Unraveling ME

2 years have passed !!

2009-04-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

24th of April 2007, the day when i gave my last exam in IIT, marked the end of my college life and the beginning of a whole new 'Professional' world. Like many other in my class, I was in great dilemma on whether i should pursue something in Aerospace or take up a job in non-core. I decided to go for the latter with a caveat that i will probably reconsider Aerospace in an years time.
2 years have passed since then. I am still with Inductis. You may ask me what happened to my plan of reconsidering Aerospace. Well i had it at the back of my mind all the time, but the same old fears grappled me every time i thought about it. Only difference being that this time i have some idea of what is in store for me here.
Life is all about taking the right decisions at the right time. And i have taken mine, now its for time to tell whether it was right or wrong.
Coming back to the so called non-core job. I think i have largely enjoyed it. The kind of work I do, the great friends I have made over here, the flexibility I enjoy and ofcourse the amount of money i get paid, there are more than one reason for me to be happy about. Though things have started to change off late, but that's a different story all-together. I will come to that may be some other time.
Coming now to the main point, analytics is not what i had in mind when i choose the non-core path. There are things i yearn to do and it's time that I actively focus on them. Now whether an mba would be a part of the journey is yet to be decided. That's the way it should be: Focus on the larger motive, on the end result and let the things unravel by themselves.
With that note let me wrap this up. After a long time i seem to have some clarity in my mind. I just need to see if i can get the same focus back which i once had when i was preparing for JEE.

gloom everywhere

2008-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

2008 has been a great year for me, its the year when my sister got engaged, I first landed on foreign soil, performed great professionally, went on a Goa trip (finally !!!) but towards the end of things have started to look a lot gloomy .. and for multiple reasons
1. Constant thoughts of 'Am I in the right place?'
2. Screwed CAT
3. Closely missed a promotion
4. My Car's been in service center for almost a month now
5. My new camera has stopped functioning
6. I have been on beach for over 3 months now
probably i have become very materialistic offlate and this recession is a time when i can sit down and rethink of what i want out of my life ... should things like car and camera matter so much to me .. there's a lot to think about, i just hope i come out with the right answers before it gets too late

Convocation Time

2007-09-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

its pouring again ..

2007-06-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

As i am glued to the screen watching streets of mumbai drown in water, images of july26th 2005 emerge in my eyes. And once again i thank god for my near.
After a 3 month long vacation i was on my way to mumbai. My train was running late by 3hrs and reached mumbai by 10. When i got down it was drizzling as expected in july. I caught a local and by 1130 i was in my room. It had started to rain heavily by then. In the next two hours it rained like cats and dogs disrupting the trains and the road traffic. By evening things were out of control, water level in the hostel had risen to a level that most of the rooms in the ground floor were half drowned leaving students running here and there.
It rained a total of 940 mm in one single day, more than what most cities get throughout the year and half of what mumbai gets during the whole season. The aftermath
Trains, flights, buses everything came to a stand still. My train was supposedly among the last ones which reached mumbai. For the next 3 days mumbai was cutoff from the rest of the world. Schools, colleges, offices closed.
Following months saw the maharashtra govt. making huge promises, but with mumbai drowning again i have no doubt that not even one would have been fulfilled.

Trekking in himalayas :)

2007-06-08T16:45:00.000-07:00

Safe back home as i am writing this blog, memories of the trek are still vivid in my mind. The ten day long expedition was thrilling and far more exciting than any of my previous ones, for this was the first time i felt so close to nature. Never before did i imagine a life without even the basic amenities like electricity, let alone the computer screen which i am glued to 24 hrs a day. It was an experience in itself which i believe everyone should have at least once in a life time. It is when you learn to appreciate the beauty of nature, its vastness, the sheer thrill of being so close to nature.

It all started when 3 of us, Ankur, Roshan and I, met in chandigarh on our way to Kasol, where we had our base camp. After acclimatisation and some basic training of rock climbing and rappelling, we set out for the trekking on the third day. We were a total of around 40 people form various parts of the country, but largely outnumbered by the gujjus. It was my first experience of living in tents and to be frank at first i didn't like it at all. Four years of hostel life had got me so tuned to sleeping late in the night, that 'early to bed and early to rise' was an arduous task for me. And that too when its the vacation time. But soon enough we had 'bridge' save us from the compulsion of sleeping early. We spent hours playing bridge in torch light until it was late in the night. In the day time we used to climb around 1500 feet everyday to our next camp where we were welcomed by a series of whistles starting with welcome drink, soup, tea, snacks, dinner, horlicks and what not. By the end of the 6th day we were at 12000 feet and ready for our final climb to the Sarpass. The temperature outside had dropped to less than 5 degrees, and for a person like me who has never been even in 10 degree's of temperature, things weren't all that easy.

On 7th day we woke up as early as 3 Am and started our journey to Sarpass. By 9 we were at the top of the peaks surrounded by thick snow everywhere. It was an experience of a lifetime. Covered with 5 layers of clothes i knew that the cool breeze will have a hard time reaching inside. We kept marching until we reached the top form where we were supposed to slide down a km and a half. This was no doubt the best part of the whole journey. All the agony of waking up early, living in tents, attending nature calls in open had at once been replaced by a sense of utmost joy which kept me longing for more. Those fifteen minutes of excitement were worth all the efforts of days. We then spent the next hour playing in the snow and made a 'Snow Man', just when small flakes of snow started falling, 'Wow .. its a snow fall' i screamed.
On my way back i could not forget the sight of the mountains covered with thick layers of snow, something which only the lucky ones on this earth get to see.

Years down the line, whenever i would recall my trip to Sarpaas a smile will come across my face with a longing desire to go back to the nature once more ...

Goodbye IIT

2007-05-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

It's 5 PM, 8th May 2007, and i am standing at the PA system right in front of the poltu tree waiting for the taxi to arrive. Couple of friends have gathered to bit me good bye ..
It was a very nostalgic moment for me, 4 years at IIT had given me soo much, but the most precious were the friends with whom i shared my joys, sorrows .. my secrets ..

I still remember the day when i first entered my room, small, delapidated, covered with mud and cobwebs as if it had not been occupied for years. I cried at the very sight of it, 'Dad!! i can't live here for 5 long years'. It took me some time to adjust, but after that i never felt it was small. The only time i faced space crunch was during exams when 5 of us used to get cramped inside and study endlessly. Thankfully that was less than 5 percent of my time at IIT. 4 years have passed and today i m vacating the room, i feel as if a part of me is lost. With a heavy heart i leave the door wide open for the first time after years.

As i sit in taxi, with my computer and luggage neated tucked at the top, i could barely manage to hold my tears. To an outsider it may seem like a 'vidai smaroh', its only when you are in that moment you realise its true essence. Last ten minutes had gone by embracing each other, bidding good bye .. it truely was a vidai samaroh

frns forever !!!

2007-01-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

Just got hold of this pic, thought i would share it with you .. As you might have guessed its a post b'day photo .. bums ke baad aise hi haalat ho jaati hai, jaise ki anchal ki hai is photo mein .. waise i m lucky when it comes to bums, i always manage to escape just in time .. :D

Gourmet, epicure, connoisseur !!! am I ???

2007-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

Pizza Hut
Pop Tates
Cafe Coffee Day
Cafe Mocha
Newyorker
Cafe Mondegar
this is the list of places i have been to in the last 24 hrs ..

At this very moment let me guess whats in your mind.
Pretentious... Grandiose... Pompous...
Well if thats the case, then let me assure you that i am not being boastful here and wait i can prove you that. Firstly because hardly anyone knows about my blog, and even if he/she does there's simply no reason why i would expect them to read it. So bragging about me been to places seem a waste of time and efforts. Secondly, the purpose of my writing this blog is quite different. It' for me to remind myself of the good old days i spent at IIT.
10 Years down the line as i sit down in front of the idiot box with a cup of tea in my hind and absolutely no excitement in my life, this blog would probably bring a smile on my face as i would recall the time i spent wid my pals .. be it the bird watching at mocha or the booze at pop tates. You may say i am being nostalgic .. but guys i have a good enough reason to be ..

Now that you have come all the way, i would like to make it bit worthwhile. Here i share with you my experience. Hope you find it useful.
Pizza Hut - Awesome pizzas, garlic bread worth a try. Ambience is formal, It's a place you would like to go out with friends not neccesarilty your gf/bf. Wallet gets lighter by around 200 per head.
Cafe Mocha (My favourite) - Ambience very informal, sure you would like it. Known for its hukka, shakes and desserts. A place you would like to go with someone special :) .. Wallet gets lighter by 300 per head.
Pop Tates - Awesome ambience, heaven for those who booze. State of the art Sizzlers and Pastas. Lasagne worth a try. Economical, an ideal place for a good treat.
Cafe coffee day - Cafe Frappe & Sizzling brownie worth a try. Avoid juices, you would end up eating only ice. Nice ambience and music. Need not worry about wallet getting lighter.
Newyorker - This was my first time. Formal ambience, 'Nachos' not to be missed. But more than that i had an awesome time 'bird watching' :P

One night @ South bombay

2007-01-27T02:05:00.000-08:00

Its 3 in the morning and i am sitting right outside Pizza hut with Rahul, sipping tea, sharing some of our innate secrets. Out of the blue i say 'Lets go to Marina Drive' and the next moment we are in search of a petrol pump.

At 100 kmph, with droplets of water in our eyes, a small mistake may mean a lot. But that's what the whole excitment is all about, isn't it !! At fifteen minutes past 4 we are at the Gate way of India, hiding silently in the darkness of night, overshadowed by the glitter of Taj. The next few hours were spent wandering aimlessly covering marine drive, chaupati, haji ali, worly seeface ... By the time i was back to hostel it was around noon and we had already travelled more than a hundred kms ...
These are the times when you feel a sense of freedom, independence .. i cherish such moments of my life.

Mumbai marathon - The sprit of mumbai

2007-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

Had heard a lot about the spirit of mumbaikars ... Marathon 2007 reflected it in a true sense.
'Dream run' as they call it, is just 6Km as many would say. But for me 6Kms was a tough target. Thanks to the cheering that i finally managed to complete it, though i did feel awkward seeing uncles and auties run 21 kms.

Shirdi

2007-01-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

From Shirdi

Just back from Shirdi

hukka@mocha

2007-01-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

Well to start with let me praise mocha a bit, i am tuely a fan of it .. The ambience, the cuisines, shakes, desserts and not to forget the hukka are simply awesome. So it was the obvious place for my job treat. The only hurdle being that i wasn't sure if there was one in hyderabad. But with bit of googling i found out that there is indeed one in banajara hills around 25 kms from where i stay.
With 3 of my closest friends with me it was bound to be among the most momorable of the treats. We spend around 2-3 hours smoking hukka .. (its tobacco free!!) ... you do feel a bit dizziness but that's due to the smoke. Seeing abhijath struggle with the hukka was more fun than hukka itself. All in all great fun, just that i would have liked a few more of my friends to have joined, but may be some other time.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Happy new year .. may 2007 bring you all the happiness in life ..
for me '06 went quite well .. this was the year in which i entered 8 (my CPI),won dept. elections, got placed in Indcutis .. made wonderful friends .. all in all an awesome time .. well one resolution which still stands nowhere near completion is to have a gf .. but theek hai '07 ke liye bhi to kuch chodna chahiye na

truely njoing ..

2006-12-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

Life at home is simply awesome ..

best pals

2006-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

Time has run so fast .. momories of my school days are still vivid in my mind .. those care free days were undoubtedly the best part of my life .. and more so because its then you make your best pals . friends whom you share your joys and sorrows, friends who become a part of your life, friends without whom life would have been a lot boring ..
you might wonder why all this all of a sudden .. well today i met school pals after a long time .. It was a job treat of my best friend Ashis whom i met in my 5th class ..
We have been very good friends ever since then. If i learnt anything in school i owe it to him (n if he learnt anything, he perhaps owes it to me). As i write this blog i wish him all the best for his future, may he get all the success in life ..

@home - things seem different

2006-12-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Hey i am back home, at hyd .. things look different now, not because anything has actually changed but beacause there's been a sea change in my way of looking at things. Now i have a job at hand, i know 6 months from now i would be earning a handsome amount of money.
Its time i get all my aspirations into reality .. things i have longed for years, ... oh i feel excited, the day isn't far when i get my first salary ..hmm
But for now, be satisfied with dad's credit card :) ... its the Party time, time to meet school pals and celebrate ..

lets go party tonight !!!

2006-12-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Last one week has been awesome .. i have become a party animal and each one has brought with it greater and greater happiness, be it the sizzlers@kobe or wodka@totos or biryani@sp .. its been amazing .. i sometimes wonder if this can continue endlessly ... but then i am nearing my credit limit, so time to get back to normal.

Euphoria - Pappu pass ho gaya

2006-12-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

3:25 PM 5th December .. a memorable moment i will remember for the rest of my life. This was the instant I got placed in Inductis. It was a wonderful feeling, a feeling of not being dependent on my parents anymore .. I am on cloud nine ..
Well part of the happiness is due to the fact that i am out of the placement season, no more ppts, no more written tests, no more cntrl+F (in the shortlists) and ofcourse no more fashion shows. Getting dressed in formals with a tie n all is no less than a fashion show.
The selection procedure was a tramautic experience ... written test followed by 4 rounds of interviews .. but all is well that ends well !!
4 yrs at iit i have waited for this day every moment .. the day i will be financially independent :). Technically speaking i still have to wait for another 6 months to get my first salary .. but who cares ... i am placed .. lets party !!!!

The D Effect

2006-08-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

Hey ... its been a long time since i wrote my last blog ..
to be precise my last blog was on my b'day which i celebrated bac at home. ..
Back at home everything was soo good .. it was one the most memorable summer i ever had .. spent all the time at home .. Now bac to mumbai drowned in rains :( i feel kinda nostalgic ..

Hey did i tell u that i had a flight lab in kanpur .. Flew in cessna sitting adjacent to pilot .. bilieve it was the best time of my life . Up in the air things seem so different .. not that it was first time .
but then flying in a small aircraft is altogether a different experience.
Well i will come up wid the pics very soon ..
N ya now coming to the 'D Effect' .. that does sound a bit wierd rite .. well if yuo are under the impression that it might have something to do with the 'axe effect' :) then i am sorry you are off the track ..

D stands for the DGSec (Deartment General Secretary) ...just to inform you i won the department elections just recently .... The post of the DGsec has come up with a lot of challenges .. Hope i am able stand up to the expectations of people who have voted for me ..
Time will only tell ... but i would try my level best to give my 100% to it . Chalo its quite late now and i have a class tomm morning ..
cya ..
catch u latr

My B'Day

2006-05-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

30th April, my b'day .. this year was something spl ...i turned 20 hmmmmm .. so what !!
teenage's gone .. does that matter
to me it does ..
forgot to mention, i m back home .... this time for a longer duration :)
mom prepared a delicious lunch and went out to tank bund in the night. Only a hostellite knows how spl this is !!!
back home things change drastically .. hostel mein i used to get up at 12 ..here mom wakes me up at 8 ..
no breaker .. dinner at 2 AM .. yahan 2 am .. 'go to sleep beta' .

sky is home !!

2006-04-22T05:02:00.000-07:00

hey !! just came across this .. thought i wud share it wid u

"To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home"

Farewell to MIG - 25

2006-04-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Popularly known as "Foxbat", MIG-25 served airforce for 25 years.

Today as i read the news of its farewell, words of Alok Chauhan struk me deep into the heart...
" When you are up that high, and you can see the earth's curvature and the blue band of the atmosphere, there's a serene sense of detatchment, a feeling of physical seperation that is hard to match and difficult to describe"

MIG can fly at an altitude of 90,000 feets and at a speed of Mach3. Being an aerospace engineer i know that flying at mach 3 would be an amazing experience.

one day i would fly at such speeds !!!!

endz

2006-02-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

midsems ended ? i didnt even feel them .. this time the midsems were very peaceful ... coz i just had 3 courses ...... frankly speaking i enjoyed the midsems .. wid all 5 of ur (aeroz) cramped in my room .. we had a jolly time, pulling each others leg .. are haan forgot to tell u, amardeep broke his hand :)) ask him how n he will tell "bike se gir gaya yaar" , who knows, the real reason cud be different ..
in all we had an awesome time this midsem, ...

I wanted to cry .. but was running short of time

2006-02-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

Last night at 2am, barely managing to keep my eyes open, the fear of facing my seminar guide made me look for my half complete seminar report. only to realise that the entire folder had dissapeared .. i cudn't bilieve my eyes .. where the hell
searched searched ..but cudnt find it . at around 3 i was convinced that the worst has happened .. 4 hours for dawn n i shud have my report .. oh god !!!
as i m writing this .. droplets are pouring from my eyes as i didnt sleep last night only to redo the entire thing all over again :(
thnx to my guide who gave me an extension n hopefully i would be able to complete by tomm morning ..

frns have laughed at me ..indeed even i was laughing at myself some while ago .. but only i know what it feels like .....

Kurta day

2006-02-19T05:19:00.000-08:00

A little late, but i thought this has to come up... we had our "Kurta Day" on 23rd jan, which was followed by batchwise photo sessions .

this pic reminds me of the few earlier in this league .. one in my UKG and few others in school. all of them have great significance......
will see if i can get them for u
In future i know every time i stumble upon this pic, it would remind me of the time i spent at iit .... :)
More pics

v'day ..

2006-02-14T21:19:00.000-08:00

For me it was just another day .. every year i promise myself that next time its gonna me special .. but then resolutions are meant to be broken rite?
india has lot to progress, still their are people who crib about india getting westernized. i dont understand why ? is drinking alcohol not an act of westernization. for those who keep track of news u know what i m talking about ..
i was moved by what shiv sena did today, an act of sheer foolishness. India would never be able to progress as long as its run by people whose sole aim is to be in media for whatever reason they can get hold of.
I would like to see India among the developed countries of the world in my lifetime .. that day would come .. it has to come ..

Time flies

2006-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

2day i happened to show someone my site , n realised that i havent blogged for so long .... for about an year .. i dont feel so .. HOLI abhi to aayi thi .. wondering how fast time flies, i still have fresh memories when i entered my room for the first time with my dad
i screamed ...
i cant dad, i cudnt imagine myself staying in it for 5 long years, but days passed n time flies so quickly .. frns i love them all amar, anchal, anupam, santosh and ravi .. they have become a part of my life.
my placements are due this august, but i dont want to go .. abhi to aaya tha, these four years will the best time of my life ..

Happy Holi

2005-03-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Holi to all of you ...

Well this year holi wasn't any special ... just like last year got up at 11, had colour all over my body and lost a set of clothes.
Felt a bit homesick ... real enjoyment of festivals is when one is at home ...

First time ever

2005-03-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

" Oh !! missed my lunch " .... with a hungry stomach i woke up at 2 pm after a nightout followed by sleeply classes. As usual was checking my mails .. n then suddenly i felt as if the suitcase on which i kept my leg was shaking. somewhere in my mind i feared that it could be ...
lasted just for a couple of seconds n then ...
Just now my sister told me that it was an earthquake.

Nightout

2005-03-14T11:23:00.000-08:00

slept at 2:00 , 3:00 .... 4:30 .. 6:00 ... all these records came up with the lifestyle at IIT , but finally last night i managed to make the unbreakable one, that of "night out". Just a couple of hours left for the sunrise, i was still sitting in front of my dumb computer trying my level best to debug the 200 line code .
Finally after 6 hours of rigourous check, at 3:00 i managed to find a flaw. Hurray i shouted , scaring the guy next door.
But then came the challenge of keeping my eyelids open in the classes, in which as usual i failed.

Life's pretty much the same

2005-03-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

Life's pretty much the same, same old sleeping late at night, struggling to wake up at 8:15 in the morning, missing the breakfast , and then sleeping in the class. I am fed up.
Don't remember when last time i was attentive in any class. Be it the essays of literature or the shockwave of fluid mechanics, i have slept in all of them.
I want a change, i want a change , i want a change.......

Literature Exam

2005-02-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

Having written the lit exam i only have regrets of why i took this course, and seeing the philo people crack their exams with just a day's preparation adds to my grief.

Here's a stanza from of a poem by "Emily Dickinson" which i read in the lit course.
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you --Nobody--Too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! they'd advertise--you know!

-- Emily Dickinnson

Room getting painted

2005-02-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

Finally, the most awaited event has come .... Yeah my room is getting painted today. No more shabby walls from now on. Will put up a pic of the new room very soon.

Aero India 2005 -- Bangalore Trip

2005-02-12T04:36:00.000-08:00

Left Mumbai on 4th Night by Coimbatore
Express. The journey was quite boring and tiresome.

On 6th i was with didi n jijaji roaming around in Bangalore. We went to Forum at 'MG Road' , supposedly the most happening place over there. Was actually wondering what's so special about it, but having visited it, i am convinced now that it is indeed the heart of the city.

The conference was from 7th - 9th at Hotel Grand Ashok. Papers covering a wide range of topics were presented, by companies and institutions from all over the world. It was a great experience.

On 9th there was an 'Exhibition' and 'Air Show' . A number of fighter planes were at the static display. HAL's latest IJT, n Sukhoi aircraft were the center of attraction. Couldn't bilieve my eyes when i saw the vertcal take of and landing of the Sukhoi Aircraft (thurst vectoring).