A long vacation

A vacation of almost three weeks in Kerala is almost invariably associated with the image of backwaters, hills and lakes, house boats languishing in still waters, as if for eternity, snake boats famous on account of the race standing still or breezing past in all their glory, the beaches that are more pristine and yet less commercial than what the most exotic ones can claim to be. My vacation, however, was of a different variety. I spent three weeks at Thodupuzha, a small but busy town situated about 60 kms from Cochin right at the foothills of the Idukki district's ranges. Amongst a few other things, Thodupuzha is known for some Ayurvedic hospitals and treatment clinics that use the herbs grown in Kerala's hills, mix them with the hundreds of kinds of oils they have gained expertise on, and treat the most chronic of ailments with such efficiency as is rarely seen in any other contemporary form of medicine.

Having heard about this form of therapy from a number of people and after my Mama had showed my nerve damage reports to one of the doctors at the Dhanwanthari Vaidyasala at Thodupuzha, I decided to give this a try. Taking the train to Cochin was a nice change from the short and sweet flights that I have got used to recently. The 27 hour journey was a great way to catch up with sleep, conversations with my sister (who accompanied me for a couple of days at the hospital before getting back to Mumbai and work), and of course with a lot of reading that I had been postponing for so long.

The treatment started on the first day itself, the 16th of August with some mild massages and pouring of warm oil on the affected area. The medicines were not really appealing to the taste buds but tolerable. What was not tolerable, however, was the food that I had to compulsorily eat because I was not allowed to go out of the campus of the Vaidyasala for the time of treatment and because there was no outside food that I could consume. The food was not even passable at times, with rice grains as big as peas, rice water served at dinner with salt and nothing else, puttu (a Kerala dish) served without any chutney, you almost choking on it unless passed down the throat with the help of some milk or water.

As days progressed, treatment became more complex and the masseur really gave it a go with some exotic oils, some strong massages, even some paste of cooked rice that felt really sticky and sick when applied over my entire body, and of course some increasingly sour medicines. Finally, when it was time to go, there was already some slight improvement in my condition with toes showing some movement in the affected foot. Of course, the problem is much more complex and slight twiddling of the toes is not going to be the end of my woes but at least it is a beginning. With the doctor so confident that it will take a maximum of 3 months for complete recovery, I am hopeful.

I have been advised as much rest as possible for about 2 weeks after treatment but with so much pending at work, I don't think that mental rest is an option but physically I can try my best to exercise my feet as little as possible.

One more time

It is time to give it another shot, take another chance and this time, do it with some faith and belief in the possibility of it working out after all. I am off to Kerala (to Thodupuzha, a place about 60 kms off Cochin) for the treatment of my peroneal nerve, and I am off for a good 20 days (a source of some envy at office, I am sure). For those who have been coming to this space over the last year, they would be undoubtedly aware of my condition which I keep bringing out in each of my posts in one way or the other (not that I can't help it but somehow, it does come out, what with it enjoying some tremendous top of mind recall).

This treatment is a combination of the immensely popular oil massage therapy of Kerala and herbal and Ayurvedic medicines that have been part of almost all Indian treat-at-home prescriptions. With the pedigree well established, the only question remaining is if it will be good enough for my ailment which has been given up on by all and sundry medical practitioners so far. They all start out with the claim of solving this issue but that is only till the time the fees is paid. As soon as the proverbial signature is made, unwavering belief in the treatment's efficacy changes to an unexplained skepticism on life's uncertainties. From "this will definitely cure you" to "no one can guarantee anything" takes but just one signature and one swipe on the card machine.

All I am hoping this time is that things are not the same as they have been for the last one and a half years that I have been grappling with this problem. Well, grappling is perhaps not the right word because given the enormous amount of sadness in the world caused by enormous amount of problems, my sadness and my problem is not even a small fraction of the scary possibilities that are there. I have been able to stand on my feet, walk if not run, and overall carry myself pretty properly after all. The limp is all that remains and of course, the fear that if things do not improve, they may after all degrade to something much worse.

In fact, the reason why I am so worried about the alarming frequency with which the different forms of treatment are proving ineffective is only this. I am fine with things continuing the way they are, considering them parts of my destiny and learning to live with my condition in the best possible manner. What I think I can not handle, however, is if things get worse and the good fortune that I have been blessed with by The Almighty ceases to exist.

Here's to hope, and to Kerala!

Too much water under the bridge

I can't believe that it has been one whole term since I last wrote on this blog. But believe it or not, this is true and for someone who used this blog as a tool to get things out of his system, I guess there were too many things bottled up this time to get out at all. Come to think of it, there are so many things that this blog needs to be updated with, that it is going to take me one lifetime if I start at it now.

So what I will try to do is to go sequentally with the updates. If I categorise all that has happened into broad episodes, hopefully, I will have time enough to complete the experiences per se, and add in my feelings (without which the posts will be incomplete, of course). Even though the end terms are close by, I guess there will be a lot of time at hand, given that the project submissions are almost done.

Be it the term in France, or the new year celebrations (or whatever it was) at Kovalam, or the experience that was Backwaters 2006, or the sheer joke that Term 6 at IIM Kozhikode was, or the job scene here at IIMK, or the tearing apart of the class of 2006 creating nostalgic feelings in one and more, there has been so much water under the bridge.

Have I been any wiser? Probably. France was one whale of a time and at the same time, one big teacher. Not only did I get to know so many interesting people from so many different parts of the world, but also got to see, analyze and appreciate their lifestyles, their cities and towns and even villages, and of course, their way of doing things which is so different from our own.

And then there have been Anne-Helene, Marion, and Gus, my three French friends (others' as well, but I would like to mention them that way, if you please) on their first trip to India, on student exchange to IIMK. I am not sure if they are having even half as good a time as I had in Paris (given the spicy food that is almost unpalatable for them), but it sure feels great to show them around India, makes me feel ever so proud of my country.

One of these trips was to Alleppey, the backwaters hotspot in Kerala. An out of the world experience aboard a houseboat, with stars shining down and their light getting reflected by the almost still water, it was time to just sit back and relax, and get ready for the gruelling weeks coming by (Backwaters was less than a month away). With the French gang (Sandy, Yash, Raul and the three French friends of mine) and some more batchmates (read Vishak, Kanika, Rohit) for company, the Christmas eve was a memorable one this year.

When Christmas was this much fun, how could New Year's fall behind? And so it turned out that we were on our way to Kovalam for the new year's. The tempo traveler for 13 had the same old gang joined by a few more, and off we were. Kovalam is one pretty place for sure, and the beaches can not be cleaner in any other part of India. Goa has its own charms, of course, but I believe that given proper publicity, Kovalam shall be able to hold its own.

Enough of the PR, anyways! The new year's eve was not particularly pleasant for me for a host of reasons, which are far too numerous to be listed down here. So let it suffice that it was not one of my most celebrated occasions and the music actually got on my nerves by the time it was time to say goodbyes to 2005 and welcome 2006. It was a very relaxed me the next day as we took our traveler back to Kozhikode.

As the vacations finally came to a close after three and a half months of doing nothing but having fun, there was a big challenge up ahead. The challenge that I had faced last year, as well, but in a different form. Last year, it was survival that Backwaters was looking at, this year it was trying to make an impression, set a benchmark for others to follow and scale. More about it in my next post...coming soon!

Of Extremes, Munnar trip, Genesis of Gandh and others...

As she used to say, I am capable of only two extremes...either being the life of the party or being as aloof from it as humanly possible. I never believed her then and in fact, it was one of the things we fought the most about. After the Munnar trip, however, I think that she was actually right. The trip started off really well for me, with songs and dance aplenty, making life difficult for light sleepers like Mustu and all the more exciting for people like me. Having already explored the mountains of Munnar on my bike trip, the only reason I agreed to go along this time was that I wanted to have some fun. With 25 people coming for the trip in a mini bus arranged for the trip by the Women in Charge, the trip was certainly going to be fun.

And fun it was, till I decided to take myself out of the fun. We were all having a great time, singing songs, playing Antakshari and Dumb Charades, cracking some really pathetic jokes, building and popularising liaisons :-)...I don't know exactly what happened but by the time we were done with our late lunch, I had been turned off by something...it may have been some thing some one said, it may have been the food (if it can be called that), it may have been the memories of Kodaikanal and her, it may have been the lack of sleep for the past three days in a row...whatever it was, from there on, it reduced my role in the trip to that of a spectator who watched, smiled, and even laughed but did not speak...a loser, as the people on the adjoining dinner table would have defined the term.

Despite what happened to my role in the proceedings, life continued to rock and roll for all others. The genesis of Gandh group was complete, with a full court sitting on the matter of the three caps (pink, white and blue) and the Bond. With a detailed analysis by the special correspondent and some candid confessions by the witnesses, all came out in the open as the audience cheered and jeered at the revelation of who was after whom, whether the red cap was accessible, if it was, then for whom...or was it the pink (another one) who was sought after by the Bond...many questions and even more answers...

The next  morning was a little better for me and as the day just broke, I was into another of my extremes (yet again), but this once, the extreme seemed to have been forced (by me???) and did not last for long. Before I knew, I was back in the Yes Sir, Yes Ma'am mood and it was thus that we eneterd into Calicut. The last couple of hours were well spent, with some more concept laying for the Gandh group, Reddy actually making an OB-style relationship map of all the liaisons that we were able to establish on the trip (by hook or by crook :-)), and the many photographs that we had as proofs of the real intentions (cruel???) of the femme fatales...

Myself apart, I found a few more people on the trip who were not really having a great time, or so it seemed. For some reason, the initiator and organizer of the trip, Pavithra was in one of her worse moods...though Karfa joined the party at times, he was a little away at times, too...or perhaps, I had been thinking a lot, especially since I was reduced to one of my reflective moods. Even the people whom I do not know well enough (haven't observed them enough) and who may normally belong to the quiet version (Kundan, Rahul, Qaynat...) were suspects when it came to finding like minded souls :-)

On the whole, it was a nice trip (I was in my full of life extreme for a majority of 21 out of the 40 hour trip) that made me realize that there is a lot that is possibly wrong with me, that there is more than a substance of truth when people describe me as idiosyncratic, that there are things about me that make me appear inaccessible and not-worth-it...that I waste a lot of my time thinking and cribbing about things that may or may not have any relation with reality...

Surveying the watery Kerala market

As I get up from my forced afternoon nap post a throbbing headache that threatened to split my head inch to inch, I cannot do much but reflect on all that happened yesterday and resulted in my present condition. I am sure that after going through this spine chilling story of my adventures, Dr. Panda's heart will melt and he will give straight As to me and my team.

Since Dr. Panda's name has been mentioned, it follows that the reason for my going out on a very clear and sunny evening was nothing else but marketing. Having chosen Wills Lifestyle as the subject for our marketing project, I and the team (Ravi, Madhu, Surabhi, Vishak, and Pavithra) were out on the streets to figure out what the customers feel about the brand that we are studying. We had divided ourselves into three small teams of two and had decided to cover different parts of the city. Ravi and Surabhi were supposed to go to the railway station, Vishak and Madhu to Wills Lifestyle outlet and other showrooms in the area, I and Pavithra were going to start from ICICI Bank.

We reached ICICI bank with the dusk approaching in the distance. Pavithra got into the act as soon as she got off the bike and went in the search of a bakra. I had this little matter of getting a draft made for my sister, which was what I set my priority on. All the time I sat on the chair in front of a decent-looking lady waiting for my draft to be serviced, I was looking out for future prospects for the survey. I could see Pavithra, through the glass-paneled window, going great guns with the survey...one after the other, she was catching bakras of all hues, sizes and shapes. It just got me thinking about her experience in banking sector and how at-home she might be finding herself here. I am sure that were it a software industry, I would have happily jumped from cubicle to cubicle, taking survey responses from the SEs, PLs, PMs alike.

As the draft got ready and I came out of the bank, still wondering why Pavithra doesn't make a rush for the nearest bank counter with the survey, I saw her doing exactly that. Yes, she did go inside the bank and instead of targeting the bank's customers, she started jumping (rather gleefully too, I thought) from one counter to another, adding many more bakras and bakris in her kitty.

As for me, I was not unlucky either. The very first person I approached (dressed finely in white shirt and blue denim) gave me a nice greeting smile as I told him that I was from IIMK. Having learnt to view nice smiles from the male population in Calicut with a pinch of salt, I was a little cautious (and less smiling than when I had introduced myself) as I gave him an outline of what I wanted him to do...and lo and behold, the very next thing he asks me is the subject for which I am doing this survey. Thinking that the poor chap won't even know the difference between S, T, and P of STP, I told him that it was for our marketing course. Out of the blue, he asks me if it is for the first term Marketing course or for the second term course. To say that I was shocked, would be an understatement. It was only then that he told me (smiling all the time) that he passed out from IIM Calcutta before he started working for ICICI.

Having a good and well completed survey down my belt, I looked around to find a potential target in some other age bracket (Dr. Panda had asked us for a cross section of people). I found one youngish smart-alec just waiting to get on his bike and making a getaway after having withdrawn some money from the ATM. Spoiling all his plans of making quick getaways, I went to him and started off with my introduction and that of the survey. He looked very enthusiastic about the survey and began really well...but as we reached the second or third question, he said that he does not understand English too well (failed in English, probably at school...very mean on my part, I know but yet :-)). Sooner than I had heard it, my sign language came out with a flourish and all that I had learnt as communication lessons in Chennai for a North Indian came to great use as I took the poor guy through from one question to another.

Next in line were a bunch of loafers sitting near the ATM on their bikes. They looked suspiciously similar to the neighbourhood gangs that I have been a part of, just loafing around any public place, waiting for some grace and beauty to come along and treat thier eyesores. Thinking that I just got what I wanted, one of the most fashion conscious segment of the market, I moved ahead confidently with the air of a person who knows what he wants and more than that, knows that what we wants is not too far away from him.

Excuse me...Hello, I am Nitai from Indian Institute of Management
Hello
I am conducting a small survey on cloth market. Can I have five minutes of your time?
English areilla
I said I am conducting a small...
Malayalam???
Malayalam areilla 
giggle...something in Malayalam...giggle
Survey...hand gestures...IIM...jump twice on my left foot...five minutes...point to my watch
Ok..wokei...five minutessaa...yokei
Phew...I like the latest trends and fashions, would you say that you agree to the statement?
smiling...waiting for the question...looking enquiringly
hmm..fashion...latest...huge questioning look
Yess..latest..fashion...yess
good, when you think of branded apparel, what brands come to your mind?
Apparelaa...appalam???
No no, not appalam, Apparel...clothes..brand..which???

So you get the picture, right? By the time I was through with the gang (which I had thought, resembled my own), Pavithra already had nine questionnaires done and I was still struggling with my fifth. This was when we decided to shift our base and move to the Sony showroom nearby to get the responses from the more upmarket segment. And this was when I found out that the bike keys were nowhere to be found...not in my front left pocket, not in my front left, not the back left, neither the back right...not even in my tee-shirt's pocket...suffice to say that the keys were well and truly lost.

More than the 40K bike, I was worried about the 1K room key that had gone with the ring. Half an hour of searching in and out the bank, one bank staff politely (oh, they are all so poilte, aren't they...grr) asks me if I am looking for something in particular. I wanted to say that I was not looking for anything in particular, and that I had just opened a new detective firm ala Karamchand and was just pacing the floor with my magnifying glass in order to impress the bank staff so that next time they have a bank robbery, the second number they dial after the police would be that of Karamchand jasoos. However, I just managed to say yes before my eyes popped out of their sockets and started staring at the bunch of keys he was dangling in the air. ICICI zindabad and all ICICI staff amar rahein.

Dropping Pavithra off at the Sony showroom, I went on to send the courier to my sister. Calicut is a great place but could have been better if there were more courier shops around...at least, that is what I felt yesterday as I roamed about for nearly half an hour before I found a small place (which I had already missed during my three earlier trips down the road in the past five minutes) that promised to send the stuff (the promise was not that believable, though!). Surabhi called up while I was there to ask when we are meeting for dinner. I told her that we can meet at Mezbaan at 8:30 because by that time, all six of us would have something to show for our efforts...wishful thinking...

Coming back to Sony showroom after driving across yet another of the one way streets of Calicut, I found Pavithra all bored and ready to wring my neck. As she was about to say something, a prolonged sorry from me stopped her for a while and when I made my next move, asking her if the number of surveys had already reached fifteen, the matter was amicably settled. At the mention of the survey, she lost track and went off to talk to another bakra as I spotted an elderly couple walking out of the showroom and going to their car.

They were really a sweet couple and answered all my questions with patience as I stood on the road, surveying a rather improbable set of subjects with the GentleMan dressed in a shirt and mundu and the lady wearing her gajra with a flourish. This was when I knew how true Dr. Panda was when he said that the women were the decision makers in the buying behavior of the Indian middle class. The lady, though keeping quiet for the most of it, pitched in between when she felt that her husband was forgetting something like their visit to the Wills Lifestyle outlet in Dehradun or when she thought that his answer was not complete like when she added that the ambience in the Wills outlet was not that good and it actually was suffocating. She was the one who knew and remembered all the brands that the GentleMan wore and more than her husband, she actually put in the effor to recall and recount all that I had been asking them for.

Next stop was Mezbaan, the restaurant where we found many more subjects for the survey. The other four were already there, waiting for us to order. I thought that this was a very good opportunity to grab some prospects in a situation they couldn't easily wriggle out of. And so it turned out to be as our survey questionnaire found its way on almost all the tables and at times, even overshadowed the menu cards kept there...so much so that the waiters started looking askance at our table whenever one of us stood up with a pen in one hand and some pages in the other. I suggested to the others that we could probably offer them surveys to pacify them and their curiosity but the others rejected the idea outright...oh come on, if I could survey those gang guys, I could have surveyed any one...I was feeling it in my bones last night...and moreover, didn't Dr. Panda mention somewhere about the cross section? :-)

The best thing that came out of this survey was that it re-affirmed my thought that the elderly of this country are really a cultured, sincere and well meaning lot. Apart from the couple I met outside the Sony showroom, there was another elderly couple we surveyed in the restaurant. They were so good that they spent nearly an hour going through each and every question oh-so-meticulously. The Gentle Man was good enough to not just fill up his own questionnaire but also help out the lady with the questions that she was not clear about. They actually waited in the restaurant for about half an hour after having paid their bills, only to complete our questionnaire...that was so sweet, really.

Things were already getting heady and we were all very exhausted. When we couldn't even run up to the latest entrants to the restaurants, we knew that it was time to call it a day and leave. That's what we did and this is where the best part of the day's experience came in. I had been cursing my luck for the whole evening for a varety of reasons but I never knew what was in store for me. It was rain, and rain like nothing I had seen before. It not only seemed to flash all pictures of floods in my mind, but must also have increased the water percentage in my body from a mere 70% to about 170%.

It was not just raining but pouring like crazy. It was as if the rain gods had gone mad and were just venting all thier anguish and fury on us poor earthlings. The visibility was hardly ten centimetres, as we struggled on our bikes to see through the sheet of water that blocked all that was ahead. Already drenched beyond hope, we still had to stop every half a kilometre because it was literally impossible to go ahead all blind folded. We did stop at some very interesting places, though. The road, not very busy normally, was entirely deserted at that time of the night and stopping at weird places brought up weird topics. Ravi, Surabhi, Pavithra and I were having a whale of a time, all drenched...discussing the possibility of Bhoot taking the pains to come and haunt us, despite the rains...discussing how our bikes could be taken away by the flash floods which looked like a very real possibility...how there appeared to be a telephone booth everywhere we stopped and how all these telephone booths had no attendants, prompting us to break the lock and make calls to our hearts' satisfaction...how the girls could not leave us stranded and take a lift from some car, showing a bit of their charms (it is Calicut, remember...we guys stood a better chance)...how Ravi, in his white shirt should entertain us with the typical white sari/shirt rain song of Hindi movies (ala tip tip barsa pani)

Of rains and the subconscious

I heard somewhere that it has been raining all over the country and what with all the flood stories that the news papers invariably carry in addition to the local 'strike' news, the tidings I got from the birdie seem to be true. The point I am trying to make here is that even given the nature of rains in different parts of the country, I am sure that very few places can match up to the glory of this place on the hills, especially when its pouring like this. The misty mornings (days???) give you that happy feeling in the pit of your stomach...as if you have been looking at the tresses of some very beautiful girl...jet black hair, falling as smooth as the way clouds move in the sky...shining as bright as the snow capped mountain peaks...the never ending fall of those black stars accompanied with the music of life...a symphony that thrills and even scares you...that soothes you to sleep and accompanies you to the ultimate realisation...oh, the glory of it all...the wind, the mist, the hills and the water pouring down...will it ever end...I hope not. Let it continue for as long as it wants to, don't make it go away for it is the reason why we are here, it is a celebration of our existence, is it not?

What the rains have done for me is that they have made me think and think deep (you might have guessed that from the post's initial few lines! :-)) I have been thinking about things that I normally keep on the back burner...happy things, sad things, generally things that can be thought about, lying all cozy and warm in your thick bedsheet or sitting on a chair in your balcony watching the rain splash your feet every now and then. It was in this mood that I came across the latest post on Priya's blog where she had written some of her thoughts (is it the thinking season???) on why we are the way we are. I don't have the patience and the time (have to go for dinner to the city) to write all that down again...might as well do that some time later...in the meantime, if any one is really interested (why...why not??? :-)) in my views on the subject, they can read my comment on her blog.

Of bikes and barrels...oh well, just the bikes...

Finally I had one weekend which I can really call well-spent. It's not that there was something extraordinary to do in this site of hermitage, which the believers call IIMK. However, will finds a way, or so I believe. As per the heavy duty schedule that we have been having recently, we had classes on Saturday, as well. We got off early, though and decided to go for an outing, some outing...any outing. There were plans to go for a trek on Sunday to Wayanad, supposed to be a beautiful place, and a trekker's paradise, too. Initially, I thought that I will join the group but when I heard of their plans to start at three in the morning, my instinctive self made me back off instinctively and instantaneously.

With the trek standing cancelled, I had to do something, go out somewhere...and the bike came to the rescue. My poor fatfatiya has been rusting away to glory in the shed of what is called the substation (!!!). Every morning, just before I leave for the classes, I have a look at the machine and let out a sigh...this one instinctive, too. On Saturday, the resolve was firm...the sigh is not enough :-). We started at about six in the evening with the intention of doing some city scaling, getting some stuff (I wanted some posters from the Archies' Gallery to cover up the glass panes of the door and window to the balcony), and then having dinner at some nice (read non-Southie) place.

For people who have not experienced it earlier, riding a bike on Calicut roads...or perhaps I should rephrase it as the roads joining Calicut to IIMK...is actually very soothing and at the same time exciting like hell. At one end, you have the coconut trees flanking you on both the sides, mild breeze blowing against your hair, and even rain drops making their presence felt in the form of drizzles and even bursts. If you thought that this is a relaxed picture of bliss that is emerging, I am extremely sorry for having to break the glass...because on the second end, you have the bus drivers of Calicut, who do not consider themselves any inferior, when compared to the likes of Schumacher...no, not inferior at all, not even for a nanosecond.

Also, just like the F1 cars do not have horns (I am not sure but I think that they don't), Calicut bus drivers make it a point (honorable intention, I must say, of not disturbing the biker's luxurious bliss) not to blow away the horn at the poor biker going at a speed of 50-60 compared to the bus screaming down at over 80 kmph. Rather, the bus drivers assume the blowing away to mean something else...and instead of the horn, if it is something else that is blown away, all the better...at least, the task of blowing away is done...ends justify the means, what??? Somehow, they asume that the person in front...or back for that matter...will have sense enough to get out of the way...if he doesn't, too bad for him...end of story.

So it was, that braving all odds of survival, we reached the city, went to a lot of places, discovered many one-way streets which made us lose our way back, and most importantly found that Calicut (yes, talking about Calicut here, listen, all ye first year IIMK-ites) has many branded apparel retailers. We could see Lee, Scullers, Arrow, Basics and many more...
Archies' Gallery was a major let-down, though...hardly any choice and expectedly, too...few takers for posters in this city, I guess. I had to do with a teenie-weenie poster that declares...Stay Cool...instead of some good life-sized ones I was looking for to fill up the glassy space (black and white Madhubala would have been nice).

We (that is Ravi, Abhijit, and yours truly) had dinner at a place called Mezbaan, which as one of the seniors told us, is usually patronized by the IIM junta. The food was good and especially the 'balti' approach of serving food reminded me of 'Quality Riveira' in Chennai. Another group from the IIM came in while we were there...the gang was a senior gang, also out on the Saturday to have fun, I am sure...

We rushed back to the campus after dinner to be in time for Garfiled, the public screening of which, mask-e-raid, the fun group at IIMK, had promised. It was not to be, however, and we ended up with a not-so-public screening of Shrek2, which could hold my attention for hardly half an hour. Also, since I had so many things lined up for Sunday (so many presentations for the various interest groups, for instance), I decided to call it an early night so that I am wide awake on Sunday morning.

I did get up quite early...at about eight...not because I had decided to start at the work but because Bikes Part 2 was still to be. Abhijit's bike was supposed to come from Delhi by Mangala Express and the train was about to reach here by 9:30. Having heard stories about the bike not getting unloaded here at Calicut and going to a further destination instead, we wanted to be there at the platform when the train arrives. The route to the railway station was pretty straight...at least, that is what I remembered from my only visit to the place (when I landed up in Calicut for the first time). However, it so turned out that we had to cover nearly 25 kilometres to reach a place that was only 15 kms away. In the process, we lost on time and subsequently on the bike, as well, which actually went ahead to Ernakulam from where it is expected back anytime within 1 day to 1 month. What I personally gained from the futile exercise was a headache and a full day subsequent sleeping schedule which left me with no time to do anything else.

I had been feeling pretty unenthusiastic (read, dull and uninspired) since the morning and things got worse with the stupid test that we had to take for Prof. Gopal Chowdhry's Quant class. The test could have been cleared...no, not just cleared...maxed by any 6th standard student and giving so much time to CAT qualifiers for the 'open book' test was really too much. Things improved a little in the Managerial Communication class when we had to do a couple of role plays that, though repetitive of what I had already done at Infy, turned out to be an okay time pass.

The very next target after the communication class was the project briefing we were scheduled to get from Prof Panda. Our group has planned to do a marketing project on ITC, and their Wills Sport unit will be our specific focus. Before going in to Prof. Panda's room, I had no idea of what I was expected to do in this project...after coming out of his room, I still have no idea about the thing...the only diffrence being that now, I am much more educated (yes, this one is a jargon, for all you know). The amount of research that is expected of the team in this project, if properly done, will put any marketing research firm to shame. I do not know how much of it is possible but if done, I think that this is going to be a good learning...much better than the now-stale jokes of Prof Panda.

Marketing the drizzle

Kozhikode is certainly a beautiful place and the campus of IIMK, especially so. I missed my jogging today because of the Tuesday fast but even if I had decided to go for the jogging, I couldn't have. There was a slight drizzle in the morning that made going out not impossible but certainly a little difficult. However, the kind of view the rain, combined with the beautiful hills around this place, gave was simply out of this world.

Classes have started here and are now in full flow. For the other section, the load has been a little more since they had two classes yesterday as well as today. For the A section, which is supposed to be luckier in terms of the teachers, the routine is not so hot on the first two days of the week. The coming three days are going to be a diffrent story, however, with the Quant Prof., Professor Gopal Chouwdhry, having already asked us to study the first chapter before coming to class. The schedule is also a little more tightly packed with four and even five classes on the coming days.

We had the financial accounting class today and the teacher, Professor Broca, was very energetic, to say the least. The first impression that I had of this teacher was that he is carrying with him a sense of fullfilment on being chosen to teach at IIMK. Also, he seems to be a person not used to too many changes. He has a distinct methodology which looks to be quite rigid. I don't know if these observations are correct in their entirety but they would certainly come to the forefront before long.

We had the most interesting of the student committee meets yesterday. Mpower, the marketing interest group at IIMK met last night for a very interesting session. Starting with the weekly updates on the marketing world, the focus shifted to a quiz that was well conducted and well fought by the IIMK students. It almost felt as if it was a beginning of the concretisation of my interest in marketing as a discipline. I have not yet decided on the specialisation that I am going to follow for my MBA but if Mpower was any indication, marketing may well have a role to play in my future.

On the personal and emotional front, things continue to be as far from rosy as possible. I am still not able to break the ice and in fact, have somewhat resigned myself to fate and decided to give things some more time to settle down. My only worry is that if I give too much time, the situation may become unsalvagable.

Am I really a misfit?

I don't know if I am right but it sure feels like I am a misfit here. I do not know if it is a common feeling that has come into many of my other batch mates also, but as far as I am concerned, the 'resort' is fast becoming too much for me. IIMK has turned out to be a place where people seem to be trying hard to prove a point to themselves and to the others as well. They seem to be saying at the top of their voices that they are the best and that is why they are here and as such, they do not need any one else or any thing else for continuing their success story.

Things took a turn for the better, however, as we had our first informal meet with the seniors of our hostel (G) on Friday night. This was something that should have happened much earlier but for some reason or the other, seniors were busy giving us thinking material before they let their hair down. And let the hair down they did, as we all had a great time just sitting around, chatting and feasting on some snacks and cold drinks (I saw a Vodka bottle just before the party but some how, as the number of juniors started increasing, that bottle went out of the window somewhere). All of us juniors had to give their introduction which was intercepted by some funny (and sometimes, droll) bantering by the seniors (even the juniors joined in a little later).

The theme of the party turned out to be something that I have been hearing more and more about ever since I landed at Calicut. This city is supposed to have a gay culture and all male students are repeatedly being advised by the seniors not to venture out on the beaches alone in the nights. This fact (or alleged fact, if you want to call it that) was at the top of the jokes and the humour that was going around the hostel meet.

Saturday evening was spent at the Kappad beach and that was when I had just had some bad news from home. The news is too private, even for this blog and therefore, I will skip that part. The only thing that I can mention is that I was not at all in a good mood when Ravi and Abhijit dragged me half-asleep to the beach. Added to the thoughts that kept going home every now and then, I had to face the camaraderie that already exists between the people who came here earlier on the 2nd of this month for their preparatory course.

I don't have anything against them or their camaraderie but it is really difficult to break the ice if you are not really an extrovert and if you are an outsider in a group that is already in some stage of formation. All this combined in to some thing which always comes up on me whenever I am in this kind of a situation. I made myself unavailable. I know that by being aloof for the whole time, I have already isolated myself from the group of about fifteen people that went to the beach and may even have angered some. The worst thing is that I know that I am not even going to spare the effort to make things right. I know I can do it if I try but somehow, after the experience of the training years at Infosys, that effort is not really forthcoming.

Another thing that happened in the past two days was the Budget analysis on Friday night (just before the hostel party). It was done by a chartered accountant (I am not able to recollect his name) from Chennai who writes regularly for The Hindu and Business Line. I went there, expecting a brief yet exhaustive analysis of the chief features of the budget. I had read up a little about the budget on the net and knew about the basic features but wanted some clarifications on many of them. I was not expecting the speaker to drive home the point in a way that I would really be able to understand clearly but all the same, I expected some idea to dawn on me. I, and I am sure that many others, too, were pleasantly surprised.

The presenter used a unique style to present the budget to the lay person. Speaking at the Indian Institute of Management, he was still very precise in his use of words that could be understood even by the lay person who does not have any knowledge of finance or commerce. The only problem was that he had little knowledge about any thing else other than the part of the budget dealing with Direct Taxes, or at least that is what he claimed. He dealt with the amendments to the Direct Taxes that were made in this budget and the way he did it, full of anecdotes and an excellent sense of humour, was extremely interesting and a refreshing start to the proceedings at IIMK.

The good things at IIMK continued the next day with the first case study for the batch. All groups of 5-6 were to prepare the presentations on a case that appeared in the Harvard Review. The class which was to be an introduction to the case study approach, was conducted by Saji, one of the better known and more admired Professors on campus. I must say that he was really good. The presentation that my group had made, did not deal with the case at all. The way Prof. Saji explained it made us all appear to be fools. I hope that I am able to see problems in this way soon.

Sunday was totally free and although almost half of our batch went to Mahe beach today, I thought it better to stay back. Yesterday's experiences notwithstanding, I was also feeling sleepy and dead tired. The good part is that I was able to continue with my jogging and gym on the third consecutive day and if this becomes a habit, nothing like it for my currently unfit, flabby body.

I went to the city in the evening with Abhijit on my bike. The city is decent enough and the markets, though closed, looked promising. We had some snacks at a place called Al-Bake near the Baby Hospital circle. We even went to the Crown theatre and watched the evening show of "Walking Tall". This movie stars The Rock and there is nothing to write about it except the fact that it seemed to be inspired from Mithunda flicks of today. The movie had nothing but guns and more guns. Rock plays a character who comes back to his hometown to find that it is infested by drug trafficking and gambling. He makes it his duty to cleanse the city and that is what he does...end of story...end of movie.

Last but not the least, if the readers of this blog (are there any???) are wondering about the length of this post or about why I did not post yesterday, the reason is that the computer center at IIMK was down for maintenance and it is only now that the machines are up and running after some two days of maintenance work.

The people who went to Mahe beach are not back yet and I guess that they must be having a good time. I don't know what is happening but what I do know is that if it goes on like this, I for one, am sure going to be an unknown quantity in the batch of 2006 at IIMK.

Inside God's own country

Finally, I am in IIMK. After a short and almost uneventful stay in Chennai, I had to pack my bags for another trip, this one much smaller than the marathon Buxar-Chennai one just a couple of days back. With the bag already spilling over and the suitcase packed as tight as any suitcase could possibly afford to, I had to bring my favorite Globus bag in use and the helmet was another addition.

I was planning to get my bike to Kozhikode sometime next month but the managerial skills of Ravi have already started showing effect (after all, he is attending the remedial classes). He convinced me to get the bike along and that's what I did. After a little shopping at Spencer's, I went ahead to Chennai Central and booked my bike in the train. The cost was not too much, considering that the porters there looted me for some two hundred bucks for supposedly packing and loading the bike. Since Kameshwar had the tickets, I did not have to do anything else but wait for the train. I went back to Bijon's place (incidentally, I also met some of my K classmates there at Bijon's home when I reached Chennai, all Calcutta Bongs, going a day earlier by the same train by which I travelled yesterday) and had a good long bath before going to the station to meet my new friends for the next two years.

All of them were there except one, with their luggage all loaded. Vikram was the first one I met and he was in deed the same as I had thought, a lean guy with a good sense of humour and a somewhat funny Hindi accent (perhaps because he has stayed in Chennai throughout his life even though he is a Rajasthani). Kameshwar was next and he turned out to be diametrically opposite to what I had guessed. Instead of a tall guy with a serious expression on his face, he turned out to be a rather short, chubby and sweet guy with a pleasant disposition, the most likeable of the lot. His mother was sweet, too...she gave chocolates to all of us :-)

I had already met Niranjan in the IIMK fresher alumni meet and as usual, he was a pack of energy, chatting at a speed faster than my comprehension at times. Rahul was again an exact image of my thoughts, a serious enough guy with a smiling face, the typical Infoscion look. The journey was cool and short with all of us chatting for some time, throwing open our horoscopes, as Kameshwar said, and later going to bed for a comfortable (but jittery, for me) sleep.

Kozhikode (in Hindi) or Calicut (in English) turned out to be a pretty small station (definitely bigger, however, than the other stations of Kerala that we encountered on the way) and the Parcel Office was even smaller and more so, slower. It took the porters almost one hour to unload my bike and get it ready for release. I seriously wondered (and not for the first time) about the hardiness of my bike after seeing the kind of stuffing that the lugage van and as a result, my bike had to endure. With some two more bikes proudly occupying the supine position over my bike and some dozens of cartons hiding any signs of my bike from sight, I almost got confused if this was the luggage van that I had got my bike loaded into.

Some seven eight seniors (God bless them) were at the station with a Volvo (or Valvo as they liked to call it) bus. After waiting for the Mangala express coming from Delhi (which gave me ample time to get my bike released), we were ready to go. The institute is some fifteen kilometers from the station and the highlight of the journey were the numerous supermarkets with bakeries. I don't know if it is the norm in Kerala but all the supermarkets in Calicut did have bakeries with them.

Journey from the IIMK main gate to the hostels was fascinating and for me, who has not been much among the hills, specially so. I have enjoyed the oceans and the plains a lot but the hills and trees are almost a first for me. The campus is in deed very good and beautiful and the hostels are even better. With brand new rooms pleasantly reeking (???) of the smell of plastic paint, the next year at IIMK promises to be auspicious.

I met a lot of my batchmates today and with names flowing across like Tabu's hair in the Siberian winds (wow, what an analogy!!!), I am not sure how many I am actually going to remember. I haven't met many seniors yet but I guess, we will have some meetings and not before long. Another thing that I am sure of is that there is going to be a lot of masala for my blog out here, considering so many people in the college (of both years), their differing characters, and my undying hobby of character sketching.