Goa Trip(3)

With a sumptuous lunch under my belt it was hard to concentrate on the road but the skimpily dressed tourists all around helped me through it. Then a roadside milestone suggested Madgoan being only 32kms away from Panaji so I decided to go to Madgaon on bike but after traveling a few kilometers I realized that I underestimated the number “32” and the time to return the rented bike was nearing too. After recovering from this miscalculation of time I measured the remaining time practically. Hence completed my cashew nuts shopping and other stuff and returned the rented bike at around 5pm.

From there I went to the bus station and took a bus to Ribandar. After reaching Hotel Seema I took a note of the water level which was touching the compound wall in the morning. It had receded a lot and a large patch of marshy shore was thrown open. Got reminded of the tides funda from geography and witnessed its effect on the river coast. I don’t know why but I was disappointed by the receded water level caused by the low tide. I enjoyed the opulent view that a high tide gave to the river coast.

I freshened up at the hotel and went to GIM in the anticipation of relaxing seniors who can give me some more info about the institute. I got lucky and found a bunch of them playing cricket, few having fruit juice and some more watching the game of cricket. I went to the juice center and initiated a talk with one of the seniors who happened to be from Nagpur. He also got me acquainted with another guy from Nagpur who had graduated from the same college(VNIT) as I had and also worked for the same company that I was working for 6 months before. I had Milo (famous drink with GIM students) with them at the juice center along with a useful chat.

It was around 7pm when I returned to my hotel after very well spent time at GIM. Watched news for some time and read the newspaper. All the traveling I did through the whole day was gradually getting me. I had my food while watching TV and practiced answering some most common questions asked in a Bschool PI. I don’t remember the time when I finally called it a day while reciting my introduction J .

The next day i.e. 27thFeb I got up early and completed my morning ablutions by 7.30pm. I again went through my preparation, revised some GK questions and got ready for the final take. After paying the bills at the hotel I went to GIM, parked my luggage at a friend’s room and had my breakfast at the canteen. Then I went to the admissions dept where interviews of the previous batch were already going on. I enquired the type of questions being asked and kind of got my prepared for answering those.

The GD topic for our group was “Advertising” and every body in the group sailed through the GD comfortably. At least all of us thought that wayJ. After the GD followed the two PIs out of which the first one was a bit threatening. I was asked why Limits and Derivatives are calculated and its practical application. I managed to give a satisfying answer. Apart from this there were a few bouncers. In the other PI I had to answer why I needed management education. I was prepared with an honest and convincing answer for this one also.

The complete process of GD/PI got over by 3pm and I had comfortable margin to reach railway station at Madgaon. I went back to hostel, changed into casuals, explained my GD/PI to the seniors and thanked them for their help.

I left hostel at around 4.30pm and changed two buses to finally reach Madgaon railway station. Felt quite relieved after a satisfying GD/PI and a good stay at Goa. I reached Mumbai the next day at 7am and from there I flew back to Nagpur. Now.. I am waiting for the result J.

Goa Trip(2).

It was still dark when I got out of the flight. I started making my plans to reach Hotel Seema in Ribandar as I walked inside the airport to get my luggage. After getting my air-bag I walked towards an enquiry counter meant for providing guidelines to tourists. But, when I mentioned that I want to go to Ribandar by bus the lady showed me the door J. Seniors from the college (Goa Institute of Management) I was going to had given me few directions to reach Ribandar. They had told me to take a bus to Panaji from Dabolin (where the airport is located) and then from Panaji bus station take another bus to Ribandar. So I asked how far Dabolin bus station was from the airport to the prepaid Cab provider. But he was in no mood to let me save my money and was giving misguiding answers to me. I tried seeking help from the autowalas standing outside the airport but their answers were equally worse and how could I expect anything better from them. I finally decided to take a direct cab to Ribandar costing 540rs and enjoy the comfortable ride while registering all the places I was going from so that I can save on my return journey. The cab driver was still under his morning torpor and answered reluctantly to my initial questions about Dabolin. But he had no escape as I had decided to make my journey out of Ribandar to Madgaon Railway station as cheap as possible J . After getting all the info about the route I let him take it easy.

The journey by the cab to Ribandar was pretty long but still energizing. I enjoyed the cool breeze and the panoramic view of the Mandovi river along the route. After traveling for about 50mins I reached Hotel Seema, situated along the Mandovi river coast. The extending view of the river from the hotel was simply peaceful. The morning fog over the river obstructed the view of the other coast but after some time I realized that the river is too wide to have a clear view of the other coast. The water from the river touched the wall compound bordering the lawn outside the hotel.

The clock had struck around 8am when I was all geared up for my exploits of the day. I decided to catch up with the headlines of the day and took out from my hand bag the newspapers that I had collected at the airport. I went through it for about 40mins and soon got bored.

My GD/PI was scheduled on the next day (27th Feb) so I had a complete day with me (26th Feb). The time was sufficient enough to roam around and get to know about the place and especially the college (GIM). As GIM was first on my list, I went straight to the college from the hotel. GIM is just a on a 5mins walk from hotel Seema. When I entered GIM, I met with two more aspirants like me who also had come to have a look around the college and know about the reporting time for their GD/PI. After talking to the Madam in charge of the admissions procedure we had our breakfast in the canteen. I read the notice boards near the canteen informing about the various events about to take place at the college, all of them written in innovative ways to stimulate the students into action. After that I had a peep inside the hostel rooms and met with few seniors who updated me on the final and summer placements in the college, various profiles offered their course structures and many other things.

It was around 10.30am when I left the college and took a bus to Panji. I reached Panji in 20mins. Then I enquired at the bus station about the route to Madgaon railway station and approximate time required to reach there. That gave me the assurance of being able to catch the train comfortably. From the bus station I found my way to a bike renting agency and hired a Hero Honda Splendor for rest of the day and thus broke off my dependency on the public transport. Now I was free to exercise my own will. I knew that a beach named Maramar is nearby and river Mandovi was always within sight. So I just followed the river till I reached the beach. It was an eventful ride , following the river till it met its destination. Thus I got to see the so called Sangam. I parked my bike there and sat on the beach sand for some time till I started sweating from within J . From there I went to the famous church where JOSH films’s shooting was done.

After so much of riding I started looking for a good place to have my lunch. But before satisfying my hunger I had to put down my curiosity of crossing the bridge over the Mandovi river which seemed really huge and hence interesting. I traveled over the bridge to and fro. The view of the river from the bridge was splendid. From the bridge I was able to see the meeting point of the river with the sea from a different angle. The width of the river was just jaw drooling. After the feast for the eyes I rewarded my stomach.

The length of this post compels me to cut it over here. Goa Trip(3) soon to be published.

Goa Trip(1)..

I should have written this one a lot earlier but it’s not that easy to beat the lazy ME. But, I will definitely be able to bring down every moment on to this page as such was the pleasure and satisfaction that the trip lent to me.

I had to attend an interview call at Goa Institute of Management (Ribandar) for admission into a 2 year MBA course. I started from Nagpur on 24thFeb evening. My onward itinerary included Pune and Mumbai. Not being habitual of traveling for long time in bus, journey from Nagpur to Pune turned out to be tiresome for me. I reached Pune at 12.30 pm on 25thFeb and had to catch a bus to Mumbai at 6pm. I spent the time in between at my college friend’s place and in those 5 hours time we relived our graduation years. They in a way energized me for my left out journey. I left Pune at 6.15pm and had a good long ride on the Pune-Mumbai express highway. I reached Mumbai at around 10.15pm and went directly to PVR near Juhu beach along with my friends(Andy and Chinmay) and watched Black Friday. The show ended at around 2am on 26thFeb and I had flight scheduled for Goa at 5.10am. I and Andy decided against having a small nap as during our school and college days we had consistently broken each others records of getting up late (he holds the highest one now :-)). So we ended up chatting. This time I garnered a few tips from him as he had attended a similar interview for admission into SCMHRD. That chat built some confidence into me and I felt a bit more armed to tackle the questions.

I left my friends place at 4am and reached airport in time, checked in my luggage and waited for the flight. There wasn’t a slightest trace of sleep or tiredness on my face as such was the eagerness to check out the air hostess on board and finally Goa, my battleground. In few minutes everybody lined up to get on to the bus to get to the flight. There was a very nettlesome guy standing besides me in the bus and it was very obvious that he was more peevish for his wife. I kept on wondering why they were going to Goa while constantly maintaining a distance of at least 22yards in between them, till the air hostess took over my senses. It was hardly 20mins before I had become airborne that I gave in to the comfort of the flight and exhaustion out of lack of sleep and grueling bus journey.

I finally woke up to the landing announcement by the flight commander and touched the Goan soil at around 6.45 am…

Goa Trip(2) and Goa Trip(3) soon to be published.....

A House on Fire.

I remember writing an essay on the topic "A house on Fire" during my schools days. At that time I had taken the help of essay books and my brother to write the essay. And hence I was not able to realize how panicky the actual situation might be. But after witnessing such a situation personally I have realized what panic and urgency prevails in the air when A house is on Fire.

I had just put off the unpleasant alarm which reminded me of the last one hour association that was remaining between me and my bed and slipped under the blanket to cherish it. But the cozy feeling that I was enjoying ended with yet another alarm which wasn’t set by me. It was the alarm raised by my neighbors as the house just besides my house was on Fire. I ran towards the front door of my house and witnessed that panicky situation with my blurred eyes and was shocked out of my sleep. Flames were coming out of one of the rooms and dark smoke of burning plastic had obstructed the view from the front door of the house. I wore my floaters at once and ran towards the house on fire to help in whichever way I could to bring the situation under control.

The situation was filled with utter confusion as initially nobody had any clue of what had caused the fire. Everybody was shouting for help and some solution. The aunty finally remembered that she had placed the heating rod on the table, instead of the water filled bucket. Somebody ran towards the main power switch to put it off and instructed other person to break the glasses of the window so that water can be poured into the room. I ran to get the drum filled with water near the window. Though I was doing the right thing but the inertia in my mind had not permitted me to believe the fired situation. After getting the drum near the window few of us started splashing water inside the room that had caught fire. I ran towards the front door to prevent them from entering the house as the smoke was really choking. After an hour of hard work the flames were doused into smoke but still the room was un-enterable because of choking smoke.

There was a lot of material loss but at the end of it everybody breathed a sigh of relief as nobody was hurt. Somebody might think that the title of the blog is a kind of Hyperbole, but then I am really happy about the contrast in the title and the explanation. Even though the fire had not assumed a proportion large enough for the blog to qualify for such a title it was quite moving

Blog Migrated from RediffIland..(2ndMar07)

Longing for the past..

Writing about the reasons that I found for the feeling of Longing for the Past times has been long overdue. I had thought about writing about this a few months back but missed it for some or the other reason.

It’s been a couple of years now that I graduated. After just 12 days from the commencement of my final exam I found a well paying job. The initial months were spent in all the merry making with the freshly earned money. With the passage of time money arriving on the 31st of every month ceased to occupy the centre stage. Its place was usurped by the nostalgia of the past times prominently of the college days. This yeaning for the college days was very strong reflecting itself in the discussions with the team at office, in the chats, in the phone calls, literally everywhere. Finding the reason for this yearning had then become very important for me as it started occupying too much space in my mind.

I analyzed the reason for the desire of rewinding the cassette of my life back to the days I longed for. Was it for the enjoyment I had, for the company I had, for the peace of mind that I derived during that time? Or was it for not living those moments to the fullest extent, for not deriving the maximum learning I could at that time, for things remaining unaccomplished, for actions not taken? In my case (and probably in most of the cases) it was the latter question that I put to myself which was getting a bigger nod of agreement.And by constantly yearning for those days I was making provisions for my future yearnings for the present time.This analysis made me truly understand the meaning of the age-old advice of “living the present moment to the fullest”. Till this time I had understood its meaning but had not felt it and imbibed it into me.

Blog Migrated from RediffIland..(7thFeb07)

Becoming uncomprehensible for myself..

Every thing I thought about the system, most of the things that I understood of various elements present in the system, every rule I had invented for myself to deal with different things, most of the principles I had decided to abide by, almost everything has turned out to be different or not in the way I percieved them in some or all respects.

On a real bad day when I work for more than 12 hrs and get really tired I get annoyed about the speed of work done by my subordinates, I question the ways we do various activitites, I expect responses in a particular way and become fussy on not getting them in that format. At the end of it I form some perception and retire for the day. On the very next day I myself refute my understanding formed on the previous day. I become more accomodative, more gregarious and altogether a different man. This is just the simplest example of non-confirmity to consistensy of my nature/behaviour or my previous perception. Other examples where I have refuted my established understanding belong to various exams, persons (very close/close/strangers), work, food, my own interests,.......

Why dose this happen? Why the understanding or perception formed on the previous day or sometime in the past months/years dose not answer my today's questions and fail to be partially or completely applicable? The understanding/analysis can't be spurious as it answers my questions for that day and you can't expect them to become so much obsolete in a day that they fail to be applicable.

So now the task in front of me seems to be finding that right way of looking at things. Because it would be very embarrassing and remorseful to know that the whole perception was skewed when I will be on my death bed. After living life this far I doubt if I will be able to get that right angle towards things. Dont take this last statement as my pessimism but take it as the extrapolation of life experienced till date.

Blog Migrated from RediffIland....(17Jan07)