My year 2004: In Review

Well, another year has drawn to a close.
2004 has been an important milestone in my life.
Where do I start ??

Hmm, Ok, Lemme start with what i had been working towards for the past 6 years (4 years engg and 2 years preparing for it).

Iam now a Osmania University certified Electronics engineer

This was also the year I got my first job. Memorable in anyone’s career isn’t it.

2004 has also been a year I understood myself fully. I have realized my strengths and weaknesses and now I know what I really want to achieve in my life.

This has also been a year where I had blundered the CAT exam not once but twice. But after my experiences during the job hunt, I now know, something really good is waiting for me just round the corner.

This has also been a year when I started blogging. What started as a initiative to overcome boredom at office, has now become a part of my daily life. Blogging has helped me understand myself better. Thanks to blogging, I have made countless friends, spread all over India. And yes, I am proud to be a blogger.

Other mundane things I did last year

1. Started using a mobile phone.


2. Voted for the first time in the Indian General Elections. Felt really proud to take part in such a grand exercise. The fact that both parties (National/State) for which I voted lost handsomely is a different matter altogether .

3. Spurned offers of MBA course from IIT Delhi and Madras. Never thought I would live to see the day when I will decline offers of study at IIT Delhi and IIT Madras.

4. Gave “counselling” to 5 people when they were really down in life and Eureka !! Within 2 weeks they land up offers of job from top MNCs .

5. Shed tears involuntarily on two occasions.

Once, when I read about the misdeeds of the once revered Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati

Other time was when i watched the destruction caused by Tsunami.... So far, i have seen so many calamities like earthquakes, cyclones happening all over the country,but I have always been quite indifferent to them. But dont know why this time it really struck me hard and I broke down


Coming up Next : My Resolutions for 2005

Benaami Tsunami

Would u want to be in that boat. Not me !!

Tamil nadu was thirsty and wanted water. But for heaven's sake NOT THIS .

Ya god, now we know, u r the boss. But dont be so cruel !!

Click here to view a video clip showing Tsunami smashing a sea shore

'MS' Blues !!

The new wicketkeeper of the Indian cricket team is already making headlines. MS Dhoni, the wicketkeeper from Jharkand is said to be a duplicate Sehwag and it will be interesting to see how he performs against the Bangladeshis.

Anywayz, I happened to hear this conversation in the office canteen today.


Indian Guy1: Hey, it seems MS Dhoni plays like sehwag, he could be the Gilchrist of India.
Indian Guy2: Let us first hope MS Dhoni is better than that moron, Parthiv patel.
American Guy(clearly not understanding anything in the above conversation) : Hey, What is MS Dhoni. A new Microsoft Product??

LOL .

Yahoo Messenger snapped !!

Grrrrr! Iam very angry.
These @#$@$ have stopped access to yahoo and messenger services in office.
I dunno how iam going to pass time in office from now on :-(

Edited to add : I think some one at office has read my post :-)) Yahoo messenger is up and running.

Reshoot Swades!!

I hope Ashutosh Gowarikar follows my advice. His latest film according to most ppl is CRAP.

He must realize that the indian public wants something extra, something special, something more.....something, something like this

CATastrophe confirmed

As expected, i wud not be going to IIMs this year. Well, I now have XAT,FMS,IIFT to fall back upon though.

Looking at the positive side of things, last year i got 91.5% and this year 95.1. Hope this trend continues and next year ......

I Came, I waited, and I finally Conquered !!

I was thinking of writing about my 3 months of work here, but before that I thought it would be better to write about the Loooonnnngggg journey i had to undertake to reach here. It's quite long, so have patience and read on !!

My hunt for a job started about a year back. Around this time last year, companies started to trickle into my college to kickstart the campus interview process. The thrill that I felt when I heard that TCS was the first company coming to our college, may sound quite foolish now, but at that time, was a great source of happiness to me.

The D-Day arrived. TCS guys came, conducted a test and I qualified that. Next was a psychometric test and I still remember reaching home at 12 midnight after giving the test. Next morning,Pratap broke the news though, that I was not selected for the interview process. You don’t need to be an Einstein to guess that I was heartbroken. But now I can say that I was very badly prepared for the whole process (I had not even prepared my resume till then).

Next came the CTS guys and in the interview when they asked me to write a program for a binary tree, I knew I had no chance. Sayo Naara !! CTS!

The next company proved to me that God really existed!!

Satyam came to the campus and as usual I cleared the aptitude test. I still remember the “Round table conference” that I had with my other classmates in the college canteen before the Group Discussion session. I was regarded as some top shot in GDs (I don’t know why). Everyone in that group was about to attend the first GD in their life. Since I had attended some GD classes in TIME before, I gave all of them some gyaan I had acquired.

And then there was the GD. I had done extremely well and felt that barring some godly intervention I was through to the interview stage. Then the results of the GD were about to be announced. My friends were very tense; I was very cool and had already started my prep for the interview. Then Disaster struck. 55 names were announced. My name was not!! I was shocked and almost in the state of breaking down. To add salts to my wounds, all my friends got through!! I remember wishing all of them good luck for the interview and boarding the college bus. What did I do god, that u have punished me like this….It took me a couple of weeks to come back to terms with the reality.

By now most of my classmates were already placed. I was disillusioned with the whole life as such. Then, one fine day I received a mail from a company called KANBAY saying my resume had been short listed for their test. My first thought was what sort of a company is that, never heard of it. But, what the heck, who cares.

Getting through the aptitude tests had become a habit for me and this was no different. I was asked to attend the interview the next day in their office. So the next day I went there. Phew! What an interview!! 1 hour. I was asked to do everything. From giving a 10 minute speech to giving a 15 minute presentation of my engineering project to explaining the importance of Admiral Gorshkov to the Indian Navy. All this were my strengths so i had no problems. But as expected, I was F%$@ed up in objects, classes and pointers.

But I knew that my performance in the non tech portion of the interview was sufficient to get me through. And right I was. I still remember the date. 8th February, 2004. I received a mail confirming my selection in KANBAY. I was overjoyed and felt like all my previous sins have been washed away. Happiest moment of my life.

But I had a problem. No one knew the company or had ever heard about the company. When I broke the news of my selection to my relatives and friends, their lips said “Hey congratulations!!”, but I cud read their minds thinking “What sort of a crap company is that ??”. But who cares, KANBAY is a big MNC and can u believe it, I was about get the highest pay packet in my whole batch. God is great!!

I was told that I would have to join sometime in May. So till then, I was in my own world, trying to “enjoy” life before I face the “rigor” of the corporate world. Before I realized, I got a call from KANBAY asking me to join at the Pune office in June. At this stage , I had a personal problem and asked the HR lady whether she can defer the date of my joining by a week. She replied very calmly saying that, that was not a problem and there was a new batch of employees joining in the first week of July and I could join then. I never knew that this telephonic call would change my future.

Soon it was July and I got no call from them. I called them and they said that they are sorry and that they would accommodate me in the next batch starting in 15 days. July became August. Again same response from them.

I understood that I was in trouble. Cursing myself, it was then that I started my job hunt. In the mean time I attended a French training class and was able to speak a few sentences in Francaise.

Also around that time I got a call from KANBAY, saying that they do not have any more new projects. But since they have already selected me, they are willing to give me a job in their Call-Center office. I told them F%$! off, and hung the phone.

Then one fine July day, I attended a TCS walk-in test. About 20,000 ppl were estimated to attend that test. As usual I got through the test. In the tech interview, I said that I cud speak French. The lady there then asked “Comment s’appelle vous” and to this I replied “J’mappelle kannan”. That’s it. Rest was formality. I was selected in TCS.

Again I was happy. But more was yet to come.

A few days later, when I was speaking to my classmate, Vikas, he told me that a company has come to the college for recruitment and we cud write the test. I asked him to fill up the form for me. The good guy that he is, he obliged.

I had never heard the name of the company. But what the heck, I did not have anything to do at home. So, I wrote the test. I got selected. That night when I browsed through the internet to get some company info, I was stunned. It was then that I realized the magnitude of the next day. I had the opportunity to get selected into Deloitte Consulting

Attended the interview. Phew!! That was one hell of a stress interview. My technical skills were compared to those of the Deloitte Sweeper. Then more bouncers….. Why should we give a job to a 70% guy when, when we have 90%ers standing outside the room. It didn’t stop there. As a young engineer, shouldn’t u have the enterprise to learn latest technologies, other than learning only C and C++?

People who know me, can certify that Iam a calm guy. Boy!! Did my calmness help me there? You bet. I knew that they were only testing my patience and so i was a little confident of getting selected. Results were supposed to be announced the very next day. Selected candidates would be informed by 8 PM, they said. So the next day, I checked my mail at 8.05 PM. No mail….. Checked my mailbox at 9 PM again. No luck again…… I was disappointed. I thought that my fate was sealed with TCS and I would have no escape from it.
At Night 11.30 PM I decided to check my mailbox again. No mail again. I was very sleepy and was just clicking around, when by chance I clicked on the BULK FOLDER of my mail box. EUREKA!! The subject line read,

“Welcome to Deloitte- The Place where the best choose to be”

I knew this was big. VERY BIG. I woke up my parents and informed them.
HAHAHAHA I went to the terrace of my apartment and screamed as loud as possible ..

Life has changed for me since then…….

Now I realize why I did not get through the Satyam GD and why the KANBAY guys behaved the way, they did.

Thank you GOD!!

College Update

Here's the latest update of my college mates for the last week.

1>Krishna selected in Satyam Computers
2>Praveen or "525" for the uninitiated , has got his visa and is leaving for South Illinois University this Jan.
3>Sunil ,it seems has got a super score in GRE and TOEFL and will be heading to US in fall.
4>Dhron is now a lecturer in MeRRITS, Nellore,Andhra Pradesh.
5> Nagendra has left for Trivandrum to begin his tryst with TCS.

P.S.: If i have missed anyone plz mail me or post a comment here.

Ab mera kya hoga , Ellison?

Oracle has taken over PeopleSoft, the package i had been working with for the past 3 months. So now iam an official consultant of Oracle ERP. WTF?

With this mega merger, the obvious question arises . What happens to the thousands of PeopleSoft consultants all over the world. What i gather from my various sources is that, there would be no major changes for people at this level of the industry.

What the "experts" are also saying is that Oracle-Peoplesoft merger is the best thing to have happened. Dont be surprised if u hear a new product called "OraSoft" in a few years time giving the german company, SAP a run for its money.

Well, for my sake , the "experts" better be right ;)

Footnote: American capitalism Sucks !!

When the President weeps ........

My mom's filter coffee, "THE HINDU" newspaper and M.S.Subbulakkshmi's Vishnu Sahasranamam playing in the background. This sums up my typical morning.

M.S. passed away last week. May god bless her soul.

Pakistan in OZland

Pakistan is in Australia hoping to spring a surprise in the Test Series. Signs are not good though. This photo is from a tour game vs Western Australia.

Iam betting for 3-0 whitewash. Any takers?? :-)

'Swades' Story Leaked !!

Yesterday as usual i received dozens of irritating forwards. But this one was really fascinating. This is the story of the most anticipated movie in Indian History, 'SWADES'. Read it and enjoi.

Shahrukh Khan is a scientist in NASA

When our hero was busy launching a satellite to Pluto, his wife is about to deliver a baby and she wanted to meet him. But the launch process badly needs a person like our hero, and there is no other option. A senior scientist asks him to stay back till it gets launched. But our well committed hero says my wife is more important and comes back home but his wife is already dead. Mean time, the satellite is launched but other scientists in NASA claim that they were responsible for the launch and they don’t recognize Shahrukh.

He resigns from there and comes back to India with his family leading a peaceful life.... days go by till...... One day, the scientists, to their surprise found that SUN is reaching EARTH slowly and after sometime it may BURN the earth to ashes. All the scientists are worried how to save the EARTH. Then they realize that only one person can save the earth. That is Shahrukh Khan.

They visit India, telling him the facts, and Shahrukh joins back there to complete the mission of saving the EARTH...After extensive research, Shahrukh invents an instrument. This instrument had to be taken to the uppermost point of Earth’s atmosphere and pointed towards the SUN. The solar radiations would reflect back in its direction and the resultant opposite force would move earth away from the orbit... All the scientist were very happy and appreciated Shahrukh's invention.

So finally Shahrukh is all set to go into the SPACE and save the earth. But he says he needs an Indian companion in the spacecraft. He calls the bearded guy ( u wud have seen him in the song “Yu Hi chala, chal rahi…….”)Nasa guys scratch their head, but finally allow him to accompany Shahrukh.

The space shuttle is launched and both of them travel in the spacecraft towards the SUN. As they reach outer space, Shahrukh comes out of the spacecraft and stands on the wings of the spacecraft. He takes out the instrument and shows it to the SUN.....

Then disaster strikes. When Shahrukh presses the ON button of the instrument, the instrument does not work... All the scientists are worried at the earth station..... Tension mounts up.......... SUN is reaching the EARTH slowly.............

Climax --- With the SUN floats towards the EARTH, Shahrukh puts one leg on earth, turns back, kicks off the SUN with ultimate force.. and jumps back to the spacecraft.... now the SUN is deflecting away from its path to EARTH!!!!!!!!!!! EARTH SAVED...

He shows Indian flag in his hand and the spacecraft moves back to earth!

THE END

P.S. : Iam yet to recover from my stomach pains caused by laughing , after reading this story

Iam one month old :-)

Kansultant is one month old and has registered more than 400 hits so far. I enjoyed blogging all this while and hope to continue with the same spirit in the future also.

Yesterday, while i was tweaking the template of my blog,i lost all the comments posted on my various posts . Feel dissapointed. Furthur, I have removed the tagboard for the moment and will keep a new and better shout box soon.

If anyone of u have any suggestions/tips/ideas to improve my site , plz post them to me. I will be very happy

Iam better than this !

Yesterday I gave a party to my brother. His exams were over and both of us had gone to Tipsy-Topsy, the nearest food outlet to our home. I have never been a big junk food fan and so never tasted even a pizza. So wanted to try that out. Me and my bro, ordered a pizza, a burger and coke. It cost about 250 rupees. Even though I have never spent so much amount for food ever in my life, I did not feel any discomfort when I handed them the sodex ho coupons. After all, I have worked hard (?) for that money, and that money is supposed to be spent in any way I wish. I felt proud to pay 250 bucks from my own pocket.

After spending an hour at Tipsy-Topsy, we came out. What I saw then, hit me hard!Very hard!!...... Two children, each aged about 8 years, with torn clothes, running nose and carrying an empty plate ran towards me and begged for food and money. My impulsive reaction was to shoo them away and get out from that place. I have always thought of such people as irritants and whenever I see them I treat them with contempt.

But yesterday, I don’t know what changed within me. Here I stood, after burning 250 bucks for some junk food and there stood b4 me, 2 children hungry and begging. What a shame!! Just recalling the plight of those kids, did not allow me to sleep yesterday. How can I be so mean? After all, the difference between those kids and me is only that I have been lucky to have been born to a financially well-off family .Then why this mirage of lavishness.

I have been thinking a lot about this. And I have taken some decisions. I will never again see those poor people with contempt. Cut out on my parties and junk food and use the money I save, to feed as many kids possible. I want to bring the smiles back on the faces of at least some unfortunate children and I promise today that I will do that, no matter what.

What NEXT ......

Now that I have overcome the initial disappointment of the CATastrophe , I can do some honest soul searching. CAT paper was easy. I messed it up, big time at that. I realize that I cud have worked harder, but hey, I cud have had some more luck as well. But there is a bigger question lingering over my mind . Am I the right person for IIMs. Or shud the question be posed the other way. Are the IIMs the right institutes for me. I think I will get the answer in 3 months time.

'CAT'astrophe

DO i need to say more :-(

President Schwarzenegger :-)

Arnie for president in 2008 ??? GOD SAVE AMERICA. Read this..

Mess(ed) Food

Those of you who have read my earlier post describing the taste(?) of DC canteen's food will have an idea as to what i feel about it.This is a snapshot of the visitor's diary at Canteen. Seems there is more than one person here who is ANGRY.

Travails of a Satyam Driver.

Yesterday I was speaking to my new CAB driver. He was new to DC and was earlier a driver in Satyam Computers. When I asked him ki why he changed the company , he said in typical Hyderabadi style , “Saab…… Satyam me paisa bahut kam dete saab, Poora din kaam karna padta aur salary peon maafik hi dete. Yahan DC me achha salary mil ra Saab…..”.
I was not at all surprised when i heard it because the driver’s salary is in fact, earmarked and paid to the Satyam Engineers

Cliched dialogues of Hindi Movies

The following is my top 10 list of cliched/classic(?) dialogues in Hindi movies. We are tired of hearing them again and again, but Hindi movies wont be Hindi movies without them :-)

10>Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain.
9>A hero when in trouble- "Bhagwan, mainey aaj tak tumse kuch nahin maanga....."
8>Mai kahti hoon, Door ho jaa meri nazron sey.
7>Ab tumari maa hamare kabze main hai.
6>Tehro,yeh shaadi nahin ho sakti.
5>Aey jee! Aap bade woh hain.
4>Bataoo, heeray kahan hai.
3>Doctor-"Ab Sab oopar waale key haath mein hai".
2>Tazerat-e-Hind , Dafa 302 ke tahat, Mulzim ko Phaansi ki sazaa di jati hai.
And the winner is
1> Mai tumharay bachhe ki maa banney waali hoon

Iam the Gladiator

On Diwali day, I saw Gladiator for the **th time. Boy, that's one hell of a movie. This dialogue gives me goosebumps everytime I see it.

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Talking of favourite dialouges, this is the all time hit from 'Namak halal'

Ranjeet : Do you know English ?

Amitabh : Lo kallo baat. Are aisi Angrezi ave hain ke I can leave Angrez behind. I can talk english, I can walk English, I can laugh english, because english is a funny language. Bhairo becomes barren and barren becomes Bhairo because their minds are very narrow.

In the year 1929 when India was playing Australia at the Melbourne stadium Vijay Hazare and Vijay Merchant were at the crease. Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare. Look Vijay Hazare Sir , this is a very prestigious match and we must consider it very prestigiously. We must take this into consideration, the consideration that this is an important match and ultimately this consideration must end in a run.

In the year 1979 when Pakistan was playing against India at the Wankhede stadium Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari were at the crease and they took the same consideration. Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari, look Wasim Bari, we must consider this consideration and considering that this is an important match we must put this consideration into action and ultimately score a run. And both of them considered the consideration and ran and both of them got out !!

It's okay ! We Understand !!

You tried your best but Bush had to win.

Shock and Awe !!

Can the POPE be ever arrested? No way isn’t it . So what does one feel if his Hindu equivalent is arrested by TN police and put behind bars .Two words- SHOCK & AWE. When I first saw the news on NDTV 24x7, I was shellshocked to say the least. So many people in India,including me, regarded H.H. Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi as an incarnation of God walking on earth.This is a man who makes his own food, wears only a cloth rag and is proficient in Vedic Mantras and now he was dragged to the court at 6AM (Bilkul TamilNadu Police Style ;) ) to face MURDER charges !!!.
I agree that Law must take it’s own course, but what irks me the most is when this line is quoted by Laloo Yadav of all people. LALOO YADAV is the biggest S.O.B. still alive on this planet and he has the gall to say that Hindus should not care about such things. VODDAFOK.

“Osama Bin Laden is the leader of all muslims including Indian Muslims and it is the duty of all Indian Muslims to do as he wishes”.This famous quote was from Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid,Delhi. We all know that Osama has declared India as his biggest enemy along with US, Israel and Russia. Now will the Indian Police have the guts to arrest him. We know, it wont happen EVER.

IAM ANGRY, VERY VERY ANGRY

100 hits in 6 days.......

Yipee!! 100 hits and still counting. And it has been just 6 days. Never believed i wud see this stat. Nanak can already hear some doubting thomasas say that he would have clicked all the 100 hits on the site. Just for info , nanak wants to clarify that any click from his PC does not count in the final figure.

What's in a name ??

Nanak has always wondered as to why people trivialize simple words. House wife is now called Home Maker, sales executive has become Strategy Implementation executive, a simple call center employee is called Voice Support executive.

But this one has got to take the cake.

What do u think it is ??

Nanak thought it could be some server room or something. Little did he know that he was going to get the shock of his life. It was then, that he found out that the command center was in fact the name given to DC canteen’s Kitchen. LOL. Nanak had to drink 3 glasses of cold water to come back to senses :-(

Nag gets through :-)

Today afternoon Nanak got an SMS saying "Selected in TCS" . Nanak was confused as to who it was. So he decided to call back. Surprise Surprise!! It was Nagendra, his mate from the engg. days. Nagi made it to TCS. Nanak was very happy hearing this and asked him for a party. Nagi knows he cannot say No or else he wud have to face the wrath of all his classmates.He readily agreed.

Waiting for the party to give him some JOB BUMPS. He deserves one :-) !!

Narrow miss !!

The DC Quiz contest results were announced yesterday.Top 3 ppl in the quiz would represent DC in different quiz competitions like Brand Equity Quiz etc. Nanak was very hopeful at the start of the day. But when results were mailed on the local network his wait turned to despair :-( . Nanak finished fourth. The guy at the third position outscored him by 0.5 marks. Nanak was heartbroken.

When this writer asked Nanak as to how he felt he said

I feel dissapointed of not making it this time, but i will make sure that i wont miss the bus the next time.

Just when he made this remark, he got the news that he was on standby and his "services" would be made required if any of the top 3 guys r not able to make it due to one reason or another. Hearing to this breaking news, Nanak remarked

If that's the case, iam overjoyed because there are rumours floating around that one of the top 3 guys was about to leave for US soon.

It seems, all's well that end's well.

Ah! Now I know !!

Now nanak understands why the coffee at DC tastes like SHIT. Read this ....


Coffee made from cat droppings---Times of India(9th Nov 2004)

A British online shop is selling coffee made from cat droppings - for £14 an ounce.
Kopi Luwak, or civet cat coffee, is produced by the civet cat in Sumatra, reports Dagblad van het Noorden.
It eats ripe coffee beans which are then hand-picked from its droppings by local people.
The beans are of the highest quality but the work is so intensive that only 500kg is made each year.
Dutch connoisseur Bob Dam, from Groningen, said the coffee has a fine chocolate aroma which tastes delicious at the back of the throat.
"The taste is exquisite but it is too expensive to really enjoy the coffee," he added.

Gimme a break!!

Cat prep :-(

Nanak is in BIG trouble. he has just 2 weeks to go for CAT and he is busy writing this blog. Prep are at an all time low. Only his old friend can save him. And nanak is daily praying in front of him hoping that at least for once he will open his eyes.

New Building ;-)

Today Nanak moved to a new building called RMZ Futura.

His first impression --- it is good.

Vanenburg was not bad.

This was nanak's office till last week

Nanak says that one thing better in the new building is that there is more privacy here. But he has a problem... he sits in a cubicle where he cant see who's gonna pop up from behind.. 2day there was a close encounter... nanak was busy chatting on Y! as usual ,when Kiran -The VicePres. of DC popped from behind and asked him how r u and how's the new building etc . Nanak got the SHOCK of his life. He fumbled and mumbled.Somehow managed to escape ;)

Other impressions

Nanak is very happy 2day.He got a PC with built in DVD player and CD writer.he says though this is good , dc cud have also provided a scanner and a printer on his table ;). Hey RAM... 1GB RAM + 3Ghz Intel original Motherboard+ optical mouse.....Zindabad Zindabad.....DC Zindabad...........:-)

Canteen SUX. A plate of that shit costs 30 bucks. nanak has decide to get food from home from 2morrow:-(

Kiran has said that from now on he expects everyone to stay till late hours and learn stuff.He is right. High time ppl like Nanak do some work for the vulgar salary he gets :-)

First Post !

Hi, This is the blog of a guy called nanak.He works in DC.He is free now a days and does not have anywork at office . So started this blog. . He hopes to keep updating this place often.