And the woman of the year award goes to.....

Well this year the ET(Economic Times) business woman of the year was Mrs. Shikha Sharma. Every year these awards go to the best and the brightest people in the industry who through their sheer handwork and commitment reached there. At this point, I would like to narrate the story of the maid of my house Shantabai, and why I think she deserves the “Woman of the year award”. Shantabai is a lady in her early 60s.She got married at the age of 20 and subsequently gave birth to four kids, two of them girls and two of them boys. Her husband worked in a private company and his income was barely sufficient to make ends meet. But his hardwork landed him into better jobs and Shantabai was on cloud nine!! But as bad luck would have it, her husband left her for another lady. So, Shantabai was left penniless and with four kids, eldest aged 10 and youngest aged 2. Now she started working for the future of her children, doing tasks like cleaning clothes and utensils. The amount was she earned was barely sufficient but she learned to manage in those tough times. Meanwhile her husband passed away and she was not even eligible for his pension(his second wife received it). Times started getting tougher. Her elder son fell into bad company and got into excessive drinking. He then met with an accident and his legs had to be cut. But he still didn’t give up his vices and instead started pressurizing Shantabai to pay money for satisfying all his needs. Though she was depressed, Shantabai still did not give up. She got her two daughters married. Meanwhile her younger son married and started staying separately. He offered no monetary assistance to Shantabai. Till today, Shanatabai lives with her younger son, who hardly respects her but she lives on her own with no help whatsoever from her family members. And despite all this, she makes it a point to be at work on time, hardly takes any leave and her work is just first class. In these days of financial uncertainty,where we hear news of people committing suicide because they are laid off, or committing suicide because or low grades or any other reason, I would like them to read this story of Shantabai and think twice before committing any act of desperation. I also know there will be many such Shantabai’s and all of them are the Woman of the year,each one of them fighting struggles of their life in their own way. Hats off to them!!

Kesari Tours-A brief Background

The website of Kesari Tours describes Kesari Tours’ vision as a “world class travel company spreading smile and happiness”. Sound simple, doesn’t it? But to achieve this requires sheer passion, commitment and hardwork. It will be clearer if we start with the background of Mr Kesari Patil, the 75 year old founder of Kesari Tours. Kesari Patil, was born and brought in a small village of Mathane near Palghar. His father was his main source of inspiration who inculcated strong and positive values in him since his childhood. He started his career as a teacher in a school in Mathane. He then married Sunita Patil, a hardworking lady and a great source of strength for him. Meanwhile, Mr Kesari also assisted his brother in his tourism business. Later, his brother was ready to offer him greater responsibility in the business but that required him quitting his job. Despite severe opposition against quitting his job by his wife, he decided to quit his job.
But things didn’t turn up as expected and due conflicts between him and his brother he decided to start his own Travel company. With 22 years of experience in arranging tours, Mr Kesari Patil founded Kesari tours in 1984 at the age of 50.Starting with a tour comprising of 13 tourists to Rajasthan, Kesari tours now has trips spanning across the entire globe. I am sure you must be feeling how come all this was possible?The key to this is one basic principle on which Kesari rests: provide personalized and excellent service to customers. Mr Kesari was an expert in Kashmir tours so he tried to capitalize it. Also his entire family including his wife, sons, daughters, son-in-laws’, daughter-in-laws’ passionately supported his effort. His daughter Veena spent sleepless nights to expand Kesari’s customer base. His son Shailesh, an engineer helped in gaining technological advantage while his MBA son-in law helped him in strategizing. Meanwhile his wife wholeheartedly took care of the household responsibilities without complaining about anything and instead encouraging the family to do more. Also Kesari introduced a number of innovative concepts ranging from My Fair Lady Tours-which is tour for only ladies to Masti ki Pathshala which is a students special tour.Such innovative concepts helped it to increase its target audience. Underlying all this was sheer passion and commitment to take Kesari tours to the next level. I wish the team of Kesari tours all the best for their future endeavours and may Kesari tours grow better and better with time!!

Life @ V.J.T.I

It has been almost a year since I have passed out of V.J.T.I. (Veermata Jijabai Technlogical Institute).



Time flies away so fast, you just don’t realize. As I lazily spend time this Sunday evening, beautiful memories of V.J.T.I days flood my mind. An entire book would be still insufficient to pen down the beautiful life at V.J.T.I but I would like to sum up the most important aspects of a typical “V.J.T.I ans” life in a blog post.


First Year:
So finally you are out of your Junior college and scored good marks in CET.And whew!! Something you thought was impossible happens.You land up in Mumbai University’s topmost college-Veermata Jijabai Technlogical Institute(V.J.T.I). And now you feel you have proven “Papa kehte hain bada naam karega”. Wait, now your semester(sem) just begins. And before you finally get used to this great engg college, the mid term test just approaches.You just don’t know what you know but you have no choice.So now you start collecting notes, queuing up the Xerox shops near ICT (Institute of Chemical Technology just opposite Mechanical dept of V.J.T.I) just two days before an exam. The term test gets over and you think it was a disaster but you feel happy realizing that there many others along with you. Finally the lectures continue till the end of the semester followed by “Submissions”. For those unfamiliar with this word, Submissions means submission of duly completed Journals and drawing sheets to the concerned teacher. But this is not as simple as it sounds .It involves buying specific files and labels from V.J.T.I. store (for which there is a long queue), completing the assignments in most loved place of V.J.T.I, the quadrangle and then finally waiting for your turn to come which is bad if your surname starts with S(like me).It also includes the most dreaded vivas on the entire syllabus, whether your viva is good or not is entirely dependent on the professor’s mood. And then finally you get a study leave, just 1-2 weeks going by V.J.T.I standards. And you then finish the end semester exam followed by a long vacation. You are totally exhausted at the end of first semester and feel why the hell do I have to learn so many subjects? And also results pop up around the same time. Totally dissatisfied, you just don’t know what to do. Wait, but now something interesting happens. You realize that 3 important events are coming that you are looking forward to.
1)Pratibimb-The cultural festival
2)Technovanza-The Technical Festival
3)Enthusia-The sports festival.
You participate in these festivals, volunteer for various activities and finally you are into the social circle of V.J.T.I. And now that you have thoroughly enjoyed yourself(though you still feel it was less),the second semester lectures begin. Suddenly life seems better than 1st sem, maybe since you are used to it. And then with the 2nd sem exams getting over,you finally feel proud that now you are 1/4th of an engineer.

Second and Third Year:
Second year makes you realize that engineering is not as tuff as it seems.For IT students like me with subjects like Mechanics and Drawing no longer in syllabus, life becomes much simpler.You then increase your participation in extra currics and start organizing events for the various festivals.3rd year begins with most of the students deciding whether they want to do an M.S. or an M.B.A.Having decided that,most of the students join coaching for entrance exams like G.R.E and C.A.T. Some like me prefer to do neither.The end of the third year marks the beginning of placements with companies like T.C.S, Accenture, Atos origin etc visting the campus. The placement coordinator ensures almost 100% placement.

Fourth i.e. Final Year:
With almost the entire batch getting placed, the 4th year begins.And then the preparation for B.Tech project starts.Some of the students already get outhouse projects approved while those doing inhouse with the guidance of professors and friends,get the project topic ready.7th sem is mostly in the project synopsis and for the C.A.T aspirants in their C.A.T preparation.Finally with the7th sem over, the second round of placements, called the open house begins. Here again top companies like Google, Microsoft visit the campus. At the beginning of the 8th sem, you realize that there are only some months left to spend with your college friends, so you try to spend time together as much as possible.And finally comes the farewell. You enjoy and when its time to leave you start crying ,tears rolling down your cheeks with the feeling you will truly miss each other.And then with the 8th sem exams done and the results declared you feel proud to be a B.Tech from Mumbai’s top college,only next to IIT Bombay.

I would like to thank all my professors and friends in V.J.T.I who made V.J.T.I a truly memorable experience in my life. I would like to conclude by saying:
“Aamchi aai tumchi aai Veermata Jijabai”