On this New Year

Students,

Here's what your Big Daddy thought on the eve of new year.
As 2010 and along with it an entire decade draws to a close, I looked back at each one of the years that went by in this decade. Almost all of the years had more disappointments than triumphs, all of them seemed absolutely wasted. I felt as if I did not do anything at all over the years.
Then I looked back at the entire past decade and honestly, had someone told me on 31st Dec 2000 that after a decade I would be what I am today, I would have happily taken it.
Moral of the story - In short term things may really look bad, but when you have a long term perspective you really see the 'Bigger Picture'. With this thought I would like to wish all my students a very happy 2011!

Of An anonymous Priest

Dear students - in this course of guide to life, big daddy will showcase some of his talent (which by the way is like Israel - in the sense, some countries just don't recognize its existence while others find it irritating). Please read on the following piece of poetry.

Of An anonymous Priest

Not so long back somewhere in a country nice and new

An anonymous poet published his masterpieces few

He would write poems that would make people cry

Hardly any humour not even sarcastic, mocking or dry

Sailors would set on explorations to be devoured by sea

Cruel kings would capture men to never set them free

Investors at the bourses would lose their savings of life

And the lives of honest men be full of struggle and strife

Even love stories would end sadly with hero losing out at last

as heroine would decline marriage sighting difference in caste

All poems would showcase triumph of evil on good

Cowards making merry while the brave begging for food

I met that poet on a rainy night last week

I asked him why his outlook on life was so bleak

“Life”, said he, “my friend in the term short is unfair for sure”

“But things smoothen out in the long term, time is only cure”

“My outlook in my poems is bleak for a reason deep,

Poems are not like the dreams that you see in sleep

Dreams still tend to come true while poems don’t any more

Let poetry trap all grief while we bask in happiness galore

Let poetry trap all grief while we bask in happiness galore”

Repeating the last line he faded out in dark

But his words have left in my mind a mark

How I wish I could go back now and ask him his name at least

But ‘what’s there in the name after all’ let’s just call him priest!

Blast from Past

Well sometimes when you don't have anything worthwhile to do (which is almost always the case with me), you choose to go back into the past and reminsce. Well I was doing something similar when I found out this piece of poetry that I had prepared when I was extremely angry at the way internet worked at my alma mater. The net has now improved a lot but that great life has ceased to exist. Anyway I hope some of my fellow inmates at NITIE hostel will enjoy reading this poem which was circulated on IP several times. Cybercom please have a look:

Ode to the NITIE net: (written sometime in Aug 2009)

Little did I know when I joined NITIE year last
That compared to the net here snails seem fast

I thought that it was a mere temporary hitch
net will work fine when they change some switch

After an year of patience, frustration and hope
I find this menace just too irritating to cope

Still my heart says that one day NITIE net will work
and with pride a la Placecom the cybies will also smirk

Hey Lord , please show me the light of that day soon
when NITIE net will rock hostels in night and afternoon

 An optimistic net seeker (KGV)(then)
NOW - bandwidth waster.

An ode to NITIE

25 months back we went to a place grand..

A B-School one of the best & yet not a big brand..

A crowd of a dozen dozens with not even a score of girls..

spent two years in heaven like countesses and earls..

More friendships were forged yet there were a few foes..

The 'time of our lives' went by with hardly any woes..

The Age of empires never went off despite the counter strikes..

Where FIFA world cups were won even without wearing spikes..

The groove yard blossomed into Mandi ,two Preranas went by..

Before we could even realize we were flying out in open sky..

All that remains now are memories and a special bond..

All those calm stary nights and those walks around pond..

The saturday chchole bhature, the happy singh sunday lunch..

Those weekends were so lavish despite the cash/credit crunch..

Few Facebook comments have replaced those hundreds of multi-casts

Chats that would last for hours then, now not even two minute lasts

Life past NITIE is exciting and will continue for sure..

But NITIE Nostalgia is recurring and it has no cure..

I am waiting for the convo and surely that day will come..

All my friends please stand up now.. lets start bunty anthem!!!

"Bunty hain ek sasti... .........."

Dedicated to my heavenly alma mater (which despite being continuously ranked in top 10 B-schools is still not recognized by the general populace and often mistaken for NIIT) and the time I spent there with my wonderful friends.

I hope that a day will come when the 'aam aadmi' will be aware of the existence of a heaven on earth in Mumbai - National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)!

Oh My GOD!!

My blogs suck but my poems do not..

blogs are remembered but poems forgot..

I wrote a poem three days back..

with it my blog was back on track..

I wrote something about girls shy..

while I titled is 'I don't know why'..

Such mismatch and such lack of thought..

yet more readers than a blog it brought..

Aren't there any takers for my thoughts deep..

How long should one's patience one keep..

I am not going to stop the thought process..

Neither am I going to wait as if playing chess..

I shall keep writing, and posting on and on..

Care not whether you're there or you're gone..

If there is class in my words, thoughts and mind..

Some day my readers will come and find..

The real happiness lies beneath the meaning broad..

Lest you understand it.. just shout 'Oh My God!!'

I dont know I dont know why...

Don't know I don't know why..

I never wondered what if I could fly..

Don't know I don't know why..

I never thought what If I were a girl shy..

Dont know I don't know why..

Every time when I write a poem..

I go for a 2 by 2 rhyme..

Now though I want to show 'em

I am not falling for it this time..

They are those critics of mine..

who find me as sweet as brine..

who call me asinine or swine..

Who question my intentions divine..

Those critics if read this now..

will say with utter dismay

" you are as holier a cow..

that only worship the gay"

I tell them with a lovely smile..

you can think whatever you may..

forgotten my thoughts will be in while..

But my words with this poem will stay

My words with this poem will Stay!!

I don't know I don't know why..

I never wonder what if I could fly

I know now I know why..

I was busy thinking about a girl shy!

Matter of Choice...

In life one has to make innumerable choices, in fact what you are is a product of all the choices that you make in life. Some decisions are more complex and important than others and this lesson is about how to make correct choices in life.

There is a lot of existing literature on decision making, in fact there is a whole academic line of decision sciences but decision science has to be scientific and interestingly most important decisions of our lives are to be taken emotionally. Since the science of predicting emotions has not evolved yet decision making has to be an art form.

Karan Johar in his work Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum, 2000 says that one should only listen to one's heart while making decisions "Zindagi mein kuch banna ho, Kuch hasil karna ho, Kuch jeetna ho, To hamesha apne dil ki suno, Aur ager dil se bhi koi jawaab na aaye ... To apni aankhein band karke apni Maa aur Baba ka naam lo ... Phir dekhna tum har manzil paa sakoge, Har mushkil aasan ho jayegi, Jeet tumhari hogi ..... Sirf tumhari... "

Well most of the decisions in life are made more difficult by the thought "what will others say?, will others approve of it?". This leads one to embrace the flock mentality. Do what everyone else is. If you do what everybody else is then everyone will approve of your decision and as a result you confirm to the "mould". There is nothing wrong what-so-ever in confirming to the mould , in fact most often it is the safest bet. But sometimes one is faced with decisions which prompt one to take a different path. When heart says "Take a chance" and brain says "Dhopat Marga sodu nako' (quote by a popular Marathi poet Anant Phandi in one of his 'Phatka's - meaning don't leave the established path and tread in unchartered territories') here comes the real matter of choice.

The author doesn't intend to demean other matters of choice like 'which shirt to wear at a friend's marriage' or 'whether to long or short Nifty futures' or 'whether or not to upload your new photo on a social networking site' these matters of choice are also important but don't need the kind of analysis which the above mentioned matters of choice do.

When it comes to making difficult - potentially 'life changing' decisions you will always find plenty of people on both sides of your decision. Some even branding you a fool for thinking about your alternative as an option but then all others can see is just the part of the picture and that too only the present but you are the best judge of everything. Back yourself to take the 'leap of faith'. Till the time you feel that your decision is in your best interest and in the best interests of all the stakeholders who would be directly affected by it , go for it!

If you make a choice on your own and fail at least you'd have the satisfaction of having done something by your own wish while if you make your choice based on someone else's opinion and fail then all you can do is to blame yourself for not trusting yourself. And remember as rightly said by the great P.G. Wodehouse :" the worst three words in English language are 'could have been' ".

So when it comes to the matter of choice. Think about all the aspects, stakeholder and possibilities, back yourself to take the correct decision and Go for it! At the end of the day its 'your' life and it should be 'you' who chooses!