Ajay - On the Road called Life!

Harrison Ford is back with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One thing they kept intact was the fact that he is now older, much older!

Dr. Henry Jones is back into action. This time the quest is the search for a mythical kingdom, maybe El Dorado, a city of pure gold, the link to that is a crystal skull, a professor of archeology gone crazy and a rather strange KGB agent.

The movie was rather amusing, especially the fight sequences. However, there were a rather unrealistic and unbelievable scenes, like the one where he escapes from a nuclear bomb blast.

I will say that I am rather impressed by the agility of Harrison Ford. There are still traces of the original movies in the new one. And, it is good that they aged the protagonist.

Overall, well worth the watch.

My Rating: 7/10

I kept running out of storage space, so finally picked up two Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500GB external hard drive, one for me and another for Aditya.

They come in sealed boxes complete with the essentials to get it up and running.

Installation of the hard disk is extremely simple. It is accompanied by a user manual for newbies, but I doubt you will need it because everything is just plug and play.

You get prompted to install software that comes bundled with the HDD, but I chose to not bother with the 30 day trials.

I resized the partition to around 500MB and then created a single partition with the remaining space.

Though claimed to be 500GB, the hard disk is actually 465GB. Well, it still a good amount of space in addition to my 120GB and 160GB hard disks.

Now, I wonder when I will need to pick up another disk. Next stop 2TB

Went out with Marise after work on Tuesday. We decided to go to Sheesha which is on the terrace of Shopper’s Stop in Bandra.

The place is dark and expensive. Food was good. So no complains.

While we were there, the skies decided to open up and Mumbai got its taste of the monsoons this year. It poured cats and dogs for well over 30 minutes. I decided to spend the night at my Grandma’s place in Bandra itself.

Came back home in the morning to find my internet down as usual. Went to work only by 2pm. With just a few days to go, it wasn’t such an issue

My darling Flame turned four on the 4th of June. She is still giving over 46kmpl which is excellent.

Saturday was the last day of my Summer Internship in eClerx. I’ve spent two fulfilling months out there where I learnt a great deal and also decided to take the plunge into the world of Finance!

Had invited all the higher ups in the organization for my presentation and most of them turned up in person or on phone so I am totally pleased

Fingers crossed.

Spent today with Marise. We then went to watch the new Indiana Jones movie. Will write a review tomorrow

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time…. I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2 People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the T. V. remote because they refuse to walk to the T. V. and change the channel manually.

3 When people say ‘Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too’. Damn right! What good is cake if you can’t eat it?

4 When people say ‘it’s always the last place you look’. Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you’ve found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!

5 When people say while watching a film ‘did you see that?’. No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6 People who ask ‘Can I ask you a question?’…. Didn’t really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is ‘new and improved!’ Which is it? If it’s new, then there has never been anything before it. If it’s an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn’t be new.

8 When people say ‘life is short’. What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that’s longer?

9 When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks ‘Has the bus come yet?’. If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

Had a real good week at work, wherein I completed all my projects and got myself rated too (decently I must say).

And, a good week deserves a good weekend which is what I got.

Marise asked me to go out for dinner with her and her cousins. I haven’t met any of them except Sanket last week due to his disbelief in Marise!

So, we trooped off to Caravan Sarai at Waterfield Road, Bandra (W). Caravan Sarai is in the same building of Golden Orchid, which I visited once several years back.

The setting is as the name suggests. The seats are not that comfortable and the tables are relatively low which means people with relatively longer legs have a not so comfortable time sitting!

The service was not up to work. It took a while to serve us, which was still ok. However, what I didn’t like was the grumpiness in taking the order.

Anyway, the food was great, though expensive. It was both tasty and fresh. I like good food, though I do know I won’t be visiting this place too often.

We then went to the Natural’s at Bandra. Had a mango icecream

Met up with Marise again today. I had to collect my insurance policy for my bike from my agent in Vile Parle (W). He wasn’t at home, so we dropped in at the McDonalds out there. I haven’t been to that place for more than a few years now!

Collected the policy, trooped back home and we later went to Dynasty for crab meat soup, Tsing Hai chicken, chicken pepper garlic and iced tea. Need I say, we ate well?

I begin my last week of internship in less than twelve hours. Will spend this week writing reports and making the presentation. This is definitely going to be one really really long week!

This day last year, more than 180 students found their way to a Business School in Hinjewadi. The school was Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD and yours truly was one of those 180+ students.

The first fortnight at SCMHRD was crazy. But, that was just the beginning.

What followed was a crazy semester during which Ravi and me formed the WebComm and redesigned and relaunched the SCMHRD website.

Also joined the Admissions Team, which would ensure that the next semester would be more hectic than the first. Not because of the hectic schedule we have at college, but because Admissions demanded our total dedication, which we did. The admissions process was a hit, as well as everything preceding to it.
It did come at the cost of lack of sleep and surely not-so-great grades. But, we learnt a lot both theoretically and practically.

The second semester exams ensured that for a change we got some sleep and the last two months of summer internship ensured that I got the luxury of weekends.

I’ve learnt a lot in the last two months, and finally decided to take Finance as my major. Just hope everything works well in that regards.

Dad’s down for another day and when he is down, we usually set out for a father-son-on-a-bike-visiting trip. This time the destination was banks. We visited five banks in the area of Andheri and Vile Parle.

We also managed to grab some vadapav and sugarcane juice, both of which will be eternal favourites for any Mumbaite.

I remembered that I could get my N73 repaired. The joystick button was messed up and so needed to get the entire pad changed. Dad too had lost the tiny cap of the joystick of his N73. Gave my phone for repair and spent a good five hours with an almost zero contact list!

Had to meet up with Melody and Cloreisha at Bandra, but both got cancelled as I could not collect my phone until six. Since plans got cancelled, I visited my grandma at Khar as Dad needed me to pick up some stuff. I still reached Bandra around 7pm. My other grandma wasn’t at home.

Decided to drop in to the Senior-Junior Mumbai meet at Biona. Biona has closed down their big joint and taken up a small place, which was way too small.

Didn’t spend much time there as I had to meet Marise and Ruth for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Dinner was just popcorn (a huge tub), samosas and pepsi.

Was so tired Saturday night that I just crashed into bed. Went for mass this morning. Today happens to be my cousin Alisha’s birthday and so Mom and me made our way to their place for lunch.

Marise came over in the evening and spent a good portion chatting with the rest of my family. We went out for dinner at the Subway in the area. Dropped her off at the station and got back home. I have to go to work tomorrow. Half of eClerx is on off.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the second in a series of seven. When Prince Caspian blows a horn out for help, little did he realize that he would be calling for the Kings of the old.
Back in the real world, the Pevensie siblings are still hoping that they somehow go back to Narnia. The horn does bring them back to Narnia, but to a Narnia that has changed, changed in the past few hundred years.
Narnia is now ruled by Miraz, Caspian’s evil uncle who has eyed the throne for years.

Prince Caspian with the help of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy decide to win back Narnia, assisted by Aslan along the way.

The movie was good, really good infact. Well filmed, with the four of them do a great job in the movie. The acting of Caspian could have done a bit better. The movie is filled with a good number of one-liners that kept the people laughing.

If we are comparing books turned to movies and you compare Harry Potter and Narnia, for me Narnia wins

Rating: 8/10

After intense internal and external debates, hours spent on pondering and an equal number on (re)searching, I finally selected my electives for third semester.

So, here goes (number in brackets are number of credits):

Finance Electives

Corporate Finance - Theory and Practice (4)
Financial Statement Analysis (4)
Mergers and acquisitions (2)

Operations Electives

Supply chain analysis design and modeling (2)
Project Management (Ops) (2)

IT Electives

Software project management (4)
SAP-BIW (2)

Economics Electives

International Economics (2)

Now, I hope they prove to be a good choice, because I had a really bad experience last semester.

Marise came over last Saturday, as well as this.

It’s been a while since I had a pizza, so we ordered two pizzas from PizzaWay, which is where I normally ordered because they are tasty and cheap. This time I was told there was no deal available, but bargained my way into it. Hey! I am a regular customer when I am in town!

Went for morning mass on Sunday. It was a surprise because I normally don’t wake up in time.

Marise wanted to go shopping. I hate shoppping! But, …

Went over to her place in the afternoon. The place to shop: Bandra

Caught a bus back to Bandra. First destination was Hill Road. We roamed along the streets hunting for shoes and clothes for her. Finally zeroed in on two shops an picked up two.

We decided to visit the Reliance Trendz out there, which opened a little over a month back. The deals are amazing. I picked up a tshirt from there from just 199/- which was well worth it. I am surprised they are still giving deals like this despite running at a loss.

The week at work has been good. My work on the first project has been well appreciated so I am happy. My second project which is in the field of Operations has taken off well. It isn’t something I expected, but it helps me learn other processes at eClerx.

There have been a lot of immediate small tasks which come up on and off so the pace of my second project isn’t as good as I hoped. Have to work really fast in the next two weeks to complete it.

Elective selection is going on at SCMHRD. The entire batch is confused about what to select. I’m taking Finance and Operations subjects mainly, however am still not completely clear on which to take. Don’t want to take on too much of a load.

Foreign language also seems to be compulsory. I really wonder how I am going to manage Spanish

Yesterday and today have been quiet days at home. Marise came over yesterday. Grabbed a small lunch and then went over to Lucky’s for dinner. Decided to eat tandoori chicken and kababs. The food and the service wasn’t up to the mark yesterday. Went over to Natural Ice Cream on Hill Road

Woke up well past 10.30am this morning, and have been taking it easy at home today. Have to go for mass in the evening and have decided to head back home instead of wandering about the city

Tomorrow is Monday.