A few good men

My take on life and how it should be lead have had a few tinkerings and paint jobs over the last couple of years. I had to read up about the External Environment and its impacts on the organisation for a paper in college and I realised that even individuals get influenced by external environment... alright, I can not take this approach anymore... I was not sure how to start the post and brought up all this external environment nonsense! Truth is - I want to write a post on the importance of individuals in my life.

Not gonna start a preachy post on parents and teachers and brothers and sisters. Just going to stick to a few people who influenced me in more ways than I could have imagined over the last two years.

The first is Mr.A - he probably had the biggest influence on me over the last 2 years and had the least interaction with me. He was the reason for me to get my first job and it was a big deal for me considering that I didnt have any other option. And after 8 months since I started my first job, I got a chance to interact and watch how Mr. A worked from close quarters and what amazed me was the goodwill he carried even whilst holding a high position. I have a long way to go to reach the positions that he held and holds now but I do wish, in due course of time, to garner the same amount of goodwill that he got from his peers and those who worked under him. No one said a bad word about Mr.A.

The second is Mr.S. Mr.S did something which I never thought could ever happen - he pitched for me. I decided to quit my first job and leave and this man, who held the top most position in the company I worked for, actually took the time to hear me out and try and get me into another role so that I would not go wasted. It was amazing considering the fact that I had worked for only 7 months in the organisation and I was a very very junior person. He was and is a super sales guy and he basically sold me to Mr. A and Mr.G. I owe Mr.S big time cos he got me a chance to work for Mr.G.

Mr. G had been my boss for 1 year and 3 months (till June 09, I esigned and entered college to try and learn some management and once I come out I hope to be a manager in the mould of Mr. G). Mr.G was not the normal boss one would get. The ones who didnt know Mr.G well would give the reason of him being an NRI for the totally different disposition. Truth is Mr.G is an Indian at heart although he was born and brought up in UK. As I type this post, Mr. G has resigned and returned to the UK.

The room I used to live in back then was somewhat on the way he returned home from work and the conversations we had whilst returning from work ranged from the Indian freedom struggle to Sikhism, from motherhood to change management, from long tail of content to voyeurism... and he used to know it all. I just sat in mute attention while he spoke.

The best part of Mr.G was that he would let us have fun in the office and he encouraged office humour, some times at his expense but those who did make fun of him did so at their own peril. You throw the kitchen sink at him and he would throw the bath tub at you.

Mr. G supported me throughout the year and he often said that there is nothing wrong in making mistakes but not doing anything in the fear of making mistakes is a bigger crime. Mr.G always backed him team and he also brought the best in us and that's why I will always miss him.

I count the chance of having worked in the same organisation as Mr. A, Mr. S and Mr.G as one of life's big mercies. Hope to imbibe what I have learnt and make use of the learnings if and when I get the chance to lead!

2009 - retrospective tag cloud!

Tata Jaagrathi Yatra, Bangalore Cantonment, Chennai Mail 1 hour delayed, Wishing the train engine driver, Dil-Vish-Thiruvanmiyur beach and Marundeeswarar temple, Bro spotted at the beach, Saravana Bhavan cakes and bakes, walk to city centre, bus ride, Vandalur zoo, Muttukadu boat ride, Not shortlisted in JMET, shortlisted in CAT, GD/PI classes, IIM applications, Hyderabad, Kacheguda station with the moon as a backdrop, Eat Street in Husain Sagar, Slumdog, Briyani, Charminar, Golconda auto ride, Shilparama, Andhra meals, Prank goes horribly wrong, Supi's baby girl, IIM B GD/PI, IIM I GD/PI, SP Jain GIs, Anna University Quiz, Annie is engaged, IIM-B selection, Silent Valley, jungle pool, lonely watch tower, horoscopes, bank loan, startv.in, resignation from Indya, Annie's marriage, Maddy to get her own football, auto rides, bus stop opp. Subhiksha, IIM-B student life starts, EB 004, resume, PDP sessions, night outs, L square, quant, finacc, RNS, lack of sleep, quizzes, surprise quizzes, CAT race gives way to Rat Race in IIMB, missing Star Bangalore and Indya Interactive, Mancomm bug sex JAM, CulComm, MARS, Business Card troubles, Birthday bummer!, Marina Beach, Landmark Quiz, photos of Kiki's, One year down., more quizzes, QM troubles, Unmaad publicity, MARS mailers, term 1 ends, H 301, term 2 starts, hectic, company PPTs, summers, CorpFin, Kotler, fin shortlists, consult shortlists, summer placement process, successfully screw fin interviews, successfully screw consult interviews, successfully screw most interviews, Gaja Capital, Summer in Mumbai, Qwiky, Aapa Kadai, Lav & Sudha engaged, Veena maarries, MM presentation, MPPO presentation, end terms, Hampi, Revamped Marina, Maddy gives birth, Avatar, Term 3, Core Electives, quater dollar coin from a man worth millions, New Years L-Square party, tending the bar... Here comes 2010

Hampi and a dam

"It's a hill station right?"

As those words came out seeking an answer from me, the thought flashed through my mind that maybe its a mistake to go in a group to Hampi. A group of 12 yuppies. But the trip was well worth it and the group made the experience unique.

The facts most know... UNESCO Heritage site, architectural ruins, amazing landscape, premier tourist destination etc. So what was I going to experience?

"So this is a university for Kannada?"

Thanks to the good contacts of one of our friends we got some really good accomodation at the guest house of the Kannada University. Downside was the distance from Hampi but the upside was the the acco cost was next to negligible. In fact, it was free.

The distance meant that we had to travel to Hampi from the university by means of a Share Auto and this just made the trip a bit more adventurous.

"Why? Who? How?"

There are a lot of sights to see at Hampi (Well duh!) so its best advised to take a guide from the Tourist Office in front of the Virupaksha temple. (Rs. 1200 for the whole day for a group of 10-15) Our guide, Gopal, likes to narrate using questions. Can anyone tell why the Bahmani Sultanates destroyed all Lord Ganesha idols at the stomach and the trunk? Does anyone know where the pilgrims would go for water in the temple? Why is the Virupaksha temple the only temple where worship takes place? We didn't know any of the answers but he waits for our answers and prompts us and for every guess we make he says - NO, now tell me why? or how? or where? or whatever?

Pretty soon the guys decide to give only one answer for any question Gopal asks - Bahmani Sultans! But Gopal is a really nice guide and he seems very passionate about the ruins of Hampi. Once we finish with the Virupaksha temple, we rent out little XL supers and a couple of other bikes to loaf around Hampi (rental charge is 250 per bike for the whole day)

"So that's the Mango tree."

Its fairly safe to say that I have never ever had lunch in a setting like Mango Tree in my life so far. Awesome food and awesome Lassi. You sit on a mat under a mango tree on the banks of the Tungabhadra. Wish there was more water to heighten the ambience. Quite an idyllic setting for a lovely lunch washed down with Banana-Coconut Lassi, Mango Lassi and Pineapple Lassi. Did I mention that the Lassis are awesome?

"Lotus Mahal has air conditioning!"

Gopal is quite proud of Hampi and the Vijayanagara empire. After showing us broken statue of the Groundnut Ganesha - a magnificent monolith carved out of a single stone, the Lakshminarasimha statue and the Balakrishna temple he takes us to the royal enclosures. I wonder if the Bahmani sultans hadn't destroyed Hampi and ensured that there was no future occupation of the land would the ruins be as preserved as they are now. Would they have been demolished by the Vijanagara rulers themselves and made into better buildings or worse buildings? The bedroom of the Queen in the Lotus Mahal had pipes inside each wall which had water flowing through it and this was Air Conditioning Vijayanagara style.

The Royal Enclosures are quite a setting. The Elephant stables, the museum, the broken down watch towers and the setting sun only adds to the ambience.

"Oh damn! there is water."

The Mahanavami Dibba is this huge stage where the King would watch the performances during the holy festival. In the same compound as the Dibba is a secret corridor where according to Gopal the battle plans were drawn.

The famed Stepped Well, which is in the same complex as the Dibba, was unfortunately filled with water and I could only see till the second level. Damn!

"Pillars can not make drum sounds! Wait a minute, it can! WOW!"

Vithala temple, in my opinion, was the highlight of all the ruins at Hampi. I am not sure if it was the ride through the mud road. Or the long stretch of Bazaar ruins before the temple or the wonder of the musical pillars that quite did me in. I think the main reason was the magnificence of the setting. The temple was a lone structure surrounded by rocky hillocks and no other building in sight. The twilight and the lack of street lamps made me one with the moment and that kind of did the trick. I was awestruck by it all. The stone chariot, the musical pillars, the ride back with only the head lamp and in one bike's case no head lamp.

"Only 9, including the driver, are legally permitted"

Far from the madding cities, the sky puts on its best display of stars and my tired body hits the sack to wake up to a day that does not promise to be eventful. I was proved wrong.

We took a walk across the university campus and spotted some works of art in the strangest of places. The campus is quite unique with a museum and tribal learning centres and its a nice stroll. Our chariot of commute waits for us at the main gate and we start off to visit the Tungabadhra dam. And then the portent of an uneventful day was completely thrown out of the window thanks to the driver who takes a left through what can only be described as a road laid by the Kannadiga cousins of the pitch curator of Ferozshah Kotla. The permitted limit for passengers for a share auto is 9 and we were 14 and the sight of a traffic cop on the highway forced us to take a detour and enjoy some rural scenery and also enjoy the feeling of a share auto nearly capsizing.

A 20 minute ride through sugarcane and paddy fields brought us to a Jaggery factory. It was good to see the whole process of sugarcane juice being boiled and converted to jaggery cakes. We also got to drink some refreshing cane juice and after lunch at a Rajasthan Heritage village in the middle of nowhere, we set off to Tungabadhra Dam.

"Woah that's a lot of water behind this dam!"

I have been to a few dams in my 25 year existence on this planet and this is the largest catchment area I have ever seen. It was like an ocean and it prompted a few to wonder why Karnataka does not give water to Tamil Nadu. Well one of the reasons could be that the Tungabadhra flows to Andhra and not Tamil Nadu. The dam is small with an ordinary garden but the catchment area and the sheer amount of water was amazing. I wonder how they build a dam. Should check on youtube if there are videos on Dam Construction.

The Share Auto (which we had christened Lakshmi) was on its last legs when she dropped us off at the railway station. And as we boarded the train to return to Bangalore I wondered if Lakshmi would still be running the day I write a post of the Hampi trip or would it have gone to the great big scrap heaven in the sky.

Fear of the Intersection of the Friend Venn diagram!

For some reason, I get quite uncomfortable when friends circles clash. I have never quite understood why.

In my mind I tend to segregate friends into ones from school, ones from family, ones from the one year spent in Trichy, ones from college, ones from work and now the ones from management school and whenever an occassion crops up where the 2 segregations intersect my heart starts pumping faster and my knees get weak.

It's almost as if I am a different Vinay in each of the circles and when the circles mingle I am not sure which character I should play and what my lines should be.

I no longer seem to relate to the Vinay I was in high school. The one growing up on a diet of American TV shows and wanting to know all the brands... a wannabe snob! and in my mind I always seem to picturise my school friends to be the same. They could and most likely should have grown on to bigger things but that does not seem to enter my mind at all. Hmmm.

Anyways, I needed to get this blog going with some random post and as I had this on my mind just thought I will waste some Google server space on it!

Dreams of a lost childhood...

Had been struck down by an irritating viral the whole of last week, good excuse to sleep a lot without feeling too guilty. In IIMB if you sleep more than 6 hours a day it's considered to be a crime of the second order and people tend to shun you ;)

In one of those prescribed drugs induced slumber sessions, I had this rather weird dream where I am walking with my mom and this is a much younger me, 7-8 years old, walking down one of those many tree lined roads of Besant Nagar and all of a sudden a crocodile is coming running down the road. The next thing I know I am hiding in some house, do not know which house this is. I rush out, and my mom and dad are in our car and they pick me up. They seem to be returning from Grand Sweets and Snacks. It's almost an iconic institution in Adyar area of Chennai and they make... Sweets and Snacks!

So I go back home and my bro is there... the little fella and we sit at home and eat the stuff from Grand Sweets.

Its not a great dream, but I woke up to the reality that my childhood will never return. I am never ever going to be 7 again and sit with my 3 and a half year old brother and eat snacks... eat anything for that matter!

I wish I had done more with my childhood. Wish I had lied more and got out of tuition more often to go out and play. Tuition was a lark. Imagine studying a language, Hindi, for 10 years in school and nearly 7 years of tuition and still not be able to piece together a decent sentence in Hindi. Tuition was not one of those things I really miss about childhood. I miss being able to ask my dad to get me something everytime he went on a tour. I am hardly at home these days, wish I get to talk to my dad more often once I am finished with IIMB.

It used to be fun to hope and pray for a holiday everytime it rained! Playing Rugby with stuffed toys that people mistakenly gave my bro thinking he was a girl ;) Ok that is a bit of an exaggeration, he did look like a girl but the gifts were given more out of laziness I guess.

I miss making orange squash and watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. Munching on Potato chips and imagining I am Leonardo, the leader. I should probably add that to my resume point here. That I always was Leonardo, the leader, when we pretended to be Ninja turtles.

Hating girls and thinking up of new ways to insult them. Ruining all those girly games they had with new lyrics praising the superiority of boys. The whole hey pillar, caterpillar, lazy girls, active boys... I am not sure how that one ended though... ooh aah ouch or something like that.

Getting into fights and having this almost foolish pride about having achieved something if I could inflict a few more scratches on the opponent... who was big and very very strong ;)

Playing cricket, watching cricket, movies, lazy summer vacations, cricket camps... wish I had done more with my childhood. Not much of naughtiness, hardly any mischief, a shy and quiet kid who had the weirdest fascination for crocodiles!