Last Fortnight: Small LOC get-together at Bangalore, Ind vs Pak, A lot of Reading, A lot of work. Feb 16 - Feb 28, 2015

As a part of my new year resolution, I am gonna pen down 1 post (min 500 words) every fortnight.

The week was made memorable by the sudden arrival of Lieutenant Commander Rohit Rai in Bangalore and a last minute plan to gather everybody we could have; from all corners of the city. Meenakshi came down from the North (both Bangalore North as well as North India), while Poly and Sachin made it for the dinner from South. Well my lucky day to be able to play the role of the host in Bangalore East. The dinner was short in lieu of the time and for the fact that it was Wednesday (a sacred work day in the lives of Bengaluru).

What followed the dinner, and when Mnx and Poly-Sach left was a night full of classic college gossip, accounting for each other’s recent adventures. Last time I met Rai was at Birati, Kolkata when PD joined us in the gup-shup which lasted for the whole night. I couldn’t decide whether Rai has changed for the better, or he hasn’t changed at all. I guess that’s what he felt for me as well. That is what makes college friendship great and sustaining one. When you spend time with someone through their growing years, when you literally grow with a group of people you tend to build a kind of understanding of the true self of them. A true self, which gets modified later but doesn’t leave the essence.

And then Lambu missed his flight. It’s still an unanswered question that from Bengaluru why was he going to Mumbai and then to Kochi (180 degree opposite route). So the adventure which was supposed to last for just over 18 hours spread over 2 days. We continued our discussions on random topics – our work profiles, how organizations and the navy are so different and yet so same, about corruption, about LOC, about lifestyles, about what’s next>>>

Ind vs Pak.

Moving on from where Rai finally left for Kochi directly, in fact hastily to reach there before the V-Day (he left a few stuff at my place), the mood shifted to the World Cup – 2015. Personally I am keeping a tab on my keen interest in cricket knowing fully well that the current team will at max create a flash in the pan sort of experience before bowing down to the better skilled and prepared oppositions. But everything takes a back seat when India plays their arch rival Pakistan. This well hyped encounter is made special by the fact that Pakistan has never been able to defeat India in a world cup match, ever.

And the result was that the score line now says #6Ind-0Pak.

I have to admit that the way Indian team played they proved me wrong. In the absence of any legend to soak in the pressure, this young Indian team, showed immense discipline and application. They fought through the hard period and once the foundation was set capitalized when the crucial moments came. Kohli enjoyed his good run with the bat and in his final frontier he consolidated the batting line up against a quality attack from Pakistan. In the second half MS soaked in the pressure when it mattered and led the team to a very decent start in the world championship.

A lot of Reading.

I picked up my reading from where I left it while preparing for Goa. Finished ‘Lazza’ by Taslima Nasrin, devoured ‘Timeless Steel – Rahul Dravid’ by espncricinfo and having read 10 in a span of 45 days, moved on to some serious non-fiction by C.K. Prahlad (The Future of Competition). Peter Senge’s ‘Fifth Discipline’ is waiting to go next.

A lot of Work.

And while all this is happening around me, I am also officially mentoring an MBA student for a project on Intrapreneurship (not Entrepreneurship) and obviously working as an internal consultant for Xerox Services. Work at Xerox has picked up in with a new vigor and my plan is to make the most of the opportunity of the freedom to experiment. More about that in coming posts.

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

Go Goa Gone - for Learning and a little Fun! Feb 01- Feb 15, 2015

As a part of my new year resolution, I am gonna pen down 1 post (min 500 words) every fortnight.

So here I am, day 1 of the second month of 2015, writing my third post from Goa. Yesterday had an opportunity to talk to some 250 MBA students on a range of topics. And I must say I am enthralled by the idea of the enormous possibilities human imagination can have.

The talk was about the 'What-How-Why' of Thought Leadership, and my focus was on the 'Why' aspect.

You know that it’s a great start of the year when find yourself in Goa in the very first month. This was my first visit to this beautiful city, (which I have told everyone that I was saving for a special trip).

Well, this was special.

Having been invited by Goa Institute of management was in a feat in itself and I spent some nervous couple of weeks preparing for a topic which couldn’t have been more vague than – “Thought Leadership”. With the vagueness comes the freedom to experiment, or so I thought.

Preparation:

The best part of the talk/ event was the preparation. I read a lot. Watched many videos from TED talks. And then it occurred to me. First 10 days I was under the impression that I wasn’t the right candidate to stand in front of MBA students and talk to them about Thought Leadership, because I’m not a Thought Leader myself.

This can be a difficult feeling to get, because every single video which I sought on the internet was about and by a seemingly established Thought Leader.

But then I had a long chat with my mentor and the organizers of the committee at the GIM. It was then that I realized that I don’t have to be a Thought Leader to facilitate a discussion on the topic. I am a facilitator, and my role is to facilitate a discussion on a topic. I don’t have to a content expert.

While researching for the topic I came to know about a lot of tremendously simple and effective steps to establish oneself as a thought leader. The key is breaking down the process into simple steps and taking those steps regularly. One of the examples being – authoring a book.

Authoring a book seems to be a gigantic task, seemingly impossible for an average person. But the very thought that it can be achieved in a matter of a month, makes it worth a trial.

The Talk: 

The final talk wasn’t up to the expectations. The audience was forced to stay as the attendance was mandatory and the discussion never caught momentum for me to be able to drive the idea home. There were some high points when I showed them that there were Thought leaders among them and that actually got them going. The twitter handle worked as well and I got some 30 new followers over the next few days.

The Need to look inwards:

While this was a great opportunity for me to travel to Goa, stand in front of India’s finest MBA students and share a few ideas on a given topic, it gave me an opportunity to understand the need to look inwards. There were so many conversations which started in and around the cafe area while the most interesting one lasted for over 3 hours.

While the life is full of opportunities and options, the most difficult challenge is to realize your calling in life. What is that I want to do?

There are a few very important questions which need answers. I seek their answers.

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

Try Something New for 30 days!

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

A hit on the Head and a Fresh Start. Jan 16- 31, 2015

As a part of my new year resolution, I am gonna pen down 1 post (min 500 words) every fortnight.

Had a bumpy start of the new year, a small accident ( more of a mis-adventure) ending up with a fully bandaged head and a few stitches. Life does give you a second chance, right?

Part of the problem of being hit on the head is that, it's critical (for 24 hours or more) and that it makes you wonder about your life so far. So much for a second chance. And while you rest, waiting to heal, sometimes it feels like forever. Midst the mild pain, more of a discomfort actually; thoughts hover around; most of them fly away while some settle down. I won't say it's a recap of your life, because only some passages come by more strongly than the others. One such passage came by for me too...

I realized that in all these years as an adult, when I have been away from home, when I have withered against the storms of life, built my understanding of how life functions (still no idea though), helped by my friends, colleagues, acquaintances, competitors; and  even strangers, there is a part of me which I have overlooked.

I don’t remember being pampered so can’t say that I miss it. I don’t remember the feeling of being deeply cared for (though I know there are many who do). All these years away from home, I have been the one who is supposedly – ‘strong’(emotionally), ‘sensible’, the ‘idea person’ and may be the ‘go to person’ when all other things don’t work. Though I think I have always been there for a lot of people (I know I haven’t for a whole lot of others).

So when I am lying down, recuperating from this ‘bump on the head’, I feel it’s my time to get back to life with a new rigor. I feel I have been too much measured (in terms of my approach towards life) for my own good, and it’s actually time to start having some fun.

The other good thing which has happened in the meantime is that I got the opportunity to get back to reading books. Actually I have been reading books in the past 2 weeks like never before. I am already on to my 6^th book of the year 2015 and it’s only been 17 days. The following books have now been part of my brain stack:

1.     The Pregnant King – Devdutt Pattnaik

2.     Private India – James Patterson & Ashwin Sanghi

3.     I am Malala – Malala Yusufzai & Christina Lamb

4.     Asura – The Tale of  the vanquished – Anand Neelakantan

5.     What Color is your parachute – Richard N. Bolles

6.     now reading -  Karna’s Wife – Kavita Kane

I realized that there is so much to learn from our glorious Indian mythology literature. Watching the epic Ramayanas and the Mahabharatas from the perspective of different characters have been a revelation and sometimes eye openers in terms of how biased are we in our lives. How do we know what’s right or wrong? How are we sure about anything and everything?

Having said all that, I’m thankful to a lot of people around me that life’s been beautiful so far because of each one of you. And I know I have you with me till the end.

Some of these thoughts precipitated by the beautiful gesture of a friend who showed up with flowers. And the thought stuck in my head - "Strong people don't mind flowers once in a while".

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

What else ails a typical Indian IT/ BPO firm? Jan 1 - 15, 2015

As a part of my new year resolution, I am gonna pen down 1 post (min 500 words) every fortnight.

There are a number of reasons why I chose this as a topic for this very first fortnight of 2015. Increasing rate of attrition, increasing number of behavior related issues, decreasing professionalism at the workplace, decreasing pool of worthy leaders, and forget about leaders, across businesses it is increasingly becoming difficult to have focused contenders for first level of supervision - and these are just some of the issues which the Indian Human Resource teams are facing.

India and most of Asian countries were intended to be the places where part of the business was supposed to be outsourced. Cost usually plays the most important role in deciding to outsource (others being time zone advantage, technical expertise, easier to focus on core business, etc.)

Now imagine an Mnc. comes to India (read outsources) and starts IT and BPO work with the help of local resources. They also hire local managers with the right cultural background to hire- negotiate- maximise the output from the local employees.

This is where I would like to introduce you to first of my two hypothesis - 

1. When cost is a factor (huge one) the work can be highly compartmentalized making it easier for the right match of employees to be found.

Now when these (local) managers are tasked with the goal of minimizing the cost, they look for right fit of resources and fulfill the short term goals of the organization. Meanwhile in this process they create a monster for the HR to handle. I don't mean to say that HR is not party in creating this mess at the first place. Their goal sheets like any other business part aligns itself fully with the 'so called' business requirement - which is only this and not that. ('This' is mostly technical/ process, 'That' is mostly character/ attitude)

Having said that, companies all around the world are struggling to become 'Great' and not just good, but the limitations of hiring based on character/ attitude has become a major deterrent. The argument of lack of fair assessments which are scalable to judge a character/ attitude, is a valid one. But for the scope of the ailment which I am proposing here, I should limit the cause to a very simple one - Language.

This would be the right time to share my second hypothesis -
2. Most of the challenges we are referring to (HR Policy violations) have been started to get recognized as a violation in Asian ( and hence Indian) context pretty recently. Terms like professionalism, sexual harassment, attitude issues were never the highlights of businesses in Asia. The policies have been imported from the western world. Second part of  my hypothesis is that in order to understand the underlying meaning and fulfillment of such policies, we need to have the exposure to the western world. The only way to take that first step toward that exposure is through getting exposed to English (for Asia).

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

What's your True Character?

They say your true character is formed and revealed when you in trouble, but what if you never find yourself in trouble. Is it a classic case of playing it ('LIFE') safe. And that brings me to my question - I have never been in real trouble, how to build my character and reveal the real me?

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author, and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

'Bengaluru', 'Business Sutra' , 'Fitness', 'Audio Books', 'Opera'

So what is common between the words mentioned above? I will tell you. ME.

Having been in Mysuru for almost half a decade, a place which is just
100 miles from the fastest growing city in the country - Bengaluru, I
feel different. Bengaluru is a class apart when you compare it with
Mysuru, or for that matter most of the cities of this growing nation.
There is something in this air, its aura, its people, its approach.
It's dynamic; it's like a river which knows nothing but to flow, time
and again flowing beyond its boundaries.

I just completed 6 months in this IT-capital and the most frequently
asked question to me has been, 'How's Bengaluru treating you?'

'How's Bengaluru treating me?'  I wonder. Work at Xerox has put me on
the next orbit of learning and development.  My own exposure to
entrepreneurship has taken a back seat at this moment because this
city has given me a new perspective. And then it's my weekend
experiences with my brother in law. He is quite a guy. One of the most
extraordinary entrepreneurs I have had in my family. In fact, he is
the only one. All these years I have heard stories about him, trying
out luck in different fields- agriculture, fisheries, poultry,
multiplex, real estate and even politics. Last few months I have the
opportunity to work closely with him. Not work as work, more accurate
definition would be 'observing' him closely. He is a personification
of the classic book on personal financial success - 'Rich Dad, Poor
Dad'.

The best thing which has happened to me in Bengaluru is that I walk to
my office and back. So the famous traffic issue is out of my equation
in this vast city. This gives me a fantastic prospect of spending time
in the gym and the swimming pool. It feels good. I feel light, fit and
ready for more.

So all in all I have some decent time to spend on myself and I have
filled it with my latest found fascination of 'audio books'. Some of
my ideas are inspired by the need for squeezing time out of busy
lives, multitasking during exercising. It serves me well in multiple
ways-

1.       I am able to keep track of the time I spend in the gym,

2.       I am able to keep track of the books I have been reading, For
eg. The whole audio book by Walter Issacson - Steve Jobs was of 24
hours. So it was easy for me to set a target to complete the book in a
month with a moderate amount of time spent in gyms, jogging in parks.

3.       I have multiple reasons of motivating myself to exercise. My
love for the books is a primary one.

And finally, my new found love in the music field - Opera. From the
days of 'Bajao-Bismillah-Bajao' in college with Arun-Basu-PD, I have
been fond of classical instrumentals coupled with dim lighting and ....
Searching for new adventures in the same field has brought me closer
to one of the world's best genre of music. The soothing spell which
Opera casts on you is distinctive and it is helping me focus more on
what I am doing at this moment.

Of course, these are a few things which have been part of my diary in
the past 8-10 months. A rekindled LOC is a cherry on the cake. Rai
hits the bulls eye when he says that one of the most remarkable
positives which has come out from this ideal group (LOC founded some 6
years back) has been that it has inspired us to write. Some of us do
it better than the others; some of us find it more challenging than
the other, but it helped us nonetheless. That was the core and the
most beautiful idea of this group. Let's share friends, it's
remarkable, it's enlightening. It's beautiful.

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

02 Days from now, it will be 4 years that we left that almamater of ours.Lot of water has flown since then. Lot of us have moved from strength to strength to forge new identities for ourselves. we have been meeting new people. In the process, would have made friends and follies alike. However, nothing comes close to the feeling of catching up on guys you grew up with. This is precisely how i feel. so much so that 'Elated'/'excited' seems brilliant understatements. i checked in slightly early and not knowing what to do, was roaming around the airport doing what has been my favorite time pass of years- Babe watching. When suddenly i thought of passing the valuable time in terms of worthy investment of Facebook. But alas, the Facebook is barred here. Aren't our airports turning anti social too? I could have kept pondering over this question or moved ahead with babe watching. however,in this moment of immense emotional turmoil and indecisiveness, i realized there used to be something called LOC once. I searched in Google not sure of the name that reverberated in our hearts a few years ago. And as pleasant as it gets, i saw this man, who i always thought has the ability and will to carry the world with us. World call him Kumar Saurav, i call him anything as it pleases me. And then i saw the man who has the ability to put to shame even the shine of diamonds- sachin kashyap, the star among superstars. Allokojwal, who i would always rever as a man of such integrity and honor, that he will put to shame the greatest. Furthermore, and i realized most of us have forgotten this beautiful venture. But not the feelings that formed this union.Am i not looking forward to catching up with you all.. The answer to this can only be YES ABHI

Vellore Trip dec2012

It's an unmatched feeling to be able to attend the most important day of your friend. And if you have the venue as beautiful as Vellore the effort seems to be completely worth it. Add to it some wonderful accommodation arrangements and some friends to spend time with, you have a memorable trip at hand. It won't be surprising to people who know me that it takes a lot to get me out of my comfort zone, but the same people also know that once am out, it takes a lot to stop me as well. 

Was having second thoughts about attending this marriage function but how on earth could have I missed this. The beautiful bride and an impeccably dressed groom gave a warm welcome as I managed to reach moments before the engagement. The journey was long but not tiring in any sense. Rain in Bangalore cooled down the unexpected warm weather and the wet vellore was ready to receive me with open arms. 

Met some new people, new talents I should say. I will certainly make it a point to keep meeting new people from varied backgrounds and understand the nature of their work. 

And then the Golden Temple was planned....

I can now comfortably pen down for the first time that I am not the most religious people you will meet, nor do I believe in the supernatural power which most believes governs us. But the Golden temple and more than just the temple made of gold, the management of the whole place didn't fail to amaze me.

I don't want to be critical and all but the 'holy' feeling inside the temple was artificial for me. I know the feeling has to come from within but when you go to a temple you expect some divine or serene environment to support your spiritual feelings. The whole place was beautiful, exceptionally clean as well, but, it was artificial to me. More than a temple it can actually win the award of the most profitable and best manageable business on any management criteria. I know this is India. I know a lot of what I am writing is inspired from the movie- OMG, but a part of it comes from the god's own book- Bhagwad Geetha.

Coming back to vellore, it's a city situated in middle of a lot of mountains. Wherever you go in the city the pleasant views of the hills will soothe  the slightly humid condition. The city is like a typical south Indian city, or shall I say any other Indian city. Roads are patched up with a lot of coal tar which tends to make the ride bumpy but then who cares for all that if the people of the city know how to make good tea. This is my second trip to Tamilnadu for two weddings and one impressive thing that has struck me is how passionately people make tea here. I am humbled every time I taste such good tea, I thought my lazy way of boiling the tea powder for making strong tea was the best recipe. 

The wedding was dot on time, as planned, and full of energy, technology and comfort. I am not used to attending Indian weddings which start exactly as mentioned in the card. The dj night witnessed a splendid dance performance by my friend Akshatha. Hearing all about the practices had increased my expectations and when I saw it finally live, it went beyond that. The couple dance saw the most important couple of the week shake their leg on stage as well. The look in their eyes said it all. They are made for each other.

I have no detailed idea about the Sindhi traditions but among other things they should be famous for their spicy food (though most of the catering staff was from Bihar). How do I know that? Well I was eavesdropping for some part of the time when I was standing the queue for those hot and crisp delicious jalebies. Some beautiful ladies with me in the evening and time just passed in clicking pics. Some of them actually surprised me as I have long doubted my abilities to impress the camera. 

Talking about traditions I have to mention that I have never witnessed a hindu wedding where the bride and the groom; the pundit and the family are seated comfortably on chairs and sofas while the table wore the burden of the Havan.  But it was comfortable as one of my new friend claimed.

Reached the kathpadi junction much before time but the surprising part is the fare. I had a reasonably comfortable bus drive from Bangalore to vellore for 160/- but coming from officers line to kathpadi junction in the same city costs 150/-. The first thing which will strike you when you enter this junction is the lack of facilities. I mean you are in India but I had better expectations from a historic south Indian city. They are very well managed in general but you know something is wrong when the very screen which is supposed to guide you to different platforms is not working. Now if you are from up north and are challenged when it comes to a third language, you are in trouble. Thank god they have good English speaking people at the help desks. Hoping the train ride to be smooth for most of its path. I have gone through the trip with ease. 

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

New year and old friends- deadly combo welcome 2013

New year & Old friends - (deadly combination)

After a long time on January 2nd we got together. It was a night with Basu, PD, Meenakshi, Arun and Bed and it was like old times. Personally I wasn't in touch with a lot of them but that's the beauty of friendship. A small talk about the well being of everyone and things were back on track.

Talking about dadu's tea and nana's food, love-bites, cricket gup-shup and marriages. Some of the concerns of talking on conference calls is to negate the background noise. 

It started to sizzle when Bed joined with the only downside that Mnx slept in between. PD and I tried to settle everything for them. Often we were short of topics but we persisted and came up with new ones. NERIST was always a hot topic and we talked about the classes, how simply difficult were the practical classes and how things have changed now. How we skipped the quiz, how getting all reds in Physics lab notebooks and it came to an interesting point where we had to use a life-line of calling Bhola to get the answer to an all important question. We forgot the venue of the famous quiz in which none of the EC guys attempted even a single question. Finally PD realized that he was outnumbered and that the venue was the seminar hall. The unity of the EC-2k3 is something which is still talked about.  MA-51, Sharan Sir's classes to the recent cars by the batch of 2k3. 

The call started at around 9pm lasted till around 1:45am with people coming in and logging off for different* reasons. Basu had to try the all time favorite dish -'dry fish' while Mnx just dozed off. Appreciate the extremes as Bed had come out in the open for better network and Bhola was very cozily conversing from the warmth of his bed, while almost everyone was fighting with the cold weather I had my fan on.

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement. And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

Sweet Sixty

Sweet Sixty If you are above 60, answer the questions based on your life. If you are below 60, answer the questions based on the life of someone whom you know is above 60. View or comment on Kumar Saurav's post » Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Learn more. Join Google+

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Who would have thought about a double ton in an ODI

What happened in Indore today will go down in the cricketing history, and hence in India's fame book in golden letters. This guy called 'Viru', who resembles the 'God' of Cricket, makes this games look so easy. He is a guy who is hardly bothered about what is going on the other side. He just goes about his business peacefully. Did I just now used the word 'peacefully'? Because neither his batting, nor his strike rate will give you any indication about him being peaceful while scoring runs.

I am not sure how I was feeling when Sehwag was at 175 or round about there (as he didn't stay at any particular score for long enough for me to reflect), but as a mortal fan of the God of cricket, somewhere I knew that if someone is going to break the 200 mark in ODI, he has to have the nick name 'Viru'.Hats off to Sehwag for this fantastic achievement. Cricket, (for me) after the greats like Kumble, Ganguly, Sachin, Laxman, Dravid will still be a game to be followed.

Watch this movie if you get time!

Dear All,

It's been so long. Very long. It seems I haven't written anything for the past decade. :)
Just wanted to share this movie : "Pay it Forward".

Watch it when you get time. Fantastic movie, and more than the picturization where I think could have been better, but thats not the point. The point is the idea of the movie. See it to feel it.

I have also uploaded the trailer.



Have fun watching it!

Regards,
Saurav

A tribute to the Mastero!

Beautiful Mysore

Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice | Video on TED.com

Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice | Video on TED.com

Mysore Dasara 2011

Anna vs Mantry

Whatever is being written here are the personal views of the author him/her self and are subjected to agreement or disagreement.And a request to all members, Please share your views !!

After 1 year

In simple words, I am having a refreshing tour of NERIST from 27^th Aug to 31^st Aug’11 as I have got a continuous 5 days holiday including one CL. The tour started from ISBT, Guwahati in a Blue Hill (Night Rider) bus. Beside me, there was a reporter from doordarshan who was going to take an interview at Itanagar. The journey was good, watching the film “Aankhein”– a nice comedy by govinda and chunkey pandey, in the bus LCD TV.

Then again at the entry to Arunachal at Banderdewa, all boarders had to climb down for “pass checking”. A nice beauty of bounded mountains was refreshed while heading towards NERIST. The Bus stopped at NERIST stoppage and I was In-front of Nana’s restaurant.

At the NERIST gate, security guards were staring at me – most them are locals now. Saw many staffs busy in morning walk and some students in morning run inside the campus greenery.

I am staying at type-II Mary mam’s quarter. I think Mary mam is known to all. She is one of the most prominent nurses of NERIST medical.

In the evening, I had a visit to NERIST hostels. At first, I went to my room (Block-F#38). I saw one sikkimese and one from duliajan residing at the room. The fellow from duliajan is none but the cousin of Bed Prakash Pokhrel. I had a chat with them for minutes. Then went to meet the cooks and helpers (remembered: doubles in the chicken days).

After that I went towards Block-B, there I have seen a change: a huge tall light tower (a height of around 6  storeyed building) just like the railway light towers in-front of Block-B. But, the interesting part is: it’s not working.

One thing I found in the Hostel is the net-connectivity. It is in very good condition now. The internet is very fast now. Some says "1 GB can be downloaded within half an hour".

Then I went to Network counter for return journey booking. There I saw Swanirbhar Sir boarding in the Network AC bus heading towards Kolkata for PhD works - had a chat with him for a while.

On the following day:

Outside NERIST gate, I saw many shops were renovated.

Whatever it is, but how can one forget dadu. Had 2 cups of tea (remembered: half chai) and two pakora plates.

Next day (working Day):

Had a visit to Dept.: Very first meeting was with George (still rotating the Key in fingers) – had a nice conversation with him on the dept. condition. Then, went to TV lab, it is same as 2004, nothing changed-no extra equipments. Pan-dukan at C & M lab is same as earlier. Had a nice conversation with the assistant of Pillai. Then, on the way to dept. office, had a nice conversation on Anna Hazare with Thencheri (Instumentation Lab – da…..u). Dept. office staffs are changed and also the HOD. Subedar Sir is the new HOD. Had a nice conversation with Hussain Sir. He said about the recent problems faced by NERIST. Seat capacities are increased from 30 to 40 per dept. but, no such development is in progress. Then I found our beloved Madhusudan Sir, and had a beautiful chat for more than his precious 15 min. Next had a visit to the workshop – our small projects of 2^nd year is still on the walls (I could find mine (accompanied by Sudip das)). Then had a small conversation with Dinamani Sir as he had a class. Then a very useful chat with PKD Sir. PKD Sir will be out of NERIST for QIP-PhD from next year.

In this whole visit, I should not forget some juniors whom I met and they gave me a warm welcome at NERIST.

The poorest part is empty playground and fields of NERIST. Most of the students are busy in playing only computer games rather than outdoor games.

I feel I have not bored you people with this story. I should acknowledge the inspiration made by Sachin Kashyap for uploading my trip to NERIST.

I have more 30 hours in Arunachal. Let’s see how I can enjoy this remaining 30 hours trip at Arunachal Pradesh.

hAppY FrNdsHiP DAy to AlL My fRndS......