The Velachery MRTS Finally Opens!

This is where I got the train. The train starts at Chennai Beach station. This would be the fourth station in the Beach-Velachery route.

The Park Town station has very few paengers for the 6 46 am train.The passenger surge generaly takes place around 8 am. But the MRTS has by and large remained not that effectively used, due to poor transport services from the MRTS stations.

If you are confused where to stand, spot this board, as you will have to go to Thirumailai side to reach Velachery. This is the best form of commuting for people living in Velachery/Madipakkam/Adayar who would want to commute from the Chennai Central Railway station. From Chennai Central, one has to cross the road and walk over to the bridge and walk 50% of the bridge before a cutting that takes a person down to Park Town MRTS link. Instead if one were to walk eastward of Central station for about a 100 metres and go to the side opposite the Chennai central syburban station, one would find the Park Railway station which is the link for the Beach Tambaram Sector.

It could have well been renamed the Vodafone express, :-) it seems that commercialisatio has given way to colourful trains. I still love the green and red colour with a striped top, which is so reminscent of the way the local trains in Chennai have operated over the years.

As the train chugs into the Triplicane station,one observes an excellent view of the Marina beach from the top. Chennai's Marina beach never looked more attractive to me than the moment from the Triplicane Station. It takes roughly about 45 minutes from Beach to Velachery and about 10 minutes from Tidel Park, to reach Velachery.

Right now, there are a few autos waiting at the stand, but a 10 minute walk is what seems imminent to reach the Vijaya Nagar Bus stand. All in all a great and comfortable experience if you are travelling to Chennai via train and have to reach either Adayar/Besant Nagar/Taramani/Velachery/Madipakkam...which pretty much houses the bulk of the software employees.

Enjoy some more snaps of inside the train, and a few shots from the train in the rains.

I Just Want to FLY

This Paragliding was apparently done at a place on the Goa-Maharashtra Border. I so much feel like going and flying like a bird over the mountains and the Arabian sea.

Back to Late Nights

If Internship was about long work-days and relaxed night sleep at Bangalore, normal B school life is about long days and longer nights. I have test today at 2 pm, have slept 2 hrs and am hoping to pass this test, as its touted to be a tough one. I have an oral test, for a test that I missed in the last week of term 4, as I was ill then.

Om Shanti Om at Karur!

Karur, a sleepy industrial town near Tiruchi, would be an unlikely place to get a decent theatre. As I was walking down the roads, my eyes glanced upon a screaming Shahrukh Khan poster that said "OM SHANTI OM". I went in the evening to see the movie. they were selling at a premium price in the box. 30 rs ticket for a 25 rs printed one. I was only too glad to pay for it as in Bangalore, the minimum cost of a movie was Rs 130 if one chose the economy mode of watching at PVR. The theatre (Amudha) wasnt bad at all, it had decent dts sound, which didnt put me off and more than that, fans which didnt make me sweat. No frills cinema, if I could say, Amudha was the air deccan of the filming industry. After a long time, I didnt have to be tense about getting tickets for a movie, getting worried about striking a black ticket deal with a tout and getting a seat with a proper angle. In a place like Karur, there's hardly any competition for places and tickets, so I led a charmed life pre-OSO.

The Movie was an expected Shahrukh Farah movie that showed that the duo have really enjoyed making the movie. The script is barely there, but it was a funny joyride all the way and is definetely worth a trip to theatre. They have shown the 70's era very well and the humour in the movie is entrenched and not as attachable bits and pieces. I liked the last part where they showed a video of every person who contributed to the movie, including cameramen,lightmen and make up artistes. Shahrukhs previous movies like PBDHH and MHN bombed despite some excellent songs, the reason being weak script and improper marketing. This film's script is slightly better though the genre of movie making is still the same and given the excellent marketing Shahrukh has done, this movie was a certified money spinner, even before it released.

I would be leaving to Chennai only tommorow as no tickets are available for today. It would be good to get back to classes after nearly one and a half months. I was hoping to go on a holiday on the diwali weekend from Bangalore, but all my friends were busy at work and some on social obligations at home. The trip stays postponed for a while, as I cant make any plans unless I see the schedule at college. But 99% getting break in between terms 5 and 8, looks tough, probably in term 6, I might sneak in a day or 2, after placements as classes would not be scheduled then.

Right now, nothing to do, just glancing through papers, sipping hot rasam,watching TV and sleeping at Karur, with Parents giving loads of advice- do this-do- that.......

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



PS: Karur is closer to Trichy and Yercaud. Click here to see my album on Karur. I had been there in FEBRUARY earlier this year and sometime in August for a friends's marriage

Celebritydom Calling?

I happened to be at Forum Mall on Tuesday night, and as I was rushing into the second floor, I stopped and checked my pockets whether my earphones were still there, and when it was there, I breathed easy. A sardarji spotted me, and said

" Are you Kartik" ?

I was looking, at my shirt whether my ID card, gave away something and when i found no traces of my existence on my shirt or my bag, I looked at him and nodded, and he said, he saw me on TV last night.

WOW....... I was pleasantly shocked... I thought Dream Job was one of the most under-rated reality shows, and this happens in Bangalore, it does light up your evening(or late night in my case). Went for dinner with the interns team and seniors at the place where I Intern. We were taken for dinner at Sahib Singh Sultan, a train restaurant in Forum Mall, and the whole night was spent rewinding these few seconds, while I had dinner. Small Joys of Life, however foolish it might sound, those words were for sure, music to my eyes.

How Real is This?

Happened to see this video on Youtube, and the dance-sync seems impeccably made for "Mauja-hi-Mauja". The video is "Where's the Party Tonight" from KANK.

Where is Anwar Ali?

I havent seen a more deadly swing bowler than this guy called Anwar Ali, who broke India's spine in the 2006, Under-19 world cup. This guy seems to be nowhere in the reckoning. Check this guy's first 3 wickets, the way the ball darts in and flummoxes the Indian batsmen. India chasing 110 for victory in the final, were undone by Anwar Ali' s pace and were reduced to 9/6 in the 4th over and later 23/7 in 8 overs.

Life in the 1 month at Bangalore

I think the past month or so roughly had as many interesting moments as dull ones.Some of them listed here..

Good Moments

1) Spending time with an old school mate(TRP). He hasnt changed much, and is one guy who probably doesnt mind a no-frills life, living a bachelor life in a normal middle class colony called Wilson Gardens. I liked it all the more, as the guy was simple and as crazy as me, when it comes to taking decisions in life. I guess a big similarity would be kareena kapoor's character in Jab We Met.

2) Walking across BTM Layout and Wilson Gardens to office. It was a labyrinth of crosses and mains( Bengaluru ishtyle) and often I ended up getting lost and exploring the place.The day I master the route, I seem to leave the place.

3) Watching myself in the finals of Clinic All Clear STAR CRICKET Dream Job. I have been appearing on television for the last 3 weeks and its been fun trying to get some one in Bangalore having STAR CRICKET. Have recorded a few moments on my mobile. I guess the decision to attend the auditions on a cloudy August morning paid off. I will be on air for 3 more weeks. I guess they have shot enough footage to feature me.

4) The Lonely Sunday trip to Gokarna from Bangalore. Enjoyed the trip for the solitude and the walk across the beach. What made it even more adventurous was that I had misplaced the hotel key on the beach, and after searching for an hour, I found the key, lying partially gleaming on the hot sands. The trip put me in conversation with unlikely travel companions like a 50 year old conventional brahminical bank officer on the bus and an Israeli female who was a deep sea swimmer, who gave me the shock of my life, when she warned me not to venture too deep into the sea, as it was dangerous. Her tales did rattle me that evening.

5) Listening to Fever 104 FM

6) The uninhibited joy of singing in a bus stand at 11 in the night,(the walkman was on, and I didnt realise I was singing loudly, until a group of people gave me a stare). Why did I sing? Well thats some more news... I got a Pre Placement Offer from Fashion Networks, the place where I intern at Bangalore.

7) Being at Prasanna's place on a weekend.

8) Catching up with an old Infy mate, who has now started partnering with an entrepreneur in some IT solutions firm.

9) Loved both the movies that I saw, Bhool Bhulaiyya and Jab we Met.

10)

Dull Moments

1) When I didnt get a room in Gokarna on the beach. I felt frustrated lugging along my luggage on my back and when my bag gave way, I had stop my grandiose beach trekking plans. The shop owners in Gokarna never give a room to a single guy. The single guys are capable of looking at other firang babes and spoil the "main" source of revenue for the shack owners, so if you are a male and heading to Gokarna, to get a room, go in a group with atleast 1 female or get a firang :-).

2) The initial 2 weeks at Bangalore, with rather dull roomies...who infact happen to be class mates at Great Lakes. The day I shifted, to prasanna's place initially and then to TRP's place, life felt so much better. I guess that happens as if you stay with people on similar wavelength, you feel at ease in talking. Not that my initial roomies were so boring, but just that they were fine with work-sleep-work routine :-) and strictly nothing more.

Bloopers

Now that I am in Bangalore for my internships, I havent done my Sports Show for quite some time. I was thumbing through some old archives, and came up on this video

Only Mallya Can Do This!

Amazing piece of confrontational advertising. Loved it. Doesnt Vijay Mallya Love a Challenge?

India. Jet Airways, one of the leading Airways in India anoounced to their customers that they have changed. Kingfisher Airlines, on top of it whipped them by saying "We made them change".

picture courtesy: http://www.creativecriminal.blogspot.com/

Hooked on to the Following Songs

Work seems all the more interesting when some lovely songs play in your ear on a cloudy afternoon, when the sky threatens to cry.

Device- Sony Erricsson w 550 i Walkman phone
Medium- Fever 104 fm- Bangalore
Venue- My office where I intern
Nature of work- Analysis on the web

To Phir Aao-(Atif Aslam) The Remix from Awaarapan
You know what it feels like- Enrique Iglesias
Teri Aankhen Bhool Bhulaiya- Bhool Bhulaiya
Yeh Jo Des hain Tera - Swades
Dil Ne Tumko- Shaan from Jhaankar Beats
Saawariya Saawaraiya
Ajab Si Om Shanti Om

and another song called " Kya hua ki Jivan Chooti" from Ek Chalis ki last local...on right now!

B School Love

Came across this article on Rediff. Good read and pretty much bang on, and loved the finishing line which had Shaadi.com starting a service for B schoolers to marry. Call that a Niche- high value- big deal- segment for Shaadi.com, if it kicks off well. I have seen many couples on my campus and I perfectly agree, how B schools act as a perfect ground for romance to breed, given the togetherness in so many tasks and events. Study groups offer a great chance to get closer with the opposite sex, and explore the person inside out. Though engineering offers 4 years of bonding, the maturity levels of the B schooler are a tad better and there is more stress at a B school, than a T school, so more oppurtunities of chilling out.

I am a little starved for time, will delve deeper on this when I get some time.

Fever 104

I am hooked on to this radio channel even as I continue to furiously typing reports at my company(I am interning at Bangalore now). The day starts off with me sending some report and finding more reports to be done. Its been a cloudy day so far, with the rains commencing in Bangalore last night. I dont have an umbrella, so might peep into shoppers stop next door, to get an umbrella and get a break.

I walk a Lonely Road........

When I heard this song from Green day, from Meenakshi, (my colleague at my former work place), I was instantly attracted to this song for the tune and the 5 words that it had before the ring tone was converted into a call. A further 2 months saw me searching for this song, and I finally found "Bouleward Of Broken Dreams", on my trip to Goa, when a friend had it on his MP3 player.This song signifies, to a large extent my idea of being lonely on a trip. I have grown to being alone at home, being a latch key kid, and so travelling alone to a movie, holiday or any place, is something that I have got used to.

I am waiting for the next break I would get to take a break...even if it is as small as 1 day.I am glancing at Karnataka maps to zero in on places of interest, and given the current gang of folks I reside with in BTM Lay-out, each one with diverse interests, its tough to organise a gang tour.

I love travelling alone simply because

1) You can experiment by staying at a crazy 40 bucks a nite shack
2) You can travel by what your pulse says and not by the polled opinion of folks around you.
3) You need not carry the headache of waiting for your friends to get ready at their own sweet time.
4) You dont need to hear the tantrums of bad rooms, unhygenic places.....blah blah blah
5) You need not feel bad, about posing in every picture that friends take like a expressionless statue. You can infact hone your photography skills by focussing on the world around you.
6) Directionless travelling is the biggest fun in trips as it leads you to meet something in life called "variety" which was missing in your mundane life so far.
7) Freedom from restrictions that each friend has, or concocted safety ideas that a person may have.

My take on travel trips is all about getting out of your comfort zone,and feeling a lot different every time you hit a place, and just laze around places. Make your mind think wild, so that you do things, you would otherwise not think of doing in a constrained "corporate" life.

Right Now, thinking of 1 day trips like

1) An unreserved train journey to Mysore
2) Sakleshpur
3) Mangalore
4) Hampi
5)........I do a lot of talking, why dont you help me here?

In Bangalore for a Month

I am right now doing my internship at Bangalore. Will be in Garden city for a month. so hope to meet a few friends and escape the heat of Chennai. Looking forward to some lovely, chill 6 am walks with Kishore da playing on Radio City/Mirchi.

Bangalored for a Month

I am now in Bangalore, doing my internship at Reach Technologies. I joined a little late, by a couple of days, due to some health problems. As soon as the Rajahamsa bus landed at KG bus stand near Majestic at 5 am today, it brought back a few memories. Exactly 3 years back, I came to bangalore on this very day, to join Infosys. I was also not keeping well then, recovering partially from TB of the colon.My classmates, interning at Reach Tech, were staying in a house in BTM Layout, and when i boarded the local bus from Majestic to BTM, memories came back like a flashback in a movie.

The Local bus stand was still the same, in the sense that al the buses had routes written in Kannada, and the bus stand had all routes and numbers in Kannada. All I did, was go around like a mute idiot, uttering BTM BTM, and some sane person led me to platform 13. Then 45 minutes later, I was deposited near the BTM layout bus stand, exactly where I was living 3 years back. Priya bakery, the samsung and sony shop, advaita petrol pump on 16th main and Udupi gardens...everything was there, without an iota of change. My friend picked me up and drove me to his place at 7 am and all i did was snooze for three hours after which I got ready for the walk to my office. My office is located just off Bannerghata Road.

Work life is said to be hectic here, and I am only waiting for a free sunday, to sneak in a short in-a-day holiday to break away from the malls/crowds and the cubicles.I need to make a few critical decisions about certain things in my life that I am passionate about.I am at this juncture of life, where I am 50% done with my MBA, and need to decide which companies to I decide to apply for placement and which sector do I want to apply.I am slightly tired of working for these conventional services company, where I dont see my work adding value to the company, so might not join a 50,000 stregth company. It would be interesting to see how things pan out during the internship here at Bangalore.

Merchant and Bankers Rowing Regatta-2007

It's good to do a long sports show!, as it acts as the right buffer when you fall ill at home, on a house arrest.

These are my latest sports shows, that I shot 2 weeks ago, right after class on a saturday afternoon. This Rowing show was my first show that deviated away from cricket, and it was fun doing it. Watch it here and here



3 weeks back, I also did a 20-20 victory review. Check it out at at
Part 1 and Part 2

The Extremes of B-School Life

The best fun at B school happens when you work together on Industrial projects. Everybody follows the cycle of hardworker, lesser-work-mode, the complainer mode, Listener-but-not-doing mode and free rider mode. This would be the knowledge supply chain at group projects, with every one contributing his best and his worst across a given time period. This pic was taken during the Coke Project, where Rajesh is seen explaining to us, with Vinay Krithik, in more than a dormant mode. The alacrity in taking a quick shot, made me awake, or I too would have dozed after a tired day. The whole COKE project was a great excercise in getting to know the various moods and ways in which peers operate and dealing with frustrations of non-performance of various factions from time to time and also dealing with the brilliance of the same group the very next day. But as they say ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, the project was an immensely succesful project, as the smiles on the faces of the Coke honchos said it all!

Twenty20 World Cup Final-India Vs Pakistan

See Saw Clashes.... Mother of all battles, was what it was branded, and the match for sure, did give a heart patient, a serious run for his life. The way the match kept on swinging fortunes, only showed the resilient spirit both the teams. The last shot lasted more than the 6 seconds..it lasted a million seconds. The way Misbah advertised that he was going to play that hoick to fine leg, even as Joginder came into bowl, made my heart skip a beat.Then when Misbah, connected, that sublimal fear stretched all through my back, an unpleasant feeling, not wanting to listen to the commentator, believing that it was going into the bull ring. My friend who was online, not accesible to TV, must have shreaked when I typed 6... but much to my shock..Misbah had not connected and Shastri's scream " its in the air" which would be the ideal prelude to either a 6 or a wicket, confused me as my eyes, was in its last stages of closing, a sense of frustration,mouth slipping in bouts of saliva, prefering to skip a beat and THEN.......

My Grandmother jumps in joy with her hands up!.... AHOY! what do we have here!!! India won..

I immidealy jump back to my laptop and type " India won" and the message transcends through continents to a probable victory shout on the other side of the Google Talk messenger. OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH 2 close India Pak matches and Sreesanth keeps his cool in both the moments in Durban and Johannesburg,closing the lid on the match.


Those 6 seconds, I went through a multitude of emotions and it would probably last a life time. India has won a world cup, an against whom!!! the dream match against pakistan...and Pak would have to stare hard at the scar of not winning against India in World Cups.

My views:

Misbah deserved the player of the series, 4 awesome innings, 2 magical but greek hero type loss, and 2 victorious innings under pressure to win. Afridi was out of form, but the numbers helped him win the Player of the series award.

Dhoni looked in command and had nerves of steel throughout the tourney. Good changes and great work from the support staff of Venky Prasad,Lalchand Rajput and Robin Singh. I specially liked the way Dhoni supported Sreesanth after the first over of 21 runs( A Shoaib Akthar-esque over... for retaliation) and the way Jogi was persisted against Australia and Pakistan.

The youngsters came to the fore, and I keep wondering if Rohit Sharma was caught on the Long on boundary, would the match have come so close? I say that because Abdul Hafeez, not only dropped it, but also let it for a 6, which would have otherwise been a boundary.

If Misbah had connected that fatal last ball, Joginder singh would have become the tainted piece of history(that Chetan Sharma has now become). His career would have ended as soon as it started(My friend Arun, agrees with me on this).

The turning point? Imran Nazir's wicket... He was looking great guns and at no point did we look like getting him out. His wicket brought India back into the game. The second turning point was Sohail Tanvir's wicket and of course the last wicket of Haq, which he could have well waited and got the runs.

Click here to watch the Innings brief highlights...

1) Pakistan Wickets
2) Gautam Gambhir's Innings
3) Sixes of the final

Video Courtesy! ( Flicked from ESPN)

Photographic Snippets from B School

There are times during coninuous assesments,case studies and night outs, the class room during the day could just be the last thing on your mind. Just to lessen the embarrasment for the prof, we tend to look for a strong well built male/female in the front seat and bask in their shadows as the AC just lulls you into sleep.


Sparks fly in a Placeom meeting. Any casual remark can set the eyeballs against you! This was shot in a meeting we recently had for discussing the status of our work assigned to us.

Some of the best ways to fool a prof is to say you have conjunctivitis and close your eye, but my friend Ashutosh is doing something far removed from that. This is a pic taken in Prof Shriram's class on Strategy, where Ashu was subjected to a blind test, to check whether his tounge could detect the different cola brands as part of our case analysis of Pepsi vs Coke. Lucky Dawg! Got free cola in class :-)

Oh! These so called discussions for presentations. If each one were to work individually for 10 minutes and then present his views life would be a lot easier and productive, but given the hi-fi management students that we are, we use the laptop to convey ideas, files and presentations. I found out the other day when we were to analyse a case in class, every body was speaking arbit things and fiddling their ideas on the lappy, and with 3 minutes to go, we couldnt help noticing that we had hardly progressed, and then the mouth just worked, with a ramshackle of 3-4 basic slides. So much for technology!!!

When one was working, it was all about the fight of "I-will-pay-the-bill", followed by the first few weeks of going dutch at B school outings. Now after Management Accounting, we follow Activity Based Costing strictly when we hang out at high priced shops.

Did You Know This?

Right to Emergency Care:

The Supreme Court has ruled that all injured persons especially in the case of road traffic accidents, assaults, etc., when brought to a hospital / medical centre, have to be offered first aid, stabilized and shifted to a higher centre / government centre if required. It is only after this that the hospital can demand payment or complete police formalities. In case you are a bystander and wish to help someone in an accident, please go ahead and do so. Your responsibility ends as soon as you leave the person at the hospital. The hospital bears the responsibility of informing the police, first aid, etc.

Please do inform your family and friends about these basic rights so that we all know what to expect and what to do in the hour of need.

My Thoughts on Chak de! India

When I saw the movie, Chak De! India, what struck me was the excellent direction and screenplay of the movie.No additional floss and running around trees. From a Management perspective, it was all about the spirit and attitude required to succeed and act professionally in larger team interests. Suprisingly this was the 5th sports based movie to come out in the last 20 years and the 3rd in the last 6 years. The ones I am referring are Avval Number starring Aamir Khan, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Lagaan starring Aamir again, Iqbal with Shreyas Talpade and now Chak de!India The common thread in the last 3 sports movies has been on great direction, where not too much light is shown on the main character in the movie.

Generaly movies revolving around such themes depend a lot on good music complementing important moments in the movie, and thats where Iqbal and Chak de India! have been ruling the roost apart from brilliantly etched out characters.

The scene involving the Hockey federation speaking to the coaches was a true reflection of what ails Indian sport, in terms of the lackadaisical approach of federations towards the development of sports. Chak De India, I recently heard, was the point of discussion of a case study at SPJIMR and offers a great insight into what a leveller sport can be in India. You are on top of the world when you are doing well, with everybody wanting to be assosiated with you, but when you fail, the whole world seems to be up against you in arms. I guess any Indian cricketer would vouch for that post the World cup debacle earlier this year, and they almost earned the ire of the nation when they allowed Pakistan to chase 39 runs of 13 balls in the 20 20 league phase :-).

Do the Indian's need to change their gung-ho extremism attitude towards cricket? I guess that needs a seperate blog post with a lot more of thinking. My gut feel is that the attitude of the fans cannot be changed, but India as a team, needs to get more professional and need to stop the frequency of vacillating between being magnificent and insipid between matches.

I happened to come across this article, written by Apurva Purohit, CEO of Radiocity on Chak de! India relating to her real life experience. It was a good read, and even good to know that she was from Chennai, having her alma mater as Stella Maris.(BTW Apurva was formerly the CEO of Zee )

Reaching out to People via Commentary!

Whoa! What A night?

India just won the bowlout...and it was fun celebrating it with close to 40 people. Lets see how the 40 add up. Most of these guys did not have access to cricket as Cricinfo and Cricbuzz, as the sites werent responding, probably due to the heavy rush of traffic. I was at home and there were 6 from my college, who were in their room. I spoke on Gtalk with them....and gave running commentary for the last half hour. There were about 25 people who were in the college library and seminar halls who were pinging me on GTALK for the scores all assembling at one point. So I give commentary on Gtalk to Bhaskar and he types every word out to the 4 focal point guys in college. Can corporate India be far behind? My friend working in a Financial services company called on my mobile, and put my conversation on speaker mode for his team mates. There I was doing commentary and answering questions on my laptop.

Here go video highlights of the match Presentation and the video covering the Pakistan innings and the finale of the bowlout.

Indian Batting at Durban

What is Marketing?

I have 2 Marketing Projects and 3 case studies over the last 2 days. I have finally learnt what Marketing is all about.