Nikhil

The Workplace If you can stretch your memory to revisit your school days, you’ll recall that language subjects used to have essay-writing. And essays on ‘Railway-station’ or ‘Bus- stand’ would invariably be there every year. On similar lines, it occurred to me that the place where most grown-ups spend a major part of their lives- an office- could make for an interesting topic. And thus my thoughts began flowing… To make it clear, when I mention ‘office’, I would like to refer to typical workplaces of considerably sized companies having large offices or fully occupied campuses. Most IT companies and MNCs would boast of such workplaces, either owned campuses or leased floors in a complex or SEZ. To start with, getting into your work-place is like an adventure video game which, typically, has multiple levels that you need to overcome before reaching your end-goal. The process begins at the entrance where you need to be armed with necessary inventory to proceed further. The entran...

What do you wanna become?             As a school kid, everyone asks you, “What do you want to become when you grow up, son?” And my personal opinion states that no more than 10 % of all people know the answer and even a lower proportion of people, who know the answer, actually end up doing what they have in mind. If you ask me, this has more to do with an inherent malleable/ductile nature of human beings. We can easily bend into doing most things irrespective of our educational background. Another factor is the fact that aspirations keep changing owing to the fickle mind, ground realities and various influences.             Going back to class 5, I probably announced my first ever aspiration in life. I wanted to be Harsha Bhogle. I didn’t even know what he exactly was or what he did, but the fact that he was always around cricketers, his outstanding oratory skills, that ...

Spellbound! (An insight into why I like Harry Potter series) Magic, fantasy, sorcery has never fascinated me. I am more of a rational, science-supporting person. Hence, fairy tales about princesses, magicians, flying carpets never really managed to captivate me. Even comic book heroes based on science like Batman, Iron-man, G.I.Joe used to grab my attention than the likes of Superman, He-Man, Green Lantern, Wonder woman, Thor who had supernatural powers. With this background, there was a higher probability of me listening to rock music than becoming a Harry Potter fan (People who know me would testify the extent of my hatred for rock music). However, Joanne Kathleen Rowling had other plans… It was the summer of 2003. 12 th std. exams were long over and engineering college admissions were unusually delayed that year resulting in inordinate late joining dates. In retrospect, I was free from March end to early September. Since I never get sick of vacations, looking for new ...

The Lucky Generation             The other day, I was in a family get-together. Lots of cousins, relatives and kinsmen were present. But the two youngest cousins caught my attention in particular. The sis, barely in her teens and just outta 10 th , was on her mobile phone 24×7- texting, calling, chatting, browsing, BBMing and what not. The bro, pursuing graduation, was in a zone of his own, totally oblivious of the external world. He was encapsulated in a world of gizmos, surrounded by a Dell laptop, an Apple i-pod, a Samsung tablet, Sony earphones, a Nokia cell phone, a Seagate hard-drive, a Transcend pen-drive and so on. Mind you, he had come from a different town carrying all this electronic entourage. Watching this took me to my days when I was barely out of school when even a cable TV was not a thing you’ll find in every household. Mind you, this wasn’t decades ago, just a few years ago. I was amazed at this incredible pr...

Life in the Capital (A Puneri perspective) Phew! It had been one hell of a week. After being on the move for two weeks, scurrying across 9 countries & living out of a suitcase, I was back in my dear old Pune on the 5 th of June, 2010.The packing was done. The heart was pumping against my ribs. Innumerable thoughts were racing across the mind. Nervousness and anticipation had flooded me. I was moving to the Capital of India for my first job after post-grad. Never before had I stayed alone and that too so far away from my near and dear ones (A two-year stay in a comfy hostel in Andheri hardly amounts to living alone). To add to the turmoil, it was my first experience of booking a flight online and travelling in it alone. I already had pretty tumultuous nights leading to the day of my departure- Sunday the 13 th June, 2010. In addition, my newly bought huge American Tourister travel bag had broken down after 15 days in Europe and I got it back repaired on Friday night. So, the...