Remembering Grandma !!

Being the youngest of a large family has been the most unusual experience. By the time I was born, half of the remaining children in our family were teenagers and the oldest two were in their late teens. So you can well imagine how affectionate was everyone towards me, and today here i am remembering the selfless love my Grandma showered to me though I had the least oppurtunity to interact with her. She passed away 21 years ago this day. My memories of Grandma start I believe, with a feeling of safety and peace that I always felt when I was with her.

I remember when i nagged to have tea when every other elders at home sat with evening tea.  She used to make me a cup a 'granma's tea' consisting of hot water with milk or cup hot milk and sugar. She always made me feel heard.

She always gave me company when i had loads of homework. I learned my basic mathematical operations and various other subjects from her. She made sure I gain knowledge in my fundamentals.

I remember once I had pushed her out of rage. She then being a weak lady in her 70's had fell down hurting her hand badly which bled along with a swollen forehead. She told my mom she fell due to dizziness. She made me feel protected.

When I cried as lights went off, she took me in her arms , narrated to me fairytales with the hand fans on. She made me feel special.

I miss this wonderful,profound lady in my life still today.

"You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be -

I had a grand mother who read to me."

A visit to beatific Mayapur !!!

The room no was 303, location being IISWBM,kolkata. A bunch of krazzy friends decided to begin their Christmas/New Year vacation with a blast. 11 different voices in unison called it shots to visit Mayapur. Here goes some wiki info -->Mayapur is located at the banks of river Ganges at the point of its assemblage with Jalangi,near Navadip,130km north of kolkata. It is the headquarters of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). The only bad news whatsoever was that we had to reach bidhannagar station by 6.30am on a chilly winter morning of December.In the words of great GARFIELD.. I hate early mornings :-( However an appetite to pull it off helped us to reach on time. The route through which we treaded involved journey  by train till Krishnanagar, from there 15 minutes autorickshaw ride,thereafter a 3 minute boat ride.
The journey via train was memorable, with Palash insisting on tasting every food item any hawker brought as he had already declared
"sokale tamon kichu kheye ashini" (could not have much of food in the morning) and believe me none of the hawkers left empty handed. With Anand, Amartya and Santanu around we were enjoying every bit of it. We also discovered Anand's bengali is at a comparative advantage with Chatur's Hindi when he read out jokes from a booklet.Amongst all these Hitesh preferred to sleep and Goutam happily did a whole bunch of nothing (You can well imagine how would Saoni ever react to that
 :-)) .Nevertheless we reached Krishnanagar munching all the way. We took a break for around 20mins when Amartya went home to off load his luggages while we had our "break"fast. An auto ride on the bumpy village roads was splendid. And thereafter the final boat ride led us to our destination Mayapur. 

Shri Radha-Madhav

ISKCON temple 

The ISKCON temple is massive, serene and captivating. The founder Shri Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is worshipped here.There is a museum depicting various phases of his life,and it also has numerous paintings on Indian Mythology.
By the time we visited the whole thing Hitesh had already decided to build similar house for him and happily agreed to gift 3 of the floors to Gautam,Anand and me.We then rushed to visit the " Radha-Krishna" temple as the time for closure was approaching fast. Here we witnessed beautiful idols of radha and krishna and few followers were chanting "Hare Krishna" which created a wonderful ambiance out there. It is really well maintained and  wears an elegant look. Wish we could have managed to stay there a bit longer. By this time we all were hungry.

After visiting the temple we had our lunch (which is the bhog or the prasad). It tasted delicious.There was a huge gathering out there and they managed really well to serve food to all and that is of-course one of their daily affairs. The next plan whatsoever was not decided.Few wanted a boat ride in the river,rest opposed. To ride or not to ride was the question. Finally we all agreed.Fabulous is an understatement for the experience. The next half an hour was all about beautiful landscapes,formation of laughter club,witnessing distinct colours where two rivers meet, lots of clicks and unlimited fun.It was then time to get back, we took the auto again,singing all the way we reached Krishnanagar junction and took the train back home thereafter. It was really an indelible experience,the best day till date after joining IISWBM, right guys? Hope to relive these moments in near future.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish !!!

Steve Jobs has always been an innovative thinker and while sharing his own story at Stanford University 2005 he ended his speech with these words "Stay Hungry,Stay Foolish",which means he wanted those young graduates to keep seeking for oppurtunities and not settle. If you want to hear his speech watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc .

This book has nothing to do with steve jobs, just that his speech inspired the writer to name her very first magnum opus.The book is a repository of inspiring stories of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who treaded onto the rough roads of entrepreneurship.

Rashmi Bansal interviewed these top notch entrepreneurs to know what led them to set up their own businesses.This is where dreams came into play.It is their dream that kept them moving when world told them to quit.It is their dream that inspired them in tough times. It is their dream which kept them floating and it is their dream which finally made them succeed. This book would definately help young management graduates to look beyond placements and high salaries.

The writer has aptly chosen eminent personalities who are diverse in age, outlook and industries (Retail,BPO, Education, Healthcare, etc just to mention a few). Though some of the stories sound similar with respect to the challenges faced, my personal favourites are the accounts of Rajeev Bikhchandani and his dotcom venture naukri.com, how his venture with GoI failed and he built naukri.com on the same platform when terms like internet and domain name were unheard of, then Venkat Krishnan and his venture with GiveIndia and also Vijay Mahajan (Basix).

The stories are broadly classified into three sections:


•The Believers – This section contains ten stories where the people knew that entrepreneurship was the way to go. They took the plunge straight after MBA or after a few years of work.

•The Opportunists – This section covers eleven stories where the people did not plan on it but snatched the chance when they got it.

•The Alternate Vision – This section covers stories of people who are using entrepreneurship for social impact or their own creative expressions.
 
If you start off with this book chances are you will finish it and hence this book is definitely a recommended reading and worth preserving for future reference.

Leading Life the LEFT way !!!

“The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body. This means that only left handed people are in their right mind.” -Anonymous.

I just came to know that August 13 is designated as the "International Lefthanders day" which is meant to promote awareness of the inconviniences the left handers face in a pre-dominant right handed world and also to celebrate their uniqueness of being only 7-10% of the worlds population :-)

Well i love being left-hander. During my early days i did feel awkward when people were (even now) apt at asking some of the obvious questions like "you write with your leeeeeeft haaaaand?" with such a facial expression that you cant even understand they are excited or surprised or shocked and if you answer yes the next question which came up was hilarious -"from childhood ???!!!!" In such situations i felt like saying "Nah, from today only,had a dream last night, if i become a lefthander i will be a millionaire." :D so on and so forth.

Researchers feel some of  the reasons of being a lefthander are :-

Hand orientation is developed in fetuses, most commonly determined by observing which hand is predominantly held close to the mouth

Vanishing Twin Theory: This theory postulates that left-handed individuals were originally part of an identical twin pair, with the right-handed twin fetus failing to develop early in development. The theory has however been debunked by Australian researchers.

and of course genetic

But thanks to my family,they accepted me the way i am and did not  try to change me. A study shows stammering or dyslexia is likely to develop among left-handed people if they are forced to use their right-hand.What you do is more important than with which hand you choose to do so.I met two people on auto the other day while travelling to my institute.The mother was explaining to her child how inept or uncouth it looks when one uses lefthand while writing. Perhaps she has never heard of Sachin tendulkar or Amitabh Bacchan or for that matter the US President Mr Barrack Obama.This lady like many others condone to notice most of the usables are constructed the way right handers would feel comfortable using it take for eg the mouse of a computer(laptops solve the problem though),or say the armrest of the chairs in the institutes/offices used for writing is always on the right side.So in a way lefties should be credited to use them in the right way.

President Barack Obama writes at his desk in the Oval Office

This also happens in India !!! :-)

Every person who goes to sleep expects a better tomorrow when he or she gets up the next morning..I too expected the same more so because it was my birthday the next day. My day began with wishes from my college buddies...they woke me up at 5.30 in the morning...!! Eventually all woke up in my family.
Pri (my elder sister) : ''Happy Birthday dear sister...Enjoy with your gifts"...
this time she gifted me an IPOD shuffle...which fullfilled one of the many wishes i have :D

The day passed by..and i was already super-excited with the calls coming in...and i loved my Facebook Wall that day.......also talked to some friends after real long time :) Then suddenly my sister clicked with a

 plan: "Why dont we watch Knight n Day..and .have dinner outside"...I agreed at once. Had a gala time...Watched the movie...with popcorns and colas...no wonder Tom Cruise stole the show. We were also done with our dinner and decided to board the auto to reach our destination.

Then it happened when i approached to give money to the driver to my horror i discovered i dont have my wallet....Gone with the wind :D Rechecked at the resturaunt reception only to confirm that i've lost it. That is how my birthday..17th July 2010 ended. Was really really upset...i loved my new wallet after all. Anyways i was trying to get over this incident...but my phone rang during the break next day in college.

Me: "Hello"
The stranger : "Hello Mam..I'm calling from GKB Opticals. Did you loose your wallet recently?"
My heart skipped a beat.
"Yes I lost it yesterday..but how did you people come to know about this?"
I was totally clueless.
"Mam actually a person named Suvajit Gupta came to us and submitted a wallet to us. It bears the GKB card , we got your phone number from there itself. Please come and collect your wallet."

God proved his presence once again. I couldnt believe this was happening with me. I'm greatly thankful to the stranger who returned my wallet. This is a gesture to all that there are still some men who are trying to heal the world and make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race..by performing the duties of a responsible citizen ..!!!