Iraq under Saddam and begining of my writing has a strange connection. During my days as a student in one of West Bengal's best residential schools, Ramakrishna Mision Vidyapith at Purulia, I started off writing my first article, and coincidentally on Gulf War - 1991. And evidently enough, Iraq and the Gulf area gets an extra attention.
While going through my daily dose of internet based news channels today morning (30/12), news of Saddam Hussein's execution was glaringly across all channels. Could not help but make my democratic self to write about this.
It actually makes me a little sad that Saddam has been executed and the reason is a flimsy "convicted for the Dujail killings and held responsible for the death of 148 Shias after an assassination attempt on his life in the 80s". What is surprising is George Bush Jr was so fond of his Iraqi Shiite brethren, that he spent billions of dollars and lives of atleast 3000 American soldiers to take revenge on their behalf. Not to forget the innumerable Iraqis who are being killed in a strange civil war, on a daily basis. And all of Mr Bush's claim of WMDs and support to the evil partnership has long since vanished into thin air. In fact one should ask Mr Bush, what would he have done if their was an assasination attempt on him or any of the US presidents? The twin tower bombings had Afghanistan razed and the ultimate egg on the face, Osama Bin Laden going around as free as spirit.
Iraq under Saddam was much more developing and liberal. The country had a appreciable economic growth, women had extensive freedom and law and order situation was eons better. Mr Bush Jr says, that the situation in Iraq is nowhere near improvement. Then what exactly did all his powers do for 4 years? Why did he exactly decide to attack a country which was cruising normally? And as claimed, if Saddam was conniving with Osama, why didnt he do that long back? And did Bush Jr take the reponsibility of ensuring their modicum of governance across the world? I have a nagging thought if all this had something to do with Bush Sr's snub on the eve of the Gulf War. But I would definitely make a caveat here: I am not at all saying that Saddam's brutality is condonable. But equally unacceptable is Bush's world policeman style of functioning.
Iraq continues to be in midst of a horrible civil strife and Osama continues to be elusive as ever, more so now. Lets see, which nation is next on Bush's scope! Iran, North Korea or somewhere else? Wat say people?
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Child Labour Laws - Is it a fallacy?
Something on Wednesday (27/12) night moved me immensely and I thought I should pen my thoughts and share with you.
Wednesday I had been to an invitation dinner party at US Club in Colaba and was returning by the 12:08 pm Virar slow. The co travellers were all in the dozing mode after a long day of work. At Dadar, a swarm of people got in, mostly daily wage workers (as I could gauge by their apperance and tools they were carrying). In the midst of this, a young frail boy of around 10 years also got into the train carrying 2 big shoe polish brushes and some shoe laces. He was the usual shoe shine boy. But what struck me about him was he was not dressed in the usual tatters that one can usually see on a shoeshine boy but a little near a average clothing mark. He started off by asking each of the passengers for a polish but none was in the mood. A gentleman opposite me appeared a little good natured and started searching for change. Unfortunately, he had none. The guy made a genuine effort. It was also apparent that the little shoeshine boy was feelling utterly miserable to pester the gentleman. And in feeble tone he started sobbing and saying that he hasn't have anything to eat. I was wearing a suede shoe and was disappoiinted in not being able to give him a opportunity to earn.
What touched me greatly was, here I was returning from a party from one of the plushest of Mumbai clubs, and here was a 10 year old crying for food. I took out a five rupee coin and profferred towards him to cater for a vada pav atleast. He was hesitant in accepting that. A prodded a little more and he hesitated a little more. But perhaps his extreme hunger and helplessness took the better of his dignity and he took it. What would have prompted him to such dejection? This triggered me to think the title of this blog.
In a recent move about a month back, the Govt of India banned child labour across the country. A great move if you consider the immense disadvantages of child abuse and child trafficking. But in our country, where a major chunk of our population is below the proverty line, a very large section of sundry jobs are catered to by underage workers. All of us at one point of time would have been served tea/snacks by the quintessential "chhotu" at one of the plethora of eating joints across the country. I have experienced this right from on the solitary path to Hemkund Sahib (at 16000 ft in the Himalayas) to Kanyakumari. These boys are not abused. They earn a livelihood. They support a family. I have spoken to lot of them and amazingly a huge number of them have that fire in their belly to do something and I am sure they will with their zeal.
However, the fact that now becomes significant is, this huge section of these "young" wage earners have been rendered jobless. How does these young "chhotus" cater for their livelyhood and food? Who looks after them?
It is a very "nice" thing to follow Western ethics and human rights, but it is an absolute failure if you do not have the infrastructure to support the people affected by the "rights". I feel we are actually breeding a huge sea of unemployed, uncared for and bitter youth for our tomorrow in these young boys. Did any of our Civil Servants - the babus, the mantris, think about what happens to these kids? Does anyone care? Isn't it a fallacy to usurp a livelihood and drive someone to chilling penury in an effort to have a "Labour Law"?
Send me your views if you feel I am getting it all mixed up!!!
Wednesday I had been to an invitation dinner party at US Club in Colaba and was returning by the 12:08 pm Virar slow. The co travellers were all in the dozing mode after a long day of work. At Dadar, a swarm of people got in, mostly daily wage workers (as I could gauge by their apperance and tools they were carrying). In the midst of this, a young frail boy of around 10 years also got into the train carrying 2 big shoe polish brushes and some shoe laces. He was the usual shoe shine boy. But what struck me about him was he was not dressed in the usual tatters that one can usually see on a shoeshine boy but a little near a average clothing mark. He started off by asking each of the passengers for a polish but none was in the mood. A gentleman opposite me appeared a little good natured and started searching for change. Unfortunately, he had none. The guy made a genuine effort. It was also apparent that the little shoeshine boy was feelling utterly miserable to pester the gentleman. And in feeble tone he started sobbing and saying that he hasn't have anything to eat. I was wearing a suede shoe and was disappoiinted in not being able to give him a opportunity to earn.
What touched me greatly was, here I was returning from a party from one of the plushest of Mumbai clubs, and here was a 10 year old crying for food. I took out a five rupee coin and profferred towards him to cater for a vada pav atleast. He was hesitant in accepting that. A prodded a little more and he hesitated a little more. But perhaps his extreme hunger and helplessness took the better of his dignity and he took it. What would have prompted him to such dejection? This triggered me to think the title of this blog.
In a recent move about a month back, the Govt of India banned child labour across the country. A great move if you consider the immense disadvantages of child abuse and child trafficking. But in our country, where a major chunk of our population is below the proverty line, a very large section of sundry jobs are catered to by underage workers. All of us at one point of time would have been served tea/snacks by the quintessential "chhotu" at one of the plethora of eating joints across the country. I have experienced this right from on the solitary path to Hemkund Sahib (at 16000 ft in the Himalayas) to Kanyakumari. These boys are not abused. They earn a livelihood. They support a family. I have spoken to lot of them and amazingly a huge number of them have that fire in their belly to do something and I am sure they will with their zeal.
However, the fact that now becomes significant is, this huge section of these "young" wage earners have been rendered jobless. How does these young "chhotus" cater for their livelyhood and food? Who looks after them?
It is a very "nice" thing to follow Western ethics and human rights, but it is an absolute failure if you do not have the infrastructure to support the people affected by the "rights". I feel we are actually breeding a huge sea of unemployed, uncared for and bitter youth for our tomorrow in these young boys. Did any of our Civil Servants - the babus, the mantris, think about what happens to these kids? Does anyone care? Isn't it a fallacy to usurp a livelihood and drive someone to chilling penury in an effort to have a "Labour Law"?
Send me your views if you feel I am getting it all mixed up!!!
Monday, December 25, 2006
The Day After Placements
The people who were always there!
The two guys who made the process so amazing - Prof Abbasali and Shyam Patel
The guys are all glee!!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Offers on the spot and away from it!!!
To my still remaining readers of this blogspace, I am extremely sorry for being a lazy bone and not updating this site for a long long time.
Thoughts have been flowing, but the mind somewhat wasn't much bent on sitting down to write. And writers block etc is a junk statement for someone who is not a writer.
So now that I got a few days respite from the pressure of the academia, and bored to the extremes with nothing much to do, I thought "why not write and revive this blog" and here I am writing and jabbering.
The last 2 months of our "late schooling" has been a hectic and stressful time due to the placements.
Placements in any B School is a crucial event and its an amazing experience. It is more so in a school of repute as the complexity rises exponentially. Ours was no different. The month preceeding the placement was one full of worries and constant consternations as to whether any company worth the name will come for us. Thereafter as the countdown changed from weeks into days, the mood was gradually pepperred with a dash of optimism. And the D Day was just an amazing experience. My co-participants were just gushing and the mobile phone lines were heavily loaded with information being passed to and sometimes consulted with, the waiting family, friends and guides!! If interested, one can read the full story on the institute's website http://www.spjimr.org/media/events/events_full_article.asp?evcode=100
And with the placement session being a huge success, the naysayers would probably attempt to reconcile their views about us and the one year program concept in general. This was also a thumping pat on the back of the participants, who forgot everything and worked incessantly for the success of each and every participant. And the incessant work was backed up by some excellent support from the professors whom we bugged no end as well as some of the industry contacts, whom we interacted with closely. I also feel, the success of a placement is not in the fact that one is placed and placed at a fat pay packet. It is perhaps more apt to say, that the placement is successful when a participant gets the company and role he or she wants to move to and succeed in. I am confident that this was visible in a huge majority for the PGDM Class of 2007. I suppose, I can say now PGDM ROCKS!!
Thoughts have been flowing, but the mind somewhat wasn't much bent on sitting down to write. And writers block etc is a junk statement for someone who is not a writer.
So now that I got a few days respite from the pressure of the academia, and bored to the extremes with nothing much to do, I thought "why not write and revive this blog" and here I am writing and jabbering.
The last 2 months of our "late schooling" has been a hectic and stressful time due to the placements.
Placements in any B School is a crucial event and its an amazing experience. It is more so in a school of repute as the complexity rises exponentially. Ours was no different. The month preceeding the placement was one full of worries and constant consternations as to whether any company worth the name will come for us. Thereafter as the countdown changed from weeks into days, the mood was gradually pepperred with a dash of optimism. And the D Day was just an amazing experience. My co-participants were just gushing and the mobile phone lines were heavily loaded with information being passed to and sometimes consulted with, the waiting family, friends and guides!! If interested, one can read the full story on the institute's website http://www.spjimr.org/media/events/events_full_article.asp?evcode=100
And with the placement session being a huge success, the naysayers would probably attempt to reconcile their views about us and the one year program concept in general. This was also a thumping pat on the back of the participants, who forgot everything and worked incessantly for the success of each and every participant. And the incessant work was backed up by some excellent support from the professors whom we bugged no end as well as some of the industry contacts, whom we interacted with closely. I also feel, the success of a placement is not in the fact that one is placed and placed at a fat pay packet. It is perhaps more apt to say, that the placement is successful when a participant gets the company and role he or she wants to move to and succeed in. I am confident that this was visible in a huge majority for the PGDM Class of 2007. I suppose, I can say now PGDM ROCKS!!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Piranhas in the Sea of Tranquility?
Tuesday, 12th July, 1845 hrs - Hiren, my room partner came and asked, "Did you hear that there has been blasts across Mumbai?" I jumped to check on IBN Live and NDTV and could not believe my eyes. Six blasts across the city and in a span of just around 40 mins. As millions across this city, I was immediately worried about my sister who was around Mahalaxmi at that time. And as we all know by now, the cell phone lines were jammed beyond hope. And I was left only with the feeling of acute helplesness. After endless redials, I was lucky enough to get through to her and know that she was safe and sound and in control.
All day today, the entire media is glaring with headlines that the city is limping back to normalcy overnight. Mumbai is an amazing city of resilience and I should say, has a high elasticity coefficient to calamities, natural or artificial.
But what remains to be thought is how long will Mumbaiites continue to be resilient? How long will be our security, intelligence and other agencies continue to make temporary and short term patch ups?
All day today, the entire media is glaring with headlines that the city is limping back to normalcy overnight. Mumbai is an amazing city of resilience and I should say, has a high elasticity coefficient to calamities, natural or artificial.
But what remains to be thought is how long will Mumbaiites continue to be resilient? How long will be our security, intelligence and other agencies continue to make temporary and short term patch ups?
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Unblocking the bloggers block
Hi all,
It has almost been a month that I had written my last post.....
But then my good friend Vinaya, an avid blogger, said that there is something called a bloggers block. So I hope it was one of that. But then it has been a roller coaster month. No pressure at the begining of June and then suddenly awful pressure.
The last week or so has been a week of incidents. The month gone by was academic grilling in real terms.... Exams in the afternoons, classes in the mornings. And this coupled with assignments and presentations. Exams were a nicer revelation this time along. One with open laptop, open book and no network; another with open books, open notes, open reference books and closed discussions;) ; and the other with all closed but a sheet of formulas allowed!!! Readers of the blog in college and school, please do not envy us. Its actually more cruel!!!
Actually, all those plans of doing regular studies and keeping up with the class, never works out and that what makes the exam time more gruelling. These days sleeping at 0300 hrs has become common place. Never in my life, have I been awake till 0450 and appeared at a exam at 0830. What more has this place in store for a soldier?? In one of my first posts I had mentioned about the cafe that opens and functions past midnight. Its a saviour and a place frequented for freshening up. The young lad, Jairam, who I call seth, makes "marvellous" maggi, tosses the egg bhurji in fire like a mexican exotica...and ensures we keep awake till wee hours of dawn!!!
A phenomenon has been the discovery of Ninni Da Dhaba, a gr8 sardar's dhaba on Versova Link road. Whenever you feel down, just go across and start off with his chilli mili kababs, which makes the "down" feeling even more frequent!! They perhaps make the best kababs I have ever had. So succulent, mouth watering and so yummy. A strong contendor to Bade Mia of "south" Mumbai.
The last five days has been torrential and bad. I felt like it was almost 26/7 revisiting and even sent a mail to some of my friends with pictures. The govt / administration keeps saying that they are all geared up and prepared. But unfortunately in my motherland, it is all a sham as the common man remains the greatest stupid for the holders of power. Its amazing how consistently the bureaucracy keeps fooling.
Another event that I have been pondering about, is the CBI filing a chargesheet against leaking of information from the Naval War room. The headlines are amazing and touches the national pride gravely....will continue this in the next post. At least some of you will come back.......
Have a good and great time ......
It has almost been a month that I had written my last post.....
But then my good friend Vinaya, an avid blogger, said that there is something called a bloggers block. So I hope it was one of that. But then it has been a roller coaster month. No pressure at the begining of June and then suddenly awful pressure.
The last week or so has been a week of incidents. The month gone by was academic grilling in real terms.... Exams in the afternoons, classes in the mornings. And this coupled with assignments and presentations. Exams were a nicer revelation this time along. One with open laptop, open book and no network; another with open books, open notes, open reference books and closed discussions;) ; and the other with all closed but a sheet of formulas allowed!!! Readers of the blog in college and school, please do not envy us. Its actually more cruel!!!
Actually, all those plans of doing regular studies and keeping up with the class, never works out and that what makes the exam time more gruelling. These days sleeping at 0300 hrs has become common place. Never in my life, have I been awake till 0450 and appeared at a exam at 0830. What more has this place in store for a soldier?? In one of my first posts I had mentioned about the cafe that opens and functions past midnight. Its a saviour and a place frequented for freshening up. The young lad, Jairam, who I call seth, makes "marvellous" maggi, tosses the egg bhurji in fire like a mexican exotica...and ensures we keep awake till wee hours of dawn!!!
A phenomenon has been the discovery of Ninni Da Dhaba, a gr8 sardar's dhaba on Versova Link road. Whenever you feel down, just go across and start off with his chilli mili kababs, which makes the "down" feeling even more frequent!! They perhaps make the best kababs I have ever had. So succulent, mouth watering and so yummy. A strong contendor to Bade Mia of "south" Mumbai.
The last five days has been torrential and bad. I felt like it was almost 26/7 revisiting and even sent a mail to some of my friends with pictures. The govt / administration keeps saying that they are all geared up and prepared. But unfortunately in my motherland, it is all a sham as the common man remains the greatest stupid for the holders of power. Its amazing how consistently the bureaucracy keeps fooling.
Another event that I have been pondering about, is the CBI filing a chargesheet against leaking of information from the Naval War room. The headlines are amazing and touches the national pride gravely....will continue this in the next post. At least some of you will come back.......
Have a good and great time ......
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A brief update
Hi Everyone,
We had a great time at the 3 day hiatus from the bookish academe at Lonavala. We were having what they call the Personal Growth Lab. The hotel was a nice one and ensured that we had Personal Growth in the Girth as well!
At the moment all are being rolled in a "stone crusher" by four faculty with all of them having given assignment deadlines on 9th June followed by another on 11th.
So be on the lookout on this page anytime thereafter!!!
Adios
We had a great time at the 3 day hiatus from the bookish academe at Lonavala. We were having what they call the Personal Growth Lab. The hotel was a nice one and ensured that we had Personal Growth in the Girth as well!
At the moment all are being rolled in a "stone crusher" by four faculty with all of them having given assignment deadlines on 9th June followed by another on 11th.
So be on the lookout on this page anytime thereafter!!!
Adios
Friday, May 19, 2006
Friends & Partners
Hi.
I have missed the chronological arithmetic progression (AP!!) of my last two posts. To say that it was due to the pressure of the academe would be only gloating on a known issue. So I thought that let me talk about the friends I have made and come across in this vibrant melting point. And this week was also a one of the most significant week in my whole life. But of course that has got nothing to do with the academics.
But then comes the biggest dilemma as to whom do I mention and whom do I not? I would definitely not miss Ashish from Tata Steel with his fantastic knowledge of all details of all prime ministers of India from Allahabad and around. And then comes my close partners in fun: Hiren Patel, a Gujrati but uses marathi as a mother tongue, and came back from US after almost 6 years to do this course. He can be found eternally into chatting on google with his American cronies. And then is my bong friend Sumanta, one of the most down to earth guys I have ever met and Hemant, quite a senior guy from Reliance - very well read and someone with fantastic knowledge base. But I would be doing gross injustice if I don’t mention guys like the ever smiling Vivek Kapoor, from Delhi who has been a strong inspiration for making me sit down to write this piece of junk. Guys who know him can vouch that he can give AK (Akshay Kumar for the ignorant) a good run for his money. Johnny baby (Abraham) can start working out more.
The course has a wide variety of people from distinctly different demographic backgrounds and rich and diverse professional experience. An excellent attribute of such fast track, high value courses is that it brings together people of excellent professional experiences – professionals ranging from 3 years of experience to 15 years of experience. We have people from some of the best Indian and multinational corporations. And then there are some bright and smart alecs who constantly keeps us on our toes.
This week is also the culmination week of the foundation course – the learning of the basic management tenets for further studies. So we have been swamped by some excellently obscure terminologies like NORMSDIST and NORMDIST and have been guessing what a big difference the S can make and whatever happened to the big ‘O’. And ET (Economic Times, Yaar) referrals has become de rigueur along with a generous sprinkling of terms like CRR, SLR (not Self Loading Rifle for a change!!) and OMO. And the fun part is it is all damn exciting. As you say in the armed forces, “Sunny boy, when R@#$ is inevitable, you better start enjoying it”. And then we got the news that term exams have been scheduled on Tuesday afternoon and whole of Wednesday. But you know what is great? It is that we have classes till Tuesday morning!! But as I told in my last post, teachers are always great people at heart (and I seriously believe it). And they have told us that they will exclude Tuesday’s teachings and sermons!
So all of you who wasted their time, on going through this nonsense jabbering, thank you for giving me the inspiration. I will try to be back. “Till then, Shabba Khair and do take very good care of yourselves” (Remember Kavya Viswanathan??)
I have missed the chronological arithmetic progression (AP!!) of my last two posts. To say that it was due to the pressure of the academe would be only gloating on a known issue. So I thought that let me talk about the friends I have made and come across in this vibrant melting point. And this week was also a one of the most significant week in my whole life. But of course that has got nothing to do with the academics.
But then comes the biggest dilemma as to whom do I mention and whom do I not? I would definitely not miss Ashish from Tata Steel with his fantastic knowledge of all details of all prime ministers of India from Allahabad and around. And then comes my close partners in fun: Hiren Patel, a Gujrati but uses marathi as a mother tongue, and came back from US after almost 6 years to do this course. He can be found eternally into chatting on google with his American cronies. And then is my bong friend Sumanta, one of the most down to earth guys I have ever met and Hemant, quite a senior guy from Reliance - very well read and someone with fantastic knowledge base. But I would be doing gross injustice if I don’t mention guys like the ever smiling Vivek Kapoor, from Delhi who has been a strong inspiration for making me sit down to write this piece of junk. Guys who know him can vouch that he can give AK (Akshay Kumar for the ignorant) a good run for his money. Johnny baby (Abraham) can start working out more.
The course has a wide variety of people from distinctly different demographic backgrounds and rich and diverse professional experience. An excellent attribute of such fast track, high value courses is that it brings together people of excellent professional experiences – professionals ranging from 3 years of experience to 15 years of experience. We have people from some of the best Indian and multinational corporations. And then there are some bright and smart alecs who constantly keeps us on our toes.
This week is also the culmination week of the foundation course – the learning of the basic management tenets for further studies. So we have been swamped by some excellently obscure terminologies like NORMSDIST and NORMDIST and have been guessing what a big difference the S can make and whatever happened to the big ‘O’. And ET (Economic Times, Yaar) referrals has become de rigueur along with a generous sprinkling of terms like CRR, SLR (not Self Loading Rifle for a change!!) and OMO. And the fun part is it is all damn exciting. As you say in the armed forces, “Sunny boy, when R@#$ is inevitable, you better start enjoying it”. And then we got the news that term exams have been scheduled on Tuesday afternoon and whole of Wednesday. But you know what is great? It is that we have classes till Tuesday morning!! But as I told in my last post, teachers are always great people at heart (and I seriously believe it). And they have told us that they will exclude Tuesday’s teachings and sermons!
So all of you who wasted their time, on going through this nonsense jabbering, thank you for giving me the inspiration. I will try to be back. “Till then, Shabba Khair and do take very good care of yourselves” (Remember Kavya Viswanathan??)
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Into the second week
Guys,
Its into the second week now and it seems worse than boot camp. My days at the Naval Academy seems to be almost at par with all the extreme "stress". It is just that here it is all mental. The Professors would perhaps make for excellent Gunnery Instructors in any military academy. Fantastic people and great human beings, but very tough nuts to crack. That is guys what we refer to as 'appearences are deceptive'.
Day starts at 0630 and continues well into the "very" late hours. I should say going to sleep at 0200 hrs is perhaps de-rigueur. The washing machine is a great indicator. One can see it churning on even at 0230 hrs.
Yesterday (05/05/06) we were given the "nice" news that today we are going to have two surprise quizes (which weighs highly towards the final credit) and followed by preparing a presentation for the communication class.
The school has now moved into full session classes till 1700 hrs and equally heavy load of "homework".
Looking forward to more challenging days.
Its into the second week now and it seems worse than boot camp. My days at the Naval Academy seems to be almost at par with all the extreme "stress". It is just that here it is all mental. The Professors would perhaps make for excellent Gunnery Instructors in any military academy. Fantastic people and great human beings, but very tough nuts to crack. That is guys what we refer to as 'appearences are deceptive'.
Day starts at 0630 and continues well into the "very" late hours. I should say going to sleep at 0200 hrs is perhaps de-rigueur. The washing machine is a great indicator. One can see it churning on even at 0230 hrs.
Yesterday (05/05/06) we were given the "nice" news that today we are going to have two surprise quizes (which weighs highly towards the final credit) and followed by preparing a presentation for the communication class.
The school has now moved into full session classes till 1700 hrs and equally heavy load of "homework".
Looking forward to more challenging days.
Friday, April 28, 2006
School @ 31
Hi
Thought will pen a few lines at the beginning of a brand new phase of my life. I am actually back to "school" at 31!!
I recently joined SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai (one of the premier B Schools of India) to do my one year full time MBA and today was the first day of classes. We had to report on 26 th and moved into a brand new hostel building replete with nicely tiled rooms, "geysered" shower rooms, internet enabled network, fully automatic washing machines, housekeeping staff (no need to brooms!!) and large windows with sliding panes. The first day was spent unpacking and settling down (albeit without wife to tell me to slow down!!). Yesterday was the day for registration and relaxation. Actually SPJIMR has its weekly off on Thursdays and not Sundays (and with that goes my weekend attempts to visit the bong friends for home food!!). The legacy of Thursdays is still not known but it has uncanny resemblance to auspicious Thursdays in all Bengali homes!!
Today was the first day at classes and it started with a bang. A morning full of exams! Classes start at 0915 and go on till 1300 and again from 1400 to 1700. Today morning we had 3 exams. The first 2 was a morale booster in its relatively eased standards. But the third was a sledgehammer from Financial Accounting. A 90 mins paper of 50 marks! The afternoon session had a "normal" class and only one session. Thankfully it gave me the time to write out this email and wash clothes!! The washing machine (an IFB digital fully automatic) seems to be perennially running, even at midnight. The cafeteria in the hostel ground floor remains open till 0400 hrs from 2200 hrs (what a timing)!!!
So life is expected to be quite exciting and something to look forward to in the next one year.
Thought will pen a few lines at the beginning of a brand new phase of my life. I am actually back to "school" at 31!!
I recently joined SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai (one of the premier B Schools of India) to do my one year full time MBA and today was the first day of classes. We had to report on 26 th and moved into a brand new hostel building replete with nicely tiled rooms, "geysered" shower rooms, internet enabled network, fully automatic washing machines, housekeeping staff (no need to brooms!!) and large windows with sliding panes. The first day was spent unpacking and settling down (albeit without wife to tell me to slow down!!). Yesterday was the day for registration and relaxation. Actually SPJIMR has its weekly off on Thursdays and not Sundays (and with that goes my weekend attempts to visit the bong friends for home food!!). The legacy of Thursdays is still not known but it has uncanny resemblance to auspicious Thursdays in all Bengali homes!!
Today was the first day at classes and it started with a bang. A morning full of exams! Classes start at 0915 and go on till 1300 and again from 1400 to 1700. Today morning we had 3 exams. The first 2 was a morale booster in its relatively eased standards. But the third was a sledgehammer from Financial Accounting. A 90 mins paper of 50 marks! The afternoon session had a "normal" class and only one session. Thankfully it gave me the time to write out this email and wash clothes!! The washing machine (an IFB digital fully automatic) seems to be perennially running, even at midnight. The cafeteria in the hostel ground floor remains open till 0400 hrs from 2200 hrs (what a timing)!!!
So life is expected to be quite exciting and something to look forward to in the next one year.
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