Comfort Zone

I used to have a comfort zone where I knew I wouldn't fail.
The same four walls and busywork were really more like jail.
I longed so much to do the things I'd never done before,
But stayed inside my comfort zone and paced the same old floor.
I said it didn't matter that I wasn't doing much.
I said I didn't care for things like commission cheques and such.
I claimed to be so busy with things inside my zone,
But deep inside I longed for something special of my own.
I couldn't let my life go by just watching others win.
I held my breath; I stepped outside and let the change begin.
I took a step and with new strength I'd never felt before,
I kissed my comfort zone goodbye and closed and locked the door.
If you're in a comfort zone, afraid to venture out,
Remember that all winners were at one time filled with doubt.
A step or two and words of praise can make your dreams come true.
Reach for your future with a smile;
Success is there for you!

Entrepreneurs are Fools

Its for people who believe so blindly in something, that nothing will stop them from achieving it. They could go mad, lose their marriages, break relations with family, give up their education - nothing will stop them.
An entrepreneur is someone who lives by the words ‘No Matter What’.
Isn’t it easier to be a sleaze? To give that hidden middle finger to your boss when he asks you to do something? To know fully well that your boss will get fired by his higher up if you are not productive? That its totally OK to not finish something? That you always have other options? That there is always an easier way out?

Entrepreneurship is for people who want to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders
Its for people who want to solve the world’s problems. Its for people who think it is upon them to be ‘The One’. People who are actually delusional enough to think that they are like Neo from the Matrix? That if they stop doing what they are doing, the world will crumble and lives will be lost.
Isn’t it easier for someone else to do the worrying? To chill out, relax and laugh at people stressing out? To know fully well that someone else will clean up your mess? That you left the world exactly the way it was, and did nothing to change it? Do you really want to be responsible for people’s salaries, happiness, and putting their children in a good school?

Entrepreneurship is for Visionaries
Its for people who don’t live in the present - people who think they can alter the course of destiny for the planet. People who always think there is a better way of doing something. People who can see the future, and stake their lives to make it a reality.
Isn’t it easier to just do what is told to you? To just finish the day’s tasks and forget about work till the next morning? To use the current solution, however inefficient it is? To only think about getting married, having kids and settling in life? To leave predicting the future to a palmist or an astrologer? After all Astrologers and Palmists have an easier job, they just predict the future and leave it - these mad entrepreneurs will actually go and make it happen.

Entrepreneurs are Fighters
Its for mad guys who like to fight till their last breath. For people who will keep on breaking - barriers, ceilings, impossibilities, resistance, competitors or whatever is thrown in the way. For people who will keep on punching till the opponent begs for mercy, no matter how much they themselves bleed. For those who just cant stay away from a challenge.
Why do you wanna get hurt? Why do you wanna break barriers? Isn’t it easier to just let people be, and barriers stop you? If something is impossible, why challenge it? Who gives a damn about competition anyway - its your boss’s problem!

Entrepreneurs make pots of Money
Its for those who want to create huge amounts of wealth. Enough for them to make a pile and swim in it. To be able to blow it up buying fancy cars and huge mansions. More importantly, its for those who want to create pots of wealth for those who work with them - to see their employees buy all these fancy things. Most importantly, To create funds, and give back to society and the economy.
Who cares about giving back to society? Why be so altruistic? Isn’t it enough to just find a better paying job, save properly and make sure your children study in good schools? Why bother about your colleagues?

Entrepreneurs change lives
Its for those who change the lives of people around them, and in the entire process have their own lives changed. For those whose lives are not the same once they embark on the journey. For those who grow into Superman, Batman, Shaktimaan and Hanuman all in one. Those who seek to attain mastery over their art because they have no choice but to be the best at it for their startups. For those who know that their team’s lives will not be the same once they are done with the startup.
Why do you want to be Shaktimaan? Why do you want to attain mastery over anything, when one can just Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V? Why do you want your life to change, when everything is so nice and normal?

Entrepreneurs are Survivors
Its for those who can be thrown into an island full of monkeys, devoid of human beings, and they will still manage to build a roaring business by finding a neighboring island with humans and export coconuts to them while having taught the monkeys the basics of economics, and living a luxurious life. For those mad guys who can survive a nuclear holocaust. For those who can turn the proverbial eskimo into a Ice cube franchisee. For those who can not only survive, but make the most of it.

Bold Blogs - Series 2

Dedicated to people who missed the action. I would try my best to narrate the event without any bias but it would be very difficult for me to do that because I had inclinations towards 2 candidates competing for FINAX secy and that too, a strong one towards one… and my narration might just imply that. There might be some mistakes in questions and answers because I was not that attentive J

The SOP session started with AXIOM.

Risha with her mind-boggling SOP. Spectators let-off her without any questions. Feels like they don’t even feel like external stakeholders for AXIOM..

Next came our very own body-builder. Everyone started shouting “Sleeveless pehen ke aata”, “dance kar”, “Body dikha toh vote milega”. Badde started with his emotional speech. His inclination towards operations where XL lags. What he has done bla bla bla.

But the smartest and campaigning sentence in his SOP was “Myself, kalanidhi and Peddy went to meet Prof. Rajiv Mishra.”

God knows what happened in that meeting but as soon as the crazy spectators heard the name of Kalanidhi, hall started resounding with that voice…strange acoustics, whenever this name comes up in any room of XL, it resounds automatically.

Badde has done his part in waking up the crowd and he was pretty much sure that he won the crowd with that name. SO, this was his success mantra.

Now came the most important SOPs, FINAX SOPs. All were waiting for these SOPs. Personally even I was curious about how they would go because these play a very important role in shifting of votes at the last minute.

Here comes NN. NN started with the SOP and first time I noticed the curiosity in crowd. Everyone was attentive. Whats so special about FINAX. I was busy with some game in lappi and chubby ordered me to stop it. No-one can go against chubby, so even I had to listen to the SOP L

NN showed his initiatives, his intentions and his work as a FINAX member. I would say a decent SOP.

But But But, How can you go away with your rivals and that too when you have so many opponents in your own team. Frankly speaking, FINAX had seen a very low stature in last one year but this should be attributed to each and every team member. But every team member projected as if they tried a lot to nurture FINAX and it was NNs single force which was able to destruct everything. So, it was clear that NN was going to have a very bad time as students as well as his team-members were pitching against him (Oh did I forget the senior??)

Here comes IS. Well, we were supposed to ask questions but IS could not control his emotions and started commenting. (Kitni baar bola sar pe baraf laga ke rakha kar J )

He was fast enough to complete his comment “Friends we know what happened in FINAX last year and so, we should elect a right person keeping that in mind” Before he could complete it, Halla dragged him off…Gensec announced the inappropriateness of comments.. IS with his red face came back…

Then Steps in SK, NN was pretty sure that one more cross-question is going to come up.

“ You mentioned about a Finax journal, can I get an update on what is your role in it”, it became clear that SK was the one who was working on it. But there was strong disapproval on the question. SO, she was smart enough to reframe the question “Can I get the update on the status of finax journal?”, she leaves angrily.

NN played it safe by answering “You are working on it and you should be knowing the status better.”

Next Comes CK, One more cross-question.

“I was looking at finax blog, and I can see the last entry in AUG, 2009. Whats your take on this?. How can we expect someone to be a secy who cant even update a blog”

A simple answer “We were focusing on other initiatives, so could not go well with this one”

Finally, seemed like it was done and NN was relieved but soon came the last part, SB. As soon as he entered, crowd started showing disrespect of his presence and Gensec had to present several rules and instances for the validity of his presence.

His question “NN, we had paired you with a MAXI member for certain project. Whats the update on that and tell me some of your initiatives”-

Last nail in the coffin for NN as even SB was taking his case royally. It was crisp clear that there were huge differences in the existing team and unfortunately NN looked as the sole scapegoat at that point.

NN defended that question with a decent answer but it was not decent enough for crowd and specially for SB, a dissatisfaction came on his face. But finally NN was done with his round and it might be a long relieving moment for him.

Then one by one came other nominees, with their SOPs and took their share of questions.

In KB’s Q&A, IS bumped once again. It would be interesting to see what he is upto again, definitely not a comment. But this time he was smart enough to give a comment through a question.

“KB, there is a conference being arranged and you want to select one of your team-mate to volunteer it. First candidate is the one who worked very hard for it and second candidate is having a pretty face, whom would you select”

Two things over here. First of all… KB, that question was not intended to you and everyone knows the receptor of that question. Secondly…IS, pretty is really an over-rated term for the context you have used. Anyways, applauds were all over in the hall.

KB came up with the obvious answer but the purpose of the question was solved.

Well, here comes the Final SOP and the best one. AK a.k.a. SRK enters the room….

To be contd….

THREE WARRIORS, ONE MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL

Kuch dino pehle Sunderban ki ek anokhi kahaani itihaas ke panno mein kahi kho gayi…
(All the incidents and characters mentioned are 100% true and they have been taken straight from the horse’s mouth)
Characters: Pessy, Kala, Arun, A mysterious animal as shown below:

Location: A tent in Sunderban

Time: 11 PM

Pessy, Kala, Arun and Krishnan occupied one of the tents at around 10.30PM. Krishnan, due to his exhaustive thinking whole day on all the subjects and of course tigers also, was tired and slept soon.
Pessy, kala and Arun (do they ever think) didn’t even bother to search for tigers and fraxed entire day. Hence they were quite refreshed and having their share of drinks.

Pessy: Kala, we have to do something about that Vivek. He consistently shouts our names in every other lecture.

Kala: Next time, I will kick that bastard there itself without caring about the faculty.

Arun (lies perfectly even after drunk): DO that machi…but I repeat, I never shout your names.

Kala: Thanks dude, you are our true friend. Due to all this non-sense every teacher recognizes me now and people are scared of giving my proxy. What the fuck.

(Suddenly they hear a remote sound “Woooooooooooooooooooooo”)

Pessy (in his pessimistic voice): Is that a lion roar.

Kala: But as far as I remember, Sunderban was famous for tigers. As such we have not seen a single tiger or lion from last 2 days, so I can’t comment on the voice.

Pessy: No, I am pretty much sure that’s a lions roar.

Arun: Stop non-sense machi, Sunderban is famous for tigers and you are supposed to hear only tiger roars here.

Kala: Then it must be tiger, how does it matter, make me one more drink.

Pessy: But one thing that’s pinching me, aren’t they supposed to be out in daytime only.

Kala: They might have started following CST.

Arun: Stop PJs machi…
(they hear the voice, this time from a nearby place “Wooooo” “Woooo”)

Kala: oh my god, a tiger roaring near our tent.

Kala started scratching his grey cells for the best option out. Before he could do that, he saw pessy running towards toilet. He followed him. And to their horror, Arun was already present there shivering.

Kala: Arun saale, khud ki jaan bacha ke nikal liya…kamine…

Arun (in his innocent voice): What I can do machi, I thought you people would follow me.

Pessy: Oh my God, Krishnan is sleeping in the tent. We should have woken him up.

Kala: Let him be, He gets angry if someone wakes him up at this point of time.

Kala’s intentions were different which even others understood and no-one cared to wake Krishnan up.
(The sound continued “Wooo”, “Wooo”, “Wooo” )

Pessy: We got screwed up, I dont think we can do anything better than hiding here.

Arun: Yes machi, I am not a coward but its smarter to hide here than going and fighting that tiger.

Kala (Looking at others’ cowardness): What the fuck??

Kala went out… Pessy and Arun were astonished to see his braveness. They decided they won’t be teasing Kala for every small thing. Kala was back in a minute.

Pessy (in a relieving voice): So Kala, were you able to scare that tiger away.

Kala: Mad or what, I am more scared than you, I just went to bring back my cigarette pack which I left outside the tent in morning. I was worried if that tiger carries it away.

Pessy and Arun kicked him and he could not understand why.

Kala: I dont want to die so soon..i want to kick all those who tease me in class before I die...

Arun: Even I dont want to die so soon machi..I have so many secret desires to be fulfilled...Where from this fucking tiger came...

Pessy (Pessimistically): All we can do is smoke for last time...forget all other last wishes..

All three of them decided to spend the night in toilet itself.
Next Morning, Kala woke up and he was happy that he was still alive. He even saw Arun besides him. But he was shocked that pessy was missing.
He woke up Arun and started enquiring about pessy. Even he had no clue and both came to a quick conclusion that pessy sacrificed his life for them. Both of them decided that they would run out and inform everyone about Pessy’s braveness. In the meanwhile they could hear Pessy shouting “We are such a big stupids, we are such a big stupids”
Kala was happy not because pessy was back but because pessy was including everyone in stupid’s list, not just kala.

Arun: What happened machi?

Pessy: We are really dumb. The gate outside is so high that no tiger can cross it. So, that animal was not a tiger.

All three jumped out of joy and ran towards the gate to see. It was indeed very high.
But they soon noticed the low fence across the gate through which even a dog can come over. They kicked pessy for his expert comments. But they were really happy that the scary night was gone.
They decided they won’t reveal this story to anyone and started their one more day bravely with others in search of a tiger.

Kala: I really tell you, this chipo does such a cheap things na…..

It is still a mystery, what that animal was but we should be happy that the three warriors from BM-B have fought bravely, what can be called, the most challenging night of the millennium. Kudos!!

Direct Dil Se...

I am in motion                                                               
I have stoned my emotionss
I am thrriving for redemption
I have lost my discretion...

I wanna love again
even with a broken heart
wanna make a fresh start
who am I kidding
the world is cruuel
lets get rational...

Its time to get reeal
the world is spinning
and I amm still living
I don't wanna die
but ain't keen on living either...

I havee to take my vengeance with god
in this life or next
the future doesnt look bright
and I know its a long fight
its a long long fight!!!

Bold Blogs – Series1 (Only for BM-B)

Disclaimer : Again the same one, All the characters in this blog are not at all fictitious and they are deliberately added to resemble the real ones. Adding to this, the comments mentioned are restricted to my limited knowledge about each person. Left-over ones may be targeted in the next series :-)

One fine day in Nov… LH-7 seems busy, a lecture going on. But as usual, every student is dreaming in his/her own world. Lets try to get into each one’s thoughts… Here it goes..

Abhishek: I hope I am allowed to shift into girls hostel…the moment it is done..I will fly like a kabootar to LH..

Shruti: Only 15 pages of notes completed in this lecture..something’s wrong…

Stuti: Topping in St. Xavier's College was far more easier…

Angshuman: Hope that the facilitator takes a surprise test today..

Abhinav (reading Angshuman’s mind with his divine capabilities) : Even I hope the same as angshuman is besides ;)

Pratima: I wonder what Pankhuri might be doing..

Pooja: When is the next wet night?

Raashi: When When When When When When When When When When is the next wet night?

Swapna: Finance padna padega..nahi tho Finax ki naak kat jayegi..

Mohita: 31..no 29..naah 30..yes that’s the number of days left to go back home :)

Amit: Market 300 point neeche gaya hoga ab tak..Aur abhi 302 point…303..304…

Kalanidhi (topper of first QT test): Will I remain as only one test wonder.. :(

Vasudha: Something seriously wrong.. only 22 times CP from morning..

Syed: Make me dean..and i will show how many girls should be selected for BM..

Vinay: Do I really look like an Uncle?

Puneet: Sir says Indian justice cant act beyond land boundaries but it can enforce law upto 12 nautical miles in sea too..CP starts..

Chubby: Madsam Dosa soon after this lecture..

Khemka: Kehte hai ishq mein neend ud jaati hai..koi humse ishq kare..kambhaqt class mein neend bahut aati hai..

Ishneet: Today, Bhajji is the man of the match for sure..

Manan: This facilitator can very well sing a song with me..even his lecture takes me into rhythmic dreams..

Gayathri/Ashish: Good that Himanshu is jotting down everything..

Alok: I used to teach a lot better in my classes..

Shwetank: Will Subprime crisis affect P2P solutions?

Suhasini: Good that system, AC, fans.. all are working fine. And most importantly blackboard is clean..

Rohini: Prathik mera hairclip kab wapas karega..abhi tho baal bhi gaye uske...

An Imaginary XLRI Interview

Disclaimer : All the characters in this interview are not at all fictitious and they are deliberately added to resemble the real ones. But again No offences meant :-)

Interview Panel : BFA Prof, CSE Prof, QT Prof, OB Prof, PR & OM Prof
Interviewee : Myself :-(

Interview Starts:

PR : ok my friend…tell me what is the bottleneck of you entering XLRI??

I : err…err.. Sir, you people over here.

(Laughs all over)

CSE : ok tell me what is carbon trading?

I: err..Sir is it selling carbon for money…

QT : Are you interrogating us??

I : Sorry Sir, I was answering actually.

CSE : I am not convinced.

BFA : yes yaar, you can help me over here. Will the money that came from carbon trading reflect in balance sheet..if yes, where??
[I cant help myself at this point, how can I help you :-( ]
I : ????..Sorry sir

QT : You have 3 blue-colored balls and 4 red-colored balls…

CSE : Sir, Please specify that eco-friendly colors have been used.

QT : Ok. You distribute them into 7 urns. What is the probability that at least one urn is empty.

I : Sir, To simplify things, I assume that one of the urns is closed with a lid. Now I can safely say that the probability is one.

PR : Ok my friend, You have ordered a dosa at some dosa center. What is it – A made to order, made to stock, assemble to order or an engineer to order.

(I thought, finally an easy one….My eyes glew and I started answering in great confidence)

I : Sir, As I am an engineer and I have ordered it…So it should be an engineer to order :-)

All Profs : ????

BFA : Ok. So once you pass out from XLRI and become a manager and then order a dosa…what will you call it…

Myself : err..Sir I guess there should be some more classifications in your question such as manager to order, doctor to order, B.SC to Order, BBS to order….

(Profs start laughing)

CSE : ok, Where is Tirupur located??

I : Sir, Its in Karnataka I guess…err tamilnadu…Kerala most probably…

QT : My friend, you are mentioning mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive elements of the set.

[ I could not figure out whether finally my answer was taken or not but I played safe and kept quiet]

BFA : yes yaar, you can help me yaar… I have taken 20,33,262 from my friend at an interest rate of 10% p.a. I used it for starting a firm. I refunded 2,23,121 at regular intervals. Then after third year I gave 2000 debentures of Rs.2,100 each to my friend. Then I converted these debentures into shares and finally to preferential shares.
Now tell me yaar… what do you appreciate in this??

I: Sir, I appreciate your memory of recalling everything and your honesty of returning the loan.

CSE : Ok, tell me whats the average water consumption at your flat for a single day.

I : Sir, it depends on how many of my flat-mates take bath that day.

CSE : Ok. Lets assume all have taken bath.

I : Sir, then it depends on leisureness of the people as this determines how long they would like to take bath.

OB : hay-lo, hay-lo…What would you mean by a HALO effect.

I: It’s the effect of making people quiet when they go out of control by just saying HELLO two times.
(I was happy that I started my flow of correct answers)

QT : What is the probability of you getting into XLRI provided that I haven’t selected any student in my last 10 years of interviewing experience. Will you apply exclusive probability or conditional probability?

I : Applying conditional probability, Answer would be Close to zero.

QT : Finally You gave a correct answer my friend. You can leave now.

I: err…err..

BFA: Don’t worry…God is great and Life goes on…

(I leave sadly :-( )