hate waking up at 4am.Deccan flight to B'lore. meet up with CT, fats and other juniors. move to sood's place. the guy's rocks as usual! head to brigade road. stop at KFC. meet juniors - proved my theory that if u walk on brigade road, ur bound to bump into some CRECian.back to CT's place. catch flight to cochin. first experience on an ATR. reach cochin. catch up with mom. head to kottayam next day. catch up with bob and betsy.meet a cute girl. attend half of leena's marriage. rush back to airport on the wildest 2 hour ride ever. passenger on ATR being instructed how to operate emergency door. passenger ends up opening the door anyway. reached b'lore. flight delay. most boring flight ever to delhi. reached home.
Whew!
Monday, January 02, 2006
Happy New Year, Amigos!
2 posts ago, I was weighing my options for New year's. I said I'd decide what I'm gonna do on the 30th and that's just what I did. 30th afternoon I decide I'm gonna spend my New year's in Mumbai.
Took the first flight out of Delhi on the 31st and landed in Mumbai at 9.00am. The flight was mostly uneventful, except when we were about to land, the guy next to me asks, " Is there a time difference between Delhi and Mumbai?".
As soon as I parked my luggage at Rohith's place, I knew I had to visit 2 places any die-hard Mumbai fan would wanna be at - Churchgate and Marine Drive. I also knew I had to get to these places through that notorious yet somehow endearing mode of transport - the local train ( of course, given the mumbai traffic, the local train was my only hope getting to these places and back before the day ended). Rohith was of course, more than willing to visit south mumbai and so the 2 of us set off.
Post-lunch, Ron calls and says that tickets to a new year bash are available at the Royal Palms in Goregaon and we are supposed to go buy the tickets from there. And so Rohith and I push off to Goregaon to get the tickets for our group of 5. The irony to the whole thing of course was that I come all the way from Delhi to get tickets for the New year bash for my friends who stay in Mumbai!
The party started off at 9. I wasted no time in getting to the meat. The rest wasted no time in gulping down a few drinks. The DJ was good and all of us were on the dance floor in about an hour. Finally got to see Anjan and Neo dance :)
The entertainment in the form of a belly dancer ( who we all felt was some out of work bar dancer) and the fire-eating guy was somewhat of a disappointment. But otherwise, the 5 of us had a good time. Of course on our way back, Anjan had to crib about the party. But that's Anjan and we love him for it :D
New year's day was relatively chilled out. Caught up with Raj for lunch. In the evening, after brief stop at Ron's place, we hit CCD. Once I started moving back to Rohith's place to get my luggage, I realised that the traffic was getting killer. Somehow, I get paranoid if I cant make it to the airport atleast 1 hour before the flight. And there's nothing like Mumbai traffic to bring that paranoia out of me in full force. I made it just in time for the boarding and wrapped my 2 day trip on reaching Delhi at 11.30pm.
Man...the 2 days felt good!
2 posts ago, I was weighing my options for New year's. I said I'd decide what I'm gonna do on the 30th and that's just what I did. 30th afternoon I decide I'm gonna spend my New year's in Mumbai.
Took the first flight out of Delhi on the 31st and landed in Mumbai at 9.00am. The flight was mostly uneventful, except when we were about to land, the guy next to me asks, " Is there a time difference between Delhi and Mumbai?".
As soon as I parked my luggage at Rohith's place, I knew I had to visit 2 places any die-hard Mumbai fan would wanna be at - Churchgate and Marine Drive. I also knew I had to get to these places through that notorious yet somehow endearing mode of transport - the local train ( of course, given the mumbai traffic, the local train was my only hope getting to these places and back before the day ended). Rohith was of course, more than willing to visit south mumbai and so the 2 of us set off.
Post-lunch, Ron calls and says that tickets to a new year bash are available at the Royal Palms in Goregaon and we are supposed to go buy the tickets from there. And so Rohith and I push off to Goregaon to get the tickets for our group of 5. The irony to the whole thing of course was that I come all the way from Delhi to get tickets for the New year bash for my friends who stay in Mumbai!
The party started off at 9. I wasted no time in getting to the meat. The rest wasted no time in gulping down a few drinks. The DJ was good and all of us were on the dance floor in about an hour. Finally got to see Anjan and Neo dance :)
The entertainment in the form of a belly dancer ( who we all felt was some out of work bar dancer) and the fire-eating guy was somewhat of a disappointment. But otherwise, the 5 of us had a good time. Of course on our way back, Anjan had to crib about the party. But that's Anjan and we love him for it :D
New year's day was relatively chilled out. Caught up with Raj for lunch. In the evening, after brief stop at Ron's place, we hit CCD. Once I started moving back to Rohith's place to get my luggage, I realised that the traffic was getting killer. Somehow, I get paranoid if I cant make it to the airport atleast 1 hour before the flight. And there's nothing like Mumbai traffic to bring that paranoia out of me in full force. I made it just in time for the boarding and wrapped my 2 day trip on reaching Delhi at 11.30pm.
Man...the 2 days felt good!
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Last week has been the most enriching Christmas week, I've ever had.
Last sunday, the church youth ( which includes yours truly) organized the games stalls for the Annual Church Fete. I had never organized a fete before, so this was one of those learning opportunities I was looking forward to. When it came to the fete, the priority was very clear - we were all gonna have a FUN time.
However, if success could be quantified, nothing like it. And what better way to quantify it than to see how much money we could make out of this.
Some of the considerations that came in while making our estimates of what we could earn were:
- No. of game stalls reqd
- Total no. of games played
- Price/game
- Costs - esp for the prizes
- Probability of winning for each game
The above 5 were key in deciding the profits we were going to make. Another important consideration was that no prizes should be leftover with us after the fete. The "inventory" of prizes should move, else the amount spent in buying these prizes and cost of transportation would be a waste. Moreover, this leftover inventory would not be serving its purpose - making the prizewinners happy.
Clearly, a situation emerged where we had balance multiple objectives of more participation ( and therefore suitable pricing), profits, no leftover inventory, and so on.
I made my own model prior to the fete, and from a profits point of view was anticipating only break even ( I overestimated the chances of winning,and underestimated number of games played).
I was wrong.
The Fete was a whopping success, not just in terms of numbers but in several softer aspects such as participant satisfaction, winner satisfaction, stall management, crowd control and so on. In money terms our profits were 40% of revenues.Not bad! ( beat my estimate atleast).
So that was Sunday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were adventures in themselves. The youth planned for door to door carol singing on these days, when we would visit most of the youth member's families. Fortunately for me, being the year-end, closing was around the corner and so workload was somewhat thanda. Didnt waste this window of opportunity and so joined the choir every evening.
I have been part of 3 official church choirs ( including the current one). The current by far was the most fun choir ever! ( although our singing skills could use a little help!!. Special thanks for Mr. Sebastian for taking time out of his work and transporting us guys from house to house.
Of course, after 3 days of roaming around in the chilly weather, I caught hold of something that was inevitable - the common cold.
Thursday and Friday was a break ( kind felt low after the 4 days of excitement - something like withdrawal symptoms). Saturday, headed of to church to help fix the giant Christmas star on the roof. The actual star was done, but help was needed in hoisting the star to the roof top and in giving the electrical connections. The latter I enjoyed doing the most, cos I could finally use some electronics engineering I had picked up at our Lab Classes at NIT, Calicut.
Went for Christmas mass at midnight and the choir was lovely.
And that's the story of this Christmas week.
Last sunday, the church youth ( which includes yours truly) organized the games stalls for the Annual Church Fete. I had never organized a fete before, so this was one of those learning opportunities I was looking forward to. When it came to the fete, the priority was very clear - we were all gonna have a FUN time.
However, if success could be quantified, nothing like it. And what better way to quantify it than to see how much money we could make out of this.
Some of the considerations that came in while making our estimates of what we could earn were:
- No. of game stalls reqd
- Total no. of games played
- Price/game
- Costs - esp for the prizes
- Probability of winning for each game
The above 5 were key in deciding the profits we were going to make. Another important consideration was that no prizes should be leftover with us after the fete. The "inventory" of prizes should move, else the amount spent in buying these prizes and cost of transportation would be a waste. Moreover, this leftover inventory would not be serving its purpose - making the prizewinners happy.
Clearly, a situation emerged where we had balance multiple objectives of more participation ( and therefore suitable pricing), profits, no leftover inventory, and so on.
I made my own model prior to the fete, and from a profits point of view was anticipating only break even ( I overestimated the chances of winning,and underestimated number of games played).
I was wrong.
The Fete was a whopping success, not just in terms of numbers but in several softer aspects such as participant satisfaction, winner satisfaction, stall management, crowd control and so on. In money terms our profits were 40% of revenues.Not bad! ( beat my estimate atleast).
So that was Sunday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were adventures in themselves. The youth planned for door to door carol singing on these days, when we would visit most of the youth member's families. Fortunately for me, being the year-end, closing was around the corner and so workload was somewhat thanda. Didnt waste this window of opportunity and so joined the choir every evening.
I have been part of 3 official church choirs ( including the current one). The current by far was the most fun choir ever! ( although our singing skills could use a little help!!. Special thanks for Mr. Sebastian for taking time out of his work and transporting us guys from house to house.
Of course, after 3 days of roaming around in the chilly weather, I caught hold of something that was inevitable - the common cold.
Thursday and Friday was a break ( kind felt low after the 4 days of excitement - something like withdrawal symptoms). Saturday, headed of to church to help fix the giant Christmas star on the roof. The actual star was done, but help was needed in hoisting the star to the roof top and in giving the electrical connections. The latter I enjoyed doing the most, cos I could finally use some electronics engineering I had picked up at our Lab Classes at NIT, Calicut.
Went for Christmas mass at midnight and the choir was lovely.
And that's the story of this Christmas week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
