My experience with Kerala-1

After writing few Management entrance exams and applying to Not so worth colleges it was time to do a bit of travelling for attending GD/PI( Process). For those who are not familiar with what is GD/PI( I wonder if anyone is!!).It is the process where the College authorities do a Final check up of students and after crucifying them in the process if found good enough( If parents of the Prospective student are rich!!) give them a Coveted "Admission letter" and ask to Submit hugely idiotic sums of money in order to reserve a Seat in the college. They demanding the money is nothing but asking for a Ransom amount before the Kidnapping process is complete!!

Nevertheless the less said the better regarding the average B-schools. I had applied to SCMS-Cochin after getting to know that it was consistently ranked high ( A high as 22 at top india level)

Now that i know the credentials of the college,i have learnt a very important lesson "Never believe Magazines Rankings they are rigged". I had to attend the GD/PI process at Cochin( Ernakulam) so it was fun considering that i had to go to kerala where i have never been before.

It is a 27 hr journey from Hyderabad and surprisingly there is only one train to choose for the journey. Its Sabari express. Booked my tickets under Tatkal scheme hence had to pay 105 rs more than the usual amount.The ticket price was 495rs.

Now coming to the journey part.

I have always loved Train journeys, there is something about it which you can never find in other means of transport be it by Road or Air. The people whom you meet in trains become your friends for short duration and then after the journey you forget them. But you do remember them in some special ways. It is more easier to communicate with strangers in Train since we don't have some pre-conceived notions about them. Where as it becomes difficult to speak with people whom you know but have some Concepts regarding them which force you to be skeptical in talking to them.

In my part of the Bogie there was this group of three people who were going to Calicut. They were keralites. There was this other guy who seemed to be a Hyderabadi and who was more busy with his phone and songs,so din't get to know him much. There was this couple in the group i mentioned who were very sweet.They were in their 50's and the way the husband was pressing the legs of wife,it was worth seeing it. It must be because of Love or it can also be because of wife dominance!! You never know.

I talked with them and the only language which we could communicate in it was "English".Finally me having some knowledge helped me!! Surprisingly the other person in the group who was also in 50's had completed his MBA from calicut university and was so happy to say me that his college was only 3 minutes from his home!!

Two guys got into the Train at coimbatore and were very acting very strange!!

One of them had such a huge grin on his face as if someone had hit him just before getting onto the train and the other guy was listening to songs on loudspeaker mode irritating fellow passengers.I don't know how "educated" people do such Silly mistakes. The guy was in his formals and was looking as a corporate employee but he was showing such stupidity. When uncle said him to turn him off the phone only then he stopped it. Even i had thought of telling him but then considering i was younger to him i din't expect a good response from him so i refrained.

The group i was talking about got down at Pagalgat junction( Somewhere in Kerala) and they wished me luck for the interview and one uncle was so sure that i will get the admission!! See in so less time people see my Talents!! ( Which i am not aware of!!)

Then one more uncle who was also in his 50's got into the train and we talked for next 3 hrs!!

He was a Marketing manager of a company named Kerala Electricals limited( A PSU).He has been working there for 34yrs!! It was good knowing what opinion he had about the Youngsters,IT industry,Films,Politics,MBA,Family,Religion. We talked on almost all the topics which came to our mind!! It was good knowing him.

There is this feeling that after talking so long with someone on a Journey we should take their Phone number and keep in touch with them. But I feel we shouldn't do that,reason being it is a beautiful temporary relationship which is created and the major essence is it being Temporary.

We never might meet them again but they are etched in your memory at some corner of your mind. It is always beautiful to meet people on journey.

Part 2 of the journey is to be continued......

"Namaste India"

Have you ever wondered what you would say about your country,if you had to introduce your motherland to a foriegner?? This question got into my mind after an incident few days back. On a train journey to bellary i found that there were some foriegners who were travelling along to vasco-da-gama (goa) . There were around 3 guys who were sitting next to our slots of seats in the boogie. There was some guy who was trying to tell about india to these people, this guy was shouting on top of his voice so i overheard their conversation( wrong thing to do!!).The guy who was talking was really good in making people listen because i never heard others speak during his intro. While i was listening to him i got a bit perplexed whether this guy was praising india or demounting it. I eventually thought it was the latter which he was doing, he was very adamant in saying that he was a brahmin and about the caste system which is prevalent in our country. One point to which i completely agree is, he was speaking about the freedom a man posesses in our country he can practically follow any religion of his choice no one is stopping him from doing that. The "brahmin" even gave a ex. of a person who wants to be half muslim and half hindu. can do that without being questioned. Now this is something which i really doubt no one will question you??? i am sure in our hypocritical country atleast one religious organisation will observe bandhs if not many!!

The "Guide" kept on giving different examples to these foriegners who by the way our guests to our nation. On one point which i completely disagree to this guide is showing our country in poor light, he said them that they can overstay here and return back to their countries by just giving a lame excuse as they were suffering from

"swine flu". Yes i agree they might get away with that but as an responsible citizen we shouldn't give such idiotic suggestions.

After a while the conversation stopped and everyone slept and one of those foriegner came near my berth and slept, i was eager to talk to him but i dint. Then i just got a feeling that i should say that foriegner "Welcome to our country and hope you enjoy your stay". This was the line i had literally by-hearted and wanted to say to him as i felt it would just be nice to welcome our guests to our motherland.( not a bad thing to do acc. to me).

Our destination had arrived and to my luck that middleeast fellow( they were from iran) was awake and i could have just said it but i dint!! While getting down too i had an opputunity since he was at the door but again i dint. The reason why i dint say, "I dont know" but i surely was upset that i dint say that one line. wouldn't that have been wonderful if i had said that one line.

I just could not say to our guest "NAMASTE".

Aditya.