Bheed main ek aur Awaaz!

Toba Tek Singh

2011-06-08T01:07:00.000+05:30

Read this short story online and then ordered the book. Someone told me that Manto's stories are very powerful and compelling especially in the way he captures the stuff around partition. He writes in Urdu and the first link is almost Urdu written in the Hindustani script. The second link is more hindi and easier to understand if you are not familiar with the regular urdu words.

Anyway, this is how it starts...

बँटवारे के दो-तीन साल बाद पाकिस्तान और हिंदुस्तान की हुकूमतों को ख़्याल आया कि अख़्लाक़ी क़ैदियों की तरह पागलों का भी तबादला होना चाहिए, यानी जो मुसलमान पागल हिंदुस्तान के पागलख़ानों में हैं, उन्हें पाकिस्तान पहुँचा दिया जाए और जो हिंदू और सिख पाकिस्तान के पागलख़ानों में हैं, उन्हें हिंदुस्तान के हवाले कर दिया जाए.

Complete Story - More Urdu

Complete Story - More Hindi

The Language of Thought

2011-06-03T19:03:00.001+05:30

There are times when I wonder if a generation of Indians who have migrated from their native languages to English as the primary language of thought have lost some part of their identities. This is a feeling that I get only when I look at people around my age group (+15/ -10 years), the rest clearly have a defined language of thought.

When I look at the elder group (Age > x+15), I look at a bunch of people who have their thought and the ethos in their native cultures and contexts. They can talk any language they like but you know the language they are thinking in.

Similarly, when I look at the younger bunch, they have a clear preference of language. Many of them would not even like to talk in the erstwhile native language. They have been clearly language naturalized.

But my ilk, which I refer to as the 'Bridge' generation, is a mixed up bunch. Some of them have changed their language of thought and some are firmly entrenched in the native language. As a result, they often struggle to communicate with the preceding and the following generation. Not here to comment on where they should be. It is their own choice and they have either made it or they are stuck with it.

I started on this post when I was browsing online for a few books and my site suggested 'नीम का पेड़' (The Neem Tree) to me. Some from my generation might remember this TV serial from our childhood days. It used to start with a Ghazal sung by Jagjit and written by Nida Fazli. It started off beautifully:

मूँह की बात सुने हर कोई,
दिल के दर्द को जाने कौन
आवाजों के बाज़ारों में,
खामोशी पहचाने कौन !!

Let me try and translate it. This is how it goes:

Everyone hears the spoken word, Who is there to share this sadness of mine

In this market of din and noise, Who is there to look for the silence...

And as it happens almost always, it does not translate well! Sigh!

Update on Running Committments

2011-06-01T21:04:00.002+05:30

Hi Everyone, I have been away and I think it is becoming a pattern over the last few years. For some reason the first few months of a year, for the last 2-3 yrs, I have not been able to make any posts. I hope I will be little regular from now on.

To kick this year off, I would start with updating you on the Personal Commitments I had made in September last year. I had committed to run another 1000Km from Sept '09 through Feb '10. This is how I fared:

September 2009: 235.87 Km
October 2009: 190.45 Km
November 2009: 150.19 Km
Decemeber 2009: 159.81 Km
January 2011: 161.89 Km
February 2011: 124.81 Km

Hence, the total adds up to ~1023 Km over the time period. It was not easy to do this distance. It was very fulfilling to fulfill this commitment. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in this completing this. My running partners, friends, my kid sister, Dad and the better-half.

Thanks everyone!!

PS: The blog is now mobile friendly. There is a mobile version of this blog. Take a look and give me your feedback.

Ek Saal...

2010-12-15T14:14:00.001+05:30

मैं कभी बतलाता नहीं
पर अँधेरे से डरता हूँ मैं माँ 
यूँ तो मैं,दिखलाता नहीं

तेरी परवाह करता हूँ मैं माँ
तुझे सब है पता, हैं ना माँ
तुझे सब है पता, मेरी माँ

भीड़ में यूँ ना छोड़ो मुझे 
घर लौट के भी आ ना पाऊँ माँ
भेज ना इतना दूर मुझको तू
याद भी तुझको आ ना पाऊँ माँ
क्या इतना बुरा हूँ मैं माँ 
क्या इतना बुरा मेरी माँ

मैं कभी बतलाता नहीं
पर अँधेरे से डरता हूँ मैं माँ 
यूँ तो मैं,दिखलाता नहीं
तेरी परवाह करता हूँ मैं माँ
तुझे सब था पता, हैं ना माँ 
तुझे सब था पता, मेरी माँ

... तुझको गए हुए

Tumhari Yaad Aayegi

2010-12-14T16:26:00.004+05:30

जीवन के सफ़र में राही, मिलते हैं बिछड़ जाने को

और दे जाते हैं यादें तन्हाई में तडपाने को

This is almost a month too late. But this has been in the offing for each day that has went by since 21st November, 2010. If in IIT I would have hummed the above tune, am sure Tank would have immediately quipped that these lines are from the film Munimji, Music by SD Burman and Lyrics by Sahir. We might have then spent some time on discussing how good a lyricist Sahir was. But sadly, none of this is going to happen...

I have been wanting to write a note on Ashwini ever since that fateful day when he passed away. I started typing a note on 21 November itself but it is still in my drafts folder. Somehow, I could not bring myself to write that email. We go back a long way. He was my junior at IITB. Ragged him in the first year. He was a great hindi music enthusiast and there might have been many competitions where we competed against/with each other.

After IITB, we were together at Dell. I was moving from Citibank and he had just finished his post grad from IIM Indore. We did not meet often at work as we were in different units. But we met regularly outside work and most of that can be attributed to running.

He was a regular runner and many from the RFL group at bangalore know him. He used to typically do sub-30K kind of distances. As for the half marathon kind of distance, he would have done that multiple times (~40-50 times). We had made a running trip to mysore, where he ran up and down the Chamundi hills twice.

He was a great photographer and his oft repeated complaint about trail running was that he could never make up his mind if he should be running or be behind the lens! You can browse though his photo-stream here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/overcooked

He had recently moved to Delhi and was putting up in Noida with his brother. I met him on 19th Nov at a friend's (Aviral) wedding. He was looking fitter than what he was in Bangalore. I joked that he is losing weight faster than the remainder of his hair. He quipped, 'Tere bhi chale jaayenge'

We were to run the Airtel Delhi Half together. We had decided that we will start from Noida together to the run venue. However, he had some work and decided to take his car as well. He reached the starting point before us and My wife, brother in law and I joined him in the line leading to the hold-up area. I had had a bad run at the Bangalore Ultra and was yearning to get a decent time in the ADHM so I sped off at the starting point. Tank jokingly complained about that to Priyanka (my wife).

We crossed and shouted out to each other on the road leading to Rajpath where he was running with another runner from Bangalore. Priyanka met him later on the course and he was going strong. That was the last that we saw of him.

After the race, I looked for him for approx 3 hours as his car keys were with Priyanka. I checked at the medical center where I was told that no one by the name of 'Ashwini Tank' reported there. I just hoped that he had gone for whatever work he had after the run and everything was all right with him.

I had a flight to catch so we moved back to Noida. In the interim, we figured out the phone number of his ex-flat mate who gave us his address in Noida. We left the keys of his car there. We also got the number of his cousin who got through to his sister. She informed him that Ashwini had had a fall during the run and was hospitalized. I thought I will talk to him and figure out how he is doing. I finally got his brother's number from his cousin and called him up.

His brother, Achint, had received a call from the Delhi police around 1:30-2:00 PM informing him about Ashwini's demise. Ashwini was picked up by the Delhi Police Control Room Jeep and not by the medical response machinery put together by the organizers. They took him to the AIIMS trauma center where he was pronounced DOA. There was no emergency contact on his bib and hence they had to go back to the organizers to figure out his next of kin. No one else had any idea about what had happened to him till then. I was extremely shattered to hear that and was not running for a few days after this incident. He had a cardiac arrest just past the 18th Km into the run. He was too good a runner to have gone this way on a half marathon. I believe if he would have had received timely medical aid, things could have been different. One can only speculate on such things.

He was a very passionate person who was always full of life. He was a photographer, runner, friend, cook, reader, talker, philosopher amongst others. He will sorely be missed by friends and family. I wish his family all the strength they need.

RIP, dear friend!

Happy Birthday Mom

2010-11-19T20:02:00.000+05:30

Happy Birthday Mom. Thanks for Everything.

Love

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Activity Update

2010-11-18T16:26:00.000+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Activity Update: "Most of the initial part of starting this foundation had us running around for getting the paperwork done, Pushing them through various stag..."

Update on the recent patient aid and wheel-chair donation

Maha parivartan!!

2010-11-14T15:53:00.001+05:30

A friend of mine has decided to contest MLC elections from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. He is my classmate from IITB and then went to a different IIM. It was very heartening to see him do this. He believes he has a good chance of being elected to the Vidhan Parishan, the upper house, in UP. I wish him all the best.

More about MLC, Vidhan Parishad and the process on the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidhan_Parishad
http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/States/UttarPradesh/upcouncil-w.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh_Vidhan_Parishad

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: T-Shirt Launched

2010-11-12T14:53:00.001+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: T-Shirt Launched: "Hi Everyone, We have been away for the last month. There are a lot of updates that I hope to make in the following posts. There has been a ..."

We have launched a 'Beat Cancer' T-shirt. The foundation gets 150 INR for every T-shirt. Do share your feedback on the T-shirt and the design.

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Unveiling the Logo

2010-09-23T23:20:00.002+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Unveiling the Logo: "After working relentlessly for a few days, we have been able to get the logo right. There was a little back and forth on this but finally ... The logo contains three key elements ..."

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Run report - KTM 2010

2010-09-23T14:16:00.001+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Run report - KTM 2010: "All the runners with SMCF finished the Kaveri Trail Marathon. We had four runners who had signed up on the short notice.

We have had a lot of non-runners who are willing to support the fund raising exercise in a big way. Would really like to thank all of you who have reached out. I would be sending out the details to each one of you. Please give me some time to put together a small introductory brochure for the same. I believe this would be important as most of you have volunteered to help through the corporate route. Will try and quickly turn this around. ..."

Personal Committments

2010-09-17T22:41:00.001+05:30

I would be running the Kaveri Trail Marathon (http://www.kaveritrailmarathon.com/) this weekend. Am running this race for the Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation (refer the last few posts). This is my second marathon this year. The last one I ran was the Auroville Marathon in Feeb, 2010. It was a very personal run. I was running it for Mom. It was a very difficult run both physically and mentally (I guess, I was ill prepared on both fronts).

Since then I have already run 850Km for SMCF and I am making a committment of running atleast 1000Km more by Feb, 2011.

Priyanka is making a committment of running another 500K in the same time period. Shantanu and Ankita are running their next four big runs for SMCF. If you want to support this initiative in any way, please drop in an email at smcfindia [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or to me or just leave a comment here. I will get in touch with you.

SMCF: Execution plan and Help required

2010-09-17T22:26:00.001+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Execution plan and Help required: "When we started the aid activities, there was an over-riding concern about ensuring the efficacy of any monetary aid we end up extending. T..."

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: What We Want to Do

2010-09-16T23:46:00.001+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: What We Want to Do: "There have been a few questions on what we want to do and how can one get involved. I will answer the questions in two parts. This post address the first part..."

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Getting the Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation off the ...

2010-09-15T20:45:00.000+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Getting the Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation off the ...: "...The next set of doctors were those who had come in touch with Mom. She had literally charmed them through the treatment and they were more than willing to pitch in. The fact that she had the grace to smile just before going into her final trip to the ICU was inspiring enough to all of them...."

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Starting the blog flow

2010-09-13T23:39:00.000+05:30

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation: Starting the blog flow: "Hi Everyone, If I look back a couple of years, I had never thought I would writing a blog on this. Last year has been particularly difficult for me..."

Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation

2010-09-11T22:52:00.003+05:30

On December 15, 2009, I lost my mother to Cancer. In her we lost a wife, mother, friend, philosopher and guide to this cruel disease.

We did not know how to react to the loss. There was a lot of anger, outrage and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. We were completely drained by the experience and yet emotionally charged. As a family, we felt a responsibility to do something concrete against the disease.

Over the last few months, I have talked to a few people about the fact that we are planning to start a cancer foundation in my Mother's memory. Over the last few months a lot of activity is happening on that front. The foundation is called Sudha Mehta Cancer Foundation. It is a registered trust now and is 80G certified now.

We are in the process of setting up the website. I have started blogging about the initiative at http://smcfindia.blogspot.com/ and the twitter Id is @smcfindia. I will also post the blogs from that blog onto my current blog for a few days. Looking forward to support from all of you.

Thanks
Prateek

Invictus

2010-04-13T17:24:00.002+05:30

Not the movie but the brilliant poem from Henley!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

Reproducing Auden

2010-01-04T12:06:00.006+05:30

Reproducing WH Auden's work with small changes

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message She Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

She was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good

Topi Shukla

2009-09-22T17:02:00.005+05:30

I read this brilliant book sometime back (about 4-5 months back). Might have read another 4-5 books after it but have been profoundly affected by it. I wanted to write about it just after reading it. But got distracted by the wedding etc :)

And today, I was talking to a friend of mine who is from Lucknow. And suddenly, Topi from Rahi Masoom Raza’s book quietly slipped into my consciousness. He was there and I could not ignore him. Iffan was also there of course. How can one be without the other? It is not possible to think of just the one of them. They are like the yin and the yang. Not really, they are more like two shades that go really well with each other. So much that you forget for a few seconds that other shades exist. And it is ok, because you are not missing the other shades really.

Topi Shukla, is a hindi-urdu-khichdi novella from the 50-60s. Though the context is post-partition India but the flavor is universal. It tells the story of people wherever they might be. It tells the story of who people have suffered separation/ loss due to events much larger than themselves. It tells the story of those who have loved in vain. It tells the story of innocence and realism. It tells your story and it tells mine. It does all that a good book is supposed to do.

I read the Khichdi version. Two reasons for doing so. I could just borrow the hindi version from a friend (who is coincidentally named topi as well) and ~~throw~~ return it if I did not like it. The other one being that I knew the language and there was no reason to read it in a foreign language. I would strongly urge you to pick up the hindi version if you can understand (not just read) the language.

Set in Aligarh, it is the story of two friends and the people around them. Raza deftly tells the tale of people who become hapless victims of history. The small ways in which partition affects conversations, silence, love, hate, friendship, daily actions, language, food and everything that might and might not matter have been superlatively captured. It did not want the book to end. In a long long time, this was a book that made me fear for its end. May be because the characters felt so close… may be because the characters felt so real…

You can read a sample of the book at Google Books

You can buy it at Rajkamal Prakashan. You can also buy the book at Rediff.com. Both Hindi and English editions available. You have the option of buying the book from Amazon/ Barnes and Nobles etc as well. But you cannot get the hindi version there.

Rubbing Hands

2009-09-11T11:10:00.005+05:30

I have started loving the A(H1N1) paranoia. Even though we in India lose more lives to Malaria, Hygiene related infections, the entire health machinery, media and we (the aam aadmi) continue to be fascinated by Swine ~~Flew~~.. Flu.

I got this from a friend. I still cannot believe it that someone somewhere thought that this absolutely needs to be posted. I love the 'Wedding Band Allowed' part the most!

Enjoy
!!!

Fruits and some veggies at work

2009-05-15T22:11:00.003+05:30

In the aftermath of the animals post, I figured out the following fruits and veggies are colleagues as well. It seems that animals are more popular!

Grapes, Joyce
Ongkiko, Apple
Chen, Mango
Zheng, Orange
Lee, Kiwi
Peach, Liz
Durian, Marcel
Zhang, Date
Cherry, Ashlen
Berry, Adam
Lemon, Justin
Corn, Vance
Kale, Prasad
Turnip, David
Parwal, Apurva

Me and other Animals at work

2009-04-09T11:33:00.004+05:30

Call it corporate ennui, but all of the following names are colleagues at work. My favourites being the Chimpanzee, Donkey, Doggie and the Anteryami Panda!

Enjoy!
Mink, Lisa
Pigeon, Tamara
Bullock, Liz
Ma, Pony
Seal, Tony
Fox, Ani
Li, Tiger
zheng, eagle
Hawk, Chris
Xiong, Bear
Llamas, Rosy
Puma, Terese
Zhao, Kitty
Swan, Rich
Canard, Robyn
Wang, Snake
Li, Lion
Chen, Chimpanzee
Fang, Jackal
Wolf, Dafmar
Liang, Doggie
Fish, Tim
Panda, Anteryami
Peacock, Justin
Bullock, Jeff
Yu, Dragon
Lu, Donkey
Shen, Mouse
Crow, David
Bird, Richard
Lee, Kiwi
Sparrow, Simon

Oye Amritsar

2008-12-24T16:25:00.012+05:30

I finally took the break that I had been promising myself since a long time. For a change, I took the leave before planning what I wanted to do with it. Since a long time (after watching Rang de basanti to be precise), I have wanted to visit Amritsar. I tried conning a couple of people into doing this trip but they wanted to hang on to the sane side of life (can also be read as were under the influence of their wives) and opted out.

So I landed in Delhi, met the usual suspects. Did a 15km run with Benaazir and Shantanu at the Hauz Khas Deer Park/ Rose Garden. Realized that Delhi infrastructure has only improved with time. Realized that Gurgaon might be bigger Bangalore now!

Managed to avoid the gurgaon malls for two days (No mean achievement that!). Managed to check-out all the usual haunts in Delhi (No mean achievement that as well!)

I took the Swarna Shatabdi to Amritsar. The Railway staff does try and make you eat your breakfast. I would have been woken up atleast four times for Tea/ breakfast/ the likes till I gave up on sleeping and started looking at the Punjabi landscape from the window. After a journey of roughly 6 hrs, I was in Amritsar. My hotel was some 100m away from the station but even then a cycle riskshawala conned me into taking a ride with him. Arre baith jao, 4-5 rupiye jo dena hai de dena!

The first thing that struck me about Amritsar was the noisy roads, incessant honking and the unbelievably chaotic traffic. Brought back the memories of all the towns that I have lived in. Everyone on the road tries to hustle you into a trip to Wagah border. You get the feeling that there is nothing more to the town but that half-an-hr ceremony of the change of guards. But I had two places on my mind before Wagah. The Golden Temple and the Jalianwalan Bagh.

First off the list was the Golden temple, it looks good in the day but is very crowded. May be because of the tourists or may be because getting a ‘dip’ in the day is more convenient. I took a few snaps and then just moved around the place. I did not go to Hari Mandir because of the long queue.

Next on the plan was the Jalianwalan Bagh. It has a despicable entrance. But once you are inside it, you feel the presence of the 2000 martyrs at that place. The marks made by rounds fired on that day are still preserved on a few walls. Check out the white squares on the following photograph. Then there is the well, Shahidi kuan, from which 120 bodies were recovered once the shooting ended.

I had the Dudh Rabdi Sevaiyan and chintoo’s tikkis to refuel myself and then I started for Wagah. The crowd is loud and the ceremony is elaborate. You do well-up with a strong emotion of nationalism out there but was this was not much compared to what I experienced later in the night.

After coming back from Wagah, I went on my own treasure hunt. Trying to get my hands on Kesar da Dhaba’s Phirnis. After a circuitous walk through the old town and trashing the entire ‘men do not ask for directions’ stereotype multiple times, I reached Kesar’s dhaba. On the way, I had figured out that somebody in Kesar’s household was getting married and it indeed was his daughter (People on the road tell you all this along with the directions). As it should have been expected, much to my disappointment, the place was closed.

But on the way, I had learnt that there are three other places which serve as good a phirni as Kesar’s. Ahuja Sweets, ‘The Unmarked Shop’ close to Kesar and one more to which the rickshawala took me.

I was back at the Golden temple as the twilight faded and gave way to the night. The sight was beautiful and the gurbani very soothing. I think I sat in the Hari Mandir for two hours and loved the sufi tone of the bhajans. And after a long long time, an avowedly non-religious person like me was moved by a visit to a religious place. I offered the Karah Prasad at the temple and ambled through the compound. Would strongly recommend a visit to this compound in the night to everyone who decides to visit Amritsar. ‘It’ is something!

Then I embarked on a legendary evening eating out expedition. I hit the ‘Bhravaan da Dhaba’ and ordered a lassi with a thali with aplomb. Only to get the disbelieving look from the waiter. He did almost say, ‘Will you be able to eat it all?’

As I waited for the grub, I realized that on the adjacent table a family of 3 was eating out from a single thali! And I had ordered, wait a minute, a humongous glass of lassi that had just been served to me along with that more than sumptuous thali!! But I did finish it all; much to the approval of the waiter who told me the story of two brothers who co-owned the dhaba had a spat because of the women that they were married to! And this is how 'Brothers dhaba # 1' came to being next the the legendary 'Bhravaan da Dhaba.' Got the feel of the local gossip- warts and all!

Anyway I had a wonderful trip and was all re-charged on my return to Bangalore. Would highly recommend the town to the readers of this journal!

The Ultramarathon Man

2008-12-17T12:27:00.000+05:30

C'est Moi!

I did run (crawled would be more appropriate) the 50K trail run 0n November 16. Cramped badly at and after the 31st Km. But still I managed to run most of the time. Surprised myself, in a good way!

Now, I am waiting for the Mumbai Marathon that happens in January. This time I am running for Mumbai and am also raising funds for a Child Education NGO called Isha Vidhya. In case any of you are interested in making a contribution, let me know. You can also make a contibution online. If you decide to do so, let me know (I would just want to keep a track).

On God

2008-12-16T20:05:00.004+05:30

It had never been done before, at least on the Indian Subcontinent. But if it had to be done, it had to be done by the God and from his own bat. In a way, it was poetic justice at its best. In 10 years (remember 1999, actually every Indian cricket follower remembers that heart breaking day), Tendulkar has given us a sweet memory that people like me will cherish for a long long time!

And as I followed the match through the meeting that I was in, I was on the edge almost all the time. I did let out a big cheer as Sachin hit that paddle sweep in his inimitable style. It was pure unadulterated joy! And I think everyone in the room realized that everyone else was following it as well! Indeed Sehwag set it up but it was Sachin who saw to it that there was no proverbial slip between the cup and the lip!

That Wednesday Night

2008-12-12T21:27:00.006+05:30

One of the most dastardly acts of terrorism happened and it was all very surreal in a way. I think I was angry, anguished, sad, helpless and numbed by all that happened in those 60 hours.

Even as if was glued on to three different websites in office trying to figure what was happening, I was thinking of what would be the reaction to this and what should be a reaction to this. While a lot of groups have been formed on facebook/orkut and some candle-light vigils have been kept, little has happened otherwise.

That night has shattered the small cocoons that we hid ourselves in. The secure(?) apartments, the mall, the hotel or the restaurant everything seems a immensely vulnerable now. The normal Indian feels a little unsafe on the road, in the mall, in a movie theater or even while hailing a cab on the road. I think we will get over with this mass trauma(?) in some time. Don't think we have an option with this one.

Of course, we hear and make statements like 'the spirit of India is stronger that the resolve of the Terrorists.' We want action against Pakistan or against the Terror elements based out of the territories of the neighbour. We want the Indian government to beef-up the internal and the external security. We want the people responsible for this punished. We want a lot to happen!

But what can we 'make' happen? Or are we too overwhelmed to think on those lines. From my understanding of the entire episode, this was such a long and harrowing experience because of the unpreparedness, lack of resources and delay in response. I am unable to think of more than a few things to respond to this.

Avoid being swayed away by fanatics
Donate to the various trusts collecting funds for the victims
Be a little vigilant and co-operate with the security people
Mock drills in residential, commercial and industrial areas to prepare people to respond to such exigencies
File regular RTIs with the government bodies (police, fire brigade etc) and make them work in return for our taxes. Guess, the army and the intelligence would be above the purview of the RTI act anyway

I know that the list may come across as inadequate. But still would be more constructive than forgetting the entire episode with a wave of mass amnesia!

I am hoping that we do not become paranoid as the US became after 9/11. I hope that our social fabric retains whatever little tolerance it still has. I hope that we do not view every Muslim with suspicion. I hope we do not elect the next government to govern ourselves for the wrong reasons and loud anti-terror rhetoric. I hope we do not lose our patience with anyone who tries to use the restraint word. I hope we avoid the lure of the jingoistic baiting by the media and the polity. I hope that we would be able to remain hopeful through this!

The Real and long winded story of the Kaveri Trail Marathon

2008-11-12T16:51:00.001+05:30

The reason why I am writing about the Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM) before the Bombay Marathon is because of the recency effect. I also think I might have romanticized the Mumbai Marathon a little, in my head. And a romanticized version might make this 'real' thing so mundane that you might not even want to read about it.

It has been about 10 days since the KTM now. But it seems that it happened a long time back. It might be because I have been off running in a way since the marathon. Clock roughly 25Km since that Sunday when I drove down to Srirangapatnam. Yes, the same Srirangapatnam where the story of 'Sher-e-Mysore Tipu Sultan' took place. Do you remember the DD serial?

This was supposed to be a tough marathon. For me the toughest part would still be getting up at 3 in the morning and start the ~ 140Km drive at 4:00am. I think I would have cursed Shantanu atleast a few times for volunteering me as one of the drivers. I mean, I would have normally liked this kind of long drive, but at 4 in the morning it was a big struggle. Against the onslaught of the headlights and my own sleep. So after a few anxious moments, for the fellow runners in the car, we were at the starting point.

Somehow, the usual anxiety before an organized Race was missing. I guess it was because it was an RFL event. Another reason might be that this was supposed to be a ramp-up for the Ultra. I will post a detailed log on that in a couple of weeks.

The sky was clear. And that was scary. On a race day, I would always trade in a sunny day for an overcast sky. But as usual, the dice was loaded from the start! It was pleasantly muggy. And I thought to myself, this is close to Mysore so it should not be warm in the day. I did not have to wait for long to realize how wrong I was!

So there we were, almost unaware of what the course had in store for us. Off at the starting point. I chatted with Deepak for a while to realize that he is also trying for the 12-in-12 (Twelve marathons in twelve months) ala Bhaskar. This was his fourth marathon in as many months. And Bhaskar was trying for this 3-in-3. For me it was the 2-in-10 ;)

This was where I stopped a couple of weeks back. I started typing this piece and then I stopped because of the usual distractions. And then with the Ultra looming large over the coming weekend. I thought that I need to finish it.

The first 21Km were easy. They always are. You and your fellow runners are in a chatty mood. You keep talking to someone or the other depending on who is keeping pace with you (or with people that you are able to keep pace with). I think I was on my own after the fifteenth kilometer. The heat hit me around the 22nd Km mark when I started looking for the water station and it was still a good km away. But I think I was still in good shape till the 29th. The Sun was spewing fire by then and there were no trees in sight. It was very muggy, humid and completely unbearable. There were green fields but they were only to be good backgrounds for photographs. And at that point, I think few runners would have been able to muster a smile. So after struggling for the next 3 Km which was a small loop, I came back to the water station where I applied a lot of pain relieving spray.

And then it was just about getting one foot to go forward after the other for a long time. The water stations on the return leg seemed to have disappeared. I felt that the law of physics governing the time-distance continuum had failed. The number of runners on the return leg were fewer. I saw a lot of regulars stopping and taking a break. I was very tempted. Then I heard Amrita calling that there were just another 5 Km to go. I felt proud of myself. The last 7Km just flew by!! 'You rock!', I told myself. But a few minutes down the line, I saw the '6Km to go' mark. I cannot explain my disappointment.

'You suck!', I told myself.

I did not carry a timer with me. I never do. I like to depend on other runners for an indication of the timing. At times I hear, You are going strong' and at times, 'Are you all right?'

Today, I mean the day of the Kaveri Marathon, I was getting the strong comment most of the time. Especially on the return leg.

Yet, I was wondering if it were ever going to end. I was focussed but it was becoming incredibly difficult to keep the focus intact.

And then I saw Ashok. He had completed this marathon in a relatively inhuman time of 3hrs 20min and was sautnering on the track. I asked him, 'How much to go?' I got an answer that told me that the end was just another 100m away.

I did what I usually do when only 100m is left. Put the engine on full throttle and start sprinting. But it seems that the 100m expression was just figurative. The finishing line was atleast another 300m away. Those '100m' were the longest 100m ever. But I did finish the race with a flourish.

I hope I do that the will and the energy to do an encore in the 50Km run coming up this weekend!

PS: Do check out the photographs by Sudhir. Mind you, that the course looks beautiful only in photographs. Its extremely cruel otherwise!

Also check out the snap, timing etc at the Previous post on KTM

Time

2008-11-05T14:25:00.006+05:30

Usually, I do not like posts where in people post lyrics of some song on their blogs. If you really want people to checkout that song you can just make a plain recommendation. But am making an exception to what I would usually do.

Have always loved this Song by Floyd. Because its haunting, scary, revealing and inspiring all at the same time. Today it keeps coming back to me. And I am sharing it with you!

...
Time, Album: The Dark Side of The Moon

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but you are older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells

My Second Marathon

2008-10-26T11:58:00.003+05:30

I ran the Mumbai Marathon at the beginning of this year. And last weekend I ran the Kaveri Trail Marathon. Shaved around 35 Min from my Bombay finish time of 5hrs 15min. And even then I felt that this was a weaker race. It was very hot and humid. The track was a difficult track to run on and I struggled after the 32nd Km. But I did finish it with a flourish. Practically sprinted the last 300m.

More on both the runs later.

2008-10-25T16:48:00.001+05:30

Got this from a friend. Check out the message on the Auto rear-window. Just awesome. The enigma called 'Love' aka 'Lou' (in namma Bengaluru) explained.

In case, the font seems really small:

L: Losse of time (sic!)
O: Out of Mind
V: Vest of Time
E: End of Life

Was totally blown away by such an insightful four liner!

Thank you, Sachin

2008-10-24T15:18:00.007+05:30

Yes, I am a few days too late on this. But there was no way that this post was not being written on this blog!

Sachin, this is for you.

Thanks for the years that have gone by. In the last 20 years, you have given a lot of moments to us to be happy/ elated about. You have also given us moments that just wrecked our hearts. But most importantly, you gave us hope. You gave us hope that India can be good at some sport. That an Indian can dominate and decimate the rest of the world, with elan.

Probably, Ponting would overtake Sachin on a couple of statistics. But he will never be able to even come close on how the world has held you in awe over the last two decades!

Here's to the 'hope' that you will bring home the 2011 World Cup!

The Realization

2008-10-13T21:26:00.004+05:30

This was almost like the first time a little girl (wanted to be clear about the 'little') called me 'Uncle' on a train journey. I was shocked not because of the actual event but what it meant to me! The days of uncling people were over and the days of bhaisaabgiri were in!

Anyway, I have been reading Paul Krugman for a few years now. At times I think he is too leftist and may be unequivocally Democrat (US Politics) but overall I am addicted to him. So when I got the alert from WSJ that the Swedish Academy has decided to award the Nobel Prize for Economics to him, I swelled with pride. May be it was because it was a first of sorts - being cognizant of the Nobel prize winner before the list was announced.

How you explain knowing the name of a nobel prize winner? Mathematically - With more and more names thrown at you with the passage of time, the probability of such a event happening just goes up and up. So it is also a cold realization of the fact the one has aged! Never expected it to be this fast!

Rock On! and Jaane Tu...

2008-09-23T15:26:00.002+05:30

I know when I write about Rock On!, I would not be the first one (or the last) to write about it. At this coming at the time when I should be writing about the Bomb blasts in Delhi and Pakistan or the Bajranj dal hud-dang in the name of protecting Hinduism. May be, I am writing this because a friend's wife told me that she thought of me when she saw Farhan Akthar (I wonder why no unmarried women is telling me this!!!). Or maybe because of the wide eyed, sugary sweet Prachi Desai.

But really, I just had to write about it. So obviously, it seems that I liked the movie.

I think people have written peans about the movie. How they liked the characterization and the plot and the script. Some people felt that the movie was long.

I am writing this because this movie brought back the memories of all those live performances that I have been to. Rock and non-rock. I think there is something about being in presence of music that you can connect to. The sound track of the movie is great. Farhan is no great singer but Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy do a great job of making him pass off as a rocker! And the soundtrack, it just keeps coming back to you. Also, because I believe that there is a huge market for Hindi Rock. I am secretly hoping that some good Hindi rock bands will take the cue and dish out some nice music. And someday, the Hindi rock scene would rival the Japanese rock scene as well (Am telling you some of the Jap songs are just awesome!!)

I also saw Jaane Tu... [I am running a huge backlog on Movies, so please bear!] Again, since this movie has been written about to death, I won't even try to write anything about the movie. I just wanted to mention that this movie has a great music as well. The classics from this album for me are Tu Bole, Main Boloon and Kahin to Hogi woh. I especially love the Rahman's rendition of Tu Bole. I think the last two songs that he has sung were just about ok (Khwaja mere -Jodhaa Akbar and Tere Bina - Guru) - as far as his singing is concerned. But with Tu bole, its pure Magik!

Recommending

2008-09-22T15:23:00.000+05:30

Would really like to recommend the Faking News blog. Really loved its coverage of the contemporary news items.

Actually wished that I were writing all that. But guess, I have been taking myself too seriously for sometime now.

Reading Two Books in Seven Days

2008-09-02T19:31:00.004+05:30

I have started reading again. I mean I am always reading something or the other but lately I have felt have my attention span has been waning. Over the years my concentration has deteriorated and my interest levels have dwindled. At times, I have blamed it on my context and at times on the lack of familiarity with the context of the book and its characters. At times, I think, it might have been sheer fatigue with the written word.

May be I read too much of the dark/sad stuff and the poison slowly seeped into me from the pages. At times, I fear that I am becoming (have become?) one of those lamenting, numb characters from one of those books that I just love. I think therein lies the appeal of those profoundly sad books. They touch something somewhere inside you. And you are startled by it - and if you are lucky, you discover something about yourself. Anyway, as I said, I might have been reading too much of this stuff. So on purpose, I have been laying off such books.

I have changed the kind of books I read. And I think I like this change.

I read the Maltese Falcon and then the City of Djinns. Nice books both of them. I think the vagabond in me liked the city of Djinns. And the Falcon was ok. Then, I started the Moviegoer. It is a book that I have wanted to read for a long time. But as I started it, I realized that it is another of those self-discovery books. Nothing wrong with it. As a matter of fact, it is one of the Time's top 100 books from the last century. But just that these days, I am not in the frame of mind where I can ingest, digest and love such books. So I gave it up mid-way. Maybe, i will pick it up again. Someday!

Then, I started 'The Day of The Jackal'. I told you that I am loving the inane these days. But Forsyth tires me easily. Not with this book but he has done that with aplomb in the past. So for no reason, I gave up reading this book midway. Certainly, no reflection of how interesting the book is. Am clarifying here as I do not want any hate mails from the ardent lovers of this book. Like the one who loaned me this book. May be, I will also turn into those who swear by the Jackal sometime down the line!

But last week has been phenomenal. I read two books. And to the readers of this page, I would like to recommend them. Its Not About The Bike by Lance Armstrong and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami.

The former has a significant amount of American showmanship. But even if you normalize it for that, it is a wonderfully inspiring story. And what delights you is the fact that most of what is being said in that book happened. I never knew that Lance came back from death (His Doctors had pegged his chances of survival at lower than 3%!!). You feel the climb up the col du la madone and the chaos from The Tour de France lands right into your room. It sure did fire my imagination in a way that no book has done in a long time.

Then there is the Murakami book. This is a usual Murakami book if you have been reading him for some time. But as a runner ( :-) I think I have earned it!), this book is just delicious. There are things in that book that only runners will understand. And like me, he is also a re-creational runner (Though it seems that he trains harder). So at times, it seems like an intimate conversation. How often do you get that in a sheaf of papers bunched between two hard boards?

The Slight

2008-08-20T18:06:00.002+05:30

It might have been so slight that it went unnoticed. Or may be, people did notice but decided against bothering themselves with it.

The Games, as usual, have their own diplomatic element in full flow. It seems so, at least, on the set of things that are close to India. It started off with the invite for the opening ceremony going to Sonia and Rahul. Reaching out to the power center but a slight of no small dimensions to our sovereign head. Of course, this was extensively chronicled and discussed in the media. More in the Hindi/regional newspapers and with a small mention in the English newspapers.

But this thing with Nepal can become disturbing. Deuba, the newly elected president was to go for the closure ceremony of the Olympics. But as soon as, Prachanda (of the CPN - Maoist) was elected Prime Minister, an invite was forwarded to him for attending the closure ceremony. How does it matter?

Nepal has had a strong dependency on India for a lot of things. From trade to defence, India has had a major (not to the liking of the likes of Prachanda at times) role to play in Nepal's affairs. With this kind of change in the leadership in Nepal, things were to change. It seems that China is trying to precipitate the change. We might have to take appropriate diplomatic steps to keep Chinese 'encroachment' under check. The MEA might want to make some right noises that this point in time.

Bhutan is turning into a democracy. It is a state where we have had a strong (at times, intrusive) role to play. It might be a good idea to play our cards right to ensure this relationship does not go the Nepal way.

And what do we do with the slight? Forget it, not sure if anything can be done on that part. Apart from biding our time and taking the odd chance when Taipei is under discussion.

Hopes Of A Golden Olympic

2008-08-17T22:58:00.004+05:30

Twenty four years back, China won her first ever gold medal at the 1984 LA Olympics. It was at a shooting event (50m rifle). Will we be the leaders in the medal tally some 24 years down the line? Sounds wishful, at best.

In the year 1984, China took back another 15 gold medals. Of this an amazing six were bagged by Li Ning. Yes, the guy who flew to light up the torch this year. I guess he was the man for the task. It seems that the Chinese had been training for the 1984 performance for years. It was talent supported with a lot of planning, resources and a belief that national pride is strongly co-related with performance at such events.

In contrast, Abhinav Bindra was a lot of ambition supported by a wealthy father. The three boxers, who have given a lot of hope of taking the medal tally beyond the solitary medallion that we already have, have come out of our own sporting system. But at most other sports, we just suck!

May be the time is ripe for privatisation of sports. At some level it is happening anyway. With the LN Mittal Champions trust supporting Archery, Prakash Padukone's Baddy institute is also flush with funds, Apollo tyres supporting tennis and then Hindujas are supporting shooting. Hopefully, other sports will also see more corporates participating in their development. May be, we will be the generation that will be able to tell the generations to come that it all started with the golden moment of 2008.

We may not be the leader at the 2032 Olympics but we would be a force to reckon with. This is dedicated to the hopes of that Golden Olympic!

इंडिया टीवी जिंदाबाद

2008-08-06T16:25:00.013+05:30

The enclosed piece was reported over and over again on India TV. Not sure if it was classified as breaking news or not. But if you go by the past record of India TV when saas ne bahu to chappal se maara has been breaking news, this incredibly hilarious news item would have been a day hogging breaking news as well.

Sit back, relax and enjoy!

May be this is based on this 'news item' that was aired on channel 9. Guess someone on the content team of India TV saw this and has become a source of 'sensational' humour for compulsive channel surfers. [I wanted to write - surfers on the boob tube. But the flat panel/ LCD TVs have taken away the most pleasing way of deriding the television].

India TV was at its crass reporting best when they showed some sonographic imprints claiming them to be of the unborn foetus that was in the recent abortion controversy. I guess all this and the Talwar episode would make the News channel develop some kind of self-regulation. I am all for free journalism but this make me feel that some regulation (Self??) might be of help. Hope the present state of freedom in news reporting will not be used by the government to put a regulator in place.

Its high time that the channels wake up to the events and people behind all the breaking news and put some kind of guiding journalistic ethic in place!

The Magical Machine At The Railway Station

2008-07-28T17:22:00.006+05:30

So I was at a railway station this month after a long time. And it was such a relief so see the familiar bedlam thrown at myself. After confirming with one of the coolies that the train I was there for is delayed by a good 50 minutes, I decided to buy the platform ticket. But I just could not find the ticket window that sells the platform ticket. As I was running to the other end of the foyer, I saw a bright red machine. I stopped with the relaxed manner that can posess only a person whose sense of haste has just been snatched by a railway coolie.

This machine was such a delight. An automatic platform ticket vending machine. No cash and no credit cards required for Airtel and Relaince customers. For the first time in the last two years, I felt good for being an airtel customer. [Would have written peans about the sad signal quality of airtel in Koramangala if this were a different post]

Simply:

- Send an SMS with text 'pftkt' to a 5-digit number
- Get a code in an SMS from the service provider
- Key the code in the machine and the machine prints out the ticket for you

It was just magical!

The Blasts

2008-07-25T22:13:00.003+05:30

Nine explosions in a matter of 15 minutes! One casualty and about a dozen injured. Pathetic is the word. While there is this rude realization that the neighbourhood is not safe, I feel pity for the perpetuaters of this dastardly act. This one feels like an act of haste. Almost as if it has been executed against a almost forgotten deadline.

I do not understand the idea of conducting blasts in the middle of the immigrant country. People from other parts of the country will continue to migrate to Bangalore or any other equivalent city as long as they offer good career opportunities. What objective do they achieve? No bold statement made/ no mass panic. There was a lost of few hrs of productivity at offices but nothing close to what the city saw after rajkumar's death. I really hope this is not some amateur group trying to find it way into 'main-stream' terrorism.

Anyway, I hope that we will spring back in the morning and turn into the ever hungry weekend-consumer of material good and services. A quick recoil to the state of normalcy!

About a Muslim & An Indian And the transformation of an academician

2008-07-23T22:33:00.005+05:30

Brilliant Speech by Omar Abdullah supporting the Confidence motion. A speech that lasted hardly 5 minutes but conveyed a lot.

Also, check out the speech of Manmohan Singh. The video will be devoid of audio because our elected representatives did not bother themselves with the task of hearing him out. As a result, the speech was drowned in the boo-ing and demands for his resignation. But this speech is a must read. He takes on Advani, Karat and gang with great finesse. And nothing, absolutely nothing can take away the sharpness (and at times, acerbic) of the speech that ended with the following:

The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.

Do lookup some of the links on speeches of LK Advani and Pranab Mukherji. Very interesting reads indeed. Advani was all over the place. Though some will claim that he spoke of everything that mattered, I would like to say that his line of thought was unable to find enough buyers. Pranab Mukherji was brilliant. Especially in the way he took on all the allegations head-on and managed to avoid the rhetoric.

When?

2008-07-23T16:52:00.001+05:30

When will the tides in the ocean stop...
And, When will I go for that dip!

Zander On Classical Music

2008-07-13T17:59:00.003+05:30

Engaging talk by Benajmin Zander about Western classical music. I like the way he talks. Connects to his audience. Wish someone would do this for Indian Classical Music as well.

The Hampi Heritage Half Marathon

2008-07-04T13:13:00.000+05:30

Hampi happened. Like most good things in life, this was also unplanned. Had got this mail from Shantanu saying Sabine is organizing this ‘Heritage’ Half marathon in Hampi long time back. I was excited about it. But these days, my enthusiasm about a lot of things is like the proverbial ‘baasi kadhi main ubal’ (boiling over of a stale curry). So as a hard-working employee of the firm, I dutifully archived the mail in a folder called ‘Life etc.’

So, on a particularly hectic afternoon when I had successfully achieved transitions through multiple meetings, I had this enlightenment. I had to go to Hampi. I have wanted to go to the place for a long long time. The history enthusiast in me took over and I called Shantanu to confirm ‘participation’ in the Hampi run. Guess, there are a lot of fence sitters and before I could say anything, we had 5 of us (Nitin, Saurabh, Saumya) running off to Hampi for the weekend.

Nice drive. Nice bunch people to travel with/ run with. Essentially what you'd ask for on such a trip!

From a heritage perspective, Hampi is unbelievable. The golden period of Hampi was from 1610-1635AD, during the reign of Krishnadeva Raya. The widest road of those times, the Hampi bazaar is wider than the widest of the Bangalore roads. Just imagine the peak hour activity in that market!

The city was abandoned after 1665AD when the Vijaya Nagar empire lost to the combined might of the Bahamani Sultanate (Bidar, Golconda, Ahmednagar, Gulburga, Bijapur). The inhabitants fled and the city lay in ruins. Over the years, the sands of time have claimed the city and the larger part is claimed to be still under the ground. But whatever is above the ground (or recently excavated) is breathtaking as well. The ruins next to Kishkindha which are not a part of the usual tourist circuit are as beautiful as they come. I think you can spend a lazy week in Hampi exploring the ruins and just ambling around the place. Of course, all this is good only if you have a little liking for history.

So the usual word of caution: Hampi has not night life whatsoever!

Recommended eating joint: Mango Tree (Good food with excellent lazing around possibilities)

Sunday morning, we had the first ever Hampi Heritage half marathon. It was absolutely glorious. Big thanks to Sam, Sabine and family for the organization. The run was through the ruin country. We started off just before 6 and kept exploring the town till long.

I am not going to put the timings here because nary an average man/woman would have walked slower than us. But blame it on Hampi, we were captivated!

Reservations: Part III

2008-07-01T22:45:00.004+05:30

In the past I have written about reservation twice (I and II) and if you have been a regular reader here, you know that I have a pro-reservation stance at an ideological level. Though I do not agree with the way our governments have gone about implementing it.

So even for a person who thinks that reservation is good as an idea but the present form of implementation leaves a lot to be desired, HRD ministry’s directive to extend reservation to faculty positions in IITs leave me livid and angry.

I am bewildered at this step for which I am unable to see any bonafide intent. I think this systematic destruction of the brand that goes by the IIT name started when they started opening IITs all over. I think the HRD ministry needs to understand that mere buildings and lab equipments do not make an institute of excellence. Even if we were to believe that students at that state are pliable and can be moulded (which I personally believe to be true, the experience is capable of changing people in multiple ways), we need people who would be able to do the mouldling.

And this is where I have a problem with this directive. I think the end-product from IITs (atleast on the technical side) is a function of the faculty imparting the education. Student interests, career directions, research options and academic rigour are function of the faculty that the students interact with.

I do not have a problem with people of any caste, color, creed, nationality holding faculty positions in these institutes of excellence as long as they are appointed on the basis of their academic and research capabilities. Granting 49.5% (which is enormous) of the faculty positions to a certain section of the society on the basis of their birth is the discrimination of the worst order.

This order attacks the essence of the IIT brand – ‘Excellence.’ I think the output from the process is a function of the input and what the process does to the input. I know ‘input’ at these educational institutions is a function of merit and the stated social objectives of the political set-up. However, screwing up the process will ruin the years of good work that faculty, students and researchers have put in.

I think it is time that the HRD ministry should realize that they are facilitators and enablers at best. The ministry exists not for making political statements but for actual Human Resource Development. How I wish that Arjun Singh and his set of cronies start looking at the broken schooling system and start some work to fix it! If… If wishes were horses.

I want to ride my bicycle

2008-06-30T22:47:00.008+05:30

दोस्तों, खरीद ली हैं हमने एक साइकिल। एकदम मस्त है और चलने मैं दमदार - पूरे २१ गियर हैं! और दाम भी कम - फिर कोई वो क्यूँ ले, ये न ले (वो से मतलब महेंगी वाली firefox/ trek)

इस साईकिल का नाम है - हीरो ओक्टैन (देखें फोटो)

No, this is not a reaction to the increase in fuel prices. But, just for the record, Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Deora, it hurts!

This bike is supposed to complement the running. Had a recurring knee injury in the left leg due to my over-pronation and this bike is supposed to help me strengthen my knee and cross-train a little. Did some 25Km on it this weekend (along with a half marathon). Was good fun, coming back was little painful.

Have not taken this to office yet। Am too scared to cycle in Bangalore rush hour traffic. Someday!

Related Blog-post: Biking and etc

Big Brother is Watching

2008-06-29T22:32:00.000+05:30

Remember Orwell's 1984?

I felt something like it is happening in most modern socities. I always knew that our online lives are monitored by security agencies. I guess the IBs and RAWs are running scripts on the net to find out what we read, what we write and what we do on the net. I think expecting privacy in an online world is akin to wishing for the moon expecially in terror ridden society of ours.

But when things like this happen, you wonder if you freedom to express yourself is under threat.

Here the issue is two-fold:

1. Error in the data being given by a mobile operator
2. Undue (?) use of force by Maharashtra Police

The first issue is an easy one. Given the terror backdrop that our law enforcement set-up works in, it is natural for them to ask the service provider to provide inputs that they consider critical to their function. However, the callousness with which the Mobile Service Provider (MSP) handled this particular request is incredible. They need to understand the repercussions of any error they make here. In this case, Lakshman Kailash spent 43 days in the Yerwada jail at Pune for no fault of his.

The MSP has spent a considerable amount of PR money to keep this matter under wraps. I hope the courts award a judgment in the favor of Lakshman Kailash directing the MSP to compensate him. And I hope the compensation is large enough to ensure that the MSPs exercise utmost care in providing such information.

The second issue is the most concerning one. Having lived in Mumbai for 4 years, I know that the Shivsena/ MNS/ BJP/ Congress set-up simply loves Shivaji. He is a deity of sorts. However, they just cannot go after anyone who has something derogatory to say about Shivaji. This is a free country and people are entitled to have their views. Putting someone behind bars for more than fourty days for writing something about a maratha warlord is something I find hard to digest. People write so many derogatory things about Mahatma Gandhi but I doubt any of them is subjected to this treatment. Why?

The answer is simple: Vote-bank politics! Shivaji seems to be the top draw in marathi political scenario. The Shivaji mania is so visible in whatever Marathi Polticos do. However, the entire idea of Bangalore police co-operating with the Maharashtra police to catch the 'criminal' who wrote something 'abominable' about Shivaji seems laughable to me. Today it is Shivaji, tomorrow it might be Bal thakrey (Incidentally it did cause a furor of sorts sometime back) and who knows it might be considered bad to bad-mouth Arun Gawli and Chotta Rajan in times to come.

We are a democracy and we have the right to hold our opinions and convictions. They might not be what the establishment would have us believe. But it’s ok! As long as our expression is peaceful in nature.

But even as I write this, I have this lurking fear that my blog might be put on some kind of watch-list and tomorrow they might be knocking at my door to take me to a trip to Yerwada, Pune. So friends, Banloreans and Countrymen (and countrywomen as well), keep your eyes and ears open, I might need your help!

Search Words

2008-06-19T13:00:00.000+05:30

While I was away, this web-page had a continuous flow of traffic all the time. Initially, the increasing count on gostats made me think that I have a group of regular readers and I was really smug about it for a while. But as most of you might know or intuitively understand that such a constant stream of visitors is difficult to maintain if no updates are being made to the web-site. Unless the traffic is driven by a search engine.

And hence I started on this analysis of the visits in 2008, trying to figure out the drivers of this traffic. Search words/ Specific pages. Yes, I do such things inspite of the much avowed work-eating-any-free-time-that-I-have syndrome. As for the results, they were very interesting to say the least.

Some blogs were more popular than the others. And the posts that I like the most were hardly there. May be people do not want to hear what I'd really like to tell them.

Anyway, here goes the juice of my analysis.

Hate Hindu(s): This one was the most popular by far. Did not realize that so many people hate hindus. And this site was getting so much traffic because of this. I believe I need to put another post clarifying my position on these matters.

Cure for Drowsiness: It was a distant Second but very strong at being second. Guess a lot of people struggle with post lunch drowsiness.

Aaj Tak/ Surendra Pratap Singh/ Khabrein: SP did leave a strong impact on a certain generation. But what are they looking for?

Anupam Biswas: That fictitious guy from IITB figures in a lot of search results. Just reveals the power of chain mails.

Airtel Desh ki awaaz: I do not know why this is here. Do not remember writing about this ever. Guess it might be because I have ‘awaaz’ in the the name of the blog.

Mrig Trishna Meaning: I like this post. And like the word even more.

Pancham Songs (Various Songs at Various frequencies): This is because of the two listings of my favorite Pancham Da’s songs. But is totally unexpected because they should be totally buried in the thousands of results thrown by Google.

And all this got me interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I think any organization that wants to be successful should get some understanding on SEO. Have enclosed a link on SEO. If you are as uninitiated as I was on this subject, this would be helpful.

Of runners

2008-06-17T12:11:00.004+05:30

Lately a lot of my conversations with a set of people I know have been centered around running. Cannot help it at all. And if you are a runner, you will understand.

Got this link a few days back from a runner friend. This was a Adidas campaign some time back. All of these are so true. Most of the runners would have done some of these at some point in time.

http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Back on popular demand

2008-06-15T11:48:00.002+05:30

Actually far from it. Yes there were those handful visitors who missed me. But the traffic to this web page did not die down in the last 5-6 months. Sounds unbelievable in a way. This period of no blogging started with pre-occupation with other stuff, then manifested itself into inertia and then the need to write just disappeared.

Anyway, this post started with a visit to Chadha's blog. Read what his profile said and I felt like writing again. Chadha, I do not know if that was for me but it has certainly helped me get back to blogging. Your profile did remind me of those IIT days and the email signature that I used to have at that time.

Meanwhile, people tell me that blogging is passe and there is something new called twitter that is gaining favour with the net. I have realized that the pace at which net is changing is much faster than the rate at which I adapt these days. Finally, after half of the world had gotten a facebook ID, I got one as well. I remained an island for a while and then people started adding me. But the level of involvement till now is much lower than the initial days of Orkut.

Speaking of Orkut, I finally deleted my orkut ID. I think it was taking a lot of my time. Though I would miss the good birthday calendar that it had become.

Rest later!

The Nexus

2007-11-25T17:31:00.000+05:30

Politics and businesses often work hand-in-glove. They need to as they feed off each other. It is some kind of symbiotic relationship. I think it is required as well. But at times, they forget the consumer or think that the end consumer is a gullible, non-suspecting and defenseless if the two join hands.

Something similar happened when A Raja, Minister of Information Technology and Communication, said that TRAI needs to put together a proposal to fix minimum tariffs. The statement goes on to say that it will benefit the end consumer to a great extent. I do not think anyone from the Ministry or TRAI (Telecom Regukatory Authority of India) would be able to articulate the ‘benefits’, since there aren’t any. This is clearly an in-your-face shameless PR job.

I do understand that the Indian Telecom scene is fiercely competitive. Most firms have been facing a falling ARPU (Avg. Revenue per User). Hence, such a proposal will help the telecom companies to cap their downside. In effect, the end consumer would become price neutral beyond a point as everyone might end-up offering the same rates. Telecom market might become less competitive and companies, to their immense relief, might see the end of the era of falling tariffs. Of course, this comes at the expense of the customers (you and me) who stand to gain from the competition!

This also comes at the expense of an operator(s) who is more efficient in running its business. Such an operator would not be able to pass on any cost benefits to the customer beyond a certain point as TRAI would have capped the minimum tariff. This would imply that an operator would have no incentive to makes operations more efficient or seek better technology to become more competitive.

In a time when we are trying to make businesses more open and competitive, government should avoid taking such retrospective steps. I hope sense prevails and TRAI comes up with a proposal to do away with such an idea. As with everything else, only time would tell!

On Wednesdays

2007-11-21T23:01:00.000+05:30

"Hagar - the Horrible" From today's newspaper (Could not get the toon strip)

Hagar is back to home after a long and strenuous day of looting etc. Helga answers the door and before she can say anything, Hagar bursts, "I HATE Mondays"

"But today's Wednesday", A bemused Helga replies.

"In that case, I am not crazy about Wednesdays either!", Says Hagar.

I cannot agree more.

Childhood Dreams

2007-09-28T00:26:00.000+05:30

Was reading this article on WSJ that talked about a Professor at CMU. Someone by the name of Randy Pausch who gave his last lecture at CMU a few days back. He is suffering from Pancreatic Cancer and will die in a few days.

This one is so full of life! So I am linking it up here.

Do not worry, I am not giving up cynicism but am not that comfortable with my numbness anymore.

The Twenty-Two Yard Jihad

2007-09-26T15:03:00.000+05:30

Yes, we did it! I think an occasion big enough to get me out of my slumber and type out a small note on this page. It was an awesome feeling. A match worthy of a final. Seems to be a good year for India in sports. First Football then Hockey and now Cricket. The 'boys' did us proud.

However, I found the post match conference very interesting. With Shoaib Malik thanking all the Muslims all over the world for supporting Pakistan and getting all apologetic for letting them down.

“I want to thank everyone back home in Pakistan and Muslims all over the world. Thank you very much and I’m sorry that we didn’t win, but we did give our 100 per cent,” Malik said.

Who is he playing for? He should realize that only a small proportion of all Muslims live in Pakistan and not all of them are interested in Cricket. Incidentally, who would Kaneria play for? I believe the answer would be Pakistan and not a specific religion. Almost all teams today have a mix of multiple ethnic identities in their teams.

I think that religion or faith is a personal thing and that is the way it should be treated. As a captain, he should understand that he is speaking for his team. Even though almost all of his team is made up by Muslims, I doubt religion is the reason why they play. I think the glamour, money and pride in playing for the nation (in that order at times) are the reasons why anyone in the sub-continent would be attracted towards the game.

The seductive powers of Religion and the need to confirm socially has played a strong part in the team dynamics of Pakistan. With Yusuf Youhana converting to Islam from Christianity, Sayeed Anwar sporting the beard and the wide cracks in team structure because of public display of religious beliefs - team Pakistan has seen it all. And not all with great results. It has been a bad year for them (apart from T20) and it would do them some good to concentrate on the game and avoid religious overtones. It has taken some time to reduce racism in the cricketing world and the last thing anyone would want is polarization in the name of religion.

Off the Road

2007-08-31T23:46:00.000+05:30

Sometime back we started getting bored of the usual running haunts in Bangalore and then someone suggested these two places. Two amazing ways to start your weekend. The one overlooking the lake is from the monolith of Savan-durga and the trail going into the woods is of Bellandur.

Next time you come down to Blore, do remind me to take you to one of these places.

सब दीवारें तोड़ दो!

2007-08-24T23:58:00.000+05:30

Saw this on a trip to Nandi Hills

Total filmy laga - the fort that might have been of tactical importance has become lovers' hideout! Actually, the amount of grafitti on the walls really ticked me off। But I will reserve my views on ASI and its attempts to 'conserve' monuments for some other time. Don't know if this story took off at all or may be this was some guy's imagination at work but if it happened, it surely would have been interesting!

Nine Decades of Non-violence

2007-08-23T23:26:00.000+05:30

Read this article, Nine Decades of Non-violence, in The Hindu (August 23, 2007). It is a piece about Baji Mohammed who is one of the last living freedom fighters of India. Sainath starts it off as a telling tale of our increasing religious intolerance but soon veers on to the journey of Satyagraha and our own freedom.

Some excerpts:

“We were sitting in the tent, they tore it down. We kept sitting,” the old freedom fighter told us. “They threw water on the ground and at us. They tried making the ground wet and difficult to sit on. We remained seated. Then when I went to drink some water and bent down near the tap, they smashed me on the head, fracturing my skull. I had to be rushed to hospital.”

Baji Mohammed is one of India’s last living freedom fighters — just one of four or five nationally recognised ones still alive in Orissa’s Koraput region. He is not talking about British brutality in 1942.(Though he has much to say on that, too.) He’s describing the vicious attack on him during the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, half a century later. “I was there as part of a 100-member peace team.” But the team was given no peace. The old Gandhian fighter, already in his mid-seventies, spent ten days in hospital and a month in a Varanasi ashram recovering from the injury to his head.

Lets Kill The Brand

2007-08-10T10:34:00.000+05:30

These things often start with an advertisement. Somebody in the HRD ministry had this idea of putting up an advertisement in all the newspapers calling for applications to the IIM director’s post. This is indeed in line with the tempestuous relationship that the IIMs have had with the HRD ministry of the governments of the last decade. One might want to ask, what is the big deal with a seemingly harmless advert? Traditionally, the Director’s name has been proposed by the governing council of the institutes and the approved by the HRD ministry. The approval has been a formality but it seems that things might change as the man in the charge of human resource development for the nation wants to meddle more. Bakul Dholakia (Director, IIMA) was initially combative and then allegedly struck a re-conciliatory note (With TOI group, everything has to be allegedly).

What is the big deal with autonomy? Institutes like the IITs and IIMs want greater autonomy because they want the freedom to fix salaries (get/retain the best faculty), start cross-border collaboration programs, improve infrastructure, spend on capability building initiatives etc. However, governments have wanted to increase their grip on these institutes of excellence because it makes strong political statement. I am not sure about the target segment of voters that they are trying to approach via this increasingly meddlesome approach.

So while these steps try to destroy the last vestiges of idealism and excellence in the country, I hope someone wants to build something as well. Governments should try and build alternate brands to the IITs and the IIMs. Merely creating more of such institutes might be counter-productive at best. It would be better if they inject funds for infra development and to attract better faculty at the NITs and the next line of Management institutes. While such steps make headlines, I really wonder if Arjun Singh is bothered beyond gaining some cheap publicity out of this. Would be great if his bunch of cronies apply themselves to improving the primary and the secondary education infrastructure than with such retro steps. Anyway, all this would be nothing more that noise for them so let me not waste my time either.

Lage Raho

2007-08-09T02:34:00.000+05:30

As I type this there are at least three online petitions trying to garner, what else, support. The petitioners are pitching the case of Munna Bhai to our government. The underlying motif being that the guy who preaches Gandigiri cannot be bad. He should not be made to serve his (excessive) sentence. Have we lost it totally? I would want to think that the answer to that is NO! However I seriously doubt the sanity of the 148 and 4300 people who have signed it on gopetition.com and petitiononline respectively.

Here’s an excerpt from the petition on petitiononline.com (You will have to read the comments to believe them with some comparing Sanjay Dutt with Valmiki)

Sanjay Dutt has already suffered 14 long grueling years waiting for the verdict… He has served 18 months in jail as an under trial….He has already repented a lot more for a mistake committed in his youth… As far as I can remember we all have always been taught that the reason a person is jailed is in order to make him a better person .. a more reformed individual fit for the society… And in no way is a person jailed just to punish him…. So why jail a person who has already repented and gone through so much of anguish and pain in the last 14 years of this trial ..Why jail a person who is already reformed? Why jail a person who is in no way harmful to the society… And anyway who are we to punish some one for his mistakes … Just like Jesus Christ once said “Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone”

I never knew that Law aims only to reform and not to punish. Whatever happened to the good old idea of setting a precedent and acting as a deterrent to any deviant behavior! Another argument put forth is that if a person has asked for forgiveness and apologized for the ‘mistake’ he should be let off. Would we be willing to do that in the case of a normal thug?

May be I should not be reacting to this. May be it is too childish… just a simple case of confusing the screen identity for all that the person stands for. May be it is just a belief that future should have a smaller weight attached to the past. But that does not mean that one can get away from his past. And that is the way things should be! It is important to set this precedent so that public personalities understand that they are not above the law. Hope that the budding Salmans, Pataudis, Nandas and others with the financial muscle would take a lesson from this and would sincerely try not to side-step the law all the time.

Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kate!

2007-08-08T18:35:00.000+05:30

Routine.

Handphone alarm goes off at 5:15 AM – the familiar screech and the flashing message of ‘WAKE UP!’ I woke up with the desire of snuggling back into the comfort of the quilt. Desire often comes with a gnawing guilt. This time it was the commitment to Praveen that I would tag along for the Wednesday Speed training at Cubbon park. I did what felt right!

I caved.

So I shot a message that I had sprained my ankle and would not be able to join in. Thus, buying some more time for sleep (and exonerating myself from any value judgment that preveen might make). Guilt had her own way of finding her way back into my consciousness. Hence, when I woke up at 7:00 AM I was remorseful for not having run. So I rushed and put on my shoes. A healthy 6 Km run at an above average pace. Felt great! Last 600m, I sped and guess what, I sprained my ankle!

Am just hoping that I would be in shape for the weekend runs!

Are We Biased?

2007-08-06T13:37:00.000+05:30

Three interesting ‘events’ that happened in the recent past makes me feel that the Law enforcement machinery is biased. Biased negatively towards the Muslim populace in the country (if not inclined towards the Hindu majority).

Event 1: Md. Haneef is detained under Australian terror laws and is subsequently freed after the public outcry in Australia

Event 2: Sanjay Dutt’s conviction in the Bombay Blasts case ends with a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for six years

Event 3: Sulaiman Memon is acquitted after spending 6 long years in jail as an under-trial whilst his wife is handed a life sentence

From Frontline on the Mumbai blasts case:

Zakir Hussain burst out in court that the judiciary was biased.
“If a Hindu does something, a commission is set up. But if a Muslim does something, he is hanged,” he shouted.

Outside the courtroom, family members of the convicted echoed this sentiment. “It was one-sided. What happened to the Srikrishna Commission report? Why was it not implemented? What happened to those who killed innocent Muslims during the riots?” asked an inconsolable Ismailbi, Abdul Khan’s mother

In the blasts case, 100 have been sentenced, 12 have been sentenced to death, 20 given life terms. I cannot help but wonder that if it were Salman Khan in place of Sanju baba in the ‘AK-56 possession’ case, it might have been a longer sentence. Someone would need to answer these questions that the media and a few in the society have been asking. The congress government that believes that they are the most secular of governments in recent times might want to hazard an answer to them. I think they will try and make some politically correct statements given the fact that the Loksabha elections are not too far now!

What is an act of terror? I do not know how the law defines it but I do believe that organized riots like the ones in Sikh riots (1984), Mumbai Riots (1992-93), Gujarat Riots (2003) are also acts of terror. However the Indian law enforcement machinery would not want to pass any sentence on any of these with such sense of idealism that we have seen in the Mumbai blasts case. Mind you, I am not saying that the judgments by Justice PD Kode were wrong. I hope that they are as righteous as such cases should be, especially in terms of setting the right precedent. But I cannot help but wonder what happened to the report submitted by Justice Srikrishna commission. The NDA government in power (Centre and State) did its bit to rubbish it but the present regime is not worried about it either. Was it because the ‘fish’ named were too big to be nabbed by the net of the Law?

Dr. Haneef’s episode is another case-in-point to illustrate the bias in our government machinery. It curiously refused to (re)act. I think the conclusions of team at the (Ministry of External Affairs) would have been in line with the English and the Australian government i.e. Muslim=Terrorist!! I fail to understand how MEA forgot that he is an Indian citizen as well. Was it not our responsibility to speak-up on his behalf? The lackadaisical requests that the government made (post the public outcry in Australia and their media) were lame at best. Though we did get loud once it was clear that he would be let off the hook. Our media acted in a similar fashion.

However, in Sanju Baba’s case the media (and some from political jamboree) is all over the place, shouting themselves hoarse about the ‘unfair’ nature of the sentence. We have spin doctors telling us how he has a heart of gold, how he shared a wonderful rapport with Abhishek Bacchan and Zayed khan and how he advised DJ Aqeel against the usage of dugs etc. I understand that they believe that these are reasons good enough for Mr. Dutt to be released or to be awarded a truncated sentence! These ‘supporters’ seem to believe that illegal procurement of arms from the chief conspirator and then their destruction to save oneself from the law does not warrant this kind of a sentence. Not to forget that he was named a co-conspirator in the initial phases of the case, a charge that was subsequently dropped.

Sulaiman saw his business destroyed in the 6 years he spent in Jail. His wife Rubina got a life sentence because her car was used in the bombing. Apparently there is no other evidence that she was a part of the planning or abetted the conspiracy. However, the lady behind the veil who might have not had any clue about what her Brothers-in-law were up to will spend the rest of her life behind bars.

While our law ensures that the guilty are punished, it should also appear impartial. We might find it increasingly difficult to include the Gen-next of muslims in our mainstream if they cannot trust the Government. They need to believe that the law is impartial and would punish the guilty irrespective of their religious moorings. A good starting point might be a quick closure on all riot cases that have been stowed away in cold storage. I hope it is not too much to ask for!

The World's gone Potty

2007-07-20T22:34:00.000+05:30

Trusted sources tell me that the first few words are:

The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other’s chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.
Apparently a few of us cannot wait anymore. So words and phrases and rumours are doing rounds. Relax, am not about to disclose anything here on the lines of 'Snape killed Dumbledore'. Betting sites are doing brisk business on 'Harry and Ginny Dying', 'Ron and Hermione dying', 'Regulus Black being R.A.B.' and, hold your breath, 'Minerva McGonagall being the humble servant of Voldemort in Hogwarts'. News anchors who have not read a single Harry Potter book are getting very excited about the entire thing. Almost everyone knows that the new book gets released tonight.

Somehow I feel nauseated with this marketing/PR operation being run by publishers and retailers. It seems like an overdose of Harry to my muggle mind. I do understand that some of the excitement is genuine and anticipated but the mass hysteria is a cleverly managed production of the marketing types. I think the entire campaign should have been a little muted and controlled in its execution. For the last 50 days, there has not been a single day when I have not encountered media coverage on something related to either the Celluloid or Cellulose format of JK Rowling's creation. Am tired and in a way relieved that this tamasha is finally coming to an end. Here's hoping that JK Rowling writes nothing of Harry's adventures anymore!

Disclosure: Have pre-ordered the book. Would like to proclaim myself a victim of the sales exercise.

Kal, Aaj aur Kal

2007-07-16T16:48:00.000+05:30

We were at Sonakshi Sharma’s place. Her waiters conveniently ignoring us while we kept ourselves busy with some idle chatter. The conversation following the typical pattern: women, movies, sports and politics. As we chanced onto this animated discussion about agricultural expertise of Amitabh Bachan, the music system started playing ‘Main Jahan Rahoon’ from Namaste London. Just like that dog of Pavlov, we changed gears and started discussing Katrina. So who was the Katrinaisque leading lady of the 70s? Without doubt, Saira Bano! And B&W era? Sadhna? So it carried on. The discussion about finding the parallels across the years of bollywood history.

Am sure there would be many more. But no more time to kill – will stop here!

Addendem: Happy Birthday

2007-06-28T20:47:00.000+05:30

Adding a few more numbers (in no order of preference):

1. Aaj Kal Paon Zameen par - Ghar
2. Tujhse Naaraz nahin Jindagi - Masoom
3. Yeh Mera Dil to Pagal Hai - Gardish
4. Tumhe Chorr kar Ab jeene ko - Basera
5. Tu Tu hai Wahi - Yeh Wada Raha
6. Jab Andhera Hota hai - Raja Rani
7. Jeevan ke Har mod par - Jhoota Kaheen Ka
8. Roz Roz Aakhon Tale - Jeeva
9. Rah Pe rahte Hain - Bamkeen
10. O Mere Sona Re - Teesri Manzil
11. Ek hi Khawaab - Kinara

There are many many more of them. It is impossible to capture his genius in a couple of lists!

Happy Birthday

2007-06-27T18:00:00.000+05:30

Happy Birthday Pancham! Thanks for all the music!

Most of the pre-90s generation has grown up with RD’s music forming the background score of our lives. Most of the time we have associated him with the wild beats and pulsating music that the songs like ‘Dum Maro Dum’, ‘Mehbooba’, ‘Poocho na yaar’, ‘Aapke Kamrein mein’ etc. While he defined music for the angst filled generation of the 70s, he was one of the most melodious music directors that have had anything to do with Indian film music.

All time Favourite Pancham Melodies:

1. Chotti Si Kahani Se – Ijjazat
2. Phir Wohi Raat hai – Ghar
3. Huzur is kadar bhi na – Masoom
4. Kaheen na Jaa – Bade Dil Wala
5. Khamosh sa Afsana – Libaas
6. Chaand Mera Dil – Hum kisi se kam nain (the wakau number)
7. Kis mod se jaatein hai – Aandhi
8. Aye Ri Pawan – Bemisaal
9. Tumne Mujhe Dekha – Teesri Manzil
10. Gum hai kissi ki Yaad Mein – Rampur Ka Lakshman
11. Tere liye Palkon ki Jhalar Bunoon – Harjayee
12. Kahana Hai aaj tumse Pheli baar – Padosan
13. Tumse Milke AISA Laga – Parinda
14. Yaadon ki Baraat – Yaadon ki Baarat (especially the antras)
15. Gulmohar gar tumhara naam hota – Devtaa
16. Aane Waala Pal – Golmaal
17. Kis liye maine pyaar kiya – The Train
18. Chingaru Koi Bhadke – Amar Prem
19. Tum Bin Jaun Kahan – Pyar ka Mausam
20. Sholay Theme – Sholay (Honorary Mention)

You might notice that all these songs were either the songs of sadness, separation or longing and even philosophical… all of them in minor chords. But absolute soul stirrers nonetheless!

Yeh thi khabarein aaj tak

2007-06-25T19:26:00.002+05:30

Many of us would remember ‘The World This Week’ that was presented by Prannoy Roy in his signature style in the 80s. The program remained our window to the world news for long. Many of us would also remember ‘Parakh’ that was hosted by Vinod Dua in his booming voice. But as I read this article today, I realized that how much I have forgotten and how much I miss SP… SP who? Surendra Pratap Singh of the Aaj Tak days. Aaj Tak not the news channel of ‘Shweta Tiwari’s married life in tatters - breaking news’ fame but of the most charming sign-off line in the history of Indian News reporting. Remember SP’s spirited 'Yeh thi khabarein aaj tak; intezar khijeye kal tak.’

I still believe that it was one of the best news shows on Indian Television. I would tend to favour it because it was in Hindi but even if I take off the hindi bias that I have, it was a hard-hitting no-nonsense show that was exemplary in content and style. Most of our modern day journalists have styled their delivery style on SP. Over the years, the number of news channels has proliferated but sadly there are hardly any good anchors at least in Hindi. We have to make do with a watered down Dua, an over-the-top Rajat Sharma and air-between-the-ears kind of non-sensical bodies. In such times, SP you are sorely missed…

Madam President

2007-06-21T18:38:00.000+05:30

Finally, the Congress government has been able to grab a spot for itself in history. Of course, this is under the foregone assumption that the 54% strong majority will not jump sides over a minor issue like the president’s election. What is even more astounding (and scary as well) is that we would have the same woman as the Prime Minister as well? There are absolutely no-limits to what Sonia Gandhi can achieve. I mean she has a full-time job as the Prime Minister but she wants more! So another unsuspecting (?) dummy candidate is being brought into the fray.

We are in a situation where the Prime Minister’s Offices have been brought into such disrepute that the constituents of the government have scant regard for anything to do with that office. The parallel power centre rather the power centre of this government resides in 10-11 Janpath and each member of the coalition know which side of the bread is buttered! I have admired the astuteness with which Sonia has managed her political courier. Even with her legacy, it was a tough job and she has done well for herself. Whether she has done well for India would be a discussion that would die even before developing into a full blown argument!

However, this inexplicable urge of sullying the President’s office cannot and should not be ignored. I would like to believe that being a staunch loyalist to the Gandhi family should not be the only qualification under consideration for the country’s highest office. Some might want to argue that the President is nothing but a figurehead – so it does not matter. That is the precise reason why it matters! The same figurehead is one of the brand ambassadors of my country to the rest of the world. Governor Patil might have had a clean record as a politician but I will be unable to stand her as my president because she at best would be a façade for the Italian lady who governs our country. This would be nothing more than a re-run of the Indira-Jail Singh episode. From the reports that I have been hearing & reading, irrespective of the desires of many of us, the inevitable is bound to happen…

As We Age

2007-05-29T00:43:00.001+05:30

60^th Year of Independence, 150^th anniversary of the first war of independence and the 57^th year of the Republic are the numbers that indicate our aging as a nation. As we age, I get a feeling that we have leapfrogged the stage of maturity and are knocking at the doors of senility. Lagta hai sathiya gaye hain hum log! How else do you explain the increasing fundamentalist rhetoric in the country? I guess most of you would be aware about the not so recent happenings at the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) Baroda. IITB visitors to this blog would remember it as the college with hot women that always missed the podium at the FashP in Mood Indigo! Anyway, Chandramohan Srilamantula, a student of the arts faculty at MSU happened to work on three graphic illustrations, two on the Indian Mythology (One on Durga and another on the lines of Dashavataram) and a third one featuring the Cross in an internal examination. Apparently the fragile religious sentiments of a few were bruised. Lo and behold, we had ‘activists’ from VHP/ BJP/ Bajrang Dal and a few motley Christian groups protesting against this attack on the ‘Indian’ culture and traditions. And in a total before-you-blink kind of style, the Gujarat Police exercised its powers and quickly arrested the ‘culprit’ for hurting, what else, religious sentiments. Most of the university faculty and student community was aghast at this development. The Dean of the Arts Faculty at MSU, Shivaji Panikkar refused to issue an apology and was immediately suspended at the behest of the state government. Incidentally, the student – Chandramohan happens to be the only student from Gujarat in 2005-06 to receive the prestigious Lalit Kala Academy National award for exhibited excellence in his works.

The detractors claimed that even the students were against this unabashed depiction of religious figures. We had the young student leaders (who of course are in their early 40s/late 30s) of the BJP affiliated ABVP wax eloquent about the vulgar and brazen nature of the illustrations. The leader of the opposition, a certain Lal Krishna Advani had the gall to say that freedom of expression is contingent to religious sentiments not being hurt! I fail to understand his locus standi at his crude attempt to qualify one of my fundamental rights. Hope someone has the good sense of reminding him that India is still the democracy and thankfully not the ‘Ram-rajya’ that he and his cohort of buffoons might want her to be!

And of course, there has been this fresh furore over the sketches of one MF Hussain and a ludicrous judgment issued by a lower court in Haridwar. Thankfully, good sense prevailed as the 24 hr news machinery cried itself hoarse and we had the Supreme Court stalling the order. It would be interesting to note that Hussain had relocated to Dubai 6 years back due to the constant outbursts of the ‘hurt’ segments! We have also seen the drama around non-hindus not being allowed to enter temples. Yesudas was denied entrance to the Guruvayur Temple because he is not a Hindu. Though there seems to be no hesitation in playing bhajans sung by the same yesudas in the temple. I have entered the Dargah Shareef at Ajmer and the Buddhist Gompas in Ladakh without anyone enquiring about my religious beliefs. I wonder what happened to the Hindu philosophy of ‘vasudhaiv kutumbam’ – entire world being one large family! We also have had Christian associations creating a scene around the release Da Vinci’s Code. This happened whilst the rest of the Christian world, which is numerically stronger, allowed screening of the film without much hue and cry! Guess I can simply go on and on – on this!

All this and the day-to-day incidents make me feel that we are losing it as a nation. We are a 5000 year old civilization and I think its time we act our age. I fail to understand how we have managed to pollute the moderate nature of our way-of-life! I try but cannot justify the free proliferation of fundamentalists in our country. It might be possible that all is not lost yet. We have some voices that have been unequivocal in their support for the freedom of expression. But it is high time that moderates stop being ~~nonchalant~~ … I mean non-vocal about the increasingly extremist events in the society. For whatever it is worth, Hindustan is one of the few successful democracies to emerge out of the imperialist era. It is important that we do not fall into the ‘righteous’ trap of fascism. So speak up, you also have a stake and an important one at that!

A Worthy Thought

2007-05-28T15:55:00.000+05:30

Read this at the beginning of a movie on HBO. Do not know how the movie was as I left it almost as soon as it started but the thought, one that has been attributed to Plato, lingered …

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle!

Really??

In the loving memory of Keeda

2007-05-09T20:45:00.000+05:30

Got this forward a few days back. Yes, I still know people who believe that Orkut, yahoo and every other portal is dying to shell out money for saving someone’s life (Mind you, nothing less!). One of those mails that prompt you into using shift+delete, if you happen to use Microsoft outlook. Read through:

IIT Bombay student Anupam Biswas 5th Year Mechanical Engg is suffering from Colukabki (caused due to excessive nabad and depression) a disease very rarely found (3 in a billion). His condition is very pathetic and the treatment is very expensive, obviously his parents are not able to afford his treatment. Orkut has agreed to pay 1 paisa after each time this message is forward. So please pass to all ur friends. Please i request you to pass it to as many people as u can and lets try to save someone's life. I request please do not ignore this. It will take less than 1 min of urs to help save someone's life

This was so IITisque keeda that I could not help but smile! It had IITB written all over it. Am sure there would be some Anupam Biswas who would have been nbdoo and there would have been lots and lots of people who would have wanted to take his case! By the way, NBD (pronounced: nabad) is a high strung state – almost at the verge of Nervous Break Down (abbr: NBD) – frequently used to take a jibe at someone by the keedabaajs. The colloquial usage is for insulting anyone who gets tense about something that you are cool with. For e.g., Abey nbdoo, kyun nbd le raha hai, endsems poore aadhe ghante door hai!!

Anyway, this post is dedicated to all keedas and all my partners-in-crime! Relax, Am not about to recount them on this forum ;). However, we can probably take this opportunity to tell ourselves that we have started taking life too seriously, ‘ITNIII Nbd mat le yaar!’

Quiz Show : Re-visited

2007-05-02T00:21:00.000+05:30

KBC seems to be in the hot seat. The Delhi High Court has directed the MRTPC (Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission) to probe into the way the Quiz show is conducted. It was a story that has been in the making for long. People and more importantly the media, feel that KBC for celebrities is easier than it is for the normal participants. The impression gathered critical mass as the celebrities started winning hefty cash prizes. As murmurs grew into noise, we had a Mr. Anuj Kumar Bharti filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with the Delhi high court. Apparently, general junta seems to be surprised at this!

This is a repeat of the Federal Communications Commission Vs American broadcasting Company Inc. case that played itself out in the United States in 1950s. The 1994 movie Quiz Show captured the drama on celluloid. The show in question was Twenty One. The participant had to answer more questions than a competitor to get onto a total score of 21 before the competitor to win the big cash prize. This continued week-on-week till a 'Challenger' got to the magical number of 21 before the original participant.

The final judgment in the case under discussion was in the favour of the defendant (ABC et al). The argument being that the show was an entertainment show. It was not supposed to be an educational program. The defendant’s lawyers went on to compare the show to a ‘give-away’ on TV – only to add a qualifier that it was a slightly involved kind of a ‘give-away’ with a huge cash sum involved (Click on that link above if you need to know all the details). All the participants in the US TV show, Tewnty One, signed an agreement with the firm that made them a willing party to the photo-op.

The argument might hold true in the Indian Case as well. Though, a big difference being that Airtel made a lot of money from SMS and Phone Calls to the KBC dedicated lines. I am guessing that Star and Mr. Basu’s firm Synergy will admit to rigging the show and claim that there is nothing wrong with it. I happen to agree to this as well. After all, it is not more than a comic act at best. Also, it might be compared to a lottery. However, in India, a company needs a license to run a lottery. Plus, many states have made lotteries illegal. So the show might be on the wrong side of the law not because of the MRTPC regulations but for running an illegitimate lottery! May be some smart lawyer would compare it to a lucky draw or give-away again (taking a cue from the US case) with a large cash prize attached to it! And may be the Star TV Network and Synergy will get away with it.

Of course, the news channels will have many days worth of breaking-news from this tamasha. As far as the Indian public is concerned, we will do the usual collective loss of memory and continue to enjoy the shows and fancy the prize monies.

PS: On a totally un-related note (which incidentally is my most favorite of notes), don’t you think that 1994 was one of the best years of Hollywood with films like Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption, Léon and The Lion King! This list remains small as I am not including the popular hit movies like The Mask, Four Wedding and a Funeral etc. in this list.

The (Ab)Use Of Power

2007-04-28T17:05:00.000+05:30

Power Corrupts! We have known this aphorism since recorded history and beyond. But does it inject imbecility as well? George W Bush vows to veto the senate vote! Would like to issue an anticipatory apology to the imbeciles for the comparison. And interestingly, he is not the only person who believes that the war is justified. Almost half of the US senate believes the same as well. I hope someone does a VLCC style ‘Before’ and ‘After’ of Iraq for him. Common people across the globe are being affected in one way or the other. The brutal killing of Suryanarayana in the not so recent past reminds us how neutral countries might be affected as well.

River and her family are moving from Baghdad. This is what she had to say about leaving:

On the one hand, I know that leaving the country and starting a new life somewhere else- as yet unknown- is such a huge thing that it should dwarf every trivial concern. The funny thing is that it’s the trivial that seems to occupy our lives. We discuss whether to take photo albums or leave them behind. Can I bring along a stuffed animal I've had since the age of four? Is there room for E.'s guitar? What clothes do we take? Summer clothes? The winter clothes too? What about my books? What about the CDs, the baby pictures?

The problem is that we don't even know if we'll ever see this stuff again. We don't know if whatever we leave, including the house, will be available when and if we come back. There are moments when the injustice of having to leave your country, simply because an imbecile got it into his head to invade it, is overwhelming. It is unfair that in order to survive and live normally, we have to leave our home and what remains of family and friends… And to what?

It's difficult to decide which is more frightening- car bombs and militias, or having to leave everything you know and love, to some unspecified place for a future where nothing is certain.

I still cannot believe that Oil and a slightly sluggish US economy prompted the US President and his coterie of yes-men into this conflict. As a bystander, I have the option of doing the helpless shrug and forgetting about this. But the problem is that I am not a bystander anymore. Such conflicts are increasingly polarizing the world. I believe this is the most significant threat to world peace since the cold-war and the nuclear arms race. Images like these can induce indignation and vengeance in the most gentle of souls. However, the political rhetoric around the conflict continues to instigate than to reconcile.

India faces a significant threat from this polarization. The Hindu-Muslim relations have been strained due to a variety of reasons. The report prepared by Justice Rajinder Sachhar highlights the failure of successive governments of assimilating the Indian Muslim into the Indian Social fabric. Given the porous borders and the strong presence of separatist elements in the country, we run a significant risk of disrupting the precarious peace in many parts of India. I do not know if we can afford the indifference of the Indian government on this issue. I do not understand the love-affair of our politicians with the technique of silent protests. What is the reason for this inexplicable silence? At least, the French had the gumption to speak-up!

At times, I think if this scenario is similar to the policy of appeasement that the European powers used during the rise of Hitler. Given the present nuclear balance, the next world war cannot be amongst nation states. It will be a wide-spread uncontrollable skirmish. Are we already into the Third World War? I really hope not!

A Little Dash Of Irrationality

2007-04-26T12:35:00.000+05:30

When things like this happen, I start feeling that we are approaching a point where too much money is chasing woefully small number of opportunities. The event might not even qualify as a rounding-off error in the 350$B Revenues for the year that Wal-Mart closed exit January but what makes me so vexed about it is the inappropriateness of the entire affair. They do need to make the right noises to speed-up the legislation for allowing FDI in retail. But, is this the best trick they have got to lobby with the Indian Government? I am sure that it is not and if the Indian management of this firm thinks otherwise it desperately needs a re-jig. I hope someone is inquiring about the results expected from such an exercise.

It is the same with Cricket, all advertising money chasing one game. This year’s ICC world cup is a case-in-point. Every marketing manager worth his salt might have constructed an IMP (Integrated Marketing Plan) around the world-cup. A host of promotional activities, ad-campaigns, event and what-not planned around it. Even if the India-Pakistan teams were to make it super 8s, most of these plans would have fetched a poor ROI for the firms. At best it would have ended as another bullet point on someone’s CV, who would have then moved on to a better role within or outside the firm. As for money spent on such an activity, one can always site the fact that it is of tactical importance to do so since the competitors would be doing it anyway!

And what is the deal with Jhanvi Kapoor? Out of hibernation on the wedding day? The entire drama was outright hilarious. Apart from the Aj-taks and Mid-Days, International Herald Tribune and Fox News could not resist her charm as well. Indeed she got all the hype that she was looking for but where are film offers that she might have thought would come her way. Even Ekta Kapoor is not willing to cast her in Kayamath (Yes! that is the spelling). And what is the deal with Ekta kapoor? Even the Kanadda and Tamil serials are as weird as the hindi names e.g. kadambariii!

Yes, the world is irrational. And that is the reason why economists and statisticians have a job. The more they try to untangle this chaos into identifiable patterns the more arcane it seems to get. Thankfully, the world is not yet, as insane as it is irrational. Anyway, a little dash of irrationality is something that makes it livable, Warna yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai?

The Typical Day

2007-04-19T01:10:00.000+05:30

At times, Dilbert is spot on with the day you have had at work. Had one of those days. This strip of three published two days back sums it up really well.

Scott Adams quit working long time back. The fact that he keeps getting these ideas truly amazes me!

गद गद हो गए हैं भैय्या

2007-04-17T12:04:00.000+05:30

एकदम गज़ब का आइटम लेकर आयी है गूगल इस बार! बाग़ बाग़ हो गएँ हैं हम तो... आप लोगों का क्या ख़्याल है? आशा करते हैं की बाक़ी ब्लॉगर बंधु भी इसका भरपूर इस्तेमाल करेंगे

इसी आशा से ओत-प्रोत (हाँ भाई अभी पूरी ठीक नहीं हुई है)

आपका
भीड़ मैं एक और आवाज़!

Whatever Happened To The Game!

2007-04-13T12:59:00.000+05:30

Yes, I wrote sometime back that I would not talk about cricket for a while! In hindsight, I could not have made such a declaration at a more inopportune time. While the news channels have been smattering the television screens with anything remotely connected with cricket, I have had tried hard to get onto the indifference curve with respect to the game. But have been an utter failure at it!

From the perspective of just the game, this has been the most insipid of world cups in recent memory. While everything else related to cricket grabs headlines, the game itself has taken a back stage. With Woolmer’s death, Coach-Player scuffle in India and with players being dropped for excessive drinking this World cup has the makings of a regular soap. To add to that we have our own Pawar, Vengsarkar, Senior Players and Subhash Chandra to spice-up the proceedings. I think the lure of this gossip is too strong to resist. Even the latest edition of Knowledge@Wharton has an article on the state of cricket in India.

If it were not for Bangladesh, this world cup would have been as exciting as a sun boiled Cola! They have been the source of all excitement at the tournament level. First eliminating India and then defeating South Africa in the super 8s. Arguably, they have the best spin attack in the trio of spinners (mind you – not the best spin bowlers but the best spin attack). Apart from that, Lanka’s bouts with South Africa and England got very interesting towards the end. But over all, most matches have been lop-sided. What is any sport without the proverbial unpredictability? So while one is made to concentrate to everything related to the game, one wonders what happened to the game!

Anyway, let me try my hand at being a soothsayer. As of now, it seems that the final four would be Australia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand and in that order as well. So the semi-finals would look like the following:

SF1: Australia Vs New Zealand

Outcome: Aussies get a sweet revenge of the pre-world world run down

SF2: South Africa Vs Sri Lanka

Outcome: This would be a tough one. But hoping that South Africa wins this one

Now the finals would then be a replay of the 1999 world cup and I am hoping that we see a first time winner. Even if the final clash of Aussies is with the Lankans, I hope the cup comes to the sub-continent. But most likely, the Aussies would take it third time in a row! And I think it will be in line with the bland tournament that we have had till now.

Anyway, I think the composition of the Indian team for the upcoming tour of Bangladesh would make more exciting guesswork. Any thoughts?

Finally, A Cure For The Post Lunch Drowsiness

2007-04-10T14:35:00.000+05:30

Most of the readers of this blog have faced severe sleep-attacks after a heavy lunch. In college, it was a matter of great pride. Remember those long sleep sessions so rightfully earned by bunking the classes or labs. However, this prized siesta is one of the first things that a job takes away from you. So while your boss scowls at your hopeless struggle to keep your eyes open through that presentation of gazillion slides, you just wonder if there is a cure for this deadly affliction! So while you wait to become powerful enough to take those 'power' naps, here's a stop gap arrangement for you.

A Japanese puzzle site bailed me out today, as I waited for an important meeting today. You might want to try this (http://www.robmathiowetz.com/) or some other site for the same. It was a puzzle of moderate difficulty but becomes very interesting as you battle a pair of sleep hexed eyelids.

"Everybody has to cross the river"

The following rules apply:

All of them are on the same side to begin with
Only 2 persons on the raft at a time
The father can not stay with any of the daughters, without their mother's presence
The mother can not stay with any of the sons, without their father's presence
The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member, if the Policeman is not there
Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft

Let me know if this thing works for you as well!

Say No To...

2007-04-05T23:22:00.000+05:30

Back in the 80s and mid-90s, the government wanted the populace to say no to a lot of things that are(?) considered vices. There was a special emphasis on cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, unsafe sex and other members of this party. Not very sure if that incessant messaging from the CPC of Mandi house worked. A back of the envelope calculation shows that all of them failed miserably. However, I have decided that I am not going to be discouraged by this failure of the government machinery. After all, this is what they specialize at.

I have my own agenda today. May be it was because of a sudden flashback in time. A casual discussion with a friend made me recall the Engineer's and Manager's Oath. Yes, they exist and can probably be a part of Chetan Bhagat's list of eccentricities of the IIT and the IIM life. Somewhere the authors of the oaths have skillfully slipped in a line that bounds me to repay my debt to the society. So I have decided to repay my debt and come out of this unintended delinquency!

This is my first working weekend in a long time. Do not remember working on a weekend ever since I quit The Bank! It brought back the memories of those weekends spent pushing files between the twin towers of Jeevan Bhatri and the Surya Kiran building in Connaught Place. I think all the people working in the iBank family of jobs will have a humongous treasure of such memories. Thus, extensive first hand experience and loads of hearsay puts me in this unique position of relying this message in public interest. Say no to working weekends!

In case you are the kind who looks for top returns on every second spent in life, you would be feeling a bit cheated. Am sure that the message lacked the punch for the kinds of you! Therefore, I would offer something more to you before you click on the red cross in the right corner on the top to effect a closure on this browser window. I am about to share with you something that made it a good Friday! A Salman Khan number from the film Yeh hai Jalwa. I would strongly advise you to see the video or otherwise make-do with the audio. As you might have guessed from the previous post that I am turning into an advocate of anti-piracy these days, so I will just share the lyrics. Hope you like them. Here goes:

Nahin fax, nahin xerox

Nahin telex - na computer ki floppy

[repeat along with some dancing]

[some dhinchak music]

main to mere papa ki Carbon Copy... [a half-hearted yoddle] Carbon Copy [sing to a crescendo]

Trust me, I am not making this up. It is for real!! With that, I leave you to salvage whatever remains of your weekend!

Free Fallin'

2007-04-03T20:50:00.000+05:30

The music industry worldwide is in a quandary. The sales have been on a decline for seven continuous years. For the first quarter of this year, the sales are down by 20% q-o-q! This signifies a behavioral shift in The Way Music Is Acquired (TWMIA). A cursory look over the history of music tells you that TWMIA changes every few years. So much so, that one is bound to suspect that the music industry is running a conspiracy of sorts. Every time one gets to accumulate a decent collection in a particular format, the format in which music is stored would change. Of course for the better as they would have us believe - from records to LPs to cassettes to LDs to CDs to the mp format - we have indeed come a long long way.

So every time the format changed, as a music lover you were forced to upgrade - not only the music system but the entire collection of music. A neat way of directing the flow of money from your pockets to the sales ledger kept by that stodgy accountant in the room next to the basement loo. But for the first time, the music companies are eying defeat at their own game. In a way Napster started it all. But the honors in round one were taken by the music companies. Napster was shut down. Few of my friends at IIT were served legal notices in the course of legal process as well. Since then, I have been afraid to use my real address for my online accounts. Anyway, that is beyond the scope of this discussion. Internet did prove to be a difficult medium to control for the companies. In an oblique way it was responsible for the consolidation that happened in the music industry (Sony-BMG, Universal-Vivendi etc). It did redefine the playing ground. The balance of power is now skewed in favour of the consumers for sure. Copying a cassette was cumbersome and an audio CD was next to impossible in the early days (no ubiquitous access to CD burners) and the later days (with the advent of copy protected CD) as well. But Mp format changed it all. One can burn hundreds of songs on a CDs/USB drives. Or conveniently carry thousands of them in that cool device given to you by Steve Job's army of dudes.

A recent Wall Street Journal article highlights the plight of the music industry:

In recent weeks, the music industry has posted some of the weakest sales it has ever recorded. This year has already seen the two lowest-selling No. 1 albums since Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales, was launched in 1991.

One week, "American Idol" runner-up Chris Daughtry's rock band sold just 65,000 copies of its chart-topping album; another week, the "Dreamgirls" movie soundtrack sold a mere 60,000. As recently as 2005, there were many weeks when such tallies wouldn't have been enough to crack the top 30 sellers. In prior years, it wasn't uncommon for a No. 1 record to sell 500,000 or 600,000 copies a week.

In general, even today's big titles are stalling out far earlier than they did a few years ago.

So is that the end of the music industry as we know it? Would the CD turn into a marketing shenanigan to promote tours, merchandise and future brand equity of an artist? I would reckon that it is too early to write an obituary on the structure of music industry. Online sales of music have been rising at an astounding rate of 54%. Even at this rate, the strong decline in CD sales is weighing heavy on industry giants. It would be hard to deny that these are the make or break years for the music industry. It is so easy to download music, videos etc from the ever increasing set of websites, the myspaces, mp3 blogs and the normal data transfer channels. A research report by BigChampagne claims that about a billion songs are traded on illegal file-sharing networks every month! The silver line being the fact that music is reaching more people in smaller time frames. A music lover has never had it this good ;)

However, this would make it difficult for most music companies to invest in budding artists because the risk-return equation on any album has undergone a humungous amount of change over the last decade. Even the best selling artists are finding it difficult to sell more albums. This trend stares you in the eye at the specialty retail chains like MusicWorld, Planet M etc. As late as 2002, I remember crowds thronging these music retail shops. But in 2007, after a gap of about 11 months, I stepped into the Music world at Brigade road. There were exactly 2 customers other than me in the shop – precariously low for the weekend! A walk across the road took me to planet M and the scene was not very different. The shops are not making money and it is evident in the poor quality of the décor, lighting etc – not the signs of a happening retail destination for sure.

While EMI decides to sell without anti-piracy protection in a desperate measure to improve sales, I wonder if the artists and the fans are looking down the barrel as well! If the music marketing companies meet an uncalled-for demise, what would happen for all the good music that is not mass market? What would happen to the marginal artists who are encouraged (?) by the money these companies invest in them? May be, the ‘middle-man’ would die and some internet based music release forum replaces them. May be, it would be better than the present arrangement… may be it would be worse. Only time will tell! Meanwhile let me download that number from Delhi Heights that refuses to leave my consciousness these days!

The Tonight Tamasha!

2007-03-23T19:12:00.000+05:30

It started a few weeks back. Or was it days? Who cares...? Feel like stuck in a time warp! The frenzy, the spirited send-offs, the songs sung by all and sundry have come to this. One pathetic day against Bangladesh has forced us into a nail-biting stand-off with the Lankans. I would have wished for an intense, uncertain and an interesting tussle between the ball and the bat anyway for this encounter. But this is not I would have dreamt of in the worst of my nightmares! There is a strong possibility that India be eliminated tonight. I fear for the worst and hope for the best!

This might be my last post on cricket for a long time to come. Yes, the possibility exists. Inspite of the elimination of pakistan, imminent elimination of India, Murder of Woolmer, Sledging off the field and many more of such incidents - I believe many of us would not be interested in Cricket for some time if we were to lose tonight!

With about 10,000 crores riding on the match today in betting money, one just wonders if it is all fixed. A grandiose version of Donald Trump's WWE! Hope not! I think more money enters the betting arena on other sports. As I type this Upul Tharanga has hit Agarkar for two consecutive 4s. And I think the MIB need my support and yours as well!

Here's to the underdog! Am really hoping that this is not the send-off that the stalwarts of yesteryears get. Zaheer just took off Jayasurya...

Hoping to type some more iff you-know-what happens!

Air Dhakkan

2007-03-09T21:07:00.000+05:30

Col. Gopalan would be nothing short of overjoyed at this. His heist is working out just fine. And nobody is hauling him to the consumer courts of our defunct customer protection machinery. After all, he is the messiah who has democratized Air travel for the Indian hoi-polloi. Ah! Those days of 99 Rs ticket that would get taxed by another 221 Rs. Gone are those days! Between Messers Gopalan, Krishna and the other civil aviation ministers, they have ensured that air travel does not remain ‘cheap’ anymore. Actually, some credit goes to the oil traders in US and UK exchanges as well!

I made a mistake. I make a lot of mistakes but this is special. I bought a ticket with Deccan and then decided to cancel a leg! Since that fateful decision, I have spent some 98 minutes (and counting!) on the phone listening to the instrumental version of ‘Another Day in Paradise’ and the message ‘Thank you for calling Air Deccan, please wait while your call is being transferred to a customer support executive shortly.’ I have started feeling that I know this lady intimately. No sensible woman has spent so much time talking to me in a long long time! Typical woman she is, no idea of value of time. Lady, I am telling you – 103 minutes (counting) is not shortly. Since she is almost a friend now, I take her advice when she tells me to get onto the website and do what I want to.

Being the normal sensible person I am, I did it even before she told me. But after 7 continuous clicks on ‘Cancel Bookings’ and subsequent encounters with the enclosed screen, I gave up to hear her croon! I hope god offers warranty, my ears are about to fall off!

But, when a woman nags you to get onto a website every 30 seconds for 108 minutes, you do not have much choice. So I logged on to the website. Clicked on the link and voila! A hitherto unseen page appeared before my eyes. I was almost overjoyed. With a tinge of remorse, I almost admitted to myself that at times even nagging women mean well. But how mistaken I was. Because the next page was the following:

It asked me to click on ‘Modify’ or ‘Remove’ button. Any normal person would have been baffled by so much choice. But the abnormal person I am, I embarked on the challenge just to fall short of it. WHERE ARE THE BUTTONS? NOWHERE! Sach bol raha hoon, I am planning to file a FIR at the Gumshuda talash Kendra at Daryaganj, New Delhi. Buttons ko jinda ya murda dhoondne waale ko Rs. 50000/- inaam! Looks like the Dhakkans seem to have taken the line, ‘you can checkout any time you want, but you can never leave’, too seriously!

But thankfully, I had not kept the receiver down. So after 118 minutes, and a total recall of that friends episode that Phoebe spends on the phone, Naveen gets on to the phone. I complain. He is dismissive at best. But thankfully, he does cancel my ticket. So he saved my day (Wednesday of the next week to be precise!). Kal kya hoga kisko pata! Am flying with them tomorrow! Say a small prayer for me tonight. Till then, Khuda kafiz!

Why I Hate Hindu

2007-02-27T21:02:00.001+05:30

Have been wanting to write. But could not think of anything that was not threateningly personal to some people. And life has taught me that it makes sense to keep the bakar to myself. Finally, as I was reading this in the top stories section of a newspaper, something in me got as gleeful as it could have gotten.

I subscribe to The Hindu. The no-nonsense newspaper that reports only news worthy of "reporting". So there would be 2000 word articles on health legislation in US, decline of pluralist thought in France, hung parliament in Serbia and time based extrapolative effects of the bhootmange massacre. Heavy stuff, eh? Yes, I admit, I am the masochist of the newspaper world! But every once in a while you need to know if Jade Goody is in India or if Amitabh has a thing for Vidya Balan! It is for this noble reason that I go tap-tap today!

I have a confession to make. I am, for no evident reason, missing Delhi times (To a lesser extent, the Delhi edition of TOI too) today. Those insightful discussions on the glam world, the 3.5* rating for KANK and the delightful pictorial representation of all data. My favorite was the article just after the CSO (Central Statistical Organisation) had estimated that the GDP growth rate for a particular quarter was in excess of 9%. There was this accompanying graph interposed on photograph of a girl with a tantalizingly short skirt with the caption: "Rising Hemlines: GDP growth rates move northwards." I remember Dilip Padgaonkar (TOI, Editor in Chief) justifying this by "a newspaper needs to get the attention to the important news items. We encourage usage of visual aids, as research has proven their efficacy."

Alas! N Ram of Hindu never gets to see this research. The only photograph I cannot forget from last 3 years of uninterrupted Hindu subscription is that of a punctured skull of Veerappan! Sad sight it was. No wonder I prefer to borrow TOI from my neighbours for covering shelves etc. Hindu, the dork it is, never betrays the human penchant for chak-mak gossip. One of these days they would come-up with a small article on Shivaji. But that is about it. No stories on Rakhi Sawant (the one that got the puppy), Elizabeth Taylor-Arun Nayyar wedding, John Abraham being mistaken for Antonio Banderas etc. How can a self-respecting human being exist without all of these? TOI, HT and party have this wisdom and Hindu does not! Someone please tell the content team at Hindu about the embarrassing situation that I am in, when my more informed peer group gossips about the Akshay-Salman tiff over the over-friendliness of Akshay towards Katrina! One look, only one look at me, amidst that conversation would convince Ed. Ram to revamp the entire content management strategy! Remind me to photograph myself, next time it happens.

On a serious note, Hindu sucks at sports coverage. Wonder why they cannot get some of the sportstar people to write every once in a while. Baaki sab to thik hai!

What Is Wrong With Tendulkar?

2007-02-15T19:05:00.000+05:30

Let me start of by sharing a few myths that threaten to occupy collective consciousness of cricket following populace.

"He is not a match winner any more"

"India has lost the game in most of Tendulkar's high scoring matches"

"Lara and Ganguly have won more matches for their country than Tendulkar"

"Most of his centuries have come against cricket minions"

"He is a burden on the team and we would rather someone else don the cap that he wears for India"

The operating word here is "myth" - so let me try and demystify Tendulkar's non-performance for you.

Just a look at his record and a comparison with the fellow 'greats' tells you that you are lucky to have seen him play.

Table : Top batsmen in One-day format

India has emerged victorious 29 times from the 41 centuries of Tendulkar.

The charge I hear most often is these days that SRT labors for runs. Incidentally, the records tell a different story. The time taken to reach 10K milestone by the so called more aggressive batsmen has been more. More surprise, the career strike rates of the so called quick scoring willow-men are lower as well. Amongst all the batsmen who have score more than 5000 one day runs, only Gilchrist and Jayasuriya have a higher strike rate. Even the ‘explosive’ Ponting has a lower strike rate. Tendulkar has also been a handy bowler with a 147 wicket haul to boast about. Anyway, I know I need not wax eloquent about what Tendlya is capable of, numbers speak for themselves.

Table: Matches taken to get to the 10,000 milestone

He is often charged of plundering runs against the minnows. Let us look at the record of centuries scored against Minor cricketing nations viz., Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Netherlands, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (though I believe that the Zimbabwe team of Heath Streak with the flower brothers was a good team. Remember the 3-0 white wash of the English team in 1996!)

Table: Performance against Cricket Minions

Thus, a whopping 32 centuries of Tendulkar have come against the greater cricketing powers with 6 of them against Australia. Even at 32 centuries he stands taller than all the other top run getters in ODI cricket!

Is Tendulkar a match winner? We will figure that out from the following analysis.

Table: Match winning capability

Let me explain how this table works. The first two columns are 100s and 50s made for the match-winning side by the player. Here, we see that Ponting firing means almost a certain victory for his team as the Aussies have returned victors for 86% of(f) all the matches that Ponting has scores a 50/100. But to the surprise of many Tendulkar doubters, we do win most of the times when Tendulkar fires! (Though we might all want that number of 63% to be a tad higher)

But hey! Tendulkar compares poorly with the other greats here. Why? Cricket is a team game and very often victory (or loss) is a function of how the rest of the team performs. So lets move on to the second half of the table. ‘Team performance’ is the number of matches won from all the matches that the player has played. ‘Team Dependency’ is the ratio of matches where the player has ‘scored’ and ‘Team performance – Matches won’. This ratio conveys the dependency of the team on the player for winning a match.

So Inzy seems to be blessed with a team that is least dependent on him for winning a match, he has fired in only 28% of the matches that his team has won with he as a member of playing eleven. Ponting has a lower number than most others. But that was expected, Aussies are a fearsome lot on the greens with each of the playing eleven a potential match winner! They have won 67% of all the matches that Ponting has played for them.

And unexpectedly (!), Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the best that India has got! Though the above analysis shows that Lara (42%) is marginally better than Tendulkar (40%) when it comes to winning matches for the team, Tendulkar is undoubtedly better than anyone else! He has been instrumental to team victories 40% of the times the team has won which, as the table shows, is more than most ODI batting legends. On absolute numbers, he has won more matches for his team than anyone else.

And to answer the question that the title poses, NOTHING! Yes, he has had a miserable last year. But he looks in good nick! And every cricket fan in the country hopes (at least secretly) that Tendulkar sees us through in this world cup! After all, he is the highest run getter in the cup of all times. And in the matches that India has won, he has an average of about 80!

Table: World Cup Performance

With this last deluge of numbers, I sign-off. I think all the myths have been taken care of, except the first one. So, please to do a memory refresh, he was the Man-of-the-Series for the recently concluded ODI series with West Indies!

Yeh Desh Hai Veer Jawanon Ka!

2007-02-13T20:21:00.000+05:30

The band broke into the tune of “Yeh desh hain Veer Jawanon ka” and I knew that we were close to Rambagh palace where the wedding was supposed to happen. It is a tune that never fails to amuse me especially because all the marriage bands play it at least thrice for every outing they get to make. A tried and tested number that makes that most bashful of aunties shake a leg or two! But the buzz is that kajrare is all set to dethrone it as the compulsive body shaker. In one my chit-chats with one of the uncles in one of the weddings, the topic under discussion was the inappropriateness of this song. Pat came the reply, “Arre if the jawan is not veer enough, how would he muster the courage to go through all this?”

Anyway, Bullbull was in no need for any courage, he had shown his intentions with his surprise item in the ladies Sangeet. Trusti matched him with Piya to-se naina which was as graceful as Waheeda’s actual rendition in Guide. I think all of us were awed by the well choreographed show put up by both the families. I for one was so stunned at a certain point that I could not clap. It was like watching something on TV! Finally we also ended on the dance floor and did some real mean jigs. One of the high points of the day was the trip to the railway station at 1:30 AM in the night. We did squeeze 7 people in a Wagon R. It still beats me how none of them complained! Tea was refreshing indeed. And I realized that I know more of Jaipur than I think I do!

Back to the baraat scene. It started raining. I saw a few aunties berating the groom for eating in Karahi (the belief is that it rains if the groom eats in a karahi. My mom tells me that it will rain many times over in my wedding, whenever it happens). All happened as planned. After the Jayamaal and the grub, we moved for the Pheras. The women, Tulli, Laika and Tanvir, retired for the day. Gori and Pee also gave up after a while (I seriously doubt if it was even a while!). Bhushan and I prevailed but if alternate reports are to be believed, I took sufficient power naps to be captured on camera multiple times!

Anyway, the Spice Jet flight proved to be an adventure in more than one ways. Apart from the rough take-off and landing that had my neighbour clutching the arm-rests and everything else, the experience was incredibly bad! The flight from Jaipur was just 3.5 hrs late and I almost missed my connecting flight (With Spice Jet again!). I could hardly believe my ears as I was told that Spice Jet is a point-to-point carrier and only 600 Rupees would be deducted for me missing the connecting flight! They charge you for all the inconvenience they cause you. It is your fault that you chose them in the first place. Anyway, as luck had it, the connecting flight was delayed as well. So after some confusion and a couple of “Last Call for Mr. Mehta” later, I managed to board the flight. On landing, Namma Bengaluru had the airs of a town that had a dawn to dusk bundh planned for its denizens the very next day. Perfect end to the perfect weekend! The only spoiler was the unavailability of bread at all the supermarkets. We will talk about that some other time. I think I will go download the song; it is still playing in my consciousness!

Late again!

2007-02-04T16:30:00.000+05:30

I was late again. But this time it was something that I am never late for. I think I drove like a possessed person. It was almost like being late for JEE. Another reason why it was different is that the delay was due to a friend who believes that all late comers are inflicted by a deadly disease called prateekolytis. I was late for a Kailash Kher & Lucky Ali concert. I missed almost all the songs of Kailash. He was done with Diwani and other songs of Kailasa by the time we reached IIMB. All I got was Allah ke bande, Chak-de-fatte (Kholsa ka Ghosla) and Sanu ek Pal (Cover version of Nusrat's original). Vishy, I am not forgiving you for this for a long long time to come!

Lucky Ali was good as well. He did all his hits. He is not that great a performer on stage. But he manages the sweet raspy sound that has earned him fans across the globe(?). Kailash Kher seems to more at home on stage. Finally, had to settle for a few rounds of kailasa with some vodka thrown in for good measure. So, to all the people who read this, do invite me if Kailash performs at a location close to you. I think I will be willing to travel if need be!

Talking about music, there is something magical about the voice of Chinmayee! It is nothing short of magic when she starts off with "tere binaa chaand kaa sonaa khotaa re" in Tere bina of Guru. Another in-the-loop song on winamp! Another number that fascinates is "Maula mere maula" from Anwar. Roop Kumar Rathore does an amazing job with the vocals. At times, I feel that he is one of the most underutilized singers of bollywood. A new boy by the name of Mithoon is the music director. Apparently, he shares credits with Pritam (Gangster, Mere yaar ki shaadi fame) for Bas Ek Pal.

And on an unrealted note, watch Annie Hall. Based on a real life relationship between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton (Playing themselves in the movie), it talks about Anhedonia (a state of acute melancholia with an inability to experience pleasure and enjoy oneself) - a state that Woody is trapped in. Funny with a great comic timing, must watch! Dekh Lo...

Good work ESPN

2007-02-01T20:40:00.000+05:30

ESPN is doing something really nice with PHL. The quality of the game is ok. Players still dribble a lot. Trapping is bad and passing patchy. But the speed and the uncertainty of the game of hockey is very much there. Businesses and touts do smell an opportunity here. So much so that the domain name www.phlhockey.com has been registered by some "Pylon hockey league." But ESPN got smart and registered it in a different name. The “Pile-on” was largely unsuccessful!

The coverage has stark similarities with the way NBA is covered. Players are profiled. Small interviews are shot and shown. Field incidents are covered in great detail. Doctors treating injured players give their opinion. Time-out conversations are shown. And the best part is that most of it is in Hindi! So you cannot help but feel the excitement when the Maratha Warriors coach tells Viren Rasquinha to "Ball lekar uske left side se nikal ja, wahan par reflex kharaab hai". You have to rejoice when Mukesh Kumar puts his fingers between his lips and whistles away to glory as Shakeel Abbasi manages to find the net.

However, the sad part is that the numbers in the stadium are miniscule. But it feels great to see the ball rolling under the flood lights. If only KPS Gill does something similar on the administration side of things! But that would be to expect too much from someone who is shamefully power hungry. We probably have the best team in years but all that talent seems to be destined to ignominy. Any hockey follower would have been weaned away from the game because of what Mr. Gill has been doing to Indian Hockey. If only Mani Shankar Aiyar (Minister of Sports and Youth Affaris) does something, i.e. get someone capable and passionate at the helm of affairs, we might get a chance to see what the present team is capable of!

AWOL

2007-01-31T02:04:00.000+05:30

I have been away, to use an acronym from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century, AWOL! Have traveled a bit and had the last two Mondays as non-working. So life has been looking up!

Mathur got married. But I cannot write about marriages without writing a long piece about Namu's wedding. So will skip that with the remark that I have a few hundred rupees notes as sabashi for the incessant dancing, which has been ascribed the unbecoming verb of body-throwing in my specific context, on Mathur's Mehendi-Ki-raat. I think it might have to do something with the adulterated Limca that I laced my inners with! But thanks to this wedding, I got to see Lodhi Garden in Delhi. Beautiful place, one has to visit this place to believe that it is in Delhi. I think Delhi has many such treats to offer but one never gets down to enjoying them when he is around!

And then I visited the hallowed city of Rajnikant and his adoring fans. Stayed three houses away from Ms. Jayalalitha. She does have a huge house for a single woman of her age. Anyway it is always good to be back in Chennai (for a short while, I must add - just in case, there is a god and has a funny sense of humour). So I was there for a visa interview. People in U.S., no need to raise the alarm. This was more of a just-in-case visa and nothing to do with a visit in the offing. But the entire experience of getting a visa is very humbling or did-I-mean humiliating, indeed! Even the guards at the consulate treat you with a lot of antagonism. The Consulate in-charge gives the most condescending of lectures on "how to handle your visa interview".

"Say Hello to you interviewer. What would you say?"

Silence

"I did not hear anything"

Some people mumble Hello.

"Did you say something?"

That does elicit a louder Hello! And he goes on to complete his set of instructions which are as helpful as the one that was just discussed. To add injury to salt (or it is the reverse), I got ripped off by an autowallah. I really hate being ripped off, especially by the autowallahs. Amma! They are still not using the fare meters.

This is the centenary year of Satyagriha. And Gandhigiri is all that our TV channels can think of. Seriously wish some channel has the sense to run a decent program. But I guess it is too much to ask for. Why burden your viewers with a program on Gandhian principles while you have the choice of inflicting them with the mangal-dosh in Aishwarya's horoscope and Shilpa's coup in Big Brother! I think an apt justification to this would be the market demand for the fatuous and a lack of appreciation for anything more purposeful. I really hope this is not the case!

Life's Cube

2007-01-12T20:47:00.001+05:30

A cubic age is an important milestone in one’s life. Having reached one in the recent past, I would share the model that was built so assiduously on the day I turned the cube of the largest possible prime number (Atleast that’s the plan!)

1: Too young. Sound of air blowing through pursed lips makes you pee. You are the inspiration for the waterfall advert of Pampers (or was it huggies!)

8: Conscious of life. Id and Ego are in a hard setting mould. The Freudian school of psychologists has given up on you! You are yet to discover the charm of “late-night-movies” but the day is not far. All sports persons but for Koneru Hampi are of an older age. You dream of all the wonderful things that you would do when you grow up!

27: Marketers do not try to influence you anymore. Parents/ Girl Friend want to you get married to someone/ herself respectively. Dreadful thirties are dreadfully near! The set of sports people older than you are genially referred to as old-fogies. You think of all the wonderful things that you did when you were not grown up! Piece of advice, Say no to Cynicism!

64: You have en-cashed your retrials and are invested in a very-low yield government bond. You tell point-less stories about how things were when you were at the previous cubic. Young people scurry off when you start of with “Hamare jamane mein….” There are a lot of things not physically possible not matter how much you crave for it. Like climbing Mt. Everest etc (What were you thinking?). You can definitely buy that Ferrari but would you drive it?

125: You have to be a Japanese citizen on welfare.

I was about to write a pensive post on turning old. But then someone else wrote it. For the record, I saw my first white strand yesterday. I like to think of it as uparwala's camera trick. To people in similar predicament, this thought helps!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-05T15:32:00.000+05:30

I know it is five days too late but what the heck! The gin-ke-do-char-log who read this blog know that I have a knack of defying all timelines. So I do it again! Have a wonderful 2007. Have fun and do not bother yourself with the vagaries of life. Hope you get to dance more often.

Someone somewhere sometime back told me that a blog is a responsibility. Did not realize that two months back but this sudden realization today (or was it yesterday - does not matter anyway) has left me with the guilt of a father who has not changed the diapers that were wet 5 hours back. So here's a senseless and totally inane post which is half done already.

Have watched nine movies over the last two weekends. Do watch Groundhog Day. Clean and an incredibly feel-good movie (even an incorrigible cynic like me could not avoid feeling good at the end of it, so I guess it is a heady concoction of uplifting emotions). Phil (Bill Murray) is a weatherman stuck in time. He lives the same day over and over again till he finds …. Strange parallels with the lives that we live. In one of the most ironical of conversations, Phil talks to a half-drunk guy at a pub:

Phil: Have you ever felt that you are living the same day over and over again?
Half Drunk Guy (HDG) (aghast like when you are when a complete stranger knows your secret): I feel like that all the time!

Alice McDowell adds the garnish that a mildly cute but not destructively attractive actress is supposed to add to a movie.

Two other movies that I would strongly recommend are Motorcycle Diaries and Syriana. Motorcycle Diaries is a movie on the bike ride that Ernesto Guevara de la Serna el Fuser (better known as Che Guevera) and Alberto Granados embarked on in the early 50s. In the words of Ernesto, “This isn't a tale of heroic feats. It's about two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams.” Nonetheless, what a fabulous tale!

Syriana is the movie that got George Clooney his Academy Award for his role as a supporting actor. I think most of you have already watched it but I will write about it regardless of that. I watched it without subtitles the first time. Something highly recommended for a few tamil movies but not for this one. A lot of dialogue is in Arabic/Persian and Hindi. Hindi I knew, Persian I do not. Hence, I had to watch it again. I would have watched it twice anyway. A powerful concept and a compelling execution would make you do that. A hard hitting movie on Oil imperialism.

Not that the diapers from the second paragraph have been changed. I think it would be safe to sign-off for today!

Misodelhism?

2006-12-28T18:57:00.001+05:30

miso- or mis- pref. Hatred: misogamy
Delhi [(del-ee)] City in north-central India. The nation's capital
ism /Izem/ Pronunciation Key –noun a distinctive doctrine, theory, system, or practice

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

Working with the above definitions, the title is tantamount to a doctrine about contempt for Delhi. A meeting with a few friends of Rishi (of the right sidebar fame) and the impression they carried prompted me into writing this. Let my start with a clarification that I do not hate/dislike Delhi. As a city, it just disturbs me!

I think Delhi is hard on a new-comer not in the Bombay kind of a way. Bombay absorbs you, passes its nervous energy, frenzy, activity to you even before you realize it. Delhi on the other hand is like a hurdle. Either you cross it or you are stuck clueless. In my case, I just stumbled at the hurdle. Even after having spent 17 months cumulatively over the last few years, I still feel that Delhi culture refuses to assimilate me.

The city has a lot going for itself. Delhi has the best infrastructure in the country. I think it has a rich historical heritage. I doubt any other Indian metropolis can come close to Delhi’s historical heritage. Delhi has a cuisine that people around the globe would swear by. Delhi has sirifort, IHC, Auto Expo, Metro and everything else that could make life convenient. Lutyens Delhi is close to what a perfect city would look like. It does give you the heady shot of power. The moment I’d be able to put my name on a small piece of land out there, I would know that I have arrived in life. Delhi does have arguably the best CV amongst Indian cities. However, the party for Delhi has been spoiled by the Delhi culture. People outside Delhi seem to carry a far from good impression of Delhi. The in-the-face aggression, grab-what-you-can-get mentality, short-tempered high-pitched-expletive-laced conversational tone do put you off. It is tough to ignore them in your day to day existence. And on a continued basis they are such a pain in the rear that you are sore all the time.

Over the last 9 years, I have lived in Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bangalore. I think Delhi has the worst professional work ethic. It is difficult to take your colleagues at face value. The old hierarchical school is still strong in the city. The PSU culture of strong hierarchies pervades the swank interiors of most MNCs in Delhi. Another disturbing aspect of life in Delhi is the avowed hostility against women. I doubt any woman would dare venture alone in most parts of Delhi after dark. Gawking openly is an integral part of the daily ToDo list of the Delhi male.

Dilli-dilwalon-ki! One gets to hear this epithet from the Delhiwallahs all the time. I am yet to experience the warmth of this heart. I have found that a linguistically challenged Chennai can be warmer than Delhi. To allegedly the most exhibitionist of Indian Cities, I would recommend slightly subtle display of material wealth.

Sans the types I have written about, Delhi rocks!

The Jargon Trap

2006-12-21T17:34:00.000+05:30

This is based on an actual conversation that I had with a friend of mine who is an equity analyst with a European bank and with an illustrious academic career. The following conversation beautifully illustrates what the two years at B-school and Corporate world do to most people!

Friend: I was off to Vietnam on the weekend

Me: Wow! I get to travel to the sambhar-vada shop round the corner on my average weekend and you go to Vietnam. I am so envious!

Friend: No need to be envious. You travel more often. So it evens out!

Me: WHATTTT! If these two are comparable, why do not you, the humanoid leaky cauldron, include your innumerable number of visits to the loo! Anyway, bidesh brabhaman ki manyata humesha se hi desh bhatkan se jyada rahi hai!!

Friend: Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam are not strictly bidesh

Me: When did you visit Nepal and Bhutan?

Friend: Nepal when I was 3 yr old and Bhutan was a second-hand visit through YYY and a few batch mates at the IIM in the eastern part of the country

Second-Hand visit!!! A jargon definitely worthy of the stereotypical jargon spouting MBA. Another one lost to the jargon trap!

Pride and Shame

2006-12-19T13:32:00.000+05:30

Two days with two emotions. Indian sports have just managed the same. Pride because the Indian cricket team won the first test in South Africa. Not pride actually, but some semblance of respect after the pathetic performance in the 50-50 format. But definitely pride for the compulsive cricket follower. The last cling-able strand of hope. Laxman has his feet moving, Dada had a good comeback, Tendulkar is back on the front foot (Seems to be in good nick. Just needs a big one). Bowlers are doing great. Zaheer has matured, Sreesanth has the aggression of the untamed and Kumble is the seasoned hunter. The optimists need no more reasons to remain interested in the rest of the test series. We do secretly believe that team India stands a chance in Caribbean 2007. But that is a secret, so sussssh!

Shame. If the cricket episode was shame converted into pride. Santhi’s failure to clear gender test was exactly the opposite. She (?) was the toast of Tamil Nadu as she won the 800m Silver medal at Doha. Apparently authorities at Indian Olympic Association (IOA) were in the know on this as Santhi had failed to satisfy the railways on this very issue. Interestingly, gender testing has been discontinued at International athletics. The test is conducted only if a fellow competitor complains of foul play. If someone who ran a race along with Santhi could sense this, how can Nagarajan, Santhi’s Coach at Prime Sports academy, claim innocence on this?

Anyway, Pride is a difficult emotion to come by in Indian sports. There are a lot of promising sportspersons but more often than not their sporting careers meet a sad end. Professionally, a clerical job with the railways or the Indian Airlines is not the best fallback option as well. I had set-out to cover one pride and one shame. With some more blabbering on Indian sports it would be one shame too many. Hence, the stop!

Making World A Safer Place

2006-11-30T14:45:00.000+05:30

Today is one of those days when it requires no effort to write. Life gives you all the material with the dressing. George W Bush, the outgoing American president, has learnt his lesson from Afghanistan and Iraq. Learn more about his attempts to make world ever safer place and combating the nuclear threat from North Korea. Imaginative, eh! Another feather in your hat, Mr. Bush!

For the too lazy to click types, some excerpts from the news item:

In a novel effort that targets the lifestyle of North Korea's President, the Bush administration wants to make it tougher for him to buy iPods, plasma television sets, Segway electric scooters and more.

There would be no more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles, even personal watercraft such as Jet Skis. The ban would extend to musical instruments and sports equipment.

I know! You feel safe already! Americans, you can sleep tight. President Kim is not getting any more i-pods to attack you with!

Pandora's Box And My Second Life!

2006-11-29T15:25:00.000+05:30

Internet 2.0 is here. I read about it sometime back and thought that it was another of the management jargons that we, management types, inflict on the unsuspecting world. But things are changing, and at a speed that I feel that my adaptation rate would increasingly lag the internet rate of change. This is another indication that my generation is growing old but I will whine about that in some other post.

Collaborative content, participation, personalization and stronger virtual identities have become a reality and an ever increasing number of users are hooked onto the net like never before. I recently sampled two websites which got me very excited. Pandora and Second Life delight you beyond expectations. I am not much of a virtual person but these things have got me!

Pandora is a music genome project. It is a personalized radio station cum DJ cum music club. You can choose the artist/band/song that you like. It will play that song and other similar song/band. You have the option of rating that song and the band. The song list would dynamically change on the basis of your ratings. Also, it would give interesting nuggets of information on the songs that you might not have heard. Your feedback will also be a feed to other users who have similar tastes in music. It is almost like a friend re-commending to listen to a particular song when he hears that you are crazy about a particular number. You can try Finetune too. It is also a great site though Pandora seems to have a better collection. Another great music site is Musicovery. It allows you to choose a mood and it plays the songs accordingly. You can choose the time period and the kind of music along with the mood. The song selection is very neat!

Second Life (SL) is a rage on the net. It has 1.5 million users. It has all the attributes of massively multi-player online role playing game (MMPORG) and yet it is not one because of the freedom it allows the residents. You can choose what you want to be on second life. Linden labs manufactures and sells land. You can buy your piece and start your own commercial activity. The 3D world of SL has been created by its residents. There is chaos, competition, creativity, racism and love in this life as well. It has blogs, newspapers, night-clubs, marriages (!!) and everything else that exists in the real life. A lot of companies have opened their stores in second life to reach out the geekier of their consumer set. 20th Century Fox organized a premier for X-men III in second life. Other companies that exist on SL are Addidas-Reebok, BBC, Dell, MTv, Reuters, Sun and Toyota. SL is an indication of what future holds for us. Businesses have another channel to take care of. But the sociological affects of SL would be clear only after sometime. After all, though the world is virtual, the emotions are real! So do check it out!

For the time strapped and the ones not inclined virtually, I would suggest StumbleUpon. It is a tool that helps you stumble upon interesting sites on the net. It is almost like a treasure hunt except for the effort. The content stumbled upon is of exceptionally high quality. If you have any area of interest, you will simply love it.

Tauba-Tauba

2006-11-24T17:36:00.000+05:30

Tauba-Tauba is the hit song from Kailash Kher's last album. Apart from the catchy beat and the raspy voice of Kher, what works for this number is the video. Do catch the video on YouTube if you have not seen it till now. I like this video so much that even though the song has faded away from the music channel and public memory, I get this strong urge to write about it.

To me, this video mirrors life closely. One does not value what one has. Or more often, does not realize that he has something when in possession of it. At the same time, one craves something that is out of reach. Insomniacs realize the importance of sleep only after their painstaking effort of spurning it away start yielding results! Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Why? Same old desire for what you cannot have. This lust pervades every aspect of life; be it a job, an address, a car, love or the state of satisfaction. Humans develop this trait when they are fairly young. Have you ever noticed a child raise hell for a particular toy in a toy shop? Notice a trifle longer and see the child forget the existence of the toy as soon as he exits the shop with the toy.

Perpetual dissatisfaction with the conditions of existence is a state we are condemned to. We are like dogs chasing their own tails! Anyway, let’s get back to the video and away from my pathological view of life. The story of pursuit for a certain someone has been told very well out here. I think one has to be extremely lucky to sidestep a predicament of the type so colorfully depicted it in video. The generally accepted phrase for this side-stepping is falling in love. The complimentary set comprises of people who are tired of this entire exercise. So they opt out of the system by choosing the next available solution. Since, so many people do it, would it be reasonable to assume that this is better than remaining in an unsolutioned state? Moreover, does Compromise make the world go round?

Follow-up: In Defense of reservations

2006-11-23T15:19:00.000+05:30

After this post of mine, I have received a few reactionary mails/phone calls from people I know. Some were of the opinion that this is the nailing evidence they were looking for. Now, they can proclaim my insanity to the rest of the world. And a few (a couple to be exact) comments on the blog as well.

So here comes the rejoinder to the previous one.

There is a difference between ability and accomplishment that we are very familiar with. Ability is a necessary condition and not a sufficient one for accomplishment. Accomplishment demands abilities be nurtured and the right opportunities come by. If you read my essay again, you would realize that my call is not to "gift" accomplishments. All is ask for is equal opportunities and an assistance with educational development. I do not think I am asking for too much. After all, education is now a right of Indian citizens.

One can ignore the reality and say that backward castes are equal. Equal on IQ? Yes! But on everything else, they lag by generations. There is a strong case for disturbing this order that has crystallized over centuries. When a state espouses Equality for all its citizens, it signs up for reducing inequity where it exists. It is not there to maintain status quo. I believe reservations at least attempt to undo this state of inequity which some want to exist unto perpetuity. As I have said before, I am against the (ab)use of reservation by creamy layer or the repeat usage of reservations.

In the interim, the GOM (group of ministers) have decided that they would propose amendment in the constitution to allow creamy layer to benefit from reservations any number of times. Ram Vilas Paswan says that both of these is integral to bringing social justice to the masses! It is this block-headed logic of most politicians that disallows even a logical person to see merit in reservations. But there are sane voices as well. Sachhar committee has recently released a report that Muslims are worse off than the backward castes in many places. Saifuddin Soz (Minister for Water resources) went on news with the statement that his children should not benefit from reservation if it is extended to backward Muslims. We need more sane voices on both sides of the table.

In a Democracy, it is important to ensure that inequity remains at its state of equilibrium. The Maoist and Naxal eruptions across the country are an indication of the undoing of this equilibrium in the country. High social inequity is a precursor to most separatist movements. Inclusive policies like reservations are required to combat this. Let us not act like the kid whose favorite toy is being given to someone else! The final policy on this should be inclusive. It should sound fair in the word and execution. Tough task? Yes it is!

Yeh Kya ho raha hai!

2006-11-21T21:26:00.000+05:30

Last fornight was one of the darkest periods on news. While I believe that life has made me increasingly numb over a period of time, incidents of last fornight make me feel as if I have been dragged through a cactus field. Want to write about a lot of things but have been low on energy, time and the motivation.

However, you should read and explore the following news items:

I can go on for hours on each of these. However, I have decided to keep mum because of the paucity of time and the fact that it would emotionally drain me out. I will allow you to undergo this test of numbness.

Nostalgia...

2006-11-14T18:46:00.000+05:30

It happens when you flip through the old photographs, re-read old mails and letters (remember them?). It happens while listening to a forgotten song. Like the song that was playing in the background when you saw a certain person last or when a certain set of events happened. It happens when you pass through a city that you had lived in and is not more than an airport/railway station/bus-stop for you now. It also happens when you are inside a now dilapidated building that you thought was huge but somehow seems to have shrunk over the years. It happens when you walk across a hedge that was once very familiar now not-so-familiar. It happens when you see the sun setting. It happens when you see the sun rise. It happens when you hear the rain falling. It happens when the loo (the one in Hindi) batters your face. It happens when you are talking to an old friend and realize that things have changed. It happens when you are talking to an old friend and realize that things have not changed. It happens when you watch Dil Chahta Hai. It happens when you hear a laugh, it happens when a tear trickles down slowly. It happens when you see a see a cassette titled “Super hits 1992, 1993.” It happens when you smell a particular perfume. It happens when you look at a scrawl that was your hand-writing once. It happens when you look at a sketch that your mom has preserved over the years. It happens when your Dad shows you that useless souvenir that you had bought for him on some trip long time back. It happens when you look at the year that you had put on the right hand corner of the second page of a book. It happens when you look at the rotting rubber on a cycle’s tires. It happens when you spot the location of some place on Google earth.

It happens. It happens more often these days. I meet friends and we discuss things that happened sometime in the past and things that are happening to people we had known in the past. Suddenly, past seems to be this treasure chest that has been filling over the years. And to quote a line that I heard somewhere, so much has happened that I find it difficult to believe that I was a part of all this. So at times I look back and I wonder. I just wonder!

Mere yaar ki Shaadi!

2006-11-13T11:13:00.000+05:30

It is very unbecoming of a cynic if he admits the sudden feeling of contentment caused due to something that happened to someone else! But that is precisely what I intend to do today. I know that it is utterly shameless of me to do so but true to my cynic self, I do not care!

A close friend got married today. Not with the usual paraphernalia that is associated in marriages across the world. Marriage is a big social event for everyone including the pygmies, civil-war torn factions, oppressed or oppressor communities. No Sir, this one was no social event. Unless, of course, it were being conducted under Dhara Ek-so-chaumalees.[1] So this friend of mine who is neck, eyes, every-strand-of-hair-on-his-scalp deep in love has eloped with the lady of his life. The marriage documentation happened today at the sub-registrar office, Jayanagar 4th block. The bride and the groom were blue. I think they kept forgetting that they are supposed to breathe. Three witnesses (trivia for the enthusiasts: they need three witnesses to endorse the marriage) were all smiles because it felt so cool - aakhir dost log court marriage kar rahe they - also because the first half of office was washed away in this exercise.

The lady at the desk looked at us. Mistook the witnesses for the bride and the groom because of their cheerful faces. I had to quickly intervene and address the situation. The agenda was set for only one marriage. Soon we had five forms staring at us in the eye. Trust me, this court marriage thing requires more work of the witnesses than the Bride & Groom. Finally after filling the address, pin code and due endorsements from the witnesses some fifteen times over, we were asked to wait outside the office. I took out my camera to click a couple of snaps but was asked by the bureau people to put it away. They do not allow you to click photos inside the premises.

The bride started crying. The groom was so very tense. Two of the supporting star cast i.e. (Saket and Raghu) took off to get some frooties so that moonh-mitha can be done. Soon some office boy took us downstairs and we were parked outside the office of sub-registrar for about half an hour after that. I thought that this was an indication that the government machinery required some grease to get moving. We quickly huddled together to decide on the appropriate number and the color of gandhijis that should exchange hands. It was decided that Tarun should carry minimal funds inside the office so that he can proudly proclaim our collective bankruptcy. Surprisingly, the registrar did not ask for anything. Surprise to those who are new to the business of bribing/greasing palms.

Soon we were asked to go upstairs to the processing room. Poornima (Witness #2) used this chance to pinch the photos of TG and Shanu off the notice they had put on the board some 2 months back. Tarun took about 15 minutes to scrutinize the spelling of the names on the certificate. And then came the silent killer from the auntyji behind the desk, "Where are the sweets?" Yes even the gang of four sidekicks wanted sweets. But the sweets out here were just a guise for the grease that we discussed in the previous paragraph. So TG took out the purse and handed over a mutually acceptable amount which was promptly exchanged for some "Army Day" coupons (Rishwat - deshbhakti ke saath!!!). One coupon for each Rs. 50 contributed. What a neat way of accounting the daily collections! I was amazed by the simplicity of the idea. Staff members are given a stock of these coupons in the morning. Every evening a count is run on the remaining coupons and the collections should match 50 times the decrease. Also the collections person is different from the person controlling the coupons. Nice control systems in place as well.

Anyway, we came down and clicked a few photos and came back to office. I have not had such a beautiful start to a day in a long time. Here’s wishing Tarun and Shanu a blissful life ahead. Indeed a happy day!

[1] An act of law that prohibits congregation of more than 4 people at public places. Usually imposed during curfews