Oh boy! The city of...

The sunmmer training process is over and I am waiting for the mail from my project manager approving my report so that I can send the same to the HR and complete the formalities that still remain between me and my goodbyes. Since this is going to be my last post for quite some time (perhaps till I reach IIMK on the 19th of this month), I thought that I might as well jot down some things that struck me the most during the past two months spent in Sonar Bangal (not the seven star ITC hotel with a slightly different spelling...am referring to Kolkata). So here go a few observations about the city of joy:

Kolkata has a very high beauty quotient. Beauty Quotient, to me, is the natural beauty of the female population (can be accordingly modified by the fairer sex, if they wish so) divided by the forced beauty that is attempted at through tight-fitting clothes, layers of make-up and of course, some strong dieting and exercise to try and maintain that perfect 10. Compared to Bangalore (which has a low quotient because of the high denominator) and Mumbai (where the quotient is a little better but not as well because of the denominator and the numerator being high at the same time) and other places that I have had the opportunity to...ahem...study, Kolkata scores probably the highest. The natural beauty of most of the girls and women of Kolkata is supplemented well by the sense (of dressing, carrying themselves, etc) of the not-so-endowed ones to get the quotient quite high.

Kolkata is liberal. It is the only place I have seen (and I admit I haven't seen all) where the ladies sit by the side of the auto driver right in the front. There is no difference between a guy and a girl when it comes to filling an auto (though the buses still have the "ladies" seats), which I believe, is an indication and a fallout of the matriarchical Bengali society that we have all heard of.

Kolkata is not expensive at all. For the typical middle class big-city-dweller, Kolkata is heaven incarnate. Cheap food, cheap lodgings (unless you take up living quarters in the extremely posh or estate scarce areas) and reasonably priced amenities, make Kolkata the cheapest metro to live in.

Kolkata is not cheap either. When I say that Kolkata is one of the cheapest metros to live in, I am not being derogatory. For all its traditional nature and Bengali conservative culture, the city is shaking its chains off and pretty fast at that. The number of nightspots is increasing dime-a-dozen and the number of people (including college goers and the fairer sex) who go out past midnight to return only in the morning hours, is to be seen to be believed. And lest you believe that the middle class is going to have fun here as well, something else is in store for you. The prices are steep (perhaps not as steep as they are in Mumbai but comparable, nevertheless) and as the lifestyle and Page 3 craze gets going, the exclusivity is going to come in big time as an attraction. The prices are bound to follow the exclusive pattern, too.

There are some good cinema halls in Kolkata but not good enough. Be it the INOX or the 89 Cinemas, the multiplex culture is catching up but a little too late. Mumbai is of course right there at the top but even late comers like Bangalore have an edge over Kolkata in this regard. As of now, Kolkata still plays host to cinema halls and multiplexes as a part of a bigger picture of a mall. However, in contrast, at places like Delhi and MUmbai, shopping malls have been built around cinema halls (Priya, PVR...).

Retail is booming in Kolkata. The Pantaloons outlet in Kolkata is their biggest grosser across India. The Pizza Hut at Camac Street, Kolkata is the largest selling Pizza Hut outlet in India. The INOX theatre in Kolkata is again the biggest grosser amongst all INOX theatres in India. The story promises to continue. With Big Bazaar lowering the prices to suit the pockets of the used-to-economy Kolkata inhabitant, there promises to be another surge, putting Kolkata firmly on the map of the retail industry.

Kolkata is going to be the next hot software destination. With places like Salt Lake already filled beyond capacity and new buildings coming up wherever empty space could be seen a few months ago, the scene is picking up. With Wipro having set up one huge facility in Salt Lake and in line to open another at Rajarhat, the upcoming software center of Kolkata and with TCS going full steam ahead with their new building, things can only go up from here. The Kolkata map is expanding like never before to accommodate the new suburbs that have been coming up over the past few months as a part of the software revolution.

Bengalis in Kolkata are turning into one neutral lot. Although the quintessential fights-with-no-blows-and-only-words are there, the Kolkata crowd is fast appreciating the value of silence. The metro culture is creeping in and instead of shouting at the neighbour, the preferred option is to just shut your doors and windows down. with the Marwaari community almost taking the town over from the native Bengalis, the culture is undergoing serious transformation. The helpful and straight-though-immediately-provoked Babu Moshai is disappearing fast but still exists.

Kolkata is hot and HUMID.

The smoke knows no bounds in Kolkata which seems to be the biggest consumer of cigarettes amongst Indian cities.

The PG (paying guest, that is) homes at Kolkata that shut down the doors at 10:30 (inspite of it being an all-guy PG) suck.

The Kolkata metro rocks...even now.

The wooden seats and the general seat layout in Kolkata buses don't.

There are not as many of the North East India people here as are the Biharis and the Oriyas (unexpectedly, for me).

There are some really good hotels in Kolkata (not to mention ITC's 7 star Sonar Bangla).

You can get a cab willing to go anywhere in Kolkata, if you flag it down from Park Street.

The walls and buildings in Park Street remind you of CP in Delhi and VT-Churchgate in Mumbai.

The water in Salt Lake area is to be had with a great deal of caution.

For a non-Bengali, the sugar in the curry is not digestible. Maarwari food outlets in outhouses rock.

There are quite a lot of FM stations in Kolkata and boarding a taxi without an FM radio is sacrilege.

The latest Food Plaza opened at the Howrah railway station serves some quality food and a varied lot at that.

It is difficult to commute from Joka to Dunlop if you are on a time crunch.

The CD renting shop at the BJ market in Salt Lake has an amazing collection.

The classroom at Alliance Francaise has an amazing air conditioner that makes the three hour class possible.

If you want to party hard in Kolkata, you need to have accommodating hosts like Sandipan's folks who can take in a guy at home even at late nights.

The tea and snacks jhups near PwC practices CRM and knows what is to be served to regular customers without their asking.

The libido of Bengali women is not just a fairy tale :-)

Believe it or not, I shall miss Kolkata and remember it fondly ;-)

Believe it, I don't want to come back to Kolkata for any long duration (short visits will be welcome).

From the mountains to the lakes

As the taxi driver steers the vehicle over the umpteenth uncovered manhole, a smile starts playing on his lips while he calculates the huge fare that he is about to receive from the four co-passengers...people who, he thinks, can not even comprehend the speed of his thoughts...who have no way to know that he can calculate 1.7 times the meter reading faster than they can say "Joka Management". And what about these co-passengers? They appear to be tense and seem to have little time to devote to saying "Joka Management" (having already said that when they had specified their destination). They have even less time to think of the taxi fare or ponder needlessly over the extended tables of 1.7. All they are worried about right now is a place called Pailan where the last of thier saviours exist.

It is eleven in the evening (evening!!! exclaims the taxi driver but who's listening) and there is the whole night that is to be brought to life. Bringing nights to life, if you have not noticed it already, requires a little more than idle chanter and any charms that even the elusive Joka Management might have for the first timers (which is the category that entails three of the four co-passengers of the now-never-been-happier taxi driver). As the taxi screams down the dirt track, putting all dirt track taxis of the world to shame and screeches (okay, maybe whimpers) to a halt outside the place that the helpful directions refer to, the co-passengers stare in amazement at the run-down dhaaba and the even more run down (if that is even remotely possible) surroundings. But cease the amazement does as the saviour comes forth from the drakness with his shining torch, the elusive elixir that promises to bring the life to the night ahead.

Tucking the nectar under their arms, they make their entry into their nightspot. As the first of the lakes looms up on the visible horizon, there is very little for the first time visitors to drop down for. This however, as promised, is not all and yet to come are the gleaming beauties of OH, the NH, and of course, the WH. As the taxi toils on (but not the taxi driver...he knows what's coming and is...lovin' it), some more lakes pass unnoticed and so do some of the monuments of learning that stand quite close to but quite different from those of education (if it is not too difficult to get, I am sure that you must have realized that I am talking about the academic and the hostel blocks).

Finally, the deserted Annexe welcomes the weary travellers but with nectar in its various forms to refresh one and all, the weariness is soon washed away (or perhaps down) in tune with the exit of the taxi driver (who could not hide his hideous grin as two papers with an old man staring out passed hands). A couple of people can be heard (seeing is difficult because of the all pervasive darkness...of soul??) moving in and lest there be panic, there appears light at the end of the staircase. As the party moves up the staircase and looks down at the central quad, short talk of the possibilites of one-tip-one-hand cricket passes around.

And then there comes civilization as the travellers knew it. The computer screen is flashing, the speakers blaring and the playlist stuck (that was after one of the travellers tampered with it) at the "Kajraare kajraare" song from Bunty aur Babli. Like moths get attracted to a light bulb, the nectar does bring life to the sleeping campus (or would you prefer to say that  no one had been home at all...not yet?) as the room next to the top floor square gets filled up with intertwining limbs and light hearts. The neighbours are not in and they shouldn't have been especially since the genesis can be quite upsetting for some but then...perhaps not for this neighbour. Paper leaves orphaned and even the book trees abandoned, the beast sits proudly. The future Frankenstein and/or(?) Dhapadhap is stationed in the corner in all its glory and as the new comers struggle to get the better of its experience, the beast plays along.

It is time soon for the ultimate journey...the goal whose pursuit had brought the new comers to this strange land. Despite having come from the hills and having lived on clean and thin air, they were prepared for what was to come. As the bridge (with a famous name sake) appeared and the stories were re-laid about morning sojourns and nightly crawlings, the visitors are amused...the grass lands they come from and the wood and concrete and iron that they find...interesting is all that they say with any sort of commitment. The next in line are the temples. The travellers are wondering if the temples are spelt as Temples and while all this wondering is happening, their eyes dart all over the pithy quotes strewn all over the place. There  is darkness all around but as must have been the case with earlier visitors (in front of whom the temples are always showcased), they seem to feel the light.

From temples, across muddy lawns after the evening's showers that were not threatening enough to act as spoilers, our vaoyageurs move on to the Big one. The nearly 500 seating auditorium with enclosing lakes in abandon (and of course, the only  parking lot nearby) seems to entice the travellers, mock them with its grandeur at the same time. While they ponder on all this and pass by the academia again, they stop...not physically but to apply their thoughts...what lies beneath, they speak aloud?

And then come the tales of glory, of tradition and bravery...of raids on the enemy and the wars...of digging the tyre in and getting it out...of liquids less than a month old...of booking advertising space by forming human chains...of the con and the parties...of other nights that have been brought to life earlier...of the silver jubilee reunions...of the hang outs and the jetty...of boating round and round and not being able to find the shore...of climbing atop the 70 feet high water tank and getting scared coming down...of much much more.

As the travails of the day start taking their toll and the wanderlust seems to have taken a break, and as the first timers retire to bed, one of them can not but think of what sets this place apart. It is not the lakes...not the buildings...not even the bridge or the temples or the audi or the huge acres of land that stare at you as you peek out of the balcony. It is people who have made this place what it is right now. It is not by virtue of being the oldest that it is grand, but it is by virtue of having played host to people who wish to return, to keep themselves associated with the tradition that they had helped set up.

It is because of all these things that one of those three people, the new comer...the traveller...the first timer, while setting his body and mind to rest on a very early Sunday morning, says his final words aloud, "I salute you, IIM Calcutta".

Black wind in the wings and the climax

I have been thinking and this time, there are good reasons for it. The summer project, after days of absolutely-nothing-to-do, is heading for a typical Hollywood climax. Although there aren't going to be exploding tube stations and car chases and that final kiss, but the last few days at this place are sure going to be one whirlwind. With the gap analysis being the mainstay of my project (or rather the project in its totality) and the system B (out of the systems A and B, between which the gap analysis is to be done) not being available yet, and lest I forget, with another four working days to the final presentation, things can be said to be growing into interesting, to say the least.

Be as it may, it does not stop me from having a good time in Cal and since these are the last few days of vacations before I get on to another sort of vacationing on the beautiful hill resort down south, I plan to do anything but let sleeping dogs lie. This weekend, it started with a bit of shopping at Pantaloons on Saturday (after the French class, of course). I and Sandipan got a great Tees bargain and before you start wishing that both of us will be dressed in the same tee some day on campus, let me tell you that we have already entered into the pact not to. Tanu (Sandipan's girl friend) and Rohit (in the E n Y office a few floors above the Pantaloons) were there as well and surprisingly, none of them cribbed about the quality time we were spending looking at and trying out one thing after the other.

However, not to take any chances, we moved on to Sheesha Bar next. I know that the name sounds pretty corny but the place is anything but corny. It is a pretty classy place, in fact, that does not allow people in slippers (not even the funky Yankee travellers, one of whom turned up that day in rugged tees and shorts and of course, slippers). After a few drinks and eats, Sandipan and Tanu made their way to some other Rendez-vous (without the bones in the meat) while Rohit and the poor old me went ahead to a filled-beyond-capacity Pizza Hut. This was the second time in a Kolkata Pizza Hut for me and not any different from the first one: good pizzas, good crowd, and of course, the typical birthday celebration complete with the song and dance and claps routine.

Compared to Saturday, Sunday was not all that exciting. A late Saturday night meant that I got up just in time for the French classes (which start at 3 in the afternoon, by the way). With Sandipan having another plan with Tanu, and Rohit enjoying the roller coasters at Nicco Park with his friends, I was left all alone but not for long as Rohit joined me a little later at City Centre for some coffee table conversation. I must say that the conversations with Rohit over the weekend have been pretty interesting and there have been occasions where both of us have been able to read beyond what the other has spoken. Apart from the conversation, the next best part of the evening was the Masala Cola that we had just before calling it a night. Amazing style, some solid taste and the earthen cups made for some good entertainment. The way the Masala Cola Dada was preparing the thing would have put any bar tender worth his salt to shame. Sprays and mixes and popping the caps and juggling the bottles were all there and more than the drink, the entertainment gave me the paisa-vasool.

Like any other weekend, this one would have been incomplete without the usual dosage of movies. Although Bunty and Babli had to be shelved for a later date because of non-availability of tickets, there were quite a few CDs available at the BJ Market shop. The first one was the screen adaptation of the immensely popular work of fiction, "Gone with the wind". After "The Sound of Music", I had been expecting a lot from this movie as well but for some reason, despite the ten Oscars that it had grabbed in its time, the movie really failed to excite me as much as the other one had.

Scarlett O'hara and Rhett Butler, Melanie Hamilton and Ashley Wilkes were the same, no doubt and the actors did do justice to the roles but still it did not feel the same as reading the book had done. The actors did settle into their characters gradually but their introductions in the movie were not impressive at all. Most of them, when they appeared for the first time in the narrative, looked like caricatures and the gravity of the story got reflected in their faces only when the second half of the movie had well and truly started. Personally, I missed the story of Eileen and Gerald O'hara and Scarlett's early youth that had formed such an enjoyable part of the novel. In fact, the entire good-old-South imagery has been done away with to accommodate the misery of battle and the greed of man that destroys the old order and sets in the new.

The movie is good effort, however, to bring the mammoth classic to everyone's doorsteps and I must say that it has satisfactorily brought the gist of the story up front. Ever since I read the book, I always used to wonder about possibly how the entire length and breadth of the story could be captured on reel but that, the movie has been successful in doing. Probably, if only for this, it deserved its ten oscars and perhaps even more.

The other movie this weekend was the first of the Batman series titled "Batman" (what else? :-)). The Batman series has got some big names to boast of, right through the four movies that have come so far. Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Bassinger, Danny De Vito, Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicole Kidman, and Drew Barrymore are just some of the people who have played some character or the other in one of the four Batman movies. The DC Comics character has always been fascinating read for me beacuse of his, amongst other things, roguish nature and the very absoluteness of his character as far as the nature of dealing with crime and criminals goes.

The movie "Batman" does miss this aspect of Batman's character and though the hooded hero scowls in his mask, Bruce Wayne is shown as the part-bumbling part-brooding character who seems to be as confused as Peter Parker of Spiderman about his convictions (which actually, is not the case if you read the DC comics a little more carefully). All said and done, the movie was some good time spent and I did relish the bringing alive of characters like The Joker, Alfred, Bruce Wayne, and of course, Batman complete with his Bat-mobile.

The last of the movies that I watched over the weekend (not last, literally as I watched it on Friday) but the one that had the greatest impact was "Black Friday". The censor board is not allowing the movie to get to the cinema halls in India but fortunately or unfortunately, the original print of the movie, complete with the candies ads has found its way to the neighboring CD shop, all the way from our beloved neighboring country. The movie, if you haven't heard about it already, is based on the Mumbai riots and specifically looks at the way Mumbai police cracked the entire operation open and how the actors in the crime were brought to book one by one.

The police officer in charge of the case is played by Kay Kay and he has done justice to his role. Confident and strict and determined to find the truth and nail the criminals, he is human enough to be disturbed over the torture that his men have to resort to in order to get the truth out. All the supposed villains (the movie does present a rather single side of the entire issue, proclaiming only the Muslims to be repressed and villainous), apart from Dawood Ibrahim, are handled well and despite the torture and the subsequent opening up, they manage to maintain their convictions and more importantly, the actors have been able to effectively portray this dimension of their characters.

The movie also brings to light one of the most effectively planned criminal activities and on top of that, one of the most successful crack polce campaigns ever. The way one little clue leads to another and the very tenacity with which Mumbai police is shown going after the suspects fills you with a kind of reluctant admiration (reluctant only because of the apparent unfeeling nature of all police men apart from the inspector played by Kay Kay).

In the midst of all these movies and the good time that I have been having in Kolkata, I have also been a little worried lately about the conclusion of it all. I just hope that all this fun is not at some unreasonable cost and that the project thing goes off properly enough. With much depending on how I and Sandipan perform here, I do not want to be a reason for my institute not getting the respect that it deserves...not if I can help it.

What you see can kill you

After about two hours of head banging at the IE and network settings, the tech support people were finally able to get the PeopleSoft URL work on my system at about 6 last evening. Not that it was of any use as I realized, to my absolute dejection, that the application server of PeopleSoft was down. There remain seven more working days to the presentation and half of the project is pending...not because I did not do anything but more because I could not. With no access to the system earlier and now even with access, no chance of getting in (the application server continues to be down as of this moment), all of it seems to be a sign of things to come. I am not really bothered but sort of know that coming upon me is a stage of quite a few five-hour work days (instead of the usual two or three).

The Blues is one strangely appealing form of music and given its history (with the Civil War and all), it ought to be. The very purpose of this form of music is to pluck at your heart and the way even a single instrument like a guitar manages to do so speaks volumes of the possibilities. As I sat listening to some blues music, I was sure that I am going to be a big fan. Bubbunda, my guitar instructor, does play very well and of course, the excellent collection of songs and guitar solos and other stuff that he has written on three CDs for me is great.

As for my own progress at guitar, even the P of progress does not seem to be forthcoming. I understand that learning anything new is not a joke and especially starting from scratch on a musical instrument is going to require a lot of patience and that it has only been three odd weeks, but inspite of all this, the frustration has started getting to me. Though my fingers move much faster on the fret board now and I am able to make a guitar run sound like a guitar run at times (instead of random strumming as it used to sound like earlier and does at times even now), but there is a lot more to be desired. With my instructor's emphasis on grammar and his eye for detail, I am not allowed to take the short cut and start playing the chords of any song. I just realized the other day that even after another two weeks, I will only be able to speak the guitar grammar fluently (and may be even teach it to a few) but not really able to play a full song (or even a partial one at that). Well, let's persevere, I say and let's see...

The CD shop in BJ market was in full form yesterday with quite a good addition to stock. I got hold of a DVD with the entire Batman series as also a CD with the original print of The Sound of Music. I have not been able to see these five movies yet as yesterday was devoted to apna Bollywood as I decided to match my wits with Soni Razdan and her much talked about (all due to inconsequential reasons) movie Nazar. Now, this is one movie whose tag line is ever so apt...what you see can definitely kill you in this case...if you do not die of boredom, you will definitely die of laughing at the histrionics (or the lack of it) displayed by Ashmit Patel and Koel Poorie. Meera is definitely the pick of the lot and can act but as for the others in the movie, suffice to say that Avatar Gill comes off the best despite appearing in just two odd frames and unimportant frames at that.

Supposed to be a murder mystery, the movie does have some good initial moments. Like Naina, the other release of the week, Nazar is also loosely adapted from the chinese movie "The Eye" but does not manage to do justice to its inspiration. After a decent beginning, the movie falls flat as soon as the two great (read with at least a few tonnes of sarcasm) actors in Koel Poorie and Ashmit Patel make their entrance. I really don't want to waste any more of your time or my blog space so will stop talking about this movie with this well-meaning suggestion...unless you have nothing to do at all...not even a fly left to swat, don't go for this movie.

Amongst other things, UTI Bank has asked one of its summer interns (a girl from IIM Lucknow) to do a project on campus branding. One of the measures she is planning to suggest is for the bank to go to the campuses through sponsorships of institute activities and festivals. I think that it is a good idea for various reasons, the least being a few HBR cases that I vaguely remember addressing the issue. The UTI Bank does need to raise its profile in the minds of the B-school junta who actually associate it with the Government and half of them do not even know just how privately owned and managed it is. I must say that the bank has done some real good work and the most visible of it is the number of ATMs that one can now see spread all across...even giving the ICICIs and SBIs a run for their money in this arena. And by the way, it is also an opportunity for Backwaters, Horizons, et al...anybody listening?

A night in BED

This Sunday night, you will be in bed
but not alone and certainly not sleeping

So went the first few lines of the invitation presentation for the Kolkata alumni freshers meet. For all the appreciation and admonition of the presentation that I received directly or indirectly, thank you all the same. It was just a result of an hour of work-less training time and some use of work-unoccupied office resources. However, what was not such a small thing was the planning for the event itself. Although we did lack in so many things from the planning and execution angles, but the end result turned out to be sweet and an organized and smooth sweet at that.

B.E.D. (short for Bars Entertainment Dining) is a great place to have a party at. With a number of bars, an amazing dance floor with some sexy DJs (the fairer sex doing the honours here), lush green lawns and authentic wooden furniture in the open air restaurant with the live ghazal stage right in front, nothing could have been better. With the rains welcoming the guests who came all drenched and hoping to identify someone from IIMK pretty soon, the beginning was auspicious, to say the least. That little bit of worry that the open air garden restaurant and the ghazal thing might have to be replaced by the indoors restaurant was pulling at me a little but with the clouds clearing away to a beautiful night, all worries were laid to rest.

The first to arrive was a fresher, as expected. In time, the rest of them were there and though we fell short of nearly five people who were expected (all of them alumni, of course), the party, however, was on any day with six each of freshers and alumni making it to BED along with the three of us from the Class of 2006. As the group made its way from the waiting room in the first floor restaurant to the main disc and bar, we were greeted with shots (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Had I been one of the invitees, I know that I would have loved this little thing and I just hope that the rest of the people did. The only thing that might have gone wrong with this was that some people (mostly freshers) did not realize that there were non-alcoholic shots arrnaged for, too and decided against the thing or went for it (the alcoholic one, at that) only after some insistence.

With the DJs in full swing and the place just beginning to warm up to a Sunday evening (it was 8 PM when we entered, pretty early from a nightclub's point of view), we were all set to rock. Rock we did, with the alumni being such a sport and making their own intro sessions pretty interesting and short but fun. When it came to the freshers, the little bit of grilling was always on. Some took nicely to it, others let their ego come in but what the heck, it is all part of the game. A mixed lot, the Kolkata fresher crowd seemed to be with a bent-on-paying dude and an escorted-quick-to-home dudette, amongst others. I am sure that as we see more of them on campus, we will be able to find out and acknowledge more of the good and bad about them.

The drinks were on and as the atmosphere became less stiff and as stories after stories of the past and present started getting thrown about, the discomfort gave way to the spirits. Fosters and Smirnoff were at their best and so were the RCs and the Bacardis. Soon (too soon), it was time to go out for dinner and after repeated calls for going out and repeated returning calls of staying just a little bit more, we finally made way to the best table in the garden restaurant, the one right next to the ghazal stage. The ghazal artists were good and the only complaint I had was that I could not show the presentations with the music on. Nevertheless, I did make the sales pitch for Backwaters after the preliminary IIMK presentation that Rohit had prepared.

Soon enough, the food was there and we were all busy chatting more with our forks and spoons than with the neighbour. Personally, I liked the spread and though it was not very varied, the taste was good and the items complemented each other. I just hope that the selection of the menu went well to the taste of the rest of the invitees, as well.

While we were busy eating, the first of the interesting things of the night happened. One of the guests who had too much to drink came on the Ghazal stage and demanded to be given the chance to sing. Left without choice, the artists gave way to the guy who made a mess of the Sur-Taal thingy and even a novice like me could point out his faults. And point out his faults we did, with shouts to stop the damn thing and claps right in the middle of a song and other typical stuff. The guy finally left the floor and came to us thanking us for our patient hearing...patient hearing indeed!

The next interesting thing in line was not bad, either. After everyone else had called it a night, I and Sandipan decided to make it to the disc and shake a leg or two...if not for anything else then probably just to compensate for the extra that we had to pay for the food (with two people dropping out even before the dinner). The music was eminently danceable and the crowd decent, too...until the 50-something and fully drunk guy started throwing himself on all and sundry on the dance floor. This was one enthu guy, whom even his relatives could not convinve enough to stay away from the floor. There were also these two women dressed in some strongly colored (typical of the red lighted places) salwar suits who were in the disc as company to two tobacco-chewing middle aged, shabbily dressed fatsos. It might just have been my prejudice playing tricks but then again, it might just have been what I thought it was.

Another stint of the Roy hospitality awaited me as I went to Sandipan's home for a second time this summer. A late night entry (even later because of the antics of Sandipan that enabled him to get the number of one PYT dancing away at BED) and the next day full of some more home cooked food made it worth all the while, as earlier. I also got to watch a nice reality show on AXN called The Contender...quite a nice concept and though most of the things looked stage managed due to some shabby editing, the thing was quite interesting if it was the reality that they actually wanted to show.

After endless days of doing nothing, work seems to have picked up the momentum and I have received access to the new system. The cards are all on the table and I just need to make sense out of them in the coming fortnight or so. Looking at the new system that I have just been given access to, and comparing it to the data and process flows of the current system that I have already prepared, the last step in my project is to do a gap analysis between the two...time to get on to it, I say!

Too much for a lifetime

I hope that I am not taking up things that are beyond my capacity to handle them. It has been five straight days since I watched a movie and for me, this is quite a lot. The initial days (it has been more than a week, actually) of the guitar lessons are turning out to be quite a task, what with the notes, the cycle of C, the fingers and the chords. At the same time, the French classes scheduled for the weekend are already giving me jitters as I am not sure how much of what was taught last week will I be able to recollect and retain when the time comes for the next lesson. On top of everything else, of course, is the reason why I came to Kolkata, which is, despite what anybody else might think, my summer internship ;-). With the new phase of the project having started and the new team working with seemingly unstoppable enthu, things do not seem to be following a straight line anymore.

The alumni freshers' meet for IIMK in Kolkata is due this month. When Vaibhaw from the Alumni Committee had asked me to take care of it, I had said yes without giving it a thought as I was in a hurry to do a lot of things...pack my stuff, submit assignments, take home end-term papers and what not. Now that I have started making the arrangements and actually calling up people, I have realized that it might turn out to be more than I had bargained for. There are hardly any alumni in Kolkata and even all the freshers are not going to be here in May. As for our batch, there are just two people...Sandipan and me, waiting for Rohit who was supposed to be here this week but has not contacted any of us so far.

I guess that this much of cribbing is enough for the day so shall move on to some thing different...not too different though. I am still in the Dan Brown mode and after finishing a higly engrossing "Angels and Demons" (and giving myself a small break...just enough to re-vitalize my taste buds), I started off with "Digital Fortress". Recommended by a lot of people as delicious fare for the computer-savvy, I had great expectations from the book. To say the truth, it did fulfill most of them. There were a number of references to viruses, worms, 64 bit encryptions, cryptography and powerhouse parallel processing. And more than that, there was the typical Dan Brown thrill-a-minute caper that made the story that more interesting.

However, the book did not excite me enough to finish it off in one sitting, as had been the case with the earlier two. One primary reason for it can be that I may have got used to the tricks of the trade. The character building of the villain of the piece has become too much of a common trait to be a coincidence now. Brown seems to have this habit of building up the qualities of the character who turns out to be the villain in the latter half of the book. And not just this...you can also find the villain to be not a villain actually...just a person who does what he/she believes to be right and in the process, crosses the line somewhere. These people, as Dan Brown shows them, are not inherently bad, but have been forced to do things by the situation and their convictions which often make them prone to be mentally disturbed, too.

Digital Fortress is the story of NSA (National Security Agency for those who haven't read much of Ludlum) and its high profile code breaking Cryptography division which is held to ransom by an ex-employee via the threat of having developed an unbreakable code, a code with mutation strings that can not be out-guessed even by the fastest of parallel computing that NSA is capable of unleashing. Unfortunately for the reader, the suspense is too thin to be of any sustainable interest and not just the villain, but even the fate of the unbreakable code and the climax of the story are quite predictable...certainly a little timid when you compare it to the twist-a-page nature of his other two books. Anyways, the next in line is Deception Point by the author...if things go as peacefully (sic!) as they are going right now, I just might be able to finish it in this lifetime. :-)

Oui, c'est Louis!

What a full weekend it has been! I know that this blog mentions just how even most of my earlier weekends in Kolkata have been full, but this one takes the pride of place amongst all. Having ditched Sandipan for the last few times (that is what he says), this weekend was reserved for a rendez-vous at his place. At work, the project had come to the end of the first phase and I was expecting to be taken off it and put into another at any time. The HR Head had called for a meeting at 4:30 in the evening but it never happened and so it was at 6 that I left with the entire batch of trainees for an evening of fun that we had been promising each other for quite some time. The idea was to go to some hangout, have a drink or two with some snacks and then head for some movie.

A good idea or so it seemed till we reached Opium, the hangout selected for...well, hanging out. The place did not appeal to the refined tastes of many but after some cribbing, owing mainly to the fact that most of the others were not willing to travel all the way to the city to go to Someplace Else or one of the better do's, we made peace with Opium. After a few drinks and some food, we decided to call it quits and while some of the people left for their homes, I, Sandipan, and the two IIMC guys, Aditya and Sivaram, decided to move on to Someplace Else for some good music and some good crowd. The ambience was great, as it was when I had been there the last time, and by the time we reached Sandipan's home at about 11 in the night, I was satisfied with some good music still ringing in my ears, dead tired, and my stomach was filled right up to the brim.

The amazingly affectionate hospitality and the delicious dinner that Sandipan's mother had put out for us, however, turned out to be my undoing and...I hogged. I kept hogging for the rest of the weekend and had it not been for the few outings that we had and the few chances of walking and sweating the calories off that I got, I would surely have gained a couple of kilos on this weekend trip to Sandipan's home...not that I am reasonably sure that I haven't gained those couple, either.

The first of these outings that I talked about was to the Alliance Francaise for the third of the weekend classes in the month-and-a-half elementary course in French. We had already missed the first two classes because of joining one weekend late but the enthusiasm of the teacher (Mr. Amitav Ghosh, who quite resembles Prof Broaca, back at IIMK, in his teaching style and enthu) and the help that we got from some of our batch mates (especially Sweta, who is an ICFAI Hyderabad passout working in Kolkata, and who loaned us her notes of the first two classes for getting them photo copied) compensated for whatever trouble that we did have in the first hour of the first class.

French is understandably, one of the more popular languages in the world, what with its musical feel and the romantic appeal of all things assoicated with France. In fact, I have still not been able to recover from the extremely melodious way in which the French pronounce the phrase "Oui, c'est Louis!" (don't ask me why this phrase of all...my subconscious just picked it up amongst others). BTW, the way it goes is something like this...oooiii, say Loooiii :-). And so it was that by the Sunday class, we were quite sure of our foot hold and quite in sync with the rest of the batch (especially Sandipan, who even took a lead over others, partially due to his starting advantage of having learnt a bit of Italian earlier, which is helping him at quite a few occasions in this course, as well).

Once we were out of the class, we had some other concerns. Tanu, Sandipan's girl friend and Pallavi, my cousin had both agreed to come for the night's party at Fusion, one of the better known Kolkata discs. Pallavi is going to join Wipro at Bangalore as a Business Analyst and she was going to be in town for the weekend. When she heard about the party at the disc, she wanted to go and get a feel of the Kolkata discs after having been through the razmatazz of the Goa night life (she passed out of GIM this year). I had to ditch my own friend I had already asked for the party and had quite a row over the thing with her and we are still not talking :-( but that is perfectly okay...after all, I might not be meeting Pallavi again for quite some time and family takes precedence for me...any day.

The concern that I had been talking about was only this...that I had to go and pick Pallavi up from her Bua's place in Golf Green where she was staying. Having not known the folks and not having met them ever, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable about the entire thing...as if I were a rogue come to ask my own cousin out for a late night party. I perfectly understood Pallavi's Fufaji's hesistation in letting Pallavi go without ensuring that there was someone escorting her to the disc and all the way back to home but as I said, it just did not gel with me. I was really glad, however, to have met Gudia didi, Pallavi's cousin, at the place...though she was busy with getting her kid ready to go home with her and we hardly spoke and though we had met for the first time...I still felt that somehow she seemed to be aware of my discomfort and silently telling me that it was okay. I relaxed and all thanks to didi for that.

The party, however turned out to be a dud. With Jassi-turned-Jessica-but-actually-Mona-Singh scheduled to make her appearance at the disc, the place was choc-a-bloc with some faces and chartacters that you will never expect in a night club. For the very first time in our lives, we saw kids in a night club...and not just kids, but fully grown Papajis and Auntyjis, too...and to top it all, some salwar and sari clad behenjis and some kurta clad bhaiyyas, as well. They had all come to watch their girl-next-door-turned-glam-doll Jassi-Jessica and until she arrived at about 11:15, the party was at a stand still...well almost...but for the last three quarters of an hour when they played some real music and all the six of us (including Sandipan's friend 'chai' and his girl friend) had a good time shaking our legs. By the way, I realized that it does feel a little awkward to be dancing with your cousin in a night club and neither of us could really dance with as much abandon as we could have, had the company been of friends. Strange but still true!

Much before the DJ took over and the dance started, the disc managers had been thrusting upon us, their idea of entertainment. It consisted of three skimpily (but smartly) clad Chinki girls (they called themselves Filipino...they might have been, too...who knows) trying to make a mess of some good songs by trying to shake to the music and sing at the same time...all the while, making sure that their stilletos did not slip on the polished dance floor. Mona Singh's arrival (and she does look stunning, BTW) put an end to all fun that had started post the torture with the DJ taking a hold over the proceedings. We had to make a beeline for the exit at about 11:30 (10:30 being the time that I had promised Pallavi's Bua we will be back home by).

With "Chai" doing the Michael Schumacher (and a drunk Schumacher at that), we reached Golf Green in good time and it was at midnight that we stood outside Pallavi's Bua place, expecting the worst. It did not come immediately...not in my presence at least, might have come the next day for Pallavi...am not too sure. We did hear some rapidly spoken Bangla from Sandipan's mom though, but since I could not make head or tail of it and anyways, since it was not meant for me, I just sat down to another dose of royal pampering and another lavish dinner to fill an already filled stomach.

Sunday's French class took a little longer and though there was quite a lot that was covered and despite the pace being scorching, I enjoyed the session. However, I did not enjoy the following session that we had with Sandipan's friend, Soochna (nice name, isn't it?) at Camac Street. Heavily made up and full of words, my prejudice started working as soon as I saw her. The telephone call from my sister, Priya, having put my mind in the dark mode, I was a silent spectator to the lively and intelligent (my prejudice turns out to be unreasonable, too...at times) discussion between Sandipan, Soochna and Sivaram (yes, all three names starting with 'S' and as for Sivaram, the fellow trainee from IIMC, we met him roaming around the Camac Street, absolutely out of the blue).

We finally managed to make it an early night and Sandipan's mother...was she relieved! After two more meals (another couple and I would be bursting out of my widest pair of jeans), I bid good byes to Sandipan's folks and the excellent stay that I had at his place over the weekend. The odd one out (not having carried my formal office wear, I was still in my casuals) in the company bus, I was relieved at not having to hide beneath the last seat. I must have been looking like a pig, in worn jeans, not really spick and span tee, and with a stubble that had been growing for the last five days. I skipped out of the bus as soon as it reached office and instead of moving in with the rest of the people, made a rush to my PG.

A clean shaven, fresh smelling, nicely dressed me came to office to realize that I had not been put into another project. However, the second phase of my project is going to start now. Along with two others, I shall be given access to the new ERP system that the UK office is currently following. With the Indian system already charted out, my job now consists of trying to understand the UK system and prepare reports relating to the gap analysis between the two systems and regarding the things that the Indian system might put in its wish list for the adoption of the UK system to be profitable.

Another realization since the morning has been that after Friday's bout of not-strictly-related-to-project activities of the trainees observed by some senior people in the company, the mid term review has been called for. We are all scheduled to present a status report of all that we have done so far and a plan of action for all that we are going to do over the coming month...and all this action happens live...right here in Kolkata...at the 16th of May, which incidentally is exactly a week away...one whole week?? We will be able to make a dozen status reports in this much time :-)

My squirrel is fairer than yours

It's that time of the year again as the squirrel gets its share of heat and the war beckons all and sundry warriors whose swords and shields had come close to be declared out of service. Yes, the time is ripe once again for the famous Squirrel wars of IIMK (comes as a sequel to OCS wars, the multistarrer superhit caper that had audiences gasping for breath and rooting for more). The best part about these wars is that they are started by the most unexpected of people on the most trivial of issues (or even if the issues are not trivial...have to say this or I run the danger of being hanged till the next squirrel war...the treatment of the issues definitely is :-)). This time around, it is all about the access...access to what, you may ask...well, of all the things on this universe, the war is about access to the information about the incoming batch at IIMK.

Points are being raised about inadequacy of information preventing people from approaching prospective juniors to make them more aware about the institute and attract the best of the lot towards IIMK. Personally, I feel that it is more to do with getting the email id, yahoo id or phone number of whatever few girls there are in the coming batch. More than anything else (this is not an all pervasive statement...excludes the really serious will-do-anything-for-the-insti sorts), people are more interested in how soon they can make a pass at the fairer one-twentieth of the batch (or is it even less this time?). With the Student Council members wisely restricting the yahoo group (made exclusively for the doubt clearing for juniors) membership, nearly a dozen feathers were ruffled yesterday and I am sure that the mail box is going to be witness to a few more ruffled feathers before long...the SCon reply is yet to come, too...it is going to be fun and for a change, I shall have something to look forward to in the day. :-)

On a more serious note, I believe that IIMK has a lot many things going for it and we do not really need to bother too much about always keeping the sunny side up. Of course, we are the brand ambassadors of the institute as of now, and if the incoming batch (whether the particular person joins IIMK or not) has any doubt about the institute, it is our duty to clear the same...to go out of our way to attract people is perhaps, in my humble opinion, not something that any of us are going to need to do in the conventional sense but when it comes to war, there is nothing that is unfair...or conventional.

With even well-established institutes like IIMC and IIMB doing it, we, being backed up by some really good things to market (our small batch size, our campus and infrastructure, to name a few), can always take the aggressive route and market ourselves well because obviously, it is the students and future alumni who are going to shape the destiny of any educational institute. It goes without saying, of course, that aggressive marketing does not mean telling lies about your product (and in effect, being insensitive to the career plans of people, as in this case) because in the long run, it is the product attributes that are going to sell and not the catchy slogans. All that is needed is to prevent misinformation, ensure information and the rest should follow.

Talking about the students of IIMK, I and Sandipan went to IMS yesterday to play our role in the crusade and talked to the center manager there. It seems that we will be able to get a list of people with K calls and who are likely to have calls from no other higher IIMs...contacting them and arranging an informal meet with them should help. We also had a meeting arranged yesterday with a few seniors (three of them, in fact...Gautam, Pralay and Rupam) and one person of the incoming batch. I can't really call him a junior and once you get to know his profile, you will know why not. An MBBS of the batch of 1996, two years spent doing something in radiology...joined Civil Services in 1998...placed in BSNL right now with a work experience of six years to boot. And so it was that Mrs. and Dr. Jaidev Rajpal were with us as we made our entry to the pub, Someplace Else, at Park Street. This place has a nice lounge bar kind of ambience and is ideal for a little, though expensive, chit-chat. The happy hour allowed us (or should I say, the three seniors) to get away without a serious dent in their wallets...or at least, not too serious :-)

With my long-suppressed desire of having a pizza (it had been ages since I last had a pizza, what with Calicut being such a modern city and all that) coming up at just the right moment (with the seniors subtly hinting that we should foot the dinner bill and we knowing that it will never happen), we went to the now-famous 22, Camac Street. The place being deserted at the time, I did not really carry back the first-timer's fascination with the environs that I had heard about from many first-timers to the place, but the oldest Pizza Hut in Kolkata did not disappoint. A huge place with some colorful decor and more colorful people (by the way, people at Someplace Else were colorful, too and despite Mrs Jaidev bringing some decency to the rogues' group that we were, most of the guys in the group still feasted their eyes on the absolutely obscene and over-the-top skin show), Pizza Hut was good and the pizzas even better.

With a full stomach and a good dinner conversation, I was in for another late entry into the PG. This time, I made the journey from Camac Street to Park Circus in a cab (charged me a bit more than it should have, I guess) and from there to Salt Lake in a shared shuttle van. I must say that Kolkata streets and the vehicles that ply on them are unique...different from any other place in the country. In no other city would you find tram lines intersecting the roads (even the most posh and famous of them) right across and giving a roller-coaster ride to the people sitting in the taxis, cars, scooters and three wheelers. Talking of three wheelers, I feel that it is a sacred and unwritten code for the three wheelers in the city to have as non-existent brakes as possible. I mean, I have had my share of loose brakes in my own motorbike a number of times, but the three wheelers of Kolkata beat me hands down on any given day...scares me stiff especially when they come near a signal at top speed and have to swerve in all possible (and impossible) directions to avoid a major accident and loss of limb (my limb, that is...since I mostly get the front seat...the privileged one, right besides the driver).

Once inside the PG, there was the serious choice that I had to make between a movie and sleep and I am glad that I made the right choice, what with the busy schedule that I have been having at work for the past few days. "When Harry met Sally", the "inspiration" of Hum Tum, and one of the defining romantic movies of Hollywood, was worth the one and a half hours that I spent on it last night. With Meg Ryan looking a million bucks and Billy Crystal making the picture complete with his often-dazed and expressionless expressions, the movie was good. I specially liked the parts where couples kept talking about their experiences between scenes and then the movie subsequently showing Harry's and Sally's lives as being so different from those experiences. 12 years and 2 months...don't know if I will be able to wait that long for anybody or for that matter, if any body will wait that long (or wait at all) for me...but then again, a good story...touches the heart strings some what.

No work seems to be coming my way this week and with the salary processing date coming close, my guide (and the entire HR department) is still busy...I wonder if I will get to leave for Patna tomorrow. If I do, it is good bye to the blog for three days...should be making an update on Monday with the Patna experiences and in all probability, a review of Kaal (the movie releases this Friday and my cousin is hell bent on making one of the first few shows...on my sponsorship, of course :-( )

On the wrong tracks

Rarely do I come to overtly criticizing a movie and considering the efforts that go into making a movie and more importantly, into making a movie palatable for the viewers of a country as diverse as ours, I justify myself and my afore-mentioned actions. However, Mumbai Express derailed me like no other movie had for quite some time. As far as I can remember, the last comparable movie which I had to struggle to complete was some caper with Preity Zinta and Venkatesh, some absolutely forgettable movie which, I am sure, does not even figure in Zinta's filmography.

I was just thinking about Kamal Haasan's language problems the other day but did not realize that even after solving those to a certain extent, he will still be plagued by problems...the ones of obesity and absolute lack of interest in the proceedings being just a few of them. The puffy face does little to help the apathy with which Kamal goes about playing Mumbai Express (that's what he is called in the movie, for those who have not even bothered to see the trailors on television) and the absolutely insincere attempts at comedy that are spread across the movie. I don't know if Kamal tried to re-create the Pushkar magic by going deaf in the movie but unfortunately, the viewers were not deaf and dumb enough to like the movie, which has been reflected in the movie's fate at the box office.

Quite a lot about the movie...on to more important things now...like work, or the absolute lack of it. It has been two whole days since I did anything substantial (in fact, four if you count the weekend) and I am getting kind of concerned about the project. There are only two other trainees who are doing anything worth the salt at all. Anirban from IIML, after a false start with some highly technical XBRL project, has moved into hardcore finance, something he is finding difficult but interesting. Sivaram from IIMC has started going to the client site with PwC consultants (am not sure what he does there). For the rest, it is the same story as mine and though they try to busy themselves but for most of the day, they do end up trying to find ways and means of taking yet another break.

Anurag came back to PG after two days and contrary to our expectations (or darkest fears, if you like to call them), he did not end up in becoming a model, what with the fashion show that he was busy choreographing at his college, IIIT. With the electricity doing another vanishing act (second time in two days and I thought Salt Lake was a posh locality), the entire PG gang was up on the terrace and of course, Anurag, Asif, Anand, Abhinav (funny how I know so many people whose names start with A), Rajiv, and myself were up there too. Apart from the cool breeze that gave respite from the Kolkata heat, the only other point of grace was a small game (not too small...lasted for about an hour) of I-can-laugh-more-hysterically-than-you-and-can-be-more-scary-in-the-darkness with people on the terrace of the neighboring house (two of the voices...in fact, the loudest ones, were of the foreigner couple residing in that building). It was good fun for as long as it lasted and before we were forced back into our rooms by the power coming back, for the torture that Mumbai Express was about to inflict on our poor rails...oops, souls.

I simply must get some action today at work or else, I will be too rusty for any work this week. I am planning to go to Patna for the weekend to see my cousin, Shanu on his birthday and I just hope that all the pending work does not come knocking at the wrong moment.

Language lessons in the jhups

With the HSBC form-filling occupying most of the day and attention of my project guide, I was left with not much to do on an even otherwise lazy and extremely sweaty Monday. In fact, the Kolkata weather has been showing signs of going beyond any hope of redemption and if this is going to continue or worsen any further, all my wet bed covers and night clothes are surely going to take their toll on me and my early morning blues.

Also, the number of breaks that the gang of summer trainees take have been increasing in proportion to the heat. With Aditya back (he had to miss a few days due to some back pain problems) in action, we had another mind to think of ways and means to escape from the often dreary schedule of many. We had come up with the soup break on Friday apart from our regular Singhara break at the neighboring jhups (as Sandipan likes to call them). Monday saw the birth of the tea and sutta break which happens just outside the back gates of the office at a very shady looking tea stall that has more used tea leaves and empty egg shells than perhaps space for the stall owner to sit.

With Anurag missing from the PG for the second day in a row, I could not get to the CD shop for my quota of the day but I did make full use of my movie time by digging into the reserves and taking out the copy of Saagar that I had so painstakingly ripped from a DVD. I must say that I had thought so little of lingual differences in the past that this movie sort of re-opened my eyes. An allegedly (???) fine actor like Kamal Haasan was reduced to a caricature in this movie just because he was not able to pronounce his dialogues with as much ease as perhaps a decent, yet limited by his talent, Rishi Kapoor could. The sentimental scenes that might have impressed me when I was naiver actually made me laugh this time because I could relate to the difficulties that Kamal was having in expressing the emotions in a way that he was not used to doing. In my little time at Chennai and now at Calicut, I have seen similar things happening to myself and my friends and I can guess how comical we appear while trying to test our new found linguistic skills.

The guitar practice did start but the first day disappointed. I could not get the hang of what the instructor wanted me to do. I guess these are just initial exercises and the first few days are going to be a bit tough, anyways...got to persevere.

As another morning beckons, I realize that it is going to be a Tuesday with an empty stomach, a razor sharp morning and afternoon and a diametrically opposite and inefficient evening and night. Ideally, I would like this day to be relatively a little more productive, what with two things requiring my immediate attention in the project...an interview with the payroll staff and another with the appraisal people to get the details on the only two processes that I have not yet been able to chart out. Work ho!

Of dates, strings, and generous hosts

Life has come a full circle. It seems as if I am back in the Infosys days, looking forward to weekends and finishing off the Friday work as fast as possible. In fact, I used to be surprised at my own capacity to do work on Fridays in those days and that is something that surprised me this Friday, too. I finished off almost the entire presentation that is due for next week and that, too well in time to go back to the PG at 6, with quite a few suggestions on how to make the best of my weekend.

The remaining part of Friday was spent without doing much that can be counted. Most of the time went into trying to find if there was anything worth transferring from Anurag's laptop into my own...I did find some good songs and a few utility software applications but nothing worth the salt...well...till of course, I came across Super Mario...quite a good attempt at re-creating the original, this one made me all nostalgic and made sure that Friday night was real late.

As is evident from the late Friday night, there was hardly anything that could have got me up on Saturday at any time before 11. And so it was that Saturday was spent sleeping but for the date that everyone has been teasing me about.

The fact first: my project guide (who is, by the way, in her mid thirties and mother of a kid who studies in Grade 5) was kind enough to invite me out for lunch so that I do not bore myself stiff as on the last weekend.

The fiction: my good friends here, who have a lot of free time from their summer training at this company (the pack leader being Sandipan), have been making it sound like the date of the century with the story of Murder being re-written and my being lucky and what not...for God's sake, she is as good as my aunt and had asked me out in that sense, too but what the hell...tongues won't stop wagging...no, not even in this case.

Anyways, Saturday lunch it was to be and as I stood at Karunamoyee waiting for her car, Sunita, my project guide (or sub-guide, if you prefer) came along with her mother and uncle in an Esteem and picked me up for what later turned out to be a decent evening. We went to a place called Swabhumi which has been created as an amalgamation of markets in the traditional Indian style. Rajasthani craft, Delhi's Meena Bazaar and a lot of other traditional markets of India were replicated in Swabhumi, the place also carrying within itself, an open air theatre (which, fortunately, was playing some good Hinglish theatre when we went there and I spent quite some time watching the play, rather regardless of the three other people with me but then, theatre does that to me).

We had some light lunch (it was too hot for anything else) and then made a move to Sunita's maternal home, a house, which she told me, was 150 years old. The typical Bengali decor, the typical Bengali atmosphere, and the typical Bengali people and their hospitality greeted me as I got to comparing the house with my own at Buxar (which must be close to 150 as well if ages are considered). However, the two houses are as alike as they are different. With artificial ceilings and damp interiors being common, the houses were different in the way they were lived in, each speaking volumes about the generations that have made the place their home for all these years.

The evening out with Sunita ended with some Luchi (I confused it with Leechi and agreed to it as soon as she asked me...it actually turned out to be pooris) and simple Aloo curry with sweets...a second lunch but then again, by that time, a lot of water had passed under the bridge and I was feeling that I had started sharing a decent rapport with Sunita and her family with jokes, confidences being shared and the atmosphere being pretty informal.

As I moved out of her place to go on to the metro station at Jatin Das Park, came the event of the weekend. I got down at MG Road and called up Arnav to find out the location of the guitar shop that he was supposed to take me to. With him being busy on the weekends and the weekdays being too full to take time out before the shops close their shutters, I decided that it was time that I took the matters in my hands and that is what I did. I took a taxi down to the place near Park Street that Arnav told me about and after two closed shops, I came to this place that deals specifically in guitars and with Arnav on the phone to help me out, I got myself an accoustic Hobner Guitar. I hope to make the best of my stay here and the relatively free time that I have to get an entry into this instrument and the rest, of course, is going to be shaped by further efforts and regular practice.

Sunday was not without its own share of events, either. With Asif making his entry into the PG (on the fourth and the last empty bed in our room), I had some good time talking to him and more than that, listening to him speak about his struggles since his father passed away and how he made it to Wipro after a long list of efforts unrewarded and failures unwarranted. In the meanwhile, Rajesh and Sandipan called me up to fix an evening out. With both of them in two opposite corners of the city, I had to choose between them and I chose to go out with Sandipan as that meant being able to meet the IIMK seniors who might not be available the next time. I just hope that Rajesh understood and did not take it the wrong way.

Finally, when I did go out to Park Street, a second time over the weekend, there were no IIMK seniors (too busy doing nothing, I guess) but instead Sandipan's girl friend and his friend/ex-colleague with his girl friend. As I made my way into Magnolia (a decent eat, by the way...close to Barista's..opposite The Park Hotel), I wondered if I will be the odd one out but as it turned out, the evening was just right...with food and drinks on Sandipan's friend (he said that I was a guest and was not supposed to pay the first time...good chap, that...I liked him from there on...two generous hosts in two days, I must be getting lucky) and conversation flowing too (at times in Bengali but then I have begun to get some hang of it, anyways), I had a decent time.

Today should not be too hectic because generally Mondays at job are spent procrastinating and in all probability, apart from doing the needful, I shall be doing the same...procrastinating, that is. Also, too many days have gone by without movies and if I am to get my quota of two a day, I got to do something fast...real fast. The guitar lessons should also kick off from today and that will need some time, as well. I just hope that my room mates at the PG will find me tolerable for the next few days as I sit tuning my guitar, tormenting them with the amateur string pulling.

*yawn* Tired *yawn*

I could not produce much in the name of work yesterday but had the satisfaction of showing and getting hearty approval on the work that I had done so far. However, waiting for the people to be free, making fine adjustments in the presentation, getting misunderstood on a few points, appreciated on a few others, completely wiped off on some takes a toll. By the end of the day, although I had not done much real work, I was dead tired and when I left for PG, I was not thinking of anything at all...not even movies...I was blank and just wanted to go back and relax.

After Vikhyat's comment on my blog, I realized that it was Reddy's birthday the day before, which I missed...tried calling him but could not get through. In the process, I called up so many of my friends...was not feeling good at all so wanted to loosen myself up by talking to them...called up Nikhil, Amol, Abhijeet, Sweta, and Qaynat...but could not really get the rejuvenation I was looking for. Two of them commented on how jaded I was sounding and the others did not notice but what the hell, jaded I was and I just hope this does not go on today, as well. I have got to complete the work I have been doing and present it to the person coming from PwC US in the first week of May. That should be a challenge and I wish to be all geared up for it.

After a pathetic dinner at the BJ market (some rotten Paneer with equally rotten Rotis...or perhaps it was just me), I decided to fill my quota of movies for the day but that did not happen in full, either. The Godfather Part 3 was on, of course, after the two parts that I had gorged on yesterday but I could not manage another movie after it though it was quite early that the first one ended (about a quarter to midnight, I believe).

Anyways, as in the first two parts, Al Pacino was amazing in this movie, too. As for the rest of the cast, Andy Garcia impressed and I believe that he had studied the first two parts very carefully before enacting his role. He did look so much like the young Michael Corleone (that is, Al Pacino in the earlier versions of the movie). It is really interesting to be watching three movies made at different points in time but still presenting a story that is actually woven in a series, fitting oh-so-perfectly like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

People here do not seem to be really satisfied with the work that they are doing. It seems to most of them that they are not adding any specific value to their work by using any concepts learned during the one year of management study. In fact, they seem to be doing things that they could have done even before studying in a B-School. I don't know if I agree, though because for me, the work has been decent enough and though the HR word keeps coming up in my mind now and then, the project does entail using some MBA concepts, if not many...and who wants so many concepts anyway...

Of chance encounters with Cupid's arrows

With all batteries charged after a long weekend, I believed myself to be good for some solid work on Monday. The only thing that needed to be done was for some one to give me a little motivation. The first half had its share of motivation as I started work on my presentation that has to depict the process flows of all the HR procedures at PwC. After a few slides of some plain jane stuff, I decided to give things a twist (what with the time that I had to complete this thing) and introduced some animation into the presentation. I know that it also makes the presentation more readable but all the same, if I had been under pressure of time, I would certainly have skipped the part.

But skip I did not and as a result, at about quarter past two, I had this first phase of the presentation ready, full of hyperlinks and animation and boxes coming and arrows flying and what not. However, before I could impress my guide with the flashy things, she had to leave for some other work and I was left stranded, working some more to extend the presentation but necessarily, just reading up stuff to get more insight into the project and specifically the part that I am supposed to address.

That done, it was time for me to pack the bags and leave the office at about 6, which, as I am sure most of my colleagues will agree, is a tad early for a summer trainee. Whatever it may be, I was at my PG pretty soon, looking at ways and means to pass my time. Vikhyat, in one of his mails, had suggested that I (why me specifically???) should watch Khamosh and the tone, of course, was sarcastic (to be deduced to say that only I can like such a stupid movie). To cut a long story short, my mates at PG had got the CD of Khamosh and it turned out to be my entetainment masala for the next two hours. I must say that it is no classic but all the same, it is not too bad either. Loosely based on Ten Little Niggers and Psycho, the movie comes nowhere close to either of the originals but it entertains and that is what I was after.

The sumptuous and yet cheap dinner made up for whatever little mood crashing was caused by Khamosh and I was anything but Khamosh after dinner and a good long walk across the residential areas of Salt Lake. There were more hours to be spent before I hit the sack and there was another movie lying around. This one was supposed to be good but just how good it was, I realized only after I got into seeing it, tooth line and stinker.

"A fortunate accident" is how the word Serendipity is defined as and for me, it was a fortunate accident to be seeing this movie (just how it was an accident is a long story...some other time perhaps). Not boasting of any big stars, the movie however touches you like anything. With a chance meeting between a guy and a girl in a New York store (the fortunate accident) on Christmas eve opening the proceedings, it seemed like any other Yule spirit movies.

However, with the sharp focus on destiny and the girl deciding to give the guy a miss on the first night in the belief that if they are destined to meet, they will meet, the movie changed colors pretty fast. The rest of the movie is spent in conveying the truth in the concept of "The Plan of Life", as the protagonists search for each other years after that chance encounter, in the hope of meeting that elusive man/woman destiny has associated with them.

The final few moments of the movie, though smelling faintly of a wonders-will-never-cease Hindi movie, are good in their own way as they go on to re-inforce the belief of die-hard romantics (I used to count myself as one some time back) in the concept of true love and the concept of someone somewhere being made for you.

So it was, after two movies and a good dinner in the break between the two, that I fell off to sleep with thoughts of trying to rationalize the chance encounter funda and of course, instead of the Cupid's arrows, seeing my presentation's arrows flying all across the computer screen :-))

Fishing on the weekend

The first weekend at training is over and I am yet to get a grip over things. At office, work has just started as I realize that the project I have been given is a full-blown HR project with hardly any scope for showing Fin/Mark antics. The consulting part might just come in but that, too sometime later (hope it is not too late, though). Surprisingly however, I am kind of enjoying the work that has been given to me, HR or no HR. As my guide keeps telling me, it is all about common sense and very little about MBA jargon or things that are by way of being rote.

Anyway, I was talking about the first weekend at Cal and an extended weekend at that. With Friday being off due to Bengali New Year's Day, I had three days of nothing to look forward to. Going into the weekend, I was a bit apprehensive, and given Calcutta's heat and the fact that most of my friends here stay pretty far from where I have my digs, I was not really looking at the world with rose-tinted glasses.

As one of the rarest Mondays (one that I thought I will actually look forward to) comes and I am back in office, I don't think that I had too nasty a time. Although the damn heat was damning enough to keep me indoors for most of the day (in fact, going outdoors any time before five was tortuous, so much so that I missed breakfast and lunch three days in a row), I did have some nice time in the evenings. Arnav, Rajesh, Debayan, and others that I had met in the first week of coming here were also not available for the weekend (the long weekend automatically giving birth to some long-distance plans for most of them) but there were new friends to be made, new people to be met.

Most of my time on Friday and Saturday (that is, the time that I spent outdoors) was spent with Anurag, a fellow digger and a student of IIIT here. The guy is good and unassuming enough to be in my good books right from Day 1. He has been a great help, taking time out for me and helping me get familiar with this place in a jiffy. He introduced me to "fishing" at the City Centre, one of the hip malls of Calcutta. There is, according to Anurag, a proper pool (read an area with lots of steps where people sit with Pepsi and wafers) where fishes (read girls) come in and where baiters (read stag guys with nothing better to do) sit for the entire evenings, waiting for their chance to strike a conversation and thus catch "fish". Atrocious, I know...but all the same, fun to watch. I spent nearly three hours there on Friday and almost the same on Saturday, watching the baiters catch the fish and believe me, at times, it can be a spectacle, especially when the fish puts up a fight and the baiter gets entangled in his own line.

After all the fishing, Sunday evening was pretty uneventful as I spent most of it wallking across the length and breadth of Salt Lake. With some half a dozen kilometres behind me, it was a tired me that came back to the PG place. Anurag suggested I watch the movie America's Sweethearts to freshen myself up and that is what I did. A good entertainer, this but more on movies that I have seen recently in some other post...right now, it is time to get to work and so, signing off...

Getting a hold over my self

It has been four days since I joined PwC (as the HR guys requested, I must be careful how I write it, even if it is in the short form...in full, by the way, it is written as PricewaterhouseCoopers with only the P and the C in caps). These four days have been a little confusing, at times raising my hopes and at others, dashing them right down the ground. However, I am rushing myself in excitement of the new things that have been happening in my life without really being what could probably be called systematic.

So, let me try to be just that...a little systematic and try to recount all (or at least some of all) that has happened since I last wrote...will try to be brief about it but don't know how far I will succeed. For firsts, the Coorg trip happened and what an eventful trip it turned out to be. Apart from being a throughly enjoyable one in the first half, it had a night and an ensuing second day that forced me to write a blog entry that could not have got on to Mode C for anything, despite all my earlier pretensions (or that's what people think) of being honest and true to this blog. In fact, the post was so disturbing and end result of it all so personally frustrating that I decided to bring the curtains down on the blog itself. Incidentally, I must say that I realized later that there were actually quite a few people who actually read my blog quite regularly and enjoyed it, too. With suggestions and concerns coming to me dime-a-dozen, I was overwhelmed enough to change my decision of out right deletion of the blog.

Letting the blog remain, I kind of made it live my mood for many days, right till the end of the term. Though I did delete the last post that reeked badly of pessimism, frustration and what-not, I was still not prepared to revive the blog. Whenever I did come across to writing something new, so many things used to come to mind...admonitions by people in authority for writing what I shouldn't have...remarks by colleagues about the blog making too many of the things public, things that I had no right to make public...and of course, my own problems that were fast making life diffcult (especially with the exams approaching).

All this was nothing but an addition to the mental burden that I was carrying with myself to home but as someone intelligent said sometime, nothing like mom's cooking to get your tail up. Believe me or not, my tail is nothing but up right now. With three weeks of Ma's cooking behind me...a well spent Holi with Bhabhi and Bharat Bhaiya enlivening the proceedings at home...Anoushka, my one year old niece making life amazingly sweet and innocent (absolutely nothing can be compared to have a kid smile at you right after she wets herself all over you)...having Bua and Pallavi visit us for my last few days at home (Pallavi is quite excited about joining her new job and why not...a well paying one and a well deserved one after two years at GIM)...there couldn't have been more eventful three weeks to lift a person's mood and so it turned out to be for me, too.

And thus it was in absolutely good spirits that I landed in The City of Joy on the 10th of April at Howrah Junction, backdrop to the famous Howrah bridge and its screamingly mad, speeding traffic. With one foren-maal in front of me and another behind, even the queue for the pre-paid taxi was worth the time and of course, the sweat that Kolkata greeted me with. The next step was the PG place that was arranged for me by Rajesh, my friend at DPS who is now working with Cognizant in Cal. The owners of this place are interesting, especially the worse half (that is, the master of the house) who pasionately believes that he must entertain all those who have to listen to him (for any reason or compulsion, whatsoever) with tales of how PG places in the UK in his time were called digs and people who stayed there diggers (he actually expected me to laugh at this).

This place is quite close to the PwC office (about 3-4 kms away) and even the room and room-mates are cool...went for a roam-the-city trip the very first evening. Calcutta has grown from the last time I was here...there are some places (Forum, Crossword to name a few) that actually make the place good enough to be called a metro. Big Bazaar is amazingly cheap and good to shop. Though I had heard a lot about the sense in shopping at this place and how it has revolutionized the apparel industry, I never knew that things were changing this fast...trousers and jeans for as low as three hundred bucks...tees for a hundred bucks...wonders never ceased for the two hours that shopping and subsequent rain made us stop at the place.

The first day at PwC was interesting and not the least for the people from other institutes that I met at the place. Half a dozen guys from IIMC, a guy from IIML I knew to be a trainee right from the moment that I saw him at the bus stop, one apparently haughty female along with another long lost contact from the days at Infy, Chennai from XLRI, 2 Bongs from IIMA (one of them is also going to ESCP-EAP with us) and of course Sandipan added masala to a pretty uneventful first day as far as work is concerned.

More masala and a lot of nostalgia kicked in as I met Rajesh and Arnav for lunch. All the people at school, how each Dipsite is doing right now, where are the old flames of people sashaying nowadays were topics that kept the three of us busy for nearly two hours. I also met Debayan in the evening and I am really happy that he got through IIMC this time. He was really unlucky to miss out last time but this year, he got what he deserved.

I was briefed about the work on Monday and apparently, it has to deal with the business process mapping of the consulting practices of PwC as well as their internal HR policies and procedures. Although the HR aspect is a little off-putting right now, the project has all the potential to turn into something interesting once the consulting practices part comes in. In fact, while reading the Assurance division policy today (which was given to me after quite a lot of consultations with the HR head due to its secret and confidential nature ;-)), I could make out how much the events at Arthur Andersen have affected the consulting industry and its policies.

So far, the stage at which the project stands right now can, at most, be called initial and the heat has not really caught on yet. As the days progress, however, things are certainly going to be more eventful and hopefully, more interesting.