2 years and 1400 words

My Life in NPTI ... 

After 4 years of slogging as an Engineer in two different companies, I finally decided to pursue an MBA to look for new opportunities and responsibilities. I got admitted in MBA course of NPTI, Faridabad. I shifted from Baroda to Faridabad, at the time of leaving the place i was having mixed feelings, i was excited as a completely new life was awaiting for me and i was having the sorrow of leaving some very good acquaintances back in baroda-where i discovered myself and grown as a person.

I entered the gates of NPTI, Faridabad on July 31^st and the sight of the academic building had enthralled me. Anyhow, i took the hostel rooms, i met my roommates in the afternoon and we had a kind of informal introduction session with each other.

Days went ahead as new friends were being made, we used to talk about our past lives and what were our dreams. Then, our academics slowly gained pace, and we were bombarded with numerous class tests and assignments. The 1^st semester of MBA is usually like this.

Now our interests were being formed as some of us already had prior knowledge about the sector in which we were going to work (to the uninformed, NPTI offers MBA in Power ( =as in Electricity ) Management ). Some said “generation is the best area of power sector” while some said “ Distribution reforms is the best thing to happen and I want to be in reforms” , one of the notable influences in my life was of Mamu ( read Angshuman Rudra) he said “ Trading and Finance are the areas to go for” to me all these statements were alien.

Nonetheless, then we had our internal elections for the posts of CR ( Class Representative), Mess Manager and the controversial Training and Placement Committee for which I was chosen amidst lot of speculations and internal politics.

The 1^st semester examination dates were declared, and the entire hostel went into study mode. I was also gearing up for the examinations. I had a very bad record in examinations in my past starting from my 12^th board exams to IIT-JEE to Engineering examinations to competitive examinations including CAT. I was fearful as it was a different ball game altogether (i was completely out of touch of academic life for 5 years) anyhow, the examinations went on fine and i was very sceptical of my performance.

2^nd Semester

Being a member of T & P in MBA has its own drawbacks, i had to constantly work with our Director Sir. There were a few disappointments as some students had to wait for a longer period to get their confirmations in the Companies. Some were obsessed with getting a internship assignment in consultancies, there is a term in our institute “consultancy-stuff”. The so called consultancy-stuff are intelligent and can speak good English, as the old saying says.  I was also selected in a Consultancy firm.

The exam dates were declared and the ghost of exams began to give me goose pimples, and as usual the exams went on.

Summer Internship :

Soon, it was summer internship time, i went to the office of E & Y ( I got selected in E & Y ) in gurgaon, i was amazed at the stunning office building. I said to myself “ long way from shop floors ” Anyways my daily routine was fixed i had to go to Connaught Place Office  every morning. I used to get ready by 7 am and travel for about 90 minutes before reaching office. My first few days in office was about getting to know the people around me, we ( me and Sashi goyal) met our College seniors and we shared our experiences. After a week we were allotted our assignments. I got busy with the project. I did my project as diligently as i could.

During summer internship i had to assist many of my class mates. I had skills of using MS Excel so i tried to help my class mates in their projects.

At that time our mess was closed and the hostel wore a deserted look. As most of us were posted outside delhi for summer internship.

3^rd Semester

The 2 months of summer internship got over very soon and we headed for our cozy homes. As soon as we came back, there was the pressure of making the placement brochure as one of the company wanted to come to our campus very early.

Placement Brochure : We took the charge of making the placement brochure, me and Anupam were primarily involved. We contacted the “official”  printing professional for making the brochure. Our senior batch had hired one professional designer, this time when we contacted him, we found that his charges are way higher. So we decided to save some money and go to the “ill-skilled” official designer we had to sit for the entire day designing the brochure. I made some templates and showed it to him. He tried to make the nearest possible copy of the brochure.

We had to go to his house for days to finalise the design and it was a very tiresome job. But at last we could make the brochure.

But by the time this work could get finished we got to know that the “most wanted” company Pricewaterhouse Coopers is visiting the campus for interview. Everyone except me was preparing hard for the bone of contention. I was a bit sceptical about my chances in the company as i was not there for summer internship. We have a legend- Any one who does internship in that company is having a higher chance of selection and since i did not do my internship there, i did not count myself in.

Finally, the D day arrived and we sat for the interview, the first round was an elimination round where we were supposed to write an article about the topics given. I had no clue about which topic to write and how to write. I went on writing whatever came to my mind and most of the article consisted of “general knowledge”. Anyhow i was one of the lucky few to get through the interview round, i was the first one to appear for the interview. The interview was mostly concentrated on my topic of summer internship.

We were waiting for the results, suddenly Indu maam declared that me and Umesh are selected, i could not believe it. I have a very bad record of clearing interviews and i was sure this was also going ot be one of them.

I was relieved and i felt proud of myself, i called up each and every person i knew. But i called my mother first, she was happy although she did not know about the company at first she thought this organisation deals with water :D

After that my 3^rd sem was very relaxed and i was concentrating on the placement activities of the college.

4^th Semester

The elusive and relaxing 4^th semester started and immediately my director sent me to Sikkim for a consultancy assignment of the college. This was the first time that the college was sending its students for an assignment. We were promised a stipend. Mr Amrik Singh was with me from NPTI to accompany me to Sikkim.  I spent 27 days there and during that time i enjoyed a lot, Sikkim is a very cool and peaceful state. I am planning to write more about this visit in a separate blog.

After coming back from Sikkim i am now busy again in placement activities along with regular academic activities. In the mean time i also went to lucknow, Amritsar and vaishno devi. I thought of making full use of thin academic calendar of NPTI during 4^th sem.

I had wonderful 2 years as during this period i could add value to my career, made many new friends, and participated in many activities which enriched my personality. It included compeering in stage, making powerpoint presentation in front of Large audience about our course, coordinating  interviews, coordinating the admission process of MBA students, consultancy assignment of state govt of Sikkim, making college placement brochure .. the list goes on.

 

I love to write and this is an attempt to capture my two years in this college.

Now i wait for the professional life to begin and i hope to give my best shot at my workplace.

 

The Spiritual Tour

Day 1 :

We reached jammu Tawi station at 10 am on Saturday (18^th April), immediately we went to katra, the scenic beauty of route enthralled me. We reached katra at 12:30, we had registered in the registration counter of Vaishno Devi.

We booked a hotel and left for the journey at 3:30pm after having our lunch.

The walk on the dramp of Vaishno Devi had caught my imagination, i was amazed at the number of devotees and the number of shops on the way. These days the Religious places are morfe like a market where you can spend a good time. I saw many youngsters like us on our way.

The walk to the mandir 14 km long,a t first i thought how am i going to cover this distance??? But the enthusiasm of the crowd and my friend avnish's enthu kept me going. We were chanting "jai mata di " all tyhe way. Avnish is a naughty fellow, whenever he sees a PYT he starts chanting "jai mata di " in a altogether new tone!!!. Anyway we enjoyed the walk, with avnish leading us, to our surprise the youngest fellow of the group was walking at the slowest pace as the walk had taken the better of him.... We decided to take the staircase route in the middle, this was 500+ steps long and we were tired at the middle. We were taking breaks in between.

( Banganga gate)

We reached the middle point Ardhkwari( 6 kms from ground0 at around 6pm, We wanted to visit the famous ardhkwari caves, but we had a long waiting list, so we decided to go along and move towards the mataji mandir. We reached the mataji mandir ( 6.5 kms from ardhkwari) at 8 pm with me and avnish leading the group my at least a km J i was happy with myself that at this age(???), i was having the energy of a youngster.

We did our rituals at the ghat and went ahead for the darshan, we saw the cave and i was feeling heavenly.

We went to the bhairon temple which is at 1.5 kms away and above the mataji caves. To our surprise we met 3 of our NPTI seniors, we could spot them as one of them was wearing the NPTI winter T shirt. We prayed at the temple at 2 pm. After this temple we started our journey downwards ( 14km) . I was feeling a bit tired by this time, i thought my age had got the better off me. This time we took each and every stairs downwards and the pace of my descend caused injury to me and i was not able to keep pace with the enthu avnish, this time avnish and Kundale were leading the race and were descending very fast by the stairs. We met at the ardhkwari, my tiredness had compelled me to cancel the ardhkwari visit. We decided to go towards our hotel the clock was showing 4 am now.

( with our seniors at Bhairon Temple)

We moved downwards and reached the bottom ( banganga) at 5:30 am. To my surprise the masakkali we saw at the old delhi station was also with us and i was very delighted to see her in our tour J

Day 2:

We reached hotel at 6 am and all of us were sleeping after getting tired. We woke up at 11:30 am and Kundale our finance manager issued orders to check out of hotel and go to Amritsar – this destination was our next point, we had booked our return tickets to delhi from Amritsar.

We boarded a bus to Jammu from katra where we reached at 4 pm. We immediately boarded a bus to Amritsar. We reached Amritsar – the city of golden temple at 11 pm. We went to a hotel near the railway station. We were very very hungry by this time only food we had was 2 gobi paranthas each at Katra in the afternoon !!!. To our surprise the food served at the hotel was mouthwatering. We filled our stomachs to the heart's content.

Day 3:

We got ready for the Amritsar tour after a good sleep last night. We had talked to the autorickshaw wala we came by last night to take us around the city. We fixed Rs550/- for taking us for city sight seeing.

First we went to the Durgiana Temple, this temple was made in a similar pattern to the golden temple. We had Pooris there, they were tasty !!!!!

( Tasty pooris )

Then we went to the famous Golden temple the autowalla dropped us a few meters away from the temple as the zone was a no entry zone.

The sight of Golden temple enthralled me once again, it a different feeling. The gurdwara is coated of gold and the shine of gold in the midst of the holy pool is an amazing sight.

We moved towards jalianwala bagh which is at vicinity of the golden temple, this place is known for the brutal killing of 2000 indians by Sir Dwyer during british regime. We saw the bullet marks on the walls of jalianwala bagh, its hard to realise the pains our forefathers who fought for our independence, which we are easily abusing now .

Our next stop was vaishno Temple, which was made on the lines of Vaishno devi temple.

Wagah Border was our next place we started to move towards wagah border after havi9ng a fulfilling glass of Lassi. We reached wagah border at 4 pm, we were told that the famous parade of the border will start at 5:45 pm, we took our seats. We looked towards the border which separated India and Pakistan. On the other side, people have gathered too. The feeling at the border was inexplicable, with patriotic songs being played on each side of the border.

The crowds on the Indian side of the border were cheering the BSF men. I could see the crowd of Pakistan through the camera, they were less in number. We were more vocal and more energetic.

The saddest part of the tour starts now, our train to delhi leaves at 7:40 pm and it was already 5:50pm and no sign of parade. We decided to leave the venue thanks to the urgent nature call of one of our teammates.

We began our journey back after quickly checking out from the hotel.

 

The memories will linger forever. I am looking forward to such tours ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rendezvous with the mountains of Uttarakhand

We began our trip to the hills of Uttarakhand on a Saturday night. After a lot of brainstorming and planning, the tour took shape. We packed our bags and boarded the bus which took us to our destination.

Day 1 :

I could sleep in the crammed space of the bus despite the celebrations of my fellow classmates, thanks to my experience of sleeping while travelling in bus.

The bus arrived at Rahul Mani’s house in the wee hours of the morning, we left from his house after some of my friend “freshened” themselves. The bus was travelling by the woods of the uttarakhand kmountains which remined me of the 4 years of the journey from my home to Silchar( where I did my Engg ) . The pine and Oak trees on the slopes of the hills looked splendid. We arrived at our 1^st destination Dhanaulti, the place reminded me of the hills of North East. The hotel staff offered us breakfast and i decided to take a look around of the town, Ravi ( my ex roomie of NPTI ) accompanied me, we walked across the entire length and breadth ( ???- I do not think the town had any appreciable breadth) of the town, we had photo session capturing the beauty of the town.

After a heavy lunch we moved towards the kempty falls which is approx 35 kms away from the hotel we had to go via Musoorie. The Drive to the falls was very tiring as we were travelling the whole night and many of us hardly got any time to take rest. But still the enthusiasm among was hardly down and and as soon as we touched the falls site every one jumped from the bus and ran towards the falls. Most of us dipped inside the chilled water of the falls while I refrained from it. The sight of water falling on the rocks of the hills made a lasting impact on us .. the noise of water falling from heights made everyone come out of their clothes and jump into the chilling waters.

I was amazed at the creation of the mother nature.

After all of us had taken a dip in the falls we moved towards our hotel once gain .. had dinner and packed ourselves to get ready for the next morning

Day 2

It was the day when we moved to Tehri dam site. The main destination of our tour, this dam is the one of the most technologically advanced dams in the world. Made with the collaboration of Russian technology and Indian expertise, it stands at an elevation of 800 mts from seal level. We stopped at the guest house, and went to the site after our guide came. First we stopped at the Jaypee site office where we had an overlook at the dam from the closest possible place. The Civil Engineers of the site explained about the details of the site, the site of the dam overwhelmed us. We learned that the entire Old tehri city was under the waters of the reservoir of the dam. It was an exmple of Man’s zeal to tame the power of mother nature. A catchment area of 42 Sq Kms , and depth of 260 m of water just to turn the shafts of the generator!!! We moved toward the underground generator room which was made beneath a hill, various tunnels were created at different heights to make room for the different components of the power plant. The construction of the tunnels is itself an achievement for the mankind. FYI the tehri dam has completed its 1^st phase and is currently generating 1000MW of power and after the competion of its 2^nd phase its total generating capacity would be 2400MW.

We looked around the various components of the power plant and moved toward the guest house once again to have our lunch, after which we moved to Shivpuri ( near Rishikesh) which was 5 hours from there, all of us were tired and the 5 hours of the drive to Shivpuri took a toll on the patience and health of our fellow classmates ( I was not effected – thanks once again to my experience of the Guwahati Silchar journey experience ). It was the winding hourney in the slopes of the hills of uttarakhand. Finally to the relief of our tired classmates we reached the Final destination of our itenary at around 9pm . the place was dark and we came down by a hill slope to reach to the tents by the beach of the river bhagirathi by the river rafts. I was not very happy to travel on the river raft during pitch dark.

Anyhow we stopped at the camp, had a campfore night and we had good dinner , enjoyed till midnight and as we were all tired we went to bed in the tents allotted to us.

Day 3

It was in the morning, I woke up to see the sight of the beach which was not visible the night before. The sound of the river flowing in front of my tent, the beach, the morning breeze and the sunrays coming from the gaps of the hills made me philosophical. I was praising the beauty of mother nature.. and in the mean time after I answered the nature call, we played a game of beach volley-ball. Incidently I was in the winning side. After the game we immediately went to a mini-tracking expedition to a nearby suspension bridge.

After the expedition we went to the river banks to take dip in the furious waters of the river and it was like someone had pressed the “ be happy” button of our bodies … we took bath and dipped and played games and played in the waters. I enjoyed every moment in the river water. The water was cold but that could not stop us from going inside the river.

The breakfast was served, we played games and enjoyed every moment of the stay… then shortly after the lunch we moved towards the last stop .. rishikesh and haridwar.

The entire class enjoyed the day.. no one wanted to came back.. it was a sad moments for all of us but we knew that such moments are not meant to last forever.

The trip to haridwar was finished after we offered our prayers to Maa ganga.

We came back to our college after we had our dinner.

Phewwwww!!!!! our Fun days seemed over as we reached our college the next morning at 4:30 am.

Everyone wanted to go back again ….

Hoping for such fun trip again in the future we went to our rooms in the hostel.