Life's good

Time has passed by so quickly. It has been eons since I updated this blog. Life has changed. Now, I am a graduate. :) I think that I am a very different person now. Not the one you knew 2 years back in college. The one who use to laze around doing nothing, sit on the benches of the football ground with his friends or sleep till 12 in the afternoons. Life is more scheduled now. I get up at 7 am , get ready by 8, reach office by 8:30, sit down on my desk, plan my day and start the execution. Everything is planned and scheduled. Believe it or not, i kind'a like it.

Journey with Sapient has been a roller coaster ride for me. There has been good, bad and the ugly. I am not sure how many of you will agree with me on this, but I would blame my army background for the 'ugly' part. An Army brat is probably too open or honest than expected and accepted by others.  But, the life has been more of good. :) I have learnt a lot,changed myself to adapt to situations, be a bit diplomatic, sugarcoat my words and try to be dear to the biggest of biggest jerks. All this has become a part of my daily takeaways from 8 hours of work in office.

In Sapient, my role is that of a business analyst with the Delivery Operations team. I delve deep into numbers, subtract, add, divide and multiply them and report them to the concerned stakeholders. I have to full extend exploited my mathematical aptitude and used it here at my job. My sluggish preparation for CAT did not fetch me a college, but it has definitely helped me to do better here at Sapient. I have come to a recommendation for the children who fear subject Mathematics, there is not substitute to it, it will haunt you for whole of your life. Master it or you are screwed.

Just to set the context, I never thought of writing all this until a very good friend of mine, Manjit sent me an article which mentioned the benefits of writing. I'll close this article for now as there is too much that I have written about myself and there is no point beating the dead horse. I am sorry friend that I could not manage expectations (writing everyday, as I was short of bandwidth), but yes, I'll definitely try to be more frequent about writing stuff on my blog. I'll keep you in loop about all my articles. Please revert in case you have any issues around them.


PS : The paragraph above was pure shit (except Manjit of course), and was meant just to flaunt my vocabulary and the style of writing. By the way, it has got nothing to do with my CAT preparation, it is just the daily jargon, you'll get to listen if you get into a role (in Sapient) that I am in. Thank you Manjit. Thank you all. Hope you enjoy this !!!

Mad for AIT

TONIGHT, as I was taking my post dinner walk, I thought suddenly; I am absolutely crazy in AIT. It's a thought that often crosses my mind. Someone or something is always going loopy, and quite often it's me.

Like, I was trying to score good marks for the last 4 years, but poor me, could never score above 55%. The result comes and I feel sad just for a moment and with that sad-facing I am heading to Mayur. I have been here for the past 4 years, and we call it "home away from home". It is a strange beast, this AIT. It hugs me, so tightly sometimes that I can't breathe, then it turns and punches me hard in the face, leaving me stunned. Then it hugs me again, and suddenly I know everything will be all right.

It was my choice to come - I always wanted a career in engineering and AIT was the only college where I could get Computers - and I wanted a change. I needed something new, exciting, thrilling, terrifying. And AIT gave that to me in spades. To outsiders, AIT has a particular kind of impression. We are approached like "You are in AIT? My God, really !!! Subah PT hoti hai kya? And do they teach you how to fire guns?" I thought, who in AIT would bother to get up from his/her bed to go for PT or pick guns to fire them. AITans don't know much, but can give you an answer for anything you ask. Who would know better than me? I being a PR have seen inventions of new languages in that 15 minutes of technical interview. Others have searched and sorted like none could do before. Mechanical people make it through software companies more easily where Compies find it difficult to crack. Being in AIT is like being in a very intense, extremely dysfunctional relationship. AIT and I fight, we scream, we argue, we don't speak for days on end, but really, deep down, we love each other.

AIT wonders why I don't just "know" how things are done, why I argue with it about everything, why I judge, why I rail at injustice and then do nothing about it. But at the same time, it has taught me things. It has taught me to be brave, bold, independent, sometimes even fierce and terrifying. It has taught me to walk in another man's chappals, and ask questions a different way when at first the answer is no. It has taught me to accept the things I cannot change. It has taught me that there are always, always, two sides to every argument. And it is kind enough to let me come and stay.

AIT didn't make my stay easy though (but then, why should it?). It does not allow me to drink peacefully and not even in a corner of it (volleyball court). What costs you 100 rupees one day might be 200 rupees the next, I am talking about the fine that is imposed per day in case you get late, plus that extra effort to go to the Bank. What you didn't need to bring yesterday, you suddenly need to bring today and no one would tell you why. The registrar can ask you to come back tomorrow and see him again just because he is too busy on phone or chatting with other staff members. He will never answer to your queries (even when a simple 'yes' or 'no' would do the trick) but will give you a lecture for 5 minutes and then ask you to notice the notice board. Notice boards are also a funny thing in AIT, some change hourly (registrar), others change yearly (mag board).

It's not easy being here, although I am spoiled. I abuse, I drink, I smoke. I have long, boozy brunches in restaurants and not to mention, I prepare for it (skip a couple of meals prior to it). I have very little to complain about. But then I have been ragged, stripped, made to propose, sometimes compose too, fill bottles, do assignments sometimes my own and sometimes that of others, teased, given less term work and been made fun countless times. I have lived more than I have ever in my life, out of frustration, happiness, anger, loneliness, excitement and the sheer hugeness of being here. The longer I stay, the more I seem to relax.

But I do often wonder why I'm here, especially when I'm tired and homesick. I am technically zero, I have a job that I don't deserve, I have an aggregate equivalent to what has compelled so many IITans to hang themselves. But then a willing ride always comes along, and I'll turn a corner and be suddenly in the midst of some banging, online gaming, outdoor sports and crashing mad parties, where everyone is talking to someone specific in 'English' about someone 'specific' and reciting, when 'she' first smiled at him, and I breathe out and think, really, my God, this is fantastic. This is AIT! I live in AIT! It hugs me, it punches me, and it hugs me again.

Yet I know after a while I won't ever belong here. It will hurt and will stay within me forever. I will remember when my friends gave suggestions like: "Lets go to the graveyard. Time....ahhhh...its 2 am." Some eatable when falls of his hand, he'll eat it, beacause he knows that he won't die. I feel proud to be called an AITan because being a true AITan is in my DNA. I marvel at how incredibly good scorers, many of them are (up to 90 plus in both board exams), they start at 45 in first sem here and improve it to a mere 50 by the last sem. There are hundreds here who speak 3 languages. We have Gultis, Mallus, Biharis, Jats, Nepalis and god knows everything that you can think of. We fit ourselves so easily, be it a train or a bike.

I've done things of which I am ashamed, things I never thought I would do. I am sorry since mentioning them might get me and my friends into deep trouble. Let secrets be secrets. I am kind and I am cold-hearted, I am fair and I am mean, I am delightful and I am downright rude. I am all of these at once and I distress myself wildly over it, but somehow, AIT accepts me. It has time for everyone, you don't need to fight here for survival; it will just shove everyone along a bit and make room for you. It just keeps moving along.

And then, theist or atheist, but you go to temple. Don't know whom do you pray for, but yes an AITan can love more than anyone else. He thinks of his friend, sides his meanness and does justice to every relationship he is asked to, be it fanticism or friendship.

In short, I have been among the luckiest of the lucky. It keeps me on my toes, AIT, and I have been blessed that you let me stay for a while. Thank God, it was a while, because at a stage, it was asking me to extend my trip for 5 years. It wanted me to succeed here and it gave me grand opportunities and endless second chances. It willed me forward like a stern parent. It welcomed me. And when I leave, because I know I will one day, I will weep, because I will miss it terribly. And because I know it won't even notice that I am gone.

Bleed Blue

Winning and losing are part and parcel of cricket. Right? Yes, but when it is an Indo-Pak affair, you can throw this cliché out of the window. The much anticipated encounter between India and Pakistan of the cricket World Cup would be one of the most exciting matches of the 14-team quadrennial event.


The importance of this match can’t be stressed enough. A defeat in this high octane clash would be a bitter pill to swallow for the people of both the countries. The semi-final match between the two cricketing giants of South Asia is much more than just a match. It has been labeled as “THE WAR OF THE DECADE”or “THE JUDGEMENT DAY”. Pakistani players would be very eager for this match to get underway because they have a point to prove and some unfinished business with the Indians to take care of. I being an Indian support India and wish my team good luck and I know that defeating India in India would be an impossible thing for Pakis.

"Final haarna manjoor hai, lekin yeh wala toh kabhi nahi (India vs Pakistan)!!!", says one of my friend's facebook status. So, one can estimate the intensity and the hunger to win than an Indian has when it comes to a win over Pakistan. Interestingly, both the arch-rivals have won World Cup title once, India in 1983 and Pakistan in 1992. The encounter has already warmed the temperature in the two nations.


India in India are favorites, there is no doubt. But as a unit the Pakistan team has been very composed in this World Cup, so the team which attacks more will win. Pakistan have regrouped themselves in the current edition of the ICC Cricket World Cups from a turbulent past year of controversies leading to a ban on three of the top Pakistani cricketers by the ICC. India kicked out Australia from the World Cup 2011 after Pakistan ended their 34-match winning streak at the World Cups in the group stage. Pakistan literally thrashed West Indies by 10 wickets in their quarter final. So, none of the both teams can dare to underestimate the other.

One thing is for sure, if you are a cricket player and want be remembered in history, an Indo-Pak encounter is an ideal opportunity to reach stardom in a flash. But be ready to feel the pain if you lose it or become immortal if you win it. Take Chetan Sharma for example, great cricketer of his time, bur few of us know that he was the first one to take a world cup hat-trick but all of us know the six that was hit to him by Javed Miandad on the last ball of a match when just 4 were required.

India Pakistan encounters have always been a treat to eyes. India had defeated Pakistan in the quarter final by 39 runs at Bangalore, a match which is renowned more for Aamir Sohail-Venkatesh Prasad tussle (videos of which are very frequent on facebook). Current coach of Pakistan cricket team, Waqar Younis can never forget that match in which Ajay Jadeja blasted him to all corners of the park. No one can understand the agony better than Waqar, and he is lucky to have another chance to erase the bitter memories. Lets see what does Pakistan team do under his guidance. Akthar will be a player to watch out for, a team man with a lot of aggression and zeal. Though he wasn't given a chance in the previous game, but it will be an interesting contest for sure when Sehwag and Sachin come out to bat and if Rawalpindi Express is asked to open the attack.

The Pakistani players have got a point to prove if not to their nation, at least to the franchises of IPL teams. After the Mumbai attacks in November, 2008, the tension between both the countries rose very high due to the Pakistani players were sidelined from the 2nd ,3rd and 4th edition of IPL. Elimination from participation in IPL and a series of some unfortunate events will be a great motivational factor for the men in green. And similarly the hopes of billions of people will boost the Indian team to outwit their rivals from across the border. People of India would hope that the roar of “MASTER BLASTER” might prove to be too much for the Pakistan team to handle. India is playing at home and are odds on favorite to win but playing in front of your home crowd with the expectancy of a win would definitely add some extra pressure on them. Certainly counting Pakistan out and taking them lightly would be the biggest mistake men in blue will ever make.

Alongside the fierceful Indo-Pak encounter, a window of opportunity has opened up to put relations between India and Pakistan back on track. An editorial appeared in the News International Sunday, a day when Gilani accepted the invitation from Manmohan Singh to watch the match at Mohali on Wednesday. Even though the cricketing contest will bring much of the patriotic fervor that marks all contests between Pakistan and India, it could also help create the friendship that is so badly needed. In more ways than one, this is vital for the future of both countries and their people.

Welcome the Incredible match (you creeds of cricket) because this encounter is being accompanied by a lot of talent to watch out for and that too from both sides, world class bowling attack (Zaheer, Bhajji, Umar Gul and Akhtar hopefully), world class batting (Sachin, Sehwag, Misbah) and some of the best all-rounders (Yuvraj, Afridi, Razzak). And one last essential thing without which a cricket game is no fun and that is sledging, and to which 'Hindi' language adds a unique flavor. The battle will be more in the minds than the field itself. It will certainly be a battle of nerves. Who will come out on top? Something that we will just have to wait and watch! Only time will tell. 

Till then you keep bleeding blue because that is what Indians do.