A_R_A's photostream

A_R_A's photostream on Flickr.

These are the pics of Ganpati mandals in and around Laxmi road the hub of Ganpati celebratiosn in Pune. The mandals are amazing with each mandal having their own characteristic and beautiful decoration.

Lion outside Dagdu Sheth's mandal -- sysmbolizing its grandeour

The great Tilak

The Grand ShaniwarWada where we started the photowalk

Beautiful DagduSheth's mandal shimmering in the night

The interiors were breath taking

The Summer of 2009 in the Financially melting year
Damn we are getting the chills already!!!!!

Alas the summers season has come to our campus and we already are feeling the shivers !!!!

For those who may be wondering what is so chilly about the summer which is still a good half a year away.. it is the summer intership programme which starts in April 2009, and the placement for the same start now.......

SIP -- Summer Internship Programme is the word so common among the B school campuses. We heard the stories all along our 3 months in XLRI but now that it is here we are hearing the deafening footsteps .....
And we are promised that this is just the beginning the toughest would be the process - "WOH SAAT DIN".... when we all would be going through the motions ... day and night FLAT.

With its potential to make or break careers, people are aint relazing ..
Oh yeah, the important A4 sized sheet which is popularly known as resume/CV (Confusion Verymuch)...... is not far behind giving people sleepless nights in quest for a perfect CV.

So here we are sitting in front of the pc trying to figure out in my life if i ever did something gr8, anything even remotely eligible to be categorized an "ACHEIVEMENT" .....

Always find people saying we need to introspection ... and this is the time people do that and alas.. there lives flash b4 them ..they realize how much precious little they have done in their life -- or how much un-verifiable good they have done which cant be written in the CV. Oh yes if dont have a proof it is not an achievement (thats what our CV inspectors have to say ;) ) ..

To make the things way more challenging we have banks falling with a domino effect and we are getting the beating here for each .....
Fin guys are wondering which bank or a remotely fin profile will they get and the Marketing guys are worried of their HULs and P&gs being poached by the Fin guys...

Things are crazy over here and it is a lifetime experience.. I await with bated breadth now the "SAAT DIN" which can easily become "WOH 15 Din" of my life.

This is also life @ B school.......... and this is what defines character ..!!!
Lets see what more is in store for us .......... :)

First Day in XL

My first day at XLRI aka Excellence and integrity -well thats what our profs told us on the 2nd day.
It was 13th June of 2008 and our highly improved Indian Railways currently under a highly charismatic leader Mr Lalu Yadav brought us to Tatanagar at 2.30 pm just 5 hours late (no sarcasm intended :)). I firmly believe we were lucky to travel in this region at this time as Mr Lalu belongs to the region and trains must be doing a lot better then earlier.
After a little argument and little negotiations with the porters and the rickshaw walas(which most probably we lost – future managers ha!!) we reached XLRI at 3.30 pm.
Having figured out the rooms and settling down we set out in the evening to take a look at the campus.
Thats where my dear friend Manan's special PR skills came into picture and within no time me, Rohan, Rajdeep got introduced to 90% of the batch mates aka XLers ( 10% error margin is not bad I guess ;)). Well its a different story that we would require another couple of weeks to remember every ones names.

The part of campus which caters to the academic and the residential needs of the students is very close by and small, kind of short and smart. But “honesty” featuring always as one of my quality would admit that it is small compared to what I expected and did disappoint me a bit. But again this is life and it had a new beginning at XL now :).
So coming to the things we saw in campus that day.. the Gym - it was impressive but it was on 3rd floor and yes we did get a idea about an elevator to the GYM ;).. ha ha.
It was impressive pretty much all the equipments that I saw in my company gym which I feel (or as they said) was very advanced. And the USP of the gym was the instructor who had his photo instructing our dear Mr MSD aka M.S. Dhoni. He was proud to be associated with Jharkhand cricket and so were we.
There is a tiny miny multi purpose store there , which serves to the students needs like soaps, shampoos, stationary etc...
Then we went to look at the Library – I am not yet sure who get this horrendous idea the first day in campus. Anyhow the Library was grand – has 65000+ books so has to be ;) -- but to my surprise, pleasure I was not allowed inside as I was wearing half pants (3/4ths I believe – but the guard didn't).
We didn't care to walk around the majority of the campus which has faculty quarters and other facilities that we in BM program wont require much.

Coming back to the Xlers I would admit that they were all friendly and ready to mingle. We had a long session of introduction sometime late in the evening in our campus garden famously know as JLT- it had a history behind the name which is very close the Xlers heart. Yeah, some extra enthusiastic Xlers from among us also took over the responsibility of playing the seniors to the unsuspecting batch mates. It was fun and importantly every one was a sport and ready to do their bit to make the evening more fun.
Some or probably all of the people who had a bearable voice sung – and ya they did a splendid job.
Some even danced.. krazzy4 if I recall the song right – might have got some girls going crazzy for him.
We got to know about the batch which in addition to loads of engineers has even a doc, economic and math scholars.
That took us to another important aspect of the student life –Mess ka khana.
It was the first day and probably the mess managers wanted to create an impression. They served us Chinese food and it was quite decent.

Then in the night we went to take a look at the cafeteria of the campus which is right in the heart of the campus and has a pretty useful menu.
Thats abt it for my first day in XL

Cochin Trip (Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi)

Kiran my colleague and a good friend in Satyam was tying the knot. It was at Cochin, a small beautiful city in Kerala sitting peacefully with its twin sister city Ernakulam.
So once I had figured out this, I could solve the mystery behind not finding Cochin station on the route the train taking me to Cochin from Bangalore. Me and my friend Sasidhar (better known as Sasi) booked tickets for Ernakulum. It was a tatkal waiting, and we were not sure till 2 hours b4 the departure if we are going or not. Finally as destiny would have it – we got them confirmed in Emergency Quota were set to leave.
The train was at 5:15 pm and I and Sasi reached station at 4:45pm. Just as we entered the station the rain started pouring in. We smirked at our luck and the fact that we could dodge the rains. But wait a minute – this joy was premature. Our coach was the extra one, and it was at the end of the train, even behind the coach where the guard stands and waves a green/red flag. This meant we need to traverse the entire platform b4 we reach our coach. The part of the platform which was not shaded helped rain catch us. It was a touch and go but ensured that we reach our coach a little less then drenched.
Luckily the coach was a very clean one actually a brand new one, it was still emanating the smell of the paint. But the luck ended there- it was not connected internally to other coaches, which made sure that we didn’t get any vendor for tea/coffee/milk/ water and even food. The train stopped directly at Salem at 10.00 pm where me and Sasi, after some serious and immense attempts to communicate with the vendor who could (or at least pretending to) speak only tamil, bought some food. That was pretty much the action for that day, and the next day morning we reach the hotel room at 5.30 and scared our friend Panneerselvam (better known as Panneer).
The room was at 12th floor and we just loved Cochin from there, it was like houses constructed between Coconut trees :) something u can’t find in Bangalore. At 8.10 am we met Mr Kiran Nair, the groom (hence forth also referred to as Bichara). We three performed our duty (pulling his legs) religiously and the fact that he looked a little tense added to our fun ;).
11.00 am at the wedding hall we found our Mr Bichara sitting alone in the center of the stage waiting for his bride Indu. It was a must-see scene as the hall was completely full with people staring at Bichara. All married men’s eyes in the hall reflected sympathy for Bichara who was on the verge of losing freedom, bachelorhood, all the beer flowing parties, carefree outings … (the list is long :D ). All the married women had a smile in their eyes, (y not – one more guy had succumbed to the institution of marriage ;)).
Their entered the bride with quite some people to escort her, and loads of gold loaded on her. May be now I know why the prices of gold are going sky high – more Mallus are getting married of late ;).
Jokes apart, she was looking beautiful and Kiran was sitting there with love in his eyes waiting for his life partner to join him. The marriage went on for some 20 minutes and all the rituals were preformed well.
Then started the best part of a marriage – the newly wed couple standing on the stage and exercising their facial muscles for the camera with all friends/relatives there to wish them (I guess this makes u feel like a celebrity for a day). Me, Sasi and Panneer sitting in the audience and watching the proceedings, and all the time discussing should we go and stand in the queue or listen to our stomachs and go for the lunch. And while we were in the process of evaluating the options the queue got over and the bride left the stage. We then went to congratulate Mr Bichara who was busy doing a photo shoot for his photographer. This Mr photographer was hell bent on taking some natural pics ;) (thankfully!! he only expected people not to look at the camera and nothing more natural).
We proceeded for lunch and left the venue.With band (which the communists love and thrive on I guess) declared for the next day we wanted to make the best of the day. We decided to do some site seeing in Cochin that day and leave for Coimbatore in the night. Most of the bus services by the state transport were withheld that day itself after 3.00 pm, Reason: there was a bandh the next day ..ha ha (this is why communists hate capitalism - I Hope Mr & Mrs Karat are not reading this). Luckily there were some private travels who had a service to Coimbatore in the night.
We decided to take the night bus to Coimbatore and went to a place called FortCochin in the afternoon. It was a beach and we, in all anticipation of taking a dip, packed extra clothes but the dirty water of the beach didn’t let us utilize them.
There we saw a palace which had beautiful drawings of Hindu Gods and Goddesses all over the walls, but for some mysterious reasons called a Dutch Palace. Also I believe those after Mr MF Hussain for his paintings of Hindu Goddesses should visit this place, they will find abundant material there to protest against. Apart from that we saw some huge fishing nets called the Chinese Fishing nets. That’s all time permitted us to see their and we returned to Cochin city and caught the Bus to Coimbatore.

A Few Good Men (1992)

A complete thriller , and a must watch. :)
The story talks about Honor, Code and Order which form a core of any infantry unit where orders are obeyed or people die.

Tom Cruise a Navy lawyer is given the responsibility to defend the two marines who are accused of killing a fellow marine Santiago.
Santiago, as we learn, isn't quite up to task compared to his fellow Marines. He complains of health conditions that his superiors ignore, and is generally disliked by everyone in his unit. He has gone out of his way to request a transfer off the base, even going so far as bargaining for one in exchange for blowing the whistle on a fellow Marine for an "illegal fence-line shooting." (bole to- please take me out of this and i will tell u give u some insider info... ;)

The Accused say that they were carrying out the orders of their superiors which was a to give "CodeRed" to the victim.
(CodeRed (a term invented for the film) is a practise no where mentioned in navy manuals but is widely used in the infantry to give the soldiers some reprimand for not following the orders).
Guatanamo Bay is commanded by Jack Nicholsan a fiery colonel who is a fierce man and knows what he is doing. He knows his reponsibility of protecting the country and he likes to do that his own way. He denies having ordered a code red and obviously leaves the accused to face the law and does indulge in manipulations to this effect.

So now Tom Cruise, a Navy lawyer, is given the responsibility to defend the two accused. He is assisted by Demi Moore who is the counsel for Internal Affairs. Tom is a easy going chap,and is game for out of court settlements and is actually afraid of going to court ( high expectations set by his successful lawyer father weigh him down).
Ofcourse the movie doesnt end out of court, our beautiful Demi Moore convinces Tom to go to court and fight for the accused who are innocent.

Tom risks his career to fight this case against all odds and emabarks on a journey to collect the evidence to save his clients.
The Court room scenes are steamy and Jack Nicholson in his role as a tough Colonel outshines. The intensity in the court room discussions where people are fighting for thier lives is palpable.

The last scene of the movie where Tom questions jack Nicholsan in the highlight of the movie.
Tom Cruise is shown to have a high level of common sense and sharpness, which helps him win the case by proving that Jack Nicholson ordered a "Code Red" -- in retaliation for the Marine going outside the chain of command as a whistleblower -- by subtly provoking him and causing him to voluntarily confess the truth in court in a moment's anger.

I would only say -- all the lovers of thrillers should go and grab a dvd and watch this one!!!

OBC Quota and Student's dilemma

10th April,2008: Supreme Court gave a historic judgment in India's history by allowing OBC quota minus the creamy layer in the Central funded Institutes for Higher studies.

Was it a co-incidence or it was cruelly designed to be 10th April.

As such a ordinary 10th april , was turned into a consequential day with the IIM results expected on 11th April.

So what it meant was - all the students waiting anxiuosly for the results need to wait indefinitely (thats what IIMs told).

To add to the confusion about the creamy layer, people speculated that the graduates are considered as advanced and hence would be in creamy layer and so IIMs (who provide post graduate diplomas) wont be in the ambit of reservation. But our Mananiya Arjun Singhji told that IIMS are for sure within the ambit.

Leaving that aside lets see some of the effects it would have on poor souls like me -

1) Wait for your results indefinetly, and all the anxiety,uncertainty continues about the elusive IIMs.

2) The delay in results will affect the admission process of other institues who will loose students to IIMs( like XLRI, MDI, NITIE), this would mean agony for the waitlisted students in those colleges -- they will get the admission offers if people vacate seats to go to IIMs.

3) With last date for the institutes whose results are out fast approaching , people who await IIM results will need to pay up the fees in these institutes and then later claim the refund of fees money if they convert IIMs (mind you it takes it own sweet time). But this will mean that they will need to block this money in the institute and then later again arrange for money when IIMs give results.

4) Working people will need to wait for the results to put in their papers, this will affect them serving the notice period.

As of now the last update about the results is that the directors of all the IIMs will meet in shillong in April end and decide about the dates(which we expect to be in early May).