(warning: loooooooooooooooooooooooong post)

Talk about it to me. Education is something which the great almighty didn't embed in my system. I had no idea why, but even then I am suprised sitting here doing one of the biggest courses in anyones life. I have no idea how I got down here or for that instance how did I get so far. For once when I started my parents wondered if this guy would graduate from school. Now all those fears have got bundled up and been thrown out of the window, one definete reason that I have graduated from school & the second reason is that I have graduated from college too.

I have studied in inumerable number of educational institues. My parents changed my schools in between LKG & UKG itself. See this was the time any kid would be so small not knowing anything about the ideology named schooling. Even then I was being changed schools for the reason that the aayaa didn't clean my undies when I peeded in my pants. Naaa, just joking definetly for the reason that other kids peeed so constantly that aayas had to be running around just cleaning the shit off. So my parents found it un-hygenic, offcourse any parent would find it. In fact given an opportunity they would have changed the school half-way down it, such was the state of the famous Velankanni Matri School at T.Nagar.

Then came the big difficult stage of UKG. Though I never repeated any years at school, this I would regard as the single most difficult class I have ever been too. It was like they taught me rocket-science. As a matter of fact even if you would teach me rocket-science now, it will fly over my head. So imagine someone teaching 'me' that when I was a kid. I also had the balls to go to my class-teacher and tell her that "miss-miss enga mama sonna neenga romba azhaga irukenganu", which I consider as the single most flattering statement for a 24 year old good looking class-teacher. That apparently happened to be the very answer, which answered over the rest of them in the final examinations. Bharathwaj Sattanathan has cleared UKG in style, topping the class! It was quite unbelievable for my whole family. Thanks to my mama (moms bro), I achieved something remarkable I thought.

Then markered a different three years of my life. Delhi didn't welcome me with arms-wide-open. My folks put me up in a school where no one spoke anything other than hindi. For some one from madras being thrown straight at a delhi school, was like asking Hrithick Roshan to play for the Indian Cricket team. (Maybe he could do a better job sometimes, who knows?!). I still remember the way I ran out of the class while the teacher was going blah-blah asking us to repeat A-B-C-D. Luckily there was a hope that even my son will finish his first standard. D.T.E.A meant nothing other than Delhi Tamil Educational Association which associated itself in educating kids.

I strangely found myself screaming A, B,C,D from the last bench all of a sudden. I screamed that from the top of my voice for three years. Yes, I did that for three years. Where the rest of the world was learning baba black ship I was still trying to figure out which alphabet comes after G.It used to be like the "gumbaloda govinda" types. Yell when the teacher is looking & then talk to the girl next to you when she is facing the board. Remarkebly I still remember the name of my first std teacher, Rukmini. How will I forget her name? She was my patti's age & never scolded me for anything, only me. I was like the darling of the class.

I porrikified in D.T.E.A for three years successfully. My meaning of success is passing, okey?! You should keep in mind my mental capabilities before I go ahead. I was in news always for different reasons like extra-curricular activities right from the beginning. Anything associated with fancy dress competitions, singing, dancing, playing the fool around, etc etc my name was the first & suprising I used to pull off all the prizes too. But when it came to exams and marks I had no place in the arena there. It was like I belonged else where.

Three years were like three minutes when I was starring at myself in Madras again after I finished my third standard. I would want to mention the abbrevation of my schools name here since it would take me ages by the time I complete writting the name. I didn't know why the hell the school had such a long name. Bleady long, it was. Its okey, let me mention it once again for one last time. Jai gopal garodia hindu vidyala senior secondary school it was called (JGHVSSS). Man shooooo! I am tired. Imagine my plight if some one asked me then which school I studied in. It would be like listening to a lecture for someone, who wants to know out of curiousity, just after I finish telling the school name itself. They would be sometimes releaved when at the point in time when I finish. Some of them never used to understand that too, so they would be like "Enna sonna da kanna", which means that they want to hear that again. Some times it used to be frustating but finally after sometime I got used to it.

Report cards were the one thing I remember back then. It used to be the ultimate paper of judgement for anyone in class. Whenever I come out of the examination I used to tell my parents, who asked me how well I did -"Ninety kulla vandudom ma". It took me long to understand that it means I would get within ninetly wherein I was trying to tell them that I would get my marks in ninetees, which never was the case. We had two sections for every class with 30 students each. I was happy that my cousin was in another section, since the first thing she would do is to tell my parents with which guy I was fighting at lunch time. Lunch times used to be like the ones that come on fight club movies. The excitement was nothing short of that. Fights were so common then, especially I would chumma get into a fight for the fun of it. Most of the times I would find myself "standing-on-the-bench" or "kneeling-down".

I can't just understand what pleasure do other teachers take in finding some boy or girl kneeling down outside the class. It was like "the" news. Whoever passes you by, would give you such a stare as though you have murdered someone. Come on, all I would have done is to forget to bring a pencil to school. So whats the penalty for that, kneel down, crazy stuff man. Then everyone would look at you and spit on you without knowing what you have done. This was like public punishment wherein they would tie the guy who has commited an offense & throw stones at him. Every single time my report card used to come home, there would be a define comment in the comments section which read "Capable of getting first rank'. Who the hell bothered about that. I was too busy in breaking windows of my neighbours, playing cricket, rather than to get first ranks.

For me then first rankers were simply termed as nerds. Nerds were like the strangest people on earth for us. We never spoke to any & neither appreciated their sense of knowledge. We always believed that they used to get the question paper before the exams which facilated them to score much more than anyone in the class. Again even here my name always appeared in the prize list for everything else other than studies. It was not the case that I was dumb or something. It was simply the case that I would never study. I was ranked in the top 10 of the class but never the hard-work to top it.

If I consider D.T.E.A was a matter of minutes then I should say this was like seconds. Even before I realised I was out of there. Strange memories do remain, none strained, everything pleasantfull. This was the time when my character was close to that of Swamy in RK Narayans Swami & friends. The mangoes sum reminded me the very way I got 'kottu-fied' from my dad on a maths sums.

Santhome School was just for cricket. The time I spend in the field was much much more than the time I spend attending classes. It was cricket all the way. Prize tally at home quadrapuled without anything being awarded for education purpose. In spite of that I managed to pull of a first class in the each of the years. It's now amazing if I look upon my schooling. Off course I feel good, who the hell denied it?!


filtered by sambhar....

Nope it aint japanese, definetly not chinese or mandarin, off course not mexican; what is it?! Tamil. Yup mate, you are right if you would have guessed it right by now. I am referring to the Jimiki which Tam chicks wear as a part of their enormous ornament section. Let me start up with saying whoever invented this, must be an awesome thinker. If at all he would have been alive by now, I would have touched his feet, trust me I would have done that.

Man has discovered so many things, but I reckon this as one of the best. A simple ornament which makes men like me go gaga over the ladies wearing it. Offcourse that little thing would go along with any thing possibly. It suits teenage girls more than anyone else allthough. I am not sure how many remember the Mirinda advertisement which Vivek used to come in with a chick wearing pavade-dhavani. Imagine now, that's the best example of how that little piece of jewellary can make any one look like an angel.

Off-late I have been noticing this trend of girls wearing some short of big stuff in their ears. I doubt as to sometimes if their ears don't become like one those Madurai-patti's, who have a big ear-holes, due to wearing heavy earrings. But the designers have become so smart in noticing that trend to make light weight earrings to suit the market demand. I have no idea about the meta-physics involved with it. Nevertheless, I am very curious about the impression it would make after some one sports it.

Jimikiku Jai!!!

filtered by sambhar.....

"I have been living here from the past 12 years. My kids were born and are being brought up here. We visit India atleast once in 2 years to let them know, understand & appreciate our culture & traditions. Look at my daughter she learns Carnatic music & Bharathanattiyam. My son learns to play Mridangam & is a cricket-freak. In India we may get to do the same but you think we would stand some where among the thousands there?!" asked Mr.Sridhar when we were going through an intense conversation on cultures, values, traditions & NRTB (Non-Resident-Tam-Brahms). Sorry I may sound caste-biased here by using the last term but my outcome of the total post is not differentiating between castes’s, rather to underline the ideologies of NRTB especially when they are away from home for a very long time.

Heaps among us curse the over-population. But now the main reason for the economic development is that very fact, why don't those 'lots' understand. I usually try to get into situations like this when I am always in doubt over a particular conversation. It makes me think atleast about where-we-are-heading-in-a-c0nversation. There is no point in blindly discussing a issue over the period of time without gaining anything concrete over it. As I had mentioned in my last post there was a Thyagaraja Uttsavam being conducted in Sydney for the past two days. The first day was for the kids and second for the pro's. I never could imagine the number of Tamilians who lived in Sydney. They turned out in crowds & it was more like a social event than anything else.

This provides me with the opportunity to mix with plenty of people and get their views & opinions on so many things. There is nothing like a first hand experience, I always say. Like Kotler says, there is nothing as concrete as a primary data. You may never have to wait to experience the same situation or crisis; it makes you well prepared for it even before you have to undergo that. I could meet a great deal of people & also happen to get very close & comfortable with few. There is no doubt as to the appreciation by the families here if you are a cultured boy. Underline the importance of knowing it. As I had mentioned few times before in my past posts that all the children here learn our culture, rather are being taught.

For instances though I lived mostly outside Tamil Nadu, I knew our culture. I am happy now that my parents always thought me things the right way. For many it wasn't cool, even for me it never was, only in the beginning. When my friends were chasing after Kurt Kobain with a guitar smash, I was trying to follow Karaikudi Mani. It felt strange. The importance of influences struck me then. I never imagined that I would appreciate it at some point of time. My dad always says I should never turn around & ask him why they didn't teach me, which invariably made them to teach me plenty of things in abundance. I became a Master of Jack-of-all. I regretted then, never could reflect back of them & justify I was a cultural-freak. Today people call me orthodox, why not. What's wrong with being an orthodox?!

Who is an orthodox? Having a doctrine over certain principle of may be the medieval age. So what, I ask. I know change is inevitable & stagnation is a sin. That's only in case of things which are happening around us, from the cross-border culture-ism. I appreciate that, encourage that to the fullest. It is for self-improvement, I understand. But self-improvement is done when you are doing some thing is a wrong way. I don't think being orthodox is thinking in a wrong way. Traditionalism is eternal for me.

Culture is nothing but a value which in imbedded into some one at some point of time for him to associate with a society. For us to live outside a society is very difficult. Each of us needs some solitary support, definitely emotionally. All of us have our own circle of influence, but society is something which is next to may be the circle of influence. We live inside it, we live with it and we sometimes try to change it, but in vain. It is something which is nurtured on its own. Okays, enough about the society.

Tam-Brahms across the world form a big society by themselves. Indians by themselves are very sharp comparatively to the rest of the world. Knowledgeable & Hardworking traits which differentiate from the gang. I am not trying to say there are no exemptions, off course there are heaps who don't fall into the above mentioned traits. But certainly the one’s who fall into these, some of them especially; go very far in life, definitely by geographic distances. Yes, welcome to the world of no-return. The land of gold, eternal peace, prosperity, serenity, etc etc according to lot of them. Please do not mistake me because I am generalizing it. It may not be a rational view. But certainly for me it is in many ways.

Think deep down your heart. Dig into it a few miles, if possible. Spend some time within yourself, trying to think about this. You will get the answer, the obvious one. No, don't. I don't require the answer. Keep it to yourself; I don't want to listen to your answer. There are no Sambhar poll's here. Rather I just want to underline the uncertainly in the thoughts. There seems to be a similarity in the differences of geographic horizons.

I sought after a different answer at the beginning but I am certain that this post evokes a different view all together. I am not trying to make a Swades, with Sambhar as a hero. At the same time I am not trying to say that the land-of-no-return is the serenity that people were waiting for all their life. As Jittu Krishnamurthy always says "Think for yourself". The state of confusion arises, mostly due to the unclear view about the things that he mentions. Suddenly a thought pops-up, bingo!, there you go, amazing!!!!

"THINK"


filtered by sambhar.....

 

For once lets look at things in backwards sequel. Living life to the optimum is the main objective of any indivudual in his or her life. To be able to possibly do that, he has to do well in his or her career or job. Making money is definetly not the ultimate goal but is certainly an important & integral part of any system of life. To get atleast the basic requirments in life like Food, Shelter & Clothes the obvious form is money, since we don't follow the barter system anymore. I am not getting into the human-wants and the economics of humanity, rather I am listing out things in ultra backwards motion. My point is that, the whole point of this structural form called education is to earn a good career in terms of whatever we are doing. Thus the importance of getting a job is a prime motivation factor for every indivudual.

We at UTS just finished our first Career Fair for this year. The semester seems to have just begun but the companies have already started giving their Information Sessions for graduating students and the progress is very well seen in their intiatives. As the world is moving more and more into knowledge driven conditions, they seems to be wanting to acquire much more fresh talent to develop different and new innovative methodologies into businesses. This fact is well known by all of us and we are more than happy about it due to the fact that there are heaps of employment generated as a end result.

The whole purpose of this Career Fair, I thought, was to create a brand awareness of the companies. I would like to call this as a market. As the employment market is getting more and more wider, companies are starting to have that kind of a competition to recruit new talents into the workforce. By attending Career Fair's like this conducted by UTS, the companies are promoting their brand name by which they are getting the students an opportunity to have a feel about the companies & ask them questions face-to-face. No companies did any direct recruitment today. All they did was to spread information about the company.

There is no campus recruitment in any universities in Australia, atleast they don't promise any. Like wise in India the primary marketing startegy is to attract students by disclosing the highest salary of the graduating students, universities in Australia don't follow any of such strategies to attract students. It may be because of the fact that there is a big loop hole in the system. In countries like USA, students get a work visa if they get a job, whereas in Australia you get an offer only if you have a Permanent Residency, which is very difficult to get unless your profession is in the Skill Occupation list.

This is a major minus point in terms of attracting talents from across the globe who come here to study. May be it is because of the reason that they want students to study only desired streams according to the Government Australia. But whatever it is if you look at the overall picture I feel this is a bad barrier for economic development for this country. There has been rumours that there is going to be a major change in the way the PR is going to be granted. But at this point in time there is no one who can certainly say anything about this.

My plus points out the Career Fair today was that I could meet HR mangers from Accenture, my old organisation. I spoke to them about doing a Summer Internship program with them. There seems to be restrictions for certain companies as to that also in terms of visa restrictions. But luckily there were a few companies who do Summer Internships programmes, who didn't require a PR status and Accenture was one amoung them. I also got to know about the job market in Australia. Atleast there were 80 companies which took part in the fair today.

In terms of the companies also they had a big advantage since my estimate of students who attended the fair was close to 5000 students. Atleast 75% of the students in UTS did attend for sure. Lets wait and watch the game.

There was a party hosted by the Sydney Lord Mayor for the international students yesterday evening and I was there to grab my free food and to socialise with the rest from the rest of the universities. There are three big universities in Sydney. University of New South Wales, University of Sydney & University of Technology Sydney are the three, may be even in terms of rankings inside Sydney. Macquarie University is also not too far behind. I would say that UTS and MacUni are just in a big fight for the third postion. Since UniSyd and UNSW have a common school for their MBA students, which is the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM), I will say UTS and MacUni have their positions sealed in the next two available spots. But UNSW, UTS and UniSyd together hosted the party.

AGSM is the best b-school in Australia closely followed by Melbourne Business School which is a part of University of Melbourbe. These b-school's are quite similar to that of US universities in terms of requirements to be fullfiled. They expect you to have worked for a certain amount of time and also hold a very good GMAT score to get into. UTS GMAT cut-off for its MBA program is 550, according to B-School sources. But they have two tiers of MBA, the one for the students who have less than 6 years of work experience and for those who have more than that. Excepting the degree being called as a 'Classic MBA', there seems to be utterly nothing significantly different about the courses. There would be few differences where in the students who are undertaking the classic program are adviced to do some assignments which are based on real time situations, like an Organisational Analysis. In OAD they have an edge of getting into an organisation and finding out relevant facts. But on a broader outlook both the courses have similar structures and are being taught by the sam e lecturers.

Coming to the reception that we got from the Mayor yesterday, I made optimum utilisation of the veggie snack which ever was available out there at the party. Australia by itself have shortage of vegetarian eateries in general. If you get into even an Indian restaurant, you will be suprised to see just few dishes which are vegetarian. So it is increasing difficult for people like me. Luckily I have some company in the form of desi's again. Some times I begin to wonder if GSB (Graduate School of Business- UTS B-school) is Gujarat School of Business. That's because of the number of Gujarati's I found studying at this school. There is a small crowd which speak tamil and are totally against socialising with the rest & there are the usual Northy gang, as mentioned by Magnus Anand in one of his posts, who just prefer to talk in Hindi. So for me I am trying to be like a chameleon moving sides whenever I want to.

I mix with all the people who ever I can, especially with students who have come from all over the globe, so that I will get a healthy knowledge of what's happening out there at the other end. There was an exchange fair today in which few US universities showed up. I was very impressed with University of Arizona and Californian State University Sacremento. Lets see if things go on well, I may try to get into an exchange to do one semester else where in the globe. So that it will turn out to be a real global MBA!

Few snaps of the party....

It’s been nearly four week since I commenced my MBA and I haven’t written anything about it. So today I decided to spend some time among the timeless times, that I am going to write something about what am I doing?!

As such my course is a 96 credit point course. 48 credit points are for core subjects and the remaining 48 is for among the majors that I choose from. I know it sound crazy when I say it is a credit point course. This funda is pretty simple. For every subject that you finish you will receive 6 credit points, so in that sense its 16 subjects to complete my course. It’s a two years course but I can finish the course in 16 months, if I want to by taking up classes in the summers. That’s left entirely up to my discretion.

To begin with, in the first semester, I have taken 4 subjects. I cannot at no point in time take more than 24 credit points per semester and at no point do anything less than 18 credit points per semester, according to the Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA). My subjects in this semester include Accounting, Marketing, Organizational Analysis and Design & Human Resource Management, which are all core subjects. I have a lecture each in one week per subject. So that leaves me with three day’s spare time to do a part-time job to support my living.

Almost every subject has two essays to submit, an individual one and a group assignment, apart from your weekly assignments and reading which you are expected to have completed before you show up to the next class. According to the professors we are expected to spend at least 12 hours on a subject per week including the time we spend on lectures. There are mid term examinations for some subjects and case studies in almost all subjects to solve. Marketing is regarded as the toughest subject out of the ones I have this semester, where in flunking rates are pretty high. Organizational Analysis and Behavior comes next simply due to the amount of work that you are expected to do. Human Resource Management and Accounting fall in the next two positions respectively.

I am expecting a tough two years since you are left with zonk time for yourself, especially if you are working part time and also trying to secure good grades in the end. Since the bottom-line according to many standards is at-least to end up with a distinction in spite of not having a high distinction also. And with my sub-majors showing significantly greater work load I must be more than careful.

Life is a great leveler. Let’s see if I get leveled for the efforts!

Never share a house or a room with another desi!

filtered by sambhar....

I met a guy today who was half portugese & half british. His grandmother was Swedish and grand father was British & his mom is portugese. He was born and brought up in Madras. Lived 10 years of his life in UK & now living in Australia. If you find that suprising, spare a thought for this. He was a bouncer in a pub at New Zealand and now he is doing Sales & Marketing for a bank?!

Globalisation at its imperial peak!


filtered by sambhar....

It feels so strange to me. When something good happens to me everything happens at once and even when something bad happens, again everything happens at once. Like the Hindi proverb “Jab detha hai thab chappad pad ke detha hai” (meaning: when he gives, he pour’s the hell from your roof).

Hehehehe What a strange life??!!  

If I sit down to think about the embarrassing moments of my life, I come to think about zillions of them. I wouldn’t be able to distinguish as to which is the best one so far. That’s the reason I began to write about those in regard to something when I see the same kind of incident happening to some one else or if I my ‘stupid’ brain comes to think about it. So this time around I am going to narrate an incident which happened when I was in my 2nd PUC, which is the 12th Std.

Pre-university students; the ‘josh’ students of any college. You somehow get more worked up and excited to do things at this stage of life comparatively to any other stage. Everyone is new to freedom, which was a rare component all these years in schooling life. All would be excited, raring to go, just like the way the film’s markets the image of college life, like way it comes in few “Kollywood” films. I had been playing cricket too much to get a feel about the world of discos and pubs around Bangalore. My friend, who apparently happened to be my classmate & cricket peer, decided that we are going to have a look at the way these things function. I swear I had entered coffee day just once before that. That coffee day incident by itself needs a separate post. I reckoned no fool would spend anything like 15 bucks on a coffee, when it’s available in the local “Darshini’s” for 3 bucks, then. I wondered why people flocked places like these?!

To give you a background of my friend, he was a major extrovert then. He was trying to adi one desi chick, actually from South Africa. That bugger had no guts to approach her straight for a date, so he decided to do it through a friend of her. We named the friend as “Tarzan”, since at that time she had better biceps than mine. She was nothing short of a tomboy, rather a tarzan like girl, if you want it that way. The only way my friend thought to reach this South African chick was to please the Tarzan chick, since that would make Tarzan chick to say some nice things about him.

Now one Friday we decided that enough is enough & we are setting our steps into “Sparks”, one of the famous pubs in the city. I requested him if I could bring along another friend of mine, since he was no better than me in all these matters. For us then going to a pub was a major sin since I was, as a matter of fact, am still totally stiff against drinking. For which he immediately agreed, since it would not a matter if it were three boys or two boys. We decided to meet halfway which would be a common place for all of us at seven in the night.

The time came & I was dressed up in a jean & Tshirt for the occasion, debut into pubbing world. You should have seen my friend; he was looking as though he was going to a cocktail dinner at Taj Coramandel or something similar to that. He was dressed in a blue formal shirt with black pants; it was just the tie which was the missing piece out of the attire. I was already laughing away to glory. I thought his dress was itself a shock of the evening, but didn’t know that there is something more electric awaiting me.

Desi’s and Time? Similar poles of a magnet. My friend took his own sweat time to reach the place where we were supposed to meet; along came the polly. I never imagined that Tarzan would be sitting at the back of his bike. It was a shocker to me in every sense. I never expected her to accompany him since he never mentioned that a girl, oops sorry Tarzan, would accompany him. Here you should note the gender, she was never a girl or a guy to us, she was just gendered as Tarzan. (all the tomboyish girls beware of this!)

It surprised us that “Sparks” never had lights. I thought it would be a mini spectrum of colored lights. My imagination always told me that pubs are similar to that of discos. You should understand my mental growth at stage of life. I was so affected by watching Mithun Chakravarthy & Jeetendra films that I was given a certain vision of how pubs & discos were supposed to be. So this was at first like a major shock when I saw no lights inside the compact hall. Before we entered the pub (well till today I still don’t know if it is a pub or a disco), there was this huge monstrous figure who blocked all our way since he thought we didn’t clear the age restrictions. My friend was such a punter that he held a driving license faking his age then, which made things easy for us. The monsters words still circled my ears as we went past him to make ourselves comfortable to watch Mr. Bean on the big screen.

The moment was approaching. The bartender approached us for the order. I put my hand first up and said I want a Pepsi & some finger chips to go along with that. The formal friend and the punter friend joined me in ordering themselves each one. Now it was the time of Tarzan to order something. I made a small note from the tissue papers available in the table to the punter friend immediately which read “Balls I will be paying for Tarzan!!!” He swiftly looked at me and made me gestures which meant that he will bare the headache. I was a relieved.

“One Kalyani Strong” said Tarzan. Immediately my reaction was close to the yahoo smiley which turns its head from right to left in surprise. We were guys who ourselves have ordered for Pepsi’s and finger chips but Tarzan wanted Kalyani, that too Kalyani strong. The bartender looked at me and made a face which I will never forget all my life. It was like spitting on my mascularity and thrashing it in an ultra huge bin. I was too scared to try to prove something against that & walked away from that place as soon as possible. I was told later that Tarzan got sloshed up till her nose and laid some omelets.

This was the first time I ever ventured into a pub. I have been to pubs accompanying friends, to bring them back home when they are drunk, a few thousand times till now. But this was like never before. It’s always the first time that you something which stays in our memory for a long time than what we do over and again a few hundred times.

Each and every time I step inside a pub the first thing I remember is TARZAN!!!

I don’t remember the last time I seriously blogged. It’s been a while and I have been in exhale, apart from those weird thought for the days, from my side. My friends are beginning to doubt as to who is writing all those “Thought for the days”. It’s due to the obvious reason that for writing something like ‘thoughts’ someone needs to think & they don’t approve of the fact that ‘Filtered Sambhar’ can think.

It’s been a while since I am away from home. In fact I can even count up the days. Today is the 45rd day. I cannot believe that I am able to be without all that I did for more than these many days in a row. Those early morning jogs, those filtered kappi’s, vethai kulambu’s, paruppu usili’s, my college sports room, dhruve sir’s house, his gym, the temple where I trained, my car-which is no longer standing in front of my house, off course my family, coming to think of it the whole composition called India, everything is being missed by me every bit. It’s certainly not that I am feeling home-sick or wanting to get back home right tomorrow, but just the strange assessment between two inimitably different countries and continents.

Here my normal day begins at eleven o’clock. I have afternoon classes so I usually study till early morning, in which I find solace. Most of my time is spend on the laptop & the world which I didn’t even have a clue about all these years in my life, books! Not everyone is like me here. Each and every one I find here are so different to that of other guy. It’s just the same way India is so distinctively different than Pakistan, even then both form a part of the same continent. Lizards tend to inhabit this country more than humans.

I have classified people here into three types. First types- the ‘PRers’. Those guy’s who talk, walk and sleep thinking & talking about Permanent residency here in Australia. It’s like one of those coke advertisements. The second type is the kinds who have come here just to earn money, ‘Earners’. All they are bothered about is repaying their loan amount such that they work the total time allotted to them & end up as just scrappers in their examinations. The third types are the ones who have come here to study, ‘Bookers’. They work some what to make sure they can earn their living out of it and then study the rest of the time that they have in hand. If you take an overall division of the students, all will fit into one of these categories definitely. Their priorities may even keep changing according to semester. But whatever said and done you are expected to do both, study & work, unless you are Bill Gates family.

I definitely want to fit myself in the third category with getting some good grades so that I can reflect back something on my CV when I apply for jobs back home. Off late I have been having few friends to have a good chat in the university since there are heaps of them from India. I have also made friends with people who belong to other parts of the globe too. I need to get into a part time job so that it will take of my living and I can live peacefully without worrying about the work part of my whole thinking.

Let’s see how it unfolds, Life has just begun!!!

I complete one hundred post with this one.
This will continue.......

Get sambharred!!!
Filtered by sambhar......

Read this standpoint of Stephen Baker on

When does your mind rebel on maths?

Never travel in a crowded bus with a dozen eggs, either u will get smashed or the eggs will!

Always have a fire extinguisher next to you while cooking, ask me!!!

Check out this awesome post in Buiness Week Online about wheather MBA is overrated???!

In a Bangkok temple:
“IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN, EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.”

Cocktail lounge, Norway:
“LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.”

Doctors’ office, Rome:
“SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES”

Dry cleaners, Bangkok:
“DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS”

In a Nairobi restaurant:
“CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER”

On a River/highway crossing:
“TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS
IMPASSABLE.”

On a poster at an educational institution:
“ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO, WE CAN HELP YOU”

In a City restaurant:
“OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS”

A sign seen on an automatic rest-room hand dryer:
“DO NOT ACTIVATE WITH WET HANDS”

In a cemetery:
“PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES”

Tokyo hotel’s rules and regulations:
“GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED”

On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
“OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.”

In a Tokyo bar:
“SPECIAL COCKTAILS FOR THE LADIES WITH NUTS”

Hotel, Yugoslavia:
“THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE
CHAMBERMAID”

Hotel, Japan:
“YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID.”

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a monastery:
“YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY”

A sign posted in Germany’s Black Forest:
“IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT
UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE”

Hotel, Zurich:
“BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE”

Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
“WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?”

The box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
“GUARANTEED TO WORK THROUGHOUT ITS USEFUL LIFE”

In a Swiss mountain inn:
“SPECIAL TODAY - NO ICE-CREAM”

Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
“WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.”

A laundry in Rome:
“LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME."

source duckshit

Never get up so late, such that you are confused if you are in time for breakfast, lunch, brunch or snack??!!!

“Mea yahaa hoon” song from the movie Veer Zaara was streaming through my headphones. I was in a bus from Belgaum to Nippani, one year from this date. What I was thinking about then? What were my priorities in my life then? What’s that I wanted out of my life then? Everything seems to have changed.

One year from today I was leading a bunch of college kids, beating the best team in Karnataka, with me getting the Man-of-the-series award. How I jumped in jubilation; I still remember. Those scenes of delight, the smell of victory, battle ground honors, pavilion celebrations, bus journey’s, train journey’s, the smell of the grass, the sound of the timber, the white paint on your face, the red paint in your whites, those dives, those catches, those sixes over the side screen, those match winning knocks, those “fuck offs”, those fights, those awards & recognitions, those name in the papers the next day, those hero-of-your-college tags, I miss them all!!!!!  

Never experiment with your own money, esp when you are cooking!!!

“Accountants are the best people on earth. They take no risks. They invest no money in the stock markets. They are not with people who spend money or even dream about spending money in their dreams. They never get married since their partners may turn out to be spenders. In fact their mom packs their lunch box to work for them” began my Accounting professor who holds a PHD in accounting for some reason. I was stunned. I had already not gotten over the fact that I was in that class since the previous three nights were spent in reading.

Due to all those problems of the late-night-kick-out, which I thought I handled it pretty well, I had loads of materials waiting for my supreme observation. As such there is a big distinction between me & studies. And before you even realize that you are thrown at the 87th ranked b-school in the world (Thank you, TIME). Then with all the difficulties you get to Australia. Here are you are thrown into a class of thirty per lecture & this guy goes on this way?!!!

Somebody save me!!!

Most of the times in our lives, the totally unexpected happens. Before you even realize anything would happen, it’s a matter of the past. History records it before you even realize. One major thing I learned from the past few days, I have lived here is, networking is the core essential of your being. It defines a person & also the kind of contacts he can produce. Right from the Mario puzo’s to the George Bush’s days, for men, it’s always Power which gives more solitary beam of light than anything else in this fraternity. That power I guess can be achieved through the kind of contacts he has. I was pushed to such an extent last week. That was the reason why sambhar disappeared out of the blogosphere.

Sambhar’s journey to Sydney has significantly revolved around with lots of things happening to him in the last few days. It looks from far that this is an inspiring, educating, maturing & coming-of-age stage in life. May be the outlook to things from outer point of view may differ, but Sambhar knows what he is going through. It’s the usual "blah-blah" stuff which every man goes through. But this seems a little too early since Sambhar is just starting his maleness journey, as an adult in an outer world. He doesn’t reckon that it is too early, but instead what he reckons is that he will be a “Complete man” soon, like the Raymond’s marketing campaign states.

Independence is the key word here. Individuality is another term which can be used. I have met more than two hundred people so far in Sydney, but none is same as the other. May be the same faces but it tells different stories. No one is similar to that of another. You have no companions or anyone who does the same activities as another. There can literally be no classmate to anyone. Maybe at the maximum someone can proclaim himself to be attending the same lectures as of another dude or chick, that’s it.

The shops close here closeby as early as six in the evening. With Australia by itself having such low per square km population, with more lizards inhabbiting per square km than people, this looks wired. It feels sometimes like the houses are built for the purpose of their won. No one inhabits in that. So when I come back from my evening classes the houses give me a big stare & say “Hey you, what the hell you are walking around at this time of the day for? Go, get drunk, party, sleep, have fun”. But this is not why I am here for, am I? Maybe for the last one but certainly not for the former ones. (Ok, I sleep 8 hours a day!).

Why the hell god made me different? Am I supposed to be made this way? Is this the way I grew myself? Why? What made the difference to the normal 21 year old, who runs around half the time drunk & chasing women (Not all 21 yr old r the same!). Why am I like the other way round? Maybe sometimes few chicks chase me because god made me handsome (:P), but that doesn’t mean I get carried away, does it?!

I have moved into the university accomodation after being thrown out of my own house at two thirty on a Sunday night when I was snoring to glory & dreaming about Maya. But what the hell was wrong with that? Did the guy who threw me out guessed correctly that I was dreaming about Maya & didn’t want it that way or it is the fact that I am not supposed to sleep or dream at all. Anyways it all happened in a jiffy. As a matter of fact I landed up in the right spot were I supposed to be at. So this I say now as a room & share the whole flat, which has six rooms, with six others.

Sometimes you think the world hates you, life doesn’t want you to live anymore or rather it’s not fare to you. But what the hell does it do? It takes you & throw’s you from the top of a twenty seven floored building & grabs you at the seventh with a helicopter, just to give you a shock, to make you remember that there is someone upstairs called the almighty. Ok, he is there. That’s it, no arguments about that now. For me he is there, for you he may not be, but that will never stop me from considering the fact there is god or something. I am not going to be screaming the hell out of my lungs like Jim Carrey in Bruce almighty “where is god”. But instead I say whatever science may prove the non existence of so many things; I would beg to differ in only this issue. I am a follower of “advaitha” & I will do that till my last breath.

So where were we, yeah, I share my house with four blondes who run around half naked most of the time & one dude apart from me who I never seem to find on a normal day at home. Here I have all the facilities. So what else do I need?! Nothing at all. Shut your mouth & study for two years da vadikattina sambhar!!!

Sambhar's journey to Sydney has just begun!!!