DECEMBER 3, 1984

On December 3rd 1984, the world saw its worst ever industrial disaster, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. 20000 were killed, 170000 severely affected.
I wasn't around then on this planet, but my parents and relatives, who were there that fateful night, have narrated anecdotes of the tragedy. Dad learnt from his friend who was a doctor, that "Bodies were being thrown around in the morgues. The then-existing mortuaries didn't suffice." The gas leak started on December 2nd at 11:30 pm, and some people died in their sleep as a result. The news of the gas leak spread like wildfire, and some people started running out of their homes, exposing themselves to the gas. However, when the news came around to our place, my parents couldn't run, owing to my grandmother's health. The gas, however, did not leak till our place, which is about 20 kms from the factory. People say that some person, realizing that the gas had leaked from the tanks, went and closed the valve. He gave up his own life, but if this is true, then bless that person, who saved a city from extinction. I also know of friends who had lost an elder sibling to the gas tragedy.
The after effects have been enormous, with many people maimed in one form or the other. However, there has been no attempt to get the perpetrators to book. Warren Anderson is still living free at Long Island, there are still petty fights over paltry compensations and the attempts to heal the scars from that fateful night have been pathetic, at best. The facilities for ensuring relief to the people who have been affected in the long term by the tragedy are sub-standard, and need to be improved. We only hope that many more people like Rashida Bi and Champa Devi Shukla stand up for ensuring justice to Bhopal.
Here is hoping that the souls of the victims of MIC are liberated and justice is delivered to the city of Bhopal, which, unfortunately, is famous/infamous for all the wrong reasons.

TOO LENGTHY A BREAK!

The title of this blog post isn't meant to be an apology for another hiatus from blogging! Rather, it is a call for celebrations at the culmination of a successful summer placement season at IIM-Bangalore. Thanks to the efforts of everyone, primarily PlaceCom, the process got completed in 4.5 days flat, which implies a long break of 5 days, with nothing to do (though there might be desperate souls still willing to reach out to the Kotler and Brealey-Myers books, but I hope they would be very few, and can be discounted)!
For me, the highlight of the placement season was the co-operation of the batch in getting everyone placed. Given the tight schedule, it may be inevitable. Yet, it is heartening to note that, for all the hype about 'competition' and 'RGgiri' at B-schools, the placement season offers the perfect riposte to such nonsense. Hope the same continues!
I will be spending my summers at Standard Chartered, Wholesale Banking division. More details awaited!
And, I am hoping to use this lengthy break to catch up on (a lot of) sleep, read up some new books, drive a bike, try my hand at the guitar, explore Bengaluru in greater detail. A road trip to Mysore and Shivanasamudra falls is already done, and more details about that later. To those who haven't been there, I recommend visits to Mysore and Shivanasamudra, if you happen to live/work/intern/roam in Bengaluru!

GANDHIJI, MONT BLANC and EXPENSIVE PENS

On the 140th Anniversary of "Bapu", it is sad indeed that such a controversy had to come up. We have all read about Gandhiji and his frugal habits, so, marketing a pen, which costs $25000, in the name of Gandhiji and launching it under the name "Limited Edition 241", (241 mile Dandi March)! What is more amazing is that this was endorsed by his great grandson as well, who actually launched the product. One counter-point is given in the link below:
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_cricketer-dilip-doshi-in-pursuit-of-luxury_1293570
While the philanthropic initiative deserves to be praised, it still cannot justify marketing a product in his name, and all the sacrifices which he made. The Father of Our Nation deserves better, on his birthday.
Greetings to all on the 140th Birth Anniversary of Bapu. To those who haven't watched, do watch "Lage Raho Munnabhai".....a must watch!

Herd Mentality:

Herd mentality....visible in everything we do:
1) Mugging/ghotting: Everyone shall mug/ghot, or in rare alternative cases, chill out completely before an exam (I did witness this during the analog electronics test on 3/3/08).
2) Applying for companies/choosing a career etc.: I salute those courageous few, who choose to go off the beaten track. The rest of us, especially in India, are engineers/fake engineers/MBAs etc.
3) Societal trends: Sometimes I feel watching cricket is also part of the same mentality. Add the English Premier League to the latest list of fads, along with supporting Manchester United just because they have/had Cristiano Ronaldo. There are way too many examples to mention here.
4) Special Mention, 'Whooshing': Jesus said "Donot do unto others what you do not want to be done to you." Apparently, no one cares. People get whooshed at the drop of a hat/coffee cup/mention of transfer pricing. And this is an infectious disease. The only saving grace is that every one gets hooshed by the other. Parity restored.

Maybe, it is part of our psyche, after all. Newspaper articles and movies have been devoted to the same. Is it because of the insecurity, which shrouds us, or an innate dislike for risk taking??
I shall leave this question to psychologists, newspapers, reader's digest and of course, Aamir Khan to discuss and solve.......and to anyone else who is interested!

This blog post has been created owing to incidents in the very recent past, collated with others in the not so recent past.....and in one way, an excuse to return!
Life@IIMB has been pretty hectic, tiring, unforgiving, demanding etc. etc. After all, bring all the toppers at various levels, school/college etc. and put them here, and the resultant mixture leaves NO room for error. Still, it has been an experience to savour....and there is a lot more to savour!

THE FARCE CALLED SAPL
(The “Indian” premier league)



Disclaimer: This post reflects the personal views of the author of this blog. He confesses to watching it occasionally, even though he wholeheartedly condemns it as a farce. Reader discretion is advised, owing to the heavy bias in the mind of the author. The content should not be taken in any way as an edict against viewing the IPL, Extra innings, the hot cheerleaders, the exceedingly charming Mandira Bedi, and the apologies in the name of the show anchors.



I have never been able to warm up to the concept of the IPL. During the first season, there was the IPL vs. ICL hype and other problems. It was clear that IPL as a commercial initiative came to life after the threat of the Essel Group-run ICL came forth. If ICL could be branded detrimental to the interests of Indian cricket, then what does IPL offer that “benefits” Indian cricket? (Money is not a problem for the BCCI. It has more in it’s coffers than it can handle).

The IPL was designed on the format of the EPL. But, if the IPL teams act as the “representatives” of their cities, then what is the purpose of the Ranji trophy teams, which, like the British soccer and cricket clubs, have stood tall as institutions over decades. Rather, it is all about the rich owners, Messrs Mallya, the “Rab Ne Bana Di” Jodi of SRK and Dada, and so on. As for the other excuses, such as scouting of young talent, development of cricket infrastructure etc. I am sure that IPL is in no position, or atleast, in no better position than the Ranji trophy to rectify the ills, and not surely when it is now the SAPL. The current Indian team, for example, has all of its players brought out through the Ranji system, and not through the IPL.

If we begin accusing English football clubs of using money power to buy up players from other leagues, then the IPL is the biggest joke on those aspects. With the auction of the players to different IPL franchisees, a la cattle auctions in villages, one point is very clear: cricket and soccer are different with respect to the fact that the dominant form of cricket is international cricket, as opposed to club soccer. So, for having a proper league, you need to have more teams, or scrap the IPL, given the hectic international cricket calendar.

One point which I was particularly peeved about is the arrogance of the BCCI with respect to the IPL throughout. The penalties imposed on the ICL players were harsh, and so was the treatment meted out to the Haryana Hurricane Kapil Dev. Indian cricket owes a huge debt to this man, who won us our only ODI world cup. Insulting him by stopping his pension, not inviting him for the 25th Anniversary function of the WC triumph etc. was a bit too bad. Imagine the skipper of that triumph not getting the anniversary invite. (I am not a supporter of the ICL. To me, both ICL and IPL are redundant in the context of cricket. But I do feel that Kapil Dev, EAS Prasanna, and some others were hard-done by the BC

The period between IPL-1 and IPL-2 was full of action as well. The multiple captains’ theory, the “restructuring” of RCB kept the junta interested. Then came IPL-2, and its metamorphosis to SAPL. They might as well have named the various franchisees as Paarl Prancers, Bloemfontein Royal Challengers, Durban Daredevils, Cape Town Superkings, (Port) Elizabeth Emperors, Pretoria Kings XI, Maritzburg Indians and the Kimberley Kite Riders. The whole affair smacked of stupidity. Lalit Modi is an MBA from Duke University (as per wiki), but he, and the fellow administrators of IPL couldn’t foresee the clash with the general elections, and make appropriate arrangements. In fact, all that they did was blame the authorities for….well, God knows what, and finally shifting the IPL to South Africa, as commercial constraints didn’t allow the more sensible options. This also led to various satirical articles in the newspapers and on the internet.

Commercialization isn’t a sin. But, in the name of glitz and glamour, IPL has taken things a bit too far, making it sickening. Imagine having to hear “DLF maximums”, “strategy breaks”, “ads between consecutive deliveries” etc. And, of course, the inept team put up by Sony MAX, to cover the “mega-event”. I am sure of doing a better job than that. During IPL-2, the TV authorities were also forced to make South Africans (not many in number) speak about how brilliant the whole thing was. You could see yawning gaps in the stadia, except during the final few matches. Add the “Miss IPL South Africa” and other gimmicks to the things mentioned above.

The idea of IPL itself never enthused me, owing to the above reasons. The horrid coverage on TV makes viewing IPL all the more boring and irritating. The thing that did make me watch some matches are the extremely close finish to the matches, even though I felt that some of it did smack of fixing (refer to Maneesh’s blog for details), or at the least, very substandard cricket. There were hardly any consistent performances, barring a few exceptions. The hatricks by Yuvraj (2) and Rohit Sharma, and the all-too-frequent collapse of the batting lineups point to the poor quality of cricket on offer.

With Messrs Modi suggesting now 2 IPLs in a year and two extra teams, I await “with bated breath”, the next stupidity in a long series. But now, it is time to focus our attention to England and the T20 cricket world cup. I enjoyed every bit of the previous edition in 2007, especially the semis and the finals in the BITS Auditorium. I am hoping (and confident) that “YE CUP KAHIN NAHI JAAYEGA”.

SAYONARA BITS-PILANI


A poem describing 4 wonderful and defining years of my life, spent in a sleepy little village/town called Pilani.


Four years of immense pleasure,
Friends whom I shall always treasure,
Hardly any sweat, lots of leisure,
And Memories are all that remain.


Krishna 304: The first base,
All about adjusting to this beautiful place,
Everything pretty much fell in place,
Until the PC came, and so did “that pretty face”.


Pilani felt pretty much like paradise,
Extreme fire (51.5 C), and January ice (-2.4 C),
It all seems a bit too nice,
But memories are all that remain.


Vyas 294, the second stop,
Himalayan fall in CG, but no enthu drop,
Love, madness etc., all this seemed to prop,
In terms of fun, this period came out on top.


The four posts and the consequent load,
Vying for the attention of the babes on the C’not road,
Life was then in CS/FIFA/Wi-Fi mode,
And now, memories are all that remain.


PS-1@Hyd, work at Bharat Dynamics Limited,
Quite some work, but fun unlimited,
The memories of Hotel Swagath, Iyengar bakery,
Gokul chat, Abids, iMax, all shall remain.


Ram 248, the CDC year,
Atleast 5 tuts a week we had to bear,
MOSFETs and amplifiers had gone into top gear,
Enthu had given way to ghotting machines here.


Worries for the future had come calling,
There was always an air of classes and test-cracking,
The FIFA- league in these times was every bit enjoying,
These memories are all that remain.


PS-2@Chennai, a time for earning and learning,
Work@Cypress, followed by trains and 5E-induced sweating,
The memories of the brilliant CY-Chennai office,
And the time spent with family@home shall forever remain.


Bhagirath 265, the final checkpost,
This was the psenti-sem, of which we made the most,
The wing’s future well-set, despite the recessionary ghost.
To the finish line, it was now time to coast.


Unlimited downloads, onto my new 250 GB hard disk,
Jogged, played and cycled, never before did I feel so brisk,
Savoured each moment as the last, took not a single risk,
And these memories are all that remain.


An ode to all my wingies and friends who made the 4 years so special,
An ode to the profs and tut instructors, who bore with us through 4 years of laziness,non-attendance, brazen Ctrl C+V activity and shamelessness,
An ode to the BITS-LAN, without which there would have been no LAN FIFA (unimaginable) and DC++,
An ode to ANC, Foodking, C’not, sky and the RADIs, for giving us eateries doubling up as spots for time-wasting,
An ode to the beautiful campus, and the not-so-beautiful weather,
An ode to BITS, the name itself, which says it all.