Strange Ramblings

It has been said aplenty, "Life is a Journey. And the Journey is more important than the Destination." More often than not, if you follow this principle, you'd be left in good stead. So ditch all the long term plans, and live in the moment. Or a collection of them, like Graduation. One can truly break that in your face  question of Why MBA very easily. From where I stand, it is likely to be one of this: Break away from your undergrad university where you weren't exposed to your dream opportunities A complete U Turn, in terms of the chosen path, say from an Electrical Engg to IB Bored and hence getting back to the good ol' student ways, meeting people partying, lazing around Obviously, the whole concoction of stuff starts way before the actual gassing up  in a MBA. So you would be averse to yourself, and come up with THE answer, which would mostly border upon the first two. Rightly so, it ain't a small investment. There always will be people that...

The Road Less Traveled "It's always about the journey"  I just arrived back from the Maha Kumbh, Allahabad, and I feel overwhelmed; Not at the mysterious religious beliefs that a place like Kumbh and Sangam would hold; after all, we'd have to live another 144 years to experience another, but at the very fact that I have started to feel more comfortable living out of my suitcase, on the road, than with a closet, and the fact that that happens only once in 144 years. So why should we Travel at all.. I am sure you'll find your own reasons, as soon as you take that first step out of your city. For me, it has always been for the love of the experience. Loose term, yes, but you'll get it once you travel. And for the uninitiated, Experience can be about that clear blue green water, the golden sand, the rocky coastline, the twinkling starry sky, the fresh soft snowy morning, the blazing hot sun. But there are finer tastes to travelling than the landscape and ...

I never would have imagined such a day, in existence. I surely can call myself a Reader now. What kind, is still a mystery. But what entails is, give me a random piece and I would eat it up. Keeps things interesting  and that is how I see it. It is a matter of perspective after all. And what pushed me to finally write this, after putting out for long, is a fellow blogger. Perspective, is something that our brain is wired to have. And it is at the heart of what makes your personality. You often draw from these very experiences to give you direction in time of need. I truly believe one would be lost if they don't form their opinions. Key though remains to avoid overdoing and be open minded when it comes to people. Everybody makes mistakes. Where am I getting with all this bull, you ask? It's the other side. I am an opinionated person to an extent. I do believe though, I am good at reading people somewhat. I am rigid, and also, flexible, if only you reason wit...

Simply put, you don't need to look for inspiration. It is all around you, it will find you, and when it does, you should be ready to greet it with both arms. Herein lies the tale of a much unknown Chateau de Vizille, France, and this particular room in the chateau. And a promise that I made to a certain German, and how a random trip in the serenity of India reminded me of it, and gave me possibly a location. And how it all just inspires life out of you. An odd morning, the first month of Euro Trip, when we were just trying to get by and know each other. The group, that traveled to the Chateau, I meant. Lying on the outskirts of Grenoble, a true country side place this was. And much like other stuff that I had a feel of, in Europe, by this time, this too was alien, beautiful beyond comprehension, not the castle probably, but the grounds. It almost felt like injustice, that God had somehow blessed these places with that extra colour, extra brightness, and extra vib...

Just reminiscing the amount of travelling I have been doing since 2009, makes me swoon. I am a vaguely introspective person and like placing my fingers exactly on the future. It is not to make it more predictable, rather it is to ground me by just making me realize how wrong I was, am and will be, and how much there is still to take in. Knowledge, might have become flat, with all the technology around, but our capacity to absorb it remains the same, and hence there is always plenty in this cosmic world. In 2009, if anyone would have come up to me and said that you are going to travel 18 countries in the next 2.5 years, I would have asked that person to take a hike. Nevertheless, somewhere I must have had an inkling, which prompted me to renew my passport, a good 1.5 years before it was set to expire, just in case. Truly cosmic. And the same power played its role aplenty in this short, outrageously fast trip. My expectations were pretty much balanced, didn’t expect much, especially aft...

I would have loved that. You would too. But it turned to more of a Catalonia Armada. And dare I say, it was more than satisfying. You know that saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", try that, and then when in Barcelona, do as the Catalans do. It's like a city wide party, they surely must hold some kind of Guinness record for that. If not, they should get one. Fabulous. We wanted to cover a few cities in Spain. The mistake that we made though was going to Barcelona first up. And once you are there, there is no going back, there is no visiting any other city and there, in almost all probability, is nothing more that you want more than spending your life around, atleast for a week ;) Every city in Europe is different and yet similar. After the first round of travelling across Europe, it came down to visiting select things, things that are unique. No more of Castles, no more of churches, no more of museums. Its all the same, especially when an art and architectu...

Warning: This post puts the T in Tacky, the M in Mushy, the G in Gooey, yada yada.. I Hate Goodbyes. Period. And the only thing that makes them bearable are the smiles. After all, you want to leave the person in front of you with a last smiling memory. I guess its hard for all of us at some level. Exchange was a big part of my MBA plans. I had this rosy picture in my mind, of how I would be an amazing experience to meet people from all across the world, to travel all across Europe, to see some of the history that made studying 'History' interesting. Did it live up to it, you ask? Much, much more. The bliss on making it through the selection for exchange program was something else. I remember that instant when I got the call quite clearly. I couldn't stop smiling the whole day, and to cap that more good news followed ( more.. ), I was blessed. That ting in your voice, when you see a kid getting excited over candy, that sparkle in your eye, same as when a kid gets exci...

View Euro Trip #1 in a larger map  Take that. The itch will finally be satisfied. Countries being touched: France -> Belgium -> Netherlands -> Sweden -> Finland -> Denmark -> Germany -> Czech Republic -> Austria -> Germany -> France 31st of January -> 21st of February 2012 \m/ JOIN IN :)

Stepping into the 'developed world' for the first time definitely felt strange. I just bring that distinction out simply because it is omnipresent, or atleast made that way by plenty'a people. There is this thing that I really like to do. Always taking a detour on my way to the final destination. What ensued was a layover in Helsinki, Finland. And the view out from the plane window of the Finland landscape covered with snow and what looked like scattered pine trees, was beyond words. Glad that the city had the season's first snowfall just the day before, everything around was much brighter. The thing that struck me the most about Finnish is that they are as 'direct' people as you'd ever find, and they'd call a spade a spade with the straightest possible face. You try and bullshit them, and you'd definitely be sorry. And all this, was not just a passing observation, it's been ratified  by the few that I know out here in Grenoble. Getting back...

People like to claim a lot of stuff. And so the name of this event was kept "Corporate" Roadies <Notice the quotes> Idea Inception Possibly from the host's particular liking for MTVs Roadies. Probably from the PDPs main "anchor" being compared to Raghu. The Auditions " You know that you are here voluntarily "  You ought to say such lines before taking one's case. One should after all know the reason of the ass whopping that one is about to receive. And that 'voluntary' just kicks off the mind games part of it all. The experience bordered on unpleasant for most of us. It was like the ragging we never had, though some of us did end up laughing their guts out at the effort it took some of the judges to emulate the real ones (Some just don't have the face, or the stomach to get ugly). At the end of it all, 8 of us were branded as Roadies. The "Corporate" Part Enough with the exaggerations. Not to forget, we were in a B Sc...

Ok. This title is not inspired from Harry Potter, or perhaps it is, cuz it was suggested by a friend who is an ardent fan. We were supposed to co-author this, but for now, I'll have to do. Here goes. There is one person who might take this one a little personally, but do we really care. Its something that happened to me and some of my friends at the beginning of last year (ya, you really need to dial the clock THAT back, cuz blogging is somthin' that i started recently), when we were in need of a place to rest our asses in Bangalore at the end of all the 'ITing' every day. We landed in Bangalore, in batches. We were 7 in all, and hunting a place for 7 bachelor's is like finding a needle (that may or may not exist) in a haystack. Things like boozing, smoking, girls, loud music and all the other little tid bits that disrupt the peacuful enviornment around, automatically get associated with a group like ours. Not to suggest that people are wrong in this, but they d...