What do you want to know about me?

About the boy who hides between shadows of life and death, of shame and pride, of innocence and guilt, of love and hate…. ?

Or about the boy who hears the moon wailing….

Or about the love fool who always thinks the “vanilla sky” will remain vanilla forever….

Or about the man who can beard down any adversity associated with the external world but still vulnerable to his world inside….

Or the effusively sentimental person whose heart bleeds at every goddam thing….

Name: What’s in a name? People call me Ashok/Teddy/Bania/Nono etc .. Books tells that my name is Ashok Pratim Bania. My mother was smitten by the flower “Ashok” during her pregnancy and wanted me to be as pure and sweet as the flower.

Born on 4th of July, 1981, 6:11 am in a small city called Dibrugarh (Assam – India)

Half Gujarati (by roots), can’t speak Gujarati at all and half Assamese …

Traveled around Assam (whole of it) including inaccessible jungles and militant infested interiors. Had an absolutely adventurous childhood.

Schooling was not stable … have changed school 5/6 times

Life turned into this past paced movie after school … an action movie …. 6 hours of coaching for 11 months for the coveted IIT JEE exam. 2 years of hard work … living in a shell with no interactions with the world outside … Moment of Inertia, Mathematical Induction and number theory became my only friends. Deeply motivated by a cause … a cause not related with money nor with fame nor academics … I tasted success big time after the “2 years” … secured an All India Rank which I never thought would achieve after the disastrous performance. Nevertheless after finishing +2 from Cotton College, Guwahati, I joined IIT Madras, Electrical Engineering.I chose a dual degree with a view to complete a PhD. But as fate would have it, nothing of that sort was materialized. Instead tried to seek solace in Marketing (my predilection towards marketing finds its roots in IIT when I did four courses on Marketing in the MBA department). Wrote CAT for admissions to IIMs. Got only IIM Lucknow call. I banged right on target (somehow) and here I am writing this introduction thingie from Room No. 901, Hostel 9, IIM Lucknow.

After the long harangue of my academic excellence and stuff like that you’ll mostly see me engrossed with books … I read a lot of books (click here for my favorite books)…

Music … have started listening seriously from a ripe age of 9. I have been a fan of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Who, Rush, AC/DC … I like to listen to a lot of guitar … When I listen to a particular song I mostly concentrate on the guitars … unless the song is just too sweet … I don’t believe in synthetic music … that’s techno!

Eating was my passion for a long time but I realized after a long time the taste in my mind and not in the taste buds … and also that eating/binging can become an addictive outlet for depression … too late … the damage has been done …

Very possessive about the people I like and very passionate about relationships – this is one secret that net surfers are allowed to know from my side.