Celebrating Diwali… The festival of lights
झाला आजचा प्रकाश जुना कालचा काळोख,
चांदण्याला किरणांचा सोनसळी अभिषेक,
सारे रोजचे तरीही नवा सुवास सुवास..
शुभेच्छा दिवाळीच्या !
Click above thumbnail to view the Diwali e-card.
A Happy Diwali, the best of health,
A happy heart, enough of wealth,
All this and more are wished for you,
For a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New year too !
composed by me 
.
Update to my previous story: ICICI Bank Credit Cards: Fraudulent Tactics
15-Oct-05:
ICICI Bank refused to accept my charges and insisted that they had supplied a product that I asked for. I in turn bluntly asked them “How did you manage to forge my signature?” I insisted on seeing the form personally and would not approach the consumer court only if I’m convinced.
18-Oct-05:
Representative from Head Service Quality called and informed that they were ready with the form. She said she could courier it to me. Fine
20-Oct-05
I received copy of the application form allegedly filled by me. To my horror, the application form bore a signature which carried absolutely no resemblance to my signature. In simple words, it was a fake signature and a fake handwriting. A different form was filled without my consent and my signature was conveniently forged. Even my Form 16 was signed with forged signature.
I dashed an email to ICICI Bank Credit Cards – Head of Customer Service Quality. Expectedly I have received no response till date.
In these circumstances, I am determined to bring ICICI Bank’s fraudulent tactics to a public forum. I am in process of drafting a complaint letter to The Reserve Bank of India, with a CC to Newspapers (Times of India, Economic Times, Indian Express, Maharashtra Times, Lokasatta, Hindustan Times, Mid day, etc.) and of course a copy to my beloved bank.
I am also considering filing a case with the consumer court after some deliberations.
“Beep!” sounded the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) as it recorded my valid vote cast for electing a representative from my ward for the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC). There were only 3 candidates in the fray this time:
1. Shivaji Awhad from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Shiv Sena (SS) alliance (currently ruling the KDMC and National Constituency)
2. Nandu Mhatre from Congress (I) – Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine (currently ruling the State and Central Governments)
3. Vishwanath Deshmukh as an independent.
After days of intense (and noisy) campaigning, last two days were pretty peaceful thanks to the directive by Election Commission (EC) of India that prohibits any such thing 48 hours prior to elections. The EC also laid down several other guidelines which I liked – especially the steps taken to reduce criminalization of politics and control measures for wasteful expenditure.
Dombivli, being a highly educated and cultural hotspot of Mumbai, never had any brawls on Election Day. This was evident given the fact that only two uniformed guards were posted at the polling centre (Maratha Mandir, Dombivli west) where approximately 10,000 people were supposed to vote.
The 3 contestants were seen outside the polling station, trying all the last minute canvassing possible. There were lot of familiar faces and they greeted as my mom, dad and sister (and me of course) walked in. The election worker first read the name and number, while the other two workers repeated it loudly as they ticked off the names in their respective lists. My photo identification was scrutinized and I was handed over a slip with my name to sign across. The next lady (who was unable to speak Marathi) punched the slip away and asked me to produce my left hand. The purple ink was smudged on my finger (which I was proudly showing off later) and I proceeded to the secret ballot machine. Pressed the button of my selected candidate, but the machine didn’t respond – weird! I was prepared to press it again, but the officer retorted that the machine takes two seconds to sound the beep (which I later learnt was a feature built in to avoid foul play). Fine with me officer! As I emerged out of the room, the smiling faces from all the three quarters thanked me for voting and that it means a lot to them. Yeah sure it does.
Amazing how democracy assigns so much power to an individual. It’s another story how the same power is misused and abused over and over. Anyway.
Blishh..
Caught between a sequence of events that seem hell bent upon culminating into the biggest ethical dilemma faced in my 24 year young life, I pray to my buddy, (known to others as ‘God’), “Oh Lord!, please pull me out of this, and I swear I’ll never ever wander close to it” (In fact I pledge to stay astronomical distances away). “Ah, double standards”, yells my mind back as I sway into the conventional mindset – remembering the Almighty when required and then being content keeping him away in his physical medium on grandma’s prayer desk when the work is done. How mean! Yea I know!.
Few lines I read from a website come to the rescue:
… the eternal and unchangeable soul which is inherently free from delusion, ignorance, impotence and sorrow. So explains the preceptor: “Control yourself – your thoughts, speech and body – and you shall effectively control the world. Drop the mental baggage you have been carrying around; drop the external self-identifications, attachments and desires; stop adding to your perception of the adversity in this world! Nothing can harm you, the eternal soul. Nothing outside of you, the soul, gives you happiness or takes it away. All joy and sorrow comes from you, from your deluded perceptions and worldly expectations, and not from that which is not you.”
…und so weiter (why do I even bother to read this crap stuff?).
Yah, if only that was a little easier to do, I’d be sporting a warm yellow halo behind my head like the Gods and wise men depicted in the mythological shows on TV.
For the past two weeks I’m either sitting with Aakruti (name of my computer) typing away those goddamn b-school essays in double spaced twelve point times font face while listening to my play list priy.sha.vad.one (arranged as: Priyank > Hindustani Shastriya > Vaadya Sangeet > Play list 1) or talking on the phone with B or R. Mom is frustrated worrying about two things (well three actually), one – my headphones blasting away my eardrums and two – excessive electromagnetic (or whatever) waves entering my feeble brain from my cell phone. (I suspect she is also suspicious about something )
I know, I need to go out into the open for more than just plucking flowers for Grandma’s morning puja.
Aargh…! Screw it. I feel like going to the moon with my laptop. Going away (don’t you dare say ‘escaping’) from this physical world to seek solace (?) in the unfathomable depths of the unexplored universe. Armed with a ‘Do not disturb’ sign.
Election fever is gripping the suburb. Approx 1.5 million (thanks Debu for the correction) voters will elect corporators for Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC). Currently KDMC is governed by BJP-ShivSena combine, and my estimate says they will continue to be in power.
The other day this contestant on a door-to-door campaign turned up at our doorstep. I happened to be in a not-so-good mood and was irritated by the noise and intrusion of the politician – whom I consider the filthiest creatures on earth.
“___ चा, विजय असो! याच पक्षाला तुमचे अमूल्य मत द्या! यांची निशाणी आहे___”
“जिंकून जिंकून जिंकनार कोन ? __ शिवाय आहेच् कोन “*
“ताई माई आक्का विचार करा पक्का ___ वर मारा शिक्का”
“___ कईसा हय? सोने जईसा सच्चा हय”*
and so on. (*note the accents)
While he sported a perfect ‘Miss Universe’ smile and his chamchas (followers) handed over the manifesto, I interrupted them by asking a naughty question:
“तुमचं किती शिक्षण झालं आहे ?” (“What is your education qualification?”)
Silence. All eyes focussed on me, even our neighbour paused to hear. Then someone quipped – “He is B.Com”. I gladly accepted the manifesto and shut the door; at least the guy knows the names of degrees!
कधी कधी मी उगाच् आगाऊ पणा करतो. आवरायला हवं.
तरी नशीब – “तुम्ही शिकले आहात का… ?” असं नाही विचारलं! गेम झाला असता!
Applying to b-schools in USA is a lengthy and a brutal process. What they need is your GMAT, TOEFL test scores, a couple of recommendation letters, Academic Transcripts and Essays. All others manageable, you are bound to struggle with the essays the most.
For fun, try answering these sample questions:
Describe an ethical issue you have faced in your professional life and how you dealt with it. What was the outcome?
Describe a time when you felt a strong sense of purpose in your life.
To be successful in life, you must be able to distinguish between a fleeting trend and a permanent development. Tell us of a time when you had to make such a distinction.
If you are allowed to change one of your personal or professional characteristics, what would you change, and why?
What would you consider the biggest failure or disappointment in your life?
Please tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular. How did others react? Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did.
Describe how your personal qualities, skills or characteristics made an impact on a person, group, or organization. Describe in detail what you thought, felt, said, and did
I was clean bowled when I first read them. The big universities have a stringent screening process (that’s obvious), while other schools will just ask you to write a statement of purpose and a couple of topics. Currently, my target university list goes like this: Chicago GSB, MIT (Sloan), New York (Stern), Cornell (Johnson), Purdue (Krannert) and Pittsburg (Katz). I’m most likely to add Harvard too.
I turned to my friends for every bit of information they knew about me – my failures, success, positives, negatives, stories and incidents. Sheetal (aka sheeba, aka guni baal) helped me analyze the questions and got my brain working. I also nagged my current boss Amit, who gave candid suggestions. Now I shall run to the other genius friends who will proofread and tear my essays apart.
phew!
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