The Day After!

Its some time past lunch on a Saturday afternoon and I am keying these lines on an office machine. Hang on-things can become worse. Out of the two life-support systems in my office, one is away and the other refuses to give me my much required dose of caffeine. I just finished a badly cooked meal that promised to be a Chinese delight but ended up being a cross between a badly cooked pulao and a hurriedly conjured up curry. Wait wait I haven’t finished. I forgot to mention the big one-our team is out of the Cricket World Cup… thanks to some fine display of their true worth.

I thought I would be sad but the truth is I am not… a little hurt or cheated may be… but nothing more than that. Perhaps I have changed... perhaps my priorities have… perhaps my happiness lies elsewhere. I could see that change in me well below our fate in the Cup of Woes was sealed.

I surprised myself yesterday when I happily traded Tendulkar’s batting (ok he didn’t last too long) for an evening of star gazing (the real ones and not the ones that seem to excel in those atrocious 30 sec commercials) and a conversation of beautiful words and beautiful moments that were sadly moments only.

Is this the real me or do I need to wake up? I really don’t know but I guess it doesn’t matter. I guess these lines sum it up for me…..

“As I grow to understand life less and less,
I learn to love it more and more.”

Being at the right place at the right time!

As a kid, i was taught to do all the right things in life with the promise that all that i wanted would follow eventually- a result of my hard work. While i retain most of what was preached to me, of-late i have started thinking whether happiness, success and all that one really runs after in our existence on this planet is really the outcome of our actions. Lately i feel that much of our life is driven by our circumstances. Two people could start at the same point in their life and yet end up in very different stations in life. To many what i am saying may sound like ramblings of a pessismistic soul, the truth is that one must understand that there is only as much that one can do while a large majority of our life is being chosen for us by forces, factors and reasons completely unknown to us.

If i had one wish that could ever be fulfilled, It would be "Being at the right place at the right time".

However as i know, some wishes never come true.......

Truth is stranger than Fiction

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I went only because I had time and nothing to do. I had had my fair share of mall-hopping, movies and coffee joints and was generally looking at this as a newest source of entertainment.

A bit of persuasion from my parents and an unusually restless me found myself meandering through the ever-maddening traffic of Pune , climbing the never-ending stairs of a run-down building to reach “The Gateway to my future”. Sounds confusing? Then read on.

Your future is written centuries before you were born and can be decoded by studying your thumb impression. This is what he had to say. The couple of hours of waiting to hear what my future would hold for me were spent in a small room largely unfurnished bar the presence of a TV that blared images of a hapless Australian Cricket team being pummeled by the Kiwis. The difference was almost surreal, the disconnect between the two worlds too difficult to grasp.

Cut to the next scene…. My turns come finally. I see myself in an 8x8 room with the exponent of this art. After explaining me the basis of his theory, he moved on to tell me my future. He asked me a set of questions; some related some not to finally come to the leaf which would have my future written on it. Before that he summed up my personal information for me
Name……
Father’s Name…..
Mother Name….
Age…
Date of Birth…..
Educational Qualifications (along with the specializations)
My job details
And a whole host of other details that my face, attire or demeanor couldn’t possibly betray.

After this he proceeded to lay out my future in front of eyes…. some events seemed probable some not.

I returned home later with a mixed bag of emotions. Partly relieved with the assurance that life has good things in store (or atleast that was promised to me), partly disgusted for having ventured into something like this. But the overwhelming emotion that I carried for the remainder of the day (actually I still carry some of it as I write this) was one of utter helplessness and being slighted by some unknown force that had already planned out my life for me.

Room Mates!

From Left to Right:

Me, Ashwin and Haymes.

The best room-mates and friends one could ask for!

Thank you for putting up with all of my nonsense!

Good Bye Delhi!

I have made a few futile efforts in the past couple of days to pen down my thoughts but somehow my thoughts didn’t translate into words. I almost felt like giving up the idea of writing at all when suddenly I felt the urge to write again. I was talking to a friend of mine and we were discussing a whole host of things under the sky (a beautiful night sky… I think that did some of the trick as well) and then she said something about missing her family and in general missing the things the way they were. I think it was the way that she put it which made me remember a part of my life that I was so wanting to put behind me… for ever.

I was born and brought up in Delhi and somehow loved the idea of flaunting my roots… I loved getting in verbal bouts with my friends from other parts of the country defending Delhi as if it were my personal fiefdom.

If I were a writer I would spend hours describing the roads of Delhi, the beautiful trees that seem to lord over those magnificent bungalows built much before the existence of any one I know was even contemplated, those beautiful winter mornings and that amazingly pleasant sunshine which touches you lightly after a tremendous struggle with the misty fog, the joy of finding the most interesting piece of history in the most unexpected of places.

Then one day, we decided to move out of Delhi forever. I never knew leaving places could be so tough. A part of me was cut away!

But Delhi will remain with me in my memories- those wonderful and carefree years at DPS, that first lie that I told, that first time when I had the guts to speak the truth, that first fight with Rahul at the bus-stop, that first innocent peck on the cheek, that first not so innocent grope in the back seat of a car, those wonderful drives with friends on roads that always led to happiness, the joy of bumping into someone really important at IIC, the momos and fruit beer at Delhi Haat, the corner sweet shop that made the most perfect jalebi, those walks to PVR everyday and so much more

Good Bye Delhi… until we meet again!

The Phoenix

I have always been fascinated by the Phoenix.

phoe·nix also phe·nix (fē'nĭks) n.
Mythology. A bird in Egyptian mythology that lived in the desert for 500 years and then consumed itself by fire, later to rise renewed from its ashes.
A person or thing of unsurpassed excellence or beauty; a paragon

Of all the heroic tales that I have heard or read, the ones in which the protagonist has come up against all odds and proven his mettle under the most trying of conditions have fascinated me the most. I have often wondered whether such tales are limited to mythology or the imagination of those who love to weave beautiful tales out of nowhere.

The Phoenix rose again yesterday…this time from a cricket field. Hitherto trapped under the ashes of bad form, injuries, self-doubt and an accusing public and media, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar rose like a modern day Phoenix silencing his critics and reassuring his doting fans that he is ready to lead India’s charge in the coming World Cup. The same people who were baying for his blood are now hailing him as India’s only hope in the World Cup. His 41st ODI century and perhaps his most important, has once again placed him in the pantheon of the cricketing greats. The innings showed some glimpsed of the old Tendulkar but more importantly it threw some light on the way we can expect Sachin to play in the future. The innings also demonstrated one of my favorite concepts in marketing-“Repositioning”

Sachin then: Open the innings, go for your shots, bat as many as overs as you can and lay the foundation for a good total.
Sachin now: Come in the middle overs (around 20th), stabilize the innings in case of early hiccups or build on the start given by openers, accelerate towards the end for a good total.

What’s so great in this one would say? Sachin opening or playing in the middle overs? How difficult could that be?
Answer: Very difficult… and that’s why the task was given to the little genius himself. He has taken up the task with all that he has to offer Indian Cricket and yesterday’s innings shows that what he can offer is more than the opposition can handle.


The GOD is here… Long live the GOD.

Confessions of a confused mind...

Arranged Marriage

I am 27 years now… have a great job... not a worry in the world and so people think the natural thing for me to do is to get married. No one asked me for my opinion….. I guess it’s a foregone conclusion. You brush your teeth when you wake up in the morning… in much the same way you get married when the “time” is right. But unfortunately you don’t really have the right to decide when the time is right for you.

“One does need to crib really”-I found myself speaking to my inner soul. At least give it a shot… things can’t be so bad. Being a deadly combo of an electrical engineer with MBA marketing, I set out to analyze the situation at hand.

First Things first…

The Product: that’s me of course in case you didn’t figure it out by now. It’s a bit sad to call oneself a product but then I don’t want to argue with the laws of marketing that have been drilled into my head. I must of course define this product. This is the most important stage in the entire marketing exercise. A bad product has no takers… luckily I am not one. But I also haven’t figured out myself as yet… so let’s skip this step for now.

Now comes the best part- The STP of marketing… for the uninitiated that’s Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning. Now the details of each of these:

Segmenting: This in layman’s language simply means who will want this product. In my case… the question changes to who would like to marry me… I really don’t know the answer to this one… coz I haven’t been married before J… so let’s give this step a miss also.
Targeting: Simply put it means who do I approach… girls of course-and single and unattached ones I guess. Nope I don’t have anything more to say-move on to step 3.
Positioning: My Marketing professor beautifully broke this concept into 4 very simple questions that any idiot would understand and thankfully I was one of them. They go something like this:
Who Am I?
For Whom Am I?
Why am I required?
How Am I better than other?

This step is closely related to defining the product itself... Something that I haven’t done till now… so I skip this step also.


So we have come to the end…. I have enlisted all of the questions and none of the answers. So please wait for all those of you who want to… I have a lot of questions whose answers I still haven’t found.

This Morning!

My senses noticed the pleasant change immediately. As I woke up this morning, I realized that winter was well on its way out and spring was knocking on the door like a long-lost relative anxious to meet his near and dear ones. I am usually not a morning person and it’s not before I have had umpteen cups of coffee that I can hold a sensible conversation with anyone. But today it was different… I was awake and happy…. I got ready listening to “The Eagles” and couldn’t agree more as the song tequila sunrise popped up on my I-pod.

My good cheer kept up with me all the way through the bus-ride to office as I found myself smiling at absolute strangers. The funny part… most of them smiled back with equal enthusiasm. “This is definitely infectious”-I though to myself. Then it was all lost-in almost no time. I entered my cubicle and realized that life would be the same-spring, summer or rain would have no effect on my life here.

It seemed that my good cheer had gone through its complete life-cycle except that it had peaked too fast and abandoned me even faster. Depressed I sat at my chair. Then suddenly I got a call from a dear friend. And then another one asked me if I wanted to have some coffee.

Like I said before….I am not a morning person but coffee and an unexpected call from some one I wanted to talk to usually make my day.

Big Boss

It’s not yet a phenomenon though it’s certainly a rage. At 10 pm weekdays, the entire mass of TV watching population seems to zero in on their favorite for the season. The title song somehow betrays an air of amateurism about the entire show. But I think we need to give the organizers of the show a little more credit…. after all we are talking about India’s first super successful reality show-Big Boss. We have had our share of game-shows and talent shows before but the Indian audience has never quite seen something like this before.

When they first aired the promos for this show, I thought of that wonderful literary creation of George Orwell-1984 and obviously the term “big brother” sprung to my mind. 13 people in one house, actually 13 celebrities (ok minor or forgotten ones atleast) al the mercy of the invisible yet omnipresent Big Boss. Each week, one person is voted out by the audience and the winner gets a huge cash prize. The concept is certainly not unique being the country cousin of the famous show which is making news for all the wrong reason- it’s certainly new to the Indian audience.

My first question “Why would anyone want to watch it?” or let me rephrase it after the huge response the show is getting “Why are people watching it?” There is no one reason or even a single theory that can bind the together the psychology of the TV watching population. Yet I hazard a few answers.

We are sick of the weepy Saas-Bahu serials. We want something new. TV should not be a carbon copy of our life. We watch TV to escape our boring lives.
This is a unique concept hitherto unknown. Never has TV, billed as the least interactive of all media become so interactive. You decide what you want to see or atleast in theory it works that way. Majority wins. TRPs zoom.... Organizers, sponsors and the TV and people see what they want to see… Proactive TV at its best.
Theoretically every second of a person’s life on air. What could be more exciting?
Celebrities revealing their true color on prime-time TV.
The voting system adds to the excitement…. Many talent shows are hosted on TV wherein you can vote for the person you want to support. Contrast this with Big Boss-you vote out the person you dislike. Some insight into the human mind-you are more likely to vote against the person you dislike than vote for the person you like.

I could be wrong on some or all or my theories but what’s important is that it seems like Big Boss has got it just right.

Wishing you all Happy TV watching in 2007 and may the best (oops the least disliked) man/woman win.

Welcome 2007

A very happy New Year to those who stumble across this page! I wish you all a wonderful Bond year full of happiness and success.

I am back to work now. The extended vacation that began with the Thailand trip and ended with a bang around the New Year is now well and truly over and I am back to the mundane task of earning a living. Before I start whining about how boring life is going to get with all the deadlines I will need to meet, let me not forget a few people who made year 2006 a really memorable one for me:

Uttara, Mom and Dad- for being there always especially during the tough times
Omkar-for being the nicest nephew
Ashwin, Haymes - for being great room-mates and more importantly excellent friends
Adi-who introduced me to the world of blogging
Khamkar-for always encouraging me whenever the chips were down and for helping me believe in myself.
Atul-for being the same person even after leaving college
Ajay, Body and Chabbu- for the crazy weekend parties
Meeta-for being the best friend one could ask for and a constant pillar of support (don’t need to write more coz she knows what I mean)

Special thanks for Deepti and PK who arranged a wonderful New Year bash and all those wonderful people who could make it.

Anu-i havent forgotten u! need a separate blog for u :)

Wishes uninhibited!

I have some spare time with myself. Usually i day-dream whenever i get such opportunities but just this once i want to pen down some of my day-dreams. Since i almost always day-dream of wishing that many of the things around me were different from the way they are today... this is going to be a wish list of sorts. And since one wise man once said that one should be uninhibited in wishing for something-u have the title for this post-"Wishes uninhibited".

So here we go

1. The Indian Cricket Team scoring 350+ in the fourth innings to win a test match outside of the Indian subcontinent, preferably at WACA.
2. An India where punctuality is not preceded by "un" everytime.
3. A 100% literate India
3. World-Class airports in India and air-travel a possibility for most indians.
4. Television free from reality shows
5. Books available at half the existing prices.
6. Good motorable roads in Pune.
7. Public Places built with due consideration to the disabled.

The list is in no particular order of preference... just penned down my thoughts as they came to my mind. Will add more soon.. till then back to day-dreaming :)!

Postcards from Bangkok

Last week, i finally managed my first overseas trip... and thankfully it was not on business. We (Ashwin, Tam, Captain & me) had decided long back on this trip. But things suddenly turned pretty sad just before the trip and Tam and Captain had to drop out at the last minute due to urgent committments. So it was just me and Ashwin who finally left for the trip... there was of course Ullas, who by some stroke of good luck works in Bangkok.

I set out with a rather limited (intentional really) idea of what thailand had to offer. In the end, it turned out for the best really.... it helped me form my own opinions untouched by the prejudices of those lucky enough to have visited this country before me.

A rather uncomfortable 4 hour flight from Mumbai saw me entering the uber modern Suvarna Bhoomi International Airport at Bangkok. The minimalistic architecture of the airport immediately strikes one and all. To call it merely an airport is an insult really. Its almost like a city onto itself and the flights coming in and taking off almost seem like only a small act of an entire skit. The visa on arrival was a breeze and soon we found ourselves our hotels in downtown bangkok.

I had always thought of Bangkok as place full of night clubs, massage parlours, and "massage parlours". This view as i had remarked earlier was rather parochial. The few things that hit u as soon as u land in bangkok is the sweet fruity smell in the air (i still am not able to figure it out-may be thats what they call "mitti ki khushboo". ), the vast network of freeways and the neverending traffic hurtling down them at break-neck speeds, the proliferation of retail stores encompassing all the possible retail formats (7-11 stores need a special mention in this regard-there are everywhere, its almost as if u can find a 7-11 or a masage parlour with equal ease), the warm and friendly thai people (with exceptionally well-groomed hair) and the popularity of the Thai king.

Bangkok doesnt really come across as the "perfect" city but rather a city that is aware of its problems and limitations and is working hard to make the life of its inhabitants more comfortable.

However its almost as if the city reveals itself too easily to the tourist. I found this a bit of a let-down. Most great "tourist" cities of the world are like sensual women-holding their own while drawing the tourist into their trap before revealing themselves and in doing leaving the hapless tourist wanting for more than he get or manage.

We went to Pattaya from Bangkok which roughly is the Thai version of our very own Goa. More on that and what we did in Bangkok next year (coz this is my last post of the year)

Until then,
Wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!

Push becomes a shove: Nice Guys finish last!

The hope of a miracle on Sunday the 27th October at the CCI ground was steamrolled by a highly efficient if somewhat mechanical Australian team. As if to mock us, the Aussies bundled out the Windies easily in the final to lift the Champions Trophy for the 1st time.

I expected the complete capitulation of our team to be the topic of intense scrutiny and the usual mud-slinging that follows every time we play pathetic cricket. (Something which happens far too often) Sadly as has become the norm rather than the exception; off the field events tend to overshadow the more important ones that take place on the 22 yards.
One such thing which caught my attention was the one labeled “Push becomes a shove” by the media. For once, I was actually watching the incident in question. It was pretty straight-forward really. Aussies wanted to get their hands on probably the only trophy that had eluded them thus far. In the excitement, the captain gestured to Mr. Pawar to hand them the trophy and once that was done, Michael Clarke promptly nudged the chief guest off the dais so that the Aussie team could have it all for themselves. Meanwhile Mr. Pawar quietly walked away and the Aussies basked in the glory of another annihilation of its rivals.

This incident initially went unnoticed, but was brought into limelight when Sachin Tendulkar called it unfortunate. Since then everyone seemed to asking for an apology from the Aussies.

Whether or not the apology comes through or not, the incident highlighted the basic difference between the Aussies and our team and why Aussies are world beaters.

It really boils down to the way we are brought up as kids. I and I think most of you can remember being told by our parents to be a good person. We were all fed only one philosophy while we grew up… it goes something like this
“It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice”

In a quest to become a good person, we end up being trodden over. Look at our current breed of cricketers-barring a few, all of them look like scholars rather than cricketers in the first place. In a game when you can’t afford to give an inch, the Indians look like a group of children when playing against the Aussies. I distinctly remember Javagal Srinath apologizing to Ricky Ponting when a bouncer hit the latter. What Srinath got in return was a mouthful of abuses… all for showing his good intentions. Cricketing history is replete with incidents of Indians being too nice on the field to their opponents…. A famous incident of providing a batsman of the opposing team with a runner when the same could have been refused comes to my mind immediately. The batsman went onto score a record against us.

The point is in today’s world of sports, it doesn’t pay to be nice. I have a small advice for the Indian team-“Play the game, but don’t ever think it’s just a game”

Here’s wishing the men in blue lots of luck and oodles of aggression.

Hope

Hope-This 4 letter word means so much and can do one so much good and yet the power of hope has never been realised by mankind.

Oops.....This is not the way i wanted to start this post.. but seems it has. no sweat coz the rest of the page is still empty and can speak what i want it to.

I watched a cricket match yesterday-nothing extra-ordinary in that... even the match was quite ordinary... nt the kind i would tell my grandchild abt. we los, we lost to windies. we were going to lose anyways. that became quite clear after our innings... this is no time for statistics so all i will say is that we scored far less than what we are capable of and more importantly wat we needed. well the match did have its great moments and we came close but not close enough. we lost. so wats the big deal? its just match and we anyways lose quite often these days. it suddenly dawned on me that we have to beat the aussies on sunday to reach the semi-final. i slept after the match thinking it cant be done and that i choose the team i want to back from here on in. i slept soundly and strangely woke up with the hope of reaching the semifinals.... us beating the mighty aussies with 5 batsmen (One of them losing his form more rapidly than his hair), a puppet captain and an aussie coach and a bagful of excuses to lose and yet not feel the pinch.

I am hoping against hope coz thats all i can and i remember wat a great man once said
" Hope never abandons us, we abandon it"

So here's hoping for a win on sunday-a nation prays, a nation waits but more importantly a nation hopes.

The hope of a billion hearts is on test-Pls dont let us down!

A Thought!

I like this idea of writing a diary online but im also too lazy to do it on a regular basis. its difficult to reconcile the two. so i spent a fair amount of my time thinking of a way out and looks like we have a winner... or should i say in this case two winners. confused? let me explain. i thought of the things that im passionate about and books and aviation came up trumps. so i decided that in future i would be updating my diary everytime i finish reading a book or undertake the plane journey. I have always believed that any book that one reads mirrors in a one way or the other what one is feeling,thinking or undergoing. now every time one travels- there is always something new to look forward to and cherish later-new places, new people, new challenges and new opportunities.

by the way-this post would nt be complete without me thanking my friend adi whose blog has really been the inspiration behind me thinking of doing something like this. thanks for helping me relive my two wonderful years at SIIB.

This is certainly a long self-imposed hiatus. The last time i scribbled something in this blog of mine, I was wandering in the realm of nothingness-having almost completed my MBA, there was nothing much to do. Now after joining work, i realise how precious that time was and how it is sometimes nice to be doing nothing at all.

So what has happened since then? A few first-On the personal front-a new job, first salary, a Bharat darshan of sorts-from Pune to Delhi to Hyderabad and now back to Pune, signing the first lease for a house, cant remember everything-also a first.

Starting Out!

So what is that i wish to accomplish with this exercise of mine?
Guess not much...except to share some of my memories and experiences. This is nothing new and i realise that. Yet this is an attempt that my friends can know whats going on in my life. I am an amateur and i guess it shows but like they say-Keep blogging!