Random Musings

A long cherished dream…of my mother really not me. Yes, I’m 23 year’s old, male , brought up in a metro, completed my UG at boys college where there are more bikes than students, done with my MBA, got a job in a FMCG, not disabled (at least physically touch wood)  and yes, I can’t drive. To be clear, I can’t drive a bike nor a car. I started off my driving career with my BSA champ (stolen by the paper guy who wanted a ‘test ride’ and went to mexico I guess with it) ,moved on to my sisters BSA SLR and finally got my manly Hercules Thriller© (which I sold to my watchman who I hear is putting it up @ Ripleys believe it or not- as something that this ‘boy’ claim to have drive. Even he thought I wasn’t fit for anything more than a BSA champ I guess. The curve stops here.  My dad actually is a silent accomplice in this crime, for he believes that the entire motorist community is waiting to run me down if I show up on the roads.

My mother was the one who told me ‘Neeku Bike kuda raledhanthe,okka ammi kuda  nee moothi choosi parthi potharu…Neeku budhi ledhu emmi leddhu..eethi atleast che ra ledhuntay akkada MBA le annthadha neeku..’ (From telegu to english, roughly translates to-’Look If you can’t even drive a bike which girl will want to look at your face? Its not like your intelligent or good looking anyway..at least learn this before you go do your MBA else you will be ostracized’. Well, I don’t know the relation between my face and my (dis)ability to switch from 2^nd to Reverse gear* (scroll to end of post for story behind the * ) .  But I think by and large what she said holds true in pop culture atleast. The guys with bikes get the chicks. Lucky for me, the opportunity to put to test my (in)abilty to drive any kind of motorized vehicle was almost minimal due to the institute’s rules that will impound your ride if present within 100 kms of where you reside. And those with bikes only managed to get fines slapped on them or it being ‘borrowed’ by fellow mates for cross country soul searching.

In the driving school where I am currently taking lessons for my car and bike riding, the scene was quite disturbing. Let me describe how it is. There are two rooms, one looks like a depressing hospital waiting room with people silently sitting on the bare creaky benches. You have 2-3 guys my age, about 4-5 middle aged business men and even a couple of 60 year olds waiting to kick the bucket (bucket list #11 perhaps?). No of the guys there  makes eye contact and look straight, do what you came for , do it and hit the road asap…something like the scene at a men’s urinal. You don’t want to be caught looking anywhere but straight & down.

Some of the male gender pretending to read the traffic charts and one eager vehicle enthusiast is eagerly trying to replicate a chart depicting the inner complex working’s of a crankshaft & pistons. One glance into his pad shows it looks more like a dustbin with broomsticks sticking out. Men, I notice in general seem ashamed of being here to be there and are waiting furtively for their sentence to be pronounced.

There are girls too but for them it’s a different social experience. It’s a sense of liberation and freedom that they have finally won the battle against the Islamic Courts to exercise their desire to drive, sick of being relegated to 2^nd place by their brothers (younger/older) who drive the family vehicle with impunity. One of the girl, about 22-25, got chatty and enquired about if I came to get a license (No actually, I came here to see if I could enroll for belly dancing lessons).  I told her I came her to learn how to drive a car….and a bike. She looked at me brows arched ‘For car..ok..but I’m sure you can drive a bike, you’ve just come here to get the license for it officially right..being from Loyola & Symbi’…the contempt in her tone was unmistakable and I was discomfited into a awkward grin with  just a ‘hmm..yea…’. I made myself feel better by assuring myself that I will make three times what she does now. Such is the social stigma attached. And such is the lame mode of self assurance I will resort to.

The second room is the promotion room. Its classier, with air conditioning and complimentary newspapers.  It is where those who have successfully completed their 15 day training get to sit with their LLR forms ready for the actual test. Occupants of the 1^st room cannot talk, look at them. For they are the learned ones. Weather they pass is another issue, but they are done.

I recall one of my favourite antics back then was purposefully drive in front of, overtake any car which had a “Car training board” over it just to see the look on the faces of the drivers-in-learning. I realize now, that its not so great when your in the drivers seat, literally. And Ironically, I can win races in  Need For speed : Most wanted with ease using my left hand,outrun over 10 police cars, turn at 90* bends like Knight Rider and switch gears like Michael Schumacher did on the Malaysian F1 grand prix.

* I actually took car driving lessons briefly 3 years back and during the test, I reversed the car instead of going to 2^nd gear nearly killing an elderly women selling fish on the street. How I did that I will never know.  The motor vehicle bureau has posted a mug shot of me in its office warning officers not to issue anything to me, not even a parking ticket. Hey, even If I cant drive, all I want is a license, its one hell of an ID card and I can finally have an authentic Govt Id to book my railway tickets on the internet ;) 

After watching about 70 ads per day of “Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain”, I was brainwashed into seeing what the show was about since right now the biggest thing Im doing is figuring out the hidden features of my k 510 i cell..apparently it can tell what time it is in nairobi and mexico..if ever in my life I go there..

Firstly, the show is average at best. SRK seems a bit out of place and the theme although is quite akin to a classroom setting (chalk answers, cheating,copy, school bell) it somehow seems vague. I don’t get it,are these kids child prodigies or just walk in’s from the street or some punk kids from Bhoothnaath? 

And coming to the questions..wtf 2nd std maths is “No of edges/points on a triangular prism”..what the hell is up with that..what school teaches this stuff to 6 year olds..Back when i was in the first I learnt not to put the pencil up my nose and pee *only* in the boys toilet. And it took my math teacher 3 months to teach me to count to 35.  The lady contestant was a Phd/school topper etc etc and she had to think for 4 light years before she figured out the largest planet in the solar system..I think maybe she was one my teachers at school. And who was the king/ruler when India shifted capital..and what part of the seed becomes a root in a plant..i couldn’t even recognize the options!

Man am I glad Im through my life @ schooling..Im sure I would have flunked even the third going by the current syllabi of schools. Good job Arjun Singh, if this is the current schooling level at primary levels, Im sure there will be no need for Quota’s at IIT/IIM

Dont want to meet these smart punks where I work..will put me out of a job..

Im not the kind of  blogger that blogs about the news/govt/global warming and other trivial stuff like that..I am a self serving egotist that blogs only about me, me stuff related to me. 

But I saw this new Cornetto ad and I was simply just struck by it. Why?

1. Fabulous advertising concept that is clear and consistent with the USP of the commercial ( two flavours mixed, and how two bikes get fused into one). I thought it was very creative. 

2. The Fabulous sound track by Jal, (chaltey chaltey) a pakistani band that is worth downloading illegally.

3. Its got a damn cute girl, after some asking around its apparently Amrita Rao (who in main hoon na looked like a vagrant) but here looks like the prettiest girl I’ve seen on TV!! 

4. Cornetto rocks. My favorite ice cream brand!

Full marks, executed perfectly except that dumb looking guy with amrita…helooo mr director…I CAN DRIVE A CYCLE!!! Cast me for the 2nd part of how I take amrtia rao and maliaka arora in triples!!(Ironically am getting my bike and car license training from today ;) 

The ad itself..sigh..amrita

Its about passion.

My passion is quizzing. There. I said it. I guess it developed like this.. Ever since I was a kid, my dad used to get me small quiz packs..something like flash cards for vocabulary that we got for our MBA prep. Me and my sis used it quiz each other all the time with the most irrelevant stuff like “If an orangutan belches at you, watch out. He’s warning you to stay out of his territory” .. I never thought it would be useful for me until PG here..Pune has quite a strong quzzing culture and I was lucky to find a strong quiz buddy of mine- Sivaram who shared my enthusiasm. We are not the best of quizzers, not even good enough for big names like the crucible or BT acumen.

There is just a very very fine line between those making it on stage and those not. Although we belonged to the latter category, I can honestly attribute it to bad luck. Im not trying to defend us. We have this uncanny knack of choosing the ‘other’ option in our minds for a question when we find the ‘original’ one was in fact the correct answer. But we have held our own in quite a few events and managed to rake in the $$, about 20,000 odd. But let me honestly tell you something, Quizzing is something that we don’t no real quizzer would do for money. Its about passion. It can be for anything, as long its your passion.

For Sachin Tendulkar , money is not why he plays for India. He plays circket cause that’s been his dream since he was a kid, to win the world cup for the nation. Similarly, for me quizzing like Mock Cats, are something that I know there are people who will always be better than me. I just go to quizzes which I wont have any idea about ( say like sports, I thought polo was just a mint for 15 years), just to see the brilliant display of talent by me fellow peers.To be in the presence of greatness is the biggest honour. Nikhil & Rohit, you guys set the standards and inspired me. One day, I hope and I know I will make a name for myself in this field just as you did.

Dedicated to every quizzer whose undying love for quizzing will continue forever in the quest for knowledge.

So, I am back at home, where the food tastes much better and I finally have non stop high speed internet access right just 2 rolls away from my bed. Cause the wi fi back in scmhrd aint never gonna be fixed, a trend that will continue as long as communists wear red…
So..Im like chilling at home, unlimited food, TV, Internet and restricted sleep (my mother wakes me up at a harsh 12:30 pm). I never had breakfast at college and not at home too come to think about it. Guess my creative juices (tempted to add something here..but could be kids here too..so..) flow as moon shines palely above our rooftops. You think I should be having a blast right..well no entirely. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here its just that..there is something missing. No, not the stale odour of my socks that’s been in my laundry basket for a year (mental picture appearing in my minds eye wondering if my brown underwear is in that toxic mess somewhere), but something more…something what we all seek in life..No, not that you sicko. Jeez man get a grip.

‘An idle mind is the devils workshop’..

Not only was the poor guy empty to begin with, but as time grew it just was awarded first for storehouse of most useless information (like did you know that peanuts are used in rocket fuel? I do. See what I’m talking about? ). Now since its Idle, apparently the devil also has joined in with the rest of the gang to really do a number on me.
I guess ever since the 2nd semester once the smoke cleared and dust settling (of the prof’s igniting every known explosive listed in the Al-Queda trainee handbook for new jehads© on my sorry behind ) there was quite a bit of free time on my hands. Its not like I spent that time trying to study to improve my grades cause as I child I knew that was a lost cause ( I actually once failed a drawing test in 9th was to draw some damn sunset or something..mine looked more like the insides of a male tarantula after he has been decapitated by his dear (X)-wife.)

So I did what was the flavour of the season …enter B School contests. I guess other than the learning (there was some, I learnt that even the winner copies stuff off from the net). I guess at another, perhaps higher level, I wanted to absolve myself of my guilt that after such an exorbitant investment in me by my dear parents, I’m not doing anything to justify an ROI. So atleast I told myself that by solving case studies, paper presentations I’m doing something worthwhile. Did it help? Yes, both ways, I did feel good about myself and won quite a few (largely due to the inebriated state of the judges whilst passing judgement on my so called work).

And again the last month in pune before I got here I was working part time with an MBA prep institute that made me feel better about myself.

And here? Look at me ! (you cant actually, just being dramatic) , I’m not doing ANYTHING to improve my skill set, nothing that is going to help me during my FMCG stint. Unless you call planting C4 in a unruly distributors shop or sniping the idiotic customer with a Magnum SG-550 Sniper Rifle for not taking a candy for the 50p change useful…Maybe..you never know

Yo, so you got here in either of the 3 ways:

1) You went to my orginial blog site http://theroadaheadnow.blogspot.com/ and were redirected here

2) You saw my new blog http://thetemplartalks.wordpress.com while it was in beta stages by trying to see the old blog..

3) You read my diary at nite.

Well anyway, why did I shift to wordpress? It offered easier widget based blogging and much better templates..but wordpress has limited customization so blogger>WP there. Also I finally managed to put in a lot of nifty feefbuner tools like RSS, Flickr etc.. Im gonna try to be more up to date with my blog now..or should I call it wordpress now

From the artist formerly known as http://theroadaheadnow.blogspot.com/

‘Your e-mail has been sent’
Nothing really significant about the message displayed above that we all see flash after we send our everyday mundane mails to every corner of the globe. But It is when it is when the mail you have just sent is to an institute that has organized a paper presentation or a case analysis contest.
It seems to be the current rage amongst the entire B-School fraternity, at least here in SCMHRD. Everyone whose anyone seems to have an acquired a PhD for Paper Dissertations or a Joseph Stiglitz for Case Studies. As usual Its up to be to see why and what motivates my fellow mates to engage in such behavior:

Hmm..as usual money motivates us mortals to a large extent. Its funny here to see the behavior exhibited in this rather competitive time period. A simple example is formation of teams. Do I take my roomie/best friend/girl friend/the intelligent guy/the hot chick… Each of them possesses their own unique set of pros/cons which are quite obvious. It again depends on your objective mentioned in the pie chart. If you want to win= intelligent guy. If you want knowledge= do it with best friend/roomie & for time pass= hot chick. The trick here is to find a hot chick who is intelligent and is fun to work with. They are a dying breed but exist.

Another thing is its better to have people from different specializations a.k.a possess complimentary skills to those that you possess(if any). Typically for a 2 member team you want a Mark+Fin and for a 3 member throw in an operations guys. And there HAS to be someone who is good in creating flashy presentations in PowerPoint as that is quite an art itself. And I have realized that its better to have 3 not so intelligent Hardworking guys rather than 1 smart guy and 2 lazy bums in a team. The former will always deliver better results. Also, a lot of luck is involved. Lets face it, its judged by blokes who were just like you and me.
Its practically raining contests here in the IIIrd semester. Every B school worth its AICTE certification(seems that organizing fests is a criterion to get a certification!). Typically these are what is offered on the platter:

1) B-Plans: Standard Boiler Plate. I avoid them as its too detailed, cant plagiarize and requires too much originality. I leave this to the Gujjus & the really smart guys who have been dreaming of business plans since they could read. Eg: IIT-B Ecell’s Eureka. My Current Score : 0/1

2) Finance Valuation Cases: Grimace and move on. This is purely number crunching and finance concepts tested to the core. My roommate who is amongst the top 1% in finance concepts would go for stuff like this and I watch from behind. If you’re a marketing guy don’t even think you can faff your way as this is just a no for that kind of thing. Pure Concepts only. Eg: The Deal by JPMC. My Current Score: N.A

3) Paper Presentations(All Specs): This is the bread & butter that even you and me can do. Topics range from outsourcing to brazil to Balancing Scorecards. Doesn’t require too much domain knowledge. Just smart googling and referring HBR’s. This has maximum attempt rates across students as its all over the net, you just have to put it down right with correct flow. My Current Score 0/2

4) Marketing Case Studies: Now this is where the action lies. Carries higher status and prize money(rightly) . Typically involves a fictional company which has to get out of a rut or wants to do make millions overnight and decided that we are the messiahs who can save them. They are quite fun & challenging and makes you apply what little you have learnt practically which is quite satisfying. Fierce competition though and you can expect the best of brains here. Helps to have a finance guy on board or atleast consult and repair the absurd financials you have projected. I will never forget the look on my fin-guru-roomie’s face when I showed him my cash flows for a case. He doubted if I could even put on my pants correctly every morning after that. My Current Score 0/3

5) Online games: Fun, for the no so serious, involves quizzes or puzzles and fast googling again within a time limit. Very slim chances as there are people who specialize in these and have like a small cabal of people who wait for the games like a rocket countdown working on 5 computers at a time. Quite a sight. My Current Score 0/3.

6) Culturals: Meant for those who are ‘alternatively talented’ or hate any form of academic activity. Involved dancing,debating,dumb charades & singing. We have a quite of few of them right here. Only downside/upside is going to the host’s campus is mandatory, a nice way to see another B School but considerable monetary expenditure involved. My Current Score : N.A
As you might have inferred from the above post, so far my brilliant insights haven’t impressed the jury. I would like to blame the govt on this but I don’t think that’s fair. My CV for this semester will continue to ride off my cough past glory cough. And its not like I’ve got a PPO from my beloved summer company that’s really helping matters.
My pal told me although I’ve struck nothing but ground zero the last million times, I shouldn’t give up trying as the next one could just be it. But it seems like all of ‘em are independent events..aren’t they?

Well..at the end of it, it’s the guys who win these who are the real dudes of the campus and have managed to really learn and apply it. Of course they are not guaranteed a CEO post and those who don’t make the cut will not end up employed serving food in the college mess..

Wonder if yellow & black looks good on me.

I’ve been running short of cash lately and I realize that to maintain my current lifestyle I need to make some hard cash fast. I realized from my Financial Management class there is a very simple rule:

Cash Inflow - Cash Outflows= Net Cash Position

So basically to have a big R.H.S, I need to increase my inflows or reduce my outflows. Let’s look at each of them shall we?

CASH INFLOWS

1) The SBI ATM: This is my two month summers’ salary from Amex but let’s face facts this ain’t gonna last forever. And every walk to the atm & withdrawal from it makes me feel guilty; the watchman looks at me like I am a heist man. This added to the fact that I think after my new Sony Ericsson K510i and my ahem entertainment expenses in Delhi during summers has brought this figure down by half. Don’t ask me what the original was.

2) B-School Contests: Yea..I decided to try my hand at these..From paper presentations to Case Analysis…it seems either all of ‘em know that I plagiarize or I have the mental faculty of a escaped lunatic from Alcatraz or I’m a escaped lunatic from Alcatraz who plagiarizes. Added to the fact that I am financially challenged (in both ways, I claim to be a marketing major) so my focus point is quite narrow. And the completion in this acclaimed segment is as populous as the number of CAT aspirants. Ah well, I’m sure the ‘winners’ of these papers will be no match for me when it comes to the real thing. Yes. I’m sure. (Note to Raghav-Keep telling yourself that every night.)

3) Quizzes: My so called ‘core-competency’ (hey, I do know some stuff in marketing!) has given me the bum ride this semester. My only consolation (I call it sadistic plot of God) is that I end up as the ‘team that just missed qualification/ or the guys who tied last but couldn’t get the starred question’. I just have to settle for being the smartest guy in the audience and win prizes there. Either my reading is not up to the mark or people have become more well aware of what the hell’s going on around town.

4) Contests & Scams on the Net: Once in a while I always come across a story of how you can make 1000 $ a day with no skill required just 1 hour a day. Seems tailor made for a guy like me but they never seem to work. I shamefull admit the fact I signed up for a site that makes u click like about 30 ads a day and you get like 2 rs in return. I stopped after a week. Im expecting my cheque for..a cool 7 bucks(less taxes/membership/manual costs) in about 500 million years.

5) Stock Markets: Im still trying to break even from the 10 G’s my Dad gave me in my own sharekhan.com account. It seems that I have a knack for picking those stocks that either the CEO kills himself , the promoters run off or the industry which the company operates on is no longer in existence. (For a copy of my winning portfolio, drop me a line at Raghav_r24@rediffmail.com). And even with the spare cash I have there are 10,00 brokers here who have 1291032*e^2344 HOT stock tips. I realized that there is a formulae that accurately captures winning in markets

Money in Markets= Capital over 10,000 * Reliable Sources for information* Patience to wait atleast year * Shares Allocated in good IPO’s * Having a demat account* having a demat account which you know the password for* knowledge on executing a transaction.

I HEREBY DECLARE I HAVE NONE OF THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS.

There are some sources of funds that shall remain unlisted for personal reasons lest the parties who are involved are aware of such incidents occurring. Let’s just say that It seems to be the last resort.

CASH OUTFLOWS

1) Food: The biggest expenditure for me by far. It’s just that the mess food here that is served is quite frankly, a mess. I hoped I’m not sued for libel or slandering. I guess I will use the fact that the last 21 years of having delicious home cooked food has set my standards sky high with a very low standard deviation of being a connoisseur of this God-Awful cuisine. I am the largest benefactor of Sweety Stores(the local retail food guy on campus) in terms of his ‘bun-donuts’ product line. I think the CEO of that company is cancelling his IPO because I’m giving that SOB all the capital he needs to raise from the primary markets. (For those who want to become millionaires, contact me I’ll tell u the name of the company, invest now and by the time u retire your old ass them shares will be worth 10x the current mkt price)

2) Dating: Well, I can’t write too much here, for obvious reasons If I want to continue. I’ve been lucky, as it revolves around the concept related to the Netherlands. If u did not get that (Im not surprised, it rhymes with a telecom company that is no longer what it was known as) But let me tell you one thing- Pune and its merry hang-abouts don’t come cheap.

3) Treats: This unholy event occurs with a certain sporadic ir-regularity. Its not like I have achieved feats of greatness [One I have, and a treat is due =, guys u’ll get it @ the end of this year I promise ] We here just need a reason to make the other guy take us out to dinner. It can range from as important as passing in a backlog paper, attending class on time, accidently bumping into a hot chick on campus or putting on the right pair of socks to stuff like staying home for 2 months for one’s internship. This if your lucky can be postponed but birthdays and personal accidents , you’d wish you’d never had those.

4) Twilight Zone Treats: Hmm..how do I put this..lets say you had a fixed agenda of going on to dinner with some people in your mind. Now you accidently see that more people invite themselves or run into them or meet them at your destination which compounds things and upsets your pre –established frame of reference. This becomes all the more worse if the parties are cannibals and guzzlers and you are told that the order of the day is well..the doubled edged sword of the Netherlanders.

5) Laundry: Seems to be an essential function that cannot be compromised on. The irony is that I think I do a better job cleaning that the dude on campus. Am waiting for him to lose a pair of pants so I can get credit for atleast 700 bucks that takes care of this expense for the rest of the year. (Some guy in my campus pulled this stunt and the pants were worth as much as a politicians promise)

6) Contributions for Social Events: Includes contribution for Freshers, Jobbers, Losers..some goddamn event or the other where appointed agents will knock your door down till they get the cash payment. I recommend they join ICICI’s loan recovery cell. I don’t deny I too have fun but such a large capital expenditure for 1 night seems quite pointless. I DON’T want a loser DJ, I DON’T care for carbonated drinks and what I DO CARE about is atleast good dessert, not some vanilla crap with raisins in them. Hurts my taste buds and my wallet.

7) Fines, fines and fines: Ranging from 5 for an overdue library book to 500 for a missed guest lecture..I protest both the counts, the 1st I should be exempted from as honestly one of the most active proponents of reading and the 2nd as I really don’t give a damn on who comes. And if you honestly think that you’re worth 500 a student who missed a seat on your hall, you are in the wrong business. Join the pony tail management guy in his scam.

As can been seen, there seems to be more outflows than inflows by far. And my NPV of my Net cash position I negative. And I realize that my income is fixed. I will continue to siphon money from my parents and never win any contest. It seems the pain areas to work on are my outflows..Now let me see which area can I reduce on..hmm..(draws a blank..) . Say…do people really make money off their blogs..? Nah..I ain’t even that funny and I’m grammatically challenged.

Just saw Shootout at Lokhandwala- great movie, but the highlight for me was the song Ganpat Rap. Here’s the video :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhNGeZCUgaE

Did a wiki on this(as always on all movies for interesting trivia) and landed by with Bombay Boys ka link..and that hit a cord in my brain that I loved this song too!! Video of Bombay boys..

Let us observe a moment of silence..not for India’s exit from the World Cup, but since today was the last day of our 1^st Year as MBA’s at SCMHRD. Done? Ok.. On 29^th of March, we gave our Man.Accting paper, the last paper in the long list of exams(probably a backlog, the questions from the last 2 years paper’s which I had mugged and gone were no where to be seen. Lucky me.)

The guys in the hostel were all going home before summers and busy with throwing out with relish the books they thought they would never use. I could see the raw satisfaction in the eyes of my crazed mates as they vehemently threw the numerous Xerox’s (ok photocopies for the politically correct) of the Econometrics/Accountancy notes. Some even went to the extent of labeling them as “Burn in Hell you #$%^&*” ( Only for mature audiences) . I understand your pain boys.

Incidentally I still have my Fin Man,Man Acct papers, better safe then sorry. The Indian Cricket team has a better chance of winning the world cup in Synchronized Swimming in the Sahara Desert Sands then I do of clearing my Accounting papers. People scoff at me now for keeping all this ‘trash’, but I will have the last laugh. I predict now its value is nothing but in a years time when we have to give the re-exams with the juniors, its worth will sky rocket like an InfoSys ADR and a chance to score with the junior chicks who need our ‘experience’

Me and my roomie(raja) stripped our room naked (and ourselves to bare minimum with war paint donned on to get into the groove of destroying/tearing stuff with occasional animal like war cries) of all our belongings and hastily dumped them in anything that would hold stuff. ( I managed to put in a unused RIN bar in between my Business Statistics Book, which incidentally I spent Rs 350 for , never used it and got 1 more free from college and am still trying to get out a piece of rubber lodged in my right eardrum..so much capacity utilization!).

I found other interesting stuff while clearing out my closet : My 1 black sandal (the other one is still missing), my broken pink umbrella (I want to lose this I never can…dammit!), my moth infested T-shirt, a new pack of Gillette Mach III blades (yea the cool ones as in the ad with the hot babe running her hand over the guy’s ‘mached’ cheek..I thought I had no blades, so threw off the razor..Smart move huh? )… and some stuff that is quite illegal in these parts of the country but legal in No 15, Afghanistan Farm Road, Afghanistan. (For those who stopped and re-read this line, yea, it is a rip-off of Chandlers line @ Friends). So Sue me.

We have left the most important books in our rooms itself (Vedanta, Indian Economy-6^th edition, Six Sigma Manual) so that the lucky junior who gets our room will get a head start ahead of his peers. Purely done out of space constraints. Cellophane tape is the most sought after commodity whilst packing and we lost about 25% of the tape trying to get it evenly out as most of the times it would split into two halves as one takes it from the roll! Even if you do manage to get the tape across the carton, the scissors would not be within proximity for cutting the tape. (Animal War Cry here).

We took a couple of pics of our room 839 just for old time’s sake and made our mark present to show the world (3 juniors in this case) that this was the crib where the rockstars Raghav and Raja were chillin! Goodbyes for guys are a very difficult thing..I mean however close you are its difficult..so we were actin like them niggas..you know clenched hands punching, chest slamming and a firm handshake( like when bond Vs the bad guy saying this ain’t over yet).

1)Outside our legendary room..to be turned into a museum shortly.

2) Smart Camera work..guess where the camera is ? Btw, u can see three brushes in the pic, 1 for each of us and 1 and till date we don’t know who/how the third brush came along..we auctioned it for a half used tube of shaving cream.

The train journey back home (Chennai not California this time) was a blast as we encountered colorful personalities ( Transvestites/ ‘Ombodhus’-9 in Tamil) as we passed AP. Raja had a bad experience with them earlier so as soon as he spotted a trio he ran and locked himself in the toilet for 5 mins. They came and asked me for cash told them in my most polished English to GTFO off my face and they cursed me with 7 years of bad luck. (Ironically today was the last day of the 3 year curse I had from a midget in the Jumbo Circus who I did not wave to after he was shot out off a cannon. Damn 1 curse lifted and lo comes another…!) We (I and Prashanth G) in fact let Raja wait in the bathroom for an extra 2 minutes ;p He thought he had the last laugh when they returned and he had to pay up five big ones to satisfy their collections..lol it was a sight I’d never forget in a hurry..As usual Murphys law would apply to us and our train was delayed in a No-Mans-Land station for over 2 hours (The most technologically advanced thing in that station was a modified analog watch whose hour hand outpaced the second hand). Finally we reached at 8:00 am and left for home..

The second semester for me personally has been the best 5 odd months of my life. Summer Placements for juniors , Admissions Drive(went home), placements for seniors where me with the help of hospitality girls earned back 10% of the investment here and last but definitely not the least in any sense, our cultural fest Neev, (the foundation..in more than 1 way for me ;p ) .

D-Hostel had a lot of special memories for me…my 1^st home away from home, great neighbors in all the directions (Roy’s /Aravind’s/Prashanth’s), the midnight birthday bashes(random beating, roomie beating and bakra beating), the TT & TV room, the Nepalese-Guys run Canteen (who scoffed at me saying he has SAARC & u, India can’t even qualify for the super 8, wondered if I should be stunned at his GK levels or die in ignominy of shame of India’s Cricketing skills ) who made the best pyass paratas (Im assuming these were good I don’t have a benchmark I’ve never eaten it before) , the walks to the same canteen on nights where you don’t need even feel hungry but just want to hang with friends in the cool zephyr at 3 am, the basket ball & Volley ball court, the laundry room where I 1^st heard my favorite song ‘kya muje pyar hain’ the mess which served the worst food but by the most friendly mess guys. U rock dudes.

The rooms of D-hostel might be barren, but the corridors of the same will be always filled with the wonderful memories that the we had the last 10 months..

Dedicated to: All the guys @ D-hostel, and special callout to Khaitan G (scroll down to see a clown decked up in orange!). Thanks Man, great knowing you..U made IInd sem what It is for me……I owe you big time for you know what..;p

PS: We will get that Venezuela report published at McCkinsey