Rise and Shine...

6 ‘o’ clock in the morning in a super fast express (barely faster than a speeding auto rickshaw that plies on the streets of Burrabazar) on a certain December morning mayn’t be the most conducive and ideal time to write a blog, but with frequent cups of chai and growing sunlight outside it doesn’t seem like an absolute impossibility either. Of course for people around me (like the one who was just standing near my back) I am like a truly geek- techno-gizmo-demi god who chooses to spend the sleepiest part of the day sitting here perched over this laptop! As for the only people who mayn’t think so, are happily cuddled up under blankets/shawls/trench coats and are most unaware of my exploits! So can I go on to record this as a human triumph over the cruel side of nature, can I say yet again humans (this time led by me!) have shown that they wont be balked down by sub 10 degree temperature (considering the fact that I am a true bong… might explain few things here), cold chilly occasional wind which just happen to come from nowhere..Blah …blah…. NO…..I guess it would rather go down as the exact example of what happens when you pack for a journey (60 hours in total, 46 of which takes place in 4 different trains) in 15 minutes.

Second year in management education is quite fascinating and interesting for many different reasons from why first year is. In second year, yet again you are senior and have an entire batch of unsuspecting juniors as the bunch of guinea pigs to try put your newly acquired management fundaes to test. However the problem here being that the market condition here is that of perfectly competitive one, and juniors getting too much of power in terms of choosing whom to take gyan from, people like me whose batch rank resembles the highest scores of Sourav Ganguly in the best days of his cricketing career take premature exit from this market and try and open up an entirely new niche market to spend their time - b-school competitions! Not that I have been particularly successful here either but then given the laws of probability you will, however unlikely it might appear in the outset, crack couple of them and claim your moment of greatness. Hence when I found my name in the shortlist for an event in Iris ’07 (IIM I fest), I thanked my forefathers, my kindergarten teachers, Government of India and other stakeholders who contributed to my success and set out on my trip to Indore. Some of the clichés used in these fests such as – “battle it out for the top glory”, “almost first is still not first”, “winner takes it all”, “claim your glory” somehow have this underlying tinge of medieval age war cries and you without being much familiar with any of it think of yourself like a knight in black suit who is out their to win this “corporate” battle. Of course there are other incentives for going to such fests such as- free booze, vacation trip, and babes from different college (applicable only to students from IIMs). Any ways I won’t bore you with my exploits in Iris coz frankly I don’t remember much, a pleasant after effect of heavy drinking (you feel less guilty and embarrassed) which was primarily what I did in the last 4 days. Now at the end of it, more importantly at the seeming end of the painful and freezing train journey I feel more like Odysseus returning from Troy (..ahem.. fine what if it is a little exaggeration…its freezing here…and I did win an event and moreover 7 days out of XL is much worse than 11 years away from Penelope, at least at the end of it he got her back, while the grades I lost for missing more than 5 lectures are gone forever).

Anyways Just as I was about of slide the fifth empty cup of tea under my seat I was simultaneously visited by two most terrifying creatures of the dark waters that flow through the Indian Railways ( sorry for the intended, but failed, resemblance with LOTR)- Eunuch & TTE. One went away after causing a negative cash flow of Rs 5 and showering some blessings on me, while the other was extremely let down by the sight of a valid ticket and left only after he was sure there was no way he can charge me with any fine. Once again I feel extremely jealous of my friends who are happily sleeping, even now! It’s a clean and beautiful day outside, less cold inside and I feel like that man who stood there in the pond all night looking at the distant lamp (refer to Birbal stories for more case facts). The long painful night is gone, and so is the charge of my laptop and there is a marked increase in people who are awake now and giving me those dirty looks of incredulity and wonder, which makes me feel that it’s the apt time to finish this blog here and resume my journey through the dreamlands. So long friends hope to write again… under better conditions probably!