Days of our lives - I

"Hello ...iam Madhu.. ,i shall be guiding you to the room..this way sir...you may hand that suitacase to me....Madhu was a probably in his early teens with tired but dreamy eyes .I was told that its not strange to find such young boys volunteering as helpers in this small village.It was a small but beautiful travel retreat called the Ashram...this one was named Navabharath Ashram. I had come to write an article on a local legislator who had come into news recently for making an entire coastal village self sufficient and alcohol free via micro financing and social awareness. Manjayya, that name struck a chord somewhere .What a strange name,i wondered but i was too tired that night and went to sleep quickly.

"Good morning Sir, hope you had a good sleep.I brought you breakfast.Please call out my name when you are ready and we can go out to visit the town".He sounded more enthusiastic and spirited and the night i met him.I finished my breakfast and we set out for a short stroll into the town to visit the man i had come to see.Madhu was an inquisitive lad with a lot of questions and i had all the time in world to answer them all .From what i do ,why i do and how i do the work and job i do .One question led to another and the discussion continued till we reached a modestly tiled roofed house ,typical of south Indian villages .Madhu asked me to wait and he went inside the house .In about 2 mins he emerged out with another man. It was a man probably in late 30s with short,lean,dark structure and clad in a white dhoti and a sleeved vest.

"Hello Mr.Sharma ,sorry i was not expecting you so early in the morning,how was your journey and hope you had a good sleep last night". This extremely polite and hospitable person was none other than the guy i had come to meet all the way from the US. Manjayya, was unlike anything i had imagined.I had pictured him to be a dress and behave like an Indian politician.But i did not find such thing from this guy.He asked me to wait for a while and went inside.He asked me if it was possible to talk while he would take a stroll into the town.The discussion i had with him that day left an indelible impression on me ....

Manjayya or Manjunatha Shastry , hailed from a small time country side of the Indian state of Andhra pradesh.Born into a family of a poor priest, Manjayya was the first of in a family of 3 children.It was difficult for the manjayya`s father to serve the family of 3 children and sick wife from the paltry sum he made as salary from the small temple in the village.To meet the ends manjayya`s father migrated to the city of Hyderabad.His father with no source of income to suport his family of 5 and a sick Wife ,took up a job at the local construction site as a daily wage labour.This was something very Demeaning for someone born in the high class Priest Caste. Unable to make the end meet his mother also joined the construction site earning a paltry sum.The hazardous working conditions and deplorable sanitation of the refugee camp like slum and added malnutrition had taken the toll on his already sick parents.His mother soon caught Tuberculosis and was mostly on bed for the entire time.This had made the things worse as medication was not in reach and even it were,was too costly to afford for such a poor family.His mother succumed to Tuberculosis and died soon .Manju was only 9.He left school to help his father at the construction site.His father had by now got addicted to arrack and would spend away all his money on it .Too ashamed to aks for alms as his brahmin upbringing would not let them, manju and his siblings went hungry for days.Manju continued to work at the construction site and was often not paid by the construction supervision Salim and his henchmen ,who warned him of dire consequences if he ever raised voice against them.Manju through his diligence at work soon earned a good name with the Site engineer Sandeep mukherjee.Sandeep would encourage him to take the night tutions at his make shift home near the construction site,where we used to teach to the other construction labourers.

2007 !!! Wow...

Its time to down the curtains on this eventful year .... 2007!! was one of most exicting years for me so far ....travel, fun ,friends,booze, free wisdom....all in all a great year for self realization ....Since its time for the last blog of this year i intend to close it in a mood am in right now and before i go a small something to get us all going into the new year ....

Woods are lovely dark and deep,
But i have promises to keep,
And miles to go before i sleep,
And miles to go before i sleep.

....Wishing you a Happy and prosperous New year .....

Some Calvanisms ......

Iam using Work as a pretext for not posting any new entry on my not so famous blog.....till then enjoy some calvanisms ....

I like maxims that don't encourage behavior modification.

Reality continues to ruin my life.

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.

A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

I understand my tests are popular reading in the teachers' lounge.

This is my favourite ...... :-)

Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words.

Where do we keep all our chainsaws, Mom?

That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.

You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help.

Its no use! Everybody gets good enemies except me.

What's the point of wearing your favorite rocketship underpants if nobody ever asks to see 'em?

As a math atheist, I should be excused from this.

This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen ...

I'm learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life ... Procrastinating and rationalizing.

I have a hammer! I can put things together! I can knock things apart! I can alter my environment at will and make an incredible din all the while! Ah, it's great to be male!

I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information

C: "Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?"

H: "I'm not sure that man needs the help."

Leave a comment to add more soem of your favourites ......

They are all around us .....

"Dude ....i must have eaten like 3 dosas by now....and thats odd"
"Hmm...so whats the whole point here .......he said"
My stomach aches a little ..thats the whole point....i said with "what !! " face .....
"Wait a minute .....i ate 4 ...thats even ....but my stomach does not ache....see its not about even or odd number of dosas.... its just that your stomach`s screwed."

aaahh....gawddddd .....iam gone now ....enough of this ......

The Greedy Warrior.......

This is my first attempt at some serious poetry

Alas! I found the land of the magic lamps
Running the deserts and the deadly swamps
Now, show me the rubies and the bags of Gold
For I vanquished the men mighty and bold

The Lads of the land that had fought me along
Wielding their swords short and so long
Piercing and killing I spilt in their blood
For mercy and pity I had none to shed

The lands of the Gold so vast I had seen
Gardens of sapphires so shiny and serene
Hours had passed as I stared and I saw
Like a statue of stone I stood there in Awe

Sweet as the nectars were the songs that I heard
Wondered what Angel had blessed this lovely bird
A maiden I saw so lovely than thought
Reward for the wars i had so long fought

Fairer than fairies as gentle as dove
A beauty she made me fall in her love
Years of wisdom I left there to rot
Drunk in that beauty I followed her path

Maiden she took me to the fountains of wine
Nectars I drank, so sweet and so fine
Lost in her eyes I ceased being strong
Drunken in lust I didn’t know what was wrong

Holding my hands said come with me Oh! My dear
For those lands of gold are not so near
Closing my eyes said magic spells in my ears
Made me realise the worst of my fears

Greatest of the fighters my swords had they killed
Greed had made me too weak and ill willed
Digging that dagger deep into my chest
She put to a sleep which I could not resist

Darker the lands when i opened my eyes
Paying the price for the lust and the vice
Gone were the rubies and the gardens of gold
For lost all the wisdom I was once being told

In greed of the gold I searched every door
For it’s sweeter than the touch of the wine or a whore
For greed is the Pain and Greed is the vice
It’s the demon that kills you in a lovely disguise

------ Sai

Surf Excel ..nahi nahi ..Sirf Excel...

So the coffee arrives on the table...the strong aroma of the coffee filled the room and diverted my attention to the coffee mugs ...... naturally being a moron at dealing with pretty women, i did not realise that this lady was trying to start a conversation......"What do you do?" she asked...Hmmm ..... good question.....one of those standard "lets cut the ice " kinda question ... "well ,I am a head hunter for the erstwhile soviet nuclear scientists who Hooke's them up with the governments of rouge third world countries",extending my hand for a shake and expecting a surprised and dumb look ...."Oh really....i work as a part time mercenary for the Ethiopian rebels who intend to legalise the conflict diamond trade ...i am currently the second-in-command ....interesting... how come we never met " ..boyy i never thought she would come up with something like this ..almost there...one of my famous foot-in-mouth situations...this was enough to generate a laughter that only subsided about 15 mins later...here was someone that i might just take a Little interest in... i thought..... This continued with some more of my PJ's ...
"Seriously" she said .." tell me what do you do "....loosening the neck tie and trying to relax on the bean bag .....i said ..well i am an Analyst with a consulting firm and we do Software customization for the data configuration of several MNCs ....."Sooooooooo"...with a look as if she had seen a pre-historic dino creature or heard an Original Composition by Anu malik ....btw that elongated "oooo" in her "sooo" still rings in my ears and is one reason i dont listen to Himesh reshamia anymore...she continued... "are you saying that you are one of those mumbo-jumbo desi-samosa guys who fill in numbers into some coloured columns in Microsoft excel from 8 in the morning to 10 in the night" ....
For an instant I lost what she was saying as the "oooo" was still reverberating in my ears ....

"Life around ....

"Excel "

"Sirff excel ....hmmm ...Sad hai na ".... she said ....

" ...surf excel.. what!!! ....well not always... also Aerial and Nirma super some times ..."

" ouch ...." ....it hurts da .....i said holding out my shoulder.....

The Great Indian MBA Dream....

Fews days back i was going through an interview published in an old business Magazine."Management education and associated economic growth in the India" it read.
It was very interesting to hear one of the directors of IIMs exquisitly differentiating the MBA education in india as compared to the rest of the world.Its only in india that a majority of an MBA class is comprised of Grads just out of college with no or very little prior industry experience.He said that in india the eduction system is a continues process.That is, an Average indian student undergoes various levels of eduction in sequential order.If there is a break its difficult to fit into the system again.Also there is a huge potential and constant discontent that is seen in them which finally leads to these pattern.Then he went on to explain the advantages and disadvantages of this.I totally agreed with him. But that thought remained.....
As Thomas Edison once said "Its not brilliance but restlessness and discontent with what we have, that actually fuels growth" .I always believed thats this is the truth.Its this restlessness and discontent that has shaped into what iam today.Talking of MBA,there is very strong debate in the Academic circles as to why there is such a mad rush among the Engineers to get an MBA degree.As per the Statistics,majority of the Engineering graduates today tend to get into the B-schools right after the college.Well, i did take a dig at the CAT exam and ended up getting gracefully rejected at two IIMs.But its tough to explain why most engineers want an MBA degree.Would pursuing an MBA right out of the College really help you shape a career in the industry and company ofyour chioce.I have been in the technology consulting domain for some time now and believe me if you really intend to do anything meaningful to you career in here, an MBA is a must.That too with some domain knowledge and the nuances of the trade.With the explosion in the IT and the ITES sector jobs and the booming economy at home ,management edcuation has seen a tremendous growth.Given a choice folks now would investment into an MBA degree than an M.S degree from a University in the US.The choice is quite evidant as with definate returns from day one or say day zero(MBA placement lingo).An indian MBA degree is a safer bet than anything else.Comming back to the question " Why MBA".Its a tough one to answer.But for me back in the days when i was about finish my under-grad studies...i was mesmerised by the placement reports of the B-schools featuring the top tier consulting firms recruiting the indian B-grads.Probably it was those dreams of wearing black suits(MIB types)and sitting in the high raised Manhatten offices that fuelled my dreams.But its not that fancy i hear .....Most of my friends who have done their MBA give me a direct and less obfuscating answer when i put across this question.Its the flexibilty to go into another domain thats more fascinating than the fat pay cheques.Its true, an MBA gives you the flexibility to go into say investment banking from IT services , into marketing from from Banking services ...in short the sky is the limit....