The thrilling speed and the ambience inside is just mind blowing. But suddenly I am transported back to the line of events that brought me here.

It was a very dull day at college, returning at 4.10 from the institute on a broken rickety rickshaw. One of my friends was along with me, we were chatting when he suddenly says, “Do you know there is a company coming to take summer interns?”

“No”, I said.

“Well there is one called Goldman Sachs, coming next month.”

“What does the company do?”

“No idea”, he said.

That was the first place I heard about it. Called up a few seniors, asked for some help but no one had any idea. Terrible

One month later, notices were put out for the Goldman Sachs interview. I didn’t know about it, so I thought, forget it. Sometimes later TATA and others would come and I would surely get into one of them.

A day before it was suppossed to come, my friends ersuade me to go for it. After all, whats the harm in sitting for it, you can always refuse it. I went to the placement office, but they aren’t ususally helpful, till you are having a good job, so I got no help.

I went back to my room, got out a pair of trousers, and a shirt, as well as a tie. But one thing was missing. No black shoes! The first person who came to my mind was Jay, my NRI buddy there, and one of my best friends. Jay never refused anything, and this time, he gladly allowed me to have his shoes. So on the morning of that day, I got into my formal attire, went to Jay’s room, put on the shoes, and went for it.

Then the usual, PPT, written tests, group discussion, and all. I did not know anything about Goldman Sachs, and perhaps that was a very big advantage. I was not at all stressed, because I THOUGHT that I had nothing to lose. I went to everything very easily, coz the written tests (no coding skills required), and the GD was a cakewalk. However, I went for the interview, and in a moment I knew I had screwed it up.

“CAn I ask you soe questions on Data Structures?” asked Shiv.

“I don’t know.”

“C++?”

“Neither”, I said.

“C?”

“I’m sorry…”

“So do you have any knowledge of coding?”

“Nopes”, I said.

Still the THOUGHT that it was just some other company, and I needn’t worry about it, kept me at ease. I DID have an interview, that went on for 40 mins, and I went on quite casually.

Things happened as usual, I was the least likely one to get through, I knew. Selection procedures continued as usual, and at midnight, they got ready to announce the results. Among the whole group, as it gathered, I just moved a little back, I knew I wasn’t going to be selected. Thats OK. TATA Uncle is there, right? (No!!!)

The first name they announced was mine.

You’re kidding right? Thats not happening!!! I couldn’t comprehend what they said… was it Sudeep or Sudipta? I will never forget that moment when Pant Sir himself called me out to come in front… It was like a dream.

The next thing I remember was my flight to Bangalore, in the summer of 2008. 2 montths, the most awesome days days in my life. Working hard, partying harder. Like BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! It was only then that I realised the heavy weight that Goldman Sachs was in the industry, everywhre we went with our ID card, people greetd us with awe. But perhaps, our idea of Goldman Sachs, was to come even later. Worked on four projects (the only one to do so), and played lots of foosball. And everyone wondered, how I did so much in so little time. A company that can dig into your hidden skills (in my case I never knew I had any), what more can you want?

Came back to college, and terrible days waiting for the offer. WE (read Rahul and I) used to sit for hours outside the TP office, and come back sad. LnT came for placements, I made it through. Still I was sad. After working at GS, you cannot work at any of those indian companies. The culture is so different.

The offer came, and a lot of things changed. I used to get a lot of honour from the TP office, but the Department hated me. One of our profs said “GOLDMINE SACKS”, does it carry Gold from mines in sacks? If any profasked me where I had got placed, I would have to say LnT. Else they would fail me in the labs.

September 2008. The worst days of my life. The finance market was crumpling in the US. First Bear Stearns, then Fannie Mac, Freedie Mae, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, almost every company was disappering. Citibank’s shares were cheaper than a bottle of mineral water. Everyone said, the next to go will be morgan Stanley, and/or Goldman Sachs.

I thought our days of glory were numbered. Every sudden fall in the share prices of GS caused our heart to skip a beat. If anything we thought of was that, would GS be there tomorrow?

All of them vanished away, even Morgan Staney changed its business model. But Goldman Sachs stayed. Even bigger, even bolder. First as a Bank Holding Company, now as a Financial Holding Company.

Summer of 2009. The first flight from Calcutta to Bangalore, then Bangalore to New York. To a place I have always dreamt of, but never thought that I would be there so soon. In the world’s most powerful company. Staying at the best places. Travelling in the best cars, and being a part of a team, whose presence at every point in the firm, ensures that the firm continues to breathe and its heart continues to beat.

Gemini is considered the most human sign with intelligence, communication, and adaptability ruling him. This man has an endless curiosity to not just know about but be part of (at least temporarily) all he sees. He’s wants to know more and wants more than one of everything; career, homes, lovers, pets, you name it.

Gemini’s human traits make him extremely charming and hard to resist. He makes a wonderful first impression and a date with him is sure to be interesting, entertaining, and fun. But beware, he can’t help but be this way and although he may be genuinely interested in learning more about you he is this way with virtually all women he meets – except those he’s deemed as unworthy from sight.

Gemini gains understanding quickly and therefore has a tendency to only skim the surface of most subjects; including people. He may not stick around to take the time to get to know you once he thinks he’s discovered what makes you tick.

The Gemini man loves women and wants to know what makes their minds work; if you want to capture his attention show in depth knowledge on any subject and he’ll likely be intrigued for you to teach him a thing or two.

Gemini’s are turned off by heavy emotions but ironically attracted to emotional women. It could be the duality of his sign that explains this. Gemini men can be extraordinarily charming; you may be at dinner one moment and the next find yourself seduced on his bed – be on guard against this if you want more than one night with this man. Although most of his relationships are usually all too casual; you can employ certain strategies and aspects of your own personality to keep him engaged.

The Gemini man loves change and freedom if you don’t offer that to a certain degree, the Gemini man will pass you by.

Was wondering about the last 4 years, and thought that so much has happened, that it seems just another day that i had come here as a student. Did everything, well almost everything. Had various experiences good, bad, and heart breaking.

The first thing I remember about college is the horrible rooms and toilets in hostel 6. The rooms were damp, twin sharing and small. Vastly different from what was written on the website… gardens, balconies, and wardrobes.

USed to take the first bench in the lecture hall. Went to class half an hour early with friend to get the first row. I won’t say it was boring, it had its own charm.

Remember one thing very well… I was called the MIC Man… Famous for replacing batteries of the cordless mic which got over every half an hour.

Another incident that occurred is well etched in my mind. Six of us were sitting in the first row, one asleep – Arnab. Chintu’s chem class, when Arnabs roll no. was called we gave a joint proxy, five of us together. Chintu called a second time, this time Arnab answered. Chintu asked him to meet him after class.

Talking about Arnab, I remember his strange fantasies about someone in first year. Also Abhishek had some fantasies about someone… if I correctly remember.

Talking about Abhishek, it reminds me the day when he went for ragging. All were back from ragging, except him. 12 at night, we called our seniors, saying his parents were enquiring about him(a lie). At 1 in the night, he came back, laughing wildly. The common thought was… Is he insane?

Another incident that i remember, in the 3rd sem. We formed a team for some fest. Deepu was with us. I remember one day when he came up to me. We were standing outside an ED room, maybe 239. He shouted wildly at me for not being committed towards the team(he often shouts at me) !!! Ya I felt bad… but Deepu is that way, he is very serious about certain things. To this day he remains as one of my most special friend.

I remember meeting Bhaskar after the EEESOC apti test. He was dissapointed, the test didn’t go so well. He was on a cycle, but came down, so that we could walk back to the hostel together.

His room was opposite to mine for maybe more than a year. He was a source of great support, specially during exams, when I used to get too depressed with my preps, he would come in and cheer me up.

Boski if you ever read this, remember one day during exams you wrote on my wall… I feel Fucked!!! Next day, you came back apologizing, and wrote on my switchboard… I feel lyk the King of the World!!! I would like to go and see if that remains on the switchboard of H7. Which room was it?

Boski… thanks a million for being ma frnd… value your friendship very deeply.

The other thing… Chantu Bantu… at night of the exams, we used to discuss the important things for the next day’s exams. One night we were discussing about the next day’s paper… Material Science… I suggested about 7 questions, roughly covering about 25% of the syllabus. The rest 75% of the course was left untouched, left to chance…

Next day… examination hall, the surprise of our lives… Material Science… out of the 7 questions we had discussed… we got 6 questions… selective studies paid off even better than one could dream of… Same thing happened in the end sem with suspicions that the paper was leaked.

Chants & Bants… u r alwaz welcome if u need suggestions… although they don’t match these days… and my gpa is goin down… bachao!!!

Another person who has always been a great advisor, personally to me… Jyoti… has an awesome intellect and problem solving skills. U r a rockin’ friend.

My meeting with Modi was different. We collided while going to brush in the morning. He screamed at me. I asked my frnd l8r… who’s this ass? (Sorry Modi… didn’t mean it) My friend says that Modi is from Siliguri, our state WB… lets go and talk to him. So we became friends. He is one of my most trusted friends till date.

I don’t remember how I became friends with Ashik but SOLUTIONS INDIA was a turning point i making our friendship infinitely stronger. SOLUTIONS INDIA was also an impetus which drove me a lot ahead in my entrepreneurial work. The reason I made so much of progress in it is because of Ashik.

I was sitting in the first bench alone one day in the third Sem, when Jay waked up to me asking Is someone sitting here? No I replied. He sat there. Strange, but thats how we became friends. Best friends.

I was never popular among seniors except a few, like Sougata Basu, Amit Rai, Amit Harlalka and a few others. Both were great pillars of inspiration and fundamental in my success. The others always took me as a stupid junior who never kept contact with his seniors. I dont give a damn. Always had a good rapport with my juniors, and wouldn’t mind walking up to some one and say Hello! just to make friends. Among batch-mates the reaction is mixed.

One thing I remember… was about to sit for the Goldman Sachs PPT in the morning and was prepared in formals for it (in my first 2 years of college I preferred formals, now i severely lack formals!!!). Someone just remarked, “Hey wassup? Formals? So sure that you’ll make it through!!!” Hehe. Life’s like that. Its always best to have the last laugh. (The concerned person has been tagged!)

So many more experiences, but the only thing that I have always wanted was to have friends whom I could trust blindly, in good and bad times alike. And yes, I am happy that I have many of such friends. A lot of them, some whom I have mentioned, some who do not require mention, coz everyone knows them.

3rd sem, freshers party was fun. The night before that was even more fun. On the roof of H5B, fist beaten with hockey sticks, belts and boots, then with eggs and flour on the head. It was an awesome experience… unforgettable. Freshers party and paper dance was also an unforgettable experience.

To say in brief, i’ve enjoyed college life. Sat in the first bench, attentively, and also slept in the last bench. Kept a “mooch”, later became clean shaven. Was an apple in the teachers eye, also had profs yelling at me “Agle sem phir se reapeat maarega.” Been at the lower half in acads with 7.24 and also been the second topper with 8.35 (but usually between those extremes). Studied 4 a month in 1st sem and 3 days in last sem after bitotsav. Enjoyed with friends, quarreled with them, broke up with many, and made even more friends. Networking with people was always something I valued… in-fact FaceBook often puts up a poster on my home page saying “Thanks. You are a top inviter.”

Commitment to anything was something that I valued all along. When we were working for Drishtant in the 1st year, we used to run from one hostel to another, at midnight and later, in peak winter of Jan-Feb. Was a different experience altogether. There are a few people who I know of today, with that commitment, one who helped me with sponsorships, and his commitment is laudable, but in general that sort of commitment is missing these days and thats what we are trying to revive in CHUNAUTI ’09.

One thing that perhaps deserves mention is my friendship with Rishabh. We wre rivals in the 1st year, contending for EEESOC Presidentship. Later we became good friends, now we are the Joint Pres of EEESOC. All’s well that ends well.

One reason that I wrote this note was that I felt that I should relate my experiences to people who are unaware of them. The other is strange. I know that there are a few people who really hate me. If you feel that I have been arrogant or stupid, maybe you are right. Yet perhaps we could forget that and be friends. For all my friends, if there has ever been an event that I have offended you or hurt you, I’m sorry, I am arrogant at times, and I am sorry for it.

Today with less than 60 days remaining, I am happy with my college life. Have done everything, enjoyed my stay out here, and had great friends. To all my friends… friends forever… u rule… you are the best. CHEERS TO LIFE!!!

Some were wise, they said
“Nobody is perfect…”

Some were otherwise, they said
“I am nobody…”

I say
“I am somebody”
Wouldn’t it be so boring to be perfect? Just think of a perfect world… no smoking, no drinking, no abusives, no bird watching…

I was born under the sign of the TWINS… so you always get the best from from me… double friendship, double fun, double advice and double trouble!!!

Philosophy and intellect was never my cup of tea, and philosophical people always appear repulsive to me. I am a dreamer and believe in building castles in the air. A nice start for the Real Estate Industry, they would not be facing shortage of land…

Talking of Mobiles, I am a cell phone freak, used 3 NOKIA phones and 2 SAMSUNG phones, then the awesome N82, a blackberry 8900, an iPhone 8GB, then the 16GB one, and now finally the HTC Touch Pro 2! Still, that will perhaps last a year! Gawd knows wat the next one will be ……. (Its a blackberry storm now!!!… UPDATE: Thats gone too… Its NOKIA X6 now)

Someone commented on my horn rimmed specs, but I seldom use them now… I broke my last pair at Long Island Beach in US, and I got one recently from ESPRIT for 7 grand! But I prefer using contacts these days… I wanna increase my contacts

I’m kinda spendthrift, you’ll see the best of all worlds in my room, my BOSE sound-dock, my 32″ LCD, and more… and of-course the best quality of Vodka, with crates of Soda… People are always welcome!!!

I love dreaming and dreaming wildly… GOD knows how i chose Engg from the million of career opertunities I was considering… for all those Engg, they know what I mean, for others I would say that Engg is analogous to over extrovert girls –> 5 mins of pleasure and 9 months of pain (Read: few weeks of pleasure and 4 years of pain…)

Things were happening as if all by magic. There was this big company coming to our college for recruitments and selecting summer interns. One required to be good in coding to get in… I did not know the A or B of coding, leave alone C or C++. Someone one day on a rickshaw told me… Company XYZ is coming! My friends were sitting for it, so I also went with them. I didn’t even have black shoes to wear, so I borrowed a pair from my NRI friend (best friend!). People were pretty surprised to see me there for the selections (I was surprised myself that I had the guts to go there). Aptitude test: SELECTED. Group Discussion: SELECTED. Now the final round: Interviews!

I walked into the room. 1 hour that would change my life forever. The third question was
“Can I ask you some questions from C?”
“I dont know C”, I said.
“C++?”
“Neither”, I said.
“OK, so lets go for Data Structures….”
“I don’t know coding, but if I was given a chance, I will learn it!”

I was given A chance. “A” chance! One can’t imagine the disbelief when I heard the list of people selected being called out… my name was called out FIRST. I was in a trance… I still wonder sometimes how that happened.

The following summer (2008) was so special, my first salary, and two months of a rocking life. Worked hard, while partying harder. And I was selected by the firm to continue as an employee.

Things changed for AR too. He scored a GPA that term, that made him a legend in college, got an awesome job without preparation, and finally went out of India to get his Masters degree.

When I reflect on the course of events that changed my life, I feel that his encoyragement and inspiration, might have made me a fighter….. but it still baffles me to think that life changed so dramatically for BOTH of us! From no one to……………

OGRA’s website was hacked last evening; I was in office when I heard this breaking news on Geo TV. At once, I searched for OGRA, and started looking for more information about this defacement. After little work I found that OGRA’s website was hacked by H M G group of script kiddies from India run by a guy call Sneak and they call themselves Guards of Hindustan and some define this group Hindu Militant Group.

I remember, it’s been a year when I spoke with the owner of this group for first time. He was just a kid then (in terms of hacking) He didn’t know much about hacking and security concerns. This guy had a group of friends, who were keen to know more and more about hacking and they intended to use their skills for fun purposes.

After one year, they managed to hack OGRA’s website, but in my opinion they are still kids. As they haven’t done good job to deface OGRA’s site – which was open for them like anything. Instead of taking control of whole website and its data, they just placed a message “Welcome HMG”

This attack should be taken as a warning message for all websites in Pakistan, specifically, in a scenario, where majority of our websites are open to hackers – these include many of Government controlled websites as well. I am not naming them, so that they may not get exposed, but believe me, our Government websites are like a video game to hacking kids.

Yesterday, another Pakistani website got hacked, http://www.pakheaven.com/anonymous-mailer.php. I am not sure, if PakHeaven’s administrator knows about this hack or not, but these hacks can’t be termed as defacement, this is normally just a warning messages from fun players to inform administrators about security flaws. By the way, Spider Magazine’s website was hacked long ago, but seems like, its administrator damn cares about any such hack or security leaks.

So website administrators, please tune up your security, and make sure that you give tough time to hackers rather than just a minute to deface them.

In response to hacking of the website of OGRA (Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority) by Indian hackers, Pakistani hackers have retaliated and hacked website of ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd) of India. The message left by the hackers reads:

This is a message from PCA for HMG(script_kiddies) in return to the ogra defacement.

Backoff , go read some course books else you will loose both , your name and this game.
We will literally SMOKE YOUR DOORS OFF like other groups did before.

This is just a warning to Indian authorities either to launch inquiry against HMG or get ready for more action.

We were sleeping but not Dead. Now Face the consequences

Here is the screenshot:

Update: Apart from ONGC site, may other sites are hacked by the same hacker group and displaying the same message:

http://www.syscontech.in/

http://www.iirs.gov.in/

http://www.ctram.indianrail.gov.in/

http://www.kvrtm.org.in/

Really, this is sick… mistakes these days are not punished… they are capitally punished. What is the world coming too? Even in this era of Globalisation, we do not cease to be stupid. What we did as kids, we still do as adults… he has one, so i must have 5… he kicked me once, so i must kick him five times…

Yeah… its useless saying this… ask an Indian whats your creed… he’ll say smething like Hindu, Muslim, Parsi etc etc. Ask an American, he’ll say he’s an American, do the same in the UK, they feel good to say they are Irish… but even today we forget that we are Indians first and last, born of this mother, and to die serving her. If the freedom fighters were to come back to life to see all this, they would feel ashamed that they fought for the freedom of a country, or for that sake 3 countries (IN, PAK, BDESH) so that these countries could quarrel among each other, trying to get a piece of the other, or the Indians who quarrel among themselves on issues of caste, creed, religion and now states (Great Job Mr. Thackery, we need more people like you!!!).

Saare Jaahan se Accha
Hindustan Hamara Hamara

Life is strange…

It could have been you or me in that place hadn’t we been so blessed by the holy almighty. Then we would have struggled, yet got nothing. Thats wrong…

For all those who read me and feel that this is wrong… respond to it. Lets all join hands to make this world a better place. Let us collect resources to help them atleast get a decent education. Every talented person has the right to a decent education, regardless of his birth or creed.

So that in the next life if you or I were born there, and were not as fortunate as we are today, we would atleast be sure that for all our endeavours, there would be someone to help us get the education we desire, without which the world holds nothing for us.

If you feel that you can make a change, post your comments or reply to me at you.nited@iamgod.in.

It was just quite like the previous exams, my morale was down, and even after putting in hours of study, i felt that some subject might get me a Summer (convention for a subject drop), especially Math. It somehow felt strange that people who studied less than me surprisingly sometimes, fared better.

The difference was just one.

We have seating arrangements of 2 students per bench made for 3 students, it was always like this, being an introvert, i avoided talking to my neighbour, but AR was different (Lets call him AR, like my music guru AR Rahman). He was jovial and had an aura of confidence about him. Never thought that such qualities could be infectious but i caught it. He became like a brother to me for 6 days of the examinations. In our pre and post exam chit chats, he did something that one seldom does in college… gave real life advice… some tips of how to do better in exams, so that life is smoother.

But i was already studying to my level best… therefore nothing would change…

Perhaps would change?

Exams got over in 6 days, then fun time, and i forgot that all this had happened…

Till things started changing…

Wrong turns are quite common in life… but right turns are surprisingly uncommon. So one day you wake up and realize that the world around you has changed…

I was just another ordinary guy at high school, with very ordinary results, some academic achievements, but other than that life was boring. For a average Indian high school guy, life starts early morning, then school throughout the day, come back in the afternoon, take a short break, go for tutions, come back home and study, have dinner, and go to sleep.

24 X 7

Yes, so that was as much as life had to offer… a very ordinary life… But I was a Gemini and the very monotony of life was stifling. 18 years of life… nothing much worth remebering…

College… after high school. College was also ordinary… oops, no it was extraordinary… but we’ll hear about that in another post. Again just a mediocre college student, nothing special. Even after best efforts, the only achievement was single digit maks in Math and Mechanics in the mid sems. That was the first time I lied about my marks to my mom. Strange…

Then it happened… after a year at college. They say MIRACLES HAPPEN. Oh yes, it does. Imagine a chemical reaction taking place, happens very slowly, over hours and hours, you get a reagent, that finishes it in a second.

It did happen to me too, wasn’t something as tangible as a reagent, but a friend whose aura of hope would change my life in a way thats never happened before…

Well I thought , for a change, lets keep the first post by WordPress on the blog… looks nice… whoa…

However the title of the post should have been Hello WordPress, not Hello World, since the latter reminds me of C programming during those terrible engineering years…

Gosh finally its going to come to an end soon… amen!!!