IF..

One of the best poems i've come across... found it in my archives..It's amazing how sometimes these few verses can teach u such simple yet big things in life...


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

Om Shanti Om...

The movie is everything but shanti! Over-hyped would be clearly an understatement. I am glad I didnt spend a single penny to watch it... Saw it on a dvd and had the privilige to fast fwd those painfully-boring-un-hummable songs which were just packed into the movie for the heck of it and had no connection with the story whatsoever.

When I had watched Farah Khan's directorial debut 'Main Hoon Na' I thought it was pretty bad and overly dramatic... But after seeing OSO I feel MHN was way better.. at least it was entertaining. There is absolutely nothing new in this movie. The story is the same old one about rebirth/reincarnation which has already been used in hundreds of bollywood movies.. The transformation from Om Prakash to Om Kapoor in the second half isn't handled well and is far from convincing. Coming to music, the only song worth listening to is 'Aankhon mein teri...' And I still fail to understand what Farah was trying to do with the 30+ bollywood stars in the song Deewangi... Akshay Kumar's 'Return of Khiladi' shown in the movie is priceless! Watch the movie and you will know what i'm talking about :) Shreyas talpade is quite funny in the first half but he is wasted completely in the second half.. Deepika Padukone hyped to be the next super star in bollywood does nothing to shine as an actress.. She defnitely looks awesome with those excellent 70's costumes in first half and the modern look in the second .. but is that all?? we want to see some acting too!!

Lessons learnt :)
- If a movie is heavily marketed, there's not going to be much substance in it!
- You can market/sell any crap in bollywood!

Long-stitch embroidery...

.... A new thing that I tried out this weekend. Here's the output....

Had done a few cross-stitch ones long back in college but this is the first time I tried out a long-stitch.. so didnt have much of an idea how to do it; used my own style and techniques :) Have to learn how to do it in an optimized way, using fewer thread loops.. Took me 3 days to finish, considering I spent 3/4ths of my weekend on this! Hope the next one comes out better...

Ghazal Maestro..

I managed to get almost the entire collection of Jagjit Singh's ghazals finally! Been listening to it since the last 3 weeks and I am so mesmerized by his music .. I have no words to put across. Had heard a few famous ghazals of his but never really listened to the whole set... now I'm an even bigger admirer of him. He is undoubtedly one of the most well known ghazal singers in the world today. Found these lines on some website while reading about him..

"His voice, a true gift of God, has the pain that an "Ashiq" feels after loosing his beloved, the love that a mother seeks for her child, the tranquility that a "Saaqi" delivers, the willing fear that a boy has when she walks in the room. There is absolutely no doubt that Jagjit Singh with his unique composing and singing style is the torchbearer of the survival of Ghazals in India."

The kind of intoxication that he gets in his voice (whatever may be the reason!) is AWESOME... it's mystical and it just takes me into a state of trance. A bad day.. quirky mood.. whatever be it.. listening to a couple of his ghazals just gets me back to feeling good... Well thats what music does... whatever kind it may be.. but this works wonders for me! Missed his live concert twice... once in b'lore and hyd.. Hoping that I get one more chance...

Few of his MUST HEAR songs...

• Tum itna jo muskurarahe ho... (Arth)
• Jhuki jhuki si nazar.. (Arth)
• Tumko dekha to yeh khayal aaya.. (Saath Saath)
• Hoshwalon ko khabar kya.. (Sarfarosh)
• Hoton se choolo tum.. (Prem Geet)
• Tera chehra kitna suhana hai..
• Koi fariyaad.. (Tum Bin)
• Badi Nazuk hai.. (Jogger's Park)

Sudoku...

This has been my latest craze ... picked up solving sudoku puzzles about 3-4 weeks back and have been hooked on to it since then. It's been a couple of years since I've been seeing people around me play this game... and I used to wonder why these ppl are so crazy about it.... and what pleasure they derive out of this ?! So finally I decided to give it a shot myself and now I know "why"! You just need to learn the tips'n tricks of the trade and trust me it's very addictive! I need a daily dose of it now :) I initially started solving it by taking prints and using pencil .... but now I play it online... I feel this is tougher than writing things down... needs a lot of concentration to keep mental notes.. but still.. its fun..... and of course a great exercise for the brain.. which usually doesnt get much out of my typical BA job :)

Here's a link that says "how to solve sudoku without thinking".. found this today while generally browsing.. didnt quite like this strategy.. as the whole point of thinking and solving is lost...

Chak diya!

This post has been lying in my draft for 2 days.. finally found time to finish it..

India-Pak T20 world cup finals on monday... what an awesome match it was! The fact that it was a match b/w India and Pak itself made it exciting... and that it was a world cup .. made it a bigger deal.. It's been one of the most electrifying matches i've seen lately. The match was running in favor of both the teams, till the last ball nearly.. Not very often do we get to see such matches; where you sit at the edge of your seat till the last ball/over is bowled... It was a great game.. and luck was defnitely on our side that day..and prayers of millions of Indians.... else for some of the glaring mistakes that we made.. like Sreeshanth's 2nd over of ~22 runs and a couple of more costly overs towards the end.. we would have almost lost the world cup! Joginder sharma's magic worked again.. he bowling the last over seemed to be like a lucky charm :) I was glad that Irfan Pathan was declared the man of the match... i think he really deserved it.. He being from a very small town, had so much dedication towards the game... the way he bowled in a controlled manner was awesome.. and few of those wickets were turning points in the match...

Towards the end of the match.. the camera was being focused more on Shahrukh khan who was present there to see the game, than on the game itself! Anyways, thats our country.. we crazy about bollywood .. we crazy about cricket! It's just amazing to see how the whole country celebrates the win... including myself.. like it is some joyous event of my life :) That's the kind of impact that cricket has on us! Thoroughly enjoyed watching every bit of it...

Chak de India!

Well, this time its not the movie but the Twenty 20 world cup that I am referring to. India-Australia semi finals yesterday - what an awesome match it was!! I had lost interest in cricket over the last few years.. but since I started watching this new young team play the series, I am back to the same old craze of getting glued to the TV so that I don't miss a single ball of the game.. After India won 2 consecutive matches, against England and South Africa, like everyone else, even I had thought that India cannot repeat their victory.. I was not wrong in thinking so.. coz thats the kind of reputation the team had built up... But yesterday's match really changed a lot of perceptions am sure!

I have never seen Indian players fight so hard till the last ball... in all aspects - batting, bowling and fielding. Even though the match seemed to have favored aussies at many points, these people just kept fighting and it finally paid off... I really admire the way Dhoni has performed as a captain especially... Even though J.Sharma gave away a lot of runs in his first couple of overs and proved to be very costly to the team... Dhoni still gave him a chance to bowl the last over... which was very crucial... Aussies could have easily managed the 22 runs in 6 balls.. it wasnt a big deal for them.. But sharma got a chance to prove himself and cover up for all the bad bowling he had done ...... he really managed to do it and lead india to victory. I don't have to say anything about Yuvraj... we all know he played classy and professional cricket... We need more batsmen like him, who can play so well under immense pressure and not just keep swinging their bats hoping to connect the ball...

Anyways, I am back to watching cricket all over again.. I guess we don't need tendulkar, ganguly and dravid till this new team continues to play with the same 'josh' :) It was a treat to watch the Indian's play and am really looking forward for the India-Pak finals. Doesn't matter who wins... it's not necessary that we have to win all the matches... 'coz thats not the only thing which proves the team's potential.. what matters more is that they fight till the end and play their best game....

article...

Here’s a nice article by Gurucharan Das about the education system in India. I felt that the example he has used to put his point across is very intriguing....

Link to the article

100th post...

This marks my 100th post since I created my blog! When I started writing, I had never thought I would continue to write for so long.. but am glad I did and hope to keep it more frequent in the future :)

I had a lot of things in mind to blog about, over the past 2 weeks but the lack of internet access at home kept me out of the blogging world. (Yeah, my office blocks even blogger sites!) Yet another instance which made me realize how dependent I have become, on technology..... Cell phone and internet - two things which I feel I cannot live without :)

I watched this movie 'Ratatouille' over the weekend. Felt good watching an animation movie after a long time. A fun movie, which keeps you entertained thru out. The movie is all about a rat named Remy which dreams of becoming a great chef despite being a "Rat" and also his family's disapproval. But fate does give him a chance... at one of the finest restaurants in Paris... and thats where the story is all about... Overall a very hilarious movie.. but I felt it could have been cut short by at least 20-30 mins.. the last bit seemed to be very dragging and I lost interest in the story at some point... It was the animation part that kept me hooked on till the end...

Another good part about the weekend was this english play that i watched at Rangashankara, called 'Flame of the Forest', directed by Gowri Ramanarayan. It was something totally different from all the plays that I had seen so far.... it was a combination of dance, music and drama. The carnatic music and bharatnatyam were the best part of the play.. it suited the context really well. The story is adapted from Kalki's immortal classic 'Sivakamiyin Shapatam' and set in the medieval period.. during the time of Pallavas and Chalukyas. One of the drawbacks according to me was the length of the play. I felt it could have been cut short by half an hour and it would still remain equally impactful. The story started off by focusing on 'Paranjyoti', the general in the Pallava army.. but only at the end I realized that it was all about the court dancer Sivakami, in Mahendra Pallava's kingdom, Kanchi. This was another confusing aspect. That apart, the acting was brilliant, well carried out by the dancer and the vocalist..

Overall a really good play and I would highly recommend it...

Blog Action Day!

"What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices."

"On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future."

For more details visit http://blogactionday.org/

Got to know about this thru a few other blogger friends of mine. I found this to be pretty interesting! If you do too, go ahead and promote blog action day! 49 days to go :)

Mani Ratnam...Movies...

After some music and books, now it's time for movies.

Mani Ratnam needs no introduction... most of us will agree that he is one of the finest directors of indian cinema. I have been a great fan of Mani Ratnam and always had this desire to own the entire collection of his movies with me, especially the tamil movies. Now am glad that I have about 10 of them :) About 3 weeks back I watched these 2 tamil movies - "Mouna Ragam" and "Kannathil Muthamittal".... now I am an even bigger fan of his!

Mouna Ragam - means 'silent music' or 'silent symphony'. It can be regarded as one of his best movies ever - featuring Revathi, Mohan and Karthik.. all classy actors. Music by Illayaraja is brilliant. (for those who haven't heard...the title song of Cheeni Kum has the same music as that of the title song of Mouna Ragam.. ) The story is a simple one... which is probably told many times in lots of movies... about a woman is forced into an arranged marriage and lives with her husband in delhi... but is still in love with her boyfriend, a gangster who was shot dead in front of her at the registrar office on the day they were supposed to get married. The screenplay, direction and cinematography are AWESOME ... no wonder that it won a lot of awards. Supposedly this movie is also his first commercially success one. If you are a fan of south indian movies and mani ratnam especially, then this is a must watch..

Kannathil Muthamittal - means 'A peck on the cheek'. A recent movie featuring Madhavan, Nandita Das and Simran... again all classy actors.. I felt it's a very different story... deals with the emotions of an adopted child (i guess she is around 10 yrs) , who feels betrayed and goes in search of her biological mother. The story is set in the backdrop of the riots and militancy in SriLanka. The theme of the movie is very thought provoking.... There is no need for me to say anythign about the direction, cinematography etc... he won the "Swarna Kamal" award for this film, from the President APJ Abdul Kalam...

The best part is that each of his movies has a unique theme... and each one is different in its own way..... He is also known to extract best and natural performances from child actors... Shamili in Anjali and Keerthana in Kannathil Muthamittal both won National awards. It's also intersting to note that he has a kid in almost all of his movies... not necessarily as the main character...

His movies that I've seen so far and admired...

• Anjali (nominated to the Oscars..... always tops my list)
• Roja
• Alai Payuthe
• Bombay
• Uyirae (Dil Se in hindi)
• Kannathil Muthamittal
• Mouna Ragam
• Yuva (Aayitha Ezuthu)
• Guru

The ones in the pipeline.. that I am soon going to watch...

• Iruvar
• Agni Nakshatram
• Nayagan
• Pallavi Anupallavi (Kannada movie starring Anil kapoor)
• Thiruda Thiruda
• Dumm Dumm Dumm
• Geethanjali

I guess there is no movie of his that I may 'not like'... probably like it a little less than few of his others... truly a versatile and a brilliant director!!

My Feudal Lord....

.... a book that I read over the last few days. It brought in some sleepless nights and still leaves me a bit disturbed. This was the first time I read such a book, about women abuse and traumatic experiences... there were points where I just kept the book down and couldn't read further.. coz I felt so disgusted abt things described in it. Authored by Tehmina Durrani, a Pakistani woman, the book is a real life story about her life... her traumatic experience in her marriage with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, the former chief minister of Punjab and a famous pakistani politician during the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Mustafa was also known as the 'Lion-of-Punjab' and came from the Feudal background ..... There's also a lot of info on the political scenario in Pakistan between 1950-1980...

If you look at the book as a literary critic, then you will be quite disappointed... becoz Tehmina is not a writer by profession. The chapters are not well organized, and the paragraphs are quite unstructured. If I left a chapter unread and had to get back to it in the middle, then there was no way I wud remember the context of the story. Anyways... she says that her aim of writing the book was more to break the silence and let the world know about the male dominated pakistani society, the plight and misery of the women, where they had to constantly go thru a lot of mental and physical abuse.. ......and... expose the hypocrisy of the elite ruling class in pakistan...

What really surprised me was the fact that Tehmina always went back to her husband even after going thru all those violent abuses, sometimes nearing her to death. She reasons that this was becoz a female divorcee in the muslim society was treated with no respect... and her life wud have been made hell... But still, would someone go thru so much, just coz of the societal pressure?!?! Well, I guess even these days there are women who do not raise a concern when they are physically abused by their husbands, for the sole reason of protecting their marriage... I guess it is easier said than done.... But hats off to her that she did not give up till the end, and finally managed to get out of the living hell and got a divorce from her husband...

I admire her courage for writing this book 'coz am sure it wud have been a difficult task for her to have exposed all those big names in the political domain and the finer details of her personal life... The book, when released, received a lot of negative criticism ... She says she had to even go thru some investigations and trials in the court becoz of some info that she revealed in her book...

All in all... it's definitely worth a read... a heavy book.... might put u into lot of introspection and trigger some 'deep thinking' about various aspects of life... especially about personal relationships

Soulful music...

Last few posts of mine have been about music.... that's what I've been doing off late.. listening to more and more songs.. of different genres... and now I have one more to add to it.

I'm sure most of us would have heard of Kailash Kher, one of the most popular singers of sufi music.. of the "Allah ke bandhe" fame, who also features in the league of singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rabbi Shergill. I just happened to listen to one of his songs, on TV, from his recent album and I was so touched by it. This made me download a lot of his songs and when I heard them I was just mesmerized by his voice. Ifelt, till now, I was really missing out on some good piece of music! His raw, high-pitched voice coupled with meaningful lyrics makes his songs so unique and literally "soulful". It's amazing to see the kind of energy and the vibes that are generated when u sing his songs... really wonderful!

If u haven't heard him yet, then here are some of the songs that u ought to hear..

• Teri deewani ... (his best song so far..)
• Allah ke bandhe..
• Chak de phatte..
• Piya re piya re..
• Kinna sona...

Old is gold...

I listened to Mohd.Rafi today after a long time... there seems to be some kind of a magic in his voice that makes me keep listening to his songs .. Sometimes they wud be on my playlist for months! Undoubtedly, Rafi and Kishore Kumar have a golden voice and are among the best singers that Bollywood has ever seen...

I wanted to pick 10 songs of Rafi that I love... but I found it extremely tough to shortlist just 10 ... everything seems to be so good. Anyways, here are my favorite top 10 Rafi songs...

1. Kaun hai jo sapno mein aaya ... (Jhuk gaya aasman)
2. Deewana hua baadal.. (Kashmir ki kali)
3. Gun guna rahe hai bhawrein.. (Aaradhana)
4. Khoya khoya chand... (Kala bazar)
5. Pukarta chala hu mein... ( Mere Sanam)
6. Aankhon hi aankhon mein... (CID)
7. Gulabi aankhein jo teri dekhi... (cant remember the movie name)
8. Tumse accha kaun hai.. (Jaanwar)
9. Teri bindiya re.. (Abhimaan)
10.O haseena... (Teesri manzil)

If u haven't heard any of these.. I suggest u listen to them ...... am sure u will see the magic that I am talking about :)

New look...

It's been a long time since I changed the look 'n feel of my blog... so thought of giving it a makeover...

Liked this new coffee cup template... for its simplicity....

Music that grows....

All of us wud have experienced at some point, the kind of music which when heard for the first time may not sound good, but it just grows on us as we keep listening to it. The music from the movie 'Life in a Metro' is one such good example. Here are the songs that I am talking about

• Alvida (the best song in the movie)
• Rishtey..
• Baatein kuch ankahee si...
• In dino..
• O meri jaan

The first time I heard these songs was when I watched the movie in the theater. I just found it to be very boring and all the songs seemed quite similarly composed. But I started listening to it about 2-3 weeks back and I've fallen in love with each and every song. It seems to create a magical effect on my mood everytime I listen to them, even today!

One unique thing is that the movie has "all male" singers. KK has done an awesome job again. The guitar work in "Alvida..." is superb... and I am falling short of words to appreciate the lyrics of this song apart from the lovely music..

Highly recommended, if u still haven't heard them... If u dont like them in the first shot, keep listening and u might start loving them, just like I did :)

DD Ads..

A couple of days back, me and my colleagues were discussing about how Ads/TV commercials aid in capturing the mind-space of the end users and also help in creating brand value. .. we talked about a lot of TV commercials that used to be featured on Doordarshan (that was the only TV channel at that time!) decades ago... but still they are so fresh in our memories... isn't it surprising to see how simple these Ads were (unlike the present ones where every other Ad has a celebrity to capture attention!) yet they have left a permanent mark in our minds!

Some of the Ads that we all could remember very vividly, along with the jingle/song :) A couple of them also send across a strong message in a subtle way...

Hamara Bajaj



Gold spot



Ek Anek (one of the cutest ad/commercial i have seen!)




Mile sur mera tumhara
(I have heard this a zillion times but yet I am not able to map all the lines to their corresponding languages!)

Etiquette(s)...

I just realized that my frequency of blogging has gone down drastically! When I used to be twice as busy at ISB, I could still find enough time to blog every other day and now it's just once a fortnight or so... unbelievable! I would say this is more of a lack of motivation than time... It's not that I am lazy, but most of the days I just dont have anything to write about. Life can get very monotonous once you start working.. It was different at ISB; there was something happening every day! Anyways, one of my colleagues sent this piece of msg yesterday and it got me thinking... very subtle and so true!

"In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia, until ultimately we become enslaved by it"

Coming to what I wanted to write today....

As we grow up all of us are taught some kind of personal etiquette or we just pick it up as we observe the people around us. We dont give this up once we become adults.. it remaines ingrained in us. Once we start working, we learn some professional etiquette too... Why am I saying all this? Well, I have been observing things at my work place for about 2 months now and I find a lot of it very weird and sometimes frustrating. First thing that surprises (and irritates) me is that people keep their cell phone ringers on full volume in office. With all the hi-fi phones these days, the ringtones are obviously some mp3 songs..and they keep ringing as if there is no end to it.. This is not it.. the phones are just left on the desk and people disappear.. so then u get to hear the whole damn song as long as the phone rings! many times the song just gets stuck in my head for 2-3 days! It's impossible for me to concentrate on something and I have to resort to wearing headphones.

Next comes the desk phones. There is no concept of going to a conference room to take meetings. People just switch on phones (speaker) on their desk for hours. So I get to hear the entire meeting's conversation (both sides) of which I am not a part of. If one person in the bay has a meeting then you can imagine the plight of the remaining 3 people! (disadvantage of not having personal cubicles). This is not it. Some people have their personal conversations on speaker phones!!!So I get to know who has a problem with his credit card bill, car servicing, water problems at home etc... ridiculous!!!! I just cant understand this.. why wud i want the whole world to know about my personal issues!!!!!!!

The story doesnt end here.. Even during meetings people dont put their phones on silent mode... irrespective of whether the manager, director or whosoever is present in the room. So every few mins u are bound to be distracted by different ringtones... and the worst part is that people dont cancel calls.. they pick it up and talk inside the meeting room.. without caring about stares that they get. Even the person running the meeting or giving the presentation answers a call.. so the rest of the people have to hold their train of thought till he finishes the conversation ...

I am sure we all see these problems everwhere..in movie theaters, plays, gatherings etc.. Even when specific instructions are given to "turn off the phone" people dont..I've really wondered Why?! for a long time and now I have just given up trying to find an answer to this.

I can go on and on about this. But the point is that no one can possibly do anything abt this when the company culture itself is the way it is. Someone like me who has been used to a different environmnet for 2-3 yrs may find it difficult and weird............ but I guess soon even I will get used to it!!!

What kind of intelligence do you have?

Came across this link somewhere ... It says my dominant intelligence is "Interpersonal".. Well, though a lot of what it says may not be true...it was fun to try this out :) Click on the link below to access the site...

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Does it make sense?!

I have been pondering over this for over a month now, since I joined this new organization. Like a lot of other organizations that I know of, even the company that I work for, restricts the use of internet at office. This means, we employees get to access only the "useful" websites such as google search, wikipedia and a few other news related sites. Even webmails like gmail, yahoo etc are restricted... need I say anything about orkut and instant messengers??!! Thats a definite NO NO! I cant even get to watch the stock market coz the site is blocked, theres no way I can do any tradings, I cant get to book movie tickets online, pay my bills or view a lot of photopages like flickr....and the list goes on. Downloads are restricted too... even attachments from emails are filtered to a great extent.......... If you need access to some websites for project reasons, you need PM's approval and you get access only for that duration of the project..... (???!!!!)

The first couple of days this really shocked me. I felt like I was pushed into a place where I lost contact with the world... I might be exaggerating here, but for a person like me, coming from Intel (where there was absolutely no restriction on surfing the net except for a few sites blocked due to security reasons and code of conduct), this was a big deal. When I enquired around, my colleagues said that surfing is restricted mainly to increase employee productivity.... coz this ensures that people dont spend most of their time chatting or surfing non-work-related-info!! .... Whaaaaat!!!!!!! that was my immediate reaction..... Does this mean people are not productive at Intel?!!

I wonder... Does this really work? Does it make ANY sense? I dont think so. I understand the blocking of sites which stream music, coz that can possibly eat on the bandwidth and reduce the speed.... but blocking every other site????? I dont get it! Anyways, rules are meant to be broken....I see every other person (including me) trying to figure out some proxy in order to get those websites working and login to gtalk/yahoo etc... and each time we figure out something, in a couple of weeks that will be blocked too.. so the search continues!! Well.... according to me, this is eating away more precious work-time of ours. If I had access to everything, I think I would have been more productive and not have wasted my time in all this nonsense!!!!!! People spend at least 8-10hrs a day at office and it's ridiculous to expect that everyone devotes all of this time only to work and nothing else... we need breaks.. we need some fun... some distractions... so that we can keep coming back to handle the stressful work! Most of us at office feel the same, but I just dont see a solution to it........ Why don't companies understand this... I really wonder.....

After a long break....

I am back to blogging after a long break! Off late lotsa people have asked me why I stopped blogging. Well... there has been no particular reason. My new job had kept me occupied enough in addition to a whole lot of other things happening in life.... and now I am back! :)

One thing I would definitely want to write about is my new 30gb video iPod ! When I was planning on buying this, lots of friends suggested that I go for other brands like Creative, which comes with the same set of features or more, for a lower price. I was almost convinced till someone said that iPod is one of its kind - you cant get the look and feel of it with anything else and now I am glad I bought it! Some of the good and bad things about it.. according to me..

Positives - It has an amazing sleek design (you'll feel great operating it!), good battery life, bright screen with great clarity, lots of accessories that can be bought , and overall truly value for money.

Negatives - No FM radio, recording, wireless, a different USB cable (cant use the generic cables used to connect other USB devices), very specific video formats (converting is a pain) and the screen, though clear, is too smalll to make movie viewing a good experience.

Chronic chaos..

I guess there can't be better words than this to describe the current bangalore traffic state! This is probably the first time that I have been driving down to work every single day and have been able to experience what bangalore traffic is - at the peak hour or otherwise!! Frustration, exhaustion, a lot of abusing, anger, ear deafening honking and raising adrenalin levels...one hell of an experience in the last 10 days! Not to forget the state of many roads, driving on which can most likely injure one or more of your body parts!

Whether we like it or not... the chaotic, disorganized traffic in this city has ruined most of our social lives. I leave home much earlier than required just to avoid the nuisance...and leave office much later- again to beat the peak hour traffic... with hardly any time left to do other things! People alter work hours to beat the crazy traffic...shift residence to shorten the commute time...go to a restaurant somewhere unplanned coz you may not find that parking space at your favorite joint...well I guess everything in this city is getting planned based on the traffic!

A new phase...

It's been a week for today since I joined work... a new phase that began with a lot of mixed feelings! I hated it the first few days (I love my new role though!). It sure is a drastic change from a product to a services company. Now I understand why people are usually apprehensive in taking this leap. Though I had read and discussed many times with friends as to how a company's culture can influence our work, I hadn't experienced it until last week when I joined this new organization. Gosh! I must say it does have a lot of impact... on employee morale :-) I'm not saying this one is bad but its different... VERY different and I guess my benchmark was of a high standard :-) I can for sure say now that Intel's culture is one among the best... especially with the kind of openness that it offeres between an employee and his/her manager and the flexibilty to achieve work life balance. Wish to go back there sometime again!!

Who's next?

As the tenure of the current president APJ Abdul Kalam comes to an end in July'07, the nation is now wondering who's going to be the next President.That's the hot news that I see floating around in all news pages these days. As a common man, there is no say whatsoever in the election of a president.Yet there are polls to see what people desire. Apart from the current VP Bhairon Singh Shekawat, some of the choices that are floating around are Narayan Murthy, Amartya Sen and Amitabh Bachchan... becoz people now want a non-politician to be the President!

Well..NRN could be a good choice but I wonder if moving him to Indian politics from being a successful entrepreneur, is the right thing to do?! He's the man who built the Infosys brand...zillion software professionals look up to him as an idol... he is a man of vision and mission.. a man of ethics. He has helped his organization to reach greater heights and the Indian economy in general. So won't his talents and enthusiasm to do such outstanding things be curbed by entering the indian politics... I feel he is good at doing what he's doing now.. and shud continue to do so... let the country benefit...

Abdul Kalam's tenure has been good... he is well qualified and has left a good mark.. why not re-elect him? But I guess that's not going to happen. Waiting to see if a non-political person will actually make it to the President's post!

More Koffee...

In continuation with my previous post on Koffee with Karan....

"My mother goes weak in her knees everytime she sees you on TV!", said Karan Johar as he welcomed the heartthrob Richard Gere on his show on Sunday. But I wonder why he was wearing a P I N K shirt and a white coat!!! Anyways... this was one of the rare episodes which was extremely good, like a couple of previous ones with Konkana Sen/Rahul Bose and Amitabh/Abishek Bachchan. It was a pleasure to watch Gere talk for an hour on the small screen. He spoke a lot about his inclination towards Buddhism, Tibet as a nation and about The Gere Foundation - fighting for a cause and how he continues loving to do what he does. For once, Karan asked the right questions and led a meaningful discussion! In the rapid fire round, Gere made sure he was politically correct with all his answers - I think he's already too much in news :-) He also said he wants to act in a bollywood movie - with song and dance sequences! Guess he doesnt know what he is getting into if he wants to do that ;-)

He blushed as he said these words... "I was making a movie recently and there was a little press conference so that everybody would know what we are doing … and there was this young reporter there … so she came up to me and said, Mr. Gere, “Three generations of women in my family love you…. my grandmother, my mother and me”, … and I started blushing.."

The Hungry Tide

A friend of mine had given this book to me, authored by Amitav Ghosh, about a year and a half back. Due to lack of time I was never able to read it and didn't carry it to ISB either. I just found it yesterday lying in my cupboard and started reading it in the morning and just couldn't keep it down till I finished reading it in the night... True to all its reviews, it's really fascinating!

I developed an interest in indian fiction after I read Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake" and "The Interpreter of Maladies". I had heard a lot of praises about Amitav Ghosh's writings from friends who've read his books... this was the first time I was reading his works.. and I am glad that I picked up this novel. It does take a lot of effort and talent to create that undying interest in a novel, for the readers and Amitav Ghosh is one such novelist. I have all praises for him!

The Hungry Tide - is a simple story told in a very vivid way. The author's attention to details, the style of description, the choice of words all created a moving picture in my mind. The story is set in the archipelago of islands near the bay of bengal, called the Sunderbans and the backdrop of the refugees from Bangladesh coming to India. The story revolves around the 3 main characters Kanai - a delhi businessman and a translator, Piyali - an American Indian in search of the rare river dolphins and Fokir - a local fisherman..... the story is all about their encounters in the tidal country. The characters portrayed are very intense and memorable and the emotions described are very subtle and touching. This ain't a thriller - there is no constant suspense or action but this does not slow the pace of the novel! However, towards the end of the book there is too much detail on the scientific research about the dolphins which could have been cut short.. but that doesn't pull the novel down in any way..

If you want to see the Sundarbans painted vividly in words and know a bit of history and myths about the refugee camps and the dolphin species amidst those intense emotions of love, hatred, trust, faith, pride, jealousy...... then this is the book to read!

Random thoughts....

It's so true that too much of anything is always too bad! It's been 5 and a half weeks of break now, after my graduation. The busy life at ISB had always kept me longing for a fully-relaxed-long-break... but now I feel I have had too much of it already!! I am waiting to get busy all over again.. I want to be loaded with work... I want some stress back in life... I want things to keep me on my toes always!! 12 more days to join work and I'm eagerly looking forward to starting a new phase! Grass is always greener on the other side... I am sure a few months down the line, I'll be the one to write here again that I need a break! :) My friends who are working, say that they envy my current state... but less they understand how tough it's for me to figure out how to spend my time every single day!

One thing that ISB has taught me in the last 1 year is that 24 hours in a day is a LOT!! If I look back at those days, I get amazed at the number of things I used to do in a single day.. and whole lot of stuff that I have done in that 1 year. I wish, one more year down the line, I can say the same thing!! I guess it's time to make a checklist......

My blog off late has been looking like a page of movie reviews. Well... that shouldn't be too surprising 'coz watching movies is what I've been doing mostly! I happen to watch this newly released movie yesterday - Life in a METRO. I was eagerly waiting to watch this 'coz there was Konkona Sen in it.. I was a little disappointed as it wasn't all that great or anything different. The theme was very similar to the movie "Crash"... 4 stories run in parallel, their lives interspersed and come together at one place at the end. The movie tried to show some unconventional relationships that can probably be seen these days... I guess the effort was to keep the story practical but it failed to create much impact at the end. However, the performances of Konkona Sen, Irfan khan and Kay kay menon have been awesome, as usual! The music is by a new band (i'm not aware of the name) which is pretty good but there are just too many songs included and it gets very streotyped towards the end...

On a break...

With one more month left, for me to join work again, my well-deserved-break still continues!! I sometimes really wonder why these companies recruit so many people when they don't bother whether we join them or not! The HR dept is usually the most criticized one, and I guess the one in my soon-to-be-joinining-organization is very shitty! Now am just waiting to see another email from them which will say- we are sorry to be pushing your joining date one more month ahead!

So... as I rack my brains really hard every day wondering how to spend the 24hrs, I got this idea of catching up on all the movies that I've never got a chance to watch. The last 4 days has been just movies... movies and more movies!! Here are a few that I saw.... some of them are really old and very famous... its sad that I had never watched them till now! Better late than never! :)

The Godfather - What can I even say about this movie?! Its just AWESOME! I wish I had watched it much earlier. It is probably one of the best movies about the underworld and don's. I can't even find one drawback in this movie. No wonder it's topped the charts at IMDB for so long! I had watched Sarkar, which is supposed to be inspired from Godfather, and I had imagined it's a total remake of the movie. But when I saw the english version, I was surprised... Sarkar had just bits n pieces of the theme... but still it's awesome in its own way! RGV has done a brilliant job with that movie... Both are a must watch!

Basic Instinct - Another brilliant thriller/mystery movie. Though it has a lot of graphic nudity and steamy stuff, the story, cinematography and performances of michael douglas and sharon stone do not let u take your eyes off the screen!!

Erin Brockovich - I saw this movie for the second time. Had seen it about 6 yrs back when it was released. I must say that this movie will be loved even by the people who hate Julia Roberts. I think its one of her best movies ever and no wonder she won the Oscar for it! Such a splendid performance with a nice story line. I loved it then, and even more when I saw it this second time. A defnitely must-watch!!!

Pretty Woman - This is a bollywood fluff type of story but still a nice to watch movie. It's a cinderalla kinda fantasy story, nothing so great but the Julia Roberts- Richard Gere pair makes it very lovable. Both of them were just so brilliant in this, along with the music which hold the movie strong through out!

My Best Friend's Wedding - Well, I had heard a lot about this movie but was totally disappointed. It was just okay. Left me wondering what exactly the director was trying to do with the movie - it wasnt even feel good romance or a humorous comedy. It was all mixed up and some characters were extremely stupid! The plot was not a savior either...

Runaway Bride - This was also a let down. A very predictable story, quite slow but since I love the julia-richard pair, I could still watch it. The climax was well shot and with the subtitles, the movie was bearable...

Guru - I've always loved all Mani Ratnam movies... I enjoyed this one too. But it's definitely not better than his Bombay or Kannathil Mutthamittal. The movie depicts the life of Dhirubhai Ambani but I feel it doesn't do complete justice to his life story. It's not impactful. About the star cast... Ash cannot act for gods sake!! I really wonder if she will ever learn to show emotions and stop being stiff. Vidya Balan's character was a total misfit... not at all required. Abishek has done a good job again... he was the only one who kept my attention thru out the movie. Even though the movie has been shot mostly in one location - Mumbai, the cinematography is so great, you really dont see the sterotype in the settings. A. R. Rahman rocks as usual with his music! Overall, a good movie, but could have been much better...

Krish - dont even bother to watch!!!!

I have lots more lined up for the week... !

Reflection

There's this famous Assyrian adage - "Tell me your friends and I'll tell you who you are", which am sure all of us would have heard. I never really paid so much attention to this. Ever wondered how true these words could be! So, why am I talking about this now? I was just reading through some articles on the Dvaitha and Advaitha philosophies and about 'Conscious Relationships' in one of TOI's Sunday edition of April. (unfortunately I've lost the link to the article) .This was kind of talking about the quote that I mentioned above. It really got me thinking deep and suddenly made a lot of sense to me...

According to Advaita philosophy, the inner and outer worlds are the same 'coz the latter is the reflection of the former. So, whatever we see outside, is really a perception of ourselves, what we are inside. The article put this in an even more meaningful way, by relating it to the different kinds of relationships that we form during our lifetime. Consciously or unconsciously, its so true that we always end up making friends with people who kind of reflect our own personality (what you might call as like-mindedness). We are just trying to see another part of ourselves through our friends. That's why probably we can't "click" with everyone around. This holds true not only for friendships but also relationships. So, if you have an inferiority complex, a lack of love for your own self, then you will probably end up attracting similar kind of partners, where you will end up feeling 'not loved'. You might be just settling for someone who is not empathetic towards your feelings or needs. Most of the times this happens unconsciously, which is reflected back to us by the outer world. Try digging into your past, analyzing why your previous relationships have failed and you will start finding a pattern.... It's a kind of introspection, where you get to understand your inner self..

Here are a few excerpts from that article, that I had saved while I was reading it...

"To continually subject yourself to neglect, abuse, apathy or conflict is not being loving to yourself. If you are not loving to yourself, how can you expect anyone else to be? "

"They are reflected back because "like attracts like" and this is the nature of energy. Until you become aware of what is happening, you will keep repeating the cycle. The outer world is not really outer, it is a projection of what is within you. The inner and the outer are one. Therefore, when you continually draw to yourself a certain type of relationship, when you notice a pattern in your life's behaviour and when you repeatedly find yourself dealing with the same issues, you will know that the "trouble" lies within you...and not with the other person"

"To be aware that the person you see in front of you is actually a part of yourself, and to treat them accordingly, means to have the courage to be honest with yourself. It means you can no longer act from defensiveness. It means you can no longer try and control others........"

Hmmm... really intriguing part. Especially the first 2 lines... so true! Unless we really start loving ourselves, how can we expect to be surrounded by people who can love us?? It's as simple as it can get! One of the reasons for a lot of failed relationships I guess! So according to this, is it really possible to have a 'conscious relationship'? I mean, getting aware of our own self so that we attract similar kind of people. Is it really possible to break our patterns and change our inborn character...I wonder! Am sure it's possible.. .but how easy would it be is the question.

Coming back to the adage, looks like it really makes sense.. It's quite possible to look at the kind of people one is surrounded with or the kind of relationships a person is into... to get a picture of one's self!

Air Deccan woes - a low cost model?!!

I was travelling from B'lore to Chennai yesterday after a really long time (15 yrs!) to attend a couple of weddings. I was very eager to see the new look of the city and it was time to testify all that I had heard about it. Becoz of the low ticket prices, we booked air deccan and still thought we could make it to the reception that evening, coz the flight was in the noon. Well, I guess it was a lot to expect from this supposed-to-be-low-cost airline in India. To our horror, we see that the 14.25hrs flight was delayed and now supposed to leave at 17.40hrs. After cursing and swearing to our heart's content, which didnt make any difference to the deccan staff there, we decide to hang-out nearby and get back to the airport at 16.15hrs. We are told that the flight is "on time", so we check-in and wait to board. The time is 17.20hrs. The waiting saga continues....

Each one of us taking turns to make trips to the information counter, we were told that the boarding would start in 5 mins, each time!! @17.55hrs.. I go and start yelling my guts out and I get this as a reply - "Mam, we are still waiting for the plane to arrive, we will take off as soon as it comes" (!!!!) So what the @%&^# were they saying all this while?! Anyways, I guess by then even they were tired of answering to passengers, so they let us go to board the bus. It was 18.15hrs and there was no sign of any bus there. By now we had just given up on being able to show up at the reception. Frustrated passengers hound the ground staff and start abusing them. Some were even ready to take off their slippers to hit them!! We three, as observers noticed that not even a single abuse made "any difference" to these guys. I think rather than these guys being trained for CRM (Customer Relationship Mgmt), they are trained to be thick-skinned so that they can take abuses of any degree!! It was even more irritating to see them stand like statues when they were being questioned. Anyways, the bus leaves at 18.20hrs and after taking us all around the airport, we see 3 deccan flights parked wing-to-wing in some crappy-inaccessible-corner that I had never seen before! We board the flight at 18.35hrs with a relief that it wasnt cancelled at least (those tickets are f***** non-refundable). The waiting still continues in the flight.. and it FINALLY takes off at 19.00hrs!!!!

When we used to talk about the low-cost airline models in our MBA classes and any of us would say that their cheap marketing campaigns are one of the favorable factors, the Prof would say, use "less expensive" or "low cost" instead of cheap... its not the right word. But I guess "cheap" is the most suitable word for Air Deccan... its true in every sense of it! It is supposed to be the Southwest airline model for India... but does low-cost mean no-hospitality, no-manners and service levels on the negative scale?? How can being low-cost translate to compromise on the service levels? Are they going to pay less to their staff 'coz they need not be courteous to the passengers anymore?! I don't understand how this fits in the model in anyway! Having no-frills with no free food, water and other stuff to cut costs definitely makes sense... but horrible-service makes zero sense to me! If they are trying to imitate the Southwest model, why not adopt the entire model completely, rather than taking some aspects of it and screw up the most important parts... like service quality (obviously we are not expecting something like Kingfisher or Jet airways... but the basic courtesy is all that is wanted). There is absolutely no value for our precious TIME. Even though you end up saving significantly on the ticket price, we realized that the opportunity cost of flying with them is more!

The worst part is... every other person who experiences this, talks about it but nothing can be done to change this....... coz people crib and still continue to fly air deccan, becoz of low cost. Anyways, we could finally make it for the dinner at the reception... straight from the airport.....Phew! I wish I can sue them and get refund of my tickets! Hmmmm....... High hopes!

Koffee or Karan?

I am not a big fan of either... so I'm really not gaga, unlike a few others, about this bollywood-chat-show that comes on star world every week. I've watched a few episodes of it during the first season and everytime I've conveniently switched channels after a while. Till now I've seen just 1 good episode of it, the one with Amitabh and Abishek, with a decent and a good conversation which was worth watching.

Yesterday I just sat down to watch another episode of this, with the 2 mother-daughter pairs , Jaya bachchan and shwetha with hema malini and Esha. I had to really try hard to hold myself from picking that remote and changing the channel, coz I wanted to see how stupid this show can actually get! This is just 1 episode.. most of them are on the same lines. I wonder how people find this entertaining. All he tries to do is to pick his favorite stars, demean the others, ask the guests about who they like/dislike, what they have for breakfast, which other stars they find sexy and more nonsense.. And not to forget, trying hard to get that gossip of their personal lives, which am sure none of them would ever reveal infront of a camera (puhleez!).. Everything there is sugar coated and cliched. And.... then comes the "prestigious coffee hamper" as he calls it to be. If one of them is his favorite, that person gets the hamper.. .if both are his favorites and he is really in good terms with them, they get to share the hamper, irrespective of how the celebrities have answered the supposedly-rapid-fire questions. To say the least, his effeminate ways are also quite annoying!

Anyways, I really wonder what he is trying to do with this show. Obviously I'm not comparing it with other talk shows like the ones with Vir Sanghvi or Karan Thappar etc. They are different! I feel, if you really want to watch this show, you need to keep your brains aside and stop analyzing it, else you might end up pulling your hair, just like I did! :-)

Pursuit of Happ(y)ness...

This is the 4th movie I watched during the week.. after Namesake, Pulp Fiction, As good as it gets. Another brilliant movie, which is worth a watch! One of the most powerful dialogues in this movie, which Will Smith (Chris Gardner) says to his son...

"You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period. Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me."

A very simple movie, made without any heavy starcast and is based on a true story of Chris Gardner (who started the Gardner Rich firm). I just couldnt take my eyes off the screen for even a second, thats the kind of impact the movie had. There are so many realities that are depicted in the movie, that you start wondering how would it be to really go through those tough situations that Chris is shown to be in. There is a scene in the movie where Chris (Will smith) loses his home and all his money in the bank a/c coz he hadn't payed his taxes for a long time and he is driven to the road, without a shelter and a 5 year old kid. He sleeps with his son in a restroom in the metro station. It was so tough for me to even imagine how it is to actually be in that situation!! Will Smith, no doubt, has delivered a splendid performance and I would rate the movie with 5 stars! If you haven't watched this movie... then you are really missing out something good...

Retaining talent and corporate culture...

Attrition, today, is definitely one of the main concerns for a lot of companies. Though getting good talent in the current era is not so tough anymore coz of the better quality education that is available, retaining that talent is the biggest challenge. We may all agree, that corporate culture does play an important role in achieving this objective. Considering in an IT company, on an average each one of us spend about 8-10 hrs a day, the kind of set up that we work in and the kind of people we are surrounded with, does matter a lot, to keep that spirits high!

Well.. what triggered these thoughts in my head? I was just reading the "Great Places To Work Survey and Rankings" for the year 2006, in the current issue of Business World. This article describes in detail about the study conducted, the insights and the implications. A nice to read. What was striking was, one of these quotes that I came across while reading this cover story that says........"If you can't get wait to get to office, then you are in a a great place to work for sure"...

What it's referring to is "that monday feeling" that most of us go through, when we gotto get to office on that monday morning after a nice weekend's break. So if your office can really instill that feeling in you that you are eagerly waiting for the monday morning and cant wait to get to work, then whoa! you are definitely at one of the "best places to work" :) I really wonder if I would ever feel like this. At least I haven't come across anyone so far, irrespective of how good the company he/she works for, actually feeling so. Am sure, it's every organization's objective to get here, to help retain their best people!

Times have changed. There are plenty of lucrative opportunities everywhere and the current generation is definitely more ambitious and career oriented. I remember my mom, dad, uncle, aunt etc. who work(ed) in any government services, when asked how long do you plan to stay here, would say .. "till I retire". At that time it was usually one job, whatever it paid, job security mattered. But now, ask the same question to any professional and he/she would probably say... "I would stay here for a long time" or "till this job favors my career growth or keeps my interest"...

Well, am not trying to give any conclusions here but just putting across the idea that corporate culture plays a very important role in retaining the employees, coz I have seen among my friends, who have switched good jobs, coz they just hate the whole environment, the people around and mostly coz its boring to work there!

The Namesake

So this time it was the movie that I watched yesterday. Had read this book, The Namesake, about 2 years back but the picture that it painted in my mind is still so vivid and fresh! Thats Jhumpa Lahiri's art of writing for you ! Here is the review of the book that I had posted last year.

The movie is very well made, according to me, though not as good as the book. Obviously, they are 2 different things... one cant show the entire book in a 2 hour movie! But still, Mira Nair has done an excellent job in portraying the emotions and the characters very well. Tabu has really done justice to her character, maybe someone else could have fitted in there better, but anyways, she has delivered a brilliant performance. The climax in the book and the movie are a bit different, coz the book leaves it a little open ended, for the reader to think it over... maybe keeping it the same in the movie wouldnt have been a good idea so there was a proper climax that was given... but I still feel leaving it as it was in the book wud have created more impact, coz thats what stays in your mind for a long time! (similar to the climax of Nishabd... which was different)

None of my friends who came with me liked this movie. They felt it was very ordinary, cliched and in the league. But I disagree... maybe I liked it coz I had read the book and already had some expecations set and had developed a kind of liking towards it... whatever... its definitely worth a watch!

Nostalgic....

So.. ITS ALL OVER! I finally got back to bangalore today for good, with an MBA! A reason to smile, coz its another dream fulfilled! The graduation ceremony yesterday was a great experience, a day that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Last night was tough.. its so true that how much ever you are prepared to handle things, it doesnt help. It really hit me hard yesterday that it was the last night I would be spending at the campus, in my room, with my friends, at the pool, in the garden.......... and lots more. A few of us got together for one last time, remembered those great times that we shared over the 1 year.... we still felt like we were just there for the orientation week trying to settle down, so fresh in the memory, but here we were raising a toast for all the great times that we had and for our future ahead!

3.00 in the morning, when I stepped out, the campus was full of people, everyone trying to make the most out of each minute there... I took that one last walk , which I enjoyed doing almost every day.... sat by the pool, staring at the stars into infinity, recalling those wonderful moments which have made this the best year of my life, and reminiscing them will always bring a smile on my face :) Am happy that ISB happened in my life.... glad that I stuck to my decision of going there..

I never thought I wud say this.....I loved that place, every bit of it and the people around! In the last couple of months, ISB had become close to home for me, I associated myself with everything around there. Felt so alienated when I reached b'lore today. I have forgotten that I had a life out here before. I feel so different sitting in my own room here... doesnt feel like mine, anymore. Am dazed and feel like this is all a dream still... feels like I am here again for a term break and that I wud go back after 3-4 days. The reality is yet to sink in...............................

Time to bid adieus.....

Disorientation week - Thats the official term used for this last week here @ ISB, where we finish all our exit formalities and party hard before we leave ISB forever! There's really been an overdose of parties during the last 2 weeks! I'll be getting my IT clearance done by tomorrow, which means I will lose my network access. So this will probably be my last post from ISB (unless I get really bored and sit in the LRC lab and decide to blog!) This reminds me of those first couple of days during orientation week, when my laptop was being configured and neither did I have access to internet nor a cell phone connection. Feels like I was totally disconnected from the world and i'll be feeling the same again quite soon! :( I've realized that Cellphone and Internet are two things without which I can hardly live :) So much dependence on technology..... sigh!!

April 7th, just 3 days from today - the Dday when I'll be officially an MBA. I am excited about the fact that I've fulfilled one more dream of mine and depressed at the same time 'coz very soon the "best year of my life" is going to end. For the first time in this 1 year I am not exicted about going to b'lore! It's definitely going to be a fight to get back there and get adjusted to a different lifestyle all over again. I wish I could remain a student all my life! :-)

This one year has taught me a lot of things in life and the first time experience of living all by myself, away from home, has been really amazing! Life has changed a lot over this span of a year. I still remember my dilemma with quitting Intel and joining ISB.... Now when I look back, I feel this is the best decision that I have taken so far. I cant believe I'm the same person who was waiting to get out of this place asap but times do change...Now I am glad that I came here... As Steve Jobs rightly says (and I keep reminding this to myself very often) ".....you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever".. So true!!!!

Time flies! This one year has truly been a roller coaster ride.... Sigh! I'm gonna really miss this place like crazy!

Phew!

Done with the last exam of my MBA !! (hopefully not my student life yet!) It does feel great and am extremely relieved... feels like a heavy load is lifted off my head suddenly and I have no idea how to spend all my time now! Its definitely parties... .parties and more partiesOne more week left at ISB... with our graduation day planned for the next saturday and I will be out of campus on april 8th :-( I still feel like I just came here a few days back and its already time to leave..... I wish to come back here for the orientation week for the new batch... but again, not all wishes come true...

Being twenty something...

I happen to read this brilliant piece on Quarter life crisis, every year, whenever I turn a year older and it somehow seems to make a lot of sense to me each time I read it! I had posted this last year too and lot of you guys had left comments saying you could associate a lot with it... in case you have missed out reading this, then it is really worth a read!!

"Being twenty something..."

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis."
It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that
there are manythings about yourself that you didn't know and may not like.
You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two,
but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends
that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you
have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you
would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find
yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have
certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your
list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and
then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life.

You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy
and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that
the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do
but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such
damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent
enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but
love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because
you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to lookcheap. Getting wasted andacting like an idiot starts to look pathetic.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with
your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision.

You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for
yourself... and while winning the race would be
great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it.
We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can
to figure this whole thing out.

Memorable moments....

This has been one of the most memorable birthdays I've had and will definitely remain as few of those best moments at ISB. Over the last couple of years it used to be just another day but sharing the occassion with a few friends who matter does make a difference! Having had so much fun over the last 2 days and with exactly 2 weeks left for me to leave this place forever, I'm just drowned in mixed feelings....

Happy b'day!

.... to my dear blog!

It's been a year for today (21st march) since I started blogging and I am glad it has come a long way and survived 1 whole year :) .... I've enjoyed every bit of writing here and I hope this continues for a long time from now! I've got to know so many people through this blog, and its almost become like my identity... many times when I meet someone new and introduce myself, I hear - "Oh you are Pratima! I know you thru' ur blog!" :-)

Cheers!!

Bored to death...

I'm currently sitting in one of the "IT related" classes... with a torturous case discussion. I haven't read the case, I have barely slept last night and to top it all I am dying of hunger!! Never been so bored in my life ever I guess. Term 8 couldnt have gotten worse than this :( Tried to use technology to the maximum to help me survive through this misery... pinged almost everyone on my list on gtalk, connected with "long lost" friends on orkut... exchanged scraps with few other people who were sharing the "state of boredom" with me! And now as a last resort I resort to blogging!! As I look around the class now.. I wish I had a camera here to capture the scene... all eyes hooked to the laptop, with zero interest in doing CP, and the group on stage trying to do the case facilitation are silently praying for the 40 mins slot to pass away asap :) Well... I guess its but natural that all classes seem to be boring in Term 8 and being asked to submit assignments appears to be like a crime punishable by law :)

Cheers!!

21 days exactly from today... I would have an MBA feather on my cap :) Can't believe that the ISB life will all be over soon! All of us are already feeling so nostalgic about things here and me and my dear quaddies have been clicking pics like crazy! Finally .. almost at the end of the year I get to post this snap here on my blog - These 2 gals, my "quad mates" who have made my stay here at ISB a real fun, coz of which I dont feel like leaving this place!! We've had some of the best times together in the last 5 months and this post is dedicated to them! :)


A self snap taken as we set out to explore the ISB campus :)

"Stay hungry; Stay foolish"

This was the line with which Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and Pixar Animation, ended his speech for the students of Stanford, during their graduation. I had read this speech in 2005 but had never really heard it. Saw the video in today's LLWL class and it seemed as interesting and inspirational as it did, when I had read it the first time.
Here's the video (buffer it before viewing)If u havent heard or read it before then u are really missing something!!!






The 3 key things to note from this speech which I will remember always!

• "...you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever"
• "You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
• "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary"

Stay hungry... stay foolish!!

CnH - 2

My cousin "Su" saw my previous post of CnH and mailed me this strip... one more REALLY AWESOME piece by calvin :) ... couldnt stop myself from putting it up here!!

Click on the pic to read it clearly

CnH

Damn cute!! ROTF everytime i read it :) Calvin's expression in the end is priceless!

Click on the picture to read it clearly

Apocalypto... awesome!

Well... after 1 week of hard core partying followed by 1 week of Flu.... I am again heading back to normal!! I think it was nature's way of telling me that I badly needed some rest and I was forced to take a lot of it over the last few days :)

So...tonight was again a movie time. The same gang of 6-7 people got the projector and watched this AWESOME movie - APOCALYPTO by Mel Gibson. Lot of people may not really like this movie and its not been rated extremely well either, but all of us just loved it! This is a mythic action adventure movie which is set in the backdrop of Mayan civilization, the language in the entire movie is also Mayan - so you need to concentrate on those sub-titles!! An extremely G H O R Y movie, never watched something like this before, and I almost felt like throwing up in the middle of the movie, coz I ensured that i didnt close my eyes anytime!! Initial part of the movie is very slow and you keep wondering why the hell are you watching it (poor "C" got cursed a few times for having recommended this movie :) But if you can force yourself to sit thru the first 45 mins or so... trust me its gonna be worth a watch!!! It could be made less violent by not showing such scenes which are really not meant for weak-hearted people like me!! The movie doesnt require it but still... Mel Gibson chose to go his way! Whatever it is... i still got up that courage in me to start watching such movies... and at the end of it - really enjoyed!!

P.S: Just a suggestion - dont watch this movie alone!

A screenshot from the movie...



People are still continuing to watch another movie - Blood Diamond now (Its 4.30AM) but I guess I better get some sleep if i want to get fit again soon!

Odyssey....

.... is a very famous Greek Novel written by "Homer" of The Illiad fame and am sure all of us would have heard of this at some point or the other in life. I got to read an abridged version of this novel few days back... as part of the course work of "Leadership Lessons through world literature" - a course that i have opted for in this term. I am glad that I chose this course coz Prof. Rajeshwar Upadhyay is just AWESOME!!!!!!!!! The amount of knowledge that he has and the kind of parallels that he draws while talking about each of these literary works, is way beyond commendation! Through this course we get to read some of the great works written in ancient times and draw some leadership lessons through the characters involved. Some of the books included are Ramayana, Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, Abhijnana Shakuntalam, Don Quixote, Julius Ceaser, Zarathustra.. et al. I am glad that at least now I am getting to read some ancient mythology :)

The recent reads were Odyssey and a play called Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Odyssey has a modern flair to it and a complex but interesting plot structure. Oedipus Rex is a story entirely about fate. In this play, according to fate Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus gets to know about this and tries his best to not let this happen.....without realizing that every action of his is getting him entagled in the meshes of fate! Very well written...

Read Odyssey here

Read Oedipus Rex here

Holi @ ISB

After a really really long time I celebrated holi again today! The last I played was sometime in school... and never really got a chance after that. There was a nice party organized at ISB... with all the essentials - colors, bhang, vodka, beer, food et al.. Holi on a campus is really different I must say!! It started around 10AM and I guess it went on till about 4PM or so. I was a bit late in going there coz a bunch of us slept at around 6AM watching a Kannada horror movie last nite :-) The mirror pool was already full of color water and people were beyond recognition, covered in all kinds of colors. Before I could realize I was in the pool and drenched in colors :) It was a really colorful sight and a happy mood out there. Being a South Indian, I never knew holi could be so much fun!! Am really going to miss this occassion next year!!

Few pics taken by people... (I didnt take my camera out there thankfully! )

Happy Holi!!

Nishabd

My Rating for this: ***1/2 out of 5

Watched this movie called 'Nishabd', which was released just today, but we still managed to get tickets for the evening show. I had no clue what this movie was all about but had seen the posters of it here and there thru which I had figured that it was quite a bold subject to be made as a movie - very unconventional. It's about a 60 year old man (Amitabh Bachchan) who falls in love with a 18 year old girl, who is his daughter's friend (Jiya Khan), who comes to stay with them on a short vacation. Amitabh's acting is commendable as usual - HE IS JUST SUPERB!!. He has carried out this role in an awesome way and I dont think anyone else would be able to do justice to this strong character that well! Jiya as a newcomer has done a decent job but not a noteworthy performance. I think the emphasis has been more towards her beauty than her acting and it seemed very artificial to me, most of the time. The whole movie rests on Amitabh's shoulders. Without him it wud have been just another box office flop!

The movie has a strong story line and a bold concept but I felt that it still needed some more effort to build the intensity of the relationship between amitabh's character and Jiya so that the climax seemed more powerful. The ending is not very clear and i guess the director wanted it to be so in order to leave it to the discretion of the audience. It does leave you with a lot of emotions with high intensity and you can give way to your imaginations and criticisms of what has happened in the story and what might probably happen from then on, the rights and wrongs, etc. Just as the title suggests, the movie did leave me "spellbound" at the end, not coz it was great but well... i am still trying to figure out the reasons! I didnt feel it was something outstanding - definitely not to RGV's standards but it sure does have an awesome cinematography - the tea estate locations are just breathtaking, not to forget the background music of course - hats off to the music directors!!

After the movie, we went to this place called 'Chutneys' for dinner. I had heard a lot about this place since I came to Hyd but never had a chance to go there. I just LOVED the food there, may be coz I was missing the south indian food too much but still... I felt it was too good and all of us hogged like there is no tomorrow! Waiting to explore the city more.....

HP mania

What happens when there are 4 people planning to watch a movie and 3 of them are crazy Harry Potter fans? Yeah, u guessed it right! The 4th person (me) has no choice but to watch the movie with them! Last night 4 of us planned a long movie marathon, since there are no classes today. So after a lot of debate the whole day, I convinced people to start with 'Sarkar'. I personally feel this is a really well made movie, with outstanding performances (obviously keeping aside the Godfather comparison). Since the crowd was not in a mood for serious kinda movies, half way thru the movie, the obvious choice was Harry Potter! I have never ever touched this book in my life and have zero knowledge about the whole plot.... but..... that doesnt stop anything... At 12 in the midnight, I was explained the entire background and story, right from scratch (dont miss the enthusiasm part here :) ) and we screened back to back of HP - Socerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. 12.00 to 6AM!!! Thanks to SM for having given me a scene by scene explanation that i could follow the story really well! I must agree that it was fun... though am still not a big fan of it... but i would definitely love to watch the rest of the movies in this series soon!

The final term begins today and life seems a LOT different at ISB now. Being employed again is definitely a great relief!! Generally the mood on campus is relaxed and most of the people who would just walk by u as if you are invisible, are now ready to start a conversation anywhere u come across on the way! So that shows people have all the time in the world now :) Especially I feel like suddenly a heavy load is lifted from my head and I have no clue what to do for 20 hrs in a day!! My sleep cycle is also screwed up over the last couple of months and I have become nocturnal... so the only good time pass for me as of now is to watch movies and more movies! Times do change... with just 5 weeks more to graduate, now I really feel that the time is too short to enjoy life at ISB... I'm gonna miss it!! (never thought I wud say this!)

Phewww!!!! :)

This post needs no explanation... if u have been tracking my blog off late, it speaks for itself :) :)

Near the finish line..

With the ISPM exam getting over today, term 7 comes to an end, with just one class left for tomorrow. So that leaves just one more term to finish my MBA! This was pretty fast I must say! I still feel like I came back from blore after new year's celebrations and already the term is over with 10 more days remaining for the D-Day! This has been one of the most hectic terms so far, where I have seen all 24hrs of the day (being awake i mean :)) , most of the days! With all this stress, life's pretty fun too... doing mock interviews, trying to stress the interviewee at 12 in the night and getting some sadistic pleasure :) It's fun to be on the other side of the table... hope I get to be there soon!!