Trip To Bishnupur

Tucked away in a corner of West Bengal is the quaint and charming town of Bishnupur. It's well known in the world for its Terracota Temples dedicated to various Gods and Goddesses. Indian Railways makes it an easily accessible place for tourists and history lovers with daily connections between Kolkata and Bishnupur.

The tour kicked of with a visit to Rasmancha. Unique in its architecture and said to be one of a kind in India, this pyramidal structure consists of concentric galleries which used to be full of images of Gods during olden times.



Here are more pictures of the Terracota temples at Bishnupur.





The picture below is one of my favorite. Have a look at the detailing of the images and engravings which have gone into the sculpting. Scenes from Indian Mythology have been depicted in a vivid fashion. A special thanks is in order to our friends at the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) who have done an incredible job in helping us relive our glorious heritage.



Dalmadal Cannon (as shown below) was used by the Malla Kings of Bishnupur on the Maratha Invaders. It's 3.8 Metres long and has a muzzle of 29.2 cm. Imagine a Wrought Iron ball of 30 cm in diameter coming at you. Deadly !!



The most endearing part of the trip was the visit to a Baluchari Sari making centre. Baluchari is the most well known Bengali Silk Sari and along with its more Illustrious cousin, Swarnachari (made using golden threads) are the two important weaving techniques of Bengal.
The effort which goes into the design and production of a Baluchari can be well understood by the fact that it takes close to 112 hours to produce one Sari.



The final output turns out something like this, simply exquisite.



A nice piece of history to end this post. We Indians love romanticizing things :)

India More Than Just a Country !

A first attempt at a poem by my brother.

from Kashmir to Kanyakumari
from the bungalows of Juhu to the slums in Dharavi
from BMW to a cycle rickshaw
from a billionaire to a commoner
the place for everyone,
India,more than just a country!

from Gandhi to Lalu Prasad
from Jinnah to Nehru
from Tendulkar to Amitabh
we've had them all,
India,more than just a country!

from Tirupathi to Jama Masjid
from Ganges to Godavari
from floods to drought
from the snowy himalayas to the dry Thar Desert
My country has it all,
India,more than just a country!

from partition to kargil
from Kandahar to 26/11
from 2G to tehelka
from hawala to Underworld
The country has experienced and dealt with it all,
India,more than just a country.

Let me bask in her glory
let me experience life as it is nowhere
let me live the real life
God !,thank you for my Country,
India,more than just a country, A way of Life !

From a father to a son with love....

"You have always been an underachiever"

"You enjoy other people's success more than they do"

"I cannot believe you are born to me"

"Don't know why God gives so much talent to people who don't know how to make use of them"

"The people who are your true friends are those who criticize you"

"I have sacrificed my life for you in vain"

"People who are inferior to you have gone ahead and you are sitting and laughing. Shameless fellow"

Stupid MBA

I rarely regret about what I have done in life but MBA at VGSOM is something which will always haunt me. People usually like to go for a better brand in their PG to remove the stains of Engineering but I have done the reverse. After graduating from probably the best Engineering College in the country, I chose to come to VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur. It has been a downhill ride ever since and a few mistakes from me have cost me a lot. No mistake is too small to ruin your life, beautifully suggested by the M Seal Advertisement. Life had been kind to me after my Engineering, by getting me a job with Nokia Siemens Networks, one of the top Telecom Equipment Providers. I chose not to take it up because of my fear of Programming and Software. Even my stint with Oracle did nothing to alleviate those fears. I thought I had done a pretty good job at Oracle, they were even ready to offer me a job but I thought IIT Kharagpur was not something I should let go. People tell me everything happens for your own good but I fail to see any. Maybe the wait is longer and more painful than what I have endured till now but the only thing I can do is to live in hope that one day I would see the shore and that the tides would turn in my favour. Oh God, give me something here that I can look back to and feel proud of else I wouldn't be doing justice to this great Institute.

Below are some random feelings in no specific order which I feel about an MBA.

(1) Don't think about specializations in an MBA. Everyone wants the best job and money is all that matters.

(2) Don't join MBA in a hurry. Think of all possibilities and don't regret later.

(3) Knowing too much about something won't help, know a little about everything and fill the rest with crap. It always works.

(4) Enjoy as much as you can, cause you will regret later.

(5) Helping people once in a while is fine. Be as selfish as you can.

(6) Don't make any new friends, just network. You would only be an option to many people and not a priority. Never trust people on face value.

(7) Don't Study too much for an exam. It doesn't help. Only copying does. Invigilators only come to have coffee and biscuits.

(8) MBA teaches you only one thing, the only people you should care about are your family members and a few close friends. To Hell with everyone else.

(9) Never take any compliment seriously. It is just to use you for their selfish purposes.

(10) You enter a B-School with more knowledge than you leave with. The gap is filled with crap and attitude.

(11) The only thing which will take you places is Dishonesty supported by Lies but portrayed by a straight face. Confidence, Knowledge, Skills, Tools are all just big words to throw in the interview.

(12) You pay high fees to learn how to present crap in a dignified way in order to fool people. You don't learn anything in an MBA, its just a medium to take you to a place where you always wanted to go.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Life goes on...

The title of the post are lines from the famous Beatles song from the White Album. Beautiful lines which describe life.

Never take decisions which are influenced by others or those taken in haste. A lesson learnt from the past week. You wait so long for something to happen and then that thing happens but you are not prepared for it. In such situations, the role of friends is important. If they can support you in your endeavour, however foolish it may be, then your confidence increases and chances of success rise. Anyways everything happens for your own good.

Have you ever been in a situation where two of your good friends just don't want to be around each other and you are stuck right in the middle? I am passing through one of these phases now, thinking where things are going wrong. It pains you more when you don't even know who is right and who is wrong; A person who you have thought was good has changed his colours. I guess both are working on the same premise; "Don't make someone a priority in your life, when you are just an option for them."

P != NP

The most awaited season is underway at VGSOM. It's one of those seasons which happens a few times in everyone's life and decides the way life flows. It's also the season of backstabbers and surprises. Things are off to a great start and people are getting what they want or atleast what others want. It's surprising in life how you have to struggle the most for something which you want so badly but you would get easily those things which you never really cared. It's one of those inequalities in life, easily verifiable but difficult to prove.

One thing which every placement season has taught me is that knowledge doesn't matter, as long as you can say anything confidently people believe you. Gone are the days when "Knowledge is Power". You just start thinking as to why you study those few years preceding to this moment if all you needed was to open your mouth and say anything. Then there are always those who think that they are perfectly suitable for a particular job but it so happens that the last person on the list takes it away. It's cruel on the person who imagined this situation, this moment, this time and this place long before others even cared to think about it. Nature has decided better plans for him but hasn't bothered telling him about those. It's always the good people who nature frisks away, worried that this bad bad world is not suitable for them and they might fall prey to the flesh eaters.

"Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear"; you would find this written on the mirrors of a car. A play of words would give you "All friends are not as close as they appear", something which holds true in an MBA college. It pains you to see people being betrayed by their own friends and hurts you even more when you can't do anything about it. I don't think GOD makes humans they way he used to anymore. It amazes me at the way someone can use somebody so badly and not feel a thing about it. I guess we can add selfishness to the 7 cardinal sins; after all 8 is a powerful number. Everybody wants everything done and given at their feet. All I can say is "Kalki, where are thou". I only wish everyone can see through other people's motives and make the right choice and I sincerely hope that a dear friend of mine has got this message today. As Tennesse Williams has rightly remarked “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose”. The second part has assumed unimaginable proportions in my life today as I find it extremely difficult to say who is a friend and who isn't. One thing I have learnt is people who gratify you all the time are the ones you should stay the furthest from. Good people may finish last but they are definitely the ones who are the most satisfied.

Another thing which amazes me the most is the way company chooses the candidates. HR rounds and more HR rounds, thats all you hear. You interview for any role however niche or core it may be, all you need to do or rather see is, where you are in 5,10,15,20,25... years. It's an Arithmetic Progression running out of bounds and no six sigma process can control it. It's only a matter of time before HR's start asking you where you see yourself in your afterlife!!! The Judgement Day would be precided over by an HR who would look at you and say "Is this where you saw yourself 40/50/60 years ago" Ludicrous how a process to hire the best candidate becomes a process of checking vision. As long as things are working, why change it and therefore the vision process continues.

I am delighted to be back blogging although the circumstances could have been better. I hope this season brings me more joys and takes everyone to his rightful destination. "Sarvejana Sukhino Bhavantu"

European Football 2008-2009

This season has seen a lot of twists and turns in most of the European Leagues especially the English Premier League and we have finally got new champions in Germany and France.

In Germany, Wolfsburg have won their first ever Bundesliga by just pipping Bayern Munich to the Title. The 5-1 drubbbing of Bayern Munich will forever be etched in people's memory and Graphite's goal will become a part of Football Folklore.

Inter Milan have picked up their Fourth League Title in a row without breaking into a sweat. AC Milan and the others who played catch up throughout have really old sides which need some Fresh Infusion of Youth.

Lyon's streak of 7 consecutive Ligue-1 victories has finally been broken. Bordeaux are the new French Champions and Yoann Gourcuff, Bordeaux's Attacking Midfielder is an exciting prospect and will be closely watched by Europe's Top Football Clubs.

Manchester United take yet another Premier League Title and have finally equalled Liverpool's record of 18 League Titles. It was more a case of Liverpool throwing away the Title than ManU winning it. Liverpool just lost 2 games in the whole campaign but what hurt them the most was their 11 Draws especially at Home against Teams like Stoke City. The Turning Point in the League has to be the Brilliant Strike by Federico Macheda and then following it with another against Sunderland. Aston Villa definitely deserved to win that Match but Destiny had its own course. There was no looking back then for ManU as they neatly wrapped up the Title and drubbed Tottenham 5-2 along the way after trailing 0-2. Liverpool coming back again to Premier League contention and Arshavin's success at Arsenal can only mean a more exciting BPL 2009-10. Steven Gerrard has to be the BPL Player of the Year for me. Whenever he played, Liverpool won convincingly and decisively and that is why Liverpool for me is still a One Man Army. Even Torres when playing alone is only half as effective as Gerrard.

The Spanish League this year was just Brilliant. There was just no stopping Barcelona as they completed their first ever Treble. Real Madrid's consecutive 17 victories threatened to change the course but Barcelona's 2-6 drubbing of Real destroyed all hopes of a comeback. The Trio of Messi, Henry and Etoo was unstoppable scoring some 90+ goals this Season in all Competitions.
Xavi and Iniesta are the two most underrated Footballers in the World. There is no greater delight in the World than watching the two play. Their Passing and Movement can completely destroy an opposition as ManU found out. The vision of Xavi in picking out passes which ordinary people can't even visualize is just Amazing. Iniesta rightly called as 'El Ilusionista' is an Absolute Master of the Art of Ball Control. His runs and cut backs from the left are exemplary which drags Defenders out of Position and allows people like Xavi and Messi to move into the space created . I don't see how anyone can defend against Barcelona and the popular strategy of crowding out Messi is just rubbish as this actually gives more freedom to players like Xavi and Iniesta to work their Magic.

The World Player of the Year 2009 should definitely go to Xavi. I don't see how Ronaldo deserved it last year. It is supposed to be a recognition of your activities at an International Level where Xavi clearly out performed him by winning the Euro 2008 with Spain. The European Player of the Year would be Iniesta for me. Messi is just not good enough when it come to matches against the English Teams and good Defensive oppositions in general whereas Iniesta works his magic at all places. Iniesta has definitely come up with the goods when Barcelona has wanted it the most. I am sure that these two won't get the price in the end as the Players who catch the eye are the ones who are more skillful and flamboyant rather than the ones who turn in day in day out and deliver the goods.