Jainuine

That time of life !

2008-09-28T10:17:00.004+05:30

Normally, I do not promote fwd-ed SMS-es and mails, but yes'day I received an SMS, which I realy really liked. It transported me back to the college days with friends and the great care-free, fun n masti fraught times we spent together spiced with occasional spurts of sentiments ...

Here it goes -

Life means:
A winter evening, Four friends, Mild rain, 4 pegs of rum...

Life means:
100 bucks for petrol,two rusty old bikes, an open road...

life means:
Maggi noodles, a hostel room, 3:25 am...

Life means:
1 prep leave, 1 night, 1 book and 4 duffers...

Life means:
1 girl, 1 number, 4 friends and a fight...

Now life means:
Old friends, separate cities, separate lives and endless efforts to earn...

Happy to be your friend !

I love my friends spread across the world. Miss those days...
:)

Plagiarism by DIGIT

2008-09-15T17:51:00.011+05:30

Recently, I was told by my friend about the plagiarism done by the computer magazine "DIGIT". Along with a few other freebies, they shared a few wallpapers. One of them is -

The interesting part is that, this snap is a direct rip-off of the theme of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore's annual Inter b-school Fest - IRIS 2005. A snap of the same is -

My friends from IIM - Jassi and Sharma were the master-minds behind the same. I feel sorry that their efforts are been dawned by someone with no credit to them. They do deserve acknowledgment on the same to say the least and a reputed magazine like DIGIT should not be doing this.

Its too strange a co-incidence otherwise!
What do you think?

:)

Tryst with In/Security in Bangalore

2008-09-02T22:59:00.000+05:30

Today in office, we had a discussion in our team regarding the safety that we as citizens have in Bangalore. Especially, in cases where people like us who have moved out of their home towns/cities and are working here in bangalore.

One of my colleague had an incident where he was harrassed by a localite due to a minor nudge of their vehicles, worse even due to the other guys' fault. The person is from a wealthy background owning a few flats and land in the area. Without even acknowledging or talking, the guy simply started thumping the glass window of my friends car. On opening the window, he started abusing and even hitting. My friend sitting along with his wife measuring the heat of the situation, did not react back violently but felt helpless in this harrowing situation that too for no fault of his. clearly, he could not have approached the police as it happened in a street. though i have doubts that police would have helped considering the guy's contacts with the police/goons owing to his real-estate presence.

This is just another situation, that the people would be facing and i dont see any clean answers. I am not trying to sound cynical, but this is an off-shoot of the asperity locals have against the people coming from other states. The state security system provides no solace. The people around are not quite bothered thinking "mainn is chakkar mein kyun padoon (why should i get involved in this mess)". This ignorance from us is adding to the sorry state of affairs. Traffic sense is quite missing and the traffice police is not of much help either (besides counting their money in the corner of the road).

As a citizen, i feel that basic sense of security is non-existent and even worse, I dont see anything being done to re-store the same.

Demand for service in bangalore is so high that the standard of supply is going down. Restaurant bookings change without informing, infrastructure is in a sad state - I hope metro changes the scene here. Autowallah charges extra, meters are all running at Usain Bolt's speed, autowallahs refuse to go for no reason - no redressal and the police does not interfere either.

Another colleague of mine was returning from US to bangalore. His flight landed at 3:00 am at BIAL. A taxi service in bangalore - MERU, its driver says he will charge 1.5 times and will not give receipt for the same. all-in-all, the concept of customer/public service is being completely defeated in bangalore.

All-in-all, things are not quite hunky-dory as it seems from outside. I am sure similar problems would be in most other cities too, but for now, I am facing them here. Quite a relief, its raining great here and the climate is simply awesome...
:)

Humour in Ads

2008-07-30T21:11:00.002+05:30

Someone has rightly said, " Men are not interested in what’s coming on TV albeit, what ELSE is coming on TV."

Honouring this statement, i am in a habit of switching channels rather than sticking to a single one.
But to confess, today I enjoy watching advertisements more than breaking my head over K-series, watching the television stars play games/dance/sing, daily repeat movies on Zoom/Zee cinema/HBO or watching rakhi sawant interview celebs (watching her i guess even my neighbour 100 kg aunty can have a tv show to her credit too, considering her chatting skills).

Observing the ads, I see that the common vehicle for ads these days is towards feel good/light-humour. Tata Sky showing modern junta turning religious (nahin dude, yeh paap hai...wala), scooty pep (tennis edition), Virgin mobile(chagan, girl mentioning to parents that she is not interested in boys), AXE (showing attracting women in light humour), kurkure (tedha hai par mera hai).....
For confectionaries the vehicle is pre-dominantly either humour (perfetti pdts, cadbury's) or woo-ing women (minto-fresh). Even for washing powders (Ariel 10/10 with women dancing after washing) brings out washing as fun.
BSNL did not have to try very hard, as they ended up making a stupidly-funny ad (Preity Zinta -kya aapkhe ghar mein BSNL landline nahin hai - dad, main is ghar mein shadi nahin karungi). Also some pdts are using spoofs of movies and characters via e-marketing, having comedy written all over it (simpu singh for channel V, Airtel exploring this channel too).

Recently, I see a sea change in insurance ads (not sure if due to age I am focusing more on them). Keeping the vehicle as light-fun these ads are all pitching to bring out the fear any individual has with age (wife thinks husband is dead while he is taking a nap in a chair> and inducing people to live out of their fears - Sahara-life (gabbar wala ad). Seems I do need to start in life-pension-funds too bharti-AXA(all the P&C w.r.t life possible).

I only hope this exciting trend grows and we see more fun and laughter around when I open my television and browse through channels to see what else is coming...
:)

Shayari...

2008-07-19T22:08:00.002+05:30

Recently, I have been doing some arbit shayari. Thought it would be good to share with everyone, afterall why to bear the pain alone...
:)
Arz kiya hai -

Baat us baat mein kya, jo ek baar mein bata na paye
na chhu sake dil ko, rooh ki khidkiyaan khol na paye
haal-e-dil bayaan na ho, ashaas samjha na paye
bewkoof hai woh banda-e-khaki, jiski baat ek baar mein bata na paye

Baat to us baat mein hai
jo mann mein kasak jagaye, adhron pe muskaan le aaye
zaar kar de sansarik dimaag ko, dil ko sochwa jaye
aapke dil mein dabi chah(at) ko, naw-ba-naw roop de jaye

Let your critical words flow...
:D

Morning Jog

2008-06-19T21:07:00.003+05:30

Recently, I was discussing with a couple of colleagues about the importance of pursuing a physical activity in life. The intention is to stay fit and feeling energetic just as we used to feel, during school days in the sports periods and summer camps.
A lot of options were thrashed - playing badminton (which i already do), swimming (due to rainy season got ruled out), joining gym (too much of effort for making it a routine!), learning Krav maga (arbit!), yoga (too nimble)..... ..... .....
Finally somehow, group-shift happened towards JOGGING! It was interesting to hear the arguments on something i had not cared to think about. The contrarians had the opinion that - morning jog is not possible as most of us do not have access to a park. Those who had access to a park, ruled it out because of timing and population issue - it was too crowded between 6:00-8:00 to even complete a full circle before bumping into 50 people and getting sandal-ised. Now, jogging on streets was debated for pollution. Air pollution and pollen problem (esp. in morning) in bangalore is large that makes jogging on the streets/pavements difficult. Imagine cars/ trucks passing honking and painting the air black one after the other, that too when you are breathing hard during the run.
It may sound like a paranoia and maybe junta is over-exaggerating the situation (though its not any good either). But if this is any concern for the enthusiasts, it is a serious situation to be into.

Of course the bedridden-not-so-enthusiastic ones escaped out stating hard surface of the roads would hurt the ankles
:)

The maid story

2006-07-27T16:58:00.001+05:30

Recently a good experience.
Our maid was not coming for 4 consecutive days. So one of my flat mates gave a call on her CELL. A girl picks up thr….

Roomy : mala se baat karni hai, woh hamare yahaan kaam karti hain.

Girl : mumma your phone <>

(Roomy is aghast as to who is speaking in English)

Girl : mumma is in the bathroom . I will ask her to call you back. <>.

Since then we have never called up our maid again.

Technology surely has revamped the world around us and we are slaved to keep updated.
Excus-e-moa, i have to rush to buy a cell phone.

Living Philosophies

2006-04-03T20:16:00.000+05:30

1. Only love cannot carry a relationship
2. Try out new things, evaluate them and repeat the likable ones. This makes life fulsome and richer
3. The main purpose of life is to be happy and i'll do so at whatever it takes, within the yardsticks of my personal beliefs
4. Be a free soul - have always been and will always be
5. Do whatever you like whenever you want, provided it does have ill-effect on another person
6. With Wit, Humour and Confidence, one can do everything around
7. If i really want something, GOD knows it and Destiny makes it happen

Some things never change - LOVE

2006-02-28T17:50:00.000+05:30

Final placements are over. And so is my dream...
But, thats a completely different story.

Anyways, sometimes I think that life does not happen the way we think or want it to happen.

I was never an ambitious guy - one who has accpeted whatever came on the way and has been happy throughout (exception being getting into IIM's for which i was desperate), very cool with a simple lifestyle.

When a kid, I used to dream of a small flat, a maruti 800, a small family involved in our own lives, sharing with each other our laughs and sorrows - celebrating success and failures too :), having just enough money to support the family, no glam sham, no discs.....
All in all a plain vanilla, extremely simple and innocent lifestyle.

Today when i think of it, how I have changed, dreams have changed and so has the reality.
Everything has become more urbane and up-market so to say. I will have quite some money to dispose, a big circle of people around, disc life, expensive dinners, foreign trips....

I wonder how life takes a turn. Not that i am not enjoying it all :)

But some things will never change -

Laughing at my stupities
Orienting to people which i still do, listening to their problems and contributing my small bit in whatever capacity i can
Value that I attribute to relationships- the personal touch
Eliciting closeness to my heart and gut feel

Hopefully....
:)

UtsAha! 2006

2006-01-13T13:59:00.000+05:30

6 months round of effort culminated to UtsAha! - the marketing fair of IIM Indore conducted by the marketing club Mercur-I.
Whew.....quite an effort it was!!

When we(I along with 2 co-members) started in july, we had no clue about the structure of the event and how would we go about it. No money, no direction, not enough guidance, not much support. The only thing that we had that time was the zeal, conviction, willingness and a dream of making UtsAha! a success and stabilizing a platform for the incoming team making their task easier.

Zillion meetings....courtesy Rajat, volumes of documents, tons of words courtesy krishnan ( I am sure i can make 10 trips around the milky way forming a line of the words...) was what broke my slumber and exposed me to face the challenge.

The initial task was to fix the venue and the date of the event. A lot of options often confuses all... I looked around on a lot of locations to host our dream fair and was finally convinced about Abhay Prashal.

Contacting companies, 15 phone phone calls per meeting was the ratio i calculated, 1 to 3 was the success ratio of meeting the person after the appointment was taken and 1 /9 was the ratio of having a conclusive discussion ie. not delaying the topic for a future date.
Whew.......

Daily schedule - wake up at 9:30, try out numbers for appointments (confirm the scheduled one's), miss breakfast, leave for city (16 kms from campus), meet people till the evening, pitch for business stalls to be set up during the fair till about 7:30 p.m. and return to campus by 8:15 for dinner - A total of about 50 kms a day of exiting biking, with renewed enthusiasm each day..

Most of the times I was dejected, as things did not took shape as expected, a lot of NO's from companies, sometimes no response from companies even worse taalofying things .... frustrated, broken,shattered i was during nights....
But the sail was high and fuelled with rehashed vigour and jocund
By mid november, things started picking up. I got my first break for projects and things never looked back since then. The momentum and rhythm had picked by then rotated me till the end.
UtsAha! had become my GIRL FRIEND by then !!!!

The target that I had set for myself was achieved if not to my but everyone else's satisfaction. On the d-day of 7-8th Jan '06, the things so meticulously planned were on auto pilot (as one of my friend rightly puts it).

UtsAha! has been a grand success by all measures. We achieved what we had set for ourselves before the event, but .........
I still feel I could have done more for projects and the event as a whole.

UtsAha! made me realize a few of my limitations, highlighted a few of my qualities not known to myself, enervated my fighting spirit, modelled increased self-confidence and finally cleared the clouds for my career path -
MARKETING!!!...

Macha Di !!!

New Year Resolution

2006-01-01T06:36:00.000+05:30

Sometimes, What someone needs most, you have it. While the thing you want most,you don't have it. I wish it wasn't like that.

This is the first time I am keeping a new year resolution. Hope I am able to keep it....Wish me...
I dont know why but I am feeling slightly shy disclosing them...Anyways...
One, I will keep myself arms away from the touch of materialism i have imbibed over teh last 2 years and be my simple and ninny self :).

Two, I will learn to cook a full meal including a sweet dish - Kheer to say the least. I hope my mon does not read this, i dont wanna learn from her...

When I got my first job after engineering, I resolved that I will donate some amount of my salary to needy - old age home or an orphange, which I have not done till date. But this time I solemly resolute to contribute for the cause. For sure!!!

Four, I will try and be forthcoming to the person i like and not be shy....

Lets see how much am I able to stand to these random thoughts...:)

Wishes...

Confused apprehension ??

2005-12-31T20:31:00.000+05:30

Today I am slightly senti n pensive mood.

Sometimes I think that why do I or for that matter anyone puts in so much of hard work, fighting initially for existence and then for sustenance and finally for maintainence of things one can do without. when I was in 12th standard, i used to imagine myself with a small decent job that could bring home all the basic things of daily life, no great money- small and happy family life. I never wanted a very high profile life-style. Few months from now, I will be in a position where i will have a lot of responsibilities to share.

Will there be the comfort I always looked for? Doing whatever and whenever I wanted? Will that flexibilityand freedom in life still exist?

On the other end, I will learn more, experience different shades of life, meet and deal with different people and earn good money. With responsibility I can display my skills (whatever i have) and rise the ladder... maybe i am happy with it, I am not clear on it..
But certainly, materialism has taken precedence to goodness. Today I see oppurtunism prevailing around. Unknowingly, even I am affected by it.

I really miss my childhood days...
I really miss the long walk-talks with friends, laughing more on myself than on others, recollecting my childhood and sharing - stupidities i did with my friends, punishments i got from my parents, masti i did in school, pranks I played with the teachers, vowing ever-lasting friendship and sharing with friends about my crushes.

Koi laute de woh kagaz ki kashti, bachpan ki masti, woh baarish ka pani...

ChristMASS...

2005-11-24T06:43:00.000+05:30

Today, I feel festivals are good times for socializing rather than celebrating the true spirit of the festival. Its christmas eve today, and last night we went to a church here in Indore, which we tracked after quite a research. I was in high spirits, gushing with enthu to catch the sight of a church for the first time in my life.

When we reached the Red Church as it was christened, I felt I was the only one with enthu or may be I was over enthu about the festival. No one there was interested in the prayers or Mass as they call it. though a few families were sitting and hearing the Father's smuttering words, rest busy discussing their lives, business, bird watching and of course the omnipotent - Food.

Convinced, we moved to Sarafa bazaar to eat...lol...

Nice outing but the true spirit of the eve still lingers to be experienced...

CATcher experience

2005-11-20T19:44:00.000+05:30

CAT recently passed by. I could not feel any pulse of the same this time as i am completely out of touch with that phase. But that reminded me of the time when I wrote CAT.

I sincerely suggest that each one of us should take CAT once. Success or failure is im-material. I personally learned quiet a lot from not only the exam but, also from the pre- and post- psyche I developed about myself. Although not much was at stake , as i was working with Infosys ready to leave for aussie, but then the aura of IIM was quite intense not to reflect the radiance.

Initially, I was desperate about making it into that league, which eventually shaped into a requirement. By the time CAT was about a month to go, it was more of a necessity (no offence to the IT workload...). The idea was to re-visit the college life and to experience the IIM culture. Not to mention the idea of tussion-ofying the IIM tag to my colleagues..:)

The thrill of attempting DI with lightning fast calculations, with the aperture of mind getting only a few min. to precipitate the content of the caselet was electrifying. Quant section with the brain teasing questions twisting the already convoluted mind, pitched better than a googly. verbal section which always made me feel why did i read raj comics (err..dont didn't you get...i mean our very own Nagaraj and super commnado dhruv...) and Manoj comics (rajan-iqbal and bankelal...:) instead of the firang language rich literature, facilitating me appreciate the comprehensions more...

I could never join a coaching due to work load, but i always competed with my flat mate and few of his friends, who used to come over to our place. also teher was a girl amongst them, beautiful indeed....So, another reason that makes me nostalgic about the entire episode.;-)

The second phase of Gd/PI was quite daunting for me as i could not join any coaching again, but only could discuss with my flatee (by the way that girl did not recieve a call). I never had much to speak on any topic, not even discussing my interests. So I had to draft my hobbies and gather info on them ufff... I got entangled in my own points and could not defend a stand on abstract questions. BUt then the learning process was on in re-discovering myself, bridging the pot-holes in my personality and removing a layer of scaly-waste covering my core. But i must confess i did learn to speak only then. Those who know me will certainly appreciate that.

Anyways, coming back to the point(i guess i made one...) I wish all the best to all those who have ghisoed hard, magofied the quant fundas and the specimen questions, ratofied the barron's list and have migrined hte heads of their family, friends and teachers.

"The process is more important than the product, that's where the LEARNING takes place"

Myself...

2005-11-18T07:15:00.000+05:30

I seldom think, what is it that i really like? Something that really excites me, something that can bring out the best in me, something to which i can commit my lifetime. Education as they say provides one with thoughts and words for things which are otherwise not fathomable. Unfortunately, I feel even more confused having the same. Maybe I am a non-conformist, as some of my friends say... :)

Anyway, my first post on the blogger's world. Findmyself worthy of some introduction-
ANKIT JAIN, a management student, simple and sober, adjusting and understanding, open and broad minded. Friends say "He is clicking, considerate, senti-types, slightly stupid and quite unpredictable with what's up on his mind". Enemies ( hopefully i have a few ...) find no competition etal...:).

I think after giving a lot of gyaan during CAT interview about career goals, now when its time to decide, i find myself stymied. That stability of mind seems to be lost in a far grown jungle, with wild bushes creeking crazy noises...At one end is a materialistic corporate job with fat bundles of bills tuked in all the pockets, and the other is a dream that i had earlier seen with someone (who no longer exists in the same form) of opening a school where students will be given a different platform to think for themselves, express themselves, where creativity is not hollowed by bags full of books to be rattofied and vomited during tests, where they would have options to choose their likings, where interests will be developed in true sense to be called as hobbies where passion will be fostered and nestled.

I am not too sure what i will decide for myself. I guess need some more time and definitely some ray of light and confidence to see that ray at the end of the long vacuumy tunnel.

I firmly believe, "GOD exists and will take care that good happens by the end."