Musings

The incident dates back to 1974. After scoring a good position in the university in pre-engineering examination, now called 10 + 2, I decided to join Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, Patiala as it was considered to be a prestigious institute. In view of my score in pre-engineering examination, I was allowed to choose a branch of my choice. There used to be only three branches of engineering at that time: Civil, Electrical & Mechanical. I opted for Electrical Engineering branch. First year of the four year course was common for all branches. There was a subject, Electronics, Instrumentation [...]

My father often talked about the phenomenal success of a film of his times. The title of the film was Achhut Kanya. It was perhaps the first movie of legend actor Ashok Kumar with an actress Devika Rani in the lead. Once a song of this film, Main ban ki chidiya banke ban ban bolun re was being telecast. I had stopped by the TV to watch it. The set-up, the song and the acting looked so funny to me. Above all, the heroine, Devika Rani, looked so rustic, pastoral and illiterate to me that I broke into a laugh. [...]

Chief Guests at various functions, convocations, meets and seminars are often political leaders or celebrities or men of accomplishments. People curiously observe their behavior during the proceedings of the events. During elite functions, a chief guest needs to be fully alert and live up to the image he or she carries in the public. Humbleness and alertness of chief guests has a magnetic effect on the people. Once, during an event of a gymkhana club, the chairman of an organization was the chief guest. As he occupied his chair on the dais and viewed the audience, he found a senior [...]

Gurgaon has become the job capital of North India. Most of the MNCs have their corporate offices located in Gurgaon. Fresh MBAs prefer to join the corporate offices of companies instead of branch offices as the corporate office culture adds to their vision, provides extra exposure and enhances their ‘market value’. Whosoever gets posted in the corporate office considers oneself lucky. Young postgraduates, on their first posting, opt for a PG but soon get fed up by the restrictions imposed by PG owners, dreary cabins, tasteless food and sky high charges. So they make a group of two or three, [...]