Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Travelling? Excuse Me

There used to be a time when I loved travelling. Trains, flights and boats used to excite me. But now, it’s hard to say, but I'm tired of travelling. The past week was packed with mere moving around. After the 35+35 hours travel to and fro to Indore, I immediately left for a holy trip. It's not every day that my itinerary looks like this => Bangalore -> Tanjore -> Kumbakonam -> Oppiliyappan Kovil -> Thirunaageswaram -> Naachiyar Kovil -> Kumbakonam -> Chennai -> Guduvanchery -> Chennai -> Bangalore. Now, add to that the shift to Mumbai this weekend and I guess you would get the perfect recipe to develop an aversion to travelling.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. It's just the tiredness that is showing off. The trip to the temples was pretty good. The train was comfortable and the buses arrived on time. The Gods also helped by giving a fast Darshan. It was very satisfying to visit some very old temples that showered peace all around them. May be that's what helped me in holding my nerves when I had to wait for about 5 hours in a government office in Chennai for some personal work. The travel in a bus where it was difficult to fit my long legs within the space between the seats was also not that nice. Should I blame it on the space between the seats, or on the few extra inches of my leg? Believe me people, growing tall presents its own disadvantages. You can't stand in buses as your head keeps bumping into the hand-rails, and you can't sit as your feet wouldn't fit in the space provided. Hmmm, lots to write about being tall. I'll stop writing about it here and give it its share of importance with a separate blog entry. So all ya short people, do look out for the next blog. I do hope that I DON'T get to travel till then

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Friday, March 25, 2005

Year Book

The memories of college life are etched to our minds. But just in case, we need something to kindle all those memories, we have our wonderful yearbook. The yearbook team has done a fabulous job with the design and contents. But still, I have one personal reservation with the book. The poem that I wrote especially for the yearbook has been missed out Couple of my other poems have been published, but still I would have preferred having this particular poem in the year book. This poem is an honest attempt at reproducing most of our IIMI experiences. I am sorry for all my non-IIMI readers who will not be able to associate with the stanzas.

i-life
As our IIMI chapter is closing pretty fast
Its time to recollect the past
The past 2 years
That set our life into high gears

Let’s step back and gaze
Remnants from the day we entered this maze
When, except our hostel, most was empty space
Think about the changes we brought into this place

The initial shock was with the sex ratio imbalance
More followed with certain *********'s brilliance
Early morning routine was a rumpus
Only to fly to the old campus

We adored the clouds flock
That added beauty to the acad block
Enjoyed organizing IRIS and Utsaha
Laughed at "Indore student" and "bahut hua"

We've had memories of multiple layers.
The Diwali, Holi and Janmashtami prayers
TT, baddy and volley players
The birthday kickers,
And the marketing research surveyors
We wouldn’t forget the hostel blocks
Artistic Armageddon, Beautiful Bee-block
Charismatic chaos in lost world
And the decorous dementors

Before us, IIMI was in close observation
The new kid was looked with anticipation
We have now changed this insti's perception
With prizes in external competition
Cracking summers adding extra projection
The first IIM business magazine creation
All, leading to the IIM Indore's glorification

Through this poem of rhyme
Am recollecting our life's prime
Thoughts that are sublime
Memories for a life time
Best wishes from Ramanujam

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Thursday, March 24, 2005

What lies beyond

One of the statements made by the SBI chairman, the chief guest of our convocation was, "I would like to congratulate you. But this is not the time to congratulate. I would rather tell you of some difficulties". Even-though this might not be the exact statement that he made, I have more or less caught hold of the meaning, and this statement sums it all. Getting an MBA might seem to be the tough part for every CAT aspirant. But the real challenge is what lies beyond. I am not belittling getting this far. Yes, we should be happy about equipping ourselves with the knowledge to fight it out. But we have only got the armour, and the battle is yet to begin.
Anyways, it’s nice to be back to Bangalore. One more to the number of visits that I've made to this place. As always, my departure is planned before my arrival, and my stay is restricted to just about a week. Having lived most of life in Chennai, I have been roaming around like anything over the past couple of years - a change that I never expected.
Talking about Chennai reminds me of something else also. Yesterday was "World Water Day"!!! Well, couldn't resist mentioning it after the "Day-special" blogs that figured in this site last week.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Timely Presence



While leaving for Indore, I told my dad that I am one of the few who always reach places well in advance. I had reached my interview center about 3 hours earlier for the IIMI interview; I had come to Indore about a week early while joining here.... I don't remember instances when I've been late. Maybe I need to change. I'm now here couple of days before the convocation, and it’s not exactly interesting. But starting off early does have its advantages.....



I boarded the Karnataka express day-before-yesterday evening. My peaceful sleep in the night came to a halt when I dreamt of getting my shoes out of the bureau in Indore. Oh my god, I have left the keys back home. Sometimes my memory seems to work better while sleeping!!! A sudden flash of mind suggested that I can call my parents from some station in-between and ask them to send the key through a friend who was coming a day late (Actually, he is on time. It’s just that I am early). A staff of the IRCTC gave the information that the train will stop for 10 minutes in Solapur which will arrive in few minutes.

The time is 6:45. I better have a late breakfast as I might miss Solapur while eating.

The time is 8:15. The train hasn't stopped anywhere in the past 1.5 hours. Have we lost Solapur? Guess I'll have to shift the "late breakfast" to "no breakfast"


8:30: Ah! Solapur at last. I get down as soon as the train stops and ask for a phone. Good grief! No phones in this platform? I keep-on asking the gentlemen in the platform till one guy says "You will miss your train if you go for the phone now. There is a STD booth in the Daund station that will come at 11:00. You can call from there". I get back into my compartment. The anxious wait continues. Will I be able to inform my parents in time?

11:00: Here is Daund. I get down and search for the phone booth. Good news - There is STD facility here. Bad news - the booth is at the other end of the platform. I've been contemplating for some time about taking up running to improve my fitness. But never did I imagine that I'll be running in a platform so hard. Reaching the phone booth, I started dialing my home number in urgency. The call is not going. Well, try again. And again and again till I got frustrated. Then I tried my dad's mobile number. No use, the dreaded "The route to the call center is busy" message is irritating me. Nice time to remember that couple of years back I handled the module that routes calls to announcements!!! Trying my home number again. Wait a sec, I've switched 2 of the digits. Cursing myself, I dial the correct number and pronto it reaches. Message conveyed. What is it that is moving behind me? Oh my train! Time for me to continue running. Yep, nice exercise for a day.

Cursing myself: If only I had remembered to take the key
Pat on the back: Keep up the habit of starting early. Or else, there would have been no one to get the keys after you!!!

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Thursday, March 17, 2005

Grand Finale

For one last time I'm going to meet all my college-mates at the same time. Its convocation time. The time when the efforts of the past 2 years would be rewarded with a single sheet, the diploma.
One of our professors once gave us a poem called "Itaka". It’s about how we strive to reach a destination very hard, and in the end find that the journey is what matters more than the destination itself. Throughout the journey we keep learning new things and grow rich in experience. All these experiences would help us enjoy the goodness that lies at the destination. Our current state is the same. We have learnt so much in the journey towards this day. Now that we have reached it, we have found that the efforts to reach here were the real take-away. The glamour of receiving the title of PGDM has lost its glitter. We are already rich with the knowledge that the college and professors had to offer us. I guess the ceremony will only be a place of rendezvous.
The convocation also signals the end of my academic career that has stretched more than what I had imagined. This time, I leave the academic scene in a better mode. The last time, when I came out of an engineering college, I used to get nightmares about exams. Now that's all history. I know that true learning is in knowing things, and not in performing in an exam. This has presented a new face to whole learning process to me. I now know that my academic endeavor is ending, but the quest for knowledge will continue throughout life.

Next blog will be from Indore!!!

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

I DO A DWL

I do what? Actually, I'm doing nothing but shortening the title "International Day Of Action against Dams and for Water Life". With each passing day, I am finding-out that every date has a name ("significance" as some might prefer to call it). One of my former colleagues once remarked that we can prove any number to be special. The same seems to apply to dates. If not anything else, atleast these names give me something to write about in my blog!
Coming back to yesterday's "International Day Of Action against Dams and for Water Life", a demonstration was staged on the occasion by the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan) activists in Bhopal. Talking about Bhopal, it is a place that I hold closer to Brussels in my heart. No, it’s not about resemblances between the places. It’s just that I have been to both places quite a number of times, but have seen them only in the dark. These two places have connected me to different locations by train, and invariably, I've always caught my train in these places either in early morning or in the night. Talk about timing. People from all over the world go to Brussels for sight-seeing. But I've never had the time (read as "bad planning") to see the city except for its railway station.
Where were we? Yes, the dharna in Bhopal. The intention was to highlight the demand that the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam should not be raised. It is said that 40,000 families would be displaced if the height of the dam is raised by another 29 metres. Given that these people know what they are dealing with, the fact should be true. But still, my ignorance over such issues has made me wonder, "How does increasing the height displace families?" I can understand the problem if the length or width of the dam is increased. But height? Seems its time for me to shed the comfort of laziness and ask someone for an explanation.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Marching Ahead

Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the historic Dandi march. Every Indian would know of the significance of the march that was led by Mahatma Gandhi. It was one of those events that sent the message across that the Indians will not subdue to the meaningless laws passed by the British government that was ruling India then. Coming back to the present day, I wonder how meaningful are the marches undertaken by the current bunch of people. Walks and rallies for "World Peace" happen every now and then in some part of the world. I am confused, to say the least, as to how these marches help establish world peace. May be they show that a good number of people are interested in the issue. But then, is that enough? The Dandi march started off with 78 people from the Sabarmati Ashram. But numerous people joined as Gandhiji addressed huge crowds en-route to Dandi. The 25 day march communicated the underlying message to everyone. But today's marches make news only on the day they start, and maybe on the day they end. How many of us even remember any of them, leave alone the reason why they were undertaken?
Thinking about it, I too participated in a march during my school days. The teachers instructed us to walk along the marina beach for a few kilometers. I remember that it was fun idling along the beach road. But for the meaning..... we didn't even ask for it

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Women's Day

The Tamil television channels are today screaming about the "International Women's Day" and about how women have changed, and are changing themselves and the future. Ok, the need for the change is understood and so is the fact that people are changing. But is this change enough? Have we really attained a state where women are treated equal to men in our society?
While contemplating over all these questions, my eyes fell upon the ad in "The Hindu". The ad, obviously given by the government itself, states the achievements in the past year like funding the Shakthi SHGs, scholarship to rural girls, and the like. Good moves I should say. But the ad starts with the lines, "Woman... is the symbol of tolerance, sacrifice & affection". Is this the image that the women want for themselves? I don't think so. Even when Sushmita Sen won the coveted miss universe award with her answer, "A Woman is someone who shows man what love is", I was not happy with it. Aren't we giving too much of importance to man and identifying the woman's image only as a part of him? Well, atleast these are better than the "Prestige Smart Woman Contest" which has such intelligent questions like "What does Prestige make?"
All these on one side, another article gave me a glimpse of another side to the dice (can't say, "Coin", as I see many facets to this issue). This article is about women taking blogging as a means of a getaway from the traditional boundaries. At the outset the article posed to be one highlighting the rightful needs of the women. But wait a minute, what are all these that follow? A women uses blogging to explain in detail about the various parts of Rahul Bose's anatomy, another to explain about her lesbian life. Whatever I might think about women's independence (sorry, couldn't get a better word), things like these do give me a culture shock.

Friday, March 04, 2005

The Chennai Trip

Guess it's been the longest break that I've given to this blog since the time it began. So, what should I blame this break on? Oh yes! the system that I was using in Chennai wasn't able to open certain websites, and blogger.com was unfortunately one of them. No lies. The blog that I wrote in Chennai, but couldn't post here is as below.

1st March 2005
Ah! Back to dear old Chennai again. Hmmm, this statement is true in more than the literal sense. Chennai is still the same old place that I left couple of years back. Nothing much has changed. Same old buildings, same bad roads (atleast the ones I traversed through), same people.... Chennai is the same blend of tradition and modernization, and I like it that way.
I paid a visit to the company that I had been working for when I was here before. They have expanded to another building and increased the number of functionalities, but the outlook still remains the same. It was really nice to meet all my ex-colleagues. Actually, I prefer to call them 'friends' rather than 'colleagues'. They are the same cheerful and happy-go-lucky bunch of people who make you feel happy with every minute that you spend with them. Guess it would take another couple of years for me to meet them again.

I have been lucky in having really good friends in every phase of life. Hope I continue to be in contact with them, and hope to make more friends as I enter new pastures.