Devidas

He always walked in with a smile and messed up hair

His shirt was always a size smaller for his tummy and pant an inch too long

His hands were cracked and shoes unclean but had a heart of a king

He was always eager to talk and never wished to stop

He loved his car and always shut the door a little too hard

He was always there to pick me up at the wee hours when I arrived home

He was the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave

He was also the first one to defend his beloved ‘Bhau’ and the family

He was the one we counted on and looked for, for anything and everything

He was Devidas!!!

Just this morning, when I got up to the rains and cloudy weather, mom called up and something seemed odd. She spoke about a lot of other things but seemed lost. Finally when I asked and heard her speak, my heart stopped.

Devidas is no more. Our driver for last so many years but more of a family to all of us is gone. I am so far away from home and haven’t seen him for last 2 years but still cannot stop thinking about what a great guy he was and feel the big loss and void this has caused.

May his soul rest in peace!

Pune - 12

Pune has been trending on Twitter for the last 2 days. It has to do a great deal with David Guetta. Frankly, I feel he is overrated. Anyway, it made me think of Pune and what I miss most about the place...

1. The dense traffic and driving my Kinitec or Duddu's Activa almost brusing off other bikes on the way. At the traffic signal, aligning the bike neatly in the maze of vehicles like playing a live 'Bricks' version.
2. Going to Sinhgad early morning on weekends and getting back in time to catch some awesome breakfast at Vaishali.
3. Partying at Thousand Oaks - sitting on same table every single time, next to the speaker. Amazing music, friends and great spirits!!
4. Getting up late the next day and grabbing brunch at Grubshub, Katta or Yorkshire. Laughing till it hurts and waiting till getting kicked out!!
5. Unplanned last minute late night movies at City Pride Kothrud - always regretting going there - deciding never to go again - but yet go again the next week.
E square - never finding a parking spot, always running late, getting irritated by the pony teenagers, missing 'quality' of city pride kothrud.
6. BIG BAZAAR!!! The crowd, the chaos, the discounts, the chocolate fondue, buying absolutely useless items and never regretting it.
7. Walks on the polluted, crowded road - roadside food - Mankar dosa, Kalyaan Bhel, Amrutulya Chai, Mastani House and Kopryavarche kaka pani puri.
8. Playing Baddy on the roads in the night, late night coffee, late night gossips sitting on random stairs.
9. Bus ride to every morning (well almost) to Magarpattacity. The freshness of the mornings, the urgency in the air, the crappy radio, that horrible bus driver and that grumpy girl on the next seat.
10. TEKDI!! Meeting lost friends and distant acquaintances - Subway after the climb down!
11. Being close to Konkan and so many great mountains - those weekend trips in to the wilderness.
12. The Puneri Attitude - That's the one I miss the most. The curt answers, the sharp wit, the closed shops, the simple pride of being a PUNERI!!!

I can go on to a 100 points but this would be a good bullet point to stop as we are Pune-12 :)

You can take a person out of Pune but never Pune out of a person!  

Quarter Mile!!

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Can’t believe a semester is already over. Seems like yesterday that I wrote this POST about moving to Boston and trying to settle down. Reading through it, I realized I wasn’t too happy about moving here. So pleased that Boston, Babson and most importantly the people turned it around. As they say, you are having a good time if you don’t realize when time passed. This is what exactly happened. Got a little busy with school and next thing I know is that the semester is over…!!

It all started with meeting so many diverse classmates from all over the world and going through the pain of helping them pronounce my name only to give up in the end. So far only 2 non-Indians have aced the art of saying my name right. For most of the rest I am baptized to ‘Ana’. I kind of like the name, I do get a lot of slack form my desi group about it but its better than being called Anagaganagdjhsfj.

Pre-MBA was a weeklong induction for the international students to understand US culture. The famous Indian ‘Head Bob’ is now the only hurdle in our way of becoming vilayati babus and bens.

Class of 2013 - International Students

Boston is a place you don’t need too much time to fall in love with. The city is one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. Lot of history, cool places to hang out and lotta eat out places what else you need. The Boston day tour during my first week here was exciting. Not only did I get to know the city but the people a little better too.

Quincy Market, Boston

Tech Mark has so far been the best experience at Babson. It is basically a Business simulation competition that went on for 2 days. The Class of 2013 was divided in teams of 7 and we all competed against each other to meet certain business goals. It was dynamic, real time, fast and exciting. In those 2 days we learnt a whole lot about business and definitely understood what we need to pay attention to during the coming 2 years. An unparalleled experience. We also won ‘a price of unspeakable value’ in the end. And more than anything, I feel the price was the phrase in itself which is overused ad over abused ever since.

Tech Mark Team

One of the best parts of staying on campus is that the party never ends. You are back from a party in Boston and another one starts in the kitchen; it just never stops. You get the liberty of getting up at 8 for an 8.30 AM class. Also I can use the gym facilities anytime. Making use of that I learned to play a new sport – SQUASH. I started in September and with the help of my awesome friends cum coaches, I can play reasonably well by the end of December. Woot!! Learning Squash has definitely been one of the highlights of this semester. Figuring out new stuff to learn in the coming semester, could be piano or probably getting back to drums.  

The difficult part of staying in a dorm especially in the US is the food. But turns out in my case it became the best part of the day. I still haven’t really figured out but just like that a group came along and the 8 of us started cooking as a group. None had any mentionable skills but we were ready to get food poisoned for fellow cooks. Surprisingly, each one of us can today take pride in a specialty dish and some other not-so-special dishes. Dinner is the time everyone comes together and after fights over dishes, spoons, rotis and chairs are settled starts a non-stop conversation about the days happenings, professors, classes and everything under the sun.

Dinner Gang \m/

SLE (Something (I forget) Learning Experience), another interesting and fun part of the 1^st semester. My team was pretty diverse - Indian, American, Chinese, Chinese American and Latin American, we had it all. This made communicating a whole lot difficult and funny but nonetheless at the end of the day we all did a great job. The 24 hour exam for Strategy stream was the real test, we slogged all night and submitted 28 seconds before deadline. Phew!! We did pull off some on the spot presentations and submissions which was pretty cool just like our team name - 3D \m/

Team 3D

While the school never took it too easy on us, we never stopped having fun either. Zipcar was not just a case study we did but an enabler for all the fun out of campus. Destinatin 1, Harvard Square + Zipcar + Awesome Music +  Endless time finding parking + Falafel = AWESOMENESS!! Once Zipcar gave us the 'wheels when we needed', anything closer than Harvard Square to have dinner was blasphemy.

1st Snow 2011

Staying in Boston has so many perks. You get to see the RED SOX play and for free if you sign up to pic some trash. Broke MBA students will do anything :P Also get to visit MIT and Harvard for various events and listen to some amazing speakers. Although the Babson pride never stops us from bashing these ahem 'other' schools in Boston.

Red Sox Game

In other news, I did manage to be a part of various club activities and get on leadership of a couple I really wanted to. Being a part of the flagship event of Babson, Babson Entrepreneurship Forum made it possible to share the same frame as Michael Porter, the man behind every MBA's (at least 1st year) most favorite words "Porter's 5 forces". I also managed to lose some elections at school and that was a maiden experience and surprisingly a good one. Definitely got to learn a lot from it, in fact a little more than all the victories of Undergrad :)

Same frame as Michael Porter!!

The achievement of the semester and might as well of the year be finally gathering some courage to perform DANCE on stage. 'I was meant for the stage' may be one of my most favorite songs but dancing as a part of it was never a part of the plan mostly for the safety of the viewers. But being in a completely new environment and having audiences with stronger hearts made even this feat possible. It wasn't as bad as I would imagine in my head or may be it was, who can tell!!!

Sheela ki Jawani ;)

Diwali 2011!!

Time kept flying amidst all these truck load activities. I did scoop some time to study and be answerable to my family back home paying for my tuition. But I truly believe everything mentioned is a part of the experience and not just the academics and classroom teaching. All this craziness adds up to what we call the 'MBA Experience'. Glad so far it has bee great.....

Yale MBA Games

I guess by the end of the 1st semester I did find a new home, new friends and lot of new experiences. Herez to an equally or even more eventful and awesome semester!! Cheers!!

Let the craziness continue!!

Koshish Karne Walon...!!!

Randomly got reminded of and started reciting one of my MOST favorite poems from school days... My Mom and Dad had gifted me this poster with Pt. Harivansh Rai Bacchan's poem about never giving up. I was amazed that I still remember it word to word.. Here it goes... (Its in Hindi, non-Hindi speakers, please excuse me this time around....)

Lehron se Darkar nauka par nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti

Nanhi cheenti jab daana lekar chalti hai,
chadhti deewaron par, sau bar phisalti hai.
Man ka vishwas ragon mein saahas bharta hai,
chadhkar girna, girkar chadhna na akharta hai.
Akhir uski mehnat bekar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.

Dubkiyan sindhu mein gotakhor lagata hai,
ja ja kar khali haath lautkar aata hai
Milte nahi sahaj hi moti gehre paani mein,
badhta dugna utsah isi hairani mein.
Muthi uski khali har bar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahi hoti.

Asaflta ek chunauti hai, ise sweekar karo,
kya kami reh gayi, dekho aur sudhar karo.

Jab tak na safal ho, neend chain ko tyago tum,
Sangharsh ka maidan chhodkar mat bhago tum.
Kuch kiye bina hi jai jaikar nahin hoti,
koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti.

– Harivansh Rai Bacchan

9/11 and Meetup!!!

I received the following e-mail this morning and like any other 'bulk' mail, I kept it on a least priority to read. But I am pretty obsessive that way so went on to read it anyway at a later point. The simplicity stuck me at first but it was still a very powerful e-mail.

I am currently studying entrepreneurship and the looking at ways to start up and opportunities. And here is a story of a simple motivation and extreme belief in the purpose that really pulled off the venture. A good read...

Fellow Meetuppers,

I don't write to our whole community often, but this week is
special because it's the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and many
people don't know that Meetup is a 9/11 baby.

Let me tell you the Meetup story. I was living a couple miles
from the Twin Towers, and I was the kind of person who thought
local community doesn't matter much if we've got the internet
and tv. The only time I thought about my neighbors was when I
hoped they wouldn't bother me.

When the towers fell, I found myself talking to more neighbors
in the days after 9/11 than ever before. People said hello to
neighbors (next-door and across the city) who they'd normally
ignore. People were looking after each other, helping each
other, and meeting up with each other. You know, being
neighborly.

A lot of people were thinking that maybe 9/11 could bring
people together in a lasting way. So the idea for Meetup was
born: Could we use the internet to get off the internet -- and
grow local communities?

We didn't know if it would work. Most people thought it was a
crazy idea -- especially because terrorism is designed to make
people distrust one another.

A small team came together, and we launched Meetup 9 months
after 9/11.

Today, almost 10 years and 10 million Meetuppers later, it's
working. Every day, thousands of Meetups happen. Moms Meetups,
Small Business Meetups, Fitness Meetups... a wild variety of
100,000 Meetup Groups with not much in common -- except one
thing.

Every Meetup starts with people simply saying hello to
neighbors. And what often happens next is still amazing to me.
They grow businesses and bands together, they teach and
motivate each other, they babysit each other's kids and find
other ways to work together. They have fun and find solace
together. They make friends and form powerful community. It's
powerful stuff.

It's a wonderful revolution in local community, and it's thanks
to everyone who shows up.

Meetups aren't about 9/11, but they may not be happening if it
weren't for 9/11.

9/11 didn't make us too scared to go outside or talk to
strangers. 9/11 didn't rip us apart. No, we're building new
community together!!!!

The towers fell, but we rise up. And we're just getting started
with these Meetups.

Scott Heiferman (on behalf of 80 people at Meetup HQ)
Co-Founder & CEO, Meetup
New York City
September 2011

Falling To Rise

And then you fall and then you rise

This fight is not for all but the wise

There is anxiety and there is grief

There is work to do in time brief

There are tiny but trillion thoughts

And inside you, your mind rots

There is failure but there is hope

And you can do without dope

There is loneliness but there is love

One day you'd see the white dove

Tough times many will come on your way

But "all for good" in the end you'll say

You would have many, not one choice

But always hear your own inner voice

I am not far but inside you somewhere

For one reason that you are here.

And then you fall and then you rise

And then you learn of this life's disguise.

This is NOT an original post. This poem is by Arnab Ghosh. I loved it so much that I decided to re-post it with his permission. I loved this poem cos its so much full of realities and still has so much hope in it.

Hope you guys enjoy it too, let me know!!

Cheers!!

The story so far....!!!

Few of things before that....

1. Yes, I do plan to continue this blog.
2. I will write the part 2 of the Leh trip, nonetheless months later and though nobody read the 1st part, anyway.
3. I have a bunch of other stuff drafted but never finished and posted, hope still remains I will do that some day.
4. I know the project “50 days Pune” did NOT work out and I am todally bummed because of that but I will be back in Pune again someday and complete the project. Thanks for the support guys but life got so crazy that I just could not get it done.

Now, the story so far...

1. The place I called home “9, Padam Appartments” is no longer mine and I left Pune on 10th Aug.
2. The journey was quite eventful till Mumbai but thankfully pretty mundane then after.
3. Reached Boston safely and had lot of fun meeting people at Boston.
4. Stayed with friends for few days and the reception was heart warming.
5. Moved to hostel couple of days back.
6. All settled in the dorm and seems like a fun place.
7. Classes began today (pre-MBA) and the class is totally awesome.
8. Looking forward to getting busy with course work to take my mind off from missing Pune, friends and family.

Unpacking was the toughest part. It had a sense of permanency to it and that felt scary. Past trips to the US were always short and there was ‘homegoing’ to look forward to... There is no going back now.. There is no place to go back to... Its all ahead of me from here...

But there is always hope.. Hope to make new friends - like old ones, to make this place home and have even more rocking time here....!!! Herez to the (to-be) home and more good times!!!