Sudipta's Life

You might have heard of lost chances and grabbing things with both hands, going for it, etc... but here is something that happened in real life. This incident occured when I had gone along with friends for recruitment to Bangalore. I know that going from Surat to Bangalore 'just to get placed' is definitely going to raise eyebrows of some readers here, but rest assured when you have not been able to trick some comapnies into recruiting you, you are quite desperate to pull it off on the next one in the line. That is a different story... some other time, maybe. Well, on the day itself, after reaching the UVCE campus, I got separated from my group. Maybe I was just plain concentrating, drinking water or something, but during the PPT, in the large hall, I found myself sitting in a very different bench from my buddies from the college. It was ok, kind-of, but then missing your milieu at such a time was a bit disconcerting. Once the PPT got over, I saw the HR people asking something

Hello everybody, I took my TOEFL this Saturday and was given a score range of 240- 297 on it. All questions were answered correctly by me... except one in the listening section. The essay was well-written, and I am expecting about 280-290 on the final score-card, out of 300. Ok, I can already hear some questions coming... so here are your answers: First of all, it is very easy. Please don't be tensed or imagine something about it --- if you can clear a Class VII English question paper on Grammar, you can clear almost everything. The RCs are damn easy... Class VII- VIII standard, believe me. And the best part is that you can go back and double-check your answers. If you write correct English, I think you should get 90% of the Structure correct as well. If not, maybe a little brushing up from Wren and Martin or a daily dose of some newspaper (not necessarily the Editorial section) should help. For the Listening section, I'd advise you to watch some English movies, preferably the

One of the didis of mine really bashed me up for mentioning 'export quality' about some girls who I saw at the International Airport. So, with all due apologies to all womanhood, I am posting here a part of the mail that I wrote to her in reply. "Finally, about the export quality stuff. When I say someone is export quality, I mean to say that he or she is good enough to represent the country abroad, either internally or externally. I hope that you already know this, but I'll repeat the fact that most of India's exports (I mean the material exports) are the best of the produce in here. For example, I am not sure if you know the various grades of sugar, but what you find in the market is C grade sugar, what you get at ration shops is D grade, and what you might encounter in some rare sweets shops (the most expensive ones) is the B grade sugar. The A grade sugar is almost always exported, as the value for money is the highest in there, and also because it is the pu

Hello everybody, First of all, I thank all of you for the good wishes and congratulations that you have sent... either as mails, PMs, or anyhow. I have also been getting a lot of mails from people asking for tips and tricks and how I made it to the 800 in quants and 700 on the verbal. So if you are prepared for a lot of gyaan (which I love shelling out), here you go: 1. How long does it take to prepare? A: There is no definite time frame. But about 2-3 dedicated hours a day, for about two-and-a-half months is enough. Then, again, it is dependent on your level. To find that out, I'd suggest that you should take one paper-based test that is there in the front of the book (Barron's, Kaplan, anything... or even the Big Book). If you score about 750 on the quants, and about 500 on the verbal (no cheatings, etc) then the time frame I've said should be enough. If you scored more, great... you should try to get to around 1550!! But if less... well, spruce up depending on how

My sister went off to the North Carolina State University, Charlotte . I had gone to see her off, from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. And the set of emotions which I was experiencing then at the airport was simply numbing by its sheer variety. First of all, it was definitely sadness. I enjoyed talking to her, especially when your chips are down or you haven't had someone to tease, irritate or share a little banter for some days. I am also going to miss her gyaans, her graphology lessons, and of course the way she reacts when you do something out-of-the-blue. We will be in touch on our mails, but then, talking on the phone or face to face is a different matter altogether. Next, it was happiness. She had fought many odds to be able to finally go to foreign shores for further studies. When I had talked to her earlier, she seemed confused, puzzled, undecided, all at the same time. And add that to a thousand other woes of a girl, and you begin to understand what she had

Yesterday was Friendship Day. Even before the weekend, (on Friday, that is) messages started pouring in from different people. Some were SMS-es, some were teddy-bear-and-rose kind-of mails, and some others were just plain subject-liners. On Saturday night, at around midnight it was like a special cosmic moment --- my mobile started buzzing and ringing like hell and was suddenly flooded with SMS-es; for a moment I even thought that the day of the Sardar (please, no offence meant) had finally come. One particular SMS even claimed to have been the first one to wish me, and therefore the sender was my best friend. I saw photos of 'Friendship Bands' on a newspaper, and also saw them on some shops. And it set me thinking --- do we really need the friendship day? As long as you want another reason to celebrate, booze out, party, etc it is all right. Why, I would even be freaking out for any reason, even something that says, "Kerela beat West Bengal in Kabaddi". If you think

Ok, you have been looking at a lot of scary and gloomy pics on the news channels. We too were in a fix, but what we went through yesterday morning was one of those days when you have tons of laughter for free. My room-mate, whom I will call Mr. M here for anonymity(unless you know him already) was the hero of the day! Day before yesterday, at night, there was a flurry of SMS-es from colleagues, etc. The content was something like this: "Please confirm at XXXXXXXX before leaving for office tomorrow". Now, as you can imagine, if you get a chance to skip office on a fine Monday morning, you don't mind getting up a bit early and trying to find out if you are being asked officially to skip it for the day. [Monday morning, 7:00 a.m.(in the room): Mr. M gets busy on the phone, calling up scores of people after the number that was circulated is found out to be busy]. The transcript of the conversation with anyone is roughly as follows: M: Hey! take a look outside... why would