Saturday, January 12, 2008

Mile sur Mera Tumhara

Wow! wat an amazing video.

Lots of nostalgic memories. I have seen this video some 50 times in the past 24 hours. My wingmates have already decided to throw me out of the wing.

See it for yourself

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Home Trip 3

This is not the third part of the movie series called Home trip. It is a series of humorous(supposedly) incidents on my third trip to home(Chennai) from Calcutta.

It is evening 6 pm on 3rd Jan 2008. I am checking IIMC's student forums. The classes on friday(4th Jan ) are cancelled due to INTAGLIO Business fest. I have been planning to go home for sometime. So this is it. If I go home by tonight, I can spend 5 days @ home by bunking next monday & tuesday. I start asking ppl there r any important things to be done in the next 5 days.

6.15 : None of the airfare websites list flights on 3rd Jan as they book tickets only up to 6 hrs in advance.

6.30: I open all airline websites (low-cost,high-cost and middle-cost) to check the flights available.

6.35: Kingfisher runs from Calcutta to Chennai @ 9:05 pm. This is the best flight available . I wanted to fly kingfisher for a long time. This is the occasion. I start filling the long forms. Its gonna take at least 10 mins.

6.45: Finished filling forms on Kingfisher Website . Still not completely sure whether to go home or not.

6.50: Press Submit after 5 mins of deep thought. " Sorry, your login is timed out". Shit! I start filling the form again. Kingfisher says" You have only 10 minutes left to book the 9:05 flight ticket"

6.58: Finished the form for the second time. Press submit immediately.

6.59: Kingfisher : "Your ticket is confirmed for the IT 732 flight on 3rd January 2008 from Calcutta to Chennai"

7.00: I ask Vinay Betala, the 20-year old MBA grad(youngest IIMCian ever) to print the ticket.

7.01 : I call the security for a Cab to airport. ( IIMC is in Joka which is a good 25 Kms from the airport. Normally it takes more time to travel from Calcutta Airport to IIMC than it takes from Calcutta to Chennai.)

7.04: I leave my room with my laptop bag & a coupla important pieces of clothing.

7.06: I run down the stairs and get into the Cab.

7.08: I get to the main gate of IIMC. I ask the Cab driver to wait for a coupla mins as I wanna draw some money from SBI ATM. I get down and rush into the ATM barely noticing something stuck on the door. It looks something like "Don't use this ATM". I didnt notice that properly. I insert my card & take out the 1000 Rs I needed. I turn back with a smile thinking of the fool who had stuck that notice outside the ATM door. I press the switch to open the ATM door. Nothing happened. Again. Nothing again. Now I realize. Thats why the notice on the door. I am stuck inside, the door can be opened only from outside.

7.10: I call Mrinal and ask him to come out & rescue me. He is happily doing geelagiri(flirting) with his girlfriend. He asks me to wait there and assures to send Rishi, another geelagiri.

7:20: I wait for 10 mins. No sings of Mrinal or Rishi. Suddenly God showers some luck on me. He sends a guy who wants to draw cash. I start smiling again. I have a probability of 0.1 to reach the airport on time. I thank that guy and get into the cab again.

7.25: I ask the cab driver to go as fast as possible. I promise to give him 20 rs extra if he takes me to the airport by 8 30.

7.45: No chances of reaching there by 8 30. I increase the incentive to rs. 40 now.

8:00: Cab drives gives gaalis( Nice swear words) as there is too much traffic and he is not able to drive faster than 35 kmph.

8.25: I am 15 mins within reach of the airport. Here it is, there is a CPI procession blocking traffic. I am screwed.

8.28: Driver takes a bypass route and is going real fast.

8.38: Drives says that I can reach the airport in 5 mins.

8.45: I reach the airport. :) The meter showed Rs.400. I give him a 500 rs note and ask him for 50 bucks change. He gives his gaalis again . He tells me that I screwed his taxi by asking him to drive fast in this traffic.

8.50: I forego that 50 Rs. and reach the Kingfisher Counter @ the airport. It is totally deserted except for a couple of Kingfisher 'babes'.

8.54: I have received my ticket & standing for security check. Damn! I have not attached the Kingfisher tag on my laptop bag.

8.56: I run to the nearest Air Deccan counter and request for a tag. He gives me a cold stare and asks me to go to the Kingfisher counter and get the tag.

8.58: I am back in the queue. Damn! There are 4 people ahead of me.

9.01: Security over. Waiting to get into the bus. There are around 50 people in the queue. None of them are Kingfisher passengers. All Deccan Passengers.

9.02: A Kingfisher employee(Again sent by God) sees my ticket from far and escorts me away separately and boards me into an already-waiting-for-5-mins-bus.

9.04: I board the flight with a broad smile. I can afford to smile now.

9.08: The flight takes off.

Finally Mission accomplished. Kingfisher is a great experience. Had lots of fun. I reach home around midnight.

Sorries again for a long post.

Claimer: The characters and incidents mentioned here are really true and not fictional. Any resemblance to a fictional story is truly coincidental.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

A Beautiful year called 2007 !!!

Wow, what a roller coaster ride was 2007. It was not excellent, it is not the right word. It was BEAUTIFUL. I can say this year changed my life completely.

Timeline:

Prologue:
I waved at my friends. The train began its journey rather slowly. It was a moment which made me feel very bad about not making it to the tour. Yes, I had missed the final year tour to north india as I was expecting a couple of IIM interview calls early in the year 2007. Can you believe it? I consoled myself saying it was my decision, though a rather tough one. It was a slow walk towards the parking lot with Harish( he had also missed the tour). I started thinking about my CAT results. TIME key gave me 79 in Quant, 58 in DI, and -8 in Verbal(Yes, it is negative 8). I seriously wished TIME was wrong this time. Lets see what happens

Now we are all set for the roller coaster ride.

January 1 2007 : This was like any other year. It started off with the regular new year wishes. I had no clue it would turn out to be so wonderful.

January 2 2007: This was the day. The day when IIMs roll out CAT results and interview calls. There were some rumours floating around that results may not be out that day. I sat on my comp since early morning at 6. Yeah I got up @ 6 ! As expected internet speed was pathetic. I kept on refreshing the 6 IIM sites every minute or so. I got fed up near the afternoon and I had stopped. And then, a phone call from a friend. CAT results were out. I jumped out to check mine. A,B,C,L,I - no traces of results. Finally, K site had it. I had got an overall of 99.93 percentile with very good scores in Quant and DI. In verbal, surprisingly I had got a whooping 27, with a 96.31 percentile. It was whooping considering TIME had given me -8. I was sure of a BLACKI(it represents all 6 IIM calls and considered a great feat. Slowly IIMs started rolling out their lists.

January 3 2007: I had received calls from A,C,K and I. B and K were yet to disclose their lists. I was checking B site very anxiously. It wont load. I must have presses F5 atleast a 100 times. My Mentor(also Friend) Srikanth called me and told me that IIMB list is out. Since their website was down, they announce results over the phone. I called the admissions office . Expectedly, the line was engaged. I tried around 20-25 times and then finally it rang. A lady picked up my call and asked for my reg no. Sorry sir, she said. I was aghast. It must have been some error somewhere. I asked my mom to call . Same response again. I was totally aghast. Even an IIML call didnt help. I wanted a BLACKI, but now it is a LACKI. I kept cribbing for the next few days. It was 4-5 days later I realized that I was extremely lucky to get 5 calls from IIMs. There were only around 3000 people who got atleast 1 call from the IIMs.

January 7 2007: XAT 2007 exam day. A lot of my friends were there. Some had IIM calls. Others didnt. That didnt matter. Everyone who was there wanted XLRI calls. I did the exam well.

January 20 2007: XAT results out. I had 2 calls from XLRI.

January 21 2007: FMS exam. High hopes. Decent exam

February 6 2007: IIFT interview @ Spencer Plaza, Chennai. My first ever interview for a B school. Bad GD. Decent Interview. I was still coming to terms with the whole process of selection. I have to be lucky to convert this.

February 8 2007 : IIMK interview @ Bangalore. I had taken the previous day train to Bangalore. Bangalore was boiling due to the Kaveri issue. Since I am from Chennai, It was quite a risk going to Karnataka as Kaveri interim order was just issued. I somehow made it to the hotel and reached the interview spot on time. This time, it was a decent GD and a good interview. Hopes of first convert.

February 12 2007: Time for IIM L interview. Good GD and a decent interview. Hopes of 2nd convert.

February 14 2007: It was supposed to be Valentine's day. But I had a date with IIM I @ Bangalore. It was a disaster to say the least. I was screwed left right and centre on technicals. I had no hopes though the GD was decent. No hopes.

March 6 2007: XLRI Interview for their PMIR program. Bad GD. Bad Interview. Absolutely no hopes.

March 8 2007 : IIMA interview, Bangalore again. Decent GD. Good interview except a last minute hiccup which sealed the fate. Still faint hopes.

March 11 2007: ATM test for PGDCM @ IIMC

March 12 2007 : IIMC interview, for a change an IIM interview in Chennai. Good GD. Good interview. Good hopes

March 12 2007 : XLRI interview for Business Mgmt program. Not much enthu left. I am @ the centre. My friends calls up to tell me that I have been selected by IIFT. I cant believe it. He said , "Congrats Natarajan Sankar". "Damn, I am M.Natrajan" I said. Pretty bad news before an intrerview.Bad interview. I Dont give a shit anymore. I wanna see the world cup matches.

March 21 2007: I join TIME as a Part Time Maths Faculty. I didnt have anything to do in the next 2 1/2 months. I still take classes when I get the time.

April 12 2007: IIM results were to be released on this day. Damn Mr.Arjun Singh. Results delayed due to OBC issue.

April 27 2007: Results day. IIMC comes out with the list first. The defining moment. I have made it. Indore comes next, I am waitlisted. I dont care anymore. I only wanted to check IIMA result. In the meanwhile I have cleared K and waitlisted by L. A gives me a reject in the evening. Slight bad feelings. I was overwhelmingly happy as I am proceeding to Joka.

May 2007: I dont remember the exact dates. I finished my 8th semester exams. Just a mere formality. I almost slept in a couple of exams. Thankfully I cleared all the exams, otherwise all the effort would have gone down the drain.

June 9 2007: My sister's Birthday. The day TIME gave all of us a party. I also gave a very enthu filled talk to the subsequent batch that is giving CAT.

June 17 2007: I reach Calcutta, I prefer to call it Calcutta. This is my home for the next 2 years. I come out of south India for the first time. It was my first flight. So many firsts this year. I had come with my family and planned a small holiday @ Calcutta.

June 23 2007: I reach IIMC. I remember the 'Early Days @ Joka' video as entered the campus. I am all set to be a IIMCian.

September 2007: Time to lose our sleep for the next few weeks. CV making starts. I never knew writing 1 page about myself was so difficult.

October 2007 : CV making is over. CV is frozen before the Durga Puja(DP) hols. I come home for the 1st time after joining IIMC. I could not have a moment of fun as a pile of forms for Summer internships awaited me.

November 2007: The shortlists have started trickling in. People who saw my CV told me that I can expect around 5-6 interview shortlists. It was almost a disaster as i had not made into any of the first 14 lists. Then Came Goldman Sachs and a small ray of hope. I was shortlisted by GS. I was ecstatic. Then I had shortlists from Merrill Lynch and ABN Amro Bank. Thats it. Only 3 shortlists. I didnt want more. If I cannot convert 1 among 3, I cannot convert 1 amoing 30.

November 12 2007: The night when it was announced that GS was not coming to the campus due to security issues. Just 1 more day left for the Summers.

November 13 2007: The day in which I did nothing apart from attending the Merrill Lynch talk.

November 14 2007: We were assembled at the auditorium by 7 am. We had breakfast and the process begun @ 8. I was waiting for my turn. My registration number was announced @ 0830 and I had to attend the Merrill Lynch interview. I was in the waiting room for around 10 minutes before I was called in for the interview. 1st interview is over. I was sent in to another room for another interview. Then I had 2 more rounds of interviews before I was given an offer in Merrill Lynch Hongkong. It was around 10 am when I came out and returned to the auditorium. I realised that less than 25 people have been placed on campus. I have been very lucky. I could see happy faces, sobbing faces and indifferent faces. Some were confused, some were tense. But I was very happy. Mission Accomplished. I can relax now.

November 15 2007: My 2nd trip to home. This trip was more enjoyable as I could spend time with my sister and family.

December 31 2007: I am thankful to all who helped me and made my year beautiful. Thank you all !!

Though this year was beautiful it had a few sad memories. A close friend of mine could not clear CAT in spite of lots of efforts. I had to leave my family and friends and go to a far uncertain place. Bye bye 2007 ! Please return as 2008 and makemy family and friends' lives better.

~ Sorry for a very very long post~