Dedication

To all those who still read me. When i can't find a reason why a sane person should do that. This post is an attempt to write in a continuous stream of thought and not leave many ends open.

We had our convocation yesterday. Kasturi Rangan had come down and awarded us the medals, Well ,technically he gave them away to only awardees. So our director gave us ,lesser mortals our degrees ,while those academically brilliant got it from Mr. Rangan.

When you come to think of it, how did i survive in a place which had 26 university gold medalists and others with bigger pedigrees, I am happy that i just about survived.I ended up at 66th amongst 87 smart asses.

A casual conversation with 2 years my juniors and i was again recollecting my memories of those days when i use to have the same insecurities as they have now.Like, have i taken the right institute?two years down the line what kind of job will i get? and if one had the choice of choosing over 2-3 B-schools,Did i take the right college?
Isn't the grass greener on the other side?

Another conversation with my immediate juniors and they were discussing what my peers use to discuss till about a year back. Committee rivalries, green company cracks, inefficient placement pitching efforts, etc.

A few months down the line when in placement mood, they would be talking of a trade off between Brand , Salary and Profile. Of how the ideal trinity is an impossibility and what should one choose above the other and why. Those pond side or PPO road discussions would go on and on and on.

And one day they would be placed. Most of them in Laterals. A few in slot 0. The least in slot 1. Guys from other batches in slot 2 as well.

A few months after the placements they would be told, the dude placed in slot 2 is in Vancouver.
Chilling out. And you/some godforsaken son of a gun placed in slot zero, in a blue chip company is planning to switch.

And they would say , Shit for what did i fuck my life in the last one year.

BTW these days my peers discuss about the time and speed settings at which you need to run on a tread mill.Which Bank is buying which other bank. Does Brand name of an institute matter when switching etc.

I am my usual self, blissfully indifferent.

Time is passing by.The wheel turning the same circles.

Patjhad hai Kuch...Hai na

Sometimes you have to write, because you have to write.

Update from Mumbai is that Global Warming has finally arrived and the city is drowning.Also it is not so easy to find a job post your MBA.

One of the customers called me to his residence on the 15th floor of a posh Mumbai locality, Napean Sea Road, to discuss some details, and before i could gather what was happening he and his wife, mostly his wife slammed me for asking them some customary details. It is one thing to listen to a customer yelling on the phone..you can always tell. Hello...Hello...(Is there any body in there?, Yes Pink Floyd) and cut the phone. the aforesaid incident,another.

Also if the customer is yelling at you in a face to face interaction , even then you can try to pacify him by using some statagem. But when it is a lady in her mid 50's, who is yelling at you , you cann't take it. Believe me you cann't. I was sitting on the 15th floor with a king size window behind me, and the only idea doing rounds in my mind was..Shit why did i not tie my parachute around today. Had i done done , beleive me, I would have jumped. 2 hours was the duration of them (2 people, Bless their kids, they did not join in) slamming me.

After i get out of their flat , I call my boss. Capital error. Then i call another client, he says he needs time to think if he wants to take the Loan (Technically an unsecured overdraft)which we are offering.I call my boss again. Slam . Bang @#$%. Go and meet HIM.

HE needs time to think, and while he is thinking (Actually buying time, even he knows the biggest evil in our lives are month ends) how the hell can i meet HIM.

For some duration i just walk the streets, roaming aimlessly, pitying myself at what my life has come to. After some more time i buzz a friend. Lunch?. Bang comes the reply "I am in a meeting". The next time someone says that to you , clear your throat and yell , LIAR.

Of all the phrases i hate in this blasted corporate world, the above one takes the Gold. Not Gold plated Brass, pure 24-carat Gold.

But since he is my friend and i don't expect him to at least lie to me, i don't clear my throat.

He later calls back and takes me to lunch at a far off place.(15 min walk on top of a 45 min aimless walk is a pain) I have a perfunctory lunch and as has become my habit of late, i don't finish it. Now I go to churchgate station and sit there in the company of an octogenarian. Both of us makhi maring.

Later ,HE says that he is still not free, so I have to wait for more. And then a lightining. OXFORD.Not the UK wala dear. The bookshop near churchgate which i often visit to find the MRP on books before buying the pirated copies from the footpath at fort. That helps calculate the opportunity cost , or by how much am i stealing the author and his/her publisher.

The only good thing of the day, i run into a school friend at oxford. We meet again after 10 years.10 years incidentally represents 40 % of my total existence on this planet.Of fuck! Why did i do an MBA.

A cool 2 hours are spent at oxford trying to read that Mitch Albom or somebody who keeps minting books like: 5 people you meet in heaven etc. The one i was trying to read at oxford was about the baseball player who tries to end his life. Anyways ,curse the Oxford shipowners as well . All the places where one can sit and read are vertically below AC vents/ducts/a technical name has just given me a miss. And when you have been roaming in the rains since the morning, a part of your clothing tends to be wet.Beneath AC wet wet cloths, Deadly combination.

I call HIM again. HE is still not free and since it is raining heavily. HE advices me to go home, effortlessly adding that we will meet tomorrow. Nalay. ( In reverse order Arundhati, chose to end her novel). Oops now i remember, a post on Kochu Thombam for long is in my mind. Hum honge Kamyab 1 Din.

When tomorrow cometh, Mumbai Drowneth.
I no go to Napean Sea Road.
Neither to Office. Nor to HIM
And HE and i donth meet.

Hurray.

From here SANITY :

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a good read. A decent one. And just like Family Matters bombed on the backdrop of A Fine Balance,in spite of being a good read, So i think The Kite Runner will also ruin a decently written book.

Hundred years of solitude is and continues to remain a bouncer. A grim reminder that Never read Nobel prize winner's Books.(Forget bouncer, Geetanjali actually was a non starter, 3 pages was all I could manage, No, i am not a patriot.) Still some googling and there is some clarity on what Marquez is trying to say.And i am trying to read it.

Shantaram was splendid. I still go back and just pick up any chapter and read the last paragraph.And every time , there is Bliss.

My Fav Quotes : I was interested in everything but committed to nothing.
And. The only cause I have is my freedom.