Everything Happens For A Reason

2011-03-16T08:02:00.002-04:00

Harsha Bhogle after India-SA match, 12th March, 2011

Remember when you failed an examination. How many people recall that, your class, friends, relatives? You failed to make it to the IITs or IIMs. Who remembers. How many times have you had the feeling of being the best in your class, school , university, state….., you failed to get a visa stamped this quarter…, you missed a promotion this year…, how did it feel when you dad told you in your early twenties that you are good for nothing…..and now your boss tell you the same…
You keep introspecting and go into a shell when people most of whom don’t matter a dime in your life criticize you, back bite you, make fun of you. You are left sad and shattered and you cry when your own kin scoffs at you. You say I am feeling low today. It takes a lot from us to come out of these everyday situations and move on. A lot??? really?

Now here’s a man standing on the third man boundary in the last over of a world cup match. The bowler just has to bowl sensibly to win this game. What the man at the boundary sees is 4 rank bad bowls bowled without any sense of focus, planning or regret. India loses, yet again in those circumstances when he has done just about everything right.

He does not cry. Does not show any emotion. Just keeps his head down and leaves the field. He has seen these failures for 22 years now. And not just his class, relatives, friends but the whole world has seen these failures. We are too immature to even imagine what goes on in that mind and heart of his. That’s why I would never want to be Sachin.

True, he has single handedly lifted to moods of this entire nation umpteen number of times. He has been an inspiration to rise above our mediocrity. Nobody who has ever lifted the willow even comes close to this man’s genius. His dedication and metal strength is unparallel. This is specially for those people who would have made fun of him again last night when India lost. They are people who are mediocre in their own lives. Who just scoff at others to create cheap fun. Who have lived in a small hole throughout their lives and thought they have seen the oceans.

Think about the man himself. He is 37 years of age. He has been playing almost non stop for 22 years. The way he was running and diving around the field last night would have put 22 year olds to shame. The way he played the best opening quickies in the world was breathtaking. He just keeps getting better which is by the way humanly impossible. Its not for nothing that people call him GOD.

But still I don’t want to be in those shoes. We struggle in keeping our monotonous lives straight, lives which affect a limited number of people. Imagine what would be the magnitude of the inner struggle for him, pain both mental and physical, tears that have frozen with time, knees and ankles and every other joint in the body that is either bandaged or needs to be attended to every night, eyes that don’t sleep before a big game, bats that have scored 99 international tons and still see expectations from a billion people.

And he just converts those expectations into reality. We watch in awe, feel privileged.

Well I think its time that his team realizes that enough is enough. They have an obligation, not towards their country alone but towards sachin. They need to win this one for him. Stay assured that he himself will still deliver and leave no stone unturned to make sure India wins this cup.
This is not just a game, and he is not just a sportsman. Its much more than this. Words fail here…..

— HARSHA BHOGLE

2011-03-14T08:11:00.000-04:00

Some tips for GMAT

In 2009, one of my New Year resolutions was to get more than 720 in GMAT with more than 85+ percentile in both the sections.

Here are some of the points that might be useful for some of you.
1. First you need to identify your weak area and start working on it. Please do not think that you can get away with that section irrespective how good you are in other sections.

E.g.: Right from the beginning I knew that RC was not my strong point so during my GMAT study days I focus on RC.

If you feel you can perform well in CR and SC then take 30-50 questions from SC and 2 sets of CR. So if you are giving 120 minutes each day then give 60 minutes to RC and rest to the second weakest point.

2. Register at mba.com and download the GMATprep.exe, if you are really considering writing GMAT. This will help you in identifying you weak area.

3. If you are unsure about when is the right time to take GMAT then try to score close to your target score and then take a GMAT appointment.
E.g.: In my case I scored 3 consecutive 700+ scores before taking an appointment. This might work for you if you don’t like to work under pressure.
Another important point here is that make sure you focus on the tests that are close to real GMAT, during my prep days I found MGMAT was the closed to actual GMAT. I also like the explanations in MGMAT.
4. Join some forums because when you solve someone’s problem you are not only helping that person, but also you are gaining confidence.

5. Material I used
For SC I used MGMAT SC guide and OG. While doing OG I realized that certain things are always wrong such as “because of”, “in order to”. After doing certain exercises I became good at finding these errors, but again I knew that this would be area where I will face toughest questions. I completed 1000SC series with 75% accuracy.
For CR I referred to LSAT powerscore bible. This 500+ pages book is enough to crack this section.

For RC I feel you don’t need books, you need practice; you need to get out of the stage where on your day you get 7/7 correct while on some off day you get 2/7. I feel your level should be 6/7 nothing but practice can make this happen. From GMAT point of view you need to know the question type.

For Quanta I did not study much for this section. I was taking 2 mins for Quanta problem without all those formulae so I was happy that I don’t need to work on this section.
6. I stick to the following rule for time and number of questions

For Quanta:
Number of Qs 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 37
Time remaining 65 55 45 35 25 15 10 5

For Verbal:
Number of Qs 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Time remaining 66 57 48 39 30 21 12 3

I hope at least some of you will find these points useful enough.

Hemant

2011-01-26T13:19:00.001-05:00

In next few posts…

From past few months my life revolved around writing essays, preparing for interviews and what not… I have decided that in my next few posts I will just write about my experience from GMAT days to my admit.

I received so much information from Internet so I feel I owe something to the community, something to the future aspirants. Initially, I felt that there are many blogger out there and this community does not need a mediocre blogger like me, but then I realized there will at least a few who will find themselves in a situation where I lingered around for sometime. With that notion, I will dedicate a post each to GMAT to B school short listing to essays. Whatever I write here is something that resonated with me most. If you want to know something then just drop me a line and I will be more than happy to help you.

Hemant

2010-12-28T12:40:00.005-05:00

Revisiting 2010…

New Year is few days away so I thought of writing a post about what I accomplished in last one year:

January-March:

It was late 2009 or early 2010 when I became a volunteer for CRY. And it’s been a wonderful journey since then. You can have an off day at work, but when you work for such initiatives, every moment is full of excitement and fun.

During this time, I also decided to do things that I was afraid to do, in short I wanted to challenge myself in every possible way.

April- June:

After the last year’s disastrous B-school application season, I thought of trying my hands at TAS. Despite of my colleague’s informing me that it’s really difficult to get into TAS, I thought of trying my luck at it. I got kicked out in third round (or the first round where skills mattered). However, I was happy that I got so far, because during the process I realized that TAS was not my cup of tea.

My disappointment continued here, but life has its share of fun. During the same period I enrolled in Salsa, Jive and Cha Cha Cha classes. It was wonderful time ☺. Listening to the story of my instructor, who quit her professional career as accountant to pursue her dream of being a professional dancer, was also fascinating. I also got the opportunity to perform in front of 5000 people (Okay…I was not the special one it was offered to everyone in the class…), but could not capitalize on it because of TAS preparations…bummer.

Another notable thing that I did during this time was to complete the Sunfeast open 2010, it was really fun ☺. I was also selected for the exposure trip by CRY (I will post a detailed message about the exposure trip for which I went to Tirupati district along with other CRY volunteers.)

July- September:

With July, I started focusing on the B-School applications. This time I was more focused, I applied to schools where I stand real chance instead of chasing someone’s dream schools or focusing on rankings.

I did not realize the how these months went by. Since many schools applications became available during this time, so I completely focused on my essays.

I also shot a movie with my colleagues for a social cause, where we showed the impact of road widening projects in Bangalore. This movie received great reviews and won first price in its respective category.

October-December:

After dreadful 2009, I decided that it would be only R1 in which I’ll be applying. I was able to submit 7 applications before November 1. Again, similar to last year, I was not invited to interview by Chicago Booth, I did hope for an interview invite but…things don’t go as you like. However, few days later, I got the Tuck interview invite and I was really happy with this. Tuck interview invite was followed by invite from Johnson, Ross, Darden and Emory.

After completing last interview on December 15, 2010, finally I got the news I was looking for, an acceptance email from Tuck ☺ and thus, received first acceptance of this season.

Now, problem in front of me is related to loans, earlier I was counting loans without co-signer but Tuck changed its policy few months back that it will not be providing loans without co-signer. And since I need to reserve a place by January 12, 2011 so I cannot wait until January 15, 2011 (Ross’s decision date) and January 21, 2011 (Darden’s decision date).

Lets see what happens in New Year and as I always believe everything happens for a reason so I’ll accept whatever comes my way ☺.

Now with an admit in my bag, I could focus on the things that I always wanted to do like learning Keyboard and drums (I don’t know since when I wanted do this ☹ ), buying my first SLR ☺ D50 preferably and gaining better command over my French and German.

Hemant

2010-12-28T10:49:00.001-05:00

Vishal...continued...

It’s been over 9 months when I wrote something here. Initially, I thought I would be able to write regularly, but it did not happen for myriad of reasons.

Many things happened in past few months, with respect to my last post, I tried to find more details about Vishal, but unfortunately it did not yield the desired results. You alone cannot fight with the whole system…

2010-03-15T13:19:00.004-04:00

What is the value of a life?

My purpose of writing this blog is to gather some information about an incident that happened in August 2009. In 2009, 2 Wipro associates committed suicide by jumping off from different Wipro offices. I happen to meet family of one such associate, Vishal Yadav.

Following is the news article that appeared in most of the dailies:

Vishal Yadav Wipro Techie jumped to death in Bangalore from the 12 floor Wipro building in electronic city campus. Vishal Yadav (28) was an employee of Wipro Technologies and was unmarried. Vishal Yadav has committed suicide or accidentally fallen or there is some foul play – Police is investigating all options. The incident happened at around 10.15-10.20 PM yesterday(08/27/2009) night when a security guard heard a loud noise. They immediately went to the spot and they saw a dead body. Vishal Yadav was from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and was working with Wipro since 2004. reports say that he was on leave for the last two months and had even submitted his resignation through e-mail. If that was the what he was doing in office?

Those who know Vishal find it hard to believe that he could commit suicide.

When I met Vishas’s parents, I was not aware of the situation. They wanted to discuss this issue with me because I also work in Bangalore. They told me that Media and Police were not supportive. Being from outside state, they had hard time talking to local police. Even Media did not give needed attention to this case. Before coming to Bangalore, Vishal’s parents did not know anything about Bangalore and had no information about right corporate lawyer also.

Vishal’s parents left with unanswered questions that no one is ready to answer

1. Why Wipro allowed Vishal to enter in the premises when he had already resigned?

2. Each company has close circuit cameras, how come Wipro never showed any footage to Vishal’s parents?

3. Vishal was gaming enthusiastic and recently bought a new LCD TV, there was no way he would have made impulsive decision to commit suicide.

4. Since Vishal was in UK for 3 years so I don’t think money would have been an issue here.

There are many more questions that are yet to be answered by Police or Wipro. There were few key people in this case such as Vishal’s close friends in Wipro, his teammates, but were too shabby to speak up and fight for this. This was not the first case nor will it be the last one, but if we remain ignorant to such cases then I do not think we are making any progress in right direction.

Following are the points/ reports that I have gathered from Internet:

Subject : Let pray peace soul for him
Comments : I am really sorry to hear about his death, same happened in Calcutta to who is ex wipro employee lost the job and was not able to find and jumped from tower. It really wrost for IT People.
Posted by : raju

Subject : update
Comments : what is the update. I didnt see anything in newspaper...did Wipro stuffed money in police mouth...Gandu company hai sala
Posted by : citizen

Subject : Enrich
Comments : Hence, Enrich program is a very CHEAP method to save the money which company would have lost on laying off people. It's very unethical but not illegal and hence legal case cannot be filled against company bt it's unethical so SOCITEY should act agnst
Posted by : Stop Enrich Program

Subject : Enrich
Comments : As per Wipro offer letters if company terminates you, company compencates employees by paying 3 months salary but when u join enrich program, you are forced to sign an agreement which ensures that compensation in offer letter is overidden by this prg
Posted by : Stop Enrich Program

Subject : Enrich
Comments : Saw a colleague today who seems to be working with Vishal and it is very sad to see that an employee had been forced into enrich program 3 months back with salary cut and as part of enrich program this has only lead to dead (sucide)
Posted by : Stop Enrich Program

Subject : Vishal
Comments : He will be missed by many of his old colleagues and friends in London. Including myself. Danyawadh dost :-(
Posted by : Stuart

Subject : Life without Vishal
Comments : After two days of his death, I gathered courage to search his name on the net. I just know one thing, I have lost my best friend, my brother. Life will never be same without Vishal
Posted by : Sid

Subject : Vishal and memories
Comments : We studied in same school and college. No tiffs with any body, a charming, friendly and a lovable person. It makes me sad to the core that he is no more. Lets join this and prevent suicides http://www.stopasuicide.org/
Posted by : Nishchal

Subject : miss you vishal
Comments : i can't believe that Vishal committed suicide. He was such a quiet and nice person. He was full of spirits and always jovial. He wasn't suicidal. I am sure of that.
Posted by : Abie

Subject : fuck you wipro
Comments : he ws like my brother.. we used to play together online on ps3.. i dont believe it.. just talked to him 5-6 days back.. trust me. vishal bhaia ws such a happy person.. i still dont believe this... FUCK OFF WIPRO
Posted by : Karan

Subject : must face the problems.
Comments : Everyone should have guts to face the ordeal. moreover they should think about their family before committing suicide. Suicide is medicine only for the cowards.
Posted by : Babulena

Subject : Will Miss you Vishal
Comments : I know Vishal from the College days, he was full of energy and had very positive attitude about life. He cannot commit such an act. This is high time now that IT companies do there analysis first on there employee satishfaction programme.
Posted by : Shweta Deepak Kingrani

Subject : RIP Vishal
Comments : ..Vishal.... commited suicide ohh common..He was gem of person and insipiration to frenzzz..He cant do that.....Fack* You wipro.. dont spread rumors... for saving just some million bucks....
Posted by : sanjay upadhyay

Subject : why the setback WIPRO?
Comments : My cousin had also been working in WIPRO, who always used to tell me good about the company. But recently i am hearing only negative things. Why is it ignoring now when their own employees are suffering? I dont believe Vishal has committed suicide.
Posted by : Indira

Subject : how insane can wipro be
Comments : Vishal,my brother's friend,known to me personally and i am shocked to the core that news is spread about vishal committing suicide which is not true.Wipro is trying to play foul with the people by misdirecting and Wipro should be condemned for this.
Posted by : Pragati

Subject : Vishal was a true friend
Comments : It is hard to believe that he commited suicide.... we are friend from a frst day of college in gwalior.. A charming .. dashing dude.... with great famil and satisfaction .. a contented guy.... he cant commit a suicide.. i think wipro..is playing
Posted by : Deepak Kingrani

Subject : not 1st suicide
Comments : Its not 1st suicide its 2nd suicide. Read this article. It was just 2 days before this suicide... ww.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=10&contentid=2009082120090821113414796933b7f0c
Posted by : citizen

Subject : Vishal was not suicidal
Comments : Am a very good friend of Vishal, and am certain he was not suicidal. I know him for 5 years now
Posted by : A friend

Subject : HCL Engineer commits suicide
Comments : there is news that HCL enginner also committed suicide. Wipro Techie death is being probed by police.
Posted by : Smriti

Subject : sucide by Vishal Yadav in Wipro
Comments : sucide by Vishal Yadav is first in industry in the campus of employers. It directly shows frustration of Vishal Yadav against Wipro and a reason for committing suicide.
Posted by : Vidya

Subject : Vishal Yadav death in Wipro
Comments : Vishal Yadav death is first suicde death in recent history of Indian IT industry. However it doesnt make any different to either bosses or company
Posted by : Jyoti

Subject : The worst company Wipro that I have ever worked
Comments : The best sadists only can get manager posts in Wipro. The worst environment that I have seen in my experience.
Posted by : Manju

Subject : To hell with Wipro and its policies!
Comments : First of all, Wipro will never give 3 months leave. He would have been on the "Enrichment Programme" (making the top bosses rich program) where he was asked to work with 50% pay and he would have been forced to resign. It is a Baniya company...
Posted by : DoesItMatter

Guys, thanks for all your support so far, please get in touch with me for any information that you can provide. I never met Vishal, but the details that I received from his parents, I feel that a person like Vishal cannot take such drastic step of committing suicide.

Please help me in spreading the word and let’s hope Vishal’s parents get proper justice.

2010-03-07T13:03:00.001-05:00

Who, Me ?

One day, a little orphan girl stood at the street corner begging for food,money or anything she could get.

Her Clothes were in tatters and she looked disheveled. A well-to-do man passed that corner without giving the girl a second look. But, when he returned to his plush home to his happy family and a well laden dinner table, his thoughts returned to the orphan. He was angry with God for allowing such conditions to exist. He reproached God, saying “How can you let this happen? Why don’t you do something to help this girl?” He heard God in the depths of his being say:”I did. I Created You.”

Source: The Speaking Tree

2009-12-21T13:53:00.006-05:00

How I Met Your Mother

Although I like both Barney Stinson and Ted Mosby, this blog is remotely associated with the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Everyone is asking me how I fractured my leg so I am giving a brief description what exactly happened. And probably after reading this blog you will get the idea why I used this title.

So let’s start.

Kids,

This was the winter of 2009 and this weekend morning was looking as awesome as ever. Your dad was anxiously waiting for Mumbai marathon on 16^th Jan 2010. Like any other weekends, this weekend was no different, so I started my preparation and was jogging in the park. However, I realized that there was something in the air that I never felt before. As always, there were many people jogging in that park and one of them was this girl. A scene from bollywood movie Jogger’s park would aptly define this moment.

Okay let’s get back to reality.

So I was jogging alongside this girl and suddenly a robber came from behind, snatched her iPod and ran away. Now, this girl looked into my eye as if she was trying to say ‘For the god sake do something’. I was quite reluctant at first, but I don’t know what happened suddenly I found myself running after this guy. After seeing me coming, this guy changed his course of action, and instead of running straight; he jumped 4 feet long wall on this right. Now, again usually I try to avoid all such situation, but when I turned back, I saw this sparkling look on her face so without thinking further I jumped that wall and started following this robber. Now, this robber was not expecting such a move from me and when I was about to catch him, this gate came in my way. Because of his professional abilities he crossed it quite easily. Since I was riding high on adrenaline, so I also climbed this 6 feet gate without thinking that I could have easily opened it. With all these thoughts, finally I jumped from the top and while coming down I twisted my ankle. I was feeling very disappointed, but to my surprise I found this iPod under my hand. This must have slipped out of his pocket while getting up. Finally, I felt content that I was able to save her iPod. However, I was not able to get up because of unbearable pain in my ankle. Few moments later she came up to me and said ‘Thank you’. After some time few more people joined us and they took me to hospital. After some initial diagnosis, doctor declared that I will be alright in next 3 months, but I won’t be able to jog for quite some time and thus have to wait some more time to participate in a marathon.

So kids this is how I met your…

Coming back to today’s time

Finally, I have started walking without crutches. Hopefully in some time I will start jogging again :)

Hemant

2009-12-13T14:29:00.005-05:00

Is India moving in right direction?

When I was kid, I always read about India’s unity and integrity. Even, now when India is discussed anywhere in the world or in any journal, it is known for the diversity and many religions that exist together. However, I wonder is this really the case?
From north to south, east to west, India is divided into so many parts and I feel it’s been high time that we stop talking about India’s unity and integrity. In Kashmir, there is always threat of infiltration. I remember once when my friends and I missed one such incident in Kashmir, we were fortunate enough to leave just on time and, thus, survived a close encounter with firing that went on for 24 hours.

In west, everyone knows about Marathi Manus incident, while in northeast, China is ogling at Arunachal Pradesh. India is the same place where people from northeast have been looked upon as if they do not belong here. In south, I don’t think people are aware of the what’s happening in north and other parts of the country, because they are too busy in dealing with LTTE and other stuff.

Above picture* made me realize that India’s future does not look promising in terms of unity at least. Everywhere we talk about how India is doing well with respect to GDP growth, but on the other hand every other state is struggling to make its mark on India’s map. We moved from 25 to 28 states in 2000 and now this Telengana and Poorvanchal issues. I don’t think we are far from the time when British ruled India because it was divided in many states. Thanks to the global environment today, it wont be possibility now, but still we are not moving in right direction.

*Courtesy: STOI

2009-12-10T04:46:00.004-05:00

Back to Blogging!!!

I always thought that once I become free from my b school applications or from work, I will start blogging regularly, but whenever I get sometime I start watching some TV series. Somehow in last few years I always avoided writing anything. However, blogging is something that takes pressure off me, I always feel good after writing or whenever I feel bogged down, it makes me feel normal again.

Today is one of those days that I just want to leave behind. I received ding from Kellogg this morning. I was pretty confident about Kellogg and was anxiously waiting for the result, but life does not go the way you think. I was not sure how to express my disappointment so I thought lets write a blog. Both of these rejections made me realize that I am aiming too high and there is something wrong with my profile. Only common thing between these applications was choice of recommenders, who were too busy to type my recommendations. I just cannot imagine myself in I.T. industry for another year because I am not enjoying my work any more.

After Booth’s reject, I focused my attention on Mumbai marathon, but to my miseries I sprained my ankle while practicing and can not run for next 4 months. I cannot tell how difficult it to have normal life with plaster on one leg. See, time isn’t right for me, may be I need to hold on for a while before moving further.

After writing this at least I am feeling little better. I still believe everything happens for a reason and wish there must be a solid reason behind this reject. Enough about B schools now, if there is some good news, I am sure I will share with you all, if there isn’t then just wait for another consolatory post :).

2009-11-13T09:19:00.000-05:00

Back in India

It’s been a while I have written something here, only thing to blame is time, time and my laziness. Around a month back I moved back to India and since then life has been so fast paced that I am also amazed. It feels great to be back here and be a part of discussion of Sachin’s magical 175 ☺.

There are so many things to write such as my one month’s vacation, how important is to be a VIP or how important is to assign right place to right people be it in politics or in management in private firm. Last point deserves a separate post and I promise I will write a lot about this ☺.

Finally on my application front, I was able to submit 3 applications in R1, although I completed all 5 that I aimed for. Out of these 3 applications, I already received ding from Chicago. I am pretty much disappointed with this, since this was one of favorite schools and after visiting Chicago, I kind of fell in love Booth. However, that chapter is closed now and I need to focus on my other applications.

Kellogg’s interview is done and went OK, I would give it 6.5/10 so at least efforts for one school from my end are complete and now all I need to do is wait.

2009-09-06T00:51:00.001-04:00

Essay writing- an exhaustive process

Not long ago, I used to argue with my friend that this essay writing process would not be as tiring as preparing for GMAT, he always used to say since you are in GMAT phase so lets talk once you get over it.
It has been more than 2 months the time I wrote my GMAT, now I realize how wrong I was. I can feel the intensity involved in essay writing, there is this dark cloud always looms over my head. Irrespective of the effort I put in, I feel there is something missing. Since I will be out for a month starting 09/25 with no access to Internet so I have this extra pressure of submitting my apps one week in advance. Everything is going according to the plan, but this whole thing takes so much effort that at the end of day you feel exhausted.

I have 19 more days to submit my application along with other things, wish me luck ☺ .

2009-09-05T20:57:00.001-04:00

Booth and Kellogg visit

It’s not strange how time passes so quickly. I am already in September and due dates are around corner. I don’t like first draft of my essays and I might give them 2.5 on a scale of 5. I was fortunate enough to visit Booth and Kellogg last week.

Although I have already attended few events where Booth and Kellogg were participants, I felt it was still good option to visit in person. So far I have visited 3 schools and Booth is still leading the list, my love for Booth has become deep-rooted after visiting the Harper Building. All schools provide more or less the same information about their application process that you can get in MBA fair events, but school visit experience is really awesome ☺. Best part of visit apart from Lake Michigan and Indian park was tour of Harper center. The worst part was finding parking on campus, despite of reaching 45 minutes in advance, it was really difficult to find parking. About Kellogg, I really liked the environment and ambiance. Overall experience at Kellogg was good especially the information session.

I have decided to move CBS application to RD instead of ED, with that gone, I have 3 schools for R1 Booth, Kellogg and Wharton. NYU is also in R1, but with 11/14 as deadline it gives enough time to focus on other 3 schools. Finally, after 2 sleepless nights I was able to figure out what I need to put in Booth’s slide presentation; it looks good to me, but let me see what other people feel about it.

I hope next few months will bring some wonders ☺
Hemant

2009-08-21T21:41:00.001-04:00

Random thoughts

Essay writing is an interesting thing, for a moment I think despite of being MIT (Male Indian Techie) I can get into to Harvard and Stanford* and then next moment I am on ground zero. I realized that I never looked back into my life so closely; now I feel I should have approached things differently, but again that’s the magic of getting old. I remember when I was 20 I thought OK I can not act more stupid than the way I behaved all these years and again at this point that feeling has not changed a bit.
Few days back India celebrated its 63rd independence day, I remember when I was kid I used to feel so much excited about this day. Parades in school, national anthem, sweets etc. that was superb time, at least in college we used to sung national anthem. Now, in professional life this is just limited to wishing happy Independence Day in through emails. I thought I would something different, but again whole day passed in these thoughts. I hope next time I will do something different.
Now a days I don’t feel like working, but exactly opposite is happening in terms of workload. I am really looking forward to next month in which I will be visiting Kellogg, Booth (my fav.), NYU and CBS and submitting my apps. Hope everything goes well; I do need wishes of all of you☺.

Hemant

* I am not applying to both of them ☺

2009-08-05T21:48:00.002-04:00

Life is busy

Well I feel I am in the state where you tend to feel busy without doing anything. Last few weeks brought mixed feeling. Season for essays has started, I have completed rough draft of Wharton essays and moved on to CBS, everything happened last week and I am hopeful that after my toefl I will be able to concentrate more on one of the important parts of application i.e. essays.

In last few weeks I visited Wharton school and the vibes that I received there were awesome. I am already feeling excited about going back to college. I missed this feeling in last 4 years and hopefully I wish I have something good to share after 6-8 months. I have narrowed my college from 8 to 5 and I will be applying to these colleges in R1, since NYU’s date is 11/15 so it will give me enough time concentrate on first 4. And as always Chicago is still my number 1 choice and I am planning to visit this and Kellogg in last week of August.

2009-07-12T17:46:00.000-04:00

Quick update

It has been a while that I posted something and my blog is also moving towards my MBA journey. Well.. I would try to minimize the MBA thing but that’s what taking most of my time.
I have finalized my schools; in R1 I will be applying to Wharton, Chicago, NYU, Kellogg and Columbia while in R2 it would be Duke, Haas and MIT. There is quite high probability that MIT would be out of the list, but lets keep it for some time there.
I just finished meeting one of the Duke’s alumni and it was nice to know the experience of other people.
Lately, I have been busy watching Prison break, writing essays( ha ha I have not written a single word) and preparing for toefl.

2009-06-29T21:43:00.002-04:00

Good Saturday

I have been away from this blog lately needless to say reason was GMAT. On 06/27/09, I finally wrote GMAT and scored 99 percentile. I was looking for 85+ percentile in both the section and I ended up scoring 94 and 95 percentile in Quanta and verbal respectively.
I am pretty much satisfied with my score and in my application process this will not be the rejection criterion.
My final score 760(Q50, V42), AWA- 5.0

Happy GMATing ☺

Hemant

2009-06-06T19:38:00.000-04:00

Bad Saturday :(

Well , Saturday dint start very well.

I thought I will complete prep 2 by 12 noon and will do something more, but how many times things go as I plan ( No sarcasm intended). After waking up in the morning at 11:30 with hang over, I thought I should not let my seriousness about GMAT go away so in double mind whether to go to library or stay home to attempt GMAT prep 2, I finally headed for library to practice the test in library to get feel of real environment.

At this point of time I was still in hang over with so many things going on my mind with cricket being one of them, I don’t how I became cricket frenetic. I started my prep 2 and finished with 710(51, 34). Well , on any given day I could have selected 10 more correct choices in verbal.

Anyways lessons learnt: always believe in your instinct and always be on time.

I screwed up verbal because library was about to close and I gave up couple of answers with 8 minutes still on the board. However, it was good practice under pressure.

2009-06-01T23:21:00.003-04:00

GMAT update II

It’s been a while since I wrote my last post; either I was too lazy or got very little time. I have very interest in writing about what did over the long weekend, but it was certainly helpful in reducing the GMAT stress.

Earlier I wrote that I need three consecutive 700’s score to schedule GMAT exam and this weekend I got my 3^rd and 4^th 700's scores. I attempted Prep 1 and scored 730, though I got 2 questions, which I had already seen in some forums. I scored 51 and 38 in quanta and verbal section respectively. Well I will be with this score in real GMAT since 38 in verbal would translate to 85+ percentile and that’s what my target is. However, I will still target to go past this mark and try to get 40+ in verbal.

Over the last 4 weeks or so I was able to attempt only one CAT irrespective of whether it is a normal weekend or a long weekend. Since I want to complete my GMAT before June’09 because:

1. I want some time off after GMAT

2. I want to spend plenty of time on R1 applications

So with these 2 and several other factors in mind I pushed myself to go for another CAT on Sunday, 05/31/09. I was not really in position to attempt but still I tried. I scored 730, after seeing 730 I was happy because I was able to maintain my 700 score in MGMAT and I scored fairly decent in verbal despite feeling that this test is not going well. My sectional scores were 50 and 40 in Quanta and verbal respectively.

Well apart from these 2 tests, I took some time off on Saturday for jet skiing, which I felt was better than snowmobiling, while tennis took my whole Sunday. I feel these activities diverting my attention and preventing me from thinking about GMAT all the time. It has been quite stressful time and I hope it ends on positive note.

Last few CAT results

MGMAT2:620(47, 29)

MGMAT3:640(48, 31)

MGMAT4:700(51, 35)

MGMAT5:700(51, 35)

GMAT Prep1:730(51, 38)

MGMAT6:730(50, 40)

Hemant

2009-05-24T23:51:00.002-04:00

Quick GMAT update

Well this weekend did not go the way I hoped. However, still I was able to give MGMAT CAT4. I thought I would score more than 730, but eventually ended with 700(51, 35). I am not happy with my score, but at least I was able to maintain 700, which showed that first 700, CAT3, was not fluke. Now all I need is one more 700 to schedule my exam. And as I wrote earlier I need 40+ score in verbal to cross 85+ percentile. I am still searching for that extra 5 points L

Let us see what happens tomorrow. I will be back tomorrow to write about it.

2009-05-22T23:22:00.006-04:00

Ijaazat

I still remember when first time I heard the song Mera kuch saaman from the movie Ijazat, I was in first year. Radio mirchi also started its experiment of rejunivating the FM in India and opening its first center in Indore was part of that move. Well what happened after that is history.

After 7 years this song still gives me that feeling, which is difficult to describe in words. Gulzar has masterfully crafted the lyrics and aptly won the national award in 1987 for the same.

This will remain my favourite for at least sometime :)

Ek dafaa woh yaad hai tumko jab ,
Bina batti ke cycle ka challan hua tha ,
Humne kaise bhookhon pyasse bicharon si acting ki thi ,
Hawaldar ne oolta ek atthani de ker bhej diya tha ,
Ek chawanni meri thi , woh Bhijwa do .

Sawan ke kuch bhige bhige din rakhe hai
Aur mere iq khat mein lipti raat padi hai,
Woh raat bujha do,

Aur bhi kuch saaman tumhare pass pada hai
Patjhad mein kuch patton ke Girne ki aahat,
Kaanon mein ek baar pehen ker laut aayi thi ,
Patjhad ki woh shaakh abhi tak kaamp rahi hai,
woh bhijwa do .

Ek akeli chatri mein jab ,
aadhe aadhe bhig rahe the ..
Aadhe sookhe, aadhe gile , sookha to main le aayi thi ,
Gila man shaayad , bistar ke paas pada ho,
Woh bhijwa do , mera woh samman lauta do.

Ek sau solaah , chaand ki raatein ,
aur tumhare kaadhein kaa til ,
Gili mehendi ki khooshboo aur ,
jhhoth mooth ke waadon ko ,
jhooth mooth ke waade bhi sab yaad kara doo,
sab bhijwa do mera woh samaan lauta do.

I was fortunate enough to watch this movie last week and if you have slight interest in parallel cinema then do watch it. Well I could write review here but really pressed up for time now.

Hemant

2009-05-17T23:16:00.001-04:00

GMAT update

Before I feel overwhelmed with my schedule, time for a quick GMAT update. I scored 700(Q51, V35) in MGMAT3. Although I happy with 700, I still look further improving verbal score to at least 85+ percentile. I thought of trying GMAT prep1 but some how could not execute as I expected.
All I need is couple of more 700+ scores to schedule GMAT exam. There is so much to write but don’t feel in a mood to write.

2009-05-10T22:56:00.005-04:00

GMAT woes

Well this weekend did not go the way I intend it to. It all started with Friday late night call at 12:30 am screwing up my plan of attempting Manhattan CAT2 next morning. Although call ended pretty, I was not able to sleep because of some reasons. In next few hours my alarm started ringing to indicate that it’s 7:30 am now. I was not in a mood to get up, but then I promised my friend that I would join him for cricket match besides cricket is the only thing that, at present, I can play without much effort.

Finally, after coming back from Philly at 4 pm I was not in a position to take the test so deferred it to night. Somehow I caught up with work again and no wonder I dropped the plan of taking CAT2 on Saturday.

After a good night sleep Sunday morning came, I thought starting my test at 8:30 am but at 7:30 am received VM from VD, who asked me to come for cricket practice. Well this time I was reluctant to go but then thought that I can squeeze out 2 hours for cricket so finally I started my test at 12 noon and finished at 3:30 pm with couple of hiccups where AirPort was not able to detect wi-fi signals. I ended up getting 640 (48,31). I have reached in a position where I don’t find any motivation at all. At times I feel that GMAT in not my cup of tea, but then realize that there is no other go, beggars are not choosers ☺.

I know RC is my biggest weakness. I have no issues in reading or comprehension but somehow I am missing the fun and not able to click. I can narrow down to final 2 choices, but ended up choosing the wrong choice most of the times.

Apart of this whole GMAT woes, I got one ticket for speeding violation. Poor officer was not able to fulfill his quota so he took shelter at Banning park, Wilmington, where I got speeding ticket for 25mph in 15mph zone. However, I was able to watch Ijazat movie, only good thing happened this weekend.

I am hopeful that next weekend I will be able to cross 700 in MGMAT and finally book a date for real GMAT.

2009-05-08T22:09:00.003-04:00

I hate GMAT

I am returning after a while. 2 things that are taking my most of the time are work and GMAT. Work is something that you cant live with while GMAT is something that I need desperately. I never thought I could write about it but then …

I don’t recall I was so much dedicated for something lately, but somehow I am not able to go distance I want to. All I need is 85%ile in both the sections i.e. 40+ in verbal and 49+ in Quanta. Presently my level is 38 in Verbal and 50 in Quanta.

I am hopeful that in next 2 weeks I am able to cover the gap of 8 points in verbal and get rid of the first round of MBA process and move on to application process. Those who are reading this please wish me luck I am desperate need of it.

In last 3-4 months I have not able to do anything I left photography, movie making and my piano ☹. Situation at work is really bad, load has increased with more responsibilities.

Hopefully I will be able to follow uncle Ben’s words:
Great power* comes with great responsibilities.

2009-04-06T09:47:00.002-04:00

How do I feel now :(

This morning I was in really bad mood and I wanted to write something nice , which would have soothed me out. At times you feel no matter how hard you try you are not able to reach the target you set for yourself. May be I have set my target too high or may be I need more time for it which I don’t have. I was thinking about this stuff and while replying to my friends on social networking site I got this quote

Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.

I hope this will keep me going until I feel bogged down again.

I also started liking this song
Especially because of line “Jee karta hai pankh laga ke ud jau main”

Cheers

2009-02-23T11:57:00.003-05:00

Watching Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscars out of 9 Categories in which it was nominated was fun though I was bit surprised. So finally a movie representing India, of course not in positive way, stole the show defeating likes of Milk and curious case of Benjamin button. Though I must say that this is best movie I have seen in US so far.

I felt surprised because I did not find it different from any other Indian movie with songs and sole theme of most of the Indian movies Romance. However, this movie reached the Oscar because its wider audience. With British director and US distributors Fox it is all set to become one of top grossing movies of this decade with present collection reaching $250 M.

Hope this will inspire INDIAN directors.

Jai ho

2009-02-17T19:02:00.003-05:00

Well when you don’t expect, things happen. This morning was also one of those.

Despite running on tight schedule I was forcefully involved in of one of the incidents today and it’s not that I readily got involved; I tried to avoid it up to certain extent but then as always things go out of hands and finally I found myself in the middle of something where people were after my blood. Finally after couple of rounds of here and there issue got resolved and I was the center of attraction, with something else cooking in my mind, I had to speak something about this issue to move things forward. Well somehow I managed to take control and we planned to provide status at 3 PM.

This time I was mentally ready as I did my home work and prepared myself to face the tough road ahead. I started with the basic idea that this is reason why this happened and I was expecting hundreds of follow up questions but to my surprise everyone excepted everything so mildly and one hour of call ended in just 7 minutes and I saved 53 minutes today.

I was telling one of my colleagues, who was also present in above call, that how much I prepared for this meeting.
He said: “Isn't that how it always is, you are prepared for a long conversation and then no one cares”
And I replied “yeah and converse is also true, which is more painful”
And he replied: "Exactly"

Finally in those 53 minutes, I was able to fix, which bothered me over the weekend and took my 10 hours. Well lesson learned from this is that there are certain things for which you just need to wait and watch and things will fall in place automatically।
I have bigger thing coming up let’s see how it goes.

Happy Tuesday
Hemant

2009-02-11T19:03:00.001-05:00

Life after Monday’s Massacre

It has been quiet for a while now but there is certainly a void because of Monday’s incidence. Life has become business as usual and why not it has to be. Monday Massacre, a term given by one of the business partners, is pretty apt if you know what happened exactly on 02/02/09.

I have been going thru a mixed bag of feelings; sometimes I wonder whether to laugh at my misery or to look forward to what God has planned for me. Things are not working out the way they supposed to be.

Last week was full of surprises first my client manager and then one of my offshore teammates. Well let us see how much more I can handle.

Hemant

2009-02-02T19:46:00.003-05:00

My manager

I never waited so anxiously for any meeting; it was 3:50 PM and I was waiting for clock to tick 4:30 PM. All of a sudden, I received updated invite for the meeting that it has been rescheduled to 5:30 PM. My manager’s manager organized this meeting so there must be something he wanted to discuss with my team. Though before this meeting I had the idea what this could be about but still I wanted to make sure this news is true. As I was waiting for 5:30 PM, I received an email from my manager, who thanked everyone for being a part of his journey till now. I hope it is clear by now what I am writing about. I could not believe that this was happening. I never could have imagined that he will get layoff.

Rajesh Pendse, my manager, was asked to leave with immediate effect. I got this news around 2 PM and for next 4 hours I was in state of shock and could not see what’s happening around me. I am just 4 years old in this I.T. industry and he was one of the persons whom I admire most. He was always sarcastic in his remarks and sometimes hard to withstand but these were his qualities that I liked most. He would make your life miserable and you will feel why the hell are you in this place but these are things that will bring best out of you. Getting appreciation from him was an achievement in itself, but when you do, only you would know its importance. I did not know what I was capable of until I worked with him. He shielded my team to nurture and gave tough time to test our strength, there are so many things that I could not translate into words. I learnt the art of war, how to remain politically correct and many more things, which will certainly going to help in shaping my future. Rajesh, you were truly a mentor to me. I will not see you tomorrow in office but you will always be one of persons, who taught me precious lessons in life.

I know Rajesh you will never come across this page but if you do then this one is for you. I hope very best for your future and wish our roads would cross again.

Hemant.

2009-02-01T08:22:00.003-05:00

What the heck happened to Federer?

This is third consecutive time Federer lost to Nadal. This time on hard court though. Federer really gave up in the final set and Nadal capitalized on it and defied Federer from equalling Pete Sampras's record of 14 grand slams.

Scores:

7-5

3-6

7-6

3-6

6-2

I doubt if Federer will ever overcome the Nadal factor and beat him in the Finals of grand slam :(.
I can feel the pain when Federer burst out in presentation ceremony.
After seeing Federer bursting out in the ceremony, I too couldn't control myself. Go Federer time will come. However, I must say this has been phenomenal season for Nadal winning his pet French open, wimbledon, olympic gold and now Australian open, first spaniard to do so.

Lets see what happens in Roland Garros.

2009-01-25T20:10:00.005-05:00

3 things

I was reading stuff on net and some of the stuff that I really liked

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look around.

2. 95 percent of any profession is shit work.
Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school that is what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. If you don't learn to love the boring, aggravating, and stupid parts of your profession and perform them with diligence and care, you will never succeed.

3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
You hear a lot about details, from "Don't sweat the details" to "God is in the details." Both are true, but with a very important explanation: hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then attend to it first and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But not everything is equally important.

2009-01-21T16:50:00.002-05:00

Gas and water

Today I was having some discussion with JS about something and I saw gas Prices at Wawa gas station, which was touching $2 again. It’s was so drastic how gas prices came down to less than $1.4 from $4.

It is worthwhile to note that in US
One gallon of Gas is nearly $1.8(cheapest on 01/21/09 in DE) while 500ml water is $0.5. i.e. One gallon of Gas is nearly $3.8.

On the other hand
In India one Ltr water is 15 Rs. while one Ltr pertrol is 55 Rs.

2009-01-08T16:46:00.003-05:00

It is difficult situation to survive
Some time I ponder on the situation where I work. Being in banking sector, with present scenario, ahh.. it does hurt.

I received this email from one of my colleagues

Today is my last day with the XXXX. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such incredible people all over the last 10 years. We’ve celebrated many successes, and I’ve made so many great friends. Good-bye for now, and I hope our paths cross again in the future. If not, I wish you all the best of luck!

There is no explanation necessary why it was sent.

2009-01-05T00:35:00.007-05:00

In 2009...

How many times I felt that I am full of enthusiam to do a stuff and every time I let myself down. Number of times this enthusiam lasted only for a week. However, in this new year I make resolution that I will remain full of enthu till I finish the task. And if it starts getting down again then I will see this post and start feeling good again.

I have certain resolution for this year, few of them I can post here while few of them I want to keep to myself unless those are accomplished.

1. I will watch fewer movies this year. When I say fewer I really mean it.

2. I will learn keyboard by year end.

3. I will read and write some quality stuff. I feel lost here

4. <>

5. <>

6. I will finish all the projects, which are pending from so long.

BTW I was at times square on New year's eve with other 10 Million people with VD, who fulfilled his childhood dream of being at times square on New year's eve. I was trying to be face in the crowd :P while my another friend KV was lost in the streets of New York city.

Hemant

2008-12-27T18:41:00.002-05:00

My Favourite quote

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, it's full potential, that word would be "meetings."

2008-12-18T14:02:00.002-05:00

I can die peacefully now…

After seeing the movie Dasvidaniya, I got an aspiration to learn a musical instrument, which I always wanted to but somehow could not able to do so. As the main protagonist in the movie wanted to learn Guitar to play song Har ghadi from the Kal ho na ho before he dies, I also thought of playing same song before I die. Since Guitar is out of my league so I settled for Keyboard and after 1 week of practice I can play this song :)

My soul can rest in peace if I die today and at least I removed one task from things to do ;)

2008-11-20T11:02:00.006-05:00

A photographer in making...;)

At least this will be my wallpaper for some days. This is not what it looks like.

2008-11-20T10:33:00.006-05:00

Holiday season

Sitting in my cubicle, occasionally getting glimpse of snowing I feel holiday season has started.
People have different ways to celebrate it, for me it would be sitting in porch, having a small fire in the center, unlike JS, who likes to have fire in his hand always, with whisky in one hand (JS’s idea) and watching snowfall. While for my manager it would be, after seeing my imagination, bombard me with work and in his own sarcastic way of saying - Hemant is too busy with work. I know it is difficult to stay cool in this crumbling economy; DOW closed on less than 8k but do I, as an individual, have control over it, no. I know I might not be able to see next Christmas here (I am not dying guys, I mean next Christmas in American way).

When I peek outside my cubicle I don’t see anyone around. I can feel the starting of holidays.

Happy holidays.

2008-11-10T17:13:00.003-05:00

Do movies really affect brain?

We have a feeling of relating movies to normal life either to our own or to someone we know around us, especially female fan followers of SRK who are of searching Raj of DDLG in normal life ( ok ok not today’s girls but girls of DDLJ era) .

I watched Memento movie and since then I have this feeling that I am not able to remember things properly. Is it the affect of the movie or I am getting old :( .

BTW Memento is must watch and has to be on to watch list if you are really interested in movies. This movie is about a person, who meets an unwanted situation in life. His girlfriend is killed and while saving her he gets a serious head injury resulting in a loss of memory. Now the hero has a memory of his last 15 minutes only. So in order to remember all happenings he uses Polaroid Pictures of everyone he meets and writes description on it. He also uses Tattoos on his body to remember the most important things.

2008-11-09T20:07:00.002-05:00

This too shall pass

When I was a kid, probably in 6th standard, one of my teachers told me the story of king Solomon.

The story goes as

King Solomon once searched for a cure against depression. He assembled his wise men together. They meditated for a long time and gave him the following advice: Make yourself a ring and have thereon engraved the words "This too shall pass". The King carried out the advice. He had the ring made and wore it constantly. Every time he felt sad and depressed, he looked at the ring, whereon his mood would change and he would feel cheerful.

Abraham Lincoln also mentioned in Wisconsin in 1859

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Lately I started feeling that nothing seems to be working right for me. I feel my office work is eating my personal life. I can’t think of anything other than that. Everything seems to be blurred now. It is the time when you do everything right and people still find problem in that not because I did it wrong but because it did not go in their favor. It is the time when you DO NOT want to say a word and want to see how things are moving around. I am stuck between my company and my client. Crap…I guess this is enough for the day to soothe me out and hopefully God will give some brain to those people, who only like talking big words.

I hope this too shall pass.

2008-10-30T21:07:00.002-04:00

Why Diwali is celebrated one day in advance in south India?

After long time I got time to write something or rather I feel like writing. What could be a better than to write about Diwali.

The foremost question is why Diwali celebrated one day in advance in south India?

Well most of people just give some or other reason while reason is “Since Lord Rama traveled from South India to his kingdom in North India, he passed through the south earlier. This is the reason why the festival is celebrated a day earlier in South India.”

Now why we celebrate diwali?

It is the homecoming of Lord Ram of Ayodhya, after a 14-year exile in the forest, after he defeated the demonic Ravan.[5] The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Ram by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa).

There are other reasons also such as

· The Killing of Narakasura
· Austerities of Shakti
· Birth of Goddess Lakshmi
· Krishna defeating Indra

While in Sikhism, Diwali came to have special significance from the day the town of Amritsar was illuminated on the return to it of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) who had been held captive in the Fort at Gwalior under the orders of the Mughal emperor, Jahangir (1570-1627). As the sixth Guru (teacher) of Sikhism, Guru Hargobind Ji, was freed from imprisonment - along with 53 Hindu Kings (who were held as political prisoners) whom the Guru had arranged to be released as well. After his release he went to the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in the holy city of Amritsar, where he was welcomed in happiness by the people who lit candles and diyas to greet the Guru. Because of this, Sikhs often refer to Diwali also as Bandi Chhorh Divas - "the day of release of detainees."
As far as my Diwali is I celebrated it better way than last year. I participated in pooja at Friend’s place and then went to Delaware temple and finally landed in Gurudwara for lunger, which was good but I hope next time I will be celebrate it at home the way I used to celebrate 8 years back

2008-10-28T16:44:00.004-04:00

I am 25 now !!!

Now that I have completed 25 years I feel different. I don’t feel young anymore :(. I feel good that I can rent SUV; my auto insurance will be lesser and so on… Best part of this birthday was I cut 3 cakes.

But there is different feeling this time which I never felt before when I completed 22, 23 and 24 years. Though I still behave the way I used to do before but my inner self keep telling me that “Dude, you are old now.”

2008-09-16T18:38:00.008-04:00

Marlboro Lights

When I came to Delaware, I met this amusing guy called John, who, like others, has this universal habit of smoking. He always says that he is not a chain smoker but he consumes 3-4 cigs per day. I don’t know why definition of chain smoker keeps on changing with respect to environment. When I was in college 4-5 cigs per day was considered as an act of chain of smoking. But here as per John those who consume more than 5 cigs per day are chain smokers; so by far he is not part of that elite club. John along with his couple of friends always goes out for small walk after lunch and always smokes at least one cig. What is the funny part here? Well let’s see…

Like most other housewives, John’s wife also does not know that his husband secretly smokes . In other words it’s his smartness that he never gave a chance to his wife. On several occasions I was also part of saving John’s ass when his wife almost caught him. John always has these $3.84 Wawa transactions on his credit card’s statement. Once John’s wife noticed this transaction and enquired about it, John replied it’s the coffee which I take when go out with my friends in office.
She did not enquire any further.

After some time she noticed frequent transactions on John’s statement, she asked what is this? Have you become addicted to this coffee? John said, yes in his own style. Again she asked how come you never pay for your friends or your friends never pay for you. This was quite valid question as John is always accompanied by me and my roommate, well most of the times. John said we prefer to pay individually as this avoids later confusions. She didn’t any more questions. Well this point of time John started realizing that this getting tough and his wife started noticing these transactions on his statement. So, smart guy John started using cash and his intake of cigs with this new idea increased.

One fine day when John ran out of cash swiped his card in urge for cigs and it came as $3.84 malt box on his credit card statement. As always his wife noticed it and did not ask anything and everything went as a normal day. Once John and his wife were traveling in their car and his wife saw an advertisement for Marlboro Light for $3.84.

John’s wife: your coffee was $3.84, right?
John: Yes, why?
She did not say anything.

John’s wife: It was Malt box, right?
John: Yeah, I really like it. John started thinking about Marlboro light.

John’s wife: I just saw an ad for Marlboro light for $3.84.
John: after getting jolt from his wife’s statement, What?

John’s wife: I said; I just saw an ad for Marlboro light for $3.84? Isn’t it for cig box?
John: Of course not!!! It was for a coffee that I like, you know that.

John’s wife: Oh yeah!!! Why it was malt?
John: Probably you don’t know, it’s a famous brand name in US. There are other products also with that name.

John’s wife: why it was box, normally these stores give coffee in cups along with cup holder, right?
John: That’s true. But that day they ran out of those cups and gave a box to hold the coffee cup instead of usual cup holder.

John’s wife: Oh, and remained silent.

John: In his thoughts, thanked Jesus for saving him again.

After this near escape John did not say single word on the whole journey. And learnt a valuable lesson not to swipe his card not matter how desperate his urge for cig is.

This is the story that John told me couple of times that how he saved his ass on this particular occasion.

Disclaimer: Above incident is completely part of fiction and is not associated with anyone living or dead.

Dedicated to fictional character John ;) .

Cheers!!!

2008-07-06T17:03:00.002-04:00

Great day of sports

I started my day long weekend pretty well just the way I wanted. However, it did not end that great.

I started Sunday morning with Asia cup final hoping that new Indian cricket team will change the fortunes of Billions of Indians . But their dismal record of finals won again. Now it holds a record of 2 wins out of last 23 finals.
Every time I think that I will not going to watch cricket match but bu hu hu ...:( I have not missed a single match featuring India.

During the Asia cup I thought lets go for F1 but my bad luck, here again Fernando Alonso came 5th. After joining Renault back he has not been able to deliver his magic what he delivered in
last 3 seasons ( 2 with Renault and 1 with McLaren ). Either Renault is going down or other teams have gone so far ahead that it is impossible for Renault to catch them. And about Force India... he he .... it will be an achievement for if both of its drivers finish same race.

Leave it ... now about Tennis... I was glued to TV for nearly 2 hours 30 minutes of 4 hours 30 minutes final hoping that Federer will finally pull it off but he could not. I did not start in beginning because I was very sure that Roger will definitely going to win Wimbledon for the 6th consecutive time. But Rafel played exceptionally and at one time scores were 6-4,6-4 in the favour of Nadal. He was not like earlier Rafel who used to give up after 4 sets. He fought very hard and won it. And about Federer , an exceptional player, this year is not good for hime but he will make a comeback and will definitely going to win US open '08. It will difficult for Federer , who has not lost a single match since 2002 ( in Wimbledon) , to loose at point where he could have been 6th straight Wimbledon champion. In the end it was longest final and one of the best matches in the history off Wimbledon.
Scores read like 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7.

It was indeed a bad day for the people in sports whom I support.

2008-06-22T23:35:00.003-04:00

My India...

Since I came to US most common discussion point is always comparison between India and US. And being over patriotic towards my country always took India's side.

More than 30% of the Indians who come here never go back and it is not hard to imagine why?

Everything is better here in US and there in India...

I always wonder why I love this country...Alarming poverty,conflicts, crazy pollution, corruption, lack of meritocracy, bad infrastructure... Is there any end of this list ? No...

Recently I saw 2 movies Aamir and Summer 2007.

Both the movies made me realize that we are not going in right direction.

If you try to bring some reform; you never know whether you will going to reach home safely next time. We are way past the era of M K Gandhi.

2008-05-04T15:47:00.007-04:00

Great Indian Media -II

2008-04-03T18:59:00.007-04:00

Indian Media !!!

What ever is happening in Indian media, is self explanatory from the pictures below :)

Way to go star NEWS.

Photocourtesy: AM

2008-02-14T18:38:00.004-05:00

What’s in a name?

Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet."

Though this blog is no way related with either Shakespeare or Romeo-Juliet, it has something to do with name.

Name quite confusing thing, it does not need be pronounced at it appears. I guess its kind of weird for Americans to pronounce the Indian name. Last couple of weeks I am was in totally puzzled situation how Robert can become Bob. Though I didn’t find much success in my research but few names which I found really interesting are :

Robert >> Bob
Michael>>Mike(Everywhere)
Daniel>>Danny
David >> Dave( That’s kind of universal)
Patricia>> Pat( Easy one)
William>> Will (again easy one)
Leslie>> Les

This list is so long but I am not getting more name in my mind now.

Now we talk about the other way.

My name is Hemant and I do understand that its difficult for an American to pronounce so I have give full freedom to them what ever they want to call me and as a result they transformed me in to a superhero like

He-man( Master of the universe)
Hee-maant
Hee-ma
Heeman

And it varies from person to person.

2008-01-14T21:31:00.000-05:00

I For India

Yesterday, while surfing channels I pressed On Demand button and in entertainment section there was a new category "Sundance Channel" . Being curious as always I explored it and found out that it has listed movies which were part of Sundance Film Festival. On its very front page there was one movie "I For India".

It's a family documentary movie spreading over 4 decades from 1966 to 2006 directed by Sandhya Suri. Director has compiled a movie out of tapes which were part of mode of communication between Yash Suri and his family back in India. Yash Suri was completed fed up of the poor phone lines between UK and India. Synopsis of the movie can found here

For me it was wonderful viewing experience as the director crafted a beautiful story out of old film footage.It shows the story of doctor who comes to UK to make his mark and as a part of initial Brain drain in India. And the how he tried his best to be in touch with his dear ones. For 17 years he struggles to get back to India, misses out important family events. But finally one day when he comes back and tries to start his own clinic, his own country did not allow him settle his nerves.He goes back to UK and settles there finally but the feeling of Indianess always remains with him. After nearly 40 years he experiences the same feeling when his daughter settles in Australia.

In fact we all have this feeling somewhere, sometimes our own mind or sometimes the conditions start controlling us. But still this movie is worth watching.

2008-01-13T20:10:00.002-05:00

Rendezvous with Bhai

One fine day I was enjoying bus ride on my way to office and suddenly radio started broadcasting this news about a homicide. I was thanking God that I never had any such incident …But wait same instant my mind interrupted me and said “why are you in so hurry”. Yeah I can easily recall that incident; it is one of those incidents which are not easy to forget.

In my French class there was another girl NU and one of the boys names VS in class was lurking her, I don’t know which moment it was that I became good friend of NU though I was destined for something else. We used to sit together or in other way she used to hold place for me. It was one of those regular days when she asked me to watch her stuff till she comes back. And I hope this was the moment that VS was eyeing for and he rose from his seat and took her cell and dialed some number from her cell and that’s it, now he was having her number and everything happened so fast that I couldn't able to control VS. But then I thought since we are all civilized people so it would be nice if he understands this by himself and I did not say anything. Couple of weeks went by and this guy informed me that they are exchanging text messages with each other and I thought whoa…this guy is quick, I must learn a trick or 2 from him but then my thoughts got abrupt break when this guy told me that there is one problem that I am using your name. I was speechless. And I felt instead of talking to this guy, it’s better if I clear out things with NU.

And in next class I spoke to NU about it and she replied that she already knew it. I wondered what a strange world this is. But then she explained that initially she also thought it’s me but then later from his messages, she realized that it’s him. Following days both started missing classes and in between PS farewell also happened.

One fine day when I along with my friend exited from the class and were on our way to hit the main road suddenly a SUV stopped in front of us exactly perpendicular like we see in movies. And then its driver rolled down the window and asked us to stop. He parked it on the side way and came out of it and asked us to follow him. He was really looking like a Bhai that we used to see in Hindi movies. As soon as we reached the other door of his car, he pointed a gun on our faces and asked which one of you VS who is troubling NU? This was our first encounter with gun at least I can say it for me. Though we both were nervous and did not know what to say, what we both were feeling is difficult to express here. As I started to speak something, one of the senior most members from our class came out and after seeing her I wanted to shout HELP!!! But then this guy greeted her and she asked him “How is he and how things are going? “. I thought what is going on around me? And then she saw me and asked me “Hemant you are still here!!!” I said, I am about to leave, I wish for a moment that I could tell her that this son of B%^&*@ is pointing gun on us but then this guy started conversation with her, it looked like both were old classmates. Once she left this Bhai turned again towards us and asked so “where were we? “
I told “Do we look like the guys who can bother a girl?” and I said “see, I don’t have mobile either”
And then he said you are not VS, she called you something else. I said (Abey Dhakkan- in my thoughts only) that’s what I wanted to tell you and I informed him, the other guy is also not VS. Then he gave us warning that don’t tell anyone about this incident. There is nothing even police can about this. So, better be careful and don’t open your mouth. And finally he asked us to leave and finally we ran away from that place in a flash and never looked back until we reached my friend’s place.

Thank God because of your grace I am still alive and hopefully will be until I narrate this story to my grand children.

2008-01-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

French Class

I was in third year and my exams for second semester were almost over. Instead of going home I decided to do something different and one of my friends who were taking lessons for French language asked me come along. So, this is how finally landed in the French class.

Well, it was my first day and I was late, as soon as I entered in to the class I saw one gorgeously looking girl who looked like a 10th class student. Soon our MADAM introduced me to everyone. And finally I got a seat near this pretty girl. And this is how story of my first crush started. On the very first day I did not understand anything, I felt like my parents forced me sit in a Ramayana path. Well, some how I completed my first day. On the next day we had to perform a play in a group of three (and she was in my group) in which I had to introduce one guy to other. And by mistake I introduced PS with her own name. That was one so hilarious. But finally I ended my day on happy note. I wanted to talk to her but then I realized that I am really not good striking conversation.

But then one day she was teaching me something and asked
Me: So, which class are you in? Is it 10th?
She: laughed for moment, I am in college.
Me: oh
She: yes, I am in second year, doing B.Arch. what about you?
Me: well, I am in final year B.E.
She: ohh, I thought you were in 12th!!!

Then we got interrupted by the whole class…

I missed next couple of classes because of campus thing and in the next class she informed me that she is going back to Mumbai for her studies. I was not sure what to say so I stayed silent.Following day , I ( rather whole class) gave nice farewell and said À bientôt but that never happened.

2007-12-23T22:03:00.005-05:00

How weddings are fixed?

I was never in to social gathering kind of events and (in)famous of all these is a marriage. Right from childhood I used all possible tactics to avoid it unless it was not forced over me. As a result I only attended less than 10% of marriages in which my family featured. There was downside of it as well when wedding was out of town then I had to depend on my neighborhood auntie for food. Well those were the cases when I was in school. No one bothered me much in college as I always had this solid reason of having my college in other city.

Lately I was in my cousin’s wedding and it was kind of impossible to avoid. But wedding is not that bad place either; you meet so many new people, you never know when you get a spark. You find every possible age group here. Right from small babies to middle age people. And one of those special groups is wedding planners. Their modus operandi consists of finding a right girl whom they consider as target. Once the target is finalized this group will start looking for groom and once their eyes are set on some one then the process of match making will start. Their next job is to convince parents and for this purpose they catch hold of the mother because of lower emotional quotient. If something doesn’t work out then they will start their search again until they fix at least wedding. Once completing their mission their happiness can measured on the basis of smile they exhibit.

Well, I know much about this because I survived one of those traps but my friend could not. Poor fellow :-)

2007-12-17T00:28:00.003-05:00

Puliogare Mix

Recently, I introduced Poliogare mix to one of my friends who became big fan of Poliogare which reminded me of my initial days of struggle with food with G and HP. So, let’s get started.

In the beginning the thing which I found interesting as well as time consuming was cooking. Although several friends taught me few chapters of cooking(some of which I wanted to learn and a few were really forced ones, as a result of it I think I can cook well enough). I came here with my friend G who is from Karnataka. And her mother gave him numerous number of rice mixes. At first it was really amusing for me to see so many mixes for our simple plain rice, as in northern part of India at max we used to have plain rice, fried rice or biryani. But here...There was one more guy in our flat named HP who was more or less like us in terms of cooking.

About HP this guy was having habit of talking over phone in too loud voice but whenever his colleague Ms. Sxxxxxxxa calls, his voice always becomes like "Yes,Sxxxxxxxa..." and this was so funny that only G and I can understand, consider a person who normally talks @ 80dB and for her call it used to become 40dB(even 20dB sometimes) may be this is the way guys used to behave when…you know what I mean( I do have another example but that deserves another blog). But sometime back G informed me that she went back to India(HP don’t worry you will get one soon).

Coming back to those rice mixes, out of those mixes Poliogare was one. Everyday in the evening we used to think what to prepare now and everyday after an hour we all used to eat this Poliogare rice. Whether its morning breakfast, lunch or dinner …Poliogare hai na…
Almost everyday I woke up either because of this Poliogare’s smell or kannada songs courtesy G :). But G seriously you are master of preparing Lemon rice :)

2007-10-30T23:08:00.004-04:00

When Cops caught me!!!

It was fairly hectic Saturday; I was on call for more than 10 hours right from the morning with a visit to library of course. I had my dinner at 9:30 pm and like a mid thirty guy was watching some stuff over TV (which I am not BTW). And was thinking about how greatly I enjoyed my weekend, but then my few friends came up and soon we were on the road on our way to see down town in Newark.

And for the first time I felt like Newark is not that bad place either. And soon we were roaming on the roads of Newark, Delaware and were enjoying the down town glow. And did I tell you that my bladder was full and I was desperately looking for restroom. And I went straight 2 miles of course watching the Halloween thing around me with so many people dressed up in various costumes. Finally I managed to find one place where there were strong chances of having a nice restroom and I entered there with my friend who just came to give me a company. But to my bad as soon as I entered the guy who was standing there at the gate asked for my ID and I did not had anything to say as I was just having a pager and Mobile with me. That was the pretty hard time , however I found one in Dunkin Donuts and that made me bit relaxed though.

And finally after an hour or so, we decided to go back and we hit the road again. After driving for 5 minutes, I realized there was Cops car behind me with flashing light. Initially I thought that they want to go ahead of me but when I slowed down they switched off the lights and when I accelerated again; I saw those flashing lights again. Now I was sure that they were after me and I was thinking what mistake I made? So, finally cops asked me to stop. And I was looking shoulder to park but couldn't find any for next one mile. And when I stopped that 6 feet cop walked up to me and asked me why I did not stop earlier and reason was quite obvious. He told me that I was driving without switching my head lights on. He asked for my license and I handed over my license along with papers of the car. He took those and went to consult with other guy. And finally came back and said. Please drive with head lights on, as he was unable to give me a ticket because I was driving with my Indian and that saved me of hefty fine. But after 2 days I got my license .

2007-09-23T21:17:00.002-04:00

And it's six sixes in an over ...

Yuvraj Singh's savage assault on Stuart Broad made him the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in Twenty20 internationals and the fourth in senior cricket. Garry Sobers and Ravi Shastri did it in first-class matches, Herschelle Gibbs in the World Cup and now Yuvraj.

18.1 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, that's out the ground, super shot over cow corner and it just kept going up.

18.2 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, now that really is sweet, no more than a dismissive flick off his legs, swatting a fly, and the ball arcs deep into the crowd beyond backward square leg. The dodgy TV measurement says that's 111 yards but as it landed outside the ground how do they know? They guess that's how.

18.3 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, he's hitting them everywhere, he steps to leg and smashes the ball over extra cover and it keeps on traveling. The fireworks start on top of the scoreboard and they've been going off in the middle for some time.

18.4 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, Shiver me timbers! Broad goes round the wicket, bowls a filthy wide full toss and Yuvraj steers it over backward point and it clears the rope again.

18.5 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, down on one knee and larruped over midwicket, that one was more nine iron, it went into the night sky and dropped with a thud in the jubilant crowd. England have a team meeting. Broad looks quizzical and miserable. Can he, can Yuvraj do it. Broad looks like a man who knows he is about to be mauled again.

18.6 Broad to Yuvraj Singh, SIX, and he has, Yuvraj leans back and smacks that over wide mid-on. It was the maximum from the moment it left that bat and the crowd was roaring as it flew.

Although I did not watch it LIVE...But watching it after an hour also did not make much difference.Enthusiasm was still there.

2007-09-14T16:00:00.002-04:00

Finally India WON !!!

I followed this match over the Internet closely and I never hope that this would be so close encounter.We gave few runs in last couple of overs but the way we ended it was superb.

Here is the bowl out summary

Pakistan and India have both qualified for the Super Eights.What a match it has been. Pakistan clawed back in the last three overs and the match will now be decided by a bowl out. Each team will nominate five players who will bowl at a set of stumps over 22 yards. Each team will have alternate attempts at hitting the stumps and the team with the most hits wins. it's like a penalty shoot-out in foot ball. in case there's a tie after the first round, the same five bowlers will have to have another go.

Bowl out Shoaib Malik has won the toss and he has asked India to have the first go.
Both teams are out there practising hitting the stumps.How hard can it be to hit three stumps without a batsman in front of them? We'll soon find out.

India have nominated Sehwag, Uthappa, Sreesanth, Pathan and Harbhajan. It will be Gul, Tanvir, Arafat, Afridi and Asif for Pakistan.

Round 1:
Sehwag is up first for India. Dhoni waits behind the stumps. Sehwag has a big grin on his face. Sehwag runs in, bowls flat and fast and hits the stumps.Arafat gets ready for his turn. He bowls a full toss that misses off stump.India lead 1-0 after the first round.

Round 2:
Harbhajan bowls quick and straight and hits. He's delighted and celebrates like he's taken a wicket, or scored a penalty.Gul runs in off a short run up and also misses the stumps. The Indians love it.India lead 2-0 after the second round. Massive pressure on Pakistan.

Round 3:
Robin Uthappa runs in, bowls seam up and knocks the stumps over. Pakistan have to hit the stumps with all their three remaining chances to stay in the bowl-out. If India hit one more time, they will win.Here comes Afridi and he fires it down leg side! India have won the bowl-out 3-0.Amazing scenes at Kingsmead. It was like a football shootout and the Indians are celebrating fittingly. They won the match 3-0 through a bowl-out after the proper match ended in a thrilling tie!

I loved it.

Cheers to India :-) !!!

2007-09-10T20:30:00.006-04:00

On my way back to Bangalore!!!

It was the summer of '06 when I started my journey towards Bangalore again. It was lovely summer I spent in my hometown and on my way back, I realized that my reservation is still in waiting status. Moreover, it was impossible for me to go back home and again process a request for the reservation as this one I booked about a month ago. In addition, TTI was not allowing me enter in to the coach but I guess after 2 minutes by looking at my poor face he allowed me. After sometime, TTI came again and I met him personally and I used my experience of college days and settled for a meager amount and my journey finally started peacefully. When I went back to my seat, I met one sardarji he asked "Tusi unhoo paihe kyun ditte asi to jaan wale si" (Why did you give him money, we were about to get down). I always feel good that Sardars are the most naive creatures on earth.

Soon Bhopal came and 2 gorgeously looking girls boarded the train. And did I tell that in my compartment we also had this one cute little boy aged around 5-6 years. I was kind of playing with him all throughout my journey until now but now these girls suddenly became source of entertainment for us as all the boys started roaming in our compartment. We too started chatting with one another. And on one of the stoppage I asked that little kid to look outside the window and I asked him whether he can see that Bhoot ? And he told me that "Bhoot woot kuch nahi hota hai "(Ghosts don’t exist ) then I asked girl beside me that ghosts exist. She took my side and said yes. That small boy straight went to his mom and told her that they are showing him ghost. His mother asked him who showed you ghost? . And he pointed his finger towards that girl. Expression on her face can't be expressed in words here ;).

After this long journey we were approaching Bangalore, so those girls went to rest rooms to change their clothes, finally they both come out in mini skirt and fairly short long top. And we were chatting about so many things as normally we do in our train journey. Suddenly those girls started moving their bags and it seemed that both of them were about to get down. When their station arrived and both started moving suddenly this small boy asked them in his innocent voice "Aap ja rahe ho ? (Are you leaving?). And both the girls said " yes " with sad smile on their face after this nice journey. Then suddenly this kid remarked that " pehle kapde to pehen lo " (Wear clothes first) and whole compartment was filled with a burst of laughter which was so uncontrolled. And this was the end of my journey, which was full of everything. This incident still leaves a smile on my face whenever I think about it...

2007-07-01T19:46:00.001-04:00

A Beautiful journey ...

Not long back in India I was reading too much of Sudha Murthy's books. In fact, all the last three books that I read were from Sudha Murthy starting from "Wise and Otherwise", "How I taught My Grand Mother to read" and "The Old Man & His God" courtesy to SJ from Infosys. And I love the way she always describes and portrays her experiences of journey.

I stayed close to 3 weeks in Concord and then what normally happens in software industry because of budget constrains my project got scrapped and as a result, I had to move from west coast to east coast. So, I started my journey again although it was not much just 6 hours flight, how to pass time was the problem and I started feeling like this in Concord itself.

From Concord to San Francisco airport it's nearly an hour journey and normally I love sleeping when ever I need to travel for more than 30 minutes, but after coming to US I was spending most of my time in sleeping only. So, my quota of sleep was already over for next 30 days. I was lost in these thoughts when cab driver asked me "Are you from India" and I said yes. And then there was no looking back. He asked me "Are you student here?"(I don't know when will I stop looking like a student ) and to his surprise I told him that, I work here and moving to different state for different assignment. I thought that he must be from Pakistan so, I asked him "Which country you belong to?" and he replied Afghanistan. And after hearing this I felt too curious about knowing him as first time in my life I was meeting some one from Afghanistan. I was recently watched the movie "Kabul Express" so just like main protagonist, I started his interview.

Me: How long have you been working here?
He: It's been 17 years now.

Me: 17 years, It's been a long time and how many times have you visited Afghanistan?
He: Around 2 years back I went there with my family.

Me: Oh!!! so, your family is also here ...
He: Yes, when I started from Afghanistan 23 years back in 1983, I had one kid then.

Me: But you told that you are here from last 17 years and you left Afghanistan 23 years back, so...
He: Yes, I stayed in Pakistan for 6 years and then I came here and my 3 children were also born in Pakistan.

Me: So, from Pakistan you came here?
He: Yes, but don't ask me about Pakistan. People there are so much greedy and he couldn't find proper words to say what he wanted.

Me: Oh...So, you are kind of settled here. But you still have relatives in Afghanistan as 23 years been a long time and did you ever feel like going back to Afghanistan?
He: There is nothing much-left in Afghanistan now, I just visit once in 10 years to remain in contact with my relatives and provide my children a touch of land where I was born. Everything is ruined there.

Me: I thought of asking something that came my mind then but I thought this would be too sensitive. So, I continued you are driving from past 17 years, that's incredible...
He: Not exactly, I tried so many things first I worked for one company then I worked at some store and from last couple of years, I am driving this taxi.

Me: Hmmm, Gas is quite cheap here!!!
He: No!!!It's not when I came here it was just 30 cents and now it's nearly $3 50 cents...

Me: But if compare if with India then it's still...
He: Yes, it's true, in India it’s costly.

He: My son is also working here, he is in bay area and my other 2 sons are also in college; they are in New York. My wife also works here and she stays with me here and my children used to come home twice in a year.

After this long conversation I guess it was his turn, so ...

He: Have you visited Golden gates?
Me:Ya, It was nice, I spent my last weekend there; though I did not tell about my experience there and I visited few other places near by it.

He: Ya , it's nice place and what other place did you visit?
Me: Civic Center, but I couldn't able to visit LA, may be on next trip I will...

I was worried in between that what will happen to my flight as I did not know about the check in formality at airport and I had too much luggage so, I was thinking about it and then I realized that we have almost reached the airport and both of us did not feel like we traveled almost 50 miles. And then he helped me in getting the luggage trolley, as I was unaware of the anything...

I was in a mood to continue this conversation, but as we all are bound by time, so I said adieu to him. But he stayed for 5 more minutes until I got in to the right line of US airways to Philadelphia.

2007-06-25T01:36:00.001-04:00

LGBT festival in SFO

After spending nearly a week in Concord, CA; I was eagerly waiting for the weekend. Although it was my second weekend here as first one I nearly spent in overcoming Jetlag :(. I started my journey along with 2 other friends for Golden Gates.

After visiting Golden Gates, we were so tired that we wanted to take some rest and so we decided that we would take rest in Civic Center, SFO. After reaching Civic Center, we entered in some park where some celebrations were going on and it was named as LGBT celebration, unknowingly we entered there.

Some opera was going on which was really nice so we sat there for a while and started enjoying opera. After that few other performances started and we were enjoying a lot except when my friend Gautham started realizing that organizer was putting too much pressure on the words like GAY and LESBIAN.Then only we noticed that people around are not sitting like we used to see India. And we come to know about the LGBT which stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender. At that moment we thought we can escape from this place after enjoying the show, but at the same time we all were having same thoughts about being in such a place that some other can easily join us as it was told to us in one session in India that do not roam in US in groups of male and females. So despite of these thoughts, we stayed there and enjoyed the atmosphere around along with shows.

At the end of the final show we were really happy that we did not leave the show in between and enjoyed every bit of it . But at the very end when I was filming one event suddenly a guy,who was in his mid thirties, tried to snatch my camera and said " Can I get a new Camera ?" that moment only we all escaped from that place as he was not looking for my camera but for something else...

2007-06-24T22:01:00.001-04:00

Life in a Metro...

I love the lyrics of this song from the movie Life in a Metro. These lyrics are so wonderfully written that I can listen to these again again and again :). After coming here in California sometimes I feel like I am missing something but whenever I listen to this song again I start feeling good.

In dino, dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha , tu khwaab saja,

tu ji le jara,hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat.

Berang si hai badi zindagi kuchh rang to bharoon,

main apani tanahaayi ke waaste ab kuchh toh karoon.
Jab mile thodi fursat, khudse karle muhabbat,

hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat

Usako chhupaakar main sabse kabhi le chaloon kahin door…

aankhon ke pyaalon kse pita rahoon usake chehre ka noor.
Iss jamaane se chhupakar , puri karloon main hasrat,

hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat.

Lyrics: Amitabh Verma

Music :Pritam

Isn't it wonderful??? :)

Video of this song is also wonderful picturised on different kinds of couples aged from 30 to 60.

Do enjoy it ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ52IJjbNg4

2007-05-03T06:15:00.003-04:00

This A.I.G. ad...

I am writing this blog just to appreciate one ad which I really like; actually ads are not always bad.For some it’s part of living or may be way of expressing themselves. Ok ok …Philosophies apart. It’s about an advertisement which is coming now days on T.V. for A.I.G.

This ad starts with a small kid, who sees an old lady who is carrying a heavy bag. So innocently this kid asks “Aunty, main bag utha loo?”(Aunty, may I carry your bag?). And that aunty allows this kid to carry her bag. After leaving aunty to her doorstep he says “Bye bye aunty…”, and aunty says “Arey!!! Wait wait “, gives him one rupee coin. After receiving this, his eyes get overjoyed. He reaches his father by taking lift from an old man and knocks on the door of a meeting room. And soon his father comes out and this kid simply looks in his father’s eyes, shows his hand and says naively “Papa meri pehli shalary !”(Papa, my first salary!)

It is so wonderful to watch innocence on kid’s face at the time when he says “Papa meri pehli shalary !”. Whenever I see this ad I feel really great and this just fills me some kind of ecstatic feeling.

2007-05-03T03:30:00.002-04:00

The other side of I.T. Boom

For a change I reached early at home on Monday evening (on 30th April) and luckily electricity was there and I switched on television set. And during my privilege hours of surfing I stumbled upon Discovery channel (I am not a big fan of Discovery channel though).

It was broadcasting one program under the series called“Colours of India”, “The other side of outsourcing “by Thomas Friedman. And according to this program India is not known for great manpower or skilled workers, instead it is just known for one of the most favoured destinations for BPOs and that is what people understand from the so called I.T. Boom in India. I am not writing this for discussing IT Boom here; but my objective is to draw attention towards the parts of Karnataka or Bangalore which are untouched by this IT Boom as Bangalore is known as IT city.

There are 700 million Indians live in villages and if we go just 100 miles from Bangalore then we will find 100 years behind India. Is this kind of India we dreamt of in our childhood? In Bangalore there are people who come from different states just to have better standards of living or to get better opportunities ; I have lots of example to talk about one of them is my cook who is having a dream of making his own house in his home town and for that he is working indefatigably. There are people who are working on daily wages at meager 1 or 2 $ per day with males at half a $ more.

This IT Boom has just touched the particular part of society which is just 3 million. There are parts just 10 Km away from Bangalore where people don’t have water supply, no sanitation and even children don’t have access to primary education. Our objective should be to spread this boom to rest of India so that we can see happy and prosperous India. May be talking through this page is relatively easy but at least we can donate something to the organizations who work for these kind of initiatives...

2007-04-24T01:24:00.001-04:00

Great Indian values

I really feel obliged being a part of this great Indian culture. We have so many cultures, traditions and yet so much in common.

This interesting incident happened; when I went to US consulate for my PA. It was nice experience (will write some other day about it). So, there was this lady with a baby, who was barely a year old, and with all the documents such as her marriage album etc. She was waiting for her turn in queue and looked like she wanted to join her husband in US after VISA stamping.

And soon her turn came and now she had to face the visa interview. Initially officer asked her a few questions and finally asked her to show some documents including her marriage album. Now it was becoming really difficult for her to hold her child in one hand and to show her album to officer with another. So, this gentleman officer asked one of the supporting staff to hold her child. And as soon as the child separated from his mother, he started crying and his screams were getting louder with time. By seeing this entire picture one elderly looking couple (both of them were in their 60s) felt something (especially the lady) and she started giving her all the documents to her husband, so that she could hold the child. The situation here was kind of uncontrollable. This officer finally handed the child to his mother, and to my surprise that child started smiling again.

And that was wonderful scene to watch that how a small child recognizes the touch of her mother. We all were like that once but in present world may be we tend to forget what we used to be...

2007-03-02T00:04:00.000-05:00

Taxation Demystified

Although many of us have received this mail, but still I can’t resist my self of putting this one here with everything explained in such a lucid manner.(Email courtesy: AA)

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got TEN times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

By:
David R. Kamerschen,
Ph.D. Professor of Economics,
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

2007-02-27T08:04:00.000-05:00

Matters of heart...

It had been a while since my heart leapt at the sight of a woman. Only this time, it was my beautiful doctor and she was telling me that the vital organ was behaving somewhat in an erratic manner. I sent a prayer to the almighty to keep it beating for some more time.

The heart is the only organ that has earned a fair amount of fame. Right from poet to novelist to lyricist, paeans have been sung about the mischief of the heart. It is Cupid’s favorite target to practice his archery on. If you feel touched, your heart melts like butter, if you don’t part with your precious money for street urchins you have a hard, cold heart; if you dare to snatch back someone’s purse from the itching fingers of petty thief then you have a brave heart.
Our heartstrings get pulled at the sight of smiling babies, while heart to heart chats with the bosses go a long way (personal experiences some times play a heavy role). Not to forget the umpteen numbers of people who call their loved ones sweetheart and heartthrobs.

Adolescents over the world must have eaten their heart out and some carry their heart on their sleeve. In our biology class we were taught that this vital organ is hollow and muscular that pumps blood but our literature teacher told us otherwise. They waxed eloquent over the feats this tiny fist size organ that seems to dominate each and every aspect of our lives. It symbolizes love, horror, terror and pain (a lot of it especially) ---in fact every emotion under the sun.
Teachers instructed us to put our heart and soul into our studies while truant organ delighted in giving itself away to the beautiful girl in the class, and when she didn’t respond I cried my heart out because I had set my heart on her. Well-wishers told me to take heart even as I felt as though my heart would break. When I grew up my mom told me that I had my heart in the right place.
The amazing heart is the only organ that makes people think through it, feel from it and react to situation according to its command. Moments after a heart chat my physician gave me the heart warming news that vital organ was doing just fine and would continue to function for sometime to come. I didn’t have heart to confess that it had skipped a beat at her sight.

2006-09-01T07:56:00.000-04:00

Theory of constraints

The theory of constraints is very interesting. It is also very simple. It revolves around thinking processes, directed to remove constraints in order to achieve your goal. Here is the theory in simple language.

Thinking processes
The theory of constraints is the practical results of Eli Goldratt's work on "how to think". It revolves around the thinking processes and their applications. There are two basic elements underlying thinking processes. One is causality, which is basically a very simple idea used in many different ways. The second is dealing more in the arena of necessity.

If we talk about causality, it might be as simple as this: "If I touch a hot stove, then I get burned." That's our understanding of reality. The second aspect of thinking process, tries to achieve the need (goal) by bringing some change in the situation. Say, I want to touch the hot stove but I still don't get burnt: "If I touch a hot stove and I'm wearing a pot mitt, then I don't get burned." Here, instead of plain reality, we have put into place, a condition and process, to alter that reality.

In a similar fashion, to achieve a goal, we could use the thinking process to change the situation and to alter the present reality. Thinking processes can be applied for improvements in both personal and professional life. It might fail if we do not follow the process rigorously and instead allow our instincts or intuitions to play a major role in decisions. This perse does not lead to problems, but if we can allow our instincts or intuition to pass the theory of constraints test, it improves the chances of the success of the theory.

What is a constraint?
A constraint is anything in an organization that limits it from moving towards achieving a goal. For most business organizations the goal is to make money now as well as in the future. There are two basic types of constraints: physical constraints and non-physical constraints. A physical constraint is similar to the physical capacity of a machine. A non-physical constraint could be demand for a product, a corporate procedure, or an individual's paradigm for looking at the world.

For instance, if for a manufacturing organization, the goal is to make money now as well as in future, the theory of constraint defines three operational measurements to check whether the operations are leading towards the goal.

Throughput: The rate at which the system generates money through sales. This is considered to be the same as contribution margin (selling price — cost of raw materials).

Inventory: All the money the system invests in things it intends to (or could) sell. This is the total system investment, which includes conventional inventory, but also buildings, land, vehicles, plants, and equipments.

Operating expense: All the money the system spends in turning inventory into throughput. This includes money constantly poured into a system to keep it operating, such as labor costs, heat, light, scrap materials, depreciation, etc.
The following four measurements are used to identify results for the overall organisation:

Net profit = Throughput - Operating expense
Return on investment (ROI) = (Throughput - Operating expense) / Inventory
Productivity = Throughput / Operating expense
Turnover = Throughput / Inventory

Given the measurements as described, employees can make local decisions by examining the effect of those decisions on the organization’s overall throughput, inventory and operating expense. A decision that results in increasing overall throughput, decreasing the overall inventory, or decreasing the overall operating expense for the firm will generally be a good decision for the business.