Bye Bye Mumbai

And India
Im leaving in less than 15 minutes from my home.

Guess I had a lot to write but as usual procastination and last minute packing took up my time.

Have some regrets
Should ve spoken more to some people (eapecially my parents and sister)

Shouldve spoken a lot less everywhere else.

Shouldve ridden my bike more
SHould ve read more books. (Damn im on last 100 pages of Shantaram a 900 page novel)

Shouldve spent time better than lazing around
tried to lose weight
pigged out a little less.


But now im turning over a new leaf.
IN this new chapter of my life

Life is gonna be more of I WILL DO
no more shouldve

cheers
NIRAV

Dye Another Day

As any one who has premature grey hair will tell you, the most dreaded question is HOw come do you have white (or gray) hair? Right from the neighbourhood grocer, classmate, family friend, uncles and aunts right to the barber who plans to earn a coupla more bucks by appying Godrej Hair dye on your scalp.

All those wannabe well wishers would soon keep giving advice, think over aloud the possible reasons and suggest many remedies. But all this advice when simply not asked for.

Here are some of the sample Qs

Question by Well Wisher (QBWW) : Hey youve got gray hair
What I really Wanna Answer (WIRWA) : Yeah, im not blind, and i do comb my hair and brush my teeth in front of a bathroom mirror. So this isnt news
What I Endup Answering (WIEA) : Yeah i dunno some how, you know errr i got some white hair

QBWW: Why do you have gray hair at such a young (24) age
WIRWA: Why did god create spherical planets and not cuboids? i dont know and really i dont care. Now that ive got it im living with it
WIEA: Well pollution, bad water, bad air, may be stress

QBWW: Oh so do you have anxiety problems? Are you always stressed out? DO you think way too much? Is it due ot the heavy workload at IIMA
WIRWA: Yeah actually my main cause of stress and anxiety is people probing into why i've got grey hair
WIEA: No may be im a little introspective, and i like to reflect but no its not due to heavy work load at IIMA


QBWW: Actually you know you are those intelligent persons (sic) who think so much thats why you age faster (damn). And may be its your hair thats why you are still single
WIRWA: you @!$*^%$#)^&^%$%@#&( if that had been the case morons like you would be ever youthful. Damn lemme tell u one more thing, i dont thing the colour of my hair (or lack of it) has to do anything with my single status. And damn you and your full f**king family (esp the female members) its not a sign of intelligence, its not my goddamn grey matter spilling out
WIEA: I dunno, errr (look at the ceiling/sky/something else)

Anyways at each instance i try and change the topic, not because im ashamed of my hair, but simply all the questions are rhetorical. The person asking the questions only wants to hear the answer that he/she has in mind.
Dammit im happy i atleast have hair on my head. (So all you bald or guys with thinning hair wipe of that smirk on your face)

Anyways as i read recently in a book about how humans tend to judge on the basis of first impressions, i do understand that any deviations from the norm are looked at in a suspicious manner and how deeply ingrained are our stereotypes, but then im really thankful that though it is true i might have actually gotten my hair dyed before the placement season at iima. (thankfully i didnt and i got the job of my preference, first preference infact)

Dunno how long will i keep runnign away from the fact that i might have to dye my hair black, but for now im proud that they are grey. Infact I dont care a rats ass of what others think, but only sometimes might get angry at the silly questions.

So no more tolerating those other Qs like wht ur 24 u look more like 34 or may be 44. No more kaali ghata jaiso zulf teri songs in front of me, cause though i may not have the courage to say it upfront on your face, you now know what im thinking right :P

Bar Bar Dekho, Hazaar Bar Dekho

Nopes im not talking about the famous song sung on the silver screen by Shammi Kapoor, but the recent court ruling re allowing dance bars in Mumbai.

I dont understand what the whole issue is all about. World over you have legalised pornography, prostitution and you have strip clubs a plenty. Having been to a strip club in Amsterdam, ( the sex capital of the world) well i do definitely agree that it encourages prostitution, and women are in such places as little else than objects of sexual gratification, but well in a patriachial and male dominated society for years sex has been commoditised and women are seen as objects to be f*** around with.

Sex is one of the oldest profession known to man, and selling your self for favours is nothing new and thus all over the west (and now much even in south east asia) prostitution is legal. Frankly speaking, however hard one tries, one cannot completely eliminate it. By legalising it the state can not only control it and collect taxes (aha the government comes everywhere to collect its share of pie in the capitalist world, and you call communist governments being all interfering). Also at the same time the Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) can have some designated area, health insurance, the spread STDs such as AIDS (and im sure there are many others like herpes, gonnorhea and what not) but then by legalising it the social stigma as well as the fear of being caught gets reduced and the number of men visiting CSWs and the number of women turning into hookers would simply increase manifold, which i feel is bad. (personal opinion that it has a negative externality on the society)

More over in this specific case State Minister R.R. Patil wanted the dance bars in Mumbai to be banned since they spoilt our moral fabric. Anyways in India we are so used to having a system where we feel the masses cannot think for them selves. The people are so dumb that they cannot fend for themselves thats why no gambling, no dance bars etc.

Why do people want to be moral police. Agreed many indians are crazy and need others to make decisions for them. (note riots when Dr. Rajakumar the film star died a coupla days ago in Bangalore) but i guess Mr Patil is one of them as well. HOwever sexist or MCP it may sound "men will lust after women. Some of them will seek some form of sexual gratification by visiting such bars"

And how different are women in skimpy outfits dancing in front of you in the shady bar at the end of the street to skimpily clad women dancing in the music videos on MTV, [V] or hindi flicks. Do you ban movies. Every one kow that the casting couch exists. What do you go ahead and do for that.

I believe we all should be less than perfect, and simply accept some level of evil in the society. If some one wants to have a drink while ogling at a lady who is bent on tittilating him by dancing on raunchy numbers so be it. Let those who dont want to go to such places not visit. (RR Patil included)

It can be regulated thus the person who blows up his money on a chammiya shakin her ass, let the government collect its share of the pie.

Why cant we all behave like GROWN UPS and live and let live.
No need to make mountains out of mole hills

Convocation Pictures (like a lot more its long over due)

yeah Pics of the highly over rated convocation at iima.

Posting some of the pics i took (many more have taken pics with me, but don't have em here)

So first we have the entire batch picture, Im right up there on the top row right at the left (co-rodinates (1,1))

Then you have me here accepting my degree from none other than NR Narayana Murthy

As my internet connection at home is slow, so first ill have to reduce the picture sizes and the only will be able to upload something.

now that im at home and doing nothing, might blog daily.

Whats in a Name? (Convo Blues)

Yeah, my name is Nirav Kanodra, I dont see anything difficult bout pronouncing it or spelling it right. But well the world does.

On Umpteen ocassions my name has been spelt as Neerav and the surname think of all the combinations:
Kanodia, Kanoria, Kandora, Kanodara, Kanodria, Kanorda ... and the list goes on and on. As some one said we read only what we want to read. So 'Kanodra' not being a popular indian surname most indians simply use their intelligence and write what they feel is correct. More over they pronounce it the way they feel its right (and not the way i the bearer of the surname pronounce it)

All my childhood in school i was called Kandora after a teacher said that in class 3, the same time we had 'Pandora's Box of troubles' being taught in english. That stuck for a while and then someone called me the desi version "Kannu" and this one stuck well into engineering days where Saurabh Vilekar nicknamed me Kandy (thankfully, Saurabh i still thank you for that). In L&T again my nick name reverted to Kannu and then in IIMA the less said bout nick names the better. (PS my parents know my nick name ... damn)

anyways these errors are so pervasive in my engineering degree certificate there was an error (Kanorda instead of Kanodra and then they mispelt it the second time as Kandora, damn lightning struck twice)
And the bigger whammy was before our actual concocation we had a rehearsal and the chairman of the PGP Pregram Professy MM Monipally mispronounced my surname. He went like Nirav errr Kan-do-ra (the whole batch applauded) and he corrected himself. (I wasnt alone, Mohit Pradhan became Rohit Pradhan and Nangmuansang Lethil was a toungue twister)
So much so that in the actual convocation, there was a louder than normal applause for Nangmuansang and me. I felt really happy thinking that my parents might think this was due to me being more popular (as in most popular guys got really loud applauses) but damn they were seated near some students from my batch and they overheard "Oh so finally MMM got kanodra's name right"


SO i surely have been used to being called something apart from my name right from childhood days, but lets see what is it which makes my surname so special.

Rewind to 1900s or there abouts. My Great Grand Father was born Ravishankar Trikumji Trivedi (son of Mr. Trikumji Trivedi) Being born in a Brahmin family he too managed some education (or so they say) and was an employee of the prestigious "Burma Shipping Company" which was a part of the original East India Company. (All you Indians please dont curse my lineage, i still dont support the colonial rule)

Some where in Late 1930s Mr. R.T. Trivedi had a problem. His boss had the same initials and their letters used to get routinely mixed up. To that add some religious mumbo jumbo and throw in an astrologer and thus for some vague reason (which we shall never know) he decided to change his surname. Thus from Trivedi he changed it to "Kanodra" (but this spelling was in devanagiri script i guess) Apparently as my grandpa says Kanodra is the name of the goddess of our "Kul" (you may call it a sect, or some super sub division in our caste of Shrimadi Yajurvedi Brahmins from Jamnagar). Well the truth is no one actually knows.
Now Great Grandpa died young and this when his eldest son came of age he was offered a job. But by then the management changed hands. Now it was "Scindia Steam Navigation". The operations at the Jamnagar port stopped for good, and now their botched records wouldnt let Mukundrai Trivedi work as he wouldnt be the son of Mr Kanodra.
So my Grandpa moved to mumbai and changed his surname, and then some where in between some clerk some where got his name as Canodra. So we had Mr. Mukundrai Canodra starting his career on the Princess Dock in Mumbai working for Scindia Steam Navigation. He didnt know the difference as he didnt study much (He and his brothers didnt pay much attention to education after great grandpas death)
So now we had M.R. Canodra but his brothers continued to live in jamnagar and continued with the surname trivedi.

Now fast forward some where in 1950s. My dad is admitted to a school and his name was finally spelt out as Kanodra (the spelling which stands till today). in the family we had Mukesh Kanodra son of Mukundrai Canodra and Mukundrai Canodra was the brother of Vishuprasad, Mansukhlal and Natwarlal Trivedi.
Some family ehh.
Thankfully my dads 3 siblings were all Kanodra (no more variations) though my dad has faced problems in the past. How come you are Kanodra and your dad is Canodra?

Anyways thus today on the surface of this world there exists only 8 Kanodras. No make that 7 Kanodra's and 1 Canodra. (It was 7 + 2 a couple of years back but my Grandma Mrs. Shantaben Canodra expired)

So thats the story behind the surname.

Housing blues

Yeah, now that our batch is looking forward to joining their jobs in different cities around the world, the biggest problem is finding housing in the metropolitan cities. (where housing is prohibitively expensive)

As Noodle pointed out yesterday to me, bigger problem than finding a house is finding the right roomies.
HIs criterion was plain and simple, vegetarian, non-smoker and must be fun to be with. (Read doesn't mind me drinking, but shouldn't create a mess himself)

Well if we simply look in WIMWI, the pool of people who are fun to be with, are not the vegetarian non smokers. Out of that choosing amongst guys who are placed in mumbai.

Well the same dilemma is facing me and Nippo. We need some vegetarian, non smoker but heavy drinker, who should know how to cook as well. And obviously should be fun to be with. On TV rules, cricket should be no.1 priority followed by formula 1 and soccer. At no point in time should soap operas be watched. Mooli (our dorm senior) says this seriously appears like a matrimonial advertisement in the times of india.

Another issue is where to look for accomodation, London being a large city and damn expensive. Though my office is near St. Pauls Cathedral in zone 1, I guess i might end up living in Canary Wharf or somewhere.

Anyways all these can be discussed later. Let me get my degree certificate on the day of convocation.

Finally End of an Era

Yeah, I havent been bloggign since quite some time, first half of the time was spent as a nervous wreck in the preplacement time, and then after getting a job, it was more of being too bored too lazy and what not.

anyways I've really been lucky to be offered a position in the Structuring Desk of Merrill Lynch in London. (Well i also had other offers, but i dont want to brag about myself, but this was not the highest salary offered to me)

Anyways this was simply the best time to graduate out of a B-school, especially since the global markets are all bullish (no pun intended with the Bull which is the Merrill Lynch logo), and at the same time they are recognising the talent pool which graduates out of india every year, and lo and behold, the investment banks and consultants simply come and recruit from India. (And IIM Ahmedabad in particular)

Anyways this has been a seriously bumper year, and will always be remembered for Barclays Bank making 22 offers out of which 16 accepted.

But coming back to what i wanted to say the placements had a lot more to do with being at the right place at the right time rather than simply merit of the students.
Similar set of guys were there last year and well they didnt have half as many opportunities.

Anyways let me enjoy it while it lasts, i will be in london from may 1 and dont know whether there would be enough time inclination and topics to blog about

Of placements and more

Now with the placements looming on our heads, we at WIMWI have started discussing the job market and potential recruiters more than women and cricket. (and thats a real shame aint it)

anyways now that i have kept thinking at length about it i guess it surely deserves a mention on my blog as well.

Today when the economy is doing well and every where the companies are raising their salaries i guess all of us at iima shall be with high paying jobs to start our careers with, but then i guess till not all of us would be anything close to happy.
Each one would be comparing how much did i get.

Then comes the issue of which job is the right job to take. Do i have the right atitude/aptitude to work in a particular sector. Would i sell my soul and all my leisure time for a few Lakh more?

I feel like a prostitute who will be goign to work for the highest bidder.
Infact looking how i am slacking on assignments now with no pressure on me, i rather feel like a donkey who wont run unless:
1) He is chasing a carrot at the end of a stick, OR
2) some one is whipping his ass unless he runs

without the reward and punishment i shall stand still at one point. It says a lto about my personality and internal drive (and i guess the same about all others with me)

At the same time when i told Basuri dada (a first year agri business management student in my dorm) about me being shortlisted for a couple of investmentbanks, he said "why do you want ot join financial services firms, and just go there cheat ordinary people and create scams? go do some work which benefits the society at large"
though Basudev has significant leftist leanings and has grown up in rural bengal, his words do ring a bell.

Just a couple of hours later there was a presentation by a Micro finance firm, which aimed at giving credit to the poorest of the poor, a wonderful social iniative, and though i think the cause is wonderful, as i dont identify with doing such work myself, im sure i am not gonna even apply to this firm.

Well its not that i am not concerned about the poor, nor do i deny that there is some serious amount of profits lying there (the poor pay 5% interest per day, yes 5% per day to money lenders) but its as if i am not the right person to do something. I am really happy that others are out there to make it a better place.
its like saying that india doesnt have any fast bowlers who put fear in the opposition batsmens mind so i should start practising. I simply dont have the ability t operform, thus i should simply watch cricket on the telly, make advertisers pay more, make the cricket boards rich and hope it gets channelized to the right direction and we get better cricketeres.

Arm chair activism it is but well thats all i am capable of.
Now back to completing the AMDA take home exam, after i see the movie aired on star movies :P

Beginning of the End

yeah now my stay at IIMA is nearing an end.
Would love to type out my thoughts about it, but then dont have the time (too caught up in attending placement ppts, completing assignments which i had slacked on earlier, cribbing about life in general and playing carrom over 10 cups of tea per day)

Anyways now with the entire batch getting extremely senti, some people have already penned their thoughts (Ranga, Poza and Blade are just some of them) and then the 'SENTINELS' comprising of BaLLLma®, Tahseen, Ranga, Bushie amongst others are taking some initiatives to make the last few days memorable.
On of the few events they conducted was the Poll of the Year (POTY) awards, which was held alongwith the Music Night.

The Music night was some nice event, kudos to SFI (Srinath) the music club coord and the entire music club for making it an extremely memorable event.

The POTY awards were hosted by none other than yours truly, and inspite of various goof ups and me not able to read the print, the event was nice with a lot of funky awards being given. (Like the Best CP, best/ worst hair style, killer lady and lady killer, best couple ...)
Anyways i was awarded the best dorm name. (I guess if you know my dorm name, and have lived on campus from 2004-06 then this should have been a no brainer)

Yeah now i shall soon type out my own memories of this place, and add some pictures as well.

What Does your birthday mean

Discovered this of Blade's blog (Ranjan Kant, WIMWI's most hardworking, intelligent and fighter dude)

Anyways this describes my characteristics, guess some of it is true, (well in all such things they say lot of genreic things, so atleast soem characteristics should match anyone on this planet)
Anyways if interested you too can try it and check whether it works for you. I myself dont believe in astrology (unless it says things like i am a natural born leader of men and irresistibly attractive to women)

Your Birthdate: October 3

You are more than a big ball of energy - you are a big ball of hyper.You are always on the go, but you don't have a type a personality.Instead of channeling your energy into work, you instead go for fun and adventure.Witty and verbal, you can have an interesting conversation with anyone. Your strength: Your larger than life imagination Your weakness: You tend to be pretty scattered Your power color: Lime Your power symbol: Lightening bolt Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

So anyways you guys try it out, andif you did read this, please leave your comments on how much of this do you think is true.

Btw i hope my power month is march. (for more reasons than one)

Sunrise @ Thol

Yeah now in 6th term, less than a month for the end, the motorcylcing club of IIM Ahmedabad is now nearly getting defunct. (With the infectious enthusiasm of Hitanshu Gandhi gone, doubt any one would have the guts to do 1000 km solo rides)
But as a part of i was making too many plans to somehow go out on a short trip. So Made plans to (re)visit the Bird Sanctuary Thol, around 40 km from the campus.
The plan was first aborted due to lack of anyone willling to wake up early enough to witness the sunrise.

Then yesterday night at Cafe TANSTAAFL (CT) around 3 AM suddenly SFI and Gattu suggested why couldnt we leave in an hour or so, and thus reach well in time for some ornithology (well though most of us are avid bird watchers, our main hobby is 'horny-thology')

so off we went across with Nippo being the 4th guy to come as a pillion with me.

It was a wonderful way to spend the morning, away from the noise and hullabaloo of WIMWI to experience the tranquil calm.

anyways leaving you with the pictures

1 Sunrise at Thol

2 Lone Flamingo @ Thol Lake (not very sharp as taken with 10x zoom the max in my camera)

3 A picture taken in the Sepia Mode (im finally using different modes in my CAM)

The Same Snap taken by SFI in another mode, with adjusting his camera settings

4 Now for the people who went there (From L to R SFI Manu and Me, unfortunately not a soul in sight thus Nippo had to take this snap)

5 Finally the other 3 (Nippo Gattu and SFI from L to R)

As I am typing this blog Rambo (another fellow Dixteeno) has started this Radio Nightlife a LAN Radio station, and as an RJ he is busy Leli-ing everyone (Leli : IIMA lingo for taking some ones case)

Ek din saala Rambo pitega kisise

PS

Now that SFI has pasted his snaps on my comp, some more pics here (he is one helluva photographer) This one below is a fantastic snap with the birds flying across during sunrise. (wanna go there one day during sunset as well)

Hindi Prachar Sabha @ Chhatravaas Solah

Yeah, now its just about a month left and now and I realise soon i wont be living in this dormitory at IIM Ahmedabad.

Little did I know when i joined the institute its not just the institute that moulds a person, but very much the dormitory that the person lives in and the people in the dorm.

So this blog dedicated to the activities of my fellow Dixteenos.

The latest activity in our dorm is to popularize the use of hindi. Considerign that there are many south indians who arent exactly comfortable in the national language, Nippo and Softy (aka Patrkar the Media secretary of IIMA) formed the Hindi Prachar Sabha. BaLLLma® always being the over enthu guy comes up with the south indian chapter, Dakshin bharatiya Hindi Sangathan. (He can't be a simple member of any club, unless he is the Prez can't he?)
So now while wasting and whiling away our time in the dorm, (which is the second most popular activity for PGP2s the first being paining the pgp1s with arbit gyaan) we have come up with the motto to have all conversations in chaste hindi. Wheres the catch one might say is'nt Hindi the national language and spoken all across the country? But mind you for those who have been born and brought up in the cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, there are too many English, Marathi, Gujarati and even the Bambaiyya hindi words creeping into ones vocabulary.

So now that we dont use any english words, Dorm 16 is called Chhatravaas Solah, and myself beign the Dorm Representative is know known as Chhatravaas Pratinidhi.
Though these might not sound funny, junta keeps giving each other Oonche Paanch (High fives) and whenever some one admits their mistakes they say Main Sudhara hua Khada hu (I stand Corrected)

Till the club was limited to the first floor it wasn't too bad, but with the entry of The Sourav The Roy (aka Currency of South africa aka truncated name of a street walker) there were new words for the english words entrenched in our vocabulary

Sukshma Narm Bal Bindu Prastuti (Microsoft Powerpoint Presentation)
Pratimbh pind, Laghu pind, chaar chhidra maar dhaad pratiyogita (Carrom game)
Yaun Yantra (thats the dorm name of yours truly well translated in hindi)

there are many more, but i absolutely cant remmeber more of those.
And also we have the external consultant, the Hindi scholar from Down south Vinoo aka Nagina (now a pgp3 working in Feedback Ventures Delhi)
HIs one of the many claims to fame is that he top scored in hindi in class 10 in a highschool in Madras. (i guess there were 5 people in the class, and 8 might not be able to speak hindi at all)

Yup i think i will blog a lot more about IIMA, the placement season (current fever going on) and definitely about my esteemed friends, and the dorm.

Next one hopefully should be on the free fair and transparent Dorm Rep elections

Chaos Moksha

Yeah, its that time in the year when all of IIMA enjoys the festivities. The 4 day long cult fest Chaos Moksha is gonna be be held.
Yup lots big names gonna be performing, Strings, jal ...
and many many more events. Some online games and quizzes
so why dont you check out the website itself?

http://iima-chaos.com/

more about Drishya

Article about drishya and its founder members Chiranjeeb Mukherjee and Sunetro bannerjee in ahmedabad times today

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1385927.cms

Film buffs on a mission

A film appreciation and research club aims to make people understand that there is life beyond Bollywood with the help of cinema masterpieces like Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar....

“Cinema is not an art which films life, it is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, cinema gives to life and takes from it,” French filmmaker Jeun Luc Godard once said. Ever wondered what movies can do to you beyond entertainment? For Sunetro Banerjee, Chiranjib Mukherjee and a bunch of others, it is a medium through which they want to make a difference to the society. They are members of Drishya, a Kolkata based ‘film appreciation and research group’, that boasts of a collection of classics made by filmmakers like Luis Bunuel, Rikwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen and Ingmar Bergman. “Our primary motive is to make people understand that there is life beyond Bollywood. Cinema is a very strong medium, and masterpieces can make a big difference,” says Sunetro Banerjee, a student of film studies. Drishya was formed by a bunch of ‘movie buffs’ three years back when they realised that people living in slums of West Bengal would love to watch pure Bengali films. “We started screening movies like Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Meghe Dhaka Tara, The Bicycle Thief — with which the villages would easily relate to. Initially, we were very sceptical about whether the villagers will come for the screening. But they used to come in big numbers. We used to have interactive sessions with them after the screenings which made us understand their perspective,” says Banerjee. Gradually Drishya moved to bigger cities. “The problem is people are not aware that such classics are being made. And even if they are, these are not easily available on DVDs,” says Banerjee. Drishya has screened movies in the slums of Dharavi, in temples, police stations, colleges and in corporate houses across India. “We feel great when people react to the films. Once we screened The Bicycle Thief for some constables. After watching the film they were really touched and realised that sometimes circumstances lead people to commit crimes. Once, after watching a film, the slum kids of Dharavi were in tears. This is our mission. We don’t want to initiate a revolt. We just want to use the medium of cinema to raise some social issue,” he says. The group is currently in Ahmedabad for a few days and will be screening films at IIM. And they are also hoping that some well connected and generous film buffs, help them out in their mission.

(Here you see chiranjeeb on left and Sunetro on the right in this picture)

36 Chowringhee Lane

Another movie seen in the Film Fest Anachronism presented by Drishya:

I saw '36 Chowringhee Lane' a bilingual (Bengali and English) movie directed by Aparna Sen. (For her debut feature, Aparna won the Best Director award at the Indian National Film Awards. It also won the Grand Prix (the Golden Eagle) at the Manila International Film Festival.). A nice movie about an aging Anglo Indian spinster, and how her lonely life is transformed when she meets a young couple who use her house as a rendezvous point.

It touches on issues such as the lonely old people who do not have any family members living with them, to the plight of the anglo indians (and similarly Parsis), who were in held powerful positions within the government and the private sector due to their knowledge of English and higher levels of education, but with the average indian (and even the lower castes and tribals) getting more educated, how these people from the old order are slwoly but steadily getting replaced by indians in all positions. Thus leading to emigration of anglo indians to other english speaking and christian countires such as australia and canada (in search of greener pastures)
Another aspect that is well covered is the plight of people in the old age homes in india, how these people are left to die once they are old enough and no one even cares about them.

Similarly is the fate of the protagonist, Miss Violet Stoneham (Played by Shashi Kapoors late wife Jennifer Kendal), that once she is old and lonely, not only is she demoted in the school where she is a teacher, (where she si asked to teach grammar to girls in primary school instead of Shakespeare in the senior classes), but also how the couple whom she allows to spend time in her apartment (which lends name to the movie), conviniently ignore her as soo nas they get married and thus showing us how materialistic society has become.

Actually after looking at the movie i think, why do people want immortality, when u see the kind of pain old agae is. (actually why would anyone want immortality when one is at a loss how to spend a lazy sunday afternoon)

Happenings in the Dorm

Last few days have been a bit boring, not much happening in my life at IIM Ahmedabad. Well i've added the links of a few blogs that i read, and not to mention wikipedia, which helps me spend a lot of time.

whereas the other dormies are also bored and ismply killing time till the placements occur.
The favourite time pass is definitely carrom. (Which Nippo is mastering and challenging all and sundry) Here in the picture you see Ram about to strike as John (his partner) and the opponents Nippo and Bela as well as the onlooker BaLLLma® watch on. These carrom matches not only display the general lack of talent amongst IIMA students, but the conversation on the board also confirms the fact that they lack anything called as sense of humour. (Myself included)
Right now D16 first floor is becoming a procastinators paradise, with D17ers (Ram, John and even Suchitra) coming in to play with us.


The other pass time as with any indian is watchign cricket matches. The current series with pakistan being a bore with dead pitches and high scoring draws notwithstanding, here you can see the fachhas cheering for india while watching cricket.


Now as my stay in IIMA draws to a close, I wish to put up a lot of snaps and write about WIMWI and my Dormitory in general.

Films as an art form

Ahhh, term six in IIM Ahmedabad. Unlike the first year (and especially term 1 and 3) where you are over loaded with work, this term has lot of time for relaxation, and pursuing other passtimes.
Yeah so besides playing carrom, lazing around and general chit chat, we also watch movies. Though most of the movies are of the 'masala' variety, of late ive come across a few good meaningful movies, and the credit goes to the MAD (Movie A Day) club secretary Gavaskar Gadalla (aka Gava on campus)
On the server inour campus i saw a couple of Stanley Kubrick Movies, Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange, of which the latter one definitely made an impression on me.
The idea of conditioning the human behaviour to avoid crime and behave well, making them behave like machines running on clockwork precision and the pitfalls of the same is a revolutionary concept.

But coming to the point, Gava has organized a film festival 'Anachronism' with help of the agency Dhrishya. Drishya is run by two gentlemen (Chiranjeeb and Sunetro) from Calcutta, who have promoted film as an art form and literature by showing some international classic movies to not only college students but also to slum children and corporates. They really promote meaningful cinema (unlike the Yash Chopra and Barjatya movies who simply have too much drama)

Though I missed the first movie, the second day there was the screening of A bout de Souffle (Breathless) a movie by Jean du Godard, which is regarded as a revolutionary film for its film making techniques, and the movie which i saw today was simply a classic. It was an Iranian movie, "Bacheha-Ye Aseman" (Children of Heaven) by Majid Majidi.
As Chiranjeeb explained before the movie screening that in monarchies and stictly religious countries like Iran where there is extreme censorship by the state, the film makers usually choose non controversial topics for their films, and this movie as the title suggests is about children. It deals around the life of a brother and sister and how much importance is there for a simple pair of shoes.
It not only describes the life of poor working class people in Teheran (which i strongly belive would be the situation in India as well) but aslo subtly comments on the political situation and the divide between the haves and the have-nots on the society.
The movie highlights the joys experienced by children over siple things, and even a pair of sneakers, which to most of us seems so trivial, makes a world of a difference to these siblings.
this Film was nominated for the best foriegn film for the Oscar awards in 1998, but unfortunately lost out to Roberto Begnini's 'Life is Beautiful' (In my honest opinion this movie is just as great if not more)

Now i also look forward to a film by Satyajit Ray and another one by Aparna Sen.
Frankly speakign i had never thought film as a part of literature, considering it more as a form of popular entertainment (given the kind of cinema is churned out in india)

Hopefully i shall have enough motivation to blog about the other movies as well, till then i hope all of you might get an opportunity to see this movie.

Note: All links provided are in wikipedia, where hopefully you might be able to read more and form your own opinions.

Terrorism strikes again

After all this George bushes humbug against fighting terror, and doing nothign about the Indo pak tension, today there was a terrorist attack at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
and one scientist was killed and a couple more injured.

Its really sad, to here when the media says the reason was that the educational institutions are SOFT TARGETS

Read more about it in the news
Indian Express
Rediff
Times of India

Hope we can one day finish this proxy war for once and for all. Bloody why cant US see that the nation they support (Pakistan) and supply all these arms is simply using them against India.

Formula 1 Car in Frankfurt airport

also me trying to take a pic of myself with the car

Back on my Bike...

I last rode my motorcycle on 27th August 2005.
Then as i left for exchange program to germany, i left it in the campus, and didnt give the keys to anyone as then it would end up a Sarvajanik Bike . (i.e. public property, which every one uses, but no one is resposible for)

Today on Christmas 25th december, i finally tried startign the paltry 100 cc machine. And though ti was covered in layers of dust, and half the petrol had evaporated, i did manage to rev up the engine after 4 - 5 kicks (yeah i was scared that the battery might get discharged and thus i might not be able to kick start it)
And dammit even after 3 1/2 months the engine was purring the same way. Still i can manage to manouevre throught the traffic and the brakes are the same as well (the rear brake gives a little jerk to the left each time i brake)

Apart from getting my bike punctured i did manaeg to replace the tube, and also finally bought the things i had forgotten, like bedsheets, blankets ... and what not.

Now that i am reunited with my bike, hoping to have a couple of bike trips this term, and a little more to blog about.

P.S.
I was goign thru my europe pics, i still have to write about Paris, Switzerland, and Italy.
Also some more pics about the recent happenings in the campus



Anyways i left the keys home and while returning i all but forgot about the keys and landed up in Ahmedabad without my keys. (Infact the list of things i forgot was really huge, but nevertheless for me the bike keys were the most important thing)

Finally i got my parents to courier the keys to me, but then being the smart guy that i am, i lost my keys in the mess.

Vagina Monologues

Yup last weekend when i was at home in bombay, i caught up with a few seniors (Mooli and Cumlee)

So off we went to see a play. (Actually saw two of them, "Art" and Vagina Monologues)

As the name suggests, it has created a fair bit of controversy, but as we saw the 120th show surely its not sleazy or soem cheap sidey porno thingy.

The play actually was about women talking about vaginas (pretty obvious ehh as the name suggests). But instead of it being like reading the Letters to Pent house or some other Porno Mag, it was from a point of view of sensitizing the patriachial society about women and their sexuality. Especially in a country with so many women being raped, with husbands beating their wives and child abuse, genital mutiliation.

I think the play was really good. They had 5 women (The great theatre personality Dolly Thakore and Mahabano Mody-Kotwal being the amongst them) enacting the interviews taken of various women about this topic.

I dont want to talk more about this but i would strongly suggest you to see this play if you get a chance. (The original is a AMerican Broadway play, these indians had just bought the copyrights)

this play actually did in a way change the perspective with which i see women.

The only negative thing about this play is that it bordered on being to FEMINISTIC.

So you go see it.

Aha Back to India

Yeah, its been some time since my last blog, and though 2 are being drafted, i doubt they will ever see the lite of the day.

Anyways I reached home safely, and immediately as I boarded in to the plane at Vienna(TO Mumbai) , I saw the indianness coming back. More and more people breaking queues, talking loudly and HUGE BAGS being carried as hand baggage.

I faced reality a little more closely the next day as I visited my aunts place in Sion. Usually i would be having my motorcycle or Dad would let me take his car. But that day i had to travel by public transport, and travelling by crowded buses in Bombay, gave me a real feel for the city.
again I experienced the noise, the smells.

Yeah and I did notice the lareg number of people all around.

Anyways the vacation has ended, so has the name of my blog.

It shall be more about my last few months in IIM Ahmedabad, and how i cope with not much to do in my last term.

DAMNNNNN ...

anyways

my stupidity has been discovered by the residents of the dorm,
and though i agree i write bad stuff about lots of people, its for the sake of humour.

I also had a lot of misconceptions about some people, but the most was for Angelo.

At first i thought he was an over the top guy, wearing playboy tshirts and shades.

But later i realised he was a nice and a funny guy, (and also smart considering he found out all the stuff on my blog)

The people who i really despised were :
the ones who neevr cleaned up the mess in the kitchen ... and yeah i dont know who they were.

anyways ... now i guess my sharp and rude comments have hurt someone .. its actually time to write anything personal, wicked and attacking on any one.

I dont know, but i guess this was the best thing to have happened may be.

I hope to be less vitriolic about all people
and this is my new years resolution

regards
Nirav

Final Post from Germany

Yeah

now in a few hours i leave vallendar for good.
The journey is a long one, As first my friend Farzad Saidi (yeah he is a german, though of iranian descent) drops me by car to Koblenz arond midnight, and then i catch the ICE 809 to frankfurt at 00.48 hrs, to reach frankfurt flughafen (i.e. airport) at 02.02 hrs and then i have to louge around till 6 AM as i check for my flight at 8
This is not all as there is a stop over at Vienna from 9.30 to 11 and then i finally leave for bombay and reach there at 23.25

anyways

just saw the videos of the parties, its kind of funny ... lots of candid camera moments, saw a bit of the wild night life here,

and yeah ...
shall miss this place as much as i had loathed it some time back

and yeah i would like to thank all the people that made it memorable here

VIP, TGV, Party ministers, the guys at the Dormitory, especially gabor, jo, albert, ian and others

then the most special were my group memeber s in various seminars
Rene Reinsberg, Gunnar Lange, Florian Arndt, Farzad Saidi, Daniel Jeschonowski, Alexander Smeja, Henock Teklu, Gerald Koch, Alexandre Blondel and Emma Bjoern

also how could i forget Jerome Verger, Kumar Nishant (Lolo) and Jatin Didwania (Windows) for co authoring a case with me (and Prof Lutz Kaufman obviously)

and yeah there are many many more pppl

now that i go on to ahmedabad ...

though there might be some blogs written about germany but they would be fro memory and

now my blog would soon change its name ...
as i move back to ahmedabad ...

EPISODE 6: Revenge of the Geek

anyways now i have bought my 2 bottles of Jack Daniels and ready to go back

bbye WHU

Don't play cards ... in the shower

For those of you who got confused, this is the poor tale of the 2 french tauschies Alexandre Blondel and Elsa.

Both come to WHU on exchange from different parts of France, and fall in love in the hostile neighbouring country. (Remember the 100 years war)

Anyways like any couple, they love playing cards. But here is their biggest dilemma, that while playing cards they shuffle the deck too loudly. And this enrages others. (they are not particularly helped by the paper thin walls of the Bundesheim Dormitory)

So if they play cards in Elsa's room, her neighbour Sabrina knocks on the wall and tells them to stop it, and if they do it in Alex's room then his neighbour Jo knocks on the wall and tells them to reduce the noise.

Fed up of others interference, they go play cards in the TV room. (Now as this TV doesn't have cable connection and only some sidey german channels, usually no one visits it) But this time to their dismay, on that particular day the draw for the Football worldcup was to be announced. So Gabor, albert and Marcio turn up in the TV room, and tell them to f*** off.

Now due to this frustration, finally they end up playing cards in the shower, (yeah who goes for a shower at 2AM, right) on the girls floor

unfortunately their card playing is not just loud, but also messy. So they left this shower in a "not so clean condition"
and thus further enraging the residents of the dorm.

And thus finally we have the NOTICE put up outside the bathroom

"Do your stuff in your room, NO PLAYING CARDS IN THE SHOWER. Its a public place after all"

Poor Alex and Elsa, they can't even play cards in peace.

Tauschie Calendar (Part 3)

Ok .. now for the last feww pictures from the calendar ...

This is Marie (Sweden) and Sigrid (France) and you can see though the picture is good, it could have been much better. For instance they could hae simply worn a thong instead of their jeans ... (not my thought but Gabor is telling me this as i publish this post)
More over look at Marie carefully and you can see the towel covering her frontside. A good professional photographer wouldnt have allowed this goof up.

This is the pic our our Tauschie President Angelo (Italy) being massaged by Esther (Spanish Chiquitita in my earlier posts) and Sabrina (Italian Mama or Mama mia)

Though again this picture had some potential, not really well executed. Dont know why but still it seems nice (nopes i am not those MCPs who feel women are meant to serve men .. or may be massage them, but still there is some appeal in the pic)

Hmmm, this is another good pic, with the SIZZLING SLOVAKIAN (Zuzzanna .. yeah in slovakia "z" is pronounced as an "s") with the 3 french guys (there are so many of them, who cares about guys names anyways) Only if she were holding a whip or something, this picture would have the effect of the strong woman controlling here toy boys.

Finally we have the mascot of the calendar, the most talked about and the most publicised picture

Yup the guy is Neal Taylor (UK) and the girls are Gabriel and Ibyllis.

This is the only creative picture in the calendar. (the one you would not find in so many email forwards)

anyways ...

If you think i am some pervert by posting such comments on the calendar, then may be you are right.

You guys tooo feel free to post comments. Surely would welcome any criticism

Tauschie Calendar (Part 2)

I need to do this as the blogger doesnt allow my blogs to be really big So continuing with the calendar pics

This is the most hilarious pic. There is Natalia Simakova (the Russian) in the foreground and then we have Gabor and Joseph (Czech) covering their crotches and Emma (sweden) tring to whack Jo's butt.
This picture appears to me like 2 prisoners in a concetration camp, just before getting whipped or somehting, one guy is fantasizing about the Russian Lolita and the other is dreaming about being spanked by a Swedish adolescent girl. (Damn my perverted mind, but again this pic aint artistic)



Yup this is Richard Soriano again. (yeah i know he is one of the most popular guys... but not a great picture again)

This is the best picture for me. Not only because it has the polish hottie Anna, with the french f***er Mathieu, but also as this is something thats actually real. This is another piture i would pay money for...

This is another bad picture you have to take when you dont have too many good looking women. For all the "Open midedness" they talk about, calendar women are supposed to be in bikinis, not your "Havaldar type shorts" (And i havent even gotten started aout when i have free internet, why would i want to see plump women on my calendar)

Also from where are they getting wet, the Champagne bottle aint even open.

Anyways the 2 girls are Elsa (France) and Frida (sweden) whereas the guys are Henrik Ericson(Sweden) and Alexandre Blondel (France)

(contd in part 3 ... as i cant upload all piucs in one post)

The Tauschie Calendar (Part 1)

Yeah so as a part of our memories of the ghost town "Vallendar" and all "excellence in management education" the tauschies here realised a limited edition calendar with the pictures of tauschies themselves.

Now the calendar is kinda a girlie calendar, wit pics of nude guys and semi nude gals, i will put it up nevertheless.
(dont think that i am an idiot to buy the lousy caledar for 15 Euros, i simply clicked the snaps from the clanedar which gabor bought, im never the guy to oppose piracy or crusader of intellcetula property rights. I beleive if you are really intellectual then why bother out piracy ???)

Ok so here are the pictures and my comments on the them as well

So here we have our party ministers Damien (france) and Veronique Tyzcynca (UK). This picture is as cheesy as it can get. Dunno why would any one want to buy this. (Dont worry but the worst is yet to come.

This pic is the WORST OF THE LOT. What were they thinkin when they clicked this?? anyways for your information its Richard and Elsa (both from FRANCE) ... dont htink the picture is artistic nor is it provocative (so no point uying it. February is ruined as well)

Ok missed one pic of Dolan Shah (the british guy of indian origin) and the 2 spanish gals ...

but this pic is one i might actually shell out money for. Here we have (fom left to right) Gabriel, Stephanie (both France) and Ibyllis (Bolivia)

Stephanie being one of the most popular women and her affair with the Taucschie President Angelo (referred as Italian Idiot in my earlier posts) is always on and off.

No Snow...

Yeah,

Its been getting warmer than the week earlier, and there is rain every night, (unlike warm tropical rain back home in india this rain is icy cold)

So in all proabibility there wont be snow here till I leave.
And that is stupid. Ok i have seen snow in Norway and Munich and Switzerland ...

But not been for long under falling snow, and this might be really sad. I am looking at weather websites and damn, heavy snow predicted in berlin, munich and even as close as frankfurt. BUT NO NONE IN KOBLENZ.

DAMN this stupid weather

Femme Fatale wrecks havoc in the kitchen

Yeah, its been nice for us in the last few days. The Italian mama bans smoking in the girls kitchen. (if u didnt know already our dorm is next to the nuns dorm and thus girls and boys have a separate kitchen on separate floors).

The good part is this leads to the polish hottie having her meals in the boys kitchen. And though its also a no smoking zone, whose gonna say no to a devilishly sexy girl.

So in the last few days she started cooking up there. Then all the guys in order to grab her attention started cooking elaborate meals. Italian (nope he isnt so idiotic) Angelo made a Lasagna (took him 3 hours)

Albert made Goulash, and we indians not to be left out made Pav Bhaji.

Every one started fighting for her attention and offering stuff that they had cooked, soon she stopped cooking totally, just lands up there at dinner time, and some cooks her a meal.

NOw that she has an exam on "Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Rights" on wednesday she also studies in the kitchen with Gabor.

Now this is the only course that she has taken in the english language, and thus she sits there and asks "what is the meaning of this word, or what does that word mean?"

ANd yeah we Indians having learnt english right from our kindergarten days are more than willing to oblige. (those blasted canadians go out of their way to help her out as well)

So in all the situation becomes really hilarious.

Especially funny is when Mangu goes and sits right opposite her and is going through her notes and writes down the meaning of "difficult" words. (Damn if his fiance reads this blog, his marriage scheduled on 15th april might soon be called of, especially she knows how often he visits her rooms just to help her run the antivirus scan ... daily!!!)

Whereas Akshay adds extra salt and burns the curry and i nearly chop my fingers instead of onions (due this excessive distraction)

Jatin (Windows from D22) plays the cool customer, not being to bothered. I thought he being the true desi was not interested in these firangi women till he told me that his strategy was simply "playing hard to get".

Yeah anyways the polish hottie (or Femme Fatale as all her male friends in Poland call her) is now really scared of failing, and so she studies more than 10 hours a day and all in the kitchen. With her there is Gabor, (though this motives might not entirely be academic i presume)

and thus now every one is having 2 hour lunches and 3 hour dinners.

Everybody here gave their explanantion of "Patent Rights which are unrestricted and limited" (to be frank it sounds a bit oxymoronic to me )

And Gabor isnt of too much help either, himslef not knowing the meanings of irrevocable, infringement, assertive, litigation, caveat, defendant and plaintiff ...

He is a little better than Miss Poland who doesnt even know the meaning of Release, law suit ...

So now as you can see the picture, of the polish hottie studying (and creating chaos in the minds of guys around her) where as Gabor is trying really hard to concentrate on his notes.

PS

As i went in for my midnight tea, michael not to be left out (from the race to impress Miss poland) opens a bottle of finest Bordeux wine (the best french wine) and treats us all. Then Alexandre Longuish who got a little drunk said,

"I should'nt have made a group with the polish gal. She never works, she is very lazy. All polish are all so lazy. Back home in France the polish immigrants only do menial work like paint the walls and repair the roads."

At this she got really angry, and may be just to add fuel to the fire, Alex replied, "but they do a good job"

This led to the polish hottie finally leaving the kitchen, and all the other guys asked him to apologize, (not because he was rude, but because now she might stop visiting the kitchen for good. Damn if that happens then im surely gonna bash up that french frog Alex)

Friday Beer on Thursday night

Thats what the subject line in my email said. (its a crude translation frm german)
Then what followed was a long email, all written in german (cant read tht well, yet) im about to delete the mail, when the last line of the email was

"Tauschie Summary: Free Beer tomorrow night at 7 pm, in the Gewollebekeller"

So obviously, reading the most important words, FREE (in this materialistic world) coupled with the word BEER, one of the best things invented by man, (thats what they say in Bavaria)

Anyways once i went in Gewollbekeller (or the cellar where all parties are held), i realised why the party was called friday beer, as though u start drinking on thurday, the party was supposed to end on friday.

The roots of this tradition are in the german students revolution in 1848, when students would get together and discuss revolutionary ideas on thursday nights, over a few liters of beer. (a liter and a half down, whatever i would speak would only be revalationary not revolutionary)

Yeah so keeping this tradition in mind, the enterprising students of WHU got some sponsorship and started this beer drinking and discussing revolutionary thoughts fraternity.

Well as i dont speak much german, and nor am i politically aware and all i know about revolutions is earht revovles around the sun, but all of this doesn't deter me from going to the gewolbekeller for FREE BEER.

Its unfortunate now i n2 more weeks here i just have one thurday left, and its criminal for me to be flying on thurday morning back to india, but if you dont see me online on next thursday from 7 pm (german time) you know where shall i be.

Driving a mercedes

Yeah finally after coming to Germany did I manage to drive an automobile. Gabor and Joseph were in Koblenz, and walked past a car rental shop advertising cheap rates. So they walk in and enquire and to their amazement they could rent a car in 45 euros for 3 days. (but the catch was without any insurance. The insurance was 66 Euros more)

So while these guys try to figure it out would they rent it without insurance, the Opel Corsa they wanted to rent is taken by someone else, and then as there was no similar car on offer the sales guy offers them a Mercedes B160 for the same price. The east Europeans simply grab the offer, and pay 45 Euros (who wants insurance they say) and without any travel plans they come back in their Mercedes.

Now as they are bragging about it i convince them to let me take it aournd for a spin. So first time in my life i am riving a left hand drive and supposed to drive on the right side of the road. If these restrictions weren't tough enough for my bad driving, the gear system was a wee bit different, but the 6 speed diesel handled wonderfully well. The whole incident was fine, apart from that once I forgot, that I have to drive on the right and entered the left lane (on a left turn) and once drove over the curb while reversing the car during a u-turn went in the 5th gear instead of 3rd and the engine stalled in between the road, and i went speeding at 130 kph in the 6th gear.
All this time Gabor seated next to me, went pale, and was screaming, "I DONT HAVE ANY INSURANCE, PLEASE BE CAREFUL" anyways we (and the car) returned safely and Gabor was kind enough to click some pics, though he feels I do not deserve a driving license (I think Shashu, VJ and Fraud would agree with him after the Mahabhaleshwar trip we had in may 2005)

Here are the pics of me and the MERC

(the pic aint clear and date hides the 3 pointer but its a MERC B160)

A Few Funny incidents

yeah now as i sit with my eurail pass expired not much to do apart from obviously study (for which my inclination declines day by day) and yeah

Knight in shining armour saves beautiful damsels from ...
this happened today morning as i was leavig the dormitory. As i was walking along the corridor the polish hottie and the spanish chiquitita come running towards me and drag me along to the chiquitita's room. I was not only amazed but my head was spinning with all the possible wicked thoughts (damn this free internet and no admin to check which sites i visit or what i download).
But before i could even realise this gals asked me to kill the spider in the room. Well so this Knight has no fire spitting dragon to slay, ut a teeny weeny spider on the roof.

Swiped it and its web off with a broom in one swipe. and then the other stroke crushed the horrendous spider and this wicked creature met its death.

And all this for me risking my life to save these damsels? What do i get? Nothing, nothing but a thank you.


Magician from the east cons Maverick Magyar
yesterday night while dinner mangu got a pack of cards and was showing some magic tricks. The most amused (or should i say confused) was the hungarian friend Gabor Gyeorfi. After a long time he did figure out the trick ...
Well now that it was my turn, i showed him one of the oldest tricks, one which my dad showed me in 1987 and even then i wasn't amused. But nevertheless i put on the show and one by one i remove a card from the pack and tell him which the next would be. This totally left him dumbstruck, and he was left gazing. Asking me how did i do this, i non chalantly replied i gotta a good memory.

then he shuffled the pack forme, really well and then as he is left awe struck i perform the trick again with fiegned difficulty.

This went on for an hour as he kept questioning me, suspected i had cards in my pocket, suspected fellow indians akshay and mangu for telling me with sign languae. he even memorised the cards himself and came up with a trick to figure out my trick.
This continued for an hour (all the while we 3 indians, czech guy Jo, Eyal the israeli and Ian the canadian were laughing their asses off; only gabor didnt figure the trick, which in itself is really simple)

Finally when gabor did realise this, he tried and repeated this trick in front of Alexandre the French guy, and not only did he fail miserably, (didnt arrage thecards well enoough) but Alex didnt figure out anything, since he doesnt speak enlgish and doesn't know the difference between spades diamonds and clubs (i dout he even knows numbers though)

Though this episode doesn't seem as funny while writing, truthfully this was the day i laughed continously for over a hour, till my belly ached and my face hurt as well

Long Walk in the Dark with the Polish hottie
This happened long long ago, but havent been blogging as i thought that my mother might read it. But now that i am assured that she gave up reading this space some time back and alsso persuaded by other inians to put this in "print" i am writing about this

So it is late in the night (around 1 AM) and i am busy watcing the movie "Guide" in the PC Room (where i spend most of the time in the university)
Then suddenly i realise that the room is empty save me and the Polish Hottie. Now though i have spent reamsand reams describing her on this blog let me do it once more,
She has more oomph than all the MTV India VJ's put together. If she comes to india and does item numbers in hindi movies then i am sure yana gupta would be sitting at home and washing clothes. (it sounds much better in hindi "Ghar par baith ke kapde dhoti rahegi" doesn't it)

Anyways i dont have the guts to approach her and start conversation, so i keep sitting and watchign the movie. Till she takes the first step, and comes close to me and says in broken english "Weela you comma withaa meea to the dor-mee-tory-aa"
I would have jumped at the offer, but trying to play hard to get, i coolly say let me finish off seeing this movie and then i will accompany you. (in reality an hour was remaining, but i couldnt let go of this offer lest some one else might come in and grab the "opportunity"). She just thanks me and says as she really feels scared going back alone in the night.

So after 5 minutes, i simply shut down the media file and annouce, "lets go"
And let me tell you the walk back is 20 minutes and uphill, and the village is almost always deserted after 9, thus at a quarter past one, there was absolutely no one save us and our shadows.

Now i try to start some conversation, saying why i never saw her in any of my classes, etc ... whereas all the while there are voices in my head advising me how to react in this situation

Voice1: you dumb ass, do something, impress her by your great humour, tell her some of your funny stories, .... sieze the initiative, you wont get such golden chances again

Voice2: Dood get real. None of your stories are funny. neither are you. When people laugh its on you and not your jokes.

Voice3: Doesnt matter. Shes Polish (hence dumb) and doesnt even understand english. So there goes your punchline.

All this while, as we walk back shivering in the cold, i manage few mumbled sentences, about me only takign courses in english (and she took only courses in german, hence shes never in my class, ...ufff)

till we come across this small fence. Normally in day time we would walk across it, but she suggests we cross the railing. I am glad, that i will be ale to help her across, and get i nher good books but all to the contrary, she leaps across with the grace of nadia comaneci (the gymnast) and i am struggling across as she laughs on my efforts.

soon as we near the dormitory she lights up a ciggarette (if i havent already mentioned it before, she smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish and is the life of any party, a real wild party animal)

As she is fumbling in the dark with her lighter, the voices in my head start again
Voice 1: Idiot ask for a ciggie and light it like Humphrey Bogart (in casablanca) and soon the gal will be yours
Voice2: DO YOU ACTUALLY SMOKE??
Voice3: If you do actually think of this stupidity , beware not to cough like a asthmatic.

Finally better judgement did prevail.

And yeah the complete 25 minutes (yes we were slow due to the dark and cold) was completed with a few mumbled words (yeah i do get tongue tied in front of terribbly attracive women) from me and a few words in halting english from her ( i doubt language was the real reason for her speaking less)

ANd yeah ... finally it simply ended like "So much ado about nothing"

( I am writing about this as Bahri who saw me come back with her doesn't believe me, so here lies my version of the story)

Berlin where the west meets east

yeah, really time to blog about Berlin (though 20 days late) This is done specifically for my Mexican friend, who is visiting Berlin for Christmas.
(though i didnt want to make my blog like another travelogue, doing a bit this time)

Yeah so Berlin isnt just quite like a standard european city, it being a capital for a long time is entrenched in history, as well as being an epicanter of the COLD war will the Berlin wall was around. (the reunification of germany was done on Oct 3, 1990. No i am not a history buff to remember these dates, it just happens to be my birhtday as well)

yeah so here in the western part, one sees display of wealth, all the trappings of a materialistic life, the american mall culture and loads of shopping arenas. But move to the east and one comes across a place wiht 14-20% unemployment. People living of government unemployment benefits.

See this funny car in east berlin (right) compared to the ones that are in the show room in west berlin. (Left) Also you can see the NOTICE at Checkpoint Charlie which was the old entry point between the 2 places. There is also a museum at that place dedicated to all those who tried to crossover the WALL and in memories of those hwo lost their lives.
This also speaks about the innovativeness of people. They used hot air balloons, made helicopters out of a motorcycle engine and a boat propellor and many other things apart from the mundane sneaking in a boot of a car and digging tunnnels

Also there was the little bit of wall remaining, which had on one side the open museum called the topography of terror, with pictures and clippings about Fuhrer Hitler and the war crime cases against his generals, which ony la few were punished and the rest were let go easily.

Also there is the beautiful bradenburger gate, where the allies came amrching form both ends (Russians form the east and Americans and Brits form the west)
This was unfortunately a part of the death strip in eats berlin, where any one venturiong would be shot at sight to prevent people form crossing over.

A little ahead is the Reichstag the seat of the parliament. (not posting their pics, u can always google for them)

Just a little further was the Potsdamer Platz. This place was barren land, right in the center of berlin and a death strip too, but today its a commmercial center with a lot of tall glass skyscrapers coming up, and is a show case of the comtemporary architecture.
Not your old fashionned cuboids, but really nice geometrical shapes.

This is the part where the westerners have made it ultramodern, and then walking a bit ahead you move back to the older communist regime.

Also we came across the university of Berlin, where Albert Einstein had taught for a few years before WW I.


The blog would not be complete without mentionign the wonderful A&O hostel and the african american Sean who we met there.

Sean was travellign across europe for a year or so. At the same time was making money as a tour guide. He gave us the best pitch for a guided tour ever, speaking about the hitlers bunker in the car park and giving insight in to the history of the place. Also he conducted another tour called the pub crawl where he owuld take you to 4 night clubs in east berlin, would have surely gone, but some one had cautioned me earlier about the safety issues. I still regret not going there.

Yeah thats Berlin for you.

I had also visited the Sachsenhausen Concentraiotn camp. That had a couple of barracks left the rest were destroyed. Also there were the old bunk beds and the prisons preserved.
It surely was a bit moving, but i do not have words to describe the exact feeling one got there. The closest one could say is spooky.


Another sorry for my readers as this time the pics asrent that great, its cause i didnt have my camera and akhsay has reduced the size of his pics so fit on his lap top.

Thus ...

Amster Damned

Yeah, enough of me posting pictures and writing travelogues about places. Thats damn boring and anyways one get all of that on google.

I would like to write more about the interesting people i met during my travels, some of the more interesting conversations


Amsterdam
Amsterdam has a lot of interesting places, like the Anne Frnak Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Rembrandt Museum, the flower market for tulips, ... the list goes on and on. But nothing attracts more tourists to amsterdam than its vice industry. Not only is Marijuana and Cannabis freely available in "Coffee Shops" but the biggest tourism attracter is the Flesh trade. (yeah prostitution is also legal here)

The Red light district is very near the Amsterdam Centraal Station (thats no typo, there is a double 'a') .
This is one interesting place, full of tourists gawking at the prostitutes on the street. Lots of british guys especially land here on saturday nights.

For tittilation one has various choices. You can either go to bars where women dance on the top of tables, and there is some pole dancing, there are strip clubs, places where you can get lap dances, ... right upto going all the way with the women standing on the street.

Though i will not tell what all did i do or not do (so that you would not criticize me, either for not having guts, or being immoral...)

but what i will tell you here is the few conversations with prostitutes
(By the way the most common rate in the street was 50 Euro for F*** and S***, which is steeply higher than the 30 Euros a couple of years ago, when my friend visited the place. Maan 67% inflation in 2 years and they call the Eurozone a LOW INFLATION region. Seriously something must be done bout this run away inflation, time the guys at the European Central bank raised the interes rates ;-) )

1) The English Boys

there were a couple of English "Laads" were making fun of all the whores, sayin "your too faat" or "your too oogly" ... and then one middle aged englishman comes and says in a pukka geoff boycott type yorkshire accent.
"don't 'orry laad, unce u get in 'ere they r all the same; go in an f*** 'er"

2) I tried to talk to one and know what was the going rate, so i knock on the glass door behind which this sizzling hot female is standing and ask her how much?
She answers condenscendingly 50 Euros f*** and s***. I think lets talk a bit more so i try bargaining, to 30 and then when she finally agrees for 40 after a bit of haggling, i (with all my good middle class upbringing would never go ahead) say ahhh, let me check out if i get someone better for the same price. And then you should have heard her curse me, my manhood and my race.

Also in my conversation with an elderly bar tender at a bar and a coffee shop, he spoke about how girls come in as strip dancers, then full time prostitutes, when they become too fat go on to gie lap dances and and once again they are really old and fat they move to the cornr of the red light district where u can get one for real cheap.

the man spoke about it in a detached way, the way a professor o f strategy explaiend the BCG matrix "All companies start as question marks, become stars, then cash cows and once they become dogs .. its time to move out"

Really this kind of shook me up, the detached and objective way these guys can speak about prostitution.

Also as soon as I stepped out of the coffee shop, there was this black man trying to sell me soem LSD, cocaine, hashish (as if one waouldnt be high enough inside the coffee shop, that you would need other stimulants, that too which are illegal)

thats about it from amsterdam, no pictures here so no reminders for anyone

Also visited Den haag and stayed overnight at the college senior Ajay Galdhars place. I thank him and his flat mate for the wonderful food as well and

No blog since some time

Aha,

have been travelling a lot (esp that the econometrics exam is over), and have no time to blog at all,

anyways in addition to the trips to Berlin and Amsterdam (yet to write a trip log bout them) I visited Switzerland and Paris.

Paris is pretty safe (unlike the BBC reports) the riots and the curfew is only in the outskirts (North Eastern Suburbs)

The main city was pretty calm.

And yeah though not writing much about them right now,
a few special things

1) many thanks to the batchmates from IIMA who let me stay over with them (Kartikeya at St. Gallen in Switzerland and Moi, SFI, Jhatku, Lota, Chaitu and Pager in Paris)

2) As i returned to Koblenz at 00.39 hrs and the last train to vallendar had left, I walked from Koblenz to Vallendar and now i am in the competer laboratory (yet to go back to the dorm)
So yeah the experiece of walking alone 8km at 1 AM in the night ... that really requires a separate blog.

See you then time to catch some sleep and then i would blog about my experiences.

Castle Schloss Neuchwanstein

this was my first Solo Trip.

I went of to Munich (and then to Fussen) to visit this Fairy Tale like Castle.
Actually the Southeastern Province of Bavaria is full of Castles and this one is supposedly the best one.

the Lonely planet guide says, "Given an eccentric mind and an unlimited budget, then the Castle is what you get"

It was made for King Ludwig II in 1880s. The construction was far from complete when the King died in mysterious circumstances.

the Castle itself is kind of spooky, and one could see the eccentricities in the interior decorations, too many porcelain swans, one artificially created cave, paintings depiciting poems by Wagner (soem german great poet, sorry for my ignorance)
Apparently Mr Walt Disney based his haunted house in Disneyland based on this Castle itself.


Travelling alone is also fun. It not only keeps you independant, but it gives you the unique opportunity to meet other people.

I met a couple of japanese tourists, who were medical representatives, and spoke to one lady who was doing a research project for UNDP on Sustainable development.

This is all from this short trip.
Then i went to Munich and spent an evening there.
Munich is nt much of a place. A regular European city (oh now any Bavarian Reading this would kill me)
Then i moved on to The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
ending the blog here, as Amsterdam needs a Blog to its self.

And now i need to Bid for my 6th Term Courses.
though i need only 4 i am bidding for 6. only one needs some bidding, all the rest are currently goign for Free.

Halloween Party

I know i am writing a week late about this, but i had some problems with my camera chord.

The Halloween party was arranged by the TGV (Tauschie Government Vallendar, not to be confused with some high speed french trains) on the 31st October in the Bundesheim Dormitory (thats where I stay)

Not much to write about, there was some killer punch (special alcoholic drink for the event) and the American girls Anne and Kimberly baked some cookies. (Oh they were wonderful)

Yeah now time for some pictures...

(left) I did not wear any costume as I anyways look spooky enough.

(right) Here is Anne with the cookies (Damn i could only eat one for free)

Then we had the party ministers (Damien and Veronique, below left, they were serving the drink "Killer Punch")


On the Right we have Arnim Emrich.







Thats Ian, Marie and Alexandre



Gerald Looks as if he has come out of the movie "The Ring"

there are many more, but i am having some server problems

so can't upload them (trying for 30 minutes now) will upload more later.

And the rest of the Halloween party was the regular stuff, drinking, dancing ... and I hope you guys know the rest.

I am not making any accusations, but the French guys here know the best way to exploit such situations. Drunk gals make good company, (hic!!!) but i guess video taping all their activities after they are drunk crosses the line.

the only worse thing was that not only they got fresh with the Polish Hottie, when her boyfriend comes from Warsaw (to meet her 2 days later) after a 24 hour bus journey, they told him to relax in the TV room, and played that same CD.

You should have seen the anger on the Polish guys face, all colour was drained and was seeething with anger, there was a bit of steam coming out of his ears.

Rest of the details are way to personal for the parties involved. You can use your imagination.

PhD Comics

I really like the work done by the guy who has the strip (www.phdcomics.com)

11 out of 16 from my group in engineering days are doing their PhDs at various grad schools in the US and i to nearly fell in that trap.

but going through the PhD comics i feel i can do a small comic strip about my experience here as well. Need to think a bit about that. Also need to have some spare time (from travelling and now again some more work is piling up)

Meanwhile the Israeli guy Eyal thinks i am crazy to keep travelling, my parents in india think i am crazy that academics is not my prime importance here, and my aunt (dads younger sister) she does keep mailing sometimes, enquiring how is my life as a student in Germany.

So let me sleep over the thought of getting out some funn comic strips. Wont dissapoint you guys (whoever is actually reading this blog)

Meanwhile I would want some feedback if possible, on how do i make this blog a little bit more entertaining as well as informative as i stumble my way through europe, living my life as an exchange student, and the culture shock to a indian guy of conservative brahminical upbringing in liberal europe.

Yeah please post some comments with any form of feedback.

Diary of Anne Frank

Hi,

I am just back from Berlin. (more about tht trip and the Halloween party once i get the pictures from Akshay) and on the return journey i started reading the book "Diaries of Anne Frank" which Akshay bought from the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. (i plan to go there soon as well)

Anyways coming to the point, its an exremely well written book, about the pains of grwoing up, and not liking the nagging parents and the perfect sibling. The writing style is fantastic and the way she starts off describing the people in her school is really nice. I too would love to write a lot like that. (so if you feel i am copying, the book might have some influence). I am htinking about giving pseudonyms to all people around me and write about them. OR may be i might not publish the post at all and save it like a draft.

What is so great about it is the complete honesty, (yeah thats missing form my blog) he ability to be so nasty, (ok i am not really very nasty here, specially since many people might be reading, or even if no one cares and no one reads, this might be later digged up as evidence against me)
The good thing about her is she doesnt try to be funn (which unlike me makes the whole blog sound stupid)

I know I am not that well read, but i do reccomend this book to every one. Especially to gift it to some teenage cousin / friend / sibling. I sure did find lots of things similar, only diference being that there was no world war.

though i am yet to complete the book already it has been having an effect.

Also i had a nice discussion with Farzad ( the german student who gave the econometics exam with me) about the book, catcher in the rye, another tale about the care free youth.

anyways i gotta write more about my experience in Berlin (lovely place) and the lovely youth hostl there, as well as the SachsenHausen concentration camp, but lemme get back to the Anne Franks diary. Might write some hing tommorow (and with pictures as well)
till then

cheers
Nirav

Mugged by Econometrics and other insane ramblings

Yeah I have just recovered from the examination I gave. The subject "Basic Methods in Econometrics"
Don’t go by the name (Didn’t Shakespeare say something to the effect that names might be misleading?), there was nothing "Basic" about it.

So all of the weekend with the best sunny weather in all of Europe, and I am sitting alone in the dormitory and cramming my notes of econometrics.

Looking and the Ordinary least squares how they are consistent, but biased when there is heteroskedasticity in the sample.
The best unbiased linear estimator using the generalized least squares is

b = X(X'X)^(-1)X'y
and the residuals are ...
And b is asymptotically normally distributed in ...
And how to use the Newey West correction for removing the Heteroskedasticty, but the white correction for Autocorrelation works better.

All samples Estimate of Asymptotic Variance is normally distributed...

And the Dickey Fuller test for a Random walk with a time trend fails when the Durbin Watson Statistic is significantly lower than 2.
And though the Null hypothesis is not rejected we cannot even accept it. (No doubt it’s a "NULL" hypothesis)

And if you figured out something here then you should have met me earlier and given me tutorials on econometrics

Anyways this exam scared the shit out of many people.
Though 40 people had attended the first class, only 20 registered for the course, and then only 10 were left till the last class. All exchange students (other than 3 idiotic Indians) dropped the course as they wanted to pass
All the Germans dropped the course as they thought this would harm their grade.

I thought come on, passing is not a problem, lemme give it a try

And yes yesterday night these Kwiatowski Phillips Schmidt Shin (KPSS) tests for significance put the fear of God in an Atheist like me.

More over, to reduce our degrees of freedom, the exam was a closed book one.
And to complicate matters further I lost my room key.

So all of yesterday night I sat in the common room, studying and slept for 2 hours only on the cramped sofa, woke up late and ran to the exam just to find out that my keys were in Mangu's (fellow Indian who lives in adjacent room) bag. Damn !!!
%^&@#$(&#@

Anyways as I reach the examination hall realize only 6 were giving the exam as the other 4 Germans chickened out. (3 Germans giving the exam were in top 4 students in WHU)
ERRATA:
As pointed out by Arnim, only one out of those 3 WHU is in the top, of the others, one has a job offer already from Morgan Stanley (so isnt worried bout grades) and the other girl studies a lot (or so i think)
SO ALL WHU STUDENTS sorry if ou were offended by this post

Now reasonably sure that the professor wouldn’t flunk with such poor attendance, I took a deep breath, said a prayer and begun writing.

Thankfully the exam was a simple one. Barely finished the paper on time, and thus though I was looking to just pass, I am sure that I have done well. (With a high significance at the 99% level, t statistic being high, though some high variances in the grades of the other students might lead to a lower weight age given to my score. Though my expectations are high the third moment (skew) and the fourth moment (kurtosis) might lead to large errors in the forecast and the residual score which I get might be minimized.


Anyways I don’t realize why do I take such courses, where I need to study? (Or Mug a lot as an IIMA student might say?)

Whereas guys like Amod don’t take courses with less than 50% women in the class, I am stuck with these courses with the distribution of women is bivariate. Either 1 or none!

Anyways Mangu is telling me to stop this idiotic monologue and go cook some thing for lunch,

Tonight is the Haloween Party at the Dormitory

And also today is DIWALI the INDIAN FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
And one of the most holy days for all Hindus

So wish u guys a happy diwali and I am all set to enjoy the Halloween party.
More pictures and detailed stories shall soon follow.

No trip this weekend

unfortunately after lot of travelling, i wont be able to go anywhere this weekend.
Thats cause i have an exam on monday (Basic Methods in Econometrics)
Also th results of the previous exam (Capital Market Theory) is out. I managed fine, getting a B grade. (aha ... thats great for an exchaneg student. actaully B was the highest any exchange student got. how could one score when u dont study and just keep travelling)

anyways so wont be blogging for some time
time to hit the books