A Wonderful Sunset

Nope, I wasn't here recently...
It just so happened that i was trying to figure out how to add photos to my blog. So, while fiddling around i came across this wonderful snap that I’d clicked almost a year back. This is a sunset during the month of May at my hometown, Kottayam in Kerala...

I can still remember; I was driving down to Frolic's and this was on the way. As I watched the beautiful horizon, i just had to pull over and click a few snaps. The hue that the sky had was just magnificent. With such an idyllic view, you can truly get lost... You realize that you've taken so much for granted, especially everything around you...

I guess, it’s good to get lost once in a while... Makes you think... ;)

DNA Imagini

Today, as i was surfing, i managed to stumble upon this site that promised to provide me with me visual DNA. Needless to say, i was intrigued. I tried it out and i thought it was real cool. It also gave he a widget that i could put up on my blog, so here it is... My Visual DNA...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Some songs are just so trippy!!!…

Disclaimer: Music related post; Preferably you should've listened to atleast a few Zeppelin songs

I was just sitting round and surfing, while listening to a random playlist on Winamp. That’s when it happened… It was so weird. One moment, I was surfing through the numerous tabs that I had opened. The next moment I’d stopped everything that I was doing. That familiar guitar riff rang loud in my ears. That’s when I knew…

I knew that today, I was gonna trip like crazy listening to the song.

Yup… for people who know me well – you’ve guessed right. The song’s Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. And yeah, it’s the extended version. Yup, the whole 14:57 minute classic… Considering that this was what I started off with, when I started listening to rock; maybe it just has this unique position in my mind.

By blending in the greatness of Robert Plant’s engaging vocals; Jimmy Page’s mesmerizing guitar riffs & Jones' rhythmic base and Bonham’s eclectic drumming, the song has an existence of its own… In spite of being close to 15 minutes long, it never ceases to amaze me how this song can just captivate you.

You close your eyes and get you can get lost. Your head starts swaying to the music. Your hands automatically curl up and start moving as if you’re playing that 16-string monster. Every pluck of the guitar just seems to resonate on and on, it just pierces your mind. You can feel your pulse quicken as the song moves on. And, as the tempo builds up, you feel that it just couldn’t get any higher. But, to your surprise you’ll find that the song keeps building up, further and further… The uninterrupted 9 minute riff can just elevate you to another plane. Makes you wonder if this is just a song or whether it’s a journey. One that can take you to the surreal, if only you just let go of everything that you’re thinking about and immerse yourself into the music.

As the climax approaches and the distinctive notes blend with the beats, Plant’s vocals come at you… with a vengeance… screaming at the top of his voice, he infuses so much energy into the climax… you can’t seem to stop and wonder about what is happening to you…

“If you listen really hard,
the tune will come to you at last,
when all is one and one is all,
to be a rock and not to roll…”

I don’t know what made me write this post, but I’m amused…
I think I was High… High on music!!… Nothing else can explain it…
But then, its not a big deal… Some songs are just so trippy anyways… ;)

Three Cheers!!!...

Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

If you're wondering how i could come up with something like that, stop wonderin... This is a Steve Jobs quote... Was just surfin across some arbit site, that's when this caught my eye and instantly i felt that this should be on my blog... So, here it is... ;)

Well, now i'm worried

Well, not that I felt like blogging, but after a long time I was really jobless, that’s when I thought of seeing what’s happenin on my blog. I type in the URL and wait… Nothin comes!!!... Now I’m worried, I’m guessing I made a typo, so I copy and paste the URL. Still nothing, now I’m worried. I’m thinking whether I’ve lost all my posts (However less in number they are…). I sign into blogger and I’m so relieved to find all my posts. I just try creating a new post and republishing the index and lo, to my delight; my blog’s back…

Just this small incident made me think about how precious my (small ;)…) blog actually is to me…

Its funny… you have all the time in the world to laze around, drink, sleep, yap, vile away time. But no time to do something productive or worthwhile- like reading the paper, blogging, surfing other blogs, keeping in touch with old friends, reading that book you bought ages ago, spending time to yourself just looking at what’s happening round you… So on and so forth… ;)

Well, can one afford to do that?...
I’m sure one can.
But at what price does it come at?.
If it comes at the price of having to sacrifice time from friends and everything else that means fun, is it worth it?...
Frankly, I believe one can never know.
So, what can be done about it?...
Honestly speaking, nothing…

I guess its just upto every individual, see what one has to gain or lose and to take a stand where he/she feels is right. And it’s very ironical that what’s right need not always be right and vice versa. Anyways, without getting deeper into my thoughts on this… Let’s just go on to something else that’s caught my fancy of late…

Friends… Sorry to disappoint u, i’m not talking bout the hit TV series. Just friends in general. How many of us know what a friend actually means?... You may know what it feels like to have one or to have lost one. But do we actually know what a friend means?. That got me thinking… What do I think a friend is?. The first thought that rushes into my mind is someone that you care for… But then is it just a one way thing?... Well, for me I guess not. Its always stronger when you know it’s the same the other way round too.

But is that what the world thinks too?... Well, Wikipedia doesn’t think so.

Wiki says, “A friend is any person that you like or know. People who are friends talk to each other and spend time together. They also help when you are in trouble.”(Funny to see how they defined it as a one way thing and not mutual).

In any case, How lame, huh?... Or so I thought until I read further on…

“A true friend should be there for you no matter what. They should help you in times of need, but usually at the times when you need them most they disappear.”

This totally cracked me up.
LOL, must say this was an classic…
Anyways, WRT this I started thinking bout whether, when it came to friends, I was wrong or they were right. Needless to say, I got lost I my thoughts… ;)
[Always a nice excuse to get out of tricky situations… ;)]

In any case, I’d love to believe that what I’ve always known and believed will always hold true…

God works in wonderful ways…

Well, here goes nothin… Lemme give u small update on what’s happening with me before I start off with my ramblings…

A couple of weeks ago, it so happened that I was surfing and my mom came and sat beside me and asked, “So, any news bout your admissions?”. I struggle for an answer, so I decide to divert her attention by showing her a college website… IMI was the first college that popped into my mind. Typed in the URL and while the site loaded up, I was busy explaining to my mom that this was one of the colleges I really wanted to make it to. That’s when I realize that there’s a new link on the page and it says – second waitlist. I go through the list and find that I actually am waitlisted… By now you already know what I’m getting to, so I’ll cut my story short… I had to wait for about 8 days, but I finally received the confirmation. YES, I’ll be going to a b-school this year and funnily so its probably the B-school I was impressed by and wanted to be a part of, the most…
Well, what can I say other than, “God works in wonderful ways….”???...

Talking bout leaving, well I’m sure I’m going…(I’ve already sent in the fees…). But I’m not ecstatic. YUP, can u believe it???... Now, u must be telling yourself – “Screw this guy, he’s not happy with what he gets…”. Don’t get me wrong, its not that I have a problem leaving but its just that I (almost) made plans for the next year. I ‘actually’ started liking my work. I ‘actually’ thought I was getting paid pretty well. I ‘actually’ thought I had a challenging few months ahead. Lol, I ‘actually’ thought I’d get to spend a year with my parents… ;)… I ‘actually’ thought I’d get to buy another dog and see him grow… I ‘actually’ thought I’d finally get to stay at home for another year. But all these are just miniscule reasons… The greatest reason would be that I ‘actually’ would’ve been here for my sweetheart (btw, on chat our codenames are fun and frolic)… So, there you have it… I’m just a lil sad that I’m leaving ‘FUN’ behind… would’ve been nice to see her once in a while, go out for lunch, go on a drive, bring her home for lunch with the folks, go for a swim at the club, go to her place to spend an evening listening to a good record, go for the odd mal movie, go write our mocks together, meet up at four for snacks and coffee, talk on our phones till midnight… would’ve all been ‘FUN’…

But I guess life moves on; just cuz I’m leaving ‘FUN’ behind doesn’t mean I won’t have her or be a part of what she’s going through… Sure, things are gonna be hard; for her at work and me at B-school… Its gonna be real hard to leave my better half behind… But, then life does go on. I’m sure that there’s a plan in all of this and I’m grateful to God for it. I already see a part of it panning out… ;)… So, guess I’ll just have to look at this as an opportunity to take our lives to another level…

Well… God works in wonderful ways…

Of Dreams & Nightmares

Well, I just woke up from a dream, or was it a nightmare?... well I’m not quite sure… what was happening in my dream?. K… guess I got nothing better to do, so here goes.

I’m sitting at the portico of my house, with an empty book and a pen in my hands. This man walks up to me, I stand up and wish him. He asks me to take my seat. He looks at me strangely and asks, “Okay, Mr. Sam, shall we start?”. I gulp and with a wry smile say “sure sir…”. Next thing I know he’s asking me what percentile I have, what other calls, what I’ve been doing since I passed out (lol… not literally, he means passed out from my engineering), why I took up engineering, why I wanna do my MBA and what not. Finally he says, “now that we’re done with the pleasantries, lets start off by asking u a few questions from your engineering”. He proceeds to give me a question on the most horrible subject ever in my engineering, “Antennae, Waves and Propagation”. Knowing that my admission to a leading B-school is based on this question, I squirm in my seat. Finally decide to rewrite the question itself on the answer sheet (to buy me some time). And strangely enough, I cant lift up my hand to write… I try harder… feels like its gone numb… try again but to no avail… finally think that I’ll try lifting it up with my other hand, that’s when I realize even my other hand’s not moving… I look up into the skies and start screaming!!!!!!

And I woke up. Ok… fine, I admit. The ending was a figment of my imagination, but what the heck?. Had to make it interesting, right?. Anyways, here I am…

Bout 10-12 months back I decided that I would write CAT (well, if u don’t know what CAT is, then I see no purpose in you reading this thread, but in any case CAT is an exam that’s used as a criteria for ur selection to some of the country’s premier B-schools). I moved to Chennai, picked up an apartment, studied quite a bit and wrote the exam. Oops, did I forget to say I had lots of fun in between??... Well, yeah I did… anyways, coming back to the point, I gave the exam. Thought it was gonna be a big waste and that I didn’t do well, but I ended up with a 94.32%; which was great considering all that I had put in… wrote a couple more exams too like SNAP and XAT. SNAP was great and XAT was sad… anyways, getting back- I was relieved cuz of my marks and waited for my calls. It was during this time that I heard of this Bschool called SPJCM Dubai… the flair of the program caught my eye and I almost decided that I was gonna be there. Wrote the test, got a call, went for the GD and interview. It all went pretty well and I was feeling pretty confident bout it. All I had to do was wait for the results. In the meantime, I got calls from IMI, TAPMI, FORE, KJSOM and SPJIMR. That’s almost the time when I got to know that SPJCM was not how I dreamt it up to be, that it was more bout hype than facts. But, reality bought me back to the ground and I realized that I’d gotten carried away in the midst of things… just a couple of days before my IMI interview did I actually realize how confused and misled I was… but by then I guess it was already lost, with hardly any interview prep, I went in there and made a fool of myself… came back determined to do well in my other interviews… next came SPJIMR, lol the panelist guy had decided on hearing me speak that he wanted me to join the FMB programme which I was unwilling to. So, in spite of having the best interview I ever had, I got kicked… next I had FORE, the interviewers were 2 old men, they were interested in the procedure, and I had a chance to bring out all my positives, interview clicked and I got an admit… unfortunately FORE was not the college of my dreams, so I have decided not to take it up. Next came my final interview TAPMI, it was such a farce that I’ve decided to write devote an entire entry to B-school interviewing. The panel was least interested in interviewing me, and I also had an interview which consisted of more tech questions than I have even had in a lab viva… thought I handled them well, but guess they had other plans, not blaming them much, they had to pick from 150 from among 1800; not an easy task… anyways, thru all of that non sense, it was a very rewarding experience, I met so many interesting people at the interview and it gave me a small idea as to what it would be like to be a part of a top MBA programme…

So here I am after 8 months, back to square one…

What have I gained during the past few months?... well, I’ve gained everything… I’ve had my sweet memories, had my rocking parties, had my share of slogging, went thru numerous mind numbing mockcats, got a feel of what its like to go thru an experience like CAT, had the chance to meet so many new people, started my blog, had my share of lazy days on which I did nothing but cook, eat, watch TV, surf, sleep and what not and also, had a feel of what its like living with someone special ;)… the list is never ending… I firmly believe that the past few months have helped shape my life… helped gimme strength to face whatever may come my way…

As I’m sitting here today typing this, I know for a fact that what I’m doing is right… and if its gonna take a year more out of my life to get what I want… then so be it…

On a lighter note… I’m reminded of what I used to always tell people or write in their autograph books during my engineering-

Just when u think you’ve got life all planned and figured out, it always finds a way to come back and screw you… lol… that’s why I now say-
Don’t take life too seriously, no one gets outta it alive anyway…