Day 457:24th Dec, 2010 - Of Free Time and Flop Timing

Just another day - waking up late, and eventually having to rush even for the noon class. However, even as I was attending class, kisaan and TG made plans and booked tickets for Tees Maar Khan. So Budhi and myself needed to rush to Wave immediately after our class. And as luck would have it, everything that could go wrong did. In spite of a billion kicks (and cleaning of the spark plug by a nice auto-rickshaw walla present), my bike just refused to start. Spent around 10min arranging for another bike - got Dham's bike. Just as I sat and started it, Chugli pointed out that the back tyre had totally punctured! And finally, in that urgency, we had to fall back on Shakti's savari - Hero Honda Splendor! (In a way, the bike is good in such situations - you can't speed even if you want to!) But wait, this wasn't the end of the story. In my two years of extensive bike rides through the roads of Lucknow, never before had this happened - but today - we were stopped by cops! The only thing that didn't happen was that the bike didn't run out of petrol :-| . And I guess because we were going for a Hindi movie, we managed to have a happy ending - in the sense that - as usual, WAVE started the movie a little late, and we made it there just on time.

The movie was a typical Farah Khan - super high on all the filmi masala and overacting. Extensive reference and potshots at old and contemporary actors, not to mention a blatant reference to tonnes of cliches in Bollywood. The movie overall turns out to be OK, not as good as her previous two films. (Katrina Kaif is serious eye-candy though!)

Anyways, super duper free suddenly. Seriously need to plan activities to use my time more productively! To take a break from the heavy-duty Dexter, I even started off with another light comedy series - Modern Family! I should not be going down that lane, so fast!

And now, suddenly, for the past couple of hours, I have got myself involved in downloading a few more apps for my cell! And unknowingly it has taken me past 4am. Which means it is now 25th! Merry Christmas guys! Will go sleep now and hope Santa leaves me some presents :-P

Day 456:23rd Dec, 2010

The day began pretty early as I had to go for part 2 of the process. I overslept a little (was calculated though :P), but hey, nothing more important than a relaxed mind :D . No hot water anywhere in the hostel (including the bathrooms in the top floor!), so I had to make-do with a shave. Reached the pcom office pretty much on time, as it seemed like the interviewers also preferred a little extra rest after the longish night :D . The process was like any other - sitting and waiting for your turn, whiling the time, trying to understand and probably figure out the kind of things being asked to others. Came to know the chit chat basically happened on the HR questions, and that is what happened with me too. (Except for the one binomial expansion!). All in all, I though it went OK.

Came back to my room after the Leadership Discovery class and caught up with the sleep missed out earlier. Woke up and called up AP to find out that only two people made it through, one of them a friend who had got an extended shortlist. Good for him! (No suspense, the other guy wasn't me :D).

Didn't have much to do again. So back to the new addiction - Dexter. Just as I was starting up on that, MMR came up and told me that "as committee members", we had to attend a session (mandatory!) for some event that was being conducted. Didn't turn out to be a bad deal for him - he ended up winning a Blackberry! And not too bad for us - we got free pizzas!

Day 452:13th Dec, 2010 - One last time (pseudo :P)

Had my last paper of this term today. Was an open book exam. And as usual, the prof set the paper such that the book would never been opened!

Some negotiations on my cellphone. The PGP Chairman was very nice though - go it back without much hassle :-)

Anyways, time for yet another week long break. See you on the other side!

Day 451:12th Dec, 2010

So exactly how casual and careless does one get by the time they reach the end of sem 5? I even forgot to fill in my name, roll no. etc details on the answer booklet in the morning exam! That was definitely more interesting than all the literature I think I created.

Had a "pizza party" for lunch. Dada, dhams, myself and some good old times.

And followed up that morning stunt with a ringing cellphone (2nd time in 3 days!) in the evening exam! Confiscated cellphone :-( . Even the ploy of sending able substitutes didn't work!)

Attended a general session on finance by an alum. An optional lecture that I attended a day before the exam - and good I did! Was a good one.

PS: Created a new record in Crazy Taxi! + Getting hooked on to Dexter!

Day 440:1st Dec, 2010

Today seems like a reallllllyyyy long day. I think it is substantially due to the fact that I woke up at 5am - yes you read that right - 5am today! After a quick bite at GnB (and of course, capturing the atrocities committed on their staff), we made our way to Lohia Park. Today being World Aids Day, INDEX was supporting the local government organisation in organizing a City Run to raise AIDS awareness. The run went off very well - had a good response from people.

Though all this meant that I had lost out on a lot of sleep over the past 3 days. Made up all of that with a nice and not-so-short siesta :D

Through evening till now that, one of my old temporary addictions is back - the hunt for good mobile apps. I must have surely mentioned this before - that the very reason I bought my present N79 is to explore for apps, as I see that all the great features of a phone are going to be delivered through independent software apps. One major problem with Symbian though is that it requires all software to be signed and have a valid certificate - which is a big big issue when it comes to some ingenious apps available at sidey-types websites :-p . Finally remembered the way by which I had resolved this issue. Had to go through the whole process though - thanks to the new IMEI number on my new handset :-p

Day 431:22nd Nov, 2010 - Empty!

Life suddenly feels so empty! Just a day ago, it would be criminal if you couldn't utilise each and every second for something. And now, you have hours and hours to idle away..

The last one week, not one phone call went by without having another "in waiting". And now, the only time my phone rings is because of those automatic calls from Airtel. (Though I am confess, my mind seems to hear the ringtone every now and then!)

The "tasks" column on my outlook, most of them in red (signifying - overdue :-p), is now absolutely clear. My study table was adorned by 'sticky-notes' indicating a zillion to-do things. Even my laptop screen was not spared, putting to good use the 'Post-it' software in Windows 7. Everything's been trashed now.

In order to save some minuscule seconds, I would always have open multiple explorer windows, one for each folder relevant and even one for a subfolder in that, so that I did not have to navigate each time. All those windows are closed. The perennially running resource hogger of a Photoshop has been closed. And so have the multiple browsers to check multiple gmail accounts.

But most of all, the mind is super free. No multiple thoughts fighting with each other for priority action. No thinking about what workaround to provide for the sudden last minute problems. Nothing dynamic.

Sigh. Life is suddenly so empty.

I am sure my fellow senior core are engulfed by similar feelings, especially considering the frequent trips that have arbitrarily been made to my room :D ; indulging in all sorts of conversations. The highlight of which was a band formation; and before anyone actually learnt any music, people started the photoshoot for the album cover :D

And just like that, we decided to go out for dinner. Fortunately for everyone, Pachpan and TG came to a quick truce - go to Mainland China this time and Barbecue Nation the next. Some nice food in some nice ambience, and brilliant company :-) . Even hatched a plan to watch a movie after that. Had to skip desserts for that :-( . Much debate on whether to go for HP 7 or Guzaarish. Eventually by the time we reached Wave, turned out HP 7 had already started 5 minutes back, simplifying the choice :D . Hoping and anticipating many more of such times in the next 100 odd days left!

Day 419: 10th Nov, 2010

So in the midst of all this, we even had a CBM quiz today. The system to be followed was best 2 of 4. As I had done OK in the first two (+ had absolutely no time to even find out the syllabus of this one), I decided to skip it. And as luck would have it, the quiz apparently turned out to be a cakewalk! :-|

Now, my closing remark yesterday was that I wasn't sure how the new hoarding design would be received by my team people. Turns out - not so well :-p. And so immediately after my morning classes, I had to spend a few more hours modifying it. A few more calls and a few more mails took up the remaining afternoon-evening time.

Today we (senior core) decided to go out and enjoy. Work hard, party harder types. TG and MMR happened to have a very long, frustrating and not-so-positive day "in office" and therefore decided to take rest and not join us. We left with the intention of going to BBQ (after long! nice!) but mid-way, plan changed and we went off to Genesis yet again! :-S . It happens to be a nice place though, had a nice time, and got some nice pics clicked with Kisaan's digicam, instead of just my cell, the result being I am in a lot more pics than usual :D

Day 418: 9th Nov, 2010

Such a blissful feelings to wake up the morning, find out your class has been cancelled and go back to sleep again! :D . Did break my record of sleeping past noon though. Woke up at a much early 11am.

Had enough attendance (full :-p) in the subsequent lectures of the day. Bunked those to go to the city with Pachpan and get some INDEX work done. Roamed all the way from Gomti Nagar to Hazratganj. Discovered a whole new eating place near WAVE - those small roadside joints that serve good food! At Hazratganj, met up with Kisaan who had his own set of follow-ups to do. Indulged in some pillion-swapping :-p and Pachpan went off with him to meet a few other people; while I thought I'll go check out the status of my cellphone.

Yes, btw, my great cellphone was STILL NOT OK! :-( . Been more than 3 months since I had it in proper working condition! As you would recall (:-p), the last time I gave my phone for repairs, I got a new piece after the 15 day wait. Call it my luck - Turned out even that piece wasn't working! So today, when I went in after another 15 days, I got yet another new piece. This one wasn't a stunner in looks though :-( . Somehow, the silver grey front panel wasn't impressive. When I asked about that, I was told "The company uses any readily available piece". Which is downright silly, because I paid specifically for a good-looking phone! When I asked if it could get replaced, the response - "It will have to be sent back to the company again!". And that I just can't wait. But silly people - why can't they just keep an extra set of panels with the Care Centers :-S

When I came back to my room, I got to know some urgent modifications required in the hoarding creative. Sat on it. Almost 4am now. Not even sure how it is going to be received by others in my team. Just a sign of times to come, over the next one week :-)

Day 404: 26th Oct, 2010

Woke up to find this mail from Pachpan.

Subject: "Kal subah 8:30 class hai .. so jao .."

Content:

Last mail sent :

Pachpan: 4:02

Me : 3: 54

Chatur : 3:50

Consultant : 3:49

MMR : 3:36

Kisaan : 3:25

Haathi : 3:20

One of the advantages with our CBM class is that the prof allows you to attend any of the sessions held during the day. Due to that, Pachpan has stopped attending the 8.45 am class since ages. Today, even Vanki adopted to that strategy. He blissfully slept off through the early morning class. So seems like Chatur and myself are the true champions - slept late, but still made it to class :D

Lately, my blog seems to have become a rant about my handset, but what to do. Every fault needs two visits to the city, once for depositing the handset and once again to collect it. This time, the new piece given also started giving problems. Went today and deposited my "new" handset back - waiting time two more weeks!

From there went to check on the status of an MR project. Happiness met tragedy. The good part was that I didn't even have to go up and meet the person. I got the required info at the reception itself. Now the bad part was that in those few minutes, my bike seems to have committed suicide :-( . Suddenly, it's self-start and horn stopped working  :-(

INDEX is coming near, quickly! A long list of tasks, only getting longer by the minute. Finished off some of them today - collecting some bills, meeting a vendor, arranging permissions. Allowed myself a little sleep after that as we had a meet at 01:00 hours, to draw up a tentative budget and a little bit of short term planning. Ended up spending quite some time on the former, peppered with some random deviations ranging from parties to PPI/PPOs to stuff on DC ;-) . It's 6.15 am now, and complete daylight. I have a class again at 8.45 am tomorrow (today??!). Will I make it? :-)

Day 402: 24th Oct, 2010

Now although I had had a preliminary glance through quite a bit of the PPTs that had been uploaded, I knew for sure that I wouldn't remember anything if I didn't get a chance to revise it. Also needed to read a few handouts. With this intention, I set myself the target of waking up early. I didn't miss this target by much. However, today was one of those days when I was destined to have a slight stomach upset early in the morning and consequently all my grand plans went haywire. Just saw a little bit of some new theory and ran off to the exam. Paid the price of not going through the stuff once again. Also had a mini sense of deja vu when we got a very similar question as was in the EPA exam. Had a small conversation immediately after the paper, which resulted in an ..appointment of sorts :-P .. which I did not honour, mainly 'coz I wasn't sure where it would lead :D

In the afternoon, meddled around a little bit more with my handset. Have been trying various permutations and combination to find more details, i.e. the circumstances under which it does / does not conk off. And what I have learnt till now is that the phone seems to be working fine in the Offline Mode. In fact, even after the SIM has been inserted, the phone continues to be ON only when it is being used in that mode. 

Even while I was fiddling around with my handset, an urgent plan to watch Jhootha Hi Sahi at 5pm at Wave was hatched at 4.10pm. A really bad and unfortunate moment.. the movie must be amongst the worst I have seen! Pachpan's almost in a mood where he wants to start a blog, exclusively to categorically give the choicest abuses to this movie!

Back to the campus; had dinner in the mess. 2nd consecutive Sunday dinner in the mess! Must be a record of sorts in the 2nd year :-p . Back to my room, I was still trying to explore some new tests for my handset when randomly Vanki and Kisaan made me go all the way to 3.4, just for their "celebration"! It has started to turn really chilly outside, need to keep my pair of gloves ready at all times.

A proper "genuine" post this one ;-) . After quite some time I believe! Somehow managed to finish this post..  in between juggling with shayari-jugalbandi with Kisaan :-p . Going to get some early sleep. At 01:00 hours, bon nuit!

Day 401: 23rd Oct, 2010 - Tomorrow, it dies

Nearing the end of what would be my last mid-sem here. Have my BE paper tomorrow. Unlike most of the other exams, this one would be a closed-book one. And not a paper where you can simply 'globe around'. Realised this pretty late, and that is why I am making this post at 4 am. Tried to study a little, and tried to keep myself awake much more :-p . For a good amount of time, I have just been blasting off songs at full volume, not to mention my own vocal addition to all of them :D

But interesting day. Had SDM early morning. Took my place in the exam hall and noticed that the guy in front of me hadn't come. Made a mental remark on what kinda ass that person was. 10 minutes into the exam, the supervisor comes up to me and says - "Do you know TG?" Then it struck! Woah, the missing fellow was a wingie + friend. Gave the supervisor contacts for everyone else in the hall. Then after another 30 min, Mr. TG marches in, all zonked, disheveled and sleepy :D . Nicely took his case after the exam in our hostel corridoor. Also came to know about his funny encounter in those 5 minutes before he entered the exam hall. "Exam ke time toh aaplog bahut dava lete hai?" ROFL!

But of course, the God-giri level today was set by Bala. He has set a standard which he himself is going to find very very difficult to meet. None of us can ever forget his brilliant innovation with ICE! :D :D ROFL max stuff! Literally!!

Now I had a good bit of time till my evening exam - LTL. Nothing was to be read for that paper in any case. So decided to make maximum use of that available time and went with Kisaan for a movie :D . Saw Raktacharitra. It's an RGV movie, but quite disappointing. He has tried to bring in some of those Sarkar elements, but the movie falls flat on its face. Had to leave 15 minutes early to make it back on time for my paper. Tried a new strategy of taking some learning over phone, but didn't achieve much success through that :-p

BTW, also made a quick stopover at the Nokia outlet. Now my handset had gone for repairs for around 4 times in the past month. This time, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a new piece itself! However, my happiness seems to be shortlived! :-( . This handset is switching off by itself every now and then. :-( :-( Arrgghhh!!! When will my phone saga end!

Day 394: 16th Oct, 2010 - Touchwood!

Super Saturday! 

The sole morning class was cancelled. Did a little INDEX work in the short afternoon that was left. Had two long (my standards i.e. 20-30 min) phone gupshup sessions with two of my close buddies from Bombay. Followed that up with a super lovely gtalk convo with a close friend on campus :D . One of a kind it was! :D 

A 2005 INDEX alum is on campus. Pachpan and me took him to the Dandiya Nite organised by Random Walk, enjoyed there for sometime, and from there we went to have a pizza dinner in the INDEX room. His treat of course :-) . Some really nice conversations we had there too. Got to know of some interesting titbits from yesteryear :D , including the inflationary trends then :D . And then, had a nice chat at home too :-) . Didn't end there. Came back to my room, only to find and join a group chat on MSN with my engineering classmates! :D . Will put myself to sleep early :D , before anything might irritate me :-p . For now, I hope Deepika Padukone comes in my dreams :-)

Day 390: 12th Oct, 2010

Taking a printout usually turns out to be a super frustrating experience! More true for colour prints. Point is, for taking printouts, we have to go all the way to the Computer Center. The good part is these prints are available to us at a subsidized rate. But the bad part is it takes aeons for a print to come out! Took me an hour and half (one full Service Marketing class - simulation game ON in the adjoining room :-p) to get the printout of our brochure.

Update: My phone's on a vacation to Delhi! Chalo, mei nahi toh phone sahi!

Day 387: 9th Oct, 2010 - Robot!

Being super cut off from the main city has its disadvantages. One of those is it often becomes boring to go all the way there to do things which you would otherwise have done, a prime example being getting stuff repaired. And the chief in this category would happen to be none other than the ubiquitous cell phone.

Now, I had been having issues with my cell for quite some time - I had just collected my phone after repairs yesterday only to find that it STILL wasn't working. A lunch conversation with a random sample brought out interesting statistics - more than 50% of us had a Nokia cellphone to be repaired :) . (BTW, we seemed to be quite confident it could be extrapolated to the batch). So two more of my friends jumped in to accompany me to the Care center. Another one decided it would be a good idea to catch a movie as well. And of course, one can't refuse that kind of a suggestion (even if it meant missing the guest lecture :-p).

So off we (MMR, Taklu, AdiJ, Pachpan and myself) went, first to the Care center. And from there to Fun Republic, to watch... ROBOT! With a speed 1 Terahertz, memory 1 zetabyte, how can you expect anything less than awesome :-p . Basically it seemed like people finally realised there is no villain worthy enough of Rajnikant, so they just pitted him against himself. Who wins? ;-) Seems like even Rajnikant himself as a villain is not good enough for Rajnikant, the HERO!

Went with AdiJ to Ghate's birthday at Genesis. A nice little meet that also included sud, justice and of course, Ghate himself :-p . For a change, sat outside on the lawn though. Pleasant ambience, they even had a live singer and all (though he wasn't really that good :-p).

Day 386: 8th Oct, 2010

In Lucknow, it always rains suddenly in the midst of a bright and hot day, and then the sun comes out smiling again. So, one thing I have always wondered about is why there are no rainbows here. Obviously (like everyone else), I love rainbows and would love to have one popping up on the sky every now and then.

Now with hopes of getting a back-in-proper-condition handset after the third round of repairing, I planned to go to the city in the afternoon. Just as I was about to leave, the dark clouds got some jhatka and it started pouring :-S . As always, it stopped in some 20 minutes and plans were resumed. 

I recorded my slowest ever time navigating the 3.4 road, thanks to all the slush (the road is left dug-up!) and potholes. However, imagine my delight when I suddenly spotted a rainbow in the sky!! Beeee-auuu-tiful! :-)

After very smartly carrying my bag just for the phone and its papers, I realised I had forgotten my Job Sheet, a kind of receipt for collecting back the handset. Now forgetting / losing receipts shouldn't really be a big issue in India. And moreover, I had always had the impression that North Indian people were more bindaas in their outlook towards business. Unfortunately for me, this fellow heading the CARE center was perhaps amongst the most useless of all people there can be. He took photocopy of my identity card and told me to write the time by which I would come the next day! :D .. Ironically, he must have felt like some big Bond person after doing all this show, while everyone else just wondered the depth of his stupidity.

Went to catch a movie after that. Unfortunately had to wait at least for 2 hours for any show! Including all the 3 multiplexes! Such a waste; especially compared to the eternal line of shows in Mumbai! But then, it ain't even a fair comparison :-p . Compensated instead with a dinner at Dasaprakash.

Day 247: 8th Mar, 2010 - Dont feel like it?

I don't know whats gotten over me these days, have been super sleepy. The most alarming thing about this is the fact that I just don't realise the alarm ringing. Snoozing the alarm was a regular thing, but now I am in a different league altogether!

Had our FM quiz today. 5 questions - each with 5 alternatives. I inky-pinky-ponkied and distributed a,b,c,d,e amongst those 5. No alternative should feel left out na?

Inspired myself with this post. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/03/i-dont-feel-like-it.html 

A couple of days back, randomly these GPRS settings arrived on my phone. Now being a student (not a great one but still) at an MBA course, I understand a bit of how these things work. I am quite conscious that all these schemes are disguised to appear very helpful - but behind the mask they just remain new revenue generation streams for those telecom companies. But the human mind is human for a reason - it voluntarily chooses to remain stupid at times. Consequently have been using my phone apps more. The upside of course is I am finally utilising the more powerful features of my phone, downside obviously is the money that I keep giving for every service :P . Am quite impressed with a couple of apps I installed - the Opera Mini browser is really nice! Much much better than the default browser. Also installed this cross-platform IM app called Nimbuzz. Seems nice.

Went off to the city to get some INDEX work done. Had a meeting again later in the night - partly KT session and a little planning ahead. The only thing on our minds is to make INDEX 2010 bigger and better. And we will.

Time's running super fast even as I am awake. It was 11pm a few minutes ago and it is suddenly 3 in the morning :-/ . Let me put myself to sleep. I need to give a decent chance to the alarm to wake me up tomorrow.

Day 211: 31st Jan, 2010

Back to those post-sunrise sleeping days! The final week always brings with it a barrage of submissions. So here I am, working on an HRM presentation, with beautiful old bollywood songs running on youtube alongside. Soulful.

A relatively early start to the Sunday as I had volunteered to be a 'mentor' for Ocumen. That's an event where students from schools (11th,12th) from different cities come to get a taste of helL. One thing I realised (again) that there is a big difference between what we were and what kids are now. Though the gap is only around 8 years, it would easily be a generation gap as far as mindset and outlook is concerned! The ease of access to information shows.

That took most of my day. Was hanging around the mess having snacks when I met Vandana.

Vandana: "Hey where are you studying QAM from?"

Me: "Huh?" [exams are a week away, why is she asking NOW?]

Vandana: "Don't know where everyone else is studying from.. Need to find out"

Me: [couldn't hold myself back!] "But why is everyone studying QAM?!"

And even before Vandana answered, I suddenly recollected we have a QAM quiz tomorrow. Great, now even I am seeking the same answers.

Luckily happened to bump into Singla somewhere around the library. Got a quick coaching session from him on a couple of topics. I hope it will suffice.

Found some cool features on my cell. Well nothing new technologically but was new to me :-p . And that is all I would care about right? :D . Accessed youtube on my cell.. awesome rendering of the flash videos. Also updated my FB status for the first time through my cell :-p

Chalo anyways, it's 7 now. Birds have risen up and started chirping their vocal cords off. I have a class at 9. Let me get a few winks. More sleepless days ahead.

Day 167: 12th Dec, 2009

The Charm of Craziness

I guess everyone always nurtures this desire to be or do something different and wacky. And insti parties always provide that environment. You would see perfectly normal people saturate every cell in their body with the highest possible alcohol content so that they can just 'let go' and (a little too literally) dance like no one is watching. I somehow don't need alcohol to be crazy :-p ; but today was one of those insti parties where I didn't indulge in dancing (read headbanging) but mostly just stood around drinking (juice :-p) and soaking in the loud music and watching others go bonkers :D . talli people are the funniest people on the planet, maybe even the universe. This guy who reeked of alcohol and who barely balanced himself on his feet came up to me sometime and said "dude... you are shaking. you need to keep track of how much you are drinking." :D . I was like "yes. thanks for pointing it out. my vision was kind of blurry by now."

BTW, today, after many many many days, we didn't have any class. Which meant I could coolly wake up at 9.40 without any feeling of guilt (hahaha) or remorse for missing attendance (ya!). Nothing much I did during the day. My mobile conked off yet again!! I was highly irritated at that point of time. But just as I was to go to the city, it miraculously came to life again! :D . Rest of the day was mostly a mix of HIMYM further episodes (which I now have to complete before end terms, else wouldn't be able to study then) and general chilling out.

Went to a movie in the evening - Rocket Singh at Wave cinemas. It turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen in quite some time. I can't specifically recall any great song or great scene... but the movie in general patched up really well and there was a good flow in it. A definite recommendation from my side.

Day 133: 8th Nov, 2009

Went for some local spons work with Shruti. Could go only after ages, thanks to my forced sabbatical. The good thing was that we did get some success :) . Beginner's luck eh :-p .. comeback types :D

After 4 months on campus, I finally figured out another alternative for food. We have this person who supplies South Indian food. Saurabh and myself ordered dosas and idli for dinner... was pretty nice. Good option when in need for a change.

My cellphone has completely conked off now. Can't even hear through the handsfree. Surviving (not that I can't live without one, but still) on a borrowed piece from Shreyas.

Vinay and Naveen had come for some work. Unfortunately happened to be one of those times when I am so dead sleepy that I just can't comprehend what is going around :-| ... I told them I would sleep awhile and resume work later, but mercifully they let me sleep on :D