Of Life and Love

The hectic activity has finally subsided. I have been running to-and-fro from my hostel to the admin building all morning and noon. The tasks were important, hardly the sort that one could let be labeled collateral damage in the indescribable hurry of b-school life. But I have been at them since morning. And they are done now! Not a small feat, by no means. So now I take a leisurely walk down to the cafeteria, my eyes hitting upon the ‘big’ ThumsUp bottles standing teasingly in the freezer and I find I can scarce control myself. The bottle is brought out onto the counter. Behold! The beauty of the shape, the chilled surface laced with small droplets of moisture, each growing by the second and yearning to let gravity take control and hurl it down the smooth curves of the glass, caressing the bottle as it flows and meets others of its kind. Behold the deep yet translucent colour of the liquid filled inside, the light coming through in hues of brown, red, black and the like. And...

Hai Raat Sitaron Se Raoshan I guess this piece stems from the feeling of bracing ourselves to leave behind all that we once deeply cared for in our beloved XL. I only hope this sentimental creation will instill a cheerful note in our batch, as it has undoubtedly done in me. Here’s to finding a new meaning for life… ---------------------------------------------- Suraj pe matwali chhayi Ab saanjh dhale to dhala kare, Hai raat sitaaron se raoshan Ab chaand chhipe to chhipa kare Ab dil ki dhadkan goonj rahi Paeron mein thirkan aan basi, Dil-phenk zamaane se keh do Koi dard uthe to utha kare Insaaf karega kya koi Ab yaad karega kya koi, Yaadein to meri apni hain Koi bhool chale to chala kare Geeton ki goonj suni maine Nainon ki chot bahut dekhi, Tadpaati magar lajaati si Palkon ki oat bahut dekhi, Koi geet baje, koi chot lage, Ab preet sahe to saha kare, Koi palak uthe, koi nayan chale, Ab khoon bahe to baha kare Nadiya mein ek chali naiyya Lehron ki...

Abhishek Tripathi – Feb 2006 I guess this piece stems from the feeling of bracing ourselves to leave behind all that we once deeply cared for in our beloved XL. I only hope this sentimental creation will instill a cheerful note in our batch, as it has undoubtedly done in me. Here’s to finding a new meaning for life… ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ सूरज पे मतवाली छायी अब सांझ ढले तो ढला करे , है रात सितारों से रौशन अब चांद छिपे तो छिपा करे । अब दिल की धड़कन गूँज रही पैरों में थिरकन आन बसी , दिलफेंक ज़माने से कह दो कोई दर्द उठे तो उठा करे । ईंसाफ़ करेगा क्या कोई अब याद करेगा क्या कोई , यादें तो मेरी अपनी हैं कोई भूल चले तो चला करे । गीतों की गूँज सुनी मैंने नैनों की चोट बहुत देखी , तड़पाती मगर लजाती सी पलकों की ओट बहुत देखी , कोई गीत बजे , कोई चोट लगे , अब प्रीत सहे तो सहा करे , कोई पलक उठे , कोई नयन चले , अब खून बहे त...

Abhishek Tripathi – Oct 2005 तेरे जैसी मेरी मंज़िल I wrote this piece down with mixed feelings. It is essentially a parting song that can be used by someone bidding farewell to anyone or anything. A lover bidding farewell to his beloved or … An XLer bidding farewell to beloved XLRI What it means to each of us will be our own choice … ------------------------------------------------------- न वो मंज़र , न वो आलम , न फिर से वो वफ़ा होगी , तेरे जैसी मेरी मंज़िल न जाने फिर कहॉ होगी । खिलेंगे गुल मेरे हमदम तेरे गुलशन में हर मौसम , मेरे गुलशन में इठलाती हवाओं को सजा़ होगी । तेरे जैसी मेरी मंज़िल न जाने फिर कहॉ होगी । लगा मुझको न जाने क्यों छुपा लूं मैं तुझे दिल में , हुई मुझसे जो मीठी सी ख़ता , ये फिर कहॉ होगी । तेरे जैसी मेरी मंज़िल न जाने फिर कहॉ होगी । तेरे हंसते हुये चेहरे पे बन जायेंगी फिर गज़लें , मेरे होठों पे गीतों की निशानी फिर कहॉ होगी । तेरे जैसी मेरी मंज़िल न ...

Confused kya? Well, that is not a typo. Let me explain. It is strange when men get possessed by the urge of doing something out-of-the-box. Now before any ideas get into your head, let me say that it is a perfectly noble intention and is born out of a continued drudgery in one’s current occupation. And when you are doing MBA, chances multiply manifold that you would do this someday. But what form this out-of-box experience takes is something to be viewed carefully. For me and for some of my friends at XL, it translated into an urge to roam aimlessly in the soccer city; an urge laced with an inexplicable attraction to the pre-historic hunting roots that human males have. And so we three (Akshay, Lalith and yours truly) set out one very wintry night with my camera fed and fattened for the experience. I was determined to enjoy this out-of-box trip and I began by enjoying the freezing air rushing at me as I sat in the superbly ventilated auto. Brr… The plan was to buy tickets ...

The plan was to catch the metro back to MG Road as we had to go to College street. Now that is a street where you get hawkers more educated and savant than your aunt and your literature teacher, peddling books at dirt cheap rates. One look at the place and I knew why Cal was so full of ‘ babu moshais ’ for-ever lost in the intricacies of the written word. Only the traditional  dhoti  has been replaced with jeans I guess. Otherwise the  babu moshais  can still be found sniffing for their cherished treasure at College street like fish swarms sniffing food through coral reefs. Wow! Hey…but wait! I forgot to tell the most lovely part of the experience. We entered a sweet-meat…aww chuck…a  mithai  shop at the metro station and then began a sweet-gobbling game that resembled a child’s foray into a toy shop. Akshay and Lalith kept pointing at sweets just when it seemed we were done, the shop-keeper kept dishing them out and I kept rushing back from the wash...

Confused kya? Well then. I won’t try to explain; maybe if you read this piece you will get the drift. Be warned that I am writing this down in special circumstances and I have a certain objective in mind which just might miss the objective you have in reading this! Although I can’t prove it, I think you are smart enough to figure out things that life throws at you. So you will figure this one out easily. I am sure of that! So who was Adam? That flamboyant Australian wicketkeeper-batsman who played some really painful innings for our team and for other teams as well? I guess you must be right. But wait! He is not ‘was’, he still ‘is’? Hey, don’t try to mislead me now. I was talking about the first Adam of the world, The Adam. Yes, now I am back on track. Ok let me get down to whatever I have to say and then you can go back to whatever you were doing that was so boring you had to turn to reading my piece! I had checked the lecture schedule before sleeping and had been absolutely ...

What do you think is the right time to take a break? Living a monotonous life is something no one wants. And yet people do live such lives. I don’t think it is easy to decide the kind of life one will lead in the future. But I think it is very much in one’s control to make life interesting. It is easy. Go take a look at the still water surface of the lake and look at the reflection of the moon in the water. Look at the beautiful night scene (you need a lake in a beautiful setting and you need to go there at night, preferably a calm one without wind) in the water and feel the deadness of the atmosphere around you. It seems to be desperate to shout, to talk; the leaf hanging limply on the branch over your head is praying for a gust of wind, something like the one that came last night (who knows he just might manage to touch the beautiful leaflet by his side); the blade of grass that survived your boot wants some insect to come out of the earth and to tickle it (ah…if only that talkative ...

Value Add Infinitum A treatise on the phenomenon of Value-Add in B-schools and the classification of the B-schooler in this respect Paper by: Abhishek Tripathi Dated: Nov 6, 2005 “I joined a B-school for value addition to my career.” “The course was ok but there was absolutely no value-add in it.” “Oh, I am not enrolled in this course. I just attend for the learning value.” Well well, what do you make of these? These are utterly common and weather-beaten phrases uttered in B-school campuses, at least in our country. And just before you start thinking it is simply a fashion statement, the in-thing, I’d like to warn you that you run the risk of offending serious B-schoolers who walk about their campuses with their Value-meters slung on their shoulders. Although I am tempted to talk more about these creatures of precision and astute judgement, I will consciously refrain from it for the simple reason that I might, in the very near future, need to learn something from them. If you want to...