The Chronicles of a Happy Life

Google took over YouTube. Now, if only Google takes over bloglines, it’ll have a near monopoly on my web browser. Tata Steel took over Corus. Go India go!

I’m spending a lot of time attending company ppts and filling online/written application forms these days. There is no dearth of jobs here.. but everybody wants everything. So everybody fills loads of forms filled with questions like ‘Why do you want to join our company?’. The fact that others even in other IIMs are going through this, does not make up for it.

Had an informal interaction with a prof here. He’s lived a very interesting life. He has a B.Sc and had the opportunity to study Nuclear Physics at MIT. But his father thought that the US economy is going to go down after the Vietnam war and that there was not much scope for nuclear physics anyway, so he asked his son to study commerce. Consequently, the prof became a CA gold medallist, did a PGPDM from IIMA, joined a consult, switched to a client company, advanced to a high post (meanwhile, travelled to and lived in hazaar places across the world), took early retirement, met the IIMA director by chance at an airport and agreed to teach here - all decisions taken in less than two seconds! He says that he even chose his wife that quickly. Interesting approach, but completely opposite to the way I approach things currently.

I watched the first season of ‘Sex and the City’ - I should stop watching such girly series!!

Also, watched Mulholland Drive. Didn’t understand it one bit. Will read up on it later. This just might be my new Matrix :)

Diwali was yesterday. Did all the usual special things like eating sweets, bursting crackers, doing puja, etc. Didn’t feel anything special :( I miss home.
A few days ago, I met up with a friend from IIMB when he came over for the IIMA-IIMB sports meet (IIMA won.. obviously!). Those chaps have it so easy - no marks for CP, all quizzes are announced.. and there’s even a prof who says you don’t need to study too hard!! Yesterday, he scrapped me on orkut saying that he had a test today - a Sunday! and the day right after Diwali!! Schadenfreud? whatever.

A friend taught me some Yoga/Pranayam yesterday. This is the third time, I’ve been taught stuff like this. First, it was some yoga teacher at school. Then, my mom and grandfather ganged up on me inspired by some baba on TV and now this. But this was different. He explained everything in a very scientific, engineering sort-of way. I’m thoroughly convinced for now. I did all the exercises today morning. He says that if I do them continuosuly for 21 days, it will become a habit. 1 down. 20 to go.

Had a BC session yest!! Almost never happens here.. there are some ‘diversions’ to class / group discussions and some arbit conversations at mess tables, but people’s rooms are offlimits. People at IIMA are human after all!

The Group, i.e. Mastram, Constable, MKaty, Chameli, Munni and I had to make a presentation for the Quantitative Methods (of all things!) class tommorrow. Since we had discussed the problem before and I had to catch up on my sleep, I decided to bunk the meet with the polite invitation to the group to wake me up in case I was required. At 2AM, I was jolted out of my sleep - the group had an insurmountable problem and my services were urgently required. I walked down to Constable’s room. When I got there, everybody was deep in discussion about the problem. I made the usual teasing remarks to MKaty and then settled down to read something. In minutes, they had found the solution by themselves. After that, my only contribution was telling them what they already knew and suggesting small changes in the ppt to make it look pseuder (my favorite word for several days now :D). Then, they asked ME to explain the ppt that they had prepared, to them. The music was good and I got a free cup of tea but next time, I’m asking for a fat consulting fee :)

I installed Quake 3 on my PC yesterday night. The first time I played, I just about managed to win in hardcore with Major, Sorlag and Doom in DM17, but after a couple of games, I was back to my old self. I suppose this is one of the things one can’t just forget. I can’t describe the pleasure of fragging Major Hardcore with an air-to-air rocket!

Watched a movie - Lucky Number Slevin. It’s slick and has these delightful little unpredictable twists that are getting so rare these days (this probably has to do with the fact that I’ve watched a lot of movies in iiit).

There’s an interesting video resume of a guy who wants to join an ibank… Dealbreaker did an article on it called ‘How not to apply for an ibank job’ :D