The Picnic
well........ my last post seem to hv created sm flutters in the company. sum people found it too mushy-mushy , a few did complain tht they did not get enuf space on the post n others simply enjoyed it.
went to nainital with my Netman team members ( ok....... ex-team members) this weekend. hv started spending my weekends outside delhi lately n my mom has threatened to cut-off my 'ration-pani' at home if the same trend continues........ :) trip seemed a great idea to escape the scorching heat of summers in delhi. but the main objective fr me was to spend sm more quality time with my frnds of the company. so we a grp of seven- vani, mona, archana, rohit, vikas, somnath n myself, hired a qualis n set off. uttar pradesh's roads r in a pathetic state n its a real torture to label them as 'highways'. we did manage to avoid any major accident though there were all varieties of vehicles on the highway frm bullock carts to rickshaw drivers n it was really difficult to miss them on roads deprived of basic facilities like street light n dividers.......
we reached nainital arnd 1 am in night n then the real fun began. we immediately got mobbed by a grp of touts, each offering us to get a better deal fr the hotel n sight-seeing. after a lot of wrangling we did manage to zero in on a decent hotel. the roads in the city looked deserted n i just wondered whether this place has lost its charm fr the tourists. but later on i found out tht all the hotels were nearly packed to capacity n we were lucky to get a decent room tht night.
the 'isolatedness' of the place vanished when i woke up in the morning. people swarming all arnd n the place seemed very lively. boating experience in naini lake was amazing n added another skill to my cv- rowing. did it very well n the boat owner said tht fr a amateur i did pretty good job. also went fr horse riding on those treacherous tracks arnd the foothills.
then we left fr Jim corbett national park. fr the ignorant, it is a big wildlife habitat in uttar pradesh. if u r lucky u can spot diff form of wildlife there - tigers, elephants, leopards, 'neel guy' n so on. we were not lucky enuf n it was difficult fr us to remain amused by antics of peacocks n 'neel guy' fr a long time.
anyways i really enjoyed the trip especially teasing both rohit n vikas n remainin members actively supported me in this cause. just want to mention one thing- planning needs to be better when u take off to these hill stations during the summer vacations.
Last Day as Software Engineer
today is my last working day in the company n i m feeling nostalgic . i had joined here on 15th July 2004( ya i can remember tht date..). just a engg. graduate,ready to dive in the world of coding,technical designs and presentations. from a happy-go-lucky chap to a responsible ( this word usually doesnt rhyme well with me ...) software enggr. but all my concerns were blown away on first day itself when we had a big bash at 32nd milestone. this was the best way of entring the corporate world, tht i cud ever imagine.
i hv formed some really good relationships here, made some fantastic friends. everybody here seemed so different and yet so special. first of all our fresher group ... Somnath,mitali,suresh,purnima n myself.. we bonded well right from the word go. in fact even sales n marketing people complimented me a few dayz earlier fr having such an amazing group. then there was rohit, the guy who handled my module during my interview prepn. this helped me to focus solely on the interviews. thank u rohit fr tht. he is very experienced guy n i learnt a no of things frm him though his company turned me into a passive smoker .....). then there was Vikas, who blended his tech skills well with his extra-tech skills( read party skills..). The team has total faith in this guy n they can do anything he asks fr. this is amazing as this ability did not come from position in company but frm the trust people put in him . this is what anyone can only dream of. Abhijit is also very friendly guy ( inki tvacha se inki umer ka pata hi nahin chalta.....)).
Mona is the most enthusiastic gal we had in R & D . party hard n work harder seems to wht she is following in her life. tht enthu drives other members including 'masoom'. 'masoom' is pretty cute but i wud like her to be a bit more proactive. may be in a mould of kanika who is usually a bit reserved but when she speaks everybody notices. n she knows when is the right time n right place to speak out. kakkad wud also be soon joinin another B-School ...he takes sumtime to open up....how can i forget mutthhu, whom a taught a few lines in hindi like 'thank u' can be said in hindi as 'mein tujhe bahut maroonga' n cudnt control my laughter when he uttered same in front of another person.....).
i did not hv much interaction with the node side. but my little experiences hv been pretty gud. manpreet is very approachable n wud help u in every possible way he can. then amar,vivek,amita n dhiren r also quite outgoing and friendly people. amit kumar helped me during gd/ip prepn. Our admin-staff - vani n saya r also pretty cheerful persons.
the 'system testing' team is the most 'zindadil' team in R & D. these guys r really cool n amicable. sood is there to send those 'different' kind of fwds in mail. i formed good bonding with dogra n dhiren while playing tt. dogra used to generate work ( read troubling MRs... ) fr me n then i had to really convince him pretty hard to get them verified. ranjan,ravikant,bansalji n pathak hv all been all very wonderful persons.
now my manger...... i can see the smile on all ur faces. i hv heard people saying a lot of nasty things abt their managers. but i hv been lucky to get a pretty considerate n sympethatic manager.... a person who gives u a lot of freedom to work with.... who puts a lot of trust in u..... n u simply cant let him down. really vishal is a gem of a person n the manager whom anybdy wud like to work with.
kehtein hain a person doesnt forget his first love n his first job. i havent experienced my first love yet. but my experiences at my job hv been really wonderful. n i m goin to cherish them all my life...... wud be writin abt these experiences in my blog later. i m too overwhelmed with emotions right now.
Just humming :
'Chalte-chalte mere yeh geet yaad rakhna
Kabhi alvida na
kahna rote- hanste bus yuhien tum gungunate rehna
kabhi alvida na kahna'
achha doston.......alvida....... phir milenge.....
amit
Wah Taj !!
yes !!! we made it this weekend. i had lamented in the last post that generally our plan go haywire. but this time we did manage to break out of the vicious circle which our companies hv forced us to be in. we went to agra and fatehpur sikri.
enough hv been written abt Taj by a no of people and more will continue to write on it. But words fail to describe the feelings which i experienced there. for some it is symbol of eternal love. fr others it is an emblem of patience, pain, conviction, love and passion. taking over 22 yrs to build this monument............ with arnd 20k workers involved fr the same.......... the architect was specially called from Iran fr this purpose....... and best objects were imported from all over the world.
we were pretty mesmerised by the view in the sunset but nothing can beat the view we saw during the sunrise next day. with a cool breeze blowing across the monument, we stood there just adoring the beauty in silence. Its curving, gently swelling dome and the square base upon which its rests so lightly is a familiar image from hundreds of brochures and travel books. Renowned for its architectural magnificence and aesthetic beauty, no wonder, it is invariably included in the list of the world's foremost wonders.
i m not a kind of person who believe a lot in this mushy-mushy chatter abt 'pyar', 'Ishq' n 'mohabbat' but after visiting these kind of places u certainly get a different kind of feelings. i m describing my feelings thru a 'sher' i heard somewhere............
'Ishq ke chiragon ka har taraf Ujala hai
Ishq mil gaya jise samjho wo kismet wala hai'
amit
planning for the weekend
another week has just passed away and the weekend is approaching. just luking back i realise this has been another of these weeks in which i haven't done anyhing 'constructive' and 'productive' for my company. theek hai...... a no. of releases have gone by recently and everbdy here seems to be in a pensive mood as of now. vaise bhi.. this is friday n the enthu fr the work just vanishes from the morning itself.
today i m busy planning fr the weekend with my 'chandaal chaukdi'. ya we hv been a grp of 4 close frnds from the college time. a lots of plan hv been made in the pasts also but none of them really materialised. this has been the problem with my grp. we make a lot of plans but then fizzle out at the last moment. The professional life has got its own charm but it also brings a lot of pressures which we never experienced in our carefree college life. we make some plans and then sum wierd assignment comes out of nowhere. the client is yelling n the manager tries to convince us tht work reqd is critical fr the project. i hv now worked fr 10 months but i still cant understand how everytask can be labelled 'critical'...... the pressure is there to meet the deadlines and we like, 'all good guys', try to meet the endless expectations of our managers. Needless to say that all the planning goes completely haywire. the fact tht we all 4 r in different companies doesn't help our cause to schedule a trip to sumwht far away from Delhi.
meanwhile i watched West-Indies vs South Africa 3rd one day yesterday. there r not many west-indies fan around but i feel sympathy for this team. This was the team which had held numero uno position in world cricket for more than a couple of decades and cud demolish the opposition at will. Their passion for the game, calypso music, fast bowlers, stroke playing batsmen and the never say die spirit stood unmatched. But the decline over the years have left the team in shambles. anyway i was talking abt the match and phew !! what a cracker of match it was. West Indies chasing 285 for victory came within a striking distance of the target. They reqd 4 runs in last over with 3 wickets in hand, 2 singles on the first 2 balls ...... and the match ,seemed as if, was in their pockets. but cricket is a great game and it has its own moments of uncertainities. These tough situations create new heroes, they require people to hold on to their nerves and make a significant difference in feeling of winning and being almost there . Charl Langeveldt produced one of the most sensational finales in one-day international history, as he plucked a hat-trick out of thin air to steal a one-run victory. It was a lion-hearted effort and certainly worth enjoying even if i had to wake up till 4 am in the morning to watch it...but i m not complaining.
chalo i m busy planning again. hopefully we wud be goin out sumwhere...may not be very far away from delhi,but who carez ...... its not the amount of time u spend with each other but how u spent it makes it more memorable .
amit
DDLJ still going strong
This has been one of my favourite movies. Seems to have created a sort of record for running consecutively for 500 weeks on a cinema hall in mumbai. That makes it roughly 10 years on a trot. man this is simply amazing !!!!!!
Check out the link at
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2005/may/05ddlj1.htmI hv seen this movie 'n' no. of times. There is sumthing in this movie which touches my heart. It is difficult to pinpoint anything particular. The story,serene locations, mellifluous music, powerful dialouge delivery ...... all r gud and the list keeps on growing. The whole movie is so refreshing and entertaining. The movie has got a good rhythm and u simply get swayed by the flow. The songs are wonderful and Lata Mangeshkar is at her best. Both Kajol and Shahrukh hv given wonderful perfomances in this movie. i loved every second of it and even shed a few tears when i saw it for the first time!! Honestly speaking, i have never seen a more romantic movie than DDLJ..!! SRK is both funny and romantic in the film, and he plays a very nice son..the scenes with him and his "pops" are just heart-felt..and his scenes with kajol just ooze chemistry..my fav scenes would be during the "ruk ja" song. srk does an amazing job in dancing..never better!!
A lot of u may feel tht the movie was gud but not gud enuf for 500 consecutive weeks, then think again because 'Bade-bade deshon mein aisi choti-choti baatein hoti rahti hai' . Just sit back fr the movie and u wont realise that 3 hrs hv passed.
Adding a few stills from the movie
The 'sweet pair'
Traffic Jam
Yeah u got it from the name. i am not very sure abt the janta from other cities but delhities can immediately draw vivid images of the same. Especially the poor guys like me who hv to do daily up-down from delhi to gurgaon on NH-8.This highway remains pretty busy during whole day,but during the peak hours the traffic can be unnerving. During these peak hours the 'avg density on the road' goes pretty high The summers are really hot in north india and in the middle of a traffic jam u are bound to feel the heat. The harsh sound of those blaring horns,the shouting drivers and the sweating commuters makes it really tough. Especially if u r sitting in one of those rickety DTC(Delhi Transport Corporation) buses,u r in a state of despair. However powerful u may be, u realise ur helplessness in this situation.
Gurgaon has been growing like anything in last 4-5 yrs.Call centres,malls,software companies,consulting firms....-- u name them and they r coming here in big numbers .With the mushrooming of call centres u can see the cabs on the highway all night. The no of people commuting on NH-8 hv been growing exponentially in last 5 yrs. But the infrastructure reqd to support these have not come up tht quickly. The much hyped Delhi-Ggn highway construction is already delayed by a year or so and i dont hv any idea when its going to be completed. Work has been going on at a snail's pace.
But the traffic jam do hv its own advantages. when the life moves at a frentic pace,it gives u an uncalled opportunity to relax and wait. u get a chance to observe a no of things- the two wheelers manoeuvering their way in a zig-zag fashion in a little space available to them and surging ahead, people getting opportunity to flash their mobiles and talking in high pitched voices to show how busy they really are and how their 'precious' time is getting wasted, some people using this time to hv a nap, some simply enjoying bollywood songs on FM on the small radio set they carry and others simply getting down the bus and perferring to walk to their offices. I have even seen sum executives playing solitaire on their laptops.
ya the wait is quite agonizing. but now i hv got used to it and it has become a part and parcel of my life in last 1 year. so i m not complaing. Afterall i hv to go back home and i wud be facing the same situation in the today evening....:) .
The Weekend
The weekend started on a bit disappointing news. The company's first quarter results were announced and they were disappointing.The sales are up by a decent margin but the profits have taken a big hit. The bitter news is that the company have decided to go for restructuring and there wud be reduction global workforce by approximately 1,400 employees, which will be accomplished by a combination of position reduction and attrition. This is something arnd 17 percent of people.The share price has also nosedived. I can see the anxiety and fear of unknown in eyes of my colleagues here.The future seems a bit uncertain.Meanwhile I have done my bit to help company achieve its target of downsizing by resigning a few dayz in advance... :)
There was nothing to do on saturday.I just slept in the afternoon and decide to just laze around in the evening.On sunday it was TIME workshop and I was invited on the stage to share my experiences with 'wannabe manager' aspirants.The feeling was pretty strange and nostalgic. A year earlier i was sitting with the aspirants listening to all those 'god' like people who had made big,wondering whether i wud also get a chance to hog the limelight. Anyways the 'stage show' was followed by a hearty treat by these TIME guys at Pragati Maidan. The meet gave me a chance to meet all my frnds who had prepared alongside me and hv now secured admissions in various B-Schools. It was nice to see the smiling faces all around and sharing all kind of jokes n experiences.
amit
Welcome to my world
Hi everyone
This fine day I thot I wud start writing a blog. The fact that I hv nothing much to do today is also helping my cause. With a seat in one of the most prestigious B Schools in Asia, IIM Ahmedabad, in my kitty , I can afford to take a break. For last 10 months I hv been working as a software enggr (that may sound geek) but resigned a couple of days back. Now I am on a month notice period and having nothing short of paid vacations in the office. Just coming to office, checking mails and chatting with friends on yahoo msngr and phone is fun. I am leading a pretty chilled, relaxed kinda life rite now. So I decided I wud try to have a little space on the cyber space as well.
ok.this is the start of a momentous new phase in my life as a blogger.
amit
