And we parted

Finally, I belong to the Have-Lost-a-Mobile-Phone club.

I lost my phone two days back, but the realization is hitting now. 

I have finally lost a phone ! 

Oh my Blueberry. 

My striking blue colored vintage Nokia.

You were a good phone. You gave people so many chances to crack a joke and make fun (of you as well as of me). You invited stares when you were whisked out in public. You gave me some challenging times to type with you as I alternated between my smartphone's Qwerty and your ABC keypad ( Its important you know - The Lesson of adjustment ). 

Most importantly, you survived for days while my smartphone died multiple deaths in a single day.  

There it is, a glimpse of it

Bye bye, good friend.

gems

an emptiness engulfs

and coils tightly,

around the heart

...the eyes moist slightly

when all you want

is your epitaph to read:

lived a nice and happy person,

you are slapped by someone of your deeds

the head is spinning

ears are ringing

there is a numbness

but it is screaming

screaming with reality

of what I have lost

of what was mine,

what I should have cherished the most

why are the lessons lost over time?

how many chances will life offer?

god gifts few priceless gems

but showered countless in my coffer

they'll shine for you;

they love you, they'll shine some more.

So, no matter how dark the clouds,

never lose the ones, you they adore

some i lost.

some i have.

some i threw,

faulted in judging value of many, perhaps.

Time to take this as the last lesson

life anyway gives only a few.

else, soon the last of the gems will slither away defeated,

all left then will be just you, you and you

The Classroom

I know MBA in a certain way; it is what I have done every single day for the last ten months.

Today, as I wake up (or rather unable to sleep) to my last official In-the-Classroom day, I can't help but think of how the many firsts in Nitin Patwa's Basics of Excel class are going to be the lasts in Nirmal Gupta's Strategic Marketing class. I have a come a long way since the time I apprehensively put my namecard in front of me for the first time.

They say that in an MBA, the best learning takes place inside the four walls of a classroom. I couldn't agree more. Here's how the learning experience has been so far:

loading ourselves with assignments from every professor with every prof thinking his assignment to be the most important;

taking Very Important notes (read playing hangman and doodling); texting mindlessly during lectures;

abusing those oh-so-wonderful creations of Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page & Sergey Brin in the best possible way;

drawing caricatures of peers sitting across the classroom;

laughing shamelessly at professors;

giving supposedly Nobel prize winning answers only to be snubbed by the ever supportive peers;

stealing winks across the room;

reading your presentation slides ten minutes before the lecture or better still, while giving the presentation;

Oh, giving those never ending ten minute quizzes!!;

trying your best to stay awake in class; failing to do so and hence sleeping in class;

making weird and funny looking namecards;

smuggling food inside the classroom;

pointing the camera to your friend who is happily dozing;

forgetting your laptop/phone charger in the hostel room and realizing with a sinking feeling that your one and only source of survival is no longer with you;

passing a piece of paper to make a chain poem;

sitting apprehensively next to unknown people and ending up making friends for life;

pretending to be immersed in the world's toughest math problem while chattering away to glory on the SPJCM sleeping club;

awwwwinngggggg;

chanting to RD hymns;

celebrating twins day,secret santa day;

playing the guitar and singing in class;

pulling down your neighbor's chair at the moment prof is staring in your direction;

playing music on youtube on the projector;

clicking pictures of people sleeping to make a How-to-Sleep-in-class portfolio;

recording videos during lectures and making funny faces into it;
DCPing!;

photoshop-ing yourself and the girls of your class during QT lectures;

engaging in important debates like Apple is best, Apple is best, Apple is best;

trying desperately to upload last minute submissions on the not-so-loyal blackboard;

FAFFing;

admitting to drinking coffee at Irish village;

watching live streaming cricket matches on the projector .......

I could go on but I have to get ready to attend my last peer learning experience .. =)

.. Today, MBA in The Classroom as I know it, ends

.

A thought for THE day

Sometimes you meet people that you connect with just like that .. Like on Day 1 itself. You have ten people standing in front of you, but somehow your eyes find them and simply, rest on them.

And slowly and unknowingly they creep into your life and take a special place. You become so used to their presence, that it is their absence that makes you realize their importance .. and well all you want is to care for them and wish for them to be safe.

They may not do bigg things .. its just the little and special things they do ... :)

winds of change

Four years of "I-don't-have-a-care-in-the-world". Four years of "Arre-yaar-koi-tension-nahi-hai". Four years of "complete-masti-and-no-responsibilities".
So much has changed.

... 3 Rs. ki banta has given way to expensive cocktails.
... The "kadai paneer, do naan" of Canteen have been taken over by exotic mexican and thai cuisines.... Metro and Chawla dhabba have been dethroned by jazzy pubs and lounges.... Haggling with rickshaw and auto waalas has become unnecessary since that new shiny car was bought.... Keeping in touch with friends through "missed" calls and 1 ps texts have long been dismissed by Gtalk and other virtual agents.... Deadlines for finishing copied and xeroxed assignments no longer seem Herculean tasks in front of meeting project completion dates.

I look out of my office window and see two laborers relaxing and chatting under a tree in a lush green lawn. They probably just got done with their work for the day. I see a long driveway, flanked by fountains, leading up to a massive building. The building isn't a red-brick structure though. The doors open and strong winds blow through my hair.

Some memories stir.

The winds bring the same soothing effect they once did. The greenery, the driveway, the trees feel the same, the way they did years back. There is an image in my head. A huge green lawn with trees and shrubs planted randomly. A lazy afternoon with a balmy sun. Sunlight playing with the leaves, leaving beautiful patterns on the grass. Plates with some unfinished food lie strewn. A couple of 20 year olds sitting under a tree, completing practical files. A few others, sleeping. Still others talking aimlessly.

Its a nice image.