After I had travelled to Chennai for a day to give a training on the one and only JSF ( well that is the only subject which my bosses feel I can give training on ... ), I didnt get another chance to travel though TCS to some other locations. The Chennai travel was my first ever flight and hence I was very much looking forward to another travel. However it was in 2nd week of December 2006. Thereafter the IIMsa and other calls happened. Fortunately I came to know that I will be definitely joining a college this monsoon and hence resigned in May.
Now that they knew that I will not be here for long, my bosses decided to utilise my knowledge through various trainings. It was with this in mind that they told me to go to Kolkata to give a training. JSF requires 2 days to have a proper and complete training. The kolkata training was scheduled for 5 days. The reason being that the remaining 3 days were reserved for 2 other topics namely Spring framework and Hibernate ORM tool. (Btw JSF + Spring + Hibernate is considered to be a killer combination for creating web based applications in Java these days). Even though I had resigned and have no plans to continue working in the java space (rather tech space) in the future, I decided to learn the remaining two technologies so that I could atleast know what they are. (the more important reason being that it allowed me to stay in Kolkata and experience the place).
So I am all geared up for the travel. In the next few episodes I will start the actual travel related descriptions
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Kolkata chronicles
I hope the Travels of Gandhinagar were quite interesting. I received very good comments from SV for those posts. I had travelled to one more place for training and that was the city of Joy - Kolkata.
So the next few posts from me will be on my stay at Kolkata. I have decided to name the posts similar to that of SV's chronicles. Hope to cover all kinds of details about the place in the upcoming posts.
So the next few posts from me will be on my stay at Kolkata. I have decided to name the posts similar to that of SV's chronicles. Hope to cover all kinds of details about the place in the upcoming posts.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
My Travels - Gandhinagar - Part 4 - AksharDham
Every person who comes to Gandhinagar must pay a visit to the Akshardham temple.
I could not visit the Akshardham temple of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Sanstha on the first evening of my stay. I felt very disappointed that I could not go there considering the fact that it was open till 8 pm in the evening. So I decided that on the second day, I will definitely try to reach there somehow.
I was able to finish my training by 4 pm on the second day. My flight to Mumbai was at 6:50 pm and hence I had some time with me. Hence I decided to take a risk and go to the temple to seek darshan of Lord Shri Swaminarayan. Fortunately, two trainees -(Lord Swaminarayan bless them) decided to help me out by accompanying me to the temple.
So we picked up a rickshaw and decided to go there. The GNG rickshaws are definitely slower than the petrol rickshaws. We reached after some 15 mins. A few years back there had been a terrorist attack at the temple and hence security has been tight over there. Once you are done with the security formalitites, you can go ahead and view the temple complex. For lack of time, my itenary consisted only of visiting the temple.
The place is very beautiful and well maintained. Huge gardens, amusement parks and rides for chidren, nice washroom facilities, food courts all make it a nice place for the entire family to visit. If you plan to cover each part in detail, then I suggest that you reserve you entire day for it.
I headed straight to the temple. The temple structure is quite modern yet has that old world fine art of Indians. In short, it is a very beautiful structure. Inside the temple, Lord Swaminarayan in the colour of gold sits in a relaxed posture giving his blessings to everyone present over there. The temple also has a first floor where you can read about the history of Lord and his successors - the latest being Lord Pramukhswami Maharaj. To read more about the place, go here
After looking at the Lord and getting satisfied (In Hindi... Gandhinagar aana safal ho gaya :-) ) with my trip, I decided to return. There is no direct transport from Akshardham to the Ahmedabad airport. So that was a big worry for me. But fortunately, I reached the airport well before 5:50 pm.
I could not visit the Akshardham temple of BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Sanstha on the first evening of my stay. I felt very disappointed that I could not go there considering the fact that it was open till 8 pm in the evening. So I decided that on the second day, I will definitely try to reach there somehow.
I was able to finish my training by 4 pm on the second day. My flight to Mumbai was at 6:50 pm and hence I had some time with me. Hence I decided to take a risk and go to the temple to seek darshan of Lord Shri Swaminarayan. Fortunately, two trainees -(Lord Swaminarayan bless them) decided to help me out by accompanying me to the temple.
So we picked up a rickshaw and decided to go there. The GNG rickshaws are definitely slower than the petrol rickshaws. We reached after some 15 mins. A few years back there had been a terrorist attack at the temple and hence security has been tight over there. Once you are done with the security formalitites, you can go ahead and view the temple complex. For lack of time, my itenary consisted only of visiting the temple.
The place is very beautiful and well maintained. Huge gardens, amusement parks and rides for chidren, nice washroom facilities, food courts all make it a nice place for the entire family to visit. If you plan to cover each part in detail, then I suggest that you reserve you entire day for it.
I headed straight to the temple. The temple structure is quite modern yet has that old world fine art of Indians. In short, it is a very beautiful structure. Inside the temple, Lord Swaminarayan in the colour of gold sits in a relaxed posture giving his blessings to everyone present over there. The temple also has a first floor where you can read about the history of Lord and his successors - the latest being Lord Pramukhswami Maharaj. To read more about the place, go here
After looking at the Lord and getting satisfied (In Hindi... Gandhinagar aana safal ho gaya :-) ) with my trip, I decided to return. There is no direct transport from Akshardham to the Ahmedabad airport. So that was a big worry for me. But fortunately, I reached the airport well before 5:50 pm.
This is the last in the series of my posts related to my stay in Gandhinagar. Please feel free to add comments. Bye for now.
My Travels - Gandhinagar - Part 3
Now that I had reached the office well before time, I decided to explore the area. Good roads, few people roaming around here and there. Once inside the office, you are into the company land. so now newness around. I decided to straight away go to the training room and do some surfing.
Soon, the trainees arrived. Most of them were straight from the ILP and hence it was difficult for me to skip some of the topics. But I nevertheless covered the topics and they were able to comprehend most of it (Or atleast I assume so :-P) The training room over there was quite big as compared to the ones I have seen before : quite spacious with all the latest software. There were more than 30 trainees here and hence some of the machines had to be shared.
An important part of any office is its support infrastructure like coffee machines and canteen,etc. This office had many options at the coffee machines: Lemon Tea, Sugarfree tea/coffee, Masala Tea and IceTea. I was amazed by the options and gleefully had Lemon and Masala Tea. Both tasted very good. The canteen food was also very good and cheap. For Rs 35, you got 2 sabjis, dal, rotis, rice, papad, dahi/buttermilk and salad. The best part was that you could take any or all of this any number of times for the amount you paid initially. The quality of this food was also very good.
My stay was arranged at A6 and A7 bungalows in the same infocity campus. Before you assume something else, let me clarify that I got a room in that bungalow and not the entire bungalow. I must admit that TCS provides very good TQs (Transit Quarters) with all the facilities like an attached bathroom and good food, AC, TV, etc. But I also assume that this must be the case in any Big 5 IT companies. Nevertheless, you must appreciate the fact that your company does care about you when you are on some visit.
The food at the TQ was also good and tasty. I always knew that the food in Gujarat is very good and I was right in that respect. The TQ also had wireless fidelity and hence I was able to access my mails and orkut as well. On the first evening I had to walk the highway to reach my TQ but the next morning the TQ housekeeper showed me another path so that I could reach my office in only 5 mins.
I think I have described quite a lot about my office and TQ and the place in general. In the next and the last part, I will write about Akshardham which is an important highlight of my stay in Gandhinagar.
Soon, the trainees arrived. Most of them were straight from the ILP and hence it was difficult for me to skip some of the topics. But I nevertheless covered the topics and they were able to comprehend most of it (Or atleast I assume so :-P) The training room over there was quite big as compared to the ones I have seen before : quite spacious with all the latest software. There were more than 30 trainees here and hence some of the machines had to be shared.
An important part of any office is its support infrastructure like coffee machines and canteen,etc. This office had many options at the coffee machines: Lemon Tea, Sugarfree tea/coffee, Masala Tea and IceTea. I was amazed by the options and gleefully had Lemon and Masala Tea. Both tasted very good. The canteen food was also very good and cheap. For Rs 35, you got 2 sabjis, dal, rotis, rice, papad, dahi/buttermilk and salad. The best part was that you could take any or all of this any number of times for the amount you paid initially. The quality of this food was also very good.
My stay was arranged at A6 and A7 bungalows in the same infocity campus. Before you assume something else, let me clarify that I got a room in that bungalow and not the entire bungalow. I must admit that TCS provides very good TQs (Transit Quarters) with all the facilities like an attached bathroom and good food, AC, TV, etc. But I also assume that this must be the case in any Big 5 IT companies. Nevertheless, you must appreciate the fact that your company does care about you when you are on some visit.
The food at the TQ was also good and tasty. I always knew that the food in Gujarat is very good and I was right in that respect. The TQ also had wireless fidelity and hence I was able to access my mails and orkut as well. On the first evening I had to walk the highway to reach my TQ but the next morning the TQ housekeeper showed me another path so that I could reach my office in only 5 mins.
I think I have described quite a lot about my office and TQ and the place in general. In the next and the last part, I will write about Akshardham which is an important highlight of my stay in Gandhinagar.
My Travels - Gandhinagar - Part 2
Before reading this post, I suggest you read part 1.
Now that I have landed at the Ahmedabad airport, It was time for me to head to the company office in Gandhinagar. So I picked up a pre-paid taxi for Infocity, Gandhinagar
A few facts before we move ahead.
A. About Gandhinagar :- Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat. It has been named after the father of the nation - M.K. Gandhi. It is a planned city and hence at this place you will find names like sector-1, sector-2 and so on. Further there are very less traffic signals and to compensate for them, you have circles to navigate at various junctures. It is also said to be a green city. I think the reason for this would be: 1. all public transport vehicles like rickshaws and buses use CNG. 2. Planning of the city and 3. Lots of trees and gardens everywhere. Ahmedabad is certainly the biggest city of Gujarat but it is not planned and hence more like Mumbai.
B. About Infocity :- Infocity lies on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. It was an attempt by the Keshubhai Patel government of 2001 to bring IT companies to Gujarat. When I first heard about this place I expected it to be some huge complex with lots of buildings and lots of activities. But I was disappointed. It had only one building called as IT Tower 1. My company has two floors over there and plans to add one more. Besides, it has plan to develop a SEZ in Gujarat. Right now there is only one building but construction has begun for atleast 2 other towers. The infocity however has a residential township as well where people stay and that is a very good thing. It helps to reduce the commuting time. Apart from that, I also observed that since the residential was a part of the complex, there was wireless network present everywhere. That pleased me the most since I was able to access my mails and orkut which I am not able to do normally from office area.
The pre-paid taxi was quite costly (cost me arounf Rs.300) but as long as such costs are reimburesed by the company, I dont mind travelling in them.
People do say that Gujarat has really prospered in the past few years and it is growing even faster than China economically (around 15%). A major contribution to a fast growing economy is that of the roads and infrastructure. The roads in Gujarat are really good and I had a pleasant journey in the taxi as well with less traffic as well. The entire stretch from Ahmedabad to Infocity Gandhinagar was a smooth ride. Plus the rides that I have got once while travelling from Mumbai to Surat makes me believe that Gujarat is definitely doing good as far as roads go.
Well I have reached my office quite early and have a lot of time (around 2 hrs) to while away at the office.
This ends part 2 of the gandhinagar travels. In the next few parts I will describe a few more aspects of my stay.
Now that I have landed at the Ahmedabad airport, It was time for me to head to the company office in Gandhinagar. So I picked up a pre-paid taxi for Infocity, Gandhinagar
A few facts before we move ahead.
A. About Gandhinagar :- Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat. It has been named after the father of the nation - M.K. Gandhi. It is a planned city and hence at this place you will find names like sector-1, sector-2 and so on. Further there are very less traffic signals and to compensate for them, you have circles to navigate at various junctures. It is also said to be a green city. I think the reason for this would be: 1. all public transport vehicles like rickshaws and buses use CNG. 2. Planning of the city and 3. Lots of trees and gardens everywhere. Ahmedabad is certainly the biggest city of Gujarat but it is not planned and hence more like Mumbai.
B. About Infocity :- Infocity lies on the outskirts of Gandhinagar. It was an attempt by the Keshubhai Patel government of 2001 to bring IT companies to Gujarat. When I first heard about this place I expected it to be some huge complex with lots of buildings and lots of activities. But I was disappointed. It had only one building called as IT Tower 1. My company has two floors over there and plans to add one more. Besides, it has plan to develop a SEZ in Gujarat. Right now there is only one building but construction has begun for atleast 2 other towers. The infocity however has a residential township as well where people stay and that is a very good thing. It helps to reduce the commuting time. Apart from that, I also observed that since the residential was a part of the complex, there was wireless network present everywhere. That pleased me the most since I was able to access my mails and orkut which I am not able to do normally from office area.
The pre-paid taxi was quite costly (cost me arounf Rs.300) but as long as such costs are reimburesed by the company, I dont mind travelling in them.
People do say that Gujarat has really prospered in the past few years and it is growing even faster than China economically (around 15%). A major contribution to a fast growing economy is that of the roads and infrastructure. The roads in Gujarat are really good and I had a pleasant journey in the taxi as well with less traffic as well. The entire stretch from Ahmedabad to Infocity Gandhinagar was a smooth ride. Plus the rides that I have got once while travelling from Mumbai to Surat makes me believe that Gujarat is definitely doing good as far as roads go.
Well I have reached my office quite early and have a lot of time (around 2 hrs) to while away at the office.
This ends part 2 of the gandhinagar travels. In the next few parts I will describe a few more aspects of my stay.
My Travels - Gandhinagar - Part 1
Hello everyone,
Ever since I gave my resignation from my company, the bosses seem to have realised that there will be no one to look into the queries, proposals and trainings related to JSF, Java 5 and other seemingly non-preferred technologies within the Java domain. All others in the team are now working on some high end products like IBM e-Commerce or Portals like Vignette and Weblogic.
So my bosses decided to send me to a few places to give training on JSF. Hence I have been to Kolkata and Gandhinagar. While Kolkata was a 6 day affair, Gandhinagar was relatively short for only 2 days. Nonetheless it was a nice trip and I will write about it in this blog
There is a project in Gandhinagar that uses JSF. However, they were facing a lot of problems related to it. So it was decided that I would go there and train them on JSF. Little did they know that I have also never worked on any JSF project and hence even I would be having the same problems that any normal developer would have with JSF. But there is a difference. I do have the concepts of JSF quite clear and hence I do know some of the work-arounds for some of the problems.
The training days were decided to be on 8th and 9th June 2007. I decided to take the morning flight to Ahmedabad by JET Airways. This is the third time I have travelled by a airplane and I am loving every bit of travelling by a plane. Since I was travelling in JET after they went for a makeover, I expected them to sport their new uniforms and new things. But I was disappointed to see the same old dresses and style. However their service is quite good. Since the flight is only of 45 minutes, you can somehow pass the time in eating the snacks and looking out of the window or reading some magazines or newspapers. But if it is some long distance journey like Kolkata, then you will get bored quickly. This is where Kingfisher is really one up against JET.
The food was quite good and the journey also went off quite well. From an airplane, Mumbai looks stunning - Made up of disparate islands held together by some bridges. At night it looks even more beautiful under the lights. Anybody coming to India can easily say that it is the most lighted city in India.
In contrast, Ahmedabad looked no more than a small town from the plane while it was landing. Maybe I was comparing it with Mumbai and that was the mistake. Anyways, the Ahmedabad airport is quite decent and there were no problems in getting out of the Sardar Patel Airport of Ahmedabad.
This is the end of the first part of the series on Gandhinagar travels. In the next few posts I will be be detailing on the remaining part of my stay at the place
Ever since I gave my resignation from my company, the bosses seem to have realised that there will be no one to look into the queries, proposals and trainings related to JSF, Java 5 and other seemingly non-preferred technologies within the Java domain. All others in the team are now working on some high end products like IBM e-Commerce or Portals like Vignette and Weblogic.
So my bosses decided to send me to a few places to give training on JSF. Hence I have been to Kolkata and Gandhinagar. While Kolkata was a 6 day affair, Gandhinagar was relatively short for only 2 days. Nonetheless it was a nice trip and I will write about it in this blog
There is a project in Gandhinagar that uses JSF. However, they were facing a lot of problems related to it. So it was decided that I would go there and train them on JSF. Little did they know that I have also never worked on any JSF project and hence even I would be having the same problems that any normal developer would have with JSF. But there is a difference. I do have the concepts of JSF quite clear and hence I do know some of the work-arounds for some of the problems.
The training days were decided to be on 8th and 9th June 2007. I decided to take the morning flight to Ahmedabad by JET Airways. This is the third time I have travelled by a airplane and I am loving every bit of travelling by a plane. Since I was travelling in JET after they went for a makeover, I expected them to sport their new uniforms and new things. But I was disappointed to see the same old dresses and style. However their service is quite good. Since the flight is only of 45 minutes, you can somehow pass the time in eating the snacks and looking out of the window or reading some magazines or newspapers. But if it is some long distance journey like Kolkata, then you will get bored quickly. This is where Kingfisher is really one up against JET.
The food was quite good and the journey also went off quite well. From an airplane, Mumbai looks stunning - Made up of disparate islands held together by some bridges. At night it looks even more beautiful under the lights. Anybody coming to India can easily say that it is the most lighted city in India.
In contrast, Ahmedabad looked no more than a small town from the plane while it was landing. Maybe I was comparing it with Mumbai and that was the mistake. Anyways, the Ahmedabad airport is quite decent and there were no problems in getting out of the Sardar Patel Airport of Ahmedabad.
This is the end of the first part of the series on Gandhinagar travels. In the next few posts I will be be detailing on the remaining part of my stay at the place
Monday, May 21, 2007
Review of the STAR Parivar awards ceremony
The awards ceremony conducted by STAR group to honour their favourite actors and actresses on STAR Plus was shown on Sunday, 20th May 2007. Since I had nothing to do, I decided to watch the show and see how the different soaps and programs on STAR Plus compare against each other.
This particular award show is a medium to gauge the popularity of various shows and the characters in those soaps. I was particularly pleased with many of the winners this year. The reason I will tell you a little later. Before that I will quickly tell you how the show went.
The hosts these year were the comperes of the show Nach Baliye on STAR One. i.e Sangita Ghosh and Shabbir Ahluwalia. Joining them in the party was Varun Badola. These three together made a mockery of many of the shows in the channel through ballads and mimickry. It was quite funny and entertaining. However. I wasnt happy with the mandatory dance performances provided by some of the stars of the channels. Prerna aka Shweta Tiwari of Kasauti was pathetic. She seems to have put on weight as was visible from her dress. She dances better than many of the stars on TVs these days but yesterday was a bad day for her. Hussain as always is the Hrithik Roshan of TV. He is one of the best dancers on TV right now and Juhi aka Kumkum could not match her at all. The rest of the dances were also nothing to note about.
Now for the awards. Till the past few years, these awards are actually a medium for thanking Ekta Kapoor for making people famous and rich. But this year was different. The traditional favourites: KSBKBT, Kahani, Kasauti and the other K serials could not win many. This is an important warning signal to Ekta to quickly improve the content of her many soaps. Many of the awards that the K-camp won was primarily because of their old stars and not because of their new additions. It says a lot about user preferences: Good solid content is what matters these days, not the same old sauten, saas and bahu stories.
The surprising (and positively) pack of the ceremony was the two serials which come on weekends: Prithviraj Chauhan and Ba, Bahu and Baby. Both of them together won 8 awards in total. BBB grabbed the pole position with 5 awards and Pritvi with 3 awards. I am very pleased with this because these are the only two shows that I watch on STAR Plus because of their fresh approach and good content. Both these serials have excellent performances from their actors and crisp story line. BBB has brilliant performances from almost everyone (notably the children, Gattu, Baby, Pravin, Arvind...well I think the entire cast needs to be mentioned). Prithviraj Chauhan has really good performances from the lead star cast (the child Prithvi is simply amazing) and very good action sequences. Special mention here for the Sagar brothers. While Ramanand Sagar may be respected and considered good, his serials like Krishna had become very boring. Their cast used to overact and had lots of make up. Now the younger Sagar brothers have brought a new freshness to historical dramas.
I feel even more pleased since I feel vindicated by the awards given to these two serials. I can justify that I am actually watching good content on TV and not whiling away my time. Further they have beaten the traditional heavyweights, the K-Serials and that has pleased me the most.
This particular award show is a medium to gauge the popularity of various shows and the characters in those soaps. I was particularly pleased with many of the winners this year. The reason I will tell you a little later. Before that I will quickly tell you how the show went.
The hosts these year were the comperes of the show Nach Baliye on STAR One. i.e Sangita Ghosh and Shabbir Ahluwalia. Joining them in the party was Varun Badola. These three together made a mockery of many of the shows in the channel through ballads and mimickry. It was quite funny and entertaining. However. I wasnt happy with the mandatory dance performances provided by some of the stars of the channels. Prerna aka Shweta Tiwari of Kasauti was pathetic. She seems to have put on weight as was visible from her dress. She dances better than many of the stars on TVs these days but yesterday was a bad day for her. Hussain as always is the Hrithik Roshan of TV. He is one of the best dancers on TV right now and Juhi aka Kumkum could not match her at all. The rest of the dances were also nothing to note about.
Now for the awards. Till the past few years, these awards are actually a medium for thanking Ekta Kapoor for making people famous and rich. But this year was different. The traditional favourites: KSBKBT, Kahani, Kasauti and the other K serials could not win many. This is an important warning signal to Ekta to quickly improve the content of her many soaps. Many of the awards that the K-camp won was primarily because of their old stars and not because of their new additions. It says a lot about user preferences: Good solid content is what matters these days, not the same old sauten, saas and bahu stories.
The surprising (and positively) pack of the ceremony was the two serials which come on weekends: Prithviraj Chauhan and Ba, Bahu and Baby. Both of them together won 8 awards in total. BBB grabbed the pole position with 5 awards and Pritvi with 3 awards. I am very pleased with this because these are the only two shows that I watch on STAR Plus because of their fresh approach and good content. Both these serials have excellent performances from their actors and crisp story line. BBB has brilliant performances from almost everyone (notably the children, Gattu, Baby, Pravin, Arvind...well I think the entire cast needs to be mentioned). Prithviraj Chauhan has really good performances from the lead star cast (the child Prithvi is simply amazing) and very good action sequences. Special mention here for the Sagar brothers. While Ramanand Sagar may be respected and considered good, his serials like Krishna had become very boring. Their cast used to overact and had lots of make up. Now the younger Sagar brothers have brought a new freshness to historical dramas.
I feel even more pleased since I feel vindicated by the awards given to these two serials. I can justify that I am actually watching good content on TV and not whiling away my time. Further they have beaten the traditional heavyweights, the K-Serials and that has pleased me the most.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Some updates regarding my MBA
Hello everyone,
It has been a while now that I had posted something. SO today I will just let everyone know what I was upto in the [ast 1 month.
I had GDs and PIs lined up in February and March. So I was busy waiting for their results to come. Of all the interviews that I gave (well there werent many when you look at some of my friends' schedules ), I felt I had completely messed up the NITIE interview. Even the first round of SPJain was not so great. I didnt get much of a chance to showcase my abilities in that interview. I wasnt so positive about these two. But when the results of those interviews came, I was surprised. I had expected that I would not get a call for the second round of SPJain interview. But I got a call for the same. Similarly for NITIE I had expected that I would be somewhere in the waitlist. But I was in the final admission list of NITIE.
Now the second round of SPJain interview was far better than my first round. We had a GD in that round as well and I contributed well in that GD. I was able to answer quite a few questions.
So when the final list of admissions from SPJain came, I was shocked to see my name not even present in the waitlist. Such are the strange things that happen. Good surprises come from the least expected places. I had not expected NITIE to be very positive but that was the only positive thing that happened.
I also had two IIM calls : B and K. But I had got these calls since I had applied under OBC category. I had very good percentiles in two sections but missed out on VA section. When I appeared for the GDs and PIs at TIME as a part of practice sessions, I realised that I am quite capable of getting into the IIMs. I went ahead and appeared for the GDs and PIs for both the IIMs. They went quite well and I was postive that I would get into one of them under the OBC category. One disclaimer here: The OBC category students have almost the same cutoffs as the general category students and so claiming that they dilute the quality of IIMs will be like an insult to those students.
Unfortunately, the SC brought out a stay on that OBC quota and with it, my dreams of being in an IIM were washed away. Anyway, I am looking forward to joining NITIE unless something positive happens which is quite unlikely.
There is one more twist to this tale. I also face the prospect of landing up in JBIMS. Now that is a also a very good institution. It has put me in a dilemma : JB or NITIE.
As of now, my inclination is towards NITIE but as the days pass by, the urge to go to JB is also increasing. Lets see what I decide. Till that time, its bbye from me.
Comments as always are welcome. Also if you like please suggest your preference for the MBA institute: NITIE or JB.
It has been a while now that I had posted something. SO today I will just let everyone know what I was upto in the [ast 1 month.
I had GDs and PIs lined up in February and March. So I was busy waiting for their results to come. Of all the interviews that I gave (well there werent many when you look at some of my friends' schedules ), I felt I had completely messed up the NITIE interview. Even the first round of SPJain was not so great. I didnt get much of a chance to showcase my abilities in that interview. I wasnt so positive about these two. But when the results of those interviews came, I was surprised. I had expected that I would not get a call for the second round of SPJain interview. But I got a call for the same. Similarly for NITIE I had expected that I would be somewhere in the waitlist. But I was in the final admission list of NITIE.
Now the second round of SPJain interview was far better than my first round. We had a GD in that round as well and I contributed well in that GD. I was able to answer quite a few questions.
So when the final list of admissions from SPJain came, I was shocked to see my name not even present in the waitlist. Such are the strange things that happen. Good surprises come from the least expected places. I had not expected NITIE to be very positive but that was the only positive thing that happened.
I also had two IIM calls : B and K. But I had got these calls since I had applied under OBC category. I had very good percentiles in two sections but missed out on VA section. When I appeared for the GDs and PIs at TIME as a part of practice sessions, I realised that I am quite capable of getting into the IIMs. I went ahead and appeared for the GDs and PIs for both the IIMs. They went quite well and I was postive that I would get into one of them under the OBC category. One disclaimer here: The OBC category students have almost the same cutoffs as the general category students and so claiming that they dilute the quality of IIMs will be like an insult to those students.
Unfortunately, the SC brought out a stay on that OBC quota and with it, my dreams of being in an IIM were washed away. Anyway, I am looking forward to joining NITIE unless something positive happens which is quite unlikely.
There is one more twist to this tale. I also face the prospect of landing up in JBIMS. Now that is a also a very good institution. It has put me in a dilemma : JB or NITIE.
As of now, my inclination is towards NITIE but as the days pass by, the urge to go to JB is also increasing. Lets see what I decide. Till that time, its bbye from me.
Comments as always are welcome. Also if you like please suggest your preference for the MBA institute: NITIE or JB.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Objective analysis of Indian cricket after the World Cup Debacle
Hello everyone!!
The current world cup has brought cheers to some countries and despair to some of the biggest followers of the sport that is cricket. While it is nice to see nations like Bangladesh and Ireland, we also need to realise that it is also because of the lack of application from their highly ranked and over-hyped opponents i.e. India and Pakistan respectively.
Status before the world-cup
India before going to the world cup had won 2 one day series one against West Indies and the other against Sri Lanka. However both these victories were on home soil and also against second-best teams. Sri Lanka did not have Vaas or Murli while West Indies were also not having some of their key players like Sarwan. On the other hand we fielded our best sides against them as well.
If you go back little further in time, you will realise that we had lost to South Africa and West Indies before that and also to Australia in Malaysia. So we are not performing upto our abilities since the past one year now. So it shouldnt come as a surprise to us when we lose a few matches in the world cup...instead they should be expected from our team.
Reasons for the downfall
While it is difficult to point exactly where the problem lies, there are a few reasons that come to mind quickly
The current world cup has brought cheers to some countries and despair to some of the biggest followers of the sport that is cricket. While it is nice to see nations like Bangladesh and Ireland, we also need to realise that it is also because of the lack of application from their highly ranked and over-hyped opponents i.e. India and Pakistan respectively.
Status before the world-cup
India before going to the world cup had won 2 one day series one against West Indies and the other against Sri Lanka. However both these victories were on home soil and also against second-best teams. Sri Lanka did not have Vaas or Murli while West Indies were also not having some of their key players like Sarwan. On the other hand we fielded our best sides against them as well.
If you go back little further in time, you will realise that we had lost to South Africa and West Indies before that and also to Australia in Malaysia. So we are not performing upto our abilities since the past one year now. So it shouldnt come as a surprise to us when we lose a few matches in the world cup...instead they should be expected from our team.
Reasons for the downfall
While it is difficult to point exactly where the problem lies, there are a few reasons that come to mind quickly
- Lack of motivation: The team needs motivation to perform. Our team no doubt had goals and objectives but when you are under tremendous pressure, you are bound to falter at some point in time and unfortunately it happened at the wrong time for us.
- lack of sporting culture: A nation needs to have a sporting culture which we simply do not have. A very good example would be the Australians. It is not just in cricket that they excel but also in hockey, rugby, swimming, tennis and athletics. Similar is the case for other nations like New Zealand and South Africa.
- Over dependence on one sport: In our country we only concentrate on cricket. In contrast other nations concentrate on other sports equally as well. While having such a case is not a problem, for a large country like India in terms of population it also means that we simply do not excel in other sports at all and bring back the previous point
- Excessive hype: It is fine to label our players as stars, care needs to be taken that they are not over-hyped and raised to demi-god status. Unfortunately in our country where there is lack of real-life heroes, we quickly make a hero out of a player even if he has one good innings.
- Media hype: Media is responsible to a large extent for this hype. especially the Hindi news channels. I seriously doubt about their journalistic qualities when they call for extremely harsh measures like removing the entire team just on the basis of one or two losses. Have they made any analysis before coming out with their suggestions. If they are so good at making comments why dont they themselves become cricket administrators
- BCCI: The Indian cricket administration is equally responsible for the current mess. The entire setup is wrong which allows for many inefficiencies to creep in. Good cricket requires good infrastructure (Coaches, grounds, training materials, etc) and other facilities. No doubt about the raw quality of Indian cricketers but if they are not polished further, there is no scope for them to excel at the highest stage.
There are many more but let us now also look at the reactions from various quarters of the Indian public.
Reactions from the Indian public and my responses to them:
- BCCI: Only one thing to these group...shut up and resign. This would be the biggest gift to Indians. Let cricket be administered by cricketers not politicians and businessmen.
- Sponsors and advertisers: Please reduce your spending on cricketers. There are better things to do in life other than getting these blokes to advertise for you. Even if you want to make them your brand ambassadors, make sure they dont become complacent.
- General public: Please be rational in your responses. I know it is bad to see our team lose but that doesnt mean they are not humans. Please protest peacefully and protest in meaningful ways (Described later in the article). Burning posters, pelting stones, processions and detroying public property simply shows that we as a nation are not yet civilised. It also shows that we are still an uneducated society when it comes to such issues. We are simply making the players move away from us rather than support them in this hour of crisis. Do remember that these same players have played some really wonderful innings in the past and under tremendous pressure. Just because of one or two bad innings we cannot simply drop them from our team.
Ways to protest:
Use Gandhian means to protest against our team's dismal performance
- Do not use the the services and products endorsed by cricketers. There are many substitutes available. A realisation will dawn upon all of them- cricketers, sponsors and the media giants that nothing can be taken for granted
- Avoid watching matches
- Avoid going to grounds if possible
There will be many more ways to protest.
Message to Indian team:
Team India, it is okay if you lose matches after fighting hard for victory. But abject surrender is not acceptable. Do realize that you are here to play for the country and not for your sponsors and other businesses.
Lets hope that the team rises from the ashes and starts performing even better from here on.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Wishing all my readers a very happy new year. i know I am a bit late but please forgive me for that. I was reading Mr Karan Thapar's columns on Hindustan Times website and came across a funny message. I will put the link over here since pasting the content over here might lead me to break some copyright laws which I don't intend to. I especially want all of you to read the new year wishes sent to him by his relative. They are very similar to the agreement message that we get when we install some proprietary and licensed software.
I really admire the person who has created that particular new year message. Here is the column. Enjoy!!!
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