Embrace yourself....embrace life....

Have you hugged yourself today?
When was the last time you smiled at yourself?
When was it last that you kissed your reflection in the mirror?
When was it last that you pampered yourself jus because you love yourself and tried to do justice to your existence?
When was the last time that you took time out and spent time with yourself?

Well...how many of us have asked ourselves these questions recently? Well i asked myself these questions today afternoon when i was busy trying to cope up with all my assignments and research papers. I was in a total frustrated frame of mind when a friend gave me a call and as we got talking he told me how he had taken time out from his job and gone on a vacation jus to relax....I realised that i badly needed a break too.

After the conversation i just lay on my bed for sometime and the above questions crossed my mind and to my dismay i realised that it had been a long long time that i had actually just spent time with myself. In my endeavor to achieve my goals and do well at work and studies i had actually not bothered to give myself some time out. I could not recollect when was it last that i went for a ride on a bike on the highway to feel the wind in my hair with just no hang ups at all...i could not recollect when last did i actually go out with my friends and be completely mentally present there with out thinking about the pending tasks!... Nor could i recollect that when was it last that i looked myself in the mirror for a few more seconds just to smile at myself!!!

It was so damn scary. I always thought that i was the easy going happy go lucky kinds...but just 5 mins that i spent thinking about myself today was a big shock to me! So guys i would request all of you to give yourself 5 mins of your time everyday. Think about things that interest you, think about what makes you happy, think about your old friends and take time to call atleast one of them each day, try to plan for your weekend, smile at yourself every morning and the world will smile with you, go out alone and listen to your favorite music, dance a little, treat yourself to your favourite food, sing out to yourself, pamper yourself, laugh loud and with all your heart...forget those plastic smiles for a while, think of the good old times and thank god for all those moments he brought your way etc etc etc..... to put it in one line....

Do all those things to yourself that you would expect your beloved to do for you.... be your own lover once a while and life will suddenly seem so "LIVELY"... as its rightly said....

“You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy.”

A Beautiful Nightmare- Welcome to The Orientation!!!

Managing the smile

It all started on 19th June 2007, given a chance i would definately name it the "Dooms day!!". Though we officially started with our first semester on 18th June 2007 when everyone around seemed so sweet and caring and each senior that walked past us gave us that angelic smile little did we realise that this was the silence before the storm!

After the seniors addressed our batch on the eve of 18th June we all realised that now we are gonna be taken for a roller coaster ride..because after all the welcoming us and briefing us on the rules of the institute they ended with an announcement which said " So student managers of 2007-2009 batch please report tomorrow moring in front of the health care center at 5:45 sharp in a jogging attire! Is that clear?" But ofcourse it conveyed volumes to us. And i must tell you all that it was the night of 18th June that we actually got to sleep in leisure before the Orientation started. I could not believe myself for waking up much before time and that too even before the sun came up as i had really pampered my sleep in the past one year while i was working. I had never in the entire past year managed to wake up before 8:30 am even though i tried hard to make it for morning walks that time. Anyhow once we got dressed and reached the place the first bomb fell....the students who were late by even a fraction of seconds were asked to form a seprate line of defaulters!! Oh! my gosh! I was dumb struck and that too not politely but in a manner as if we had committed a punishable offence!

And this was just the beginning! Everyday jogging at 5:30 am. One hour it and you are not allowed to walk at all unless you have got serious medical issues. Gettin back to the room at 6:50 to get dressed by 7:20 am for the Economic Times test ! Just imagine three girls who never in their life had bothered to learn to drape a saree had to actually take bath and get dressed in 40 mins flat...definately the orientation had taught us that everything is possible! After the test half an hour for breakfast and then classroom and audi sessions from 8:30 am to 7 pm!!! And be prepared to be slaughtered if you are caught even blinking!!! No yawning, no coughing, no drooping, no smiling....just sitting straight all the while...just cant think of words to convey what that feeling was like! Then ofcourse the 'Batch Meet' at 7pm to 9:30 pmwhich to each one was as if hell had been let loose! We were screamed at for even the minutest of mistakes....and god save you if you tried any smart act during that period! But ofcourse since it was all a part of 'Orientation' we had nothing to complain about and the irony was that in our endeavor to not to leave any scope for error in our tasks almost each one of us ended srewing up!

Other than being a terror the batch meet was held with the main objective to inform us about the various activities etc going on in the institute and of course we got our assignments for the next morning. And then after a really long day with information overflowing when we would reach the room gald to be able to catch sleep, we used to be called to the senior's rooms for 'Interaction Sessions' and need i say more? We finally got to the room by 1 am now to start working on the assignments and reading ecenomic times! So finally going to bed by 3 am to report for jogging at 5:30 am!

Write up's on seniors given by other seniors, time management, punctuality, presentations, extempores. SWOT analysis, BCG matrix, Ausi sessions, Jogs, perfectly draped sarees, quality work, long woking hours...everything expected from us everyday....was next to impossible but to our surprise in not more than two days that it started we had all got used to it and I am still surprised as to how did we all manage it so soon and so perectly..... I would just conclude saying ..."Worst situations bring out the best in you!!" and i am totally convinced with this quotation now!

Job for a Day!!!

Understanding the rules of the game.....

The Future CEO's the beginning.....

It was a very amusing day for me today. I always knew i was outgoing, smart and could manage well with minimum resources...but today i proved this to myself. The 10th day of orientation at SIMS and its already made me aware of my potentials! Our class had a Business excercise today where in we all made up a buddy pair and had to go out to Deccan area to find ourselves a job for the day and to earn minimum of Rs. 100 each without spending even a single penny till we got back to campus. It sounded really easy and fun but the challenges started the very moment we got out from the campus gates.

And the journey begins.....

The first challenge was to get to Deccan which was 4 Km from the institute and that too by taking a lift.It totally brought out the dramatist within me back to life...I made the funniest faces right from the brightest smiling face to the most helpless face to convince passerbyes to let me hop on. Well i did manage one finally and that too from a very old man and i wasnt too sure if he could actually handle the bike with me on it too ;)... nevertheless i manged to reach deccan and now the next challenge awaited me....I was supposed to meet my buddy there who was totally new to Pune and we forgot to exchange cell numbers before leaving college and even though he left 10 mins before me from college..He was no where to be seen even after waiting for 15 mins!!! I had totally given up the hope to carry on but then ....I spotted him across the road....There he was totally god sent i must say....Oh!! what a relief..and then our odessey began.....

We went to all the possible restaraunts on FC road, to all the famous apparel stores etc..crosswords, bag shops, Bata showroom, Oakwood etc etc etc.. but no luck at all... Finally at 11:45 am we managed to get the job at Louis Philippe outlet on JM road.... awesome luck i must say...after sweating for 2 hours and facing rejections and loosing all hope we finally managed a job at this exclusive air conditioned show room and for a decent Rs. 200 each for 4 hours!!!

Once we got to know our task there, we both got straight to work....the work involved updating the inventory or more simply put, it was to check for the present stock in the showroom. So i got onto checking the stocks for the their collections under the names Luxury, Khakis, Highlights, Formal trousers (PV,TR,Regular) under pleated and non pleated categories. The whole process took me 4 hours and while i was doing the needful there was a senior CCA who was assisting me through out and that too very patiently. He answered all my queries and praised me for picking up things really well and fast. Apart from doing the task assigned i studied the show room interior in details and learnt the concept of Visual Merchandise, the placing of products, the sequence of arranging the clothes, the reason for varying prices between almost similar looking fabrics and the art of making the customer buy atleast one item more than what he was actually planning to buy.

lt was a great learning experience as i had never thought that so much of planning goes into even the placement of clothes in the retail outlet. It was fun, exciting and extremely interesting and ofcouse very tiring too..it kept us on our toes throughout the day!

We then took our leave from Louis Philippe at 4:30 pm and set off to report to Mr. Manohar Kamath (The facliltator for this exercise) at FTI swimming pool with the 400 bucks that we managed to earn. Both of us were really hungry by now but alas...even with that money in our pockets...we could not buy ourselves food...as it was against the rules! And of course there was yet another challenge of reaching the required meeting place again by taking lifts which was an art both of us had mastered by then.

It was pouring cats and dogs when we reached law college road and we were late already but someting kept us going and we did walk our way to the common meeting place and were so glad to see all our classmates there and all of us patting each others back for climbing the first stay to CEO ship!

In the it was all worth it. Though totally out of energy end of the day i felt like a winner. It was an adventurous day for me as i never in my wildest dreams had ever imagined that i would actually earn myself a living without spending a single penny! So definately today i m proud of myself and realised that this was just the beginning and now that i have full confidence in me and now that i know i can do better..... I am gonna undertake this odessey right away!!!