Happy Days @ IIM Calcutta

 

For a long time now, I have had a dream of being part of IIMC. Being associated with this great institution and to be recognized as one of the alumni has been my longest wish, dream and inspiration. Throughout my years of experience working with various organizations, I have had the privilege of working with some of the great minds who have all been alumni of the esteemed IIMC. Working with them closely has given me an opportunity to understand the core strengths and principles of this institution - depth of the knowledge, dynamism in handling multiple things, decision making, and most importantly - doing it right.

The course - Executive Program in Global Business Management, that I decided to pursue would probably give me an insight into all the domain areas of business management,  the concept of learning, enhancing the current skills and also interacting with people across the country who suddenly became batch mates has been a great experience so far.  The days when we met up for classes online, the questions, the doubts, the explanations,  and all the laughs and fun during the breaks ....started making us look forward to Thursdays & Sundays .

The campus visit - of one week at IIM Kolkata in May / June 2011 was like a life changing experience. Amidst all the sweating weather of Kolkata...getting adjusted to the hostel life...literally running to escape from the continuous stretch of birds on the trees....3 meals in the hostel canteen.... all the walking up and down to classes... the lake fronts and the occasional drizzles... the old & new hostel blocks.... meeting up with professors and attending day long sessions.... taking strolls across the campus early in the mornings and late in the nights....all 7/8 of us trying to fit into Rajan's small car... long journeys outside in to Kolkata city in the evenings... , Rajan's fainting session and Saurabh's rolls and jokes and nonstop laughter schedules .... Sonia's amazing capability of organising things and Disha's vegetarian problems... Prashant & Sanjay's struggles with our shopping and Tagnya's traditional cuisine recommendations..... the official gala dinner and all the photo sessions...meeting Venkats, Vinods, Ran pandays and all the other numerous names from our online sessions....the life seem to have transformed into a different world. Those 6 days were an amazing part of my life.... as I have never laughed so much in my life.... I have never spoken so much in my life....I have never walked so much in my life....... and I guess I have never lived for myself so much in my life.... I wish it had continued.....

The exams - all the mad rush for studying through half the nights…telling half the people we meet about  the vast portions we have...the crazy schedule of endless questions in zipping past minutes….. everyone eager to know if we have scored enough… and almost taking the jokes from our kids… it’s definitely fun after so many long years… 

The class mates – We study, we struggle, we bring snacks for others, we help each other with logins, we keep pulling each other’s legs during the breaks and I guess we have already become like friends for life. Saurabh Chakrabarti, Rajan Modi, Sanjay Gomes, Sonia Pahuja, Disha Nariani, Prashant Lotlikar, Tagnya Bhatt & Shweta Gupta…. We rock!

I do hope at least some sediments of all these knowledge sessions seep back into my already saturated head and remains there for future reference.  Till then, these days will always remain in my mind as a phase of Happy Days in my life.

Is this where she ends ???

Somewhere down the paths of life

You seem to have taken different ways

As she went far away from you

Life seems to have disappeared in many ways

There is this emptiness inside

A void that refuses to get filled

mind hops on to multiple things.. while

the heart just waits there...stilled

On this journey thats taking her far

Can she see ahead beyond these bends?

Is this where she begins again or

Is this where she ends....? 

Can you let go ???

 A couple of years ago... I had posted this poem titled  "Letting Go ! ..."
A friend of mine recently helped me with a different version of that...So here we go with " Can you let go? " :)
Is there some strange feeling inside?
Will you be able to keep everything aside?
Do you want to reach out to the skies,
Or just go where the wilderness lies ?
If you walk into those far away cold mountains
would they be able to heat up your frozen heart?
Shedding the alien feelings and dependencies
that years have brought in, all the subtle changes
Can you let go of what goes on in your mind?
Setting you free of all things that bind…
As you stand alone looking back in time
Will you be able to let go of the memories?
As you try to look ahead at life…
Will you be able to let go of your aspirations?
Harmonizing various roles that you play
How can you let go of the emotions?
As the hopes wither and time flies by
Should you even let go of your dreams?
When all you are left with is you, you and you
How can you let go of what you are???

Mumbai policemen and Traffic police

Just wanted to take a moment and salute all the Mumbai policemen and Traffic police cops....
I do know that some of the things that anyone of us would think of, the moment someone mentions "Police", is usually all the corruption, brutality, harassment and probably numerous other unmentionables. But gradually I also realised how difficult their jobs must be.. how tough it must be to handle so many people, to stand guard and protect us through various terror attacks to simple thefts... manning the various check points, nakabandis, traffic signals, through heat of the summers to the pouring rains, through the raising pollution levels to harrowing peak hours....24/7.... and most of the times being even ill equipped themselves...( it does make me think how cozy our jobs are and yet we still have people cribbing about ACs and company buses and canteens )... So next time you see a lone traffic constable desperately trying to manage the huge peak hour traffic, at least give him a smile and a say a small thanks to all such guys in your heart.... and so it goes back to my basic principle in life...we cannot always look at the bad things in life or negative part of anything...We got to believe that there is always a positive side to everyone and everything...!

Cute Little Auto Rickshaws !

As Ajay( my son) and me stood there in the balcony feeling the lovely drizzles of Mumbai's very own "Mungaru Male", Ajay suddenly said..." Ma...Auto rickshaws are so cute na... small and little and going so fast in all the directions "... and then I realised looking from our balcony up there, with their yellow and black colours and 3 wheels rotating, the autos on the road did look small and cute.. ... and whizzing past here and there.. and it made me realise that I never thought of autos in that way before. I always thought of them as a means of transport when I am not driving, cursed the auto drivers when they refused to come to the destination that I wanted to go, hated them when they criss-crossed and almost scratched my car ..etc.

And then we started counting the number of Autos going in one direction and we were amazed to note that we saw 84 Autos in exactly 4 minutes and this was at 8.30 in the night. It definitely made me wonder how many Autos must be plying in this huge city and how many commuters must be using them to reach nooks and corners of Mumbai city and how many families of these Auto drivers must be surviving on our daily transportation... and the numbers seemed staggering when I considered it proportionately. We also wondered what that would mean in the entire country when we put all the numerous cities, towns & villages that use Autos...and how many other countries in this world can compare with these volumes of mini transportation. Are there even many other countries using Auto Rickshaws like how we do in India? .....

Next time on the road, I would probably look at the Cute Little Auto rickshaw with a new found interest and respect :)

Ending 2010 & Starting 2011 !

Life seems to be on a fast forward mode...its rushing past me at such a rapid pace that I am left with only chasing behind, catching up and hanging on. Looking back at the past few weeks, all the actions, reactions and interactions that have been happening around have probably stopped me from coming by this way ( the blogging way, I mean) . I am not a person who writes a diary every night, but then, just wanted something like rewind and replay in slow motion at least some high points, just to capture the essence of everything that makes me say my favorite line " I am going crazy :) " ( I know a couple of people smiling...)

Just taking back my memory a couple of months back ....Nov 1st week..preparations for Diwali. 2nd week - my bday...then came preparing for Ajju's exams( 3rd week) , and the last week went in sending my mom to chennai, she having a fall there , fracturing her hand in 4 places and coming back the 2nd day... so one entire weekend of tensions and troubling of cousins and friends at Chennai to bring back mom to Mumbai..

Slowly we finished Ajju's exams ( what a relief... ) and the following weekend of 4th Dec, I had a girls only picnic with almost 10 other women from office...and u can imagine all the shopping, singing, gossiping, dancing, and enjoying the beach over one full weekend ( 1st week of Dec). 2nd week of Dec, I met up with Annapurna , my good friend, almost after 17 years ( stays in US and came down for 2 weeks)...and of course, my dear friend Smita ( stays in Mumbai, but we met after almost 6 months ) :(... and we went to a marriage together and I had a new hair cut.. (and met with Actress Jaya prada at the Juice parlour in Khar ) and the next weekend , we ( Purna, Smita, Kumari & me) all went shopping together and dared the Mumbai traffic all over, from Bandra to Sion to Matunga to Chembur to Powai to Goregaon...in my car, with 4 gals meeting after so many years talking non-stop and 4 kids yelling/sleeping/crying/ laughing/roaming around non-stop ;) and then we followed it up with a night camping at Smita's place and catching up on all years that have passed by and gossiping up about so many dumb things :) Paapalu... I am missing all the fun already... and of course, did I miss out on all the weekly visits to Doctors amidst all these actions...( first mom to Ortho, then Krishu to ENT, then Ajju to Dentist and me finally to Ortho.. yeah yeah i am coming to that).. so the last weekend of Dec ( Christmas) just went by ... and for the first time in a long time, I failed to go to a Church... :( oh Jesus ! but btw.. I did try to bake my first cake at home and its a different fact that it turned up more like a huge chunk of cookie.. :( I can still remember the expressions on the faces of family ( Krishu, Ajju and Mom) ... ... and then, I fell sick again with my usual problems of colds and coughs and throat infections.. so New year came and went ( 1st week of Jan) and I guess Krishnan was happy that I could not speak much for one full weekend :) as I was literally croaking and yelling without much success in meaning full sounds coming out, but I did try the cake again.. with ok kind of output... then I went shopping for a gift for Krishnan, and one of the objective was to trace some tools for my new found obsession ( baking) ...I tried my third cake for Krishu's bday ( on 4th Jan) and guess it was much better than the previous two attempts.. atleast he could cut it without much efforts ;) ( we had to break the first one .. hahaha ) , but I had my slip disc...L5/ L6 whatever .. and who can imagine me taking bed rest for 3 days..so I sat at home and worked all the financials for Krishnan...and checked reality market at Chennai/ Blr/ Mumbai.....and was like going crazy and waiting to go back to work...

The following weekend was like even more crazy...as we had office picnic... full day of action and lots of fun. I come home exhausted and Ajju announced that he has already called all his friends for his Bday Party the next day. So, late into night, we go hunting for the cake and other things...On sunday, we had my dad's death anniversary, puja at home, temple, visit to an old age home, shopping for Ajju's Bday, shopping for bday party in the evening.... ( oops.. even the returns gifts have to be so expensive in Mumbai )....and then handling 15 - 12 year old boys for 3 hours ( games and snacks and dances...)...I must have dropped dead after that as I dont remember anything beyond the party that night...

Last weekend ( 15th ) was Sankranti.... so festivals, temples and sales.. ( I guess I didnt mention krishnan's new thought process of replacing most of the furniture)... and half of last week went in organizing the complete documentation and running around for the US visas of Krishu, Ajju and Mom.. and yep.. they had their visa interviews on 19th and managed to get the Visa Power :) .... and in between all this my bad back ache and multiple issues at office.... Uff...

And finally today....22nd - saturday, I managed to stay at home, but then one look around and it was almost like hazaar things were crying out for my attention...so there you go, one complete cleaning cycle of bed spreads, bathrooms, books, clothes, plants and all other multiple tasks... and after almost 8 weeks, I went for my walk and also went to get my library books exchanged and finally sat down to update my blog which is waiting for me for a long time....

At times I tell myself.. 'I am not a Super Woman to be doing so many things at a time' ... but then, whom am I trying to fool :)

Just Kidding !

Have a great year ahead !