Nandi Hills Trip @ 28th September

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Rang my phone... Abhishek on call ... time 3 am on 28th Septe

mber ... Abhishek says, "Aeee ekhone uthi ni .....tara tari kor ekhon teen ta hoye che.... Borete hobe Nandi Hills jonene ...Na hole Sunrise miss hoy jabe" (Wake up its 3 am already, hurry up we need to leave soon for Nandi Hills otherwise we will miss the sunrise).....

Ahhhhhhhhh....... Wished sunrise used to be at 10 so that I could have slept peacefully till at least 7 am...But Brahma had make the world like this... :(

After Abhishek's call, I really felt a sense of urgency to get ready and leave for nandi Hills fast ....And I was preety much upto the mark to leave by 3:25... 

Naww.... I messaged all the people that I am leaving and be ready....

Picked up Nitu, went to Sandy's Place , got along with him reached Domlur where Abhishek was waiting for us. Now we were 3 bikers.... Then our next destination was National Games Village to pick up two more persons, Pragya and Ankita. 

Picked them up then moved to Paramount (Koromangla) to get Alongwith Shradda and Rachna. Also, Nitu's friend - Sourabh and Navin - who were also coming alongwith us. So everything seemed to be going right on time.

Now we all 10 people - 5 bikes - started our journey at nearly 4 am.... Then I recalled Abhishek's bike was on reserve and we tried few 24-hours petrol pump until we found one on hyderabad highway.... It was preety chill at that time....my fingers were nearly freezed... But It was great to ride on the Hyderabad Highway, the road was quite smooth other than one or two unexpected bumpers.  

We reached the ticket counter at 5:45 am, and the rush at the ticket counter was way more than I have seen in any of my previous two visits here. The queue was long, but we got some girls in our gang to collect it for us and we were able to reach peak by 6:30 am. Hadn't we got tickets by some other means we wouldn't have reached the peak before 6:45. Everyone seemed to be in fine fettle.

The scenic beauty from the top was great. We went to various places of the peak including the suicide point, Sweet Water lake, etc.We had a lot of fun there and we were ready to leave. Every thing seemed to be going great as planned, none of us had any intitution of the adventure waiting for all of us. 

After having a good time there, we were ready to leave the hills and move towards the city. And during I ride back we got all short of probable thing which could happend to a bike.

As we were going down, Navin's Bike was out of fuel, incident no. 1 :( Thank God we had one shop nearby with petrol. And we could refill it. everything seemed to be going smooth and then Sourabh's bike got punctured. We searched for the puncture shop nearby and then finally ourselves got the rear tyre removed and send sourabh and Navin to puncture shop. Once they were back from puncture shop, we started again. In hyderabad highway, then we had 3 bikers caught by police for general checks and overspeed. two of them were fine with all documents so they got freed easily. However, Navin didn't have all the documents and he finally bribed them with Rs 350 to get free.;). Now after another 10 kms Navin's fuel was again empty. He got it refilled from some petrol pump within a radius of 1km. After all these incidents we had our group in 4 different places. I was with Navin as he had no petrol. Abhishek went through some different route. Saurabh was at different place. And Sandeep too at a different location. Thankfully Sandy completed his Doctors work while those police and fuel refil activity of Navin was taking place. Finally we all assembled at Brigade road and we were back to the full strength together. By this time everyone seemed tired and Hungry. So we planned to go to Prayag, koromangla for lunch. And adding to the adventure it was fully crowded. We got a table, but that was outside and then there was a scorching sun above our head. Somehow we had some thing to eat there and then we left for home. Most of the people in trip might have just went home and slept coz it was really tiring and adventourous journey.

27th September ....Its my Birthday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, thankfully this birthday didn't turn out the way Last two birthday's i had in Bangalore. Few of my friends surprised by being there at 12' o clock.....And then the birthday celebrations.....

With my face also having the taste of Cake.....It was yummy .........

Not much different than what one can expect ...lot of calls & calls through out the day with the wishes....

Had lunch with my friends in Bangalore....

Then we made  plans for Nandi Hills the next morning which really turned out to be an unexpected adventorous trip ... 

Will tell u about the trip in the next post ....

Thanks all for the wishes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Magic Of Dabbawalas Unfolded by Dr. Pawan Agarwal on 25th Sep 2008

On 25th Sep 2008, Motorola India Planned a session by Dr. Pawan Agarwal, who shared his insight on Dabbawalas of Mumbai. Lot of Town halls have taken place in our work place, but I never saw the number of people attend it in that large number as it was that day. Only townhalls of a CEO or CTO of our company can match that gathering. The session was very informative and was well communicated by DR. Agarwal.

dabbawallah is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning back the empty boxes by using various modes of transport. Most of the Dabbawallah's are illiterate, but still the perfection with which they do their work with nearly zero error without using any of the technology is simply awesome. They even got the Six- sigma certification without even applying.... That's really cool.

Examples of few incidents revolving them during the session was humorous and realistic at the same time it showed that sincerity, honesty and simplicity with which dabbawallah's do their work. Simply Hats Off to them..... :)

MOTO Raas Dandiya

On 26th of September'2008, Motorola organised a Dandiya function called "MOTO Raas" Dandiya. It was great success. Many of the motorolans shaked there legs and few were "papus" (where only spectator).
The Dandiya function started at 4 p.m. with a typical dandiya song, and it was great to see employees and contractors dressed in colourful traditional dress with a dandiya sticks in there hand. They all were dancing in the beats of dandiya together alongwith the ocassional performance of garba.

But initially participating seemed to be lacking and there were more of Papu's then we were expecting. So they get all of them shake there legs, we switched over from Dandiya to dandiya + Bollywood ... and as expected we saw the participation increase a lot. It seemd to be a 50:50 ratio now. Though I didn't like this sudden change from dandiya to Dandiya + Bollywood, as I wanted more of Dandiya ... but I knew my logic was flawed in this case... So I started up with the new mixed tunes... Then some songs from Kannada was also played, which was great and make us all dance with much more enthusiasm and made us feel tired much faster.Though I didn't understand it , but music was great and make me dance tirelessly. It added few more dozens of people in the dance floor. What we observed was switching between different modes of Kannada + Bollywood + Dandiya music. This seemed to be more proper with the way this cosmopolitan city Bangalore is made up of. It showed us the true mix of flavours from different region.

Before I give conclusion the question that may arise to you can be :
Who were "Papu's" ? And why they are refered like that?
Well the answer is all the spectator who were not dancing and just watching were Papu's.
There is a song like "But Papu can't dance saaala "....so once that song was played ..all the dancers were pointing to the spectators with the signature step that Bappu (or Spectator) can't dance saala ...... ;)

Finally the event ended and was a great success even though a bit of reluctance was observed on parts of people initially. The only time I was not seemed to be very happy with the way event went was between the event closure and the time I went to sleep. Coz the event was so good that made me dance hard and as a result made few of the spare parts of my body to feel the brunt of those high energetic activity. I was really tired and had a great sleep. Hopefully we will have such events more frequently at our workplace. :)

Lost & Found My Mobile..... :)

I actually can't believe it ....... and after this incident ...... I do believe in destiny n luck...........

Finally I got back my lost Mobile in some extra-ordinary way ......... Thank God.... Got back all the informations stored in it...... alongwith with this I got a phone with which my fingers are prolific.

So here the story start of the recovery .......


My childhood friend Ritesh called me up in my new number .....
And started scholding me of not even sharing my new number and giving my old phone to some unknown person..... I was astonished on hearing these words.....

So I asked him, did u called in my old no. I lost the phone.....He told me that somebody answered the call also but he couldn't understand what he was speaking......
I told him that I will callu back and then put down the phone.....
Then I called back in my old number and someone picked up and same problem happened ...he was speaking in Kannada and I was not able to understand (I should have learnt Kannada by now....after staying so long in bangalore approx 2.5+ yrs)....

Then I asked one of my friends in office ...Sandeep to call at the number and get the address and if required offer some money also....
Sandeep called and got the address tooo.... The address was of some place near the new Bangalore Airport (BIAL).....

We went there the next day...again Sandeep gave me the company ...coz without him I wouldn't have been able to interact with people there .....We went for a long ride and after asking few people finally reached the place after a ride of 1 hr....

there we reached one shop and a old man came......he said that his son is not there who got my mobile phone and he will bring it .....we waited there for 15 mins and after that the same old guy came with the phone ....we offered him 50 bugs ...but he wanted more ...so gave him 100 bugs....

Now I had my old phone in my hand ...... was quite glad to get it back ..... :)

Now when I see the whole episode I think the things which resulted in successfully recovery of my phones are :-

1> Outgoing calls were blocked.
2> It was a CDMA set, so the user just can't throw SIM and use some other SIM.
3> The handset has password Lock
4> The user can receive only calls when passowrd lock ...and can't see details inside
5> And timely call of my friend in my old no. and informing me....
6> Lastly, the willingness of the guy who got it ....and thought to return coz it was worthless to him.....but may be worthy for someone like me......

Still Outgoing needs to be enabled...... Already requested Twice in Reliance World.... These people are really slow ..... I saw a lot better service by vodafone guys ............

Lost My Mobile ....... :(

Last Friday, I lost my mobile . While I was riding bike, it fell down from my jackets pocket in Madiwala..... As soon as I realised this I turned back breaking traffic rules as it was a one way (madiwalla Oneway)..... But as it was already 8 pm so it was dark .....spent 30 -40 mins searching on the road...but couldn't find it ..... then called to my mobile thrice from STD booth....The response was "Mobile is not reachable".... This response did upset me ...as i thought it might have fallen down and its parts might get dispersed..... but also there was sense of relief that it should go into someone's wrong hand ..... then finally gave it up ...as i couldn't find....

Went ahead to my destination planned --> Total in Madiwala, bangalore to meet S*****, just when I reached she told me that just now she called me and I was disconnecting it ....I tried again and to my surprise someone had already taken it and was ending the call when it was ringing ...... and finally it was switched off after 2 rings....... Now I was scared for the wrong use of my mobile..... Thank god I had locked my phone with some passcode ...and hopefully the person to took the phone is not smart enough to break the code...... Then was with her for some time waiting for her bus to come........

Now the worst part I realised was the increasingly dependence of all of us on Mobile phones nowadays..... I was having trouble to recall the contact nos. of people and also didn't have any back up.....
So I thought lets go to Lalit jiyaji's home from there I can block my reliance no. and also other things ...and atleast inform at home that I have lost the mobile... I reached there ...but it was already past 11pm and it seemed they had slept .....door was locked in the Ground floor and to get the key from them (@2nd floor) I need to call .....though I can go to std booth but ...I dont recal his contact no. ...... what a tragedy .......so much of dependence on Mobiles....

went to meet Ajay (kallu) he was also not there at his PG.........Damned ...nowhere to go......

So came back to office and got outgoing blocked from my no. .......
Mailed to few people that I have lost my cell so please send me there nos......

Updated profile in Orkut (gateway for social contacts nowadays) that I have lost my number and also in Gtalk..................



seriously Now I realise how much more we have become dependent on mobiles....
I didn't lose only contacts but also my password and id for various bank and credit cards....It gave me huge tension...so got my password reset for credit cards also...

Now what abt the Birthdays of my friends.......


In simple words , Losing a mobile means huge risk of information within them and loss of connectivity with people around you........

Now got a new connection of Vodafone on a mobile phone lended by one of my friend.....

Try to get connected to all friends again..................

Wanted IMT-GaziaBad getting Nagpur..................

It seems one section (English screwed me like hell).....
None of the desired B-School is giving me call....

Yesterday recived Call for IMT-Nagpur, I desired for Ghaziabad, now I am taking a call not to attend the interview. First of all the interview is in kolkata , secon even if I get selected chances are very less that I will take admissions there ....

So Now what are the desired options I have : --


Only one PGSEM from IIM-B. Instead of running after CAT year after year

CAT 2006 -> 89.xx %ile
CAT 2007 -> 92.xx%ile

its better to get into best of the B-School. which you can get .

Though PGSEM might not have that great brand in the public as PGP from IIM-B might have....But the good part is that ...

• Its faculty will be from IIM-B ....

One can't expect better faculty in India

• I can work parallely....and earn ..while keeping in touch with the industry...

All those academic things can be applied in practice ...and also you will get experience....

so after 3 years (assuming I get cleared in CAT next year)

PGP (MBA) + 3.5 yrs Exp
or
PGSEM (MBA) + 5.5yrs Exp

Second one sounds better as first one is not 100% sure.....

So my traget is PGSEM ..test is on 3rd march ' 2008

Don't empty your spam mails without having a look

Most of us generally don't check the spam mails folder frequently..Even I don't .. just a few days ago I read one of the forwarded mails from one of my friend regarding -- a possibility of important mail coming as spam mail....

To my Surprise, after logging into my yahoo account I just thought to check my Spam Mail folder ....
I found that it contained mails from IIM - Bangalore .... That mail had my admit card for the PGSEM test.... Oh my God!!!!!!!!!! Had I deleted all those mails in spam folder or it might have got deleted by itself after 3o days ...I might have missed the admit card for PGSME test from IIM-B....

-- So, guys make a habit to check your bulk folder atleast once in a few days lest you miss out on some important mail..

Tour of Hyderabad + ICFAI (1/2/08 - 5th Feb 2008)

First Trip of Hyderabad

Though I had a prescient knowledge that Hyderabad trip will not be fruitful regarding the objective to get admission to a Good Business School, I wilfully went ahead with the plan. I started on Friday i.e. 1st Feb ' 2008 from Yashvantpur R.S. for Secundrabad by Sampark Kranti Express. As usual in Bangalore, Auto wallahs don't agree for the fair price, they always want double or 1.5 times or fair plus 20 or 30 rupees. Was able to catch one who got ready for Rs 200 bugs. though the distance is nearly 23-24 kms. That means Fair price is 120 and he was ready only for 75% extra. Anyways after reaching YPR , told "BaBye" to Bangalore for few days.

Reached Secundrabad, again the same thing common in most of the Railway stations in India -- Auto Wallahs Making one fool regarding price even if the person knows that he is making you fool.But what can one passenger unknown with the city do....rather than doing some bargaining..
Somehow got in one of the autos and booked one of the lodge for a temporary stay.

My interview was on Tuesday still I reached there on Sat morning so that I can meet up my college buddies(Avijit, Sudhir, Sandipan, Sankar, etc) who are in Hyderabad. Few juniors are also there like shruti, Jaya. After entering the lodge called mishra and sandipan to meet up....Sandy was busy while mishra was available. We meet up at Punjagutta (Equivalent to MG of Bangalore) and there I got a great Shock. Mishra, this guy was very thin and I suddenly see a person coming towards me with red specs, big Bisceps and l----o-----n-----g hairs. At first I was not even able to believe that he is mishra though I was able to recognise. From Punjagutta we went to Begumpet the place where Avijit stays alongwith Sudhir Pathak , Asutosh and Ashwini. And the secons shock was waiting for me , Mr. Sudhir Pathak , You wont believe it this guy has made a good physique like the one of Partho and he now cherish Grill Chicken though earlier he used to be a Sudh-Saka-Hari.

After having a big chit chat, I went along with Avijit for Charminar. Though Charminar looked good, but somehow I didn't find it that impressive. From the charminar area bought some Hyderbadi Pearls which are famous in India. Before that we had a lunch in Paradise, a famous restaurant in HYD, and as expected we had speciality of Hyderabad i.e. Hyderabadi Biryani and a grill chicken.




While retruning saw the Sagar with a Statue of Buddha on an island in the Sagar. That was really a beautiful view. This Lake is sorrounded by a road called necklace road. And also had a restaurant beside it called "Eat Street" which is quite good to come after evening. Nice atmosphere prevails in the restaurant.


When we came back, it was already 9 ....It was party time as Sudhir was medically cleared for a onsite trip to UK. Earlier he was blocked on Suspicion of TB, which actually came as negative in report. So they called up many friends of there...and we all were boozing out, cracking jokes, having chicken , dancing....overall a great fun..... At 1 am, I went to sleep... After that some them went for ride and the tragedy was waiting to happend, mishra fell down from bike along with Sumanta, my college friend. And both of them sustained minor injuries. Sunday just went sleeping , watching moviews, etc.

Now Monday arrived, and I had interview ,...I just prepared the content in span of 2 hrs and choosed the topic as SEZ,,,,...and again started fun.....as if I had no interview tomorrow.

Tuesday I had to wake up at 5 am -- the thing which I hate most --- waking up early....
Went to IBS admission office, got into a Bus and then reached IBS campus....which was quite far from the main city....Got registered myself and found that my Presentation was at 12:45 .....that means being idle for 3-4 hrs doing nothing .....thats quite sick......they could have alloted some timing earlier by themselves..instead of calling such a huge number of people at once... In those idle hours I already had formed a group with few people and was having fun.practiced for the presnetation. Now, when the time came for presentation I gave it and I gave it fairly good contrary to my expectation. interview was very very brief...though good...but only God knows know what they can make out in an interview of less than 5 minutes....

Now the result was expected at 7:30 - 8.... I cant wait till that as I had train from Kachiguda at 9:15 pm...so left from there early at 6 pm.......and din't collected the result.............

and here my trip to hyderabad ended...... though i missed to see ramoji City and Golconda fort ...am planning to see it next time I go there....


This wednesday morning I got my result through mail......The college which was alloctade was ICFAI MUMBAI..... in which I am not going to take admission.... Even ICFAI HYD was doubtful...but it was thinkable..... So now doors for ICFAI is also closed.....


So only two options left from here
1> WOrk + PGSEM
2> Work + CAT next year .............


:(

MBA dreams Seems to be getting shattered.....

Year 2008 seems to be a disappointing year w.r.t. MBA aspirations of mine.....


All the results misses the cut-off some-how :(

CAT - 93.18%ile - The Gateway for the most aspired B-school in India - with such a low percentile the dream of being in the esteemed B-school (IIM -> A, B, C, K, L, I , and .....Shillong) made a nose dive.... With them also went the chances of SPJain, NITIE, etc.....

XAT - 88.**%ile - Better not to discuss not worth telling even.

NMAT - Score 79 -
Cleared Sectional cutoffs but plunged in the total cut off which was 85.


SNAP - Score 82 -
SCMHRD - Didn't get call from it...God only Knows what are they looking in the profiles...I was really pissed off...........

SIBM - Cleared All Sectional cutoffs....Didn't clear the total cutoff 85....
















JMET Rank 2416 - In JMET "Doors for MBA through IITs" got preety low rank and I wont get IIT Mumbai or Kharagpur for which I aspired , so didn't apply for others....

IBSAT - Got call for Interview.....Which I guess 50% of the applicant gets.... I am not sure even if I am going to join id i get ICFAI - Hyderabad / Mumbai.......


Now results to be announced :-

FMS :- Preety low chances....helll less no. of seats with huge number of applicants ...beats even IIM's in seat to applicant ratio...


Seems MBA @ good college -> less chance....


I am trying for PGSEM also ..lets see....what happens.........

Hopefully will get some good new @ year 2008................

Gotta Spot Award @ SASKEN :)

I got my first award from Sasken...Thanks to the great wrk mail from our client.....

I got it on Jan ' 08 .......

but didn't have that pleasure of receiving it ....as much I would have ....had I got it before our Client's great work mail.....

Well then any how all the awards are welcome.......

It also had a Gift voucher Worth 1000Rs ....with the expiry date of 28 Jan '08 ....

so had to rush to a shop to use it even though the purchase might not have been required...........