I dont react much.. I dont express much .. I never let the other person know what I am thinking.. And I succeed day in and day out..
But I just saw the semi finals of "Harsha Ki Khoj " on ESPN about 5 mins back.. and I am not angry .
I am not sad.
And I am not frustrated.
I was only doing my IB assignment .
And I am just......
"Aaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhh......."!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Days will be back again!!!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
The Whole Nine Yards
17th February,2005 1:35 a.m.
"One last time lets rummage through that stage for Arun's cell ..."
I said . The very stage around which we had just spent two of the most beautiful hours in last 7 months at SPJain. We went beneath the stage , eyes were trying hard to stay open but yes they were wide open. "Check for the cell on the stage too" said Alok. We did. The cell was not to be found.
What this searching exercise did though was make Vivek sit on the edge of that beautiful rectangular 25X20 feet block for one last time this year. "What must he be thinking ? " I asked myself. And I heard a whistle from behind. Pretending not to notice I turned my neck in a quick detour. The whistle continued for a while and then I heard a voice that was similar to Shweta's ."Ah there she is .." "Jaaoo... its too late " . We knew it was .But something just pulled us back. Something was special about that stage .It made you feel stay back,not leave that place and not get up.I sat for a moment too.
The End.
Time to go back.And in your eyes picture whatever happened in the last 34 days.I hate the word 'Commitment' . I'd rather go by 'Desire'. A desire to excel and a Team to die for. Thats all I see looking back. I dont see grades ,I dont see cheating and I dont see cribbing.
I see Rajeev sending out mails to his Mob to gargle everyday and asking them to not let him down in front of the other 24 Gaspians.
I see KP responding with a voice that he himself can barely hear because its gone hoarse but yes we in the room can and so can our batchmates in the Group Work room and Girls Hostel.
I see KSP rushing after a workshop ending at 8 straight to the venue for practice and not getting out in between until we are all out at 1 a.m. the next morning.
I see Anish being dot at 8 p.m. everyday at the venue knowing that he could be the first to arrive and will have to wait for another 30 minutes before anything takes off.Oh yeah he was also the first to unleash the spirit of unadulterated passion of Gasp with his maddening first dialogue.
I see Ankush missing his lunch and nodding in a manner that would put a compass to shame. 360 degrees is no more the extent of convolution.His 'Nod' suggests there could be yet evidence that humans continue to challenge well established norms in Mathematics.
And I see Hari coming for practices extending for as long as five hours to speak 3 sentences because the Mob would not be complete without him .
I see Farhan and I see brilliance in method and madness. I see him worried not for himself but for me cos I could forget my next dialogue in the raucous and the play could come tumbling down.
I see Nikhil practice in the Audi,in the class and even when the dress rehearsal is on in the GASP room. I see him improvise to perfection and I bet he would still be wondering about ways to say that dialogue once again.
I see Natasha not going home on Wednesdays and sitting in a corner all alone remembering her dialogue.
I see Gitanjali cutting her calls midway . I see Gitanjali coming to practice on the day her aunt passed away and not make a mention about it to anyone.Just that some of us saw her sobbing midway through the practice.
I see Indu trying to get the best out of every character. I see her arguing for more practice hours and see her googling in class for that perfect design on the poster.
I see Anindita doing everything she has been asked to effortlessly and not cribbing about being asked to show different emotions on the same scene.
I see Megha waking up at 6 a.m. for being a volunteer for Placements and after doing a helter-skelter all throughout the day still coming at 8 p.m.for the practice sessions. I see her spread her infectious laughter all over the place and wreak havoc with her restlessness.
I see Alok giving up Basketball for 34 consecutive days and seeing his mobile balance dwindle by 200 bucks in a week.
I see Rekha scouting for that pen that I specifically ask for and the writing pad that Ramnik demands. I see her in the Bistro, in Dome I and back in GASP room in less than 30 seconds.
I see Parinaz bringing the prayer caps from a store called 'God Knows Where' and making the stage a place I wish Heaven could emulate.
I see Sachin frantic and going crazy because people were asking for extensions .I see him coming into my room at 3:30 a.m. and temme that we are running behind schedule and I see him sleep in every class that he attends cos his mails go out at 4:26 in the morning.
I see Aranyak,the freak just get what we wanted him to get.Crazy Sounds Beware. A simulation of someone tuning a radio on ???? Gimme a break! Oh the directors dint like it so you can change it? You can do it? What ?? You can do that too??
I see Sujith just come there and be a part of it . I see him make his own space.I see him in Lights, arranging chairs , getting e-mail id's.
I see Surabhi bring us a hoard of costumes and make up neatly piled and claiming. "Take your pick.. if you dont like it we have something else and if not this then that and that..."
I see Eashwari pepping us up and playing the caretaker for everyone.I see her to invoke a smile on my face and temme that "Yes GASP is fun!!!"
I see Anurag and ... need I say more..
I see Soundarya count every rupee, ask for every bill and sit for two hours in a cross legged position with a torch for three days in a row .I see her lose her cell too and yet make no fuss about it and go back to the hostel with a smile on her face.
I see Arun take prints one after the other. Rush out of the GASP room and come back in. And then rush out again.I see Arun telling me.. "We are the best man!! ".
I see Naina throwing water on her face after shes spend over an hour burning the edges of chart paper . I see her sweat and burn so that the cast is riding over a successful wave of publicity when it comes on stage.
I see Suchi write,write and write .Beautifully as ever . I see her telling me "No ..Issac I know I have nothing to do now but I just want to see you all practice".
I see Shweta bring us a Cake out of the blue . I see her smile when everything has just gone right and I see her smile even more when everything has just gone wrong and I see her make everyone feel special.
And I see again Vivek sit on that rectangular block of 25X20 feet and say to myself "What must he be thinking ? "
And I see myself hugging everyone and jumping like a madman after the play.
Its some fun being on the moon Huh? : )
"One last time lets rummage through that stage for Arun's cell ..."
I said . The very stage around which we had just spent two of the most beautiful hours in last 7 months at SPJain. We went beneath the stage , eyes were trying hard to stay open but yes they were wide open. "Check for the cell on the stage too" said Alok. We did. The cell was not to be found.
What this searching exercise did though was make Vivek sit on the edge of that beautiful rectangular 25X20 feet block for one last time this year. "What must he be thinking ? " I asked myself. And I heard a whistle from behind. Pretending not to notice I turned my neck in a quick detour. The whistle continued for a while and then I heard a voice that was similar to Shweta's ."Ah there she is .." "Jaaoo... its too late " . We knew it was .But something just pulled us back. Something was special about that stage .It made you feel stay back,not leave that place and not get up.I sat for a moment too.
The End.
Time to go back.And in your eyes picture whatever happened in the last 34 days.I hate the word 'Commitment' . I'd rather go by 'Desire'. A desire to excel and a Team to die for. Thats all I see looking back. I dont see grades ,I dont see cheating and I dont see cribbing.
I see Rajeev sending out mails to his Mob to gargle everyday and asking them to not let him down in front of the other 24 Gaspians.
I see KP responding with a voice that he himself can barely hear because its gone hoarse but yes we in the room can and so can our batchmates in the Group Work room and Girls Hostel.
I see KSP rushing after a workshop ending at 8 straight to the venue for practice and not getting out in between until we are all out at 1 a.m. the next morning.
I see Anish being dot at 8 p.m. everyday at the venue knowing that he could be the first to arrive and will have to wait for another 30 minutes before anything takes off.Oh yeah he was also the first to unleash the spirit of unadulterated passion of Gasp with his maddening first dialogue.
I see Ankush missing his lunch and nodding in a manner that would put a compass to shame. 360 degrees is no more the extent of convolution.His 'Nod' suggests there could be yet evidence that humans continue to challenge well established norms in Mathematics.
And I see Hari coming for practices extending for as long as five hours to speak 3 sentences because the Mob would not be complete without him .
I see Farhan and I see brilliance in method and madness. I see him worried not for himself but for me cos I could forget my next dialogue in the raucous and the play could come tumbling down.
I see Nikhil practice in the Audi,in the class and even when the dress rehearsal is on in the GASP room. I see him improvise to perfection and I bet he would still be wondering about ways to say that dialogue once again.
I see Natasha not going home on Wednesdays and sitting in a corner all alone remembering her dialogue.
I see Gitanjali cutting her calls midway . I see Gitanjali coming to practice on the day her aunt passed away and not make a mention about it to anyone.Just that some of us saw her sobbing midway through the practice.
I see Indu trying to get the best out of every character. I see her arguing for more practice hours and see her googling in class for that perfect design on the poster.
I see Anindita doing everything she has been asked to effortlessly and not cribbing about being asked to show different emotions on the same scene.
I see Megha waking up at 6 a.m. for being a volunteer for Placements and after doing a helter-skelter all throughout the day still coming at 8 p.m.for the practice sessions. I see her spread her infectious laughter all over the place and wreak havoc with her restlessness.
I see Alok giving up Basketball for 34 consecutive days and seeing his mobile balance dwindle by 200 bucks in a week.
I see Rekha scouting for that pen that I specifically ask for and the writing pad that Ramnik demands. I see her in the Bistro, in Dome I and back in GASP room in less than 30 seconds.
I see Parinaz bringing the prayer caps from a store called 'God Knows Where' and making the stage a place I wish Heaven could emulate.
I see Sachin frantic and going crazy because people were asking for extensions .I see him coming into my room at 3:30 a.m. and temme that we are running behind schedule and I see him sleep in every class that he attends cos his mails go out at 4:26 in the morning.
I see Aranyak,the freak just get what we wanted him to get.Crazy Sounds Beware. A simulation of someone tuning a radio on ???? Gimme a break! Oh the directors dint like it so you can change it? You can do it? What ?? You can do that too??
I see Sujith just come there and be a part of it . I see him make his own space.I see him in Lights, arranging chairs , getting e-mail id's.
I see Surabhi bring us a hoard of costumes and make up neatly piled and claiming. "Take your pick.. if you dont like it we have something else and if not this then that and that..."
I see Eashwari pepping us up and playing the caretaker for everyone.I see her to invoke a smile on my face and temme that "Yes GASP is fun!!!"
I see Anurag and ... need I say more..
I see Soundarya count every rupee, ask for every bill and sit for two hours in a cross legged position with a torch for three days in a row .I see her lose her cell too and yet make no fuss about it and go back to the hostel with a smile on her face.
I see Arun take prints one after the other. Rush out of the GASP room and come back in. And then rush out again.I see Arun telling me.. "We are the best man!! ".
I see Naina throwing water on her face after shes spend over an hour burning the edges of chart paper . I see her sweat and burn so that the cast is riding over a successful wave of publicity when it comes on stage.
I see Suchi write,write and write .Beautifully as ever . I see her telling me "No ..Issac I know I have nothing to do now but I just want to see you all practice".
I see Shweta bring us a Cake out of the blue . I see her smile when everything has just gone right and I see her smile even more when everything has just gone wrong and I see her make everyone feel special.
And I see again Vivek sit on that rectangular block of 25X20 feet and say to myself "What must he be thinking ? "
And I see myself hugging everyone and jumping like a madman after the play.
Its some fun being on the moon Huh? : )
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Hiatus
Blame it on GASP,ADMAP Brochure, ABK, P&P ,OM, ,BP, ,SI, FM, and SD in that order. Have thought about what my next post should be though.Chances are it will veerrroooommmm around Narain Karthikeyan.
With the free space that this blog provides me on the WWW I can finally give vent to my ruminations on the world of Sport and at this point of time not entirely rule out the possibility of my writing in "The Wisden" or " Sports Illustrated" some day. Not only has globalisation as every teacher here keeps blabbering about changed the face of India, given rise to more trade , led India on the pathway to a new world..blah..blah ..blah.. ,it has also widened my horizon of ambition that until some time back used to extend only till seeing my name in print in "Cricket Samrat" and "Khel Ki Duniya"..Oh dont be surprised not for nothing do they say Cricket is a crazy game.The accusation shall continue till we have a few like yours truly around.
Lately I have also been observing people around my seat in class do all sorts of crazy things to the schedule that is sent by the ‘Her Highness’ to the batch. Some colors going into the unoccupied empty boxes in Excel, some tags to almost every box in Excel, some macros also being embedded. So much so that I had trouble figuring whether some schedules around me were being sent personally by ‘Her Highness’. We get our schedule in Excel format and one that I saw resembled a Word doc. A friend beside me ,I thought was hypnotized by the schedule .I caught him staring at the schedule on the monitor for more than any accepted levels of normality. Things that people get driven by... An excel sheet??? That comes every week!!!
Have a test on BP the day after and when my priority list did come and stall at BP today,I did a sneak peek on those chapters that lie ahead and came across a gem in one of the chapters.
"Strategic Fit among many activities is fundamental not only to competitive advantage but also to the sustainabilty of that advantage."
Profound..
Thankfully only profound!
With the free space that this blog provides me on the WWW I can finally give vent to my ruminations on the world of Sport and at this point of time not entirely rule out the possibility of my writing in "The Wisden" or " Sports Illustrated" some day. Not only has globalisation as every teacher here keeps blabbering about changed the face of India, given rise to more trade , led India on the pathway to a new world..blah..blah ..blah.. ,it has also widened my horizon of ambition that until some time back used to extend only till seeing my name in print in "Cricket Samrat" and "Khel Ki Duniya"..Oh dont be surprised not for nothing do they say Cricket is a crazy game.The accusation shall continue till we have a few like yours truly around.
Lately I have also been observing people around my seat in class do all sorts of crazy things to the schedule that is sent by the ‘Her Highness’ to the batch. Some colors going into the unoccupied empty boxes in Excel, some tags to almost every box in Excel, some macros also being embedded. So much so that I had trouble figuring whether some schedules around me were being sent personally by ‘Her Highness’. We get our schedule in Excel format and one that I saw resembled a Word doc. A friend beside me ,I thought was hypnotized by the schedule .I caught him staring at the schedule on the monitor for more than any accepted levels of normality. Things that people get driven by... An excel sheet??? That comes every week!!!
Have a test on BP the day after and when my priority list did come and stall at BP today,I did a sneak peek on those chapters that lie ahead and came across a gem in one of the chapters.
"Strategic Fit among many activities is fundamental not only to competitive advantage but also to the sustainabilty of that advantage."
Profound..
Thankfully only profound!
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Coincidential Nods
One of my favourite quotes that I have seen on a T-Shirt:
"24 hours in a day;24 beers in a case ...Coincidence? "
I take the liberty to reframe it thus :
"Standard Deviation is abbrievated as S.D.; So is Suranjan Das ... Coincidence?"
I say not and unlike the original quotation mind you the answer to my framed quotation is not so obvious.For no matter whatever the topic be ,it is a given that whatever our famed academician-cum-teacher has to offer is unrelentingly deviating from a standard that I am as of now clearly yet to match
I shall restrict the scope of this post to the proceedings in the classes that I attend here and try as I might I cannot elminate some of the events that take place in Quant classes.I shall also dwell on some other subjects in general but there's nothing like starting with your favourite punching bag.
Umm..lemme see some of my reminiscences from the classes I have attended in Quant.
Ah..Observing the peculiar length of Chandu's nose in a presentation that was used to teach us Hypothesis Testing (I believe..). Chandu was one of the four cartoon characters in the presentation and I could not help observing his contorted and funny nose while my 74 esteemed friends fought , strived and played psychoanalysts to a fair degree of perfection.Some of the pearls of wisdom were:
"Sir, Chandoo could be getting this fish for his son but another for his daughter"
"Sir, I think Chandoo's daughter goes to the gym and hence health conscious"
"Sir, Chandoo is probably telling a lie to his son and hiding something from his daughter".
My memory is not great but some things are hard to forget.
Yet after all of this I speak with a 100% confidence level for all my friends that none of my psychoanalyst champs had a clue as to how all of this was related to Hypothesis Testing.I empathise with them.Its no fun when you try hard and yet not get anywhere.And now when I look back at it I got so much a better deal in observing my favourite cartoons nose. In a Quant class that was the only thing that got me thiking.This is why I do not attribute the SD abbrievation of Standard Deviation and Suranjan Das to coincidence.The deviation of his views ,thoughts and comments to mine are standard and frightening.
One of my friend's views on SD's mode of teaching are startling.For a man of his composure this is what he has to say :
"My dear friend.. I have never studied Maths like this before.It is all 'Bool Sheet' "
Another one had a more philosophical outlook:
"No one knows what he teaches.All of us follow him like blind men." Playing the psychoanalyst was so evidently getting to his nerves.
So how do you deal with a class that is deviating from you with a vengeance?
I suggest using the "Nod Theory".
Nod to the left and nod to the right.Nod when bored and nod when fried.(Grrr...I am not a poet.This is closest rhyme I could come up with)
With personal experience I vouch with all my might the usefulness of the theory in classes like OM and P&P.Now like every term that I have learnt in MBA there are classifications here too.
There is the "Intellectual Nod" when all you need to do is keep nodding within a space of 15 seconds.The utility is incomparable and maximum when the teacher is looking right in your eyes.
Then we have the "Oh Now I understand Nod.." Dont mind the timing .It is imperative that the nod is accompanied by a face expression that should read " Realization has dawned NOW. I understand NOW.All my doubts are cleared NOW".In my seventeen years of eduaction I have not seen a more masterful exponent of this art than our very own Abhijeet Deshmukh.I feel his nod is genuine all the time.But if you can replicate it you have an explosive device in your arsenal to stave off those teachers.
Then there is the "Mixture of All Other nods" .This is the simplest of them all.Nod and Nod as if your life depends on it.Sideways movement of the head is a critical feature.This one comes with a drawback that if you overuse it you could be in for a rough time.I once got into trouble with this one in SD's class
But take my word this is an all-season all-teacher tested tool.And the best for my money in a P&P class.
There are some things I really like about our batch. Its bonded well over the last 7 months and each of us here is special and it shines through on occassions.Today was one such occassion.The Sports Day and the particular reference is to the Tug-of-War competition. Nothing on earth can match being a part of the gang that is pulling its power to force another gang to come over its side.The will to do so at the fag end of the day with all your might is something that all of us can be proud of while we cling glasses in ten minutes from now.
Anish.. time to go...
"24 hours in a day;24 beers in a case ...Coincidence? "
I take the liberty to reframe it thus :
"Standard Deviation is abbrievated as S.D.; So is Suranjan Das ... Coincidence?"
I say not and unlike the original quotation mind you the answer to my framed quotation is not so obvious.For no matter whatever the topic be ,it is a given that whatever our famed academician-cum-teacher has to offer is unrelentingly deviating from a standard that I am as of now clearly yet to match
I shall restrict the scope of this post to the proceedings in the classes that I attend here and try as I might I cannot elminate some of the events that take place in Quant classes.I shall also dwell on some other subjects in general but there's nothing like starting with your favourite punching bag.
Umm..lemme see some of my reminiscences from the classes I have attended in Quant.
Ah..Observing the peculiar length of Chandu's nose in a presentation that was used to teach us Hypothesis Testing (I believe..). Chandu was one of the four cartoon characters in the presentation and I could not help observing his contorted and funny nose while my 74 esteemed friends fought , strived and played psychoanalysts to a fair degree of perfection.Some of the pearls of wisdom were:
"Sir, Chandoo could be getting this fish for his son but another for his daughter"
"Sir, I think Chandoo's daughter goes to the gym and hence health conscious"
"Sir, Chandoo is probably telling a lie to his son and hiding something from his daughter".
My memory is not great but some things are hard to forget.
Yet after all of this I speak with a 100% confidence level for all my friends that none of my psychoanalyst champs had a clue as to how all of this was related to Hypothesis Testing.I empathise with them.Its no fun when you try hard and yet not get anywhere.And now when I look back at it I got so much a better deal in observing my favourite cartoons nose. In a Quant class that was the only thing that got me thiking.This is why I do not attribute the SD abbrievation of Standard Deviation and Suranjan Das to coincidence.The deviation of his views ,thoughts and comments to mine are standard and frightening.
One of my friend's views on SD's mode of teaching are startling.For a man of his composure this is what he has to say :
"My dear friend.. I have never studied Maths like this before.It is all 'Bool Sheet' "
Another one had a more philosophical outlook:
"No one knows what he teaches.All of us follow him like blind men." Playing the psychoanalyst was so evidently getting to his nerves.
So how do you deal with a class that is deviating from you with a vengeance?
I suggest using the "Nod Theory".
Nod to the left and nod to the right.Nod when bored and nod when fried.(Grrr...I am not a poet.This is closest rhyme I could come up with)
With personal experience I vouch with all my might the usefulness of the theory in classes like OM and P&P.Now like every term that I have learnt in MBA there are classifications here too.
There is the "Intellectual Nod" when all you need to do is keep nodding within a space of 15 seconds.The utility is incomparable and maximum when the teacher is looking right in your eyes.
Then we have the "Oh Now I understand Nod.." Dont mind the timing .It is imperative that the nod is accompanied by a face expression that should read " Realization has dawned NOW. I understand NOW.All my doubts are cleared NOW".In my seventeen years of eduaction I have not seen a more masterful exponent of this art than our very own Abhijeet Deshmukh.I feel his nod is genuine all the time.But if you can replicate it you have an explosive device in your arsenal to stave off those teachers.
Then there is the "Mixture of All Other nods" .This is the simplest of them all.Nod and Nod as if your life depends on it.Sideways movement of the head is a critical feature.This one comes with a drawback that if you overuse it you could be in for a rough time.I once got into trouble with this one in SD's class
But take my word this is an all-season all-teacher tested tool.And the best for my money in a P&P class.
There are some things I really like about our batch. Its bonded well over the last 7 months and each of us here is special and it shines through on occassions.Today was one such occassion.The Sports Day and the particular reference is to the Tug-of-War competition. Nothing on earth can match being a part of the gang that is pulling its power to force another gang to come over its side.The will to do so at the fag end of the day with all your might is something that all of us can be proud of while we cling glasses in ten minutes from now.
Anish.. time to go...
Friday, January 21, 2005
Comments and Dialogues
"Blog it and join me for a cup of tea" said he.The first was an option I had just reconsidered and the second an invitation he knew I always declined.Morpheus (Anurag S. for Non-SPJainites) had just finshed his blogging for the nite and was going for his customary sojourn of 15 mins downstairs at the nite canteen.If SPSS were to be fed with Morpheus's time spent at the canteen every nite in relation to a time series data for each of the six months we have been here I am sure the obfuscated software would screw up the study with loads of checked boxes,tables and within them numbers that would seem to throw prophetic conclusions but in effect come up with a ridiculously simple observation that in mathematical terms is referred to as "negative correlation".
Clearly.. SPSS is yet to impress me.
Picture this:
Our Quant teacher:So I have three Centroid values 903,972,988.Comments?(Am quoting verbatim.He teaches us with our "comments")
Poor student in the third row (striving hard to figure out what a centroid is ,where did these figures come from and not sure whether about the topic of discussion): Sir I think the difference between the first two numbers is much more than the difference between the last two.So...there are chances that the third number is at a far lesser distance from the second than the first is from the second.. So...
Our Quant teacher: Brilliant!! ..So now you know what a centroid is!!!
Poor student alongside the Poor student in the third row : Clearly ..SPSS is yet to impress me.
I can strive hard too but only beyond the obvious "comments" .I try to listen too but only to things that make sense.Quant classes with this Quant teacher never do.
But experience has played a huge role in shaping my frame of mind when I am in the college nowadays and such daily occurences evoke at best a smile on my face representing an innate ability to not fall laughin and rolling on the floor even after a blindingly stupid comment.This brings to my mind another one
Communications Teacher: So what did you learn?
Student with a rich comment in the first row:That we need to analyse a problem first and only then come up with a solution.
Communications Teacher:Anything else you wud add?
Student with a rich comment in the first row:Modest shrug
Communications Teacher:She is right..blah blah..blah..
So when you can recall such instances so easily at 3 am in the morning it really says a lot about the "low spread of variability "(by the way this is my biggest takeaway from Quant after 6 months - to use mathematical terms when most unsuitable) of such abundant superlative intellectual "comments" in a business school.
But GASP is a little different.Its precious and relevant to some 25 of us here and when we get together in the evenings its a boisterous rendezvous. Now picture this:
Today's rehearsal
Character 1: Blah blah..
Charater 2: Blah blah..
Character 3:
Character 3 had forgotten his dialogue. Forgive him.
General Comments: "Character 3 is still learning ..better than yesterday".Once again come on now everybody..
Character 4: Blah blah..
Character 2: Blah blah..
Character 3:
Character 3 in a business cycle that repeated in less than 2 minutes.
General Comments: "Its ok ... Take your time. We will handle .. "
Next Scene please
Character 3 :Messes up again
General Comments: None.. Only sighs..
Aaarrrggghh.. Not for nothing had I relinquished my newspaper in favour of the script of the play in the most peaceful place of them all in SPJain Campus in the morning today.Not for nothing had I asked my dear roomies to play Characters 1 and 2 and 4 at 1 am last nite.Not for nothing had I feverishly made notes on the script while everyone else at 2 am was busy studying for Quant last nite.
When I had nothing to do this Diwali back home with nothing on my mind I realized that nothingness is what Man aims at the end of it all.
But nothingness when its your turn to speak a dialogue in a serious script with 11 other characters is a little precarious and a little uninspiring for the other 11.
Character 3 ,I understand now wants to make amends and get back to script reading.
Clearly.. SPSS is yet to impress me.
Picture this:
Our Quant teacher:So I have three Centroid values 903,972,988.Comments?(Am quoting verbatim.He teaches us with our "comments")
Poor student in the third row (striving hard to figure out what a centroid is ,where did these figures come from and not sure whether about the topic of discussion): Sir I think the difference between the first two numbers is much more than the difference between the last two.So...there are chances that the third number is at a far lesser distance from the second than the first is from the second.. So...
Our Quant teacher: Brilliant!! ..So now you know what a centroid is!!!
Poor student alongside the Poor student in the third row : Clearly ..SPSS is yet to impress me.
I can strive hard too but only beyond the obvious "comments" .I try to listen too but only to things that make sense.Quant classes with this Quant teacher never do.
But experience has played a huge role in shaping my frame of mind when I am in the college nowadays and such daily occurences evoke at best a smile on my face representing an innate ability to not fall laughin and rolling on the floor even after a blindingly stupid comment.This brings to my mind another one
Communications Teacher: So what did you learn?
Student with a rich comment in the first row:That we need to analyse a problem first and only then come up with a solution.
Communications Teacher:Anything else you wud add?
Student with a rich comment in the first row:Modest shrug
Communications Teacher:She is right..blah blah..blah..
So when you can recall such instances so easily at 3 am in the morning it really says a lot about the "low spread of variability "(by the way this is my biggest takeaway from Quant after 6 months - to use mathematical terms when most unsuitable) of such abundant superlative intellectual "comments" in a business school.
But GASP is a little different.Its precious and relevant to some 25 of us here and when we get together in the evenings its a boisterous rendezvous. Now picture this:
Today's rehearsal
Character 1: Blah blah..
Charater 2: Blah blah..
Character 3:
Character 3 had forgotten his dialogue. Forgive him.
General Comments: "Character 3 is still learning ..better than yesterday".Once again come on now everybody..
Character 4: Blah blah..
Character 2: Blah blah..
Character 3:
Character 3 in a business cycle that repeated in less than 2 minutes.
General Comments: "Its ok ... Take your time. We will handle .. "
Next Scene please
Character 3 :Messes up again
General Comments: None.. Only sighs..
Aaarrrggghh.. Not for nothing had I relinquished my newspaper in favour of the script of the play in the most peaceful place of them all in SPJain Campus in the morning today.Not for nothing had I asked my dear roomies to play Characters 1 and 2 and 4 at 1 am last nite.Not for nothing had I feverishly made notes on the script while everyone else at 2 am was busy studying for Quant last nite.
When I had nothing to do this Diwali back home with nothing on my mind I realized that nothingness is what Man aims at the end of it all.
But nothingness when its your turn to speak a dialogue in a serious script with 11 other characters is a little precarious and a little uninspiring for the other 11.
Character 3 ,I understand now wants to make amends and get back to script reading.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Sowmya...
hey.. :)
as always a pleasant and sweet surprise to see your name highlighted in my inbox. i was not at work all of last week. hence the late reply. good to see you work hard and still manage some fun :)
hmn.. now to the issue why i wasn't at work last week.. i was in my native.. udipi. my dad passed away on the 30th of dec.. couldn't tell you when you called on the 1st jan. didn't want to spoil your new year. dad was actually recovering quite well after the operation. on the 30th morning at 2.00am he had cardiac arrest twice. didn't make it after that.. well.. nothing to be said or done now..
i am sure i have upset you now.. wanted to call and let you know.. but you are quite busy in the day and i am very sleepy after 9 in the night..
am doing fine for now.. busy with work and stuff. things are cool. going on..
do reply.
lotsa luv and hugs..
sowmya
This was the mail I received today from Sowmya ,a very good friend of mine. And try as much as I can I cannot help but think of the conversation I had with her on 1st Jan this year ,her 21st birthday. Over the years with effortless ease ( and with a natural flair to forget important dates) I have mastered the skill of forgetting the birthdays of all my friends.
And Sowmya's was no exception.
All my friends knowing this unenviable trait of mine send me a message at the fag end of their birthday asking me to call them.It is an arrangement I have with all my close friends and I believe the deal has lasted the test of time with each of my friends exercising that option unfailingly once every year
Sowmya was no exception.
I called her and we spoke like two friends seperated by time and distance.The conversation incidentally was no exception either.
As I look back now on the way you conducted yourself in those 15 mins I bow my head in respect and awe of your poise and the grace with which you have dealt with the vagaries of destiny.
All of us crib so incessantly about the some of the most important things in the life of a student here at a B-School that me knowing a person like you makes me feel a little better than the lot here who
a. clamour for grades and crib to death for revaluations
b. feel so uncomfortable in an auditorium when the AC is not on or not put off
c. fight tooth and nail for removing subjectivity from evaluations from a neatly designed programme cos they thought it did tremendous harm to our placement avenues .(And of course that could easily translate into you getting a 7.4 lacs p.a instead of 7.42 lac p.a. package!!!). So immersed and religious are we in the daily bickering on such issues of relevance that we do not bother pausing to look at what we are doing to ourselves.
I will someday want each of my batchmates to read this . Living in this marsh I have had the opportunity to realize and learn something through you that most of us choose to not.
Sowmya Shankar ,you are an exceptional lady and I know my God considers me very close to His heart to have brought you into my life.
This was not the first time you taught me something and I know this is the not the last.God will bless you in the days to come and I pray ,hope ,wish and believe that everything else in the coming days will lead you to take this setback in your stride and look forward to life with all earnestness .
as always a pleasant and sweet surprise to see your name highlighted in my inbox. i was not at work all of last week. hence the late reply. good to see you work hard and still manage some fun :)
hmn.. now to the issue why i wasn't at work last week.. i was in my native.. udipi. my dad passed away on the 30th of dec.. couldn't tell you when you called on the 1st jan. didn't want to spoil your new year. dad was actually recovering quite well after the operation. on the 30th morning at 2.00am he had cardiac arrest twice. didn't make it after that.. well.. nothing to be said or done now..
i am sure i have upset you now.. wanted to call and let you know.. but you are quite busy in the day and i am very sleepy after 9 in the night..
am doing fine for now.. busy with work and stuff. things are cool. going on..
do reply.
lotsa luv and hugs..
sowmya
This was the mail I received today from Sowmya ,a very good friend of mine. And try as much as I can I cannot help but think of the conversation I had with her on 1st Jan this year ,her 21st birthday. Over the years with effortless ease ( and with a natural flair to forget important dates) I have mastered the skill of forgetting the birthdays of all my friends.
And Sowmya's was no exception.
All my friends knowing this unenviable trait of mine send me a message at the fag end of their birthday asking me to call them.It is an arrangement I have with all my close friends and I believe the deal has lasted the test of time with each of my friends exercising that option unfailingly once every year
Sowmya was no exception.
I called her and we spoke like two friends seperated by time and distance.The conversation incidentally was no exception either.
As I look back now on the way you conducted yourself in those 15 mins I bow my head in respect and awe of your poise and the grace with which you have dealt with the vagaries of destiny.
All of us crib so incessantly about the some of the most important things in the life of a student here at a B-School that me knowing a person like you makes me feel a little better than the lot here who
a. clamour for grades and crib to death for revaluations
b. feel so uncomfortable in an auditorium when the AC is not on or not put off
c. fight tooth and nail for removing subjectivity from evaluations from a neatly designed programme cos they thought it did tremendous harm to our placement avenues .(And of course that could easily translate into you getting a 7.4 lacs p.a instead of 7.42 lac p.a. package!!!). So immersed and religious are we in the daily bickering on such issues of relevance that we do not bother pausing to look at what we are doing to ourselves.
I will someday want each of my batchmates to read this . Living in this marsh I have had the opportunity to realize and learn something through you that most of us choose to not.
Sowmya Shankar ,you are an exceptional lady and I know my God considers me very close to His heart to have brought you into my life.
This was not the first time you taught me something and I know this is the not the last.God will bless you in the days to come and I pray ,hope ,wish and believe that everything else in the coming days will lead you to take this setback in your stride and look forward to life with all earnestness .
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Caught in a trance
We have a team at SP Jain that was christened by our seniors as GASP.(Guild of Actors at SP) .It is a group of people with a love for theater and this year we are are working towards bringing out our own production of a play sometime in Feb. The script, direction team and the cast got settled less than a week ago ..And we have been meeting every day for atleast 2 hours since then for practice. Its fun and serious work that goes on in these meetings.
Feeling good today.Our play had three Acts and we rehearsed the First Act completely today.. We were (and are) yet to completely memorize the dialogues but this is what happpened . The twelve cast members kept saying their dialogues one after another and suddenly no one had anything to speak..I shouted more out of instinct "Guys...Act I Over". And the fifteen who were there clapped in relief,excitement.. whatever you call it.... again ,instinctly.Funny!There are times that are momentary landmarks in life and yet they seem so insignificant in life that you dont stop to acknowledge them. It almost happened today.But I am glad it dint pass away just like that. On my way back I was speaking to Rajeev and Sachin about it.And I am still thinking about it.It was a 25 page Act and we had been working on it since only the last week.
Martin once showed me this quote in a mail sent by one of his friends.
If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then? -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I dint find anything striking about the quote the day he showed it to me and would not stop gushing over Coleridge's skills
Today I think for that one moment I had that flower in my hand...
Feeling good today.Our play had three Acts and we rehearsed the First Act completely today.. We were (and are) yet to completely memorize the dialogues but this is what happpened . The twelve cast members kept saying their dialogues one after another and suddenly no one had anything to speak..I shouted more out of instinct "Guys...Act I Over". And the fifteen who were there clapped in relief,excitement.. whatever you call it.... again ,instinctly.Funny!There are times that are momentary landmarks in life and yet they seem so insignificant in life that you dont stop to acknowledge them. It almost happened today.But I am glad it dint pass away just like that. On my way back I was speaking to Rajeev and Sachin about it.And I am still thinking about it.It was a 25 page Act and we had been working on it since only the last week.
Martin once showed me this quote in a mail sent by one of his friends.
If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then? -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
I dint find anything striking about the quote the day he showed it to me and would not stop gushing over Coleridge's skills
Today I think for that one moment I had that flower in my hand...
Saturday, January 15, 2005
The Title of course..
Not many familiar with a band called Megadeth or having a decent knowledge of French would wonder about the rationale of the title of my blog. I would be disappointing the lot who venture this far for a raison d'etre for selecting "Tout Le Monde" and hence this post for the benefit of those who would perchance manage to set eyes on this title of a certain blogger number 10167023 .(Look up at the link that this browser shows....Yep I am in an exclusively elite club of only those many members .)
Introduced to the music of Megadeth in Bangalore only a year ago by Anoop I could not listen to anything but Megadeth for quite a while and Tout Le Monde is something that simply brings me back to life.(And lest I forget thats the name of one of their songs before I launch into something that explains succintly everything but leaves you wondering if Tout le Monde is their preferred brand of undergarment..) .Tout le Monde defines one's existence of being ,it defies logics and it tells you to make a mark before you leave this world. The song emantes unadulterated,unmatched and unthinkable energy and I try living by that. Some other extraneous factors also contribute to the relevance of this song ,the account of which shall be dealt with on a later date .
Oh yeah... this is important ..Someday I would rewrite the first paragraph of this song cos thats one part in the song that I will change in my life.And until I do that this shall remain my daily Psalm...
Excerpts:
So as you read this know my friends
I'd love to stay with you all
Please smile when you think of me
My body's gone that's all
A tout le monde (To all the World )
A tout les amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I have to leave)
There are the last words I'll ever speak
And they'll set me free ..
Introduced to the music of Megadeth in Bangalore only a year ago by Anoop I could not listen to anything but Megadeth for quite a while and Tout Le Monde is something that simply brings me back to life.(And lest I forget thats the name of one of their songs before I launch into something that explains succintly everything but leaves you wondering if Tout le Monde is their preferred brand of undergarment..) .Tout le Monde defines one's existence of being ,it defies logics and it tells you to make a mark before you leave this world. The song emantes unadulterated,unmatched and unthinkable energy and I try living by that. Some other extraneous factors also contribute to the relevance of this song ,the account of which shall be dealt with on a later date .
Oh yeah... this is important ..Someday I would rewrite the first paragraph of this song cos thats one part in the song that I will change in my life.And until I do that this shall remain my daily Psalm...
Excerpts:
So as you read this know my friends
I'd love to stay with you all
Please smile when you think of me
My body's gone that's all
A tout le monde (To all the World )
A tout les amis (To all my friends)
Je vous aime (I love you)
Je dois partir (I have to leave)
There are the last words I'll ever speak
And they'll set me free ..
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