Koi Loan Chahiye???

The cell-phone rings (may also vibrate depending on which profile I am using), the screen displays an unknown number, I pick up the phone and am greeted by a female voice (on luckier occasions, the voice has been that of a male, I call these occasions lucky because these voices have an inherent tendency of not repeating the same things a zillion times over).

The voice asks me for.... well they actually have a lot of "services" on offer, all except what you are thinking (for those of you who didn't quite get the"pun", I won't trouble myself by explaining it). So, the services they offer range from insurance policies, investment options for saving tax (as if IT deptt. vaise to kam choos raha hai), bank accounts, "free-for-a-lifetime" credit cards, personal loans, car loans, the list goes on. Loan ki baatein to aise karte hain jaise free mein de rahe hon, na interest lenge aur na hi loan vaapas. And, with so many firms, companies and banks offering these "services", din ki do-chaar calls to pakka hi samajh lo.

Fed-up as I was (and still am) with these promotional phone calls, I decided to to do somthing about it. One fine day, I happened to come across a form on one of the bank's web-site that needed to be filled-up. One could mention as many phone numbers as he/she wished to, those numbers would then be taken off the calling-list. Maine to apne aur gahr waalon ke cell numbers aur saari landlines ke number daal diye. Phir kay tha, as expected, nothing happened. Status quo.

Since then (and this pattern is expected to continue) , I have started enjoying the calls i receive. The call agents who call up have the most irritating of questions to ask, so I have joined the ignominous bandwagon. I, too, have started giving them a helluva of a time. Ek din to hadd hi ho gayi, a guy from Mahindra Kotak bank called up again n again for tax-saving investment options, with or without realising that he had called me up for the same earlier.
When he called up the fourth time, I said "haanji sir, main aapki scheme mein interested hoon, aap meri taraf se money invest kar do aur interest ghar bhej dena". Thankfully, he hasn't called up since.

And, the "free" credit cards these guys talk about - on the phone, the card is free for 2 years, no subscription fees, and once you take the card, pehle hi mahine, card statement ghar pe dastak deti hai.

Another interesting call came from a female agent for personal loans. I will qoute her here "Sir, aapko loan chahiye, personal reasons ke liye? Hum aapki saari zarooratein poori karenge, kam-se-kam interest par" - Now, what do I make out of this?

Well, that's about it, gotta go, phone baj raha hai!!!!!!

All about the CAT and the IIMs

About six weeks back, it was placement season across the six IIMs and other business schools. And, needless to say, the Indian media had nothing else to talk about, write about and interview the "experts" about! Pick up any newspaper, it was full of news and articles about the number of jobs on offer, the upbeat mood among the students, what the IIM directors had to say about the same etc etc. The television channels were busy interviewing students who landed jobs with the heftiest pay packages. The hype, as is always the case, died down with time.

Going a few months back, the media was equally fascinated by the pattern change in CAT 2005. Aspirants were asked to comment on how they felt about the paper, and when no aspirants could be caught hold of, the focus shifted to their worried parents who had nothing much to say apart from "Hum to bass yahi chahte hain ki humare bachche ko kisi prakar ki takleef na ho". Arre, aunties and uncles, bina takleef ke thori na IIMs mein admission hoga.

Anyways, the fact remains that the IIMs have been hyped by the media to an extent that makes the hallowed portals seem more distant and coveted than they actually are. True, almost 1.80 lakh aspirants vie for around 1300 seats, but the hype is doing more bad than good. The more serious of the aspirants are too confused and the vision in their minds too hazy, more often than not. I feel qualified enough to comment on this issue as I have been a part of the bandwagon for almost 2 years. Now that I have got into IIM-Lucknow, I feel motivated enough to write this post.

Having spoken about the media hype surrounding the CAT n the IIMs, lets bring into limelight the professional coaching institutes.

The coaching institutes (I am quite sure you are aware of the major players in the league) have a plethora of programmes for the aspirants - the 1 year ones, 6 month ones, the test series, to name just a few. The aspirants have joined, are joining, and will continue to join programmes that suit their requirements, but I shall not rule out the possibility of the more ignorant ones being beguiled.

I am not saying that the institutes are doing any sort of dis-service. Rather, joining a classroom course for CAT preparation helps one in two ways: one, it brings about a discpline in the preparation regime with classes scheduled on a weekly basis, and two, participants get to interact with a number of others from diverse educational and social backgrounds and this interaction does help, makes one more aware, balanced and mature. (obviously, any positive change is subject to the person's open-mindedness).

However, irrespective of what and how one is taught at these institutes, I feel no one can and no one should take a decision for you. CAT is a 2-hour exam and you have to decide for yourself how are you going to handle it! Strategy, tips n tricks, examination temperament, all these things may sound important to some, and not so to others, but you decide for yourself what you want to do and how you want to do it? Every individual has a different capability level, a different way of studying and learning. So, whilst the mentors at these institutes may be able to guide you in your quest, they can't chalk out a proper regime or strategy for you. And talking about strategies and regimes, many people are not that organised, so the very concept of a planned strategy is alien to them. The key lies in understanding the fact it is you yourself who has to walk the path, so how you are gonna walk it is also purely you call!!

Where life ceases to exist.....

No, I am not talking about a far-off planet in some obscure galaxy considered unfit for human survival, as the heading may suggest to some; I am talking about a place where I have been residing for the past 20 years (which is almost my whole life span as of now), a place which is in the very heart of the capital city of India, I am talking about the Maulana Azad Medical College campus.

I have chosen the heading of this post as "Where life ceases to exist....." primarily because of two reasons - one, because I can't think of more catchy words to put in, and two, because the phrase aptly describes what I feel about the place.

Life @ MAMC campus has been morose and dull for me, to say the least. I have been here for these long years because my mom was HOD, Anaesthesiology at MAMC. Now that she has superannuated and I have been selected in IIM-L, we are moving! Where? We still have no idea, but that's besides the point.

The MAMC campus saw me grow from a 2 year old toddler to a 22 year old god-knows-what! Throughout these 20 years, I had no idea who or what my neighbours were (the exceptions in this case are very few, so i would be mentioning them a little later) . There are 48 doctors' families residing in the campus and I am pretty sure I don't even know 75% of them. Giving it an after-thought, heavens forbid, shall there be a big robbery or murder attempt in the campus, the affected parties won't know whom to call for help and by the time they would think of something or someone, the damage would be done.

I never saw any get-togethers, and whenever any such meetings were planned, they were cancelled due to lack to adequate number of interested participants. When they did materialize, they bored me to death cos all I got to do was either do small talk with aunties ("bas aunty bariya hoon, 12th mein hoon") or be a spectator to uninspired "cultural" performances. The only thing that provided any solace was "free food".

There were numerous instances when I wanted to play cricket or for that matter, any other sport. But there were two impediments - one was the company of "friends", the second was the more disturbing of the two - uncles and aunties (or more appropriately "meddlesome ass*****") who were just fond of asking us to go play elsewhere.

Moving on to the company I got, well, for nearly 19 years now, I have been spending most of my free time with a guy called Akshay - a DU dude as we call him, not that our calling him that really makes him one. His obsession with me has now reached insane levels, so much so that, I, at times feel that he is a part n parcel of my family! I don't mean to offend him, I have nothing against him, it's just that he is immature and his talks inane, and I feel the need and want to raise the level of my conversations. The two others - "doctors" by profession - Sonal and Kshitij, didn't help much either.

Recently, we have started paying regular post-dinner visits to the Nescafe cafe in the campus. Strangely, the guy at the counter seems to agree with my view of life at the campus. So, it's not just some of the residents who share my opinion.

As I embark on a new journey in the coming few months, I look back and think about my life @ MAMC. The positives I got were the freedom from pollution, electricity cuts and water problems, and of course, the luxury of staying in a huge bungalow spanning almost 800 sq. mtrs. The negatives, well......... don't wanna start cribbing again.