One of the good outcomes of the blog contest is that I learnt my friend Siddhu writes good, real good.
I never stopped to think that one of my gym pals wrote so well :P. Here's a link to all his blogs. Do check em out.

http://www.sulekha.com/weblogs/listingsbyblog.asp?pg=1&blogid=1353

Well, its been a long week...also a helluva long time since I blogged here. As explained before, I entered a blogging contest at sulekha.com and an unofficial source has told me I got second place.

I had so much to say this morning but now that I'm actually writing, my mind is blank....perhaps I should write again later...

Also, its Priety Zinta's birthday today...my biggest crush ever I think..so happy bday Priety :P

I've entered a blog contest, hence the next few blogs can be found on this link:



http://www.sulekha.com/weblogs/listingsbyblog.asp?pg=1&blogid=1330

I have to stop being the comedian. I've just realised that. We had a group discussion today and my mind teemed with a dozen witty things to say. None of them however really contributed to the discussion. I always like to say things which make everyone laugh, infact its sort of the only thing I do in a conversation. I sort of digress from the main topic because of this. My mind is more interested in twisting the words into something humorous instead of thinking deeply about the topic and coming up with sensible solutions. Must stop cracking jokes all the time.

GD however was rather well conducted. A chap who'd passed out of IIM Calcutta came and conducted it. I was a lil sceptical of his slow measured speech in the beginning, it looked rather put on. He'd walk about slowly, mostly looking at the ground as he spoke, carefully enunciating, articulating and pronouncing his words and I wasnt impressed initially. I soon forgot about it as the chap was really good. He had a good sense of humour and he knew how to hold everyone's attention. Half way through, I wistfully began to wish I was like him :P.

Next GD on thursday and I look forward to it.

Well my editor seemed to like the article. Here it is:


Yep, I'm one of them. I'm one of the one lakh twenty thousand students who get to write the CAT in both 2003 and 2004. Its the first time in the 30 year history of the CAT that something like this has happened.The paper was leaked! Its a shame allright, its sacrilege Its a blow to the prestige of the CAT!! Its a whole lot of nasty things but there's nothing we can do about it.

My own experience:
November 23'rd. 6:30 A.M: I woke up with a sort of unreal feeling enveloping me. I couldnt believe the day had actually come. November 23'rd looked so far away when I began preparing and all of a sudden, it was actually here! I went through the motions in a dazed manner. I brushed my teeth, drank my milk, had a bath, had breakfast and prayed to that holy goddess Carmen Electra of Baywatch to bless my efforts. One last round of " Maccha! I dont know anything!" phone calls and I left for my exam centre.

Call me paranoid, but I got to my centre about two hours early with not 1, not 2 but 5 sharpened pencils, 2 erasers, 2 sharpeners and even 2 watches. There were students of all types. Some looked hysterical, some looked calm and assured and some looked plain bored. A lot of them had their noses buried in fat books.My friend and I roamed the campus and carefully avoided all those bent upon discussing CAT problems.

Sometime later, I seated myself in the alotted room and nervously awaited the paper. I filled out a few forms and signed my name in the sheets a few times. The CAT paper was placed on the table, sealed on all sides. I wondered how I was going to open it without damaging it. The bell rang, I was off!

I ripped open the cover and hurriedly glanced through the paper. It was of the usual pattern, 150 questions, 3 sections of 50 questions each: Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability, Logical and Data Interpretation and finally the Quantitiative section.

I started with the quants section and was taken aback. So many questions on Geometry and Algebra, so few on arithmetic! Looked to be quite tough! Luckily there were quite a few questions where one could substitute the answer choices in the question.I picked the easier looking questions and did what I could in 40 minutes.

Next came the DI and Logical Section. It was pleasant surprise actually. A lot of the D.I questions involved only counting of instances and not actual hardcore calculation. The logical section was quite straightforward. This section was intended to seduce the student I think as I overshot the time I set for myself. This put pressure on me for the Verbal and RC section.

The Verbal and RC section was of the usual CAT standard.. What did come as a surprise though was the presence of a poem. However once one got over the initial surprise, the questions related to it were quite easy. I was under immense pressure due to lack of time, so I went for the factual questions and avoided those which required me to understand the passage. In the Verbal, sentence jumbles were of the usual difficulty, while the fill in the blanks had some pretty close answer choices.
Another slightly different question was the " Find the sentence with the inappropriate usage of the given word". It was fairly easy though.

The bell rang! Time up! The 2 hours had just blitzed past! I couldnt believe it was over! One year preparing for the exam that got over before I knew it! I joined the crowd in the corridor. Some looked happy, some high fived, some looked dazed and some looked as though they were about to burst into tears. I belonged to the dazed category. I discussed the paper with a few friends for a while before catching a bus home. Little did I know what awaited me. My dad opened the door and looked to be in a feverish state of excitement. " CAT CANCELLED!CAT CANCELLED!" he yelled on top of his voice. I didnt belive him and he dragged me to the TV. I watched the news, unable to comprehend it all. I didnt know what to think. Was I to be annoyed or was I to be happy that I got another chance? I didnt know. The house was flooded with phone calls. I spent most of the afternoon with a phone to each year. A few of us were supposed to meet in the evening to celebrate , but now there was nothing to celebrate. We met anyway.

Now that the excitement is over, I think I'm actually glad I get another chance. The Quants section was murderous, the logical and DI was so tempting, I didnt do full justice to the Verbal and RC section. Undoubtably there were thousands of souls out there who thought the paper was rather simple and were outraged when they heard the news but there's nothing we can do about it is there? CAT 2003 is to be written in 2004 and I dont know what to expect. Dosent really make a difference if the paper is easy or tough. If its easy, everyone is going to do well and your rank wont shoot up. If its really tough, then once again even if your score goes down, your rank wont. All we have to do now is to take a deep breath and hold out for another couple of months. We are a privileged batch after all, to write a mock CAT conducted by the IIM's themselves!

Well, I'm supposed to review the CAT for a magazine. Not entirely sure how to go about it.Do I write a narrative of how I got to my centre, how I oggled at the women, how I wrote the CAT and how I oggled at the women or do I do one pukka objective analysis and pretend to be an expert on the subject? My editor has sent some scary looking bar graphs and asked me to use them :-(

K, guess I'll do it tommorow

Grandmothers are people too. I have just realised that. I have somehow spent 20 years of my life believing that the only thing that grandmothers did was to ask their grandchildren to eat curd rice. It has also occured to me that my grandmother was once young. Rather hard to digest huh? I always assumed that my grandmother was born as a grandmother, she had no past and would go on being a grandmother for all eternity. Similarly I dont see myself as a father with a wife and kids, supporting his parents. I would never age. I would go on studying, my father would go on being a physics professor, my mom would go on being a teacher and my grandmother would go on being a grandmother. When I sit at the dinner table with the entire family, it never occurs to me that one day I'll be the father looking across at his son or daughter, that my father and mother would be grandparents interested in curd rice and my grandmother might be no more. Thats one reason I dislike death. It jolts me out of my reverie and forces me to wonder if one day I'll be motionless and stiff with people crying all around me. Nah, I wont ever die. Its impossible. I will always be live and animated.

I have always believed in the infiniteness of things. When I was in school, I never stopped to think there was a world beyond 12'th standard. I was confident that I could spend eternity in school. Even after I finished my 12th, I refused to believe in anything other than school. Now that I finally realise I'm no longer in school, I'm practically out of college. Now I have to think hard about my future. Where did all the time go?

Worked out my legs after a helluva long time. Dont think I warmed up properly because my leg cramped when I was doing only my second set of squats. Did a few light exercises after that and got back home.

Went to Anna university in the evening to meet a chap named Amarnath who offered to help us in our project. Seemed like a really nice guy.

I havent written in ages and suddenly I feel the desire to write an article again. I havent found a suitable topic as yet.

AAARGH! My comp really is acting up! I cant be online for 2 minutes before my comp says " SVCHOST: The exception privileged (0*c00000096) occured in the application at location 0*00cdf863" . Its just so damn painfull! I cant cut and paste, have trouble opening files and I cant disconnect from the internet!!

I might have to run that painful firewall now :-(

and yes Divya, I am a very lucky man ;-)

Had to go to Anna University to see the Vice Chancellor. As we are having an industrial seminar on the 28th, I was supposed to approach him for a message for the magazine. When I met the chaps assistant, he took a look at the brochure, sneered and said " This is for a state level seminar. Mr.Balagurusamy will write messages only for National and International seminars.". So I said " Poda Mairu "(K, I said it to myself) and got back home.

Also met a couple of blind guys on the way. The first chap had a stick to help him while the second held his shoulders. They wanted to visit the childrens park so I helped them get there. Felt rather good about myself after that :P.

I've bought myself a black cap, dont ask me why. I just suddenly decided I needed a cap. Wore it to the gym and thought I looked like a perfect ass. I got used to it in a while though and now I love myself with it.

I'm stuck inbetween my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother wants to do housework, she wants to contribute something, she wants to spend her time usefully. Hence she tries to clean the table, wash the dishes, fill water in the buckets and lots of other stuff.

My mother however feels that while my grandmother slogs it out, I am busy snoring in a corner. Every morning my mom falls upon me for neglecting housework, which is so not true! I'll be busy filling water in the bathroom when my mom will yell at me for not looking after the service veranda cos my grandmother is lifting heavy buckets of water! So I run to the service veranda and meanwhile the bathroom tank will overflow and there's water all over the place. Once again my mom yells at me for my negligence.

It gets really confusing because I know my grandmother enjoys the work. She feels she can do it a lot better than I do. My mom is firmly convinced that I'm taking the easy way out by letting my grandmother do work and I should be ashamed of myself. I so dont know what to do :-(

Its about time I began lifting weights again, the last 6 months have been pathetic. I've been visting the gym not more than once a week. My arms seem to have shrunk, I can hardly see my triceps, I cant lift the weights I used to be comfortable with. I havent worked out my legs in a year!!!! I've forgotten how to squat :-(.

Ok, its really time I got those washboard abs. I just have some basic defenition now and thats really pathetic cos I've been working out for 3 years! I want my muckles back :-(.

Its been brought to my notice that my blog hasnt been updated in a week. I'm rather startled to know there are people out there who actually read my blog. Well my dear readers ( or reader, I'm not sure ), it looks like I've updated my blog :P.

More tommorow.