Soon I was enjoying watching others play more than playing itself!! It was fun to watch Josyula and Dinker’s match. More fun followed when Shailesh Dhawla came to play the mixed doubles dressed as a lady aka Chachi!! He was paring with Shubham and they played Josyula and Ashita(for these two it was a warm up match :)). The match was lots of fun for all onlookers . . . I felt real appreciation for Dhawla . . .the one who dares to make fun at the expense himself for others’ enjoyment is worth being appreciated . . so I promised Dhalwa a treat after the match. . . Dhawla asked whether he should come as he was dressed and I thought that would be a great fun .. so I agreed .. As we were getting out of the campus we crossed an aged couple was taking its night walk. The lady first looked horrified and astonished seeing Dhawla who was looking like a perfect ‘Gay’! But soon she realized that it was a prank and started laughing. We went to Hirnandani – Smokin’ Joes (because Pizza Hut was

Well Well! Seems God wants my tastes to change :) After the Reggae session at the ‘Shaggy Show’ , today I had another tête-à-tête with Western music, this time it was Rock. And the pleasure was greater still ‘coz we were having this show right in our own NITIE-lawns! Prerana, out flagship event, is turning into a proper festival – Prerana Rocks! NITIE Rocks!! Rock is all over!! I have never liked any form of Western music. In fact I belong to the pool of ‘Jagjit-Singh Fans‘. But the past two experiences have started having their effect on me. When you see die-hard Rock fans dancing/jumping . . . synchronously and in rhythm, you yourself feel the heat. And the Music was heating me up as well. Especially the Band Xenon (there were 2 more bands – Sceptre and Method) was really good! Their music pushed the adrenaline levels high inside me. As much as I like Indian music, I felt a different nerve for Rock too today. These guys are really mad, passionate about their music. They play it with

After finishing my last exam, as I was walking down from my classroom to the hostel, I had a realisation of the green cover that I have been living under for the past 1 year. (btw should elaborate for benefit non-NITIE junta that 'down' is not figurative but literal – NITIE is situated on a hill and we literally walk down from our classrooms to the hostel) NITIE is a totally different world as compared to the surrounding Mumbai. When at times I get to the terrace of the academic building or the MDP hostel the scene is nothing less than heaven!! Green lush environs and surrounded by 2 lakes on two sides. The calm and serene Vihar Lake and the spawning vegetation all around! Among the hills we know lies the film city, but forest cover hides it. Far away you see some buildings. But this is just one side; move to the other side of the terrace and you see hills covered by thick vegetation, and the Vihar Lake beyond the hills. And a third side has the Pow

I had always thought that CEOs don’t have much to do except a few vision-mission meetings. But my opinion has radically changed during my stint as the Event Coordinator of MastishK. Its 7.10 AM, probably 24 hours since I last closed my eyes and have slept hardly 8 hours in the past 48. I have been working all the while? No, not exactly. I am not working per se, but if I sleep and stop taking account from my teams, they will tend to sleep at the wrong times and fail to deliver. Is it that all teams are working 24 hours? No again. They all sleep, but there is someone or the other working all the time. So I have to stay awake to be available for him/her. Every part of my body is feeling detached from the other, I can feel every bit of my backbone, and yet I can’t take a break. Dunno, if this is anything like the life of a CEO – but its tough man!!! MastishK is almost an organisation now with 30+ members, and so many other characteristics. Working for MastishK, I have realised a lot a

Exams are usually tough and taxing times, but this time around I found exams a lot more refreshing. I had been very irked about a week before exams .. loss of emotional energy and all that ..the reason was that I was bored, bored of the routine that I had been following for the past 3 months. We had been working on MastishK since the past 3 months and my routine was fixed… start the day planning for the next phase of the project or the days schedule… go to class.. come back sleep .. wake up and then start meetings which last till 3 AM and then sleep again …. We were living MastishK for the past 3 months, thinking about it day and night … it was taxing ..the mind needed change .. it took me some time to realise this … then one day someone said that he/she was getting bored of seeing the same faces everyday .. I wondered …I said – “this couldn’t be a problem. It never happened to me in my family. Then why here?” and I soon answered my own query … change … we are humans not machines .. w

As I came out of my room around 2:30PM I saw a biiiig group of batchmates assembled – soon I found that all were planning to go a movie. It struck me hard – not because movies are banned or something, but suddenly I realized that I haven’t even thought of a movie for the more than 3 months. Why just myself, even others have stopped thinking about me going out on an outing or a movie. Even for this movie I wasn’t considered by others!! Nobody even asked me as a formality :( …. I have been working like a dog for the past 3 months – just chasing a dream – the online event that we are launching (I m sure most of readers of this blog know about it –in case you don’t here’s the link http://prerana-nitie.com/mastishk/ ) All I remember is that I have a deadline to meet, I get up everyday, drag myself to class, somehow spend time there (usually not in a position to comprehend what is going on – in dire need of sleep). And then I get back and start working. If I sleep early it is 3:00AM else

My first memory of Mumbai goes back to when I was in class 9th and came here with my parents. Crowded roads, jam-packed buses, pollution and finally dirty beaches – I instinctively disliked Mumbai. I remember having made a statement soon after that I would never live in Mumbai. But life took its toll. . . . . . . My next rendezvous with Mumbai was when I was in my second year of engineering and had to go to Pune from Bhilai via Mumbai. I spent around 4 hours on the Kalyan station – morning 4:00 AM to 9:00AM. And I confess I was terrified. Had never faced such a large crowd; the fact that the station buzzed like a fest at the wee hours of the morning was more than I could digest. I saw people all dressed up for office when I expected them to be in their cozy beds. I had quite a lot of luggage with me; had heard a lot about thefts and conmen of Mumbai; so had to move around all 5 platforms (for tickets etc) with my entire luggage. And then as my train approached, I was all prepared to

The IP messenger is the lifeline of NITIE ... this simple to use network messaging software is the most used tool in the campus.... here is a screenshot What is amusing about IP messenger that it is not only used for messaging but has entered all spheres of life – people are known in the campus not by their original names but by their IP names; birthday notices are put up; news is broadcasted; movies and notes are exchanged; opinions are popularized; and even daily feuds are publicized on IP messenger. A multicast on IP messenger is the universal panacea for all problems – whether you are searching some lost soul in the campus or trying to figure out the course for the next days test. During exams the IP messenger is especially busy. People multicast their doubts and pat come replies clarifying (or further mystifying) doubts. A very interesting feature related to multicasts is the IP War. Anyone who wants to pass time multicasts any abstract albeit controversial topic. Soon th

Its evening about 7:00pm...Was just walking back from the main gate into the Aditya Birla Centre when i realised that I wouldn't be seeing an evening at this place any more....reflecting on my life at Aditya Birla - its been enjoyable....have got a feeler of corporate life especially because was positioned right in the middle of the corporate office of the Group. Got to see a lot of ups and downs ... power struggles .. ego clashes and happy times too... In fact the Aditya Birla Management Corp was in the stage of moving into its new office - Aditya Birla Centre when I joined. And my department was the only one in this building for my 1st month of training. So 'we', Corporate IT were the hosts and I was very much into welcoming the rest of the Corp into this building. Helped set up a lot of things - the access control system, the cafeteria management system etc ... also got to revise the roll list of the Corporate office atleast 4-5 times during the course...it is an advant

I have been on my 1st 'job' i.e. Summer Internship since the past 2 months... and by god !! its been taxing...and yet enjoyable... to be frank I was a bit frustated in the beginning since I had to stay for long hours and seemingly there was no work...the fun started when we were involved in a website review project, and had to stay till 3:15 am in the morning...working when u cud see the results was fun.. however long it might be. The project went fine..i again was a bit disheartened in the beginning as the amount of work seemed little....but now that the project is getting implemented I m enjoying it ... firstly because I am seeing the results.. and secondly because I have realised that what I did was not as trivial as it seemed. I have realised that if used properly summer trainees are a source of many revolutionary inputs and fresh ideas to the corporate. I realised this when we were in a meeting with Wipro professinals. They on the basis were arguing that it was not

Today office time was rewarding, had a meeting with a 3 member team from Wipro Tech..so the gr8 news is that unlike most projects my summer project is going to be implemented !!! And the implmentation was kicked off today with this meeting... apart from business, the meeting saw a lot of philosophical stuff form my boss.... "Nature has not given us the ability to express joy, happiness and sense of achievement in words....this is because u must urself experience joy and never should be able to surrogately 'feel' it from others. Indian religion has realised the need for expression long ago and hence we have so many gods and goddesses signifying feeling of achieving 'wealth', 'knowledge', 'power' etc... " The essence of all this talk was that even in software and business application design all companies must have to undergo a pilot phase, a chaos type growth and then a structurisation; no shortcuts are possible. This however went against th