Friday, December 23, 2005


My latest acquisition.....sheer power and force....and speed...."Highwaystar" is now truly a Highwaystar. The car is "Opel Corsa Sail - 1.6" Feature list - 1598 CC and develops 91 bhp at 5600 revs and 12.6 kgm at 3200 rpm. Blaupunkt CD system with Sony Xplod Oval speakers in rear and two pre-fitted from speakers - fully loaded.....or should I say Overloaded....
 Posted by Picasa

Friday, November 25, 2005

November Rain

"And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain"


Well Chennai has been experiencing this cold rainfall all throughout the month of November.

And its been actually cold - fans have been used minimally - aha low electricity bill.....

Great weather to spend time on the beach. Thats what I have been doing too.....

Can the weather remain like this - only the rains should not happen......cool breeze and little sunshine.....wow.....

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

What a life....

Rains rains and more rains.....it just does not seem to stop here....no fans reqd. at night....now that is what I had not heard happening in Chennai....but it is.....

Rains happen when you don't want them to.....TODAY WAS SUPOSED TO BE A CRICKET MATCH BETWEEN INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA and it got abandoned due to rain.....

But one good thing.....Laloo raj ends in Bihar.....

Life getting way too hectic....was it supposed to be like this after MBA....maybe....

But alas...now can only listen to the lines "Those were the best days of my life" from the song "Summer of '69" and recall the days gone by....


Feel like just going for a short holiday.....to some hill station - this being the perfect weather.....

Friday, November 18, 2005


The pic taken from plane while going to Delhi. More pics on at www.snapshotsfromheaven.blogspot.com Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Diwali 2005

Wishing all of you a Very happy and Prosperous Diwali

Have a great time....

Loads of fun....

and just pure Rock n Roll....

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Chennai - The city so changed....

Well....
People said come October rains arrive in Chennai....

Well what they said was truth and only truth...

But with the kind of rains which are being seen here they are also amazed.

The climate here in Chennai is just amazing....its cool and pleasant - slight drizzle going on.....

Overall a perfect weather to go to the beach and play football in water.

Want to do that....But..........

Thursday, October 20, 2005

First footsteps in Stock Market......(updated)



Events Yesterday.....
- Stock Market down by over 100 points. Goes below 8000 mark for first time after 9th Sept'05
- A certain Mr. Gaurav Gupta (happens to be myself) sees it as an opportunity to invest
- So the first ever dealing on my ICICI Direct account happens.
- Buy the stock. AHH a decent size of amount from my salary account gets transferred to trading acconut and gets invested.
- The stock is on a rise defying the falling market.

Events today.....
- Markets open strong, over 100 points high than yesterday.
- Keeps going high, coincidentally my stock also reaches day high (and i just keep holding it)
- Market starts fluctuating, same behavior depicted in my stock
- Market goes down again and again and again (by around 116 points) and my stock also goes down.......
- Market starts recovery, but is still below yesterday's mark, my stock is still
fluctuating, but I know it will be back.....

Feel like purchasing more....but don't want to invest more money atleast for now.....trying on reinvesting the already invested money over and over again.

Wishing it a speedy recovery and hoping my stock comes back to normal and goes on a speedy rise.......

This article gives hope.

Update: Booked my first loss in one of the two investments made and moved on to third stock after selling first. Hoping to get the right mix asap...

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

The SE7EN things......

Well got tagged courtesy Arun. So here it goes....THE SE7EN THINGS......

Se7en things I plan to do before I die

Explore the world's best beaches, forests and other nature's offerings
Give back to society (not decided how)
Get my name published in an International Photography mag for Nature Photography
Have my own house - to my taste
Try as many kind of different dishes as possible
BUY a MERC - sports stylo
Enjoy Life to the Max

Se7en things that I can do

Get a Maruti to start with
Can Xplore exotic locations within India
Enjoy South Indian food - in true form
Make more friends
Get more Sleep
Get a PDA Phone
Create a portfolio of photos I click


Se7en things I can’t do

Believe politicians
Live without embracing technology
Stop praising beauty
Stop cracking PJ's
Stop travelling
Self praise
Live without friends


Se7en things that attract me to the opposite sex

Eyes
Smile
Intelligence
Long hair
Sense of humor
Simplicity with Elegance
The way she carries herself


Se7en things I say most

Abey oye
Shit
Hmmm
Wat da ....
Dekhte hein
Wwwwaaazzzzuuuupppp
Ki haal chaal


Se7en celebrities I wish to meet

Julia Roberts
Aamir Khan
Rahul Dravid
Priety Zinta
Tom Cruise
Sunil "Bharti" Mittal
Richard Branson

Se7en people I am tagging

John
Saurabh
Maloy
Sujan
Sarita
Shub
Whirlwings

Monday, September 05, 2005

Yet another weekend passes by.....

With this weekend gone - 3 months in office also got over.... :)

Well.....Its back to office with Monday...which incidentally always has to come after Sunday....why cant we have Saturday Sunday Sunday Saturday....and then Monday.

It would have been so much fun that ways.

Well realized one thing....how much one tries to control the expenditure - the more it happens.....


Anyways it was quite an action packed weekend....

Friday night - Dinner plus movie.
On Friday went off to see NO ENTRY.....amazingly non stop hilarious movie....which will make you keep clapping and laughing non-stop. good plot and really well connected story line. Must say....great work at editting. 3 Actors 4 Actresses and they can make you roll on your stomach.....awesome fun.....will not reveal the plot....just go ahead and see the movie.

Saturday had some work with Bank and then went for lunch and then a yet another movie - Stealth. Well watch it if you wanna see a US Stealth Bomber - which is unmanned (has AI) get all senti and in the end go ahead and give its life to save a human. WOW!!!! What a story - only Americans can think of all this bullsh*t.

Sunday did nothin much....cleaning of house - resting and then went out for dinner.

Was a good weekend.....

Would say am enjoying it here in Chennai now....its not that bad a city as people make it sound to be. It can be fun....u just need to settle down here - make a good gang of frnds....or u may already have it....then you can just chillout....The only thing lacking here is - great climate.....we can adjust to that courtesy human designed and manufactured A/Cs......

Today moved into the new office - shift in office building happened - moved to the dead office building....with rest of the Management Trainee gang now.....still adjusting to the new environment - but from now on things look great....

Friday, September 02, 2005

Its that time of the week yet again....

Hello all,
Finally its a Saturday followed by a Sunday - which means - HOLIDAY....

Such a relief after 12 days of non-stop work....


Straight from office am off for dinner....with friends....
My god....while this month expenses have been on a high BUT I haven't been....need to go to ATM...

Last night also talked to a pretty old frnd of mine....after some real long time...
feels great....

Its dat time of the week again....

Also realized next month in October 3 days of holidays coming which can be extended to 4 days....hopefully some plan can be made.....need to go into the wild....close to nature and try out my hand at photography....need to get used to my new cam....
need to bring out more beautiful snaps.....create a portfolio for some work after the age of 40 (hopefully by then I will have some great bank balance so that I can simply pursue my hobby - its a Dream - hoping they come true.....)

Lastly.....people having high expectations.....hopefully will be able to deliver.....

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Eclipsed.....




The picture shows the current feeling inside me.....

hmmmm....like the Sun coming out of the dark, with the week taking a turn today on Wednesday, with the Saturday being off....and Sunday being a hol (under normal circumstances)...things look bright coupled with some other happenings which cannot be mentioned here.... :)

"AM LOVING IT"

Need a break...need to rest.....

Feel like going to some place around Chennai....its been a really longtime since I moved out of Chennai for some short weekend break or even a single day outing will do wonders....

BUT, courtesy last weekend expenditure - a pain to wallet which was further aggravated on Monday due to a silly mistake....I think will have to live like a real Baniya for some time....(am a Baniya - but money generally keeps slipping away from my hands)

The weather looks good outside....but till when will it be like this....
Hoping it rains today....


Such weather reminds of Bhubaneswar days - the day it used to be hot, it had to rain that evening, but here, only one part is true - the day is hot - in evening it may or may not rain. Probability of rains is pretty low.

Have heard that October - December, Chennai receives decent amount of rains....lets see how decent is considered decent here.

Started reading up a new book - "Brand Portfolio Strategy" by Aaker after finishing off with "The Tipping Point"

Thats how the evening time passes by.....

Still have to see Mangal Pandey and with the kind of reviews No Entry is getting will have to see that also....

So....in the world of cricket....why was Rahul Dravid stripped of captaincy when Ganguly joined the team....Ganguly a person...whose cricketing days are over....got reinstated as a captain....

After loss to New Zealand, Ganguly did have guts to say that Batsmen should contribute more.....what is he....he is a captain....he should lead by setting an example.....

Today in advertising world, for a change our cricketers are less and less to be seen....hopefully they will now concentrate on their play....

Sunday, August 28, 2005

On Sunday - Posting from Office

Well in 3 months of my work life....its my first Sunday when I am in office - DOING WORK.....

Morning went out for breakfast with XIMB friends to Spencer's Plaza. Its so good meeting up with close friends after pretty long time....

And now here I am....in office....DOING WORK....

It looks so deserted....till now I have been able to count 4 people working here, but none in my department.....its so deserted.....with all the cubicles....and the machines lying around with none to talk to....no noise (shor gul)....which is so characteristic in normal routine....

But one good thing...tomorrow I will not be complaining about those "MONDAY MORNING BLUES"....
SO this weekend spent in office....

Don't feel like going out at this hour...this Chennai climate has changed back to NORMAL - Its HOT and HUMID..... [atleast its not HOTTEST]

Another achievement - I have not run away to Bangalore for my second consecutive weekend.

Searching for some more good places around Chennai where we can go out for some weekend outing - with Mahabalipuram being the nearest one [50Kms].

Some more interesting hoardings have been sighted - without company's name - like in one of my previous posts. One of them says "Earlier I used to do it alone, now he also loves to do it"

More such ads have been seen and will be updating more lines as and when I recall them.

Seen pasted on a Reliance mobile scheme poster a Special Airtel Offer of Rs. 99/- [making full use of available space on Reliance Poster [pasted properly - hiding the Reliance Scheme]]

On the last count in the park behind my house saw 8 deers feasting on grass [not the drug kinds] and other plants- they look so beautiful - will try to click them soon after I get a tripod - will have to use zoom and slow shutter speed since they come there in late evening.

What else.....

One of my roomie leaving of for Bangalore with change in Job....why do people have to leave when you just start to get settled and are enjoying your stay together.

What else.....


In the evenings I am reminded of Deep Purple's song - Burn:
"The sky is Red, I can't understand,
Past midnight I can still see the land"

[though midnight can be removed - its late evenings and sometimes the sky looks amazingly beautiful.]

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Google on a Roll........

Aha Google is BACK....and dat too with a BANG....

Heee Haaawwww...

Beware Microsoft Beware Yahoo....
You have no clue where Google is going, whom google is targetting.
I should also say.....Beware Skype....

Now does that indicate anything.....

Well well well.....
Google has brought out its own messenger by name of Google Talk.

Try it once and you will like it.

Not at all heavy on ur PC resources, simple and elegant and also has voice chat feature.

All that in the first messenger they launched.

What would the world have been had Google not have existed.

It is slowly entering into everything we do on a PC and scaring the existing players to take desperate actions big time.

Lets see how Microsoft and Yahoo react to this launch.

As usual Google has gone in for a soft launch and am sure is piggybacking on its huge GMail membership for getting as many users for its IM as possible. And its an excellent idea. When you login into the messenger you get your GMail address list and you can invite anyone from them to join the Google Talk irrespective of whether they are GMail users or not....and this inviting is at maximum 3 to 4 steps process which you can just click through.

What would a life be without GOOGLE.....

Currently:
GOOGLE for search
GOOGLE for blog
GOOGLE for mail
GOOGLE for chat
GOOGLE for maps
GOOGLE for news
GOOGLE for sharing photos
GOOGLE for toolbar
GOOGLE for wen accelerator
GOOGLE for translation
GOOGLE for desktop search


Future:
GOOGLE for OS
GOOGLE for internet browser

That would be a dream come true......Microsoft will then face some real competition.....

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

The Hogenakal Trip.....(updated)

Saturday, Sunday and Monday......was a good break. An extended weekend. Had gone to Bangalore for this weekend. Reached there on Saturday and stayed there with my cousins. That day we spent in Bangalore itself. In the evening we went to a pub there called Legends of Rock. Hmmmmm after such a long time...got to listen to some real good rock music and at a good volume. After having drinks there we went off to a restaurant nearby called "Chandni Chowk". A must go place. Lovely decor. And good food - must have: Makai ki Roti and Saag. But do not try Kulfi there. It is avoidable.

The next morning we left for "Hogenakal". It is a small place in Tamil Nadu. Located in a wildlife sanctuary it features beautiful set of waterfalls. "Hogenakal" means smoking rock. And thats what it looks from distance with all the mist/small water droplets being carried by the wind. From distance it just looks as if smoke is rising from the rocks - but when you go near to the scene is awesome. Another good thing about this waterfall is.....you can experience the please/scare of living (better to say standing) on the edge.....the feeling is scary BUT AWESOME at the same time. During this month (August) the river Kaveri is flowing with some overdose of water creates amazing waterfalls in this region. The water in this area is known for its curative powers. This is one place one should visit if he/she is in Bangalore or Chennai. Another intersting thing to experience here is the boat ride - IT'S DIFFERENT. The boats are circular in shape and made up of Bamboo with tarpaulin outside so that water does not enter the boat. This boat though you will not believe is amazingly strong. Another fun thing you can do in this boat is, make it rotate at pretty good speeds and we experienced it. This is also a good place to go for trekking. We returned from there in late evening and saw the sunset happening on the way back. Looks truly amazing with small hills around the Hosur Road.We went straight for dinner to a restaurant. The place is truly amazingly beautiful....well this is the place where the song "Ek Chhoti si" in the movie Roja was picturised.

The next day was spent resting at home in Bangalore. Cousin bro arranged for my ticket for the night journey back to Chennai by bus. My bus started around 10:30 PM from Bangalore and reached Chennai at 6:00 AM. Sleeping in bus is the most difficult thing. From next time I will try for train tickets for going to Bangalore. And without sleep, got ready and came to office....

Hoping for more such trips into such beautiful spots.

Some of the pics of Hogenakal can be found here

Friday, August 12, 2005

Last evening.....and off to Bangalore yet again.....

Saw a hoarding last evening having a beautiful female model in standing pose and it spoke loud the line "I used to have it once a week, and now I am having it almost daily". Nothing else was mentioned....who had put that hoarding is unknown to me. But, seems they have been inspired by DNA advertising through hoardings in all over Mumbai.....but atleast it was known that DNA had those hoardings. Imagine, a kid asking his parents what does that sentence mean when he sees that hoarding while going to someplace with parents. Where is the advertising going to. As once said "Sex Sells"...so all advertisers and marketers are making use of this so very effective tool to sell anything and everything under the sun.

Last night our senior batch (previous years Management Trainees) in the company am working in gave us a dinner party. It was at a Pub cum Restaurant - BASERA on the East Coast Road. The ambience there is really good.It has both open air and A/C room seating available. We decided to have an Open Air dinner (weather was good and there were no Mosquitoes). We were a total of 13 who had gone there for dinner.If I comment on dinner then I cannot do justice to it. This is because most of us non-veggies were so over-whelmed with the taste of Chicken Lollipop that we had an over-dose of starters. Starters also included Reshmi Kebab and Tandoori Chicken. Mouth starting to water again. After that we also finished of a plate of Chilli Prawns in a straight go. And then was the time for the main course. We ordered main course for sure - but soon after it was served we realized that we have had an over load of starters. We were unable to finish it all off. But should say, it was a good change from the normal food we have for dinner here in Chennai. Must say food was good, but the whole ambience of the place was even better.

After dinner we went of to one of the senior batchmates home since one of them had a birthday today. At the stroke of the mid-night the cake was cut and the Birthday Girl was duly wished with the cake on the face ceremony taking place. Then, Beer and SMIRNOFF Vodka (yeah not Romanov - which is found in Chennai and Smirnoff is real difficult to find here) along with Sprite, Orange Juice and Tomato juice. We all had a nice bakar session till late into the night. Some of us slept there only.

Well since I have to go of to Bangalore today night, I had to do some packing and some clothes washing so had to wake up Arun early in the morning (6:13am) to drop me home.As of now I am sitting in office and had washed clothes in the morning have to reach home asap and pack my bags and rush to Chennai Central Railway Station from where I have to catch my Bus to Bangalore. Don't get confused buses do not run from Railway Station but from the travel agents place opposite the Railway Station. Lets see after reaching Bangalore where do we go. Third weekend consecutively in Bangalore. Saturday, Sunday and Monday heeehaawwww are HOOOLLLLIIIDDDAAAYYYYYSSSSS.........

Hoping to make good use of my new cam in this trip.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

My Dream.....Smile Ready CLICK!!!!!!!

WELL WELL WELL JUST CAN'T TELL.....
I have to announce it.... :D

Finally, yesterday I laid my hands on my dream cam....which I had been eyeing for past two months....

Presenting to you: Canon EOS 350D Digital SLR cam.....
Following is the pic of the cam:


It comes with a Canon 28-55mm Lens as part of the kit. In addition to that lens I purchased a tele lens also - 75-300mm Canon EF Lens.

Camera looks same as the one shown in the above pic.....I went for a all black body.
For the additional lens which I bought following is the pic:


Along with it to start of I have bought 512MB Flash Card and by the year end have to get 2GB microdrive hopefully....

To start with, this is a good photography kit...hoping to make the best use of it....right now getting the hang of the camera. Finding out all its functions. I hope to be soon out and clicking....and hoping to get my photoblog active soon.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Drive to Bangalore.....

Firstly, Wishing everyone a Belated Happy Friendships Day, since I could not come online yesterday to leave across a message.

Well am back from Bangalore. It was a official tour but then a good change. The weather there was amazing. In my past two visits to that city - I have had a chance to get drenched. But this time around the weather remained on the cooler side without any rains only occasional drizzle (u cannot call them a drizzle also).

Spent four days there - from Thursday to Sunday. We started straight from office after lunch in car around 1 pm on Wednesday. The distance is around 341 Kms if Old Madras Road is taken which goes via Chittoor. We had taken this road and covered the distance in around 6 hours and 30 minutes with one break in between - for snacks. We entered Bangalore at 7:20 PM. This I think is a good enough time to cover this much of distance. The road for first 50 Kms or so is still under construction, so initially we were pretty slow, but after that the road becomes much better and its a very comfortable ride to Bangalore. Actually faster than train. After having snacks I drove the car upto the outskirts of Bangalore. After such a long time - after 2 and a half months I was driving a car.....WOW.....

The road passes through three states - Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It also passes through an Elephant Reserve, where we did not see any Elephants but saw loads of monkeys. The scenery at some points was absolutely amazing, especially during sunset and when some light drizzle had happened. Will be putting a couple of pics after transferring from my mobile.

In Bangalore I stayed with my cousin bhaiyya and bhabhi. You can imagine the climate of the city from the fact that we did not need to switch on fans the whole day. On Thursday and Friday we did our work. After that we got the weekend free.

When out on the road and roaming in and around the city, the cool breeze is the best thing to feel - and that is what Banaglore gives you almost whole day!!!!!!!! How can people living in Bangalore adjust to any other city where they cannot get a similar climate.

During the stay we ate at a place called "Little Italy". Its an Italian joint there and the food there is good, the pizza crust was refreshingly different from the Pizza Hut's - fresh or stale crust whatever. As a matter of fact I was initially thinking that this place is called "Little Idli" - whats happening to me!!!!!!

Also after such a long time I had good Chhole Bhatoore at Bombay House.

Another mission for which I went to Bangalore was to get a Digitial SLR camera - Canon EOS350D. Found a great shop - Camera Citi, but the camera was out of stock at this shop. Still no problem - its main office is luckily in Chennai, and is supposed to be one of the biggest Indian camera dealers. Will be going there today to see whether I can get the camera now or not.

Well, another beautiful place to visit in Bangalore is the Leela Palace on Airport road. Its really beautiful. The garden was amazingly well landscaped - with waterfall and a small cave. DEFINITELY LEELA!!!

We also saw a movie at Innovative Multiplex. The movie was The Island. Its a movie which is basically trying to be futuristic and tell viewers what might happen if human cloning starts and becomes commercialized. The topic is good, but depiction definitely not. Well its a movie you may watch when ur totally vella but not when you have other options of movies.

We left Bangalore at around 5:50PM and it was supposed to be a night drive. I was home at 12:30 am or so which again means we covered the distance at a good speed with one break.

After long time I went on highway drive (actually after first week of March when I had gone on Gangtok Trip with XIMB friends).

Now I might again be going to Bangalore or some place near to it on the next weekend which is going to be an extended holiday with 15th August - India's Independence Day coming on Monday giving us Saturday, Sunday and Monday as holiday....WOW....Yipppeeee!!!!!

Hoping to go on that trip with the new camera - if I am able to get it today.....

Bangalore is becoming like a second home for me!!!!!

Monday, August 01, 2005

As the Weekend passes by (Updated)

Yet another week passes by and 2 months up in job. Wow I have survived two months and am still enjoying the job. Not many would say that. Lucky me ;-)

Well the weekend went by really well.....Saturday was yet another Saturday Night Fever....u can say a mini bachelors party...loads of masti non stop....it was a drunken revelry at best :D ;-)

And the best thing was the next day dad was supposed to come to my place and everything had to be set right. This task was handled with care and necessary cleaning up activity was carried out and successfully. It was great meeting him and this is for all the XIMBians reading this and who r in Chennai - "ghar se khaana aaya hai" come over.....

Am leaving for Bangalore on Wednesday afternoon. Yet Again!!!!!

Am eagerly waiting for purchasing my camera - the CANON EOS350D Digital SLR Camera. Haven't been able to go to market for a long time. But since am going to Bangalore am hoping to strike a good deal there. So Bangalore ki junta help me.....tell me where r good camera shops there who can give good deals do name smoe and tell where they are. Life feels so empty without a camera in hand....one hobby I wanna seriously pursue....my photoblog is feeling ignored. "Somebody, somebody help me"

Well over the last week a lot has been happening. Imagine in a day news channels had to cover three big reports - Mumbai floods, Gurgaon incident and Bombay High fire. Later on militant attack on Srinagar and also a attempted militant attack on Delhi. hoping things get better for this country soon. Since the year start one calamity after another is striking this country. And when will US of A realize that striking the root of all problems atleast minimizes the problem to manageable extent.

Now I will be blogging back after coming from Bangalore.

UPDATE: Well beat it...I went to see the movie "Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya" for the second time....I know its not worth that respect....but its better to go and see it with friends than sitting at home and doing nothing much....yeah its better to watch Katrina Kaif and Sushmita Sen than idling away to glory at home....

Monday, July 25, 2005

Night Time, Rock Show and Heavy RAINS!!!!!

As I am writing this blog, its raining pretty heavily outside.Chennai has been having amazing climate for last five days continuously. Sun has not shown its face.

Well weekend was amazing. Saturday evening....along with two friends I went for a Rock Show here in Chennai. Izaz was performing there. The band was good, nice smooth guitar works and most importantly - it was very different. It is a group from UK but having origin in Pakistan. The crowd was good [well that is understood ;-) ]. The show was going on fine and got better when rains started. Though thye show had to be stopped due to heavy rains. Still we waited there without any cover and got completely drenched in Chennai rains. Night Time, Rock Show and Heavy Rains - are a deadly combi. Fun to the max. I just love it. I love all the three things....so when got a chance to experience all three together so how could I not resist waiting there. All in all it was a SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.

Now coming back was also quite a experience in itself. With rain showing no respite, we were forced to go out of the Open Air Theatre to the road in search of auto-rickshaw. Backed solidly by heavy rains and lack of availability of empty autos, the auto charges went soaring up - touching Rs. 100/- which we were not willing to pay for an auto -who in the world would be willing to pay that much for a Rs. 30/- ride. Again we spent around an hour on the road. Well - best was when there came another group - were forced to come out of shade since rain was not stopping and the young lady in their group came out to look for the auto - followed by two of her guy friends. She was determined to get the auto before we got. And alas she succeeded - she might have even got a good bargain, courtesy my friend (we 3 were guys) who was trying to get the auto was not that attractive ;-). Life is so biased against guys na.....

Then we decided to try to get the auto from the other side. Crossed and went on to the other side - to the Pizza Corner - we were all drenched and were in half mind whether to go in for a bite or not - courtesy the AC which was switched on inside. After waiting for auto for a real long time - we decided to go in and try and sit only to come out - WE WOULD HAVE CHILLED - the Pizza Corner guys weren't willing to adjust the AC temperature.....Again the bargaining process starts.....and after seeing off around 6 autos we finally managed to get one at 6o bucks. WE HAD TO PAY THAT -we had to reach home. There was no way I could have gone home that day - so stayed at my friends place, had dinner there and went back in morning.

I just love rains, I just love rock music and now I got enlightened about Chennai - so I just love this city too.... :D

Sunday went off lazing around at home....had a breakfast cooked by us..."egg bhurji" and it was good. Then had a nice sound sleep in the afternoon and again for dinner went out with friends to Pizza Corner.

Weekend went off well....and the next day - following the usual "MONDAY MORNING BLUES" I got up late- though managed to reach office on time, and before leaving office here I am typing this post and its raining....yet again....

The Chennai climate right now is nothing close to what I had been told it is during this time of the year.

Am happy - Life Rocks....

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya

Well was in Bangalore this weekend.

Arey the mixup of the title and the above line can be very misleading. Am still single and was not meeting someone special in Bangalore.

Well had a great time in Bangalore. Met up with cousin bro n sis and many batchmates from XIMB. Its always great meeting up with old pals with whom one had spent 2 years in hostel. Also had great food - people going to Bangalore try out a restaurant - Angeethi near MG Road. Its really amazing and had really tasty Punjabi food there. Well weekends are time when there is absolutely no walking space in the two hot spots in Bangalore - M.G.Road/Brigade road and the Forum Mall. In Bangalore they really need to open more hep places to give the crowd living there more options to roam around and thus making these two places less cluttered. The city really needs to revamp its infrastructure big time. BUT, best part of stay were the two evenings which I spent there - it rained really heavily there - haven't experienced them yet in Chennai here and got drenched both days :D . Hoping someday a technology comes using which we can copy and paste the climate of one city over another - then we will copy and paste Bangalore's climate here in Chennai.

On Saturday saw the Salman Khan starrer - Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya. Well I can say only one thing - It's again a David Dhawan movie and he doesn't let you down. From start to end you will be laughing yourself out (TIP - Do not try to use your brains - and just incase if you have brains leave it at home or car or anywhere but leave it outside the hall). The whole hall was just laughing from start to end. In the very first scene itself, you are guaranteed to burst out. Sushmita Sen is again sizzling with and this time also in a Saree - she is looking amazing. Katrina Kaif thoroughly overshadowed by Sushmita's presence in the movie, still manages to make her presence felt - just by being there and just modelling arond with some acting. But she does look hot - but Sushmita sizzling hot - after all Katrina got chilled doing Just Chill. Yeah Katrina does look hot but needs to work on her acting a lot else she will just come in item numbers (JUST CHILL). That was a nice song and very well directed. The songs in the movie are good, the album can be bought. But go and watch it in a movie hall for once and have a great laugh - non stop - with the whole hall roaring. Sohail Khan gives bro Salman Khan a good competition - actually seems as if you are watching two Salman's acting. Well, movie has everything - great comedy [after a real long time] - Salman Khan [yet again topless - so females can have a yet another look] - Sushmita Sen and Katrina Kaif [Guys double treat for us all] - and all other great comedy actors playing their part really well.....

Its really sad that in some parts of the country the screening of the movie has been stopped and that too just by hearing of the tape - in which its not even sure whether the voice is of Salman Khan or not.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

The life goes on.....

Well have now realised how important "Wednesday" is.It is a day after which the week actually starts looking bright. And this is not for just single person, but for most of the people who are working or in School (not college or not doing MBA).

After Wednesday the week seems as if its shrinking. I suppose it is the day after which the productivity of personnel might be at its peak - because of the happiness that weekend is nearing (and here I am blogging - performance mein count nahin hota - but still....)

Anyways, the week had been hectic till now and still is. But still - work is interesting and this is in itself a motivation.

Have been pondering on a question - should I or shouldn't I - go for a car?
Its gonna be a big expenditure - initially thinking a second hand Esteen/Honda City and later on after 2 years when enough savings are there I should go for a new car. Lets see what I decide upon.

Today in market there are so many exciting hi-tech products and I feel like getting some of them asap - Canon EOS 350D (Digital SLR Cam) and a PDA Phone to start off with.

Have to explore Chennai also and some surrounding areas, but this weekend most probably am gonna land up in Bangalore.

Liking this city - its very mixed and hopefully its a trend happening. Mostly the city is conservative, but there are pockets where one can feel at ease. The people are nice, they try to understand you - there was time when auto wallahs would simply ignore you - not today - though they fleece u - but unlike what happens in Bangalore. Best thing is the cost of living is best for the person who is starting to earn. Loads can be saved. The best transport which I liked here has been Shared Auto concept and it is really amazing. In this the auto (bigger than normal ones) will not take only one person or small group, but will try to carry many other people on the route in which they operate. and will charge u a small fraction of total cost - which is fixed and thus no arguments. Also, the cost of pubbing is really low compared to other metros. The only grouse is the rains - when it rains here it is just small drizzle for 10 mins. Have heard it will rain here big time in retreating monsoons (October) - lets see [wait and watch for the update on that]. Also will keep on updating about the city as and when I experience anything more.

Another interesting stuff happening is how technology is making life difficult for celebs. The DPS - MMS was just a start. What followed has been more of invasion of privacy or use of technology for keeping oneself in news by celebs - one will never know this. There have been three mobile cam video recording leakages into media (public arena) - Kareena Kapoor and Shahid, then Riya Sen and now Mallika Sherawat (though it was not her in video but someone of close resemblance). So this is just a trend starting. Most mobile phones are now equipped with cams with video recording capability and the quality is good. It's now on us how we use technology. This has always been an issue with technology - is it bad or good - this depends on how we use it. And as technology advances making laws for their proper use becomes more and more difficult. We should adopt new technology (else how will people like me achieve targets) - but then we should use them not for invading someone's privacy or for any unsuitable purpose.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Thank God its Saturday

wat to do...its saturday...sittin in office......working on projected cash flows...

waitin for evenin....wen i hope to GET FREE and tom is off....ONE DAY WEEKEND

People across the world say - TGIF - Thank God its Friday - but there are many people like me who say TGIS - Thank God its Saturday...........

aha finally weather in Chennai seems to be improving somewhat....i hope it stays like this for a long time.Yesterday, finally got drenched in the first major Chennai rains of this season - FINALLY - after a long time. It always feels so good getting drenched in rains. Miss those Bhubaneswar rains so much now. During this season rains were a regular feature there. Almost everyday and almost for whole day. Day in day out rains. Open the windows of ur room and u may very well wake up without the need for having a bath that day.

And today sun aint showing its face. The sky is cloudy, the climate is neither HOT/HOTTER/HOTTEST infact cool. Slept without switching on AC (cost cutting - baniya in action).

And what is happening this monsoons - heard that Delhi was under flood threat (on NDTV - one of the few channels here wich we can understand), Gujarat already bore the brunt, MP realing under it (rains for 5 days continuously finally stopped), rivers in Himachal Pradesh and J&K also overflowing big time (seen the shots in news channels - and its way too scary). Orissa will soon be under floods after a real hot season there. Freak snowfall happened in Himachal Pradesh (i think) - in this month.

Firstly Tsunami, then came heavy snowfalls (unprecedented), then extremes of heat and water problem, and now excess (too much) of water.....wat next from Nature's side. How much of Nature's fury will this country have to bear during this year.

Before monsoon session started the political parties got a major debating point - Ayodhya attacks and now no one knows will this session ever happen. BJP might this time around boycott until the Government takes the action which it demands - as L.K. Advani says - build the Ram Temple at the site and all the countries problems will be solved - even Terrorism. If it was all that easy, why the hell did not BJP do that in their rule and then they could have taken a credit for eliminating terrorism. Even US of A should co-operate with BJP - easiest way to bring terrorism to an end.

Thank God tomorrow is Sunday.... many friends here from XIMB...after a whole week will be meeting them and many more whom I have not met for a long time....

Friday, July 08, 2005

Shaking Dreams......

On Reaching office at 8:15AM what better thing can describe the experience - the only thing coming to my mind is a Poem/Song byThe Doors - Awake. This is how they used to start there live performances normally...

It Goes on as follows:

"Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
The ceremony is about to begin.

Wake up!

You can't remember where it was
Had this dream stopped?

Awake

Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity
First thing you see."


Ok am slowly adjusting to the timings now. But then am not comfortable sleeping of early.

And today or tomorrow hoping to get a huge speaker and sub-woofer set and have some head banging after some real long time. Its been ages since I have heard "Burn by Deep Purple" at full volume. The drum rolls and the guitar rolls - Ritchie is amazing toooooooo goooooood toooooo beeeeeee truuuuuueeeeeee on guitar. Even todays guitar god - Joe Satriani praises him.

Music whatever kind one is listening to does keep on giving the required momentum to ones life. Luckily my phone can keep some MP3s and play them really well...so that has been providing some respite.

and in the end with today being Friday - again The Doors - Break on through to the other side

"Made the scene
Week to week
Day to day
Hour to hour
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side"

AND THE CORPORATE RAINDANCE CONTINUES.........week on week, day on day hour on hour...with the coffee driving you through the day......

Still enjoying it till now.....hoping it stays the way its going or gets better....

Friday, July 01, 2005

All Marketers are Liars

Hmmmm interesting...finally I decode my career...finally get to know what I have to keep on doing to be successful.... "All I have to do is lie"

Now thats where the catch is...

"Marketers aren't really liars, they are just really good at telling stories which customer wants to listen"-Seth Godin (in book - All Marketers are Liars"

There is a limitation to telling stories - Marketer MUST tell stories which matches with the viewpoint of his audience - else will the audience believe? NO and he fails.

This is how all these fairness creams are earning big time. They are selling you a story that you want to believe - see any advt. - most of these are today concentrating on girls getting jobs by using "XYZ Fairness Cream". This is a central story being used on our television. and are people buying it - YES.
End result, customer willingly fooled. Customer was made to accept a story which he/she would believe.

And from there the Book "The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big Difference" takes over the mantle.
Once the people start believing your stories, they will spread it on their own - "WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING" - The best thing which can happen to a product.

The Best example for this is the Apple iPod.
It wasn't the first MP3 player with hard disk available on the market. But its the product which now is earning Apple more money than its Macs. Why?
They had a simple product - concentrating on just small compact design, easy PC Connectivity and Good battery life. Today it has a whopping 65% market share in portable MP3 players and tooooo whopping 92% market share in hard disk based MP3 Players. It was launched in November 2001 and took over 1 and a half years to start on a path of success by clocking 1 million sales count. It took a real long time for that. But after that there was no stopping. Today it has crossed 6 million sales.

What made iPod a hit, while others could only just watch and actually could do nothing. Even Microsoft till date is only looking and doesn/t know what to do.
Here comes the marketer. Am sure the person who devised the marketing strategy for iPod should be a marketing god. Just look through any of the iPod advts. and you can see where they sold. Simplicity, small size-huge space and good battery life were onething. There were many who had similar or more offerings - Creative and Dell and many more. But then Apple positioned it as a "Must have Fashion Accessory" and this accessory was affordable for the targetted segment of students and young professionals.There was a coolness factor associated with it.

Steve Jobs rightfully says - iPod has become a cultural phenomenon.

Apple is depending a lot on Word of Mouth. Now iPod is more of a success because of the Network Effect - there is a huge iPod community which is growing and many more people wanna be a part of it - I ALSO WANNA HAVE ONE....maybe soon I will be an iPodder.

As one iPod user said: "It's a society within itself. You've got your biker community, your hip-hop community and now you've got your iPod community. It's all about those wires."

The essence of the communication from Apple was basically that you wear iPod and not own iPod. This made it an essential, just like you wear clothes.

So iPod continues to live on with its new offering iPod shuffle being a major success - even though there are competitors like Creative (also some other brands or non-brands) with products cheaper and having more features than iPod shuffle.

But then to this story telling there is a limitation - it should be authentic and in no way way should the marketer try to be a fraud.

Currently Reading: The Tipping Point
Plan to Read: All Marketers are Liars

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Comments Changed

Change is the only static thing in this world...

So commenting changed from haloscan to the blogger comments.. :-)

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Mere saathh aisa kyun hota hai.....

It happened in College
It happened when I went for MBA
It Happened yet again when I started working.....

dat makes it 4 + 2 + 1 month (almost)
Basically just over 6 year continuosly....

and wat is this "IT" in the above sentences.....
The "IT" stands for making of Plans to Kill me.

Though these plans have not yet materialised...(how could they ever)
Well....my ability to crack PJs or seriously pull someone's leg to extremes has led to this scenario. But, luckily I do it mostly with close friends....

But then its been fun for both sides....they miss what I did when we were together and same here I miss what I used to do....

When I meet up with old friends....esp. those who made plans....same plans r discussed...and the exact reason why that plan was made....

Ah SWEEEEEEEEEETTTTTT EEEMMMMMMOOOOOOOTTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSS
- sing it the way Aerosmith did

Saturday, June 25, 2005

DID I EVER IMAGINE.....

- People who know me will be amazed to see the daily schedule I now have. I never used to sleep at 11 PM...I just could not....there was no way I could wake up at 6am after sleeping at 4:30 AM....BUT guess what I am doing what I never imagined...

I AM WAKING UP AT 6 AM, SLEEPING AT 11 PM.

- There was a time, when Rock Music and Gaurav Gupta went hand in hand....where there was Rock music there was Highwaystar, or where there was Highwaystar there was Rock music.

AS OF TODAY, IT HAS BEEN AGES SINCE I HAVE HEARD "SMOKE ON THE WATER" AT THE HIGHEST VOLUME I COULD. :(

- Had any of my friends ever seen me having rice (in any form other than Chicken Biryani/Biryani)in XIMB. The answer will come as NO.

BUT THIS IS LIFE. ITS NEVER FAIR TO YOU. I AM HAVING RICE DAILY WITH SAMBHAR. BUT THEN GOOD THING IS THAT I ALSO GET TO EAT THE FRIED PAPADWHICH I REALLY LOVE.

-There was a time when I would be regularly coming out with too many pics from my digital camera

TODAY, I AM NOT CARRYING MY DIGITAL CAMERA, BUT INTENDING TO GET A PROFESSIONAL ONE SOON. HAVEN'T CLICKED ANY OF THE GREAT SNAPS I USED TO WHEN WAS IN CAMPUS

Change is truly the essence of life...
It was truly one big fun time while on campus. Miss those friends now.

But, then now that I am settled out here in Chennai, everything is getting into a smooth roll here, lets see wats in store now on....

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Monday, June 20, 2005

RAINS.....

FINALLY, IT RAINED.....
Well....its been humid and fairly hot in this part of the country...but today evening sitting and working on a PPT....that particular amazing smell of mud - the smell which comes when it rains or is about to rain was quite prominent and then looking out of the window one could see the small droplets coming down which slowly increased in speed.....and by the time I realized it was raining.....finally the Monsoon showers happened.....Having stayed in Bhubaneswar for 2 years.....I was missing rain so much....It was then I realized that I don't have a car to go back home....so the best thing which came to my mind was - WHY NOT GET DRENCHED AND THEN REACH TO MY APARTMENT and I did just that....

I really love rains....I hope my coming to Chennai brings much more showers to this city. And tonight the weather seems pretty cool.....worth taking a walk or lazing around on balcony - Ah! those XIMB days....

Waitin for more rains....and right now fod waiting at home.....

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Chennai Reports

Back after a real long time. Now am in Chennai. Its real hot (not as hot as Delhi) but whats worse is that its way too humid. Trying to adjust to this climate.

Have joined the company and induction program is up. We were also taken to Bangalore as part of induction program. Bangalore climate is amazing. Now I know where to go when I need a break.

The first thing which can happen to anyone landing in Chennai was experienced very well by me. I paid Rs. 180/- for a taxi ride from Airport to my guest house - and the distance was only 5 - 6 kms. Moreover this fleecing was done by Pre-Paid Taxi Counter. What a start....

So now its final that the stay in Chennai is going to be a long one, so we are getting our house in order. Now waiting to get some time and roam around the place also. The biggest problem which will be faced now is Income Tax - need to minimize it for my Digital SLR Camera.

Rest all later.....

Thursday, June 02, 2005

A New Step being taken tomorrow....

Well come Friday the 3rd of June and I once again leave my home....ah the Paradise City of Delhi yet again.....but this time for Chennai. Last time when I left this city had gone to pursue MBA at XIM Bhubaneswar. This time its not studies but for a new phase - a phase where i start working for the first time. Let us see how this part of life kicks off. Will be meeting new people and some old friends who are already in Chennai. Am kind of excited to reach there - I think two and a half months spent lazing around after convocation does this to almost everyone. Will update later on after reaching Chennai.....and maybe it might be about the weather there...since that will be the first thing I will come in contact with there. Delhi is right now enjoying cloudless sky with sun successful at keeping Delhiites indoors with ACs on causing overload for the BSES and thus some hours without power - end result - ITS BLOODY HOT IN DELHI.
And now its again time to pack.... :)

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Tech Wars: Mobiles vs. Cams/iPod

Mobile Phones Versus iPods/Canon

It is finally happening. After a long wait, iPod will soon see some serious competition, not from the side of Microsoft, but from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Actually not iPod but iPod mini (has smaller hard disk capacity). Sony Ericsson has come out full force with what they call as Walk-man Phone - W800. Nokia has recently launched its N series mobile phones which it dubs as iPod killers. These phones have a whopping 4GB of memory built into them. While the Sony Ericsson mobile phones are based on their own OS and are Java enabled, the Nokia's N Series run on Symbian series 60 platform. The strenght of SE W800 is whopping 30hrs battery life, while Nokia fails on this front. Similarly iPods also have a good battery life. Sony Ericssons good MP3 performance was seen in their earlier phone SE K700i (my phone, but lacked in external memory card support - the only drawback). From Nokia stable the best phone in N Series offering is N91. This is probably the only N series phone hving ability to compete with iPod and SE W-800. Also with SE W-800 the benefit is that with phone off one can still listen to MP3s, is this present in Nokia N Series is not known yet. Also, Nokia N Series is priced at a very high end. One big decision one has to take is whether he uses phone as a phone or a walkman. The prices of both phones is higher than iPod mini. The war has just begun. Its a three way war Apple vs. Nokia vs. Sony Ericsson. No one can say for sure, where will the customer head to. This is where we marketing guys have a role to play. If you are actually looking for a walkman phone, look ahead, go in for SE P-910 smart phone. If you wanna spend money - spend it wisely. Its a smart phone, really capable of playing MP-3 and has Symbian OS running it. And as of now its the best smart phone available in the market.

Now Canon versus Nokia versus Sony Ericsson. Well as can be seen on my PhotoBlog Sony Ericsson's mobile Camera (K-700i at mere 0.3MP) clicks good snaps if proper light is there. One thing which should be clear about mobile cams is that they need good light to click good snaps, this is because they lack a flash light (can you imagine a flash light sucking your mobiles battery everytime you click a snap). Now again here pitted are earlier mentioned phones from both the companies - SE W800 and Nokia's N Series (with N91 being best. Both these phones feature 2MP camera and Nokia N91 has 20X Digital zoom (keep in mind DIGITAL ZOOM and NOT OPTICAL ZOOM). Also Nokias phones are almost the double the cost of decent digicams having around 5MP and a good OPTICAL ZOOM and over it Digital Zoom. While Sony Ericsson's offering will be slightly higher than these digicams. Here also, priority needs to be seen. And before setting priority one needs to also check out an offering by Samsung - SCH S-250, its the world's first 5MP camera phone. But till the time camera phones are not integrating Optical Zoom also as a part of the phone, till then for digital photography one should prefer stand alone cameras, else any mobile phone having a lower resolution cam around 0.3MP to 1 MP should be preferred. It will help you save money for a good Digicam. Camera Phones are meant to click photos as and when they happen. This is because there are occasions when you don't have your camera, but mobile is always with you. So the higher pixel range camera is not required in a mobile phone. Even a 1MP camera phone will be useful, since the snaps clicked by these mobiles will be of print quality. Till some more innovationin the field of incorporating Optical Zoom in camera phones does not happen, the clear winner in this battle is stand alone Digital Camera with a low resolution camera phone.

BUT technology is growing at an unimaginable speed, thus this topic will keep on cropping up year after year.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Paris Hilton Advertisement for Burger

Well Well Well......here is the link for the spicy hot car washing advertisement featuring the one and only Paris Hilton. The full version - uneditted one can be seen here: The ADVERT. But important thing is that the advt is not for car wash, but for a Spicy BBQ Burger. But this whole advt will not be featured over the television. The censor board has made the company cut it into a 30 sec advt.

Car washing just cannot get better than this, the only car washing scene which can be compared to this is probably featuring Denise Richards in movie Wild Things.

Lately Liril's advt also had to be cut short, just to please the censor board. Why can't we just do away with censor board and let the creativity flow. If the common crowd doesn't like it it will clearly reflect in the sales of the particular product. Even in Pepsi's "Oye Bubbly" advertisement the starting part featuring the belly buttons as lips calling out for Pepsi has also been cut.

Let the advertisements come on screen as they are made. Pepsi's advt was tooo good to be censored and cut. Liril had come out with some serious creativity - moving away from all the waterfall advertisements which was their backdrop in past, with only models changing.

Let the creativity and the market forces prevail to determine the success or failure of advt and also let the audience only determine how the advt is. Its as simple as "If we can have Mallika Sherawat on screen, these advertisements are anyday much decent than her acting or whatever she does."

Saturday, May 21, 2005

My Photoblog Kickstarted

Well, finally my photoblog is up and running.
You can access it at: Snapshots from heaven

Go ahead and have some fun.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Thinking about a Photo Blog.....

Well thinking that this is probably the best time I can go ahead and set my own photoblog where I can post some selected pics taken from mobile cam or from other digicams....

Since am free for next few days, don't wanna waste it. Already planning to get a digital SLR - choice between Canon EOS 350D or Nikon D70s. Most probably Canon is going to win this fight if Nikon does not come out with a good competing camera at 8MP. Also, since more into nature photography have to look for a good wide angle lens which can take panorama pics at a go.

Just waitin' to Lay my hands on one of these two beasts of Digital SLRs.

So will put up the link after creating a photoblog soon.

My fave photo shoots have always been snow capped peaks (should have had an SLR cam before going to Sikkim in March). I aim to shoot a great sunrise someday (for that getting up around 5am is absolutely necessary). Though have got good sunsets at Andaman and a couple at Railway station. For clicking a great pic, one needs some real patience.

Next my fave shots I like taking are in a move train, standing or sitting on the door of the coach and clicking some country shots....trust me.....train is the best thing Britishers gave to India ever. India is extremely beautiful, and it can only be experienced during a train journey.

Also, now maybe in future I will be moving around a bit, but following lines will always always hold true: (The lines were given to this world by GnR - Paradise City)

Take me down to the paradise city
Where the grass is green
And the girls are pretty
Take me home (Oh, won't you please take me home)

[Home here is Delhi New Delhi, having the prettiest girls in the country and one of the very few metropolitans blessed with loads of greenery - truly a PARADISE CITY]

Lets see what the future has in store for me now...........

Sunday, May 15, 2005

MBA - Ponder over it.........

Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, Canada, advocates "You don't get trained in the capacity for managing in an MBA programme. You think you do, but . . . a lot of people end up grabbing for techniques. Where it goes wrong is in the case-study method: give me 20 pages and an evening to think about it and I'll give you the decision tomorrow morning. It trains people to provide the most superficial response to problems... getting the data in a nice, neat, packaged form and then making decisions on that basis. It encourages managers to be disconnected from the people they are managing".

Well, Mintzberg is 150% right. What we are taught are just mere techniques. Most of the students in any B School have no work experience. Most of us take MBA as a natural extension to our bachelors degree and in top B Schools the percentage of engineers is clearly above distinction (75% of the batch).

Well as a person who has been there done that, I would like to admit that though case studies is a method followed by all the B Schools as a primary teaching aid, but then as Mintzberg says what students do is just put the whole case neatly down on slides and in recommendations are made by just "thinking out of the box". With pressure of too many projects or assignments to be submitted, the case studies are the once which suffer the most as everyone feels they can do it anytime after finishing of the projects. Also, another place where we - in India - lack is - we do not have a huge collection of local (India Specific) case studies. We are always referring to Harvard BS case studies. In only some top B Schools do some professors convert their Industry experience into case studies, and these are the best case studies which they can use since they were personally involved in them.

But what I feel should be the future trend for B School education is having more of professionals coming to teach for a semester. Also as projects the Industry projects will provide the maximum learning to the students.

If B Schools and corporates want to have a continuous supply of good managers in future then they should work together to change the teaching methodologies in B Schools.

Also reading of "What they don't teach at Harvard Business School" should be made compulsory at all B Schools. One excellent book on people interaction - another area where B Schools lack.

Monday, May 09, 2005

THE INDIAN "IDLE"

Well we have seen competitions like "Indian Idol", "American Idol", "Channel V's - Get Gorgeous" and all such competitions......
BUT WHERE IS INNOVATION.....
Imagine competitions like:
- The Indian IDLE
- The Sleeping IDOL
- Channel [T]ea's Get Bored

If anyone has any practical ideas on these lines....can help in making this list for future television serials longer.....and these are the concepts which will provide the best possible laughing material.....

You can see how bored I have been lately......my blogging rate is on a sharp rise.....

Friday, May 06, 2005

MICROSOFT TROUBLED BY GOOGLE

Well the following link "Microsoft versus Google" makes for one hell of an interesting reading, especially for those who are open source software lovers.

The story goes like.........
Once upon a time Sergey Brin and Larry Page started of a company which claimed to provide the fastest and the best search possible. That was just a start. Companies like Microsoft and Yahoo did not consider them a challenge and outsourced their search tool to other companies, instead of having a search machine of their own. No one would have at that time guessed what Google's plan could have been. The magic which Google's search machine did was create a brand Google. Well the brand was such that instead of saying a sentence like "Search for xyz" people started using "Google for xyz". The word "search" was replaced by word "Google". Their were competitions like "Who is the best Googler?". Even in our campus we used to have student conducted Quizzes over LAN where the use of Google or any search machine was allowed.......but it was just to find the best Googler.

Also another thing which Google achieved was - cracking the mystery of how to make profits from online advertisements.

The Google of the search fame was ignored by the Microsoft as being just a simple online search tool. It was then, when Google had decided to go for its IPO, that they also decided to launch of their e-mail service - and what a marketing strategy to follow - "Membership by invitation".........this is a do or die strategy. But then to make it work they had a 1GB capacity for their mailboxes (which is now increasing towards 2GB). This was like a major earthquake for other big email providers like Yahoo, Microsoft and Rediff. While Yahoo and rediff reacted pretty fast MS was slow and it provided higher 250MB storage only on new accounts not on existing......what a miser Bill Gates is. For Google, this venture into email was a big success and from here the company has not looked back.

They are enjoying a real good run at Wall Street, and they have entered into many areas either through their own softwares or through acquisition - major being Orkut (social networking), Picasa (Photo management and editting software), Hello, and a real big one being Desktop Search (developed in-house).

It is the desktop search which is now giving sleepless nights to Microsoft - what will Google come up with next.

Also there are many cases as can be seen in the link given where Microsoft employees have left MS for Google.

Lets see where this war goes.......and there is no way Microsoft can buy Google.........just because of one simple reason........it was developed on Linux and MS buying a company which has its roots in Linux doesn't sound a good publicity for its current products.

Imagine the following scenario - Google releasing their own version of Linux with real easy to use desktop, an office software based on Open Office and also a browser!!!!!!! This all together can be a real Microsoft Killer.......

Till the results of this war are out.....Google away to glory.........

Saturday, April 30, 2005

FIVE POINT SOMEONE

This post coming after a real long time.....actually the reason is that I have been upto ABSOLUTELY NOTHING......other than my photography classes. They are real fun and this field is real interesting and worth a hobby.

As for my travels had been to Jabalpur between 20th and 25th April.

Well last night I had started a book called "Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT" by Chetan Bhagat and just could not keep the book down till I read through all its pages. Its about three guys Hari, Alok and Ryan....all three close buddies and all of them good at acads before entering IIT-D and then about their struggle with the IITs relative grading system. How they tried to beat the system. It covers their actual life from the moment they entered IIT, to Hari's love interest (imagine sleeping with the HODs daughter in HOD's house in broad daylight and that too in real life), to their Pink Floyd, Vodka and Grass sessions on the 9th floor of the building [that is a must try ;-) ], to their struggle with the academic committee (for an attempt to steal exam paper from HOD's office - on the day Hari had slept with his daughter), to all of them struggling for jobs and then their parting away. It is an amazing description of the hostel life of the three IITians and is a true story as written by Hari (name taken up by Chetan Bhagat in the book).

Well the book is addictive and anyone who has lived in hostel will be able to relate to it in one way or the other...though hostel life everywhere is different....

Well its a book which you just cannot keep down.....hoping the movie version of the book does justice to it.

At some points you will be reminded of the movie "DIL CHAHTA HAI" - it also had three friends - Akash, Sameer and Siddharth (Sid) and talked about their college life, love life how they go seperate ways and still come back together....well to get the feel of the movie just see it if you haven't.

Well it reminded myself also of the fun we used to have in the hostel days at XIMB......as Bryan Adams would have said "Those were the best days of my life". Well personally I do miss the bakar sessions we used to have either in mess or outside on the stairs or while walking or in someones room.........those early morning tennis games or late night walks (actually early morning walks), also the thing which is being missed is the Birthday celebrations the XIMB way.......those block fights (also with water) at midnights.......

Still life has to move on......just over one more month to spend here in Delhi before I leave for Chennai......eagerly waiting for that moment, but the time doesn't seem to fly....infact seems to be moving too slowly.......

Well in this period also read "The Inscrutable Americans" by Anurag Mathur. The start for this book is with a letter written by Gopal (the main character) to his brother living in Jajau from USA. Well basically the story is about Gopal being from Jajau and small city (which Gopal termed as Paris of Madhya Pradesh) and has gone to study in USA (to a small college there though). The basic highlight of the book lies in the comical usage of English and how Gopal understands the American English, how he makes friends there, how he from a strict vegetarian and strict no-alcohol lifestyle changes towards having non-vegetarian food and making beer a part of his stay in USA. Also how he falls in love and is left heart broken. It basically tries to portray some of the difficulties which the people/students from smallers towns of India might face when they go to states. In the book also described was how Gopal had prepared for his stay at US and what he had thought was US all about. Well this is another book which is a must read. Really good. I read this book on my train journey to Jabalpur.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Killin' Time

Well Killin' Time never got easier before....
Finally have joined a photography course.......this is for professional photography....and thus can be seen as my first step towards getting my very own NIKON D70 ...... Digital SLR (Single lens reflex) camera......

Well the classes seem to be good and interesting......and most important of all am getting a chance to play around with various SLR Cameras and also variety of lenses......which is not that easy.......

Will update on more later.......eagerly waiting to lay hands on my very own Nikon D70.......though its some months away.......

Sunday, April 17, 2005

OOPS THE MEN IN BLUE DID IT AGAIN

"What has to go wrong has to go wrong........"
But firstly did any thing go right at all.......

Firstly match on the Kotla grounds....the pitch which it was known will in no way hold good for a full day.......

Over this we lost the crucial toss....and allowed Pakistanis to score 303.....and now that score was almost impossible to chase on this wicket......BUT still...atleast we could have given the fight.....

On such occassions.....we are forced to think is the Tendulkar's era over.......just see him scoring and see Brian Lara scoring......Lara is going strong and consistent even today.........

We did not take wickets regularly...we let partnerships build up...but when our batting came.....we gave our wickets at regular intervals without letting any partnerships build......this feat was achieved by giving catching practice to slips, bringing the ball back onto the wicket (Tendulkar has expertise in this), and ravid giving his wicket the only way he can be dismissed - by running himself out........

So Pakistan Team has won straight four matches and they did it by bouncing back from being behind by 2-0 (India having 2 wins).......It was a difficult task of losing from that stage for India....but if any feat is not achievable....India can achieve it.......

This is not the way John Wright should have been given a farewell gift.......he has done a lot for Indian team and the team seems to have lost it all.........

Hoping Indians regain their form in the next series........if some decisions regarding leaving a senior player out of team due to lack of form has to be taken it should be taken....they should not take their place in team for granted......

All The Best to Men in Blue for future challenges........

Friday, April 15, 2005

KILLIN' TIME.........

Long time since I last posted ne thing.....
So now...what is the scene here.....
Well I can at this stage very well imagine what a post retirement life can be.....

Now have around 45 days left to spend at home....

Over the past few days that I have been home....spent time with relatives....and met a couple of friends....also saw three movies and read two thrillers.......

SO i have been to Mumbai....the stay there was good...met some more friends and relatives out there and also saw "Miss Congeniality - 2" there.....The movie is a great time pass.....OK it is a one time watch but paisa vasool.....and nice comedy also....so those who haven't seen the movie yet....go and watch it....

Before that had seen "Pacifier" - imagine Vin Diesel as a BABYSITTER.......he did a great job....a MUST SEE movie from my side.......you are gonna have a great time laughing yourselves out in this movie.....really great......

Also saw "Million Dollar Baby"........this is an excellent movie.....the best among any recent english movies which have been around.......really good go ahead and see it......

Among the books.....had read Dan Brown's - The Da Vinci Code in XIM-B itself....so after coming home read two other books by him - "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point". Among these two books Digital Fortress is a must read.

Now whats ahead.......on 20th April going to Jabalpur and will be back on 25th April. Planning to watch "Hitch" - I think it has released today. Have to decide on which book to pick up next.

So thats all thats been happening this side......missing the action filled campus life...where something or other kept happening.......

Saturday, April 02, 2005

SOME MORE TRAVELLING........

Its that time YET again......
I am gonna go travelling again.......
This time going to experience the cities of Pune and Mumbai....
Lets see what do they have on offer.....
Plus this is involving meeting relatives and old frnds......

So this year has been quite hectic....full of travelling....
In October to Andamans, in Feb-March to Darjeeling and Gangtok and in March to Kolkota and now Mumbai and Pune calling......

Have plans to visit Bangalore also.....that needs to be planned and plans need to be implemented......

So from today 2nd April afternoon till 11th April night...I will be out.... so another blogging break......

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

MORE PICS UPLOADED

More pics have been uploaded and here go the links:
Convocation - More pics
Darjeeling Gangtok Trip - More Pics
Campus Pics

Well thats how I am spending my hols......
And now this work is also finished....WHAT NEXT.....
Do leave tips......how to pass two months.......

Friday, March 25, 2005

The Photo Albums

Well I remember I had in earlier posts told that I would be uploading the photos of Farewell, the Trip and the Convocation......
After scanning have created yahoo albums out of them.....so here are the links......

The Farewell

The Darjeeling-Gangtok trip

The Convocation

Well these are the pics.....if the links do not work...leave a message.....
Enjoy the pics.....

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Missin' Campus.....

Its tooo early to come back after my last post but what to do.....second day at home...and missing XIMB and campus life already..... :(
Lets see what happens over next few days.....

Saturday, March 19, 2005

The Convocation.........

Finally I have made it back home.....after 2 years (to be precise 18 months) of MBA studies (better put in as hardcore fun - masti all the time - no matter how much the pressure was).

On 14th March 2005, came the day, for which I had waited so long......for the first time in my life I attended convocation ceremony (first time because here I am refering it as MY CONVOCATION CEREMONY - last year had attended seniors convo).

Mr. Jamshed Godrej, Chairman and MD, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited was the Chief Guest for the ceremony.

The feeling of being the black gown and receiving the diploma cannot be described, it is one thing which everyone waits for. It marked the end of one phase of life and beginning of another new untravelled journey. I hope the journey on which I will set my foot on will be an exciting one.

Till that day many of us friends had stayed in hostel together and many of us by 14th March joined us back in campus. It was also the day on which we started bidding goodbye to all our friends hoping to meet them regularly in the course of our careers. The bonds established on campus will be long remembered and cherished. It was actually the first time when the feeling of leaving the campus actually set in.


Now as for the snaps the link will be put up in few days as and when i get good pics.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Journey into Darjeeling and Sikkim......

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.
--Babs Hoffman

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
--Augustine (354-430)

From 25th February to 5th March, 2005.......I was on a blogging holiday and enjoying myself out in the mighty Himalayas with my gang.......Lately it has been my longest stay away from Internet and I actually liked it......

People knowing me know how much I actually love to travel........its more like a passion and Himalayas have always given me a high........Most of my best trips have been into Himalayas........be it Kullu-Manali, Shimla, Mussouri or Darjeeling and Sikkim. This was my second trip into both places - Darjeeling and Gangtok (Sikkim). First time I went there I was a kid (as if I have grown up now - I am still a kid - this my friends tell me).

We were a gang of 11 people (my classmates at XIMB) who set out to experience the beauty of Darjeeling and Sikkim......The date of the journey was early morning hours of 25th February, 2005 when we set on the journey to Howrah on a train from where we had a connecting train to New Jalpaiguri. On 26th Feb, 2005 morning we reached New Jalpaiguri and after taking adequate rest and freshening up.....set on the road journey to Darjeeling. Also Narayan and Supriya joined us a bit late, courtesy their Japanese exam and the biggest hurdle they faced in joining us was catching the connecting train from Sialdah railway station after getting down at Howrah railway station. So biggest problem they faced was reaching Sialdah station on time for catching the train to New jalpaiguri, which they managed to and all that ends well makes the next part start well. It was around 3 hours drive to Darjeeling. The road and the toy train tracks run parallel all thoughout the journey. And we had chances to sing "Mere sapnon ki Rani kab aayegi tu" whenever we spotted a toy train. The scenic beauty is really amazing. One could easily see how the vegetation and flowers were changing as we were reaching higher altitudes. When we reached Darjeeling it was covered completely with mist (clouds) and was really cold. In Darjeeling we stayed at Sterling Resorts which is located in Ghoom, just next to the majestic Ghoom Monastery. Ghoom is around 8 kms away from Darjeeling (at 7000 feet).

On 26th February we reached Ghoom late than we had scheduled for and getting fresh over there took a bit too long. So there was no way we could do any sight-seeing over there that day. We were left with one option - roam around on Mall Road and do some shopping. So we spent the evening there having snacks and window shopping. Around 7 PM we tried to visit Nightingale Park, but we got delayed for it. The day finished off with dinner at Sterling Resort.

Now for some sightseeing, we were left with only one day, which according to actual plan we had reserved for Kalimpong, so the Kalimpong plan was chucked off (heard that its a real beautiful place, but its beauty is best experienced post April when it is filled with flowers).

So, on 27th February we started of for Ganga Maya and Rock Garden as the destinations to cover for that day and along with it other destinations to cover were Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and the highest Zoo in the world located in Darjeeling. The day started of pretty early around 4 am when we decided to go to Tiger Hill (at 8482 feet) to see the Sun rise and also the amazing peaks of Mt. Everest and Mt. Kanchenjunga, but mist/clouds did not give us the chance to have that experience. The temperature at Tiger Hill was really low at 2 to 3 degree centigrade. After coming back Sathya treated us to tasty omellettes cooked by him. Then, we started of for Ganga Maya and while on route stopped at a Tea Garden (Orange Tea Estate). The complete slope covered with Tea Gardens look so beautiful.......only eyes can experience. After a short break at the tea estate we continued with our journey to Ganga Maya. Ganga Maya, is basically is a park set around a mountain river flowing, passing through rocks and small waterfalls. It looks really beautiful. A massive photo clicking exercise was carried out over there. We spent around one hour over there. We did not want to leave the place so early, but then time constraints. The next stop was at Rock Garden, which was again set around a mountain river on a slope, and it too had many small waterfalls. This garden is completely built on a slope of a mountain, thus implying a lot of climbing up. This place provided an excellent view of the valley around the place. After enjoying the time over there we moved back to Darjeeling to visit HMI and the Zoo. The Zoo had various mountain animals like - Red Panda, Black Bear, Siberian Tiger and many others. After the zoo we entered HMI, which had on display various mountaineering equipments, news paper articles about conquest of Mt. Everest, and a real good 3-D model of the Himalayan Mountain peaks and Himalayas in Sikkim. It also had articles on Yeti. After these places, we had our lunch in truly Tibetan format. For some it tasted bland, but still some of us liked it. At the end some of us ordered, Lemon Ginger Tea with extra Honey and it was really good. Then the rest of the evening was spent shopping around on the Mall Road. On Mall Road there is an eating joint - The Glenary's below which there is a bar - The Buzz and there at The Buzz we enjoyed a local band playing some real great music. So, this day can be said to be a good start to the journey.

On 28th Feb we were scheduled to leave for Gangtok, so just before starting of for the journey we visited the Ghoom Monastery - which was setup in 1850 AD. (its actual name being - Yiga Chholing Monastery). After visiting the monastery we started of for Gangtok and had breakfast on the way. The road from Darjeeling to Gangtok is full of beautiful scenery all around. My phone camera kept clicking all around at will. Our friend for the whole Sikkim trip - river Teesta, caught up with us in a majestic manner. Its first glimpse was its merger with another major river of Sikkim - Rangit. The waters of both the rivers are so different - The color of Teesta is Light Green while that of Rangit is in the darker shades of blue. From there Teesta never left us. It was our friend, it was our guide, it was our "guiding river". Wherever in Sikkim we went, we had it with us all along. We also saw the area from where rafting on Teesta starts and also saw how wild Teesta can get. We missed our chance to experience river rafting over Teesta.

After a magnificent journey of around 4 hours we reached Gangtok and reached our Hotel - Hotel Norphill, located on MG Road and just next to Glenary's and Buzz and also an wine, beer and other alcohol drinks shop. So the location was kind of a boon for some. That day after freshening up and some rest we went for lunch at "The Oriental" - the food there was really yummy. Then all of us went to have a try on getting a ride on ropeway but we were late for it and so came back to MG Road and went to the footpath market for some shopping and bought some real beautiful paintings and some chimes. That was all for 28th February. The weather at Gangtok as we had earlier been told was much more comfortable than that of Darjeeling (Darjeeling is at around 1500 feet height more than that of Gangtok). After a nice dinner at The Buzz we had a nice sleep for the night as for next day we were scheduled for a nice long trip to Changu (Tsomgo) Lake.

Now 1st March 2005, after getting up and having nice warm water bath and breakfast at the hotel itself we started of for Changu Lake located at 12400 Feet while Gangtok is at around 5480 feet. This would be our first tryst with snow on this journey. It is around 40 kms from Gangtok and lies on the route to Nathu La pass - the Old Silk Route Path which is again in the process of being revived back. Nathu La pass has been closed down for a month due to heavy snowfall, thus, no Nathu La for me yet again on my second trip here, still I was able to manage to reach Changu Lake, which I had missed the first time. In middle we stopped for tea. The place where we stopped, it was dicovered that a peg of rum or vodka costed a mere Rs. 20/-, it was more like a daily drink than a slightly expensive drink in the plains. So yet again, some enjoyed the warm drink. Also, it has to be mentioned that the tea was really tasty, among the best we had on the trip. Then back on the road, we again stopped after some time for taking some pics in the excellent backdrop of snow and mountains partially covered by it. The scenery all around the place was too beautiful. The scene directly from movies. Luckily Sikkim is now opening its doors for movie shooting though slowly. After reaching Changu lake, we had to hire boots, so as too play on the snow and also to reach the other side of the lake we had to travel on Yaks. The lake looks so peaceful and was completely frozen. There at Changu we spent our time sliding on snow, playing around there. Many amongst us lost their snow virginity to Changu lake (I had lost it to Manali). on route to Changu lake we passed through - Tashi View Point, Hanuman Tok and Ganesh Tok, but there was no point stopping there because of the mist which had been with us throughout the trip destroying all our chances to have a glimpse of Mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga. On our return from Changu lake we again stopped at the spot where we had tea while going up. This time we had Momos and again lots of tea and by evening reached the hotel. Then we spent our time in the evening visiting the ropeway and getting a beautiful view of the Gangtok City and then roamed around on the MG Road. That night we had dinner at Parivar- a veg restaurant out there. The food was again good, loved the butter naans there.

The next day - 2nd of March 2005, we had plans to go to Yumthang Valley (North Sikkim) at a height of 12000 feet and at a distance of 145 kms from Gangtok and involves an overnight stay at Lachung (at 8800 feet and 116 kms from Gangtok). So the journey started around 11:00 am. Till La Chung it was supposed to be a long journey of around 6 and a half hours with breaks. There are too many waterfalls on the route and many even cross the road, directly in front of you. The area is also a landslide zone. Enroute you have a stop at "Seven Sisters Waterfall" which is a vertical cliff (excellent for attempting suicide) through which a stream is flowing (actually falling straight down). It is called Seven Sisters because there are supposed to be seven falls for one stream on this cliff, while onlyfour are clearly visible. Again Teesta was our friend and guiding river. We were non stop going upstream to the point where the mighty river of Sikkim the Teesta is born. Teesta is born in a small village of Chungthang. Here the two mountain rivers - Lachung and Lachen (named after the main villages they flow through) merge to form Teesta. The river flows with extreme force and speed. As one army personnel told us, one just has to fall into the river and there is a very rare chance that he will survive. Chungthang is also an important point because it is one place which is gateway to two main destinations of North Sikkim - Yumthang Valley and Gurudongmar lake (Largest and highest lake in Sikkim and is also considered sacred). Both places are on seperate routes and the road divides for these places at this small village of Chungthang. The villages in Sikkim have been the most picturesque. The scenic beauty surrounding them cannot be described using photos or videos, only eyes can truly appreciate them. We had a Tea break at Chungthang and then moved forward to Lachung for overnight stay before moving onto Yumthang Valley the next morning. Here in Lachung we stayed at Sela Inn. A really comfortable place to stay at. Nice beautiful rooms with wooden flooring. The dinner was also tasty, similar to house made food. After dinner most of us had a taste of "Changu" pronounced as "Chhang". Its a local drink made of millet and tastes quite similar to Port Wine. It is served in a wooden bowl covered with Changu upto the brim in hard form (millet) on which warm water is poured. This mixture has to be sucked using a straw made of bamboo after two minutes of pouring water. The drink was really amazing. At night we went for a walk up to the point from where we could see river Lachung in full glory at night time. The roar of the river had filled up the place.

The next morning on 3rd March 2005 at 6 am we were woken up with a bed tea and warm water to freshen up. BUT, I decided to go out and what I see was truly amazing, and since I did not want the other gangsters to miss out on the first sunrise viewing on this trip. So woke others up and along with Shikha, video taped the whole sunrise - those beautiful golden peaks all around us with the river Lachung flowing through the place. After getting ready we all left for Yumthang around 8 am. It was one hour journey along the river Lachung. It was a steep climb straight into the heights, and halfway we met snow on both sides of the road. At many points we had thick and huge walls of snow on both sides of the road. There were turns where the road had been washed out and it was extremely rough. At such points we had to reverse the car and rush it forward full speed. There were many beautiful spots all along the way. At Yumthang valley, we had snow covered mountains all around us, river Lachung flowing through the valley. The valley during this time is covered with thick snow and in summer months will be covered with flowers, and in both cases looks truly beautiful. For the first time on the trip we were experiencing clear weather. The white peaks meeting the blue sky with river flowing in between looked like an artists imagination and work on the canvas. It seemed as if god had used earth as his canvas. We even made XIMB on snow using ourselves as well as pebbles. I have visited many places in Himalayas but none as beautiful as Yumthang Valley. Around 11 am we had to leave the place and after reaching Lachung we had our lunch there. Sheila aunty made amazing momos for lunch. They were tooo tasty. By night we reached back to Gangtok and had our dinner at The Oriental and then saw Sania Mirza's match in Dubai Open on TV where she had lost and then went off to sleep.

On 4th March 2005, in the morning we did some local shopping and then around 11:30 am we left to see Ranka Monastery and Rumtek monastery (24 Kms from Gangtok). While Ranka monastery is a new monastery, and has been beautifully built on a completely different architecture from Rumtek Monastery. Rumtek monastery will give u a straight feel of history when one enters its walls. Its really a huge monastery. Rumtek monastery is important because it is the World Dharma Chakra Centre and also because it is the seat of his holiness - The Gyalwa Karmapa who is head of Kagyupa order of Tibetan Budhism. The monastery was built in 1730. The campus also includes - The Golden Stupa and Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Budhist Studies.

After coming back to Gangtok we had lunch at The Parivar and then went on to get ready to leave for New Jalpaiguri to catch the train back to Bhubaneswar. We left Gangtok around 6 pm. The complete journey in Tata Sumo (all front facing seats) was great. Their was occassional rains in the path, it was completely dark and the whole route was full of sharp curves and the driver was taking the curves at speeds of 50 to 60 kmph. Some of the gangsters had started praying for safe journey. The driver had not slept since 4 am so that was another cause of worry for those praying. He drove extremely well, even though there was steep fall on one side and trucks coming from front. The journey till New Jalpaiguri was of 4 hours and after reaching there we found out our train was delayed by an hour. Finally on 5th night (actually 6th morning) we reached XIMB. We entered the campus at 3 am on 6th March 2005. Thus, ending our trip to Darjeeling and Gangtok.

Though we could not see Kanchenjunga on this trip, but am sure the next time the gangsters go for their respective honeymoon to Sikkim they will surely get a glimpse of mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga, some things after all should be kept for first time. Yeah we all decided that our honeymoon is going to be in Sikkim, lets see what happens.

Ok now you would be wondering who the gangsters were. They are:
Shikha, Sonal, Hima, Supriya, Sanket, Kartik, Venky, Narayan, Sathya, Sachin and myself (Gaurav).

The person who was the most happy after finding out that he could get pegs at Rs. 20/- in Sikkim was Narayan.

As we gained in heights PQ levels of Sonal also gained heights.

Sathya papa revealed his true form in dumbcharades on the return journey in train.

Shikha was a typical Shikha falling here falling there.

About me.....he he.......only others can tell......

so u can very well imagine how good the trip was.

About the pics......
Some of them have been uploaded so CLICK HERE