Phew, so its been a hectic week.. My sister is here on her 'DP vacation' (Durga Pooja, for the un kharagpurized), and so its been a lot of eating out and a crappy movie every time there's an opportunity. Watched Kidnap, and if nothing else was on in my life, i'd probably have cursed the movie (except Minissha lamba.. yummy :P) in this post..

But , there was a fine ending to this week. After a friday night drink with uddi, having convinced him after an hour long debate (on how drinking in Navratri wouldn't bring him any bad luck, that it was not non-vegetarian, that bhairo baba ka prasad is what every1 haves after a vaishno devi trip, that religion is a man made concept, that it is bullshit, that christians have wine on christmas, and that he is no saint himself etc etc..), I crashed at his place not deciding to drive after 360 ml of bliss warmed me on the inside (my capacity has increased manifold over the past few months)..

Come morning and all tired and hung over i drive back home looking forward to another dead weekend of acting chauffer for the family and giving a mock.. hurt after my nift crush finally decided to give in to my ministrations and remove me from her lists.. and i come home and open my mailbox and lo and behold..

I had finally managed an elite B-school call, and its from no ordinary school, its from the highest ranked B school in the country :). Indian School of Business just rocks.. Having taken CAT twice and being one of the most deserving guys in my own opinion to get a call from A/B/C, still being ditched by it twice, had taken a toll on my self-respect.. But finally, after 2 years of wanting it and seething inside when less deserving people got calls and I did not.. I did get my tier A+ B-school call.

So the past few days have been running around, deciding what to wear, giving stuff for dry cleaning , ironing, shopping, reading blogs, reading the website, reviewing my application, reading past interview experiences, tracking alumni from anywhere possible and calling them up and grilling them for information.. its been very eventual. I'm glad.. my sad and nearly dead life needed a boost of mana and this is just the right thing to happen at the right time.

I wasn't even sure if i fulfilled the minimum eligibility criterion required for ISb , but here i am, shortlisted for an interview. and at one time IIM seemed like everything there was to the world, but now , the more i read about isb, the more i am convinced that this is the school i want to join. Altho the chance of me getting thru are really low considering my low workex but even if they offered me a deferred admission its gonna be totally worth it. :)

Well, i'll post my interview experience later .. tada!

I'm back, lets see how long this stint lasts. I'm a freaking lazy guy, and I quickly lose drive for things in life. I read blogs and I end up thinking, golly, thats so awesome, and then the ideas start flowing, and I end up thinking just how much better I can make my own blog. But after 2-3 entries, procrastination sets in. Its probably the lack of appreciation, or probably, just the lack of direction. I mean there's so much to write about, and there's nothing to write about (if you get what I mean).

I think I'll write this and write that, but end up writing nothing. I mean whats the purpose of a blog anyway? If I have to write something to store my own memories, I'd rather write a diary entry. Atleast that way it'll be private and thus more truthful. When you know someone else is gonna read what you write, the elasticity decreases, you sort of tend to confirm to what you think other people would appreciate. You tend to show off your superior, plastic vocab, (atleast that happens to me), your fine command over the language, reread it to avoid mistakes (well a lot of people probably don't but I do.. *{Not doing so deliberately in this piece, just letting the feelings flow} {{the fact that i wrote the previous line again indicates that I'm thinking of what other people would think}} {{{the fact that i wrote the last one and tried to be funny reproves it}}} {{{{?? chuck it.. u got the idea!!}}}}..

So coming back to the question, What is the purpose of a blog? Please please do comment and let me know as I to understand it. See, something you want to document for urself --> diary. Want to write for others--> publish a book or write for a magazine. Want to write your views on current events or movies or books or whatever --> there are ample review sites which allow u to post such reviews, and the people who actually care to read em would read em there, it;ll be more bang on. Trying to be funny? umm well.. i don't know how many people actually care if i unleash my humour upon the world through my blog. People who know me are sick of my humour anyway. Oh shit why is it underlining this thing.. Its humor? yeah works fine.. damn I can't even spell it. :D. Get an idea how horrible it is?

I'll probably fill this blog with PJ's . Thats the best thing to do. Atleast that way I'll make a difference. Probably reduce the population of this planet by one bit (c.. thats the level :P)

Chalo anyway, getting late . Office day over. yippie!

Good Riddance Greg

The inevitable just happened. Greg Chappell resigned as the coach of the Indian cricket team. Well It was going to happen anyway, His head had to be the first to roll, as the aftermath of our pathetic performance in the World cup.

In my humble opinion, I'm pretty happy that this happened. I hated the man anyway. He never seemed to gel with the players in the dressing room. Spat with Ganguly, Spat with Tendulkar, Emails, SMS's, he was more a character of a Bollywood script than he was a cricket coach. At this point I believe he is one of the most hated man on the face of the planet, coming close to George Bush :P.

If you look at his coaching, it yielded mixed results. We won a Test series in the Caribbean after 35 years, made a world record of 17 continuous successful chases, won 35, lost 27 of the 65 ODI's played under his coaching. In Tests it was slightly better, We won 7, Drew 7, and lost 4 of the test matches. But We also had amazing lows, in 14 out of 17 away games, We failed to bat out complete 50 overs, Got whitewashed in South Africa, Lost the ODI's in West Indies, Lost in malaysia, got kicked out of the Champions trophy and world cup in the very first stages.

But performance put aside, I hated the man's guts because of his inability to gel the players into a unit. History tells us that its always a United team which goes all the way. A team with so many spats and controversies just cannot make it. The role of a coach should be considered here. A player who comes to the highest level, through the domestic circuit, obviously has perfected his technique, eliminated any flaws or worked his way around them. He doesn't need to be taught how to bat or bowl. The role of a coach is more to work out strategies, plans, basically act as the head of the think tank, and to keep the morale boosted, i.e. to act as a psychologist.

He obviously failed to do so. And it lead to a billion dreams being shattered. Good riddance Chappell. Just feel lucky, it was Woolmer, not you, in that fateful hotel room in Jamaica that night.

Current Crossroads of Life

Owing to the joblessness of my last month in IIT and the desire to do something creative, to hold back a few memories, I have taken to blogging again. My previous blogging attempt was a good experience, but due to lack of time and enthu I had quit. That was two years back. Since then a lot has changed in my life. Infact, the whole perspective, of what I want from life and why, how to get it, my priorities, everything has taken a U-turn.

Two years back, the only Academic/Professional aim was to somehow reach the shores of North America, by hook or crook. Having done an internship abroad, I have realised it (read Foreign Country) isn't that big a thing. Life is not about going to America, its about what you want from your life, loving what you do. I don't hold anything against those who are going abroad. Most of my friends are. Its not that I have suddenly become patriotic or realised the problem of brain drain which has stopped me from apping after investing a sufficient amount of time and money in giving GRE and TOEFL. People who live in India and work in MNCs anyway don't contribute to the Indian economy any more than those who go to foreign shores.

The point is, would you like to pursue a particular thing for the rest of your life? Are you happy doing it? Does it give you satisfaction?

And also a lot of social factors. I'll talk about the social factors first. I would work for , lets say 35 years. When I thought about it made me realize, how short life is. I am already 23. 35 years more, and it would be retirement time. If I go abroad, I would be meeting my parents, and the rest of my family, probably yearly to begin with, reducing to once in 2 years after marriage, to once in 3-4 years later on. Now for such short a life span, What is more important? Dollars ?? Gadgets?? Fast cars?? Good roads?? no slums in sight?? well oiled bureaucracy?? Or keeping company of those who you love ?

Well my answer would be the Last one. Dollars and Rupees, whatever you earn, my belief is, that if you have a successful career anywhere amongst the two, you would have enough money to lead a satisfied life. In fact, its better in India as you get domestic help etc, which would lead you to having a better life style. In US, however successful you become, you would always be a foreigner to them, you can never gain the same respect in their eyes, as much you can gain in India if you are successful. Whats the use of being a foreigner, an aberration, an exception all your life? I would very much prefer to be in this country, which is, thank goodness, not a third world country anymore, where the infrastructure is growing, where I would probably not get a porche, but a honda city would do, I can get almost the same comforts of life, and can visit my parents any time they need me, have my own culture, my food, have people around me who would understand what I'm talking about if I start discussing cricket or bollywood.

The second aspect, What you want to do in life. Now , if like my friends, I was into biotech, i would have gone abroad without a second thought, because it is unfathomable to do a PhD in India atleast for me. But I'm not. Its not a question of whats better, it boils down to a very personal choice and reasoning. I've been told, that the kind of personality I have, doesn't fit the bill very well when it comes to being a researcher. Rather it would be good for other professions. Hence I am aiming for management.

As of now, I'm heading to a techno-financial job, in Noida, near to people who matter to me, and would look to get into some Elite Management institute. I'm sure, it would happen sooner or later. Well what I want from life right now. I haven't really thought what after management. Entrepreneurship maybe, its a very far fetched dream.. but then who knows.. :)

For now, lets hope the BTP ends well :)