Skip to main content

Posts

Countryside travel

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

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

Web Page

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

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

Election Time

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

DevD

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 wa

Soap and Economics

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,

Greed is good

"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 develop

Downhill

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

Shop @ Amazon