Kapil Shukla blog

Fine Indian Dining in Singapore

2011-11-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

Sometime back I, along with a friend, went to famous Jiggs Kalra's Punjab Grill Restaurant in Singapore. The restaurant is located at Marina Bay Sands. I was a bit excited as we were going to have a five-course dinner, which I never had before. Here is my analysis:

Pros
1. Good service, food presentation
2. Good enough quantity and quality. My stomach was full by the end even though initially I thought that they were serving less
3. Hospitality

Cons
1. A bit costly. S$175 for two (with no drinks)
2. Place is small (it does not give you a feeling that you have come to a place you are going to spend that much), ambiance is ok

Went there again few days back. This time ordered ala-carte - one sabzi, basket of breads, soup. Quantity of sabzi is very nice - can feed 3 people, could not complete all the breads. Cost around S$80.

In all, a nice place to go once in a while

Gareeb gareeb, Ameer ameer (Poor More Poorer, Rich More Richer)

2011-11-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

I visited New Delhi a week back for office related work. During this trip, I get a chance to travel frequently in , Easy Cab, Meru Cab etc. As I was wondering about how this cab system works in India during my one hour long trip from the hotel to Nehru place in an Easy-Cab, I thought of asking the driver directly. Here is how the system works:

1. Every new joinee (driver) will have to pay a joining fee of ~INR 14k and be a member for 5 years
2. Every driver has to pay ~INR 1,300 per DAY to the company. If he fails to pay, he would not be sent notifications about guest requests at all and, therefore, be denied taking passengers
3. The booking charges (when the guest calls up the company) goes to the company
4. Maintenance is to be done by the driver
5. After 5 years, with few more thousands, the car belongs to the driver

Quite Interesting .. a bit of maths - 1300 per day * 30 days * 500 taxis = 1,95,00,000 per month + all the booking charges from delhi region alone for the company.

And the company is adding taxis (expanding) so the company is growing. All well and good as it seems for the car rental company.

However, when I asked the driver if he will continue this, he said that "sir, pichle 4 saalon me ameer aur ameer hua hai, aur gareeb gareeb". He continued explaining why - when he joined 4 years back, number of taxi were less so he was earning around 3000 per day (from that he will pay back 1300 to company every day). But the company has expanded over years, other rental companies have come up and, therefore, the waiting time has increased tremendously. He now earns around 1700-2000 per day and then has to give 1300 back to the company. Petrol prices have gone up and, therefore, the operating profit has gone down severely.

This is the state of drivers of every other car rental company, and truth behind the scenes. This was reconfirmed by another taxi driver in my other trip.

This led me thinking about how the taxi system works in Singapore and do the cabbies feel the same. Will have to check some day. However, I now understood that it is not always true that if the company grows, so does the prospect of its employees (indirect).

Brunch - Hediard Singapore

2011-04-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Now that I've started working, I've been exploring places in Singapore for dining and breakfast. I visited a place called Hediard, Paris, at Tanglin road. This is a french restaurant with an amazing ambiance. The theme is red. Once you enter, you see a room full of Hediard's chocolates, spices, wines, savories, tea and coffee. Further inside is the dining space. The good thing today were the weather was brilliant and there was no waiting. I ordered a set breakfast for S$19 which quite a bit of stuff, fine for one person. Alternatively, one can order from their regular menu as well.

Couple of good things I would like to mention for this place. First, they can prepare food for vegetarians (unlike John, The Grocer who is falling short of veg dishes) as my friend ordered Croq Ferdinand without Ham (nice dish with lots of cheese), and, second they obliged my request to put salt and pepper in fried egg :-). Not many restaurants do that.

Nice place to visit and look forward to visit soon.

Singapore - Selling Market

2011-04-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

Having stayed in Singapore for close to two years now, I have pretty much good idea on what skills and talent can one sell in Singapore with respect to IT companies. This post is coming out after researching (and further meeting/ chatting) a lot of profiles on LinkedIn. Almost all US MNCs will have regional hub here. So, here is my observation:

1. MBA is NOT required if one wants to get into sales and business development. Marketing does. I've never been asked about my MBA experience during my sales and bd interviews.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

2. Only two types of people are inherently searched for sales/bd roles
2a. who have prior background in sales.
2b. who belong to an industry and possess good knowledge about it.
This is understandable as the bonus component of a sales manager will be dependent on his team and certainly the manager will not like to take risk if you cant sell, does not matter what your resume looks like.

3. Most directors/vp sales/bd folks in good companies have worked at Oracle Singapore at some point in time.

Finally, an Internship

2010-06-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally secured an internship. I'll be working in Singapore Telecom (SingTel) for a period of 8 weeks. My journey over finding an internship that really adds value to my resume has been quite tough and frustrating. And altogether, I wasnt actually looking forward to do this kind of an internship. I was focusing more on getting exposure to a financial one, but finance just proved too hard to get into at this point in time.

Nonetheless, the internship seems to be very promising and will definitely give an opportunity to look deep into SingTel's business and future strategy. All I can say is the 3 internships I rejected and the time I spent in pursuit of a valuable internship continued is worth the wait.

MBA in Recession

2010-03-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

I remember many people saying to me that it is a good time to do an MBA when market is in recession. People have given reasons such as since market wont be recovering it makes sense to get a degree and one can get a good job when it returns back after a period of one year. I agreed to this view until recently when I started realizing one important thing.

For me, I believe there are two motives to do an MBA, one is job and other is enjoyment. Since this is going to be the last time you will be a student, you want to enjoy as much as you can. However, when market is in recession, there are constant worries in your mind, whether you will be getting a good internship/job or will you be extending your semester, does it make sense to go back to your native country, does it make sense to return back to your previous employer. These thoughts definitely do not make your MBA enjoyable. Or am I thinking too much?

Bad Times

2010-03-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Never ever in my life I've felt so low. The time is difficult and opportunities are rare. The MBA has taken a toll on my body, my ambition and my desire to stay in a foreign country. The job scene is difficult and seniors have started to go back to India.

Things change so fast. Not matter how smart, how talented, how motivated you are; at some point in your life you will feel that what all you did is just waste and there is no opportunity ahead. You will started doubting your capabilities, start questioning your achievements, start feeling homesick, start hiding. I'm feeling the same exact emotion. Sadly, my time of horror has come.

See how times change. My MBA journey started in 2004 when I took my GMAT as per my cousin's advise. It didnt go well and then after 3 years I took it again. It went extremely well. I applied for few colleges. Rejected by every single college. Changed strategy, applied again next year. Got admit in two. Received scholarship that made life extremely easy. Extremely happy. I thought it will add some value to the resume as well. But now I'm stuck again. Time changed and now struggling hard to get a single interview call for an internship.

Anyway, this will happen and keep on happening. No one can do anything about it, no one can change anything. Its just situation based. My degree and work experience is probably worthless today. I'm waiting the the time to change again. Not sure how long do I have to wait.

Papaji's Eternal Question

2009-07-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today, my father asked me THE QUESTION again that he has been asking ever since I went to Toronto, Canada in 2003. I got to intern under a professor for a period of 3 months. When I told him about this, he went ecstatic, however, at the same time got worried whether I would be able to communicate with people over there. So he asked me, “yaar, tum English me baat kar lete ho?” (Can you converse in English?). Well, his doubt was relevant as I hardly secured good marks in English during school time. Though studied in Saint Paul’s Senior Secondary English Medium School from nursery to Eleventh, I could hardly speak English when I went to IIT. I justified my grasp in English when I secured 64/100 marks in 10th Board Examination. But wait, this isn’t true for only me. Take a random sample from any Boys Only English Medium School and I’m sure hardly 50% (very optimistic) of the students will speak good English. That’s the current status of Kota students.

So, while having evening snacks yesterday, he asked me the eternal question again, “tum English bol lete ho?”. I smiled subtly and replied “Papaji, Singapore ja raha hoon full scholarship pe, kya lagta hai aapko?” He said immediately, “doubt”. He is very sure that my sisters know English very well, but not me. Though I don’t rate myself excellent in speaking English yet it is still in much much better state. I explained to him that I worked in a Multi National for 5 years where almost every day I was talking to people located outside India. I told him that I’ve given so many MBA interviews both on telephone and in-person. However, all efforts went futile. Probably it is high time to show him my Toastmaster videos. But then, I think his response will be that this is only one way talk, where are others in this communication? Looks like, very soon I’ll have to give him a live performance.

Rakhi Ka Swayamvar – An Innovative One

2009-07-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

No matter what public thinks, no matter what news channels project, no matter what the film industry really feels; Rakhi Sawant is one girl which is gaining popularity day by day. And why not she is the bride to be of the one of the most innovative Indian serial I’ve ever witnessed in a very long time. All the music talent reality shows, MTVs youths’ shows, numerous talent hunts are essentially copycats, oops inspiration, of foreign TV serials. However, Rakhi Ka Swayamvar is one hell of an innovative serial. And no matter what Indian public thinks of Rakhi Sawant, they are still watching the serial. Frankly speaking, my parents and I are following this serial.

At first, this seems quite intrigue, however then I analyzed why people are interested in watching this serial. Here are my two cents:

1. People are tired of watching same kind of serials on any channel. I believe they are watching just because they don’t have anything else to watch. In two days of my stay at home, I’ve realized that the current trend in the television industry is to project the hardships of villagers. New serials are all based on village concept. And the current ones that started before this unique revolution (?) have introduced the concept by marrying one girl into a family that has roots in a village. If you disagree with me, then browse any serial between 8 – 11 pm and confirm yourself. So people are looking for something new. The idols, laughter challenge shows are all old, repetitive and, hence, boring. People want change and the Swayamvar just brings that.

2. People really want to know what the swayamvar is all about. Most people I’ve talked to in this short span of time have two things to say: 1. Have you seen the contestants? All are chosen according to Rakhi’s standard, and 2. Is Rakhi really going to marry one of the contestants? I don’t want to comment on Rakhi’s standard, however, I also found the contestants funny. The first episode was hilarious when all the contestants were introduced. Watch it to understand what I'm trying to say. Even Rakhi’s expressions and his innocent type image where she claims she is looking for love in one of the ultimate contestant will bring a broad smile on one’s face. You will think what stupidity is this, but then I bet if you change the channel. Is Rakhi going to marry the candidate? I don’t know. May be yes but then how much time is spent today in taking a divorce.

But in all sense, the serial has brought refreshment and will going to pull crowd as it progresses.

UPDATE
One of the contestants says he is married. Now thats innovation. Isnt it?

IPL: Ultimate Debacle For Team India

2009-06-17T06:45:00.001-07:00

Many people off late have talked about IPL being a problem for the early exit of Team India in T20 tournament. Well, I agree too, however, I've my sets of reasons that probably led to the failure. Here they are:

1. To bring entertainment in the game, IPL committee brought a cut in the ground size. This worked very well for the batters in the tournament and we started assuming all Indian hitters such as Raina, Yousuf etc. capable of clearing the ropes easily. However, that wasnt the case in the T20 World cup.

2. The rule of only 4 foreign players allowed in a team put a constraint on the captain to pick at least 2 batsmen and 1 all rounder. We hardly saw a genuine bowler being included in a team. The damage that it has done is that most of the Indian batters got to score against their Indian counterparts. They rarely got to face ulitmate deliveries from reputed foreign bowlers. Raina, Rohit etc. were in great form in IPL, however, when they faced really good deliveries in T20 championship, they fell cheaply. Rohit was playing brilliantly as a finisher, so we all think he is good form and so his promotion as an opener seemed justified. But then he failed badly in T20. Hence, I think form of Indian players in IPL cannot be taken as a good reference point to determine a player's form.

3. Lack of Coordination. One more damage that IPL has done to the team is that the tournament allowed several Indian players to captain their respective team. There was Sehwag, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Gautam who were captaining their team. They have tried their own strategies in their games and since every player's style is different, it definitely needs a little bit of time to get accustomed to play under a captain. I feel that time was not there, and eventually what we saw was a lack of coordination.

Prisoner Of Your Own Fears

2009-06-17T04:36:00.001-07:00

My Toastmaster Level 5 Speech Video and Content.

Friends call him a live cricket encyclopedia. And why not, Shantaram is a diehard cricket fan. Today is the day he was waiting for a long time. India v/s Australia final. After witnessing India’s bowling performance in the first half, Shantaram was quite sure India will be lifting up the cup. While watching the Indian Batting in the middle overs, he left his seat to grab a cup of coffee. When he returned back, to his dismay, he noticed India lost a key wicket. “Look at those crazy fellows. One good chance they have got to beat Aussies and they are beeping[sound] it up.” He said angrily to himself. This sequence continued a couple of times. Every time he left his seat, India lost a wicket. He got desperate and fear of losing started grappling his mind. He decided not to leave his seat until the match gets over. With more ups and downs, however without losing any wicket, India won the game. Shantaram was probably the happiest man in the world; however, he became a victim of one of the most incomprehensible phenomenon of the world. Any idea what phenomenon am I talking about? Toastmaster and guests, yes this phenomenon is called Superstition, which has gripped millions of people around the world centuries after centuries and has force them to believe in something which can never be explained using normal equations of cause and effect. Today, I'm going to talk about how it influences people in a subtle way and how we can take a small step towards curbing it.

Most of the superstitions are usually harmless. Wearing your lucky shirt, lucky tie on your interview, writing an exam with a lucky pen. So what exactly is the problem with being superstition? Superstition is so powerful that it leads you to attribute your successes to something outside yourself. This essentially means that you are held back from unleashing your own inner strengths and abilities. Loss of confidence. First problem!!! Next is even if something negative happens one is not going to attribute the failure of the outcome to the superstition. The person will start blaming other factors and not the superstition. I happened to witness a perfect example of this in the recently concluded Indian Premiere League, IPL. Match after match, Mumbai Indians kept on losing, however, Mrs Neeta Ambani was not willing to give up her superstition of having sit Zaheer Khan and Praveen Amre beside her for the entire match. One never kills his/her superstition and because of this the pile of superstitions keeps on increasing and then we graciously pass the baggage to our children who follow these superstitions blindly. Second problem !!!

Superstition is a part of the very being of the humanity and getting completely away from it is next to impossible. Even the great philosophers, famous scientists, engineers were and are superstitious. So how we get rid of it? Well, we can make a brilliant start to challenge our superstitions by start taking risks for not so important tasks where failure does not hamper us in any way. And then increasing our risk appetite slowly. For example, in case of Shantaram, if India had lost, he would suffered a setback momentarily. But not for ever. I remember when I was in 11^th standard preparing for a competitive exam, my obdurate mind would instruct me to do lots of stupid stuffs. “kapil, hold your breath for 45 seconds or else you will not score well in tomorrow’s exam”. In a day I don’t remember how many times I did this thing. So I decided to take risk, not do such stupid things and spend more time concentrating on studies. The risk paid off and I started believing in my abilities. Since then, I’ve tasted both successes and failures many times, but every time I savor success I know it’s only myself that I need to congratulate. This gave a boost to my confidence and allowed me to softly, slowly, steadily kill many of my superstitions.

To conclude, I would like to empasize that these little rituals of magic are so much part of our culture that we question them, forget questioning them, we dont even notice them. I appeal everyone sitting here to not allow yourself to become prisoner of your own fears. Don’t let superstition rule your mind and wreck your life. Instead, try hard, reaaaal hard, to overcome your fears by inspiring confidence in yourself, inspiring authority in your decisions, inspiring trust in your actions. You will then realize and enjoy the person who is truly you and not someone like Shantaram.

WWE: Perfect Entertainment

2009-06-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

My Toastmaster Level 4 Speech. Don't have the video, hence, posting the content.

The talking has stopped, the action has begun; this is going to be a one night of hell in a cell. One second, you see a fiery fist, like a ton of bricks, smashed on the opponent's skull; the other second you witness a monstrous insurmountable body flying through the air and striking the opponent's body. Yes, I knew the fights were scripted and choreographed. I knew that the brutal blood bath in the middle of the ring was planned. However, I loved watching these fights. And my love for the game continues even today. Imagine two iconic players engaged in a fearsome battle just to entertain the audience. Imagine an arena where use of metal casket, metal chair, and sledgehammer are legal just to entertain the audience. Imagine a billion dollar industry that has got no mission but just to entertain the audience at any cost. Wow. It’s a perfect entertainment. And that’s what WWE; World Wrestling Entertainment is all about.

Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and guests, today I'm going to step into WWE arena and punch out reasons for watching WWE fights even today.

Well, WWE is a simulated sport that combines acting, theater and wrestling. Among the three, I've enjoyed the acting part of WWE most. Not only the wrestlers act, but also the Chairman, the management committee members, the commentators and you are not going to believe it, even referees. Let me paint a picture of how a referee brings an element of entertainment in a WWE fight. Sometimes during a match, a wrestler will knock down the referee. And to emphasize the boldness, the braveness, the brazenness of the wrestler, the referee will act as if he has lost consciousness. After sometime, when the wrestler has done all the damage on the opponent, the referee will spring to life. But wait, he wont stands up on his legs. Instead, to further dramatize the situation, he will crawl slowly towards the center of the ring, inciting roaring crowd's enthusiasm, excitement and exhilaration. With all energy left, he will tap 3 times on the floor. NOW that is articulation and acting at its best.

The next part I enjoy about WWE is smartly anchored stories, ie the theatrical part. Every fight of WWE is superbly written and executed. WWE fight stories are like forest where if one loses the track for few episodes, he is bound to get lost. One week you witness two wrestlers teamed up and fighting against another team and then few episodes later, they would be feuding against each other. WWE would project a wrestler as a haunted spirit, who has got magical powers and resides in the dark valley of Bermuda Triangle. They would even stage death of a wrestler and initiate a fake FBI investigation. The investigation further would heat up equations with numerous other wrestlers and the story ends up creating catchy drama and much awaited high profile fight. Gosh!!! Too much creativity and I bet if anyone doesn’t laugh watching such episodes.

Now the wrestling part. WWE is not a professional sport; therefore, the wrestlers have to be very careful while executing their steps. One wrong step can end a wrestler's career and may be even life. Jumping off the rings, slamming on the floor are not very simple moves. I say these are not simple moves because I experienced it first hand. I remember I had an ugly fight with my schoolmate on the basketball court. After exchanging few heated words, I galloped in the air and performed a stunt of my favorite wrestler. My entire body was in the air, horizontal. And just when I was about to execute my final act, ie hit him with my legs, my opponent tricked me. He simply moved one step back. And here I was suspended freely in the air. I cycled my legs, but nothing happened and then the gravitational force took control of my body. I landed, no crashed, on the cemented floor, hurting my hand and chest badly. This incident led me to believe that how difficult it is to stage a fake fight that looks real on camera. I respect wrestlers for bringing out such a kind of entertainment to audience while hurting their own body.

As a kid, I never understood, why the concept of fake fighting works. Why do WWE producers think that the audience would believe in their masterly modulated fights or stories? Well, the answer is simple. WWE works as a Magic where if one can fool the audience, even for a second, then you get to see something really special... it is the look on the audience faces. Audience knows the truth but still can’t believe what they have just witnessed. It’s a perfect combination of acting, theater and fight that entertains the audience. And that’s what WWE is all about. Entertaining the audience.

Lets Talk

2009-03-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

Remember the movie 12 Angry Men, or the Indianized version Ek Ruka Hua Faisla, where 11 of the 12 jurors hurriedly agreed that the convicted boy killed his father and, hence, should be awarded the punishment. Only one of them wasn't sure and in his response he asked all others to talk.

I saw this movie long time back, however, I got to understand the meaning of the whole movie around 10 days back. This, again, is with respect to my dilemma over choosing NUS or ISB for MBA. In this case, I was mimicking the 12th juror and wanted to talk about pros and cons of each institute and, finally, arrive at the conclusion. In the process, I talked to close to 15 people that really made me help taking a thoughtful/fantastically analyzed decision. And now almost everyone I talk to agrees with my reasoning. This was exactly the case in both movies as well.

Now, whenever I'll be confused, I just have to make sure that I go out, meet people and say: 'Lets Talk'.

My First Management Lesson

2009-02-27T12:42:00.001-08:00

I got to learn my first management lesson from my elder cousin brother, Sachin, when I was in a huge dilemma over finalizing NUS or ISB for my MBA. When ISB result was declared on Feb 10th, I had a mixed feeling as I had admit from NUS as well. I called up Sachin's elder brother, Nitin, who is working in Shell (Hague, Netherlands). We decided to have a conference call in the night. After that I called up Sachin and told him to attend the conference. He agreed. Then he asked me what is Nitin suggesting. I told him that he would place his bet on NUS.

Around 11PM we started the conference. Nitin preferred NUS and Sachin ISB. In the middle, I was analyzing their opinion. After approx 40 minutes, having discussed a lot we departed. It was an inconclusive talk. I knew I had to research more to make a decision. For next 2 days, I talked to ISB alums/students and made up my mind to go to ISB. I called up Sachin and told him about my position. He sounded amused at my decision. I told him that even you preferred ISB that day. He laughed and told me that he asked about what Nitin is inclined at only because he could take the other side and represent ISB. Otherwise, there was nothing to discuss in the call. Both of us would be talking about NUS and I would have got influenced by a biased conference call. He then told me that he also thinks that NUS is a much better destination at these circumstances. I, then, told him that I've only talked to ISB's alum/student for last two days. He quickly pointed me that this is because I've heard only one side of the story. He asked me to talk to people representing NUS.

I talked to many NUS folks then and finally I'm headed to NUS. During these 4-5 days, I got to learn my first Management Lesson (thanks to Sachin brother): "It is important to have views from all sides while discussing a strategy/case. If not, then your final result/decision is biased."

MBA Journey - Part 1

2009-02-23T07:55:00.001-08:00

My journey to get into an MBA college has finally ended. I applied to 3 universities: Kellogg, ISB and NUS, this year and got admits from NUS and ISB. Earlier Kellogg gave me a false admit. It was a tough decision to choose NUS over ISB, but, after talking to so many people choosing NUS seemed to be more strategic.

In this post, I'll just discuss about my preparation for the GMAT exam.

Well, to be frank, my journey to MBA started during my last semester in IIT Bombay. My elder brother, an IIM Bangalore Alumnus, preferred to do a foreign MBA over an Indian MBA and, hence, guided me to prepare for GMAT examination. He told me to take the exam before graduating from IIT because the score remains valid for 5 years and, hence, makes sense to take the exam before getting into the corporate world. I did a one month preparation and scored just 660. I was kinda happy because I targeted 650 and I heard that above 650 is a good score. But, once I entered the job market I realized that at least 700 is a must to apply in good colleges. I was in no mood to take the exam then, so deferred it. But, importantly, I made a conscious effort to read articles, editorials seriously to improvise my grammar. I did that for almost 3 years. Truly speaking, learning grammar is a fun. There are rules, so if you know them it becomes a cake walk to spot a mistake.

Then after 2 years, ie in 2006, after making a trip to California I decided to prepare for GMAT seriously. During this time, one of my very good friend, Dhruv Garg, took the exam and scored 760. I took complete advantage of him and discussed strategies to click the score. One of most important ones I remember is to take the date when one is half done with the course. Mostly people take the date first and then start preparing. Bad Idea. What one should do is familiarize oneself with the course, take some practice tests and identify how much time is needed to be completely fit for the exam. With this intention, I prepared for at least one month and then took the date keeping in mind about the limited time I had for studies. Another strategy we discussed was to never take Kaplan tests. Standard of Kaplan test is way higher than the actual GMAT standard. So, why bug yourself with difficult questions. Kaplan acts as a de-motivator.

When I started, I felt quite comfortable in solving sentence correction and critical reasoning questions. I had some serious trouble with reading comprehension. I was scoring reasonably well in stars, biological related comprehensions, however, when it came to philosophy, humanities related comprehension I was getting screwed big time. So, I discussed this problem with my friend Dhruv and he suggested me to change my strategy to answer such types of comprehensions. I tried several strategies such as writing a line about what has happened in a particular para, writing only keywords (such as however, therefore, but etc.), reading the question first and then reading the comprehension, etc. The one that really worked was writing the keywords. Writing these keywords helped me understand the tone of the paragraph.

I never spend too much time on Maths. For essay writing, I understood the basics from Official guide to GMAT and gave one week time of preparation. I referred to following books/materials for preparation:
1. Official Guide to GMAT
2. Manhattan Sentence Correction (Awesome Book)
3. 1000 questions on Sentence Correction, Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning (search on net)
4. ETS and PowerPrep Tests (I scored 720 and 740 in 2 ETS tests)

This was my strategy to crack GMAT and in the end it worked out pretty well. Scoring 750 and 5.5 (essays) was something I never thought of, but then while I was writing the test I got the feeling that I would score more than 700.

My Walk Towards Old Age

2009-02-05T04:41:00.001-08:00

I forget things, places, names etc..

Recently, many activities have happened to me that reinforced my belief that I don't have a sharp memory or I've reached the phase where "old" people start forgetting stuff . Really, Am I getting old? I got embarrassed recently when I forgot the name of my teammate while I was having snacks in the cafeteria. I was watching the television. As he passed by, I wanted to call and ask him to increase the volume. So, I, hastily, raised my hand to call him. But then I stopped. I just couldn't recall his name. Amit, no anuj, no shit !! whats his name. Finally, I gave up and did this: "whistle, oye, could you increase the volume please?"

And, can anyone forget a girl and that too a hot one? Not many, but I did. In my office, we (My friends and I) used to call a girl '2nd Floor'. It has nothing to do with his seating location being at 2nd floor. But the way she used to comb her hair was unusual. We thought that the starting point of pony tail was a bit higher than usual. So, 2nd floor it is for referring her. She worked in the office for a short period of time. After 3-4 months, one day my friend (Devesh) and I were going out for dinner and while talking he referred to the girl as 2nd floor. I just could not remember her face. I asked Devesh to tell her name and he, cunningly, replied "we never try hard to know anyone's name. We just know her by 2nd Floor." Bull shit !!! What the hell. And now all I was interested in recognizing her face. I, immediately, called our third friend and he gave me some hints and I could finally locate the 2nd Floor Neuron in my brain. How can anyone forget a girl's face? Awful!!!

I'm seriously contemplating whether these are the signs of me walking towards old age. May be its usual, but I need to be more proactive in remembering things. Anyhow. Would grandma's philosphy of eating 5-6 almonds a day work? I guess I should try.

Black Dog

2009-02-02T11:46:00.001-08:00

Last year I decided to taste all kinds of Whisky and Rum to understand what I like. I tried numerous brands, of course GlennFiddich and Black Label are still out of range, and finally settled with Black Dog. I loved the taste. However, explaining taste of a Whisky to anyone is a difficult job. So, whenever someone asks me why I prefer Black Dog, I take help of Bollywood's Super-Duper movie - Shahenshah. In a certain scene, Amrish Puri, after a brief interaction with Meenakshi Sheshadri, decides to order Black Dog instead of the regular one. Prem Chopra gets intrigued and asks him for a reason. Amrish replies:

"Jab bhi me koi hasin titli dekhta hoon, mere ander ke sainkado kutte bhokne lagte hain. Unhe shant karne ke liye me Black Dog peeta hoon."

haha. It gives me great pleasure when someone asks me why Black Dog and I pay tribute to the movie by repeating this dialogue.

Talent: Can come In Any Form

2009-01-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

We've all witnessed talent in one way or the other. Yesterday, I witnessed amazing talent of a lady who teaches English and Music in a school. I visited the school that was about 12 kms away from Marathahalli. The school is one of the best government school I've seen in my entire life. Very well maintained, with teachers taking initiatives to make it more exciting/hygienic for the students. I've never seen Mats being used in a government school. Mostly, students sit on the floor if there are no benches, which is usually the case with almost every other government school. However, in this school one class has proper benches and in the other teachers use Mats on the floor.

We met the lady, N. Rudramma, who teaches English and Music to students. She commutes from Malur, around two and half hours journey, every alternate day to reach the school. She gets up everyday at 4.30am and reaches the school by 8.30am. Her spoken English was much better than many Montessori school's students. She is the sole bread earner for her family. Though she is not employed in the school as a government teacher, the staff employed her seeing her talent and dedication to come to the school every alternate day. She was getting paid till September till the funds were available. Maugre not being paid for last 3 months, she continues her dedication to teach the students and continues traveling every alternate day.

The reason I said the lady has talent is because she is blind. The lady is a BA graduate and an excellent Harmonium teacher. I witnessed her skills live when she played the Harmonium on our request. Every finger was getting placed perfectly on the keys just like every teeth of the Bike's Gear fits perfectly in the chain. Given my limited knowledge on Music, I couldn't figure out any misplaced Sur. Brilliant !!!

I went with a representative from India Sudar Organization. The organization has taken the responsibility of paying her salary till Dec 2009. While awarding the cheque to her, I could see the light on her face. She was extremely happy. While she was thanking all of us with kind words, I took my handkerchief to wipe off the tears silently.

ToastMaster Advancement

2009-01-23T02:27:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying Toastmaster sessions since I joined and have made couple of Advancement in the Communicator series. My 2nd level speech was based on Comics and 3rd level on New Year Resolutions. Fortunately, I've videos of both the speeches.

Level 2 Speech:

Level 3 Speech:

More speeches to follow in coming time.

I'm Back

2009-01-22T03:44:00.000-08:00

After a long sabattical, I'm active again. Since I've applied for MBA again this year, it was inevitable to disable the blog for personal reasons.

Stay tuned for more posts!!!

Aah, Umm

2008-07-20T01:33:00.000-07:00

An advantage of joining ToastMasters club (I'm sorry for too much posts on Toastmasters these days, but I'm getting so much involved that I can't resist talking about it :) ) is that there are people who would evaluate you and give constructive feedback. One of the feedbacks that one receives is the number of times speaker utter filler words such as 'Umm, Aah, annnddddd ...'. During my prepared speech, I didn't utter a single filler word. This probably happened because I was prepared and didnt forget anything during the speech. However, during all my impromptu speeches, I got a feedback that I say these words close to 4-5 times. Impromptu speeches last for only 1-2 minutes and so much usage of filler words would definitely wont categorize someone as a good speaker.

Nowadays, I take a lot of care while speaking English with my teammates during meetings or conference calls. But then one day, while talking to my family on phone, I realized that I falter as well as stumble while speaking in Hindi as well. This is a good realization as I now believe that without getting this corrected first, it will take a lot of time for me to gain expertize in English. I believe that the path would be much more easier and glib this way rather than jumping into the English territory first.

So, I'm gonna try this first and get my basics right.

Overdose of MC

2008-07-12T12:34:00.001-07:00

People who have graduated from college and are now working in multinationals still feel that they are living student's life. I met one such fellow few days back. I must have spend good 5-6 hours with him and found that he spoke MC (Indianised version of Mother F***er) umpteen number of times. In fact, no sentence was completed without this word. I don't know what was he trying to prove, but, I felt only sorry for his senseless humor.

I agree that I too utter these words, but I do that cautiously. Every such word in a sentence has a purpose and we should pay respect to it. Using them without any need just makes me feel sorry for the speaker and nothing else. I've a friend at my workplace who I've seen speaking MC only once during my entire interaction with him for over a period of 4 years now. And I felt the impact when he said that. It just got better with the word. Bingo! thats how one should use these words. These are magical words, when used correctly sets the entire tone of the conversation.

I sincerely ask people to watch and learn from 'Pulp Fiction'. Contrary to what I've said above, MF is used in probably every dialogue of the movie. However, the word fits so perfectly in there that I cannot imagine Pulp Fiction to be a big hit without these dialogues. If you can do justice to these magical words, fine, use them else misbehaving with them only lowers your standard.

Practikke mackke mmannnn perppect

2008-07-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

Can you read the title clearly?

You, probably, will speak in a similar fashion when you deliver your first speech in front of your audience. No matter how much prepared you are, you will definitely infuse a sentence that sounds similar to the title. Murphy's law/adage holds true in public speaking as well. For those who don't know about Murphy's law, it goes like this: 'If there is a small chance of going something wrong/unexpected in your activity (be it demonstration, presentation, public speech etc.), then it will go wrong during the activity'.

The fear of public speaking is always there in me. To take out this fear, I joined ToastMaster club in my office and delivered my first speech today. First speech is popularly known as the 'Ice Breaker' Speech where the speaker introduces himself to the club members. The speech should be about 4-6 minutes long. I prepared my speech well in advanced and keep on practicing again and again in my room and office's empty conference room. I was confident that I would be able to deliver a flawless speech. 3 of us were giving the speeches today (one was giving his P2 and other P4). I was the first one to speak. When I was invited by the toastmaster, my heartbeat gained a phenomenal speed and sound. Though no one told me, however, I felt that my heartbeat was much louder than my voice during the start. I was well prepared but suddenly started to lose words when I started speaking. I had to look into the eyes of the people sitting there while speaking (I used to prepare in an empty room) and Murphy bhaisaheb (brother) was just waiting for this moment. This was the unknown factor that I didn't deal with while practising earlier and started to lose concentration. I probably would have muttered something similar to Practikke mackke mmannnn perppect. However, I held back my conscious and ended well.

I got the award for Best Prepared Speaker of the session. Since I was competing with guys who were delivering their P2 and P4, I felt good in the end. My continuous practice saved me from the embarrassment I would have had if I was not well prepared. Indeed, Practice makes a man Perfect.

First ToastMaster Meeting

2008-05-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

How well can you think on your feet? Can you go on stage and speak on a subject/scenario without preparation? or lets make life simple: How well can you deliver a prepared speech?

I cannot. Thats why I joined my company's ToastMaster Club. I heard about this club around 1 year back and immediately concluded that it is a cool platform to improve upon public speaking skills. Unfortunately, i was so messed up with my application and office work that I didnt attend any meeting. Number 1 mistake !!! Anyways, after recent happenings at office, with lots of boredom and free time, I thought about attending the meeting and did that last week.

The format of these meetings is pretty simple. There will be 2-3 prepared speeches of about 4-5 minutes each and 5-6 impromptu speech lasting about 1-2 minutes each. I loved the impromptu part the most. It actually tests how far your imagination can go in just 5-10 seconds.

When I last attended the meeting, I didnt speak on any topic. There was a slight change in the impromptu speeches this time. Usually only one speaker speaks on the given issue. The host gave us a situation where there is a discussion going on between a vendor and a buyer. Buyer faces a problem and comes to the shop to discuss it with the vendor. The host then asked 2 of us to take up any role. It is up to the buyer to choose any type of problem. The host asked me if I want to take up the vendor role. I said yes, though reluctantly. I didnt have any clue of what I would be saying/asking on the stage. The other guy was smart. He described the situation as: I bought a shoe from your shop sometime back and after sometime the shoe has started biting me. What do I do now?

The room burst into laughter. On the other side, I was blank. I had never been in such a situation before and not even a single thing was clicking in my mind. The other guy was well prepared and was throwing one problem after another because he had faced this problem sometime back. I said something that I dont remember to continue the conversation, but I was sure it wasnt up to the mark the audiences were expecting. Eventually it finished.

Though I couldnt say much, I got to know about my weakness. It always seemed trivial to me after hearing other's speeches, but I couldnt say a meaningful sentence at all. I'm happy to learn about my weakness and I see an opportunity to work on that as well.

Khali Mania

2008-05-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

The new superhero/sensation has arrived in India few days back. I happened to be at my native place during that time, so witnessed complete coverage. The amount of coverage media has given to him, I doubt if he does not get a Padma Shri this year even though I don't know about his WWE achievements.

Here are some facts I can recollect after watching the Khali episode again and again (and on almost every news channel)

1. Khali keval 'Parmatma' se darta hai.

2. Khali ko aaj sabse jyada ek bacche ki chah hai.

3. Khali ka ek mukka 100 kilo ka hai.

4. Khali ko abhi sabse jyada apni maa se milna ka intezaar hai.

5. Khali WWE champion isliye nahi ban paaya kyunki use 'dhoke' :) se haraya gaya tha.

and many more...

Khali might have impressed biggies such as Sachin, Sharukh etc however, watching him repeatedly on news channel and posed with absurd questions from the media have turned off many people, including my parents.

An interesting conversation with my mother one evening while I was browsing channels. I turned to a channel epitomizing Khali's adventure.

I: Mummy, dekho Khali...
Mummy: arre maar goli Khali ko .. sab pagal ho rahe hain Khali ke liye
I: arre dekho to sahi
Mummy: tu Khali chorr, Saloni (Zee's Saat Phere drama) laga ..

I dont know if he is a real superstar or a media-hyped sensational figure. But, at the moment, media is going gaga over Khali Mania.

No Smoking

2008-04-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Recently, my friend quit smoking. He is in early thirties and smoking since his college time. He used to smoke at least 4 cigarettes a day: morning, afternoon, evening and after dinner. And seeing him just quitting smoking like that was a shock to me. The shock was not that he did that all at once, but, the manner in which he quit.

A magical truth: no one wants any other person to smoke. It does not matter whether the person smokes or not. None of my friend's family member smokes and his family knows that he smokes. His family member, particularly mother, must have told him thousands of time to quit or at least bring down the frequency. He didn't give any heed to that. I must have told him numerous times to do the same. He agreed sometimes and didn't smoke for 3-4 days. But then he started again. He justified the wise saying "Quiting smoking is very easy. I've done that thousands of time.".

Recently, he got engaged and made a visit to the fiancee's town. One meeting and thats all it took for him to quit smoking. When asked about it why did you do that, he said it is the "Fear of Losing" someone that made him quit smoking. That, inherently, means 2 things: Family and friends can be taken for granted and he is going to start smoking once he is married. He agreed to the first one and denied the second. He wanted me to bet on second, however, I refused because I don't bet. I've no other choice but to wait and watch. My feeling is that he would start again sometime.

Anyways, thats the start of his commitments/compromise list and I don't know how many more he would have to do, but the first one have been the best one (only if he maintains).

Hello ... April Fool

2008-04-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Some days back, I encountered my best April Fool prank. It was performed on me and I would not say I didnt enjoy it.

I wanted to talk to a friend after a long time, so dialed his number. I heard "tring-tring". Ok sounds fine. To my surprise, some lady (with beautiful voice) picked up the phone and said "Hello". I disconnected the phone without saying anything. Lets try again. Redial. Again the same lady picked up the phone. I thought let me talk to her this time and ask for my friend. Here is the conversation:

Lady: Hello
Me: Hello, may I speak to ...
Lady (interrupted me) Hello ...
Me: Hello
Lady: Hello, Hello
Me: Hello, may I speak to ... (in my mind... what the hell .. is she deaf?)
Lady: Hello ... ab kuch bolo bhi ... kaun hai?

I disconnected the phone again. Looks like communication problem. Redial.

Lady: Hello
Me: Hi .. this is Kapil here... May I speak to ..
Lady: Hello ...
I was mum now ... looks like same communication problem again
Lady: Hello, Hello
Lady: Hello ... ab kuch bolo bhi ... kaun hai?
Me (in my mind) : what .. why is repeating the same thing?
Lady: bolte kyun nahi ...
Me (in my mind): ok something new

then suddenly I heard this voice:
"April fool ... and then Hutch's theme song .... You and I, in this beautiful world...."
As I was hearing this song, my friend picked up the phone. He already knew that I was struggling with the lady. He told me that every other person calling on his mobile was facing the unusual talk and thats why he was taking time to pick up the phone.

Lovely prank !!! I enjoyed it.

NatGeo: Knowledge Bank

2008-03-30T01:26:00.000-07:00

National Geographic, popularly known as NatGeo, channel is the one that has caught my attention for past 1 year. I got to learn a lot about numerous events, design errors, dangerous drugs, explosives, world-wars, martial arts etc. from this channel. Favorite among the programme are Seconds from Disaster, Situation Critical and Aircrash Investigations. NatGeo does dramatize these serials and very efficiently as well (not like Sansani on Aaj tak). I started viewing Seconds from Disaster (SFD) around 1 year back and immediately became a fan. When SFD finished I searched internet for more episodes. These serials are amazing and you not only learn about the final event but also get to know how bits of pieces unfold and combine to trigger a disaster. I made DVDs and actively distributing these DVDs to friends to share the knowledge.

Here is the comment from one of my friends who watched "Apollo 13" episode on Situation Critical. "I watched Apollo 13 movie as a MOVIE, but when I learned through NatGeo that every bit of information presented in the movie is actually real, I was shocked.". Well I was shocked too. Till then I also didnt know that Apollo 13 just orbited the moon and came back safely to Earth. Their mission is known better as "Successful Failure". Amazing story and a brilliant example of teamwork. Watch the movie if you can, but I'm pretty sure you will not be able to appreciate until you watch NatGeo's Situation Critical episode on Apollo 13. This is because most of the times you wont understand what controls are the characters referring to in the movie.

There is, however, a problem I'm facing after watching numerous episodes on Airplane Crash Investigations. Whenever I fly now, I always have numerous doubts floating in my mind:
1. Is the Rudder working?
2. Is the TCAS (Traffic collision and avoidance system) working properly? Sometime back there was a news that there is at least one incidence per month of 2 airplanes flying dangerously close.
3. Was the airplane service done responsibly? and many more.
You cannot imagine what I feel when an airplane makes a turn or passes through clouds. Ugly !!!

I'm currently watching World War 1 and trying to brush up what I learned in 10th standard. I would recommend anyone to switch to NatGeo if you turn on your TV and start watching already seen movie or daily star/sony etc soaps. You probably wont get entertainment but, I bet, you would definitely add something in your Knowledge Bank.

True Intentions

2008-03-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

It is very difficult to get through another person's mind until he is a close confidante of yours. According to me, the best way to force people to speak up their minds is by giving them an initial push and support their thinking (by taking a best guess) and then they will speak out their true intentions. I've tried this numerous times during my school/college life and even sometimes in my professional life. People find it easier to communicate their thoughts once you yourself show an agreement with their thoughts. You may not agree with what you are saying, but, the process opens up the person and you might get a chance to know his real intentions.

One of my friends is moving abroad with his family. I was having a casual chat with him one day about the change he is going to face. During the talk, I deliberately told him that it is the same thing living in US as living in Bangalore, and within seconds, he agreed readily. He gave me the reason that the number of times he currently visits his family is limited to 2-3 times in a year. So that is not going to change and, consequently, he is actually not away from his home. I might have got a different answer if I had initiated the talk in a different direction and told him that traveling is not going to be simple. Seriously, traveling involves time and money, and both become hard-earned once you engage yourself in a job. He might have changed his answer and instead replied, "yeah ... but it is a matter of just 2-3 years".

I experienced this phenomenon? in my professional life too. I noticed that when I deliberately do a hard talk against someone with my friends, they open up and do a similar kind of talking. Further, people usually dont open up and start talking about opposite sex. Someone has to take the initiative and whoever takes, all others join within minutes. This sense of agreement is a powerful force that helps people to roll out their True Intentions.

Second Time Experience

2008-03-08T04:33:00.000-08:00

People, books often say that there is nothing like first time experience. I beg to differ on this philosophy/myth/popular saying. I've always found more pleasure doing the same thing the second time most of the times. I think this can be best explained by answering the question "Why do you want to do the same thing again?". My philosophy is that you are going to do the same thing again if you enjoyed doing that the first time, and you want to get more pleasure or fun next time; so you want to do that again, needless to say, with more preparation/expectation.

This theory fits well for explaining situations in which the person was not prepared to perform a task. An unexpected thing might surprise the person and he might not carry forward the activity with reasoned and thoughtful actions. He'll then think back on how he reacted and what went wrong (rather than what went right) and, therefore, wants to give himself a second chance to get his moves right. First presentation, first cultural performance in front of buzzing crowd , first surprise kiss (even more than the kiss) types of scenario fit into the actions I'm talking about.

After giving mid/end-semester papers in IIT, I always felt that given a second chance, I can perform better in particular paper. My reasoning was entirely based on the subtle assumption that I'm going to get similar, if not same, questions in the paper the second time. Obviously, my assumption was wrong, but this thinking/natural behavior/attitude gives a strong impetus to my second time experience theory.

According to me, the experience that is remembered the most by a person is the one in which he is most fit to face the situation and I think the second one is the most likely. After two chances, I would either give up or do the activity as a routine, or to put it this way, the fun has already been lost or achieved.

Singlemost Important Achievement

2008-03-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Have you ever done/achieved something that has made your life easy? The targets you wanted to achieve, the things you wanted to do got simple by achieving just one thing. I have done one such thing, and mind you I achieved that through lots of patience and hard work for a period of 2 years. Though I admit now that after achieving this goal, I might not have put the same efforts to achieve my next set of goals. Anyways, here is the story:

Everyone knows how difficult IIT entrance examination is. Right? I started preparing for the examination in 11th standard. I joined the famous Bansal Classes (BC) Institute. To my surprise I secured 3rd rank in the BC entrance test. Irony, an entrance test for an entrance test. I got admitted into the top batch and then started the tough journey. The toughest problem I faced during these 2 years was not the curriculum or the competition but the all time presence of my father in the institute, as he was employed as an Administrator in BC. I never felt the freedom of being on my own during that time. My father was more tensed than me, always. So the pressure of living up to the expectations was high.

Well, I survived and did well too. I secured All India Rank 97 in my first attempt. I was targeting a rank < 192 (my elder brother secured this rank) and 97 was a very much surprise to me as well. With the magic number 97 came lots of gifts and surprises. The first was the 5-6 days Apex Mumbai tour with ELITE top 100 ranked students. Then came the reward cheques from Bansal Classes, Apex and family members. I got admitted into Computer Science Department in IIT Bombay. During the third year, I got my summer internship in University of Toronto, Canada solely on the basis of my rank and little bit knowledge in Formal Verification discipline. Then came the job. I got the job offer from Oracle in my first interview itself. The interview was an average one and I would say I was selected primarily because I was from Computer Science Department (so indirectly the rank helped here too). In Oracle, I worked hard during my first two years and was promoted to the post of Senior Member Technical Staff (just alternative designation for Senior Software Manager). Though I feel Oracle is a bit partial to IIT guys , I might be wrong (and sincerely hope too).

My father got a lot too. You could definitely make out his smile and amplified chest after the results were declared. That 2 digits made him proud, me too. But now things have changed. I've started to realize that the rank is just not enough for me to get past everything comfortably.

Given the benefits I've seen from IIT Rank, I tried to take the advantage again and applied in US universities for MBA. So far I've been rejected in 3 universities and wait-listed in 1. Results for other 3 are on hold. The rank must have helped me to get the interview invites from the rejected ones as well but it is just not enough to get me in comfortably. Anyways, it has still played its part.

Hope is a good thing and may be the best of all. And no good thing ever dies (Courtesy: Shawshank Redemption). I'm still hoping to get my admission letter from at least one university. Someone please look at my IIT Rank !!! thats the best in my resume.

Smart Rider

2008-02-20T09:27:00.001-08:00

Recently, I devised a way to tackle people who unnecessarily honk their vehicle to overtake you. I don't know if it is an innovative solution, but it worked for me.

I was riding my bike and my friend was sitting behind. We were going through a place that usually has a high traffic. I was driving in the range of 40-45 km/hr. Suddenly, I heard 2-3 unnecessary honks from behind. I looked at my bike's mirror and saw a silver Santro. The driver looked to me a Software Professional. I thought for a moment and analyzed the situation around me. There was no way for the car to overtake me and I was sure that I was not driving slowly or recklessly. He honked again and this time I gave him the space to go ahead. Now, I was behind him and it was my turn. I started honking continuously, even when we stopped at the traffic signal. When the signal turned green, I immediately started honking. He slowed down his car, but I had no intention of overtaking him. I was happy being behind him. I could see him looking (staring) at me again and again, but in India who cares for the lovely stare. After having enough of this, I let it go. But in all, I did a good job. He probably got pissed off and I hope he realized what I wanted to convey.

Try this next time if you happen to be in a similar scenario (at your own risk). I would advise you to try this only when you are driving with someone. May be, I was lucky that he was a Software guy.

Unique Selling Point

2008-02-16T09:07:00.000-08:00

Have you ever pondered over your unique selling point (USP)? I didn't know about mine until I attended Hostel-10 (girl's hostel in IIT Bombay) valedictory function in my last year. In these functions, profiles of the graduating students are read in front of numerous students. The focus is primarily on what the student did in his/her life other than academics. One of my close friend told me to attend profile of a particular girl, who I have never talked to. I sniffed something intrigue, but my friend never disclosed the details. Well, I attended the function and was made to sit forcibly on a sofa in front of the stage. When the profile started, I came to know that the girl had a crush on me during the first year. I was never told by my (bloody?) friends (all my friends knew about this), nor the girl ever attempted to talk to me. To my surprise, I was the hot talk in the hostel and girls used to play a game, based on a famous Indian television. If I ever tell you whats the game, you will definitely envy me. That very moment made me think that I've got a magnetic? power to attract girls.

My thinking was proved right again when I started working in Oracle. One of my friend was leaving Oracle after working in the company for ~1.5 years. Before leaving Oracle, he told me one day that he knows a girl who had a crush on you. I was definitely happy (no doubt), but at the same time I was cursing myself for having such friends who hide important information and don't want to see me excel in future. Again, there was a similarity with the case happened in IIT. I had never talked to that girl.

There are other instances as well to describe, but I would do that in a different post. However, these two incidents helped me know something about my personality. I don't know exactly what girls look in me, but I know that I've got something unique. I really hope those two girls read this post and update me about my USP.

By the way, how many girls have fallen for you so far (without even talking to you) and whats your USP?

Breakup

2008-02-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I was having a lunch with my Oracle friends at Pizza hut. The usual talk gained speed when two of the fellows start talking about their affairs. It is always fun to hear about what's happening in others life when you dont have the luxury to perform in that role. Isnt it? Anyways, 4 out of 6 had girlfriends. When one of the friends asked me about my status, I didnt want to tell them that I've been single for past 25 :) years. Many things were going through my mind and I was desperately searching for an answer. Suddenly, I said something so convincing that didnt allow my friend to pose further questions. Here's what I said:

"nah ... just had a break up a month ago" .....

I think this response will work all time. This gives a feeling that the person is not lying (of course, you need to act in the same way .. I think the way I said "nah" made the difference) and nothing left in the story to ask more. I've tried it again sometime back and the strategy worked.

Try it !!!

A sentence says it all

2008-01-25T02:04:00.001-08:00

I was going through this post by rediff yesterday:

The initial pages seem to be ordinary ones resembling dozen others that I've read earlier. But the one that grabbed my attention was the interview of Kartik S Manral. People say about their profession, but a strong statement such as "20 years from now, my men will be ready to die for me" tells us about how perfectly a person is describing his career. Keeping aside the literal meaning of the sentence, I wonder how well Kartik has put forward his thoughts and described the profession of a person in a military life.

I work as a software engineer in a reputed MNC in India. Does there stand an equivalent competitive statement for people working in IT?