Pictures : the porcelain baby

While going through our old pictures, I came across these..




I can't remember having seen them like ever, they were just buried somewhere in our hard disk. And to find them made me very pleased and very sad at the same time. Pari is exactly a month over 1 year in these. What would I not give to get back my porcelain baby.. Time, thou art a fickle mistress!

Joka Diary - 7

IIM C is notorious for its inclination towards Finance. Also, the faculty is known to take a quantitative approach to all subjects possible. For instance, when I mention the subject as Human Resource Management, can you in your wildest dreams imagine that it is a totally mathematical subject? Well, to be fair, it has some game theory and probability also thrown in, fat consolation indeed! And to make things more interesting, the Finance profs are really cute. Look up the dictionary meaning of 'cute' to make sense of it. For instance, consider BBC - the prof who teaches us Derivatives. He follows a set routine for his sessions. He begins by asking the students to look at the course outline, and tell him what topic is scheduled for the day. The entire class waits with baited breath in great suspense while some sincere student, who cares enough to carry the syllabus to the class everyday, reveals the topic. Once the topic is disclosed, BBC spends the next 5 minutes lamenting on how simple the topic is. The look of disappointment on his face is so stark, we just cannot restrain ourselves from sympathizing with him. It is grave injustice on the part of the Institute to insult his genius by giving him such simplistic things to teach. And I am not sarcastic when I say genius. BBC had topped his batch when he was a student in the Institute and has his name firmly engraved on the revered board. Anyways, once he is able to get over his grief, he starts teaching, which involves running lecture slides @57/min, and telling us that there is really nothing in there which we cannot read from the book. Finally he likes some particular slide, and pauses there, spending around 23 seconds on explaining it. Also, he relates a couple of incidents, closely related to the subject to further deepen our understanding of derivatives. All his anecdotes invariably revolve around some or the other unfortunate student who flunked in his subject, and there are plenty of such student samples available given that he has been teaching for close to 20 years now. Most of the anecdotes end on a happy note. The student never passes that particular finance course, but goes on to become some highly successful executive once he finally manages to get out of the college. What he probably wants to impress upon the class is that you can never be too smart to fail an exam. And so each horror story end with some wise words - 'Study well and start now, else later, nothing can be done.' However, the class has taken his anecdotes very sportingly, and few plan to study. Contrary to the prof's expectation, his threats have a funny effect on us. We have actually come to believe that we would all land excellent placements and do exceedingly well in life if we can manage to flunk in at least one of the finance courses. Not that it is any difficult for us!

Because, at times..

..I miss Him too!



Need we say more? :P

The picture is part of my 'Countdown to The Wedding' collection. We took one picture a day, every day of the month preceding our wedding. Wipe off that smirk, the rest of them are pretty mundane -- of us sitting casually, watching TV, looking for an apartment in the Times classified, having dinner or just laughing together. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic like that. The pictures were taken by my lovely flatmates-- T & A. Both of them were overly thrilled about our wedding, perhaps even more than us. They took the job of taking the daily pic really seriously. So much that even if we forgot, they wouldn't let Him leave for his place till the pic for the day was taken. And the girls suggested us different poses to bring variety in the pictures-- this smooch being one of them :D Thanks gals, you made it really special for us!

The best-laid plans..

..go awry. I am a big show-off. Yes, that is exactly what I am. Did I tell you I am supposed to head home today? Of course I would have told ya, because I have told half the world about it. I have been dreaming about the Dussera trip to home, even before returning from the previous trip, that was barely 10 days back. And I have been dreaming of the Bara Bangalia Durga Puja which I haven't seen since 2002. And obviously looking forward to spending time with Pari and the Husband. Being a loud mouth is acceptable, when you have a big brain to keep up with it. For bird-brains like me, it spells disaster and embarrassment.

I am not going home today, or any time soon. My train tickets were wait-listed, and they still are. The husband had got them for me almost 3 months back, and both of us had forgotten that they were in the waiting-list. Wait, hold on the urge to laugh. There is more entertainment coming. Like the mess had mutton-biryani in lunch today, and I ate very less despite it being my most-favorite dish. Yeah.. because I believe in 'traveling light'. And Oh, did I mention how cleverly I left my stuff at home on the last visit, 'abhi to 10 din me phir se aana hi hai'. Bah! Hold on, the best is yet to come. There are plenty of people forced to stay on the campus because they couldn't get their reservations. I generously offered to share my berth with them in case they could work it out with the TC. Not just that, yesterday I spent the entire evening downloading movies to watch on my way. You see, I like to really plan things in advance and prepare well for the travel. Now if only I had had the good sense to check the status of my tickets!

I am still trying to get tickets in Tatkal, for Monday if not earlier. The railway-booking website isn't working though. Luckily for Pari, the husband is reaching Alld. tonight. The poor child is waiting for us. And you know what, he got his tickets altered at the last moment, so that he could reach Alld. before me and receive me at the station. It was important, since Papa is not in town, and my train reaches past midnight. Have no doubts folks, we are good at planning!