Last few days have been really miserable when I had to create a hell lot number of files after an unknown virus attacked my system! [:(] The virus deleted all the files created within last 20 days. It was like my Hard disk time travelled to 20 days back and hence a huge chunk of very crucial data was lost.
To give you an idea of what I lost in all this – The data includes my resumes (with campus lateral placements currently going on), various documents related to the points on the resume, more than 5 project related documents, a number of composed (but not sent) mails, a number of eurotrip related blog posts etc. etc.
So for most of these docments, I had no choice but to rework and create them again. Not an easy thing to do as most of the supporting documents are not there as well !!
Anyways if you have any idea about the virus, do leave a comment or write to me at abhi[dot]taneja[at]gmail[dot]com
This post is my dedication to one of the most beautiful girl I have ever met. She is Nina Flink from Finland and I met her in Toulouse, France on exchange program. She also happened to have come on exchange to the same University and had opted for the same module as I had.
Please do not try to read anything between the lines – there is nothing in there. She is amazingly beautiful and incredibly cute. She is intelligent and has a great sense of humour. She used to be one of the primary motivation to attend the classes there! [:P]
Although already very late but I am going to write about some of the incidents which happened during the 3 months stay in Europe. Following is a short list (Not really that short but likely to grow more) of such incidents. The posts would be made in back dates (on the other blog) – the dates when the incident really happened and I would be updating the hyperlinks in this post.
Paris -The Arrival
Sarkar falling of the escalator in Paris
Amsterdam Trip
Sarkar and the wine bottle cork
Sarkar running off before the show
Missed Train # 1
The difference was in the air – Women commoditised
Nice Trip
The beautiful beaches!
Bordeaux Trip
A dead city but a nice beach at Arcachon
Austria Trip
The Ice Caves
The Turku Junta
2 hrs to tour
Budapest Strassbourg Italy Trip
The train to Milan – Reserved to a non-existent seat
2 Euros at Milan station
The time crunch to tour
Rome Spain Portugal Trip
That beautiful girl (on the way Toulouse-Barcelona)
The Aquarium
Give up in Madrid
Scandi Trip
Shopping at the last moment, literally!
Beghar in Paris!
Missed train
Lalla @ Paris
The inefficient ticketing system
IIM A junta Bergen Fjord trip
The snow games at Myrdal
The inefficient ticketing system again!
The Burger King at Oslo
The chaos at Stockholm – 1 (before reservation)
The chaos at Stockholm – 2 (just the time to board cruise)
Meeting with 3 IIMA and Rajat Gupta and Rajatdeep at Helsinki
The Soumolina island
Rovaniemi – Snow all around, -10°C Santa ki zabardasti Got frozen, almost!
Aurora Borealis
Paris Trip
Planning is such a bullshit – Swiss and Belgium
Planning is such a bullshit – Eiffel top
Swiss Trip
The Reservation drama – It always happen in France
Phir se dhokha!
Kapil Barve
Luzern trip and the amazing Lion monument
The Indian couple (Hotel businessman) on the way to Engelberg
The notice at Mt. Titlis
Fell in thigh height Ice @ -16°C at 3300m altitude!
Fell again but this time on hard ground and the chased by a dog!
Meeting with Gaurav and Sushi in Interlaken
Atul Sethi
Free night travel for the first time!
Germany Trip
The sweeper at Frankfurt
Berlin (Tourist office, tours and S-Bahn)
Almost missed another train!
IIMA and IIML junta @ HHL Leipzig
Who says trains in Europe are not delayed?
Prague Trip
The search for hostels
Night life!
The Punjabi shopkeeper
ABSINTHE: 2 Litres of Beer, 1 shot of Vodka and 1 shot of Absinthe
The bartender The drunk guy and the free shot of Vodka
It had been a long time since I saw a good horror movie.
REC is a brilliant horror/thriller movie. It is about a TV crew recording about the life of a firefighter.
DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE. JUST KNOW THAT IT IS A MUST WATCH MOVIE. GET A COPY WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES, CREATE AMBIENCE FOR A HORROR MOVIE – Lights Off, Volume Levels High and Preferably sitting alone! – AND WATCH IT
The movie is about a TV crew recording the life of a firefighter and gets trapped in an infected house. The infection is contagious and spreads through saliva. The TV crew thought they were being brave before they found themselves trapped amongst zombies. Then it was just a run for their lives. With the building sealed by Police from outside and the house full of zombies, they did not have any option but to shit in their pants (not literally). The camera from TV crew is all we have.
The ambience, soundtrack and the screams make it a perfect horror flick.
Swagat hai aapka kaun banega Crorepati dwitya mein!
Aur ye raha 2 crore rupaiye ke liye aapka sawaal…
The above two lines are no strange to Indian audience.. Amitabh Bachchan did it first and then Shahrukh Khan followed but now Anil Kapoor does the same although not on TV but on the larger screen. He plays host of the show: “Who wants to be a millionaire” (English translation of Kaun Banega Crorepati).
No one would have thought that someone will make a full movie on a TV show but British director Danny Boyle found an opportunity to make a brilliant masterpiece keeping the TV show in background. The movie has already won several awards in the selected limited screenings it has had so far.
The movie is basically about a kid from slums of Mumbai managing to get a berth in the show “Who wants to be a millionaire” and the events that follow. The kid was arrested for a probable case of fraud/cheating as no one expected the kid to advance to the final levels. This suspicion prompted the show host to call for an enquiry, where the kid (referred to as Slumdog in the movie) takes the police inspector (played by Irrfan Khan) through his life and how an illiterate kid from slums of Mumbai knew answers to the questions that even literates might find dicey at times.
The movie takes you through life of a slumdog through a series of events. It is basically like walking through the tragedies of life of a slumdog without having that thrown directly at face. The changeovers between the TV show and the life are so subtle that you at times even forget about the show running in background.
In all this drama and action, the movie also conveys a message of “Never give up” in a very profound manner. The quest of finding her girlfriend never ended for the slumdog despite the challanges and problems he faced!
Although the storyline of the movie is not very strong so as to say but the magnificent screenplay and excellent direction makes this movie a brilliant watch. I am yet to find a person who did not like this movie.
No suprises, the movie scores 4.5 on 5 and is highly recommended.
This dawn of the new year has arrived with a special message. A message to Never give up. A desire to succeed.A passion for winning. And an inspiration to bring more to life!
So lets start off this year with some outstanding music from the past. The music that stands for Inspiration, Success, Life, Love and a lot more. Lets cherish the past and get ready for the future.
Inspiration
Let the New Year bring in more success, happiness, love and life to all our lives. Amen!
This to inform you that I have just finished reading all the posts on your blog…. I had sort of became hooked to it during the last few days, but now having completed reading all the posts I feel a bit relived.
hmm…..
My favourite one was Sunil Handa one, but I also liked the couple of posts about ‘the zoo’ , but didn’t actually understand which/what place were you referring as ‘the zoo’ ??
also thanks for your ‘real’ insights on IIM-C , from an insider’s point of view…..
You promised in 2007 that more posts on the ‘good old days’ will follow, which I fail to find !!
One question I will like to ask you, as you have aroused my curiosity, about the post on ‘confusion’ posted in jan, 2008. You told that you were in confusion between abhi@DA-IICT v/s abhi@IIM-C…. so did you manage to find any solutions for that confusion? I am asking you that, because many people here may be facing same problem after just entering the college , so your experience may come useful to many people…
congrats for your job in Johnson & Johnson … but you posted ,more than one time earlier, that u didn’t want to do the ‘zombie’ job instead you are determined to become an entrepreneur, what happened suddenly ?
also I want to know the procedure for reading all that private posts ;~)
P.S. : I found your thoughts on Google very true and have some similar experiences with Google, also I have an explanation of your post topping Google search of “duniya ka naara”, if you want to know
and thanks for your amazing tips for preparing for cat/gd/pi on your blog
sorry for writing such silly things in your scrapbook(can’t resist it), but such outburst occurs when u read too much from a single author in too short time, you get sort of linked to him/her and he/she captures your thought process for a small amount of time.. I would b highly delighted even if u read all this silly outburst, and b highly obliged if you have time to answer even some of my querries/questions !!
————Another one after a few days———–
Hey, it’s great that you are in France… it should be a wonderful place, but at the same time it’s not Britain(whose language, food, structure r all somewhat expected, ) ……. hope you enjoy a great time there !!
About your surprise, well I told you that I used to read very much since I was a kid I was hooked to reading, it was similar effect in your case because..
1) Your use of language was really good ;~)
2) Your thoughts and insights were original as well as different (non-stereotype ! , I liked your idea about TAJ MAHAL in particular, but I don’t think “people we elect” are going to implant such fantastic ideas :~9)
3) You projected/marketed your thoughts well enough
4) “Tips on preparation for cat” acted as an initializer
I am very much pleased to know that u r going to answer all my queries/concerns/thoughts/suggestions;…time doesn’t matter
First of all, Thanks for all the appreciation and apologies for taking so much time to respond to it. It is my pleasure to know that you liked some of the posts in this blog and again the expression of surprise that you read more than 100 posts within 2 days!! That is simply incredible!
Now answer to your queries-
Regarding missing posts: Well, it happens a lot of times that you commit yourself to certain posts but then do not find enough time/motivation to complete that. That is particularly strong when you write about past incidents from your own life- You got to feel nostalgic to do justice to the post. But now since you have pointed it out, I will try and complete those posts next time I go nostalgic.
Private posts: Sorry buddy but certain posts need discretion. There are certain matters related to one’s private life or certain posts related to politics at work places / study places / peer groups etc. which can only be shared with appropriate audience otherwise things might get blown off out of proportion and hence, whether or not to allow someone to read those posts has to be decided case-on-case basis.
Zombie job and enterpreneurship: As you have already gone through the entrepreneurship posts, you know that I was always very motivated with doing something of my own. The spirit still lies intact and I am still game for something challenging. As far as it goes about jobs, probably you mistook every job for “Zombie” job. The Zombie job was a phrase used in particular for Investment banking jobs and I am still very much against those. On the other hand, marketing and consulting jobs are very much different from the investment banking jobs and it would be absolutely inappropriate to treat all these in the same category. Also, I must mention it to avoid any ambiguity that my hatred for finance jobs should not be considered as hatred for the field of finance. I have a lot of respect for the field of finance as such and it is just the finance jobs that I hate – that again more due to the work-life imbalance point of view. Again I would like to repeat what I also mentioned in concerned posts- This is very much a personal disliking – Do not hate it because I hate it – Just make an informed decision.
So as far as venturing out all by myself is concerned, I would surely do that but as of now I am just playing safe and building up strategy to get in there when the time is right.
And lets face it, it takes a lot of guts to sacrifice the security and foray into a territory yet unknown to you. Probably I am scared to take that risk now!
Regarding abhi@DAIICT v/s abhi@IIMC – You know there is this particular thing God has gifted to all the living beings – an automatic ability to adapt. Let me tell you my friend, this ability is nothing but a true gift! It makes things so easier for us humans. [:)]
Well things have changed on that front as well. I hated it initially and that was the time when that particular post came out but it was not very long before I realise strengths of both the lifestyles. And the thing after that was not really difficult – I just had to adopt the positives (better said – the way I wanted it) from both and come up with a lifestyle of my own. You will come across such issues many a time in your life and believe me all you need is a strong will power. You can transform it in any way you want – just got to have will to do that.
On the same lines, I would also like to point out the difference I feel about the IIMs now as compared to the time of posts on ‘Why not to join IIMs’. Well, frankly, even as on date I do not feel very great about IIMs but it is not that bad as well. It is just a totally different lifestyle than what I was living and it was probably that change, for which I wasn’t really ready then. Now when I look at my friends who joined B-schools last year, yelling at the system and the lifestyle I find it amusing as I was doing the same last year and no longer have that strong reaction! One possible way of explaining this is the cliche – Everything changes with time. Another possible explanation as I mentioned earlier as well is that probably I was not prepared well to experience that huge change when I joined almost 2 years back. Yet another possible explanation could be that I identified my interests here and that totally changed my perception.
“The Zoo” – Thanks for refreshing my memories of “The Zoo” [:)]. While I was working, I used to stay with my friends – Nitesh Luthra, Prashant Tholia and Gaurav Jain and we used to call our place as a zoo. It doesnt take any rocket science to guess why that was so! [:P] Still if you do not get it why it was so, just go through “Awesome Pathetic” once again.
Eurotrip- To tell you frankly, that was an amazing experience. I travelled to 15 countries in 3 months and had many incredible experiences during that. More on this in Eurotrip post.
And finally thanks again for your comments and appreciation.
P.S.1: I was so moved by you passion that I decided to create a full post to answer your queries. I could have rather answered your queries by sending you a personal mail but I like your spirit and please consider this post as my gesture to show appreciation to that!
First of all, apologies for not updating the blog for so long.
And now the good news: I am back in India and will be putting up some posts very soon.
You should expect a post on
1. A general post on the life in France
2. Highlights of Eurotrip (on the Eurotrip blog)
3. Sunil Handa is visiting the campus again so you should expect another one of enlightenment posts! (Run a Google Search on Sunil Handa to understand what that meant)
4. Long due response to one of the fan’s queries
5. And a dedication to a very beautiful girl (Reading between the lines wont help in this case)
Update 2: Hello Dear Readers, I have created a new blog for the Eurotrip related posts. The address is : http://abhitaneja-eurotrip.blogspot.com I would start posting some interesting incidents over there soon.
Eurotrip update: After the last update I have visited Austria, Hungary and Italy and was planning for the scandi trip this weekend. However, the scandi trip has got postponed again (3rd time postponed now). As of now, I myself dont know which country I would be in tomorrow morning.
Till sometime back my GTalk status said: “1 month = 4 Weekends = 5 Countries = 13 cities! A perfect Eurotrip it is! “
**************************************************************************** Update 1: Too busy traveling.. hardly finding any time to update the blog! Having too much fun..
The classes schedule here is so well designed for people to make these trips over the weekend. Well the weekend here could be anything from 3 days to 13 days! Visited Toulouse, Paris, Amsterdam, Nice, Cannes, Bordeaux, Arcachon so far. Leaving tomorrow for Austria and Hungary.
Next update on Monday or Tuesday ****************************************************************************
NOTE: This is a replica blog of the original Abhi’s Space. All the posts have directly been imported from the main blog.
Posts with videos/links and other uploaded content might not have been published correctly here. Also the formatting might appear shady in certain posts. Sorry for the inconvenience.
However, you can always visit Abhi’s Space on blogspot for a better experience.
