beingdesh

Author: beingdesh

  • If only the Reservations were…

    a bit more flexible. I mean look at the transformation Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav has brought to Train Reservations. Although the IRCTC web site is slow, lacks a basic error page for JSP, and whatever, still it has made our job so much easier. Or look at Capt. Gopinath’s Airline revolution which has spurred a number of Airline Reservation websites. If only the reservation policies implemented by government were a bit easier to understand.

    If only we have online portal by government where we get the latest Caste Score side by side our reservation status, that would be wonderful, will let me know when people form my caste fall in Reservation bracket :). Also one can book his reservation seat, cancel it, check status, check waiting list etc. One can even apply for caste certificates online and his/her application can be processed by government.

    Even couple of years back this issue was quite happening and it has come back again to give us more to talk on.

    I was thinking of something better when it came to reservations, maybe the Central institutes have to increase the seats this year why not have the concept of RAC being promoted with waiting lists and Confirmed seats. If seats are less lets go for RAC, a railway like concept where a single seat will be allocated to two people, given,

    • Both of them belong to different caste.
    • Both of them share the same set of books, same hostel bed (taking turns to sleep), same bathroom.
    • Both of them share same laptop, same pens, pencils, eat from one thali, drink chai from ek pyali etc etc.
    • Both share the same girlfriend/boyfriend 😉
    • To avoid unnecessary hassles lets keep the RAC seat for the same sex, i mean both candidates should be either male or female.

    I think this will be a new way to achieve National integration and bring different people close, issues won’t separate them anymore and the benefits will be equally shared.

    On a serious note I think I am in for Affirmative Action, certain sections of Indian society have been neglected and treated in an unjust manner for years. I also believe the injustice has been caused independent of Economic levels, and even after getting good jobs and home people do suffer due to caste differences. But let some sanity prevail, let the process not be an indefinite one, I think more than anything else, we require quality institutes of higher learning, more number of seats will keep most happy. I think slowly such a system should be done away with, but it will never happen. So let us think of “innovative” ways in which we can twist this process and make it much more entertaining because slowly we would have to learn to live with it forever. Look at Vishy’s suggestion to do the same…

    I am more in for a scheme suggested by Mr. Yogendra Yadav and co. named MIRAA which creates a social index factoring parameters like Caste, gender, economic levels and provides reservation on basis of that. But maybe for such a huge country, its a a difficult and confusing exercise altogether.

    I believe its time for everyone to realise that percentages and number of seats and caste and religion and regional differences will be always there, and so will be reservation, atleast its much better than the country falling apart into separate pieces like so many European nations. Isn’t it?

    Technorati Tags: Reservation, Quota Issue

  • Bye-Bye Gilly

    India Won just 10 mins back, something which overshadowed completely the last match of Gilchrist, one of my favorite cricketer. It has been a great career, too much has been said about it, I found this awesome presentation on Gilchrist somewhere, do have a look with headphones on.
    I will always remember Gilly as someone who stood out from the rest of the Australian bunch, due to his honesty, his sportsman spirit and the way he played his game, and I always say, truly a Mahaan cricketer. He along with Brett Lee are the only current Aussie cricketers whom I like and respect and the respect Gilchrist has is truly deserved. An awesome Batsman who played wonderful knocks such as the Last Year World Cup Final, which Australia won or the then Fastest double century against a South African attack few years back.

    Gilchrist on crease has always been an exciting prospect, even today I was praying that he gets a farewell 100, but somehow Australia loose at the same time :-). I was really disappointed when Praveen Kumar rolled him over, lucky guy, the last one to take Gilly’s wicket in international cricket. These were his words today post-match, just goes to show his modesty,

    “Thank You very much for this acknowledgement. Its probably going on too long(the farewell). Well done india..they outplayed us. Thanks to my family, and friends, and fans all over the world. And finally, to Ricky and the team and the support staff, it’s been a magic ride, its not been a fairytale ending but it’s been a fairytale career. Thank you so much.”

    Definitely a fairytale.

    The pic I have put up here shows Gilchrist hitting the mid-wicket pull, something which has been his signature shot, as slog-sweep for Steve Waugh or shuffled leg-flick for Tendulkar, and its a very exciting shot.

    Enough of words, despite India’s victory(an awesome one), I am very sad that it’s Game Over for Gilchrist in Aussie colours. Although IPL will give me another chance still everyone will surely miss Adam Gilchrist.

    Technorati Tags: Adam Gilchrist, Australia

  • Connect DA-IICT

    As people who have gone through what you are going through today, we have learnt our lessons through our own share of success and failures. Now, we the Alumni of DA-IICT would like to extend our help and support to you guys in resolving your queries on career after graduation. With our friends and seniors in various sectors and walks of education ranging from Physics to Film Making, we look forward to help you guys to the best of our abilities. You can send in your queries on anything related to your career, be it Job, MBA, Internship, VLSI, Film Making and anything under the sun.

    Shoot a mail to connect.daiict@gmail.com with an appropriate subject and we would find the right person among us to resolve it for you. Given our own commitments and constraints, it may sometimes take longer than what you expect to resolve a few typical queries, but we would make sure your queries are attended to.

    We hope you put us to the best of your use…

    Terms and Conditions:
    1. You can ask us about your internships, but please refrain from sending us your CVs, SoPs etc…
    2. Please use a proper subject line with the most appropriate key word in square braces. For eg, if you are asking something about a VLSI, please use [VLSI] in the subject so that it would facilitate us in our division of duties.
    3. We are not legally liable to provide anybody with any assistance. We are just a voluntary helpdesk. We only facilitate people in making decisions, in as many cases as we can.
    4. We have no legal hierarchy, and we represent no organisation or enterprise. The opinions expressed are entirely our own, and carry no affiliation whatsoever.

    – DA-IICT Alumni

  • Sales Pitch

    I was formally introduced to this concept by someone from my company’s sales team during my assimilation. Although over the period I have realised that everytime we end up selling something, although intangible, but everytime you talk, you want people to buy it, more so true in case of a self-obsessed person like me.

    It ranges from formal sessions like interviews, to just a cup of coffee, anytime anywhere. But if you keep in mind that it’s officially a sales pitch I think it gives you more confidence. Consider my first and till date only job interview, although I was nervous, I was good in selling my confidence, my passion for loads of other things than “C”, my love for Java(which too has disappeared) etc etc.

    Few days back when I attended a b-school interview it was another such attempt. But after talking to my friend’s sister I realised that it’s officially a sales pitch. The panelists are consumers who are looking for the best deal, I am nothing but a salesman who sells himself off. So this time I kept this thing everytime in my mind while giving any answers, it helps quite a lot. Only that thinking of you as a commodity can be demeaning sometimes, I mean I am obviously different from a Parle-G.

    Btw, do read the interview transcript, it should be fun.

    Coming back to me, I think I am good in selling things, although not the regular shopkeeper stuff but things I have realised for the past few days after giving a thought to what actually interests me. For example I wanted to consider couple of friends of mine for this course at ISI Kolkata that they should do as they are good with numbers. Anyway people dont see much beyond an MBA or MS for higher eductaion nowadays. I just tried to make the pitch exciting by saying that guys from ISI are quite in demand among good looking bengali gals ;). Couple of them really got excited and hope they will apply. By the way Bengali Girls are really quite beautiful J.

    You talk to any girl and you will realise that they too are looking for a package deal, so when one proposes it should be Sales Pitch rather than regular proposal. We had a brainstorming session on this one last week and some real good points came up. Although we are not looking at a slideshow for asking a girl something, but a step by step breakdown of things helps. (Maybe, some experiments will be conducted on this theory soon :))

    When you talk to your client you sell him your work, when you ask your boss for leave you try to sell the need of taking one, when you talk in appraisal your boss sells you his rating, when you say sorry after doing something terribly wrong you sell your ignorance, when you ask your dad for money to buy a new cell phone you sell your innocence, when you are in a discussion and just want people to buy your thoughts, sometimes ignoring there is something buy from them too.

    It’s always a buy-sell thing, we trade thoughts and that’s how all the humans co-exist, but some people label it sharing, I disagree. It’s never sharing because sharing is done for mutually agreeable items, like you can share a pizza or a Mysore pak or a nimbu soda, but you will only buy knowledge when you think its good for you and you can use it and it comes with the minimal cost, the same way you end up buying toothpaste. Cost here though can be a set of multiple parameters.

    So just try it out once, whenever you try to talk to someone, think of the items you are selling to him, think of yourselves just as a Eureka Forbes guy and have a go, I am sure it will turn out quite well. Sales Pitch is not as mysterious as this year’s WACA Perth pitch, but again like that it’s sure to give positive results.

    Technorati Tags: Sales, Marketing

  • Angrezi aur main…

    Class 4th-5th

    It all started with that, we were given some sort of scholar badges and all (for consistent performances with a particular score in core subjects), there was this English teacher who I didn’t like at all, you know the sorts who went ahead with people who get top marks in junior sections, all those cute looking piglets whom they think are brainiest who get everything right, although I wasn’t that bad but she never gave me marks, maybe I wan not a piglet anyway.

    Class 6th-10th

    Same not so old boring angrezi teacher who gave marks to girls and little healthier sort off pigs and screwed me up again many a times. I also had a fight with her which messed up my relations and so I never got a scholar badge till class 11th as they held me back some way other for English and sometimes Hindi. Maybe I behaved like a dog here, pigs were still in demand. My confidence in languages till 10th had already received a heavy blow though. worst still I became a horrible public speaker in those days due to that.

    Class 11th

    Probably one of the best teachers I ever studied under was Mrs. Biswas, elegant and caring are the words which come to my mind. She had such an awesome persona and like others, her marks were not based on pre-conceived notion of an individual. All notions of animalism chucked off for the time being.

    Class 12th

    The year I cherished most in the school because my favorite teacher Mrs. Ratnam taught me for the first time (sounds unusual but true). She is the one I knew throughout my school tenure, the bestest teacher there ever was at DPS Korba. It was delight as she taught English in an year when no one thinks about it. She took my interview way back in 1988 and its quite ironic that she retired the same year I left school, 2002. Best year for English and me 🙂

    College Days, one Cat, workplace, blogging etc etc.

    Everything went fine, reading speeds were good, although I was regualr reader earlier I improved, did more discussions, turned from a hand shaking- leg breaking speaker to a nice confident aggressive presenter. Did all of this stupid writing, all dung, read dung, ate dung. See now I became a Pig.

    Good days for English were obvious.

    CAT & XAT this year

    Similar percentiles of 84.16 (84.13 in other) (Overall 97.7 in CAT, 99.42 in XAT) help me secure a missed call from IIM’s and XLRI. All the AIMCATs I hardly got below 95%ile, my worst performance coming up in these two examinations.

    Although I am disappointed I would like to add that my English is not that great, its just the way people judge your language skills, the kind of exams they look for, I don’t know.

    In that regards the best language teacher I had was my French teacher at Ahmedabad, she had an amazing persona and I really excelled when it came French learning.

    Although disappointed I am not broken, its enough of these exams for me, maybe something better out there for me. No one is an authority to comment on what I am like in anything, English has screwed me for a long time and hope it enjoys f**k*** me again and again. At least the language will get some pleasure out of it.

    Living in Bangalore has made me a dog again, pigs are the most intelligent ones, thats why there English is good.(George Orwell says so, although both the species should control there reproduction rates :))

    Technorati Tags: CAT, XAT

  • Jai DADA …Cuck Fhappell…Shappell Cucks…

    Dada showed all of us what great player he is, along with Yuvi he broke records and showed people like Dravid and Chappell how great he is. I think now its time both of them realize that they can’t destroy any cricketer’s career at will and they must learn to respect people like Dada (it will be difficult as there would be no one like Dada again).


    What my friend Nitesh another Dada fan said yesterday,

    Darvidian Zameen par Dada ka Double Ton…


    BTW This post comes from my friend who along with me and Nitesh is the biggest dada fan ever. Shameek didn’t even cut his hair for a long time waiting for a dada century to happen. Shameek runs us through the Dada stroy still reminiscent in the mind of each and every cricket fan. So fresh from a hair cut and an amazing Dada knock here is what Shameek has to say,(all what I wanted to say too)

    5 log jinko DADA ne us din double hundred maar kar karara jawaab diya hai :

    • Greg Chappell : said that DADA was not mentally as well as physically fit to be in the national side.
    • Kiran More : said that DADA does not fit into the scheme of things.
    • Sharad Pawar : used him as a political pawn as and when he needed against Dalmiya group.
    • Rahul Dravid : who did not support him when he needed it the most, may b the biggest mistake by Dravid.
    • Bishan Singh Bedi : duniya ka sabse kamina ex-cricketer jo apne aap ko chhodkar baaki poori duniya ko ******* samajhta hai.

    Cut back to early 90s…when this young maharaja made debut, not a great one in ODIs and when rejected to carry drinks…People said his attitude is not good and cannot fit into team….He went on to become the BEST captain of INDIA….

    Come to 1996….when he was selected for England tour after 5 years…people said, he was selected because of his political backing…and went on to said “He will not continue in team”…then entered the GOD of OFF SIDE making back to back 100s on debut…”Prince is born”

    he never turned back and kept scoring “sexy” square cuts…lovely off drvies and those deadly sixes….and there was a time…when he was on par with another GOD of cricket….

    When Azhar was out and Sachin couldn’t handle it….he took the onus…people again said..”how can he be captain of Indian team?”…awell…we all know how Indian cricket team transformed from tigers on paper to Tigers on field….

    Natwest trophy, beat AUS in India and also in their back yard..beat Pakistan,Won a mini world cup,runners in WC2003 and reached to finals in almost every tournament Indian team played…

    People said he can’t play in Australia….his 144 in Brisbane set the tone for Indian fight back in Australia…

    Then started decline in his personal form and people started to write off him..

    “This is the end of road for Sourav”

    “End of an Era”

    “End of Dada Giri”

    “he doesnt fit into scheme of things“

    were few comments…but there were many silly and humiliating jokes cooked upon him..

    He was “thrown” out of them team with out any respect…

    Even few of his team members who flourished and retained in team under his captaincy didn’t even go and gave a tap on his back…

    the prince was left alone. deserted….lost captaincy. lost place in team…but not the hope. not the hunger…not the fire….

    December 2006…when India toured SA…team needed some experience and called him back…though people said “he will face the chin music on SA pitches”

    “We dont want Sourav” were the press conference words said by the then coach and captain…

    But those ignorant people forgot something…”Only challenges bring best out of warriors”…

    That is what exactly he proved…played an crucial role in India’s Win against SA..and was highest scorer for the series..

    People kept saying he is the weak link in the side…and he kept coming up with his own replies…

    Now came the thunderous punch to those people…a hundred at his own home followed by trade mark sexy stylish superb 239 which not only made a world of good to him but also bailed team out of trouble along with Yuvi and pathan.

    you are looking for a clue to what has helped Sourav Ganguly sustain his spectacular run in Test cricket since his return at the fag end of last year, don’t bother looking at his footwork or the flow of the bat. Take, instead, a close look at his eyes while he is batting. They speak of a calmness almost bordering on serenity, and a combination of composure and resolve. You could see it in his comeback innings in Johannesburg that fetched him an unbeaten 51 and you could see it through his epic innings in Bangalore that marked a new high in his career.

    People will still say…”he doesn’t have technique…” “he cant play short balls” “he is unfit” “he is weak link”….

    And I am sure they will again get their replies from this great warrior….SOURAV GANGULY…. from his bat!!!!

    Technorati Tags: Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid

  • Dreaded S-Word

    1993

    two kids from class 3 fighting as Abhishek watches on (still be christened with any of the present day nicknames).

    bippu*- saale kutte kahi ke???
    ritesh*- shocked and about to breakdown
    Abhishek and rest of the audience- Haaaaauuuuuuuuu……
    ritesh*- full-tu crying, I will complaint this to Ratnam Mam [My fav teacher in school, bestest teacher ever, will write about her sometime)

    Pumped by anger, insult and what not ritesh decided to complaint and bippu got punished, junta was obviously shocked at bippu’s behavior and happy that bippu got punished.

    1999

    All of us on the playing, tiddu*-famous for not blurting out any bad word till date fires one on pattu, pattu laughs like hell and so do the others, tiddu rages and starts a bat-beating session on pattu, pattu and others still laugh and welcome another member to the gang.

    [*Names have been changed to confuse identities]

    Gone are those days, in primary school using the S-word (something similar to a Brother-in-law too, your wife’s brother, I don’t know why it became an abuse in the first place) meant that you were the full-time rowdy in class, other kids parents wanted their kids to stay away from you, and it was not at all good public behavior, you were the big time culprit of every wrong deed done in class. Slowly though, with secondary and higher education an Indian student gets graduated in profanities too.

    Nowadays when I see kids using the F-word is much more than feeling, its mostly going away from our culture of using the S-Word to perfection. Although lots has been said about girls not using it but I know a few who use it nicely. But lets not get into gender aspects as of now.

    Although the Hindi/desi equivalent of the F-word is considered quite crude in its usage but I don’t know why people consider the formers usage as much more decent (relatively). Both are the same, a conservative may say that they are bowing to western culture, but I think its much more to do with the popularity of such terms in Hollywood, its counter-part Bollywood has been not so liberal in usage of abusive language.

    I picked up foul language sometime in mid-school, when we passed school there was only one or at most two boys still away from its active usage. In my college I found only one among 200+ boys (but he had his own versions of curses, which went quite above everyone’s head). The good things about using foul language are,

    • Good way to throw out your anger and frustration, go and shout from a roof/hill top, or do it after getting drunk.
    • Gives you a good time cursing your bosses, peers, any boy who roams around with good girls or mostly anyone.
    • Comes for free and is quite relieving, much more than dhyana or yoga.

    The only things about it which is not good and I don’t like is when its done in a seriously serious manner. People start fighting over it and makes matter stupid. When I and most of my friends do it, its mostly for fun, although we know making fun of other people is a serious crime, but everyone does it, and criminals are bound to use some foul language here and there. Some serious misapprehensions which are associated with this are,

    • it slows down with age- I think this skill mellows with age, the usage becomes more or less perfect and less hurtful to others.
    • you shouldn’t say it in front of girls- ???? pointless

    Although in front of parents and relatives better don’t use it. I mean you can but better don’t. You might have noticed it, sometimes when you are at home, and things haven’t rubbed off from your tongue you feel like shouting sometimes, do it in a bathroom, safest place to do it.

    By the way some unique ones which I have come across in my life are,

    – Indi-Poi Indrapal- used by a schoolmate, he considered this to be the mother of all profanities
    – Dusht Bijuke – Bijuke is Pure hindi for Scarecrow, my friend in college made it quite popular.

    I am not mentioning lots of them which would like a bit indecent on my blog.

    Whatever be it, never ever use it to hurt anyone, as long as its for fun, use it…

    And for all those like the F-Word, try using the S-word!!!

  • Small City Dreams

    An unshaved face, a stinking jeans, a dirty t-shirt, Kapil’s wrist watch, drinking frooti just before it, this and a whole lot of superstitions, nothing worked. Six months of stupidly wasting time was followed up with disappointment and nothing more. Six months of screwing up my brain, with just 3 movies (2 were at the end of period when it was getting closer), 2-3 canceled outings, Diwali* away from home, all this amidst hell lot of work pressure at office, night outs, nothing worked. I had a realization the day I gave it, that why people leave this country, so much struggle to get anywhere that people get really pissed off. Anyway I decided on something else though.

    I want to move to a smaller city, much much better than going to a country where no one knows you (this would be a bit different in my case, as I would be still Desi for them :)). So new vision statement for life was drafted,

    Small City, Medium Money, Small Dreams, Lots of Happiness

    Money has been kept medium as of now, but even small is Ok. I am tired of hearing about,

    • People taking EMI’s to run there life, take a home in Bangalore and pay up for next 20 years. Buy a car and pay up for next 4-5 years.
    • People using credit cards to run there life.
    • People stuck in traffic for half there life and profanity-fying the condition of Bharatiya Roads.

    Basically I am pissed of city life, after living 17 years in a township in Korba, Chattisgarh and four years of engineering in an extremely peaceful Gandhinagar, this is all too much for me to take. I think its better to strip down on your Monetary ambitions if you get happiness in exchange. The thing is after seeing so much, going to small place won’t be much of an issue for me atleast, there maybe difficulties initially but in long term it would be much more effective. In return I get,

    • A HAPPY family life…
    • A nice home with lawn and jhoola in it 😀
    • Kids who don’t pass out in pubs and watch movies for 25 Rs…:)
    • Me watching movie for 25 Rs
    • Neighbors who atleast talk
    • Cheap vegetables, cheap commodities, cheap most of the things.

    Even if I earn what I am earning now for the rest of my life at a small place, it surely would mean much more savings for me than me living in Bangalore. Maybe I am thinking too long term, but anyway one has to do it. Smaller towns and cities stay better as the big cities grow, the “Supposedly” successful crowd moves city wards, small remains mostly the same. although I am worried by the Mall-ification of these places too but most of them, I expect to be quite stable even in case of economic swings. Thinking about what I can do there,

    • A sarkari naukri, but extremely difficult to get that one.
    • Moving into Public Sector…
    • Moving into things like Manufacturing etc. which maybe the industries at these places.
    • Goto a small place, start my own petrol pump, a halwai shop and a hotel.

    All this will come up sooner or later, lets see how this stupid MBA thing goes on, one thing is for sure, I have had it enough for a lifetime here in a city.

    *Diwali Celebs were quite different this time, though I missed being at home but this is what we did for Bangalore Diwali,

    1. Got confused on Nark Chaturdashi as everyone in Bangalore celebrated that day itself 🙂
    2. One round of pooja at home on Lakshmi Poojan, couple of crackers bursted, prasad included Peda and Mysore Pak.
    3. Another bit of pooja at friend’s house, 2-3 rounds of crackers (extremely low quality ones), and gobbled up lots of mithai
    4. Dinner menu included- Davangare Benne Dosa(Butter Dosa) from my favorite shop in NR colony. Followed up by a nice bottle of Wine.

  • मैं राहुल द्रविड़, भूले तो नहीं ??

    मैं राहुल द्रविड़, भूले तो नहीं ??
    जो हुआ जैसे हुआ, बहुत बुरा लगता था …
    पर अब मैं तें में वापस आने के लीये बहुत मेहनत कर रहा हूँ.
    कया पता फीर से “Pitch पर दीवार जैसे खड़े होने का मौका मील जाए”.
    टीम के अंदर या बाहर, मैं हमेशा टीम INDIA के लीये CHEER करूँगा.
    अब से जब भी हमारे लड़के खेलें तो मैं ज़रूर कहूँगा , ”HOO HAA INDIA, आया INDIA”
    और आप ?? अपने “Jammy” की बात सुनेंगे ना !!!

    Dada consulting Dravid now for a comeback. Although I couldn’t get a classic one for Dravid like this one for Dada,

    कया पता फीर से “हवा में Shirt लहराने का मौका मील जाए”

    Just goes to show that he has done nothing except playing Cricket, a great cricketer who just came across as a lame and dumb captain on the field, showing no control over anyone. Although I don’t care whether Dravid Dropped or he in, still I feel he is good as a batsman.

    Life has just come a full circle, what he did to Dada has happened to him. Dada made him a keeper to keep him in team and he just didn’t help him through his bad times.

    Looking forward to Dada taking up the test captaincy, for Dravid he will be back sooner or later but right now he is as low as the Marina Trench.

    –
    Just Another Dada Fan
    (Conceptualized by my friend Shameek, inspired from the famous Pepsi ad)

    Technorati Tags: Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly

  • Billi aur Chooha

    Read this,

    Billi aur Choooha

    Not another Tom and Jerry though…:)