Gurgaon

I am doing an internship in an e-commerce startup here in Gurgaon. It was mainly the three months of boredom at home and a desire to do some non-technical, business related work that brought me here (I would have preferred working in Bombay, but didn't get a similar opportunity there).

On the work side, I worked in the company's warehouse for first 10 days - trying to structure the quality control part of supply chain. I am currently working on customer order cancellations and customer feedback in collaboration with call center executives and mainly doing some data analysis, trying to find actionable business points. I also worked on finding the efficiency of the supply chain (obtaining cycle time, bottlenecks etc.) In the beginning, the work didn't seem interesting at all. But as time passed and more responsibility was given to me, it turned out to be a pretty good experience. The best part about it is I am given small and diverse projects in different departments to give me a good overall picture of the startup. 

On the fun side, it has been great! Visited delhi twice; delhi food is awesome (paranthe wali gali in Chandi Chowk, ice pan in CP particularly), went to IIT Kanpur once to meet my brother. There are many people from IITB here in Gurgaon. I am staying with my crazy school friend here. My flatmates are very cool - there is one who is a travel addict and has been taking me around, one who has switched 7 jobs in 3 years and one with a very cute dog. I also once lost my wallet and finally caught the thief by tracing through the CCTV camera footage (details below).

So, in all it has been a mixed experience. I would have preferred better working hours, better work culture and a non-sexist city! But sitting in my office and pondering about the past month, I have realized that there were quite many good things that I got to experience - thorough knowledge about a company's operations, living in apartments with strangers-at-first-friends-to-be, my first house party (dancing and drinking; well coke for me), pub culture and living with a pet dog! After having lived in a city as dangerous as Gurgaon, I suppose this gives one some confidence of come-what-may-we'll-survive. 

Wallet Incident: One evening in food court, I suddenly realized that my wallet was not with me. I remembered taking cash out from it an hour back. I searched all places where we went in last hour, thoroughly, taking help of security personnel there. After searching for half an hour, I had given up hope on finding it back. Then my friend suggested to go to the control room in the basement of the building and see the CCTV recordings. 

The person incharge (let's call him RH) was very cooperative. He let us enter the control room. It resembled those shown in movies - multiple screens showing different parts of the buildings and many control buttons. We scanned through the past hour's recordings. We traced our movements, focusing on who were in close proximity to us to steal, at which points I had my wallet and where I was seen without it etc. Finally, RH spotted a guy hovering around us and finally picking up the wallet I had forgotten while sitting on the stairs. But the recording didn't show the guy's face properly to identify. Again, we traced his movements through various cameras to get a better look. RH identified him as working in a nearby place. Then, we went and caught the guy and I got back my wallet. We left then, didn't wait to find out what they did with him (after all it was Gurgaon and best to avoid trouble) 

Life

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.  - Robert heinlein

Changing Times

I am back from two very awesome trips. They are those categories of trips that I used to take for granted and kind of my birth right when I didn't have so much on my plate. (read, my only concerns were to eat, play, sleep on time and do my HW after constant scoldings from mom). So the two trips concerned these two categories - attending a close wedding every now and then and going to my nani's place every summer.

Having missed weddings of 5 cousins in last six years (two of which were very close - my childhood buddies) because of exams or some or the other commitment, I was super excited to finally attend a wedding filled with all the usual wedding fun - dance, mehndi, sangeet and other rasmein, hiding the groom's shoes, fere etc. I attended Shipra's brother's wedding in Beawer. And the best part was the reunion with insti friends. It was more of a reunion just for me, since they all are in bombay only. It is good if atleast your friends are together, working/studying in the same place even though you can't be as that keeps the group alive and you can still feel home whenever you visit them. 

The other trip, to my nani's place, again brought back lot of wonderful memories. While earlier spending a month during school vacations there was a thumb rule, this time I was shocked to realize that I was visiting after 6 years. The best part is, even though you may change, they don't. I wonder when I will visit them next, probably in another 4-6 years. 

It is sad that things are changing so fast; wonderful traditions are disappearing; childhood bonds are weakening and we have no other choice but to go with the flow. The least that I can do is take as many pictures as possible and write in as much detail as possible  in my journal so that I can live back those moments again.

Moving on

Life goes through phases. In every phase you are a different person having different ideas, beliefs and dreams; and a different central drive. You can say that we grow and develop with these phases, but it can also be that we really degrade with passing phases. Probably the world and its norms get to us more and more with each passing phase. Probably we were the purest in the first phase and start getting corrupted from then on. But let’s get practical, I think we grow mature and become better at living and shining in this world. I don’t have the big picture yet, but just a belief that everything happens for the good. Today, I am at the end of one such phase – the phase of college life and I am ready to step into my next phase – job; working for somebody else for the first time in my life. From where I stand, I don’t know how my next phase is going to be. I am excited and curious to know what it’ll be like to be there. The prospect of new challenges and new experiences always excites me in a positive and inspiring way. But much about the future, I feel a bit enlightened now, standing here, at the finish of this 4 years long phase. A part of me is mocking me for all the crap I did, all the crap I believed in which looked real then, but now is standing bare naked in the light of the truth that eluded me then. Another part of me is nostalgic, those crap and not so crap things that I believed in with my whole heart made me happy, made me feel real and myself. I know now that most of these things will fade away with my next phase, but some things will sustain with me, forever. They will add to the big picture and contribute to the absolute me. Many years later when I’ll describe to my close friends who I really am, some of those things will feature in what I’ll say then. If I were to thank my alma mater for one thing, then that would be this – helping me discover those things that will define me in times to come.

I’ll take home things like valuing friendship, integrity, hard work, passion and standing up for my decisions. The wonderful memories which will bring a smile on my face for some time, will too fade away with time. Nothing is constant with time, everything changes. I hope that I stay in touch with my college friends who will help me remember these wonderful memories for long lasting time.

I have cried last three days. We are having our valedictory function these days – people get nostalgic talking about good and bad old times, talking about their friends, thanking them for being there when they were most needed. Suddenly we have realized that all this is going to end, yes this phase with beautiful, painful, fun and sad experiences is going to end. We made up companions who made going through this phase easy and fun and developed such strong bonds with them that it is very hard to part now. All good things end, because newer and probably even better things need room! This is life, it moves on, even though we want it to be stationary for some more time, to cherish our college life, probably more fully this time, knowing well that it is not lasting forever. That is why people say that we live life more fully if we are fully aware of our death, most people just pretend that they know death, but actually they don’t. Because if they did, they will never live life like they live now. 

Aristotle’s philosophy

Here is the write-up I submitted on Aristotle for my institute elective, Philosophy of Life.

Aristotle raises the question of what is a meaningful life. To answer this, he analyzes the nature of man. According to Aristotle, man is a rational being. Reason is universal to humans, ie. all individuals have the faculty of reason, though different individuals may use this faculty up to different capacities. The faculty of reason is a-temporal and a-spacial.

There are three parts of human soul. Starting from the most the basic to the complex, they are

1. Vegetative – It governs the needs of man
2. Spirited – It governs the desires and passions
3. Rational – Its object is to govern the other two governing souls. This is what makes humans unique and different from animals.

Since, man is a rational being, every action he takes has a direction, not just a movement and has a meaning attached to it. Every action is performed aimed at some end or goal. Action entails choice which further entails reason to make that choice. Hence, man is an agent whose every action follows the path of choice, reason, judgment and finally the act. An action is a means to some end, which may further translate to some other means and so on. Aristotle argues that this cycle of means and ends must have an ultimate end, otherwise there would be a fallacy of infinite regression or a fallacy of circularity and the ends would be meaningless. This pursuit of ends is represented like a pyramid with its top as the end-in-itself.

This ultimate goal of life is called eudaimonia and translated as happiness. There are two demands of end-it-self:

1. Self-sufficiency – It should be complete in itself
2. Absolute/eternal/universal  and non-transferable

Using the above two demands, he establishes that other claimants like pleasure, honor and wealth cannot be end-in-itself. According to Aristotle, happiness is a state of being, an existence in totality, towards which all actions should be aimed at.

Though man is a rational being, reason may not always be the dominant governing force. Man is usually governed by his desires and passions (animal aspect of soul). Humans have a weakness of will, called akrasia. The true and supreme nature of man is one with rationality. Only a life in harmony with nature can be meaningful. Humans are agents and involve in judgments. All judgments have a notion of “good” (ethical good). Hence we all operate with a notion of “good”. A meaningful life is one composed of rational actions. Humans have to be rational about their animal spirit. Desires and passions are a-rational and if left to themselves they can be extreme. Thus Aristotle proposes the theory of golden mean for a meaningful life. Here mean is one between rational and animal aspect of soul and a moderation based on rationality.

New World, New Experiences

There are two things that I love a lot - travelling and adventure sports. So when I got a chance to go Tarkarli beach with my friends, I was more than delighted. The sea, beaches, waves, forts, islands, coconut trees, fishes, coral reefs made my trip a memorable experience.

I did scuba diving for the second time (first time was in Nice, France). I was so excited and could feel the adrenalin surging though my veins. I was more confident and comfortable breathing underwater this time. It was so tranquilizing. There is a whole new world underwater and you feel like exploring every drop of water in the ocean, swimming alongwith the fishes, just staying there and observing the marine beauty – coral reefs, different kinds of flora and fauna. I went around 30 feet under water. I could touch the sea bed covered with golden sand embedded with shells. I wish to do scuba diving again and this time alone, without an instructor. 

The beaches were very clean and isolated unlike those of Bombay or Goa. I sat there on the beach, observing the sun set, waves crash into the shore and winds blow off my hair. And thought that this is life, nature in its very best. I want a house on the beach where I could do this every day and wake up early morning to run along the shore, sit on the beach and read my novel, run in the sea against the waves and make a necklace out of the numerous, multi-shaped shells on the beach. 

What is it about gazing at the night sky, or looking at the horizon above the sea, or exploring the marine life make us so happy? I guess it is the realization that life is bigger than our preconceived notions and the fact we are also a part, howsoever small, of this beautiful nature. Our mundane problems in life seem so small and insignificant in front of this higher beauty. It inspires us to be a perfect, peaceful and beautiful human being just like and in harmony with nature. 

Few items in my bucket list which I wish to do are

• Learn skiing (My dad just attended a week's skiing camp in Gulmarg, Kashmir. The temperatures fell down to as low as -20 deg C and it snowed almost daily!)
• Sky dive
• And travel around the world (link to some awesome places)