The Train to Nowhere

You see a train in the distance,
You see it coming towards you,
You can’t gauge its speed,
But one day you know it shall come to you.

Do you stay where you are,
And wait for the train to arrive?
Or do you run towards it,
And rush to take your place?

And are you really sure it is your train,
When you start running for it?
All trains look alike,
So how can you be so sure?

I boarded such a train once,
And in a rush to board it,
Neither did I notice the name outside,
Nor did I see the destination.

I asked the passengers inside,
And wonder what I heard,
Everyone inside was equally clueless,
As to where the train was headed.

All that they could tell me was,
This was the last stop of the train,
No more stops were scheduled,
And I was bound to it for good.

So I sat down and counted the minutes,
Socialized with the passengers,
In the hope of finding someone,
With whom time could be spent.

Minutes turned into hours,
Hours into days,
Days into weeks,
And weeks into a lifetime.

I am still aboard,
The Train to Nowhere,
In this train I have spent my life,
And am yet to reach where I thought I would.

Or was the journey and not the destination,
What I was really looking for?
Do I regret getting up in a hurry?
The answer is not as easy as you think.

A river that also flowed

We both came in from the same place,
Somewhere high up in the mountains,
Where all you find is ice and snow,
And nothing to obstruct your flow.

We flowed by the rocks,
Hitting them left, right and center,
Deep ravines and shallow river beds,
Were all our doing, remember.

Such a good time we had,
Flowing in swift rapids,
Taking whatever came in our path,
Didn’t matter if it wasn’t ours.

Then one fine day,
A huge cliff stared at us in the face,
We could choose either right or left,
But sadly, not both of them.

I wanted the right,
You adamantly wanted the left,
None of us would budge,
And the cliff split us through.

I could see you for a while,
Your splendid white water,
Glistening in the morning sun,
Deep cliffs adorning your sides.

My path was a bit less exciting,
Less of turns and more of falls,
Some say waterfalls look magnificent,
That’s beacuse they haven’t fallen off one.

Soon I lost sight of you,
And you of me,
I miss the camaraderie we shared,
Hope you missed it too.

I came down to the plains,
And all activity ceased,
I was reduced to a lazy flow,
And gentle turns once in a while.

People poured their shit on me,
Washed their clothes in my pure veins,
And then made a brouhaha of,
Trying to supposedly clean me up.

Then one day I met a river,
Who looked different yet familiar,
And lo and behold,
It was you!!

You were still as magnificent as before,
Your gait had assumed more importance,
You were also supposedly holier,
Than the water carried by me.

Why is it that even though we were,
Brothers in arms once upon a time,
You took all the right choices,
While mine seemingly didn’t work out?

What is it,
That separates me from you,
Our waters were the same when we started,
And we’ll all end up in an ocean one day.

Fame has taken a heavy toll on you,
You don’t talk as much as you used to,
Maybe one day we should sit,
And catch up on lost time.

Or maybe we should leave our past behind,
And just move on,
And not wonder,
Why they say you were the better river after all.

Change is in the air

It’s been so long,
Since I have been staying here,
I have come to know the spiders here,
That’s how long I have been staying here.

But now that is about to end,
Am leaving for a faraway place,
Another town,
Another face.

This had to come about some day,
So shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s arrived,
Yet there is a touch of melancholy,
And sadness in the air.

A touch of excitement,
A touch of regret,
A touch of apprehension,
A touch of happiness.

It’s tough saying Goodbye,
To people you have known so long,
Strangers on the street,
Now stop by to say Hello.

Everyone faces this now and then,
But that doesn’t ease the pain,
Of realizing that,
Change is in the air.

Will I fit in?
Will I miss them?
Will they like me?
As I like them?

Questions keep hovering in the mind,
Without any apparent answer,
Seems it’s best not to think,
And sit back and relish the change.

It’s nice that there is change,
To rejuvenate our minds,
To enliven us with a new experience,
And new people to talk about.

I shall soon embark on this journey,
And leave all that’s familiar behind,
But I’ll remember and stay in touch,
With all that I have left behind.

Some Random Unanswered Questions

When I am faced with no intellectual activity, I tend to keep thinking of something or the other. One of the usual thoughts is, ‘Every face has 2 eyes, 1 nose, 2 ears, a pair of lips, and so on. The essential components of a human face are the same. Yet how is it possible that there are so many millions of unique faces floating around? I tend to notice faces a lot when am travelling alone, yet rarely have I seen a face that is similar to a face I know.’
Another thought that comes to my mind is that, ‘What separates the men who are successful from those who aren’t? If we divide our life into stages, like high school, intermediate college, graduation, post-graduation, then working life and so on, we’ll see that there are certain individuals who do very well in a particular stage, but don’t do so well in the next. And there are individuals who consistently outperform, and those who consistently underperform. So what is it that separates the successful ones from the also-rans?’ Some say its luck, or at-the-right-place-at-the-right-time factor, or plain sheer hard work, or stealth, or maybe a combination of the above factors! Anyway, since am not too experienced, I’ll try to answer this question in my own way when I gain more wisdom ( ie. more white hair ! ).
Questions like these come up in every mind at some point of time, but usually we do not have time to sit back and ponder. But the problem is, even if we sit back and ponder, there’s no answer to these questions, so they remain unanswered, and hence, all this “intellectual activity” seems to be futile in the end!!

An Ode to Calcutta

Some say its a dying city,
Others say its a rising one,
Does it matter to me,
If it’s my home you’re talking of?

Well, not my home exactly,
Since I have not stayed here much,
And neither have I been born,
On its soil per se.

But every Bengali worth his grain of salt,
Dreams of settling here one day,
And feels infinitely passionate about,
The City of Joy – Calcutta.

It’s a city that straddles,
The twin horses of history and modernity,
You see an old heritage building on Park Street,
With a McDonalds on the ground floor.

Its architectural prowess,
Can be traced back to its British roots,
Who got Job Charnock to design this city,
That was their capital for some time to come.

Whether it be the Victoria Memorial,
The National Library or the Howrah Bridge,
The city is teeming with landmarks,
Bound to make one feel happy.

A gastronomic delight this city is,
And deliciously friendly on the pocket too,
There’s something for everyone here,
Whether you travel by your Merc or on foot.

Start your day with puri-sabzi,
Have Cantonese cuisine for lunch,
Gulp down egg rolls and fish fry for snacks,
And end your day with a Mughlai dinner on a royal note.

Whether its street food or haute cuisine,
You’ll enjoy both ends of the spectrum,
That’s what this city is all about,
With open arms, it welcomes in all.

Rickety sweaty buses,
Cool and sleek Metro Rail,
Ubiquitous yellow buses,
And speeding local trains.

Not one of them is world-class,
Ageing fleet they’ll seem,
But mix and match different modes,
And you reach your destination alright.

The river Ganga is the city’s heart and soul,
Dividing the cities of Calcutta and Howrah,
It carries the thoughts and aspirations of a million souls,
As it meanders along its path.

The city has an intellectual flavour,
That’s always there in the air,
Discussions over tea and cigarettes,
Are the bread and butter of many a Calcuttan.

Discussions range from art to football,
From politics to cinema,
From cricket to astrology,
Or just the latest gossip in town.

Education runs in the blood of many Bengalis,
That explains their obsession with it,
With an IIT, an IIM, and Medical College near,
Aspirations are bound to soar high.

There’s a rich past of Bengalis,
Who have contributed the world over,
Rabindranath Tagore, Amar Bose,
Satyajit Ray to name a few.

The city has its share of dark spots,
Like blemishes on a fair maiden’s face.
Which do not destroy her beauty,
But definitely detract from it.

Politicisation and unionisation,
Have destroyed the industrial prowess of the past,
Tinkering with state education,
Has badly affected an entire generation.

In the garb of socialism,
Anti-social activities are a routine affair,
In the name of political stability,
Monopoly has come to rule the lair.

Naysayers say,
The city always harks back to its past,
To hide the failures,
Of its rotten present.

Will the city ever regain its glorious past?
Will it be able to shed the baggage it carries?
These are questions which haunt,
The mind of every Calcuttan who cares.

But blemish or no blemish,
Calcutta has a beautiful old-world charm of its own.
You can take a Calcuttan away from Calcutta,
But you can never take Calcutta away from him.

A Season of Goodbyes

Well, the time has come to come to bid goodbye to my friends, one after the other. Someone’s leaving today, someone tomorrow, someone a week later, but everyone is moving apart. It feels bad to let someone go, someone with whom you have shared four years of a journey. Some of us have homes in Bhubaneswar, some of us are getting transferred. So the possibility of all of us meeting at the same time gets dimmer with time. If either of us is in the same city, whether Singapore or Bhagalpur, its manageable. But the whole group together will need lots of coordination. Now considering that it was so difficult to plan a group outing while we were here, planning a group meet after some years is surely gonna be an uphill task!!

Even in the sadness, I feel a bit of happiness too. I feel happy that I have people around me whose absence has the power to sadden me. It seems like a very convoluted emotion, but that’s the way it is!! I hope it’s the same feeling in my friend’s minds too, hope they’ll miss me as I miss them.

Everyone says 2 years of MBA life will pass away in a jiffy. I wonder as to what kind of friends I’ll make there. I had great friends till 10th. Then when I went to a new school for 11th and 12th, those 2 years went away in a flash. Classes, then tuition, then more classes and more tuition, IIT-JEE preparation et al sucked the life out of me. So in this rat race, I did not make too many friends, though certainly a few good ones. Then came along 4 years of engineering studies, which were very fruitful in terms of the friendships I made- not too many in quantity, but certainly in quality. So I guess I’ll make friends of a professional nature there, going by the past record!! But I have kept an open mind about it.

So it’s a season goodbyes for now..

On Parting and Leaving

So it’s time for one phase of our life to pass the baton to another. We embarked on our graduation path four years back, entering an engineering college like so many souls in our nation. We were like kids when we joined, and while I can’t call ourselves men by now ( would prefer if someone else says it!! ), we definitely have grown up and matured. The journey has been a wavering one, full of high-speed straights and hair-pin bends too. As always with everything, we realize the importance of everything just when it’s about to be taken away from you. Certain events are not very enjoyable when they happen, but are great stuff for memories and late-night discussions. Fights, alliances, coming close and moving far apart are all a part of the game. As long as one learns from an experience and moves on in life, all’s well. The problem starts when we harbor feelings about people or events that outlive the magnitude of the event!!

Engineering has taught me many different things in life. Humility- One may be an electrical engineer, yet one has to call a humble electrician to repair a tube-light!! The world is full of our fellow brethren, hence there’s not much to differentiate between two cherries from a basket of cherries. That’s where one’s emotional quotient, and soft skills come into play. It’s all about being a complete package these days. Then there’s the lesson about grades. We tend to think that’s its knowledge that matters, pursuing grades is too lowly a pursuit for us, but where they can matter, grades leave their presence felt. And lastly, if not anything, being an engineer is supposed to make one’s mind analytical, though am yet to see its effects!!

More than engineering fundae, I have got a really nice and diverse group of friends. Everyone says their friends are nice, but diversity is something I have come to appreciate from my friends. We all are from the same city, similar backgrounds, similar localities, so not much cause for diversity, yet each one of us is a unique specimen, worthy of honorable mention is his own right. I say “his own right”, because even after lots of effort, no girl is part of our full-time group!! I’ll miss my friends, not just beacause we had a great time together at college, but also because it was a very carefree time spent. I can say whatever comes to my mind in front of them, and be assured that they’ll take it in the right spirit. I wonder if that will ever happen again in life, since professionalism tends to make us more diplomatic. And ours was a very focused group, so everybody is landing up at a secure place after graduating.

I completed all the academic requirements today. Exams, project submission, vivas over, and got a clearance certificate from college. These days, there’s a slight sad feeling every time I leave the college building, a feeling creeps in that soon shall come the time I’ll leave the building one final time. Funny are the ways of life, you struggle and wish you leave this god-damned place, and while you are leaving, you feel like you could have spent a bit more time. However, if your leaving got delayed, you’ll again wish you’d leave soon!!

It’s been a satisfactory graduation for me, there are always things that I could have done better, and there are always things I thought I missed out on. But even though we bickered for half our time at college, I am happy am leaving with a sweet taste in my mouth rather than a bitter one. My college has shaped me as an individual, and though it may not have prepared me well for an engineering career, it surely has prepared me for life.

Meeting her in June

It was the month of June,
Some guests were to come,
And I wasnt too interested,
In who was to come.

They came in the evening,
We had a good time,
She was unexpectedly nice,
Think we struck a subconscious chord.

She went back to her life,
And I should have gone back to mine,
But something in my mind said,
We are gonna stay in touch.

It started with something trivial,
Text messaging service ahoy!!
Slowly the messages became longer,
And we became more involved.

Then came the Internet,
I didn’t have a computer then,
I shuttled back and forth from a cafe,
Just to check my daily mail.

Come rain or shine,
Our mails would go on,
We spoke about our lives,
And whatever was on our mind.

Our daily mails became more frequent,
And soon it ceased to be just that,
It was the forging of a relationship,
Even though we were far apart.

We had doubts in the beginning,
As to whether it shall work out,
Whether our relationship,
Would stand the test of time.

Three months hence,
We decided to take the plunge,
Come what may we thought,
It’s more than worth the effort.

She had her share of tantrums,
I had my share of moodiness,
Yet none of this came in the way,
Of the care we nurtured for each other.

The distance between us was a thorn,
But we decided to take it in our stride,
Soon it ceased to matter,
That we were a thousand miles apart.

As I look back on that fateful June evening,
It’s been four happy years since then,
We still remember every vivid detail,
And everything is still as fresh.

When I first met her,
I was about to join college.
Now am about to leave that,
And join another college.

She’s been a constant part of my journey,
And I a part of hers,
So with these thoughts in mind,
I look forward to meeting her in June.

Acknowledgments

Getting into IIM Indore has been one of the most significant achievements in my life till date. So acknowledgments to all those who have helped me in my journey are due.

My heart-felt gratitude to

My parents, for playing the support-cum-critic role perfectly, and constantly pushing me to do better. Without my mom’s nagging nature and my dad’s questions on my studies, I would not have been able to do what I did!!

Snigdha, for being the stabilising factor in everything, and also for making me feel the need of an MBA in the first place- For “Why MBA” question, one of my prospective answers was “To be able to buy a platinum necklace for my girlfriend.”  So Snigdha, you know what my first salary’s gift is gonna be ( well, if not the first, atleast the tenth!! )

My friends circle- Jami, Srikanth, Avinash and Satprem. I studied with Jami and Srikanth, so learnt a lot from them, and our healthy competition was mutually beneficial for all of us!! Avinash, for helping me when I used to get stressed out. Satprem, for those idealistic philosophical discussions, from life to love to CAT to GRE!!

My college- College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, for providing an ideal carefree environment, with very less academic rigour, that ensured that I could prepare for CAT and still sleep in the afternoon and night peacefully!!

Career Launcher, for providing the coaching material. Mr. Satyanarayan R, an IIMB alumnus started this organisation, and I would say you have achieved a lot of what you set out to do. In an environment cluttered with MBA coaching centers, CL has carved out a nice niche for itself in a short time, and their thought is visible everywhere.

TIME, for providing the AIMCAT test series. Wonderful variety of questions, loved the mix. And their DI sets were amazing!!

IMS, I joined them only for their GD/PI program, but was impressed by the dynamics of this organisation, and understood why they are so popular.

My teachers – Biswaroop Sir at CL Bhubaneswar, Alok Sir at TIME Bhubaneswar, Sajal Sir and Abhisekh Sir at the TIME workshop, and Kumar Sir, Manjit Sir and KB Dash Sir at IMS Bhubaneswar.

Some of my college seniors for their support and guidance- Amrita Di, Pritam Bhaiya, Shobhan Bhaiya, and Salvwi Di. I’ll always stay in touch with all of you!!

Lastly, they played the most important role of guiding me during the season of GDs and interviews, answered a thousand of my queries, helped me tone my CV and statement of purpose, and they still help me out even when they don’t really need to. They are my mentors – Pranav Awasthi from IIM Kozhikode, Rajarshi Mukherjee from IIM Bangalore, and Rucha Naik from IIM Calcutta.

Thanks a lot to all the above mentioned, and also to many others whose names I have not mentioned. I ll stay forever indebted..

My MBA Journey Part-1

This post has been due for many months now, but better late than never.

The seeds of this journey were sown somewhere in the 2nd year of my engineering college. That is when we realised that higher studies had to be on our radar, else we shall end up as one of the innumerable faces entering a software company in droves. Nothing wrong with that, just that believing yourself to be worth more does have its share of benefits and side-effects. So higher studies for an engineering student may mean 3 common things- MBA, or MTech, or MS. Other options like civil services didn’t appeal to me. My dream was to work in a hot-shot tech. company, read Microsoft, Google, Yahoo et al. By 2nd year I realised that this dream was difficult to be fulfilled. And by 3rd year, I was almost sure it could not be fulfilled!! So when it came to higher studies, I was inclined towards an MTech or an MBA. But for doing an MTech, one needs to have an interest in a particular area of Computer Science, and I wasnt very interested in any particular field. Hence, after more than a year of dilly-dallying, I decided this was my only option.

Preparation started when we were in the beginning of 3rd year ( early birds! ), and from the very beginning, I was lucky to be in a group where many were seriously motivated to prepare hard. The preparation stage was fun, we were enjoying this stage. Then came the summers of 2008. We had a 2 month long vacation, and this was the period which we seriously utilised for our preparation. Even though we started early, these 2 months contributed to almost 70% of our entire preparation, since we had a definite direction in which we knew we had to proceed, and were definitely not rudder-less. Then came the mocks, and in this stage we realised the areas where we were on the right track, and the areas in which we weren’t. The mocks taught us the most about CAT, and how to hone our test-taking strategies. It helped that there wasn’t much pressure from the academics side at our college.

Then came the big day, November 16th, 2008 – CAT Day. I was nervous when I started for the test-center, but as soon as I left home on time, tension eased a little. The center was nice and the rooms were nicely lighted and cheery type. So far so good. Then came the paper, the format had changed a little, and I realised I might use it to my advantage. I went ahead with my normal strategy, nothing ground-breaking or earth-shattering. I was at my elements on that day, it was like the parts of a jigsaw puzzle were falling into place. I came out of the exam hall feeling satisfied, though I had attempted less questions, and would have to rely on accuracy a lot.

Fast-forward to January 10th, 2009 – CAT results Day. I was hoping for a good percentile, and expecting a decent percentile, but I was shocked seeing my results- a percentile of 99.80, with 6 IIM calls  – BLACKI, it was like a dream come true. I couldn’t have asked for more, everything that could have gone right did go right.

What these results did were more than skin-deep. I regained trust in myself, believed that I too can shake a leg among the best, and broke many stereotypes in my mind. But the greatest positive was, I realised I am living a dream, and I want to make the most of it till it lasts. It’s not everyday in life that everything happens they way you hope it will. And its not everyday that you are treated like a king by one and all.

Watch out for MBA Journey – Part 2 next.