So its been a year ..

Warning: This post can be a monologue. ..

The opening lines of every post are the most difficult ones to think .. How to write something that the reader will find interesting and captures the theme of the entry .. ? Well .. For this particular post, I couldnt think of any such opening so here it goes ..

It all started a year ago when I arrived in this city of dreams called Bombay ( I still call it Bombay) with many dreams and even more hopes in my heart… It was raining heavily and I was all wet when I somehow managed to find out the SBI guest house (where my friend Nisheet had already booked a room) .. We chatted about how our next day which was going to be our reporting to the job was going to be and how life would be after that ..

The next day was even more interesting .. We found out that we’ll be posted for the rest of our service in Bombay itself (or if you are lucky you’ll get a foreign posting afterwards .. ) .. We were allotted departments and roles… We had our first lunch in the Officer’s mess (why is it called Officer’s Mess ? ) and then went to our respective departments for introductions and all .. I still remember one of my senior told us “Now with what qualifications or experience you have come with doesnt matter ..What you can give to the bank will matter the most .. ” I still believe in those words .. Anyway .. too many things happened in the first day and I cant write all of them here .. We were given temporary accomodation in guest house till our flats were ready .. (Getting listed in guest house was another great experience) ..

So .. I moved into a new room in guest house and it turned out it was to be shared with three more guys .. Three guys literally from three corners of India .. Man those guest house days were some very well spent days of my life .. As I stroll down memory lane, I remember listening to FM and chatting till late night .. Learning Malayalam .. or Manipuri .. 😀 .. Having dinner together .. Racing in morning to get the bathroom .. Getting others late for office ..:D .. Sleeping in boring training sessions .. Waiting for the rains to stop which poured as if its the end of world ..

Earlier days were spent in shock and awe .. Being so far from family and friends was a new experience for me (and a very tough one).. Slowly official work started to fill this void. .. Earlier it was feeling important .. than feeling responsible .. sometimes feeling exhausted .. Then I got my first salary .. Earning money was not a new thing for me but now I had to manage my living all by myself .. Seems I am doing pretty good … A major part of our salary used to goto mobile bills .. And eating those horrible food at mess .. And as you are expected to work at office, chat protocols were blocked and most timepass websites were also blocked .. So that ended my Orkut addiction .. Finding out proxy sites to bypass the restrictions and finding out new new ways to access blocked site ..  It was nice experimenting with our newly found independence ..

So this year brought many ups and downs in my life .. It highlights again that life is a constant learning process .. and I am still learning .. and I am still coping .. I’ve made so many friends here and who made living here all alone a bit easier for me .. Thanks to everyone just for being there for me ..

Battybhai JAIIB

Circuit: Bhai, apnay ko chaar mahinay mein Tamil sikhna padega… Kuch upaay batao ..?
Bhai : Tamil kyun, aur yeh chaar mahinay ka kya chakkar hai ?
Circuit: Meinay ek Tamil baccha adopt kiya hai, aur woh chaar mahinay mein bolne lagega.

😛 .. Something similar was my case when I joined this bank some time back .. As a techie who knew nothing about banking and accounts .. And to be posted in the elite department of foreign offices necessited I learn all the banking related stuff .. So I started .. And now I can say I know atleast something about banking and operations ..

Anyway … This entry was about JAIIB .. Though it was a tough challenge to test my new acquired skills but with some not so great preperations and some great help from my friends ( Andy , Thaslim ) , I was able to clear the examination with respectable marks…

While I was preparing for the exam, I found that there werent any study material to be found on the net on JAIIB , so I’ve decided I’ll put some material collected by me on this site .. So if you are preparing for the JAIIB, then watch this space .. I’ll upload the material soon ..

Till then .. I am gonna enjoy an extra increment .. 😛 .. And prepare for CAIIB .. And search for my Chinki .. 😀

Spiderman is black .. !

Nice title eh ..?

Soooo… Have I started writing movie reviews too ..?? Naah … Just wanted to write this one .. (am in some mood today .. ) ..

I’ve never been a big fan of Spiderman .. But this movie interested me because of its tagline “The greatest battle lies … within”  ..  The plot seemed so Spiderman will battle with his alter ego this time .. And then there was Venom .. I am sure people read / watch superheroes because of their villains .. Venom is the best (or worst) villain that Spiderman has got .. so all this made Spiderman 3 a must watch for me and I decided to inaugrate the new Adlabs opened in Palm Beach Galleria here ..

Now to the movie .. The movie opens nicely and has some very good special effects .. The story starts swiftly but starts to drag when our Peter Parker does a la Anakin Skywalker and turns to the dark side.. Some forty five minutes of the movie are very boring and pointless but there are some funny moments too .. I loved the scene where J J Jameson is reminded about his blood pressure .. 😀 .. And then there is this french restaurant scene .. that was great .. Actions scenes are the strongest point of this movie .. So you should watch this movie for some great action scenes and some funny moments …

Umm.. rating ..? Around 3 out of 5 ..

How never to get lost in Mumbai anymore..

      Since I’ve got Lost fever again, I wanted to write something about it but seems I m gonna write something else .. 😛 .. Anyway, here I am going to talk about people who get lost time and again in Mumbai because they are new to the city and / or never remember the stations or bus numbers and / or too lazy to find out .. All the above mentioned qualities are present in me .. 😀

     So necessity is the mother in law of plagiarism ( Heheh … that was a good one ) .. I wanted to goto Lamington road to get some computer parts .. But Lamington road is so far from here as Andaman n Nicobar are far from New Delhi .. Some desperate calls to my longtime friend Ashish yeilded some results but that included changing trains or taking train to CST and then coming back by bus .. So much for a lazy brat like me .. Continue reading How never to get lost in Mumbai anymore..

And so it begins ..

         If you hate working late on weekends as I do, and you love speed as I do then we might share the passion for F1 too.. And with the Australian Grand Prix on sunday, the F1 2007 season kicked off and I am watching too much tv and sleeping very less (damn the world cup).

          There are quite a few things that make this season interesting. The most prominent being absence of Michael Schumacher who announced his retirement last season. While Schumacher fans will say this the thing that will make F1 uninteresting, I’ll say it will bring some competition to the game ( it was sooo dominated by Schumacher earlier 😛 ). So who’s gonna take Schumacher’s crown now ..?

        The other thing the commentators were jabbering about all the time was that this will be the final season with the existing Concorde Agreement. The GPMA may consider to opt out of F1 and start a rival series or something if differences between them and Bernie are not sorted out.  

       Fernando Alonso left Renault to join McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen switched to Ferrari from McLaren. And one of the most hyped persons (seems rightly so ) , Lewis Hamilton joined McLaren and by his performance in Australian Grand Prix it looks like he’s got some very good prospects. One Heikki Kovalain replaced Fernando Alonso in Renault.

      So equations have changed and we’ll see if Ferrari can regain their space again this time with a new car F2007 and Kimi Raikkonen on the helm. Another car I’ll like to quote is Honda’s RA107  aka Earth Car which will run without any advertisements on it ( people say thats because they didnt get any advertisors 😀 ). You can have your name printed on it if you donate some money ( 1 UK Pound or more ) to myearth dream trust.

     So… Lets see how F1 comes up without Schumacher and switched drivers. See you in Malasian Grand Prix .. Look out for Hamilton and Sato .. !

What life is …

This is our life ..
Click on the image for bigger size

The strip says it all .. Persistence is the most important thing in life no matter how many things you juggle at once ..

I posted this just to ping everyone that I still exist and hopefully will be back in action very soon …

Till then .. Keep juggling .. 🙂