Anjaana...Anjaani...

What a tremendous experience! I truly believe it to be something which is of the once-in-a-lifetime types. In case anyone is wondering over what I am talking about, please refer to the song Anjaana...Anjaani from Yuva. I bet that you would have noticed Kareena Kapoor and Vivek Oberoi wearing life jackets, lying on a motor driven raft that is splashing across the waves of the ocean. We did this and much more.

Ravi had come in quite early for the party and he had to cool his heels in the office reception for quite some time. A delayed and short exit interview later, I was all ready for the long day. Bijon had made all the plans and made bookings for what is called the Catamaran dive (I am not sure if I have the spelling right). There were ten of us and apart from Bijon, who had had this experience earlier, all of us were pretty apprehensive and scared about the safety factor. Numerous attempts of chickening out later, we were all ready in our life jackets, looking as terrified as hens waiting to be slaughtered. The life jackets being worn out and torn at places did not help either.

Since we were the first customers for the day, we had to drag the raft from the shore to the sea. All ten of us, yes...all ten of us sat on the raft and two life-savers with their motor propeller and nothing else, started steering us towards the sea. The journey was exhilarating, to say the least, With water coming on the raft, or rather the raft going inside the water, it hardly seemed that we were on some structure above water...it was as if we were all being carried away by the waves to some unknown destination. That destination proved to be some two kms from the shore where, as one of the life savers smilingly admitted, the dept of water was some 500 meters.

The life jackets and the absolute confidence emitting from the life savers had emboldened us and all ten of us actually jumped into the deep sea, clinging for life to the rope tied to the boat. It was an amazing first few minutes and probably the scariest ones of my life. Panic was clearly written over all our faces, especially when we started to lie down on the water with our backs facing the sky. Soon after, however, we were able to control our bodies and lay in a more comfortable position with the sky above us and the water below...oh my God, absolutely heavenly. We were all scared and shouting at the top of our voices to keep the panic down but that was when we started. Ten minutes on the surface of the deep sea and we were all singing...Anjaana...Anjaani

This amazing experience was followed by two games of cricket, not too keenly contested but fun anyway. The fact that we played on the beach, with the running made difficult due to the sand, made the game all the more interesting. Before we noticed, it was already dark and time for us to take the showers and be prepared for the dinner. Dinner was at a new restaurant called ECR Dhabba...quite decent food and at a reasonable price, too. Bijon, Nitin and Sathish went out for some drinks as it was not available at the restaurant (pretty surprising, given it was a highway restaurant). This actually bugged me for some time, especially when we had to finally cancel the movie because of the delay and the fact that everyone was tired like anything.

I really had the time of my life and was so tired when I came home that I fell asleep before I had the time to change my clothes and locate the bed. Pradeep, our landlord came in the morning to give us the draft for the advance amount. He really is a nice guy, making it a point to come over and give the money himself so that we do not face any problems on our last day in Chennai.

A long weekend

A very eventful weekend this one has turned out to be. Starting with clearing up the flat and ending with a completely tired and worn out dinner at the restaurant down the road, the weekend was anything but dull. I may not be correct in saying that I enjoyed everything that happened over the last two days but I certainly will not be off the mark if I say that I am exhausted this Monday morning after two days of 'engagements'.

I had to get up early on Saturday morning to go to the Cancer research Institute regarding Abhijeet's mother. The doctor there was very helpful and the long wait in the queue proved its worth when I actually got to speak with the doctor. He sounded very practical and did not give out any false hopes. At the same time, he did mention about cases where chemotherapy has actually helped increase the longevity of the patient. I hope it does so in this case.

When I came back from the CRI, I had this very severe headache and I had almost given up on my plans to go for the freshers' party in the evening. In fact, I was down in the dumps with my face buried in the pillow, trying to escape this Sinus-infected unbearable pain when Yogi came in. I guess that he was annoyed to see me this way and when I wouldn't even get up to talk to him, he must have got pissed off. I couldn't have done anything else at that point of time as I could hardly hear his words, the pain was so acute. During my long pain-induced siesta, the TV got sold off finally and Puneet had to do some packing and moving along with the guy who had come for the TV all the way from some remote location in Chennai.

Luckily for me, the pain vanished in the afternoon and we were able to have a good lunch before getting the LPG connection cancelled and returning the Set Top Box to the cable operator. By the time we reached home, the movers and packers (I think that it is the other way round, that is, packers and movers, isn't it?) people were already there. Another half an hour of frenzied packing saw them off with a payment of Rs.3500 (huge amount for moving three cartons to Bhilai) and a promise of safe transit of goods (hopefully, they will keep it).

It was time already for the freshers' meet, which I was looking forward to for a long time. As per the ambiguous (or manager-like, as Prithesh said) dress code, I decided to make it simple with my typical white shirt and blue jeans combination. I reached the place about fifteen minutes late and as I was parking my bike, I saw this lady turn up with her scooty. As is my habit, I gave her a look down and thought that she seemed quite nice looking with an elegant dress (another of the casual, bordering on formal stuff). I even thought for a moment that she might be one of the people in today's party but then I gave one 'naaah' to my self and went up the floors to reach Saagari, the place for the meet.

Since I have already been to this hotel quite a number of times for project parties, I knew the way around and the kind of food, drinks, etc to expect. The thing that I was not prepared for, however, was the warm welcome that I received. The seniors were all there, waiting (as it turned out later, desperately) for the freshers to arrive. I was asked to put up a sticker announcing my name and batch so that the others could identify me by name. I had hardly settled down and started talking to some of the alumni gathered there when I saw the same lady I had met in the parking lot coming in. Pavithra, as I found her name to be, will be joining IIMK in our batch (I can listen to a few catcalls already :-)). She has had a work experience of 7 years (three in HDFC where she is working right now and 4 years prior to that in ANZ Grindlays) and as one of the alumni also pointed out, I really admired her perseverance when she told us all in the intro that it was her 5th attempt at CAT that has got her to IIMK.

The gathering was pretty small (some eighteen people in total) and though the ice did not really break in the entire session (the alumni and some seniors had a lot to catch up with, themselves), it was nevertheless quite informative and warm. The formal introductions were just that, formal. Despite few valiant attempts by Ravi from the alumni and Karan from the senior batch to lighten the mood, the drinks didn't really get spilled over on to the floor (as in a manner of speaking). As I mentioned to Pavithra, I was hoping for some sort of a ragging session when it came to the freshers' introduction but unfortunately, even that did not happen and it was all pretty decent and peaceful despite some different questions (again from Ravi from the alumni and Karan from the senior batch).

The session was immediately followed by the food and some general talk with the alumni about their experiences and some Gyaan by the seniors on academic rigor at IIMK. The party broke with Archana (from the senior batch) singing two songs before she left. The songs were exceedingly good, judging from the reaction of the crowd. Even though I could not understand the language, the melody did appeal to me, too. Soon after, Pavithra and Niranjan, the only others from my batch, had to leave. The alumni made a move, too and by 11:30, I was left with nine seniors, few of them drunk, few trying to get drunk and all of them enjoying the party.

Sunday was spent lazing around before I got a call from Raghunath Sir at TIME coaching to come for their seminar. Had it been some office staff who had called, I would have surely refused. Since it was Raghunath Sir, Puneet and I had to go to T Nagar and I even had to go up to stage to answer a few questions specifically addressed to the work-ex people. The front row people were those who were selected by some IIM or the other and they all had really taken CAT seriously. In fact, sitting in the middle rows, trying to avoid the eyes of Raghunath Sir (so that he would not call us up on stage), I was discussing this with Puneet and we concurred on the fact that we were one lazy bunch of guys who should have done much more (???) than what we did for CAT preparations. I met Lax of the 2003 IIMK batch there and he really sounded sorry for having missed the party at Chola. Abhay was also present and we went to Cafe Coffee Day for some time out before I dragged Puneet to T Nagar to get an Idli Cooker for my Mausi.

T Nagar's market is as popular as it is crowded. As usual, by the time we returned from that place, I was totally exhausted and had completely frayed my nerves, driving through the teeming (!!!) multitudes. My bike sounded tired and worn out, too when I tried giving it some accelerator treatment after coming out of the human swamp of T Nagar.

A drenched evening

Yet another day when I trusted Yogi for a good time out (Hey Yogi, I never said whether my trust did or did not pay off). I had just started with The Tristan Betrayal by Robert Ludlum (looks good, so far) when Yogi came in after watching the movie Peter Pan. He might have been in the same fairy tale mode when he suggested going to the beach and dinner at some restaurant on the beach side. True to reputation, we agreed (me and my poor room-mate who gets dragged along with me on all these trips)

We decided to make a stop for some chaat and sweets at a famous sweet shop enroute. In the middle of our snacks, it started to pour and believe me, the heavens were crying like anything yesterday (perhaps because I trusted Yogi, yet again...even after the Charas experience :-)) It hardly seemed prudent to go the beach in this weather but it was equally difficult to turn back. We decided to brave the rain and when it was less than a downpour (yet more than a drizzle), we started our journey. A distance of 5 kms did turn out into a journey, what with the rains from above, and the waterlogged streets below. Sandals submerged, jeans rolled up, we kept walking...not forgetting to drain off the water from out hair in pukka filmy style, whenever we saw a girl coming across (rare occurrence, that, considering the weather).

It took us some 2 hours to cover this great distance from my house to the beach and by the time we reached the place, the sand was all wet, of course and we had no option but to turn in to the restaurant for the dinner. Whatever be the prologue, true to habit, we did not compromise on the food...had a nice meal and then all the way back. The rain-gods were still mocking us, (the three muskeeteers, eh???) as we made way through the pools of water, me and my room mate cursing Yogi all the way for a drenched evening (even though it was not the poor guy's fault, at all).

The best part of the evening turned out to be not the rain, not the food...and certainly not the pools of water that spoilt our sandals. Actually, the best deal was the jokes that Yogi tried to crack to pass the time, as we waited for the rain to stop in the sweet shop. The jokes were okay, perhaps by a beginner's standard, but owing to the difficulty that any joke faces to make me and Puneet (my room-mate) laugh, Yogi was devastated. Jokes after jokes he churned out, and we remained impassive, asking him to raise his hand when the joke was over. Believe me Yogi, your jokes were funny, but perhaps, just not funny enough...

One long day

Another day passes with neither news nor immediate hope of the IIMK results. It is strange, the way this thing has started getting a hold over me. Even after busying myself the whole of the weekend in finally completing the book, Lord of The Rings, I could not help thinking about what will happen.

And the dreams turned traitor, too. Instead of counting sheep as the normally normal people (that is, those who are not abnormally abnormal), I was counting the number of times I keyed in my test registration number on K's results site (There too, I lost the count, finally). I entered a wrong number every time but every time, I saw the Congratulations message being displayed. But Oh my treachorous dream! For the very last time, as soon as I entered my correct credentials, I saw what I was dreading and yet half expecting: Sorry! You have not been selected for PGP 2004-2006 at IIMK. This is not a judgement on your abilities and blah....

Yes, I know that it is not a judgement on my abilities and all that but wouldn't it have been all the better if I had been selected. But nothing to worry, Sonny Boy (as Bertie would have said in one of those PGW novels) because as my Mom keeps pointing out, it is the morning dream that's important. No matter how many times all other dreams make you count sheep (or keying-ins, as in my case), they are all helpless before the One. I was happily wandering in my BHU hostel when I woke up and taking this as sign of days to come, (no, I am not just ready to go back to BHU yet, but you know what I mean, don't you?) I guess that I might be in a good shape after all.

Today was going to be a long day, by all counts. As if thinking and dreading of the results was not enough, my OnSite Coordinator wants support tonight for the User Testing setup. Another matter it entirely is, that I was allowed to come to office late to compensate for staying late. And yet another matter it utterly and completely is, that I still chose to come to office early to beat the Chennai heat, and yet another matter it absolutely and convincingly is, that it rained the whole day today in Chennai (yes, you got that right, in Chennai). Just to add, I got drenched while coming to office, in fact, right at the office gates, so to say.

But the one good thing that happened today is this blog. I don't know how long I am going to keep at it. I don't know if it is just a fad that came to me after reading so many of K people's blogs. But still, here goes my two pence worth...