Dance at Shiamak's

First things first, I KNOW I SUCK AT DANCING..

Since IIMA results have came out, i've been literally free. There is nothing to do at all. No work (fortunately or unfortunately this time has coincided with my leisure days at office...thanks to ongoing recession), no study, no gym, no kids around...

Then started the google group of IIMA. Amidst lots of replies and threads flying around, one that caught my eye was the "those interested in dance" thread and replies therein. Our IIMA 2009-2011 batch has almost 15% girls. There were lots of queries from these kanyaein as to whether there is any dance club, are there dance performances held, any dance classes, etc etc. Going by the tuchhas (term for seniors at IIMA) replies, dance was a famous activity there.

Now my social life hasn't been a particularly successful one in terms of girlsssss...

This picture is the right depiction

.......................Mutually exclusive and exhaustive sets........

These two years of life at IIMA, probably my last as a student, were the last remaining hope of any social diffusion. So i was determined to use the dance forum at IIMA as a means to end my 25 years of vanvaas..

Hence the dance classes at Shiamak's. My beloved BD accompanies me to these classes. Somehow i can make BD accept anything and everything that i say. Bhulli and Mohan will remember the Rs.3000/- track-suit incident :) . I am writing this after having attended 3 classes and as i have already mentioned, i suck. And i am ok with it.

Lemme recall an episode from FRIENDS.."TOW all football"...All friends are playing american football. A Dutch girl is watching them. Joey and Chandler both eye her and their male hormones start going crazy. Chanlder tells Joey that he has just had a broken relationship and this girl might help him with getting over that. Joey replies,"Ohh..in that case you can have her". Chandler says,"I can have her..as if, if you don't allow me then i don't stand a chance". Joey replies," Yeahhhhhhh. But don't feel bad man. We all have our strengths. You are good with numbers and stuff"...

I know dancing is not my strength. I am ok with numbers and stuff. But that 5-foot 50 kg emaciated prick instructor of ours at the class was one son-of-a-bi***. Everytime he would look at me with a smile imprinted on his face saying,"Forget it pal." Add to that his usual comment,"Dude, bring some funk into you steps. It's looking more like aerobics and less like a dance".

Boy this was annoying. But in the FRIENDS episode, Chandler gives Joey the challenge as to who will get the girl. And guess what, Chandler wins and utters these immemorable words," Holland loves Chandler. Thank you Amsterdam. Good Night."

We still have 12 more classes. I am gonna get better and break the battisi of that prick instructor. Saala bahut hasta hai...

Entrepreneurship @ Prof. Sunil Handa

This is a blog entry of an IIMI guy about an entrepreneurship lecture delivered by prof. Sunil Handa, a very respected IIMA prof. I have copied it verbatim here..

How often have you been mesmerized by a speaker? How often have you wished that a seminar would never end? I'm sure it's not too many times...
But with Prof. Sunil Handa, that is exactly what happened. He has an ability to make you think and rethink. When he speaks about entrepreneurship, he can bring even a snail out of it's shell, to challenge the world.

I remember his words - "Be aggressive, Be assertive... Do not ask, Take it! The worst that could happen is that you will be told no." It would be IMPOSSIBLE to bring out the atmosphere of that session through this blog-post, but I'm just gonna let my thoughts flow...

Prof. Handa started off by asking people what stops them from venturing on their own.When he asked why many of us would want to work for a couple of years before starting a venture. Some of the replies which came out were:

1. I'd work for a couple of years to earn some capital (seed money) for my business.
2. I'd work for a few years to increase contacts and create a network.
3. I'd work some time to gain experience.
4. I have to pay back my educational loan.

How many of us give the exact same answers? Who are we kidding?

As Prof. Handa said, the only reason is - "Tumhari phat ti hai!" With his extremely frank style, he dismissed each of those bluffs one by one:

1. Seed Money

Two Years - How Much??!!On evaluating his earnings over 2 years, one of the participants here, "Nemo", said that he'd probably save about 2-3 Lakhs (he undervalued himself TOO much, the downturn has really psyched people out...). Isn't that a bit too little for capital money? Guess what the Prof had to say.... I'll give you a loan for 3 lakhs (zero interest) when you finish your studies. Work on your venture... If it clicks, you can pay me back the principle, otherwise forget about it. He had just one condition... Immediately write a letter to the Placement Cell telling them that you're opting out of Final Placements!! Did he accept the offer? Well, would you have? Let's face it - many out there are just too unsure about how much risk they can take.

2. Work to increase contacts

Prof Handa drew this diagram on the board and told us,
"During the next 2 years, you will be that small white dot in the huge organization.Do you think you're gonna build contacts with the boss of another company?".

Let's face it, he was right again. Kutte ki dosti Kutte se hi hoti hai.

lol ... I guess that rules out number 2 also. Prof. Handa gave the example of one incident when one of his students got an appointment with Mr. Dayanidhi Maran for half an hour which ended up getting cropped to 5 min. A small window of opportunity opened during that brief visit and Prof Handa said he slid through in that one-millionth of a second. Essentially, he wanted to prove how you must be aggressive, and the fact that you don't need work experience to create contacts. You might just see a vacant seat at a table of esteemed personalities. Go grab the chair!

3. To gain experience
According the Prof, you don't gain any experience at your 2 year job. Even if you do, you'd learn far more working on your own venture. So this reason is again pointless and just a myth.

4. To pay back educational loan
This is where Prof Handa spoke about "The Circle of screwed Indebtedness". What's that?? Well, it's essentially a vicious circle of loans... You know, loans taken to pay off previous loans. And the saga continues.... The prof was ready to give an offer here as well - To pay off our loan till we can pay him back, if we'd agree to start our own venture.Why exactly are people afraid??

When someone told the Prof that jobs were safe and comfortable whereas entrepreneurship was risky, he made a complete mockery out of him. He told us that it was the over-protective behaviour of many parents and at times their non-terminating government jobs which gave us such perceptions. For him, it was obvious... Venturing out on your own was the absolutely safer bet, and then again, he asked..."Don't you guys want to be rich?"

Oh that qs. triggered another drama when one of us said, "Money isn't that important, I just wana chill out and enjoy life."

Bad thing to say to Prof Handa. Another person got sent to the crusher.

Let me tell you a bit about "The Sunil Handa":
Born in a simple family, Prof Handa and his brother jumped into entrepreneurship early and with just Rs. 15,000. They soon owned over half a dozen pharma factories and had to their names a whooping 1200 Crores (1995). However, that was when life took a turn for him. A dispute and business split with his brother left him devastated. It took him numerous months and visits to all the saadhus (pendulum babas, magneto-therapists etc.) whom relatives referred him to, before he could come out of the depression. When he finally did, he kind of retired from his busy entrepreneur life, and started Eklavya School in Ahmedabad.

For the past 17 years, Mr. Sunil Handa has been teaching a course called "LEM" (Labrotary in Entrepreneurial Motivation), at IIM Ahmedabad, a course which he says has no book, no notes, no quizzes/exams, practically no pedagogy. Just a few lectures and a whole load of one-to-one sessions. And his students he calls LEMmers. Prof Handa said that around 200 of his students are entrepreneurs today; people who interact with him very regularly and seek guidance on numerous issues.

There were two main entrepreneurial examples which the Professor gave:

The first one was of Mr. K R Rao, one of Prof. Handa's own batchmates at IIM Ahmedabad. (1977-1979) This lad was a true social butterfly at that time; someone who many didn't even remember during their silver jubilee reunion (2004). But with "Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals" under his sleeve, Rao's net worth is over Rs. 3000 crore today. Though Mr. Rao was a B.Com-MBA grad, he was a true visionary.

Moving on to the next example, Prof. Handa spoke about his teaching career's first entrepreneurial student, Mr. Narendra Murkumbi. This lad's first idea was that of manufacturing a Neem Insecticide in Belgaum. Though Prof. Handa was apprehensive about the idea initially, he was assured of its success after speaking to an international neem expert, Dr. Gupta at ICRISAT. Though the product turned out to be a great success, the customers were farmers and hence the Receivables on his balance sheets were huge. It was in 1995 that Narendra came up with the idea of buying old sugar mills and starting production of sugar. Prof Handa told him that he was crazy and that sugar was meant for people in the upper echelons of politics. But like many entrepreneurs, Mr. Murkumbi was willing to risk it. He went on with his plan and today he is the owner of one of the world's most scientific state-of-the-art sugar mills, Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd. Not only that, he was also featured as one of India's new bilionaires by Business World.

One interesting thing about Renuka Sugars is that they use co-generation to produce their own energy (using the waste, bagasse which comes from sugarcane). No electricity is purchased from outside. When Murkumbi explained the idea to Prof Handa, he said, "When god created sugarcane, he put enough energy in it to bring the sugar out of it."

Flirting with Ideas
After numerous success stories, Prof Handa told us that we must face reality, and it's not necessary that your first venture becomes a million dollar lottery. You have to experiment..."Flirt with different ideas" and eventually one of your plans will click. For some it's the first... for Prof Handa it was the 7th.

One on One Interaction
It was after the first session that Prof Handa decided to interact with a few participants who were interested in entrepreneurship. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity as well. (Thanks Jalan...). It was nice speaking to Prof Handa for about 25 min where we discussed certain patchy ideas that I had in my mind. He had so much to share and I could've sat there forever. But time is one thing you don't get when you need it the most. Anyways, I guess we all hope to interact with him again in the future. Let's see how much effect such talks have on IIM Indore's participants, and how many of us venture out on our own some day....

IIM A or B or C...Part 3

Here is another reply that we were given on the debate on whether to join IIM A or B or C...

Copied verbatim....
I think its a very valid concern which most of us also faced is last year.. further, this is probably the best forum get opinion on the impending decision as most of us left B and C to come here (while a very few people at B and C would have left A).. while that itself says a lot about the institutes, i will share with you guys how i made up my mind last year and how does it now seem in retrospect.

Standard personal-opinion disclaimer applies.

Placements:In terms of the number and type of companies, i think A, B or C are all more or less the same.

Alumni network: I was not sure of this, but my seniors at B only told me that A has by far the strongest alumni network. This i believe has a more long term impact on your professional growth.

Learning: IIMA is by far the most rigorous of the three. that was a natural deterrent for me, particularly after the laziest year of my life (DD at IITB). but one gradually gets used to the hectic schedule and the vertical learning curve. I wouldn't have said this a year back, but most of the courses indeed add a lot of value to you

Peer group: As mentioned above, A attracts the best talent pool. call it herd mentality, but its a herd of the most brilliant people. joining it will only make your experience more enriching
punctuality, discipline, sincerity etc are some unsolicited virtues one inevitably acquires here.. but yeah, you wouldn't care about them right now :p

Itna load mat lo.. there is no clear-cut right choice here.. the difference if any, is only marginal..

To sign off, i will just copy my super-tuccha's statement here.. when I was trying to resolve my doubts -

"Unless you have extremely strong reasons to go for B or C, just take A. Its a lifetime superstamp on your sleeve."

IIM A or B or C...Part 2

Part 2 of the series about whether to join IIM A or B or C. This was a reply sent to my immediate seniors by their senior.

Copied verbatim....
I joined in late and was just browsing through the group when I came across this. A lot has been said about the subject in the numerous mails before this. I really wonder why!

Is it that the multiple call getters want to act pricey and boast of having got through ABC when they already know where they will join? Now come on guys, we do not need managers to be so indecisive. Please do not compare IIM X with A. They are great institutions in their own right, but on par with A? Excuse me! Kindly wash your face and get a reality check. At the end of the day, person with 6 calls is equivalent to a person with an exclusive A call.

Or are these future leaders so immature that they want to relax for 2 years in a Bangalore pub or play on a Calcutta football ground? Come on guys, you gave CAT to do an MBA for god-damn-sake. If you are scared enough to think twice before joining A due to the academic rigour here (which I hope is not the case), then please go elsewhere. IIM Ahmedabad does not need chickens. We take a lot of pride in the premier status of our institute.

Anyways, since people asked for it, I thought I'd dole out my two pence.

Better late than never. For the record, I'm FoojZi - a PGP 3. I just thought I'd share my point of view on this ever raging debate that goes on in the mind of an ABC guy/girl. Let's take it case by case.

*Academic Rigour*

A popular joke among the IIMs is that the A in IIMA stands for Academics, not Ahmedabad. True, very true. We study the hardest, we come out the best. The first year in IIMA is said to be one of the toughest experiences one might have in an entire lifetime. It prepares you for all circumstances ahead. B and C are also tough, but no where close to A. Scared? Better be. It is true. Muggo Fachchon Muggo is not said for nothing! :-)

*Placements*

There is an old saying - Make hay while the sun shines! It is believed that there is little difference between the placements of A/B/C, except may be for 10 odd additional Day0s for A each year. Or is it?

The 3 were never really tested in the last few years when the recruiters came down for final placements. Leave aside C, they do not stand in the picture. The last 2 years had been bumper years for placements and hence little difference between A and B, though A maintained its lead quite clearly. However the scenario changed from this March when the situation normalised and the requirements were low. Some 'trusted' recruiters (names withheld for obvious reasons) took much lower numbers from B and did not even go to C. On the other side, at A, it was normal business as usual.

*Faculty*

A/B/C all three have quality faculty. Little difference there. Any place you go, you are sure that the best in the country would be teaching you. But then again, you have more than one teacher in a classroom. You actually have around 70 at a time.

*Students*

The students (YOU!) are the other 70 teachers in a classroom. Each year the best of the best come to IIMA. Almost everyone in IIMA also has a B/C call. On the other hand, there would be hardly 5-6 each in B/C who opted for those institutes over A.

*Courses*

All IIMs offer excellent courses. But where IIMA scores over others in the first year is with Written Analysis & Communication, Managerial Computing and Spoken Business Communication among others. These courses really help you in your summer internships and are a differentiating factor between an IIMA guy and an IIMX guy.

*Parties*

There are monthly Ramp parties in IIMA. The Cultural Committe takes care of that. B has it's own variant - LSquare and so does C. But no ways does A lag behind on this front. And contrary to popular perception, Gujarat might be dry but IIM Ahmedabad isn't. Ask me! ;-)

*Extra-Curricular Activities*

Leave aside academics, and we have an annual itenary of extra- currics. Yes the academic rigour might prevent some from participation, but then it's your choice. No one stops you from anything. T-Nites, Chaos, Diwali, Holi, etc etc etc. We have our own package here. B and C might score a tad above A in this regard. But there are plenty of student clubs at IIMA to take care of that.

*Sports*

Everyday you will see WIMWIans playing football/basketball /badminton/ cricket/other games on campus. IIMA defeated IIMB 7-4 in last year's sports meet called Sangharsh. The meet as held after nearly 20 years. See, we are not just better at business. :-)

*Business Meets*

Confluence is the name of the annual business summit of IIMA. Year after year the prize money, the number of participants (both domestic + international) , the moolah and the rest is much higher and much better at IIM Ahmedabad than any other institute on the continent. A participation certificate at Confluence is a big CV point for other institutes' students.
Confluence >> Vista (B)
Confluence >> Intaglio (C)
Also, there are other events like Amaethon, Insight, International Marketing Conferences, Venture Capitalist Conclaves, Avtaran and the likes happening around the year at A. You'll know more about them on campus.

*Business Networking*

Some say that networking with alumni is the one of the most important parts in an MBA. True to some extent. And understandably, the IIMA Alumni network is the best of the lot. IIMC comes close. IIMB lags behind at No 3 in this.

*Exchange Programme*

IIMA has, by far, the best exchange programme among all IIMs. It has the most number of exchange seats and the best diversity among all institutes with seats available in even South America apart from the regulars of North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. This year a dual degree programme with ESSEC has been initiated.

*Culture*

Each institute has its own. B and C are also fantastic at this. But the dorm culture at IIMA is like none other. Come to the fachcha meets and you will know the tempo shouts. Come to IIMA and you will be rechristened with a dorm name. Come to a dorm and you will celebrate your Birthday like never before. Unlike hostels of 200 students, we have smaller dorms of sizes 20- 40. This facilitates greater interaction and bonding at the dorm level. You make friends for life. And the student mix in a dorm has a great variety as well. So you not only learn in the class, but also outside as well.

*The Brand*

You all must have seen the B-School rankings. A ranks Numero Uno by a long margin!

In a lighter vein, just imagine this scenario -- Year 2010. It's been one year since your MBA and an old family friend comes and visits you after 5 years. Your father introduces you to him, "Mera beta MBA hai. Pichhle saal hi graduate kiya hai IIM se."

The visitor says, "Arre waah bete! Yeh to bahut achchhi baat hai. Kaun se IIM se MBA kiya tumne?"Very proudly you say, "IIM B/C se uncle". And casually he replies, "Bahut badiya bete, bahut badiya. Lekin kya hua tha, A nahi mila tha kya?"

Period.

My own personal story in May-June 2005. I was also faced with this decision then. C seemed to be the chillest of the lot and a lot of my college friends were there. B, my then girlfriend lived there and I loved the city. And A of course was A. But then I thought that this MBA I will do only once in my life. Why shall I look for small advantages now! I want to go to the best and be one of the best. For help, I called up my NSIT/DCE friends in B and C who had gone there before me. I asked them A/B/C. They plainly said to me, "Yaar, we came to B/C because we did not get the chance to go to A. If you were an outsider, we would have pitched and told you to join our institute. But since you are our friend, we will tell you the reality. Whatever the reasons may or may not be, GO TO A."

Right then, my choice was clear.

I ask all you incoming fachchas to travel back to November 2006. Think about the day you wrote CAT. Think about your dream institution then which you wanted to join. You will have your answer.

If anyone of you has any queries, feel free to mail me. I will be happy to help you out.

IIM A or B or C...Part 1

Cleared CAT. Got multiple calls. Partied. Now a decision to be made, which IIM should i join. For me the answer was simple. I had to join IIMA. It was dream since my second last year of college. And today, 4 years later when i have a chance to join it, i am not gonna let any reason like back-breaking academic rigour or anything else deter me from joining A. But for many others choice is not that simple. Hence a lot of debate around which IIM to join.

Here is the first part of series involving which IIM to go. These are replies that i got from my seniors at IIMA.

Copied verbatim.....

Meant only for an adult and mature audience. Parental guidance advised.

An MBA is like a marriage. You're happy and excited when you're getting married, but it doesn't take much time to realize you were better off as a bachelor.So in that sense the institute is like your wife. You are stuck with it once you're married.In this case... your spouse is always going to be more famous than you and as much as I hate to say this "you shall be using your wife to further your career!"

Continuing this analogy a little further... since most of you have met your wives not more than once or twice, this essentially is an arranged marriage for you (the smart ones ofcourse believe in love at first sight)

So the people in this group are lucky enough to have the option of marrying A or B or C. My friend from IIMC compared these to Aishwarya Rai (A), Bipasha Basu (B) and Celina Jaitley(C). The choice is yours whom you want to marry.

However there are a couple of small little issues:
1.) You have to share your wife with 300 other people.
2.) You can't marry all three of them,
But that essentially is the choice between A, B or C. You could marry Ms. A and introduce your wife as being world famous in India. One who is undoubtedly "the most beautiful woman in the world". One whose face is recognised throughout the world. Essentially she represents the Indian woman to the world. Or... you could marry a certain Ms. Basu with whom you could have a lot of fun! But you'd often end up saying "Well.. she's beautiful in her own way." Or... you could marry Ms. Celina. No doubt she's beautiful but one for whom you would have to say "So what if she can't act. She has the potential!"

If you were hoping for a serious answer to the A Vs. B Vs. C query... please ignore what I've written before this, but do read on.

Frankly... I really do not see how anyone on this group is capable of answering this question. None of the members of the groups has had the good fortune to experience more than one of these institutes. If anyone answers it, its only based on what we "hear".In my personal opinion there is almost no difference between A or B or C. They area all good and bad in their own ways. Most people get almost the same jobs across these three campuses. You essentially put the same total effort across the two years (IIMA sends GPAs of 1st eyar to companies during pacements. C sends for 4 terms and B for 5 terms. So the others work for a longer time). So the crap that we hear that we work really hard at A and don't at B or C is just that..."crap". Yes, we do work very very hard in the 1st year. But then we don't HAVE to work hard in the second year.

Going back to my analogy: The choice is essentially "Do you like to do it fast and aggressive and heated." or "Do you like to do it simple and sober and slow... at your own pace" (pun unintended). Anyway... 2 months into marriage most people like their neighbours' wife more :)

On a serious note...An MBA is much more than just classroom studies or projects. unfortunately many of us do not realize this. Irrespective of whether you join A or B or C, you would get infinite opportunities to explore things. Most fail to pick them. An MBA gives you a different perspective to look at things. When someone said "An MBA is just common sense thrown in with a lot of jargon", she couldn't ave been more correct. Only that we generally do not use common sense. MBA teaches you how to use common sense logically and consciously.

Please think for yourself why you want to do an MBA. You answer could be "to get a high paying job" or it could be "I want to listen to some great people talk" (yeah.. Lalu Yadav is not the only one who came to our campus) or it could be "My girlfriend's dad is an MBA and I need to do it for her" or anything more weird like "personality development", etc etc. But you should know WHY you are doing an MBA. It'll help you take much more from an MBA. Do NOT enter a B-school the way we enter engineering schools or any other bachelor's degree course. You would do yourself and your batchmates a favour if you are mature enough to know why you are doing an MBA and what you want at the end of the course. A certain level of maturity is expected for the post graduate course.

Remember "Child marriage is illegal and doesn't do no good to anyone" :)

Aaah.. and incase you happen to find out which one of A, or B or C is better (mature answers only please) do mail me and I will arrange a nobel prize for you.

Ignorance is bliss

I never believed in the statement,"Ignorance is bliss." For me it was a statement composed by some loser to get away from reality; for if you close your eyes, world doesn't cease to exist.

Then there is another statement,"Everything is fair in love and war". These days i guess i am moving away from love to war.

So here's how these two statements come together. There is only one way i can move away from love and that way is ignorance.

The reason love had blossomed was because i knew almost everything (atleast that is what i used to think) about her in terms of what she is doing, how her people are, what she is going through, problems in her life, what she likes, what she dislikes, what suites her, what not, who her friends are, her past relationships, her current relationships, her other personal problems, etc etc. I guess the list will never end.

And the reason now it had become a pain, forcing me to move away from it, was because there was no more sharing - the quintessential component of a healthy relationship. And it was decreasing by the day to the point where it became a complete blackout. What was circumstantial initially has now become deliberate. Now i try not to know anything about her and hence an effort to go into a state of ignorance. And the best way to do it is by not looking at her at all. I will not know if there is cut on her lip, what colour her hair is, whether she has grown them or trimmed them, whether she has put on or lost,whether her glasses suit her or not, and most important of all...is she looking happy or sad.


Any particular reason for this ignorance? In my case, well, lemme try and put it this way..for every thing i will get to know about her either through herself or others, i know there will be "others" who will know a lot more..and i cant bear this. Hence ignorance.

And is it a bliss?

To some extent, yes. Pain is a lot less. For all this while, I felt more pain when she had a problem. I dont know what she is going through, so I seek solace in the fact that she is good enough to take care of herself.


But to a great extent, an emphatic NO. Simply because i dont want this ignorance. I want to know what she is going through; i want to reach out; i wanna be there for her. It hurts to be in a state where i dont revel in her laughter; i dont get to know of all the small/silly/stupid but amazingly mine things happening in her life. It might comfort me for most part of the day that i dont know anything about her and i can be happy for myself, but those few minutes when you get the feeling that she might not be alright, that there might be something wrong, make all the happiness a little shallow.

I once heard this saying in hindi," Har kisi ko azbe-aarzo(deepest desire) na mila.... kisi ko hum na mile, koi hume na mila"... After a certain point, i guess you just have to let go..

So is ignorance a bliss? I think i still hold on to my belief," It is a statement composed by some loser to get away from reality"..

May GOD bless her....and may i suffer from permanent amnesia about all of this :)

18th Floor theory

There are two kind of people. One who are ready to open their heart and regret it all their life when fun is poked at them regarding that emotional catharsis session. The other type never open to anyone, keep their emotions bottled up and probably suffer and regret this all their life.

Two different life philosophies; hard to say which one is the right one to follow. Anyways, this story involves a character from each category mentioned above.



Our beloved Kunal aka bhatti is the emotional romantic open-your-heart-to-your-friends type. Here's a sneak peak at this dude with a sprouting in-your-face kinda moustache. Also noticeable is a gazillion years old cap, probably the one wore by Adam, to hide his baldness, when he was "doing" Eve.






I on the other hand am the fun poking, bottled-up emotions type. I am sure bhatti would have loved to add some other picture of mine, probbaly the one where i am sleeping holding cell phone in my hand. :) kyun bhatti..hai ki nahin.















Incident took place on a rainy day in july of 2007.



But first some background......


Bhatti worked for Comverse for a couple of years before he moved to Oracle. He had a friend over there who lived in a multi-storey building on 18th floor.

And as has been Bhatti's speciality since the dawn of humanity, he was senti about this girl but would not agree. As usual i would prod him to go ahead and tell her and he continued with his we-r-just-friends crap.

But then this is bhatti..sooner or later he will spill the beans.



Let's come back to July'07. Me and bhatti were sitting in our flat balcony in the rain. It is one of those open-your-heart-to-your-mate sessions. Bhatti is telling me all about the girls in his office. Who she likes, what about them, etc. I am, as usual, all ears..waiting for my moment. Bhatti generally opens up after a while and then information flows out like boundaries from Sehwag's bat.

And then my moment arrived. Probably one of the raindrops trickled down into the sea of bhatti's emotions, stirred them and made him utter this gem of a dialogue..

Next thing i know is that i am rolling on the floor with laughter, holding my stomach. Bhatti realised his mistake and tried his level best to diffuse the situation , but then bullets once out of a gun don't return.

This dialogue is gonna haunt bhatti for a long time. Gosh i love screwing this guy...meri jaan bhatti, aise hi hame teri lene ke mauke deta reh. We need them.

In the company of kids...

Last 10 days were one of the most fun filled days i have had in a very long time. I went to spend a few days at Kolkatta with my nephew and nieces.

Their brief intro by descending age :

Mayank aka DUDE - The smart one. Hit with girls, rowing champ, (gold medal winner in many competitions) this model dude knows every nook and crany of kolkatta. Introduced me to doodh-pepsi.

Khushboo aka PETALEATER - The shy one. Going into first year of college. Swim, jog and dance( I dont believe it though) enthusiast.

Ishu aka JAILER - The fun-loving one. Can make deafs hear with her loud and deliberate shrieks.

Megha aka CHINI KAM - The cleverest of the lot. Always looking for ways to poke fun at me. This loser miserably failed at beating me (though i am sure she will never accept this)

Reached kolkatta on 27th March morning and had booked two return tickets - one for 1 April and second for 5 April - depending on how soon either party gets bored.

First day Khushboo was busy preparing for last board exam the next day. So i went out with Ishu and Megha for bowling and other games. i was undisputed champ in all games. Bowling scores were Ishu - 20 odd, Megha - 20 odd and me -101. Almost 5 times their individual scores.
Then we palyed air-hockey, losers lost once again. Though Megha will claim that she won the second game. Actually the game ends when either side reaches 9. I was 6-0 up against Megha. Since we had enough time left and i didnt want game to end, so i switched sides with Megha. Final scores were 8-6 with Megha up. But clearly i was the winner.

Next few days were spent playing an array of games like Uno, Ludo, Scrabble, Word-building, Bluff, cow-bull, bollywood, dumb charades, and the mother of all games..Judgement.

There were fights, tempter tantrums, shouting, chuntis (Mayank and Ishu), showing of Loser sign, late night card competition, etc. Positions were changed in every game, with me occupying first spot in each game atleast once. The only constant theme amidst all this was the consistent performance of Khushboo...she was invariably the last position holder in every game, except a couple of rounds. Every time i played, i had only one aim..not to come last. And Khushboo helped me with that every single time. Thank you sweety....

Snapshot of performance in each game:

Uno - Megha and Ishu were the undisputed champs of this game. I got a hang of this game only after 2-3 days. Till then i was assisted by whosoever came first. Still i ended up last in almost every game, except ones in which khushboo played.

Bluff - It's a boys game, because we only can lie. Me and Mayank topped this game with Khushboo holding her position of honour every time. In fact she got into a habit of collecting cards in this game. She would stack up a thick bunch of cards and by this time me or Mayank would have finished ours. One of us would then take over her cards and she would go to her beloved cell phone and SMSing. We would then play for her and still end up in 3rd or 4th position. A game khushboo never lost- thanks to Mayank and me. And loser was ISHU. I am sure every one would remember Mayank's song and dance sequence after defeating Ishu for second last place. What was the song yaar....?

Scrabble - Megha rulz. This 7th passout had everyone at her mercy in this game. Would end up with max marks with the shortest words, thanks to judicious use of double and tripple word marks. No guesses for the last position holder......every time.

Word Building - Nobody can beat khushboo in this. Megha held khusboo's customary position in this game. In one of the games, she was made "DONKEY" while Khushboo and Ishu were yet to open their accounts. Megha sucks at this game. Thanks largely to a stupid lingo and vocab. So LS :)

Ludo - We played as partners. Me and khushboo in one team and Ishu and Megha in the other team. Me and Khushboo won every time. This was the game where losers showed their true colors. There was bending of rules, shouting, temper tantrums and infighting. Megha was determined to piss-off Ishu big time and would end up getting inverse of what Ishu would ask for. If ishu would ask megha, "get 1", Megha would get a six. If she asked for a 6, Megha got 1. Me and khushboo were in splits...boy, we should have taped ishu's temper here.

Cow-Bull - Played only one day between me, khushboo and megha. Me and Megha were a team. In this game you give the opponent a four syllable word to guess and they get 10 chances to guess. khushboo gave us a four letter word woth no vowels and we were having an impossible time guessing it. And then having a cell phone finally paid off.. I called up my friend BD and asked him to google such words and SMS them to me. He mailed back hymn, myth and lynx. Khushboo had given us hymn. Next we set her myth but she guessed it in 4 chances. Khsuhboo won. We lost, despite all cheating :(

Bollywood - Played only one day between me, khushboo and megha. Me and Megha were team. We won hands down. Khsuhboo had her beloved position.

Dumb-charades - Khushboo and Mayank were one team and me, Ishu and Megha in other team. Game ended in a draw, thanks largely to khushboo's ultra-poor memory. Mayank broke the film in four parts, made her guess each part individually and when the time came for combining them, Khushboo forgot what she had guessed. :) ...bummer. ...But Khushboo and Mayank made an awesome team. I gave them all sort of imaginary films to guess, Dhindora gali mohalle mein, din-e-elahi, etc and they still guessed them.

And finally the game of the trip - Judgement. Kids' bua nd my didi came over and taught us this gripping, addictive, interesting game. Can be played by any number of players. Each player is given cards and then every one has to guess how many hands they can make. Each one then has to make exactly the same number of hands as guessed. Not one more, not one less. We would play this game for hours at a stretch with only a-very-late-night-and-time-to-sleep routine stopping us. Fortunes were changed in this game every time. Me, Khushboo, Ishu, Megha, Masi, Didi all stood first one time or other. Khushboo was last most of the times.

Two movies were seen- one seriously pathetic(aa dekhe zaraa) and one seriously awesome (curious case of Benjamin Button). I could see why girls love Brad Pitt. I dont know why, but i could see why even guys like him ... :)

Old pictures were seen - with ishu's boy-cut teeth-showing pic taking the cake, friends was watched, Roadies, Splitsvilla and numerous other dance shows were seen - and curiously enough in their company i enjoyed all this.

I even had nail-polish applied to a thumb and a finger to stop me from biting my nails. It's been almost 6 days now and i have not bitten them. So it's working, but am not gonna continue with this practice.

Khishboo for some reason found "cookbabu", "cooknirmal" and "cookgovind" entries in my cell phone very funny. She gave her biggest and continuous smiles when she read these entries. She just wouldn't stop laughing after reading them. Felt really good to see her laughing.

Megha and Ishu found my hair and language funny. Some of the nick names that i received from them -
Punju - (derived from Punjabi - my mother tongue and roots)
Pinki - (due to unfortunate use of pink bowling equipment, pink pencil won as a gift and use of pink sheet while sleeping)
Loser - due to a losing streak initially
Tubelight - due to a few dumb answers and game performances
Fool n Final - carry over from our last meeting. Name of a film that we watched together
..a couple of more which i cant remember...

Then there was that strange haircut dude in the serial bhakti mein shakti. Kids found his hairstyle similar to mine. Boy that was a bad hair cut. I seriously hope mine isn't like his.

All in all a fun trip. Had never thought that would enjoy so much in the company of kids. No wonder that 1 April ticket was cancelled without a second thought. If only they had a few more holidays, i sure as hell would have cancelled the 5th one too....for they are gonna be adults soon.

So company of kids..........rocks :)