Back to Mumbai

So I am going to Mumbai again – after almost a whole empire. Though for this past year I have kept on whining about how much I miss Mumbai, but now that I am going back, I am filled with trepidation (Wow, big word!).

The fact is,  as has kinda become routine for me, I still haven’t fixed accommodation arrangements, so when I land in Mumbai I will be basically a refugee. I am bunking for the night at my old place with my old roommate, so I am not exactly destitute, but I better find some acco quick as I have only 1 day to move before office starts.

Wish me luck!

Not Cool Enough

This is in reference to my previous post titled “1 Year Later” – Aggghh, that sound a little too like the formal letters we had to write in the ManCom classes.

Well the thing is – my girlfriend read that post and her reaction is, and I quote verbatim – “I liked it but it’s just that it seemed that you pretended to be much more cool than you really are and as a result it didn’t feel genuine!“

So there you have, right from the horse’s mouth (just an expression), it’s official – I am not cool (as if everyone didn’t know that already!).

And henceforth I will not pretend to be cool either. ( )

Yeh Dilli Hain Mere Yaar

1st Year in IIMC is over, placements are over for the 2nd Years as well. So most of my friends & acquaintances have gone home for much needed R&Rs. And the first thing they do when they get home (even before talking to their friends & relatives) is to change their gtalk status messages to tell everyone  else in their hometown that they are back (so that They can pack and run away!!).

But the strange thing is that now I realise, at least half the IIMCians I know are from Delhi!! What’s with that? Is there a special Delhi quota in IIMC that I don’t know about?? Worth investigating.

1 Year Later

At Last – after 1 year of gruelling hard work (Ok its 9 months if you have to nitpick – Divyesh did, but that’s no surprise!), I have done it, I have completed the First Year of Post Grduate Programme in IIM Calcutta!

It has been an awesome journey (though it pretty much sucked all the time) – filled with joys, jubilations, tribulations and dissapointments (mostly it was the last two). Getting in was huge ego booster, but that boost carried me over the first one and a half terms AND cost me a good summer job!! After that rude awakening, came the slow recovery (WITHOUT the benefit of a bailout) and now I am in a complete “na-gharka-na-ghatka” stage, still dunno if I took the right decision to go for an MBA, but more or less confident that I haven’t made a total mess of myself here (yet).

The next 3 weeks will be pretty chill (as if any of my three weeks aren’t!!) – just sitting at home, gaming and watching movies and tv serials all day – I have filled up my external HDD in anticipation . I DO plan to study for my internship  but that’s what it will remain, a plan. And a friend is coming from Delhi – he has timed it well, we have our old college fest and Reunion Night this week only. So I will hang with the old group some. But my girl is coding in US – so I am missing her like crazy and 3 weeks at home and the 2 months of internship, without hankering after her and nagging her all day will be like hell.

So there; that’s my plan for the whole of March!! What’s up with you??

The Slumdog Debate

Just read an interesting article – an erstwhile slum-dweller’s take on “Slumdog Millionaire” (nowadays everyone seems to have something or the other to say about that film – just wait till it grabs an Oscar!).

After reading just one thing occurred to me – the author says that slum-life is no picnic: “Slum life is a cage. It robs you of confidence…It steals your pride, deadens your ambition, limits your imagination and psychologically cripples you..” and he scoffs at Jamal for breaking out of Dharavi, in the “traditional cinematic way, via true love, guts and good luck..“.

But then when I read the story of  the author’s life, I find that his life itself epitomises the confidence, the pride, the relentless drive showcased by Slumdog! Ironically, every twist & turn in Sudip Mazumdar’s life mirrors the guts & good luck that he finds so unbelievable on screen. Maybe what he says is true – slums in India are indeed a ghetto, from which there is a slim chance of escape. But “Q&A” tells just one story of one slum-dweller who got lucky – it never pretends to describe the lives of all the people in all the slums of the world.

For a different take on Slumdog, check this out.

PS: Standard disclaimers apply – this post doesn’t mean I like Slumdog (though actually I do) but I WOULD welcome any debate on this topic.

Breaking News!!!!

Breaking news!!! A judge in the Delhi High Court has ruled that it’s not a crime for married people to kiss each other in public – can you imagine the horror of it all?

Seriously – can you imagine that this piece of utter crap is actually the Most Read news Item on the BBC Website right now?? Even before we talk about the pathetic state of Indian society and their positively victorian sexual mores, what does this tell us about the general bekaarness of the web-surfing public (case in point – yours truly )!

The judge was rightly surprised that the police actually had the enthu to arrest this poor couple – with thousands of criminals roaming the streets of Delhi, you would think they had better stuff to do! Granted, most of the criminal are MPs & MLAs, so they are kinda hard to arrest but that still leaves the terrorists, right?

And what amazes me most is the hypocricy of it all – while people start rioting when some Khusboo says that it’s ok to boink before marriage but when Priety Zinta dates Ness Wadia or when Deepika says that she is dating Ranvir,  the same public are besides themselves in glee! What do they think they are doing – writing romantic poetry together?

Pathetic!

IIMC & Narendra Modi

There is something going on between the IIM Calcutta student community & Narendra Modi. Confused? Lemme explain.

You see, we have something called a Discussion Board on our Homepage. Its supposed to be a forum for free discussion between the students, alumni and the faculty. Now, every 2 weeks or so, someone or the other will invariably post some news or opinion article about how good/bad (curiously though, the discussion generally starts with the bad) Narendra Modi is. And then , as invariably, all hell will break loose!!

The Modi bashers generally take the stance that how he has in general fucked up the Gujarat state and that all the talk about the progress of Gujarat is just a good marketing campaign – all smoke and no substance! For this purpose they try to dig up obscure articles from equally obscure journos on the net as proof (Example).

The Modi Fan Club in IIMC on the other hand are quick to turn on these articles and very methodically, they tear down each of the arguments mentioned in them, point by point (their enthusiasm is quite impressive actually). The point they try to make is – Narendra Modi is the best thing to happen to Gujarat since Mahatma Gandhi, what with his uncanny ability to attract investment to the state and general pleasant personality. And wouldn’t it be good if he was the Prime Minister of India! And if you disagree with the godliness of Lord Modi then you must be a Congress sympathiser (That’s a VERY BAD thing) and must have read nothing other than the crap served by liberal english newspapers!

While I have no idea whether Modi is a good administrator or not – I find it funny that none of the Modi bashers has ever taken issue with the fact in 2001 Modi presided over or more likely, orchestrated the greatest state sponsored pogrom of human beings since Rwanda. It’s as if that chapter of Indian history has completely passed out of the public psyche – maybe that’s why we are so unfazed by the random murders and terrorist attacks that keep on happening all over the country.

Anyways I don’t want to launch into another anti-Modi tirade right now – no one wants to hear me vent my spleen. But no matter how much that man has contributed to the progress of Gujarat, all of it pales in comparison to his crimes against humanity. If we hadn’t burnt the body of that poor man, Gandhiji would be turning in his grave right now – with the likes of the Ambanis & Birlas calling Modi the Pride of Gujarat!!!

PS: Sorry for the serious post – promise I will make up for it by making the next one exxxtra funny!

Where the Hell is Matt?

Viral video alert people!!! Here is Matt, the dancing globe-trotter! If you are as clueless about internet sub-culture as I am, then here’s the 411 – Wikipedia’s artcle on Matt Harding. (Nowadays everyone seems to have a Wikipedia article on them!! Are, Mera number kab ayega? ) This guy has become so famous, even Visa hired him to do an ad for their new Travel Happy campaign!

Really liked this one – with the world going to pot in general, this reminded me that people everywhere, however hell-bent they are on killing each other, like to dance and smile! Maybe this will become the Rickrolling phenomenon of 2009 – hope you are happy Mr. Munrow.

For now, keep dancing!!

JBS No More….

Sorry Vamsi, no more videos for you

PS: Since I can’t stay unhappy for too long, here’s something funny I read.

JBS BaroC

JBS BaroC – possibly the only thing in IIMC that I actually like doing (What? You think I like making ppts till 3 in the morning?).

I just found out today that there is a JBS BaroC community on Orkut. That’s to be expected – Orkut has a community for every damn thing under the sun and then some. But the strange thing is that in the 7 odd months I have been a part of JBS, I have never even thought of looking for the JBS community in Orkut – I found out accidentally while browsing through a friend’s community list. (Note: This friend – he is also in JBS – has a fan community with 42 members: 40 guys & 2 girls!! Link)

Had a review-cum-feedback session for my performance in JBS last Thursday. Have to tell you the truth – when I was going for the review, I had butterflies in my stomach, kinda like what I was feeling just before proposing to my gf! The review was ….. (dunno good or bad) – the general consensus was that I need to give a lot more effort – true enough, 2 songs sung in a year is nothing to write home about. But in my defense, I was out of commission during our last performance during GGP (see link). But I was never much for giving excuses.

So the end result? Don’t know if I am in or out. If I am thrown out, that would really suck. And what with my general inferiority complex & approval issues, I just might go Virginia Tech and shoot up a buncha guys!!

PS: Here is a goody for all my devoted readers (Yeah, Right!) – This a video of my first performance for JBS, during Badla Party, 2008. Enjoy!