The X-Life

I haven't put a title to this post as I start writing this. I don't even know, what would I be writing after this sentence. (I have started this post just like an under-prepared engineering student would attempt a 'Write short note on India's economic growth post-liberalisation' type questions, thinking "fatte hi toh maarne hain"). Agar Big B roz raat ko 1 baje apne adde pe posht kar sakte hain, then mein bhi apne ilaake ka big S hoon (sans the french beard). Btw, I have realised (through my gaajar chabaane-wale jasoos) that my posts have been providing some solace to the mara-hua sense of humour of many of my friends (with my own butter-naan-sense) who were being content till date with the campus jokes on few (un)popular guys/girls and others who thought knock-knock jokes were the biggest blessings to mankind. These are those few occasions which provide exercise to those brushed-twice-a-day, still hatte-khatte (note the rhyme) teeth of my beloved readers. Ok, sorry for so much dindora-peetna, but aajkal adverrtijement ka zamaana hain. As a sincere student of a marketing subject, I couldn't resist myself. [reader : huh, isse achha marketing aur publicity to Rakhi Sawant kar leti hain. Bada aaya !]

Let me share some of my experiences in the past 86 days @XL (for those who are counting from 13 Jun 2008 and finding it out to be 96 - abey, 10 days toh Mumbai mein hoon na!)

[To lengthen the answer, an engineering student intentionally uses a figure/diagram/chart in his short-note :)]. Here it goes...Hostel - One of the most happening places on campus. Be it football, cricket, birthday bumps, night-outs, parties, 'dressing up' for photoshoots, those 'left-outsides' after an adventure camp (XLers know :P), aap-katar-mein-hain duologues for the washing machine (I sometimes feel - ration se chaawal lene bhi itni fight nahi maarni padti hogi, jitna is machine ke peeche daudte hain) and many more - our hostel corridors have seen it all. Talking of rooms, ultra-comfortable [;)]. Humein toh itni neend aati hain, that we feel we are enjoying an air-conditioned suite out there. Waise toh, ek hectic din ke baad, hum toh 8:16 ki mumbai fast local ke darwaaze pe khade khade bhi so jayenge (only mumbaikars can understand the big deal in this joke). And yes, we end up spending more than half the time in some one else's room (you gande dimaag! I meant spent "studying, working on an assignment, solving a case, discussing a concept, preparing for the exams" in our friend's room). Ok, I accept, some of them are (in)famous for being spotted in Girls' hostel, but that is also because, their project groups are allotted such (hehe..As if you are going to believe the previous sentence)

Food - You won't believe, the mess food is so good that I miss that now, and instead am keeping myself happy with the poor old ghar-ka-khana. (Ok, I told you beforehand - 'you wont believe'). But the food is not that bad either. On 2-3 days a week, we long for the dinners and have enough to keep us content for the next 2 days :). The rest of the days, we still have an edible variety of food. I can't tell you the entire menu, but there's one ingredient as critical in the food as the tear drop, TBZ jewellery, or a king-size bungalow in an Ekta Kapoor serial - Potato!! Still wonder why, but the people in this part of the world love potatoes. (I later realized why XL's very own band Bodhi Tree had recorded a song called 'Too many potatoes' ) [Update (Thanks, Mandar!): Paneer is another such precious ingredient that makes its presence felt on most of the days, though it comes second to potato in attendance]. Some of us are loyalty-club wale customers of the canteens (we have 3 other 'paid' joints on campus) and dosa-wala, and end up skipping the mess now and then. God knows why? Talking of canteens, the snacks are available till 3AM, and you will find students from all hostels arriving at all times to catch a bite of the-eternal-maggi (generic product-name for maggi/top-ramen - ek aur marketing jargon de maara!) aloo-sandwich, paratha, mixture, bread-poha, and the like, to be gulped with hot chai or thanda nimbu-paani.(I am still analysing the arrival pattern to find the off-peak hours so that I can get my maggi quicker, and will conclude my research this term)

That's a glimpse of the Life @ XL. Have much more to say about the course, faculty, students, extracurrics, outbound programmes, alumni, library, and loads of activities on campus. Of course, to avoid censorship from the 'stakeholders' and our media cell, (and due to my wish to keep those andar-ki-baat-hain memories to ourselves) I would not be 'revealing' any insider information or XL traditions to you all :) [you can't even buy the info black mein, unless, of course, you are a media hot-shot [shot na bhi ho toh chalegi ;)] and the money that you offer contains more than 6 zeroes succeeding the 1st digit]. Coming soon, to a screen (laptop/desktop wala) near you...

(The bell rings and the invigilator snatches the keyboard away from me. Yaad nahi woh story, jisse start kiya tha - that example of an engineering short note? [Applause] Kya weave kiya hain story ko... [reader] Tu ek din Director zaroor banega - company ka nahi, film ka bhi nahi - roadside tamaashe ka.)

Beta returns

(Kyun bhaai, hamesha Mummy Returns hi hona chahiye kya?)
Couldn't think of a worse title than this. Of course, the other cliched "I'm back" could have been there, but then our dear reader would have thought it was inspired by our 'Monty is back' tagline for Karzzz(lots of snores follow). Isse badi gaali kya ho sakti hain - being inspired by HR (arre, not the XLRI-asia's-best-wala HR), this is apna topiwala HR). Ok, before the your mouse pointer moves closer to the Close button on this window, let me get to the post.

Your friend (that's me!) is now pursuing his Yem-Bee-Yay (MBA, in a Rajini accent) in Bijness Management(BM) from XLRI, Jamshedpur. (for those who know tamil, avan yembi-yembi padikkiraan). And has completed one term of academics (results not yet out, so there's still time for being 1/6th of an MBA). Being in one of the most prestigious institutes is an experience by itself, and very difficult to put it in words (But I would still apni-jaan-pe-khel-ke post my experiences in the next few days). For now, I'm back to Mumbai, enjoying my term-break with lots of sleep and lots of khaana intermittently, like my unforgettable berozgaari-wale din.[writer is humming 'jaane kahan... gaye woh din...']. And, finally, I find some time to catch up with my friends (from a pre-historic era of dd-mm-yy <= 12-Jun-08), who were happy to find me alive, after all those 3-second ping-u-later responses from me for these 3 months. (Some even mailed google to find out, whether they have any auto-respond features added to gtalk). Ok, before the reader concludes that I was on Big Boss 2 for half the duration, let me post answers to some of the FAQs.

Q: How was Life@XL?
A: Awesome. You don't get to have a respectable time to sleep. Food is not your priority. You are constantly demeaned by your 'relative' performance as compared to those top-wale-toppers (How I wish sometimes that I had many relatives in XL, so that my relative grading would improve). You regret that you said 'call-you-later' even to your mom calling you after 2 days. You start doubting whether not being an engineer would have helped (this is just a joke, added to make the size of the list>3). And most of all, you are tired of all those you-are-2-years-IT-workex-guy? looks, as if I were one amongst those robots in I-robot, who just would have the barcode differing from others. But to sum it up in one word, (like Barney of How I Met your Mother would put it), it was LegeND-Ary (capitalized words to be stressed on). For those, who feel that this is some kind of cognitive dissonance (yes, I am doing somewhat good in the Organizational Behavior course!), you would have to wait for my next few posts that would describe THE experience. (So much to keep the audience glued. I would be hired by Star News to make ads for their 'dekhiye aaj raat nau baje' crime stories).

Q: How do I prepare for the entrance tests?
A: I would want to share my secret recipe for success - 1) Pray to God, before, after and during the exams. 2) Make sure, you send the applications at the correct time, so that your hall ticket number adds up to your lucky number. 3) Scare the maximum amount of test-takers by whichever means possible, so that their bad performance boosts your percentile. OK, on a serious note, I didn't do any of these (except point 1, which probably is the only reason why I am here). There's only a few things that I can tell you over this post. Like, make sure, you take as many mock tests as possible at regular intervals and analyse your performance thoroughly (analysis is a detailed discussion in itself; to cut it short, it is just to find out the best way possible to attempt that paper, and to find gaps with the way you solved them). If you have found where you go wrong, then you can set it right within days. Have confidence in your abilities - it is not just the aptitude, it is the attitude that matters too. I believe the only major task in these entrance test, is to identify the right questions. If you are taking more time to solve a section, then you have chosen the wrong set of questions (unless, of course, you are grossly under-prepared). Even with an average preparation, these two tips would help you easily reach the mid-90 percentiles (atleast I could get that!). Practise would take you a little closer to your dream institutes. Of course, there are many ifs and buts. But, as companies usually say about appraisals and promotions, 'they would be taken on a case-by-case basis'. I may still not be the right person to dole out all this gyaan to you, as I have not even taken so much pain as so many others have done, to get here. (I sometimes feel, my luck would even win me a Sikkim super-lotto; given the extent to which it has helped me till date). But still,I hope these pointers are of some use.

Anyways, its 3.53AM as of now, and I'm still wide awake (how I whine about not getting sleep due to acads, and I am awake even without them). So let me end this post for now. Ye the samachar aaj tak, intezaar kijiye kal tak.FULL ISSHTOP.