Looking out, for you to come

There was a time,

Not too long ago,

When you were still pretty,

And I was still young.

Life then was so strange,

Time passed away leaving us unchanged,

Fools were we to think,

That this is how it shall always remain.

We thought it was for ever,

A lifetime is too short,

Funny where life has brought us now,

Even a lifetime seems too long.

Hours ceases to pass,

The Sun ceases to set,

Sitting on the rocking chair,

No longer feels the same.

I yearn for the days gone by,

And dread the days to come,

Life without you by my side,

I never thought would come.

Yet,  this is where I find myself now,

Lonely and forlorn,

Sitting by the same old rocking chair,

Looking out for you to come.

The Business of Social Networking

The most recent bug to have hit our generation is that of “Social Networking”. It is talked of in tea-joints and corporate boardrooms alike. Orkut, Facebook, MySpace and a host of other sites have taken the entire world by storm. The concept is quite novel, and I admit I was an Orkut addict quite some time back, when I just used to sit and refresh my Orkut scrapbook in the hope of another scrap, and every 3 refreshes, a new scrap would indeed come in! MySpace was slightly complicated for my simple mind, so I left it alone, though I do recollect creating a profile there. Then came along Facebook, the darling of the Web. We were told by the who’s who of our generation that if you aren’t on Facebook, you haven’t arrived yet! My poor simple mind found Facebook complex too, and I failed to understand why would someone want to poke or slap someone, or grow farms and weeds, or go around buying guns and waging fights. Regular users would easily appreciate what am driving at! What I thought was, don’t computer multiplayer games give a greater adrenalin rush? I am there on Facebook too, but I get horribly bored of just updating status messages to let the world know what my dark devil mind is up to. Finally, I stumbled onto Twitter, just to see what all the hype is all about. I found it nice and non-intrusive, it doesn’t need me to fill up a gargantuan online form, and has a very simple interface. Tweeted regularly for a few days, replied to others’ tweets too, then one fine day got bored with it too! I do check it once in a while, try and act witty with it too, but found nothing really interesting on Twitter.

However, the world of Silicon Valley and its Venture Capitalists seem to think otherwise. Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp. bought out MySpace for $ 580 million in 2005. Facebook has been getting funding at every stage, with Microsoft investing $ 240 million in 2007, valuing the company at a whopping $ 15 billion! The catch is that its revenues were only $ 150 million at the time of this funding. Same goes for Twitter, which has already received $ 155 million in funding so far. Its valuation has quadrupled from $ 250 million to $ 1 billion in a year, without Twitter coming up with a concrete revenue model or bringing in any significant revenues. Apparently, both Facebook and Twitter are planning to net in a billion users in the near future. In terms of Internet Traffic attracted, Facebook ranks in 2nd, behind only Google, while Twitter is ranked 14th. What’s clear in all this talk is that, a lot of speculation goes around in the valuations of social networking sites, without a clear idea of how these businesses will bring in the promised revenues.

Another interesting facet is how these biggies have spawned off an entire ecosystem of developers who make games/apps and make good money on them. Zynga, the developers of Farmville – by far the most popular game on Facebook with 65 million active monthly users – raised $ 15 million in VC funding, in addition to $ 40 million it had raised earlier. Whether Facebook/Twitter decide to charge these developers a royalty fee is there to see. What is more important is how the networking sites will make revenues from their increasing user base, and whether they can sustain the hype. Or maybe they will fade into oblivion in the future and act as a stepping-stone for the next big thing on the Web. My hunch is that the networking space is getting quite crowded, and only the largest will survive. Top VC firms are already moving into newer areas like alternative energy,  waste management etc. where they see their investments appreciating to a greater extent.

So irrespective of whether it makes sense for me to hang around Facebook or Tweet away to glory, social networking sites make perfect business sense. At least for now.

IIM Indore and Social Sensitivity

This is the first post from my side from IIM Indore about IIM Indore. Funny, considering that I thought I would become a more active blogger after joining an MBA program, since I would have so much to write about. But 2 poems in 5 months is all I churned out. Whatever else I could write of- sleepless nights, Maggi at 3am, academic rigor, lack of the fairer sex, relative grading, summer placements- had all been written of in some form somewhere. And sameness is what I run away from. But some events recently have triggered off some thoughts in my mind.

Firstly, why is it that IIM Indore always portrays itself as a business school with a social sensitivity? Why is it that every other guest speaker of repute talks of society building and giving back? Why is that there is so much of social leaning in a business school, which is supposed to be the altar of capitalism, where I-bankers and Consultants in their grey suits are considered Gods, where your pay package is your identity, where business is all about making profits? Well, as they say, the answers are always hidden in plain sight. IIM Indore is located in an impoverished locality called Rau, surrounded by agricultural land and poor people. The irony of this location manifests itself in many different ways. A cab (Indica) ride to the “City” costs 400 bucks, which none of us ever flinch while shelling out. A bus ride from the city for the same distance costs Rs. 9, measly by our standards. There is also a metre-gauge train service, which has a station at Rau, which costs just Rs.3 from Indore, which is about 18km away. Such is the extent of subsidization. We waste our food in the mess when we don’t like it, and even when we do like it, we waste it ‘coz we would have taken too much of it, while there are people outside our campus who would consider a meal of rice-dal, twice a day, a luxury. There are people in campus fretting over a salary of Rs.12 lakhs which they consider low, while people outside sustain a large family all by a monthly income of Rs. 3000 without ever raising a voice. Such is the setting of our institute. To add to our conditioning, we have a unique course called “Society and Business Management”, which forces us to look at society in ways we didn’t before. Ironical are the ways of life, you come out of a business school with a socially sensitive mind, and that for me is one of the biggest takeaways from this MBA program.

And as for the questions I raised above, I already have their answers.

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.