Borrowed shoes from someone, emptied my college bag and put an umbrella into it along with my towel, diary, soap, pen-pencil-eraser, an empty water bottle and spectacles.
What are all these Grand Preparations for?
What is all this happening at 4:15 in the morning? Confused?
Not more that me as I was preparing to leave for an excursion to Bishnupur, but of course you can guess that my enthusiasm more than overpowered the prevailing confusion . What else can you call it when a hardcore sleeper of my kind wakes up at 4:15 in the morning, although the credit should partially be given to my alarm, but given that I was chatting till 11:55pm the night before makes it seem really heroic. And I think most of us know how easy it is to put off the alarm thinking "just five minutes and i'll wake up" and more so when you time-piece is one with a 'snooze' option. But this time I was brave enough to resist the The Tempation.
Thus begun one of the earliest mornings of my life and I went to Prag sir's home wherefrom we had to start at sharp 5:00 to catch the 5:30 train. This time as well it was just in time for us but the other people almost had a photo finish. Did i forget to mention that we were seventeen of us! We were seven school-going children, two adoloscents and six students along with a professor and his wife from IIT kharagpur. And only 6 of us had reached the station till 5:24 and we were worried that we would have to board the next train at 8:50 unless all others ( whose tickets had been bought) turned up within next 6 minutes ...
I went to the guard and asked him if he could delay the train because some small children were going on a sort of educational tour and they might not be able to reach just in time. He said that it was not possible but was kind enough to add that he can atmost wait for an additional 1 or 2 minutes.
And the countdown began... 5 minutes to go. 4 ... 3 ... 2.5 ... 2 ...
and finally we saw one of them coming pretty relaxed but we could not see others and the count down was still going 1.5 ... 1 ...
but all of them just reached before the signal was given and now i remembered that I had to fill my bottle (remember i took an empty one to save the trouble of carrying load to the station). And as I came down for filling the bottle and had it filled half, as you would expect it the signal went and waiting for a while I herd Shubo's call and rushed towards the door(which fortunately was just infront of the tap).
The fun that we had on the way would be a nice stuff for some other day but this was another additions to my list of interesting boardings and just-in-time appearance list which seemingly is growing pretty long, but then how else should any one start an adventurous journey.
What we did in the train?
What happened at Bishnupur?
What happened on the way back?
All this and more to come...
So keep reading.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Chicken and Hen!
Today I find myself in a bit different mood after having completed "Count your chickens before they hatch(CYBTH)" yesterday and reading through the pdf version of Aesop's Fables today.
Believe me there was much I could relate in the two! And some things went to the contrary as one of the fables explicitly said don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Now to CYBTH:
Arindam Chaudhuri, the renowned management guru uses all the principles that he has learnt in management to give a text much easier to read comprehend and relate to our daily life. At times you can smell that the author's mind is hit by some or the other management principle that he uses to keep the reader engrossed. Though he has not put any extra effort to this effect, his understanding of Indian psyche is commendable wherein he chips after every five six pages, full-page posters with a few words scribbled on it giving the impression a graffiti and thus taking due chunk of attention. In fact in the whole book chaudhari has nothing apart from citing some inspirational and motivational stories of successful people and at times instances from his own professional and personal life. Other stuff about communication and effectiveness simply reminds what all of us mostly know yet forget at times. Still the book has a good point made in terms of dealing with the problems with an India-centric view and recommending solution on similar lines(which the author likes to call the Theory 'i' Management). I agree with his point that in solving any problem related to a country it is instrumental to first know about the culture prevailing therein. I also agree with his comparative analyses made in context of US-Japan-USSR/China and the culture prevailing there. He goes on to point that why each of the above things do not work in India and also mentions complacency as our biggest enemy.
The most realistic part of the book seemed to be his comments on the judiciary. He goes ahead to blame the judicial system prevalent in the country as dysfunct and responsible for the state of affairs and the mushrooming corruption. Although his suggestions in this aspect are radical but he has rightly justified the need of radical changes lest we end up with delayed, denied justice.
Reading towards the end I was forced to remember his lecture that I had herd in our technical festival at IIT kharagpur wherein he had pointed many facts from ramayana and mahabarata in an effort to compare Sri Ram and Sri Krishna. He points to the Bhagvad Gita as THE complete management guide and Lord krishna as the best manager the world has ever seen.
Altogether I don't think that he has portrayed by any means his skill of writing but yes his skill of story-telling comes to the forefront in the whole account. He stands abusing the judiciary and the media yet the initial and rear pages find space for the media's seemingly never-ending appreciation for the book and the author.
In short the book is good, but you need to decide on the right time and right phase of life when you really need such things.
Strong points : Precise Concise Eye-catching Easy to comprehend and thus can be easily completed in one two or at most five readings by an average reader.
Weak point : I believe at points the author tries to give a mix of many things which seemingly do not display a good amount of integrity, in other words some chapters are just not seemingly in the flow.
Believe me there was much I could relate in the two! And some things went to the contrary as one of the fables explicitly said don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Now to CYBTH:
Arindam Chaudhuri, the renowned management guru uses all the principles that he has learnt in management to give a text much easier to read comprehend and relate to our daily life. At times you can smell that the author's mind is hit by some or the other management principle that he uses to keep the reader engrossed. Though he has not put any extra effort to this effect, his understanding of Indian psyche is commendable wherein he chips after every five six pages, full-page posters with a few words scribbled on it giving the impression a graffiti and thus taking due chunk of attention. In fact in the whole book chaudhari has nothing apart from citing some inspirational and motivational stories of successful people and at times instances from his own professional and personal life. Other stuff about communication and effectiveness simply reminds what all of us mostly know yet forget at times. Still the book has a good point made in terms of dealing with the problems with an India-centric view and recommending solution on similar lines(which the author likes to call the Theory 'i' Management). I agree with his point that in solving any problem related to a country it is instrumental to first know about the culture prevailing therein. I also agree with his comparative analyses made in context of US-Japan-USSR/China and the culture prevailing there. He goes on to point that why each of the above things do not work in India and also mentions complacency as our biggest enemy.
The most realistic part of the book seemed to be his comments on the judiciary. He goes ahead to blame the judicial system prevalent in the country as dysfunct and responsible for the state of affairs and the mushrooming corruption. Although his suggestions in this aspect are radical but he has rightly justified the need of radical changes lest we end up with delayed, denied justice.
Reading towards the end I was forced to remember his lecture that I had herd in our technical festival at IIT kharagpur wherein he had pointed many facts from ramayana and mahabarata in an effort to compare Sri Ram and Sri Krishna. He points to the Bhagvad Gita as THE complete management guide and Lord krishna as the best manager the world has ever seen.
Altogether I don't think that he has portrayed by any means his skill of writing but yes his skill of story-telling comes to the forefront in the whole account. He stands abusing the judiciary and the media yet the initial and rear pages find space for the media's seemingly never-ending appreciation for the book and the author.
In short the book is good, but you need to decide on the right time and right phase of life when you really need such things.
Strong points : Precise Concise Eye-catching Easy to comprehend and thus can be easily completed in one two or at most five readings by an average reader.
Weak point : I believe at points the author tries to give a mix of many things which seemingly do not display a good amount of integrity, in other words some chapters are just not seemingly in the flow.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Opening !
YA! I knew you would wonder what is the 'd4' doing out there; but I know that if you could relate the title of this blog and d4 you would surely know that I am a chess player. More so you might relate the same with mukul anand's mindsport with an e4 heading.
Now about me, as every other boy of my age I have some dreams and passions. I love good food(who does not!) but I prefer the home-made Indian stuff, and the dairy products with ample nutrition value and also(for fun) the humble Indian Junk of chat, paanipuri et al over the pseudo-divine pizza and burgers...
No wonder I dream to be in Amul to enjoy the true "Taste Of India"
Music is another thing that I do like but with a different taste here too I like the fresh and old bollywood melodies and equally enjoy the lyrics music and the voice of the singer... not much into the english rock, pop and jazz things.
And when it comes to my hobbies apart from chess I love dramatics. I am not a great actor as well and am always in the learning process and one thing that I have learnt till now is that anything that you do passionately will let you learn the virtues much needed in life. Whatever may the path be, every art and sport will always take you towards being a better individual provided you take the things in the right spirit(am I straying into a lot of preaching?).
These days I have been a bit busy with many important things. The first on the priority list was sleeping, the second were movies, and third I have been doing some reading on financial issues. I have also been reading "count your chickens before they hatch" and I believe in a day or two i would be able to critically comment on the book(although it has been found that 99.99% of the times my review does neither match with the critics nor with the common mob).
I think that is all for an opening and hope to see you till the endgame.
Mood: Confused, Enthused.
Now about me, as every other boy of my age I have some dreams and passions. I love good food(who does not!) but I prefer the home-made Indian stuff, and the dairy products with ample nutrition value and also(for fun) the humble Indian Junk of chat, paanipuri et al over the pseudo-divine pizza and burgers...
No wonder I dream to be in Amul to enjoy the true "Taste Of India"
Music is another thing that I do like but with a different taste here too I like the fresh and old bollywood melodies and equally enjoy the lyrics music and the voice of the singer... not much into the english rock, pop and jazz things.
And when it comes to my hobbies apart from chess I love dramatics. I am not a great actor as well and am always in the learning process and one thing that I have learnt till now is that anything that you do passionately will let you learn the virtues much needed in life. Whatever may the path be, every art and sport will always take you towards being a better individual provided you take the things in the right spirit(am I straying into a lot of preaching?).
These days I have been a bit busy with many important things. The first on the priority list was sleeping, the second were movies, and third I have been doing some reading on financial issues. I have also been reading "count your chickens before they hatch" and I believe in a day or two i would be able to critically comment on the book(although it has been found that 99.99% of the times my review does neither match with the critics nor with the common mob).
I think that is all for an opening and hope to see you till the endgame.
Mood: Confused, Enthused.
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