Dust In The Wind

Snow: This is why I read Orhan Pamuk

2012-01-14T15:53:00.002-06:00

It's been a gorgeous winter in Dallas - with the sun rays streaming through the blinds on to my living room from morning through late afternoon. The bright, sunny days with highs touching 70s at times are as far removed as can be from the snowy, stark and silent streets of Kars. And yet, such is the power of Pamuk's prose that during all those hours spent reading his masterpiece, I felt like I was in Kars.

Early on in the novel, snow - one of the recurring themes in the novel, makes an appearance.

...he peered into the wretched little shops and bakeries and broken down coffee houses that lined the streets of Erzurum's outlying suburbs, and as he did it began to snow. It was heavier and thicker than the snow he'd seen between Istanbul and Erzurum. If he hadn't been so tired, if he'd paid a bit more attention to the snowflakes swirling out of the sky like feathers, he might have realized that he was traveling straight into a blizzard; he might have seen at the start that he was setting out on a journey that would change his life forever and would have chosen to turn back.

Trimmed down to its very basics, Snow is the story of Ka, a Turkish poet exiled in Frankfurt, who comes to the remote Eastern border city of Kars to investigate the string of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear head scarves. But he is also there because of memories of a beautiful woman named Ipek.

In the whirlwind three days that follow, a blizzard isolates Kars from the rest of Turkey as roads and rails are blocked; the boundaries between art and life are blurred as a theater troupe stages a farcical coup; people are killed as political intrigue involving the Kurds, Turkish Republicans, and Islamists deepens; Ka finds sudden inspiration as poems magically start coming to him as he falls desperately and passionately in love with Ipek and realizes that the only happiness he can know is spending the rest of his life with her in Frankfurt; and we encounter a handsome and charismatic Islamic terrorist as Ka begins to question his beliefs on atheism and wonders about God and his existence.

Throughout the novel, Pamuk gives us a glimpse of what makes Turkey and Kars in this case, unique. The chequered history and a melting pot of civilizations which makes it hard for its people to find their identity.

As he gazed at the grand old buildings on either side, admiring their handsome doors, their generously proportioned eaves, their beautiful friezes, and their dignified but timeworn facades, Ka had a strong sense of the people (Armenians who traded in Tiflis? Ottoman pashas who collected taxes from the dairies?) who had once led happy, peaceful and even colorful lives here. Gone now were all the Armenians, Russians, Ottomans and early Republican Turks.....

As we get to know about the life of the people in Kars - the poverty and hopelessness, the struggle to define their identity and religiousness, the constant conflict between East and West: manifested not only in religious beliefs but also in values, morality, culture and a way of life; we are slowly drawn towards the people in this far away city and we begin to understand their hopes and fears, their needs and desires. Coupled with the constantly falling snow which shrouds the city in silence and a sense of desolation, it is easy to see why the novel effortlessly transports the reader to a different world.

And then there's Ipek. Ka's is so enamored by her beauty that he cannot think of a life without her. It is this fear of losing her and losing his last hope of finding happiness that makes him so vulnerable and humane. Even when Ka's friend (who is narrating the whole story) meets her, he is left amazed.

Ipek was more beautiful than anyone could have imagined. At this dinner, where I had my first glimpse of her, I mush confess to have found myself stunned, bedazzled and deeply jealous. ... I was beset by all manner of those feelings that women of exceptional beauty never fail to inspire; gazing at this paragon before me, I felt myself crumbling, I felt possessed.

Love, God, happiness, patriotism, change - the themes that make up Snow are universal and timeless. The setting, though (for an Indian residing in a secular US), is totally different. And the greatness of this novel lies in the lucidity and honesty with which it manages to blend the familiar with the unknown. Everyone should read this. If not for the commentary about modern day Turkey told in a mash up of political thriller, travelogue, historical fiction and drama; then for the sheer joy of discovering how a great book can make you feel.

Travels in the US

2011-12-12T22:01:00.000-06:00

Two reasons I felt like writing a post today.

1) Exactly six years ago, I started this blog and it almost felt like an obligation to write something. Although considering that my frequency of posts has drastically gone down, it might be time to call it a day and start something afresh. Will see.

2) I've wanted to make a map of my travels in the US this year ever since I did a road trip with my friends in June. So here it is.

2011 has been a great year in terms of travel. I thought I had seen a lot of the US till I made this map and realized how much still remains to be seen. All the trips were different. Vacation with parents where I was in charge of everything. Road trip with friends where the night's hotel was booked during the afternoon. Beach week craziness at a 20 member house. Impromptu one day road trips. Bachelor parties. A wedding. And a couple of official ones. The last one, in Seattle is coming up during the X-Mas weekend. And I think it would be a great one to round up the year.

Living in the Age of Disruption - Television

2011-11-23T20:51:00.001-06:00

The show was named "Superstars of Soccer" and if my memory serves me right, it aired at 10 PM. I don't quite remember if it was sometime before 1990 World Cup in Italy or the next one but have a feeling that it was the former. My dad was a huge soccer fan and had gotten me to watch the sport (basically only the World Cup). A one hour show packed with clips of the Johan Cruyffs and Maradonas and Zicos scoring goals was enough the capture the imagination of an eight year old. What I vividly remember about the series is that we would often rush back from a family friend's house so as to be able to watch it uninterrupted at home. Bring dinner to the living room table and see spectacular goals being scored.

And now we have YouTube. So much for instant gratification.

One Show. One Time.

Like any kid born in the 80s in India, Doordarshan was my introduction to television. And apart from Ramayan and Mahabharat, the only thing I remember are the Spiderman and He-Man cartoons. There were hardly any sports (or I was too small to care) and watching TV was more often than not dictated by the program which was being aired at that time of the day. Which essentially meant you picked your shows and adjusted your life around it. If you missed it, it was gone. Forever. And you asked your friends about it and replayed it in your mind.

More Channels. More Movies.

The big change sometime in the 90s was cable TV. Suddenly you had this thing called "options". A dozen channels. Actually, I think there were more but our TV only had so many channels. So you had to pick favorites. Zee TV, Star TV, BBC World, MTV (they played music back then) and a few other channels almost immediately changed our TV viewing behavior. The concept of channel surfing came into being. There was this air of unpredictability. Let's turn on the TV and see what's on. I would do that with my mom in the evening before dad came back from work. We didnt have channel guides and often weekend editions of newspapers would have all the TV listings. I remember spending a good 10-15 minutes to make sure I had all my action movies covered. To add to the entertainment portfolio, my dad got us a VCR. Still remember the first day trying to set it up. Took us the entire evening. Compared to today's interfaces, that was almost command line like in its demeanor. The advent of VCPs and VCRs (which could also be rented) opened up this whole "Video Parlor" business - shops which would stock copies of Indian and Hollywood movies and rent them out. Nobody I knew "bought" video cassettes. It was way too costly. One particular guy at one of these shops was an avid movie watcher and introduced us to classics like The Gods Must Be Crazy and Dances with the Wolves. We would spend hours at his shop browsing through the library and chit chatting about the movies he had watched. It was one of the more memorable outings that I used to have as a teenager. The quality would often be sub par, though. Sometimes it was bearable. Just a glitch here and there. On the rare occasion, we would have to return it to the shop without being able to watch it. It was normal. A little depressing but absolutely normal. Cassettes get damaged. It was the way things are supposed to work.

The R in the VCR meant that we could record stuff too. And the one we had was powerful enough so that we could set timers to turn on the TV and record stuff even when we were away! Pretty cool, right? We never figured out how to do it. Nevertheless, we did record some live stuff. The 1994 World Cup Soccer Final, for instance. I never watched it afterwards. Roberto Baggio was my hero and it broke my heart to think about that final.

Whatever. Whenever.

Fast forward to the 2000s. The channels increased to over a hundred and the TVs became more powerful but essentially the model remained the same. You had a cable provider (and may be a set top box). CD/DVD players replaced VCRs. Although people had started to buy CDs. They were cheaper and lasted a lot longer. So yes, we are moving from a rent-only mentality to a buy-really-good-movies one. Or buy-cheap-pirated knock offs. I, for my part had moved to college and discovered the power of the internet and P2P file sharing software.

Terabytes of videos. DVD quality. And Free. Beat that!

I perfectly blended into this free model as everything from the latest American sitcoms to the Kurosawa movies were suddenly a click away. Watching as much of the the IMdB Top 250 as possible almost became a fashion statement of sorts. Not that I knew the term then, but this was "Time Shifting" at its pinnacle. You could always watch movies later. The whole Video Cassette followed by CD/DVD industry was built on this premise. That people would want to and should be able to watch any movie any time. Not just when it played in the theaters. But before I went to college, I didn't know that this happened for TV as well. So now, no matter when the 1st season of FRIENDS aired, I could download it from the LAN and watch it as many times as I wanted to. It was fascinating.

What began in college continued in Bangalore too. I missed the LAN but still had a hold on LOST and How I Met Your Mother. Bit Torrent to the rescue. I couldn't imagine people paying for content when piracy was so rampant. And so easy. And nobody ever got caught. And thus, "owning" became the default. First I would burn movies into CDs. But then as storage became cheap and 500 GB external HDDs became pocket sized, it became the norm. Download entire seasons and keep them in your hard drive. Not a penny expended. Technology changing consumer behavior. Ah! now, I get it. Thanks to my MBA!

TV meets Internet & I start paying.

The last bit of this story brings us to my life in present day America. I spent the first two years in this country in school which meant there wasn't time to really watch any TV. There were way more interesting things going on. As a result I stopped downloading stuff. Still, buying digital content was an uncomfortable notion for me. Years of access to free, hi-def videos had had its impact. But then there was the question of ease and any time access. Add a hi speed internet connection and a relatively cheap fee to the mix, and I began to realize why I would finally be ok with paying for content. So I got my internet enabled TV with a built in Hulu and Netflix app and access to a couple of other on demand movie stores. Renting or streaming at a monthly subscription is still a lot cheaper than buying. And I found myself moving from the owning-for-free to the paying-for-rent mentality. A full circle, in some ways.

So much has changed. From the devices themselves to the way content is distributed to the way it is consumed and the way people relate to it and react to it. From a one time only event, most of Television today is available almost immediately after it is first screened. Hulu has made a name out of the concept of "Second Day TV" (making popular shows available for streaming a day after they are aired). It's even more fascinating for me because I work in an industry which is so intricately linked to all of this.We expect instant streaming at hi qualities and are annoyed by the slightest glitch or delay in playback. Things are so easy now. And will get easier in the future. And our options will explode. TV would soon move into (it has already started) handheld devices. It would become more interactive. If you follow this space as closely as I do, you would be aware of how it's being billed as the last domain ripe for digital disruption. And I thought so much has already changed !

Enough of writing about TV. Time to catch some Arrested Development on Netflix!

Of Korean Food & American Pop Culture

2011-10-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

I'm not nearly there but I've definitely gotten better. At eating food with chopsticks, that is. Thanks to the delicious Korean food at my company cafeteria. I love the spicy pork and the chicken and the Bi Bim Bap. The veggies aren't too bad either and along with the meat are the easy part. I've learnt the technique to pick them up and eat without looking like a retard. But I seriously think that it's the clumped up nature of it that makes it possible to even try to eat rice with chopsticks. I still take a fork though. To finish it up. Because the hardest part is when you literally have grains of rice left. I use them more when I go alone for lunch (not because I'm not popular, though). Just feels easier trying out slightly different holding techniques.

Enough about food. Now for the second part of the post title.

I've always considered my knowledge of pop culture above average. Of late it has risen drastically owing to the new fall season premiers on NBC, FOX, ABC & CBS and the fact that I have started following the Dallas Cowboys. Yes, I admit it. I love coming home from work and watching everything from Parks & Recreation to Sing Off (if you like music you should watch it because it's the most unique show out there and the judges actually make sense and talk about music rather than other stuff) to X-Factor to Prime Suspect to Modern Family on TV. And if I'm not feeling particularly sleepy I also catch parts of Jimmy Fallon and Craig Fergusson before going to sleep. Fallon is way better by the way.

Point is, since the days of bit torrent at IIT, I've considered myself pretty knowledgeable about all this - music, movies, TV shows (the core components of pop culture - according to me). It took some time getting up to date with the Rock n Roll stuff of the 60s onwards but I'm satisfied with the progress I've made.

On the other hand, during the three years of my life at Bangalore, I got up to speed with the Indian pop culture too. Not that I was far behind. But with uninhibited access to internet and TV and room mates who were just as enthusiastic, we made sure everything from MTV Roadies and Splitsvilla to Himmesh Reshammiya and Indian Idol was consumed. And yes, there was Times Of India - the ultimate entertainment piece. No, I'm not just talking about Bangalore Times (insert any city name that had its own version) here. Read aloud sessions from ToI were one of the most fun we had at times. Oh, how I miss those!

Anyway, let's get to the crux of the matter here. For the first time today, I actually listened to the desi Radio station in Dallas today. 104.9. And the reason was that instead of talking about how to save taxes and the new jewelry store in Plano, they were actually playing some good new music. Some of it was apparently from Rehman. And I had absolutely no clue about any of the songs. That's when it hit me. I don't follow the IPL anymore. I had little interest in politics and have very less idea about that now. I might have watched two Indian movies in the last one year or so. And I'm no longer on top of the one thing which I used to be the first to find out - new Bollywood music which is good. I was usually the one forwarding downloaded mp3s to my friends. So the gain in the US pop culture knowledge has come with a price. Not that I'm surprised. I think in my case, I have chosen this and if and when I go back to India, it will change. I don't like being at one place and following the happenings of some place else. Wait, I sort of did that with American pop culture when I was in India. But US is the center of the world, right ? And those sitcoms (& LOST) were good!

Funny story: Somebody at work was talking about the Republican candidates and inevitably Rick Perry came up. I was not part of the conversation but happened to overhear it. I immediately said something on the lines of 'Oh, he was a front runner but kind of shot himself in the foot in the Presidential Debates' and went back to checking engadget.com on my computer. The girl asked the guy 'What did Perry do?'. And the guy who is born and raised in Texas and now works in Texas pointed to me and said, 'You seem to be more aware of this than me' And no, he was not being sarcastic. It's another story that my knowledge is courtesy Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon.

Almost time for Jay Leno.

Friday Morning

2011-09-23T09:22:00.001-05:00

It's 55 degrees and sunny. I roll down the car windows a little on my way to office. The traffic is smooth and so I decide to stop at Panera and get a hazelnut coffee.

There's a beautiful news reporter with her crew setting up the equipment. Will probably talk about the coming of fall weather!

Some days, you just feel good about everything. This seems to be one of those days. I feel like taking a long drive and snap pictures. Maybe I'll do it over the weekend.

Anyway, time to head to office.

'Last' Weekend

2011-09-06T23:11:00.001-05:00

I drifted in and out of sleep throughout the taxi ride from the Meatpacking district to LaGuardia. The overcast sky and the rush of wind through the open rear window providing the perfect company to my thoughts wandering around another unforgettable weekend. The last one of its kind.

The greatest thing about having a job is getting paid. And so even though I have a HUGE student loan and a smaller but significant car loan in my books, when the opportunity to spend a 3 day weekend with some of my closest friends came by, the Dallas to NYC trip didn't seem extravagant at all.

Friday night at a bar, Saturday at the US Open culminating with a midnight feast of chicken and rice at 53rd & 6th, Sunday rooftop breakfast with the Brooklyn bridge in the background followed by an Indian lunch and cycling in the Central Park and finally the crazy night of partying and dancing which ended at around four - on Monday morning, the weekend felt too short to be over.

In between all these, there was a deluge of absolute nonsensical conversations (which won't be posted here!), hysterical laughing at the stupidest of jokes (some people won't even call them jokes), talking about touring the world by some and getting back to work by others.

I reached Dallas late in the evening to find that by a miracle of nature the temperature had dropped from 105 to 85. I looked at the forecast and the highest for the week was not even 90! Something to look forward to, I thought. And that's when it sort of made sense. I love having things to look forward to. Travel, meeting people, even a work meeting late in the week. The sense of anticipation is quite a high. The wait almost as rewarding as the actual occurrence.

There's more travel and meet ups coming up in the next couple of months. So soon I'll be in anticipation mode again. The settings would be different and so would be some people. It will be a blast, I'm sure.
But last weekend was unique for sure. I'll miss not having an encore.

Songs, Places & People

2011-08-21T17:03:00.001-05:00

Even though I think I'm a "musical" guy, I don't listen to a lot of music - like during work or while running on the treadmill. Part of it could be because I don't enjoy putting on headphones. While driving, though, I love it. So much so that I'm willing to say, I need it. I mostly listen to the radio. The zone between unpredictability at one end and the comfort of familiarity (e.g. the Today's Hits station that each city has) is perfect for me.

Enough of beating around the bush. The reason I wanted to write this post is because with so many songs there are these places and people associated in my head that have become inextricably linked with the songs themselves. Every time a Don't Stop Believin' or Pour Some Sugar On Me or The Scientist or Collide or Coming back to Life or Dust in the Wind plays (I'll stop here, because the list is pretty long!), I invariably end up thinking about those associations. Some go back to the hostel rooms of IIT. Some to the pubs or even my house in Bangalore. Others are more recent and trace their origins to Saturday nights at a certain No. 3 in Charlottesville. Then there are the people with whom you shared the song - singing, listening along with pitchers of beer, dancing or even just sending the mp3 and having a conversation about it.

I don't know how it is with you; but for me, nostalgia is almost always bittersweet. There's the high of having had such a great time and reminiscing about it. And there's also the sense of loss. These songs are part of nostalgia too.

Fortunately, I've found my staple radio stations in Dallas. Today's Hits, Classic Rock, Alternative New Rock and this station which mixes up everything from a Matchbox 20 to a Bruno Mars. Not surprisingly, a lot of these songs come up during my drive to and from the office. It's a pleasant distraction from the 105 temperatures and occasional traffic on US-75.

P.S. Watched this absolutely riveting movie about street art - Exit Through The Gift Shop. Best thing I've seen in a long time.

Starting Again

2011-08-14T22:20:00.002-05:00

The absence from this space has been so long that when I logged in today, I found that Google has changed the entire Blogger interface! Like my other hiatuses, this one also has been characterized by an extended period of what I like to call 'eventful living'. Graduation and goodbyes. Travels and transitions. In that order, actually. There have been too many things I've wanted to write about. But the irony is that I don't know how to begin.

"So where are you from?"

I don't remember if I've written about this earlier, but this is no longer a simple question for me to answer. Sometimes people are more specific (like the girl in the leasing office of my apartment) and ask "So where are you moving from?" Two years ago, when I was introducing myself to the three hundred other classmates, it was easy. Well, easier. Start with India and then ramble a bit about growing up in a small town in Eastern India and then spending time in Delhi and Bangalore. But I realized, some people wanted an easy to remember, 2 second answer. So I stuck with Kolkata or Bangalore.

Since moving to Texas, I mostly say Virginia. And if the conversation goes on for over thirty seconds, I make sure that I put in the 'have been in the US only for two years' part. To which, surprisingly a few say, 'Oh! just two years? Your English is really good!"

Now, my English has been or less the same as it was when I was in India. Sure I've started to roll the T's and the R's and stretch the A's. Mostly so that people understand me. Not to put on an accent per se. Anyway, I take it as a compliment, say thanks and continue blabbering.

Then there's the occasional encounter with an Indian American or somebody who happens to know more about India that I would think he/she does. So my standard 'I'm from India' leads to a duh!-you-really-thought-I-couldn't-get-that-from-your-accent-and-skin-color look, I laugh awkwardly and proceed to talk about my journey from Kolkata to Bokaro to Delhi to Bangalore.

Point being, it's not an easy question to answer. Not anymore.

"What do you think about the US of A?"

This is not as frequently asked. But is probably harder. My answer? I give a very standard one.

I like it here. I think the social infrastructure is great and makes life easier. Technologically, this country is way ahead. But I miss the spontaneity of India and the fact that I'm far off from my parents and a lot of my friends. Nowadays, I add the fact that how pissed I have been with customer service at most places - from AT&T to car rentals to IKEA and the fact that things work great here when there is no human intervention.
Depending on how long the conversation goes, I talk about how I find it very 'sanitized' here. About not enjoying baseball at all though starting to like American football. About missing being out of touch with cricket and all the festivals back home. And more.

But on a deeper level, what do I think about this country? The two years so far have been tremendous. But how much of it was the cocooned atmosphere of Darden and Charlottesville where everybody is nice and considerate? Then again, a lot of my preconceived perceptions about this place have changed. Some for the better. Some, not so.

Anyway, I'm curious. To anybody who has been here for a while now and happens to read this blog - what would your answer be? And no, don't start talking about the debt ceiling and White House, please.

"Do you think you would go back to India?"

This is almost invariably asked by my non-Indian Darden friends. It's actually the easiest to answer. Right now, I mean.

I really don't know. I think I want to. But for the next 4-5 years, I've got this student loan to pay. After that, we'll see where things stand.

And it's probably the most honest answer. I mean I find it hard to plan 5 weeks in advance, so how would I know!

A Few More Days...

2011-05-03T09:42:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, I made my singing debut at Darden as the lead male vocal in 'Darden Lovin', a parody of Summer Nights from Grease. I blanked out on a line too. We also finally got to show our Bollywood Musical to the entire school. They had it as the last video of the 2 hour show. Yes, we did bring the house down and being part of the core group which made it possible will be one of the most satisfying experiences at Darden.

Fittingly, the climax of the show was the last song - Decades of Debt. Inspired by Seasons of Love. And when TB belted out her solo as the rest of us climbed up the stairs on the aisles of the auditorium, it started to sink in. That it was only a matter of few days. That the celebrations were a signal. That all of us were trying to hold on to as many memories as we could.

The next day started at 7:30 AM as I got up and got ready to catch the bus to Foxfield. It ended at No. 3, at 2:00 AM the next morning with 'Don't Stop Believin'. In between there were mimosas, screwdrivers and red wines, pictures and more pictures, lots of laughing and shouting out with friends and of course dancing to 80s music.

The Facebook statues have begun to tell the same story. Of the numbered days all of us have in Charlottesville. Mundane, taken for granted activities like the walk from Ivy Gardens to the school start taking on special meanings as I try to cling on to all that this place has given me over the last 20 months. Listening to acoustic/alternative music on 106.1 The Corner, or the popular hits on 101.9; bumping into familiar faces in restaurants and bars, going out for short drives around the city; knowing that there are always people to dig you out of a spot; making last minute dinner plans because everything is just so close by; talking to professors who are as much friends as mentors - the list can go on for quite some time. There's so much that has happened in such short time. It's fascinating to look back and see how far we have come.

For me, apart from rolling the P's and the T's to make sure people understood what I was saying, the greatest change has been a heightened sense of awareness. Of myself as well as my surroundings. I've become a little more confident too.

But I don't want to get into too much of self reflection here. That's always better with a little bit of alcohol and a few friends. The reality is in a few days Darden would be over. And in time we would lose touch with most of the people we have got used to knowing over these two years. There would be newer things to look forward to on one hand and loans to pay back on the other. There would also be reunions and the occasional business trip to a city where you catch up with friends.

What we had here, though, was special. And as a lot of the faculty and students keep saying - we should remember that it was a privilege, that we are a very unique group who have had most of the gifts of life.

A photo-shoot, a few meetings and a Tango

2011-04-14T01:05:00.001-05:00

Not a usual day at Darden. But that was my day today. With just three weeks to go before classes end, it has sort of begun to hit me. The fact that it's getting over. And if you have read my posts for long enough and/or have known me, you would know that transitions make me uncomfortable. My parents finally booked their flight tickets. Which means that now I have to start planning the itinerary of their first US visit. Leaving this place, travelling with parents, travelling with friends and then finally moving to Dallas - there's a lot coming. Exciting? Yes. But also unsettling.

Anyway, back to this day. The photo-shoot was for a Darden marketing material (yes, I might make it to a glossy brochure, for all you know) with another second year and my marketing professor. So we sat down (well, actually, I was standing with the bag on my shoulder and my shirt sleeves rolled - because it fit my "student" image) in Flagler Courtyard and chatted casually as the photographer clicked a few snaps. It helped that my classmate actually had something to talk about and we didnt have to fake a conversation. The pictures did look pretty cool. I hope I can get my hands to them sometime.

The meetings were nothing out of the ordinary to be very frank. But 'A photo-shoot and a Tango' seemed kind of empty as a post title. And so here we are. The meetings ranged from talking to the new publisher of the student newsletter about the transition, to meeting a professor and getting ideas on how to wrap up the project, to a short lunch about the elementary school tutoring program that I helped run. A good mix, I would say.

And that brings us to the Tango. I'm doing three courses this quarter. One on social entrepreneurship and responsibility which has guest speakers in almost every class and we get to have dinners and lunches with them. Another one is on literature. Fiction at that. So far the reading list has been - the novels The Great Gatsby, The Good Doctor, The White Tiger, and the short stories Barn Burning, The Killers, and Love is Not a Pie. And the professor also invited a group of us over for dinner where I had the best grilled salmon ever.

Doesn't sound like B-School, you would say, right. I agree. That's why I took these courses.

The last course I'm doing is about Theater. Yes. Nothing to do with business unless you start really stretching it and talk about teamwork and collaboration and all that lingo which we love. One rock-star professor, one director, and 24 students. Last Wednesday, we had formed groups amongst ourselves and picked up 10-minute plays which were to be performed today. I was amazed at the amount of effort I spent in it. And all of it was so much fun. It was a bit like being in undergrad and getting involved in extra curricular activities. Never feels like a burden and you achieve so much.

The Toy-Story like play about three toys about to be discarded, a crazy sequence featuring two extremely drunk men and two women, a girl and her craving for candies, a dead man and a dead woman who are tied to each other for eternity, two faculty members talking about student-teacher affairs, a brash young man, his friend and the waitress in a cafe and the weird grocery store meeting of a man and a woman who have almost too much in common - there was a lot of variety on display. And all the performances were worth watching.

It's one of those moments that stand out from the myriad experiences that you have. Performing a play in a B-School. And in 3 weeks from now, the 24 of us will write, direct and act in a totally original play and perform it in front of the entire second year and first year class. How crazy is that!

And about the tango - that's how the grocery store play ends. With a rose in my mouth. And apparently we were terrific. So said the professor and the director.

Moments from the Ah-mazing Spring Break - Istanbul

2011-03-31T09:00:00.007-05:00

Tram ride from Eminonu to Sultanahmet: Tram rides and walks seem to be a more authentic way to get to know the city. You also get to see more of the insanely beautiful Turkish women. Trams are super crowded though, and the internet had warned us about holding on to our belongings. We get down at Sultanahmet and JM calls out to the three of us to make sure we have our wallets and bags. The moment after, he realizes that his camera pouch is empty. We re-board the tram and look around the floor. But it's obvious it just didn't fall off. This time around, the jokes start almost immediately . Fortunately, he had downloaded his London pictures. And the rest of us had Greece covered. I sigh about losing a few awesome Facebook profile pictures.

In front of the Sultanahmet Mosque: It's a little cold and overcast and the steam coming out of the brass container made it look all the more tempting. The four of us decide to try the Sahlep, a Turkish hot beverage. 3 Liras for each cup, he says and even as HW hands out the money, he tells us that the guy is overcharging. It shouldn't be more than a Lira. We notice that unlike other roadside one-man stalls, he doesnt have the price written down anywhere. We stand there sipping the Sahlep (which I really like, by the way) and see what price he charges other people and to find out if there's any price discrimination. An Asian tourist couple comes by and they dish out 10 Liras for two drinks. Price charged is directly proportional to distance from Istanbul, I make deduction as we move on with a smile that says 'we know you cheated us but it's ok.'

Looking for dinner near Sirkeci: It's a small by-lane and there's hardly any crowd. It's our first night in the city and we are looking for some Turkish cuisine. The restaurant manager comes out inviting us. The menu has a lot of variety and is priced well. The next door restaurant guy also comes out and requests us to come over. The attention is pleasantly surprising. We tell them we will come back soon and walk off to explore more before deciding. A few minutes later, we are back there. We tell the guys to decide where we should sit.

'Two of you can come here and the other two can go to his place'

'How about all four of us come to your place and we promise to come back later to his place.'

'Ok my friend. Remember, it's a promise. I'll wait for you'

The meal is fabulous. And half the items are on the house - bread, a spicy tomato based paste, salad, and Turkish tea. We order a chicken and a lamb curry based dish (cooked with onions, bell peppers and served with rice). The guy was supposed to close the restaurant at 11 but its closer to 12 by the time we get done. It's a small place and the look of satisfaction on the guy's face makes us happy too. We ask for the check to one of the waiters and he is almost embarrassed that he doesn't know English. At each instant you get the feeling that they are trying hard to make sure you are satisfied. The look on the waiter's face says 'I'm sorry I only speak Turkish. I hope it doesn't take away from your experience here.'

It's a very different feeling from dining in an American restaurant. Yes, it's Istanbul and the restaurant is small and all that. But beyond that, you feel an underlying authenticity about the way these guys go about feeding us. For all I know, it's their job and all of it is a well thought out script. But I like to think otherwise.

Next day, we come back to the other restaurant. The manager remembers us and shakes our hand. He seems genuinely happy that we kept our promise.

To be continued....

Moments from the Ah-mazing Spring Break - Greece

2011-03-27T21:17:00.005-05:00

Athens (Metro from the airport to the hostel): We get into the train and just as the door closes, AA shouts out, ' Oh shit, my bag!' The train picks up speed as the three of us helplessly watch his bag lying on the platform bench. We get down at the next stop, change sides and within four minutes are standing in front of the same bench. Nothing there. We look around, climb up and down the stairs, report it to the security who tells us very honestly and with a smile and that even if they find the bad the laptop would be gone. AA is super pissed about losing his laptop, all his data (pictures) and the I-20 which will give him entry back to the US. Luckily his passport is in his jacket pocket. We tell him that the I-20 would be replaced (another friend is coming to Istanbul later and he can get it) and console him about his loss of data. An hour later, we are making fun of him as we go out into the city - 'AA, did you take your bag. Oops, we forgot about your generous donation to the Greek economy!' Friends can be cruel.

Santorini (9:30 AM Breakfast): Sotiris, our host, is phenomenal. He's funny, always ready to help and has an air of genuineness about whatever he does. The night before, he brought us local white wine upon our arrival to the hotel. Over the 3 days we learn more about him - that he used to study Criminology in London, he's originally from Albania, has been trying to get a Greek passport and has a friend in Florida who is setting up a restaurant and is asking him to come. He shows us the hill which is up for sale for a million euros and suggests places to go. Luisa, the very pretty receptionist also points out places on the map that we should visit. All of us are very attentive as she writes down the names of the restaurants and shows us the places by pointing them out from the balcony. 'And this is Oia.', she says as she points out the farthest tip of the island. 'It has very beautiful sunsets. Remember, it's pronounced as Ia, like Ia Ia O'.

Coming back to the breakfast, when we asked Sotiris what time would breakfast be available he told us he would prepare it anytime we were ready. So 9:30 it was, and we requested him to put it outside.

Athens Sports Bar (St. Patrick's Day Karaoke Night): AA, JM and I sing Stand By Me. The crowd loves it and we don't make a fool of ourselves. Buoyed by this, JM and I decide on singing Last Kiss. Both of us are a little high and really enjoy ourselves. The karaoke guy likes it too and gives us free shots of Ouzo. Nobody has yet taken up his challenge of singing a Led Zep song. A decent performance wins drinks on the house. So JM and I put in our names for Stairway to Heaven (probably the easiest Led Zep to sing!). Afterwards we have some expensive Irish Whiskey which I don't remember. The crowd soon leaves for James Joyce Irish pub. We follow them there. The scotch is too strong and none of us wants to spoil the entire next day by waking up late. So we leave the drink unfinished and head out. A two euro chicken gyro in the corner tastes heavenly as we walk the streets of Plaka back to our hostel.

Athens (Somewhere near Monastiraki Square): Somebody singing 'Hallelujah'. It's a beautiful voice and the strumming is different from the version I've heard. Of course, I stop. In a secluded by-lane, this guy with a cap is singing. No mic or amplifier and yet his voice is booming. All of us stop and listen to him for a couple of minutes. He finishes and smiles at us. We drop a few euros in his guitar bag and ask him where he's from. Scotland, he says. He's here to record but hasn't been able to figure out the details with the studio. He's still optimistic, he says and hopes things will work out soon. We tell him that he's got a phenomenal voice. He thanks us and credits the acoustics of the street and the hour of the night. It's pretty late. I wish him the best and we wander off. 'What an amazing life.' I say. 'I would say, its more sad than amazing.' says my friend. I tend to agree and we walk the next minute or so in silence.

To be continued......

The Great Indian Curry

2011-03-04T10:17:00.003-06:00

When was the last time I won an award? Can't remember. Story of my life. Above average but never the best! So it was obviously nice to get the Best Curry prize. The best part however, to use the cliche, was the process.

It was the Darden chili/curry cook off where around 18 teams were preparing a variety of chillies and curies. Around 3 gallons was the requirement so we decided to start off a day in advance.

6 pounds of organic chicken breasts, whipped cream, yogurt, milk, spices from the Indian store, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic, lime juice, onions and tomato paste - the ingredients were bought on Wednesday afternoon. We prepared the marination paste by mixing yogurt with chili powder, turmeric, salt and lime juice. Mixing it well with the chicken, it was kept in the fridge to be cooked the next day.

We were pressed for time on Thursday so we decided to make the curry on Wednesday itself. A Bollywood playlist was selected, the volume turned high, and in went the chopped onions, tomato paste and the assortment of spices in the largest pan that we had, as the red curry simmered with intermittent tastings and addition of cream, milk and more masala. Later at night, when the curry was done the three of us decided to go out for a few drinks. A friend came to pick us up and as we entered the car the others said - 'Wow, you guys smell of yummy butter chicken.'

The marinated chicken came out of the fridge on Thursday afternoon as we launched phase two of the project. We medium roasted the chicken in the oven before putting the pieces in the curry. The volume had doubled so we split the curry into two containers and set it on low heat. In the meanwhile, the brilliant poster idea - "FINGER LICKERS Present The Great Indian Curry" was conceived. Of course there was a lot of absolutely hilarious and mindless conversation around this which will not be posted here.

The last bit - garnished the curry with coriander leaves and whipped cream, put the containers in the car trunk, drove as slowly as possible and were just in time for the start of the cook off at 6:00PM. By 6:30 PM, we were scraping the bottom for some leftover curry.

Learning to cook and enjoying cooking has been one of the more tangible benefits for me in the last couple of years. No, seriously. To master chefs AA and HW, strong work guys!

Reading Again

2011-02-23T20:04:00.001-06:00

Always, at every moment, asleep and awake, during the most sublime and most abject moments, Amaranta thought about Rebeca, because solitude had made a selection in her memory and had burned the dimming piles of nostalgic waste that life had accumulated in her heart, and had purified, magnified and eternalized the others, the most bitter ones.

- excerpt from One Hundred Years of Solitude

I've gotten back to reading. Or so I would like to think. During the winter break, I managed to read 'Love In The Time of Cholera', my first Marquez. I was hooked. Every moment described in excruciating details, the semi-fantastical setting and the heart breaking story of unrequited love was unlike anything I had read earlier. So I decided I would pick up 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' next. I'm a little more than halfway through it and have a feeling that I would finish it this time. My previous attempt during the winter of 2007-08 had been a disaster. In hindsight, I was not in the state of mind required for the rather slow and intense reading.

I'm probably the worst multi-tasker I know. This, despite being almost done with my MBA! So I cant, for example, read and watch TV at the same time. Or browse and listen to music. I don't enjoy it and I invariably end up losing one thread completely. Anyway, the point is, I need time and space to read novels. So last Saturday when I woke up early (8 o' clock) and saw the sun streaming through the balcony door, I decided not to open my laptop and instead pick up the book. For the next 5 hours or so, I kept reading. Stopping only for the cup of tea and bowl of cereal in between. The phone didn't ring and there was no music playing. And the world didn't change because of my absence from Facebook.

Enough talking about reading. Back to doing it.

The Little Things

2011-02-14T13:14:00.002-06:00

At Darden, seemingly ordinary, little things can make your day. And much of it often comes from the wonderful faculty that we have here. So when the professor from first year quarter 1 says 'Hi Atish' in the hallway and then you go on to have a conversation about your full time offer and the new term structure for the first years and the winter break and what not - the thing that strikes you most is the fact that you were a very average student in his class and he still remembers your name even though you haven't talked to him for almost a year. More so when at a charity reception, where there are a couple of hundred people, another first year professor, after playing with the faculty band comes over and says, 'Hey Atish, good to see you again'

People here genuinely make an effort to know you. To remember the conversations you had with them. It's infectious, to say the least.

First week of classes in January. Financial Institutions & Markets. It's a whirlwind of a class - true to the reputation that the professor has. There's not a dull moment as he cold calls and makes jokes and talks about banks and capital ratios and dances around the class all in one breath. It's like a theater. It's definitely a performance. And I don't care that I will never use all this in my job. The experience of being there is worth every minute. And I leave B-School knowing about how banks and markets work. Win-Win, right?

End of the day. around 5:00 PM. I'm leaving school.

'Atish!', I hear someone call out. It's the finance professor.

'So how was class today.'

I mumble something on the lines of 'Great! I learned a lot......'

'Well, see you tomorrow then. It's going to get more interesting!' And he leaves with the same spring in his step which he had at 10:00 AM.

A couple of weeks later, we do a Harvard case on Salomon Brothers and the Treasury market. It's a very well written case and I actually understand now how this thing works. After class, I'm at the cafe ordering a sandwich.

'Good job in class today, Atish'

'Oh thanks! It was a great case. I think it was one of the better Harvard cases we have done'

'What do you mean, MY cases are not good!'

I pause for a second and say, 'Oh no! I meant EVEN your Harvard cases are super'

'Ha Ha. Great answer Atish. You get extra class participation points.' And we walk off with our sandwiches.

Competitive Dynamics Seminar. Same professor from first year strategy. So it's less surprising that he knows me well. He wants to take the entire class out for dinner to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Too bad that the 25 odd students have conflicting schedules. So he decides to have the make up class (due to the half snow day that we got earlier) in the Abbott Dining Room and have lunch instead! Not that we haven't eaten in Abbott before, but having a class is a new experience and more than that, it is the thoughtfulness of the professor to make it a memorable experience for us.

These are not isolated incidents. They keep happening. With all of us. All the time. And bit by bit, they add up to what's best about this place.

Break Ke Baad (After The Break)

2011-01-12T21:15:00.002-06:00

So my month long winter break ended this Sunday. A pretty eventful stay, I would say. Attended a friend's wedding, met a few school friends (one after 10 years), visited the city I spent the first eighteen years of my life after nearly four years, dad retired and along with mom got the VISA to attend my graduation in May.

In between all this I rediscovered the pleasure of sitting on the couch and watching a good day of test match cricket, eating Bengali home made food and listening to Bollywood music to start the day.

I moved out of my parents' place in 2000 and have since then lived in Delhi, Bangalore and now Charlottesville. My parents also left Bokaro in 2007 and are now settled in Kolkata. So the concept of home has been a little vague for me. I've come to enjoy, remember and long for bits and pieces of each of these places but as my association with a city ends, over time the fondness fades away.

Different food; different language; often times completely different conversation topics; meeting and living with a different group of people - be it relatives and parents' friends or the gardener, house maid and driver; different everyday problems and victories; it's like living another life altogether. And I would feel lost at times. I am not sure if I am more 'at home' with my friends in Charlottesville or with my parents in Kolkata or hanging out with my college buddies at a bar in Bangalore or Delhi. May be that's completely natural. In fact isn't that what I have always wanted. To be equally at ease in varied surroundings rather than being restricted to a single identity.

I don't want to sound like a complete jerk but the last sixteen months have changed the way I look at things and people around me. The filth hurt the eye more and the chaos got to my nerves at times. There were the what-am-I-doing-to-make-this-any-better moments too. But for better or for worse, they remained just that - moments. Money, lifestyle, opportunities, family and friends, a sense of obligation, adaptability - there would be many factors to weigh. But when the 'Where do you want to settle' question would finally need to be answered, it would be tough. It isn't easy now. It won't be easy a few years from now.

On My Way

2010-12-06T16:39:00.001-06:00

Uneasy as I am with periods of transition when I am neither here nor there, I already hate to be out of Charlottesville. The City seems cold, big and alien. I can hear the wind whistling outside my friend's thirty something storied apartment on the other side of the Hudson. I still have a 2500 hundred word paper to write which I just cant seem to get started with. To be fair, though, I did manage to turn in a 3 hour / 4 pages maximum exam this morning which I completed in 2 hours / 2 pages. Clearly, I wasn't aiming for the highest grade.

So a few days ago, I bought this book - In Other Rooms, Other Wonders because it has been a while since I bought one without knowing about the author or the book itself. Amazon cannot replace the charm of browsing through a bookstore on a Saturday afternoon and hence my habit of buying books based solely on titles and blurbs has taken a serious hit.

Anyway, so the name is what made me buy the book in the first place. And I've been thinking about it since then. It's only now that I realized the slight similarity it has with the title of the last post I wrote about visiting this city.

Can't wait to get on the Wednesday morning flight to Delhi. Thursday and Friday night catching up with old friends and then off to Kolkata on Saturday. And then all would be good again. It's these intermediate periods that I don't quite like.

Snippets From The Thanksgiving Road Trip - 2

2010-12-01T18:44:00.002-06:00

Travelling without my iPhone and watch

I always have these 2 things on me. On this occasion, however, I had neither. My watch battery died a couple of days before the trip and 3 hours into it, I realized I had forgotten my phone charger and had 10% battery left. No phone meant no constant status updates and check-ins. It also meant, as we realized in Charleston, SC, getting lost.

After having a delicious meal at A.W. Shucks, (AB had a seafood casserole and I had Lowcountry Crabcakes), we decided to check out the Market where local artisans sell their stuff. From the Sweet-grass baskets, to the trays made of flattened alcohol bottles, to the photographer who used Photoshop to lend a painting like quality to her shots, it was a market rich in variety and style. It was past 10 o' clock and the artisans were leaving so we decided to take a walk on East Bay Street which led to the waterfront. Having reached the shore, we kept walking for a while till it got a little desolate. Instead of backtracking, though, somehow we figured out that by taking a particular route we would get closer to the parking lot in shorter time. Then for the next half an hour or so we kept wandering with no clue as to where the streets were leading us. It was dark and there wasn't much traffic so it became a little frustrating after a point of time. Luckily we found this lady sitting outside one of the houses. AB asked her for directions to Queen Street and we were set. We missed the street, though and had to get into a shop and ask for directions again. It was funny and strange to not have the iPhone to find my way. But I think it made for a more interesting walk.

Helicopter Ride at Myrtle Beach, SC

AB spotted the $20 helicopter ride as we were entering Myrtle Beach and that's how we came to know of it. Again, it was a a chance discovery and was not planned which added to the charm. We ended up taking the $40 one but it was totally worth it. First helicopter ride ever!

Snippets From The Thanksgiving Road Trip - 1

2010-12-01T18:15:00.002-06:00

Natural Bridge, VA

We had driven for about 2 hours and it was breakfast time. Pink Cadillac, with its name and color jumped out as the perfect stop. I took the exit and was soon inside this really huge place with Elvis pictures on the wall, a motorcycle at one end and pink coffee mugs. King Kong crushing airplanes outside the restaurant was awesome and the sausage and scrambled eggs tasted great. Perfect start.

While having breakfast, we figured that Natural Bridge was worth a visit. Since we were in no hurry to reach our destination for the day, we decided to take the detour. And this is what we found. Pretty impressive, huh!

Marion, VA - the birth place of Mountain Dew

Buoyed by the Pink Cadillac experience, we decided to avoid eating at big chain restaurants to get the authentic road trip experience. AB, with the help of the map and iPhone figured that Marion was this really small town where we could have lunch. So the via point was set in the GPS and we reached Marion.

The town seemed like a movie set. Very small, very beautiful, and very quaint. What made our day, because it's one of those totally cool, unexpected things that you hope to encounter on trips such as these, was this sign on the sidewalk. Second accidental discovery of the day!

Dave Matthews Band in Charlottesville

2010-11-21T09:34:00.005-06:00

Watching Dave Matthews Band in Charlottesville. Check.

I never expected to see as many concerts when I came here in July last year. It's a small city and I had naively assumed that concerts happen only in the NYCs and the SFs of this country. The websites about Darden and the city kept talking about a thriving music scene but I wasn't sure how that translated to big name concerts. In the last sixteen months, though, I have been pleasantly surprised.

Dave Matthews is huge here. It's home for him. This is where he started. People from around here have bullet points like 'Been to 47 Dave Matthews Band concerts' in their resume. No, I'm not kidding.

To me, the best concerts are the ones in which the artist doesn't just play studio versions of his songs. Concerts in which there is a lot of spontaneity and 'live versions' of songs. Concerts in which the singer lets the instrumentalists take the stage and go wild. And that's why, in terms of sheer quality of music, this Friday's show is right at the top.

The first surprise of the night was Joe Lawlor. I never expected a 5 minute guitar solo in a DMB concert. But that's exactly what he gave us. A scorching solo high on style and melody. JM, who was standing next to me said, 'That, right there is worth the 60 bucks'. I couldn't have agreed more.

The star of the show, undoubtedly, was Boyd Tinsley. He made the violin sing, he jumped around the stage, he got the crowd roaring in between his riffs and he did it all with a perpetual smile on his face. He was in a zone.

Seven, Everyday, You & I, Spaceman - there were a few songs that I knew but it didn't matter if you could sing along or not. The saxophone, the trumpet, the violin, the bass guitar - for two hours they wowed us and kept us swinging to the melodies.

Eagerly looking forward to the next DMB concert. I hope they come to Dallas! But for the time being, thank you Charlottesville.

Diwali Weekend

2010-11-07T20:41:00.004-06:00

So it was Diwali this weekend and there was a lot happening. It started with Thursday's Diwali Cold Call at Darden complete with butter chicken, chole, papdi chaat, vegetable jalfrezi, and kheer and a couple of fabulous group dances by a first years which culminated in a 5 minute impromptu all-jump-in dance to 'Desi Girl' (we also made a train and went around the PepsiCo Forum!). A few drinks and another party later, we were hungry again and ended the night with a trip to IHOP where JJ kept us entertained with his jokes and the 3 words of Hindi which he has managed to master!

On Friday, I had my most expensive meal in C'ville at Mas. Caipirinha, bacon wrapped dates, lamb chops, croquettes, and a couple of other fancy dished I don't remember. From there we went to The Backyard for another Darden get together. The two cute girls at the door convinced JM & JJ to buy the cups for the fashion show since it was a good cause. How could I say no after that. The cups got us drinks specials, though. I broke even after the first couple of drinks, so it was indeed for a good cause.

The next morning, we went to watch a series of short films which were being screened as part of the Virginia Film Festival. Verdict - some people should not make short films. A few of them were good though.

AI's son, M had turned 2 this week and the Birthday Lunch was on Saturday. JJ, JM, MI and I made a trip to Toys R Us. We unanimously agreed that MI was the most capable of deciding on gifts for 2 year olds. The three of us followed her to the section which had games based on alphabets, bought a couple of them and then decided to give M something more fun. And so the bowling kit was bought.

The problem with having 20 different things to eat is that even if you take a small portion of each, you end up with a food coma. That's what happened to me at AI's place. It was the most fun I've had at a gathering which didn't have any alcohol! The highlight was when little M opened his bowling kit and went crazy hitting the pins.He absolutely loved it.

The fun continued in the evening with a Diwali Potluck. Great food, more Bollywood music, an after party with guitar and songs and dumb charades till 4:00 in the morning, which included movies from the IMDB Bottom 100 list.

I don't miss Indian festivals as such. By that I mean, I don't miss the food and festivities or the tradition bit as long as I am having a good time. Of course it would be nice to do all that - visit pandals during Durga Puja and burn firecrackers during Diwali. But to put it bluntly, it's another day. And it's no big deal if I don't get to eat a special dish or go to a special place because everybody else is doing that. Yes, it wouldn't be fun to spend such a day alone doing work, or worse, nothing, but so would any other day.

What I do long for are my friends, family and the tastes, smells and sounds that I can't get here.

Happy Diwali everyone.

Beautiful Virginia

2010-10-16T21:11:00.007-05:00

No, the fall colors aren't here yet. So I'll have to keep looking.

One of the most beautiful drives I've done on an absolutely gorgeous October afternoon in Charlottesville.

More Second Year Awesomeness

2010-10-15T16:13:00.001-05:00

Went to listen to Carbon Leaf last night. It was much more than I expected. I had gone to the concert having listened to only half a dozen or so of their songs. Most of them were kind of pop rock-ish with good melodies. I had been planning to go since I heard about them playing at the Jefferson Theater but wasn't so sure since there was nobody to go with. Luckily, BW reminded me of the concert a couple of days ago and we decided to go together.

We had more an hour and a half to kill before they started playing. So we talked about our summers, second year so far and her amazing business plan ideas, writing a book, not becoming consultants or bankers and life after Darden. It was fun catching up since we don't have any common classes.

They played for 2 hours. From 10 to 12. Their lead guitarist was really talented. Apart from the fact that he played the guitar, mandolin, banjo and violin, his riffs were melodious and had a flowing quality to them. The mandolin and banjo added a folk/bluegrass feel to some of their songs. And the lead singer came up with a few flute solos too! A lot of variety on display. Totally enjoyable. We even bought a CD each - buying into their request to support local musicians (they are from Virginia and have decided to cut their own records severing ties with the record label they were with earlier). No, really, it was because the music was good.

Afternoon drive to Shenandoah

2010-10-09T20:06:00.003-05:00

So I finished my only exam at 12:30 in the afternoon and had about 5 hours to kill before going to the Darden International Food Festival. I was pretty sure, I wouldn't be working on the paper I need to finish by Monday. The weather was warm and sunny so a short drive to Skyline Drive seemed like a good idea. The fall colors are yet to come but it was pretty scenic nevertheless. We stopped at 'Beagle Gap' and walked along short trail before driving back.

They were all over the place. The bright red a stark contrast to an otherwise ordinary foliage

Taken from a 'Scenic Stop'

I love taking pictures of the rear view mirror. This one came out good.

I want to come back when all the leaves change color.

The New Darden Student Bloggers

2010-10-08T18:12:00.000-05:00

...have been announced. Go check them out as they talk about all too familiar topics like Darden Cup, TGIT, DA spreadsheets and settling down as a grad student in Charlottesville.

Second Year - Is it really worth the hype?

2010-10-04T22:40:00.002-05:00

It is. And it didn't feel like that in the first couple of weeks. Especially when we were going to classes on Fridays while the first years had the day off. 'Oh, you guys have classes, right', said a first year one day with a hint of a smile.

Then the first long weekend happened, I went to NYC and thereafter things changed. I went to Shenandoah one weekend, got my Driver's License, drove to DC and generally started to enjoy second year. My roommate bought a TV and I got back to watching re runs of sitcoms. No 8 o' clock classes meant I eased into the day much like old times in Bangalore. Wake up at 9, turn on the TV, check emails, have tea. Lots of free time meant, I would loiter around Darden for no apparent reason looking to chat up with people!

Last weekend was particularly satisfying. I had thought I would actually do some work like starting on some of the final papers that are due and study for my Valuations exam (about which I have very little clue as of now). But procrastination got the better of me and I ended up being happier for that. Take Saturday for example. After the usual slow start to the morning (the weather was absolutely gorgeous, by the way), I was just about thinking of starting on my paper when a friend emailed about going to the UVA Vs FSU tailgate. A couple of hours, a few beers and chicken nuggets later, I came back home.

Next stop was the Crozet Music Festival. A 20 minute ride through very picturesque roads brought us to the Misty Mountain Camp Resort. It was essentially an open field with a couple of stages where the bands were performing. We sat down there, had a glass of locally brewed beer, met a couple of other folks and just relaxed while the music played.

The evening followed from where the afternoon had ended. An Asian Business Club social where we threatened to throw the president in the pool, followed by watching The Social Network in a packed theater (Yes, that's a rarity in Charlottesville. Our small group of 15 odd people had to split up and find separate seats).

Although Saturday was an extremity, I think I have reached a point where I am only doing things I care about. I no longer bother about giving my 100% to everything. Yes, that means going to classes unprepared at times (a lot of times, to be honest). That also means cooking more at home and hitting the gym pretty regularly. I'm quite liking this part of my life.

Different Places, Different Lives

2010-09-14T20:45:00.002-05:00

I was in NYC this weekend. Meeting friends. Chilling out. It was my third visit to the city and the first during summer. The weather (particularly on Saturday) was absolutely gorgeous.

The point of this post however, isn't describing what I did. Which anyway, was pretty commonplace. What struck me was how different the lives of my friends was from my own. How it's tied so closely to the city and the experiences they've had.

The married friend who recently moved from Boston. The MBA student who is looking forward to spending his last year in the city and the country. The Banker who misses Charlottesville but is totally looking forward to his new life. And the friend who spent two years in the city, fell in love with it, and comes over almost every weekend to catch up with her scores of friends.

I was talking to S who is doing his MBA. And his experience has been so different than mine. True, he recruited for banking and I ran away from anything that was related to Finance. But more so was the influence of the city he was living in. For him going out meant exploring cuisines and new clubs. For me, it meant half a dozen bars. For him, campus was a building. I, took the courtyard with benches for granted. I had missed my first class at Darden to get to NYC. He was thinking of not missing as many classes in second year as he did in the first. I had applied to his school too. Primarily because of the lure of NYC and my goal of going into Digital Media. It's interesting to think how different my life would have been if I had got the admit. It's not a question of good or bad. To be frank, I hadn't given much thought to these issues while applying.

When someone asks me if I like a city, I give them my standard answer. Living in a city is different from a short visit. And liking a city depends a lot on the people you know there. Again, I'm not in any way trying to 'compare' Charlottesville to NYC. Doing so would be foolish. Its just fascinating how the experience of being a student in C'ville can be so different than being a student in NYC and working in NYC. And how those experiences can in turn change who you are. To some extent, at least.

I met N on Saturday. We talked a lot. Useless, nonsensical things. And sensible, serious stuff. As usual, she did most of the talking because she always has these stories to tell. Some of them, I couldn't relate to. Others, got me thinking. We have different ways of looking at life and going about it. She likes to plan and break down the bigger things into smaller, tangible lists. I like to think I am more prone to taking things as they come. Both of us have changed though. From extremes, to a more measured, balanced middle. As one of the few people who have read my blog since I started writing, she remarked how my style and content has changed. I remember telling her that it's in a way a reflection of my life. I'm not clueless about where my life is going but a lot of it just happens.

You don't miss something unless you know what it is. This trip did that for me. Showed me a glimpse. And for the first time in a year, on the first two days of the week, I had trouble not letting my mind wander away from my here and now.

Guest Post: Pakistan Flood Relief - The uphill battle to rebuild lives -- Jawwad Farid

2010-08-29T15:16:00.004-05:00

17-20 million affected

5 million without shelter on the streets and roadsides because relief camps are overwhelmed

1.6 million people are already being affected by waterborne diseases

800,000 people still cannot be reached because bridges have been washed off

170000 acres of crop land has been affected

The water came at night in Nowshera.

Not silently like a thief, nor on tip toes, but with all the ferocity of a moving sea mixed with the weight of mud, stones, trees and swept away dreams. 2 am at night, all you could do was wake up and run. But unlike a tidal wave that comes in, takes what it needs to pacify an angry God, and goes, the water in Nowshera kept on coming. Days later when the flooding stopped, like an unwelcome and over bearing guest it stayed. And it brought company with it to keep away the boredom of lesser lives it haunted; misery, hunger and silence.

You could change the name of the city and repeat the story throughout the length of the mighty Indus. By the time you would reach Sind and Thatta, the late night rush to safety, the breaches in river embankments and the loss of life, livelihood and loved ones become one practiced orchestra. No audience except the three that water brought with it to Nowshera; misery, hunger and silence. No post performance celebration other than the one where millions of souls slowly start re-threading their lives, one battered tin clad suitcase at a time.

With the water slowly receding the relief mosaic across Pakistan is looking more and more like a drive in movie in an endless loop across multiple time zones. Upnorth, we need food, clothing, medicine, water purifiers and shelter. Down south, we are still waiting for Thatta and nearby cities and villages along the Indus Delta to take on the first wave of flood waters.

The widespread devastation and damage to infrastructure has added a new dimension of difficulty to relief efforts. And so if you can’t find food or support in the enclave over run by mud that you used to call home, you walk to the relief camps being set up near larger urban centers.

A school for children now houses 30 families and 150 kids. It is not women and children first. The men have opted to stay behind to guard livestock or land for in the chaos caused by a raging river there is more room for tragedy, robbery and outright villainy by your fellow beings. Possession is nine-tenth of law, especially if thy neighbor has been claimed by the rising waters of River Indus.

A white collar family is not used to handouts or being treated as landless destitute. But the tragedy that is unfolding across Pakistan across millions of lives, hundreds of cities and thousands of camps is just that.

You may have escaped the water; but will you ever escape the fate and the company the Indus brought with it.

Misery, hunger, death and silence.

Jawwad Farid is the founder and CEO of Alchemy Technologies. He is an actuary by profession, a computer scientist by training, and a Columbia Business School MBA.

Jawwad has worked directly as a founder, mentor or advisor at multiple startups including two green field life insurance companies, multiple technology product businesses, financial services consulting operations, product focused distribution as well as micro insurance, micro pensions and micro finance startups. The ones he remembers the most are his failures.

He came to Darden in April for his talk "REBOOT - Everything you ever wanted to know about STARTUP FAILURE" and is a regular contributor to the DesiBackToDesh, Learning Corporate Finance and Oil Insight blogs.

You can view the original post here

Guest Post: Doing Business In Africa - Joe Andrasko

2010-08-25T14:04:00.001-05:00

So here it goes, the first ever blog post about summer internships and recruiting from a guy who has yet to write his first cover letter…

From a recruiting perspective, my first year at Darden was a bit atypical. I came to Charlottesville focused on entrepreneurship and, throughout the first year, I couldn’t seem to shake my interest in working for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I tried to be interested in “real jobs.” I polished up my résumé last fall, made sure I used action words in all my bullet points, tweaked margins and fonts, the whole nine yards. I even went to some company briefings and “networked” on the recommendation of the good folks at the CDC who kept urging me to “trust the process.” At the end of the day though, my buy-in for the “the process” wasn’t quite there. By October, I decided to curtail the briefings. By November, I had all but written off the traditional summer internship.

Here’s the way I saw it: I was 27 years old, single, no family to support, and had a meager savings sufficient enough to provide sustenance at least in the form of ramen noodles and Natty Light for a year or so. If the actuarial folks at big insurance companies have it right, I also have roughly 50 more years of life expectancy (knock on wood) during which I can work long and hard for whatever big corporate brand deems me worthy of employment. So, where was the value in spending 10-12 weeks slogging away for some big company over the summer? The full-time job offer? I thought they had second-year recruiting for that. The learning experience? I thought we had cases for that. Bragging rights? Touché… but I thought those had already come with admission to Darden.

So what should I do? Like the protagonist of any good HBS case, I gratuitously mentioned my elitist business school credentials and “consulted my notes from first-year finance” for the answer. After careful analysis, my cost of capital (in this case, 10-12 weeks of time in July and August) seemed too great for me to justify the investment in a formal internship.

If you’re still reading (which I realize is highly unlikely after the above reference to DCF-ing my life – no pun intended), you’ll be happy to know that I didn’t simply trade off a summer in corporate America for a summer on the Jersey Shore. Instead, I did what any good entrepreneur would do and took advantage of one of the best kept secrets at Darden: The Batten Incubator. (For anyone interested in entrepreneurship, the Incubator is worth checking out)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I started two small businesses prior to Darden so abandoning the formal recruiting process was perhaps somewhat expected. I did also cave-in to interviewing for one job in the spring. Truth be told, I had a pretty difficult time deciding against taking it. But here’s why I did: As part of his sales pitch, the company’s founder told me what a great experience it would be to work for more experienced entrepreneurs like himself. After all, he reminded me, he had sold his first company – the one he started in his late twenties – for $180 million. I’m not sure he intended it, but that statement actually convinced me not to take the job. Why would I go work for him when I could go take a shot at building my own $180 million business? Game on.

So I traded the traditional route for a shot at never having a boss and enjoyed an exciting summer. The business that I’m trying to start, a small private equity fund focused on agribusiness investments in southern Africa, allowed me split time between Incubator meetings in Charlottesville and farm visits in Swaziland. Needless to say, however, I still haven’t managed to sell anything for $180 million.

So, what does that mean? Well, if first-year finance can continue to enlighten us, it’s time to employ a hedging strategy. I’m back on the recruiting train, secretly jealous of classmates with fancy offers, and trying my best to get back into the good graces of the CDC. I’m still hopeful about my business prospects and still wary of corporate America but at the end of the day, Darden does expose us to some pretty great opportunities and writing them all off on principal seems somewhat shortsighted. The good news is, I can sleep at night knowing that I put together a summer that was as educational and enjoyable as it was untraditional. And, if I need to spend a little extra time tweaking bullet points and actions words this fall, so be it.

For more info about the Africa endeavor and my summer in the Incubator feel free to check out this blurb by the significantly more eloquent folks in the Darden communications office.

Joe, apart from being one of the smartest kids at Darden also happens to belong to the most awesome Learning Team here. LT 32. When he's not flying off to Swaziland, or running his tutoring business at Nantucket, he gets kicks out of making excel models without moving his hands off the keyboard.

The Cab Driver

2010-08-21T17:43:00.000-05:00

Almost all cab drivers that I have met, who are originally not from the US, have a love affair with India. Ali Dani, who took me to the DFW airport today, was no different. Only, he lead an immensely interesting life.

The conversation started with him talking about how he had rented his 6 bedroom house in Dallas to an Indian family who had frequent visitors. It had saved the family a lot of money and he had, in turn, found a reliable and harmless tenant. He had "retired" a few years ago he said, and drove the cab for 5-6 hours a day. Only so that he had something to keep him occupied. He had taken a year off after retirement to do nothing and had gotten very bored sitting at home. He was so bored that he had taken to cutting the grass in his backyard twice a week! But then he kept a couple of lambs in the backyard which ate all the grass and he was jobless again. I don't know how much of it was true, but it made for an interesting conversation so I didn't interrupt him.

"I go fishing on the White Rock Lake", he says. "I have my spot. I take a tent and my radio and sit there all day long. Sometimes I go to another lake which is far from Dallas. It's an old radio. I also get an Indian channel here. They play Indian songs."

His 28 year old son lives in Boston. Working with an insurance firm. But he wants to become a criminal lawyer. He visits Dallas more often now since his girlfriend is here - Ali says with a smile. His other son is studying at SMU and wants to be a CPA. I ask him where he's from and how long has he been in the US. "Iraq.", he says. "15 years. But I've been in Dallas for only 6. I was in Seattle before that."

My curiosity heightened at this, I asked him what he was doing in Seattle.

"I was a lawyer for the UN", he says nonchalantly. I'm in half a mind to believe him but for entertainment's sake, I urge him. "Very interesting.", I say.

"Yes, it was a lot of travel. My body couldn't take it anymore so I retired."

"So, where were you before Seattle."

"I had to travel between New York and Seattle a lot. But I started with the UN in Geneva. Moved to Oslo for a few years. Brussels. Lot of travel, man. This was in the 80s. So they had different currencies. I was so exhausted that I wouldn't know where I was or what currency to use. Ha Ha."

"I've been to India too. Calcutta and Delhi."

"When", I ask.

"1989 and 2002. India is a very nice country. Nice people. Always ready to help. And I love the food. In England too, they love Indian food"

"Yes, I know. Chicken Tikka Masala is their national dish, I've heard"

"Ya, you're right. And the naan. It's so soft and tasty"

The customary Indian food chit chat behind us, he goes on to talk about his experience negotiating with Colombian officials on the Colombia, Venezuela border. And that Australia has fewer women than men so you're lucky to have a girlfriend there! He loves China too and thinks people are very polite there since the shopkeepers give back change with both hands and bow their heads. Also that he had been friends with a Chinese girl over the internet and she had come to receive him at the airport when he had gone there.

By this time, I'm just listening to him speak without asking any questions.

"So would you come back to Dallas", he asks after getting to know about my internship.

"Maybe." I say, realizing that we're at the airport.

"Alright man. Here is the US Airways Departure. Stay healthy and come to Dallas sometime again."

"Thanks. It's been great talking."

15th August

2010-08-15T00:26:00.001-05:00

So it's India's independence day. 64th, as the status updates from Facebook have told me. What does it mean to me. Nothing. Till 2008, it meant a day off (I was already unemployed in Aug 2009). From work or college or school as the case may be. In school there was still something special about it. Going to school, singing the national anthem and getting sweets It felt a little different from other holidays. This year, but for Facebook, I wouldn't have noticed. The only date I care about right now is 21st August. That's when I get back to Charlottesville.

I find the 'India, I love you and miss you', 'Proud to be an Indian', 'It's India's time' themed messages and emails to be hilarious and confusing at the same time. I don't get it. I am as proud to be an Indian as I would have been to be a Chinese or a Kenyan. I don't have any control over that, right. My nationality and my country's past and present. More correctly - I haven't done anything to show my patriotism for my country. Lead a pretty comfortable, safe, normal life and pursued my self interests which will satisfy my materialistic and intellectual needs. Will I ever do something helpful for my country? Do I at all have any intentions to do so. Maybe and Yes. I don't know how or when but I do have this deep seated desire to contribute. No, not give a huge donation to charity when I am a millionaire. Something more lasting. Something which is not as easy as giving money.

I do realize that I am saying this sitting in the US, pursuing an MBA and planning to get a job which keeps me in this country for a few years. Double standards, right? I agree. And that's the reason I feel a little uneasy on such occasions. It bothers me (not as much as I would want it to, though) that so much of my life is centered just around me and nothing bigger. My dad gave the best years of his life and more to a steel plant. Yes, it gave him back a lot, but he belonged to the generation which saw the birth of the great Indian middle class. He contributed to it. He was part of the 'Nation Building' which Nehru had started. True, circumstances were different and had at times more bearing on his life's choices than intent. At least, that's my hypothesis. So this is not a comparison of character. It's more a stating of the facts.

And this brings me to my original point. I don't like it when people fool themselves by sending out emails and forwards on 15th August. It's almost like a compensation for not doing anything at all for the rest of the year. Of course, there are people who are saving lives in villages, fighting corruption and at the same time indulging in the mass forwards. My apologies to them. But I think that the majority is more or less like me. Actually a little worse, because at least I don't spam! I wish someday we would be able to come out of this. I wish that we would realize that a lot of us would lead very selfish lives and not try to put on a facade for a day to portray otherwise. I hope, however, that most of us get tired of it and end up doing something which has far more impact than a million status updates. That as the fortunate, highly educated, forward thinking 'future' of the country, we are able to change a few things.

2 Weeks To Go

2010-08-10T18:26:00.001-05:00

I'm not a very good finisher. I'm a restless one actually. As a school kid, that was my attitude with exams where after having realized that I had got most of the stuff, trying to perfect it would take a monumental effort. So more often than not, I would just submit my paper rather than waiting for the full duration trying to fine tune my answers or finding silly mistakes. As a software developer, the finishing touches to make the code 'cleaner', removing the small issues here and there, used to irritate me and I almost felt someone else should do it so that I could move on to the next task.

With a couple of weeks to go before my internship ends, I find myself in a similar predicament. Deleting a word here, adding a picture there to my final presentation; timing it and trying to make sure that I don't repeat stuff and sound like I've actually done something over the summer; and tying the loose ends of the last project I am working on - the finishing touch, I have realized once again, is not what I do best. The fact that most of my friends are done with their summer or would be, by this week, and are out traveling and unwinding, makes things a little more harder.

I'm a little bored too (my evenings are mostly spent streaming sitcoms on Netflix). Also, anxious about a few things which will hit me soon. You know, the life, career kind of stuff. And excited at the thought of new opportunities. So, it's a mixed bag. I want to get back to Charlottesville now, To familiar places and people. Talk to my friends and exchange notes on the summer experience.

Dallas has been a fruitful experience. It has answered quite a few questions and posed a few more. I can add the function and industry to the 'Can Do' list to go along with the 'Will Not Do' list currently populated with CPG Marketing and Banking. That's progress, right ?

Have I Met You?

2010-08-08T22:18:00.002-05:00

How do you prefer meeting people for the first time? In person? At a common gathering or a one to one setting? Email? Phone? Facebook?

Apart from the last one, I'm pretty comfortable with any of them. Although email followed by an in person meeting is the best combination. But apparently for a lot of people these days, it's Facebook. And although I can see the ease and obvious benefits, I'm still not comfortable with the fact of befriending someone I will most probably get to know in the near future; on Facebook first. I end up accepting the requests as long as I see common friends and know the context. But I'm just curious at the motivation behind doing so. If I really wanted to talk to someone or ask something would I not rather send her an email? Or if discovering the email id is too difficult, a Facebook message? I just find the 'adding people' without any purpose a little perplexing. I mean, why? No, I don't have any privacy concerns. Nothing major anyway. It's ok if you did so to stalk me. (It would be interesting in fact!)

Well, one thing I can think of is that when we do meet, it would save us the formalities of narrating our basic 'About Me' info. Provided, of course, that both you and I took pains to fill that section and were curious enough to go through it when we became friends AND most importantly, remembered it.

As for me, I still prefer to Facebook friend people only when I have known them for sometime. Why ? Because I'm afraid, I would come out as some sort of a creep otherwise.

Perfect Lazy Sunday. Well, Almost

2010-08-01T21:47:00.004-05:00

Of late (and by late I mean the last couple of years actually), my attention span has reduced significantly. I keep moving from one task to another without being able to concentrate for more than 30-40 minutes. To some extent it has been accentuated by the B School life, where you are constantly trying to cram in as much as you can within a given time. But that apart, the two main evidences that it's more than just a passing phase is the fact that I had all but stopped reading and watching movies. Don't get me wrong here. I still go out with my friends to watch Avatar and Iron Man II. But whereas earlier, in my spare time I wanted to update my 'movies seen from the IMDB Top 250' list; nowadays even 90 minutes seems too long a time to sit still and do one task. And I cannot watch a movie in bursts. And reading. I guess this was more because of an actual lack to time. I would manage to read for a couple of hours in a week and by the 4th week, would lose the thread and abandon the book.

I also have a tendency to get bored of the setting of the house/room I live in. So when I woke up today; instead of sitting at home and aimlessly trying to move between watching a movie, reading a novel, calling friends or killing time on the internet (yes, my Sundays are really that happening) - I took my novel and went out to have breakfast. I got my bagel with sausage and eggs and a coffee and found myself a corner. And for almost three hours, amidst murmurs of people coming-ordering-talking amongst themselves, the soothing sound of some jazzy music playing in the background, and a few coffee refills - I read.

I came home at noon to do some work and went back at 2:00. Ordered a sandwich and iced tea, found the same place and spent another three hours.

The book resonated with a few of the things I have been thinking about (and talking to my friends) of late. What kind of life do I want. What makes me happy. What matters. Choices. It's a little unsettling to say the least, that in less than a year, school will be over and the 'real world' will come back again. Decisions would have to be made regarding everything. And this time around, most of them would be long term. You know, the really important ones. So far, all the phases in my life came with an expiry tag. Even with the job I had before, I knew I would eventually get an MBA (it's cool to say it now that I am actually doing it!). I have a feeling, the next phase doesn't necessarily have one. Not a clear defined one anyway. And no, I'm not saying I'll have the same life for the rest of my life or will do the same job or live in the same place. But I think you get the point.

Which also means that in the 10 months or so that I do have, I should make sure I visit the places and people I want to, soak in as much as I can so that there are very few (if not none) 'Ah, should have done that' experiences, and to use the cliche, make the most of it. With some effort and luck, hopefully the rest will fall in place.

"We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come."

Summer Months

2010-07-26T22:15:00.004-05:00

A few days ago a friend from IIT had '9 years' as his Facebook status. Apparently it was 9 years to the day that we had attended our first class. It got me thinking about all subsequent summer months (May, June, July) and how I've spent them. And more often than not, they have been characterized by changes and transitions.

2001 was when it started. College. The weeks leading up to that day in July were amongst the most anxious and most joyous days of my life. It was sweeter because it had come after a year in the dumps. I wasn't quite sure if I was more happy for myself or my parents. The weeks after that very first day, however were memorable in a totally different way. But for the bunch of us who underwent the arguably necessary ritual of ragging; things would never be the same again. Inhibitions were shed once and for all, swear words hearted, physical and mental tolerance levels increased, and a sneak peek given of a world full of quirky, smart, different-from-me, nice, not so nice people that was to be our home for the next four or five years.

2002 was my first 2 1/2 month long summer vacation. A lot of my friends from school had come home. We would later realize that it was the last time we would have such a big gang. Get-togethers happened practically every day at each others' house. Dinners. lunches, movies and just chatting about stuff. I was in the stage where I missed school and my friends and had not yet totally become comfortable with college life. So it was a return to my comfort zone, so as to say.

By 2003, I had assimilated the IIT culture and known myself a lot more. Although not by choice, I had also realized that I wasn't going to break any academic records. So I decided to pursue other activities and learning the guitar took more importance than anything else. Just before coming home for the summer vacation, I had my friend teach me how to hold the G, C Em and D chords. He told me that if I could play them and do the transitions, I could play practically 90% of all the songs that I had ever heard. I believed him, went home, convinced my parents to buy me a guitar (it wasn't hard in any way though. I had quite a bit of music sense in me and my parents knew that) and spent the better part of 2 months trying to string together Greenday's Time Of My Life and Poison's Every Rose Has It's Thorn. When I went back to college, I had added Take It Easy to my repertoire. It was a thrilling experience.

2004 was my first real experience with the city of Bangalore. Hard to believe, but I didnt drink alcohol back then. Bad life choice. Watching the Euro with my friends in the common area of the place we stayed in, the trek on the railway track at Sakleshpur, working in a company (the most exciting part was getting the ID and being able to swipe in and out!) and working for a boss, the feeling of getting the first pay check, and for the first time being able to buy something for my parents - those two months were full of first experiences.

It was in 2005 that I finally got to feel the summer heat of Delhi in its full glory. We had to stay back in campus to start our final projects and I was also beginning my preparation for the CAT. The 45+ temperatures forced me to a very scheduled life. Swimming pool at 6:30 followed by breakfast at 7:30. I would then rush to the library or the lab to either give a mock test or meet my supervisor and get some project work done. Lunch was mostly taken at the nearby canteen and I would come back to the library to study or read a novel but mostly ended up taking a nap. It wasn't until after sundown that all of us would return to our hostel rooms which were like furnaces. It was impossible to sleep there. So we would have dinner, go out at times and come back to grab a place in the common room in front of the cooler. It was obvious therefore that finally when it rained in Delhi, all of us just went berserk. Windows were opened to let the rain come in the room as we went outside to get drenched.

2006. I remember feeling a void after my final presentation was over. 5 glorious, memorable years had ended. There was more than a tinge of sadness amongst us. It was relief rather than happiness which was the dominant feeling. I had to pack up everything and send it home to Bokaro. A new life in Bangalore was about to begin in June and I don't think I was looking forward to it. I hadn't achieved what I had been striving for the last year and was utterly disappointed. It was a tough couple of months. Suddenly I felt uprooted and very unsure of myself. There was however, a new job in a new city. And thankfully, a lot of my friends were coming too. And there was the World Cup. July was spent house hunting with my future room mates which was nothing like any of us had experienced before. I started my life as a coder in Java, cheered for Zidane and started discovering the pubs of Bangalore.

My parents left Bokaro in 2007. That was the biggest change for me that year, I think. Home took on a different meaning when I went there for the last time. A year into the job, I loved my life and had actually started to like my job a bit. But apart from the usual weekend trips and hanging out with friends, the summer of 2007 did not have anything particularly different. The usual highs and lows.

By 2008, I had finally realized that I wanted to do an MBA in the US. So I began seriously preparing for the applications. That was the main theme of the entire year, let alone the summers. And yes, I watched Euro with my roommate. We made french toast and maggi and tea during the half time break. Good times.

And finally last year. Well, Darden happened. I quit my job in June, left Bangalore and really had mixed feelings towards where I was headed. It's always hard to leave behind something permanently. Knowing that there is no coming back. No matter how much you disliked it when you were there. I didnt hate being a software engineer. I just didnt like it as much as I should have if I wanted a longterm career in it. And there was house #40 and Bangalore and all my friends. 3 terrific years of a continuation of life after IIT. It was hard to let go of all that.

So there it is. I have successfully been able to keep myself occupied for almost two hours now. Which takes care of most of my evening. If you are still reading, you're either really jobless or know me pretty well enough to read through the summary of my summers. This one? Well you already know about it, I guess. It's quite significant in the scheme of things. How much impact it will have on my future is hard to say. But like most of the summer months before, it has been different than the rest of the year.

A Month To Go

2010-07-20T22:20:00.007-05:00

At lunch today, a fellow intern said -"I'm ready to go back to school". No, she's not done with her project and I don't think she hates her work. And if I remember correctly, over the last week or so, I've seen the stray Facebook update from a couple of my Darden friends saying the same thing. It got me thinking. Am I ready to go back to school? Like most things, I don't know.

I miss C'ville. I miss the energy and the familiarity. And a host of other things. But that is for another post. Next year, same time, maybe.

At the same time, the summer has been an interesting experience so far. A self discovery of sorts. A perfect transition, as far as I can think of - from the no business, all coding software engineer to this mixed bag of technology trends, competitive analysis, consumer habits and the art of converting bullet points to fancy looking shapes which provide second order insights.

Getting to talk to heads of various divisions has been great. Product Management, Business Planning, Content & Services, Product Marketing. They mean more than just titles now. Also, the 'real world' aspect is becoming very clear. With everybody from the OEMs and the Carriers to the Content Generators and the App Developers trying to take a share of the same pie, so often, it's the framing, the positioning, the negotiations and the compromises which see a business proposal through. There is absolutely no dearth of innovation or crazy new ideas in this space. But not every idea is making a million dollars. Not every app is getting a million downloads.

But enough of trying to sound intelligent and MBA student like. Dallas is like an oven now. And somehow, more than the temperature, it's just the brightness of the sun which fries my brains. There are no evenings. I mean when the sun sets at 9:00 PM, where do you squeeze in the evening?
More alone time has meant longer and more frequent emails to some of my friends. Then, apart from the Despicable Me's and the Inceptions, I've managed to watch an eclectic range of movies. The Visitor, Religulous, The Big Lebowski, Apocalypse Now (I also read Heart of Darkness after it which I thought was too wordy to enjoy or understand in one read).

Exploring good places to drink beer has been fun. And it's given me the opportunity to hang out with my friend from IIT. It's funny how having lead very different lives since our college days and pursuing very different careers, we still have so much to talk about. Some of it revolves round the very differences and trying to understand the other's perspective. Then there's recounting hostel days and people. A good part of it is about our current state of being - internship, bosses, decisions and the changes ahead. And lastly, there's music and a bit of physics thrown in. I guess the alcohol helps a lot too. Particularly memorable was last weekend's chance visit to 'Bavarian Grill' - a family owned German restaurant in Plano. I had some of the most amazing tasting beer ever. So smooth. There was an old man playing the accordion close to us. Our waitress was super helpful in deciphering the German menu for us and suggesting beers based on what we liked. Even my 'not too hoppy, wheat, kinda light - yes, I like Blue Moon' was enough for her to suggest me a couple. Both of them were fantastic.

And lastly, I read this book. Loved it.

Updates From Dallas

2010-06-26T22:37:00.003-05:00

It's my first time living alone. I've always had roommates before this. At undergrad, there were a bunch of us in the hostel (or dorm, as it is called here). After the first two years, we had single occupancy rooms but that hardly meant anything. Most of us would keep our doors open throughout the day and people would be shouting out and walking into each other's room every now and then. Then Bangalore happened and I was lucky enough to find three friends from college to lodge with. It became a mini hostel and anyone that we knew, who came to Bangalore, would stay with us. In fact, throughout the first year there were only a couple of months when only the four of us were staying in the house! Charlottesville hasn't been very different. A roommate, the occasional birthday celebration and the impromptu get together for beer, meant that my habit of having quite a few people to talk to, to eat dinner with or just to go out for a drink on a day to day basis, stayed.

Not anymore. And 3 weeks into this, I have mixed feelings. I'm leading a pretty disciplined life. Office, home, go out for a jog at times, watch football highlights while having dinner, read a book or surf the net and go to sleep. And I can't say that I'm bored or particularly feeling the need of having people to shout out about a FaceBook status message, a news item or some stupid joke. It's a little weird. For the first week, I would go to sleep really early for lack of anything else to do. So then I started reading and have managed to finish my first book in a year. About A Boy by Nick Hornby. Quite liked it.

Weekends are fun. Coincidentally, one of my very close friends from undergrad is also interning at Dallas. We hang out on weekends. I talk about my MBA experience and he updates me on the trials and tribulations of a PhD student.

Work's picking up. It has been a good learning experience so far. Just getting up to date with what's happening in the wireless industry and getting a sense of current and future trends. My day typically begins with going through endgadget, gizmodo and similar websites to keep up to date with the iPhones, the Droids and the EVOs. Have been able to see and play around with a few. And I must say, there's a new found appreciation for non iPhone (read Android) devices. No, I'm not switching anytime soon but it's a really fascinating and continuously evolving space. There are an insane number of things that are being done by the startups and app developers - from location based services to media streaming to content aggregation to social networking. Reading about them in itself has been an eye opener for me because prior to coming here, I thought that I had a fair idea of what was happening in the Smartphone world. Turns out, I knew very little!

Haven't really explored Dallas much apart from a few bars and pubs. Weekends are pretty much spent watching the World Cup. Praying for an Argentina - Ghana final which Argentina wins 3-2 in Extra Time. Is it asking for too much ?

Of Ringtones, Crying Babies & Bar Code Scanners

2010-06-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

The last 30 days have been a mad dash. After 16 flights and over 70 hours of flying, I'm finally taking a breather. If this even remotely resembles the consulting lifestyle - spending half of your day in airports through endless lines of security checks and waiting in the departure lounge for the connecting flight; making a complete mockery of your food habits and sleep cycle - then I'm glad that I didn't get a chance to try it out.

Interviews, traveling across the world for a $150/day India trip, visiting ex flat mates and friends in Bangalore and finding the house to be just like it was when I had left and finally the super exciting exercise of packing up for eleven weeks, leaving C'ville and arriving at Dallas - life's been pretty hectic of late.

This first thing which hit me upon arriving at the New Delhi airport after a 15 hour non stop flight from New York were the ringtones. Loud, gaudy and ringing for ages while the owner of the phone basked in the glory of his awesome choice of music. We keep hearing about the telecom industry in India. About the potential and the scope. I think people's obsession with flashy ringtones and caller tunes is a major contributor towards it. Anyway, I clearly wasn't expecting this. Not after the ordeal which I had just been through. The kid in the seat behind me on the flight had made it his favorite pastime to kick my seat every 15 minutes for the entire journey. My occasional glance and request to his mother would only increase the interval. To begin with he was doing it unknowingly. But I think later he found a sadistic pleasure in it - to see me twitching and turning in order to get some sleep. He knew that I knew he would strike sooner or later. The certainty of the event combined with the uncertainty of the exact moment of the assault was what made it lethal. After sometime, I just gave up and watched Young Frankenstein and a crappy Bollywood movie instead.

That was not all. There were a hundred kids in the flight and it seemed all of them were seated close to me. What more, they seem to synchronize their crying so that one would pick up immediately after another stopped. And somehow their moms seemed least bothered! Clearly, saying 'Stop crying Beta' to a 2 year old isn't going to work because a) his linguistic abilities are not yet developed enough to process that sentence and b) he's crying because he's pissed off about something (like alcohol not being offered for a second time, say) and the only way to make him stop crying is to find out and solve the problem. Action, mothers. Not words.

It's good to see India beating the Govt. forecast of GDP growth and surging ahead at 7.4%. It's sad to see simple things not being implemented especially when the Infys and the Wipros have had that technology for ever. Take bar code scanners to scan boarding passes for example. Or simple displays to help transit passengers figure out the details of the connecting flight. Instead, at places we have a person ticking off names from a list while collecting boarding passes and another one crying out 'All Kolkata passengers to the left and Amritsar passengers to the right' on top of his voice as we come out of the plane. The result - longer queues, greater confusion, more noise about nothing in particular and pissed off passengers. Having the technology is of no use if we are not able to find ways to put it to use in our daily lives.

Internship begins tomorrow. Should be exciting. New city. New people.

So What Are You Doing This Summer

2010-05-13T17:02:00.009-05:00

Caveat: Long rambling post about very personal experiences and views

The most common was "I'm still looking". Or sometimes a blunt - "I don't know". And on rare occasions - "I have applied for this job and am really hoping to get the interview invite"

Then suddenly, first year got over. Toasts were raised and year end parties were hosted. I was still as far away from the answer as I was in August. Did I 'trust the process' or 'believe in myself'. I don't know. I was just waiting for something to happen.

Take 1

So I went in to the interview last Friday with a very uneasy mindset. It was in an industry and function I never thought I would end up in when I started B School. At the same time, it was exciting to be working with a startup in Charlottesville. Add to it that it wouldn't require me to move and I was more than willing to take the internship. And he gave it to me. Just like that.

"So you're from IIT and have a good GMAT. You also seem like someone who's comfortable in interviews. So why is it that you don't have a job?', he asked.

I almost laughed at it and blabbered something on the lines of spreading myself too thin and actually having no clue why nobody wanted to employ me.

"See, I'm a first impressions guy and I like you. And we need people. So we can shake hands and you can begin working from the Monday after."

I wasn't prepared for this. I requested him to give me a couple of days to think about it and decide if I wanted to take it up or pursue another final round interview.

It felt like a burden had lifted off me. I had something to do this summer.

Take 2

After a series of emails and phone calls over the weekend, I managed to extend the offer acceptance deadline and pull back the final round interview date with the other company. I had to fly out to Dallas on Tuesday and interview back to back with four people. They would tell me their decision on the same day giving me the chance to take either of the offers if I got it. Perfect.

So I fly out at 5:00 PM from Charlottesville and after one of the most uncomfortable and boring 6 hours in 2 tiny, 70 seater planes, crash into my bed at the hotel at around 12 at night.

The first interview is with the same guy who interviewed me on phone earlier. It goes really well. He talks about the team and the long term strategy, his crazy schedule, what kind of manager I would like, what languages I coded in while working, what's my view of the wireless space and people's habits when it comes to consuming media on the go, what excites me. He goes out of the room saying "Hopefully I'll talk to you again" and I know I really need to screw up from there on to not get the offer.

The next two interviewers, however do not give me any such signal but instead grill me about everything from strategies to launch a product, to ways and reasons to prioritize one over the another. 4Ps of marketing, first mover advantage, technology adoption, iPhone, Kindle, consumer surveys, analyst reports, how many mobile phones were sold in the US in 2009, why people change phones, AT&T, Netflix - we touch upon almost everything in the Digital Media / Wireless Telecom space. It's the one thing which excites me and I make sense most of the time.

The last person supposed to interview me is stuck in a meeting, so another guy from his team comes in. We have a very casual conversation. We talk about the food in the cafeteria, housing options in Dallas, wearing jeans to work (yes, you can do that), having an iPhone, and cultural differences between Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.

The day gets over. I take the flight back to Charlottesville with a stop at Philly. Reach the Philly airport and get an email from the HR. I had got the offer. And it was as close to a dream job as it could be.

So...

what has this process meant to me.

Has it made me know myself better? No. I knew my strengths and weaknesses and I still have the same beliefs. I suck at faking conversations and being passionate about something which I like but not love. At the same time, I can very easily talk about the fact that I am CS grad, I listen to Pandora, I blog (though I hate Twitter), I like downloading apps on my iPhone, the "cloud" is really just another client server model, Darden's been great because it has made me aware of so many issues while looking at businesses and I want a job which has a little bit of all of this.

Do I understand this process better? Not really. Getting interview invites has been the toughest part for me. And it could be because I've just worked for 3 years and in a field which really didn't involve making business models or revenue forecasting.

On one hand, it was this small exposure to software development in a telecom domain which I think got me this interview in the first place. On the other hand there were internships which said having such a background is a big bonus but I never heard anything from them. So it's anybody's guess but I'm inclined to believe that 'relevant' background does have a huge role to get your foot in the door. What is relevant, though, is the tricky bit.

Has it changed my view of Darden as a school? No. I came here for an experience. An experience in which getting a job formed just one part. Yes, I would have been disappointed with something else. But I would have blamed it on things not working out for no apparent reason. That's the way I am. It's too late to become objective, I guess!

Have I learned anything from the process? Yes. There are a host of immensely interesting jobs out there. Whether you get them (in fact, even get to know about them) is dependent on a host of factors which can be grouped under networking, google skills, timing, plain luck and a dozen other. What worked for me, though, is to convince myself that no matter what, I won't go into anything related to Banking, Corporate Finance, Health Care or CPG Marketing. Yes, there were a couple of exceptions but I never got to interview with them anyway!

So finally on Tuesday night, I had my answer. Samsung Telecom at Dallas.

Calcutta, Bokaro, Delhi, Bangalore, Charlottesville and now Dallas - the cities I live in always seem to begin with a B,C or D. Clearly I shouldn't be looking for jobs in San Francisco, Seattle or New York.

This is why Darden is so unique

2010-04-25T10:14:00.001-05:00

This was the last video at the Follies. And clearly it made all of us feel privileged to be part of this huge family. Where else can you find a faculty which is so sporting and cares so much for the students. Even as a first year, it made me a little emotional to be done with half of school. Here's to making the most of the next year.

Of courses, cases, clubs and career

2010-04-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

Q4 feels like a mad dash to finish first year. I feel like I've been playing catch up for weeks now. So much for this quarter being the end of the super intense and busy Darden core curriculum!

There's been a ton of group projects and team simulations. Some planned, some sudden. Some enjoyable, some just a burden. It also screws up the calender because you are constantly juggling to meet commitments and reach a compromise as far as schedules are concerned. The courses this quarter have been a mixed bag. Which brings me to the point that even if everybody says a course if helpful and really interesting, you can take it and have a totally different opinion about it. But it could also be the fact that for the first time, in this quarter, I have been slacking off a little. Call it the Learning Team effect. Actually, the lack of it. For the last 3 quarters, by virtue of having the best learning team in Darden (in whatever way you define "best" as), I was always trying to get my cases done and be prepared. With nobody to push me now, I have found time to procrastinate. I have gone into classes with half prepared spreadsheets and unread cases. Which make me ask this question. Am I doing it because the course doesn't excite me or is it the other way round.

The highlight in terms of academics has been the Global Financial Markets course. It's as current and relevant as B-School gets. You have the Federal Open Market Committee meeting during the day and at night the professor emails you the 1 page summary of the meeting so that we can discuss and debate what Bernanke thinks of the fed funds rate. Super cool. We have discussed almost all major economic issues. Greece, European bond markets, currency trends for Korea, Russia, Brazil, the Asian financial crisis, yield curves, price parity. Let me tell you that I am very average in that class. But I love it nevertheless. It's a lot of 'value add' for me. Really. I mean it.

The job hunt mystery continues to be exactly that. A mystery. From optimism to getting excited about functions and companies I didn't know earlier to frustration to anger to I-deserve-this-more-than-that-guy to I-don't-care-anymore to plain curiosity as to where I will finally end up - the whole experience has panned a gamut of emotions. It always helps to talk to people though. And there's a fantastic lot here. Who keep you grounded and give you a real sense of things. It's easy to crib about life being unfair when you have 99% of the things going for you. While applying for B Schools, I remember being perplexed by people at top schools talking of things that were not going for them and were worried. I had told myself I would never be that guy. At times in this quarter, I have come close to being that guy. But time and again, there have been friends - new and old - to remind me of that. And as a second year told me a few days ago I'm just waiting for the CEOs to realize in the first week of May that they need a few more interns!

On a different note, the last few weeks have given me a glimpse of what life in the second year might look like. All that I talked about earlier plus running a couple of clubs. Planning farewells and speaker events, ordering food and taking care of the logistics, getting all the information from the second years' as they prepare to leave and realizing there is so much that could be done. It's exhilarating and overwhelming in some sense. Also, the passion and energy of the guys who ran the clubs before us is infections to say the least.

They say that the second year is what you make out of it. It's what you want your B School experience to look like. You have the power to design it. With a couple of weeks to go before phase one of this journey comes to an end, I find myself at this crossroads where I have some sense of the next phase but no clue about the bridge in between. But for what it's worth, I'm looking forward to it when it happens.

Spring In C'Ville

2010-04-04T15:52:00.002-05:00

The weather's getting better by the day and sitting in classes or home is becoming tougher. I decided to get my cases done this afternoon but ended up spending almost a couple of hours walking and clicking pictures.

3 emails

2010-03-31T23:50:00.004-05:00

It's been a rough day. Somewhat of an emotional roller coaster. A few reasons to smile and a bunch of not so pleasant outcomes.

It was a gorgeous day in Charlottesville. After having talked about exchange rates and purchasing price parity in the Global Financial Markets class, and sitting out in the sun (yes, the professor asked us to go out and enjoy the weather) talking about diversity at Darden for the Leading Organizations class, I was done for the day.

Things started to get a little rough after this.

First up was a series of emails which reinforced the disadvantages of being an international student. The result - no travel, no interview.

With nothing to prepare for, I went about reading my ethics case for the next day. ExxonMobil in Cameron and Chad. Midway through that, I get a rejection email from a recruiter. I already knew the outcome so it wasn't a surprise. What caught me off guard was the honesty and genuineness of the mail. I had talked to the guy a few times before. In fact, I had emailed him even before coming to Darden when I was 'school hunting'. He had graduated last year and so totally knew the hardships of this whole process. Our conversations had been very friendly and casual. It was one of the only 'networking' attempts which had gone well for me. Moreover, he was friends with one of my learning team mates. Talk about being a small world!

To say that it was the best rejection mails I have received wouldn't be wrong in anyway. So much so that, it didn't feel bad. Also because, the guy who did get through to the next round is a good friend and really deserves it.

So I emailed him back and we talked about some other stuff besides jobs and internships.

The day was getting over and I was at my house thinking of what to do when I received another email. Guess what, another reject. This time from a project that I had applied to. Again, not really surprising considering that I didn't have a good background match. But it's always hard when they all come together. For a moment, it felt like a classic Catch-22 situation. You don't get picked to do it because you don't have the background. And you don't have the background because you're never picked!

In between all these, a dear friend got perhaps the most prestigious scholarship at Darden as we cheered for him during First Coffee.

Tomorrow's another day. And I have no idea what's it got in store. The weather, at least, should be good.

Barcelona Diaries - 2/2

2010-03-28T23:21:00.006-05:00

Besides the fact that the group going to the Barcelona GBE (Global Business Experience) looked like one I would easily get along with, the major pull through for this trip was the course itself - Strategy As Design. In layman's terms - go sightseeing in Barcelona and write a journal with pictures at the end of it.

Note: for an incredibly detailed account of the entire trip read this blog post.

The City...

...is absolutely gorgeous. Antoni Gaudi took up the first two days of our trip and to be very frank, I would rather have done it in less time. The snowstorm which hit Barcelona on Monday (the first one in nearly 50 years!) made matters worse. Nevertheless, he deserves a mention.

Gaudi 101 - Blending in with nature and unfinished grandeur

The first thing that struck me during the visit to the unfinished church at Colonia Guell, was the fact that it didn't look anything like a church. True, it was unfinished and would have been much larger had the upper storey been built. But yet, the rough cut twisted pillars, the uneven levels to match the topography and the broken ceramics – all combined to give the impression of something human, almost flawed, something with which you could associate yourself and not feel insignificant. I'm not sure I was too impressed with the beauty of the architecture. It defied conventional aesthetics and wasn't particularly pleasing to the eye.

Park Guell confused me. The contrast between the slanting, rough cut stone pillars which mimicked nature in form and color, and the fantastic entrance with its ceramic dragon looked conflicting to me. I am told Gaudi meant it to be a journey from the spectacular (almost garish) to the natural. But to me it was very sudden. It threw me off a particular mindset. Ironically, though, I liked visiting the place. Again, it defied conventional aesthetics but this time around, at least the 'park' looked quite spectacular.

If day 1 was about Gaudi being simple and natural, day 2 was about him surprising us by conjuring up gigantic structures. The Sagrada Familia, although only partially built is one of the most massive structures I have seen. The fact that he made the people believe in it so much so that billions of dollars are being spent to complete this Barcelona landmark by 2030 - is testimony to his belief in his art and himself.

I think I would have liked Casa Milla on a bright sunny day. Its wavy walls and colors gave a feeling of a wonderland. Unfortunately, after spending 2 hours inside the bus, all I wanted was to get back to the hotel room and get drunk on Sangria.

The heavy snowstorm meant that I had kept my camera inside the bus for most of the day. On Monday, the Barcelona GBE stock had taken a severe hit. Snowstorm and 2 days with Gaudi hadn't gone down well with a few (read the guys occupying the last few rows in the bus - me included). From Tuesday onwards, though, the stock kept climbing up.

From breathtaking views of the city to the architecturally alive city squares, in Barcelona, you could keep clicking pictures and hardly go wrong.

We also visited the Gothic Quarters of the old city and the church it housed. More traditional and more awe inspiring - it conformed to the vision of a church which I have.

Art and history apart, we also went to the Barcelona FC stadium - Camp Nou. One of my friends who went a few minutes before us saw Messi! We weren't that lucky. More disappointing was that Barca was playing on Sunday, the day after we left. Yes, it was the same game in which Messi scored a hat trick.

"More than a club"

The museum inside the stadium is worth mentioning. The long touch screen panels with rare video footage and summaries of the club's finest moment were a great way to keep the visitors engaged. We played around with them for quite sometime.

So while we attended classes and roamed around the city during the day, the nights were dedicated to getting drunk and club hopping. Our favorite haunts were the La Rambla and the Porto Olimpico - places we would hit every alternate day to party till the wee hours of the night. The music was catchy, the women were attractive and the company was awesome. Dancing on bar tables, blacking out, craving for chicken wings at the sight of Hard Rock Cafe, drinking challenges between people weighing 100 something and 200 something pounds respectively, and just insane amounts of alcohol - it would be an understatement to say that we had a BLAST!

Throughout the trip, we spent quite some time loitering around La Rambla. Had it been a little warmer, it would have been the perfect place to sit outside a cafe and drink coffee or sangria or beer. There's always a ton of things happening. From street performers to Flamenco shows (which we attended). The fascinating part about Barcelona is how design and architecture is a living part of the city. It's not something which had to be seen in isolation. It's woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Balconies - La Rambla

Bicycles - saw them everywhere

End of La Rambla leading to the Port

I need another post to finish. To write about the 2 small towns we visited outside Barcelona - Girona and Besalu. Should be mostly pictures I think.

Barcelona Diaries - 1/2

2010-03-21T09:33:00.008-05:00

This has been overdue. But the start to Q4 has been a little rough. Changing classes, new seats, the Barcelona hangover and the confusing ritual called recruiting have left me disoriented. The gorgeous weather and some great live music this weekend should make things better though.

The Art...

It was my first introduction to Dali and Picasso and I feel more cultured for having done that. For a first timer, the Picasso museum provided an easy to understand, chronological progression of Picasso's art right from his childhood. I'm no good judge of painting. I like some and I do not like some. And I don't really know why. But the museum was an education because it opened my eyes to the process that went behind Picasso's creation. The transition from a very talented boy who paints landscapes, pigeons and portraits of his family members in a traditional (classical ?) style to his gradual shunning of the norms, his play on perspective and his efforts to stretch the boundaries of what we call art - was very evident. His time in Paris, his affairs with women, the melancholy filled 'Blue Period' and his rendering of Velásquez's Las Maninas - it was a very useful albeit very short study into the creative process of Picasso, his influences and his view of the world around him. And now I know what cubism means.

Dali was more abstract and surreal. Looking at his art was an experience. The spectroscopic images, the pixilated Abraham Lincoln, the 'portrait' of May West – Dali took painting beyond being just on canvas to something which stimulated the mind in more ways. He used elements of engineering drawing to come up with abstract paintings which looked like a horseman when seen reflected on a glass bottle. His obsession with sex, science and Gala was different from Picasso’s recurring themes of family members and multiple women. It was a pity that the museum didn't have some of his more famous works. This is what my friends who had seen Dali told me.

ToDo - visit Dali and Picasso exhibitions whenever possible.

The Food...

...has a lot of meat in it. I didn't like the Paella, although a lot of it could be due to my general dislike for seafood. As a Bengali brought up on fresh water fish cooked in Indian spices, my food palates just do not like the 'rawness' in most of the seafood dishes. I keep trying though. And of course I think that bhape Ilish (Steamed Hilsa cooked with mustard) beats any other preparation in the world. It's a pity that outside India, 'Indian Cuisine' is essentially just Chicken Tikka Masala, Naan and Biriyani.

The Tapas was good and I absolutely loved the ham croquettes that we had at some places. A lot like the cutlets we have at roadside stalls in India.

The best meal that we had was at a Basque restaurant. The name was too hard for me to remember. The six of us finished 3 or 4 bottles of wine and had food ranging from ham croquettes to fried calamari to the more simple fried egg on potatoes to the absolutely delicious sirloin steak cooked with red wine. For dessert, we had a red colored liqueur called Patxaran. Yes, very fancy and all for 55 Euros. I'm not an advocate of spending tons of money in expensive restaurants. I do not buy the ambiance, presentation premium that they charge. So this was my most expensive meal till date. But this time around it was worth it. I think.

We came there the next day too to kick off Sarah's birthday celebrations. I tasted rabbit meat and it was awesome.

Any account of food in Barcelona would be incomplete without the mention of the pitchers of Sangria that we drowned. The alcohol content varied from place to place and so did the taste. But as the staple beverage during out trip (by the way, throughout the city, water was hard to find and cost more than beer), Sangria became the perfect accompaniment to the long dinners that we had.

Oh, and on Friday we had a unique lunch experience. Albert, the chef at Restaurant Coure is a practitioner of Molecular Gastronomy. A follower of Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame, he gave us a short introduction on the art and science of inventing new recipes by deconstruction of known ones. He boiled an egg in front of us at precisely 62 degree which coagulates the white but leaves the yolk intact! For more than an hour, he held a group of 25 MBA students captivated as he talked about the differences in Europe and the US in terms of eating habits, culture and business models and how at the given price McDonald's makes the best burger possible.

For lunch we had French Onion Soup which tasted heavenly but looked nothing like it. Predictably, I didn't like the clam. The Ox Tail (yes, we are getting fancy here again) was delicious. I thought it was a lot like the mutton I used to have in India.

So much for now. There's a lot more to talk about. The city itself being the most important part. Hopefully, the post wont be as delayed as this one.

Why MBA

2010-02-26T22:05:00.006-06:00

In 2010 the decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit at source

Skepticism about the value of an MBA degree and the general belief that it just teaches you to say sentences like - "I think XXX's competitive advantage in this high growth market ensures sustainable growth in the short to medium term." without any knowledge of the underlying fundamentals, is nothing new. When I was applying last year, one of my friends had said something to the effect of MBAs being glorified bullshitters who earn a lot more than they deserve. An engineer like me, he believed in the simple theory that there are always people who know a particular area better than any MBA does. A developer designs and writes the code; marketing is basically making emotional ads and getting people to buy it; and then there would be a finance guy who will tell you how much money you made. An MBA puts his hand everywhere without thoroughly knowing anything and ends up making more money and having a fancy title. An MBA never adds value. Not to the firm. Not to the self.

So what has 3/8 of an MBA done for me. In one sentence, made me more aware. How are share prices calculated. Why does the fiscal deficit matter and why the hell do governments go crazy about exchange rates. Who sets them anyway. What's all this talk about cultural fit and strategic alliance that newspapers talk about when a merger happens. What is marketing if not making ads and fancy banners. Wikipedia had answers to most of these. And you would say $100K is a bit too much to pay for awareness. Of course, there's the network you build along with the experience of living in a different country and culture. But truly, my biggest gain so far has been to pick up a Wall Street Journal or an Economist and understand what the article means. Again, I had pretty modest goals coming into B school!

The courses this quarter in particular have seemed to tie up a lot of lose ends. A company valuation is more than just the discounted cash flow. As our professor says, its as much art as it is science. Why the Chinese Govt. doesn't want the Yuan to appreciate and what would the EU do with Greece are just some of the questions about which I can now think. Pricing strategies, the Nash equilibrium, Second Price Auctions, Microsoft in India & China, PepsiCo's 'Beat Coke' strategy, Mars' acquisition of Wrigley's - 200 cases and a few dozen tech notes into the Darden experience, I am pretty sure that the limiting factor is my ability to take in what is being thrown at me.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I've become a subject matter expert in any of these. But the fact that I can appreciate the issues which go into most of these and am beginning to develop the ability to synthesize all of it is what makes this experience unique. True, there's some amount of bullshit that comes with it. I can totally see myself talking to somebody and pissing him off by saying something like "but look at the strategic implications!". And I think that's part and parcel of the whole package. The jargon creeps into our system. But I would like to believe that for the most part, there is some, at least some logic behind those cliched words.

I came to Darden with no formal business education. And I'm glad it was that way. What it has meant that, almost everything is new to me. Yes, I am a computer engineer and I have no problems understanding normal distribution, linear equations, probability and decision trees. Having written software program does makes it easy to build a DCF model. And if statements and modular designs are not an issue at all. But learning to think about the judgement that goes into each decision has been the really interesting bit. Acknowledging that often there are no right answers has been tough. And appreciating that the real value add is not so much in the individual concepts, but in their interplay has been fascinating.

Halfway Through First Year

2010-01-29T16:44:00.011-06:00

One of the great things about not being able to think too far into the future is that life becomes so much more eventful when seen through you own eyes. Things move at a pretty hectic pace in a B School. You hardly get time to take a step back and ponder. To look at the rear view mirror and see how far you've come. But when you do get that window of time and your mind starts to connect past incidents to light up the road which has brought you here; more often than not, you sit back and marvel at how things have changed. How you have transformed.

Quarter 3 has been easy so far. Fridays off and lighter Wednesdays and Thursdays. Perhaps because it's the interview season. It's also the time when second years start thinking about their reentry into the 'real world'. You would frequently hear about ToDo lists to be checked before school ends and trips to be made. Some take it easy and relax. Others take as many courses as they can since it might be the last time they go to school. First years realize how time flies. And prospective students begin to reach the end of their application process. In the last few weeks I've interacted with a few applicants who have successfully made this journey. And my mind went back to the time when I had got the call. It had made a lot of things fall into place. Past failures, which had closed a few doors and opened a few more; decisions which were made at times impulsively and on the rare occasion with thorough analysis; and events over which I had little control. Almost like the trees we make in our Decision Analysis class. Options and Events. You take some, you lose out on some.

So like I mentioned earlier, it's internship hunting time in a first years' life. Stress levels typically increase during this period. But then again, different people react so differently to the same circumstances. I'm in the 'still looking' club right now. I think it's early days and we form the majority! The point is, a year back, I couldn't have imagined myself in this situation and my reaction to it. Getting into B School was the only thing I had in my mind space. I had left the next chapter for later. And now I find myself in the middle of first year. Thinking about internships and beyond. Trying to balance a myriad things and not lose perspective at the same time.

I'm a staunch believer of the theory that any experience is what you make of it and no matter how much you've heard about it before, unless you are in the midst of it, you really do not have a clue of what it's like. Darden has conformed to that. Memories, experiences, dilemmas and hopes. That's what this blog is supposed to be about. And right now, I'm absolutely loving the abundance of all of it.

Travels During Winter Break - 2

2010-01-22T16:32:00.017-06:00

Pike Place Market - Seattle

Spent an evening roaming around the place. It was the highlight of the 3 day trip. Had a very small city, touristy feel in spite of being so close to downtown Seattle. People playing guitar and piano. Some playing the guitar and the harmonica while hula hooping at the same time. The first Starbucks, the fish market, the fruit sellers, the magic shop, the dozens of stalls selling decorative items and jewelery, tourists clicking pictures - it was an exercise in observation. And a very entertaining one at that.

But for the labels on each fruit and the price tags, I would have thought that I was in India.

Knew about the iPhone app. Hadn't seen one before!

Piggy Banks

The flashy neon sign

Slide Guitar

Felt surprised and sad at the same time. He was playing some beautiful pieces.

But people around him were mostly oblivious. A few tourists stood by and made short videos.

Travels During Winter Break - 1

2010-01-11T10:48:00.007-06:00

New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Seattle. A visit to 4 cities during the winter break has made me realize how easy it is to travel in a new place. All you need is an iPhone (actually any smartphone with GPS would do) and an ATM card. A car and a friend who can drive helps too.

Coming from India, it's exciting, to a degree of mind boggling; the way technology is used in everyday life in the US. From petrol pumps to car washes, from self checkout counters at retail stores to vending machines and from the ubiquity of the 3G network to the proliferation of smart phones - things which I considered luxuries even a few months ago have become necessities now.

New York, with its avenues and streets forming a perfect grid, is tailor made for a GPS system. All you need is a sense of direction and you should be good. And even if you're directionally challenged, the iPhone makes sure you get it right. So commuting between Union Square (where my friend was staying) to Times Square was as easy for me as a resident New Yorker. I could choose to walk if it wasn't too cold and I had time to kill (like the time when I had a 3 hour window and decided to walk around downtown NY and ended up visiting MoMA). Or if I had to take the metro, my iPhone would give me to the minute, the arrival and departure timings along with any transfers I needed to make. All I had to ensure was that I got that information before entering the subway since there was no network coverage here. My friends from Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong were more critical though. Since they were used to better systems while working there. I wasn't complaining.

And this became a pattern which extended beyond just taking public transports. In DC, Seattle and San Francisco, where we drove quite a bit, people took turns being the navigator. Constantly trading off between the battery sucking yet faster and highly intuitive iPhone app and the talking but at times slower GPS having the non QWERTY keyboard. So in the Bay Area, where we had to travel a lot between downtown San Francisco and Palo Alto, Fremont, Sunnyvale and Mountain View; it was a combination of the Bay Area Rapid Transport and our always willing driver and trip leader who saved the day. The 30 mile-ish rides were fun though. San Francisco had a great Rock n Roll station which played classic rock. Our topic of conversation during the rides could be anything ranging from the geography of the area (which was so very different from C'ville) to the infrastructure in the US to the high number of Porches and Corvettes that we saw there to crazy drivers changing lanes to the high number of Indians and thus Indian restaurants. My friend in Stanford told me that the Indian community in Mountain View and Sunnyvale wanted the cities to be renamed Pahadganj and Surajpur respectively! It could totally be a rumor. But it was the most ridiculously hilarious thing I've heard in some time.

Finally Seattle. And this time we had these 2 'big ass' vans to carry the group around. Which made finding parking a little difficult since the clearance needed was 7'. Anyway, GPS to the rescue again and besides finding parking, we didn't have any issues navigating in a totally new city.

Reviews of bars and restaurants, public transit, checking mails on the go to transferring money from one account to another - having all of this at my fingertips and realizing how much it has enabled us to not plan ahead was a revelation of sorts. Maybe it has made me less 'smart' so as to say. Maybe, it means that having fewer things to remember, I am after all becoming too dependent on technology. But nevertheless, for now, for me, it's akin to a discovery. A new way of going about life. And I'm beginning to understand why after staying here for a long period of time people find it tough to go back. I'm not picking one over another. But appreciating how having different priorities can lead one to choose a particular lifestyle. One country over another.

Now if only my iPhone would be more efficient in receiving calls instead of deciding not to ring at all or directly go to the voice mail on several occasions. AT&T has no clue. Time to get to the Apple guys I guess.

Winter Break: the unhurried life

2009-12-28T16:17:00.007-06:00

It's a testimony to the pace at which life goes on here, that its been only two weeks into the winter break even though I feel like I've been vacationing forever. It's a welcome change. In some sense, a throwback to my days in Bangalore, where the mornings were unhurried (yes, office started at 11 AM) and started with sipping chai in the balcony, turning on the TV and reading the Times of India. And that's why, yesterday in particular, reminded me of life before B-School. The Wall Street Journal has replaced the Times of India and it's a little too cold to actually stand in the balcony. The number of roommates has reduced from 3 to 1 and no longer is there a cook to make tea. But the sun rays streaming down the sliding glass door, and the the satisfaction of dipping the biscuit in the cup of tea was good enough.

Charlottesville is pretty empty now. It's a little too quiet for me. A week ago, I was having this big city, small city conversation with a friend in New York and how the people around you become so much more important in smaller cities. I totally get it now. Fortunately, there are a bunch of us here and so in between watching movies, killing time, going out to eat and preparing for the interviews (the time devoted to each decreasing in the order in which listed); we've managed to keep ourselves busy. Somewhat.

Another 3 weeks before the break gets over. And on the 1st day of 2010, I leave for San Francisco. In India, we say that the entire year mimics whatever you do on the first day of the year. 1st Jan, 2008 - I flew from Singapore to Bangalore. There were around 12-15 more flights during the rest of the year. 1st Jan, 2009 - Minneapolis. I woke up at around 12 in the noon, after a long night of drinking and partying in sub zero temperatures and worked the whole day on the Darden essays (they were due on the 4th).

Will 2010's first day have any bearing on the rest of the year? It's anybody's guess.

The Season's First Snow

2009-12-05T12:02:00.011-06:00

Brianne's ping was the perfect excuse I needed to go out. It was the Saturday after a brutal week at Darden and even with exams looming large, I just couldn't get myself to study. Most Facebook statuses ran on the lines of 'Oh it's snowing in C'ville...'. For a lot of us it was the first snowfall of our lives. My mind went back to another Saturday morning earlier this year, when I had ventured out in harsher temperatures. It wasn't snowing back then, though.

I love lamp posts. There's this old world, story like charm to them. Always reminds me of childhood stories of a quiet town, with a railway station and a solitary lamp post. And the yellow in this case looked so contrasting against the backdrop.

Contrast, again. This time red against white. A much stronger one. And the way the snowflakes had melted to form a lump of watery ice and had yet managed to stay atop the red berries.

Park benches at Darden. Another one of those objects towards which I have a strange attraction. No reason. Totally random.

Same colors. Same lump of ice. Different setting.

Stripped of all its leaves, the branches of the tree still prevent the grass underneath from being totally covered with snow, adding a dash a green to the picture.

This Week Last Year...

2009-11-28T17:33:00.006-06:00

...I was a first time visitor to this country. Everything was happening very fast. Black Friday shopping was a necessity because the jacket I had was good only for an Indian winter. And that too was borrowed from my 6' tall friend so it wasn't exactly a fit. 26/11 had just happened in India as I stood in the hotel lobby watching images of the Taj Palace under siege, feeling a sense of disconnect which internet or cable television doesn't quite fill. The weekend brought the season's first snow. I remember waking up in the morning and finding everything covered with a thin layer of white. It was my first encounter with sub zero temperatures. Over the next couple of months, that would touch -25 degree Celcius.

That was Minneapolis. A year on, everything's still moving past at a hectic pace. But the setting is so different. There was time and money to spend last year. The money is still there though. Just that it's a huge loan. And don't even get me started on time. My Darden application wouldn't happen until January and so if you had asked me where I saw myself a year from then, Charlottesville wouldn't have come up as one of the answers.

This has been a much needed (shall I say much deserved too?) break. And I've successfully done what I do best. Chill out. It started off with drinking wine and sangria and singing songs at our place. Next day was the Thanksgiving party courtesy Jose and Lucas complete with touch football and LOADS of food and wine. We followed it up with a game of cricket the next day and dinner at Ariana Kabob House and a round of Taboo. In between there were futile attempts to string together a cover letter. There's still one day. So there's still time.

One more day till everything comes crashing down again. Resume drops, cases, exams - all thoughtfully packaged into two weeks of madness. And then the winter break. And New York. And San Francisco. And Seattle.

Let's get over this quickly, shall we.

If the glass is half empty, at least you can't drown

2009-11-08T21:20:00.006-06:00

The best week in Darden so far. And all because it had less of Darden in it. Don't get me wrong. I like the intensity. It makes me stretch myself. But once in a while, you do need that break. To explore and experience some other things. To sit back and relax and just enjoy doing nothing. Black November as it is turning out, already happened in October.

It can get a little intimidating at times. Case studies, class participation. exam grades, cover letters, networking calls. It's a lot to handle when you have never done it before. And that's why this week was so special. So needed.

Monday and Tuesday went as usual with inventory management trying to match up to Capital Asset Pricing Model and the IS/LM curve. From Wednesday, however, things started getting really good. First, we had this Operations filed trip to MicroAire. Seeing the push-pull strategies of marketing and the lean manufacturing principles of operations actually being used in real life was quite a kick. And since MicroAire was into manufacturing surgical instruments like those used in Carpal Tunnel and Knee Replacement surgeries, there was the ethics angle to it too when it came to how much should the market be driven by the manufacturers and not by the doctors.

The rest of the week was easy and didn't involve case preparation. This meant that the entire evening was free. I spent the afternoons playing Racquetball; had Thai food one evening and just enjoyed being relaxed. Wednesday night, in particular was great not only because of the dinner but also because of the fact that it was one of those rare nights, when unwinding did not mean getting high on alcohol and being with hundred other first years in a bar. We walked down to Tara Thai at Barracks, had dinner and then came back chatting about first year and our expectations from this whole MBA experience.

The Virginia Film Festival was in progress and so some of us decided to catch a few films. Meet John Doe, Departures & Wonderful World. Three very different movies. But three very satisfying experiences.

Meet John Doe is a classic about the power of press and how it can create and destroy public figures. My friend had told me that there was a Hindi movie - Main Azaad Hoon which was inspired by this one.

Departures (last year's Foreign Language Film winner at the Oscar) is as unique a movie as I have ever seen. An unemployed cellist takes on the job of 'preparing' dead bodies for the funeral. It's a beautiful commentary on life and death and the emotions the death of near and dear ones can evoke in us. There's a lot of dry humor and drama in the script but I particularly loved the closure that the ending brought which seemed to reconcile all the different threads - the main character's tension with his wife regarding his not so glamorous job and his memories of his father who had left when he was a six year old.

I could talk about Wonderful World but it's better if you watch the trailer. Matthew Broderick puts in a controlled and powerful understated performance as the pessimist who would start believing in the general goodness in the world once he sees "fish falling from the sky". The dialogues are crisp and even though I would have liked the script to be less abstract and more explicit; this works.

And in both these movies, the soundtrack is really melodious. Loved both the classical (even haunting) cello pieces in Departures and the acoustic guitar pieces in Wonderful World.

And yes, we went bowling last night and played a First Year Vs Second Year cricket match today which we narrowly lost.

Quite a week.

By the way, the title of this post is from the movie Wonderful World.

From Engineering to Economics

2009-11-01T21:54:00.007-06:00

Stack means LIFO and Queue means FIFO. The most basic data structures in computer science.

Well, apparently, they are also inventory costing methods used in Financial Accounting.

So what's the best thing about coming to a B-School from an engineering background?

Quant skills? Structured thinking? A sense of confidence that you would be able to survive it? Knowing the equation of a normal distribution and being able to handle probability?

No. If you ask me that is.

The best thing is that none of the courses are a repeat of what you did in undergrad. Which means that the balance sheets and the bond pricing and the supply, demand, interest rate graphs are all new for me. Yes, for some of the things, (and this is mostly in economics) Wikipedia had already given me a foundation to build on, but learning about how the Fed might lower interest rates to bolster investment in a formal setting is certainly helping me get a stronger grasp on it. Suddenly the articles in the WSJ have started to make sense. Like when they talked about Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target not being able to discount price books in Europe or when they analyzed various industries on the basis of cash as percentage of assets.

It's tiring and frustrating at times. Being asked to do so much in so little time. But at least so far, it takes just a moment to sit down, take a few steps and realize the tremendous potential these two years have. And I'm not talking about getting a great job and walking out with a fat paycheck. I'm simply talking about the perspective a B-School can (and already is) give to someone who hasn't studied about business before.

After The Rain

2009-10-24T15:02:00.014-05:00

I finally found some time to go out with my camera and take some pictures of the place I live in. As has become the norm here, the weekdays are generally gorgeous and it rains all day during the weekends. Today was not all that bad though. The rain stopped during the late afternoon. The sun came out in bursts in between drizzles and an overcast sky. At times, a gust of wind would shake off the water droplets from the leaves giving an impression that it had started to rain again. The weather was pleasant without being cold. There was a section party coming up in the evening. Could you blame me for completely wasting my day and doing nothing?

Green & Yellow

Leaves on the grass

Wooden stubs

Rain droplets on the leaves

Inside Ivy Gardens. The road that leads to my apartment

Against a cloudy sky

The road that runs between Darden and Ivy Gardens

Exam Week

2009-10-12T22:15:00.005-05:00

It's so different. 5 hours, open notes, take home, honor code and the least stressful week of the entire quarter - exam week in Darden is a whole new experience. Maybe it was planned that way. After all aren't we supposed to 'Trust the process'? I mean, the week before it was hell! Consulting conference, GMO conference, company briefings, networking dinners and of course, cases. Cases which ran for 30 pages and had scores of Exhibits. Cases which were supposed to be cracked without the aid of the learning teams. And then suddenly it's Friday night and you almost feel a void. You study because others are. You go through the review notes and try and organize all the stuff in folders for easy reference. You say to yourself that you havent been slacking off during the last 2 months so you will be okay even without studying for the last 2 days. No. Don't get me wrong. I'm no rock star and I'm solidly in the middle when it comes to the unique Darden phenomenon called class participation (trust me, other B Schoolers - it's different here!). It's just that studying before exams is not my thing. Till high school, I was supposedly a smart kid and didn't need to study before exams. In undergrad, I was way too screwed up to make any significant improvements by studying in the last week (though the night outs made sure I never got an F! and over years I learned the art of optimizing my study hours to just make that mark). Here, its neither of the two. And yet. I cant sit down and study. So, it's not my thing. QED!

The marketing exam was a mix of emotions. I used my old strategy to start off with the last question. It helped that it was an easy one so I felt good after the first 15 minutes. Couldn't say the same for the rest of the 4 hours and 45 minutes though. So at the end, I had a lot of margins and percentages and numbers and dollars floating around the word doc and I was hoping that at least half of it made sense to the professor. Hope, like they say, is a strategy.

Accounting tomorrow. And then 3 more papers. And then the 100 case party. And then Metallica. And then Quarter 2 from Monday. I love Darden.

of potato chips and tomato ketchups

2009-09-25T18:05:00.009-05:00

"Even if you are not interested in marketing, go to the Marketing Forum. The Frito Lay guy is a terrific speaker."

He indeed was. For an hour, as Dave Skena (VP Marketing) spoke about the latest Potato Chips ad campaign, I sat in amazement - somewhat in awe of the art of marketing.

He started with how they set about reaching out to the consumer with a very simple strategy. That the chips are made of three things - potato, vegetable oil and a dash of salt. To dispense the image of an unhealthy, junk, fat filled diet, they launched ads which showed the farmers from across the country who supplied potatoes to the Frito Lay plants. The simplicity and uniqueness of the whole exercise took the audience by surprise and yes, revenues started showing positive trends. So there I was - an Indian, listening to an American talk about a snack which I'm not particularly crazy about, watching ads which showed farmers from Florida and Texas and Michigan - and yet I could somewhat identify with it. As much as there are numbers and market share and consumer lifetime value, maybe marketing is indeed a lot about knowing the pulse of the consumer.

Heinz followed next, carrying on the theme of Ketchup = Tomatoes. Noel Geoffroy, Director of Consumer Products Ketchup and a Darden alum, talked about changing the label in front of the bottle. About how replacing the pickle with the tomato and increasing the font size of Tomato had so much research going into it whereas the consumer was not really bothered about it that much. As a guy who has almost zero brand loyalty when it comes to CPGs, it was a revelation to get a peek into the minds of people who have and what goes into deciding what to buy and how much to buy. Like mothers who want to give their 10 year olds a 'healthy' ketchup and thus need to be absolutely sure what the ketchup is made of.

The DuPont presentation, to me, was the least exciting of the lot. It might have got a little to do with the fact that I was feeling sleepy by that time but apart from the bit where he talked about how Teflon sticks to the pan, I was bored.

MarketBridge was next and Katrina Lowes, SVP Marketing Services talked about Social Media and how Humana was using its social media portal to foster collaboration among users. She pointed out how, everybody, in the race to capture the youth population (25-35) have forgotten about the Baby Boomers aged around 50-65 who form the bulk of the world population. Never ever in the history of mankind have there been more people of this age and that represents a huge market if you are ready for it. She talked about how these are people who are nearing their retirement. About how these are people who are sustaining their families and have, in a lot of cases, both parents and children to take care of. She talked about how, they want to talk to others about things ranging from sex to healthcare, from emotional stresses to the changing world around them. It was funny that Katrina mentioned the stupid war that CNN had with Ashton Kutcher in Twitterland and how Social Media is Not about getting a million people to follow your tweet or blog. On the other hand, if you are FlyLady, you do have control over the minds of millions of people!

4:00 P.M. and it was time for Dan Holler, Product Director - Johnson's Baby to talk about the "Olympics Campaign - Thanks Mom". Particularly engaging was the bit where he talked about how they signed in Cullen Jones even before he was a part of the US Olympic Swimming team. A shortage of funds meant that they couldn't sign in big names like Phelps so they decided on this approach and shot the ads in very less time, using the training grounds of the athletes as the backdrop as they talked about how their mothers have influenced them throughout their life. Novel, inexpensive concept. But here's the magic that happened after it. Jones made it to the Olympic team. He then somehow made it to the six who formed the relay team. But only four were to make the finals. Against all odds, he makes it and is the last man in the relay. If you haven't already, dig out the YouTube link and watch how he beats the French guy to win the Gold (thus helping Phelps get his 8 medals). The story doesn't end here. By a rare mix of luck, forecast, science and add what you want, the first TV ad slot after the 4x100 relay is the Johnson & Johnson one where Jones says "Thanks Mom".

General Mills came up next and with no disrespect to them, the emotional high of Johnson & Johnson was tough to better. I listened to them talk about targeting the Hispanic market even though none of the guys presenting spoke Spanish. We laughed out loud at the part where they talked about how Latina women only want slim waists and don't really care about anything else!

After more than 4 hours of sitting in Classroom 50, I came out of the 2009 Marketing Forum feeling good and a lot more informed about the science (& arts) of marketing. The speakers were great. The subject matter was even better. And although I still don't want to get into marketing, yet, I feel I more than had my time's worth.

What are you going to do about the wrist, Doctor Dorsey

2009-09-21T22:36:00.004-05:00

In our management communications class today, about 15 of us told their 2 minute leadership story. Some talked about people who had inspired them while others narrated instances from their own lives. We had Paul Farmer's example of how leadership is about empowering people and bringing hope. Then there was the ex Indian Army grandfather who packed up his business in India and went to the US so that his grandson could get his VISA. There were stories of coaches and mentors; of a Mohammed who had immigrated from Pakistan to Canada; of a 29 year old millionaire who went shirtless to office, and of the moment when The Dalai Lama told someone that her opinion mattered.

It was amazing how each story was so unique and yet so powerful. But what made the session special was the story the Doctor said. As somebody pointed out later, the fact that nobody said a word or raised their hand even after he had gone back to his seat bore testimony to the impact it had had on us. I wont even try to talk about it here. If you were there in the class you would have felt its power.

It's a humbling experience. To be sharing the class with these guys. Hopefully someday I'll have a story which blows your mind!

Only The Boy Can Go

2009-09-15T23:01:00.004-05:00

And he did.

Today I went to the first of Darden Leadership Speaker Series and heard Ralph de la Vega talk. About things ranging from the story of a 10 year old who had to leave behind his parents in Cuba to come to the US, to iPhone apps and how the Apple - AT&T collaboration happened. It was enthralling. He told us about his meeting with Steve Jobs during the pre launch days of the iPhone and how he couldn't even talk about the design of the phone to his boss. Then there was his take on the ubiquity of the wireless network and how its making ways for the cellular company to collaborate with Beer manufacturers. I did my Masters Thesis on Sensor Networks (although the amount of work I put in it could be debated!) so it was quite exciting to listen to him talk about it briefly.

Woven in between all this was his personal story of making it big in the land of opportunities. Of struggles coping with language, culture and food. Of his love for Miami and not so much for Chicago. He was a really good story teller - as our Management Communications professor would say. It helped though, that he had one heck of a story. He ended with a piece of advice which I have often heard. But this time around, it felt a lot more powerful. Maybe it was him. Or maybe its the energy you feel when you are at Darden!

He said never to let anyone place limitations on what we can do. Somebody had dissuaded him from being an engineer. And he was on his way to becoming a mechanic instead. His grandmother, however, believed otherwise.

It's a wonderful place. Darden. All that they said about the intensity, energy, people, professors has been true. And beyond.

Let the games begin

2009-08-09T22:11:00.003-05:00

I saw him sitting next to me at the Division of Motor Vehicles Office. He had the distinctive Darden School of Business black folder with him. 'So are you attending Darden', I asked.

That's how I met one of my classmates.

My first 2 weeks here have been really good. Meeting new people has been fun. The fact that almost everybody seems to have such a different (read as hugely interesting) background makes it that much more exciting. We've already had about 3-4 get togethers and the group seems to be growing each day. People have been posting on Facebook, meet-ups are being planned everyday, some just turn up at your door and ask 'Are you darden guys', some you met at the Ivy Garden Office (Ivy Garden is the name of our Apartment complex) as they are moving in - I love the spontaneity of it all. All the buzz words that I had seen on the brochures and the websites while applying - diversity, small town feel, close knit community, high energy - are gradually beginning to make sense.

School starts tomorrow. Well it's actually the orientation. So there would be more people to meet. And judging from the ones I have met so far, the good times are just beginning.

Playing with my new toy

2009-08-09T16:25:00.001-05:00

It's really worth all the hype. Ive not been able to stop tapping it ever since I got it a few days ago. In fact, I'm writing this from my phone! Just wanted to check if it really works.

Drinking Hot Chocolate & Reading Pamuk at the JFK airport

2009-08-01T23:29:00.013-05:00

A week ago I left Kolkata for Charlottesville - ending what was a very satisfying, transitory, eventful and relaxed phase of my life. One which was also characterized by anticipation mixed with some amount of uneasiness. An uneasiness which, I guess, a change of this proportion in anybody's life is bound to bring. I got my errands done, kept myself very busy, enjoyed the extended stay with my parents, savoured the brilliant sunsets our ninth floor apartment offered everyday, and was cheered up by the weather which was somewhere between an all out monsoon and the heat that preceeds it.

Charlottesville has been fun so far. And school hasnt even started yet. From an ex army who served in Iraq and knows about Sachin Tendulkar to an NFL quarterback - meeting people from all over the US has been a totally new experience. We've already had a couple of get togethers and as far as first impressions go, people seem to be nice. Last night we went to the famous Downtown Mall in C'Ville and it really was unique. I didnt have my camera along so can't post pictures but the pebbled road and the solo artists playing flute and violin lent a very old world, arty feel to the place. The band which was playing (Alligator, I think, they're called) was good to listen to in the background.

It helps that my house is a little less than a 5 minute walk from my school. More so because at 11 o' clock today, I felt like taking a picture of the Saunders building at night. It's a very majestic building and has a certain aura to it. And by night as well as by day, it looks gorgeous.

And about the title of the post - it makes for an interesting title (a little snooty maybe), right. But then again, last Sunday at the JFK International airport, I was indeed reading Pamuk's Other Colors while waiting for my flight to DC and not just because of the book, life felt really good.

Partial Solar Eclipse

2009-07-21T21:31:00.004-05:00

As seen from the terrace of my apartment in Kolkata (6:30 AM - 7:00 AM)

Flowers After The Rain

2009-07-16T04:49:00.006-05:00

Homecoming

2009-07-08T12:17:00.008-05:00

The train curved its way over the rivers and rivulets - flowing full and fast. The intermittent drizzle would occasionally be interrupted by the sun trying to find its way out of the monsoon clouds. A few 'Elephant Zone. Drive Cautiously' signboards went past as the train hooted its way through the dense forest. I half hoped for the elephants to stop the train. Of course, I would then have cursed myself for not having brought my camera. Nothing of that sort, however, happened. The train moved on steadily with its rhythmic clik-clak.

From New Jalpaiguri to Alipurduar Junction, the train ride was at once nostalgic and full of anticipation. It was twelve years ago, when as a fifteen year old kid, I had last been there to spend my vacation with my grandparents, uncles, and cousin brothers and sisters. This time, though, there were fewer people to meet and I had just about two days.

It's unbelievable how our conceptions of space and time change as we grow up. The time it took to cover the distance from the station to my dadi's house had seemed like an eternity when I was a kid. So much so that even a couple of days ago, I had argued with my father that it would take me at least 30 minutes. 5 minutes is what it took me this time. The rickshaw puller who helped me cover the last stretch, told me how the city had changed over the past decade. He showed me the new buildings that had come up long with the old ones - some of which had stayed the way I hazily remembered them and others which had become bigger and more 'modern'. But to me nothing really seemed different. The huge field was still there. The rain, the dense vegetation, the dampness, the one storied houses with tin roofs, the little shacks on stilts which sold everything from bread and biscuits to soaps and brushes, the drains full of water, the people on bicycles, the absense of anything which my dictionary defines as 'modern' - Alipurduar, to me, had stayed pretty much where I had left it in 1997.

I found my dadi waiting for me in front of the gate. I got down, gave the rickshaw puller the Bhutanese 5 Ngultrum note (Owing to the close proximity to the Bhutan border, (less than 50 kms) the Bhutanese currency is used alongside the Indian Rupee in these parts) that the chaiwallah had given me in New Jalpaiguri, touched my dadi's feet, hugged her and went inside.

As a small child, I never realized the charm of the journey to Alipurduar. Reaching home was the most important thing. My heart and my mind hadn't grown up enough to consciously take in and enjoy the little things that made up the week long stay. It's only now that I can separate out the parts and feel a sense of joy mingled with loss. It's only now that I realize that maybe I should have made a little more effort to visit this place more often during my days spent shaping my life and myself in Delhi and Bangalore. The next two days were spent with my grandmother and then my uncle and his family. There was a lot of catching up. More importantly, there was a lot of knowing each other. I have never been very close to my relatives. My parents and my friends have pretty much made up my world. But for what it's worth, it was nice to be there. It was a pleasant feeling - although a bit surprising to me - to know that connecting, bonding with your closest relatives - be it your 85 year old grandmother or your 50 something uncle or your 14 year old brother, isn't all that tough even after the long gap.

It's Beautiful

2009-06-27T13:34:00.006-05:00

'Three bedrooms in Malabar Hill! It's beautiful.' ....

.... By 'beautiful' she didnt mean what she meant when wandering about an art gallery, or assessing one of her husband's graphic designs; as an adult sometimes pretends to use a word in a simple, clear, limited way for the benefit of a child, she used the word as the upper reaches of the bourgeoisie thoughtlessly used it, as an uncomplicated acknowledgment of well-being. At the same time, the observation was an afterthought she'd almost come to terms with, without too much ruefulness: about the impossibility of ever possessing anything like this lifestyle...

Reading Amit Chaudhuri's The Immortals.

winding up - 4 (a hattrick of binge drinking)

2009-06-08T01:14:00.012-05:00

The farewell went on for 3 nights.

On Wednesday, Rohan called up and I ended up at Legends of Rock (LoR). Two people, who were one of the first new friends I had made after coming to this city, had also come. The beer bomb came in and the music was softer than Heavy Metal. High on beer and a couple of large Smirnoffs, I was sitting behind Naman when the car hit us. I held my breath as he somehow managed to steer the shaking Bullet across the road and bring it to a halt. The leg guard had loosened and I felt a slight sting on my right foot but apart from that, everything was in one piece. For some reason in my mind I was singing Sing us a song, you're the pianoman....

Maybe alcohol does make you more alert.

Or maybe not.

Thursday and it was my treat to the office dudes. Along with another B-School-bound colleague. LoR it was again, owing to its proximity to Sidharth's, Ranchu's and my house. This time I didnt waste time on Kingfisher. So after tasting all the Belgian beers that they had (which were very different), we moved on to whiskey and vodka. I got really sloshed after drinking what I guess would be close to 10 pegs. Couple that with the occasional puff (yes, I do smoke a bit when I really want to get high!) and boy was I talking. In fact, everybody was talking. I thanked Pradeep for being the 'best team lead ever' and hugged Sidharth for making it such a memorable US trip. I finally told Prashant how uneasy I felt because of his calling me 'Sir' even though we were the same age. Oh, everybody was way too drunk. Pradeep made me promise him that I would come over to Minneapolis whenever he was there next. Let's see.

I sat beside Pradeep as we went to MG Road to look for more booze once LoR turned off the music and kicked us out at 11:30. The police caught us headed in the wrong direction in a One-Way. The alcohol meter went berserk as Pradeep inhaled and I had to cough up a thousand bucks. Back at Ranchu's place, I realized that I was drunk as dead. He laid the bed, I gulped down some tap water (he had run out of drinking water) and collapsed.

On Friday Shravan decided that I needed a farewell. And a unique one at that. The venue was Kyra and the band was Swarathma. We felt a little out of place in the beginning amongst the more elite looking crowd but as the drinks started to take their effect and the band started to up the tempo, we found ourselves enjoying. Quite boisterously at that. Anpadh was the loudest one amonst us. The bass player, Jishnu with his typical UP/Bihari accent provided the additional spark as people started turning around and looking at the 5 of us shouting at the top of our voice, clapping continuously to the rhythm and even trying to voice the lyrics as good as drunk 27 year olds could.

By the time it ended, we had done enough of shouting to make the percussionist come up to us and say, 'Thanks guys. You were louder than us!'. We also got hold of Jishnu and came to know that he was part of Bodhitree of GMD and Sabka Katega fame. A few ka bhaiya, kaisan ba later, we decided to head to Take 5. It was after all, only 10:30 and we needed to get high-er.

Jason Mraz's I'm Yours greeted us at Take 5. Rohan and I had reached earlier so we ordered drinks for everybody else before the bar closed. 4 large 100 Pipers and 1 large Absolut. Rohan had gone crazy. I've never seen him gulp down neat whiskey at such pace. He didn't even bother about putting a few ice cubes. Upon my request, John Mayer's Say started playing and we ordered a repeat of the drinks. As is the norm, people got a little senti and started talking about the days gone by and the things we will miss. In spite of all the alcohol and all the music, I knew that I was leaving behind the best place I've lived in and a wonderful bunch of guys. People with whom there are no inhibitions. With whom you never have to wonder if you have been misunderstood or taken out of context. Who have the same sense of humour as you and a similar taste in rock n roll. And even though I am the only vodka drinker, that was hardly a problem ever.

I drove the bike as Rohan clinged on to me. In hindsight, I'm glad that after 20 meters he realized that he was in no state to take us home. I was drunk too. More than ever, I might say. Perhaps that's what got us home. I was too alert!

When everything in life comes with an expiry tag - the last drink, the last get-together, the last concert; my feelings towards each of them tend to be ambivalent at best. To me, it's these moments of delight that shine through when you look back at your life. To use the cliche, you hardly remember the grades you got in college or the projects you worked in your job. And as sure as I am to trade this life for something which would be a different world altogether, I know that a good part of me would be what I was in these last three years. A lot of what I become from hereon, would be thanks to the life I've led here.

To my friends in this city with whom I have shared all the joys and disappointments of my life, till we meet again - cheers and keep the music playing.

winding up - 3 (quitting the only job I have known)

2009-06-05T23:11:00.004-05:00

In the end there was no 'This is my last day' mail. The party had already happened the night before. So I completed my formalities, shook hands, asked a couple of my friends to come out with me and have a smoke (no I dont smoke) and left. Life as a software developer was over. And even though I never liked it with my heart, there was a tinge of sadness. You can better your 'bests' but the firsts always stay. I'll remember my first job and the few people who made the transformation from colleagues to friends. They were nice people. Fun to hang out with. Fun to drink with. Be it mango shake or alcohol or tea. From bitching about our manager to discussing xkcd and iPhone apps - they made the stay enjoyable. And there was my friend and my boss, who made it the most awesome 'first US trip' when we were there.

There would be no more of Eclipse and Java and desktops and servers. There's this thing with closure. With finalities. It makes me uneasy. So no matter how badly I wanted this day to come, when it finally came, it was difficult to let it sink in.

It's funny. There's so much to write about. So much that's floating in my head. Emotions. Feelings. But when I sit down to write, everything goes blank.

So long and thanks for all the bugs.

winding up - 2 (a few things i'll miss)

2009-06-04T00:36:00.001-05:00

The morning tea and music. Of late it was mostly Rohan who would pick the songs.

The sudden urge to have a drink (mostly on weeknights) which would mean getting a few cans of Kingfisher Strong from the nearby FoodMall and putting on some rock N roll.

Doing nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, on weekends and discussing how happening our life was.

Discussions with my friends: Why some people earn so much. Times Of India. IPL. Cheergirls. Dada. Random surveys and who does them. Bangalore's screwed up infra. Ajit Agarkar. Stock Markets. xkcd. College....

More discussions (mostly after having a few drinks): Women and their unfathomable ways. How 99% of all music is about relationships (mostly failed?). If only we knew more women.

Will add more as they come to mind

Winding Up - 1

2009-05-30T14:54:00.005-05:00

I sold my bike today. The milometer read 16486 Kms. It was 2 years 6 months 16 days old. In many ways, of all things I have owned, it was the one thing which meant the most. I remember having literally pleaded to my father to let me have it. Trying to put sense into him that in B'lore, a car wasnt the best option (he said he will lend me the money to buy the car). He was convinced that I too would have the same number of accidents that he had had when he rode his Jawa. I only had a couple. And they were anything but serious. But the one when an Avenger hit me while I was coming back from Purple Haze, in supreme confidence of my maneuvering abilities at 50 kmph, really hurt - because I lost the watch my father had given me. The very next day though, Dada hit a ton at Chinnaswamy and all was good.

2 trips to Nandi Hills, one to Chunchi Falls, the famous Sivasamudram adventure, Srirangapatna and the 2 longer ones to Chikmagalur and Coorg - I did my share of weekend road trips. With Naman as my constant companion in all of them. Of my near three years of stay in Bangalore, a majority of the memories of unbridled joy go back to one of these journeys.

In my day to day life, it gave me a sense of independance. It meant that I could rush off to my friends' place whenever I felt like - just to have coffee and talk about stuff which had been bothering me. Hitting 100 kmph on the Inner Ring Road while coming back home at 1 in the night had its own rush.

It's time to wind up from B'lore. And letting go isnt all that easy. It was a bike today. Soon, there will be bigger, more meaningful things.

Coorg Bike Trip: Day 2

2009-05-09T13:34:00.006-05:00

The best part about Saturday, our second day of the trip, was that we didnt have any fixed spots to visit. The '52 Weekend Getaways from Bangalore' travel guide said that the road from Kushalnagar (4 Kms from Bylakuppe) to Siddhapur and then to Madikeri was very picterusque and ideal for a bike ride. So that was our plan. Ride around the coffee estates and reach Madikeri before sunset.

For the second consecutive day, we didnt get to eat idly/vada and sambhar. The eatery in Kushalnagar had only Set Dosa for breakfast. The coffee though, had already started to taste distinctly different.

Our first stop on the way was Dubare where you can cross the Cauvery and get to see elephants being bathed from close quarters. It turned out to be another one of the tourist places with a long queue for the boat. A 10 minute halt and we decided to move on.

The ride to Siddhapur and then onwards to Gonikoppal more than lived up to the description in the book. Hardly any outside traffic, bright weather but not at all hot, and the road which snaked through small villages and coffee plantations lined with huge trees - it was just as we had wanted it to be. A little after Siddhapur, we took a diversion to see one Augusteshwara Temple in Guyya. The almost non existent, narrow road suggested that it was in no way a place people visited. 3 kms and 10 minutes later, we reached a temple on the banks of the Cauvery. Serene, quiet - apart from the chirping of birds and the distant drone of a cement mixer and very much isolated; and the surprises thrown in by diversions was continuing. We spent almost an hour there, sitting on the rocks near the river, observing red ant like insects in the temple and mostly trying to assimilate the calmness of the place. Like the Sakya monastery but in a much different setting, this place again made my mind wander to the life we lead in cities and how we hardly ever sit idle, doing nothing, thinking about nothing. I know I dont want to (I wont be able to) lead such a life, but once in a while it makes sense to cut oneself from the everyday drill and go to such a place. To use the cliche, it really soothes the nerves.

On the way back, a screw got stuck into Naman's bike and punctured the front tyre. I went to Siddhapur and fortunately found Rajiv who came along with me, pumped air into Naman's bike and somehow managed to take it to his shop. He asked me how we were liking Kodagu and I said, 'bahut khoobsoorat'.

The road from Siddhapur to Madikeri goes through the hills. It had rained a little in the afternoon. The road had become so hot during the day that the rain water was fast evaporating leading to a very misty appearance. Add to it the dense jungle on one side of the road and a drop on another and the ride had become even more exciting. There's a certain charm, a sense of discovery, when you are on the road. Because no matter how much you have read or heard about something, it invariably has the ability to surprise and at times astound you. Kodagu and its beautiful roads were doing just that to me. And I was loving every moment of it.

Finally, we reached Madikeri at around 4 o' clock and started looking for a hotel. As it turned out, everything had already been taken up by half of Bangalore which had come there to spend the long weekend. We tried calling the Sakya monsatery guest house but the number was out of order. Bylakuppe was around 50 Kms from Madikeri. Left without any other option, we decided to head there anyway. The Madikeri - Kushalnagar stretch was really bad. Till Suntikoppa, which was 10 Kms or so from Madikeri, it was still comfortable. We made a brief halt there to have coffee. But after that the ride was bad and back breaking. Bylakuppe, however, didnt let us down. We got the last available room. Apparently, people had discovered it and were coming back from Madikeri to find a place there!

Sunday would be our tick-off-places-to-see in Madikeri day. And we would take the Kushalnagar-Siddhapur-Madikeri route again instead of the direct one. And again, when your body is a little tired and you are so content at heart, sleep does come real easy.

Coorg Bike Trip: Day 1

2009-05-05T11:31:00.019-05:00

We had somehow missed our favourite roadside joint where we used to have breakfast whenever we hit the Bangalore - Mysore road. And the famous Kamat eateries had busloads of people waiting. So after 2 hours of riding we were really hungry and thought that the "Yummy Breakfast -Available all day long" consisting of Idly, Dosa, Aloo Parathe etc at CCD, might not be too bad an option. We decided to give it a try at the Maddur CCD.

The 10 or so 1 inch sized white discs and the yellow liquid over it which they passed for Idly - Sambhar was without doubt the worst, most distasteful thing I have seen and eaten. The dosa was only a little better. And priced at around 80 bucks, it was a bad start to the trip. Naman was furious that how could anybody sell such stuff. It was a pity that in all the frustration (and hysterical laughter), we forgot to take pictures of it.

We took the diversion somewhere before Mysore and were soon on SH 88 which would take us to Madikeri. Almost immediately, things started to get better. Gulmohar tress lined the road and I dare say that I can't remember seeing RED like that in a long long time.

At around noon, we reached Bylakuppe, the Tibetan settlement. But for a couple of signboards, it's easy to miss it. A few hundred meters into the settlement, and the landscape was already changing. Prayer flags, vast farmlands on either side of the small road, ornately built gates, Lamas and Tibetan people on the road - it was tough to believe that we were in Karnataka.

Bylakuppe was a gem of a discovery. It grew on us as we roamed around the place. Even though the first stop at the Namdroling Monastery reminded us of a typical tourist spot with roadside vendors and hordes of familes clicking pictures, we soon realized that people didnot have the time, energy or the inclination to visit the lesser known monasteries which were more secluded and not a part of tourist guide books and hence in my book more worthy of a visit.

The half a dozen monasteries that we visited in the afternoon really made our day. From the 'prasad' of cheese balls, wafers, guava juice that we received at one monastery to the sight of lamas chanting with gongs and drums playing in the background; from the Tibetan school kids who posed for my friend to the late afternoon squall which was preceeded by the darkening of skies - Bylakuppe was way beyond what we had expected. A diversion, meant as just a stopover on our way to Madikeri had turned out to be a revelation.

The late afternoon shower had made the place all the more charming. We were having chowmein with chop sticks when the rain came. And it ended almost at the same time we finished our lunch. Talk of coincidence.

By 5 o'clock in the evening, we were so much in awe of the place that we shelved our intial plan to reach Madikeri (another 40 kms). By a stroke of very good luck, we found out that the Sakya Monastery guest house had rooms available for the night. The thought of spending the night at that quiet village as opposed to some touristy place with a hotel in the market place was at once a huge relief and a pleasing feeling. We dumped our bags in the room and went in for another ride before the sun set. As if to remind us that there was much more to Bylakuppe than we had seen, we witnessed lamas debating amongst themselves in the Sera Je monastery. Groups of 2 were continously arguing along with frequent clapping of their hand as if to emphasize their points of view. Of course we didn't understand a word of what they were saying but it was a very unique sight nevertheless and something both of us are unlikely to forget in a hurry.

Soon it was night and after having tasted the steamed momos at the Fast Food center, we came back to our room. At around 9 o'clock, we went to the Sakya monastery. A cool, steady breeze was blowing. The few solar powered lights outside the monastery along with the the flickering lamps which could be seen through the huge windows lent a sense of eeriness to the place. The fluttering prayer flags which in turn would make the lights dance only enhanced the effect. It was a very peaceful and calming feeling. And of course there were thoughts on the way we lead our lives - continously assaulting our senses with internet, TV, music and what not but this is not the place for those.

I came back to the room very content. There was hardly any tiredness because of the 280 Kms that we had travelled. I guess when you are so happy, the body yields to it too. By 10 we were asleep.

Day 1 of the trip had been unlike what we had thought. And in a very pleasant way. Day 2 would see us at the real Kodagu (Coorg), amidst the coffee estates and the rolling hills.

Same Shrub, Different Colours

2009-04-21T08:43:00.005-05:00

Another Week Off

2009-04-20T13:54:00.008-05:00

Sometime in the beginning of September last year, I had taken a week off from work. To work on my essays. This time around it's to get the paper work done for the admissions and also because I just don't feel like going to office. I'm quite happy with myself. I'm back to planning things. And since I never was a planner of any sorts, it's new and exciting to me. And I'm back to jogging again. Yes, I have that urge every six months or so and then it gradually subsides after a month at the most.

Today after I came back from my jog, I saw the sky brilliantly coloured by the setting sun. The weather has been like the Bangalore of old since yesterday night and it all added up to bring a smile to my face. Strange, how when things are going well, everything feels all the more beautiful.

Bunk

2009-04-02T10:27:00.006-05:00

I called up my boss at around 11 in the morning and told him that I was not coming to office. I mumbled something like not being able to sleep last night owing to the frequent power cuts. I don't know if he bought it but nevertheless he said 'Haan haan theek hai'.

After having cornflakes for breakfast I decided to take a short nap. All my roommates had left by then and I was tired of facebook-ing and chatting. I woke up at around 1:30 and suddenly had the urge to play the guitar. So I plugged in my Fender, opened the lyrics and started singing Hey There Delilah. I don't know if it was the setting - having the entire house to myself and with nothing else to do in a hot afternoon, or the song, but I really got into the zone. Alternating between the YouTube and the lyrics page, I slowly started playing it - para by para. Once I had the guitaring right, I turned to singing it as good as I possibly could. Soon I found myself singing 'Oooooooo it's whatch u do to meeee' at the top of my voice. With the guitar strapped on my shoulder and the laptop placed on the chair, I was utterly and totally happy - singing as if I was singing it to a girl. So for the better part of 2 hours, I kept singing and listening to Hey There Delilah. It was only a power cut at 4:30 which made me take a break. I went out, smiling to myself, had a mango shake and came back home. I switched on the amplifier, opened the word doc which had the lyrics (although I had almost memorised it by then) and sang it for another time. The bunk was worth it.

Yessss

2009-03-31T12:03:00.004-05:00

It was around 6:30 in the evening when my cell phone rang. Call 1. I got up from my desk, started moving towards the reception and picked up the phone.

Is this Atish

Yes

Hi. This is ....... calling from the Darden School of Business. We are pleased to offer you admission to the Class of 2011 ......

Everything thereafter was a blur. And I remember saying nothing more than a 'Thank you so much' and 'It's as good as surprises come' to her 'Ya, we like to call people a day before the official announcement'

I let out a silent 'Yesssss', rang up my parents and sent out a mail to the five people who form my family here in Bangalore. A minute later there was another call. Call 1 again. My heart skipped a beat. It was a mistake. I have been waitlisted or worse, not offerred admission. So they are calling to apologize. I pressed the green button on my phone. It was my friend from Vancouver.

I had played this scene so many times in my head that now when it had actually come, I found myself not reacting much. I wasn't restless. There was immense relief and the knowledge that I wouldn't have to start revising my data structures and algorithm fundas in search of another tech-job. But like most occasions for which you have waited a long time (and I mean really long), this one too left me a little numb. The long blog post talking about failures, success, balance and chance never happened and will most probably only remain in my head. The pumping of fists and the crying out really loud also didn't materialize.

There wasn't any celebration that Tuesday night. It started on Wednesday evening and got over on Monday morning with a minor break on Thursday. But more of that later. After the longest time, I'm happy in a very different way. In a way which tells me that I might finally have control over my life. It's a state of mind which somehow is not fundamentally transitory which has been the case with most things in the past 3 years. It gives me a chance to change a lot of things. And I had been waiting for this chance forever.

A Wednesday Late Afternoon

2009-03-11T06:53:00.010-05:00

Clips on the clothes line against the sky

Clips on the clothes line against the trees behind

A close up on the bunch of coconuts which keep falling every now and then on our terrace with a loud thud

I realized that keeping your hands steady while holding the camera above your head is not very simple. But I guess my Canon has pretty good image stabilization, for this came out better than expected

Spotted this on the house next to us. Was wondering if there's a story behind it. Some sort of a guard? A watchman maybe?

Brightly colored electric wires. This one was taken from the balcony

Another one taken from the balcony. Again, had to hold the camera up. But this time had the support of the railings to steady my hands

A Weekend With My Friends

2009-02-11T18:01:00.010-06:00

Very often, the build up to an event is the best part of it. The anticipation, the countdown, often bloats up the real thing so much so that when it actually happens, it doesn't turn out to be as grand or as amazing or as memorable as we thought it would be. Last weekend, however, was not one of those occasions.

From O'Hare Airport to the Greyhound bus stop, we spent the better part of the ride trying to figure out when was the last time we had met. Was it at her cousin's marriage in Delhi in 2003-04 sometime. Was it during one of her trips to Bokaro. In the end, none of us could remember and we settled for 'a long time'. For about two hours we chatted non stop. About what we have been upto. Parents, people we are in touch with, people who have somehow got lost, complications - everything. Then they arrived. Husband and wife. He cracked his usual silly jokes and she told us about the baked chicken and banana cake she had brought.

After roaming around downtown for a while, we headed to a Chinese restaurant. She placed the orders and the rest of us mostly approved of whatever fancy dishes she wanted us to try. The talk mostly revolved around marriage, family, responsibilites and how things change after marriage. Husband and wife were all mature and talking eloquently about family, acceptance, and adjustment. She made her point about settling outside India and the new equation it brings forth. She was more passionate about all of it. She had all the whys. I just listened and concentrated on my Samuel Adams except for my occasional one liner which at times seemed profound. At least to me.

After a brief stop at Melting Pot for a Yin & Yang chocolate fondue, we decided to head home. I kept shouting for alcohol but the shops had already closed.

Saturday, and Chicago came up with a bright, sunny, 47 deg F weather. Cheesy, touristy snaps around the Bean, pizza at Giordano's, hanging around Navy Pier, a 'free hug', an impulsive decision to go for a $5 '4-of-us-together-sketch' - the day went by like a dream.
We went back home to recharge ourselves for the evening and finally managed to buy alcohol. At home, I made the drinks while the others busied themselves getting high and dancing. I took the opportunity to make videos of my friends singing and dancing. Hardly have I seen people sing so out of tune as these guys did - karaoking to Socha Hai from Rock On!
Anyway, high on vodka and very happy, we left for dinner. The sushi was good and I did a decent job of eating with chop sticks. By around 11, we were inside a club. In context, it wasn't the best part of the day. But although I never really like hip-hop music, the tequila shots and random gossip with my friends made up for that. We stayed there for a couple of hours. By that time I was quite drunk and so managed to climb up an escalator which was coming down thus fulfilling one of my long standing desires!

We were meeting after years. 3/4 years in some cases. And yet, there wasn't an awkward moment. No silences. No uneasy pauses. We never ran out of things to talk about. And at the same time we didnt have to make small talk. It was amazing in every way you look at it. She was turning out to be the best host ever. It was the kind of reunion where you didnt have to think before talking. You could say anything you felt like saying. You could even go ahead and talk about things you didn't like about someone without being misunderstood. You could laugh on the silliest of jokes and the next instant talk about 'important' things.

Sunday was always going to be laid back and lazy after the Saturday we had had. And so it was. It was a Bangalore like morning. The sun rays streamed down the open blinds as I lay on the bed. Tea was served and I slowly woke up - letting last night's hangover to leave me. We went out, had brunch and met the guy who's car my friend was planning to buy. Most of the talk was about when we would meet next and since I was the only one staying in India, all attention turned towards me. It felt good to be wanted. It felt good when they said the next meeting the 3 of them would have in a couple of weeks time wouldn't be the same without me. I don't remember the number of times she asked me 'next kab aa rahe ho' to which I never had any answer. We left them at around 5 as they were about to board their bus. The two of us decided to take a walk and then watch a movie. The movie was rather long and not as good as we had expected. We came out of the hall and walked for a bit before going to a Japanese restaurant. I guess it was beginners luck because I did worse with the chop sticks this time around. Or probably it was the sake. We had sushi once again.

By the time we came out, the streets were quite deserted. She said that I hadn't clicked a single photograph throughout the day. So we took turns posing and taking snaps before deciding that it was time we head home.

I think we were mostly quiet during the ride back to home. It was perhaps the realization that two wonderful days had gone by and next morning we would return to our lives. We talked about the two who had left us in the evening, about a few other friends and about ourselves. She booked a cab for 6:15, I packed my luggage and then went to sleep.

The ride in the morning was lonely. I had been thinking about this for months and now that it was over, I couldn't help but get a little sentimental. All of us have vastly different lives. We work in different industries, have different tastes and live in different places. I dont know when we will meet next and if it would be as special as this one was. But for what it's worth - this one was magical.

Another Saturday In Minneapolis

2009-01-31T21:34:00.010-06:00

I stood there watching the man kite skiing on the frozen Lake Calhoun. The temperature was a shade above zero, the wind lacked its usual bite and the sun was out. With just about 3 weeks to go before I head back to Bangalore and the weather finally obliging, it was my best chance to spend some time wandering about Minneapolis. People were out with their dogs and skiing gear. Some had in fact pitched a tent in the middle of the lake.

"How deep is it", I asked the guy who had managed to bore through the ice. "2 feet or so", he replied. "Just wanted to test if this thing works. It does!" he shouted back as he put his drilling machine in the car. I walked along the shore for about half an hour and then stood on the sheet of ice covering the lake. It was one of those rare moments when your mind doesn't wander. There was nothing that I was thinking about. Not friends, not family, not job or career. I stood there, looking at the kites and letting the tranquility of the place flow over me.

My next stop was the Orpheum Theater. I got down from the bus in Downtown and found the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall to my right. I went there and asked an elderly man if he knew the directions to the theater. "Go 4 blocks down to Hennepin Avenue. It would be on you right". Good, I said to myself. I would make it in time to get the tickets.

Spring Awakening, kept me mesmerized for 2 hours. It was like an assault on my eyes and ears. I wouldn't attempt any sort of review here but from the rock-ish music (especially the use of the cello) to the lighting which was at once bright and subtle (if that makes any sense to you); from the explicit and near grotesque portrayal of sexuality to the energy with which the actors performed - it was unlike anything I have ever seen on stage.

The show got over at 4:30 and it was only then that I realized that I hadn't had anything to eat during the whole day. I decided it was time to head back home.

Roaming around alone has a certain appeal to it. I have liked it on the two occasions that I have done it recently. Today, and on the 24th of December when I roamed around Washington DC. It lets me be very instinctive without being bothered about anything else. It gives me more freedom to do whatever takes my fancy without having to explain it to anybody. I reached home at around 6:00 to find my room mates on the verge of calling 911 since I had left with the word that I would be back in an hour ! I told them what I had been upto as they listened in slight amazement. Anyway, it was a good Saturday morning. The next one, in Chicago should be very different yet very memorable.

Images From A Saturday Morning

2009-01-10T14:16:00.010-06:00

Right next to my apartment

A dash of colour amidst the white

It was 9:30 but I didn't see anybody outside the house. Good for me though. They would have thought I was crazy clicking pictures of houses in this cold.

For some reason, this caught my attention. Maybe because of the colours.

It's so cold that even the trees need protection. Or maybe it's something else I don't know about? Had it not been for the little green popping out of one of the sacks, I would have had trouble figuring out what they were!

A Day & A Half In New York

2008-12-29T15:07:00.007-06:00

New York, in one word, was seductive. It was like tasting a drink. Just taking a sip and imagining how the full glass would taste.

The mist that engulfed the city added to the charm. Walking through the fog which would suddenly break down into rain, the smoke from the roadside stalls, the little potholes which were beginning to get filled by the sporadic rain, the skyscrapers which would disappear into the smog, the people - fashionably dressed, the transient nature of my stay; all of it combined to give an almost ethereal feeling. You hear so much about a city and you know that a day and a half is never going to satiate you. Especially when it's NY. And then you actually go there and feel its pull. And I don't mean the tourist spots. What got to me were the possibilities that even a first time visitor like me could see. The life that could be felt everywhere. In the subways and on the streets. Inside the tall buildings and the yellow cabs.

I spent the night of 26th December with my friends. Roaming around Times Square. Like a first timer, I kept looking around the lights around me and clicked photographs. We then got drunk on Bourbon. So much so that my friend was in no state to walk up to the PATH station that would take us to our hotel in Newark. We therefore called up our friend who had stayed back in the hotel. He came and picked us up at 4 in the morning.

We got up at 11 the next day, checked out of the hotel, had poha at another friend's place in Jersey City and went sightseeing. The other 3 guys with me had been to NY at least a dozen times and understandably were not much enthused by the sight of the Wall Street or the Brooklyn Bridge. Nevertheless I forced them to tag along with me!

We had a 6 o' clock movie to catch. Ghajini. And apart from Asin (who I thought looked gorgeous) and the comic/romantic part, I didnt like the movie. Anyway, we got out of the hall at around 9 and drove to Mithaas at Edison where we had Gujarati Thali, Chole Bhature, Raj Kachauri and lots of sweets. Our initial plans to head back to DC after dropping our friend at Horsham were put to rest once we reached there at 12 and realised that it might not be the best idea to drive through the dense fog at night.

For 2 days I kept imagining what it would be like to live in NY and experience all that it has to offer. I wanted to walk the streets with the camera in my hand for a few more days and get a feel of the city. To visit its cafes, listen to its music, eat its food and talk to the people who live there and then write about them.

I won't say that I loved NY. But it sure made me want to come back. Not for a day or two. But to stay and experience it. NY left a feeling of yearning in me.

On The Road

2008-12-29T12:06:00.007-06:00

For someone like me who's traveling by road in the US for the first time, the experience couldn't have been any more different from what it is in India. Automatic gear, lane driving, wide roads, no cattle, no villages or small towns in between. It becomes boring after some time. I was sitting next to my friend who was driving and was continuously falling asleep. But in the stretch between Horsham and Baltimore, there was a bit of traffic. And it was the better part of the 4 hour drive.

The dog in the front would keep poking its head out now and then. And the one in the back would disappear behind the tire. Thankfully the traffic was slow and I didn't have anything more interesting to do. So I waited and finally managed to get the shot I wanted.

This one was more interesting. The first time I spotted it, I was in the middle of my half awake half asleep phases. By the time I had my camera ready, it had overtaken us (our lane was slower). 15 minutes later though, courtesy some very innovative driving from my friend, we were again close to the small truck. I couldn't get the angle I wanted but nevertheless, this is what I clicked.

Snapshots From Horsham

2008-12-29T10:18:00.010-06:00

It's a small town near Philadelphia. Stayed there at a friend's place for a day. It's one of the most picturesque places I have seen. The sun was out and the temperature was a pleasant 15 degrees or so. A welcome change from Minneapolis!

There was still some time before we left for NY and so I went around the place with my camera. And the squirrel obliged.

It was the day after X-Mas. So the decorations outside the houses were still there.

Friday Night @ Hard Rock Cafe

2008-12-20T18:00:00.007-06:00

'All of us have our day jobs but we're trying to get this going full time. Let's see.'

I was having a conversation with Matt, the bassist of the band, The Phoenix Philosophy. He told me about a few guitar stores in Minneapolis which have a good collection of acoustic-electric guitars. My friend managed to talk to Ketan, their drummer - the desi guy who had first caught our attention!

Yesterday was a live band night at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had just gone there to spend the evening. So it was a pleasant surprise to find the bands playing. The first band, Major Fifth, didn't sound good to me and even though Matt and his band was a bit too heavy for my taste, with Grey Goose, they sounded good.

At around 12 o' clock the three of us were standing outside, contemplating whether to catch the last bus home or stay another hour and take a cab ride. Bensonwells, the last band for the night, had just started playing. I was beginning to enjoy their sound. And the vodka and Margarita had also started taking effect. A minute later, we were back in the bar with another drink.

It was a great evening. We ended up buying the CD from the vocalist of Bensonwells and today when I heard it, they sounded quite amazing. Just the kind of indie, alternative music I've come to like over the last year and more. And yes, I asked the name of the cute waitress who has been serving us for the last 3 times. 'Karen', she said. I told her that she is beautiful and she smiled and went away.

Moments

2008-12-18T13:46:00.006-06:00

Wednesday evening. Driving to downtown.

Wish You Were Here. Witchy Woman. With A Little Help From My Friends. With Or Without You. KQRS92 is playing 'W' in its Classic Rock A-Z which has been running since the 1st of the month. Three out of the five of us are humming along with the songs, trying to remember the lyrics when we can. An NBA game awaits us upon reaching Target Center. And even though I just about know the rules of the game, it's something new and I'm excited as usual.

Thursday afternoon.

"The coffee's on me. Don't worry about it", Dave, the restaurant's owner, tells me. We've been going to Zakia Deli for more than 2 weeks now and I really like the food. I have the day's special: Kafta and Rice, and it tastes delicious as ever. I grab the coffee, take a copy of the local City Pages because the title says 'Year in Music 2008' and step out into the bright afternoon with my jacket unzipped. It's a pleasant -8 deg outside.

Not this. Maybe something else...

2008-12-15T19:48:00.005-06:00

This is going to be a long one. So you might want to do something else.

There's a kind of satisfaction which comes with giving your best shot. Something often bordering on a sense of arrogance. When I decided to apply for a US MBA this earlier this year, I knew it was going to be a very uphill climb. Last year, I had closely seen someone go through it and even if I knew I would do things differently, I knew that I had a lot on my plate.

I had this feeling that this was going to be intense. And in a good way. I wanted to do it. I thought I was good at it. It would be something I hadn't done ever in my life. And it had the power to change many things.

Today I got a reject from my top school. A school I would have really wanted to attend. But wait. This is neither going to be a i-hate-this-flawed-process post nor a oh-im-ruined one.

I had done everything I had the power to do. I couldn't change my past. My weaknesses. But in effort and intent, I think I would have done better than a few who would get into the school. Blogs, emails, phone calls, forums, websites, brochures and info sessions. I did all the usual things. I made excel sheets too! But what I enjoyed doing most was asking myself questions. Asking myself what I wanted out of the two years at the school. And beyond. So by the time I submitted the application, I had clear answers to all of them. And most importantly, they were my answers. I wrote about them passionately. I poured my heart into them. It was quite liberating. I stringed together each sentence carefully. My transitions were good. The flow was there. I distilled out what my experiences and memories had taught me and I wrote honestly. Yes, I embellished my achievements. But they were small, personal ones. I feared they would get lost amongst the larger, earth shattering ones that others would have. Oh, you should have seen my essays. Each ending was unique. Each beginning had a bite. I know its like being boastful about myself. But they were. I don't always like what I write. But the essays... I really did a good job of them. The few who read my first drafts would agree.

Anyway, the fact that I have a major release to take care of tomorrow has sort of helped. And of course the new life. I am sad. I mean I had dreamed about getting the admit email so many times. I had played over in my head what I would do. What I would put on this blog. But now that it has actually not happened, I don't feel all that depressed or down. Somebody told be not long ago that I can make it a habit to cry about how things aren't going my way. But this email hasn't had a similar effect. At least no so far.

I am generally very critical of myself. So much so that I often hesitate to disagree or argue if I am absolutely not sure about my own knowledge or information. I hate seeing the faults in others till the point I am certain that I'm not misunderstanding them and that I have the facts right. So I wont hold a grudge for this. Disheartened? Definitely. Felt let down? No. Wished it had been different? Yes. Feel that the world around me has shattered? Naah.

This process has given me a lot of clarity. Loads of confidence about my ability to think and come to conclusions. I know it's not the right time to talk about confidence when you have just got a rejection. But it's after all the judgement 2 people made about my abilities and potential. And it's different from what I think of myself. There are still a couple of schools which might have different opinions about me. And even if they dont there's always a next time. But just having done this so thoroughly has given me immense satisfaction. I still think that I put in a great application.

I'm beginning to believe that what matters really is what you think of yourself. And then, what the people around you - those who know you closely, think about you. Because whenever I 've let strangers judge me, they've dissapointed me.

Anyway. Guess I am done rambling about nothing in particular. And yes, there are still new things happening everyday. Take temperatures of -32 degree for example.

A dream got shattered today. A huge one. It's perhaps time to start creating a new one.

Something New

2008-12-14T20:48:00.003-06:00

The last three weeks have seen me experiencing a new way of life, doing a few firsts, and planning for more. I thought I would die to put them down in this blog. Strangely, I haven't. A time when new things are happening to me everyday has also been characterized by a lethargy, even reluctance, to write about them. Or maybe, I love writing the most when I have nothing else on my mind. But there are a few who still like what I write. Or what I used to. Some who remember that this blog turned three a few days back; who would still be happy to read one of my random ramblings about balance in life and such. About change and nostalgia and memories. This post, is for one such person.

I love it when it's snowing here. I love the sense of romance it carries with it. The way snow flakes settle on my black jacket and reveal their fractals if you care enough to look closely before they melt into tiny droplets of water. The day after a night of heavy snowfall is one of the most gorgeous sights I have seen. Especially when the sun comes out and the pure white snow dazzles all around me. The wooden houses of suburban Minneapolis which line the road that takes me to office, the snow covered parking lots, the lone biker who has perhaps been born and brought up here and is no stranger to the weather, the bearded, homeless man who stands with a sign asking you to help him - each day brings with it a new way to look at the world.
Mundane things like grocery shopping take on daunting proportions as I walk the kilometer long stretch to the mall braving the cold winds which make the temperature fall to -20.

For a long time now, I have wanted my life to spring up surprises. Mostly pleasant ones, I would say! At heart I love uncertainties. Yes, I do crave for the assurance that comes with knowing exactly what to expect from your surroundings and the people you interact with. But maybe because I have led a pretty predictable life, or maybe because I have a tendency to believe in miracles - I keep imagining that I would have moments which would be anything but predictable and mundane. Somebody told me long back that I am a romantic at heart. And to quite an extent, I think I am.

Today I find myself in that kind of situation. A new country, new faces on the streets, new places to visit. The working hours are different as is the way people work. They greet strangers here but at times ask too many questions. I mean do I really care if you put the receipt in the bag or give it to me? There are too many varieties of milk and I give a damn if it contains 2% less fat or has Vitamin X. But there are also so many shoes that I have already bought 3 for myself! At one level there's a lot to feel and absorb. It overwhelms me. I feel I would be able to assimilate only a small bit of it. Particularly because it's a temporary change. On the other hand, knowing for sure that I will go back to Bangalore which by all standards has given me a very comfortable, hassle free life for the last two years and more - makes me enjoy this 'break' more than I might have done, had it been permanent. And of course, the time of the year helps. I have enough breaks to go around a bit, grab all those deals and generally not work too hard at office!

I think I'm really enjoying my stay here because it's a huge shift from my regular life but at the same time comes with an expiry tag. It's like being given space and time to experience something and go all out.

Blogging will most probably be slow paced. As it has been for most of this year. It's contradictory I know, since there would be so much to write about. But I think it's only when I separate myself from events which happen in my life, that I am able to write about them. I take time to assimilate and feel the experiences. The spontaneous reaction is also something, I know. And I wish I had the drive to keep writing as and when things happen. On the fly. In real time. It would have offered a different perspective, I'm sure. But that's the way I am. And moreover, I don't just want to report events.

By the way, the Oasis concert was mind blowing. Matt Costa's opening act with his acoustic guitar was a treat. Ryan Adams disappointed big time. Oasis was out of the world. The stage with the 4 big screens. The lights. The sound. It was indeed magical. And yes, you could buy beer too. We came out with amazement and delight writ large on our faces. Went to HRC for another round of beer. The cute waitress looked way more hot. Or maybe I was too high on alcohol and music.

Updates From Minneapolis

2008-11-29T10:33:00.007-06:00

"It's sad what happened in your country man..... So any of you guys from Mumbai?"

"No..but we have friends there."

"So where do you wanna go?"

"mmm.. Downtown.. we dont know exactly where though..."

"Ok. I'll take you where all the bars, restaurants and the discs are. Ok? You guys can then just walk around and have fun.."

"Sounds cool!"

Abdul, our Somalian driver, gave us a fantastic ride to downtown. He gave us tips on driving in the US, his opinion about the 'lazy Americans', the Minnesota winter and such things. He dropped us at the heart of downtown Minneapolis with the Target Center to the right and Hard Rock Cafe to the left. The near zero temperatures were definitely a first for us and after going around the 1st Avenue for half an hour or so, we decided to head to HRC.

The waitress there was the cutest ever. So much so that my friend and I made sure that we 'timed' our drinks so that we finished it just when she was around and not the other dude! Needless to say, our conversation was limited to something on the lines of 'So you guys doing fine' and '..whichever sauce u suggest ..' (That was the starters though. And she suggested Hot Sauce which was just fine)
A few drinks later, we went to the store and bought some HRC merchandise - sweat shirts and T-Shirts, and then decided to go out and do some more exploring.

Just as we had stepped out of HRC, we heard drum beats. Really loud ones. We followed it to find two guys sitting in front of the Target Center working up a rhythm with empty buckets and cans. A small crowd had gathered. I cursed myself for not having brought my camera along even as I watched them with amazement. They also did an improvised version of 'Eye of the Tiger' which really got the crowd clapping.
Unfortunately though, we had found them towards the end of their performance and about 15 minutes later, they started to wind up. The people went away but the two of us stayed back to chat with them. Soon we were talking about India, vegetarian food, tabla and basketball. They were locals and were planning a trip to India sometime in 2009. My tall friend talked about basketball and how he wouldn't have the height advantage that he has back home! A few 'Amazing show guys' and 'See ya again dudes' later, we were off, smiling cheek to cheek.

It has been good so far. Very different. It hasn't snowed yet but the cold will take some getting used to. There are very few people on the streets, the trees are naked, cars come from the opposite direction and then stop for you to cross the road and strangers invariably greet you with a smile or a 'How you doing today'.
From Abdul to Qasim - a Pakistani from Peshawar who enjoyed Bollywood songs but didnt speak Punjabi; the cab drivers have been varied too. Then there was Aaron, the salesman at the shoestore who spoke passionately about Bush and 'Change' and how it amazes him that so many people from India want to get into the same profession. He gave us a crash course on shoes as we looked to buy a pair which would see us through the notorious Minnesota winter. He said how, a common American doesn't want too many people coming from outside into his country and even though the Bangaldesh - India analogy didn't strike a chord with him, he is one salesman I won't forget in hurry.

I also did loads of shopping (I dont think I have shopped so much in my entire life) on Friday. We got up at 5:30 in the morning and by 6:30 had hit the stores, after walking for some 20 minutes in the cold. There was no rush as we had been told but from 7 to 11 I bought everything from jackets to full length T-Shirts to shoes to jeans.

And yes, on Thursday, a friend came over from Greenbay, Wisconsin. We got the shock of our lives as we found out the hard way that everything is closed on Thanksgiving. Fortunately, his friend knew of an Indian restaurant which was open and so at 3 in the afternoon, after having wandered through downtown with an empty stomach and a cold wind shaking our bones, we finally managed to dig our fingers at naan and palak paneer and some chicken biriyani. It was heavenly.

Lots more to say but for the time being, this would do.

Durga Puja Revisited

2008-10-07T11:10:00.000-05:00

It's ashthami today and I spent the whole day at home, alone, working on my Tuck and Kellogg applications. It's the first time I'm not with my parents during Durga Puja. No, I don't feel sad. Just that it's a first. And firsts always get my attention.

Initially I thought that I would ramble about DP in Bokaro but then realized that I have already done it a year back! I have always associated Durga Puja with a sense of fondness mixed with loss. It brings with it memories of Bokaro, the pandals in Sector 4-D and 1-C, friends, family and the general sense of bonhomie. It reminds me of the time when everything felt right and worth waiting for, the time when my dad's 16 hour shifts ceased to matter to him and he would be at his cheerful best, the time when my parents suddenly forgot to fight, the time when my mother's exemplary cooking skills found new ways to delight. It reminds me of the assurance, of the belief, that I had as a kid, that no matter what, there was Goddess Durga to take care of everything. I think it's probably the one thing that still remains.

It was probably in 1997 when we visited Silchar during the Durga Puja. My grandfather had insisted that we spend it there since each year, we only went during my summer vacation. I don't know if this is what you call foresight, or if it was just sheer coincidence, but by the time the next Durga Puja came, he wasn't there anymore.

Today, amidst all this madness of getting an admit, a better job, a better life - I miss the simplicity of spending 4 days of Durga Puja as a child. I miss the joy of trying to land a 25 paise coin inside the bangle placed at the bottom of a bucket full of water. The 50 paise which it would earn brought with it, a thrill which is now hard to find. Yes, I know my essays say that 'coming up with technical solutions to complex business problems is thrilling' - or something to that effect, but you know the truth.

At around 8:00 in the evening I had got tired of my essays and staying alone in the house. I submitted the Kellogg application after looking at the preview for the tenth time (the extra care because I had sort of screwed up the earlier one I had submitted to Ross). I think I got it perfect this time. Almost 15,000 words and 7 months after I started this process, Phase 1 is about to get over. The end however, is nowhere near. Anyway, I put on the new shirt which my mother had bought for me in July, insisting that I wear it during Puja, and decided to visit the nearby pandal. A 20 minute walk through the evening traffic in the heart of Koramangala took me there. I walked in till I reached the place where the idols were kept. Like always, I closed my eyes, folded my hands and prepared to list down my demands in front of the Goddess. Like always, I could say nothing and just kept quiet for a few seconds. I then grabbed a chicken roll and a glass of masala lemonade and a few minutes later left the place.

There should always be something to go back to when you feel being burdened by the weight of carrying on. For the longest time, DP was one of those things. It's another story that when it was most enjoyable, there was hardly any thing which burdened or troubled me. Life wasn't nearly as complex. I wasn't nearly as demanding.

Pamuk says in Istanbul - Life can't be all that bad....whatever happens, I can always take a walk along the Bosphorus.
I hope all of us have our Bosphorus to take a walk along.

Once

2008-09-18T12:48:00.004-05:00

It's the most incredible film I've seen in quite some time. The actors, the story, the spontaneity with which things unfold, the realism in the way the 'Guy' and the 'Girl' start feeling the nuances of the melody as they sing Falling Slowly; it's sheer brilliance. It's a film which gave me goosebumps and I don't even know why. It's a film which I knew I would love from the very first shot. It's a film which just keeps getting better and better with every scene till it ends and you are left with the scenes and the songs buzzing in your head. As musicals go, this one beats the few I have seen with its uniqueness in weaving the songs into the narrative of the story in a way which you have to see to know.

Right now, I'm just in a different place. Yes, this movie is that good. At least that's what I felt. So I'll leave you with two of its most beautiful songs. Get hold of the soundtrack. I could do a separate post on it. Each song, even the 'Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy', is a gem. But watch the movie before that. It's magical.

Falling Slowly

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

If You Want Me
Are you really here or am I dreaming
I can’t tell dreams from truth
For it’s been so long since I have seen you
I can hardly remember your face anymore
When I get really lonely and the distance calls its only silence
I think of you smiling with pride in your eyes a lover that sighs

If you want me satisfy me
If you want me satisfy me

Are you really sure that you believe me
When others say I lie
I wonder if you could ever despise me
You know I really try
To be a better one to satisfy you for you’re everything to me
And I do what you ask me
If you let me be free

If you want me satisfy me
If you want me satisfy me

Questions

2008-09-11T08:30:00.005-05:00

Why can't we start with a clean slate.
How can you know a person by reading 2000 words he has managed to write about his life.
Why does every action that you do and every passion that you have, need to translate to something tangible.
Why doesn't the world like nice guys who are underachievers.
Why do we hope for something which has very little chance of happening. Or is that why we hope.
Why are there so many Indian techie males who want to get an MBA
Why don't miracles happen in my life. Why doesn't anything even surprise me. Why doesn't anyone surprise me for a change.
Why do I sometimes absolutely love my life even though there is nothing great about it.
Why do I, on days, feel that there were somethings I did differently.
And why do I feel that there are so many things I want to write about but am waiting for a right time to actually do so.

Getting Edgy

2008-09-04T15:52:00.006-05:00

What if your best is not good enough. Not that you can define best in this case. I mean theoretically, I could have always done better. Started earlier. Thought more clearly. Done things differently. Right? But you know what I mean. What if even after all this effort I end up where I started from.

The essays are coming okay and nothing unusual happened today. I'm still the optimistic applicant I was a few days ago but for some reason, this thought came to me today. Really, till now I have not even thought about what happens if all this comes to a big nought.

Ignorance or otherwise, most of my friends think that I have already put much more effort than they have heard people putting. And I have enjoyed it actually. If for nothing then for having a different answer to 'aur, kya chal raha hai be aaj kal..' . And also because it makes sure that I haven't had to worry about how to spend my weekends and evenings. In short, it has kept me occupied. And if you are thinking what's so great about that, well, ask some of my friends. They will tell you about the virtue of being occupied. By anything.

Coming back, I really wish that there was someone who knows me, who knows about this process and what it takes, and who would take a look at the drafts I have and say something like 'Not bad.....kaafi achche hain drafts.' The few to whom I have randomly thrown questions like 'Give me 3 things you would like to improve upon professionally' or 'Has growing up in Bokaro had any impact on the person you are today' or more demanding ones like 'Tell me what according to you was a very challenging time for me'; have been quite helpful in their replies. But sometimes the enormity of this process just makes me go numb. Content, structure, theme, tone, dazzle-out-factor, personal touch, anecdotes, coherence, transitions, uniqueness..... How do I take care of all this! And even if I think I have it in place, how do I know I'm right! Then I visit people's LinkedIn profiles and wonder why on earth would someone give me an admit! Ya, it can be a very very very humbling experience.

Anyway, enough of it. Bottom line is that this process can get to your nerves. Even when the going is good. It has this ability to take over you life. And sometimes you feel like having some sort of an assurance. That things will work out. That there will be that push from somewhere which will make the difference between a 'there' and 'not quite there'. So till then, it's back to how my 'unique background, values, activities and leadership experiences' will make an earth shattering difference to whichever school admits me. It's funny actually!

Cinema From Iran

2008-09-02T16:45:00.004-05:00

There's a palpable sense of conflict throughout the film. The visuals are breathtakingly beautiful and shots of Mohammad feeling his hands through the garden only accentuate the sense of contrast between the natural scenery and the impending misery in the lives of the characters.

Rang-e Khoda is the story of Mohammed, a blind boy who comes home from his school to spend his vacations with his widowed father, two sisters and granny. From the scene where a blind boy is beating his chest and letting out whistles to imitate a steam engine to the one in which Mohammed picks up a baby bird from the ground and climbs up the tree to put it back in its nest, director Majid Majidi's attention to detail stands out. The acting is inspiring and I have never seen an actor play the role of a blind with so much reality and restraint as the boy who plays Mohammed. From his twisted smile as he recognizes the chirping of a bird to the way he moves his hand over his sister's face to know how much she has changed, every action of his gives you a peep into the world of a blind but inquisitive boy.
On one hand, Mohammed's granny is the quintessential grandmother as she treats him with the kind of love and care only a grandparent can give. She's tender and delicate. She cant see Mohammed cry and tells him that she will die for him.

His father, on the other hand, is someone we don't like from the onset because he is keen to find out a way to let go of his blind son. Its only when he manages to send Mohammed to the blind carpenter and comes back to lament to his mother about how life has been hard on him and he has no one to look after him in his old age, that we get to feel his pain and his conflict.
Rang-e Khoda is a movie replete with very touching but very real portrayl of human emotions. The camera work is jaw dropping and will leave you with a dozen images long after you have watched the movie. It's the final image, however, which is heartrending in its simplicity and yet manages to say so much in but a few seconds, that will keep haunting you.

Have you ever wished that you finished third in a race you won. Well, Ali, the central character in this film does!
Bacheha-Ye aseman or Children Of Heaven has one of the most simplistic story lines that you will ever come across. A brother loses his siter's shoes and tries to find a way to get them back. How Majid Majidi managed to weave a story around this which kept me rivetted to the screen will remain a mystery to me.
Zahra and Ali are adorable as a brother and a sister. The sense of guilt which keeps eating into Ali because he has lost his sister's shoes and the small things he does like gifting a pen or a pencil, to sort of compensate for it, makes for an engrossing watch. Zahra's role is characterised by a sense of understanding beyond her years as she manages to keep the story of the missing shoe to herself. Empathising with each other and showing tremendous maturity in comprehending the situation they are in, Ali and Zahra's actions in the film are simple and real. And yet, seen through the artistic eyes of the director as Zahra goes chasing her brother's shoe which has fallen into the gutter; these very scenes turn into magical moments.
With the same eye for detail, the director takes us through the everyday life of an Iranian family and the bond which exists between the members. And even though not as astounding as in the other movie, with the last scene, director Majid Majidi yet again shows his panache for brilliant endings.

Rock On

2008-08-31T14:49:00.005-05:00

Cut out the part that Arjun Rampal has no idea of a guitar fret board and that 'brain tumor' is too cliched a concept to make an emotional impact with today's audience and Rock On is a very good movie. No, I don't like Farhan Akhtar's voice when he's not singing but otherwise he does a decent job of playing the role of a filthy rich I Banker living a 'half life'. Although he sings most of the songs in the movie and does a very good job at that, yet, for me it's this song which brings out all the singing talent this guy has. Absolutely loved his false voice in this one. The music is spot on and sounds even better when seen in the movie. The long hair and the costumes are cool without being over the board. Purab Kohli either knows to play the drums or does a super impersonation of a drummer. True, there are cues taken from Almost Famous and School Of Rock like when Farhan Akhtar does a Jack Black and jumps into the crowd during their last gig and even the stage is very Pink Floyd-ish but its all quite neatly done. A nice, feel good movie especially if you ever harboured a dream of having a band and are passionate about music.