Random Ramblings

Updates

2012-01-27T11:17:00.000+05:30

Hello world !!!

It has been ages since I blogged last, so just tought of putting a small update!

Over last few months I have -

1. Got married.
2. Started a venture. (Social Squared) on Social Media Consulting.

Hope to resume blogging soon!

Somewhere @ Nowhere - Some Reviews

2011-07-28T18:44:00.000+05:30

Hi,

Do check out some reviews of my book Somewhere @ Nowhere

http://bookreviews.bookrack.in/2011/07/somewhere-nowhere-by-nikesh-rathi.html

http://inmybookshelves.blogspot.com/2011/06/somewhere-nowhere-by-nikesh-rathi.html

And a small interview @

http://inmybookshelves.blogspot.com/2011/06/interview-nikesh-rathi.html

Assorted Random Semi-Verses

2011-04-17T18:45:00.000+05:30

Memories

Isn't every memory a magic?
Making you lose the sense of time.
Which is so much beyond the realm of logic.
Though sometimes they are mere illusions
But they keep coming back to you,
And make you feel nostalgic!

___

The Dark Side

With every talent comes a curse,
From every gift speaks a caveat aloud,
Even the beautiful moon has a dark side,
And every silver lining has a cloud!

___

The Race

Somewhere in this race,
Some time during the run,
I lost myself in between,
And forgot to have fun.

____

I write ...

I sometimes write random words,
Which hardly make any sense;
But I just felt that you should know,
That in some corner of this little world,
I do have a little presence!

Words fail me.

2011-03-27T09:54:00.000+05:30

They can help to see the most beautiful,

Everything about everything, they tell me.

But when I need them them the most,

Without fail, words fail me.

Sometimes I write ...

2011-03-18T22:14:00.001+05:30

Sometimes I write -

Those wordless poems,

That don't rhyme.

Those story-less stories,

That make no sense.

These idiotic blog posts,

That serve no purpose.

Just that sometimes,

I think that I should,

Let the world know,

That I exist.

I have my own little song

2011-03-06T08:32:00.000+05:30

I have my own little song,

I play it with my heart.

I am the king of the world when it is with me,

For it makes me feel like the great Mozart.

Another small interview

2011-03-01T23:09:00.001+05:30

Please check out my interview @ Techgoss magazine

http://www.techgoss.com/Story/464S12-How-Somewhere-@-Nowhere-was-written.aspx

And, in case you have manged/ happened to read the book, I would like to see a review on your blog/ flipkart!

Thanks!

The story theory

2011-02-04T22:21:00.000+05:30

Every two people have some story linking them. Their story can be explained by the equation:

Story = S * p(1)*p(2)/ r^2,

where

S = story coefficient,

p(i) = expressed traits of person i, and

r = similarity coefficient between persons (value range = 0-1)

Above are qualitative parameters.

(PS - Please don't beat me up for this)

Dreams, dreams go away

2011-01-10T22:07:00.000+05:30

(warning - seems that i have been bitten by the attempt to poetry bug!)

Dreams, dreams go away,

Because the people say,

I may become prisoner of thee,

If you prolong your stay.

The parrot

2011-01-04T23:38:00.000+05:30

"You shall have your freedom",
Said the generous master,
As he opened the cage.

The parrot was delighted,
As he suppressed his joy,
And controlled his rage,

For so long he had wished,
To be free and be
Up in the sky.

At last his chance had come,
And towards his destiny,
He shall fly.

And then the realization dawned,
That his wings were clipped,
How shall now he even try?

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T14:19:00.002+05:30

Ten years ago, somewhere around this time I was preparing for the biggest thing in my life. That was the make or break thing for me. HSC, they said was the biggest thing in life, or at least so it seemed. For me (and probably many others) it was the end of the world. Probably most of us didn't have a clarity of what we wanted in life (and many of us are still clueless!) but we nevertheless marched ahead in the pursuit of our destiny,

Little did I know that it was just the starting point of the "challenges" to follow. From the cocooned shelter, it was now a wild ocean out there - sometimes calm and often turbulent. Maybe, a lot many of us are still afloat, not without our fair share of bruises and injuries though!

I often wonder, what was the difference between me then and now ?

Some might say, there a sea change in everything about me. Some would vouch for the fact that I haven't changed for good, while probably a lot many others would say, I am as useless and hopeless as ever!

(Of course, to my defense I would also say that I am not that useless, hopeless and all that stuff!)

But maybe, my perspective of looking at things has changed. I look at me then and I see a young, idealistic and dreamy teenager who in a few years transformed into a young (some still think so!) adult who still has some dreams, but with a generous dose of cynicism and caution and maybe, a bit more or pragmatism.

Dreams have given way to reality; few dreams are now a reality and so many others are a reality in probably some parallel universe!

But I guess it is somewhat similar for almost everybody.

Ten years ago we had probably no idea what would "today" be like. Maybe, any prediction on what will be there ten years from now is probably futile.

As the saying goes, "This too shall pass ..."

How ? ...

Dekhte hain, mujhe bhi nahi pata :)

Wish you a happy new year 2011 !!!

Word List

2010-12-15T19:31:00.004+05:30

Tried out making a list/ cloud/ whatever of words I used often in my blog. This was the result !

(http://www.wordle.net/)

A small interview

2010-11-25T23:04:00.002+05:30

Check out my interview @

http://blog.pothi.com/2010/11/23/interview-with-nikesh-rathi-author-of-somewherenowhere/

That old man in the train

2010-11-08T22:48:00.000+05:30

"This place seems haunted", said the voice.

It was half past midnight and I was the only other person in the compartment of the local train. I was completely drenched and on the verge of catching cold. But that was least of my concerns. I just wanted to reach home safely. The train stopped on the bridge due to power failure and the place was engulfed in darkness. The only sound I could hear was that of incessant rains.The only other person was an old man, probably in his 80s or 90s, or maybe even 100.

"Yeah. It looks so.", I replied indifferently while shuffling songs on my ipod.

"Maybe, there are ghosts around", he said.

"It surely is scary, and we seem stranded in the middle of nowhere", I replied trying to hide my fear.

"Do you believe in ghosts?", he asked.

"No. I don't", I replied, with a gentle laughter.

"Ah! This current generation doiesn't seem to believe in anything", he replied while allowing himself a gentle chuckle.

"Do you?", I said, trying to hide my arrogance.

"Why not, dear young boy", he said with a cherubic smile.

"Oh, then let it be. You have your beliefs. But I don't and I won't", I retorted, secretly praying for the train to move again.

"Think again", he said and disappeared.

A run against time

2010-10-28T20:04:00.001+05:30

And I found myself running ... Running really fast, unfazed by the drizzle, for there was a lot at stake.

Few moments ago I was walking briskly. But I soon realized that I was running against time. There was a train to catch. It would probably have gone by now.

Or maybe not.

Maybe, there was still a chance and it was the last chance I had.

If only I could make it to the station in the next minute.

I could hear the sound of the train. Its gentle whistle, announcing that it was ready to move ahead. But I was nearby. If only I could tell it to wait for me for a minute.

I sped past the small station building. It was not crowded. And then I was on the platform to see the train leaving. I ran in the direction of the train.

The train was still chugging slowly. If I could run fast enough, I could probably manage to catch it.

I gathered all my energy and started running. I was sweating and panting all along. But catching the train was really important. It was the last chance I had.

I ran faster than the train could leave that place and moments later I was inches away from the last coach. Yes ... I had almost made it ... I could see that utopia, far far away, calling me ...

And then suddenly I suddenly decided to give up my quest.

I slowed down and let the train go.

I bent down and put my hands on the knee and started weeping. But no one seemed to be noticing.

... And I woke up in a cold sweat.

Power corrupts ?

2010-10-12T19:33:00.000+05:30

Random thought -

As the saying goes - Power Corrupts.

But isn't the opposite more valid ?

Without being corrupt you cannot get power ?

And with power I mean - political, economic, social ... everything

And maybe, "corrupt" includes a milder form also - "manipulative"

What do you think ?

Or maybe, there are few exceptions ...

sarcasm(?) dictionary

2010-10-09T08:18:00.001+05:30

(This is not a complete generalization, but almost ...)

- Individuality - Attributes that define a person, usually supposed to be similar to the attributes of "others".

- 100% chance - Any event whose probability is >50%. In case of >75% probability, it is defined as 110%.

- Interesting person - Any person whose interests are similar to yours.

Boring person - Any person whose interests are different from yours.

- God - A "tool' necessary to do unethical/ immoral/ evil things with impunity. Also a good way of keping people in your "control".

- Ethics -Good to say about, bad to practice; even the ones preaching it probably won't like you to practice it. Of course it is acceptable, thanks to a recourse found in the above mentioned definition.

-Freedom of expression - Freedom to say what you like to say, as long as it is what the listener wants to hear.

- Creativity - The art of mimicking others with near-perfection.

(incomplete list)

Somewhere @ Nowhere - 32

2010-09-28T19:53:00.000+05:30

I now have so many copies of my book ...

Wondering what to do about it

Options -

1. Gift it to people (Of course!) ... People in and around Mumbai can get it from me!
(Outside, it'll give rise to logistical issues!)

2. Gift copies to vendors outside Vashi and other railway stations!

Any other ideas ?

Would love to hear from you (whoever read this blog; maybe you can drop me a line!)

By the way, You can order it from -

Flipkart

Pustak Mahal

Infibeam

Indiaplaza

Amazon Kindle

And join the Facebook community HERE

Who am I ? (Part 2)

2010-09-21T22:16:00.002+05:30

Once again I wonder,
Who am I ?
Someone, somewhere,
Just another guy?
A dreamy explorer, or
An exploring dreamer;
Or sitting motionless like
A disinterested viewer?
Like a flowing river,
Charting its own course,
Or a stagnating pond,
Choking at its source?
Like those high mountains,
Kissing the infinite sky,
Or those large stretches of land,
Endless and dry?
Or a resident of two worlds -
Each with its own ordeal
One world uninhabitable,
The other one unreal?

Creatively Challenged

2010-09-19T11:08:00.001+05:30

I stare blankly at the computer screen.

Somewhere deep within I feel a pinch,

I hope to unlazify my grey cells

But they refuse to budge an inch.

Then I look within myself again

And search for that source of humor,

Which was there once, I believe

And wonder if it was just a rumor!

And to find a story somewhere, I hope

In the faces of people I look around

Each of them has a tale to tell.

But nowhere are my instincts found.

I stare deep inside within me,

And all I can find there -

Is a soul stuck in a time warp,

And a big void everywhere.

Somewhere @ Nowhere - The Book

2010-09-07T21:40:00.001+05:30

Finally ...

The book is out ...

It is available at -

http://tinyurl.com/book-khareedo (Flipkart)

http://tinyurl.com/nikesh32 (Pustak Mahal)

Do grab your copy soon, in case you haven't already :)

It will be in Crosswords and Landmarks in some time (maybe some time later this month)

32.

Who am I ?

2010-09-05T19:32:00.001+05:30

Who am I -

A frog in a well who wonders,
That this is the best place,
And asks if the ocean is any better?

Or a deer in the forest that knows,
That it has but limited control
Over his the fate that awaits?

Or a bird soaring up in the sky
With the world as its playground
And dreaming to soar even higher?

I wonder ...
Is there is a different answer for
What I am and
What I want to be?

Where is that world?

2010-08-22T22:13:00.000+05:30

Where is that world,
That I once thought I would make
With my dreams,
That kept me awake.
With my thoughts
And that fire within.
And those crumbs of motivation
Igniting the will to do something.
And that thing resembling faith
Placed high up there,
And when I look around
I find it nowhere.
All that remains is just a void
That world there is no more,
That utopia exists no longer,
It is now just an eyesore.

Cover Page - Somewhere @ Nowhere

2010-08-12T20:48:00.003+05:30

Finally ...

The new cover page of my book ...

Hoping things get rolling soon and it is out

Maybe sometime next month

Super Excited, though it might be a bit far fetched !

(... and wondering how to manage promotion on a shoestring ... er... zero budget!)

BTW ... Do join the Facebook group & follow me on twitter (links on the sidebar) (self promotion!)

Random Current Affairs

2010-08-03T19:38:00.002+05:30

Of late, I have been blogging very infrequently (and most of it is about me "not blogging" ... so in real terms I have been blogging more infrequently than it appears to be)

Maybe, I thought that I can jot down few random points about random happenings around me -

- I loved the movie - "Inception". I am increasingly tempted to believe that life is just a dream within a dream!
Maybe, that this world is my totem and that it goes on continuously, is a proof that life is a dream.

- I watched Udaan (all alone!). Loved the movie.
Few points (apart from plot, performances, narration etc) that added to this liking are -
music that gels with the pace and theme of the movie (including "motu master" song), poems (especially "joote kahan utaare the" - have copy pasted it below in Appendix -1), realistic settings (un-karan joharish sets) etc. I would love to call it a "Taare Zameen Par" for teenagers.

- The "w" key of my laptop is orking on its on ill ... and I am telling people to assume "w" herever necessary!!

- Looking at the state of affairs in preparation for commonwealth games, I often wonder that corruption is an accepted thing and maybe we have become indifferent to it. Although kabhi kabhi ye sab dekh kar mere andar ka caffeine khaul uthta hai !!!

- My reading habits have deteriorated to an abysmal level. However of late I have been quite impressed by UG Krishnamurti. However, I have been guzzling newspaper and other random articles with hopes of accumulating (useless) knowledge.

- Some people think that when I say "I am doing nothing", I might actually have been writing something.
I wish to, but I suddenly have seemed to run out of all enthusiasm/ motivation!
And yeah, I need some sustainable time pass !

- There has been an overdose of Facebook and Twitter in my life and now I am getting bored of them (especially "phony"celebrity tweets!). Also India - Sri Lanka test matches are a big bore.
But I am a bit addicted to boredom so I do follow these things.

- I am impressed by Wikipedia as it lists Rahul Mahajan's occupation as "entertainer".
(I seriously wonder how stupid the "contestants" for the swayamar of this drug addict & wife beater idiot would be ... or maybe, such is the lure of money!).

- Of late, I am getting scared of August ... It is the month that brings me a number closer to old age!

- According to latest estimates, my book will hit markets in at least 1 month from now. So I hope that it will be out in 2-3 months or so. (it was supposed to be there a month ago :(( ) Lekin main patience ki charamseema paar kar chuka hun ... ell .. .almost !

- Sometimes I think that I am such a trivial element in this mighty jigsaw puzzle called "universe" and wonder if I really matter !!!??

____

Appendix -1 - Joote kahan utaare the
(poem from "Udaan")

Chhoti-chhoti chhitrayi yaadein
Bichhi hui hain lamhon ki lawn par
Nange pair unpar chalte-chalte
Itni door chale aaye
Ki ab bhool gaye hain ki Joote kahan utaare the.
Aedi komal thi, jab aaye the.
Thodi si naazuk hai abhi bhi.
Aur nazuk hi rahegi In khatti-meethi yaadon ki shararat
Jab tak inhe gudgudati rahe.
Sach, bhool gaye hain Ki joote kahan utaare the.
Par lagta hai,
Ab unki zaroorat nahin.

Why I have (almost) stopped blogging?

2010-07-21T17:20:00.000+05:30

This is not what this post is about.

This is a question, the answer to which I am trying to find.

Update on Somewhere @ Nowhere

2010-05-10T14:27:00.000+05:30

Some quick updates on my book Somewhere @ Nowhere.

- I had self published it through www.pothi.com around 3 months ago and the feedbacks have been quite encouraging.

- Meanwhile, I got to know about a contest being run by one of the leading publishing houses in India and entered it ... and the book was selected for publication!

- So the book should be out in markets shortly (maybe in 1-2 months). Hoping to see it in the Landmarks and the Crosswords soon.

Keeping my fingers crossed ...

The local train

2010-03-31T12:32:00.003+05:30

That was when I saw her. She had almost missed her train. There was another in 8 minutes, but she always preferred to catch this one only. It was a long ride - Mira Road to Churchgate and it took nearly an hour to reach there in a fast train. More than three hours a day she spent in commuting. It could have been more had her home not been near the railway station.

I had moved to Mumbai recently and was still trying to catch up with its pace. I was yet to get accustomed to the local trains. Slowly and steadily I would. Sometimes I wished that I stayed near my office, but it was too expensive. So I chose a distant suburb, trying not to dig a hole into my pocket and screwing my life inside stuffed trains.

This continued for few weeks. I always noticed her getting to the station, catching the train and alighting at the destination before briskly walking to her office. Mine was nearby, but that was it - I never manged to talk to her. She was somewhat reclusive and I didn't have any pretext to approach her and talk. Anyway, she seemed to be a reclusive person and I never saw her talking to anybody. She was an enigma.

But somehow her face was still with me even when I was not travelling - it was there when I was in office, or at home or on Sundays when I was lazing down. There was something about her; something behind her enigmatic face. Maybe, I should gather courage and talk to her. She would often catch the same train while coming back also. maybe, there was a lot in common between us. Maybe, we shared some kind of "connection" or something.

That day, I was late in coming from office and coincidentally she to was. That day, I was not rushing on the station platform as there was a good ten minute before the train. I grabbed a sandwich and walked towards the platform trying to prevent vegetables from spilling on my shirt. That was when I almost hit a pillar and almost fell down - right in front of her eyes. I couldn't save my sandwich though. She had a hearty laugh. I never saw her smile and there she was - laughing. That was the first time I ever had some sort of communication with her. It seemed that she had seen me before - probably on the same train which we took - maybe a slight familiarity.

I occasionally crossed her and exchanged a few "hi"s and "hello"s but that was the end of conversation. She seemed to be more or less disinterested. Yet I felt that she knew a lot about me. Maybe, she was looking for some company during those boring journeys or boring walks. Maybe, i could be that someone!

It was around two months since I moved to the city and first saw her. I was crazy about her and I didn't even know her. Sometimes I waited at the station just to catch a glimpse of her and would "coincidentally" board the same train as her.

I think I needed to talk to her. Maybe, she also kind of liked me. That was a kind of wishful thinking, but maybe. At least I could give it a try. Maybe, we can just chit chat for some time. I was sure that she would not say no - at least not for talking for ten minutes.

One day, when I was late from my work, I waited for her at the station. She didn't come. Probably she had left early. The next day also same thing happened. The third day I saw her and accompanied her to her coach. The train wasn't too crowded and it thankfully wasn't a ladies coach.

I sat near her and within seconds the ticket examiner arrived and asked me for my ticket and certificate. Damn! What certificate? She produced some certificate and showed to him. He asked me for a fine and that was when I realized - the coach was reserved for handicapped, old people and cancer patients. Damn! She was suffering from cancer. The TTE threw me out of coach and I had to catch the next train.

The next day I didn't see her. Probably she was on a different train, or probably not travelling any more, or ...

Individuality

2010-03-23T00:08:00.000+05:30

Individuality - "The aggregate of qualities and characteristics that distinguish one person or thing from others; character"
(Source - The first result on google search for - "individuality + definition")

So, I assume that it is fairly a constant thing which is with shapes a person's thoughts and probably his actions (unless under some kind of duress). If I had to give some kind of physical form to it it would be fairly solid though not completely, as it is subject to change by effect of some external influences, which maybe somewhat significant influences (after all, this is the only way an almost solid object can change its shape).

I was just wondering that what happens in case of a person's individuality is a fluid or is expected to be a fluid.

In this case a person's individuality will be flexible - probably not defined at all.

And, if the vessel is a relatively powerful object which can think on its own & has a right to dictate what kind of things it would permit in it then what will it choose ?

I believe it is a kind of liquid that it can give a shape to - that fits it requirements. It would say no to solid objects. After all, those solid objects would prefer to have their own shape and that shall not be dictated by the shape of the vessel it is poured into.To make it believe it might issue a diktat (after all, it is powerful!) that allows only liquid to be poured into it - anything else would not be permissible.

Moral of the above crap -
Stop thinking about your individuality. You mean nothing, Be flexible. You have a society to fit into.

Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset

2010-03-19T13:41:00.000+05:30

Bottom line - If you haven't seen them, then get a DVD/ Download it and do watch it (unless you hate each and every so called "romantic" kind of movie) - not much taxing - total run of 3 hours(for 2 movies combined, seen back to back)
_____

What if you are guy travelling across and exploring Europe (wishful thinking!) and strike a conversation with some young chick in the train (wishful thinking again!), decide to spend few hours together at some place, say Vienna ... and that day turns out to be the most memorable day in your life?

Well, this is precisely the story of Jesse and Celine in the movie "Before Sunrise" and their meeting ten years later forms the premise of "Before Sunset".

(Today I saw them for the 3rd time)

Interesting concept, I would say but that is just surface of the movie. The real soul lies in the light hearted kind of discussion they have. That forms the heart and soul of these movies. Well, the discussion isn't specifically about anything. It is about random assorted stuff but still, they are likely to make you think and take notice.

Also interesting is the way their perspective about life changes in all these years and yet the core of it remains same across the years - forms an interesting comparison and also reflect a bit on how our own thoughts have undergone a (gradual?) change in last ten years or so ... and maybe will change a lot still in following ten years.

And about the so called argument over which one is better - I would vote for "Before Sunset" - the reason being much more depth in the kinds of discussion they have.

I would love to see another sequel - maybe when Jesse and Celine are in 50s and again get into a long conversation philosophize about life, universe and everything. Among everything, I am sure that the movie will have some amazing conversations!

Sometimes I think -

2010-03-15T13:56:00.000+05:30

Some random useless frustoo stuff ahead - mostly a copy-paste from my facebook updates & some quotes from my book (self publicity !!!).

Sometimes I think -

... that it is in darkness that a human is happy. He accepts things as they are and is happy with it. The light of knowledge and understanding leads him to hope and strive for more leading to perennial unhappiness.

... that I should do something completely unthinkable ... absolutely absurd ... unimaginably weird ... what? ... I don't know yet ...

... that I have a perfect relationship with the world - i hate the world and the world hates me.

... that life is a nothing but a dream and at the end of the dream you realize that nothing in it is for real.

... that life is like that coin in sholay & "tails" was my call.

... that god does play dice with the universe; and then he says "buraa na maano holi hai"

... that life is like a box of garbage; you never know what is gonna be thrown at you.

... that we are conditioned with so much crap in life that we start considering all the non-crap things as crap, and by the time we realize that all those non-crap things which we were told are crap are the only things that matter, we are so much crap infested that it becomes almost impossible to break the shackles and get out of this crap.

... that every time i press "ctrl + Z", life says - "this facility is not available in your life".

... that every two people share some story in common, no matter how insignificant or inconsequential.

... that freedom of expression is the freedom to say what you want to say ... As long as you say what they want to hear

... that when things go wrong, you learn ... and in the end you are full of learnings that have little or no use

... that sometimes that pain is necessary to keep you going and at times it becomes the driving force.

... that knowledge is a bane if u r supposed to follow a preordained line of thought.

... that some things are better left unsaid .

... that i came, i saw, i conquered, i got disillusioned, i gave up, i quit.

... that there are 2 ways to kill a person - 1. Kill his body. 2. Kill his soul.

... that ye duniya ek rangmanch hai aur hum sab to katputli hain ... audience bhi hum hi hain aur ye katputliyan bahut bore kar rahi hain ... i want my money back

... that at first you fight for it ... then give a token protest ... then just hope for it .... and in the end ... you learn to live without it.

... that dreams are not supposed to last forever and have to give way for reality

... that when a group of tigers, bears and panthers come charging towards you, it is better to give up ... at least you can enjoy your own end

... that sometimes the only objective in life is - survival ... till the next moment arrives ... doesn't matter how ... don't care if it doesn't.

... that nothing matters ... for in long run we are all dead.

... that 67 years down the line, when I am 93 years old, god will suddenly turn the clock back by 79 years and i'll get a chance to live all over once again

Somewhere @ Nowhere - The Book

2010-02-13T08:34:00.006+05:30

FINALLY ....

After a tryst with so-called-creativity, I have come up with a book - Somewhere @ Nowhere.

You can have a sneak peek at the story & a few pages from the publisher's website and order the same & get it home delivered anywhere in India/ Abroad.

Details as mentioned below-

- Preview and get the book home delivered from HERE

Also, you can join the following groups -

- Orkut Community

- Facebook Page

Hope you like the work. Would appreciate a feedback.

Till then ... Happy Reading!!!

And yeah, please spread the word
(relying on word of mouth & word of blog publicity)

:-)

___

Update (18/02/2010) - Thanks for the initial response to the book :)

Update2 (25/ 02/ 2010) - Thanks for the feedbacks on the book those who have read it. (hope to get a feedback by others soon). Encourages me to overcome inertia and write more!

Meanwhile, those who ask for why is it currently not available in traditional retail outlets - well, I hope it will be done in some time (which might take a few months at least).

Main reason to not go with a traditional publisher was to retain control over content (tempted to use jargons like "creative control" and all!). A few of them wanted stuff what sells like - "life at IIT/IIM" kind of stuff, a mandatory love story with lots of "open sex" plus lots of Bollywood masala; and I didn't want it to be like one of those run off the mill kind of stuff!

And yeah, looking at the feedbacks I am not regretting it :-) !

25 random things

2010-02-08T18:02:00.001+05:30

25 Random facts about me (Inspired by Arjun's post on Facebook).

Won't tag anyone but would like people reading this to tag themselves.

I crazily check mail/FB evey now and then even (usually very few minutes) if there is no update or any likelihood of any update.
Before this current "book" I had almost written a manuscript some 1-1.5 years ago, but found it useless and abandoned the project.
I often randomly laugh out loud while remembering some random thing.
I hate to shave.
As a kid I used to read and analyze maps and know about how different places were connected (and hence interest in railways!) and used to mentally test myself on how many places do I know in a particular state and similar stuff. Even now, I get excited by trains and railway stations and highways and airports. (maybe, it is somewhat heredity as my dad had amazing information about different places and all)
I have command over some thoroughly useless information about Bollywood.
As a kid I used to play cricket inside our flat with my brother (we called it 10 outs it was a 2 innings match, we chose our world 11 and it was mandatory to have at least 3 left hand batsmen and a left handed bowler). Among other games one was "fighting".
Best things in life are trivial, I believe. So sometimes, a random long forgotten song playing on my radio se dil garden garden ho jaata hai.
I once jumped from a running train (OK, it was running at a snail's pace) just because it was relatively closer to my home and the station I was suposed to get down at was a bit far.
At times I can be terribly moody.
I like to indulge in the art of "bakar" endlessly unless I am in one of those bad or subdued mood or if I think that people would like me to follow a certain predefined line of thought (and in case of latter, I become almost uncommunicative)
If we consider styaing for minimum 10 days as having stayed at a place, then in last 7 years I have stayed in - Baroda, Bhopal, Mathura, Bangalore, Lucknow, Raipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jhunjhunu, Bikaner, Indore & Nagpur. If this definition is expanded to include overnight stays (or 2-3 days stay) also then the places that get added to the list is - Shimla, Nainital, Kanpur, Sikar, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Bhatapara, Kolkata, Amravati, Akola, Rudrapur and few others.
There are people whom I consider as unofficial gurus in initial few months/ years of that interest - Myshkin for books and Rajdeep for Hollywood movies.
In my many jogging attempts I once ran for 100 meters and then got tired and returned back to my hostel (2003-end, started from hostel 6, got tired when I crossed hostel 5 and then returned back)
I don't exactly remembr when I started cracking PJs, but one of the earliest ones I remember is in class 10, when the teacher was telling about the underground river "Saraswati" at Sangam in Allahabad (apaprt from Ganga and yamuna) I mentioned to my neighbour that - "Police is after Saraswati and hence she is underground"
Several people consider me as a damn boring and humorless person (it is ok if they call it "bad" though!) and it irritates me.
I loved Bangalore weather and often used to roam about my small terrace (attire inspired by Sallu !!!) especially post-dinner and in early mornings.
Once upon a time I was a huge SRK fan.
My mom almost did the practical application of "shortest path algortith", PERT, "Crashing", efficiency and similar things in household stuff and maybe that was my first exposure to operations management! (she still does!)
Once upon a time I was crazy for sweets. There have been times when I had had only rasgullas for dinner. Now I am not crazy for them, but I still like them. Of late, I have developed a liking for coffee and more recently black coffee.
I am a relatively early riser (7-8 am types). Even when I used to sleep at 5 am with intentions of getting up at noon, I used to get up by 9 and feel sleepy the whole day.
In long run, I would probably like to live in some small town in the himalayas!
I would love to call myself an "explorer". Often, I can spend infinite time randomly surfing about random stuff in the universe (thanks to wikipedia!)
I have a bad throat and nose which usually get screwed even by slightest provocation.
Despite being an electronics engineer (of almost useless variety!), I haven't done soldering even once in life.

_____
Meanwhile, hoping to come up with the book shortly, maybe in a week or two :)

Somewhere @ Nowhere

2010-01-28T22:46:00.002+05:30

Somewhere @ Nowhere

Coming soon ...

As of now a snapshot at the cover design -

(LHS - Back Cover, RHS - Front Cover)

(Insane) words of non-wisdom

2010-01-21T16:55:00.002+05:30

A stroll down a lunatic asylum proves that faith means nothing;

A glance at the glamor world proves that "morality" means nothing;

A walk along the corridors of corporate world shows that "ethics" mean nothing;

Few moments in a crematory shows that "life" means nothing.

So whatever we learn mean nothing;

Hence ...

Everything is nothing and nothing is everything!!

The sea and the infinite

2010-01-17T23:23:00.001+05:30

Standing at the shore

I stare at the infinite.

Numb of all the senses

Of the wrong, and the right.

I am there at the moment yet

It seems like it has been forever.

I feel crashing upon my senses

The past present and future together.

Up there near the horizon

I saw a ray of fading light.

It went away like that fleeting glory

And disappeared as came the night.

All I can see is

The sea and the wave,

And all I can think is

I was so, so naive.

Finance meets philosophy!

2010-01-12T16:39:00.004+05:30

If you have ability and all you do is "lie" then it becomes a liability.

If you are an ass and you are well "set" it is an asset.

These basic principles can make a perfect balance shit.

New year resolutions

2010-01-01T11:22:00.006+05:30

Ah! It's that time of the year once again !!

Wish you a very happy new year.

I was just wondering about the alternatives for new year resolutions but chucking them out nevertheless ...

... but on second thoughts, some might be worth considering ...

Some random thoughts -

Resolution 1 -

To find out what is the purpose of life, universe and everything and come up with a non "32" or "42" answer

... but isn't this what I am trying to do the whole of last decade ??

Resolution 2 -

Continue keeping the 1024 * 2048 resolution (similar to RM's)

... but as things get hazier, it is likely to be broken ...

Resolution 3 -

Be myself

... I always promise so ... every year without fail ... and fail ...

Resolution 4 -

Write a book - Fiction to be precise (even if it sells 10 copies, 5 purchased by me :)

WIP ... Coming soon ...

(Well ... maybe, sometime in near or late future ... but definitely in this decade!)

Resolution 5 -

Travel ... Travel ... travel ... Explore ... explore ... Explore ... the country and the world ...

... Khair chhodo ... bahut baar socha, kabhi ho nahi paaya ... except on Wikipedia

Resolution 6 -

Give up ... unfollow my heart (as if i always followed it!) ... stop having my own views about random things .... and abandon that machine called brain and blindly do what I am ordained to do, think what I am ordained to think ... become a fatalist ... and live happily ever after!!

... but then ... I not a robot and can't be one ...

___

Whatever ... Best wishes for the year to come and years to come!

A Mirage

2009-12-25T11:20:00.002+05:30

It was an impossible dream
Like reaching for the stars in the sky
I chased it like that elusive butterfly
I prayed to get it
I hoped to catch it some time
So that it could be forever mine
I was always so near
Yet it was so far
But I pursued it endlessly
For it was just too dear
It sometimes faded
And disappeared in the sky
And when I held it at last
It was just a mirage

Life in a nutshell.

2009-12-14T13:05:00.000+05:30

I loved coffee.

I asked for tea.

What I got is a soft drink.

Well, that precisely is the story of my life.

`Another Random Thought

2009-07-24T23:48:00.003+05:30

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Just wondering, what is the worst non-fatal, non-demeaning thing you can do to a person?

Surely, one of them is allowing him/ her to explore things so that forms his opinions and ideas about things, and then exercise control (& not just give opinions) on what he should think, what he should deem as right or wrong & what he should do .

Barbaric it may sound but probably allowing him to remain ignorant may be a better option.

What say?

Reality Shows?

2009-07-17T22:59:00.003+05:30

Recently I managed to get a glimpse of 2 (reality) shows -

"Rakhi ka Swayamwar" and "Sach ka Saamna"

While the former is a manifestation of a publicity hungry clothes shedding "Sati Savitri", the latter is a virtual slaughter of private life in full public glare for few wads of money?

Or am I wrong ?

Maybe Rakhi Sawant has really changed, and hopes to find a soulmate and become one of those Tulsi-type bahu and people are facing the truth just to come 'clean', to make amends to demands of their conscience!

Meanwhile, I am reminded of Dhitrashtra's statement in jaane bhi do yaaron -

"ye sab kya ho raha hai"

Random Thought

2009-07-16T13:59:00.000+05:30

Random thought -

"knowledge is a bane if u r supposed to follow a preordained line of thought"

What say ?

Countryside travel

2009-07-14T19:01:00.002+05:30

Traveling around country side is so much -

exciting

tiring

interesting

frustrating

but above all ... enlightening (now, I still don't claim to be an enlightened soul though!)

It is just so awesome an experience. You get to know soooooooo many different shades of life - some good, some not so good, some un-good and some outrightly bad. But then, that's life!

I may be liking only parts of it right now, but I am sure that in times to come I'll cherish these 'traveler' moments of mine ... hopefully !!!!

Hoping to come with a longer, detailed post ... Hopefully I don't run out of motivation & energy by then!!!

Defiance

2009-05-25T22:22:00.003+05:30

In the penultimate moment, he just waited. A guillotine will kiss his neck, and is speed would be enough to separate it from rest of the body. This process will be repeated eleven times, ten times after his head had already been chopped off. But then, that was the law ever since those bearded men who believed themselves to be messengers of god took over few years ago.

He was guilty on many counts, punishment for each ranging from few lashes to being executed few timed over. He was one of the few individuals who was given a chance to plead in public to escape this gruesome end. This was a special privilege given to him by the ruler, so that he begs for forgiveness for all his sins, be blessed with atonement and then back to life as normal ... normal as per as what they thought. That, the ruler thought would serve as a precedent and inspire people to follow their line of thought.

For the one last time he was asked, "You still have the time. Do you wish to come back to the life of a common person or go to hell".

Instead of hearing a positive response they heard a loud but calm voice, "Fuck you bastards", and that too in full public glare. This would have led to humiliation, but then it was against the law to hear anything against the rulers. Hence such statement would not even exist after this moment.

I won't be sorry for anything, for I know I never did anything wrong. I did nothing wrong by not sporting a beard. I did nothing wrong by sending my daughter to school and then college. I did nothing wrong by allowing my wife to go to work, to earn a rightful living for herself and a name for herself. You bastards might have got them killed by lashing them in public, but that doesn't change my thoughts on right and wrong.I did nothing wrong by not paying money for your so-called holy wars. I did nothing wrong by not believing in gods that you have ordained me to believe. I did nothing wrong by respecting those individuals, communities and nations who were unlike you. In fact I am proud of the fact that I am not as you are. Arrogant and vain it may seem, but I am much, much superior in thoughts and deeds than you are.

But it was all written. No amount of thinking about rights an wrong would do any good. After a moment the giant guillotine would behead him many times over. Then he would just be another culprit in the pages of history, the sinner who defied the divine rules and got the rightful treatment.

Web Page

2009-05-15T11:16:00.003+05:30

Of late, I haven't been quite regular on this blog, except for few sporadic posts here and there. There have been many factors, chiefly laziness and utter lack of motivation to make a post. Meanwhile I have been working on (... rather, have worked on around a month and a half back!) on designing a web page. I wished to update it on a regular basis, but somehow the inertia of doing nothing in this direction is too much of a barrier.

www.rathinikesh.com

Hope to start updating this soon !!!

The great unifier

2009-03-29T16:31:00.000+05:30

Nothing unites us like a common enemy. Think about it, and a great deal of truth about human existence comes forward. Two individuals, who may hardly be in good terms often come together once they get a common enemy. Long ago it was the Britishers on our soil which united the much divided people of this country against them. Much before than, in times of monarchy it was the enemies of the kingdom which kept the flock together. Thousands of years ago, it was the nature and the wildlife which kept the humans together.

Why only humans? Take the case of animals like deer in the forest that often stay together for there is a fear of being hunted by some bigger enemy like a lion or a tiger. There might be some cohesiveness because of similarities among themselves but it becomes secondary given the fear of something bigger, something that threatens the basic existence.

This common enemy factor may be of different magnitudes, in different shapes and sizes. It might be a big movement or something or something small in day to day lives. It might just be about that annoying neighbor, the big boss in the office or that person in the society who is a big time hypocrite and even, some elements in the system or something much larger - of the likes that can trigger political movements! In social circles, in tea parties, over a coffee table, over a few drinks, in a chit chat over a phone call most of the casual conversation often veers towards one topic - it is about people, and often about the things they don't like about them. It is talk about people and bitching about them that gives immense satisfaction and at times purpose and direction to life. For many, purpose of life is to be happy, and it is cribbing and bitching that gives this supreme sense of satisfaction. Maybe, this sense of loving to be against something is one of the fundamental human emotion, without which they will cease to exist

Take the case of politics. An age old principle of Divide & Rule has always been exploited to maximum by the political parties. When there are not any issues, then they have been created. If the issues were not that big, they have been made big so that it becomes easy to pull people together against some issue. One of the recent incidents can be the case of Varun Gandhi attempting to create a common 'enemy' to unite people. 'Uniting' people is in this case a euphemism for garnering votes. Same has been used in 2002 (Gujarat), 1992(Barbri Masjid), 1984 (general Elections). Similar rhetoric (but in much larger magnitude is being used by likes of Osama Bin Laden against western world and western world against Osama.

And this continues, and we stay divided, yet united against a set of common enemies.

If this is the case, will we ever be able to stand up together? Will we ever imagine that the world will be as one, as John Lennon said? Maybe, we would need some extra terrestrial attack to unify us! Or maybe, it can be nature which has been so much used and abused! Who knows! Let us just wait and watch and till then ... fight among ourselves!

Election Time

2009-03-14T20:21:00.004+05:30

With the clouds of elections and subsequently, polity in post-election times looming large it is again a time for all those false promises and assurances, of trying a million permutations and combinations to reach that coveted number, of mud slinging and infighting, of big ticket bargains and compromises ... and of course hope and dreams of a better future. In about ten weeks or so it will be clear who will rule the country for time to come (... if that time is 5 years remains to be seen!). Will the incumbents be back in power or the PM in waiting becomes the PM ... or we'll see emergences of the opportunistic alliance called "The Third Front".

Meanwhile the fight between the two largest parties reminds me of a cover page story in The Economist during the 2004 US Presidential elections - "Incompetent v/s Incoherent".

Personally, I think it is a contest between two alliances - one not having a great track record during its last five years in power against an alliance which seems to be having a dearth of leaders (barring a few!) and clear policies to take the country forward. One one side we have a bunch of sycophants while on other side we have a group of people some of whose actions can earn a label of "religious fanatics".

Whatever be my take on these two alliances, about my likes and dislikes ... I believe that these are still the best two options to lead the country. God knows, what will happen to the country if "The Third Front" wins and we have someone like Mayawati or Dewe Gowda or Prakash Karat as the PM !!

DevD

2009-03-07T17:00:00.006+05:30

One of the most intriguing characters of Indian literature and one of the famousest loser has now been reborn as Dev D. He is a modern day Punjabi and his focus area has shifted from east to north India - all thanks to Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Deol combo (Two guys who have made a reputation of being offbeat) This movie has generated lot of buzz thanks to its emossional atyaachar, references to MMS controversy among others. Also, this is one of the movies in recent past to have got probably the widest range of reviews - from 1 star to 5 star ratings, from awesome to shockingly bad with people debating endlessly about morality aspect of various things shown in it. Here is my take on the movie which I watched on 14th Feb in a 9 : 45 AM show in a nearby cinema!

I loved the movie while watching, and few weeks later I am finding it even better, although I haven't had a repeat viewing. Of course, one of the parameters for evaluation is comparison with earlier versions of Devdas, but it was meant to be that. The music gels wonderfully into the narration and is often used to take it forward. The characterizations were awesome (not being judgmental about how good or bad, or right or wrong they were but they were strongly written). The performanaces were superlative, but the movie belongs to Abhay Deol, methinks.

But, there are two things that worked for me nnd make me look at the movie differently -

- Dev D is mean. He is selfish. He is low on intelligence. He does not deserve any sympathy and this movie has shown that. The character is not a typical hero. He is NOT an anti-hero, but he is just another selfish individual whose life didn't go as per his whims and fancies.
(That was the real Devdas in Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's original novel as my friend, Dada also pointed out!)

- The ending where Dev D decides to give himself another chance- a ray of hope as Dev D gives himself an opportunity for redemption. Original Devdas was sad and sympathy provoking, but this is not.This is NOT a happy ending as such, but it ends on optimism. A bit open ended, but that works!

The movie is amazing. Love it or hate it. But you can't ignore it!

Soap and Economics

2009-03-05T19:38:00.006+05:30

First few months in a FMCG industry is all about learning. This is true for almost every kind of industry. Or better still, you never cease to learn anywhere ... usually. But then, these learnings is not only about your work or general philosophical fundas pertaining to life, universe and everything.

Having been in FMCG industry for few months has thrown up a few learnings for me too. But weirdly, I think I think I have learned most about economics and few random bits about life in a rural-ish setting (bits of which I have been mentioned in few earlier posts few months ago.)

The economics I am mentioning is not all those complex equation, but few random common-sensical, observational stuff - a la The Under Cover Economist way.

- For example, so many different things are involved in making things work for a product (apart from people managing and researching on it), say a soap - host of vendors (for different species of raw materials, packaging materials), support materials like labels, stickers etc.,

- Different agencies involved - media planning agency, advertising agency, PR agency, design agency, printers etc.

- Businesses which survive on above like Media - TV, newspaper ... even internet.

- Different kinds of people involved in taking the products to the marketplace - transporter, guys at warehouse, distributor, salesman, retailer ... and all the company people employed to smoothen the process.

- Add few more things like consultants, accountants, auditors, market research agents, software developers which provide support organization in various forms

- And then support staff (as in canteen guy, janitor etc.) or the neighboring paan waalah, the puncture repair shop opposite to the office etc.

- Then there are guys like banks or various agencies who suck in the money of the ones above and pump it into the system.

- Then there are credit card guys who tell you to spend more and more, which is used to buy more and more and feed in other such companies (with different products and services) the above people put in their money to buy the same soap and similar stuff and so on ...

With so many different companies and businesses and so many interconnections ... imagine the scale ... and all the systems that keeps money flowing and the economy ticking ...

It might seem elementary, but it's amazing. But then, this is just an extremely small part of this whole complex system of economics!

Greed is good

2009-02-22T13:55:00.004+05:30

"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you"

- Gordon Gekko, Wall Street.

This is one of my favorite movie quotes, immortalized by Michael Douglas as the ruthless Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street.

We often attribute the current global crisis to greed, which is true to an extent. Often people are taught to be free of greed for they believe greed to be root cause of most of the evils plaguing this world (which is partly right!). But then, isn't it the same greed that has made us reach where we are right now, compared to where we were a century ago - for most of the development we have seen has been a result of this greed.

Maybe, Ayn Rand will agree!
___

For more quote from the movie - http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wall_Street

Downhill

2009-02-01T13:46:00.009+05:30

That was the last of the drink left, and he gulped it down. They had finished it all. Had there been more booze, they would have gulped it too. It was around 3 in night, but then there was still a lot left in the night. The lights in the city below had faded along ago but it still looked beautiful. After all, the beauty of the city was not dependent on light. And from this place, located uphill somewhere amidst wilderness, human settlement was the last thing that could have come to their mind. But in the end, that was where they all had to go to. They walked back to their cars and planned to head back to their hotel, which was some 20 km away at Shimla.

They were a group of 7 people - all college friends out on a trip to Shimla to celebrate the last extended weekend before getting out of the B-School. One of the guys had a car and all crammed into it and headed for the vacation. The owner of the car, Chandru as the fondly called him was too drunk to drive. But he had often been too drunk to drive, but that was never a cause of concern. He was an experienced person in drunken driving. Rest assured he would ensure that they reached their hotel rooms safely.

The safe ride was suddenly halted by a sharp, loud voice which would probably have echoed even miles away in the wilderness.

"Stop"
They didn't.
"Stop. What are you doing?"

One of them barked and blocked the car.

Chandru stopped, despite receiving repeated warnings from Shreya that they were just local goons; goons who treated the local visitors at that time of the day as an ATM, as a means of generating fast cash. Shreya, one of the two females of the group had stayed in Shimla for major part of her life and knew that area very well. She knew that local goons often reached there and harassed those very few people traveling at night. They were 8 of them … probably 9 ... or 10. They had sticks with them. Any maybe inside their pockets was some gun or something.

“Damn!” Chandru thought. “We are screwed”.

Same thought was echoed by everyone, each unsure of what lay in store in the times ahead.

It was Shreya who suggested that place so that they could chill out there on that cliff and have a party amidst nature with full view of the towns they had left below. They had been there since last 4 hours and did not want to leave, but for the stock of booze getting over. They wished to stay in that moment forever but then, there are many moments one wishes that lasted forever. And time always disappoints on this front!

But it was not a time to think about all these when they had a larger problem on hand.

“We are forest officers. How dare you wander into this area at night? Do you have the necessary permit from the government or forest department?”

“No … We never knew …”

“Shut up you bugger … You have encroached into this wildlife area. You know the penalties? You know the seriousness of the crime and the resulting consequences? Let us go to the police station. There only it will be decided what to do with you guys. The inspector sahib will decide. Let them call your parents and then decide what to do”

They went aside to discuss the future course of action, which had already been decided long before they reached there. They were following the same tried and tested formula. But for the group inside the car, it was all completely new experience altogether.

That would have been quite scary – going to police station and all. But they knew it would not happen. They knew that it was the background building for a larger goal – The larger goal being to earn some quick bucks. Two of them came out to negotiate with them. But then, safety was a prime concern. These men could have done anything. Maybe, they all could not even see the next morning.

Damn! How they had landed into this deep shit!

“How much money you need?” Aditya asked as if he was ready to offer a blank cheque.

“See … You can be imprisoned for five years and charged with non- bailable offence."

After a pause he as if saying something prophetic, uttered -

"So it is given that you will have to shell out quite a good sum”

“I know it is going to be a good sum or whatever ... Just tell me how much … I don’t give a damn …”

“There are just the goons … Why are we paying them … Just go away …”

No one paid any heed. There were better things to do.

“Ten thousand”

“Sir, we don’t have that much money … We are students ... We don’t keep that much money”

This statement resulted in a slap, although that mustached goon was quite pleased to hear the word 'sir'. But then, he had to maintained the facade that he was an upright forest officer! Even he was too drunk to realize the details of whatever he said

“Sir, we will pool out whatever we have and give it”

His proposal was also shot down. Chandru and Rohan went aside to negotiate the ransom amount whatever they called it. Each demand was met with inability to pay that much. Finally, after a long round of negotiations they settled for five thousand bucks.

They pooled in the money and somehow managed to reach that figure.

They had some more, but did not want to reveal it, but were ready to shell that out had need been.After paying the money they demanded service charges @ 10%. Hey paid it willingly.

They were too scared to be even reluctant, let alone oppose it. They were amused and scared or whatever the right set of emotions were, as the goon mentioned the term “service charges”.

Finally they let them go after a parting good bye slap, though few of the gang members were protesting not to let these big fish off so easily. But then, group leader always prevails and all were let off.

What a relief!

In their way back, they were still a bit drunk after that hour and a half long break. In few minutes time the first signs of morning would arrive and all this would be just like any bad dream - a dream which they would like to follow; a dream which they would look back to an smile; dream which taught quite a few lessons.

But there were still few miles before reaching the town and catching on with some sleep. As of now they were quite scared and reaching back safely was the only priority. On the next right turn they could spot a few uniformed men. It was some routine check point. They had seen it while going uphill. They crossed it without looking much scared. The policemen smiled as they drove past.

The faces seemed vaguely familiar. But, were they the same people whom they met an hour earlier? Or was it the fear that made every such face appear similar?

Whatever! It was all scary, but they had crossed the final hurdle now. They had nothing to worry about now.

Last few minutes …

2009-01-10T20:14:00.004+05:30

He listened to the sounds with interest. A weird kind of interest with which one hears when one is unsure of whether he is going to live the next moment. A moment later he may just cease to exist and become just another number. He had just few more minutes to live. As he awaited his end in the small closet of his luxury suite, his life flashed before his eye as it always does in front of the eyes of a dying man.

Thirty two years was a long time. But it was not long enough to be length of one’s life. He had seen it all – from being a complete failure to being at the pinnacle of success. But then, it was all a passing phase in his life. These are, after all just passing phases in lives of people. They are at top at one moment in life, and then someone just shoves them off the pinnacle and the next moment they hit the nadir. More often than not, like in his case it was nobody who shoved him off, except himself and his arrogance.

That place was under siege since 12 hours now. He heard few gunshots, few explosions and got to know from a SMS on his cell phone that that place was under siege by some terrorists. That’s all he knew for any access to information was limited. He had hid himself in the closet of his room, so that his detection maybe delayed but he knew that once they were inside his room, they would find him within a minute or so. It had been in the news channels that few people in the restaurant below had been shot dead and now it was the turn of all those rich people staying in those sea facing luxury suites. But then, it was all speculative. No one knew what was happening there, except few people who were trapped inside. But why was he the chosen one, he wondered. Why his life was being ruined. But then, he had no right to question all this. After all, he was not a person who had never sinned in his life. He had been the perpetrator of many of them, and never gave a thought to what the ones at the other side thought about it. Probably, he was paying a price for all that...

His thoughts led him to worlds diverse. The world that had not been, the world that could have had been and the world that had already been. It was not the best of the worlds, nor was it the worst but it was just a mixed bag of variegated experiences. That first time he had a fight at home; that day when he was ordained to give all thoughts of being a sportsperson as there was no surety and confined to his study room; the subtle grudge, bordering into hatred that he was not allowed to pursue his dream; his life had been quite a mixed bag. And that day when he in fit of rage left his home to come to Mumbai to struggle and try his luck in movies; those days he spent on pavements before getting spotted in a small time TV show and his subsequent journey spanning into many blockbuster movies. And those many days when he seemed to have control over everything in the world; when the common man on street adulated him for his stardom while he was busy running after his co-stars and conspiring to win brownie points over his arch rivals and being consumed by the same flame when his personal and professional life had gone for a toss. And that public spat with his godfather in the industry that threatened to ruin his image and subsequently his fight with many people who were closest to him, all due to this airs he had about himself and ultimately leading to his downfall. Damn! How were those times for him, but then it had happened and there was no way he could deny or change that truth.

Ah, how he wished he could go back in time and change them! How he wished, he could go back and win his parents’ approval; how he could have being avoided being such a scheming villain, unlike the heroes he portrayed in the movies; how he could go back in time and say sorry to her. Maybe, just one chance…

Then without any prior notice, arrived a bullet which lodged close his heart. He was expecting it since long, but when it finally came it was nothing short of an unpleasant surprise. He could barely see the shooter except his intense bloodshot eyes and his face covered by a black cloth. But all that was immaterial. Of what help was it to him? What good would knowing who he was do to him?

So much for this short life of his! How he now wished to make amends to it all. Just one chance and he would make amends for everything; just one opportunity to go back in time and change the things as they were. But he knew that wasn’t to be, come what may. Not now, nor later, nor somewhere in distant future when he will cease to exist altogether…

new year

2009-01-01T20:45:00.003+05:30

2008 is gone, and here we welcome 2009. we celebrate this change with a ritual involving music, food, wine and try to have the best of it all. a time when we make a million resolutions. we evaluate happenings of this day minutely as the omens of next 364 days to come. we hope that it has everything to make this day more than ordinary.

but at the end of it, it is -

just another day.
just another year.
just another passing moment.

... and this too shall pass!

destined for greatness ...

2008-12-14T16:20:00.008+05:30

He had one final look at his work.

The ending was perfect. The beginning was perfect. Yes. The pace slackened a bit in middle, but it was acceptable. A handful of people may not like it. He couldn't please all. But he was sure that he would please most of the people, the ones who mattered. Above all, the work would impress him. He had surpassed his own expectations. He had read the final draft for the 27th time by now. It was perfect.

Next day he would contact the publishers. He was sure that nobody would refuse. They would lap up his work and offer him some handsome sum of money. Probably much more than any of the first time writers could ever dream of, at an age of 29. That would bring it all - name, fame, recognition, money ... everything!

He was destined for greatness, as a part of the title suggested. Maybe in a year ... or two years at max, the world will recognize his greatness. Maybe, that would be fitting reply to the world which had branded him as a insecure, reclusive, whimsical, insensitive, abnormal and an anti-social being. The same world which did not give him due recognition when he excelled in his work, which refused to give him a chance to explain why he did not get along well with few people whom he was supposed to get along, the society which dismissed his writing as an aberration to the societal norms ...

Suddenly, the door bell rang.

"What the hell! I have been waiting for you since last two hours. Where the hell is your cellphone. It was saying it is switched off. Why did you switch it off? You were supposed to meet me at the Mall two hours ago. Now don't say that you forgot. This is not the first time you are doing it? You did it last time too. And a many times before that also. I am now damn sure that you don't love me. You are so cold and indifferent to me. I have been as if dumped upon you I feel by this society and its norms. Else you wouldn't treat me like fuckin' dirt. Time and time again you have given me a feeling that I am dirt but I am not going to take it any more ... "

"I don't want to hear any explanations from you. I have given you many chances. You have lost your chance to explain. Now it is the time for me to act. And ..."

There was more to say, but she stopped

Saying this his fiancée slammed the door that created noise of a canon being fired, and left that place.

He was left with a mixture of emotions - sadness of she having left him, guilt of being responsible for all these and happiness of being a free bird once again.

He picked up the manuscript lying somewhere around, picked up his phone and called the first among the many publishers he wanted to contact. While the phone on the other side was ringing endlessly, he glanced at the last line of his 'masterpiece' - Destined for greatness but struggling with basics.

He smiled and disconnected the line. Maybe, he will polish his script a bit and then make a call.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

2008-12-03T10:03:00.003+05:30

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi ki har khwaish pe dam nikle.
Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle"

Though I am not a big fan of sher - o shayari, nor do I boast of being even slightly knowledgeable in this department but this one by Ghalib is a gem. The depth of it, and the truth in it say so much about about human existence and probably this truth escapes none in this universe, for everyone - no matter how significant or inconsequential his or her existence be in this myriad universe, be it an undernourished beggar on streets of Sub-Saharan Africa or the president of United States. They have their own small and big triumphs and failures - a million aspirations, few fulfilled and few not.

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi" is also one of those 'awesome' kind of offbeat movies to have blessed Indian cinema few years ago. The backdrop of the movie is Indian political landscape of the 70s, but it is essentially about human aspirations - their successes and failures, thir yardsticks of success and failures and those unfulfilled wishes despite success. Of course, it has been excellently executed and showcased by Sudhir Mishra, Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangada Singh, Kay Kay Menon etc. to leave a lasting impression on the cine-goers.

In case you haven't seen this movie, watch it. It is awesome, in case you happen to like those kind of movies!

The God Delusion

2008-11-28T23:17:00.003+05:30

Just finished reading 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, a book I wished to read since quite some time.

A good read for those who wish to list arguments about non-existence of god or any such superpower. One of the reasons I liked it was that the ideas and views presented in it were quite similar to the ones I hold (although they were presented more in depth and much more articulately than I could have ever dreamt of myself) about god, omnipotence of god, religion, morality etc.

A recommended read for those who wish to read arguments for atheism and for religious people or believers who wish to know 'the other side', although I don't think it convincing enough to convert a priest into an atheist!

Meanwhile, I am planning to start reading 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nicholas Taleb soon!

Book-ed ... yet again

2008-11-19T19:25:00.003+05:30

Just finished Shantaram after around 8 week of non continuous reading.

Awesome stuff.

I am tempted to write a review, but am too lazy as of now to do so. But I am now completely fida over the book.

Now 'The God Delusion' and 'Fooled by Randomness' in queue. Heard a lot about them. Hoping they turn out to be good !!!

Obama mania

2008-11-09T17:08:00.004+05:30

Now that the whole world is going gaga over Barack Obama being elected as the next US President, and that too with an overwhelming majority here goes few points of my analysis of his victory and related things!

I think that the reasons of his victory were much more than just what their repective views on different social, economic and international issues were. They did play a role, but I think that wasn't the only factor that led him to victory. I think the two major factors were -

1. General dissatisfaction with George Bush on issues ranging from Iraq to Economy. This was bound to have some disatisfaction with the Republican candidate and thus swing in favor of the Democrat whoever the candidate have had been.

2. Most important factor contributing to his victory was quite symbolic. His victory symbolized hope; hope for the many people who struggle against the odds, and the victory of this hope which Obama symbolized. Seeing the meteoric rise of an Afro American and he occupying the most powerful chair in the world would give hope to many across the world that if he can do it, then why can't we rise against all odds.

In some way or other people connected with this 'hope' and wished that Obama won.

And to Obama being hailed as visionary and all that, I think it is more because of the color, upbringing, oratory skills and charisma he possessed than anything else. I doubt if many people hailing him as a visionary and all would know his views on different policy matter and how were they better than McCain's.

He might well turn out to be a visionary, but still I think it is too early to say so!

___

On a different note, reaction of John McCain on losing (Pledging support to Obama etc.) was a stark contrast to what many of the great Indian politicians do when they lose! (though there have been few exceptions)

"On a break"

2008-10-07T23:16:00.003+05:30

As mentioned in my previous post, of late I haven't been able to gather sufficient motivation or energy to make posts on this blog. Hence I am going on a self imposed exile from the blogosphere for some time. In other words I am "On a Break"

This some time may last for few hours, few days or maybe few months. It depends upon when one fine day I gather sufficient motivation to type what is there inside my head and post things on the blog!!!

Hoping to get alive soon on this blog!

__

"Life is an infinite, non-converging exponential series of random irreversible screw ups of ever increasing magnitudes one after another"

... and one more blog post

2008-09-29T21:35:00.003+05:30

Of late I have noticed few things about my blogging habits -

I often pick up my laptop, beginning to type a blog post or anything ... I start and then I decide to discontinue as I don't manage to gather sufficient motivation or inspiration or just even sufficient energy to overcome my laziness to complete that post.

Often I have ideas in mind but by the time I sit in front of my lappy, the idea fizzles out or gets relegated to a low priority corner, and that idea never gets materialized.

When my lappy goes kaput, as it did today and as it did on my birthday eve some 40 days ago and I somehow got it repaired at some local hardware shacks at Sikar and Jhunjhunu, I crib about being denied opportunities to log on to blogosphere.

In general, I somehow or the other let many a thoughts die a silent death within the confines of that volatile thing safely enconsed within the confines of my cranium. Maybe, some motivation is needed ... Somebody, please bring some carrots!!!

Well, this post is just out of desperation. A desperation to meet my target I have set for myself - minimum three blog posts a month and my September records show only 2 posts till now. So this is a kind of last minute post to meet my targets.

Damn! This sales thing is getting into my head!

An Area of Darkness ? - Part 2

2008-09-14T08:24:00.005+05:30

This time just a few random images.

And yes ... It gets much darker than this !!!

A typical scene inside a dilapidated Roadways bus running on a mixture of OK and horrible roads

20-25 people in/on the jeeps are not uncommon in this part of the world.

A scene inside a city, creating a big stink on account of old and damaged goods, ready to b picked by a rag picker

Getting into a bus is a fight, getting a seat a privilege!

Another overcrowded bus

Aspirations?

An area of darkness ?

2008-09-06T17:12:00.005+05:30

The title of this post finds its origins in a novel with simlar name written by VS Naipaul. Set in India, some 40 years ago or so, this is a kind of travelogue of author's brief stay in India where he found it to be full of superstitions, ignorance and darkness!

Many decades and many MNCs and malls later, few parts of India seemed to have chucked off that tag, but there are many places that haven't and continue to remain shrouded in ignorance. Move few hours away from a city, travel in a second class train compartment or a dilapidated state transport bus and you get to see the dark underbelly of India Shining. As one of the characters in the movie Rang De Basanti says "Yahan zinda rehne ki jung mein logo ki zindagiyan nikal jaati hai". So true it seems!

My day today was spent being kind of lost in similar thoughts.

To start with, I when I boarded the ST bus, a woman was wailing. She may be in her 20s or something, but she was crying in some peculiar musical tone. At the same time she blocked the passage in the bus for 2-3 minutes as a result of which I was stranded at the gate, while she probably was bidding tearful adieu to (probably) her family members, but I still don't know the reasons of her wailing.

Many of the women travelling in the buses have their face fully covered with a purdah, and anyone even in early twenties (and in many cases, even a shade younger) usually had one or two small small kids accompanying her. In fact at few places I had been warned that in case you offered a seat to some lady in a bus, it would be her husband who would take that seat and that lady would be seated on the floor (in case seat is not available), although this was peculiar only to Barmer district and havent checked the veracity of it, but I think it is true!

Today, as I got seated in my bus, an old man sat beside me. He asked me to read out what was written on his ticket. He was actually checking the total amount in the ticket to Rohtak (Harayana), and then inquired whether the remaining Rs 28 he had with him was sufficient for him to reach Delhi from Rohtak. I was not sure, though I suggested him to catch a train from Rohtak, as the amount he had with him might just be enough for him to reach Old Delhi.

Meanwhile, the bus conductor asked me for my pen as his was not working. He returned it when my place came, but the whole thing was as if he was doing a favour by returning it to me, and also while taking it from me. Not please or thank you or equivalent words were involved. At the same time, there was some old looking middle aged man who was smoking a bidi one after another (As it is case with most of the buses. Few times I have stopped them, but after few times, I became indifferent altogether). At the same time there were people who were actually arguing about the fare the conductor must charge for them and asking for bulk discounts!

As I planned to step out from my bus, I accidentally stepped on toes of a middle aged lady, who shoved me, and started shouting at me - "Dekh ke nahi chal sakta" and all. I retaliated by accusing her of blocking the passage and asking whether I should look forward or below. Soon, realizing the futility of arguing I stepped out, turning a deaf ear to her.

On my return journey, a young guy of around 20 sat beside me, and was curiously looking at what I was reading (I was reading a copy of Today's newspaper). Probably, he was trying to figure out what was written in english, or maybe it was just an aspiration for him to read english.

That guy got down at next stop, and another guy, this time a kid of around 10 or 12 sat beside me, who also curiously looked on as I scribbled something on that piece of paper (which were incidentally the points fo this post).

In fact, few days ago while I was traveling in a bus, it was raining cats and dogs that evening. This was accompanied by lightning, which scared the hell out of people. I was busy with my cell phone accessing my e-mails. Meanwhile, the conductor who was sitting in a nearby seat asked me to switch off the cell phone as it might catch lightning and may result in me getting 'current'. I dismissed his suggestion. Few minutes later he told this to me one again. This was followed by same request from another passenger of that relatively empty bus. I just told them that it wasn't an issue and what they were telling was not true. I wanted to add that I was an engineer and knew at least this much, but I didn't. (In fact I wanted to tell him that he should be scared of electricity ... he was a conductor!)

These were few of the many bits and pieces incidents that somehow made me realize that all that hoopla over India being a superpower or India Shining is just the surface. There was a lot more chunk below, most of them not that glittering or shining and engulfed in darkness, whose only aim in life remains survival.

All for a Car

2008-08-28T23:16:00.008+05:30

"Boss, I want a car"
"What?
"Yes. I want a car"

The boss thought for a moment. Ravi was asking for a car. Maybe he needed one. He could give him one for an hour or so.

The boss was the owner of the agency, which dealt in dealing with distribution of FMCG products of a big company and was a person who had a soft corner for his employees, something which is rare in such type of work.

Ravi was a small time computer operator earning Rs 5000 a month at the agency. The job involved sitting in front of a computer in an air conditioned room and punching orders and preparing the bills on the company software.

But the demand for a car was a bit shocking. No employee ever asked him for a car.

"Why do you need a car?"
"Boss. I am getting married"
"Good. Congratulations"
"Thank you boss."
"So do you ..."
"Sir, I have told my to be father in law that I earn 35000 a month and have my own car. I'll be engaged soon. He will be visiting me tomorrow"
"What ... you told lies. I could have given you my car for an hour or two, but now ..."
"Sir, I don't want it for an hour or two. Please get me a car"
"think about it ... Can you afford it?"
"Sir, you can take loan in your name and deduct money from my salary."
"Again I say ... Can you afford it?"
"But you can deduct ... Also I will also get a substantial money from my father in law in dowry ... So I can afford"
"NO way. You have gone crazy"
"You are not giving me a car"
"No."
"OK. I am quitting"

With this Ravi quit his job, with nowhere to go and unsure of how he will meet his next month's expenses, leave alone a car ... and also worrying about how he will face his to-be-fiancée's father who would be checking if the car is in his name!

(Based upon a true story at one of the FMCG distributor's place @ Jodhpur)

The man who didn't want his son to join IIT

2008-08-26T21:59:00.003+05:30

He glanced at me with a kind of devilish look and an evil smile. His looks reminded me of someone. I couldn't recollect. After few minutes it was a kind of eureka moment when I thought - Doesn't he look like that famous villain in Hindi movies ?

After initial formalities we headed for the market to sell all the usual stuff my company produced. This was a routine job, at least during my training period. Few hours in the market in a relatively humid day at a small town in Rajasthan called Pali left us tired. It was the time to unwind with some tea and non-business gupshup.

During the course of discussion, I came to know that his son (Let us call him Akash) got some 93 percent marks in SSC in CBSE board. He wanted to go to IIT and for that he needed to go to Kota for preparations. But that man was not keen on him leaving the town. He was of the opinion that he would not come back to Pali as he would have to go to Bangalore for job as most of them did. Hence he had decided his son should do CA. But his son had taken science.

Meanwhile, the local Sales Officer, under whom I was getting trained came in. After usual stuff like market report we decided to take a 15 minute beer break and have a brief chit chat meanwhile. Invariably, the topic veered around the distributor and his son. I learned that Akash's mother had called him few times so that his dad could be convinced that he goes and prepared for IIT, but he was reluctant. In fact Akash was so brilliant that he had secured first rank in Rajasthan for admission to Bansal Coaching Classes at Kota. But his dad had not allowed him to go. Even repeated calls from the institute did not help. Later on his mother's attempt at trying to convince were greeted by threats of a talaaq. His neighbors tried to convince him but in vain. his brother tried to convince him but soon they both stopped talking. At back of his mind was that his brother in law had gone to USA and if Akash does so, he too will go away sooner or later. Hence he had decided that he would not let Akash go away.

Meanwhile, we returned back to the shop where his son had also come. Apparently he wanted to buy a lab coat for chemistry practicals that were needed for tomorrows classes. His father refused and gave him some other work. He went to do that, reluctantly and his suffocation was written all over the face.

The officer accompanying me started talking about general stuff and the conversation veered to career guidance kind of stuff. Being an engineer and an MBA, I was trying to give him some gyaan on opportunities available closer home. I mentioned about job opportunities in Delhi and Mumbai which were an overnight journey from that place and much closer if we considered the Jodhpur airport which wasn't too far away. Closer home, it would have been Jaipur or Ahmedabad, which were expected to give good opportunities, although deep inside me I was feeling that that useless idiot cannot think of his own child's well being. This was followed by a long monologue on software industry, what it does, how it will grow, why it is not just Bangalore and all. When it was not yielding any result I showed optimism in software industry setting footprints in Rajasthan as government will sooner or later realize the importance of it. So maybe two or three years down the line we could expect something in this direction.

But that man remained adamant and refused to budge from his position. Even an attempt to show that there was hardly any scope in some godforsaken place like Pali was met with jeers

I was thinking that isn't it often that the so called extremely selfless thing like parenting becomes a selfish thing and despite having good intentions, often much harm is done. At one level that man, I thought treated the whole thing as a business and something that should give an high ROI. He was instrumental. Expecting is not a bad thing, but often that expectation turns into a favor which need to be returned, and as a result of which the happiness of the person may be screwed, and he often becomes just a slave of that 'gratitude'. I thing that the whole thing is like the movie The Truman Show, where the creator of the 'Show' believed that he gave Truman who an unwanted baby, a life and he had a right to shoot a 24 hour long TV show on his life, with his unaware of the fact that every motion of him was captured on camera and telecast live throughout the world. And this, the creator believed was nothing against individual freedom or human rights or anything.

Meanwhile, it was getting late and it was time to catch my bus. I left after a good bye and a handshake, but his devilish glance was as it was few hours ago, but now I perceived to be much more devilish.

___

(Above is a true incident that I experienced today)

Booked

2008-08-24T06:08:00.003+05:30

"Whenever I read a good book, I get impressed with my ignorance"

I couldn't find the source of this quote, but I heard it in class 12, wherein my physics tuition teacher Mr. Vishal Pandya (Who was a kind of database in quotes!) once had this one in one of his notes, which invariably started with few quotes

Of late, I have realized a very high degree of correlation between Jhandta Index (Henceforth referred to as J) existing in life and book I am reading if any. If I am reading some book at some point of time, J reduces significantly (Say, to a vlue J/2, average case) ; and if the book is significantly good then it reduces to a very low level (Say, J/4).

I have realized that in last 4 weeks (this includes the next week also), I have read 5 extremely different works, quite a rare feat in terms of quantity and diversity of books read!

The most recent book I have read is some book by some IIMB guy about some fictional experience during life @ IIMB, which had everything in it - sutta, daaru, kudi etc. and all such stuff in 'meeee too' kind of books. (This one had Marijuana as the principal ingredient though) In fact, having read works like Joker in the Pack and Mediocre but Arrogant which seemed half hearted attempt at cloning Five Point Someone and Snapshots from the Hell, I did the same mistake again and brought this marijuana loaded book, Keep Off the Grass, and after reading which I wanted to slap myself for having brought that book.

Still reading it was better than reading nothing at all. Maybe, it will help me know, what not to write, in case I decide to write a book couple of centuries down the line.

Before that I read 'How Starbucks saved my life' which was a decent book about a top notch ad guy being fired from a job and lands working for Starbucks, a job he deemed menial as per his standards. Before that, it was The Under Cover Economist which was again a good book in case freakonomics style economics interests you. Before that it was Khaled Hosseni's A thousand Splendid Suns, which was again a good book, but I didn't find it awesome or anything.

After the marijuana and all stuff I picked up 'The Greatest Works of Khalil Gibran' - 12 in 1 omnibus edition (each of the book is quite small and I guess it would take 2-3 hours per book on an average), which I am currently reading(since last 24 hours!). I have read three of them, and they are simply AWESOME ... Or as Barney would put it - Legend ... (wait for it) ... Dary. I plan to finish them in next few weeks.

In fact, I must confess that it would require a re-reading to explore the depths!

In case philosophical works (having a completely mystic feel) interests you, then go for it without giving a second thought. I believe that there are two possibilities - Either you will love this book (most will fall in this category), or you will dislike it completely. Remaining 0.1 percent people may find it average or be non judgmental about his works.

Weird it may sound, but if I were to compare his works with some recent song it would be 'Khwaja Mere Khwaja' from Jodha Akbar. There is some kind of enigma in both of them. In fact like this particular song, I may not be able to compare works of Khalil Gibran with other works. It is different, in league of its own!

Maybe, I would post more on Khalil Gibran later, after I am through with all of them (providing I overcome the laziness barrier!)

Till then, happy reading!

Random Birthday thoughts

2008-08-18T19:49:00.007+05:30

As I would have cribbed @ 1000000000 words per day, I am currently at a place called Jhunjhunu where I have no social life to speak of, internet is the only thing that keeps me going, apart from few random movies or episodes of Seinfeld. So prospects of celebrating birthday in this solitary confinement are not that exciting!

Too add to that, as I switched on my laptop yesterday night, I realized that it had conked off and is showing fan error as the reason. For me this was the end of world. And I knew not how would I survive! I hoped the issue will get sorted out in a week but it is too much to ask in this small town and this time period seemed to be an extremely optimistic guess. My birthday eve and early morning were spent on developing strategies on how to get it repaired. I couldn't find any IBM authorized dealer here, and I would have needed to send it to Delhi.

There were two options - first was about sending it as a parcel to one of my friends at IBM , either directly or indirectly through my brother, who lives at NCR. Then I could have made a visit to Delhi on the one day weekend I get, so that I could be back after collecting my laptop. The other was going to Delhi this weekend, giving the laptop for repair and collecting it the next weekend.

Maybe I could incentivize the channel members with a cheese burst pizza at Domino's.

These were few of the many thoughts running in my mind throughout the night. Other was strategizing about ho to pass time fo next few days. Maybe, a 2 hour session at internet cafe followed by random TV channel hopping, and maybe a few novels which I had sufficient stock to last for 7 non-internet days. In fact I spent a fraction of 12-1 AM in thanking my friends for birthday wishes and rest in cribbing about my lappy!

Today morning I went to a local computer shop, the only one that was open in that area at 10 AM, without expecting anything. After an initial rejection and a phone call later, he opened the laptop as if he was about to perform a complex brain surgery, took a vacuum cleaner and blew the dust off it. The fan was now in working condition, and the laptop too!

The day was spent in selling hair oils, toothpastes, shampoos, hajmola, toilet cleaners, and evening is being spent in front of laptop and TV, and of course my cell phone!

__________

Among one of the instructions I got from home was to visit the world famous Rani Sati Temple in this region!

I disobeyed.

Though I do many things against my will, this was unthinkable. How can I visit some place that actually glorifies that lady who supports this mindless evil custom. In fact I hate the fact that there is a temple dedicated to Rani Sati.

But then, my hating it or not does not make any difference to how the world functions!
__________

I have completed the silver jubilee of my existence ... and soon I'll be 30, then forty ... fifty ... sixty ... Damn! I am becoming an old man. I have invested a lot of this time in whiling away in all kinds of useless activities, all those activities which yield an abysmal ROI.

Time is flying away fast, real fast.

__________

In fact, I am constantly getting reminded of an episode from 'Friends', where they all turned thirty. They were sad, and crying!

But then, they say that life begins at 40. So there are still 15 years to go before my life begins!

__________

In this era of remakes, I am repeating something which I did last year on my birthday

For all those birthday wishes, I just want to say -->

T HANKS

My dear laptop :(

2008-08-17T21:37:00.001+05:30

This is an extremely sad post.
In my previous post I mentioned being passionate about staying well connected. As I am currently at a place called Jhunjhunu where I have no social life to speak of, internet is the only thing that keeps me going, apart from few random movies or episodes of Seinfeld.
And recently, as I switched on my laptop I realized that it has conked off and is showing fan error as the reason. For me this is the end of world. And I know not how will I survive :( ... I hope the issue will get sorted out in a week but it is too much to ask in this small town and this time period seems to be an extremely optimistic guess:(

8 Things ...

2008-08-13T20:16:00.004+05:30

Tagged by Sheetal

Here goes my various '8 things list'

8 Things I’m passionate about:
1. Movies [Watching, analyzing, related trivia, boring people with all useless related gyaan, movie trailers etc.]
2. Reading [Newspapers (especially editorials), fiction, nonfiction etc.]
3. Religion [Rather lack of it]
4. Food [I proudly proclaim that I live to eat]
5. Freedom
6. Bakar [ This includes cracking PJs]
7. Geography [as a child I used to read and analyze maps. I can still boast about being ‘awesome’ in this. In fact, some people have been surprised by the fact that I know lot about the places which might otherwise be relatively unheard of outside the region]
8. Staying connected [Includes chatting, blogging, random time pass on internet etc. I now access internet even while travelling in a bus, through my cellphone, something unthinkable few years ago!]

8 Things I want to do before I die:
1. Travel extensively across the world.
2. Write 2 books – 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction at least!
3. Keep unshaven looks for a long time … maybe for a year or so!
4. Maintain good health and be in a good shape[hopefully without having to work hard on it and without compromising on eating]
5. Spend 12 hours post evening at a beach, with a long walk the talk session … of course after couple of beers.
6. Be an expert in economics [as of now, even the basic IS-LM model scares the hell out of me]
7. Appear in front page of a newspaper [for all right reasons, of course]
8. As Bryan Adams would put it – ‘Be 18 till I die’ !!!

8 Things I say often:
1. F**k
2. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh, oofffffffffff ... and other random noises
3. Basically,
4. Pel raha hai be …
5. Sahi hai
6. Hmmmm
7. Nahi yaar
8. Dekhte hain

8 Books I last read:
1. A thousand splendid suns [Khaled Hosseni]
2. The undercover economist [Tim Harfield]
3. 3 mistakes of my life [Chetan Bhagat]
4. The kite runner [Khaled Hosseni]
5. One flew over the cuckoo’s nest [Ken Kessey]
6. The tipping point [Malcom Gladwell]
[I do not remember what I read before The Tipping Point ]

8 songs I could listen to over and over again:
1. Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya [Hum Dono]
2. Abhi na jaao chhod kar [Hum Dono]
3. Chand mera dil [Hum kisi se kam nahi]
4. Deewana hua Baadal [Kashmir ki Kali]
5. Badi naazuk hai ye manzil [Jogger’s Park]
6. Dekha ek khwab [Silsila]
7. Badi suni suni hai [Mili]
8. O Sanam [Lucky Ali]

I am sure that the next time the list would be at least half-different

8 bloggers who should do this tag:

Anyone one and everyone who reads this blog can …

Everyone’s invited. More so if your blog name has an alphabet ‘A’

The Shekhawati Diaries - Part 1

2008-08-12T17:07:00.005+05:30

Since last few days I have been cribbing endlessly about being dumped as at a place called Jhunjhunu in northern part of Rajasthan, and subjected to the roughs of market for selling soaps, hair oils to tooth pastes and candies to toilet cleaners . It is one of the backward part of the state (and the state is considered to be one of the backward in India, a part of the un-famed BIMARU states - BIhar, MP, Rajasthan, UP). In fact this region is famous for its palatial havelis. But the foundations of all these havelis lie in the feudal system, which was quite dominant in this part of the country.

However, there is something about this part of the country.

Jhunjhunu, along with Sikar and Churu districts form a part of Shekhawati region. This has been the home of many leading business groups in India. Mr. GD birla was born in a town called Pilani, which is now famous for BITS, one of the finest engineering colleges in India. Ram Prasad Goenka belonged to this region. Biyanis can trace their roots here. Mr. LN Mittal basically hails from a town in Churu district. These are few of the many who have made a mark.

Today I went to a small town of population in range of 30 to 40 thousand, called Shadolpur (also named as Rajgarh). The distributor in that town told me that it is the birth place of LN Mittal. He then added that till age of 5 he stayed there and then moved to kolkata. They both were of same age and were neighbors. In fact, he mentioned that if we go few generation back, then they belong to the same family. Back then LNM's father was quite poor and the distributor's father used to kind of avoid him as he feared that he would ask for some money

... And now, the times are completely different.

Few days ago, I was at a distributor's place at Sikar. He had a surname 'Biyani'. Out of curiosity I asked him whether he was related to Kishore Biyani. He said he isn't exactly, but narrated something about him. He was studying for CA at Mumbai and staying with his uncle there who used to supply material to Kishore Biyani (when Pantaloon's was quite a small thing ... I think around 10 - 15 years ago). He used to buy in huge quantity. But, back then it was said that if you supply to Kishore Biyani then you would have to buy a new pair of shoes.

Reason - He used to ask people make lots of rounds for collecting payments ... Most of the time youu had to hear the replies like "sahab nahi hain", "Kal aana" etc. (Suddenly words like 'working capital', 'cash flows' popped up in my mind)

Still, despite the land being home to who's who of corporate world, the development in this region has left a lot to be desired.

Bakwas band kar

2008-08-06T06:47:00.001+05:30

This is not a message to anyone out there, tough i am often tempted to say this to many people and often to myself. This is one of the fillers in 9x music channels which has found its own niche. Like few other friends of mine who have privilage of watching a television in recent times and have appreciated the show, I too am finding it quite addictive.

The characters Chote, who cracks many a PJs and Bade who bears the brunt of most of them form a hillarious duo.

For a person like me, who loves cracking PJs, this is an extremely refreshing watch after a tiring or a untiring day.

While writing all these I am secretly wishing that I get ao opportunity to become a scriptwriter for that show .Maybe, once they realize that they have reached a certain benchmark in terms of quality, they would need somebody to bring it down ...

PS - I am writing all this from my cellphone while travelling in a local ST bus early in the morning :)

Hacked !

2008-08-01T20:17:00.002+05:30

And, then after a long walking and running session, he stopped and was in a 'statue' position,

Then he walked for few steps.

He stopped once again, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. It didn't!

Then again he walked for 7 steps.

A right turn.

Then he sat down on the pavement overlooking the railway track. The area was shrouded by complete silence. The silence at this time was usually broken train which passed that spot at midnight, but it was still a good fifteen minutes away.

A moment of sitting silently on footpath was followed by a prolonged five minutes of singing and dancing which no one would have made sense of. He was as if possessed by some spirit or ghost, thought a drunk passerby. And for this, there was no cure.

But suddenly he stopped dancing. He had regained consciousness. He wondered where was he? Last he remembered was walking out of his house for the party. That was a good three hours ago. But how had he reached there? Maybe he had walked the whole of Indiranagar, MG Road and reached near the Cantonment Railway Station. 10 km in 3 hours! That was great. But the timing wasn't. And how he reached there was still a mystery.

At the other end of the city the evil scientist, who called himself Dr. G (G for Genius, G for God, as he loved saying!) was happily drunk, and the last traces of his consciousness was by now, gone. He forgot all about his latest technique through which he could hack people's brain and control it. It was a success just few minutes ago, and this was one of the reasons he was elated, and drunk. Maybe, his dream of ruling the planet would come true.

Dr. G was now completely oblivious of the surrounding, as the chants of 'Happy New Year 2064' were audible all over.

Free

2008-07-31T08:41:00.003+05:30

Warning - My attempt at so called poetry (written few years ago).
Read at your own risk !!
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He who has no worries
No desires
One who unceasingly lives
And accepts whatever life gives

Freedom to be
Power to choose
Freedom to know
Freedom to grow

No manacles
No bondages
None of hatred
Free from all
In the life sacred

In all things
His voice having a say
Throughout life
Living is the way

Can I be he ?
For I was born free.

Latesht in Indian Politics - A quick analysis

2008-07-25T18:57:00.006+05:30

A quick opinion/ analysis on different architects of last few days in Indian politics --

Manmonhan Singh (INC)
Finally ... he asserted that he is the boss! To me he seemed like Michael Corleone, who at the end of 'The Godfather' emerges out of shadow of Vito Corleone.

Maybe, reforms will get a boost now.

Favourite song - ... sauda khar khara (Punjabi Song - Sukhbir)
Favourite Movie - Singh Is Kinng ( No prizes for guessing it right)

LK Advani (BJP)
Opposing everthing just for the heck of opposing it. Maybe, he is toooooo eager to become PM

Favourite song - "Tumne fenka jaal, Ulti pad gayee chal ..." (Line from - Aana mere pyaar ko ... , Kabhi haan kabhi naa" -- Who will say these lines to whom, is yet to be determined though!
Favourite Movies - Jhonny Gaddar

Prakash Karat (CPI-M)
The blow he got was 59 karat pure ... and probably made in China!

Favourite song - Pardesiyon se na akhiya milana (China is not Pardes, I assume!)
Favourite Movie - China Town

Somnath Chaterjee (ex CPI-M)
"Somnath Chatterjee has been expelled from his party. So, what’s new or surprising? Recall that when boys play gully cricket the umpire is always from the batting team and he has one whip issued to him - never give his team mates out through lbw or run out decisions! If his conscience somehow makes him act otherwise, not only will he never be the umpire but he will never be a part of the team thereafter" - DNA

Favourite song - Kya se kya ho gaya ... (guide)
Favourite Movie - Namak Haram

Mayawati (BSP)
If she becomes PM, then god save the country!
Haven't seen anyone who is as blatantly manipulative as her! She projects things as if the entire world is against her as she is a Dalit ki Beti ... She may be partly true, but her reasons aren't!

Favourite song - "Kya kahun, duniya ne kiya ... mujhse ye kaisa bair" (Line from 'Tere Liye' from Veer Zaara)
Favourite Movie - Dil Maange More (... Paisa?, Votes?, Castes ka support?)

Chandrababu Naidu (TDP)

Having converted Hyderabad to Cyberabad and having no qualms about hobnobbing with US, he has suddenly transformed and opposing the same thing he supported just for the heck of opposing it. One of the few who are with the incoherent group called Third Front with no agenda as such (apart from coming to power/ throwing people out of power types!). Not only that, he is joining hands with useless people like Karat and Mayawati.

He is one of the politicians whom I used to respect a lot ... till couple of years ago!

Favourite song - "Idhar gaya main udhar gaya ..."
Favourite Movie - Hum Kisi se Kam Nahin (Hum = Third Front?)

Amar Singh (SP)
In politics, there are no permanant friends or foes ... and he proves it. Hope he doesn't act like Left did.

Favourite song - "Paisa fenk ... tamasha dekh" (Jhonny Gaddar)
Favourite Movie - The Dark Knight

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Indian Politics in general -

It seems to have hit its nadir and blah blah blah ... all that you have been hearing since 3-4 days ... nothing new to say

Favourite Line of a song - "Pichle Saath Dino Mein maine yeh sab hai khoya. Kabhi Khud pe hasaa main aur kabhi khud pe roya" (Rock On!)
Favourite Movie - 123

The Technology Web

2008-07-18T06:02:00.005+05:30

Sitting in the not-so-comfortable but not-too-uncomfortable seat of the Shatabadi Express heading for Jaipur, I have just turned on my laptop's & cell phone's Bluetooth, got them paired and logged on to internet to make this post (Thanks to Airtel's GPRS service!). I am doing what was unimaginable few years ago. A decade ago, Internet was mostly unheard of for most of us, and the pace at which it has grown is really maddening! Right now I don't have any clue how life would be like if one un-fine day god announces to the planet Earth that - "Your internet connection has been discontinued" !!!

Imagine how technology has changed the world we live in !

Yesterday, I managed to transfer a huge chunk of money to few another accounts (in different banks and different cities) with press of few keys. Earlier this used to be an extremely tedious process. Loads of papers exchanged, lots of follow ups and a scope for errors at every step ... all that have been eliminated (Desiring better service each time and abusing banks for their failure to keep pace with my expectations is a different story altogether!)

Imagine life without cellphones! A decade ago it used to be an unaffordable luxury. Even having landlines used to be a big thing. And now, the person you wish to speak to is just a call away!

Of course driving all these changes is the unprecedented boom in Information Technology and the way it has become a part of our daily lives. Yet, there continue to be people who are extremely wary of technology. The may have disdain for ATM cards, look at cellphone with cynical looks and look at internet as root of all evils. Usually they belong to the elder lot of people, who for most of their lives haven't been exposed to such kind of technology and such wonders may often (though a small slice of this skepticism is understandable!). Then there is another bunch of people who are in typically their teens who take technology for granted, as they have been seeing it embedded in daily lives as if it existed since Adam and Eve walked on this Earth!

Probably, it is the kind of boom we have seen and the way it is moving forward makes us crave for even more of them and our taste buds are usually insatiable. Hopefully, despite being so accustomed to technology, we don't end up becoming slaves to technology rather than vice versa as we move forward, as we risk becoming so!

A losing battle

2008-07-16T18:46:00.004+05:30

She knew that she was fighting a losing battle, yet she persisted.

For the third time in the day she made the 30 student class to recite in unison -

"A for Apple, apple matlab sev"
"B for banana, banana matlab kela"
"C for cat, cat matlab billi"
and so on ...

The class consisted of kids whose age ranged from 3 to 10, most of them belonging to families who could not afford to send their kids to school. In fact, their meager income was augmented by that of their kids. Thanks to an effort by some NGO, the classes were running with a hope that at least 5 students from the 30 see how a college looks like, but the number was too optimistic a guess. No one from that village had ever seen a high school, leave alone a college.

She was a firm believer of - "Match is never lost till the last ball is bowled".

Being naive enough for believing this to be true, she persisted ... with a hope that she doesn't lose the battle.

A Dream

2008-07-13T12:54:00.004+05:30

He had a dream.

The old man in white beard and dressed up in a suit called up his name. Dressed up in an immaculate white shirt, navy blue trousers and a striped tie he walked on on to stage. The students were clapping. The teachers were clapping. The old man with white beard said something in English which he couldn't understand but probably said some congratulatory message. He was extremely happy. Everyone from his village had traveled to the place to see him receive a prize. He was he new hero, a new inspiration for the complete village.

By the time he came down the stage he woke up. It was already post sunrise. He had to go for work. If he failed to do so, his family would have to starve that day. He, his friends and many others who worked in the brick-manufacturing unit.

But, thanks to a brief interaction with a teacher from neighboring village, he was only kid in the village who could dream.

Bluetooth woes

2008-07-06T19:37:00.006+05:30

4 months Ago -

I turned on the Bluetooth on my cellphone to transfer some images of myself on to my laptop! But, for some unknown reason my laptop's Bluetooth wasn't working. Damn! I couldn't even transfer my pics. It seemed that it was a conspiracy to deprive me of my happiness. Somehow, I jugaadofied a data cable and managed to transfer it. But then, Bluetooth leads to a lot more convenience and pseud-pana. And for next few months at home I didn't have any source to jugaadofy the data cable.

I spent next 4 months abusing and cursing IBM Thinkpad and its useless hardware and software (whosoever would have been the culprit). I asked many people on how to cure this illness, but in vain. Probably my hardware was faulty. Or maybe it was software that was root cause of all evils happing inside my lappy. Due to lack of proper efforts the mission to find the culprit failed and was abandoned

In last few days, I managed to buy a new cellphone that has a data cable. But again data cable can't match Bluetooth. My usage also increased, thanks to GPRS connection. As a result my search for the Bluetooth solution intensified. I would like to clarify that the word 'intensified' in this context means that I was extremely desperate to get a long term solution without actually making any efforts to get the same.

And today, when I finally began my search, the solution was few minutes away. I just had to press Fn key + F5 to get it activated.

... And since 4 months I was thinking that my lappy's bluetooth has gone kaput. Little did I realize that getting it activated was just a 3.2 second job !

Alas, it is laziness that always manages to scuttle any such efforts!

The Prodigy

2008-07-03T20:49:00.012+05:30

The news of her reaching the finals of a singing competition did not come as any surprise to anybody. She was gifted with a voice which her friends in her high school were jealous of. She won all singing competitions in the school. She won all singing competitions in the locality. She had been singing since she was 3 or maybe since she was 2. Even she didn't remember since when she was singing. She just dreamt of making it big in singing, and maybe one day she would have many super hit music albums to her name. Her dream was to be the biggest singing sensation in the country. She dreamt of giving autographs to people wherever she went. In fact, she had practiced different styles and zeroed in on what autograph she would give once she was famous. As of now she had to clear the last hurdle before giving a shot to becoming a singing sensation

The Talent Hunt show was being aired at a prime time slot at a premier TV channel. It had 3 stages before the finals with participants being eliminated at each stage. The final round had 10 contestants and was supposed to be aired for four weekends. The participants were supposed to exhibit their singing talents in front of judges, who were the famous singers and music directors of the Bollywood. No historinics expected. They had to come on stage, sing and hope that judges shower truckloads of praise on them and the audience vote for them through SMS. Maybe a few lines about themselves might help voters decide upon whom to vote. After all, they needed to know about person whom they would be voting for. Apart from that few lines about the show, their expectations from the show etc would have been more than sufficient. No role of fake emotions, region to which contestant belonged, religion, caste or any other details. Just pure talent. After all, this show was different from any other talent hunt show. This was the only show that selected winners based upon talent. Other talent hunt show were nothing but sham!

The preparations consisted of rehearsing for hours together. She had to also prepare her introduction and answers to some random questions that could be posed to her. Her mother did not want her to look awkward as compared to other urbane contestants. After all, she had come so far and a win here would lead to opening of floodgates to her dreams, her destiny. The last thing she would wish would be to get eliminated even after performing well. With all the preparations, she went to the preliminaries. The preliminaries came as a big jolt to her chances. Not that she didn't perform well. But then, there were 9 others, all equally talented and all competing for that coveted spot. She would be competing for next few days with the best singers. A loss here would be a heartbreak. In the first round of the finals, one of the judge was not that forgiving as she would have liked. He kept quarreling with other judges who seemed quite impressed with her, at the end of which he just bluntly stated - "You don't have control over your pitch. With this you can expect nothing in the music industry".

That was like a heartbreak.

For the first time in the competition she risked getting eliminated. Thankfully, there were no eliminations in the last stage when there were only 10 contestants left. This show was, after all quite different from other shows. The producers wanted to disappoint nobody! Still, she ranked seventh int he first round of polls. But all was not lost. She had 3 more rounds to bounce back. But that would require her to showcase something more than singing talent. Maybe, her singing didn't connect her well with the voting audience. Somehow, that emotional connect was missing. She needed to work on this. Yes, next week she would perform much better. Her mom came up with an idea. She realized that it is often the audience who votes. Ultimately it may not be so discerning about who is slightly better than whom. Maybe, there can be some other techniques to win. What about making an emotional pitch?

Next week came and she sang well, as did the others. But this time, some other judge was unforgiving. The real talent lied in overcoming these hurdles and connecting with the audience. And she hit bang on! A bit of smile smile, followed by some crib and lots of tears proved to be a trump card. In a week her rankings jumped to third. Now the competition was extremely intense. The top two were equally adept in making emotional appeals to the audience. The penultimate round saw no change in top three ranks. Now winning was a herculean task.

Maybe, some luck on her side ... or maybe a quick analysis would help. Then came one of the eureka moment when she realized that she was the only one from that part of the country. Maybe, that vote bank would help. She could easily make emotional appeals pertaining to that region. Perhaps her parents would help her in her endeavour. The top two contestants couldn't make such appeal. Both of them were from Mumbai. They would eat into each other's votes, and in the process she would gain. She just needed to apply herself well, and leave the rest to the public, which was after all the best judge, mature enough to decide who was the best.

The trick clicked. She had won. She became the first among equals. That was her ticket to stardom. She couldn't believe this. She could see her on covers of music albums, on stage performing with the likes of AR Rahman. Her career was ready to take off. She was into the big league now

In a year's time when would have her first music album. She would record few more songs before her career would begin to fizzle out. Then, there would be a new star coming from a even more rigorous contest. But by then, someone else would have noticed her talents and she would rule the small screen as a actor, courtesy few soaps with some strange spellings and surprisingly, all starting with alphabet 'K'. After all, she had the power to move people!

Wanderer

2008-06-29T12:03:00.009+05:30

I must confess that I have a fascination for travelling. More often than not, I get excited by prospects of traveling - not just by seeing new places at the destination, but also by the journey with train journeys being my favourite. It gives me immense pleasure to see towns and cities pass by, observe people at different places, to just get a feel of places as they come and go by! As a child I used to know many trivial details about the routes I was travelling on and nearby routes and trust me, it was extremely interesting, and it keeps me interested even today!

Recently, while travelling in Delhi, I suddenly decided to take a longer route to my destination, which required to travel on metro train in all three different lines, with 2-3 stations in each line. I had no deadlines, no pressures to reach somewhere. And it was wonderful. Passing through CP, Chandini Chowk, Old Delhi - the places about which we have been hearing since childhood.

One way of looking at it can be kind of a chore. The other way is enjoying the subtleties of a seemingly boring task. at times, it seems quite surprising that there are such trivial things in this world which can fascinate us and leave us mesmerized- it can be anything ranging from sound of a river to the way the parallel railway tracks seem to meet at the horizon, but never actually meeting to things like croaking of an insect

I have a strong fascination for roaming randomly, without a particular destination in mind. There have been times when I just took out my bike and started roaming. But this has sadly, been quite limited. Maybe, I can explore few more places in near future, or just enjoy the ride without worrying about the places. One of the wishes I have (seemingly unreasonable) is to start travelling without a particular destination in mind, deciding upon destinations on impulse and just keep on exploring - not something like Forrest Gump who kept on running for 3 years, but maybe, just for few days.

I once saw in a movie - "If you want to see real India, travel in second class compartment of train, travel in buses, observe the people". Going by this parameter, I have seen a very minuscule part of India, and may see some more in next few months, but in long run I wish to explore these subtleties and differences.

The Fidayeen

2008-06-25T22:33:00.005+05:30

He read the first page of the newspaper carefully. Maybe, there was some news he could help the Anti-Terrorist Squad with. It carried the news of 14 people being killed in a suicide terrorist strike. "May allah guide them and show them the right path", he prayed silently. His memory went back few years in time, litte more than 3 years when he was handpicked to be a fidayeen in the 'holy battle' as the chief called it.

He had recieved 8 months of intensive training. He knew how to operate the most complex of weapons. That was after he was picked from an elementary school and groomed for years together. But such training was essential. After all, the job he was destined to do was not ordinary. He was supposed to be a suicide bomber in an important rally of a prominant national leader. He had to send the message loud and clear to the top bosses in the country. He was one of the most trusted ones of the chief, who was in charge of overseeing all the activities in the region.

The bomb had been perfectly planted. It was planted a day in advance when people would have been unsuspecting. The trigger was a cell phone. Just a press of the dial button on the phone would do the job. The expected impact was in the 50 meter radius. That would mean 100-150 people would be killed including the leader. Maybe, the top bosses in th country would hear then. If not, the chief would have something bigger in store, though he may not be there to see it happen. But he, as a soldier in the battle was more than elated on being a shaheed.

He did the last Namaz of his life, as the chief had instructed him. He reached the rally well in time to assess the situation for half an hour before pressing the 'dial' key from his cellphone. The time approached. But he was calm. He was giving qurbaani after all. The thought of hundereds of innocents being killed did not come to his mind. He had been sufficiently brainwashed by the local Mullah and the chief. He was mentally prepared for the immense responsibility, and to get the great honour he deserved. He intended to hear the sound of the blast. The last time he would ever hear before becoming a fidayeen.

The countdown began -

3

2

1

He headed to press that green button on the cell phone when for some unexplained reason the mobile switched off. The mission had failed. Little did he realize that he had forgotten to charge his cell phone and the battery had gone off. He thought it was Allah's way of telling him that he was wrong, his patch was wrong, things taught to him were wrong, and the mullah who led him to believe the path what people called terrorism was wrong. It was evil. A sin. Then he walked away from the place before the chief could reach him, and went to an unknown place to live a completely new life, a life of anonymity but honorable in his own eyes.

Gunda

2008-06-22T11:30:00.005+05:30

Recently during a random TV channel browsing session I came across a show in NDTV dedicated to movie GUNDA, a B-Grade masterpiece which has gained a stature of gigantic proportions.Many of us might not haver heard of the movie, but of the rest I assume most of them might have seen the movie, and a substantial proportion would have enjoyed it!! It is a kind of movie that fits into the definition of a cult classic!!

The Orkut community of the IMDB 8.7/10 rated Gunda has thousands of fans, most of them can be classified under category of 'die-hard fans'. This movie has got a huge viewer base in engineering collecges and B-schools, and there are people whio consider your life as futile and worthless if you haven't seen this epic masterpiece.

And there are considerable chances that the movie might make to the list of 50 all time greats, if there are enough votes keeping its ratings at the same level!!

This Kanti Shah directed movie has the one and only Mithunda (fondly called as Prabhuji) in its lead role, (which can be called role of a lifetime) who plays a robinhood-type revenge seeking coolie in some airport/ shipyard/ random roads, and takes on the evil goons who are menace to society, who have murdered his father, who don't allow people to live peacefully.

The scenes in the movie include random murders and rapes on random roads, airports, dockyards each underscored by some poetic verses, exactly in same poetic manner in which the charaters introduce themselves. But the element of film making that rules the roost are the dialogues which are out of the world. Just check the Gunda fan club on Orkut to have a look. It is a blashphemy to post them on lesser things like blogs.

There is Bulla, there is Ibu Hatela, Potey and many other characters with names which can be described in range of adjectives from crazy to unmentionable!

There are some movies which are so bad that you enjoy it, and in that genre Gunda undoubtedly takes the cake.

Hats off to Kanti shah and Mithunda combo !

____

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunda_(film) -- Gunda on Wikipedia!

ConneXions unlimited

2008-06-14T16:43:00.002+05:30

PJ -> Why is telecom industry booming in India ?
Reason--> People here love to have and flaunt connections

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"Jugaad is the 57th art" - SS Shinde at his satirical best

"Disgusting! This is the only thing I hate about our country... greased palms shaking hands with lack of integrity" - A comment on one of the posts in my blog https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28026042&postID=4721678402376407155

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Connections - Many of us around the world love to flaunt it. Most of us wouldn't mind using it. We Indians love to flaunt it and often consider it as a essential tool to accomplish tasks of varying magnitude. Many of us work in day in and day out in order to earn connections. 'Networking' - a tool often used in achieving something is a milder form of connection, for the latter is the holy grail that makes you do with impunity what the lesser mortals think is sinful.

There are often sons and daughers of powerful officials, bhais and bhateejas of a powerful minister, friends of sons of sister's uncle-in law of supporters of the high and mighty. chamchas of local MLAs and proteges of a small time goon. Thos who are not, often they yearn for some, for that extra speed to be on the expressway to success!

... And having recently landed at Delhi and having just a casual glance is giving me insights on one of the major pillars for support and success in the unforgiving and the fastpaced world where you need to create an ilusion of success to survive - Have your connections right!

Snaps from The Himalayas

2008-06-04T11:58:00.009+05:30

Some glimpses of one of the best landscapes in the country. Why long for Alps when our own old, enigmatic yet beautiful Himalayas provide such magnificent and picturesque sceneries!!

Have a look.

Enjoy.

Location - Garhwal Region, Himalayas which lie in the state of Uttrakhand.

The winning shot

2008-06-01T23:44:00.004+05:30

3 runs required of 1 ball, the scorecard said.

It was the final of a small cricket tournament in the locality. Lots were at stake for 14 year old Sonu, as he was popularly called. His performance in the tournament could be best described as mediocre. He had never been above average in studies, extra curricular activities and even sports. No one ever praised him for he hardly did anything praiseworthy. Not even little encouragement came his way. He always wondered what was his fault. After all, he was not that bad either. But that was the way it always was.

He never desired much. But like all, he wished to be admired, praised, be like others who were so much liked. Today was the day to prove his worth; to make the world sit and take notice of him. One good hit over the boundary rope and he would be a instant hero. A hero in eyes of his friends, teachers, all uncles and aunts and most importantly his parents, who were somehow never satisfied with his performance.

The bowler came all charged charged up as if he would uproot al the three stumps. Sonu had prayers in his lips. A bit of nervousness creeped in. The same kind of nervousness which caused the earlier batsman to panic and lose his wicket. But, if he lost cool this time then it would be all over. This was his only chance. But what would happen next? Maybe he would miss the ball and it would go crashing into the stumps. Maybe he would faint before the bowler has bowled. He was surrounded by all kinds of emotions ranging from excitement to nervousness to fear of the worst kind.

The ball his his bat and he slogged it using full might he could. The ball hit the edge and flew high up in the sky. Maybe it would sail safely across the third man and cross the boundary rope. Naah! It wasn't going that far. Maybe it would fall inside. Damn! There was a fielder moving towards it. Maybe he would be out ... Caught. Sonu could see the ball landing into hands of Ravi. He wouldn't drop the catch. They were arch rivals. And Ravi was the best fielder in the town. Meanwhile, he started running for the second run. And without seeing where the ball has landed, he would run for the third run.

The ball landed into Ravi's hands ... and came out of it. He had dropped the catch. It was a tough chance as there was a lot of running to do. But as they say, fortune favors the brave! With some luck on his side, Sonu had won the match. His teammates carried him on their shoulders. He completed the victory lap on their shoulders. It was a moment of great glory. It seemed to be the best day of his life. Maybe, it would be a new beginning for him. Maybe it would silence all his critics for few days, or few weeks or even ... forever.

The Detour

2008-05-28T22:02:00.004+05:30

The 7 year old girl walked from school to her home. This was the first time she was walking alone on that route. On any other day, her mother would have gone to pick her up from school, but not that day. She was not aware that schools were declaring holiday an hour and a half earlier due to trouble in the town owing to some agitations and protests. Only few parents could be intimated about this.

A friend’s mother accompanied her to the lane leading to her apartment, from where it was just a minute’s walk. But that day, for some unknown reason she decided to roam about a bit and take the longer route. It is not always that she gets to roam about, and no one would know about it. After all she wouldn’t tell her mamma about that.

The road was almost deserted. It was usually the case around the noon time in this part of the country. She walked ahead leisurely, singing and dancing all along as if she owned the road. But this was short lived. In couple of minutes, the scene changed. She could see scores of men, all armed with lathis and sticks heading towards her.

But why?

What had she done?

She did all her homework, scored good marks, was obedient and had clean shoes.

Then why were they headed towards her?

She got scared. She took a turn in the nearby lane and hid behind a tree. The group of people moved ahead. Probably she was never their target. But where were they going. She decided to start for her home after few minutes, after the group had disappeared. Or maybe she could take another route. She knew that road. She had been through it many times with her mamma. She moved ahead, shedding all the fears, only to be face to face with few men behaving strangely.

Politely she asked one of them,

“Uncle, why are you breaking window of that house”

The uncle didn’t listen.

She did not hesitate before asking once again.

No reply came. She was just shoved away. Next few moments were spent in shedding tears, and remembering her mamma.

But that didn’t dampen her spirits. She continued her march towards her home, when she caught few men breaking the statue of a prominent national leader. Not learning anything from the lesson taught moments ago, she asked one of them

“Uncle, why are you breaking the picture?”

“Jaa chhori … apna kaam kar … ghar jaa … ye baccho ke khelne ki jagah nahi hai”

“Uncle, our teacher says that we should …”

“Kya teacher weacher lagaa rakha hai … Samajh nahi aata kya?”

“But, uncle …”

“Oye … Samajh nahi aata kya … Ek chaata maaroon kya”

“Sorry Uncle”.

She moved ahead.

She stared sobbing, and then crying when a stone hit her and blood started flowing. But she marched ahead. Then onwards, she was cautious at every step. The people had gone mad, she thought. Braving all the conditions she was victorious. She reached home, to be received as a triumphant girl, as if after winning a war. The minor injuries did not matter. Apart from the victorious look, her face had an expression that of asking hundreds of questions. Now it was turn of her parents to bear the brunt of her questions, which even they had no answers for.

Follow thy Heart

2008-05-27T18:46:00.002+05:30

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2008/may/27khan.htm

Above is the link of an interview of Mansoor Khan - The man behind movies like Qayamat se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wahi sikandar.

His life went in following sequence -

Son of a successful film producer --> IITian (... and dropped out) --> Went to USA for further studies (... and dropped out) --> Made few successful movies --> Settled as a farmer at Coonoor, far from the maddening crowd, to appear only once in a blue moon

There is nothing special about this interview, but it is about a person who did the thing best seen in proverbs, philosophical monologues and books like The Alchemist - " Follow your heart", something which very few of us end up doing!

Prima facie, it may look like fickle mindedness and a person being uncertain about things ... but ultimately he is in the exclusive club of ones who followed their heart!

Gods must be Crazy – X

2008-05-26T22:05:00.006+05:30

(Warning --Blasphemous content ahead. Read at your own risk!)

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

HE looked down the heavens, and had a hearty laugh. The long serpentine queue was moving slowly. With his divine brain HE calculated that mean queue length was nearly 600 and mean service time was 150 per hour. That meant people waited an average of four hours just to have a look at his statue, be awestruck for few moments, seek blessings and ultimately offered gifts in cash and kind. The PR agents in form of the priests in the temple collected them ostensibly for benefit of masses. The PR agents used various kinds of tactics and strategies to up the number of visitors; most important being the fear appeal which is often used by advertising agencies, in which the ill effects of not worshipping the deity for him possessing extraordinary supernatural powers was propagated.

The marketing channel to improve the number of visitors worked in various ways. The head priests were at the topmost level of the hierarchy. Next came the priests who formed bulk of sales force and also doubled as PR agents, each associated with a fixed set of people who were divided as per their caste. Caste system was sacrosanct. Ill effects of not following it were … well … no one knew as no one dared to challenge it. The PR agents also came in handy while collecting all the gifts – cash and kind, so that HE could bask in luxury. Of course, PR agents got a fair share of the pie. After all HE never played dice with universe!

Time and time again reinforcements were given regularly in form of few stray punishments. For example that lady who said that she wouldn’t offer a generous bounty to the priests and won’t sing aartis to please HIM … She didn’t know that in few days she would be nursing a fractured hand for 3 months after a near fatal accident. Or that guy who called everything a form of ‘ego massage’ and sycophancy … little did he know that in few days his girlfriend would ditch him. And that businessman who believed in some other deity and not HIM was to suffer huge losses in coming days. These … and many other stories. After all, how dare they question things! Therefore, the punishments were apt … actually they were well deserved. Such people needed to be taught a lesson.

As of now, it was the peak season. After all it was his birthday in few days time. That day HE would relish in tones of milk, water, bhaang, food, sweets, flowers and god knows which all things. HE would indulge in revelry, enjoy all the sacrifices, create folklores around him and be the center of attraction that day. Then the peak rush to the holy place would subside though people would continue to throng the pace in thousands. HE shall continue to be served as he was being served before … today, tomorrow, and ever after.

Survival

2008-05-07T10:20:00.001+05:30

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury.

Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day.

They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor was relationship that bad. It was just that it wasn’t as good as before. Most of the fellow fisherman earned more than before, but Ramdas felt his earnings were stagnant. Few years ago, major chunks of his earnigs were spent for medical expenses of his wife. Maybe, that difference in earnings made him a bit jealous.

Out of the boats in the sea, a quarter belonged to the village head, famously or infamously known as Lala. He was the biggest money lender of the village and was regarded as cunning, shrewd and cruel. Maybe, that was the reason why he commanded such a respect in village. His boat was equipped with heavy machinery and could venture much farther into the sea than Ramdas could have managed.

That day Ramdas was nearly seven miles away from the shore, while others with modern equipment were on average thrice as far, and probably they’ll catch thrice as much fish as Ramdas. But Ramdas couldn’t have afforded that. So he had to be satisfied with his small boat, which he had to fend alone for that day as his son was ill. He seemed out of favor with lady luck, as the fishes seemed to have deserted that area. Probably they had a premonition of what was about to come. Ramdas could see the storm approaching, and had to fight it alone. The prize of victory was survival.

The storm raised its hood, and came nearer. The rains started. With each passing moment, it began to get heavier. The next day’s newspaper would report that a cyclone whose origins lay somewhere in the Bay of Bengal hit the east coast of India at a speed of 190 km per hour causing widespread destruction to life and property, and leaving thousands dead and much more homeless. Probably Ramdas would become just another number, among one of those few thousands. Or maybe not!

Within minutes, the small boat was completely wet and was getting water logged. Ramdas was completely drenched and made attempts to withstand the wind as valiantly as the boat did. The boat could have capsized any moment. But it didn’t. It withstood all the challenges posed by the winds bravely. It survived … At least for few minutes.

The tides were higher and mightier than ever. The small boat had no chance of survival. Lala’s boats could have survived for a while, but not his boat. They were designed for survival in a calm sea, not in the sea it was now. One giant tide … and everything may be lost; gone forever. He saw one such tide coming.

“Ah, this is the last breath of my life”, thought he, remembering all the gods and goddesses in what he thought would be the last moment of his life.

But miracles do happen. The boat rose high up with the giant tide, was in the air for a moment and when it seemed that it would turn upside down, offering everything it had to the sea, it was back in the sea, in the same position it had left it. This wouldn’t classify exactly as a miracle, but it was nothing short of it. Ramdas was first time lucky. But the question was that how long his luck would really be with him. Maybe, for few more minutes at max. After all, very few survived such a storm and such wild tides, if at all anyone did.

Another tide came. But he escaped unharmed. He couldn’t understand what was going on. Maybe, he was lucky for the last time before it would desert him. Meanwhile he couldn’t spot any boat till far. Maybe he was lost. Probably others were lost. Or the other boats simply ceased to exist. While he was lost in his thoughts, his boat was attacked by another time, and this time he wasn’t all that lucky. The boat tossed up in the air with the tide, turned upside down and was broken into pieces after a moment. The moment had finally come. After all, he could not be lucky all the time.

He lost contact with anything wooden, and a moment later he was few feet inside the sea. But his tireless efforts to keep afloat brought him to the surface where he encountered a wooden piece. He recognized it as part of his boat that once existed minutes ago. He fought for survival by clinging to that piece. He could barely see now. He could just feel the sea and the watery grave around him.

The game of tide continued for few minutes after which it subsided. It was only the winds that subsided. Rains didn’t. He was just hoping that somehow the interplay of tides and weather gods make him reach the shore safely. But he had miles to cover before that happened. There were moments when his grip was loosening, when he was just too tired to hold on anything, moments when rainfall was too heavy to be bearable. Thankfully, there were no sharks in that part of the sea, though some dangerous creatures were present. But it was drowning that he was most scared of. In midst of all these, Ramdas fell asleep … rather unconscious. Few hours’ later rain would have subsided, and Ramdas would have reached a deserted place very close to his village. While this happened, he would be largely unaware of it happening

He woke up when it was few hours since the sun rays graced the shore. In fact it was almost noon. He had slept for too long. Then things began to flash in front of his eyes. He looked around but found nothing intact. He decided to have a stroll through his village but found nothing but houses which were destroyed. There was not a living soul to be found.

“Where have they gone?”

“Have they all perished with the storm?”

“Am I in some other village? No. Village is pretty much the same. I can recognize the places. Yes it is my place. But where are the people?”

Meanwhile he managed to see a person. He seemed to be someone from army from whom he learnt that a cyclone had struck the village two days ago killing every inhabitant there. The dead bodies were removed the very next day to avoid spread of disease. No one in the village was alive. No one who went to sea was alive, except him. He realized that he had slept through entire day and a half, absolutely unaware of all the dreadful happenings around.

Everyone in the village was dead - His wife, his son, his neighbors, other fishermen, Lalaji, Everyone. No one survived. Entire village of 400 inhabitants was wiped off from existence, as if it never existed.

“I am the only survivor of the storm. How lucky I am. But I have lost everything I had, everyone I had ever known. It can’t get worse than this. Ah … my bad luck!”

The only survivor walked through the ruins, to somewhere even he didn’t know. Maybe, somewhere else a new life awaited him.

The Forest

2008-05-01T15:21:00.006+05:30

The Toyota Qualis and the Chvrolet Tavera stopped after a long journey. It was almost 9 in the night and it was pitch-dark. Night times in a forest are always pitch-dark. Adding to that it was a good `thirteen days since the last full moon day. Adding to this, the cloudy weather made visibility close to zero. Later in the night the forest would be engulfed in a fog making it nearly impossible to see. The only noise audible was that of silence, few random insects and that of a train going at a distance.

After a long journey they all were quite weary and all they wanted was some rest so that the next day morning they can head for tiger and rhino spotting among many other species of flora and fauna in the wildlife sanctuary. Right now it was time for some parathas, maggi and booze. All fifteen of them headed for the cottage which they had booked, sat near the fire place relishing food, chit chatting about college life, universe and everything. But chit chatting wasn’t what they came there for. They wanted to see some wildlife, tigers to be specific. So they planned to roam about their cottage and try to spot some wildlife. But it wasn’t that easy. Being a human settlement, tigers rarely came there. Adding to the woes was the railroad which was close by, through which couple of trains passed during the course of day. Nevertheless, they decided to give it a shot. Maybe, they would have some adventure, spot some inhabitants of the jungle and will have stories which they can recount back in college, and future generations.

So close to midnight, they left their cottage and began their search. Four of them weren’t too willing to risk their lives, so they stayed back while others moved forward. Initial few minutes of search yielded no result. Yet they decided to continue with the search. The path was barely visible; the mobile lights were of little use. The temperature was close to freezing point. Nevertheless, the hunt for stories continued. They were relatively confident that nothing will attack them. Because tigers rarely visited that place and other animals didn’t scare them much.

Half an hour and 100 meters later, half of them retreated to the cottage as it was unsafe to wander further. Five of the group were of more adventurous kind and decided to wander further. They got one of the cars and some leftover booze to keep them warm and carefully treaded through the forest terrain. After a luckless first hour, they decided to call it quits and return back to the cottage. But no one knew the exact way back. They were probably around a mile away … or maybe tens of miles away.

They came out of the cars and tried to find a direction, if at all they could make any sense of it. They couldn’t they were completely lost. In next few minutes the rains will arrive accompanied by hailstorm, which would be lashing the place for half an hour. Trying to drive through the inundated pathways would result into a flat tire. As of now, they were just concerned about finding their way back.

Meanwhile they decided to call up their friends. But their cell phone couldn’t catch the network. There was no network present in a radius of many miles. And now with rains and flat tire, they had to spend rest of the night at that place it seemed. It was around four hours before the first ray of sun would arrive. Till then, they would be shivering, and weather would be not the only thing that would keep them shivering.

Maybe some talks would help. Maybe something light, sort of chit chat. Or maybe someone can crack a joke. But no one gets a joke in such a situation. No one can even think of cracking a joke in such situation. Just as they started speculating whether they would get out of that place alive, they heard a noise, noise of something being trampled. This was followed by complete darkness. With limited visibility, they could gather that a group of few wild elephants, may be 4 or 5 of them were roaming about in that place, and one of them stepped upon the bonnet of the car resulting into breaking of the headlight. “Elephants must be on way to their night mess” – one of them exclaimed. No one was interested. They waited for few minutes inside the car and hoping that they didn’t return. But they were wrong. The elephants were back and trampled the engine once again. The humans were second time lucky. Their lives had been spared.

The car was not safe anymore. They had to come out of it.

But how will they manage it?

Where will they go?

They could do nothing within that jungle. Even if they ventured out they would be eaten by tigers for breakfast. Suddenly they heard a noise. The only noise coming from distance whose roots can be traced to humans. This was followed by a light from some direction. In next few minutes the noise increased and the light moved closer. It was a railway engine. It was some passenger train which would arrive probably in few minutes at a point closer to them. But where was the railway track? As the light grew brighter, few things were visible … but not the railway track, and defiantly not the elephants.

Meanwhile one of them looked outside the window and exclaimed

“We are on the railway track”.

“Damn! We’ll be killed by train after having escaped the elephant assault”

“Let us get down and hope that the train stops. They may stop on seeing a wrecked car on the railway track”

With a minute to go before train arrived, they stood on side of the track and moved a tree which fell down during the rain such that a part of it was on the railway track. Having 5 people made it easier. The train stopped, they talked to engine driver who was kind enough to accommodate them. They removed the tree and the car from the track, climbed on to the first bogie and were in a mood to celebrate safety.

They told their story to an old man who was awake at that point in time. He listened patiently, and gave them an advice – “Never mess with the jungle. Respect its laws. Don’t roam about in the dark. I could have killed you if I wished to, as I have done with many people like you before who disturbed the jungle equilibrium in the night, the same mistake I did moments before I died … but then ... I wasn’t in a mood to do so today, as it is my 300^th birthday. That is why the elephants went away after partly trampling your car. That’s why those tigers did not attack you”. Saying this, the old man disappeared. The train chugged off, with each of those 5 people staring at the green eyes at some distance from the track.

Fan-o-phobia

2008-04-26T23:05:00.005+05:30

Has there been some thing that you are worried about lately, something that might not seem too important that has been troubling you? ... Or that the very thought of it makes you shiver, tremble with fear or puts in the fear of god within you?

Well ... I am facing one such thing of late. Somehow I have developed a fear of the fans, especially in cases where fans are a relatively lesser height, usually which I can touch easily with my palms or even elbows ... and even the ones that I can barely even touch by my fingers. This has not been without a reaon though.

Recently I went to a relatives place where there was this combination of a fan being at lesser height and me being quite tall. After taking a bath (yeah ... I do take a bath ... in summers at least!) I switched on the fan, and raised my hands to wear a T-shirt. And suddenly I found something hitting my left thumb, hitting it really hard. Before the signal was sent to my brain so that I could realize what was happening, I put my hand away from danger zone. (Courtesy - Spinal Cord, which initiated the rescue operation and ordering my hand to move away from the line of attack immediately upon receiving a SOS signal from my thumb). I escaped the fan attack with a minor cut, which may last maybe around 10 days within confines of a band-aid. Since then I have been telling this sad story of fan-attack to whomsoever concerned (and there have been many after seeing that awkward looking band-aid)!

Now that fingers keep me worried, and fans make me fear. What if height of fans are really low and I go on to yawn just under a running fan? Or worse still, if I am walking and suddenly decide to jump ... without realizing that I am under a running fan? Every time I am sitting, or standing or walking anywhere, no matter how important the work is or how busy I am, I always manage to have a look at the ceiling and work out my safety related strategies, and hoping that the famous adage - "Lightening never strikes a same tree twice" is true!

Standardized human beings

2008-04-25T17:11:00.005+05:30

Often, I have seen and observed human beings who think in similar way, who act in similar way given a similar situation situation. They have similar values and beliefs, and deviations adherence to these norms or questioning them seems unthinkable. It is as if giving 10 such people same set of stimulus and getting exactly the same output from all 10 of them.

Not only it does exist ... it is often actually encouraged, and at times forced upon. For instance I have seen kids who are forced to become right handed just because it seems odd to be a left handed in a world full of right handed people. Even if this means labored eating and writing using by using right hand. Or almost every other unsuspecting 2-year old kid expected to recite millions of things millions of times before the guests.

Often you are expected, and at times forced to have same set of interests so that you fit into the society. For instance you must like similar hindi film music, you must like and appreciate dance and be able to do so, you must be able to sing in a sizable gathering, you must be good in sports and studies, you should have a sense of humor that can be classified as 'friendly' (as per orkut definition), you should worship daily, you must talk such that elders or any other people are not offended and people of same age group don't get bored ... yet you must be able to live freely and express your opinions freely blah blah blah. A male who lacks interest in stock market or cricket and a female who doesn't help in kitchen is a blot on face of humanity.

You need not be an expert in a particular field or show deep interest or be passionate about an issue if it hampers you being an all rounder by not adhering to the above mentioned standards! And if you don't follow above standards then all efforts to make you adhere to above specifications are likely to be made.

Seeing these norms often make me feel that humans should be like a machine or a automaton following certain technical specifications and fine tuned as per requirements or as the situation may be. The outer layer may be different, but the core remains similar.

I don't mean that we should be unpredictable ... but at least we can be something different, something different from the crowd ... someone who is not just another brick in the wall, as the great Pink Floyd would say!

Art of question paper leaks

2008-04-16T18:45:00.008+05:30

(Following is based upon a real discussion which I had today morning)

As I was making efforts to keep myself afloat in the swimming pool, I overheard some conversations -

"Puraa paper pataa hota hai, wo to humein mil hi jaata hai ... tab bhi hum nahi padhte hain" ... and so on

The guy who did bulk of talking looked around 15 years old and seemed like quite a spoilt brat.

I chipped in with some expert comments and questions -

"Which board?"

"Kisi bhi board ka"

After a minute of chat I gathered that he had just given Class 10 exams in ICSE board and was planning to take science stream(PCM), and he studied in a school (say SKP). He had earlier managed to do the same at his previous school (say CRK).

Inquisitively, I tried to gather more information on how he manages to get the paper

"Bus kuch nahi, security guard ko paise do. 8th, 10th, 12th ke papers. Wo ek extra copy karaa leta hai. ICSE ke paper out karna sabse easy hai. Koi seal nahi hoti"

"Waise to CBSE and ..."

"Haan CBSE aur Chattisgarh board ke bhi paper milte hai na. But uska doosra tarika hai."

"Kaise?"

"Printing press mein mil jaate hain. Wo kya hai na ... usme seal lagi rehti hai so paper nikaal nahi sakte ... ICSE mein seal nahi hoti. Ye sirf Bhilai aur Durg mein hota hai. Waise milne ko to IIT ka bhi paper mil jaata hai. Lekin uske liye 25 - 50 hazaar maangta hai. "

(Half a minute of silence)

Waise aap kya kar rahe ho"

(I tell 2 lines about myself)

"Haan ek baar MBA kar lo to life mast ho jaati hai ... Meri mummy kehti hai ki tu dukaan mein baithta hai, tu to aadha MBA ho hi gaya hai. Bus ek degree ki kami hai. Kaafi to aata hi hai humein dukaan mein baith kar "

"Kaun si dukaan hai aapki ?"

"Saree ki dukaan hai hamaari. yahin pass mein hai. XYZ Sarees."

Again the boasting continues ...

"Main 10th board ke pehle roj Bhilai jaakar paper laaya hoon ... Har ek paper. Meri sister ke bhi saare papers jugaade the maine"

....

....

For a moment, I felt like an idiot having slogged so many years ... and the next moment I was inside the water, continuing to make efforts to prevent myself from drowning, after such a heavy dose!

A lesson

2008-04-13T12:47:00.006+05:30

The Honda City brushed the vegetable laden cart, which was standing on side of a somewhat busy road.

Down he got from the car, removed his goggles, headed towards the seemingly malnourished vendor and grabbed him by his collar.

"Saale, tu khud ko samajhta kya hai. Sadak kya tere baap ki hai"

"Saab, meri koi galti nahi ... Wo to aapki gaddi ..."

"Saale, zabaan ladaata hai ... Teri to ..."

Raaapppppppppppatttttt >--Slap No. # 1--<

"Saab, lekin ..."

Satttttttttttttttakkkkkkkk >--Slap No. # 2--<

"Saab ..."

"Aur aukaad mein reh ..."

He grabbed the vendor by his collar, blurted out some words of which only the abuses were clearly audible and went back to his car to join his group of relatives, who were waiting for him to go for a shopping spree, all in awe of the command and control he had over the people.

K-eediyot box

2008-04-07T20:39:00.012+05:30

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog)

Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM
Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc.

Figure this -

A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view), flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often is a popular track belonging to a recent Bollywood blockbuster and many other over exaggerated aspects.
Few days later they will all be celebrating some festival ( 4 days for preparation + 2 days of celebrations - Holi/ Diwali/ Janmashtami/ Durga Puja/ Dussehra / Ram Navmi/ Navratri/ Kali Puja etc. etc. ... year after year!).

... This continues year after year, show after show ... and continues to generate a high enough TRP to make producers make similar shows.

Welcome to the world of Indian soap operas, popularly known by their names (usually starting with K) or as 'Tulsi', 'Saloni' etc. (name of characters in them ... am not sure of spellings though) by the loyalists, and as K-serials, Ekta kapoor type shows by the rest. These often become lifeline of Indian families in late evening. Every alternate household with a TV set can be seen playing any one of these many possible cacophony! These are the things that somehow end up influencing knowingly or unknowingly different aspects of lives - be it fashion, thoughts and ideas, parties, pujas, culture, promoting superstitions, devising schemes to win brownie points etc etc. But these also become instruments that prevent people to look beyond the bounded rationality that these shows promote and be cynical about anything apart from the 'values' propagated in these shows.

Recent news about Afghanistan government banning Indian TV channels because they think it is un-Islamic may seem to be improper and unjustified, and an extreme form of thought control. Like most of us around here, I am also against any such ban. But aren't Ekta Kapoor shows and their million clones which invariably occupy the prime time slot on Zee, Sony Star Plus and other TV channels a form of thought control? They may or may not be intended to 'control thoughts' but more often than not they end up being so!

Art of watching a movie

2008-04-04T14:21:00.006+05:30

Everyone has some idiosyncrasies when it comes to watching a movie. I tried to list some of mine in this post --

Some random movie watching habits, that belong exclusively to me
(Idea for this write up has been blatantly stolen from other blogs!) -->

There are few movies I get extremely excited about (e.g. TZP, Jodha Akbar, RDB), and there have been few I have always been excited about ever since I saw them ... and people have been bored of hearing me recommend that movie to others (e.g. TZP, RDB, The Truman show, Forrest Gump, ... even Aaap ka surror!)
While watching movies (esp. angrezi ones!) on my lappy, I often use Wikipedia and IMDB as reference (esp. to know where the story is headed for) ... Even with such references, I could understand only half the movie Memento!
I love reading movie reviews. Few of the ones I follow are Taran Adarsh ke crappy reviews, Rajeev Masand (who is somewhat reliable) ... and few reviews occasionally in TOI, HT, Rediff, and other random websites. After all it is my review that matters!
I like to pass expert comments during most of the movies. I prefer not listening to other people's comment. I like telling trivia here and there. There have been cases when people have moved from my neighboring seat to some other location where they can see the movie sans comments!
I usually hate noises in the cinema hall ... unless I am the source! But shouting with the junta in movies like Chak De or Lagaan ... or even LOC Kargil have been awesome experiences!
There have been cases when I may have said "kya bakwaas", "pakaau", "jhilaaaaau", "yaaaaaaaaah", "nahiiiiiiiiiiiii" and similar words >143 times (> 1 per minute!) during a movie (e.g. Welcome, 10000 BC)
Some movies are watched only due to 'fun' of watching it, and not because of desire to watch good cinema (e.g. Aaap ka surroor - the moviee - the real luv story, when we went to cinema with a cap!)
I am a pop-corn guzzler ... I share it with others purely out of courtesy, usually with a heavy heart!
I laugh at 640 dB if there is something I find something really funny in a movie.
I often spend time in discussing a lot of stuff about the movie (apart from movie ke contents) ... which can be classified under 'trivia' section .. and I love to bore people with it!
I hate missing trailers and advertisements before the movie ... I usually speculate which trailer can we expect today before a movie ... and have often been right!

Relativity

2008-03-30T19:43:00.003+05:30

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.” - Albert Einstein

I guess most of us would have wondered how relative things are. Uninteresting things appear to move too fast, and good things get over quickly ... at least it seems so!

The way time seems too pass in different settings, the way things in recent past seem to be too distant, just because the set up and the surroundings have completely changed. Hanging out with friends in college canteen just a few days ago seem to have happened ages ago; and at the same time, things in college which happened two terms back seemed to be a thing of recent past!

Why only time? A change in atmosphere/ surroundings can completely change the way we look at things. Same thing which appear trivial piece in the jigsaw puzzle of universe, when viewed from college campus may look extremely essential when viewed from inside a wild life sanctuary. Same thing which appears useless when viewed from inside a classroom, suddenly seems important when observed through the eyes of a 75 year old person.

Certainly, apart from perception of time in a setting, there actually exist many,more dimensions to relativity - some known, many unknown!

Classifying people

2008-03-29T13:35:00.003+05:30

One of the important tools used by marketers for identifying potential market is market segmentation, in which subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics are grouped together. Using similar concept, people can be segmented based upon their basic philosophy or their basic approach towards life. It might be extremely difficult, as not all may express their beliefs openly. Maybe few sort of weird approaches mentioned below might help.

One such method can be segmenting on basis of their movie or book preferences.

For example a person whose favorite book is The Fountainhead or 1984 is likely to be different from a person whose favorite books include Sidney Sheldon and likes. Or a person who likes reading The Catcher in the Rye over and over again might be different from the one who prefers Eric Segal instead!

Similarly a person whose favorite movies includes likes of Jaane bhi do Yaaron or Rang de Basanti would be different from a person relishing Suraj Barjatiya movies! Or the one who has Terminator and Rambo series among his favorites would be have a different idea from the one who likes Dead Poet's society or Forrest Gump!

Apart from movies or books, maybe a taste in things like music, art or leisure activities have potential to reveal a great deal about a person's approach towards life and his/ her beliefs. Think about it !

3 Frogs and a Well

2008-03-27T16:45:00.007+05:30

There was a family of 3 frogs - Ma Frog, Pa Frog and kid frog. Like may other frog families and many other insects, reptiles and amphibians, they existed peacefully within confines of the well. The world outside the well didn't mean anything. In fact many of the residents were unaware of the existence of the outside world.

One fine day, Kid frog told his parents - "I want to go out and explore the world". His parents were initially reluctant, but they grudgingly granted his wish, with an understanding that the kid would be back in well after some time. The kid went out and moved around in the vast world. And how different it was from the world within the well. It was beautiful. Things he never imagined ...they actually existed! Yes. There were few things that were quite eerie, and some made him desire to run back to his home. Nevertheless, the world was different. Quite a contrast to the world he had seen in the well! He continued his journey, and loved exploring the world.

After a year and half he came back to his abode. He had visited it couple of times, but now he came back for a long vacation. In few days he would start earning its daily bread, most likely join the small trade Pa frog owned, follow the well life, get married and live happily ever after. But he felt there were far too many restrictions. He loved to explore, which he couldn't do it now. He had a predefined life, and he was supposed to follow it without questioning. But that wasn't what he wanted. He felt everything too suffocating. He was badly in need of some breathing space. He wished to live in the world he had explored, live the thoughts and ideas he had seen in the world.

He told Ma frog and Pa frog about his dream and ideas. Ma frog told kid that he had a wish to explore, which he was granted, but now he should fall in line to as they wished, as they wanted him to be, as they had decided for him. After all they did a huge favor to him by granting him his wish, but that was it. He was supposed to follow a certain line of thought, which he should do without questioning. After all, that was what he was supposed to do in first place.

Kid frog was left wondering if was really a favor, or was it a bane? - allowing him to explore ... just to fall in line in end, to follow what was preordained for him! But , like most of others he fell in line. Now he has a decent business within the well and lives a decent live ... and his dreams? ... they were meant to be. They shouldn't have existed in first place!

To make your day, All it takes is ...

2008-02-23T19:50:00.005+05:30

What you need to make your day ?
There can be a zillion answers
Maybe, getting a promotion and a pay rise, or getting a praise from an unexpected quarter, or maybe getting your pay cheque on first of every month ... probably getting something you earned or you deserved!
... Or maybe, getting a call from an old friend ... just to have a chit chat!
... and few more such standard answers.

Or maybe, the answer lies in something extremely trivial

Like -
Watching a really funny poster on roadside
Eating an extremely spicy roadside chaat, and desperately asking for drinking water.
Or seeing a 6 year, class 1 kid smiling at you and in the process showing off his front teeth which aren't there.
Or cracking a really bad PJ and laughing for minutes together, and realizing that you are the only person who laughed ... and this making you laugh even more!
Or discovering that old chocolate lollipop in a store and relishing it!
Or reading an interesting line in a newspaper article.
Or listening to an old Kishore Kumar song after long.
Or radio playing "O Humdum Suniyo re ..." song while you are cruising on your bike.
... and many other such trivial things!

As they say, It is simple things in life that are most extraordinary.
At times, it seems so true ... but we often fail to realize it!