Bike Workshop @ Fidelity by RAC Foundation on 26th Feb '10

Waking up early in the morning and getting ready for school has always driven me crazy specially during winter when all I wish, is to sleep under the warm quilt but my sister would come and pour water on my face. The start of the day used to be in awful mood but then riding my Atlas Goldline (the Milkman Cycle model) down the road to school used to calm me down and I used to cherish the moment of competing with motorbikes, fellow bike riders and flouting the traffic signals.

Few months after joining my first company, I stared developing tires around my waist and it was then I decided to start with some health regime. I started with gym which only lasted for two months due to irregular work shifts and pain of waking up early morning. My self-esteem was low as I did not feel good about the shape I was getting in. It was then I decided to buy a cycle for myself. Without giving any second thought or some peer reviews, I went to a bike shop in Gandhinagar and got myself Hero Hawk with 15 gears for 4.5K. It was a good pick for someone with a constraint budget and love for speed. I started riding from home to office. The distance one way was 6 km and I used to enjoy doing it but somewhere down the line I started making excuses and eventually stopped.

The recent bike workshop by Fidelity Cares and FBOTS was a great boost to my dormant passion and going back home I dusted my cycle and was back on saddle. The speakers had genuine interest of spreading the message of eco friendly transportation mode via cycling and I was among the few who got infected with their infectious zeal. They shared their valuable experience and patiently answered to people's concerns and queries ranging from safety on road to eve teasing. The current state of world environment needs no statistics and our personnel experiences are sufficient to vouch for greener lifestyle. Examples of few personalities who have transformed their life from being PULPY to CLASSIC physique by a simple act of pedaling a machine, bolstered confidence in me that this simple act of cycling can change my life drastically too.

The arrangement of new and modern bikes for test drive was a feather on the Cap of the event. Post lunch many people had test drive of the modern bikes which was enough to fuel them and get them interested with riding bicycle for short commute and weekend activities. I drove all the five models available and was amazed by the swiftness with which this bike move and their gear and break mechanism which was an engineering marvel. I have now planned to give away with my motor bike plan but to upgrade my current cycle to MTB (Mountain Terrain Bike). Also, the cycling community (BBC) suggested by speaker is one stop shop for all queries regarding cycling and has amazing set of people to be friends with. I have already started getting invitation for weekend rides making new friends. I wouldn't claim of achieving body build of  John Abraham but there are subtle changes which can be seen like few autotwallah's Thumping me Up, my landlady calling me for evening snacks and my office colleagues looking up to me for cycling tips. There are still few inhibitions which I would like to overcome in coming days but the sheer joy of reaching my destination before a motorized vehicle and riding on sideways when stuck in traffic jam and enjoying the gust of wind against my face is no match.

My love for cycle cannot be put in better words then our Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking."

My frank appreication chat..

Hi How u doing?
Well, I never told you one thing but let me tell you now since I am at safe distance :)

" Your Eyes Are Beautiful".
It was this that kept me staring at you sometimes because I was curious to know what makes it so beautiful. Frankly I am really curious to know the philosophy behind why such eyes looks wonderfull to me at least.

Pls dont mind... I am just frank with my feelings and sharing it away.


Take Care !!
Amit

IndiBlogger Meet in Jan 2009

Mother, When will I get those awards..

Jan 2009
Today was All-hands (A half-yearly formal gathering) of my company at Christ College. Looking at the people who were getting Values Championship Award, Leardership Award, Fun@Work Award , I was constantly telling myself, "Amit, when are you going to receive such award. When are you going to be successful in life. When will you stop being confused and rather concentrate at one goal."

I remember asking these same questions last year also at the same setting. I guess this question will keep bugging my head and its good that I know that I am made to create the difference in life.

For now, I just want to continue doing what I am doing i.e. my work and my CAT preparation. There has been an appreciable improvement and I am just want to continue doing my best. If I get sth good out of this I will pursue it else I am going to make myself TECH guru going ahead :)

P.S. I got Fun@Work Award on 21stMay 2010. It was like dream come true where I could hear the applause of 1500 colleagues in auditorium when I was on my way to collect my certificate.

After 45 dusk.

Dawn -> Dusk -> Dawn -> Dusk -> Dawn -> Dusk -> Dawn -> Dusk -> ..........

Days passed by, change was continuous and someone evolved from something to some other thing. With a wide gap of 45 days, I am penning down my thoughts or better to say got time to reflect upon my past. During this period it was sharpest change I have ever experienced in my life. It was a change from a heedless to mindful, from self-first to family-first, from MS to MBA and with less friends to more friends.

During this period I was home (my native : Dhanbad) for 15 days (Remember I missed the IIIT Bangalore interview ) and trying to catch up with my missed festival feasts and family members. The journey of flight from Bangalore to Kolkata was boring but the forward journey from Howrah to Dhanbad in a local was mind boggling. The commotion and seat sharing reminded me of my old days when I used to have similar flavor.

My mother hugged me with warmheartedness. To my surprise it took me more than 10 mins to recognize my own house where I have spend 10 years of my childhood. The culprit was the 20 months of gap in two consecutive visit to home. I started feeling culpable and in hurried steps was searching all the rooms of my house to extract the hidden past so that I can build my childhood castle around it.

Then what followed was a series of events belonging to specific classes (C++ term). Meeting sisters and family relatives, getting pestered to marry soon and giving a helping hand to my mother in her daily chores. In midst of all these obvious events was a romantic one. I met my long time crush for whom I fought with another suitor in Class 5. It took time for me to recognize her but she was more quick to respond. She is still the same. Studious and sweet. Though she recently got married I have all well-wishes for her from every corner of my heart.

How can I miss to mention my waggling thoughts all time about whether to pursue management or technical as my career. I find it hard to belief today but then in a short span of every 2 hours I used to switch my side with equally strong arguments. Each moment it was ringing in my head, whether at sleep or at wake moments. My head was over exercising to search for the answer and that irked me at few moments.

I bought a new digital camera for my parents (with my father's money though as he didn't allow me to spend mine). It is Canon IXUS model for 11200 rupees. It was great buy and now they are using it quite effectively by capturing all the happy moments at home. Even I took some great ones of mine :).

With one of these dawn, it was end of my honeymoon period at home and it was time to get back to my mundane work life. My journey from Howrah to Bangalore in train was the most dreadful one. I booked side lower anticipating some personnel time and speedy air against my face at window seat. I was complete heart break and distraught when I witnessed "Side Middle" berth in today's Indian Railways seating arrangement. To describe about this experience might take another blog so I just want to end it here mentioning something which I repeatedly told myself through out the journey and smiled. It is "You asked for little fun, God gave you more than that".

I was back to Bangalore and felt at home. The weather at two places was contrast. What followed next few days was getting used to my routine office and finally I made up my mind to pursue MBA. Reasons.... aplenty.

Choice...

“When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels” (Internet)

How I spent my 10 days of leave for MBA Exam Prep.

I studied some, slept most of the time.. couldn't achieve much of my target, feeling little bit pesky but that's OK. Time which has gone is gone.. Tomorrow is new beginning.

But I still feel that I lack the zeal to crack IIM. I don't know but its definitely not like IIT JEE where the three char mantra was sufficient enough to drive me but this time its something like which fizzles out after every 3 days of refueling. I am somehow finding it difficult to keep the momentum ON.

Today I am at Angad's place with an anticipation that I will study with full throttle but let me be honest, I didn't do much studies rather I did 1/5th of what I usually do at home. I see that even Angad is not as focused as he was during college days which I feel is pretty normal in work life where the priorities of a man change.

I still have got a long way to go considering IIM's call and Amit let me tell you if you don't get sincere about it I would suggest that dude get off and concentrate on something easy. CAT is not your ability. Honestly, I do feel that getting into an IIM's will put my career is secure platform and from there I can be liberal with what I want to do with my life rather than being all time worried which is the situation at present. This is my first and last time and hence Amit give your best the way you did for TOEFL because the value of fight is known only after its defeat and hence it will only surmount with lot of regrets and frustrations which I don't want you to go through.

You still can make it. Just be honest to it.

Vellore Trip and Aftermath :)

27th Nov, 2009 11:00 p.m.

I am little tired today. I did cleaning of my room and dusted off 3 bins of waste. Also, my CAT exam is coming near, I would say just a week ago and I am not in my best shape.

From 3rd Nov to 19th Nov., I was in Vellore for my brother's operation. It was a near crisis situation in my family where no one could believe that the youngest member will be the first to come under the Operation table for a major operation. He had infection in his left lung due to his past history of TB and Jaundice. It was really painfull to see my brother breathing oxygen through mask and his pulses getting monitored on medical systems. For me it was real test of Man. On the second day of operation, my dad developed pain in his ankles which made it unbearable to walk and my mother was down with mild fever. To avoid any further damage to their health, I advised them to take complete rest and was the only one holding the pillars.

At one point I was feeling little broke and I even tried calling few of my close friends. One realization I had with my conversation with them was, no matter what family members are the only ones who can understand the despair of near ones while for others its going to be a remote connection and empathy will be missing. I don't complain but say that it is a natural behavior and hence when some friend our outside your immediate family is not able to understand your plight you should take it easy and not get furious about there carelessness.

Also quite many things happened during the time I was in Vellore like:-
1. My parents pestering me for marriage.
2. Me putting of Jyoti's call out of irritation of repeatedly asking me to get married.
3. Irritating some nurses in hospital with my Physics of pressure difference and they talking about gravity.
4. Me bribing/ tipping someone out of non-chalance just to avoid any conflict and in the best interest of my brother.
5. Also I gave 50 bucks to a priest to shut his mouth for expressing his desire about devotees not getting sweets and just flowers. Me and my mother, both were hurt and hence I did it.
6. Me going to Vellore Golden Temple and how from the beginning till the end I could not appreciate anything but was simply cursing the management to make me walk for 3 kms. Even after so much of pain I could feel no calmer as it was full business model and little to do with architecture/ devotion.
7. My moments of stealing glimpse with Nurses in my brother's ward and how I feel gratefull for their service.
8. My anger over Canteen chap for serving me chicken puff instead of ordered veg puff and more than than not accepting it as his mistake. I remember telling him "I dont want it anymore, you keep it" even after trying to explain him in calmer voice. :)
9. My Blood Donation for my brother's operation. The whole thing was very moving. It is still hard for me to beleive he went through all this.
10. One day at hospital, I was little pissed of with what we were undergoing and told my brother that he should better take care of himself and not be cause of pain to the family. He was literally furious to me and we couldnt meet eye with an eye for quite some time.
11. Also, I gave one mock cat in vellore which boosted my confidence level :)
12. Read quite a few chapters from The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It was an exhillarating experience. Got to read the rest but it is little heavy and takes toll on your head.
13. Read loads and loads of newspapers and magazines.. Quite a good time.
14. Was a decision maker on equal platform with my dad after I showed my success with handling the situation.
15. My dad was pissed off on operation day, very tensed and we did exchange few unpleasant glances with each other. I was relaxed and calm.
16. Called up Shailesh Jee and thanked him for all his teachings.

well, i will add as and when i recall more. Got to sleep now. Good Night.

My first baby step in photography ;) : Arms around adversaries

Sunday Morning in Office : Reproduced

Sunday Morning in Office.. What a waste. Get some life dude..

Wait.. Wait.. It's different.
No Boss, No colleagues and emptiness all around. Music on speaker while the volume still under civic etiquette. Creativity is having its all time high and relax is the mood. No deadlines, no daily reports and I can take my own sweet time to finish things on my chosen work-day.

The experience of working in such a uber cool artificial setup will match apple to apple with what some of the top tech companies like Google & Yahoo have (at least that's what their Youtube Videos suggest). The employee satisfaction will be high all time. The creativity will sprout in every corner/cubes and all these at no extra cost. If so different and positive can be the outcome, I would like to suggest those tweaks.

1. The employee should be allowed to choose his/her own 5 working days and time.
2. There should be no overlap of employee and his/her manager's presence in office. Proximity kills creativity and induces fear. To sort things out reach out to Graham Bell.
3. People having same taste in music/sports/girl/boy should be allowed to sit together to create an amicable environment. Geese of same frequency improves efficiency.
4. Trust your people. They will surprise you.
5 - 100. Points I missed to suggest or better to say BUFFER :)

Speak Up Fellas...

Please Note : This was my attempt to reproduce my lost matter today morning and I realized, reproduction is never easy and could miss out to originals.

Sunday Morning in Office

Huh? ...

I wrote this complete blog and when I went to format.. at the end what I see is this blank page.. Now Sunday is no more fun :-(.

Google.. you listening....

Is Honesty the Best Policy?

There are pros. There are cons. What side do I want to be?

For quite many years I was pretty clear that I want to be on good side of it as I have always felt proud and relieved after speaking out the fact rather than twisting and turning and putting them in self-benefit form. But coming to corporate it is not easy. Instead the one who depicts is the one who get promotion/raise and the one who is a silent worker is left in corner gathering dust.

Buddha said, follow a middle path. Let me tell you, it is not easy. He did not speak about the criterion for the boundary and as a result I am still at fix. Though I lie sometimes about my dinner or availability but that too leaves me feeling guilty.

I don't preach "Honesty" and I keep my virtue (good/bad) to myself nor do I intend to advertise myself :). I am just trying to share my thoughts with you fellow readers and would love to hear your point of view either by a comment here or over coffee (on me:)).

That is why I have this blog name as "deepintolife".. as I like to question myself all time.

With You Always,

AC

Connecting Dots

"Dreams are not what you have when you sleep, dreams are those that don't let you sleep." APJ

There is nothing great about the above quote. I have come across it close to 100 times considering the speaker is one of the most influential man in my country and the citizens talk about him in high regards. Whenever I read it, I nod my head in approval but never experienced it until today.

My dream is to pursue PhD in a technological domain and I shared this yesterday with my dad. He didn't said, "Have you gone insane?" but rather what he said was more logical answer, "First we need to get admission in a good college for Masters and then will come PhD". I know a friend whose parents freak out at the very mention that his son want to pursue PhD and not start his family life considering he is about to finish his Masters. My dad's response was encouraging. I slept late after watching "The Matrix" and working on my SOP by close to 2:30 a.m. Kept my alarm at 9:00 a.m. thinking that a six and a half hour would be sufficient to reboot my biological clock for a fresh start.

To my surprise, dreams of pursing technology, long hours in library and excitement over studies filled my sleep time and I woke up at 7:00 a.m, 2 hrs before plan. I consider such situation from the view that what ever less than 8 hour I am going to use it as credit for the following night and also ends up grumbling about it whole day. But today is different. I am up, wrote something on my white boards, checked my facebook, gmail etc and now writing this blog. After this, I plan to finalize a document regarding application and get ready for office.

I am not sure if I have got the answer to my question, "What would I like to pursue as a career which will be in alignment with my strengths and goals?". But I am happy to find something that would not let me sleep and something I would love to pursue. Its not an easy task as for the past eight and a half years I have been searching for it and my friends have often tagged me as a confused butt. I have a calendar diary and its more than 50% of the pages are filled with my doubts and queries. It was always a difficult question as there was no fortune teller to guide my future but as Steve Jobs said in Stanford's commencement speech in the year 2005 :

"Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Ref: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

So friends, All I am doing is keep digging and finding out something that doesn't let me sleep. I wish you have your answer soon.

Have a Nice Day!!

AC

[From: Amit Choudhary] To MBA or not to MBA?

Hello Folks,

This may sound like a relevant article for many confused soul like me. Are you same ?. If yes, read on Brother & Sister!
-------

To MBA or not to MBA?
For graduates, personal skills can rate higher than specialist knowledge. Tony Martin weighs the options.

To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/mar/09/mbas.business

Annals of Medicine: The Checklist: newyorker.com

Annals of Medicine: The Checklist: newyorker.com

How to Identify a Good Person?

The question intrigued me for past few days after I was condemning myself of believing someone I should have never. This has happened quite a times enough for me to vent out my anguish in search of a good friend amongst the hundreds I meet every month. Being a science student from an academic point of view where there is reason for everything like Stars twinkle due to refraction and changing refractive index in space, I was interested in finding out some equation or theory which when applied to any new entity I come across gives me fair chance of knowing him and at the same time not get emotionally attached only to see me crying later.

The theory I propose is simple but can be easily argued upon since I lack analysis data of over 1000 people and how it faired. But if I have to put it like this why not should I put it in Science Journal and get accolades :). Coming back, here's my theory.

"If a person has basic courtesy in place, he/she is worth giving a shot."

When I say basic courtesy I mean, if he/she needs something from you , they will request and say thank you and not snatch it away with snobbish face and you don't have to go and ask it back as he/she will be alert enough to give back.

I don't mean that my theory is full proof but what I think is, if we can weed out 95 out of 100 it is worthwhile to let ourselves fall for 5 rather than 50. With this we will start with a positive note with 5 and if all five turns out sour we will be better off with lesser grudges and for the rest 95, we will start out with negative taste which overtime can be corrected seeing good coming out of those 95 and hence we may end up surprising ourselves.

Any feedback on my theory is WELCOME..

Stay Tuned!

Deepavali Celebrations in Office

Pic Courtsey : Arun Kr.

Why Perseverance is difficult ?

He conquers who endures. ~Persius ( http://www.quotegarden.com/perseverance.html )

Many a times we come across such quotes which act as light house for wailing souls. There are moments of quick fixes where certain immortal figures like Noble Prize winners or an Olympian picture act as panacea but the disease still persist. Of the many moments I have been more conscious of my behavior in the recent times and I realized that Self-Doubt is the Biggest Enemy. There are times when I are doing better than the 90% but I still see the 10% ahead of me and get dispirited of never being able to make it as I am still far far away from my reference point. Also, if the desire to do certain task need regular assurance compared to the ones which we instinctively take-up, the chances of persevering in rough weather further lessens.

Its just a small writeup to test blog post through email feature. More about the topic later.

Love You,

Amit

Incredible Cyclothon 2009 !!

The joy to participate in Cyclothon started last night when I was not able to sleep due to the excitement of seeing dawn and riding bike with thousands odds which kept me awake till 1:30 a.m. The alarm shotoff at 4:30 and I was not sleepy. Got ready and off to Malleswaram tocatch Bus.

The view on the road to BIEC was awe-inspiring. People carrying theirbikes on the top of Car, tied behind the car, in Motorbike and allsorts of possible ways were on display. I could see how each one waspumped up. On reaching the spot waited for other friends to join inand then moved to collect my bike. The arrangement was pretty neat and it was easy to locate the storehouse. Took my cycle and at around 9,the corporate riders were flagged off. (Pic Courtesy : Rajaneesh )



My joy knew no bounds when I saw the entire stretch reserved only for cyclist. It was enough adrenaline kick. I registered as part of Corporate Cycling of 25 KM and was even able to manage getting 40 oddsfrom my office with the help of Mathew Pylichen, Palani,Harish andothers. Close to the returning point at 12.5 KM, I met Vijay from Philips and we asked each other, "Dude, What say. Should we go for 36?". The prompt answer was "YES". We passed the 12.5 K limit and were able to manage 18 Km and return. With the passage of every KM after 18, it was getting tougher and tougher but the view of all ages participants kept me moving. The urchins at the sides where coming close to shake hand and thumps UP. I felt like a celebrity :). Finally made to the Finish Line and was smiling ear to ear with the satisfaction of self-belief and perseverance.
I am sure each one of us had a gala time and have our own long story to say. Shoot!!

Enjoy !!
Amit

EMI

The title of this post is inspired by a Bollywood movie sharing same name. I happen to be neglecting to watch this flick for quite some time just because the print was not of good. quality But, today I decided to go for it as pass time during my dinner.



The movie revolves around the life of people in debt with home loans, personnel loans and credit card loans. It shows how much pain and embarrassment loan recovery agent inflict upon defaulters. It staged how a husband and wife plan to divorce due to unbearable pressure of monthly EMIs. In one case, a father takes 10 lakhs to fund his son's foreign MBA studies where the son later drops out in the middle of the course only to see one day how his dad is humiliated by these recovery goons.

Truly, lives of several people is loosing peace because of the desires to have more than what one's means allow due to peers pressure or uncontrolled desires. Also, after watching the movie I felt a sense of relief and calmness thinking that "Good that I did not pursued my MS else I would have ended up taking more than 8 lakhs loan and my entire family's life and peace would have been now mortgaged.

Today, again I have made up my mind not to pursue any plan if its cost is more than 3 lakh loan but rather be satisfied with low risk pursuit so that the welfare of my family is taken care with peace. God I wish all families who are seething under the pain of loan to get out of it and live at peace.
AMEN !!