.

Some parents have started working on a concept called homeschooling to combat this situation. Here, the children instead of going to school learn at home with the help of parents and if required, a tutor comes into picture. Directly homeschooling helps the parents to get more involved with their children and as a bonus, children don’t get molested by the teachers in the school (we have enough examples of this; Don’t we!).

Theoretically, parents are supposed to prepare a time-table for children which includes her studies, extra-curricular activities and projects. The child stays at home and learn under her parents’ supervision. One of the negative aspect of homeschooling is the child missing out with the social interactions with kids of her age, which she would be getting engaged in her school. Parents have come out with web forums to make an attempt to resolve this situation.

Like-minded parents plan and meet (along with their children) at mutually agreed places so that the child get a hang of social interactions. Getting connected on web means that parents can discuss study related issues with each other and strive for a resolution. We have examples of individuals like Hilary Duff and Williams sisters who were homeschooled and have created a niche for themselves.

Where the road took a U turn!

It has been nearly three and a half years since I wrote my previous post. Well, post my PG, I got busy in my job and got married in the month of Feb, 2013. How I got married to a girl of my choice is an altogether different story and would get published in some other post. Instead of visiting some tourist place for honeymoon, we thought to spend some time together with our parents in Gorakhpur. The reason for this was that both of us were supposed to stay in Bangalore; a city far away from Gorakhpur and we wouldn't have got much time to spend with them. However, we did have a very short visit to Mysore in the month of April 2013 where we commuted by bus and train.

We were thinking of something adventurous when a motorbike-trip came to our mind. The question was ‘where’? We had already been to Coorg in a rented car. So, we thought to go to Mysore, take a halt of one night and proceed to Coorg the next day on our motorbike. We started with the preparations. The main problem was to carry the luggage bag. My pulsar 180 is designed like a racer bike and isn’t supposed to have much room for luggage. We finalized the bag and hung it on the grab rails. The grab rails were strong for sure (those are the only support for the pillion). Sellotape came extremely handy each time to strongly cling the shoulders of the bag. So, whenever we had to detach the bag from the motorcycle we cut the sellotapes using a pair of scissors.

Day 1:

We left our home at 7 am on Dec 14, 2013. There was the usual traffic jam around Gorguntepalya railway crossing otherwise we moved smoothly until we caught the SH-17. Thereafter we started zipping past the streets. It was little cold early in the morning but the weather became comfortable gradually. We ensured that we take adequate breaks so as to avoid fatigue. Khushboo had prepared aloo & sattu (roased gram et al flour) paraathaas the previous night and kept those in the fridge. We carried them straight out of the fridge on our journey. We stopped at a drive-in between Channapatna and Maddur. It was little unusual gulping the cold paraathaas down with hot coffee.

We proceeded further and took 3-4 breaks of 10-15 minutes each, every 30-40 minutes and reached Mysore. I was trying to maintain a speed between 70-75 km/hr. I had read somewhere that bikes driven between 4000 and 5500 revolutions per minute render the maximum mileage. The maximum speed which I was able to attain was 110 km/hr and at that speed too the bag was clung tightly. We had prior reservations in Hotel Mayura (a division of KSTDC). Now KSTDC has two hotels in Mysore: Hoysala & Yatri Niwas.

There was a substantial difference of Rs. 500 of Non AC Double bedroom in both the hotels. Both the hotels seemed to be located on the same road and we wondered on the price difference. To experience further on the difference, we booked Hoysala on the way onwards and Yatri Niwas on the way backwards.

After reaching Mysore, we took some rest. Gaurav’s (my colleague who came from Bangalore to attend my wedding long back) family was there in Mysore and he invited us for dinner at his place. We received a very warm reception from his family. Vast is the word which comes to my mind when I think of that dinner. What not was there! Veg Kadhai, Butter Paneer Masaala, Saambhar and three other kinds of side dishes. Akki Roti, Neer Dosa, Chapaati were the staples. For deserts there were Suji Laddoo, Ganesh Halwa, Ice Cream and Gulab Jamoon. Additionally there were banana chips and bananas. After the dinner we received our wedding-gift and bid farewell to them.

Day 2:

Next morning was the day which I enjoyed the most. We departed from Mysore at 8 am early in the morning and caught State Highway 88. The road was smooth and without any thing peculiar happening in between, we stopped at a restaurant called Halli Mane.

We had a decent value-for-money breakfast over there. Before Coorg we again took a halt at a Café Coffee Day (Mysore Madikeri Road).

The weather was very balanced; neither too much sunshine nor too cold!

After reaching Madikeri, we approached towards Bhagmandala where our room was booked.

We deliberately chose Bhagmandala (36 kms away from Madikeri) for our stay as it was marooned from the main Coorg population and the usual hustle-bustle of a hill station. Also, the fact that it had a good proximity to Talakaveri temple which is said to be the origin of the Cauveri River. On the way, the roads were so sloped at times that I drove my motorcycle in neutral gear for a few kms with the engine off. After reaching the KSTDC guesthouse over there, we refreshed ourselves, had lunch and took some rest.

We left for Talakaveri temple at around 5 in the evening. The temple was located at such a height that the road stopped itself and took a U turn there. By the time we reached there, we got to know that the temple is slated to close in 15 minutes. We had our “darshan” in a rush and stopped at the aforementioned resort on our way back. The peculiar fact about this resort was its proximity to the Talakavery Temple. One can easily walk her way to the temple and can explore various scenic views of Bhagmandala (the temple is located at one of the highest points in Madikeri). The resort was a very moderate one with the per person charges of Rs. 500/-per day. The service seemed to be bare-minimum with only one person acting as a cook, caretaker et al. A group of college students was enjoying campfire when we reached there. It seemed to be a nice place to stay for a group of young people of at least 10 or more.Since we enquired about several resorts before coming here, a gentleman named K.V. Nayakcalled us and invited us to visit his resort  despite telling him that we’d already booked our room elsewhere. He just wanted us to come to his resort and have a look over there. We didn’t see any harm in that and anyways that resort would have fallen in our route to Talakaveri temple.

By the time we decided to go back, it was already 08.15 pm. The distance from that resort was our hotel was around 5 kms and the road was COMPLETE dark with no traffic at all. A silence with chirping of small creatures ensued on the way. I was little apprehensive if I came across any unusual creature. But we reached safely to our hotel at around 9. We had dinner and being tired because of the long journey in the first half of the day, fell asleep. I had already planned for the next day to see the sunset from the top of the temple.

Day 3:

Next day, we left the hotel at 05.50 am early in the morning when it was dark and foggy. There was complete darkness and the usual chirping of birds et al. Slowly sunshine had started making its way. Khushboo looked back as I kept driving and asked me if what she saw was water or clouds. I didn’t remember any water-body in that area and had a look myself. Oh my god! It seemed it was all clouds backwards and we felt like we were ascending from clouds.

We reached the Talakavery temple at around 6.10 am.

Coincidentally, the group of students which we met last night was also there to view the sunrise. Besides the temple there are stairs to go to the top of a hill. We immediately took the stairs. Khushboo took rest twice while climbing the stairs while I was alright. It wasn’t her fault. There were some 300-400 stairs on the way. After reaching the top of the hill we realized what a panoramic view was in front of our eyes! We were on a hill and had a view of many other hills around us.

The hills looked like emanating from clouds. In other words, we could see vast range of clouds beneath us. The sun was on the verge of rising in the sky and wind was blowing fast enough to make us feel little cold. We took many photographs of the scenes.

Gradually the sun rose completely in the sky and the sunshine ate all the clouds. Very slowly, it was all sunny and became little hot. I was reminiscent of my last visit to this place in Sep 2010 when throughout our visit to this temple, it has been drizzling.

Now I feel that monsoon is the best season to visit Coorg.

Be that as it may, we were there on the top when everybody else left but slowly the sunshine was becoming more direct and we thought to leave.

Since we were staying in Bhagmandala, we thought to take a tour of the main town Madikeri. We left on our bike at around 11.30 to cover the approximate 38 kms of the distance. Driving on that route was such an adventurous experience! Paths were steep and curved like anything besides the fact that the paths were surrounded by coffee and other spices’ plantation. At times, Mountains were there on one side and trenches on the other side. We reached Madikeri and had lunch in this humble Kerala restaurant named Greenland.

After that we departed for Abbey falls when those unfortunate moments of a small accident came into picture. Khushboo was navigating the way to Abbey Falls when we came across a split road and were not sure whether to take the left one or the right one. I slowed down the bike and she asked me to take the right one. I immediately swung the bike little right without looking back. A mini bus passed us completely but its rear dumper got stuck in my front brake-lever. Fortunately the bumper got detached from the bus instantly but that was enough for us to have lost our balance on the bike and we were flat on the ground. The bike’s speed was bare minimum 5-10 km/hr. The mini bus stopped immediately and the driver and/or caretaker started shouting at us as in why didn’t I give a signal before turning right. It was my fault indeed and so we maintained a low profile. I developed minor scratches on my leg. On asking, the caretaker was kind enough to give us a sealed bottle of water as we couldn't find any source of water over there.

Despite our mood becoming very upset after this incident, we continued to Abbey Falls. To reach the falls, one has to walk downstairs on a narrow path surrounded by trees. It is a giant fall viewable from a hanging bridge. We had a few pictures and had a good time relaxing over there trying to forget the incident. 

It was around 5 when we left Abbey Falls. Since there wasn’t any decent restaurant around the Guest House where we were staying (apart from the Guest House’s one, the food of which we became little bored with), we planned to had the food packed from the Hotel Green Land in Madikeri and then leave for our Guest House at Bhagmandala. We left Madikeri at around 0645 hours. The sun was setting and darkness was slowly creeping into the picture.

We met many vehicles / people on our way from Bhagmandala to Madikeri and that’s why I presumed that the same situation would last there in the evening as well. The reason for taking the liberty of leaving Madikeri as late as 1845 hours! Little did I know what was there in store for us. As we left Madikeri, the traffic and population started becoming less. Coffee and other plants’ plantations would look like jungle in dark through which we were traversing. Slowly, the road became darker and the only source of light was the headlight in my motorbike. Once in a while we used to get a vehicle coming from the either direction and / or going to the same direction. We were also coming across small shops and houses randomly but at a very low frequency. We travelled 60-70% of the 38 km drive alone with nothing in sight but the road and the jungle (I agree that they were plantations, but we felt like travelling on a road amidst an unknown jungle in night which was scary). I was once again afraid what we would do if we come across any unusual creature. The roads were once again steep and curved but this time it was far scarier than adventurous.

That 38 kms ride was a journey of lifetime. However, we reached safely to our Guest House at around 2000 hours. We had the parceled food and then started planning for the next day’s event. Since I had been riding the motorbike for the last 3 days, we thought to take some rest the next day and explore the local area on foot.

Day 4:

As mentioned earlier, Bhagmandala was a place away from the usual hustle-bustle of a hill station. After having experienced the rush since the day we started, we thought to pass this day just like that. We had breakfast at the in-house restaurant, but sitting on the gate of the guesthouse and staring the silent road. The road was so silent that once in 10 minutes would a vehicle pass it. It were these calm moments for which we zeroed in on Bhagmandala. There were small shops which would serve the daily necessities of a layman and that was it. We roamed around the place and checked out the coffee beans plants.

There were a small pond and an old temple nearby with nothing unusual. There were a couple of very humble restaurants in the vicinity. While going to Madikeri we had spotted a home which serves food to outsiders as well. We thought to explore that option and were on our bike for that. It was some 15-20 kms from our place. Both of us not being very hungry, we just ordered one meals and pork as a side dish. 

Now, pork is prepared in this region in a different way; be that as it may I didn't like eating pork. With nothing unusual in the evening we slept early as we had to depart for Mysore the next day.

Day 5:

We got ready and left Coorg by 8 am. At around 9.15 am we reached Madikeri and had breakfast at Greenland. There were sad moments as we were leaving the beautiful hilly regions. I was enjoying my driving this time as well but the excitement was less compared to the experience which I had when we entered Coorg. We ensured that we take enough number of breaks to avoid fatigue. Driving at an average speed of 65-73 km/hour, we reached Mysore at around 2.30 pm. This time we had a booking at Yatri Niwas. There wasn’t a major difference between the two adjacent hotels Hoysala and Yatri Niwas. The Hoysala had a slightly more premium feeling. Both hotels were just okay. We had a roam at local markets near the Railway Station over there in the evening. This being the 5th day of the journey, we were little tired.

Day 6:

Next day we left the hotel bag and baggage and had breakfast in the main market over there. On the way from Mysore to Bangalore we came across another Hotel Mayur (River View). We thought to check it out for future reference. That hotel had a nice view of the bank of Cauvery River. We left from there and took a number of halts to avoid fatigue. With nothing unusual happening we entered Bangalore. Traffic warmly welcomed us back to the normal rush of our busy lives.

some lines dedicated to my batch-mates (:

As I’m sitting & thinking on my way towards my home-town,

At times I feel overwhelmed as de emotions make me drown;

It all started even before I came to Trivandrum and we’d got the ‘stuff’ by snail-mail,

Somehow I got the feeling that it’s not gonna be a cakewalk n I became ready for the hail;

I chatted with some of my batch-mates and sought each and every piece of info on college n Trivandrum,

Some good conversations actually happened on Google Groups including the one on Green Revolution;

All set, I landed at Thampanoor, met Saneesh Cheta, the only medium of conversation was sign-lingo,

But dats okay, I thought majority of my interactions would be inside college, that too in English so…;

I was comfortable until I got out of the Ambassador and had a view of Kenton Leisure,

Gosh! This is a hostel or a three-star hotel... anyways I completed the formalities major;

Sridhar knocked the door, “Hi! We are your seniors.” I went to their room with a bit of anxiety,

In few minutes they made me feel comfortable freeing my mind of most of the things nitty-gritty;

Next morning Hareesh knocked the door as I was doing yoga on the floor,

Later he told me that he had the illusion of me being a person religious & pure;

We were welcomed to ASB on the first day by offering each a rose,

Followed by the lectures of different stakeholders, man! That was a dose;

How could I forget that lecture, where jotting down the points was given so much of importance,

He he he... but nobody jotted down the points of the lecture on the initial day and hence...

After being scolded repeatedly, we seemed to have understood the importance of Jot Down,

And therefore the name of our local Google Group was none other than Jot Down;

Then the Foundation module started with much stress on English, Maths and Analytic thing,

And we learnt a lot of things, besides the wide-wide usage of the word 'thing';

Oh! How can I forget the Outbound Training also known as OBT,

10% training 90% fun I'd say, to explore my batchmates, it was a good opportunity;

Also the fact that one good for nothing [me] and one good for everything were made Class Reps,

One too good an activity before each of the english sessions which was supposed to remove communication gaps;

Semester one came & for each of courses we're formed into groups,

Before this I'd never worked in groups, no wonder… some uncomfortable factors were there in loops;

Three friends of mine took me to a tea-shop n lectured me for 2 hrs. on how to socialize,

Don't know if it made some difference but it was a nice time-pass with tea and fries;

A stupid person like me used to put status message like “Nobody wants to sit with me”,

Further, Hareesh had a problem with my turning on the lights & turning off the fans in the hours early.

This was all I was able to write in the long train journey. :)

Pondering Post-PGPM...

The enthusiasm inside me forced me to write the complete blog in verse,

But coming to the second line, I’m searchin a word to rhyme wid verse;

So you see, this poetry has become such a boring dose,

It would be much better if I continue writing in prose.:D

I had an opportunity to visit (one of the Batch-5 students) Thomas K K’s hometown deep down in Kerala. We started at 1400 hours from the Trivandrum Central and had a combination of one train, two buses and one auto to reach his home at 2030 hours. It was quite interior a part of Kerala. What surprised me was the presence of good roads and constant power supply, despite being far away from the metropolitan life. Next day early morning I and Thomas left his home to meet some of his relatives and to have a look at his rubber plantations.

It being a sloping area, the path either tended upwards or downwards. For a North Indian like me, it was a peculiar experience. We also used some extremely steep shortcuts to skip some walking distance on the main road. For the first time in my life I saw staircases made of stones. What made the rocks stuck to each other was what I was unable to understand. One of the Thomas cousin’s (of approximately Thomas’s age) knew Hindi besides some 17 other languages. I happily interacted with him in Hindi for about 15 minutes. Then we went to see his rubber plantations. I observed the cuts on the rubber trees (which were there to ensure that the flow of rubber plant remains consistent) and the cup to collect the rubber-milk.

In the last blog I wrote about the Marketing Research Elective. Then we had a CII Project in which we’re supposed to get a Membership Value Assessment Questionnaire filled by the top-executive of several companies and consequently analyze it. Initially, the impression given by the faculty-members was that we had to travel around Kerala to get this job done and that was a major factor which attracted me to volunteer for this project. Rubini, Deepa, Lekshmy and Nishas were also with me for this project. And we were promised 2 additional credits for this project [I’m still looking for those 2 credits in my Grade-Sheet L].

Anyways I got a good opportunity to talk with several CEOs and MDs to get this form filled. We were given the database from the CII Office. I got a response rate as low as 5% to the questionnaire. The itineraries of people at the top management often clashed with the time of our call. I learnt a good deal of following-up. But all the activities of this project were encompassed by the black TATA Indicom Walky. No travel!

Then we had this Integrated Cases 2 for three credits. On the pattern of ‘The Mummy Returns’ I named the folder for this elective ‘Integrated Cases Returns’. This was a core elective which meant that we did not have an option to discard it. I’m pretty sure had this course been an optional one, hardly one or two students would have gone for it. The impression of Integrated Cases (in Semester 2) was pretty good on my mind and I was expecting IC2 to be that much interesting. But may be because of the pressure from other electives or several other activities (including the placement ones), things didn’t work out very smoothly.

In International Business & Logistics teams of three were announced and each team was supposed to make a presentation on some specific topic followed by five case-discussions lead by each team. Then Bhaskaran Sir came into picture. He properly illustrated us what American tourists are good at. I still can’t forget those moments. J

Valuations, Mergers & Acquisitions was one elective I was eager to write about. The only thing I seemed to have learnt from this elective is 2 + 2 = 5 [logically also it’s incorrect, you see! just kidding]. Frankly speaking, I felt that I didn’t extract much value from this course, not to say that the elective or any of its component was irrelevant. Obviously I don’t blame anybody else other than me for this. But I think that the course would have added more value if the teaching methodology had been more white-board oriented than ppt oriented. Also, I was a bit confused as to which book should I access as a background material.

I didn’t opt for Contemporary Trends in Marketing but I got to know that the first case of Rural Marketing was contraceptive-marketing which made me interested to sit in the sessions. Luckily none of the CTIM sessions clashed with the sessions of any of my electives and I pursued one-third of that elective.

Actually while selecting the electives I was a bit confused between Services Marketing and CTIM. Both had 3 credits and CTIM was supposed to be taught by three faculty-members whereas Services Marketing had its own charm of being kind-of non-physical product. Finally I decided to explore Services Marketing [later with the number of tests CTIM students had to undertake, I gave a pat on my back for not choosing CTIM; though nothing to suggest that Services Marketing proved to be a cakewalk]. And with the sessions of Services Marketing, memories of Product Management (Semester 3) were back. There were four students in total and every day presentations were supposed to be made by at least two students. Again the presentations by me made me realize that I need to be a bit more confident while making one.

There ends the story of electives. I don’t know about other colleges but we had an active Postponement Committee at our college, the constituents of which kept changing according to the needs of the hour. Project-deadlines, Tests, Term-papers and what not came under the purview of this committee. I had the privilege of being an active member when it came to make our final Product-presentations (Product Management) in Semester 3. We submitted the final report and just wanted to defer the presentations to the last day of Semester 3. And I can’t forget the smile on the face of Rakhee Ma’m (while our gang of seven was approaching Satheesh Sir) and Satheesh Sir (when we requested him to postpone the presentations).

While exploring my phone I activated the built-in email client and put the Gmail settings. Now, if I put the Inbox-update interval to five minutes; after the interval of every five minutes my phone will connect to check if I’ve got a new mail. Not exactly the Push-Mail Technology (the one which BlackBerry has), but quite similar. Then I thought to put some interesting signature to mails sent by the phone. Normally when you receive a mail from a BlackBerry set, the signature is

--

Sent from BlackBerry

I know this is stupidity but my Nokia phone is black in color, so I made my phone’s signature as

--

Sent from BlackNokia

using DoCoMo

I’ve been least interested in Cricket; the last match I watched dates back to Wills World Cup 1996. But the business potential this Indian Premier league promised was phenomenal and made me interested, not in matches per se but the business value. I read somewhere that the brand value of IPL has raised from $2.03 bn to $4.13 bn. A very impressive growth of more than 100%, that too in a very new business idea! You see, IPL is satisfying all its stakeholders [in the sense sponsors are getting attention, public is getting entertainment (pun intended, most welcome to take whatever way you want to take it), organizers are having an overall profit]. But the recent happenings simply proved that every coin has its flip side.

My room-partner Nishas has got a massive database of Hindi, Malyalam, English, Tamil (I think there are more languages…) songs and when I felt like listening any specific song (in his presence in the room), the maximum I used to do is to either sing a few lines of the song in my sore voice or just hum the tone of the song. Nishas pleasantly used to take over and I start enjoying the song in his wall-breaking but melodious tone.

I always wanted to visit the Kovalam beach but things were not falling in place. And on the very last weekend of my stay in Kerala, one of my Keralite friends proposed for a trip to Kovalam. Now this is what I call hitting a six on the last ball when one needs just one run to win. Then I love riding. And I love rain. And in VM&A we’re taught that 2 + 2 = 5. So as we’re going to Kovalam, it started drizzling. The combination of the rain and the ride was superb. I felt like riding and riding in the rainy rain. But as we reached Kovalam, both the act of riding and rain stopped L.

There were some huge rocks on the sea-shore and the waves were continuously coming with great force and hitting the rocks. The result was formation of very fine particles of water in the atmosphere of that area and that was what made sitting pleasant there. And I was wondering if this energy of waves could be amassed as the process of waves keep hitting the rocks goes on for 24 hours.

Strategic Infl… Wat? Gimme a BrEaK!!!

As I was crossing the Sharma Dhaba to take the elective-Marketing Research Final Test, a thought struck my mind. The MR Final Test was supposed to be held in soft form (so the answers were supposed to be typed on a computer and then the file was supposed to be transferred to a pen drive; nothing on paper). Hitherto, except some one-day competitive tests, all the tests I’ve taken were on paper and not on computer. During my stay at Delhi in the years 2005-06, I happened to go through the book ‘Only the Paranoids Survive’ by Andrew S. Grove. He coined a term ‘Strategic Inflection Point’ which he explained as a time

in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. I was wondering if this Final MR test is actually such a point (in the examination system) when the mode of taking test slowly transubstantiates from pen to keyboard. The last time I wrote a personal letter and sent it through good old India Post was in 2005. The telecommunication system had slowly superseded the personal letter. And similarly the computer is slowly creeping into the examination system (from just putting the schedules on computer to this point when the answers are typed and not written).

Pen-power cannot be substituted by key-tapping,

De feeling simply comes that something is lacking;

Aha, here comes de i-Pad with virtual keyboard,

But I doubt if even that can undermine de pen-sword.

My last blog was about the Public Systems Project. The 4^th semester followed. In the third semester I opted for eight electives (in a nutshell I went for each and every elective except the two HR electives). That semester was kind-of exhausting one. Now, I haven’t ever taken a New Year resolution. I actually wonder at the logic behind waiting for Jan 1 to venture a good habit or to leave a bad one. So, having experienced the hectic schedule in semester 3, I took a semester-resolution to take bare-minimum electives and I did that. But on the first day itself, the Marketing Research elective was there and I having no other work thought to explore the session.

I took the permission from Mr. Harish to attend the sessions. Now he was a bit different (I’m not sure how to explain in what sense) while explaining concepts, giving live examples, citing his experiences (directly imported from Canada & places around there), making us do group-tasks etc. Impressed and having the minimum credits for the semester 4 I thought to audit the elective. Overall, the 24 sessions (some of my elective-mates said that technically it was a one day course) of MR Elective were like a cool breeze acting as a warm-up activity for the 4^th semester.

It’d been 8 years since I attended any marriage in my relations. And during the break between semester 3 & semester 4 (in Dec), I wasn’t able to visit my home. My parents were coming to attend a marriage at Jamshedpur, so I thought it’d be a good break to attend a marriage and to meet my family at the same time. So, I took the train to Jamshedpur (the train journey from Trivandrum to Jamshedpur takes around 55 hours). When the train reached Rourkela at 0500 hrs. on Monday Morning (I left Trivandrum on Friday at 2330 hrs), it was continually being announced at the platform “No train will proceed to Jamshedpur before 0900 hrs”.

Some of my co-passengers expressed their doubts that Maoists had declared ‘bandh’ for 3 days starting from Monday and this halt of train is somehow related to that. Tired and a bit frustrated (3^rd day of my journey and the destination still seemed to be far off), I talked to the people at the platform when I got to know that Maoists had blown off a part of the only rail-track between Rourkela and

Jamshedpur. After the rail-tracks had been restored, the train restarted and on the way a vendor showed us the actual place where the rail-tracks were blown off. 5-6 RPF Commandos were there in my coach to tackle any untoward situation and butterflies were there in my stomach… The forest around the area was very dense (which would have acted as a haven for Maoists) of which I took the picture on the left.

I don’t know if I’ve observed it correctly but with the dominance of networking websites, I wonder if people have started criticizing more about things like ‘Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’, ‘iPad’ or ‘Buzz’. I don’t know which one is new? My observation of people criticizing more or people have actually started criticizing more! I learnt ‘Consumer’s Sovereignty’ concept in B.Com, but it seems that this case pertains to somewhat a ‘Networker’s Sovereignty of Criticizm With a Narrow-Mindset’. Google’s Buzz has been criticized by many people on the ground that Google is trying to compete with Twitter. But how do people forget that when they think of Google Account, they’ve to just worry about one username and one password. Everything else (be it contacts, online documents, selective news etc.) is integrated!

So if you manage to read till this point, I hope you won’t mind going through some rhyming lines J

Dis world, its each element is an illusion,

i better be not trapped in dis confusion;

yes! I mean what i just wrote,

it's not simply taken by some quote.

Y m i so cheerful today,

Is dere a bad news on its way?

Ah! Here aligns de rhythm,

after a hiatus, comes de poem.

Poetry doesnt seem 2 b a cup of my tea,

Whatever i write turns out to be silly;

But this hasnt deterred me enuf to stop dis 'silsila',

For i remember a line in malyalam 'njan niruthilla'.

Silsila (Hindi) means series, and Njan niruthilla (Malyalam) means I won’t stop.

On PSP Report submission-

Submitted de PSP report,

Felt like conquered a fort;

Not sure it'll make any sense,

but m ready 4 de CII project coming hence.

The night before the MR End-term-

Difficult 2 believe dat tomoro is de end-term,

Lets c wat marks m goin 2 earn;

I introduced myself 2 de book saying hi,

But 11th hour mein kuch bhi samajh mein na aaye :(

The night before the International Finance Mid-term-

In a least mood to study i'national finance,

But it being a mid-term... Cant take a chance;

It’s a bit boring to study by ppt,

But have got no other option, u c.

On the train to Jamshedpur…

Nature’s beauty is being adored by me,

Wondering if any other job is better than dis;

So many colorful aspects to see,

Esp. when the dawn & the dark kiss.

Poetry has to be natural, it can’t come by force,

Some event, some reaction & it automatically soars;

Wow! I wrote it as I had no other subject in mind

Was wondering if by not writing can I be a bit kind (to de readers) :D

On the Crisis (still in the train!)-

Investors across de world had perfect confidence in the US sphere,

Despite the int rates being less than 1, they invested in govt. securities dere;

Investment Bankers thot dis is de correct time to sell wat dey may not later refund,

Very innocently, dey named it High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leverage Fund.