Wasting Time?

I have been thinking about this for a while: Maybe a new entrepreneurial idea. I have noticed that in quite a few organizations, bschools,workplaces, etc, we tend to waste a significant portion of our time on insignificant things. These things ultimately end up becoming time killers. This eats away a major portion of our time, which ideally we should dedicate on critical activities.

These time killers are trivial things: i) Formatting an excel sheet or a powerpoint/word document. Believe me, I have seen people spending hours deciding what color should be used, what font, and all that. Of course these things do matter to an extent, but people actually spend more time on formatting than on idea creation/strategy formulation.

ii) Wasting time on online chats/facebooks, etc. Of course social media is a great tool to market yourself and network with people. But more often than not, you just end up wasting majority of your time doing useless stuff which doesn’t benefit you in any way. Come on, go and meet people, chatting can only take you that far.

P.S.- Maybe some software package or similar can be developed which can automatically take care of the formatting, designing,etc and leave the manager to do more important work. Then of course, there are some managers who spend almost all of their time in meetings. I really wonder how constructive these meetings actually are.

Why so Low?

‘Satwinder, please don’t stop writing articles on your blog. They have always inspired us,’ remarked Eshan Sett, my junior, from the batch of 2014, FMS Delhi. The occasion was the freshers party. That left me thinking: Maybe I should really give myself another chance.

I admit it: for the past few months, I don’t feel like blogging, or writing. Opening Microsoft Word and then typing out sentences now feels like a pain. Is it because I am running out of ideas? Or is it because I am occupied with enough work? Or is it just because I am acting lazy? I don’t know, maybe a combination of all of them.

The juniors are here, and they are doing a great job. Am feeling nostalgic, and can remember my first semester, back last year. Time has really flown by like anything, and within the next 8 months, I will be an MBA myself[fingers crossed].

There are many things I Still think about. Why do some people drink so much knowing full well its harmful for them? Maybe cause the things which are the most taboo/restricted are the ones which entice people the most. How come certain guys get a girlfriend that easily and majority of the rest struggle to even get close to a girl? What is love anyways? And how many more years till we make contact with an external civilization?

Okay, I will end here. I think I need some more time before I can go back to continuous blogging. But as my friend Mayank said-‘It will all come back to you. Once a writer, always a writer.’

P.S.- I still haven’t got time to see Dark Knight Rises.

Internship Diaries, Post 2

So continuing from where I left off. Life at Wilson was fun, the Warden was a nice guy, and there were many people from different Bschools including IIM A, B,C,L,XLRI, etc. Met and befriended a cool guy named Mayank, who is a commerce graduate, indeed a rarity in Bschools. [Incidentally, also met another commerce grad from XL who was staying in Wilson- Abhishek Jain. Hope he clears his CFA lv 2]. Basically, Rachit, Twisam and I used to go to office together, it was the same for us. Sometimes we took the bus, other times we hired a cab. Wilson college being close to Marine Drive, we had a gala time out there. Just watching the sea waves strike the shore is a sight which cannot be described in words, but gives you pleasure.

There are several cafes on the opposite end of marine drive, stretching across for kilometers. I liked Sukh Sagar, which offered quality South Indian food. A veg restaurant called Crystal is pretty popular out there. Many times the queue outside these places would be amazingly large. One of my favorite night past time was to roam around the beach, have ice cream and take in the fresh,cool air along with others.

On one weekend, we went on an outing with Twisam and his bong friends[one of them being Shilpa, my classmate at FMS]. We visited quite a few places, including the Bandra band stand, and had a delicious Biryani at Arsalaan.

Met up with Girish as well, who is enjoying his stint with ONGC, being sent off-shore in the middle of the sea for half a month at times. We went and visited the Nehru Art gallery, Planetarium and Science center. Along with a mall which was suffering from load shedding. Had a good time over-all. Ate Paapri chaat without dahi.

But I guess one of the best weekends was at Sentosa Resort, Pune, for the All India Pagalguy Meet [AIPGM], number 9. I went over to the Pagalguy HQ for the first time, where I met up with my batchmates Nikhil Nathani and Mridul, along with some other friends such as Sourjo Mukherjee from IIM Rohtak. Made new friends there as well. From PG HQ, we took a bus to the resort[in Pune], where we spent the weekend. Best part was getting to meet the PG team, and interacting with people whom I had always wanted to meet, such as Pallavi Puri, Varun Saxena, Apurv, Harshal Modi, and of course the Pagalguy himself, Allwin Agnel. The resort was pretty good, and we had great events, best of which was probably Chuck Gopal’s[Deepak’s] stand up comedy act. Of course, there was the famous Puyscar ceremony too. Later, in the night, we all sat on the lush green grass, and played mafia till 5 am in the morning. It was really a fantastic trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. The return bus journey, where I discussed about HR, with Anvesh(from TISS) was also worthwhile.

I should also mention at this point that I made friends in Tata Motors too. Some of the senior professionals out there are really great, and I simply love it how they encourage everyone to participate in all matters. People enjoy and people work. This is something I really loved about the company. During my penultimate week, Amitabha came to Mumbai again. This time, we went to Sanjay Gandhi national park and then onwards to another big mall. I somehow fell sick during that time, and had to leave early. Nevertheless it was a good trip, though we didn’t get to see any wild animals in the park.

Back to office, well Tata Motors got an Award for being the best learning organization in South Asia. To celebrate, we had cut caking sessions and an Official party scheduled. Deboo and I were the only summer interns to be present in that party. Which was held in the last week of my internship. Was lucky that I got to go there. The entire HR team was present, and I really had lot of fun. Even danced for a change[though am a horrible dancer]. The food was scrumptious, and the dessert mouth watering. After a great evening, went back to Wilson.

But then, slowly, it was time to wish adieu. To the TML employees and my co-interns. Some of which I had become close to, and bonded pretty well. It was an emotional time for me, no doubt. These two months in Mumbai were probably the best of my life.

First, it was Rachit, who left early, and I was left without a room-mate for a week. Twisam and Rito da left the week before I did. So I felt a bit lonely at Wilson. Thankfully Mayank was still there, and that guy is a pretty enthusiastic lot.

Finally, Deboo left on Thursday , leaving just the two of us[Megha and I] behind. I actually worked a lot on my last day in office. Had my final review, got many formalities covered. But still managed to take some time out during lunch to visit the Jehangir Art gallery, with Megha during lunch. Had lunch at Samovar café, which is inside the gallery and a pretty good place. The French toast was indeed delicious, and I would recommend that to anyone. The Alu ka parantha was okayish, but I have tasted much better paranthas. Honestly, you don’t get good north Indian food in Delhi. The final lunch chat with Megha was pretty good, and I knew I would miss Mumbai.

Finally it ended. The goodbyes were done, bags packed, and for one last time, I walked across Marine Drive. Glancing over the couples, the joggers, the sleepers, and the wanderers. Maybe I was just one of them, feeling the breeze, the waves rush by. I don’t know why but I could feel a tear drop at that instant. Thank you Mumbai, thank you Tata Motors, thank you all my fellow interns, my friends, my colleagues. It was just a super wonderful, amazing time I had. Till we meet again.