Everyday banter

Sensex. While the whole of India was contemplating the repercussions this has had in the past one week, there was this group of five people who were discussing (with much vigor and force) about the similarities that Sensex and Love share. Each participant had to come out with a similarity and the best among them was promised a treat in the nearby canteen by the other four. The group comprised of many articulate and imaginative guys who desperately wanted to show off that they were the best. There was also this protagonist of ours who was quiet reticent and never has had any experience in both the topics. But he was destined to win! (Yeah, sorry to break the suspense)

Abhir started “Sensex and love are both quite unpredictable. Today your relationship is riding high, tomorrow there is a fight! It is this nature of them both that makes them quite interesting and compelling” The protagonist was listening, astutely. He didn’t understand why and how both were unpredictable. Isn’t love all about fun, going out every day, enjoying yourselves?

“True, to the word Abhir!” Bhargav catched in. “Here is mine. Both of them are things people die for. Past few days, so many have died due to the shocks the stock market have been giving us. Always money and girls have been the main motives behind the wars registered in history” War?! What has this got to with the topic!! Who will die for girls!?

“Man there is some competition! But mine is better I feel. Both of them are only for people who can take risks with their money!” it was Chaitanya, quite clearly having the impact of his recent break-up. “All I got back from the experience was an empty purse and let me tell you it sucks!!” How can people get so emotional for a thing as small as a break-up?

“Cool it man!” Dharsan took his turn. “I guess both of them have to be monitored every single minute, otherwise you might lose them in a day!” Wow!! Everyone had a good laugh. Somehow they came to the consensus that Dharsan’s was the best analogy the two topics could have had. It all depended on our protagonist now. But he was short on ideas. He kept mum when others looked upon him for his view. He accepted defeat.

So all of them went to the nearby canteen for dinner with Dharsan holding his head high and boasting of how thoroughly he knew girls and love. The order was made but our protagonist was still thinking. Sensex love Sensex girls love girls…… And suddenly it struck him.

“Hey guys I waited for us to get here to tell my viewpoint. I think mine is the best Mr.Dharsan” Elwin beamed. The other three were quite eager to listen to it for they didn’t want Dharsan to get the treat. Elwin, the silent guy, deserved to win. Whatever he says now, he will be the winner (the three would vote for him obviously). But Elwin would have been the winner anyways with his masterly sentence “Sensex and Love. Neither of them makes sense sans the sex!!!”

Be smiley at the irony :)

“AS YOU SOW SO YOU REAP. no point crying over split milk. its not the lack of aptitude its the lack of attitude……”, this was the sms Dad sent me from Sabrimala when CAT results came. It irritated me so much then; still I stored the message in the inbox. Yes I failed. But I tried my best. Can’t blame him for he was indeed disappointed. He scolded me for not being serious about XAT exam and how aloof I was during the winter holidays. All I could tell him was “please wait for XAT results”. But then I was afraid of it myself…

CAT... The exam I felt I was thoroughly prepared for. All the mock tests had told me I would succeed. The seriousness was at its peaks near the exam date. The practice I had, the late night sessions with the books at home, dad monitoring, mom doing her part by preparing juices in between and Ranju somehow maintaining silence at home. The lead up was tense with me counting down every single day in my diary and every hour towards the end. I received many wishes the night before the exam and was highly confident of it. Mom kept ‘vibhudi’ and Dad accompanied me to the exam center, full of advices on the way. Went to the exam hall with two watches (in case one failed!) and was there an hour before the test. Took the exam with full concentration (didn’t even see all the nice girls in my room!) and before I knew, the exam got over. Compared my answers with the keys released by various institutes and felt I had done it to the fullest. Life was so easy…

XAT... The exam I never gave myself a chance. Had heard stories that the Verbal section is the toughest in XAT. After CAT went well, I became presumptuous and started enjoying the holidays without caring about the exam ahead. Went to Bangalore, started getting hooked to internet, often went out with friends to movies, missed one mock XAT test also but surely didn’t miss out on any form of entertainment I could have got. Thought would prepare something the last week before the exams but eventually didn’t. Got negative marks in Verbal section in the only mock test I took! Who cares! The lead up to the exam was very relaxed, being online till late nights. Not many wished, no tension, was infact seeing off Dad to Sabrimala the night before. With no one to accompany me, I rode to the exam hall in my old Scooty, having only one watch this time. Wasn’t able to concentrate that hard during the exam and I was wishing for the thing to get over soon as I was very eager to get back to college the next day. I felt that the exam didn’t go well, especially the Verbal section…

Disappointed with the CAT results (Verbal again!!), this was my last chance this year. The results were expected by the end of January. But suddenly yesterday night at 2 am, when I was spending some nice time with my juniors, I came to know that they had released the results. Without any frills, I went to the XLRI website and typed my roll number only to find out that I have got calls from XLRI for both the courses they offer. At last! Something! I was relieved more than anything else. Was more pleased to find out that I had got the best percentile in the Verbal section!

The scorecard read (in percentiles):

Verbal Ability: 98.11
Quantitative Ability: 96.60
Reasoning and Decision Making Ability: 96.27
Total Percentile: 99.41

I delightfully deleted that message from my inbox. And when I started writing this post, I got another one from him.
"Congratulations on your unique performance. waste no time and start equipping yourselves with current affairs, G K. READ TIMES OF INDIA THROUGHLY "
aye aye captain!

Coolly perfect or Perfectly cool??

The sage pondered over this “Which is more fruitful? Being a perfect man or being a cool guy??” And like all sages, wanted to test this out practically. He handpicked two young men in the city, transformed one person to Mr. Perfect and the other Mr. Cool. He then transformed himself into a young innocent guy, became a mutual friend of them both and monitored the life of the two persons to find his answer. He was in for a surprise…

Mr. P was a sincere and dedicated guy, who planned every event in his life scrupulously. He made sure to anticipate happenings and was prepared for every situation. He believed in being on time for things and was an ardent follower of the saying “kal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so abb,pal mein paralai hoyegi bahuri karega kab” He aimed for very high things for he knew he was capable and was a staunch believer that anything done with devotion always ends in a success. He maintained everything in his life perfectly; the cleanliness, the orderliness, the discipline; everything in his life was unblemished. Everyone around him envied him for his qualities but since he wasn’t all that outspoken (or he didn’t have time for friends), his fans were numbered and people remained distant. He expected all around him to be like him, which did not happen. The imperfection in the world irked him for he couldn’t accept the fact that people can be careless about trivial things. Yes he was indeed successful in almost everything he touched. But he couldn’t stand the occasional failure that he came across. He couldn’t believe that there are things which can go wrong to a person who has achieved infinite perfection in his life. The sage oversaw him crying incessantly after very small letdowns. “This guy is ill prepared to face this cruel world” he deduced…

Mr. C was a carefree and good-for-nothing bloke who took ‘life as it comes’. He had no plans about his future, was disordered and still was happy with it. He never aimed for big things and consequently didn’t achieve anything great. But he always took failures, however huge they are, in their strides and was over-the-moon when he got something out of luck. He derived happiness in small things and was oblivious to the bigger ones. He had a huge fan following and people liked to be with them. Girls labeled him a ‘sweet rascal’. There was an intangible charisma around him which made everyone still back and gawk at him and his way of life. He always made fun of others; Mr. P for being such an idiot and not enjoying things when they ought to be; termed our sage as Mr. Fruit for being so innocent and innocuous. Life seemed so easy and gay to him. “He isn’t going to achieve anything this way” the sage construed…

The sage was left disappointed. He could not find the answer to his question. It boiled down to whether “success or happiness” is more important. But wait; suddenly it struck him. He as an innocent guy who was neither perfect nor cool was more happy and satisfied than both Mr. P and Mr. C and now having found the answer, was more successful than them. Yes, being a Mr. Fruit is more fruitful in this world!!

P.S:This post has nothing to with Saraswathy Sabatham, the tamil movie :D :D

Run after success!!

“I want another one!” was my usual demand whenever dad completed his story. His stories where always short, illogical and improbable but yet I liked them for it was a nice way to time pass and also to be close with my dad who used to come home only in the weekends(he was working in Chitoor). This was before Ranju was born, after that either I lost interest or he was busy playing with her. His stories somehow seemed to have an inherent message for me. Guess it was purely coincidental. He never advised me in person (except about studies!) for he might have thought I was smart enough to handle anything which actually it made me independent and to have my own opinion on things. One of the stories that I still remember (or I suddenly remembered when I went for jogging today) is about a greedy guy who wanted to own the world. It goes like this (I have used my own imagination to make it look more real and sophisticated. The story he told was crisp, banal and childish)…

This guy wanted to own the world and he asked God to concur with his wish. God granted him the wish with a condition. He was told that he could rule whatever land he can cover with his foot by sunset. But he must return to the starting place (by sunset) to claim the lands. It was 12pm. He started from Choolaimedu, Chennai (that’s where I live) and started jogging towards Tambaram. He was doing fine with the pace and had occasional breaks in between for tea. He reached Tambaram by 3pm (yeah not a fast runner) and ideally he should have returned. But the greedy devil in him didn’t allow him to. He continued to jog. He crossed Perungalathur and still didn’t turn back. By the time he reached Vandalur, it was 4pm. Now he had no other choice. He started the return journey running as hard as he can. It was hopeless but he knew he can achieve improbable things for he was a born ruler. His started experiencing pain in his legs; he had no time for tea now. All he could manage by 5pm was Chrompet. Last one hour and still a long way to the destination. His heart was beating rapidly and still he was not the kind who gives up easily. He tried increasing his pace but his legs weren’t responding. Half an hour to sunset and still some solid 5kms to run. He was beginning to lose consciousness and he felt an excruciating pain in his heart whose magnitude increased by the minute. He resembled a cadaver, running with sweat covering his entire body, yet he was sure to succeed. 5minutes to go and one km to travel. He could now see his destination at a distance. He was running like a mad sprinter into the last minute. He lost his consciousness almost but still he ran. Seconds to sunset, a few yards separated him from ruling Chennai forever. With all his energy (?!) and willpower he jumped and his hand touched the start line at the stroke of sunset. He had won. But… At the stroke of sunset, his body cheated him and his soul left him. He died, as a ruler of Chennai of course……

Though an ironical climax, this story had lots of message. One, you can achieve impossible things if you have willpower and that your body will never be the hindrance (at least till you achieve the thing). Two, do not give up anything in between. Three, always have an eye for the time (he should have started back by 3pm!). But the ending makes me ponder over a lot of other issues. Why should we struggle so much to achieve a thing, only to be distraught and be burned out at the end? Is it worth? Is success defined for only something you achieve or for something you enjoy after achieving? Is being greedy good or bad? Hmmm… My dad surely does make me think!

Life after Jan 8th..

The day I was eagerly waiting for arrived. After finding a computer in the net lab finally, I became very anxious and nervous. One year of some hard work, some sincerity was at last going to bear fruit. At least I presumed it would. For all the answer keys released by various coaching institutes said I would. But……

The dreaded sms arrived (the webpage didn’t open!) and it said

“Regno:8120974;NAME:A.R.SRIVATHSAN;
QA(%age):49.00;QA(%ile):99.51;
DI/LR(%age):56.25;DI/LR(%ile):98.53;
Verb(%age):12.00;Verb(%ile):69.09”

I was shocked!! The %ile in verbal meant I had no chance of getting any calls!! It was unbelievable. This isn’t real, something is wrong with the sms system!!! I had expected 32 marks and got 20 less!! 32 would have given me above 95%ile and would have got all IIM calls. I did eventually check up in the website and it said “Sorry, Your name is not found in shortlist of any IIMs”. My overall percentile of 99.16 is of no use then. It was THE END.

Suddenly the world seemed cruel to me. Why should this happen to me? “Oh come on, it happened to 98% of the people who wrote”, someone tried to console. But am I not in those elite 2%?? Didn’t I prepare verbal very sincerely, reading editorials of newspapers, getting P.G.Wodehouse’s books etc?? Wasn’t this the only exam I fancied myself to do well?? Yes but life can give surprises and shocks often. I felt cheated literally. On hindsight, what would this mean to my career, the career I thought was safe till yesterday? Well, it hasn’t changed anything. I still have a good job in hand. And people say that having work experience is always better when it comes to doing MBA. I will try again surely but as Dad always says (I disappointed him yet again!), my first attempt at anything is always my best. More than myself I feel I have disappointed many who wanted me to do well. And to all those juniors who think I am their inspiration and who promptly wished me the day before the exam and the results, all I can say is “I am sorry, I wasn’t good enough this time! :( ” And thanks to all of you who tried to console me. Though people found me laughing and roaming as I would do any other day, beneath I was indeed hurt. My popularity or my ‘coolness’ doesn’t allow me to crib in public does it?? I wish I hadn’t given all that build up after the exam (here is another.. my XAT really went well! he he ). My orkut profile had said “CAT went well is an understatement”. But now I can say for sure that "WELL, CAT WENT…IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!! "

CHENNAI OPENed!!

I awoke with a start. The time was 9.30am, New Year’s Day. Thinking I was late, I got up and got ready in a hurry. And took my bike. Damn! Had to fill fuel also. But somehow I managed to be there at 10.05 and saw the queue in the road. Wish I were there early! Only when I went close did I observe what all the people in the queue were watching in despair. ‘All tickets sold out’ was the notice put up. Shit!! That’s it then should head home! I had no other plans that day. A perfect anticlimax to all my New Year hopes. Suddenly someone started protesting and the others joined. The organizers had a tough time controlling the crowds, who were swearing (for a change in English) at everyone. “How can you not have daily tickets? How can you sell all the tickets to this crucial day when the top three seeds each had their singles match? How is that the seats in the stadium remain empty even when the tickets are sold? You are cheating us. You bastards! You have given all the tickets to those assholes who are selling them in black! Call Vijay Amritraj now or else we wont allow the day’s play, we wont let the players in, is this is the way you portray Chennai to the outside world? You people suck!!…………” This is a mild recollection of the lines sprayed out at the authorities. I was standing there watching all this in the hot sun and was quite hungry by then. People were shouting at full volume, tried breaking into the stadium, the press was called and clearly it was total chaos out there. A report on this was published in 'The Hindu' newspaper but there was no mention about the protests that went on. Check it out -> report.

The city of Chennai. The city in which I was born, brought up and the place where I have spent most of my teenage visiting places with friends. I like the city very much for I have no choice, I haven’t lived in any other city (Trichy not considered!) and for a frog, the well is the universe! During these holidays, I noticed a few things about the city. Being a frequent user of the roads, I found the roads being dug up, traffic diverted at important junctions like Kathipara, Ashok Pillar, Nungambakkam etc and it rained heavily in between to add to the misery of the road users. It was irritating to think of going to some place because of all this and I preferred to stay at home mostly. Add to this the changing face of the city, known to be conservative, becoming ‘modern’. New Year bashes weren’t quite our culture. Improper organization, violation of rules and inadequate safety measures saw the collapse of the dance stage into the pool at Savera Hotel. Having been to the same place a week ago for the SS Music’s VJ hunt program, I shiver at the thought of it. And that the son of one of my dad’s colleague, Anand was seriously injured in that incident and is fighting for his life is quite tragic. See this-> report. Is this necessary? Is the city becoming a victim to the western culture? Flyovers are necessary yes, but why should the Government construct so many simultaneously? Why isn’t it taking care to have proper detours for these roads? Why are so many hotels allowed to have New Year bashes without any kind of approval for safety? (One ticket to that party cost Rs.3500 apparently!) These are only two issues I put forth in this post. But there are many such issues that are not addressed. Chennai, the city is clearly not going in the right direction.

And about the tickets to the Chennai Open, the media covered it up otherwise it would have been a big shame to the city. For tickets in black were sold by the ball boys of the tournament themselves! Having an international level tournament isn’t enough, maintaining the standards through out is all the more important. And to end the story, the organizers were able to get some tickets from the sponsors (that’s what they said) and did sell the tickets to us. I was able to watch the matches after all. But not before all the protests, two hours in the hot sun, and some dirty language.

Having said all this still by far this is the safest metro in India. No terrorist activity, no molestation of women and no unruly riots. I love Chennai but I fear it might not stay that way for long!!!

Note: Anand succumbed to his injuries on 7th Jan 2008. May he rest in peace.