Life Reloaded!!!

It was fascinating play of cricket in the southern hemisphere, for last few days. India and England beat South Africa and Australia respectively with in 4 and half days. I will always remember the ball Srisanth bowled to Kallis, it was punch which was needed to show SA that they are still no. 2 in the world. In fact, in today’s newspaper I saw some blabbering by Darren Gough (who was part of unfortunate England teams which never won won Ashes). He says that England can beat India every week in a test. Well, when was the last time England beat India in a test series? Forget about tests in India, its been a decade since England beat India in a test series in England.

Few more results out including Summer Internship where I got B+. CGPI drops to 8.98 :( Oh and happy birthday Nik :)

Many years ago a young Jonty Rhodes was batting with the legendary but ageing Graeme Pollock. After Jonty had called him for one single too many, the great man called him mid-pitch and said: " Young man, the athletics stops now and the cricket begins! " Source - http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/480388.html

When 6th Module’s timetable was declared during exams, we were little scared about the fact that we had been assigned Prof. S. S. Bhattacharya for Leadership Development class. Though he had a reputation of being a really passionate speaker, he also gave one of the toughest and the most innovative paper for section A & B. I missed the first class since I was at home during Ganeshotsav. There is one most important rule in his class – Come on time. For people who are not familiar with NITIE, this might not be so big thing. But NITIE people know how late one can be for a lecture. I thought Prof. Khanapuri was lenient with our batch as he did allow some late comers to attend class (which was unlike his reputation as told to us by our seniors). So during the first lecture 7 people made it to the class whereas during 2nd lecture 8 people were allowed to enter. In fact, at the time of 2nd lecture more people were standing outside than there were people inside the class. During his fir...

Section C’s defense breaks down… A General and a Soldier fall..

Time – 11AM Before we got into case solving mode in Business Ethics class, Vaibhav Gupta shows me latest score he received on his mobile. It was 124/8, Bhajji has just got out and my reaction was - Sid – Damn it! Can’t they last for even 10 balls? After a few minutes, VG asked me to check the score on GPRS. Sid – Nah man. What’s the point in checking score now? Honestly I have lost hope now. VG – Come on! Hope is a good thing, may be best of things, and no good thing dies. Sid – Hehe… Lets see! And we again started tracking score during the whole lecture..   Time – 1.45PM India wins the test match by 1 wicket And what an atmosphere in Hostel 5!!! Unforgettable!! I went to VG’s room and said – Yes man, hope is a good thing!!!

A particular professor in my college has been asking us to sell the Gandhi’s Auto-biography in corporate offices. The reason for this, he says is that it will improve NITIE’s image. I really wonder how it is going to improve or establish our image in the market place. According me, the only to prove that a college is good, is the Alumni network of that college and performance of the current batch in various festivals/ certifications/ exams. Because when someone like CRISIL comes to NITIE’s campus then it would like to see our financial knowledge. If it doesn’t see any talent, it would reluctant to come next time. On the other hand, if it finds more than a bunch of good people, then it will be more than happy to come again. How can selling books make us more “visible” in the corporate? It makes me little frustrating especially when the Prof tells us that we can even ask corporate to pay us money if they want us to come to their campus. Now, why on the earth company would want to pay to ...

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me. - Woody Allen   Source - http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/342.html

Well, September just passed by and we realized that it is 2 more months for the Final Placements. Time to gear up for the Ultimate Challenge of 2010!!!

Today we celebrated our annual function where Juniors show their singing, dancing skills to the rest of the college. I was given my Class Representative certificate by the Director of NITIE, Dr. Subhash Awale. Feels Good

Last week my school friends and I had met our primary school’s class teacher. We talked about the good old days. When Mam started telling us about current state of school, tt was sad to hear about the attrition in the students and deteriorating quality of students in Marathi Schools. At our time, we had 2 divisions with 60 students in each division whereas now in 4 standards of Primary school just 150 odd students are present. Due to current policy of “No Exam”, many students and even their parents are not serious about studies. Even in other Marathi schools in South Mumbai, the situation is more or less the same. In fact, Mam went on to say that in next 10 years, most Marathi schools in South Mumbai would be closed, except for Chikitsak, due to Semi English medium and the Sanskrit subject (In Gharat Sir’s own words – Chikitsak will be Girgav’s last “Titanic of Marathi Schools”) I guess all this was inevitable, once we accepted that if one has to succeed, he has to learn English and ...

So it begins!! The last quarter/module in my academic life has started. Soon the final placement fever will start taking effect, and it will be a different place altogether. Hopefully people will get the profiles they want. Previous module was a little hectic as compared to module 3, especially if you consider the amount of time spent on Project Management. Comparatively the exams were better than I expected. Honestly, some of the papers were so pathetic that even a 10th standard boy would be able to attempt those papers given the ppts used by the Professor. In fact, for few of the electives people wrote the answers in an hour’s time when we have been given 3 full hours. So much for quality! Speaking of quality, the last 2 papers – FRM and PM were worthy of getting highest attention among students (and hence giving more tension). After FRM mid term (where I got 3.6 out of 15, first exam in record in which I technically failed, but still fared better than average), there was a lot of ...

Watched 2 Steven Spielberg movies in past 2 days- Munich and Minority Report. Awesome stuff there!!

This PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Guide reminds me of that boring book of Software Engineering by Roger Pressman. Taking a quote from Dheer Singh’s dictionary – “HORRIBLE PLEASE!!!”

I am getting more and more infrequent with NITIE updates. Well, the exam is getting closer with less than a week to go for the first paper. I think I have got a good schedule considering the fact Data Warehousing and OR Modeling papers are on the same. Also, I will be finished with 4 papers in first 2 days, leaving me with 3 papers in last 3 days. We had 2 mid-term tests last week, but fortunately for us, Strategy Management Faculty forgot her lecture, so we had no test on Saturday. Sunday’s FRM test was one of the toughest exams in NITE. 15 multiple choice questions with multiple correct answers in 30 minutes! To be honest it was practically impossible to finish the paper in 30 min. I was just able to write answers for 6 of them, but I am happy with my attempt, especially considering the fact that I was coming to FRM class after a gap of 6 weeks This was the first time in my whole life that I saw a faculty in the last lecture of that subject Siddhesh is changing!!!

After taking an overdose of Benadryl yesterday night, now I know what people call a “Hangover”!!!

Based on the famous song “अष्टविनायक” from the movie with the same name, my friends Susmit, Viraj and Aditya came up with a song for our group, titled – “अष्टनालायक”!! In every stanza they have made fun of each of us including themselves. The 8 nalayaks include Susmit, Viraj, Aditya, Nikhil, Dnyanesh, Jeetu, Myself and Hrashad in the same order. We had a great time listening to that song during picnic I was just wondering, the way inception names each character in the movie, like -  The Extractor, The Architect, The Forger, etc. How would we describe each member of our group with a single Noun?

It is fresher’s party at NITIE. today. With all the free booze last year, people had to be carried from Baddie court to their rooms. Now, with Baddie court gone, we are having party outside NITIE campus. Lets see what new scenes who would see tonight Anyway it is time to rock the dance floor…

Tonight when I was at the Airport, Dnyanesh asked me if we have any rules at the hostel about the restrictions in entry/exit after a particular time. I told him no, as I did not face problem at the only time I was late to return to campus. When I returned back to college, I was asked to write my contact information in a register and shown a notification saying students won’t be allowed to leave campus after 10.30PM and to enter after 11PM. I understand that this rule has been placed due to certain incidents outside the campus, but 10.30-11 o’clock deadline seems a bit too much

Before leaving for US, Susmit asked me to find someone new to speak with at nights. I hope find “her” soon

These Sundays are becoming really emotional these days with farewells to friends and family members. First it was Hrushikesh, my younger brother who went to Ahmedabad for Tata Motors. My parents were actually against sending my bro “so far” from Mumbai, but my brother was firm on his decision to go there. I spent a day with my family on Saturday helping them to pack things up for him. The train was at 5.45AM next day. Once they got into the train and settled down, I asked my bro to come out of the train and had a small chat with him. I told him what I should have, being the elder brother. After, the last tight hug, I bid him a Good Bye and wished him all the best for his future journey at TM. Last week we, school friends, gave Susmit a small farewell party at “5 Spice”, Fort. It was pretty emotional at the end while parting. I had prepared a speech which I wanted to say at the end. Unfortunately, we got the table really late which meant we came out of the hotel at 12 o’clock. It was ...

The pleasure of solving an OR problem after hours of hard (which might run into 10-20 hours) is simply amazing…

हे खरं आहे की सुस्मितमुळे गेल्या दोन वर्षात घरच्यांकडून मला जितका ओरडा पडला असेल तो कधीच कुठल्या मित्रामुळे पडला नसेल, पण हेही तितकेच खरे की जी मजा मी त्याच्याबरोबर केली ती आणखी कोणत्याच मित्राबरोबर केली नसेल!!

Last 2 days have been the most emotional days of my life. My brother left for Ahmadabad on Sunday Morning. After he left, I went to Lonavala to be with my school friends which included 2 of my best buddies who will be leaving to US in coming weeks to pursue post graduation. I wish all 3 of them all the best for their future. Hope they make it big!

Today marks the end of daily morning SMS era of Susmit Mogarkar as he gears up for his MS trip. I guess we all loved his SMSs and my inbox will revert back to the non-incrementing mode of pre-Susmit era Here is Susmit’s last morning SMS -   Its easy to pretend a smile but hard to hold the tears… Its easy to say I don’t miss you but hard to accept it… Its easy to say Good Bye but hard to say don’t go please… Its easy to propose a girl but very difficult to judge her silence after that… Its easy to allow to be someone as part of your life but difficult to remove them later… Good Morning & Have a Wonderful Life ahead…!!

Just spoke with Yogesh. It seems I am the one of the very few people who keeps track of what is happening with people in VJComps People even don’t know who else from VJTI is working in their city!!!

We have been given this problem to solve. Got a challenge after a long time

The watch on the left is the same watch which I have been using for past 9 years. It was gifted to me by my school teachers after the SSC results. Yesterday when I went to change the batteries of the watch at Titan showroom, the guy advised me to change the body of the watch. I asked him if it was possible to restore the gold platting. He then explained to me that by changing the “body” he meant changing everything except belts. Well, 2 things struck my mind - why would I pay Rs. 450 for the body if I could add few hundreds more and get a new watch? Secondly, and most importantly, if the body is replaced then that would mean that the whole watch is replaced after it was given to me. I have already changed the belt 4 times now and if I change the “body”, it will cease to represent what it was meant to be.

Honestly, why do we visit our old office? I think it is basically the old people whom we want to meet. The place is actually irrelevant for us if those same people have also left it. Something of that sort is happening with me and Netcore. Many of people with whom I had worked during my stay at Nectore have left/ are leaving. So I guess after a while it is going to feel – “अरे कहा आ गया मै?” To talk about the visit, I met so many old colleagues. It was great to talk with them- I met most of them after a year. Saw Nithya’s engagement pics, it is funny how people are asked to pose on such occasions It was difficult to believe that Roshan had left Netcore, he was kind of one of the pillars of the company. I hope Netcore makes it big with its new service mytoday.com

I just completed first season of Castle. It is a good detective series with a different “theme” than the usual CID/CSI style of crime solving. The way each episode starts – the soft music with camera hovering around the murder scene – is really different from earlier serials I watched. Of course, I am sure this one will also become a routine after few days, till that time I would keep watching the “chemistry” between Richard Castle and Kate Beckett

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it… - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I am back to using yahoo messenger. Well, one really can’t say “use” as there is hardly anyone from online on yahoo these days. Just wanted to see how much it has actually changed given what Priyanka told me about it being one of the best free messenger available. I am not sure if it is the best thing out there, but I will always love the audibles especially the Marathi ones (“डोक्यात जाउ नको रे", “गावात नवीन पाखरू आलं वाटतं” and “आता गं बया”)

2008 - Nadal wins French as well as Wimbeldon Spain wins Euro Cup 2010 - Nadal wins French as well as Wimbeldon Spain wins the World Cup

Jayaram, Deepak, Prashant, Myself, Deep and Karunendra

Saari Umr Hum Mar Mar ke jee liye Ek pal to ab humein Jeene Do Jeene do Saari Umr Hum Mar Mar ke jee liye Ek pal to ab humein Jeene Do Jeene do Saari Umr Hum Mar Mar ke jee liye Ek pal to ab humein Jeene Do Jeene do Na Na NA Na Na NA Na Na NA Na Na NA Give me some Sunshine give me some rain Give me another chance I wana grow up once again Give me some Sunshine give me some rain Give me another chance I wana grow up once again Kandhon ko kitabon Ke bojh ne jhukaya Rishvat dena to khud Papa ne sikhya 99% marks laaoge to ghadi varna chadi Likh likh pada hatheli par Alpha beta gamma ka chaala Concentrated H 2 SO 4 Ne Poora Poora bachpan jala daala Bachpan to gaya Jawani bhi gayi Ek pal To ab humein Jeen Do jeene do Bachpan to gaya Jawani bhi gayi Ek pal To ab humein Jeen Do jeene do Saari Umr Hum Mar Mar ke jee liye Ek pal to ab humein ...

At CCD near Sterling

There is an article in today’s ET regarding the serial “Jay Hind!”. The show is similar to Movers & Shakers in the 90’s with Sumit Raghvan as the host. The serial was rejected by most TV channels. The director of the show thus decided to take the show online. The episodes are uploaded to buzzintown.com website. I found this method of showcasing serials very interesting. The viewer can watch the serial at his own leisure. Unlike TV where the Ad rates are based on per second basis slots, here the rate is decided by number of hits per page. When I searched the serial on DC++, I found few episodes. It is really funny, in fact bolder than I thought. I guess censor laws of broadcasting ministry don’t apply to online stuff. But I liked the serial especially the gag involving “Savita Bhabhi Ke Solutions” , and would love to download more episodes from http://jayhind.buzzintown.com/

 Today when I started writing this post, I was actually wondering what I have learnt from the book. Because this has been a book which is difficult to understand than the other books I have read. At that time Karun came to my room to collect his book, when he saw the copy of “ The Black Swan”. He asked me about the content of the book. While discussing the book with him, I realized what I could write in the post. “The Black Swan” is more of a philosophical book or rather it is a philosophical book – the author wanted to be a philosopher from childhood. As the tag line says, the book discussed the impact of the highly improbable. I completed the first part in the morning and there were times during the reading process where I felt I wasn’t able to grasp what the author was saying. In fact, it was Vaibhav who told me that even he had to read the book twice to understand the meaning of the book. The author introduces various terms like Narrative Fallacy, Mediocristan and Extermista...

… everybody knows that you need more prevention than treatment, but few reward acts of prevention. We glorify those who left their names in history books at the expense of those contributors about whom our books are silent. We humans are not just superficial race; we are a very unfair one.

Umesh, Ashish and I took round of NITIE campus yesterday. One of the pic taken at that time -

Never ask the following question to a Professor in a class - “The pace at which you are teaching us, will you be able to finish the syllabus?”

OR Modeling in SCM has to be the toughest subject I have encountered during my MBA stint. I selected this elective considering the fact that I liked Operations Research in 2nd Module. It is really interesting to solve the “problem”s using mathematical tools. The subject is also helping to improve my Excel skills as we use Excel Solver to solve the problems. Till now we have solved problems like Inventory problem, VRP, TSP and flight scheduling problem. Out of these, VRP is my favorite one. Of course, it is equally difficult for me to understand the problem. I remember during the lectures, I just used to think about how to formulate the problem, forget about solving it. I just couldn’t put into a series of equations. May be 2 months of internship has put rust on my brain It is also true that I have not been doing much revision after getting back to hostel. But I am sure about one thing, if there is one subject in this module which will test my thinking, then it is OR in SCM.

One question has always troubled me in my life. I have asked this question to my friend Susmit. When we try to achieve some goal or obtain something, we might encounter multiple failures or bad experiences. What should one do in such cases? I mean is it a sign that it is not one’s destiny and look for something else or may be God is just testing our patience and endurance to check whether we deserve what were trying to achieve ?

The rains have been typical Mumbai-sh for past few days. I am loving it Reminds me of my Chawl days!!

Missed my friends Wedding Reception because of lectures

It feels really frustrating sometimes. What is the point of being the so called sincere guy in class, the “nine" pointer guy when your parents are worried about how much time you spend on TV serials and movies in hostel!

Yesterday I watched the movie “I hate luv stories”. I didn’t like the movie much. My initial feeling was that it is kind of spoof of many typical love stories in Bollywood. But in fact, it was yet another boring love story of co-incidences and signs. As Viraj said just because people get in touch with each other for too long, because they get too much used to each other, doesn’t mean they are in love. There were few funny moments though, especially the one involving the fat guy from “sprite” ads (The “check list of love” was really good). The movie was watchable because of the comments made by Viraj every now and then :)

You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. - John Mason

A good editorial from ET - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/Maoist-lesson-from-AP/articleshow/6112857.cms

So, 5th module has begun. After 2 months of Summer Internship (Hey, I have not blogged about it na?) at ICICI Prudential, we are here, back to the place where it all started! Being the “seniors” we got the right to select the hostel and we obviously went for Hostel 5 (Thanks to our very own VP Yash). We got the same room as previous year, and here I am, in room no 606. Being the senior batch we have been assigned the senior faculty for various subjects. Surprisingly we have been given Syndicate 3 as a classroom which has almost double the capacity required. We have 7 subjects this module, 4 core and 3 electives. I selected the electives which interested me. They are from different domains but I think made the right choice. Project Management (Dr. Khanapuri) – Core Supply Chain Management (Dr. Sanjay Sharma) – Core Management Accountancy and Control (Mr. Subramanium) – Core Strategic Management (Dr. Mani Madala) – Core OR Modeling in SCM (Dr. Ganapathy) – Elective...

  The Marathi serial with above name is one of my most favorite TV serials. It showed the life of typical Marathi middle class family. I could see every character in the serial in the people around me. Aaba, Shekhar, Shyamala, Shrilesh aka Shirya and Shalaka were five main characters of the series. There was not a single episode which I could not relate to my own life. Friday night 9.30 slot was reserved for only one thing – “श्रीयुत गंगाधर टिपरे”. Apart from “405 आनंदवन” not many Marathi comedy serials came close Tipre. Some of the typical lines of the characters were - श्यामला – “अग बाई!" आबा – “अरे कर्मा” शेखर – (मोठ्याने) “काय??” श्रीलेश/शलाका – “आई झोपू दे ना" I remember the last episode of "Tipre” where Kedar Shinde (Director) explained why he wanted to end the serial. He did not want people to come to him and tell him, “कधी थांबणार?”, instead he wanted people to ask him, “का थांबलात?”. Recently, I got a link of online episodes of Tipre from my...

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else!!

Well, in last 7 days I have seen 7 good movies which are - Goodfellas The Pricess’ Diary A Beuatiful Mind Love Aaj Kal Shutter Island Usual Suspects The New Moon

Myself, Prashant, Meghna, Shilpa

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/blogs/2010-06-24/201006241277379298417.html

While listening to “Main Hoon Hero” song from Ram Lakhan I wanted to check the lead singer along with Amit Kumar. I not only found out that it was Mohd. Aziz, but also found that the female singer was Alisha Chinoy. Well, film dates back 1989. I didn’t know Alisha Chinoy was so old singer!!!

Is this a lame period for blogs, especially in my friend circle? Most of the people I have blog rolled haven’t blogged for ages or have been blogging once or twice in a quarter. What’s wrong with everyone (including me)?

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/18205627/Engineering-medical-entrance.html?atype=tp

I have started reading stories of Sherlock Homes recently. I had never read any of the stories before. In fact, it was only after I watched the movie on Sherlock Homes, that my interest in the character increased. Till that time, the only thing I knew was - “Elementary my dear Watson!”. The funny thing is, I have read 3 stories of the books and haven’t encountered this term anywhere :D It is undoubtedly one of the greatest detective stories I have read. I completed the “Hound of Baskerville” today which is supposed be the best “Sherlock Homes” story. In all 3 stories which I have read, I observed that they were much different than any detective novel or serial which I had seen. I mean usually in those stories the characters are never explained too much. They might peculiar way of behaving but no one is so distinct as Homes. I admire “The Science of Deduction” he talks about (I remember using a similar thing with a blog friend of mine). I also liked the role of Dr. Watson, especially ...

I have completed one year at NITIE. Hip Hip Hurray!!! Now, six months of student life left….

Tomorrow I will be back to Hostel No. 5…

Actually the title is a little deceptive. I am writing this post from my home. But life in NITIE is going to restart soon. I have my Summer Project Presentation scheduled on Monday at 9.30 am. Next 6 months are going to be The NITIE: Reloaded !!!

Damn!! I am really fed up of my laziness. Lazy of doing office work, lazy of doing research work, lazy of closing a bank account even though I have been losing Rs. 200 a month, lazy of opening an account in another bank, lazy of meeting old office friends, lazy of getting up (well this one is true if you compare it with the way I used to get up earlier.. एकदा आईने हाक मारली की मी उठायचो.. आणि आता, “हां ग आई, पाच मिनिटांनी उठतो”), lazy of writing blog, lazy of registering a domain for myself and my friend, lazy of inquiring in academics section about my scholarship, lazy to register for NCFM (its been 4 months), lazy to postpone the lectures (sorry my dear classmates), lazy to complete assignment, lazy to finish my summer project….. Oooffff…. I should be the Lucky Guy and not the Lazy Guy. Its time to buckle up and get going. As my dad always says, “Time once gone, never comes back”. Need to make the most of whatever first quarter of life, I am left with :)

Its been long time since I wrote about NITIE. It is amazing how time passes by, I know it is a cliché, but you really can’t run away from it. It just seems yesterday that I went to NITIE on Susmit’s Bike to collect my offer letter. 3 modules have passed now and even my internship has just 2 weeks left. Lots of things happened in college and outside college. I witnessed some key moments which I never imagined in my life. Now, it seems like being the CR of the class was something which wasn’t just a coincidence. I needed that responsibility to keep me going, keep me working otherwise I would have been sitting idle in my room watching movies (which I eventually did in later half of Mod 3 but not as much as some of the others) I was able to interact with teachers, negotiate submission dates, arranging guest lectures (this was the toughest part). Study, as in the past, was good. NITIE seems so much like VJTI in terms of functioning except that we have better teachers at NITIE. Some of NIT...

“Shortcut ने माणूस पोचत नाही आणि पोचला तर टिकवता येत नाही” - अशोक सराफ

In March during one of the DBMS lecture, Date Sir started talking about “locks” is DBMS. Then he went on to talk about deadlock, recovery. Suddenly realized something. For past 6 years when I was learning/doing engineering, nobody actually taught me all this. That was the first time someone was talking about locks, recovery, deadlock, etc. I had study all that stuff on my own. I had to read Korth for hours to understand functional dependencies, the algorithm to bring a set of FDs in to normal forms. I feel pity that we never had the opportunity to actually learn all this great stuff. During VJTI days it was fun not to have a lecturer for a subject or have a bad teacher. But this is not good at all. In fact, if this is happening at the most premier institute in Maharashtra, I wonder how pathetic is the situation at other colleges. No wonder no body wants to do a PG in technical field in India.

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I will remember this exam for 3 reasons - Day 4, I have 2 papers and I am reading latest Naruto Manga at 2.30am Day 5, I have 1 paper of Environment Management. I am tired because of 2 papers written earlier in the day. I download Latest Naruto Anime and watch it till 3am only to get up at 7 to study. After completing first half of the paper, I actually slept for 5 min in the classroom. In fact, I was feeling so sleepy that I felt like giving up the paper, go to room and sleep for 10 hours.(which of course I didn’t do) Earlier during the module when KVSSN Rao Sir started teaching us IAPM (Investment and Portfolio Management), he asked us to select a company for doing all the analysis. Hardly anyone did the analysis properly. In the paper, we had 7 questions out of which any 5 had to be attempted. The 7th question had 12 sub questions – first one, What is name of the company you selected?, second one – What is it’s latest Share Price (give date)? …so on.

I was desperately waiting for this. Some motivation to start blogging again (start using Reader again)! http://code.google.com/apis/webfonts/

No, no. I was never in a relationship to have a break up. I just to know, how many of you have heard the Marathi song “Break up Ke Bad”?

You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough. - William Blake

तशी माथेरानची सहल नेहमीसारखीच होती. मी, विराज आणि सुस्मित यांनी बऱ्याच जणांना फोनाफोनी केली. पण अखेर आम्ही पाच जणच उरलो – मी, विराज, सुस्मित, आदित्य, ज्ञानेश. तसं आमच नशीब चांगलं होत, म्हणून आम्हाला ऐन वेळी ५.४० ची कर्जत लोकल मिळाली. आम्ही ट्रेनमध्ये बसलो आणि ट्रेन सुटली, पुढची ट्रेन एका तासानंतर होती!! पुढचा प्रवास तसा “as planned” झाला. माथेरान हे ठिकाण तसं काही मला बरंच आवडलं असं नाही. माथेरानला जायची सर्वोत्तम वेळ म्हणजे पावसाळ्याचा शेवट किंवा हिवाळा, पण आम्ही गेलो भर उन्हाळ्यात! चालत चालत बरेच हिंडलो. इतके चालूनसुद्धा आम्ही चालत नेरळ गाठण्याच ठरवलं. ते का ठरलं मला अजूनही कळत नाही… दुसऱ्या दिवशी पाय असे मोडून आले होते की विचारू नका… एक महत्वाची गोष्ट ह्या सहलीत घडली ती म्हणजे मी, सुस्मित, विराज आणि आदित्य चौघे ज्या प्रकारे एकमेकांवर बोलण्यात कुरघोडी करण्याचा प्रयत्न करत होतो. बिचारा ज्ञानेश संपूर्ण वेळ बघ्याची भूमिका घेत होता :)

Matheran Trip '10

It has been weeks since made blog post. Need to get back to the habit :)

Dhaage tod laao chaanadani se noor ke Ghoonghat hi bana lo roshani se noor ke Sharm aa gayi toh, Aaghosh mein lo Ho saanson se ulajhi rahein meri saansein   Bol na halke halke, Bol na halke halke Honth se halke halke, Bol na halke   Aa nind ka sauda karein, Ik khwaab de, Ik khwaab le Ik khwaab toh aankhon mein hai, Ik chaand ke takiye talein Kitane dino se yeh aasamaan bhi soya nahi hai, Isako sula de   Bol na halke halke, Bol na halke halke Honth se halke halke, Bol na halke   Umarein lagi kehate huve, Do labj the ik baat thi Woh ik din sau saal ka, Sau saal ki woh raat thi Kaisa lage jo chup chaap dono, Ho pal pal mein puri sadiyaan bitaayein   Bol na halke halke, Bol na halke halke Honth se halke halke, Bol na halke   Source: http://www.hindilyrix.com/songs/get_song_Bol%20Na%20Halke%20Halke.html

Hope you all have been watching IPL. Well, if you have been watching, did you see Collingwood's dismissal against Kings XI Punjab? That was one of the "plumbest" LBW I have ever seen. He had no clue about the delivery. He assumed it was a leg spinner and got down on back foot to play a cut. But you know what, it was a googly and by the time Paul realized it, that ball had hit the back-leg in front of middle stump! Superb dismissal!! P. S. - Even Vettory's wicket was classic.

My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forest Gump

This is one of the posts which I should have written long time ago. Honestly, the time I spent in VJTI was awesome. Maybe I was too much studious at most of the times, but I did enjoy those birthday parties, lunch/dinner after every semester exam, Pratibimb, Technovanza, Nirmaan, time spent at hostel especially room no. D-104 (Pratik, am I right with the room no.?) I remember the first day I went to VJTI. I was searching for PRD 2 classroom, but there was no class like that. Actually, there was a PLR 2 where we had to go, but there was a mistake in the timetable. I guess that should have given us the kind of mismanagement we were going to see. I was pretty nervous on the first day. I was attending college after almost 6 months. I wrote my 12th exam in early March and VJTI started on 15th of September. I was afraid how I was going to spend 9-5pm lectures, won’t I get bored? How strict the teachers will be? I saw few familiar faces from Ruparel though I hardly had any interaction with ...

How often do we know that whatever we are doing is wrong, but we still do it. I can’t believe I still keep making similar mistakes . Darn it! I need to improve.

Just read a wonderful article on Women’s Quota bill today. Read on: One Wonderful Quotocracy I liked the following line very much- In a democracy, all animals are equal but some more equal than others. In a quotocracy, some deprived groups will get their deprivations recognized more than others.

It was really pathetic batting display by one of my favorite batsman Saurav Ganguly. 33 of 29 balls might seem respectable for some, but by his reputation it was humiliating. The number of times he missed the balls in the final overs, really set the nails in the coffin for KKR. He wasn’t able to pick the slower balls at all. I think it is time he retires from IPL, may be not this season but certainly by next one. I just hope he ends on a high like he did in his test cricket.

Having breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner on time has been beneficial in regular diet and weight gain for me. But it can be boring to sit alone and eat when you see some of the tables filled to over capacity. Tonight I had a great time with Ayush, Tejas and Shruti at the time of dinner. I guess I was in the mess for almost an hour. The main topic of the discussion was “Hindi”. Shruti challenged Ayush and Tejas to speak in Hindi. Of course, as usual she herself got caught in her challenge, with rest 3 of us making fun of her Hindi. Later on Diksha and Umesh joined in and we actually asked Shruti to name 10 animals in Hindi and she took more than 10 minutes for that ;) To be honest even I am really bad in Hindi but keeping quiet in this situation was helpful :D The best 2 phrases of the night came from Shruti and Ayush. Shruti called Ayush “चिडियां सिर” meaning bird brain!!! And Ayush in turn called her “बेवकूफ पिछवाडा” meaning “dumbass”!!!!

When studying for an exam, it is not important how much you know, it is important how much you can write on that sheet of answer paper.   Blog Past: http://sidh299.blogspot.com/2006/12/yet-another-crash.html

I am not sure whether I mentioned it in my blog, but “Forest Gump” is one of the BEST movies I have ever seen. I think I saw the movie in my second module in NITIE. One scene which I liked the most the time when Forest proposes Jenny(It was even asked in Prerana’s Informal Quiz)- Forrest Gump: Will you marry me? [Jenny turns and looks at him] Forrest Gump: I'd make a good husband, Jenny. Jenny Curran: You would, Forrest. Forrest Gump: ...But you won't marry me. Jenny Curran: [sadly] ... You don't wanna marry me. Forrest Gump: Why don't you love me, Jenny? [Jenny says nothing] Forrest Gump: I'm not a smart man... but I know what love is. Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/quotes

  I never saw the complete match, but I saw the highlights on “HITZ”. I will remember the six hit by Kemp of the bowling of Shane Bond. Check out the shot (It is in the middle of the video). Amazing clean hit. Their next series was against India in India, but we were lucky he didn’t fire enough. I hope he shows his real “self” in the IPL in Chennai Super Kings. He has been a cheap buy but I feel that he is going to be a hit this IPL.

Yep, I am boasting about myself again. After all, it is my blog, no? There are 2 papers which I will always remember for the kind of satisfaction they brought to me. Nopes, they were not from the 10th or 12th final exam. They were Algebra and Geometry Papers from first semester exam in SSC. Let me talk about it Marathi. माझा पहिल्यांदाच वर्गात पहिला नंबर आला होता दहीवीत! काही लोकांना वाटत होत की मटका लागला ह्याचा. दहावीपर्यंत तसं माझ्या कामगिरीत सातत्य नव्हतंच. मला पण स्वतःला आश्चर्य वाटलं होत की माझा पहिला नंबर कसं आला? तसं थोडा pressure पण आला होत. मी विचार केला की जसा इतके वर्ष देतोय पेपर तसं देईन. आता सहामाही परीक्षेमध्ये माझा नशीब नेहमी खराब असायचा. गेल्याच वर्षी नववीत मी पहिल्यांदा सहामाहीत ८० टक्क्याच्या वरती मार्क मिळवले होते. पेपर आले नि गेले. गणिताचे दोन पेपर बाकी होते. बीजगणित मध्ये होता एका दिवशी आणि भूमिती शेवटला. बीजगणिताच्या पेपरला मी ठरवलेली strategy वापरली. पहिल्या दीड तासात पहिले ४ प्रश्न. नंतर पुस्तकातला ड गट अर्धा तास आणि बाहेरचा ड गट अर्धा तास! पेपर संपवताना घा...

Ohh, I just realized that I have written more than 500 posts in past 3+ years :) Kudos to me ;)

मला ही गोष्ट एक ब्लॉग post करताना लक्षात आली. माझा चिकित्सकमध्ये वर्गात पहिला क्रमांक दोन इयत्तांमध्ये आला. दहावीत आणि पाचवीत असताना. एकदा शाळेत प्रवेश घेताना आणि एकदा शाळेतून जाताना. दोन्ही वेळी माझा वर्ग (classroom) पण सारखाच!! तसा आमचा पाचवी ड, बराच हुशार निघाला!!! आमच्या ड वर्गातले जवळपास ४-५ जण तरी पहिल्या दहामध्ये होते दहावीला!! काय सुस्मित, रिशी, नेहा, सुनील बरोबर बोललो ना मी?

More than any other time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.  -Woody Allen

I got the following post as an email forward from Nik. Whoever is the author of the post, has a great sense of humor. Do read it till the end! कशी मुलगी पाहिजे ? तसा फारच सोपा वाटणारा प्रश्न आहे. उत्तर तितकंच अवघड. हा प्रश्न आम्हाला कोण विचारतं , कधी विचारतं त्यावर आमचं उत्तर अवलंबुन असतं. म्हणजे आईनी रविवारी दुपारी मस्त आम्रस-पुरीचं जेवण झाल्यावर विचारलं की आमचं उत्तर असतं , "असंच मे महिन्यात रविवारी दुपारी आम्रस-पुरी जेवायला घालणारी मुलगी पाहिजे." पण जरा serious उत्तर द्यायचं झालं , तर आईला दाखवायला घरी घेऊन जाण्यासारखी ideal पोरगी जशी असते - शांत , सोज्वळ ("सोज्वळ" अशा पोरी आणि पोरं आता अस्तित्वातच नसतात) , सगळ्यांशी मिळुन-मिसळुन राहणारी , घरातलं आणि बाहेरचं उत्तमरित्या सांभाळणारी , घरातल्या थोरल्यांचा मान राखणारी , लहानांचे लाड पुरवणारी , सणासुदीला उत्साहानी पुढाकार घेणारी , ई. हे सर्वोत्तम उत्तर असतं. थोडक्यात म्हणजे काय , ही मुलगी म्हणजे ' बायको कॅटेगरी '! जवळच्या नातेवाईकांनी विचारलं की तेव्हा थोड्याफार फरकानी आईला दिल...

This incident happened in Section B of my my batch. Since I have not taken permission of the people involved, I would call them by code. During their HRM lecture, professor was taking attendance. L wanted to give proxy for P. So when Sir called P’s name L raised his hand. Somehow Sir noticed something fishy. Here is the conversation after that - Sir: For how many lectures have you been present? L: Ummmmm… Sir: Ok. I will rephrase the question for you. How many lectures have you missed? L: (How would I know, how many lectures P has missed. He usually doesn’t attend lectures. So..) I guess 3-4 lectures… Sir: My dear, according to this attendance sheet, you have attended all the lectures!!!! Can you imagine L’s face after this?

Chandler : You're right. I have no excuses. I was totally over the line. Joey : Over the line? You... you.. you're so far past the line that you can't even see the line! The line is a dot to you!

UTV Bindass Last week we had a 2 hours session on Brand and Media by Kanika from Bindass TV. Initially, since it was related to Marketing, I really did not bother to go there on time (As it is, such events never start on time and I am one of the first non-committee members to reach there). Once I had evening snacks (Maggy in the evening after a long time), I met Subhransu and Pramukh who told me that there were not many people in Audi, so I decided that I will join them in the Audi. I reached there on time as Ridhima had just started session by informing the speaker about NITIE and B-Gyan. The speaker was Kanika (don’t remember her post, might be VP) from UTV’s Bindass channel. I guess she handles the media department there. She was really amazing from the word go, interacting with us, asking us questions, people giving answers from Kotlar and then she simplifying them so that souls like could understand what was really going. She showed us few ads relating to campaigns targeting s...

Steve Jobs at his Best It is a really nice speech from one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. He talks of about 3 incidents in his life that he thinks made all the difference. Do watch it. I loved it!!!

In Filmfare 2010, Abhijaat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani got the " Best Story " award for 3 Idiots!!! I wonder what Chetan Bhagat must be thinking!

Mozilla has launched “The Home Tab" challenge. It has entered into its 2nd round of voting. It basically tries to find the interesting uses of Home tab in Firefox. People have submitted really cool ideas here. You can check the mockups here - http://design-challenge.mozillalabs.com/winter09/top10.php I liked the designs by Alberto Moreno, Alecsandru Grigoriu and Yatrik Solanki. Do check out the videos.

Power corrupts, and obsolete power corrupts obsoletely.     - Ted Nelson , on the Microsoft DOS operating system

Hurray!!! Team Seven meets again… http://www.narutocentral.com/manga.php?s=naruto&c=484 I am expecting some good stuff in the next issue :)

Few years ago, I had conducted a class poll with my classmates from Chikitsak. It was inspired from a similar attempt by Shail in VJComps. I included almost the same fields with addition/removal of few categories. I could not tabularize the results till now. Yesterday, I consolidated the mails sent by my friends, and here are the results -   Kitaabi Keeda - Saraf Class Bakra - Jeetu Class Hunk - Susmit Class Babe - It was a tie – SJ, NP, PB Bhukkad - Viru Biggest Flirt - Nik Class Clown - Babu Biggest Bunker - Ketan Best Personality - Jeetu Late Latee...

When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl!     - Brad Templeton

Ever since I started playing cricket again here in NITIE, I desperately get back to Wilson Gymkhana and play one last match there with my school friends. There are 3 reasons for this – I love cricket With 3 of my best friends leaving to US this year, there is little chance we would be able to play again. I have lost last 3 matches at Wilson Gymkhana and would like bid adieu to the ground in a respectable manner. Now, I would like to elaborate on the 3rd point. Worst of these 3 matches was – I was the captain in all 3 of them and we lost the matches more or less because of my goof-ups. In the 3rd last match, I dropped 2 catches on consecutive deliveries of the “hitter”(Umesh Vichare) in the opposite team who literally hit us of out of the match. The 2nd last match made me infamous “cheater” in cricket. We bowled well in this match and needed just 35 in 6 overs. I came down as an opener, Vikram and I played out most of the overs carefully with 7 to win in the last over. A...

I read the following article in Mint yesterday. http://www.livemint.com/Articles/2010/02/19213129/The-Thackerays8217-primitiv.html I was shocked by the bias shown by the author against the Marathis. I completely agreed with him when he talks about Sena. Both Shivsena and MNS have done more damage to Marathis than they have helped. Their methods have been of violence and oppression. May it be Shiv Sena’s reaction to racists attacks in Australia or the MNIK controversy, common man is the one who usually suffers. But the author then checks the list of 30 companies in BSE and 50 in NSE, to prove that there are no Marathi person “owning” a company and goes on to say - “ The Mumbai Marathi, better at renaming things than building something himself”. Then he says - If we observe Marathi society we notice the total absence of mercantile castes. Into this space the British imported the multi-religious trading community of Surat—Vohra, Khoja, Luhana, Memon, Jain, Parsi and Vaniya. The...

After 6 weeks into Module 3 this is our lecture count. I seem to be getting into hyper stats mode…

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. -Mark Twain

Today when Harsh told me that my section’s FM result was out, I rushed to the academics section with VP and Mishra. It was a decent performance by class with lots of Bs considering the fact that we had a tough paper and even tougher viva. Fortunately, VP and I got A, the highest in our class :) While noting the grades of FM, VP saw that even our Module 1- Business Economics results were (finally!) also displayed there. It was nice to get A- in the Eco, though I certainly would have liked more ;) So my first module CGPA stands at 9.133 . Good start to my second innings in academics, no?

Last week I saw 2 Marathi movies. And both were really good movies. Harishchandrachi Factory and Zenda. Let me first talk about “Harishchandrachi Factory”. A simple movie about Father of Indian film industry, Dadasaheb Phalke. Instead of trying to create “Hero” out of Phalke, the director simply wanted to show the way made his first film in a simple, humorous way. He has not tried to create emotional situations when an ordinary director could have added the usual “rona-dhona”. I remember on the scenes where Phalke is leaving for London, and he is walking down the stairs. He goes down few steps and then comes back to his wife and tells her in ears “हे सगळे तुझ्यामुळे घडतंय”(All this is happening because of you). Nice movie, watch it, and watch it in theater :)   Zenda!! What can I say? I have hardly seen any movie which resembles reality so much and I guess that is what I don’t like about it. Either you tell complete truth or don’t tell. Partial reality and produce bia...

निशाणा तुला दिसला ना इशारा तुला कळला ना झिरमिर झिरमिर पाउसधारा भिरभिर करी मदनाचा वारा ये ना सजणा ये ना निशाणा तुला दिसला ना इशारा तुला कळला ना This song is dedicated to one of my best friends. I can already envisage few people ROTFL…

  I was actually searching the song “Kaleja Khalas Zala”, which Sunil Barve had sung in “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”. While searching I found this song. It is also written by Acharya Atre and is part of a play called “Brahmachari”. मस्त आहे :)

The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity.

Because of Naruto Manga, I have got the habit of reading from right to left when I see a comic ;)

So what would I like to get as a Birthday gift. If you are going to give me a gift, let me make your job simpler ;) There are 2 things I liked the most in childhood but was only able to “enjoy” both at the end of last year. I am talking about Goggles and Jackets. In most of childhood pics, you would find me with Goggles or Jacket. I really didn’t get too many chances of wearing them in school/college life. I broke my maiden Goggles during my first Pratibimb. After that it was only in 2008 that my dad asked me to buy another one. Now, I have 2 if you include my brother’s Goggles, but I still have space for another colorful one, especially the one in " The Hangover ” ;) Books. Well, I would not call myself a good reader. But I always felt the need to read good books either for pure entertainment or to improve my intellectual prowess. This is an area where I feel that I lag behind everyone. I know there are thousands of books out there which I should read, but I have very ba...

   Music is one of those things that I started liking because of my parents. My mother used to listen to “विविध भारती" on Radio AM signal between 11-12.30pm. Though I did not enjoy the songs that much when I was young, I guess it was during my ninth of tenth grade when I really got serious about listening to music. As I remember 11-12 slot was given to the Hindi film songs. They had a limited collection of songs, so shows would repeat after every 1 month or so. Some songs which I first heard on Radio but hardly saw on TV were - “जाने दो ना” from सागर, “और इस दिल में क्या राखा है" from इमानदार, “मुझे ऐसा लागता है” from त्रिदेव. Then at 12 they would broadcast Marathi songs. It had different programs though one of the oldest was celebrity interview plus their favorite songs. The interviews used to be so old that one day I heard them introducing Nivedita Joshi as a “नवतारका”!    The real change came when we threw our old Radio and bought a small Philips Radi...