My First Train Ride Alone

On 25^th July, 2013 I boarded a train alone for the first time, at the ripe old age of twenty-four! I was going home from XIMB, to spend the weekend after the mid-semester examinations. Yes, my stay at XIMB is the first time I am away from home, ever! All my life, my schooling, my engineering under-graduation, my job, everything was based in my home city, Kolkata. On 9^th June 2013, I boarded a train, not alone, to come to XIMB, which is my home now and will be for the better part of the next two years. Needless to say, this is the longest I've ever stayed away from home. So when the time came to go home after six weeks here, it was new experience for me. I told myself, “How hard can it be?”, and plunged into it without hesitation.

On reaching the station, I realized just how uninformed I was about travelling in trains. I did not know previously that train coach numbers came up on electronic boards on the platform. I had asked at least five different people how I would know where the compartment was where I had to get on. The waiting time was just five minutes in Bhubaneswar, so I was worried about missing the train (your regular ‘Jab We Met’ moment).

After getting on the train itself, there was another surprise waiting for me. The train was the Puri-Howrah express. So, it had already travelled one and half hours before it reached Bhubaneswar. The time when I boarded the train was just before twelve o’clock. What greeted me in the compartment was darkness! Everyone had already made their beds and fallen asleep! I don’t think I have to point out that life is in full flow at any B-School at Midnight. So, in six weeks here at XIMB, I had gotten used to that lifestyle as well. Unfortunately, I had no option but to tie up my suitcase, make my bed and pretend to fall asleep. Sometime later, a serious looking Ticket Checker turned on an overhead light and asked for my ticket. On being satisfied by what I produced, he left, leaving me, again, alone in the darkness. I knew there was no way I would fall asleep that early. So I decided to spend some time playing Blobby Volleyball on my cell phone. Eventually, the phone started making noises indicating low battery, so I had to give on that avenue as well. I resorted to looking out the window. It was raining.  I could make out that there was a strong wind blowing from the way the trees were moving. I saw some headlights but couldn’t make out if they were from a car or a tractor. Eventually, I grew tired of looking out into the darkness and decided to call it a night. The time was almost 2 a.m.

When I woke up the next morning, I had almost reached Kolkata. The weekend which followed was refreshing.  I caught a train the night of 28^th July for Bhubaneswar, my second train journey alone…

We Shall Overcome - He Did

What do you do when you have to face the pains of your past on your path to redemption? In Milkha Singh's life, the only option was to tackle it head-on and come out a stronger man.
Leading the race at the Rome Olympics, 1960, Milkha Singh made the mistake of turning back to look at his competitors. With that went his chances of winning, as he was overtaken by Otis Davis, Carl Kaufmann and Malcolm Spence. The headlines the in the newspaper the following day went something like 'Milkha Singh - The Great Indian Tragedy...' and many others. Ironically, the first four finishers all broke the World Record in that race. The movie revolves around the reasons surrounding his unexpected hesitation at the end of the race on that fateful day.
The first half of the movie is a tad slow, showcasing everything from Singh's childhood, to him as a young adult to his days in the army. Everything is inter-woven into a mesh, jumping from one part of the flashback to the next, explaining and connecting various stages of his life with each other. The camera-work and often wacky frames are a delight. The use of slow-motion, while very apt and effective for the races, becomes a bit repetitive when used for nearly all aspects of his life. His fledgling love affair with Sonam Kapoor's character, her initial distaste and eventual reciprocation are shown with just the right amount of comedy and playfulness. Unfortunately, Sonam Kapoor once again comes up short in what can be called a glorified cameo. While she looks gorgeous, smiling and blushing at the right moments, her acting and dialogue delivery remains iffy. The music for the movie is peppy and keeps the spirit up through much of it. A cameo by Loy as a singer in a night-club brings smiles.
The movie picks up steam at the end of the first-half with Milkha Singh being selected for the national team after a near-impossible fight against adversity. The scene where he returns home after selection, and the interaction with his sister, played by Divya Dutta, is one which will pull at the heart-strings. It is a shame that Divya Dutta gets cast in such bit-part roles when she is quite capable of pulling off much better roles. Infact, there are many accomplished performances in supporting roles, notably of Pawan Malhotra as Milkha's coach in the Army and Yograj Singh as his coach in the National team. A special mention for the young actor who plays Milkha as a child needs to be made here. Another touching scene is his return to his Army division after winning numerous races : he puts his medals around Pawan Malhotra's character's neck, as a gesture of thanks. Needless to say, he is the toast of the town at this point.
After this comes the disappointment of Rome. Eventually, Milkha gets his chance at redemption at the Friendship Games in Pakistan just following the 1960 Olympics. There, he finally puts his demons of the Partition in his past once and for all. Adding to that, he earns his famous nickname 'The Flying Sikh', from a comment made by General Ayub Khan, the leader of Pakistan at that time. The quote at the end of the movie is worth remembering for everyone. I will not spoil it here. Go see it for yourselves.
If there is just one reason you'd need to watch this movie, it's Farhan Akhtar all the way. The effort he put into building himself up for the role is evident. At no point in the movie would you feel that he does not belong on the track. From the peppy tracks to the emotional turmoil of a much travelled athlete, Farhan pulls off one of his best performances.
A movie definitely worth watching. Go catch it with friends :-)

My rating : 8/10

The CAT, the Bell and the X

It all started almost exactly a year ago, when I started preparing for MBA entrance exams. Initially, there was no intention of joining a B-school in 2013. "My target is to join one in 2014", I used to say to people, "This year is just for practice". As the days progressed, with a lot of encouragement from a certain special someone, I started making good progress, and somewhere along the journey, I said to myself, "What the heck, I should just give it my best shot". On the day of the exam, I was astonishingly calm, composed and too early to the exam center(:-P). That shows some nerves, doesn't it? The exam went surprisingly well, but I didn't get my hopes up so early. I mean come on, studying just 4 months for CAT and cracking, you have got to be kidding me. Well the day of the results came, and I was as surprised as the rest of my family, 94.48, not too bad. Still, I kept my excitement to a bare minimum. Then the call for IIM Shillong came in, and I said to myself, "Hang on, this could really work out." The call from X came in as well, with me just clearing all cut-offs marginally(phew!). The GD and interviews went like a blur. I came out satisfied, but still not convinced. Finally, on the day of the results, there came great Hope, 'Wait-listed for PGDM, ND-76'. 'Pagalguy' had told me this should easily clear. And it did, eventually. The final call came on Friday, 24th May. I resigned the following Monday after much negotiations with my manager. Packed and caught a train on 9th June. Reached here on 10th morning.

My Hostel at X

So here I was, my first time away from home. My first would-be experience in a hostel. Meeting new people, making new friends, getting to know them, all seemed a part of this new journey. And then there was the campus - expansive, green and full of life. The first week flew past before I even realized it. There were welcomings, faculty interactions, do's and don'ts, group activities, interactive sessions and a some things more. Classes have already started...

Our Pledge

I've played more sports here in the past 2 weeks than I'd done in the past 2 years, met more people and made more friends in the past 2 weeks than the past 2 years, gotten used to a new way of life in 2 weeks which I'd never been accustomed to before. Another thing, scored my first goal playing football in X yesterday, cheers to that...