Hardwar-Hrishikesh:Day 1

With the long weekend at our disposal and the fact that the next weekend, most of us would be busy or out of town, with our project work, we decided to go to Hardwar and Hrishikesh. The planning started with all of us planning to go and ended with 9 of us finally agreeing to go.

The day started on a not-so-auspicious note with Veena conveying her inability to come. I was apprehensive about Anuja too, but she confirmed that she would come.

We started from the Guest house at 7 am one hour behind schedule. Then followed the arduous and tortuous journey of abt 8 hours to reach Hardwar. A small debate whether to stay back or come back in the evening followed and we decided to stay back and finish it off.


Vikram and Karthik decided to have a swim and came attired with all the necessary stuff. They even got down into the water, but, seeing the flow of the water, very wisely decided against it and just took a few dips in the water. The rest of us were content with washing our feet in the water.

We had lunch in a hotel called “Asli Pracheen Chotiwala-Since 51 years”. An explanation is due I guess. Over there, most of the restaurants are named Chotiwala. We started wondering whether the choti means ‘mountain top’ or ‘pigtail’. Don’t know abt the others, but our hotel meant the latter.

We then went for the darshan of Mansa Devi and Chandi Devi. We had to take the respective ropeways to reach the temples. The view from the top was amazing. We had a panoramic view of the small town. We also had a little thrill when the power supply failed and we were hanging in the middle of the valley!!! However, the backup kicked in pretty soon and we were on our way.

At abt 7 o clock, we left the town and started towards Hrishikesh where we were supposed to put up for the night and go white water rafting the next morning. We reached the hotel in abt 1.5 hours. The rooms were not that great but were okiesh. We freshened up and went for dinner.

What followed was a disaster. We went to a place called Rajasthani Hotel which had a tagline of Ghar jaisa khana. It looked decent. However, what was served was something totally out of this world. We had a chocolate milkshake which was white in colour…The veg handi was full of cabbage, the chole were tasting like no other thing on planet earth. Even the cold drinks served were past their expiry date…

The icing on the cake came when we were given a bill of Rs.1200!! With this amount, we could have had decent food in one of the best hotels in any city. I was so frustrated and hungry that I went to a bakery and got some biscuits for us.

We came back to our hotel. Vikram and Karthik slept off immedieatley while the rest of us started a game of cards. We played till about 1 o clock and then I decided to call it a day as we had to wake up early the next day for the rafting.

Summers 09-Week 1

It has been an awesome 10 days since I landed in Gurgaon. Busy with office, market visits, truck rides, amusement parks, white water rafting... Done all that!!!!

My summers formally started last Monday i.e.6th April. The CEO of the company addressed us. More details abt this might follow later. The next couple of days were spent by us in the markets of Delhi. One day I went in Motibagh area along with the market developer. The next day we were inside a truck delivering the products!!! It was awesome fun and learning at the same time. We also visited the factory at Dasna on Thursday.

Then came our long weekend. The company had arranged a visit to an amusement park called 'Adventure Island' for us interns. We had a nice time with all the rides and had great fun.

We planned a trip to Hardwar-Hrishikesh over the weekend. And we actually executed the plan too!!! It was the best weekend of my life!! More on that later!! In fact more on all these later!!

Great Expectations(?)..

We had Personality Development sessions in our first sem. During the introduction, the faculty, being spiritual, was trying to give us some fundas. Though I was genuinely uninterested, he said something which made me sit up and take notice. He said, “The mantra for happiness is a single word-ACCEPT. The root cause of all our unhappiness is that we don't accept people the way they are but want them to be as per our specifications."

I gave it a lot of thought and came to the conclusion that he was wrong. The mantra,as per me would be "ACCEPT & DON'T EXPECT". We have so many expectations from all the people around us. We expect our parents to give us money whenever we want, we expect our friends to be around always for us & tolerate us, we expect our better halves to be always with us, and so on...

All these expectations are from our perspective without thinking about others. This leads us to disappointments when these expectations are not met,making us unhappy. We blame them for not matching up to our 'expectations’, for no fault of theirs.

If we try and reduce our expectations and accept our loved ones- in fact-all the people around us as they are, life would be much simpler. No expectations, no heartburns. Acceptance will make us forgive them even if they are wrong.

Now, though I am preaching this, I will be honest enough to admit that I am finding it difficult to practise. I have been trying it, but have been largely unsuccessful and, in some cases-quite spectacularly so.

In whatever few cases I have succeeded, it has given me peace of mind. So, I am trying hard to work on this. Only when I achieve 100% success will I be able to walk up to my Prof and tell him to modify his mantra.

Summers 09-Prologue

Landed in Delhi/Gurgaon today for my summers with HCCB. They have put us in a nice cosy guest house that reminds me of my TML guest house in Cannaught Place! Similar in all respects except they don't serve sweet dish for dinner but i dont mind. What matters is we have got a nice place to rest ourselves and food too,unlike many of my batchmates.

We have to report at 07 30 am sharp at the corporate office. Now,thats a bit too early by all standards,but have to. Again reminds me of TML when i had to catch the company bus @ 07 25.

Met a few other guys over dinner and after. Had general chat.

Looking forward to reenter the corporate life tomorrow,this time as a trainee...

Last one to go!!

Well,in less than 24 hours,this hostel will be silent as we all pack our bags and head home! The last paper is all that remains. Fin and Mark people are busy slogging while Ops people have just woken up from their slumber and trying to find energy to go thru their subject. HR people,well,no comments!!!

I really dont feel like studying at all. Had gone out in the afternoon with some errands in the city. Came back at 5 and have been sleeping since then. And today's paper has completeley drained me out. I dont have the energy and the ink left to faff for another 3 hours tomo. And i could at least draw on my work-ex in writing today's paper. Tomorrow,it might be a bit tough. Let us see....

MBA / 2

As committed,I am posting regularly now. This is my second post in 10 days and going by my blogging track record,its an achievement!!!

We are at the fag end of our exams with only two papers to go. These two are the 'core' subjects of my specialisation and i don't feel like studying at all!! Been sleeping most of the day. And why do I not feel like studyin? I dont know. Maybe its the effect of the exhausting last week,maybe its because the end is near,maybe because I am pure lazy or maybe........

Another 2 and a half days and we all will be 50% MBAs. One year(actually 10 months) is gone. Rather,it just whizzed by. It feels as if it was just yesterday that we made the tortuous journey to a place called Lavale, which even the hardcore Puneites would not have heard of. It was another Sunday when i came here bags,baggage and a borrowed laptop. Settled down and started my MBA next day at 0900 hrs.

One year of fun, friendships which will last forever, parties, assignments, submissions, projects, summers, vivas, admissions process, fights, makeups, heartbreaks.....

And now we move on for the most important part of the MBA course-the Summer Internships or 'Summers' as is popularly known. And it acquires a special significance this year due to the importance of PPOs and PPIs,given the recession.

I would be joining Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt.Ltd on 6th April. Next Sunday,this time I would be in Gurgaon,waiting for the Summers to begin and awaiting the final destination for my Project.

It is a bit tough to survive for two months without the crowd around,crowd which has become an inseparable part of my life. Will be missing them like hell,i am sure.

At the same time,I am looking forward to the Summers,which will mark my reentry in the corporate world after a year,albeit as a trainee. I never thought that i would say this,but there have been periods when I was missing my company badly.. Even I am surprised at that...

Anyways,hope that the next two papers don't maul me as some others have in the past few days. Although,with the amount of effort I have put in,I should be prepared for the worst..

Next post: The year that was...(hopefully i will stick to the topic..)

Restart...

Well,it has been a long time since the last post. i admit that i have been lazy. everyday,i had been deciding to post something at least,but didnt do so. And finally,what a time do restart.A day before the exams!!! And that too at 0230 hrs!!
Now that i have started again, i hope to maintain the blog. Let us see whether i can implement my resolution. Plan to write about the awesome 10 months of MBA!! Sometime very soon.