Coming soon!

Vagabond

Last fortnight was made of stuff that dreams are made of.Two holidays back to back after getting the job that I so badly wanted, I mean what more could one ask for.This too fell into my scheme of things,Madura Garments was a last minute confirmation, by that time I had made up my mind to go to ICICI Prudential which was the other offer that I had.It was an easy choice, I'd rather live in Bangalore and work on brands like Allen Solly,Louis Phillipe,Van Heusen, Esprit and Marks and Spencer, than sell financial products. That day I was on a roll, I converted every interview I sat for, the stars were aligned in my favour.And suddenly I had too many choices.But the good part of the whole rigmarole was that I learnt a lot , and when I used to sit in that maddening inferno of aspirations, hopes, disappointment and jubilation it was an emotional overload.When I saw people who are otherwise okay acting out of downright, ruthless selfishness, and on the other end people showing resilience and going till the end with fighting spirit and never did they buckle up under pressure, and people questioning your choices in life, as in why would you pick a job which pays lesser over another better paying one, among other things, thankfully I did not pay much attention to such unsolicited advice.I did have bouts of anxiety,but was cool and composed for the most part.And then it ended , for the next two days all I did was sleep, in loud music, while people were eating , drinking and being merry,I slept like log.And then woke up , packed my bags and went to Diu.
We were eight random people who wanted to go out,and that was it.We took a train to Veraval,visited the Somnath Temple,an ancient(there is a mention abt it in the Rig-Veda) monument with a checkered history, of being plundered by invaders seven times. At the crack of the dawn,it looked surreal ,flanked by the Arabian Sea on three sides,there were morning chants interspersed with the sounds of sea waves.It was like true love.
Diu, has been a favourite getaway,we were there for two days, and didn't do much except for basking in the sun, and eat as if food was going to be out of fashion tomorrow.
After Diu , it was the long awaited Dasada trip. It was a batch trip, with the Director.Dasada is a place in the little Rann Of Kutch, about 90 kms from Ahmedabad.It was about parched land, oases,and spotting migratory birds. The Safari's in to the Rann were awesome fun.And so was the resort,the cottage that i lived in was pure indulgence,complete with with an open air bathroom and all.Pity I had to share it with Chulbul and Shagun :(...
I returned only the day before yesterday, and since then I am up to mundane and silly stuff, like cleaning my room, and doing the laundry. What a painful thing it is, when you laundry guy misplaces your favourite clothes, you don't have much of a choice,do you?

Sell Thyself

Its that time of the year again ...the placement season has begun. While a few B-schools are done with the rigmarole, the likes of us are still waiting with bated breaths for the drama to unfold.With the economy booming , the average starting salaries in most B-schools swelling like nobody's business, I can see the moolah pouring into us from all directions.The most abused phrases on campus are 'CTC','PPT','Day Zero','Day Negative', and of course the random discussions that can happen anywhere and anytime on campus, on any arbit topic pertaining to placements,from what is formal dressing and what is not , to comparisons with the CTC's offered at other B-schools.And everyone says that at the end of the day one should be able to sell oneself to the recruiter.At everything you do you have to sell yourself , be it the recruiter, the peer group or the faculty and any one you want to get things done from.There is a lot of excitement in the atmosphere undoubtedly,if you check this space a week from now , I'd hopefully be employed, till then I am waiting to be sold out...

Bucolic Beauty

On the 22nd of December 2006 I boarded a bus to Bikaner with a couple of friends,we were leaving for our Rural projects.I was enticed by the idea of a sponsored holiday and in the process making some money.We slept through most of the journey so I didn't mind the 17 hr long journey which at first sounded daunting.Come on ,17 hrs would be the longest journey I would have ever made, and that too in a sleeper bus, I did not like the idea to start with, and ruining my winter holidays for any sum of money didn't feel like a good deal.But something in me wanted to take a chance, to take the plunge, as they say.Though I belong to Rajasthan but i had not seen proper sand dunes ever,maybe that intrigued me.Or going to a proper village, deep inside the hinterland. All those villages near the city are pseudo-villages, more and more they become a part of the urban agglomeration,but these were villages where you would feel that time had come to a standstill, or not quite. i am confused now.
At the end of it a lot of my preconceived notions about rural India were broken,and the beauty and hospitality of the people completely blew me away. During the 7 day trip we covered twenty villages,visited a lot of places of worship, saw palaces and forts, and one of these days I also went berserk shopping for their local handicrafts, what was to be picking up a souvenir ended as Christmas shopping..lol.I am not surprised.
What left me spellbound was the beauty and elegance in simple things around us.And the joy of taking a good shot.

Rats drinking milk at the Karni Mata mandir at Deshnok(yeah it is both disgusting and scary too look at it, you might have seen it on Discovery Channel)

Even if the ColPals and HLLs of the world haven't gotten there!!!

On our way back

A Pujari at the Karni Mata mandir

A majority of houses are still kachha in these areas, whats more interesting is the fact that they have one of the rooms as pacca and the rest of the house is made of mud.


One of these is a Hindu boy and another is a Muslim

I can't figure why but most of these damsels were just too photogenic .




















Spurious products still rule the roost

My entry for Nat-Geo

I find them fascinating like everyone else

I am sure it is not just Bubly and Bubly

Low Tech

I have so many thoughts in my mind when I log on to blogger, but just when its time to pen things down, I become tongue tied.I wonder if it just happens with me or what, but curiously I am the "starting-out-with-a-blank-sheet" kind of a person(pun unintended).And I am yet not so comfortable with technology,for example, in all my group meetings , when all the group mates are typing furiously, I 'd be in one corner scribbling something on a piece of 'Papyrus 2006'(also I am a little finicky about the ink that I use, it has to be black ink,no ball point pens for me please !)I can think better on a blank sheet of paper is what I have firmly held over these years, it does work for me.
I also feel strongly against reading from the computer screen, I don't know how people do it but I for sure know that I would never be able to read any e-book in my entire freaking life.And I would never want to for that matter.I remember how I used to shudder those readings for class in soft copy, there's no fun, one can't even underline:( .Same goes for e-papers, for some reason I can't sit with it for hours and hours like I did with Sunday Times ,(long long ago).Its distracting to read a newspaper when a hundred l'il boxes are blinking from here and there.In short my attention span with such electronic media is very low, and is going down by the day.

More often than not technology does make one's life simpler, and I use it like so extensively without even realising it, but for reading a writing I am better of without it.Really I don't see my kids spending their childhood reading Enid Blyton's from their comps,thank you very much.There are some things that go well with technology and there are some which for the time being better be left to themselves.

Lo'rrr've and all

I am neck deep in the preparation for Sankalp 2006, the annual play at college.I have been missing meals for it , if that is any indicator of the level of my commitment.(of course that is not bereft of my own vested interests,that of blah blah and blah.)It has engrossed me so much because this is where two 'loves' of my life, Theatre and Fashion converge.And Brand management is the jealous mistress.I wish i find a job like that.

I am following the beaten track, they caught me in post graduation.Not very long ago, I mean after twelfth I wrote the NIFT exam and cleared it, but was discouraged to take it up , 'coz parents thought it was not 'propah' enough ,or serious enough for a profession.I had to give my lo'rr've up.I find solace in the fact that I did not take up engineering(very much against my parents heartfelt wishes).But what was engineering's loss came to be management's gain.And part of it is me.I played it safe,by not venturing into designing that is.We all want to be safe isn't it, so did I.It seemed to be a gamble then.But i really wanted to be so many things , apart from an MBA,and what is an MBA. It is a degree after all. You don't even become an MBA, like say you become a Doctor.So what do you become, moolah chasers?I did it for several reasons I bet.

'Bali' by Girish Karnad, the renowned Indian playwright, writer,Actor , is the play for which I am designing the costumes. The scale of the play is larger than any other event at MICA ,except for MICANVAS.Its so much activity packed in the month of November.But what is worth mentioning is the passion , the gusto with which all MICA works towards it.It starts in the weather when you start feeling a slight nip in the air and goes up to the point where its spine-chilling cold.Undoubtedly it is the best time of the year for reasons more than one.

So long..

I tried to do a lot of stuff before resorting to this....like watched a movie and a half,cleaned my room,sorted out stuff on my comp,defragmented it,made a long playlist of songs I'd listen to while going to sleep,checked orkut,micamail(deleted all the spam from the poor l'il infested inbox),gmail,yahoomail....read the newspaper...

I am just not used to being idle,or lets put it like that, I am not used to having time for myself...today in days and days ...i had the night to myself...did not have any pending assignments,rehearsals for some play,a proposal to draft or a paper to write.

But the playlist is repeating itself now...

Ok its kinda weird ,like abrupt and all but wtf , its my blog...

soooo.....

I'm glad to go,I cannot tell a lie. I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly. The sun has gone to bed and so must I So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye,Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye!