Yeah you got that right...its official, i am bored at this time of the year in Goa. HOW? you ask?...come to think of it for people who live in Goa this time of the year is the most...umm whats the word....sluggish. You see we are a lot of people who lead a laidback life...just give us our fish-curry rice (and the essential fenny) and we dont care about anything else in the world. So this time of the year when something like a million tourists come traipsing into our serene environments we do get bitten by the partying bug, but actually we are going, "Oh no, not again....". By the time Christmas is over we are through with all the parties and crave for our personal space again. That for me is my computer and my T.V. (actually only espn and star sports on T.V)....so when the computer motherboard gets screwed and the cable operator refuses to transmit espn and star-sports, it is the perfect recipe for boredom. A huge chunk of my friends are rendered useless since they are studying for their exams (MBBS), starting on the 2nd Jan., it is me and my fish-curry rice all alone. Now that my computer has been fixed, things have started looking up again, and since Swetha and her friends (who came to Goa for a few days) rid me of a whole day of boredom, i feel like myself again.
A few mood swings i had in these past few days------
stumped, stupified!! : IIFT entrance exam
dissinterested : while studying for the end semesters
relief : when exams got over
dismay : when drogba and lampard scored two wonder goals to win the match for chelsea
more dismay : Man Utd lose 0-1 to West Ham!
Joy : Man Utd win 3-1 against Reading!
more Joy! : chelsea drew 2-2.
Indifferent : didnt make the IIFT cut-off
but overall i've been bored........
p.s. A special mention for Swetha, Bhavya, Divya and Shilpa...hope you enjoyed your stay in goa
Friday, December 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
What a "mess"......!!
One of the biggest reasons for the almost hysterical joy of a BITIAN when he enters the final year is the allotment of the 'inner' hostels.Now these are a set of 'elite' hostels meant for final year BE students.Salient features include single occupancy rooms, and the bathrooms actually having a clean tiled floor....believe me these are a quantum leap from the 'outer' hostel where the pigeon hole principal does not aply....since each room is a pigeon hole and there are two pigeons in each...coming back to the point...we were extremely ecstatic when we made our annual nomadic journey from one hostel to another...and apart from the salient features mentioned above, we looked forward to the best part of it all....THE FOOD!!!....oh the food has always been so excellent and for the first few weeks we were actually gaining weight for the first time in our BITIAN days!....
Did ya note the past tense?...yeah thats because its no longer excellent...i wonder wether it is food at all any longer....what transpired within two weeks?...how could there be such a drastic change overnight?....well someone in the administration suddenly realized that "whoa!!...i need to change the system of 'extra's'...the mess has become a restaraunt"....the system of extra's was simple...there will be a basic meal on top of which everyone can order dishes of his choice and each person will be charged individually for that...now the system is like there will only be the basic meals and everyone will have to have that stuff no matter what...no choice...no extra dishes...now you would think that we will be paying less huh?...nope!...dont think so...here are a few points i want to make...(i hope someone out there in the administration reads this...and his heart melts)
1) In the morning we can have either of 2 eggs or an apple or a glass of milk...what is that all about?...how do these things equate?...doesnt make any sense to me....if anyone wants to have 2 apples he doesnt get them even if the apples get wasted in the end...
2) We can have our eggs only boiled not and omelette...huh?...whats that all about?
3) If i dont mind paying extra money for better food then why should someone else have a problem with that?...
4) Why should i pay for a meal that i didn't have?
5) The reason for scrapping the extra system was that the mess workers used to put stuff on the students account and pocket a few bucks on the sly....dude...i would rather have those poor guys enjoy a good meal once in a while than someone else higher up the hierarchy.
There are many more things that annoy me about the changes in our mess...but i realise there is no use....i hope some official on the admonistration reads this and does something...why do pople always change things that were going along smoothly in the first place?...there's some food for thought...(sorry for the cliche)...
p.s. Recent Developments :
The mess workers recently placed an order for 14 kgs of chicken for about 28 people....believe me i ate the chicken and the amount served was no where near to the 1/2 kg per person mark......Now the student mess committee....(which is constituted to bring to light such discrepancies)....reported the matter to the Dean-Students "Welfare" (note the inverted commas)....not suprisingly no action was taken against the mess workers....the entire committee resigned after this humiliation...
Did ya note the past tense?...yeah thats because its no longer excellent...i wonder wether it is food at all any longer....what transpired within two weeks?...how could there be such a drastic change overnight?....well someone in the administration suddenly realized that "whoa!!...i need to change the system of 'extra's'...the mess has become a restaraunt"....the system of extra's was simple...there will be a basic meal on top of which everyone can order dishes of his choice and each person will be charged individually for that...now the system is like there will only be the basic meals and everyone will have to have that stuff no matter what...no choice...no extra dishes...now you would think that we will be paying less huh?...nope!...dont think so...here are a few points i want to make...(i hope someone out there in the administration reads this...and his heart melts)
1) In the morning we can have either of 2 eggs or an apple or a glass of milk...what is that all about?...how do these things equate?...doesnt make any sense to me....if anyone wants to have 2 apples he doesnt get them even if the apples get wasted in the end...
2) We can have our eggs only boiled not and omelette...huh?...whats that all about?
3) If i dont mind paying extra money for better food then why should someone else have a problem with that?...
4) Why should i pay for a meal that i didn't have?
5) The reason for scrapping the extra system was that the mess workers used to put stuff on the students account and pocket a few bucks on the sly....dude...i would rather have those poor guys enjoy a good meal once in a while than someone else higher up the hierarchy.
There are many more things that annoy me about the changes in our mess...but i realise there is no use....i hope some official on the admonistration reads this and does something...why do pople always change things that were going along smoothly in the first place?...there's some food for thought...(sorry for the cliche)...
p.s. Recent Developments :
The mess workers recently placed an order for 14 kgs of chicken for about 28 people....believe me i ate the chicken and the amount served was no where near to the 1/2 kg per person mark......Now the student mess committee....(which is constituted to bring to light such discrepancies)....reported the matter to the Dean-Students "Welfare" (note the inverted commas)....not suprisingly no action was taken against the mess workers....the entire committee resigned after this humiliation...
Who's war is it....?
The economic boom that started in the '90's was a fairy tale (apart from the dotcom bust of 2000) too good to be true. The forces that were to be, were brewing with something sure for. The unprecedented globalization drive was silently fueling the arms race of upcoming economics like Israel, India apart from also opening up vast oppurtunities for terrorist organizations and the Hizbollah for procuring arms. Now Israel has always been heralded as the champion of combating guerilla warfare of the Hamas and the Hizbollah. They used to carry out stealth attacks of the their own to strike at the very heart of these outfits. But the Big Brother (USA) was restless for some sort of control over the gulf region, and having taken care of it's biggest threat in the region (Saddam)....they continued empowering their ally with arms.
Today Isreal has signed up for so much arsenal that it has no option but to use it!It is but natural for Israel to act like a pampered kid.
Having said all this I firmly believe that the new-age battlefield is different than that of the olden days. Today's wars will be fought not on the actual "ground zero"...but in boardrooms and in international conventions and meetings. The most powerfull countries in the world will be those with the largest corporations, and with the best technologies and resources.
In retrospect i think the world has always been like this has it not? US and Japan are where they are today because of their companies and technological advances....way back in the 17th century British colonization began with the zeal of the British East India Company to expand its markets and have access to more resources....what does this mean for INDIA?
I feel that India should not be bothered over it's neighbour and the Kashmir problem. India is miles ahead economically and Indian corporations will soon become too large and too important for anyone to cross India's path..........
p.s. Update on the campus placements in my college:-
32 days....41 companies....~700 offers...~70 double offers...and more to come!
Today Isreal has signed up for so much arsenal that it has no option but to use it!It is but natural for Israel to act like a pampered kid.
Having said all this I firmly believe that the new-age battlefield is different than that of the olden days. Today's wars will be fought not on the actual "ground zero"...but in boardrooms and in international conventions and meetings. The most powerfull countries in the world will be those with the largest corporations, and with the best technologies and resources.
In retrospect i think the world has always been like this has it not? US and Japan are where they are today because of their companies and technological advances....way back in the 17th century British colonization began with the zeal of the British East India Company to expand its markets and have access to more resources....what does this mean for INDIA?
I feel that India should not be bothered over it's neighbour and the Kashmir problem. India is miles ahead economically and Indian corporations will soon become too large and too important for anyone to cross India's path..........
p.s. Update on the campus placements in my college:-
32 days....41 companies....~700 offers...~70 double offers...and more to come!
View of an interview....
Guys sorry for being so inactive of late....but the absense of articles is not without sound reason...i was caught up in the placement season, waiting to find out which company makes the mistake of hiring a guy like me...well, that company turned out to be the second largest IT company in India....Infosys...
The job selection process started with a written test...it had a section of pretty tough puzzles...these puzzles were ctually lifted from a book and since this has been the trend of the last few years....i went thru the trouble of going thru the book(Puzzles to Puzzle You-Shakuntala Devi)...little did know that some guys with whom i would be competing for the job had atually memorized the answers to the puzzles!!...so although i was at a disadvantage i managed to scrape thru...the next step was a HR interview, now this was my domain...it was fun that interview...enough fun for me to narate it...here goes...
I entered the room and the interviewer welcomed me..."So Saurabh...do you play cricket?!!"
Me, "I used to be a Batsman for my high school cricket team..."
Him, "oh thats bad...you could have made a good fast bowler!!...with your height!"
Me, "I am sure working for infosys will be as exciting"
Him, "Ha Ha!...sure sure...tell me...how good are you at maths...you have some pretty inpresive scores in the subject"
Me, "I am good enough to have gotten those scores sir..."
He was probably impressed with my ease at replying to his comments...he then asked me a couple of puzzles...and then proceeded to test my knowledge of world affairs...i was asked to comment on everything from Isreal-Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Crude oil prices etc...i answered with confidence...then he also asked me to explain any one of Manmohan Singh's policies of 1990...after all this i was pretty confident that i would get thru the interview unscathed...
Him, "ok saurabh...you seem to be conversent with things happening around you...now can you tell me what you consider to be your greatest weakness?"
Me, "chocolate"
Him, "hey!..dont give me that...i get that a lot...i wont let you off so easy...tell me you real weakness"
Me, "ok sir..my real weakness is GOAN SEAFOOD!!"
Him, "Ha Ha Ha...i am sure you have another retort ready so i wont bother asking you again!!"
this proably clinched the job for me....and now i am into infosys...lets see how long the company lasts!!
The job selection process started with a written test...it had a section of pretty tough puzzles...these puzzles were ctually lifted from a book and since this has been the trend of the last few years....i went thru the trouble of going thru the book(Puzzles to Puzzle You-Shakuntala Devi)...little did know that some guys with whom i would be competing for the job had atually memorized the answers to the puzzles!!...so although i was at a disadvantage i managed to scrape thru...the next step was a HR interview, now this was my domain...it was fun that interview...enough fun for me to narate it...here goes...
I entered the room and the interviewer welcomed me..."So Saurabh...do you play cricket?!!"
Me, "I used to be a Batsman for my high school cricket team..."
Him, "oh thats bad...you could have made a good fast bowler!!...with your height!"
Me, "I am sure working for infosys will be as exciting"
Him, "Ha Ha!...sure sure...tell me...how good are you at maths...you have some pretty inpresive scores in the subject"
Me, "I am good enough to have gotten those scores sir..."
He was probably impressed with my ease at replying to his comments...he then asked me a couple of puzzles...and then proceeded to test my knowledge of world affairs...i was asked to comment on everything from Isreal-Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Crude oil prices etc...i answered with confidence...then he also asked me to explain any one of Manmohan Singh's policies of 1990...after all this i was pretty confident that i would get thru the interview unscathed...
Him, "ok saurabh...you seem to be conversent with things happening around you...now can you tell me what you consider to be your greatest weakness?"
Me, "chocolate"
Him, "hey!..dont give me that...i get that a lot...i wont let you off so easy...tell me you real weakness"
Me, "ok sir..my real weakness is GOAN SEAFOOD!!"
Him, "Ha Ha Ha...i am sure you have another retort ready so i wont bother asking you again!!"
this proably clinched the job for me....and now i am into infosys...lets see how long the company lasts!!
Dont Forget....!
Based on my own experiences and those i have heard off i thought it would be fun to rattle off things that one needs to carry along when visiting these places....
Request : Dear Readers, Please take these comments in the best of humour....they are not meant to degrade any of the following cities, but to bring out the pravalent situation in a lighter vein....feel free to post your comments to add to the list
Mumbai :
Please feel free to ad to the list with your comments.....
Request : Dear Readers, Please take these comments in the best of humour....they are not meant to degrade any of the following cities, but to bring out the pravalent situation in a lighter vein....feel free to post your comments to add to the list
Mumbai :
- Boat.....more useful then a car if it has rained for a day or two...
- Helmet.....Shiv Sena, need i say more?
- AC/Fan/Towel.....Sticky and sweaty conditions
- Bottled drinking water.....do not rely on the water supply dept.
- Some pebbles or a stick....the stray dog menace
- Helmet....frequent skirmishes between some student assoc. and the police
- Football jersey,shorts......in keeping with the local fashion
- Roller skates....frequent traffic jams ensure that this is the best transport
- Cotton ear-plugs....the presence of a Mr. Ranga there requires this.(also a certain Mr. SP)
- Gamccha......in keeping with the local fashion
- Bullet-proof vest.....u never know!
- Coconut hair oil(lots of it)....in keeping with the local fashion
- Small change....the campus is always short on change...wonder where it all goes!
- Dark sunglasses.....veeerrry useful while watching babes and not letting them know..(wink)
- See above
Please feel free to ad to the list with your comments.....
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