A Day Worth Remembering for the Lifetime !!!

Post the end semester exams, the whole batch started preparing for the most important battle of probably their lifetime, they all started preparing to find the perfect answer to the reason which made them quit their well paying jobs, posh life and probably the warmth of the embrace of their better halves’ . The placement season was about to start. With lots of PPOs pouring in, the scene looked shiny.
During the exams itself we got the good news that one of the best FMCGs in the world is interested in visiting our campus. We all risked the most important exam hours (the period we mug almost everything to puke during the paper) to fill the form for the company. That was not just it. The form was followed by a super long psychometric test. To be very frank I was very skeptic. I was a guy with three years of IT work experience and by those standards I never thought that my profile would be fit for an FMCG who hire freshers. But then I never had an option to not fill the form. I would have been a fool had I not filled it.
On 2nd December, 2 in the afternoon, shortlist was announced and guess what, my name was there. That was pleasant surprise. Though the names of two deserving and near ones were missing from that list. In a hurry, bags were packed and went to Kolkata on the same evening. Stayed at Vineet’s place. Meeting him after a long time was a great pleasure. We relived the moments of his sector 3 flat where he, ashok, bhange,swappy and I did all the crazy and stupid things together. The worst part of that night is worth mentioning. At 3 in the night a cock started his duty, pretty early by Kolkata standards and kept on doing that till the time I left the house. No complaints though, he woke me us pretty early.
Reached the Swissotel, the interview center on time. Met everyone else there. After a quick written analytical test we were called in for Interviews. That was one long wait and one hell of a 50 minute interview. The interviewer was an associate director and is responsible for one third of companies business in India. The whole interview process was pretty much a discussion about my life. Got shortlisted in first round. If the wait for the 1st round was long then the same for the 2nd round was even longer. I was the 2nd last candidate to be interviewed.
It was 6:30 in the evening when finally the HR came to the hall where all of us were waiting and announced the results. My name was called at 3rd position. I was ecstatic. Happiness knew no bound. But the moment I called up my mom and informed the news, tears were the only things flowing. I thought I should stop myself but could not do so. Probably one of the most emotional moments of my life. Informed about the same to dad, bro and friends…
That was followed by a long journey back to the campus. Mixed feeling during the journey because few of us were not selected too. The best part was that my best pal at the campus got placed the same day (and then later the pal got hell number of offers). She was the first one on the campus whom I met. I could sense that how happy she was on the selection (even when that was her dream company), that was best hug that she has ever given me..
3rd December 2010 is surely one of the most important days of my life. Those memories are going to stay for long, very long !!!!
PS: Got placed at P&G as Associate Manager, Product Supply

The Defining Semester

If highly enriching Chennai stay, I was back to the place where I belonged and would belong for 4 more months. I would define the third semester as a defining semester. Defining in almost all aspects of life, defining in terms of friends and friendship, defining in terms of career path and even defining in terms of my behavior and attitude in future.
The first happening moment was out visit to Vizag. Extended group of 19 made this plan to go on a trip to Vizag. Thanks to bunny for leading. This trip was fun filled, no doubt about that. It had everything to offer: valley, hills, waterfalls, amazing resort to stay, beach but the most important part was trip’s effect on relationships. Relationships, read friendships, changed their course. If few became stronger then few turned weaker too, and the ones those turned weaker became so weak that I believe now we are just faking it.
Regular events like Mid-Sem, DP holidays etc happened but this sem saw one more defining moment. I care for people in general and for the special ones, I tend to go several extra miles to keep them happy. But like a common man, I expect similar response. Or if not similar, atleast I expect that they don’t hurt me. I started jogging (lasted for some 7 to 10 days) in October. Most of the times I was alone running at gyan ghosh. On that day, I got a company. Infact I requested for the company. I never realized that I would regret the company for the most part of the jogging that day. I have no idea where it was all coming from but the company had so many harsh things to say about me that It lead to a near Go-To-Hell state. I am an emotional personal and each and every statement of the company hurt me, hurt me till core of my heart. I even thought that, “how can you act so normal with me if you have so much of negativity about me in your mind”. But then things sorted out during the same jog. No one apologized but we understood that this is how things are like whether you like it or not. For me it was that moment that I learnt that I have to be strong. I have to be that person who can say, “ Look I damn care”. I still care for the company but surely won’t be able to take that much of shit. I take shit at times, but then I and leaning fast.
Third defining moment was again related to friendship. I realized one thing that you will never be remembered for what all right you have done in past but you will always b remembered for the one mistake ( still not a mistake in your view) that you have done. Things certainly changed for me not signing. It was a matter of choice for me. By signing, I would have supported a friends view blindly and by not signing I supported my view as well as boosted the support that I was extending to another very close friend. I chose the latter.
And the last one…probably the most important event of my life ( if I do not give that much of an importance to marriage), I got placed. My MBA dream initiated in 2007 with a hope to become a banker someday. Infact the primary reason to leave hrd and join som was to make sure that I study Finance and join a bank. Towards later half of 3rd sem I realized that Consulting is the best suited field. But eventually, it turned out that fate had some other story to write. I became an operations guy.
Too much of writing for that day….

The South Masala Dosai

Finally the stay at Chennai comes to an end. It’s been just 2 months but appeared pretty long. Landed up here on 5th May. As expected it was hot but not much. New city, new type of people and people who were talking in a language that I could not understand a bit of. In such situation you start believing that everyone is there to cheat you, to make a fool out of you. You become extra cautious. So did I. First 7 days in the city were pretty difficult for primary reasons that I was the only one from my college in the city for some 7 days, almost everyone at the workplace was either very senior or very serious, so I could not connect to them well initially. Plus no one, NOONE talked in Hindi. Airtel took some 4 days to complete the activation-deactivation cycle.
But eventually this went well after the first week. Rohit Singh joined me at IIT Madras campus and office. Nitish also came to Chennai. I got a good friend in Pratibha from AIM Manila at office. And the best part, I started handing out with my old scmhrd friends. Nikita, Sameer and Purav. Though I meet Purav and Sameer in Chennai only but we hit the chord well.
I spent most of the weekends at Bangalore. Infact I booked tickets in advance for all the weekends to Bangalore and back. Several trips happened during my stay there.
Few things I learnt during my stay at Chennai
1. There is always your family to support you, all the time
2. There are few special people (friends) in your life, whom you miss all the time
3. Be it any place, you can always best the heat.
4. You talk well to people, they will always help you.
5. Give everyone a second chance, preconceived notions are not always correct
6. I was still excel at work and I haven’t lost the touch

What we never got to hear !

JANUARY 30th, 1949 - The Mahatma was assassinated by a man called Naturam Godse.
After he shot him, instead of running away, he stood his ground and surrounded. He said, "No one should think that Gandhi was killed by a madman"

One of the best speeches of All time, which is compared to Socrates's speech in his trial.
The Judge was astonished by his speech and commented that if India had followed the Jury system of giving judgments, Godse would have been adjudicated as "Not Guilty" by the Jury, cause after the speech, the whole audience was in tears.

This is the speech given by Nathuram Godse in the court in his last trial for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi

Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other.



I have read the speeches and writings of Dadabhai Nairoji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France, America and' Russia. Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.



All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and programme, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.



Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji's influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence, which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day. In fact, honour, duty and love of one's own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita. [In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.



In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history's towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical, as it may appear, a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen forever for the freedom they brought to them.



The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way. Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma's infallibility. 'A Satyagrahi can never fail' was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is.



Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible. Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with, as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster.



Gandhi's pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and crossbreed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma's sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India. His blind followers, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.



From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League members right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi's infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork.



The Congress, which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism, secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947. Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls 'freedom' and 'peaceful transfer of power'. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called 'freedom won by them with sacrifice' - whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country - which we consider a deity of worship - my mind was filled with direful anger.



One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.



Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the Father of Pakistan. His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence of which so much is made of, all crumbled before Jinnah's iron will and proved to be powerless.



Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building. After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House.



I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots.



I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy, which was unfairly favourable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi. I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preachings and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi's persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims.



I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism levelled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.


-NATHURAM GODSE

The Chennai Story Begins !!!

2:15... Arrival waiting seat, Netaji International Airport, Kolkata
So here I am at Netaji International Airport, Kolkata to board the flight to Chennai at 6 in the morning. Its 2:15 am and I am sitting all alone at the airport waiting for some kind of miracle to happen so that the remaining 4 hours pass in a flash. But sure that won’t happen. The journey started this evening with mom and dad coming to the station to drop me so that I could board the Kolkata train. There is something special with mom coming to the station. She generally cries when the train starts crawling. No this is not special. What I have realized she cried only when I am going to some unknown territories. For example she cried when I was going to SCMHRD, she cried when I was going to Trivandrum for ILP etc. So this time too she cried. Dad as always pulled up the strongest face of his. He too got emotional this time which mom informed me later. The Reason for his changed feelings this time was because he knew that Chennai is not an awesome place to live. But fact remains a fact and I have to go.
This was the longest taxi trip from station to airport that I ever had. I guess all the cars, buses and trucks were there on road today as they were aware that I was coming. As a matter of fact I am travelling alone. Travelling alone has got both positives and negatives associated with it. The first negative that I could figure out was that peeing is a pain. You cannot leave your luggage unattended and you have to take it to loo along with you. Getting bore is one of the other negatives. But this can be turned into your advantage if you open yourself up a bit to talk to strangers. I did that. I talked to a lot of random people today. I stared my night by a chat with one of the taxi drivers. The guy was not getting passengers so started the chat. He started his stories as to how firangis don’t pay them what they ask for or how women bargain more than men etc. Once I moved into the airport I, I asked a security personnel as to where the luggage counter was. He informed me that construction is under progress and inconvenience is regretted. This was just the beginning. Since then we chatted for some two hours about airport security, the system in place, the morale of a common security guy, politics and off course women. We were joined by four other security wallahs which made it more of a GD than just a chat. Few supported the women’s 33% bill while few were orthodox enough to not support women wearing miniskirts. But one thing which all them agreed to was that public display of affection is not good and our generation is too much into it.
I am writing this piece just to make sure that I am awake for the next three hours. Once I board the flight, I am in for a long sleep because I am very sure that I am not lucky enough to have a gorgeous talkative open chick sitting beside me and talking her heart out to me.
4:48....Boarding terminal, Netaji International Airport, Kolkata
I was watching a movie but could not resist my anxiety to write this. Today I saw what I always heard of. I saw what I had an idea about but could not picture. There I was sitting at one of the corner chairs subtly staring at one of the cute girls around and suddenly with a flash of light passed four ladies. All clad in wonderful chiffon colourful saarees. But what was striking about all of them was that they were all painted with loads of revelon makeups and all of them were way past their fourties. Yes you guessed it right, they were all Air India hostesses. My god what an experience that was. Frankly speaking, no offences, but I would rather prefer travelling in the sleeper class coach of a slow passenger trainif Air India has to offer this to their passengers. Anyways, just one more point to mention at this point of time. In the whole boarding area there were two pretty girls and none of them are travelling in my flight (smart I am, saw their boarding passes). So happy journey, happy sleeping.

The dad side of story

My existence in this world can be attributed to two individuals, my mom and my dad. Not that you are any different because the same applies to your existence also. But then I specially wanted to emphasize the importance of the dad side of it. In the subsequent text I will try to talk more about it.
To start with, we all are FCBs (Female Chauvinist Bitches) when it comes to talking and admiring about our moms. No discounts there. Even I am one of them who are the biggest fans of their moms but then that should not be the reason to completely ignore the dad side of it. Be it movies, songs, stories, poems or for that matter even news paper articles, moms always get the well deserved mention for giving birth and bringing up the child. But in the process of doing that we tend to forget the importance of dad side of the story. The very reason of writing this text is that I wanted to tell you as to how difficult being a dad is and how his role changes during the life time of a kid.

My dad was always a sweet charming personality but then he was a bit strict too when I was a kid. Being the younger kid, I was very close to my mom and all my demands, misdeeds, requests went to dad through mom. And most of them were fulfilled by dad. But still dad was strict when it came to studies, playing for long hours etc. And the reason behind that was he wanted me to utilize my time in a rather better way so that I could achieve something in life. As I grew up, he modified his role a bit. From being a protector he transformed more into a guide. By the time I was in my teen age he started supporting me in all my decisions. He rarely pushed his wishes on me. Rather he guided me as to what could be the possible implications of my steps. In fact in my case, he is the reason what I am today. He went extra mile to drop me to school, tuitions etc so that I don’t waste my energy in mundane affairs like driving etc. Once I was in engineering, he turned into a friend. Most of the times he used to be ears to all my crap and usually came up with supporting logics. The same continues when I joined the job and then subsequently MBA. He always supported what I wanted to do. A lot of times my decisions were extravagant and vague but then he taught me to believe in myself and do what I wanted to do. I have travelled a lot and he is one primary reason for that. Not just financially, but he used to be the one who always took the lead when I came with some idea to travel somewhere.

Enough of my dad. He is just awesome. I will rather try to answer one thought that we all always have in our minds. If our dads are so friendly, so supportive, why do they tend to be harsh sometimes or why do they push their thinking on us sometimes. To answer this, let us go back to the beginning of human race. Man’s role in the society was defined to be a hunter. He usually went out to the jungles to hunt in groups and returned back home with his share of the pie. Now when he went out, he used to interact with fellow men, he used to talk about family affairs of other hunters. His thought process developed based on the discussions that he mostly had with his fellow men. And when others talked about their good lives, their strong sons, their beautiful charming daughter, he wished that his own sons and daughters become like them as that was socially accepted form. Thought the social structure changed with time the basic thought process remained the same. We were born and brought up in the times when our dads used to be the sole money earners and moms used to be the home makers. Now dad’s interaction with fellow men, this time in office, about fellow men’s sons and daughters’ achievements started becoming the building block of his expectations from us. May be we can also name this to be the peer pressure. But then this very expectation became the primary reason of him being harsh on us at times or him becoming the decision makers for us at times. Most of the dads are like that only. But then they do ease of this pressure with time. They understand what their kids can do and what they can not.

I guess the most important thing is timing of actions in this case. A dad should be decision maker for a child, a guide for a teenager and a friend for the grown up. The important this is the time and the ease with which he changes his roles. The swiftly and timely he does that, the more you start loving and admiring him.