Nostalgia - Simscompany

Well I finished my B-school studies from SIMS - Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune in the year 2003. When I joined SIMS I thought that I will easily scrape through the B-school rigours. I thought an engineer from an REC with a decent academic track record and great analyzing skills, good communication skills and the right attitude of bend-your-back and do the work - what else is required. But alas it was an awakening for me as I realized a B-school is all about the art of liasoning with the concerned people (practically could be an educated whizkid to a 10 grader) and getting the work done from them. Sending the right feelers right across the organisation/team. The ability to understand the subject is not relevant but how to confidently justify it to someone else is more important. The basic ideology being - " Truth is just a perception". The environment has lot of variables to devise a complex equation and to always seeing the broader picture instead of getting into the nitty-gritties as there are horses on hire to get the job done. You need to just confidently state few basics to grab the appreciation of others. The two big regrets of my B-school were I was never good at public speaking and have a good amount of confidence which I could not overcome in this period. And still have never overcome them. Also another aspect I feel lacking in me is to take a stand when it is required. I have kind of lost my risk-taking abilities over a period of time because of the above stated shortcomings of mine. But I have the will to overcome all of these one day, hopefully in the near future. At least regain my confidence and awaken my risk-taking capabilities.

I came across in a nice freind/pal in Mukesh Bhatt who continues to be a very good freind as on date. We formed a group which we ended up calling SIMSCOMPANY. The group initially had Tanesh, Rao, Bhatt and myself. Later on Karan and Bhaskar were included. The core of the group was to get behind each other when needed (95% of the times during fights of which majority were initiated by US) and the second was to effectively take each others trip all the time and thirdly to help each other during placements. We boozed together, chatted in "Fauji Mess" on most of our Brunches and snacks, ate at "Chaitanya" - a PUNJABI mess on FC rd and had most our parties either in each others room or treats at G Da Dhaba on Mumbai-Pune bypass.

There used to be lot of parties in the college and so there used to be lot of fights with out group. The other memorable people in the batch were quite a few - Delphi, Sheru, Bharat, Mayur, Praneet, Anubhav Kohli, Sherry, Louis, Nishant and quite a few others. I also had a huge crush on this girl called Sheila Kaveri, a very nice decent, beautiful girl.

Lonely Times

Of late I have found myself very lonely in life and a deep feeling to runaway from myself. I want to run away from all the problems, all work, all tasks, all colleagues..... But deep within I am also aware that it is no use running away from the problems. When the going gets tough, the tough get going is the philosophy which I have mentally adapted but has been very difficult for me to cope up with this. Basically neither my life - I mean professional and career has not been going as I thought it would.

Professionally I need to hang in for few more weeks and then only expect a change in fortunes, but at the moment it is all in a disarray. Gave 1 or 2 iinterviews but the requirement turned out to be something else compared to my profile. Want to apply in B'lore - based company but no oppurtunities are coming up. Thought I will grow within my organisation but the initial feelers suggest that it is going to be really tough finding a practice to avail my services good or bad work seems secondary now. The company gives a 15% hike and an almost equal amount as a performance bonus. This will be provided by March-end so need to hang in till then. The problem I feel is that I should not do a hara-kiri and get into something undesirable. There could be some oppurtunities in Pune or a Hyderabad but will push there only in mid-Feb.

Personal front I am looking for a life companion. There was a lean patch in the last month or so and am looking forward to it. I have met 2 girls so far but something did not click i mean, there was no bells ringing in my head yeah this is the girl I want to marry. Would like to marry a girl whose expectation levels can be met and the same needs to be true vice-versa too. My expectations of a good wife are that she should be working and should be lively enough to keep my life alive and ticking.

Chinmaya's Marriage & Homecoming

I had a very long break from my work. I had a 11-day break from the same old work routine. Was very eager to go home on the 20th december. I attended a function at Dharwad on the 24th and left for B'lore the same night. It was my good ol'pal Chinmaya's wedding. The most amazing thing is that all the people I knew and thought would never have a love marriage like Bandi, Chinmaya, Ranjeet...., but alas all of them had a love marriage. As the old going says that "all dogs that bark need not bite".

It was a nice feeling as I met couple of good friends from KREC - Surfya, Ajya, Bandi, Gopya, Nagya, Chetya, Bramhya, Sushya and of course Chinmaya. Ashwin from KREC and Purushottam from Belgaum were also there on the occasion. Vinay purposefully did not make it to the marriage for his own good reasons. Met Ajay and Chinmaya after a long long time of 5 years. The rest I had bumped in sometime or the other. I stayed at Veerya's house and had a nice time with him too. The 26th was spent with Veerya and Gopi.

From 27th to 1st January 2006 was at home with my family. My sister's Madhakka and Nitakka were there alongwith their kids. Had a nice time with them. The motto for my whole trip apart from meeting my friends at B'lore was - "Do absolutely nothing". This motto was a great success.

Came back to apli Mumbai on 2nd Jan 2006. The first week was OK and was still in the "Do absolutely nothing" mode. Well have fallen in the groove of work lately.