Solstice!!!

Friday Dec 2007

This week has been very hectic….started off with me realizing I have a lot to study (don’t ask for what ;-))

On Friday while I’m going to Bombay, I’m toying with the idea of not showing up at Solstice….have hardly slept through the week, have been through a few setbacks and illnesses, and I’m not looking forward to all the early morning buses and flights…

Friday turns out to be one mad day in Bombay….went home, unpacked, got ready for a meeting. Almost reached late (The road to Lands End is so screwed up). After an hour of talking finance, my brain is totally fried, and I almost run out of there. From there to Nanavati Hospital to meet a relative, then to buy a perfume, from there to meet my dear friend M and then my sister’s place, by the time I’m home, I can hardly talk to anyone.

Still have to decide if I should not go, but fall asleep while thinking…have a nightmarish dream at 4 am in the morning.

Finally I fell asleep, after coaxing my hazed out mind that it was just a dream, and by the time I finally started drifting asleep, the irritating alarm rings, bugged I put it on snooze…3ce!!!

Saturday Dec 2007 – Pre Solstice

When I’m late, everything that can and cannot go wrong does!!

So after 3 snoozes, I’m up, groggy eyed and cursing myself for taking morning flights…in the strange workings of the sleepy “looking-for-a-reason-to-sleep” mind, I decide I’ll go if I’m meant to go, and I’ve hit the bed again, when my Dad wakes me up…

Finally I’m up, get ready, pack my bag, and I’m off, about 20 minutes left for the check in counter to close. I leave the house and catch an auto, and halfway to the airport (which is thankfully close to my house) I realize I’ve left my cell phone home. I retrace, and now my dad is really worried when I show up.

So a minute before the counter closes I’m standing there out of breath, and out of sheer cheek, shamelessly asked her if she could upgrade me, while she’s giving me a “where do these people come from” look!!! Well, the Gods finally decided to put their heads together and make Solstice happen for me, her manager walks in, and with an irritated flip of her head, not only allows me in, but I also get to fly Business class!!…Finally a good Omen!!!

Checked in and ‘securitied’, where I meet a batchmate, we spend an hour in delay, and I’m glad Ive got company at the airport and afterwards. Noneventful flight, except that I was trying hard to sleep, but the nice airhostess with the fake smile insisted on me eating food.

Finally Hyderabad airport, and for the first time in a few days, I’m happy I came, as I see the familiar Hyderabad airport around me. So we wait (interminably) for the luggage, and then on the way, my thrill increases as I see the familiar roads, and as I remember the places we’ve gone to, and the times we had a year back…

Finally we arrive at the “Indian School of Business” gate, and I feel the same awe and silent pride I felt when I first entered the somber campus a year back…

Saturday Dec 2007 – Solstice!!!!!!!!

Those beautiful lawns, the same SVs, and the stillness of the ISB afternoon feels so good!!! Everything as is, as if we never left!!!

I reach A’s studio…chit chat for a while, he’s trying to convince me to register… I’m too lazy to go. Finally I’m off, and I almost run into a jog, desperate to see that beautiful atrium. Meet so many batchmates there…a million hugs and how are you doings…some contact number swapping. This is where I try calling "kiddo" and he gives me some hogwash of coming in an hour….several hours and phone calls later I’m still at the atrium, chit chatting with batchmates, and he refuses to show up….I give up waiting, go to A’s place again to freshen up. Chit chat there with A’s wife (A is apparently playing some games in “Bind Unwind” planned for the Alums) for a long time. Then in true "kiddo" style, he calls, 4 hours later, then gets impatient, coz I took half an hour to reach the atrium!!!

We all attend the key note function. In the main key note, I’m suddenly hungry. We slip out of the Q-A and reach CCD. Its nice to see another coffee shop there, I didn’t go even go inside the Sarovar coffee shop, I’ve had enough of veg puffs over there to last a lifetime!!

Go wearing casuals to the Dean’s dinner, it’s a bit embarrassing, most people have turned up in formals. “Network” a bit, then sample (read filch) food off people’s plates, and wines off their glasses ;)

To cut a very very long story short, we end up visiting the SV I stayed in, the LRC, the ACs, and the whole year comes flooding back, all the memories, the studying, partying, chai sessions with friends…I just realized how much I miss it now!!

Finally attended the Indian Ocean Rock concert and the party afterwards, which in ISB tradition(though the current batch has time restrictions!!) went on till dawn.

Sunday and after…

Good things get over fast – like that one year at ISB, and Solstice J

Went for one last look of the ISB campus in the morning…even though my legs were really hurting after the partying…Left the campus with a heavy heart.

Now I’m in office, recuperating from the excesses, still thinking of a lot of things, people and memories…missed a few close friends who couldn’t turn up…glad that a few others did :D

In a haze...

This year just fled by, last December I was in ISB, seems like a lifetime…

I don’t seem to have done much after starting work….maybe a bit of gymming, a bit of partying, and a few movies on the way, and one or two roadtrips…. Nothing that is memorable, or worth recounting. And that kind of makes me wonder what’s the point of working if the work is nothing even a non graduate can’t do, what’s the point of partying if I can’t recount any, what’s the point of working out, if it’s not exciting and fun?

Or am I still missing squash, going on trips with my family, working as a developer where the logic and code design I made was with my neck on the line?

Maybe I am, or I’m sure I am. Need to do something about it, maybe try some adventure sport, or give some high fundo exam....something that will challenge my own beliefs of what I can and can't do

I dont seem to have much to write about nowadays in this blog.....I mean I could write about work.....but then that is a dangerous proposition, 'cause I tend to lay the criticism thick, and in my best interests, I need a steady paying job right now :)

I'm also wearing out the cynicism...seem to have too many things to do nowadays, like watching TV, shopping, trying to keep in shape and so on....so the humor is currently at bay....

I have spent almost 4 months in this city already, and my craving for bombay has gotten so strong, that in a few days i think i'll need a chain tying me to stop me from escaping.

Tho there's a lot to do here, and a lotta friends and ...ahem.... relatives......i currently feel the need to contemplate on where my life is going, and when is John Abraham's next movie releasing....

So after i finish brooding on the thing called future, i'll think of a nice post to write....

Music - finally...

Finally I can listen to music while work...
Its due to my new phone....the Sony Ericsson walkman phone...and nothing beats the sound quality of the radio on this phone....

Im also happy to use the SE interface again, I hated the motorola one. Never using any other brand again, until I actually earn enough to buy the O2 XDA.

So im finally cut off from the outside world even in a place full of noise.....and listening to Alvida at full volume.....now I can work :)))

How I got the new phone:
I lost the Motorola one

Inventory of stuff I lost over the last month:
1. The earphones of the motorola phone(Goa)
2.A fossil wrist watch(Goa) - incidently this is the third wrist watch ive lost in 3 years
3.The motorola phone itself(Bombay) - this is the 2nd phone Ive lost in 6 months
4. The really cute beads necklace i got from Goa(Bombay)

Im getting worse by the day apparently :(((

Proud to be an Indian...

We can endlessly worry and create riots about :

1. Big B, AB and Ash...in that order

2. Our female stars. No one can can give them a peck and get away with it

3. our glamorous IT industry

4. Who gets what OBC status and reservation benefits(Its a small point to be ignored that it reinforces the Casteism that the government is so valiantly trying to eliminate)

5. Rakhi Sawant's scandals

6. Who will be the next Indian Idol

7. Racial comments against a certain Ms. Shetty

8. Celebrating Jayanti's by loud music

9. Iron statues that need to be protected against desecration, though they r normally protected by taking other people's lives...but lives are a dime a dozen, statues are more expensive.

10. Cricket and BCCI selection, Sania Mirza

We dont care a damn about

1. All the beautiful farms and heritage sites that are razed down to build residential monstroties

2. Global Warming

3. Our golden beaches and mysterious forests and hills. After all what more harm can one more piece of a coke can do? (who cares about forests??Statues-- now those are real important)

4. Lack of funding for any kind of research beneficial to mankind. The same principle of lives being a dime a dozen.

5. Infrastructure and proper roads, after all if bullock carts could manage dirt trails, so can we

6. Corruption

7. Racial comments and sexist comments in work places, after all we are not stars...we are mature enough to handle them

8. Politicians and stars with felony charges

9. Security of the common man in public places and transport, since the police have more important things to do, like provide Z security for corrupt politicians and film stars(who can afford their own security, but still like freebies). bomb blasts in trains are common, whats with the loss of a few dozen lives here and there.

11. Acrobatics, swimming and other obscure sports, no sponsorship, so we dont bother, we are all fine business minded people.



As I always say,
We are proud to be Indian....