Skywatch Friday - Sunset at Aksa Beach, Mumbai

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday.

Looking forward to be there on all the Fridays.

This picture was clicked when I visited Aksa Beach in Mumbai.






To see the beautiful skies around the world, visit Sky Watch Friday.

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday, this picture was clicked when I visited the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji in Hyderabad. - See more at: http://desitraveler.com/skywatch-friday/#sthash.dQio61s6.dpufthi

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday, this picture was clicked when I visited the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji in Hyderabad. - See more at: http://desitraveler.com/skywatch-friday/#sthash.dQio61s6.dpuf

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday, this picture was clicked when I visited the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji in Hyderabad. - See more at: http://desitraveler.com/skywatch-friday/#sthash.dQio61s6.dpuf

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday, this picture was clicked when I visited the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji in Hyderabad. - See more at: http://desitraveler.com/skywatch-friday/#sthash.dQio61s6.dpuf

This is my first entry for Skywatch Friday, this picture was clicked when I visited the Visa God of Chilkur Balaji in Hyderabad. - See more at: http://desitraveler.com/skywatch-friday/#sthash.dQio61s6.dpuf

How Ratnagiri at Konkan coast Happened? -Part 1

Just reminiscing about my whimsical attitude during the college days has evoked the idea to write a post on Ratnagiri, beautiful and very peaceful city located on the Konkan coast.

I am here referring to our final year as well as final month in the college in Mumbai when we 3 people planned to go Goa. This was a very secret trip because we don’t want to involve too many people in our tour. It is because last time, we, group of 8 people plan to visit Ajanta and Ellora. It was an amazing trip for us for making us realize the few important points while travelling. It always happens that we have less time and the places of interest are more and so there is always conflict of opinions about which place to visit and more the people, more will be the opinions and also lot of time is wasted in follow ups and calling and asking people, hey, where are you and so on.  Also there are different expectations of everyone: some are looking for a peaceful trip to beat the stress and relax away from the monotonous life of Metropolitans and prefer offbeat destinations nearby while some prefers to visit the temples in the city, some travels just to click the pictures to update in their social media account, some just drinks and sleep, may be this is their idea of beating the stress.

Thus, this time, we, 3 people, secretly planned to visit Goa. As a result, we left the college individually and met at the Railway station, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Mumbai at 2pm. As it was a last moment plan, so we were not having reservations, we just brought a general class ticket and thought will settle the rest with the train TT. We boarded a train, MATSYAGANDHA EX, which originates from this station only and scheduled to reach Goa at around 1:30am. It was not very long journey just 10 hours long. However, in the evening, when we were interacting with the local people, we decided to break our journey at Ratnagiri for one day for 2 reasons. We had planned ample of time at Goa, so there was no problem to stay one day at Ratnagiri and also we thought there will be nothing much to do in Goa by reaching at one in the night and even the Hotel will charge extra to rent a room at such an odd hour. (However, 1:00 a.m. is not the odd time in Goa which I realized later)Also, we got very good reviews about the place. At around 9.30, the train was about to reach Ratnagiri when we were still contemplating our decision whether to stop here as we have already brought the tickets. College days were used to be the days when hobbies and passions are so many and the money is so little. Finally, we drop off at Ratnagiri. Railway station was really beautiful and different. Here, we take so many stairs up to exit; it was situated at a lower altitude than the height of Ratnagiri. Also, one monument was also build in memory of the people who have lost their lives while building the one of the longest tunnel in Asia, 6.5km long located just before the 5 km from Ratnagiri from Mumbai route.

We took the local bus and reach at around 10:30pm in a city. What shocked us was that most of the restaurants were closed or on the verge of closing. Initially, we planned first to book the hotel and then we will go for a dinner but this doesn’t seem to be feasible. Very confused and time was passing very fast, we only saw 1 small Chinese restaurant open and decided to fill our stomach there. Highly unsatisfied with the food, we booked a hotel at around 1:00 a.m. and decided to start early next day for visiting local places as our train to Goa was at 3:00pm. Next day, we visited only 3 most prominent places of Ratnagiri due to time restriction.

I will continue about the 3 posts in my next post which will be more of a pictorial prose. 

Life at NITIE

NITIE, another name for life and luxury and heaven. Its location makes it like another hill station and its ambiance gives it an air of tourist spot. The only difference being that here the tourist comes for 2 years, a long holiday span by any measure. Life here is so chilled out. Less classes and happy go workloads will make you a lazy guy whose sleep appetite will gradually increase and can even go to up to 15,16 hours; there is no big deal in that. There is something in the air of NITIE and on the top of that; there is good weather and 4 times food in the mess which are responsible for these ‘not so shocking’ episodes of narcolepsy. 

Without any doubt, these 2 years are the best time of everybody’s life and with each day passing so fast and bringing us near to next corporate phase is simply brings dismay. This is the perfect time to live your passions, to do anything you like. Besides common passion of sleeping, tasting new whiskies, reading the classics, learning photography, learning Guitar, blogging, exhaustive travelling are some of new emerging passions at NITIE. Life cannot be better. Every time, I interacted with any senior who had passed out from NITIE, he always have one advice for me and that is to live your life fully, enjoy everything because time flies at NITIE and once you join corporate world, you will never get the time and miss the every moment you spend in NITIE. 

Yesterday, I was at the Nescafe, college canteen at around 2 am and the ambiance there was perfect to give me the feel of mall road culture in hill stations during peak seasons. There were more than 50 students enjoying sipping coffee, eating Maggi and gossiping and laughing looking more like tourists. Each one is in a celebrating mood without any occasion. 

Courtesy: Feelings as less than 50 days are left for this 2^nd and last episode of college life.

An Art of Networking: An amateur attempt

In management, they talk so much about these PR skills and power of networking. By ‘they’, I mean professors and students. Even I fell into the trap, I read some of the papers of Harvard Business review and some of the small management tales about it but still I was not convinced. The crux of most of the papers was that whether you like it or not, one has to be good in the art of networking to be a successful manager. I am not convinced about it. Neither I am able to appreciate these papers. May be at some later stage in life,  I will realize it. Right now, as a student, I think I am not in a position or well qualified to comment but still can put forward my opinion on the subject. 

What is Networking? 

In simple words, it is to use your contacts to get a favor. But one thing what I feel about all this is that when you take a favor for someone, then you also have to favor him later on in your life. And think, if the person simply ask for something impossible, how would say ‘No’ to them then.

There is a race among managers these days to increase their networks. One of the research paper, I was reading states that every new relation you make will decrease the strength of your current relations by 10%.  To understand it better, if A and B share a very good relation with 100% bonding in them, then if anyone of them makes any new relation, then it will reduce their bonding to 90%. This is only a research paper. Exceptions are always there. But, I am convinced with this research paper.

Also, simply interacting with someone and making friend him on Facebook and following him on twitter will simply not add you in his network. It will give you only mentally satisfaction and I have seen that some of the relations survive till the time nobody asks the favor.

The only question I am confused about  right now is that, ‘Are relations are different from networks?’

Is Networking is only professional or can be personnel ?

Are relations are only personnel or can be professional?

I see people in my batch who are always busy in collecting the business card of any personality visiting our college and then don’t share these visiting cards with anybody. Every interaction, every greeting smells of motive. I wonders what they expect from them. I have seen my friends talking irrelevant things with them. This happens when you want to talk but lack content.  Perhaps, this is networking. I think what I need now is  another course in networking techniques and all that. I also want to use my brain. Heart does not always work. Sometimes, I too feel that I should talk to more people in my batch but another reasoning that justifies my present state is that I have enough number of friends and contacts. There is no point in numbers but what matters is the bond between the relation whether it is ionic or covalent(O just remember some concepts studied once in chemistry, read them as strong and weak).

Placement time -Part-1

Placement tine had finally come. I had begun to feel that my journey in college is almost over. I had not write a post from long time, did not read something from a long time. It doesn't mean that I am doing very hard work for my placements but it is something always on the mind.

What will the HR ask?

Would they recruit me?

What happens if I didn’t get placed and so on?

Will I get a job of my choice?

Will i get a competitive package?

What my friends will think if I didn’t make it to a good company?

Would people think me dumb?

Such questions are really common and it is very hard to get rid of them.

 But life is beyond getting placement. Sometimes, we hide the things from our friends in such an environment and didn't help them thinking they are the one with  whom we compete. There are different arguments and perspectives to support this kind of thinking and everyone is entitled. Is this the competition? Competition is supposed to help us or create the divide. But, recently, i read a speech shared by someone on facebook and i was deeply effected by it. It says there are 4 balls in life. They are Health, Friends, Work, Family and we keep on juggling them. Work ball is made up of rubber and bounce back if fall but the rest 3 balls are made of glass, they get broken once missed. Just think accordingly and decide your priorities. I always prefer commitment over competency.

Everybody just talks about the placements everywhere. It is bit difficult to maintain your calm in such an atmosphere. First of all, i would like to make a point is that everything that happen happens for a good reason. If any company is not recruiting you, it is for your benefit. There is no point in getting selected in the company whose level does not match with ours. What happened if we didn't perform there, we will be sack there and let them decide. Interviews are for checking the compatibility. For example, before getting married both interact a lot to check the compatibility. There is no point in getting what you didn't deserved because in that case it will not last for long.

Just believe on yourself.

 

Type of people one encounter generally in the typical local bar

Distinct species of human being found in Bar

I am not talking about those expensive bars like hardrock café, café Morrison or where the menu is itself a book. Instead, I am referring to small local places which people with higher frequency visits. Their frequency and capacity made it difficult for them to afford such exorbitant places located in the heart of the city. Such people like the places where they can enjoy the alcohol without worrying too much about the money. Crowd does not matter for them. What if girls don’t visit such places? What if the waiter brings your order 10 minutes late. What is a big deal in that. What if toilets are not that clean. You will get the value for the money and end up in saving your too little bank balance. 

Let me describe some of the most interesting people you find often in the bar.

1. Frustu: Such people are found in abundance. They are good people and blessed with

   

   Frustu/ Glutton - Anil

   amazing sense of humor. Generally, their desperation towards some things irrespective of living or non living  make them frustu. They crack jokes on them, waiter and everywhere present. They find it hard to say NO to the people and knowingly fall into traps. They are renamed as ‘Liquid’ in this modern day after inspiring from the movie ‘Pyar ka Panchnama.’ You are also one of them or happened to be once in your life if you are reading this post.
2. Friendly and distracted: These people always look at the other tables, order of other people. When you see them, they respond you with a smile. They will even offer you a cigarette. Such people generally find someone like them and begun to discuss things that mattered to none. They go on taking the phone no. of each other and promised to drink sometime together but next morning, they laugh on their stupidity and none of the party contacts the other one.
3. Lovers:

   

   Experienced/Philosopher - Chandan

   Such people generally plays the music at their cell. They prefer silence and generally watched the TV at mute. They also share beautiful and sad Shera shayari few pegs down the line.
4. Philosophers:They generally talks about the benefit of drinking. They kept on talking and talking and drinking and drinking. They quote second hand quotations and some third class haikus. They enjoy the alcohol to the fullest and pretend that they are they the most happiest persons on the earth. 
5. Boasters:  Most of the time, such people drink much more than they can digest and ended up indigestion. They are the one who always say things like “yaar, bike mein chalaunga.” They repeat their achievements every time they drank. They are quite redundant in their approach. They always try to make sure that no one drink more than them on the table.
   
6.  Experienced: They drink passionately and patiently  enjoying every sip. They make sure about the 3 ‘D’ formula so that the bad effect of alcohol is minimized on their liver. 3 D refers to Delay, Dilute, Diet. This formula is self explanatory. They frequency is quite often but they never drink like a fish.
7. Beginners:

   

   Beginner

   They are very skeptical about such places. They stresses on the service and cleanliness of the place. They shoot queries regarding happy hours and all and told by the waiters that there is no such thing here.  They asked the waiters for the recommendations before ordering the food and the waiters (generally of such places) shoots the arrows in the air without knowing anything. Such people, in the beginning, try to speak in English but seeing the response from the other side, came back to their home language.
8. Glutted one: They generally prefers the food more as compared to drink. With such people, you have to order a lot of snacks as they didn’t leave any dish to last longer and in tune with alcohol by their art of over eating. They are sometimes like pain in the ass for those who experienced and professional drinkers.
9. Submissive people:

   

   Submissive - Sanjeev

   They never touch the menu and survive on the same things ordered by their friends. They generally have no particular taste and love everything. Sometimes, this quality disappoint  you and sometimes, you don’t have any problem depending upon your mood.
10.  All rounder: They play all the above roles and many other left unleashed depending on the company, mood and lot of other factors.

    

    Unpredictable