Testimonials provoke thought and introspection..Its always insightful to see how others perceive you...So blogging a collection of my testimonials from iimc yearbook, linkedin n facebook...maybe someday when i am unsure of my strengths & weaknesses, i would take a peek below...
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The self proclaimed "oogway" of the campus! The most confident guy I have come across in IIMC ...came to know him on the later part of term I and have been good frnds since then! We share a common love for animes/ manga which led to our bonding! Possesses a lot of gyaaan in spirituality and doesnâ??t mind in educating others on the same, specially on the night before the exams (remember micro eco end term?) :/ Extremely lazy and quietly confident! possesses an infectious smile, brilliant mind and a sharp sense of humour! Liked my most and loved by a special someone! one of the best thing about him is that he knows exactly what he wants from life and gets there with minimum effort (maybe he selects his needs based on their effort requirement! :P just kidding!) Wish him all the best for the new life he is about to enter into! Stay in touch! ~animerocks~ ~mangarocks~
...Santa Suman Dutta
Mar'2012
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Shanky baba ki jai! Witty, smart, helpful and honest...These are some of the qualities that set him apart. His awesomely insane knowledge about spirituality and mythologies was something that totally kept all of us enraptured! There's nothing in this world that he believes he can't do, oh well he's just too lazy to do that that's his line of defense tho! He's got a knack of learning things up fast and performing incredibly well in them. His stable mind and clear cut goals in his mind is something that many should learn from him. simple suggestion tho buddy, try being a bit more open and sociable, u can excel in that too! Have a wonderful life mate!
...Sarada P Sahu
Mar'2012
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He is royal like a Bengal tiger and always of every situation. Beware, he will read your mind before you speak a word. One of the smartest brains who have come to IIM Calcutta and this makes up for everything else. His understanding of issues is deep and he is a gyanni baba. He is fair but does not give an inch away like a successful manager would do. Cracks funny jokes and has some principles in life which ought to be followed everytime. Always interesting to interact with you :)
...Sahil Dev
Mar'2012
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In speaking of Shankhadeep, one realizes the limitations in language. Not only is he gyaani, he practices what he preaches. More than that, he inspires you to emulate! A guy who thinks on his own terms, untainted by the herd mentality. I still remember, how this incoming rank 1, ABS finalist, maintained his equanimity even in summer placements. Maxrespects! :) A man of few, but chosen, words; of great interpersonal warmth and empathy & just as kind. I am sure you will excel, always! It was a great journey to have studied with you, and to have wasted all those hours discussing life! Wish you only the best!
...Siddhartha Jain
Mar'2012
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Respect! The most confident and focussed person I came to know over the last 2 years and probably the guy with the most in-depth knowledge of Indian mythology and even more so, the misconceptions we have about it! I'll always cherish those intense philosophical discussions about the censoring of the Indian epics and how he was a Chinese warrior in his previous life! Really helpful dude, a saviour before the exams! Cheers and all the best for the future!
...Gairik Datta
Mar'2012
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“Shankhadeep was working @ eBay, Shanky joined as a fresh graduate from College through CSC, with in short span of time this guy started to grasp many technical area in the Billing QA Team.
Shanky has a special talent and can learn the things fast.” June 4, 2011
GANESH SAMBASIVAM, Sr Software QA Engineer, eBay
managed Shankhadeep indirectly at CSC (Client: eBay.com)
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“I have known Shankhadeep in a variety of capacities for almost four years. He has also worked with me in eBay. He is the most capable person to get a work done in the face of all odds.
Shanky is organized, efficient, extremely competent, and has an excellent rapport with people of all ages. His presentation skills, communication skills, both written and verbal, are excellent. He is always open to new opportunities and to learn new things. He is a good team player and always extends helping hand to all colleagues.
In summary, I highly recommend Shanky for any position or endeavor that he may seek to pursue. He will be a valuable asset for any organization.” May 28, 2011
Ashish Anchaliya, Associate Application Developer, Computer Sciences Corporation
worked directly with Shankhadeep at CSC (Client: eBay.com)
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“It was a pleasure having worked with Shankhadeep as part of Ebay Billing QA. He is a smart and pragmatic team player; and pushes the team along with him to finish off deliveries before deadlines. He showcased his technical expertise & sound understanding & well-guided the interns for the automation project.
Shankys communication and influencing skills are superb. I also worked with him in innovation tech forums. He always came up with creative out-of-the-box ideas that proved to be the clincher.” May 15, 2011
Wilson Thampi John, Associate Manager in Testing, CSC
managed Shankhadeep indirectly at CSC (Client: eBay.com)
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“It's been near a decade that I know Shankhadeep, right from my engineering college days. He has a perfect blend of intelligence, hard work and smart outlook built within him. The most prominent and unique part of Shankhadeep is his excellent ability to analyze a situation and coming up with innovative and practical solutions. He never breaks his cool even amidst the toughest of all situations. I have witnessed this, not once but several times over the years. And moreover, he is an excellent human being and a complete people person. I wish him best of luck for all his future endeavors.” May 27, 2011
Soham Banik, Student, National Institute of Technology Durgapur,
studied with Shankhadeep at National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
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“Shanky is a bright, sincere professional who assumes the roles and responsibilities assigned to him with equanimity, great foresight and determination. In addition to that, he is a great mentor and guides all people around him professionally contributing to knowledge share. I wish him all the best for his career and hope he continues with his success wherever he goes.” May 17, 2011
Raktim Kar, Student, National Institute of Technology Durgapur,
studied with Shankhadeep at National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
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“Shankhadeep was my mate in NIT, Durgapur. He is a very dynamic, well connected & technically strong person. The thing that particularly differentiates him from the rest is his ability to come up with a simple yet elegant solution to almost any problem you throw at him. I worked very closely with him during MUKTI [A National Technical Symposium on Open Source Software] as a LUG [Linux Users' Group] member and I was really amazed to see how he managed difficult situations as an event coordinator. I highly recommend Shankhadeep & wish him ALL THE BEST in his future endeavors.” May 14, 2011
Abhishek Biswas, Student, National Institute of Technology Durgapur,
studied with Shankhadeep at National Institute of Technology, Durgapur
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“I have known Shankhadeep right from our schooldays. Having known him for so long, I can vouch for the fact that he is one of the brightest and talented people around. When he is given some work, he does it in the most efficient manner and comes up with the best possible results. He derives this effortless elan from his clear thought process. Logical ability comes naturally to him. Having said that, he is extremely well mannered and keeps his composure under extreme pressure as well. When working in a team, we could always count on Shankhadeep not only to do his bit but also to coordinate the team and help a member as and when needed. He has all it could take to be a good manager, leader and lastly but most importantly a great team player. Wishing him all the best for his future.” May 27, 2011
Tushar Chakrabarti, Student, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta,
studied with Shankhadeep at Birla High School
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$@/\/\U|)®@ Neelam Bhuyan - Oct 9, 2007
shankhadeep BAANARjee... or shanky is the ultimate cool geek. I know thats a contradiction, but thats how I remember him He has a zany sense of humour... laughs at everything... but in a very mature "uncle"-ly way ...
His modesty (or whatever little there is of it ) is very refreshing...
He's cooler than he thinks he is.. and a great friend to have!!
I will never forget us playing "dave" and "mario" and "cricket" and what not on his comp!! hehe... those were the days!! right bro?
its been ages since we became friends... and every moment spent with him has been a moment worth living!!
Stay the same dude!
P.S.: Ladies! Get in line! And fast!!!!! This offer wont be valid for long!!
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Swarno ... - Jan 12, 2007
I can never imagine my life without him in it...all my good memories in life includes him...u can call him my GURU or me a copy cat of him...im just following his path and watever I am its just becoz of him...he cant do nething wrong in his life...xtremely determind wel behaved and xpert in learning new things in short span of time..u can never stop him duing a thing which he has thought of doing...alwaz interestd in workiiing on outside syllabus stuffs...its still a mystery to me how he scores in coleg xams...wil try to learn the trick some day...he has done so much in his life that i can spent my whole life telling u abt those things but its not needed bcoz i think a time wud surely come as this genius guy wud be one of the famous personalities in the world...his excellent works wud be known to the WHOLE WORLD!!!
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kirti---is ROCKINNNNNN!!!!!!!!! - Dec 28, 2006
shanky is the LAZIEST person i hav ever seen.but inspite of being lazy he does every right thing at the right time.i wonder how?whether its studies,readin story buks, muvis, xperimentin new dishes , sports or goin to HABIB'S ka naya parlour to hav a fab haircut(just kiddin)....he has done it all.apart from that leg pullin kora is favourite past-time.has great sense of humour.can easily win a prize in "akkel-challenger".oh no i 4got 2 write sumthin , he is alo a fatafati dishco-daaaaancer.(its worth praizin).a cool dude in its truest sense n the best bro in the world.lots of luck for the NEW LIFE ahead of u n this luck is with u.trust ur sis dr bro.
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Harish G - Dec 9, 2006
Shankhadeep..the name suggests a studious guy with specs on his nose and books in his hands..but names can be sometimes misleading nd hey as shakespeare says it "Wats in a Name.."..i met him wen i joined BHS in class 10 mid term nd he was my First Friend at BHS nd frm dat day to nw..its been a long journey nd we both gav remained great frnz..The coolest part of Shanky is he is a "NO CHAAP" guy..hav hardly seen him tensed 4 anythin..His calm,composure,patience and his diligence creates an aura around him which can attract anyone...a perfect human being,a perfect friend.I hav shared lots of fond memories wid him nd it feels great to hav a good friend like him around..Hope he reaches the Zenith of success (nd hey wen he luks up he finds me above..hehe kinda selfish)..as i write this testimonial my friend i am not just imprinting words but i want to say that which i never cud-THANK YOU MY FRIEND...FOR BEING THERE ...ALWAYZ.......
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Soham Banik - Mar 6, 2006
I have never ever seen such a cOoL guy as he is.dont get confused with his "angry young man" sort of look-trust me- he is really a down to earth person n u will worth gettin him as a FRIEND.
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Tushar Chakrabarti - Mar 6, 2006
the best thing abt shanky is that he will always b with u in times of need!! great friend, great person, n surely one of my oldest n best friends!! is crazy about CAT rite now n workin his ass off 4 it!! way to go...stud!! all the best....hope u'll b my senior there!!!
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Sujit - Mar 6, 2006
he is really a nice guy...always ready to help others.....u will always find him in times of need...
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Eurotrip Notes
Been too busy/lazy to write a full travelogue. So presenting it in the shorthand form just to jag my memory in future -
paris...burnt hands..holed feet..medical men at station..empty hand pose of soham. Notredam..Eiffel..stairs..
reims..linda crying..doc at reins..bank free money..grp prjects..big fight..iimc profs..wallstreet2..
strasburg bus fine..munich frnds home...oct fest..one cheer for munich..poo popopo..pooo..pooo..beer at hb..munich metro network..english garden surfers..durga puja...
7 min walking to salzburg hotel mix dorm..mc donald indian..lotta Indians..bus runs on electric lines..ice caves bear and cable ride...am wearing two shirts..green river..missed Mozart but ate grilled chkn..
reached ljubljiana..guard says shukriya..partied at nite..guys start fighting in morning..lake bled..taste peach n nectar..guys get lost..we return by music car..hostel owner tells dhanyawad..
reach wien at nite..pakistani driver..take guided city tour..cubist architecture...otto Wagner design..danube river...palaces. Museums, memorials, parliament..st Steven cathedral..ferry wheel.. kebab ..box..noodles...water hose..ubahn..sbahn..obb..railjet..luggage at hotel or station..hotel meninger at Salzburg n Vienna..
Budapest..currency 300huf..haunted hostel...castrobistro..dalmakhani..jasmine rice..chicken curry..skewers..pub..toilet fight...walked round the city..royal palace..danube river bridges..
slovakia fine bribe...auction of Hungarian currency..
prague..hostel with bar below...disturb others sleeping...bathroom with two showers...sandeman walking tour...old town square..czech invented microwave,contact lenses,sugar cubes, beers...only place didn't want to destroy..wanted to create a museum of extinct race of Jews..mozart concert..skydiving...
Berlin..locker issues..brendenburg gate..berlin wall..etc..angela Merkel doner kebab..back to reims by night train..
week 5...hawai aloha..cross culture night..desert survival exercise..light show in cathedral..canteen food..beef tongue...bus strike..train,hostel,flight,ferry reservations..
train to Cannes..lovely sunset beaches..red carpet..night stay at Marseille..fight with guy on train..notre dame on top..morning train to Montpelier near agde no.1 nude beach..train running along sea coast..
barcelona..la rambla..picasso museum...got separated..shoko party danced till 3..shaz guest list..wear classy..2 gals wanting in..beach bath..museums..weird architecture..barca stadium..madrid..pub crawl..salsa..casanova guide..tequila shots..walked home at 4..cudnt find free tour..beautiful architrcture...shopping at h&m...sat near opera house..tried tapas..
night train to Portugal ..missed station due to time difference reached correct station..lisbon hilly facing sea with small gallis n old women staring from windows..homely hostel where host sleeps with guests..read a book on holocaust.. soham met Facebook friend..we tried Portuguese desserts like payesh n goja..punjabi guy sells doner kebab..evening stroll across old town...following tram 28..nice view points...square with youngsters drinking n singing..took tram back..caught train to Porto..tried dish francaisinha..best airport..tried Ryan tricks...
Frankfurt Hahn airport..slept on floor..too chilly..morning shuttle n two train changes..foggy..put luggage in Frankfurt rail station, bought jacket in 10 euro n went exploring..tall buildings, green parks with nude statues, lovely canal with bridges..looked better at night..free train rides across city...
Night train to Copenhagen..smelly socks..found iim guys everywhere ..got news that fees didnt get deposit..self guided tour..silent zone in trains..little mermaid..danish krona with holes..nice generator hostel with party at night..
got up from sleep to catch Oslo train..view along sea n green fields n hills..train breaks down..bus tour..fjords..costly hostel but not good..no nightlife on Sunday ..we roam around in city center ...we follow 4 gals who take us back to hostel..oslo in morning looked busy n beautiful ..saw ports, opera house ,royal palace ..deli da Luca..dabbawalas..
train to Stockholm..again some accident..we reach late..no exchange..costly metro..eat at McDonald's to exchange..reach automated hostel ..all gals in double beds..soham didn't sleep well..center is kinda island between two land masses...tour the area..
catch ferry to turku..awesome ferry..watched shows..woke up late due to time diff..-1deg temp..spend day with sarada n gairik..cooked ready to eat biriani..chatted with mom dad gf in nymgo..went out early morning to Helsinki ..semolina island..russian war area..pretty scenery..
ferry to Tallinn ..raining..lost in old town..reached hostel 3 hrs late..old guy as roomie..gives us nimeta bar..we go out to search for good parties..nothing free..lot of strip clubs nd erotic massage parlours..finally end up at nimeta..small dance floor..people doing passionate dancing..danced till 4-30..roamed old town in morning..
bus to Riga ..prettier than expected..city center full of open parties..i dance at scandal with mirror..absinthe ..gals in Halloween costumes..gals inviting us..danced whole night..woke up at 3..full day rest..again night party..cheap hostel n drinks..taught ladies some of my dance moves..arijit almost duped by a gal..soham dancing close with hotties..even pole dancing..roam around Riga..nice bridges..
catch flight to Rome..dirty n populated by Bangladesh..stay at cheap hotel after bargaining with agent..morning trouble finding hostel..guy takes print out of map..we go out to see colloseum,pantheon,etc..eat rice n chicken curry at bangladeshi restaurant..next day to Vatican city..i take audio tour ..take bus to roam around randomly..cheap day pass..ate very italian pizza..book ticket to Geneva..go to Genova instead..almost missed train due to platform change..
go to Milan then to Interlaken..helpful chatty people..indian summer..hostel with old lady n dog..gave chocolates everyday...guys from other iims...couldnt afford cheese fondue..beautiful lakes...awesome tour with panaromic golden pass...only cows no people..tt asking about shahrukh khan..ended up in a small pretty town with foggy lake n castle...mount titlis...3 cable cars full of asians...fun in snow storm..asians ran away...had to shut down..man-made ice caves...bern..einstein's home...light show on swiss parliament...bought 6kg chocs at denners...catch trains to reims...crossed swiss to france border by walking...overall experience in switzerland - heavenly!!
visited luxemburg, netherlands n belgium in last leg...met with mayor in lxm..got free sausages n beer..took tour of amsterdam...rla muffin canals cycles..belgian chocs..menniken piss in brussels..beautiful brugue...
soveniers from all countries..used all travel modes..ate all kinds of food..had all kinds of fun...crossed borders in all kinds of ways...overall 20 countries...dreamtrip!!
paris...burnt hands..holed feet..medical men at station..empty hand pose of soham. Notredam..Eiffel..stairs..
reims..linda crying..doc at reins..bank free money..grp prjects..big fight..iimc profs..wallstreet2..
strasburg bus fine..munich frnds home...oct fest..one cheer for munich..poo popopo..pooo..pooo..beer at hb..munich metro network..english garden surfers..durga puja...
7 min walking to salzburg hotel mix dorm..mc donald indian..lotta Indians..bus runs on electric lines..ice caves bear and cable ride...am wearing two shirts..green river..missed Mozart but ate grilled chkn..
reached ljubljiana..guard says shukriya..partied at nite..guys start fighting in morning..lake bled..taste peach n nectar..guys get lost..we return by music car..hostel owner tells dhanyawad..
reach wien at nite..pakistani driver..take guided city tour..cubist architecture...otto Wagner design..danube river...palaces. Museums, memorials, parliament..st Steven cathedral..ferry wheel.. kebab ..box..noodles...water hose..ubahn..sbahn..obb..railjet..luggage at hotel or station..hotel meninger at Salzburg n Vienna..
Budapest..currency 300huf..haunted hostel...castrobistro..dalmakhani..jasmine rice..chicken curry..skewers..pub..toilet fight...walked round the city..royal palace..danube river bridges..
slovakia fine bribe...auction of Hungarian currency..
prague..hostel with bar below...disturb others sleeping...bathroom with two showers...sandeman walking tour...old town square..czech invented microwave,contact lenses,sugar cubes, beers...only place didn't want to destroy..wanted to create a museum of extinct race of Jews..mozart concert..skydiving...
Berlin..locker issues..brendenburg gate..berlin wall..etc..angela Merkel doner kebab..back to reims by night train..
week 5...hawai aloha..cross culture night..desert survival exercise..light show in cathedral..canteen food..beef tongue...bus strike..train,hostel,flight,ferry reservations..
train to Cannes..lovely sunset beaches..red carpet..night stay at Marseille..fight with guy on train..notre dame on top..morning train to Montpelier near agde no.1 nude beach..train running along sea coast..
barcelona..la rambla..picasso museum...got separated..shoko party danced till 3..shaz guest list..wear classy..2 gals wanting in..beach bath..museums..weird architecture..barca stadium..madrid..pub crawl..salsa..casanova guide..tequila shots..walked home at 4..cudnt find free tour..beautiful architrcture...shopping at h&m...sat near opera house..tried tapas..
night train to Portugal ..missed station due to time difference reached correct station..lisbon hilly facing sea with small gallis n old women staring from windows..homely hostel where host sleeps with guests..read a book on holocaust.. soham met Facebook friend..we tried Portuguese desserts like payesh n goja..punjabi guy sells doner kebab..evening stroll across old town...following tram 28..nice view points...square with youngsters drinking n singing..took tram back..caught train to Porto..tried dish francaisinha..best airport..tried Ryan tricks...
Frankfurt Hahn airport..slept on floor..too chilly..morning shuttle n two train changes..foggy..put luggage in Frankfurt rail station, bought jacket in 10 euro n went exploring..tall buildings, green parks with nude statues, lovely canal with bridges..looked better at night..free train rides across city...
Night train to Copenhagen..smelly socks..found iim guys everywhere ..got news that fees didnt get deposit..self guided tour..silent zone in trains..little mermaid..danish krona with holes..nice generator hostel with party at night..
got up from sleep to catch Oslo train..view along sea n green fields n hills..train breaks down..bus tour..fjords..costly hostel but not good..no nightlife on Sunday ..we roam around in city center ...we follow 4 gals who take us back to hostel..oslo in morning looked busy n beautiful ..saw ports, opera house ,royal palace ..deli da Luca..dabbawalas..
train to Stockholm..again some accident..we reach late..no exchange..costly metro..eat at McDonald's to exchange..reach automated hostel ..all gals in double beds..soham didn't sleep well..center is kinda island between two land masses...tour the area..
catch ferry to turku..awesome ferry..watched shows..woke up late due to time diff..-1deg temp..spend day with sarada n gairik..cooked ready to eat biriani..chatted with mom dad gf in nymgo..went out early morning to Helsinki ..semolina island..russian war area..pretty scenery..
ferry to Tallinn ..raining..lost in old town..reached hostel 3 hrs late..old guy as roomie..gives us nimeta bar..we go out to search for good parties..nothing free..lot of strip clubs nd erotic massage parlours..finally end up at nimeta..small dance floor..people doing passionate dancing..danced till 4-30..roamed old town in morning..
bus to Riga ..prettier than expected..city center full of open parties..i dance at scandal with mirror..absinthe ..gals in Halloween costumes..gals inviting us..danced whole night..woke up at 3..full day rest..again night party..cheap hostel n drinks..taught ladies some of my dance moves..arijit almost duped by a gal..soham dancing close with hotties..even pole dancing..roam around Riga..nice bridges..
catch flight to Rome..dirty n populated by Bangladesh..stay at cheap hotel after bargaining with agent..morning trouble finding hostel..guy takes print out of map..we go out to see colloseum,pantheon,etc..eat rice n chicken curry at bangladeshi restaurant..next day to Vatican city..i take audio tour ..take bus to roam around randomly..cheap day pass..ate very italian pizza..book ticket to Geneva..go to Genova instead..almost missed train due to platform change..
go to Milan then to Interlaken..helpful chatty people..indian summer..hostel with old lady n dog..gave chocolates everyday...guys from other iims...couldnt afford cheese fondue..beautiful lakes...awesome tour with panaromic golden pass...only cows no people..tt asking about shahrukh khan..ended up in a small pretty town with foggy lake n castle...mount titlis...3 cable cars full of asians...fun in snow storm..asians ran away...had to shut down..man-made ice caves...bern..einstein's home...light show on swiss parliament...bought 6kg chocs at denners...catch trains to reims...crossed swiss to france border by walking...overall experience in switzerland - heavenly!!
visited luxemburg, netherlands n belgium in last leg...met with mayor in lxm..got free sausages n beer..took tour of amsterdam...rla muffin canals cycles..belgian chocs..menniken piss in brussels..beautiful brugue...
soveniers from all countries..used all travel modes..ate all kinds of food..had all kinds of fun...crossed borders in all kinds of ways...overall 20 countries...dreamtrip!!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Eurotrip Travelogues – Week 2
This second week was full of bloopers! It started with a trip to Paris on Sunday. We took an early train to Paris East station and a metro from there to visit the Notre Dame cathedral. (Fortunately for us, we found out that ‘youths’ could travel in Paris on Sundays at discounted rates!) The Notre Dame looked brilliant on a cloudy backdrop. Since the entrance was free there was a long queue. But first we went to a nearby Subway and treated us to some amazingly tasty chicken subs! :)
Then we went inside Notre Dame (but not to the top as that would have cost 6 euro!) It was tall, dark & beautiful. Hundreds of candles dimly lit the silence. Big paintings adorned the walls below the large coloured glass windows. I am guessing we would see a lot like this in our trip but the first time has its own memories. Anyways, when we came out the cathedral we found two of us missing. After a long time of searching we found them and decided to have a meeting point wherever we go (the idea never materialised though!)
Next we went to the legendary Eiffel Tower. Though it was supposedly called an eye sore and waste of money historically, we found it pretty grand! There were many queues there, some for elevator and some for stairs. We decided to do it the harder way (and cheaper). There were 700 steps to Level II and as we went up it kept getting chillier and windier. Both Levels I & II were quite high up and presented wonderful platforms to see the beauty of Paris from all directions. So I took out my Nikon D3100 and started clicking frantically. :D After an hour and half of sightseeing we came down and started taking pictures of Eiffel from outside. There were many Indians there illegally selling little Eiffel key rings.
Anyways, now comes the part where I made my biggest mistake in last god-knows-how-many-years. I was posing for pictures (like boxing, kicking, holding the Eiffel) and decided to do in-the-air pose. I found a small railing made of blunt but arrow shaped iron rods and foolishly decided to jump from there. What happened is history! :P The iron rod pierced my shoe (Am gonna sue Nike!) and made a big bloody hole in my foot potentially compromising my whole trip! :( It was time to catch train back to Reims, so I limped all the way back to the Paris East station and asked for medical help there. The info lady almost fainted seeing the blood and immediately called for medical men (tattooed and dressed in orange) who applied first-aid and advised me to seek help at Reims. I thought of ignoring the advice and went back to Reims.
On Monday morning the pain had increased. I still managed to limp my way to the class. I read in wiki that eminent people have died because of infections from foot injuries and that changed my mind. Returning back to my hostel I asked the receptionist on medical facilities here and was duly advised on taking a cab to Emergency unit since all hospitals were closed by then. So I did that – a very good decision in retrospect! I got bandaged properly, given a tetanus vaccine to last 10 years, prescriptions on antibiotics and got some sterile cottons from a young doctor (giggling at his own English). And the best part is – wait for it – EVERYTHING WAS FREE! I really commend the healthcare system they have setup here! :)
So I had to manage whole week with an injured foot, burnt fingers (from the microwave grills), painful hand (from injection) and weak body (from antibiotics). But I was in good spirits. I attended all classes, got ‘+’ in presentations, went to open a bank account (because they give away around $30 for free to students!) and even made a weekend trip to Normandy beach! \m/
Normandy trip started with us going to a wrong station and missing the train! :\ Somehow we managed to reach the beach (4 hours late!) Then we found out that there were 2 major issues with the Le Huvre beach – families & pebbles! But it was a nice evening spent with me sun-bathing and others sea-bathing. And the fact that two young ladies decided to change in front of us made the day! ;) We tried to catch train back to Paris but missed that too! (I ran hobbling with my injured foot for 30 mins!!) :( We spent Saturday night in a hotel there and set off the next morning to the Paris flea market. Paris flea market was cheap and hence crowded. Lot of Gujjus were selling stuff there. I bought a French cap, gloves, jacket and passport wallet at good bargains. Finally, we went back to Reims tired and happy. :)
So, this week it was both pleasure and pain. But my health is improving with each passing day and I am eagerly waiting for the real Eurotrip to start next Friday where we embark on a tour of 6-7 countries! :D
Then we went inside Notre Dame (but not to the top as that would have cost 6 euro!) It was tall, dark & beautiful. Hundreds of candles dimly lit the silence. Big paintings adorned the walls below the large coloured glass windows. I am guessing we would see a lot like this in our trip but the first time has its own memories. Anyways, when we came out the cathedral we found two of us missing. After a long time of searching we found them and decided to have a meeting point wherever we go (the idea never materialised though!)
Next we went to the legendary Eiffel Tower. Though it was supposedly called an eye sore and waste of money historically, we found it pretty grand! There were many queues there, some for elevator and some for stairs. We decided to do it the harder way (and cheaper). There were 700 steps to Level II and as we went up it kept getting chillier and windier. Both Levels I & II were quite high up and presented wonderful platforms to see the beauty of Paris from all directions. So I took out my Nikon D3100 and started clicking frantically. :D After an hour and half of sightseeing we came down and started taking pictures of Eiffel from outside. There were many Indians there illegally selling little Eiffel key rings.
Anyways, now comes the part where I made my biggest mistake in last god-knows-how-many-years. I was posing for pictures (like boxing, kicking, holding the Eiffel) and decided to do in-the-air pose. I found a small railing made of blunt but arrow shaped iron rods and foolishly decided to jump from there. What happened is history! :P The iron rod pierced my shoe (Am gonna sue Nike!) and made a big bloody hole in my foot potentially compromising my whole trip! :( It was time to catch train back to Reims, so I limped all the way back to the Paris East station and asked for medical help there. The info lady almost fainted seeing the blood and immediately called for medical men (tattooed and dressed in orange) who applied first-aid and advised me to seek help at Reims. I thought of ignoring the advice and went back to Reims.
On Monday morning the pain had increased. I still managed to limp my way to the class. I read in wiki that eminent people have died because of infections from foot injuries and that changed my mind. Returning back to my hostel I asked the receptionist on medical facilities here and was duly advised on taking a cab to Emergency unit since all hospitals were closed by then. So I did that – a very good decision in retrospect! I got bandaged properly, given a tetanus vaccine to last 10 years, prescriptions on antibiotics and got some sterile cottons from a young doctor (giggling at his own English). And the best part is – wait for it – EVERYTHING WAS FREE! I really commend the healthcare system they have setup here! :)
So I had to manage whole week with an injured foot, burnt fingers (from the microwave grills), painful hand (from injection) and weak body (from antibiotics). But I was in good spirits. I attended all classes, got ‘+’ in presentations, went to open a bank account (because they give away around $30 for free to students!) and even made a weekend trip to Normandy beach! \m/
Normandy trip started with us going to a wrong station and missing the train! :\ Somehow we managed to reach the beach (4 hours late!) Then we found out that there were 2 major issues with the Le Huvre beach – families & pebbles! But it was a nice evening spent with me sun-bathing and others sea-bathing. And the fact that two young ladies decided to change in front of us made the day! ;) We tried to catch train back to Paris but missed that too! (I ran hobbling with my injured foot for 30 mins!!) :( We spent Saturday night in a hotel there and set off the next morning to the Paris flea market. Paris flea market was cheap and hence crowded. Lot of Gujjus were selling stuff there. I bought a French cap, gloves, jacket and passport wallet at good bargains. Finally, we went back to Reims tired and happy. :)
So, this week it was both pleasure and pain. But my health is improving with each passing day and I am eagerly waiting for the real Eurotrip to start next Friday where we embark on a tour of 6-7 countries! :D
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Eurotrip Travelogues – Week 1
It all started much before the time when I and Soham waved goodbye to my parents at Delhi Metro Airport Express station. For months we had been preparing for ‘the trip’ to Reims Management School (France) by getting Schengen visa, Eurail pass, Medical & Travel Insurance, Acceptance Letters, Hostel Accommodation, Youth Hostel Card, International Student Card, Basic French Language Certificate, etc, etc. I spent last 2 days in Kolkata (Sunday & Monday) shopping with my mom – bought 25kgs of food (maggi n stuff), other usuals like warm clothes, shoes (Nike worth 6K!), cosmetics, medicines, etc. Our flight allowed only 40kgs so some stuff had to stay back. My parents came along with me to Delhi (after all my close relatives had warmly bid me farewell) where Soham joined us on Tuesday morning. We went to spend some time with my cousin Dr. Kushal (at his hostel filled with Medical books) and then to a Kali Temple where my mom prayed for my successful journey. Our Turkish Airlines flight was at 4:45am and I & Soham caught the last metro to airport at 11pm, so we reached more than 5hours early. We met other guys from IIML & IIMI there and off we were to Istanbul!
The flight services were excellent, so were the air hostesses and so was the breakfast (we ordered veggie so as to avoid the possibility of beef!). I found 3 empty seats, made a bed of it and slept there peacefully. When I woke up we were already flying over Turkey. Istanbul looked rather beautiful from the window, with sea on one side and land on other, not to mention the Turkish architecture. We had a 5 hour stop there but we longed to go outside the airport (which by the way was full of tall, fair, sharp, beautiful women!). Turkish officials kept on directing us to some Passport Police which we could not find for a long time and when we did, we found a long line! When an Indian there said to us that he was stuck there for 12 hours (!), we gave up all hope of going outside and waited patiently for our connecting flight to Paris. :\
After an awesome Chicken lunch (and wine for Soham!) and watching movie ‘Diaries of a Wimpy Kid’, we reached Paris at evening, and so did our baggage! (We had almost lost all hope of seeing that happening after hearing all the horror stories of seniors on delayed baggage). To all our surprise, a lanky fellow was standing there with a card naming Soham Banik! Apparently he was from the agency which gave him (and others) scholarships. I had not applied to the scholarships pessimistically judging from historical data that almost nobody gets that but this time they gave scholarships of over Rs.1 lakh to almost everybody who applied! (Ain’t I something?? :O) Anyway, so the guy took all the scholarship holders on his car and gave rest of us directions to reach the Paris East station - via shuttle to Terminal 3 (free!) & metro to Paris Nord (9.10 euros!) - from where we were supposed to catch a train to Reims. As I got the first looks at suburbs of Paris from the metro, what I noticed most were the omnipresent graphitis (spray paintings on walls – all of them!). On the way we pissed off one security guy at metro station (one of us left his big suitcases lying unattended while buying tickets and security was shouting & whistling for few minutes to find whose they were!) and one beefy guy at Paris East (because he thought we jumped lines and was partially right – thankfully a young pretty French lady defended us while we pretended not to understand what was going on!) :P
Riding on the ‘local train’ with a speed more than Rajdhani Express we finally arrived at Reims around 10pm on Wednesday. The station area (Gare Centre) looked deserted; the train station got locked at 10:30 and we were thrown on streets all empty except for a hippie couple (a lady with a long red tail (wth!) and a guy with a long ponytail) playing with some yoyos and smooching casually, frequently. We found some taxis after a long time, but they insisted on carrying only luggage on one taxi and passengers on other. So had to let them go in fear that the one with our luggage might never return! There was also a lot of confusion on whether we should go to a nearby hotel (costing 40E) or a temporary hostel (costing 20E) or our own hostel (free) which wasn’t supposed to be open at this time. Finally, we decided to go to the temporary hostel (only to know next day that our own free hostel was open that time!) We managed to get the driver of the Mercedes taxi angry when we weren’t ready to pay extra euros for so many luggages (40 kilos each!). We paid when he slammed the door real hard! :P. We spent the night at CIS hostel and finally went to our permanent accommodation at Crous Gerrard Phillippe in the morning. The hostel room - which to my astonishment opened with the key chain instead of the key - is pretty neat and compact with large windows & cupboards. The only problem is that all the taps & showers have buttons which need to be continuously pressed for water & there was no mug or toilet papers!! (Do the math! :P)
Reims (pronounced as Raans) is a beautiful place with classical European churches, buildings, pavements, canals, trees and lasses. The climate is excellent (AC weather!) and romance is rich in the air (lot of PDA!). The problems for outsiders are language, transport & non-availability of people on roads, but none of us could help but love the place (Soham – ‘I am gonna come back here and live forever!’). The culture is pretty different from India, with strangers greeting you on eye contact, cars stopping even without red signal to let you cross the road, people sitting outside restaurants chatting casually with no traces of hurry or worry, working 9 to 5 and then partying from 8 to 12, etc.
First day (Thursday) at Reims Management School was the Welcome Day and we were the last students to enter the auditorium (just 1.5 hrs late!) and were welcomed by students (more than 60% girls!!) with applause! We even got a free RMS shirt. There was a beer party at night along with a music concert organised by RMS students and we went there to soak in the European party experience. We had fun but unlike other guys we hesitated to talk with gals, so Soham took a self-resolution that next day he would talk to them or sleep outside the railway station! :D
Next day we were late again but this time had to listen to ‘9 means 9’! :P We completed all paperwork and were treated to free breakfast & lunch followed by a tour to Pommery Caves where Champagnes are made. The caves were something new to us and so was the sight of a stuffed elephant hanging upside down! So we got a lot of pics & free Champagne! ;) We then went to make a bus/tram pass of 1 month and an advance reservation to Munich via Strasberg (the reservation lady sat with us for half an hour to get us the tickets since all trains were booked). At Friday night there was a Pizza party and we ate & drank unabashedly in merry only to discover that it wasn’t free! :O Oh btw, Soham did fulfil his resolution and even had to turn down a late night invitation by gals to have fun at their hostel! ;D
So now, after a good night’s sleep here I am on my room this Saturday afternoon eating maggi, bhujia & Soham’s sandwich (made of turkey eggs & potatoes) reminiscing on the hectic but enjoyable few days & getting ready for the bigger adventures awaiting us.
The flight services were excellent, so were the air hostesses and so was the breakfast (we ordered veggie so as to avoid the possibility of beef!). I found 3 empty seats, made a bed of it and slept there peacefully. When I woke up we were already flying over Turkey. Istanbul looked rather beautiful from the window, with sea on one side and land on other, not to mention the Turkish architecture. We had a 5 hour stop there but we longed to go outside the airport (which by the way was full of tall, fair, sharp, beautiful women!). Turkish officials kept on directing us to some Passport Police which we could not find for a long time and when we did, we found a long line! When an Indian there said to us that he was stuck there for 12 hours (!), we gave up all hope of going outside and waited patiently for our connecting flight to Paris. :\
After an awesome Chicken lunch (and wine for Soham!) and watching movie ‘Diaries of a Wimpy Kid’, we reached Paris at evening, and so did our baggage! (We had almost lost all hope of seeing that happening after hearing all the horror stories of seniors on delayed baggage). To all our surprise, a lanky fellow was standing there with a card naming Soham Banik! Apparently he was from the agency which gave him (and others) scholarships. I had not applied to the scholarships pessimistically judging from historical data that almost nobody gets that but this time they gave scholarships of over Rs.1 lakh to almost everybody who applied! (Ain’t I something?? :O) Anyway, so the guy took all the scholarship holders on his car and gave rest of us directions to reach the Paris East station - via shuttle to Terminal 3 (free!) & metro to Paris Nord (9.10 euros!) - from where we were supposed to catch a train to Reims. As I got the first looks at suburbs of Paris from the metro, what I noticed most were the omnipresent graphitis (spray paintings on walls – all of them!). On the way we pissed off one security guy at metro station (one of us left his big suitcases lying unattended while buying tickets and security was shouting & whistling for few minutes to find whose they were!) and one beefy guy at Paris East (because he thought we jumped lines and was partially right – thankfully a young pretty French lady defended us while we pretended not to understand what was going on!) :P
Riding on the ‘local train’ with a speed more than Rajdhani Express we finally arrived at Reims around 10pm on Wednesday. The station area (Gare Centre) looked deserted; the train station got locked at 10:30 and we were thrown on streets all empty except for a hippie couple (a lady with a long red tail (wth!) and a guy with a long ponytail) playing with some yoyos and smooching casually, frequently. We found some taxis after a long time, but they insisted on carrying only luggage on one taxi and passengers on other. So had to let them go in fear that the one with our luggage might never return! There was also a lot of confusion on whether we should go to a nearby hotel (costing 40E) or a temporary hostel (costing 20E) or our own hostel (free) which wasn’t supposed to be open at this time. Finally, we decided to go to the temporary hostel (only to know next day that our own free hostel was open that time!) We managed to get the driver of the Mercedes taxi angry when we weren’t ready to pay extra euros for so many luggages (40 kilos each!). We paid when he slammed the door real hard! :P. We spent the night at CIS hostel and finally went to our permanent accommodation at Crous Gerrard Phillippe in the morning. The hostel room - which to my astonishment opened with the key chain instead of the key - is pretty neat and compact with large windows & cupboards. The only problem is that all the taps & showers have buttons which need to be continuously pressed for water & there was no mug or toilet papers!! (Do the math! :P)
Reims (pronounced as Raans) is a beautiful place with classical European churches, buildings, pavements, canals, trees and lasses. The climate is excellent (AC weather!) and romance is rich in the air (lot of PDA!). The problems for outsiders are language, transport & non-availability of people on roads, but none of us could help but love the place (Soham – ‘I am gonna come back here and live forever!’). The culture is pretty different from India, with strangers greeting you on eye contact, cars stopping even without red signal to let you cross the road, people sitting outside restaurants chatting casually with no traces of hurry or worry, working 9 to 5 and then partying from 8 to 12, etc.
First day (Thursday) at Reims Management School was the Welcome Day and we were the last students to enter the auditorium (just 1.5 hrs late!) and were welcomed by students (more than 60% girls!!) with applause! We even got a free RMS shirt. There was a beer party at night along with a music concert organised by RMS students and we went there to soak in the European party experience. We had fun but unlike other guys we hesitated to talk with gals, so Soham took a self-resolution that next day he would talk to them or sleep outside the railway station! :D
Next day we were late again but this time had to listen to ‘9 means 9’! :P We completed all paperwork and were treated to free breakfast & lunch followed by a tour to Pommery Caves where Champagnes are made. The caves were something new to us and so was the sight of a stuffed elephant hanging upside down! So we got a lot of pics & free Champagne! ;) We then went to make a bus/tram pass of 1 month and an advance reservation to Munich via Strasberg (the reservation lady sat with us for half an hour to get us the tickets since all trains were booked). At Friday night there was a Pizza party and we ate & drank unabashedly in merry only to discover that it wasn’t free! :O Oh btw, Soham did fulfil his resolution and even had to turn down a late night invitation by gals to have fun at their hostel! ;D
So now, after a good night’s sleep here I am on my room this Saturday afternoon eating maggi, bhujia & Soham’s sandwich (made of turkey eggs & potatoes) reminiscing on the hectic but enjoyable few days & getting ready for the bigger adventures awaiting us.
Monday, May 9, 2011
My Interview with IMS
I am an enigma of duality...
A simple guy with a complex mind…
I like to learn new things and know more about whatever interests me…
But cannot hold on to them for long and move on to explore again…
I am a thinker, sometimes a philosopher…
And yet very impulsive by heart wanting to enjoy life to fullest…
I play and fight with kids with as ease as I converse with elders...
I inspire and motivate others with as ease as I get inspired by others…
I follow the rules and am disciplined…
Yet I can think out of box and am the greatest proponent of free will...
I want to attain peace and stability, but I still look out for challenges and difficulties…
I am an extremely friendly guy, but I still make friends very slowly and steadily...
I have got all my life planned up, but I still love getting surprises from life...
….recites Shankhadeep Banerjee about himself in conversation with Reshma Majithia, IMS Correspondent for Advanc'edge Magazine
My blueprint
I was raised in a middle class Bengali family and was educated at a well-respected school in Kolkata. Both my family & school gave great emphasis on all-round education, culture and values, and this strengthened my fundamentals. I have done well not only in academics but have also achieved in the fields of arts, music, sports, etc.
As I have a passion for computers I decided to pursue my B.Tech in CSE from NIT Durgapur. After completing my studies, I worked for Computer Sciences Corporation for 3 years for their client eBay Inc at Chennai. I joined IIM Calcutta last year.
I wanted to be a part of the booming IT industry and a B.Tech in CSE allowed me to do just that. But it had its limitations as after a couple of years in the roles of technical lead, engineer and subject matter expert, I felt that my learning curve got stagnated. The time was ripe to shift gears and pursue a challenging management career in the IT industry, and this required an MBA. But this was not just a reactive decision but also an inevitable step towards a long-term career blueprint i.e. ‘To gain enough technical experience, go for higher studies to learn the management aspects, work for 8-10 years in executive roles for IT companies, further studies and research for 7-8 years and at the age of around 42-45, with hopefully enough maturity, knowledge, connections, funding and experience, put into action my entrepreneurial plans to start a fairly large business enterprise. By the time of retirement, the company should be one of the global leaders in its domain.’
My work experience
I was deputed from Computer Sciences Corporation to work as a consultant for their client eBay Inc in the Billing Quality Assurance team at their India Development Centre from Aug’07 to May’10.
My job was to lead teams for various projects to test, certify & improve the quality of the billing related products before they went live on eBay sites across 30 countries. I also worked in training, automating, mentoring, technical support & SME roles.
Impressed by my knowledge and ability to deliver quickly without compromising quality, eBay-US team chose me to be the first person to work on the projects of massive Turnaround-08/09 initiative taken by eBay Inc. I had worked in more than 20 projects, which was by far the highest in my team. I was also the first Billing-QA Shadow TC (Train Conductor) & also eBay-QA Shadow-TC to manage release of build-trains for entire eBay.
My achievements
My achievements range from school to national level in computer programming, football, chess, social service, quizzing, singing, reporting, business ideas, NCC, etc, I was also a good tabla player and a painter. My current interests lie in spirituality, photography, trading in stocks and I am also learning guitar and French. I am a big believer in extracurricular activities. And it does help in selections too. After all that’s why all the forms have a mandatory section on this. Some institutes like SPJIMR even have a minimum cutoff score in extracurricular to get a call. Interview questions from extracurricular section are common and it helps to be prepared beforehand. I would like to add that extracurricular is just one of the many facets that is tested in selection, and I personally know some friends who did not have any big extracurricular achievements in their applications but still made through to IIMs.
My CAT preparations
I took no classroom coaching or test series and tried to do it my way. My work pressure was not very high and I was able to squeeze in 1-2 hours daily and 5-6 hours in weekends. Initially I focused on basic areas like speed reading, vocabulary, grammar, mental math, basic formulas etc. I read a lot of books during that period from a variety of topics, watched grammar lessons in YouTube and memorized Word Power Made Easy for vocabulary building. For the quantitative section, it was mostly from Arun Sharma’s book.
Later on, when I felt my basics were good enough, I started solving previous years’ CAT papers and some mock question papers from T.I.M.E and IMS on a regular basis. When the final day came, I went to the exam centre 2 hours early and sat silently in meditation for an hour, so as to have a calm & confident state of mind. After the results were out, I started preparing for GD/PI mostly on personal questions. I also attended a 2-day GD/PI workshop by IMS, which helped me gain more confidence, and brought awareness to the areas I needed to work on (like knowing more about the institutes and the courses they offer) to finally make it through.
All in all, I would say that one could crack CAT through a mandatory combination of intellectual skills, persistent effort, self-confidence and luck.
My GD-PI experience
I appeared for interviews of IIM L, I, K and SPJIMR. I cracked all except L. The GDs were almost always the same – a generic topic, many candidates and very limited time. The trick for the candidates is to make the best out of whatever little time is available by bringing in some new creative and relevant points and explaining them in the briefest way possible. A good thing about IIMC GD is that at the end, they give a minute to each of the candidates to put forth their final opinion.
Interviews were mostly on personal questions which are aimed to find out what kind of person you are, what motivates you, what are your goals in career and life, etc. Since I had work experience, I got a lot of questions about my work at all the interviews. At IIMK & IIMI, I also faced academic questions from engineering studies. Sometimes questions were also asked on life situations like team effort, failures, ethical dilemmas, etc. In my experience, though the content of the answers are important, what matters more is the way you answer them. It helps to be smiling, cheerful and confident. Since the interviewers are sitting from the morning listening to same kind of answers, it is better if you can provide something fresh which can get them interested. Another tip would be to give real life examples to back up the claims and statements that you make.
There is an incident that I remember from the SPJIMR group interviews. They asked us a question on the biggest challenge that we recently faced. All the other guys in our group answered the almost the same thing - either a work related issue or some college event related stuff. I was the last person in the line and could see the interviewers were getting thoroughly bored. I too had a work related challenge ready for answer but when my turn came I changed track and instead replied, “My biggest recent challenge was to convince my orthodox parents to accept my girlfriend.” There was silence for a couple of seconds and then everyone burst out laughing. For next 5-6 minutes they just asked about my love life. Even before the group interview was over, the interviewers told me that they are taking me in.
Life at IIMC
It is usually said that C stands for “Chill” and that life at IIMC is very easy and relaxed. Well, I definitely found it otherwise! Life is pretty challenging here, especially till the summer placements. There are 12-14 classes a week, 1.5 hours each starting from morning 8am to 4pm with a mandatory attendance requirement of 75-80 percent. There are surprise quizzes, long case studies, project assignments, presentations and tutorials (or crashers as we call it) that take up a lot of our time.
There are 3 terms in a year covering around 20 subjects, each having both mid-term and end-term exams with relative grading system. Then, from 2-3 months before the summer placements, executives from various companies visit the campus on a daily basis to take 2-3 hours presentations. During summer placements hundreds of GD and interviews are conducted on a span of 4-5 days, which can be nerve wrecking.
Apart from these, there are more than 15 clubs ranging from Finance, Marketing, Consulting, etc to Photography, Entrepreneurship, Movies, Spirituality, etc. which conduct competitions from time to time. Business Ideas and Case Study contests are also organized by many companies at a national level. In short, life at IIMC is challenging, competitive and an exciting learning experience.
My thoughts
From all the competitions that I have been a part of, I have learnt that the most important thing is to enjoy them without thinking about winning or losing. Of course, winning matters and the destination should be clear in mind, but if the path can be walked with interest, the journey becomes fun.
I have seen people sitting for the CAT just because everybody else is doing so and even after getting in and out of IIMs, many are not happy as they find themselves in unsuitable domains. And that is because they are not clear on what it is that would make them happy. So, I would urge all the aspirants to introspect and find out what it is that you actually want from life and whether you are ready for the inevitable tradeoffs of the management career.
A simple guy with a complex mind…
I like to learn new things and know more about whatever interests me…
But cannot hold on to them for long and move on to explore again…
I am a thinker, sometimes a philosopher…
And yet very impulsive by heart wanting to enjoy life to fullest…
I play and fight with kids with as ease as I converse with elders...
I inspire and motivate others with as ease as I get inspired by others…
I follow the rules and am disciplined…
Yet I can think out of box and am the greatest proponent of free will...
I want to attain peace and stability, but I still look out for challenges and difficulties…
I am an extremely friendly guy, but I still make friends very slowly and steadily...
I have got all my life planned up, but I still love getting surprises from life...
….recites Shankhadeep Banerjee about himself in conversation with Reshma Majithia, IMS Correspondent for Advanc'edge Magazine
My blueprint
I was raised in a middle class Bengali family and was educated at a well-respected school in Kolkata. Both my family & school gave great emphasis on all-round education, culture and values, and this strengthened my fundamentals. I have done well not only in academics but have also achieved in the fields of arts, music, sports, etc.
As I have a passion for computers I decided to pursue my B.Tech in CSE from NIT Durgapur. After completing my studies, I worked for Computer Sciences Corporation for 3 years for their client eBay Inc at Chennai. I joined IIM Calcutta last year.
I wanted to be a part of the booming IT industry and a B.Tech in CSE allowed me to do just that. But it had its limitations as after a couple of years in the roles of technical lead, engineer and subject matter expert, I felt that my learning curve got stagnated. The time was ripe to shift gears and pursue a challenging management career in the IT industry, and this required an MBA. But this was not just a reactive decision but also an inevitable step towards a long-term career blueprint i.e. ‘To gain enough technical experience, go for higher studies to learn the management aspects, work for 8-10 years in executive roles for IT companies, further studies and research for 7-8 years and at the age of around 42-45, with hopefully enough maturity, knowledge, connections, funding and experience, put into action my entrepreneurial plans to start a fairly large business enterprise. By the time of retirement, the company should be one of the global leaders in its domain.’
My work experience
I was deputed from Computer Sciences Corporation to work as a consultant for their client eBay Inc in the Billing Quality Assurance team at their India Development Centre from Aug’07 to May’10.
My job was to lead teams for various projects to test, certify & improve the quality of the billing related products before they went live on eBay sites across 30 countries. I also worked in training, automating, mentoring, technical support & SME roles.
Impressed by my knowledge and ability to deliver quickly without compromising quality, eBay-US team chose me to be the first person to work on the projects of massive Turnaround-08/09 initiative taken by eBay Inc. I had worked in more than 20 projects, which was by far the highest in my team. I was also the first Billing-QA Shadow TC (Train Conductor) & also eBay-QA Shadow-TC to manage release of build-trains for entire eBay.
My achievements
My achievements range from school to national level in computer programming, football, chess, social service, quizzing, singing, reporting, business ideas, NCC, etc, I was also a good tabla player and a painter. My current interests lie in spirituality, photography, trading in stocks and I am also learning guitar and French. I am a big believer in extracurricular activities. And it does help in selections too. After all that’s why all the forms have a mandatory section on this. Some institutes like SPJIMR even have a minimum cutoff score in extracurricular to get a call. Interview questions from extracurricular section are common and it helps to be prepared beforehand. I would like to add that extracurricular is just one of the many facets that is tested in selection, and I personally know some friends who did not have any big extracurricular achievements in their applications but still made through to IIMs.
My CAT preparations
I took no classroom coaching or test series and tried to do it my way. My work pressure was not very high and I was able to squeeze in 1-2 hours daily and 5-6 hours in weekends. Initially I focused on basic areas like speed reading, vocabulary, grammar, mental math, basic formulas etc. I read a lot of books during that period from a variety of topics, watched grammar lessons in YouTube and memorized Word Power Made Easy for vocabulary building. For the quantitative section, it was mostly from Arun Sharma’s book.
Later on, when I felt my basics were good enough, I started solving previous years’ CAT papers and some mock question papers from T.I.M.E and IMS on a regular basis. When the final day came, I went to the exam centre 2 hours early and sat silently in meditation for an hour, so as to have a calm & confident state of mind. After the results were out, I started preparing for GD/PI mostly on personal questions. I also attended a 2-day GD/PI workshop by IMS, which helped me gain more confidence, and brought awareness to the areas I needed to work on (like knowing more about the institutes and the courses they offer) to finally make it through.
All in all, I would say that one could crack CAT through a mandatory combination of intellectual skills, persistent effort, self-confidence and luck.
My GD-PI experience
I appeared for interviews of IIM L, I, K and SPJIMR. I cracked all except L. The GDs were almost always the same – a generic topic, many candidates and very limited time. The trick for the candidates is to make the best out of whatever little time is available by bringing in some new creative and relevant points and explaining them in the briefest way possible. A good thing about IIMC GD is that at the end, they give a minute to each of the candidates to put forth their final opinion.
Interviews were mostly on personal questions which are aimed to find out what kind of person you are, what motivates you, what are your goals in career and life, etc. Since I had work experience, I got a lot of questions about my work at all the interviews. At IIMK & IIMI, I also faced academic questions from engineering studies. Sometimes questions were also asked on life situations like team effort, failures, ethical dilemmas, etc. In my experience, though the content of the answers are important, what matters more is the way you answer them. It helps to be smiling, cheerful and confident. Since the interviewers are sitting from the morning listening to same kind of answers, it is better if you can provide something fresh which can get them interested. Another tip would be to give real life examples to back up the claims and statements that you make.
There is an incident that I remember from the SPJIMR group interviews. They asked us a question on the biggest challenge that we recently faced. All the other guys in our group answered the almost the same thing - either a work related issue or some college event related stuff. I was the last person in the line and could see the interviewers were getting thoroughly bored. I too had a work related challenge ready for answer but when my turn came I changed track and instead replied, “My biggest recent challenge was to convince my orthodox parents to accept my girlfriend.” There was silence for a couple of seconds and then everyone burst out laughing. For next 5-6 minutes they just asked about my love life. Even before the group interview was over, the interviewers told me that they are taking me in.
Life at IIMC
It is usually said that C stands for “Chill” and that life at IIMC is very easy and relaxed. Well, I definitely found it otherwise! Life is pretty challenging here, especially till the summer placements. There are 12-14 classes a week, 1.5 hours each starting from morning 8am to 4pm with a mandatory attendance requirement of 75-80 percent. There are surprise quizzes, long case studies, project assignments, presentations and tutorials (or crashers as we call it) that take up a lot of our time.
There are 3 terms in a year covering around 20 subjects, each having both mid-term and end-term exams with relative grading system. Then, from 2-3 months before the summer placements, executives from various companies visit the campus on a daily basis to take 2-3 hours presentations. During summer placements hundreds of GD and interviews are conducted on a span of 4-5 days, which can be nerve wrecking.
Apart from these, there are more than 15 clubs ranging from Finance, Marketing, Consulting, etc to Photography, Entrepreneurship, Movies, Spirituality, etc. which conduct competitions from time to time. Business Ideas and Case Study contests are also organized by many companies at a national level. In short, life at IIMC is challenging, competitive and an exciting learning experience.
My thoughts
From all the competitions that I have been a part of, I have learnt that the most important thing is to enjoy them without thinking about winning or losing. Of course, winning matters and the destination should be clear in mind, but if the path can be walked with interest, the journey becomes fun.
I have seen people sitting for the CAT just because everybody else is doing so and even after getting in and out of IIMs, many are not happy as they find themselves in unsuitable domains. And that is because they are not clear on what it is that would make them happy. So, I would urge all the aspirants to introspect and find out what it is that you actually want from life and whether you are ready for the inevitable tradeoffs of the management career.
Nonsense & Insensibility - Mind It!!
Rajni jokes are all over facebook these days. And they are too stupid to NOT get laughed at! I present here a small collection -
Once upon a time Rajnikanth used a tooth powder to get strong teeth..... . . . . . . . . today that powder is used as AMBUJA CEMENT
Once Rajnikanth was playing Cricket and Rain Stopped due to Heavy Play
Once Rajnikanth gone for a walk and after one hour police arrested him u know why He reached USA and having No Visa with him
Rajnikanth was practicing for spelling test. The rough sheet he used is today known as the oxford dictionary!!
Hrithik tried to participate in a dance competition with Rajnikanth. Result: He is in a wheel chair in Gujarish.
Rajnikanth was once told to choose 3 subjects when he got admission in jr.college................ He chose science,arts and commerce!!!!!!!
Rajnikanth can make calls from his iPod to his iPad...!!!
One nite, while asleep, Rajnikanth was mumbling some random numbrs... Thats how the Log table was invented.
One day Rajnikanth bunked school. Since then it is known as Sunday
Once Rajnikanth was on the hot seat of KBC....
And the computer needed lifeline to choose the question. Mind it!
Micheal Jordan to Rajini: I can spin a ball on my finger for over two hours. Can you?
Rajini: Rascala, how do you think the earth spins!?
Roger Federer: I know everything about tennis. You can ask me anything.
Rajnikanth: Ok. Tell me, how many holes are there in the NET??
All scientists failed to answer this but rajnikanth did...
Ques: Which liquid turns solid on heating?
Ans: Dosa... mind it!!!
Once upon a time Rajnikanth used a tooth powder to get strong teeth..... . . . . . . . . today that powder is used as AMBUJA CEMENT
Once Rajnikanth was playing Cricket and Rain Stopped due to Heavy Play
Once Rajnikanth gone for a walk and after one hour police arrested him u know why He reached USA and having No Visa with him
Rajnikanth was practicing for spelling test. The rough sheet he used is today known as the oxford dictionary!!
Hrithik tried to participate in a dance competition with Rajnikanth. Result: He is in a wheel chair in Gujarish.
Rajnikanth was once told to choose 3 subjects when he got admission in jr.college................ He chose science,arts and commerce!!!!!!!
Rajnikanth can make calls from his iPod to his iPad...!!!
One nite, while asleep, Rajnikanth was mumbling some random numbrs... Thats how the Log table was invented.
One day Rajnikanth bunked school. Since then it is known as Sunday
Once Rajnikanth was on the hot seat of KBC....
And the computer needed lifeline to choose the question. Mind it!
Micheal Jordan to Rajini: I can spin a ball on my finger for over two hours. Can you?
Rajini: Rascala, how do you think the earth spins!?
Roger Federer: I know everything about tennis. You can ask me anything.
Rajnikanth: Ok. Tell me, how many holes are there in the NET??
All scientists failed to answer this but rajnikanth did...
Ques: Which liquid turns solid on heating?
Ans: Dosa... mind it!!!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Nonsense & Insensibility : My B'Day Fames @ IIMC
Writing b'day fames is something unique I have seen in IIMC...Here is mine! :)
OurWeb @ IIMC
Uniting the IIMC B-School community online
Gairik Datta
12/18/2010 12:40:42 AM
Presenting the fames of Sri Sri Shankhasree Deepanand a.k.a Shankhadeep
Shanky the "Philosopher and Historian"...
Claims he was a Bengali scholar in his previous life fame
Claims he was a Chinese Warrior in the life before that fame
Only club he's a member of is Sattva fame
"Sab moh maaya hai "
Thinks he resembles "Oogway" from "Kungfu Panda" fame
Claims to be a scholar in palmistry fame
Has only predicted utter destruction to people who showed their hands
to him fame
Santa swears by his name never to show his palm again after the ass
kicking predictions fame
Claims to have understood the Mahabharata and Ramayan more than anyone else fame
Reinterprets the meaning of the "Naak kaatna" episode of Surpanakha to
an entirely whole new level!
Has a special liking for levels of Humans fame
Pegs himself at level 4 while putting all else below himself fame
"Sab moh maaya hai”
Special friend in class who comes to him only to get himself screwed
by Shanky fame
Shanky gives him tips how to woo girls through his weirdo ideas.
Needless to say the poor chap is still on the hunt!
“Shanky and Fines”
Probably fined most number of times by Placecomm fame
After being fined for not shaving, xmails placereps about his "rare
tropical skin disease" which prevents him from shaving fame
Says the disease is "contagious" to get out of attending further
placement crashers fame
"I being a responsible student of IIMC understand my responsibilities
and will shave only when there is a company ppt" fame
Never paid a single fine to date fame
Fined by PGP Office for not filling up course feedback fame
Goes and shouts at everyone in the PGP Office and the HCL guys fame
Gets fine waived for himself and everyone else as a result fame
“Shanky & the Opposite Sex”
Very orthodox, didn't approve of many of the steppers' dresses fame
But regularly found casting looong glances at those very dresses fame
"Yaar abhi tak yeh sab dress page 3 mein dekhta tha, ab toh Mess me
dekh raha hun" fame
Committed to someone to the extent marriage plans are already underway fame
Spends an average of 4 hours on the phone every day fame
Can do any task while on the phone.. and by “any” we mean literally ANY fame
“Shanky the Batch topper”
Incoming batch rank 1 (according to CAT selection criteria)
Among finalists for ABG Scholarship fame
Hence primary target was GenMan during summers fame
But forgets to upload CV for ABG fame
Yet received a shortlist fame
Showed summers CV to 0 seniors fame
Gave 0 mock interviews to seniors fame
Converted 1st interview he appeared for fame
“Shanky the Localite”
One of the most low-key people on campus fame
Found only in room, class, dining hall and (recently) gym
Goes home every Friday and returns every Monday fame
Jealous of frontie who is the only one on campus who goes home more
frequently than he does fame
Random Ramblings
Legendary dialogue fame - "Delhi chalo bolta tha.. Woh toh Bangladesh
border bhi nahi cross kar paaya"
Makes Santa claim that Shanky is the greatest traitor alive fame
Takes crashers for friends before midterms which turn into discussions
on Indian philosophy fame
Read the entire CFR book the night before the exam and gets an "A" fame
"Mera lakshya yahaan se teen "6" lena hai...6 pack abs, 6 pointer and
16 lakhs salary" fame
We would have invited you for the celebrations but Shanky Baba has
returned to his ashram....
~ Contri by Sarada, KK, GD, nothing by freerider roomie
Hon'ble mention Santa
OurWeb @ IIMC
Uniting the IIMC B-School community online
Gairik Datta
12/18/2010 12:40:42 AM
Presenting the fames of Sri Sri Shankhasree Deepanand a.k.a Shankhadeep
Shanky the "Philosopher and Historian"...
Claims he was a Bengali scholar in his previous life fame
Claims he was a Chinese Warrior in the life before that fame
Only club he's a member of is Sattva fame
"Sab moh maaya hai "
Thinks he resembles "Oogway" from "Kungfu Panda" fame
Claims to be a scholar in palmistry fame
Has only predicted utter destruction to people who showed their hands
to him fame
Santa swears by his name never to show his palm again after the ass
kicking predictions fame
Claims to have understood the Mahabharata and Ramayan more than anyone else fame
Reinterprets the meaning of the "Naak kaatna" episode of Surpanakha to
an entirely whole new level!
Has a special liking for levels of Humans fame
Pegs himself at level 4 while putting all else below himself fame
"Sab moh maaya hai”
Special friend in class who comes to him only to get himself screwed
by Shanky fame
Shanky gives him tips how to woo girls through his weirdo ideas.
Needless to say the poor chap is still on the hunt!
“Shanky and Fines”
Probably fined most number of times by Placecomm fame
After being fined for not shaving, xmails placereps about his "rare
tropical skin disease" which prevents him from shaving fame
Says the disease is "contagious" to get out of attending further
placement crashers fame
"I being a responsible student of IIMC understand my responsibilities
and will shave only when there is a company ppt" fame
Never paid a single fine to date fame
Fined by PGP Office for not filling up course feedback fame
Goes and shouts at everyone in the PGP Office and the HCL guys fame
Gets fine waived for himself and everyone else as a result fame
“Shanky & the Opposite Sex”
Very orthodox, didn't approve of many of the steppers' dresses fame
But regularly found casting looong glances at those very dresses fame
"Yaar abhi tak yeh sab dress page 3 mein dekhta tha, ab toh Mess me
dekh raha hun" fame
Committed to someone to the extent marriage plans are already underway fame
Spends an average of 4 hours on the phone every day fame
Can do any task while on the phone.. and by “any” we mean literally ANY fame
“Shanky the Batch topper”
Incoming batch rank 1 (according to CAT selection criteria)
Among finalists for ABG Scholarship fame
Hence primary target was GenMan during summers fame
But forgets to upload CV for ABG fame
Yet received a shortlist fame
Showed summers CV to 0 seniors fame
Gave 0 mock interviews to seniors fame
Converted 1st interview he appeared for fame
“Shanky the Localite”
One of the most low-key people on campus fame
Found only in room, class, dining hall and (recently) gym
Goes home every Friday and returns every Monday fame
Jealous of frontie who is the only one on campus who goes home more
frequently than he does fame
Random Ramblings
Legendary dialogue fame - "Delhi chalo bolta tha.. Woh toh Bangladesh
border bhi nahi cross kar paaya"
Makes Santa claim that Shanky is the greatest traitor alive fame
Takes crashers for friends before midterms which turn into discussions
on Indian philosophy fame
Read the entire CFR book the night before the exam and gets an "A" fame
"Mera lakshya yahaan se teen "6" lena hai...6 pack abs, 6 pointer and
16 lakhs salary" fame
We would have invited you for the celebrations but Shanky Baba has
returned to his ashram....
~ Contri by Sarada, KK, GD, nothing by freerider roomie
Hon'ble mention Santa
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Digital SLR - Buying criteria
Posting the expert advice of my friend Somak on the things to consider for Digital SLRs -
Assuming you’ll mainly focus on still images, you need to really consider few things like (this is general gyan and may not related to the cameras you are eyeing now) –
1.Auto Focus – most will have, but remember this is the mode you’ll be taking most of your photos in, so this better be good. The number of AF points will vary from Camera to Camera. Remember that this is the property of the Camera body (sensor) and not the lens. So you will remain with the number till you remain with the camera. Therefore higher the number the better. A camera with 20 AF points is way better than one with 15 AF Points. In general a difference of more than 5 AF Points should definitely contribute to your decision making, with 15 AF Points very good and anything above 25 is too much to handle J. AF points are required for those crisp clear images you must be planning to take. You would definitely need to be able to choose what you want to focus on while shooting at a speed (spontaneous shooting) which mostly you will.
2. Resolution – Anything above 10MP is good enough and anything above 12MP is no brainer photography. Most DSLR cameras will definitely have more than 10MP. This is required to bring in the crisp ness of the image. Your images won’t look good if you don’t have a good MP value in your camera.
3.The LCD Panel on your Camera and a good View Finder. Remember that when you are out shooting you won’t have a laptop/desktop to immediately check your photos. By design photos are of ‘moments’ and they don’t repeat. And it’s heart-breaking to come back home and figure out that you have screwed up on focus/composition or whatever. So the view finder should be able to guide you and the LCD panel should be able to show you the photo with immediate effect (including zooming into the photo) and with high resolution. So that you at least have a fighting chance to recover the moment for a second try. This is very important especially for subject photography which will be a substantial part of the photos you take.
Note: Also check that your camera has a Diopter Adjustment Control. It corrects the optical viewfinder to match your eyesight. This is required for both of us as we wear specs. But this should be in most cameras.
4.Lens: Lens compatibility is at par on both models and most of the lenses are awesome! J. Take a lens with range of 28-140 or 18-105mm. which roughly estimates to 5X optical zoom. You should be good. This is like not too less nor too big. Start with this and you can graduate to Telephotos later.
5.Sensor size – Again these are standard but DX on Nikon is very good. But still the lesser the crop factor the better the camera is! Because since we mostly take landscapes the lesser the crop factor the better…right!
6.ISO Range (the larger the better). But also check how much noise you are getting in higher ISOs, higher ISO alone doesn’t make sense. This is essential in low light/night photography which you definitely will. So read the reviews and figure out which camera gives lesser noise in higher ISOs.
7.Flash mode – flicker mode and red eye reduction mode is a must. And you’ll obviously have the standard exposures. But remember Nikon has better reviews at flash and exposure modes.
8.Image stabilization which Nikon calls VR and Canon calls IS.
9.SD Cards – If you want to do HD photography then SDHC support (High Speed SD cards). For normal photographs SD is just fine.
10.Image editing option inside the camera, like color balancing etc. This is more of a good to have feature and is very subjective. But some basic imaging should be there. You’ll need it occasionally.
Other than this everything you see in sites/brochures are pure marketing gimmick and mostly not very useful for us. But again give importance to your own judgment.
Some very good links (although you must be doing lots of studies already! J):
1. Always read reviews from www.dpreview.com
2. A good buying guide: http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/best-digital-slr-camera.html
Assuming you’ll mainly focus on still images, you need to really consider few things like (this is general gyan and may not related to the cameras you are eyeing now) –
1.Auto Focus – most will have, but remember this is the mode you’ll be taking most of your photos in, so this better be good. The number of AF points will vary from Camera to Camera. Remember that this is the property of the Camera body (sensor) and not the lens. So you will remain with the number till you remain with the camera. Therefore higher the number the better. A camera with 20 AF points is way better than one with 15 AF Points. In general a difference of more than 5 AF Points should definitely contribute to your decision making, with 15 AF Points very good and anything above 25 is too much to handle J. AF points are required for those crisp clear images you must be planning to take. You would definitely need to be able to choose what you want to focus on while shooting at a speed (spontaneous shooting) which mostly you will.
2. Resolution – Anything above 10MP is good enough and anything above 12MP is no brainer photography. Most DSLR cameras will definitely have more than 10MP. This is required to bring in the crisp ness of the image. Your images won’t look good if you don’t have a good MP value in your camera.
3.The LCD Panel on your Camera and a good View Finder. Remember that when you are out shooting you won’t have a laptop/desktop to immediately check your photos. By design photos are of ‘moments’ and they don’t repeat. And it’s heart-breaking to come back home and figure out that you have screwed up on focus/composition or whatever. So the view finder should be able to guide you and the LCD panel should be able to show you the photo with immediate effect (including zooming into the photo) and with high resolution. So that you at least have a fighting chance to recover the moment for a second try. This is very important especially for subject photography which will be a substantial part of the photos you take.
Note: Also check that your camera has a Diopter Adjustment Control. It corrects the optical viewfinder to match your eyesight. This is required for both of us as we wear specs. But this should be in most cameras.
4.Lens: Lens compatibility is at par on both models and most of the lenses are awesome! J. Take a lens with range of 28-140 or 18-105mm. which roughly estimates to 5X optical zoom. You should be good. This is like not too less nor too big. Start with this and you can graduate to Telephotos later.
5.Sensor size – Again these are standard but DX on Nikon is very good. But still the lesser the crop factor the better the camera is! Because since we mostly take landscapes the lesser the crop factor the better…right!
6.ISO Range (the larger the better). But also check how much noise you are getting in higher ISOs, higher ISO alone doesn’t make sense. This is essential in low light/night photography which you definitely will. So read the reviews and figure out which camera gives lesser noise in higher ISOs.
7.Flash mode – flicker mode and red eye reduction mode is a must. And you’ll obviously have the standard exposures. But remember Nikon has better reviews at flash and exposure modes.
8.Image stabilization which Nikon calls VR and Canon calls IS.
9.SD Cards – If you want to do HD photography then SDHC support (High Speed SD cards). For normal photographs SD is just fine.
10.Image editing option inside the camera, like color balancing etc. This is more of a good to have feature and is very subjective. But some basic imaging should be there. You’ll need it occasionally.
Other than this everything you see in sites/brochures are pure marketing gimmick and mostly not very useful for us. But again give importance to your own judgment.
Some very good links (although you must be doing lots of studies already! J):
1. Always read reviews from www.dpreview.com
2. A good buying guide: http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/best-digital-slr-camera.html
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Symbolism - Sagar Manthan
Every Indian (and also the Thai, Indonesian, etc) have heard about the story of the Sagar/Samudra Manathan - Churning of the Ocean by the Devas and Asuras to get the nectar of immortality. But very few people know the symbolism and the real meaning hidden in the story. Here it goes (special thanks to wikipedia) -
The story represents the spiritual endeavor of a person to achieve self-realisation through concentration of mind, withdrawal of senses, control of desires and practice of austerities and asceticism.
* The Devas and Asuras represent the positives and negatives respectively of one's personality. The participation of both the Devas and the Asuras signifies that when one is seeking bliss through spiritual practice, one has to integrate and harmonise both the positive and negative aspects and put both the energies to work for the common goal.
* The ocean of milk is the mind or the human consciousness. The mind is like an ocean while the thoughts and emotions are the waves in the ocean.
* Mandhara, the mountain symbolises concentration. The word Mandhara is made up of two words Mana (mind) and Dhara (a single line) which means holding the mind in one line. This is possible only by concentration.
* Mount Mandhara was upheld by Lord Vishnu as a Kurma (tortoise). The tortoise here symbolises the withdrawal of the senses into oneself (just as a tortoise withdraws its head & limbs into its shell) as one practices mental concentration and meditation or contemplation.
* Vasuki symbolises desire. Vasuki used in the churning of the ocean denotes that the Devas and the demons held desire (to seek immortality) as a rope and churned the mind with the help of concentration and withdrawal of the senses. Desire, if not controlled will overpower and destroy an individual.
* The Halahala poison symbolises suffering and pain (counter-reaction of the mind and body) that one undergoes at the beginning of spiritual sadhana (practice). When the mind is subjected to intense concentration, the first thing that comes out of the process is intense suffering and great inner turmoil. These must be resolved otherwise further progress is not possible.
* Lord Shiva symbolises the ascetic principle. His role in this story as the consumer of poison suggests that one can deal with the early problems of spiritual life by cultivating the qualities of Lord Shiva, namely, courage, initiative, willingness, discipline, simplicity, austerity, detachment, compassion, pure love and asceticism.
* The various precious objects that come out of the ocean during the churning stand for the psychic or spiritual powers (Siddhis) which one gains as s/he progresses spiritually from stage to stage. The seeker should be careful about these powers as they can hamper her/his progress unless s/he uses them judiciously, not for selfish gains but for others' welfare. This is the reason why the Gods and demons distributed these objects as they did not want to lose sight of their original aim which was to gain immortality.
* Dhanvantari symbolises health and signifies that immortality (longevity, to be correct) or spiritual success can be achieved only when the body and the mind are in a perfect state of health.
* Mohini symbolises delusion of the mind in the form of (or originating from) pride. It is the pride of achievement to which the asuras or the demons succumbed and thus lost sight of their goal. Pride and egoism are the last hurdles one has to overcome in spiritual life before experiencing self-realisation.
* The Amrit symbolises the ultimate achievement of the goal of self-realization.
* Lakshmi represents universal enrichment which comes as an automatic by-product of the internal self-realization or Amrita
This kind of spiritual symbolism is present in many of the Hindu stories; one just has to open his mind to see it!
The story represents the spiritual endeavor of a person to achieve self-realisation through concentration of mind, withdrawal of senses, control of desires and practice of austerities and asceticism.
* The Devas and Asuras represent the positives and negatives respectively of one's personality. The participation of both the Devas and the Asuras signifies that when one is seeking bliss through spiritual practice, one has to integrate and harmonise both the positive and negative aspects and put both the energies to work for the common goal.
* The ocean of milk is the mind or the human consciousness. The mind is like an ocean while the thoughts and emotions are the waves in the ocean.
* Mandhara, the mountain symbolises concentration. The word Mandhara is made up of two words Mana (mind) and Dhara (a single line) which means holding the mind in one line. This is possible only by concentration.
* Mount Mandhara was upheld by Lord Vishnu as a Kurma (tortoise). The tortoise here symbolises the withdrawal of the senses into oneself (just as a tortoise withdraws its head & limbs into its shell) as one practices mental concentration and meditation or contemplation.
* Vasuki symbolises desire. Vasuki used in the churning of the ocean denotes that the Devas and the demons held desire (to seek immortality) as a rope and churned the mind with the help of concentration and withdrawal of the senses. Desire, if not controlled will overpower and destroy an individual.
* The Halahala poison symbolises suffering and pain (counter-reaction of the mind and body) that one undergoes at the beginning of spiritual sadhana (practice). When the mind is subjected to intense concentration, the first thing that comes out of the process is intense suffering and great inner turmoil. These must be resolved otherwise further progress is not possible.
* Lord Shiva symbolises the ascetic principle. His role in this story as the consumer of poison suggests that one can deal with the early problems of spiritual life by cultivating the qualities of Lord Shiva, namely, courage, initiative, willingness, discipline, simplicity, austerity, detachment, compassion, pure love and asceticism.
* The various precious objects that come out of the ocean during the churning stand for the psychic or spiritual powers (Siddhis) which one gains as s/he progresses spiritually from stage to stage. The seeker should be careful about these powers as they can hamper her/his progress unless s/he uses them judiciously, not for selfish gains but for others' welfare. This is the reason why the Gods and demons distributed these objects as they did not want to lose sight of their original aim which was to gain immortality.
* Dhanvantari symbolises health and signifies that immortality (longevity, to be correct) or spiritual success can be achieved only when the body and the mind are in a perfect state of health.
* Mohini symbolises delusion of the mind in the form of (or originating from) pride. It is the pride of achievement to which the asuras or the demons succumbed and thus lost sight of their goal. Pride and egoism are the last hurdles one has to overcome in spiritual life before experiencing self-realisation.
* The Amrit symbolises the ultimate achievement of the goal of self-realization.
* Lakshmi represents universal enrichment which comes as an automatic by-product of the internal self-realization or Amrita
This kind of spiritual symbolism is present in many of the Hindu stories; one just has to open his mind to see it!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Nonsense & Insensibility - Series Intro
A lot of serious posts, I have written..To change my blog mood, the time has come!!
Ok ok..I know I copied the 'Yoda' style but then the 'Force' has to be with someone while he is not around ;) He he..So the phenomena has started already..I am ON now with this kind of nonsense. What gave me inspiration for such perspiration was a very dangerous and an unlikely event - I read my own blog posts!!! :O
My ongoing blog series 'Phor the Phil of Sophos' was like so full of dry funda-baaji that I was like - 'Did I write all this crap?? From when did I become so wisdomous!!' I don't want to read back my own posts years after my last grey hairs fall off and wonder 'Was I such a boring geek at 23??' Well I am not...and I am gonna prove that to future old me that 'Oho..So I was also a childish freak' ;D
Today I checked out Twitter..some micro-blogging microsite which eating popularity charts like a parasite (notice my rhyming alankar ;P )..Bhuni my friend..also known by net alias samudranb (which may be his real name if I remember right) had been tweeting for some time now and I went to see what on earth is he upto after resigning from his job just bcoz his boss didn't give a damn about his leave request for a biking trip!! And I found what looked like more or less like orkut scraps or facebook wall crawls just with '@' symbols added in front...
I found his one tweet -
@gulpanag my 6 month old cocker spaniel pup Leo hides between my legs the moment he sees a stray... any advice from @super_milo ?
I got suspicious...Is he talking bullshit to the same Gul Panag that we feel wetty even if we talk to her only in dreams!! I clicked on it and got redirected to Gul Panag's tweeting home with her supersexy photo on left...I was like 'Wooooowwwww!'
But that was not just it!! I scrolled down on her page and found this -
@samudranb just be cool he says'
I was like 'What the ...!!!' Dude that Samudra is, I never expected he be asking Gul Panag about his cocker between his legs (yeah that sounds very un-innocent ;P) and she would be actually replying to that!!!
Well, a celebrity is what celebrity does...Way to go Bhuni!! :D
Ok ok..I know I copied the 'Yoda' style but then the 'Force' has to be with someone while he is not around ;) He he..So the phenomena has started already..I am ON now with this kind of nonsense. What gave me inspiration for such perspiration was a very dangerous and an unlikely event - I read my own blog posts!!! :O
My ongoing blog series 'Phor the Phil of Sophos' was like so full of dry funda-baaji that I was like - 'Did I write all this crap?? From when did I become so wisdomous!!' I don't want to read back my own posts years after my last grey hairs fall off and wonder 'Was I such a boring geek at 23??' Well I am not...and I am gonna prove that to future old me that 'Oho..So I was also a childish freak' ;D
Today I checked out Twitter..some micro-blogging microsite which eating popularity charts like a parasite (notice my rhyming alankar ;P )..Bhuni my friend..also known by net alias samudranb (which may be his real name if I remember right) had been tweeting for some time now and I went to see what on earth is he upto after resigning from his job just bcoz his boss didn't give a damn about his leave request for a biking trip!! And I found what looked like more or less like orkut scraps or facebook wall crawls just with '@' symbols added in front...
I found his one tweet -
@gulpanag my 6 month old cocker spaniel pup Leo hides between my legs the moment he sees a stray... any advice from @super_milo ?
I got suspicious...Is he talking bullshit to the same Gul Panag that we feel wetty even if we talk to her only in dreams!! I clicked on it and got redirected to Gul Panag's tweeting home with her supersexy photo on left...I was like 'Wooooowwwww!'
But that was not just it!! I scrolled down on her page and found this -
@samudranb just be cool he says'
I was like 'What the ...!!!' Dude that Samudra is, I never expected he be asking Gul Panag about his cocker between his legs (yeah that sounds very un-innocent ;P) and she would be actually replying to that!!!
Well, a celebrity is what celebrity does...Way to go Bhuni!! :D
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Phor the Phil of Sophos - Religion & Spirituality
I have listened to many understandings of 'religion' varying from 'praying to a personal God' to 'observing rituals'. Also I heard definitions of 'spirituality' from the common men. They range from 'doing meditation' to 'drinking spirit(alcohol)'!! Some people even consider 'religion' as theistic and 'spirituality' as atheistic. I find it a bit disappointing to find my fellow Indians so ignorant on this topic though they feel proud in hailing from this 'Ancient Land of Spirituality'. I do not claim to be a doctorate myself but at least I try my best to fan out my ignorance. And what follows is my current understanding on the subject.
I consider spirituality as the core of religion, any religion. In fact I would like to divide religion into 3 layers inside out -
1. Spiritual - Based on experience
2. Philosophical - Based on intellectual understanding of the 1st layer
3. Ritual/Cultural - Based on lifestyle created in harmony with the 1st & 2nd layer
Any religion begins with the actual experience. The seed of Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, etc was the experience of Siddharta, Mahavira, Jesus, Muhammad, etc respectively. Of course, Hinduism was based on the experience of not just any particular person, but on collective experiences of rishis,yogis and swamis. So we see that 'experience' is the foundation of religion.
Now the question comes what exactly this experience is. We say 'I myself experienced this or that' but have you heard anybody saying 'I experienced myself'? Self is consciousness. It is the awareness of the innate understanding that 'I' am. 'I' is the experiencer and everything else is being experienced. But when this 'experience-r' itself becomes the 'experience-d', then it is the 'experience' we are discussing here. So in simple words, it is the experience of pure consciousness. There are 4 states we can experience by the combination of the 2 states of mind & 2 states of consciousness -
1. Waking State - Thoughts with consciousness
2. Dream State - Thoughts without consciousness
3. Deep State - No thoughts and no consciousness
4. 4th State - No thoughts and just consciousness
We experience the first 3 states commonly. But its this 4th state of experience which proves elusive. This 4th state is the 'God','enlightenment','Self','superconsciousness','no-mind state','samadhi', etc etc. Whatever you may want to call it, but this experience is the ultimate bliss. And in this state also comes the awareness that the cosmos, you and I are not separate but manifestations of the same 'I'. The whole science of 'yoga' & 'tantra' deals only with how to get this experience and is a vast topic in itself. This experience is like the waking up from the dream world to reality. And here is where the seed of religion gets planted.
Of course, when you wake up from a nightmare and find others screaming in their sleeps, what will you do? You will try to wake up the other guy and show him that his misery is just caused by his own illusion. This process of 'waking-up' others to show them the truth where there is no misery is what starts the movement which becomes a religion over time.
The philosophical layer is also an important part of religion as it tries to answer the questions asked by the intellectual minds. The questions can be anything like - Who am I? Whats the purpose of existence? Is there a creator? Why should we do good to others? etc...More often than not these questions lead to more questions, and thus the quest continues till the answers are given not through books or lectures but through direct experience itself. And then again as one tries to explain the experiences, more philosophy gets created.
Based on the experience and the intellectual understanding of the experience comes the lifestyle - the way to live. This way of living is designed in such a way that people get happiness, peace, prosperity and evolve more rapidly towards the ultimate. Of course dry philosophical lectures cannot be enough to make the common man follow this lifestyle. For that, the philosophy get woven into stories, the spiritual practices get embedded into rituals and the formless God gets limited to some forms. This completes the religion.
It all sounds very logical and so where is the damn problem one might ask. The problem is that the people start idetifying only the 3rd layer as 'religion' and forget about the first two. Instead of maturing towards the inner layers they get stuck with the 3rd layer and stubbornly & fearfully refuse to move from there. Then you will see the mothers telling the same stories to their children but not teaching them their true meaning because they themselves do not know or even care to know. You will find men following rituals daily without knowing their purpose. People will be fighting over which 'God' is superior without the understanding that all are one and the same. In many cases people this ignorance becomes so rock solid that even when some enlightened masters with the 'experience' try to show them light, they attack the masters with the charge of 'blasphemy'. History has repeated itself again & again witnessing the fate of Jesus, Socrates, the Sufi masters and many others.
We need to move over from this kind of ignorance to omniscience. We need to first understand the truths and experience them. We need to loosen up the hold the 3rd layer has on us and be liquid enough to seep through the inner layers. We need to mature from rituality to spirituality.
And we will, eventually. After all that is the ultimate stage of evolution and we all are moving towards it with our own velocities. Its just that why keep riding on a bullock cart when aeroplanes are parked in front of us!
I consider spirituality as the core of religion, any religion. In fact I would like to divide religion into 3 layers inside out -
1. Spiritual - Based on experience
2. Philosophical - Based on intellectual understanding of the 1st layer
3. Ritual/Cultural - Based on lifestyle created in harmony with the 1st & 2nd layer
Any religion begins with the actual experience. The seed of Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, etc was the experience of Siddharta, Mahavira, Jesus, Muhammad, etc respectively. Of course, Hinduism was based on the experience of not just any particular person, but on collective experiences of rishis,yogis and swamis. So we see that 'experience' is the foundation of religion.
Now the question comes what exactly this experience is. We say 'I myself experienced this or that' but have you heard anybody saying 'I experienced myself'? Self is consciousness. It is the awareness of the innate understanding that 'I' am. 'I' is the experiencer and everything else is being experienced. But when this 'experience-r' itself becomes the 'experience-d', then it is the 'experience' we are discussing here. So in simple words, it is the experience of pure consciousness. There are 4 states we can experience by the combination of the 2 states of mind & 2 states of consciousness -
1. Waking State - Thoughts with consciousness
2. Dream State - Thoughts without consciousness
3. Deep State - No thoughts and no consciousness
4. 4th State - No thoughts and just consciousness
We experience the first 3 states commonly. But its this 4th state of experience which proves elusive. This 4th state is the 'God','enlightenment','Self','superconsciousness','no-mind state','samadhi', etc etc. Whatever you may want to call it, but this experience is the ultimate bliss. And in this state also comes the awareness that the cosmos, you and I are not separate but manifestations of the same 'I'. The whole science of 'yoga' & 'tantra' deals only with how to get this experience and is a vast topic in itself. This experience is like the waking up from the dream world to reality. And here is where the seed of religion gets planted.
Of course, when you wake up from a nightmare and find others screaming in their sleeps, what will you do? You will try to wake up the other guy and show him that his misery is just caused by his own illusion. This process of 'waking-up' others to show them the truth where there is no misery is what starts the movement which becomes a religion over time.
The philosophical layer is also an important part of religion as it tries to answer the questions asked by the intellectual minds. The questions can be anything like - Who am I? Whats the purpose of existence? Is there a creator? Why should we do good to others? etc...More often than not these questions lead to more questions, and thus the quest continues till the answers are given not through books or lectures but through direct experience itself. And then again as one tries to explain the experiences, more philosophy gets created.
Based on the experience and the intellectual understanding of the experience comes the lifestyle - the way to live. This way of living is designed in such a way that people get happiness, peace, prosperity and evolve more rapidly towards the ultimate. Of course dry philosophical lectures cannot be enough to make the common man follow this lifestyle. For that, the philosophy get woven into stories, the spiritual practices get embedded into rituals and the formless God gets limited to some forms. This completes the religion.
It all sounds very logical and so where is the damn problem one might ask. The problem is that the people start idetifying only the 3rd layer as 'religion' and forget about the first two. Instead of maturing towards the inner layers they get stuck with the 3rd layer and stubbornly & fearfully refuse to move from there. Then you will see the mothers telling the same stories to their children but not teaching them their true meaning because they themselves do not know or even care to know. You will find men following rituals daily without knowing their purpose. People will be fighting over which 'God' is superior without the understanding that all are one and the same. In many cases people this ignorance becomes so rock solid that even when some enlightened masters with the 'experience' try to show them light, they attack the masters with the charge of 'blasphemy'. History has repeated itself again & again witnessing the fate of Jesus, Socrates, the Sufi masters and many others.
We need to move over from this kind of ignorance to omniscience. We need to first understand the truths and experience them. We need to loosen up the hold the 3rd layer has on us and be liquid enough to seep through the inner layers. We need to mature from rituality to spirituality.
And we will, eventually. After all that is the ultimate stage of evolution and we all are moving towards it with our own velocities. Its just that why keep riding on a bullock cart when aeroplanes are parked in front of us!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Phor the Phil of Sophos - Truth
Theorizing is fun, more so when its contradicting others. Here are some experiments with truth of a mind growing spiritually and intellectually, but which still has a long way to go...
I agree with the ancient Hindu sages with respect to Creation of universe, Brahman (highest reality) being the only Truth with an inherent consciousness which when merges with Maya (lower order of reality) forms Iswara and starts the leela of Creation & Dissolution. Maya provides the matter manifestations (naam-roopas) and the original consciousness provides a kind of designing life force, kind of creative energy which is present in every living or non living thing.
This original consciousness can be reflected/projected/manifested using an instrument to limit & focus its power on a particular space & time of Maya. This instrument is the mind and the reflection is the changing consciousness or ego. Since the ‘ego’ is the actual ‘doer’ & the ‘I’ is just a witness, human beings mistake ‘I’ as the ‘doer’ and being one and same with ’ego’. The cause of mind limiting the consciousness of the beings is to avoid the chaos of witnessing every event of the universe at all times.
Hereafter I differ from the sages who believe that the ego along with mind is the birthless & deathless soul. I would rather theorize that the mind is also a manifestation of Maya and cannot exist without a physical body.
Whenever a new & ready physical body and mind is created, the original consciousness starts getting reflected in it by itself. It is like a new bulb which starts glowing when fitted in a socket on a network of electric lines. When the bulb dies out or gets damaged, the glow stops. In the same way, when the mind & body wears out and the brain stops working, then the original consciousness stops reflecting in it. That’s just it; no transmigration of mind & ego; no karmas needed. There is of course an undying self within all of us and which is all of us - the original consciousness or Brahman, but it cannot be called as transmigrating from one body to another as it is truly one and same in all.
So, in a way all the beings attain Moksha on death (videha mukta) without realizing it as their individual consciousness dies, but lucky are those who attain Moksha at life and can be called jeevan mukta. Since they consciously look beyond the veil of Maya to the true reality, they live a life without any regrets and with sense of complete fulfillment.
The diversity of living beings is not because of any karmas of jeevatmas but it is an inherent nature of Iswara impelling Maya to diversify naam-roopas. So all the physical & mental setups have to be different and evolving according to the creative force of Iswara. This is similar to a conscious being dreaming various random dreams but not having any conscious control over them, as it is an embedded nature of dreams to diversify.
The social world is totally a result of superimposition of free wills of the so-called conscious beings and comes under the subjective order of reality ( ie. 3rd order of reality, lower than that of Maya ) and hence should be independent of laws of Maya. Even enjoyment and suffering are also matters of subjective perception and emotion, hence even they fall under subjective reality. If there is a sense of partiality involved between a child born in rich family and that in poor family, then the Creators of this subjective reality (Human beings) should be blamed and not the Creator of empirical reality (Iswara). Like a man woken up does not concern himself with the matters of his dreams (since they are at different orders of reality) similarly the Iswara does not concern itself with the matters of society. Human beings can always try to unite and exert their free will to change the society to make it look impartial (so to say).
Of course all the above stuffs are just my theories and I am ready to give them up if I get better ones in future...
I agree with the ancient Hindu sages with respect to Creation of universe, Brahman (highest reality) being the only Truth with an inherent consciousness which when merges with Maya (lower order of reality) forms Iswara and starts the leela of Creation & Dissolution. Maya provides the matter manifestations (naam-roopas) and the original consciousness provides a kind of designing life force, kind of creative energy which is present in every living or non living thing.
This original consciousness can be reflected/projected/manifested using an instrument to limit & focus its power on a particular space & time of Maya. This instrument is the mind and the reflection is the changing consciousness or ego. Since the ‘ego’ is the actual ‘doer’ & the ‘I’ is just a witness, human beings mistake ‘I’ as the ‘doer’ and being one and same with ’ego’. The cause of mind limiting the consciousness of the beings is to avoid the chaos of witnessing every event of the universe at all times.
Hereafter I differ from the sages who believe that the ego along with mind is the birthless & deathless soul. I would rather theorize that the mind is also a manifestation of Maya and cannot exist without a physical body.
Whenever a new & ready physical body and mind is created, the original consciousness starts getting reflected in it by itself. It is like a new bulb which starts glowing when fitted in a socket on a network of electric lines. When the bulb dies out or gets damaged, the glow stops. In the same way, when the mind & body wears out and the brain stops working, then the original consciousness stops reflecting in it. That’s just it; no transmigration of mind & ego; no karmas needed. There is of course an undying self within all of us and which is all of us - the original consciousness or Brahman, but it cannot be called as transmigrating from one body to another as it is truly one and same in all.
So, in a way all the beings attain Moksha on death (videha mukta) without realizing it as their individual consciousness dies, but lucky are those who attain Moksha at life and can be called jeevan mukta. Since they consciously look beyond the veil of Maya to the true reality, they live a life without any regrets and with sense of complete fulfillment.
The diversity of living beings is not because of any karmas of jeevatmas but it is an inherent nature of Iswara impelling Maya to diversify naam-roopas. So all the physical & mental setups have to be different and evolving according to the creative force of Iswara. This is similar to a conscious being dreaming various random dreams but not having any conscious control over them, as it is an embedded nature of dreams to diversify.
The social world is totally a result of superimposition of free wills of the so-called conscious beings and comes under the subjective order of reality ( ie. 3rd order of reality, lower than that of Maya ) and hence should be independent of laws of Maya. Even enjoyment and suffering are also matters of subjective perception and emotion, hence even they fall under subjective reality. If there is a sense of partiality involved between a child born in rich family and that in poor family, then the Creators of this subjective reality (Human beings) should be blamed and not the Creator of empirical reality (Iswara). Like a man woken up does not concern himself with the matters of his dreams (since they are at different orders of reality) similarly the Iswara does not concern itself with the matters of society. Human beings can always try to unite and exert their free will to change the society to make it look impartial (so to say).
Of course all the above stuffs are just my theories and I am ready to give them up if I get better ones in future...
Phor the Phil of Sophos - Karma
It has become a fashion to use the word 'Karma', specially in West. I also got interested in it and at first glance 'Karma', the law of cause and effect sounded scientific enough for a logical mind to grasp, but more I dwelved in details the more I got confused.
Here's my 11 point confusion list on Theory of Karma as forwarded by the Advaitis -
1. The major argument raised in support of karma is the diversities of the living beings and their comparative advantages/disadvantages over one another with respect to the environment & the uncontrollable situations they get into. Without karma, it would seem as if the Creator is partial. But this can be negated saying that it is not partialness but randomness inherent to the Creator.
2. Partiality can come into play only when there is a goal & a winner. But neither are there for jeevatmas. Moksha cannot be considered as a goal as it is not a state or destination to be achieved but just a self-realization of true nature. So its not a race against others that partiality will play any role.
3. There is lot of diversity & randomness in the non-living material part of universe too. None of the galaxies or stars are same whether they affect jeevatmas or not. The fate of stars maybe black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, etc. Should that be also called as partiality towards the original consciousness inherent in these stars? This shows that randomness is an aspect of the universe and only its governing principles are constant (or impartial so to speak). This should apply in case of jeevatmas too.
4. Karmas are said to be without beginning so as to avoid the question of how the first jeevas were formed without any karmas. Now, that which has no beginning cannot have an neither have an end nor have any change as a whole. It can neither be created nor be destroyed. So how can any being increase or decrease its karma? Is it that he is just transferring his karma to other beings? In that case the liberation of one enlightened being should be adding load to thousands of others through no fault of theirs!
5. Karmas are referred as direct result of cause & effect cycle. But cause & effect can only exist when a concept of time exists. So when a creation gets dissolved, even the karmas should get dissolved as time itself becomes non-existent until the creation starts all over again.
6. The poonya paap aspects of karma sound a bit lame as good or bad, enjoyment or suffering is a matter of judgment & emotion and is extremely subjective. Also, what about the actions which are neither considered neither good nor bad or the results of which are neither enjoyed nor suffered? What about microbes which feel neither suffering nor enjoyment and can do neither good nor bad but only what it is supposed to do – will there be any addition to its karma?
7. How can the karmas result into being born in wealthy or poor families? Wealth is again a subjective term and the currency notes one have cannot be anyway get counted by the soul trying to find a family according to its karma. If any affluent family just after giving birth to a child (with good karmas) loses all its money (say because of the free will applied by the father incorrectly in business) and becomes poor, then how was the karmic calculation done? The soul of new baby found a rich house according to its punyas but got poor through no fault of his own. Either we have to say that this is partiality (which negates the argument for Karma) or we have to say that the soul with good karmas cannot be born in such a family which is going to be poor soon (this can only prove a fixed destiny which again negates the theory of karma & free will)
8. What exactly happens to the karma of the jnani at videha mukti? The karma is neither bears fruit (this will be negation of cause effect cycle) nor can it die away (since karmas are birthless).
9. Cause & effect are a continuous process without any break. For every action, reaction starts almost simultaneously. But for karmas to happen, the actions are hanging in for intervals of several lifetimes before getting a reaction.
10. If a person does minimal action and only enjoys or suffers all the situations of life, then his karma quota for this life (prarabdha) will get exhausted pretty soon and he will die soon. So, does action extend lifetime & enjoyment decreases lifetime?
11. Another argument for karma is said to be that the mind though conscious of consequences wills evil and though dissuaded continues to commit sinful deeds. This to me sounds more like an argument for free will rather than karma. Maya’s veiling power makes all beings unaware of their united true nature and they consider themselves only as limited individual consciousness. This is bound to create selfishness which is the root cause of all evils. A truly selfless man can never harm anyone. So, this argument can be negated as its more of misuse of free will owing to impulsion of Maya, than the compulsion of karma.
Here's my 11 point confusion list on Theory of Karma as forwarded by the Advaitis -
1. The major argument raised in support of karma is the diversities of the living beings and their comparative advantages/disadvantages over one another with respect to the environment & the uncontrollable situations they get into. Without karma, it would seem as if the Creator is partial. But this can be negated saying that it is not partialness but randomness inherent to the Creator.
2. Partiality can come into play only when there is a goal & a winner. But neither are there for jeevatmas. Moksha cannot be considered as a goal as it is not a state or destination to be achieved but just a self-realization of true nature. So its not a race against others that partiality will play any role.
3. There is lot of diversity & randomness in the non-living material part of universe too. None of the galaxies or stars are same whether they affect jeevatmas or not. The fate of stars maybe black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, etc. Should that be also called as partiality towards the original consciousness inherent in these stars? This shows that randomness is an aspect of the universe and only its governing principles are constant (or impartial so to speak). This should apply in case of jeevatmas too.
4. Karmas are said to be without beginning so as to avoid the question of how the first jeevas were formed without any karmas. Now, that which has no beginning cannot have an neither have an end nor have any change as a whole. It can neither be created nor be destroyed. So how can any being increase or decrease its karma? Is it that he is just transferring his karma to other beings? In that case the liberation of one enlightened being should be adding load to thousands of others through no fault of theirs!
5. Karmas are referred as direct result of cause & effect cycle. But cause & effect can only exist when a concept of time exists. So when a creation gets dissolved, even the karmas should get dissolved as time itself becomes non-existent until the creation starts all over again.
6. The poonya paap aspects of karma sound a bit lame as good or bad, enjoyment or suffering is a matter of judgment & emotion and is extremely subjective. Also, what about the actions which are neither considered neither good nor bad or the results of which are neither enjoyed nor suffered? What about microbes which feel neither suffering nor enjoyment and can do neither good nor bad but only what it is supposed to do – will there be any addition to its karma?
7. How can the karmas result into being born in wealthy or poor families? Wealth is again a subjective term and the currency notes one have cannot be anyway get counted by the soul trying to find a family according to its karma. If any affluent family just after giving birth to a child (with good karmas) loses all its money (say because of the free will applied by the father incorrectly in business) and becomes poor, then how was the karmic calculation done? The soul of new baby found a rich house according to its punyas but got poor through no fault of his own. Either we have to say that this is partiality (which negates the argument for Karma) or we have to say that the soul with good karmas cannot be born in such a family which is going to be poor soon (this can only prove a fixed destiny which again negates the theory of karma & free will)
8. What exactly happens to the karma of the jnani at videha mukti? The karma is neither bears fruit (this will be negation of cause effect cycle) nor can it die away (since karmas are birthless).
9. Cause & effect are a continuous process without any break. For every action, reaction starts almost simultaneously. But for karmas to happen, the actions are hanging in for intervals of several lifetimes before getting a reaction.
10. If a person does minimal action and only enjoys or suffers all the situations of life, then his karma quota for this life (prarabdha) will get exhausted pretty soon and he will die soon. So, does action extend lifetime & enjoyment decreases lifetime?
11. Another argument for karma is said to be that the mind though conscious of consequences wills evil and though dissuaded continues to commit sinful deeds. This to me sounds more like an argument for free will rather than karma. Maya’s veiling power makes all beings unaware of their united true nature and they consider themselves only as limited individual consciousness. This is bound to create selfishness which is the root cause of all evils. A truly selfless man can never harm anyone. So, this argument can be negated as its more of misuse of free will owing to impulsion of Maya, than the compulsion of karma.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Phor the Phil of Sophos - Transmigration of Soul
I read the Advaita Vedanta authored by D Krishna Ayyar and found it quite enlightening. However I found that some of the stuffs weren't completely explained which planted seeds of doubts in my mind on even some of the very basic theories. One such topics is the transmigration of soul. I do not believe in outright denial of any theory just because my mind is not mature enough to grasp the truth but I do believe that questioning will lead to decrease the dark fog. So, here are my points on the theory of transmigration of soul which require clarifications -
- The Sukshma Sarira is said to contain the individual consciousness of the being along with the prana, indriyas, karmas and vasnas. But the individual consciousness is like a reflection/projection of the original Brahman consciousness which occurs when the original consciousness gets a suitable instrument for this projection (eg. mind). Now, when a person dies, we know that the original consciousness did not leave it since that is all pervading but the reflected consciousness is not present. So, cant we just say that since the mind has stopped functioning due to physical causes, so the instrument is dysfunctional & hence the reflected consciousness no more exists.(non-existence)
- If the reflected consciousness requires an instrument of reflection then how can it be said to leave the body.(non-migration)
A possible explanation for both the points can be that the whole ‘consciousness & reflection’ apparatus (karana & sukshma sarira) is totally devoid of physicality and can exist without a medium like a ghost consciousness which brings us to the other points -
- The concept of a constant conscious ‘I’ (original consciousness) which exists in the background whereas in the foreground is the changing ‘I’ (reflected consciousness or ego) is theorized by saying that though a person grows young to old or goes through the sleeping states, his sense of ‘I’ does not change (pratyabhinja). The same concept when extrapolated to the jeevatma changing bodies does not hold true as the sense of ‘I’ gets restarted. If the sukshma and karana sarira (deep sleep state or causal body) which are the changing & unchanging ‘I’ consciousness gets transferred in a new body then why doesn’t the new being have any perception of this changing state? Since the sthoola sarira ( Physical body) is not supposed to affect either the original or the reflected consciousness, & the karana sarira is basically same in all beings hence there is a possibility that the sukshma sarira has been changed/ reborn.
- At the time of videha mukti, both the sukshma & karana sarira of the jnani is said to disintegrate. But these sariras are said to be birthless (only physical body is subjected to birth & death cycle), so that which has no beginning cannot have an end. It follows that either there is no moksha for jnani (only good that will happen to him is the sense of fulfillment on jeevan mukti) or there is a birth-death cycle of the sukshma sarira ie. Moksha for all because of no transmigration.
- What is problem with the logic of simultaneous birth and death of sukshma & sthoola sarira considering that there is an undying constant consciousness in us anyway which can be considered as the soul. Also, why cant we consider only the karana sarira transmigrating?
- Isnt it a little absurd logic that in the sleep (deep) we are devoid of the ‘changing I’ whereas after death it continues to exist?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Love Dismantled...
Sometimes a question leads to quest. And this is exactly what happens to those who question love. Not one human on earth exists who has not dealt in some way or another with this topic. So have I. And this blog is an intentional attempt to arrange my thoughts on the question before I undertake the quest myself. This will include breaking a semi-structured mindset already present in my mind regarding the subject and building a more structured concept which will be clear enough for me to understand and stable enough for my pursuit of happiness. The only big problem is - logic is responsible for construction of structure and love is responsible for destruction of logic :)
But let me give it a try anyway...
Let me start with one thing I am sure about 'love', and that is - its a word, a phonetic. Now the next question which naturally arises is 'what does it mean?' To this I can definitely say for sure that its meaning changes with the context. The 'love' used in 'I love You', 'making love', 'love thy neighbour', etc are all different. I am narrowing down the scope of this blog to 'romantic love' and hereforth all my references to 'love' would denote that unless stated otherwise.
To take one abstract definition of love - 'love usually refers to a deep, affectionate, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person'. The verb here is 'caring'. So when I say that my mom loves my dad, its naturally understood that she cares a lot about him, and in his interests would lie hers. Though this appeals well to our common sense, most of the times we do not use it understand whether a person is truly in love. What we look for are the symptoms - increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. This would fall under the scientific definition of love which treats it like a long process with 3 different phases in order- lust, attraction and attachment.
Lust is what happens at first glances - a sudden desire jumps out within; blame it to the increased release of testosterone and estrogen, so its kinda temporary and can even be sub-conscious. Attraction is the transition from this temporary to the permanent phase usually propelled by repeated stimulation of senses in the person. ie. seeing, hearing & touching will actually increase the chances of attraction manifolds. This is the phase in which the symptoms which I mentioned earlier usually exist and is said to last from 1 to 3 years. Finally comes attachment, a kind of emotionally symbiotic bonding which is long term and permanent.
So, now I have given an abstract as well as a scientific definition, and they sound reasonable enough, so whats the problem? Actually there is no problem in the cases when both the ideas about love are seemingly in agreement. To give an example, a boy and a girl have all the symptoms and deeply care about each other so much so that they put the other's interest and happiness above the self no matter what; then this can be without doubt termed as 'love'. But the confusion which actually adds to the complexity of the subject is what happens when one of the definitions doesn't hold good. For example, if the boy cares a lot about the girl but doesn't feel it and doesn't have any symptoms or the girl has got all the symptoms but doesn't care much about the life, interests, ambitions and emotions of the boy as long these doesn't concern her. Can this case be also termed as 'love'? This is something which requires deep thought. My own answer to the question is - if it is love then given the time, the two different ideas of love will actually merge into one. So the case I mentioned above can be considered as a pre-requisite of true love, a base on which later on with enough commitment, adjustment, understanding and conscience, will lead to a merging of all definitions. But of course it should not be inferred from this that the 'pre-requisite' state will always inevitably lead to the final destination. In fact from my experience I can say that, more often than not it does not! But of course, you can never know until you proceed...
Pretty much related to what I just said is the concept of 'falling in love'. I mentioned that if there a base to build on, then there is a good chance of falling in love. But now the question is what about a case where there is no base? Can then a person still fall in love? Is it actually possible for a person to start feeling something from nothing? There is a theory regarding proper theory regarding 'falling in love' known as Alberoni Theory which states that 'Falling in love is a process of the same nature as religious or political conversion. People fall in love when they are ready to change, or to start a new life. According to Alberoni, falling in love is a rapid process of destructuration-reorganization called the the nascent state, the individual becomes capable of merging with another person and creating a new collectivity with a very high degree of social solidarity. Hence the definition: falling in love is the nascent state of a collective movement formed of two people only.'
Now another thing comes to mind, and that is - how does this destructuration-reorganization work out to love? Even this is answered by Alberoni - 'In order to understand if someone is truly in love, the individual must be put to truth tests and, in order to find out if he or she is loved in return, the beloved is also put to reciprocal tests. The incandescent process of the nascent state through these tests gives way to certainty and produces a stable love relationship. The phenomenology of falling in love is the same for young people and adults, for men and women and for homosexuals and heterosexuals: this is because the structure of the nascent state is always the same.'
So, by all means it is possible to fall in love if the person truly wants to. It is based on this idea that the so called 'Arrange Marriages' have withstood the tests of time for centuries. The 'arrangement' gradually rolls down to 'love' and that's the way it is. Also, even in 'Love Marriages' since it is very rare that both the partners develop affectionate feelings at the same time, so most of the times it happens that one of them shares his/her feelings and starts a chain reaction in the mind of other who if interested even at subconscious level will start falling in love.
Well, writing down all this stuff is giving me a clarity a clear picture of where I stand myself. But all my ideas boil down to one thing..the final question still remains...Is it possible for stoic guys like me who are high on IQ and low on EQ to actually develop deep feelings? Can we make enough room for another person to enter in our personal space? Can we be selfless enough to care put other's interests before us? Can we be compromising enough to correct ourselves and ignore the wrongs of others? In short, can people like us ever be in love? In its answer, I would have to emphatically quote the ever-optimistic Mr. Obama's words 'Yes, We can!!!' :)
Thanks,
Swarnadeep Banerjee (aka Swarno)
NIT Durgapur
But let me give it a try anyway...
Let me start with one thing I am sure about 'love', and that is - its a word, a phonetic. Now the next question which naturally arises is 'what does it mean?' To this I can definitely say for sure that its meaning changes with the context. The 'love' used in 'I love You', 'making love', 'love thy neighbour', etc are all different. I am narrowing down the scope of this blog to 'romantic love' and hereforth all my references to 'love' would denote that unless stated otherwise.
To take one abstract definition of love - 'love usually refers to a deep, affectionate, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person'. The verb here is 'caring'. So when I say that my mom loves my dad, its naturally understood that she cares a lot about him, and in his interests would lie hers. Though this appeals well to our common sense, most of the times we do not use it understand whether a person is truly in love. What we look for are the symptoms - increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. This would fall under the scientific definition of love which treats it like a long process with 3 different phases in order- lust, attraction and attachment.
Lust is what happens at first glances - a sudden desire jumps out within; blame it to the increased release of testosterone and estrogen, so its kinda temporary and can even be sub-conscious. Attraction is the transition from this temporary to the permanent phase usually propelled by repeated stimulation of senses in the person. ie. seeing, hearing & touching will actually increase the chances of attraction manifolds. This is the phase in which the symptoms which I mentioned earlier usually exist and is said to last from 1 to 3 years. Finally comes attachment, a kind of emotionally symbiotic bonding which is long term and permanent.
So, now I have given an abstract as well as a scientific definition, and they sound reasonable enough, so whats the problem? Actually there is no problem in the cases when both the ideas about love are seemingly in agreement. To give an example, a boy and a girl have all the symptoms and deeply care about each other so much so that they put the other's interest and happiness above the self no matter what; then this can be without doubt termed as 'love'. But the confusion which actually adds to the complexity of the subject is what happens when one of the definitions doesn't hold good. For example, if the boy cares a lot about the girl but doesn't feel it and doesn't have any symptoms or the girl has got all the symptoms but doesn't care much about the life, interests, ambitions and emotions of the boy as long these doesn't concern her. Can this case be also termed as 'love'? This is something which requires deep thought. My own answer to the question is - if it is love then given the time, the two different ideas of love will actually merge into one. So the case I mentioned above can be considered as a pre-requisite of true love, a base on which later on with enough commitment, adjustment, understanding and conscience, will lead to a merging of all definitions. But of course it should not be inferred from this that the 'pre-requisite' state will always inevitably lead to the final destination. In fact from my experience I can say that, more often than not it does not! But of course, you can never know until you proceed...
Pretty much related to what I just said is the concept of 'falling in love'. I mentioned that if there a base to build on, then there is a good chance of falling in love. But now the question is what about a case where there is no base? Can then a person still fall in love? Is it actually possible for a person to start feeling something from nothing? There is a theory regarding proper theory regarding 'falling in love' known as Alberoni Theory which states that 'Falling in love is a process of the same nature as religious or political conversion. People fall in love when they are ready to change, or to start a new life. According to Alberoni, falling in love is a rapid process of destructuration-reorganization called the the nascent state, the individual becomes capable of merging with another person and creating a new collectivity with a very high degree of social solidarity. Hence the definition: falling in love is the nascent state of a collective movement formed of two people only.'
Now another thing comes to mind, and that is - how does this destructuration-reorganization work out to love? Even this is answered by Alberoni - 'In order to understand if someone is truly in love, the individual must be put to truth tests and, in order to find out if he or she is loved in return, the beloved is also put to reciprocal tests. The incandescent process of the nascent state through these tests gives way to certainty and produces a stable love relationship. The phenomenology of falling in love is the same for young people and adults, for men and women and for homosexuals and heterosexuals: this is because the structure of the nascent state is always the same.'
So, by all means it is possible to fall in love if the person truly wants to. It is based on this idea that the so called 'Arrange Marriages' have withstood the tests of time for centuries. The 'arrangement' gradually rolls down to 'love' and that's the way it is. Also, even in 'Love Marriages' since it is very rare that both the partners develop affectionate feelings at the same time, so most of the times it happens that one of them shares his/her feelings and starts a chain reaction in the mind of other who if interested even at subconscious level will start falling in love.
Well, writing down all this stuff is giving me a clarity a clear picture of where I stand myself. But all my ideas boil down to one thing..the final question still remains...Is it possible for stoic guys like me who are high on IQ and low on EQ to actually develop deep feelings? Can we make enough room for another person to enter in our personal space? Can we be selfless enough to care put other's interests before us? Can we be compromising enough to correct ourselves and ignore the wrongs of others? In short, can people like us ever be in love? In its answer, I would have to emphatically quote the ever-optimistic Mr. Obama's words 'Yes, We can!!!' :)
Thanks,
Swarnadeep Banerjee (aka Swarno)
NIT Durgapur
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