just like that

Sourav Ganguly, after completing his first century in his homeground, Eden Gardens. Go on Dada!

Pic courtesy - Cricinfo

Recently read about a petrol bunk fraud in one of my friend’s blog. I was reminded about how I had got duped at the exact same bunk a couple of weeks earlier in the same fashion. Taking a cue from it, I decided to post about one of the other frauds that I came across recently so that at least some of you can be prepared next time around.

I developed great respect for Mumbai when I lived there for a year. I was impressed with the efficiency of the train system and the honesty of the auto drivers which made travel at any time of the day such a comfort. So when I recently got duped at the Mumbai airport six months ago for the first time, I wasn’t even sure whether I had been duped in the first place. Me and my friend had landed at the airport and asked for a cab to Powai. Upon agreeing to the rate of Rs 200, the guy (lets say a Mr. X) who did the bargaining with us called for the cab and we get into it.

As soon as we sit inside, Mr. X smartly hands out three hundred rupee notes and politely asked my friend to give a 500 rupee note to settle the fare. My friend is slightly puzzled, but still takes the hundred rupee notes and pays the fare but Mr. X immediately returns it showing it’s actually a hundred rupee note we have given and asks for 500 Rs note. My friend thinks he has made a mistake, takes the 100 Rs note and pays him 500. Later, when he checks his purse, my friend remembers that he had no 100 rupee notes to begin with in the first place. So effectively we had been duped 400 Rs (since we got back a 100 Rs note for the first 500 Rs we gave).Upon enquiring with others, we find that this is a common occurrence at the airport.

So what is their modus operandi? They pick on unsuspecting passengers who as it is have no idea about the fares. Negotiations over, they take you a little outside the airport saying the taxi is parked there. There, the usual Mr. X is ready with the (500 – Agreed fare) amount. They wait for the passenger to sit inside the cab and immediately give him the money and ask for the 500 Rs note. And here is where the most important part of the operation is – As soon as u pay him the note, he switches it in a flash with a 100 Rs note, which no doubt he was having handy. If u weren’t paying enough attention you would not even notice his hand movement,go on to assume u made a mistake with the notes and end up losing 400 bucks more in the process.

I experienced the whole thing again when I went to Mumbai two months back. This time I was watching him closely and despite that I wasn’t able to spot when he actually made that switch. However, I at least knew he had definitely switched the note. I was angry and despite the broken Hindi I uttered, my tone helped that guy realize I was clearly not impressed by his behavior. He went off silently and the journey progressed smoothly. All of you might not be that lucky so I suggest one of the following precautionary measures:

1) Always try to take one of the taxis which are standing just in front of the airport lounge exit. In full public view with security personnel nearby, the Mr. Xs are virtually absent. Even better, take one of the prepaid taxis. The queue is long, but it’s always better than paying 400 bucks extra.

2) Never agree to go outside the airport to board a taxi unless it’s a prepaid taxi where you have already paid the fare.

3) Always insist on paying only after you reach your destination. Even if you are already inside the cab and they insist on payment before starting, do not hesitate to walk out.

4) Finally, if you know you are going to stay in a particular hotel, make use of the cab pickup service by calling them in advance and informing them of your arrival. The service usually comes free but even otherwise it makes a lot of sense.

As a parting note, I would like to mention a couple of things.

One of my friends recently had to go to the US and he had to take a connecting flight via Mumbai. He is running late and takes a cab to go from the domestic airport to the international airport. The cabbie takes him to some remote place, asks him to pay money failing which he won’t take him to the airport. Due to the paucity of time at hand, my friend paid 100 dollars in traveler’s cheques and got to the airport. Of course, he smartly blocked those cheques once he got inside the airport via phone banking.

Just beware of the Mumbai cabbies in the same way you would be of the Chennai auto- drivers. As in the latter case, the safest option would be to avoid them!

It almost seems that Oct-Nov is my blog hibernation period. Even last year, I haven't made many posts in this period. Anyways, since Iam making a re-entry yet again, I guess I will use this post to just give a snapshot of what's been happening with me over the last six months. Return to serious blogging only if I manage another post this month.

1) Work - When I made the choice on campus, I knew it was a good one but wasn't exactly sure if it was the right one. Six months post joining, the initial signs are encouraging. Responsibility, Independence and Pressure would be the few adjectives that I would use to describe the journey so far. With training getting over, I am just waiting to be let loose on real work.

2) Travel – This should count among one of the perks that I have enjoyed at work. From the buzzing M.G roads of Bangalore to the serene shores of Pondicherry, I have traveled across four states and 17 towns, learning something new at every stop. There was a period when I had to explore some new towns in interior TN with just a map, a sales officer and an Indica - Good fun it was!

3) People –The brusque menial in my godown, the smart yet down-to-earth MBA salesman, the multi-crore dealer who sits in a shop so small that two people can’t enter at the same time, the cab driver who has seen more countries than I ever will, the risen-through-the-ranks manager from whom I keep learning new things about management everyday – Its simply been a terrific time meeting new people and understanding what motivates each one of them.

4) Friends – Right at the top of the list of casualties. I knew I would lose touch with a lot of people once I left campus but even the 25-30 people with whom I wanted to stay in touch with have slowly started drifting apart. It may be because my work is too hectic (such a lame excuse!), I come online for a very small time and Iam not exactly the calling types but the fact remains that the only friends I have stayed in touch with are the ones who have bothered to call/mail me. Hoping to correct the situation in the near future (just the way I hope to write a blog more regularly)

Yes, that’s the question almost every marketing company asks a candidate in the interview process. I feel that it’s a question that everyone wanting to enter S&M should answer very honestly – not just to the company but to your own self and long before the interviews. After all, at first it seems everything is loaded against the marketing guys – their jobs are the ones which involve a lot of travel in rickety buses and trains (more often than not in sweltering heat and humidity of rural India) and on an average, it pays the lowest compared to other fields. You could comfortably sit all day in an AC and make presentations for a software company instead of suffering in the heat. Or fly executive class from one metro to another and tell one-minute solutions to year-long problems of clients. Why would anyone want to take up Sales and Marketing? At first, the argument seems perfectly logical. But dig a little deeper and you get a different point of view. As one of my friends said, “I can’t sit all day in front of a stupid comp and do the same thing over and over again. I shall get bored. I want to travel, meet people and live my life”. Another one says, “I have a natural flair for talking and interacting with people. I am not a desk-jobber. I can’t do stupid numbers and stupid graphs” So is it just about a personality-profile fit? What else could be a decisive factor? In this post, I try to explore that with my own experience.

If someone had told me couple of years back that I would be entering ‘S&M’ after MBA, I would have probably shrugged it off or just said ‘Yeah! Maybe! U can never tell!’ When I first came to IIM Indore, I had a lot of pre-conceived notions. I had almost made up my mind to go into Finance even before I knew what it held. To be honest, I was just driven by whatever were appearing in the papers at that time – time and again, there were reports of how much money I-bankers made and what glorious, luxurious lives they were leading. So when after the initial few weeks of accounts reality struck, it struck hard. At first, I thought I wasn’t working hard enough. After all, I had topped all my life in almost all subjects. But with more and more single digit scores in quizzes, I not only realized that I had no clue about assets, liabilities and income statements but also despite my best efforts, finance wasn’t coming to me. It was almost as if Finance was laughing at me – “You lowly mortal! What did u think of me?”

I don’t know when but it was sometime during my second term that I decided I was not going to Finance. It was a coming together of a lot of factors – all the banks deciding not to shortlist me during summers, my poor scores in Finance and accounts quizzes and the sheer terror that came over me every time I saw a balance sheet. In hindsight, it was probably too early to call it quits (considering the fact we had learned little ‘real’ finance till then) but at that time it was the right decision.

So at this point, when I was really unsure about what I was going to do came our IRIS event ‘Marksman’. It was basically a marketing strategy game we were organizing as part of our annual inter-college festival. I later realized the game being very similar to a popular branding game marketed to international B-schools for their curricula. The important difference was that this one had been Indianized very well. It was basically about four soap manufacturing companies fighting it across the different regions under various simulated conditions as they attempt to capture market share and increase their brand value. As part of the preparations for the game, I learnt a lot about market research, consumer behavior under different situations – things I would have never learnt in class, at least not in the first year. The game was one of the important reasons that I turned towards marketing.

By the time I was in my third term, I had more or less settled with marketing. And this was what worried me the most – I wasn’t very sure whether I wanted to do marketing but it was looking like the right choice. The bigger dilemma came when we had to select our electives for the fourth term before we went for our internships. Knowing my dilemma, one of my good friends suggested I take marketing courses but keep a couple of Fin courses in the ‘float’ option just in case I changed my mind after my internship. Although my summer internship didn’t give me any first hand experience in sales or distribution, I got to know a little about the way sales actually worked by observing some of the managers there. I just felt that I could do the sale they were trying to make – it sort of reassured my own abilities to handle sales. I was actually able to understand where exactly the manager was making a mistake. And I became more confident.

In second year, with the help of some good courses and better Profs, I begun to deliberate more about marketing as a career. Although there was a small dilemma till the beginning of placements,there was just a gut feel which asked me to go ahead with it and so here Iam - a fresh MBA about to jump into S&M. So where exactly in the middle of all this did I make that choice to enter marketing? Which is that one point which tipped it over? The truth is I don’t think there was one. I can’t point to a single day and say that was when it happened. It was just a slow-build up until finally one day I realized I will probably enjoy doing this and I will be good at it. This might not be the case with everyone – I have seen people who knew that they have always wanted to do marketing. Some others have always thought it as a natural fit for their personality. I guess, in the end, what really matters is that u should be convinced yourself and clearly know why you are taking it up. Salaries or Big names don’t matter; it’s better to take up something that you know you will like doing – Conventional wisdom, yes, but worth recollecting and remembering!

This World cup has been a big disappointment to me for two reasons

1) India didn’t make it past the first round

2) The overall mediocre cricket played (except for the top four teams, to an extent)

However, this World cup would still be remembered as the World cup of the minnows. Bangladesh truly arrived in the league of big teams. It will be interesting to see how they shape up from here. They can go on and become a major power like SriLanka did or fade out like Zimbabwe. The next five to ten years are going to be crucial in this regard. Another team that made it big in this World cup was Ireland. From being just part-time players on a holiday to the islands they have risen to the tenth position ahead of Zimbabwe and Kenya in the ICC table. Once again, the cricket administration here needs to develop a sound first class schedule and develop a pool of players. On the other hand, they could ensure that most of the players get good county experience in England. That should not be difficult after their recent performances.

Anyways, we are now at the business end of the tournament and truly the top four teams have made it here. My friend asked me to pick the winner of the World Cup just around the time the World cup was about to start. I told him that would be difficult but instead picked the four semifinalists – Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand. Looking back now, that prediction isn’t far off :) As for picking the winner, if I were to purely go by what by the formbook says, there is only one team which is winning this World cup – Australia. Alas, this is the World cup of the minnows and my heart wants any of the other three teams to win. New Zealand, SriLanka, South Africa in that order would be my choice for the champions. However as things stand, I hope SA defeat the Aussies and NZ defeat the Lankans. And in the final, I hope Shane Bond takes the last wicket in a tense final over and wins the cup for New Zealand :) Above everything, I just want to watch three good, nail-biting matches. Please!

All the best. May the best team (apart from the Aussies) win!

To kick-start my re-entry to blogging, just a round-up of yesterday’s important events and my views on them:

1) The much hyped Abhi-Ash marriage took place yesterday. I was getting really sick and tired of all the useless coverage that the news channels were bringing over the last 3-4 days. If they wanted to have a private affair, let them have it. Why do these channels have to haunt their houses waiting for something/someone to show up? Anyways with that marriage, my cup of woe is full. Aishwarya was the last in the list of my favorite actresses – Revathy, Kajol and the eighth wonder. Now have to turn my attention to the promising Asin :)

2) Brian Charles Lara announced retirement from international cricket. Despite what has happened in the recent past, he will always be remembered as one among the greatest batsmen ever. When in full flow, he was such a pleasure to watch. However, just like Inzamam a few weeks earlier, it’s not always possible to get your timing right.

3) The Indian team for the Bangladesh tour was announced. The selectors were forced to do something dramatic after the WC debacle. They had to show that they were tough; that they shall put Indian cricket back on track. Unfortunately, they have only made the water muddier. A couple of silly things I could notice:

a. Dropping Virender Sehwag from the test team and selecting him for the one-day team – Absolute bullshit. With the exception of the SouthAfrica tour, Sehwag has been our leading batsman in tests last year. And he should have been dropped from the one-day team for obvious reasons.

b. Playing Piyush Chawla for the one-dayers. In today’s scenario, fielding a young leg-spinner in the one-dayers is not a good option. He will go for control of run-flow over wickets and in the process lose the edge. Should have atleast let him stay for the tests as well.

4) The Government has asked the IIMs to put on hold the admission process. If the new quotas are only incremental and are not going to affect the general category students (as promised by our HRD minister), why not go ahead with the admission process for the general category? Why cause unnecessary trouble for everyone? As far as I can see, this is once again a ploy used by the HRD minister to put the time pressure on the Court to force the verdict, probably without providing the latest census data as required by the court. At the end of the day, I just hope genuine students (whichever category they may belong to) don’t get affected in all this politics bullshit.

Chalo then, that’s it for now. Hope to get back to normal blogging for sometime before I join work.

After all the months of hype and hoopla, the cricket world cup is finally here. I have been looking forward to this for nearly a year now. Just like every other Indian fan who thinks with his heart rather than his head, Iam expecting India to win the world cup. This World cup is the first time sixteen teams will be playing. It is the first time it will be played in the West Indies and also the longest in terms of the duration of the competition. More than anything, I guess this is the most open World cup we have had in nearly a decade. The recent bad form of Australia and the good performance of other teams makes it a very interesting world cup. While the associate members are given a chance to prove themselves in the league stage, I believe the real excitement will begin in the Super eights. Not even a single game could be missed here. Atleast that’s what I thought before the World cup begun.

Noone could have predicted the way things have gone in the first week. Going by this one week alone, this World cup might well be remembered for the rise of the minnows. Ireland first tied with Zimbabwe and went on to topple Pakistan. That easily is the biggest upset of all times. The loss means that Pakistan is out of the competition. And they have angry fans waiting back home. Things with India aren’t looking exactly rosy either. The shock loss to Bangladesh might serve as a wake-up call but there is a strong possibility that we might get knocked out of the World cup even if we win the next two matches against Bermuda and Srilanka.If Srilanka manage to beat Bangladesh, the latter going into the last game against Bermuda will know exactly the margin by which it would need to win to qualify for the super-eights. The odds are indeed stacked against India at this moment. However, as a start, they can concentrate on winning against Bermuda by as big a margin as possible. Then probably they can think of the game against Lanka, try to win there and then leave everything else to the Gods.

It will be indeed sad if India does not make it to the super-eights but irrespective of that, the fans in India need a reality check. Making them heroes every time they win and pelting stones in their houses every time they lose is not going to get us anywhere. Its one thing to cheer your team for victory and entirely another to accept a loss and move on. I guess it will be difficult for an emotional fan to understand this but the sooner we all realize it’s just a sport, the better for all of us.

End note:

Even as I was writing this post, news of Bob Woolmer passing away filtered in much to the shock of many cricket fans around the world. He was arguably one of the best coaches in the world and brought in great innovations to the game. It is indeed a sad day for cricket. May his soul rest in peace.

That’s one question that’s been haunting me for quite some time now. I started this blog around about a year back. I did so because I always liked writing and six months at IIM-Indore had made me aware about blogs. So I began this blog, partly from peer pressure and partly from my own interest towards writing. Amongst my first thoughts was to build this as a social awareness blog, giving strong opinions on important social/political issues. Unfortunately, that needed a lot of background work and the lazy ass I was, I never got to that. So the next best thing was to write about something I was experiencing – my life here. Hence, this blog today stands before you as indorelife - a ‘campus’ blog. That now takes us back to our main topic – where does this blog go now?

Even while on campus, with all the free time in the world and a broadband internet connection at my disposal throughout, I have managed just 25 posts in an entire year. Of course, numbers are not everything but they do indicate my laggard nature. The point is, when Iam going to shift to a busy work environment where am I going to find time for blogging? Will I at least have access to broadband in the small town that I may be posted to? All said and done, I guess if Iam really passionate about my writing, all the excuses can be handled. And I do feel that I just might manage to continue writing. Assuming I do that, the next question is – will it be under indorelife.blogspot or will it be a new blog?

‘indorelife’ has built some brand equity for itself over the last one year. With 3116 hits as of today and readership across seven countries, it is a truly global brand :). Jokes apart, I really don’t want to throw ‘indorelife’ out of the window just because the name is no longer relevant. I request my regular readers to voice your thoughts on the same. May be you can help me reach a decision.

“All my bags are packed
I’m ready to go….

….cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go”

I always knew this was coming – when the two years will be over and it will be time for everyone to leave. And to be very honest, the moment is a mix of happiness and sorrow. Happiness, because this place has given me a bagful of wonderful memories and friends for a lifetime. Sorrow, because the merry-go-round has suddenly come to a stop and I don’t know what to expect next.

I look back at these two years and a few things come to my mind immediately. The first month when I stood shocked, stunned and surprised looking at some of the most intelligent and hardworking people in the country. How I slowly got my bearings together. How I surely realized that I never wanted to do any Fin in my life. How I learnt to work through the night and get any assignment done. How inadequate my general knowledge was. How I learnt important lessons about working in a team and how to handle one. How my acadcom experience taught me about handling problems and people.

And now as I prepare to leave, I have begun to realize a few things that Iam going to miss. Where else can I have a party that starts at 12 in the night and go on till 6 in the morning? Where else can I have Paratha and Maggi at 4.30 in the morning? Where else can I find a subject matter expert on almost any subject you can think of? Where else can I find the greatest collection of movies and TV shows in one place? Where else can I find so many brilliant people together? Where else am I going to have those intellectually stimulating conversations on the long walk down the hill?

Fortunately, despite all the questions, there is a ray of light in front to guide me. I realize that I came here for the experience and the placements at the end. Both of them have been very satisfying to say the least. I realize just like school and engineering college, this is just another phase in life. You treasure the experiences, maintain the friendships and move on. Without getting anymore sentimental or philosophical, let me conclude this one.

Here’s wishing everyone a truly wonderful life ahead. And as for the real world, here Iam!

In the first of this two part series, we shall trace the story of how Vimal actually got elected as an acadcom member and also his initial days in the job.

The year was 2006. The last week of the first month had just begun. The SWAC-EC elections had just got over and the batch had elected the eleven people who would head the various committees. It was now time for the member elections (The members shall work along with the secretary of the respective committees). While everyone’s eyes were focused on the placom elections, Vimal and Wayne (The SWAC co-ordinator) went around scouting for a possible candidate from their section that they could request to stand for the acadcom member. They went around asking people whom they thought would do a good job as an acadcom member. They finally zeroed in on one Mr. Vivek chopra who at that point of time was contemplating about standing for ‘Alumnicom’ member. They explained to him how Acadcom was a much more important role and why he was needed there. He promised to consider this. In the evening, with hardly a few hours left for the filing of nominations, the duo once again went to see Mr.Chopra and see if he had made up his mind. He had indeed made up his mind and he would be standing for the ‘alumnicom’ member elections.

Faced with the daunting task of finding a nominee from their section, Wayne made a mistake that the entire batch would regret for the year to come. He requested Vimal, the innocent bystander, to stand for the member election. Now, Vimal had always set his eyes on the Quiz club (which is an interest club and whose elections would happen later) as he felt it matched his lifestyle of no politics and at the same time being responsible for something he liked. So when Wayne suddenly threw this missile at him, he was unprepared for it. He tried to laugh off the preposterous suggestion but when similar salvos were fired from other allies, Vimal fell. He filed in the nomination just before dinner. Little did he know that the small signature was going to change his second year in ways he could have never imagined.

The Election Day was probably the darkest in the history of IIM Indore. Seventy three half-mad participants voted in Vimal as their acadcom member. A post-poll analysis suggested that most people had thought that this guy would most probably end up with single digit votes. Hence, they had voted for him in the hope that he wouldn’t feel too bad if he got a few more votes. Talk of winning an election on sympathy votes!

With Pawan(P) having already been elected the secretary, Roshan(R) and Vimal(V) completed the three member team which will handle all the student issues regarding academics in the coming year. The team, which came to be known by the acronym ‘PRV’, started off briskly just like all teams do at the start. They got themselves introduced to the various faculty members and started working on the electives for the second year. Vimal, though, was very apprehensive to start off with. He even feared telling the Prof that his time was up when the class time was over. He had a difficult time listening to all the long stories that the Profs were waiting to unleash on any participant who dared to enter their rooms in the afternoons. In his words, “I sincerely thought I had made a big mistake by coming into acadcom”. However, time and PGPOffice change everything. By the end of term in March, he had mastered the art of answering all participant queries. After all, how difficult it can be to learn to say “We are looking into it” or “We will look into it”.

It was at this time that Team PRV realized that there was a lot of budget left over from last year which could be put to good use by conducting some events. Vimal simply jumped at the opportunity as unlike acadcom work, conducting events was something he enjoyed doing. He came up with a “truly novel” series of daily events called “Brain-I” (in keeping with the tradition of IIM Indore to name everything with an ‘I’ in it). The game was simple – Every night in the newsgroup, few questions would be posted in the newsgroup based on the class readings for that day and what the Prof had actually taught. The participants simply had to mail the correct answers and stood to win money if they were among the first three correct entries. The game fell flat in exactly ten days. With not even three responses coming in after the first few days, Acadcom was left with no option but to close shop and concentrate on their bread and butter – postponing assignments, projects, quizzes, birthdays oops!(Just got a little carried away there).

All these experiences hardened Vimal into a lean, mean fighting machine (!) capable of standing up to any Prof for the cause of…for the cause of…well, forget it. Anyways, when the summer break came in April, he thought the worst was behind him. After all, second year was supposed to be chill. With these pleasant and soothing thoughts, he headed off to Bangalore to start his internship with Radio Mirchi. Little did he know how second year in acadcom was going to change his life for ever…..

(To be concluded)

February 18, 4.30 PM – My last class in the two years here. I made my last presentation and I gave my last ‘Thank you’ speech to the Prof at the end of the class. I officially completed all course requirements of the PGDM program. Hence, I hereby declare myself an ‘MBA’:)

Last Friday night, me and four of my friends set out to visit Ranthambhore, one of India’s largest tiger reserves. Seeing the tiger was not foremost in my mind. In the eighteen months I have been here, I have missed out on quite a number of opportunities to visit some beautiful places due to some reason or other. This being our last few months here I straightaway said ‘yes’ when the offer was made. That night we boarded the intercity to Jaipur from Indore railway station.

Next morning at around 6.30, we landed at Sawai Madhopur, the entry point for Ranthambhore National Park.(Certain trains from Delhi and Mumbai also pass through this station and the place seems well connected). We had come prepared with as much winter clothing as we could lay our hands on but still when we stepped out of the train, it was freezing. After having chai and hot pakodas in the station itself, we inspected the map at the station to get a fair idea of what lay in store. The cabwala outside took us to a few hotels and after enquiring in three hotels, we settled in RajPalace. It was a pretty good place and at 500 Rs a day was good value for money.

There aren’t many places other than the park to visit in Ranthambhore but still we had decided to spend two days and do things in leisure. The visit to the park is done in canters or gypsies and there are two trips a day – one in the morning at 7.30 and another in the afternoon at 2.30. Since it had taken us sometime to settle down in the morning, we decided to go for the afternoon trip. We had an elaborate breakfast after which we lied down in the grass absorbing the sun’s rays. It was such a relief after the morning cold. At 1.30 that afternoon, after a hearty lunch we set out in the open canter to the park. It was basically a guided tour where each canter is assigned one of the five zones randomly upon their entry to the park. For about an hour, everyone in the canter was enthusiastic and spotted even the smallest monkey or deer. As time wore on, we had spotted almost all the species except the tiger. It was the animal for which most people had made their trips and so the anticipation was higher. However only disappointment remained at the end of three hours. As we were coming out, we heard of couple of other canters on other routes which had spotted the tigers. A couple of my friends decided to come again the next day and try their luck again. It was once again chilling cold by the time we returned to the rooms at around 7 pm. I also managed to catch a bad cold by this time. We had a quiet dinner followed by a bonfire for a couple of hours which were spent merrily in pulling the legs of all and sundry.

Next day morning, we visited the Ranthambhore fort which houses the Ganesha Temple and a mosque. The sight from the top was really awesome and gave a panaromic view of the entire park area. It was only then I realized how big the park really was. While coming back from the fort, due to the incessant bugging from one of our friends, we stopped near a lake and spotted two crocodiles.

After lunch, my friends once again went to the park on another trip in the hope of catching the tiger. My cold had gotten worse by this time and hence I gave the trip a miss. Alas, my friends couldn’t spot the tiger the second time as well. After a hearty dinner (we had actually beginn to like the food by this time) and another round of bonfire (where we were joined by another set of friends from IIM Indore), we returned to Sawai Madhopur station for the trip back home. All in all, it was a great two day holiday with the only disappointment being the tiger.

A few things for people going to Ranthambhore:

1) Apart from the fort and the park, there is not really much to look around. Proper planning will help you to cover everything in well under a day. However, some people like to stay back and keep visiting till they spot the tiger (A family in the canter was coming for the third time).

2) The per head charges for one trip in a canter is Rs 300. If you take a gypsy, it will be costlier.

3) The rice was pretty good while the rotis and parathas were a disappointment. Something to think about.

4) The website suggests November- May as ideal period for tiger sightings. But at the end of the day, it is pure luck whether your rendezvous with tiger happens or not since it is a natural habitat and not a zoo. Be prepared for this and try enjoying the other things as well while you are in the park.