Earn

A lot of people, including me, will connect 'Earn' with Money. Of course, that’s the most obvious and best possible connection one can make with 'Earn'. It is indeed the most pragmatic one too. As a matter of fact, one cannot survive without it. You want water? Money gets it. You want food? Hotel is the best business that is run nowadays. You get clothes, accessories and everything else in exchange for Money. How awesome it is go to an island, enjoy the natural beauty, have the best food around, lie over the beach mud and wonder about some random insane stuff. Heaven for most! And this possible only if we can afford a trip to an island. It is all these sort of moments that help in providing meaning to the life we live. Money helps us live a better life.

Now just rewind to the earlier paragraph, check out how the island trip would be if you do it alone. Still you think you would love it? I will assume that you would like it more if it is with your family or your friends or your girl (guy). How awesome will it be to lie on your mother’s (/girl's/guy's) lap in a breezy beach in a lonely island? Definitely more awesome that the one in the first Para. Money helps us live a better life, but does it guarantee to provide the meaning to our lives? It doesn't.

Now connect 'Earn' with 'People' and 'Love'. You can earn people by showing goodwill and being friendly. You can earn their love too. But consider a real life example. You have a friend or a relative who has been so nice to you. Assume he has 'earned' you. Now, are you ready to help him live his life? For a short period most of us would agree to help him out to live. But in the long run, he is going to be burden and you would want to get rid of him as soon as possible. So, earning people also doesn't help much to live a meaningful life.

So what? Connect Earn with 'Money', 'People' and 'Love'. Now it makes sense. You might earn tons of money. You can go places with the money you earn. But if you had failed to earn people, the money earned is not going to add meaning to your life. And this is why we have that unique thing called 'Love', which is probably the most ill-used word of the century. Without a caring mother, a trip to a sacred place is not as sacred as it would be. Without a good friend, a trip to an amusement park is dull. Without a loving girl(/guy), a trip to beach is not as much fun as it would have been. So it’s important that we connect Earn with 'People' and 'Love' as much as we do it with 'Money' and start earning all three.

The childhood, the way you troubled your parents when you were an infant, the way you grew from a boy to a guy with their help, the way you had fun with your everlasting friends, the first relationship with a girl (/guy), the last relationship with a girl (/guy), the way you had the love going after marriage, the way you brought up your children, the way you managed to do so much in life. If you can recollect these valuable memories in the last one minute you live, you can be proud to have 'lived a life'.

Earn money. But Earn people and their love too.

Now tell me, how much do you earn? :)

20K and 2 people per month? ;)

Amazing April!

April 2011. What a month it has been. So many things. Just thought would share a couple of moments.

April, 02, 2011.

The day when we were crowned world champions. The day when Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men made us all proud. To be very honest, never did I think India was the clear favourites to win it. I had thought South Africa was well prepared this time. But the 'C-word' hunted them down, yet again. The final was setup very nicely. India vs. Srilanka. A shaky start coupled with the loss of Sanga at a crucial Juncture meant India was on course to restrict Srilanka to a modest total. Mahela Jayawardene had different plans. As Harsha Bhogle said, he almost protected the seam of the ball while playing his shots. The innings was a delight to watch for a neutral, but for us, well, no curse was enough. As a result Srilanka posted a tricky 274. During the innings break, there were all these talk about all century efforts always being backed up by a win in World cup finals, low percentage of teams chasing and winning a world cup final and what not. The chase began in the worst possible manner. Sehwag was history soon and after showing glimpses of beautiful form Sachin was back too. At 31 for 2, it was that 'Achingly familiar' moment from 2003. We thought "Are we going to repeat 2003 again? Oh god. No. Let it be 1983." In the crease were two men who were perhaps the best two men India would have wanted at the crease at that moment. They steered us past the danger line but Kohli left it half way. I had thoughts about Dhoni coming up the order at 5 but dismissed those thoughts considering the good form of Yuvi and the bad form of Dhoni. I was surprised to see Dhoni coming in at 5. But once he started batting, there was something different in his batting this time around. What was that? Attitude and Intent. He had lacked that throughout the world cup till the final. He stepped up the order, made the game look so simple. Eventually, he finished it off in grand style with a huge six. There he was, flipping the bat in his hands as though he has done something so easy. End of the day, WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS! :)

April, 18, 2011.

A fortnight later. A day which is not as big as April, 02 but significantly huge. A day when I wanted all my mental strength to accept whatever happens. The day when IIM - A, B, C results were due. Last year I was not good enough to be called even for interview. This year I was. And now, i needed great mental strength to accept a triple reject, which had a significant probability of happening. April 18th being a Monday, I came back to Bangalore after spending the weekend at Chennai. I reached my place in Bangalore at 6 in the morning. I knew I had to wait at least three hours before I can see at least one result. I started the flash-back and analysed my interviews.

March 5, 2011. IIM-A. Last Candidate to be interviewed. Very short interview with only 4 to 5 questions. Interview time was not more than 10-12 minutes whereas for others it was close to 20 minutes. I came out. Thought I did not have enough stuff to be questioned about. Chances looked slim.

March 6, 2011. IIM-C. Interview where i covered most things i wanted to. Was done in by the interviewers in a couple questions. But overall performance wasn't bad I felt.

March 7, 2011. IIM-B. Again last candidate to be called. All question seemed very generic. Not an exceptional interview. Performance wasn't enough to cross the line, i knew.

Clock was ticking. I refreshed all the pages half an hour once. Finally I found IIM-A link active. Well. It was out. But how on earth am i going to check it. It asked for the CAT registration number. I typed. Then E-mail Id. Hands trembled. Managed to enter it as well. Then i had to press 'Enter'. I did.

To see Congratulations there was incredible. After all, me? I could not believe. But turned out to be true. I had got the Admit.

It had not been easy to work every weekend for 4 - 5 months continuously. Weekends were always taken away by Mock tests, interview preparation or actual interviews. A lot of people have helped me in this.

Praveen Subramanian. He was just amazing. Helped me throughout the prep with his Verbal knowledge. Took me to places where I had to attend interviews. Sat with me while I filled up forms. And what not.

Priya Ravi. Again, immense help while filling up forms. Helping out in prep. All this while she had her plates full.

Vimal Nair. Previous experiences count. Helped with all his previous experiences and made me aware of stuff because of which I was able to do what i have. He will have a greater say @ IIM-A as tuchcha. :D

Karthik. The person with whom I studied. Combined studies do a lot of help.

Aditya, Sabareesh, Vibin(IIM-C mentor). All of them helped me with getting things right in the interview.

GowriShankar. Again, helped me go places to attend various interviews.

Karthika, Mukund. A great help by getting a lot things signed from college in quick time.

Just want to thank people above for all the help they have done. It has helped a lot. Thank you guys. :)

And after all, this is the first step towards a tougher path. For this, it takes me so much. :D

Well. I hope there is lift somewhere down the line to take me through. :)

PS: I still had to see 2 rejects from B and C. Thank god A came out first.

PSS: Very sorry for a long one. Very sorry if it had been boring. Just wanted to express something. Will put up better ones in the coming days.

PSSS : I might have missed a couple of people's name while thanking. My apologies.

Cheers. :D

That Bast**D

Would you be able to digest the fact that one of your dear ones met with an accident and was dead on the spot, if something like that happens to you? One child had to accept it today. Cause of 'that bast**d'. I was returning office after lunch only to see a tree crushing a bus. One person at the very last seat. That one person alone was dead on the spot. Why? I travel in the very same bus everyday, but a couple of hours later. I usually get seats only at the back. Never has the tree fell on me or others who use to sit in the back seats. What mistake did he and his family do today? What wrong did the tree do to die today? Millions of incidents like this on a daily basis around the world. What did these affected people do to deserve such a hammering from 'that bast**d'?

On the other hand, may be, 'that bast**d' is too harsh on a few only because a few point fingers at 'that bast**d' for every unpleasant happening in life. Not getting a job in dream company, losing a cricket match, lower marks than expected, failing in love, getting rejected in an interview, etc. We blame him for all these, don't we? But are we wrong? When a less deserving candidate gets the job we were yearning for, we are not wrong. When we lose a cricket match because of bucknor-like decisions, we are not wrong. When a teacher awards marks 'without reading'(read 'by reading line by line'), we are not wrong. When the girl is too beautiful, we are not wrong. When the interviewer asks insane(read unknown) questions, we are not wrong. We lost in all these because of 'that bast**d' ;he helped others to win in all these.

How do we retreat 'that bast**d'? We long for him, don't we? We need him to succeed while living whatever be our status. Sachin Tendulkar needs him when he is batting on 98 or 99. A shopkeeper needs him for no riots to happen in front of his shop. A begger needs him for many people to walk past him. We are all dependent on 'that bast**d' in one way or the other. This is how we retreat him. When a imaginary harry potter needs him to succed in, after all, a fiction, it is not wrong for us to long for him in real life however cruel he might be to us. This is the hard and fast truth. "That Bast**D will continue to haunt us, Still we will want him."

PS : For those who have no clue about what i have written here, I'm sorry. But try this - Harry Potter needed liquid LUCK to succeed.

If you are still unaware of what i'm talking about, it is called LUCK.

For those who felt reading this was a time waste, sorry mate, 'that bast**d' is the reason why you clicked on this link.

Rakistan Vs Kustralia

"Reports from: Barsha Hogle Reporting from MCG on the eve of the second test between Kustralia and Rakistan.

What a day! Overcast conditions, slightly cold. Perfect conditions for a superb game of cricket. Here we go. The two captains are out at the center for toss. Picky will spin the coin and Balman Sutt will call. Up goes the coin. It’s a tail. But the match referee looks bemused. Why? Oh. No. Sutt refused to call because it was just a one cent coin. He claims he has not even imagined such currencies even exist and asks for a higher valued coin to be tossed up. After fifteen minutes of negotiation, Sutt has agreed for the toss with a 2 cent coin. Now the coin goes up, Sutt calls head. It's a head. So he wins the toss. And the coin too (Must be a part of the negotiation). Sutt has decided to bowl first on a bowler friendly track. Good decision I would say.

First day:

Here come the Kustralian openers. Wane Hatson and Kimon Satich. Fully packed stadium with a wonderful atmosphere. A delight for every cricket fan. Rakistan begin with Bamir and Bakhtar. Two intelligent, pacy bowlers who can do anything on their day. Match is underway and Bamir starts of with a nasty bouncer to Hatson. Hits him on his head.

...

Rakistan bowled beautifully. Kustralians are bundled out for a meager 196 runs at the end of the first day.

Press conference at the end of the first day:

Picky: We have put ourselves in a difficult position. It is important for us come back strongly tomorrow

Sutt: We have put ourselves in a difficult position. It is important for us come back strongly tomorrow

You don't understand Sutt's statement is it? Even I don't. Lets try to understand as the match Progresses.

Second day:

Rakistan are 158 for 1. That is brilliant stuff by Rakistan. They are in a very good position to win it from here on.

Press conference at the end of the second day:

Picky: We have to do something out of our skin to accomplish this challenge.

Sutt: We have to do something out of our skin to accomplish this challenge.

Sutt is sarcastic or what? No clue yet again mates. Sorry.

Third day:

Oh my god. What a day!! 19 wickets in a single day of test cricket. Rakistan all out for 159 in their first innings. Kustralia 0 for no loss declare. Rakistan needed a meager 29 runs to win the match. But they are all out for 18.

This is impossible. Ridiculous.

Post match press conference:

Picky: We did it. Yes. Even though they had 19 wickets in all, we had 50 cents with us. On the second day we thought we would cheat and win the match. Unfortunately we didn’t get umpires like Sucknor for this test match. So we had to lose 50 cents.

Question 1: Sir, can you please elaborate on how it cost you 50 cents? Is it worth that much?

Picky: Good question. Sutt told me at the toss that Rakistan charge different rates for different types of losses. If I remember correctly, they charge 10 cents for innings defeat and 4 cents to lose a match on 5th day, 6 to lose on 4th day and 8 to lose on 3rd day. Further, each player had to be paid 2 cents for his wicket. So, totally 20 * 2 = 40 plus 8 cents for finishing on the third day.

Reporter 2: Woo.. That’s costly.!

Question 2: What about the remaining 2 cents sir?

Picky: You dumbass, will you pay the tax? We had to pay the tax to Rakistan government through RCB for the income of the players.

Question 3: Sir, why did you choose to finish the test in 3 days? You could have made use of free food and accommodation for two more days if you had played the match for five days.

Picky: That’s true. But a few of our players wanted to spend the weekend with their (read ‘a’) girl, a few wanted to go fishing and a few even wanted to go ‘monkey’ ing. So we decided to close the match in three days.

Picky: Sorry, guys. That’s it. I have got a meeting regarding negotiations for next match with Sutt today evening. He said he would be giving some discount. So I will leave you guys with this for now. While going out please donate something for the Kustralian cricket team. Hatson is waiting with a bowl at the entrance. We are in short of funds as Cricket Kustralia doesn't fund us for these negotiations.

Off he goes. Here comes Sutt.

Sutt: Now you guys will understand why I had said that it would be very tough for us during the press conferences of first two days. I know that at least on the third day the Kussies would come in for negotiations. Since we were in a very strong position it was very difficult for us to lose the match. The challenging thing for us was that, on the eve of the third day, picky asked if it is possible for us to finish the match today itself. Losing 19 wickets on a single day is very tough.

Reporter 1: Indeed. ;-)

Sutt went off immediately.

It seems He has a meeting with ICC chief before meeting Picky. ;-) “

As a true cricket fan, I wish cricket was/is/will not (be) this ugly. :-)

Cricket - The gentleman's game. :-) Wish It remains so.

PS : This post is just an hilarious attempt and is not intended to offend anyone. All characters are imaginary and do not represent any real life entities.

Politics in India

"China and India are the future super powers". In recent times, This particular sentence has been hackneyed to say the least. It is first of all an absurd association. Last time when the growth rate curves of China and India met was in 1977. From then on, for three decades, china has been improving at atleast two percent better than us. May be India's chance of becoming one of the super powers in future is significant, but i'm afraid if our political system will let that happen.

Let me start with the most basic issue. India is said to be the largest democracy. Is it right to call India a democracy when post election alliances are allowed without any restrictions? When i don't want a party P to rule the country, i vote for party Q. After the elections P and Q form an alliance and mututally agree between themselves to form a government. Here, my vote is not only useless but has been used at a place where i didn't want it to be used. Democracy? Okay. On seeing this sort of alliances, i decide that even Q isn't the right person. Rather, i come to a conclusion that i don't want to support anyone. All that i can do is, not going to to the polling booth. I cannot express my dissatisfaction over the kind of people contesting. There is NO option to express that you don't support anyone. Again, democracy?

May be we are wrong in interpreting 'democratic india'. It could well mean that democracy applies to only politicians in India and not for common people. India's situation is so worse that simply no action could be taken when 'X' warned the entry of Australian Cricketers into India. Yes, Indians were being harassed in Australia. But 'X' has no rights to warn internationally popular players. After all, 'X' is just a head of a communal party. Leave alone taking action, it was only after Mr. 'Y' went and compromised 'X', the australian players were guaranteed safety. Mr. Y is a cabinet minister.! What a pity?

Another thing that amazes me is the kind of people heading a political party. We all must have grandfathers. I assure you, some of the leaders out there are older than your grandfather.You would have seen that your grandfather tends to forget a thing or two cause of his age. Isn't it biology that aged people are mentally and physically weaker than the younger ones? Is it right to have a quadriplegic person as Chief Minister? A younger person can definitely function better at that place. Yes, I agree that experience is important. That doesn't mean one needs fifty years of experience to become a CM or a PM. Is Indian politics that tough?

Things have to change quick and fast if India has to become one of the super powers. Radical steps and actions should be taken to amend Indian Political System. I personally feel that a team plays in the character of its captain. Similarly, a country is viewed with its leaders as spectacles. It is because of some boorish leaders, India is STILL developing. Time is up people. What are we going to do? Clueless.! But. As a mass we can achieve. So far we havn't used our democracy to full effect. Such boorish, incapable leaders exist only because we hesitate to act against them. Our hands are tied because of fear. The unity that was on display post 26.11 is the key. I would like to remind you all that such type of unity can also be shown to throw out some of our poor politicians from Indian politics and to reconstruct a effective political system.

P.S : I don't object the fact that there are good leaders who are aged. I'm talking about majority, not exceptions.

P.P.S : These are just my views and i don't intend to offend anyone.

First Three Weeks in Bengaluru..

Living away from from home is something that is new for me. I had my school very close to my home. And college even closer. Now working 329 kms away from home definetely makes a big difference. Here the first three weeks have been quite good and i'm listing down a few top moments in the past three weeks.

5. Getting a house : The company provided accommodation for the first one week. During that period of time we are supposed to look out for houses. Oddly, we found that no houses nearby had a TO-LET board. That made us worry a little. But seniors here suggested to go through a broker which is actually a real estate agency. The owner of the agency is actually a hard core rajini fan cause he came up in life after seeing the film 'annamalai'. Since we were from rajini's state, the respect for us was manyfolds than what other customers received. The owner called everyone of us 'thala' and he assured first day tickets for the movie 'Robo'. :-) And after quite a struggle, we stepped into Alexander's Den. (The name of the owner is Alexander and he is an Ex-Military Man. :-P)

4. McDonalds-the Life Saviour : One day after searching for house for a long time, we were hungry. The time was 11.30PM :( No hotels were open. We were in search for a hotel for quite sometime. Didn't get anything. When we were moving towards the room dejectedly, we saw McDonalds Open inside a mall. Had french fries as night meal which i would have never done otherwise. :-)

3. The debate with david as to whether who is more humane - sachin or rajini : David is a person who is working in the real estate agency. As i said, everyone in that agency are die-hard fan of rajini. Once me and david were going in his scooty to have a look at a home. He stated that rajini is god and that he is donating this much and that much and that there is no better humane person. I said "Yeah.. True, it's tough to find humane people nowadays. The only two good lives living in india are rajini and sachin tendulkar." And man.. You know he asked me?? "What has sachin done to people??" Ha ha.. I saw a live example of a blind rajini fan.

2. Gowri's "We'll take care" : During the first day in the new house, we had to hammer a nail to hang a wall clock. We requested our house owner Mr.Alexander, Ex-Army Officer to provide us with nail and hammer. He did. With a care-taking point of view he even came up to our house to see if we are hammering it down properly. Care-taking point of view refers to two things. Care on us. Care on the house walls. :-P While i was hammering the nail, the house owner said something similar to take care or something. Gowrishankar, one of my roommates, replied him "We'll take care..". That man immediately went down. Gowri actually meant it as "Yeah, we'll see to it and bla bla bla..". But the way he told it was something like "Yeah. We know to hammer a nail. Will u please get lost..!!" :) :D

1. Indoor Cricket @ 11.30PM inside the Lion's Den : People.. It was really boring during the first week in the home. So thought we would play some indoor cricket with a sponge ball and a wood piece. Unfortunate thing about it was we felt bored only at 11.30PM. The first fifteen minutes of play was thorough enjoyment. But after that one small tragedy happened. :( Gowri yorked a ball on my legs. I tried to dig it out. Gone. The wooden piece hit the floor hard. Mr.Alexander, Ex-Army Officer was knocking the door the next minute and he found us sleeping calmly. :-P But sadly that was not the truth. He found us guilty and we were warned, the very second day. :-)

Planning to play cricket again, soon. :-)

Past three weeks have been lively and thats how i like it. :-)

Hope it continues. :-)

Change..

Okay. The next one is ready after a long time. Its tough to accept any change even if its really a good change. Eighteen solid years in a place. Now i'm moving to another place. Bengaluru. New state, new language, new people, new atmosphere and every damn thing will be new. And i'm writing this blog during a journey. No idea when i'll post it though. A journey - first of its kind and many more such journeys are assured given a mom like mine. Train number 2657. Bangalore mail.

Chromepet - Oh.! I'll definitely miss.Eighteen years there. A well known place. Hardly a street that i'm unaware of. So many places like kumaran kundram, hotchips, A2B, Vb and more importantly srdfvv(my school), MIT and even more important is MIT annexe(Man. Had it not been for that ground i would have become insane without playing cricket). How can they ever be forgotten. I have had a VERY comfortable life till now, except for a few instances. Waking up at 8 for college at 8.30. Actually i was waking up at 7.30 durin my first year, cause i had to walk to college. But my mom got me a bike during my 2nd year. :D After that, waking up 8 was more than enough. :P Coming back at 2 or 3. Online or off to play till 7. Watch tv. Eat. Sleep. Weekends marked by a outing with friends, playing in annexe, longer sleeps, etc.

And next big thing. Mom. who will give me coffee when it's 8 in the morning? And tiffin? :D You don get anything here automatically like u get when u have your mom around. :( No question. This way, life had been very simple and easy till now. Friends. Well. Every person has a future. The directions to which they fly are something we would have never imagined. I'll miss all of them definitely. And i'm feeling confident of staying in touch with everyone. To much of my delight, praveen subramanian from palakkad(that's how he likes it :D) will stay with me in bangalore. Yeah. Life is changing. All set to start it afresh. :-)

Finally posting on 4.6.2010. Wrote on 30.5.2010 :-)