Euro 1 - Friends at B'lore

“Dude what happened to your blog?” That was the question which triggered this post. This was at BBQ J.P.Nagar and as always the whole ceremony of BBQ required a good starving session, which generally meant no breakfast at all, however shweta had never been to BBQ (Can u believe that!!) and so of course she was full just after 5 minutes of starters. One of the wonderful sessions at BBQ but shantha and shwetha’s poor performance at the starter-table was overshadowed by Prarthana’s super performance. Everybody was so proud of her J 

Of course the day began on a much more hectic note, just arrived Bangalore at 7 in the morning and rushed to loco’s house, his “friend” decided not to turn up to meet him, so all three musketeers headed for some shopping for me. First up – Cannon 1000D for me J 

That with a 18-55 IS lens and some filters and an extra card was the awesome gift which my parents got for me for getting that pappu J Spent the whole day clicking photos with my new camera and boy oh boy was that fun or what. Some sucky photos but then those few which did come well are worth all the effort. And boy oh boy that was some day.

 Wrapped up with some bowling at Amoeba where the ladies overshadowed us completely. Something was wrong with the day. But what a day. Wonderful  way to begin the euro trip, with friends wishing the best for you, giving u parting gifts n some cursing that they won’t be there for all that!! Lets just hope the train ticket for b’lore to ngp gets cleared tmrw morning J

Parties and Me

All those who know me well enough, understand very well that when I say I am a party animal I’m not being entirely truthful. And that is correct but for those occasions when the control over the senses is lost or rather let me say let loose. So on my first weekend in Sri Lanka, on the Saturday to be more precise we were planning on going to this party which was being organized by some fellas (read radio station here) and some famous DJ from down under was coming down to make us dance to some famous trance tracks. And yusssri and lauren, the nice people they are, got us tickets to that party. Yussri picked us up at 10 or so and we went to lauren’s house then off to PARTY!! Turned out to be a small party with some 100 odd people there on the beach side and some temp playing some music. The news was that the DJ was coming and we were supposed to while away our time till then with this music. We decided otherwise and went to the mount lavina hotel. Had some drinks and juices and I tell u that place had one of the best views of an ocean. And guess what we could actually spot a cruise with all its lights in full glow, prolly some good party going on there as well. And we headed back to the party at 1240 or so, and guess what the DJ was already there. Met a few advertising folks who were in contact with yussri and lauren thru some of the earlier AXE parties that we had organized.


I really like being in a party. Seriously. And that’s because we have had a few good parties in college. And its always been with a whole lot of people there. All of whome we knew. But today was different, I knew only 3 fellas here and none of them were in a mood to go totally PAARTY!! The music being played was good, the crowd was decent, there was even that small brawl between 2 fellas to make u realize that u r in a real party even some foreigners (I am not talking about d indians here :P) Somehow it did not fit well today that we were in a party and that feeling just did not come. Probably its been quite sometime since I went to a party where I knew only a handful of people. There is only one learning from this party which came to an end at a premature time of 2 am – Try to go to as many parties as possible and go to those where u can make some new friends.

This post ends here with me signing off. Looking forward to a good Sunday where we can watch the IPL finals as well as a good time at the galle face (the beach side in Colombo)

The MBA Mentor - Stop being so jealous

A guy is sitting in an internet café. Typing away at furious speeds he is looking for information about something. Something very important to him.  And then he spots a blog. A blog of some arbit fellow.  But this arbit fellow is of some importance. Important because this arbit fellow of ours is a from one college. This college of his is a Well Known Management in West India. One of the colleges to which our patron aspires to get into. If not the WIMWI, then the one in south India, else the one in east India. Of course he has special meaning to the alphabets. Yes, you and I have also read these alphabets but our patron and this arbit fellow have created new notions for these alphabets. ABC. Man these must mean something apart from apple, ball and cat right. Well so what if they are the starting alphabets to some colleges locations. Ahmadabad. Bangalore. Calcutta (aka Kolkata). Or as the arbit fellow will correct us with more clear addresses. Vastrapur. Banerghetta Rd. Jokha. How does it matter in our story? Of course it does. Did you not notice all the smiles and emotions overplaying on the face of our young aspirant when he came across this blog. Lets focus our attention on the patron. He seems to be searching furiously all over the blog for something. Ah he has found it. Seems like it’s only a home address.

What we need to realize is that every patron like ours will always need one thread to show some present common link. Then he plans to cling on to that tiny link. This is what he will start with and then go on to form one bonding between the patron and the arbit fellow. This is where our patron brings in the email where he plans to form the link. This email is one of the most important ones in his life according to him, so he will go over and over the whole mail. Not too short, not too long, not too boring, not too vague, not too descriptive. God its difficult to write this mail. Once this is done the whole process kicks in and we know the rest.
But let’s follow the patron for a few more days. He goes  on and laps up every word that the arbit fellow says. From gyan on classes to preparation on the d-day. Laps it up with such care as if its nectar falling straight from heaven. And this does not stop here. The adulation for each and every word coming out of his mouth feels the same everytime. To the extent that the arbit fellow goes on to become a personal shrink to our patron. And so the journey starts. Now the patron goes and pings his mentor every time he wants advice, assurance etc. I don’t say its bad but cmon man give the man a break. He is just a normal human being albeit with a slightly better luck/brain/perseverance. And just because he is here in one of the IIMs u start thinking he IS the nxt steve jobs/laxmi mitta etc. So is it wrong to be the patron. Is it good for the mentor to continue in that sense. Well lets see it from the mentors perspective.

Forget the fact that a year ago he was also in the patrons shoes and he was looking for mentors, and he prolly did find a few. So now its his turn to earn some of the mentees, some of the adulations, some junie who will look upto him like GOD. Well obviously who wouldn’t like that? But should the mentor not be a little careful. Maybe it is time the mentor does not feed on this attention but rather let the mentee develop himself according to his choices. Is it not the ultimate dream of any mentor to see his mentees go on and progress beyond him. Well I bet that any of us who have mentored someone or the other at any point of time have felt a pang of jealousy when the “आज का छोकरा ” who had just come into the college goes on to become a big shot while I am still in the same old job.

Stop being so jealous. There will always be someone who is smarter than you. Someone who prolly deserves to earn all that adulation. Stop being so jealous. Its time you accept that you have earned what you deserve, its time to let him earn what he deserves.

All the best to all the mentees. And you mentors cmon show them that the old horse can still gallop. Go on do something productive now.