True Love

The below is the original draft of the Prepared Speech that I delivered in Toastmasters Session at IIM Indore Toastmasters Club on 17th Jan, 2013.

It is said that true love is really powerful. And that you will know when you are in true love. And you will want to achieve your true love at any cost. You will think about your true love all the time. I agree. But what I don't agree is True love happens only once. Why cannt it happen multiple times? Is that just because Yash sahab told us so? I mean, for me it has happened multiple times. Why cant it be for others? 

Fellow toastmasters, guests, ladies and gentlemen. Today I take this opportunity to shed some light on the discovery of my recent True Love. Recently, about a month ago, It happened with me again, for the fourth time. I was traveling with my friends in some remote corner of Madhya Pradesh. She was there in the same car. But she was with my friend. My friend introduced me to her. She was looking gorgeous. We looked at each other. And I fell in true love. Quite literally because at that precise moment the car passed over a speed breaker. 

At night I dreamed about her. She was looking even more beautiful in my dream. I could not stop thinking about her. I thought how great it would be if she were with me. I can take her to my home, introduce her to my parents, friends and everyone. I could also take her with me to IIM Indore, may be even to the toastmasters session and introduce to you all. I knew she would be by my side when I felt bored and alone. 

But she was not with me. I became desperate. I called my friends and relatives, everyone I knew. And told them about her. I tried every possible means. Some said she is not good. Some said I deserve better. Some said I have to wait and watch. But I knew it was my true love. 

I searched for her everywhere. But she was not in India anymore. Google told me she was in USA. I called my friend in USA to go to her and meet her, and bring her to India. It was costly for me to do all these. But then you dont mind spending for your True Love. 

Then finally that moment came when I met her again. It was the eve of new yrs day. She was in black. I was completely blown away in her beauty. I carried her with my arms and asked her name. She did not say a word. But I already knew what her name was. It was Kindle Paperwhite. My recent True Love.

Why Not MBA?

I have been fortunate enough to get into the GDPI stage of the selection process of a few B-schools in India. And like most aspirants, my preparation to convert them hovered around the million-dollar question - “Why MBA?” It is very easy to give a well-rehearsed answer to this question keeping aside the fact that convincing the panelists will always be a hard nut to crack. But the purpose of writing this blog is not to give you that perfect answer (of course I don’t have any clue about that either) which will do the trick.  

In the course of attending the interviews, I met quite a number of aspirants like me and talked with them. While it was very random at first, the responses to ‘Why MBA’ became clichéd with time. Some were being honest (a very rare species). Most were not. So for a change, let me list down a few answers that most people (at pre-MBA stage) can sincerely associate with.

1. I work in a public sector unit. I get a hefty salary but they have posted me in a remote corner of some naxal-infested state where I am not being able to enjoy my life. I want to do an MBA.
2. I work in IT sector and that too in you-know-which company/companies. Do you want any more reasons?
3. All my friends are doing MBA. Let me do it too.
4. I was preparing for GRE but I got lucky in CAT. I should do an MBA.
5. I have done/wasted my Engineering playing LAN games. I can’t see my future without MBA.
6. I should get as much as my manager is getting. So MBA.
7. I don’t want to do MBA. My parents and neighbors want me to do it.
8. It has been my dream to do an MBA since the day I saw the placement report of the top B-schools. 
9. I have heard students in B-schools stay in co-ed hostels. Definitely MBA.
10. Foreign exchange programme in B-schools seems cool. So MBA it is.

P.S.  “Management is the most noble of professions if it’s practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. That’s unfortunate. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.” -- HBR

I sincerely hope and confident that in the post-MBA stage, all of us shall echo this sentiment with greater conviction and not the ones listed down in the post.

P.S.S. Sometimes, the above answers may do the trick. True Story. 

All in a year's Paribartan

A week ago MS. Jayalalitha, the CM of Tamil Nadu ordered to put up full page Ads in some of the leading national dailies regarding the achievements of her government in the last one year. It did not go down well with the people. Well, nothing wrong in showcasing what you have achieved and scoring a few brownie points over your competitors. But in my opinion, she would be better off following her Paschimbanga counterpart. Ever since the day Mamata Banerjee cried for ‘paribartan’ and guided her party to a landslide victory in the state assembly election, I have nothing but admiration for this lady. She has done so much for her state in the last 1 year. Yet, humble as usual, she has never tried to showoff or will ever do in future for that matter. Hence as a sign of goodwill gesture, I am writing down a few of her and her party’s major accomplishments.

1. Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra who was employed in the famous Jadavpur University in Kolkata, was arrested for sending a cartoon in an e-mail to his associate. But the arrest was made not before he got a royal bashing from the loyal TMC supporters.
2. Cabinet railway minister Mr. Dinesh Trivedi was sacked for announcing a brave railway budget that focused on safety aspects in train.
3. Leading newspapers were banned from public libraries so as to promote freethinking among readers.
4. The rape case of an Anglo-Indian woman returning from a nightclub was out rightly snubbed. Forensic reports and other evidences counted for nothing against Ms. Banerjee’s correct intuitions that it was an act of malicious campaign by the CPI(M).
5. Late Closure License (LCS) of all the nightclubs was revoked. The message was clear- “Go home early. Else don’t blame the government if you get raped.”
6. Steps have been taken to remove Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – Founders of Marxism – from the textbooks.
7. Students were branded as “Maoists” for asking uncomfortable questions.
8. Now this one is my favorite. Ms. Banerjee has directed the authorities to make sure all the government buildings are painted Blue. The rationale behind this is there must be a neutral uniform color code for a city/state and it is also an answer to Jaipur being called the ‘Pink City’. The municipality also has plans to give tax cuts to people who paint their home blue. One of the best utilization of public money.

I wish Ms. Banerjee good luck in her efforts to make sure Paschimbanga is known as “The City of Blues”. What irony !!!

Bhag daud bhari zindagi, thakna mana hai

There is a very good quote that I came across recently.

“Every morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up, It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up, It knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” 

Probably the wise brain who came up with the above line failed to notice a few things. Are there only Gazelles living in the forest so that the lions will die without them? And do the Gazelles need to be afraid of only the Lions ? May be I am asking the wrong questions here. But then, aren't the Gazelles and the Lions going to die due to excessive running and chasing? 


If you are a part of the rat race, you are lost. If you aren't, then you are nobody and forgotten. Professor VIRUS from 3 idiots : Life is a race.. If you don't run fast.. You will be like a broken anda (egg).. Nobody wants to be branded a broken egg. But everyone wants to be like Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad.


I pity the society that we live in. A confused society.

Rule of the Road

If the traffic of a city is any indicator of the civic sense of the people, then the Bhubaneswarites have evolved distinctively. Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, boasts of probably the finest roads in our country. The Stygian dark six lane pukka roads in most parts of the city is something which is very hard to find anywhere else. With such roads, the traffic in the city even at the busiest times of the day is really smooth... Or is it?

Most of the credit for this goes to our Auto Bhaiyas. Each of them own a Ferrari. They have the license to switch lane according to their will and stop anywhere on the road. But they can not be faulted for the same. There are people waiting to be picked up and dropped at those sappy locations. So basically it is the fault of the people who travel in auto-rickshaws. In any case the auto-rickshaws can't be held liable at all after taking pains to brandish "Please keep distance" in bold letters on the back side.

The traffic circles in our city cast some more light on the unique "Rule of the Road" in Bhubaneswar. After the signal changes to "RED", the unfortunate ones who come a couple of seconds late and do not have the guts to break the signal occupy the entire road along its width. Looking from front, they give you an impression of Stuntmania participants in a file ready to hit top gear as soon as the signal changes to "GREEN". Well no harm in being so racy as long as there is enough free road for others to take a left turn. But this is not usually the case. The entire road is blocked. You have to wait till others have moved even if you want to take left. If you are really pedantic, then this system will make a lot of sense. Why the hell would anyone give a chance to another person, who reached there after him, to leave the traffic square first? It would be unfair to the person who is waiting there if the second persons leaves before him. Even our constitution advocates this through "Right to equality".

There is also a special breed of commuters found on our city roads. The special talent of this breed is they will blow the horns of their vehicle almost anywhere and drive you go nuts. If caught in Red signal, they will start blowing horns as if the signal will turn Green immediately. If anyone is to be called or need to draw his/her attention on road, they will just blow the horn. This is not at all irritating. In fact, it is really important for all to know about this horn language and its variants to communicate with our fellow commuters in an effective way. This assumes even more importance since many of us don't possess the skill to ride and simultaneously talk over mobile phones.

This civic sense of us is very innate and rare. They are rich in tradition and sound in culture. We do have a good head start than most of the other fast developing cities in India. Let's keep this heritage of unique "Traffic(read terrific) Awareness" up and growing.

Resolution MMXI

Here cometh 2011. Yes the new year I was eagerly waiting for. Its not that 2010 completely let me down. Sachin started with an ODI double ton and ended up celebrating his 50th test century. Economic recession was over and so was H1N1 pandemic. Nicole Faria was crowned Miss Earth 2010. Bollywood produced Munni and Sheila. So on and so forth. Truly, it was an eventful year.

Still I feel 2010 was a chip on my shoulder. I remember, the new year resolutions for 2010 were as grand as ever. Mug up hard and score a perfect 10 in the last semester, clear CAT with 99.99 percentile and convert all the calls, go on a euro trip, earn in millions if not in billions, etc. etc. Forget Santa, I bet Jesus had a nightmare. But my dreams were the answers to my resolutions which I had not figured out how to fathom.

May be I was young. Or may be I was confused. But not this time. I have my bucket list ready. Meticulously planned. And these are not unreasonable either. I will share a few with you all and the rest are better kept to myself. So here I go.....

My New Year Resolutions 2011

• I will get sozzled and receive my degree during convocation.
• I will go to watch first F1 race in India.*
• I will play DOTA everyday.
• I will save some bucks(if I can) and donate some to charity.
• I will sleep 16.25 hrs on weekends to compensate for sleep deprivation on weekdays.**

*if time and of course bank balance permits
**if I do not get dull workload on weekends

An Obituary

When I set foot on the lush green campus of NIT Rourkela , it never occurred to me that I will be madly in love with this friend for the next 4 years. During the 1st year days, when we were forced to walk on the road with our heads down, this friend helped keep my dignity intact. In the company of my friend, I felt like a warrior who can destroy those harassers. Winter came and went by. Gradually my friend became the cynosure of all. By the time we were appearing for second semester final exam, my friend had become the most talked about person in the campus. Such was his charm that we often sacrificed our dinner or even a good night's sleep to spend time with him. Yes. I am talking about Counter Strike, the game for which our batch will be remembered for.

I can still remember when CS used to be confined only to a couple of my friends. After the winter vacation, when most of us had PCs it was a whole new situation altogether. Almost everyone got wind of its popularity.Mudu started going door to door to install CS. Susi's room enjoyed the attention of one and all being the CS hub of our hostel. Those were the days when the IP address of CS server was written down on our hall notice board. Server started soon after we reached hostel. Hungry and jaded young engineers as we were, took solace in cs_office, cs_italy, cs_militia. I can remember the days when Beeshmoy dreamt of going in a study tour and reaching Dust2 and Swagat hallucinating at night that he got killed for the lack of back ups.

We became sophomores and the passion for CS grew commensurately. DZ, Spartans, Trojans and other clans were formed.Lack of LAN connection in Hall-07 notwithstanding, Ram, Bhuppi, Pru and Anna started the era of fy_dust via blue tooth connection. I remember going dizzy seeing the number of rounds of matches played. If I am not wrong, usually the count touched a near four digit number. Having LAN after two months seemed like winning a million dollar lottery. Ramii's server and BloodWing$ arena saw more people lined up for auto join than the playing limit. Brawls for each of those precious slots were not rare. We started to emulate the CS video strategies. Anda started giving his critical views on them. Mota took to sniping. IndianKiller charmed us with his spamming. Ashrit ran like a mad dog with his machine gun. Saha had that unique idea of edge gaming. "B re pasa" call became synonymous with the terrorist bomb planting sites.

Third year was a hard time for we CS fanatics. Divide and Rule policy prevailed as we settled in three different hostels. Only a handful of us played CS. Dota ruled em all. Jihaad2.0 and confluence-2k9 remained the only occasions when proper CS matches were played. Wall hacks, head shot cheats and Beeshmoy's flash gordon acts ensured that CS turned a dying game.

14th April, 2010.Wednesday. Only a few days left for us to graduate. CS has long since been dead and forgotten. I don't know why but today we are celebrating CS day, a day to remember our passion for this game, our days of glory. As awkward as it may sound, but its true that it was that invisible bond of CS which kept us glued together these 4 years. I hope today which incidentally is the oriya new year, will mark an epochal change in my friend's fortune.


P.S. I believe I wrote it in the same tone as Praneet bhai did a couple of years back. I can understand how hurt you would have been to lose your friend then.