Holidays in Pune

hello Janta.....
i have reached the fag end of my academics.....i'm sure my classmates will be really happy to get rid of me from class ;-)....so i've decided to take my long awaited break and came over to Pune for holidays (will be going to Goa for New Year's, so if any of u is in goa then do let me know thru' sms - coz i'm on low balance and wont pick up calls, sms is free ;-))
Pune is really chilly....i mean really really really cold....colder than bangalore....i wear a sweater on top a jacket on top a shawl,to cover my ears a cap, to cover my face a scarf....and socks for the feet.....i'm not exagerrating people...its really that cold (atleast in the nights)
i've not been able to party much here, hope to do that i goa.
i heard about the attacks on IISc. really insane and ridiculous....those guys dont know who to kill or wat......with 99% of our polititions running around scot free......
anyways hope u all are having ur share of fun too.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL
cheers :-)))

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!

hello people......tis the season to be jolly/ tr-la-la-la-la/la-la-la/.....bells of carol/tra-lal-la-la-la...
I may not believe in religion but i 'zimply' love this season of joy, love and hope. I feel really happy :-))
So here's wishing everyone, A MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2006 !!!!!

Bangalore to BENGALURU!!!! no ways

The Karnataka State Govt has decided, overnight, to change Banaglore to BENGALURU.......AAAAA....... no ways. I dont like the name which means 'boiled beans'.
My reasons are as follows:
1) Bangalore is already an established and INTERNAIONAL name.
2) The govt would have to incur crores of rupees to change official boards and other addresses.
They might as well invest that money on giving us good infrastructure.......fools!!
3) The WOLRD knows us as Bangalore and when we change it to Bengaluru, it sounds so local and regional....yuck!
4) I and many others too DONT WANT TO CHANGE THE NAME....

HAIL BANGALORE

Goodness Gracious Me!!!

Life s***s !!! I mean there are some people who really do not understand the meaning of healthy criticism. When time comes for feedback they just simply lash out at others in spite. For what reason, the lord himself wont know. The feedback they give is so ridiculous, that makes you wanna slap their stupid faces. For heaven sake people grow up!!!
You know what, some people are alive coz killing is illegal !!!
I'm sorry readers but i just had to vent this out.

VICTORY !!! ..... at Nitte's ETTIN-05

Well folks, let me take this priviledge to announce that we won the Championship at ETTIN - 05, the National Level Management Fest of Justice K.S.Hegde's magt institute NITTE, Udupi, Karnataka. We came first in the Marketing event for our brand of bitter and dark chocolate "Schocholat"; Stock game - made a Rs.100,000 profit in 3 days after invest Rs.50,00,000; Qiuz - 145 points and difference of around 80; Best Manager - Girish, it was indeed a tough event. We came Second in Entrepreneurship - Business Plan " Vividha"; Mock-Press - me as Deve Gowda; Human Resource event.
Cheers !!! :-)

Teacher....the most respected person in society

Teacher - her hand held my future. She is the most important person to a child after its parents. She moulds and polishes us. Without her we would remain mere wax. She holds one of the most respected professions in the country today, yet she is paid pittance, not enough to even by herself a text book.Many youngsters don't even look at teaching as a peofession because we feel it is not a lucrative career.Why are these important people so underestimated in our country? Why are they not paid well? Why aren't many people willing to take this profession as a serious career?I hope the government can answer their plea.

Secular Government ....ya rite!

This is with reference to the article that was published on 7th or 8th Nov 2005, Bangalore edition, Times of India, front page below, that speaks of Natwar Singh calling for a well-known astrologer (from Bangalore to Delhi) to consult during his trial times. The article also says that Karnataka's CM Daram Singh is also one of the biggies on the astorloger "Rjaguru's" list of clients. I think this whole thing is so god-damn ridiculous. The GoI says we're a secular nation and has a constitution that's build on the whole idea of secularism (secular here means tolerance of pluralism and not aganist a particular religion, caste, etc.) If one wants to see the nation grow and develop ecomically, literacy wise, rise in std of living, etc. how is it possible when the leaders of our nation themselves are supersticious and irrational in nature and behaviour? How can the country progress? The man follows what his master has taught him. So also the citizens of a country will follow what its leaders do. They're supposed to set expample here and look at the sstupid stuff they're upto. To top it up Natwar Singh was an IAS officer himself....talk about lack of education!!God save the Queen....God save India !!!

The Argumentataive Indian

This book has been written by Amartya Sen, he's a Noble Prize Winner, an Economist and a professor a HSB. It's an amazing book, so far i've finished part 1 of the 3 parts. It's not a book i'd usually settle down with but while watching an interview of Shobha De', she said its wonderful so I thought of reading it to figure out wat is so wonderful about it. The framing of sentences may seem easy at times to comprehend, I've reached so far with the help of a dictonary and re-reading the sentences thrice, at times it's ok to understand but that's rare.
The book talks about India's history, culture, politics and other socio-economic issues. The central theme of the books revolves around the title - the argumentative indian and how India's history, culture, politics become affected by the argumentative nature of her children (he's proved that Indians have always been argumentative), the democracy of the nation depends on it, the fradulant ways of the previous government, the RSS, Shiv Sena, and other political-religious bodies that seem to hinder India's progress along with other issues like social stratification, gender discrimination, the benefits of being argumentative, etc.
I suggest it's a must read if you want to clarify your opinion on the status of India's development. I'll continue on this once I finish the book. I've got Harry Potter 6 lined up next.

Back from hols

College has started and we're back on the grind. I spent my hols falling sick. I was down with a bad fever, cold, throat and lung infection....blah blah blah. I've recovered a bit but still have a long way to go.
These hols were something of a meditationtime for me. I slept 18 hours a day, ate quite less, took a reasonable amount of medication and started reading Amartya Sen's 'The Argumentative Indian'. I'll talk about the book in my next blog. These hols are the only holiday we get from the institute, and i think its was rejuvination time.....satiatied...!

15mins rendezvous with Deve Gowda

Today i had the opportunity to talk to our Honourable Ex PM Deve Gowda, for what felt like more than 15 mins of an eye-to-eye coversation. Little did i dream, that after writting the article on him (link to Speakupcitizen blog)) i would actually get to meet him face to face. I asked him if there was any opportunity for people like me to enter politics now. (I must say this now that this is the second time i'm declaring in public that i'll be entering politics. The first was at the Global Perspective Meet of Ericssion). He bowed down to me and said 'with all due respect please enter.....i have no qualms, or something to that effect). So that was my stint with him. He seems so ordinary nothing great. I didnt feel overwhelmed or anything of that sort......felt like i had the right to ask him something...watever it maybe. He said politics is a place for those who only have selfish interests in mind. And that is where i believe i will not fit in and so have identified a slot that is ment for the geniune. I strongly believe that if u have pure intentions and the humility to accept corrections with a burning desire and passion to give ur life for the good of the nation - there is still room for you in politics. It may seem hard but u will succeed. (My professors, my colleagues and I were among the audience for the program "We the people", anchored by Srinivasan Jain and the topic was Bangalore's IT Dream - is it dying (with specific reference to Deve Gowda's comments on IT companies and N.R.Narayan Murthy's resignation from BIAL).

Screw up days....

Past week has been quite a screw up. I've been arguing with people I didn't wanna argue with. Alot of them have been misunderstanding what i said and my intentions too. I just am so ****** up ! Its so tiring when u go thru' this process of trying to let people not to 'get-to-you'. u know what i mean. It's just so exhausting....pwhew !!! I've patched up with those who showed signs of reconciliation and but with those who really wanna screw up my life - to hell with them !
I really dont know what went wrong. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, its just that i get ticked off when they try to step-on my shoes. That's bad real bad......i go mad then. Any sane person would go mad.....really.
I wanna know how to handle myself in these times.....its not very becoming of a person whose intentions are good and who aims to be a professional.
Gosh i really need break from all this clutter in my life.

Baby Shower !!!

On 16th Oct (Sunday), we (mamtha, radhika, darshana, suhana, patricia, and i threw a baby shower for Seetha. We brought food from outside and Seetha tried making mousse cake, with mango pieces and chocolate (she thought it wouldn't turn out well but it came out just right, kudos to her for that. Of course, Patsy did the scraping of the white choco and i scraped the dark choco, Mamtha did the finishing touches with choco cream, Rads just sat and ordered around.....bascially we all prepard the cake together with 80% of the job being done by Seetha).
It was fun sitting around and catching up on each others lives and of course on those who were not present there too. Mamtha gave Seetha a toe-ring (Seetha didn't like her traditional one so Mamu got her a hip one).
Seetha, (I know i gave a really pathetic toast on sunday but i hope this makes up for it) we're all really excited for your baby and you (i know i am). Your kid has so many aunts to call out to and be pampered by....gosh she/he is gonna be a spoilt brat....we know u'll be a fine mom (since u've done ur schooling from sacred heart's girls' high school :-) we all love you and wish u the best in life darling.
Cheers

Mysore - Dussara

Tuesday afternoon I took the train to mysore to visit my sister who's studying at the Regional Insititute of Education (an aspiring teacher). I reached the place at 8:45pm. Since it was closing time at her hostel i was unable to stay there that night, but another friend of mine was kind enough to make alternate arrangements for my stay. The next day I met up with my sis and her friends and we all took a trip to the Mysore zoo. The zoo was awesome. we saw some of the rarest animals there. we spent around 5 hours at the zoo and then took a tonga (horse cart) to the Food Exhibition. the 5 of us were famished with all the walking thru' the zoo, that we pigged out at the food mela. then we walked over to the palace for the lighting and saw the vintage car show too. Boy those cars were a beauty. We saw the old fords, mercs, jaguars, austins, etc all well maintained and in good condition. then we headed back to the hostel for the night. the next day. My friend took me over to see Infosys' new 130 acres campus....wat a sight! I fell in love with the multiplex - shaped like a Globe. For lunch we went over to the only hip-n-happening road called Kalidas Road or KD Road. I had the typical mysore 'thali' (meal) .....yummy it was awesome. After that we decided to go for the procession (when the Mysore raja would take a 'walk' thru' the city along with some decorated elephants, and other dignitaries....) we missed the 'yatra'......(i stayed back on Thrusday so that i could se the 'yatra') my bad luck i guess. Then when we reached the palace, we roamed around searching for my sis' other friends and classmates. We then decided to go to Karanji Lake & Nature Park. Boy it's a freakin' beautiful place....absolutely clean, no pollution, rare birds, .....all in all i had an awesome time there. We went boating as well (paddle boating). We needed to reached the hostel by 8.30pm, before that we had to have our dinner outside (coz the hostel mess was closed that day). So we left the park around 6.30pm. There were hardly any buses that went from that area towards the city. we managed to flag down one and ran to catch it , in the process i fell into a ditch (infront of the whole traffic) and bruised myself quite badly. by then it began to pour. we had dinner at the only Nilgiris in town and some how reached the hostel by 8.35pm. the watchman was kind enough to let us in without reporting to the warden....pwhew!

I slept soundly and woke up at 5am next morning to catch the 6.30 train. I was supposed to reach B'lore at 9.30 and be able to attend class at 11am but i reached home only at 11.30 and was darn exhausted to do anything.....I managed to attend the German class at 3pm (Guten Tag!) and came back home to rest my aching body.

In conclusion, I had an awesome time at Mysore and i totally love the place. I think i'll buy some land there, build a house and settle down some time at the sunset of my life.

Cheers!

Seasons Greeting !!!

Today we finished the module on Strategic Management and from now onwards till Thursday I have holidays....yippee...hurray.....
I think this is my first official holiday this year, boy! am i so glad. I've been desperately waiting for these two days.
I've got a list of activities lined up like sleeping, sleeping, sleeping....zzzzz!
I think I should take a holiday...I need to rejuvinate myself before the next module begins.
So here's wishing one & all Happy Holidays!!!

Telecom Confusion!!!

What happened yesterday was quite ridiculous. Overnight my AIRTEL Network goes bizurk i.e. no network AT ALL. When i called up the customer care centre they said i had an amount of RS. 150 outstanding from my previous payment which is a late payment fee (that was because i had registered a complaint for wrong information given to customers and that resulted in an unreasonably high bill and this took 2 weeks to get rectified. i refused to pay my bill till the right amount was given to me, so the late payment. I was told then that the amount would get waived but apparently that didn't happen.) yesterday i went to the AIRTEL office on Banareughatta Road to find out what the hell happend. And to my surprise, they said that my number had been DELETED from the switch board (BY MISTAKE) for no fault of my own. I got so wild at the guy (who by the way was the manager) and he got this complaint rectified in 10mins (which otherwise would have taken 4 hours).
CAVEAT EMPTOR (buyer's beware)

Blogging- I'm enjoying it!

Since i've started my blog i've been busy thinking about stuff to blog on. When i'm in class i get scores of ideas but when i sit in front of the comp my mind goes blank!!

Partial Solar Eclipse

Hello Friends,
Guess whose back, back again! This time with some celestial event. The Partial Solar eclipse is on its way thru' and many people are dipping themselves in the river w.r.t a belif they hold. Anyways, I didnt get to see the eclipse, but I do hope you all did.

My Vision...would u care to join in?

My colleagues and I attended a Global Prespective meet held by Ercission at the Golden Palms Village in Bangalore on Sept 4, 2005. It was awesome. We got to interact with people from all over the world like Brazil, UAE, Sweden, Japan, Malaysia, etc. One of them asked a question " What is your vision for India in the future?".
The question was indeed thought provoking. I wondered what should my vision be as a citizen of the country. As I reflected I figured out that didn't matter to me if it was India, China, Burma, or anyother country. I found myself developing a vision for the whole of human kind, A Global Village. I envisioned a future where there would be no political, trade and religious barriers. Governments are here to guide a nation and not to destroy it. Each nation should understand its Comparitive-Cost Advantage and produce offerings accordlingly, like India focusing on labour intensive activities and USA on capital intensive sectors. Each nation should essentially try to help one another. I see no difference between an Indian, American, Japnese, Vietnamese, and so on. We all belong to one race- the human race. Why do I need a passport to travel to another country. I should be given freedom to travel.
Religion is really and opium of the masses. Religion was made by man so that he can discipline himself. If we can discilpine ourselves without religion do we really need it? I strongly believe in faith and prayer. We dont need religion for that.
Self-belief and humility is my matra for a successful life.

I know this vision sounds too philosophical and ridiculously unattainable. But that's what visions are for.
Cheers!

Shody response to an unanswered woe!!!!

This is with reference to Karnataka's minister for industries and development Mr Sindhia's reply to the IT barons' boycott of the Bangalore IT fair. He said he's been asking 167 IT companies to give empolyment to the Kanadigas as well. This was his repsonse (which I think is shody and highly unbecoming of a responsible authoritative figure) to Banaglore's infrastructure woes.
My question to him is what about those non-kannadigas who've been paying taxes all this while to the Karnataka State? If one is going to bring about reservation in the private sector on the basis of caste, creed, and of being a localite, I think it's highly ridiculous, especially from the I&D Minister of a prominent state like Karnataka. If matters go further like this, then those of us who call ourselves Banagaloreans, and other non-Kanadigas (the ones who've made the state for what it is known today) will leave the province.
For all I care let the Kanadigas remain, rule and develope the state....

Quarter Life Crisis!!!

For the record...i've stolen the title from a fwd. What follows is my take on "1/4 life crisis".
I remember those days (back in 1999-2000) when me and my classmates (who are now supposed to me my 'best-friends'...we hardly keep in touch but they're still me best friends) used to bunk class and stay on campus...chill out under the sycamore and christmas trees around the college Kiosk...lazing around...gossiping and drinking coke, eating the infamous college egg-patties.....we had absoultely no aim in life...no goals...no ambitions...just wanted to enjoy our freedom and be rebelious. This continued for almost 3 years out of the 5 years in under-grad college.
Look at me today (5 years later), I've transformed myself into this geek who has nothin' better to do in life than read her management text books, watch CNBC, BBC, maybe a bit of Ch.V, and bury her head in the Harvard Business Review magazine (it's a good mag BTW) and other such magazines and papers.
How times change and so do we.
It's true "Change is the only permanent phenomenon".
I've seemed to have geared up for the corporate world (though am one with no work ex). I'm ready to take on any challenge that heads my way.
At times I wonder why my life is not a bed of roses, that's when I realise that if it were a bed of roses I wouldn't have grown so far and so strong.

Career...why is it so tough?

I'm at this juncture in my life where i've to decide what career to step into. I'm at the threshold of the corporate world and boy it does not look too good from here. Profs say, 'not to worry too much about the job u first take coz ur sure ur not gonna stick to it for long', but i personally believe that the first job u take would essentially determine your careeer path. What i'm trying to say is that if i'm going to enter sales then that's the area where i would be focusing my skills and training on. I hope its not going to be too tough for me to shift towards marketing later on. Frankly i'm still figuring out where i'm heading towards. Not too sure if i wanna do sales, marketing, PR, Corporate Communication, etc. I seem to fit into a gamuet of roles. That's not a good sign....is it?

Start-up

I've just started my own blog, so i dont expect anything productive to be posted right away till some brain wave actually hits me. So for those who read this could give me some tips on blogging.
Regards
Vinu