Intrepid....or so you think

Dont know!

2010-12-28T23:14:00.003+05:30

IMG_5229, originally uploaded by shreedhar_rajaram.

Dont know what bird this is, but its mood seemed very poignant, when I took the pic! Love the fact that the hazy morning made for a nice background!

Stuff that dreams are made of!

2010-04-05T19:33:00.003+05:30

Lazy Sunday morning in Delhi....big game in the evening..two of us are sitting at the breakfast table....and in walks the man himself - Anil Kumble - requesting us if he can join us at the table...!!! One hour later, we have chatted about almost every batsman in the IPL and heard a couple of stories about his captaincy days.....!!!!
Stuff that dreams are made of!

That Time of the Year..

2010-03-24T23:22:00.003+05:30

Its that time of the year again - My third IPL season. Strangely enough, I seem to be enjoying this particular season more than the earlier two. Dont know why!
Back to travelling non-stop and with it the hope that this time atleast, I will get my Gold Card..:)
Close interactions of the kind that I am going through is however, bringing forth some stark realities.
Respect for a few senior cricketers has only gone up, while it is the exact opposite for most of the others - losing respect by the day. Gods on the field, but not the greatest role models off it. Well, if one were to rationalise, they are human after all! But they carry a bigger load on their shoulders than the rest of the 'Aam Junta' and it is imperative that they live up to it. Alas, very few of the youngsters seem to realise that!
But they have been pure magic on the field. The first half of the IPL has had its share of surprises, but the team has been wonderfully consistent and look set to go places in the tournament.
Just ranting around now in this post...Clearer updates shortly!

The Hassan Adventure

2009-10-21T18:54:00.016+05:30

Pics from a long awaited trip to a friend's coffee estate in Hassan. With the alluring Western Ghats as the backdrop, the day went off wonderfuly well, only to end in disaster with an accident on the way back. My first accident and the resultant fracture have given me a well deserved break from office..thats the good part..:) Anyway, enjoy the pics!

One more loss!

2009-08-22T17:45:00.002+05:30

The PES college grounds seem to be a big jinx as far as our cricket playing streak goes. One more match against DNA, one more loss. This is now getting beyond mere embarrassment. Beautiful the ground may be, but its getting on our nerves. We have lost every damn match played there apart from one and that one win was also earned the really hard way, puffing and struggling home. So there has never been a comprehensive win over either DNA or the RPC.
Coming to today's match, we got them out for 104 and we couldnt chase it down! Need to take on more resposibility from my end as captain. Though a collective failure, it is now leading to voices of discontent within the team, with the batting order being questioned. Dont know where the answers are going to come from.
We seem to be a good side, but extremely bad when it comes to playing as a team. How do we get the motivation going up again, is a moot question that needs to be answered.
Questions and more questions, with no sign of answers coming from anywhere!

Cricket, Formats & the Matrimonial search

2009-08-01T20:35:00.005+05:30

Almost a year since I last wrote! Gosh! It almost feels like I have to learn to blog again.

Nothing much has changed..still single and looking, still have the same car, still work in the same place, still playing cricket with friends every sunday. So when I thought I would update this page, I was left wondering to myself - what do I update this page with???

So here goes, the three things that my life has centered around in the last 10 months -

The cricket, both, the one I have been playing regularly and the one that I have been intrinsically part of thanks to IPL -2, have kept me going all the while.
The formats and new processes at the workplace have been overwhelming (something that I had not foreseen when I joined the place).
The matrimonial search has been, if anything, even more overwhelming! Its a pain to go through profiles every other day and keep rejecting them. Evenings at home are spent doing this over and over again. Shall keep this story for my next post...

And I am hoping not to make this post an annual affair, like my last two posts.

Pretty bland post, if I may say so myself...but I hope to get better as I get back to writing

Cheers

Feels nice to be back!

2008-10-22T20:56:00.001+05:30

Its been close to a year since my last post here. The year just gone by has had its share of ups and downs, but I would like to believe that the positives far outweighed the negatives.
A year that presented me with the most unexpected career gift, a year when a new member came into the family, a year when I understood the value of a good negotiation when joining a new job, and lastly, also a year when I seem to have increased my waistline (slight increase, mind you). Damn Corner House, I say!
The biggest opportunity of my career came knocking on my door when the IPL franchisees were announced last Feb. Little did I know what would hit me over the next 4 months. Pitchforked right into the cauldron that the IPL was, I was handling activities that are the stuff of dreams for many people that I know. I was building the brand Royal Challengers Bangalore, deciding what the team uniform would be, what the home ground should look like, strategising and putting in place marketing and communication campaigns for the team, building tie ups through sponsors for the team and best of all, travelling with the team to all the matches!
To sit in with your heroes on meetings, to travel with the people you admire so much (Kumble, Dravid, etc) is what dreams are made of and in my case, fortunately for me, most of them came true.
Swoosh….4 dramatic months passed by, with many days and nights spent in the office trying to put all of these together. With the team not faring too well, the job got more difficult as the days passed. I guess the advantage of a situation like that is that there is very little expectation from the team and consequently very little pressure on people surrounding the team.
On a personal front, my brother got married and it is strange how different the same old home can start looking within a matter of days of the arrival of a new member to the household.
Lots more through the year has happened, too much to be able to share in a single post.
But I shall come back soon and update this page, for all those close people willing to stop by.

Game for Life

2007-11-19T15:11:00.000+05:30

Moved jobs.

Joining an industry that I thought I would never join.

Confusion reigned supreme for two days....personal beliefs vs. career interests...career interests won hands down...

After 8 long years...

2007-09-12T17:56:00.000+05:30

No, this is not one of those nostalgic posts about finding old friends or bumping into your college crush like some of you might have thought...so much for you and your thoughts...that doesnt happen so easily in real life... This is a post about a very nice ride I had, the other day, in good old BMTC.
I was forced to take take the BMTC the other day from the airport to Majestic , hamstrung as I was by lack of any other means of transport and more so because, for some strange reason, I thought it might be a nice idea to travel by a local bus for a change. This was my first trip by public transport in over 8 years and I dont remember the last time I took one. I had to wait for over half an hour at the airport road bus stand, but it was well worth the effort. I had heard a lot about the BMTC Volvo service from my brother, and decided that I would give it a try when I saw one (Route No. 333 E ) approaching.
Neat, comfortable and spacious, this is a wonderful paisa-vasool travel option, if you have the time. The conductor is neatly dressed and is nice to you while issuing tickets. There is FM radio which is constantly playing in the background and an enterprising business house has put up a LCD TV screen that keeps screening ads and other tidbits. Apparently the plan is to ensure live news coverage in these buses in the coming months.
For a meagre 20 bucks, I travelled welll over half the distance to my house. A rick from airport to my house typically costs me about 130 bucks, but I managed the distance in less than 50 bucks and even that was only because I was too tired to take another bus from Majestic to my house and ended up taking a rick.
All in all, kudos to the BMTC. Now if only they could ensure enough numbers of such buses plying and maybe get a bus-hostess or two around (not a bad idea :) ), we would all be more than willing to ditch our cars and bikes, wouldnt we?? :)

Change..No!

2007-09-02T23:08:00.000+05:30

Change is always difficult. It’s a cliché, I know, but it’s still true. One tends to understand the profundity of the statement only when confronted with a situation that demands change; and it only gets worse if it is forced and unwanted. I encountered one such possibility last week. It can cause needless tension. Normalcy is questioned. Predictability is shaken.
Even for somebody like me with pretty much a set daily life, labeled boring by many, change is uninvited. It is a very irritating prospect if something is forced upon you without you asking for it. I can list out a few things I wouldn’t mind being receiving without asking for, but the irritating change prospect I was faced with last week was definitely not on that list. And how the hell do you look at the bright side of change when you hadn’t asked for it in the first place?
It took quite a bit of coaxing, but I finally changed my mobile number yesterday and got an official connection :(

ChakDe

2007-08-17T15:37:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, on the way to office, I heard one of the radio jockeys egging on her listeners to a "call-me-up-tell-me-and-win-prizes" game. I caught the last bit where she said her usual "call us or sms us at 666" or some sort like that and I thought it must be one of those dumb competitions that radio stations usually run. But when I heard it the next time after about a couple of songs inbetween, it seemed to catch me a bit unawares. She was asking her listeners to call up and tell her what they felt was the meaning of the word "Chakde". That was when I realised that I had sat throught the movie the previous day without even having understood what the title meant:)
It was one of those rare Hindi movies that I have been to in the recent past. A boring midweek holiday (yeah, I am a workoholic) with very little to do meant that we decided to book some tickets and watch whatever that was running in the theatres. And no, it was not at PVR, but good ol' Cauvery that we could book tickets in. That the sound output was horrible is another story.
As everybody probably knows by now, the film is essentially a take on the state of women's hockey in India. Funny in bits and pieces, there is a very clear, visible overtone of national pride running throughout the length of the film. Also more subtle, but still clearly visible, is the attempt to degrade cricketers as idiots with bloated egos.
For some reason, everytime somebody made fun of cricket in the movie, the crowd seemed to unite and cheer loudly. I mean, it was like sitting in a moviehall full of people who wanted to shout out to the world that they are the oh-so-poor people who have been forced to watch cricket all these years by some unknown force and only divine intervention in the form of this film has released them from the suffering. In the movie, when a guy attempts to hit one of the Indian hockey team babes (yeah, lotsa them in this Indian women's hockey team) from behind with a cricket bat, SRK jumps in between and says "Himmat hain to aage se maar. Hamare khel mein Chakke nahin hote"...and loud cheers and claps followed. Agreed that it is a funny line, but then the same guys in the movie hall would also probably loudly cheer every "chakka" from Yuvraj Singh's blade, for example. Why Yuvraj as an example and not Sachin, you might ask? Because there is a character in the movie called Abhimanyu Singh, an Indian cricketer, who is clearly a spoof on Yuvraj, what with his wanton ways and love for all good things in life. Mr. Singh sleeps around with the hottest babe in the Indian hockey team and drives an even hotter set of wheels, but is also an idiot. How else would you explain him arguing with his girl (the hockey player I mentioned earlier), that her game is of no use to anybody and is a waste of time right before they are going to...well ...you know what. I am pretty sure he sleeps alone that night..!
SRK is a former India hockey captain in this film and is on the lookout to redeem his reputation and clear himself of the tag of a 'gaddaar' since he has been instrumental in India losing out to Pakistan during his playing days. He takes on the difficult role of coaching the Indian Women's Hockey team, 7 years after he gives up the game, despite murmurs and oppositon from the powers-in-be, and makes a smashing success of his job by the end of the movie.
While there seems to be a bit of overexaggeration on the state of women's hockey and the overbearing nature of cricket in the country, the movie also lucidly brings out the most basic reason why Indian teams fail to perform - lack of team spirit and discipline. SRK, the coach does more of getting the discipline right amongst his motley group of players, than teach them dribbling and scooping skills, while also handling the egos of senior players in the team with aplomb. One Mr. Gregory Chappell should see this movie. He might just pick up bits about how to handle a 'team'.
With each to his own being the motto of most of the players in this team, the team struggles to gel together in the beginning but later, as expected, at the most crucial point in the movie, which is the final moments of the World Championship final against Australia, team spirit wins through and all is forgotten.
SRK looks his usual good self in the movie (not as good as swooning over him, like a couple of girls that I know claim!), but seems surprisingly low key in the movie. Or so I felt. Maybe that was what the director had in mind when he went about making the movie. One gets the feeling that the heroes or heroines, rather, in the movie, were clearly the hockey players, and that is how it should be.
It must have been difficult to ensure that the huge SRK shadow doesnt cast itself all over the film but the director sure has succeeded in that attempt, though there is the mandatory SRK getting all emotional histrionoics. I am now certain he is the Kamal equivalent in Bollywood.
Also surprisingly good in their hockey skills, were the entire set of players, all of them actors by profession, but apparently trained by a few former hockey stars during the course of the making of the movie. While the acting is not really top notch, their game skills look very professional and is one of the nice things about the movie that keeps the interest levels ticking.
Two and a half hours of good fun.
This could have well been a movie on the Indian cricket team, with hunks playing and the movie would have still made enough sense.
And oh, by the way, Chakde is a "Nick 'em" or "Kick their A@#" type phrase as claimed by the radio jockey.
Also, this is my first full film review. I dont think its too bad... do you??

Technology sucks..Cochin rocks

2007-08-15T23:05:00.000+05:30

A couple of things over the weekend..shucks..its a wednesday, feels like the weekend for some reason...okay..over the first two days of the week, that I thought I should put up here..
Damn technology....its difficult to understand what the person at the other end is feeling during the course of an electronic conversation..angry, happy, sad, irritiated..what is the person thinking and how does one know?? I think I irritated a certain somebody during the course of one such conversation on saturday by asking some stupid question, half in jest. And it definitely got the person all angry.. I think I owe my sincere apologies to that friend...I am planning on ways to make it up this week though...
And a trip down to Cochin where the food was just amazing. Anybody going to Cochin should not miss Bharath Tiffin Room..the most sumptuous Kerala vegetarian fare and it ends with even more wonderful Payasam. And amongst the better outlets in Cochin to pick up banana chips from, is the one right opposite to the airport..delicious..
Its a wonder I managed to work inspite of having such heavenly food both the days that I was there. And Cochin has an airport that is some zillion times better than our very own..just for the sake of information to the general populace reading this boring post...
Pardon me if this post sounds like a jumbled string of random sentences. Wanted to get this done with and put it up as fast as possible...

A Tribute

2007-08-04T13:34:00.000+05:30

Just read somewhere that Col. Vasanth, the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 9 Maratha Light Infantry, who lost his life fighting insurgents recently in J&K was a graduate of MES College, Malleshwaram. Not sure if that is what got me to write this post, but at the cost of sounding selfish, I wish to let it be known that I feel mighty damn proud of the fact that the brave man was a senior alumni from my college.
This is a small tribute to his gallantry and may his soul rest in peace.

Ccs and Bccs

2007-07-29T00:29:00.000+05:30

There was an interesting conversation that I happened to be a part of, at the Bangalore advertising awards evening the other night. (For some reason, this line sounds elitist....I like blogging!). This revolved around the utility of the ubiquitous ccs and bccs in mail after mail that we receive everyday.
With the awards, named, funnily enough, the "Big Bang Awards", it came as no surprise that oldies in the gathering were holding forth on how the quality of advertising creatives and therefore the quality of awards, were much better during their “times”.
Around some point of time in the evening, the cc/bcc story came up as just another normal topic to be bitched about, which is so typical of such a jamboree.
One of the guys began by saying that a vendor, who had written to him with a request on some job, had marked a cc to his boss on the same mail. It irritated this guy so much that he ‘replied all’ saying that he would not be considering this particular vendor’s request since he had exceeded his limits by marking a cc to his boss. My focus, till that point of time, largely restricted to a few other important ‘subjects’ floating around, shifted to this topic immediately. My reaction was that this was a very fine thing to do, given the fact that I was in pretty much a similar situation that evening and was still working on a fitting, yet professional reply.
Now, there is my answer, I thought to myself. I received a mail from a media professional earlier in the evening, about a particular advertising proposal, addressed to me, with a copy marked to my reporting boss. While subtly hinting that he knew my boss, this idiot was also trying to arm-twist me into reading a mail that I had very little concern for. Since the mail was ‘ccd’ to him, the probability of my boss asking me about my take on the proposal, however insignificant the sender might be, at some point of time in the future, was extremely high. After all, the boss also has to act like he goes through every mail, isn’t it? He can ask me what I think of the proposal and for all I know, he’s only seen the subject line in the mail. I don’t have those liberties you see.
But what this conversation also did was to highlight how much of an ego issue this cc/bcc thing can be in most cases and also laid bare the tremendous destructive potential that lies in that simple option.

I, for one, get irritated when my agency guys mark my boss on a job that calls for my approval, This is typically done just to ensure that I give them a favourable reply. The last time that happened, I made it clear to everybody concerned, including my boss, through a "reply all' mail, that if somebody is under the impression that their work would get done by marking superiors on such mails, they are definitey wrong. On the other hand, I made it clear in that mail, that if copies were marked to my boss, then I would definitely not even consider whatever there was in that mail.

Come to think of it, Ccs and Bccs can become potential causes of rifts and divisions within organizations, if they are not handled properly. For example, all I have to do tomorrow to create a rift between two of my reporting bosses (not that I want to... this is my alter-ego writing) is to mark one guy on a cc instead of directly, on a matter that concerns both equally and lo and behold..office politics :). I might get shouted at by one, but I am sure that my higher order objective of creating a rift will definitely be achieved. Going by the size of some of the egos floating around in office, it is not too difficult to imagine.

Damn these Ccs and Bccs! They rock!

Bolo Whatte fun

2007-07-19T13:14:00.000+05:30

I have been having the good fortune of being accompanied by two nice ladies everyday for the last few days on my daily drive to and from office, making these daily long drives, which can often seem like drudgery, truly pleasant and enjoyable. After all, what better company, than two beautiful ladies, regaling you with stories through the course of the entire drive? While one accompanies me to office, the other escorts me back home everyday without fail. Either or both are always promptly there by my side day after day, everyday…and of their own accord. One ensures that I reach office in the best of moods everyday to take on my boss, while the other placates my tired mind every day after a hard day’s work on my way back home. (Notice the subtle usage of the white collar phrase “tired mind” as opposed to the blue collared “tired body”)
Of the two ladies, one is a veteran and is quite adept at this role and even has awards to show for her prowess in this endeavor while the other is relatively new but is catching up fast. Not wanting to make any demands of you, apart from the fact that you should listen to their chatter, these two are the perfect companions to have. I like the fact that you can remain silent for the entire length of the journey and these two talkative ladies will neither mind this nor make you feel awkward. A few girls I know can make you feel a bit uncomfortable if you don’t keep talking to them constantly. This particular discomfiture can often leave you praying for the earth underneath you to open up and gobble you. So while everybody I know has been cribbing and crying about the worsening traffic situation in the city, I for one, look forward (and quite eagerly, may I add) to spending long winding hours on the roads behind the wheels, courtesy these wonderful couple of ladies. Can a guy wish for more, I ask you?
Vasanthi Hariprakash and Aviva..fun, fun and more fun!

The animal in us all

2007-07-12T18:12:00.000+05:30

Even as I was penning down my latest post, I thought it would be a good idea to get somebody else to write here. And who better than VK, one of my closest mates, someone I know for about close to 15 years now, someone who knows me like very few do and who incidentally, also writes for a living. I plan to get him to write here every now and then, if only to bring in some fresh energy.
So VK, here you go….the canvas is all yours…

What is left to write, when all I see is a million individual thoughts and expressions that surrounds the vastness of cyber space. Just like the coffee that we sip to tickle the taste buds, similarly writing a blog tickles the minds of the unheard 'word (th or thy)'-less warriors. Why do we do it? It seems we find great pleasure in making our brain as sensual as the tongue or the skin. So here I am in my best mate's blog, at his insistence, to connect with those of you who are blog rebels, fairies, lovers, wankers, cricketers, friends and countrymen. This is short note for us 'pigs' from the world of Orwell.

Why are we animals? Here we were, the girl and I in a wine lounge, loving each others company. We order a bottle of red wine and as I pick up the slender and smooth green bottle, I wish I was touching her skin at that moment. As I uncork the bottle, I dreamt I was removing her green top. As my mind tricks me in to intoxication, I look at her and give her an ass-uring smile. Then I tell her 'You have done well'. She replied with a smile, as her tongue hisses out and her teeth bite her lips, she said, 'Thanks to you, I am mes(s)merised by your prowess on the world around you.' Well! I said, "Its because of all the things that happen when you least expect them to, I have experienced the worse on the field." Then as I poured the wine in to her glass and then in to mine, I wondered how long would this last now. I looked at her eyes intently and then she would do the same. We spoke a lot with our eyes.

Now, completely intoxicated, we hold our hands and walk out for the evening. But as I try to control the machine in the head, stopping it from entering forbidden territory. I can barely control the one in my pants. Then I ask god to give me strength, leaving the girl to play the part of the devil. As I drop her by the door of her house, she looks at me again and lets her eyes become the ignition key for the male "harm(b)one". The next thing I know, there is car zooming on TV, with the Fast and the Furious playing on DVD and the lady continues her rant about how handsome "Dominic Torreto" was and how she wished that I looked like him. The animal in me fell from clould nine and she was in seventh heaven with Dominic.

Now for all of us who think I should try again. Why do I have to be the animal? Now that both the girl and I want to sleep in the fantasy forest inside our heads, is there any meaning in what we really want to be. I want to sleep with her (which in reality has no meaning to my life, albeit satisfying my appetite temporarily, just like coffee). Importantly, she too wants to sleep with an imaginative body (which has no meaning again).

Similarly, we bloggers are animals trying to find reality in cyber chips. What should we do? Get the blog to help you and not create your fantasy. But people often want to get down at the wrong stop or miss the bus(t)!

See you later.

"Emptyglass".

"There once was a note pure and easy. Now it sounds bizzare"

That sorta day...

2007-06-28T11:31:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I went through that sort of a day when you reach work thinking there is so much to do and realise on reaching office that you have been so damn efficient the previous day that there isnt much to do that particular day. That is confusing..lemme go through it again...well..you get the point..everybody's gone through a day like this..
Typically one would have reached office early on such a day...
You brace up to do some serious work, something proactive..the type that has your boss saying.."I appreciate the lead taken by you". Begin by checking official mails. And then maybe just a quick check on your personal mails, maybe orkut, just a sec more on ryze, your blog..what is this..a quick search on wiki..hmm interesting.. by this time you are off on a tangent...maybe just check who is online, aah..that girl from school who you have added from orkut is finally free..maybe a quick hi, lest she feels bad...desktop background's not changed for sometime now..wait..how abt changing the look of your blog..yeah..will do that..no..its boring..wait, you have a visitor..that beautiful summer trainee you handpicked for her good grades...you ask her to wait, obviously you cant let her think her project guide doesnt have work, meet her after 10 minutes, during which time you have checked your blog once more, give the trainee some gyan on market research and brand building..(that extra 5 minutes spent in the morning going through Brand Equity does pay off afterall)...lunch, post-lunch chatter and then some more wiki, orkut, ryze, wise crack on another frequently visited blog ...you start feeling guilty by now..its 3 in the afternoon and you havent done much work..spend the next hour calling up the ad agency guys and shouting at them for that bad creative that they have delivered, send a stinker to the guys at media about a competition report that was due a couple of days ago....happy that you've worked so hard..tea break..shucks, just realise that you are not so efficient after all...that launch plan report needs to be ready in the next one hour and you have left the final bit of number juggling for the end..rush back, call up the agency guys again to ask for some inputs, only to be told everybody's in a meeting (two can play the game, you can hear them snigger), call them on their mobiles..no response..10 minutes to go before you need to present the report...and you finally get a call from the ad agency, to be told that they dont have those specific details..go back to the presentation..fudge a few numbers in the hope that your boss will not notice 'em..and then he goes ahead and asks you pointed questions on that exact same slide...I guess you just develop a sixth sense when you become a boss and know when to catch the poor manager unawares...umm and aww your way through the presentation...6.30 by now...you want to go home, but the nice sales manager from Radio City wants to discuss a release plan with you for 5 minutes only, right away, because she has her deadlines, you see...the poor lady. You oblige and the 5 minutes ends up being an half-hour discussion...check personal mails, in the hope that the consultant you had spoken to, the other day, has found you that dream job...hungry....call for coffee even as you desperately search for those damn biscuits that you had kept on your table....a couple of biscuits and you should be off for the day, you think...coffee arrives and with it, your colleague who doesn't have a life..so another 20 minutes trying to wish him away and you are finally free to go...and on the way back home, you shudder at how busy the next day is going to be..and how you will do that "proactive" thing defnitely the next day...
PS: You owe me one, "blaahblah"

A rip off

2007-06-21T19:06:00.000+05:30

Did you know that the minimum parking charges at the Bangalore airport is Rs. 60 for cars and Rs. 30 for two wheelers?

Early bird or the night owl..take your pick..

2007-06-17T22:32:00.000+05:30

I have always been accused of reaching late to office, and my standard excuse is that I get up late..Now for all those bosses of mine, who think that it is a bad alibi to be floating around, here's something to think about...I read this article today and could instantly relate to it..:))

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/06/17/stories/2007061750060400.htm

Should have been on first page, if you ask me..

Bliss

2007-06-12T17:50:00.000+05:30

Vada, followed by Masala Dosa and a hot cup of coffee in Janata Hotel, on a Sunday morning, after a hard game of cricket in Malleshwaram 18th Cross grounds....thats bliss...

Ashtaavadaana

2007-06-07T22:14:00.000+05:30

'Ashtaavadaana' is an ancient art-form of our country, where a highly knowledgeable scholar is grilled simultaneously by eight other scholars, on virtually any subject under the planet, in a small span of time - around an hour. However, the questions posed to the Ashtaavadaani (the scholar being grilled) is generally restricted to literature, culture, history and/or any of the arts.
The Ashtaavadaani is typically, a scholar with extreme levels of concentration and intellect and somebody who can think on his feet and can reply to questions posed to him, with a dash of wit and humour as well.
The 'sport' has its roots in AP and is quite popular in parts of AP even today. While originally, the Ashtaavadaana was conducted in Sanskrit, current versions of the same, apart from being held in Sanskrit, are also held in other regional languages, most notably Kannada and Telugu.
Questions can range from being asked to construct and recite a poem (describing, say, a Goddess) using only one single alphabet / letter of the language, to being asked to fill up a grid with numbers, with some sort of a conditionality attached to the sequence of the numbers & the resultant sum, to being asked to play with words and create a poem that satisfies some sort of a mathematical condition with regard to the placement of letters within the poem (say, every fourth word of the line, when put together should form a poem on its own!!!) .....and... this is the best part....the answers are all in extempore!!! None of the questions are known to the scholar answering the questions, until such time he gets on to the stage and begins facing the volleys.
In the midst of all this, there is a joker sitting outside the arena / stage, who is doing oddities like say, ringing a bell, or shouting some inanities, etc. and the Astaavadaani is supposed to point out, at the end of the exercise, as to how many times the joker stuck the bell or recited the inanities!!!
The interesting bit is the there is something called a 'Shataavadhaana' where 100 scholars grill one person, all at the same time. Currently, there is only one person (one Dr. Ganesh of Bangalore), who has actually performed a 'Shataavadaana' and can lay claim to the title.
My personal claim to fame in this regard is the fact that my elder brother, a doc by profession, is an ardent member of this small fraternity of Sanskrit scholars and is an Ashtaavadhaani himself.
While I don't profess to be greatly influenced by either him or his scholarly time pass, I am interested in the fact that there are still people around who have the love and the noble thought of wanting to carry forward a proud and highly intellectual tradition.
In fact, though my brother has been participating in the activity virtually every week for the past 10 years, I have not even once attended an Ashtaavadaana. You might want to call me names, but.... that's how it is :)
People interested in wanting to attend one, can leave behind a note and I shall only be glad to let you know when the next one is taking place in the city.

Malaysia – Truly Asia

2007-05-29T19:42:00.000+05:30

A trip abroad is something that always holds untold excitement; no matter how many times somebody has crossed the shores of the country. So it was, with me when I had an opportunity to visit Malaysia on work last week. That this was only my second visit abroad only added to the exhilaration.

The journey began on a not so interesting note with the flight getting delayed by about half an hour. This allowed us an opportunity to check out the duty free shop at the Bangalore airport. I was to later on realize the importance of that short visit, because it provided me with a perspective of how far we need to go, to catch up with international standards of the sort signified by the KL International Airport.

The journey to Malaysia, all of four and a half hours was pleasant, but ended up tiring us on arrival since Malaysia is about 2.5 hours ahead of us. We landed at 4.30 A.M. IST, but it was already 7.00 A.M. there, leaving us with virtually no sleep that entire night. We were welcomed with bountiful rain on our arrival to Malaysia and a huge strike of lightning just before landing, woke us up from what ever little sleep we had managed.

The Kuala Lampur International Airport is a mega airport with separate arrival and departure terminals. The duty free shops at the arrival lounge stock virtually every big brand possible and the team decided to stock up on their bit of cigs and alcohol, while I decided to check out the place a bit more. There was a raffle going on with the big prize being a Mercedes and I decided to try my hand at that.

Post this shopping spree, it was time to move on to the immigration counter. One needs to take the in-house mono rail to reach the immigration counter from the arrival lounge. A short 5 minute journey landed us at a huge immigration counter.
What hit me instantly was that fact that every one of these counters was manned by ladies with their heads covered in scarves. Malaysia is largely an Islamic country with a mix of ethnic Malays, Chinese and Indians, forming the core of the population. With Islam being the major religion, I was under the impression that it might be a conservative society, but they seemed to be ahead of some of their more established brethren in terms of women’s rights and liberation.

The immigration counters, the toll booths around the country, the entry counters across museums, every one of them was manned (or womanned!!) by women, a pleasant surprise to all of us.

The immigration over and our baggage having arrived in a jiffy, it was time to hit the roads on our way to the famous Genting Highlands, about 70 kilometres from KL. A large six lane highway takes one to the Highlands. The immediate equivalent I could think of was that it was like driving to Ooty or Kodaikanal in India. While the drive to Ootyis not as comfortable, it is definitely more enjoyable, given that a large part of the natural landscape has been left untouched. In comparison, while the journey to the Highlands is wonderfully comfortable, the drive is definitely not even close to as enjoyable given that the entire stretch feels largely man made with very specific landscape work all along the drive. It takes out the natural ‘feel’ and seems very monotonous.

Spread across a large expanse 6000 feet above sea level, The Genting Higlands houses accommodation for different budget visitors, right from 5 star hotels to 3 star hotels. The Theme Park Hotel that we were staying in housed a theme park attached to it.
It is a wonder how these rides manage to bring out the kid in you. The various rides bought back memories of childhood when the annual exhibition in RBANMS grounds would be something that we would look forward to eagerly every year. I spent close to three hours enjoying every possible ride and leaving the really daring ones behind for another day.

The place also houses what is arguable one of the largest casinos this side of the planet and the walk through, at 3 in the morning, was quite nice and enjoyable, a far cry from the dumb casino off Goa’s coast.

It was quite amusing to see people active and kicking at 4 in the morning in the casino as was the sight of quite a few ‘die-hard’ gamers spending their nights sleeping right in front of their gaming screens!!!

This was followed by a stopover at one of the 24 hr discos around the place, a quick peek through some nice 24 hr shopping arcades and a dash to the hotel room to catch some sleep before hitting the road at 6 in the morning.

Two days in the highlands savoring the beautiful weather and then the cable car ride down to the plains as the icing on the cake. This was THE best part of the tour. The cable car journey in Genting takes you through thick dense Mediterranean type forests and is the longest in South East Asia. It takes a full 30 minutes to reach the plains and is as exhilarating as exhilarating can be!

Alongside providing a breathtaking view of the mountains, it also cuts the distance from the top to the bottom of the hills by a cool couple of hours. And the fact that we traveled when it was drizzling made the spectacle seem even more magical.

And then it was on to KL. The drive to KL takes one past the famous Batu caves, that houses a revered Hindu temple, that of Lord Murugan. The Thaipusam is celebrated with grandeur here and it is an event that a lot of the local Indians as well as visitors keenly look forward to.

The roads leading upto the city house what look like a row of low class apartments and an immediate thought that came to mind was that of the Chawls in Mumbai. These are apparently where most of the working class resides and they bear an uncanny resemblance to some of the low end localities that you would find in any of the bustling cities in our country.

The downtown emerges imposingly in the background with the Petronas Twin Towers taking pride of place. It is difficult to miss the twin towers from anywhere in the city.

We checked into Hotel Corus at around 4 in the afternoon and immediately were out of our rooms to catch a glimpse of the city. Given the fact that our Hotel was situated diagonally opposite the twin towers, our first destination was the beautiful Suriya KLCC Mall at the base of the twin towers. This mall has all of four floors and houses virtually every possible big name brand from around the world. The shopping centre leads out onto a large park, approximately the size of Cubbon Park and also has a public swimming pool to boot. Unfortunately the couple of hours spent in the mall left us with no time to check the park out and given the incessant rains, we decided to head back to the Hotel for an early dinner.

After dinner, three of us decided to get a bit adventurous and decided to do a recce of the night life in KL. We were already told by our very well informed driver – Hari Krishnan – that KL’s nightlife is something worth checking out, but were not prepared for the assault that we faced outside one of the well known clubs in the city, the Beach Club.

While were out just for a walk, with no intentions, whatsoever, of getting inside any of the tens of clubs that lined that particular road, we were in for a big surprise, something we did not particular enjoy. Outside every club, we were hounded by touts who spoke to us in chaste Hindi and offered us ‘services’ of every kind possible! It was time to take to our heels and off we went, back to our rooms. We were to learn later on that this is normal occurrence and that the touts are hand-in-glove with prostitutes, who have migrated from mainland China.

The next day called for an early breakfast and we left the hotel at 9 in the morning to catch the 10 A.M. opening of the shopping malls in the city.

Malaysia is celebrating 2007 as the year of tourism and it is hard to miss the fact anywhere in the city. A glimpse of the fun and frolic that promises to accompany this celebration is visible trough out the city, with the metro, the monorail coaches, the buses, the concrete columns around the city, etc. being painted in bright colors communicating the festival to the tourists.

A set of 6 or 7 malls in a place called Butik Pintang is supposedly the best place to shop for everything in KL. We were not let down and ended up buying some stuff from a complex called Sungei Wang. We rushed back to the hotel at 12 in the morning since we had to check out. Once this was done, I decided to take a trip up the Petronas Towers before heading to the airport in the evening.

One needs to pick up a ticket (which is free, incidentally) to reach the Sky Bridge, which is situated on the 42nd floor of the Tower The bridge connects the twin towers and has a wonderful view of the city. This is about as far as one can go if he is a visitor. Given that only a limited number of tickets are given out everyday, I was not too hopeful of picking up one and grudged the fact that I might return from KL without seeing the Petronas towers. Luckily, my colleagues who had gone their earlier had bought tickets from me as well.

The façade of the twin towers is made up completely of steel and glass and is quite imposing for a first time visitor. The sky bridge that connects the 2 towers was built as an emergency exit in case of any mishap in either of the 2 buildings. The two towers have 84 floors each in all. Two high speed lifts take the passengers to the 42nd floor in less than 27 seconds.

The sky bridge provides a bird’s eye view of the entire city and one is allowed to take pictures and stroll around the bridge for about 10 minutes at the max, after which you are escorted back to the basement of the building.

The Petronas Twin Towers lost the tag of being the tallest towers very recently, but still retain the tag of being the tallest ‘twin’ towers in the world.

It is understandable why the Malays are so passionate about the grand building. Incidentally, the twin towers have an interesting Indian connection. The land on which it is built was owned by a Keralite and he sold off the land to the Government-owned Petronas Gas when he was requested to do so. Petronas, the Malaysian equivalent of our ONGC, has its main offices situated in these towers and is bustling with life at any given hour.

After the visit to the Petronas which lasted close to an hour, we decided that we better head off to the airport early to catch our flight later in the night, especially given that the city looked like it was getting ready to receive another pounding of rain shortly. Our experience with driving in Bangalore during rain had us worried, but we were to be proved wrong. The drive to the airport, about 72 kms away, took us less than an hour approximately (in heavy rain).

Once in and the immigration procedures through, it was time to board our long flight back to India. The Malaysian trip had ended, but not before I got a parting gift from the country in the form of a bad cold!!!

PS: If somebody has had the patience to have gone through this loooong page, thanks a ton. For those of you, who haven’t had the patience, and understandably so, I promise to get back to smaller posts in future. This post was done to help me relive my moments at a later date.

Some pics from the trip…. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8410933@N04/

A gastronomic weekend

2007-05-14T10:16:00.000+05:30

The Saturday night loomed large and invitingly ahead of us. We were five of us, all friends from college and just out of a hectic week, desperate to make the most of the 30 or so hours of ‘freedom’ called the weekend, that has become so much of a luxury these days.
So it was that at 8.30 in the night, we decided to toss between hanging out at a local coffee house or take a trip to another former regular weekend haunt, not frequented for sometime, by us.
It turned out to be an easy choice, given than hunger pangs had set in and we had no intentions of filling up our stomachs with caffeine of any kind.

So off we went to V.V. Puram and to the Food Street. The Food Street, as the name suggests, is a narrow street that serves up some of the best short eats in the city and has quite a character attached to it.
The narrow street is full of life with cars and bikes occupying every possible inch of whatever little parking space that is available. It is not an uncommon sight to see families drive up, park, the head of the family rushing out, jostling with people to pick up his order in one of the many small shops on this street and rush back to his vehicle where the family is waiting eagerly to devour the heavenly content brought by him.

Our timing was just right and we reached there by 9.30 in the night, the best time to hit the Food Street. This is when the street ‘revs up’, if you may.

The journey began when the wafting scent of hot bread and just-out-of-the-oven cakes hit us as soon as we set foot on the street. The heavenly scents emanated from the renowned VB Bakery, which is the first shop on the street. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is perhaps, a tactic initiated by design, by the bakery to lure customers.

We began with their well known cream biscuits / cookies and honey cakes. While the cookies are better at some other places I know (notable Variar Bakery in Rajajinagar), the honey cakes are definitely something to die for. They just melt in your mouth. Period!
We then moved ahead to the litany of small eateries that line this street for the main course. One needs to be ready to fight with fellow foodies to catch the shop owner’s attention in these eateries and this task calls for some astuteness, found only in regular, experienced visitors to this street.
This course began with some amazing stuffed deep fried Capsicums and raw bananas (called Baalekaayi Bhajjis in Kannada– I couldn’t come up with a better English equivalent for the same!). The stuffing consisted of cut onions, tomato pieces, salt, pepper, coriander leaves and red hot chilli powder, of course, customized to ones requirement. It is a wonder how he manages to cut the banana into such thin slices, though!!

This was then followed by the most crispy Masala Dosas and piping hot, fluffy Idlis. The coconut chutney that went along with it was wonderful while the red tomato chutney lacked the zing normally associated with it, in that particular shop.
Watching the man inside the shop churn out his dosas is in itself a sight to behold, forget wading into his end product. There is a large platform that is heated up from underneath; a really large tawa, if you want a simplified description. I saw him turn around upto 12 dosas in one go, all done in a jiffy. The other sight, which is either interesting or depressing, (basis your liking or disliking of fatty foods) is the one where he pours out oil on these dosas directly and straight out of a large hole in the oil pouch, placed deftly by his side. It is his most important weapon in command, because the final taste of his dosa, it seems, depends heavily on this one particular act. The more oily it is, the more crispy the dosa turns out to be.

Done with the main course, it was now time to hit the dessert eateries, my personal favorite.

I have no doubt that the food street can compete quite well with some of its more establish brethren as far as desserts are concerned.
We simply had to have the Jamoons that were bobbing up and down invitingly in the sugar syrup, placed in as large a wok as I have ever seen anywhere else. Next on the list was some wonderful Pista ice cream and fruit salad, served to us in a plantain leaf with paper as an added protection underneath the leaf. Talk of protecting the planet!!

The Pièce de résistance was the Masala Pepsi / Mirinda / Limca (given that we were five of us, we could buy and share every one these three drinks). According to old timers who were around the place, this drink can be traced back to one particular shop in Seshadripuram and has gradually made its way to Food Street. ( I do not know if this story is true, will have to check the facts) The ingenuity in this drink is in the fact that the colas taste many notches better than in their original avatars. Chat Masala and salt, it seems is added to the cola to give it that extra fire power. The effect of ‘soda’ in colas, which can be irritating for many, gets totally negated once the masala is added. Even for someone like me who doesn’t drink colas, this is hard to resist every time I am there and I ended up having two glasses this time to top an eventful and gastronomic evening.
It was 11.30 by the time we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the Food Street.
One more weekend with something to do. Don’t know when my lucky star is going to go into hiding and I am going to go back to “boring weekends”!! :)

Dumb Dubya

2007-05-09T19:30:00.000+05:30

"The American people are proud to welcome Your Majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all, you've dined with ten U.S. presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- in 1976. She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."

"Oops. I did it again!" I wouldn't want to be his PR agent. Will be working double time for sure!

This latest gaffe was vintage stuff. Firstly, he almost suggests that Queen Elizabeth is nearly hundereds of years old and rather than trying to cover his folly, he goes on to quip that she is indeed old.

I feel a sense of "The brown-man's saidistic pleasure syndrome" (wah! that was a good one) everytime I watch him and his buddy, Tony Blair make fools of themselves.

Come to think of it, one wouldn't mind being his PR agent...will definitely get paid well!

Two magic words

2007-05-06T17:04:00.000+05:30

After every trip away from home, on return, the most irritating bit is to have touts and autorickshaw drivers try to virtually snatch your bags and pull you towards their vehicle on arrival. This is prevalent in both the airport as well as the railway station and it can really get on your nerve if you have just had a tiring journey.
I have devised a very simple way of getting these touts of my back and it works wonderfully well for me.
I use the two magic words “Beda Guru” and it has a stunning effect on these drivers who completely stop chasing you from then on. The point is, most of these drivers think that since you have just arrived, you are in all probability, a non-Bangalorean, and hence can be taken for a ride. The moment you call them ‘Guru’, a colloquial equivalent of ‘Mister’, and a local slang, typically used by the more hard-nosed Kannadiga, they understand that you obviously know how to hold your ground against them in Kannada and move on to look for new prey..:)
Try it the next time you land in Namma Bengalooru…it works!!!

Goa in a Resort

2007-05-06T16:47:00.000+05:30

My last visit to Goa was when I was in my final year of under-graduation in college and that trip holds some very fond memories for me.
My second visit to Goa this time around, was therefore, something that I was eagerly looked forward to.
Though it was on official work, it became very clear as soon as we landed on a sultry Wednesday afternoon in Goa that very little work would actually get done during our stay there.
Goa is like a party thrown open 24 / 7/ 365 days a year. And this hits you as soon as you land. There is Goan, Konkani, English and not surprisingly, Kannada music to be heard virtually everywhere in the city.
The sight of tourists walking around purposefully with a glint of excitement in their eyes is in complete contrast to the lazy gait and unhurried attitude of the localites, who like to live their days on their own terms. In fact, the state virtually shuts down between 1 and 4 in the afternoon when all shops and many offices are shut down to allow the locals, their afternoon siesta.

The driver who picked us up from the airport – Daniel – turned out to be a very nice fellow and played us some excellent Goan music during our drive to the hotel.

And then there we were – Cidade de Goa

‘Goa in a resort’ is the tag line of Cidade de Goa, one of Goa’s oldest resorts and it cannot be more apt. The resort, built to resemble a Portugese township, is all that the brochure promises and more. The lobby has the best possible view of the Arabian Sea with a bar and portico overlooking the sea.
With a live piano and music performance everyday, the open bar is a hot favourite amongst the guests in the resort, many of whom seemed to like spending quiet evenings at the bar, watching the Goan sunset, with a drink by their side.
The lobby also has an interesting set of three statues of Vasco da Gama, one each representing his standing as a traveler, a philosopher and a thinker.
Lush greens and an inviting swimming pool vied for our attention and it was difficult not to be tempted by both of them.
The first evening was restricted to sitting in the bar and watching colleagues get themselves drunk.
I walked the private beach well past midnight, after everybody had gone to sleep, and it was something I wished I could hold on to for as long as possible.
With sand in the feet and misty sea breeze hitting me in the face, it was just magical. It was one of those ‘contemplative’ moments when you begin thinking about everything around you very philosophically.
The next two days were spent in the conference or ‘work’ as the company wishes to call it, with occasional dips in the swimming pool as and when time was available.

The third night is when we ventured out to visit the famous Casino Goa, on board ‘The Cavalera’ anchored off the coast of Goa. We had heard quite a lot about it and it was suggested that even if one did not gamble, it was a place worth visiting.
So with high expectations, off we went into the night seeking to see a casino. It was a big letdown!
More like a small ferry than a vessel, ‘The Cavalera’ is nothing to write home about. The main deck is divided into two parts, one half containing the casino and the other half containing the dining room. The upper deck has a dance floor where guests are entertained during the day with ethnic Goan dances by troupes, but by the time we reached the place, even that small bit of entertainment had wound up.
So we ended up watching some idiots blow up obnoxiously huge amounts of money with no sign of remorse of sadness in their face, had dinner and left the place.

The best part about this small trip was the drive from the hotel to Panjim, from where we had to ride a small boat to reach ‘The Cavalera’. Goa surely has some of the best roads in the country.
We decided to walk back to the hotel on return to dry land, well past midnight and this was probably the best decision we took on this entire trip. Walking past beautiful Portugese villas and apartments on beautiful cobbled walkways late at night with nobody to disturb you, is a pleasure hard to replicate
The next day, it was time to pack up but not before having an early morning dip in the calm and clean ocean. That little walk along the beach did a lot to perk up our spirits for the day.

It was time to say goodbye to ‘Goa in a resort’ and head back home to Bangalore.

An Ode

2007-04-29T20:42:00.000+05:30

This post is dedicated to a close companion, who was with me through thick and thin for the past three years and whom I have had to relegate to a life of retirement, from yesterday.

Circa 2004-2007

The Movies

2007-04-25T10:32:00.000+05:30

I am nowhere even close to someone whom you would call a movie buff, but I have been to the movies twice in the past two weekends and have surprised even myself. I don’t think I have done that ever earlier.

Meet the Robinsons was a let down. As was Eragon, which I watched, the week earlier. While the fact that I watched both these movies alone might have, in a small way, contributed to my general let down with the experience, I thought both the movies were genuinely not up to mark.

Eragon was like a Harry Potter gone all awry with characters who gave you the impression that the make-up artistes dozed off in the middle of their jobs, while Meet the Robinsons was just not up-to the expected Disney mark. Meet the Robinsons is a movie that the kids will find difficult to understand. Ironic, really.

Why did I even go to the movies then? I have been getting tickets and invites to special screenings of movies from TV Channels, after I have taken over from my ex colleague. While this is the sort of generosity you would, under normal circumstances, not say no to, it just gets even easier to accept if there are nice ladies who are thrusting these tickets at you.

Two not-so-good movies… but hey, what the heck…at least I got through two Sundays without complaining about not having anything to do.

Bring ‘em on..’em damn tickets, my dear ladies.

The Interim

2007-04-19T22:54:00.000+05:30

I haven't updated this page in the last few months, 8 to be precise. Quite a lot of water has flowed under the bridge in the interim. ...

I have travelled far and wide during this period, Tirichy, Tanjore, Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Madurai, Coimabatore......

I have moved up the corporate ladder, though I dont know if its the best thing to have happened to me. My ex-colleague, whom I was reporting to, moved. For the first time in my career, I genuinely felt sad that a colleague had quit, though it paved the way for my rise in the organization.

I grew a beard, took it off, then grew a smaller one, and went back to my normal "no-beard" status.

I finished 4 books.

I saw the entire "Carry On...." series, all 24 of 'em.

I saw three other good movies - Brokeback Mountain, The Godfather (for the second time) and I enjoyed Madagascar (for the third time)

I rejected an offer for a post that paid twice my current salary in Chennai

I saw a very close mate struggle with life after his marriage broke up and felt proud when he came out of it fighting and stronger.

I began playing cricket again and touched base with old mates from college in the bargain. Felt good...

Drove down to Mysore one sunday with friends and enjoyed every bit. Hadn't done that in a year's time till then.

So now that I am up-to-date with my ranting, I hope to regularly update this space going forward....

The Milieu – 23rd August, 2006..

2006-08-23T23:43:00.000+05:30

The setting - Mumbai Airport, while it could be just any other airport in the country
The Characters – The disgruntled husband, the tense executive, the excited family, the power-broking CEOs, the beautiful yet seemingly out-of-reach air hostesses, the sad girlfriend….every one of them tell a story that is so vivid that it cannot but, stop you for that split second in your track and merit a stare.
But if there is one story that has been quite apparent to me in the past week that I have been around the country, it’s the story of how a bunch of idiots have managed to put the fear of the living dead in the people of this country.
Airport after airport tells the same story….the fear of the next…
Be it Raipur, Indore or the Mumbai airport, the abysmally high level of security check that one has to go through is praiseworthy on one hand while at the same time, being a sad example of the terror-stricken times we are living in.
To see people going through the motions in between all this is also a poignant reminiscence of how human emotions and contact have now become very carefully played out dramas..indeed of Shakespearean proportions. The great man might well be happy if he were to see the scene today at any of our airports; nary would he have found a larger group of actors at one single stage.
Its disgusting how one has to constantly be on the vigil while at these places. Even the slightest hint of a “non-regular” expression on your face is enough to bring the Khakhi-clad guards asking you for your details and frisking your bags. Did somebody mention that the archetypical police officer does not do this in our country? I think its time to change our idea of the police officer as this corrupt, baton wielding, big-bellied hulk out to threaten people and the law.
He is now the sleek, well mannered, honest officer who is out to protect the airborne denizens of this country from evil forces. And he does it exactly as the law authorizes and expects him to.
To cite an example, my colleague was not allowed to carry a bag of batteries in his baggage and was promised delivery of the same at the destination. That we forgot to collect the same when we landed at our destination is a different matter altogether.
So all this hullabaloo does seem to have had its side effects. Our airports are now safe and our journeys safer, if all indications are to be seen and believed.
Shall continue….

The Surge of Urge

2006-08-17T23:42:00.000+05:30

Its been that kind of a day. Just seems like nothing went right through the day. The frustration is accentuated when you realize that people around you and who claim to have your best interests at heart are all 'put-ons' of the first rate and wouldn’t think twice before stabbing you in the back.
To find people moving up the ladder just because of an inanity called the 'Gift of the Gab', while you know that your little finger can probably think better than all their brains put together, just puts you off.
The thought of putting in my papers has crossed my mind several times the past few days, yet the sense of almost obligatory jubilation that I have to endure at my company’s extremely good results is also, in small way, ensuring that I hang on!
The frequent holidays in the last week or so have seemed like sheer drudgery between this ‘surge of urge’. But how could that be? I am not particularly enjoying my job and yet, my days off from office seem difficult to get by (should have listened to Vishal and got a more interesting social life earlier!!). An Oxymoron if ever there was one....'moronish' it certainly is....or is this a symptom of turning into a workaholic? I checked with my brother and luckily it’s not yet a medical condition that the docs deem they need to work on (no pun intended).
I have been trying to get over this drudgery by planning a trip to my B-School to work out opportunities to spend some time with juniors. But like the proverbial rock, I have been steady enough not to get out of my cocooned haven on holidays, thus postponing it week after week, even though the thought of having wasted an entire day at home keeps coming back to haunt me at the end of every day off that I have ‘enjoyed’.
I shall do this 'back to school' business very shortly, even if it calls for a trip down to the ol' a lma mater on a Sunday.
The silver lining in all this is the fact that I am off next week on a week long jaunt across Maharashtra. Irrespective of however honest your intentions are and even with the leitmotif being 'work, official travel is fun, especially given that very little work, albeit the official kind, actually gets done when you are out of office!!!!

The Dictum

2006-08-15T00:51:00.000+05:30

As per the authority bestowed with the royal highness and the dictum that followed....

I am thinking about .....how I am going to fill this page up!
I said .....the most wierd thing in office today and nobody raised an eyebrow.
I want to..... tell the world to bloddy understand that they've got in me , a rare jem.
I wish .....I could return to school.
I hear ..... the best music at office everyday....and not from my senior always.
I wonder .....what would happen if I had the power to make every wish of mine come true.
I regret .....not having told people how much I loved them, much earlier.
I am ......getting bored with my job now.
I dance .....to my damn conscience always.
I sing .....only when I am at peace.
I cry .....when somebody shows pity on me.
I am not always ......as patient as I am now, in filling up this list .
I make with my hands ......what I cannot with my words.
I write .....very little after the 'stomp of the comp' brigade.
I confuse ......the hell outta most people I know.
I need ......to take a break from work and a good night's sleep.

Thanks MV, for easing my apprehension about continuing with my tryst with the virtual.....I am beginning to quite enjoy this...

Oh! To write your first Blog..!!!

2006-08-13T17:45:00.000+05:30

I have decided to join the big world of blogging, thrust as I am by societal pressure to have a virtual presence. Apparently many of my friends are not getting enough of the physical me!!! But it doesn't seem such a bad idea after all...and something that is overdue. I have been procrastinating this for the past few months and now I shall have a sound sleep, or so I think!

It is with a sense of trepidition that I am entering this arena. This is so typical of anything 'new' we do in daily life! 'New' in most cases, carries a sense of nervous brevity and excitement alongwith, so typical of what is happening with me today.

I had thought it might be easy to pen down your thoughts...but it is turning into quite a challenge. The initial excitement has given way to a sense of disbelief at how diffciult it can be to write down what you are thinking!!! And I've been thinking all the while that I am quite the master of words...

The saving grace is that I have actually made the start and have got through that most difficult initial bit.

oh! To write your first blog!