She was the campus queen
He was the heartthrob

She was cultured
He was well-mannered

She was second in the class
He was the first

She hid behind a mask of perfection
He did not know yet his real face

She protected her true self from failure
He sacrificed his real self for success

She was a fake
He seemed the real thing

She hated him in private
He confessed his love in public

She refused him
He refused to give up

She showed her real face accidentally
He was more amazed than shocked

She feared for her image
He used his chance to get closer

She made her first true friend
He saw the beauty within her

She shed her masks because of him
He discovered himself because of her

She showed the world her real laugh
He discovered that he could laugh

She realized that she loved him
He realized that his past love was an illusion

This was true love
A journey of self-discovery
Through the eyes of another

———————————————————
Inspired by the anime “Kare Kano”

He hated his life,
A dull job which paid less,
A wife who cared less,
A son for whom he cared less.

The root of his sorrow,
Lay with his loved wife,
Loved once by him, now by another,
Or so he thought.

Ridden with inferiority,
And maddened with suspicion,
He finally took the plunge,
Of the dagger into her heart.

He slashed, he hacked,
He knew not what he did,
Till he had carved every inch,
Till she was but a chunk of flesh.

He cleaned the gory scene,
And waited for his son,
Bad wife or not,
A good mother she was.

The son came and went,
He spoke not a word,
In all his waking hours,
He asked not for her.

He remained silent,
For a day, then a week,
Till the madman could take no more,
“Would you not like to see your mother?”, he asked.

“But I do see her everyday,
Standing right next to you !!”

——————————————————-
Inspired by the anime “xxxHolic”

They say the party starts once you are placed. Well, I guess they don’t know about the dummy system. When the number of candidates reduces, we send in dummy candidates just to keep the companies happy. Well, the dummies have to tread a thin line between not getting selected and not spoiling the institute’s reputation. It’s high tension during GDs and at the same time, it’s extremely difficult not to burst out laughing in the middle of the discussion. In my first dummy GD, there were 2 serious candidates and 6 dummies. Just imagine 6 people trying not to speak in a GD. Now, that’s difficult ! The HR read a case and asked us to discuss it. We allowed the serious people to speak as much as possible and didn’t butt in even when they slipped up or stuttered. We gave them hints to carry the discussion forward. We seconded all their points and never interrupted anyone else. To put it simply, it was the perfect GD. But I guess the HR wasn’t too pleased. She added a clause to the case and asked us to discuss further. We carried forward in the same manner and the dummies participated more just to keep the semblance of a real discussion. The HR got even more confused and asked us what went right / wrong in the GD. Each of us said our own points. When I’d said some bullshit about the GD, the dummy next to me said she seconded the same thing I said. I was flabbergasted – a dummy was seconding another dummy candidate and that too during feedback. I did my best not to burst out laughing. But then the HR said that we were too tensed and nervous and that she wouldn’t mind even if we fought to put our point across. This was the icing on the cake. It was too much for me. When she asked if we needed water, I took huge gulps of water just so that I could stop grinning. To our exasperation, the HR gave another case just to ‘help’ us. This time, more of us participated, but still no aggression. After all, none of us wanted to go to the interviews. Still unsatisfied, she added yet another clause and we discussed again. Finally, I guess she gave up and the GD was over. I couldn’t stop grinning and laughing as I came out of a GD which had 4 rounds in it. Thankfully, I was not selected for the interview and the 2 serious candidates made it.

In another GD, there were 8 dummies and 1 candidate. This was even more screwed up. The topic was on growth strategies for consulting companies. As usual, we let the serious guy speak as much as possible and we spoke as little as possible. A very peaceful GD. Then something possessed me towards the end of the GD and I had to speak a lot. Here’s how it went:

Dummy: So, we should outsource our activities to other countries…
Me (a bigger dummy) : What ? You mean we should outsource what we do to other countries ?
Dummy : Yes
Me : You mean the countries like Phillipines ?
Dummy : Yes
Me : You mean this because these countries are fast replacing the cost advantage which India had ?
Dummy : Yes
Me : Oh, OK !
< Silence > End of GD

The serious candidate and 4 other dummies were selected for interviews. Needless to say, me and the other dummy were also in. Now came the arduous task of tanking interviews. The serious guys went in first and got spot offers. The first dummy went in and asked for an international location. His first preference was Germany and if not, he wanted London. The company said they had offices in London and were open to giving him a London posting. The guy was shocked beyond words and came out of the interview tearing his hair out. He ended up signing a spot offer knowing that he’d be rejecting it. The next guy went in resolved not to speak anything. When asked how the IT industry was shaping up, he merely replied that it was growing well. The interviewer then went on to bore him for the next 10 minutes on the rapid growth in the IT sector. He was then asked about how he would cut costs in IT. He tried to give the worst possible answer and replied, “Logistics sir”. The interviewer thought this was an unexpected answer and then went on to talk for 10 more minutes about how important logistics was for the IT sector. The dummy was totally confused and finally he too got an offer and had to sign. Thankfully, my interview turn never came because it was too late.

In another GD, I got selected despite being silent throughout. However I made my interview quite short. The interviewer commented that my resume was more focused on marketing and was suited for FMCG companies. He then asked why I was not waiting for an FMCG company. Before I could think, I answered, “I am waiting for one sir. IT is actually my back up job”. I guess I must have shocked the hell out of my interviewer. He then asked some generic questions for which I gave some stupid answers and my interview was over within 10 minutes. But I actually felt really bad to have spoken so arrogantly to a big company.

Just like me, my friends had a lot of funny experiences being dummies and tanking interviews. Our placements had gone fairly well. A few people were unfortunate to be waiting till the last company and that’s the scariest part of the campus recruitments. I had the same experience during my summers, but it’s infinitely worse to be waiting when everyone else has jobs. All said and done, our roller coaster ride just got over. The drama, joy, sorrow, anxiety, fear, jealousy, confusion – everything was over for now. We are now stepping into the corporate world as real managers. Wish me luck people !!

Day Zero – Finally, the day which every MBA student lives for. No, I don’t mean the day he gets to dump his MBA girlfriend. I mean the day of placements. (Ok, I know I got you curious about the girlfriend bit. Every girl in MBA has to have a boyfriend in the same batch or at least they have to keep you guessing). 22 odd companies lined up for one day and about 90 students fighting for that dream job. The day was supposed to start off at 7.30 AM. As top companies go, they arrived at 9 and kick-started the process. The day started off on a busy note with 5-6 companies having their processes simultaneously. I first attended 2 GDs for FMCG companies and was chucked out of both. (I’ve got an infamous record of most failed GDs in my summers process). I was also shocked that my Cadbury application was not shortlisted. Heck, I was used to getting shortlisted in all the companies I applied for. Fortunately, my helpful placecommer (and future colleague) convinced the company to look at my CV too. (I later came to know that the company did not shortlist me because my summers was in commodity trading. I really can’t understand why that mattered).

And as all ironies go, I did my best in the company which didn’t want me. The GD topic was, “Cheap technology is not environmentally sustainable” – not a very difficult one. Everyone contributed and I made a few nice points. I introduced the Tata Nano into the picture too. But I guess I made a difference when everyone had to say their conclusions. Most people made a generic statement that cheap technology was not necessarily harmful to the environment and that prices needed to be cheaper to reach the masses. I had also written some similar answer to be said. But when my turn came, I made the most gaseous statement of my MBA career, “We are building a world for our future generation. It is good to make technology accessible to the masses. But whether cheap or not, the technology must not affect the environment in which the future generation is gonna live”. Guess that’s about as noxious as it gets. Then, I had a decent interview with a telecom company. But it didn’t help that I was the last guy to go in and they just asked a lot of generic questions.

Then, I was called for Cadbury interviews. I was pleased to find that I was among the four who were shortlisted. Now, they were taking notice of me. I had a great interview. The odd thing I noticed about the interview was that my chair was in the centre of the room quite far from the table behind which the interviewers sat. The interview was mostly HR based with the odd question based on procurement. Oddly, I felt quite free and answered without regard to how I sounded to the persons sitting on the other side. I even smiled smugly when I answered a question about my acads. To questions about my strengths, I painted a picture of being very analytical, which I actually am. As to questions about my weaknesses, I said I wasn’t too forceful, but that I could convince anybody with reason. I also said that I tended to be very laid back. When they asked whether it would rub off on my work, I replied that I was lazy in my personal life, but very efficient in my work. They grilled a bit on basics of supply Chain. They asked a whole lot of other HR questions about teamwork, negotiation, my goals and a lot other stufff. By this time, I was quite confident and finally the company asked me what I thought about the other companies. I just replied dumbly that they were good. I guess they must have thought I was cautious because they then said that it was not a trick question and where Cadburys stood in my perception. I replied that I was waiting for an offer from another company and if I didn’t make that, I’d be glad to accept an offer if they made one. Thus, my interview ended on a nice and happy note.

The placecom member told the company that I was waiting for an offer from a very reputed company’s trade operations and tilted the balance in my favor. The company informed him that they’d like to make me an offer. I also came to know by that time, that I’d not cleared the telecom interview. I was quite happy to accept the sweet offer from Cadburys and thus I became placed within a few hours of our placement process. Needless to say, I was delighted, proud and to be honest, very relieved. One of the last guys to be placed in the summers and among the first guys to be placed in the finals – a turn of tides that can only be explained by the fact that my summer project actually gave a strong foundation for my current role.

Day Minus One: The Britannia process. Britannia shortlisted its candidates and made them play a management game. Those who made it would have interviews on Day zero. I had to wait from 9AM to almost noon for my turn. And this game turned out to be the worst process I’ve ever been through. Here’s how the game goes : There are 14 people. We are all blindfolded. We are then given a few objects in our hands. To be specific, there were 25 objects of 5 different shapes. The objects were also of different colors. We had to guess the no of objects missing, which shapes the missing objects were and the no of colors present. We had to first nominate a leader and the leader was the only one who could ask questions to a moderator (who was the sweet HR lady). The moderator could answer only Yes or No. Our first mistake – We thought the leader and the moderator were the same. Our second mistake – Since the leader was blindfolded, we thought that we could not guess the colors and it was a trick question. How smart we were !! Our third mistake, we all were loudmouths, who ended up shouting at each other with mad ideas trying to grab attention. In normal situations, I’m bad in group discussions. And when you’re blindfolded, with a low voice, you might as well climb a well. So, here I was, adding to the commotion, and the few points I said were taken over by others as their own ideas. In the middle of the commotion, we managed to count the objects in the group and the shapes missing. The blindfolds were removed. End of round1.

The HR’s first words to us was, “You all do know that you’ve made a real mess, right ??”. Just the words I needed to hear. What followed was a long tirade on what we did wrong. An overly aggressive classmate pointed out that we had managed to answer 2 questions despite never asking for the help of the moderator. And pat came the reply, “You got both answers wrong”. Great, a slap first and now a kick. I couldn’t believe that we great MBAs had goofed up adding numbers. Oh and by the way, she said that the only valid point made by the group (which I made) came from a girl sitting somewhere else. Now, I wondered whether the HR lady was also blindfolded or something. So, as I resigned myself to a lost cause, she said she’d give us another chance to redeem ourselves. Great. Start of Round 2.

Blindfolded and fondling the objects again. We cleared the first 2 questions within a couple of minutes this time. As for the third question, you’d guess we would have learned our lesson by now. But, as all morons who join a MBA institute by clearing group discussions, we knew nothing other than shouting in a group discussion. I tried in vain to point to the group that we only needed to find the colors and we didn’t have to match the shapes to their colors. But, the moment after I’d said forget about the shapes, a guy shouted aloud, “OK, Whoever has a batman symbol raise it..Moderator, is the batman symbol red, green or blue ??”. I mean, I didn’t know guys become deaf when they are blindfolded. And the commotion was unbearable. A guy asked everyone to call out by our names and not the numbers assigned to us. The very next instant a girl said, “No. 2, blah blah”. The guy just pounced on her and said, “No.2 !! What is your name ?” The poor girl was taken aback and stammered her name and shut her mouth. Now, a lot more happened, but this was just so darn funny. And by shouting and going around in circles, we wasted all our time and ended up not finding the answer for question 3.

When the blindfolds were removed, the HR asked the same old question – “You do know that you’ve goofed up this time as well, right ??”. Like sheep, we meekly muttered, “Yes”. Then people started justifying what ad happened in Round 2. A girl even said that we’d learned from our previous discussion and had better communication. At this point of time, I guess I was just disgusted and said, “Well, I’m sorry for saying this, but I really think we didn’t learn anything from Round 1. We made the same mistakes as last time and did not listen to others (I was internally furious since I couldn’t make my point clear)”. After this, others resumed their normal discussion while I merely smiled. I was now getting amused seeing the guys trying to convince the HR. She was obviously having a ball and could barely control her laughter. I couldn’t stop smiling seeing her. And the group activity ended on an ironically pleasant note for me. And getting out of the room, I couldn’t resist yelling aloud, “Bullshit”. I wasn’t angry, but it just felt good and sort of summed up the most weird selection process I’ve been through.

PS: The story doesn’t end there. I got through to the interview rounds despite my minimal contribution to the group . Guess the HR lady liked my smile.

Next time around – The rat race begins !

For the few who’ve missed my blog, here’s my pathetic excuse…I just cut down on my hobbies before placements. Although, I couldn’t really say that I prepared really hard for it. Anyway, it’s been a month since I last played a PC game or blogged or watched a good movie (Actually, I watched “Scent of a Woman” just before D-day). And the very fact that I’m blogging now should make it obvious that I have now obtained the fruits of my MBA programme – yes, I’ve been placed at Cadburys . Hurrah for me folks… I’d pretty soon be procuring cocoa, fruits, nuts or whatever goes into those delicious chocolates that we all love.

Anyway, the last 1 month has been quite different from my past year at IIFT. Really, it’s been a sort of soap opera – boredom, anxiety, anger, jealousy and whatever bullshit you can think of. Personally, I was damn bored the last 1 month. A few guys were hitting the books to learn whatever had been missed out in the classroom. And a few others were hitting the sack. And a few others like myself, were trying to kill time doing nothing. I usually woke up around noon. Every day, we had 1-2 company presentations. And the remaining time, we used to eat at the dhabas or play table-tennis. And while the studious studied and the sleepy slept, I played cards with a few like-minded intellectuals. And before the crack of dawn, we went to sleep. Thus, we spent almost 3 weeks since new year. As Day Zero (the first day of campus recruitments) drew closer, people grew more anxious and resumes were prepared and verified for fallacious details. Believe me, Shakespeare should learn creative writing from the budding MBAs of our college. Here’s a sample ‘Objective’ out of a MBA resume:

I am a person who can focus on my goals and achieve them using my critical analytical ability which helps me to come up with practical solutions.

Now, I don’t know what these guys even want to prove – that they can join many sentences into one ?? Well, as the days draw nearer and people start getting more anxious, they tend to be a bit more creative. And when they get caught modifying the facts in their resume, well, I’d just say that it’s not a beautiful sight. It sort of reminds me of kindergarten tots fighting for their favorite chair. As I see people around me buzzing around like bees and studying about the markets, industries, economy, companies and even the routine HR questions, I sort of felt a teeny bit anxious. Guess you can understand why I cut down on my hobbies. I must have looked like the cool dude who’s got a great CGPA and does not need to study. Or a complete moron to some eyes. Any case, I was tempted to prepare a bit. Thankfully, I got a couple of pre-process calls before Day Zero. Now these were last rung companies which I was not really interested in. But, I didn’t mind some backup jobs. So, I attended those interviews and did pretty well, which sort of boosted my confidence before day zero. But, the Day before Day Zero (let’s call it Day Minus One) was unforgettable for me. But more about Day Minus One and other placement shenanigans in the blog to follow.

Well, after a week, I’m finally back to blogging..and I’ve got loads to blog about..Let’s see,

1. my ‘eventful’ x-mas holidays (just think of Murphy and u get the idea),
2. new-year resolutions (am racking my brains to come up with some),
3. a review of Bommarillu (a delightful Telugu movie I just watched) and
4. my take on disaster (not the crappy crisis/risk stuff they teach ya)

Let me start with how my holidays have gone so far.

The last of my exams had just gotten over. I’d packed a whole trunk full of my MBA books (some of which I was seeing for the first time). At least they’d look good in a showcase – they even look untouched. And with particular care, I also loaded some good movies to see during my long train journey. Here I was, thinking nothing could go wrong – well isn’t it obvious – something went wrong. A few hours after boarding the train and satisfied that the plug point was working, I switched on my laptop and gave it to my trusty roomie and went to answer nature’s call. When I was back, my pal cheerfully announced that my lappie had joined the long list of now defunct lappies in my college. Well, there was my lappie looking all green – literally. You’d think humans were sick if they looked green. Just imagine if all the colours in my monitor were chewed up and spat like modern art – that’s how my lappie looked. After trying for hours, we gave up on it and I resigned myself to a train journey sans laptop, while my other pals were laughing watching movies on their still-functioning lap warmers (thankfully my laptop came back to life back home when I reloaded the graphics drivers). Luckily I had remembered to pack a box of cards to play in the odd spare time. We ended up playing cards for a good part of the journey. We, 6 MBA grads, almost lost in cards to a 3rd std little girl. Oh well, she was a smart one though.

I was back home and barely a day after my arrivals, we had to leave for Tirunelveli to spend X-Mas with my grandparents, uncles, aunts, kids, cows and hens. Oh, all right, I didn’t exactly spend christmas with the cows and hens, just looked forward to eating the hens. During the train journey, my adventurous cousin (19 year old) got caught by the TTE for impersonating a 24 year old. Well, one can’t blame the TTE if the kid got on the train wearing his school uniform and looked like he was 16. Went to my gramp’s place and had the wildest time listening to the womenfolk talk about their latest acquisition of silk saris. I wonder how they lug around 12 saris for a 4 day stay (my mom’s gonna kill me when she reads this).

The big day was here – christmas. I remember feeling weird even as I woke up. But I just brushed it aside, since it was a rare occasion for me to be woken up at 4.30 in the morning. Got dressed in the usual melee you have when relatives get dressed. And the small village church did not help by blaring out devotional songs at 4 in the morning when there were just 20 odd houses. As usual, religious rituals have to follow the path of most torture and the priest arrived promptly at 5.30 for the mass. Groggily, we sat in the church, dressed all prim and proper. After a lot of singing and rejoicing, I began to feel another thing coming. Well, that was nothing but yesterday’s food coming through my mouth. Midway through the mass, I rushed out and barely having crossed the church sanctum, I retched a whole lot of vomit. Well, I guess I’d have made the headlines of the local news – running out of church in the middle of a Christmas mass and vomiting. I wonder if they thought some devil was expelled. Well, anyway, those folks aren’t that superstitious – at least they didn’t act any differently. Well, I just can’t resist this corny rhyme I thought of,

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Vomit all the way,

Oh what fun, it is to feel, Nauseous all the day !!

Feeling sick, I just went home (not to mention I was sick of the mass as well). On the insistence of my mom, I went to see a doctor. First the doc made me wait half an hour to see him. Then he says I just have some food poisoning. Then, he puts me on drips for a hour. Now I was definitely page-3 news for the local folks. What’s worse, I was forbidden from eating anything which was remotely spicy. Think of eating idlis without chutney while the world is eating biriyani around you. And that too, when you’re feeling all better from the drips and medication. That, my friend, is hell.

Then we had my cousin bro’s marriage to attend. Now, I’d brought along a couple of books to kill time. But I found a better way to pass time – kids and work. I did a bit of interior decoration for the house – which means I stuck colour paper and roses on the walls. And I acted as the wall for hide-and-seek(the kids had to touch me to catch others or to escape). I introduced them to the wonderful game of hangman using cities and countries. And I told a bedtime story of Count Dracula. Thanks to my help, the parents could concentrate on discussing the important issues related to latest jewelery and sari trends.

The marriage was over and we left for home the next day. The real shock was yet to come. We entered our house to find that a burglar had just broken into our house….BIG PAUSE…We were shocked. The things were in a mess. Clothes were all lying helter skelter. But thankfully, to our relief, my mom had worn most of the jewelery to the wedding. And we never kept any cash at home. Only a few pairs of small earrings were at home, which were not at home any more. To be exact, we lost 5 pairs of earrings, a pearl necklace and a silver plate. The damage was not too severe. The thief had left the electronics and more importantly my laptop was lying safe. The guy had just left it lying there. I’m getting the feeling my laptop’s got 9 lives like a cat. Overall we had mixed feelings. On one hand, we were glad that we didn’t lose a lot. On the other hand it sounded silly saying that we had nothing of value in our home. But still, it was a bit funny. I can just imagine the thief swearing in the choicest epithets he could imagine. However, on a serious note, it does leave us with a loss of security in our very home. Not a good feeling to have.

Well, that’s the last of my adventures back home. Hopefully, I have no more excitement in store when I leave for Delhi in a couple of days.

Happy New Year folks !!

After a fiasco of a French exam, I’m leaving tonight for home, sweet home..Singara Chennai. I’m really looking forward to spending my holidays eating, sleeping and chatting with my mom and dad. But alas, I’m destined to spend my Christmas in Tirunelveli hopping from place to place, all the while looking out of place as a city slicker in the heart of my rustic motherland. Well, hopefully, I’ll be able to enjoy myself without getting too bored – where the net, movies, anime and even music fail me, I’ll still have my trusty books to fall back on. Hopefully, I’ll get decent ones to read. I’m still carrying a halfway-read “Airport” by Arthur Hailey (Read in bits and pieces when I was in class. Then I just stopped going to class whenever possible). Anyway, I’m assured of getting great food for the next 2 weeks. Rotis and aloo are just killing my taste buds here..

Oh, by the way, I’ll be able to get back to blogging around new year hopefully. Look out for me.. Maybe I should start preparing new year resolutions while I’m free…

People usually have a few hobbies to do in their free time. But for me, I’ve stacked up more hobbies than I have time for. Today, I just feel like recounting the different ways in which I kill my time.

WARNING: This is gonna be a long monologue of my life. Read on only if u’ve got loads of time to kill.

Reading- This was my very first passion. This was the first hobby I was exposed to. Here’s an interesting fact. The day I was born, my aunt gifted me a subscription to Reader’s Digest. Well, at that time, I guess I could have only cried about it. And when I could read, my mom enrolled me in a run-down library near my house. I started with Tinkle and Archies. Then I started reading Enid Blyton books – the adventure ones and the boarding school ones. Then the Hardy boys. And of course, Reader’s Digest was always there for the dose of reality and jokes. Then my run-down library ran out on me – it closed up. I turned to my school library for Agatha Christie and classics (abridged Shakespeare, Dickens, etc.). I still remember my friends chatting in hushed tones, giggling at lingerie ads in the newspaper and playing book cricket in the library (We had to attend a library class compulsorily in school). I was among the few who borrowed books from the school library. Now comes the next turning point – my mom’s friend gifted me “Kane and Abel” by Jeffrey Archer. And that started a new trend of Archer, Sheldon, Cook and Ludlum. Now, I started buying second hand books from a nearby shop (I got books for Rs.30-40- that’s actually a steal). However, towards this time, I began to have other interests. My reading has become more and more sporadic. I started experimenting with authors the last 3-4 years. I’ve read Ayn Rand, Erich Segal, Forsyth, Arthur Hailey, Paulo Coelho and odd works like The Life of Pi, Anna Karenin and 1984. To date, I’m pretty bad in reading newspapers and non-fiction.

The Internet – By itself, the net has been a fuel for other passions. Like all kids, I started browsing the net in nearby cafes for.. umm.. certain reasons. However, with time, I soon found a lot more uses for the net. I was addicted to chatting. I made a very close Filipino friend who shared similar outlooks on life with me. I remember all my conversations being extremely witty and was able to talk in a manner which exceeded my age (I was called a philosopher by my friend..I was 15 years old I guess). I used to play online pool. Later I started building my website out of curiosity ( I was still around 15 years old). When I got my own computer, my net usage must have trebled I guess. I used to be online for long hours in the night (This explains why I can now type in the dark). I was a master at getting cracks, pirated software, downloading movies, music, games, etc. In college, I even started a forum dedicated to my class (which now sadly lies in ruins). The Internet was the fuel for my addiction to movies, anime and RPG – none of my friends used to be freaks of any of these. In incidents of net surfing, I guess I just got irresistably attracted to a lot of things, which would otherwise have escaped my attention.

Games – Like most boys, I’m also a big time game freak. The only outdoor game I played was cricket, which was in the corridors of my rented house. I pestered my parents and finally got a TV video game – the one with crappy graphics, uses a game cartridge and has a joystick which breaks once a month. But I used to play like crazy. I even cycled a long distance just to buy some cartridges. During the long holidays after finishing school, I used to play in a playstation parlor with my friend. I just loved the rumble joysticks. In college, my parents bought me a computer for learning purposes. Strangely, I used to do everything other than studies on it. Come on, who studies on a new computer? But in a short time, I was an expert user of the PC and could even advise my pals on using computers. Besides, I was already a pretty good net surfer thanks to net cafes. More about my geeky pursuits later. With my computer came PC games. Started off with the racing games – NFS, then shooters – Max Payne, moved on to strategy – Age of Empires. But what really hooked me was adventure. I needed a game with a story, with character. I tried adventures and loved Syberia and The Longest Journey. And I adored Role Playing Games. Started off with Diablo 2, then tried Dungeon Seige and Neverwinter Nights. Then I began to experiment. In the world of fantasy games, one can’t miss Final Fantasy. So, I played Final Fantasy 6 and 8 using an emulator. The stories of Final Fantasy are too good, very funny and has characters you’ll end up loving. And finally, I wanted to play such fantasy games with other players that I’m now playing a massive online game – Fiesta Online. It’s free, that’s the biggest attraction compared to the other giants like World of Warcraft. Of course, the games I’ve mentioned are just the honor series. There are many more unmentioned legends out there.

Music – The very first thing I bought with my pocket money was audio cassettes. At first, I bought blanks and recorded the songs which I wanted at the shop. As I started getting more pocket money (and my mom started liking the songs which I played), I started buying latest releases. I still remember the time when I used to buy Rahman’s cassettes as soon as they were released. All his songs were magnificient to me. I dallied with English songs for a while – got drawn in by pop music and Michael Jackson. Regrettably, I was never exposed to rock, since all my friends were sticklers to Rahman and would listen to nothing else. Titanic changed my listening habits. I loved the melodious tunes. I then tried celtic songs. I still feel I haven’t listened to the best of celtic music. And by accident, I liked the background music from an anime series (Specifically, a song called “Fake Wings” from the anime “.hack/sign”). As I googled for it, I found other songs which were recommended by the online communities. And thus began my association with anime music – aka Japanese music as my friends call it. I love the beautiful background scores in some of the series. Of course, I still don’t know why I like this music specifically. I just like it. I used these songs as my lullabies and I still do love them. Of course, now I’m exposed to hindi music and also rock and I’m finding more and more stuff which I like.

Movies – When my parents took me to Jurassic Park as a kid, I slept through the movie. I don’t particularly remember liking any movie particularly in my early age. I guess I first liked the comedies like Baby’s Day Out and Home Alone. And yea, Tamil comedies too. Goundamani and Senthil were the kings of their time. Then came action movies like Terminator 2 and of course, Jackie Chan movies. Note that I’m just mentioning the movies which come to the top of my mind. I remember that the first Tamil movie which touched me was Anjali and in the same respect, it was Edward Scissorhands in English. After that came the soul searching and I watched a lot of movies on Star Movies. And when I got my net connection, I found IMDB. I checked out the movies which interested me and started downloading. I saw a lot of movies, rare ones, foreign films, old ones, etc. And I’m still not done. Before leaving IIFT, my goal is to have a hard disk, of the maximum capacity available, filled with movies. I wanna have my own library of movies and books.

Anime – A recent addiction and my most unique one. I remember watching the odd anime series as a child. I liked them, but they were not screened for long. Then came Animax. Being curious, I tried watching a few series and surprise surprise, I got hooked yet again. One of the first series I really liked were .hack//sign, Samurai X and GetBackers. And with the amazing power of google, I was able to delve deeper into the world of anime and I came to find other titles. As one series led to another, in no time, I was an ardent follower of anime and am now a decent fan having watched about 50 titles at least. And, ironically, it also led to my liking of anime music, And like the other hobbies, it’s not over yet.

Blogging – My latest hobby and one which has been a very refreshing outlet for me. I started my blog for my sake and with time, I’m gradually revealing more about myself through this blog than I originally would have wished to. But I don’t feel it’s a big deal now. I’m actually looking forward to expressing more of my thoughts through this medium. My friends have appreciated my writing. But I still fell that my writing needs more tuning so that it’s as refreshing to others who read it as much as it refreshes me. Maybe, later I’ll try writing comedy just to check that my writing hasn’t lost its sense of humor.

Does this list finish everything about my hobbies? Well, I play a bit of Table Tennis in my spare time. i used to play Badminton too. But it’s been a long time since I’ve played. Sometimes, we play cards in my room. I also go out for movies, eating or just for walks (been too cold for walks lately though) with my pals. And these days, I hate waking up before noon. I like dancing during the parties – just feels good to sway to the rythm. I love traveling – been to Europe and during my stay in Delhi, I’ve been to Manali and Nainital. And I also just do nothing at times. I just lie down thinking of whatever thoughts float into my mind. I’m surprised how many hours I could while away that way. I just wish I could have blogged during all those instances.

With so many things to kill my time, how do I do justice to all of them when I have just 24 hours in a day to kill !! Oh, I do work at times too…

Karthik has tagged me to come up with a middle name. It’s a long time since i have written on a tag.. So lets see .. Well the rules are pretty complicated (!!) -

The rules of the tag are:
1. The rules must be mentioned in the beginning of the tag.
2. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So now, first thing is my middle name.. Joseph Samraj J, ‘J’ stands for my dad’s name John and in my society, it’s sort of a surname. So, I’ll just use Samraj as my middle name. Besides, I love my name Samraj. Narcissistic, aren’t I ? lol

Sloth. I’m lazy as hell and this is both a blessing and a curse. Now, you can understand why sloth would be a curse – I just wouldn’t do stuff I don’t need to do. Why is sloth a blessing? I try to do things in the shortest time possible so that I can go back to sitting on my butt. Yea, it does sound a bit clichéd. But it’s just the way I console myself. What else could S stand for? Simple – at times (then I think of way too complicated stuff too). Serious – hell no. Smart – I like to think so. Sentimental – no (though I do like watching romantic movies and sappy stuff, I seldom feel sentimental in real life situations). Socialist ? I like to be social, lol (I’m not interested in debating ideologies, because all of them have their merits and demerits). Serene – I’m as patient as a rock (sounds weird, considering it’s fashionable to be short-tempered). Sarcastic to an extent. Or at least I admire the art of sarcasm. Spontaneous – I’m not extremely unpredictable in my actions, but I do surprise myself at times.

Amicable. I believe that friendship is the foundation of all relationships. I try to make as many friends as I can. If anything, I try not to be offensive. Arrogant – I may seem arrogant to certain people. But sometimes my over-confidence tends to manifest itself that way to other over-confident people. Aggressive – latent quality which I’ve seen on rare occasions. Ayn Rand’s fan (Fountainhead got me into IIFT, what more can I ask for). On a religious front, Agnostic – don’t care about proving or disproving God’s existence. I live for myself, by my rules and judged by my conscience. If God’s out there, he’d know I’ve done a good job until now. Ambition – am discovering it as I go along. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I’ve had few ambitions. The ones I have are too great to be fulfilled in a few years. I do not aim for material things. I do not want to be settled in life right now. I aim for greatness. And I don’t know what it completely means yet.

Mysterious. I seldom reveal my innermost thoughts to anyone. But I guess blogging’s changing all that. Methodical in my work (at times, am a perfectionist). Used to be good at Math (but it’s been a while since I’ve done any math). Music lover – no matter if it’s tamil, hindi, english, rock, pop, japanese,… if it’s got a good hummable tune, I’d dig it. Not quite a fan of heavy metal. Meditative at times (you’d see me blog poems and introspective stuff on such occasions, like this very post). Matter – something my friends associate me with. You may try guessing the exact definition of matter. Movie freak – I’m game for seeing any type of movie – English, French, Action, Drama, Romance, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, classics – you name it, I’ve either seen it or want to see it.

Radical – nah. you don’t often see me doing radical stuff. But I was tempted to learn rock climbing in France. Responsible – I really don’t know because I take things too lightly at times. Reflective – I like to understand what people think of me and try to project a good appearance. But honestly, I’m still in the dark. RPG games – For the ignorant, they are Role Playing Games – games in which you play a fantasy character in a fantasy world and you typically have to save the world. My favorites are Final Fantasy 8, 7 (unfinished), Neverwinter Nights, Diablo 2 and now I’m playing a MMORPG called Fiesta Online (this is taking up a lot of my online time these days).

Now I’ve already listed a lot of stuff under A. What more could I add? Well, it’s perfect to describe one of my many passions – Anime – in layman terms, japanese cartoons. I usually watch them subtitled in English. Anime has more character depth than cartoons. It has a deeper storyline than Tom & Jerry (I also liked T&J as a kid, but not now). And it deals with a variety of themes not often seen in the usual soaps. My favorite ones are Cowboy Bebop, Noir, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kino’s Journeys, .Hack//Sign, Death note, Trigun, His and her circumstances, and a lot more. It’s an endless list. Anime movies also deserve a special mention – Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue and Spirited Away.

Jovial. I like to joke and have a good time with pals. I can also take sarcasm and the odd jabs. Jack of all trades – Well, I’ve been a quick learner of a lot of things. But regrettably, I’ve never followed up on a lot of things. So, jack of all trades, king of none so far. Just in Time – Oddly enough, I’m lazy, but punctual. Well, I’m now racking brains to think of more stuff to write starting with J. Got it, my first name is Joseph. In e-mail and online communications, I shorten it to Jose. I’m just not comfortable with Joe – sounds too Americanized, while Jose sounds Spanish. I’ve said a lot of things and I simply can’t think of any more crap to write.

Phew! Man, that was tough to complete. I tried to be funny and these days, my blog posts always end up being introspective and a touch serious. I guess it just reflects a change in my writing habits. I gotto tag somebody else too. Well, I tag Swati, Arka, Lord Ram and M E Ram. Hopefully, I’ll have some fun from their posts.