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>I am sure by now you have all been following the story of the perfect weekend – I and II, and it is time now to announce the end of the wonderful weekend.

Continuing from the terrace, where me and P spent long hours extending well into the night, we get back.

Sunday morning. As usual we wake up pretty late, and we go out to the same small tea shop to have breakfast. She said she kinda likes the place after thronging the CCDs and the Brasitas of the world, that small shack really felt at home. More in India. Oh! I so like this girl. Se has no airs at all.

It typically happens, fresh into a relationship. You keep thinking and analysing different things. She likes this. She does not like this. With these small observations you would try making a mental picture of her inner mind.

After getting back home after breakfast, we plan to get away soon to catch up a movie. She had her train at 10PM. Damn!

But then we decide otherwise, and come to a common consensus (a rarity with the opposite gender) that the room is a better, more private place.

After spending lots of time doing nothing, but just staring at each other and talking random, we finally decide it is time to get ready if we want to watch the movie. We get ready and head straight to CP – my favourite hangout.

We reach CP right in time for the movie, and she agrees for Quick Gun Murugun after a lot of persuading. I like her. We have our lunch in the PVR itself. The movie was a laugh riot.

After the movie, I met Puneet on the road there walking out of castle 9. He was there with his friends. Me and P then head to Knights to have a late lunch, or rather early dinner. Beer it had to be. I love this girl. Come on, she loves beer!

We then get this crazy idea. My first proper meet with her was here at CP a week back, and we decide, “lets re-create it!”. Lets again go to the same places and relive those precious moments.

We then go to KFC to fill our stomachs with some actual food, rather than just beer and stuff. By the way, P also loves prawns and insisted for some at Knights. Wah! One more match. I am so much in love with this girl. Beer and Prawns, what better can one ask for?

After KFC, and she calling home and all, we also go to the CCD outlet. We were in no mood for a coffee, or anything for that matter. Also, it was already 9:15PM, and her train was about to depart in 45 minutes.

But then, we had to relive those moments. CCD is the place where we first met, and we had to go there. The same outlet. We have tea there, and run for an auto.

I drop her to the station, to send her off. That was an emotional send off. She was occupied with the reality that we would not be meeting for long now. She was going across the seven seas next week, and I would be leaving Delhi soon for my next stint.

I was more occupied thinking about my sleep. I had to go to office tomorrow. Her train starts moving, and I plant a kiss on her cheek and we hug each other. She leaves.

I manage to get back home in an autorickshaw. I reach home at about 11:15.

Well, 45 more minutes. The weekend is not yet over guys!

At home, Puneet is drinking with his friends – the same ones we met at CP. I join them, with some beer.

At about 11:45, we are done with all alcohol, and Abhinav too was back after the L reunion meet.

We all have a con call, and then i go to sleep. A very well spent weekend I was just thinking. And also, I have to sleep well, I have office tomorrow and it has to be a big day!

Puneet runs towards my room. “Dude, that guy is puking. What do we do of him?”

Ha ha! The room is all messed up and stinking, and no amount of AXE spray helps.

“yaar, tereko pata hoga ulti karne walo ko kaise handle karein”, puneet tells me.

“Make him eat a lemon, or some Rayne Water. It get him hydrated”, I reply.

“Chill dude, just leave the guy. Let him extract the full out of his puke”, abhinav says with a definite assertiveness.

We all collectively agree that nothing much can be done. Let the other guy, who has no clue with the happenings, be there sleeping dead like he is on Pot.

The puking guy was left to his own peril. He was too heavy to be even budged from his own puke.

Puneet sleeps in the couch. TB is in my room, and the slosh guy is lost in his own puke!

Ha ha! Perfect ending to an amazing weekend! Looking for more!!!

This series of the perfect weekend was inspired by real people and real events, but to maintain the interest of the reader (you!) it has been converted to a work of pure fiction adding the necessary masala and curry wherever the tone went bland!

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Okay, I am in corporate life now, and I sell chocolates for a living. My job is to ensure that chocolate are available in every nook and corner of my territory and plentiful in that. But the passion of teaching still lies within and CAT coaching is something I have been doing for sometime now, and I think it is my moral responsibility to keep my readers updated about any new happenings in this arena. Especially after it being declared that CAT is going to be online from this syear, and I am sure this has created lots of apprehensions and doubts in the minds of the aspirants. So some more dope on this –

This is from an article on watblog about the recent update.

We all know that CAT is about to go online from this year, and in all probability it is going to be a computer based test.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) after recent months of speculation will finally be held Online this year. IIM has announced further details regarding Online CAT conducted from this year. CAT would no longer be a one day – one session appearance test but would now be conducted in 10 day long schedule with two test sessions in a day.

CAT-2009 will be held during November 28, 2009 to December 7, 2009. A candidate will be given choice in terms of test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centers (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

To appear for Online CAT, candidates will need to purchase scratch-vouchers from the designated bank branches, and later register online for CAT 2009. Vouchers would go on sale from 9 September 2009.

Some more frequently asked questions about CAT 2009

• When is the advertisement for CAT 2009 going to appear?
  

CAT Advertisement will appear in leading newspapers on Sunday, 30 August 2009.

• Once  the   advertisement   appears, is   one   expected  to   buy  CAT   bulletin   from  designated banks?
  

No. One does not have to buy a bulky CAT bulletin. We want to go paperless. A prospective candidate buys a scratch-voucher from the designated bank branches, and, later registers online for CAT 2009.

• When does the sale of voucher start and end?
  

Sale of vouchers starts on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 at designated bank branches and their associate outlets. The sale ends on Thursday, 1 October 2009.

• When and how do I register for CAT 2009 after buying the voucher?
  

Online registration for CAT 2009 will also begin on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 and end on Thursday, 1 October 2009.Instructions on access to online registration will be given in the voucher, and, detailed registration instructions will be on the CAT website.

• When will CAT be held and can I choose a test date?
  

CAT  will  be   held  during the  period Saturday, 28 November 2009  – Monday, 7 December   20009. Yes, you can choose a test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centers (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

• Can you give more details on taking test in a CBT format?
  

Starting  Sunday, 30 August 2009, CAT website – www.catiim.in will provide all the details.

A more comprehensive list of Online sites to help candidates are linked here.

So all the best towards your preparation for CAT, which I am sure is going on in full swing by now.

Till then, have a look at this article in TOI, and relish.

Booze flowed free for over 100 villagers, including women, who partied hard after a truck carrying foreign liquor overturned on NH-5 in Jaipur district.

Ah! Now when is such going to happen in Delhi. But what the heck? Alcochol is anyways dirt cheap in this union territory. Cheers Guys!

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About three more weeks at home and then am off. Off to the land of dreams – Mumbai (or so it is called!). The last three months here at home were amazing, and I had a wonderful time doing nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Staying at home compels you to attend so many of these weddings, family gatherings, community meetings, which given a chance you would not want to be even seen around. I have attended hordes of such gatherings, weddings, parties, etc… Which were not really in my liking? One of these was the community meet we had a couple of weeks back.

I have nothing specific against these so called social gatherings, and it is really good that people do come forward to meet up, socialize, and talk to each other. After all, this is what differentiates us – The Human race, from the rest of the animals – SOCIAL. (Hated it as a subject during school!)

I made up my mind that I would try to be as social as possible, and try striking conversations with anyone and everyone, trying to know more people. Thus fulfilling the very purpose of such meets – Socializing. After all, you are supposed to talk @ Community meetings, meant for talking.

The funny thing is the very amusing behavior of people around you, and their talks, and more importantly their topics of discussion. The whole community members can be classified into many categories and each category would converse with every other possible category, so doing the math gives a whole lot of permutations and combinations of talks. Here I would specifically like to comment on some types of conversations I overheard in that evening of ennui.

Hair Dye Talk

Two 40 something males, with one small kid in the hand, and running after a not so small kid, while the wife is busy cribbing about life to the fellow wives.

Mid aged uncle 1 (M1): Hey, have you been to habib’s recently? (As if Habib’s is the latest restaurant in town, and every normal human is expected to frequent it)

M2: yeah, was there for a haircut. (His hair looks even worse than what a normal roadside barber would do. Seems like he has gone to those barbers who sit on the pavements with one nice chair, and a mirror in hand.)

M1: Oh! Sad, the hair cut there is not so good (Laughing within himself, proclaiming his victory), you should have rather gone to “Toppers – The saloon” for that.

M1: The hair colouring at habib’s is really good. (Now trying to show off his latest hair colour, which removes all doubt that we are evolutes of the monkey race).

M2: Oh! Really, that is so good. Your hair really looks nice, what colour is that? (Chuckling within himself, laughing at the colour choice)

M1: It is the latest one available, the latest trend (I am so sure he himself did not know about it).

You know how much it costs, a full 1200 bucks for a bottle. (Getting back to his bragging mode),

add another 500 bucks for this colour of the streak (trying to show his streak, after he realizes that M2 is not really impressed with the 1200 bucks)

M2: Hmmm!

M1: Also, an additional 500 bucks is the service fee there (Still trying to prove his point that it has costed him a bomb to get that hair),

but well, I know the guy there (Now trying to show his affluence),

so it got settled in 400 bucks itself. (A sense of victory!)

Call Center Talk

I then move on to a younger group, when one of my cousin signals a Hi, and invites me to join them My aim of being social led me to this group. A group of 20 something youngsters (My age group!), with one common factor binding them all – They all work at HSBC, the call center. So obviously all the talks revolve around the processes there, the work, colleagues and HSBC, HSBC, HSBC… So even there in that group I end up as a total misfit, and just remain a mute listener.

The thing with vizag is – there is only this one call center of repute and MNC settings – HSBC. All BCom, BBM and other graduates, who know they would not want to work for long (Family Business!), but at the same time want access to the latest and the best happening people in town, join HSBC. This pretty much includes more or less everyone, of this age, in our community (Sindhi’s)!

One typical thing about all these 20 something youngsters was their dressing sense. Updated with the latest trends, the best brands, the “I don’t care attitude”, and the complete urban metro look. Too much money at too young age I guess. Just a look at their mobile phone models and their bikes (or cars!), makes you wonder how much are they paid!

The talk here would typically go off with process, bands, Telemarketing, outbound calls, inbound calls, US, UK, Lead generation, HR, Customer phone sales executive, PM, AMO.. and so many other terms that I could not understand. One interesting thing here in this group was – though they all worked in night shifts, and many of them never ever met in office due to different timings, different processes and all – everyone knew everyone. And one thing that they all loved doing – gossiping and bitching about their fellow colleagues.

A talk between two girls in that group –

Girl 1: Hey, know what? That guy Phani is going around with that bi*ch Sheetal.

Girl 2: What? Really (With an equally snobbish attitude, still trying to arrange her mascara and a flabbergasted look)

G1: yes, last heard they were found in the office restroom making out.

G2: My Gawd! Tell ya, she is a total bit^& and she is great in trapping innocent guys like Phani. Poor Phani.

G1: yeah, only til last month she was with yadav, and their relationship seemed so intense!

…. The talks go on, and they describe stuff, not recommended for this blog. (the parental control would get invoked!)

You don’t need a degree in Astronomical physics to understand the happenings. Sometimes, this makes me wonder – should I have joined HSBC during these three long months. It could have got me into the most “happening” circuit of vizag. Many a things could have happened!

Real Estate Talk

Now coming to the third group of people and their talks.

If the previous group was busy talking about the virtual estate, here we have over sized, pot bellied and bald over aged men discussing the latest real estate trends in the city. It comprises of an elderly group of people, most of who are very much into their own businesses, and have developed this new found love for the spiraling real estate prices. Each one of them thinks themselves to be a master of their art, and without any gusto declare their proficiency in the field.

This group compulsorily consists of one rich Baniya businessman, who after spending all his life selling sweets and pakodas, has now entered the real estate business. A building there, a shopping complex here, and selling it off to people from the same community. So this is like an ideal place for him to market his products with complete alacrity free of cost. And also, most of the times hook in customers there and then.

The talk here is too boring and diplomatic, with it starting off with Diabetes and ways to avoid or control it. Then slowly drifting towards the current market scenario, and then the Baniya halwai shifts the discussion to the booming real estate and why everyone should invest in that. After setting up this base, starts the pitching of his properties and his construction sites.

Many more groups, and their varied talks – a complete book can be written on this topic.

Alas! Amongst all these different noises was a poor blogger, who felt so totally out place, and could do nothing else but just wander from one group to another. Wondering – “Why the hell am I here?”

Oh! By the way, I too got smitten for the maddening rush to acquire the personal facebook page id, and succumbed to it. My ID on facebook is http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani That adds one more web address. The others being

iBlog @       http://jbharat.blogspot.com
Linkedin:    http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani
Twitter:        http://twitter.com/bharatjhurani

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani

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Now I seriously think Mr. Mallya should be paying me some freelancing stipend. Not only have I contributed a lot of amount towards driving the sales up, now I am also publicizing it and its tagline. Well, Mr. mallya is a big man, and is the winner of the just concluded elections, so I don’t want to pester him much. (Note to myself: I think I should still ask for the stipend!)

Yes, without even contesting the elections, this tagline of Kingfisher – King of Good times (that very well holds with its chief promoter) is the true winner. After the verdict declared on Saturday, everything good has been happening in the country.

I seriously hope SRK is wrong, when he says, “Hamari life bhi in picture ki tarah hoti hai.. Anth mein sab theek ho hi jata hai.. HAPPIES ENDINGS. Aur agar sab theek nahi, to picture.. Abhi baaki hai mere dost.“(Our lives are so much like the movies. In the end everything is gotta get right… HAPPY ENDING. And if everything is not all right, the movie is still not done my friend!).

I don’t want the movie to end; don’t want it to all be over so abruptly. I know, everything is not all right still. There are still so many things that need to be mended. That is the best part of human lives and society, it is so fragmented and complex that it can never be all homogeneous anytime, and thus, the movie would never end!

Yeah, now what are these supposedly good things that have occurred – I have quit beer and have just joined a gym. (Great, that could be like the best thing to happen forever, but alas! It has not. Told you na, there are still a lot of things to be mended.

STABLE GOVERNMENT

I don’t which party would be a better leader at the center. Whether L.K. Advani or Dr. manmohan Singh would make a better prime minister. If UPA is a better alliance than NDA (The third front and the fourth front would have been good supporters and bargainers). One thing is clear from the verdict – the government is stable, and there would not be unnecessary horse trading and constant threats to withdraw support. The Indian junta has shown its maturity by voting with complete responsibility and the UPA now has a lot to deliver. There could be no better situation than this, when the whole world is looking upon India and China in these times of recession.

Some obvious revelations:
Regional parties have been shown their place, national parties have regained their dominance
The results are a vote for stability and good governance
The results are a vote for “reforms” and the Congress-led UPA should, therefore, fast forward “reforms
The nation has rejected the “communalist” BJP

Jai HO!

The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) again sweeping the Assembly elections (they won all 32 seats this time, like the last time in 2004)? They are not likely to lose any seat even in 2014. The opposition (Congress) has no base and the party has no grassroots in Sikkim at all. The SDF will continue to retain power for atleast another 20 years surely. With Chamling at the helm, the SDF will continue to get support of the Sikkim people for more development of the state in all areas (Source: Varun’s blog)

There is no power LEFT

The left have always been a pain in the road to development in this capitalistic society. By voting them out completely the Indian junta have shown that they would want to be a completely capitalistic society, and consumerism should be at its core. After all, the king of good times is something that the left hated completely. We can no more live in a society which says equality for all. Where would the entrepreneurial zeal come in from in such circumstances? The whole country would turn into a PSU where everyone knows that the promotion is a direct function of one’s political contacts or the number of years put in, and the quality or amount of work has no say at all!

MARKET SENTIMENT IS UP

India’s financial markets surged on the first working day after the results were out, with benchmark stock indices halted after hitting an initial 10% circuit limit, as a decisive mandate handed to the United Progressive Alliance in federal elections raised hopes of a stable government and progress on economic and market reforms. Morgan Stanley now expects the Sensex companies to post aggregate earnings growth of 2.5%, against its prior forecast of a 10% contraction, this fiscal year. It upped its Sensex target for 2009 to 15,300.

• UPA’s clean sweep win cheers the markets
• The ruling Congress party wins the most since 1991
• Trading on both the BSE and the NSE has been halted
• Creates history; two upper circuits in one day
• Extends its year-to-date gain to 48 per cent
• Sensex +14,200 and the Nifty +4,300 first time after about eight months

Investor wealth soared by a whopping Rs four lakh crore within seconds of opening of trade. Now all this has given a new confidence to the retail investors and the common junta of the country. They would again start investing in the stock markets, like it was in the boom time till mid 2008. Also, the soaring of the wealth exponentially and the positive outlook given by most rating agencies and analysts would lift the moods still up. As my friend DN, a financial analyst in making, notes,” Ya, it is a rally, but a sustainable rally. And yes…the fundamentals are not the same; the political risk has drastically decreased“. Yes indeed, the political risk has decreased dramatically. Lalu could be a lot of pain in the ass otherwise.

LTTE chief dead

Now this is like a typical bollywood movie unfolding for the congress. First it’s historic win since 1991, and then the chief accused for the assassination of its ex chief Rajiv Gandhi – husband of the current supremo, is shot dead. Prabhakaran’s death signals the end of the nearly three decade-long civil-ethnic war that cost the island nation the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Good news.

KKR finally wins without Divine intervention

Kolkata knight riders have been facing rough weather right from the beginning of the second season of IPL. Everything that could possible go wrong, did go wrong. First, the thing about the fakeiplplayer, and the tiffs within the team. The stand of having more than one captain for the season. The superover fiasco in the match against R Royals. Everything seems so bad, that it was seemingly apparent that KKR would break the record of DC of having the least number of points. (KKR had 3 til yesterday, while DC scored a dismal 4 points in IPL 1)

But, as the king of good times reigned, and it preferred helping KKR rather than its in house RC, Balaji blessed KKR with a victory.Belligerent half-centuries by Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge took the Kolkata Knight Riders to a spectacular win against Chennai Super Kings. Know, it is not going to help KKR much, but now atleast the Bengalis can have their head up for their Dada, and also face the Deccanites competing in the lowest points category (The honour would still remain with Deccan!)

Well, the thing that KKR could finally win without any divine intervention has met flak with many religious people. Afterall, it was balaji who steered KKR to victory, and Balaji is the lord at the Tirupati abode. So there still is some divine intervention.

Now all of this ofcourse spells out good news all over the media, and I hope this spell continues for a long time to come.

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It is about 50 days that am here in Vizag, and am proud to announce that have done nothing substantial. Yeah, have started taking up classes at T.I.M.E. for one week now. This was good time spent in catching up with friends on the latest media – TV Series and movies. I never ever in L felt the urge to watch any TV series during my stint at L. Moreover seeing my friends getting totally hooked on to it, I decided on purpose that I would be away from them.

This would be quite surprising to know, but in the whole of my two years at L, when people complete the TOP 250 at IMDB, are up to date with the latest seasons of all TV series and also pick up an interest in EPL and stuff, I managed to stay away from most. I just saw HEROES season 1 completely and two and a half men Season 1 to some extent. I was thankfully smart enough to load them all up in the 1TB hard disk with the vision that I would see them some day.

Never thought that someday would be so soon. Now that I am home and completely jobless I have started my romance with these TV series, and dude! They are so addictive. I don’t feel like sleeping till the wee hours of morning, just in the pursuit of completing up “one more” episode of HIMYM. I am again proud to announce that I have completed five times more seasons in these 50 days than my 2 years there at L.

Well, now getting to the core. What intrigued me the most of these English TV series, other than the fact that they are a good time pass, is the level of marketing and viewer engagement that these people get into these Shows?

• Brad Pitt was dating Jennifer Aniston, so get him to an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
• It is thanksgiving time, so celebrate this in the show.
• Blackout in the US, so make a complete episode out of it.

Well, these things even the Hindi TV series probably do. What they miss out on the most is creating the characters in such a way, that people actually start believing that they are real people. The case in hand that I would be detailing in this post is HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

Before starting off, this sitcom (situational Comedy) is about Ted, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother, which explains the title and allows for a narration in the past tense. How I Met Your Mother’s other main characters are Marshall, Robin, Lily and the LEGENDARY Barney.

Some of the main points that really impressed me about the involvement level created by the marketing team are:

• The Bro Code, stated by Barney many times throughout the series, is a set of written rules for bros to follow, and has been published as a tie-in novel and also an audiobook. Now this is going really far. Actually sensing a market for a book of rules that are just passed off as dialogues in the series is excellent.

   

• Throughout the series Barney makes references to his blog. CBS hosts and updates an online copy of Barney’s Blog online. Actually having a blog on the characters reference, and also updating it would make the viewer completely involved with the AWESOME character.

   

• There is this one episode when Barney is referred to as Swarley. Barney towards the end tries to pretend he loves his new name to avoid being called Swarley again. Though it is not shown in the episode, there is a website called Swarley.com about it.

   

• In one of the episodes it is revealed that one of Barney’s former one-night-stands, whom he told that his name was Ted Mosby (in Ted Mosby: Architect), created a website denouncing him called TedMosbyIsAJerk.com. Actually designing such a website is great.

   

• A website made by Victoria as a response to, called TedMosbyIsNOTaJerk.com also exists. This one is not an official site, and there it shows it all. The fans have become so loyal and they actually want to follow the makers and leave no stone unturned.

   

• Marshall and Lily are married and there exists a website with videos and pictures of Marshall’s and Lily’s honeymoon, never showed on the show.

   

• A complete website of Ted’s “mysterious” identity when he was in college, as seen in one of the episodes is also hosted.

   

• Barney’s Video Resume: The most popular of all, this video has actually been making rounds online. In one of the episodes Barney reveals that he has created an online video resume at BarneysVideoResume.com and the makers took the pain of actually creating one, and a very funny one for that.

   

• Also there is a page on myspace for the show as well all the individual actors.

   

I wonder when Indian Television will rise to make such Series that become a cult in themselves. When will Indian TV dole out series which can actually be sold on DVD as seasons and have buyers. I can only remember Sarabhai vs Sarabhai to have reached to some extent of popularity to actually have reruns and reruns and even be sold on DVD, and shown on in flight entertainment systems. Well, sooner or later they would catch up am sure.

The corporate have caught up to some extent in harnessing the internet to spread their brand message further. AIRTEL recently came up with an interactive site impatient tones.com to involve its users. It is also running a promotional campaign to promote impatience theme and is asking the consumers to come up with a version of a 30 second video or a 30 word story on the most boring movie ever seen, and be declared as the next featured impatient one. This is to promote their impatient theme for the airtel broadband that recently launched internet at the speed of 16MBPS.

Now I am off to catch up with the rest of the episodes of HIMYM, while you can chill watching these funny animated spoofs on popular hindi movies.

http://airtel.impatientones.com/devdas.swf

http://airtel.impatientones.com/mughalai-azam.swf